this matter we may be assured there was no such thing done The Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as well a preparation and destination as actuall application to holinesse as Exod. 19.10 Josh. 3.5 7.3 Jerem. 1.5 If God at that time whereof Moses wrote did give any command to Adam to sanctifie the Sabbath it must of necessity follow that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise But in Paradise there was no need of a Sabbath where there should have been no toyl no necessity of sanctifying any day to Gods worship where every day should have been a day of rest and the hole life a continuall Sabbath God would not then impose the Sabbath as a law when he himself brake it for according to Hierome and Catharinus he formed Eve upon the seventh day and so wrought upon it God imposed upon Adam in Paradise no other positive Law then that of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge It is probable that Jacob whilest he kept Labans sheep the Israelites while they were under the bondage of Pharaoh and his mercilesse taskmasters kept no Sabbath but if it had been commanded sure it had been kept Lastly it is said Nehem. 9. vers. 13 14. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai c. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath The authorities they alledge are especially emergent from the Primitive Church Justin Martyr leadeth the way Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize is Tertullians a challenge to the Jews All the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath saith b Ireneus There was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us so c Eusebius When there was no Scripture nor Law divinely inspired the Sabbath was not consecrated to God d Damascen Of late Adherers to this opinion the most eminent are Tostatus Musculus and Gomarus In this array the arguments and authorities upholding the Prolepsis are marshalled yet is it not universally entertained many there have been and are and those of no mean note neither who have applied themselves to the genuine and proper sense of the words and from thence deduced the institution of the Sabbath from that very article of time whereof Moses wrote And this interpretation I conceive most agreeable to the mind of Moses for many reasons which shall exhibit themselves in their due place for first I bend my self to encounter the objections formerly made and to lay open where they are crazy or invalid Divine revelation is indeed the best means to understand Gods will and act and though the Scripture doth not mention Gods expresse command to Adam though we reade it not said to him as after it was in the Law Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day yet a command we find and there being then at that time whereof Moses wrote none on earth capable of a command but Adam and Eve it necessarily followeth that they received the command For what is meant by Gods sanctifying of the seventh day but the application of it to divine worship Those things are said to be sanctified in the Law which are applyed to sacred worship saith a Aquinas now if it was then applyed to sacred worship sure it was by command Nor is the argument of force The Scripture mentioneth it not Ergò It was not many things were to the first Patriarchs commanded which are not recorded It is by farre the major part of learned men b affirmed that God dictated and prescribed to Adam all circumstances of his worship which by tradition past to his posteritie and were in every severall family untill Moses observed and it is in part evidently and infallibly confirmed by Scripture it self for we reade that Cain sinned but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4.15 Where there is no law there can be no transgression for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1. John 3.4 yet of this or any other command concerning religious duties holy text hath not one syllable Perhaps the command was not so solemn as afterward not vivâ voce in an audible voyce there being not the same reason and yet a command there might be internall though not externall God might by his guiding spirit direct Adam to sanctifie the seventh day as he did both him and other Patriarchs to other observances if Aquinas a hath aimed right It is credible saith he that the Patriarchs by divine instinct as by an hidden and tacit law were induced to worship God in a set and determinate form agreeable to the inward worship and signification of mysteries to be fulfilled in Christ The want of an Historicall narration of the praxis of those times is also as weakly urged You know Ab autoritate negativè nihil concluditur ex argumentis Arguments drawn from silent authority conclude nothing An axiome never firmer then when applied to the history of the world from the Creation to the Law the period of this discourse There is no mention of Adams penitence after his fall none of his sacrificing of his performing any other pious exercises during his hole abode upon earth none What then shall we say that he lived like an Atheist never invoked never praised God We reade of no Parents that Melchisedech had what shall we hold with the letter of S. Paul that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} really whithout father or mother ◠Heb. 7.23 He that in so compendious a story as this of Moses looketh for a full relation of every small circumstance is like to lose his longing and may as wisely seek Pauls steeple in Hondius his map of the world Abbridgements of stories are nets of a larger mash which onely inclose great fishes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things worth mentioning smaller fry things of lesse consequence escape them Athanasius his rule is right enough it self if it be not bowed by violence Comparing the miracles of Christ with those of the Prophets he demonstrateth the oddes to be this Christ was born of a Virgin so none of them Christ made the lame to walk the deaf to heare the dumbe to speak the blind to see so did not they For then saith he the Scripture would not have omitted it Therefore because the Scripture is altogether silent in the matter it is sure there was no such thing done The Father speaks of miracles but I hope the observation of the Sabbath was none and therefore Athanasius stands you in little stead My margent directs to the place omitted by the Bishop The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} little also avails them for be it granted that it signifies a preparation to holinesse doth this preparation exclude
instruct the Israelites that Gods resting from his works on the seventh day was the reason why he had selected and appointed by his commandment given to them that day rather then any other to be sanctified for his Sabbath Indeed if the fourth commandment had onely mentioned the seventh day to be the Sabbath without more ado and had supprest the reason Moses had had fit occasion to give them here this observation But seeing that Reason was fully and with indeleble characters ingraven in the Decalogue it had been mere supervacaneous and impertinent tautologie to recite it here especially considering it is the most received opinion that Moses compiled the history of Genesis after the Law was promulgated on mount Sinai and so this reason was no news to them If any notwithstanding these grosse and palpable absurdities seemeth desperately enamoured of this forlorn and despicable Prolepsis enjoy her he shall without me his rival I envy him not Come we now to survey that little which the Divine remembrancer hath afforded us of the actual observation of the Sabbath before the Law whereof two onely examples are extant the one for the observation notable the other for the violation For the observation we reade Exod. 16.22 when the Israelites had on the sixth day gathered twice as much Manna as on any other day before the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses and he said to them This is that which the Lord hath said To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord We do not find here that the Israelites were amused at the word Sabbath that they expostulated with themselves as before concerning Manna what it should be no they knew well enough what it was with the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord they had been long acquainted it was no novelty to them the new attendance and long train of strict observances that now waited on it were the things so puzzled so possest them with wonder of a How is it changed from what it was Their old wont was to dresse their necessary viands upon the Sabbath and being now interrupted now disturbed in their accustomed practice by an uncouth innovation of Bake that which you will bake to day and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept untill the morning well might they be in a study well demand a reason of this change And whereas it is by some stiffly affirmed that the Jews did bake their Manna on the Sabbath day an opinion ascribed to Theophilus Brabourn the first as my Authour telleth me that looked so near into Moses his meaning he must know that in Opticks amongst other requisites to perfect discerning justa distantia a a fit distance is one and Mr Brabourn might perhaps by looking too near see to little where the fault was whether in this or in some defect of the organe his understanding or through what other cause I not dispute sure I am that an hallucination an errour of the sight there was and that a grosse one The paraphrase they give of this Text Bake that which you will bake to day c. is this As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day that bake or boyl as you use to do and for the rest lay it up to be baked or boyled to morrow and to this interpretation they the rather betake them because the Israelites laid it up as Moses bad and it did not stink now say they it had been no wonder at all that it did neither breed worm nor stink had it been baked the day before Things of that nature so preserved are farre enough from putrifying in so short a space Not to dwell long in discussing this point They have mistaken both Gods miracle and Moses his meaning Gods miracle for the baking or boyling excludeth not the miracle of its not putrifying things so dressed are indeed the lesse disposed to corrupt therefore the putrefaction which Manna contracted by procrastination on other dayes notwithstanding the same order taken for preservation of it by baking and boyling was the greater miracle and because it tainted against nature and miraculously reserved upon other dayes Gods ceasing to work the same miracle upon the Sabbath might it self seem a miracle The mind of Moses they have not reacht whose words resolve themselves into this construction What you mean to bake bake to day what to seethe seethe to day and what remaineth not unbaked or unboyled but of that which you have baked or boyled more then sufficient for this dayes food lay up for you to eat to morrow and therefore Hierome hath rendred it Quodcunque operandum est facite Whatsoever belongeth to the dressing of the Manna dispatch it now But to put it out of all doubt that this errour may never readvance God himself vers. 5. commanded Moses that the people should Prepare that which they bring in and it should be twice as much as they gathered daily what was this Preparing but dressing but cooking of it so the English will bear and by a word of the same energy and signification it is rendred in I am sure most Translations so the Septuagint so Hierome so the Spanish so the French a thing so manifest as the very Friday was thence denominated {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Preparation to the Sabbath For the violation of the Sabbath we have it recorded vers 27. that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather and they found none this I conceive most likely to have reference to the chap. 18. v. 12. Now because it is held by some that the primum esse and first dawning of the Sabbath began at this fall of Manna though I hope I have already sufficiently proved the contrary I would further know why it should begin then and but then was it to chalk out to the Israelites the precise seventh day from the Creation whereof they were at that time ignorant It could not be for of the seventh day whereon God rested they were not they could not be ignorant in some profane and irreligious houses it might perhaps have been lost but in others more piously affected it was certainly preserved For it is most undeniable and irrefragably true what Sr. Walter Raleigh a hath delivered and it is in substance affirmed by many others That if the story of the Creation had not been written by divine inspiration yet it is manifest that the knowledge thereof might by Tradition then used be delivered unto Moses by a more certain presumption then any or all the testimonies which profane Antiquitie had preserved and left to their successours And this he proveth by the light which Moses might have either by Cabala or letters For that the most notable occurrents of every severall age were transmitted downwards by tradition and heare-say is without all controversie a and for letters it is so clear
