those which did not sticke for conscience sake to eate all kinde of meates because they esteemed them all to bee indifferent were strong and those which were scrupulous for conscience sake to eate any thing but hearbes were weake even so accordingly to that wee must ac-acknowledge those which made no difference of dayes for conscience sake but esteemed all dayes equally to have beene strong and those which esteemed one day above another to have beene weake 4 Secondly I cannot see how any man should imagine that the Apostle in his judgement esteemed those to be weake which esteemed every day alike seeing to esteeme every day equally without distinction of any day for conscience sake putting the case there were a fault in that opinion cannot be called weakenesse and infirmity in the sence wherein this word weakenesse is taken by the Apostle in this place and in other places of the Gospell For weaknes and infirmity is said to be in a man when there is a defect in his beliefe concerning things which are lawfull to him that is to say when hee beleeveth not that to bee lawfull which is lawfull unto him and therefore refraineth for conscience sake from that which he is not bound to forbeare So he who beleeveth that it is not lawfull unto him to eate all kinde of meates although God hath given him the free use of them all is weake and infirme But when there is excesse in his beliefe when I say he beleeveth to have liberty to doe that which is not lawfull unto him to doe and doth it without any respect of conscience unto it that is not in the Scriptures language called weakenes but rather ignorance error mistaking If then those which esteemed every day alike had failed in this point as they had done of necessity if there had beene any fault in them they had never beene esteemed and called weake by the Apostle as they are pretended to have beene but rather ignorant errants nay dissolute loose profane 5 Verily if it were true that Iesus Christ had ordained the observation of a set day of rest that the Apostles had commanded it that the Church had practised it as a divine ordinance and as a morall point belonging to Religion as is pretended these Christians who could not bee ignorant of such things and neverthelesse esteemed every day alike established not religion and a point of conscience in any of them and made no greater account of the Lords day then of any other day were of necessity profane men and no better reckoning was to be made of them Yet the Apostle reputeth them not to bee such For he forbiddeth to judge and condemne them as hee will not have them to judge and condemne those that were of contrary opinion ver 3. 10. 6 Nay he affirmeth that those which regarded not the day to the Lord regarded it not verse 6. the meaning of which words is that in so doing they had regard to the glory and obedience due to God knowing that he had made them free from the distinction of dayes and received them being well pleased with that which they did Now supposing the morality of the Sabbath and the commandement of Christ and of his Apostles which made the observation thereof a necessary point of Religion which these men could not be ignorant of I cannot conceive how not regarding the day for Religion and conscience sake to the Lord they regarded it not seeing they had rather sinned against the Lord by not regarding it For they had manifestly vilipended him by their misbeliefe whereby they esteemed not the observation of a day of rest which they knew to be morall and most straitely commanded of God to bee a necessary point of Religion It is therefore more conformable to reason that those which made distinction of dayes and esteemed one above onother were weak And in this doe all the interpreters agree Neverthelesse the Apostle saith with good reason of these weake ones that what they did they did it to the Lord because they did it through devotion and tendernesse of conscience having some Religious ground which was a colourable excuse to their infirmitie and made it tolerable not only to men but to God also 7 Now it being so that the Apostle did write to the Romans who were Gentiles converted to the Christian faith wee may esteeme with great appearance that this day which some of them through infirmitie had so much regard unto was Sunday which was kept in the Church not by any divine Ordinance not also through necessity of Religion but simply by an ecclesiasticall custome in remembrance that on that day Christ rose from death unto life was esteemed of them a day of necessary observation in and for it selfe which others better instructed esteemed not This being so establisheth throughly the opinion that I defend and evicts the other But although the Apostle had intended to speake of dayes commanded in the Old Testament by the Law of Moses to the religious observation whereof many not as yet well instructed in the knowledge of Evangelicall liberty thought themselves to be bound for conscience sake the argument remaineth as strong as can be 8 For howsoever the Apostle his meaning be taken he speaketh generally and imputeth to infirmity of knowledge and of conscience under the Gospell the esteeming of one day above another and to strength and firmenesse the esteeming of all dayes alike which he neither could nor should have pronounced so in generall tearmes if at the same time there had beene a set day of rest binding the conscience of Christians to observe it for its owne sake as being morall and for Gods sake who had commanded it For by this meanes those had not well done so farre were they from being strong in knowledge and conscience for esteeming every day equally which they should not have done But the others had done well and religiously to esteeme one day above another so far were they from being weak which yet notwithstanding is manifestly against the scope of the Apostle who declareth them to be weak not simply as we have touched heretofore for observing a certaine day but for keeping it with a consciencious regard and opinion of a religious obligation particular unto it more than to any other day which is the only thing worthy to be blamed and might be a just cause of offence CHAPTER Eleventh REASON II. 1. The Sabbath was to the Israelites a signe of their sanctification 2. Not only in the toylesome ages of this mortall life but also in the eternity and rest of the life to come 3. Through IESUS CHRIST who hath perfectly accomplished the benefits which it represented imperfectly 4. And therefore it was to continue till his comming only 5. This truth is confirmed in the Epistle to the Hebrewes by the type of the bodily rest of the people in the land of Canaan 6. As also by the type of Gods rest on the Seventh day 7. Gods rest and
sence of Christs words and that they had relation to the Iewes only 4. Although he spake them to his Disciples 5. Second answer Although he had spoken to his Disciples only he might have had respect not to them but to their brethren among the Iewes that were weake in faith 6. Third answer Although by the Sabbath the Lords day were to be understood the morality of one of seven dayes in the weeâ— cannot be inferred from thence 1 IEsus Christ speaking in the 24. of Saint Matthew and twenty verse to his Disciples of the desolation that was to come upon Iudea and namely upon Ierusalem said unto them Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day Not in the winter because then the wayes are incommodious and there is neither driving nor marching but with difficulty Not on the Sabbath day by reason of the holinesse of that day which being appointed and set a part for Gods service although it was lawfull unto them to flie in it to save their lives yet they should not be able to doe it but with griefe and sore against their will being constrained to spend on trotting toyling and much hurrying up and down a day particularly consecrated to the publike exercises of Religion and so should have a just occasion to pray to God to keepe them from being brought to such a necessity Some alleadge this passage esteeming it to be pressing and of great weight For say they Iesus Christ speaketh to his Disciples of a thing that was to fall out forty yeeres after his Ascension when all the ceremonies of the Law should be abolished in the Christian Church and yet notwithstanding he speaketh unto them of the Religion of the Sabbath as of a thing that they ought alwayes to take to heart in so high a measure that they should be sorry and throughly grieved to be in that time of desolation constrained to flee on so holy a day instead of applying themselves to Gods service Therefore the Sabbath day was not a ceremony comming within the compasse of those that he was to abrogate but a morall point and of perpetuall necessity Otherwise he had not done well to intangle their mindes with an unnecessary Religion towards the Sabbath day in the time of their flight seeing it being abrogated by him they might with as little grieve in respect to the day get packing as fast as they could trot and toyle on that day as on another day 2 I answer that this argument is a silly one and of no value For Iesus Christ speaketh not in that place of Saint Matthew of the day of rest that Christians were to observe after his Ascension but of the Iewish Sabbath day as this word Sabbath day sheweth clerely which his Disciples were farre from understanding other wayes then for the last day of the weeke observed among the Iewes For it is certaine that it signified nothing else at that time seeing there was not as yet any other day of rest in vigour saving that alone And Iesus Christ had not at all made himselfe to be understood of them nay he had purposely given them occasion to mistake him if by the Sabbath day his intention was to denote another day then the last of the weeke because this alone carryed that name neither shall it bee found in the whole Scripture that any other day is specified by that name 3 The heavenly rest under the Gospell is once called by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrewes Chapter 4. verse 9. by a name drawne from the Hebrew word Sabbath because it was figured by the Sabbath of the Iewes But our day wherein wee apply our selves to Gods outward service and to that intent doe cease from our ordinary labour is alwayes called in the New Testament The first day of the weeke or The Lords Day and not the Sabbath which name the Apostles and first beleevers had not failed to give unto it if Iesus Christ had so qualified and stiled it Now if they would never tearme it by such a name although it might have been in some sort attributed unto it but only The Lords Day or The first day of the weeke to distinguish it from the day which was so called among the Iewes For the same reason Iesus Christ in the foresaid place if he had minded to speake of the day which Christians were to observe after his death he had intitled it by some other name then of the Sabbath day to make a distinction betweene it and the day of the Iewes Wherefore those which use this argument doe most fondly suppose without proofe or likenesse of truth that by the Sabbath Iesus Christ meaneth the Lords day Now if it be understood of the Sabbath of the Iewes as it must for the foresaid reasons and as all the interpreters whom I have read and perused doe take it this argument being urged according to the ratiotination of those that have set it on foot shall yeeld against their intention this conclusion that after the death and ascension of our Lord Iesus Christ the Sabbath day of the Iewes ought to bee yet kept in the Christian Church and that the faithfull are obliged unto it by Religion and conscience and ought bee hartily sorrowfull when being constrained to flye on it to save their lives in a great desolation they should not be able to consecrate it to Gods service 3 The true sence of this passage is that indeed our Lord Iesus <
