d Hence forward he must know his distance Comparisons Gentle Sir the Proverb saith are odious therefore this excursion might no disparagement to your discretion have been spared Yet hath your luxuriancy erred not more in civilitie then moralitie you impute this opinion to Beza as a device of his own which were it true yet your presumption exceedeth your knowledge for how I pray is it possible for you to be assured of this unlesse Beza had either mediately or immediately revealed it to you and if he did not you were very rash very ill advised to father it on him when as I have proved he might probably enough have derived the opinion from Origen or R. Abraham if not from others Junius e God gave Testimony of the Institution of the Sabbath by his own exemplary Rest and by Instituting it in the Church that Adam and Eve then living might acknowledge that day to be holy by the Ordinance of God Pareus f God sanctified the Sabbath in the very prime Creation and doubtlesse that sanctification was observed in the Patriarchall families I could tire both the Reader and my self should I amasse all foreiners whose suffrage hath been given for this Patriarchall Sabbath if any desireth further authorities I transmit him to Rivet or Waleus who can furnish him completely To come home and encounter Tostatus with one of our own in dignitie of Order a Bishop in that his Match and for learning so beyond him as if I might use your libertie of comparison I might say he is but another Didymus a mere scribbler to this man The beginning of the Sabbath saith he was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any ceremony or figure of a Saviour I could produce Perkins Willet Babington Amesius c. all famous lights of our Church and that most incomparable piece the Practice of Pietie but because it will perhaps be thought that their affection was better then their judgement I forbear them and the rather because also our most Rationall adversaries begin to reel towards us Brerewood confesseth it to be instituted in Paradise which is as much as any ever affirmed for according to the Canonists Leges instituuntur cùm promulgantur Laws are then instituted when they are promulgated and though he explaineth himself afterward denying the commandment to be then instituted yet this he acknowledgeth that Gods resting from Creation his Sabbath and resting in himself the sanctification of it might be exemplary though not obligatory to men to observe the Sabbath then Nor doth a Prideaux vary much from him which is enough for if it be granted that Adam or the Patriarchs observed it we shall soon discover a command Having thus laid down the Arguments which support the Prolepsis and to every one fitted the proper solution having also set before you those reasons which most seem to advantage the Grammaticall sense and having with Authoritie encountred Authoritie I desire now nothing more then a neutrall Judge and that this difference may have the same decision which Aristippus b advised in another case Mitte ambas ad ignotos Let disinteressed Arbitratours end it And thus I have finished my first stage Gods Sabbath under the Law THe precedent discourse was spent in the discovery of a Sabbath before the Law a time for so much as concerneth Gods externall worship nearest allied to Varro's {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or uncertain time before the Ogygian flood Our next station must be under the Law a time more enlightned with the ray of divine Story then the former yet is not the light even of this time so uniform so evenly diffused but that some opake parts are therein discerned For though we are not now as before at a losse for a Sabbath yet doth not the Sabbath we discern shew it self in so perfect lineaments and just proportion as excludeth all diversitie of opinion concerning it The questions indeed which relate to it are neither very numerous nor absolutely necessary to be discussed yet as they are by accident subservient to my ensuing tract an elucidation I must and will afford them according to that order wherein method disposeth them which I take to be this Some result from the precept some again from the practice from the precept Quis Quibus Quid. Quis Who gave the precept Who promulgated it And this question is not peculiar to the fourth precept distinctly taken but onely as it is a member of the decalogue whereof the question is especially made for controverted it is whether the ten Commandments were on mount Sinai promulgated by Gods immediate voyce or the ministery of his Angels or one or more And not unworthily for Moses seemeth to attribute it to God himself but Stephen Acts 7. vers. 38.53 and Paul Gal. 3.19 and Heb. 2.2 to the Angels in regard of which specious opposition eminent and famous men have been diversly inclined some to Moses are propense for these reasons First it is said Dixit Jehova Elohim God spake these words not an Angel create and though the word Elohim is once and but once applied to the Angels in the plurall but never in the singular number as Psalm 8. yet here it can have no such