the feasts of dedication of Churches or occasionall as marriages and Christning-dinners be forbidden Christian people as prophanations of the Lords day The second generall head and Lerna of perplexities is whether the duties of holinesse by which the day is sanctified be only acts of the publique worship of God in the Congregation or whether the private exercises also of Religion appertaine unto the day as necessary and immediate duties thereof and that during the whole time And under this head a world of particular cases are raised also and many times such as neither wise men nor learned men would imagine as daily appeares by experience to men of Pastorall employment in the Church But these and the forenamed particulars being delivered as Magisteriall dictates and conclusions out of the former Positions my purpose is only to make enquirie into the two generall heads under which they are contained For these being weighed in the Ballance of the Sanctuary and true iudgement the rest will evidence themselues as Corollaries CHAP. XXII The Question concerning the Corporall rest is proposed with the Arguments for the affirmatiue THat the outward bodily cessation from all secular employments whatsoever is of it selfe a duty of the Christians mans Feast-day may seeme to be proved by many undenyable arguments First that which is an essentiall duty of all Sabbaths in generall is an essential duty of every Sabbath in particular But the Lords day is the Christian mans Sabbath may so be called though improperly as hath beene formerly confessed and bodily rest is an essentiall duty of all Sabbaths in generall as appeares both by the very name of Sabbath which signifies as much as cessation and more expresly by the letter of the fourth Commandement In it thou shalt doe no manner of work confirm'd by the a Exod â—â— 15 commination of death from the Lords owne mouth upon all those that shall transgresse this Law Ergo c. Secondly the Prophets are the best Commentators of the Law and are therefore usually put together b Math. â—â— 40 The Law and the Prophets But the Prophet Isaiah saith that those who will honour the Lord in his Sabbath must not doe their owne works nor follow their own pleasures nor speak their owne words In which three whatsoever may be any businesse of our own is expresly forbidden us on the Lords Sabbath by which we honour him Therefore c. Thirdly in all Lawes whatsoever that is essentiall and for its owne sake commanded for whose sake other things in the Law are enjoyned according to the common Maxime Illud est perse propter quod est aliud But many things in the fourth precept are commanded that this duty of utter cessation from all secular employments may be performed For wherefore would God haue not only our Children and servants rest but our beasts also to rest unlesse only that all meanes and occasions of not resting might be taken from the Parents Masters and owners themselues Therefore c. Fourthly All theft is directly immediatly and for its owne sake forbidden and of thefts the cheife and capital is Sacriledge But to work upon the Lords day is theft nay sacriledge for we steale so much from God this day being his as we bestow upon our selues and our owne employments whereas on the contrary by resting on that day we abstaine from holy things and giue the Lord his own Therefore c. Fiftly whatsoever doth immediatly hinder any thing which God commandeth is immediatly forbidden in the Negatiue of every Affirmatiue This is a Maxime generally received in expounding the Decalogue But all kinds of works upon the Lords day whether serious or lusorie doe immediatly hinder that which God commands viz. To attend his worship and service suffering him to work effectually in us by his word and Spirit This Moses doth plainely teach us in saying * Lev. 23.3 There shall no work be done therein in is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings c. Where first he repeats his Commandement There shall no work be done therein Secondly he giues the reason for it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings It is not possible for you to performe the duties of the Lords Sabbath or that God should work on you therein unlesse there be an utter cessatioÌ„ from all kindes of works It stands also with reason for worldly imployments steale away the heart from holy things and according to our Saviours rule * Mat 6.24 We cannot serue God and Mammon Sixtly that which immediatly resisteth and overthroweth the Kingdome of God in us * Rom. 14.17 Which is righteousnesse peace ioy in the holy Ghost must needs be immediatly and for its owne sake forbidden by the Law of God But all secular imployments of what nature soever upon the Lords day immediatly resist and subvert the kingdome of God in us Righteousnesse take it how we will either for the righteousnesse of justification which is imputed or righteousnesse of sanctification which is inherent commeth by hearing groweth by praier is strengthned by meditating and conferring not by journying working and sporting on the Lords day and the more these are practised by us on that day the lesse righteousnesse must needs be in us The conscience also is deeply wounded by such grosse prophanations if it be not senselesse seared as appeares by the confessions of Converts Penitents and the Godly feele in themselues by daily experience And it cannot but diminish the joy of the holy Ghost for this is chiefly fed and nourished by holy meetings and godly exercises of religion Nay if it be true which many learned men affirme at least for probable that Christ shall come to judgement on the Lords day What little joy can any man finde in things earthly and sensuall on the day when for ought he knowes he may suddenly heare the voice of the Archangell summoning him before the Tribunall of the Lord whose Sabbath he is then prophaning Seventhly if there were no law prohibiting works on this day the very law of expediency were enough For it 's no way expedient on that day to make such a medly of things heavenly with things earthly to mix the holy things of God with things prophane base and vile things with things honourable and glorious this were to make the Lords-day a garment of linsy-woolsy But the Lords day and the duties thereof are things holy heavenly and glorious All secular imployments prophane vile contemptible The * 1. Cor. 6.2 Apostle calls the things of this life the smallest things Therefore c. Eightly that which was ever blasted in all ages with some extraordinary curse remarkable judgement is doubtlesse not only unlawfull but in an high manner abominable in Gods sight For the Lord * Exod. 34.6 being gracious long-suffering and slow to anger doth not usually reveale his wrath from heaven but against some unsufferable ungodlinesse of men But the prophanation of
more for edification and the Arguments to the contrary doe not conclude To the first true it is indeed that God himselfe in Scripture imposeth the name Sabbath upon all daies of publique worship in the Iewish Synagogue and the reason was because the very corporall rest was a chiefe thing aimed at in them being both memorative of some things passed and figurative of things also to come But that therefore the daies also of Christian Assemblies should be so called doth not follow because the reason is not the same as shall appear in it's proper place The name Sabbath therefore is no more Morall and to be retained in the times of the Gospell then the name Priest Altar Sacrifice which perhaps our adversaries themselves will allow of in a common large and Analogicall construction If therefore we look to the e Si vocis primaevam significationem spectemus Sabbathum erit omnis dies festus At Scripturae consuetudine Sabbathi nomâ— ferè appropriatum est diei septimo Estius 3. Sent. d. 37. first and originall signification of the word every Holy-day wherein men rest from their labours and attend the publique worship may be called a Sabbath but if we look at the application of it in Scripture we shall find it appropriated in the first and chiefest sense to the Sabbath day or Satturday in the fourth commandements in the next and subordinate construction to all the Iewish festivals never to the Lords day To the second No man will deny but that antiquity is a good guide in the search of the truth for all errors are upstarts even those that are gray-headed The f Ier. 6.16 Prophet therefore adviseth to ask for the the old way which is the good way but his meaning is that which is simply old not comparatively only The corrupt Glosses of the Pharisees were very ancient * Math. 5.38 Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time an eye for an eye The superstitions of the Romanists are like so many old aches in the body of the Church yet as the one so also the other meere novelties in religion Should I grant the name Sabbath as applyed to the Christian Feast to be of some good standing yet without all Controversy it was not known to the true Primitive times Indeed antiquity ever used one of these foure either Sunday not from g ' Dum solâ—s lâ—ttâ—iae indulgemus longè aliâ ratione quam religione solis Tert. Ap. cap. 16. the Sunne in the firmament but h Mal. 4.2 the Sonne of Righteousnesse with healing in his wings or the Day of light from the Sacrament of Baptisme called by the Fathers our Illumination or the Day of Bread not from holy bread as Papists now use it but from the other Sacrament of the Supper administred every Lords day or the Lords day which doth and will continue to the worlds end To the third The name Sabbath doth not best acquaint us with the Nature of the Lords day as is pretended For the nature thereof consisteth not either in our corporall or Spirituall Rest or in Remembring the Rest of God in the Creation or in being a pledge unto us of our eternall rest All these are accidentall considerations of the Lords day Indeed the memory of Christs resurrection is essentiall thereunto but not so much in regard of his rest as of his conquest over death and the grave and being made the Lord of the Quick and the Dead It being therefore the Lordship of Christ made evident to all creatures both in heaven and in earth by the Glory of his Resurrection which is then celebrated it ought to be stiled the Lords day not a Sabbath To the fourth What the duties of the day be we shall see hereafter Let it be granted therefore for the present whatsoever the Argument doth suggest the consequent is denied For whatsoever duties are then performed are or at the least ought to be directed in a speciall manner unto the Lord Christ as our service of him The day therefore is to be named not from the nature of the things done but from the quality of the person to whom they are intended and therefore not Sabbath but Lords day And whereas it is said that the name Sabbath may serve to confirme our faith and hope of our eternall Rest I answere that indeed it may be so used by us but was never so intended in the first institution thereof and being a consideration so remote it cannot claime to denominate To the fifth It is indeed most rue that we ought not especially in matters of Religion to innovate though but words and Phrases although perhaps insignificant and improper much lesse ought we to swarve from such language as is most savory and religious but which name hath most salt the Sabbath or Lords day I hope it doth appear by this which hath been said And who speaks most Religiously the Apostles and the whole Church or some few private persons of late yeares is easy to determine CHAP. 14. Wherein the Question concerning the duration of the day is proposed and the arguments for the day naturall are set down AMongst those things which disquiet and perplexe the consciences of the weak concerning the Lords day this is not the least where it is to begin and how long it lasteth For God requiring of us perfect and entire obedience without diminution or defalcation and h Iames 2.10 S. Iames saying that he that faileth in one point is guilty of all unlesse every minute of time which the Lord requireth of us as his tribute and homage be duly tendred to him our whole labour bestowed upon the parts and peices of the day is not regarded It is also that which concernes the most sort of our inferiour people to be satisfied in leâ—st the Commandement requiring one thing their employments another they many times wound their Consciences and rob themselves of that peace which otherwise they might enjoy We must therefore before we proceed any farther inquire whether the Lords day be to consist of any certain determinate number of houres as being a Naturall day or Artificiall And here our Adversaries are very positive that the Christian mans Sabbath as well as that of the Iewes is to consist of full twenty foure houres and they have these reasons First all the time that the Commandement requires is to be observed But that the Commandement of the Sabbath requires a whole naturall day from evening to evening is undenyable Therefore c. If any man say the Commandement was Ceremoniall and so proves nothing for the Christian observation it may be replied that this being granted of all the other branches yet it is not so in this For no man can shew how the time of twenty foure houres can be in any respect mysticall Though therefore the rest of the latter should vanish as a shadow yet in this particular it must needs continue Morall Secondly no one
the latter and clean contrary to that of o Ignatìus Ep. ad Magne sianos circa medium epistolae Ignatius who lived wrote in the purest times styling it the Queene of daies Therefore c. Thirteenthly It 's only the divine prerogative of God himselfe to put holinesse into times and daies for he only is the fountaine of holinesse But the Lords day is an Holy-day and hath holinesse in it more then other daies whence it is that the Fathers frequently call it Sacred Mysticall Religiously to be observed Therefore doubtlesse made holy by God himselfe Fourteenthly None can appoint any thing to be a part of Gods worship in the Church but Christ who is the head of the Church to rule and govern her who can command the spouse but the husband But the observation of the Lords day is a speciall branch of Gods worship in the Church therefore none can none ought to institute it but Christ himselfe Fifteenthly There being a change of the Priesthood there was also a change of the Law saith the p Heb. 7.12 Apostle * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word there used in the Originall signifieth the transposing of things one being put in the room and steed of another But the Iewes Sabbath was one of those things thus to be exchanged being Ceremoniall therefore our high Priest put an other in the room thereof but no other therefore the Lords day Sixteenthly Only Christ is Lord of the Sabbath to appoint and dispose thereof as he thinks good the Church can claim no such Lordship but the Sabbath is changed and another appointed in the place thereof which the whole Church observeth this change therefore was made by Christ not the Church Seventeenthly Old things are passed away all things are become new so the q 2. Cor. 5.17 Apostle The meaning is that Christ hath made all things new in his Church as new Creatures new Man new Covenant new Commandement new Way new Names new Song new Garments new Hierusalem new Heaven new Earth But unlesse Christ hath also made a new Sabbath he hath not made all things new Ergo c. Eighteenthly It is no way to be beleeved that Christ would leave his Church under the Gospell in worse condition then he found the Synagogue under Moses But if Christ left not his Church under the Gospell a Sabbath of Divine Institution he left it in a farre worse condition then he found the Synagogue which received a Sabbath from God himself as a speciall token of his love Ergo c. Ninteenthly If Christ hath left us no day of his own appointment and Institution it were our safest way to turne Iewes as some have done upon this very motive at least in this point for the Iewes day we are well assured was from God but we may say of the Lords day as they did of the Lord himselfe we know not whence it is But no man will say it is best for us to turne Iewes in this point Ergo c. Twentiethly The very Name is a sufficient demonstration of a Divine Institution for all things belonging to Gods worship which have the Lords own name stamped upon them were ordained by the Lord himselfe as the Lords Prayer the Lords Supper c. But the observation of the Christian Sabbath is a thing appertaining to Gods worship and hath the Lords own name engraven upon it by the r Rev. 1.10 holy Ghost himselfe Ergo c. The one and Twentieth That which Christ did immediatly institute in his own person and with his own mouth ordaine must needs be of divine institution But that Christ did immediatly in his own person institute the Lords day the * Ioh. 20.19.22 Evangelist makes apparent for he came into the midst of his Disciples the holy assembly the two first daies of the two first weekes then he blessed them breathed on them gave them the keyes of the Kingdome It 's very likely he did this every first day of the week from his Resurrection to his Assension * Act. 1.2.3 speaking unto them the things appertaining to the Kingdome of God Ergo c. The two and twentieth Christ whiles he was upon the earth after his Resurrection gaue the Apostles instruction and commands Acts 1.2 what these commands were may be knowne say Divines partly by their Doctrine and partly by their practice But if Christ gaue them such commands as is most apparent without question he would not omit to command them a day to remember him and his Resurrection in and to performe vnto him holy worship nay that this he did appeares also by their practice Ergo. The three and twentieth makes it more evident thus Whatsoeuer is an Apostolicall tradition is of Divine Institution for they deliuered nothing but what they first receiued But the Lords-daies obseruation is certainly an Apostolicall tradition * 1. Cor. 10. ◠for they appointed collections to be made for the poore that day the ordaining of the one doth necessarily inferre the other the duty of the day supposeth the day And withall this day hath been constantly obserued by the whole Church in all ages and that without the authority of any generall Councell the very definition of an Apostolicall tradition deliuered by ſ Illa quae non scripta sed tradita custodimus quae quidè toto terrarum orbe observantur Aug. ad Ian. ep 118. S. Augustine Ergo. The foure and twentieth If the Lords day were not of Christs institution to his Apostles then surely they by their practice haue drawne the Church of Christ into an horrible presumption as great as that of Ieroboam Antiochus and Antichrist himselfe changing times and seasons But God forbid any man should thinke so uncharitably of the Apostles therefore certainly they receiued warrant for what they did from Christ himselfe The fiue and twentieth If we keepe the Lords day warranted thereunto only by the Apostles practice for which they themselues receiued no precept then by the same reason we haue only the Apostles practice for abolishing the Iewes Saturday-Sabbath But we forbeare not Saturday-Sabbath only upon the Apostles practice and example for which doubtlesse they receiued a precept And indeed the examples of holy men not seconded by precepts shew what we may doe the case being the same not what we must doe Now the Church not only may but must forbeare Satterday-Sabbath and obserue the Lords day Ergo c. The six and twentieth That day on which the holy Ghost was giuen with all his graces with such efficacy that * Acts 2.41 S. Peter immediately with one short Sermon conuerted three thousand soules must needs be a day of Christs owne Instituting But this day was the Lords day the day of Pentecost Ergo c. The seuen and twentieth That day on which Christ reuealed himselfe unto S. Iohn acquainting him with his whole counsell concerning his Church to the worlds end was doubtlesse a day
it will not be difficult to dissolue the arguments formerly alleadged To the first therefore I say it is utterly untrue that outward rest and cessation from secular employments is an essentiall duty of Sabbaths in generall but of Sabbaths properly so called which were only the Iewish weekly Sabbaths And this those very Scriptures used for confirmation doe make appeare being all of them branches of the law Ceremoniall The Lords day is a Sabbath but not properly so called and as the word doth signifie but Analogically and in its proportion And therefore the Christian Holy-day is no where stiled by this name either in Scripture or Antiquity as hath already been declared Lastly we deny not but there is a Rest which is Morall and eternall to all dayes of publique and solemne worship as it is laid downe in our fist Conclusion but not as any essentiall duty as essentiall is here taken that is of it selfe and its owne nature without reference to the publique worship For so it was to the Iewes in the fourth Commandement and so our Sabatharians now make it pressing the Letter of that precept in the same nay in a greater rigour then ever it did binde the Iewes This argument therefore is weake in all the parts thereof The second carrieth with it much weight with poore ignorant well-minded people as seeming to be the very words of the holy Ghost But how both they and the Text it selfe haue been abused hath already been shewed and need not here to be repeated We will only adde what the argument it selfe suggesteth that the Prophet Commenteth upon the Law and the Letter of the Law is wholy Ceremoniall as hath also been declared To the third That the Rest of the fourth Commandement was imposed upon Servants and Beasts to take away all occasions of travaile from their Masters and owners or that this was intended by the Law-giver herein is a groundlesse fancy and comes neere to wresting and perverting of Scripture For when the Law-giver shall with his owne mouth render a reason of his owne Law expressing what he aimed at in the severall clauses thereof it is not only vanity but presumption in any other to shew the depth of his reach to tell us of other reasons and those directly contrary to his and all this in his name as being sent from him with He saith It is so in this particular For God hath expressely expounded this clause in the Commandement and shewed his aime therein as first that it was to remember them of their labours in Egypt where they were servants entreated more like beastes then men Secondly it was the Lords goodnes extending it selfe euen to the meanest of his Creatures that their Servants Cattle might be refreshed as well as themselues not therefore for the Masters sakes as a restraint as is pretended but for the poore Servants and Beasts sakes to be refreshed thereby was this added in the Commandement God having thus rendred an account of this passage it is more subtile then solid savors more of acutenesse then of religion to affix to this exposition any glosses and conceits of our owne The fourth hath already been satisfied in the Question concerning the duration of the Lords day To the fift it is indeed true that all impediments of holy duties are forbidden by the same Commandement wherein the duty is required though not immediately as the duty it selfe but inclusiuely by way of reduction only as Privations are reduced to the same Predicaments with their habits But that all secular and civill works words thoughts are such impediments to the duties of the Lords day as are imagined unlesse they hinder us in the publique worship is utterly untrue The text of Leviticus speaks of the carnall Sabbathizing of the Iewes which being of it selfe a duty was broken by any thing done by them But we are Christians not Iewes And whereas it is suggested that secular diversions steale away the minde from holy things choaking the good seed of the word in us it being impossible to serue God and Mammon this is true indeed where the world is made an Idoll and a mans affections are immoderately set upon outward things and so the text alleadged doth expound it selfe Now every mans reason will tell him that there is a great difference between carking and careing for outward things which at all times is unlawfull as being the service of Mammon and the dispatching of some accidentall occurrent or secular discourses or ordinary affaires which are alwayes lawfull but when we ought to attend Gods publique worship To the sixth Were the Minor proposition true it would well neere follow that the actiue life should be most miserable and little better then prophanesse being by reason of infinite secular imployments made uncapeable of Righteousnesse Peace Ioy in the holy ghost a Magni maris fluctthâ—s quatior atque in navi wentis tempestatis validae procellis illidor Greg. dial S. Gregory indeed complaines that when he was taken out of his Monastery and made Bishop of Rome and by the greatnesse of his See forced to engage himselfe in the matters of the world it seemed a new tempest to his soule But what is this to some triviall imployments of particular men which may suddainly be trans-acted without tumult or distraction But to descend to the particulars It 's most true that faith which purifieth the heart is obtained by hearing the world strengthned by meditation and conference doth it therefore follow that by whatsoever else we doe we destroy or overthrow it It is as if in naturall things we should say naturall life doth consist in naturall heart and moisture both these be upheld by naturall food whatsoever therefore is not our naturall food overthroweth our naturall heate and moysture destroyeth naturall life in us and so war me cloathes in winner may kill Saving faith and our honest imployments of this life are so farre from being incompatible as that the one is preserved and cherished by the other when they are vndertaken and performed as they ought to be in the Lords presence with reverence and feare and obedience not intermitting the habituall bent of the soule towards heaven With these conditions the circumstance of time whether on this day or on that day is not materiall so the publique worship be not prejudic'd thereby The same is also most true of b Peractis saâ—r is anâ—mi gratià equiect quis piscetur aut simile quid jaciat non magis prophanat sabbathum quan Christus per sata â—llâ— de Sab. c. 5. Peractis sacris recreationes licitaesunt sed non carnales sâ—urriâ—es-quales in obsâ—â—nis â—udis â—osu chartaâ—â—â—â— tesseâ—acum compoâ—ationibus c. sed lusus priae nochi palesâ—rica exâ—â—citia jacuâ—atus simiâ—ia ad liberagem recreatione â—â—moâ—ò non â—â—ant cum neglectu caltus jacri qui ante omâ—iâ—pt aeceâ—ere dâ—â—er 〈◊〉 c. â— Recreations if they be honest in themselues and lawfull by the
