Churches unanimously agreed in the holy use of it as a separated day even from and in the Apostles dayes Obj. But the Emperour Constantines Edict alloweth Husbandmen to labour Answ. Only in case of apparent hazard lest the fruits of the Earth be lost as we allow Sea-men to work at Sea in case of necessity And so though by his second Edict Manumission was allowed to the Judges as an act of Charity yet they were forbidden Judging in all other ordinary causes lest the day be profaned by wranglings Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius by their Edict forbad publick spectacles or shews on the Lords day And all seeking and judging of Debts and litigious Suits and afterward Valentinian and Valens make an Edict that no Christian should on that day be convented by the Exactors or Receivers Ob. But saith H. for 300. years there was no Law to bind men to that day Answ. The Apostles Institution was a Law of Christ by his spirit Mat. 28. 20. And how should there be a humane Law before there was a Christian Magistracie Obj. Saith H. p. 95. The powers which raised it up may take it lower if they please yea take it quite away c. Ans. True that is Christ may And when he doth it by himself or by new Apostles who confirm their Commission by Miracles we will obey But we expect his presence with the Apostolical constitutions to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. Theodosius also enacted that on the Lords day and in the Christmas and on Easter and to Whitsuntide the publike Cirques and Theaters should be shut up For we grant that when Christian Magistrates took the matter in hand other Holy dayes were brought in by degrees whereas before the Christians indeed met yea and Communicated as oft as they could even most daies in the week but did not separate the daies as holy to Gods service as they did the Lords day Only Christmas day and the Memorials of those Martyrs that were neer them to encourage the people to constancy they honoured somewhat early But those were anniversary and not weekly And the Wednesdays and Fridays were kept by them but as we keep them now or as a Lecture day I grant also that when Christian Magistracie arose as the Holy dayes multiplied the manner of the dayes observation altered For whereas from the beginning the Christians used to stay together from morning till night partly through devotion and partly for fear of persecution if they were noted to go in and out Afterward being free they met twice a day with intermission as we do now Not that their whole dayes Service was but an hour or two as Heylin would prove from a perverted word of Chrysostomes and another of Origenes or Ruffinus and from the length of their published Homilies For he perverteth what was spoken of the length of the Sermon as spoken of the length of all the Service of the whole day whereas there was much more time spent in the Eucharistical and Liturgick offices of Prayer Praise Sacraments and Exhortations proper to the Church than was in the Sermon When I was suffered to exercise my Ministry my self having four hundred or five hundred if not six hundred to administer the Sacrament to though twice the number kept themselves away it took up the time of two Sermons usually to administer it besides all the ordinary Readings Prayers and Praises Morning and Evening Heylin noteth by the way 1. That now officiating in a white garment begun 2. And Kneeling at the Sacrament which last he proveth from two or three words where Adoration only is named But 1. A late Treatise hath fully proved that the White garment was not a Religious Ceremony then at all but the Ordinary splendid Apparel of honourable persons in those times which were thought meet for the honour of the Ministry when Christian Princes did advance them 2. And he quite forgot that Adoration on the Lords dayes was ever used standing and that he had said before that it was above a thousand years before the custome was altered The inclinations to overmuch strictness on the Lords day The destruction of the Gothish Army by the Romans in Africa because they would not fight on that day c. see in Heylin p. 112 113 c. His translation of the words of the Synod or Council at Mascon 588. I think worthy the transcribing It is observed that Christian people do very rashly slight and neglect the Lords day giving themselves thereon as on other dayes to continual labours c. Therefore let every Christian in case he carry not that name in vain give eare to our instruction knowing that we have care that you should do well as well as the power to bridle you that you do not ill It followeth Custodite Diem Dominicum qui nos denuo peperit c. Keep the Lords day the day of our new birth whereon we were delivered from the snares of sin Let no man meddle in Litigious Controversies or deal in actions or Law suites or put himself at all on such an exigent that needs he must prepare his Oxen for their daily work but exercise your selves in Hymnes and singing praises unto God being intent thereon both in mind and body If any have a Church at hand let him go unto it and there pour forth his soul in tears and Prayers his Eyes and Hands being all that day lifted up to God It is the everlasting day of rest insinuating to us under the shadow of the seventh day or Sabbath in the Law and Prophets And therefore it is very meet that we should celebrate this day with one accord whereon we have been made what at first we were not Let us then offer to God our free and voluntary service by whose great goodness we are freed from the Goal of error not that the Lord exacts it of us that we should celebrate this day in a corporal abstinence or rest from labour who only looks that we do yield obedience to his holy will by which contemning earthly things he may conduct us to the Heavens of his infinite mercy However if any man shall set at naught this our Exhortation be he assured that God shall punish him as he hath deserved and that he shall be also subject unto the Censures of the Church In case he be a Lawyer he shall lose his cause if that he be an Husbandman or Servant he shall be corporally punished for it But if a Clergy-man or Monk he shall be six Moneths separated from the Congregation His reproof of Gregorius Turonensis for his strictness for the Lords day sheweth but his own dissent from him and from the Churches of that Age. King Alfreds Laws for the observation of the Lords day and against Dicing Drinking c. on it are visible in our own Constitutions in Spelman and others And many more Edicts and Laws are recited by H. himself of other Countreys Two are worthy the observation for
exercise but on one only which was the first 2. Because as is said it was not a family or by-meeting but a Churchâ—meeting The Disciples came or assembled togetherâ— 3. Because it said that they assembled for this very end to bâ—â—â—k bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The great length of time which was spent in the holy exercises Besides the rest of the Worship and breaking of Bread Paul Preaching till midnight which intimateth that such work took up the day 5. Because it is mentioned as a matter of their custome They did not assemble because Paul called them to hear him only as being to depart on the morrow But Paul assembled with them at the time of their assembling to break Bread And it seemeth that he deferred his journey for that opportunity 6. Because other Texts as joyned with this and infallible Church History following do prove past all doubt that it was the constant custome of all the Churches so to do Obj. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. The first day of the week c. gr one of the Sabbaths It is an ordinance to lay aside for charitable uses but not one word about changing of the Sabbath Answ. The abolition of the Sabbath we prove not by this Text but by others All that we bring this for is but to shew in conjunction with others as part of the Sacred History that the first day was the Churches separated day And I pray mark the strength of the proof that the Apostle did give order that all the Churches of Galatia as well as the Corinthians should deposite their Almes on one and the same day viz. on the first day Was it not enough to tie them to the contribution but he must tie them all to one set day to lay it by or deposite it if it had not been because the Churches used to assemble on this day and not to appear before God empty as Dr. Hammond noteth on the Text Whoever heard else that God or man tyed several Countreys to one set day for the private depositing of their own moneys afterward to be distributed With such Sacrifices God is well pleased And therefore it was ever accounted by Christians a fit work for the sanctified day But no other day was ever appointed peculiarly for the set time of laying by mens gifts of Charity Obj. Rev. 1. 10. John was in the Spirit on the Lords day Compare Exod. 20. 10 c. Esa. 58. 13 c. Luk. 6. 5. Mark 2. 28. Mat. 12. 8 c. And if the Scriptures be the rule to judge resolve whether that day be not the Lords day of which day and of which only as distinguished from the other dayes of the week the Son of man is Lord. Answ. We are not upon a Controversie of title or propriety whether God be Lord of other dayes For so no doubt he is Lord of all and therefore no more of one than another because his propriety in each one is absolute And it can be no more in any Thus also he is absolute Lord of all things all places all persons c. And yet some things some places some persons have been separated to his service by a peculiar Dedication and Relation and thence have been peculiarly called The Lords And the Texts cited by you out of the old Testament prove that such was the seventh day Sabbath then But not that it is so now or was to be so for perpetuity And the words of the new Testament cited The Son of man is Lord also or even of the Sabbath day shews no more then that it was in his power He giveth it as a reason for his doing that which the Pharises counted Sabbath-breaking By which he oftentimes offended them and not as a reason of his astablishing it And it seemeth plainly to mean that being but a Positive Law and a Law of Moses he had power to change it and dispense with it as well as with other Positives and Mosaical Laws As it is said Ephes. 1. 22 23. he hath made him Head over all things to the Church not Head to all things so he is Lord over or of all dayes But all are not separated to his Worship As it is said Joh. 17. 2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him so it may be said he hath power over all dayes that he may sanctifie one to his peculiar service and use the rest in more common works But that which we bring this text for is but to know what day is notified to the world by this title of The Lords day and consequently was then accounted his separated peculiar day Now the signification of words is known but by use They are not Natural signes but Arbitrary You know not the sense of one word of Hebrew Greek or Latine but by the History of their use by Dictionaries Authors or other Tradition Now it is unquestionable to any man verst in antiquity that all the Churches and Authors Greek and Latine Syriack Aethiopick Persian Arabick that have been known among us and speak of such things do unanimously call the first day of the week by the name of the Lords day as being so called from the beginning even from the Apostles And all old expositors so interpret this present Text. And you may as well question what day the word Sabbath signified in the Old Testament almost as what day the name of The Lords day signified in the new Or what sort of people they were that were called Christians first at Antioch when only one sort hath ever since been notified by that name Even the Disciples of Christ. The Greek with the Syriack Translation the Arabick the vulgar Latine have all The Lords day and the Ethiopick as equipollent hath the first day And Dr. Heylin who would find something against it if any thing were to be found speaking of some of late that otherwise expound it is so ingenious as to say Par. 2. cap. 1. p. 37. Touching this we will not meddle Let them that own it look to it The rather since St. John hath generally been expounded in the other sense Aretas and Andr. Caesariensis on the place and by Bedae de rat temp c. 6. and by the suffrage of the Church the best expositor of the word of God wherein this day hath constantly since the time of the Apostles been honoured with that name above other daies And I know no one man nor many that at 1600 years distance almost is so worthy to be believed for the bare sense of a word as the constant use and universal testimony of all ages from that time till now As Christ is the Lord of all our Suppers yet all are not named The Lords Supper so is it in this case I must needs conclude therefore that if I should cast off the evidence of this Text upon no greater reason than you offer me I think I should resist the
the Kings in their Drunkenness There are few in such sportful Assemblies that are not Drunk with Concupiscence and whose reason is not drowned in voluptuousness and vain imaginations Let those Divines if I may so call the Advocates of Sensuality and Sin which are otherwise minded give us leave to oppose against all their Cavils and the false names of harmless recreations but 1. Our own experience who in our youth have alwaies found such sports and revelling Assemblies to be corrupters of our minds and temptations to evil and quenchers of every holy motion and enemies to all that 's good 2. The experience of the visibly corrupted undone sensual youth that are round about us in all Countreys where we have lived 3. And the judgement of Sâ—lomon who saith as much for pleasure as any Sacred Writer Eccl. 7. 2 3 4 5 6. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting For that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the Countenance the heart is made better The heart of the wise is in the house of mouâ—ning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth I pray you do not say I raile at you by the reciting of these words nor that I diminish the honour of the Reverend Advocates for Wakes and Lords day Sports and Dancings It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the Song of fools For as the sound of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of the fool 3. Moreover these sports and pleasures and riotings are worse than Plowing and Labouring on the Lords day because as they are more adverse to spiritual and heavenly joyes so they do less good to recompense the hurt A Carpenter a Mason a Plowman c. may do some good by his unlawful unseasonable labour some one may be the better for it But Dancing and Sports and Gaming do no good but hurt They corrupt the Fantasie They imprint upon the Thinking faculty so strong an inclination to run out after such things and upon the Appetite so strong a list and longing for them that carnality is much encreased by them Mortification hindred Concupiscence gratified the flesh prevaileth the spirit is quenched and the soul made as unfit for heavenly things as a School-boy is for his Book whose heart is set upon his play Yea abundance more as Nature by Corruption is more averse to spiritual things than to the things of Art or Nature 4. These Dancings and Playes and Wakes and other riotous sports are a strong temptation also to them that are not of the riotous societies but have convictions on their hearts that they have greater and better things to mind Without accusing others I may say that I know this by bad experience I cannot forget when my Conscience was against their courses and called me to better things how hardly when I was young I passed by the Dancing and the Playing Congregations and especially when in the Passage I must bear their scorn And I was one Year a School-master and found how hard it was for the poor Children to avoid such snares even when they were sure to be whipt the next day for their pleasures 5. And those Riots and Playes are injurious to the pious and sober persons who dislike them For it is they that shall be made the Rabbles Scorn and the Drunkards Song Besides that the noise oft times annoyeth them when they should be calmely serving God And they are hindered from governing and instructing their Families while their Children and Servants are thus tempted to be gone and their hearts are all the while in the playing place Never did a hungry dog more grudge at his restraint from meat than Children and young Servants usually grudge to be Catechised or kept to holy exercises when they hear the pipe or the noise of the licentious multitude in the Streets I cannot forget that in my Youth in those late times when we lost the labours of some of our Conformable Godly Teachers for not Reading publickly the Book for Sports and Dancing on the Lords dayes one of my Fathers own Tenants was the Town Piper hired by the Year for many Years together and the place of the Dancing Assembly was not an hundred yards from our door and we could not on the Lords day either read a Chapter or Pray or sing a Psalm or Catechise or instruct a Servant but with the noise of the Pipe and Taber and the Whootings in the Street continually in our Ears And even among a tractable people we were the common Scorn of all the Rabble in the Streets and called Puritans Precisians and Hypocrites because we rather chose but to read the Scriptures than to do as they did Though there was no favour of any Non-conformity in our Family And when the people by the Book were allowed to Play and Dance out of publick Service-time they could so hardly break off their Sports that many a time the Reader was fain to stay till the Piper and Players would give over And sometimes the Morrice-Dancers would come into the Church in all their Linnen and Scarfs and Antick Dresses with Morrice-bells jingling at their leggs And as soon as Common Prayer was read did haste out presently to their Play again Was this a Heavenly Coversation Was this a help to holiness and Devotion or to the Mortification of fleshly Lusts Was this the way to train up youth in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord And were such Assemblies like to the primitive Churches Or such Families governed Christianly and in the fear of God O Lord set wise and holy Pastors over thy poor Flocks that have learnt themselves the holy Doctrine which they Preach and who love or at least abhorr not the service and imitation of a Crucified Christ and the practice of that Religion which they themselves profess Obj. But poor labouring people must have some recreation and they cannot through their poverty have leisure any other day Answ. 1. A sad Argument to be used by them that by racking of Rents do keep them in Poverty They that cannot live without all those superfluities which requireth many hundred pounds a Year to maintain them must for this gratifying pride and fleshly lusts set such bargains to their poor Tenants as that they confess they cannot live without taking the Lords day to recreate them from the toile and weariness of their excessive labours And will not God judge such self-condemning oppressours as these are 2. But is this an Argument fit for the mouth of a Minister or any Christian who knoweth how much the soul is more worth than the body and Eternity more valuable than the pleasures of this little time If Poverty deny the people liberty to play on the week dayes doth it not as much deny them liberty to Pray and to read the
THE Divine Appointment OF THE Lords Day Proved As a separated Day for Holy Worship especially in the Church Assemblies And consequently the Cessation of the Seventh day Sabbath Written for the satisfaction of some Religious Persons who are lately drawn into Error or doubting in both these Points By Richard Baxter Rev. 1. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Loras Day Col. 2. 16 17. Let no 〈◊〉 judge you in Meat or in Driak or in respect of an Holy day or Feast or of the New 〈◊〉 or Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ. LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the three Crowns near Holborn Conduit 1671. THE PREFACE Reader IF thou think this Treatise both superfluous and Defective when so many larger have better done the work already I shall not at all gainsay the latter nor much the former The reason of my writing it was the necessity and request of some very upright Godly persons who are lately faln into doubt or Errour in point of the Sabbath day conceiving that because the fourth Commandment was Written in Stone it is wholly unchangeable and consequently the seventh day Sabbath in force and that the Lords day is not a Day separated by God to holy Worship I knew that there was enough written on this Subject long agoe But 1. Much of it is in Latine 2. Some Writings which prove the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath do withal treat so loosly of the Lords day as that they require a Confutation in the latter as well as a commendation for the former 3. Some are so large that the persons that I write for will hardly be brought to read them 4. Most go upon those grounds which I take to be less clear and build so much more than I can do on the fourth Commandment and on many passages of the old Testament and plead so much for the old Sabbatical notion and rest that I fear this is the chief occasion of many peoples Errours who when they find themselves in a wood of difficulties and nothing plain and convincing that is pleaded with them do therefore think it safest to stick to the old Jewish Sabbath The friends and acquaintance of some of these persons importuning me to take the plainest and nearest way to satisfie such honest doubters I have here done it according to my judgement not contending against any that go another way to work but thinking my self that this is very clear and satisfactory viz. to prove 1. That Christ did Commission his Apostles to Teach us all things which he commanded and to settle Orders in his Church 2. And that he gave them his spirit to enable them to do all this Infallibly by bringing all his words to their remembrance and by leading them into all truth 3. And that his Apostles by this spirit did de facto separate the Lords day for holy Worship especially in Church-Assemblies and declared the cessation of the Jewish Sabbaths 4. And that as this change had the very same Author as the Holy Scriptures the Holy Ghost in the Apostles so that fact hath the same kind of proof that we have of the Canon and the integrity and uncorruptness of the particular Scripture Books and Texts And that if so much Scripture as mencioneth the keeping of the Lords day expounded by the Concent and Practice of the Universal Church from the dayes of the Apostles all keeping this day as holy without the dissent of any one Sect or single person that I remember to have read of I say if all this History will not fully prove the point of fact that this day was kept in the Apostles times and consequently by their appointment then the same proof will not serve to evince that any text of Scripture is Canonical and uncorrupted nor can we think that any thing in the world that is past can have Historical proof I have been put to say somewhat particularly out of Antiquity for this evidence of the fact because it is that which I lay the greatest stress upon But I have not done it so largely as might be done 1. Because I would not lose the unlearned Reader in a Wood of History nor overwhelm him instead of edifying him 2. Because it is done already in Latine by Dr. Young in his Dies Dominica under the name of Theophilus Loncardiensis which I take to be the moderatest soundest and strongest Treatise on this subject that I have seen Though Mr. Cawdry and Palmer joyntly have done well and at greater length and Mr. Eaton Mr. Shephard Dr. Bound Wallaeus Rivet and my dear friend Mr. George Abbot against Broad have said very much And in their way Dr. White Dr. Heylin Bishop Ironside Mr. Brierwood c. 3. I chose most of the same Citations which Dr. Heylin himself produceth because he being the man that I am most put to defend my self against his confessions are my advantage 4. And if I had been willing I could not have been so full in this as the Subject will bespeak because I have almost eleven years been separated from my Library and long from the neighbourhood of any ones else I much pitty and wonder at those Godly men who are so much for stretching the words of Scripture to a sense that other men cannot find in them as that in the word Graven Images in the second Commandment they can find all set Formes of Prayer all composed studyed Sermons and all things about Worship of mans invention to be Images or Idolatry and yet they cannot find the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath in the express words of Col. 2. 16. nor the other Texts which I have cited nor can they find the Institution of the Lords day in all the Texts and Evidences produced for it But though Satan may somewhat disturbe our Concord and tempt some mens Charity to remissness by these differences he shall never keep them out of Heaven who worship God through Christ by the Spirit even in spirit and truth Nor shall he I hope ever draw me to think such holy persons as herein differ from me to be worse than my self though I think them in this to be unhappily mistaken much less to approve either of their own separation from others or of other mens condemning them as Hereticks and inflicting severities upon them for these their opinions sake THE CONTENTS CHAP. 1. THE state of the Question with the summary proof of the Divine separation of the Lords Day page 1. CHAP II. That Christ commissioned his Apostles as his principal Church-Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and to deliver them all his Commands and Orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches p. 5. CHAP. III. Christ promised his Spirit to his Apostles to enable them to do what he had commissioned them to do by leading them into all truth and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance and by guiding them at his Churches Guides p. 9.
