the observation of it under the Gospel for who sees not that upon this ground they might conclude for Circumcision and the legall Passeover and Sacrifices with all their typicall Rites and Ceremonies as well as for the Sabbath The truth is our Saviour as hee was to fulfill not onely the Morall but the Ceremoniall and Iudiciall Law also so he speakes of all and did indeed not destroy but fulfill them all though in a different manner 1. He fulfilled the whole Law by his actuall and personall obedience to it and by supplying the defects of it that it being unable to justifie us in it selfe might by the helpe of his grace and accession of faith in him bee able to performe that which otherwise it could not 2. He fulfilled the Ceremoniall Law and so the Iudiciall too so farr as it was typicall besides his subjection to them by a reall exhibition of that whereof they were shadowes And though by this meanes their observation according to the letter of the Law ceased yet did hee not hereby destroy but perfect them according to that of the Apostle speaking of Circumcision which was a legall Ceremony Doe we then saith he make voide the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law This place then expounded according to the truest meaning and intent of our Saviour makes nothing for the totall morality of the fourth Commandement nor is in the least contradictory to what I have delivered concerning it Secondly they argue from the Institution of the Sabbath which was say they in the beginning of the World in the time of mans innocencie when there was no need of Ceremony and therefore it was morall and perpetuall To this I answere 1. That it is not universally true that whatsoever precept was given to Adam in Innocency was therefore Morall and perpetuall for then the Symbolicall Precept of not eating of the forbidden fruit must be such which no man I suppose will affirme 2. If it be true which Willet hath affirmed and that by ten reasons which he there alledgeth that Adam fell the same day that he was created then did he fall before the giving of the Precept for the observation of the Sabbath and had it not in the state of Innocencie But the truth is this is a meere conjecture disputable any way so as a man may better oppose whatsoever is affirmed then solidly conclude any thing 3. If it bee not false that the Sabbath was then instituted yet it hath and may not without good reason be doubted of That place which is brought for it Gen. 2. 2. doth not convincingly prove it And if the reasons which are alledged for the prolepsis in that place bee without prejudice considered their opinion who so expound it will not seeme improbable as 1. That there is no mention any where made of it to have beene observed by the Patriarchs 2. Where it is first spoken of Exod. 16. it is spoken of as a new thing not knowne to have beene observed before 3. In that it is called a signe betweene God and the Israelites that he was their sanctifier and deliverer out of Egypt which it could not bee if it were given to all Nations in Adam But lastly granting the whole Argument I would faine know how that day that was then instituted and sanctified could cease and another be substituted How could it bee Morall and perpetuall and yet determine with the Iewish Church The words which are brought as the Institution say God rested the seventh N. B. and for that cause God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it viz. that seventh day on which hee rested The Text doth not say God rested the seventh day and therefore he would have one of the seven to be sanctified That is but the exposition or glosse not the Text the word of man not of God But some may haply say That the particular day was alterable and upon good ground was altered This I grant but say withall that he which holds the Sabbath to be instituted before the fall and for that cause Morall and perpetuall cannot so say but either hee must wave his owne Principles or cry up the Jewish Sabbath postliminiò Secondly they argue from that of our Saviour Matth. 24. 20. who foreshewing the destruction of Jerusalem to his Disciples adviseth them to pray that their slight bee not in the Winter neither on the Sabbath Day If say they this Precept had beene Ceremoniall then had it beene all one to fly on the Sabbath day as on any other day because all Ceremonies were before that time which was not till forty yeares after Christs Ascension to bee abrogated But in that Christ doth allow this feare of flying on the Sabbath Day more then on any other day of the weeke hee shewes plainely that the force of the Sabbath was not abrogated by his resurrection and therefore no Ceremony Thus they argue To which it were answere sufficient to shew that hereby they still rush upon the same rocke and while they labour to establish a needlesse morality of the Lords Day they unawares bring in Iudaisme For the Sabbath day there cannot with any shew of reason bee taken though now a dayes it is too common so to take it for the Lords Day and if our Saviour did intend by bidding his Disciples pray that their flight might not happen on the Sabbath day to intimate the necessity of the observation of that Day by Christians Then did S. Paul crosse our Saviours intent in numbring that among the shadowes which vanished at Christs death and then hath also the Church of Christ ever since erred in so accounting it and condemning the observation of it with an Anathema to those that in this point shall be found to Iudaize S. Chrysostome is so farre from thinking that the Sabbath which our Sauiour there speaks of did belong to Christians that upon that ground hee expounds that speech of our Saviour as spoken not to his Apostles but to the Iewes Thou seest saith he that he speakes to the Iewes for the Apostles were not to keepe the Sabbath c. But grant that it were spoken to the Disciples yet can no such thing bee thence collected as they would have For our Saviour had good ground so to advise his Disciples notwithstanding God at that time required no keeping of the Sabbath For though the Ceremonies of the Law and this among the rest were dead with Christ yet were they not buried as I have shewed nor the practise of them deadly till the Temple was destroyed till which time even the Apostles themselves were zealous of the Law and retentive of their old Ceremonies to which weaknesse of theirs our Saviour there accommodates his speech willing rather that their owne experience in the destruction of the Temple should teach them that harsh lesson of the abolishing of the Legall Ceremonies then by a praemature urging it to startle such as
institution of the Lords day But I have too long digressed yet not without cause in as much as they who seeme so zealous for the giving to God his due time refuse notwithstanding to give him that which the regular piety of the Ancient and our owne Mother Church hath ever upon so sound reason consecrated to him I returne now to answere another objection which they frame against the extending of our Christian liberty to the use of recreations on the Lords day The liberty of Christians say they ought to be spirituall and not in carnall and common things and therefore cannot bee extended to patronize recreations or ordinary labours on the Sunday but that they are as unlawfull on that day as ever they were on the Sabbath To this I answere that Christian liberty as it respects the things from which we are freed is not meerely spirituall but extends it selfe to carnall and common things also for thereby wee are freed not onely from the guilt and condemnation of sinne and the raigning power of it which are things spivituall but also from the servitude of the Ceremoniall Law which among other respects which it had was as a Schoole-Master or Tutour whereby the Church in her nonage or infancie was to bee kept under the Elements of the world as the Apostle calls them that is tyed to the observation of dayes and moneths and yeares and meates and drinks which being in themselves indifferent were yet forbidden the Church of those times that their bondage under these might nourish in them the hope and expectation of the promised Messias in whom they were to have deliverance and so lead or rather drive them to beleeve in Him Now when the fulnesse of time was come and that Christ was exhibited the Church being then no longer under age is not subject to those observances but for any tye of that Law of Moses now upon it enjoyes the free use and exercise of these things as indifferent As then there were many things which in themselves and to us now are indifferent prohibited to the Jewes so as they might not eate of all meates though otherwise wholsome they might not weare all kinde of garments though usefull and profitable c. So there were some workes in themselves not sinfull nor at other times unlawfull prohibited to be done at some speciall times in regard of the peculiar observance then due to those times which now when those times cease to be observed can by no meanes bee accounted sinfull or unlawfull Granting therefore that ordinary labours and all bodily recreations were on the Sabbath unlawfull yet being in themselves not sinfull and so under the Gospell indifferent they cannot be so upon our Sunday I answere further that I know no reason why honest recreations moderate feasting and such like expressions of rejoycing may not fitly be counted a part of the externall observance and sanctification of this day in as much as it is solemnized in memory of the resurrection of our Blessed Saviour and so our redemption fully wrought to which we may with S. Augustine apply that of the Psalmist This is the Day which the Lord hath made wee will rejoyce and be glad in it And as on the day of his Passion and other dayes appointed for solemne humiliation we expresse the sorrow of our hearts by our mourning and neglected attire by Fasting and abridging our selves of those delights which use to refresh our natures at which times The voyce of the Vyoll and of the Harpe the voyce of the Bridegroome and the voyce of the Bride are unseasonable so on the day of his resurrection to expresse our joy and rejoycing by our arraying our selves in our best attire by Feasting and other acts of cheerefulnesse is most agreeable to the solemnity of that Day Of which we may say in the words of Nehemiah and Ezra This Day is holy unto the Lord your God mourne not nor weepe but eate of the fat and drinke of the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared for this Day is holy unto the Lord. And however some men will have every fasting day a Sabbath and every Lords Day a fasting day not allowing either the dressing or liberall use of Gods creatures and therefore judging it inconvenient to celebrate marriages on that day yet the Church of God in better