of Abraham and his Posterity Which is no more than what we shall see shortly out of Eusebius Hospinian next De festis 1. cap. 3. who though he fain would have the sanctifying of the Sabbath to be as old as the beginning of the world yet he confesseth at the last Patres idcirco Sabbatum observasse ante legem that for all that it cannot be made good by the Word of God that any of the Fathers did observe it before the Law These two I have the rather cited because they have been often vouched in the publick controversie as men that wished well to the cause and say somewhat in it We are now come unto particulars And first we must begin with the first man Adam The time of his Creation as the Scriptures tell us the sixth day of the week being as Scaliger conjectured in the first Edition of his work Emend temp l. 5. the three and twentieth day of April and so the first Sabbath Sabbatum primum so he calls it was the four and twentieth Doctrina temp l. 4. c. 6. Petavius by his computation makes the first Sabbath to be the first day of November and Scaliger in his last Edition the five and twentieth of October more near to one another than before they were Yet saith not Scaliger that that primum Sabbatum had any reference to Adam though first he left it so at large that probably some might so conceive it for in his later thoughts he declares his meaning to be this Sabbatum primum in quo Deus requievit ab opere Hexaemeri Indeed the Chaldee paraphrase seems to affirm of Adam that he kept the Sabbath For where the 92 Psalm doth bear this title A Song or Psalm for the Sabbath day the Authors of that Paraphrase do expound it thus Laus Canticum quod dixit homo primus pro die Sabbati the Song or Psalm which Adam said for the Sabbath day Somewhat more wary in this point was Rabbi Kimchi who tells us how that Adam was created upon Friday about three of the Clock fell at eleven was censured and driven out of Paradise at twelve that all the residue of that day and the following night he bemoaned his miseries was taken into grace next morning being Sabbath day and taking then into consideration all the works of God brake out into such words as those although not the same A tale that hath as much foundation as that narration of Zanchy before remembred Who though he seem to put the matter out of doubt with his three non dubito's that Christ himself did sanctifie the first Sabbath with our Father Adam and did command him ever after to observe that day yet in another place he makes it only a matter of probability In 4. Mandatum that the commandment of the Sabbath was given at all to our first Parents Quomodo autem sanctificavit Non solum decreto voluntate sed reipsa quia illum diem ut non pauci volunt probabile est mandavit primis parentibus sanctificandum So easily doth he overthrow his former structure But to return unto the Rabbins and this dream of theirs besides the strangeness of the thing that Adam should continue not above eight hours in Paradise and yet give names to all the â—â—atures fall into such an heavy sleep and have the Woman taken out of him that the must be instructed tempted and that both must sin and both must suffer in so short a time Besides all this the Christian Fathers are express that Adam never kept the Sabbath Justin the Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho a learned Jew makes Adam one of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being neither circumcised nor keeping any Sabbath Adv. Judaeos were yet accepted by the Lord. And so Tertullian in a Treatise written against the Jews affirms of Adam quod nec circumcisum nec sabbatizantem Deus eum instituerit Nay which is more he makes a challenge to the Jews to prove unto him if they could that Adam ever kept the Sabbath Doceant Adamum sabbatizasse as he there hath it Which doubtless neither of them would have done considering with whom the one disputed and against whom the other wrote had they not been very well assured of what they said The like may be affirmed both of Eusebius and Epiphanius De Praepar Evang l. 7. c. 8. and most learned Fathers Whereof the first maintaining positively that the Sabbath was first given by Moses makes Adam one of those which neither troubled himself with Circumcision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor any of the Law of Moses Adv. haereses l. 1. n. 5. The other reckoneth him amongst those also who lived according to that faith which when he wrote was generally received in the Christian Church Therefore no Sabbath kept by our Father Adam But whatsoever Adam did Abel I hope was more observant of this duty Thus some have said indeed but on no authority It is true the Scriptures tell us that he offered Sacrifice but yet the Scriptures do not tell us that in his Sacrifices he had more regard unto the seventh day than to any other To offer Sacrifice he might learn of Adam or of natural reason which doth sufficiently instruct us that we ought all to make some publick testimony of our subjection to the Lord. But neither Adam did observe the Sabbath nor could Nature teach it as before is shewn And howsoever some Modern Writers have conjectured and conjectured only that Abel in his Sacrifices might have respect unto the Sabbath yet those whom we may better trust have affirm'd the contrary For Justin Martyr disputing against Trypho brings Abel in for an example that neither Circumcision nor the Sabbath the two great glories of the Jews were to be counted necessary For if they were saith he God had not had so much regard to Abels Sacrifice being as he was uncircumcised and then he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that though he was no Sabbath-keeper yet was he acceptable unto God Adv. Judaeos And so Tertullian that God accepted of his Sacrifice though he were neither circumcised nor kept the Sabbath Abelem offerentem sacrificia incircumcisum neque sabbatizantem laudavit Deus accepta ferens quae in simplicitate cordis offerebat Yea and he brings him also into his challenge Doceant Abel hostiam Deo sanctam offerentem Sabbati religionem placuisse which is directly contrary to that which is conjectured by some Modern Writers Adv. haeres l. 1. n. 5. So Epiphanius also makes him one of those who lived according to the tendries of the Christian Faith The like he also saith of Seth whom God raised up instead of Abel to our Father Adam Therefore no Sabbath kept by either It is conceived of Abel that he was killed in the one hundred and thirtieth year of the Worlds Creation
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
And if St. Austins note be true and the note be his Serm. de temp 154. that on the first day of the week transgressi sunt filii Israel mare rubrum siccis pedibus the Israelites went dry-foot over the Red-sea or Sea of Edom then must the day before if any be the sabbath-Sabbath-day the next seventh day after the day of their departure But that day certainly was not kept as a Sabbath day For it was wholly spent in murmuring and complaints against God and Moses They cryed unto the Lord Exod. 14.11 12. and they said to Moses why hast thou brought us out of Egypt to die in the Wilderness Had it not been better far for us to serve the Egyptians Nothing in all these murmurings and seditious Clamours that may denote it for a Sabbath for an holy Festival Nor do we find that for the after-times they made any scruple of journying on that day till the Law was given unto the contrary in Mount Sinai which was the eleventh station after their escape from Egypt It was the fancy of Rabbi Solomon that the Sabbath was first given in Marah and that the sacrifice of the Red Cow mentioned in the nineteenth of Numbers Exod. 15.26 was instituted at that time also This fancy founded on those words in the Book of Exodus If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God c. then will I bring none of those Diseases upon thee that I brought on the Egyptians But Torniellus and Tostatus and Lyra though himself a Jew count it no other than a Jewish and Rabbinical folly Sure I am that on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure out of Egypt being that day seventhnight before the first Sabbath was discovered in the fall of Manna we find not any thing that implies either Rest or Worship We read indeed how all the Congregation murmured as they did before against Moses and against Aaron Exod. 16.2 wishing that they had died in the Land of Egypt where they had Bread their bellies full rather than be destroyed with Famine So eagerly they murmured that to content them God sent them Quailes that night and rained down Bread from Heaven next morning Was this think you the sanctifying of a Sabbath to the Lord their God Indeed the next seventh day that followed was by the Lord commended to them for a Sabbath and ratified by a great and signal miracle the day before wherein it pleased him to give them double what they used to gather on the former days that they might rest upon the seventh with the greater comfort This was a preamble or preparative to the following Sabbath for by this miracle this rest of God from raining Mannah on the seventh day the people came to know which was precisely the seventh day from the Worlds Creation whereof they were quite ignorant at that present time Philo assures us in his third Book de vita Mosis that the knowledg of that day on which God rested from his works had been quite forgotten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of those many miseries which had befaln the World by fire and water and so continued till by this miracle the Lord revived again the remembrance of it And in another place De vita Mosis l. 1. when men had made a long enquiry after the birth-day of the World and were yet to seek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God made it known to them by a special miracle which had so long been hidden from their Ancestors The falling of a double portion of Mannah on the sixth day and the not putrifying of it on the seventh was the first light that Moses had to descry the Sabbath which he accordingly commended unto all the people to be a day of rest unto them that as God ceased that day from sending so they should rest from looking after their daily Bread But what need Philo be produced when we have such an ample Testimony from the word it self For it is manifest in the story that when the people on the sixth day had gathered twice as much Mannah as they used to do Exod. 16.5 according as the Lord had directed by his servant Moses they understood not what they did at least why they did it The Rulers of the Congregation as the Text informs us Verse 22 came and told Moses of it and he as God before had taught him acquainted them Verse 23 that on the morrow should be the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord and that they were to keep the over-plus until the morning Nay so far were the people from knowing any thing of the Sabbath or of Gods rest upon that day that though the Prophet had thus preached unto them of a Sabbaths rest the people gave small credit to him For it is said that some of the people went out to gather on the seventh day Verse 27 which was the seventh day after or the second Sabbath as some think notwithstanding all that had been spoken and that the Mannah stank not as on other days So that this resting of the people was the first sanctifying of the Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures and Gods great care to make provision for his people on the day before the blessing he bestowed upon it And this is that which Solomon Iarchi tells us Ch. 1. n. 2. as before we noted Benedixit ei i.e. in Mannah quia omnibus diebus septimanae descendit Omer pro singulis sexto panis duplex sanctificavit eum i.e. in Mannah quia non descendit omnino Nay generally the Hebrew Doctors do affirm the same assuring us that the Commandment of the Sabbath is the foundation and ground of all the rest as being given before them all at the fall of Mannah Vnde dicunt Hebraei sabbatum fundamentum esse aliorum praeceptorum quod ante alia praecepta hoc datum sit De fest Judaeor c. 3. quando Mannah acceperunt So Hospinian tells us Therefore the Sabbath was not given before in their own confession This happened on the two and twentieth day of the second month after their coming out of Egypt and of the Worlds Creation Anno 2044. the people being then in the Wilderness of Sin which was their seventh station The seventh day after being the nine and twentieth of the second month is thought by some I know not upon what authority to be that day whereon some of the people distrusting all that Moses said went out to gather Mannah Numb 35. as on other days but whether they were then in the Wilderness of Sin or were incamped in Dophkath Alush or Rephidim which were their next removes that the Scriptures say not Most likely that they were in the last station considering the great businesses there performed the fight with Amalek and the new ordering of the Government by Jethroes Counsel and that upon the third day of the third moneth which
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
Hereticks before remembred had been hardly heard of it was plainly otherwise that day not only not being honoured with their publick meetings but destinate to a setled or a constant fast Some which have looked more nearly into the reasons of this difference conceive that they appointed this day for fasting in memory of Saint Peters conflict with Simon Magus which being to be done on a Sunday following the Church of Rome ordained a solemn fast on the day before the better to obtain Gods blessing in so great a business which falling out as they desired they kept it for a fasting day for ever after Saint Austin so relates it as a general and received opinion but then he adds Quod eam esse falsam perhibeant plerique Romani That very many of the Romans did take it only for a fable As for St. Austin he conceives the reason of it to be the several uses which men made of our Saviours resting in the grave the whole Sabbath day For thence it came to pass saith he that some especially the Eastern people Ad requiem significandam mallent relaxare jejunium to signifie and denote that rest did not use to fast where on the other side those of the Church of Rome and some Western Churches kept it always fasting Propter humilitatem mortis Domini by reason that our Lord that day lay buried in the sleep of Death But as the Father comes not home unto the reason of this usage in the Eastern Countreys so in my mind Pope Innocent gives a likelier reason for the contrary custom in the Western Concil Tom. 1. For in a Decretal by him made touching the keeping of this Fast he gives this reason of it unto Decentius Eugubinus who desired it of him because that day and the day before were spent by the Apostles in grief and heaviness Nam constat Apostolos biduo isto in moerore fuisse propter metum Judaeorum se occuluisse as his words there are The like saith Platina that Innocentius did ordain the Saturday or Sabbath to be always fasted Quod tali die Christus in sepulchro jacuisset quod discipuli ejus jejunassent In Innocent Because our Saviour lay in the grave that day and it was fasted by his Disciples Not that it was not fasted before Innocents time as some vainly think but that being formerly an arbitrary practice only it was by him intended for a binding Law Now as the African and the Western Churches were severally devoted either to the Church of Rome or other Churches in the East so did they follow in this matter of the Sabbaths fast the practice of those parts to which they did most adhere Millain though near to Rome followed the practice of the East which shews how little power the Popes then had even within Italy it self Paulinus tells us also of St. Ambrose that he did never use to dine nisi die sabbati Dominico c. but on the Sabbath the Lords day In vita Ambros and on the Anniversaries of the Saints and Martyrs Yet so that when he was at Rome he used to do as they there did submitting to the Orders of the Church in the which he was Whence that so celebrated speeeh of his Cum hic sum non jejuno sabbato cum Romae sum jejuno sabbato at Rome he did at Millain he did not fast the Sabbath Nay which is more Epist â—6 Saint Augustine tells us that many times in Africa one and the self-same Church at least the several Churches in the self-same Province had some that dined upon the Sabbath and some that fasted And in this difference it stood a long time together till in the end the Roman Church obtained the cause and Saturday became a Fast almost through all the parts of the Western World I say the Western World and of that alone The Eastern Churches being so far from altering their ancient custom that in the sixth Council of Constantinople Anno 692 they did admonish those of Rome to forbear fasting on that day upon pain of Censures Which I have noted here in its proper place that we might know the better how the matter stood between the Lords day and the Sabbath how hard a thing it was for one to get the mastery of the other both days being in themselves indifferent for sacred uses and holding by no other Tenure than by the courtesie of the Church Much of this kind was that great conflict between the East and Western Churches about keeping Easter and much like conduced as it was maintained unto the honour of the Lords Day or neglect thereof The Passeover of the Jews was changed in the Apostles times to the Feast of Easter the anniversary memorial of our Saviours Resurrection and not changed only in their times but by their Authority Certain it is that they observed it for Polycarpus kept it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both with Saint John and with the rest of the Apostles as Irenaeus tells us in Eusebius's History Lib. 5. c. 26. The like Polycarpus affirms of Saint Philip also whereof see Euseb l. 5. c. 14. Nor was the difference which arose in the times succeeding about the Festival it self but for the time wherein it was to be observed The Eastern Churches following the custom of Hierusalem kept it directly at the same time the Jews did their Passeover and at Hierusalem they so kept it the Bishops there for fifteen several successions being of the Circumcision the better to content the Jews their Brethren and to win upon them But in the Churches of the West they did not celebrate this Feast decima quarta lunae upon what day soever it was as the others did but on some Sunday following after partly in honour of the day and partly to express some difference between Jews and Christians A thing of great importance in the present case For the Christians of the East reflected not upon the Sunday in the Annual return of so great a Feast but kept it on the fourteenth day of the month be it what it will it may be very strongly gathered that they regarded not the Lords Day so highly which was the weekly memory of the Resurrection as to prefer that day before any other in their publick meetings And thereupon Baronius pleads it very well that certainly Saint John was not the Author of the contrary practice Annal. An. 15 9. as some gave it out Nam quaenam potuit esse ratio c. For what saith he might be the reason why in the Revelation he should make mention of the Lords Day as a day of note and of good credit in the Church had it not got that name in reference to the Resurrection And if it were thought fit by the Apostles to celebrate the weekly memory thereof upon the Sunday then to what purpose should they keep the Anniversary on another day And so far questionless we may joyn issue with
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
astringeret yet stood not he so much for the number of seven as to confine the Church unto it If Calvin elsewhere be of another mind and speak of keeping holy one day in seven as a matter necessary which some say he doth either they must accuse him of much inconstancy and forgetfulness or else interpret him with Rivet as speaking of an Ecclesiastical custom not to be neglected In decalog non de necessitate legis divinae and not of any obligation layed upon us by the Law of God Neither is he the only one that hath so determined Simler hath said it more expresly Quod dies una cultui divino consecretur ex lege naturae est quod autem haec sit septima non octava nona aut decima juris est divini sed ceremonialis In Exod. 20. That one day should be set apart for Gods publick Worship is the law of Nature but that this day should be the seventh and not the eighth ninth or tenth was of Divine appointment but as ceremonial Aretius also in his common places Loc. 55. distinguished between the substance of the Sabbath and the time thereof the substance of it which was rest and the works of Piety being in all times to continue tempus autem ut septime die observetur hoc non fuit necessarium in Ecclesia Christi but for the time to keep it on the seventh day always that was not necessary in the Church of Christ So also Frankisc Gomarus that great undertaker against Arminius in a Book written purposely de origine institutione Sabbati affirms for certain that it can neither be made good by the law of Nature Cap. 5. n. 8. or Text of Scripture or any solid Argument drawn from thence unum è septem diebus ex vi praecepti quarti ad cultum Dei necessario observandum that by the fourth Commandment one day in seven is of necessity to be dedicated to Gods service In Exod. 20. p. 1â—0 And Ryvet as profest an Enemy of the Remonstrants though for the antiquity of the Sabbath he differeth from the said Gomarus yet he agreeth with him in this not only making the observance of one day in seven to be meerly positive as in our first part we observed but lays it down for the received opinion of most of the Reformed Divines unum ex septem diebus non esse necessario eligendum ex vi praecepti ad sacros conventus celebrandos the very same with what Gomarus affirmed before So lastly for the Lutheran Churches In Examin Conc. Trid. Chemnitius makes it part of our Christian liberty quod nec sint alligati nec debeant alligari ad certorum vel dierum vel temporum observationes opinione necessitatis in Novo Testamento c. That men are neither bound nor ought to be unto the observation of any days or times as matters necessary under the Gospel of our Saviour though otherwise he account it for a barbarous Folly not to observe that day with all due solemnity which hath for so long time been kept by the Church of God Therefore in his opinion also the keeping of one day in seven Medull Theel. l. 2.15 is neither any moral part of the fourth Commandment or parcel of the law of Nature As for the subtil shift of Amesius finding that keeping holy of one day in seven is positive indeed sed immutabilis plane institutionis but such a positive Law as is absolutely immutable and doth as much oblige as those which in themselves are plainly natural and moral it may then serve when there is nothing else to help us For that a positive Law should be immutable in its self and in its own nature be as universally binding as the Moral Law is such a piece of Learning and of contradiction as never was put up to shew in these latter times But he that learnt his lirry in England here and durst not broach it but by halves amongst the Hollanders For the next Thesis that the Lords day is not founded on divine Commandment but the authority of the Church it is a point so universally resolved on as no one thing more and first we will begin with Calvin who tells us how it was not without good reason that those of old appointed the Lords Day as we call it to supply the place of the Jewish Sabbath Institut l. 2. c. 8. l. 3. Non sine delectu dominicum quem vocamus diem veteres in locum sabbati subrogarunt as his words there are Where none I hope will think that he would give our Saviour Christ or his Apostles such a short come off as to include them in the name of Veteres only which makes it plain that he conceived it not to be their appointment In Matth. 12. Bucer resolves the point more clearly communi Christianorum consensu Dominicum diem publicis Ecclesiae conventibus ac quieti publicae dicatum esse ipso statim Apostolorum tempore and saith that in the Apostles times the Lords day by the common consent of Christian people was dedicated unto publick rest and the assemblies of the Church In Gen. 2. And Peter Martyr upon a question asked why the old seventh day was not kept in the Christian Church makes answer that upon that day and on all the rest we ought to rest from our own works the works of sin Sed quod is magis quam ille eligatur ad externum Dei cultum liberum fuit Ecclesiae per Christum ut id consuleret quod ex re magis judicaret nec illa pessime judicavit c. That this was rather chose than that for Gods publick service That saith he Christ left totally unto the liberty of the Church to do therein what should seem most expedient and that the Church did very well in that she did prefer the memory of the Resurrection before the memory of the Creation These two I have the rather thus joyned together as being sent for into England in King Edwards time and place by the Protector in our Universities the better to establish Reformation at that time begun and doubt we not but that they taught the self-same Doctrine if at the least they touched at all upon that point with that now extant in their writings In Apoc. 1. at the same time with them lived Bullinger and Gualter two great Learned men Of these the first informs us hunc diem loco sabbati in memoriam resurgentis Domini delegisse sibi Ecclesias that in memorial of our Saviours Resurrection the Churches set apart this day in the Sabbaths stead whereon to hold their solemn and religious meetings And after Sponte receperunt Ecclesiae illam diem non legimus eam ullibi praeceptam that of their own accord and by their own authority the Church made choice thereof for the use aforesaid it being no where to be found that it was commanded In Act. Ap.
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
and approbation published the Exposition or Analysis of our Articles in which he gives the Calvinist as fair quarter as can be wished But first beginning with the last so much of the Objection as concerns Bishop Bancrost is extreamly false not agreeing to the Lambeth Articles not being Bishop of London when those Articles were agreed unto as is mistakingly affirmed and that Analysis of Explication of our English Articles related to in the Objection being published in the year 1585. which was ten years before the making of the Lambeth articles and eighteen years before Bancroft had been made Archbishop And secondly It is not very true that King James liked that is to say was well pleased with the putting of those Articles into the confession of the Church of Ireland though the said Confession was subscribed in his name by the Lord Deputy Chichester is plainly enough not without his consent for many other things were in the Confession to which the Lord Deputy subscribed and the King consented as affairs then stood which afterwards he declared no great liking to either of the Tenor or effect thereof For the truth is that the drawing up of that Confession being committed principally to the care of Dr. Vsher and afterwards Lord Primate of Ireland a professed Calvinian he did not only thrust into it all the Lambeth Articles but also many others of his own Opinions as namely That the Pope was Antichrist or that man of sin that the power of sacerdotal Absolution is no more than declaratory as also touching the morality of the Lords day Sabbath and the total spending of it in religious Exercises Which last how contrary it is to King Jame's Judgment how little cause he had to like it or rather how much reason he had to dislike it his declaration about lawful Sports which he published within three years after doth express sufficiently so that the King might give confent to the confirming of these Articles amongst the rest though he liked as little of the one as he did of the other And he might do it on these Reasons For first The Irish Nation at that time were most tenaciously addicted to Errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome and therefore must be bended to the other extream before they could be sireight and Orthodox in these points of doctrine Secondly It was an usual practice with the King in the whole course of his Government to ballance one extream by the other countenancing the Papist against the Puritan and the Puritan sometimes against the Papist that betwixt both the true Religion and Professors of it might be kept in safety With greater Artifice but less Authority have some of our Calvinians framed unto themselves another Argument derived from certain Questions and answers printed at the end of the Bible published by Rob. Barker his Majesties own Printer in the year 1607. from whence it is inferred by the Author of the Anti-Arminianism Anti-Armin p. 54. and from him by others that the said Questions and Answers do contain a punctual Declaration of the received doctrine of this Church in the points disputed But the worst is they signifie nothing to the purpose for which they were produced For I would fain know by what Authority those Questions and Answers were added to the end of the Bible If by Authority and that such Authority can be produced the Argument will be of force which it takes from them and then no question but the same Authority by which they were placed there at first would have preserved them in that place for a longer time than during the sale of that Edition The not retaining them in such Editions as have followed since the sale of that shews plainly that they were of no anthority in themselves nor intended by the Church for a rule to others and being of no older standing than the year 1607. for ought appears by Mr. Prin who first made the Objection they must needs seem as destitute of antiquity as they are of authority so that upon the whole matter the Author of the Book hath furnished those of different Judgment with a very strong argument that they wrre foisted in by the fraud and practice of some of the Emissaries of the Puritan Faction who hoped in time to have them pass as currant amongst the people as any part of Canonical Scripture Such Piae fraudes as these are we should have too many were they once allowed of Some prayers were also added to the end of the Bible in some Editions and others at the end of the publick Liturgy Which being neglected at the first and afterwards beheld as the authorized prayers of the Church were by command left out of those Books and Bibles as being the compositions of private men not the publick acts of the Church and never since added as before But to return unto King James we find not so much countenance given to the Calvinians by the fraud of his Printer as their opposites received by his grace and favour by which they were invested in the chief preferments of the Church of England conferred as openly and freely upon the Anti-Calvinians as those who had been bread up in the other persuasions Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine habentur as we know who said For presently upon the end of the Conference he prefers Bishop Bancroft to the Chair of Canterbury and not long after Dr. Barlow to the See of Rochester On whose translation unto Lincoln Dr. Richard Neil then Dean of westminster succeeds at Rochester and leaves Dr. Buckridge there for his successour at his removal unto Lichfield in the year 1609. Dr. Samuel Harsnet is advanced to the See of Chichester and about ten years after unto that of Norwich In the beginning of the year 1614. Dr. Overald succeeds Neil then translated to Lincoln in the See of Coventry and Lichfield Dr. George Mountein succeeded the said Neil then translated to Durham in the Church of Lincoln In the year 1619. Dr. John Houson one of the Canons of Christs Church a professed Anti-Calvinist is made Bishop of Oxon. And in the year 1621. Dr. Valentine Cary Successor unto Overald in the Deanry of St. Paul is made Bishop of Exon and on the same day Dr. William Laud who had been Pupil unto Buckridge as before said is consecrated Bishop of St. Davids By which encouragements the Anti-Calvinians or old English Protestants took heart again and more openly declared themselves than they had done formerly the several Bishops above-named finding so gracious a Patron of the learned King are as being themselves as bountiful Patrons respect being had to the performants in their nomination to their Friends and followers By means whereof though they found many a Rub in the way and were sometimes brought under censure by the adverse party yet in the end they surmounted all difficulties and came at last to be altogether as considerable both for power and number as the Calvinists were Towards which
the Lord Commissioners the Right of Sitting there 1. The Prebends Original Right 2. Their Derivative Right and lastly their Possessory Right Upon hearing the proofs on both sides it was ordered by general consent of the Lord Commissioners That the Prebends should be restored to their old Seat and that none should sit there with them but Lords of the Parliament and Earls eldest Sons according to the ancient custom After this there was no Bishop of Lincoln to be seen at any Morning-Prayer and seldom at Evening At this time came out the Doctor 's History of the Sabbath the Argumentative or Scholastick part of which subject was referred to White Bishop of Eli the Historical part to the Doctor And no sooner had the Doctor perfected his Book of the Sabbath but the Dean of Peterborough engages him to answer the Bishop of Lincoln's Letter to the Vicar of Grantham He received it upon good Friday and by the Thursday following discovered the sophistry mistakes and falshoods of it It was approved by the King and by him given to the Bishop of London to be Licens'd and Publish'd under the title of a Coal from the Altar In less than a twelve-month the Bishop of Lincoln writ an Answer to it Entituled The Holy Table Name and Thing but pretended that it was writ long ago by a Minister in Lincolnshire against Dr. Cole a Divine in the days of Queen Mary Dr. Heylyn receiv'd a Message from the King to return a reply to it and not in the least to spare him And he did it in the space of seven weeks presenting it ready Printed to his Majesty and called it Antidotum Lincolniense But before this he answered Mr. Burtons Seditious Sermon being thereunto also appointed by the King In July 1637. the Bishop of Lincoln was censured in the Star-Chamber for tampering with Witnesses in the Kings Cause suspended à Beneficio officio and sent to the Tower where he continued three years and did not in all that space of time hear either Sermon or publick Prayers The College of Westminster about this time presented the Doctor to the Parsonage of Islip now void by the death of Dr. King By reason of its great distance from Alresford the Doctor exchanged it for South-warnborough that was more near and convenient At which time recovering from an ill fit of Sickness he studiously set on writing the History of the Church of England since the Reformation in order to which he obtained the freedom of Sir Robert Cottons Library and by Arch-bishop Laud's commendation had liberty granted him to carry home some of the Books leaving 200 l. as a Pawn behind him The Commotions in Scotland now began and the Arch Bishop of Canterbury intending to set out an Apology for vindicating the Liturgy which he had commended to that Kirk desired the Doctor to translate the Scottish Liturgy into Latin that being Published with the Apology all the World might be satisfied in his Majesties piety as well as the Arch-Bishops care as also that the perverse and rebellious temper of the Scots might be apparent to all who would raise such troubles upon the Recommendation of a book that was so Venerable and Orthodox Dr. Heylyn undertook and went through with it but the distemper and trouble of those times put a period to the undertaking and the Book went no farther than the hands of that Learned Martyr In Feb. 1639. the Doctor was put into Commission of Peace for the County of Hampshire residing then upon this Living into which place he was no sooner admitted but he occasioned the discovery of a horrid Murther that had been committed many years before in that Countrey In the April following he was chosen Clerk of the Convocation for the College of Westminster at which time the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury sending a Canon to them for suppressing the farther growth of Popery and reducing Papists to the Church our Doctor moved his Grace that the Canon might be enlarged for the Peoples farther satisfaction as well as the Churches benefit what was done therein and many other notable things by that Convocation may be seen at large in the History of the Arch-Bishops Life Friday being May the 29th the Canons were formally subscribed unto by the Bishops and Clergy no one dissenting except the Bishop of Glocester who afterward turn'd Papist and died in the Communion of the Romish Church and was all that time of his Life in which he revolted from the Church of England a very great Servant of Oliver Cromwel unto whom he dedicated some of his Books But for his Contumacy in refusing to subscribe the Articles he was voted worthy of Suspension in the Convocation and was actually Suspended by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury which being done the Convocation was ended In Novemb. 3. A.D. 1640. began the Session of the long Parliament At the opening of which a general Rumor was spread abroad that Dr. Heylyn was run away for fear of an approaching storm that was like to fall upon his head as well as on his Grace the Arch-Bishop of Cauterbury but he who was ever of an undaunted spirit would not pusillanimously desert the Cause of the King and Church then in question but speedily hastned up to London from Alresford to confute the common calumny and false report raised on him by the Puritan faction that he appeared the next day in his Gown and Tippet at Westminster-Hall and in the Church with the accustomed formalities of his Cap Hood and Surplice employed then his Pen boldly in defence of the Bishops Rights when the Lords began to shake the Hierarchy in passing a Vote That no Bishop should be of the Committe for Examination of the Earl of Strafford being Causa sanguinis upon which the Doctor drew up a brief and excellent Discourse entituled De jure paritatis Episcopum wherein he asserted all the Bishops Rights of Peerage and principally of this as well as the rest That they ought to sit in that Committee with other Priviledges and Rights maintained by him which either by Law or ancient custom did belong unto them A rare Commendation at this juncture of time for which the Doctor is to be admired that he could command his Parts and Pen of a sudden to write on this subject or any other if there was need that did conduce to the publick good and above all make a quick dispatch in accomplishing what he had once undertaken and begun But for those quick dispatches the Doctor afterward endured many tedious waitings at the backs of Committe-men in that Parliament especially in the business of Mr. Pryn about his Histriomastix for which he was kept four days under examination because he had furnished the Lords of the Privy Council with matters out of that Book which Mr. Pryn alledged was the cause of all his sufferings Great hopes had the Committee by his often dancing attendance after them to sift the Doctor if they could gather any thing by his speeches
point of time some have referred the institution and original of the Sabbath taking these words to be a plain Narration of a thing then done according to that very time wherein the Scripture doth report it And that the sanctifying of the seventh day therein mentioned was a Commandment given by God to our Father Adam touching the sanctifying of that day to his publick Worship Conceiving also that there is some special Mystery and morality in the number of seven for which that day and none but that could be designed and set apart for this employment Others and those the ancienter and of more authority conceive these words to have been spoken by a Prolepsis or Anticipation and to relate unto the times wherein Moses wrote And that it was an intimation only of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctifying rather of the seventh day than of any other no Precept to that purpose being given to Adam and to his posterity nor any mystery in that number why of it self it should be thought most proper for Gods publick service The perfect stating of these points will give great light to the following story And therefore we will first crave leave to remove these doubts before we come to matter of fact that afterwards I may proceed with the greater ease unto my self and satisfaction to the Reader The ground-work or foundation laid the Building will be raised the surer And first it is conceived by many learned men that Moses in the second of Genesis relates unto the times in the which he lived and wrote the History of the Creation when God had now made known his holy Will unto him and the Commandment of the Sabbath had by his Ministery been delivered to the house of Israel This is indeed the ancienter and more general tendry unanimously delivered both by Jew and Christian and not so much as questioned till these later days And howsoever some ascribe it to Tostatus as to the first inventer of it yet is it ancienter far than he though were it so it could not be denied but that it had an able and a learned Author A man considering the times in which he lived and the short time of life it pleased God to give him that hardly ever had his equal It 's true Tostatus thus resolves it In Gen. 2. He makes this quaere first Num Sabbatum cum à Deo sanctificatum fuerit in primordio mundi rerum c. Whether the Sabbath being sanctified by God in the first infancy of the World had been observed of men by the Law of Nature And thereunto returns this Answer quod Deus non dederit praceptum illud de observatione Sabbati in principio sed per Mosen datum esse c. that God commanded not the Sabbath to be sanctified in the beginning of the World but that it was commanded afterwards by the Law of Moses when God did publickly make known his Will upon Mount Sinai And that whereas the Scripture speaketh of sanctifying the seventh-seventh-day in the second of Genesis it is not to be understood as if the Lord did then appoint it for his publick Worship but is to be referred unto the time wherein Moses wrote which was in the Wilderness Et sic Moses intendebat dicere quod Deus illum diem sanctificavit sc nobis c. And so the meaning of the Prophet will be briefly this that God did sanctifie that day that is to us to us that are his people of the house of Jacob that we might consecrate it to his service So far Tostatus In which I must confess that I see not any thing but what Josephus said before him though in other words who speaking of the Worlds Creation doth conclude it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Antiqu. l. 1.2 So that Moses saith that the World and all that is therein was made in six whole days and that upon the seventh day God took rest and ceased from his labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By reason whereof we likewise desist from travail on that day which we call the Sabbath i. e. Repose So that the institution of the Sabbath by Tostatus and the observation of it by Josephus are both of them referred by their us and we unto the times of Moses and the house of Israel Nor is Josephus the only learned man amongst the Jews that so interpreteth Moses's meaning Solomon Iarchi one of the principal of the Rabbins speaks more expresly to this purpose and makes this Gloss or Comment upon Moses words Benedixit ei i. e. in manna c. God blessed the seventh day i. e. in Mannah because for every day of the week an Homer of it fell upon the Earth and a double portion on the sixth and sanctified it i. e. in Mannah because it fell not on the seventh day at all Et scriptura loquitur de re futura And in this place saith he the Scripture speaks as of a thing that was to came But what need more be said Mercer a learned Protestant and one much conversant in the Rabbins In Gen. 2. confesseth that the Rabbins generally referred this place and passage to the following times even to the sanctification of the Sabbath established by the Law of Moses Hebraei fere ad futurum referunt i.e. sanctificationem Sabbati postea lege per Mosen sancitam unde Manna eo die non descendit And howsoever for his own part he is of opinion that the first Fathers being taught by God kept the seventh day holy yet he conceives withal that the Commandment of keeping holy the Sabbath day was not made till afterwards Nam hinc from Gods own resting on that day postea praeceptum de Sabbato natum est as he there hath it Doubtless the Jews who so much doted on their Sabbath would not by any means have robbed it of so great antiquity had they had any ground to approve thereof or not known the contrary So that the scope of Moses in this present place was not to shew the time when but the occasion why the Lord did after sanctifie the seventh day for a Sabbath day viz. because that on that day he rested from the works which he had created Nor was it otherwise conceived than that Moses here did speak by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation till Ambrose Catharin one of the great sticklers in the Trent-Council opined the contrary He in his Comment on that Text falls very foul upon Tostatus and therein leads the Dance to others who have since taken up the same opinion Ineptum est quod quidam commentus est c. It is a foolish thing saith he that In Gen. 2. as a certain Writer fancieth the sanctification of that day which Moses speaks of should not be true as of that very point of time whereof he speaks it but rather to be referred unto the time wherein be wrote as if the meaning only were that then it
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
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
kept from the Creation to the Flood 1. Gods rest upon the Seventh day and from what he rested 2. Zanchius conceit touching the Sanctifying of the first Seventh day by Christ our Saviour 3. The like of Torniellus touching the Sanctifying of the same by the Angels in Heaven 4. A general demonstration that the Fathers before the Law did not keep the Sabbath 5. Of Adam that he kept not the Sabbath 6. That Abel and Seth did not keep the Sabbath 7. Of Enos that he kept not the Sabbath 8. That Enoch and Methusalem did not keep the Sabbath 9. Of Noah that he kept not the Sabbath 10. The Sacrifices and devotions of the Ancients were occasional HOW little ground there is whereon to build the original of the Sabbath in the second of Genesis we have at large declared in the former Chapter Yet we deny not but that Text affords us a sufficient intimation of the equity and reason of it which is Gods rest upon that day after all his works that he had made Origen contra Cels l. 6. Not as once Celsus did object against the Christians of his time as if the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. like to some dull Artificer was weary of his labours and had need of sleep for he spake the word only and all things were made There went no greater labour to the whole Creation than a dixit Dominus De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 14. Therefore Saint Austin rightly noteth nec cum creavit defessus nec cum cessavit refectus est that God was neither weary of working nor refreshed with resting The meaning of the Text is this that he desisted then from adding any thing de novo unto the World by him created as having in the six former days fashioned the Heaven and Earth and every thing in them contained and furnished them with all things necessary both for use and ornament I say from adding any thing de novo unto the World by him created but not from governing the same which is a work by us as highly to be prized as the first Creation and from the which God never resteth Sabbaths and all days are alike in respect of providence in reference to the universal government of the World and Nature Semper videmus Deum operari Hom. 23. in Num. Sabbatum nullum est in quo Deus non operetur in quo non producat Solem suum super bonos malos No Sabbath whereon God doth rest from the administration of the World by him Created whereon he doth not make his Sun to shine both on good and bad whereon he rains not plenty upon the Sinner and the Just as Origen hath truly noted Nor is this more than what our Saviour said in his holy Gospel I work and my Father also worketh Contra Faustum Man l. 16. c. 6. A saying as Saint Augustine notes at which the Jews were much offended our Saviour meaning by those words that God rested not nec ullum sibi cessationis statuisse diem and that there was no day wherein he tended not the preservation of the Creature and therefore for his own part he would not cease from doing his Fathers business ne Sabbatis quidem no though it were upon the Sabbath By which it seemeth that when the Sabbath was observed and that if still it were in force it was not then and would not be unlawful unto any now to look to his estate on the Sabbath day and to take care that all things thrive and prosper which belong unto him though he increase it not or add thereto by following on that day the works of his daily labour And this according to their rules who would have Gods example so exactly followed in the Sabbaths rest who rested as we see from Creation only not from preservation So that the rest here mentioned was as before I said no more than a cessation or a leaving off from adding any thing as then unto the World by him Created Upon which ground he afterwards designed this day for his Holy Sabbath that so by his example the Jews might learn to rest from their wordly labours and be the better fitted to meditate on the works of God and to commemorate his goodness manifested in the Worlds Creation Of any other Sanctification of this day by the Lord our God than that he rested on it now and after did command the Jews that they should sanctifie the same we have no Constat in the Scriptures nor in any Author that I have met with until Zanchies time Indeed he tells us a large story of his own making how God the Son came down to Adam and sanctified this first Sabbath with him that he might know the better how to do the like De creat hominis l. 1. ad finem Ego quidem non dubito c. I little doubt saith he I will speak only what I think without wrong or prejudice to others I little doubt but that the Son of God taking the shape of man upon him was busied all this day in most holy conferences with Adam and that he made known himself both to him and Eve taught them the order that he used in the Worlds Creation exhorted them to meditate on those glorious works in them to praise the Name of God acknowledging him for their Creator and after his example to spend that day for ever in these pious exercises I doubt not finally saith he but that he taught them on that day the whole body of divinity and that he held them busied all day long in hearing him and celebrating with due praises their Lord and God and giving thanks unto him for so great and many benefits as God had graciously vouchsafed to bestow upon them Which said he shuts up all with this conclusion Haec est illius septimi diei benedictio sanctificatio in qua filius Dei una cum patre spiritu sancto quievit ab opere quod facerat This was saith he the blessing and sanctifying of that seventh day wherein the Son of God together with the Father and the Holy Ghost did rest from all the works that they had made How Zanchie thwarts himself in this we shall see hereafter Such strange conceptions See n. 5. though they miscarry not in birth yet commonly they serve to no other use than monsters in the works of nature to be seen and shewn with wonder at all times and sometimes with pity Had such a thing occurred in Pet. Comestors supplement which he made unto the Bible it had been more tolerable The Legendaries and the Rabbins might fairly also have been excused if any such device had been extant in them The gravity of the man makes the tale more pitiful though never the more to be regarded For certainly had there been such a weighty conference between God and Man and so much tending unto information and instruction it is not probable but that
we should have heard thereof in the holy Scriptures And finding nothing of it there it were but unadvisedly done to take it on the word and credit of a private man Non credimus quia non legimus was in some points Saint Hieroms rule and shall now be ours As little likelihood there is that the Angels did observe this day and sanctifie the same to the Lord their God yet some have been so venturous as to affirm it Sure I am Torniellus saith it Annal. d. 7. And though he seem to have some Authors upon whom to cast it yet his approving of it makes it his as well as theirs who first devised it Quidam non immerito existimarunt hoc ipso die in Coelis omnes Angelorum choros speciali quadam exultatione in Dei laudes prorupisse quod tam praeclarum admirabile opus absolvisset Nay he 38.4.6 and they whoever they were have a Scripture for it even Gods word to Job Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Who and from whence those Quidam were that so interpreted Gods words I could never find and yet have took some pains to seek it De Civit. Dei l. 11. c. 9. Sure I am Saint Austin makes a better use of them and comes home indeed unto the meaning Some men it seems affirmed that the Angels were not made till after the six days were finished in which all things had been created and he refers them to this Text for their confutation Which being repeated he concludes Jam ergo erant Angeli quando facta sunt sydera facta autem sunt sydera die quarto Therefore saith he the Angels were created before the Stars and on the fourth day were the Stars created Yet Zanchius and those Quidam be they who they will fell short a little of another conceit of Philos De vita Mosis lib. 3. who tells us that the Sabbath had a priviledge above other days not only from the first Creation of the World though that had been enough to set out the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but even before the Heavens and all things visible were created If so it must be sanctified by the holy Trinity without the tongues of Men and Angels and God not having worked must rest and sanctifie a time when no time was But to return to Torniellus however those Quidam did mislead him and make him think that the first Sabbath had been sanctified by the holy Angels Annal. d. 7. yet he ingenuously confesseth that sanctifying of the Sabbath here upon the earth was not in use till very many Ages after not till the Law was given by Moses Veruntamen in terris ista Sabbati sanctificatio non nisi post multa secula in usum venisse creditur nimirum temporibus Mosis quando sub praecepto data est filiis Israel So Torniellus So Torniellus and so far unquestionable For that there was no Sabbath kept amongst us men till the times of Moses the Christian Fathers generally and some Rabbins also have agreed together Which that we may the better shew I shall first let you see what they say in general and after what they have delivered of particular men most eminent in the whole story of Gods Book until the giving of the Law And first that never any of the Patriarchs before Moses time did observe the Sabbath Justin the Martyr hath assured us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. cum Tryph. None of the righteous men saith he and such as walked before the Lord were either circumcised or kept the Sabbath until the several times of Abraham and Moses And where the Jews were scandalized in that the Christians did eat hot meats on the Sabbath days the Martyr makes reply that the said just and righteous men not taking heed of any such observances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obtained a notable testimony of the Lord himself Adv. haeres l. 4. c. 30. So Irenaeus having first told us that Circumcision and the Sabbath were both given for signs and having spoken particularly of Abraham Noah Lot and Enoch that they were justified without them adds for the close of all that all the multitude of the faithful before Abraham were justified without the one Et Patriarcharum eorum qui ante Mosen fuerunt and all the Patriarchs which preceded Moses without the other Adv. Judaeos Tertullian next disputeth thus against the Jews that they which think the Sabbath must be still observed as necessary to salvation or Circumcision to be used upon pain of death Doceant in Praeteritum justos sabbatizasse aut circumcidisse sic amicos Dei effectos esse ought first of all saith he to prove That the Fathers of the former times were Circumcised or kept the Sabbath or that thereby they did obtain to be accounted the friends of God Then comes Eusebius the Historian and he makes it good Hist l. 1. c. 4. that the Religion of the Patriarchs before Moses Law was nothing different from the Christian And how proves he that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were not Circumcised no more are we they kept not any Sabbath no more do we they were not bound to abstinence from sundry kinds of meats which are prohibited by Moses nor are we neither Which argument he also useth to the self-same purpose in his first book de demonstr Evang. and sixth Chapter And in his seventh de praeparatione he resolves it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 6. c. The Hebrews which preceded Moses and were quite ignorant of his Law whereof he makes the Sabbath an especial part disposed their ways according to a voluntary kind of piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 framing their lives and actions to the law of nature This argument is also used by Epiphanius Adv. haereses l. 1. n. 5. who speaking of the first Ages of the World informs us that as then there was no difference among men in matters of opinion no Judaism nor kind of Heresie whatsoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but that the faith which doth now flourish in Gods Church was from the beginning If so no Sabbath was observed in the times of old because none in his I could enlarge my Catalogue but that some testimonies are to be reserved to another place when I shall come to shew you that the Commandment of the Sabbath was published to Gods People by Moses only See Ch. 4. and that to none but to the Jews After so many of the Fathers the modern Writers may perhaps seem unnecessary yet take one or two First Musculus 2 Edit p. 12. as Doctor Bound informs me for I take his word who tells us that it cannot be proved that the Sabbath was kept before the giving of the Law either from Adam to Noah or from the Flood to the times of Moses or
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
and Circumcision and the like de Sodomorum incendio liberatus est Therefore nor Lot nor Heber nor Melchisedech ever kept the Sabbath For Abraham next the Father of the Faithful with whom the Covenant was made and Circumcision as a seal annexed unto it The Scripture is exceeding copious in setting down his life and actions as also of the lives and actions of his Son and Nephews their flittings and removes their Sacrifices Forms of Prayer and whatsoever else was signal in the whole course of their affairs but yet no mention of the Sabbath Though such a memorable thing as sanctifying of a constant day unto the Lord might probably have been omitted in the former Patriarchs of whom there is but little left save their names and ages as if they had been only brought into the story to make way for him yet it is strange that in a punctual and particular relation of his life and piety there should not be one Item to point out the Sabbath had it been observed This is enough to make one think there was no such matter Et quod non invenis usquam esse putes nusquam in the Poets Language I grant indeed that Abraham kept the Christian Sabbath in righteousness and holiness serving the Lord his God all the days of his life and so did Isaac and Jacob. Sanctificate diem Sabbati saith the Prophet Jeremiah to the Jews i.e. ut omne tempus vitae nostrae in sanctificatione ducamus sicut fecerunt patres nostri In Hier. 17. Abraham Isaac Jacob as Saint Hierom glosseth it Our venerable Bede also hath affirmed as much that Abraham kept indeed the spiritual Sabbath quod semper à servili In Luc. 19. i.e. noxia vacabat actione whereby he always rested from the servile works of sin but that he kept or sanctified any other Sabbath the Christian Fathers deny unanimously In Dial. cum Tryphone Justin the Martyr numbring up the most of those before remembred concludes that they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were justified without the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so was Abraham after them and all his Children until Moses And whereas Trypho had exacted a necessary keeping of the Law Sabbaths New-moons and Circumcision the Martyr makes reply that Abraham Isaac Jacob Job and all the other Patriarchs both before and after them until Moses time yea and their Wives Sarah Rebecca Rachel Lea and all the rest of religious Women unto Moses Mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither kept any of them all nor had commandment so to do till Circumcision was enjoyned to Abraham and his Posterity So Irenaeus that Abraham Lib. 4.30 sine Circumcisione observatione sabbatorum credidit Deo without or Circumcision or the Sabbath did believe in God which was imputed to him for righteousness And where the Jews objected in defence of their ancient Ceremonies that Abraham had been circumcised Tertullian makes reply sed ante placuit Deo quam circumcideretur nec tamen sabbatizavit Adv. Judaeos that he was acceptable unto God before his being Circumcised and yet he never kept the Sabbath See more unto this purpose in Eusebius de Demonstr l. 1. c. 6. de praeparat l. 7. c. 8. where Isaac and Jacob are remembred too as also Epiphanius adv haeres l. 1. n. 5. Thus far the ancient Christian Writers have declared of Abraham that he kept no Sabbath and this in conference with the Jew and in Books against them Which doubtless they had never done had there been any possibility for the Jews to have proved the contrary Some of the Jews indeed not being willing thus to lose their Father Abraham have said and written too that he kept the Sabbath as they do and for a proof thereof they ground themselves on that of Genesis because that Abraham obeyed my Voice and kept my Charge my Commandments my Statutes and my Laws The Jews conclude from hence as Mercer and Tostatus tell us upon the Text that Abraham kept the Sabbath and all other ceremonies of the Law as much I think the one as he did the other Who those Jews were that said it of what name and quality that they have not told us and it were too much forwardness to credit any nameless Jew before so many Christian Fathers Tostatus though he do relate their dicunt yet believes them not and herein we will rather follow him than Mercer who seems a little to incline to that Jewish fancy The rather since some Jews of name and quality have gone the same way that the Fathers did before remembred De Arianis l. 11. c. 10. For Petrus Galatinus tell us how it is written in Beresith Ketanna or the lesser exposition upon Genesis a Book of publick use and great authority among them that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath And this he tells us on the credit of Rabbi Johannan who saith expresly that there upon these words God blessed the seventh day it is set down positively Non scripta est de Abrahamo observatio Sabbati And where it is objected for the Jew that in case Abraham did not keep it it was because it was not then commanded This Galatinus makes reply Ex hoc saltem infertur sabbati cultum non esse de lege naturae that therefore it is evident that the Sabbath is no part of the Law of nature As for the Text of Genesis we may expound it well enough and never find a Sabbath in it which that it may be done with the least suspition we will take the exposition of Saint Chrysostom who very fully hath explained it Because he hath obeyed my voice c. Right saith the Father God said unto him Get thee out from thy Fathers house and and from thy kindred and go into the Land that I shall shew thee And Abraham went out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and left a fair possession for an expectation and this not wavering but with all alacrity and readiness Then followeth his expectation of a Son in his old age when nature was decayed in him as the Lord had promised his casting out of Ismael as the Lord commanded his readiness to offer Isaac as the Lord had willed and many others of that nature Enough to give occasion unto that applause because he hath obeyed my voice although he never kept the Sabbath Indeed the Sabbath could not have relation to those words in Gen. because it was not then commanded Next look on Jacob the heir as well of Abrahams travels as of his faith Take him as Labans Shepherd and the Text informs us of the pains he took Gen. 31.40 In the day time the drought consumed me and the frost by night and the sleep departed from mine eyes No time of rest much more no seventh part of his time allotted unto rest from his daily labours And in his flight from Laban it seems he stood not on the Sabbath For though he fled thence with his Wives
what is said before out of Theodoret and Sedulius Chap. 1. n. 6. Hesychius goes yet further and will not have the fourth Commandment to be any of the ten Etsi decem mandatis insertum sit non tamen ex iis esse In Levit. l. 6. c. 26. and howsoever it is placed amongst them yet it is not of them And therefore to make up the number divides the first Commandment into two as those of Rome have done the last to exclude the second But here Hesychius was deceived in taking this Commandment to be only Ceremonial whereas it is indeed of a mixt or middle nature for so the Schoolmen and other learned Authors in these later times grounding themselves upon the Fathers have resolved it generally Moral it is as to the Duty that there must be a time appointed for the service of God and Ceremonial as unto the Day to be one of seven and to continue that whole day and to surcease that day from all kind of work As moral placed amongst the ten Commandments extending unto all mankind and written naturally in our hearts by the hand of Nature as Ceremonial appertaining to the Law Levitical peculiar only to the Jews and to be reckoned with the rest of Moses Institutes Aquinas thus c. 2. 2ae qu. 122. art 4. resp ad primum Tostatus thus in Exod. 20. qu. 11. So Petr. Galatinus also lib. 11. cap. 9. and Bonaventure in his Sermon on the fourth Commandment And so divers others I say the fourth Commandment so far as it is Ceremonial in limiting the Sabbath day to be one of seven and to continue all that day and thereon to surcease from all kind of labour which three ingredients are required in the Law unto the making of a Sabbath is to be reckoned with the rest of Moses Institutes and proper only to the Jews For proof of this we have the Fathers very copious And first that it was one of Moses Institutes Justin the Martyr saith expresly Dial. eum Triphone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As Circumcision began from Abraham and as the Sabbath Sacrifices Feasts and Offerings came in by Moses so were they all to have an end And in another place of the same discourse seeing there was no use of Circumcision until Abrahams time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of the Sabbath until Moses by the same reason there is as little use now of them as had been before So doth Eusebius tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De praeparat l. 7. c. 6. c. That Moses was the first Law-giver amongst the Jews who did appoint them to observe a certain Sabbath in memory of Gods rest from the Worlds Creation as also divers anniversary Festivals together with the difference of clean and unclean Creatures and of other Ceremonies not a few Next Athanasius lets us know that in the Book of Exodus we have the Institution of the Passeover Synopsis sacrae Script the sweetning of the bitter waters of Marah the sending down of Quails and Mannah the waters issuing from the rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what time the Sabbath took beginning and the Law was published by Moses on Mount Sinai Macarius a Contemporary of Athanasius doth affirm as much viz. that in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 35. which was given by Moses it was commanded as in a figure or a shadow that every man should rest on the Sabbath day from the works of labour In Ezech. 20. Saint Hierom also lets us know though he name not Moses that the observation of the Sabbath amongst other Ordinances was given by God unto his People in the Wilderness Haec praecepta justificationes observantiam Sabbati Dominus dedit in deserto which is as much as if he had expresly told us that it was given unto them by the hand of Moses Then Epiphanius God saith he rested on the seventh day from all his labours De Pond mensur n. 22. which day he blessed and sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by his Angel made known the same to his servant Moses See more unto this purpose advers haeres l. 1. haer 6. n. 5. And lastly Damascen hath assured us De fide Orthod lib. 4. c. 24. that when there was no Law nor Scripture that then there was no Sabbath neither but when the Law was given by Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then was the Sabbath set apart for Gods publick worship Add here that Tacitus and Justin refer the Institution of the Sabbath unto Moses only of which more hereafter Next that the Sabbath was peculiar only to the Jews or those at least that were of the house of Israel the Fathers do affirm more fully than they did the other For so Saint Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath was given unto the Jews in his first Homily of Fasting Saint Austin so Sabbatum datum est priori populo in otio corporali Epistola 119. Sabbatum Judaeis fuisse praeceptum in umbra futuri de Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. and in the 13. of the same Book unum diem observandum mandavit populo Hebraeo The like to which occurs Epist 86. ad Casulanum The Jews the Hebrews and the former People all these three are one and all do serve to shew that Saint Austin thought the Sabbath to be peculiar unto them only That it was given unto the Jews exclusively of all other Nations is the opinion and conceit also of the Jews themselves This Petrus Galatinus proves against them on the authority of their best Authors Ch. 16.29 Sic enim legitur apud eos in Glossa c. We read saith he in their Gloss on these words of Exodus The Lord hath given you the Sabbath What mean say they these words he hath given it you Quia vobis viz. Judaeis dedit non gentibus saeculi because it was given unto the Jews and not unto the Gentiles It is affirmed also saith he by R. Johannan that whatsoever statute God gave to Israel he gave it to them publickly except the Sabbath and that was given to them in secret according unto that of Exodus Exod. 31.17 Ainsworth in Exod. 13.9 It is a sign between me and the Children of Israel Quod si ita est non obligantur gentes ad sabbatum If so saith Galatinus the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath A sign between me and the Children of Israel It seems the Jews were all of the same opinion For where they used on other days to wear their Phylacteries on their arms or foreheads to be a sign or token to them as the Lord commanded they laid them by upon the Sabbaths because say they the Sabbath was it self a sign In Gen. 2. So truly said Procopius Gazaeus Its Judaeis imperavit supremum numen ut segregarent à caeteris deibus diem septimum c. God saith he did command the Jews