Mor. l. 1. c. 10. Gregory setting before their eyes our Saviours mildnesse we men saith he for for the most part labouring to preserue judgement justice utterly abandon mildnesse and mercy and on the contrary when we would be milde we cease to be just But our Saviour cloathed with our flesh was never so milde but that withall he was just neither was he so severely just as to forget to be mercifull and he giues instance in the womaÌ„ taken in adultery in which he excellently observed both For when he said Cast the first stone at her he satisfied the rule of justice even in the rigour of the letter of the Law but when he added Let him that is without sinne amongst you cast this first stone he so qualified it with equity and moderation that the woman escaped Let us be zealous in Gods name against all prophaners of the Lords day but let us not be so intemperate in our zeale as to usurpe Gods throne pronounce our pleasures upon our brethren take them out of their graues and brand them to posterity as men plagued and smitten of God for prophanation I will conclude with the words of the same c Postulatus â—udicare dominus de peccatrice non station dedit judicium sed priùs incâ—inans se deorsùm digito scribebat in â—errâ nos typicè instituens ut cùm proximorum peâ—â—ata conspicimus non haec antè reprehendenda iudicemus quà m digito discretionis soâ—ertèr exculp amus Greg. S. Gregory upon the same story in another place Our Lord saith he being required to judge the Adulteresse did not presently pronounce her doome but first stooped downe and wrote with his finger upon the ground he intended hereby to instruct us saith the Father that when we seethe apparent errors of our brethren before we proceed to our peremptory sentences we first wisely consider of the thing and with the finger of discretion note what was pleasing or displeasing unto God therein What our Saviours intention was in this action of his I cannot say I am sure S. Gregories observation is graue and substantiall according unto which if we reflect upon the clamorous determinations of our Sabbatharians the point being yet in controversie and defin'd against them by the most and the learned'st in the Church it will appeare that they neither weigh things in the ballance of moderation nor distinguish of things with the finger of discretion To the ninth the authorities alleaged speak for the most part as forced witnesses quite contrary to that for which they are produced as the Edicts of Constantine the Synodicall decrees The rest shall receiue answer in the next Question to which they more properly belong Those who haue writen to this purpose in the Church of England of late yeares are parties and therefore cannot be competent judges in this controversie CAP. XXVI Wherein is inquired after those duties of holinesse unto which the Conscience is bound on the Lords day THere remaines only the last scruple which is or can be incident to this subject viz. What duties of holinesse are proper and essentiall to the Lords day whether only the acts of publike worship with the congregation or the private exercises also of those head-graces faith hope loue unto which whatsoever is in Christian Religion may be reduced And this is indeed a point of chiefest consideration because it is practicall and practice being the life and spirit of knowledge the conscience can never be throughly setled untill this be discovered Our literall Sabbatharians affirme in this question and so affirme that they make the observation of the Lords day the very abridgment of Godlinesse in respect of the first Table and of righteousnesse in respect of the second Table And from hence proceed these wide outcries against any that shall contradict them that Religion is laid upon the back and prophanenesse set up in the roome thereof Nay they so affirme in this point as that their doctrine is made an open and professed snare such a manner of holinesse being exacted as that it is impossible for any man living in the state of corruption to sanctifie a Sabbath in that manner as is required of him either in thought word or deed I confesse were it true that upon the Lords day a man forsaking the naturall rest of his bed sooner then vpon other daies must begin early in the morning with the acts of repentance then proceed to the acts of faith and after the duties of loue conclude with repentance and this with that manner of solemnity and formality which some require it must needs be even to the best an utter impossibility whether we looke at parts or degrees But that the observation of the Lords day in that manner as the Lord himselfe expects whatsoever men please to impose is not such a Chimaera as they fancy will appeare I hope in its due place In the meane while we will set downe these arguments which seeme to support this opinion CHAP. XXVII The Arguments which seeme to conclude for all duties of holinesse in generall are set downe FIrst from the letter of the Commandement Remember to keepe holy the Sabbath day we many reason thus where no one kind of holy-daâ—â—s are spoken of there all duties of holinesse are to be understood it is generally so in other places of Scripture as in that of the Apostle * Peter 1.16 be yee holy for I am holy and elswhere * Heb. 12.14 follow holinesse without which no man shall see God But in the words of the Commandement holinesse in generall is required of us Therefore c. Secondly that which is and ought to be a common duty of all daies is much more a particular duty on the Lords day The reason hereof is both because the Lords day is in many respects to be preferred before all other daies and because it is set apart from all others unto holinesse But the private exercises of all gracious habits with our selues and our families are and ought to be common performances upon all daies For as they binde alwayes so are they indefinitely commanded without restraint to any set dayes they are therefore much more required upon the Lords day being the common duties of all dayes Thirdly any duty is more required upon that time on which if rightly performed it is more acceptable to God then at any other time For by this appeares that God hath regard as well to the time as to the duty But all the duties of holinesse even the private and personall and oeconomicall are more acceptable unto God if performed on the day of his Sabbath this appeares first by the words of the * Isay 58.13 Prophet saying if thou turne away thy foote from the Sabbath from doeing thy pleasure upon my Holy-day and call my Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine owne wayes c. In which words plaine it is that the
the whole Church but a more remote and subordinate end and last of all intended by the Law-giver But her we must remember that finis praecepti nō est sub praecepto that is if we come short of the end for which any thing is commanded so we faile not in the thing it selfe we sinne not against the precept wherein the thing it selfe is commanded This faith a Neta has regulas quibus toties uti oportet Scilicèt non esse idem sinem praecepti id de quo praeceptum datur quia finis praecepti non cadit sub praecepto ut id quod praecipitur sed ut intentū à Legislatore Quonià m ex hinc habes solutionem multarum quaestionum pro omnibus erudit is bonis mentibus metuentibus culpara ubi non est Cajet in Aquin. 1.2 q. 100. art 9. Caietan * Lopez parte 1. c. 34. de circumst Lopez others is a good rule to be observed for the quieting of weake consciences which feare many times where no feare is conceiving that they transgresse more Commádements then they doe indeed He that is not bettered by the publique Assemblies sins indeed but not against the Commandement of the Sabbath which injoynes those Assemblies Although therefore men must not think it enough to stand in the congregation as Images in the glasse-windowes yet if we joyne with our brethren in the acts of Gods service suppose we receiue not improuement of grace therefrom we must not presently be arraigned for prophaners of the Lords day You will say our edification in religion being required say by other precepts we are alwaies bound to forbeare such things as are destructive thereof as sports playes and all other waies which haue no affinity there with I would gladly know what difference there is between the publique worship upon the Lords day and the same upon other daies The same word is preached the same prayers used the same hymnes are sung the same Minister imployed the same people present yet neither honest recreations nor lawful vocations nor manuall operations are then thought to be hinderances to our profiting by the publique Asséblies Then they steale not away the seed sowne they choak not the good word of God they driue not out of our hearts either the exhortations of the Minister or secret motions of the spirit why then must they doe this upon the Lords day haue the ordinances of God lesse vertue hath the day lesse promise of grace Are our hears then more unreachable Are they not destructiue of good things at other times and are they so at this time By this it plainly appeares that we place some holinesse in the day it selfe Besides there is a grosse ignominie and fowle aspersion cast upon those whom they oppose in this point as if they countenanced such licentious waies as must needs destroy the work of grace in the Lords people not honest recreations which serue to refresh them are intended but luxurious delights in which the Iewes did Sabbathize are insinuated serving onely as provocations to lust and incentiues of sensuall pleasures Charity thinketh not evill faith the * 1. Cor. 13.5 Apostle evill be to him that thinketh evill faith the Proverb It is the easiest point of Rhetorick to be eloquent in speaking evill he that hath a galled minde a discontented fortune an unquiet spirit and hath been accustomed to a rash censuring humour may soone become a bitter Satyrist Ob. But what else are May-games and Morrice-daunces but carnall and brutish delights and why may we not call a spade a spade Resp I presume no man will say that they are in themselves and in their own natures sinfull but only by use or abuse rather but we please not to obserue what care is taken to prevent such abuses the time allowed being very little the company restrained the ministers of justice to be very watchfull herein that they may indeed recreate the spirits of the meaner people not corrupt their minds Ob. But the Saints take no such pleasure as in holy things Resp Indeed there is no joy to that of the holy Ghost no delight to that of the inward man no comfort to the comforts of God but what then is all the refreshing of nature pleasing of the sense solace of art unlawfull in their times and seasons Ob. But though these sports be circumscribed to certain houres after Evening prayer yet in the mean while they draw away the minds of the vulgar their harts runne after them though their bodies moue not in them hence the Lords Sabbath is a wearisomenesse and they say within themselues when will it be ended Resp I answere that this is an inward and spirituall wickednesse of their secret thoughts which none is able to discover and therefore none should presume to judge But suppose it for there is no evill imaginable by any which is not practised by some are they therefore unlawfull and not to be permitted Doe not many tyre their best Auditours sometimes with as long as empty discourses Are not think you many poore servants wearied with private exercises and wish they were at an end Ob. If you say this proceeds from their wicked hearts Resp Change but the names and answer your selues Ob. If you reply the reason is not the same for these things are good in themselues and under precept Resp I answer indeed the things are such but not under the precept of which we speak much lesse that manner of performing them which is prescribed from whence the wearisomenesse doth arise Ob. But those recreations which are permitted doe not as is pretended refresh the spirits but on the contrary many of them being violent exercises waft and consume them Resp As if a thing toylsome in performance may not recreate the performer A Scholar that hath spent his spirits in his study doth he not betake himselfe to some bodily exercise usque ad ruborem nay sudorem to reviue them For these being wasted by nothing more then by the continuall bent of the minde as the strength of a bow that stands alwaies bended relents alwaies by degrees untill it come to be of no strength our severall recreations cause severall diversions by which the minde being let loose and the body in agitation the spirits receiue a kinde of new life Ob. But if you open a dore to liberty it will soone become a wide gate to licence Resp I answer that the dore of true Christian liberty should in all things stand open to all the Professours of the Gospell with the Apostles limitations that it neither be * 1. Pet. 2.16 a cloake on the one side nor evill spoken of on the other side as an occasion of falling to our brethren with these cautions I never knew that truth did harme in Gods Church Ob. If any say that many use it only as a cloak under which they vent their prophanations so it becomes an occasion of falling to some and of
griefe of heart to others of Gods people Resp I answer that such haue the greater sin It is a fearefull condition when even the truth it selfe shall thus cooperate unto their destruction but better it is that some offences come then either truth be lost or people nurst up in Hypocrisie and superstition For my own part I think all kinds of holy frauds under which perhaps these Sabbatharian tenents may be ranged by whomsoever practised or what advantages soever may acrue there from to be grosse delusions of men meere mockings of God and most unbeseeming the profession of the Gospell As for the well-minded Christian that takes offence he is rather to be pitied then humoured and ought to be well informed of passiue scandalls For it is not enough to say we are offended but we must consider how justly whether of weaknesse or obstinacy I meane in regard of the publique declaration of the Magistrate For in cafe of this nature a reason being rendred protesting against the prophanation of the day nothing being intended but the informing of the judgement the setling of the conscience the good of poore people preservation of unity and uniformity howsoever our private judgements incline us we should rather comply with Authority then be scandalized especially in points that are so disputable These things thus premised we shall easily satisfie the adverse arguments CHAP. XXX Wherein satisfaction is given to the reasons formerly alleaged TO the first the words of the Commandement are mistaken for not all holy duties in grosse but only that kinde of holinesse which is proper to the Lords day is there spoken of the words are plaine Keep holy the Sabbath day and the fourth precept is no transcendent as is said in the second third conclusions Ob. If any say that the Lords day differs from others in this that the whole Sabbath is to be spent in holinesse whereas in other dayes such portions only as may be well spared from other imployments are required of us Resp I answer first this is only said secondly we haue no president hereof in the Iewish Synagogue Thirdly the contrary doth appeare by the Question formerly disputed concerning the duration of the Lords day Lastly how can the conscience be satisfied herein being utterly lest to seeke by our adversaries themselues where to begin or where to end the day nay the scripture being utterly silent in this particular if we speak of the Lords day as being our Christian Sabbath To the second the Lords day may be considered First in it's absolute nature as a part of our time in this respect it is most true that what is the common duty of all daies should be also that daies duty the rather because all other imployments are abandoned and therefore more leasure is afforded Secondly in his relatiue nature as separated from the rest of the week to the service of the congregation and so there are especiall duties appointed which are not common to other daies by vertue of the fourth Commandement The reason from the lesse to the greater is of no force because it speaks not adidem for the Lords day as it is a day and part of our time is no better then other daies but as it is the Lords day devoted by the Church to the Lords service it is indeed the Queene of daies and therefore therein the highest and noblest Christian duties are performed in the publique worship even by the precept of sanctifying the Sabbath day To the third Familie-duties are not acceptable unto God performed upon one day more then upon another if there be no other considerations concurring thereunto He that is no accepter of persons is likewise no accepter of times otherwise then the Apostle expresseth it out of the Psalmist ◠Heb. 3.7 To day if yee will heare his voice harden not your hearts by which is meant the whole time of the Gospell Nor are the sinnes of men more hatefull because committed upon that day unlesse they carry with them an open or secret malignity hindring either the duties of the day themselues or our holy and religious performing of them as the * Aquin. Sylv. Cajet Nav. Sot Canus Med. Schoolemen teach And so the words of the Prophet Isaiah are to be understood for their covetous desires voluptuous living and cruell practices made them come before the Lord in his sanctuary onely in outward appearance formally personating what God really required nay abounding and persevering in their wicked waies as * An circumstantia divini sesti sit necessariò consitenda Duae sunt opiniones prima Modernorum qui tenent partem affirmantem 2d sancti Thom. Ios Ang. Iustin Martyr expounds that place More to this argument in that which followeth To the fourth the day of Christs resurrection from the graue requires no more our resurrection from sin then other daies unlesse only by way of motiue or remembrance Thus indeed this day * Vide Iustinum Martyr◠in Dial. cùm Triphone as all other consecrated things doth receiue from its consecration an especiall qualitie to beget in the hearts of men the sparks of devotion unlesse they be hindred in them by want of reverence What therefore a Quanquam vallis haec miseriae universalitèr sit locus poenitentiae nihilominùs Templorum locus suâ quidem religione qualitate est adpoenitentiam provocativus Gersen de vita Clerico Gerson affirmes of Churches consecrated places in regard of repentance we doubt not to affirme of the Lords day in regard of all holy duties The Church or consecrated place saith he is by reason of its venerable condition ad poenitentiam provocativus a place provoking unto repentance from hence he hath these conclusions First that ordinarily it is a work more holy in it selfe more pleasing unto God more profitable unto us to pray in consecrated places then elsewhere because the Majestie of the consecrated place doth more incite us unto devotion Secondly that all blasphemy either in words deeds or signes is so much the more execrable by how much the place is more holy Thirdly that one cause why wicked Priests are worse then wicked Lay-men which S. Augustine faith he often found by experience is that they abuse those things which should winne them unto repentance Fourthly that those affections which separate from God are every where damnable but much more in the Temple as appeares by our * John 2 16. Saviours overthrowing the Tables of the mony-changers there So say we that the Lords day by reason of the glorious dedication of it to the Lord Christ as the memoriall of his resurrection is in it's selfe provoking unto newnesse of life that holy duties are on this day ordinarily performed with greater fervency of spirit benefit to our selues and therefore acceptance with God because the Glory of the day is apt to put life unto our performances that all irreligious conversation is therefore the more execrable upon that
Sabbath in Paradise And if he sinned the sixt day as most conceiue this was a bad preparation to the next dayes Sabbath such as was likely to disturb the whole work If he stood the sixt day and sinned the seventh long he stood not all agree was the day of his fall think you the day of his Sabbath That he entred upon the dominion of the creatures upon the seventh day contradicts the very Text it selfe which saith they were delivered up unto him upon the sixt day unlesse we like to interpret Moses by the figure Anticipation in that Chapter which is so much condemned in the next That time was first divided by weeks afterward by months which is the very pillar of all the rest is as weakly as confidently affirmed For not to speak of the circle here used the division of time into weeks being brought to proue the Sabbath to haue beene from the beginning the Sabbath being blest sanctified from the beginning to proue this division of time by weeks no such thing can be concluded from that Text unlesse we grant that all separated and sanctified daies and such were all the Iewish Festivalls are presently to be the divisions of time On the other side sure we are that man in the beginning was put to Schoole unto the creature and that the Sunne and Moone were purposely set in the Firmament to shew him times and seasons Is it now probable or can it stand with the intention of the Creator that man should come by the divisions of times otherwise then by observing the Sunne and Moone especially since the Changes of the Moon doe so punctually lead us unto weeks In the next place it was wisely foreseene that a positiue precept serues not our turne and therefore we fetch about for a morality also therein which cannot be without sundry suppositions That nature tels us of time to be set apart for Gods worship is most true but that shee directs us to this in speciall or that in particular is fallaciously collected For what if the creature be under the absolute power of the Creator are therefore no Circumstantials left to the discretion of the Church in holy things What though some particular persons would unequally carue therein as Prometheus did betweene himselfe and Iupiter would the Church alwaies assisted by Gods spirit think we doe the like So for the comfortable performance which is pretended I would aske which is more comfortable when we haue some things voluntary which may be a free gift or when we are fettered in our performances like flaues more then sonnes Lastly that uniformity in publique actions cannot be observed unlesse God interpose his immediate authority savours of something else then Sabbatharian tenents If those daies are alwaies holy which are honoured with some notable work of God I see no reason why the day of our Saviours incarnation and hypostaticall union the most unsearchable a Nunquam ' Deus adeò grande fecit miraculum in caelo aut terrâ sive resuscitando mertuos sive illuminando caecos sic de aliis sicut est miraculum hoc ' unionis humanitatis addivinitatem Gers parte 4 â ser de Nativitate and glorious work ad extra or Friday wherein was finished the work of our redemption should not be a Sabbath as b Euseb lib. 4. c. 18. Constantine made it Surely although all Sabbaths haue beene kept upon daies chalked out by Gods famous works yet all daies thus chalked out haue not been forthwith Sabbaths by divine institution That the proportion of one in seven to be kept Sabbath cannot be ceremoniall that never any found any Ceremony therein is utterly untrue For to omit others c Videri ergo possit Dominus per diem septimum populo suo delineasse suturam sui Sabbathi perfectionem Cal. de 4. prae Sic eliam Clemens Alexandrinus ex Elatone lib. 5. Stlomaâ— Calvin hath long since observed that it did not only historically teach the Iewes the perfection of the works of nature but mystically also the perfection of the works of grace and that nothing should be wanting unto us in the person of the promised Messias the number of seven being the number of perfection Alike solid is that which followeth that the Rest of the seventh day had relation unto Christs rest only in the Graue but was not mystically referred unto the grace of the Gospell which is contrary both to the Scripture and to the streame of all Divines Ancient and Moderne And what if the Iews were partakers of the grace of Christ yet were they led thereunto by the hand as children in these and the like figures and how doth this hang together There is a taxation of one in seven under the Gospell therefore that which the Iewes had under Moses could not be ceremoniall That we under the Gospell keep the fourth Commandement is most true understood in generall of the substance of the Commandement for times of publique worship but in nothing else For thought it say Remember the Sabbath day not the seventh yet immediatly it addeth by way of exposition the seventh is the Sabbath and which it meaneth of the seventh even the next after the creatioÌ„ We must not then make God wise according to our fancies by making his word a Lesbian rule broken asunder and patched together at our own pleasures But say it speaks of a Sabbath in generall how doth it speak of a seventh day-Sabbath in speciall under the Gospell or of the Lords day in particular This therefore must be helped with another heap of superstâ—â—ons Christians you say must not giue a worse time unto the Lords service then did the Iewes must it therefore be just the same that a