times condemned Fasting on the Lords Day as unlawfull and most incongruous and disagreeable to the use of that Day which was ordained as a Festivall and day of mirth and rejoycing For which end also the Church in her most ancient times had on that Day their Agapae or Love-feasts as for the refreshing of the poore and for the nourishing of mutuall love and amity so also for the unanimous expression of joy in all sober mirth and in the free though temperate use of Gods creatures Upon which ground doubtlesse wee may conclude the lawfulnesse of the use of such recreations feastings and other testifications of rejoycing upon the Lords Day as are in themselves honest and are so used as they prove no hinderances to the service of God which is the proper worke of the Day Besides even the Iewes themselves though out of superstition they did for the most part overdoe this Precept of the Sabbath abstaining from those things which they might have done without any violation of Gods commandement yet accounted their Sabbath a Feast not a Fast a day of rejoycing and not of sorrow or humiliation and judged it not unlawfull to make Feasts upon that Day as is evident by that Feast made upon the Sabbath by a chiefe Pharisee one of their strictest Sabbatarians whereat our Saviour himselfe who was no Sabbath-breaker vouchsafed his presence among many others that were invited And Paulus Burgensis himselfe a Iew reports that the Iewes held themselves bound to eate three meales that day which on other dayes they used not And Syranus another of the same Nation saith That the Hebrew Doctors held that the word Remember was prefixed to this Commandement that if they had any pretious garment or any other thing of price They should remember to keepe it till the Sabbath to give it at first a Sabbath-dayes wearing I am not of their minde but thinke that word prefixed for higher and more important reasons yet I verily beleeve that their conceit did speak their usuall custome of apparelling themselves in their most costly and best garments as best befitting the joy of that high Festivall which as one hath well observed hath this singular priviledge to be a day of rest and holinesse of delight and Feasting unto the world and therefore saith hee This day is not described by evening and morning as were the other six which consisted of light and darknesse but this is all day or light figuring out our perpetuall joyes And no question but that Day which was the memoriall of Gods resting from his worke when he rejoyced in
at all take those places of Scripture which so severely prohibit all work upon the Sabbath as if they did no lesse belong to us now then heretofore to the Iewes and by this meanes those precepts threatnings and promises which concerned the observation of the Sabbath are pressed upon us point blanck Whereas indeed they concerne us onely indirectly and cannot without fetching a compasse be alledged at all for our Sunday Now the Scripture being so expresse as it is apprehended for the strict observance of our Sunday under the name of the Sabbath no marvell if men have made it a prime Case of Conscience and that so many scruples are dayly raised and so many traditions broached about the beginning and ending of the Sabbath about the works of a mans particular Calling what they are and how farre lawfull on that Day what are the proper duties of the Day and the like For the cleare resolution therefore of this Question Whether the use of Recreations may stand with the due observation of the Lords Day it is convenient that I have some recourse to the Sabbath Where because I love not Cramben saepiùs coctam apponere or to stuffe my discourse with a tedious explanation of those things which are commonly known and every where to be found I will with as much brevity as the cause will suffer inquire into these 4. particulars 1. Whether and how farre forth the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is moral and perpetuall and so belonging to Christians 2. When and by whom the Lords day was instituted 3. What workes the lews might doe on their Sabbath 4. Whether and what liberty Christians now have on the Sunday more then they had and how farre that liberty is to be extended To begin with the first The law which God gave unto his people the Iewes according to the three-fold variety of the object or things prescribed is three-fold Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall The Morall is that which concernes the manners of men and belongs to them as men and this commands those things which are in themselves acceptable and well-pleasing to God and those which hee will have all men every where and at all times to observe as the perpetuall and unchangeable rule of living being the expresse image of the minde of God according to which hee who is the Law-giver judges it meete and right that the reasonable creatures should order their lives The Ceremoniall belongs to men as joyned together in that Society which is called the Church and this containes those precepts which concerne the externall worship of God and were given by him to the Iewish Church in accommodation to the times in which the Church was under age and under the promise and therefore instituted for the signifying prefiguring and sealing of the truth of the promises made to them to be fulfilled in the exhibition of our Saviour and withall for the preservation of order and decencie in their Ecclesiasticall meetings and performances The judiciall belongs to men as joyned in a civill Society or Cōmon-wealth contayning the forme of civill government to be used by them tending to their good as they were a Society and to the preservation and exacting of the eutward worship of God and the discipline thereof as it was commanded in the Morall and Ceremoniall Lawes So that the Ceremoniall Law determined the Morall in order to God the Politicall or judiciall in order to men in a civill society and both in accommodation to that state of the Church And these though they have in them something which is juris moralis and so farre forth are contained under the Morall precepts yet being fitted to serve that state of the Church which was to be held in expectation of the Messias when the time came that he was actually exhibited and so the promise fulfilled the shadowes were then of no longer use the body being come and therefore at the time of the death of Christ they were abrogated de jure so that they became unnecessary and unprofitable and had their power of obligation taken away And afterward when by the Apostles doctrine Christians came to understand that Christ was the end of the Law and when the Temple the seate of their religion and the place destined to the use of those ceremonies was destroyed they were de facto actually and fully taken away and those things which before the death of Christ were commanded and in that interim betweene his death and the destruction of the Temple which was the space allotted for the solemne funeralls of the Iewish Synagogue were tolerable though already dead became from that time forward deadly and intolerable So that onely the Morall Law remaines now in force for the practise of Christians The ceremoniall and judiciall excepting in that wherein they are reducible to this are antiquated and out of date Now the precepts of the Morall Law are summarily comprehended in the Decalogue or ten Commandements which had this prerogative peculiar to them that they were delivered not by Moses but by God himselfe and by him written in tables of stone and preserved in the Arke to shew their dignity above others and to note out the perpetuity of observance which was due unto them Where before wee apply these things to our present purpose two things are to be noted First That howsoever all the precepts of the Morall law belong to the Law of Nature as being agreeable to reason which is the rule of Humane actions and are in that respect of perpetuall observance yet all of them are not of the same ranke nor belong in the same degree and manner to the law of Nature There are some things which by the instinct of nature and naturall light of the understanding wee presently see to be good or bad and which are so plaine that without any great consideration they may by the first principles or common notions implanted in us be either approved or rejected and these are absolutely of the law of nature Others there are that require more consideration of circumstances and the use of Discourse to apprehend and judge of them and these are so of the law of nature that notwithstanding they require the helpe of discipline by which those which are ignorant and not able by diligent consideration or discourse to attaine to the knowledge of them may be instructed by the wise and learned And lastly there are some to the knowledge whereof humane reason stands in neede of Divine Instruction And these two latter sorts especially the last though they in some sort belong to the Law of Nature and were haply at our first Creation written in the tables of mans heart in more plaine Characters and more easie to be read then now since the fall they are may in respect of the other be termed morall non ratione naturae sed disciplinae not in regard of nature dictating but in regard of Discipline informing nature Secondly that