of one in a week was ceremoniall and so abrogated I answer prove you it ceremoniall and I will yield it abrogated but there hath not yet been any argument or reason shewn us whereby we might be perswaded to conceive it ceremoniall nor hath it so much as one Character of a ceremony in it For first it was not typicall it did not prenote any thing to ensue or be accomplisht under the Gospel If that fancy of the Jewish Cabala be true that the world shall continue but six thousand years and then the day of judgement shall follow it might prefigure that and yet no ceremony proved for that time is not yet elapsed and the type must continue till the thing typified be fulfilled so that this rather evinceth the duration then abrogation of this limitation Secondly it had no particular relation to the land of Canaan the proper place of ceremonies nor yet to the Jews upon whom it was not imposed as Jews as a mark of difference to distinguish them from the Gentiles If you object Exod. 31.13 17. Ezech. 20.12 20. where the Sabbath is called a signe betwixt God and them I say the Sabbath was at that time a mark of difference and separation betwixt the Jews and Gentiles that is confest but was it so as a seventh day No that which caused the distinction was the sanctification of them on that day not any thing in the number of seven Gods seposing of a certain time for their and onely their for God worthily neglected those of whom he was not worshipped a Sanctification was an argument that he had an especiall care of them above others and that they were his onely people It was not imposed as an heavy burthen upon the Jews If the sequestring one day in a week had been burthensome to them it would be also a grievance now to us Christians who observe the same But we are under the law of grace and liberty exempted from such pressures and if it were in any respect onerous we would and might renounce it so that it being not to us heavy it is consequently probable that it was to them tolerable And indeed in the explanation of the law or rather application of it to the state of the Jews it is rather recited as an ordinance of comfort and refreshing as of mercy and and favour then of rigour or severity then of depression and of servitude Lastly it was not commanded in recognition of any speciall favour conferred upon the Jews It was a memoriall of Gods creating the world in six dayes and his resting on the seventh but this being a benefit wherein all mankind inter common the Jews can claim no property therein several to themselves And so in respect of this Character as of the three preceding no tidings of a ceremony yet and so no cause of abolition for you will not have more abrogated then was ceremoniall will you If you say it was and must be ceremoniall for morall it was not and therefore positive and because positive ceremoniall I answer denying that positive either necessarily implyeth ceremoniall or excludeth morall Nay more disputable it is whether positive may be admitted here or no Sure I am a great Prelate d hath resolved it In Divine constitutions Positive law hath no place and so e Schoolmen and Civilians use to speak but in regard the propriety of the word signifieth the imposing of what before was in its nature arbitrary whether the imposition be Divine or Humane it constituteth in my opinion a Law positive denominated accordingly Be it then Positive is it therefore ceremoniall or not morall Let the definition of either word end the strife Morall is derived from mores or mos and may be defined as Lirinensis f doth Catholick Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus That which hath been observed every where alwayes and of all men And though in its remotest latitude of signification it is synonymall with what Civilians call Jus Gentium or the Law of Nations yet may it not unfitly be restrained to lesser societies as to Gods Church and so what hath been alwayes observed in his Church may not unfitly be called morall and then the observation of a weekly day will become so too yet with this restriction and difference that one is morall by Naturall infusion the other by externall Imposition g But suppose it granted that Positive were a privative of Morall yet can you never prove that it must inevitably inferre ceremoniall for ceremonies are in their very nature changeable to last but a while their etymologie giveth them that definition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} therefore they who write ceremonie do ill deduce it from Ceres whereas Positive laws may be and are some of them immutable The prohibition of incestuous matches within certain degrees decimation and tithing were Positive and yet I hope you will yield unchangeable The last I am sure you demand by virtue of the first injunction Nor doth the tenth content you you are you think defrauded of your right unlesse we allow it as due jure Divino the truth whereof is here not to be discussed and though I as yet rather incline to the affirmative yet this for undeniable veritie I dare and do averre that to evince a jus Divinum there is farre infinitely farre clearer evidence and demonstration in the Scripture for the Lords day then for Tithes But I digresse All Laws Divine derive their firmnesse or mutability two wayes either from that which giveth them their first constitution Reason Qualis Ratio Praecepti tale Praeceptum as the Reason is permanent or moveable so is the Law for the form of all laws is the reason as that which diversifieth all things is the form or from the subject or matter about which they are conversant for if that be constant the law must also be the same For those Laws Divine which belong whether naturally or supernaturally to men as men or to men as they live in Politick society or to men as they are of that politick society which is the Church without any further respect had to any such variable accident as the state of men and of societies of men and of the Church it self is subject to in this world all Laws that so belong unto men they belong for ever although they be positive laws unlesse being positive God himself that made them altereth them saith Hooker Now no man will deny the reason of commanding a weekly day in memory of the creation to be immutable therefore the Law it self for that cause also though at first positive must be so And that it was imposed on Gods Church without respect had to any particular Place People Time or the like variable occasion is so clear as none can solidly refute and for this cause also it must continue so long as that society the Church for which it was first
Church as appeareth by the Rubrick of her book of Ordination of B. P. and Deacons b So that your assurance as sure as you take yourself to be may in this for ought I see deceive you But be it as you would that such an election is not to be found expresly written yet will it neither follow that it being an unwritten Tradition Apostolicall it is not Divine or that Cyprian in that place thought so What his opinion there was I have already told you and sure I am his words as well agree with your new-fangled distinction as if he and you had been at crosse purposes As for Traditions Apostolicall the greatest Papists hold them for divine So Bellarmine c and his reason is Quòd non sine spiritu Dei eas Apostoli instituerint Because the Apostles did not institute them without the direction of the holy Ghost And for the same cause Roffensis d calleth Consecration by which Transubstantiation is effected a divine Tradition Licèt nullis possit Scripturis comprobari Though it cannot be proved by any written Word But none more home then Gerson e It is not in the power of the Pope Counsel or Church to alter Traditions delivered either by the Evangelists or Saint Paul as some blunderers think Thus you see your self deserted by them whom you took to be the greatest fautours of your opinion Let me advise you Sir if you have any more distinctions of the same stuff with those former habitent tecum sint pectore in isto suppresse them for they will never credit you Though I have by main force of this invincible argument of Apostolicall Institution and Tradition reinvested the Lords Day into a possession of Jus divinum assured and confirmed enough against all machinations of her greatest oppugners yet wanteth she not other should need so require auxiliary to her For that Evangelicall day which was prophecied of and prefigured in and under the old Law could not certainly be an humane device But the Lords Day was shadowed under Circūcision on the eighth day prophecied in many Psalmes both proved by sufficient Testimony of the Fathers Ergò the Lords Day is no humane ordinance Lastly as the Eucharist is called the Lords Supper because he instituted it for the same reason is the Sunday denominated the Lords Day For these two the Day and the Supper have the epithete of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Scripture to shew that Dominicum is alike to be taken in both saith B. Andrews Before I take cognizance of other questions pertinent to the Lords Day lest I be thought over partiall to mine own assertion painting it as Apelles did one-eyed Antigonus who presented him half faced and lest our adversaries should upbraid us that they have not been allowed to object the negative arguments shall have audience and as they lie in order their refutation Whatsoever is of Divine Institution is to be found either in the naturall or positive Law of God But that the First day of the week should be the Christian mans Sabbath is not so found Ergò the Lords Day no divine Ordinance It is found in the positive Law of God delivered by his Apostles and founded upon the moralitie of the fourth Commandment as I formerly shewed But saith one You onely shewed what the Apostles observed themselves that they imposed the keeping of the Lords Day as necessary upon the conscience of Gods people by any law or precept whatsoever that we reade not and so it will become a Tradition which though Apostolicall is no Commandment Is not this fine stuff assuredly an argument rather that they have not left speech then that they are returned to their right senses for to omit Augustine's sanxerunt Bucer Junius Beza and others who make it the Institution of the Apostles doth not Brerewood himself confesse it to be the ordinance of the Apostles and B. White b the same also what I pray is an Ordinance but a Law and was this a Law that bound themselves onely and not at all the succeeding Church is it like they would constitute a Law to expire with themselves And whereas we are now taught a distinction betwixt Tradition and Command we will for quiet sake though it biddeth defiance to all antiquity admit it in the same sense you impose upon it and accept it for a mere leaving of the observation of this day to the Church without any expresse command to observe it yet I say you shall find Command so implicitly complicated with Apostolicall Tradition as all your waters of separation all your chymicall extracts of School-distinctions shall never be able to sever them For are you able to unmake Tradition to make that no Tradition which is Tradition If you be not so long as it is Tradition it hath expresse command affixt to it Tenete Traditiones Hold the Traditions 2. Thess. 2.15 So that if Tradition were it self no command yet hath it here command annext to it And though I grant that our Expositours understand this place especially of the written word yet extend they it to Traditions unwritten also such as are clearly held to be Apostolicall and have if not mention yet foundation in Scripture amongst which the observation of the Lords Day is worthily accounted a It hath the approbation of the Scriptures and therefore cannot be numbred amongst unwritten Traditions saith the Reverend Salisbury with others b And for the Church succeeding the Apostles it is most evident she held her self obliged to the same observation For even in times of persecution before any either imperiall Edict or Canon of Councel enjoned it the observation of this Day was so taken notice of by the Heathen that it became a constant Interrogatory to the Christians in their examining Dominicum servasti Have you kept the Lords Day To which their answer was ever ready c I cannot intermit it for I am a Christian and the Law of God prompteth me to it Here we see these holy Saints had a Law for the celebrating of this day and have we none Perhaps you will say It may be questioned whether Dominicum here signifieth the Lords Day because Baronius d and Bellarmine e apply it to the Masse and it may also well be understood of the Eucharist which is often in antiquity called Dominicum I answer It cannot properly and distinctly be understood of either Not of the Masse for though Papists inform their disciples of I know not what pro-sekenique antiquitie it hath yet sure we are that as now stated it was not in being above a thousand years after our Saviour and so it could not be meant in this place Besides the question was propounded as well to the Lay as Clergy-Christians of whom it had been absurd to expostulate Num Dominicum egissent whether they had said Masse which is onely done by the Priest Nor can it respect the