better would proue a publique grievance is a plausible put off why might we not giue him every sixt day if the whole Church should think it fit would it not be all one upon the matter to Trades-men Labourers But the Lord hath marked out unto us his own day by his own resurrection This is most true and therefore the Church alwaies hath and I doubt not but ever wil obserue it to the worlds end though only by the Churches authority But supposing it to be our Sabbath must it not be kept for time and manner as that of the Iewes was If it be not the Iewish why should we keep the Iewish time of just so many houres with the Iewish manner of rest for such or such cessations As for the rest he that is a Teacher of prophanenesse and an Abettour of licentiousnesse an untempered morter-dauber let him be accursed The other patterne of doctrine therefore in this point is That God created man in that high measure of knowledge as made him little lower then the Angels Psal 8.5 That man continued in this estate but a very short time perhaps not many houres That notwithstanding his fall a great part of his wisdome remained with him especially his naturall knowledge of the creature and the worlds creation That God admitting fal'n man into the state of grace through repentance was pleased to converse with him though not so familiarly as otherwise he would haue done by apparitions and revelations That the light of nature remaining taught him that this God must be publiquely worshipped That he being not unmindefull of his fall and the curse which thereby was brought upon him death and being instructed in the faith of the Messias to be slaine hence God came to be publiquely worshipped by the sacrifices of slaine beasts That the set time of this publique sacrificing is not mentioned in Scripture That the place in the second of Genesis was written by Moses after the Law was given and had relation thereunto That nothing can be averred of the Patriarchs practice till Israels comming into the wildernesse and the fall of Manna That the Law delivered in the fourth precept is morall for substance as that God must haue times for publique worship Ceremoniall for circumstance in the rest binding the Iewes only leading them partly backward to their state in Egypt the fall of Manna partly forward to good things to come in Christ That Christ therefore and the Gospell being exhibited this circumstantiall Sabbath must cease but expired not quite untill the destruction of the Temple That during this while the Apostles kept the Iewish Sabbath as they did other Ceremonies That withall they kept in a manner the Lords day also for breaking of bread though this was not alwaies done upon that day only That whatsoever the Apostles did in the Churches by them planted was not by Apostolicall authority they being the Churches Pastors as well as Christs Apostles That the discipline of the Church of which the time and manner of publique Assemblies is not the least part was established by them as Pastors not Apostles and might afterward receiue such changes as the state of succeeding times should require That therefore the institution of the Lords day is by Ecclesiasticall authority and that this is a sufficient tye of conscience to all such as list not to be obstinately wilfull That the Lords day thus established must be observed and set apart for Gods publique worship and all meanes used for the supporting thereof That those that joyne not with the Congregation therein are guilty of prophanation That whatsoever doth hinder this in any man of which no generall rule can be given ought to be avoided by him and that herein every mans experience can best informe him That such things as are used only as diversions of the minde and recreations of the body are lawfull on this day so they offend not in any other circumstance That those that are inclined and inabled to private holy exercises performed without fraud or sinister respect doe that which is most profitable and commendable though not bound thereto by the Law of the Lords day That all men should be watchfull over themselues to keep a spirituall Sabbath from the servile works of sinne throughout the whole course of this life having alwaies an eye to that Sabbath of Sabbaths promised us in the kingdome of GOD our Father and of his deare Sonne IESUS CHRIST to whom be honour and glory now and for ever more Amen FINIS
Sabbath had been observed by them their fore fathers before their comeing thither but Moses doth thus speake unto them of the Sabbath in the wildernesse before the law was given in Sinai To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord Exod. 16.23 and the seventh day which is the Sabbath Where note that first he calls it the holy Sabbath Secondly he saith it is the Sabbath but unles it had been already instituted it could neither he holy nor be at all therefore c. Fiftly that which was observed by Noah at the time of the flood was doubtlesse observed of him before the Flood and so from the begining but the Sabbath was religiously observed by Noah Gen. 8.10.12 in the time of the flood For having sent out the dove and shee returning finding no rest for the sole of her foot he abode other seven daies and afterward other seven daies therefore c. Sixtly that which Iob and his children observed was long in use before Israell came into the Wildernesse for all agree that Iob was descended either from Shem or from Nahor or from Ishmaell and b Moses magnus homo non ita scripsir quemadmodâ— Diabolus locutus est sed deceÌ„tius utpote devotus Dei famulus Orig. in v. 11. c. 1. Origen affirmes that Moses wrote that story but Iob and his children kept holy the Sabbath day for there was a day c Iob. 1.6 saith the Text wherein came the sons of God to present themselves before the Lord these sons of God are Iob and his children and this day the Sabbath saith d In cap. 1. Pineda the Iesuit therefore c. Seventhly that which hath ever been the boundary of the weeke was ever from the begining but the Sabbath hath ever been the boundary of the weeke for time hath ever been divided by weeks therefore the Sabbath hath ever been from the begining Eightly God left not Adam and the Patriarches without any necessary instructions for God never failes in necessaries but the Sabbath contained matter of necessary instructions for Adam the Patriarches both in regard of their faith in the article of the creation of the World in sixe daies and in respect of their hope that there remained a rest for them in Gods Kingdome Therefore God left them not without the ordinance of the Sabbath Ninthly to whom God appointed publique worship to them he appointed the time of worship which is the Sabbath but God appointed to Adam and the Patriarches publique worship for men called on the name of the Lord neither was this any will-will-worship of their owne Therefore c. Lastly the testimony of many of the Learned a Est enim festus dies non untus populi regioni soâ— sed in universum omnium quae sola digna est ut dicatur popularis festivitas natalis mundi Philo Iud. de oper Mund. Philo the Iew saith that this feast did appertain to all nations from the beginning Mr Broughton affirmes that the Fathers observed it before Moses b Benedictio ista nihil aliud est quam solennis consecratio qui sibi Deus studia occupationes hominum asserit die septimo Calvin in c. 2. Genes v. 3. Calvin saith that the blessing of the Seventh day was a solemne consecration whereby God laid claime to the studies and employments of men for himselfe upon the seventh day And againe God saith c Primum ergo quievit Deus deinde benedixit hanc quietem ut faeculis omnibus inter homines sancta foret vel septimum quemque diem quietâ— dicavit ut suum exemplum perpetua â—sset regula Calv. ib. Cathar in Genes Alcuin quaestionib in Genes he did two things at the begining first hee rested then he blessed that rest that it might bee holy amongst all men throughout their generations Vnto this Catharinus Alcuinus and many of the Popish schoole subscribe Zanchius affirmes as probable that Adam kept the first seventh day in Paradise and that the second person in the Trinity tooke upon him the shape of a man and instructed him and his wife upon that day in the works of the creation CAP. II. Wherein the arguments for the negative part are set downe FOr the negative are also produced many reasons as First the Sabbath was not given to Adam either before his fall or after his fall therefore not at all given him Not before his fall for God doth nothing that is needlesse or superfluous but to Adam yet in Paradise a Sabbath was needlesse First in regard of his body which needed not any rest or refreshing being not only immortall but a Communis est sententia Patrum Theologorum hominem in statu innocentie fuisse impassibilem Greg. Val. Tom. 5. disp 7. q. 4. p. â— impassible not so much as of sleepe it selfe b Alex. Hal. part 2. q. 86. memb 30. Alexander of Hales brings many probable arguments to this purpose Secondly it was needlesse in regard of his soule which wanted neither the practice nor instructions of the Sabbath not the practice for every day was to Adam before his fall a practicall Sabbath his whole life being nothing else but a perpetuall contemplation of holy things the dressing of the garden was no impeachment at all to his heavenly thoughts not the instructions of the Sabbath for c Primus homo sic institutus est à Deo ut haberet omnium scientiam in quibus homo natus est instrui Th. â— 1. q. 94. art 3. in corpore his knowledge of the Creator and all things created was of it selfe perfect and needed not the helpes of teaching preaching catechizing No man will say I presume that he needed to be instructed in the mystery of the Sabbath as our spirituall rest froÌ„ under the burthen of sin in the kingdome of grace and our eternall rest in heaven in the kingdome of glory Divines generally affirme that he knew not that he should fall or need a Redeemer though perhaps the fall of Angells was revealed unto him And a Aquin. 2â— 2 oe q. 2. art 7. those that affirme him to have knowne the Incarnation of Christ say he knew it not as appointed for mans redemption from sinne but as ordained for mans translation to farther happinesse The Sabbath could not mind him of the eternall rest in Heaven for suppose that if Adam had stood hee should have been translated with his posterity to fill up the roome of the Angells which is as groundlesly as commonly affirmed yet that very estate of glory could not have been to them as it shall be to us a rest for this rest is opposed to misery from which the state of innocency was priviledged Object It may perhaps be objected that the Sabbath was necessary even in that estate that God might be publikely worshipped by way of acknowledgement of his infinite goodnesse towards man and supreame dominion over all his creatures Answere To
which God rested and which he sanctified which the Church of Christ neither doth nor ought to keep Ergo. Fiftly if the Sabbath had been observed by the Patriarches before Moses it is no way likely but that some footsteps of such their observation would have appeared in the Story wherein many things of lesse weight lesse tending to edification are punctually recited In the first sacrifice Moses observes the names of the men the quality of their oblations the successe of both All men know that the fittest time for such observances was the Sabbath would Moses think you haue omitted this circumstance who is so exact in all other For ' its most congruous to think if they had then a Sabbath they would have offered their Sacrifices chiefly upon that Sabbath In the daies of Seth men began to call upon the name of the Lord replanting and reforming religion every man will acknowledge that the observation of the Sabbath is a maine point of reformation and therefore sure if their fore-fathers had ever observed a Sabbath day that especially defaced no question among other things would have been reformed and this had been a materiall point in the story which yet speakes nothing thereof It is afterwards said that Noah offered a sacrifice of rest what fitter time for a sacrifice of rest then the day of rest But had this sacrifice of rest been offered upon the day of rest it had been as remarkable a thing in the story as that he builded an altar and offered of every beast and every fowle yet not a word hereof Come to Abraham we read of many Altars which he made to call upon the name of the Lord a world of small things are recorded of him yet no mention of any Sabbath which he ever observed If he had been bound to any set Sabbath doubtlesse he would have sealed the promises of God unto himselfe and his family upon that day especially but the Texttels us He circumcised himselfe and his houshold the selfe same day in which the Lord talked with him It is hard to proue that this was the seventh-day Sabbath and suppose it every man will confesse it to be an important circumstance which yet we read not The story of Iacob is full and exact but neither in his flight to Padan-Aram nor in his returne to Canaan nor going up to Bethel upon speciall command and reforming his houshold nor going down into Egypt nor in his abode there the least mention is made of a Sabbath observed by him I confesse that a negative argument from authority doth not conclude de rebus agendis to shew what is or is not to be done but de rebus actis to prove what was or was not done with such a concurrence of circumstances of times places persons occasions in this case I say a negative argument is more then probable a Lâ—gant proserant aliquem ducem norbarum praecepisse ut arrup to oppido naâ—us serireâ—ur qui in illo out in illo teÌ„plo suisset inventus de civ lib. 1. c. 6. Saint Austin thinkes it strong enough even against Heathens for being to prove that Christian religion is indeed the true religion and came from God he useth this medium because the barbarous Gothes in all their bloody conquests in Italy Spaine and Africa spared the temple of Christians and all such as fled unto them for sanctuary which was never vouchsafed in any conquests to the Idolatrous worshippers of Heathen Gods But how doth this appeare His proofe is only negative from authority let men saith b An illi saciebant et scriptores earunden rerum gestarum isla rettechantâ— It inc vero qui ea quâ— laudarent maxime requir ebant ill a praeclarissima pietatis indicia praeteâ—nent lb. c. 6. he read and alleadge any such example was any such thing done and did their historians hold their peace what would they who diligently sought for matter and occasion to commend the states and persons of whom they write passe over in silence such excellent monuments of piety Sure if this argument of Saint Austin be strong enough ours much more for the Holy Ghost omits not any thing in the story of the Saints which might apparently make for the pious instructions of after ages Sixtly had the Sabbath been so anciently observed by the Patriarches in all likely hood either Moses or some of the Prophets would have reproved the profanation and pressed the observation thereof upon the Israelites from their practice and examples I am sure Nehemiah doth so after the Law was given Nehem. 13.17 Then reproved I the rulers of Iudah and said unto them what evill thing is this that you doe and breake the Sabbath day did not your fathers thus and our God brought all this plague upon us Certaine also it is that the Israelites were superstitious observers of their fathers especially of Abraham Isaac and Iacob They eate not of the sinew that shranke in the hollow of his thigh unto this day saith Moses But neither Moses nor any of the Prophets though in other things they make frequent mention of their forefathers examples speake a syllable of this upon any occasion ergo Lastly this opinion is supported by men of farre greater authority then the former c Instituta legalia quae in typo data sunt populo Jsrael Orig. Hom. 5. in Num. Gen. 32.32 Origen reckons it amongst those legalls instituted by Moses and given unto Israell as types Tertullians treatise against the Iewes is nothing but the relation of a conference which passed betweene him and a Iew in which hee proves that the legall ceremonies of Moses are no way necessary unto salvation and amongst the rest d Qui contendunt Sabbathum adhuc observandum quasi salutis medelam doceant in praeteritum iustos Sabbatizasse Et paulo post Doceant sicut iam prâ—locuti sumus Adam Sabbatizasse ant Abel c. Tert adv Iuâ— daeos Sed dicturi sunt Iudaei ex quo hoc praeceptum datum est Per Mosen exin de observan dum suisse hee speakes of the Sabbath saying let them shew us that Adam or Abel or Enoch or Noah or Abraham or Melchisedech received the precept of the Sabbath Having made this challenge hee brings in the Iew replying that because it was given to Moses therefore it was to bee observed of all nations in Tertullians time therefore this truth was acknowledged even by the Iewes themselves To this purpose also is e Dicit Rabbi magister observatio Sabbathi in lege fuit instituta ut in fide po puli firmitèr permaneret novit is mundi Tho. in l. 2. Sent. dist 15. art 3. Rabbi Moses cited by Aquinas that the observation of the Sabbath was instituted in the Law S. f Cessanti a servilibus operibus populo iubetur ut dies Sabbathi sanctificet Cypr. de spirit Sancto Cyprian following the foot-steps of his master saith that it was commanded the
that this is meere sophisme supposing that which is in controversy viz. whether the word sanctified in that place doth signify destinated For if so then this interpretation is warranted from the letter it selfe If not this must be proved by some other medium for to say the text doth not warrant your exposition is only to deny that the world sanctified is in that place so to be understood which is the question Ob. Secondly it is said that the very connection of the words overthroweth this desination and restraineth the act of God spoken of in the third verse unto that period of time spoken of in the second verse else how can And the copulative tye all together Now plain it is that the words of the second verse are to be under stood of the time present immediatly after the creation for then God ended his works then he rested from his works therefore he then sanctified the seventh day to be forthwith observed by Adam and his posterity Answere Vnto this I answere that the connection between the verses is acknowledged that as God then actually rested so he then actually sanctified the day but that therefore he then commanded Adam to observe the day doth no way follow For that God did then sanctify that is destinate the day to be the Churches Sabbath in due time is one thing and to command Adam to observe it is another A man may determine with himselfe that one of his sons having many shall be his heire may we therefore conclude that he did presently put him into the inheritance the antecedent is true the consequent false Ob. Thirdly to interpret sanctified by destinated for times to come is not warranted by any other place of Scripture therefore it may justly be suspected in this Answere I answere that it is cleere enough by that which hath been already said that the word sanctified is put for destinated very frequently in Scripture a Es 13.3 The Medes were Gods sanctified ones that is destinated to be in time to come the destroyers of Babylon and the restorers of his Church b Ioh. 10.36 The father sanctified his sonne sent him into the World ordaining or destinating him to be the redeemer of the World And the same word which is here translated sanctified is used in the c Ier. 12.3 12. of Ieremy third verse to signify to prepare or preordaine And that it is so to be understood here also it shall I hope appeare by other places of Scripture in answere to that which followes Ob. Fourthly it is said that the great works of God as soone as they are wrought are forthwith to have their memorials observed and it is unreasonable to thinke that God working so great a work as the creation never to be forgotten would only destinate a day for its memoriall to be kept holy so many yeares after Answere But I answere that this is no new thing nor any way unreasonable For what were the great festivals of the Iews but the memorials of Gods great works wrought by his outstretched arme Yet were these ordaine â— in Sinai to be kept when they came into the land of Canaan forty yeares after neither were any of them observed before in the Wildernesse no not the d Numb 9.2 Passover save once that we read of which was by an especiall command from God himselfe Concerning this the words of c Exod. 13.5.11.12 Moses are plaine when the Lord hath brought thee into the land of the Canaanites c. then shalt thou keepe this service in this month So that I affirme two things First that although the great works of God are so done as to be had in remembrance yet many of them had never any set times appointed for their memorials by God himselfe unlesse perhaps by such a destination of which we speake Was not the drying of the earth from the flood much the same with creating the sea and dry land Yet Noah who was then as it were another Adam is not commanded to keep that day holy Was not the birth of our blessed Lord not to speake of his conception passion ascension c. as glorious as the first daies workes and was it not then also in a manner said let there be light a light to lighten the Gentils and the glory of his people Jsrael Yet the Angels which rejoyced to see that day had no commission to proclaime it holy neither did God himselfe appoint it for holy unlesse by destinating it to be hereafter observed by the precept and practice of the Church as we see at this day Secondly when God actually commands his Church the memorialls of his mercies there is many times a great distance set betweene the institution and the observation as appeares in the instances given in the Iewish festivals Ob. You perhaps will say that the reason is not the same betweene those feasts and this of the Sabbath and that they were put off till the sanctuary was built and the people setled in the land of Canaan because till then they could not with any conveniency haue beene observed But the Sabbath was the great festivall of all man-kind in memory of the creation and might without any incongruity have beene observed from the beginning Sol. Vnto this I answere that the Patriarches retained without question the memory of the creation with the manner and order thereof all which they received from their ancestors by tradition yet that in all probability they observed not the Sabbath for the selfe same reasons for which those other Iewish festivalls were put off in the wildernesse For the Sabbath also as well as those others had relation unto their bondage in Egypt and rest in Canaan f Deut. 5.15 Remember saith Moses that thou wert a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord brought thee out thence with a mighty hand therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to observe the Sabbath day Plaine therefore it is that the law of the Sabbath was grounded upon their deliverance out of Egypt for the one is rendred as a reason of the other So that howsoever it please some to tell us that the word Remember call'd the people back to consider the practice of this law in former ages and that this precept hath morality in it because of the word Remember yet they must give us leave to thinke Moses the best Expositor thereof saying remember thou wert a servant in the land of Egypt Ob. You will reply that it remembred them indeed of the bondage of Egypt but primarily of the works of creation for God rested the seventh day saith the commandement and therefore he blessed and sanctified it The Sabbath therefore was grounded upon the creation as well as upon their redemption nay this last seemes to be but accidentall and accessory to the former Sol. But who sees not that this is to little purpose For wee say with a Est duplex Sabbathi