observation of foure and twenty houres practised by the Iewes on their Sabbath day 2 This opinion is absurd and bringeth backe under the New Testament a ceremonie which is meerely servile and Iewish For times and places were in themselves to the Iewes a part of the legall and ceremoniall service as hath beene shewed before And therefore they were precisely named and stinted unto them When God appointed unto them Sabbath dayes hee would that they should rest as long as the day lasted that is foure and twenty houres even as when hee granted unto them dayes of worke hee permitted them to worke night and day which may bee gathered out of Leviticus Chap. 23. vers 32. where God said unto them From Even unto Even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath In Hebrew ye shall rest your Sabbath To rest all that time was unto them a part of the observation and hallowing of that day But under the New Testament the times appointed in the Church make no part of Gods service and are not observed but relatively to the publike exercises of Religion and of godlinesse which are established to be practised in them And therefore that practise being ended they oblige not necessarily 3 And indeed if Christians were bound for conscience sake to observe exactly full foure and twenty houres by abstinence from all works they should be in a marvellous great trouble vexation of minde For ere ought else be done they must know certainely where they shall begin the sanctification of the foure and twenty houres of that day if it must be from Even unto the next Even beginning the day at the setting of the Sunne as under the Law or from the morning unto the next morning beginning the day at the rising of the Sunne For if they be not clearely informed of that they may sinne by working during a part of the time which makes a part of Sunday 4 The Authors and Fautors of the foresaid opinion cannot give a certaine resolution of this Point For they are at variance among themselves about it Some deeme that we must begin our Sunday by the evening and continue it unto the next evening like to the fashion of the Iewes who rekoned so the houres of their Sabbath And so is this time stinted by the Authour of the 251. Sermon de Tempore in S. Augustines workes Others will have it to begin by the morning at the same time that our Lord Iesus Christ rose from the dead and to end at the next morning and there are some which hold that the Iewes ordered so their Sabbaths We finde others who beleeve that God obliged not his people on the Sabbath day to a cessation from all workes saving from the rising till the going down of the Sun The one and the other have arguments for their opinions but which want a sufficient perspicuitie to give a full satisfaction and resolution to a Christian about the time when he must begin to forbeare all bodily and servile workes least he should profane the Sabbath day by doing them in a part thereof 5 And so he shall be perpetually troubled in his minde with that difficultie and farre more with the exact abstinence which is required of him An unnecessary walke a bodily action about something concerning this present life which he hath done by occasion will disquiet him If he hath put his hand how little soever to the doing of any temporall and earthly thing without urgent necessity if he have given but one stitch with a needle hath fastened a button to a garment if he hath swung a broome about his chamber wiped a vessell dusted his apparell or done any other thing which he might have done the day before or put off till the next day he shall stagger and make a question whether he hath broken the Sabbath or not 6 Yea although the defenders of this opinion avouch that it is lawfull to eat drinke sleepe on the Sabbath day because these are workes of charity and are necessary to every man for his subsistence yet seeing the sanctification of the Sabbath consists not in such actions and they are not permitted but in case of present necessity I know not if according to their maximes a person that can well enough and without incommoditie be without meat drinke sleepe all that day or at least can well enough away with lesse meat drinke and sleepe must not be grieved and pestered in his spirit and feare lest he hath profaned and broken the Sabbath in bestowing too much time to eat drinke and sleepe and giving to his refection and sleepe a portion of time which he might have set a part for religious actions As if he hath beene halfe an houre at table whereas a quarter of an houre might have beene sufficient If he hath slept six or seven houres when a nap of three or foure houres might have served his turne In summe no bodily thing can bee done which shall not afford an hundred difficulties and matter of great doubtes and scruples of conscience Experience sheweth often in many which are made to beleeve that it is not lawfull to doe any worke on the Sabbath day according to the precise tearmes of the fourth Commandement pitifull carkes strange scruples and troubles of conscience a superstitious precisenesse tending to the detriment not onely of the quietnesse and peace of God that should be in their soules but also of the families whereof they are members and of the Common-wealth wherein they live 7 Nay the Doctors that are the broachers and teachers of this opinion intangle themselves and their followers in the explication of the workes that are permitted or forbidden on the Sabbath day They prescribe so many limitations upon divers actions of temporall callings that may bee done so but not so after this manner not after that manner in that respect not in this respect that to pause on their minced distinctions is to runne into a labyrinth of most intricate difficulties and inextricable vexations of spirit Verily I beleeve that the observation of the Iewish Sabbath day was not so onerous and full of difficulties as is the observation of Sunday wherewith many of these Doctors seeke to master and bring under the consciences of Christians 8 To verifie that I have said by some instances First the foresaid Doctors agree not among themselves about the obligation of Christians to abstaine from all bodily and worldly workes whether it be as exact and precise under the New Testament as it was ordinarily to the Iewes under the Old Testament whether we be in the same servitude that they were in or if they in that respect injoyed the same liberty that we possesse under the Gospell For there be some among them that deny it and doe say that the rigorous observation of the Sabbath prescribed of old to the Iewes is abrogated and the prohibitions to kindle the fire to make meat ready and other such like which they acknowledge to have beene perpetuall
the exercises of the Sabbath as six or seven in a feast that is not solemne A thing that many together cannot doe lawfully cannot be lawfull to a few or if it be lawfull to few it is also to many But I wonder how those which have made this distinction of banquets can have the heart to make use of it seeing they teach otherwhere that it is not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day but things of present necessity and not those that are simply of imminent necessity or at the most they suffer onely those that are requisite for a comfortable entertainement of the person as to prepare meat for his refection For banquets howsoever named and qualified are not requisite for that day for the entertainement either necessarie or comfortable of men they may be put off till some other day without harme or displeasure to any man by this delay and cannot easily be kept without much hurrying up and downe and divers discourses which are not sutable to such a day which they will have to be so precisely and exactly observed I wonder farre more why they are not scrupulous to suffer weddings on that day For seeing they will have all mens thoughts words and actions to be spirituall and holy all that day and suffer not any that are naturall and worldly otherwise than in a present and urgent necessity seeing also there is no necessitie to marry on Sunday that this may be done as well on any other day and that the thoughts words and actions of weddings can hardly have the qualities which they require would it not be more sutable to their maximes to forbid them absolutely on that day 21 Fifthly as for playes games pastimes recreations which are honest and lawfull they forbid them altogether and absolutely on the Sabbath to all men without exception of those that are sick saying that to those which are dangerously sicke it is fit time to pray and not to play and spend time on gaming And as for those that are not dangerously sicke they need not these pastimes and may apply themselves to heare reade conferre of things of instruction and consolation and seeke in these holy exercises their recreation Wherein they speak as if the one and the other might not be done successively and a sicke man or any other person after an honest and short pastime were not capable to seeke this spirituall recreation although they be not incompatible and that God improveth not the succession of the one to the other on our Sabbath day I adde that by this prohibition they overthrow their former position that it is lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day things not onely absolutely necessary for the entertainement of the creature but also comfortable and agreeable unto it Now some honest play or pastime taken by a man and namely by a sicke