what day in the weeke the Sabbath day is to wit the Sabbath day of the Lord thy God that day in the weeke wherein the Lord our God resteth must be our Sabbath day So that as the Commandement prescribes unto us a weekely Sabbath day to be sanctified so Gods Precedent and example points out unto us what or which day in the weeke wee must rest on to sanctify it And this is not onely the naturall equity which the adversary in generall confesseth but the very naturall Law and substance of the fourth Commandement to prescribe a set solemne day in the weeke to be sanctified and not to leave it in the power of man or of the Church to appoint what time they please The reasons are these 1. because the Commandement expresly limiteth one set day in the weeke being the Sabbath day of the Lord our God as hath bene sayd Now the Commandement prescribing a set and fixed day in the weeke what humain power shall dare to alter it into an indefinite time call it what you will convenient or sufficient to be appointed at the pleasure of man This is with the Papists to commit high sacriledge in altering the property of Gods Commandements For upon this ground of a generall equity they have bene bold to suppresse the second Commandement saying it is comprised in the first As they have robd the people of the cup in the Sacrament saying the blood is contained in the body under the formes of bread So our adversary imagining a generall I wot not what equity in the fourth Commandement of some certain uncertain time for Gods publicke worship doth thereby destroy the very property of the Commandement which expresly prescribeth the Sabbath day in every weeke A second reason why it is not left in the power of the Church to prescribe what time men please is because as it is Gods prerogative as a Maister to appoint his owne worship and service so the time wherein hee will be served This God himself commandeth in the fourth Commandement Now as the King will not take it well that any meddle with his prerogative and arrogate that to himself which is the Kings right so God is justly offended when men presume to assume to themselves that power which is proper and peculiar to God alone If any will take upon him to coyne money by counterfeting the Kings stampe and name his act is treason how then shall they escape if presume to coyne what time they please for Gods solemne worship though they set the counterfeit stampe of God upon it Now the Sabbath day is of the Lords owne making and stamping and therefore called the Lords day A third reason why it is not left in mans power to institute the solemne day of Gods worship his Sabbath day or to appoint him what proportion of time they please is because an indefinite time must either bind to all moments of time as a debt when the day of payment is not expresly dated is liable to payment every moment or els it binds to no time at all For if the Law of God bind us not to an expresse determinate time or day consecrate to his service then the not allowing of him a set time or day is no sinne at all For what Gods Law commaunds not therein man is not bound And where no Law is of a set time or day there is no transgression if a set time or day be not observed So as by this reason if the Law of the fourth Commandement prescribe no set sacred time or day for Rest and sanctification it is a meere nullity For to say there is a naturall equity in it for some sufficient and convenient time and yet no man can define what this sufficient and convenient time is nay all the wits and heads in the world put together are not able to determine it is as to say there is a world in the moone consisting of Land and Sea and inhabitants because there are some black spots in it which yet is not a more lunaticke opinion then that is presumptuous and absurd Hath not the profane world found by wofull experience that of late dayes within these two yeares last past wherein men have taken a liberty to profane and pollute but a part of the Lords day that this is a most horrible sinne And a sinne it cannot be but as a breach of one of Gods holy Commandements For where there is no Law there is no transgression The profanation I say of the Lords day is clearely shewed to be an horrible presumptuous sinne and in speciall a bold breach of the fourth Commandement by those many markable judgements of God which have fearefully fallen upon fearelesse Sabbath breakers and that I say within these two yeares last past the like whereof cannot be paralleld in all the Histories of all the Centuries since the Apostles times Which alone if men were not altogether possessed with the spirit of stupidity and of a croced conscience were sufficient to teach their dull wits that the fourth Commandement is still in force commaunding the Sabbath day to be sanctified the profanation whereof wee see so terribly punished by divine revenge A point also which our Homily hath noted which were sufficient to admonish the adversary of his presumptuous oppositions thereunto