Sabbath but only the spirituall rest which the faithfull under the Gospell receive in Christ The words are plaine we which doe believe doe enter into rest nor is the present tense put for the future as the Iesuit suggests without any ground For it is the sin of apostacy falling from the faith of Christ against which the Apostle so much laboureth in that place and throughout the whole Epistle and apostacy is a falling away from some estate in which we already are Indeed our spirituall rest which we finde in Christ Rev. 21.4 endeth in that heavenly rest described Revel 21.4 but this was not first and immediatly typified by the Sabbath and the land of Canaan and therefore in a secondary and subordinate construction only to be found in that place of the Apostle Leaving therefore this lesuiticall interpretation to those that like to follow it the text is plaine enough as a Praecipua huius loci difficultas hinc provenit quòd violentèr à multis torquetur Marâ—o in Loc. one hath well observed to all those that desire not to wrest it For the Apostle exhorts the Hebrews to whom he writes to take heed least by their Apostacy they deprive themselves of that rest of God which he ever proposed and promised to their Fathers and so preventeth two objections For they might say we can be in no such danger having already entred into Gods rest two manner of waies First into that rest of his which was from the begining when he finished his works into this the Sabbath which he gave our Fathers as a speciall pledge and badge of his people hath admitted us Our imitation of him is our communication with him To this the Apostle answereth that indeed the Sabbath was given as a memoriall of Gods rest but that this is not the rest of God of which the Prophet David speakes Secondly we are entred into Gods rest being brought by Ioshua into the land of Canaan the land of rest But this plea is also rejected by the Apostle because David whose text is quoted lived long after Ioshua The summe therefore of that Scripture is only that neither the rest of the Sabbath nor the rest of Canaan was that rest into which God promised to bring his people but only types and shadowes thereof To conclude this argument hangs together like a rope of sands because the text saith the works were finished from the foundation when God rested it infers that therefore also Adam and the Patriarches kept a Sabbath from the begining in which is no coherence at all as any man may see To the fourth it is confessed that there was a Sabbath before the Law was given in Sinai but the question is not of Sinai but the wildernesse after Israels departure out of Egypt till when we say there was no Sabbath And whereas it is said that Moses speaks thereof in that place as of a thing well known he that looks better into the text shall easily perceive the contrary To this purpose observe these circumstances First the occasion of those words of Moses to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord they are his reply to a relation of a new accident in the gathering of Mannah viz. that whereas all the weekbefore whether they gathered more or lesse every man had an Omer full now on the sixt day every man gathered two Secondly this new accident is expounded by a new oracle or revelation this is that which the Lord hath said for so the words are used v. 16. Thirdly what is this new Oracle but the reason of this new accident God teaching them thereby a new observation viz. that of the Sabbath For surely if the Sabbath had been so well known as is pretended neither the rulers of the congregation would have wondred so much at the double portion of Mannah which fell on the sixt day they might easily have concluded to morrow is Gods resting day neither needed Moses have given them a new oracle for their satisfaction Fourthly we may observe the peoples disobedience for notwithstanding all this some went out upon the seventh day By this it probably appeares that they knew not yet what belonged to the keeping of a Sabbath This was it seemes the first that they ever heard of therefore they neither beleeved nor observed it whereas afterwards being acquainted therewith they kept it even to superstition Fiftly marke the Lords expostulation with them how long refuse you to keep my commandements and my lawes Had he spoken in the singular number then indeed how long might have seemed to intimate that the law of the Sabbath had been of greater antiquity but when the Israelites are reproved for breaking the Lords commandements and lawes it is still meant of those which God gave them by Moses neither can any place be shewed to the contrary Sixtly we may note that God doth only reprove not punish this violation whereas afterwards when the Sabbath was known and established the gatherer of sticks must be stoned Now what difference I pray you between stick-gathering and Mannah-gathering but that the one sinned of presumption against an ordinance newly setled and by consent established The other against a law only newly proposed and made known but not fully assented unto And this I am sure is the reason rendred by a Quare qui 〈◊〉 colligebut punichatur certe quoniam si statim dâ—principio quando feruntur leges ac jere in promulgatione ipsâ— contemnerentur nullo mode possunt postea cusâ—odiri Chain Mat. c. 12. hom â—â— Saint Chrysostom for stoning the stick gatherer because if lawes should be contemned as soone as they be made and almost in their very promulgation they would never afterwards be observed Seventhly the words of Moses are remarkable see how the Lord hath given you the Sabbath see betokeneth the novelty of the thing how sheweth the occasion of the Sabbath to you saith the text not to your Fathers or to all man kind To which point the words of Nehemiah are so plaine as it is a wonder to me how any man can imagine a Sabbath commanded before Moses b Nehem 9.14 Thou madest knowne unto them thine holy Sabbath by the hand of Moses thy servant Lastly marke the conclusion of the story so the people rested on the seventh day By reason of this new accident new revelation gentle reproofe and admonition were they brought to keep a Sabbath Vnto all which adde the glosse of c Trem. in locum Iunius Tremelius affirming that there were three causes of the Sabbaths institution the remembrance of the creation the deliverance out of Egypt and the fall of Mannah No effect can precede its cause in nature and time which the Sabbath needs must doe if it preceded Mannah in observation and yet the fall of Mannah be a cause of its institution It doth not therefore appeare by this Scripture that the Sabbath was a thing well known and practised
of the law giving men sixe for one for God ever was and ever will be alike liberall to all men in all ages in this kind The second drawn from Gods interest in the seventh day The Seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord and what sons of Adam are exempted from giving God his owne The third is Gods example proposed for our imitation for all men are bound by the very light of nature to be followers of God as deare children The fourth is the promise which is made therein For it will be as blessed a day or a day as full of blessing unto us if we sanctify it as ever it was to the Iews God being not lesse good nor his grace lesse powerfull nor his promise lesse sure The fift is the ease refreshing of our servants and beasts to whom Christians must not be lesse mercifull then the Iews Lastly the Sabbath taught them that they were the Lords people and no man will say but that we also are so by as many and by more strong tyes and relations then were ever any Ergo c. Sixtly the law Ceremoniall and Iudiciall were given only to the Iewes and such as were circumcised but the fourth commandement was directed not only to those within the covenant but also to strangers and aliens The strangers within thy gates And upon this ground a Neh. 13.16 Nehemiah reproved the Tyrian Merchants which were strangers therefore c. Seventhly from the words of Christ in the Gospell b Mat. 24.20 pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day Those words were spoken to the disciples foreshewing that if their flight should happen to befall them on the Sabbath their affliction would thereby be increased But if the fourth commandement be not Morall what addition of sorrow had it been if their flight had befallen them that day Christians and such were the disciples need not trouble themselves about a law Ceremoniall Thus then That commandement the breaking whereof might justly grieve a Christian forced thereunto by flight is doubtlesse morall but the fourth commandement is such therefore c. Eightly that commandement against which humane corruptions doe especially arise and band themselves both in the Godly and the wicked must needs be morall but our corruptions doe chiefly fight against the Sabbath as the Godly feele by experience in themselves and experience doth also make evident in the wicked of the world therefore c. Ninthly that cannot be a truth of God which overthrowes all religion le ts in Atheisme Epicureisme and all prophanesse no good tree can bring forth such evill fruit But that doctrine which denieth the morality of the Sabbath overthroweth all religion le ts in Epicureisme and Prophanesse as appeares in those Churches wherein it is taught in forraine parts Ergo. Tenthly that wich the Church of England teacheth in her Homilies ought to be held for truth by all the obedient children of that Church but the morality of the Sabbath is that which the Church of England teacheth in her Homily of the time and place of prayer as will appeare to every one that will read the same Therefore all the obedient children of the Church of England ought to acknowledge it to be true Eleventhly if you make the fourth commandement Ceremoniall you make the Church of England guilty of Iudaisme For that Church which readeth to her children a Ceremoniall Law and commands them to kneele whilst it is read in acknowledgment of their subjection thereunto and at the end to pray Lord have mercy vpon us and incline our hearts to keep this law cannot but be a Iewish Church But the Church of England thus teacheth her children Ergo. Twelfthly unlesse the fourth commandement be morall there will be but nine commandements in the Decalogue which is contrary not only to the received opinion of all men but to the calculation of the whole Catholique Church in all ages and is no meane Sacriledge to affirme Ergo. Thirteenthly that which is taught by men which are most spirituall and alone discerne the things of God must needs be true and so on the contrary But the Morality of the Sabbath is taught by men that are most spirituall the contrary by men that are carnall therefore c. Lastly we have the authority of all our English writers almost ever since the reformation unto this time neither was it hitherto ever contradicted for at least these threescore and ten yeares unlesse by Papists Anabaptists or Familists Ergo. CHAP. VII In which are set downe the arguments for the negative THe negative tenent hath also its arguments which in the next place must be produced and First it is alleadged That commandement over which Christ was absolute Lord as he was the sonne of man is not morall for a morall precept is part of Gods eternall law over which the sonne of man can have no power being made under the law But Christ as the sonne of man was Lord of the Sabbath as himselfe upon two sundry occasions hath twice told us Math. 12. Mark 2. To these Texts these exceptions have been made 1 Excep 1. That this phrase doth no more import the Sabbath to be a ceremony then the same used by the Apostle doth conclude the dead and the living to be a ceremony for he rose againe that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living But this is to play with the ambiguity of the word it 's one thing to be Lord of the Church to guide governe perfect quicken raise glorify her for this is the meaning of the Apostle upon which that in the Ephesians may seeme as a comment Eph. 1.20.21.22 And another thing to be Lord of the Law or constitution to moderate dispence order alter abolish for in what other construction can any one be said to be Lord of a law 2 Except 2. It is said that Christ did not intend by these words of his any such Lordship because he did not then abrogate the Sabbath Nor is this to the purpose for never any man yet dreamed that Christ did in those words abolish the Sabbath for both it and the rest of the legall ordinances were in force till they were nailed with him to the Crosse 3 Except 3. It is excepted that our Saviour in those words doth only dispence with his Disciples in that particular case and challenge to himselfe the power and prerogative of expounding the Law against the Pharisees who pretended only to the Chayre and to give interpretations of the Law But to satisfy this also and to cleare the Text we affirme 1 That Christ doth not there or in any other place ever dispence with the law in himselfe or any other for he took upon him the form of a servant and came not to break the Law but to fulfill it 2 That in those words Christ doth not intend to expound the law only for this he had done before by the example of David and by the
time should be set apart not Morall in regard of the letter in which it is expressed If therefore the proposition be of the sounds and syllables of the Decalogue so that whatsoever is written in the letter thereof is affirmed to be Morall it is utterly untrue For what think you a Jllud in primo praecepto quieduxit te c. illuà in quinto ut diù vivaâ— c. of those words in the very front of the Decalogue I brought thee on t of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage are they Morall If any say these words are a preface no law he speaketh nothing to the purpose for the proposition in question is universall of whatsoever is written in the tables of stone with Gods own finger Besides give us liberty to exclude from being morall whatsoever is not a law and thereby the reasons of the fourth Commandement will be denied Morality for the reasons of any Law are no more the law it selfe then the preface thereof Indeed there is an implicit Morality in that preface Egypt being a type of the Kingdom of Sathan the house of Bondage the dominion of sinne and under the deliverance of these are contained the rest of Gods mercies to his Church If such a morality as this be all they seek for in the law of the Sabbath no man I presume will gainsay them herein But to give an other instance what shall we think of that clause in the fifth commandement That thy daies may be long in the land which thy Lord thy God giveth thee I am sure it is no principle in Nature nor conclusion flowing from any naturall principle nature can only say God will blesse all dutifull and obedient Children but that it shall be with this or that particular blessing as this is nature cannot teach us Besides this is only a positive and conditionall promise not universally and perpetually performed therefore not Morall And farther let us consider not only what is promised but to whom and it will appeare that those words concerned b Nullo modo ad nos possumus accommodare Luther tom 7. Epist ad Amicum the Iewes only and the land of Canaan and are applyable to us only by way of proportion I am not Ignorant how some labour to patch up a Morality in these words perhaps because they find them written in the tables of stone But their distinction of old in yeares and old in grace though otherwise of good use is in this place of no validity For the promise is without equivocation of long life in the earth as the Apostle expounds it Ephe. 6.3 But what speak we of things circumstantiall Our adversaries confesse the taxation of the seventh day to be Ceremoniall though the very heart of the Commandement and written with Gods own finger Although therefore it be written in tables of stone and that by Gods own finger and that in the very heart of the whole Decalogue which also is pressed that therefore it must be Morall must needs be acknowledged no good consequent unlesse men have a mind to play fast and loose with this argument Ob. Oh! but this commandement is in the very heart of the Decalogue Sol. To which I answere that if by the heart of the Decalogue we understand the midst then c Philo deleg Philo the Iew tels us that the first Commandement is the heart of the whole being written part in the first part in the second table But if by the heart we understand that which gives life to all the rest so the first commandement Thou shalt have no other Gods but me is the very vitall spirit of the whole Law of God Ob. Yea but the Decalogue was spoken with Gods own mouth and so were not the rest this therefore must needs be Morall Sol. Not to trouble the reader about the manner of Gods delivering the ten Commandements I briefly answere that the Ceremonials and Iudicials were also spoken by Gods own mouth so that herein there is little difference save that he delivered the Decalogue publikely in the audience of all the people the rest only apart but still face to face and mouth to mouth And the reason hereof is given in the text not to be any precedency in the lawes themselves but fear in the people being no longer able to hear the voice of so great and terrible a lawgiver When therefore Moses presseth this circumstance Deut. 5. 22. thus he spake and added no more d Quod refere Moses Deum nihil adjecisse eo perfectam vitae regulam decem praeceptis comprehendi significat Calv. in Deut. 5. v. 23. Calvins glosse which was the common marginall note viz. that these ten words are perfect directions needing no additions is indeed true but comes short of the meaning of the holy Ghost in that place for the true reason of that clause is expresly set down in the words following when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darknesse you came unto me and said if we heare the voice of the Lord our God any more we shall dye As if Moses should have said you heard but these ten words he added no more and you were thus afraid What if he had held on as he began So that it is their feare at that time of which Moses puts them in mind to beget in them an awfull reverence of God and heedfull observation of his Law and is nothing to our purpose To the second by placing the fourth commandement being Ceremoniall amidst the Morals in the Decalogue there is neither confusion of things nor distraction of the Church unlesse by accident as the law begets sinne through our own corruptions For will any man say that in Leviticus and Deuteronomy Moses did purposely confound things to distract the Church this were blasphemy and yet Morals and Ceremonials are commonly mixed in those Scriptures Nay we may with more reason affirme that had not this law of the Sabbath been thus place we might justly have complained of confusions and distractions For it being a Commandement mixtly Ceremoniall it could not without distraction have been ranged amongst the meerly Ceremonials and on the other side it being mixtly Morall reason requires it should be e Si quaeratur quare aliae Iudâ—â—orum festivitates praecipiebantur in decalogo diâ— quòd fuerunt tantum Caremoniales Sabbathum autèm magismorale est quum Caeremoniale Greg. de 10. praeceptis Caeremoniale islud determinabat naturale Greg. de Val. tom 2. disp 7. q. 7. p. 4. set amongst the meerly Morals in honour to the Morall parts thereof For the Morall and Ceremoniall parts thereof cannot well be severed one from the other the generall which is Morall from the particulars which are Ceremoniall Lastly though it were in no respect morall yet the Law of the Sabbath being that wherein is f The Lord prescribeth the feasts of the old Testâ—mentin these words Remember that thou keepe holy
concludeth not To the fift briefly both propositions are faulty The first that whatsoever is backt with a Morall reason is a Morall Law for what think you of the Law of the first fâ—uits No man I think but will say it was Ceremoniall yet the reason given of it is morall n Prov. 3.6 Honour the Lord with thy substance So the reason of the fift commandement is it Morall or Ceremoniall If Ceremoniall then how standeth it writen in the tables of stone If Morall then that which is Morall may be the reason of a law Ceremoniall and so the proposition is not true ex gr o Deut. 26. â— Thou shalt not kill the damme with the young that thy daies may belong in the land c. The second proposition is also faulty for let the reasons of the Commandemen be well scand and they will come farre short of that Morality which is pretended Aske naturall reason at best refin'd what proportions were fit to be observed between God and man would it answere we must have sixe for one and not rather on the contrary or any other what principle of naturall reason can guide us to the number of six herein God you say hath interest in the seventh but this is the question let this interest be discovered by naturall light we will grant the Morality All men are as much bound to follow Gods example in resting as the Iewes but First we deny that this example of God is or may be known by the light of Nature Secondly that it is there proposed to all men in their generations being given particularly to the Iews only For the commandement speaketh not of the seventh but of that seventh from the creation wherein the Church followes not Gods example keeping the first of these seaven For unlesse we rest that very seventh in which God rested we no more resemble his rest then a man that hath a ladder resembles Iacob that had a vision of a ladder But God hath promised a blessing unto our rest as well as unto theirs for the Lord even blessed the seventh day to the right observers thereof But the text is strained for though God hath promised alway to blesse his own ordinances in the publique worship yet for any blessednesse to be communicated to the day or affixed to one more then to another we read not That servants and beasts should now rest and be refreshed is confessed to be Morall but that they should have rest upon such and such a day just so many houres from all manner of imployment was partly Ceremoniall partly judiciall as hath bin said Which also farther appears because it is added o Levit. 26.5 as a reason of the seven yeares rest which I think no man will say was Morall neither doe I see why the one should not hold as well as the other Lastly true it is that the Sabbath was a token unto them that they were the Lords people and that we under the Gospell are also the Lords people is most true But was not Circumcision also a badge unto them that they were the Lords people must Circumcision therefore be Morall and perpetuali God forbid We see therefore the vanity of this argument likewise To the sixt first if by strangers we understand all that are aliens from the commonwealth of Israell plaine it is that the Sabbath was no more given unto them then Circumcision for it was a signe of Gods covenant and God never covenanted with the Heathen Moses was the Law-giver of the Iewes neither doth any law bind the Gentiles because Moses gave it but because only it is written on their hearts If by stranger we understand bondslave or sojourner not yet made Proselyte the commandement indeed speaks of him but not to him of him for his ease and restraint not to him for his observation such were not obliged unlesse first adopted as appears in the law of the Passover If any say why then did Nehemiah threaten the Merchants of Tyre for breaking the Sabbath day I answere he did it not because he thought them bound to keep the Sabbath but because a Ne quid occâ—rreret Israelitis ante oculos contrarium c. Cal. in Deut. 5.15 they occasioned the breaking of it amongst the Iews and offended against the present goverment of the state For if Nehemiah conceived those Tyrians to be under the Sabbath why did he shut the gates to keep them out he should rather have compelled them to come in and constrained them to keep the Sabbath being now under his power and jurisdiction To the seventh how superstitious the people of the Iews were in their observation of the Sabbath even in case of life and death notwithstanding they had the example of divers of Gods Saints their predecessors to the contrary as of b Elias fugit à facie Iezabel die Sabbathi Anton. tit 9. Elias and Iudas Machabeus and how their superstition continued not only when the City was destroyed by Titus and Vespasian but long after as appears by the history of the Iew in Rome that would not be taken up out of a Iakes because it was his Sabbath what advantages the enemies of that nation took from their superstition in this kind is evident of it selfe Our Saviour therefore in the Scripture glanceth at their superstitious and d Quod malum luxuriae hoc nomine significatum est quia haec erat nunc est pessima Iudaeorum consuetudo Aug. de Cons Evangelist c. 75. lib. 2. luxurious observation of the Sabbath foreshewing that it should be no small promoter of their lamentable destruction e Orate ut fuga vestra fit expedita nullis impedita remoris vel tempestatis vel religionis Marl. in locum so the best and ancientest Expositors c Sabbatha sancta câ—lo de stercore surgere nolo Laziard in hist universali But you will say what was this to the Disciples that they should pray against it I answere that the Christians also observed the Sabbath among the Iewes f Dicet aliâ—uis Iudaei sciebant licere in Sabbatho fugere ut vitam morti â—riperent Respondeo Iudaeos plerosque hoc ignorâsse vel putâsse fugere quidem fas esse hostibus insequentibus aliter esse â—efas Bar. in locum till the Gospell was sufficiently preached and the Synagogue was honourably buried Some therefore that were weak amongst theÌ„ might be entangled in that superstition Others that were stronger might be hindred and prejudiced in their safety by those that were contrary minded and all were bid to pray against the judgement of God which hanged over the head of the bloody City and whatsoever might in any degree further and increase the same though themselves were not engaged therein To the eight the riseing of mans corruption against any law gives no true estimate of the Morality thereof It is generally the effect of lawes of restraint to beget an appetite in men to the thing forbidden
