the mother Synagogue as St. Augustine speaks might be buried with the greater honour it was dâ—…ely and constantly observed by the Church of God But when the fulnesse of time was come for the abrogation of it yet the equity of the Commandement which Divines do call the morall part thereof remaining still in its full strength and vigour required not onely some certain time to be set apart for the publique Worship of God but at least one day in Seven which is not onely the judgement of a Chrysostome and b Peter Martyr and c Bellarmine and Doctor Fulke in his answer to the Rhemtsts commenting upon the words of my Text and other grave Divines but of our profound and judicious Hooker writing purposely against the Schismaticks of our time so as we need not suspect him of Puritanisme Wee are bound saith he in the 5th Book of his Ecclesiasticall policy and seventeenth Paragraph Touching the manner of celebrating Festivall dayes We are bound to accompt the sanctification of one day in seven a duty which Gods immutable law doth exact for ever although with us the day be changed in regard of a new revolution begun by our Saviour Christ yet the same proportion of time the same proportion of time continueth which was before by way of a perpetutuall homage a perpetuall hâ—…age never to be dispensed withall nor remitted Then which I see not what can be spoken more plainly or more punctually which is the rather to be marked for that the Author being a man of admirable learning and of a deep judgement and by reason thereof making many doubts to himself which the ignorant by reason of their shallow and narrow capacities hardly discern and easily swallow is notwithstanding in the point so positive and peremptory as you see Whereunto we may adde the testimony of our Homilies allowed to be read in our Churches by publique authority making also one day in the week by the morall part of the Commandement to be consecrated and that not in part but wholly to heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and Service And truely this our Churches resolution therein to me weighs more than the opinions of many others to the contrary though I will not censure much lesse absolutely condemne them My conclusion shall be That as the tenth part ad minimum is Gods portion for the fruits of the earth so the seventh part of his proportion for time and both of them not onely under the Leviticall Law but under the Gospel the number of seven is sacred as Philo in his book de opificio mundi hath learnedly shewed but for proof thereof I will go no further then this very book of the Revelation wherein we read of Seven Angels and Seven Trumpets and Seven Vialls and Seven Seales and Seven Stars and Seven Candlesticks and Seven Churches and Seven Spirits before the throne of God all which seems to imply the number to be Mystical and sacred and consequently most properly due to religious exercises in publick consisting in the sacred Service of allmighty God All which notwithstanding some such are found professiâ—…g themselves Christians as Anabaptists and 〈◊〉 who not only deny any set time to be appropriated to Gods service by the law of Christ but further affirme that no such time is now by Christians living under the Gospell in any sort to bee observed And to this end they wrest those passages of the Apostle Gal. 4. 10. Rom. 14. 5. Col. 2. 16. they wrest them I say the only scope of the Apostle in those passages being to cry downe the Ceremomall use or Superstitious abuse of dayes as well among the Iewes as the Gentiles not to make holy dayes set apart for Gods Service unlawfull nay it is certaine that in other places hee mâ—…kes theâ—… lawfâ—…ll and this day here spoken of in my Text in paâ—…ticular aswell by his practice as his precept wâ—…ich will appear in my second generall part which offers it selfe in the next place namely that tâ—…e day here spoken of in my Text is that particular day which is now by us Christians in a speciâ—…ll manner set apart for the service of God In the handling whereof wee have two things to be considered first the severall names of this day and then why it is termed the Lords day This day is sometimes called the Sabboth sometimes Sunday sometimes the first day of the week sometimes the Eighth day and sometimes the Lords day as here in my Text The name of the Sabboth I must confesse in the ancient Councels or Fathers wee shall hardly find applyed to this day unlesse withall they adde Sabbathum Christianorum the Sâ—…bboth of Christians For when they speak of the Sabboth absolutely without any addition they alwayes understand the Saturday the Seventh day the Sabboth day of the Jâ—…wes which except it bee heedfully observed of those who are conversant in their writings it may be an occasion of much errour and mistake Which notwithstanding I make no question but this day may without any just suspition of Iudaisme be called the Sabboth and that for these Reasons First because our Saviour himselfe as I conceive hath so called it pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabboth day where he speakes of the destruction of Hierusilem which fell out about forty years after his Ascention whereas the Sabboth of the Iewes was abrogated by his resurrectioâ—… and