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
or to the seventh precisely from the Worlds Creation Constitui potuisset quod in die sabbati coleretur Deus aut in die Martis Aut in altera die God saith Tostatus might have ordered it to have his Sabbath on the Saturday In Exod. 20. qu. 11. or on the Tuesday or any other day what ever what any other of the week and no more than so No he might have appointed it aut bis aut semel tantum in anno aut in mense once or twice a year or every month as he had listed And might not God as well exceed this number as fall short thereof Yes say the Protestant Doctors that he might have done He might have made each third or fourth or fifth day a Sabbath indeed as many as he pleased In Exod. 20. Si voluisset Deus absolute uti dominio suo potuit plures dies imperare cultui suo impendendos So saith Dr. Ryvet one of the Professors of Leiden and a great Friend to the Antiquity of the Sabbath What was the principal motive then why the seventh day way chosen for this purpose and none but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep God always in their minds so saith Justin Martyr But why should that be rather done by a seventh day Sabbath than by any other Dial. Cum Try phone Detsest Paschal hom 6. Saint Cyril answers to that point exceeding fully The Jews saith he became infected with the Idolatries of Egypt worshipped the Sun and Moon and Stars and the Host of Heaven which seems to be insinuated in the fourth of Deut. v. 19. Therefore that they might understand the Heavens to be Gods workmanship eos opificem suum imitari jubet he willeth them that they imitate their Creator that resting on the Sabbath day they might the better understand the reason of the Festival Which if they did saith he in case they rested on that day whereon God had rested it was a plain confession that all things were made by him and consequently that there were no other Gods besides him Et haec una ratio sabbato indicatae quietis Indeed the one and only reason that is mentioned in the body of the Commandment which reflects only on Gods rest from all his work which he had made and leaves that as the absolute and sole occasion why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than the sixth or eighth or any other Which being so it is the more to be admired that Philo being a learned Jew or any learned Christian Writer leaving the cause expressed in the Law it self should seek some secret reason for it out of the nature of the day or of the number De Abrahamo First Fhilo tells us that the Jews do call their seventh day by the name of Sabbath which signifieth repose and rest Not because they did rest that day from their weekly labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because seven is found to be both in the world and man himself the most quiet number most free from trouble war and all manner of contention A strange conceit to take beginning from a Jew Problem loc 5 5. yet that that follows of Aretius is as strange as this Who thinks that day was therefore consecrated unto rest even amongst the Gentiles quod putarent civilibus actionibus ineptum esse fortasse propter frigus planetae contemplationibus vero idoneum Because they thought that day by reason of the dulness of the Planet Saturn more fit for contemplation than it was for action Some had it seems conceived so in the former times whom thereupon Tostatus censures in his Comment on the fifth of Deuteronomy Qu. 3. For where it was Gods purpose as before we noted out of Cyril to wean the People from Idolatry and Superstition to lay down such a reason for the observation of the Sabbath was to reduce them to the worship of those Stars and Planets from which he did intend to wean them I had almost omitted the conceit of Zanchie See n. 1. before remembred who thinks that God made choice of this day the rather because that on the same day he had brought his People out of Egypt In case the ground be true that on this day the Lord wrought this deliverance for his People Israel then his conceit may probably be countenanced from the fifth of Deuteronomy where God recounting to his People that with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm he had delivered them from Egypt hath thereupon commanded them that they should keep the Sabbath day Lay all that hath been said together and it will come in all to this that as the Sabbath was not known till Moses time Annal. d. 7. so being known it was peculiar unto Israel only Non nisi Mosaicae legis temporibus in usu fuisse septimi diei cultum nec postea nisi penes Hebraeos perdurasse as Torniellus doth conclude it For that the Gentiles used to keep the seventh day sacred as some give it out is no where to be found I dare boldly say it in all the Writings of the Gentiles The seventh day of the moneth indeed they hallowed and so they did the first and fourth as Hesiod tells us Opera dies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not the first day and the fourth and seventh of every week for then they must have gone beyond the Jews but as the Scholiast upon Hesiod notes it of every month à novilunio exorsus laudat tres the first fourth and seventh And lest it should be thought that the seventh day is to be counted holier than the other two because the attribute of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems joyned unto it the Scholiast takes away that scruple à novilunio exorsus tres laudat omnes sacras dicens septimam etiam ut Apollinis natalem celebrans and tells us that all three are accounted holy and that the seventh was also celebrated as Apollos birth-day For so it followeth in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the Flamines or Gentile Priests did use to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the God born on the seventh day Dies Geniales l. 3. c. 18. For further proof hereof we find in Alexander ab Alexandro that the first day of evry moneth was consecrated to Apollo the fourth to Mercury the seventh again unto Apollo the eighth to Theseus The like doth Plutarch say of Theseus that the Athenians offered to him their greatest Sacrifice upon the eighth day of October because of his arrival that day from Crete and that they also honoured him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the eighth day of the other moneths because he was derived from Neptune to whom on the eighth day of every month they did offer sacrifice To make the matter yet more sure De Decalogo Philo hath put this difference between the Gentiles and the Jews that divers Cities of the Gentiles did solemnize the seventh
day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once a month beginning their account with the New-moon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that the Jews did keep every seventh day constantly It 's true that Philo tells us more than once or twice how that the Sabbath was become a general Festival but that was rather taken up in imitation of the Jess than practised out of any instinct or light of nature as we shall see hereafter in a place more proper Besides which days before remembred the second day was consecrate to the bonus Genius Hospin de orig Fest cap. 5. the third and fifteenth to Minerva the ninth unto the Sun the last to Pluto and every twentieth day kept holy by the Epicures Now as the Greeks did consecrate the New-moons and seventh day to Phoebus the fourth of every month to Mercury and the eighth to Neptune sic de caeteris So every ninth day in the year was by the Romans anciently kept sacred unto Jupiter the Flamines or Priests upon that day offering a Ram unto him for a Sacrifice Nundinas Jovis ferias esse ait Granius Licinius Saturnal l. 1. c. 16. siquidem Flaminica omnibus nundinis every ninth day in regia Jovi arietem solere immolare as in Macrobius So that we see the seventh day was no more in honour than either the first fourth or eighth and not so much as was the ninth this being as it were a weekly Festival and that a monthly A thing so clear and evident 2. Edit p. 65. that Dr. Bound could tell us that the memory of Weeks and Sabbaths was altogether suppressed and buried amongst the Gentiles And in the former page But how the memory of the seventh day was taken away amongst the Romans Ex veteri nundinarum instituto apparet saith Beroaldus And Satan did altogether take away from the Graecians the boly memory of the seventh day by obtruding on the wicked Rites of Superstition which on the eighth day they did keep in bonour of Neptune So that besides other holy days the one of them observed the eighth day and the other the ninth and neither of them both the seventh as the Church doth now and hath done always from the beginning It 's true Diogenes the Grammarian Sueton. in Tiber. c. 32. did hold his disputations constantly upon the Saturday or Sabbath and when Tiberius at an extraordinary time came to hear his exercises in diem septimum distulerat the Pedant put him off until the saturday next following A right Diogenes indeed and as rightly served For coming to attend upon Tiberius being then made Emperour he sent him word ut post annum septimum rediret that he would have him come again the seventh year after But then as true it is De illustrib Grammat which the same Suetonius tells us of Antonius Gnipho a Grammarian too that he taught Rhetorick every day declamaret vero non nisi nundinis but declaimed only on the ninth But then as true it is which Juvenal hath told us of the Roman Rhetoricians that they pronounced their Declamations on the sixth day chiefly Nil salit Arcadico juveni cujus mihi sextâ Sat. Quâque die miserum dirus caput Annibal implet As the Poet hath it All days it seems alike to them the first fourth sixth eighth ninth and indeed what not as much in honour as the seventh whether it were in civil or in sacred matters I am not ignorant that many goodly Epithets are by some ancient Poets amongst the Grecians appropriated to this day which we find gathered up together Clem. Strom. l. 5. Euseb Praepar l. 13. c. 12. by Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius but before either of them by one Aristobulus a learned Jew who lived about the time of Ptolomy Philometor King of Egypt both Hesiod and Homer as they there are cited give it the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an holy day and so it was esteemed amongst them as before is shewn but other days esteemed as holy From Homer they produce two Verses wherein the Poet seems to be acquainted with the Worlds Creation and the perfection of it on the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the seventh day all things were fully done On that we left the waves of Acheron The like are cited out of Linus as related by Eusebius from the collections of Aristobulus before remembred but are by Clemens fathered on Callimachus another of the old Greek Poets who between them thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which put together may be thus Englished in the main though not verbatim On the seventh day all things were made compleat The birth-day of the World most good most great Seven brought forth all things in the starry Skie Keeping each year their courses constantly This Clemens makes an argument that not the Jews only but the Gentiles also knew that the seventh day had a priviledg yea and was hallowed above other days on which the World and all things in it were compleat and finished And so we grant they did but neither by the light of Nature nor any observation of that day amongst themselves more than any other Not by the light of Nature For Ariftobulus from whom Clemens probably might take his hint speaks plainly that the Poets had consulted with the holy Bible and from thence sucked this knowledg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author saith of Hesiod and Homer Which well might be Ap. Euseb considering that Homer who was the oldest of them flourished about five hundred years after Moses death Callimachus who was the latest above Seven hundred years after Homers time Nor did they speak it out of any observation of that day more than any other amongst themselves The general practice of the Gentiles before related hath throughly as we hope removed that scruple They that from these words can collect a Sabbath had need of as good eys as Clemens who out of Plato in his second de republ Strom. l. 5. conceives that he hath found a sufficient warrant for the observing of the Lords day above all the rest because it is there said by Plato That such as had for seven days solaced in the pleasant Meadows were to depart upon the eighth and not return till four days after As much a Lords day in the one as any Sabbath in the other Indeed the Argument is weak that some of those that thought it of especial weight have now deserted it as too light and trivial Ryvet by name who cites most of these Verses in his notes on Genesis to prove the Sabbath no less ancient than the Worlds Creation doth on the Decalogue think them utterly unable to
that of Horace who calls them in his Satyrs Tricesima Sabbata L. 1. Sat. 9. because they were continually celebrated every thirtieth day The like they did by all the rest if Joseph Scaligers note be true as I think it is who hath affirmed expresly Emend Temp. lib. 3. Omnem festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaeos sed Gentiles sabbatum vocare Nay as the weekly Sabbaths some of them had their proper adjuncts so had the annual Saint Athanasius tells us of the Feast of Expiation that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Sabbat Circumcis or the principal Sabbath for so I take it is his meaning which self same attribute is given by Origen to the Feast of Trumpets Clemens of Alexandria 6. Stromat In Num. 28. hom 23. brings in a difference of those Festivals out of a supposed work of Saint Peter the Apostle wherein besides the New-moons and Passeover which are there so named they are distributed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the first Sabbath the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called and the Great day Casaubon for his part protesteth Exer. 14. n. 1. ipsi obscurum esse quid sit sabbatum primum that he was yet to seek what should the meaning be of that first Sabbath But Scaliger conceives and not improbably that by this first Sabbath Emend Temp. Prolog Edit 2. of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was meant the Feast of Trumpets because it was caput anni or the beginning of the civil year the same which Origen calls Sabbatum sabbatorum as before we noted As for the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so named in Clemens that he conceives to be the Feast of Pentecost and the great day in him remembred the Feast of Tabernacles for the which last he hath authority in the Scriptures who tell of the Great day of this very Feast Joh. 7.37 Not that the Feast of Tabernacles was alone so called but in a more especial manner Contr. Marcian For there were other days so named besides the Sabbaths Dies observatis saith Tertullian sabbata ut opinor coenas puras jejunia dies magnos Where sabbata dies magni are distinguished plainly Indeed it stood with reason that these annual Sabbaths should have the honour also of particular adjuncts as the weekly had being all founded upon one and the same Commandment Philo affirms it for the Jews De Decalog 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The fourth Commandment saith he is of the Sabbath and the Festivals of Vows of Sacrifices forms of purifying and other parts of divine worship Which is made good by Zanchie for the Christian Writers who in his work upon the Decalogue doth resolve it thus In Mandat 4. Sabbati nomine ad Judaeos quod attinebat Deus intellexit non solum sabbatum septem dierum sed sabbata etiam annorum item omnia festa quae per Mosen illis explicavit It was the moral part of the fourth Commandment that some time should be set apart for Gods publick service and in the body of that Law it is determined of that time that it should be one day in seven Yet not exclusively that there should be no other time appointed either by God or by his Church than the seventh day only God therefore added other times as to him seemed best the list whereof we may behold in the twenty-third of Leviticus and the Church too by Gods example added also some as namely the Feast of Dedication and that of Purim Now as the Annual Festivals ordained by God had the name of Sabbath as the weekly had so the observances in them were the same or not much different if in some things the weekly Sabbaths seemed to have preheminence the Annual Sabbaths went beyond them in some others also For the continuance of these Feasts the weekly Sabbath was to be observed throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant Exod. 31.16 So for the Passeover you shall observe it throughout your Generations by an Ordinance for ever Exod. 12.14 The like of Pentecost it shall be a statute for ever throughout your Generations Levit. 23.21 So also for the Feast of Expiation Levit. 23.31 And for the Feast of Tabernacles Levit. 24.41 Where note that by these words for ever and throughout their Generations it is not to be understood that these Jewish Festivals were to be perpetual for then they would oblige us now as they did the Jews but that they were to last as long as the Republick of the Jews should stand and the Mosaical Ordinances were to be in force De bello l. 6. cap. 6. Per generationes vestras i. e. quam diu Respub Judaica constaret as Tostatus notes upon this twenty-third of Leviticus For the solemnity of these Feasts the presence of the High Priests was as necessary in the one as in the other The High Priests also saith Josephus ascended with the Priests into the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet not always but only on the Sabbaths and New-moons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also on those other Feasts and solemn Assemblies which yearly were to be observed according unto the custom of the Country And hitherto we find no difference at all but in the manner of the rest there appears a little between the weekly Sabbath and some of the Annual For of the weekly Sabbath it is said expresly that thou shalt do no manner of work Levit. 23.7 21 25 36. as on the other side of the Passeover the Pentecost the Feast of Trumpets and of Tabernacles that they shall do no servile work which being well examined will be found the same in sence though not in sound But then again for sence and sound it is expresly said of the Expiation that therein thou shalt do no manner of work as was affirmed before of the weekly Sabbath So that besides the seventh day Sabbath there were seven Sabbaths in the year in six of which viz. the first and seventh of Unleavened bread the day of Pentecost the Feast of Trumpets and the first and eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles they were to do no servile works and on the Expiation day no work at all So that in this respect the weekly Sabbath and the day of Expiation were directly equal according to the very letter In other things the day of Expiation seems to have preheminence First that upon this day only the high Priest omnibus pontificalibus indumentis indutus attired in his Pontificals might go into the Sanctum sanctorum or the holiest of all to make attonement for the People whereof see Levit. 16. And secondly in that the sacrifices for this day were more and greater than those appointed by the Lord for the weekly Sabbaths which last is also true of the other Festivals For where the sacrifice appointed for the weekly Sabbath consisted only of two Lambs over and above the daily
sacrifice with a meat-offering and a drink-offering thereunto proportioned on the New-moons and all the Annual Sabbaths before remembred the sacrifices were enlarged nay more than trebled as is expressed in the 28 and 29 of the book of Numbers Nay if it hapned any time as sometimes it did that any of these Festivals did fall upon the weekly Sabbath or that two of them as the New-moons and the Feast of Trumpets fell upon the same the service of the weekly Sabbath lessened not at all the sacrifices destinate to the Annual Sabbath but they were all performed in their several turns Ap. Ainsworth in Num. 28. The Text it self affirms as much in the two Chapters before specified and for the practice of it that so it was it is apparent to be seen in the Hebrew Calendars Only the difference was this as Rabbi Maimony informs us that the addition of the Sabbath was first performed and after the addition of the New-moon and then the addition of the Good day or other Festival So that in case the weekly Sabbath had a priviledge above the Annual in that the Shew-bread or the loaves of proposition were only set before the Lord on the weekly Sabbaths the Annual Sabbaths seem to have had amends all of them in the multiplicity of their sacrifices and three of them in the great solemnity and concourse of people all Israel being bound to appear before the Lord on those three great Festivals the Passeover the Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles As for the penalty inflicted on the breakers of these solemn Festivals it is expresly said of the weekly Sabbath that whosoever doth any work therein shall be put to death Exod. 31.15 And in the Verse before that whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off or as the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it that man shall be destroyed from amongst his People Whic if it signifie the same as by the Chaldee Paraphrase it seems to do it is no more than what is elsewhere said of the Expiation for so saith the Text. And whatsoever soul it be that doth any work in that same day Levit. 23.30 that soul will I destroy from amongst his People But if the phrase be different as the Rabbins say the difference is no more than this that they that break the weekly Sabbath are to be put to death by the Civil Magistrate and they that work upon the Feast of Expiation shall be cut off by God by untimely deaths As for the other Annual Sabbaths the rabbins have determined thus Ap. Ainsworth in Levit. 23.7 That whosoever doth in any of them such works as are not necessary for food as if he build or pull down or weave and the like he breaketh a Commandment and transgresseth against this prohibition Ye shall not do any servile work and if he do and there be Witnesses and evident proof he is by law to be beaten or scourged for it So that we see that whether we regard the institution or continuance of these several Sabbaths or the solemnities of the same either in reference to the Priests the Sacrifices and concourse of People or finally the punishment inflicted on the breakers of them the difference is so little it is scarce remarkable considering especially that if the weekly Sabbaths do gain in one point they lose as often in another For the particulars we shall speak of them hereafter as occasion is As for the time when they began their Sabbaths and when they ended them they took beginning on the Evening of the day before and so continued till the Evening of the Feast it self The Scripture speaks it only as I remember of the Expiation which is appointed by the Lord to be observed on the tenth day of the seventh month Lev. 23.27 yet so that it is ordered thus in the 31. It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest and ye shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month at even And then it followeth From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath But in the Practice of the Jews it was so in all either because they took those words for a general precept or else because they commonly did accompt their day from even to even For where the Romans and Egyptians began the day at midnight â—mend Temp. l. 1. the Chaldees and the Persians with the rising Sun and the Vmbri an Italian People reckoned theirs from noon to noon the Jews and the athenians took the beginning of their day ab occasu solis from Sun-setting as Scaliger and divers others have observed Yet sure I am Honorius Augustodunensis De imagine mundi l. 2. who lived four hundred years ago and upwards placeth the Jews together with the Persians and Chaldeans as men that do begin their day at the Sun-rising However in this case it is not to be thought that the Even was any part of the Sabbath following for the additional sacrifices were offered only on the Morning and the Evening of the several Sabbaths but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or preparation thereunto which preparation if it were before the weekly Sabbath it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if before any of the Annual it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In imitation of the Gentiles the Latine Writers call these Parasceve's or Evens of preparation by the name of Coena pura as Augustine noteth upon the nineteenth of S. John because of some resemblance that was between them but yet they had a difference too Exer. 16. n. 100. For Casaubon hath taught us this that in the Coena pura amongst the Gentiles a part of the ceremony did consist in the choice of meats where no such thing occurs at all in these preparations of the Jews Now these Parasceves or preparation days the Jews did afterward divide into these four parts The first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a preparative as it were to the preparation which began in the morning and held on till noon The second was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 largely taken from Noon until the Evening-sacrifice of the day The third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the approaching of the Sabbath which began after the Evening sacrifice continued till Sun-set and was properly called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fourth was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or entrance of the Sabbath which lasted from Sun-set unto the dawning of the day They had amongst them a tradition or a custom rather that on the whole day from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till Sun-set they might not travel above twelve miles lest coming home too late they might not have sufficient leisure to prepare things before the Sabbath Synag Jud. c. 10. The time was as Buxdorfius tells us quo cornu vel inflata tuba daretur signum when there was publick warning given by sound of Trumpet that every man should cease from work and make all things ready for the Sabbath though in
usual trade Yea saith that great Clerk Rabbi Simeon Pet. Galatin l. 11. c. 10. propter puerum unius diei vivum solvunt sabbatum to save a Child alive we may break the Sabbath This Child being born must needs be Circumcised on the eighth day after which is the Sabbath May not the Ministers do their office yes for the Rabbins have a maxim that Circumcisio pellit sabbatum And what Doth only Circumcision drive away the Sabbath No any common danger doth it And then they change the phrase a little periculum mortis pellit sabbatum Nay more the Priest that waiteth at the Altar doth he do no work upon the Sabbath Yes more than on the other days and for that too they have a maxim viz. qui observari jussit sabbatum Ap. Casaub Exer. 16. n. 20. is profanari jussit sabbatum We shall meet with some of these again hereafter Therefore we must expound these words no manner of work i.e. no kind of servile work as before we did or else the weekly Sabbath and the fourth Commandment must be a nose of wax and a Lesbian rule fit only to be wrested and applied to whatsoever end and purpose it shall please the Rabbins More warily and more soundly have the Christian Doctors yea and the very Heathens determined of it who judge that all such corporal labours as tend unto the moral part of the fourth command which are Rest and Sanctity are fit and lawful to be done on the Sabbath day That men should rest upon such times as are designed and set apart for Gods publick service and leave their daily labours till some other season the Gentiles knew full well by the light of nature Macâ—ob Sat l. 1. c. 16. Therefore the Flamines were to take especial care ne feriis opus fieret that no work should be done on the solemn days and to make it known by Proclamation ne quid tale ageretur that no man should presume to do it Which done if any one offended he was forthwith mulcted yet was not this enjoyned so strictly that no work was permitted in what case soever All things which did concern the Gods and their publick worship vel ad urgentem vitae utilitatem respicerent or were important any way to mans life and wellfare were accounted lawful More punctually Scevola being then chief Pontifex Who being demanded what was lawful to be done on the Holy-days made answer quod praetermissum noceret which would miscarry if it were left undone He therefore that did underprop a ruinous building or raise the Cattel that was fallen into the ditch did not break the Holy-day in his opinion No more did he that washed his Sheep si hoc remedii cause fieret were it not done to cleanse the Wool and make it ready for the Shearers but only for the cure of some sore or other according unto that of Virgil Balantumque gregem fluvio mersare salubri Georgie Thus far the Gentiles have resolved it agreeably to the Law of nature and so far do the Christian Doctors yea and our Lord and Saviour determine of it The corporal labours of the Priest on the Sabbath day as far as it concerns Gods service were accounted lawful The Priests in the Temple break the Sabbath and yet were blameless So was the corporal labour of a man either to save his own life or preserve anothers Christ justified his Disciples for gathering Corn upon the Sabbath being then an hungred Matth. 12. v. 1.3 and restored many unto health on the Sabbath day Matth. 12.13 and in other places Finally corporal labours to preserve Gods Creatures as to draw the Sheep out of the Pit Matth. 12.11 and consequently to save their Cattel from the Thief a ruinous house from being over-blown by tempest their Corn and Hay also from a sudden Inundation these and the like to these were all judged lawful on the Sabbath And thus you see the practice of the Gentiles governed by the light of nature is every way conformable to our Saviours doctrine and the best Comment also on the fourth Commandment as far as it contains the law of natue For such particular Ordinances which have been severally affixed to the fourth Commandment either by way of Comment on it or addition to it that which is most considerable Vers 12. is that Prohibition in the 35 of Exodus viz. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day The Rabbins some of them conceive that hereby is meant that no man must be beaten or put to death upon the Sabbath and then it must be thus expounded Ye shall kindle no fire i. e. to burn a man upon the Sabbath who is condemned by the Law to that kind of death and consequently not to put him on that day unto any punishment at all Others of late refer that prohibition unto the building of the Tabernacle in that Chapter mentioned and then the meaning will be this that they should make no fire on the Sabbath no though it were to hasten on the work of the holy Tabernacle Philo restrains it chiefly â—â—to manual Trades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such whereby men do get their livings And then it must be thus interpreted Ye shall not kindle any sire that is to do any common ordinary and servile works like as do common Bakers Smiths and Brewers De vit Mos l. 3. by making it part of their usual trade The later Rabbins almost all and many Christian Writers also taking the hint from Vatablus and Tremelius it their Annotations refer it unto dressing of Meat according to the latter custom Nay generally the Jews in the latter times were more severe and rigid in the exposition of that Text Tostat in Josua c. q. 2. and would allow no fire at all except in sacred matters only For whereas Rabbi Aben Ezra had so expounded it quod liceat ignem accendere ad caiefaciendum siurgeret srigus that it was lawful to make a fire wherewith to warm ones self in the extremity of cold weather though not to dress meat with it for that days expence the Rabbins generally would have proceeded against him as an Heretick and purposely writ a Book in contutation of him which they called the Sabbath How this interpretation was thus generally received I cannot say But I am verily persuaded that it was not so in the beginning Exod. 16.23 and that those words of Moses quae coquenda sunt hodie coquite bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth what ye will seeth which words are commonly produced to justifie and confirm this fancy do prove quite contrary to what some would have them The Text and Context both make it plain and manifest that the Jews baked their Mannah on the Sabbath day The People on the sixth day had gathered twice as much as they used to do whereof the Rulers of the Congregation acquainted Moses And Moses said to
continued the same custom holding the Congregation from morn to noon and that the Jews came thither Fasting as generally men do now unto the Sacrament the better to prepare themselves and their attention for that holy Exercise Sure I am that Josephus tells us In vit sua that at mid-day they used to dismiss the Assemblies that being the ordinary hour for their repast as also that Buxtorfius saith of the modern Jews that ultra tempus meridianum jejunare non licet Syn. Jud. c. 10. it is not lawful for them to fast beyond the noon-tide on the Sabbath days Besides they which found so great fault with our Lords Disciples for eating a few ears of Corn on the Sabbath day are not unlikely in my mind to have aimed at this For neither was the bodily labour of that nature that it should any ways offend them in so high a measure and the defence made by our Lord in their behalf being that of Davids eating of the Shew-bread when he was an hungred is more direct and literal to justifie his Disciples eating than it was their working This abstinence of the Jews that lived amongst them the Romans noted and being good Trenchermen themselves at all times and seasons they used to hit them in the Teeth with their Sabbaths fasting But herein I submit my self to better judgments There was nother Prohibiton given by God about the Sabbath which being misinterpreted became as great a snare unto the Consciences of men as that before remembred of not kindling fire and dressing meat upon the Sabbath viz. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day Which Prohibition being a Bridle only unto the people to keep them in from seeking after Mannah as before they did upon the Sabbath was afterwards extended to restrain them also either from taking any Journey or walking forth into the Fields on the Sabbath days Nay so precise were some amongst them that they accounted it unlawful to stir hand or foot upon the Sabbath ne leviter quispiam se commoveat In Isa 58.13 quod si fecerit legis transgressor sit as St. Hierom hath it Others more charitably chalked them out a way how far they might adventure and how far they might not though in this the Doctors were divided Some made the Sabbath days journey to be 2000 Cubits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. 151. of whom Origen tells us others restrained it to 2000 foot of whom Hierom speaks and some again enlarged it unto six surlongs which is three quarters of a mile For where Josephus hath informed us that Mount Olivet was six furlongs from Hierusalem and where the Scriptures tell us that they were distant about a Sabbath days journey we may perceive by that how much a Sabbath days journey was accounted then But of these things we may have opportunity to speak hereafter In the mean time if the Injunction be so absolute and general as they say it is we may demand of these great Clerks as their Successours did of our Lord and Saviour by what authority they do these things and warrant that which is not warranted in the Text if so the Text be to be expounded Certain I am that ab initio non fuit sic from the beginning was it neither so nor so The Scripture tells us that when the people were in the Wilderness they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day They found him where Not in the Camp he was not so audacious as to transgress the Law in the open view of all the people knowing how great a penalty was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker but in some place far off wherein he might offend without fear or danger Therefore the people were permitted to walk forth on the Sabbath day and to walk further than 2000 soot or 2000 Cubits otherwise they had never found out this unlucky fellow And so saith Philo De vita Mosis l. 3. that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Some of the people going out into the Wilderness that they might find some quiet and retired place in which to make their Prayers to God saw what they looked not for that wretched and prohibited spectacle So that the people were not stinted in their goings on the Sabbath day nor now nor in a long time after as by the course of the ensuing story will at large appear Even in the time of Mannah they did not think themselves obliged not to stir abroad upon the Sabbath or not to travail above such and such a compass in case they did it not out of a meer dstrust in God as before they did to gather Mannah but either for their Meditation or their Recreation What said I for their Recreation what was that permitted yes no doubt it was Though the Commandment did prohibit all manner of work yet it permitted questionless some manner of Pleasures The Sabbaths rest had otherwise been more toilsom than the week-days labour and none had gained more by it than the Ox and Ass Yea this Injunction last related Let none go out of his place on the seventh day had been a greater bondage to that wretched people than all the drudgeries of Egypt Tostatus tells us on that Text non est simpliciter intelligendum c. It is not so to be conceived that on that day the people might not stir abroad or go out of their doors at all but that they might not go to labour or traffick about any worldly businesses Etenim die sabbati ambulari possunt Hebraei ad solaciandum c. For the Jews lawfully might walk forth on the Sabbath day to recreate and refresh themselves so it be not in pursuit of profit Cap. 10. And this he saith on the confession of the Jews themselves ut ipsi communiter confitentur Buxtorfius in his Jewish Synagogue informs us further Permissum est juvenibus ut tempore sabbati currendo spatiando saltando sese oblectent c. It is saith he permitted that their young men may walk and run yea and Dance also on the Sabbath day and leap and jump and use other manlike Exercises in case they do it for the honour of the holy Sabbath This speaks he of the modern Jews men as tenacious of their Sabbath and the rigours of it as any of the Ancients were save that the Essees and the Pharisies had their private flings above the meaning of the Law Of manly Exercises on the Sabbath we shall see more anon in the seventh Chapter And as for Dancing that they used anciently to Dance upon the Sabbath is a thing unquestionable Saint Augustine saith they used it and rebukes them for it not that they danced upon the Sabbath but that they spent and wasted the whole day in dancing There is no question an abuse even of lawful pleasures And this is that which he so often lays unto them Melius tota die soderent quam tota die saltarent In Psal
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
they observed this order and decree of Moses and every seventh year read the Law as he appointed they had then questionless escaped many of those great afflictions which afterwards God brought upon them for contempt thereof That in the after-times the Law was read unto them every Sabbath in their several Synagogues is most clear and manifest as by the testimony of Philo and Josephus before related and by sufficient evidence from the holy Gospel But in these times and after for a thousand years there were no Synagogues no publick Reading of the Law in the Congregation excepting every seventh year only and that not often Sure I am not so often as it should have been So that in reference to the People we have but one thing only to regard as yet touching the keeping of the Sabbath which is rest from labour rest from all manner of work as the Law commanded and how far this was kept and how far dispensed with we shall see plainly by the story The private meditations and devotions of particular men stand not upon record at all and therefore we must only judg by external actions This said and shewn we will pass over Jordan with the house of Israel and trace their footsteps in that Countrey This happened on the tenth day of the first month or the month of Nisan forty days after the death of Moses Anno 2584. Josh 4.19 That day they pitched their Tents in Gilgal And the first thing they did was to erect an Altar in memorial of it that done to circumcise the people who all the time that they continued in the Wilderness as many as were born that time were uncircumcised The 14th of the same month did they keep the Passeover Josh 5.10 12. and on the morrow after God did cease from raining Mannah the people eating of the fruits of the Land of Canaan And here the first Sabbath which they kept as I conjecture was the day before the Siege of Hiericho which Sabbath probably was that very day Josh 5. whereon the Lord appeared to Joshuah and gave him order how he should proceed in that great Business The morrow after being the first day of the week they began to compass it as the Lord commanded The Priests some of them bearing the Ark Josh 6. some going before with Trumpets and the residue of the people some before the Trumpeters some behind the Ark. This did they once a day for six days together But when the seventh day came which was the Sabbath they compassed the Town about seven times and the Priests blew the Trumpets and the people shouted and they took the City destroying in it young and old man woman and children I said it was the Sabbath day for so it is agreed on generally both by Jews and Christians One of the seven days be it which it will must needs be the Sabbath day and be it which it will there had been work enough done on it but the seventh day whereon they went about seven times and destroyed it finally was indeed the Sabbath For first the Jews expresly say it that the overthrow of Jericho fell upon the Sabbath and that from thence did come the saying Qui sancificari jussit sabbatum is profanari jussit sabbatum So R. Kimchi hath resolved on the 6th of Joshuah In Josh 6. qu. 2. The like Tostatus tells us is affirmed by R. Solomon who adds that both the falling of the wall and slaughter of that wicked people was purposely deferred In honorem sabbati to add the greater lustre unto the Sabbath l. 11. c. 10. Galatine proves the same out of divers Rabbins this Solomon before remembred and R. Joses in the Book called Sedar Olem and many of them joyned together in their Beresith ketanna or lesser exposition on the Book of Genesis they all agreeing upon this Dies sabbati erat cum fuit praelium in Hiericho and again Non capta fuit Hiericho nisi in sabbato That certainly both the Battel and the Execution fell upon the Sabbath So for the Christian Writers Adv. Marc. l. 2. Tertullian saith not only in the general that one of those seven days was the Sabbath day but makes that day to be the Sabbath wherein the Priests of God did not only work Sed in ore gladii praedata sit civitas ab omni populo but all the people sacked the City and put it to the sword Nec dubium est eas opus servile operatos c. Du. 61. ex n. Test 1. Exod. 20. And certainly saith he they did much servile work that day when they destroyed so great a City by the Lords Commandment Procopius Gazaeus doth affirm the same Sabbato Jesus expugnavit cepit Hiericho Austin thus Primus Jesus nunc divino praecepto sabbatum non servavit quo facto muri Hiericho ultro ceciderunt So lastly Lyra on the place who saith that dies septimus in quo capta Hiericho sabbatum erat and yet they did not sin saith he because they did it on that day by Gods own appointment this doth indeed excuse the parties both from the guilt of sin and from the penalty of the Law but then it shews withal that this Commandment is of a different quality from the other nine and that it is no part of the Law of Nature God never hath commanded any thing contrary to the Law of Nature unless it were tentandi causa as in the case of Abraham and Isaac As for the spoyling of the Eygptians that could be no Thest considering the Egyptians owed them more than they lent unto them in recompence of the service they had done them in the former times But was the Sabbath broken or neglected only on the Lords Commandment in some especial case and extraordinary occasion I think none will say it Nay was there ever any Sabbath which was not broken publickly by common approbation and of common course Surely not one In such a numerous Commonwealth as that of Jewry it is not to be thought but that each day was fruitful in the works of Nature Children born every Sabbath day as well as others and therefore to be Circumcised on the same day also And so they were continually Sabbath by Sabbath Feast by Feast not one day free in all the year from that Solemnity and this by no especial order and command from God but meerly to observe an ancient custom In case it was deferred some time as sometimes it was it was not sure in Conscience to observe the Sabbath but only on a tender care to preserve the Infant which was perchance infirm and weak not able to abide the torment No question but the Sabbath following the sack of Hiericho was in this kind broken and so were all that followed after In Job 7.21 Nullum enim Sabbatum praeteribat quin multi in Judaea infantes ' circumciderentur It is Calvins note broken I say For Circumcision though a
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
been a part of the Law of nature Yet had the Sabbath been laid by in such cases only wherein the Lord had specially declared his will and pleasure that these and these things should be done upon it or preferred before it there was less reason of complaint But we shall see in that which followed that the poor Sabbath was inforced to yield up the place even to the several necessities and occasions of particular men and that without Injunction or Command from the Court of Heaven This further proves the fourth Commandment as far as it concerns the time Ryvet in Deca one whole day of seven to be no part nor parcel of the law of Nature for if it were the law of Nature it were not dispensable no not in any exigent or distress whatever Nullum periculum suadet ut quae ad legem naturalem directe pertinent infringamus No danger saith a modern Writer is to occasion us to break those bonds wherewith we are obliged by the law of Nature Nor is this only Protestant Divinity Aquinas 1.2 ae qu. 100. art 9. Qu. ex N. Test 61. for that Praecepta decalogi omnino sint indispen sabilia is a noted maxim of the School-men And yet it is not only School Divinity for the Fathers taught it It is a principle of Saint Austins Illud quod omnino non licet semper non licet nec aliqua necessitate mitigatur ut admissum non obsit est enim semper illicitum quod legibus quia criminosum est prohibetur That saith the Father which is unlawful in it self is unlawful always nor is there any exigent or extremity that can so excuse it being done but that it makes a man obnixious unto Gods displeasure For that is always to be reckoned an unlawful thing which is forbidden by the Law because simply evil So that in case this rule be true as no doubt it is and that the fourth Commandment prohibiting all manner of work on the Sabbath day as simply evil be to be reckoned part of the Moral Law they that transgress this Law in what case soever are in the self-same state with those who to preserve their lives or fortunes renounce their Faith in God and worship Idols which no man ought to do no though it were to gain the World For what will it profit a man to gain the world and to lose his soul But sure the Jews accounted not the Sabbath of so high a nature as not to venture the transgressing of that Law if occasion were Whereof or of the keeping it we have no monument in Scripture till we come to David The residue of Josuah and the Book of Judges give us nothing of it Nor have we much in the whole story of the Kings but what we have we shall present unto you in due place and order And first for David we read in Scripture how he stood in fear of Saul his Master how in the Festival of the New-moon his place was empty 1 Sam. 20. how Saul became offended at it and publickly declared his malicious purpose which in his heart he had before conceived against him On the next morning Jonathan takes his Bow and Arrows goes forth a shooting takes a Boy with him to bring back his Arrows and by a signal formerly agreed between them gives David notice that his Father did seek his life David on this makes haste and came to Nob unto Abimelech the Priest and being an hungry desires some sustenance at his hands The Priest not having ought else in readiness sets the Shew-hread before him which was not lawful for any man to eat but the Priest alone Now if we ask the Fathers of the Christian Church what day this was on which poor David fled from the face of Saul they answer that it was the Sabbath Saint Athanasius doubtingly with a peradventure Hom. de semente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most likely that it was the Sabbath His reason makes the matter surer than his resolution The Jews saith he upbraid our Saviour that his Disciples plucked the ears of Corn on the Sabbath day to satisfie which doubt he tells them what was done by David on a Sabbath also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father hath it Saint Hierom tells us that the day whereon he fled away from Saul was both a Sabbath and New-moon In Math. 12. ad sabbati solennitatem accedebant neomeniarum dies Indeed the story makes it plain it could be no other The Shew-bread was changed every Sabbath in the morning early that which was brought in new not to be stirred off from the Table till the Week was out the other which was taken away being appropriated to the Priests and to be eaten by them only Being so stale before we may be easier think it lay not long upon their hands and had not David come as he did that morning perhaps he had not found the Priest so well provided in the afternoon Had David thought that breaking of the Sabbath in what case soever had been a sin against the eternal Law of Nature he would no doubt have hid himself that day in the Field by the stone Ezel as he had done two days before rather than so have run away 1 Sam. 20. Verse 19.24 as well from God as from the King Especially considering that on the Sabbath day he might have lurked there with more safety than before he did none being permitted as some say by the Law of God to walk abroad that day if occasion were Neither had David passed it over in so light a manner had he done contrary to the Law That heart of his which smote him for his Murder and Adultery and for his numbring of the People would sure have taken some impression upon the breaking of the Sabbath had he conceived that Law to be like the rest But David knew of no such matter neither did Jonathan as it seems For howsoever Davids fact might be excused by reason of the imminent peril yet surely Jonathans walking forth with his Bow and Arrows was of a very different nature Nor did he do it fearfully and by way of stealth as if he were affraid to avow the action but took his Page with him to bring back his Arrows and called aloud unto him to do thus and thus according as he was directed as if it were his usual custom Jonathan might have thought of some other way to give advertisement unto David of his Fathers anger rather than by a publick breaking of the Sabbath to provoke the Lord. But then as may from hence be gathered shooting and such like manlike Exercises were not accounted things unlawful on the Sabbath day This act and flight of Davids from the face of Saul hapned in Torniellus computation Anno 2974 and forty six years after that being 3020 of the Worlds Creation and the last year of Davids life he made a new division of the sons of Levi. For where
the Levites were appointed in the times before to bear about the Tabernacle as occasion was the Tabernacle now being fixed and setled in Hierusalem there was no further use of the Levites service in that kind 1 Chron. 23.4 5. Therefore King David thought it good to set them to some new employments and so he hid some of them to assist the Priests in the publick Ministery some to be Overseers and Judges of the people some to be Porters also in the house of God and finally some others to be Singers to praise the Lord with instruments that he had made with Harps with Viols and with Cymbals Of these the most considerable were the first and last The first appointed to assist at the daily Sacrifices Verse 31. as also at the Offering of all Burnt-offerings unto the Lord in the Sabbaths in the months and at the appointed times according to the number and according to their custom continually before the Lord. Those were instructed in the songs of the Lord. Cpap. 25.7 The other were chiefly which were made for the Sabbath days and the other Festivals and one he made himself of his own enditing entituled a Song or Psalm for the Sabbath day Psalm 92. Calvin upon the 92 Psalm is of opinion that he made many for that purpose as no doubt he did and so he did for the Feasts also Josephus tells us Antiq. Jud. l. 7. c. 10. that he composed Odes and Hymns to the praise of God as also that he made divers kinds of instruments and that he taught the Levites to praise Gods Name upon the Sabbath days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other Festivals as well upon the Annual as the weekly Sabbath Where note that in the distribution of the Levites into several Offices there was then no such Office thought of as to be Readers of the Law which proves sufficiently that the Law was not yet read publickly unto the people on the Sabbath day Nor did he only appoint them their Songs and Instruments but so exact and punctual was he that he prescribed what Habit they should wear in the discharging of their Ministery in singing praises to the Lord which was a white linnen Rayment such as the Surplice now in use in the Church of England 2 Chron. 5.12 13. Also the Levites saith the Text which were the singers being arrayed in white linnen having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Altar c. praising and thanking God for his Grace and wercies And this he did not by commandment from above or any warrant but his own as we find and that he thought it fit and decent David the Prophet of the Lord knew well what did belong to David the King of Israel in ordering matters of the Church and setling things about the Sabbath Nor can it be but worth the notice that the first King whom God raised up to be a nursing Father unto his Church should exercise his regal power in dictating what he would have done on the Sabbath day in reference to Gods publick Worship As if in him the Lord did mean to teach all others of the same condition as no doubt he did that it pertains to them to vindicate the day of his publick service as well from superstitious fancies as prophane contempts and to take special order that his name be glorified as well in the performances of the Priests as the devotions of the people This special care we shall find verified in Constantine the first Christian Emperour of whom more hereaster in the next Book and third Chapter Now what was there ordained by David was afterwards confirmed by Solomon whereof see 2 Chron. 8.14 who as he built a Temple for Gods publick Worship for the New-moons and weekly Sabbaths and the solemn Feasts as the Scripture tells us so he or some of his Sucessours built a fair feat within the Porch thereof wherein the Kings did use to sit both on the Sabbath and the annual Festivals The Scripture calls it tegmen sabbati the covert for the Sabbath that is saith Rabbi Solomon 2 Kings 16. locus quidam in porticu templi gratiose coopertus in quo Rex sedebat die sabbati in magnis festivitatibus as before was said So that in this too both were equal From David pass we to Elijah from one great Prophet to anotyher both persecuted and both fain to flie and both to flie upon the Sabbath Elijah had made havock of the Priests of Baal and Jezebel sent a message to him that he should arm himself to expect the like The Prophet warned hereof arose and being encouraged by an Angel 2 Kings 19.8 he did eat and drink and walked in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights until he came to Horeb the Mount of God What walked he forty days and as many nights without rest or ceasing So it is resolved on Elijah as we read in Damascen De fide Orthod l. 4. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disqueting himself non only by continual fasting but by his traveling on the Sabbath even for the space of forty days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did without question break the Sabbath yet God who made that Law was not at all offended with him but rather to reward his vertue Andae qu. 122.8.15.4 appeared to him in Mount Horeb. So Thomas Aquinas speaking of some men in the old Testament qui transgredientes observantiam subbati non peccabant who did transgress against the Sabbath and yet did not sin makes instance of Elijah and of his Journey Wherein saith he it must needs be granted that be did travel on the Sabbath And where a question might be made how possibly Elijab could spend forty days and forty nights in so small a Journey Tostatus makes reply that he went not directly forwards but wandred up and down and from place to place ex timore inquiectudine mentis In locum partly for fear of being sound and partly out of a disquieted and afflicted mind Now whiles Elijab was in exile Benbadad King of Syria invaded Israel and incamped near Aphek where Ahab also followed him and sat down by him with his Army And saith the Text they pitched one over against the other seven days 1 Kings 20.29 and so it was that in the seventh day the Battel was joyned and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an bundred thousand footmen in one day Ask Zanchius what this seventh day was and he will tell you plainly that it was the Sabbath 14 4 Mandat For shewing us that any servile works may be done lawfully on the Sabbath if either Charity or unavoidable necessity do so require he brings this History in for the proof thereof And then he adds Illi die ipso sabbati quia necessitas postulabat pugnam cum hostibus commiserunt c. The Israelites saith he fighting against their Enemies
on the Sabbath day necessity inforcing them thereunto prevailed against them with a great and mighty slaughter Neither is he only one that so conceived it Peter Martyr saith as much and collects from hence Loci Coml l. 7.8 cl 2. die sabbati militaria munia obiisse eos that military matters were performed on the Sabbath day This Field was sought Anno Mundi 3135 and was eleven years after Elijabs flight Proceed we to Elisha next Of whom though nothing be recorded that concerns this business yet on occasion of his Piety and zeal to God there is a passage in the Scripture which gives light unto it 2. Kings 4. The Shunamite having received a Child at Elisha's hands and finding that it was deceased called to her husband and said send with me I pray thee one of the young Men and one of the Asses Verse 21. for I will haste to the man of God and come again And he said wherefore wilt thou go to him to day Verse 23. It is neither New-moon nor Sabbath day Had it been either of the two it seems she might have gone and sought out the Prophet and more than so she used to do it at those times else what need the question It was their custom as before we noted to travel on the Sabbhath days and the other Festivals to have some conference with the Levites if occasion were and to repair unto the Prophets at the same times also as well as any day whatever In illis diebus festivis Frequentius ibant ad prophetas ad audiendum verbum Dei as Lyra hath it on the place And this they did without regard unto that nicety of a Sabbath-days Journey which came not up till long after sure I am was not now in use Elisha at this time was retired to Carmel which from the Sbunamites City was ten miles at lest as is apparent both by Adrichomius Map of Issachar and all other Tables that I have met with And so the limitation of 2000 foot or 2000 Cubits or the six Furlongs at the most which some require to be allotted for the uttermost travel on the Sabbath is vanished suddenly into nothing Nay it is evident by the story that the Journey was not very short the Woman calling to her servant to drive on and go forwards and not to slack his riding unless she bid him Which needed not in case the Journey had not been above six Furlongs Neither New-moon nor Sabbath day It seems the times were both alike in this respect the Prophets to be sought unto and they to publish and make known the will of God as well at one time as the other In Num. 28. qu. 29. Quasi Sabbatum Calendae aequalis essent solennitatis as Tostatus hath it If so if the New-moons in this respect were as solemn as the weekly Sabbath no question but the Annual Sabbaths were as solemn also And not in this respect alone but in many others Markets prohibited in the New-moons as in the Sabbath When will the New-moon be gone that we may sell our Corn in the eighth of Amos the Sacrifices more in these than in the other of which last we have spoken already So when the Scriptures prophecy of those spiritual Feasts which should be celebrated by Gods Saints in the times to come they specifie the New-moons as particularly as they do the Sabbaths Esa 66.23 From one New-moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. See the like Prophecy in Ezech. Ch. 46. Verse 1.3 Upon which last St. Hierom tells us Quod privilegium habet dies septimus in habdomada In Ezech. 46. hoc haber privilegium mensis exordium the New-moons and the Sabbath have the like Prerogatives Nay when the Jews began to set at nought the Lord and to forget that God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt when they began to loath his Sabbaths and prophane his Festivals as they did too often the Lord expostulates the matter with them as well for one as for the other When they were weary of the New-moon Amos 8.5 and wished it gone that they might sell Corn and of the Sabbath because it went not fast enough away that they might set forth Wheat to sale the Lord objects against them both the one and the other by his Prophet Amos that they preferred their profit before his pleasure Et Dei solennitates turpis lucri gratia in sua verterent compendia In locum as Saint Hierom hath it When on the other side they did prophane his Sabbaths and the holy Festivals with excess and surfeiting carowsing Wine in Bowls Amos 6. stretching themselves upon their Couches and ointing of themselves with the chief Ointments the Lord made known unto them by his servant Isaiah how much he did dislike their courses Chap. 1.14 The New-moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting It seems they had exceedingly forgot themselves when now their very Festivals were become a sin Nay God goes further yet Chap. 1.14 your New-moons and your appointed Feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them Your New-moons and your Feasts saith God are not mine Non enim mea sunt quae geritis they are no Feasts of mine which you so abuse Servo 12. How so Judaei enim neglectis spiritualibus negotiis quae pro animae salute agenda Deus praeceperat omnia legitima sabbati ad ocium luxuriamque contulere So said Gaudentius Brixianus They Jews saith he neglecting those spiritual Duties which God commanded on that day abused the Sabbaths rest unto ease and luxury For whereas being free from temporal cares Cwil in Amos 8. they ought to have employed that day to spiritual ufes and to have spent the same in modesty and temperance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the repetition and commemoration of Gods holy Word they on the other side did the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wasting the day in gluttony and drunkenness and idle delicacies How far Sr. Augustine chargeth them with the self-same crimes we have seen before Thus did the house of Israel rebell against the Lord and prophane his Sabbaths And therefore God did threaten them by the Prophet Hosea Hos 2.11 that he would canse their mirth to cease their Feast days their New-moons and Sabbaths and their solemn Festivals that so they might be punished in the want of that which formerly they had abused And so indeed he did beginning first with those of the revolted Tribes whom he gave over to the hand of Salmanassar the Assyrian by whom they were led Captive unto parts unknown and never suffered to return Those which were planted in their places as they desired in tract of time to know the manner of the God of the Land so for the better
means to attain that knowledg they entertained the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses and with them the Sabbath They were beholden to the Lions which God sent amongst them Otherwise they had never know the Sabbath nor the Lord who made it Themselves acknowledg this in an Epistle to Antiochus Epiphanes when he made havock of the Jews The Epistle thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To King Antiochus Epiphancs the mighty God the suggestion of the Sidonians that dwell at Sichem Our Ancestors enforced by a continual plague which destrayed their Countrey this was the Lions before spoken of and induced by an ancient superstition Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 took up a custom to observe that day as holy which the Jows call the Sabbath So that it seems by this Epistle that when the Assyrian sent back one of the Priests of Israel to teach this people what was the manner of the God of the Land that at that time they did receive the Sabbath also which was about the year of the Worlds Creation Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. 3315. The Priest so sent is said to have been called Dosthai and as the word is mollified in the Greek it is the same with Dofitheus who as he taught these new Samaritans the observation of the Sabbath so as some say he mingled with the same some neat devices of his own For whereas it is said in the Book of Exodus Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day this Dositheus if at least this were he keeping the letter of the Text did affirm and teach that in what ever posture any man was found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beginning of the Sabbath in the self-same he was to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even until the evening I say if this were he as some say because there was another Dositheus a Samaritan too that lived more near unto the time of Origen and is most like to be the man However we may take it for a Samaritan device as indeed it was though not so ancient as to take beginning with the first entertainment of the Sabbath in that place and people this transportation of the ten Tribes for their many sins was a fair warning unto those of the house of Judah to turn unto the Lord and amend their lives and observe his Sabbaths his sabbata annorum Sabbaths of years as well as either his weekly or his yearly Sabbaths The Jews had been regardless of them all and for neglect of all God resolved to punish them First Chap. 13. v. 18. for the weekly Sabbath that God avenged himself upon them for the breach thereof is evident by that one place of Nahemiah Did not your Fathers thus saith he and our God brought this plague upon us and upon our City yet ye increase the wrath upon Israel in breaking the Sabbath Next for the Annual Sabbaths God threatned that he would deprive them of them by his Prophet Hosea as before was said And lastly for his Sabbaths of years they had been long neglected and almost forgotten if observed at all Torniellus finds three only kepe in all the Scripture Nor are more specified in particular but sure more were kept the certain number of the which may easily be found by the proportion of the punishment God tells them that they should remain in bondage 1 Chrom 36.21 until the Land had enjoyed her Sabbaths for so long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfil threescore and ten years So that as many years as they were in bondage so many Sabbaths of years they had neglected Now from the year 2593. which was the seventh year after their possession of the Land of Canaan unto the year 3450. which was the year of their Captivity there passed in all 857. years just of which 122 were years Sabbatical By which account it is apparent that they had kept in all that time but fifty-two sabbatical years and for the seventy Sabbaths of years which they had neglected God made himself amends by laying desolate the whole Country seventy years together till the Earth had enjoyed ber Sabbaths Not that the Earth lay still all that while and was never tilled for those that did remain behind and inhabit there must have means to live but that the tillage was so little and the crop so small the People being few in numbers that in comparison of former times it might seem to rest But whatsoever Sabbaths the carth enjoyed the People kept not much themselves The solemn Feasts of Pentecost the Passeover and the Feast of Tabernacles they could not celebrate at all because they had no Temple to repair unto nor did they celebrate the New-moons and the weckly Sabbath as they ought to do Non neomeniae non sabbati exercere laetitiam In Hos 2. nee emnes festivitates quas uno nomine comprehendit as Saint Hierom hath it For that they used to work on the Sabbath day both in the Harvest and the Vintage during the Captivity we have just reason to suspect considering what great difficulty Nehemiah found to redress those errors So little had that People profited in the School of Piety that though they felt Gods heavy anger for the breach thereof yet could they hardly be induced to amend their follies But presently on their return from babylon they reared up the Altar and kept the Feast of Tabernacles and the burnt-offerings day by day and afterward the continual burnt-offering Ezra 3.4 5. both in the New-moons and the solemn feast-Feast-days that had been consecrate unto the Lord. This the first work that was endeavoured by Zorobabel and other Rulers of the People and it was somewhat that they went so far in the Reformation as to revive the Sabbaths and the publick Festivals I say the Sabbaths amongst others for so Josephus doth express it They Celebrated at that time saith he the feast of Tabernacles according as their Law-maker had ordained and afterwards they offered oblations and continual Sacrifices observing their Sabbaths and all holy solemnities Yet they observed them not so truly but that some evil customs which had crept amongst them during the Captivity were as yet continued Markets permitted on the Sabbath and the publick Festivals Burdens brought in and out the Vintage no less followed on those days than on any other And so continued till the year 3610. which was some ninety years after they were returned from Babel what time they celebrated that great Feast of Tabernacles and Ezra publickly read the Law before all the People Upon which Act this good ensued that both the Priests and Princes and many others of the People did enter covenant with the Lord that if the People of the Land brought ware Nch. 10. v. 31. or any Victuals to sell them on the Sabbath day that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath or on the holy-days and that we would