A. Sir you have abundantly satisfied me in this point and I suppose every rationall man and true bred-sonne of the Church of England And surely I wonder so learned a man should commit so fowle an errour as not to search better into the Doctrine of our Church so clearely expressed in the Homily B. You need not wonder at it wee have all knowne him to doe as great a matter as that For was not his hand to the Approbation of a Booke in print though afterwards called in by Soveraigne Authority which contaynes and maintayns many sundry Tenents both Pelagian and Popish flatt against the cleare Doctrines of our Church and whereby hee hath as yet made no publike recantation to remoove the scandall from the Church of England and to satisfy so high an offence given Yea in stead of Recantation I my self have heard him in open Court speake against both Iustification that a man might be justified to day and damned to morrow and against Election of some to eternall life and against the sanctification of the Sabbath saying I say there is no sanctification of the Sabbath but Rest Rest onely And therefore cease to wonder that this man should be so feareles either privily to undermine or apertly to oppugne the expresse doctrines of our Church A. Yet I cannot but wonder how hee dare be so bold and upon what grounds hee should thus impune beare himself B. The grounds I examine not as pertayning to those that are more judicious and in highest place over the Church but the fact cannot be dissembled A. But perhaps hee will say this is your private interpretation of the Homily and of a sort of
Wee grant it as comming in afterwards Deuter. 5. 15. as it is in my Manuscript and therefore the day is changed but yet no Ceremony prooved 1. From the Law 1. By the distinction between the Law and a Ceremony Deut. 4. 13. 14. the Law came immediatly from God the Ceremonies were instituted by Moses 2. It were not wise to set a Ceremony in the midst of morall Precepts 3. This is a principle that the Decalogue is the Law of Nature revived and the Law of Nature is the image of God now in God there can be no Ceremony but all must be eternall and so in this Image which is the Law of Nature and so in the Decalogue Secondly from the Gospell Eph. 2. 4. all Ceremonies were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath for Mat. 24. 20. Christ biddeth them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death 3. Those which were Ceremonies were abrogated and not changed but those which were not Ceremonies were changed as the Ministry from the Levites to be chosen throughout the world the seats changed so here the day changed from the day of Iewes to the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. So there And my Manuscript addeth And yet a Sabbath Act. 1. 12. So that this lasteth as long as the Church militant So there Now from the premisses in this instance wee observe what was the judgement of that learned Prelate and how consonant to the doctrine of our Church in the Homily touching the Sabbath Hee shewes plainely that the Lords day comming in place of the old Sabbath day and so becomming our Sabbath day is by necessary consequence grounded upon the fourth Commandement the Law whereof is perpetually because naturally morall So as hence I might frame this argument That day which comes in place of the old Sabbath day is commanded in the fourth Commandement But the Lords day is come in place of the old Sabbath Therefore it is commanded in the fourth Commandement The Minor is cleare in D. Andr. and so from all the Fathers universally The Major is no lesse true for if the fourth Commandement command the Sabbath day to be kept perpetually in all ages as sayth our Homily and that Sabbath day of the Iewes is now abolished and an other day the Lords day is now come in place of the old and is the Christians Sabbath day then of necessity doth the fourth Commandement command us Christians to keep the Lords day as our new Sabbath day For instance One is made a present heire yea and Lord of such an inheritance hee enjoyeth it for his life but when hee dyes his next heire succeeds him in the full title So here If they object But Quo jure by what right doth the Lords day take the place of the Sabbath day I answer with D. Andrewes and all the Fathers out of the Psalme God made it so And Christs Resurrection declared it to be so and the Apostles observed it so yea and commanded it so too A. I remember the Treatiser confesseth that the Apostles themselves at sometimes observed this day as Act. 20. 7. 1. Cor. 16. 