were yet weake in faith or hinder others of that Nation from beleeving in Him Besides be it that Christians did hold themselves freed from the observance of the Sabbath yet being among those who still made conscience of it even to superstition as did the unconverted Jewes it could not but prove very incommodious to their speedy and farre flight which the greatnesse and suddennesse of the danger required in as much as thereby they should expose themselves to the fury of those who were no lesse zealous in compelling others then superstitious in observing it themselves In these respects our Saviour might well admonish his Disciples to pray that their flight might not bee on the Sabbath day and yet not teach them to observe the Sabbath after his death or that while the observation of it lasted they should thinke themselves so tied in conscience of it that they might not on that day flie farre to save their lives and much lesse to establish the Morality of the Lords Day which neither He nor his Apostles nor the following ages of the Church till within these few yeares ever designed by the name of the Sabbath without some difference added to distinguish it from that of the Jewes For though we finde it sometimes called our Sabbath or the Sabbath of Christians in regard that in the maine end of it it succeeded that yet generally the Sabbath simply put and without addition notes the Iewish Sabbath or the Day on which it was celebrated which is our Saturday and the day before that which we keepe which is therefore called by the Evangelists and S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one or the first day from the Sabbath and by S. Iohn in the Revelation the Lords Day by which name or that which the same day had among the Gentiles viz. the Sunday it hath ever since been knowne in the Christian world But I will leave these and now returne thither whence for the answering of these objections I have digressed And having seene the nature and severall degrees of Morall Precepts and in generall that the fourth Commandement hath in it somewhat not moral That I may apply these things to our present purpose and manifest the truth thereof I will more particularly inquire into the nature of that Commandement and in it distinctly consider these 4. things First A Day or time set apart for Gods service Secondly the seventh day or one in the revolution of seven Thirdly the particular seventh there mentioned namely the seventh from the Creation Fourthly the strict surcease or rest from ordinary labours on that day For the first of these It cannot be denied but that the very Law of Nature it selfe to use the words of a Worthy of our Church requireth no lesse the sanctification of times then of places persons and things For which cause it hath pleased God heretofore as of the rest so of times likewise to exact some parts by way of perpetuall homage And that as Aquinas it is morall that man should depute some time of his life for the service of God For there is in man a kind of naturall inclination that to every thing necessary there bee a time assigned as to our bodily refection sleepe and the like Whence also to the spiritnall refection of the soule whereby the soule is refreshed in God by the dictate of naturall reason a man deputes some time And so to have some times for holy Offices comes under the Morall Law and is absolutely of the Law of Nature written in the heart of every man being involved in that principle which even depraved nature hath ever acknowledged viz. that God is to be worshipped And therefore Amesius hath well observed that thus farre the time of Gods worship falls under that precept which exacts the worship it selfe and as God when he created the world is said to have concreated time with it so when he ordained religious actions he appointed also to the same a time for them as a necessary circumstance without which they could not be performed And as the time in which such actions are done so that some Day or Dayes should be destinated and set apart for the more solemne performance of those actions may seeme to be a dictate of the same Law of nature in as much as the Heathens who had no other guide but the law of Nature had their solemne Feasts and set Dayes in all ages consecrated to the worship of their Gods whereby they manifested though not the knowledge of the true God yet their acknowledgement of that Principle That God is to be worshipped and the conveniencie of assigning some Dayes peculiarly to that end For the second That one day in the revolution of seaven should be thus set a part this cannot be said to be absolutely of the Law of nature Nature being ignorant of this without the instruction of the written Law in which God hath revealed his pleasure concerning the Quota pars or how much of our time hee requires to be consecrated to Him And this will easily appeare to any that doth without prejudice consider it For it is an easie thing to give an estimate of what Principles are naturall and written in the hearts of all men and what are gotten by instruction discipline and information Now men may by the light of Nature from the creature climbe up to the knowledge of the Creator and from the nature of God conclude his worship and from the nature of his Worship conclude a time as to all other things to be due to it But to goe further and to determine what part of our time wee cannot For it will not follow that because some time is due therefore the seaventh day more then the eighth of every moneth which was observed by the Graecians in honour of Neptune or any other day above or under that number And for this cause it is saith Saint Chrysostome that in the giving of this Commandement concerning the Sabbath which hee calls a Precept not made knowne to us by our conscience God added a reason as because Ged rested the seventh day from all his worke and againe because thou wast a servant in Egypt c. Whereas in those Precepts that are purely morall as when he saith Thou shalt doe no murther hee onely gives the precept without giving any reason at all Why so saith that Father because our conscience had taught us this before so that God speakes as to those that knew and understood reason sufficient for the Prohibition Neither doth Eusebius though alledged by some to that purpose any way contradict this when he saith That not onely the Hebrewes but all almost both Philosophers and Poets acknowledged the seaventh day to be sacred For here it is not questioned whether the Gentiles which wanted the law of God to informe them did hold the seaventh day as hallowed but whether they were induced by the instinct of nature so to account it
that were vnder the law that wee might receive the adoption of sonnes Secondly the Iews by reason of their long abode in a place of continuall servile toyle could not suddainely be weaned and drawne unto contrary offices without some impression of terror whence the severity with which this duty was enjoyned and the violation thereof punished was to them most necessary And besides we know that there is nothing more needfull then to punish with extremity the first transgressors of those Lawes that require a more exact observation for many ages to come These considerations then being peculiar unto them that strict rest which was thereupon exacted being but accidentally annexed to the principall sanctification of the Sabbath cannot belong unto us by vertue of that command by which it was enjoyned them And this is confessed even by those that stand most for the observation of the Sabbath who grant that the strictnesse of the rest on the Sabbath was Ceremoniall and did belong to the Iewes onely and is abrogated by the death of Christ So Elton And Amesius It may be granted that there was somewhat a more strict observation of the Sabbath commanded in those times as fitted to the pedagogy and time of servitade which obteynes not in all ages So he and generally the most of those which propugne the Doctrine of the Sabbath To give a briefe and full resolution to the first question propounded viz. whether and how farre forth the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is morall and perpetuall and so belonging to us Christians To the former part I say the fourth Commandement is partly morall and partly Ceremoniall To the latter I say First it is morall and perpetuall that some time be dedicated to the solemne publique worship and service of God Secondly that one day in the revolution of seaven be consecrated to this end is not morall yet very convenient and fitly observed and retayned by the Church of Christ Thirdly that the particular seaventh day which the Iewes observed is neither morall nor sit to bee observed being altogether abrogated and out of date ever since the death of Christ Lastly the resting from ordinary labours as it is connected with the dutyes of Gods worship and a means without which they cannot be performed is no lesse necessary on the dayes consecrated to that end now then heretofore but as it concerned the Iewish Sabbath it is together with the Sabbath abrogated So that Christians are not bound either to rest on that day which the Iewes did or to rest on their owne Sabbaths or dayes consecrated to Gods service with the same strictnesse which was enjoyned the Iewes on theirs Thus much shall serve to have spoken of the first generall question Having explained the nature of the fourth Commandement touching the Iewish Sabbath I come now to speake of the Lords Day in which that which was Morall in that Commandement is and ever hath beene observed by Christians The institution of which when and by whom it was being the second generall part of our inquirie And here all Divines are not of one opinion Some ground this no lesse then the Iewish Sabbath upon the fourth Commandement which say they includes both the Sabbath of the Iewes and of the Christians Because the Lord doth not say Remember that thou keepe holy the seventh Day but Remember that thou keepe holy the Sabbath Day that is the Day of rest which before the comming of Christ was the seventh from the Creation but afterward the first day of the weeke or Lords Day But these men while they over greedily seeke after a divine foundation for the Lords Day doe not consider that they stretch the Precept beyond the intent of the Lawgiver For though it bee granted that the Lord doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day but the day of ceasing indeterminately yet seeing in the following explication which God added it is determined unto that particular seventh which was the seventh from the Creation to which it expresly is referred as to the speciall reason of the Institution the Sabbath there cannot without forcing and manifest absurdity bee said to bee as the Genus to the Iewish and Christian Sabbath and to include both For is it not manifestly absurd and unbeseeming a rationall man and much more the wisdome of the Supreame Law-giver to say God in sixe dayes made heaven and earth and rested the seventh and for that cause sanctified the seventh Day Ergo Hee will have men in imitation of him to rest sometime viz. before the comming of Christ on that day whereon hee rested and sometime viz. after Christs comming to rest on the day in which hee began to worke Neither can this absurdity bee salved as some have endeavoured to doe by saying there is alwayes more meant in the Precepts and prohibitions then in words are expressed for those things which are so meant without particular expression must either be necessarily connected with or some way subordinat to that which is expressed that so it may be included in it Sure I am it ought no way to be excluded as we see this is by Gods owne exposition of himselfe and the reason which hee alledgeth which can no way agree both to the Jewish Sabbath and the Lords Day Again others urge the Institution of the Lords Day as founded upon Gods sanctification of the seventh Day at the Creation which being before all Ceremonies must say they needes binde Christians as well as the Jewes But this labours of the same weaknesse and absurdity which the other did For what day did God sanctifie there Surely not the first day of the Weeke but the seventh from the Creation which they must with the Jewes cry up againe if they will have their argument hold good But besides this the weaknesse of this foundation appeares in that as hath beene shewed they cannot prove that God instituted the Sabbath and commanded it to bee observed from that time forward but onely that Moses there relating the story of the Creation intimates the reason of Gods after Commanding his people to rest upon that Day And lastly granting that to be the Institution which cannot be proved and that not the seaventh day from the Creation as the words expresly say but a seaventh or one in seaven were thereby intended to be perpetuall to belong to us Christians If all this be granted here will yet be but a partiall foundatiō and no compleat institution of that particular day which we observe for all this notwithstanding why might not the second third fourth or any other have beene observed and yet that institution of one in seaven no way violated Others therefore no doubt espying the weaknesse of it forsake this hold and seeke for authority to prove it to be of Divine Institution out of the New Testament And among these Amesius will have it to bee done by Christ himselfe laying this for a ground worke that