Manich. l. 1. c. 22. contr Adimant ca. 2. Qu. in Exod. l. 2. qu. 173. And thirdly that it is not lawful for a Christian to observe the Sabbath Deiutil crecendi c. 3. For speaking of the Law how it was a Paedagogie to bring us unto the knowledg of Christ he adds that in those Institutes and Ordinances Quibus Christians uti fas non est quale est sabbatum circumcisio sacrificia c. which are not lawful to be used by any Christian such as are the Sabbath Circumcision Sacrifices and such other things many great Mysteries were contained And in another place Quisquis diem illum observat sicut litera sonat carnaliter sapit Sapere autem secundum carnem mors est He that doth literally keep the Sabbath favours of the flesh De Sp. lit c. 14. but to savour of the flesh is death Therefore no Sabbath to be kept by the sons of life No Sabbath to be kept at all We affirm not so We know there is a Christian Sabbath a Sabbath figured out unto us in the fourth Commandment which every Christian man must keep that doth desire to enter into the Rest of God This is that Sabbath which the Prophet Isaiah hath commended to us Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it Quid autem sabbatum est quod praecipit observandum c. What Sabbath is it saith St. Hierom that is here commanded The following words saith he will inform us that keeping our hands from doing evil This is the Sabbath here commanded Si bona faciens quiescat à malis if doing what is good we do rest from sin Nor was this his conceit alone the later Writers so expound it The Prophet in this place saith Ryvet thus prophecies of the Church of Christ Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it In Decalog and keepeth his hands from doing any evil Vbi custodire sabbatum in Ecclesia Christiana est custodire manus suas à malo And in these words saith he to keep a Sabbath in a Christian Church is only to preserve our hands from doing evil The like spiritual Sabbath doth the man of God prescribe unto us in the 58 Chapter of his Book Verse 13.14 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day not doing thine own way nor finding thine own pleasure nor sheapking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high plaes of the earth c. What saith Hierom unto this It must be understood saith he spiritually Alioquin si haec tantum prohibentur in sabbato ergo in aliis sex diebus tribuitur nobis libertas delinquendi In locum For otherwise if those things above remembred are prohibited only on the Sabbaths then were it lawful for us on the other days to follow our own finful courses speak our own idle words and pursue our own voluptuous pleasures which were most foolish to imagine And so saith Ryvet too for the modern Writers In Decalog Repetuum ab omnibus operibus nostris vitiosis cessationem c. That everlasting rest from all sinful works which is begun in this life here and finished in the life to come is signified and represented by those words of Isaiab ca. 58. They therefore much mistake these Texts and the meaning of them who grounding thereupon forbid all manner of REcreations and lawful pleasures on their supposed Sabbath day as being utterly prohibited by Gods holy Prophet The Jews did thus abuse this Scripture Maymon ap Ains in Ex. 20. in the times before and made it an unlawful matter for any man to walk into the Fields or to see his Gardens on the Sabbath day either to mark what things they wanted or how well they prospered because this was to do his own pleasure and so forbidden by the Prophet But those that understand the true Christian Sabbath apply them to a better purpose as was shewed before And for the Christian Sabbath what it is and in what things it doth consist besides what hath been said already we shall add something more from the ancient Fathers If any man Dial. cum Trypbon saith Justin Martyr that hath been formerly a perjured person a deceiver of his Neighbour an incontinent liver repentshim of his sins and amends his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that man doth keep a true and holy Sabbath to the Lord his God See to this purpose also Clemens of Alexandria Strom. l. 4. So Origen Omnis qui vivit in Christo semper in sabbatis vivit That man Tract 19. in Math. whose life is hid with Christ in God keeps a daily Sabbath See to that purpose Hom. 23. in Numbers Macarius also tells us that the Sabbath given from God by Moses Hom. 35. was a Type only and a shadow of that real Sabbth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by the Lord unto the soul More fully Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What use saith he is there of a Sabbath to him whose Conscience is a continual feast to him whose conversation is in Heaven For now we feast it every day doing no manner of wickedness but keeping a spiritual rest holding our hands from covet ousness our Bodies from uncleanness What need we more The Law of righteousness contains ten Commandments The first to know one God the second to abstain from Idols the third not to prophane Gods Name the fourth Sabbatum celebrare spirituale Hom. 29. in Math. 24. to keep the true spiritual Sabbath c. So he that made the Opus imperfectum on Saint Matthews Gospel Saint Augustine finally makes the fourth Commandment so far as it concerns us Christians to be no more than requies cordis De conven 10 praec 10. plagarum tranquillitas mentis quam facit bona conscientia the quiet of the heart and the peace of mind occasioned by a good Conscience Of any other Sabbath to be looked for now the Fathers utterly are silent and therefore we may well resolve there is no such thing Yet notwithstanding this the Jews still dote upon their Sabbath and that more sottishly and with more superstition far than they ever did A view whereof I shall present and so conclude the first part of this present Argument And first for the Parasceves or their Eves Synag Jud. c. 10. Buxdorfius thus informs us of their vain behaviour Die Veneris singuli ungues de digitis abscindunt c. On Friday in the afternoon they pare their Nails and whet their Knives and lay their Holiday-cloaths in readiness for the reception of Queen Sabbath for so they call it and after lay the Cloth and set on their Meat that nothing be to be done upon the morrow About the evening goes the Sexton from door to door commanding all the people to abstain from work
of the affairs of the Christian Church cannot but be displeasing unto them which are not Christianly affected Our former Book we destinated to the Jewish part of this enquiry wherein though long it was before we found it yet at the last we found a Sabbath A Sabbath which began with that state and Church and ended also when they were no longer to be called a Nation but a dispersed and scattered ruin of what once they were In that which followeth our Enquiry must be more diffused of the same latitude with the Church a Church not limited and confined to some Tribes and Kindreds but generally spreading over all the World We may affirm it of the Gospel what Florus sometimes said of the state of Rome Ita late per orbem terrarum arma circumtulit ut qui res ejus legunt non unius populi sed generis humani facta discunt The history of the Church and of the World are of like extent So that the search herein as unto me it was more painful in the doing so unto thee will it be more pleasing being done because of that variety which it will afford thee And this Part we have called the History of the Sabbath too although the institution of the Lords Day and entertainment of the same in all times and Ages since that institution be the chief thing whereof it treateth For being it is said by some that the Lords Day succeeded by the Lords appointment into the place and rights of the Jewish Sabbath so to be called and so to be observed as the Sabbath was this Book was wholly to be spent in the search thereof whether in all or any Ages of the Church either such doctrine had been preached or such practice pressed upon the Conscience of Gods people And search indeed we did with all care and diligence to see if we could find a Sabbath in any evidence of Scripture or writings of the holy Fathers or Edicts of Emperours or Decrees of Councils or finally in any of the publick Acts and Monuments of the Christian Church But after several searches made upon the alias and the pluries we still return Non est inventus and thereupon resolve in the Poets language Et quod non invenis usquam esse putes nosquam that which is no where to be found may very strongly be concluded not to be at all Buxdorfius in the 11th Chapter of his Synagoga Judaica out of Antonius Margarita tells us of the Jews quod die sabbatino praeter animam consuetam praediti sunt alia that on the Sabbath day they have an extraordinary soul infused into them which doth enlarge their hearts and rouze up their spirits Ut Sabbatum multo honorabilius peragere possint that they may celebrate the Sabbath with the greater bonour And though this sabbatarie soul may by a Pythagorical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seem to have transmigrated from the Jews into the Bodies of some Christians in these later days yet I am apt to give my self good hopes that by presenting to their view the constant practice of Gods Church in all times before and the consent of all Gods Churches at this present they may be dispossessed thereof without great difficulty It is but anima superflua is Buxdorfius calls it and may be better spared than kept because superfluous However I shall easily persuade my self that by this general representation of the estate and practice of the Church of Christ I may confirm the wavering in a right persuasion and assure such as are already well affected by shewing them the perfect harmony and agreement which is between this Church and the purest times It is our constant prayer to Almighty God as well that he would strengthen such as do stand and confirm the weak as to raise up those men which are fallen into sin and errour As are our prayers such should be also our endeavours as universal to all sorts of men as charitable to them in their several cases and distresses Happy those men who do aright discharge their Duties both in their prayers and their performance The blessing of our labours we must leave to him who is all in all without whom all Pauls planting and Apollo's watering will yield poor encrease In which of these three states soever thou art good Christian Reader let me beseech thee kindly to accept his pains which for thy sake were undertaken that so he might in some poor measure be an instrument to strengthen or confirm or raise thee as thy case requires This is the most that I desire and less than this thou couldst not do did I not desire it And so fare thee well THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH The Second Book CHAP. I. That there is nothing found in Scripture touching the keeping of the Lords Day 1. The Sabbath not intended for a perpetual Ordinance 2. Preparatives unto the dissolution of the Sabbath by our Saviour Christ 3. The Lords day not enjoyned in the place thereof either by Christ or his Apostles but instituted by the Authority of the Church 4. Our Saviours Resurrection on the first day of the week and apparitions on the same make it not a Sabbath 5. The coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the first day of the week makes it not a Sabbath 6. The first day of the week not made a Sabbath more than others by Saint Peter Saint Paul or any other of the Apostles 7. Saint Paul frequents the Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath and upon what reasons 8. What was concluded against the Sabbath in the Council holden in Hierusalem 9. The preaching of Saint Paul at Troas upon the first day of the week no argument that then that day was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises 10. Collections on the first day of the week 1 Cor. 16. conclude as little for that purpose 11. Those places of Saint Paul Galat. 4.10 Colos 2.16 do prove invincibly that there is no Sabbath to be looked for 12. The first day of the week not called the Lords day until the end of this first Age and what that title adds unto it WE shewed you in the former Book what did occur about the Sabbath from the Creation of the World to the destruction of the Temple which comprehended the full time of 4000 years and upwards in the opinion of the most and best Chronologers Now for five parts of eight of the time computed from the Creation to the Law being in all 2540 years and somewhat more there was no Sabbath known at all And for the fifteen hundred being the remainder it was not so observed by the Jews themselves as if it had been any part of the Law of Nature but sometimes kept and sometimes broken either according as mens private businesses or the affairs of the republick would give way unto it Never such conscience made thereof as of Adultery Murder Blasphemy or Idolatry no not when as the Scribes and Pharisees had most made it
on another Sabbath that in the Synagogue he beheld a man with a withered hand and called him forth and made him come into the midst and stretch out his hand and then restored it Hereupon Athanasius notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christ reserved his greatest miracles for the Sabbath day and that he bade the man stand forth in defiance as it were of all their malice and informing humour His healing of the Woman which had been crooked 18. years and of the man that had the Dropsie one in the Synagogue the other in the house of a principal Pharisee Joh. 9. are proof sufficient that he feared not their accufations But that great cure he wrought on him that was born blind is most remarkable to this purpose First in relation to our Saviour who had before healed others with his Word alone but here he spit upon the ground and made clay thereof and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay L. 1. Haeres 30. n. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to mould clay and make a Plaister was questionless a work so saith Epiphanius Next in relation to the Patient whom he commanded to go into the Pool of Siloam and then wash himself which certainly could not be done without bodily labour These words and actions of our Saviour at before we said gave the first hint to his Disciples for the abolishing of the Sabbath amongst other Ceremonies which were to have an end with our Saviours sufferings to be nailed with him to his Cross and buried with him in his Grave for ever Now where it was objected in S. Austins time why Christians did not keep the Sabbath since Christ affirms it of himself that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it Cont. Faust l. 19. c. 9. the Father thereto makes reply that therefore they observed it not Quia quod ea figura profitebatur jam Christus implevit because our Saviour had fulfilled whatever was intended in that Law by calling us to a spiritual rest in his own great mercy For as it is most truly said by Epiphanius Lib. 1 haer 30. n. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He was the great and everlasting Sabbath whereof the less and temporal Sabbath was a type and figure which had continued till his coming by him commanded in the Law in him destroyed and yet by him fulfilled in the holy Gospel So Epiphanius Neither did he or his Disciples ordain another Sabbath in the place of this as if they had intended only to shift the day and to transfer this honour to some other time Their doctrine and their practice are directly contrary to so new a fancy It 's true that in some tract of time the Church in honour of his Resurrection did set apart that day on the which he rose to holy exercises but this upon their own authority and without warrant from above that we can hear of more than the general warrant which God gave his Church that all things in it be done decently and in comely order This is that which is told us by Athanasius Hom. de Semente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we honour the Lords day for the Resurrection So Maximus Taurinensis Dominicum diem ideo solennem esse Hom. 3. de Pentecost quia in eo salvatur velut sol oriens discussis infernorum tenebris luce resurrectionis emicuerit That the Lords day is therefore solemnly observed because thereon our Saviour like the rising Sun dispelled the clouds of hellish darkness by the light of his most glorious Resurrection The like S. Austin Dies Dominicus Christianis resurrectione Domini declaratus est â—p 119. ex illo cepit habere fostivitatem suam The Lords day was made known saith he unto us Christians by the Resurrection and from that began to be accounted holy See the like lib. 22. de Civit. Dei c. 30. serm 15. de Verbis Apostoli But then it is withal to be observed that this was only done on the authority of the Church and not by any precept of our Lord and Saviour or any one of his Apostles And first besides that there is no such precept extant at all in holy Scripture Socrates hath affirmed it in the general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Li. 5. c. 22. c. that the designs of the Apostles were not to busie themselves in prescribing Festival days but to instruct the People in the ways of godliness Now lest it should be said that Socrates being a Novatian was a profest Enemy to all the orders of the Church we have the same almost verbatim in Nicephorus li. 12. cap. 32. of his Ecclesiastical History De Sabb. Circumcis S. Athanasius saith as much for the particular of the Lords day that it was taken up by a voluntary usage in the Church of God without any commandment from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As saith the Father it was commanded at the first that the Sabbath day should be observed in memory of the accomplishment of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so do we celebrate the Lords day as a memorial of the beginning of a new Creation Where note the difference here delivered by that Reverend Prelate Of the Jews Sabbath it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was commanded to be kept but of the Lords day there is no Commandment only a positive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an honour voluntarily afforded it by consent of men Therefore whereas we find it in the Homily entituled De Semente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christ transferred the Sabbath to the Lords day this must be understood not as if done by his commandment but on his occasion the Resurrection of our Lord upon that day being the principal motive which did induce his Church to make choice thereof for the assemblies of the People For otherwise it would plainly cross what formerly had been said by Athanasius in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not him only but the whole cloud of Witnesses all the Catholick Fathers in whom there is not any word which reflects that way but much in affirmation of the contrary For besides what is said before and elsewhere shall be said in its proper place The Council held at Paris An. 829. ascribes the keeping of the Lords Day at most to Apostolical tradition confirmed by the authority of the Church For so the Council Cap. 50. Christianorum religiosae devotionis quae ut creditur Apostolorum traditione immo Ecclesiae autoritate descendit mos inolevit ut Dominicum diem ob Dominicae resurrectionis memoriam honorabiliter colat And last of all Tostatus puts this difference between the Festivals that were to be observed in the Jewish Church in novo nulla festivitas à Christo legislatore determinata est sed in Ecclesia Praelati ista statuunt but in the new there were no Festivals at all prescribed by Christ as
being left unto the Prelates of the Church by them to be appointed as occasion was What others of the ancient Writers Cap. 24. v. 20. and what the Protestant Divines have affirmed herein we shall hereafter see in their proper places As for these words of our Redeemer in S. Matthews Gospel Pray that your flight be not in the Winter neither on the Sabbath day they have indeed been much alledged to prove that Christ did intimate at the least unto his Apostles and the rest that there was a particular day by him appointed whereof he willed them to be careful which being not the Jewish Sabbath must of necessity as they think be the Lords day But certainly the Fathers tell us no such matter nay they say the contrary and make these words a part of our Redeemers admonition to the Jews not to the Apostles In Matth. 24. Saint Chrysostom hath it so expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Behold saith he how he addresseth his discourse unto the Jews and tells them of the evils which should fall upon them for neither were the Apostles bound to observe the Sabbath nor were they there when those Calamities fell upon the Jewish Nation Not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath and why so saith he Because their flight being so quick and sudden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither the Jews would dare to flie on the Sabbath for such their superstition was in the later times nor would the Winter but be very troublesome in such distresses In Matth. 24. Theophilact doth affirm expresly that this was spoken unto the Jews and spoken upon the self same reasons adding withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that before any of those miserles fell upon that Nation the Apostles were all departed from out Jerusalem S. Hierom saith as much as unto the time that those Calamities which by our Saviour were foretold were generally referred unto the Wars of Titus and Vespasian and that both in his Comment on S. Matthew's Gospel and his Epistle to Algasia And for the thing that the Apostles and the rest of the Disciples were all departed from Jerusalem before that heavy war began is no less evident in story Qu. 4. For the Apostles long before that time were either martyred or dispersed in several places for the enlargement of the Gospel not any of them resident in Jerusalem after the Martyrdom of S. James who was Bishop there And for the residue of the Disciples they had forsook the Country also before the Wars being admonished so to do by an Heavenly Vision which warned them to withdraw from thence and repair to Pella beyond Jordan Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 5. as Eusebius tells us So that these words of our Redeemer could not be spoke as to the Apostles and in them unto all the rest of the Disciples which should follow after but to the People of the Jews To whom our Saviour gave this caution not that he did not think it lawful for them to flie upon the Sabbath day but that as things then were and as their consciences were intangled by the Scribes and Pharisees he found that they would count it a most grievous misery to be put unto it To return then unto our story as the chief reason why the Christians of the Primitive times did set apart this day to religious uses was because Christ that day did rise again from death to life for our justification so there was some Analogy or proportion which this day seemed to hold with the former Sabbath which might more easily induce them to observe the same For as God rested on the Sabbath from all the works which he had done in the Creation so did the Son of God rest also on the day of his Resurrection from all the works which he had done in our Redemption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. in sanct Pascha as Gregory Nyssen notes it for us Yet so that as the Father rested not on the former Sabbath from the works of preservation so neither doth our Saviour rest at any time from perfecting this work of our redemption by a perpetual application of the benefit and effects thereof This was the cause and these the motives which did induce the Church in some tract of time to solemnize the day of Christs Resurrection as a weekly Festival though not to keep it as a Sabbath I say in tract of time for ab initio non fuit sic it was not so in the beginning The very day it self was not so observed though it was known to the Apostles in the morning early that the Lord was risen We find not on the news that they came together for the performance of divine and religious exercises much less that they intended it for a Sabbath day or that our Saviour came amongst them until late at night as in likelihood he would have done had any such performance been thought necessary as was required unto the making of a Sabbath Nay which is more our blessed Saviour on that day and two of the Disciples whatsoever the others did were otherwise employed than in Sabbath duties Luke 24.13 For from Hierusalem to Emaus whither the two Disciples went was sixty furlongs which is seven miles and an half and so much back again unto Hierusalem which is fifteen miles And Christ who went the journey with them at least part thereof and left them not until they came unto Emaus was back again that night and put himself into the middest of the Apostles Had he intended it for a Sabbath day doubtless he would have rather joyned himself with the Apostles who as it is most likely kept themselves together in expectation of the issue and so were most prepared and fitted to begin the new Christian Sabbath than with those men who contrary to the nature of a Sabbaths rest were now ingaged in a journey and that for ought we know about worldly businesses Nor may we think but that our Saviour would have told them of so great a fault as violating the new Christian Sabbath even in the first beginning of it had any Sabbath been intended As for the being of the eleven in a place together that could not have relation to any Sabbath duties or religious exercises being none such were yet commanded but only to those cares and fears wherewith poor men they were distracted which made them loth to part asunder till they were setled in their hopes or otherwise resolved on somewhat whereunto to trust And where it is conceived by some that our most blessed Saviour shewed himself oftner unto the Apostles upon the first day of the week than on any other and therefore by his own appearings did sanctifie that day instead of the Jewish Sabbath neither the premisses are true nor the sequel necessary The premisses not true for it is no where to be found that he appeared oftner on the First day than any other of the week Acts 1.3 it being
said in holy Scripture that he was seen of them by the space of forty days as much on one as on another His first appearing after the night following his Resurrection which is particularly specified in the Book of God was when he shewed himself to Thomas who before was absent That the Text tells us John 20.26 was after eight days from the time before remembred which some conceive to be the eighth day after or the next first day of the week and thereupon conclude that day to be most proper for the Congregations or publick Meetings of the Church Diem octavum quo Christus Thomae apparuit In Joh. l. 17. cap. 18. Dominicum diem esse necesse est as Saint Cyril hath it Jure igitur sanctae congregationes die octavo in Ecclesia fiunt But where the Greek Text reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post octo dies in the vulgar Latine after eight days according to our English Bibles that should be rather understood of the ninth or tenth than the eighth day after and therefore could not be upon the first day of the week as it is imagined Now as the premisses are untrue so the Conclusion is unfirm For if our Saviours apparition unto his Disciples were of it self sufficient to create a Sabbath then must that day whereon Saint Peter went on fishing John 21.3 be a Sabbath also and so must holy Thursday too it being most evident that Christ appeared on those days unto his Apostles So that as yet from our Redeemers Resurrection unto his Ascension we find not any word or Item of a new Christian Sabbath to be kept amongst them or any evidence for the Lords day in the four Evangelists either in precept or in practice The first particular passage which doth occur in holy Scripture touching the first day of the week is that upon that day the Holy Ghost did first come down on the Apostles and that upon the same Saint Peter Preached his first Sermon unto the Jews and Baptized such of them as believed there being added to the Church that day three thousand souls This hapned on the Feast of Pentecost which fell that year upon the Sunday or first day of the week as elsewhere the Scripture calls it but as it was a special and a casual thing so can it yield but little proof if it yield us any that the Lords Day was then observed or that the Holy Ghost did by selecting of that day for his descent on the Apostles intend to dignifie it for Sabbath For first it was a casual thing that Pentecost should fall that year upon the Sunday It was a moveable Feast as unto the day such as did change and shift it self according to the position of the Feast of Passeover the rule being this that on what day soever the second of the Passeover did fall upon that also fell the great Feast of Pentecost Emend Temp. l. 2. Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semper eadem est feria quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scaliger hath rightly noted So that as often as the Passeover did fall upon the Saturday or Sabbath as this year it did then Pentecost fell upon the Sunday But when the Passeover did chance to fall upon the Tuesday the Pentecost fell that year upon the Wednesday sic de caeteris And if the rule be true as I think it is that no sufficient argument can be drawn from a casual fact and that the falling of the Pentecost that year upon the first day of the week be meerly casual the coming of the Holy Ghost upon that day will be no argument nor authority to state the first day of the week in the place and honour of the Jewish Sabbath There may be other reasons given why God made choice of that time rather than of any other As first because about that very time before he had proclaimed the Law upon Mount Sinai And secondly that so he might the better conntenance and grace the Gospel in the sight of men and add the more authority unto the doctrine of the Apostles The Feast of Pentecost was a great and famous Festival at which the Jews all of them were to come unto Hierusalem there to appear before the Lord and amongst others those which had their hands in our Saviours blood And therefore as S. Chrysostom notes it did God send down the Holy Ghost at that time of Pentecost In Act. 2. because those men that did consent to our Saviours death might publickly receive rebuke for that bloody act and so bear record to the power of our Saviours Gospel before all the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father hath it So that the thing being casual as unto the day and special as unto the business then by God intended it will afford us little proof as before I said either that the Lords Day was as then observed or that the Holy Ghost did select that day for so great a work to dignifie it for a Sabbath As for Saint Peters Preaching upon that day and the Baptizing of so many as were converted to the faith upon the same it might have been some proof that now at least if nor before the first day of the week was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises had they not honoured all days with the same performances But if we search the Scriptures we shall easily find that all days were alike to them in that respect no day in which they did not preach the word of life and administer the Sacraments of their Lord and Saviour to such as either wanted it or did desire it Or were it that the Scriptures had not told us of it yet natural reason would inform us that those who were imployed in so great a work as the Conversion of the World could not confine themselves unto times and seasons but must take all advantages whensoever they came But for the Scripture it is said in terms express first generally that the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved and therefore without doubt Acts 2.47 the means of their salvation were daily ministred unto them and in the fifth Chapter of the Acts Verse 42 and daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ Acts 8. So for particulars when Philip did Baptize the Eunuch either he did it on a working day as we now distinguish them and not upon the first day of the week and so it was no Lords day duty or else it was not held unlawful to take a journey on that day as some think it is Saint Peters Preaching to Cornelius and his Baptizing of that house was a week-days work as may be gathered from Saint Hierom. That Father tells us that the day whereon the vision appeared to Peter was probably the Sabbath Advers Jovinian l. 2. or the Lords Day as we call it now fieri potuit ut
vel sabbatum esset vel dies Dominicus as the Father hath it and choose you which you will we shall find little in it for a Christian Sabbath In case it was on the Sabbath then Peter did not keep the Lords day holy as he should have done in case that day was then selected for Gods worship for the Text tells us that the next day he did begin his journey to Cornelius house Acts 10.24 In case it was upon the Lords day as we call it now then neither did Saint Peter sanctifie that day in the Congregation as he ought to do had that day then been made the Sabbath and his conversion of Cornelius being three days after must of necessity be done on the Wednesday following So that we find no Lords day Sabbath either of S. Peters keeping or of S. Philips or else the preaching of the Word and the administring the Sacraments were not affixed at all unto the first day of the week as the peculiar marks and characers thereof So for Saint Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles who laboured more abundantly than the other Apostles besides what shall be said particularly in the following section it may appear in general that he observed no Lords-day-sabbath but taught on all days travelled on all days and wrought according to his Trade upon all days too when he had no employment in the Congregation That he did teach on all days is not to be questioned by any that considers how great a work he had to do and how little time That he did travel upon all days is no less notorious to all that look upon his life which was still in motion And howsoever he might rest sometimes on the Lords day as questionless he did on others as often as upon that day he Preached the Gospel yet when he was a Prisoner in the hands of the Roman Souldiers there is no doubt but that he travelled as they did Lords days and Sabbaths In Dominieam 17. post Trinit all days equally many days together Of this see what Saint Luke hath written in the last Chapters of the Acts. Lastly for working at his Trade which was Tent-making on the Lords day as well as others Conradus Dietericus proves â—t out of Hierom that when he had none unto whom to preach in the Congregation he followed on the Lords day the works of his Occupation Hieronymus colligit ex Act. 18. vers 3. 4. quod die etiam Dominica quando quibus in publico conventu concionaretur non habebat manibus suis laboravit So Dietericus speaking of our Apostle Now what is proved of these Apostles and of S. Philip the Evangelist may be affirmed of all the rest whose lives and actions are not left upon record in holy Scripture Their Ministery being the same and their work as great no question but their liberty was correspondent and that they took all times to be alike in the advancing of the business which they went about and cherished all occasions presented to them on what day soever What further may be said hereof in reference to Saint John who lived longest of them and saw the Church established and her publick meetings in some order we shall see hereafter in his own place and time Mean while we may conclude for certain that in the planting of the Church he used all days equally kept none more holy than another and after when the Church was setled however he might keep this holy and honour it for the use which was made thereof yet he kept other days so used as holy but never any like a Sabbath Proceed we next unto Saint Paul in this particular of whom the Scripture tells us more than of all the rest and we shall find that he no sooner was converted but that forthwith he Preached in the Synagogues that Jesus was the Christ Acts 9.20 If in the Synagogues most likely that it was on the Jewish Sabbath the Synagogues being destinate especially to the Sabbath days So after he was called to the publick Ministery he came to Antiochia Acts 13.14 and went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and there Preached the Word What was the issue of his Sermon That the Text informs us And when the Jews were gone out of the Synagogue the Gentiles besought that these words might be Preached again the next Sabbath Verse 42 Saint Paul assented thereunto and the next Sabbath day as the Text tells us Verse 44 came almost the whole City together to hear the Word of God It seems the Lords day was not grown as yet into any credit especially not into the repute of the Jewish Sabbath for if it had Saint Paul might easily have told these Gentiles that is such Gentiles as had been converted to the Jewish Church that the next day would be a more convenient time and indeed opus diei in die suo the doctrine of the Resurrection on the day thereof This hapned in the forty sixth year of Christs Nativity some twelve years after his Passion and Resurrection and often after this did the Apostle shew himself in the Jewish Synagogues on the Sabbath days which I shall speak of here together that so we may go on unto the rest of this Discourse with less interruption And first it was upon the Sabbath that he did preach to the Philippians and baptized Lydia with her houshold Acts 16. Amongst the Thessalonians he reasoned three sabbath days together out of the Scriptures Acts 17. At Corinth every sabbath day with the Jews and Greeks Acts 18. besides those many Texts of Scripture when it is said of him that he went into the Synagogues and therefore probably that it was upon the Sabbath as before we said Not that Saint Paul was so affected to the Sabbath as to prefer that day before any other but that he found the people at those times assembled and so might preach the Word with the greater profit Saint Chrysostom for the Ancients have resolved it so In Acts 13.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it So Calvin for the modern Writers makes this the special cause of St. Pauls resort unto the places of Assembly on the Sabbath day quod profecium aliquem sperabat In Acts 16.13 because in such concourse of people he hoped the Word of God would find the better entertainment Any thing rather to be thought than that S. Paul who had withstood so stoutly those false Apostles who would have Circumcision and the Law observed when there was nothing publickly determined of it would after the decision of so great a Council wherein the Law of Moses was for ever abrogated eieither himself observe the Sabbath for the sabbaths sake or by his own example teach the Gentiles how to Judaize which he so blamed in St. Peter The sabbath with the legal Ceremonies did receive their doom as they related to the Gentiles in that great Council holden in Hierusalem which though it was not
they all made bold with Saint Pauls Table as it had been common to them all and as it seems to me saith he Paul sitting at the Table did discourse thus with them Therefore it seems by him that as the meeting was at an ordinary supper so the Discourse there happening was no Sermon properly but an occasional Dispute Lyra affirms the same and doth gloss it thus They came together to break bread i. e. saith he Pro refectione corporali for the refection and support of their Bodies only and being there Paul preached unto them or as the Greek and Latin have it he disputed with them prius eâ—s reficiens pane verbi divini refreshing of them first with the Bread of life This also seems to be the meaning of the Church of England who in the margin of the Bible Canon 80. allowed by Canon doth refer us unto the second of the Acts verse 46. where it is said of the Disciples that they did break their bread from house to house and eat their meat together with joy and singleness of heart which plainly must be meant of ordinary and common meats Calvin not only so affirms it but censures those who take it for the holy Supper Nam quod hic fractionem panis nonnulli interpretantur sacram coenam In Acts 2. alienum mihi videtur à mente Lucae c. as he there discourseth Then for the time our English reads it upon the first day of the week agreeably unto to the exposition of most ancient Writers and the vulgar Latin which here as in the four Evangelists doth call the first day of the week una Sabbati Yet since the Greek phrase is not so perspicuous but that it may admit of a various exposition Erasmus renders it by uno die sabbatorum quodam die sabbatorum that is upon a certain Sabbath and so doth Calvin too and Pellican and Gualter all of them noted Men in their translations of that Text. Nor do they only so translate it but frame their Expositions also unto that Translation and make the day there mentioned to be the Sabbath Calvin takes notice of both readings Vel proximum sabbato diem intelligit In locum vel unum quodpiam sabbatum but approves the last Quod dies ille ad habendum conventum aptior fucrit because the Sabbath day was then most used for the like Assemblies Gualter doth so conceive it also that they assembled at this time on the Sabbath day Qui propter veterem morem haud dubie tune temperis celebrior habebatur Hom. 131. as that which questionless was then of most repute and name amongst them So that the matter is not clear as unto the day if they may judg it But take it for the first day of the week as the English reads it yet doth St. Austin put a scruple which may perhaps disturb the whole expectation though otherwise he be of opinion that the breaking of the Bread there mentioned might have some reference or resemblance to the Lords Supper Now this is that which St. Austin tells us Ep. 86. Aut post peractum diem Sabbati noctis initio fuerunt congregati quae utique nox ad diem Dominicum h. e. ad unum Sabbati pertinebat c. Either saith he they were assembled on the beginning of the night which did immediatly follow the Sabbath day and was to be accounted as a part of the Lords day or first day of the week and breaking Bread that night as it is broken in the Sacrament of the Lords Body continued his discourse till midnight Ut lucescente proficisceretur Dominico die that so he might begin his Journey with the first dawning of the Lords day which was then at hand Or if they did not meet till the day it self since it is there expressed that he preached unto them being to depart upon the morrow we have the reason why he continued his Discourse so long viz. because he was to leave them Et eos sufficienter instruere cupiebat and he desired to lesson them sufficiently before he left them So far St. Austin Chuse which of these you will and there will be but little found for sanctifying the Lords day by St. Paul at Troas For if this meeting were upon Saturday night then made S. Paul no scruple of travelling upon the Sunday or if it were on the Sunday and that the breaking Bread there mentioned were the celebration of the Sacrament which yet St. Augustine saith not in terms express but with a sicut yet neither that nor the Discourse or Sermon which was joyned unto it were otherwise than occasional only by reason of St. Pauls departure on the morrow after Therefore no Sabbath or established day of publick meeting to be hence collected This action of St. Paul at Troas is placed by our Chronologers in Anno 57. of our Saviours birth and that year also did he write his first Epistle to the Corinthians wherein amongst many other things he gives them this direction touching Collections for the poorer Brethren at Hierusalem Concerning the gathering for the Saints C. 16. v. 1. saith he as I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia so do ye also And how was that Every first day of the week let every one of you set aside by himself and lay up as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come This some have made a principal argument to prove the Institution of the Lords day to be Apostolical and Apostolical though should we grant it yet certainly it never can be proved so from this Text of Scripture For what hath this to do with a Lords day Duty or how may it appear from hence that the Lords day was ordered by the Apostles to be weekly celebrated instead of the now antiquated Jewish Sabbath being an intimation only of St. Pauls desire to the particular Churches of the Galatians and Corinthians what he would have them do in a particular and present case Agabus had signified by the Spirit that there should be a great dearth over all the World Acts 11.28 29. and thereupon the Antiochians purposed to send relief unto the Brethren which dwelt in Judaea It is not to be thought that they made this Collection on the Sunday only but sent their common bounties to them when and as often as they pleased Collections for the poor in themselves considered are no Lords day Duties no Duties proper to the day and therefore are not here appointed to be made in the Congregation but every man is ordered to lay up somewhat by himself as it were in store that when it came to a sull round sum it might be sent away unto Hierusalem which being but a particular case and such a case as was to end with the occasion can be no general rule for a perpetuity For might it not fall out in time that there might be no poor nay no Saints at all in all
Hierusalem as when the Town was razed by Adrian or after peopled by the Saracens Surely if not before yet then this Duty was to cease and no Collection to be made by those of Corinth and consequently no Lords day to be kept amongst them because no Collection in case Collections for the Saints as some do gather from this place were a sufficient argument to prove the Lords day instituted by divine Authority But let us take the Text with such observations as have been made upon it by the Fathers In locum Vpon the first day of the week i. e. as generally they conceive it on the Lords day And why on that Chrysostom gives this reason of it that so the very day might prompt them to be bountiful to their poor Brethren as being that day whereon they had received such inestimable bounties at the hands of God in the resurrection of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father hath it What to be dene on that day Unusquisque apud se reponat Let every man lay by himself saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saith not saith St. Chrysostom let every man bring it to the Church And why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for fear lest some might be ashamed at the smallness of their offering but let them lay it by saith be and add unto it week by week that at my coming it may grow to a fit proportion That there be no gathering when I come but that the money may be ready to be sent away immediatly upon my coming and being thus raised up by little and little they might not be so sensible thereos In locum as if upon his coming to them it were to be collected all at once and upon the sudden Vt paulatim reservantes non una bora gravari se putent as St. Hierom hath it Now as it is most clear that this makes nothing for the Lords day or the translation of the Sabbath thereunto by any Apostolical Precept so is it not so clear that this was done upon the first day of the week but that some learned men have made doubt thereof Calvin upon the place takes notice how St. Chrysostom expounds the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Apostle by primo sabbati the first day of the week as the English reads it but likes it not Cui ego non assentior as his phrase is conceiving rather this to be the meaning of St. Paul that on some sabbath day or other until his coming every man should lay up somewhat toward the Collection And in the second of his Institutes he affirms expresly Cap. 8. n. 33. that the day destinate by St. Paul to these Collections was the Sabbath day The like do Victorinus Strigelius Hunnius and Aretius Protestant Writers all note upon the place Singulis sabbatis saith Strigelius per singula sabbata so Aretius diebus sabbatorum saith Egidius Hunnius all rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the Sabbath days More largely yet Hemingius who in his Comment on the place takes it indefinitely for any day in the week so they fixed on one Vult enim ut quilibet certum diem in septimana constituat in quo apud se seponat quod irrogaturus est in pauperes Take which you will either of the Fathers or the Moderns and we shall find no Lords Day instituted by any Apostolical Mandate no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week as some would have it much less that any such Ordinance should be hence collected out of these words of the Apostle Indeed it is not probable that he who so opposed himself against the old Sabbath would crect a new This had not been to abrogate the Ceremony but to change the day whereas he laboured what he could to beat down all the difference of days and times which had been formerly observed In his Epistle to the Galatians written in Anno 59 Cap. 4. v. 10. he lays it home unto their charge that they observed days and months and times and years and seems a little to bewail his own misfortune and if he had bestowed his labour in vain amongst them I know it is conceived by some that St. Paul spake it of the observation of those days and times that had been used among the Gentiles and so had no relation to the Jewish Sabbath or any difference of times observed amongst them Saint Ambrose so conceived it and so did St. Augustine Dies observant In locum qui dicunt crastino non est proficiscendum c. They observe days who say I will not go abroad to morrow or begin any work upon such a day because of some unfortunate aspect as St. Ambrose hath it from whom it seems Saint Augustine learnt it who in his 119 Epistle directly falls upon the very same expression Eos inculpat qui dicunt non proficiscor quia posterus dies est aut quia luna sic fertur vel proficiscar ut prospere cedat quia ita se babet positio syderum c. The like conceit he hath in his Encheiridion ad Laurentium cap. 79. But whatsoever St. Ambrose did St. Augustine lived I am sure to correct his errour observing very rightly that his former doctrine could not consist with St. Pauls purpose in that place which was to beat down that esteem which the Jews had amongst them of the Mosaical Ordinances their New moons and Sabbaths I shall report the place at large for the better clearing of the point Vulgatissiâ—nus est Gentilium error ut vel in agendis rebus vel expectandis eventabus vitae ac negotiorum suorum ab Astrologis Chaldeis notatos dies observent This was the ground whereon he built his former errour Then followeth the correction of it Fortasse tamen non opus est ut baec de Gentilium errore intelligamus ne intentionem causae mark that quam ab exordio susceptam ad finem usque perducit subito in alind temere detorquere velle vide imur sed de his potius de quibus cavendis eum agere per totam Epistolam apparet Nam Judaei serviliter observant dies menses annos tempora in carnali observatione sabbati neomeniae c. But yet perhaps saith he it is not necessary that we should understand this of the Gentiles lest so we vary from the scope and purpose of the Apostle but rather of those men of the avoiding of whose Doctrines he seems to treat in all this Epistle which were the Jews who in their carnal keeping of New-moons and Sabbaths did observe days and years and times as he here objecteth Compare this with Saint Hieroms Preface to the Galatians and then the matter will be clear Cap. 8. n. 33. that St. Paul meant not this of any Heathenish but of the Jewish observation of days and times So in the Epistle to the Colossians writ in the sixtieth
year after Christs Nativity he lays it positively down that the Sabbath was now abrogated with the other Ceremonies which were to vanish at Christs coming Let no man judg you Colos 1.16 saith the Apostle in meat and drink or in respect of an holy-day or of the New moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ In which the Sabbath is well matched with meats and drinks new-moons and holy days which were all temporary Ordinances and to go off the stage at our Saviours entrance Now whereas some that would be thought great sticklers for the Sabbath conceive that this was spoken not of the weekly moral Sabbath as they call it which must be perpetual but of the annual ceremonial Sabbaths which they acknowledg to be abrogated this new device directly crosseth the whole current of the Ancient Fathers who do apply this Text to the weekly Sabbath It is sufficient in this point to note the places The Reader may peruse them as leisore is and look on Epiphan lib. 1. haeres 33. n. 11. Ambrose upon this place Hieroms Epistle ad Algasâ—qu 10. Chrysost hom 13. in Hebr. 7. August cont Judaeos cap. 2. cont Faust Manich. l. 16. c. 28. Praesat in Gala. Apocal. 10. I end this list with that of Hierom Nulius Apostoli sermo est vel per Epistolam vel praesentis in quo non laboret docere antiquae legis onera deposita omnia illa quae in typis imaginibus paaecessere i. e. atium Sabbati circumcisionis injuriam Kalendarum trium per annum solennitatum reaursns c. gratia Evangeln subrepente cessâ—sse There is saith he no Sermon of the Apostles either delivered by Epistle or by word of mouth wherein he labours not to prove that all the burdens of the Law are now laid away that all those things which were before in types and figures namely the Sabbath Circumcision the New moons and the three solemn Festivals did cease upon the Preaching of the Gospel And cease it did upon the Preaching of the Gospel insensibly and by degrees as before we said not being afterwards observed as it had been formerly or counted any necessary part of Gods publick worship Only some use was made thereof for the enlargement of Gods Church by reason that the People had been accustomed to meet together on that day for the performance of religious spiritual duties This made it more regarded than it would have been especially in the Eastern parts of Greece and Asia where the Provincial Jews were somewhat thick dispersed and being a great accession to the Gospel could not so suddenly forsake their ancient customs Yet so that the first day of the week began to grow into some credit towards the ending of this Age especially after the final desolation of Hierusalem and the Temple which hapned Anno 72. of Christs Nativity So that the religious observation of this day beginning in the Age of the Apostles no doubt but with their approbation and authority and since continuing in the same respect for so many Ages may be very well accounted amongst those Apostolical traditions which have been universally received in the Church of God For being it was the day which our Redeemer honoured with his Resurrection it easily might attain unto that esteem as to be honoured by the Christians with the publick meetings that so they might with greater comfort preserve and cherish the memorial of so great a mercy in reference unto which the Worlds Creation seemed not so considerable By reason of which work wrought on it it came in time to be entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day Apotal 10. which attribute is first found in the Revelation writ by Saint John about the 94th year of our Saviours Birth So long it was before we find the Church took notice of it by a proper name For I persuade my self that had that day been destinate at that time to religious duties or honoured with the name of the Lords day when Paul Preached at Troas or writ to the Corinthians which as before we shewed was in the fifty-seventh neither Saint Luke nor the Apostle had so passed it over and called it only the first day of the week as they both have done And when it had this Attribute affixed unto it it only was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before we said by reason of our Saviours Resurrection performed upon it and that the Congregation might not be assembled as well on them as on the other For first it was not called the Lords Day exclusively but by way of eminency in reference to the Resurrection only all other days being the Lords as well as this In Psal 23. Prima sabbati significat diem Dominicum quo Dominus resurrexit resurgendo isti seculo subvenit mundumque ipso die creavit qui ob excellentiam tanti miraculi propriè dies Dominica appellatur i. e. dies Domini quamvis omnes sunt Domini So Bruno Herbipolensis hath resolved it And next it was not so designed for the publick meetings of the Church as if they might not be assembled as well on every day as this For as Saint Hierom hath determined In Gal. 4. omnes dies aequales sunt nee per parasceven tantum Christum crucifigi die Dominica resurgere sed semper sanctum resurrectionis esse diem semper eum carne vesci Dominica c. All days are equal in themselves as the Father tells us Christ was not Crucified on the Friday only nor did he rise only upon the Lords day but that we may make every day the holy-day of his Resurrection and every day eat his blessed Body in the Sacrament When therefore certain days were publickly assigned by Godly men for the Assemblies of the Church this was done only for their sakes qui magis seculo vacant quam Deo who had more mind unto the World than to him that made it and therefore either could not or rather would not everyday assemble in the Church of God Upon which ground as they made choice of this even in the Age of the Apostles for one because our Saviour rose that day from amongst the dead so chose they Friday for another by reason of our Saviours passion and Wednesday on the which he had been betrayed the Saturday or ancient Sabbath being mean-while retained in the Eastern Churches Nay in the primitive times excepting in the heat of persecution they met together every day for the receiving of the Sacrament that being fortified with that viaticum they might with greater courage encounter death if they chanced to meet him So that the greatest honour which in this Age was given the first day of the week or Sunday is that about the close thereof they did begin to honour it with the name or title of the Lords day and made it one of those set days whereon the People
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
those of Corinth in that they joyn'd not with the Assembly but had their Psalms unto themselves Whereby it seems that they had left the true use of Psalms which being so many acclamations exultations and holy provocations to give God the glory were to be sung together by the whole Assembly their singing at that time being little more than a melodious kind of pronuntiation such as is commonly now used in singing of the ordinary Psalms and Prayers in Cathedral Churches And so it stood till in the entrance of this Age Ignatius Bishop of Antiochia one who was conversant with the Apostles brought in the use of singing alternatim course by course according as it still continues in our publick Quires where one side answers to another some shew whereof is left in Parochial Churches in which the Minister and the People answer one another in their several turns Hist li. 6. c. 8. To him doth Socrates refer it and withal affirms that he first learnt it of the Angels whom in a vision he had heard to sing the praise of God after such a manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author hath it Hist l. 2. c. 24. And where Theodoret doth refer it to Flavianus and Diodorus Priests of Antiochia during the busilings of the Arian Hereticks In Damaso and Platina unto Damasus Pope of Rome Theodoret is to be interpreted of the restitution of this custom having been left off and Platina of the bringing of it into the Western Churches For that it was in use in Ignatius time who suffered in the time of Trajan and therefore probably begun by him as is said by Socrates is evident by that which Pliny signified to the self same Trajan where he informs him of the Christians Quod soliti essent stato die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo tanquam Deo dicere secum invicem c. Their greatest crime said he was this that at a certain day but what that day was that he tells not they did meet together before day-light and there sing hymns to Christ as unto a God one with another in their courses and after bind themselves together by a common Sacrament not unto any wicked or unjust attempt but to live orderly without committing Robbery Theft Adultery or the like offences Now for the day there meant by Pliny it must be Saturday or Sunday if it were not both both of them being in those times and in those parts where Pliny lived in especial honour as may be gathered from Ignatius who at that time flourished For demonstration of the which we must first take notice how that the world as then was very full of dangerous fancies and heretical dotages whereby the Church was much disquieted and Gods worship hindred The Ebionites they stood hard for the Jewish Sabbath and would by all means have it celebrated as it had been formerly observing yet the Lords day as the Christians did in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius tells Hist l. 3. c.x. 3. The like saith Epiphanius of them l. 1. Haeres 30. n. 2. And on the other side there was a sort of Hereticks in the Eastern parts whereof see Irenaeus li. 1. ca. 20.21 22 23 24 25. who thought that this world being corruptible could not be made but by a very evil Author Therefore as the Jews did by the festival solemnity of their Sabbath rejoyce in God that created the world as in the Author of all goodness so they in hatred of the maker of the world sorrowed and wept and fasted on that day as being the birth-day of all evil And whereas Christian men of sound belief did solemnize the Sunday in a joyful memory of Christs Resurrection So likewise at that self same time such Hereticks as denied the Resurrection did contrary to them that held it and fasted when the rest rejoyced For the expressing of which two last Heresies Ignat. it was that he affirmed with such zeal and earnestness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one did fast either upon the Lords day or the Sabbath except one Sabbath in the year which was Easter Eve he was a murderer of Christ So he in his Epistle ad Philippenses Cax 65. The Canons attributed to the Apostles take notice of the misdemeanor though they condemn it not with so high a censure it being in them only ordered that if a Clergy-man offended in that kind he should be degraded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any of the Laity they should be excommunicated Which makes me marvel by the way that those which take such pains to justifie Ignatius as Baronius doth in Ann. 57. of his grand Annales should yet condemn this Canon of imposture which is not so severe as Ignatius is only because it speaks against the Saturdays fast Whereof consult the Annales Ann. 102. Now as Ignatius labours here to advance the Sabbath in opposition of those Hereticks before remembred making it equally a festival with the Lords day so being to deal with those which too much magnified the Sabbath and thought the Christians bound unto it as the Jews had been he bends himself another way and resolves it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us not keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner in sloth and idleness for it is written that he that will not labour shall not eat and in the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread But let us keep it after a spiritual fashion not in bodily ease but in the study of the Law not eating meat drest yesterday or drinking luke-warm drinks or walking out a limited space or setling our delights as they did on dancing but in the contemplation of the works of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And after we have so kept the Sabbath let every one that loveth Christ keep the Lords day Festival the Resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all days in which our life was raised again and death was overcome by our Lord and Saviour So that we see that he would have both days observed the Sabbath first though not as would the Ebionites in a Jewish sort and after that the Lords day which he so much magnifieth the better to abate that high esteem which some had cast upon the Sabbath Agreeable unto this we find that in the Constitutions of the Apostles for by that name they pass though not made by them both days are ordered to be kept Holy one in memorial of the Creation the other of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the like l. 8. c. 33. Of which more hereafter And so it was observed in the Eastern parts where those of the dispension had took up their seats and having long time had their meetings on the Sabbath day could not so easily be persuaded from it But in the Western Churches in the which the Jews were not so considerable and where those
day for religious exercises in greater numbers than on others in Africk and the West especially and by their use of turning towards the East when they made their prayers the world was sometimes so persuaded Inde suspicio quod innotuerit nos ad Orientis regionem precari as he there informed us Whereby we may perceive of what great antiquity that custom is which is retained in the Church of England of bowing kneeling and adoring towards the Eastern parts The second name by which Tertullian calls this day is the eighth day simply Ethnicis semel annuus dies quisquis festus est tibi octavo quoque die The third is De Idolat c. 14. De corona mil. c. 3. Dies Dominicus or the Lords day which is frequent in him as Die Dominico jejunium nefas ducimus we hold it utterly unlawful to fast the Lords day of which more hereafter For their performances in their publick meetings he describes them thus Coimus in coetum congregationem c. We come together into the Assembly or Congregation to our Common prayers that being banded as it were in a troop or Army Apol. c. 39. we may besiege God with our Petitions To him such violence is exceeding grateful It followeth Cogimur ad sacrarum lit commemorationem c. We meet to hear the holy Scriptures rehearsed unto us that so according to the quality of the times we may either be premonished or corrected by them Questionless by these holy speeches our faith is nourished our hopes erected our assurance setled and notwithstanding by inculcating the same we are the better established in our obedience to Gods precepts A little after Praesident probati quique seniores c. Now at these g eneral meetings some Priests or Elders do preside which have attained unto that honour not by money but by the good report that they have gotten in the Church And if there be a Poor-mans Box every one cast in somewhat menstrua die at least once a month according as they would and as they were able Thus he describes the form of their publick meetings but that such meetings were then used amongst them on the Sunday only that he doth not say Nor can we learn by him or by Justin Martyr who describes them also either how long those meetings lasted or whether they assembled more than once a day or what they did after the meetings were dissolved But sure it is that their Assemblies held no longer than our Morning service that they met only before noon for Justin saith that when they met they used to receive the Sacrament and that the service being done every man went again to his daily labours Of all these I shall speak hereafter Only I note it out of Beza that hitherto the People used to forbear their labours In Cant. Sol. hom 30. but while they were assembled in the Congregation there being no such duty enjoyned amongst them neither in the times of the Apostles nor after many years nor till the Emperours had embraced the Gospel and therewith published their Edicts to enforce men to it But take his words at large for the more assurance Vt autem Christiani eo die à suis quotidianis laboribus abstinerent praeter id temporis quod in coetu ponebatur id neque illis Apostolicis temporibus mandatum neque prius fuit observatum quam id à Christianis Imperatoribus ne quis à rerum sacrarum meditatione abstraheretur quidem non it a praecise observatum Which makes it manifest that the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath day in these three first Ages But for Tertullian where I left note that I rendred seniores by Priests or Elders because I think his meaning was to render the Greek Presbyter by the Latine senior For that he should there mean Lay-elders as some men would have it is a thing impossible considering that he tells us in another place that they received the Sacrament at the hands of those that did preside in the Assemblies De coron milit c. 3. Eucharistiae Sacramentum non de aliorum manu quam de Praesidentium sumimus and therefore sure they must be Priests that so presided Proceed we next to Origen who flourished at the same time also He being an Auditor of Clemens in the Schools of Alexandria became of his opinions too in many things and amongst others in dislike of those selected Festivals which by the Church were set apart for Gods publick service In Gen. hom 10. Cont. Cels l. 8. Dicite mihi vos qui festis tantum diebus ad Eccles convenitis coeteri dies non sunt festi non sunt dies Domini Judaeorum est dies certos raros observare solennes c. Christiani omni die carnes agni comedunt i. e. carnes verbi Dei quotidie sumunt Tell me saith he you that frequent the Church on the feast days only are not all days Festival are not all the Lords It appertains unto the Jews to observe days and Festivals The Christians every day eat the flesh of the Lamb Cent. 2. c. 6. i. e. they ever day do hear the word of God And in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He truly keeps the Festivals that performs his duty praying continually and offering every day the unbloody sacrifice in his Prayers to God Which whosoever doth and is upright in thought word and deed adhereing always unto God our natural Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day is to him a Lords day It seems too that he had his desire in part it being noted by the Magdeburgians that every day there were Assemblies in Alexandria where he lived for hearing of the Word of God Et de collectis quotidie celebratis in quibus praedicatum sit verbum Dei Hom. 9. in Isa significare videtur as they note it from him Indeed the Proem to his several Homilies seem to intimate that if they met not every day to hear his Lectures they met very often But being a Learned man and one that had a good conceit of his own abilities he grew offended that there was not as great resort of People every day to hear him as upon the Festivals Of Sunday thee is little doubt but that it was observed amongst them and so was Saturday also as we shall see hereafter out of Athanasius Hist l. 5. c. 21. Of Wednesday and Friday it is positively said by Socrates that on them both the Scriptures were read openly and afterwards expounded by the Doctors of the Church and all things done appointed by the publick Liturgy save that they did not use to receive the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this saith he was the old use in Alexandria which he confirms by the practice of Origen who was accustomed as he tells us to preach upon these days to the Congregation Tertullian too takes special notice of these two days whereof consult him in
