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
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
customs taken up upon reasons proper to those times and places Obj. But by the reason aforesaid you will prove the continuance of the seventh day Sabbath as grounded on the Creation rest Answ. This is anom to be answered in due place I only prove that it continued till a successive dispensation and Gods own change did put an end to it but no longer Obj. But to commemorate the Creation and praise the Creator is a Moral work and therefore ceaseth not Answ. True but that it be done on the seventh day is that which ceaseth For the same work is transferred to the Lords day and the Creator and Redeemer to be honoured together in our Commemoration For the Son is the only way to the Father who hath restored us to Peace with our Creator And as no man cometh to the Father but by the Son and as we must not now worship God as a Creator and Father never offended but as a Creator and Father reconciled by Christ so is it the appointment of Christ by the Holy Ghost that we commemorate the work of Creation now as repaired and restored by the work of Redemption on the Lords day which is now separated to these works That the Sabbath was appointed to Adam Wallaeus on the fourth Commandment cap. 3. and Rivet dissert de sab c. 1. have most copiously proved And Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 5. out of Homer Hesiod Callimachus and others proveth that the Heathens knew of it We may therefore summ up the prerogatives of the Lords day as Leo did Ep. 81. c. 1. On this day the world began on this day by Christs Resurrection Death did receive Death and Life its beginning on this day the Apostles take the trumpet of the Gospel to be preached to all Nations on this day the Holy Ghost came from the Lord to the Apostles c. See more in Athanas. de Sab. Circ August Serm. 154. de Tempore Therefore saith Isychius in Levit. l. 2. c. 9. The Church setteth apart the Lords day for holy Assemblies And in the times of Heathenish persecution when men were asked Whether they were Christians and kept the Lords dayes they answered that they were and kept the Lords day which Christians must not omit as you may see Act. Martyâ— apud Baron an 303. n. 37 38 39. They would die rather than not keep the holy assemblies and the Lords dayes For saith Ignatius After the Sabbath every lover of Christ celebrateth the Lordâ— day 〈◊〉 to or by the Lords resurrection the Queen and chief of 〈◊〉 dâ—yes as is afore cited For saith Augustine The Lords Resurrection hath promised us an eternal Day and consecrated to us the Lords day which is called the Lords and properly belongeth to the Lord Serm. 15. de Verb. Apost And saith Hilary Prâ—leg in Psalm Though the name and observance of a Sabbath was placed to the seventh day yet is it the eighth day which is also the first on which we rejoyce with the perfect festivity of the Sabbath Of the fâ—â—l keeping of the whole day and of the several Exercises in which it was spent and of the more numerous testimonies of Antiquity hereupon Dr. Yâ—ung in his Dies Dominica hath said so much with so much evidence and judgement 〈◊〉 I purposely omit abundance of such Testimonies because I will not do that which he hath already done The Learned Reader may there find unanswerable proof of the matter of fact that the Lords day was kept in the Apostles dayes and ever since as by their appointment And for the unlearned Reader I fear lest I have too much interrupted him with Citations already I only tell him in the Conclusion that If Scripture Hiâ—tory interpreted and seconded by fullest practice and History of all the Churches of Christ and by the consent of Heathens and Heretickâ— and not contradicted by any Sect in the world be to be believed then we must say that the Lords day was commonly kept by the Christians in and from the Apostles times Prop. 11. This evidence of the Churches universal constant usage is a full and sufficient proof of the matter of fact that it was a day set apart by the Apostles for holy Worship especially in the publick Church-assemblies 1. It is a full proof that such Assemblies were held on that day above others as a separated day For if it was the usage in Anno 100. in which the Apostle John dyed it must needs be the usage in the year 99. in which he wrote his Revelations where he calleth it the Lords day For all the Churches could not silently agree on a sudden to take up a new day without debate and publick notice which could not be concealed And if it was the universal usage in the dayes of Ignatius or Justin Martyr it was so also in the dayes of St. John and so before For the Churches were then so far dispersed over the world that it would have taken up much time to have had Councils and meetings or any other means for agreement on such things And it is utterly improbable that there would have been no dissenters For 1. Did