and that not in a common banke but every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by himselfe Againe grant that S. Paul as he did not had enjoyned Christians to meete on that day and at their meeting to make a Collection for the poore yet could not this serve for a sufficient institution of that Day to succeede the Jewes Sabbath unlesse such collections did involve in them all the service of God on that day to be done or were so connected with them that they could not bee separated which no man I suppose will affirme To leave these therefore who out of an over-weening conceit of the day are willing to catch at any shadow that may seeme to countenance it and gaine to it the reputation of Divine institution Let us pitch upon that which is certaine which though it rise not so high as an immediately-divine authority yet is sufficient to ground our practise upon and to exact the due observation of the Day First then it is most certaine that our Blessed Saviour did honour this day with his most glorious resurrection and by his often apparitions upon it to his Disciples and thereby as it were pointed out this day to his Disciples as worthy to be made choice of to be celebrated in honour of him who on that day began his glorious exaltation after his triumph over Principalities and powers upon his Crosse whom he there spoyled having nayled to it and thereby cancelled the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us that is the obligation to observe the Jewish rites and ceremonies and among these their Sabbath which from that time forward the Apostle would have no man to judge Christians in who as they were freed from it by the death of Christ so by his resurrection they had ground sufficient ministred to direct them to the observation of a new Festivall Whence S. Augustine saith The Lords Day was declared to Christians by the resurrection of our Lord and from that time began to be celebrated So that for ought that appeares our Saviour did not command the first day of the weeke to be observed Hee did to use the words of the same Father Vouchsafe to demonstrate and consecrate it or as he else-where speakes The raising againe of our Lord promised us an everlasting Day and consecrated for us the Lords Day Secondly it is no lesse certaine that the Apostles upon this ground no doubt did observe this Day and had thereon their holy assemblies as Acts 20. 7. And that for the same cause the Apostle designed it for the storing up of their almes that the memory of the benefits which on that day they obtained might make them more readily contribute to the necessities of their brethren as S. Chrysostome hath observed upon 1. Cor. 16. 1. And lastly that in the time of the Apostles it obtained the name of the Lords Day as appeares Revel 1. 10. Thirdly that the ages of the Church immediately after the Apostles whether by constitution or onely in imitation of them is not knowne nor much materiall did observe this Day as the Christians Festivall stiling it the Lords Day and conveighed the same practise by continuall succession even to this day as the late learned Bishop of Winchester shewes avowing it on his credit That there is not an Ecclesiasticall Writer in whom it is not to be found Wee finde thus much then without contradiction That it hath been the practise of the Christian Church to observe the Sunday or Lords Day and that ever since yea in the very Apostles times a practise warranted by the example of the Apostles and the honour vouchsafed to that day by our Blessed Saviour himselfe Whence we may conclude with a late learned Divine That the Christian Church did not erre when in stead of the Sabbath it appointed the Lords Day to bee observed of which there is mention made in the Scripture though there be no Precept for the observation of it In which words of his I will observe three things First that he saith the Church not the Apostles or Apostolicall men for though that be most probable and hath for it the authority of S. Augustine and for that it hath beene ever observed by the Church it may justly be ascribed to them yet because if they did it they did it not as therein reporting the immediate Precept of Christ nor by any power that was properly Apostolicall but by vertue of their Pastorall power and office which was common to them with their Successours it may be termed an Ordinance of the Church and it little concernes us to know whether it were delivered by the Apostles themselves or their next after-commers Secondly The Church appointed this Day but whether at the first by expresse constitution it were commanded or by custome onely observed it appeares not Aquinas attributes it to both and how ever thus much is out of question that this Custome or Constitution was afterward by many Canons of the Church and Constitutions of Christian Emperours ratified and approved and many things ordained tending to the right due observance of it Thirdly That the Christian Church did not herein erre as having sufficient to warrant it out of Scripture though there be no Precept for it Yea and if the Scripture did yeeld no example of this practise or other ground for it in particular yet had not the Church erred in ordaining it For things pertaining to order decencie in the Church such as is among others the particular determination of the set times of Gods worship being undetermined in the word of God are in the power of the Church to be ordered so as they be done according to the generall Lawes of nature and without contradiction to any positive Law in Scripture Neither is it derogatorie to the word of God or any whit detracting from the perfection of it to affirme that though it sufficiently and abundantly containe in it all things necessary to salvation yet it hath left a number of other things free to be ordered at the discretion of the Church And as to take from the Scripture the sufficient determination of things necessary to salvation were an injurie and an impairing of that honour which God challengeth to his word and the Church of God hath ever deservedly yeelded to it so it were no lesse injurie to the Church of Christ to abridge it of the power of determining of this and such like things which being not of absolute necessity are yet convenient and profitable For this prerogative power the Church of God hath ever obtained and enjoyed even when it was most obliged to hold to the letter of the Law prescribing the Ceremonies belonging to the service of God that it might without imputation of adding to or altering the law of God from time to time appoint sundry rites and observances not any where prescribed in the Law Such were the appointment of the
things not absolutely necessary so as thereby the service of God the due preparation thereto be not hindered under which the use of honest and seemly recreations after the publike dutyes of the Day are finished may be comprehended For though it cannot be denied that a man may commendably spend the whole day in workes of piety and devotion yet that cannot prescribe to all Christians or infringe their liberty For it is one thinge to exhorte to a thing as commendable another to urge it as necessary one thing to say this or that is a good worke and is wel done at this or that time another to enjoyn it by way of Precept so as at such time it may not be omitted nor other worke permitted And the reason is because Gods affirmative Precepts though they warrant and commend the workes that they enjoyne and make them good and commendable whensoever they are performed yet they bind not precisely to any determinate time for their performāce For example we are commanded to pray and that continually so that he that is most frequent in prayer observes this Precept best and deserves the praise of a devout and religious man yet he that prayes not at this or at that time when haply another doth cannot therefore be sayd to sin and much lesse bee counted irreligious or profane David prayed gave thanks unto God at midnight so did S. Paul and Silas and surely those Godly Soules were blessedly employed but shall wee therefore condemne him who doth not the like S. Paul also being to depart from Troas continued his Sermon till midnight on the Sunday and no doubt but he did well yet no man will therefore prescribe the like length to every Sunday Sermon The case is the same in this businesse we have in hand for we doe not presently affixe these duties to the day which wee say may be commendably on that day performed nor on the other side doe we disallow the spending of the whole Sunday in holy and religious actions because we dare not rigidly tye all men so to do or lay it upon them by way of Precept as if God had expresly commanded that time to be no otherwise spent There is a good and a safe use of that distinction of Precepts and Counsells though the Romanists abuse it to the patronising of their imaginary workes of super erogation and things in themselves good without relation to any determinate time we may wish exhort and counsell men to performe at any time when wee cannot by Precept impose them upon all Wee know our Saviour commended some things to his Disciples with a Let him that is able to receive it recieve it advising and exciting all to that which nowing the infirmity of many hee would not exact by his authority as necessary to be performed by all And in this case wee may doe well to imitate him considering that it is no where enjoyned in Scripture and that such is the condition of many that they are not capable of such an injunction as namely those who by reason of their mean education or naturall parts are not fitted for long meditation requisite for the spending of the vacant time of the Day and to whom in regard