which is the greatest of all But none ever affirmed a Divine Institution Ergò c. They do not indeed mention it sub terminis because it was not questioned in their dayes but if they make it instituted by Christ as some or by his Apostles as almost all and if they tell us * Whatsoever the Apostles delivered by the dictate of the holy Ghost is as firm and indefeasable as what Christ himself then I hope by necessary consequence they make it of Divine Institution That which the orthodox condemne for popery should not be consented to by us But that the Lords day is a part of Gods worship and more holy then other dayes as from Divine authoritie is condemned by Reformists in the Papists Therefore we ought not to symbolize with them No reformed Writers condemne this in the Papists because they hold the Lords Day more holy then others but onely such and those very few as think the Day to be of Ecclesiasticall not of Divine Institution The orthodox Thesis is this * Festivall dayes cannot by humane constitution be made more holy then others as Amesius to whom you appeal could have informed you Lastly Socrates affirmeth that the Apostles never intended to establish laws concerning Holydayes S. Augustine also maketh it will-worship or idolatry to observe any day as commanded of God S. Hierome likewise saith we have no dayes having any holinesse in them and necessitie from Divine institution The book of Homilies affirmeth that Christian men of themselves without any Divine precepts did take upon them the observation of the Lords Day All reformed Churches consent with us and many Martyrs in the Marian dayes as Tindall Frith Barnes Lastly Master Perkins speaketh doubtfully herein yet he was one of the first that took up this tenet Socrates must have a candid Reader or be argued of overbold singularitie against all Antiquitie who affirmed the contrary Augustine saith that the Christians in his time did not observe so much the festivals themselves as what was signified by them and therefore he saith that the Apostle did blame the Galatians in this because they did observe appointed times servilely not knowing the mystery to which they tended he speaketh nothing of their institution not one word Hierome indeed I grant was inclining to your opinion but his single judgement is not equivalent to the many reasons and authorities urged on the contrary The book of Homilies affirmeth no such thing as you say these words of themselves without any Divine precept are yours not the Churches not expresly not interpretatively so not hers as she is positive in the direct contrary For there being two things wherein the Divine right of the Lords Day is founded upon legall Institution in the fourth Commandment and Evangelicall by either Christ or his Apostles for the first she saith that God expresly in that precept commandeth the observation of the Sabbath which is our Sunday and not onely commandeth it but also by his own example doth stirre and provoke us to diligent keeping of the same For the second having a while after declared it to be Gods Will and Commandment to have a solemn time and standing day in the week consecrated to him she presently addeth This example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow immediately after the ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing day in the week to come together in Now where she speaketh of Godly Christian people she doubtlesse meaneth the Apostles for who else durst at that time take upon them to begin such a custome and so as touching the Institution of the day as a weekly day she reduceth it to the fourth precept and as the first of the week she foundeth it upon Apostolick practice What some other reformed Churches think in this point of the Lords Day may plausibly enough against us be urged on your parts I confesse and it is your Drusian your keenest objection and yet we can oppose many things to turn the edge of it For first they are onely positive in setting down their own opinions but the reasons inducing them thereto they suppresse and seeing they are not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we must not be governed by their bare Thesis Secondly those confessions are not generall but particular to some Churches Thirdly were they the Canons of a generall Councel yet must they not predominate over Truth a Nationall and Provinciall councels ought to give place to the authoritie of Vniversall and Oecumenicall and these have been oftentimes amended when experience hath cleared some truth which before lay hid saith Augustine Lastly though some will think it b periculosa praesumptio judicare de caeteris ipsum ab omnibus judicandum to speak the truth yet to speak it with all terms of venerable regard to those famous Churches I dare pronounce they are not right in this point not so full reformed but they stand yet in need of further reformation Nor ought we to wonder at their mistake herein For first the precept of the Lords Day is not so legible in sacred Scripture as the rest which concern matters of faith thereby to instruct us to put a difference betwixt fundamentalls and ceremonies it is written in a finer character in a smaller Print and therefore might well escape the eyes of those Churches at the first break of day of Reformation when the light shone somewhat dimme Secondly the question was never on foot in their times and so the evidences demonstrating Divine Right were never laid open to them and having inquiries concerning sacrifice of the Altar Adoration c. more proper for those times to imploy them they were not like to inform themselves better upon accident What I have said concerning the Reformed Churches may also be applyed to those holy and blessed Martyrs you cite and partly to master Perkins who had he lived now would I dare say have been as positive and resolute as any other And whereas you make him the prime inventer of this tenet though what I have urged out of the book of Homilies is your sufficient confutation yet will I produce one Testimony more and that no lesse then Royall and as Reformation it self ancient The Sabbath Day was used and ordained but for mans use and therefore ought to give place to the necessity and behoof of the same whensoever that shall occur much rather any other holy day instituted by man What say you now Sir if Perkins was the first that took up this tenet who I pray laid it down and down it was laid for certain if he took it up for up it was you see in Henry the eighths time Having thus waded through all the objections and discovered their frame to consist of very loose and defeasable stuff wherein truth is no ingredient I step forward to other questions incident and pertinent to this discourse And first
take a full effect untill the Church should attain her land of Canaan a settled and flourishing peace And the event seemeth to prove the ordinance for no sooner did Constantine a second Joshuah or Josiah sit sure in his throne then Gods externall worship began to be magnificently solemnized and as an especiall badge thereof his day superlatively honoured both by Imperiall edict and example and that with strict vacation from all worldly avocations ab omni opere from all work so his Histriographer m reporteth Elsewhere I grant there occurreth a constitution of this Religious Emperour tolerating labour on this day but it was in countrey villages onely and that too but in case of necessitie n lest pretermitting the opportunitie offered by the divine providence it might not occurre again o This dispensation is much urged by the Anti-sabbatarians but it hath no great force with us For first it may be well controverted whether Constantine ever made any such indulgence or no because if he had is it credible it could have escaped Eusebius who was not onely contemporary but in a manner companion with this Emperour who took speciall notice of all his actions having in designe the compiling of the Historie of his life and who over lived him yet this Bishop hath not one word of it But be it Constantine's sure we are it was after rescinded by Leo with a We ordain that all men cease from labour on the Lords day that neither husbandmen nor any other take in handwork unlawfull on that day And before Leo divers of the Fathers in their popular tracts or sermons pressed this vacation upon the people On the festivall day all handy-work is prohibited to the end that men may more intirely exercise themselves in sacred matters So Cyril o Chrysostome p calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an immoveable law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that this first day of the week be holly set apart for sacred exercâ—sâ—s But there are also fathers you will say that seem to incline to the contrary First Hierome he relateth of a religious woman governesse of the Nunnes at Bethlehem how she every Lords day resorted to the Church and after service she and her company fell to their ordinary work of making garments for themselves or others To this I answer consider Paula as a subject and then tell me how can you acquit her of the breach I will not say of the fourth but of the fifth precept if Bethlehem was within the latitude of Constantine's decree and certainly it was for that reached Omnes Romano Imperio parentes all men subject to the Romane Empire And if this Lady was not within the verge of the dispensation for that was for husbandmen onely was not then this her act a disobedience to her Princes law and therefore her example no rule of those times it being it self irregular Besides S. Hierome telleth us of religious persons of the other sex Monks that they did orationi tantùm lectionibus vacare busie themselves in prayer and reading on the Lords day Now consider Paula and her Nunnes as women and compare their practice with that of these Monks and then if the masculine practice be not more worthy then the feminine let Grammar scholars judge Out of Gregory they tell us that he giveth it as one cognizance of Antichrist q That he shall enjoyn the Lords Day and the Sabbath to be oâ—served with abstinence from all work To which I answer There are two things which Gregorie here reproveth in the observation of the Dominicall Day first a Jewish not a moderate and sober restraint and this is certain for in the very same epistle he saith r On the Lords day we must cease from labour and by all means attend our prayers secondly the celebrating it together with the Sabbath for it is Diem Dominicum Sabbatum the Lords Day and Sabbath both which was the errour of the Ebionites And therefore Gregorie for ought I see standeth their friend no more then Hierome This Gregory was a man of the sixth Centurie an age wherein themselves acknowledge this restraint took deep root and so it continued successively downward even to the times of Reformation nor did the first Reformers those of our Church especially exercise themselves in varying any thing at all in this point from the received practice as may appear both in the statute and canon laws both of this and other countreys But hitherto