only in our common speech but in the Canons of the Church and our Acts of Parliament as being used indifferently by so many eminent persons in the Primitive Church as also in an open Synod as before was thewn from thence transmitted by our Fathers unto their posterity Better by far and far less danger to be feared in calling it the Sunday as the Gentiles did and as our Ancestors have done before us than calling it the Sabbath as too many do and on less authority nay contrary indeed to all Antiquity and Scripture CHAP. III. That in the fourth Age from the time of Constantine to Saint Austin the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath day 1. The Lords day first established by the Emperour Constantine 2. What Labours were permitted and what restrained on the Lords day by this Emperours Edict 3. Of other Holy days and Saints days instituted in the time of Constantine 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 5. The Saturday as highly honoured in the Eastern Churches as the Lords day was 6. The Fathers of the Eastern Churches cry down the Jewish Sabbath though they held the Saturday 7. The Lords day not spent wholly in Religious Exercises and what was done with that part of it which was left at large 8. The Lords day in this Age a day of Feasting and that it hath been always deemed Heretical to hold Fasts thereon 9. Of Recreation on the Lords day and of what kind those Dancings were against the which the Fathers inveigh so sharply 10. Other Imperial Edicts about the keeping of the Lords day and the other Holy-days 11. The Orders at this time in use on the Lords day and other days of publick meeting in the Congregation 12. The infinite differences between the Lords day and the Sabbath HItherto have we spoken of the Lords day as taken up by the common consent of the Church not instituted or established by any Text of Scripture or Edict of Emperour or Decree of Council save that some few particular Councils did reflect upon it in the point of Esater In that which followeth we shall find both Emperours and Councils very frequent in ordering things about this day and the service of it And first we have the Emperour Constantine who being the first Christian Prince that publickly profest the Gospel was the first also that made any Law about the keeping of the Lords day or Sunday De vit Const lib. 4. c. 18. Of him Eusebius tells us that thinking that the chiefest and most proper day for the devotion of his Subjects he presently declared his pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every one who lived in the Roman Empire should take their ease or rest in that day weekly which is intituled to our Saviour Now where the Souldiers in his Camp were partly Christians and partly the Gentiles it was permitted unto them who professed the Gospel upon the Sunday so he calls it freely to go unto the Churches and there offer up their Prayers to Almighty God But such as had continued still in their ancient Errours were ordered to assemble in the open Fields upon those days and on a signal given to make their prayers unto the Lord after a form by him prescribed The Form being in the Latin Tongue was this that followeth Te solum Deum agnoscimus te regem prositemur te adjutorem invocamus per te victorias consecuti sumus Cap. 20. per te hostes superavimus à te praesentem felicitatem consecuntos fatemur futuram adepturos speramus tui omnes supplices sumus à te petimus ut Constantinum Imperatorem nostrum una cum piis ejus liberis quam diutissime nobis salvum victorem conserves In English thus We do acknowledge thee to be the only God we confess thee to be the King we call upon thee as our helper and defender by thee alone it is that we have got the Victory and subdued our Enemies to thee as we refer all our present happiness so from thee also do we expect our future Thee therefore we beseech that thou wouldest please to keep in all health and safety our noble Emperour Constantine with his hopeful Progeny Nor was this only to be done in the Fields of Rome in patentibus suburbiorum campis as the Edict ran but after by another Proclamation he did command the same over all the Provinces of the Empire Cap. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius hath it So natural a power it is in a Christian Prince to order things about Religion that he not only took upon him to command the day but also to prescribe the scrvice to those I mean who had no publick Liturgy or set Form of Prayer Nor did he only take upon him to command or appoint the day as to all his subjects and to prescribe a form of Prayer as unto the Gentiles but to decree what works should be allowed upon it and what intermitted In former times though the Lords day had got the credit as to be honoured with the publick meetings of the Congregation yet was it not so strictly kept no not in time of divine service but that the publick Magistrates Judges and other Ministers of State were to attend those great Employments they were called unto without relation to this day or cessation on it and so did other men that had less employments and those not so necessary These things this pious Emperour taking into consideration and finding no necessity but that his Judges and other publick Ministers might attend Gods service on that day at least not be a means to keep others from it and knowing that such as dwelt in Cities had sufficient leisure to frequent the Church and that Artificers without any publick discommodity might for that time forbear their ordinary labours he ordered and appointed that all of them in their several places should this day lay aside their own Business to attend the Lords But then withal considering that such as followed Husbandry could not so well neglect the times of Seed and Harvest but that they were to take advantage of the fairest and most seasonable weather as God pleased to send it he left it free to them to follow their affairs on what day soever left otherwise they might lose those blessings which God in his great bounty had bestowed upon them This mentioned in the very Edict he set forth about it First for his Judges Citizens or inhabitants of the greater Towns L. Omnes cap. de feriis and all Artificers therein dwelling Omnes Judices urbanaeque plebes cunctarum artium officia venerabili die Solis quiescant Next for the people of the Contrey Rure tamen positi libere licenterque agrorum culture inserviant quoniam frequenter evenit ut non aptius alio die frumenta sulcis vinea scrobibus mandentur
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his own Language Catech. orat 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the morrow after the Lords day Cat. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catech. Mystag 2. The like is very frequent in Saint Ambrose also Hesterno die de fonte disputavimus De Sacram lib. 3. cap. 1. Hesternus noster sermo ad sancti altaris sacramentum deductus est lib. 5. cap. 1. and in other places The like in Chrysostom as in many other places too many to be pointed at in this place and time so in his 18. Hom. on the 3d of Gen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But this perhaps was only in respect of Lectures or Expositions of the Scriptures such as were often used in the greater Cities where there was much people and but little business for I conceive not that they met every day in these times to receive the Sacraments Epl. 289. Of Wednesday and of Friday it is plain they did not to say any thing of the Saturday till the next Section Saint Basil names them all together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is saith he a profitable and pious thing every day to communicate and to participate of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ our Saviour he having told us in plain terms that Whosoever eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath eternal life We notwithstanding do communicate but four times weekly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. on the Lords day the Wednesday the Friday and the Saturday unless on any other days the memory of some Martyr be perhaps observed Expos fid Cath. 21.22 Epiphanius goeth a little farther andn he deriveth the Wednesdays and the Fridays Service even from the Apostles ranking them in the same Antiquity and grounding them upon the same Authority that he doth the Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only it seems the difference was that whereas formerly it had been the custom not to administer the Sacrament on these two days being both of them fasting-fasting-days and so accounted long before until towards Evening It had been changed of late and they did celebrate in the Mornings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as on the Lords day was accustomed Whether the meeting on these days were of such Antiquity as Epiphanius saith they were I will not meddle Certain it is that they were very antient in the Church of God as may appear by that of Origen and Tertullian before remembred So that if we consider either the preaching of the Word the ministration of the Sacraments or the publick Prayers the Sunday in the Eastern Churches had no great prerogative above other days especially above the Wednesday and Friday save that the meetings were more solemn and the concourse of people greater than at other times as it is most likely The footsteps of this ancient custom are yet to be observed in this Church of England by which it is appointed that on Wednesdays and Fridays weekly Can. 15. though they be not holy days the Minister at the accustomed hours of Service shall resort to Church and say the Letany prescribed in the Book of Common-prayer As for the Saturday that retained its wonted credit in the Eastern Church little inferiour to the Lords day if not plainly equal not as a Sabbath think not so but as a day designed unto sacred meetings The Constitutions of the Apostles said to be writ by Clemens one of Saint Peters first successours in the Church of Rome appoint both days to be observed as solemn Festivals both of them to be days of rest that so the servant might have time to repair unto the Church Lib. 8. c. 33. for this Edification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Constitution Not that they should devote them wholly unto rest from labour but only those set times of both which were appointed for the meetings of the Congregation Yet this had an exception too the Saturday before Easter day Lib. 1. cap. 19. whereupon Christ rested in the Grave being exempt from these Assemblies and destinated only unto grief and fasting And though these Constitutions in all likelihood were not writ by Clemens there being many things therein which could not be in use of a long time after yet ancient sure they were as being mentioned in Epiphanius De Scrip. Ecc. in Clemente and as the Cardinal confesseth à Graecis veteribus magni factos much made of by the ancient Grecians though not of such authority in the Church of Rome How their authority in this point is countenanced by Ignatius we have seen already and we shall see the same more fully throughout all this Age. Can. 16. And first beginning with the Synod held in Laodicea a Town of Phrygia Anno 314. there passed a Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching the reading of the Gospels with the other Scriptures upon the Saturday or Sabbath Canon 49. that in the time of Lent there should be no oblation made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but on the Saturday and the Lords day only neither that any Festival should be then observed in memory of any Martyrs Canon 51. but that their names only should be commemorated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Lords day and the Sabbaths Nor was this only the particular will of those two and thirty Prelates that there assembled it was the practice too of the Alexandrians S. Athanasius Patriarch there affirms that they assembled on the Sabbath days not that they were infected any whit with Judaism which was far from them Homil de Semente but that they came together on the Sabbath day to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it So for the Church of Millain which as before I said in some certain things followed the Churches of the East it seems the Saturday was held in a fair esteem and joyned together with the Sunday Crastino die Sabbato De Sacrament Lib. 4. cap. 6. dominice de orationis ordine dicemus as S. Ambrose hath it And probably his often mention of hesternus dies remembred in the former Section may have relation to the joynt observance of these two days and so may that which is reported then out of S. Chrysostom and S. Cyril Eastern Doctors both Hist Eccles Lib. 6. cap. 8. Sure I am Socrates counts both days for weekly Festivals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on them both the Congregation used to be assembled and the whole Liturgy performed Which plainly shews that in the practice of those Churches they were both regarded both alike observed Gregory Nyssen speaks more home and unto the purpose Some of the People had neglected to come unto the Church upon the Saturday and on the Sunday he thus chides and rebukes them for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. With what face saith the Father wilt thou look upon the lords day De Castigatione which hast dishonoured the
Sabbath knowest thou not that these days are Sisters and that whoever doth despise the one doth affront the other Sisters indeed and so accounted in those Churches not only in regard of the publick meetings but in this also that they were both exempt from the Lenten Fast of which more anon In the mean time we may remember how Saturday is by S. Basil made one of those four times whereon the Christians of those parts did assemble weekly to receive the Sacrament as before we noted And finally it is said by Epiphanius that howsoever it was not so in the Isle of Cyprus which it seems held more correspondence with the Church of Rome than those of Asia Expos fidei Cathol 24. yet in some places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they used to celebrate the holy Sacrament and hold their publick meetings on the Sabbath day So as the difference was but this that whereas in the Eastern and Western Churches several days were in commission for Gods publick service the Lords day in both places was of the Quorum and therefore had the greater worship because more business They held their publick Meetings on the Sabbath-day yet did not keep it like a Sabbath The Fathers of this learned Age knew that Sabbath hath been abrogated and profest as much The Council of Laodicea before remembred though it ascribe much to this day in reference to the Congregations then held upon it yet it condemns the Jewish observations of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not fit for Christians saith the 29. Canon to Judaize and do no manner of work on the Sabbath days but to pursue their ordinary labours on it Conceive it so far forth as they were no impediment to the publick Meetings then appointed And in the close of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any should be found so to play the Jews let them be Anathema So Athanasius though he defend the publick Meetings on this day stands strongly notwithstanding for the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath Not on the by but in a whole discourse writ and continued especially for that end and purpose entituled De Sabbato circumcisione One might conjecture by the title by coupling of these two together what his meaning was that he contrived them both to be of the same condition And in his homily De semente he tells us of the New-moons and Sabbaths that they were Ushers unto Christ and to be in Authority till the Master came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Master being come the Usher grew out of all imployment the Sun once risen v.p. 1. chap. 8. the Lamp was darkened To other of the Fathers which have said as much and whereof we have spoken in a place more proper add Nazianz. Orat. 43. S. Cyril of Hierusalem Cat. 4. and Epiphanius in the confutation of those several Hereticks that held the Sabbath for a necessary part of Gods publick worship and to be now observed as before it was Of which kind over and above the Ebionites and Cerinthians which before we spake of were the Nazarai in the second Century who as this Epiphanius tell us differed both from the Jew and Christian First from the Jew in that they did believe in Christ next from the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that they still retain the Law as Circumcision and the Sabbath and such things as those And these I have the rather noted in this place and time as being Cont. Cresconium l. 8. so Saint Austin tells us the Ancestors or Original of the Symmachiani who held out till this very Age and stood as much for Sabbaths and legal ceremonies as their founders did whereof consult S. Ambroses preface to the Galatians Now as these Nazarens or Symmachiani had made a mixt Religion of Jew and Christian Nazianz. Orat. 19. so did another sort of Hereticks in these present times contrive a miscellany of the Jew and Gentile Idols and Sacrifices they would not have and yet they worshipped the Fire and Candle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Sabbath also they much reverenced and stood upon the difference of unclean and clean yet by no means would be induced to like of Circumcision These they called Hypsistarij or rather so those doughty fellows pleased to call themselves Add here that it was counted one of the great dotages of Appollinaris and afterwards of all his sect viz. that after the last Resurrection every thing should be done again Basil ep 74. according to the former Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That we should be circumcised and observe the Sabbath and abstein from meats and offer Sacrifice and finally of Christians become Jews again Than which saith Basil who reports it what can be more absurd or more repugnant to the Gospel By which it is most plain and certain that though the Christians of the East retained the Saturday for a day of publick meeting yet they did never mean it to be a Sabbath reckoning them all for Hereticks that so observed it Next let us look upon the Sunday what they did on that For though it pleased the Emperor by his royal Edict to permit works of Husbandry in the Country and manumissions in the Cities on that sacred day yet probably there were some pure and pious souls who would not take the benefit of the declaration or think themselves beholden to him for so injurious and profane a dispensation This we will search into exactly that so the truth may be discovered And first beginning with the Council of Eliberis a Town of Spain in the beginning of this Age it was thus decreed Can. 21. Si quis in civitate positus per tres dominicas ecclesiam non accesserit tanto tempore abstineat ut correptus esse videatur If any Inhabitant of the Cities absent himself from Church three Lords days together let him be kept as long from the holy Sacrament that he may seem corrected for it Where note Si quis in civitate positus the Canon reacheth unto such only as dwelt in Cities near the Church and had no great business those of the Country being left unto their Husbandry and the like affairs no otherwise than in the Emperours Edict which came after this And in the Council of Laodicea not long after Can. 29. which clearly gave the Lords day place before the Sabbath it is commanded that the Christians should not Judaize on the Sabbath day but that they should prefer the Lords day before it and rest thereon from labour if at least they could but as Christians still The Canon is imperfect as it stands in the Greek Text of Binius edition no sense to be collected from it But the translation of Dionysius Exiguus which he acknowledgeth to be more near the Greek than the other two makes the meaning up Diem dominicum praeferentes ociari oportet si modo possint And this agreeably both unto Zonaras the Balsamon who
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-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
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
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-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
Sunday For if it be a sin to bathe or wash all the body on the Lords day then must it be a sin to wash the face upon that day if it be lawful to be done in any part why then necessity requiring is it unlawful for the whole It seems then by St. Gregories doctrine that in hot weather one may lawfully go into the water on the Lords day and there wade or swim either to wash or cool his body as well as upon any other Note also here that not the quality of the day but the condition of the thing is to be considered in the denominating of a lawful or unlawful Act that things unlawful in themselves or tending to unlawful ends are unfit for all days and that whatever thing is fit for any day is of it self as fit for Sunday Finally he concludes with this Dominicorum vero die à labore terreno cessandum est c. We ought to rest indeed on the Lords day from earthly labours and by all means to abide in prayers that if by humane negligence any thing hath escaped in the six former days it may be expiated by our prayers on the day of the Resurrection This was the salve by him applyed to those dangerous sores and such effect it wrought upon them that for the present and long after we find not any that prohibited working on the Saturday But at the last it seems some did who thereupon were censured and condemned by another Gregory of that name the seventh Damnavit docentes non licere die Sabbati operas facere as the Law informs us De consecratione distinct 3. cap. Pervenit But this was not till Anno 1074. or after almost 500 years after the times where now we are As for the other fancy that of not going to the Bathes on the Lords day it seems he crushed that too as for that particular though otherwise the like conceits did break out again as men began to entertain strange thoughts and superstitious doctrines about this day especially in these declining Ages of the Church wherein so many errours both in faith and manners did in fine defile it that it was black indeed but with little comliness The Church as in too many things not proper to this place and purpose it did incroach upon the Jew much of the ceremonies and Priestly habit in these times established being thence derived so is it not to be admired if in some things particular both Men and Synods began to Judaize a little in our present business making the Lords day no less rigidly to be observed than the Jewish Sabbath if it were not more For in the following Age and in the latter end thereof when Learning was now almost come to its lowest ebb there was a Synod held at Friuli by the command of Pepin then King of France a Town now in the Territory of the State of Venice The principal motive of that meeting was to confirm the doctrine of the holy Trinity and the incarnation of the Word which in those times had been disputed The President thereof Paulinus Patriarch of Aquilegia Anno 791. of our Redemption There in relation to this day it was thus decreed Diem dominicum inchoante noctis initio i.e. vespere Sabbati quando signum insonuerit c. We constitute and appoint that all Christian men that is to say all Christian men who lived within the Canons reach should with all reverence and devotion honour the Lords day beginning on the Evening of the day before at the first ringing of the Bell and that they do abstain therein especially from all kind of sin as also from all carnal acts Etiam à propriis conjugibus even from the company of their Wives and all earthly labours and that they go unto the Church devoutly laying aside all suits of Law that so they may in love and charity praise Gods name together You may remember that some such device as this was fathered formerly on Saint Austin but with little reason Such trim conceits as these had not then been thought of And though it be affirmed in the preamble to these constitutions nec novas regulas instituimus nee supervacuas rerum adinventiones inbianter sectamur that they did neither make new rules or follow vain and needless fancies Sed sacris paternerum Canâ—num recensitis soliis c. But that they took example by the antient Canons yet look who will into all Canons of the Church for the times before and he shall find no such example For my part I should rather think that it was put into the Canon in succeeding times by some misadventure that some observing a restraint ab omni opere carnali of all carnal acts might as by way of question write in the Margin etian à proprtir conjugibus from whence by ignorance or negligence of the Collectors it might be put into the Text. e if it were so passed at first and if it chance that any be so minded and some such there be as to conceive the Canon to be pure and prous and the intent thereof not to be neglected They are to be advertised that the Holy-days must be observed in the self same manner It was determined so before by the false Saint Austin And somewhat to this purpose saith this Synod now that all the greater Festivals must with all reverence be observed and honoured and that such Holy-days as by the Priests were bidden in the Congregation Omnibus modis sunt custodienda were by all ways and means to be kept amongst them that is by all those ways and means which in the said Canon were before remembred In this the Christian plainly out-went the Jew amongst whose many superstitions there is none such found Ap. Ainsw in Ex. 20.10 'T is tre indeed the Jews accounted it unlawful to marry on the Sabbath-day or on the Evening of the Sabbath or on the first day of the week lest say the Rabbins they should pollute the Sabbath by dressing Meat Conformably whereunto Can. 17. it was decreed in a Synod held in Aken or Aquisgranum Anno 833. nec nuptias pro reverentia tantae solennitatis celebrari visum est that in a reverence to the Lords day it should no more be lawful to Marry or be Married upon the same The Jews as formerly we shewed have now by order from their Rabbins restrained themselves on their Sabbath day from knocking with their hands upon a table to still a child from making figures in the air or drawing letters in the ground or in dust and ashes and such like niceties And some such teachers Olaus King of Norway had no question met with Anno 1028. For being taken up one Sunday in some serious thoughts and having in his hands a small walking stick he took his knife and whitled it as men do sometimes when as their minds are troubled or intent on business And when it had been told him as by way of jest how he
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
times were certainly devout and therefore the less question to be made but that the Holy-days were employed as they ought to be in hearing of the Word of God receiving of the Sacraments and pouring forth their prayers unto him The sixth general Council holden at Constantinople appointed that those to whom the care of the Church was trusted should on all days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially on the Lords day instruct the Clergy and the People out of the holy Scripture in the ways of Godliness I say the Clergy and the People for in these times the Revenue of the Church being great and the offerings liberal there were besides the Parish-Priest who had Cure of souls many assisting Ministers of inferiour Orders which lived upon Gods holy Altar Somewhat to this purpose of Preaching every Sunday yea and Saints days too in the Congregation we have seen before established in the Council at Mentz Anno 813. So for receiving of the Sacrament whereas some would that it should be administred every day singulis in anno diebus as Bertram hath it lib de corp sangu Christi Rabanus Maurus who lived 824. leaves it as a thing indifferent advising all men notwithstanding in case there be no lawful let to communicate every Lords day De Sermon prâ—priâ—tat 〈◊〉 4.10 Quotidie Eucharistiae communionem percipere nec vitupero nec laudo omnibus tamen dominicis diebus communicandum hortor si tamen mens in affectu peccandi non sit as his words there are And whereas this good custom had been long neglected Can. 21. it was appointed that the Sacrament should be administred every Lords day by the Council at Aken Anno 836. Ne forte qui longe est à sacramentis quibus est redemptus c. lest saith the Council they which keep so much distance from the Sacraments of their redemption be kept as much at distance from the fruition of their Salvation As for the Holy-days or Saints days there needed no such Canon to enjoyn on them the celebration of the Sacrament which was annexed to them of course So likewise for the publick prayers besides what scatteringly hath been said in former places Câ—â—â— Friburienâ— Can. 26. the Council held at Friburg Anno 895. hath determined thus Diebus dominicis sanctorum festis vigiliis orationibus insistendum est ad missas cuilibet Christiano cum oblationibus currendum That on the Lords day and the Festivals of the Saints every Christian was to be intent upon his devotions to watch and pray and go to Mass and there make his offering It 's true the Service of the Church being in the Latine and in these times that Language being in some Provinces quite worn out and in some others grown into a different dialect from what it was that part of Gods worship which was publick prayer served not so much to comfort and to edification as it should have done As for the outward adjuncts of Gods publick service on the Churches part the principalwas that of Musick which in these Ages grew to a perfect height We shewed before that vocal Musick in the Church is no less ancient than the Liturgy of the Church it self which as it was begun in Ignatius time after the manner of plain-song or a melodious kind of pronunciation as before was said so in S. Austins time it became so excellent that it drew many to the Church and consequently many to the saith Now to that vocal Musick which was then in use and of which formerly we spake it pleased the Church in the beginning of these Ages to add Instrumental the Organ being added to the Voice by Pope Vitalian Anno 653. above 1000 years ago and long before the aberration of the Church from its pristine piety And certainly it was not done without good advice there being nothing of that kind more powerful than melody both Vocaland Instrumental for raising of mens hearts and sweetning their affections towards God Not any thing wherein the Militant Church here on Earth hath more resemblance to the Church in Heaven triumphant than in that sacred and harmonious way of singing praise and Allelujahs to the Lord our God which is and hath of long been used in the Church of Christ To bring this Chapter to an end in all that hath been said touching the keeping of the Lords day we find not any thing like a Sabbath either in the practice of the Church or writings of particular men however these last Ages grew to such an height in restraint of labours on this day that they might seem to have a mind to revive that part of the fourth Commandment Thou shalt do no manner of work upon it For where they tell us of this day as before was said that it was taken up by custom on the Authority of the Church as most on Apostolical tradition this makes it plain that they intended no such matter as a Sabbath day though that the Congregation might assemble in the greater numbers and men might joyn together in all Christian duties with the greater force it pleased the Church and principal powers thereof to restrain men from cororal labours and bind them to repair to the House of God Or if they did intend the Lords day for a Sabbath day it 's plain they must have made more Sabbaths than one day in seven those Holy-days which universally were observed in the Christian Church being no othersise to be kept than the Lords day was and those increasing in these Ages to so great a number that they became a burden to the common people Nor is it likely that being once free from the bondage of the Jewish Sabbath they would submit themselves unto another of their own devising and do therewith as the Idolaters of old with their woodden Gods first make them and then presently fall down and worship them Rather they took a course to restrain the Jews from sanctifhing their Sabbah and other legal Festivals as before they used Can. 10. Statutum est de Judaeis in the 12. Council of Tolledo Anno 681 Ne Sabbata caeterasque festivitates ritus sui celebrare praesumant and not so only Sed ut diebus dominicis ab opere cessent but that they should refrain from labour on the Lords day also of any Sabbath to be kept in the Christian Church some few might dream perhaps such filthy dreamers as Saint Jude speaks of but they did only dream thereof they few no such matter They which had better Visions could perceive no Subbath but in this life a Sabbath or a rest from sin and in the life to come a Sabbath or a rest from misery Plainly Rupertus so conceived it as great a Clerk as any in the times wherein he lived which was in the beginning of the twelfth Century Nam sicut signum circumcisionis incarnationem c. For as saith he the sign of Circumcisian foreshewed the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour
the offering of the Paschal Lamb his Death and Passion Sic Sabbatismus ille requiem annunciabat quae post hanc vitam posita â—â—t fanctis â—lectis so did the Sabbath signifie that eternal rest which after this life is provided for the Saints and elect of God And more than this Spiritualis homo non uno die hebdomadis sed omni tempore Sabbatizare satagit the true spiritual man keeps not his Subbath once a week but at all times whatever every hour and minute What then would he have no day set apart for Gods publick service no but not the Sabbath Because saith he we are not to rejoyce in this world that perisheth but in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection therefore we ought not rest the seventh day in sloth and idleness But we dispose our selves to prayers and hearing of the Word of God upon the first day of the week on the which Christ rose cum summa cura providentes ut tam illo quam caeteris diebus feriati semper simus à servili opere peccati Provided always that upon that and all days else we keep our selves free from the servile Acts of sin This was the Sabbath which they principally looked for in this present life never applying of that name to the Lords day in any of those monuments of Learning they have left behind them The first who ever used it to denote the Lords day the first that I have met with in all this search is one Petrus Alfonsus he lived about the times that Rupertus did who calls the Lords day by the name of the Christian Sabbath Dies domnica dies viz. resurrectionis quae suae salvationis causa extitit Christianorum sabbatum est But this no otherwise to be construed than by Analogy and resemblance no otherwise than the Feast of Easter is called the Christian Passeover As for the Saturday the old Sabbath day though it continued not a Sabbath yet it was still held in an high esteem in the Eastern Churches counted a festival day or at least no fast and honoured with the meetings of the Congregation In reference to the first we find how it was charged on the Church of Rome by the sixth Council in Constantinople Anno 692. that in the holy time of Lent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they used to fast the Saturday which was directly contrary to the Canons of the Apostles as they there alledge This also was objected by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople against Pope Nicolas of Rome Anno 867. and after that by Michael of Constantinople against Leo the ninth Anno 1053. which plainly shews that in the Eastern Churches they observed it otherwise And in relation to the other Curopalat we find that whereas in the principal Church of Constantinople the holy Sacrament was celebrated only on the greater feasts as also on the Saturdays and the Sundays Sabbatis dominicis and not on other days as at Rome it was Constantine surnamed Mononiachus Anno 1054 enriched it with revenue and bestowed much fair plate upon it that so they might be able every day to perform that office Which proves sufficiently that Saturday was always one in all publick duties and that it kept even pace with Sunday But it was otherwise of old in the Church of Rome where they did laborare jejunare as Humbertus saith in his defence of Leo the ninth against Nicetas And this with little opposition or interruption save that which had been made in the City of Rome in the beginning of the seventh Century and was soon crushed by Gregory then Bishop there as before we noted And howsoever Vrban of that name the second Hect. Boet. hist l. 22. did consecrate it to the weekly service of the blessEd Virgin and instituted in the Council held at Clermont Anno 1095. that our Ladies office Officium B. Mariae should be said upon it Eandemque Sabbato quoque die praecipua devotione populum Christianum colere debere and that upon that day all Christian folk should worship her with their best devotions yet it continued still as before it was a day of fasting and of working So that in all this time in 1200 years we have found no Sabbath nor do we think to meet with any in the times that follow either amongst the Schoolmen or amongst the Protestants which next shall come upon the Stage CHAP. VI. What is the judgment of the Schoolmen and of the Protestants and what the practice of those Churches in this Lords day business 1. That in the judgment of the Schoolmen the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment 2. As also that the Lords day is not founded on Divine Authority but the Authority of the Church 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 4. In what estate the Lords day stood in matter of restraint from labour at the reformation 5. The Reformators find great fault both with the said new doctrine and restraints from labour 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 7. As that the Lords day hath no other ground on which to stand than the Authority of the Church 8. And that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other 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 10. Dancing cried down by Calvin and the French Churches not in relation to the Lords day but the sport it self 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 WE are now come unto an Age wherein the Learning of the world began to make a different shew from what it did to such a period of time in which was made the greatest alteration in the whole fabrick of the Church that ever any time could speak of The Schoolmen who sprung up in the beginning of the thirteenth Age contracted Learning which before was diffused and scattered into fine subtilties and distinctions the Protestants in the beginning of the sixteenth endeavouring to destroy those buildings which with such diligence and curiosity had been erected by the Schoolmen though they consented well enough in the present business so far as it concern'd the Institution either of the Lords day or the Sabbath Of these and what they taught and did in reference to the point in hand we are now to speak taking along with us such passages of especial note as hapned in the Christian world by which we may learn any thing that concerns our business And first beginning with the Schoolmen they tell us generally of the Sabbath that
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
the general tendry of the Roman Schools that which is publickly avowed and made good amongst them And howsoever Petrus de Anchorana and Nicholas Abbat of Patermo two learned Canonists as also Angelus de Clavasio and Silvester de Prierats two as learned Casuists seem to defend the institution of the Lords day to have its ground and warrant on divine Authority yet did the general current of the Schools and of the Canonists also run the other way And in that current still it holds the Jesuits and most learned men in the Church of Rome following the general and received opinion of the Schoolmen whereof see Bellarm. de cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 11. Estius in 3. Sent. dist 37. Sect. 13. but especially Agsorius in his Institut Moral part second cap. 2. who gives us an whole Catalogue or them which hold the Lords day to be founded only on the authority of the Church Touching the other power the power of Dispensation there is not any thing more certain than that the Church both may and doth dispense with such as have therein offended against her Canons The Canons in themselves do profess as much there being many casus reservati as before we said expressed particularly in those Laws and constitutions which have been made about the keeping of this day and the other Festivals wherein a dispensation lieth if we disobey them Many of these were specified in the former Ages and some occur in these whereof now we write It pleased Pope Gregory the ninth Decretal l. 2. tit de feriis cap. 5. Anno 1228. to inhibit all contentious Suits on the Lords day and the other Festivals and to inhibit them so far that judgment given on any of them should be counted void Etiam consentientibus partibus although both parties were consenting Yet was it with this clause or reservation nisi vel necessitas urgeat vel pietas suadeat unless necessity inforced or piety persuaded that it should be done So in a Synod holden in Valladolit apud vallem Oleti in the parts of Spain Concil Sabiness deâ—feriis Anno 1322. a general restraint was ratified that had been formerly in force quod nullus in diebus dominicis festivis agros colere audeat aut manualia artificia exercere praesitmat that none should henceforth follow Husbandry or exercise himself in mechanick Trades upon the Lords day or the other Holy days Yet was it with the same Proviso nisi urgente necessitate vel evidentis pietatis causa unless upon necessity or apparent piety or charity in each of which he might have licence from the Priest his own Parish-Priest to attend his business Where still observe that the restraint was no less peremptory on the other Holy days than on the Lords day These Holy days as they were named particularly in Pope Gregories Decretal so was a perfect list made of them in the Synod of Lyons â—e consecrat distinct 3. c. 1. Anno 1244. which being celebrated with a great concourse of people from all parts of Christendom the Canons and decrees thereof began forthwith to find a general admittance The Holy days allowed of there were these that follow viz. the feast of Christs nativity St. Stephen St John the Evangelist the Innocents St. Silvâ—ster the Circumcision of our Lord the Epiphany Easter together with the week precedent and the week succeeding the three days in Rogation week the day of Christs Ascension Whitsunday with the two days after St. John the Baptist the feasts of all the twelve Apostles all the festivities of our Lady St. Lawrence all the Lords days in the year St. Michael the Archangel All Saints St. Martins the Wakes or dedication of particular Churches together with the Feasts of such topical or local Saints which some particular people had been pleased to honour with a day particular amongst themselves On these and every one of them the people were restrained as before was said from many several kinds of work on pain of Ecclesiastical censures to be laid on them which did offend unless on some emergent causes either of charity or necessity they were dispensed with for so doing In other of the Festivals which had not yet attained to so great an height the Council thought not fit perhaps by reason of their numbers that men should be restrained from labour as neither that they should be incouraged to it but left them to themselves to bestow those times as might stand best with their affairs and the Common wealth For so the Synod did determine Reliquis festivitatibus quae per annum sunt non esse plebem cogendam ad feriandum sed nec probibendam And in this state things stood a long time together there being none that proferd opposition in reference to these restraints from labour on the greater Festivals though some there were that thought the Festivals too many on which those burden of restraints had unadvisedly been imposed on the common people Nicholas de Clemangis complained much as of some other abuses in the Church so of the multitude of Holy days Ap. Hospin cap. â— de fest 〈◊〉 which had of late times been brought into it And Pet. de Aliaco Cardinal of Cambray in a Discourse by him exhibited to the Council of Constance made publick suit unto the Fathers there assembled that there might a stop be put in that kind hereafter as also that excepting Sundays and the greater Festivals liceret operari post auditum officium it might be lawful for the people after the end of Divine Service to attend their businesses the poor especially having little time enough on the working days ad vitae necessaria procuranda to get their livings But these were only the expressions of well wishing men The Popes were otherwise resolved and did not only keep the Holy days which they found established in the same state in which they found them but added others daily as they saw occasion At last it came unto that pass by reason of that rigorous and exact kind of rest which by the Canon Law had been fastned on them that both the Lords day and the other Festivals were accounted Holy not in relation to the use made of them or to the holy actions done on them in the honour of God but in and of themselves considered they were avowed to be vere aliis sanctiores Bell arm de cultu S. l. 3. c. 10. truly and properly invested with a greater sanctity than the other days Yea so far did they go at last that it is publickly maintained in the Schools of Rome non sublatam esse sed mutatam tantum in novo Testamento significationem discretionem dierum that the difference of days and times and the mysterious significations of the same which had before been used in the Jewish Church was not abolished but only changed in the Church of Christ Aquinas did first lead this Dance in fitting every legal Festival with some that were observed
Hom. 131. Gualter more generally that the Christians first assembled on the Sabbath day as being then most famous and so most in use but when the Churches were augmented preximus à sabbato dies rebus sacris destinatus the next day after the Sabbath was designed to those holy uses If not before then certainly not so commanded by our Saviour Christ and if designed only then not enjoyned by the Apostles Apoc. 1.10 Yea Beza though herein he differ from his Master Calvin and makes the Lords day meetings to be Apostolicae verae divinae traditionis to be indeed of Apostolical and divine Tradition yet being a Tradition only although Apostolical it is no Commandment And more than that he tells us in another place that from St. Pauls preaching at Troas and from the Text. In Act. 20. 1 Corinth 16.2 non inepte colligi it may be gathered not unfitly that then the Christians were accustomed to meet that day the ceremony of the Jewish Sabbath beginning by degrees to vanish But sure the custom of the people makes no divine Traditions and such conclusions as not unfitly may be gathered from the Text are not Text it self Others there be who attribute the changing of the day to the Apostles not to their precept but their practice So Mercer Apostoli in Dominicum converterunt In Gen. the Apostles changed the Sabbath to the Lords day in Gen. 2. Paraeus attributes the same Apostolicae Ecclesiae unto the Apostolical Church or Church in the Apostles time quomodo autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris liberis expressum non habemus but how by what authority such a change was made is not delivered in the Scripture In Thesib p. 733. And John Cuchlinus though he call it consuetudinem Apostolicam an Apostolical custom yet he is peremptory that the Apostles gave no such Commandment Apostolos praeceptum reliquisse constanter negamus So Simler calls it only consuetudinem tempore Apostolorum receptam a custom taken up in the Apostles time And so Hospinian De sestis Chr. p. 24. although saith he it be apparent that the Lords day was celebrated in the place of the Jewish Sabbath even in the times of the Apostles non invenitur tamen vel Apostolos vel alios lege aliqua praecepto observationem ejus instituisse yet find we not that either they or any other did institute the keeping of the same by any law or precept but left it free In 4. praecept Thus Zanchius nullibi legimus Apostolos c. We do not read saith he that the Apostles commanded any to observe this day We only read what they and others did upon it liberum ergo reliquerunt which is an argument that they left it to the Churches power To those add Vrsin in his Exposition of the fourth Commandment liberum Ecclesiae reliquit alios dies eligere In Catech. Palat. and that the Church made choice of this in honour of our Saviours Resurrection Aretius in his Common-places Christiani in Dominicum transtulerunt Gomarus and Ryvet in the Tracts before remembred Both which have also there determined that in the chusing of this day the Church did exercise as well her Wisdom as her Freedom her freedom being not obliged unto any day by the Law of God her wisdom ne majori mutatione Judaeos offenderet that by so small an alteration she might the less offend the Jews who were then considerable As for the Lutheran Divines it is affirmed by Doctor bound that for the most part they ascribe too much unto the liberty of the Church in appointing days for the assembly of the people which is plain confession But for particulars Brentius as Doctor Prideaux tells us calls it civilem institutionem a civil institution and no commandment of the Gospel which is no more indeed than what is elsewhere said by Calvin when he accounts no otherwise thereof than ut remedium retinendo ordini necessarium as a fit way to retain order in the Church And sure I am Chemnitius tells us that the Apostles did not impose the keeping of this day as necessary upon the consciences of Gods people by any Law or Precept whatsoever sed libera fuit observatio ordinis gratia but that for orders sake it had been voluntarily used amongst them of their own accord Thus have we proved that by the Doctrine of the Protestants of what side soever and those of greatest credit in the several Churches eighteen by name and all the Lutherans in general of the same opinion that the Lords day is of no other institution than the authority of the Church Which proved the last of the three Theses that still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other will follow of it self on the former grounds the Protestant Doctors before remembred in saying that the Church did institute the Lords day as we see they do confessing tacitely that still the Church hath power to change it Nor do they tacitely confess it as if they were affraid to speak it out but some of them in plain terms affirm it as a certain Truth Zuinglius the first Reformer of the Switzers hath resolved it so in his Discourse against one Valentine Gentilis a new Arian Heretick Audi mi Valentine quibus modis rationibus sabbatum ceremoniale reddatur Tom. 1. p. 254. ◠Harken now Valentine by what ways and means the Sabbath may be made a ceremony if either we observe that day which the Jews once did or think the Lords day so affixed unto any time ut nefas sit illum in aliud tempus transferre that we conceive it an impiety it should be changed unto another on which as well as upon that we may not rest from labour and harken to the Word of God if perhaps such necessity should be this would indeed make it become a ceremony Nothing can be more plain than this Yet Calvin is as plain when he professeth that he regardeth not so much the Number of seven ut ejus servituti Ecclesias astringeret as to enthral the Church unto it Sure I am Doctor Prideaux reckoneth him as one of them who teach us that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other and that John Barclaie makes report In orat de Sab. how once he had a Consultation de transferenda Dominica in feriam quintam of altering the Lords day unto the Thursday Bucer affirms as much as touching the Authority and so doth Bullinger and Brentius Vrsine and Chemnitius as Doctor Prideaux hath observed Of Bullinger Bucer Brentius I have nought to say because the places are not cited but take it as I think I may upon his credit But for Chemnitius he saith often that it is libera observatio a voluntary observation that it is an especial part of our Christian liberty not to be tied to Days and Times in matters which
concern Gods service and that the Apostles made it manifest by their Example Singulis diebus vel quocunque die That every day or any day Catech. qu. 103. §. 2. may by the Church be set apart for religious Exercises And as for Vrsine he makes this difference between the Lords day and the Sabbath that it was utterly unlawful to the Jews either to neglect or change the Sabbath without express Commandment from God himself as being a ceremonial part of divine Worship but for the Christian Church that may design the first or second or any other day to Gods publick service Ecclesia vero Christiana primum vel alium diem tribuit ministerio salva sua libertate sine opinione cultus vel necessitatis as his words there are To these add Dietericus a Lutheran Divine Dom. 17. post Trinit who though he makes the keeping of one day in seven to be the moral part of the fourth Commandment yet for that day it may be dies Sabbati or dies Solis or quicunque alius Sunday or Saturday or any other be it one in seven And so Hospinian is persuaded Dominicum diem mutare in alium transserre licet That is the occasions of the Church do so require the Lords day may be changed unto any other provided it be one of seven and that the change be so transacted that it produce no scandal or confusion in the Church of God Nay by the doctrine of the Helvetian Churches if I conceive their meaning rightly every particular Church may destinate what day they please to religious meetings and every day may be a Lords day Cap. 2. or a Sabbath For so they give it up in their Confession Deligit ergo quaevis Ecclesiae sibi certum tempus ad preces publicas Evangelii praedicationem necnon sacramentorum celebrationem though for their parts they kept that day which had been set apart for those holy uses even from the time of the Apostles yet so that they conceived it free to keep the Lords day or the Sabbath Sed Dominicum non Sabbatum libera observatione celebramus Some Sectaries since the Reformation have gone further yet and would have had all days alike as unto their use all equally to be regarded and reckoned that the Lords day as the Church continued it was a Jewish Ordinance thwarting the Doctrine of Saint Paul who seemed to them to abrogate that difference of days which the Church retained This was the fancy or the frenzy rather of the Anabaptist taking the hint perhaps from something which had been formerly delivered by some wiser men and after them of the Swinck feildian and the Familist as in the times before of the Petro-Brusians and if Waldensis wrong him not of Wiclef also Such being the Doctrine of those Churches the Protestant and those of Rome it is not to be thought but that their practice is according Both make the Lords day only an Ecclesiastical constitution and therefore keep it so far forth as by the Canons of their Churches they are enjoyned These what they are at Rome and those of her obedience we have seen already and little hath been added since It hath not been of late a time to make new restraints rather to mitigate the old to lay down such which were most burdensom and grievous to be born withal And so it seems they do Azorius the Jesuit being more remiss in stating and determining the restraints imposed on the Lords day and the other Holy days than Tostatus was who lived in safer times by far than these now present nor is their Discipline so severe as their Canon neither So that the Lords day there for ought I could observe when I was amongst them is solemnized much after the same manner as with us in England repairing to the Church both at Mass and Vespers riding abroad to take the Air or otherwise to refresh themselvas and following their honest pleasures at such leisure times as are not destir ate to the publick meetings the people not being barred from travelling about their lawful business as occasion is so they reserve some time for their Devotions in the publick Which is indeed agreeable to the most antient and most laudable custom in the Church of God Now for the protestant Churches the Lutherans do not differ much from that which we have said before of the Church of Rome and therefore there is nothing to be said of them But for the rest which follow Galvin and think themselves the only Orthodox and Reformed Churches we will consider them in three several circumstances first in the exercise of Religious Duties secondly in restraint from labours and thirdly in permission of Recreations And first for the excrcise of religious Duties they use it in the Morning only the Afternoon being left at large for any and for every man to dispose thereof as to him seems fitting So is it in the Churches of high Germany those of the Palatinate and all the others of that mould For I have heard from Gentlemen of good repute that at the first reception of the Lady Elizabeth into that Countrey on Sunday after Dinner the Coaches and the Horses were brought forth and all the Princes Court betook themselves unto their pleasures sures Hunting or Hawking as the season of the year was fit for either Which tend the Princcss thither answer was made it was their custom so to do and that they had no Evening-service but ended all the Duties of the day with the Morningsermon Nor is this custom only and no more but so art 46. There is a Canon for it in some places it must be no otherwise For in the first Council of Dort Anno 1574. it was Decreed Publicae vespertinae preces non sunt introducendae ubi non sunt introduciae ubi sunt tollantur that in such Churches where publick Evening Prayer had not been admitted it should continue as it was and where they were admitted they should be put down So Doctor Smith relates the Canon if so irregular a Decree may deserve that name in his collat doctr Cathol Protest cap. 68. Art 1. And so it stood till the last synod of Dort Anno 1618. what time to raise the reputation of the Palatine Catechisin Sess 14. being not long after to be admitted into their Canon it was concluded that Catechism-lectures should be read each Sunday in the afternoon nor to be laid aside propter auditorum infrequentiam for want of Auditors Now to allure the people thither being before staved off by a former Synod it was provided that their Ministers should read howsoever Coram paucis auditoribus immo vel coram suis famulis tantu Though few were present or none but their domestick servants in hope by little and little to attract the people And secondly it was resolved on to implore the civil Magistrate Vt opera omnia servilia seu quotidiana c. quibus tempus
Kingdom So great is their delight therein and with such eagerness they pursue it when they are at leisure from their business that as it seems they do neglect the Church on the Holy-days that they may have the more time to attend their Dancing Upon which ground it was 〈…〉 and not that Dancing was conceived to be no lawful sport for the Lords day that in the Council of Sens Anno 1524. in that of Paris Anno 1557. in those of Rhemes and Tours Anno 1583. and finally in that of Bourges Anno 1584. dancing on Sundays and the other Holy-days hath been prohibited prohibited indeed but practised by the People notwithstanding all their Canons But this concerns the French and their Churches only our Northern Nations not being so bent upon the sport as to need restraint Only the Polish Churches did conclude in the Synod of Petricow before remembred that Tavern-meetings Drinking-matches Dice Cards and such like pastimes as also Musical Instruments and Dances should on the Lords day be forbidden But then it followeth with this clause Praesertim eo temporis momento quo concio cultus divinus in temple peragitur especially at that instant time when men should be at Church to hear the Sermon and attend Gods worship Which clearly shews that they prohibited dancing and the other pastimes then recited no otherwise than as they were a means to keep men from Church Probably also they might be induced unto it by such French Protestants as came into that Countrey with the Duke of Anjou when he was chosen King of Poland Anno. 1574. which was four years before this Council As for the Churches of the East being now heavily oppressed with Turkish bondage we have not very much to say Yet by that little which we find thereof it seems the Lords day keeps that honour which before it had and that the Saturday continues in the same regard wherein once it was both of them counted days of Feasting and both retained for the Assemblies of the Church First that they are both days of Feasting or at the least exempted from their publick Fasts appears by that which is related by Christopher Angelo a Graecian whom I knew in Oxford De institut Graec. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on the Saturday and Sunday which we call the Lords day they do both eat Oyl and drink Wine even in Lent it self whereas on other days they feed on Pulse and drink only water Then that they both are still retained for the Assemblies of the Church with other Holy-days he tells us in another place where it is said Id. c. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that for the Lords days and the Saturday and the other Festivals they use to go unto the Church on the Eve before and almost at midnight where they continue till the breaking up of the Congregation For the Egyptian Christians or Cophties as we call them now it is related by G. Sandys Travels l. 2. That on the Saturday presently after midnight they repair unto their Churches where they remain well nigh until Sunday at noon during which time they neither sit nor kneel but support themselves on Crutches and that they sing over the most part of Davids Psalms at every meeting with divers parcels of the Old and New Testament He hath informed us also of the Armenians another sort of Eastern Christians that coming into the place of the Assembly on Sunday in the afternoon he found one sitting in the middest of the Congregation in habit not differing from the rest reading on a Bible in the Chaldean tongue that anon after came the Bishop in an Hood or Vest of black with a staff in his hand that first he prayed and then sung certain Psalms assisted by two or three after all of them singing joyntly at interims praying to themselves the Bishop all this while with his hands erected and face towards the Altar That service being ended they all kissed his hand and bestowed their Alms he laying his other hand on their heads and blessing them finally that bidding the succeeding Fasts and Festivals he dismissed the Assembly The Muscovites being near unto the Greeks once within the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople partake much also of their customs They count it an unlawful thing to fast the Saturday Gagvinus de Moscovit which shews that somewhat is remaining of that esteem in which once they had it and for the Holy-days Sundays as well as any other they do not hold themselves so strictly to them but that the Citizens and Artificers immediately after Divine Service betake themselves unto their labour and domestick businesses And this most probably is the custom also of all the Churches of the East as holding a Communion with the Church of Greece though not subordinate thereunto From the which Church of Greece the faith was first derived unto these Muscovites as before was said and with the faith the observation of this day and all the other Holy-days at that time in use As for the Country people as Gagvinus tells us they seldom celebrate or observe any day at all at least not with that care and order as they ought to do saying that it belongs only unto Lords and Gentlemen to keep Holy-days Last of all for the Habassines or Ethiopian Christians though further off in situation they come as near unto the fashions of the ancient Grecians Enquiries c. 23 Of them we are informed by Master Brerewood out of Damiani that they reverence the Sabbath keeping it solemn equally with the Lords day Emend Temp. lib. 7. Scaliger tells us that they call both of them by the name of Sabbaths the one the first the other the later Sabbath or in their own language the one Sanbath Sachristos that is Christs Sabbath the other Sanbath Judi or the Jews Sabbath Bellarmine thinks that they derived this observation of the Saturday or Sabbath from the Constitutions ascribed to Clemens which indeed frequently do press the observation of that day with no less fervour than the Sunday â—e Script Ecclin Clem. Of this we have already spoken And to this Bellarmine was induced the rather because that in the Country they had found authority and were esteemed as Apostolical Audio Ethiopes his Constitutionibus uti ut vere Apostolocis ea de causa in erroâ—ibus versari circa cultum Sabbati diei Dominicae But if this be an errour in them they have many partners and those of ancient standing in the Church of God as before was shewn As for their service on the Sunday they celebrate the Sacrament in the morning early except it be in the time of Lent when fasting all the day they discharge that duty in the Evening and then fall to meat as the same Scaliger hath recorded So having looked over all the residue of the Christian World and found no Sabbath in the same except only nominal and that
as well upon the Saturday as upon the Sunday it is now time we turned our course and set sail for England where we shall find as little of it as in other places until that forty years ago no more some men began to introduce a Sabbath thereunto in hope thereby to countenance and advance their other projects CHAP. VII In what estate the Lords day stood in this Isle of Brittain 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 Brittains 2. Of the estate of the Lords day and the other Holy-days in the Saxon Heptarchy 3. The honours done unto the Sunday and the other Holy-days by the Saxon Monarchs 4. Of the publick actions Civil Ecclesiastical mixt and Military done on the Lords day under the first six Norman Kings 5. New Sabbath Doctrins broached in England in King Johns Reign and the miraculous original of the same 6. The prosecution of the former story and ill success therein of the undertakers 7. Restraint of worldly business on the Lords day and the other Holy-days admitted in those times in Scotland 8. Restraint of certain servile works on Sundays Holy-days and the Wakes concluded in the Council of Oxon under Henry III. 9. Husbandry and Legal process prohibited on the Lords day first in the Reign of Edward III. 10. Selling of Wools on the Lords day and the solemn Feasts forbidden first by the said King Edward as after Fairs and Markets generally by King Henry VI. 11. The Cordwainers of London restrained from selling their Wares on the Lords day and some other Festivals by King Edward IV. and the repealing of that Act by King Henry VIII 12. In what estate the Lords day stood both for the doctrine and the practice in the beginning of the Reign of the said King Henry AND now at last we are for England that we may see what hath been done amongst our selves in this particular and thereby be the better lessoned what we are to do For as before I noted the Canons of particular Churches and Edicts of particular Princes though they sufficiently declare both what their practice and opinion was in the present point yet are no general rule nor prescript to others which lived not in the compass of their Authority Nor can they further bind us as was then observed than as they have been since admitted into our Church or State either by adding them unto the body of our Canon or imitating them in the composition of our Acts and Statutes Only the Decretals of the Popes the body of their Canon Law is to be excepted which being made for the direction and reiglement of the Church in general were by degrees admitted and obeyed in these parts of Christendome and are by Act of Parliament so far still in force as they oppose not the Prerogative Royal or the municipal Laws and Statutes of this Realm of England Now that we may the better see how it hath been adjudged of here and what hath been decreed ordome touching the Lords day and the other Holy-days we will ascend as high as possibly we can even to the Church and Empire of the Brittains Of them indeed we find not much and that delivered in as little it being said of them by Beda Hist l. 1. c. 8. that in the time of Constantine they did dies festos celebrare observe those Holy-days which were then in use which as before we said were Easter Whitsontide the Feasts of Christs Nativity and his Incarnation every year together with the Lords day weekly And yet it may be thought that in those times the Lords day was not here of any great account in that they kept the Feast of Easter after the fashion of the Churches in the Eastern parts decima quarta luna on what day of the week soever which certainly they had not done had the Lords day obtained amongst them that esteem which generally it had found in the Western Churches And howsoever a late writer of Ecclesiastical History endeavour to acquit the Brittains of these first Ages from the erroneous observation of that Feast Brought hist l. 4. c. 13. and make them therein followers of the Church of Rome yet I conceive not that his proofs come home to make good his purpose For where it is his purpose to prove by computation that that erroneous observation came not in amongst the Brittains till 30 years before the entrance of S. Austin and his associates into this Island and for that end hath brought a passage out of Beda touching the continuance of that custom It 's plain that Beda speaks not of the Brittish but the Scottish Christians Permansit autem apud eos the Scottish-Irish Christians as himself confesseth hujusmodi observantia Paschalis tempore non pauco hoc est usque ad annum Domini 717. per annos 150. which was as he computes it somewhat near the point but 30 years before the entrance of that Austin Now for the Scots it is apparent that they received not the faith till the year of Christ 430 not to say any thing of the time wherein they first set footing in this Island which was not very long before and probably might about that time of which Beda speaks receive the custom of keeping Easter from the Brittains who were next neighbours to them and a long time lived mingled with them But for the Brittains it is most certain that they had longer been accustomed to that observation though for the time thereof whether it came in with the first plantation of the Gospel here we will not contend as not pertaining to the business which we have in hand Suffice it that the Brittains anciently were observant of those publick Festivals which had been generally entertained in the Church of God though for the time of celebrating the Feast of Easter they might adhere more unto one Church than unto another As for the Canon of the Council of Nice Anno 198. which is there alledged Baronius rightly hath observed out of Athanasius that notwithstaning both the Canon and the Emperours Edicts thereupon tamen etiam postea Syros Cilices Mesopotamios in eodem errore permansisse the Syrians Cilicians and Mesopotamians continued in their former errours And why not then the Brittains which lay farther off as well as those that dwelt so near the then Regal City Proceed we next unto the Saxons who as they first received the faith from the Church of Rome so did they therewithal receive such institutions as were at that time generally entertained in the Roman Church the celebration of the Lords day and the other Festivals which were allowed of and observed when Gregory the Great attained the Popedom And here to take things as they lie in order we must begin with a narration concerning Westminster which for the prettiness of the story I will here insert Sebert the first Christian King of the East Saxons
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.