signification for the verb is Dixit and the pronoun Ego both singular Secondly the person speaking saith I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt but an Angel create did not deliver them out of Egypt Lastly Saint Paul himself saith that it was the voyce of Christ which shook the earth Heb. 12 26. Therefore where it is said Acts 7.38 that Moses was with the Angel in the wildernesse the word Angel must not be understood of an Angel create but of Christ who is often called both an Angel and God in similary places as Gen. 31. vers. 11 13. and 48.15 Exod. 3.2 in all which places the word Angel can mean no other person then Christ Thus farre a Zanchy but short still of the full solution For though Acts 7.38 the word is Angel in the singular number yet in the other place it is Angels in the plurall excluding utterly the application of it to Christ or any single person Where Zanchy brake off the explication is continued and supplied by the thrice-excellent b Junius who resolveth it thus At the delivering of the Law on Mount Sinai God was attended with many Millions of Angels so both the state and service of their Lord and the great businesse in hand required and from amidst this glorious host he spake unto the people {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} inter Angelos amidst the c Angels all the Angels being witnesses to the Covenant God proclaimed the Law so he interpreteth it a glosse rather new then absurd Others incline to Stephen and Paul and conceive that God did not utter the
c. That some Gentiles were thereto bound the pellucid fountain of verity sheweth plainly Let not the sonne of the stranger that hath joyned himself to the Lord speak saying God hath utterly separated me from his people If you say that these were Israelites by covenant though not by seed then why may not the Christian Gentiles who are covenantees as well as the Jews who are also the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise and united in Christ Jesus why may not they observe it also will you say because the day is abrogated and annulled and can you demonstratively prove it so The Jewish Sabbath was questionlesse indeed abolished but was the Sabbath of the fourth commandment so If you say Yea for they were both one I reply it is with greater facility said then proved And now we arive at the last circumstance considerable in the precept Quid. Of this it is controverted what day the precept enjoyneth whether the Jewish Sabbath the Saturday or any other particular and expresse day Most hold the Jewish seventh from the creation to be the day directly prescribed there but I think it no hard task to beat them or from that hold or in it For first I would gladly know where in expresse terms the Saturday-Sabbath or seventh from the creation is commanded in this precept examine and dissect it throughly Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day The Sabbath day it is you see not the seventh from the creation Therfore a Zanchie hath set a nota bene upon it That God not without cause said not Remember thou sanctifie the seventh day but the day of rest that is saith he b The day consecrated to rest by God either immediately by himself or mediately by the Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever day it be Thus he more circumspectly then what he delivered three columnes before where he saith that the word Sabbath here comprehendeth all the Jewish festivalls What hath moved him and other learned men to this fantasie it much amuseth me God telleth us distinctly what Sabbath he here meaneth the weekly of any other there is altum silentium not a word He saith Sanctifie the Sabbath in the singular not Sabbaths in the plurall number c The observation not of many festivals but of one onely is there enjoyned And what necessity of bringing these feasts within the compasse and obligation of this precept which have commands proper and peculiar to themselves As therefore ancient Canons d said to pragmaticall Bishops which invaded their jurisdiction so I to these Jewish feasts Let them keep their own home their own stations they have nothing to do here Well the Sabbath must be sanctified but what day that should be is not yet explained in the subsequent words indeed there is some hint of it six dayes shalt thou labour there is one character by which we may know it Six dayes are at our own dispose but we must not hold over our term The seventh is the Sabbath it is as Philosophers say Terminus minimus quod sic the least proposition of time we must allow God in a narrower limitation his worship will not subsist a seventh day he will have The seventh is the Sabbath The seventh what seventh he saith not the seventh from the creation he nameth no day if he had it would have restrained the Law to that day but because he meant the day should change and yet the Law continue he saith onely the seventh that is the seventh after six or one in a week e For f To depute one day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially one and the same day be not alwayes deputed Well but will one