man may be very usefull for his comfort and recreation and often much more than if the best meats and drinkes and most comfortative cordials were given him if he stand not absolutely in present need of them Nay they may make him farre better disposed afterwards for Gods service than the best restoratives of the best furnished Apothecaries If then it be lawfull unto him and to others also to bestirre themselves to prepare for him and make him take these things why may he not likewise take some pastime which are farre more necessary unto him And although he hath no need of them by absolute necessity may they not be needfull unto him for his commodity and comfort as well as food and medicaments If it be said that he may deferre his pastime till another day I answer that so he may prolong without any perill the preparing of meat or of medicaments 22 But not to say longer upon the rehearsall of the intricate difficulties which occurre in their explications of workes that are permitted on the Sabbath day and of the conditions and tearmes whereupon they are permitted I say that there is no kinde of workes but they may be done as lawfully on that day as on any other and that as in the fourth Commandement the Ordinance to keepe the Sabbath day obligeth Christians in this onely that because God must bee served publikely in the Congregations of his people by the exercises of religion which he hath ordained it is necessary that some time be appointed for that use but not that it ought to bee one day rather than another by vertue of that command or that the day appointed ought to be kept during foure and twenty houres which God hath not in any case prescribed to his people of the New Testament as he did to his people of the Old Testament But being pleased to injoyne unto them the exercises of religion wherewith he will be served he hath left to their libertie the determination of some dayes and of the continuance of the time wherein they are to be practised I say likewise that the commandement to doe no worke on the day consecrated to Gods service obligeth in this regard onely and no more to wit that as much as the publike exercises of this service when they are practised in the Church doe require wee must forbeare all ordinary imployments and workes that with tranquillity of minde and stillnesse of body we may bend all our forces to these exercises resort unto the holy assemblies and glorifie the Lord our God there in the company of the faithfull 23 I grant willingly that all travell about corporall and terrestriall workes is forbidden in as much as it is an impediment and hinderance to the service of God And therefore an honest and religious man must observe publikely all the time of holy exercises observed in the Church on the Holy-dayes appointed for that end whereof he hath for rule the Order of the Church This time excepted the remnant of the day is his to dispose of it discreetly and conscientiously and to doe on it all manner of worke which is lawfull on other dayes according to the Order of the Church wherein he lives 24 And sith Sunday hath beene appointed by the Order of the Church for the prime day wherein these exercises are ordinarily to be practised all are bound in regard of them to cease from all other workes during the whole time that they are practised in the Church publikely without purposing to doe or give willingly any worldly businesse to be done on that day capable to make the least diversion from so holy and necessarie a duty and to dispose in such sort all their ordinary affaires of this life before Sunday come that they be not when it is come an hinderance to sanctifie it And so to shew that they are full of love and respect to those blessed exercises of religion and to the Order of the Church from which they should never be absent without reasons of great consequence whereof every ones conscience ought to iudge by the rules of godlinesse and of Christian prudence 25 I say
to Gods service to wit 1. If it be a thing of naturall justice of perpetuall necessity and whereunto all are tied by a morall commandement appertaining to the New as well as to the Old Testament that of seven daies of the weeke one be kept for the end aforesaid 2. If before the Law was given by Moses to the people of Israel yea if from the beginning of the world God himselfe made the particular designation of this day setting it apart for his service and commanding to Adam and to all his posterity the hallowing and keeping of it 3. If under the New Testament there be a divine ordinance of such a day of rest as well as there was under the Old Testament 4. And if by Gods command the consciences of faithfull Christians are under the Gospell as much obliged to hallow it as the Iewes were under the Law and for the better and more religious sanctification thereof to abstaine from all outward workes which are lawfull and are practised on other daies lest they should transgresse that divine Commandement and so finne against religion and conscience These are the maine points which some learned Divines and godly Christians instructed by them demurre upon 1. Some of them deeme that the keeping of one of the seven dayes of the weeke is a morall and naturall duty that God himselfe sanctified it for his service by an expresse and perpetuall Commandement that so it was from the beginning so it is still and shall never be otherwise till the end of the world 2. That before sin came into the world as soone as Adam was created God prescribed unto him and to Eve our first parents and in them to all men which were in their loynes and were to come out of them the hallowing of one day of the weeke which was the seventh day 3. That he reiterated and renewed this Commandement in the fourth precept of the morall Law which he gave in Horeb to the people of Israel and hath bound all Christians under the New Testament to hallow and keepe it religiously because it is of the same nature with the rest of the Commandements of the Decalogue which are all morall 4. That for this cause our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ and his blessed Apostles have ordained and prescribed it unto them And so all men have beene all men are all men shall in all times be tied to the religious observation thereof by the necessity of a divine and morall Commandement 5. That we are bound in conscience by the binding power of this Commandement to refraine alwayes on this seventh day of Sabbath or of rest from all earthly workes used on the other dayes of the weeke 6. This onely they acknowledge that the particular observation of one constant day amongst these seven as of the first or of the last of seven is not morall nor of a like obligation under the Old and under the New Testament that it is onely a point of order and of ecclesiasticall government which God did otherwise order and settle under the Old than he hath done under the New Testament That under the Old Testament from the creation of the world till the comming of Christ he ordained the observation of the last day of the weeke in remembrance that he created the world in six dayes and rested on the seventh or last day from all the works that he had made whereas he hath ordained that under the New Testament the first day of the weeke shall be religiously solemnized in remembrance that on that day our Lord Iesus Christ rose from death to life and by the exceeding greatnesse of the power of his glorious resurrection hath performed the worke of the second creation which is the redemption of the world from the slavery of the devill the power of the Law the bondage of sinne And therefore it behooveth the first worke of the Creation to yeeld to this worke the prerogative of excellencie of nature as likewise of the possession which it had till then of the solemne day of rest That for this cause so important and peremptory the day of Gods service was to bee changed and removed from the last day of the weeke wherein was finished the first Creation unto the first day wherin the second was fully accomplished by our Lord Iesus Christ who hath himselfe appointed this alteration 5 Others doe hold that verily it is a duty naturall morall and perpetuall to serve God publikely 1. That all men are obliged unto it and bound to meet together in the Church for that purpose 2. That being there they ought to give their mindes to the exercises of religion with a more particular earnestnes diligence than they are able to do every day at home or abroad 3. That they must have a set day purposely stinted for the fulfilling of a duty so religious so necessary and so fruitfull 4. But that such a day must be one of seven or of another number which in order of that nūber they deny to be a morall point to have in it any naturall necessity For their tenet is that it is a thing of order of Ecclesiastical government depending intirely of institution 5. That indeed under the Law which God gave by Moses to the children of Israel this holy and most perfect Law-giver amongst other points whereby he directed the Ecclesiasticall order and Church-government which that people was to be ruled by instituted and commanded the consecrating of a severall day for his service even of one of seven and of the last of those seven which he had rested on from all his works a most strict precise forbearance of all worldly works on that day 6. But appeareth not at all that God gave any commandement to Adam either before or after his fall binding him or his progenie to the keeping of any day whatsoever as to a thing morall and necessarie neither is there any trace of such a Commandement to be found till the comming of the Israelites to the wildernesse for till then God had left it free 7. That under the New Testament one day of seven is kept to wit the first day of the weeke wherein our Lord Iesus Christ rose from the dead But not for any morall necessity tying all men to observe one day of the weeke Nay not for any expresse Commandement which God the onely Law-giver hath given by Iesus Christ or his Apostles to keepe such a day and namely the first but through an usage which hath beene introduced and conserved in the Christian Church since her first beginnings till this present time 8. That therefore this observation is simply of Ecclesiasticall order and that a cessation from ordinary workes on this day is more particularly requisite than in another day of the weeke seeing the Church hath appointed and set it apart for Gods publike service Yea that an universall refraining from all these workes to the intent that the whole day bee without