I have onely insisted upon restraint from labour and servile work there is yet another question concerning restraint not from work but play and from recreations viz. Whether recreations such as are at other times lawfull are tolerable and lawfull on the Lords day To this I answer in short All recreations at other times lawfull are interdicted on this day but such whereby the mind is better disposed towards the sanctification of the day or such as are no impediments to that sanctification For the day is appointed to be sanctified that is to be an holy not a playday and it is a rule in the decalogue and all other divine laws that where any thing is commanded to be done all things subservient to the performance of it are consequently enjoyned as also all lets and hinderances prohibited Besides Gods house hath been ever thought profaned and polluted by sports and meetings of good fellowship why also not his day Nor is it enough that these recreations be not an hindrance to publick exercises in the Church but they must not disturb even private duties at home as meditation prayer holy conference c. For God commandeth not the sanctification of some few houres but of a day that is an hole day allowing sufficient time for repose and repast to the body And so our Church a interpreteth the command Gods obedient people saith she should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and dayly businesse and give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises And consonant to her her sister the Church b of Ireland The Lords Day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God If holly to Gods service where have recreations a room These articles are it seemeth called in for what reason I not dispute sure I am the nulling of them was very acceptable to the disciples and followers of Arminius Men too bold and frequent in these Dominions c whose accursed tenets were there damned As an appendix to this discourse of recreations if now my opinion be demanded concerning his Majesties book I shall say of that onely this His Princely intentions were therein I doubt not pious enough not so I fear theirs who first suggested the convenience and fitnesse of that liberty unto him But in regard the foundation thereof seemeth especially to be the preserving in observation Encaenia or Church dedications of them I shall say somewhat perhaps not known to all Of their
said of preaching foolishnesse I do not hereby arrogate to my self the name of a Scholer for my delight in learning hath been more then my proficiencie which God knoweth is very slender so slender as these my simple labours dare not approach you from any assurance of their own worth but because they are the products of those studies which derive their originall from your extraordinary both charge and care they think themselves of right to belong to you and so their motion towards you is not more voluntary then naturall Be pleased Sir to entertain them as testimonials of my filiall gratitude which is the chief end of this their second resort to you for they exceed their Commission if they speak so much what they are themselves though that is mere weaknesse as what I am that is Sir Your most honouring and Most obedient sonne HAMON L'ESTRANGE The Preface COncerning the publishing of this Treatise I expect to meet with two Interrogatories First why so late considering the Antisabbatarians have possest the stage without controul so many years Secondly why at all in regard there have of late issued out Tracts homogeneall wherein the Truth hath been evidently enough demonstrated Errour convinced To both these I hold it requisite to give my answer and if I can satisfaction To the first then I say I was retarded upon these reasons especially First though my studies have been most conversant in Eristick Theologie yet I delight therein more as a stander by and spectatour of others digladiations then out of an itch to enter the lists my self which of all things through a desire to suppresse from publick notice my private infirmities my Genius most declineth Secondly being conscious of mine own failings I was loth to betray so good a cause by so mean a champion as my self and so ipsÃque onerÃque timebam Lastly being of a Lay condition I held it discreet and good manners to leave the work to be performed by others who had both greater abilities and a calling more suitable to it To the second my answer is That this Tract was not onely commenced but as I then * thought finisht before intelligence arrived at me of any books extant of the same subject And when I first heard thereof I forthwith destined my pains as a sacrifice to eternall oblivion but having after compared our labours together it manifestly appeared that we varied much in frame every of us having somethings proper and peculiar to our selves verifying that * One man may find out more then another no man all things for which reason alone some learned friends to whom I had communicated it animated me with the advice of some additions to publish it Let no man therefore fore-judge me so obliquely as if I thought the labours of those worthy men either imperfect or impertinent to any whereof whosoever resorteth shall there find Antidote enough against the Anti-Sabbatarian infection a disease which hath prevailed rather through a secret disposition of naturall corruption to embrace it as any thing which rellisheth of liberty then from predominancy of arguments though backt with the authority of men eminent for their knowledge in letters three * of them especially to whom though I willingly afford all titles of honour which learning meriteth yet I boldly affirm had they left us no other demonstrations of their excellency that way then their Sabbatary Tracts they should never have attained so high a repute amongst us But let them without envy possesse the laurell they have deserved yet if any shall therefore wonder as I doubt not some will that such a Sciolus as my self have dared to oppose them I must reply what Luther did before in the like case God once spake that by an Asse which he concealed from the Prophet and revealed to the child Samuel what he hid from Eli the Priest They then that upbraid me with personall frailty be what they say as great and evident truth as they desire must know they quite mistake the question which is not whether I be illiterate ignorant weak or what else they please to call me but whether it be truth which I have here delivered and if any man will yield me the last yea whether he will or not I will freely grant him the first But to him who misliketh Truth and shunneth her because he meeteth her in my apparell let me give Augustines check Think of me your pleasure but beware what opinion you have of Truth This short advertisement being premised I addresse my self to the ensuing discourse Errata Page 11. l. 13. the matter reade this matter p. 15. l. 2. r. arguments and opinions p. 20. l. 18. view r. vive p. 43. l. 8. their r. others p. 66. l. 8. ceremony r. caremoniâ— p. 97. l. 9. prosekenique r. pro-selenique Gods Sabbath before the Law I Begin a work whose hardest work is to begin a work of the Sabbath and the beginning of the Sabbath which like Fame caput inter nubila condit a must begin this Tract. A task intricate and obnoxious to many precipices Davids curse I am sure to meet with A way dark and slippery I could indeed solace my self in this that I walk not alone and that on which side soever I fall I shall have learned associates But to erre for company or for singularity are to me alike odious Truth I serve and so farre as that Primary light Holy writ shall enlighten me Truth will follow not at all disanimated though the spark which should direct me to her seemeth to burn somewhat dimme as being a portion of one of those three first chapters of Genesis which were for their obscurity with the Canticles and some part of Ezechiel by the Hebrews interdicted to be read of any under thirty years of age b and which hath set eminent Doctours as well ancient as modern at oddes For whereas it is said Gen. 2.3 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he rested from all his works which God created and made it is by some supposed that Moses regarded not the time whereof but wherein he wrote by a Prolepsis and that it was onely an intimation of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the seventh rather then of any other day the subsequent of which glosse is the assertion That the Sabbath was not or commanded or observed untill Moses his dayes for the sustaining whereof they produce reasons specious and authority venerable First There is say they no other means for us to understand what Gods will and act was Gen. 2.3 but onely divine revelation But the holy Scripture neither maketh mention of any command of God given to Adam concerning resting upon the Sabbath day neither maketh any historicall narration of Adams or any other the Patriarchs observation of the Sabbath day now in cases of this nature Athanasius his rule is Because the Scripture is altogether silent in
the contrary The Ancients whilest might and main they endeavour to beat down one errour many times fall into another So a Sixtus Senensis A thing too infallibly true witnesse three of the foresaid Fathers Justin Ireneus and Tertullian who in their fierce bickerings with the Valentinians Marcionites and Manichees violently bare down their Chrysippean fate and inevitable necessitie but upon the ruines of that errour laid the foundation of the doctrine of Freewill which afterwards was so augmented by the superstruction of Pelagius and his Ape Arminius If they writ in cool blood did they throughly scanne and sift the point did they ruminate upon what they delivered or did it rather carelesly escape from them in passage b Every man though never so learned is one way to be esteemed when he onely glanceth upon the question otherwise when he undertaketh to examine and discusse it throughly saith our great Prelate Lastly it must be inquired whether the question was started before they delivered themselves thus for if it was not they are not so much to be regarded For they often delivered things somewhat negligently not doubting but what they writ was orthodox enough because it had past once for currant till it came to the touch Augustine hath no other shift to salve the Fathers aforesaid from Pelagianisme in the point of Originall sinne and Freewill Many things indeed go a while for granted and without controul which in tract of time are discovered to be of dangerous consequence and then justly exploded for men are wont till they foresee the mischief which may ensue to deliver things as they took them by way of frolick one from another and so in a plodding carelesnesse a which way most go all follow But all these exceptions laid aside one there is from which no appeal will be admitted It is naturall to man to erre Men they were and might erre yea and did every one in other things why might they not in this I speak not this to avile them or abate any thing of the reverence we owe them and if it be suspected that I bear them no good will Of my self they were b Zanchy's words once but shall now be mine and mine own Genius I speak it From the unanimous consent of the Fathers where necessitie compelleth not I am very scrupulous to differ No my onely scope and intention is to tell you what Saint Augustine c hath told me That humane authoritie though never so learned never so holy is not to be trusted unlesse it produceth Canonicall Scripture to prove or probable reason to demonstrate what it saith How farre the Fathers slipt in other things is not cognoscible in this place whether in the point in question they did yea or nay is now to be debated and that they did I think it probable at least if not evident For is it not said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it What is this Blessing but the dispensing a peculiar favour towards it what this Sanctifying but a separation and consecration of it to holy worship If yea what then shall hinder but that we think the Sabbath instituted in that very article of time whereof Moses wrote shall this prodigious Prolepsis a Nothing is easier then to cry out O that is a Trope a Figure a peculiar manner of expression A strange wantonnesse in Expositours to apply Tropes devised upon necessity to places clear as the mid-day That according to Augustines b rule is a figurative speech which being properly understood can neither be applied to