of their hard labour in the weeke dayes it is a mercy to permit some bodily recreation on this day which certainely cannot be displeasing to him who hath said I will have mercy not Sacrifice And if they who use to judge the use of all recreation on this day sinfull had known what that meaneth they would not have condemned the guiltlesse If any thinke that God hath so commanded let him produce the place of Scripture and I will quickly recant The places which are usually alledged for that purpose and wherewith men are so frighted and thundred against out of the Pulpet being intended for the Iewes and that in regard of that speciall positive Precept given for the strict rest upon their Sabbath cannot with any shew of reason bee extended to Christians when both Day and Precept are out of date But haply some may yet further contend that though the Day bee changed yet the equity of it still remaines and that they may argue thence à pari or as some thinke à minori as from the lesse to the greater That if the Iewes upon their Sabbath which was instituted in memory of the Creation and of their deliverance out of Egypt ought to doe no worke nor so much as to speake their owne words and that for the whole day then by the like reason nay much rather ought Christians so to doe on their Sabbath or Sunday which is consecrated to the memory of a farre more glorious worke the worke of our Redemption accomplished in the resurrection of our Saviour Here in this kinde of reasoning there is some truth but as it is too common it is over-strayned and so is but a meere colour to countenance that for which it is brought and not any solid foundation whereon to build it The truth is Christians have as much if not more cause to celebrate the Redemption of mankind by a solemne weekely Commemoration as ever the Iewes had to celebrate the Creation of the world or their deliverance out of Egypt and this may serve as a good ground to justifie the Institution of the Lords Day and the Churches practise in observing it But this truth is overstrained being applied to the manner of Celebration which was peculiar to the Jewes and accommodated to the then-State of the Church which was as hath beene shewed to be held under the yoke of a strict outward rest in expectation and for the prefiguring of that eternall rest which now Christ hath actually purchased and therefore injuriously laid upon Christians who are freed from that yoke under which they groaned And they may as well upon the same ground conclude against making of fires and dressing of meate upon the Sunday and make the gathering of a few sticks upon that Day to deserve no lesse now then hee suffered for doing the like upon the Sabbath So that wee may say to those who thus argue as hee in Saint Augustine upon farre better ground then he did Either let us be Christians and keepe the Lords Day or let us bee Iewes and observe the Sabbath But is it not reason that God should have one whole day in seven given unto him now as well as heretofore Yes certainely but yet with such difference as suites with the different condition of the Church that now is from that which then was that being guided by the spirit of feare this of love that in a state of bondage under the unsupportable burthen of legall Ceremonies this in a state of liberty and under Christs easie yoake In a word they Iewes and we Christians and this being considered we may be said to give God a Day no lesse now then they then though in that Day wee
appeared to the world or the dayes of their departure hence which were the dayes of their happy inauguration into the Kingdome of glory when they both left to the Church militant the glorious example of their Christian fortitude and became an occasion of new joy to the Church triumphant by the accession of new Citizens to that heavenly society Either of which afford matter sufficient of solemne joy and rejoycing to the Church and consequently of praise and thanksgiving unto God Lastly to convince them yet farther out of their owne principles They allow the Church power in the times of great calamities either feared or felt to appoint solemne dayes of fasting and humiliation and those dayes they will have held as Sabbaths extraordinary and that therein men are bound to abstein from their bodily labours according to the same streitnesse that they are bound to observe the Sabbath I would gladly then know some reason why the Church should want power to ordeine the like dayes for the celebration of speciall benefits to be observed not as Sabbaths which are now antiquated and no presidents for us Christians but with such a cessation from labours as is necessary for the performance of the publike worship of God and fit to accompany such solemnities of publike joy and rejoycing to which Rest is more naturally requisite then to the times of sorow and humiliation But it is not the having of such dayes that some scruple at or the duties required in them for they much desire to have some dayes besides the Lords day to meet together for the hearing of the Word and for the words sake can be contented to endure the Liturgie of the Church But the things which they dislike are first the obligation that we put upon men for the observance of them for they would have the appointment and observation of them to bee held a thing indifferent and no duty binding conscience Secondly they dislike the names that we give them in that we style them the dayes of such or such a Saint which to them seemes to favour of Idolatry neither would they have them called holy dayes or accounted more holy then others forasmuch as such difference of dayes belonged to the Iewes and is now under the Gospell taken away To these I answer first for the obligation of the Churches commands and that it is not a thing indifferent to obey or disobey them I have already spoken so much as may satisfie those that are not studious of contention I onely adde now upon this occasion that it seemes to me very ridiculous to grant the Church a power of ordeining such times and yet to require that the observation of them so ordeined be held a thing indifferent For if their ordinance lay no tye upon men but leave things notwithstanding still indifferent their power surely is to no purpose and nothing worth Touching the names that we give them I say first that the festivalls of the Saints are dedicated not to them by whose names they are called but to God To him and not them our prayers are directed to him our praises though for them and with reference to those blessings which by them are vouchsafed unto us Wee honour him as the author of all that good which either they or we by them are partakers of We honour them only as his instruments and as those who having beene imitators of our blessed Saviour are worthy patternes of our imitation To this purpose wee finde the Church of Smyrna answering the like calumny raised against them by the Iewes upon occasion of their affection which they expressed toward that glorious Martyr Polycarpus These men say they are ignorant that we cannot ever leave Christ who suffered for the salvation of the whole world nor can we worship any other For him we adore as the Son of God as for the Martyrs we worthily love them as disciples and imitators of him their Lord for their insuperable affection toward their King and Master whose partners also we desire to be and to become their disciples And thus much they might easily answer themselves out of our Church Liturgy where there is no one word in any office appointed for any Saints day that gives the least ground or colour to this scruple The other imputation of Iudaisme which they taxe us with because we style our Christian festivalls holy dayes hath as weake a foundation as the former For I willingly grant them what they alleadge for the countenancing of this objection That now under the Gospell the difference of times and dayes is no lesse taken away then of meates That is as we have now no meats that are uncleane either in themselves or by reason of any positive precept given to the Iewes but that they may bee eaten with thanksgiving so neither is there any day or time which in it selfe or by reason of any such Iudaicall precept is now to be accounted more holy then others all this is evident from the places which they alleadge for this purpose Whereupon wee conclude that none of the Iewish Festivalls not the Sabbath it selfe ought to be observed by Christians nor which is more any Christian Festivall to be observed after the Iewish maner or with their rites and Ceremonies And this may justly taxe them who stand either for the Iewish Sabbath or which turne the Lords day into a Sabbath exacting the same strictnesse of observance in regard of the outward Ceremoniall Rest But it can no way prejudice the Church in consecrating dayes to the service of God or in accounting them though in themselves and setting aside the Ordinance of the Church they are all alike yet in relation to the duties to be performed in them more holy then others And this they must grant unlesse they will affirme one of these three things First That the workes of God now under the Gospel are not so great so glorious and consequently so worthy of set times for their solemne remembrance as heretofore under the Law Or that the Christian Church hath now lesse power in appointing dayes for the solemne worship of God in relation to those glorious works of his then the Iewish Synagogue once had Or lastly That the worship which wee Christians now performe to God is not so holy as that in the time of the Iewish Synagogue and so lesse able to sanctifie the dayes in which they are performed But every one of these being most absurd I conclude that to consecrate certaine dayes besides the Lords day to the solemne worship of God in memory of his speciall blessings vouchsafed to the Church on such dayes and to account such dayes so consecrated more holy then others is lawfull and free from all superstition and Judaisme And however that they who would faine affixe so extraordinary holinesse to the Lords day should of all men have abstained from this last imputation till they had better proved the immediately divine