for that publike service a particular day returning successively after a certaine number of dayes seeing it is as probable that this calling upon the Name of the Lord which they began in those dayes was indifferently every dayes exercise in each of which they came together to call upon God and to serve him in the time and place that they had appointed their number not being so great nor their necessary imployments about the things of this life so many but that they might set a part some houres every day for this holy businesse Nay granting that they appointed a certaine day out of a greater number to remaine firme and unmoveable what reason can any man produce why it ought to be the Seventh day of the weeke Was it because God rested on that day But how could they guesse that this was a reason obliging them to the sanctification of that day seeing it is not a reason carrying with it any naturall evidence of obligation and is no reason at all but by the free will and appointment of GOD Will they say that from the creation of the world God blessed and hallowed that day to men But this is the point in question Or that Enos and his fellowes asked counsell at the mouth of the Lord to learne of him on what day they should meet to yeeld unto his Majesty the publike service which they had instituted and that God ordained unto them the Seventh day of the weeke This is a conceit taken at randome without any certaine ground They know well enough already what kinde of service they ought to yeeld to God and in what Religious actions it consisted For God from the beginning had acquainted his Church with it and their Fathers had trained them in the knowledge and practise thereof neither was it needfull that they should aske advise of the Lord concerning this duty Therefore it was not necessary nay it was rather unseemely that they should aske him what was the time of the ordinary and publike practise of that service as if they had not beene bound to judge that having no great lets to interrupt their devotion they ought to appoint a fit time every day for so holy and necessary a duty Or at least if they alloted any day of rest the more frequent they should make it so much the better should they performe their duty and be so much the more acceptable to God And in case God had named unto them such a day there is no probablenesse that he ordained one of seven as he did afterwards to the people of Israel For they were but a small number of people and might easily keepe moe dayes in the weeke than one without any hinderance to their worldly affaires But the Israelites being growen to a great and populous common-wealth God assigned unto them the Seventh day of the weeke as a particular point of that ecclesiasticall government whereof hee prescribed unto them all the particularities Therefore the consequence from the one to the other is manifestly of no value But upon that which is said that in Enos his time men began to call upon the Name of the Lord that is to ordaine a publike service and unmoveable times for it I doe inferre with great probability that before that time there was none such and therefore no Seventh day was kept For if it had beene observed how could it be said that in Enos his time men began to call upon the Name of the Lord 3 This good course begun in the dayes of Enos continued undoubtedly afterwards as long as the malice of men could suffer it For their wickednesse was great and the corruption had crept from among the sonnes of men among the Sonnes of God in such manner that it drew upon the face of the earth an universall floud of waters which destroyed all men then living Noah and his families consisting of eight persons only excepted After the floud there is little or no mention made of any exercise of the true Religion saving in the dayes of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and in their families Them God had chosen and picked out from the rest of the world with them God made his covenant they were religious and obsequious servants of Almighty God but their families being small Gods service might with great facility be practised in them every day and there was no necessity of setting a part an ordinary day for the gathering together of their children and servants which ordinarily were never so farre separated but that they might come together once or twice a day to doe homage to the Lord their God Therefore there is no probablenesse that there was among them a particular keeping of such a day At least we read not any such thing till the time that Abrahams posterity being much increased and multiplyed in the land of Aegypt GOD brought them out of that land gathered them together in the wildernesse and afterwards in the land of Canaan made choise of them amongst all the nations of the world to be his people gave them his statutes prescribed unto them all the particularities of his publike service and ordained the observation of the Seventh day of the weeke for the solemne practise thereof This ordinance became then necessary because GODS Church was become a great people 4 Verily it is not likely that if the Patriarkes had kept unmoveably a stinted day and namely the Seventh day of the weeke as a divine Ordinance that the holy History would have beene silent and made no mention of it It relateth unto us carefully things of far lesser moment it hath set downe their lives hath specified the generall points of the service which they yeelded to God by prayer by building of Altars by offering of Sacrifices upon them But it maketh no mention neither generall nor particular of any day hallowed by them for the exercise of these their devotions which undoubtedly they would have appropriated to that day And so there was a fit occasion to speake of the day in speaking of the service if there had beene any such day consecrated by them Wherefore the particular times kept by them ordinarily or extraordinarily in the practise of Gods service depended on their wisdome and will which being carryed with most earnest affection to godlinesse and to the performing of all duties belonging to Gods service there is no question to bee made but that they imployed a good deale of time every day to the practise of all exercises of religion and upon speciall occasions of new and extraordinary blessings increased their devotion and gave unto it proportionally a longer measure of time All the service wherewith they honoured the Lord their God consisted undoubtedly in prayers and in sacrifices whereof mention is made in their lives registred in the Scripture but it is not likely that they honoured a Seventh day of Sabbath because it is no where written 5 Also the Ancient Fathers for the most part some Rabbins of the Iewes
meanes that procureth his blessing corporall and spirituall temporall and eternall upon those that keepe it as these words doe insinuate have we not as great need of these blessings of GOD as the Iewes God will he not grant them to us as well as to them Wherefore then shall we not keepe that which he hath ordained to be a meanes whereby he doth communicate them or if we keepe them not how can we promise to our selves that he will grant them unto us Which is as if wee should promise to our selves the grace of God by the usage of the Sacraments which hee hath instituted as meanes thereof changing the elements which he hath ordained in them They say also that if God had not ordained unto us who are Christians a Sabbath day he had left us in a worse condition then the Iewes 25 I answer that verily we have as great need of Gods blessings as the Iewes had and that God promiseth them unto us as well as unto them But it followeth not that he should impart them unto us by the same outward meanes God bestowed of old his blessings upon the Iewes not onely by the observation of the seventh day of Sabbath but also of their Sabbaths solemne Feasts Sacrifices Offerings Sprinklings and other legall ceremonies and saith often that he hath sanctified them and would blesse them to their use As then it followeth not that we should keepe these things and that they should be unto us meanes of Gods blessing Likewise upon God saying that he had blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day to the Iewes doth it ensue that we are still bound to keepe it Indeed if the Iewes to whom under the old Testament God had expresly ordained the observation of the seventh day to be unto them a meanes of the grant of his blessings had neglected or rejected that day and had of their owne fancie chosen another they had deprived themselves of the blessing of God by rejecting a meanes of the communication thereof ordained by him And if it were constant that to us also God had ordained the seventh day as it is constant that he hath ordained unto us the use of cercaine elements in the Sacraments and that the fourth Commandement obligeth us as it did the Iewes the same danger were to be feared for us in case we observed it not but sith that is not we have no cause to feare 26 To come neerer unto them I say that the seventh day in its nature was not a holy day nor a meanes of blessing more then another day but onely in regard of the duties of religion and of godlinesse whereunto it was particularly destinated and which were practised in it Therefore when we shall practice religiously and according to the will of God under the new Testament the duties of religion and Christian godlinesse which Iesus Christ hath prescribed unto us in the Gospel they shall be unto us meanes of blessing as were unto the Iewes their exercises and whatsoever day the Church shall appoint ordinarily for that use seeing Iesus Christ hath left unto her that liberty and hath not made any particular determination thereupon it shall be unto us by reason of those holy duties a blessed and holy day as well as was unto the Iewes their seventh day which God injoyned them to keepe 27 It is against all reason to esteeme that if God hath not ordained unto us a particular day as he did to the Iewes our condition shall be worse then theirs For that is alike as if they should say that Christians are in a worse condition then the Iewes because God hath not appointed unto them a particular place whereunto he hath allotted the publike exercise of his service as he did to the Iewes It is true that if Christians did not ordinarily meet together in one place and time to serve GOD publikely they should be farre inferiour to the Iewes and should have farre lesse religion and devotion then they had Whereas it is their great advantage above the Iewes that God would not stint unto them any place nor any time of their holy exercises but would have the choice and setling of the one and of the other to depend on their liberty and left that to their zeale and wisedome even as it is their great prerogative