Battels and Assaults which we shall sum up briefly in their place and time And first for Coronations which as before I said are mixt kind of actions compound of sacred and of civil William surnamed Rufus was crowned at Canterbury by Archbishop Lanfrancke the 25 of Septemb. being Sunday Anno 1087. So was King Stephen the 21 of Decemb. being Sunday too Anno 1135. On Sunday before Christmas day was Henry the second crowned at London by Archbishop Theobald Anno 1155. and on the Sunday before Septuagesima his Daughter Joane was at Palermo crowned Queen of Sicily Of Richard the first it is recorded that hoysing Sail from Barbeflet in Normandy he arrived safely here upon the Sunday before our Lady day in Harvest whence setting towards London there met him his Archbishops Bishops Earls and Barons cum copiosa militum multitudine with a great multitude of Knightly rank by whose advise and Councel he was crowned on a Sunday in September following Anno 1189. and after crowned a second time on his return from Thraldom and the Holy Land Anno 1194. on a Sunday too The Royal and magnificent form of his first Coronation they who list to see may find it most exactly represented in Rog. de Hoveden And last of all King John was first inaugurated Duke of Normandy by Walter Archbishop of Roane the Sunday after Easter day Anno 1200. and on a Sunday after crowned King of England together with Isabel his Queen by Hubert at that time Archbishop of Canterbury For Synods next Anno 1070. A Council was assembled at Winchester by the appointment of King William the first and the consent of Alexander then Pope of Rome for the degrading of Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury and this upon the Sunday next after Easter And we find mention of a Synod called by Richard Archbishop of Canterbury Anno 1175. the Sunday before holy Thursday ad quod concilium venerunt fere omnes Episcopi Abbates Cantuariensis dioeceseos where were assembled almost all the Bishops and Abbots of the whole Province For Councils of Estate there was a solemn meeting called on Trinity Sunday Anno 1143. in which assembled Maud the Empress and all the Lords which held her party where the Ambassadours from Anjou gave up their account and thereupon it was concluded that the Earl of Gloucester should be sent thither to negotiate his Sisters business So in the year 1185 when some Embassadours from the East had offered to King Henry the second the Kingdom of Hierusalem the King designed the first Sunday in Lent for his day of answer Upon which day there met at London the King the Patriarch of Hierusalem the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons of the Realm of England as also William King of Scotland and his Brother David with the Earls and Barons of the Countrey habito inde cum deliberatione concilio c. and then and there upon mature deliberation it was concluded that though the King accepted not the Title yet he would give his people leave to put themselves into the action and take up the Cross For civil Business of another nature we find it on Record that on the fourth Sunday in Lent next following the same King Henry Knighted his Son John and sent him forthwith into Ireland Knighthood at those times being far more full of ceremony than now it is Which being but a preparation to War and military matters leads us unto such Battels as in these times were fought on Sunday Of which we find it in our Annals that in the year 1142. upon a Sunday being Candlemas day King Stephen was taken prisoner at the battel of Lincoln as also that on Holy-Cross day next after being Sunday too Robert Earl of Gloucester Commander of the adverse force was taken Prisoner at the battel of Winchester So read we that on Sunday the 25th of August Anno 1173. the King of France besieged and forced the Castle of Dole in Brittain belonging to the King of England As also that on Sunday the 26th of Septemb. Anno 1198. King Richard took the Castle of Curceles from the King of France More of the kind might be remembred were not these sufficient to shew how anciently it hath been the use of the Kings of England to create Knights and hold their Councils of estate on the Lords day as now they do Were not the others here remembred sufficient to let us know that our Progenitours did not think so superstitiously of this day as not to come upon the same unto the Crowning of their Kings or the publick Synods of the Church or if need were and their occasions so required it to fight as well on the Lords day as on any other Therefore no Lords day Sabbath hitherto in the Realm of England Not hitherto indeed But in the Age that followed next there were some overtures thereof some strange preparatives to begin one For in the very entrance of the 13th Age Fulco a French Priest and a notable Hypocrite Rog. de Hoteden as our King Richard counted him and the story proves lighted upon a new Sabbatarian fancy which one of his Associates Eustathius Abbat of Flay in Normandy was sent to scatter here in England but finding opposition to his doctrine he went back again the next year after being 1202. he comes better fortified preaching from town to town and from place to place ne quis forum rerum venalium diebus Dominicis exerceret that no man should presume to market on the Lords day Where by the way we may observe that notwithstanding all the Canons and Edicts before remembred in the fifth Chapter of this book and the third Section of this Chapter the English kept their markets on the Lords day as they had done formerly as neither being bound to those which had been made by foreign states or such as being made at home had long before been cut in peeces by the sword of the Norman Conqueror Now for the easier bringing of the people to obey their dictates they had to shew a warrant sent from God himself as they gave it out The title this Mandatum sanctum Dominicae diei quod de coelo venit in Hierusalem c. An holy mandat touching the Lords day which came down from Heaven unto Hierusalem found on S. Simeons Altar in Golgotha where Christ was Crucified for the sins of all the world which lying there three days and as many nights strook with such terrour all that saw it that falling on the ground they besought Gods mercy At last the Patriarch and Akarias the Archbishop of I know not whence ventured to take into their bands that dreadful letter which was written thus Now wipe your eyes and look a while on the Contents which I shall render with as much brevity as the thing requires Ego Dominus qui praecepi vobis ut observaretis diem sanctum Dominicum non custodistis eum c. I am the Lord which hath commanded to keep
holy the Lords day and you have not kept it neither repented of your sins c. I caused Repentance to be preached unto you and you believed not Thent sent I Pagans amongst you c. and because you did not keep the Lords day holy I punished you a while with famine c. Therefore I charge you all that from the ninth hour on the Saturday until Sun rising on the Monday no man presume to do any work but what is good or if he do that he repent him of the same Verily I say and swear unto you by my Seat and Throne and by the Cherubins that keep my seat that if you do not harken to this my Mandat I will no more send to you any other Epistle but I will open the heavens and rain upon you stones and wood and scalding water c. This I avow that you shall die the death for the Lords day and other festivals of my Saints which you have not kept and I will send amongst you Beasts with the heads of Lyons and the hair of Women and the tailes of Camels and they shall eat you and devour you There is a great deal more of this wretched stuff but I am weary of abusing both my pains and patience Only I cannot choose but wish that those who have enlarged their Lords day Sabbath to the same extent would either shew us some such letter or bring us any of the miracles which hereafter follow or otherwise be pleased to lengthen out the Festivals of the Saints in the self same manner as by this goodly Script they are willed to do But to procced the said Eustathius thus furnished and having found but ill success the former year in the Southern parts where he did Angliae Praelatos praedicatione sua molestare disturb the Prelates by his preachings as my Author hath it he went up to York There did he preach his doctrins and absolve such as had offended conditioned that hereafter they did shew more reverence unto the Lords day and the other Holy days doing no servile works upon them nec in diebus Dominicis exercerent forum rerum venalium particularly that on the Lords day they should hold no Markets The people hereunto assented and promised they would neither buy nor sell on the Lords day nisi forte cibum potum praetereuntibus excepting meat and drink to passengers Whereby it seems that notwithstanding all this terrour men were permitted yet to travel on the Lords day as they had occasion This coming to the notice of the King and Council my men were all fetched up such specially qui in diebus Dominicis forum rerum venalium dejecerant which had disturbed the Markets and overthrown the Booths and Merchandize on the Lords day and made to fine unto the King for their misdemeanour Then were they fain to have recourse to pretended miracles A Carpenter making a wooden Pin and a Woman making up her Web both after three on Saturday in the afternoon are suddenly smitten with the Palsey A certain man of Nafferton baking a Cake on Saturday night and keeping part until the morrow no sooner brake it for his breakfast but it gushed out blood A Miller of Wakefield grinding Corn on Saturday after three of the clock instead of Meal found his Bin full of Blood his Mill-wheel standing still of its own accord One or two more there are of the same edition And so I think is that related in the Acts and Monuments out of an old Book entituled de Regibus Angliae which now I am fallen upon these fables shall be joyned with them King Henry the Second saith the story being at Cardiffe in Wales and being to take horse there stood a certain man by him having on him a white Coat and being barefoot who looked upon the King and spake in this wise Good old King John Baptist and Peter straightly charge you that on the Sundays throughout all your Dominions there be no buying or selling nor any other servile business those only except which appertain to the preparation of meat and drink which thing if thou shalt observe whatsoever thing thou takest in hand thou shalt happily finish Adding withal that unless he did these things and amend his life he should hear such news within the twelve-moneth as would make him mourn till his dying day But to conclude what was the issue of all this Hoveden this terrible letter and forged miracles That the Historian tells us with no small regret informing us that notwithstanding all these miracles whereby God did invite the people to observe this day Populus plus timens regiam potestatem quà m divinam the people fearing more the Kings power than Gods returned unto their Marketting as before they did I say that the Historian tells it with no small regret for in that passionate discontent he had said before that inimicus humani generis the Devil envying the proceedings of this holy man so far so possessed the King and the Princes of darkness so he calls the Council that they forthwith proceeded against them who had obeyed him Which makes me think that this Eustathius was a familiar of the Popes sent hither for the introducing of those restraints which had been formerly imposed on most parts of Christendom though here they found no entertainment the Popes had found full well how ill their justlings had succeeded hitherto with the Kings of England of the Norman race and therefore had recourse to their wonted arts by prodigies and miracles to insnare the people and bring them so unto their bent And this I do the rather think because that in the following year Anno 1203. there was a Legate sent from Rome to William King of Scots with several presents and many indulgences Quae quoniam grato accepit animo Hect. Boet. lib. 13. eodem concilio approbante decretum est c. Which he accepting very kindly it pleased him with the approbation of his Parliament at that time assembled to pass a Law that Saturday from twelve at noon should be counted holy and that no man should deal in such worldly businesses as on the Feast-days were forbidden As also that at the sounding of the Bell the People should be busied only about holy actions going to Sermons hearing the Vespers or the Evensong idque usque in diem Lunae facerent and that they should continue thus until Monday morning a penalty being laid on those who should do the contrary So passed it then and in the year 1214 some eleven years after it was enacted in a Parliament at Scone Lex aquarum cap. 16. §. 2. under Alexander the third King of the Scots that none should fish in any waters à die Sabbati post vesperas usque ad diem lunae post ortum solis from Saturday after Evening prayer until Sun-rising on the Munday This after was confirmed in the first Parliament of King James the first and is to this day called the
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
King c. hath ordained and established that no Cordwainer or Cobler within the City of London or within three miles of any part of the said City c. do upon any Sunday in the year or on the Feasts of the Ascension or Nativity of our Lord or on the Feasi of Corpus Christi sell or command to be sold any Shwe Huseans i. e. Bootes or Galoches or upon the Sunday or any other of the said Feasts shall set or put upon the feet or legs of any person any Shwes Huseans or Galoches upon pain of forfeiture and loss of O shillings as often as any person shall do contrary to this Ordinance Where note that this restraint was only for the City of London and the parts about it which shews that it was counted lawful in all places clse And therefore there must be some particular motive why this restraint was laid on those of London only either their insolencies or some notorious neglect of Gods publick service the Gentle craft had otherwise been ungently handled that they of all the Tradesmen in that populous City should be so restrained Note also that in this very Act there is a reservation or indulgence for the Inhabitants of S. Martins le Grand to do as formerly they were accustomed the said Act or Statute not withstanding 14 15 of H. 8. cap. 9. Which very clause did after move King Henry VIII to repeal this Statute that so all others of that trade might be free as they or as the very words of the Statute are That to the Honour of Almighty God all the Kings Subjects might be hereafter at their liberty as well as the Inbabitants of S. Martins le Grand Now where it seemeth by the Proeme of the Statute 17. of this King Edward IV. c. 3. that many in that time did spend their Holy-days in dice Quoits Tennis bowling and the like unlawful Games forbidden as is there affirmed by the Laws of the Realm which said unlawful Games are thereupon prohibited under a certain penalty in the Statute mentioned It is most manisest that the Prohibition was not in reference to the time Sundays or any other Holy-days but only to the Games themselves which were unlawful at all times For publick actions in the times of these two last Princes the greatest were the battels of Towton and Barnet one on Palm-Sunday and the other on Easter-day the greatest Fields that ever were fought in England And in this State things stood till King Henry VIII Now for the doctrine and the practice of these times before King Henry the VIII and the Reformation we cannot take a better view than in John de Burgo Chancellor of the University of Cambridg I pitta Oâ—â—i Pl. 12. 11. D. about the latter end of King Henry the sixth First Doctrinally he determincth as before was said that the Lords day was instituted by the authority of the Church and that it is no otherwise to be observed than by the Canons of the Church we are bound to keep it Then for the name of Sabbath that the Lords day quaelibet dies statuta ad divinam culturam Id. lb. E. and every day appointed for Gods publick service may be so entituled because in them we are to rest from all servile works such as are Arts Mechanick Husbandry Law-days and going to Markets with other things quae ab Ecclesia determinantur I l ply 5.9 cap. 7. H. which are determined by the Church Lastly that on those days insistendum est orationibus c. We must be busied at our prayers the publick service of the Church in Hymns and in spiritual Songs and in hearing Sermons Next practically for such things as were then allowed of he doth sort them thus First generally Non tamen prohibentur his diebus faccre quae pertinent ad providentiam necessariorum c. We are not those days restrained from doing such things as conduce to the providing of necessaries either for our selves or for our Neighbours as in preserving of our persons or of our substance or in avoiding any loss that might happen to us Id. ib. J. Particularly next si jacentibus c. In case our Corn and Hay in the Fields abroad be in danger of a Tempest we may bring it in yea though it be upon the Sabbath Butchers and Victualers if they make ready on the Holy days what they must sell the morrow after either in open Market or in their shops in case they cannot dress it on the day before or being dressed they cannot keep it Id. ib. L. non peccant mortaliter they fall not by so doing into mortal sin vectores mercium c. Carriers of Wares or Men or Victuals unto distant places in case they cannot do it upon other days without inconvenience are to be excused Barbers and Chirurgions Smiths or Farriers if on the Holy days they do the works of their daily labour Id. ib. M. especially propter necessitatem eorum quibus serviunt for the necessities of those who want their help are excusable also but not in case they do it chiefly for desire of gain Id. ib. N. Messengers Posts and Travellers that travel if some special occasion be on the Holy days whether they do it for reward or not non audeo condemnare are not at all to be condemned As neither Millers which do grind either with Water-mils or Wind-mils and so can do their Work without much labour but they may keep the custom of the place in the which they live not being otherwise commanded by their Ordinaries Id. ib. O. secus si traciu jumentorum multuram faciunt but if it be an Horse-mill then the case is altered So buying and selling on those days in some present exigent as the providing necessary Victuals for the day was not held unlawful dum tamen exercentes ea non subtrabunt se divinis officiis in case they did not thereby keep themselves from Gods publick Service Lastly Id. ib. Q. for Recreations for dancing on those days he determins thus that they which dance on any of the Holy days either to stir themselves or others unto carnal lusts commit mortal sin and so they do saith he in case they do it any day But it is otherwise if they dance upon honest causes and no naughty purpose and that the persons be not by Law restrained Choreas ducentes maxime in diebus sestis causa incitanda se vel alios ad peccatum mortale peccant mortaliter similiter si in profestis diebus hoc fiat secus si hoc fiat ex causa honesta intentione non corrupta à persona cui talia non sunt probibita With which determination I conclude this Chapter CHAP. VIII The story of the Lords Day from the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom till this present time 1. The doctrine of the Sabbath and the Lords day delivered by three several Martyrs conformably
to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred 2. The Lords day and the other Holy days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the authority of the Church 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Keign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his declaration about lawful sports on the Lords day 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days have stood in Scotland since the reformation of Religion in that Kingdom 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James 14. An exhortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History THUS are we safely come to these present times the times of Reformation wherein whatever had been taught or done in the former days was publickly brought unto the test and if not well approved of layed aside either as unprofitable or plainly hurtful So dealt the Reformators of the church of England as with other things with that which we have now in hand the Lords day and the other Holy days keeping the days as many of them as were thought convenient for the advancement of true godliness and increase of piety but paring off those superstitious conceits and matters of opinion which had been entertained about them But first before we come to this we will by way of preparation lay down the judgments of some men in the present point men of good quality in their times and such as were content to be made a sacrifice in the common Cause Of these I shall take notice of three particularly according to the several times in the which they lived And first we will begin with Master Frith who suffered in the year 1533. who in his declaration of Baptism thus declares himself Our forefathers saith he Page 96. which were in the beginning of the Church did abrogate the Sabbath to the intent that men might have an ensample of Christian liberty c. Howbeith because it was necessary that a day should be reserved in which the people should come together to hear the Word of God they ordained instead of the Sabbath which was Saturday the next day following which is Sunday And although they might have kept the Saturday with the Jew as a thing indifferent yet they did much better Some three years after him Anno 1536. being the 28. of Henry the eighth suffered Master Tyndall who in his answer to Sir Thomas More hath resolved it thus As for the Sabbath we be Lords over the Sabbath Page 287. and may yet change it into Monday or into any other day as we see need or may make every tenth day Holy day only if we see cause why Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday but to put a difference between us and the Jews neither reed we any Holy day at all if the people might be taught without it Last of all bishop Hooper sometimes Bishop of Gloucester who suffered in Queen Maries Reign doth in a Treatise by him written on the Ten Commandments and printed in the year 1550. go the self-same way age 103. We may not think saith he that God gave any more holiness to the Sabbath than to the other days For if ye consider Friday Pag. 103. Saturday or Sunday inasmuch as they be days and the work of God the one is no more holy than the other but that day is always most holy in the which we most apply and give our selves unto holy works To that end did he sanctifie the Sabbath day not that we should give our selves to illness or such Ethnical pastime as is now used amongst Ethnical people but being free that day from the travels of this World we might consider the works and benefits of God with thanksgiving hear the Word of God honour him and fear him then to learn who and where be the poor of Christ that want our help Thus they and they amongst them have resolved on these four conclusions First that one day is no more holy than another the Sunday than the Saturday or the Friday further than they are set apart for holy Uses Secondly that the Lords day hath no institution from divine authority but was ordained by our fore-fathers in the beginning of the Church that so the people might have a Day to come together and hear Gods Word Thirdly that still the Church hath power to change the day from Sunday unto Monday or what day she will And lastly that one day in seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment for Mr. Tyndal saith expresly that by the Church of God each tenth day only may be kept holy if we see cause why So that the marvel is the greater that any man should now affirm as some men have done that they are willing to lay down both their Lives and Livings in maintenance of those contrary Opinions which in these latter days have been taken up Now that which was affirmed by them in their particulars was not long afterwards made good by the general Body of this Church and State the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all the Commons met in Parliament Anno the fifth and sixth of King Edward the sixth 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 3. where to the honour of Almighty God it was thus enacted For as much as men be not at all times so mindful to Iaud and praise God so ready to resort to hear Gods holy Word and to come to the holy Communion c. as their bounden duty doth require therefore to call men to remembrance of their duty and to help their infirmity it hath been wholsomly provided that there should be some certain times and days appointed wherein the Christians should cease from all kind of labour and apply themselves only and wholly unto the aforesaid holy works properly pertaining to true Keligion c. Which works as they may well be called Gods Service so the time
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
entertained in the Christian Church as also to have mercy on them for the neglect thereof in those Holy days which by the wisdom and authority of the Church had been set apart for Gods publick Service Besides this Prayer was then conceived when there was no suspition that any would make use thereof to introduce a Jewish Sabbath but when men rather were inclined to the contrary errour to take away those certain and appointed times Lords days and other Holy days which by the wisdom of the Church had been retained in the Reformation The Anabaptists were strongly bent that way as before we shewed and if we look into the Articles of our Church See Art 26.37 38 39. we shall then find what special care was taken to suppress their errours in other points which had taken footing as it seems in this Church and Kingdom Therefore the more likely it is that this Cluse was added to crush their furious fancies in this particular of not hallowing certain days and times to Gods publick Service Yet I conceive withal that had those Reverend Prelates foreseen how much their pious purpose would have been abused by wresting it to introduce a Sabbath which they never meant they would have cast their meaning in another mould Proceed we to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth that so much celebrated Princess and in the first place we shall meet with her Injunctions published the first year of her Empire in which the Sunday is not only counted with the other Holy days but labour at some times permitted and which is more enjoyn'd upon it For thus it pleased her to declare her will and pleasure Injunct 20. All the Queens faithful and loving Subjects shall from henceforth celebrate and keep their holy day according to Gods holy will and pleasure that is in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publick Prayers in knowledging their offences unto God and amendment of the same in reconciling of themselves charitably to their Neighbours where displeasure hath been in oftentimes receiving the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ in bistting the Poor and Sick using all soberness and godly conversation This seems to be severe enough but what followeth next Yet notwithstanding all Parsons Vicars and Curats shall teach and declare to their Parishioners that they may with a safe and quiet conscience after their Common Prayer in the time of Harvest labour upon the boly and Festival days and save that thing which God hath sent And if for any scrupulosity or grudg of Conscience men should superstitiously abstain from working on these days that then they should grievously offend and displease God This makes it evident that Qu. Elizabeth in her own particular took not the Lords day for a Sabbath or to be of a different nature from the other Holy days nor was it taken so by the whole Body of our Church and State in the first Parliament of her Reign 1 Eliz. c. 2. what time it was enacted That all and every person and persons inhabiting within this Realm and any other the Queens Dominious shall diligently and faithfully having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent endeavour themselves to resort to their Parish Church or Chappel accustomed or upon reasonable let thereof to some usual place where Common Prayer shall be used in such time of let upon every Sunday and other days ordained and used to be kept as Holy day and then and there to abide orderly and soverly During the time of Common Prayer Preaching or other Service of God upon pain of punishment c. This Law is still in force and still like to be and by this Law the Sundays and the Holy days are alike regarded Nor by the Law only but by the purpose and intent of holy Church who in her publick Liturgy is as full and large for every one of the Holy days as for the Sunday the Letany excepted only For otherwise by the rule and prescript thereof the same Religious Offices are designed for both the same devout attendance required for both and whatsoever else may make both equal And therefore by this Statute and the Common Prayer-Book we are to keep more Sabbaths than the Lords Day Sabbath or else none at all Next look we on the Homilies part of the publick Monuments of the Church of England set forth and authorized Anno 1562. being the fourth of that Queens Reign In that entituled Of the place and time of Prayer we shall find it thus As concerning the Time in which God hath appointed his people to assemble together solemnly it doth appear by the fourth Commandment c. And Albeit this Commandment of God doth noâ— hind Christian people so straitly to observe and keep the utter ceremonies of the Sabbath day as it did the Jews as touching the forbearing of work and labour in the time of great necessity and as thouching the precise keeping of the seventh Day after the manner of the Jews for we keep now the first day which is our Sunday and make that our Sabbath that is our day of rest in honour of our Saviour Christ who as upon that day he rose from death conquering the same most triumphantly Yet notwithstanding whatsoever is found in the Comandment appertaining to the Law of Nature as a thing most godly most just and needful for the setting forth of Gods glory ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian people And therefore by this Commandment we ought to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest yea from our lawful and needful words For like as it appeareth by this Commandment that no man in the six days ought to be slothful and idle but diligently to labour in that state wherein God hath set him even so God hath given express charge to all men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour to the intent that like as God 〈◊〉 wrought six days and rested the seventh and blessed and sanctified it and consecrated it to quietness and rest from labour even so Gods obedient people should use the Sunday Holily and rest from their common and daily business and aisa give themselves wholly to Heavenly exercises of Gods true religion and service â—o that God doth not only command the observation of this holy day but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to the diligent keeping of the same c. Thus it may plainly appear that Gods will and Commandment was to have a solemn time and standing day in the week Wherein the people should come together and have in remembrance his wonderful benefits and to render him thank 's for them an appertaineth to loving kind and obedient people This example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow imâ—ediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ and began to choose them a standing day of
the week to come together in yet not the seventh day which the Jews kept but the Lords day the day of the Lords resurrection the day after the seventh day which is the first day of the week c. Sithence which time Gods 〈◊〉 hath always in all Ages without any gain-saying used to come together â—â— the Sunday to celebrate and honour the Lords blessed Name and carefully to 〈◊〉 that 〈…〉 If it and quietness both Man and Woman Child Servant and Stranger So far the Homily and this is all thereof which is doctrinal The residue consists in reprehension of two sorts of men one of the which if they had any business to do though there were no extream need would not spare the Sunday but med all days alike the holy-days and work-work-days all as one the other so consumed the day in gluttony and drunkenness and such fleshly filthiness that as it is there said the Lord was more dishonoured and the I euil better served on the Sunday than upon all the days in the week besides This saith the Homily and this hath often been alledged as well to prove a Lords day Sabbath to be allowed of by the doctrine of the Church of England as at this present time to justifie the disobedience of those men who have refused to publish the Princes pleasure in point of Recreations But this if well examined will as little help them as Lord have mercy upon us in the Common-Prayer book For first it is here said that there is no more of the fourth Commandment to be retained and kept of good Christian people than whatsoever is found in it appertaining to the law of Nature But we have proved before that there is nothing in the fourth Commandment of the law of Nature but that some time be set apart for Gods publick service the precept so far forth as it enjoyns one day in seven or the seventh day precisely from the worlds creation being avowed for ceremonial by all kind of Writers Secondly it is said not that the Lords day was enjoyned by Divine Authority either by Christ himself or his Apostles but chosen for a standing day to come together in by godly Christian people immediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ If chose by them then not enjoyned by the Apostles if not till after the Ascension of our Saviour Christ then not at all by him commanded Thirdly whereas they chose themselves a standing day in the week to come together in they did not this by any obligation laid upon them by the fourth Commandment but only by a voluntary following of Gods example and the Analogy or equity of Gods Commandment which was they do not say which is that he would have amongst the Jews a solemn time and standing day in the week wherein the people 〈◊〉 have in remembrance his wonderful benefits and render thanks to him for the same For it is said that this example and Commandment of God the gody Christian people began to follow after Christs Ascension So that it seems they might have chosen whether they would have followed them or not Fourthly when they had chosen this day which we now observe for their publick meetings they did not think themselves obliged by the fourth Commandment to forbear work and labour in time of great necessity or to the precise keeping of the same after the manner of the Jews both which they must have done had they conceived the keeping of one day in seven to be the moral part of the fourth Commandment and to oblige us now no less than it did them formerly as some men have taught us Now whereas some have drawn from hence these two conclusions First that according to this Homily we ought to keep one day in seven by the fourth Commandment and secondly that we must spend it wholly in religious exercises I would fain know how those conclusions can be raised from the former premises It 's true the Homily hath told us that by the fourth Commandment we ought to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest from our needful works Where note that there it is not said that by the fourth Commandment we ought to have one day in the week which is plain and peremptory but that we ought to have a time as one day in the week which was plainly arbitrary A time we ought to have by the fourth Commandment as being that part of it which pertains to the law of Nature But for the next words as one day in the week they are not there laid down as imposed on us by the Law but only instanced in as setled at that time in the Church of God So where it is affirmed in another place that Gods will and commandment was to have a solemn time and standing day in the week we grant indeed that so it was and that the Godly Christian people in the Primitive times were easily induced to give God no less than what he formerly commanded But had the meaning of the Homily been this that we were bound to have a standing day in the week by the fourth Commandment they would have plainly said it is Gods will and pleasure that it should be so and not have told us what it was in the times before It 's true the Homily hath told us that we should rest our selves on Sunday from our common business and also give our selves wholly to Heavenly exercises of Gods true religion and service Where note it is not said that we should spend the day wholly in Heavenly exercises for then there were no time allowed us to eat and drink which are meer natural employments But that we give our selves wholly that is our whole selves body and soul to that performance of those heavenly exercises which are required of us in the way of true religion and Gods publick service It is accounted as we have formerly made plain to be the ceremonial part of the fourth Commandment In Exod. 20. qu. 11. quod fiat semel in qualibet hebdomada quod fiat in una die tota ista observatio quod per totam diem abstineatur ab operibus servilibus First the determining of the day to be one in seven next that this one day wholly be so employed and last of all that all that day there be an absolute cessation from all servile works Therefore the spending wholly of one day in seven being ceremonial comes not within the compass of the Homily which would have no more of the fourth Commandment to be kept amongst us than what is appertaining to the law of Nature Now it pertains unto the law of Nature that for the times appointed to Gods publick worship Id. ib. we wholly sequester our selves from all worldly businesses natural est quod dum Deum colimus ab aliis abstineamus as Tostatus hath it and then the meaning of the Homily will be briefly this that for those times which are
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
the first time that ever these Sabbath Doctrines peeped into the light For Dr. Bound the first sworn servant of the Sabbath hath in his first edition thus declared himself Page 31. that he sees not where the Lord hath given any authority to his Church ordinarily and perpetually to sanctifie any day except that which he hath sanctified himself and makes it an especial argument against the goodness of the Religion in the Church of Rome that to the seventh day they have joined so many other days Page 32. and made them equal with the seventh if not superiour thereunto as well in the solemnity of divine Offices as restraint from labour So that we may perceive by this that their intent from the beginning was to cry down the holy days as superstitious Popish Ordinances that so their new found Sabbath being placed alone and Sabbath now it must be called might become more eminent Nor were the other though more private effects thereof of less dangerous nature the people being so insnared with these new devices and pressed with rigours more than Jewish that certainly they are in as bad condition as were the Israelites of old when they were captivated and kept under by the Scribes and Pharisees Some I have known for in this point I will say nothing without good assurance who in a furious kind of zeal like the mad Prophetess in the Poet have run into the open streets yea and searched private Houses too to look for such as spent those hours on the Lords day in lawful pastimes which were not destinate by the Church to Gods publick service and having found them out scattered the company brake the Instruments and if my memory fail me not the Musitians head and which is more they thought that they were bound in conscience so to do Others that will not suffer either baked or roast to be made ready for their Dinners on their Sabbath day lest by so doing they should eat and drink their own damnation according to the doctrine preached unto them Some that upon the Sabbath will not sell a pint of Wine or the like Commodity though Wine was made by God not only for mans often infirmities but to make glad his heart and refresh his spirits and therefore no less requisite on the Lords day than on any other Others which have refused to carry provender to an Horse on the supposed Sabbath day though our Redeemer thought it no impiety on the true Sabbath day indeed to lead poor Cattel to the Water which was the motive and occasion of M. Brerewoods learned Treatise So for the female sex Maid-servants I have met with some two or three who though they were content to dress their meat upon the Sabbath yet by no means would be persuaded either to wash their Dishes or make clean their Kitchen But that which most of all affects me is that a Gentlewoman at whose House I lay in Leicester the last Northern Progress Anno 1634. expressed a great desire to see the King and Queen who were then both there And when I proferd her my service to satisfie that loyal longing she thanked me but refused the favour because it was the Sabbath day Unto so strange a bondage are the people brought that as before I said a greater never was imposed on the Jews themselves what time the consciences of that people were pinned most closely on the sleeves of the Scribes and Pharisees But to go forwards in my story it came to pass for all the care before remembred that having such a plausible and fair pretence as sanctifying a day unto the Lord and keeping a Commandment that had long been silenced it got strong footing in the Kingdom as before is said the rather because many things which were indeed strong avocations from Gods publick Service were as then permitted Therefore it pleased King James in the first entrance of his Reign so far to condescend unto them as to take off such things which seemed most offensive To which intent he signitied his loyal pleasure by Proclamation dated at Theobald May 7. 1603. that Whereas he had been informed that there had been in tormer times a greet neglect in keeping the Sabbath day for better obserbing of the same and for abeiding of all impious prophanarion of it be straitly charged and commanded that no Bear-baiting Bull baiting Enterludes common Plays or other like disordered or unlawful exercises or pastimes be frequented kept or used at any time hereafter upon any Sabbath day Not that his purpose was to debar himself of lawful pleasures on that day but to prohibit such disordered and unlawful pastimes whereby the common people were withdrawn from the Congregation they being only to be reckoned for Common Plays which at the instant of their Acting or representing are studied only for the entertainment of the common people on the publick Theaters Yet did not this though much content them And therefore in the Conference at Hampton Court it seemed good to D. Reynolds who had been made a party in the cause to touch upon the prophanation of the Sabbath for so he called it and contempt of his Majesties Proclamation made for the reforming of that abuse of which be earnestly desired a straiter course for reformation thereof to which he found a gentral and unanimous assent Nor was there an assent only and nothing done For presently in the following Convocation it pleased the Prelates there assembled to revive so much of the Queens Injunction before remembred as to them seemed fitting and to incorporate it into the Commons then agreed of only a little alteration to make it more agreeable to the present times being used therein That then they ordered in the Canon for due celebrution of Sundays and holp days Can. 13. viz. All manner of persons within the Church of England shall from beneeforth celebrote and heep the Lords day commonly called Sunday and other Holy days according to Gods holy will and pleasure and the Diders of the Church of England prescribed in that behalf i.e. in hearing the Word of God read and taught in pribate and publich Prapert in acknowledging their offences to God and amendment of the same in reconciling themselves charitably to their Neighbours where displeasure had been in offentimes receibing the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ using all godly and scber conversation The residue of the said Injunction touching work in Harvest it seemed fit unto them not to touch upon leaving the same to stand or fall by the statute of King Edward the sixth before remembred A Canon of an excellent composition For by enjoyning godly and sober conversation and diligent repair to Church to hear the Word of God and receive the Sacrament they stopped the course of that prophaneness which formerly had been complained of and by their ranking of the holy days in equal place and height with Sunday and limiting the celebration of the same unto the Orders in that case
prescribed by the Church of England shewed plainly their dislike of those Sabbath Doctrines which had been lately set on foot to the dithonour of the Church and diminution of her authority in destinating other days to the service of God than their new Saint-Sabbath Yet did not this the Churches care either so satisfie their desires or restrain the follies of those men who had embraced the New Sabbath Doctrines but that they still went forwards to advance that business which was now made a part of the common cause no book being published by that party either by way of Catechism or Comment on the Ten Commandments or moral Piety or systematical Divinity of all which these last times have produced too many wherein the Sabbath was not pressed upon the consciences of Gods people with as much violence as formerly with authority upon the Jews And hereunto they were encouraged a great deal the rather because in Ireland what time his Majesties Commissioners were employed about the setling of that Church Anno 1615. there passed an Article which much confirmed them in their Courses and hath been often since alledged to justifie both them and their proceedings Art 56. The Article is this The first day of the week which is the Lords day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business and to bestow that leisure upon holy Exercises both private and publick What moved his Majesties Commissioners to this strict austcrity that I cannot say but sure I am that till that time the Lords day never had attained such credit as to be thought an Article of the Faith though of some mens fancies Nor was it like to be of long continuance it was so violently followed the whole Book being now called in and in the place thereof the Articles of the Church of England confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdom Anno 1634. Nor was this all the fruit neither of such dangerous Doctrines that the Lords day was grown into the reputation of the Jewish Sabbath but some that built on their foundations and ploughed with no other than their Heifers endeavoured to bring back again the Jewish Sabbath as that which is expresly mentioned in the fourth Commandment and abrogate the Lords day for altogether as having no foundation in it nor warrant by it Of these one Thraske declared himself for such in King James his time and therewithal took up another Jewish Doctrine about Meats and Drinks as in the time of our dread Soveraign now being Theophilus Braborne grounding himself on the so much applauded Doctrine of the morality of the Sabbath maintained that the Jewish Sabbath ought to be observed and wrote a large Book in defence thereof which came into the World 1632. For which their Jewish doctrines the first received his censure in the Star-Chamber and what became of him I know not the other had his doom in the High-Commission and hath since altered his opinion being misguided only by the principles of some noted men to which he thought he might have trusted Of these I have here spoken together because the ground of their opinions so far as it concerned the Sabbath were the very same they only make the conclusions which of necessity must follow from the former premisses just as the Brownists did befoe when they abominated on the Communion of the Church of England on the Puritan principles But to proceed This of it self had been sufficient to bring all to ruin but this was not all Not only Judaism did begin but Popery took great occasion of increase by the preciseness of some Magistrates and Ministers in several places of this Kingdom in bindring people from their Recreations on the Sunday the Papists in this Realm being thereby persuaded that no honest Mirth or Recreation was tolerable in our Religion Which being noted by King James in his progress through Lancashire King James's Declarat it pleased his Majesty to set out his Declaration May 24. Anno 1618. the Court being then at Greenwich to this effect that for his good peoples lawful Recreations his pleasure was that after the end of Divine Service they should not be disturbed letted or discouraged from any lawful Recreations such as Dancing either Men or Women Archery for Men Leaping Vaulting or any other such harmless Recreations nor from having of May-games Whitsun-Ales or Morrice-dances and setting up of May-poles or other sports therewith used so as the same be had in due and cenvenient time without impediment or let of Divine Service and that Women should have leave to carry Rushes to the Church for the decoring of it atcording to their old custom withal prohibiting all unlawful Games to be used on the Sundays only as Bear-baiting Bull-baiting Enterludes and at all times in the meaner sort of people by Law prohibited Bowling A Declaration which occasioned much noise and clamour and many scandals spread abroad as if these Counsels had been put into that Princes head by some great Prelates which were then of most power about him But in that point they might have satisfied themselves that this was no Court-doctrine no New-divinity which that learned Prince had been taught in England He had declared himself before when he was King of the Scots only to the self-same purpose as may appear in his Basilicon Doron published Anno 1598. This was the first Blow in effect which had been given in all his time to the new Lords day Sabbath then so much applauded For howsoever as I said those who had entertained these Sabbatarian Principles spared neither care nor pains to advance the business by being instant in season and out of season by publick Writings private Preachings and clandestine insinuations or whatsoever other means might tend to the promotion of this Catholick Cause yet find we none that did oppose it in a publick way though there were many that disliked it only one Mr. Loe of the Church of Exeter declared himself in his Effigiatio veri Sabbatismi Anno 1606. to be of different judgment from them and did lay down indeed the truest and most justifiable Doctrine of the Sabbath of any Writer in that time But being written in the Latin Tongue it came not to the peoples hands many of those which understood it never meaning to let the people know the Contents thereof And whereas in the year 1603 at the Commencement held in Cambridg this Thesis or Proposition Dies Dominicus nititur Verbo Dei was publickly maintained by a Doctor there and by the then Vice-Chancellour so determined neither the following Doctors there or any in the other University that I can hear of did ever put up any Antithesis in opposition thereunto At last some four years after his Majesties Declaration before remembred Anno 1622. Doctor Prideaux his Majesties Professour for the University of Oxon did in the publick Act declare his judgment in this point de Sabbato
which afterwards in the year 1625. he published to the World with his other Lectures Now in this Speech or Determination he did thus resolve it First that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first Creation of the World nor ever kept by any of the ancient Patriarchs who lived before the Law of Moses therefore no moral and perpetual Precept as the others are Sect. 2. Secondly That the sanctifying of one day in seven is ceremonial only and obliged the Jews not Moral to oblige us Christians to the like Observance Sect. 3. 4. Thirdly That the Lords day is founded only on the Authority of the Church guided therein by the practice of the Apostles not on the fourth Commandment which in the 7. Section he entituleth a seandalous Doctrine nor any other authority in holy Scripture Sect. 6. 7. Fourthly That the Church hath still authority to change the day though such authority be not fit to be put in practice Sect. 7. Fifthly That in the celebration of it there is no such cessation from the works of labour required of us as was exacted of the Jews but that we lawfully may dress Meat proportionable unto every mans estate and do such other things as be no hinderance to the publick Service appointed for the day Sect. 8. Sixthly That on the Lords day all Recreations whatsoever are to be allowed which honestly may refresh the spirits and encrease mutual love and Neighbourhood amongst us and that the Names whereby the Jews did use to call their Festival whereof the Sabbath was the chief were borrowed from an Hebrew word which signifies to Dance and to make merry or rejoyce And lastly that it appertains to the Christian Magistrate to order and appoint what Pastimes on the Lords day are to be permitted and what prohibited not unto every private person much less to every mans rash Zeal as his own words are who out of a schismatical Stoicism debarring men from lawful Pastimes doth incline to Judaisin Sect. 8. This was the sum and substance of his resolution then which as it gave content unto the sounder and the better part of the Assembly so it did infinitely stomack and displease the greater numbers such as were formerly possessed with the other Doctrines though they were wiser than to make it a publick Quarrel Only it pleased Mr. Bifeild of Surrey in his Reply in a Discourse of Mr. Brerewoods of Cresham Colledg Anno 1631. to tax the Doctor as a spreader of wicked Doctrine and much to marvel with himself how either he durst be so hold to say Page 161. or having said it could be suffered to put it forth viz. That to establish the Lords day on the fourth Commandment were to incline too much to Judaism This the said M. Bifeild thinks to be a foul aspertion on this famous Church But in so thinking I conceive that he consulted more his own opinion and his private interest than any publick maintenance of the Churches cause which was not injured by the Doctor but defended rather But to proceed or rather to go back a little About a year before the Doctor thus declared his judgment one Tho. Broad of Gloucestorshire had published something in this kind wherein to speak my mind thereof he rather shewed that he disliked those Sabbath Doctrines than durst disprove them And before either M. Brerewood whom before I named had writ a learned Treatise about the Sabbath on a particular occasion therein mentioned but published it was not till after both Anno 1629. Add here to joyn them altogether that in the Schools at Oxon Anno 1628. it was maintained by Dr. Robinson now Archdeacon of Gloucester viz. Ludos Recreationis gratia in die Dominico non esse prohibitos Divina Lege That Recreations on the Lords day were not at all prohibited by the Word of God As for our neighbour Church of Scotland as they proceeded not at first with that mature deliberation in the reforming of that Church which had been here observed with us so did they run upon a course of Reformation which after was thought fitting to be reformed The Queen was young and absent in the Court of France the Regent was a desolate Widow a Stranger to the Nation and not well obeyed So that the people there possessed by Cnoxe and other of their Teachers took the cause in hand and went that way which came most near unto Geneva where this Cnoxe had lived Among the first things wherewithal they were offended were the Holy days Proceedings at Perth These in their Book of Discipline Anno 1560. they condemned at once particularly the observation of Holy days entituled by the names of Saints the Feasts of Christmas Circumcision Epiphany the Purification and others of the Virgin Mary all which they ranked awongst the abominations of the Roman Religion as having neither Commandment nor assurance in the Word of God But having brought this Book to be subsigned by the Lords of secret Counsel it was first rejected some of them giving it the Title of Devote Imaginations Cnoxe Hist of Scotl. p. 523. whereof Cnoxe complains Yet notwithstanding on they went and at last prevailed for in the middle of the Tumults the Queen Regent died and did not only put down all the Holy days the Lords day excepted but when an uprore had been made in Edenburg about a Robin-hood or a whitson-Whitson-Lord they of the Consistory excommunicated the whole multitud Now Proceedings at Perth that the holy days were put down may appear by this That in the year 1566. when the Confession of the Helvetian Churches was proposed unto them they generally approved the same save that they liked not of those Holy days which were there retained But whatsoever they intended and howsoever they had utterly suppressed those days which were entituled by the Names of particular Saints yet they could never so prevail but that the people would retain some memory of the two great and principal Feasts of Christs Nativity and Resurrection For in the year 1575. Complaint was made unto the Regent how in Dunfreis they had conveyed the Reader to the Church with Taber and Whissel to read Prayers all the Holy days of Zule or Christmas Thereupon Anno 1577. it was ordained in an Assembly of the Church That the Visitors should admonish Ministers preaching or ministring the Communion at Pasche or Zule or other like superstitious times under pain of deprivation to desist therefrom Anno 1587. it was complained of to his Majesty That Pasche and Zule were superstitiously observed in Fife and about Dunfreis and in the year 1592. the Act of the Queen Regent granting licence to keep the said two Feasts was by them repealed Yet find we by the Bishop of Brechin in his Discourse of the Proceedings at the Synod of Perth that notwithstanding all the Acts Civil and Ecclesiastick made against the superstitious observation and prophane abuse of Zule day the people could never be induced to labour on
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
part of the fourth Commandment Page 359 3. The Annual Sabbaths no less solemnly observed and celebrated than the weekly were if not more solemnly Page 360 4. Of the Parasceue or Preparation to the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals Page 361 5. All manner of work as well forbidden on the Annual as the weekly Sabbaths Page 362 6. What things were lawful to be done on the Sabbath days Page 363 7. Touching the prohibitions of not kindling fire and not dressing meat Page 364 8. What moved the Gentiles generally to charge the Jews with Fasting on the Sabbath day Page 365 9. Touching this Prohibition Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day Page 366 10 All lawful recreations as Dancing Feasting Man-like Exercises allowed and practised by the Jews upon their Sabbaths ibid. CHAP. VI. Touching the observation of the Sabbath unto the time the People were established in the Promised Land 1. The Sabbath not kept constantly during the time the People wandred in the Wilderness Page 368 2. Of him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day ibid. 3. Wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist in the time of Moses Page 369 4. The Law not ordered to be read in the Congregation every Sabbath day Page 370 5. The sack of Hiericho and the destruction of that People was upon the Sabbath Page 371 6. No Sabbath after this without Circumcision and how that Ceremony could consist with the Sabbaths rest Page 372 7. What moved the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath Page 373 8. The standing still of the Sun at the prayers of Josuah c. could not but make some alteration about the Sabbath ibid. 9. What was the Priests work on the Sabbath day and whether it might stand with the Sabbaths rest Page 374 10. The scattering of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation unto the reading of the Law on the Sabbath-days Page 375 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 Page 376 2. That Davids flight from Saul was upon the Sabbath Page 377 3. What David did being King of Israel in ordering things about the Sabbath ibid. 4. Elijahs flight upon the Sabbath and what else hapned on the Sabbath in Elijah's time Page 378 5. The limitation of a Sabbath days journey not known amongst the Jews when Elisha lived Page 379 6. The Lord becomes offended with the Jewish Sabbaths and on what occasion ibid. 7. The Sabbath entertained by the Samaritans and their strange niceties therein Page 380 8. Whether the Sabbaths were observed during the Captivity ibid. 9. The special care of Nehemiah to reform the Sabbath Page 381 10. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days begun by Ezra Page 382 11. No Synagogues nor weekly reading of the Law during the Government of the Kings Page 383 11. The Scribes and Doctors of the Law impose new rigours on the People about their Sabbaths Page 384 CHAP. VIII What doth occur about the Sabbath from the Maccabees to the destruction of the Temple 1. The Jews refuse to fight in their own defence upon the Sabbath and what was ordered thereupon Page 385 2. The Pharisees about these times had made the Sabbath burdensome by their Traditions Page 386 3. Hierusalem twice taken by the Romans on the Sabbath day Page 387 4. The Romans many of them Judaize and take up the Sabbath as other Nations did by the Jews example Page 388 5. Augustus Caesar very gracious to the Jews in matters that concerned their Sabbath Page 390 6. What our Redeemer taught and did to rectifie the abuses of and in the Sabbath ibid. 7. The final ruin of the Temple and the Jewish Ceremonies on a Sabbath day Page 391 8. The Sabbath abrogated with the other Ceremonies Page 392 9. Wherein consists the Christian Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures and amongst the Fathers Page 393 10. The idle and ridiculous niceties of the modern Jews in their Perasceves and their Sabbaths conclude the first Part. Page 394 BOOK II. CHAP. I. That there is nothing found in Scripture touching the keeping of the Lords day 1. The Sabbath not intended for a perpetual ordinance Page 400 1. Preparatives unto the dissolution of the Sabbath by our Saviou Christ Page 401 3. The Lords day not enjoyned in the place thereof either by Christ or the Apostles but instituted by the authority of the Church Page 402 4. Our Saviours Resurrection on the first day of the week and apparitions on the same make it not a Sabbath Page 404 5. The coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the first day of the week makes it not a Sabbath Page 405 6. The first day of the week not made a Sabbath more than others by S. Peter S. Paul or any other of the Apostles ibid. 7. S. Paul frequents the Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath and upon what reasons Page 406 8. What was concluded against the Sabbath in the Council holden at Hierusalem Page 407 9. The preaching of S. Paul at Troas upon the first day of the week no argument that then that day was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises Page 408 10. Collections on the first day of the week 1 Cor. 16. conclude as little for that purpose Page 409 11. Those places of S. Paul Gal. 4.10 Coloss 2.16 do prove invincibly that there is no Sabbath to be looked for Page 410 12. The first day of the week not called the Lords day until the end of this first age and what that title adds unto it Page 411 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 Page 413 2. The Lords day and the Saturday both Festivals and both alike observed in the East in Ignatius time Page 414 3. The Saturday not without great difficulty made a Fasting day Page 415 4. The Controversie about keeping Easter and how much it conduceth to the present business Page 416 5. The Feast of Easter not affixed to the Lords day without much opposition of the Eastern Churches ibid. 6. What Justin Martyr and Dionysius of Corinth have left us of the Lords day Clemens of Alexandria his dislike thereof Page 417 7. Vpon what grounds the Christians of the former times used to pray standing on the Lords day and the time of Pentecost Page 418 8. What is recorded by Tertullian of the Lords day and the Assemblies of the Church Page 419 9. Origen as his Master Clemens had done before dislikes set days for the Assembly Page 420 10. S. Cyprian what he tells us of the Lords day and of the reading of the Scriptures in S. Cyprians time ibid. 11. Of other holy days established in these three first Ages and that they were observed as solemnly as the Lords day was Page 421 12. The
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-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
Page 477 6. The prosecution of the former story and ill success therein of the undertakers ibid. 7. Restraint of worldly business on the Lords day and the other Holy-days admitted in those times in Scotland Page 478 8. Restraint of certain servile works on Sundays Holy-days and the Wakes concluded in the Council of Oxon under Henry III. ibid. 9. Husbandry and Legal process prohibited on the Lords day first in the Reign of Edward III. Page 479 10. Selling of Wools on the Lords day and the solemn Feasts forbidden first by the said King Edward as after Fairs and Markets generally by King Henry VI. Page 480 11. The Cordwainers of London restrained from selling their Wares on the Lords day and some other Festivals by King Edward IV. and the repealing of that Act by King Henry VIII Page 481 12. In what estate the Lords day stood both for the doctrine and the practice in the beginning of the Reign of the said King Henry ibid. CHAP. VIII The story of the Lords day from the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom till this present time 1. The doctrine of the Sabbath and the Lords day delivered by three several Martyrs conformably to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred Page 483 2. The Lords day and the other Holy-days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the Authority of the Church Page 484 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer-book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment Page 485 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Reign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day Page 486 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath ibid. 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath Page 487 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented Page 489 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof Page 490 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland Page 491 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his Declaration about Lawful sports on the Lords day Page 493 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred ibid. 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy-days have stood in Scotland since the Reformation of Religion in that Kingdom Page 494 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James Page 496 14. An exortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History Page 497 Historia Quinqu-Articularis Or a Declaration of the Judgment of the Western Churches and more particularly of the Church of England in the five Controverted Points c. CHAP. I. The several Heresies of those who make God to be the Author of Sin or attribute too much to the Natural freedom of Man's Will in the Works of Piety 1. God affirmed by Florinus to be the Author of sin the Blasphemy encountred by Irenaeus and the foul Consequents thereof Page 505 2. Revived in the last Ages by the Libertines said by the Papists to proceed from the Schools of Calvin and by the Calvinists to proceed from the Schools of Rome Page 506 3. Disguised by the Maniches in another dress and the necessity thereby imposed on the Wills of men ibid. 4. The like by Bardesanes and the Priscilianists the dangerous consequents thereof exemplified out of Homer and the words of St. Augustine Page 507 5. The Error of the Maniches touching the servitude of the Will revived by Luther and continued by the rigid Lutherans ibid. 6. As those of Bardesanes and Priscilian by that of Calvin touching the Absolute Decree the dangers which lie hidden under the Decree and the incompatibleness thereof with Christs coming to Judgment ibid. 7. The large expressions of the Ancient Fathers touching the freedom of the Will abused by Pelagius and his followers Page 508 8. The Heresie of Pelagius in what it did consist especially as to this particular and the dangers of it ibid. 9. The Pelagian Heresie condemned and recalled the temper of S. Augustine touching the freedom of the Will in spiritual matters ibid. 10. Pelagianism falsly charged on the Moderate Lutherans How far all parties do agree about the freedom of the Will and in what they differ Page 509 CHAP. II. Of the Debates amongst the Divines in the Council of Trent touching Predestination and Original Sin 1. The Articles drawn from the Writings of the Zuinglians touching Predestination and Reprobation Page 510 2. The Doctrine of Predestination according to the Dominican way ibid. 3. As also the old Franciscans with Reasons for their own and against the other Page 511 4. The Historians judgment interposed between the Parties ibid. 5. The middle way of Catarinus to compose the differences ibid. 6. The newness of St. Augustines Opinion and the dislike thereof by the most Learned men in the Ages following Page 512 7. The perplexities amongst the Theologues touching the absoluteness of the Decrees ibid. 8. The judgment of the said Divines touching the possibility of falling from Grace ibid. 9. The Debates about the nature and transmitting of Original Sin ibid. 10. The Doctrine of the Council in it Page 513 CHAP. III. The like Debates about Free-will with the Conclusions of the Council in the five Controverted Points 1. The Articles against the Freedom of the Will extracted out of Luther's Writings Page 314 2. The exclamation of the Divines against Luther's Doctrine in the Point and the absurdities thereof ibid. 3. The several judgments of Marinarus Catarinus and Andreas Vega ibid. 4. The different judgment of the Dominicans and Franciscans whether it lay in mans power to believe or not to believe and whether the freedom of the Will were lost in Adam ibid. 5. As also of the Point of the co-operation of mans Will with the Grace of God Page 515 6. The opinion of Frier Catanca in the point of irresistibility ibid. 7. Faintly maintained by Soto a Dominican Fryer and more cordially approved by others but in time rejected ibid. 8. The great care taken by the Legates in having the Articles so framed as to please all parties Page 516 9. The Doctrine of the Council in the five Controverted Points ibid. 10. A Transition from the Council of Trent to the Protestant and Reformed Churches Page 517 CHAP. IV. The judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Council of Dort 1. No difference in Five Points betwixt the
be placed according to ancient custom at the East end of the Chancel and railed about decently to prevent base and profane usages and where the Chancel wanted any thing of repairs or the Church it self both to be amended Having thus shewed his care first for the House of God to set it in good order the next work followed was to make his own dwelling House a fit and convenient Habitation that to the old Building he added a new one which was far more graceful and made thereto a Chappel next to the Dining-room that was beautified and adorned with silk Hangings about the Altar in which Chappel himself or his Curate read Morning and Evening Prayer to the Family calling in his Labourers and Workfolks for he was seldom without them while he liv'd saying that he loved the noise of a Work-mans hammer for he thought it a deed of Charity as well as to please his own fancy by often building repairing to set poor People a work and encourage painful Artificers and Tradesmen in their honest Callings Yet after his death his Eldest Son was sued for Dilapidations in the Court of Arches by Dr. Beamont his Fathers Successor but the ingenious Gentleman pleaded his cause so notably before Sir Giles Swet then Judge of the Court that he was discharged there being no reason or justice he should be troubled for Dilapidations occasioned by the long War when his Father was unjustly turn'd out of his House and Living In July 1630. he took his Degree of Batchelor in Divinity His Latin Sermon was upon these words Mal. 4.19 Facim vos fieri piscatores hominum Upon the Sunday following being the time of the Act he Preach'd in the Afternoon on Matth. 13.25 In Feb. 13. A. D. 1633. He took his Degree of Dr. in Divinity an honour not usually in those days conferr'd upon men of such green years but our young Doctor verified those excellent words of the Son of Syrach That honourable Age is not that which standeth in length of time nor that is measured by number of years but Wisdom is the grey unto men and an unspotted life is an old Age Wisd 4.8 9. He entertain'd some hopes that Dr. Prideaux his animosities in so long a Tract of time as from 1627. to 1633. might have cooled In his first Disputation he had insisted on the Churches Visibility and now he resolved to assert and establish its Authority and to that purpose made choice to answer for his Degree upon these three questions viz. An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem In determinandis fidei controversus An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem Interpretandi S. scripturas An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem Decernendi Ritus Caeremonias All which he held in the Affirmative according to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the 20th Article But Dr. Prideaux was as little pleased with these questions and the Respondents stating of them as he was with the former And therefore to create unto the Respondent a greater odium he openly declared that the Respondent had falsified the publick Doctrine of the Church and changed the Article with that sentence viz. Habet Ecclesia ritus sive caeremonias c. which was not to be found in the whole body of it and for the proof thereof he read the Article out of a Book which lay before him beginning thus Non licet Ecclesiae quicquam instituere quod verbo Dei scripto adversetur c. To which the Respondent readily answered That he perceived by the bigness of the Book which lay on the Doctors Cushion that he had read that Article out of the harmony of Confessions published at Geneva A. D. 1612. which therein followed the Edition of the Articles in the time of King Edward VI. A.D. 1552. in which that sentence was not found but that it was otherwise in the Articles agreed on in the Convocation A. D. 1562. The Respondent caused the Book of Articles to be sent for out of the Book-sellers shop which being observed by the Doctor he declared himself very willing to decline any further prosecution of that particular But Dr. Heylyn was resolved to proceed on no further Vsquedum liberaverit animam suam ab ista calumnia as his own words were At the coming in of the Book the Respondent read the Article in the English Tongue viz. The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith c. Which done he delivered the Book to one of the Standers by who desired it of him the Book passing from one hand to another till all men were satisfied The Regius Professor had no other subterfuge but this He went to prove that not the Convocation but the High Court of Parliament had power of ordering matters in the Church in making Canons ordaining Ceremonies and determining Controversies in Religion And he could find no other medium to make it good but the Authority of Sir Edward Coke in one of the Books of his Reports An Argument that Dr. Heylyn gratified with no better answer than Non Credendum est cuique extra suam artem For these things and the Professors ill words in the former Disputation Dr. Heylyn caused him to be brought before the Council Table at Woodstock where he was publickly reprehended And upon the coming out of the Kings Declaration concerning lawful sports Dr. Heylyn translated the Regius Professors Lecture upon the Sabbath into English and putting a Preface before it caused it to be Printed a performance which did not only justifie his Majesties proceedings but took off much of that opinion which Dr. Prideaux had amongst the Puritanical Faction in those days A. D. 1634. The grievances which the Collegiate Church of Westminster suffered under the Government of John Lord Bishop of Lincoln then Commendatory Dean thereof became so intolerable that Dr. Heylyn with Dr. Tho. Wilson Dr. Gabriel Moor and Dr. Lud. Wemys with other of the Prebends drew up a Charge of no less than 36 Articles against the Bishop and by way of complaint humbly Petitioned his Majesty for redress of these grievances Whereupon a Commission was issued out to the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York the Earl of Manchester Earl of Portland the Lord Bishop of London and the two Secretaries of State Authorizing them to hold a Visitation of the Church of Westminster to examine the particular Charges made against John Lord Bishop of Lincoln who afterwards calling the Prebends to meet him in the Jerusalem-Chamber desired to know of them what these things were that were amiss that so he might presently redress them But to that Dr. Heylyn replied that seeing they had put the business into his Majesties hands it would but ill become them to take the matters out of his into their own Amongst other grievances the Bishop had most disgracefully turned out the Prebends of the great Seat or Pew under the Pulpit Dr. Heylyn being chosen Advocate for his Brothren did prove before