no Christians in the world so neer to the Apostles daies make any scruple of superstition or of such an addition to Divine institutions 2. Was there no Countrey nor no persons whose interest would not better suit with another day or an uncertain day or at least their opinions when we find it now so hard a matter to bring men in one Countrey to be all of one opinion 3. And there was then no Magistrate to fâ—rce them to such an Union And therefore it mast be voluntary 4. And they had in the second age such Pastors as the Apostles themselves had ordained and as had conversed with them and been trained up by them and knew their mind and cannot soberly be thought likely to consent all on a sudden to such a new institution without and contrary to the Apostles sense and practice 5. Yea they had yet Ministers that had that extraordinary spirit which was given by the laying on of the Apostles hands For if the aged Apostles ordained young men it is to be supposed that most of those young men such as Timothy overlived them 6. Yea and the ordinary Christians in those times had those extraordinary gifts by the laying on of the Apostles hands as appeareth evidently in the case of Samaria Act. 8. and of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 12. 14. and of the Galathians Gal. 3. 1 2 3. And it is not to be suspected that all these inspired Ministers and people would consent to a superstitious innovation without and against the Apostles minds 2. Therefore this history is a full proof that these things were done by the consent and appointment of the Apostles For 1. As is said the inspired persons and Churches could not so suddenly be brought to forsake them universally in such a case 2. The Churches had all so high an esteem of the Apostles
is before them and how near to Eternity they stand and awaken mens sleepy sensual souls to live as men that do not dream of another world but unfeignedly believe it and then a little reasoning would serve turn to convince them that the Lords day should be spent in the duties of serious holiness and not in Idleness or unnecessary works or sports Obj. But by all this you seem to cast a great reproach on Calvin Beza and most of the great Divines of the forreign Churches who have not been so strict for the observation of the Lords day Answ. Let these things be observed by the impartial Reader 1. It cannot be proved to be most of them that were so faulty herein as the objection intimateth Many of them have written much for the holy spending of the day 2. It must be noted that it is a superstitious Ceremonious Sabbatizing which many of them write against who seem to the unobservant to mean more It is not the spending of the day in spiritual exercises 3. And you must remember that they came newly out of Popery and had seen the Lords day and a superabundance of other Humane Holy dayes imposed on the Churches to be Ceremoniously observed and they did not all of them so clearly as they ought discern the difference between the Lords day and those holy dayes or Church Festivals and so did too promiscuously conjoine them in their reproofs of the burdens imposed on the Church And it being the Papists Ceremoniousness and their multitude of Festivals that stood all together in their eye it tempted them to too undistinguishing and unaccurate a reformation 4. And for Calvin you must know that he spent every day so like to a Lords day in hard Study and Prayer and numerous Writings and publick Preaching or Lecturing and Disputings either every day in the week or very near it scarce allowing himself time for his one only spare meale a day that he might the easilier be tempted to make less difference in his judgement between the Lords day and other dayes than he should have done and to plead for more recreation on that day for others than he took on any day himself 5. And then his followers having also many of the same temptations were apt to tread in his steps through the deserved estimation of his worth and judgement and lest they should seem to be of different minds But as England hath been the happyest in this piece of reformation so all men are unexcusable that will encourage idleness sensuality or neglect of the important duties of the day CHAP. XI What things should not be Scrupled as unlawful on the Lords day As I have told you the Lords day is not a Sabbath in the Jewish sense or a day of Ceremonious Rest but a Day of Worshiping our Creator and Redeemer with thankful Commemorations and with holy Joy c. And a day of vacancy from such earthly things as may be any hinderance to this holy work so now I must resolve the Question first in the General that nothing lawful at another time is unlawful on this day which hath not the Nature of an Impediment to the holy duties of the day unless it be accidentally on the account of scandal or ill example unto others or disobeying the Laws of Magistrates or crossing the Concord of the Churches