2. B. At sometimes onely what no oftener then hee finds expresly mentioned This is like him in Oxford who in his Sermon sayd that the Iewes kept the Sabbath but once in 40 yeares during their abode in the wildernesse This hee gathered because hee found it but once mentioned But hee might have found it twice if hee had looked well So as this is a most beggerly kind of reasoning And how injurious an imputation is it to the Apostles to say that they kept the Lords day sometimes when as they taught and commanded others to observe it weekly as hath been noted did Christian people immediately after Christs Ascension observe this weekely day and did not the Apostles themselves This is too grosly repugnant both to good reason to our Homily and to the witnesses produced A. These two witnesses and instances I perceive come full home to the Homily Onely one thing I observe that D. Andrewes calls the Lords day our new Sabbath This is a very rare thing and that which the adversary in his booke doth much except against not enduring that the Lords day should be called the Sabbath day And I remember one passage in it wherein hee quarrells H. B. for saying that the ancient Fathers did ever usually call it the Sabbath day Wherein hee sayth hee hath wronged and wrested S. Augustine in those places by him alledged B. Concerning that I have spoken with H. B. and hee sayth hee will answer and make good what hee hath sayd against his adversary And hee told me that howsoever indeed those words ever usually might give advantage to the adversary to carpe yet being rightly understood they may passe currant enough For by ever usually hee meant that all the ancient Fathers although they alwayes distinguish between the Lords day and the Iewes Sabbath day yet they ever tooke and observed the Lords day in stead of the old Sabbath day and ever used it for the rest-day or Sabbath day of Christians Rest-day and Sabbath-day being all one And H. B. told me that if D. Wh. tooke advantage of that hee could as easily take advantage of that speech of his where hee saith This name Sabbath is not given it the Lords day in holy Scripture or by any of the Godly Fathers of the Church Now saith H. B. was not S. Augustine a Godly Father And hee not onely in those places quarrelled by D. W. and which H. B. will more fully cleare from his cavills but more plainely and without all ambiguity in his 251. Sermon de Tempore speaking of the Lords day hee hath these very words Ac ideo c. And therefore the holy Doctours of the Church have decreed to transferre all the glory of the Iudaicall Sabbath or Sabbatisme unto the Lords day that what they observed in a figure wee might celebrate in truth Let us therefore Brethren observe the Lords day and sanctify it like as it was commanded them of old concerning the Sabbath the Lawgiver saying From evening to evening yee shall celebrate your Sabbaths Let us take heed that our Rest be not vaine but from the evening of the Saturday unto the evening of the Lords day being sequestred from rurall worke and from all businesse we may be vacant onely for the worship of God Thus also we duely sanctify the Sabbath of the Lord as the Lord saith Yee shall doe no worke therein So hee And a little before in the same Sermon Dominicum ergo diem c. Therefore the Apostles and Apostolicall men established the Lords day to be therefore observed with a Religious solemnity because in it our Redeemer arose from the dead And which is therefore called the Lords day that in it wee abstaining from terrene works or the allurements of the world might onely
attend to Gods worship c. So Augustine And you see he speakes this not as his owne particular opinion but as it was the Tenet of the whole Catholike Church So as the whole ancient Catholike Church did not onely observe but call the Lords day the Sabbath of the Lord which they kept in place of the old Sabbath day Thus did H. B. informe me And I remember Hilary calls it so saying Though in the seventh day of the weeke both the name and observance of the Sabbath be established yet wee on the eigth day which also is the first doe injoy the festivity of the perfect Sabbath Lo here this Father also calls the Lords day the day of our perfect Sabbath But this suffice A. It is a very pregnant place for his purpose and sufficient to answer fully all the cavills which are brought to the contrary so as if H. B. doe but alledge this one place it will cleare all the other But Sir here is a huge clamour especially of late dayes raised against the name of Sabbath applyed to the Lords day I pray you may it not be called the Sabbath day And what doth our Church hold concerning this B. That the Lords day may be called the Sabbath day I make no question And that for many reasons 1. Because it is our Rest-day 2. The Apostle calls our rest a Sabbatisme 3. The very name of Lords day imports so much as being the Lords holy day as Esa. 58. 