in the time of Moses 3. The prescribed rites and form of the legal Sacrifices 4. Set forms of Prayer and Benediction used at the offering of the Sacrifices in the time of Moses 5. The Song of Moses made a part of the Jewish Liturgie 6. The form and rites used in the Celebration of the Passeover according unto Joseph Scaliger 7. The same together with the Hymnes then used described by Beza 8. The several Prayers and Benedictions which were used therein according to the Jewish Rabbins 9. A form of Blessing of the People prescribed by God unto the Priests A prescribed form used by the People at the offering of their first fruits and tithes 10. The like in burning of their Leaven and in confessing of their Sins to Almighty God as also in the Excommunicating of Impenitent persons 11. An Answer to two main objections from and against the Jewish Rabbins 12. The form of Marriage and rites of Burial used amongst the Jews HItherto we have looked into the Actions and devotions of the blessed Patriarchs during the time they sojourned in the Land of Canaan in which we find not any apparent footstep either of appointed times or determinate places or set forms of worship more than the Consecrating of Jacobs Pillar and giving to the place the name of Bethel Follow them in their journey towards the Land of Egypt and we find Israel offering Sacrifices at Beersheba being in his way upon the rode unto the God of his Father Isaac Gen. xlvi 1. Which Sacrifice if we observe it as we ought Bersabe fuit ultima villa terra Chanaan eundi versus Aegyptum Lyran in Gen. 46. Ayns Annot. in Gen. 46.1 will prove to be as much occasional as any of the rest which we saw before It being very well observed by Aynsworth that Jacob in his Sacrifice upon the way did both give thanks to God for the good tidings which he heard of Joseph and also consulted with the Lord about his going into Egypt whither his Father Isaac had been forbidden to go in a time of Famine as this was Gen. xxvi Besides Beersheba being the last Town of the Land of Canaan in the way of Egypt this might be the last time for ought he could tell wherein he might have opportunity of offering Sacrifice to the Lord his God or tendring to him any publick testimony of his faith and duty And so it proved in the event nor he nor any one of his Posterity being permitted whilst they were in Egypt to offer any Sacrifice unto the Lord as before they used to do And this appears by the request which Moses made to Pharaoh in behalf of the House of Israel that he would suffer them to go three days journey into the Wilderness to offer Sacrifice therein to the Lord their God To which when Pharaoh made reply Exod. 5.3 that rather than let the People go he would permit them for that once to offer Sacrifice unto the Lord in the Land of Egypt Not so said Moses it is not meet we should do so for we shall Sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and they will stone us Exod. 8.26 His reason was because the Gods of the Egyptians were Bulls and Rams and Sheep and Oxen as Lyra notes upon the place Talia vero animalia ab Hebraeis erailt immolanda Lyran. in Exod cap. 8. quod non permisissent Aegyptii in terrasua And certainly the Egyptians could not well endure to see their gods knocked down before their faces So that for all the time that they lived in Egypt the piety and devotion of Gods people did consist especially in the integrity and honesty of their conversation and in those private exercises of Religion which might be done within their own walls in their several Families Nothing to make it known that they were Gods Servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is observed by Epiphanius but that they feared the Lord and were Circumcised Epiphan adv haeres l. 1. haer 5. nothing but that they did acknowledge one only God and exercised themselves in justice and in modesty in patience and long-suffering both towards one another and amongst the Egyptians framing their lives agreeably unto the will of God and the law of Nature But no sooner by a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm had God delivered them from thence but he disposed them being now grown numerous like to the Stars in Heaven for numbers into a constituted Church appointing them set times and places for Religious Worship ordaining a peculiar Priesthood for his publick service prescribing with what Rites and Ceremonies that publick service that religious worship was to be performed And first the time appointed for this purpose was the Sabbath-day Exod. 16.23 the keeping of the which was the first of the Commandments which God gave by Moses from whence the Hebrew Doctors say that the Commandment of the Sabath is the foundation and ground of all the rest quod ante alia praecepta hoc datum sit quando Manna acceperunt as being given before them all in the fall of Manna Hospini de Fest Judaeorum cap. 3. A day to be observed and sanctified both by Priest and People by the Priest in adding to the daily Sacrifice an offering of two Lambs of an year old without blemish one in the morning and the other in the evening and by the people in an absolute resting from the works of labour that they might give themselves the better to divine contemplation Unto which day it pleased God afterwards to adde divers solemn Festivals to be observed in their several and appointed seasons viz. the New-moons Lev. 1.23 the Feasts of Trumpets and of Tabernacles the Feasts of Pentecost and of the Passeover although this last had the precedency indeed both in regard of institution and of observation over all the rest this being both ordained and kept at their departure out of Egypt the other not enjoyned till they were come unto mount Sinai even in the bowels of the Wilderness The times being thus appointed and determined Exod. 12. per tot the next particular we meet withal is the designation of the place which was contrived by the direction of Almighty God according to the present condition of his People For being they were then in motion towards Canaan not yet setled there they were to be provided of a portable Temple if I may so call it which might be carried and removed according to the stations and removes of Israel This we find called in holy Scripture by the name of the Tabernacle the Tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 26. 31. 35. and by way of eminency the making and materials of the which are layed down at large in the xxvi Chapter of the Book of Exodus And it continued a long time the place of publick Worship for the Tribes of Israel not only when they were in their way or journeys
but also after they were setled in the Land of Canaan though many times it changed its seat there as occasion was even till the building of the Temple by the hand of Salomon And for the Priests who were to minister unto the Lord in his Congregation no sooner were the times determined and the place designed but the Lord gave command to Moses saying Take thou unto thee Aaron thy Brother and his Sons with him from amongst the Children of Israel Exod. 28.1 that he may minister unto me in the Priests office Unto which office as they were designed by these words of God so were they after consecrated thereunto in a solemn form by the hand of Moses the state and manner of the which is upon record in the viii Chapter of Leviticus And now and not till now were the Tribes of Israel established in a Constituted Church by the Lord their God But as once Isaac said to Abraham Behold the fire and the wood but where is the Lamb for a Burnt-offering Gen. 22.7 So here we have the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals the Tabernacle and the Priests but where are the Sacrifices all this while where the forms of worship That now comes after in its course and that we will consider in its full extent either as legal or as moral First for the legal part thereof it was all prescribed nothing left arbitrary to the people either for the matter or the manner God knew full well that as they had been much infected with the Idolatries of Egypt where they lived before witness the Golden Calf which they made in Horeb so they were apt to be intangled in the Idolatries of those Nations which they were to neighbour and therefore thought it fittest for them to be tyed up and limited in all acts of worship by his prescriptions Which that we may the better see I shall present a brief Synopsis of those rites and ceremonies which were to be observed in these legal Sacrifices together with the Creatures to be Sacrificed according as I find them in Josephus who hath reduced into a lesser compass that which is laid down more at large in the holy Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Antiq. Judaic l. 3. c. 10. c. The Sacrifices are of two sorts the one of them is made for a private person the other for the people in general and these are made in two manners for in the one all is consumed which is upon the Altar which for that cause is called an Holocaust or an whole Burnt-offering the other is Eucharistical or of thanksgiving and they are made with Feasts by those that Sacrifice The particular person that offered a Burnt-offering killed an Oxe a Lamb or a Goat of an year old yet it was lawful to kill an Oxe of greater age being all Males And after their Throats are cut the Priests besprinkle the Altar round about with the blood then they dress the Beast and cut it in pieces and season it with salt and lay it on the Altar ready prepared with wood and fire and having well cleansed the feet and entrails they lay them with the rest and the Priest taketh the skins They that offer the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving kill likewise such sorts of Beasts without spot and more than a year old both Male and Female and after they have cut the throats they sprinkle the blood on the Altar then they take the reins the caul and the fat with the caul about the liver and the rump and lay it on the Altar but the breast and the left leg is left unto the Priests and as touching the rest of the flesh the Priests feast therewith for the space of two days and if then there remain any thing thereof it is burned The same is also observed in the Sin-offering but those that are not of ability to make these greater offerings do bring unto the Offerings a pair of Pigeons or two young Turtles the one of which the Priests have to feast withal the other is consumed with sire He that hath sinned upon Ignorance offereth a Lamb and a she Goat at the same time and the Priest besprinkleth the Altar with the blood thereof not in the same manner as before but the horns only of the Altar and on the Altar they offer the kidneys with the rest of the fat and the caul of the liver the Priests carrying away the skins and eating the flesh within the Tabernacle the very same day because the Law permitteth not to reserve any thing until the next He that hath sinned none but himself being privie to it offereth a Lamb according as the Law commandeth the flesh whereof is eaten in like sort by the Priests the same very day But if the Princes of the People offer for their sins they do in like sort as others do save that they bring a Bull or a Male-kid The Law also ordaineth that in all Sacrifices both private and common there should be a certain quantity of fine flower brought viz. for a Lamb one Assar An Assar as I take it is the tenth part of an Ephah or three pints and an half of Ale-measure An Hin contained three quarts of our measure for a Ram two for a Bull three which is first of all mingled and wrought with oyle and then set upon the Altar to be sanctified They that Sacrifice do likewise bring oyle the balf part of an Hin for a Bull for a Ram the third part for a Lamb the fourth They brought also the like measure of wine as of oyle and poured the wine near to the Altar And if any without Sacrificing offer up fine flower he putteth the first fruits upon the Altar that is to say one handful of it and the rest is taken by the Priests either fryed for it is kneaded with oyl or in loaves made thereof But whatsoever the Priest offereth that must all be hurnt The Law likewise forbiddeth to offer any Beast whatever the same day it is born or to kill it with its Dam or in any other sort before it hath fed twelve days There are also other Sacrifices made for deliverance from sickness or for other causes in which Sacrifices they imploy wine or liquor with that which is offered of which liquors it is not lawful to reserve any thing till the next day when the Priests have taken that portion which belongeth to them So far Josephus The rest that followeth of this Argument is a recital of those Sacrifices which were appointed for the Sabbath and the other Festivals in all which every thing was prescribed and limited by the Law of God And if such care was taken by the Lord our God in the prescribing of these Sacrifices and all the Rites and Ceremonies which belonged to them being the legal part only of this publick worship there is no question to be made but that the Church took care to prescribe forms of Prayers and Praises to be used in
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
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
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
charge to go teach all Nations Id. 28.19 And when he found them backward in pursuit thereof he quickned Peter by a Vision and called Paul as it were of purpose Act. 10.11 to bear his name before the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness unto light Act. 9.17 and from the power of Satan unto God So that although the Jews and Gentiles were not collected into one body in our Saviours time Act. 26.18 I mean the time in which he pleased to sojourn here upon the Earth yet being done by his Authority and by the conduct and direction of his blessed Spirit it can be said of none but him quod fecit utraque unum that he made both one bringing them both into one Church Ephes 2.14 and making both partakers of the same communion who were before at such a distance as was conceived to be irreconcilable Unto the constituting of which Church our Saviour brought not any thing of Rite or Ceremony determined nothing that we meet with in his holy Gospels touching the time or place of publick Worship the Form and manner of the same save that he gave a general intimation that Hierusalem should no longer be the place in which men should be bound to Worship Joh. 4.21 The pains he took were principally spent in points of Doctrin clearing the truths of holy Scripture from those false glosses and corrupt traditions which had been put upon it by the Scribes and Pharisees and setting forth a new and clearer body of Divinity than had been taught the people in the Law of Moses that the Father might be worshipped in succeeding times with a greater measure of the spirit and a more perfect knowledge of the truth Joh. 4.23 24. than he had been formerly As for the circumstances and out-parts of Worship he left them in the state he found them that is to say to the disposing of the Church in whose power it was to institute such Rites and Ceremonies as might apparently conduce to the increase of Piety and to the setting forth of Gods praise and glory Himself had given a personal and most exemplary obedience to the Church of Jewry conforming to such Rites and Ordinances wherein there was no deviation from the Law of God as had in former times been setled by the power thereof And therefore had no cause of his collecting a Church conducted in those points which pertain to godliness by such a visible co-operation of the Holy Ghost especially considering what a fair example of Conformity he should leave behind him Besides all people of the world both Jews and Gentiles were setled at that time in a full perswasion of the necessity of set times and determinate places for the assembling of themselves together in the acts of Worship and had their prescribed Forms both of Prayer and Praise their Rituals and established Ceremonies and therewith also an opinion that those things were to be eprformed by the Priest alone Which being agreed on in the general both people might be brought with more facility to fall on some particular conclusions to which they were inclined already by their common principles And so indeed it proved in a short event times places and set Forms for worship being unanimously and universally received amongst them within a very little while after our Lords departure The Jews already had their Synagogues their Proseuchas or Oratories as before was said How small a labour was it to the blessed Apostles and their successors in that work to turn those Synagogues of theirs into Christian Churches for Preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the Sacraments accordingly as they did win upon the Jews to embrace the Gospel Nor is this only a bare speculation it was done de facto it being recorded in a book ascribed unto Athanasius that on the converting of the Jews Inhabitants of Beritus to the faith of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas de passione imaginis Dom. nostri To. 2. gr l. p. 631. that the Bishop who had laboured in it converted the Synagogue of the Jews into a Christian Church and dedicated it to our Lord and Saviour And for the Temples of the Gentiles when once their superstitions were suppressed and the Gospel countenanced by Authority they were converted also to the self-same use Vid. Bed hist Eccles 1. as the Jewish Synagogues had been in other places Gods Servants being in the mean time contented with such safe retreats as their necessities inforced them to make use of in those fiery times or with such publick places of Assembly but mean and under the degree of envy as either upon sufferance or by special leave they were permitted to erect As soon if not more suddenly all parties also were agreed on the times of worship which was reduced with general and joynt consent unto the first day of the week the Lords day or the Sunday call it which you will wherein all members of the Congregation were to meet together for Gods publick Service A business wherein the Church proceeded with great care and wisdom setting apart one day in seven to hold the fairer quarter with the Jews who were so zealous of a Sabbath but altering the day it self and paring off those legal Ordinances which had made it burdensome the better to content the Gentiles Yet so that they had also their daily meetings as occasion served for celebration of the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist in those fiery times Whereof as being instituted for the Christian Sacrifice and of the Evangelical Priesthood to attend the same we shall speak anon In the mean time the next thing here to be considered is the form and order wherein the Church did celebrate Gods publick Service in those purer times those Forms of Prayer and Invocation wherewith they did address themselves to the Lord their God That all Religious offices in the House of God should be performed in form and order 1 Cor. 14. is not only warranted but enjoyned by the Apostles Canon made for those of Corinth and consequently for all Churches else And that for the avoiding of Battologies and all effusions of raw and undigested prayers besides what hath been shewn before to have been generally in use both with Jew and Gentile in being bound and regulated by set Forms of Prayer We have a Form laid down by our Lord and Saviour both for our use and imitation And first that it was made for our imitation is generally agreed on even by those who otherwise approve not set Forms of Prayer Calv. in Harm Evangel Calvin doth so resolve it saying In hunc finem tradita est haec regula ad quam preces nostras exigere necesse est si legitimas censeri Deoque probari cupimus And in the words not long before Non jubet Christus suos conceptis verbis orare sed tantum ostendit quorsum vota omnia precesque referri
not only Prayers and Benedictions used and commanded to be used at the Celebration but such a prescribed and determinate Form as quickly was received over all the Church The Commentaries commonly ascribed to Ambrose which if not his are certainly both very pious and of great Antiquity give us the matter of those Prayers which here by the Apostles rule were ladi first of all as a preparatory to the Celebration Haec regula Ecclesiastica est tradita à magistro Gentium qua utuntur sacerdotes nostri ut pro omnibus supplicent Ambr. Comment in â— ad Tim. c. 2. c. This Ecclesiastical Ordinance saith he was given by by the Doctor of the Gentiles which our Priests use unto this day making their Prayers to God for all men Praying for the Kings of the world that they may have their people in obedience that being governed in peace they may serve the Lord in rest and quietness of mind as also for all those which are in Authority under them that they may govern the Common-wealth in truth and equity with plenty of all things that so all tumults and seditions being far removed joyfulness may succeed in the place thereof For it is Bread that strengtheneth and Wine that maketh glad the heart of man They intercede also for all those who are in misery or necessity that being delivered from the same they may praise the Lord the Author of all health and safety finally giving thanks to God for all those blessings which he affordeth us in this life that God may so be praised from whom and Christ by whom so many benefits are bestowed upon us that all things being composed and quieted which might prove dangerous unto the Empire we may have liberty to serve the Lord in godliness and honesty Thus he And this I could fain know how little if at all this differs either for matter form or place from the Prayer entituled for the Church militan here on Earth continued till this day in the Church of England And that according to S. Ambrose if the work be his Secundum regulam Ecclesiasticam traditam à Magistro Gentium conform unto a rule of S. Paul's prescribing I add but this which is observed unto my hand by a very learned and industrious Gentleman for I am willing to acknowledge by whom I profit that in the meaning of the Apostle H. Thorndike of Religious Assemb cap. 10. p. 377. as well as in the practice of the primitive Church Prayers and Supplications were to be made for all men in the Celebration of the Eucharist for Kings c. it being neither strained nor forced as he notes full well to take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or thanksgiving which S. Paul there useth in that very sense in which it hath been used by Clemens and Ignatius the Apostles Scholars for the Celebration of the Eucharist for the whole action and all the Prayers and supplications which it was celebrated withal For why not thus as well in this place of S. Paul 1 Cor. 14.16 as in another not so likely where the Apostle asks this question HOw shall he which occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he understandeth not what he saith Of which thus Beza in his notes Suspicor Apostolum attingere Beza Annot. in 1. ad Cor. c. 14. celebrandae Domini coenae ritum solennem illam gratiarum actionem I am saith he of an opinion that the Apostle in this place doth point unto the Rites of Celebrating the Lords holy Supper and that solemn giving of thanks which was therein used a full description of the which he gives us out of Justin Martyr which we shall see anon in its proper place Whence had the blessed Sacraments the name of Eucharist V. Casaubon in Annal. Eccl. Exerc. 16. n. 40. if our Grammarians and Philologers be not much mistaken but from this solemn giving thanks which was used therein Thus am I fallen at last upon S. Pauls Epistle unto those of Corinth wherein it is conceived that the performances of the Church are most fully handled as they relate unto the publick worship of Almighty God Which though it be as in relation to those times in which there were such wonderful effusions of the holy Spirit yet being that those effusions were miraculous and the publick offices of the Church were governed by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost there are not many things therein which may be drawn into example in these later times in which we must not look for such effusions For it is well observed by Chrysostom Chrysost Homil. 14. n. 18. ad Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That many of those miracles which were frequent then are not to be expected now These extraordinary graces were not given but for an extraordinary end which was the planting of the Gospel in the midst of Paganism or where it was encountred by an obstinate faction of obdurate Jews And therefore they that do pretend to such special gifts as were in those times necessary for theordering and edification of the Church may by as strong a Charter for ought I can see lay claim unto the gift of Tongues and the power of Healing and the spirit of Prophesie which yet I see but few of them do aspire unto Passing by those things therefore in this Epistle which are not to be drawn into example if will appear most clearly from the xiv Chapter that to the constituting of Gods publick Service in the Congregation there went these three parts Prayer Praise and Prophesie which we have formerly observed to be the three ingredients that make up the same This last we find much spoke of throughout that Chapter particularly and by name verse 1 3 5 22 29 31 32 39. The other two he joyneth together in one verse 1 Cor. 14.15 viz. I will pray with the spirit and will pray with understanding also I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with understanding also Himself informs us what he means by Prophesying where it is said that he who Prophesyeth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation Ibid. v. 3. both which as the times then were there was a great ambition in the Prophets of the Church of Corinth for ostentation of their gifts to utter them in Tongues not understood by the common people This is the thing most blamed by the Apostle in the present Chapter viz. that in their exhortations to the people or explications of the Scriptures they used to speak in unknown tongues and not interpret Ibid. v. 5. 27 And that they did the like in the act of Prayer is conceived by Beza where he thus glosseth on the Text Orabo spiritu i. e. lingua peregrina quam mihi dictat spiritus Beâ—a in Annot. in 1. ad Cor. 14 I will pray in the spirit that is saith he in such an unknown tongue as the spirit
or exhorting but taking to themselves the liberty of their own expression for the phrase and stile according to the purpose and effect of the said Injunction And it is worth our noting too that presently upon the end of this exhortation or bidding of the Prayers used by Dr. Parker there followeth in the book these words Hic factae sunt tacitae preces By all which we may perceive most evidently that it was then the peoples practice and is now our duty immediately upon the bidding of the Prayers or on the Preachers moving of the people to joyn with them in Prayer as the Canon hath it to recollect the heads recommended to them and tacitly to represent them to the Lord in their devotions or otherwise to comprechend them in the Pater-noster with which the Preacher by the Canon is to close up all And now being come to the times of King Edward the sixth we will next look on Bishop Latimer the fourth of these five Prelates whom before I spake of who living in King Henry and King Edwards times and in their times using that Form of bidding Prayers which is prescribed both in the Canon and Injunctions shews plainly that the antient practice in this kind was every way conform to the present Canon and the old Injunctions And first to keep our selves to King Edwards Reign we have eight passages in his Sermons preached in that Kings time whereby we may perceive what the usage was six of them laid down in brief and two more at large the two last being as a comment on the former six of the six brief the first occurs in his 2d p. 33. Sermon before King Edward thus Hitherto goeth the Text That I may declare this the better to the edifying of your Souls and the glory of God I shall desire you to pray c. So in his third before the King p. 42. March the 22. Before I enter further into this matter I shall desire you to pray c. And in the fourth March 29. That I may have grace so to open the remnant of this Parable that it may be to the glory of God and edifying of your souls I shall desire you to pray in the which prayer c. And in the 5th Sermon before the King on the 6th of April p. 51. having entred on his matter he thus invites them to their Prayers And that I may have grace c. So in the sixth April the 13th This is the story and that I may declare this Text so as it may be to the honour of God and the edifying of your souls and mine both I shall desire you to help me with your prayers in the which c. The last is in a Sermon before that King p. 108. Preached at the Court in Westm An. 1550. where he doth it thus Here therefore I shall desire you to pray c. These instances compared with the other two make the matter plain whereof the first is in the seventh before King Edward April 19. 1549. Thus This day we have in memory Christs bitter passion and death the remedy of our Sin Therefore I intend to treat of a piece of the story of his passion I am not able to treat of all that I may do this the better and that it may be to the honour of God and the edification of your Souls and mine both I shall desire you to pray c. In this prayer I shall desire you to remember the Souls departed with laud and praise to Almighty God that he did vouchsafe to assist them at the hour of their death I shall desire you to pray c. And in the which c. What mean these caetera's That we shall see most manifestly in his Sermon Preached at Stamford p. 88. Octob. 9. 1550. which shews indeed most fully that the Form of bidding Prayers then used was every way conform to the Injunction of King Edward VI. and very near the same which was prescribed after by the Queens Injunction For having as before proposed his matter he thus bids the Prayers And that I may at this time so declare them as may be for Gods glory your edifying and my discharge I pray you to help me with your prayers in the which prayer c. For the Vniversal Church of Christ through the whole world c. for the preservation of our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth sole Supreme Head under God and Christ of the Churches of England and Ireland c. Secondly for the Kings most honourable Council Thirdly I commend unto you the Souls departed this life in the Faith of Christ that ye remember to give laud praise and thanks to Almighty God for his great goodness and mercy shewed unto them in that great need and conflict against the Devil and Sin and that gave them in the hour of death faith in his Sons Death and Passion whereby they conquer and overcome and get the victory Give thanks I say for this adding prayers and supplications for your selves that it may please God to give you like faith and grace to trust only in the death of his dear Son as he gave unto them For as they be gone so must we and the Devil will be as ready to tempt us as he was them and our sins will light as heavy upon us as theirs did upon them and we were as weak and unable to resist as were they Pray therefore that we may have Grace to die in the same faith as they did and at the latter day to be raised with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and be partakers with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven for this and all other graces let us say the Lords prayer Now unto Bishop Latimer we will joyn another of the same time and as high a calling which is Dr. Gardiner Bishop of Winchester of whom whatever may be said in other respects in this it cannot be objected but that he followed the Form and Order then prescribed for in a Sermon Preached before King Edward VI. Anno 1550. being the Fourth of that Kings Reign before the naming of his Text for ought appears he thus bids the Prayer Most honourable Audience I purpose by the grace of God to declare some part of the Gospel that is accustomably used to be read in the Church at this day and that because without the special grace of God neither I can speak any thing to your edifying nor ye receive the same accordingly I shall desire you all that we may joyntly pray all together for the assistance of his grace In which prayer I commend to Almighty God your most excellent Majesty our Sovereign Lord King of England France and Ireland and of the Church of England and Ireland next and immediately under God here on earth Supream Head Q. Katharine Dowager my L. Maries grace and my L. Elizabeths grace your Majesties most dear Sisters my L. Protectors grace with all others of your most honourable
Spirit found that there would be work enough elsewhere to choose one or other of their sacred number to be the Bishop of that Church and take charge thereof And this they did not now by lots but in the ordinary course and manner of election pitching on James the Son of Alpheus Gal. 1.19 who in regard of consanguinity is sometimes called in Scripture the Lords Brother and in regard of his exceeding piety and uprightness was surnamed the Just Which action I have placed here even in the cradle of the Church upon good Authority For first Eusebius tells us out of Clemens that this was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 1. after the Ascension of our Saviour Hierome more plainly statim post passionem Domini immediately upon his passion In Scrip. Eccles We may with good security conclude from both that it was done not long after Christs Ascension as soon almost as the Believers were increased to a considerable number And lastly Ignat. in ep ad Trall that Ignatius hath made S. Stephen to be the Deacon or subservient Minister to this James the Bishop of Hierusalem and then we must needs place it in some middle time between the Feast of Pentecost and the 26. of December when Saint Stephen was Martyred So early did the Lord take care to provide Bishops for his Church and set apart a special Pastor for his holy City 'T is true there is no manifest record hereof in holy Scripture but then withal it is as true that in the Scripture there are many pregnant circumstances whereon the truth hereof may well be grounded Gal. 1.18 19. Saint Paul some three years after his Conversion went up unto Hierusalem to see Peter but found no other of the Apostles there save only James the Lords Brother Ask Hierome who this James was whom S. Paul then saw and he will tell you that it was James the Bishop of Hierusalem Hier. in Gal. 1. Hic autem Jacobus Episcopus Hierosolymorum primus fuit cognomento Justus And then withal we have the reason why Paul should find him at Hierusalem more than the rest of the Apostles viz. because the rest of the Apostles were dispersed abroad according to the exigence of their occasions and James was there residing on his Pastoral or Episcopal charge Fourteen years after his Conversion Gal. 21.1 being the eleventh year after the former interview he went up into Hierusalem again with Barnabas and Titus and was together present with them at the first general Council held by the Apostles In which upon the agitation of the business there proposed the Canon and determination is drawn up positively and expresly in the words of James Act. 15.20 Do you desire the reason of it Peter and others being there Chrysostom on those words of Scripture Act. 15.13 Hom. 33. in Act. c. 15. v. 23. James answered saying doth express it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this James was Bishop of Hierusalem And this no question was the reason why Paul reciting the names of those with whom especially he had conference at his being there puts James in the first place before Peter and John viz. Galat. 2.9 because that he was Bishop there as Estius hath noted on that Text. The Council being ended Paul returneth to Antioch and there by reason of some men that came from James Peter withdrew Vers 12 and separated himself eating no longer with the Gentiles Why takes the Apostle such especial notice that they came from James but because they were sent from him as from their Bishop about some business of the Church this James being then Bishop of Hierusalem Theoph. Oecum in Gal. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as both Theophylact and Oecumenius note upon the place Finally nine years after this being the 58. of Christs Nativity Paul makes his last journey to Hierusalem still he finds James there Act. 21.18 And the day following Paul went in with us unto James c. as the Text informs us Chrysost hom 46. in Act. Chrysostom notes upon the place that James there spoken of was the Lords Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Bishop of Hierusalem So that for 20 years together we have apparent evidence in Scripture of James residing at Hierusalem and that as Bishop there as the Fathers say For that Saint James was Bishop of Hierusalem there is almost no ancient Writer but bears witness of it Ignatius who was made Bishop of Antiochia Ignat. ep ad Trallian within eight years after the Death and Martyrdom of this James in their account who place it latest makes Stephen to be the Deacon of this James as Clemens and Anacletus were to Peter which is an implication that James was Bishop of Hierusalem out of which City we do not find that Stephen ever travelled Egesippus who lived near the Apostles times Hieron in loc Euseb l. 4. c. 21. Apud Euseb hist l. 2. c. 1. Ibid. l. 7. c. 14. makes this James Bishop of Hierusalem as both Saint Hierom and Eusebius have told us from him Clemens of Alexandria not long after him doth confirm the same And out of him and other monuments of antiquity Eusebius doth assure us of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was the first that held the Episcopal throne or chair in the Church of Hierusalem Saint Cyril Catech. 4. cap. de cibis Catech. 14. Bishop of Hierusalem speaks of him as of his Predecessor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the first Bishop of that Diocess And Epiphanius for his greater credit makes him not only the first Bishop that ever was Haeres 29. n. 3. but Bishop of the Lords own Throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. adv haeres 78. n. 7. and that too by the Lords appointment S. Ambrose doth assign this reason why Paul going unto Hierusalem to see Peter Ambros in Gal. 1. De Scriptor Eccles should find James there quia illic constitutus erat Episcopus ab Apostolis because that by the rest of the Apostles he was made Bishop of that place Saint Hierom doth not only affirm as much as for his being Bishop of Hierusalem but also doth lay down the time of his Creation to be not long after our Redeemers passion as we saw before Saint Chrysostom Hom. ult in Ioh. besides what was alledged from him in the former Section tells in his Homilies on S. Johns Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Saint James had the Bishoprick of Hierusalem Where by the way I cannot but take notice of a lewd forgery or at the best a gross mistake of Baronius who to advance the Soveraignty of the Church of Rome An. 34. n. 291. will have this James to take the Bishoprick of Hierusalem from Saint Peters hands and cites this place of Chrysostom for proof thereof But surely Chrysostom saith no such matter for
four Sees in those early days 7. The use made of this Episcopal succession by Saint Irenaeus 8. As also by Tertullian and some other Ancients 9. Of the Authority enjoyed by Bishops in Tertullians time in the administration of the Sacraments 10. As also in enjoyning Fasts and the disposing of the Churches Treasury 11. And in the dispensation of the Keys 12. Tertullian misalledged in maintenance of the Lay-Presbytery 13. The great extent of Christianity and Episcopacy in Tertullians time concludes this Century HAVING thus setled the affairs of the Church of Britain we will look back again towards Rome where we find Victor sitting as successor unto Eleutherius and the whole Church though free from persecutions yet terribly embroyled with Schisms and Heresies For in the later end of Eleutherius Blastus and Florinus two notorious Hereticks had broached this doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Eccl. hist l. 5. c. 19. that God was the author of sin and possibly might have spread the venom of their Heresie exceeding far if Irenaeus that great and learned Bishop of Lyons being then at Rome had not prescribed a speedy and a sovereign Antidote in several Tractates and Discourses against the same But Eleutherius being dead and Victor in his place there hapned such a Schism in the Church of Christ by his precipitance and perversness that all the water which Irenaeus and many other godly men could pour into it Id. l. 5. c. 23. 24. was hardly sufficient to quench the flame The business which occasioned it was the feast of Easter or indeed not the Feast it self upon the keeping of the which all Christians had agreed from the first beginnings but for the day in which it was to be observed wherein the Churches of Asia had an old Tradition differing from the rest of Christendom For whereas generally that festival had been solemnized in the Church of Christ on the Lords Day next after the Jewish Passeover as being the day which our Redeemer honoured with his Resurrection the Christians of the Asian Churches kept it upon the 14th day of the month precisely being the very day prescribed for the Jewish Passeover A business of no great importance more than for a general conformity in the Church of Christ yet such as long had exercised the patience of it even from the time of Pius Pope of Rome who first decreed it to be kept on the Lords Day Die Dominico Pascha celebrari as it is in Platina Platina in vita Pii Pont. Euscb Ecc. hist l. 5. c. 24. but followed with most heat and violence by this Victor perhaps upon the Omen of his name Of whom Eusebius thus reporteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that he attempted to cut off the whole Church of Asia together with the Churches adjacent from the Communion of the Catholick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they had maintained some heterodox or dangerous Doctrine contrary to the Faith of Christ A matter taken very tenderly not only by the Asian Bishops whom it most concerned but also by some other of the Western parts who more endeavoured the preservation of the Churches peace than the advancement and authority of the See of Rome those of chief note which interessed themselves therein being Irenaeus Polycrates the one Bishop of the Metropolitan Church of Lyons in France the other of the Church of Ephesus the Queen of Asia both honourable in their times and places And first Polycrates begins deriving the occasion and descent of their observation from Philip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. one of the twelve Apostles not of the seven Deacons as our Christopherson most ridiculously and falsly doth translate it who died at Hierapolis a City of Phrygia and from Saint John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who rested on the bosom of our Lord and Saviour as also from Polycarpus and Thracias Bishops of Smyrna and both Martyrs Sagaris B. of Laodicea Papyrus and Melito and many others who kept the feast of Easter as the Asians did As for himself he certifieth that following the Traditions of his Elders he had done the like that seven of his kindred had been Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself being the eighth and all which did so observe the feast of Easter when the Jews did prepare the Passeover that having served God 65 years diligently canvassed over the holy Scriptures and held both intercourse and correspondence with many of the brethren over all the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was the least disturbed at those Bruta fulmina Adding withal that he might here commemorate those several Bishops that were assembled at his call to debate the point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that this bare retital of their names was too great a trouble who though they could not but be sensible of his imperfections yet thinking that he bare not those gray hairs for nought did willingly subscribe unto his Epistle So far Id. ibid. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to this purpose he And on the other side Irenaeus writing unto Victor utterly dislikes that his severe and rigid manner of proceeding in cutting off so many Churches from the Communion of our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only because they did adhere to the Tradition of their Ancestors in a point of Ceremony shewing how much he differed in this business from the temper and moderation of his Predecessours Soter Anicetus Pius Higinus Sixtus and Telesphorus who though they held the same opinions that he did did notwithstanding entertain the Asian Bishops when they came unto them with great affection and humanity sending to those who lived far distant the most blessed Eucharist in testimony of their fellowship and Communion with them Nor did he write thus unto Victor only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to the Governours or Bishops of many other Churches also And certainly it was but need that such a Moderator should be raised to atone the difference the billows beating very highly and Victor being beset on every side for his stiff perversness by the Prelates of the adverse party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharply assaulting him both with words and Writings For the composing of this business before it grew to such a heat there could no better means be thought of than that the Bishops of the Church in their several quarters should meet together to debate and determine of it And so accordingly they did Euseb hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and many Synods and assemblies of the Bishops were held about it viz. one in Caesarea of Palestine wherein Theophilus B. of the place and Narcissus B. of Hierusalem did sit as Presidents another at Rome a third of all the Bishops of Pontus in the which Palmas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the chief amongst them of that Order did then preside A fourth there was of the French or Gallick Churches in the which Irenaeus sat
that if any person whatsoever should accuse either Bishop Presbyter or Deacon falsly and could not make just proof of the Accusation nec in fine dandam ei communionem that he should not be admitted to the blessed Sacrament no not upon his death-bed in his last extremity So tender were they in that Age of the good name and reputation of their Clergy And now me-thinks I see a blessed Sun-shine a time of rest and quiet after all these troubles a gentle gale breathing upon the Church after so many tedious storms of Persecution For Dioclesian and Maximianus his Colleague either afflicted with the guilt of Conscience or tyred with the effusion of so much innocent blood as had by them been shed in this Persecution did of their own accord resign the Empire Anno 304. as Baronius calculates it leaving the same unto Constantius and Galerius whom they had long before created Caesars Baron Annal. Eccl. An. 304. n. 1. Of these Constantius taking to himself the Western parts lived not full two years leaving his own part of the Empire and a fair ground for all the rest to Constantine his Son not only born of Helena a British Woman but born at York the Mother-City or Metropolis of the British Nation A Prince whom God raised up of purpose not only to give end to the Persecutions wherewith the Innocent Spouse of Christ had been so tortured and tormented but to become the greatest nursing Father thereunto that ever was before him in the Church of Israel or since him in the Israel of the Church So that if heretofore you find the Clergy reckoned as the filth of men neglected slighted or disgraced esteemed unworthy either of publick trust or favour in the employments of the State It is to be imputed unto this that they were held a dangerous and suspected party to the Common-wealth maintaining a Religion contrary unto that which was allowed in the Empire Hereafter you shall find it otherwise Hereafter you shall find an Edict made by Constantine enabling such as would decline the sentence of the Secular Judges Sozom hist Eccl. l. c. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawfully to appeal unto the judgment of their Bishops whose judgment he commanded to be put in execution by all his Officers with as much punctuality and effect as if himself in person had pronounced the same Hereafter we shall find Saint Ambrose a right godly Bishop Aug. Confes l. 6. c. 3. so taken up with hearing and determining mens suits and causes that he had very little leisure either for corporal repast or private study Saint Austin who relates the former saying also this that he had long waited an opportunity to have conference with him and had as long been hindred from access unto him Secludentibus me ab ejus aure atque ore catervis negotiosorum hominum quorum infirmitatibus serviebat his access to him being barred by multitudes of Suiters whose businesses he was pleased to undertake Hereafter we shall find the same Saint Austin no such lazie Prelate but that he hath transmitted to us as many monuments both of his Piety and Learning as any other whosoever so busied on the like occasions that he could hardly save the Mornings for his Meditations Aug. Epist 210 Post meridiem occupationibus hominum teneri the afternoons being wholly taken up in the dispatch or hearing of mens private Connoversies Nay when the Councils of Carthage and Numidia had imposed a certain task upon him propter curam Scripturarum in some things that concerned the holy Scriptures and that he asked but five days respite from the affairs and business of the people for the performance of the same the People would not have the patience to forbear so long Sed violenter irruptum est but violently brake in upon him And this lest the good Father may be thought to speak it in commendation of his own abilities we find related also by Possidonius in the narration of his life where we are told aliquando usque ad horam refectionis Possidon in vita Aug. c. 19. aliquando tota die jejunans that sometimes he gave hearing to mens causes till the hour of repast and sometimes fasted all the day for dispatch thereof but always bringing them unto some end or other pro arbitrata aequitate according to the rules of equity and a well-grounded Conscience Hereafter we shall find the Prelates honoured with the titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most honourable Lords and that not once or twice Athanas in apol 2. Nazianz Epist ad Nyssen Theod. l. 1. c. 4 5. others passim Ambros Epist 33. l. 5. but of common course Hereafter not to wander through more particulars we shall find Saint Ambrose employed in the most weighty matters of the Common-wealth and sent Ambassadour from the young Emperor Valentinian to the Tyrant Maximus who had usurped on his Dominions and much endangered the whole Empire which he performed to so good purpose that he preserved Italy from an imminent ruin the Tyrant afterwards confessing se legationis ejus objectu ad Italiam non potuisse transire that he was hindred by the same from passing forwards into Italy with his conquering Army So little was it either thought or found in those blessed times that holy Orders did superinduce a disability for civil Prudence But these things we do here behold but at a distance as Moses from Mount Nebo saw the Land of Canaan They appertain of right to the following Age Deuter. ult and they which had the happiness to live till then could not but easily discern the great alteration which was between a Church under Persecution and a Church in Peace between a Church oppressed by Tyrants and a Church cherished and supported by a Christian Prince And in this flourishing estate I should gladly shew her but that my wearied pen doth desire some rest and that I would fain see with what acceptation my present pains will be received in the world before I give the second on-set In the mean time I will lay down a brief Chronology of such of the remarkable occurrences which have been represented in these two last Centuries it being the office of an upright Judge and only such I do desire should peruse these Papers ut res ita tempora rerum noscere to know as well the times and circumstances of business as the things themselves A Brief CHRONOLOGY of the Estate of Holy Church in these two last Centuries An. Christ 102. CLemens Bishop of Rome the true Author of the Epistle to the Church of Corinth and the supposed Author of the Apostles Canons departeth this life 103. Evaristus succeedeth Clemens in the See of Rome in the which Church he afterwards ordained Parishes 109. Simeon B. of Jerusalem Martyred Justus succeeded in his place Ignatius led a Prisoner towards Rome writes his Epistles to the Churches 110. Ignatius Martyred designing Hero his Successor in the Church of
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
her forth again Ver. 10. 12. De festis c. 3. What then This seems unto Hospinian to be an argument for the Sabbath In hostoria diluvii columbae ex arca emissae septenario dierum intervallo ratione sabbati videntur So he and so verbatim Josias Simler in his Comment on the twentieth of Exodus But to this argument if at the least it may be honoured with that name Tostatus hath returned an Answer as by way of Prophecy He makes this Quaere first sed quare ponit hic quod Noe exspectabat semper septem dies In Gen. 8. c. Why Noah betwixt every sending of the Dove expected just seven days neither more nor less and then returns this answer to it such as indeed doth excellently satisfie both his own Quaere and the present argument Resp quod Noah intendebat scire utrum aquae cessassent c. Noah saith he desired to know whether the waters were decreased Now since the Waters being a moist body are regulated by the Moon Noah was most especially to regard her motions for as she is either in opposition or conjunction with the Sun in her increase or in her wane there is proportionably an increase or falling of the Waters Noah then considering the Moon in her several quarters which commonly we know are at seven days distance sent forth his Birds to bring him tiding for the Text tells us that he sent out the Raven and the Dove four times And the fourth time the Moon being then in the last quarter when both by the ordinary course of Nature the Waters usually are and by the Will of God were then much decreased the Dove which was sent out had found good footing on the Earth and returned no more So far the learned Abulensis which makes clear the case Nor stand we only here upon our defence For we have proof sufficient that Noah never kept the Sabbath Justin the Martyr Ubi supra and Irenaeus both make him one of those which without Circumcision and the Sabbath were very pleasing unto God and also justified without them Tertullian positively saith it that God delivered him from the great Water-flood nec circumcisum nec sabbatizantem Adv. Judaeos and challengeth the Jews to prove if any way they could sabbatum observasse that he kept the Sabbath Eusebius also tells us of him that being a just man and one whom God preserved as a remaining spark to kindle Piety in the World De demonstr l. 1. c. 6. yet knew not any thing that pertained to the Jewish Ceremony not Circumcision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor any other thing ordained by Moses Remember that Eusebius makes the Sabbath one of Moses's Ordinances Finally Epiphanius in the place before remembred ranks Noah in this particular with Adam Abel Seth Enos and the other Patriarchs It 's true that Joseph Sealiger once made the day whereon Noah left the Ark and offered sacrifice to the Lord De Emendat Temp. l. 5. to be the seventh day of the week 28. Decembris feria septima egressus Noah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immolavit Deo saith his first Edition Which were enough to cause some men who infinitely admire his Dictates from thence to have derived a Sabbath had he not changed his mind in the next Edition and placed this memorable action not on the seventh day but the fourth I say it might have caused some men for all men would not so have doted as from a special accident to conclude a practice Considering especially that there is no ground in Scripture to prove that those before the Law had in their Sacrifices any regard at all to set Times and Dayes either unto the sixth day or the seventh or eighth or any other but did their service to the Lord. I mean the publick part thereof and that which did consist in external action according as occasion was administred unto them The offerings of Cain and Abel for ought we can inform our selves were not very frequent The Scripture tells us that it was in process of time Gen. 4.3 at the years end as some expound it For at the years end as Ainsworth noteth men were wont in most solemn manner to offer sacrifice unto God with thanks for all his benefits having then gathered in their fruits The Law of Moses so commanded Exod. 23.16 the ancient Fathers so observed it as by this place we may conjecture and so it was accustomed too among the Gentiles their ancient Sacrifices and their Assemblies to that purpose as Aristotle hath informed us being after the gathering in of fruits Ethic. l. 8. No day selected for that use that we can hear of This Sacrifice of Noah as it was remarkable so it was occosional an Eucharistical Oblation for the great deliverance which did that day befall unto him And had it hapned on the seventh day it were no argument that he made choice thereof as most fit and proper or that he used to sacrifice more upon that day than on any other So that of Abraham in the twelfth of Genesis was occasional only The Lord appeared to Abraham saying Gen. 12.7 Vnto thy seed will I give this land the land of Canaan And then it followeth that Abraham builded there an Altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him The like he did when he first set his footing in the promised Land and pitched his Tents not far from Bethel Ver. 8. and when he came to plant in the Plain of Mamre in the next Chapter See the like Verse 18 Gen. 21.33 1.22 13. Of Isaac Gen. 26.25 Of Jacob Gen. 28.8 31.54 33.20 35.7 14. No mention in the Scripture of any Sacrifice or publick Worship but the occasion is set down Hoc ratio naturalis dictat In Gen. 8.20 ut de donis suis honoretur imprimis ipse qui dedit Natural reason saith Rupertus could instruct them that God was to be honoured with some part of that which he himself had given unto them but natural reason did not teach them that one day differed from another CHAP. III. That the SABBATH was not kept from the Flood to Moses 1. The sons of Noah did not keep the Sabbath 2. The Sabbth could not have been kept in the dispersion of Noahs sons had it been commanded 3. Diversity of Longitudes and Latitudes must of necessity make a variation in the Sabbath 4. Melchisedech Heber Lot did not keep the Sabbath 5. Of Abraham and his sons that they kept not the Sabbath 6. That Abraham did not keep the Sabbath in the confession of the Jews 7. Jacob nor Job no Sabbath keepers 8. That neither Joseph Moses nor the Israelites in Egypt did observe the Sabbath 9. The Israelites not permitted to offer Sacrifice while they were in Egypt 10. Particular proofs that all the Moral Law was both known and kept amongst the Fathers WE are now come unto the hither side of the Flood
to the sons of Noah To whom the Hebrew Doctors say their Father did bequeath seven several Commandments which they and their posterity were bound to keep In Lexilo p. 1530. Septem praecepta acceperunt filii Noah c. as Shindler reckoneth them out of the Rabbi Maimony First That they dealt uprightly with every man Secondly That they should bless and magnifie the Name of God Thirdly That they abstained from worshipping false gods and from all Idolatry Fourthly That they forbear all unlawful lusts and copulations The fifth against shedding Blood The sixth against Theft and Robbery The seventh and last a prohibition not to eat the flesh or any member of a Beast taken from it when it was alive whereby all cruelty was forbidden These precepts whosoever violated either of Noahs Sons or their Posterity was to be smitten with the sword Yea these Commandments were reputed so agreeable to nature that all such Heathens as would yield to obey the same were suffered to remain and dwell amongst the Israelites though they received not Circumcision nor any of the Ordinances which were given by Moses So that amongst the precepts given unto the Sons of Noah we find no footstep of the Sabbath And where a Modern Writer whom I spare to name hath made the keeping of the Sabbath a member of the second precept or included in it it was not so advisedly done there being no such thing at all Cunaeus de repab Hebr. 2.19 either in Schindler whom he cites nor in Cunaeus who repeats the self-same precepts from the self-same Rabbi Nay which is more the Rabbin out of whom they cite it doth in another place exclude expresly the observation of the Sabbath out of the number of these Precepts given to the Sons of Noah Ap. Ainsworth in Exod. 20. The Man and Woman servant saith he which are commanded to keep the Sabbath are Servants that are Circumcised or Baptized c. But Servants not Circumcised nor Baptised but only such as have received the seven Commandements given to the Sons of Noah they are as sojourning strangers and may do work for themselves openly on the Sabbath as any Israelite may on a working day So Rabbi Maymony in his Treatise of the Sabbath chap. 20. § 14. If then we find no Sabbath amongst the Sons of Noah whereof some of them were the Sons of their Fathers piety there is no thought of meeting with it in their Children or their Childrens Children the builders of the Tower of Babel For they being terrified with the late Deluge as some conjecture and to procure the name of great undertakers as the Scripture saith resolved to build themselves a Tower unto the top whereof the waters should in no wise reach Antiqu. Jud. l. 1. cap. 5. A work of a most vast extent if we may credit those reports that are made thereof and followed by the People as Josephus tells us with their utmost industry there being none amongst them idle If none amongst them would be idle as likely that no day was spared from so great an action as they conceived that work to be They that durst bid defiance to the Heaven of God were never like to keep a Sabbath to the God of Heaven The action was begun and ended Anno 1940. or thereabouts To ruinate these vain attempts it pleased the Lord first to confound the Language of the People which before was one and after to disperse them over all the earth By means of which dispersion they could not possibly have kept one and the same day for a Sabbath had it been commanded the days in places of a different longitude which is the distance of a place from the first Meridian beginning at such different times that no one day could be precisely kept amongst them The proof and ground whereof I will make bold to borrow from my late Learned friend Nath. Carpenter that I may manifest in some sort the love I bore him though probably I might have furnished out this argument from mine own wardrobe at least have had recourse to many other Learned men who have written of it For that the difference of time is varied according to the difference of longitudes in divers places of the earth may be made manifest to every mans understanding out of these two principles First if the earth is sphaerical and secondly that the Sun doth compass it about in twenty-four hours From hence it comes to pass that places situate Eastward see the Sun sooner than those do that are placed Westward And that with such a different proportion of time that unto every hour of the Suns motion there is assigned a certain number of miles upon the Earth every fifteen degrees which is the distance of the Meridians being computed to make one hour and every fifteen miles upon the Earth correspondent to one minute of that hour By this we may perceive how soon the noon-tide hapneth in one City before another For if one City stands Eastward of another the space of three of the aforesaid Meridians which is 2700. miles it is apparent that it will enjoy the noon-tide no less than three hours before the other and consequently in 10800. miles which is half the compass of the Earth there will be found no less than twelve hours difference in the rising and setting of the Sun as also in the noon and mid-night The reason of which difference of times is as before we said the difference of longitudes wherein to every hour Cosmographers have allotted fifteen degrees in the Suns diurnal motion so that fifteen degrees being multiplied by twenty-four hours which is the natural day the product will be 360. which is the number of degrees in the whole circle Now in these times wherein the Sons of Noah dispersed themselves in case the Sabbath was to have been kept as simply moral it must needs follow that the moral Law is subject unto manifold mutations and uncertainties which must not be granted For spreading as they did over all the Earth some farther some at shorter distance and thereby changing longitudes with their habitations they must of meer necessity alter the difference of times and days and so could keep no day together Nor could their issue since their time observe exactly and precisely the self-same day by reason of the manifold transportation of Colonies and transmigration of Nations from one Region to another whereby the times must of necessity be supposed to vary The Author of the Practice of Piety though he plead hard for the morality of the Sabbath cannot but confess that in respect of the diversity of the Meridians and the unequal rising and setting of the Sun every day varieth in some places a quarter in some half in others an whole day therefore the Jewish Sabbath cannot saith he be precisely kept in the same instant of time every where in the World Certainly if it cannot now then it never could and then it would be found that some
at least of Noahs posterity and all that have from them descended either did keep at all no Sabbath or not upon the day appointed which comes all to one Or else it needs must follow that God imposed a Law upon his People which in it self without relation to the frailty ne dum to the iniquity of poor man could not in possibility have been observed Yea such a Law as could not generally have been kept had Adam still continued in his perfect innocence To make this matter yet more plain It is a Corollary or conclusion in Geography that if two men do take a journey from the self-same place round about the Earth the one Eastward the other Westward and meet in the same place again it will appear that he which hath gone East hath gotten and that the other going Westward hath lost a day in their accompt The reason is because he that from any place assigned doth travel Eastward moving continually against the proper motion of the Sun will shorten somewhat of his day taking so much from it as his journey in proportion of distance from the place assigned hath first opposed and so anticipated in that time the diurnal motion of the Sun So daily gaining something from the length of day it will amount in the whole circuit of the Earth to twenty-four hours which are a perfect natural day The other going Westward and seconding the course of the Sun by his own journey will by the same reason add as much proportionably unto his day as the other lost and in the end will lose a day in his accompt For demonstration of the which suppose of these two Travellers that the former for every fifteen miles should take away one minute from the length of the day and the latter add as much unto it in the like proportion of his journey Now by the Golden Rule if every fifteen miles subtract or add one minute in the length of the day then must 21600. miles which is the compass of the Earth add or subtract 1440. minutes which make up twenty-four hours a just natural day To bring this matter home unto the business now in hand suppose we that a Turk a Jew and a Christian should dwell together at Hierusalem whereof the one doth keep his Sabbath on the Friday the other on the Saturday and the third sanctifieth the Sunday then that upon the Saturday the Turk begin his Journey Westward and the Christian Eastward so as both of them compassing the world do meet again in the same place the Jew continuing where they left him It will fall out that the Turk by going Westward having lost a day and the Christian going Eastward having got a day one and the same day will be a Friday to the Turk a Saturday unto the Jew and a Sunday to the Christian in case they calculate the time exactly from their departure to their return To prove this further yet by a matter of fact The Hollanders in their Discovery of Fretum le Maire Anno 1615. found by comparing their accompt at their coming home that they had clearly lost a day for they had traveled Westward in that tedious Voyage that which was Munday to the one being the Sunday to the other And now what should these People do when they were returned If they are bound by nature and the moral Law to sanctifie precisely one day in seven they must then sanctifie a day apart from their other Country-men and like a crew of Schismaticks divide themselves from the whole body of the Church or to keep order and comply with other men must of necessity be forced to go against the Law of nature or the moral Law which ought not to be violated for any by-respect whatever But to return unto Noahs Sons whom this case concerns It might for ought we know be theirs in this dispersion in this removing up and down and from place to place What shall we think of those that planted Northwards or as much extreamly Southwards whose issue now are to be found as in part is known near and within the Polar Circles What Sabbath think we could they keep Sometimes a very long one sure and sometimes none indeed none at all taking a Sabbath as we do for one day in seven For near the Polar Circles as is plainly known the days are twenty-four hours in length Between the Circle and the Pole the day if so it may be called increaseth first by weeks and at last by months till in the end there is six months perpetual day and as long a night No room in those parts for a Sabbath But it is time to leave these speculations and return to practice And first we will begin with Melchisedech King of Salem the Priest of the most high God Rex idem hominumque divumque sacerdos a type and figure of our Saviour whose Priesthood still continueth in the holy Gospel With him the rather because it is most generally conceived that he was Sem the Son of Noah Of him it is affirmed by Justin Martyr that he was neither Circumcised not yet kept the Sabbath and yet most acceptable unto God Dial. cum Tryphone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian also tells us of him Incircumcisum nec sabbatizantem ad sacerdotium Dei allectum esse Adv. Judaeos and puts him also in his challenge as one whom none amongst the Jews could ever prove to have kept the Sabbath Eusebius yet more fully than either of them Dem. l. 1. c. 6. Moses saith he brings in Melchisedech Priest of the most high God neither being Circumcised nor anointed with the holy Oyl as was afterwards commanded in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no not so much as knowing that there was a Sabbath and ignorant altogether of those Ordinances which were imposed upon the Jews and living most agreeably unto the Gospel Somewhat to that purpose also doth occur in his seventh de praeparatione cap. 8. Melchisedech whosoever he was gave meeting unto Abraham about the year of the world 2118. and if we may suppose him to be Sem as I think we may he lived till Isaac was fifty years of age which was long after this famous interview Now what these Fathers say of Sem if Sem at least was he whom the Scriptures call Melchisedech the same almost is said of his great Grand-child Heber he being named by Epiphanius for one of those who lived according to the faith of the Christian Church wherein no Sabbath was observed in that Fathers time And here we will take Lot in too although a little before his time as one of the Posterity of Heber that when we come to Abraham we may keep our selves within his Family Him Justin Martyr and Irenaeus both in the places formerly remembred make to be one of those which without Circumcision and the Sabbath were acceptable to the Lord and by him justified And so Tertullian that sine legis observatione Sabbath
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
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
conclude that point nisi aliunde suffulciantur unless they be well backed with better Argumens and Authorities out of other Authors Nay more than this the Gentiles were so far from sanctifying the Sabbath or seventh day themselves that they derided those that kept it The Circumcision of the Jews was not more ridiculous amongst the Heathens than their Sabbaths were not were they more extreamly scoffed at for the one than for the other by all sorts of Writers Ap. Aug. de civit Dei l. 6. c. 11. Hist l. 5. Seneca lays it to their charge that by occasion of their Sabbaths septimam fere aetatis suae partem vacando perdant they spent the seventh part of their lives in floth and idleness and Tacitus that not the seventh day but the seventh year also was as unprofitably wasted Septimo quoque die otium placuisse ferunt dein blandiente intertia septimum quoque annum ignaviae datum Moses saith he had so appointed because that after a long six days march the People became quietly setled on the seventh Juvenal makes also the same objection against the keeping of the Sabbath by the Jewish Nation Sat. 14. quod septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava partem vitae non attigit ullam And Ovid doth not only call them peregrina sabbata as things with which the Romans had but small and that late acquaintance but makes them a peculiar mark of the Jewish Religion Reme amor l. 1. Quaque die redeunt rebus minus apta gerendis De Arte l. 1. Culta Palestino septima sacra viro The seventh day comes for business unfit Held sacred by the Jew who halloweth it Where by the way Tostatus notes upon these words In Exod. 20. that sacra septima are here ascribed unto the Jews as their badge or cognizance which had been most improper and indeed untrue si gentes aliae servarent sabbatum if any other Nation specially the Romans had observed the same But to proceed Persius hits them in the teeth with their recutita sabbata And Martial scornfully calleth them Sabbatarians Sat. 5. l. 4. ep 4. Ap. Josephum Antiq. l. 12.1 in an Epigram of his to Bassus where reckoning up some things of an unsavoury smell he reckoneth Sabbatariorum jejunia amongst the principal So Agatharebides who wrote the lives of Alexanders successors accuseth them of an unspeakable superstition in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they suffered Ptolomy to take their City of Hierusalem on a Sabbath day rather than stand upon their guard But that of Apion Joseph adv Apion l. 2. the great Clerk of Alexandria is the most shameful and reproachful of all the rest Who to despight the Jews the more and lay the deeper stain upon their Sabbaths relates in his Egyptian story that at their going out of Egypt having travelled for the space of six whole days they became stricken with certain inflammations in the privy parts which the Egyptians call by the name of Sabbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for that cause they were compelled to rest on the seventh day which afterwards the called the Sabbath Than which what greater calumny could a malicious Sycophant invent against them Doubtless those men that speak so despicably and reproachfully of the Jewish Sabbath had never any of their own Nor did the Greeks and Latines and Egyptians only out of the plenty or the redundance rather of their wit deride and scoff the Sabbaths celebrated by those of Jewry Cap. 1. v. 7. it was a scorn that had before been fastned on them when wit was not so plentiful as in later times For so the Prophet Jeremiah in his Lamentations made on the death of King Josiah The adversaries saw her and did mock at her Sabbaths The Jews must needs be singular in this observation All Nations else both Graecian and Barbarian had never so agreed together to deride them for it Yet we deny not all this while but that the fourth Commandment so much thereof as is agreeable to the law and light of nature was not alone imprinted in the minds of the Gentiles but practised by them For they had statos dies some appointed times appropriated to the worship of their several gods as before was shewed their holy-days and half-holy-days accordding to that estimation which their gods had gotten in the world And this as well to comfort and refresh their spirits which otherwise had been spent and wasted with continual labour as to do service to those Deities which they chiefly honoured Dii genus bominum laboribus natura pressum miserati De leg l. 2. remissionem laborum statuerunt solennia festa was the resolution once of Plato But this concludes not any thing that they kept the Sabbath or that they were obliged to keep it by the law of nature And where it is conceived by some that the Gentiles by the light of nature had their Weeks Purch Pilgr l. 1. c. 4. which is supposed to be an argument that they kept the Sabbath a week being only of seven days and commonly so called both in Greek and Latine We on the other side affirm that by this very rule the Gentilos many of them if not the most could observe no Sabbath because they did observe no weeks For first the Caldees and the Persians had no weeks at all but to the several days of each several month appropriated a particular name of some King or other Emend temp l. 3. as the Peruvians do at this present time nomina diebus mensis indunt ut prisci Persae as Scaliger hath noted of them The Grecians also did the like in the times of old there being an old Attick Calendar to be seen in Scaliger wherein is no division of the month into weeks at all Then for the Romans they divided their accompt into eighths and eighths as the Jews did by sevens and sevens the one reflecting on their nundinae Id. l. 4. as the other did upon their Sabbath Ogdoas Romanorum in tributione dierum servabatur propter nundinas ut habdomas apud Judaeos propter sabbatum For proof of which there are some ancient Roman Calendars to be seen as yet one in the aforesaid Sealiger the other in the Roman Antiquities of John Rossinus wherein the days are noted from A. to H as in our common Almanacks from A to G. The Mexicans go a little further 〈…〉 and they have 13 days to the week as the same Scaliger hath observed of them Nay even the Jews themselves were ignorant of this division of the year into weeks as tostatus thinks In Levit. 23. qu. 3. till Moses learnt it of the Lord in the fall of Mannah Nor were the Greeks and Romans destitute of this accompt only whiles they were rude and untrained People as the Peruvians and the Mexicans at this present time but when they were in their greatest flourish for Arts and Empire Hist l. 36.