or such like Therefore hence I deduce these particular resolutions following I. It is not unlawful to be at such bodily or mental labour as is needful to the spiritual duties of the day If the Priests in the Temple saith Christ did break the Sabbath and were blameless that is not the Command of God to them for keeping the Sabbath but the external Rest of the Sabbath which was commanded to others with an exception to their case we may well say that it is no sin for a Minister now to spend his strength in laborious Preaching and Praying or for the people to travel as far as is needful to the Church Assemblies nor do we need to tye our selves to a Sabbath dayes journey that is according to the Scribes 2000 Cubits which is 3000 feet and quinque stadia It is lawful to go many miles when it is necessary to the work of the day II. It is not unlawful to be at the labour of dressing our selves somewhat more ornately or comely than on another day Because it is suitable to the rejoycing of a Festival But to waste time needlesly in curJosity and proud attiring to the hinderance of greater things is detestable III. It is not unlawful to dress meat even in some fuller and better manner than on other dayes Because it is a Festival or day of Thanksgiving And it is a vain self-contradiction of some men who think that another day of Thanksgiving is not well kept if there be not two feasting meals at least and yet think it unlawful to dress one on the Lords day But yet to make it a day of Gluttony or to waste more of the day in eating or dressing meat than is agreeable to the spiritual work of the day which is our end or to make our selves sleepy by fulness or to use our servants like Beasts to provide for our bellies with the neglect of their own souls or to pamper the flesh to the satisfaction and irritation of its lusts All this is to be detested IV. It is not unlawful to do the necessary works of mercy to our selves or others to man or beast Those which must be done and cannot be delayed without more hurt than the doing of them will procure for that is the description of a necessary work As to eat and drink and cloth our selves and our Children To carry meat to the poor that are in present necessity To give or take Physick and to go for advice to the Physician or Surgeon To travel upon a business of importance and necessity To quench a fire or prop a house that is about to fall To march or fight in a necessary case of Warr To Saile or labour at Sea in cases of necessity To Boat-men over a River that go to Church To pursue a Robber or defend him that is assaulted To pull a man out of fire or water To dress a mans sores or to give Physick to the sick To pull an Oxe or Horse or other Cattle out of a pit or water To drive or lead them to water and to give them meat To save Cattle Corne or Hay from the sudden inundations of the Sea or of Rivers or from Floods To drive Cattle or Swine out of the grounds where they break in to spoile such necessary actions are not unlawful but a duty It being a Moral or Natural precept which Christ twice bid the Ceremonious Pharises learn I will have mercy and not Sacrifice And it is not only works of necessity to a mans life that are here meant by necessary works But such also as are necessary to a smaller and lower end or use And
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
Church before as what day goeth over their head The Historical hints of the New Testament must be taken together and not a part only that they may prove a usage And 1. That Christ rose on that day is past doubt among Christians Joh. 20. 1. Luk. 24. 1. Mar. 16. 2. Matth. 28. 1. 2. On that same day he taught the two disciples Luk. 24. 13. And the same day he appeared to the Disciples and instructed them and did eate with them Luk. 24. 33 36. Theâ— the Disciples were assembled and theâ— he blessed them gave them their Commission and the Holy Ghost Joh. 20. 19 20 21 22. 3. The next first day of the week Christ chose to appear to them again when Thomas was with them and convinced him Joh. 20. 26. 4. In Act. 20. 7. It is mentioned as the day of their Assembling to break bread which though they did oft on other daies yet no day else was peculiarly appointed for it As for the dissenters cavil about the Translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza hath given them Reason enough against it And Grotius and almost all expositors are against them And most that translate it literally una Sabbatorum take Vna and Prima here to be all one And Calvin with others noteth that the same phrase being used of the day of the Resurrection Matth. 26. 1. Luk. 24. 1. Joh. 20. 1. will direct us to expound this unless you mean also to deny the Resurrection to have been on the first day And 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must needs have the same signification And Mark 26. 