CHAP. IV. Christ performed all these Promises to his Apostles and gave them his Spirit to enable them to all their commissioned work p. 11 CHAP. V. The Apostles did actually separate and appoint the first day of the Week for Holy Worship especially in Church Assemblies Which is explained in several subordinate Propositions And proved 1. By Scripture 2. By unquestionable History And the validity of this proof evinced and the denyers of it proved to subvert the Churches certainty of greater matters p. 12 CHAP. VI. This act of the Apostles appointing the Lords Day for holy Worship was done by the especial inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost p. 69 CHAP. VII Whether the seventh day Sabbath should be still kept by Christians as of Divine obligation Neg. proved Where is shewed how far the fourth Commandment is abrogated and all the Law of Moses p. 71 CHAP. VIII Of the Beginning of the Day p. 91 CHAP. IX How the Lords Day should be kept Of the length of the time and the Objection about weariness p. 93 CHAP. X. How the Lords Day should not be spent or what is unlawful on it Of worldly business Of recreations of Idleness c. p. 108 CHAP. XI What things should not be scrupled as un lawful on the Lords Day p. 129 CHAP. XII Of what importance the due observing of the Lords Day is Many great Reasons for it p. 139 CHAP. XIII What other Church Festivals or separated Dayes are lawful p. 148 THE CONTENTS OF THE Appendix CHAP. I. An Answer to certain Objections against the Lords Day p. 157 CHAP. II. An Answer to more Arguments for the seventh day Sabbath p. 180 CHAP. III. Whether the seventh day Sabbath be part of the Law of Nature or only a Positive Law p. 202 CHAP. IV. Whether every word in the Decalogue be of the Law of Nature and of perpetual obligation And whether all that was of the Law of Nature was in the Decalogue p. 214 CHAP. V. Whether the truest Antiquity be for the seventh day Sabbath as kept by the Churches of Christ p. 220 The Divine Appointment of the LORDS DAY proved as a separated Day for holy Worship especially in the Church-Assemblies And consequently the Cessation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath CHAP. I. Though the principal thing desired by the Enquirers is That I would prove to them the Cessation of the Seventh-day Sabbath yet because they cast off the Lords day which I take to be a far greater error and sin than the observation of both dayes and because that when I have proved the Institution of the Lords Day I shall the more easily take them off the other by proving that there are not two weekly dayes set apart by God for holy Worship Therefore I will begin with the first Question Whether the Lords day or first day of the week be separated by Gods Institution for holy Worship especially in publick Church-conventions Aff. And here for the right stating of the Question let it be noted 1. That it is not the Name of a Sabbath that we now meddle with or stand upon Let us agree in the Thing and we shall easily bear a difference about the name Grant that it is A day separated by Gods Institution for holy Assemblies and Worship and then call it a Sabbath or the Lords day as you please Though for my self I add That the Lords day is the name that the Holy Ghost hath set upon it and the name which the first Churches principally used and that they call it also sometimes by the name of the Christian Sabbath but that is only Analogically as it is resembled to the Jewish Sabbath and as they used the names Sacrifice and Altar at the same time for the Christians Commemoration of Christs Sacrifice in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and for the Table or as Dr. Young saith pag. 23. As in Scripture Baptism is called Circumcision And that very rarely too 2. That the Question of the manner of observing the Lords day and what exercises of Worship it must be spent in and what Diversions are lawful or unlawful as also when the day beginneth are not to be here medled with in the beginning but afterwards when the Divine Institution of the Day it self is first sufficiently proved Which is done as followeth Arg. That day which was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost was separated to holy Worship by God the Father and the Son But the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost Therefore the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by God the Father and the Son The Minor only needeth proof among Christians That day which was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost But the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost Therefore the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost The Minor which only needeth proof is thus proved That day which was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles who had the Holy Ghost promised them by Christ and given them to lead them into all truth and to bring all his Doctrines to their remembrance and to teach the Churches to do all his Commands and to feed and guide and order them as his principal commissioned Church-Minister was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost But such is the first day of the Week Therefore the first day of the Week is separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost I have five Propositions now distinctly to be proved four for the proof of the Major and one for the proof of the Minor The first Proposition is That Christ commissioned his Apostles as his principal Church-Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and deliver them all his Commands and Orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches The second Proposition is That Christ promised them his Spirit to enable them to do what he had commissioned them to do by leading them into all truth and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance and by guiding them as his Churches Guides The third Proposition is That Christ performed this promise and gave his Spirit accordingly to his Apostles to enable them to all their commissioned work The fourth Proposition is That the Apostles did actually separate or appoint the first day of the Week for holy Worship especially in Church-assemblies The fifth Proposition is That this act of theirs was done by the Guidance or inspiration of the Holy Ghost which was given them And when I have distinctly proved these five things no sober understanding Christian can expect that I should prove any more towards the proof of the Question in hand Whether the first day of the Week be separated by Gods
Institution for holy Worship especially in Church-assemblies CHAP. II. Prop. I. That Christ Commissioned his Apostles or his principal Church-Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and deliver them all his Commands and Orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches This I prove 1. By their Commission it self 2. By their performance with its proper seal 3. By the Consent of all the Christian world 1. Luke 6. 13. He called to him his Disciples and of them he chose twelve whom also he named Apostles Their first Commission is recited Matth. 10. at large Matth. 28. 18 19 20. All Authority is given me in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and disciple all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And loe I am with you alway even unto the end of the world Amen John 20. 21. Then said Jesus to them again Peace be unto you As the Father hath sent me even so send I you And when he had said this he breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained Luke 10. 16. Even of the seventy it is said He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And to the twelve Matth. 10. 40. He that receiveth you receiveth me c. Acts 26. 17. Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles to whom now I send thee to open their eyes 1 Cor. 15. 3. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received c. 1 Cor. 11. 23. For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God Gal. 1. 11 12. But I certifie you brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. John 21. 15 16 17. Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me Feed my Lambs Matth. 16. 19. I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven John 17. 18. As thou hast sent me into the world so have I also sent them into the world See John 13. 16 20. Acts 1. 24 25. Shew whether of these two thou hast chosen that he may take part of this Ministry and Apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell Gal. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father Acts 1. 2. After that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandment to the Apostles whom he had chosen to whom also he presented himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty dayes and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Acts 2. 42. They continued stedfast in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship c. Eph. 4. 11 12 13 14 15 16. He gave some Apostles some Prophets c. 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. First Apostles secondarily Prophets c. Are all Apostles c. Eph. 2. 20. Being built on the foundation of the Apostles c. 2. Pet. 3. 2. That ye may be mindfull of the words which were spoken before by the holy Prophets and of the Commandments of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour Acts 10. 5. Send men to Joppa and call for Simon c. and be shall tell thee c. They that will not take all this plain evidence of Scripture for a proof of this first Proposition I suppose would not be ever the more moved by it if I should be so needlesly tedious as to stay to fetch Arguments from each Text. 2. The Apostles exercised such a power as the Proposition mentioneth and God sâ—t to it the seal of Miracles Therefore such a Power or Office was given them by Christ. The Consequence is undenyable The Antecedent of this Enthimeme is so plainly expressed in Scripture that I am loth to take up much of my own or the Readers time in proving so known a thing They founded the Churches they delivered them the Doctrine and Commands of Christ they setled the Churches as to Officers Orders and Discipline according to Christs Commands and the Spirits determinations Thus they ordained the new Office of Deacons and Deaconeffes or Widows and they ordained them Elders in every Church or City and they determined of Church Controversies and gave the Church Decrees and delivered the Will of Christ about the Sacrament Church-Assemblies Prophecyings c. Acts 2. 14. 23. Acts 6. 3 4 c. 1 Tim. 3. Titus 1. Acts 15. 1 Cor. 11. 1 Cor. 14 c. 3. That all Christians save Hereticks did acknowledge their power and acquiesce in their Decrees and Conduct being a matter of fact needs no other proof than the common History of former Ages and practice of this Which are so well known that I will not injure the Reader by proving it CHAP. III. Prop. 2. Christ promised his Spirit to his Apostles to enable them to do what be had commissioned them to do by leading them into all truth and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance and by guiding them as his Churches Guides In the Old Testament it is prophesied and promised Jer. 3. 15. And I will give you Pastors according to mine heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding See all the Texts that promise the pouring out of the Spirit Isa. 44. 3. Ezck. 36. 27. 37. 14. 39. 29. Joel 2. 28 29. Which were principally fulfilled on the Apostles Luke 24. 49. And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you But tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem untill ye be endued with power from on high John 15. 26 27. But when the Advocate is come whom I will send unto you from the Father he shall testifie of me and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning John 16. 7 12 13 14 15. It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Advocate will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now Hoâ—beit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all the truth For he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak And he shall shew you things to come He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you All things that the Father hath are mine Therefore said I
certain As of the Government of Augustus Tiberius Herod Pilate Foelix Festus c. 2. There are other certain means known to us of which I must refer the Reader to what I have written in my Reasons of the Christian Religion Part 2. Cap. 7. specially pag. 335. to 340. 3. No man can doubt but that the Christians of that same age as till the year one hundred might easily and certainly know such a matter of publick fact as whether the Lords day was constantly set apart and observed by all the Christian Churches for holy Worship For 1. It is certain that they did know it by sight and sense and therefore had no need of History 2. It is certain that they knew it before the Scriptures were written which we now speak of For it is not possible that for all those years time before any of the New Testament was written the Christians who assembled to worship God should not know on what day they used to assemble And if they knew it in the year 100. they must needs know it as well in the year 101. 102. 103. and so on For those that were young Christians fifty years after Christ would be aged at an hundred And those that were young at an hundred would be aged at an hundred and fifty and so on So that an age of people not ending at the age of a single person Congregations and societies are like Rivers that keep the same channel and name while one part of water followeth another Nay some of the same men are there anno 100. who were there anno 50. some anno 150. who were there anno 100. and so on Ten thousand thousand men women and children can tell on what day the Congregations of England use to assemble whereas if an Apostle were among us and should write on what day we assemble fewer would know it by that means And they that knew it but by his writing would know it less confidently than they that knew it by sense and experience Yet forget not that I am far from ascribing a certainty or a credibility to all humane History Much more from equalling any with the credit of Divine History But only I say 1. That sense is more assuring as to the subject than any History whatever 2. And that some History besides Divine is certain 3. And that much History is credible 4. And that this instance of the Day on which all Churches in the world assembled for holy Worship is one of the most palpable for certainty that possibly could be imagined 4. And I add that if some humane History or Tradition be not certain there can be no certainty of much of the Divine History to any but the persons who were themselves inspired or that saw the Visions or Miracles that confirmed them For as internal sense or intuition must assure the Inspired persons themselves and external sense must assure those that saw the matters of fact so all the rest have no way to know them but either still by a succession of New Revelations from Heaven which God doth not give or else by Report And I can no otherwise know what was revealed to an Apostle nor what was done in those times Of which more anon Prop. 5. The first institution of Church Offices and Orders and so of the Lords day was not by Scripture The proof is undeniable Because the Old Testament did not contain the Institution e. g. of particular Churches Sacraments Presbyters Deacons Deaconesses and the Lords day c. And the New Testament was none of it written till anno 40. at soonest when some as Bucholtzer Bellarm c. think Matthews Gospel was written though others say many years after and it was not all written till ann 99. Now it is certain that the Church was not all these years without the Orders now in question nor without a day to meet on for publick Worship Even as Baptism and the Lords Supper were instituted by Christ himself long before the writing of any part of the New Testament and the Church was in long possession of them upon the bare verbal declaration of the Apostles Prop. 6. Therefore it is certain that no part of the New Testament was written to any such end as to institute Sacraments or Church Offices or standing Orders but to instruct men about those that were already instituted as to the use of those times For it could not be written to institute that which was instituted before so many years Prop. 7. No part of the New Testament was written to make known to the Churches of those times the said Sacraments Offices stated Orders and Time of Worship Still observe that by a part I mean any book And I except the Decree written in a Letter of the Apostles Elders and Brethren Act. 15. concerning Circumcision not to be imposed on the Gentiles which yet made no new institution nor declared any but only determined of the continued forbearance of some things forbidden before of God in the precepts called Noah's and Pauls Epistles which reduce the Churches to Orders before setled and urge them to duty and decide some doubts about particular cases of Conscience The proof is visible 1. In the Writings themselves 2. In that all the Churches were in the possession and use of all the things in question long before For mutable Orders and Circumstances are none of the things in question It would be vain to write a history now to tell English men of this present age that the Lords day is used in England as a day set apart for publike worship or that persons are Baptized or receive the Lords Supper in England For seeing it is the common usage of all the Christians almost of the Land it is needless to tell men among us by writing that it is so unless it be to inferr somewhat else from it Prop. 8. Yet those holy Scriptures which were written to men of those times were also intended for the instruction of all succeeding ages And so the foure Evangelists wrote the history of Christ and Luke wrote the history of Paul till his coming to Rome and longer and of some more of the Apostles And on the by in the Epistles extant the Churches Customes of those times are much intimated And all this together with the subordinate history and the universal tenure and practice of the Churches is that history by which we must know the matters of fact of those times Nor is there any room left for a rational pretense of Rome or any other Church to produce Divine Institutions which were committed only to them or entrusted to their particular keeping only and were not delivered in Scripture nor in Common to the whole Church Prop. 9. Thus according to the use of the writings of the New Testament the matter of fact in question of the Lords dayes separation is historically touched on and proved though but briefly and on the by as a thing as well known to the