in a week serve the turn is there nothing else required is the determination of this one in seven in our power No there is a proviso for that it must be the Sabbath of the Lord thy God that is which he hath already or should declare to his Church to be his Sabbath and this is another character of the Sabbath It must be of Gods own choice But still not one word of the Jewish Sabbath no discovery of it yet but we have not done with the precept perhaps we shall find it in what remaineth It followeth then For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and all that therein is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it Here I confesse the precept seemeth very apposite very full so full as we are accused for no lesse then high treason against the holy Ghost in daring to affirm the contrary f These Dogmatists saith one are not affraid to make the holy Ghost a liar who teacheth in most clear and expresse terms That God Almightie blessed the very seventh day on which himself rested An heavie charge did we not plead not guiltie That God blessed the very seventh day whereon he rested we not deny but whether he did expresly command the observation of that day by this or any other member of the fourth precept that is the thing whereof we demand clear demonstration Nor yet should we call this into dispute had we not just cause to appeal from the old Translation which hath herein imbraced a strange singularitie for where it readeth God blessed the seventh day the Geneva Spanish that of Hierome all that I have perused the Septuagint onely excepted render it God blessed the Sabbath day as our most correct and new translation hath it indeed the very fountain it self the Hebrew giveth it so which being true can what we have said deserve so loud an outcry as hath been made let any neutrally affected judge Secondly the defect of direct and expresse command is not the onely the principall motive it is I grant which allureth us to think the Jewish Sabbath in especiall manner not injoyned here another argument there is accessory to it For if God had here expresly commanded the observation of the seventh from the Creation or Jewish Sabbath the fourth precept would have been in relation to that particular ceremoniall and by consequent changeable but I think it was and is in all parts intirely morall and perpetuall and my opinion is founded upon two not very defeasable reasons First it is marshalled in the Decalogue amongst the morall and immutable laws which were notably distinguished from the ceremoniall by many circumstances The Morall uttered by God himself proved page 39. in the presence of the whole multitude written by Gods own finger given without restraint to time how long or place where Contrarywise the Ceremoniall given to Moses onely and by him declared to the people called Ceremonies Judgements Ordinances and limited onely to the land of g Jury Now it could not be agreeable to the wisdome of the God of Order to shuffle and misplace a Ceremoniall amongst his Morall laws Secondly if you cast your eye upon the Sabbath of
this matter we may be assured there was no such thing done The Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as well a preparation and destination as actuall application to holinesse as Exod. 19.10 Josh. 3.5 7.3 Jerem. 1.5 If God at that time whereof Moses wrote did give any command to Adam to sanctifie the Sabbath it must of necessity follow that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise But in Paradise there was no need of a Sabbath where there should have been no toyl no necessity of sanctifying any day to Gods worship where every day should have been a day of rest and the hole life a continuall Sabbath God would not then impose the Sabbath as a law when he himself brake it for according to Hierome and Catharinus he formed Eve upon the seventh day and so wrought upon it God imposed upon Adam in Paradise no other positive Law then that of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge It is probable that Jacob whilest he kept Labans sheep the Israelites while they were under the bondage of Pharaoh and his mercilesse taskmasters kept no Sabbath but if it had been commanded sure it had been kept Lastly it is said Nehem. 9. vers. 13 14. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai c. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath The authorities they alledge are especially emergent from the Primitive Church Justin Martyr leadeth the way Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize is Tertullians a challenge to the Jews All the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath saith b Ireneus There was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us so c Eusebius When there was no Scripture nor Law divinely inspired the Sabbath was not consecrated to God d Damascen Of late Adherers to this opinion the most eminent are Tostatus Musculus and Gomarus In this array the arguments and authorities upholding the Prolepsis are marshalled yet is it not universally entertained many there have been and are and those of