at all take those places of Scripture which so severely prohibit all work upon the Sabbath as if they did no lesse belong to us now then heretofore to the Iewes and by this meanes those precepts threatnings and promises which concerned the observation of the Sabbath are pressed upon us point blanck Whereas indeed they concerne us onely indirectly and cannot without fetching a compasse be alledged at all for our Sunday Now the Scripture being so expresse as it is apprehended for the strict observance of our Sunday under the name of the Sabbath no marvell if men have made it a prime Case of Conscience and that so many scruples are dayly raised and so many traditions broached about the beginning and ending of the Sabbath about the works of a mans particular Calling what they are and how farre lawfull on that Day what are the proper duties of the Day and the like For the cleare resolution therefore of this Question Whether the use of Recreations may stand with the due observation of the Lords Day it is convenient that I have some recourse to the Sabbath Where because I love not Cramben saepiùs coctam apponere or to stuffe my discourse with a tedious explanation of those things which are commonly known and every where to be found I will with as much brevity as the cause will suffer inquire into these 4. particulars 1. Whether and how farre forth the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is moral and perpetuall and so belonging to Christians 2. When and by whom the Lords day was instituted 3. What workes the lews might doe on their Sabbath 4. Whether and what liberty Christians now have on the Sunday more then they had and how farre that liberty is to be extended To begin with the first The law which God gave unto his people the Iewes according to the three-fold variety of the object or things prescribed is three-fold Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall The Morall is that which concernes the manners of men and belongs to them as men and this commands those things which are in themselves acceptable and well-pleasing to God and those which hee will have all men every where and at all times to observe as the perpetuall and unchangeable rule of living being the expresse image of the minde of God according to which hee who is the Law-giver judges it meete and right that the reasonable creatures should order their lives The Ceremoniall belongs to men as joyned together in that Society which is called the Church and this containes those precepts which concerne the externall worship of God and were given by him to the Iewish Church in accommodation to the times in which the Church was under age and under the promise and therefore instituted for the signifying prefiguring and sealing of the truth of the promises made to them to be fulfilled in the exhibition of our Saviour and withall for the preservation of order and decencie in their Ecclesiasticall meetings and performances The judiciall belongs to men as joyned in a civill Society or Cōmon-wealth contayning the forme of civill government to be used by them tending to their good as they were a Society and to the preservation and exacting of the eutward worship of God and the discipline thereof as it was commanded in the Morall and Ceremoniall Lawes So that the Ceremoniall Law determined the Morall in order to God the Politicall or judiciall in order to men in a civill society and both in accommodation to that state of the Church And these though they have in them something which is juris moralis and so farre forth are contained under the Morall precepts yet being fitted to serve that state of the Church which was to be held in expectation of the Messias when the time came that he was actually exhibited and so the promise fulfilled the shadowes were then of no longer use the body being come and therefore at the time of the death of Christ they were abrogated de jure so that they became unnecessary and unprofitable and had their power of obligation taken away And afterward when by the Apostles doctrine Christians came to understand that Christ was the end of the Law and when the Temple the seate of their religion and the place destined to the use of those ceremonies was destroyed they were de facto actually and fully taken away and those things which before the death of Christ were commanded and in that interim betweene his death and the destruction of the Temple which was the space allotted for the solemne funeralls of the Iewish Synagogue were tolerable though already dead became from that time forward deadly and intolerable So that onely the Morall Law remaines now in force for the practise of Christians The ceremoniall and judiciall excepting in that wherein they are reducible to this are antiquated and out of date Now the precepts of the Morall Law are summarily comprehended in the Decalogue or ten Commandements which had this prerogative peculiar to them that they were delivered not by Moses but by God himselfe and by him written in tables of stone and preserved in the Arke to shew their dignity above others and to note out the perpetuity of observance which was due unto them Where before wee apply these things to our present purpose two things are to be noted First That howsoever all the precepts of the Morall law belong to the Law of Nature as being agreeable to reason which is the rule of Humane actions and are in that respect of perpetuall observance yet all of them are not of the same ranke nor belong in the same degree and manner to the law of Nature There are some things which by the instinct of nature and naturall light of the understanding wee presently see to be good or bad and which are so plaine that without any great consideration they may by the first principles or common notions implanted in us be either approved or rejected and these are absolutely of the law of nature Others there are that require more consideration of circumstances and the use of Discourse to apprehend and judge of them and these are so of the law of nature that notwithstanding they require the helpe of discipline by which those which are ignorant and not able by diligent consideration or discourse to attaine to the knowledge of them may be instructed by the wise and learned And lastly there are some to the knowledge whereof humane reason stands in neede of Divine Instruction And these two latter sorts especially the last though they in some sort belong to the Law of Nature and were haply at our first Creation written in the tables of mans heart in more plaine Characters and more easie to be read then now since the fall they are may in respect of the other be termed morall non ratione naturae sed disciplinae not in regard of nature dictating but in regard of Discipline informing nature Secondly that