confesseth that its no doubt but the Religious observation of the day began in the Apostles age with their approbation and Authority and hath since continued in the same respect And what needs he more for confutation And as to his allegations of the Judgement of the Reformed Lutheran and Roman Church 1. We take none of them for our Rule so impartial are we But 2. He himself citeth Beza Mercer Paraeus Cuchlinus Simler Hospinian Zanchius c. as holding that It was an Apostolical and Truly Divine Tradition that the Apostles turned the Sabbath into the Lords day that it was an Apostolical custome or a custome received in the Apostles times c. And whereas afterward he would perswade us that they spent but a little of the day in holy worship he himself cited Mr. George Sandys Travels saying of the Copties that On Saturday presently after midnight they repair unto their Churches where they remain well nigh till Sunday at noon of the Evening he speaketh not but of their first meeting during which time they neither sit nor kneel but support themselves on Crutches And they sing over the most part of Davids Psalms at every meeting with divers parcels of the New Testament This is like the old way And such a Liturgie we do not contradict nor scruple Sandys also informeth us of the ArmenianChristians that coming into the place of the Assembly on Sunday in the afternoon no doubt they had been there in the Morning be found one sitting in the midst of the Congregation in habit not differing from the rest reading on a Bible in the Chaldaean tongue That anon after came the Bishop in a hood or Vest of black with a staffe in his hand That first he prayed and then sung certain Psalms assisted by two or three After all of them singing joyntly at interims praying to themselves the Bishop all this while with his bands erected and his face towards the Altar That Service being ended they all kissed his hand and bestowed their Almes he laying his other hand on their heads and blessing them c. And of the Abaffines he reciteth out of Brierwood and he from Damianus a Goes that they honour the Lords day as the Christian Sabbath and the Saturday as the Jews Sabbath because they receive the Canons called the Apostles which speak for both And King Edgar in England ordained that the Sabbath should begin ou Saturday at three a Clock Afternoon and continue till break a Day on Munday These Laws for the Sabbath of Alfred Edgar c. were confirmed by Etheldred and more fully by Canutus But of these things I shall say more anon under the Proposition following In the mean time only remembring you 1. That it is well that we are required after the fourth Commandment to pray Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law And we accept his Concession that this includeth all of that Commandment which is the Law of Nature Though I have told you that it reacheth somewhat further 2. That we approve of the plain Doctrine of the English Homilies on this point and stand to the Exposition of sober impartiality Prop. 10. It hath been the constant practice of all Christs Churches in the whole world ever since the daies of the Apostles to this day to assemble for publick worship on the Lords day as a day set apart thereunts by the Apostles Yea so universal was this judgement and practice that there is no one Church no one writer or one heretick that I remember to have read of that can be proved ever to have dissented or gainsaid it till of late times The proof of this is needless to any one that is versed in the writings of the ancients And others cannot try what we shall produce I have been these ten years separated from my Library and am therefore less furnished for this task than is requisite But I will desire no man to receive more than the Testimonies produced by Dr. Pet. Heylin himself which with pittiful weakness he would pervert And he being the Grand Adversary with whom I do now contend I shall only premise these few Observations as sufficient to confute all his Cavils and Evasions 1. When his great work is to prove that the Lords day was not called the Sabbath unless by allusion we grant it him as to a Jewish Sabbath as nothing to the purpose 2. Whereas he strenuously proveth that the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath de re we grant it him also taking the word in the primitive Jewish sense 3. When he laboureth to prove that Christians met on other daies of the week besides the Lords day though not for the Lords Supper we grant it him as nothing to the purpose So Calvin Preached or Lectured daily at Geneva and yet kept not every day as a holy day separated to Gods worship as they did the Lords day though too remisly So we do still keep Week-day Lectures and the Church of England requireth the Reading of Common Prayer on Wednesdayes and Fridays and holy day Evens Do they therefore keep them Holy as the Lords day 4. When he tells us that Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen plead against them that would hear and pray on that day only we grant it him and we are ready to say as they do that we should not confine Gods Service to one day only as if we might be profane and worldly on all other daies but should take all fit opportunities for religious helps and should all the week keep our minds as near as we can in a holy frame and temper Of the rest of his Objections I shall say more in due place 5. But I must note in the beginning that he granteth the main cause which I plead for acknowledging Hist. Sab. l. 2. page 30. it thus So that the Religious observation of this day beginning in the age of the Apostles no doubt but with their Approbation and Authority and since continuing in the same respect for so many ages may be very well accounted amongst those Apostolical Traditions which have been universally received in the Church of God And what need we more than the Religious Observation in the Apostles time by the Apostles Approbation and Authority and this delivered to us by the universal Church as an Apostolical Tradition But yet he saith that the Apostles made it not a Sabbath Answ. Give us the Religious observation and call it by what name you please We are not fond of the name of the Sabbath 6 And therefore we grant all that he laboriously proveth of the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath and that the Ancients commonly consent that by the abolished Sabbath Col. 2. 16. is meant inclusively the weekly Jewish Sabbath Epiphan l. 1. haeres 33. n. 11. Ambros. in loc Hieron Epist. ad Algus qu. 10. Chrysost. Hom. 13. in Haebr 7. August cont Jud. cap. 2. cont Faust. Manich. l. 16. c. 28. I recite the
places for them that doubt of it Now let us peruse the particular Testimonies 1. I begin with Ignatius though Dallaeus have said so much to prove the best Copy of him of latter date and spurious because others think otherwise and that Copy is by him thought to be written Cent. 3. who saith Let us not keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner in sloth and idleness but after a spiritual manner not in bodily ease but in the study of the Law not eating meat drest yesterday or drinking warm drinks and walking out a limited space but in the contemplation of the works of God And after the Sabbath let every one that loveth Christ keep the Lords day Festival the Resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all daies in which our life was raised again and death was overcome by our Lord and Saviour Either these Epist. of Ignatius ad Philip. c. are genuine or spurious If genuine than note how clearly it is asserted that the Lords day was to be observed as the Queen of all daies by all that were lovers of Christ. And that the seventh day Sabbath was kept with it then and there in Asia so near the Apostles daies no wonder when it was but the honourable gradual receding from the Mosaical Ceremonies with an avoiding the scandalous hinderance of the Jews Conversion And Dr. Heylin well noteth that it was only the Eastern Churches next the Jews that for a time kept both daies but not the Western who rather turned the Sabbath to a fast But if Ignatius Ep. be spurious written Cent. 3. then as Dallaeus would prove they were written by some heretical or heterodox person And so it will be no wonder that holy dayes are pleaded for when as Dr. Heylin observeth Cerinthus and his followers in the Apostles times stood up for the Jewish Sabbath and Ceremonies and so were for both daies But it will be our Confirmation that even the Hereticks held with the universal Church for the Lords day 2. The great Controversie about the Day of Easter which spread so early through all the Churches is a full Confirmation of our matter of fact For when the Western Churches were for the Passover day the better to content the Jews saith Heylin the Eastern thought it intollerable that it should not be kept on a Lords day because that was the weekly day observed on the same account of the Resurrection The Eastern Churches never questioned their supposition of the Lords day And the Western after Victors rash excommunicating the Asian Bishops never rested till they brought them to keep it on the Lords day Pius Anicetus Victor c. prosecuting the cause 3. The Book though perished which Melito wrote of the Lords day Euseb. l. 4. c. 25. by the title may be well supposed to confirm at least the matter of fact or usage 4. All those little Councils mentioned by Heylin p. 48. held at Osroena Corinth in Gaul in Pontus in Rome prove this The Canons of them all saith Heylin being extant in Eusebius ' s time and in all which it was concluded for the Sunday But saith Heylin by this You see that the Sunday and the Sabbath were long in striving for the Victory p. 49. Answ. I see that some men can out-face the clearest light Here was no striving at all which day should be the weekly day set apart for holy worship but only whether Easter should follow the time of 〈◊〉 or be confined to the Lords day 5. Justin Martyrs Testimony is so express and so commonly cited that I need not recite the words at large Vpon the Sunday all of us assemble in the Congregation Vpon the day called Sunday all within be Cities or in the Countrey do meet together in some place where c. He proceedeth to shew the worship there performed Now 1. Here being mention of no other day no man can question but that this day was set apart for these holy assemblies in a peculiar manner as the other week dayes were not 2. This being the writing of one of the most Learned and antient of all the Christian Writers 3. And being purposely written to one of the wisest of all the Emperours as an Apologie for all the Christians 4. And being written at Rome where the matter of fact was easily known deserveth as much credit as any Christian History or Writing since the Apostles can deserve Nor hath Heylin any thing to say against it 6. The next remembred by Heylin is Dionysius Corinth who lived 175. cited out of Eusebius Hist. l. 4. c. 22. To day we keep the Holy Lords day wherein we read the Epistle you wrote to us c. Against this Heylin saith not a word 7. The next is Clemens Alexander who expresly asserteth the matter of fact that the Lords day was then kept by Christians Yea Heylin derideth him for fetching it as far as Plato Strom. l. 7. But Heylin thinks he was against keeping any dayes But he that will examine his words shall find that he speaketh only against them that would be Ceremonious observers of the day more than of the work of the day and would be religious on that day alone And therefore he saith that He that leadeth his life according to the Ordinances of the Gospel doth keep the Lords Day when he casteth away every evil thought and doing things with knowledge and understanding doth glorifie the Lord in his Resurrection This is not to speak against the Day but to shew how it ought to be sincerely kept But if he had been against it it s all one to my cause who only prove that de facto all Christian Churches kept it 8. The next witness is Tertullian who oft asserteth this to be the holy day of the Christians Church-Assemblies and holy Worship His testimony in Apolog. cap. 16. is so commonly known that I need not recite it It is the same in sense with Justin Martyrs and written in an Apology for the Christians purposely describing their custom of meeting and worshipping on the Sunday as he calls it there as Justin did And that it was not an hours work only he shews in saying that The day was kept as a day of rejoicing and then describeth the work And de Idolol c. 14. he saith that every eighth day was the Christians festival And de Coron Mil. c. 3. and oft he calleth it the Lords day and saith it was a crime to fast upon it And the work of the day described by Justin and by him Apolog. c. 39. is just the same that we desire now the day to be spent in we plead for no other But most grosly saith Heylin pag. 55. But sure it is that their assemblies held no longer than our Morning Service that they met only before noon for Justin saith that when they met they used to receive the Sacrament and that the service being done every man went again to his daily labours Answ. Is this a proof to conclude a
Certainty from Most certainly abundance of testimonies might be produced to prove that they came together early in the Morning and stayed till Evening if not till within Night The former Pliny and many others witness And the later many accusations of the Heathens that censured them for night-crimes at their meetings And all that report it almost tell us of the Sacrament administred and Tertullian and others of their feasting together their Love Feasts as a Supper before they parted Now let but the time be measured by the work By that time the Scriptures of the Old Testament and New were read and all the prayers then made and all the Preaching and Exhortations and then all the Prayers and Praises at the Celebration of the Lords Supper especially if they were half as long as the Liturgies ascribed to Basil Chrysostom and the rest in the Biblioth Patrum and by that time the Sacrament it self was administred with all the action and singing of Psalms and all the Oblations and Collections made and besides this all the Church Discipline on particular persons exercised where Questions and Answers and Proofs must take up a great deal of time sure one day would be at an end or very near it And after when the Love Feasts were left off and the Church met twice and made an intermission they did as we do now And the very Custom of Preaching all the Morning to the Audientes and Catechumens till almost Noon when they were dismist with a Missa est and spending the rest of the day in Teaching the Church and Celebrating the Sacrament with all the larger Eucharistical acts do fully shew how the day was spent Which I would quickly prove by particular Testimonies but that I am separated from my Library and Dr. Young hath fully done it to my hand The very Context of these testimonies with what Albaspinaeus hath of their Catechizing and Church order will soon satisfie the impartial searcher As for what he saith out of Justin of returning to their labours I can find no such word in him nor do I believe there is any such to be found unless of returning to their six dayes weekly labour when the Religious work was ended with the day And I imagine the Reader will find no more if so much 9. The next proof is universal even the consent of all the Christian Churches without one contradicting Vote that ever I read of that the Lords dayes worship was to be performed standing and that it was not allowed them to pray or worship kneeling upon any Lords day in the year or any week day between Easter and Whitsontide And the difficulty of these stations is expressed see Albaspinaeus of it which sheweth that it was for a long time Whatever they did in Hearing its like they sate for Justin saith We rise to pray but it is certain they stood in worshipping acts as prayer and praise This Justin Martyr hath before mentioned Tertullian hath it expresly and Heylin himself citeth him de Coron Mil. Basil l. de Spir. S. c. 27. Hieron advers Luciferian August Epist. 118. Hilar. Praef. in Psal. Ambros. Serm. 62. To which he may add Epiphanius and divers Councils especially Nic. 1. Trul. of which after I once pleaded this ancient custom with them that would have all excluded from the Sacrament that kneel not to prove that kneeling at the Sacrament on the Lords dayes could not be in the Church of many hundred years after the Apostles when the universal Church condemned kneeling on all Lords dayes worship And Dr. Heylin himself saith What time this custom was laid by I can hardly say but sure I am it was not laid aside in a long time after not till the time of Pope Alexander the third who lived about the year 1160. c. Now from all this it is most evident that the Lords day was then observed 10. In this place though by anticipation I add the two General Councils now named The first great General Council at Nice Can. 20. which reneweth and confirmeth this antient custom of not kneeling in prayer on the Lords dayes that there might be an uniformity kept in the Churches And the Canoâ— Conâ—â—â— Trul. have the same again which proveth what we seek the matter of fact of the dayes general observation 11. The next is Origen who is not denyed to witness to the matter of fact but Heylin thinks he was against the Right of it But his mistake is the same as about Clemens Alex. Origen did but desire that other dayes might be kept also as profitably as they could as our Lecture dayes are 12. Cyprian is the next whose testimonies for matter of fact are full and Heylin hath nothing to say against him but that it is his private opinion that the Lords day was prefigured in the eighth day destined to Circumcision Which is nothing at all to our business in hand 13. And he himself cites Pope Fabians Decretal Anno 237. a testimony therefore that he is not to refuse for every man and woman on the Lords dayes to bring a quantity of bread and wine to be first offered on the Altar and then distributed in the Sacrament The Canon of Clem. before mentioned I now pretermit But saith Dr. Heylin 1. All days between Easter and Whitsunday had adoration by genuflection also prohibited on them 2. And the Church had other Festivals also Answ. 1. The Reason of Station was to signifie Christs Resurrection and ours Therefore it continued for these dayes But that was for the short occasional meetings of those dayes which he himself will not say were separated to worship 2. And the other Festivals of the Church make nothing against us For 1. Some of them as Easter and Whitsunday were but the same Lords day 2. And some of them were but Anniversary and not weekly Holy dayes as the Nativity c. 3. And he confesseth even these were brought in long after the Apostles dayes and therefore can lay no claim to Apostolical institution Pag. 62. he himself saith that The Feast of Christs Nativity was ordained or instituted in the second Century and that of his Incarnation in the third And besides Easter and Whitsunday which are the Lords day Christmas is all that he nameth out of Beda so long after as the Majora Solennia The Eves were but hours for preparation 14. To these though in the fourth Century I may add Epiphanius who recordeth the Station and Adoration to the East on the Lords dayes as those Traditions received by the Universal Church And here I would have it specially noted that when Tertullian Epiphanius and others note standing on the Lords dayes to be an unwritten Tradition received by the whole Church they do not say the same of the Lords day it self though the Antients oft say that we received it from the Apostles Now by this it is plain that they took the Lords day to be of Apostolick Institution past all question