no mean note neither who have applied themselves to the genuine and proper sense of the words and from thence deduced the institution of the Sabbath from that very article of time whereof Moses wrote And this interpretation I conceive most agreeable to the mind of Moses for many reasons which shall exhibit themselves in their due place for first I bend my self to encounter the objections formerly made and to lay open where they are crazy or invalid Divine revelation is indeed the best means to understand Gods will and act and though the Scripture doth not mention Gods expresse command to Adam though we reade it not said to him as after it was in the Law Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day yet a command we find and there being then at that time whereof Moses wrote none on earth capable of a command but Adam and Eve it necessarily followeth that they received the command For what is meant by Gods sanctifying of the seventh day but the application of it to divine worship Those things are said to be sanctified in the Law which are applyed to sacred worship saith a Aquinas now if it was then applyed to sacred worship sure it was by command Nor is the argument of force The Scripture mentioneth it not Ergò It was not many things were to the first Patriarchs commanded which are not recorded It is by farre the major part of learned men b affirmed that God dictated and prescribed to Adam all circumstances of his worship which by tradition past to his posteritie and were in every severall family untill Moses observed and it is in part evidently and infallibly confirmed by Scripture it self for we reade that Cain sinned but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4.15 Where there is no law there can be no transgression for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1. John 3.4 yet of this or any other command concerning religious duties holy text hath not one syllable Perhaps the command was not so solemn as afterward not vivâ voce in an audible voyce there being not the same reason and yet a command there might be internall though not externall God might by his guiding spirit direct Adam to sanctifie the seventh day as he did both him and other Patriarchs to other observances if Aquinas a hath aimed right It is credible saith he that the Patriarchs by divine instinct as by an hidden and tacit law were induced to worship God in a set and determinate form agreeable to the inward worship and signification of mysteries to be fulfilled in Christ The want of an Historicall narration of the praxis of those times is also as weakly urged You know Ab autoritate negativè nihil concluditur ex argumentis Arguments drawn from silent authority conclude nothing An axiome never firmer then when applied to the history of the world from the Creation to the Law the period of this discourse There is no mention of Adams penitence after his fall none of his sacrificing of his performing any other pious exercises during his hole abode upon earth none What then shall we say that he lived like an Atheist never invoked never praised God We reade of no Parents that Melchisedech had what shall we hold with the letter of S. Paul that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} really whithout father or mother ◠Heb. 7.23 He that in so compendious a story as this of Moses looketh for a full relation of every small circumstance is like to lose his longing and may as wisely seek Pauls steeple in Hondius his map of the world Abbridgements of stories are nets of a larger mash which onely inclose great fishes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things worth mentioning smaller fry things of lesse consequence escape them Athanasius his rule is right enough it self if it be not bowed by violence Comparing the miracles of Christ with those of the Prophets he demonstrateth the oddes to be this Christ was born of a Virgin so none of them Christ made the lame to walk the deaf to heare the dumbe to speak the blind to see so did not they For then saith he the Scripture would not have omitted it Therefore because the Scripture is altogether silent in the matter it is sure there was no such thing done The Father speaks of miracles but I hope the observation of the Sabbath was none and therefore Athanasius stands you in little stead My margent directs to the place omitted by the Bishop The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} little also avails them for be it granted that it signifies a preparation to holinesse doth this preparation exclude