13. and that day whereon the Lord rested from his worke of Redemption and so sanctified by him and to him A. D. Wh. denies that Christ upon the day of his Resurrection rested from the worke of Redemption B. I conferred with H. B. about this because it much concernes him to quitt this question seeing on Christs resting on that day hee grounds the Sabbatisme of it as agreeable to the fourth Commandement And in my judgement if hee can evince and cleare it it will proove unanswerable And hee tells me that hee hath in two severall Treatises in Latin against Theo. Brab fully cleared it and remooved all objections and cavillations that either Th. Br. or F. VVh have or can bring to the contrary And hee purposeth to doe the like to D. VVh And hee made it very cleare to me that Christs Rest from the worke of Redemption from sinne on the Crosse and from death in the grave which was a branch of that worke began not till his Resurrection As for his Ascension that was into the place of rest but his Resurrection was into the state of rest As for D. VVh his objection with Th. Brab that Christ laboured on that day H. B. shewes it to be absurd and ridiculous seeing Christ arose with a body glorifyed and impassible so as his actions that day could not be called a labour that thereby the new Sabbath should be broken But you aske me what our Church holdeth concerning this that the Lords day is called the Sabbath day In brief I have observed that in the Homilies it is no lesse then ten severall times called expresly the Sabbath day 8. times in the Homily fore-cited and twice in the third Homily of Rebellion Also Canon 70. in the Articles of the two last Trienniall visitations of London In K. Iames his Proclamation May 7. 1603 twice In an exhortation at a generall Fast set forth by him in the first yeare of his Raigne In Archbishop Bancrofts visitation Articles for Canterbury Art 75. 76. I might compile a whole volume of instances in this kind Yea there seldome comes forth a Brief but it calls it the Sabbath day But least neither the Church of England in her publike doctrine nor the pious workes of her grave and learned sons may perhaps satisfy the Adversaries importunity yet I hope the writings of his more pious and no lesse learned brother D. Iohn VVhite and those also both republished and vindicated by Fr. VVhite from the Iesuites calumnies white dyed black c. will a little qualify him How D. Iohn VVhite doth not onely call the Lords day the Sabbath day as once Sect. 38. 1. and twice Sect. 43. digress 46. 6. but hee also condemnes all profane sports and recreations on that day and among the rest dauncing for one And for this hee alledgeth the example of the Papists as the most notorious Sabbath-breakers in this kind A. Doth hee so Sir This seemes strange to me that so great a Clerke as Fr. VVhite should so farre forget himself as not to remember what his brother hath write Surely if it be so it will be a cooling card and no small disgrace to his Lo when so worthy and reverend a Brother shall be brought as a witnesse against him But I pray you for my better satisfaction relate to me the very passages and words of D. Iohn VVhite B. I will In Digress 46. the title whereofis Naming certain points of the Popish Religion which directly tend to the maintenance of open sinne and liberty of life Now among many fowle and profane practises as hee calls them this hee notes for one namely the profanation of the Sabbath in these words That they hold it lawfull on the Sabbath day to follow suits travell hunt DANCE keep faires and such like This is it that hath made Papists the most notorious Sabbath-breakers that live So hee And Sect. 38. n. 1. hee sayth Let it be observed if all disorders be not most in those parts among us where the people is most Pope-holy c. And for mine owne part having spent much of my time among them this I have found that in all excesse of sinne Papists have bene the ringleaders in riotous companies in drunken meetings in seditious assemblies and practises in profaning the Sabbath in quarrells and brawles in stage-playes Greenes Ales and all heathenish customes c. Thus this reverend Divine Candore notabilis ipso whom all the Iesuiticall smoke out of the bottomlesse pit cannot besweere or besumdge or dye blacke with all their black-mouthed obloquies A. Surely these are very pregnant passages And it makes me tremble to thinke and amazeth me how one White is so contrary to another as also how the Libertinisme dispensed now a dayes on the Sabbath tendeth to bring us Protestants to be like to the Papists in their profane times in taking up their heathenish savage and barbarous maners and customes B. Wee have all of us cause to lament what wee see and to feare yet more sinfull mischiefs to follow if they be not prevented A. I begin to blame my owne negligence I did not thinke that our Church and the Archbishops and Bishops themselves and K. Iames and others had so familiarly used to call the Lords day the Sabbath day And it seemeth that D. Wh. hath not well read over out owne Church Records how skillfull soever he professe himself to be in Antiquity tanquam in aliena republica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as