and the unwritten Vniversal Traditions to be somewhat lower which there was no Scripture for at all Among which the white Garment and the Milk and Honey to the Baptized and the Adoration toward the East are numbred For he that is appointed to worship on the Lords dayes standing or toward the East is supposed to know that on that day he is to worship If the Mode on that day be of Universal Tradition as a Ceremony the day is supposed to be somewhat more than of unwritten Tradition 15. I add here also though in the fourth Century because it looks back to the Institution the words of Athanasius cited by Heylin himself Homil. de Semente though Nannius question it That our Lord transferred the Sabbath to the Lords day But saith Dr. Heylin This must be understood not as if done by his Commandment but on his occasion the Resurrection of our Lord on that day being the principal Motive which did influence his Church to make choice thereof for the Assemblies For otherwise it would cross what formerly had been said by Athanasius in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Answ. It expresseth the common judgement of the Church that Christ himself made the Change by these degrees 1. Fundamentally and as an Exemplar by his own Resurrection on that day giving the first cause of it as the Creation-rest did of the seventh day 2. Secretly commanding it to his Apostles 3. Commissioning them to promulgate all his Commands 4. Sending down the Spirit on that very day 5. And by that Spirit determining them by promulgation to determine publickly of the day and settle all the Churches in long possession of it before their death That which is thus done may well be said to be done by Christ 2. And what shew of Contradiction hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this It was commanded at first that the Sabbath day should be observed in memory of the accomplishment of the World so do we celebrate the Lords day as a Memorial of the beginning of a new Creation Had not he a Creating head here that out of these words could gather that we celebrate the Lords day without a command Voluntarily One would think so should signifie the contrary But ib. pag. 8. he citeth Socrates for the same saying that The designe of the Apostles was not to busie themselves in prescribing festival daies but to instruct the people in the wayes of Godliness Answ. Socrates plainly rebuketh the busie Ceremonious arrogancy of after Ages for making new holy dayes and doth not at all mean the Lords day but saith that to make festivals that is other and more as since they did was none of the Apostles business Nor is this any thing at all to the matter of fact which none denyed 16. I will add that as another Testimony which p. 9. he citeth against it The Council at Paris An. 829. c. 50. which as he speaketh ascribeth the keeping of the Lords day to Apostolical Tradition confirmed by the Authority of the Church The words are ut creditur Apostolorum traditione immo Ecclesiae authoritate descendu c. Now I have proved that if the Apostles did it they did it by the Holy Ghost and by Authority from Christ But he citeth p. 7 8. the words of Athanasius Maximus Taurinensis and Augustine saying that We honour the Lords day for the Resurrection and because Christ rose and Aug. The Lords day was declared to Christians by the Resurrection of our Lord and from that or from him rather began to have its festivity From whence he gathereth that it was only done by the authority of the Church and not by any precept of our Saviour Answ. As if Christs Resurrection could not be the fundamental occasion and yet Christs Law the obliging cause Would any else have thus argued The Jews observed the seventh day Sabbath because the Creator rested the seventh day Therefore they had no command from God for it Woe to the Churches that have such expositors of Gods commands Or as if Christ who both Commissioned and Inspired the Apostles by the Holy Ghost to teach all his commands and settle Church Orders were not thus the chief Author of what they did by his Commission and Spirit What Church can shew the like Commission or the like Miraculous and Infallible Spirit as they had See further August de Civitat Dei l. 22. c. 30. Serm. 15. de Verb. Apostol But saith he Christ and two of his Disciples travelled on the day of his Resurrection from Jerusalem to Emaus seven miles and back again which they would not have done if it had been a Sabbath Answ. 1. They would not have done it if it had been a Jewish Sabbath of Ceremonial Rest But those that you count too precise will go as far now in Case of need to hear a Sermon And remember that they spent the time in Christs preaching and their Hearing and Conferring after of it 2. But we grant that though the Foundation was laid by Christs Resurrection yet it was not a Law fully promulgate to and understood by the Apostles till the Coming down of the Holy Ghost nor many greater matters neither who was promised and given to teach them all things c. And it is worth the noting how Heylin beginneth his Chap. 3. l. 2. The Lords day taken up by the common consent of the Church not instituted or established by any Text of Scripture or Edict of Emperour or Decree of Council save that some few Councils did reflect upon it In that which follows we shall find both Emperours and Councils very frequent in ordering things about this day and the Service of it Answ. Note Reader What could possibly besides Christ and the Holy Ghost in the Apostles be the Instituter of a day which neither Emperour nor Council instituted and yet was received by the common consent of all Churches in the World even from and in the Apostles dayes Yea as this man confesseth by their Approbation and Authority But hence forward in the fourth Century I am prevented from bringing in my most numerous witnesses by Heylins Confession that now Emperours Councils and all were for it But yet let the Reader remember 1. How few and small Records be left of the second Century and not many of the third 2. And that Historical copious Testimonies of the fourth Century that is Emperours Councils and the most pious and learned Fathers attesting that the Universal Church received it from the Apostles is not vain or a small Evidence when as the fourth Century began but 200 years after St. Johns death or within less than a year And that the first Christian Emperour finding all Christians unanimous in the possession of the day should make a Law as our Kings do for the due observing of it And that the first General Council should establish uniformity in the very Gesture of Worship on that day are strong Confirmations of the matter of fact that the
the Reasons of them 1. A Law of Clâ—tharius King of France forbidding servile labours on the Lords day Because the Law forbids it and the holy Scripture wholly contradicteth it 2. A Constitution of the Emperour Leo Philosophus to the same purpose Secundum quod Spiritui sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit As it pleased the Holy Ghost and the Apostles instructed by him You see that then Christian Princes judged the Lords day to be of Divine Institution Yea to these he addeth two more Princes of the same mind confessing that Leo was himself a Scholar and Charles the Great had as Learned men about him as the times then bred and yet were thus perswaded of the day yea and that many Miracles were pretended in confirmation of it yet he affirmeth that the Church and the most learned men in it were of another mind Let us hear his proofs 1. Saith he Isidore a Bishop of Sevil makes it an Apostolical Sanction only no Divine Commandment a day designed by the Apostles for Religious Exercises in honour of our Saviours resurrection and it was called the Lords day therefore to this end and purpose that resting in the same from all earthly acts and the temptations of the world we might intend Gods holy Worship giving this day due honour for the hope of the resurrection which we have therein The same verbatim is repeated by Beds l. de Offic. and by Raban Maurus l. de inst Chr. l. 2. c. 24. and by Alcuinus de Die Offic. c. 24. which plainly shews that all these took it only for an Apostolical usage c. Answ. Reader is not here a strange kind of proof This is but just the same that we assert and I am proving save that he most grosly puts an Apostolical usage and sanction sanxerunt as distinct from and exclusive of a Command which I have fully proved to be Christs own Act and Law to us by vertue of 1. Their Commission 2. And the infallible Spirit given them And having brought the History to so fair an account by our chief Adversaries own Citations and confessions I will not tire my self and the Reader with any more but only wish every Christian to consider whether they that thus distinguish between Apostolical Sanctions and Divine Institutions as this man doth do not teach men to deny all the holy Scriptures of the New Testament as being but Apostolical writings and go far to deny or subvert Christianity it self by denying the Divine Authority of these Commissioned Inspired men who are foundations of the Church and sealed their Doctrine by Miracles and from whom it is that our Christian Faith and Laws and Church constitutions which are Universal and Divine are received I only remember you of Pliny a Heathens testimony of the Christians practice stato die No man can question Pliny on the account of Partiality And therefore though a Heathen his Historical testimony as joyned with all the Christian Church History hath its credibility He telleth Trajan that it was the use of Christians on a stated day before it was light to meet together to sing a Hymn to Christ as to God secum invicem among themselves by turns and to bind themselves by a Sacrament not to do any wickedness but that they commit not Thefts Robberies Adulteries that they break not their word or trust that they deny not the pledge or pawn which being ended they used to depart and to come again together to take meat but promiscuous and harmless Epist. 97. p. 306 307. Where note 1. That by a stated day he can mean no other than the Lords day as the consent of all other History will prove 2. That this is much like the testimonies of Justin and Tertullian and supposing what they say of the use of Reading the Scripture and Instructing the Church it sheweth that their chief work on that day was the Praises of God for our Redemption by Christ and the celebration of the Lords Supper and the Disciplinary exercises of Covenanters thereto belonging 3. That they had at that time where Pliny was two meetings that day that is they went home and came again to their Feast of Love in the Evening Which no doubt was varied as several times and places and occasions required sometimes departing and coming again and sometimes staying together all day 4. That this Epistle of Pliny was written in Trajans dayes and it is supposed in his second year And Trajan was Emperour the year that St. John the Apostle died if not a year before so that it is the Churches custom in the end of the Apostles dayes which Pliny here writeth of 5. That he had the fullest testimony of what he wrote it being the consent of the Christians whom he as Judge examined even of the timorous that denyed their Religion as well as of the rest And many of them upon his prohibition forbore these meetings 6. And the number of them he telleth Trajan in City and Countrey was great of persons of all degrees and ranks So that when 1. Christian History 2. And Heathen acquaint us with the matter of fact that the day was kept in the Apostles time 3. Yea when no Hereticks or Sects of Christians are found contradicting it but the Churches then and after universally practised it without any controversie what fuller historical evidence can there be And to say that 1. The Apostles would not have reproved this if it had not been their own doing 2. Or that it could be done and they not know it 3. And that all Christians who acknowledged their authority would have consented in such a practice superstitiously before their faces and against their wills and no testimony be left us of one faithful Church or Christian that contradicted it and stuck to the Apostolical authority even where the Churches received their writings and publickly read them all this is such as is not by sober Christians to be believed But the great Objection will be That other things also were then taken for Apostolical Traditions and were customs of the universal Church as well as this which things we now renounce as superstitious Answ. Though I answered this briefly before I now give you this fuller answer I. It is but few things that come under this charge viz. the Unction white Garment with the taste of Milk and Honey at Baptism Adoration towards the East and that standing and not kneeling on the Lords dayes and the Anniversary Observation of Easter and Whitsuntide And the last is but the keeping of one or two Lords dayes in the year with some note of distinction from the rest so far as there was any agreement in it 2. That these are not usually by the Antients called Apostolical Traditions but Customs of the Vniversal Church 3. That when they are called Traditions from the Apostles it is not with any assertion that the Apostles instituted them but that they are supposed to be from their times because their
Original is not known 4. That the Antients joyn not the Lords day with these but take the Lords day for an Apostolical institution written in Scripture though the universal practice of all Churches fullier deliver the certain History of it But the rest they take for unwritten Customs as distinct from Scripture Ordinances As Epiphanius fully sheweth 5. That most Christians are agreed that if these later could be proved Apostolical Institutions for the Church universal it would be our duty to use them though they were not in Scripture So that we reject them only for want of such proof But the proof of the Lords dayes separation being far better by concurrence of Scripture and all antient History it followeth not that we must doubt of that which hath full and certain proof because we must doubt of that which wants it 6. And if it were necessary that they stood or fell together as it is not it were necessary that we did receive those three or four Ceremonies for the sake of the Lords day which â—ath so great evidence rather than that we cast off the Lords day because of these Ceremonies Not only because there is more Good in the Lords dâ—y than there is evil to be any way suspected by a doubter in these Ceremonies but especially because the Evidence for the day is so great that if the said Ceremonies had but the same they were undoubtedly of Divine authority or institution In a word I have shewed you somewhat of the evidence for the Lords day Do you now shew me the like for them and then I will prove that both must be received But if you cannot do not pretend a parity 7. And the same Churches laying by the Customs aforesaid or most of them did shew that they â—â—ok them not indeed for Apostolical institutions as they did the Lords day which they continued to observe not as a Ceremony but as a necessary thing 8. And the ancient Churches did believe that even in the Apostles dayes some things were used as Indifferent which were mutable and were not Laws but temporary customs And some things were necessary setled by Law for perpetuity Of the former kind they thought were the greeting one another with a holy kiss the Womens praying covered with a Veil of which the Apostle saith that it was then and there so decent that the contrary would have been unseemly and the Churches of God had no such custom by which he answereth the contentious yet in other Countreys where custom altereth the signification it may be otherwise Also that a man wear not long hair and that they have a Love Feast on the Lords day which yet Paul seemeth to begin to alter in his rebuke of the abusers of it 1 Cor. 11. And if these ancient Churches thought the Milk and Honey and the white Garment and the Station and Adoration Eastwards to be also such like indifferent mutable customs as it is apparent they did this is nothing at all to invalidate our proof that the Lords day was used and consequently appointed in the dayes of the Apostles Obj. At least it will prove it mutable as they were Answ. No such matter Because the very nature of such Circumstances having no stated necessity or usefulness sheweth them to be mutable But the reason of the Lords dayes use is perpetual And it is founded partly in the Law of nature which telleth us that some stated dayes should be set apart for holy things and partly in the positive part of the fourth Commandment which telleth us that once God determined of one day in seven yea and this upon the ground of his own Cessation of his Creation-work that man on that day might observe a Holy Rest in the worshipping of the great Creator which is a Reason belonging not to the Jews only but to the whole world Yea and that Reason whatever Dr. Heylin say to the contrary from the meer silence of the former History in Genesis doth seem plainly to intimate that this is but the repetition of that Law of the Sabbath which was given to Adam For why should God begin two thousand years after to give men a Sabbath upon the reason of his rest from the Creation and for the Commemoration of it if he had never called man to that Commemoration before And it is certain that the Sabbath was observed at the falling of Manna before the giving of the Law And let any considerate Christian judge between Dr. Heylin and us in this 1. Whether the not falâ—ing of Manna or the Rest of God after the Creation was like to be the Original reason of the Sabbath 2. And whether if it had been the first it would not have been said Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day for on six dayes Manna fell and not on the seventh rather than For in six dayes God created Heaven and Earth c. and rested the seventh day And it is causally added Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it Nay consider whether this annexed Reason intimate not that the day on this ground being hallowed before therefore it was that God sent not down the Manna on that day and that he prohibited the people from seeking it And he that considereth the brevity of the History in Genesis will think he is very bold that obtrudeth on the world his Negative Argument The Sabbath is not there mentioned therefore it was not then kept And if it was a Positive Law given to Adam on the reason of the Creation Rest it was then such a Positive as must be next to a Law of Nature and was given to all mankind in Adam and Adam must needs be obliged to deliver it down to the world So that though the Mosaical Law even as given in Stone be ceased yea and Adams Positives too formally as such yet this is sure that once God himself determined by a Law that one stated day in seven was the fittest proportion of time to be separated to holy Worship And if it was so once yea to all the world from the Creation it is so still Because there is still the same reason for it And we are bound to judge Gods determination of the proportion to be wiser than any that we can make And so by parity of Reason consequentially even those abrogated Laws do thus far bind us still not so far as abrogated but because the record and reason of them is still a signification of the due proportion of time and consequently of our duty Now the Lords day supposing one weekly day to be due and being but that day determined of and this upon the Reason of the Resurrection and for the Commemoration of our Redemption and that by such inspired and authorized persons it followeth clearly that this is no such mutable ceremony as a Love Feast or the Kiss of Love or the Veil or the washing of feet or the anointing of the sick which were mostly occasionall actions and