they had the benefit of them as some have not set down content to believe that the prophesie of Enoch mentioned by S. Jude was written and that what Josephus relateth of the Pillars errected by the posterity of Seth is true but they conceive also that Adam and all the succeeding Patriarchs compiled the histories of their own times But how Moses attained his knowledge I leave to the disquisition of them who affect curiosities yet this give me leave to note as received amongst the best Divines That the holy Ghost was not so much an intelligencer as a directer and guide to Moses in the framing the history of Genesis For the omniscient Wisdome foreseeing that it would not be alwayes safe to make Tradition the perpetuall depositary of so rare choice a jewel as the story of his Primitive Church which might either through carelesnesse loose part of what was betrusted to her or under colour of sole possessing the Truth vend counterfeit and sophisticate stuff thought it necessary for the good of his Church that a set and certain story of the first times should be compiled to which purpose he selected Moses as his Amanuensis and Register aiding him extraordinarily with his holy Spirit by whose assistance he was enabled to distinguish truth from fables which had by surreption intruded exactly to describe many minute circumstances of time place persons names c. which memory was not able to comprehend and to digest it into that perfect order wherein we now see it So that one way or other either by tradition or letters or both the precise seventh day could not at that time have been lost or forgot and consequently that no cause for the Sabbath to begin at the fall of Manna And was there any other what To be a preamble and preparation to the subsequent Sabbath this would be proved A preparation to the after strictnesse of the Sabbath it was that I confesse not to the Sabbath it self this I deny an introduction it might be to the solemnity of the Sabbath which began after not so to the Sabbath it self which was long before For though it was but in its minority but magni nominis umbra a very shadow of the after celebrity yet a Sabbath it was and the seventh day Sabbath too and this not my singular assertion but the consent of the most profound Doctours as well ancient as modern So the Fathers Origen a What was afterward commanded in the Law concerning the Sabbath the same Job both observed himself and taught his children to do the like Cyprian b This septenary number gained Authority from the creation of the world because the first works of God were made in six dayes and the seventh was dedicated to rest as sacred it being honoured with the solemnity of a command and entitled to the sanctifying Spirit Basil c The Sabbath which was the seventh day from the first creation is a type of our perfect Rest in the remission of our sinnes Nazianzen d The Creation began on the Lords day as is evident because the seventh from it is made the Sabbath bringing rest from labours Athanasius e As long as the first age or Creation was inforce so long the Sabbath was observed Epiphanius f mentioneth a twofold Sabbath under the old Law the Naturall or Weekly which was defined from the Creation the Legall or Ceremoniall which was enjoyned by the law of Moses At the heels of the Fathers follow the Schoolmen who busying themselves about nicer subtilties have left us little of their opinions concerning the Sabbath Alexander Halensis a the irrefragable Doctour though he thinketh the Sabbath was not observed by virtue of any precept before the Law yet he granteth that it was inspired as a thing meet and fit to be observed All these before Ambrose Catharine b he then not the first that understood Moses according to the letter nor yet the last no not of his own Partie Genebrard c The Sabbath was sanctified in Paradise which was also observed all the time till the Law promulgated as the Hebrews and Lyranus upon Gen. 7. deliver And in another place he telleth us out of Rabbi Abraham that Job did observe it Cornelius à lapide d It is manifest that the Sabbath was instituted and established not first by Moses Exod. 20. but long before to wit from the beginning of the world Salianus also in his Ecclesiasticall Annals doth at large refute the Prolepsis as absurd As for Protestant writers whether they be Lutheranes Calvinists or our own English we dare vie it with the Anticiparians and give them oddes two for one at least and bate the preciser sort too Luther e himself shall lead the van The Sabbath was destined from the beginning of the world to religious worship Baldwin f The Sabbath was observed from the Creation Calvin in Exod. apud a Prideaux Gualter b Doubtlesse the Fathers before the Law diligently observed the Sabbath P. Martyr c That people rest from labour one day in the week did not onely appertain to Moses Law but had beginning from Gen. 2. Zanchy d I doubt not mine own I relate without prejudice to others opinions I doubt not I say but the Sonne of God in humane shape was all this seventh day busied in most holy colloquies with Adam but he fully revealed himself to him and Eve shewed him how and in what order he created all things wisht him to meditate upon these works and in them to praise and acknowledge the True God his Creatour taught him that after his example every seventh day all labour set aside he should spend in this exercise of Pietie c. What could modesty her self more modestly assever he doth not imperiously obtrude for truth what he saith he onely telleth you his own conceit and it hath ever been permitted for men in such cases as this both to think what