the Lamiae who abroad carryed their eyes in their heads but at home closed them up in a box Otherwise I suppose he would not so frequently brand all those for novell Sabbatarians who call the Lords day the Sabbath day B. VVhat is his reason I know not Let him looke to it Me thinks the very reading of the fourth Commandement every Lords day might stop his mouth saving that hee hath found out many inventions to elude the nature and property of this Commandement as pag. 158. 159. c. which I hope H. B. will meet withall A. I shall be glad to see it And yet I somewhat correct my former conceit of D. VVh For I find hee hath read the Homily and Injunction as pag. 224. B. Indeed I thanke you for minding me of it I remember he quotes the Homily in one place of his Booke and that is all as farre as I have observed where hee hath picked out one little peece to maintayne his Christian Libertinisme in point of labour on the Lords day But it is altogether perverted by him for works of great necessity as scathfire invasion of enemyes c. God allowes on the Sabbath And the Injunction of Queene Eliz. 20. hee there also no lesse perverteth while hee confounds the Lords day with other holy dayes which the Injunction doth clearely distinguish for that liberty which it dispenseth with touching worke in harvest time is not spoken of the Lords day or Holy day as it is there called and set alone by it self but of holy and festivall dayes onely of humain institution A. And I thanke you for this observation And falling here upon worke on the Lords day I am occasiotied to aske your judgement of those passages of his touching Recreations on that day in which argument hee hath spent many leaves B. But without any good fruit And as his discourses hereupon are large so they require a large confutation which I hope H. B. will performe For the present a little to satisfy your request thus much Hee distinguisheth Recreations into two sorts 1. Honest and lawfull 2. Vitious and unlawfull For his definitions or descriptions of them I passe them by as requiring a larger answer In summe I note his pitifull enterfeerings by equivocations contradictions and the artifice of his purest naturall wit in spinning a curious web of so fine a thred as wherewith though he may thinke to cover himself yet it is pervious and penetrable to every eye Hee sayth All kinds of Recreation which are of evill quality in respect of their object or which are attended with evill and vicious circumstances are unlawfull and to be refrayned upon all dayes and at all seasons But if they be used upon the Lords day or on other Festivall dayes they are sacrilegious because they rob God of his honour to whose worship and service the holy day is devoted and they defile the soules of men for the cleansing and edifying whereof the holy day is deputed And pag. 259. hee relates out of ancient Imperiall Edicts that all obscene lascivious and voluptuous pastime are prohibited c. And yet pag. 266. hee hath these words This seemeth to me to have been a prime motive to our Religious Governors of allowing the people of the Land some Recreations not prohibited by our Lawes upon the holy dayes For if they should upon Puritan principles restrain them wholly from all repast the Holy-day would be more unwelcome to them then the plough-day and besides it might ingender in peoples mindes a distast of their present Religion and manner of serving God So hee VVhere I note sundry poore and pitifull shifts and shuâ—â—lings For first pag. 258. hee sayth Also our most gracious and Religious Soveraigne is the Lords Vicegerent to restraine the abuse and scandalous profanation of the Lords day And hee is a noble Successor of those glorious Princes which in ancient times by their Royall and Imperiall Edicts and Constitutions prohibited on this day All obscene lascivious and voluptuous pastimes c. If then I might be so bold I would aske him what hee thinkes of promiscuous meetings of wanton youth in their May-games setting up of May-poles dancing about them dancing the Morice and leading the ringdance and the like unto which D. VVh in the former passage 266. doth not obscurely point as it were with the finger Are not these obscene or lascivious and voluptuous pastimes And if so are they not prohibited by Royall and Imperiall Edicts and Constitutions of those glorious ancient Princes whereof our most Gratious and Religious Soveraigne the Lords Vicegerent for restraining the abuse and scandalous profanation of the Lords day is a noble Successor Lo then what a monstrous Contradiction is here A. But doe ancient Emperours in their Imperiall Edicts prohibite such Recreations on the Lords day B. I will give you one instance in stead of many Carolus M. Placuit It is our pleasure that all the faithfull doe reverently observe the Lords day in which the Lord rose againe For if Pagans for the memory and reverence of their gods doe celebrate certain dayes and the Iewes doe carnally observe the Sabbath how much more ought this day to be honorably celebrated of Christians that on this Holy-day they attend not upon vaine fables or idle chat or songs or dances or scoffings standing in the Crosse-wayes or streets as they usually doe but that they have recourse to the Priests or some wise and good man that they may profit