History assureth us that they did III. Nor have we any fuller Scripture proof that the Apostles used to require of those that were to be Baptized any more than a general Profession of the substance of the Christian faith in God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Or of the ancient use of the Christian Creed either in the words now used or any of the same importance From whence many would inferr that any one is to be Baptized who will but say that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God with the Eunuch Act. 8. 37. or that Christ is come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4. 2 3. But Historical evidence assureth us that it was usual in those times to require of men a more explicite understanding profession of the Christian faith before they were admitted to Baptisme And that they had a summary or Symbole fitted to that use commonly called The Apostles Creed at least as to the constant tenour of the matter though some words might be left to the speakers will and some little subordinate Articles may be since added And that it was long after the use to keep men in the state of Catechised persons till they understood that Creed And it is in it self exceeding probable that though among the intelligent Jews who had long expected the Messiah the Apostles did Baptize thousands in a day Act. 2. Yet where the Miraculous communication of the Spirit did not antecede as it did Act. 10. they would make poor Heathens who had been bred in ignorance to understand what they did first and would require of them an understanding profession of their Belief in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which could not possibly if understanding contain much less than the Symbolum fidâ—i the Apostles Creed IV. Nor have we any Scripture proof except by inferring obedience from the precept that ever the Lords Prayer was used in words after Christ commanded or delivered it Whence some inferr that it should not be so used But Church History putteth that past doubt Other such instances I pretermit I think now that I have fully proved to sober considerate Christians that the matter of fact that the Lords day was appointed by the Apostles peculiarly for Church-Worship is certain to us by historical Evidence added to the historical intimations in Scripture as a full exposition and confirmation of it And that this is a proof that no Christian can deny without unsufferable injury to the Scriptures and the Christian cause CHAP. VI. Prop. 5. This Act of the Apostles appointing the Lords day for Christian Worship was done by the special inspiration or guidance of the Holy Ghost THis is proved 1. Because it is one of those Acts or works of their Office to which the Holy Ghost was promised them 2. Because that such like or smaller things are by them ascribed to the Holy Ghost Act. 15. 28. Iâ— seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us when they did but declare an antecedent duty and decide a Controversie thereabout See also Act. 4. 8. Act. 5. 3. 6. 3. with 7. 55. Act. 13. 2 4. 16. 6 7. 20. 23 28. 21. 11. 2 Tim. 1. 14. Jud. 20. Act. 11. 12 28. 19. 21. 20. 22. 1 Cor. 5. 3 4. 14. 2 15 16. And 1 Cor. 7. 40. When Paul doth but counsel to a single life he ascribeth it to the Spirit of God 3. And if any will presume to say that men purposely indued with the Spirit for the works of their commission did notwithstanding do such great things as this without the conduct of that Spirit they may by the same way of proceeding pretend it to be as uncertain of every particular Book and Chapter in the New Testament whether or no they wrote it by the Spirit For if it be a sound inference They had the promise and gift of the Spirit that they might infallibly leave in writing to the Churches the doctrines and precepts of Christ Ergo whatever they have left in Writing to the Churches as the doctrine and precepts of Christ is Infallibly done by the Guidance of that Spirit Then it will be as good an inference They had the promise and gift of the Spirit that they might infallibly settle Church-orders for all the Churches universalâ—y ergo Whatever Church-orders they setled for all the Churches universally they setled them by the infallible guidance of that Spirit But this few Christians will deny except some Papists who would bring down Apostolical Constitutions to a lower rank and rate that the Pope and his General Council may be capable of â—â—ying claim to the like themselves and so may make as many more Laws for the Church as they please and pretend such an authority for it as the Apostles had for theirs By which preâ—ense many would make too little distinction between Gods Laws given by his Spirit and the Laws 〈◊〉 a Pope and Popish Council and call then all but The Laws of the Church Whereas there is no Universal Head of the Church but Christ who hath reserved Universal Legislation to Himself alone to be performed by himself personally and by his Advocate the Holy Ghost in his Authorized and Infallibly-inspired Apostles who were the Promulgators and Recorders of them All following Pastors being but as the Jewish Priests were to Moses and the Prophets the preservers the expositers and the applyers of that Law CHAP. VII Qu. 2. Whether the seventh day Sabbath should be still kept by Christians as of Divine obligation Neg. I Shall here premise That as some superstition is less dangerous than prophaneness though it be troublesome and have ill consequents so the Errour of them who keep both daies as of Divine appointment is much less dangerous than theirs that keep none yea and less dangerous I think than theirs who reject the Lords day and keep the seventh day only Because these latter are guilty of two sins the rejecting of the right day and the keeping of the wrong but the other are guilty but of one the keeping of the wrong day Besides that if it were not done with a superstitious conceit that it is Gods Law in some cases a day may be voluntarily set apart for holy duties as daies of Thanksgiving and Humiliation now are But yet though the rejecting of the Lords day be the greater fault and I have no uncharitable censures of them that through weakness keep both daies I must conclude it as the truth that We are not obliged to the observation of the Saturday or seventh day as a Sabbath or separated day of holy Worship Arg. 1. That dayes observation which we are not obliged to either by the Law of Nature the Positive Law given to Adam the Positive Law given to Noah the Law of Moses nor the Law of Christ incarnate we are not obliged to by any Law of God as distinct from humane Laws But such is the observation of the seventh day as a Sabbath Ergo we are
he is in the right that maketh Conscience of the Lords day only 2. But yet I will not break Charity with any Brother that shall in tenderness of Conscience keep both dayes especially in times of prophaness when few will be brought to the true observation of one 3. But I think him that keepeth the seventh day only and neglecteth the Lords day to sin against very evident light with many aggravations 4. But I think him that keepeth no day whether professedly or practising contrary to his profession whether on pretence of avoiding Superstition or on pretence of keeping every day as a Sabbath to be far the worst of all I shall now add somewhat to some appendant Questions CHAP. VIII Of the beginning of the Day Quest. 1. When doth the Lords day begin Answ. 1. If we can tell when any day beginneth we may know when that beginneth If we cannot the necessity of our ignorance will shorten the trouble of our scruples by excusing us 2. Because the Lords day is not to be kept as a Jewish Sabbath ceremoniously but the Time and the Rest are here commanded subserviently for the work sake therefore we have not so much reason to be scrupulous about the hours of beginning and ending as the Jews had about their Sabbath 3. I think he that judgeth of the beginning and ending of the day according to the common estimation of the Countrey where he liveth will best answer the ends of the Institution For he will still keep the same proportion of time and so much as is ordinarily allowed on other dayes for work he will spend this day in holy works and so much in rest as is used to be spent in rest on other dayes which may ordinarily satisfie a well informed Conscience And if any extraordinary occasions as journeying or the like require him to doubt of any hours of the night whether they be part of the Lords day or not 1. It will be but his sleeping time and not his worshipping time which he will be in doubt of and 2. He will avoid all scandal and tempting others to break the day if he measure the day by the common estimate whereas if the Countrey where he liveth do esteem the day to begin at Sun-setting and he suppose it to begin at Midnight he may be scandalous by doing that which in the common opinion is a violation of the day If I thought that this short kind of solution were not the fittest to afford just quietness to the minds of sober Christians in this point I would take the pains to scan the Controversie about the true beginning of dayes But left it more puzzle and perplex than edifie or resolve and quiet the Conscience I save my self and the Reader that trouble CHAP. IX Quest. 2. HOw should the Lords day be kept or used Answ. The Practical Directions I have given in another Treatise I shall now give you but these generals I. The day being separated or set apart for Holy Worship must accordingly be spent therein To sanctifie it is to spend it in holy exercises How else should it be used as a Holy Day I was in the Spirit on the Lords day saith St. John Rev. 1. 10. II. The principal work of the day is the Communion of Christians in the publick exercises of Gods worship It is principally to be spent in holy assemblies And this is the use that the Scripture expresly mentioneth Acts 20. 7. and intimateth 1 Coâ— 16. 1 2. And as most Expotors think John 21. when the Disciples were gathered together with the door shut for fear of the Jews And all Church History assureth us that in these holy Assemblies principally the day was spent by the ancient Christians They spent almost all the day together 3. It is not only to be spent in holy exercises but also in such special holy exercises as are suitable to the purposes of the day That is it is a day of Commemorating the whole woâ—â— of our Redemption but especially the Resurrection of Christ. Therefore it is a day of Thanksgiving and Praise and the special services 〈◊〉 it must be Laudatory and Joyful exercises 4. But yet because it is sinners that are called to their work who are not yet fully delivered from their sin and misery these praises must be mixed with penitent Confessions and with earnest Petitions and with diligent Learning the will of God More particularly the publick exercises of the day are 1. Humble and penitent Confessions of sin 2. The faithful and fervent prayers of the Church 3. The Reading Preaching and Hearing of the Word of God 4. The Communion of the Church in the Lords Supper 5. The Laudatory Exhortations which attend it And the singing and speaking of the praises of our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier with joyful Thanksgiving for his wonderful benefits 6. The seasonable exercise of holy Discipline on particular persons for comforting the weak reforming the scandalous casting out the obstinately impenitent and absolving and receiving the penitent 7. The Pastors blessing the people in the name of the Lord. 8. And as an appurtenance in due season Oblations or Contributions for holy and Charitable uses even for the Church and Poor which yet may be put off to other dayes when it is more convenient so to do Qu. But who is it that must be present in all these exercises Answ. Where there is no Church yet called the whole day may be spent in Preaching to and teaching the unconverted Infidels But where there is a Church and no other persons mixt the whole exercises of the day must be such as are fitted to the state of the Church But where there is a Church and other persons Infidels or impenitent ones with them the day must be spent proportionably in exercises suitable to the good of both yet so that Church-exercises should be the principal work of the day And the ancient laudable practice of the Churches was to Preach to the Infidel auditors and Catechumens in the morning on such Subjects as were most suitable to them and then to dismiss them and retain the faithful or baptized only And to Teach them all the Commands of Christ To stir them up to the Joyful commemoration of Christ and his Resurrection and to sing Gods praises and celebrate the Lords Supper with Eucharistical acknowledgments and joy And they never kept a Lords day in the Church without the Lords Supper In which the bare administration of the signes was not their whole work but all their Thanksgiving and Praising exercises were principally then used and connexed to the Lords Supper which the Liturgies yet extant do at large express And I know no reason but thus it should be still or at least but that this course should be the ordinary celebration of the day Qu. But seeing the Sabbath was instituted in the beginning to commemorate the work of the Creation must that be laid by now because of our commemoration of the work of
Scriptures and to learn their Catechisms and the Word of God Surely it better beseemeth any man that believeth another life a Heaven and a Hell to say Poor Labourers have so little time to Learn to Meditate to Read to Pray on the week dayes that if they do not follow it close upon the Lords day they are like to perish in their ignorance For if the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 4. 3. which do you think it better to leave undone if one of them must be left undone Whether the learning of Gods Word or the Pleasures and Recreations of the flesh 3. It is either their Bodies or their Minds that need Recreation When the Body is tired with toilesome labour it is ease rather than toilesome Dancings or Plays that are fit to recreate it Or else God will be charged with mistake in the reasons of the ancient Sabbath But if it be the Mind that needeth recreation why should not the Learning of Heavenly truth and the Joyful Commemoration of our Redemption and the foresight of Heaven and the Praises of God be more delightful than the noise of Thornes under a pott even than the laughter and sport of fools or than the Dancings and Games that now you plead for But the truth is It is not the Minds of poor labouring men that are over-workt and tired on the week dayes but it is their bodies And therefore there is no Recreation so suitable to them as the ease of the body and the holy and joyful exercise of the mind upon their Creator their Redeemer and their Everlasting Rest. 4. But if you will needs have daies of temptation and sinful sports and pleasures for them let Landlords abate their Tenants as much Rent as one dayes vacancy from labour in a Month or a Fortnight will amount to or let the Common ` Saints dayes which of the two are more at mans disposal be made their sporting dayes and rob not their souls of that one weekly day which God hath separated for his Worship Obj. But there are Students and Lawyers and Ministers and Gentlemen whose labour is most that of the Brain and not the Plow-mans bodily toile and these have need of bodily Recreation Answ. And there are few of these so poor but they can take their bodily Recreation on the week dayes And many of them need as much the whole Lords day for their souls Edification as any others And no one that knoweth himself will say that he needs it not If any men need remission of Studies and bodily Exercise it is Ministers themselves And is it themselves that they plead for Sports and Dancing for Would they be companions of the vain in such like vanities Obj. But the mind of man is not able to endure a constant intension and elevation of devotion all the day long without recreation and intermission And putting men upon more than they can do will but hinder them when a little recreation will make them more fresh and fervent when they return to God Answ. O what an advantage is it to know by experience what one talketh of And what an inconvenience to talk of Holiness and Heavenliness by hearsay only 1. To poor people that have but one day in seven that one day should not seem too long 2. If it be from a Carnal enemity to God and spiritual things shortness and seldomeness will be no Cure But they have need rather to be provoked to diligence till they are cured than to be indulged in that averseness and floth which till its cured will prevail when you have done your best against it 3. But if it be a weariness of the flesh as the Disciples when they slept while Christ was Praying or a weariness through such imperfection of Grace and Remnant of Carnality which the sincere are lyable to then giving way to it will increase it and resisting it is the way to overcome it 4. How many necessary intermissions are there which confute this pretense of weariness Some time is taken up in dressing And some with poor Servants in waiting on their Masters and Mistrisses and in preparing Meat and drink some in going to Church and coming home some in eating usually more than once some in preparing again for sleep besides what Cattle and by-occasions will require And is the remainder of one day in a week yet too much for the business which we are Created preserved and Redeemed for and on which our endless life dependeth O that we knew what the Love of God is and what it is to regard our souls according to their worth Would not a soul that loveth God rather say Alas how short is the Lords day How quickly is it gone How many interruptions hinder my delight Shall I think a Week short enough for my worldly labours and one day thus parcelled too long to seek the face of God I see blind Worldlings and sensualists can be longer unwearied at Market in their Shops and Fields especially when their gain comes in and at Cards and Dice and Bowling and idle Prating c. And shall I be weary so soon of the most noble and necessary Work and of the sweetest pleasures upon Earth An Hypocrite that draweth near to God but with the lips whilest his heart is far from him as he never truly seeketh God so he never truly findeth him and hath none of the true spiritual delights of holiness nor ever feeleth the pleasure of exercising his Love to God by the help of faith in the hopes of Heaven And therefore no wonder if he be weary of such unprofitable sapless and unpleasant work as his dead formalities and affectations are But it is not so with the sincere experienced Christian who serving God in spirit and truth hath true and spiritual recreation pleasure and benefit in and by his Service And therefore we see that the holy experienced believers are still averse to these sensual diversions and do not think the Lords da or his Service too long And O Christian what happy advantage in such controversies have you in your holy sincerity and sweet experience 5. But yet I am not such a stranger to man to my self or others as to deny that our naughty hearts are inclined to be weary of well doing But mark what a cure God in Wisdom and mercy hath provided for us As it is but one day in seven which is thus to be wholly employed with God and as much of this day is taken up with the bodily necessaries aforesaid so for the rest God appointeth us variety of exercises that when we are weary of one another may be our recreation When we have heard we must pray and when we have prayed we must hear again We must Read we must Sing and speak Gods Praises we must celebrate the memorial of Christs death in the Sacrament we must Meditate we must Conferr we must instruct our Families And we have variety of subjects for each