9. compared with the other Evangelists so expounds them as Beza noteth who also telleth us that in one old Copy he found added the Lords day and citeth Hierome adv Vigilant saying Per unam Sabbati hoc est in die Dominico c. And Dr. Hammond well noteth that it plainly relateth to the Christian assemblies to which they were not to come empty but to deposite what they brought into the treasury of the Church or if it were in their private repositories it doth not much difference the case Calvins exception against Chrysostome here is groundless as the reasons before evince So that by this Text the custome of holding Church meetings on the Lords day as a peculiar day is intimated though but on the by as most Expositors agree And the denomination of the Lords day Joh. 1. 10. being the same which the Christian Churches ever used of the First day puts it yet further out of doubt As for his conjecture who doubteth whether it may be meant of the Anniversary day of Christs Resurrection when as the constant use of the name by all the Churches sheweth that it was taken ever since for the weekly day it deserveth no other refutation Now though all this set together shew that Scripture is not silent of the matter of fact yet it is the full and unquestionable expository evidence of the practice of all Churches in the world since the very daies of the Apostles which beyond all doubt assureth us that de facto the Lords day was by the Apostles separated for holy Worship especially in publick Church-assemblies But these several intimations being seconded with so full an Exposition tell us that the Scripture is not silent in the case nor doth pass it by I was loth to name the day of the sending down of the Holy Ghost as a proof Because that some do controvert it But it seemeth to me a very considerable thing 1. That the day that year 〈…〉 of Pentecost on which the Holy Ghost was given was indeed the first day of the week even Dr. Heylin granteth without any question or stop And the Churches observation of Whitsunday as the day and that so very early as Epiphanius and many others say from the Apostles doth seem a very credible history or tradition of it 2. It s agreed on that the Passoever that year fell on the Sabboth day and that Pentecost was fifty daies after the Passover which falleth out on the Lords day And Grotius noteth from Exod. 19. 1. that it was the day that the Law was given on and so on which the Spirit was given for the new Law 3. And considering that this great gift of the Holy Ghost which was to make the Apostles Infallible and to enable them for their commission-work and bring all Christs Doctrines and Commands to their remembrance was so memorable a thing that it was as it were the Beginning of the full Gospel-state of the Church and Kingdom of Christ which through all Christs abode on Earth was as the Infant existent indeed but in the womb and on this day was as it were Born before the world and brought into the open light the Lords day also seemeth to me to be as it were Conceived on the day of Christs Resurrection but Born on this day of the Holy Ghosts descent But Dr. Heylin hath one poor reason against it viz. Because it was but an accidental thing that the day fell out that year on the first day Answ. 1. Was it not according to the course of Nature How then can that be called Accidental 2. But however it was no contingent accidental thing in his sense that the Holy Ghost was sent down on that day rather than another If a sparrow fall not to the ground without Gods providence did God choose that day He knew not why Or did it fall out hap hazard or by chance I need not insist on the confutation of his Caviâ—s about the other Texts forecited Note only 1. That as to his exception about Christs travel on his Resurrection day I have after answered it 2. That he freely granteth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifiâ—th The first day of the week both in Act. 20. 7. and 1 Cor. 16. 2. 3. That he himself citeth afterward many testimonies that oblations and contributions were in the Churches a usual Lords dayes work 4. That he confesseth that Rev. 10. 1. is meant of the Lords day as by that time grown into reputation 5. That he thinketh it was in small reputation before because Paul chose the Sabbath so often to Preach on to the Jews and Hellenists or Greeks whereas he himself is forced to confess that it was not for the days sake but the Assemblies to do them good 6. That he vainly conceiteth that Because the Lords day was kept on the account of Christs Resurrection it implyeth that it was not kept by Gods command which needeth no confutation 7. That his labour to prove that Paul meant the Jewish Sabbath as abrogated is vain for we deny it not 8. That he cannot deny that Christians had all that time of the Apostles a stated day as Pliny himself witnesseth for solemn worship above other daies 9. That he vainly snatcheth a little countenance from Calvin and Beza c. when as no man since Cochlaeus writeth more detestably of them 10. That after he