that he hath made them free from all other legall ceremonies which testifieth that he hath loved them more and would not use them rigidly as little children or servants but as children of a ripe age and as a willing people 28 So it hath beene shewed that although the fourth Commandement obligeth us alwaies to appoint an ordinary day for Gods service yet no solid thing can be gathered from the nature and words thereof to prove the morality of a seventh day of Sabbath farre lesse of Sunday and a perpetuall obligation in Gods intention to the observation thereof under the new Testament And it is a most impertinent argumentation that because all the particularities of the fourth Commandement may be applyed unto us as well as to the Iewes and that we may now as they of old rest on the seventh and last day of the weeke as in it God rested therefore we should doe it For we may also observe all the holy daies and ceremonies which of old the Iewes observed and find reasons to apply them unto us For example as they observed the new Moones or the first daies of their moneths to give thankes to God for his continuall government and favorable intertainment which his divine providence had shewed to them making after the last moneth a new moneth to come and to pray him to perpetuate the grace towards them as also that it might be unto them a figure of the future renuing of the Church by the Messias Also as they observed the feast of Pentecost for a memoriall as many doe esteeme of the Law given on that day or which is more certaine to give thanks to God for the cornes which by his favour they had reapt and whereof they offered unto him two loaves of new and fine flower Likewise as they observed the feast of Tabernacles for a remembrance that they had beene pilgrims in the wildernesse and had sojourned in Tents during the time of their journey to the Land of Canaan as also for a thanksgiving to God for the gathering in of all the fruits of the Land Even so might we observe all the same feasts by an application of the reasons of their institution unto us For God from moneth to moneth continueth his providence towards us and hath granted us the renuing of the holy Ghost The Law which he gave in Sina to the people of Israel appertaineth to us in all the morality thereof as well as unto them It is his gift that we gather in yeerely the cornes and other productions of the ground for our nourishment as they did We are pilgrims and strangers in this world and we aspire to the heavenly Canaan
places of the wildernesse the battell being given them on the Sabbath day chused rather to be slaine with their Wives Children and cattell then to make resistance for the safety of their lives least they should profane the Sabbath day 1 Maccab. 2. verse 32. c. There is another example of a like scruple in the second booke Chapter 6. verse 11. And we read in Iosephus in the eight Chapter of the foureteenth booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes and in the first booke of the Warres of the Iewes Chapter 5. that when the Romans under their generall Pompeius beleagured the Temple of Ierusalem the Iewes which were fled thither although they defended themselves on the Sabbath day if they were assaulted yet they remained quiet and bonged not if they were not assaulted which when the Romans had perceived they set not on them and threw nothing against them on the Sabbath day but prepared only things necessary for the assaults dressed terrasses and forts brought neere their engines to make use of them the next day and the Iewes of Religion and great devotion toward the Sabbath suffered them to doe what they would without disturbance And Iosephus approveth this Religion or rather superstition as if it had beene conformable to the ordinance of the Law saying that the Law permitteth on the Sabbath day if the enemies come to wage battell or give blowes to drive them backe Many might have beene intangled with the same superstition during the desolation wherof Christ speaketh in the place before alleadged For although that upon such an occasion as this was to wit to save their lives they should and might have beene informed that they had full liberty to work and flie yet the devotion so ancient so usually practised so exactly and scrupulously observed towards the Sabbath specially in these times as may be seene in sundry places of the Gospell this devotion I say was more than sufficient to forme many difficulties in their mindes and cast into many perplexities concerning the practise of this knowledge even those that had it Wherefore our Lord Iesus Christ foreseeing that many in the dayes of the future desolation of Ierusalem should be disquieted with such feares should make such difficulties or at least conceive a great displeasure to be constrained to worke and travell on the Sabbath day for the preserving of their lives adviseth them to pray to God that their flight be not on that day 4 If they reply that Iesus Christ spake these words to his Disciples who were infallibly to be well instructed before the desolation of Ierusalem concerning the Evangelicall day of Sabbath and concerning all things that may be lawfully done on it and therefore there was no occasion to feare that they should suffer themselves to be carryed away with any Religion or rather superstition towards the Iewish Sabbath day which before that time should be abrogated To that objection I answer againe that verily Iesus Christ spake to his Disciples who apparantly were alone with him but not in regard to them For he knew well that about the time of the desolation of Ierusalem they should be either dead or farre removed from Iudea among the other nations of the earth and therefore this danger was not to be feared on their behalfe Wherefore in their persons he spake to all the Iewes who were all to be in common partakers of this desolation or at least to all the faithfull who in that time should be conversant in Iudea as if they had been present before him with his Disciples This is evident by these words in the 16. 17 18 19. Verses Then let them that be in Iudea flee into the mountaines Let him which is on the house toppe not come downe to take any thing out of his house Neither let him which is in the field returne backe to take his clothes and woe unto them that are with child and unto them that give sucke in those dayes c. For these are common advertisements to all that were to be insnared in that danger and so is likewise this Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day which must be understood as said to all the Iewes to whom the preceding warnings are directed amongst whom Iesus Christ knew that many Christians converted unto him and carryed away with a Religious respect towards the Law should still have the opinion of the Sabbath which I have specified Nay he knew that amongst the faithfull Iewes the best instructed should tye themselves for a certaine space of time after his Ascension into heaven to the observation of certaine legall ceremonies and specially of the Sabbath although of right they were all made of no effect by his death not for any conscience to them-ward nor through an acknowledgement of any obligation on their behalfe to the ceremoniall Law which had beene a thing hurtfull and dangerous but simply through love to shunne all occasions of giving offence to the other Iewes to imbrace all meanes of gaining them more easily to the faith and to bury the ceremonies with honour which in that respect was lawfull So then for these reasons he might well exhort them all to pray that there flight should not befall on the Sabbath day because those that are weake and not so well instructed should not dare to flie or should flie with scruple of conscience and the strong that had greater knowledge should doe it although without trouble of Conscience yet not without some griefe remembring that on that day they were accustomed till then to apply themselves to religious actions and foreseeing that their flight might be offensive and make them odious to some that also they might be hindered in their flight and preparatives for it by those which should superstitiously sticke fast unto the prohibitions not to worke to run and to toyle on the Sabbath day 5 I adde that although we should consider this Commandement of Christ Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day as directed to the Disciples only and should advow that being well instructed there was no cause why they should feare to flie on the Sabbath day and therefore no cause why they should pray for their particular that their flight should not happen on that day we may fitly say that Iesus Christ commanded them to pray so having regard not to them but to others that he foresaw should be ignorant and weake and to whom the Sabbath day should be an impediment to flie For although Christians strong in the faith make no such difficulty and in that respect have no cause to feare for themselves yet knowing that such difficulties to some other ignorants and weake in faith wil be a stumbling block they ought to pray to God having regard to them that the causes and occasions of such difficulties happen not if it be possible and â—in this respect Iesus Christ might have said to his Disciples Pray that your flight from the desolation to come be not