consequently it cannot well bee understood but of the Sabboth of Christians the day here spoken of My second Reason is for that Sabbath signifying Rest the word in regard of that signification is appliable to our day as well as to theirs it being a day of Rest to us as well aâ—… to them True indeed it is that the Sabbath was so called a day of rest in a double respect First because God himâ—…e upon that day rested from the workes of the Creation and then because they in imitation of God and by commandement from God were likewise to rest upon the same day whereas ours cannot be called a Sabbath in respect of the first that is Gods rest but only in respect of the second that is our rest My third reason is for that our Lords day succeeded in the place of the Sabboth and was ordained to the same generall end as our spirituall exercises are called Sacrifices because they succeed in the place of their Sacrifices so may our Lords day not unfitly bee termed the Sabbath because it succeeds in the place of tâ—…eir Sabboth Secondly this day here spoken of in my Text is sometimes called Sunday which though it be a name imposed by the Gentiles who knew not the true God giving the names of the seven Planets to the seven dayes of the week yet for distinctions sâ—…ke I see not but wee Christians may without superstition or relation to them call the dayes of the weeke by the same names that they did as well as we do the
faintly or formally but attentively and devoutly as knowing that God is a Spirit and will be worshipped by us in Spirit and Truth with a perfect heart and with a willing minde as the good King David taught his Son Solomon Withall we must remember that works of charity are not to be neglected on this day they being the marks and effects of the Spirit And that we may the better intend these Spirituall works in a Spirituall manner we are still to carry in our mindes that this Day is the Lords Day and not the devills or ours and that not a part onely but the whole day is his the devils day we make it if we employ it in sinfull acts our own if in the servile works of our particular callings or in bodily recreations which further not but hinder the practice of our Spirituall duties For sinfull acts we must be carefull that we incurre not justly the censure of Tertullian Siccine exprimitur per publicum gaudium publicum dedecus Haeccine solennes dies decent quae alios non decent Malorum licentia pietas erit Occasio luxurâ—…ae religio deputabitur Is our publike joy thus expressed by the publike disgrace Shall that be thought to become an holy Day which doth not become any day Shall wicked licentiousnesse be accounted Piety and occasions of luxury Religion If wantonnesse if drunkennesse if fighting if railing if reviling if swearing if cursing be sinnes on every day surely much more on the Lords Day Saint Hierome likewise in his Epistle to Eustochium seems much to mislike excessive Feasting and feeding upon these dayes as being the occasions of luxury and consequently of quarrelling and wantonnesse Valde absurdum est nimia saturitate velle honorare Martyrem quem scias Deo placuisse jejuniis It is most absurd to inâ—…end the honour of that Martyr with excessive Feasting whom we know to have pleased God with Fasting and if it can be no honour to the Martyr who lost his blood for the Lords sake much lesle to the Lord who redeemed the Martyr by his blood Of servile works is that noble Constitution of Leo the Empe. to be understood We ordain according to the true meaning of the holy Ghost and of the Apostles thereby directed that on the sacred Day wherein our own integrity was restored all do rest and surcease labour that neither Husbandman nor other on that day put their hands to forbidden works for if the Jews did so much reverence their Sabboth which was but a shadow of ours are not we which inhabite the light and truth of grace bound to honour that day which the Lord himself hath honoured and hath therein both delivered us from dishonour and from death Are not we bound to keep it singular and inviolable well contenting our selves with so liberall a grant of the rest and not incroaching upon that one which God hath chosen to his own honour Were it not wretchlesse neglect of religion to make that very day common and to think we may do with it as with the rest Which religious Edict of his though it were indeed chiefly bent against bodily labour yet may it well be extended against such pastimes and recreations on that Day as cannot but withdraw us from the keeping of it inviolable That unlawfull recreations may not be used on that day no Christian I think will deny since they may not be used on any dayes so as all the doubt is touching lawfull recreations whereof some also there are which I think no man will affirm to be lawfâ—…lly used on the Lords Day as Hawking Hunting and the like which are not unlawfull in themselves but unlawfull on that Day because it is the Lords Dâ—…y And for other recreations if bodily labour which on other dayes is not onely lawfnll but necessary be forbidden because it is the Lords Day methinks by the same reason even lawfull recreations should be forbidden on the same day as tending no lesse to the violating of that Day than bodily labour If on that