by their preaching and good discourses such as concerne the soule In like sort also les shepheards or keepers of cattell by going and returning into the feilds and home againe doe so that all may know such to be true and devout Christians So hee And his Sonne Ludovicus Pius in his Additionalls repeating the selfsame Constitution of his Father verbatim doth add these words Proinde c. Therefore it is necessary that first Preists Kings and Princes and all the faithfull doe most devoutly give all due observance and reverence to this day So hee A. A most noble instance and home For I perceive this Imperiall Decree condemnes all dauncing especially on the Lords day But let me not interrupt you B. To proceed then upon the former passages Secondly I note how poorely hee playes the Divine or Doctor by giving indulgence of more liberty to such as have queasy stomaks and cannot digest those wholesome meates which Gods word and all sound Divines and Doctours doe prescribe This is just as if a sick Patient should refuse some bitter pills or potions which are for his health complayning hee cannot indure the bitternesse of them and then forsooth his palate must be pleased with some delicious thing which corrupts the stomacke and feedeth the disease Or as if a wanton boy must be permitted so many houres play every day because hee hath learned one lesson and complaynes the taske is too hard to learne more Or as if a Servant being set about
his Maisters businesse though it be otherwise easie and tolerable yet complaynes it is too hard a taske and therefore hee must have liberty to take his pleasure one part of the day And surely this followes by good reason from the greater to the lesse from Gods day to mans day and from Gods service to mans service Give man a power thus to dispense with a part of the Lords day which is an incrochment upon the fourth Commandement according to the doctrine of our Church and why may not man assume to himself a power as the Pope doth to dispense with servants or children by allowing them sometime wherein they shall be free from the controll of their Maisters and Parents Thirdly I note what a great blemish hee fastens upon our Religion as if it were either too rigorous or too licentious Too rigorous by laying no other burthen upon them but that of Christ which though in its owne nature it be light and easy yet to the sonnes of Belial it seemes insupportable and intolerable As if sanctitie and purity of life were an over rigid precisenesse and a Puritan principle Or too licentious by giving indulgence and dispensation to loose Libertines and teaching men to become more filthy still and to be as the uncleane Beasts that chew not the Cudde or as the sow that is washed to returne to their wallowing in their profuse and profane sports and pastimes when no sooner they are out of the Church but they runne to their excesse of riot And here I cannot but record an excellent passage in Nazianzen to shame the impudency of these times This Godly Father reprooving the loose carriage of Christians in his time especially on the dayes of solemne and sacred assemblyes as on the Lords dayes sayth Postquam c. After they are gone out of the Church casting aside all that instruction they had there learned they fashion themselves to the vulgar with whom they converse or rather laying aside the false and counterfait vizard of gravity they are discovered to be such as they were not knowne to be before and having seemed to give some reverence to Gods word while it was preached they leave it and out of the Church they fall to delight and sport themselves in an impious maner and with love songs with the noise of Minstrells as piping clapping the hands being full of strong drinke and defiled with all kind of muddy and dorty pleasures And whilst they chant it over and over they who celebrated the honour of immortality by and by fall to a most wicked recantation Let us eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall dye And these are not dead to morrow but indeed are now dead unto God burying the dead that is themselves in the grave of death So hee Which liberty even the Papists themselves and Bellarmine abundantly doe with open voyce declame against and are ashamed of so farre will they be from being willing to be drawn to such a Religion by the motives of such liberty And herein doth our Treatiser miserably abuse the Scripture and so turne the Grace of God into wantonnes For pag. 257. hee sayth The Law of Christ is sweet and easie Mat. 11. 30. and his Commandements are not grievous 1. Ioh. 5. 