on the Sabbath day if not for your owne sake who being well informed and instructed in the faith shall know that yee may flee on that day and make no difficultie for conscience sake yet in regard of others who shall be distressed with the same necessity to flee with you but who being altogether ignorant of the liberty of the Gospell as the Iewes not as yet converted or the weake ones retaining after their conversion and profession of the Gospell a religious respect towards the ceremonies of the Law of Moses as many Christians who for conscience sake towards the Sabbath will be scrupulous to flie on it for whom in respect of their ignorance and weakenesse you ought to pray that your common flight be not on that day For yee are all members of one body 6 I say more that although Iesus Christ by the Sabbath day had signified the first day of the weeke which after his Ascension was to be observed by all Christians and had commanded his Disciples to pray that their flight should not fall out on Sunday least they should be compelled to imploy upon bodily working travelling and hurrying up and downe a day which otherwise they had applyed to GODs service of that no man can conclude neither that a seventh day of rest is a morall point nor also that Christs minde was to injoyne the observation of the first day of the weeke but only that he foresaw that after his Ascension the first day of the week should be kept by Christians of their owne free will through respect to his resurrection which should befall on that day and that it should be loathsome and grievous unto them to weary themselves with fleeing on a day wherein they were wont to rest from all worldly imployments and to addict â—hemselves to serve God in his house Verily although a day be not ordained of God to be stinted for his service yet if by the custome of the Church it be ordinarily imployed for that use a true Christian will be hartily sorry that hee should be forced by necessity to busie himselfe in other exercises then those which are proper to Gods service and he may with good reason make humble suit unto GOD that he be not brought to such a hard strait And therefore CHRIST might advise his Disciples to pray that their flight should not befall on the Saturday without any other inference that can be gathered from thence saving a future use and custome to observe such a day in the Church and not any obligation proceeding from him farre lesse a naturall and morall obligation towards a seventh day of the weeke which is the point in question CHAPTER Eleven Answer to the Ninth Reason 1. Ninth Reason the Apostles kept the Sabbath 2. First answer they entred into the Synagogues of the Iewes on the Sabbath day not for conscience sake but for the commodity of the place and time to convert the Iewes 3. Second answer In this and in the observation of other ceremonies they applyed themselves to the infirmity of the Iewes 4. Passages alleadged to prove that the Apostles absolutely and simply did keepe the Sabbath of the Iewes 5. First Answer Acts 13. ver 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be interpreted indifferently people folke 6. Second answer the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be interpreted of the weeke betweene 7. If wee read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they signifie in a day betweene the Sabbaths this answer is not refuted by the 44. verse 8. Third Answer The 44. Uerse may be truly translated not of the next Sabbath day but of the next weeke 9. Fourth Answer in both verses the Sabbath being taken for the next Sabbath they prove not that which is intended 10. The passage alleadged Acts 16. verse 12 13. cannot be understood but of those that were Iewes in Religion 11. Whether they had a Synagogue or not they met together out of the townes 12. There they had a place appointed for prayer c. called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an Oratory or place of prayer 15. Where Saint Paul and his fellowes joyned with them to seeke to gaine them to Christ. 14. Why the Apostles which taught sufficiently the abrogation of the Sabbath and of Holy dayes did not preach against them as they did against Circumcision and other ceremonies 15. Answer to the last Reason concerning the Sabbaticall River 1 IT is with as little shew nay it is rather against themselves that to prove a necessary and perpetuall obligation to keepe the Sabbath some make use of that which is noted in diverse places of the Acts of the Apostles as in the Chapter 13. verse 14 43 44. and 16. verse 13. and 17. verse 2. and 18. verse 4. and other where that the Apostles after the Ascension of Iesus Christ kept the Sabbath going to the Synagogues of the Iewes and expounding the Scriptures there 2 For this argument if it were good for any thing would prove that under the New Testament the Iewish Sabbath day to wit the last of the week is to be kept because in the foresaid places mention is made of that day only But the going of the Apostles to the Synagogues on that day came not from any obligation of the law tying them to the Sabbath nor from any religious respect to that day as if it had beene still a necessary point of Gods service but because it was the ordinary day of the congregations of the Iewes whom they desired to convert and it was expedient for that end that they should be present at such times and places that the Iewes did meet in to wit on the Sabbath day and in their Synagogues as for the same reason they observed also the annuall feasts and indeavoured to bee at Ierusalem on such dayes as may be seene Acts 20. verse 16. I adde that they applyed themselves in this point as in many other legall ceremonies to the infirmitie of the Iewes Acts. 15. v. 29. Acts 16. verse 3. Acts 21. verse 24 26. and 1 Cor. 9. ver 20. to gaine them more easily to the faith and to preserve them in it after their conversion For it is certaine that the faithfull Christians converted from the Iewish Religion to the faith of Christ kept still a great zeale for the ceremonies as it is said in the Acts Chap. 21. verse 20. and consequently for the Sabbath day 4 There be some who would have the Iewish Sabbath to be still kept in the Christian Church and to prove that the Apostles did particularly and carefully observe the seventh day of the weeke without any occasion of condescent to the Religion and devotion of the Iewes towards the Sabbath doe alleadge the thirteenth Chapter of the Acts verse 42 43 44. where it is said that when Paul and Barnabas were on the Sabbath day gone out of the Synagogue of the Iewes the Gentiles besought them that they would preach the word unto them the next Sabbath
which being granted unto them the next Sabbath day almost the whole City wherein were comprised more Gentiles than Iewes came together to heare the Word of God They alleadge also the sixteenth Chapter of the Acts verse 13. where without any mention of Iewes or of Synagogue it is said that Paul and Silas being in Philippi a Towne of Macedonia where they sojourned certaine dayes on the Sabbath went out of the City by a river side where prayer was wont to be made keeping the Sabbath amongst the Gentiles without any respect to the Iewes 5 To this I may answer without great difficulty And first to the passage in the Acts Chapter 13. verse 42. I might say that this intreaty made to Paul and Barnabas to preach the next Sabbath day is not by all the interpreters ascribed to the Gentiles but to the Iewes who before as may be seene in the fifteenth verse had intreated them to propound some word of exhortation For the word Gentiles in some Greeke editions and in some versions is not to be found Besides this some are of opinion that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken not for the Gentiles as they are distinguished from the Iewes but indifferently for the multitude of people that was there present in this sence and the folke or people besought Paul and Barnabas which may be referred to the Iewes as well as to the Gentiles 6 But not to stand upon that I say Secondly that the originall Text doth not shew manifestly that the request made by the Gentiles to Paul and Barnabas was that they would preach unto them the next Sabbath day for it may signifie in the intermedium of the Sabbath that is in any time betweene the Sabbath wherein they had presently preached to the Iewes and the next Sabbath following For seeing the Sabbath was the day which the Iewes reserved for themselves and which the Apostles imployed amongst them for their instruction the Gentiles belike desired to take some other day for them wherein with more commoditie they might heare the word And verily there is no likelihood that Gentiles not as yet instructed neither in the Law nor in the Gospell would aske of their owne head the Sabbath day rather than any other and it is more likely that they did aske any other commodious day betweene the Sabbath of the Iewes such as Paul and Barnabas should be pleased to appoint unto them whiles they were not busied with teaching the Iewes The words in the originall are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which many interpreters doe translate not the next Sabbath day as if the Gentiles had chused that day but in the Sabbath or in the weeke betweene that is in any day betweene till the next Sabbath 7 And there are some which probably esteeme that these words should be red 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should bee taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie cleerely in any day whatsoever betweene the Sabbaths This interpretation is not sufficiently refuted by the allegation of the 44. Verse where it is clearely said that the next Sabbath day came almost the whole City together to heare the Word of God For it is not necessary that this 44. Verse should declare the accomplishment of the request made by the Gentiles in the 42. Verse It is rather likely that the Apostles having already fulfilled it betweene the two Sabbaths when the Sabbath day came wherein the Iewes according to their custome met together and Paul as his manner was preached unto them as we may see Acts 17. verse 2. and Acts 18. verse 4. the whole City being moved with curiosity by the rumour spread abroad of the former sermons made both to Iewes and Gentiles ranne together in a farre greater number than before to heare the word Thirdly seeing the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sabbath is sometimes taken both in the Old and in the New Testament not particularly for the Sabbath day but for the weeke as in Leviticus 23. verse 15. and 25. verse 8. in Saint Matthew 28. verse 1. in St. Luke 18. v. 12. wherefore may we not in the foresaid passages understand that the Gentiles seeing it was the end of that weeke intreated Paul and Barnabas to preach unto them the next weeke verse 42. and that they did so the next weeke conformably to their desire ver 44. without expression of the particular day of that week So the sence shall be this And the next weeke came almost the whole City c. But although we should grant that both in the request of the Gentiles verse 42. and in the accomplishment thereof verse 44. the Sabbath day must be understood it followeth not neither that the Gentiles ought to observe that day nor that the Apostles had any regard unto it for Religion and conscience sake but only that the Gentiles of whom mention is made in the 42. Verse having beene present at the Sermon which Paul and Barnabas made to the Iewes on the Sabbath day and not having a particular day or time appointed to them for the hearing of the word of the Gospell because the Christian Religion was not as yet received nor established in their Towne as the Iewish Religion was having her Sabbaths and Synagogues free which the Apostles resorted unto intreated them that they might heare them againe on another Sabbath day and in the Synagogue of the Iewes because it was a most fit time and place for them by reason of the liberty that the Iewes injoyned for the exercises of their Religion which Paul and Barnabas yeelded unto whereof the speech being spread abroad through the Towne great multitudes trouped together on the next Sabbath through curiosity and ran to the Synagogue of the Iewes to heare them So it was not any devotion neither of the Gentiles nor of the Apostles to the Sabbath but the simple commodity that moved them to make choice of it 10 To the other passage cited out of the sixteenth Chapter of the Acts verse 12 13. I say likewise that Paul and Silas tooke occasion to observe the Sabbath because the Iewes met together for the exercise of their Religion on that day For although it be not said that those which resorted unto the place of prayer were Iewes no more is it said that they were Gentiles But it may be gathered out of the Text that they were Iewes either by birth and of the same nation or by Religion and religious communion because they were persons which ordinarily assembled together to call upon God on the Sabbath day verse 13. and who already served God as amongst others it is said of Lydia verse 14. with whom the Apostles made no bones to joyne themselves Which cannot in any wise be taken of Gentiles Infidels and of their devotions to their Idols as is evident nor also