yet it is not all such necessity neither that will allow us to do the thing Otherwise a Tradesman or Plowman might say that his labour is necessary to the getting or saving of this or that small commodity I shall be a loser if I do not work And on the other side if it were only a necessity for life limbs or livelihood that would allow us labour than it would be unlawful to dress Meat and to drive Cattle out of the Corn and many such things before mentioned And then it would be lawful to give meat only 〈◊〉 Oxen or Horses of great priâ—e and not to Hens Ducks Geese Dogs and other Animals of little value Therefore there is a great deal of prudent discretion necessary to the avoiding of extreamâ— God hath not enumerated all the particulars which are allowed or forbidden in their generals What then shall we do Shall we violate the outward rest of the day for the worth of 〈◊〉 Groat or two Pence as the feeding of Hens or such like may be Or shall we suffer the loâ—â— of many pounds rather than stiâ—r to save them As for instance Is it lawful to open or turn 〈◊〉 carry in Corn or Hay which in all rational probability though not certainly is like to be lost oâ— very much spoiled if it be let alone to the next day The Corâ— or Hay may be of many pounds value when the feeding of Swine oâ— Hens may be little The Corâ— or Hay is like to be lost when the Swine or Hens or Horses or Oxen may easily recover the hunger or abstinence of a day What must be done in such cases as these I answer 1. It is necessary to know that where God hath not made particular determinations yet general Laws do still oblige us 2. And that Christian Prudence is necessary to the right discarning how far our actions fall under those General Laws of God 3. That he that will discern these things must be a man that truly understandeth valueth and loveth the true Ends and Work of the Lords day and not a man that hateth it or careth not for it And a man that hath a right estimate also of those outward things which stand in question to be medled with And he must be one that hath no superstitious Jewish conceits of the external Rest of the day And he must be one that looketh not only to one thing or a few but to all things how numerous soever which the determination of his case dependeth on 4. And because very few are such it is needful that those few that are such be Casuists and Advisers to the rest and that the more ignorant consult with them especially if they be their proper Pastors as they do with Physicians and Lawyers for their health and their estates 5. It must be known that oft times the Laws of the Land do interpose in such cases And if they do determine so strictly as to forbid that which else would to some be lawful they must be obeyed Because bad men cannot be kept from doing ill by excesses unless some good men be hindered by the same Laws from some things that are to them indifferent nay possibly eligible if there were no such Law 6. And accordingly the case of Scandal or Temptation to others that will turn our Example to their sin must be considered in our Practice Yea it is not only things meerly Indifferent that we must deny our liberty in to prevent anothers fall but oft times that which would else be a Duty may become a sin when it will scandalize another or tempt him to a farr greater and more dangerous sin As it may be my duty to speak some word or do some action as most useful and beneficial when there is nothing against it And yet if I may foresee that another will turn that speech or action to his ruine to the hatred of piety or to take occasion from it to exercise cruelty upon other Christians c. it may become my hainous sin So it must here be considered who will know of the Action which you do and what use they are like to make of it 7. And a little publick hurt must be more regarded than more private benefit And the hurt of a mans soul cannot be countervailed by your corporal Commodities 8. These things being premised I suppose that the great Rule to guide you in such undetermined Circumstances is the Interest of the End All things must be done to the Glory of God and to Edification A truly impartial prudent man can discern by comparing all the circumstances whether his action as if it were carrying in Endangered Corn were likely to do more good or harm On one side you must put in the ballance the value of the thing to be saved your own necessity of it the poors need of it and Christs command Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost on the other side you must consider how far it will hinder your spiritual benefit and duty and how far the example may be like to encourage such as will do such things without just cause And so try which is the way of Gods honour and your own and your neighbours good and that is the way which you must take As in the Disciples rubbing the ears of Corn c. For the Rule is that your labour is then lawful and a duty when in the judgement of a truly judicious person it is like to do more good than hurt And it is then sinful when it is like to do more hurt than good Though all cannot discern this yet as far as I know this is the true rule to judge such actions by As for them that suppose our Lords day to be under the same Laws of Rest with the Jewish Sabbath and so think that they have a readyer way to decide these doubts I will not contend with them but I have told you why I am not of their mind V. From hence I further conclude that whereas there are some actions which bring some little benefit but yet are no apparent hinderances of any of the work of the day it seemeth to me too much Ceremoniousness and too ungospel-like to trouble our own or other mens Consciences by concluding such things to be unlawful If one have a word to speak of some considerable worldly business which may be forgotten if it be not presently spoken or if I meet one with whom I must speak the next day about some worldly business and if I then wish him not to come speak with me I must send a great way to him afterwards I will not say that it is a sin to speak such a word I will first look at a mans positive duties on the Lords day how he heareth and readeth and prayeth and spendeth his time and how he instructeth and helpeth his Family And if he be diligent in seeking God Heb. 11. 6. and ply his Heavenly business I shall be very backward to judge him
for a word or action about wordly things that falls in on the by without any hinderance to his spiritual work And if another speak not a word of any common thing and yet do little in spiritual things for his own or others edification I shall think him a great abuser or neglecter of the Lords day A few words about a common thing that falleth in the way may be spoken without any hinderance of any holy duty But still we must see that it be not a scandalous temptation to others If I see a man that unexpectedly findeth some uncomely hole or rent in his Cloaths either pin it up or few it up before he goeth abroad I will not blame him But if he do it so as to embolden another who useth needlesly to mend his Cloaths on the Lords day it will be a sin of scandal If I see one cut some undecent stragling haires before he go forth I will not blame him But if he do it before one who will be encouraged by it to be barbed needlesly on that day he will offend And so in other cases VI. By these same Rules also we may judge of Recreations on the Lords day The Recreations of the mind must be the various holy employments of the day No bodily Recreations are lawful which needlesly waste time or hinder our duty or divert our minds from holy things or are a snare to others Unless it be some weak persons whose health requireth bodily motion few persons need any other than holy recreations on that day I know no one man that so much needeth it as my self who these twenty years cannot digest one dayes meat unless I walk or run or exercise my body before it till I am hot or sweat And therefore necessity requireth me to walk or fast But I do it privately on that day left I tempt others to sin But I will not censure one whom I see walking at fit houres when for ought I know he may be taken up in some fruitful Meditation But if persons will walk in the Streets or Fields in idleness or for vain delight or discourse as if the day were too long for them and they had no business to do for their souls this is not only a sin but a very ill sign of one that is senseless of his souls necessity and his duty VII To read History Philosophy or common things unnecessarily on the Lords day is a sinful diversion from the more spiritual work of it and unsuitable to the appointed uses of the day much more Romances Play Books or idle stories Yea or those parts of Divinity it self which are less practical and useful to the raising of Thankful and Heavenly affections But yet sometimes such other matter may fall in at a Sermon or Conference or in Meditation which will require a present satisfaction in some point of History Philosophie or controversal Divinity which may be subserviently used to Edification without sin Here therefore we must judge prudently VIII A thing that may be lawful singly in it self unless it be of great necessity is unlawful when he that serveth us in it is drawn or encouraged to make a trade of it As to use a Barber to cut your hair or a Tailor to mend your Cloaths or a Coblar to mend your Shooes Because if you may use him so may others as well as you and so he will follow his Calling on the Lords day And yet I dare not say if when you are to travel to Church you find your Shooes or Boots by breaking something to make you uncapable of going out but you may get them mended privately where it may be done without this inconvenience And though Cooks and Bakers should not be unnecessarily used in their trade yet is it not alwaies unlawful but sometimes very well Because as one servant in the Kitchin may be used to dress meat for all the family so one Baker or Cooke may serve many families and save ten times as many persons the labour which else they must be at And perhaps with easier and quicker dispatch than others The trade of the Apothecary Surgeon and Physician is ordinarily used but for necessity IX There is no sufficient avoidance of such abuses but by careful foresight and prevention and preparation the week before which therefore must be conscionably done CHAP. XII Of what importance the due Observation of the Lords day is THese singular benefits of keeping the Lords day aright should make all that Love God or holiness or the Church or their own or other mens souls take heed how they grow into a neglect or abuse of it much more that they plead not for such negligence or abuse I. The due observation of the Lords day is needful to keep up the solemn worship of God and publick owning and honouring him in the world If all men were left to themselves what time they would bestow in the worshipping of God the greatest part would cast off all and grow into Atheisme or utter prophaneness And the rest would grow into confusion And if all Princes and Rulers or Churches in the world were left to their own wills to appoint the people on what dayes to meet some Kingdoms and Churches would have one day in eight or nine or ten or twenty and some only now and then an hour and some one day and some another and some next to none at all For there is no one universal Monareh on Earth to make Laws for them all whatever the Pope or his nominal-General Councils may pretend to And they would never all come to any reasonable agreement voluntarily among themselves Therefore the Light of Nature telleth us that as a day is meet and needful to be stated so it is meet that God himself the true Universal Monarch should determine of it which accordingly he hath done And this is the very hedge and defensative of Gods publick Worship When he hath made a Law that one whole day in seven shall be spent in it men are engaged to attend it O what a happy acknowledgement of God our Creatour and Redeemer is it and an honouring of his blessed name when all the Churches throughout all the World are at once praising the same God with the same praises and hearing and learning the same Gospel and professing the same faith and thankfully commemorating the same benefits The Church is then indeed like an Army with Banners And were it not for this dayes observation alas how different would the case be And what greater thing can man be bound to than thus to keep up the solemn acknowledgement and worship of God and our Redeemer in the world II. The due Sanctification of the Lords day doth tend to make Religion Vniversal as to Countreys and individual persons which else would be of narrower extent When all the world are under a Divine obligation to spend one day every week in the exercises of Religion and superiours see to the performance of their
subjects obedience to this Law it will make men to be in some sort Religious whether they will or not Though they cannot be truly Religious against their will it will make them visibly religious Yea Gods own Law if mans did nothing would lay arrawe on the Consciences of most who believe that there is a God that made that Law And the weekly Assemblies keep up the knowledge and profession of the Christian faith and keep God and Heaven in the peoples remembrance and keep sin under constant rebukes and disgrace And were it not for this Heathenisme Infidelity and prophaneness would quickly overspread the world The Lords day keepeth up the Christian Religion in the World III. The lamentable Ignorance of the generality in the world doth require the strict and diligent observation of the whole Lords day Children and Servants and ordinary Countrey people yea and too many of higher quality are so exceeding Ignorant of the things of God and their Salvation that all the constantest diligence that can be used with them in Preaching Exhorting Catechizing c. will not overcome it with the most The most diligent Masters of Families lament it how Ignorant their Families are when they have done the best they can Let those that plead for dancing and sporting away much of the day but do like men that do not secretly scorn Christianity nor despise their servants souls and let them but try what measure of knowledge the bare hearing of Common Prayer yea and a Sermon or two with it will beget in their servants if the rest of the day be spent in sports and let them judge according to experience If ever knowledge be propagated to such and families made fit to live like Christians it is likest to be by the holy improvement of this day in the diligent teaching and Learning the substance of Religion and in the Sacred exercises thereof IV. The great Carnality Wordliness and Carelesness of the most and their great averseness to the things of God doth require that they be called and kept to a close and diligent improvement of the Lords day Whatever unexperienced or carnal persons may pretend that such constant duty so long together will make them worse and more averse reason experience and Scripture are all against them If there be some backwardness at the first it is not sports and idleness that will cure it but resisting of the slothful humour and keeping to the work For there is that in Religion that tendeth to overcome mens averseness to Religion And it must be overcome by Religion and not by playing or idleness if ever it be overcome It is want of knowledge and experience of it which maketh them loath it or be weary of it when they have tryed it more and know it better they will if ever be reconciled to it Six dayes in a Week are a sufficient diversion Apprentices and Pupils and School-boyes will hold on in learning though they be averse And you think not all the six dayes too much to hold them to it A School-boy must learn daily eight or nine hours in a day and yet some wretched men yea Teachers would perswade poor souls that must learn how to be saved or perish for ever that less than eight hours one day in seven is too much to be spent in the needfullest excellentest and pleasantest matters in all the World If you say that the sublimity or difficulty maketh it wearisome I answer that Philosophers do much longer hold on in harder speculations If you say Divinity being unsuitable to carnal minds their sick Stomachs must take no more than they can digest I answer 1. Cannot a Carnal Preacher for his gain and honour and fancy hold on all the year in the study even of Divinity perhaps eight or ten hours every day in the week And may not ignorant people be brought one day to endure to be taught as long 2. That which you call Digesting is but Vnderstanding and believing and receiving it And one truth tendeth to introduce another And he that cannot learn with an hours labour may learn more in two 3. And it is hearing and exercise that must cure their want of appetite Experience telleth us that when people take the liberty of playes and sports and idleness for a recreation they come back with much more want of Love to holy exercises than they that continue longer at them Gratifying sloth and sensuality increaseth it and increaseth an averseness to all that is good For who are more averse than they that are most voluptuous If ever people be made seriously holy it is a due observation of the whole Lords day that is like to bring them to it I mean observing it in such Learning and seeking duties as they are capable of till they can do better For when the mind long dwelleth on the truth it will sink in and work And many strokes will drive the nail to the head Let the Adversaries of this day and diligence but observe And if true experience tell not the World that more souls are Converted on the Lords dayes than on all other dayes besides and that Religion best prospereth both as to the Number and the knowledge and serious Holiness of the professours of it where the Lords day is carefully sanctified rather than where Idleness and playing do make intermission than I will confess that I am uncapable of knowing any thing of this nature by experiences But if it be so fight not against the common light V. The Poverty Servitude and worldly necessities of the most do require a strict observation of the whole Lords day Tenants and Labourers Carters and Carryers and abundance of Tradesmen are so poor that they can hardly spare any other considerable proportion of time much less all their Children and Servants whose subjection with their Parents and Masters poverty restraineth them Alas they are fain to rise early and hasten to their work and scarce have leisure to eat and sleep as nature requireth And they are so toiled and wearied with hard labour that if they have at night a quarter of an hour to read a Chapter and Pray they can scarce hold open their eyes from sleeping What time hath the Minister then to come and teach them if we had such Ministers again as would be at the pains to do it And what time have they to hear or learn You must teach them on the Lords day or scarcely at all Almost all that they must learn must be then learnt I deny not but in those former years when the Law forbad me not to Preach the Gospel the people came to me on the week day house by house and also that they Learned much in their shops while they were working But 1. It came to each Families turn but one hour or little more in a whole Year For about fourteen families a week so Catechized and instructed did no sooner bring their course about 2. And our people were mostly Weavers whose