hath imposed are without all question most proper and most fit to be retained But God himselfe hath imposed the Name Sabbath upon all daies of his solemne and publique worship and such is the Christian mans feast day The Assumption appears For not only the seventh day in the fourth Commandement but all the new Moones and other festivals of the Iewes are commonly called Sabbaths Therefore c. Secondly those names are commonly best which are most ancient Inquire saith b Iob. 8.8 Iob of the former ages and prepare thy selfe to the search of their Fathers But the name Sabbath is more ancient then any other being the name that was first given to daies of this nature Therefore c. Thirdly that name is alwaies best which doth most acquaint us with the nature of the thing In this the excellent Wisdome which God gave unto Adam appeared that he gave names to all the creatures answerable to their natures But the name Sabbath given to the daies of publique worship is such for they are daies of rest unto us and they were instituted in remembrance of Gods rest at the Creation and of Christs rest in the Resurrection and are pledges of our future rest in glory What name therefore can better agree unto them then Sabbath which is as much as Rest Fourthly that name is doubtlesse best which best directs us to the duties of the day For if c 1. Cor. 1â— 26 all things must be done for edifying such names are best to be imposed and used as are most accommodated unto edifying But the name Sabbath best leads us unto the duties of this day both outward and inward Outward Resting from all Corporall and worldly employments Inward resting from the spirituall slavery of sin and Satan Adde thereunto that it doth not only best direct us unto the duties of the day but it doth also help to confirme our faith and hope in the promises of God concerning the life to come and our d Math. 8.11 sitting down to rest with Abraham Isaack and Iacob in Gods kingdome Therefore c. Fiftly we must not affect to be singular in anything not so much as in words and Phrases Loquendum cum vulgo saith the proverbe But not only the vulgar but all men whaâ—soever speak religiously and reverently of the Sabbath day Therefore c. CHAP. XII The reasons against the name of Sabbath are briefly alleadged FOr the Negative opinion stand these reasons First he speaks best of things whose language is most conformable to the holy Ghost in the Scripture But the holy Ghost doth every where in the new Testament which alone speaks of the Christian mans Holy-day as having being and existency call it the Lords day no where the Sabbath day The name of the Lords day is therefore best and fittest to be used Secondly we should retaine those names which the Primitive Church in the purest times the first three hundered yeares chiefly used unlesse through any corruption or abuse they are scandalous But the name of the Lords day hath been chiefly used in the Primitive Church and in the purest times neither is it since through any abuse become scandalous Ergo c. Thirdly we of the reformed Churches should not forsake the Roman Church but where necessity doth inforce us For then we are guilty of that Schisme which is made in the Christian world Neither should we vary from our selves so much as were it possible in sounds and Syllables for then we may be justly noted for singularity and affectation But both the Romane Church and all reformed Churches use to stile it the Lords day not the Sabbath Ergo c. Fourthly we that are Christians should beware how we gratify the Iewes in their superstitious obstinacy against Christ and his Gospell in the least things least we partake with them in their hardnesse of heart the ancient Christians fasted Saturday especially for this reason because the Iewes fasted on Sattâ—rday But in using the name Sabbath we gratify the Iewes in their obstinacy against Christ and his Gospell For they abhorre the name of the Lords day as the greatest Blasphemy Therefore c. Fiftly it is one of the chiefest points of a Christian mans wisdome so to speak as not to put a stumbling block before his weaker Brethren He that doth otherwise a Rom. 14.15 walketh not charitably saith the Apostle But the name Sabbath may be and is become a snare to many weak ones especially in reading of the Scriptures For where ever they find the name Sabbath they presently conceive it to be spoken of and to agree to the Lords day and many times by this means fall into flat Iudaisme as appears by their quoting of the old Testament in the Questions in hand Therefore c. Sixtly that name which doth lesse edify is lesse proper This I thinke will easily be agreed on by all parties But the name Sabbath doth lesse edify For it leads us only to an outward cessation from bodily labour which of it selfe and precisely considered was indeed a duty of the Iewish Sabbath but is not so of the Christian Festivall as hereafter shall appeare On the contrary the name Lords day doth best open and explain the whole nature and duty of the day as the remembrance of Christs resurrection the acknowledgment of his Lordship over the Church and all other Creatures in the world Ergo c. CHAP. XIII Wherein is briefly shewed what is to be thought of this Question IT is a frequent rule in c Cùm de re constat propter quam ver ba dicuntur de verbis non debere contendi si quis id facit imperitiâ docendum esse simalitiâ deserendum Aug. cont Acad. lib. 3. cap. 13. lib. 2. cap. 11. S. Austine that wise men should not strive about words unlesse when there is some reall difference in the things But I doubt whether this question be only a fight about words For as the d Non illos viros â—os fuisse arbitror qui rebus nescirent nomina imponere seâ— mihi videntur haec vocabula elegisse ad occultandum tardioribus ad significandum vigilantioribus scientiam suam Ibid. lib. 2. cap. 10. same father speaks of the Academicks so may we without breach of charity suspect of our Sabbatharians at this day They are not saith he such simple men as know not to give things their proper names but they purposely make choice of such words as may best serve both to hide from the simple and to intimate to the wiser sort of their disciples their opinions Else I see no reason at all why the name Sabbath should be so common and that of Lords day so seldome used I deny not but the name Sabbath is lawfull and may also be used by such as have their wits well exercised in Scriptures if without superstition fraud or scandall But yet notwithstanding the name Lords day is both more fit in it selfe serving
day of the week is longer or shorter then other but if the Lords day as the rest hath not twenty foure houres it must needs be shorter that which is next there unto either going before or comeing after must be longer then any other day Therefore c. Thirdly it is a good Rule which the Rabbins give that we should not take from that which is holy to adde to that which is prophane but on the contrary But if the day of Gods publique worship amongst us have not allowed it so many houres as other daies we take from that which is holy and adde to that which is prophane even our own secular imployments which were impious and sacrilegious Therefore c. Fourthly if the Iewes Sabbath were to consist of twenty foure houres then much more the Christians For we have both received more and greater benefits and we also have more and greater mysteries of Godlinesse to contemplate But the Iewish Sabbath was a whole naturall day Therefore c. Fiftly the Scripture seemes to be plaine to this purpose For the 92. Psalme was the Psalme of the Sabbath as appears by the title thereof and in the very begining thereof the Prophet sets downe the very time of its observation saying i Psal 92.1.2 it is a good thing to praise the Lord and to sing unto thy name O most High to declare thy loving kindnesse in the morning and thy truth in the night season meaning a whole naturall day Therefore c. Sixtly we must rest as God Rested begining to rest from the works of our callings when God began to rest from the worke of Creation For Gods rest is propounded in the Commandement to be our patterne but God began his rest at evening the sixt day immediatly after the making of the woman and so continued the day of his rest which was the seventh If therefore our Rest must be answerable to Gods Rest it must begin at evening and continue till evening Therefore c. Seventhly as Christ rested so must the Christian rest his actions were our instructions and we call the day of our Rest the Lords because it was dedicated unto him but Christ finished his course and began his Rest over night resting in the grave foure and twenty houres at the least Our Rest therefore being grounded upon Christs Rest cannot be lesse then a whole Naturall day Eightly as the Apostles to whom the observation of the day was immediatly prescribed by Christ himselfe kept the day in their own persons so doubtlesse must we their successors in all after ages But the Apostles Sabbath was a whole naturall day This appears by S. Pauls practice at Troas when he preached and administred the Sacrament and communed with the Disciples of holy things all duties of the Lords day k Acts 2â— 11 untill the morning Ergo c. Ninthly as our Saviour who instituted the day observed it in his own person so doubtlesse must the Church for ever But our Saviour appeared and his very apparition was the institution not only early in the morning but also l Iohn 20.19 late at night to his Disciples and even then preached unto them and gave them the holy Ghost with the keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven therefore c. If any object that by night in that place is understood the evening or shutting in of the light only making it thereby a day artificiall the very circuÌ„stances of the Text are against him For first the doores of the house were shut saith the Text which is not usually done in the evening Secondly they feared a search would be made for them which is commonly done in the dead and depth of the night Thirdly m Profundâ jam nocte Aret. in locum Aretius a good Protestant Expositor saith expresly it was very late in the night Tenthly as the Primitive Church observed the day so must we But the Primitive Church kept a night as well as a day as plainly appears by their vigills and over-night assemblies not only in time of persecution but when the Emperours themselves were Christians Every man knowes and we read unto this day the Sermons of the ancient Fathers in their vigils which doubtlesse had never been but that they held themselves obliged to a twenty-foure-houres Sabbath at the least Therefore c. Lastly divers good authorities may be brought to this purpose not only of some private men as n Sicut Antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbatho dicente legislatore à vespere usque ad veâ—eram Aug. de tempore St Augustine and o Irenaeus contra Valent. l. 4. cap. 31. Irenaeus but whole p Observemus igitur Diem Dominicum sanctificemus eum à vespere diei Sabbathi usque ad vesperam Dominici diei sequestrati ab omni negotio Con. Agath cap. 47. Noctem ipsam quae nos insseratae lucd inâ—â—cessibili redidis spiritualibus excubijs exigamus Con. Matis c. 1. Councells have so determined this point nay the very Canon law the sink and dunghill of Popery CHAP. XV. The Arguments against the day naturall are proposed THe negative Tenent hath also its Reasons First our Resting day must be proportionable to our working day for they are relatives and all relatives have their mutuall Respects in all things in which they are Relatives Certaine therefore it is that God requires for himselfe such a day of Rest as he doth proportion unto us for our own imployments But our working daies are Artificiall not naturall Man goeth forth unto his labour till the evening q Psal 104.3 saith the Prophet * Ioh. 11.9 there are twelve houres of the day saith our Saviour * Ioh. 9.4 night cometh wherein no man worketh Therefore c. Ob. May not a man then work by night in his lawfull calling Resp Yes doubtlesse if he offend not against the rules of mercy to himselfe or others or if there intervene not some other irregularity in his working and upon this caution also he may lawfully spend the Lords night in holy exercises But our question is not what some men may doe but what all men must doe under paine of sinne Ob. But doth not then the rule hold that those who sit up late at night about their own workes on week daies should proportionably watch about holy things at night on the Lords day Resp This no way agreeth with the intention of the Lawgiver which in commanding the Sabbath had a twofold intention the one his own publique worship and the spirituall good of mankind the other the corporall refreshing and reviving the bodies of his servants and of all that belonges unto them I would now gladly know what refreshing the body of a man hath by the Sabbath if he must labour about holy things not only all day but most part of the night also But I think no sober minded man will say it is a sinne to goe to bed sooner upon this night then upon
or lessen the time appointed by the Church for holy duties but this makes no more for twenty foure houres then it doth for forty or fifty or any other It is all men will confesse sacriledge to rob God of his time but it must be made to appear that God hath claimed unto himselfe this time in question till when nothing can be concluded The fourth indeed were unanswerable if the case were as is pretended between us and the Iewes But First the ground upon which this argument is builded is sandy for it supposeth that God appointed them from Evening to Evening to contemplate the mysteries of Godlinesse and mercies vouchsafed unto them whereas it was both memorative and mysticall as hath been proved neither did they spend the night of their Sabbath in contemplation but in bodily Rest Secondly it is utterly untrue that we under the Gospell have more work for the Lords day then the Iewes had for their Sabbath For as e Lib. 4. c. 4. Eusebius observes their religion was the same with Christian Religion which at this day we professe f 1. Cor. 10.2 For they all were baptized unto Moses and did all eat of the same spirituall meat and drink of the same spirituall Rock which was Christ his meaning is that the body and substance was the same only it was cloathed with many shadowes and as the Apostle cals them * Gal. 4.9 Beggarly rudiments so that their Sabbath daies work was in this respect as much as our Lords can be Thirdly I say it was much greater for how cumbersome was Gods worship to them by Sacrificings Purifyings Washings How did God seem to hide himselfe and his mercies from them in Types and figures whereas he reveales himselfe to us even in the face of Iesus Christ * 2. Cor. 3. And not only Moses had a vaile put upon him * 3.15 but also their hearts which remaineth unto this day There was also a restraint of Gods spirit unto them as of the raine in the daies of Elias whereas now the fountaine is opened and the spirit powred out All men know that when any thing is enquired after it is sooner found when it lies open then when it is hid by a man of understanding then by a child one that hath eyes to see then by one that is hoodwinked by one that hath many helpes then by one that hath none So is it between the Iewes and us in holy things This argument therefore is a meere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither can any more prevaricating reason be produced To the fift it were to be wished that Scripture might be handled if not with more reverence yet with greater gentlenesse not thus to be racked The 92. Psalme was the Psalme of the Sabbath and it makes mention of night and day to be spent in the Lords prayses But what then will any reasonable man imagine that they then had night meetings in the Temple or sate up late in their families that night Those times of morning and evening if we restraine them as spoken of the Sabbath day are metonymically to be understood for the whole worship of God whensoever performed upon that day and are as much as when we say Morning-prayer and Evening-prayer But farther notwithstanding the Psalme was the Sabbath-Psalme yet whatsoever is therein contained may not respectively be spoken of the Sabbath only And this is i Tantùm vult docere nisi nos nostra socordia impediat nunquam deesie argumentum laudandi Deum nec verè defungi officio gratitudinis nisi in eo siâ—â—us assidui sicut ipse bonitatem fidem erga nos perpetuat Calvin in locum Mr Calvins observation upon the very words alleadged affirming that day and night are there put in indefinitely for all times whatsoever as appears saith he by that which followes For his loving kindnesse and his truth are alwaies towards us But as those that have yellow eyes think every thing to be of that colour so these men cannot meet with the Lord to be praised night and day especially in the Sabbath-Psalme but it must presently conclude a foure and twenty houres-Sabbath To the sixt as Gods rest began so must ours is a proposition Atheologicall For the Iewes themselves who observed the Sabbath in imitation of Gods Rest looked not at their patterne in this particular but only at their deliverance out of Egypt into which deliverance they entred when they sacrificed the Passover The example of God is not proposed without limitation in the Commandement he so rested as that he never since returned to his labours from which he rested he so rested as that he blessed it in neither of which ought we to presume to imitate his Rest Lastly I wonder how the example of Gods rest proposed in the Commandement can concerne our Lords day which was not the day of the Lords Rest but the begining of his labours The seventh is not much unlike First therefore we observe not the Lords day in memory of Christs resting in the grave For though in some respects he may then be said to have entred into Rest yet was the grave part of his humiliation also and our Redemption and no compleat and perfect Rest Secondly let it be supposed that the grave to Christ was only a place of Rest and that he entred thereinto over-night what is this to a twenty foure houres-Sabbath unlesse perhaps Christ rested but just so many houres in the Grave but how then was he three daies and three nights in the Bowels of the earth This therefore is a meere pretence no proof The eight drawn from Apostolicall practice is in all parts thereof unsound Plaine it is that Apostolicall practice binds not the conscience but where there is a precept annexed Nay where there is a precept annexed both precept and practice may be as they say ambulatorium in lege of no lasting continuance But in this point we have neither precept nor practice either for the present or for after ages I presume that no man well considering the place alleadged can deny what k Curavit scriptor libri causam producendi sermonem produ cere Aug. epist 86. ad Cus S. Austine long since observed that S. Paul at that time took the advantage of the present occasion and necessity and not otherwise Sure I am that if the Apostles practice there recorded were a president for us to follow neither the whole Church of God can be excused who never since hath observed such a Sabbath nor the Apostle himselfe can be acquitted who for ought we read never did the like before or after in any part of the world Besides all this l Calv. in locum Mr Calvin thinks that the day there spoken of was the Iewes Sabbath not the Lords day reading in stead of uno Sabbathorum quodam Sabbatho upon a certain Sabbath day not Lords day But if any list to be contentions herein sure wee are out of
the Text that S. Paul and the congregation met not till they came together to break bread which in those times was commonly after supper and so it * Acts 20.7 came to passe that he continued his preaching till after midnight This therefore can be no president for a naturall daies-Sabbath but may be alleadged for a night-Sabbath only and such Sabbaths were never yet heard of To the ninth the practice of our Saviour is I confesse of great force and the argument drawn from thence of more probability though it conclude not For First the ground thereof is but loose that our Saviours apparition was the Institution of the Lords day For if ever our Saviour instituted the day it must be by his Resurrection which is a thing distinct from his Apparition Our Saviour instituted the observation of this day by his Resurrection as God the Father instituted the Iewish Sabbath day by his ceasing to work which was only the ground and Reason of the Institution as hath already been said Besides if the appearing of Christ after his Resurrection were the institution of the day it must needs follow that to whom he first appeared to them the day was first instituted and commanded now these must needs be the Souldiers or Mary Magdalene and if so what inconveniencies follow For by this means a publique and everlasting ordinance for the whole Church of Christ must be delivered either to those that are not of the Church as the Souldiers or to a woman whom nature it selfe inhibits to teach in the Church And whereas it is commonly affirmed that Christ kept the first Lords-day with his Disciples leaving an example to us therein I cannot sufficiently wonder at the boldnesse and rashnesse of this Assertion For let the Text be looked into and we find therein these particulars First he having appeared to Mary early in the morning he appears to the whole College of the Disciples Thomas only excepted late at night Then having given them his ordinary benediction Peace be unto you he shewes them his hands and his feet Lastly he imparts unto them their Apostolicall mission and indowes them with power the keyes of the holy Ghost But what are all these to the observation of a Sabbath or Pastorall charge What Preaching Catechizing What Sacraments administred Vnlesse Orders shall be thought a Sacrament It 's a strange keeping of a Sabbath and such as our adversaries will not avow to begin early in the morning with one or two and let all the rest of the day slip doeing nothing amongst their people till late at night and then neither Preach Pray nor administer the Sacrament But what then was the reason why our Saviour appeared so late in the night and the Apostles in all likelyhood sate up so late expecting his coming The Text doth satisfy both scruples first on the Disciples parts that were assembled together not thinking of Christ but for fear of the Iewes then on our Saviours part this seeming unto his wisdome the fittest opportunity to shew himselfe unto them to comfort them in their present feare and to furnish them with the holy Ghost against future temptations to which tend both his wordes and gestures And this m Clavieniâ—â— manus fixeruÌ„t lanceâ latus ejus aperuerant ubi ad dubitantium corda sananda sunt servata vulnerum vestigia Aug. tract â—â— Ioh. 12â— Saint Austine saw upon the passage of the Text where he shewed his hands and side for the print saith he of his wounds were reserved to heale the doubt of their fearfull hearts and the effect followed for they were glad saith the Text when they had seen the Lord. To the tenth Certain it is that the first originall of Vigils or night-assemblies was persecution as appears Acts 12.12 but persecution ceasing they were continued of devotion and the Fathers constantly preached in these vigils or Eve of any Festivals In processe of time they began to be corrupted and by little and little degenerated into superstition as being a work of merit and supererrogation They were therefore because otherwise also abused not only despised but forbidden and by name n Placuit prohibere ne foeminae in Coemiterio pervigilen â—ò quòd saepi sub obtentu orationis scelera latentèr commiâ—tantur â—on Elibâ—â—aâ— to women By which it appears that it was not an essentiall duty or observation Lastly these vigils being alwaies the night before cannot advantage our Sunne-rising-Sabbatharians which observe the night following which are the best and greatest part Lastly the authorities alleadged as Saint Austine Irenaeus the Synods of Agatho and Matiscon not to question the validity of them speak according to the custome of the times wherein vigils were not yet so grossely abused not enforcing any thing upon mens consciences herein The Canon Law also shewes the Practice of the Church of Rome begining at midnight as was before observed out of Aquinas But me thinks they that are so suspicious of Rome fearing every thing to be a relique thereof and to smell of Popery should not have been so hardy as to avouch the Canon Law which they think no small horne of the beast CHAP. XVII The Question concerning the institution of the Lords day proposed with arguments for the divine authority of it HAving thus entreated of the Lords day as it is a portion of our time to be set apart for holy uses we must now consider it in regard of the institution and observation thereof and first whether it be enjoyned by the Church by Divine or Ecclesiasticall authority To prove a divine institution either immediatly from Christ or mediatly from the Apostles are brought such and so many arguments as are able in the opinion of their owners to convince any mans judgement not corrupted with prophanesse of heart or darkned with pride and prejudice We must therefore faithfully muster them up in their full strength that all men of sober mindes may take their dimensions First it is said that God by his precept requires one of seven to be for ever observed his words are * Exod. 20.10 The seventh is the Sabbath but the Lords day is one of the seven and no other of the seven is to be kept Sabbath therefore this Secondly all holy resting daies are in the fourth commandement as every species is contained in the genus and every Individuum in the species It must needs be in this as in all other things For example Honour the King is a generall precept under which the honour of all particular Kings is comprehended honour King Richard King Henry King Charles But the Lords day is an holy resting-day as appears by the practice of the whole Church and was never yet denied by any enemy thereof unlesse he were some malicious person Therefore c. Thirdly one and the same Scripture hath many times two literall senses or at least is twice fulfilled in one and the same literall sense for example Not abone of him