the time of Gods service either to Sunday onely in the weeke or besides to a few moe more rare in their revolution and consecrated to the honour of God alone to be observed onely for orders sake and for ecclesiasticall government that in them her children may apply themselves more particularly then they doe on other dayes to Gods service but without tying the consciences of the faithfull farther than to the order of the Church not urging the Holy dayes obligatorie immediately on Gods part 14 To the third inconvenience that she may change Sunday into another day if the stinting of a day depend on her I answer that happily she might in the beginning have made choice of another number than of seven and in the number of seven of another than the first which is Sunday For although it be true that since the resurrection of Christ no action hath or shall be done so important as this which came to passe on the first day of the weeke it followeth not that the remembrance of that action was of necessity to be celebrated once in the weeke and that a day should bee appointed for that end more than for the remembrance of others of the Lords wonderfull actions or that the Church was tied by necessity to appoint the first day of the weeke for that purpose rather then another day upon the sole consideration that it happened on that day which in it selfe is not more obligatory now than it was then because the celebration of Christs actions in any day whatsoever is in it selfe a thing indifferent and the Lord doth not require that we tie our selves to the dayes wherein they were performed And so this consideration was no hinderance why in the beginning the Church might not have made choice of another day then Sunday But seeing Sunday is established by a long custome for the regular and ordinary day of Gods service seeing the faithfull Christians kept it in the beginning through respect to the resurrection of Christ and so it is become usuall every where by degrees seeing also time hath confirmed this custome and it hath beene ratified by Imperiall constitutions and divers ecclesiasticall ordinances I esteeme it should be an imprudent and impudent course to attempt the changing thereof into another day 15 The fourth inconvenience that particular men shall have nothing injoyned of God unto them in the fourth Commandement nor in any other part of Scripture concerning the time of Gods publike service saving that they observe the time prescribed in the Church according to the will of those that are in authority is not an inconvenience but is in effect the whole substance of the Commandement in regard of particular men to whom God having injoyned in the three former Commandements to serve him particularly every day and upon all occasions in the fourth he injoyneth them to doe it publikely together and to observe the time appointed for that purpose by ecclesiasticall discipline 16 The inconvenience to be feared should be in case no order at all were established in the Church for the time of Gods publike service and every particular man were left to his owne choice which should cause a disordered diversity But this were to forge feares where there is no cause For order hath beene taken with that in the Christian Church from her beginning and it hath beene fortified by use and custome so that particular men if they happen to come to places where there is no Church no discipline ordered will not omit being religiously disposed and fearing God to observe the day which the Christian Church hath chused and practised since so many ages And as God when he commandeth a frequent resorting to the holy assemblies giveth no injunction to particular men but in dependancy upon the order which shall be established in the Church for such meetings even so he tieth them to the same dependancy when he ordaineth that a certaine time be appointed for the said publike meetings 17 For the fifth and last inconvenience some feare least particular men should presume to observe any other day at their leasure and neglect the keeping of Sunday if they be taught that they are not bound unto it by Gods command Whereunto I answer that if these particulars be profane men which make light of the exercises of godlinesse and of the order of the Church in all likelihood they will doe worse and keepe no day at all But for such unruly wights wee need to disquiet our selves too much For it is not in our power to prevent and hinder all the abuses and profanations which they would commit although they were perswaded that Sunday is a divine institution He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still Nay although they might be recalled it is not reasonable that to rescue them we should speake or write any thing against truth If they be men which take to heart religion and godlinesse and carry a due respect to the order of the Church no such unrulinesse is to be feared of them For because the preaching of the word the administration of the Sacraments publike and common prayers are meanes ordained of God for the maintenance of godlinesse and of true Religion and Sunday is established by the order of the Church for the practise of these exercises they will make great account of that day and observe it not for its owne sake knowing that it is not in it selfe more esteemeable nor more belonging to Gods service then another day not also through opinion that God hath particularly sanctified it by his ordinance and that their conscience is in that respect more tyed unto it then to another day but because they have a speciall regard to the order of the Church which being very good and profitable they know they are bound to submit themselves unto it seeing God hath commanded it although in generall termes yet most expressely in his holy word They will also feare to contemne that day and in so doing to sinne not in consideration of any dignity of that the day hath of it felfe or that God hath given it whereby it should oblige more than another day and make the contempt thereof more blame worthy but in consideration of Gods service whereunto it is applyed by the ordinance and custome of the Church So then a particular Church will conforme her selfe to the order of all other Churches and the particular members of each Church will submit themselves to the order received in it and so all shall religiously celebrate Sunday because by the order of the Church it hath beene observed so long and in all places where the Gospell was preached for the publike exercise of Gods service 18 To shew that the foresaid inconvenience is not so much to be feared it is a thing common and well knowne that our Churches ordaine upon diverse occasions extraordinary dayes of fasting and of particular prayers and command
leagues Now if it had beene the intention of Iesus Christ to ordaine the first day of the week for a Sabbath day and to injoyn to all Christians a leaving and discontinuance of all ordinary worke on that day it is likely that he would not have forgotten to warne his two Disciples thereof on that first day and thetwo Maries to whom he shewed himselfe earely in the morning of that same day and by the other Disciples to whom he sent them had made them practise the observation of that day and he had shewed them the example of that observation in his owne person which he did not then Neither doe we find that he did it at any other occasion 14 In the twentieth of the Acts we perceive although uncertainely as I have shewed before some observation of the first day of the weeke by the faithfull of Troas They met not together till about the evening of that day For mention is made of an upper Chamber of many lights of Saint Pauls long preaching untill midnight and thereafter till breake of day Apparently they made choice of the night time and of an upper chamber for feare of the Infidels even as the Apostles on the first day of the weeke that CHRIST rose in were assembled at evening and held the doores shut for feare of the Iewes Iohn twenty verse 19. Now who doubteth but all that day from the Sunne rising till the evening that they came together to breake bread they were busied as in the other dayes of the weeke about the ordinary exercises of their trades handicrafts and callings as having liberty to worke on that day like as on all other dayes besides the care they had to shunne all giving of discontent to the Infidels amongst whom they lived and the drawing by an unnecessary cessation a most certaine persecution upon themselves There is no question to be made but that all Christians in the places of their residence among Iewes or Gentiles did the like 15 This is also a reason considerable in this question that albeit among the Lawes of Christian Emperours there be sundry which forbid the ordinary occupations of trades and handicrafts on Sunday as to keepe a Court of pleading and to goe to Law to open the shops for buying and selling to act stage playes in play houses and publike places to hold Markets and faires c. which Lawes were made to prevent in time to come the contempt of the exercises of Religion used on that day and to establish an order in the state and in the Church which they most judiciously and religiously thought to be more recommendable decent and well suting to the holy actions whereunto it was appointed yet all these Lawes shew that before they were published Christians were wont saving the houres of the publike exercises of Religion to apply themselves on that day to all the ordinary workes of this present life Yea there be many other Lawes of other Emperours and amongst others of Constantine that great and holy Emperour which permit on Sunday some of these ordinary imployments as to labourers to sow the ground to weed to reape to plant and set Vineyards if need bee to Bakers to bake bread to Masters to give liberty to their slaves to Iudges to put to death malefactors which undoubtedly these Christian Emperours had never permitted by their Lawes if it had beene in their time a received opinion in the Church that the observation of Sunday and cessation from all workes in it was necessary by vertue of a Commandement of our Lord Iesus Christ. 