3. And what then Is Christs Law so sweet and easie as that it gives indulgence to profane Libertinisme This is to make the Gospell a sweet fable as that Atheisticall Pontifician sayd Or as an other in his Sermon upon those words of Christ The sonne of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day thence inferred that Christ had given us liberty to play on the Sabbath And this the Treatiser calleth Christian liberty and on the contrary the holy and Religious keeping of the Lords day a superstitious Iudaicall fancy and rigid Ordinances of our Sunday-Sabbatarians Whereas the ancient Godly Fathers called the loose profaning of the Lords day by dancing and revelling a Iewish Sabbatising A point well to be observed Fourthly I observe a very improper and so untrue speech where hee sayth If they should upon Paritan Principles restraine them wholly from all repast Who I pray you doe restraine the people from all repast on the Lords day Or is profane sport a repast to feed the humour of the rude vulgar It seemeth so And liberty to youth is as their meat and drinke Fiftly pag. 266. hee sayth Some Recreations not prohibited by our lawes our Religious Governors allow upon Holy-dayes And pag. 232. Civil recreation not prohibited in termes neither yet by any necessary consequence from the law cannot be simply unlawfull And pag 231. No just law divine Ecclesiasticall or Civil doth totally prohibite the same To this I reply that those sports fore-specified are prohibited by law both divine Ecclesiasticall and Civil 1. by divine law as Rom. 13. 13. Gal. 5. 21. 1. Pet. 4. 3. In the fourth commandement for as Bucer sayth writing to K. Edw. 6. His diebus On these to wit Holy-dayes the works of the flesh are not to be allowed nor profane businesses nor licentious sports nor unseemly drinkings and other vitious pleasures Indeed the people are to be allowed honest recreations at fit seasons but seeing God hath so severely forbidden works profitable for the body to be done on dayes sanctified to his Name how much more greivously is hee offended when thâ—se dayes are profaned with wanton and for the most part wicked works Six dayes sayth hee thou shalt doe all thy worke to wit such as concerneth the sustentation or els the recreation of this present life but the seventh day is the Lords Sabbath on it thou shalt not doe any worke not any which the Lord himself hath not commanded to be done on that day but those which hee hath commanded they are all most religiously to be observed on the Holy-dayes And of so weake and slippery faith are we all as the dayly renewing and confirming of the same is very necessary for us Whereas most men more greivously offend and provoke Gods Majestie on these dayes then on other dayes By all meanes therefore it is the office of your sacred Majestie against this so great dishonor of God and lawles profanation of his Holy-dayes to revive the authority of Gods law and therein also to follow the examples of pious Princes c. So he Secondly Those foresayd sports are prohibited by Ecclesiasticall lawes for all Councels doe universally condemne them To instance one or two The Councel of Millan Nefasesse c. It is impious that sacred dayes instituted for the commemoration of the greatest benefits of God and to render our best prayses unto him should be transferred to those things which most of all abhorre from that service as leapings sports daunces enterludes or shewes which being inticements to filthy pleasures do much delight the Devill the enemy of mans salvation And another of Millan That no sports or vaine sights dancings leaping be used
at all in Cities suburbs towne or any where eis on the Holy-dayes And yet another Councel at Millan Quoniam c. Because it is found by too much experience in this Province that in these corrupted times and manners that people for the most part never meet at dauncing merriments leapings and the like without many and those most greivous offenses of God and that both by reason of filthy thoughts and obscene speeches dishonest actions corruption of manners and most pernicious bates to all the lusts of the flesh perpetually coupled with them and also of murders brawles dissentions whoredomes adulteries and many other evils the most frequent consequences thereof wherefore on Holy-dayes we prohibit leapings sports dancings c. Now these Councels were kept in Italy Yea a Councel at Rome but more ancient Of Feastings not to be made upon Holy-dayes and On Holy-dayes dancing not to be used There be some and specially women which on Holy-dayes by their balling singing filthy songs holding and leading dances so imitating the guise of Pagans doe bring it among Christians such if they come to the Church with lesser sins they returne from it with greater And if upon admonition they desisted not Leo 4. denounceth excommunication against them Lo here this Councel at Rome sayth that dancing on Holy-dayes is a heathen guise brought in among Christians Shall I add one more The Councel of Colen deinde impingunt Againe they offend against this Precept who on Holy-dayes are intent upon sports pastimes dice leaping dancing the ring who are vacant for revellings drinkings superfluous pompe who defile the Holy-dayes with wicked talke and filthy songs such doth the Councel of Carthage and of Toledo decree to be excommunicate For holy solemnities and feasts are not therefore instituted to serve our filthy lusts