Faith Charitie nor Edification Somewhat fuller is that of Bellarmine c The Scripture ought to be understood according to the true proprietie of the words where we are not diverted by some manifest absurditie and this he calleth Commune axioma Theologorum the universall tenet of all Divines which I take to be granted on all parts the rather because neither Chamier Amesius nor any other as farre as I have examined hath accriminated the Jesuite for it Now lest we should misconstrue the word Absurd he explaineth himself in another place thus d Vnlesse we be inforced by some other portion of Scripture or other article of Faith or the universall interpretation of the Church Let this rule then judge us I for my part compromise to be tried by it God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it there is the Text God did honour the seventh day and consecrated it to his worship there is the genuine and proper sense and because in the tissure and series of divine story Moses hath inserted this sanctification of the Sabbath immediately next after the six dayes creation why should we not conclude that it was sanctified then and in the same order of time whereof he wrote why should we not take Moses his meaning as we find his words Is there any portion of Scripture any article of Faith the generall explication of the hole Church repugnant to it Is there any absurdity compelleth us to think otherwise Ostendant let them shew it which till they do let them give us leave to hold our first opinion to which the absurditie of the Prolepsis hath compelled us Absurd it is for it is clear the Patriarchs had a Sabbath and that they observed the seventh day Sabbath is evident from the reasons thereof common to both times They had a Sabbath For the Law of Nature instilleth this notion a That as every thing else which excelleth so especially God Paramount and superlative in excellency is to be worshipped as also That to the performance of this worship certain times are to be b deputed Is it likely that the Patriarchs failed in so necessary a dutie was Gods Church then so supinely governed or indeed so not governed at all that no time was set apart for solemn assemblies There was a consecration of Materials for sacrifices whereof beasts therefore distinguished by clean and unclean a consecration of Persons who a consecration of Places where was there none of Times when assuredly yes and therefore S. c Augustine hath put the Quando as one of those circumstances wherein Cain might have been deficient So a Sabbath they had The seventh day Sabbath they had Look into the Essence the body and soul of that Sabbath as d Brerewood calleth them what are they but Vacation or Rest from bodily labour and the Sanctification of that rest by dedicating the soul to Gods worship Were the bodies both of man and beast before the Law of a more brassie and adamantine durablenesse then after were they not conditioned not attempered alike was not the sweet repose of lucid intervalls equally necessary and welcome to both Did not devout sequestration to pious exercises as well sute and become the souls of them as of these Look especially into the end peculiar to it as the seventh from the Creation what is it but to eternize the honour of the Creation in
indeleble memory and that whilest man is amused with admiration of so miraculous a structure he may be excited to a gratefull recognition of the goodnesse of God who created all these things for man and onely man for himself Is not this benefit of Creation common and universall do not all participate of it but the elect especially and inexplicably Had not the Church before Moses as ample a share in the blessings which result from it as that since and ought it not then as freely as frequently to celebrate its sacred Festivall If then before and since the Law there were the same reasons sure there was also the same thing observed yea and the same commanded for from the Reason to the Law from the Cause to the Effect from the End to the Means is a solid argument and never faileth but when that end may be acquired by a better means and impossible it is to demonstrate how the tyred bodies both of man and beast could have been more charitably provided for Gods solemn worship in a more sweet decorum performed and the memory of the Creation better preserved from the immerging deluge of time and profanenesse by any day other then the weekly Sabbath the day which God indigitated for the same purposes by his own example an example equivalent to a Law For though there had been no vocall no verball institution of the Sabbath yet Adam and the succeeding Patriarchs who had a view and clear notion of all Gods works their orderly existencies and exact consummation but especially who were manuducted and guided by an inerring spirit could not but collect from Gods example a the analogicall equity for man to imploy six dayes in the works of his calling and to interferiate the seventh consecrating that to religious duties And therefore that main Argument from the want of a solemn Institution is but like a ruffled arrow that maketh a great noise in the aire but falleth short of the mark For the controversie is not de Modo neither of the command whether Internall or Externall nor of the observation whether voluntary or imposed by precept but de Re whether it was or observed or commanded yea or nay that it was observed the equity thereof common and agreeable to both times evinceth and observed it could not be otherwise then in obedience to command either prolated or tacitely inspired by the holy Ghost for impute we must not to those sanctified men superstitious and will-worship If then the Sabbath was both observed and commanded before the Law why might not the command arise out of Gods blessing and sanctifying the seventh day mentioned Gen. 2.3 why should we not rather embrace the proper and grammaticall sense of the words then resort to a peerlesse and senselesse Prolepsis that hath neither fellow to associate nor reason to strengthen it It hath not its match in the hole sacred volume which is another note of its absurdity There is not one Prolepsis of such an Institution saith Amesius of any Institution at all so I and yet I doubt not to find many seconds One place there is I grant which at the first blush seemeth to perswade the contrary but upon more mature consideration it exhibiteth nothing lesse The text is Exod. 16.32 The words these This is that which the Lord commandeth fill an Omer thereof viz. of the Manna to be kept for your generations c. And as the Lord commanded Moses so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Lo here say they an Institution of the Lords related by anticipation as the former was for how could Aaron lay up a pot of Manna to be kept before the Testimony when as yet there was neither Ark nor Tabernacle and so no Testimony before which to keep it An Institution indeed I see here but no Anticipation nor can I without your spectacles I say no Anticipation of the Institution For might not I pray this command this Institution be dictated to Moses at the same time whereof he wrote might not the precept be given now though the execution of the precept was adjourned nay is it not most likely it was so for where in the hole bible meet you with any injunction concerning it but here touching the building of the Tabernacle and the ordering every thing else appertaining to it God did exactly lesson Moses on the mount but of the filling the pot of Manna and placing it before the Testimony no hint at all was given there nor anywhere else but here onely And though we should grant that this command was given after the Tabernacle finished yet cannot the mentioning of it here be properly said to be by Prolepsis This narration taken hole and together is I confesse mentioned by Prolepsis not so the parts of it Hole and Part have not things so common betwixt them that what belongeth to the hole belongeth also to the part A total Prolepsis of an entire story before another there may be and yet no partial of one part of that story before another the parts may be marshalled in their due order though the hole be antedated All that series of Divine story from Genesis to Job may be said to be related by Prolepsis for it is the currant opinion that Job was comtemporary with Jacob and Joseph but improper it were to say that the fall of Manna the giving of the Law the building of Solomons Temple and such particulars are in respect of the history of Job set down by way of Prolepsis Prolepsis onely aimeth at what is next her she beholdeth not things remote So it is in this text the verses from the 27 to the end of the chapter constitute a narration distinct and in a canton by it self For Moses having in the former 26 verses reported so much of the history of Manna as was peculiar to that time whereof he wrote thought it not amisse to superadde what else concerned it though he delayed a while the ensuing occurrents which should have been precedents to it because it being not much he had to say and that so homogeneal with what went before he was resolved to take now an ultimum vale of it therefore he telleth you of an after ordinance of God concerning the filling an urn with Manna the disposing of it before the Testimony the execution of that command by Aaron and lastly the duration of the use thereof by the Israelites fourty-yeare which last is supposed to be the supplement of Joshua or Eleazar If now you consider this digression abstracted from the ensuing story you will find the hole preposterously related and yet the parts not at all inordinate and if you look wistly upon Calvines a words you shall find him not repugnant to what I have here delivered Lastly it is absurd for there can no solid reason be given why Moses should by a Prolepsis of about 2670 years insert this Institution It could not be to
understood by this Law No it is not all Expositours take it for the hole five books and yet for this there may be some colour because the 70. render it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hierome Deuteronomium legis hujus But to return to the first text of Moses we need no other Expositour then himself what Law he appointed then to be reâ—d he telleth us in the immediate precedent verse it was that Law which he delivered to the Levites that Law which he commanded them to put in the side of the Ark Now if they can prove that onely Deuteronomy was delivered to the Levites and laid up there they shall gain my subscription Having thus proceeded as farre as my first intendment bounded me lest this discourse should jut too farre into that insuing of the Sabbath under the Gospel now no more Gods Sabbath under the Gospel WE have at last shaked off those remora's which retarded our arrivall at the Christian Sabbath at Gods Sabbath under the Gospel For a Sabbath God hath still but not the Jewish not the seventh from the creation No a The seventh day is vanisht our Lord is buried the first now dawneth our Lord is risen and his Resurrection hath consecrated to us a new Sabbath for a Sabbath God must have by the immutable Law of the fourth precept Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day that is that day which for the time being God hath marked out and appointed for his own {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For if this Commandment injoyneth now no particular and set time under the Gospel then is the Law an Ennealogue not a Decalogue and so God hath lost one of his ten words but he payeth no tithe out of his Commandments his full Denary he must and will have If you say the Morall equitie viz. to yield God a competent and convenient time for his worship remaineth still and so the Commandment is not lost I answer This Fundamentall Law is tacitly implyed in this precept but so it was also in the institution of all other ceremoniall festivals the Passeover Pentecost c. to which we may as well resort as to the fourth precept for it And if this morall or naturall Law be the onely reliques of that Commandment I would fain learn what was in the Sabbath extraordinary more then in other Feasts which might intitle it to a roome amongst the morall Laws of the Decalogue when as the other Feasts were excluded Besides if this morall law of Festos dies coles maketh a distinct precept by it self I see no reason but there should be another for going to Church another for allowing God a convenient portion of our substance for these are also morall equities and so there