they will and speak what they think as the Historian saith Can any therefore but wonder that the bare delivery of a private opinion so soberly without incrochment upon others liberties should gain the Authour no better esteem then to be reckoned amongst lying Legendaries and fabulous Rabbines What Zanchy was his works speak him a learned and good man in that repute he lived in that he died I never heard him defamed for a Palephatus or Tale-coyner till now and I hope never shall again a Ursin The Sabbath was commanded from the beginning of the world by God unto all men b Bullinger The Sabbath was observed from the beginning of the world by a law naturall and divine c Beza The Precept of the Sabbath was established in the very Creation of the world even before mans fall and elsewhere he saith that Job did sanctifie at least every seventh day A saucy fellow to controul Justin Martyr his better and therefore is taught manners by my Authour
Pentateuch Secondly It appeareth not by any relation of sacred History that before the Babylonish captivitie there was any weekly reading or expounding the Law upon the Sabbath Lastly it is a thing to be admired that if the reading of the Law had been in continuall use among the Jews every Sabbath day there should be found in the dayes of King Josiah one copy onely or book of the Law and that Hilkiah should present this book to the King as a great raritie 2. King 22.8 9. But the unsoundnesse of the foundation argueth the assertion erroneous for First will nothing but expresse Text satisfie you suppose we find it not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not verbatim commanded thus Reade the Law publickly every Sabbath day is not I pray you necessary and inevitable deduction out of Text Scripture with you if yea then we need not travel farre for a command no farther then the fourth precept and not farre into that but to Remember thou keep holy or sanctifie the Sabbath day I told you before that things are then said to be sanctified when they are applied to holy worship now holy worship is the exhibiting to God his due and just honour and that is performed two wayes either by reverent attention to what he offereth us in his word or an humble presentment of what we preferre to him in our prayers For Hearing of the word Adoration are the two hands of religion the one we extend to receive what God communicateth to us the other to represent what in mercy he accepteth from us so as they are indeed the proper instruments of mutuall commerce betwixt him and us and though I allow them a parity of honour yet hath the one a precedency of order before the other and this belongeth to hearing of the word For the first of religious offices wherewith we publickly honour God on earth saith that worthy m Hooker is the receiving that knowledge which he imparteth to us in his word The reason is evident for prius est nosse Deum consequens n colere or rather according to that golden chain How o shall men invoke him in whom they have not believed how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher Hence it is that the Primitive Church had ever the Sermon before the Service to intimate that none ought to be admitted to pray with the Church before they have been inlightned in saving doctrine All tag and rag had free accesse to the Sermon to the service onely the faithfull and Catechumeni p Let the Bishop interdict none neither Gentile nor Heretick nor Jew to enter into the Church and heare the word of God untill the Service of the Catechumeni saith the Councel of Carthage For the clear understanding of which Canon you must know that Missa Catechumenorum signifieth here not the dismission of the Catechumeni but the service so called which began at the introitus and ended at the offertory If then the sanctification of the Sabbath be the application of it to Gods worship the consequence must and will be That all sacred actions tending to this worship as parts thereof but the hearing of the Law read most especially it being of the essence of that worship were commanded in and under the word sanctifie But you 'l say that many Doctours of note maintain that the letter of the fourth commandment imposed upon the Jews no other externall form of sanctifying the weekly Sabbath but resting from bodily labour I answer The literall sense of the fourth Commandment imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the Sabbath viz. by all such religious actions as are proper to holy worship the specialties whereof it not determineth least it should be thought to exclude any It also imposed rest and cessation from secular businesse but that it commanded it as any at all much lesse the onely externall form of sanctifying the Sabbath pardon me I cannot believe For what honour could accrue to God through an idle and lazie rest what worship could man perform waking more then a sleep How could the day be lesse sanctified by beasts then men Rest was injoyned as necessary indeed necessitate medii as a fit means but not necessitate causae as a necessary cause constituting sacred worship