shall be broken fulfilled both in the paschall a Numb 9.12 Lamb and b Ioh. 19.36 Christ our passover Out of Egypt have I called my Sonne first verified of c Hos 11.1 Israel his adopted Sonne then of d Math. 2.15 Christ his naturall Sonne A voyce was heard in Ramah understood first of the captivity of the Iewes foretold by the e Jer. 31.15 Prophet then f Math. 2.18 of the number of the Innocents by the cruelty of Herod As it is in these and divers other places of this kind so it is in the letter of the fourth Commandement where either we have two literall sences one for the Iewes Sabbath an other for the Christians or at least one literall sence twice fulfilled once under Moses and once under Christ Now whatsoever is commanded the Church in the Scripture under any literall Sence is of divine institution But the Lords day is commanded in the fourth precept though not in the first yet in the second literall sence Therefore c. Fourthly that which was foretold and typified in the old Testament is of divine institution in the new for where the ceremony is commanded the Iew the substance is commanded the Christian for example where unleavened bread is commanded them there sincerity and truth is commanded us But the Lords day was thus typified and foretold in the Testament This the Rabbins themselues have observed in sundry passages First in the words of God saying let there be light therefore the Messiah should rise the first day of the week Secondly from the fall of Adam on the sixt day therefore the Messiah should suffer that day rest in the grave the seventh and rise the next Thirdly from the words of Boaz to Ruth g Ruth 3.13 sleep untill the morning therefore the Messiah should sleep in the grave all night and rise in the morning Fourthly from the cloud covering the people first on this day from Aaron and his sonnes executing their Priesthood first on this day from the Princes of the congregation who made their offerings towards the erecting of the Tabernacle on this day From the fire also which first came down from heaven and consumed the Sacrifices upon this day And if any man be so prophane hearted as not to be convinced by these grave collections of the Iewish Rabbins he shall find the same averred by the Fathers and Synods in the Church of Christ Both h Hic dies octavus i. e. SabbathuÌ„ primus praecessit in imagine quae imago cessavit superventente post-modâ—â— veritate Cyp. ad Fid. Ep 59. Saint Cyprian and i Sanctos patrer plenos spirita octavae dieâ— sacramentum non latebat quo figuraâ—atur resurrectio nam pro octavâ— Psalmus inscribitur octava lic circumciâ—e bantur â—â—â—â—nteâ— Aug. ad Lan. Fo. 119. Saint Austin make the Administration of the Circumcision on this day a Type and Figure of its future observation The Synod called Foro-Iuliensis affirmes that Isaiah prophesied of this day An other Synod held at Matiscon said expresly that this day which was intimated unto us by the shadow of the Iewes seventh-day is made known unto us both by the Law and Prophets what can be more evident Fiftly that day which the Lord himselfe hath made must needs be a day of the Lords own instituting for to make and to ordaine and appoint are in this case termes equivalent But the Lords day is a day of the Lords own making and appointing k â—pse est dâ—e◠〈◊〉 perpetâ—â—â— ipse nobis per septimae dici umbram insinuatus noscitur in lege Prophetis Câ—nâ— â—â—â—atis c. â— Syn For. c. 13. so saith the Prophet David l Psal 118. This is the day which the Lord hath made And therefore m Exultemus Laetemur in eo qui à lumine vero nostras tenebras fugaturus illuxit nos ergo constituamus diâ—m dominicam in frequentationibus usque ad cornua altaris Arnob. in locum Arnobius upon this place saith let us also make our Lords day a great day since God himselfe hath so made it A learned Prelate also of our Church hath a Sermon extant upon that text much to the same purpose Therefore c. Sixtly that day which the Lord ever doth and will blesse unto his Church and people which religiously observe it is doubtlesse a day of his own ordaining and appointing therefore sanctified and blessed are put together in the Commandement But God hath and continually doth and ever will blesse this day with groth of grace and all spirituall blessings in Christ to all such as Religiously observe it Therefore c. Seventhly that which the example of God the Creator resting from all his works was to the Iewes in regard of their Sabbath that also the example of God the Redeemer is and must be to us that are Christians in regard of ours But the example of God the Father resting from his works was a sufficient institution of the Iewes Sabbath for therefore they rested because God rested it should therefore be a sufficient Institution unto us under the Gospell to rest on the Lords day because in it Christ rested Eightly If a day of holy rest were instituted by God the Father in memory of the worlds Creation which was the lesse much more was there a day of holy rest instituted by God the Sonne in remembrance of the worlds redemption which was the greater The consequent is authorized by n Athan Hom. de â—â—â—en Athanasius in his Homily of the Sower But a day of holy rest was ordained by God the Father in memory of the Worlds creation as is undenyable Therefore c. Ninthly Certaine it is that nothing but divine authority can bind and overcome the Conscience in regard of any outward observations in their own natures indifferent for the Conscience is a Throne in which God only sits and commands But the conscience is bound and over-awed to the observation of the Lords day as all men confesse and feel by experience unlesse they bely their consciences Therefore c. Tenthly That day which the Church observeth in regard of some mysticall signification therein contained is a part of Gods worship and must therefore be under precept unlesse we will worship God after our own fancies But the Church observes the Lords day in regard of some mysticall doctrine therein contained the Lords resurrection our own future glorification therefore it must be under precept Eleventhly Whatsoever is not under divine precept is mutable and may utterly be abolished in the Church of God by the authority of the Governors thereof but the Lords day cannot by any humane authority whatsoever be changed and abolished Therefore c. Twelfthly If the observation of the Lords day be not of divine but only Ecclesiasticall constitution then are all festivalls or holy-daies of the yeare of equall dignity and honour with it But it were little lesse then blasphemy to affirme
obseruation of the Lords day-Sabbath been of divine institution it is very probable that the * 1. Cor. 6. â— Apostle reproving the Corinthians for going to Law one with another under the heathen Iudges would not have omitted the advantage of this circumstance For plain it is that their pleadings were ordinarily upon the Lords day By their going to Law therefore they not only scandalized the Gospell and devoured one another but were also prophaners of that day which Christ himselfe had Commanded to be kept holy it being impossible at once to keep a Sabbath and attend a Court of Iudicature under an Heathen Iudge But the Apostle makes not the least mention of this circumstance though so pregnant and advantagious to his purpose it is therefore very likely there was not as yet any divine precept for the Lords Day Tenthly if Christ had appointed this day because it was the day of the Resurrection then the Eastern Churches which followed St Iohn did ill and transgressed this ordinance of Christ when they kept their Easter which only and properly is the day of Christs resurrection upon any other day as it happened in the Leviticall account And so d Apud Euseb lib. 5. c. 24. ' O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soc. lib. 5. c. 21. Pope Victor may well be justified who did excommunicate them for this offence but the Disciples of S. Iohn though perhaps they did not so well yet cannot be simply condemned for evill doers and to have been justly excommunicated by Pope Victor as Iraeneus in his Epistle to Victor makes it appear Ergo c. Eleventhly Had it been a divine institution doubtlesse those Fathers and Synods that have spoken so much in praise of the day displaying the glorious prerogatives thereof to commend it thereby to Christian mens observation would never have omitted this which is the greatest of all the rest But neither the Councell of Palestina setting down the severall Benedictions of this above other daies nor the Councell of Matiscon in France attributing the irruption and prevailing of the Gothes and Vandalls to the neglect of this day nor e Cyprian ep 66. S. Cyprian nor Leo which have writen large panegyricks hereof ever affirmed a divine institution Twelfthly That which the Orthodox condemne to be indeed Popery should not be consented unto by us especially by such of us as would be held the great Reformers of the Church and therefore startle at the very sight of harmlesse ceremonies because they have been polluted by Papists as the Crosse after Baptisme Surplice c. But that the Lords day is not only a part of the Churches order and policie but of Gods worship also and is more holy then other daies as it must needs be if from divine authority is condemned by f Paraeus in cap. 14. ad Rom. Ames Bell. enervat Reformists in the Papists farre therefore be it from our adversaries to Symbolize with them Lastly Authorities also are not wanting g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soc. ib. Socrates affirmes that the Apostles never intended to establish Lawes concerning Holy-daies to be observed by Christians but to be unto them the Masters of true piety and holinesse And because saith the Historian no man is able to produce any precept to this purpose upon authenticall record plaine it is that the Apostles left these things to the liberty and appointment of men The historian speaks indeed of Easter in that place but first he delivers for Maxims and Principles that which hath been said Secondly that question of Easter as I conceive differs not any thing from this of the Lords day viz. whether the day celebrated by the Church in memory of Christs resurrection ought necessarily and by vertue of Divine precept to be the first day of the week only h Hoc in iis culpat Apostolus in omnibus qui serviunt creaturae potius quà m creatori nam nos quoque dominicam diem Pascha solenniter celebramus sed quia intelligimuâ— quò pertineant non tempora observamus sed quae illis significantur temporibus Aug. cont Adam Man c. 16. S. Augustine also made it not only will-worship but the service of the creature which is Idolatry to observe any day as commanded of God and answering what the Manichee against whom he wrote might object viz. that Christians themselves diligently observe the Lords day and Easter true saith the Father we solemnly keep all these but the time is not that which we obserue as if it were coÌ„manded but we look wholy to those thins to which the times lead i Dicat aliquis nos quoque simile crimen incurrimus observantes diem dominicam ad quod qui simpliciter respondet diâ—et non eosdem Iudaicae observationis dies esse quos nostros ne inordinata congregatio populi fidem minueret in Christo quòd non celebrior sit dies illa qui verò acutius respondere conatur illud affirmat omnes dies aequales esse Hier. in Gal. c. 4. Tyndall in his answere to Sir Thom. Moores first booke Frâ—ths Declaration of Baptisme Barnes supplication to the King S. Hierom likewise makes the Quaere whether our Christian Lords-day incurre not the Apostles prohibition in his Epistle to the Galathians and resolves negatively upon these grounds They differ saith he from those there condemned first materially for they are not the same daies Secondly formally for our daies have not in them any holinesse and necessity from divine institution as theirs had but are at liberty to be kept upon any day whatsoever Thirdly in regard of their end which in ours is only to preserve order and to avoid confusion in our Ecclesiasticall Assemblies The book of Homilies affirmeth plainly that Christian men did of themselves without any divine precept follow the example of God commanding the Iewes a Sabbath so took upon them the observation of the Lords day we have also the unanimous consent of al the reformed Churches of God at this day in Christendom Adde hereunto the suffrages not to say the sufferings of our own Martyrs in those Marian daies How the tenent came to be changed Mr Rogers in his preface to his Comment upon the Articles of Religion established in the Church of England hath at large set down Lastly M. Perkins who I think was one of the first that took up this tenent speaks waveringly and doubtfully herein And surely his modesty is to be commended if you compare it with the violence of his followers with whom any man of contrary judgement is tantùm non a reprobate But * Mat. 11.19 wisdome is justified of her children CHAP. 19. The Question is briefly stated and resolved BEfore we come to answere the arguments made to the contrary some few things are to be premised for the better opening of the truth in this point And first though our adversaries agree in generall upon a divine institution of the Lords day yet they vary in
like we also affirme of the example of God the Sonne at the worlds redemption resting from all his labours for though it be not a Law instituting yet it is sufficient ground and warrant why it was at first instituted and hath ever since been observed To the eight all arguments of this kind from the lesse to the greater are but probable and must be understood of great and lesse in the same kind For that which is lesse in one respect may be greater in another it 's so in this particular For the creation of the world is a greater work of power 〈…〉 then the redemption and the redemption is a greater work of goodnes then the creation Besides in reasons of this kind we must alwaies adde si caeterasint paria for any disparity in any circumstance of time place person overthroweth all conclusions built upon comparisons Now suppose that the argument speak of the same kind of great and lesse which yet it doth not nothing can be concluded because the circumstances of time and persons are not equall For the Iewish Sabbath was given in the child-hood and nonage of the Church to a people of dull eares stiffe necks heavy hearts to such the appointing of a determinate time was necessary but the children of the light men of ripe eares that have their eares bored their hearts illuminated need no such childish rudiments as the observation of daies And this a Sicùt praeceptum de sacrificiis habuit aliquam causam moralem non simplicitèr sèdsecunduÌ„ congruentiam llorum quibus ilex dabatur qui ad Idololatriam proni erant sic praeceptum de observatione Sabbathi habuit aliquam causam moralem ex conditione eorum quibus lex dabatur qui propter avaritiam iis inditam c. Aqu. in 3. sent dist 37. art 5. in corp Aquinas long since observed The words of Athanasius alleadged in the Homily of the Sower c. are a meere allusion or illustration shewing only the conveniencie which was never doubted not the necessity of this observation which is the point in question To the ninth I briefly answer that he whose conscience is not over-awed by the lawes of the Church states in outward observations in things lawfull and in different established upon good grounds Christian considerations is neither good subject nor good Christian It is true indeed that the conscience is the Throne of God yet I think no man will so restrain him to that Throne as to say he cannot put another thereinto That b Lex aliqua potest condâ— cui sit necessariò etià m 〈◊〉 mortali parendum quaeque vi suâ quamvis non nisi dependentèr à lege divinâ aeternâ obliget sub mortali Greg. Val. de lege hum Vbi pater iubet quod centra dominum non sit sic audiendus est quomodo Deus Aug. in Ps 70. our superiors especially those that derive their power immediatly from God himselfe may if cause so require lay their authority immediatly upon the conscience binding it to sinne in cause either of neglect disobedience or contempt is to all sober mindes a Maxime in Divinity To the tenth the mysticall signification of any ceremony or observation whatsoever is either of divine imposing as in the sacraments and all such ceremonies as are parts branches of Gods worship or of humane invention as building of Churches East and west bowing towards the Altar usingthe surplice the Crosse after baptisme upon infants or otherwise as the Primitive Christians used Such as those are no parts of Gods worship neither is the conscience bound thereunto but in obedience only to authority To the eleventh the observation of the Lords day is not only metaphysically and speculatively mutable but also Morally and practically as well in our times as in the Primitive Church For amongst the first Christians for some hundred yeares we cannot find any regular and constant practice thereof Supposing therefore the decrees of Councells the practice of the Christian world the edicts of Emperors the statutes of the Land it is unchangeable in sensu composito all things standing as they doe but supposing c Neque Christus neque Apostolus celebrationem primi diei lege aliquâ praeccperunt sed propter praesentem commtaitatem ita sanxeâ—â—nâ— Ã qua quidem sanctione recedere possumus si evidens Ecclesiae utilitas posâ—ulaverit Bald. de Sabbath cap. 20. that the Church and state should find sufficient cause to repeal all such constitutions it may and ought to be changed in sensu diviso as well as any other observation whose ground is only decency and order when it comes to be abused to superstition To the twelfth if we consider all daies which the Church hath set apart for publique worship absolutely as being so set apart I hope it will not be thought blasphemy to affirme that the Lords day and all other holy-daies are equall So I am sure d Omnes diâ—s aeaquales esse Hier. in Gal. 4 S. Hierome affirmed of old and our learned Bishop e Down tables Downham of late but in some respecttive and accidentall considerations one day may be said to be greater and better then another And this may be either from the ground or reason of its observation so it is said by the * Ioh. 19.31 Evangelist that the Sabbath was a high day because the feast of the passover fell upon that day by translation which was the manner of the Iewes when any of their feasts fell out to be the day before the Sabbath and in this respect we may call the Lords day the Queen of daies because it is kept in memory of Christs resurrection which is farre to be preferred before any festivall celebration in memory and for imitation of any Saint whatsoever Or from the solemnity of the publique worship according to the custome of the Church Or lastly from the intention of the Church appointing as when she intends only halfe or some part of the day to be kept holy forbiding all manner of works upon some daies but allowing them upon others as Markets and Faires In this latter respect also no Holy-day is equall with the Lords day especially in the Church of England however it be in forraine parts notwithstanding if we look to the outward solemnity of Gods worship some holy-dayes may be greater then it To the thirteenth that one day should have more holinesse in it then another as it is this day or that day by divine institution under the Gospell is a proposition Atheologicall and part of the Egyptian and Iudaicall superstition which the Apostle condemneth in the Epistle to the Galathians and against which S. Hierom reasons irrefragably For then this holinesse faith a Aut haberent sanctitatem ex lapsu syderum aut Dei beneficio aut hominum inssituto hee must be derived either from the motion and influence of the heavens or from the impression of Gods holinesse made upon it
The former no man will affirme and for the latter if ever any such impression of Gods holinesse were communicated to any day doubtlesse it was to the seventh from the Creation But this in the time of the Gospell is accounted but as other common daies If any man say it may receive its holinesse from man sure we are that all the men in the world cannot make any creature in the world to be formally holy Daies are well stiled holy by accident and in regard of their end and appointment because set a part for holy things and no otherwise And this agrees not only to the Lords-day but to all Holy-daies whatsoever and that equally being all set apart by the same authority of the Church To the foureteenth the publique worship is an especiall part of our serving of God and in this the Church is to hearken only unâ—â— Christ her Soveraign Lord in regard of the 〈…〉 thereof but for ritualls and accidentals 〈…〉 liberty so all things be done decently and in order Who knowes not that the day wherein the worship is performed is meerely circumstantiall Only for orders sake least as b Hieron in Gal. 4. S. Hierom speaks the confused and unprescribed Assemblies should by degrees lessen the faith of men in Christ himselfe To the fifteenth it goes hard when to resolve a case of conscience men are forced to fly to Criticismes But if here a man should deny that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signify an exchange or putting of one thing in the room of another store of work would be cut out for Grammarians But this needs not for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to retract alter reverse as well as to exchange every man knowes We therefore grant that Christ hath brought in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having recalled and utterly abolished the Iewish Sabbath established in the letter of the fourth Commandement Furthermore I answere that if the exchange of the Priesthood had made only an exchange of the Law putting one thing in the roome of another Christian religion should now be as burthensome as the Iewish was heretofore in regard of the number though not for the quality of their observations which how absurd it is appears at first sight To the sixteenth we all acknowledge Christ to be the Lord of the Sabbath and of all things else in his Church The Iewish Sabbath also is abolished yet it followes not but this might be done by the authority of the Church For what doth he that is Lord in a house doe all things with his own hands In the house is nothing left to the power of wife and servants Christ indeed is Lord of the Church gives orders with his own mouth concerning things necessary and substantiall but he leaves ritualls and ceremonialls such as are time place manners of his worship to his wife and servants the Church and Magistrates To the seventeenth no man denies that * all things are become new so we take the rest of the text with us * 2. Cor. 5.17 old things are passed away for it was the passing of old things away which maketh all things to become new In the Gospell all things are become new no otherwise then the reformed religion is said to be new because it hath receded from the corruptions of Popery which had a long while stuck to the Church as an old ach lyes in the body The Ceremonies of Moses are vanished things themselves are exhibited and this is the novelty there spoken of But granting what the argument requireth that all things are become not only negatively but positively new as a new Testament a new and living way May not his spirit make other things new as new hearts new creatures May not the Church also make some thing new as new forme of goverment new exercise of publique worship with new circumstances thereof But as all things else are become new so I wish these men would leave their old abusing of Scripture and think of a new and better kind of reasoning To the eighteenth that Christ hath left his Church in worse estate then he found the Synagogue because he hath not burthened it with observations of dayes is a mystery in Divinity It is as if a man should say the Heire is in worst case when he is Lord of all then when being a Child he differed not from a servant because now he is no longer under Tutors and governours this is such a Paradox as few Wards will beleive To be freed from putting holynesse in dayes is part of the liberties of the Sonnes of God in which the Apostle wisheth * Gal. 5.1 vs to stand To the nineteenth To turne Iewes therefore in this poynt and upon this ground because they had a Sabbath of Gods owne appointing and we haue not were as great madnesse as for a Slaue that is once manumitted to returne unto bondage What if they had a day of Gods immediate appointment Had they not also Priests Vestments Sacrifices a set day of humiliation yearely c If it be best to turne Iewe in one why were it not so in all But this needes not for God hath hitherto and ever will giue vs our appointed Feasts though from men and by men as he giues vs Priests Altars Temples Sacrifices and all things belonging to his worship and service To the twentieth many things have the Lords name stampt upon them which never were of Gods immediate particular appointment Our Churches are called the houses of God our Communion-table the Lords table our Ministers the Lords Ministers yet are none of these of immediate institution from the Lord himselfe though all are such as appertaine to the Lords worship It is an old rule à nomine ad rem non valet argumentum from the name to the thing the argument doth conclude To the one and twentieth concerning our Saviours keeping of the Lords day with his Disciples as their Pastor after his resurrection enough hath already been spoken and the Scriptures alleadged haue been also cleared in which there is not any one footstep of an institution To the two and twentieth its most true that Christ after he was risen was fortie daies on the earth and conversed diverse times with his Disciples which times are particularly set downe in the history He gave them also instructions and commands but these are also upon record They were of two sorts either such as belong to their Apostolicall function as * Math. 28.19 to goe to all nations teaching and Baptizing having neither staffe nor scrip c. or some locall mandates as * Luk 24.49 to stay at Ierusalem till they received the promise These are all the commands of which I find Protestant c Per haec maÌ„data quidam nihil aliud intelligunt quà m illud ipsum mandatum quod pòst clariùs exponit ne Hierosolymis discedant sed rectius alij de praedicando Evangelio c. Marl. in locum Interpreters