Day I may nor sow nor reap nor carry my Corn no not in the most uncertain and catching weather though it carryes a fair shew of keeping those precious fruits of the earth from spoiling which God of his goodnesse hath sent me shall I presume to use those recreations on that Day which commonly end in the abuse of those good blâ—…ssings Manlike exercises are doubtlesse very requisite but coâ—…sidering the number of other holy dayes in our Church under favour be it spoken I see no necessity of putting them in practice on the Lords Day nor of ranking the Lords Day with-other holy dayes Some reformed Churches in other parts may perchance give way to the use of them on the Lords Day which in them is somewhat the more excusable because they have none other holy days though for mine own part I think it better if they had yet that the very same Pastors of those Churches who admitted or connived at the use of such manlike exercises as severely cryed down effeminate sports on that Day let one speak for all If we employ the Sunday saith Calvin to make good cheer to sport our selves to go to games and pastimes shall God in this be honoured is it not a mockery Is not this an unhallowing of his Name And if you please to Calvin we may adde Bellarmin the great Champion of the Romish Church who in his explanation of the title of the 91. Psalm according to their account which is a Psalm or song for the Sabbath-day thus writes Errant Iudaei qui otium Sabbati sibi datum esse existimant ad vacandum conviviâ—…s deambulationi The Jews erre in thinking that the rest of the Sabboth was given them for feasting and walking abroad wherein he seems to have followed Saint Augustine in his Enarration upon the same passage who in particular there censureth them for their dancing holding it more allowable to plough then to dance upon the Sabbath Melius est arare quà m saltarc these be his very words and then goes on Illi a bono opere Vacant ab opere nugatorio non vacant they rest from honest works from vain works they rest not Et Iudaeos imitantur Christiani saith Bellarmine and those Christians imitate the â—…ews who do the like Nay Saint Augustine in another place comes fully home to the same point where speaking of the Lords day Ideo Dominicus appellatur saith he ut in eo a terrenis operibus vel mundi illecebris abstinentes tantùm divinis cultibus serviamus therefore it is called the Lords day that abstaining from earthly labours and worldly pleasures we may wholly intend Gods service And again in severall places of that Sermon The holy Doctors of the Church decreed to transferre all the glory of the Jewish Sabbath upon this day That what they in figure the same we might celebrate in Truth Let us therefore my brethren observe the Lords
day and sanctifie it as to them of old it was given in charge touching the Sabbath From evening to evening ye shall keep my Sabbaths Let us take care that our rest be not vain but from the evening of the Sabboth to the evening of the Lords Day being free from all worldly businesse Soli divino cultui vacemus let us onely intend the service of God non foris fabulis sed intuâ—… psalmodiae orationibus studete Do not spend your time in trifles and telling of tales abroad but in singing of Psalms and prayers at home and do not think unus punctus diei ad Dei officium c. onely one little part of the day is consecrated to Gods Service and the residue of the day together with the night to your own pleasures Thus Saint Augustine and with him doth Saint Gregory accord Dominico die à labore terreno cessandum est atque omnimodo orationibus insistendum upon the Lords Day we are to rest from earthly labour and wholly apply our selves to our devotions that if any sinnes of negligence have escaped in the six dayes they may be done away by our prayers on the day of the Lords Resurrection Somewhat more punctuall is Ephraim Syrus Festivitates dominicas honorare studiosè contendite celebrantes eas non panegyricè sed divinè non mundanè sed spiritualiter non instar gentilium sed Christianorum Quare non poetarum frontes coronemus non choraeas ducamus non chorum exornemus non tibâ—…is cytharis auditum effoeminemus non mollibus vestibus induamur nec cingulis undique auro radiantibus cingamur non commessationibus ebrietatibus dediti simus verum iâ—…ta relinquamus iis quorum Deus venter est gloria in confusione ipsorum Earnestly endeavour to honour the Lords holy Day solemnizing it not in a pompous but in a Divine not in a worldly but in a Spirituall manner not as the Gentiles but as Christians let us not hang up Garlands before our doors let us not be exercised in dancing or in the setting forth of playes let us not effeminate our hearing with piping and harping let us not be clad with effâ—…minate apparell nor be girt with Girdles shining about with gold let us not be given to gluttony and drunkennesse but let us leave these things to them whose God is their belly and their glory to their shame In the same path with these great Lights of the Church doth Peter Martyr walk Vnum in hebdomada requisivit in quo reliquis operâ—…bus valedicentes uni illi tantum incumberemus he required one day in the week in which bidding adieu to all other works we should onely intend his service He who gave