Against these Doctours of note I will oppose a Doctour of note too and of such note as his Dictates never any of the Primitive Church durst call into question a Athanasius the Great who in refutation of this Jewish fancie hath amongst others this invincible argument b If rest sanctifieth then by consequence labour polluteth for Contrariorum eadem est ratio yea the Father maketh the knowledge of God to be the chief end of the Sabbath Because knowledge is more necessary then rest c And therefore the beam of truth hath extorted from them this confession That some other religious actions were intended by God as the end of the precept but no other were formally commanded d What I pray did God intend those religious actions as the end of the precept how come you to know Gods intention hath he anywhere revealed it if yea then tell me is not that overture that declaration of his intendment equipollent to a command Besides when and where did God open this his mind in this precept and at the giving of the Law If now and here then these religious actions and rest were coordinate together both imposed at one and the same time the thing you deny If after then God imposed and man observed rest to no end and purpose all that while untill the manifestation of his intentions concerning the end of that rest came forth But God and nature do nothing in vain e even Philosophy could tell you so and sure Divinity much more Their second Argument is upon the old haunt still The want of expresse narration which were it true yet is it no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no demonstration of what they affirm as I have proved before pag. 5. Besides the contrary may be probably collected without detorting Scripture against reason For first when the Shunamite desired to go to the Prophet Elisha to acquaint him with the death of her sonne and to see if he could afford her any comfort her husband expostulated with her saying Why wilt thou go to day it is neither New-moon nor Sabbath day which had been an impertinent question if they had not accustomed to resort to the Prophets on those dayes to heare the word expounded That this was their practice scarce any Expositour upon the place but assureth us Though here is onely mention of the New-moon and Sabbath yet as we need not doubt but that they practiced the same upon other festivalls also so I conceive it to be implyed in both or either words which are often in Scripture taken in a generall notion not denoting
which is the greatest of all But none ever affirmed a Divine Institution Ergò c. They do not indeed mention it sub terminis because it was not questioned in their dayes but if they make it instituted by Christ as some or by his Apostles as almost all and if they tell us * Whatsoever the Apostles delivered by the dictate of the holy Ghost is as firm and indefeasable as what Christ himself then I hope by necessary consequence they make it of Divine Institution That which the orthodox condemne for popery should not be consented to by us But that the Lords day is a part of Gods worship and more holy then other dayes as from Divine authoritie is condemned by Reformists in the Papists Therefore we ought not to symbolize with them No reformed Writers condemne this in the Papists because they hold the Lords Day more holy then others but onely such and those very few as think the Day to be of Ecclesiasticall not of Divine Institution The orthodox Thesis is this * Festivall dayes cannot by humane constitution be made more holy then others as Amesius to whom you appeal could have informed you Lastly Socrates affirmeth that the Apostles never intended to establish laws concerning Holydayes S. Augustine also maketh it will-worship or idolatry to observe any day as commanded of God S. Hierome likewise saith we have no dayes having any holinesse in them and necessitie from Divine institution The book of Homilies affirmeth that Christian men of themselves without any Divine precepts did take upon them the observation of the Lords Day All reformed Churches consent with us and many Martyrs in the Marian dayes as Tindall Frith Barnes Lastly Master Perkins speaketh doubtfully herein yet he was one of the first that took up this tenet Socrates must have a candid Reader or be argued of overbold singularitie against all Antiquitie who affirmed the contrary Augustine saith that the Christians in his time did not observe so much the festivals themselves as what was signified by them and therefore he saith that the Apostle did blame the Galatians in this because they did observe appointed times servilely not knowing the mystery to which they tended he speaketh nothing of their institution not one word Hierome indeed I grant was inclining to your opinion but his single judgement is not equivalent to the many reasons and authorities urged on the contrary The book of Homilies affirmeth no such thing as you say these words of themselves without any Divine precept are yours not the Churches not expresly not interpretatively so not hers as she is positive in the direct contrary For there