17 But knowing certainely that no dayes are instituted of God under the New Testament that Sunday was not kept by a commandement from heaven but by the use and custome of the Church That a discontinuance and intermission so exact of all workes pertained to the Ecclesiasticall policie and regiment of the Iewes and is no where and in no wise commanded in the Gospell they made no bones to permit diverse occupations which might seeme to have some pretext of necessity yet were not of such importance but that they might have beene done before Sunday or put off till the next day following it CHAPTER Fifth Declaration of diverse absurdities and difficulties insuing upon the contrary opinion 1. The opinion is that Christians are bound to refraine from all workes during the 24. houres of Sunday 2. First absurdity this opinion bringeth backe the servitude of the Iewish ceremonies 3. Second absurdity No man can tell where must be the beginning of the said 24. houres 4. Diverse disputations thereupon amongst the authors of this opinion 5. Third absurdity it troubleth the conscience leaving it without information concerning the imployment of that time and the doing of unnecessary workes therein 6. As also about the doing of charitable and necessarie workes 7. Fourth absurdity Confusion of the Doctors in the explication of this opinion 8. First they consent not in the explication of Christian abstinence from bodily workes on Sunday 9. Secondly they distinguish workes of necessity into those that are of present and those that are of imminent necessity and permit the first onely whereby they trouble tender consciences 10. They contradict their distinction by suffering some handicrafts men to worke on Sunday 11. As also by the permission of many actions which have no present necessity 12. Likewise by forbidding some workes in an apparent danger as to gather corne c. 13. Great absurdity and inconvenience of this prohibition 14. The Commandement Exod. 34. v. 21. to rest on the Sabbath day in earing time c. serveth not their turne 15. They hold that it is not lawfull for a man to receive any reward for his necessary labour done on Sunday 16. Great inconveniences and absurdities of this opinion 17. Answer to their objection about servile workes forbidden in the fourth Commandement 18. They hold also that servants ought not to serve their masters on Sunday 19. This doctrine crosseth their other decisions 20. They intangle themselves in the distinction of bankets 21. Absurdity of theâ—r rigid prohibition of all kind of recreation to all men on the Sabbath day 22. How farre Christians are bound to abstaine from worke on that day 23. How working is not or may be an hindrance of our sanctification 24. We ought to leave our workes on Sundayes during the time of service 25. Saving in some important necessity 26. Objections taken from the care of worldlings c. 27. Answer concerning the care of worldlings 28. How we ought to make the Sabbath our delight 29. Our Sunday is improperly called the Sabbath day THose against whom we dispute doe hold that our Sunday called also by them the Sabbath day which is the name given in the Scriptures to the day that the Iewes hallowed weekly obligeth us to keepe it during the whole space of foure and twenty houres by a religious abstinence from all manner of workes during all that time conformably to the
established for the publike exercises of religion neverthelesse because Sunday hath beene alwayes used in the Christian Church for a day of divine service and all religious exercises he ought not to forbeare to apply himselfe unto them privately on that day with greater assiduity than on other dayes And because where there is an order and discipline established the Rulers of the State and of the Church to prevent all disorders and stirre up greater respect to the exercises of religion which are practised on Sunday have thought fit to forbid on that day the publike and ordinary workes of the other dayes of the weeke he shall doe well to refraine on it from the ordinary workes of his worldly trade and calling to obey these high powers that God hath subjected him unto It is then the order of the Church principally that must be to every Christian the rule of the abstinence and cessation from ordinary workes that he is to observe on Sunday or on another day That is he must not apply himselfe to such workes without great necessity during all the time wherein this order calleth upon him to resort to the house of God to come to the holy assemblies not to sit idle not to busie himselfe about bodily occupations when he ought to be in the congregation hearing the word of God with attention praying and singing with heart and mouth to the Lord in the company of his faithfull brethren If divine service be publikely practised before and after noone in the Church whereof he is a member he must not soothe himselfe with a fond opinion that he hath done his duty when he hath beene present at either of them and forsaken one of the two to bestow it on some other thing That time ordained by the Church being expired and the whole service of that day finished when he is come home and is alone he is free to doe what he will so it be honest and lawfull to worke or to refresh himselfe for in that he sinneth not against God transgresseth not his Commandements If he will passe the rest of the day in actions of religion he shall do well if he will spend it on other ordinarie and common actions of this life he shall not doe ill with this proviso that he be carefull to prepare himselfe by religious meditations for the publike and holy exercises before they begin and take time to call them to minde after they are ended that so he may make them faithfull and profitable to his soule feele in his heart their efficacie and shew it by an holy conversation in the whole sway of his life Otherwise the wicked one shall come and catch away that which was sowne in his heart Matt. 13. v. 19. 6 All that can and should be propounded to teach us how wee ought to sanctifie the Lords day must be grounded upon the necessitie holinesse and utility of the religious exercises of divine service upon the respect due unto them and upon the authority of the Church commanding upon these grounds This is the only reason of the sanctification of that day In this is the strength of all the arguments whereby Gods servants ought to stirre up devotion in the hearts of their hearers And not in the nature of the day wherein God is publikely served not also in any obligation whereby the conscience is tied unto it Those that feare God and have respect unto his Commandements will not omit the observation of this day although they be informed that it obligeth them not neither of it self nor also by a divine commandement more than another day For it is not the day that they regard but the great need they have to be instructed comforted fortified in the knowledge of God in the love of his glorious Majestie in true godlinesse by the exercises which God hath ordained to that end not onely particular at home which they may doe at all times as they shall have occasion but also publike in the Church in any day whatsoever the Church shall appoint 7 On the other side those that have not the love God and of the exercises of religion in their hearts will never be moved to give their minde with more affection and assiduity to Gods service by beleeving that Sunday is a day of Gods owne institution For if they make no account of that which is the principall and the end which God hath injoyned and urgeth so carefully what reckoning can they make of a thing which putting the case it were a divine institution could not injoy that prerogative saving as a helpe and a meanes tending to that end If they should cover their forsaking of Gods service and of the holy exercises on Sunday with this pretext that it is not a divine institution should they not discover a manifest profanenesse for as much as that under a slight frivolous pretence they should disdaine that which they cannot be ignorant of but that God hath ordained it to wit the holy convocations the communion of the faithfull in them his word his Sacraments the publike calling upon his name Such profane ones must be left to the judgement of God who will finde them out in his owne time 8 As for the true faithfull the glory of God and their owne salvation being their principall end they will alwayes keepe religiously and chearefully all things whereby they come to their end First the meanes which essentially and by Gods ordinance belong unto it such as are the exercises of religion particular and publike Next those which being in themselves indifferent and having no obligatorie power over the conscience by a divine commandement are notwithstanding lawfully established by the Church for orders sake and to set forth the former by ordinary practice such as is the institution of Sunday By which behaviour they shall draw upon themselves from the Father of lights the blessing of grace during their abode in these low parts of the earth and of glory in heaven through the precious merits of our onely Saviour and Redeemer Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour glory and praise for ever and ever AMEN A CONFIRMATION OF THE THINGS CONTAINED IN THE PRECEDING TREATISE BY humane Authorities THat the world may not thinke that in my tenets and proofes I have onely set down that which in my owne judgement I thought to be warrantable by the word of God and reason which are the chiefest foundations on which we ought to build I thought it not unfit for the further confirmation of the premisses to adde as an Appendix to my former Discourse some Passages of learned Writers both ancient and moderne especially of the reformed Churches who were first both in time and worth and who deservedly have great credit and authority amongst us In quoting the Passages I shall reduce them to the chiefe heads of my Treatise PASSAGES Concerning the nature and beginning of the Sabbath IUSTIN Martyr in Dialogo