the Lords day by servile works hath beene ever thus blasted whether done about sun-rising that day and being a matter of no great importance or after evening prayer in the afternoone to take away all evasions from the circumstance of time Of this there hath beene much and lamentable experience ever since the Kings Declaration he being confuted as it were herein by the King of Kings Ninthly The consent of the whole Church ever since Constantines time as appeares by the Edicts of that Emperour with sundry Synodicall constitutions in all ages many wholsome statutes made to this purpose in all parts of the Christian world The Fathers also haue been large in the same argument utterly condemning even those speeches and conferences which withdraw our mindes from the serious meditation of what we haue heard in the congregation a Chrys Ho◠5. c. 1. Math. S. Chrysostome hath much to this purpose which he doth also illustrate by two familiar similitudes The one of men that goe into the hot Bathes for their health as soone as they come out they retire themselues to rest and sweat in their beds least by going abroad about their businesse they depriue themselues of the benefit of their bathing The Lords day is as it were the day of the soules spirituall bathing in the living and wholsome waters of the word of God and the blood of Christ. This day therefore should be a most retired day wherein we should be secluded frō all earthly things least we depriue our selues of the wholsome profit thereof The second is of Scholars at Schoole when they haue their tasks sett them they labour and beat upon it the whole day and all is little enough Vpon the Lords day we sitt at Christ feet in his Schoole to be taught from his mouth What we haue heard from him in the Congregation must be our worke the whole day after unlesse we affect to be like broken vessels which receiue much but retaine little S. b Aug. in Ps 32. Augustine also bitterly inveighs against sports and pastimes upon this day and by name against Dancing saying a man were better upon the Lords day goe to plough By which it seems he condemnes all kinde of works and recreations concuring with that c Oportet Christianos in laude Dei gratiarum actione usque ad vesperam perseverare Syn. Tur. c. 4. Synod held at Tours in France which faith that Christians ought upon the same day to persevere in the praises of God and in giving of thanks untill the night To which purpose runnes the unanimous consent of all those worthies in the Church of England which haue treated on this subject almost since the Reformation CAP. XXIII The Arguments for the Negative are also related THE Negatiue also is supported by sundry reasons First that which is not under any Law Naturall or Positiue can be no essentiall duty unto which the conscience is bound under the penalty of sinne for where there is no Law there can be no Transgression But cessation from work upon the Lords day is under no Law Naturall or Positiue not naturall for it is neither a principle in nature knowne unto all men nor any conclusion to be deriv'd from any naturall principle I meane such a totall cessation as is here questioned For that men should haue times of rest and refreshing is naturall that God should haue part of our time sequestred for his worship is also naturall but neither the question nor arguments produced intend this naturall rest but an artisiciall kinde of cessation which our Sabbatharians haue fancied unto themselues and cannot be knowne unto us unlesse by Revelation Neither is it under any positiue precept for then it might be shewed in some Evangelicall writer and we need not fly to the Law and the Prophets of the old Testament to which satisfaction will soone be given Secondly Nothing commanded the Iew as a Ceremonie under Moses is or can be an essentiall duty of Religion unto the Christians in the time of the Gospell And the reason is plaine for the ceremoniall law was the application of things in their own natures indifferent to mysticall and holy uses and otherwise there could be no distinction between Morall Ceremoniall But that utter and totall cessation from works here spoken of was a ceremony commanded the Iew under Moses hath already been manifested Therefore c. Thirdly That which is not in it's selfe in its own nature an act of Religion cannot be in its selfe and its own nature a universall Christian duty binding all men under the penalty of sinne But an utter cessation from bodily labour upon the Lords day is not in its selfe and its own nature an act of Religion for then it must be some part of Gods worship inward or outward wherewith if rightly performed God is well pleased But God saith M. Calvin is not taken with any bodily rest and cessation of his creatures precisely and of it selfe considered upon what day soever which I think all men of sober mindes will acknowledge it cannot therefore be of it selfe a Christian duty upon the Lords day If any man say it is a part of Gods worship being an ordinance commanded by him Let him shew us any such command for the Christian festivall and I will subscribe Fourthly that which of it selfe doth no way further our spirituall edification in Christ is not a Christian duty binding the conscience upon any day But corporall rest from the works of our lawfull callings doth no way further our spirituall edification For if * 2. Tim. 4.8 Bodily exercise profiteth nothing bodily cessation profiteth lesse If any man say it helpeth much to Edification for by this meanes we may wholy attend the things of God I answer that is not the thing in question for then it edifieth not by and of it selfe but by and through the holy exercises If it be further said that it doth edifie remembring us of our spirituall rest required of us and the eternall rest promised unto us I answer that this Edification proceedeth not from the d Significatio alia est divina seu à Deo rebus addita a◠ob signationem cultum ut significatio Sacramentorum alia humana ecclesiastica hominū instituto rebus addita utsit occasio memorandi rem gestam illa est necessaria haec libera significatio dominicae est humanitūs Parae in Ro. 14. thing it selfe but as affix't thereunto by our own inventions and institutions And so the Surplice the Crosse standing at the Creed all Church Ceremonies doe edifie which yet of themselues are not Christian duties Fiftly if Christian liberty extend it selfe to things of greater consequence carrying with them far greater shew of divine command then doubtlesse we are much more free in things of lesse importance But we are left free under the Gospell to many things of greater weight as Vowing Fasting Preaching Catechizing receiving the Sacraments Confession
Lord as much presseth the time as the duties Secondly by the Law of contraries For if any sinne as drunkennesse uncleanenesse blasphemie and prophanenesse be more abhominable in the sight of God upon the Lords day then upon any other day it must needs be that the coÌ„trary vertues are more acceptable unto him also from the circumstance of the day But the former is generally affirmed especially of the Scotists and is grounded upon that common Maxime in Morall Philosophy Bonitas malitia actionum pendet à circumst antijs the good and evill of our wayes are to be measured by the circumstances thereof and amongst these the circumstance of time is not to be sleighted Ergo c. Fourthly the day of Christs corporall resurrection from the graue requires of us aboue other dayes a spirituall resurrection from sinne in all the duties of holinesse of what kind soever for this being the generall use to be made of our Saviours resurrectioÌ„ as appeares by the Apostle Rom. 6.4 it should be chiefly practised on that day on which the memory thereof is solemnized All men will acknowledge that when we doe the duty of the day upon the day it selfe it is most seasonable and duties seasonable doth the * Prov. 25.11 wise man compare to apples of gold in pictures of silver But the Lords day is the day of Christs resurrection Ergo c. Fiftly that Law which doth enjoyne publike worship doth also require of us all such duties as are furtherances of the publike For where the end is commanded all such meanes as directly tend unto that end are also under precept But the Lords day requireth publique worship as all acknowledge and the private personall and oeconomicall duties of holinesse are maine helps and furtherances thereof both preparing us thereunto and putting life into our performances and causing us to profit thereby Therefore c. Sixtly that which was shadowed as a Type in the old Sabbath is required as an Evangelicall duty in the new Sabbath which is the Lords day for all the Mosaicall ceremonies were shadowes of good things to come to be performed partly by Christ partly by his spirit in us But this quiet rest of the soule and repose of the spirit in the Lord by all the duties of holinesse was shadowed as a Type of the old Sabbath therefore are they Evangelicall duties on the Lords day Seventhly though the letter of the fourth precept be Ceremoniall yet is the equity thereof morall and of this there is no question But the letter of the Iewish Sabbath required not only publique sacrificing but commanded also private rest For no man was to goe out of his place saith the * Exod. 16.29 text The Christians therefore on their Lords day are in allequitie and proportion bound not only to the publique but private duties of holinesse it is a Iuxta illud legis Mosaicae maneat unusquisque apud seipsum nullus egrediatur ostium domus suae die Sabbathi Bern. S. Bernards argument in his Octo puncta Eightly it is morall in the commandement that every man learne vpon the Sabbath those things which belong to his salvation This proposition is sett down in terminis by a b Quicquid sit de ecclesiae praecepto cer tè lege naturae fidei tenentur Christiani ea discere quae suae Saluti sunt necessaâ—ia Est 3. sent dist 37. par 14. Festivis maximè in praecipuis solennitatibus magis circa â—a quae solennitat is sunt immorandum videtur ut paâ—â—tèr eruâ—iatur animus exciâ—etur affectus Bern. Ser. 3. in Epipâ— Popish Schooleman farre be it from any good Protestant to speake lesse honourably of the Lords day then such But it is not possible for us to learne from the publique those things that belong unto our salvation unlesse we adde thereunto private exercises of holinesse as praying meditating conferring together with actuall motions of all habituall graces in us for by the one wee fasten them in our memories by the other wee incorporate them into our hearts Therefore c. Ninthly the Lords-day is a holy-day not in it selfe and in its own nature as the Anti-Sabbatharians themselves confesse but as it makes us holy by performing holy duties But the exercise of Gods publique worship alone makes us not holy without the private Therefore c. Tenthly the proper duties of this Iewish Sabbath besides publike worship were contemplatiue of the Creation as appeares by the reason of the rest prescribed in the Commandement for in six dayes the Lord made heauen and earth c. recognition of their deliverance out of Egypt remembrance of the fall of Mannah and their setling in the land of Canaan The equity therefore and the proportion of the Commandement requires that we not only worship God in publique but also privately study and be good proficients in the Schoole of nature in regard of the great works of Gods majestie and power and in the Schoole of Christ in regard of the great mercyes of our redemption Ergo c. Lastly Authorities are infinite The c Syn. Arelat c. 19. Syn. Turon c. 40. Syn. Mogun c. 37 Syn. Matiscon c. 7. Syn. Agath c. 47. Synods generally say we should continue in holy duties untill night having our eyes and our hands stretched out unto him all the day long sequestred from all other imployments let us only attend the service of God untill night Hugo de Sancto Victore saith that all the Festivals were appointed as for other ends so that we might be vacant unto prayers and contemplation To which purpose also many passages out of the Fathers might be brought especially in their popular Sermons as every man knoweth Ergo c. CAP. XXVIII The arguments for the Negatiue are breifly expressed FOR the Negatiue tenent it is also said First that which is every daies duty is no duty of the Lords day as it is the Lords day for then there should be no difference at all between the Lords day and other dayes in regard of the duty therein required which were to confound the Lords day to the great disparagement thereof with other dayes But the private exercises of those fundamentall graces of faith hope loue are the duties of every day If any say that the difference consists in this that to common dayes appertaine only private duties to the Lords day both private and publike The scruple still remaineth in regard of those dayes wherein the publike worship of God is also in use as Lecture-dayes Holy-dayes c. unlesse we account those daies also to be Sabbaths which our adversaries in this question will not agree unto If it be farther said that the difference stands in this that in other dayes they are only habitually but on the Lords day actually required I answer that in their other Tractates an habituall serving of God is so farre rejected as that they thinke it impossible to walk with any comfort with the
inwardly affected outwardly regulated will not at any time and likely cannot cast any vile aspersions upon the Lord or any thing that belongs unto him but on the contrary readily speak all good of his name whatsoever it be that makes him known unto us therefore the third precept of religion giues us the holy mans Character not to take the name of the Lord our God in vaine Lastly considering that every reasonable creature in his particular must in this manner giue his Creatour his own for the Lord having universall dominion over all flesh should publiquely be worshipped by societies of men therefore what the former precepts require of every one in particular that the fourth precept injoines publiquely to be performed by all assemblies throughout the whole earth And herein because it is a thing of most dangerous consequence to leaue men unto thèselues for then there would be as many fancies as faces God hath ever prescribed publique rites by which he would be publikely worshipped leaving the circumstances thereof to the wisdome and discretion of the Church Fiftly if therefore we will speak distinctly of the things of God as is most fit we should for only a distinct knowledge is the foundation of true pietie as confused and indigested notions are the mothers of hypocrisie and nurses of superstition e must consider what are those publique duties whereby God is publiquely worshipped for only these are immediatly under the fourth Commādement Now the acts of divine worship whether publique or private are as hath been said Adoration Invocation Dependance or Adhaesion and Thanksgiving Adoration is the advancing the Lord in our own thoughts setting him in the highest roome of our hearts and subjecting unto him the whole man even the conscience it selfe Invocation is the lifting up the heart to the throne of his grace acknowledging him alone to be the father of whom is named the whole familie both of heaven earth expecting all our wants to be supplied by him and from him Dependance or Adhaesion is a fast cleaving to the Lord with full purpose of heart wholy casting our selues upon his wisdome power goodnesse justice mercy with all confidence quiet assurance Thanksgiving is the tribute which we returne him even the praise and glory of his grace When therefore considering our selues to be the members of the mysticall body of the Church we joyne unto the Lords people in acknowledgement of his supreme dominion in these performances of divine worship we are discharged from the maine principall and essentiall duties of the Lords day And on the contrary he that either absents himselfe from the publike meeting of the place where he is not being constrained thereunto by inevitable necessity or being present in body joynes not in spirit with his brethrē in the forenamed acts of publike worship is an open and direct prophaner of the day Sixtly we must also consider what be the generall helps and furtherances of publike worship These are foure First Pastors and Ministers are requisite to goe before the people as their leaders in holy things and to be in a manner Mediators betweene God and them hence are they said to stand upon the mountaines as the middle way which makes their feet beautifull Secondly there must also set and appointed places of publique assemblies such haue ever been even in the time of the Apostles immediately upon Christs assēbly Such was the house wherein they were gathered together on the day of Pentecost And this some are of opinion how justly I say not to be the meaning of that passage of the Apostle where speaking of Priscilla and Aquila he saith * Rom. 19.5 likewise greet the Church which is in their house Sure we are that the Sabbath and the sanctuary are usuall ioyned together There must also be lawes and constitutions for the regulating of the publike assemblies least the disorders of them bring both confusion into and contempt upon the Gospell it selfe as S. Hierome speaketh Till order was setled in the Church of Corinth what manifold abuses crept in amongst them pride in some faction in others sensuality and prophanenesse in many like so many Vultures eating up the uery heart of all Christian duties Fourthly the people likewise must be instructed in those things which belong unto the worship of God before whom they publikely present themselues and in all necessary points of faith and life that they may know how to walke before him unto all well pleasing and full assurance of understanding But here we must remember that these are not in the commandement directly and immediately as things of absolute necessity without which the Lords day could not be a holy Sabbath but indirectly and by way of conveniency for the well or better being thereof For suppose there be no Minister in a Parish a supposition not impossible by suddaine death unexpected imprisonmēt particular persecution suppose also the usuall place of meeting to be taken away by any accident or calamity suppose there were no lawes for to order such assemblies or Magistrates to execute those lawes as in the ruines of a State I would not doubt but in such cases the Lords people might assemble themselues upon the Lords day adore the sacred majestie of God invocate his holy name protest their dependance upon him and giue him for a sweet smelling sacrifice the fruits of their lips Else how is * Math. 18.20 our Saviours promise appliable unto all men where two or three be gathered together in my name I will be in the mid'st of them Else how did many of the Primitiue Christians thinke we keep the Lords day in the absence of the Apostles having not as yet a setled Ministery Else how doe those that travaile by Sea I think not that every ship carrieth a Minister else how doe many of our Marchants in some factories in forraine parts where the publike practice of their Religion is not tolerated and a Minister of their owne is not to be had I say how doe these obserue the Lords day Surely if any or all of these imployments did inevitably cast men upon the rock of prophanenesse they were vtterly unlawfull for any Christians to undertake It cannot therefore be sufficiently admired whence that opinion was at first taken up which is now mistaken even for a Maxime in Religion that unlesse there be Preaching in a Parish the Lords day cannot be sanctified by the Parishioners Nay many of our common people are at that height in this fancy as to think it an obligation lying upon their consciences to heare an Afternoones-Sermon also if possibly it may be had If therefore their own Pastor either through sicknesse or absence or other reasons cannot satisfie their desires herein they forsake their owne Assemblies and wander as their humours lead them By this misprision that which is but a help unto the worship is esteemed by the vulgar aboue the worship it selfe and all the branches thereof and as it was said
it another case the Daughter hath eaten up the Mother Farre be it from me to speak or so much as think in secret any thing in the prejudice of that great and glorious work of Preaching Sooner shall my tongue cleaue to the roofe of my mouth for I know it to be Gods ordinance * Rom. â— â—6 even his mighty power unto salvation it â—owes the seed whereby we are begotten it is meat whereby we are nourished Medicine whereby we are healed both Oile and wine being powred thereby into our wounds By it the understanding is informed the memory refreshed the will inclined the affections made pliable the heart comforted truth preserved errours and heresies beaten downe But yet farre be it from any man to make an Idole of it which is done when either we advance it aboue or equall it with the publique worship By this preposterous conceit of many well-mined people a grand inconvenience hath befallen the Church of England from which most of her other mischiefes are hatched First in opinion that he is no lawfull Minister which is not a Preacher Secondly in practice for all men to avoid this exception or brand rather as suddainly turne Preachers as they doe Ministers So that if any man conceiue a good opinion of himselfe that he may doe good in Gods Church by some wayes or other he shuffles into holy orders and immediately from them into the Pulpit And every Youth whose maintenance extends not it selfe beyond three or foure years in the Vniversity as soone as he is old enough will be a Minister and then 't is a foule disparagement to him not to be a Preacher Hence especially partly through ignorance partly through impudence faction is fomented the people humoured and mislead Religion is made a Maze quite changed from that which originally it was Seventhly it is not to be doubted that there may be also many personall furtherances of the publique worship whereby particular men may be made more apt therevnto more devoute therein receiving great comfort and profit thereby But that such preparations or previous dispositions or what else we please to call them are under the precept of the Lords day as it is our Christian Sabbath doth not follow For First they are not of absolute necessity without which the publique worship must needs fall to the ground I think no man will say it is unpossible that a man should worship God in publique which hath not done it in private otherwise then habitually It is not here as in acting a part upon the Stage to which a man comes as a new thing never heard of before for we are bred in a Christian state nursed in a solicitous Church acquainted with God his word his worship as it were from the Cradle Few men I think there are in our congregations which cannot suddainly recollect themselues from other distractions to ioyne with our brethren in publique unlesse transported with unexpected and violent temptations Secondly no particular rules can be prescribed which shall universally direct all men of all rankes endowments which not observed they cannot worship God in publique Must we read the word of God in private What shall become of them whose education hath not extended to the Primmer Must they pray in private and secret otherwise then the Church hath taught them What shall such doe as haue not the help of books and are not arrived to their imagined perfection of extemporary effusions Must they repeat a Sermon or Catechize their families c what if they cannot Where are those duties commanded pro hic nunc as they speak upon the Lords day but in publique Assemblies Thirdly supposing therefore a generall precept of preparation to the publique which no man will deny for the * Eccles 5 1â— holy Ghost commandeth it expressely keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God The Schooles teach us that the manner of performing the duty fals not under the precept in which the duties is commanded If thy foot be kept it matters not by what meanes thou keep it In a word therefore personall private helps of the publique worship not as it is publike and regarding the whole congregation but looking to our owne profiting thereby are only generally commanded us the particulars being left to every mans discretion and no mans conscience is further burthened Eightly with reservation therefore of Christian liberty those that can and will spend the vacant times of the Lords day in the private exercises of piety are by no law prohibited by no authority discountenanced ought not by others to be disheartened but encouraged rather with these Provisoes First that they put no Religion therein as if God required it at their hands as a part of the dayes sanctification for then are they guilty of will-worship Secondly that being personall devotions they be performed in secret for so * Math. 6.6 our Saviour hath directed Thirdly that when they are extended unto the whole family the Master of that oeconomicall discipline be well fitted and qualified thereunto and presume not beyond his measure Fourthly that he keep himselfe within the compasse of his owne charge not admitting any of other places for then he becomes offensiue to the State who hath and that justly a iealousy over all such Assemblies Fiftly that what is done herein proceed from the sincerity of his heart without any respect unto sinister ends else they are meere pretences Lastly that they be not burthensome to their servants herein so as to make them weary of good things of which our natures are impatient but so as that the day be unto them both a spirituall and a corporall refreshing Ninthly all such things whatsoever as keep us from or hinder us in the publique worship are altogether unlawfull upon the Lords day This conclusion is evident of it selfe from the premises and conclusions of the former questions and is generally assented unto only the scruple is Ob. Whether any thing saue that which is a holy exercise of Religion be not such a hinderance as walking in the fields talking of other things honest recreations For by this meanes we are debarred of that profit in whole or at least in part which otherwise we might reape from the publique exercise Resp To which I answer first that publique worship is one thing and our private profiting thereby is another both commanded indeed but in sundry precepts the one in the law of the Lords day the other in those generall precepts * Mark 15.1 beleeue the Gospell * Iames 1.22 be doers not hearers * Cor. 6.1 receiue not the grace of God in vaine * Col. 3.16 let the word dwell plentifull in you c. are in some sort the end of the precept of the publique worship in some sort I say because not the first and chiefest end For this is to acknowledge Gods supreme dominion preservation of the Catholique doctrine and the vnity of