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
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
maximi eorum fanis jus Asyli manere c. neque cogi ad praestanda vadimonia sabbatis aut pridie sabbatorum post horam nonam in Parasceve Quod si quis contra decretum ausus fuerit gravi poena mulctabitur This Edict was set forth Anno 4045. and after many of that kind were published in several Provinces by Mar. Agrippa Provost General under Caesar Phil. legat ad Caium as also by Norbanus Flaceus and Julius Antonius Proconsuls at that time whereof see Josephus Nay when the Jews were grown so strict that it was thought unlawful either to give or take an Alms on the Sabbath day Augustus for his part was willing not to break them of it yet so to order and dispose his Bounties that they might be no losers by so fond a strictness For whereas he did use to distribute monthly a certain Donative either in Mony or in Corn this distribution sometimes happened on the Sabbath days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo hath it whereon the Jews might neither give nor take neither indeed do any thing that did tend to sustenance Therefore saith he it was provided that their proportion should be given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the next day after that so they might be made partakers of the publick benefit Not give nor take an Alms on the Sabbath day Their superstition sure was now very vehement seeing it would not suffer men to do the works of mercy on the day of mercy And therefore it was more than time they should be sent to School again to learn this Lesson I will have mercy and not sacrifice And so indeed they were sent unto School to him who in himself was both the Teacher and the Truth For at this time our Saviour came into the World And had there been no other business for him to do this only might have seemed to require his presence viz. to rectifie those dangerous Errours which had been spread abroad in these latter times about the Sabbath The service of the Sabbath in the Congregation he found full enough The custom was to read a Section of the Law out of the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses and after to illustrate or confirm the same out of some parallel place amongst the Prophets That ended if occasion were and that the Rulers of the Synagogue did consent unto it there was a word of Exhortation made unto the people Chap. 13.15 conducing to obedience and the works of Piety So far it is apparent by that passage in the Acts of the Apostles touching Paul and Barnabas that being at Antioch in Pisidia on the Sabbath day 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 to speak unto the people dicite say on As for the Law I note this only by the way they had divided it into 54 Sections which they read over in the two and fifty sabbaths joyning two of the shortest twice together that so it might be all read over within the year beginning on the Sabbath which next followed the Feast of Tabernacles ending on that which came before it So far our Saviour found no fault but rather countenanced and confirmed the custom by his gracious presence and example But in these rigid Vanities and absurd Traditions by which the Scribes and Pharisees had abused the Sabbath and made it of an ease to become a drudgery in those he thought it requisite to detect their follies and ease the people of that bondage which they in their proud humours had imposed upon them The Pharisees had taught that it was unlawful on the sabbath day either to heal the impotent or relieve the sick or feed the hungry but he confutes them in them all both by his Acts and by his Disputations Whatever he maintain'd by Argument he made good by Practice Did they accuse his followers of gathering Corn upon the Sabbath being then an hungred he le ts them know what David did in the same extremity Their eating or their gathering on the Sabbath day take you which you will was not more blameable nay not so blameable by the Law as David's eating of the Shew-bread which plainly was not to be eaten by any but the Priest alone The Cures he did upon the Sabbath what were they more than which themselves did daily do in laying salves unto those Infants whom on the Sabbath day they had Circumcised His bidding of the impotent man to take up his Bed and get him gone which seemed so odious in their eyes was it so great a toyl as to walk round the walls of Hiericho and bear the Ark upon their shoulders or any greater burden to their idle backs than to lift up the Ox and set him free out of that dangerous Ditch into the which the hasty Beast might fall as well upon the Sabbath as the other days Should men take care of Oxen and not God of Man Not so The Sabbath was not made for a lazy Idol which all the Nations of the World should fall down and worship but for the ease and comfort of the labouring man that he might have some time to refresh his spirits Sabbatum propter hominem factum est The Sabbath saith our Saviour was made for man man was not made to serve the Sabbath Nor had God so irrevocably spoke the word touching the sanctifying of the Sabbath that he had left himself no power to repeal that Law in case he saw the purpose of the Law perverted the Son of man even he that was the Son both of God and Man being Lord also of the Sabbath Nay it is rightly marked by some that Christ our Saviour did more works of Charity on the Sabbath day than on all days else Zanchius observes it out of Irenaeus In Mandat 4. Saepius multo Christum in die Sabbati praestitisse opera charitatis quam in aliis diebus and his note is good Not that there was some urgent and extream necessity either the Cures to be performed that day or the man to perish For if we look into the story of our Saviours actions we find no such matter It 's true that the Centurions son and Peters mother-in-law were even sick to death and there might be some reason in it why he should haste unto their Cures on the Sabbath day But on the other side the man that had the withered Hand Matth. 13. and the Woman with her flux of Blood eighteen years together Luke 13. he that was troubled with the Dropsie Luke 14. and the poor wretch which was afflicted with the Palsie John 5. in none of these was found any such necessity but that the Cure might have been respited to another day What then Shall it be thought our Saviour came to destroy the Law No. God forbid Himself hath told us that he came to fulfil it rather He came to let them understand
and to make ready for the Sabbath That done they take no work in hand Only the Women when the Sun is near its setting light up their Sabbath-lamps in their dining rooms and stretching out their hands towards them give them their Blessing and depart To morrow they begin their Sabbath very early and for entrance thereunto array themselves in their best Cloaths and their richest Jewels it being the conceit of Rabby Solomon that the Memento in the front of the fourth Commandment was placed there especially to put the Jews in mind of their Holiday Garments Nay so precise they are in these Preparations and the following Rest that if a Jew go forth on Friday and on the night falls short of home more than is lawful to be travelled on the Sabbath day there must he set him down and there keep his Sabbath though in a Wood or in the Field or the High-way side without all fear of wind or weather of Thieves or Robbers without all care also of Meat and Drink Periculo latronum praedonumque omui penuria item omni cibi potusque neglectis as that Authour hath it For their behaviour on the Sabbath and the strange niceties wherewith they abuse themselves he describes it thus Equus aut asinus Domini ipsius stabulo exiens Id. cap. 11. froenum aut capistrum non aliud quicquam portabit c. An Horse may have a Bridle or an Halter to lead not a Saddle to load him and he that leadeth him must not let it hang so loose that it may seem he rather carrieth the Bridle than leads the Horse An Hen must not wear her Hose sowed about her Leg They may not milk their Kine nor eat any of the milk though they have procured some Christian to do that work unless they buy it A Taylor may not wear his Needle sticking on his sleeve The lame may use a staff but the blind may not They may not burthen themselves with Cloggs or Pattens to keep their feet out of the dirt nor rub their Shoos if foul against the ground but against a wall nor wipe their dirty Hands with a Cloth or Towel but with a Cows or Horses tail they may do it lawfully A wounded Man may wear a Plaster on his sore that formerly was applyed unto it but if it fall off he may not lay it on anew or bind up any wound that day nor carry money in their Purses or about their Clothes They may not carry a Fan or flap to drive away the Flies If a Flea bite they may remove it but not kill it but a Lowse they may yet Rabbi Eliezer thinks one may as lawfully kill a Camel They must not fling more Corn unto their Poultry than will serve that day lest it may grow by lying still and they be said to sow their Corn upon the Sabbath To whistle a tune with ones Mouth or play it on an Instrument is unlawful utterly as also to knock with the ring or hammer of a Door or knock ones hand upon a Table though it be only to still a Child So likewise to draw Letters either in dust or ashes or on a wet Board is prohibited but not to fancy them in the Air. With many other infinite absurdities of the like poor nature wherewith the Rabbins have been pleased to afflict their Brethren and make good sport to all the World which are not either Jews or Jewishly affected Nay to despite our Saviour as Buxdorfius tells us they have determined since that it is unlawful to life the Ox or Ass out of the Ditch which in the strictest time of the Pharisaical rigours was accounted lawful Indeed the marvel is the less that they are so uncharitable to poor Brute creatures when as they take such little pitty upon themselves Crantzius reports a story of a Jew of Magdeburg who falling on a Saturday into a Privy would not be taken out because it was the Sabbath day and that the Bishop gave command that there he should continue on the Sunday also so that between both the poor Jew was poisoned with the very stink The like our Annals do relate of a Jew of Tewkesbury whose story being cast into three riming Verses according to the Poetry of those times I have here presented and translated Dialogue-wise as they first made it Tende manus Solomon ut te de stercore tollam Sabbata nostra colo de stercore surgere nolo Sabbata nostra quidem Solomon celebrabis ibidem Friend Solomon thy Hands up-rear And from the Jakes I will thee bear Our Sabbath I so highly prize That from the place I will not rise Then Solomon without more adoe Our Sabbath thou shalt keep there too For the continuance of their Sabbath as they begin it early on the day before so they prolong it on the day till late at night And this they do in pity to the souls in Hell who all the while the Sabbath lasteth have free leave to play For as they tell us silly wretches upon the Eve before the Sabbath it is proclaimed in the Hall that every one may go his way and take his pleasure and when the Sabbath is concluded they are recalled again to the house of Torments I am ashamed to meddle longer in these trifles these Dreams and dotages of infatuated men given over to a reprobate sense Nor had I stood so long upon them but that in this Anatomy of the Jewish follies I might let some amongst us see into what dangers they are falling For there are some indeed too many who taking his for granted which they cannot prove that the Lords Day succeeds into the place and rights of the Jewish sabbath and is to be observed by vertue of the fourth Commandment have trenched too near upon the Rabbins in binding men to nice and scrupulous observances which neither we nor our Fore-fathers were ever able to endure But with what warrant they have made a sabbath day in the Christian Church where there was never any known in all times before or upon what Authority they have presumed to lay heavy Burthens upon the Consciences of poor men which are free in Christ we shall the better see by tracing down the story from our Saviours time unto the times in which we live But I will here sit down and rest beseeching God who enabled me thus far to guide me onwards to the end Tu qui principio medium medio adjice finem THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH The Second BOOK From the first preaching of the Gospel to these present Times By PETER HEYLYN D.D. COLOSS. ii 16 17. Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the SABBATH Days which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. To the Christian Reader AND such I hope to meet with in this Part especially which treating
until after he had preached at Antiochia on the sabbath day yet was it certainly before he had done the like either at Philippos Thessalonica or at Corinth For the occasion of that Council it was briefly this Amongst those which had joyned themselves with the Apostles there was one Cerinthus a sellow of a turbulent and unquiet spirit and a most eager Enemy of all those Counsels whereof himself was not the Author This man had first begun a faction against St. Peter for going to Cornelius and preaching life eternal unto the Gentiles and finding ill success in that goes down to Antiochia and there begins another against Saint Paul This Epiphanius tells us of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 1. har 28. n. 1. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like Philaster doth affirm Seditionem sub Apostolis commovisse De haeres in Cerintho that he had raised a faction against the Apostles which was not to be crushed but by an Apostolical and general Council This man and those that came down with him were so enamoured on the Ceremonies and Rites of Moses that though they entertained the Gospel yet they were loth to leave the Law and therefore did resolve it seems to make a mixture out of both Hence taught they that except all men were circumcised after the manner of Moses they could not be saved Where note Acts 15.1 that though they spake only of Circumcision yet they intended all the Law sabbaths and other legal Ordinances of what sort soever Docuit Cerinthus observationem legis Mosaicae necessariam esse circumcisionem sabbata observanda as Philaster hath it The like saith Calvin on the place Sola quidem circumcisio hic nominatur sed ex contextu facile patet eos de tota lege movisse controversiam The like Lorinus also amongst the Jesuits Nomine circumcisionis reliqua lex tota intelligitur Indeed the Text affirms as much where it is said in terms express that they did hold it needful to circumeise the people Acts 15.5 and to command them to keep the Law of Moses whereof the Sabbath was a part For the decision of this point and the appeasing of those Controversies which did thence arise it pleased the Church directed by the Holy Ghost to determine thus that such amongst the Gentiles as were converted to the faith should not at all be burdened with the Law of Moses but only should observe some necessary things viz. that they abstain from things offered unto Idols and from blood and that which is strangled Verse 29 and from fornication And here it is to be observed that the Decree or Canon of this Council did only reach unto the Gentiles as is apparent out of the Proeme to the Decretal which is directed to the Brethren which are of the Gentiles and from the 21. Chapter of the Acts where it is said that as concerning the Gentiles which believe we have written and determined that they observe no such thing as the Law of Moses So that for all that was determined in this Council those of the Jews which had embraced the saith of Christ were not prohibited as yet to observe the Sabbath and other parts of Moses Law Acts 16.3 as before they did in which regard St. Paul caused Timothy to be circumcised because he would not scandalize and offend the Jews The Jews were very much affected to their ancient Ceremonies In Acts 21.23 and Calvin rightly hath affirmed Correctionem ut difficilis erat ita subitam esse non potuisse that a full reformation of that zeal of theirs as it was full of difficulty so could it not be done upon the sudden Concil Tom. 1. Bin. Therefore it pleased the Apostles as it is conceived in their fourth Council holden at Hierusalem mention whereof is made in the 21. of the Acts to make it lawful for the Jews to retain Circumcision and such legal Rites together with the faith in Christ Quamdiu templum sacrificia legis in Hierusalem stabant as long as the Jewish Temple and the legal sacrifices in Hierusalem should continue standing Not that the faith of Christ was not sufficient of it self for their salvation Sed ut mater Synagoga paulatim cum honore sepeliretur but that the Synagogue might be layed to sleep with the greater honour But this if so it was was for no long time For when the third Council holden in Hierusalem against Cerinthus and his party was held in Anno 51. and this which now we speak of Anno 58. the final ruin of the Temple was in 72. So that there was but one and twenty years in the largest reckoning wherein the Christian Jews were suffered to observe their Sabbath and yet not as before they did as if it were a necessary Duty but as a thing indifferent only But that time come the Temple finally destroyed and the legal Ceremonies therein buried it was accounted afterwards both dangerous and heretical to observe the Sabbath or mingle any of the Jewish leaven with the Bread of life St. Hierom roundly so proclaims it caeremonias Judaeorum perniciosas pestiferas esse Christianis that all the Ceremonies of the Jews whereof before he named the Sabbath to be one were dangerous yea and deadly too to a Christian man Sive ex Judaeis esset five ex Gentibus whether he were originally of the Jews or Gentiles To which Saint Austin gives allowance Ego hanc vocem tuam omnino confirmo in his reply unto St. Hicrom That it was also deemed heretical to celebrate a sabbath in the Christian Church we shall see hereafter In the mean time we must proceed in search of the Lords day and of the Duties then performed whereof we can find nothing yet by that name at least The Scripture tells us somewhat that St. Paul did at Troas upon the first day of the week which happening much about this time comes in this place to be considered The passage in the Text stands thus Acts 20.7 Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight Take notice here that Paul had tarried there seven days before this hapned Now in this Text there are two things to be considered first what was done upon that day and secondly what day it was that is there remembred First for the action it is said to be breaking of bread which some conclude to be administring the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and Pauls Discourse which followed on it In locum to be a Sermon But sure I am Saint Chrysostom tells us plainly otherwise who relates it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Their meeting at that time saith he was not especially to receive instruction from Saint Paul but to eat bread with him and there upon occasion given he discoursed unto them See saith the Father how
the Cardinal that either Sunday is not meant in the Revelation or else Saint John was not the Author of keeping Easter with the Jews on what day soever Rather we may conceive that Saint John gave way unto the current of the times which in those places as is said were much intent upon the customs of the Jews most of the Christians of those parts being Jews originally For the composing of this difference and bringing of the Church to an uniformity the Popes of Rome bestirred themselves and so did many others also And first Pope Pius published a Declaration Com. Tom. 1. Pascha domini die dominica annuis solennitatibus celebrandum esse In Chronic. that Easter was to be solemnized on the Lords day only And here although I take the words of the letter decretory yet I rely rather upon Eusebius for the authority of the fact than on the Decretal it self which is neither for the substance probable and the date stark false not to be trusted there being no such Consuls it is Crabbes own note as are there set down But the Authority of Pope Pius did not reach so far as the Asian Churches and therefore it produced an effect accordingly This was 159. and seven years after Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna a Reverend and an holy man Euseb hist l. 4. c. 13. made away to Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to confer with Anicetus then the Roman Prelate about this business And though one could not wooe the other to desert the cause yet they communicated together and so parted Friends But when that Blastus afterwards had made it necessary which before was arbitrary and taught it to be utterly unlawful to hold this Feast at any other time than the Jewish Passeover becoming so the Author of the Quarto-decimani as they used to call them then did both Eleutherius publish a Decree that it was only to be kept upon the Sunday and Irenaeus though otherwise a peaceable man writ a Discourse entituled De schismate contra Blastum now not extant A little before this time this hapned Anno 180. the controversie had took place in Laodicea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 4. c. 25. as Eusebius hath it which moved Melito Bishop of Sardis a man of special eminence to write two Books de Pascbate and one de die Dominico 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to what side he took it is hard to say Were those Discourses extant as they both are lost we might no doubt find much that would conduce to our present business Two years before the close of this second Century Pope Victor Euseb l. 5. c. 23.24 presuming probably on his name sends abroad his Mandate touching the keeping of this Feast on the Lords day only against the which when as Polycrates and other Asian Prelates had set out their Manifests he presently without more ado declares them all for excommunicate But when this rather hindred than advanced the cause the Asian Bishops cared little for those Bruta fulmina and Irenaeus who held the same side with him having persuaded him to milder courses he went another way to work by practising with the Prelates of several Churches to end the matter in particular Councils Of these there was one held at Osroena another by Bachyllus Bishop of Corinth a third in Gaul by Irenaeus a fourth in Pontus a fifth in Rome a sixth in Palestine by Theophilus Bishop of Caesaria the Canons of all which were extant in Eusebius time and in all which it was concluded for the Sunday By means of these Syndical determinations the Asian Prelates by degrees let fall their rigour and yielded to the stronger and the surer side Yet waveringly and with some relapses till the great Council of Nice backed with the Authority of as great an Emperour setled it better than before none but some scattered Schismaticks now and then appearing that durst oppose the resolution of the that famous Synod So that you see that whether you look upon the day appointed for the Jewish sabbath or on the day appointed for the Jewish Passover the Lords day found it no small matter to obtain the victory And when it had prevailed so far that both the Feast of Easter was restrained unto it and that it had the honour of the Publick Meetings of the Congregation yet was not this I mean this last exclusively of all other days the former Sabbath the fourth and sixth days of the week having some share therein for a long time after as we shall see more plainly in the following Centuries But first to make an end of this this Century affords us three particular Writers that have made mention of this day First Justin Martyr who then lived in Rome doth thus relate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apolog. 2. c. Vpon the Sunday all of us assemble in the Congregation as being that first day wherein God separating the light and darkness did create the World and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again from the dead This for the day then for the service of the day he describes it thus Vpon the day called Sunday all that abide within the Cities or about the Fields do meet together in some place where the Records of the Apostles and writing of the Prophets as much as is appointed are read unto us The Reader having done the Priest or Prelate ministreth a word of Exhortation that we do imitate those good things which are there repeated Then standing up together we send up our prayers unto the Lord which ended there is delivered unto every one of us Bread and Wine with Water After all this the Priest or Prelate offers up our Prayers and Thanksgiving as much as in him is to God and all the people say Amen those of the richer sort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man as he would himself contributing something towards the relief of the poorer Brethren which after the Priest or Prelate was disposed amongst them A Form of service not much different from that in the Church of England save that we make the entrance unto our Liturgy with some preparatory prayers The rest consisting as we know of Psalms and several Readings of the Scriptures out of the Old Testament and the New the Epistles and the holy Gospel that done the Homily or Sermon followeth they offer twice next then Prayers and after that the Sacrament and then Prayers again the people being finally dismissed with a Benediction The second testimony of these times is that of Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who lived about 175 some nine years after Justin Martyr wrote his last Apology who in an Epistle unto Soter Pope of Rome doth relate it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 4. c. 22. c. To day saith he we kept holy the Lords day wherein we read the Epistle which you writ unto us which we do always read for our instruction as also the first Epistle writ by Clemens Where note that not
the Scriptures only were in those times read publickly in the Congregation but the Epistles and discourses of such Learned men as had been eminent for place and piety as in the after-times on defect of Sermons it was the custom of the Church to read the Homilies of the Fathers for their edification Conciliorum Tom. 2. Concerning which it was ordained in a Council at Vaux Anno 444. that if the Priest were sick or otherwise infirm so that he could not preach himself the Deacons should rehearse some Homily of the holy Fathers Si presbyter aliqua infirmitate prohibente per seipsum non potuerit praedicare sanctorum Patrum homiliae à Diaconibus recitentur so the Council ordered it The third and last Writer of this Century which gives us any thing of the Lords day Strom. l. 7. is Clemens Alexandrinus he flourished in the year 190. who though he fetch the pedegree of the Lords day even as far as Plato which before we noted yet he seems well enough contented that the Lords day should not be observed at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ought saith he to honour and to reverence him whom we are verily persuaded to be the Word our Saviour and our Captain and in him the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in selected times as some do amongst us but always during our whole lives and on all occasions The Royal Prophet tells us that he preaised God seven times a day Whence he that understands himself stands not upon determinate places or appointed Temples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much less on any Festivals or days assigned but in all places honours God though he be alone And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. making our whole lives a continual Festival and knowing God to be every where we praise him sometimes in the fields and sometimes sailing on the Seas and finally in all the times of our life whatever So in another place of the self-same Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He that doth lead his life according to the Ordinances of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then keeps the Lords day when he casts away every evil thought and doing things with knowledge and understanding doth glorifie the Lord in his Resurrection By which it seems that whatsoever estimation the Lords day had attained unto at Rome and Corinth yet either it was not so much esteemed at Alexandria or else this Clemens did not think so rightly of it as he should have done Now in the place of Justin Martyr before remembred there is one special circumstance to be considered in reference to our present search for I say nothing here of mingling water with the Wine in the holy Sacrament as not conducing to the business which we have in hand This is that in their Sundays service they did use to stand during the time they made their Prayers unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words there are Such was the custom of this time and a long time after that though they kneeled on other days yet on the Lords day they prayed always standing Yet not upon the Lords day only but every day from Easter unto Pentecost The reason is thus given by him who made the Responsions ascribed to Justin That so saith he we might take notice as of our fall by sin so of our restitution by the grace of Christ Resp ad qu. 105. Six days we pray upon our knees and that 's in token of our fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But on the Lords day we bow not the knee in token of the Resurrection by which according to the Grace of Christ we are set free from sin and the powers of death The like saith he is to be said of the days of Pentecost which custom as he tells us and cites Irenaeus for his Author did take beginning even in the times of the Apostles Rather we may conceive that they used this Ceremony to testifie their faith in the Refurrection of our Lord and Saviour which many Hereticks of those times did publickly gain-say as before we noted and shall speak more thereof hereafter But whatsoever was the reason it continued long and was confirm'd particularly by the great Synod of Nice what time some People had begun to neglect this custom The Synod therefore thus determined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that forasmuch as some did use to kneel on the Lords day Can. 20. and the time of Pentecost that all things in all places might be done with an uniformity it pleased the holy Synod to decree it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that men should stand at those times when they made their prayers For Fathers which avow this custom consult Tertullian lib. de corona mil. S. Basil l. de Sp. S. c. 27. S. Hierom. adv Luciferian S. Austin Epist 118. S. Hilaries Praefat. in Psalm Ambros Serm. 62. and divers others What time this custom was laid by I can hardly say but sure I am it was not laid aside in a long time after not till the time of Pope Alexander the third who lived about the year 1160. Decret l. 2. tit 9. c. 2. For in a Decretal of his confirmatory of the former custom it was prohibited to kneel on the times remembred Nisi aliquis ex devotioned id velit facere in secreto unless some out of pure devotion did it secretly Which dispensation probably occasioned the neglect thereof in the times succeeding the rather since those Hereticks who formerly had denied the resurrection were now quite exterminated This circumstance we have considered the more at large as being the most especial difference whereby the Sundays service was distinguished from the week-days worship in these present times whereof we write And yet the difference was not such that it was proper to the Lords day only but if it were a badge of honour communicated unto more than forty other days Of which more anon But being it was an Ecclesiastical and occasional custom the Church which first ordained it let it fall again by the same Authority In the third Century the first we meet with is Tertullian who flourished in the very first beginnings of it by whom this day is called by three several names For first he calls it Dies solis Sunday as commonly we now call it and saith that they did dedicate the same unto mirth and gladness not to devotion altogether Diem solis laetitiae indulgemus Cap. 16. in his Apologetick The same name is used by Justin Martyr in the passages before remembred partly because being to write to an Heathen Magistrate it had not been so proper to call it by the name of the Lords day which name they knew not and partly that delivering the form and substance of their service done upon that day they might the better quit themselves from being worshippers of the Sun as the Gentiles thought For by their meetings on this
his Book adv Psychicos About the middle of this Century did Saint Cyprian live another African and he hath left us somewhat although not much which concerns this business Aurelius one of excellent parts Lib. 2. Epist 5. was made a Reader in the Church I think of Carthage which being very welcome news to the common People Saint Cyprian makes it known unto them and withal lets them understand that Sunday was the day appointed for him to begin his Ministery Et quoniam semper gaudium properat nec mora ferre potest laetitia dominico legit So that as Sunday was a day which they used to meet on so reading of the Scripture was a special part of the Sundays exercise Not as an exercise to spend the time when one doth wait for anothers coming till the Assembly be compleat and that without or choice or stint appointed by determinate order as is now used both in the French and Belgick Churches for what need such an eminent man as Aurelius was be taken out with so much expectation to exercise the Clerks or the Sextons duty But it was used amongst them then as a chief portion of the service which they did to God in hearkening reverently unto his voice It being so ordered in the Church Preface to the Common Prayer that the whole Bible or the greatest part thereof should be read over once a year And this that so the Ministers of the Congregation by often reading and meditation of Gods Word be stirred up to godliness themselves and be the more able to exhort others by wholesome doctrine and to confute them that were Adversaries to the truth as that the People by daily hearing of the Scriptures should profit more and more in the knowledge of God and be the more inflamed with the love of his true Religion Now for the duties of the people on this day in the Congregation as they used formerly to hear the Word and receive the Sacraments Dâ—eru l. 5. c. 7. and to pour forth their souls to God in affectionate prayers So much about these times viz. in Ann. 237. it had been appointed by Pope Fabian that every man and woman should on the Lords day bring a quantity of bread and wine first to be offered on the Altar and then distributed in the Sacrament A thing that had been done before as of common course but now exacted as a duty for the neglect whereof Saint Cyprian chides with a rich Widdow of his time who neither brought her offering nor otherwise gave any thing to the Poor-mans Box and therefore did not keep the Lords day as she should have done De pietat Eleemos Locuples dives dominicum celebrare te credis quae Corbonam omnino non respicis quae in Dominicum here he means the Church sine sacrificio venis quae partem de sacrificio quod pauper obtulit sumis In after times this custom went away by little and little instead of which it was appointed by the Church and retained in ours that Bread and Wine for the Communion shall be provided by the Churchwardens at the charge of the Parish I should now leave Saint Cyprian here V. l. 3. Epi. 8. but that I am to tell you first that he conceives the Lords day to have been prefigured in the eighth day destinate to Circumcision Which being but a private opinion of his own I rather shall refer the Reader unto the place than repeat the words And this is all this Age affords me in the present search For other Holy-days instituted by the Church for Gods publick service in those three Centuries precedent besides the Lords day or the Sunday which came every week Origen names the Good Friday as we call it now the Parasceve as he calls it there Cont. Cels l. 8. the Feast of Easter and of Pentecost Of Easter we have spoken already For Pentecost or Whitsontide as it began with the Apostles so it continues till this present but not in that solemnity which before it had For antiently not that day only which we call Whitsunday or Pentecost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but all the fifty days from Easter forwards were accounted holy and solemnized with no less observation than the Sundays were no kneeling on the one nor upon the other no fasting on the one nor upon the other Of which days that of the Ascension or Holy-Thursday being one became in little time to be more highly reckoned of than all the rest as we shall prove hereafter out of S. Austin But for these 50 days aforesaid Tertullian tells us of them thus De Coron milit ca. 3. Die Dominico jejunium nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare Eadem immunitate à die Paschae in Pentecosten gaudemus which makes both alike Which words if any think too short to reach the point he tells us in another place that all the Festivals of the Gentiles contained not so many days as did that one Excerpe singulas solennitates nationum in ordinem texe De Ido l. c. 14. Pentecosten implere non poterunt The like he hath also in his Book adv Psychicos The like Saint Hierom. ad Lucinum the like Saint Ambrose or Maximus Taurinens which of the two soever it was that made those Sermons Serm. 60.61 In which last it is said expresly of those fifty days that every one of them was instar Dominicae and qualis est Dominica in all respects nothing inferior to the Lords day And in the Comment on Saint Luke which questionless was writ by Ambrose cap. 17. l. 8. it is said expresly Et sunt omnes dies tanquam Dominica That every day of all the fifty was to be reckoned of no otherwise in that regard especially than the Sunday was Some footsteps of this custom yet remain amongst us in that we fast not either on S. Marks Eve or on the Eve of Philip and Jacob happening within the time The fast of the Rogation week was after instituted on a particular and extraordinary occasion Now as these Festivals of Easter and of Whitsontide were instituted in the first Age or Century and with them those two days attendant which we still retain whereof see Austin de Civit. Dei li. 22. ca. 8. Nyssen in his first Hom. de Paschate where Easter is expresly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the three-days-feast So was the Feast of Christs Nativity ordained or instituted in the second that of his Incarnation in the third For this we have an Homily of Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus who lived in An. 230. entituled De annunciatione B. Virginis as we call it now But being it is questionable among the Learned whether that Homily be his or not there is an Homily of Athanasius on the self same argument he lived in the beginning of the following Century whereof there is no question to be made at all That of the Lords Nativity began if not before in the
second Age. Theophilus Caesariens who lived about the times of Commodus and Severus the Roman Emperors makes mention of it and fixeth it upon the 25 of Decemb. as we now observe it Natalem Domini quocunque die 8. Calend. Januar. venerit celebrare debemus as his own words are And after in the time of Maximinus which was one of the last great Persecutors Nicephorus tells us that In ipso natalis Dominici die l. 7. c. 6. Christianos Nicomediae festivitatem celebrantes succenso templo concremavit even in the very day of the Lords Nativity he caused the Christians to be burnt at Nicomedia whilst they were solemnizing this great Feast within their Temple I say this Great Feast and I call it so on the Authority of Beda Orat. de Philogon who reckoneth Christmas Easter and Whitsontide for majora solennia as they still are counted But before Bede it was so thought over all the Church Chrysostom calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother or Metropolis of all other Feasts See Binius Conc. T. 1. And before him Pope Fabian whom but now we spake of ordained that all Lay-men should communicate at least thrice a year which was these three Festivals Etsi non frequentius saltemter in Anno Laici homines communicent c. in Pascha Pentecoste Natali Domini So quickly had the Annual got the better of the weekly Festivals According to which ancient Canon the Church of England hath appointed that every man communicate at least thrice a year of which times Easter to be one Before we end this Chapter there is one thing yet to be considered which is the name whereby the Christians of these first Ages did use to call the day of the Resurrection and consequently the other days of the week according as they found the time divided The rather because some are become offended that we retain those names amongst us which were to us commended by our Ancestors and to them by theirs Where first we must take notice that the Jews in honour of their Sabbath used to refer times to that distinguishing their days by Prima Sabbati Secunda Sabbati and so until they came to the Sabbath it self As on the other side the Gentiles following the motions of the Planets gave to each day the name of that particular Planet by which the first hour of the day was governed as their Astrologers had taught them Now the Apostles being Jews retained the custom of the Jews and for that reason called that day on which our Saviour rose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 una sabbati the first day of the week as our English reads it The Fathers many of them followed their example Saint Austin thereupon calls Thursday by the name of quintum sabbati Epist 118. and so doth venerable Beda hist lib. 4. c. 25. Saint Hierom Tuesday tertium sabbati in Epitaph Paulae Tertullian Friday by the old name parasceve l. 4. advers Marcion Saturday they called generally the Sabbath and Sunday sometimes dies solis De invent rerum l. 5 6. and is sometimes Dominicus Pope Silvester as Polydore Virgil is of opinion vanorum deorum memoriam abhorrens hating the name and memory of the Gentile-Gods gave order that the days should be called by the name of Feriae and the distinction to be made by Prima feria secunda feria c. the Sabbath and the Lords day holding their names and places as before they did Hence that of Honorius Augustodunensis Hebraei nominant dies suos De imagine mundi cap. 28. una vel prima sabbati c. Pagani sic dies Solis Lunae c. Christiani vero sic dies nominant viz. Dies Dominicus feria prima c. Sabbatum But by their leaves this is no universal rule the Writers of the Christian Church not tying up their hands so strictly as not to give the days what names they pleased Save that the Saturday is called amongst them by no other name than that which formerly it had the Sabbath So that when ever for a thousand years and upwards we meet with sabbatum in any Writer of what name soever it must be understood of no day but Saturday As for the other day the day of the Resurrection all the Evangelists and Saint Paul take notice of no other name than of the first day of the Week Saint John and after him Ignatius call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day But then again Justin Martyr for the second Century doth in two several passages call it no otherwise than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sunday as then the Gentiles called it and we call it now And so Tertullian for the third who useth both and calls it sometimes diem solis and sometimes Dominicum as before was said Which questionless neither of them would have done on what respect soever had it been either contrary to the Word of God or scandalous unto his Church So for the after Ages in the Edicts of Constantine Valentinian Valens Gratian Honorius Arcadius Theodosius Christian Princes all it hath no other name than Sunday or dies solis and many fair years after them the Synod held at Dingulofinum in the lower Bavaria Anno 772. calls it plainly Sunday Festo die solis prophanis negotiis abstineto of which more hereafter And Aventine for the latter Writers who lived not till the Age last past speaking of the battel fought near Cambray between Charles Martel and Hilpericus King of France saith that it hapned on the thirteenth of the Calends of April Hist l. 3. quae tum dies solis ante Paschalia erat being the Sunday before Easter They therefore are more nice than wise who out of a desire to have all things new would have new names for every day or call them as sometimes they were the first day of the week the second day of the week sic de coeteris and all for fear lest it be thought that we do still adore those Gods whom the Gentiles worshipped Cont. Faust l. 19. c. 5. Saint Augustine as it seems had met with some this way affected and thus disputes the case with Faustus Manichaeus Deorum suorum nomina gentes imposuerunt diebus istis c. The Gentiles saith the Father gave unto every day of the week the name of one or other of their Gods and so they did also unto every month If then we keep the name of March and not think of Mars Why may we not saith he preserve the name of Saturday and not think of Saturn I add why may we not then keep the name of Sunday and not think of Phoebus or Apollo or by what other name soever the old Poets call him This though it satisfied the Manichees will not perhaps now satisfie some curious men who do as much dislike the names of months as of the days To others I presume it may give some reason why we retain the name of Sunday not
And then the reason of this follows Ne occasione momenti pereat commoditas coelesti provisione concessa This Edict did bear date in the Nones of March Anno 321 being the 11. year of that Princes Empire and long it did not stand till he himself was fain to explain his meaning in the first part of it Fr whereas he intended only to restrain Lawsuits and contentious pleadings as being unfit for such a day his Judges and like Officers finding a general restraint in the Law or Edict durst not ingage themselves in the cognizance of any civil Cause whatever no not so much as in the Manumission of a Bondslave This coming to the Emperours notice who was a friend of Liberty and could not but well understand how acceptable a thing it was to God that works of charity and mercy should not be restrained on any days it pleased him to send out a second Edict in the July following directed to Elpidius who was then Praefectus Praetorio as I take it wherein he authorized his Ministers to perform that Office any thing in the former Law unto the contrary notwithstanding For so it runs Ibid. Sicut indignissimum videbatur diem Solis venerationis suae celebrem altercantibus jurgiis noxis partium contentionibus occupari ita gratum est jucundum eo die quae sunt maxime votiva compleri Atque ideo emancipandi manumittendi die festo cuncti licentiam habeant super his rebus Acta non prohibeantur So that not only Husbandry was permitted in small Towns and Villages but Manumission being a meer civil Act and of no small Ceremony was by him suffered and allowed in the greater Cities The first great work done by the first great Christian Prince was to declare his royal pleasure about this Day what things he thought most proper to permit and what to disallow upon it teaching all other Kings and Princes which have since succeeded what they should also do on the same occasion Nor did this pious Prince confirm and regulate the Lords day only but unto him we are indebted for many of these other Festivals which have been since observed in the Church of God It had been formerly a custom in the Christian Church carefully to observe the times and days of their departure who had preferred the Gospel before their lives and suffered many Torments and at last Death it self for the faith of Christ Euseb hist l. 4. c. 14. The Church of Smyrna and that 's the highest we need go testifieth in an Epistle writ ad Philomelienses that they did celebrate the day wherein their Reverend Bishop Polycarp did suffer Martyrdom with joy and gladness and an holy Convocation This was in Anno 170 or thereabouts And in the following Age Saint Cyprian taking notice of such men as were imprisoned for the testimony of a good Conscience appointed that the days of their decease should be precisely noted that so their memories might be celebrated with the holy Martyrs Ep. 8. l. 3. Denique dies corum quibus excedunt annotate ut commemorationes corum inter memorias martyrum celebrare possimus as there he hath it But hitherto they were only bare memorials for more they durst not do in those times of trouble their sufferings only signified to the Congregation and that they did unto this end that by exhibiting to the people their infinite indurances for the truth and testimony of Religion they also might be nourished in an equal constancy After when as the Church was in perfect peace it pleased the Emperour Constantine to signifie to all his Deputies and Lieutenants in the Roman Empire Euseb l. 4. cap. 23. that they should have a care to see those the memorials of the Martyrs duly honoured and solemnize Times or Festivals to be appointed in the Churches to that end and purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And though these Festivals and Saints days became not forthwith common over all the World but were observed in those parts chiefly wherein the memory of the Saint or Martyr was in most esteem in which respect Saint Hierom calls them In Gal. 4. tempora in honore Martyrum pro diversa regionum varietate constituta yet in a little Tract of time such of them as had been most eminent as the Apostles and Evangelists were universally received and celebrated even as now they are as they are now observed in the Church of England De Martyr l. 8. and this I say upon the credit and authority of Theodoret. Who though he gives another reason and original of these Institutions informs us of these Festivals that they were modestae castae temperantia plenae performed with modesty chastity and sobriety not as the Festivals of the Gentiles were in excess and riot And not so only but he affirms this of them divinis canticis personandis sacrisque sermonibus audiendis intentae that they were solemnized with spiritual Hymns and religious Sermons and that the people used to empty out their souls to God in fervent and affectionate Prayers non sine lacrymis suspiriis even with sighs and tears As for Theodores he lived and flourished in the year 420. and speaks of these Festivals St. Peter and St. Thomas and St. Paul with others which he names particularly as things which had been setled and established a long time before and therefore could not be much after the time of Constantine who died not till the year 341 or thereabouts As for the eighth Book de Martyrib Where this passage is it is the 12. of those entituled de curandis Graec. affect And howsoever some exception hath been made against them as that they were not his whose names they carry yet find I no just proof thereof amongst our Criticks Now as the Emperour Constantine did add the Annual Festivals of the Saints unto those other Anniversary Feasts which formerly had been observed in the Christian Church so by his Royal Edict did he settle and confirm those publick meetings which had been formerly observed on each Friday weekly the Wednesday standing on the same Basis as before it did which was the custom of the Church De vit Const l. 4. c. 18. Eusebius having told us of this Emperours Edict about the honouring of the Sunday adds that he also made the like about the Friday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author hath it Sozomen adds that he enjoyned also the like Rest upon it the like cessation both from Judicature and all other Businesses and after gives this reason of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hist l. 1. c. 8. He honoured the one saith he as being the day of our Redeemers Resurrection the other as the day of our Saviours Passion So for the practice of the Church in the following times that they used other days besides the Sundays is evident by many passages of Cyril of Hierusalem where he makes mention of the Sermon preached the day before
to cry down the Manichees nor on the Thursday as a day of special credit amongst the Gentiles Anno 319. the better to comply with them in those perillous times After arose up one Eutactus for so I rather chuse to call him with the learned Cardinal than yield to Socrates who falsly doth impute these follies unto Eustathius and he would fast the Sunday too Conc. Tom. 1. Can. 18. but on another ground on pretence of abstinence A folly presently condemned in a Provincial Synod held at Gangra of Paphlagonia wherein it was determined thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any fasted on the Lords day on pretence of abstinence he should be Anathema Next sprung up one Aerius no good Sundays man but one that went not on so good a ground as Eutactus did He stood good man upon his Christian liberty and needs must fast upon the Lords day only because the Church had determined otherwise Of him St. De haeres c. 53. Austin tells us in the general that he cryed down all setled and appointed Fasts and taught his followers this that every man might fast as he saw occasion ne videatur sub lege lest else he should be thought to be under the Law More punctually Epiphanius tells us Haeres 75. n. 3. that to express this liberty they used to fast upon the Sunday and feast it as some do if late upon the Wednesday and the Friday ancient fasting days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Author hath it Add that St. Austin tells us of this Aerius that amongst other of his Heresies he taught this for one Presbyterum ab Episcopo nulla differentia discerni debere that there should be no difference between Priests and Bishops A pregnant evidence that those who set themselves against the Hierâ—rchy of the Church are the most likely men of all to overthrow all Orders in the Civil state Now as the Manichees did use to fast the Sunday so we they therein imitated by the Priscillianists Manichaeorum simillimos the very pictures of the Manichees as St. Epl. 86. Austin calls them save that these last did use to fast on the Christmass also and therein went beyond their pattern And this they did as Pope Leo tells us quia Christum dominum in vera hominis natura natum esse non credunt Epl. 93. c. 4. because they would not be persuaded that Christ the Lord had taken upon him our humane Nature To meet with these proud Sectaries for such they were there was a Council called at Saragosa Caesarea Augusta the Latins call it wherein the Fathers censured and anathematized all such as fasted on the Lords day causa temporis aut persuasionis aut superstitionis whether it were in reference unto any time Con. Tom. 1. Can. 2. or mispersuasion or superstition In reference unto any times this seems to make the Sunday fast unlawful in the time of Lent and so it was accounted without all question For this look Epiphanius Expos fid Cathol Num. 22. S. Ambr. de Elia jejunio cap. 10. S. Hierom epl ad Lucinum S. Chrysostom Hom. 11. in Gen. 2. In two of which fourfathers Chrysostom and Ambrose the Saturday is excepted also S. Austin Epl. 86. Concil Agathens Can. 12. Aurelianens 4. Can. 2. Humberti Resp ad libellum Nicetae and last of all Rupertus who lived in the beginning of the 12. De divinis Offic. l. 4. c. 9. Century to descend no lower who withal tells us that from the first Sunday in Lent unto Easter day are 42 days just whereof the Church fasteth only the 36. it being prohibited by the Canon to fast upon the day of the Resurrection Ut igitur nostri solennitas jejunii dominico magis coaptetur exemplo quatuor dies qui hanc dominicam praecedunt superadditi sunt Therefore saith he that the solemnity of our fast might come more near the Lords Example the four days which occur between Shrovetuesday and the first Sunday in Lent were added to make up the number But to come back unto the times where before we left partly in detestation of the Hereticks before remembred but principally in honour of the Resurrection the Council held at Carthage Anno 398. Can. 64. did decree it thus Qui die dominico studiose jejunat non credatur Catholicus that he which of set purpose did fast the Sunday should be held no Catholick For honest Recreations next I find not any thing to persuade me that they were not lawful since those which in themselves were of no good name no otherwise were prohibited in this present Age than as they were an hindrance to the publick service of the Church Can. 88. For so it was adjudged in the Council of Carthage before remembred Qui die solenni praetermisse Ecclesiae solenni conventu ad spectacula vadit exconnnunicetur He that upon a solemn day shall leave the service of the Church to go unto the common shews be he excommunicate where by the way this Canon reacheth unto those also who are offenders in this kind as well on any of the other Festivals and solemn Days as upon the Sunday and therefore both alike considerable in the present business But hereof and the spectacula here prohibited we shall have better opportunity to speak in the following Age. And here it is to be observed that as St. Chrysostom before confessed it to be lawful for a man to look unto his worldly business on the Lords day after the Congregation was dismissed so here the Fathers seem to dispense who went unto the common shews being worldly pleasures though otherwise of no good name as before we said in case they did not pretermit Gods publick service There fore we safely may conclude that they conceived it not unlawful for any man to follow his honest pleasures such as were harmless in themselves and of good report after the breaking up of the Congregation Of this sort questionless were shooting and all manly Exercises walking abroad or riding forth to take the Air civil Discourse good company and ingenuous mirth by any of which the spirits may be quickned and the body strengthened Whether that Dancing was allowed is a thing more questionable and probably as the dancings were in the former times it might not be suffered nay which is more it had been infinite scandal to the Church if they had permitted it For we may please to know that in the dancings used of old throughout the principal Cities of the Roman Empire there was much impurity and immodesty such as was not to be beheld by a Christian eye Sometimes they danced stark naked Orat. in Pis Art 3. in verrem and that not privately alone but in publick Feasts This Cicero objects against Lucius Piso quod in convivie saltaret nudus the same he also casts in the Teeth of Verres and Dejotarus was accused of the like immodesty whereof perhaps he was not guilty As for
herein Cod. Theodos l. 8. tit 8. This published by the same three Emperours Honorius and Evodius being that year Consuls which was in Anno 384 as the former was Afterwards Valentinian and Valens Emperours were pleased to add neminem Christianum ab exactoribus conveniri volumus that they would have no Christians brought upon that day before the Officers of the Exchequer In reference to the time it was thought good by Valentinian Theodosius and Arcadius all three Emperours together to make some other Festivals capable of the same exemption For whereas formerly all the time of Harvest and of Autumn was exempt from pleadings as that the Calends of January or the New years-day as now we call it had anciently been honoured with the same immunity these added thereunto the days on which the two great Cities of Rome and Constantinople had been built Cod. Theodos l. 2. tit 8. the seven days before Easter day and the seven that followed together with every Sunday in its course yea and the Birth-days of themselves with those on which each of them had begun his Empire Sanctos quoque Paschae dies qui septeno vel praecedunt numero vel sequuntur in eadem observatione numeramus necnon dies Solis so they call it all qui repetito inter se calculo revolvuntur Parem necesse est haberi reverentiam etiam nostris diebus qui vel lucis auspicia vel imperii ortus protulere Dated VII Id. Aug. Timasius and Promotus Consuls which was 389. So that in this regard the sacred Day had no more priviledg than the Civil but were all alike the Emperours day as much respected as the Lords Now as the Days were thus established so was the Form of Worship on those days established brought unto more perfection than it had been formerly when their Assemblies were prohibited and their Meetings dangerous or at least not so safe and free as in this fourth Century For in these times if not before the Priests that waited at the Altar attired themselves in a distinct Habit at the Ministration from what they were on other days the colour white and the significancy thereof to denote that Holiness wherewith the Priests of God ought to be apparelled such as the Surplices now in use in the Church of England Witness St. Hierom for the West In Ezâ—ch 44. that in the ministration they used a different habit from that of ordinary times Religio divina alterum habitum habet in ministerio alterum in usu vitaque communi So for the gencral he informs us For the particular next in a reply unto Pelagius Adv. Pelag. lib. 1. who it seems disliked it He asks him what offence it could be to God that Bishops Priests Deacons or those of any other inferiour order in administratione sacrificiorum candida veste processerint did in the ministration of the Eucharist bestir themselves in a white Vesture And so St. Chrysostom for the East telling the Priest of Antioch now how high a Calling the Lord had called them and how great power they had to repel unworthy men from the Lords Table adds That they were to reckon that for their Crown and glory and not that they were priviledged to go about the Church in a white garment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 83. in Math. 26. Nor did the Priest only thus avow his calling The people wanted not some outward signs and Ceremonies wherewith to honour their Redeemer and testifie unto the World that they were his servants and that by bowing of the knee which in those parts and times was the greatest sign both of humility and subjection Bowing the knee in honour of their Saviour at the name of Jesus and reverently kneeling on their knees when they received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Saint Ambrose tells us of the first Cap. 9. in his sixth Book de opere Hexaemeri where speaking of the office of each several member he makes the bowing of the knee at the name of Jesus the proper duty of that part Flexibile genu quo prae caeteris domini mitigatur offensa c. The knee saith he is flexible by which especially the anger of the Lord is mitigated his displeasure pacified and his grace obteined Hoc enim patris summi ergo filium donum est ut in nomine JESU omne genu curvetur For this saith he did the most mighty Father give as a special gift to his only son that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow This makes the matter plain enough we need go no further yet somewhat to this purpose may be seen also in St. Hierom in his Comment on the 46. of Esay For Kneeling or adoring at the instant of receiving the holy Sacrament the same St. Ambrose on those words De Sp. Sto. lib. 3. cap. 12. Adore his footstool doth expound it thus Per scabellum terra intelligitur per terram autem caro Christi quam hodie quoque in mysteriis adoramus By the footstool here we are to understand the Earth and by the Earth the flesh of Christ which we adore in the holy Mysteries which plainly shews what was the custom of these times Hom. 3. in Ephess And so St. Chrysostom tells his Audience that the great King hath made ready his Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angels ministring at the same the King himself in presence why then stand they still In case they are provided of a wedding garment why do they not fall down and then communicate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adora communica as the Latin renders it Where that the word adoration seem a little strange we may take notice that it is so used by Bishop Jewel The Sacrament saith he in that sort i.e. in respect of that which they signifie Desenc Art 8. and not in respect of that which they are in themselves are the flesh of Christ and are so understood and believed and adored And in another place of the same 8. Article Nor do we only adore Christ as very God but we do also worship and reverence the Sacrament and holy Mysteries of Christs Body yet so that we adore them not with godly honour as we do Christ himself So more hereof in Cyril Bishop of Hierusalem Catech 5. where adora is expresly mentioned and for the close of all that which is told us by Saint Austin how in his time the Gentiles charged it on the Christians that they did worship Ceres and Bacchus which was occasioned questionless by reason of their kneeling or adoring when they received the Bread and Wine in the holy Sacrament Cont. Faust Manich. lib. 20. cap. 13. Not that this use of kneeling or adoring was not more ancient in the Church for such a custom may be gathered both out of Origen and Tertullian in the Age before but that this Age affords us the most clear and perfect evidence for the proof thereof So for the
Musick used in the Congregation it grew more exquisite in these times than it had been formerly that which before was only a melodious kind of pronunciation being now ordered into a more exact and artificial Harmony This change was principally occasioned by a Canon of the Council of Laodicea in the first entrance of this Age. For where before it was permitted unto all promiscuously to sing in the Church it was observed that in such dissonancy of Voices and most of them unskilful in the notes of Musick there was no small jarring and unpleasant sounds This Council thereupon ordained Conc. Laodic Can. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that none should sing hereafter in the Congregation but such as were Canonically appointed to it and skilful in it By means whereof before the shutting up of this fourth Century the Musick of the Church became very perfect and harmonious suavi artificiosa voce cantata Confess l. 10. cap. 33. as St. Austin tells us So perfect and harmonious that it did work exceedingly on the affections of the Hearers and did movere animos ardentius in flammam pietatis inflame their minds with a more lively flame of Piety taking them Prisoners by the ears and so conducting them unto the glories of Gods Kingdom Ibid. Saint Austin attributes a great cause of Conversion to the power thereof calling to mind those frequent tears quas fudi ad cantus Ecclesiae tuae which had been drawn from him by this sacred Musick by which his soul was humbled and his affections raised to an height of godliness The like he also tells us in his ninth Book of Confessions and sixth Chapter Nor doubt we but it did produce the same effect on divers others who coming to the Churches as he then did to be partakers of the Musick return'd prepared in mind and well disposed in their intentions to be converted unto God Now that the Church might be frequented at the times appointed and so all secret Conventicles stopped in these divided times wherein so many Heresies did domineer and that the itching ears of men might not persuade them to such Churches where God had not placed them so to discourage their own proper Minister it pleased the Fathers in the Council of Saragossa Anno 368. â—an 2. or thereabouts to decree it thus First Ne latibulis cubiculorum montium habitent qui in suspicionibus perseverent that none who were suspected of Priscillianism which was the humour that then reigned should lurk in secret corners either in Houses or in Hills but follow the example and direction of the Priests of God And secondly ad alienas villas agendorum conventuum causa non conveniant that none should go to other places under pretence of joyning there to the Assembly but keep themselves unto their own Which prudent Constitutions upon the self-same pious grounds are still preserved amongst us in the Church of England Thus do we see upon what grounds the Lords day stands on custom first and voluntary consecration of it to religious Meetings that custom countenanced by the Authority of the Church of God which tacitely approved the same and finally confirmed and ratified by Christian Princes throughout their Empires And as the day so rest from Labours and restraint from Business upon that day received its greatest strength from the supream Magistrate as long as he reteined that Power which to him belonged as after from the Canons and decrees of Councils the Decretals of Popes and Orders of particular Prelates when the sole managing of Ecclesiastical affairs was committed to them I hope it was not so with the former Sabbath which neither took original from custom that people being not so forward to give God a day nor required any countenance or authority from the Kings of Israel to confirm and ratifie it The Lord had spoken the word that he would have one day in seven precisely the seventh day from the Worlds Creation to be a day of rest unto all his people which said there was no more to do but gladly to submit and obey his pleasure nec quicquam reliquum erat praeter obsequii gloriam in the greatest Prince And this done all at once not by degrees by little and little as he could see the people affected to it or as he found it fittest for them like a probation Law made to continue till the next Session and then on further liking to hold good for ever but by a plain and peremptory Order that it should be so without further trial But thus it was not done in our present Business The Lords day had no such command that it should be sanctified but was left plainly to Gods people to pitch on this or any other for the publick use And being taken up amongst them and made a day of meeting in the Congregation for religious Exercises yet for 300 years there was neither Law to bind them to it nor any rest from labour or from worldly businesses required upon it And when it seemed good unto Christian Princes the nursing Fathers of Gods Church to lay restraints upon their people yet at the first they were not general but only thus that certain men in cetrain places should lay aside their ordinary and daily works to attend Gods service in the Church those whose employments were most toilsome and most repugnant to the true nature of a Sabbath being allowed to follow and pursue their labours because most necessary to the Common-wealth And in following times when as the Prince and Prelate in their several places indeavoured to restrain them from that also which formerly they had permitted and interdicted almost all kind of bodily labour upon that day it was not brought about without much strugling and on opposition of the People more than a thousand years being past after Christs Ascension before the Lords day had attained that state in which now it standeth as will appear at full in the following story And being brought unto that state wherein now it stands it doth not stand so firmly and on such sure grounds but that those powers which raised it up may take it lower if they please yea take it quite away as unto the time and settle it on any other day as to them seems best which is the doctrine of some School-men and divers Protestant Writers of great name and credit in the world A power which no man will presume to say was ever challenged by the Jews over the Sabbath Besides all things are plainly contrary in these two days as to the purpose and intent of the Institution For in the Sabbath that which was principally aimed at was rest from labour that neither they nor any that belonged unto them should do any manner of work upon that day but sit still and rest themselves Their meditating on Gods Word or on his goodness manifested in the worlds Creation was to that an accessory and as for reading of