unto Adam a free liberty to eat of all the other trees in Paradise râ—…served to himself the Tree of the knowledge of good and evill which served much to aggravate Adams offence that having so large a scope to content himself withall he would notwithstanding fall upon the forbidden fruit which is our case if having all the dayes of the week save one granted to our use we presume to intrude upon that which the Lord hath reserved to himself for his own use It is to this purpose worth the observing that our Saviour on the very Day of his Resurrection which was the first day of the week and â—…ow the Lords Day appeared sundry times in the morning at noon and at night thereby to shew That not a part onely but the whole Day was his And again on the eighth day following which was likewise the Lords Day he appeared to his Apostles at night to instruct them and confirm their faith thereby to teach us that even then it ceaseth not to be the Lords Day And truely I see not how men can effectually profit by publike hearing who neglect private conference and meditation after they have heard Meditation being the concoction of our Spirituall Food without which the soul cannot well be nourished They who bought and sold in atrio Templi in the porch or utmost part of the Temple thereby prophaned the Temple it self and made it a den of theeves as our Saviour censures them and I doubt not but he is as tender of this Day and every part thereof as of his House or rather more tender his House being consecarted to him by men but his Day by Himself to Himself and besides in the Primitive Church he was long without an House but not without a Day from the very first infancy thereof which hath made me to wonder that they who are so zealous for the Lords House and the Lords Portion received by the hand of his Ministers should not likewise be as zealous for the religious observation of his Day especially considering that it may give men occasion to suspect though perchance unjustly that they pursue their own pomp and profit in being so hot for the one and their own ease and pleasure in being so cold for the other He who stands for the Lords House and the Lords Portion because it is the Lords cannot but stand likewise for the Lords Day because it is his his Day doubtlesse having as strong a relation to him as either his House or his Portion if not a stronger He who layes sacrilegious hands upon a part of that which is consecrated to the Lord thereby violates the whole and therefore were Ananias and his wife stricken with sudden death because theâ—… kept back not the whole but a part of that money they had received for their Land and was entirely dâ—…e to the Lord and his Church and if we perâ—…it men to detain from the Lord a part of his Day let us take heed lest thereby they be the more emboldened to detain part of his Portion both from him and us The people God knows for the most part are of themselves apt enough to take more liberty than is fit to take an Ell where there is but an Inch allowed them and having once gotten the rains loose to run away in a full carreer And if it be observed it will appear that more mischiefs have ensued upon publique Games on the Lords Day than on any other day of the week nay my self have observed more to have been drowned who went into the River onely to wash their bodies on the Lords Dâ—…y than any other day beside In Cornwall not farre from Saint Germans are in a fairplain certain stones to be seen which the neighbouring people call the Hurlers because they stand in that order and distance each from other as Hurlers use to do and the current tradition among the inhabitants there is that certain Hurlers for the prophanation of the Lords Day in that exercise were by Gods Judgement turned into those stones which Camden calls a pious errour and so I beleeve it to be yet withall from thence I observe the respect which even in regard of manlike exercises was born to that Day and
A SHORT But Cleare DISCOVRSE Of the Institution Dignity and End of the Lords-Day Upon Occasion of those words of St. IOHN I was in the spirit on the Lords-Day Written by George Hakewill Doctor in Divinity and Arch-Deacon of Surrey LONDON Printed by Iohn Raworth for George Thomason and Octavian Pullen MDCXLI REVEL. 1. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lords-Day THey are the words as ye see of Saint Iohn the holy Evangelist the blessed Apostle the beloved Disciple the glorious Confessor the soaring Eagle the Sonne of Thunder the Divine by an Excellency and the Pen-man of this most Divine and excellent Book of the Revelation And here he makes known unto us the place where the time when the state in which he was when the high and deep mysteries of this Book were made known unto him The place where it was in the Isle of Patmos whither by Domitian the Emperour he was banished for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ as it is in the verse going before my Text The time when on the Lords Day the best Day of the week shining among the other dayes velâ—…t inter ignes Luna minores as the brightest Moon when she fills-her circle with light among the other Stars The state in which himself then was in the Spirit in Spirituall exercises in Spirituall meditations and