labour was not like the Plowmans Masons Carpenters Carryers c. to take up their thoughts but they could lay a Book before them and read or meditate or Discourse to Edification whilest they were working But this is not the case of the Multitude And let any sober man but consider whether with people so ignorant and averse as the most are should he be never so diligent on the Lords day the six dayes intermission be not a great cooling of affection and a great delayer of their growth in knowledge when they are like by the weeks end to forget all that they had learned on the Lords day What then would these poor people come to if the Lords day it self must be alsoloitered or played away VI. The tyranny of many Masters maketh the Lords day a great mercy to the world For if God had not made a Law for their Rest and Liberty abundance of worldly impious persons would have allowed them little Rest for their bodies and less opportunity for the good of their souls Therefore they have cause with great thankfulness to improve the holy liberty which God hath given them and not cast it away on play or idleness VII The full improvement of the Lords dayes doth tend to breed and keep up an able faithful Ministry in the Churches on which the preservation and glory of Religion much dependeth When there is a necessity of full Ecclesiastical performances imposed on Ministers they are also necessitated to prepare themselves with answerable abilities and fitness But when no more is required of them but to read the Liturgie or to say a short and dry Discourse they that know no more is necessary to their ends are so strongly tempted to get ability and preparations for no more that few will overcome the temptation And therefore the World knoweth that in Moscovy Abassia and for the most part of the Greek and Armenian Churches as nothing or little more than Reading is required so little more ability than to Read is laboured after And the Ministers are ordinarily so ignorant and weak as is the scorn and decay of the Christian Religion VIII Yea it will strongly encline Masters of Families to labour more for abilities to instruct and Catechise their Families and pray with them and guide them in the fear of God when they know that the whole day must be improved to the spiritual good of their Families And so knowledge abilities and family-holiness will increase Whereas those that think themselves under no such obligations what ignorant profane and ungodly families have they because for the most part they are such themselves IX A multitude of gross sins will be prevented by the due observation of the Lords day Nothing more usual than for the sports riots idleness and sensuality of that day to be nurseries of Oathes Curses Ribaldry Fornication Gluttony Drunkenness Frayes and Bloodshed And is not Gods Service better work than these X. Lastly This holy order and prosperity of the Churches and this knowledge and piety in individual Subjects will become the safety beauty order and felicity of Kingdomes and all Civil societies of men For when the people are fit but duly to use and sanctifie the Lords day they are fit to use all things in a sanctified manner and to be an honour to their Countrey and an ease and comfort to their Governours and a common blessing to all about them CHAP. XIII What other Church Festivals or separated daies are lawful I Shall conclude this Discourse with the brief answer of this Question I. No sober Christian doubteth but that some part of every day is to be spent in Religious exercises And that even our earthly business must be done with a spiritual intent and mind And that every day must be kept as like to the Lords day as our weakness and our other duties which God hath laid upon us will allow II. Few make any question but the whole dayes of Humiliation and of Thanksgiving may and must be kept upon great and extraordinary occasions of Judgements or of mercies And that many Churches may agree in these And I know no just reason why the Magistrate may not with Charity and Moderation to the weak impose them and command such an agreement among his Subjects III. Few doubt but the Commemoration of great Merâ—ies or Judgements may be made anniversary and of long continuance As the Powder-plot day Nov. 5. is now made among us to preserve the memorial of that deliverance And why may it not be continued whilest the great sense of the benefit should be continued And so the second of Sept. is set apart for the Anniversary humbling remembrance of the Firing of London And so in divers other cases IV. The great blessing of an Apostolick Ministry and of the stability of the Martyrs in their sufferings for Christ being so rare and notable a Mercy to the Church I confess I know no reason why the Churches of all succeeding ages may not keep an Anniversary day of Thanksgiving to God for Peter or Paul or Stephen as well as for the Powder plot-deliverance I know not where God hath forbidden it directly or indirectly If his instituting the Lords day were a virtual prohibition for man to separate any more or if the prohibition of adding to Gods Word were against it they would be against other daies of Humiliation and Thanksgiving especially Anniversarily which we confess they are not If the reason be scandal lest the Men should have the honour instead of God I Answer 1. An honour is due to Apostles and Martyrs in their places in meet subordination to God 2. Where the case of scandal is notorious it may become by that accident unlawful and yet not be so in other times and places V. The Devil hâ—th here been a great Vndoer by Overdoing When he knew not how else to cast out the holy observation of the Lords day with zealous people he found out the trick of devising so many dayes called Holy dayes to set up by it that the people might perceive that the observation of them all as holy was never to be expected And so the Lords day was jumbled in the heap of holy dayes and all turned into Ceremony by the Papists and too many other Churches in the World Which became Calvins temptation as his own words make plain to think too meanly of the Lords day with the rest VI. In the lawful observation of daies it is most orderly to do as the Churches do which we live among and are to joine with VII But if Church tyranny would overwhelm any place with over-numerous daies or Ceremonies which are singly considered lawful we should do nothing needlesly to countenance and encourage such usurpation VIII Yet is it lawful to hear a Sermon which shall be Preached on a humane Holy day which is imposed by Usurpation Seeing such a a Moral duty may be done and so great a benefit received without any approbation of the inconvenient season
Text Though I know some say otherwise to the injury of their own cause 8. How many years together the Churches had been in possession and consequently in the undoubted knowledge of the true established day of holy Worship before a word of the New Testament was Written And therefore that it was not written to be the first enacting of this day or change but for other uses 9. And yet how much evidence of the fact there is in the Scripture it self that really such a day was used for the ordinary Church-assemblies as a peculiar separated day even by the Common order of the Apostles in the Churches as 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. speaks 10. And how impossible it is that all the Churches in the World should from their beginning keep this as the separated day even by the Apostles and from their times if it had not been so ordered by them indeed And whether it be possible that in no age neer the original hereof no Pastor no Christian no Heretick no Enemy would have detected the fraud or common Errour or once have written that this day was not separated or used by the Apostles or Apostolical Churches no nor any one that I know of that denyed not the Resurrection ever to have scrupled or opposed the day 11. Whether they that can reject such Historical evidence as this is do not unwittingly cast away the holy Scriptures what zeal soever they pretend or have for their honour and perfection 12. Whether they that can reject all this evidence and yet can find in the second Commandment the prohibition of all formes of Prayer Sermons Catechismes all modal inventions of men as Images if not Idols are without partiality or do not walk as men by very different measures and partial conceptions I would on my knees intreat some most dear and worthy friends on their knees to ponder these twelve particulars But because by their preterition of the Text Act. 2. 1 2. I perceive they observe not that the Holy Ghost came down on the Lords day Let them consider that the Passeover was on the Sabbath day that year and therefore it must needs be just fifty dayes to that Lords day and it must be the day of Pentecost And it is not a trifle that the first Sermon to 〈◊〉 people was Preached by Peter on that day and â—000 Converted by it and Baptized Dr. Heyliâ—s own words are these Part. 2. p. 13. The first particular passage which did occâ—â—â— in holy Scripturâ— touching the first day of the week is that upon that day the Holy Ghost did first come down on the Apostles and that on the same day St. Peter Preached his first Sermon to the Jews and Baptized such as believed there being added to the Church that day 3000 souls And to prove the day he saith p. 14. The rule being this that on what day soever the second of the Passover did fall on that also fell the great Feast of Pentecost as Scaliger de Emend Temp. l. 2. So that as often as the Passover did fall on the Sabbath as this year it did then Pentecost fell on the Sunday The last part of our Objections are from History and it is said Obj. Qu. Whether the observation of the first day was not brought into this Island by Antichrist about 408 or 409 years agoe Roger Hoveden about an 1202 above 1200 years after Christ mentioneth a Council held in Scotland for the initiation or first bringing in that which he calls the Dominical day see this testimony mentioned by Binius in his Councils and somewhat enlarged by Matth. Paris the old impression fol. 192 193. and the last Edition fol. 200 and 201 And how the King of England and the Nobility would not then receive this alteration I conceive that in the first Centuries the great Controversie relating to this was about translating the keeping the Passover which they now call Easter from the fourteenth day of the first Moon c. under the colour of honouring Christ to the first day of the Week as the Dominical day which the Popes first set themselves with great vehemency to introduce And as the Pope obtained his purpose for one day in a year so by degrees in some places came in one day in a week the first day to be observed and the seventh day by one of the Popes turned from a Festival 〈◊〉 Fast whilest many of the Eastern and some of the Western Churches did still retain withall the observation of the seventh-day Sabbath together with the first day and others of the Churches in the East and West kept only to the seventh day as the Christian Sabbath c. Answ. How much more desirable an Adversary is Heylin by his acquaintance with History 1. Were any of the Authors I before cited either Antichristian or 1200 years after Christ Ignatius if genuine was about an 102. If not as Dalaeus thinks then he was about 300. The Canons called the Apostles and the Constitutions called the Apostles very ancient Justin Martyr wrote his Apol an 150. about 50 years after St. Johns death where his testimony is as plain as can be spoken To which Plinyes who wrote about 107. some seven years after St. Johns death may be joyned that he may be understood of the day Clemens Alexand. about 94 years after St. John an 194. Tertullian who is most express and full and frequent about 198 that is 98 years after St. John Origen about 206 began his Teaching Cyprian about an 250. Athanasius who wrote largely of it about an 330. To what purpose should I mention again Eusebius Greg. Nazianzen Nyssen and all the rest It was but about an 309 that Constantine began his raign who made Laws for the Lords day which other Christian Emperours enlarged But how much earlier were all those Synods which Eusebius mentioned which in the determination of Easter owned the Lords day And that of Nice was but about an 327. The Council of Laodicea but about an 314 or 320. The Council of Eliberis about an 307. Can. 21. saith If any that live in the Cities shall stay from Church three Lords daies let him be so long suspended from the Sacrament till he be sensible of his punishment After this how many Councils and how many Imperial Laws take care of the Lords dayes It is tedious to cite them To these may be added 1. The common agreement that it is founded in the Resurrection and was from that time 2. The early contest for keeping Easter only on that day which you note as being a day by all Christians received 3. The common detestation of Fasting on that day 4. And the universal custome of not kneeling in adoration on that day which all shew that the day was specially observed Athanasius saith de sab Circ Even as at the first it was commanded that the Sabbath should be observed in memory of the finishing of the World so do we celebrate the Lords day as the commemoration
of the beginning of a new Creation And Hom. de Sem. The Lord transferred the Sabbath to the Lords day Though Nannius question the Hom. de semente so do few others and none that I know of question that de Sab. Circ Greg. Nyss. Orat. in s. Pasc. saith As God rested on the Sabbath from all his works which he had done in the Creation so did the only begotten Son of God rest in truth from all his works c. August Epist. 119. The Lords day was declared to Christians by the Lords Resurrection From that time or thence it began to have its Festivity Maximus Taurinensis saith Hom. 3. de Pentec The Lords day is therefore set apart because on it our Saviour as the rising Sun discussing the infernal darkness did shine forth in his resurrection And for Fasting Tertul. de Cor. Mil. c. 3. saith We account it unlawful to fast on the Lords day And though the Montanists fasted excessively they excepted the Lords day Tertul. adv Psych c. 15. Ignatius and the Apost Const. Can. are forecited of this Austin saith Ep. 86. It is a great scandal to fast on the Lords day Which the Manichees were accused of The Concil Gangr Can. 18. saith If any on pretense of abstinence fast on the Lords day let him be Anathema The Concil Caesar-august c. 2. is against fasting on the Lords day either for the sake of any time as Lent or perswasion or superstition whatsoever So the Concil Agath c. 12. Concil Aurel. 4. c. 2. And the Concil Carth. an 398. Can. 64. Let him be taken for no Catholick who purposely fasteth on the Lords day And the prohibition of kneeling in adoration I have opened before ex Concil Nic. c. 20. Concil Trulâ— Epiphan c. To which I adde Collect. Can. Johâ—n Antioch sub titulo L. Tertul. de Cor. Mil. c. 3. now cited Hieronym adv Lucifer cap. 4. Die dominico per omnem Pentecosten nec de geniculis adorare jejunium solvere multaque alia que non Scriptâ— sunt rationabilis sibi observatio vindicavit yet Paul kneeled Act. 20. in that time vid. Justell ad Can. 20. Conc. Nic. Question ad Orthod inter Justin. opera qu. 115. p. 283. Die Dominico genua non flectere symbolum est Resurrectionis c. Germanus Constantinop in Theoria Eccles. p. 149. Our not kneeling on the Lords day signifieth our erection from our fall by Christs Resurrection c. see also Basil de spir Sanc. c. 27. To. 2. p. 112 113. Balsamon theron p. 1032. Zonari in c. 20. Conc. Nic. p. 66. see Casp. Suicerus de bisce sacr observ c. 6. 2. Your Historical observations are utterly mistaken The observation of the Lords day was in all the Churches past all Controversie from the beginning while the time of Easter was in Controversie as I have proved Why would you not name those Churches in East and West which I never read or heard of yea or that person that was for the seventh day alone I am confident because you could not do it Indeed all Churches called the seventh day alone by the old name Sabbath while they maintained the Sabbath to be ceased But under the name of the Lords day the first was solemnly observed 3. In Hoveden and Mat. Paris there is not a word of what you say so much do you mis-cite History There is indeed an 1201. which as I remember is Hovedens last the story that many Authors talk of and Heylin mentioneth of one that sound a Letter pretended from Heaven upon the Altar reproving the crying sins of the times and especially the prophanation of the Lords day and requiring them to keep it strictly for the time to come which was so far from being the initiation of the Lords day that it was about 1167 years after it And how could men pretend such a Divine reproof for such a sin if the day not been received before I pray read Heylins History against us which will set you righter in the matter of fact And there is no mention of any such Council as you talk of for the initiation of the Lords day nor any resistance of the Kings or Scots There is nothing of all this in Hoveden or Mat. Paris 4. But what if England had been ignorant of the Lords day till then which is utterly untrue it followeth not that they kept the Sabbath on the seventh day Nor would a Barbarous remote corner of the World prejudice the testimony of all Christs Churches in every age 5. But that you may see how greatly you mistake the case of England read but our eldest English Historian Beda Hist. Eccles. As l. 1. 26. he mentioneth an old Church named St. Martins built in the Romans time and cap. 33. a Church built by the ancient faithful Romans And by the way I think it most probable that the Roman Souldiers first brought Christianity into Brittain so he oft describeth the Worship as agreeable to other Churches And l. 2. c. 2. he begins his reproof of the Britains for not keeping Easter on the due Lords day but never reproveth them for not keeping the Lords day it self And though the Britans and the Scots had so little regard of the English Bishops sent from Rome that they awhile refused so much as to eat with them yea or to eate in the same Inne cap. 4. li. 2. yet about the Lords day there was no Controversie Lib. 3. c. 4. he tells you that the Scots difference about Easter day continued till an 716. for want of intelligence from other Churches though Columbanus and his followers were very holy persons And that you may see you errour he there tells you that they did not keep Easter day with the Jews on the fourteenth day still as some thought but on the Lords day but not in the right week For saith he they knew as being Christians that the Lords Resurrection which was on the first day of the week was alwaies to be celebrated on the first day of the week But being Barbarous and Rusticks they had not yet learned when that same first day of the week which is now called the Lords day did come Here you see that it was past Controversie with them that the Lords day must be Celebrated in memorial of Christs Resurrection and the Scots kept not Easter on any other Week day And that they had not been like Christians if they had not owned and kept the Lords day only they had not skill enough in Calculating the times so as to know when the true Anniversary Lords day came about but kept Easter on a wrong Lords day The same he saith again in the praise of Fâ—nan lib. 3. cap. 17. that though he kept not Easter at the due time yet he did not as some falsâ—y think keep it on any week day in the fourteenth Moon with the Jews but he alwayes kept it on the Lords day from the fourteenth Moon to the