will be an even dozen Lastly how cometh this morall equitie to be a peculiar of the Gospel onely God had from the Creation to the Law from the Law to Christ a day appropriated and that by himself to his worship what hath he lesse reason to require it under the Gospel hath he left the Christian Church to that liberty that every man may serve him as the toy taketh him and so God stand to our courtesie to be worshipped when we list You will say Nay we are not left at that libertie The observation of the Holy dayes appointed by the Church is reduced to the fourth Commandment as a speciall to a generall viz. Gods people must observe holy times because the equitie of the fourth Commandment obligeth thereunto But Easter and Christmasse day and Sunday c. are holy dayes lawfully appointed by the Governours of the Church and subordinate to the equitie of the fourth Commandment therefore Christian people are bound to observe these Holy dayes in obedience to the equitie of the fourth Commandment I answer The Church hath a power indeed to ordain festivals but is the observation of her constitutions concerning them a fulfilling the disobedience a breach of the fourth Commandment How can this be First what needs an Obligation be derived from the last precept of the first Table when the first of the latter is alsufficient Secondly is it not a mere non sequitur The fourth Commandment bindeth us to yield God a convenient time for his worship Ergò It obligeth us to observe the festivals of the Church Where learned you this Logick Suppose I pray the Church should injoyn but one day in a moneth doth he I pray who observeth her order that one day and not once more in the interim serve God perform his dutie which God in this Commandment requireth or doth he who plieth God with frequent addresses who strictly observeth canonicall houres yet onely perhaps faileth that one day which the Church injoyneth doth he I say violate the morall law of this precept which saith not Set apart such times for pious exercises as thy Governours prescribe but such as thou thy self thinkest meet In short to make this more evident Every Law positive is built upon some morall as upon a foundation now it is manifest that the foundation may stand and yet the superstructure fall as may be demonstrated in an example familiar to us The equitie of State requireth that particular persons be not inriched any way which reflecteth to the damage of a communitie upon this sociable equitie there is a positive a Statute law b inacted that None shall buy or contract for any victualls or wares before they come to the Market Fair or Port. But in some parts of this Realm especially in Norfolk such plentie of corn there is growing in most Towns as maketh every of them a kind of Market so as few men need go out of their own Villages to be supplied with materialls either for bread or beer yea the superfluitie is such as many Towns vend a thousand quarters of grain over and besides what supplieth their families and lands by reason of which great plenty little or none is sold in many Markets and the usuall practice hath been and is for Merchants to buy not in open Market but at the Barn doore great quantity thereof and export it into other parts of the kingdome where scarcitie is This act of theirs some Merchants have by smart experience lately found to be illegall but yet no violation of the foresaid equity for who complaineth that they are damnified thereby Not the Norfolcians they are eased not the Shires deficient they are relieved either part desireth it one ut impleatur that it may be stored the other ut depleatur that it may be disburthened Nor doth the fourth Commandment onely inferre out of these words Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath that God must have a Sabbath in a speciall manner but it declareth also his will concerning the quotient and limitation thereof Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the Seventh is the Sabbath so that one in a week he must have If you say the limitation
primum esse of the Lords day The Lords Day was by the Resurrection of Christ declared to be the Christians Day and from that very time of Christs Resurrection it began to be celebrated as the Christian mans Festivall So hath a profound a Bishop rendered him and truly unlesse ex illo relateth to Christ which I believe you will difficultly grant though it be lesse monstrous then to marry it with Resurrectione in despight of Priscian Nor is Augustines opinion utterly of truth abandoned For though we reade not of any Sabbath-duties expresly performed on that very day of Christs Resurrection by the Apostles yet this we find that when Christ appeared to them on that day they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Assembled on that day and the place is thought by learned men to be the coenaculum in which Christ celebrated the last Passeover and from thence derived a perpetuall consecration nor is it likely that he would inspire them in an ordinary place If then they were assembled and in a Church we may safely collect they were busied in sacred exercises The first day of our Saviours appearing to his Disciples this and the first Christian Sabbath he honoured with his beatificall presence The next was the next {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. John What on some indefinite time after eight dayes as you b would have it A word with you Sir Saint Mark telleth us that our Saviour should * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will you therefore have our Lords Resurrection to be on some one day after three expired you will not sure nay though I think you dare as much as another yet this you dare not No by after eight dayes is meant the eighth day after which was the next Sunday So the * Fathers agree It is necessary that that day should be the Lords day saith Cyrill c and he thence deriveth the equity of Assemblies upon that day Nay more this very day is so farre honoured by Nazianzene d as he made an Homily on purpose for it as he hath entitled it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nova Dominica because the first Lords day solemnized in the weekly revolution after the Resurrection or rather because it was the encenium of the Resurrection for betwixt the day of the Resurrection and this he thus distinguisheth That was saith he salutifera this salutis natale That the day that brought forth salvation into the world this the commemorative Festivall of that day Though this be the last first day mentioned in holy writ which our Saviour hallowed in his assembling with the Apostles yet probable it is that he practiced the same even till his Apoge and Ascension But conjecturall arguments we will not urge when demonstrative are so hardly obtained Well our Saviour is ascended Let us now behold what honour the Spirit of Comfort which in his late valediction he promised to send his Apostles hath conferred on this Day Our Saviour is ascended and the holy Ghost descendeth but on what day the first of the week Not expresly yet consequently and by deduction yes for it was when Pentecost was arrived and this fell that yeare on the Sunday The Allwise God so disposing that the Gospel should every way parallel the Law The one given on mount Sinai on the day of Pentecost the then Legall Sabbath the other on mount Sion on the day of Pentecost the then Evangelicall Sabbath But some are of opinion the Lords day need not brag of this honour it being more then was meant it for it was say they a casuall thing that Pentecost should fall on the Sunday which I confesse seemeth to me a prodigy in Divinitie For those things onely are casuall which happen praeter intentionem operantis contrary to the expectation of the agent But here God was the agent whose omniscience nothing could escape who is privie to all events as the disposer of them True it is that necessarium and contingens necessary and contingent are terms which Theology can endure well enough when they are spoken with regard to intermediate and second causes For those Effects which are the emanations of such Causes as can in nature produce no other are said to be necessary and those which proceed from such as are in their own nature not determined to certain and definite effects are called contingent but when they are referred to the supreme and paramount Cause of all they are then and must be called Necessary Nor could the falling of Pentecost on the Sunday be a contingent thing in respect of the second Causes which were all no doubt thereof is made necessary For Scaliger hath informed you right that the Pentecost's terminus à quo was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the morrow after the Passeover so ever no contingency there and the Passeover it self ever as certain alwayes upon the fifteenth day or the full Moon following upon or next after the vernall Aequinox and so none there There were certainly other reasons which induced the holy Ghost to make choice of this day and time yet seeing all Antiquitie hath accounted his descent upon the Apostles amongst those titles of honour which have been dispensed upon this day I see no reason why it should be now denied it And though no glory at all the thing by some over eagerly desired should accrue to it thereby yet this is most legible that on this day the Apostles were solemnly though closely assembled in prayer and holy duties But so you will say they were on other dayes which I grant with this distinction of aequè and aequaliter for some dayes amongst them were doubtlesse dignified with a more solemn observancy then others in respect whereof they were especially reputed if not denominated Holy-dayes For how else can our Church e be understood where she saith that The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in so that both the preferring one day before another and the time of that choice viz. immediately after the Ascension she indigitateth to us The next mention of Apostolicall observation of this day occurreth Acts 20. vers. 7. The first day of the week the Disciples being come together to break bread Paul preached unto them Against this Text two exceptions lie First that by Breaking of bread is onely meant their ordinary repast no sacred Duties or celebration of the Eucharist and this they seem to make good by Saint Chrysostome and Lyra as also by the English Bible which paralleleth this place with Acts 2. verse 46. I answer some have indeed interpreted this Text of bodily repast yet the major part take it for the mysticall breaking of bread in the Communion And for our Church B. Andrews out of this very place affirmeth positively that the Apostles were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