Sabbath day namely when the Creation was finished endured onely till the time of the new Creation in which al things were made new by Christ at which time it ceased or at least a second reason taken from that new Creation comming in place the former both reason day become now old are passed away and behold all things are become new For this worke of redemption or new Creation being the greater may deservedly take place of the other And as the Prophet Ieremy speaking of the deliverance that God would vouchsafe his people from the Babilonish captivity saith Behold the dayes shall come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North c. So may wee say of the day appointed for his worship that the day wherein he finished the worke of Creation shall no more be observed but the day wherein our Lord Iesus Christ by his resurrection from the dead finished the worke of our redemption and begun a new life to be finished in all his members who as S. Peter tels us are by his resurrection begotten vnto a lively hope of an eternall Inheritance The fourth and last thing in this Commandement and that which denominated the day is the resting from ordinary labours And this in regard of the divers ends it had admits a diverse consideration 1. This rest may be considered as a means without which the dutyes of Gods worship cannot be performed For seeing the generall publique dutyes of piety and devotion and our owne private businesses cannot both bee followed at once there must be such a cessation from ordinary labours on that day wherein men are to performe those dutyes as that thereby they be not hindered in the performance thereof in which regardthose workes that in themselves and at other times are not prohibited are on that day vnlawfull so farre as they hinder a man from applying himself to divine dutyes and therein are contrary to the observance of that precept which requires the performance of them And therefore when God commands a day to be dedicated to Him he doth likewise in the same command such a rest as a meanes necessary to that end So that thus farre it is connected with participates of the morality of that Precept that enjoynes the dutyes for which it was appointed in this consideration we are no lesse bound at this day to rest from our labours on the dayes devoted to Gods solemne worship then were the Iewes and as Uenerable Hooker sayth The voluntary scandalous contempt of that rest from labour wherewith God is publikely served we cannot too severely correct and bridle Another end of this rest is mentioned Deut. 5. 14. viz that there might be a time of rest allowed to servants and labourers for their refreshment And this no lesse concernes us then it did them for necessity of nature requires some time of remission from labour and religion teacheth us to be mercifull even to our beasts and much more to our servants who are our brethren But this is not so connected with the observance of the day of Gods publique worship but that it may at other times be supplyed yet is then so far requisite as it makes for the solemne performances of the duties of the day that all as well servants as others may joyne together in the service of God which while they doe they at once enjoy the refreshment of their bodyes and freedome to refresh their soules with holy and religious exercises But this rest as it was prescribed to the Iews had yet a further end in regard of which it was exacted so strictly and beyond that which eyther the solemne service of God or the necessary refreshment of labouring persons did require And that was figurative for the signifying of things past present and future 1. Things past and so it was a memoriall of Gods resting from his worke of Creation and as the day which they observed so the strict rest upon that day served as a sign of the cōmon benefit of Creation which they thereby acknowledged to bee Gods work when they celebrated that day wherein God rested from creating sanctified it by an holy and totall surcease from their owne workes And this end is assigned by God himselfe and annexed to the commandement as a principal reason of the institution of it Secondly it was a memoriall likewise of their deliverance out of Egypt so expressely said to bee Deut. 5. 15. where in the repetition of the Law this reason is added instead of the former God is therefore sayd to command them to keepe the Sabbath that they might remember their servitude in Egypt and their deliverance from thence Againe the Sabbath was a signe also of their present condition and a note to distinguish them from all other people they being then the onely peculiar people of God whom hee had separated and sanctified to himselfe For a signe of which peculiar sanctification they were commanded to observe the Sabbath as we read Exod. 31. 13. Ezech. 20. 12. 3. Lastly the rest of the Sabbath was a Type whereby was prefigured that rest which remained for the people of God to be purchased for them by Christ Into which rest they which believe do enter and shall have the full possession thereof in the Kingdome of glory when after all their works finished they shall rest from their labours And this rest the Apostle designing by the name of a Sabbatisme intimates the prefiguring of it by that Sabbath which the people of God under the Law were to observe So that as the place of this Celestiall and eternall rest was shadowed out by the promised Land so the rest it selfe for the nature condition of it was no lesse presignified by their usuall Sabbaths Now in relation to these good things which were thus vailed under the outward observation of this rest it was very requisite that the rest whereby they were represented should be as strict as might be for the more exact the figure is the better it signifies and the more strictly the rest was observed the more lively was the representation of those things which it aymed at To this if we add the condition of those to whom it was enjoyned we shall have the compleate reason why it was with that strictnesse commanded and exacted the violation of it with such severity punished For first the Iewes though the people of God heire Lord of all yet being as the Apostle saith a child differed not from a servant and as servants were to be held in bondage under the strict yoke of outward observances of this among the rest till the fulnesse of time came when God sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the law to redeem them
He alone could change the day of the Sabbath that was Lord of it that is Christ So that according to him Christ was the Author of this change and that either mediately by his Apostles whom he assisted by his Spirit in the Institution of it no lesse then he did in the doctrine which they taught or else as hee holds to bee most probable immediately and in his owne person and the probability of this he labours to prove by divers Arguments wherein hee doth as one hath well observed in the like case as if one should demand a Legacy by force and vertue of some written Testament wherein there being no such thing specified he pleades that there it must needs be and bringeth arguments from the love and good will which alwayes the Testator bore him imagining that these or the like proofes will evince a Testament to have that in it which other men by reading can no where finde Certainely it is a bold and a strange course for men to adventure to argue that God must needs have done the thing which they imagine was to bee done whereas in matters that concerne the actions of God the most dutifull and safe way on our part is to search what God hath done and with meekeresse to admire that rather then to dispute what he in congruity of reason ought to doe Hee might therefore have spared all the reasons he brings and in stead thereof to have alledged one place out of the New Testament which doth command the change of the Day especially seeing he denies it and that for many reasons by him there urged to bee an unwritten Tradition which seeing hee doth not nor indeede can doe what doth he else by all his arguments but endeavour to lay an aspersion of imperfection upon the Scriptures and of neglect in Christ himselfe of that office which as the great Prophet of his Church belonged to him As if unlesse hee had beene as carefull to appoint the observation of this day as Moses was to appoint the old Sabbath hee could not absit verbo blasphemia be as faithfull in the house of God as Moses was But farre be such blasphemous thoughts from us farre be it from us to measure the faithfulnesse of our blessed Saviour by our phansies or to judge him unfaithfull because he did omit that which our shallow conceits judge necessary and fit for him to doe Wee know that the high Priest of our profession Christ Iesus was faithfull to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithfull in all his house And this faithfulnesse of his was by him sufficiently demonstrated in that hee fully declared the will of his Father to the world in all things to be beleeved and done and shewed how and what worship Christians must give unto God though the circumstances of that worship as Time and Place in as much as concerned the particular designing of either hee left to be determined by the Church whom he promised to be with to the end of the world And as he cannot be said to be lesse faithfull in the house of God then Moses or Salomon who provided the one a Tabernacle the other a Temple because he did not appoint set places for Gods worship so neither can hee be justly taxed for not appointing the set times for the same these two circumstances of time and place being of equall necessity and use and joyned together by God himselfe Lev. 19. 30. Yee shall keepe my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuarie I am the Lord. Neither is the difference of Places more taken away now under the Gospel then of Times But as the true worshippers of God are not tyed to worship either in Ierusalem or any other peculiar place but may worship him in spirit and truth in all places lifting up pure hands so neither are they tyed to any speciall time or day but may pray continually and at all times And therefore they who are so indifferent for the place that they can be content to account a Wood a Parlor or a Barne place good enough for Christians to meete in for the performance of Gods publick worship have no reason to complaine for want of a set day or time for the same purpose The truth is that that peculiar blessing which God once bestowed upon the Sabbath of the Temple thereby differenced them from all others is enlarged to all times places and any day and place may by the Church be dedicated and set apart for Gods worship and being so dedicated set apart they inherit that holinesse which was once peculiar unto the in relation to the duties then there performed to God who in regard of the abundance of grace vouchsafed now in the time of the Gospell may be said to be more present at such times and in such places then heretofore in those of his own assigning But it was not necessary that Christ himself or his Apostles from him should by expresse precept particularly designe either of these if any think such precept to be necessary let them shew the place of Scripture where such precept is to be found or else confesse the Scripture to be deficient in things necessary and so forsake their colours of reformation and passe over into the Campe of the Romanists If they be ashamed of this let them learne and confesse That however it be necessary that some time be dedicated to Gods service yet the determination to this or that particular day is not necessary to be defined by Scripture which they may perhaps the more easily be brought to see if they consider that in this it is no otherwise then it is with other things of equall necessity with this in the generall as the Sacraments Fasting and Prayer it selfe which yet for the particular when and how often they are to be used is not any where in Scripture defined nor necessary so to be But some who will have the Lords day so called because Christ himselfe instituted it say That the Apostles by the authority of that Spirit that alway assisted them in their ministeriall office did alter the day and themselves kept and ordained it to be kept in all Churches as may appeare 1. Cor. 16. 1. Where he saith Every first day of the weeke when yee meete together c. But certainly it is most evident even to a vulgar consideration that no such thing doth appeare out of that place For what doth Saint Paul say there That hee would have Christians meete every first day of the weeke to serve God No surely there is not a word of meeting in the text but what is foysted in to deceive the credulous Reader That which S. Paul saith is That on that day hee would have every one lay by him in store as God hath prospered him This implies neither the meeting together of the Church on that day nor the performance of any religious duty but onely a repositing or laying up