and that not in a common banke but every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by himselfe Againe grant that S. Paul as he did not had enjoyned Christians to meete on that day and at their meeting to make a Collection for the poore yet could not this serve for a sufficient institution of that Day to succeede the Jewes Sabbath unlesse such collections did involve in them all the service of God on that day to be done or were so connected with them that they could not bee separated which no man I suppose will affirme To leave these therefore who out of an over-weening conceit of the day are willing to catch at any shadow that may seeme to countenance it and gaine to it the reputation of Divine institution Let us pitch upon that which is certaine which though it rise not so high as an immediately-divine authority yet is sufficient to ground our practise upon and to exact the due observation of the Day First then it is most certaine that our Blessed Saviour did honour this day with his most glorious resurrection and by his often apparitions upon it to his Disciples and thereby as it were pointed out this day to his Disciples as worthy to be made choice of to be celebrated in honour of him who on that day began his glorious exaltation after his triumph over Principalities and powers upon his Crosse whom he there spoyled having nayled to it and thereby cancelled the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us that is the obligation to observe the Jewish rites and ceremonies and among these their Sabbath which from that time forward the Apostle would have no man to judge Christians in who as they were freed from it by the death of Christ so by his resurrection they had ground sufficient ministred to direct them to the observation of a new Festivall Whence S. Augustine saith The Lords Day was declared to Christians by the resurrection of our Lord and from that time began to be celebrated So that for ought that appeares our Saviour did not command the first day of the weeke to be observed Hee did to use the words of the same Father Vouchsafe to demonstrate and consecrate it or as he else-where speakes The raising againe of our Lord promised us an everlasting Day and consecrated for us the Lords Day Secondly it is no lesse certaine that the Apostles upon this ground no doubt did observe this Day and had thereon their holy assemblies as Acts 20. 7. And that for the same cause the Apostle designed it for the storing up of their almes that the memory of the benefits which on that day they obtained might make them more readily contribute to the necessities of their brethren as S. Chrysostome hath observed upon 1. Cor. 16. 1. And lastly that in the time of the Apostles it obtained the name of the Lords Day as appeares Revel 1. 10. Thirdly that the ages of the Church immediately after the Apostles whether by constitution or onely in imitation of them is not knowne nor much materiall did observe this Day as the Christians Festivall stiling it the Lords Day and conveighed the same practise by continuall succession even to this day as the late learned Bishop of Winchester shewes avowing it on his credit That there is not an Ecclesiasticall Writer in whom it is not to be found Wee finde thus much then without contradiction That it hath been the practise of the Christian Church to observe the Sunday or Lords Day and that ever since yea in the very Apostles times a practise warranted by the example of the Apostles and the honour vouchsafed to that day by our Blessed Saviour himselfe Whence we may conclude with a late learned Divine That the Christian Church did not erre when in stead of the Sabbath it appointed the Lords Day to bee observed of which there is mention made in the Scripture though there be no Precept for the observation of it In which words of his I will observe three things First that he saith the Church not the Apostles or Apostolicall men for though that be most probable and hath for it the authority of S. Augustine and for that it hath beene ever observed by the Church it may justly be ascribed to them yet because if they did it they did it not as therein reporting the immediate Precept of Christ nor by any power that was properly Apostolicall but by vertue of their Pastorall power and office which was common to them with their Successours it may be termed an Ordinance of the Church and it little concernes us to know whether it were delivered by the Apostles themselves or their next after-commers Secondly The Church appointed this Day but whether at the first by expresse constitution it were commanded or by custome onely observed it appeares not Aquinas attributes it to both and how ever thus much is out of question that this Custome or Constitution was afterward by many Canons of the Church and Constitutions of Christian Emperours ratified and approved and many things ordained tending to the right due observance of it Thirdly That the Christian Church did not herein erre as having sufficient to warrant it out of Scripture though there be no Precept for it Yea and if the Scripture did yeeld no example of this practise or other ground for it in particular yet had not the Church erred in ordaining it For things pertaining to order decencie in the Church such as is among others the particular determination of the set times of Gods worship being undetermined in the word of God are in the power of the Church to be ordered so as they be done according to the generall Lawes of nature and without contradiction to any positive Law in Scripture Neither is it derogatorie to the word of God or any whit detracting from the perfection of it to affirme that though it sufficiently and abundantly containe in it all things necessary to salvation yet it hath left a number of other things free to be ordered at the discretion of the Church And as to take from the Scripture the sufficient determination of things necessary to salvation were an injurie and an impairing of that honour which God challengeth to his word and the Church of God hath ever deservedly yeelded to it so it were no lesse injurie to the Church of Christ to abridge it of the power of determining of this and such like things which being not of absolute necessity are yet convenient and profitable For this prerogative power the Church of God hath ever obtained and enjoyed even when it was most obliged to hold to the letter of the Law prescribing the Ceremonies belonging to the service of God that it might without imputation of adding to or altering the law of God from time to time appoint sundry rites and observances not any where prescribed in the Law Such were the appointment of the