by means thereof in Spirituall raptures and elevations in Spirituall exâ—…asies of the soul above the ordinary pitch of humane condition Wee have here presented to our consideration these foure things First That there is a certain time a certain day which may deservedly be called and is indeed the Lords day The second That thâ—… dâ—…y here spoken of is that particular day and why it is â—…o câ—…lled The third Is the great priviledges and speciall prerogatives of this day beyond and above all other The fourth Is the duties which belong to us upon this day it is to be in the Spirit as St. Iohn was though not in Spirituall Trances yet in Spirituall Exercises and Meditations For the first of these it is certain most certain That there is not nor ever was any Nation under the Cope of Heaven since the first Creation which acknowledged a Deity but withall it acknowledged a Divine Worship and Service due to this Deity and that not onely inward in the minde but outward in sacred and solemn Rites and Observances as being both the kindely effects and lively characters of â—…he in bred Notions and Motions of the Soul And to this purpose they had not onely Temples and Altars and Sacrifices and forms of Invocation but Festivall dayes set dayes or dayes set apart as for the publique and Civill affairs so likewise for the religious Rites and Ceremonies And this they had partly from the dictate of reason which tells us That every action requires as a place so a time suteable thereunto partly from experience which teacheth us That that which is left at randome and hath no day prefixed is seldome performed as it should be on any day and partly from those broken remainders of the Image of God left in them and an imitation of the Church of God though from it in the main points of his Worship they had much degenerated It may be well thought that the first man created immediately by God himself even in the state of Innocency had both a certain place and time for the Worship of his Maker Howsoever sure it is that before we reade of the fall of man we reade of a Seventh day blessed and sanctified by God himself Gen. 2. 3. sanctified that by man it might be kept holy to his glory and blessed that man by keeping of it holy might receive a blessing from God When Enos was born of Seth the sonne of Adam it is said That men then began to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 4. at the last verse that is as I take it to call upon his Name in Publique Assemblies for which no doubt but they had a certain place appointed lest otherwise men might be disappointed in their meetings And most like it is that it was the same day which Abell and Seth and Adam observed before them and the rest of the Patriachs after them that day in which God himself rested having fully finished the great work of the worlds Creation Etiam ante legem non dubito primis illis patribus doctore Deo diem hunc solennem augustum sacrum fuisse saith the learned Mercerus Even before the Law I doubt not but this Day by Gods teaching was solemn and sacred to those primitive Fathers And Peter Martyr Nec ejus observatio coepit lege data in Sina sed ante celebrabatur Neither did the observation thereof begin with the giving of the Law in Sinai but it was celebrated before Of the same opinion is Rivet who likewise answers all the arguments brought to the contrary which together with them I the rather embrace for that before the giving of the Law in Mount Sinai we have an expresse and severe charge for the keeping of it in gathering Manna Exod. 16. and upon that occasion two such miracles shewed to ratifie and magnifie that day as seldome shall ye reade of more remarkable thorow the book of God whereof the one was that the Manna fell in great plenty upon all the other dayes of the week but upon the Seventh none at all The other That being gathered on the Sixth day it remained sweet till the Seventh and not so on any other day of the week besides Either of which miracles were doubtlesse as great or greater than that fabulous one of Plinie seconded by some of the Jewish Rabbins of a River in Iudea which is said to runne the sixe first dayes of the week and on the seventh to dry up so as we shall not need go seek out that River to authorize that day Yet after all this was this very day again for the better observation of it proclaiâ—…ed in Mount Sinai and that in a dreadfull and glorious manner Exod. 20. having a more solemn entrance into it and more weighty reasons to hedge it in and confirm it than any other of the Commandements And besides all the rest are negative onely the first of the second Table and this last of the first Table are affirmative nay this onely is both affirmative and negative standing in the midst of the two Tables to shew that they both depend upon the observation of it which I conceive to be the reason that in some passages of Scripture the keeping of the Sabbath day is put for the whole body of Gods Worship and pressed with more earnestnesse both in the following Chapters of the same book and in the books following of Moses and the Prophets than any of the other Precepts so as till the coming of Christ and at his coming too nay for a while after his death and passion resurrection and ascention that