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
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
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
our Redemption Answ. No Our Redeemers work is to restore us to the acknowledgement and Love of our Creator And the Commemoration of our Redemption fitteth us to a holy acknowledgement of the Almighty Creator in his works These therefore are still to go together according to their several proper places Even as the Son is the way to the Father and we must never separate them in the exercise of our Faith obedience or Love A Christian is a sanctified Philosopher And no man knoweth or acknowledgeth Gods works of Creation and Providence aright in their true sense but he that seeth God the Creator and Redeemer the Beginning the Governour and the End of all Other Philosophers are but as those Children that play with the Book and Letters but understand not the matter contained in it or like one that teacheth boyes â—litide literas pingere to write a curious hand while he understands not what he writeth Obj. But to spend so much of the day in publick as you speak of will tire out the Minister by speaking so long Few men are able to endure it Answ. 1. How did the Christians in the Primitive Churches They met in the morning and often as far as I can gatâ—â—er parted not till night And when they did go home between the Morning and Evening Service it was but for a little time Obj. Then they made it a fast and not a festival Answ. It was not the use then to eat dinners in those hot Countreys much less three meals a day as we do now And they accounted it a sufficient feasting to feast once at Supper which they did at the first all together at their Church-meeting with the Sacrament But afterward finding the inconvenience of that they feasted at home and used only the Sacrament in the Church which change was not made without the allowance of the Apostles Paul saying 1. Cor. 11. Have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God 2. I further answer that the work of the day being done according to the primitive use it will be no excessive labour to the Minister Because in the Celebration of the Lords Supper he is not still in one continued speech but hath the intermission of Action and useth shorter Speeches which do not so much spend him And the people bear a considerable part to wit in Gods praises which were spoken then in their laudatory tone and are now uttered by the singing of Psalms which should not be the least part of the work And though their manner of singing was not like ours in Rithmes and Tunes melâ—diously as neither were the Hebrew Greek or Latine Poems so sung but as most think more like to our Cathedral singing or saying yet it followeth not that this is the best way for us seeing use hath made our Tunes and Meeter and way of singing more meet for the ends to which we use them that is for the chearful consent of all the Church Neither should any think that it is a humane unlawful invention and a sinful change to turn the old way of singing used in Scripture times and long after into ours For the old way of singing was not a Divine institution but a use and several Countreys had their several uses herein And God commandeth us but to Praise him and sing Psalmes but doth not tell us what meeter or tunes we shall use or manner of singing but leaveth this to the use and convenience of every Countrey And if our way and tunes be to us by custome more convenient than those of other Nations in Scripture times we have no reason to forsake them and return to the old Though yet the old way is not to be judged a thing forbidden And we see that custome hath so far prevailed with us that many thousand Religious people do cheerfully sing Psalmes in the Church in our Tunes and way who cannot endure to sing in the Cathedral or the ancient Scripture or primitive way nor to use so much as the Laudatory Responses 3. And I further answer that every Church should have more Ministers than one as the ancient Churches had besides their Readers and then one may in speaking ease another 4. But lastly I answer that These circumstances being alterable according to the state of Countreys Conveniences I do not discommend the custome of our Countrey and of most Christian Churches in our times in making an intermission and going home to dinner as being fittest to our condition And then there remaineth the less force in the objection as to the weariness of the Ministers or the people I 〈◊〉 to say more of the publick Church-performances having described them all in a small Book called Vniversal Concord and having exemplified all except Preaching in our Reformed Liturgie given in to the Bishops at the Savoy Only here I will answer them who object much that the Ancient Churches spent not the whole day in exercises of Religion nor farbad other exercises out of the time of publick