or that so accounting it they held themselves bound to consecrate that more then any other to the worship of God The Gentiles as Eusebius at large declares came to the knowledge of it from the Iewes and did in that as in other things become their Imitators and receive it into their manners Or upon some other ground or superstition they might account the number of seaven to be sacred as because by that number the Planets which they honoured as their chiefest Deities were terminated for which cause we know by their names they intituled their dayes But what ever were the motive as it is without all question that the Gentiles as well as the Iewes held the number of seaven in great veneration accounting it the number of perfection and full of mysteries So it is as unquestionable that by the light of nature they knew not that that part of our time was to be separated to Gods service And therefore Zanchius speakes more inconsiderately then beseemes his learning when hee saith That Nature teacheth all men to consecrate one day of seaven to the externall worship of God Which others and among them Amesius better considering acknowledge to be onely of positive right and morall not in regard of nature but of discipline as comming under that ranke of morall Precepts which neede instruction to helpe naturall reason to know and judge of them Now albeit Calvine who in this as in other things wants not his followers thinks the seaventh day not to be so stood on as that he would tye the Christian world precisely to that Yet there are many grave and judicious Divines both Ancient and Moderne that judge the institution of one Day in seaven to be so farre morall as that it doth binde the Church perpetually and immutably Thus among the Ancients Saint Chrysostome upon those words And God blessed the seaventh day and hallowed it Genes 2. 3. Here saith hee from the beginning God intimates to us this Doctrine instructing us to separate and lay aside one day in the compasse of every weeke for spirituall exercises And among our moderne Writers that admired Hooker saith That wee are bound to account the sanctificatiō of one day in seven a duty which Gods immutable law doth exact for ever Thus hee with many others whose judgements I honour yet dare not herein wholly subscribe to them neither For the Law exacting the observation of one day in seaven being onely positive as must needs be granted cannot containe in it selfe any perpetuall obligation For all Lawes of that nature though made by God himselfe admit mutation at least when the matter concerning which or the condition of the Persons to whom they were given is changed Now the Day concerning which this Precept was given together with the State of the Church to which it was given being changed I see no reason why the proportion of one in seaven should be simply and in it selfe immutable Yet thus much I willingly grant them that some time to be set apart for Gods worship being absolutely of the Law of nature that proportion of time which God himselfe made choyce of for his owne People is the fittest that can be imagined and Nature informed by God cannot but acknowledge His wisedome and goodnesse in this choyce in that hee hath so attempered it that neither the long space betweene can make us forget our duty to him nor the quicke returne of it hinder our providing for the necessities of nature And hereupon the Church of Christ hath taken it as an obligation belonging to them and that as it is in our Church Homily Gods will and commandement was to have a solemne time and standing day in the weeke wherein the people should come together and have in remembrance his wonderfull Benefits and render him thanks for them as appertaineth to loving kinde and obedient people Thus farre then this Commandement extends to us Christians as well as to the Jewes in as much as to consecrate some part of our time to God is morall and a seaventh part though not morall yet fitly chosen and appointed by God and observed by the Church of Christ not as simply immutable yet as most worthy to be retayned For the third particular The particular seventh day there mentioned that is the seaventh day from the Creation This cannot be said to be Morall any way but is ceremoniall and temporary and expired with the dissolution of the Iewish Church And this is generally confessed by all whom the heresie of Iudaisme hath not infected and the mutation of the Day approved by the practise of the Christian world ever since the Apostles times is a sufficient disclaime to the morality of it For one of these three must needs hence be inferred Eyther that that which is morall may bee changed or that the Church of Christ hath now for this sixteen hundred years erred in the change of it orlastly that the particular day prescribed to the Jews was Ceremoniall and not perpetuall The first no man will say that vnderstands the nature of morall precepts and their dependance upon the Law of nature which is one and the same with all men every where and in all ages and in that regard immutable And he deserves not the name of a Christian that dares affirme the second It remaines therefore that we pitch upon the third confesse that herein that Commandement was Ceremoniall not perpetuall But besides the practice of the Church we have the warrant of the Apostle S. Paul who ranks the Sabbath among the shadows of things to come whereof the body is Christ Now the body had they are the words of the late learned Bishop of Winchester the shadowes vanish that which was to come when it is come to what end any figure of it it ceaseth too So that to hold the shadow of the Sabbath is to continue is to hold that Christ the body is not yet come Neyther can the force of this place be avoyded by saying that the Iewes had other Sabbaths that were there meant as the Sabbaths of weekes and the first and last dayes of their great feasts which were called Sabbaths For the Apostle speakes indefinitely of the Sabbath dayes hath not there left any ground to rayse any distinction upon or to shew that he aymed onely at them more then this That he speakes there in the plurall number will not helpe this shift but rather crosse it it helpes it not because we know it is usuall in the new Testament to use that number when the Sabbath in question is spoken of it crosseth it rather in that being in the plurall number it may rather seeme to comprehend all their Sabbaths whatsoever they were and so to be far from excluding this The place then is cleare and alone sufficient to prove the point in hand To which I will onely adde that the reason drawn from the example of God who rested upon the