or that we should collect together our sins but that we should altogether abandon them and not to celebrate them with corporall refection or recreation but spirituall rejoycing And how is it possible that in dances the sanctification of the Sabbath should be kept where modesty it self is not secure from snares So the Councel But what need we goe further then our owne Homily forecited which sayth that in pride in excesse like rats in brawling fighting quarrelling wantonnes toyâ—sh talking and filthy fleshlines God is more dishonoured and the devill better served on the Sunday or Sabbath day then upon all the dayes of the weeke besides Now though moris dances and may-games and the like be not here condemned in terminis yet by consequence they be sith they are the inseparable companions and most pernicious occasions of inflaming the lusts and of manifold mischeifs as hath been noted Therefore by just Ecclesiasticall lawes such sports are prohibited Thirdly They are prohibited by just Civil lawes Besides those instances fore-alleged of the Edicts of Charolus Mag. and Ludovicus Pius his Sonne we may to the honor of our nation and the eternall fame of our religious King Charles produce the first Act of Parlament in I. Caroli the prime gemme in his Royall diadem and which deserves to be writen in golden Characters Forasmuch as there is nothing more acceptable to God then the true and sincere worship and service of Him according to his holy will and that the holy keeping of the Lords day is a principall part of the true service of God which in very many places of this Realme hath been and now is profaned and neglected by a disorderly sort of people in exercising and frequenting Beare-baiting Bull-baiting Enterludes common playes and other unlawfull exercises and pastimes upon the Lords day c. That from henceforth c. there shall be no Bear-baiting Bull-baiting Enterludes common playes or other unlawfull exercises or pastimes within their owne Parishes Hence it is plaine that all manner of sports and pastimes are unlawfull on the Lords day for Beare-baiting and Bull-baiting are prohibited as unlawfull on this day which els are made lawfull on other dayes And therefore dancing Maygames Morrices and the like how ever men may account them lawfull on other dayes yet for the very reasons afore-sayd forasmuch as they are prohibited as unlawfull by Imperiall Edicts of ancient Kings and Emperours of whom our most gratious and religious soveraigne is by the Treatiser acknowledged to be the noble successour in restraining the abuse and scandalous profanation of the Lords day on this day at least they are unlawfull I will add but one instance more and that is out of Iustinian where he seth downe this Imperiall Constitution Die Dominico c. On the Lords day which of the whole week is the first all pleasures of sports and pastimes being denyed to the people through all Cities let the whole minds of Christians be occupied in the service of God and if any shall on this day be taken up with the madnes of Iewish impiety or with the errour and franticknes of brutish Paganisme let him know that there is a difference to be put between the time of prayers and the time of pleasures Yea so religiously was this day observed as if the Emperours birth-day fell upon it it must be put of to another day of the weeke and sayth the Constitution If the people shâ—ll shew lesse reverence towards us then than they were wont let no man be offended with it because men doe give greatest honor to our clemency when the worlds obedience is entirely yeilded to the vertues and merits of Almighty God So there In fine in a booke set forth by King Hen. 8. and inscribted to his loving and faithfull subiects which before had been set forth by the whole Clergie of the Realme with the names of 21. Prelates besides many Doctors prefixed unto it approoved by both the houses of Parlament are these passages Against this Commandement generally doe offend all they which will not cease from their owne carnall wills pleasures that doe not give themselves Intirely and wholly without any impediment unto all holy works and that not onely in the house of God but also in their owne houses but as commonly is used passe the time either in idlenes in gluttony in riot or other vaine or idle pastime which is not according to the intent and meaning of this Commandement but after the usage and custome of the Iews and doth much offend God and provoke his indignation wrath towards us And it is added in the Clergies booke for as S. Austen sayth of the Iewes they should be better occupied labouring in their feilds and to be at the plough then to be idle at home And women should better bestow their time in spinning of woll then upon the Sabbath day to lose their time in leaping dauncing and other idle wanton lose time So there Now tell me Brother what thinke you of this that those Prelates and Clergy of England in the very first duskish dawning of the morning should be so cleare orthodox