impossibility is a necessity with which the Law dispenseth And this is the reason to speak to the point in question why the Sabbath being given to Adam and in him to all mankind Gen. 2. was not described as the other six dayes by evening and morning as also why the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment of like latitude with the former is not set out by expresse bounds of from Eve to Eve as that in the Leviticall Law which onely concerned the Jews to intimate that the journall or dayly round of the Sunne should be no precise rule or character of his Sabbath in such places where time is not so distinguished but that there his people are to give him a seventh of their time as it is with them distinguished And though the Regions abovesaid have not naturall dayes described by the circulation of the Sun from East to West yet times they have holding so near correspondence with such naturall dayes that in some parts they are denominated dayes and for Island if my intelligence misleadeth me not their dayes are homonymall with ours in England an argument of their not different either Planters or Conquerours as derived from the same idoles in Planetary computation whereof the learned Selden and Verstegan can inform you There is the same reason of keeping a determinate set Sabbath under the Gospel that there is of preaching praying administering the Sacraments c. But these are not determined how often they shall be done Ergò It is not limited what time shall be a set Sabbath Every of these though they be not absolutely restrained yet their proper time is this very Sabbath whereof those duties were a finall cause to speak in particular It is a Day of Preaching and so ever was in the Primitive Church Origen alluding to the first fall of Manna in the wildernesse saith The Lord ever raineth down Manna from Heaven on our Lords day and so in the Apostolicall age Acts 20.7 It is a Day of Prayer We must by all means intend our Prayers on the Lords Day that by them on that Day we may expiate for all our negligences and escapes in the week-dayes So Acts 2.1 the Christians were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one accord on this Day and how they were wont then to be imployed the Historian telleth you c. 1. v. 14. it was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Prayer It is a * Day proper for the Eucharist and therefore anciently called Dies panis and in some places as in Alexandria the onely Day and Time for it So Acts 20. vers. 7. the Disciples came together to break bread that is to communicate of the Eucharist It is a day proper for the Sacrament of Baptisme and therefore anciently called Dies lucis the Day of illumination This Sacrament not usually being conferred unlesse in case of eminent necessity but upon this Day So Acts 2.41 the most notorious president extant no lesse then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} very near three thousand were this Day baptized Lastly it was a day of almes Pro arbitrio quisque suo quod visum est contribuunt quod ità colligitur apud praepositum deponitur saith Justin Martyr And so 1. Cor. 16.1 Saint Paul ordained it should the First of the week be a day of collection for the poore That which is expresly against Christian libertie was never commanded by Christ or his Apostles But to have the Conscience burdened with any outward observations putting religion in them as being parts of Gods worship is directly against Christian libertie for how is he free that is thus bound to times and dayes What you understand by Christian libertie I know not sure I am that Christ onely delivered us from the observation of the old ceremoniall Laws and from the sting of punishment due to the breach of the Morall but that he exempted us from all outward observations whatsoever is a fancy of your own without warrant from the Scripture For would he then have imposed the outward observation of Sacraments if we had not been obliged to them and you are in this implunged in errour beyond the Anabaptists for they cry up Christian libertie to free them from the constitutions of men onely but you will have it reach to the very ordinations of God There is no dutie essentiall in Religion ordained by Christ or his Apostles of which we find not either exhortations in respect of performance or reprehensions in regard of their neglect either in the Gospel Epistles or Acts But the keeping of the first Day of the week Sabbath is no where pressed or exhorted unto the neglect thereof no where reproved in all the new Testament Ergò c. Paedobaptisme the communicating of women is I hope essentiall in Religion secundùm esse perfectum but where do you find any exhortation to the observation any reproof for the neglect of these duties Besides I see nothing to the contrary but it may be included in Saint Pauls admonition of Tenete Traditiones whereof before Had the observation of the Lords Day been of Divine Institution it is very probable that the Apostle reproving the Corinthians for going to law would not have omitted the advantage of this circumstance For plain it is that their pleadings were ordinarily upon the Lords Day But he omitteth c. That which you make so probable was I affirm considering the Spirit which alwayes assisted him utterly impossible in the Apostle for how could he who knew his Lord and Master had often determined the contrary in very like cases opposing Pharisaicall strictnesse how could he nay how durst he prevaricate or swerve from Christs rule he knew it lawfull to cure a crazie body and was it sinne to consolidate a crackt estate upon the Sabbath it was justifiable to drag a beast out of the ditch why not also land out of the oppressours claws on that day when it could not be done on another If Christ had appointed this day as the day of his Resurrection then the Eastern Churches which followed S. John transgressed this ordinance of Christ when they kept their Easter on another day But they sinned not in it Ergò c. Christ nor his Apostles for ought we know gave no commandment concerning Easter neither is it necessary that the anniversary and weekly memoriall of one and the same benefit should alwayes jump together Gods own precept in almost the same case we know was otherwise The Jewish Sabbath and Passeover were both commemoratives of their redemption out of Egypt yet one was fixed to the day of the week the other to the full of the moon so as they seldome met together Had it been a Divine Institution doubtlesse those Fathers and Synods which have spoken so much in praise of the Day displaying the prerogatives thereof would never have omitted this
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} adorations to be made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} towards the holy Table and this we all know is a piece of yesterday the Authour whereof was in being not full six hundred years past which we are also as certain was the very time about which the Incarnation of Bread or Transsubstantiation began first to be whispered I should not have dwelt so long upon this but that I find it pressed as a necessary dutie yea a dutie of necessity adequate to the observation of the Lords Day a Tenet which deserveth rather to be hist at then answered But to return from whence I have digressed Let whatsoever is positive in the fourth Commandment stand for a cipher is the Lords Day to be observed one jot the more remisse doth not Apostolicall Institution imply an equall Obligation both concerning the continuance of time and restraint from labour what did they ordain what institute was it not That the first day of the week should be consecrated to God and spirituall negotiations you cannot yield us lesse If then it was the first day of what is it meant of a naturall day from sun to sun or of an artificiall from the sun-rise to his set I answer of the first for these reasons If all the other dayes of the week contained both night and day why should not the Lords Day have as large a proportion of time as the rest do not all the dayes in the week hold by Gavelkind and if it contained onely daylight then there was a night to spare whereof I would gladly know what should become Should the Saturday have it all If so then this would by sesquialter proportion exceed all the rest should it passe by way of dividend amongst the other six then there would be two houres in every day more then the suns revolution maketh Moreover when God requireth any thing dedicated to him his constant caveat and proviso is that it be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not defective and without blemish not lame or imperfect Now that which wanteth one minute of its full time cannot properly be called a day regularly I say and de jure of right it cannot where the day is seposed by divine designation And this is the more evident by observing what God required under the law it being no lesse then a full and complete naturall day from eve to eve which was not as a learned Doctour conceiveth and I think aright to set out the beginning and end the boundaries of a naturall day but to declare his own claim of a naturall day to be dedicated to him which should begin at evening If then the day must be understood of a naturall day of 24 houres it will then necessarily follow that vacation from labour during that time must be concomitant with it For vacation from worldly affairs which may impeach the worship of God is so inseparable from times consecrated to that worship as it is by Brerewood rightly accounted part of the moralitie and substance of the fourth Commandment and so in the Christian Church perpetually to be observed If any shall now object that this vacation is onely necessary and required during the time of publick assembling in the Church and that no more is exacted of us then that we attend such assemblies I answer that God will admit no sharer in any thing consecrated to him and though the cardinall and chief end of the Sabbath is that God be publickly honoured yet doth he not leave the remainder thereof so at our dispose that we may dispend it either in carnall pleasures or terrene negotiations Those oratories which from their dedication to the Lord are in English denominated Churches do from their destination to publick and solemn addresse contract the name and repute of sacred and though they be superlatively and above all venerable while employed to their destinate end yet alwayes even at times of Cultustitium as I may so say or vacation from publick worship there remaineth in them an indeleble impression of awfull regard which ought to preserve them from all profanation inviolable Mistake me not I place no inherent sanctitie I immure not God in them I approve not of their decoring even to effeminate curiositie nor allow them an honour as some of late too close followers of Nazianzene a even to ridiculousnesse superstititious yet this I hold Gods houses they are places where his honour dwelleth for which cause such a relative veneration is due to them as alwayes dignifieth and ennobleth them above any other house whatsoever and secureth them from common use and in this men both learned and moderate have led me the way as Zanchy b Hospinian c c. Now * Places and Times consecrated to Gods name are to be sanctified with equall religion and so the Rituall of the old Testament coupleth them together Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuaries And then I say that the Lords house may as well be impropriated to a ware-house as his day to a work-day when the congregation is dismissed And this priviledge it as well deriveth from Evangelicall as Legall institution Therefore Leo d when he made that edict of generall restraint on the Lords day pleadeth conformitie wth the evangelicall constitution We ordain as it seemed good to the holy Spirit to them whom he instructed But it will be here opposed that neither the Apostles themselves nor the Primitive Church observed this day with any such strictnesse untill Constantine's decree and therefore it is like they enjoyned it not I answer as touching the practice of the Apostles there is I confesse nothing either the one way or other clearly evident nor much of that of the Primitive Church during the time limited Onely Justin Martyr e if I be not mistaken hath something reflecting that way for in his description of the custome of publick assembling in those times upon the Lords day after he hath insisted awhile upon the duties performed in the Church he setteth down what the Christians did postea after their dismission as their visiting relieving the poore their consorting together and their repeating to one another what they had learned that day in the Church Of the remainder of time the solemn assembly being ended I understand this postea probably enough yet will not warrant it with over much pertinacitie if any other construction can vouch better reason in its defence let that obtain But though we should find no evidence of the Primitive practice of cessation from labour on this day yet will it not follow that they did not forbare it if possibly they could for we meet with exhortation to it by Origen f On the Christian Sabbath day we ought not to do any worldly businesse if therefore thou dost surcease from all secular affairs and dost nothing but employ thy self in spirituall negotiations this is