worship because we read of little other observation of it by them but what was done in the publick Assemblies Answ. 1. We find that they took it to be a sanctified or separated day And they never distinguish and say that Part of the day only was separated and sanctified to such uses If they did which part is the sanctified part of the day what houres were they which they thought thus separated But there is no such distinction or limitation in the writings of the ancient Doctors 2. What need you find much mention what they did out of the time of publick Worship when they spent all the day frequently at first and almost all the day in after times with small intermission in publick Worship Do you stay but as long at Church as they did even almost from Morning till Night and then you will find little time to Dance or Play in But yet 3. There want not Testimonies that they thought it unlawful to spend any part of the day in unnecessary diversions from holy things as Dr. Young hath shewed III. So much of the day as can be spared from publick Church-worship and diversions of necessity should be next spent most in holy family-exercises And in those unhappy places where the publick worship is slenderly and negligently performed on some small part only of the day or not at all or not so as it is lawful to joyne in it as in Idolatrous Worship c. there Family worship must take up most of the day And in better places it must take up so much as the publick Worship spareth And here the summ of holy exercises in Families is this which having elsewhere directed you in I must but briefly name 1. To see that the Family rise as early on this day as on others and make it not a day of sleep and idleness And not to suffer them to violate prophane or neglect the day by any of the sins hereafter named 2.
To call them together before they go to the solemn Assembly and to Pray with them and praise God and if there be time to read the Scripture and tell them what they have to do in publick 3. To see that Dinner and other common employments make no longer an intermission than is needful And to advise them that at their meat and necessary business they shew by their holy speeches that their minds do not forget the day and the employments of it 4. To sing Gods praises with them if there be time and bring them again together to the Church-assembly 5. When they return either to take some account of them what they have learned or to call them together to pray for a blessing on what they have heard and to sing praises to God and to urge the things which they have heard upon them 6. At Supper to behave themselves soberly and piously And after Supper to shut up the day in Prayer and Praise And either then or before either to examine or exhort inferiours according as the case of the persons and families shall require For in some Families it will be best on the same day to take an account of their profiting and to Catechize them And in other Families that have leisure other daies may be more convenient for Catechising and Examinations that the greater works of the Lords day may not be shortened IV. So much of the day as can be spared from publick and family worship must be spent in secret holy duties such as are 1. Secret Prayer 2. Reading of the Scriptures and good Books 3. Holy Meditation 4. And the secret Conference of bosome friends Of which I further adde 1. That where publick or family worship cannot be had as in impious places there secret duties must be the chief and make up the defect of others And it is a great happiness of good Christians who have willing minds that they have such secret substitutes and supplies That they have Bibles and so many good Books to read That they may have a friend to talk with of holy things But much more that they have a God to go to and a Heaven to Meditate on besides so many Sacred Verities 2. That my judgement is that in those places where the publick Worship taketh up almost all the day it is no sin to attend on it to the utmost and to omit all such Family and secret exercises as cannot be done without omission of the publick And that where the publick exercises allow but a little time at home the Family duties should take up all that little time except what some shorter secret Prayers or Meditations may have which will not hinder family duties And that it is a sinful disorder to do otherwise Because the Lords day is principally set apart for publick worship And the more private or secret is as it were included in the publick Your Families are at Church with you The same Prayers which you would put up in secret you may usually put up in publick and in Families And it is a turning Gods Worship into a Ceremony and Superstition to think that you must necessarily put up the same Prayers in a Closet which you put up in the Family or Church when you have not time for both Though when you have time secret prayer hath its proper advantages which are