houres for the dayly sacrifices the building of Synagogues throughout the land to heare the word of God and to pray in when they came not up to Ierusaleme the Feast of the Dedication which was solemnised even by our Saviour and yet never spoken of in the Law and many more which the Church without any particular command onely following the light of reason in her discretion judged meete And certainly the Church of Christ hath not now lesse power or priviledge then the Jewish Church then had to which it is no way inferiour but farre superiour in regard of the measure of grace and the presence of the spirit of Christ by which it is assisted as in other things so in ordaining Lawes for the edification of the Church Now least any should thinke it a matter of indifferencie to obey or disobey the Orders of the Church which are thus constituted without the expresse command of God in Scripture and that the transgressions of such Constitutions are no sinnes I will close this point with that which worthy Hooker from whom I have borrowed the greatest part of this last discourse hath judiciously and fully delivered to this purpose Vnto Lawes thus made saith he and received by a whole Church they which live within the bosome of that Church must not thinke it a matter indifferent either to yeeld or not to yeeld obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My sonne keepe thy Fathers commandement saith Salomon and forget not thy mothers instruction binde them both alwayes about thine heart It doth not stand with the duty which wee owe to our Heavenly Father that to the Ordinance of our Mother the Church we should shew ourselves disobedient Let us not say we keepe the commandements of the one when wee breake the Law of the other for unlesse we observe both wee obey neither Yea that which is more the Lawes thus made God himselfe doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them Him Thus hee with much more to the same purpose Which I therefore thought good to adde that no man might think that while I ascribe it to its true Originall I goe about to impaire the authority of it or to withdraw any thing from the due observance of it And thus I have done with this second Question viz. When and by whom the Sunday or Lords Day was instituted These things thus discussed and cleared it may now seeme superfluous to enquire into the liberty that wee Christians have how farre it may justly be extended in regard of ordinary labours upon the Sunday For if it be granted that the strict rest on the Sabbath was Ceremoniall and abrogated with the Day and that the Day which we keepe is not by vertue of the fourth Commandement but by the custome or Constitution of the Church It wil not be hard for any to conclude that Christians are not bound to rest on that day from all works further then the duties of the day and they who enjoyned it require Yet for more full satisfaction I will adde some-what more particularly concerning those two Questions that remaine To enquire then first What works the lewes might doe or their Sabbath This wil easily be dispatcht in as much as herein the Scripture is very plaine and little or no difference of opinion among Divines Yet will it not be altogether needlesse in regard that the liberty we now have under the Gospell when it is compared with theirs under the Law will the better appeare Now these workes are fitly reduced under three heads The first of which are Workes of necessity such as could not well be deferred or prevented Of which sort are reckoned divers which how ever Pharisaicall superstition had prevailed with the people to scruple at yet were never in the intention of the Law-giver prohibited them as may appeare by the doctrine practise of our Saviour who was both wayes the best expositor of the Law and who both wayes came not to destroy but to fulfill it And among those thus allowed by our Saviour we finde the providing of foode in the case of hunger the watering and by the like reason the foddering of cattell the saving them from imminent danger Whence by analogie and congruity of reason wee may conclude the lawfulnesse of many more things of the like nature as that of Mattathias and his company resolving to fight upon the Sabbath to save their lives So the quenching of an house on fire the saving of corne and other necessary substance from perishing and the like To which wee may adde workes communis honestatis as the decent attiring of our selves and all other workes which necessity of nature hath imposed upon men and thereby allowed as fit to be done The second sort of workes permitted them were workes of mercie and charity as to visite the sicke heale the diseased and the like which wee finde approved by our Saviours often practise and together with those before-mentioned justified by that axiome of his The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath that is according to Erasmus's Glosse it is fit that the observation of the Sabbath should give place to mans benefit and not that man should perish for the Sabbath as also by that of the Prophet by him cited God will have mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather have the miseries of men relceved then the letter of the Law observed The third and last sort of works were workes of piety belonging to the service of God as to reade the Law to teach the people to circumcise children to offer Sacrifice with their attendants as to make fires for them to slay and prepare the beasts for these workes though servile in themselves being directed to the service of God were sacred and no way violating the Sabbaths rest So our Saviour testifies that notwithstanding these workes done by the Priests in the Temple yet the Priests were blamelesse and not transgressours of the Law And the Jewes had it among their traditions that in the Temple there was no Sabbath Intimating that the Sabbaths rest must give place to those things which were to be done by the Priest in the Temple for the service of God Having seene what might be done on the Sabbath let us now see whether and what liberty Christians now have on the Sunday and how farre that liberty is to be extended which is the last part of our Inquirie And here though some few transported with a heedlesse zeale of maintayning the dignity of this day have not strucke to affirme that the Iewes had as much liberty as we have that we are as much restrained as they were Yet the most even of the strictest and most precise exactors of the Sundayes rest doe grant a liberty which Christians now have more then the Iewes had But what liberty this is wherein it consists how
far to be extended is not on all hands agreed upon Some there are who when they come to define this liberty they pin it up within so narow a room that it proves either none at all or to no purpose Amesius saith There is nothing can be brought out of Scripture cōcerning the strist observatiō of the Sabath which was commanded to the Iewes which doth not in the same manner belong to all Christians except the kindling of fires and the dressing of ordinary dyet And these he thinkes it probable too that the Iewes might ordinarily doe on their Sabbath though upon speciall occasions they were forbidden them so that he seemes to retract that liberty which before he granted them But others doe freely grant these and some few like them as making of beds carrying of burthens to wit on speciall and urgent occasions and these they allow by this name of workes of Christian liberty Egregiam vero libertatem A great liberty no doubt and worthy that precious blood by which it was purchased But two things may here be demanded First how it will appeare that Christians have this liberty And here for ought I can see we must be contented to take their own authority for Scripture they alledge none to purpose Those two places which are cited by Elton on this occasion speak no such thing besides that which is there sayd whatever it be proves no peculiar liberty belonging to Christians which the Iewes had not For in them our Saviour justifies his Disciples from transgressing the Sabbath which was then in force but doth not shew what might be done afterward when by his death the Sabbath should be abrogated If they alledge that our Saviour bad the sicke man on the Sabbath to take up his bed which may seeme to have some reference to making of beds or carrying of burthens It may be answered that our Saviour doth not there shew what might ordinarily be done but by his authority gives a speciall dispensation to the sicke man to take up his bed c. without which dispensation the man could not have beene excused from breaking the Sabbath So that here is no certainty according to their principles for any thing to be done which the Jewes might not doe but that men must for all their pretended liberty either Iudaize or else adventure for this small liberty with a doubting conscience Secondly It may also be demanded How wee shall know that onely this liberty is allowed Christians This also we must take upon their credit For reason or Scripture they alledge none at all And if they without either reason or Scripture shall take upon them to give lawes to the Church of God and prescribe bounds to Christian liberty I see no cause why wee may not upon solid grounds of