day that the reason why wicked ecrable upon that day that the reason why wicked Christians are worse then Godlesse Heathens manytimes is because they abuse all such things whereby the Lord would draw them unto himselfe amongst others the Lords day that all thoughts words and waies which separate from God are alwaies damnable but much more upon the Lords day from this ground and no other But hence as it doth not follow on the one side that it is not lawfull elsewhere to repent of our sinnes or to make our prayers unto God saue in consecrated places or that whensoeuer we come there we sin if we performe not these duties so neither here on the other side must we conceiue that no holy duties are to be done but on the Lords day or that we break the Law of the Sabbath if during the whole day we doe not performe them And by this which hath been hath said not only the present argument receiues full satisfaction but if I mistake not that great stumbling block of these times of bowing toward the Communion Table is removed out of the way of all well-affected people For the Table being amongst consecrated things either it acquires something by vertue of its consecration or a Consecrationes Ecclesiae nan sunt rantùm opera sed sunt efficaces Cajet in Tho part t. qu. 83 Art 3. Res Consecratae habibes dicuntur ad excâ—tandam in nobis reverentiam devotionem ibidem else the action of the Church is not only voyd but also vaine idle which no man will I think affirme That which the consecration conferres cannot be any reall quality of holinesse for of this it is not capeable it must needs be therefore only a fitnesse or aptnesse in the thing consecrated to work upon the minds and understandings of men considering it as consecrated And is nothing else but an b Deus est preseâ—s Altari Ecclesiae aliis hujusmodi speciali modo sicut novo instrumento ad excitandam reverentiam devotionem circa divinum cultum c. Cajet ibidem aptitude to stirre them up to holy thoughts upon those things represented and acted upon that holy place which multiplying themselues doe at last break forth into the act of holy worship in generall of the whole Trinity but particularly of the glorious person of the Sonne of God who humbling himselfe unto the death of the Crosse tendred unto his Father an universall and holy sacrifice for the sins of the whole world Not the Table therefore is worshipped for this is so palpable Idolatry as cannot be incident to any Heathen nor any thing set upon the Table the reserving of the consecrated Elements we leaue to the Church of Rome and therefore there is no thought here of Transubstantiation but Christ as the Messias slaine the propitiation for our sinnes by whole stripes we are healed The Table is only a memoratiue instrument unto which the assistance of grace is never wanting either to beget in our minds such thoughts of the death of Christ or to extract from our persons such a worship of him if we c Ecclesiâ Alrare alia huiusmodi ex consecratione adipiscuntur quandam spiritualem virtutem per quam apta redduntur divino cultui ut scilicèt homines devotionem quandam exindè percipiant sint paratiores ad divina nisihoc propter irreverentiam impediatur Aquin. parte 3. qu. 83. art 3. ad tertium be not otherwise wanting to our selues And for my part if this be all which is practised I am sure it 's all which is taught by the Learned even in the Popish Schoole it selfe I see no reason why if a day quatenus a separated day may be thus memoratiue a Table or ALTAR call it what you please thus separated may not be so likewise or why we should not readily imbrace all occasions opportunities helps and furtherances of worshipping the person of our Lord Christ whose honour is generally impaired by sundry Heretiques and most maliciously fought against by Satan Anti-Christ and all his complices Which is some had well understood it had not been possible for them to haue stumbled thereat at least they would haue forborne many uncharitable invectiues against their brethren who upon those grounds exercise this worship To the fifth all meanes directly tending to any good end are included in the precept of the end but private duties as they are here required are no where commanded as meanes unto the publique but rather on the contrary for we doe not therefore accustome our selues to private duties that so we may be able to serue God in publique but we therefore attend the publique that thereby we may be the better enabled to worship him the whole week after So that if the Lords day be indeed sanctified by the syncere performance of publique duties the conscience is not farther obliged under the penalty of sinne by any precept yet reveal'd concerning the Lords day To the sixth it is most true that the spirituall repose of the soule was shaddowed out unto us by the corporall rest of the body in the Iewish Sabbath so that our whole life should be a holy rest unto the Lord from the servile works of sinne and Satan and how men sinne against the Lords day in particular if the Consecrated day be not a motiue unto them of holynesse hath already been said But that the day it selfe and the sanctification thereof such as is here prescribed us was prefigured by the old Sabbath we vtterly deny that which was shaddowed thereby being the duty of the whole time of the Gospell not of any particular day To the seventh there is no proportion at all betweene these pretended observances and the Iewes private rest for certaine it is that when amongst them no man went out of his place upon the Sabbath day they performed a publique duty celebrating thereby that common rest which they had now obtained from the slavery of Egypt wherein every family and person amongst them shared Ob. If you say it 's so here God being privately worshipped by all there doth result out of the particulars the publique honour of God acknowledging our spirituall deliverance from sinne and Satan Resp I answer that though this be most true yet the case is most different for First they had an expresse precept in that kind and the whole time was chalked out unto them it is not so with us Secondly that only was required of them which was most easy for every one to performe whereas those holy performances which are here required come not within the reach of every mans measure To the eight supposing that which many of the Schoolemen teach concerning our edifying in holy things on the Lords day the argument is faulty in its other proposition For that we cannot learne of the Lord in publique without private exercises so varied and spunne along throughout the whole day is not true neither can any
thing be universally affirmed herein considering the different states graces and abilities of men To the ninth the Lords day is said to be holy no otherwise then other things which are consecrated to Gods publique and holy worship and how farre things of this nature are apt of themselues and therefore doe often cooperate unto holinesse in us hath already been declared To the tenth it is most true that God intended by the Law of the Sabbath to mind his people of the worlds creation in six dayes but that he did bind them thereby to contemplate the particulars thereof which few but Philosophers are able to doe I think no man will affirme So the Lords day was sett a-part for the memory of Christs resurrection But what those private duties are unto this I see not unles you say that article is to be studyed And to speak truth if men would upō this day preach Christ in publique spend their private meetings only upon this subiect for Christ is a Theame seldome insisted upon true Christianity would be better knowne mens consciences would be better setled those meetings more charitable and innocent and none could oppose them therein But as the Proverb is Quid haec ad Icphali boves to the continuate and un-interrupted exercises of which we speak Lastly those Authorities which are and may be brought to this purpose to which may be added that Canon of the Church of England in the dayes of King Edward for spending the Lords day in private prayer and thanksgiuing acknowledging our offences reconciling our selues unto our brethren visiting the sick comforting the afflicted releiving the necessities of the poore instructing children and servants in the nurture and feare of the Lord are not delivered by the Church or ancient Fathers as expositions upon the fourth Commandement as if they were the duties of the Lords day as it is a Sabbath but only as pious and Godly admonitions where by to traine up men in religion and allure them unto holinesse Num. 11.29 Moses would had been glad if all the Lords people had been Prophets but no man will say that Moses therefore commanded them to prophecy The * Acts 26.29 Apostle wisheth all men were such as himselfe was shall we therefore condemne as transgressours those that were not such It is so here for although the Church doe not account for evill doers those that either cannot or doe not spend the Lords day as aforesaid yet I assure my selfe that both the Magistrates and every good man will be glad to see men make a good progresse in true piety and religion But what may commendably be done by some and what must necessarily be done by all are distinct things and herein stands the present Question Ob. If any say that therefore the Sabbatharian tenent must needs be better and safer then the contrary Resp I answer it doth no way follow for though the practice may be better being rightly qualified which seldome is yet the doctrine is worse for First it is false in it selfe Secondly unnecessary burthens are laid upon the conscience Thirdly many doubtfull perplexities are occasioned thereby Lastly an apparant schisme is made and fomented in the Church CAP. XXXI Wherein is contained the conclusion of the whole setting downe a short delineation of both the opinions and tenents in these severall Questions FOR conclusion of the whole it will not be amisse to present the Reader with a summary of the doctrine on both sides that so with one cast of his eye he may be able to see both wherein they dissent and which is more rationall in it selfe and more suitable to the word of God And here let the Reader take notice first of that which a The observation of the Christian Sabbath Pag 15. Mr Sprint hath well observed that in the most materiall points we consentingly agree though in certaine circumstances we differ each one abounding in his severall fence which makes it strange to me that our Adversaries should so stick in these points even against Authority it selfe since we so consentingly agree in points materiall This I say being premised not to take notice of every thing which might be collected out of the severall treatises hitherto extant I conceiue that the finest thread in which these Sabbatharian positions can be spun may be thus drawn First that God having created Adam in Paradise revealed unto him the creation with the order and manner and time thereof within the compasse of six dayes That the seventh therefore was the day of his rest which he would haue observed as a Sabbath by him and his posterity That this day was most fit to be appointed not only in regard of God who then rested but in regard of man also who was on the seventh day to enter upon the domion of the world as the Master thereof and what better entrance then with the service of his Creatour in sanctifying the Sabbath day That hence came all his time to be divided by weeks the boundary whereof was and that by diuine institution the Sabbath God having blessed the seventh day and hallowed it That this hallowing the day was the declaration of Gods will not what himselfe meant to doe long after but what he would haue men to doe from that time forth in all their generations That thus it continued in the practice of the Patriarches before and after the flood for else it had been impossible for the Israelites to haue known as it is plaine they did by their gathering of Manna which were the six dayes of the creation and which the seuenth of Gods resting For sure we are the time was first divided into weeks moneths yeares being not knowne till by long observation found out by the course of the Sunne Moone That though in this manner the Sabbath was given Adam by positiue Law yet easy it is to follow the footsteps of nature guiding us thereunto For all men acknowledge even by naturall light that some time is to be sett a-part for the publique worship but being to seek of the proportion in speciall and portion in particular nature kindly reacheth forth her hand guiding us to these also assuming as followeth That not only some time but a sufficient proportion there of is necessarily required as to all other workes so to this of the publique service That reason teacheth it is fit the Creature should waite the leasure of his Creatour in the designation of this sufficient proportion the Creature being under his absolute power and being no equall carver to it selfe in things of this kind and reaping also greater comfort in any observance for which it hath the warrant of its Creatour That seeing the week was the originall partition of time it must needs be more convenient to sett one day of the week a-part for the service of God then one in a fortnight or one in a month That herein an uniformity ought to be observed by all man-kind throughout all generations
without which there must needs follow a manifest Schisme in the Church rent in the State and also in the world if some in some places obserue one day Sabbath others in other places another day That there is no such ground of uniformity as the word of God to whom all men owe and professe there ready subjection as for mens constitutions though upon never so good groundes there are others as wise good as they at least in their owne opinions which will take liberty to vary from them That therefore it is fit God himselfe should shew us not only the specificate proportion but the particularity of that specification That in such designations as these the will of God is made manifest unto us sometimes by his words sometimes by his works so that if the Scripture were silent as it is not yet this is a generall direction that the work of God done upon any day is and ought to be the ground of its hallowing If therefore we discerne one day to be preferred before another in some great and notable work naturall reason teacheth that day of all others to be chosen for our publique Sabbath That thus stands the case both in regard of the Iewish and Christian Sabbath God having marked out unto them their Sabbath by the work of creation ours by the work of resurrection That there needs no such recourse notwithstanding to the works of God having so expresse a Text as that of the second of Genesis for the making good whereof against the fond Dreame of Anticipation may be brought whole Iuries of Fathers and moderne Divines And reason it selfe averreth it by an unanswerable Dilemma for that passage must be written either before the Law and then God must reveale to Moses before hand what he meant to doe in the Mount which is not probable or after the law and then what reason had Moses to speak there of in the story since it was so fully declared in the Tables That of those three things before spoken of the time in generall the proportion in speciall and taxation in particular the first only is generally received for Moral the other two are Positiue rather then Ceremoniall for what need of Ceremonies in Paradise That the specification of one in seven was ceremoniall only respectiuely to the rest of the seventh day not of the seventh it selfe for what ceremony can be found in the time indefinitely considered which is one of seven That the Iewes resting upon their seventh did prefigure Christs rest in the graue in which fence also it is abolished but not our rest from sinne here and from misery hereafter for these were common to the Iewes together with the Christians The rest therefore of the day was partly Morall partly Ceremoniall but not that one in seven should be sanctified for that this is simply Morall we haue the full cry of the Schoole-men themselues That the particular taxation of this one in seven more then of another was also Positiue not Ceremoniall for there is the same taxation of one in seven under the Gospell and yet no Ceremony is put therein nay God having as it were chalked it out unto us by his works it may well be reputed Moral As therefore God commanded the Iewes their day so hath he also appointed us ours even the first day of the week for our Christian Sabbath That herein the wisdome of God is most remarkable in his Law saying not Remember the Seventh day but Remember the Sabbath day the day of Rest to sanctifie it For by this meanes we also keep the fourth Commandement in sanctifying the Lords day For as the Jewes were tyed to the observation of the Sabbath and had one of he seven preferred unto them So we haue also our Sabbath and one also of seven prescribed us That though we take not the Lords day as it is such a day of seven from the Commandement yet the rest and sanctification thereof we justly deriue from thence That undoubtedly the Gospell doth not allow a worse proportion of time for the worship of God nor a worse manner of observing it then the law did and a greater doth not well stand with our ordinary callings That seeing the day of the Creatours rest is abolished none of the seven can be more proper for a Christian mans observation then the day on which his Redeemer rested whom the * Mark 2.23 Scripture stiles Lord of the Sabbath For God marked it out unto the Apostles to whom the translation of the day appertained by the resurrection of Christ a work no way inferiour to the Creation This therefore is the day which the Lord himselfe hath made faith the Prophet Psalme 118. ver 4. That although there be no expresse proofe in Scripture yet sufficient it is to proue an institution from the continuate un-inrerrupted practice of the Church which cannot be casuall and indeed nothing else can satisfie any whose judgment and conscience cannot be overawed by the ordinance of the Church That therefore we must remember this to be our Christian Sabbath for so we may justly call it though neither Scripture nor Antiquity so stile it because all acts of Parliament and Proclamations of the State so entitle it being I say our Sabbath we are to sanctifie it in all points as the Iewes did theirs both for the time which must be 24. houres and for the rest doing nothing which may be an avocation from holy things As for sports and pastimes howsoeuer the guilded titles of Christian liberty honest recreations and the like be put upon them yet it may justly be feared least prophanesse and luxurie be thereby intended and a wide gapp set open to all licentiousnesse That all men know how syncere soever the mind of the Magistrate be how greedily the vulgar are set upon these sports how incroaching upon liberty how undiscreet in enjoying it how impatient of any restraint therein On the other side that the Saints delight in consecrating a Sabbath gloriously unto the Lord so that when others instead of refreshing toyle themselues in May games or Morricedaunces or worse finding perhaps their own pleasure therein the Saints finde nothing so sweet as the Lords statutes nothing so ravishing as the refreshings of the holy Ghost nothing so amiable as the Assemblies of their Brethren being made thereby more painefull and conscionable in their severall callings the whole weeke after How these things which seeme thus handsomely contrived doe hang together like a rope of sand consisting of some truths more falsehoods most uncertainties let the indifferent Reader judge It is true that God created Adam in Paradise but not true that the creation of the world was made knowne unto him by revelation for then to what pupose was his excellent knowledge in which he was created and which many preferre beyond that of Solomons imparted unto him That God commanded the first seventh day to be his Sabbath is very improbable for what needed Adam a
the Sabbath day Doct. Hollands Apology for the Queenes day folded up the whole Ceremoniall worship for so Sabbath is sometimes taken it might well challenge its place amongst the Moralis both in the Tables and in the Arke that so the whole Law Morall and Ceremoniall might at once be preserved together unto which Gods covenant did equally oblige the people of the Iewes To the third that this Commandement is naturally engraven upon the hearts of the Heathen is utterly untrue And whereas it is said in confirmation thereof that the Heathens generally admired the number of seven we nothing doubt thereof but to inferre that therfore they acknowledged the Sabbath for a naturall law were too loose a consequence The number of three was I thinke in as great esteem amongst them as the number of seven it were a pittifull inference therefore they naturally discerned the blessed Trinity The like may be said of the number of ten may we therefore say they knew there were ten commandements It is true that g Clemens Alexand Strom. lib. 5. Clemens Alexandrinus brings many authorities out of Homer Hesiod Callimachus to prove that the very Heathen knew the seventh day was to be kept holy But how As Naturall and Morall Nothing lesse but to shew that the wisest of the Heathens were theeves of holy things having stolne them out of Moses writings for these they had translated Or Israels practice and this is the maine scope of that place alleaged out of the fift book of his Stromata and therefore he doth not only instance in the seventh-day Sabbath but in the article of the Trinity the resurrection of the body the fire of the last day and the judgement following Besides that the Heathen in all ages gave great heed unto numbers is confessed But whence Not from any light of nature which directed them but partly from the delusions of Sathan in Sorcery Geomancy and curious arts partly from Pythagorean superstition and partly from their own experiments observations To insist a little upon the latter whence did they admire the number of three but that they observed there were three principles of every naturall body matter forme privation three kinds of soules that informed those bodies vegetative sensitive and rationall three sorts of good things which compleated the happinesse both of soule and body three regions of the soule like the three regions of the aire and thus they collected tria sunt omnia all things consist of three The number of ten was also in esteem and because ten is the greatest amongst the unites they conceited this to be the number of greatnesse even to the tenth egge of an hen and the tenth wave of the Sea But the Poet sets down their observations men have i Hic numerus magno tunc in honore fuit Seu quia tot ligiti per quos numerate solemus Ovid Fast 3. ten fingers women goe with child ten months when we have told unto ten we must begin again with the unites As for the number of seven they held it sacred and the number of perfection but k Gellius Noct. Attic. lib. 3. cap. 8. Gellius shews out of Varro whence they made that collection as seven Planets seven starres the Moone varieth her course by sevens mans conception in the womb is absolved in seven daies all his proportions are perfectly formed in seven weekes he is safely borne in seven months but he that is borne in the eight month never lives every seventh yeare is their climacterical the arteries of mans body keep a kind of musicall motion to the number of seven and a world of such stuffe Not only the Heathens but the Fathers themselves have exercised their wits but wantonly this way l Ego ad Deum potius argumentabor hune modum temporis ut decem menses decalogo magis inaugurent hominem ut tanto temporis numero nascamur quanto disciplinae numero renascimur Sed cum septimo mense nativitas plena est facilius quam octavo honorem Sabbathi agnoscam Tertul. lib. de Anima â— cap. 37. Tertullian speaking of mans nativity in the seventh and tenth month though he will not superstitiously attribute any thing to the force of numbers yet he dares say that God by the tenth would acquaint man with the ten Commandements and by the seventh honour the institution of the Sabbath m Septenarius iste numerus ex quaternario ternario constans habet ex partibus suis excellentiam maximam ternarius Creatorem propter Trinitatem enunciat quaternarius Creaturam propter quatur Elementa Cyp. de Spiritu Sancto S. Cyprian also speaking of the giving the Law upon the day of Pentecost saith there is a great mystery contained in that number for seven times seven with the addition of one unity makes the Pentecost in which the nine and forty are an embleme of this life and the unity of the life which is to come And that you may think he had great reason to call it the holy number he proves it to be so from the parts of which it doth consist foure and three for three is the number of the holy Trinity by whom all things were created and foure the number of the Elements of which they were made with much more to this purpose But what poore speculations are these to sway any mans reason in a point of Religion I leave to the judgement of any sober minded man It borders upon superstition and Cabalisticall Iudaisme to be observant of numbers which the holy Ghost hath not commended unto us for mysticall as the weekes of Daniell and the number of the beast To the fourth the letter of the Sabbath hath not one much lesse all those characters of Morality which are set down not to question the things themselves That God should have tribute of our time for publique worship was never by any man denied to be naturall and morall but for the determination of one in seven of this one more then of another that it must be a whole naturall day of twenty foure houres that it must be thus and thus observed and all these grounded upon Gods rest at the Creation hath no character of Morality at all That the wiser of the Heathen taught and practised most of them is confessed but as stolne amongst other holy things as hath been shewed The Law of the Sabbath appertained not to all nations neither did God give it unto mankind in Adam nor was it ever intended to any but to the Iewes as an especiall pledge to distinguish them from other nations That those things which are laid down in the letter of the law are necessary directions unto perfect happinesse hath lesse ground then the former for let any man shew how the number of seven doth guide to happinesse more then three five ten or to begin the day rather at night then in the morning or to doe no manner of work till this appear this argument