the right observation of the Christian Sabbath Is it now likely that the doctrine of so eminent a Teacher as Origen should perswade none to conformitie with what he here delivered But suppose the worst and that you were able to afford us an example or two of labour on this day must it therefore follow that there was no decree of restraint made by the Apostles and that we are at libertie to plow and cart on this day notwithstanding any divine Law to the contrary Nothing lesse for as his late Majestie g judiciously said It is not sound reasoning from things done before a Church be settled and grounded unto those which are to be performed in a Church estalibshed and flourishing There might be and was weighty cause to dispence with so strict a vacancie from worldly businesse as the state of the Church then stood Heavy were their pressures many thousands were the slaves of miscreant masters who in likelihood would not forbear their servants work an hole day in a week but exact it from them under the penaltie of many stripes so that should any of that servile condition have refused his masters work on that day nothing could he expect but severe if not inhumane usage and should the Christian Church have engaged herself in the vindication and justification of such contempt it had been the high-way to have made both her Religion and self even to eradication odious as the incendiaries of disobedience and maintainers of Anarchie And therefore very discreetly the fathers of the Laodicean Councel wary of giving offence yet willing to shew how they stood affected decreed in the twentie ninth canon of that Councel that Christians should rest from labour on the Lords day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} if they could that is if their Pagane masters would not constrain them to work and so it is by Brerewood understood But here it will be excepted If the Law of God commanded their rest and cessation upon the Lords Day the law of man enjoyning the contrary was not to be weighed for in such cases h No man is subject to a law of an inferiour repugnant to another of a superiour or It is better to obey God then man Acts c. 5. v. 29. I answer Better it is indeed to obey God then man when they command things repugnant but it must be with this proviso that the Law of God be fundamentall and paramount from which there is no appeal to an higher For if it be a positive or ceremoniall law a law of lesser caract then Aquinas his rule must be retorted with the losse but of one letter No man is obliged by an inferiour law against a superiour All positive laws whatsoever are subordinate and when they stand in competition with moralls and fundamentalls they must strike sail Because the point is tickle and may perhaps give offence to weaker apprehensions I will illustrate it with two examples taken out of Holy writ where God dispenced with ceremoniall laws for a while that the morall might be preserved inviolate The ceremoniall law of God enjoyned the Israelites to offer such and such sacrifices at such and such times in such and such places directly crosse to which Pharaoh their King imposed upon them such a task as would not afford them any leisure to perform those sacred duties Now the fundamentall law of God enjoyned them as it doth all men to obey their superiours in all things either simply good or not simply evil and betwixt this fundamentall and the other ceremoniall laws stood the contest But what was the issue Did God with the Israelites in this case as Popes in their fury by a Nos Sanctorum with the subjects of an heretick Prince absolve them from their obedience The Israelites were more and mightier then their adversaries did he instigate and spurre them on to rebell or by assassination to make away their King No he sent to Pharaoh and commanded him to let his people go he knew the fault and impediment to be in him alone the Israelites were blamelesse and as Augustine saith in a similarie case i The obliquitie of the command made the King blame-worthy the ordinance of obeying made the subject innocent Nay to pursue this example a little further when Pharaoh condescended to let the people go to sacrifice provided they went not farre Moses refused the leave upon such conditions as were like to bring them in peril of their lives It is not meet so to do shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Aegyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us Exod. 8.26 A true confirmation of Gods impresse I will have mercie and not sacrifice Hos. 6.6 Both he will have where both may be had but if he must part with one mercie he will have let the other go Upon this text a learned Commentatour thus k God preferreth the moralls of the second Table before ceremonialls of the first And the same is the opinion of divers others * The second dispensation was in the wildernesse and that from observation of a sacramentall law for we reade Joshua 5.5 that circumcision was omitted all that time and the Israelites abode there 40 years The most probable cause of this omission was because they were every minute to watch the motion of the convoy-cloud and to march with it but circumcision would either retard their expedition or hazard the lives of the infants therefore God in mercie had rather respect to the safety of those innocents then to his ordinance of circumcision I could also instance in Gods dispensation during the persecution under Manasses and other idolatrous Kings as also under the Captivitie of Babylon in all which severall times doubtlesse there was a fail in many ceremoniall duties otherwise observable The truth is all ceremoniall laws have respect to the latitude of Jury and the land of Canaan as well in a morall as a literall sense viz. they are framed onely for the Church whilest she enjoyeth a visible and open profession of her religion whilest her peace remaineth indisturbed for when the fury of persecution hunteth her like a partridge on the mountains when times of tribulation and calamitie seise upon her God then accepteth what service she can with her own safety afford him he standeth not upon shadows the substance is that he onely then looketh after Ceremonies are but the outward dresse of religion onely made to decore her in publick profession and therefore not absolutely of the essence of a Church and so but respectively necessary The very Sacraments themselves are but so as the glory of our Church l hath rightly observed upon that fail of circumcision in the wildernesse yet Sacraments I take it are the highest stair and degree of ceremonies Now these premises considered nothing discern I to the contrary but a constitution of the Apostles concerning labour to be omitted on this day there might be though not to
first Institution innocent enough I will not speak nor trouble my self and you in shewing by what gradations they ceased to be what they ought and became what they ought not of their corrupt and degenerate estate I purpose onely to give you some small hint collected from what I have read and partly from what I have seen First therefore you must understand there were in the late times of superstition and blindnesse in our Church in our Church I say for in other Countreys I confesse they were united two feasts Maenechmi very near resembling one the other one called the Feast of Dedication the other the Feast of the Patrone or Church Holiday the impious and profane fooleries were almost the same and common to both onely the Feast of the Patrone had this peculiar to it The idol or image of the Patrone richly deckt and drest was set forth upon a table near the Church doore to the view of the People quod quia mutum est Aut nondum populi linguam or áque barbara novit Assidet interpres quidam clamánsque rogánsque Intrantes atque ingredientes munera praestent Patrono nummis redimant indulta Paparum which because 't is dumb And kennes not yet the Peoples Idiome Its spokesman's by who begs of all that come Toll for his Patrone and sits there to sell Pardons for sins but men must pay him well But the first spark of light which shone in the beginning of Reformation soon quitted the world of this grosse abuse King Henry the eighth anno 1536 amongst other things enjoyning that this Feast of the Patrone of every Church commonly called the Church Holiday should be no more observed within the Realm The Feasts of Dedication indeed continued still yet much eclipsed in their former wicked and abominable solemnity for whereas before the custome was for divers vicine Parishes to assemble themselves together there where the Feast of Dedication was to be held to feast and riot in the very Churches to erect stalls for pedlars in the Churchyard to spend the hole day in swinish swill lascivious wantonnesse in cudgellplay-matches and in the true service of Satan and because every Parochiall Church had its proper Sunday whereon the Feast was kept and it was rare by reason thereof to have a Lords Day observed especially in summer time wherein these Feasts are most frequent with any tolerable devotion and exercise of Piety it was therefore by the same Prince strictly injoyned That the Feasts of Dedication of Churches should in all places of the Realm be celebrated upon the first Sunday in October for ever and upon none other day The scope of this King was doubtlesse to restrain the disordered licentiousnesse of the people on this day being occasioned by their joynt resort to other Parishes where these Feasts were observed and in this I cannot but commend that Declaration of his sacred Majesty which restrained and prohibited that disorder so far as in it lay Had there been due inquiry made into the violation of his Majesties will in this and punishment inflicted upon the offendours great I dare say had been the good it would have produced but through generall impunity and the perverse corruption of humane nature chusing in every thing that which serveth its own though never so inordinate ends and neglecting the rest his Majesties godly purpose was I know much abused and Gods sacred Day not lesse dishonoured And for proof thereof I will give you a Relation of mine own autopsie of what these eyes saw It was some few years since my fortune to visit a kinsman seated in a countrey where these Feasts are frequent upon a saturday and though I purposed to depart that day yet he importuned and prevailed with me to repose my self with him the ensuing Lords Day I did so and as dutie required in the morning I accompanied him to Church A full assembly there was service being read the preacher a man of no mean note or degree maketh a sermon lest such profanation should want its due ceremony upon this Text There is nothing better for a man then that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul to enjoy good in his labour he insisted his hole time upon the lawfulnesse of Feasting and of Christian liberty in the use of the creatures and to give him his due nothing did he deliver amisse something I grant he might nay ought to have added as in setting down the properties of a Christian Feast and in opening to the people his Majesties will and pleasure concerning these Feasts which certainly gave them not so free a scope as they took Well the sermon ended and congregation dismissed in our return home I inquired of my kinsman the occasion of that Text he told me it was the Feast of dedication of their Church Home we went took a moderate repast and scarce had we dined before the bells summoned us to Church whither with all convenient speed we hasted and being come behold the congregation which in the morning amounted to about nine or ten score could not except the family we brought with us make up now so many single persons as the congregation was thinne so was the service suitable being posted over in great haste After this service I was much requested by my kinsman to accompany him to the place of rendez-vous where the Feast was kept many denials had I given him as fearing to be a spectatour of Gods dishonour and did partly expresse as much but he assured me I should find nothing but honest and innocent disport at length I confesse not without much inward conflict I yielded to him and the rather out of a desire to inform my self of the manner of those Feasts whereof I had heard much talk So I accompanied him to the green which was the scene of their pastime where loe we beheld a multitude of people the muster whereof could not be lesse then a thousand The main pretence of that assembly was to give testimony of their manhood by wrestling cudgel-play c. there being to that end a confederacy league and siding of the neighbour towns so many against so many which exercises imployed the body and greater part of that multitude but they who listed not to be either spectacles or spectatours wanted not wherewith to entertain themselves there being an ale-house by The disorders of that meeting by drunkennesse swearing malicious reviling one the other which may easily be conceived I purpose not to relate that which I offer to consideration is whether there was not by this assembly a great affront to his Majesties royall Declaration which prohibited all concourse of people out of their own parish yea or in their own parish untill Evening Prayer were ended when as I dare say there were near a thousand of this meeting which were not of the parish wherein it was held and of those not fourtie I verily believe had been present at