not to be neglected And also what secret or family duty you have not time for on that day you may do on another day when you cannot come to Church Assemblies And therefore it is an Errour to think that the day must be divided in equal proportions between Publick Family and Secret Duties Though yet I think it not amiss that some convenient time for Family and Secret duties be left on that day but not so much as is spent in publick nor nothing neer it If any shall now object I do not believe that we are bound to all this ado nor so to tire out our selves in Religious exercises Where is all this ado commanded us I answer 1. I have proved to you that in Nature and in Scripture set together as great a proportion of time as this for holy exercises is required 2. But O what a Carnal unthankful heart doth this objection signifie What do you account your Love to God and the Commemoration of his Love in Christ a toile What if God had only given you leave to lay by your worldly business and idle talk and Childish play for one dayes time and to learn how to be like Christ and Angels and how to make sure of a Heavenly Glory should you not gladly have accepted it as an unspeakable benefit O what hearts have these wretched men that must be constrained by fear to all that is good and holy and spiritual and will have none of Gods greatest mercies unless it be for fear of hell And they shall never have them indeed till they love them What hearts have those men that had rather be in an Ale-house or a Play-house or asleep than to be in heart with God That can find so much pleasure in jesting and idle talking and foolery that they can better endure it than to peruse a Map of Heaven and to read and hear the Sacred Oracles Who think it a toile to praise their Maker and Redeemer and a pleasure to game and dance and drink Who turn the glass upon the Preacher and grudge if he exceed his hour and can sit at a Tavern or Alehouse or hold on in any thing that 's vain many hours and never complain of weariness Do they not tell the world what enemies they are to God who love a pair of Cards or Dice or Wanton Dalliance better than his Word and Worship Who think six dayes together little enough for their worldly work and profit and one day in seven too much to spend in the thoughts of God and life Eternal Who love the dung of this present World so much better than all the joyes above as that they are weary to hear of Heaven above an hour at a time and long to be wallowing in the dirt again Is it not made by the Holy Ghost a mark not only of wicked men but of men notoriously wicked to be Lovers of pleasures more than of God 2 Tim. 3. 4. O Sinners that in these workings of the wickedness and malignity of your hearts you would at last but know your selves Is it not the Carnal mind that is thus at enmity to God and neither is nor can be subject to his Law Rom. 8. 6 7 8 Which will you take to be your friend Him that loveth your company or him that is a weary of it and is glad when he hath done with you and is got away What would you think of Wife or Child or Friend if they should reason as you do and say What Law doth bind 〈◊〉 to be so many hours in the House or Company or 〈◊〉 of my Husband my Father or my Friendâ—
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
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
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
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
as he nailed the hand-writing of Ordinances to his Cross so he buried the Sabbath in his Grave by lying buried on that day And therefore the Western Churches who had fewer Jews among them did fast on the Sabbath day to shew the change that Christs burial intimated Though the Eastern Churches did not lest they should offend the Jews And that the ancient Christians were not for sabbatizing on the seventh day is visible in the writings of most save the Eastern ones before mentioned Tertull. cont Marcion li. 1. cap. 20. Chrysost. Theodoret Primasius c. on Gal. 4. expound that Text as that by Dayes is meant the Jewish Sabbath and by Moneths the New Moons c. Cyprian 59. Epist. ad Hidum saith that the eighth day is to Christians what the Sabbath was to the Jews and calleth the Sabbath the Image of the Lords day Athanasius de Sab. Circumcis is full and plain on it See Tertullian Advers Judae c. 4. Ambros. in Eph. 2. August Ep. 118. Châ—ysâ—st in Gal. 1. Hâ—m 12. ad pop Hilary before cited Prolog in Psalm Origen Hom. 23. in Num. Item Tertull. de Idol c. 14. Epipban l. 1. num 30. noting the Nazaraei and Ebionaei Hereticks that they kept the Jews Sabbath In a word The Council of Laodiâ—aea doth Anathematize them that did Judaize by forbearing their Labours on the Sabbath or seventh day And as Sozomen tells us that at Alexandria and Rome they used no Assemblies on the Sabbath so where they did in most Churches they communicated not in the Sacrament Yea that Ignatius himself