inhumane Murder is grown into an Art and they that kill most have the greatest honour And so indeed they had there being Rewards designed for them that came off with victory liberty if they had been Bondmen if freemen sometimes money and sometimes a garland of Palm-tree which being wound about with certain woollen Ribbands called Lemnisci De spectac cap. 28. had generally the name of Palmae Lemniscatae With this Tertullian doth upbraid the Roman people that whereas sometimes they would cry out to have a notable Murderer cast unto the Lions Iidem gladiatori atroci rudem petunt pileum praemium conferunt the self-same men would have some cruel swash-buckler or Gladiator rewarded with a Rod and Cap the signs of freedom These barbarous and bloody sights being so far different from the spirit of meekness which was the badge and proper cognizance of a Christian were therefore bitterly inveighed against by the ancient Writers the Reverend Fathers of the Church and such as harkened not to their Exhortations esteemed as men given over to a reprobate sence such as had cast away their livery and forsook their Master The nature of these sights and the opinion had of those that did frequent them we cannot better shew than by the story of Alipius as St. Austin tells it and is briefly this Quidam amici ejus condiscipuli c. Confession lib. 6. c. 8. Some friends of his meeting him as he came from Dinner with a familiar kind of violence forced him against his will to go with them into the Amphitheater for there these sports were sometimes held crudelium funestorum ludorum diebus upon a day designed to these cruel pastimes He told them by the way that though they haled his body with them yet should his eys and soul be free from these bloody spectacles cum talia aversaretur detestaretur which of himself he so detested But thither he went and took his place and presently closed his eys that he might not see those dismal sights which were before him When as the fight waxed hot omnia fervebant immanissimis voluptatibus and all were taken up with those unmerciful delights upon a sudden shout occasioned in the fight he let loose his eys to see what it meant Et percussus est graviori vulnere in anima quam ille in corpore ceciditque miserabilius quam ille quo cadente factus est clamor By means whereof he became smitten with a greater wound in his soul than the poor fellow in his body and fell more miserably by far than he upon whose death the said noise was raised How so Ut enim vidit illum sanguinem immanitatem simul ebibit c. For presently assoon as he beheld the blood he sucked in cruelty and drew in the furies of the place being delighted with the wickedness of the sport and made drunk as it were with those bloody spectacles Such Plays and shews as these were not unlawful to be seen on the Lords day only but on all days else And such and none but such were the plays and shews against the which the Fathers do inveigh with so much bitterness which as they were unworthy of a Christian eye so as Religion did prevail they began to vanish and finally were put down I mean these last by Theodoricus King of the Goths in Italy Our plays and theirs our shews and theirs yea and our dancings too compared with theirs Annales Anno 469. are no more of kin than Alexander the Coppersmith was with Alexander the Great King of Macedon Nay if Baronius tells us true as I think he doth these Plays and Cirquefights were not prohibited by the Emperour Leo because he thought them not as lawful to be performed upon the Lords day as on any other but for a more particular reason He had a purpose to avenge himself of Asper and Ardaburius two great and powerful men that had conspired against his safety and for the execution of that purpose made choice of such a time when the Circensian sports were to be exhibited Which therefore he prohibited at this time to be presented on the Sunday because though his revenge was just yet the effusion of so much Christian blood on that sacred day might be a blemish to Religion Ne licet justa esset ultio tamen diem sacrum ignominia videri posset labefactasse So far the Cardinal A second thing which this Emperour did in the advancing of the Lords day was in relation unto Civil and legal businesses It was before appointed by the Emperour Constantine that Judges should not set that day in the open Court the Emperours Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius added thereunto that none should arbitrate in any brawling and litigious cause upon the same Cod. l. 2. de fer lex 2. And whereas Valentinian Theodosius and Arcadius had privileged other days as well as Sunday from the suits of Court which days are formerly remembred in their proper place The Emperour Thedosius the younger was pleased to add the Feast of Christs Nativity and so to the Epiphany or Twelfth-tide as we use to call it together with seven days before and seven days after Diem natalis domini epiphaniae septem qui praecedunt septem qui sequuntur making this Festival with the rest before remembred in this case equal with the Sunday where by the way we may observe of what antiquity the feast of Epiphany is to be accounted as having got unto such an height in this Emperours time he entred on the Empire Anno 408 as to be priviledged in the self-same manner as Christmas was And not in this respect alone in respect of pleadings but in a following Law of his Anno 425. he declared his pleasure that this day with the other principal Feasts as before we noted was not to be prophaned as it had been formerly by the Cirques and Theaters For the antiquity thereof more might be said were not this sufficient Only I add that in the Eastern Churches from the times of old they used to lengthen out the Feast of Christmass for 12 days together not ending the solemnities of the same till the Epiphany was gone over from whence in likelihood that custom came at last to these Western parts Nativitatem domini Epiphaniae continuantes duas illas festivitates unam faciunt Hist l. 7. c. 32. So Otho Frisingensis tells us of them But to proceed it seems that either these Edicts were not well observed or else the Ministers of the Courts used to meet together for dispatch of business on that day though the Judges did not Therefore it seemed good to this Emperour Leo in the year and day above recited to declare his pleasure thereupon in this form that followeth Dies festos Cod. Justin l. 3. tit 12. dies altissimae majestati dedicatos c. It is our will that the Holy-days being dedicated to the most High God should not be
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
specified and to the course whereof the Council held at Orleans gave so wise a check but by imputing such Calamities as had fallen amongst them to the neglect or ill observance of this day A flash of Lightning or some other fire from Heaven as it was conceived had on the Lords day made great spoil of men and houses in the City of Limoges This Gregory of Tours who lived about the end of this sixth Century pronounceth to have fallen upon them ob diei dominici injuriam because some of them used to work upon the Sunday But how could he tell that or who made him acquainted with Gods secret counsels Had Gregory been Bishop of Limoges as he was of Tours it may be Limoges might have scaped so fierce a censure and only Tours have suffered in it For presently he adds in Turonico vero nonnulli ab hoc igne sed non die dominico adusti sunt that even in Tours it self many had perished by the self same fire but being it fell not on the Sunday as it did at Limoges therefore that misery fell on them for some other reason Indeed he tells us of this day that being it was the day whereon God made the light and after was the witness of our Saviours resurrection Ideo omni fide à Christianis observari debet ne fiat in eo omne opus publicum therefore it was to be observed of every Christian no manner of publick business to be done upon it A piece of new Divinity and never heard of till this Age nor in any afterwards Not heard of till this Age but in this it was For in the 24th year of Gunthram King of the Burgundians Conc. Matisonens 11. Can. 1. Anno 588. there was a Council called at Mascon a Town situate in the Duchy of Burgundy as we now distinguish it wherein were present Priscus Evantius Praetextatus and many other reverend and learned Prelates They taking into consideration how much the Lords day was of late neglected for remedy thereof ordained that it should be observed more carefully for the times to come Which Canon I shall therefore set down at large because it hath been often produced as a principal ground of those precise observances which some amongst us have endeavoured to force upon the consciences of weak and ignorant men It is as followeth Videmus populum Christianum temerario more diem dominicum contemptui tradere c. It is observed that Christian people do very rashly slight and neglect the Lords day giving themselves thereon as on other days to continual labours c. Therefore let every Christian in case be carry not that name in vain give ear to our instruction knowing that we have care that you should do well as well as power to bridle you that you do not ill It followeth Custodite diem dominicum qui nos denuo peperit c. Keep the Lords day the day of our new birth whereon we were delivered from the snares of sin Let no man meddle in litigious Controversies or deal in Actions or Law-suits or put himself at all upon such an exigent that needs he must prepare his Oxen for their daily work but exercise your selves in Hymns and singing Praises unto God being intent thereon both in mind and body If any have a Church at hand let him to unto it and there pour forth his soul in tears and prayers his eyes and hands being all that day lifted up to God It is the everlasting day of rest insinuated to us under the shadow of the seventh day or Sabbath in the Law and the Prophets and therefore it is very meet that we should celebrate this day with one accord whereon we have been made what at first we were not Let us then offer unto God our free and voluntary service by those great goodness we are freed from the Goal of errour not that the Lord exacts it of us that we should celebrate this day in a corporal abstinence or rest from labour who only looks that we do yield obedience to his holy will by which contemning earthly things he may conduct us to the heavens of his infinite mercy However if any man shall set at nought this our exhortation be he assured that God shall punish him as he hath deserved and that he shall be also subject unto the censures of the Church In case he be a Lawyer he shall lose his cause if that he be an Husbandman or Servant he shall be corporally punished for it but if a Clergy-man or Monk he shall be six months separated from the Congregation Add here that two years after this being the second year of the second Clotaire King of France there was a Synod holden at Auxerre a Town of Champagne concilium Antisiodorense in the Latin Writers wherein in it was decreed as in this of Mascon Non licet die dominico boves jungere vel alia opera exercere no man should be suffered to yoak his Oxen or do any manner of work upon the Sunday This is the Canon so much urged I mean that of Mascon to prove that we must spend the Lords day wholly in religious exercises and that there is no part thereof which is to be imployed unto other uses But there are many things to be considered before we yield unto this Canon or the authority thereof some of them being of that nature that those who most insist upon it must be fain to traverse For first it was contrived of purpose with so great a strictness to meet the better with those men which so extreamly had neglected that sacred day A stick that bends too much one way cannot be brought to any straightness till it be bent as much the other This Synod secondly was Provincial only and therefore can oblige none other but those for whom it was intended or such who after did submit unto it by taking it into their Canon Nor will some part thereof be approved by them who most stand upon it none being bound hereby to repair to Church to magnifie the name of God in the Congregation but such as have some Church at hand and what will then become of those that have a mile two three or more to their Parish Churches and no Chappel neither they are permitted by the Canon to abide at home As for Religious duties here are none expressed as proper for the Congregation but Psalms and Hymns and singing Praise unto the Lord and pouring forth our souls unto him in tears and prayers and then what shall we do for Preaching for Preaching of the Word which we so much call for Besides King Gunthram on whose Authority this Council met in his Confirmatory Letters doth extend this Canon as well unto the other Holy-days as unto the Sunday commanding all his Subjects Vigore hujus decreti definitionis generalis by vertue of his present mandate that on the Lords day vel in quibuscunque alijs solennitatibus and all solemn
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
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
going a Journey this may be allowed of in case they permit not Mass and Prayers This I find extant as a Canon of the 6. General Council holden in Constantinople but since both this and all the rest of the same stamp there are nine in all are thought not to belong of right unto it I have chosen rather to rafer it to this Theodulphus though a private man amongst whose works I find it in the great Bibliotheca Patrum Tom. 9. Thus in a Synod held at Coy within the Realm and Diocess of Oviedo Anno 1050. it was decreed that all men should repair to Church on the Lords day and there hear Mattins Mass and other the canonical hours as also Opus servile non exerceant nec sectentur itinera that they should do no servile work Tit. 6. nor take any Journey Yet with exceptions four or five namely unless it were for Devotions sake or to bury the Dead or to visit the Sick or finally pro secreto regis Saracenorum impetu on special business of the Kings or to make head against the Saracens The King was much beholden to them that they would take such care of his State Affairs more than some Princes might be now in case their business were at the disposing of particular men So had it been decreed by several Emperours yea and by several Councils too which for the East pars was confirmed by Emanuel Comneus the Eastern Emperiour Anno 1174. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all access to the Tribunal should be quite shut up that none of those who sat in Judgment should sit on any Cause that day Yet this not absolutely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. unless the King shall please on any new emergent cause as many times business comes unlooked for to appoint it otherwise Thus also for the works of labour fishing had been resirained on the Lords day as toilsom Act and on he other Holy days as well as that yet did it please Pope Alexander the third he entred on the Chair of Rome Decretal l. 2. tit 9. c 3. Anno 1160. to order by his decretal that on the Lords day and the rest it might be lawful unto those who dwelt upon the Coast Si halecia terrae inclinarint eorum captioni ingruente necessitate intendere to set themselves unto their fishing in case the Herring came within their reach and the time was seasonable Provided that they sent a convenient portion unto the Churches round about them and unto the poor Nay even the works of Handicrafts were in some sort suffered For whereas in the Council of Laodicea it was determined that men should rest on the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all their handy work and repair to Church Balsamon tells us in his Glass In Can. 29. concil Laod. that so it was resolved amongst them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not absolutely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if with conveniency they could For still saith he he lived in Anno 1191 in case men labour on that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either because of want or any other necessity they are held excusable Lastly Chronic. Aditâ—i whereas Pope Gregory the ninth had on the Sundays and the Holy days commanded ut homines jumenta omnia quiescant that there should be a general restraint from labour both of man and beast there was a refervation also nisi urgens necessitas instet vel nisi pauperibus vel Ecclesiae gratis fiat unless on great necessity or some good Office to be done unto the poor or to the Church Nor were there reservations and exceptions only in point of business and nothing found in point of practice but there are many passages especially of the greatest persons and most publick actions left upon Record to let us know what liberty that assumed unto themselves as well on this day as the rest And in such only shall I instance and as being most exemplary and therefore most conducing to my present purpose Aventine Hist l. 3. And first we read of a great Battel fought on Palm-Sunday An. 718. between Charles Martel Grand master of the Houshold of the King of France and Hilpericus the King himself wherein the Victory fell to Charles and yet we read not there of any great necessity nay of none at all but that they might on both sides have deferred the Battel had they conceived it any sin to fight that day Upon the Sunday before Lent Anno 835. Ludovick the Emperour â—urnamed Pius or the godly together with his Prelates and others Baron which had been present with him at the Assembly held at Theonville went on his Journey unto Mets nor do we find that it did derogate at all from his Name and Piety Upon the Sunday after Whitsontide Anno 844. Ludowick Son unto Lotharius the Emperour made his solemn entrance into Rome the Roman Citizens attending him with their Flaggs and Ensigns the Pope and Clergy staying his coming in St. Peters Church there to entertain him Upon a Sunday Anno 1014. Ditmarus Hist l. 7. Otho Frising hist l. 6. c. 29. Henry the Emperour duodecim senatoribus vallatus environed with twelve of the Roman Senatours came to St. Peters Church and there was crowned together with his Wife by the Pope then being On Easter day in ipsa die paschalis solennitatis Anno 1027. Conrade the Emperour was solemnly inaugurated by Pope John Canutus King of England and Rodalph King of the Burgundians being then both present and the next Sunday after began his Journey towards Germany Upon Palm Sunday Anno 1084. Wibert Archbishop of Ravenna was solemnly inthronized in the Chair of Rome â—â—spergen Chronicon and the next Sunday after being Easter day Henry the third Imperiali dignitate sublimatus est was crowned Emperour On Passion Sunday Anno 1148. Lewis the King of France afterwards Canonized for a Saint made his first entry into Hierusalem with all his Army and yet we read not any where that it was laid in Bar against him to put by his Sainting as possibly it might be now were it yet to do What should I speak of Councils on this day assembled as that of Chartres Anno 1146. for the recovery of the Holy land of Tours on Trinity Sunday as we call it now Anno 1164. against Octavian the Pseudo-Pope that of Ferrara upon Passion Sunday Anno 1177. against Frederick the Emperour or that of Paris Anno 1226. summoned by Stephen then Bishop there on the fourth Sunday in Lent for the condemning of certain dangerous and erronious positions at that time on foot I have the rather instanced in these particulars partly because they hapned about these times when Prince and Prelate were most intent in laying more and more restraints upon their people for the more honour of this day and partly because being all of them publick actions and such as moved not forwards but by divers wheels they did require
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
in the Christian Church laying this ground that ours succeeded in the place of theirs Sabbatum mutatur in diem dominicum similiter aliis solennitatibus veteris legis novae solennitates succedunt 1. 2 ae qu. 103. Art 3. ad 4. as his words there are Upon which ground of his the Doctrines now remembred were no question raised and howsoever other men might think all days alike in themselves considered yet those of Rome will have some holier than the rest even by a natural and inherent holiness And in this state things stood both for the doctrine and the practice until such time as men began to look into the errours and abuses in the Church of Rome with a more serious eye than before they did the Canonists being no less nice in the point of practice than were the Schoolmen and the rest exorbitant in the point of Doctrine Whose Niceties especially in matter of restraint we have most fully represented to us by Tostatus In Exod. 12. one that had run through all the parts of Learning at that time on foot and was as well studied in the Canon as in the Schools He then determineth of it thus Itinerando pro negotiis peccatum esse mortale c. Qu. 25. He that doth travel on the Holy days for in that general Name the Lords day and the other Festivals are comprehended about worldly business commits mortal sin as also if he Trade or Traffick in the place wherein he liveth But this hath two exceptions or reservations First if the business by him done be but small and light quae quietem Sabbati non impediunt such as are no great hinderance to the Sabbaths rest and secondly nisi hoc sit in causa pia unless it were on some devout and pious purpose To read unto or teach a man to deal in actions of the Law or determine Suits Qu. 26. or to cast Accounts si quis doceret ut lucretur if it be done for hire or for present gain become servile works and are forbidden Otherwise if one do it gratis Qu. 27. If a Musitian wait upon a Gentleman to recreate his mind with Musick and that they are agreed on a certain wages or that he be hired only for a present turn he sins in case he play or sing unto him on the Holy days but not if his reward be doubtful Qu. 28. and depends only upon the bounty of the parties who enjoy his Musick A Cook that on the Holy days is hired to make a Feast or to dress a Dinner doth commit mortal sin sed non pro toto mense aut anno but not if he be hired by the month or by the year Meat may be dressed upon the Lords day or the other Holy days Qu. 29. but to wash Dishes on those days was esteemed unlawful differri in diem alteram Qu. 32. and was to be deferred till another day Lawyers that do their Clients business for their wonted see were not to draw their Bills or frame their Answers or peruse their Evidences on the Holy days Secus si causam agerent pro miserabilibus personis c. but it was otherwise if they dealt for poor indigent people such as did sue in forma pauperis as we call it or in the causes of a Church or Hospital in which the Popes had pleased to grant a Dispensation A man that travelled on the Holy days Qu. 34. to any special shrine or Saint did commit no sin Si autem in redeundo peccatum est mortale but if he did the like in his coming back he then sinned mortally Qu. 35. In any place where formerly it had been the custom neither to draw Water nor to sweep the House but to have those things ready on the day before the custom was to be observed where no such custom is there they may be done Actions of a long continuance if they were delightful or if one played three or four hours together on a Musical Instrument were not unlawful on the Holy days yet possibly they might be sinful at si quis hoc ageret ex lascivia as if one played only out of wantonness Qu. 36. or otherwise were so intent upon his Musick that he went not to Mass Artificers which work on the Holy days for their own profit only are in mortal sin unless the work be very small quia modicum non facit solennitatem dissolvi because a little thing dishonours not the Festival De minimis non curat lex as our saying is Contrary Butchers Vintners Bakers Coster-mongers sinned not in selling their Commodities because more profit doth redound to the Common wealth which cannot be without such commodities than to them that sell yet this extended not to Drapers Shoomakers or the like because there is not such a present necessity for cloaths as meat Yet where the custom was that Butchers did not sell on the Holy days but specially not upon the Lords day that commendable custom was to be observed though in those places also it was permitted to the Butcher that on those days at some convenient times thereof he might make ready what was to be sold on the morrow after as kill and skin his Bestial which were fit for sale in case he could not do it with so much convenience non ita congrue at another time Qu. 37. To write out or transcribe a Book though for a mans own private use was esteemed unlawful except it were exceeding small because this put no difference between the Holy days and the other yet was it not unlawful neither in case the Argument were Spiritual nor for a Preacher to write out his Sermons or for a Student to provide his Lecture for the day following Windmils were suffered to be used on the Holy days Qu. 38. not Watermills because the first required less labour and attendance than the other did This is the reason in Tostatus though I can see no reason in it the passage of the Water being once let run being of more certainty and continuance than the changeable blowing of the Wind. But to proceed Qu. 39. Ferry-men were not to transport such men in their Boats or Wherries as did begin their Journey on an Holy day unless they went to Mass or on such occasions but such as had begun their Journey and now were in pursuit thereof might be ferried over quia forte carebunt victu because they may perhaps want Victuals if they do not pass Qu. 41. To repair Churches on the Lords day and the other Holy-days was accounted lawful in case the Workmen did it gratis and that the Church were poor not able to hire Workmen on the other days not if the Church were rich and in case to do it Qu. 42. So also to build Bridges repair the walls of Towns and Castles or other publick Edifices on those days was not held unlawfu si instent hostes in case the
Enemy be at hand though otherwise not to be done where no danger was These are the special points observed and published by Tostatus And these I have the rather exactly noted partly that we may see in what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days were in the Church of Rome what time the reformation of Religion was first set on foot but principally to let others see how near they come in their new fancies and devices unto the Niceties of those men whom they most abhor Thus stood it as before I said both for the Doctrine and the Practice till men began to look into the Errours and abuses in the Roman Church with a more serious eye than before they did and at first sight they found what little pleased them in this particular Their Doctrine pleased them not in making one day holier than another not only in relation to the use made of them but to a natural and inherent holiness wherewith they thought they were invested Nor did their practice please much more in that they had imposed so many burdens of restraint upon the consciences of Gods people and thereby made that day a punishment which was intended for the ease of the labouring man Against the doctrine of these men and the whole practice of that Church Calvin declares himself in his book of Institutions And therewith taxeth those of Rome L. 2. cap. 8. p. 34. qui Judaica opinione populum superioribus seculis imbuerunt who in the times before possessed the peoples minds with so much Judaism that they had changed the day indeed as in dishonour of the Jew but otherwise retained the former sanctity thereof which needs must be saith he if there remain with us as the Papists taught the same opinion of the mysteries and various significations of days and times which the Jews once had And certainly saith he we see what dangerous effects have followed on so false a Doctrine those which adhere to their instructions having exceedingly out gone the Jews crassa carnalique Sabbatismi superstitione in their gross and carnal superstitions about the Sabbath In Apocal. 1. v. 10. Beza his Scholar and Achates sings the self-same Song that howsoever the Assemblies of the Lords day were of Apostolical and divine Tradition sic tamen ut Judaica cessatio ab omni opere non observaretur quoniam hoc plane fuisset Judaismum non abolere sed tantum quod ad diem attinet immutare yet so that there was no cessation from work required as was observed among the Jews For that saith he had not so much abolished Judaism as put it off and changed it to another day And then he adds that this cessation was first brought in by Constantine and afterwards confirmed with more and more restraints by the following Emperours by means of which it came to pass that that which first was done for a good intent viz. that men being free from their worldly businesses might wholly give themselves to hearing of the Word of God in merum Judaismum degenerarit degnerated at the last into down-right Judaism So for the Lutheran Churches Chemnitius challengeth the Romanists of superstition quasi dominicae diei reliquis diebus festis per se peculiaris quaedam insit sanctitas because they taught the people that the Holy days considered only in themselves had a Native Sanctity And howsoever for his part he think it requisite that men should be restrained from all such works as may be any hinderance unto the sanctifying of the day yet he accounts it but a part of the Jewish leaven nimis scrupulose diebus festis prohibere operas externas quie vel quando non impediunt publicum ministerium so scrupulously to prohibit such external Actions which are at all no hindrance to Gods publick service and mans Sabbath Duties Bueer goes further yet and doth not only call it a superstition In Mat. 12. but an Apostacy from Christ to think that working on the Lords day in it self considered is a sinful thing Si existimetur operari in eo die per se esse peccatum superstitio gratiae Christi qui ab elementis mundi nos suo sanguine liberavit negatio est as his own words are Then adds that he did very well approve of the Lords day meetings si eximatur è cordibus hominum opinio necessitatis if men were once dispossessed of these opinions that the day was necessary to be kept that it was holier in it self than the other days and that to work upon that day in it self was sinful Lastly the Churches of the Switzers profess in their Confession that in the keeping of the Lords day they give not the least hint to any Jewish superstitions Neque enim alteram diem altera sanctiorem esse credimus nec otium Deo per se probari existimamus For neither Cap. 24. as they said do we conceive one day to be more holy than another or think that rest from labour in it self considered is any way pleasing unto God By which we plainly may perceive what is the judgment of the Protestant Churches in the present point Indeed It is not to be thought that they could otherwise resolve and determine of it considering what their Doctrine is of the day it self how different they make it from a Sabbath day which Doctrine that we may perceive with the greater ease we will consider it in three Propositions in which most agree 1. That the keeping holy one day of seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment or to be reckoned as a part of the law of Nature 2. That the Lords day is not founded on Divine Commandment but only on the authority of the Church and 3. That the Church hath still authority to change the day and to transfer it to some other First for the first it seems that some of Rome considering the restraints before remembred and the new Doctrine thence arising about the Natural and inherent holiness which one day had above another had altered what was formerly delivered amongst the Schoolmen and made the keeping of one day in seven to be the Moral part of the fourth Commandment This Calvin chargeth them withal that they had taught the people in the former times Instit l. 1. Cap. 8.11 34. that whatsover was ceremonial in the fourth Commandment which was the keeping of the Jews seventh day had been long since abrogated remanere vero quod morale est nempe unius diei observationem in hebdomade but that the moral part thereof which was the keeping of one day in seven did continue still With what else is it as before was said than in dishonour of the Jews to change the day and to affix as great a sanctity thereunto as the Jews ever did And for his own part he professeth that howsoever he approved of the Lords day meetings Non tamen numerum septennarium ita se morari ut ejus servituti Ecclesias
pomeridianum diebus Dominicis maxime in pagis plerunque transigi soleret that by their Edicts they would restrain all servile works the works of ordinary days and especially Games Drinking-matches and other profanations of the Sabbath wherewith the afternoon or Sundays chiefly in smaller Towns and Villages had before been spent that so the people might repair to the Catechising By which we also may perceive that there was no restraint on Sundays in the afternoon from any kind of servile works or daily labours but that men might and did apply themselves to their several businesses as on other days As for the greater Towns there is scarce any of them wherein there are not Fairs and Markets Kirk-masses as they use to call them upon the Sunday and those as much frequented in the afternoon as were the Churches in the forenoon A thing from which they could not hold not in Dort it self what time the Synod was assembled Nor had it now been called upon as it is most likely had not Amesius and some other of the English Malecontents scattered abroad Bounds principles amongst the Netherlands which they had sown before in England And certainly they had made as strong a faction there before this time their learned men beginning to bandy one against the other in the debates about the Sabbath but that the livelihood of the States consisting most on Trade and Traffick cannot spare any day Sunday no more than any other from venting their commodities and providing others So that in general the Lords day is no otherwise observed with them though somewhat better than it was twelve years ago than an Half-holiday is with us the Morning though not all of that unto the Church the afternoon to their Employments So for the French and German Churches we may perceive by their Divines Calvin and Beze and Martin Bucer who do so highly charge the Romanists for the restraint of working on the Lords day that they were well enough content to allow the same And for the Churches of the Switzers Resp ad Vaâ— Gentilem Zuinglius avoweth it to be lawful Die dominico peractis sacris laboribus incumbere On the Lords day after the end of Divine Service for any man to follow and pursue his labours as commonly we do saith he in the time of Harvest Indeed the Polish Churches formerly decreed in two several Synods the one at Cracow An. 1573. the other at Petricow Ann. 1578. Vt Domini in suis ditionibus prohibeant Dominicis diebus nundinas annuas septimanales That Lords of Mannours as we call them should not permit on the Lords day either Fairs or Markets in any of the Towns unto them belonging Neque iisdem diebus colonos suos ullos laboribus aut vecturis onerent nor on those days imploy their Tenants in carriages or such servile labours But this was rather done to please the Lutherans amongst whom and those of the Communion of the Church of Rome under whom they live than out of any principle or example of those Churches whom they chiefly followed For Recreations last of all there is no question to be made but that where working is permitted and most kind of business a man may lawfully enjoy himself and his honest pleasures and without danger of offence pursue those pastimes by which the mind may be refreshed and the spirits quickned Already have we told you what the custom is in the Palatine Churches And for the Belgick besides it was before declared from the Synod of Dort touching the usual spending of that day in Games and Drinking-matches Sâ—â—ps 〈◊〉 aâ—p 81. n. 58. their four great Doctors Polyander Ryvet Thysius and Walaeus make Recreation to be part of the Sabbaths rest Et inter fines Sabbati esse and to be reckoned as a principal intent thereof Even in Geneva it self the Mother Church unto the rest as Robert Johnson tells us in his enlargement of Boterus All honest exercises Shooting in Peeces Long-bows Cross-bows c. are used on the Sabbath day and that in the morning both before and after Sermon neither do the Ministers find fault therewith so they hinder not from hearing of the Word at the time appointed Indeed there is no reason why they should find fault the practice so directly rising upon their principles Dancing indeed they do not suffer either in Geneva or the French Churches though not prohibited for ought I can learn in either Germany or any of the Lutheran Kingdoms but this not in relation to the day but the sport it self which absolutely they have forbidden on all days whatever Calvin took great offence thereat of so austere a life would he have the People and kept a great ado about it in Geneva when he lived amongst them Epist ad Farel as he doth thus relate the story to his friend Farellus Corneus and Perinus two of special power and quality in that City together with one Heinrichus one of the Elders of the Church a Syndic which is one of the four chief Officers of the Common-wealth and some others of their friends being merry at an Invitation fell to dancing Notice hereof being given to Calvin by some false brother they were all called into the Consistory excepting Corneus and Perinus and being interrogated thereupon Impudenter Deo nobis mentiti sunt they lyed saith he most impudently unto God and us Most Apostolically said At that saith he I grew offended as the indignity of the thing deserved and they persisting in their contumacy Censui ut jure-jurando ad veri confessionem adigerentur I thought it fit to put them to their Oaths about it So said so done and they not only did confess their former dancing but that that very day they had been dancing in the house of one Balthasats Widdow On his confession he proceeded unto the censure which certainly was sharp enough for so small a fault for a fault it was if he would have it the Syndick being displaced the Elder turned out of his office Perryn and his Wife both clapt in Prison and all the rest pudore confusi put to open shame This was in Anno 1546. And afterwards considering how much he disliked it their Ministers and Preachers cried down dancing as a most sinful and unchristian pastime and published divers tracts against it At last in Anno 1571. it was concluded in a Synod held at Rochel and made to be a part of their publick discipline viz. that all Congregations should be admonished by their Ministers seriously to reprehend and suppress all Dances Mummeries and Enterludes As also that all Dancing-masters or those who make any dancing meetings after they have been oft admonished to desist ought to be excommunicate for that their contumacy and disobedience Which rigidness of theirs as it is conceived considering how the French do delight in Dancing Dallingtons â—â—ew of 〈◊〉 hath been no small impediment unto the general entertainment of the reformed Religion in that
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
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
say the Lord Protector and the rest of the Privy Council acting in his Name and by his Authority performed by Archbishop Cranmer and the other six before remembred assisted by Thirdby Bishop of Winchester Day Bishop of Chichester Ridley Bishop of Rochester Taylor then Dean after Bishop of Lincoln Redman then Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Hains Dean of Exeter all men of great abilities in their several stations and finally confirmed by the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in Parliament Assembled 23 Edw. VI. In which Confirmatory act it is said expresly to have been done by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost which testimony I find also of it in the Acts and Monuments fol 1184. But being disliked by Calvin who would needs be meddling in all matters which concerned Religion and disliked it chiefly for no other reason as appears in one of his Epistles to the Lord Protector but because it savoured too much of the ancient Forms it was brought under a review the cause of the reviewing of it being given out to be no other than that there had risen divers doubts in the Exercise of the said Book for the fashion and manner of the Ministration though risen rather by the curiosity of the Ministers and Mistakers than of any other cause 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 1. The review made by those who had first compiled it though Hobeach and Redman might be dead before the confirmation of it by Act of Parliament some of the New Bishops added to the former number and being reviewed was brought into the same form in which now it stands save that a clause was taken out of the Letany and a sentence added to the distribution of the blessed Sacrament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth and that some alteration was made in two or three of the Rubricks with an addition of Thanksgiving in the end of the Letany as also of a Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue in the first of King James At the same time and by the same hands which gave us the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. was the first Book of Homilles composed also in which I have some cause to think that Bishop Latimer was made use of amongst the rest as one who had subscribed the first other two books before mentioned as Bishop of Worcester Ann. 1537. and ever since continued zealous for a Reformation quitting in that respect such a wealthy Bishoprick because he neither would nor could conform his judgment to the Doctrine of the six Articles Authorized by Parliament For it will easily appear to any who is conversant in Latimers writings and will compare them carefully with the book of Homilies that they do not only savour of the same spirit in point of Doctrine but also of the same popular and familiar stile which that godly Martyr followed in the course of his preachings for though the making of these Homilies be commonly ascribed and in particular by Mr. Fox to Archbishop Cranmer yet it is to be understood no otherwise of him thad than it was chiefly done by encouragement and direction not sparing his own hand to advance the work as his great occasions did permit That they were made at the same time with King Edwards first Liturgy will appear as clearly first by the Rubrick in the same Liturgy it self in which it is directed Let. of Mr. Bucer to the Church of England that after the Creed shall follow the Sermon or Homily or some portion of one of them as they shall be hereafter divided It appears secondly by a Letter writ by Martin Bucer inscribed To the holy Church of England and the Ministers of the same in the year 1549. in the very beginning whereof he lets them know That their Sermons or Homilies were come to his hands wherein they godlily and effectually exhort their people to the reading of Holy Scripture that being the scope and substance of the first Homily which occurs in that book and therein expounded the sense of the faith whereby we hold our Christianity and Justification whereupon all our help censisteth and other most holy principles of our Religion with most godly zeal And as it is reported of the Earl of Gondomar Ambassador to King James from the King of Spain that having seen the elegant disposition of the Rooms and Offices in Burleigh House not far from Stanford erected by Sir William Cecil principal Secretary of State and Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth he very pleasantly affirmed That he was able to discern the excellent judgment of the great Statesman by the neat contrivance of his house So we may say of those who composed this book in reference to the points disputed A man may easily discern of what judgment they were in the Doctrine of Predestination by the method which they have observed in the course of these Homilies Beginning first with a discourse of the misery of man in the state of nature proceeding next to that of the salvation of man-kind by Christ our Saviour only from sin and death everlasting from thence to a Declaration of a true lively and Christian saith and after that of good works annexed unto faith by which our Justification and Salvation are to be obtained and in the end descending unto the Homily bearing this inscription How dangerous a thing it is to fall from God Which Homilies in the same form and order in which they stand were first authorized by King Edward VI. afterwards tacitly approved in the Rubrick of the first Liturgy before remembred by Act of Parliament and finally confirmed and ratified in the book of Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and Clergy of the Convocation Anno 1552. and legally confirmed by the said King Edward Such were the hands and such the helps which co-operated to the making of the two Liturgies and this book of Homilies but to the making of the Articles of Religion there was necessary the concurrence of the Bishops and Clergy Assembled in Convocation in due form of Law amongst which there were many of those which had subscribed to the Bishops book Anno 1537. and most of those who had been formerly advised with in the reviewing of the book by the Commandment of King Henry VIII 1543. To which were added amongst others Dr. John Point Bishop of Winchester an excellent Grecian well studied with the ancient Fathers and one of the ablest Mathematicians which those times produced Dr. Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon who had spent much of his time in the Lutheran Churches amongst whom he received the degree of Doctor Mr. John Story Bishop of Rochester Ridley being then preferred to the See of London from thence removed to Chichester and in the end by Queen Elizabeth to the Church of Hereford Mr. Rob. Farran Bishop of St. Davids and Martyr a man much favoured by the Lord Protector Sommerset in the time of his greatness and finally not to descend to those of the lower
live There is another Text in the Prophet Jeremy by which the People are commanded to seek the peace of Babylon Jer. 29.7 whither God had caused them to be carried away captive and to pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof was their peace to be Behold the Israelites being despoiled of their Estates driven from their houses carried into exile and plunged in a most miserable thraldom are yet required to pray for the prosperity of the Conqueror not only as we are commanded in another place to pray for them that persecute us but that his Empire might continue in peace and safety that they themselves might quietly enjoy the protection of it Thus David being appointed King by the Lords own Ordinance and anointed with his holy Oyl when undeservedly he was persecuted and pursued by Saul would not give way that any corporal hurt should be done to that sacred person whom God had raised unto the Kingdom The Lord forbid saith he 1 Sam. 24.6 that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Anointed of the Lord. Again But mine eye spared thee and I said I will not put forth my hand against my Lord for he is the Lords Anointed And again who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless As the Lord liveth the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battel and perish The Lord forbid that I should stretch my hand against the Lords Anointed This reverence and dutiful regard we ought to carry towards our Governors SECT 29. to the very end however they may chance to prove Which therefore I repeat the oftner that we may learn not to enquire too narrowly into the men but to rest our selves content with this that they sustain that place or person by the Lords appointment in which he hath imprinted and ingraved a most inviolable character of sacred Majesty But some will say that Rulers owe a mutual duty to their Subjects That hath been formerly confessed from which if any should infer that no obedience must be yielded but to their just and legal power he were a very sorry disputant Husbands are bound in mutual bonds unto their Wives and so are Parents to their Children Suppose that both neglect their duties that Parents who are prohibited by God to provoke their Children unto wrath be so untractable and harsh to them that they do grieve them above measure with continual sourness and that Husbands who are commanded to love their Wives and to give honour to them as the weaker vessel should use them with contempt and scorn should therefore Children be the less obedient to their Parents or Wives less dutiful to their Husbands We see the contrary that they are subject to them though both lewd and froward Since therefore nothing doth concern us more than that we trouble not our selves with looking into the defects of other men but carefully endeavour to perform those duties which do belong unto our selves more specially ought they to observe this rule who live under the authority and power of others Wherefore if we are inhumanely handled by a cruel Prince or by a covetous and luxurious Prince dispoiled and rifled if by a slothful one neglected or vexed for our Religion by a lewd and wicked let us look back upon our sins which God most commonly correcteth with this kind of scourges the thought whereof will humble us and keep down the impatience of our angry spirits Let us consider with our selves that it appertains not unto us to redress these mischiefs that all which doth belong to us is to cry to God Prov. 21.1 in whose hands are the hearts of Kings and be turneth them whithersoever he will He is that God which standeth in the Congregation of the mighty and judgeth amongst the Gods before whose face all Kings shall fall and be confounded and all the Judges of the earth who do not reverence his Christ but make unjust Laws to oppress the Poor and offer violence to the man of low condition and make a spoil of Widows and a prey of Orphans And here we may as well behold his goodness SECT 30. as his power and providence For sometimes he doth raise Avengers from amongst his servants and furnisheth them with power sufficient as well to execute vengeance on such wicked Rulers as to redeem his People so unjustly vext from the house of bondage and sometimes useth to tht end the fierce wrath of others who think of nothing less than to serve his turn Thus he redeemed his People Israel from the Tyranny of Pharaoh by the hand of Moses from Cushan King of Syria by Othoniel from other thraldoms by some other of their Kings and Judges Thus did he tame the pride of Tyre by the arms of Egypt the insolence of Egypt by the Assyrians the fierceness of Assyriah by the Chaldeans the confidence of Babylon by the Medes and Persians after that Cyrus had before subdued the Medes Thus did he sometimes punish the ingratitude of the Kings of Judah and Israel and that ungodly contumacy which they carried towards him notwithstanding all his benefits conferred upon them by the Assyrians first the Babylonians after But we must know that though these several instrunents did the self same work yet they proceeded not in the self same motives For the first sort being thereto lawfully authorized and called by Almighty God by taking up Arms against their Kings did nothing less than violate that sacred Majesty which is inherent in King by Gods holy Ordinance but being armed from Heaven did only regulate and chastise the lesser power by the help of the greater as Princes use sometimes to correct their Nobles The later sort though guided by the hand of God as to him seemed best so that they did unknowingly effect what he had to do intended only the pursuit of their own designs But what soever their designs and intentions were the Lord did justly use them to effect his business SECT 31. when by their means he broke the bloody Scepters of those insolent Kings and overthrew their wicked and tyrannical Empires Hear this ye Princes and be terrified at the hearing of it But let not this afford the least encouragement unto the Subject to violate or despise the Authority of the Magistrate which God hath filled so full of majesty and fortified by so many Edicts from the Court of Heaven though sometimes an unworthy person doth enjoy the same and such a one as doth dishonour it by his filthy life Nor may we think because the punishment of licentious Princes doth belong to God that presently this power of executing vengeance is devolved on us to whom no other precept hath been given by God but only to obey and suffer De privatis hominibus semper loquor Nam si qui nunc sint
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
from his three Estates than that which is afforded to the Kings of France Id. ibid. which being but general and comparative is yet enough to let us see that the Assembly of Estates in the Realms of Spain which they call the Curia is very observant of their King and obsequious to him and have but little of that power which is supposed by our Author to be inherent in the three Estates of all the Christian Kingdoms But this Bodinus proveth more particularly ascribing to the King and to him alone the power of calling this Assembly when he sees occasion and of dissolving it again when his work is done according as is used both in France and England And when they are assembled and met together their Acts and Consultations are of no effect further than as they are confirmed by the Kings consent Which he declareth in the same Form eadem formulâ quâ apud nos that hath accustomably been used by the Kings of France which is authoritative enough that is to say decernimus statuimus volumus We will and we appoint and we have decreed The Kings of Spain Id. ibid. p. 90. though not so despotical in their Government as the French Kings are are as absolute Monarchs and have as great an influence on the three Estates to make them pliant to their will and to work out their own ends by them as ever had the French Kings on their Courts of Parliament a touch whereof we had before in the former Chapter And this we may yet further see by their observance of the pleasure of King Philip the 2d Who having maried the Lady Elizabeth Daughter of Henry the 2d of France Convocatos Castellae reliquarum Hispaniae Provinciarum Ordines calling together the Estates of Castile and his other Provinces of Spain Thuan. hist sui temp l. 23. he caused them to swear to the succession of his Son Prince Charles whom he had by the Lady Mary of Portugal and after having on some jealousies of State put that Prince to death caused them to swear to the succession of another Son by the Lady of Austria And for the power of his Edicts which they call Pragmaticas they are as binding to the Subject as an Act of Parliament or any kind of Law whatever Examples of the which are very obvious and familiar in the Spanish Histories For though there be a body of Laws in use amongst them partly made up of some old Gothish Laws and Constitutions and partly of some parts of the Law imperial yet for the explanation of the Laws in force if any doubt arise about them or for supplying such defects which in the best collection of the Laws may occur sometimes the Magistrates and Judges are to have recourse to the King alone and to conform to such instructions as he gives them in it And this is it which was ordained by Alfonso the tenth qui etiam magistratus ad judices Principem adire jussit quoties patrio jure nihil de proposita causa seriptum esset as Bodinus hath it Bodin de Rep. lib. 1. cap. 8. 'T is true that for the railing of supplies of money and the imposing of extraordinary Taxes upon the Subject the Kings of Spain must be beholden to the three Estates without whose consent it cannot legally be done But then it is as true withal Id. ibid. p. 90. that there are customary Tributes called Servitia which the King raiseth of his own Aurhority without such consent And their consenting to the extraordinary is a thing of course the Spanish Nation being so well affected naturally to the power and greatness of their Kings whom they desire to make considerable if not formidable in the opinion of their Neighbours that the Kings seldom fail of moneys if the Subjects have it Finally that we may perceive how absolute this Monarch is over all the Courts or Curias of his whole Dominions take this along according as it stands verbatim in the Spanish History Spanish Hist 67. by Iyrannel The King of Spain as he is a potent Prince and Lord of many Countreys so hath he many Councils for the managing of their affairs distinctly and apart without any confusion every Council treating only of those matters which concern their Jurisdiction and charges with which Councils and with the Presidents thereof being men of chief note the King doth usually confer touching matters belonging to the good Government preservation and increase of his Estates and having heard every mans Opinion he commands that to be executed which he holds most fit and convenient Next let us take a view of Scotland and we shall find it there no otherwise I mean in reference to the point which is now in question than in France or Spain For besides that Bodinus makes it one of those absolute Monarchies ubi Keges sine controversia omnia jura Majestatis habent per sese Bodin de Repub l. 2. c. 7. Cambden in Britan. descript in which the Kings have clearly all the Rights of Majesty inherent in their own persons only it is declared in the Records of that very Kingdom that the King is directus totius Dominus the Sovereign Lord of the whole State and hath all authority and jurisdiction over all Estates and degrees as well Ecclesiaestical as Lay or Temporal And as for those Estates and Degrees convened in Parliament we may conjecture at their Power by that which is delivered of the Form or Order which they held it in Form of holding the Parl. in Scotland which is briefly this As soon as the Kings Writ is issued out for summoning the Estates to meet in Parliament he maketh choice of eight of the Spiritual Lords such on whose wisdom and integrity he may most rely which eight do chuse as many of the Temporal Lords and they together nominate eight more out of the Commissioners for the Counties and as many out of the Commissioners for the Towns or Burroughs These 32 thus chosen are called Domini pro Articulis Lords of the Articles and they together with the Chancellor Treasurer Keeper of the Privy Seal and principal Secretaries of State and the Master of the Rolls whom they call Clerk Register do admit or reject every Bill but not before they have been shewn unto the King if they pass there they are presented afterwards to the whole Assembly where being throughly weighed and examined and put unto the Votes of the House such of them as are carried by the major part of the Voices for the Lords and Commons sit together in the same House there are on the last day of the Sessions exhibited to the King who by touching them with his Scepter pronounceth that he either ratifieth and approveth them or that he doth disable them and make them void But if the business be disliked by the Lords of the Articles it proceeds no further and never comes unto the consideration of the Parliament
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
the custom of the Alexandrian and Western Churches Page 292 5. Origen ordained Presbyter by the Bishops of Hierusalem and Caesarea and excommunicated by the Bishop of Alexandria Page 293 6. What doth occur touching the superiority and power of Bishops in the Works of Origen ibid. 7. The custom of the Church of Alexandria altered in the election of their Bishops Page 294 8. Of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria and his great care and travels for the Churches peac Page 295 9. The Government of the Church in the former times by Letters of intercourse and correspondence amongst the Bishops of the same ibid. 10. The same continued also in the present Century Page 296 11. The speedy course taken by the Prelats of the Church for the suppressing of the Heresies of Samosatenus Page 297 12. The Civil Jurisdiction Train and Throne of Bishops things not unusual in this Age Page 298 13. The Bishops of Italy and Rome made Judges in a point of title and possession by the Roman Emperour Page 299 14. The Bishops of Italy and Rome why reckoned as distinct in that Delegation Page 300 CHAP. VI. Of the estate wherein Episcopacy stood in the Western Churches during the whole third Century 1. Of Zepherinus Pope of Rome and the Decrees ascribed unto him concerning Bishops Page 301 2. Of the condition of that Church when Cornelius was chosen Bishop thereof Page 302 3. The Schism raised in Rome by Novatianus with the proceedings of the Church therein Page 303 4. Considerable observations on the former story Page 304 5. Parishes set forth in Country Villages by P. Dionysius ibid. 6. What the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do signifie most properly in ancient Writers Page 305 7. The great Authority which did accrue unto the Presbyters by the setting forth of Parishes Page 306 8. The rite of Confirmation reserved by Bishops to themselves as their own Prerogative Page 307 9. Touching the ancient Chorepiscopi and the Authority to them entrusted Page 308 10. The rising of the Manichean Heresie with the great care taken by the Bishops for the crushing of it Page 309 11. The lapse of Marcellinus Pope of Rome with the proceedings the Church in his condemnation Page 310 12. The Council of Eliberis in Spain what it decreed in honour of Episcopacy Page 311 13. Constantine comes unto the Empire with a brief prospect of the great honours done to Bishops in the following Age Page 312 14. A brief Chronology of the estate of holy Church in these two last Centuries Page 314 The History of the Sabbath BOOK I. From the Creation of the World to the destruction of the Temple CHAP. I. That the Sabbath was not instituted in the Beginning of the World 1. THE entrance to the Work in hand Page 325 2. That those words Gen. 2. And God blessed the seventh day c. are there delivered as by way of anticipation Page 326 3. Anticipations in the Scripture confessed by them who deny it here Page 327 4. Anticipations of the same nature not strange in Scripture Page 328 5. No Law imposed by God on Adam touching the keeping of the Sabbath Page 329 6. The Sabbath not ingraft by Nature in the soul of man ibid. 7. The greatest Advocates for the Sabbath deny it to be any part of the Law of Nature Page 330 8. Of the morality and perfection supposed to be in the number of seven by some learned men Page 331 9. That other numbers in the confession of the same learned men particularly the first third and fourth are both as moral and as perfect as the seventh ibid. 10. The like is proved of the sixth eighth and tenth and of other numbers Page 332 11. The Scripture not more favourable to the number of seven than it is to others Page 333 12. Great caution to be used by those who love to recreate themselves in the mysteries of numbers Page 334 CHAP. II. That there was no Sabbath kept from the Creation to the Flood 1. Gods rest upon the Seventh day and from what he rested Page 335 2. Zanchius conceit touching the Sanctifying of the first Seventh day by Christ our Saviour Page 336 3. The like of Torniellus touching the Sanctifying of the same by the Angels in Heaven ibid. 4. A general demonstration that the Fathers before the Law did not keep the Sabbath Page 337 5. Of Adam that he kept not the Sabbath ibid. 6. That Abel and Seth did not keep the Sabbath Page 333 7. Of Enos that he kept not the Sabbath Page 339 8. That Enoch and Methusalem did not keep the Sabbath ibid. 9. Of Noah that he kept not the Sabbath Page 340 10. The Sacrifices and devotions of the Ancients were occasional ibid. CHAP. III. That the Sabbath was not kept from the Flood to Moses 1. The Sons of Noah did not keep the Sabbath Page 341 2. The Sabbath could not have been kept in the dispersion of Noahs Sons had it not been commanded Page 342 3. Diversity of Longitudes and Latitudes must of necessity make a variation in the Sabbath Page 343 4. Melchisedech Heber Lot did not keep the Sabbath Page 344 5. Of Abraham and his Sons that they kept not the Sabbath ibid. 6. That Abraham did not keep the Sabbath in the confession of the Jews Page 345 7. Jacob nor Job no Sabbath-keepers ibid. 8. That neither Joseph Moses nor the Israelites in Egypt did observe the Sabbath Page 346 9. The Israelites not permitted to offer Sacrifice while they were in Egypt ibid. 10. Particular proofs that all the Moral Law was both known and kept amongst the Fathers Page 347 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 Page 348 2. The giving of the Decalogue and how far it bindeth Page 349 3. That in the judgment of the Fathers in the Christian Church the fourth Commandment is of a different nature from the other nine Page 350 4. The Sabbath was first given for a Law by Moses Page 351 5. And being given was proper only to the Jews Page 352 6. What moved the Lord to give the Israelites a Sabbath ibid. 7. Why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than any other Page 353 8. The seventh day not more honoured by the Gentiles than the eighth or ninth Page 354 9. The Attributes given by some Greek Poets to the seventh day no argument that they kept the the Sabbath Page 355 10. The Jews derided for their Sabbath by the Grecians Romans and Egyptians Page 356 11. The division of the year into weeks not generally used of old amongst the Gentiles Page 357 CHAP. V. The practice of the Jews in such observances as were annexed unto the Sabbath 1. Of some particular adjuncts affixed unto the Jewish Sabbath Page 358 2. The Annual Festivals called Sabbaths in the Book of God and reckoned as a
morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth what ye will seeth and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept until the morning i.e. As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day that bake or boil according as you use to do and for the rest let it be laid by to be baked or boiled to morrow that you may have wherewith to feed you on the Sabbath day That this interpretation is most true and proper appears by that which followeth in the holy Scripture Vers 24. viz. They laid it up as Moses bade and it did not stink neither was any worm therein as that which they had kept till morning on some day before Verse 20. This makes it evident that the Mannah was laid up unbaked for otherwise what wonder had it been at all that it did neither breed worm nor stink had it been baked the day before Things of that nature so preserved are far enough from putrifying in so short a time This I am verily persuaded was the practice then and for this light unto that practice I must ingenuously confess my self obliged to Theophilus Braborn the first that ever looked so near into Moses meaning Chap. 4. And this most likely was the practice of the Jews in after times even till the Phartsees had almost made the words of God of no effect by their traditions for then came in those many rigid Ordinances about this day which made the day and them ridiculous unto all the Heathens Sure I am that the Scriptures call it a day of gladness for it was a Festival and therefore probable it is that they had good cheer 2 Edit p. 137.138 And I am sure that Dr. Bound the founder of these Sabbatarian fancies though he conceive that dressing meat upon the Sabbath was by the words of Moses utterly unlawful in the time of Mannah yet he conceives withal that that Commandment was proper only unto the time of Mannah in the Wilderness and so to be restrained unto that time only Therefore by his confession the Jews for after times might as well dress their meat on the Sabbath day as on any other notwithstanding this Injurction of not kindling fire Indeed why not as well dress meat as serve it in the attendance of the servant at his Masters Table being no less considerable on the Sabbath day than of the Cooks about the Kitchin especially in those riotous and excessive Feasts which the Jews kept upon this day however probably they might dress their meat on the day before I say those riotons and excessive Feasts which the Jews kept upon that day and I have good authority for what I say Saint Augustine tells us of them they kept the Sabbath only ad luxuriam ebrietatem and that they rested only ad nugas luxurias sitas that they consumed the day languido luxurioso otio Tâ—ast 3. in Joh. De 10. chordis c. 3. In Psalm 91. In Psalm 32. Sympos Isiac l. 4. and finally did abuse the same not only deliciis Judacis but ad nequitiam even to sin and naughtiness Put all together and we have luxury and drunkenness and sports and pleasures enough to manifest that they spared not any Dainties to set forth their Sabbath though on a Pharisaical prohibition they forbare to dress their meats upon it Nay Plutarch lays it to their charge that they did feast it on their Sabbath with no small excess but of Wine especially Who thereupon conjectureth that the name of Sabbath had its original from the Orgies or Feasts of Bacchus whose Priests used often to ingeminate the word Sabbi Sabbi in their drunken Ceremonies Which being so it is the more to be admired that generally the Romans did upbraid this peopled with their Sabbaths fast Augustus having been at the Bathes and fasting there a long time together Sueton. in Octav. c. 76. gives notice of it to Tiberius thus ne Judaeus quidem tam diligenter sabbatis Jejunium servat that never any Jew had fasted more exactly on the Sabbaths than he did that day So Martial reckoning up some things of unsavoury smell names amongst others jejunia sabbatriorum for by that name he did contemptuously mean the Jews as before I noted And where the Romans in those times began some of them to incline to the Jewish Ceremonies and were observant of the Sabbath as we shall see hereaster in a place more proper Persius objects against them this labra monent taciti Sat. 5. recutitaque sabbata pallent i.e. that being Romans as they were they muttered out their Prayers as the Jews accustomed and by observing of the Fast on the Jewish Sabbaths grew lean and pale for very hunger So saith Petronius Arbiter that the Jews did celebrate their Sabbath jejunia lege by a legal Fast and Justin yet more generally Hist l. 36. septimum diem more gentis sabbatum appellatum in omne aevum jejunio sacravit Moses that Moses did ordain the Sabbath to be a fasting day for ever That the Jews fasted very often sometimes twice a week the Pharisee hath told us in Saint Lukes Gospel and probably the jejunia sabbatariorum in the Poet Martial might reflect on this But that they fasted on the Sabbath is a thing repugnant both to the Scriptures Fathers and all good antiquity except in one case only which was when their City was besieged as Rabbi Moyses Egyptius hath resolved it Nay if a man had fasted any time upon the Sabbath they used to punish him in his sort ut sequenti etiam die jejunaret Ap. Baron A. 34. n. 156. to make him fast the next day after Yet on the other side I cannot but conceive that those before remembred had some ground or reason why they did charge the Jews with the Sabbaths Fast for to suppose them ignorant of the Jewish custom considering how thick they lived amongst them even in Rome it self were a strange opinion The rather since by Plutarch who lived not long after Sueton if he lived not with him the Jews are generally accused for too much riot and excess upon that day For my part I conceive it thus I find in Nehemiah that when the people were returned from the Captivity Ezra the Priest brought forth the Law before the Congregation Cap. 8.2 3. and read it to them from the morning until mid-day which done they were dismissed by Nehemiah to eat and drink and make great joy which they did accordingly Verse 10 12. This was upon the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles one of the solemn Annual Sabbaths and this they did for eight days together Verse 18. from the first day unto the last that the Feast continued After when as the Church was setled and that the Law was read amongst them in their Synagogues on the weekly Sabbaths most probable it is that they