twentieth because of the Belief of the Lords Resurrection which the Church truly believed was on the first day of the week for the hope of our Resurrection and which they believed will fall out on the same first day of the week which is now called the Lords day So cap. 25. the King and the Queen kept Easter on several Lords dayes and the difference made the stir And Wilfrid in his Speech there saith the same that the Scots kept Ester only on the Lords day by whom the King at that time was changed And li. 3. c. 26. Beda saith that Tuda another holy follower of the Scots being made Bishop On the Lords daies the people flockt by crowds together either to the Church or to the Monasteries not to refresh their bodies but to learn the word of God and if any Priest hapt to come into a Village presently the Inhabitants Congregati in unum gathered together took care to seek from him the word of life Cap. 2. li. 4. Theodorus his Consecration on the Lords day is mentioned Lib. 4. cap. 5. In the Synod at Herudford the first Canon is that all keep Easter on the Lords day next after the fourteenth Moon of the first Month. Lib. 5. cap. 22. Ceolfridus sendeth an Epistle to the King of the Picts in which are these words Postquam verò Pasâ—ha nostrum immolatus est Christus Diemque nobis Dominicam quae apud antiquâ—t una 〈◊〉 prima Sabbati sive Sabbatorum vocatur gaudio suae Resurrectionis fecit esse solennem ita hanc nunc Apostolica traditio festis Paschalibus inseruit that is But when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us and by the Joy of his Resurrection made the Lords day which by the Ancients was called one or the first of the Sabbath or Sabbaths to be a solemn day to us so now Apostolical Tradition hath ingraffed it into the Paschal Festivals Where you see that the Lords day settled as solemn by the Resurrection he taketh for uncontroverted but the graffing it into the Easter Festivals he ascribeth to Apostolical Tradition meaning St. Peters And after in the same Epistle Qui tertia post immolationem suae passionis die resurgens à mortuis hanc dominicam vocari in eâ nos annuatim Paschalia ejusdem Resurrectionis voluit festa celebrare that is Christ rising from the dead the third day after the Sacrifice of his passion would have this called the Lords day and would have us on it to Celebrate the Paschal Feast of his Resurrection The like is after again in that Epistle with this addition that we hold that our own Resurrection will be on the Lords day By this Epistle the King of the Picts was brought to Conformity in that day and made Laws for it And Cap. 23. The Scots of Hy who stood out so long were brought to it by the perswasion of Eigbertus Judge now of your Historical note of England But that you may see more of this you may Read Beda's mind that lived in England in other of his Works On Act 20. In una Sabbathi eum convenissemus ad fraugendum pâ—nem id est Die Dominico qui est primus a Sabbate cum ad mysteria celebrandae Congregâ—ti essemus that is On the Lords day which is the first from the Sabbath when we were Congregated to Celebrate the Mysteries And he thinks it called The Lords day because it is the Remembrance of the Lords Resurrection or ours And on Luc. 6. fol. 78. he saith The observation of the Legal Sabbath ought of it self to cease and the natural liberty of a Sabbath to be restored which till Moses time was like other dayes That as it is not circumcision or the Ceremonies of the Law that save the Church but the faith of Abraham working by Love by which being uncircumcised he was justified so he calleth the second Sabbath after the first no other but the spiritual Sabbath in which as on other daies it is lawful to do any profitable work for distinction from the Jewish Sabbath in which it was not lawful to travel to gather Wood nor to do other needful things Pardon his Errour about that word I only cite it for the historical use And on Luc. 24. 1. fol. 143. One of the Sabbaths or the first of the Sabbaths is the first day after the Sabbath which the Christian custome hath called the Lords day because of the Lords Resurrection And ibid. fol. 143. Whence Ecclesiastical custome hath obtained that either in memory of Christs Resurrection or for the hope of ours we Pray not with bended knees but only with faces declined towards the Earth on every Lords day and all the quadragesimae And in Act. 2. 1. The Holy Ghost sent the example of the ancient sign returning did himself by his own coming most manifestly Consecrate the Lords day And on Col. 2. fol. 308. he sheweth that the Sabbath was a shadow and Christ that made it was Lord of it and ended it and that to abstain from sin is now our Sabbath See him also on Rev. 1. 10. Heb. 4. fol. 308. 2 Cor. 3. fol. 176. D. And because he was a Scot I will adde Sedulius who lived 430. In Col. 2. fol 91. The Sabbath being a shadow ceased when the Body came because the Truth being present the Image is needless And on Heb. 4 9. There remaineth a Rest that is The Eternal Rest which the Jewish Sabbath signified See Philastrius Hâ—res 8. Abundance more of this kind I might Cite but for making the Book tedious to those that need it not And so much of the History to satisfie your Objections and Mistakes CHAP. II. An Answer to more Arguments for the seventh day Sabbath Reasons 1. THat the Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah Zach. 11. 13. 12 4 10. Gen. 19. 24. Act. 2. 25. compared with Psal. 16. 8 c. The Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23. 6. Answers 1. THis is no Controversie among us meaning of Christs Divine Nature and his person in respect thereof Reasons 2. That the World was made by Jehovah Christ Joh. 1. 3 10. Heb. 1. 2 3 10. Col. 1. 14 15 16 17. Eph. 3. 9. Psal. 102. 22 24 25. Heb. 3. 4. Rom. 11. 36. 1 Cor. 8. 6. Gen. 2. 4 c. Answers 2. Nor is this any Controversie if meant of the second person in the eternal Trinity not yet Incarnate nor in the flesh Annointed Christ. Reasons 3. The seventh day Sabbath was instituted by Jehovah Christ and kept by him Gen. 2. 2 3 4. whilest man was in innocency before the Fall Gen. 3. 6. and before any Types Answers 3. Though this have long been doubted in the Church some thinking it mentioned but by Anticipation yet I deny it not but believe that it was Sanctified and kept from the beginning because the Reason of the Consecration was from the beginning But 1. The second Person is not called Christ before the fall nor without respect to his
day And for the most part they Celebrated not the Lords Supper on that day And they abhorred the keeping it as a day of Rest. 2. They met on that day for all these Reasons 1. Because having been used in the beginning to meet every day in the Week when they had all things common and were to shew the power of the Evangelical Doctrine to the height Act. 2. 44 45 46. 4. 33 34 35. as they found cause to retrive their community so did they to meet seldomer and yet not so seldome as once a Week And therefore as we now keep other meetings for Lectures and Prayers besides the Lords day so did they then on Wednesdayes Fridayes and Saturdayes 2. Because the Conversion of the Jews was a great part of their work and hope And therefore to win them they would with Paul become Jews that is not affect an unnecessary distance but come as neer them as Lawfully they could 3. Because Converted Jews were no small part of the Eastern Churches who could not easily be quite brought off from Jewish Customes And the rest were unwilling to offend them being taught not to despise the weak that observed meats and days Rom. 14. 15. Gal. 2. 4. Because the Assemblies on the seventh day were taken as fit preparatories to the sanctifying of the Lords day on which account the Church of England now appointeth them These things one that is acquainted with Church History needeth no proof of And they are sufficiently proved before Ignatius words before cited are full And those of the Council of Laodicea Can. 29. are more full who do at once appoint meetings on the seventh day and yet Anathematize them that Judaize thereon by bodily rest and would have men labour on it and preferr the Lords day before it Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho doth largely shew that Circumcision and the Sabbath are ceased by the coming of Christ and his Institutions and are not now to be used by Christians And what writer have we of full reputation and credibility more ancient than Justin from whom any testimony in this case might be sought Tertullian one of the next li. 2. against Marcion saith that the Sabbath was for that Time and present occasion or use and not for perpetuity Athanasius was one that was for meeting on the Sabbath And yet writeth his Book de Sab. Circum purposely to prove that the Sabbath is ceased with Circumcision as a Shadow and that now the Lords day is the sanctified day And the like he hath most expresly in Homil. de Semente as is cited before saying that The Master being come the Vsher was out of use and the Sun being risen the Lamps are darkened Basil Ep. 74. Writeth against Apollinaris for holding that after the Resurrection we should keep Sabbaths and Judaizeâ— As if that were the perfection to which Christ would restore men See Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 43. And Chrysoft Hom. 19. in Mat. 12. against the use of the Sabbath Cyril Hieros cat 4. Epiphan against the Nazaraei condemn them for keeping the Sabbath and Circumcision though withal they kept the Lords day The same doth Epiphanius li. 1. Haer. 30. nâ— 2. and before him Eusebius Hist. li. 3. say of the Ebionites Augustine oft telleth us that the observation or keeping of the seventh day Sabbath is ceased and not to be done by Christians Qu. ex N. Test. 69. Ad Bonif. l. 3. Contr. Faust. Manich. li. 6. c. 4. De Genes ad lit l. 4. c. 13. de spir lit c. 14. de util Cred. c. 3. 3. And as for the Abassians keeping the Sabbath It s true they keep that day in some sort But it is as true that they use Circumcision and many other Jewish Ceremonies besides oft Baptizings And that they profess not to use these as the Jews do but only as ancient Customes and as Paul did while he complyed with them using the outward action for other ends than Judaizers do And the rather because they think their Emperours descended from Solomon But the Lords day they keep on the same account as other Christians And if this instance make any thing for Sabbatizing it will make as much for Circumcising and other Jewish rites but nothing against the Sanctifying of the Lords day 4. And as for the matter of Fasting on the Sabbath the Churches greatly varyed in their Customes The Eastern Churches and Millan in the West were against Fasting on the Sabbath on two accounts 1. Because as is said they would not offend the Jewes Even as many peaceable Non-Conformists who are against many Holy dayes now established do yet forbear labouring and opening their Shops on those dayes because they will not give offence Yea and go to hear the Sermons on those dayes though they keep them not Holy as such dayes 2. Because there were many sorts of Hereticks in those times who held that the World was made by an evil God and thence came evil and so they Fasted on the seventh day on that reason Which made the Christians avoid it lest they should Symbolize with those Hereticks And therefore the real or pretended Ignatius speaketh so severely against Fasting on the Sabbath as well as on the Lords day And so do the Constitutions called the Apostles yea and the Canons called theirs Can. 65. But in the Western Churches as is aforesaid both Jews and Hereticks were more distant or less considerable for numbers and therefore they fasted on the seventh day and that the rather lest they should seem by Sabbatizing to Judaize Which was before Antichrists appearing unless you think all the holy Doctors before cited and all the Western Churches to be Antichristian Having gone thus far I here add two more Scripture Arguments to prove the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath The first is because it is frequently made as Circumcision is a sign of the particular Covenant between God and that Nation as they were a political body and peculiar people Therefore if their Policy cease and Gods relation to them as a Political body and peculiar people and so that Political Covenant with them then also the signe of the Covenant and Relation ceaseth And though the word for ever is sometime added it is no other than is oft added also to the Jewish Law and Ceremonies 2. From Act. 15. Where the case is determined by a Council of Apostles Elders and Brethren yea by the Holy Ghost V. 28. It appeareth by V. 24. that the thing asserted by the false Teachers was that the Gentiles must be Circumcised and keep the Law that is of Moses V. 1. Now the seventh day Sabbath was part of that Law As Sacrificing was though it was a Law before But the Holy Ghost determineth the case to lay on them no greater burden than these necessary things after named where the Sabbath is none of them and therefore hereby shut out The precepts given to Noah are named of which the Sabbath was not
part of the Mosaical Covenant And if the Form cease which denominateth the Being and denomination ceaseeth and all the parts as parts of that which ceaseth So that if the Covenant of Works made with the Jews cease which Camero calleth a third or middle Covenant and several men do variously denominate but the Scripture calleth the old or former Covenant or Testament or Disposition then all the Law as part of that Covenant ceaseth And that is as much as to say also that it ceaseth as meerly Mosaical or Political to the Jews And then the Argument is vain This or that word was written in the Tables of Stone Therefore it is of perpetual obligation For as it was written in Stone it was Mosaical and is done away and under the New Covenant all that is Natural and Continued shall by the Spirit be written upon the Heart whence sin at first did obliterate it 7. That as the Rest of God in the Creation is described by a Cessation from his work with a complacency in the goodness of it but Christs Rest is described more by Vital Activity and Operation than by Cessation from work even his Triumphant Resurrection as the Conquest of Death and beginning of a New Life so I think the Old Sabbath is more described by such Corporeal Rest or Cessation from work which was partly Ceremonial or a signifying shadow and that the word Sabbath is never used in the Scripture but for such a day of Ceremonial Rest though including holy Worship But that the Lords day and its due observation is more described by spiritual Activity and Operation in the spiritual Resurrection of the soul and its new Life to God And that the Bodily Rest is no longer Ceremonial or shadowy but fitted to the promoting and subserving of the spiritual Activity and Complacency in God and holy exercises of the mind as the body it self is to the service of the soul. 8. That I am not ignorant that many of the English Divines long ago expound Matth. 24. 20. of the Christian Sabbath and Col. 2. 16. as exclusive of the Jewish Weekly Sabbath But so do not most Expositors for which I think they give very good reasons which I will not stand here to repeat 9. That I intended not a full and elaborate Treatise of the Lords Day but a brief Explication of that Method of proof which I conceive most easie and convincing and fittest for the use of doubting Christians who are many of them lost in doubts in the multitude and obscurity of arguments from the Old Testament when I think that the speedy and satisfactory dispatch of the Controversie is best made by a plain proof of the Institution of Christ by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles which I thought to have shewed in two or three Sheets but that the necessity of producing some evidence of the fact and answering other mens Objections drew it out to greater length And my method required me to say more of the practice of Antiquity than some other mens But again I must give notice that Dr. T. Ysoungs Dies Dominica is the Book which I agree with in the Method and Middle way of determining this Controversie and which I take to be the strongest written of it And that I omit most which he hath as taking mine but as an Appendix to his and desire him that will write against mine to answer both together or else I shall suppose his work to be undone ERRATA PAge 19 Line 23 and 24 for there put theâ— p 21 l 20 Bloâ—t out of the Conclusion p 30 l 10 for Pentecost r Passovâ—â— p 35 l. 4 r Canon Council Trul. p 181 l 13 r George Walker And in my Defence of the Principles of Love the Errata being not gathered the Reader is desired Part 2. page 92 line 3 for the Verb to read the Word FINIS * * I speak only de facto how the Antients used these words