Scripture and reason assert that liberty which of right belongs to us as purchased by the all precious blood of our deare and Blessed Saviour And this will appeare if we consider what rest or cessation from labours is on this day required First then for that it is a day of Gods publique and solemne worship to bee performed by the whole Church which cannot as hath beene shewed be performed unlesse there bee a vacation from ordinary and common worked a vacation therefore and resting from these as they are impediments to Gods service is on that day required as necessary Yet not so necessary no not in the times of publique assemblyes but that the workes which necessity imposeth upon men and rarer occasions in mens particular affaires subject to manifest detriment unlesse they be presently followed may with very good conscience draw men aside sometime frō the ordinary rule considering the favourable dispensation which our Saviour grounds upon this Axiome The Sabbbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Which rule if it held for the Iews on their Sabbath is certainely no lesse in force at this day for Christians In the use of which notwithstanding some cautions must bee observed As first that men pretend not necessity or charity when it is covetousnesse or a carelesse neglect or contempt of Gods publique worship upon which ground no doubt it was that the Emperor Leo repealed that liberty which by Constantine was granted to Husbandmen and the Counsell of Matiscon forbids men to frame a necessary to themselves of yoking their Oxen therein allowing both a just dispensation in necessity forbidding the unjust pretence of necessity where none is Secondly men must take heed that they do not by their negligence or improvidence and forgetfulness draw a necessity upon themselves in which regard the word Remember which God prefixed to the fourth Commandement is yet in force to exact our care and mindfulnesse so to provide before hand that the dutyes to which this day is consecrated bee not by our default omitted or hindered Thirdly that being necessarily hindered or forced to omit the solemne publique dutyes of the Day we do as much as may be by private devotions meditations make supply of that defect Againe such is the reverence that is due to the solemne publique dutyes of devotion that they require not onely a surcease from other workes thoughts for the time of their performance but also a decent preparation before-hand that wee looke to our feete when we enter into the house of God put off our shooes before we stand upon holy ground that so our thoughts and affections which are naturally bent upon the world and not easily withdrawne from it may be raysed to a disposition befitting so sacred an employment In which respect it is convenient if not necessary that til the publike service of God be ended men intangle not themselves with unnecessary businesses or give themselves to sportings or recreations whereby their mindes should be hindered from the right preparing of themselves or due performance of those holydutyes Lastly it is good and commendable to spend the rest of that day in holy meditations private prayer reading and calling to minde what wee have read or heard These workes as they are at all times profitable and beseeming Christians so on that day they are most seasonable and suitable to those publique actions of Devotion which are the proper worke of the Day Thus S. Augustine exhorteth his Auditors on this day to sequester themselves from worldly businesses that they may be employed in these works and the Councill of Matiscon yea and our owne Church Canons prescribe the spending of this day and other holy-holy-dayes devoted to Gods service in these and the like religious imployments And therefore they who thus spend the Lords day if it be done without superstition or judging other mens liberty cannot therefore justly be condemned Now by this it is easie to judge of our liberty First then here is a liberty in case of necessity though thereby the solemne dutyes of Gods worship bee hindered Secondly a liberty in
doe not so strictly observe the outward ceremoniall rest as they were bound to doe Secondly I say that our Church is so farre from abridging God of one day in seven that it gives more as having appointed and consecrated divers Holy dayes to the same solemne and publike worship of God which is enjoyned to bee performed upon the Lords Day For these though they may admit some difference in regard of their accidentall dignity in as much as those benefits commemorated in them are greater or lesser yet in regard of their essentials they are equall as being all of them dedicated to the honour of the same God in memory of some great and speciall benefits vouchsafed to the Church and therefore doe goe pari passu in our Canons and in our ancient Statutes which require the same observance of both under the same penalty And therefore those who stand so much for a whole Day of seven to be consecrated to God if the worship of God were all they affected might see that there is a compensation made for the defect which they so much complaine of in our observation on the Lords Day and they themselves might doe well to take advantage by a religious observation of these dayes to make up their failings on the Lords Day But this they are so farre from that they account the observation of these dayes a breach of the fourth Commandement and thinke it a sin to make more Holy dayes then one in seven In which regard it cannot be judged altogether impertinent if I here take occasion to vindicate the practise of our Church from their unjust censures And in the first place I may returne their own Argument upon them and say Is it not reason that God should now under the Gospel have more set dayes to commemorate his benefits then one in seven as well as under the Law Vnder the Law we know they had beside their weekly Sabbaths the Passeover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles and not onely those which had Gods expresse command for their Institution but the Feast of Purim and of the Dedication which as I have before shewed were ordained by the Church without any expresse command of God and observed by our Saviour himselfe whose example alone if any thing is sufficient to exempt us from scrupling at the like now in the time of the Gospel Secondly if they will not runne cleane counter to their owne principles and deny the morality of the fourth Commandement altogether they must acknowledge thus much at least to bee moral That there ought to be a certaine part of our time given to God and some dayes set apart for his publique worship Now these being left undetermined in the word of God if it bee not in the power of the Church to determine them I wonder how that precept should be observed And if the Churchupon this ground have reason and power to appoint any one Day why not more seeing her power is not limited or restrained within any other bounds but those generalls of decency and order which I presume no man will say are transgressed in the ordination of those Holy dayes which are observed among us Thirdly to this that such times are in the generall commanded by God wee may adde two things more which being well considered will abundantly discharge the observation of such dayes from superstition and those are First that the duties therein required are no other then such as according to the word of God ought to bee performed by all Christians For what else is required on those dayes but the solemne prayers and prayses of God in the Church joyned with the hearing of his Word and a speciall commemoration of his benefits which as on those dayes were received And which of all these is not required in the word of God And if it bee lawfull yea commanded that wee should performe those duties at all times and upon all occasions they cannot at any time whensoever they are performed justly bee termed superstitious or which must follow by consequence unlawfull 2. The other thing to bee considered is That the grounds and occasions of the Churches determination of these duties unto those speciall dayes which wee observe are such as deserve no lesse As being reall great and generall benefits vouchsafed by God unto his Church First they are true and reall not imaginary fictions founded upon the fained actions or falle martyrdomes of titular Saints such as are many in the Romish Church Secondly they are great not ordinary or common benefits and therefore require a more then ordinary acknowledgement Thirdly they are generall the good whereof redounds not to a few but to the whole body of the Church and so if our acknowledgement bee answerable it must be publike and solemne performed joyntly by all those that are partakers of the benefits Now if wee shall runne thorough the whole Kalender take an impartiall view of all our Holy dayes wee shall not find so much as one among them all of which thus much may not truely bee affirmed For they may almost bee ranked under two heads First such memorable steps in the story of our blessed Saviour as by which the great worke of our redemption advanced unto its happy accomplishment Secondly the memorialls of that goodnesse and glory which he afterwards manifested to the world by his holy Apostles Evangelists and Martyrs whom he honoured so much as to make them founders of that Kingdome which cost him his dearest blood to count them worthy to suffer death for his sake Concerning the former I suppose there is none but will say in the words of the Psalmist as our vulgar translation reades them The mercifull and gratious Lord hath so done his marvellous workes that they ought to be had in remembrance And what better meanes can be devised then the appointing of set solemne dayes for their commemoration I cannot see And this was the Churches aime in appointing these dayes So S. Austine We saith he dedicate and consecrate to God the memory of his benefits in solemne feasts and set dayes least in the revolution of times ingratefull forgetfulnesse should creepe upon us The like may be said of the latter For if our Saviour appeared so glorious in them and by them conveighed so great and generall blessings to his Church what reason can bee alleadged why the Church may not retaine an annuall honourable memoriall of them to the glory of him whose instruments they were The Psalmist tells us that the righteous shall bee had in everlasting remembrance And the Wiseman That the memory of the just shall be blessed And therefore to have some dayes in which the memories of those who were in their generations most famous for righteousnesse may with blessing be perpetuated is but their due and agreeable to his will who hath granted them that honour so that we may justly solemnize the dayes wherein those barning and shining lights first