true or false who saith as aforecited After the Sabbath let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lords day doth yet in the same Epistle ad Magnes before say Old things are passed away behold all things are made new For if we yet live after the Jewish Law and the Circumcision of the flesh we deny that we have received Grace Let us not therefore keep the Sabbath or sabbatize Jewishly as delighting in Idleness or Rest from labour For be that will not labour let him not eat In the sweat if thy brows thou shalt cat thy bread I confess I take the cited Texts to have been added since the body of the Epistle was written but though the Writer favour of the Eastern custom yet he sheweth they did not sabbatize on the account of the fourth Commandment or supposed continuation of the Jewish Sabbath as a Sabbath For bodily labour was strictly forbidden in the fourth Commandment Dionysius Alexandr hath an Epistle to Basilides a Bishop on the Question When the Sabbath Fast must end and the observation of the Lords day begin Biblioth Patr. Graec. Lat. Vol. 1. p. 306. In which he is against them that end their Fast too soon And plainly intimateth that the seventh day was to be kept but as a preparatory Fast being the day that Christ lay in the grave and not as a Sabbath or as the Lords day I cite not any of these as a humane authority to be set against the authority of the fourth Commandment But as the certain History of the change of the day which the Apostles made Qu. How far then is the fourth Commandment Moral you seem to subvert the old foundation which most others build the Lords day upon Answ. Let us not entangle our selves with the ambiguities of the word Moral which most properly signifieth Ethical as distinct from Physical c. By Moral here is meant that which is on what ground soever of perpetual or continued obligation And so it is all one as to ask how far it is still obligatory or in force To which I answer 1. It is a part of the Law of Nature that God be solemnly worshipped in families and in holy assemblies 2. It is a part of the Law of Nature that where greater things do not forbid it a stated time be appointed for this service and that it be not left at Randome to every mans will 3. It is of the Law of Nature that where greater matters do not hinder it this day be one and the same in the same Countreys yea if it may be through the world 4. It is of the Law of Nature that this day be not so rarely as to hinder the ends of the day nor yet so frequently as to deprive us of opportunity for our necessary corporal labour 5. It is of the Law of Nature that the holy duties of this day be nâ—t hindered by any corporal work or fleshly pleasure or any unnecessary thing which contradiâ—teth the holy ends of the day 6. It is of the Law of Nature that Rulers and in special Masters of families do take care that their inferiours thus observe it In all these points the fourth Commandment being but a transcript of the Law of Nature which we can yet prove from the nature of the reason of the thing the matter of it continueth not as Jewish but as Natural 7. Besides all this when no man of himself could tell whether one day in six or seven or eight were his duty to observe God hath come in and 1. By Doctrine or History told us that he made the world in six dayes and rested the seventh 2. By Law and bath commanded one day in seven to the Jews by which he hath made known consequentialâ—y to all men that one day in seven is the fittest proportion of time And the case being thus determined by God by a Law to others doth consequentially become a Law to us because it is the determination of Divine Wisdom unless it were done upon some reasons in which their condition differeth from ours And thus the Doctrine and Reasons of an abrogated Law continuing may induce on us an obligation to duty And in this sense the fourth Commandment may be said still to bind us to one day in seven But in two points the obligation even as to the Matter ceaseth 1. We are not bound to the seventh day because God our Redeemer who is Lord of the Sabbath hath made a change 2. We are not bound to a Sabbath in the old notion that is to a day of Ceremonial Rest for it self required but to a day to be spent in Evangelical Worship And though I am not of their mind who say that the seventh day is not commanded in the fourth Commandment but a Sabbath only yet I think that it is evident in the words that the Ratio Sabbati and the Ratio diei septimi are distinguishable And that the Sabbath as a Sabbath is first in the precept and the particular day is there but secondarily and so mutably as if God had said I will have a particular day set apart for a holy Rest and for my Worship And that day shall be one in seven and the seventh also on which I rested from my works And thus I have said as much as I think needful to satisfie the considerate about the day Again professing 1. That I believe that