being two things wherein the Divine right of the Lords Day is founded upon legall Institution in the fourth Commandment and Evangelicall by either Christ or his Apostles for the first she saith that God expresly in that precept commandeth the observation of the Sabbath which is our Sunday and not onely commandeth it but also by his own example doth stirre and provoke us to diligent keeping of the same For the second having a while after declared it to be Gods Will and Commandment to have a solemn time and standing day in the week consecrated to him she presently addeth This example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow immediately after the ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing day in the week to come together in Now where she speaketh of Godly Christian people she doubtlesse meaneth the Apostles for who else durst at that time take upon them to begin such a custome and so as touching the Institution of the day as a weekly day she reduceth it to the fourth precept and as the first of the week she foundeth it upon Apostolick practice What some other reformed Churches think in this point of the Lords Day may plausibly enough against us be urged on your parts I confesse and it is your Drusian your keenest objection and yet we can oppose many things to turn the edge of it For first they are onely positive in setting down their own opinions but the reasons inducing them thereto they suppresse and seeing they are not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we must not be governed by their bare Thesis Secondly those confessions are not generall but particular to some Churches Thirdly were they the Canons of a generall Councel yet must they not predominate over Truth a Nationall and Provinciall councels ought to give place to the authoritie of Vniversall and Oecumenicall and these have been oftentimes amended when experience hath cleared some truth which before lay hid saith Augustine Lastly though some will think it b periculosa praesumptio judicare de caeteris ipsum ab omnibus judicandum to speak the truth yet to speak it with all terms of venerable regard to those famous Churches I dare pronounce they are not right in this point not so full reformed but they stand yet in need of further reformation Nor ought we to wonder at their mistake herein For first the precept of the Lords Day is not so legible in sacred Scripture as the rest which concern matters of faith thereby to instruct us to put a difference betwixt fundamentalls and ceremonies it is written in a finer character in a smaller Print and therefore might well escape the eyes of those Churches at the first break of day of Reformation when the light shone somewhat dimme Secondly the question was never on foot in their times and so the evidences demonstrating Divine Right were never laid open to them and having inquiries concerning sacrifice of the Altar Adoration c. more proper for those times to imploy them they were not like to inform themselves better upon accident What I have said concerning the Reformed Churches may also be applyed to those holy and blessed Martyrs you cite and partly to master Perkins who had he lived now would I dare say have been as positive and resolute as any other And whereas you make him the prime inventer of this tenet though what I have urged out of the book of Homilies is your sufficient confutation yet will I produce one Testimony more and that no lesse then Royall and as Reformation it self ancient The Sabbath Day was used and ordained but for mans use and therefore ought to give place to the necessity and behoof of the same whensoever that shall occur much rather any other holy day instituted by man What say you now Sir if Perkins was the first that took up this tenet who I pray laid it down and down it was laid for certain if he took it up for up it was you see in Henry the eighths time Having thus waded through all the objections and discovered their frame to consist of very loose and defeasable stuff wherein truth is no ingredient I step forward to other questions incident and pertinent to this discourse And first
take a full effect untill the Church should attain her land of Canaan a settled and flourishing peace And the event seemeth to prove the ordinance for no sooner did Constantine a second Joshuah or Josiah sit sure in his throne then Gods externall worship began to be magnificently solemnized and as an especiall badge thereof his day superlatively honoured both by Imperiall edict and example and that with strict vacation from all worldly avocations ab omni opere from all work so his Histriographer m reporteth Elsewhere I grant there occurreth a constitution of this Religious Emperour tolerating labour on this day but it was in countrey villages onely and that too but in case of necessitie n lest pretermitting the opportunitie offered by the divine providence it might not occurre again o This dispensation is much urged by the Anti-sabbatarians but it hath no great force with us For first it may be well controverted whether Constantine ever made any such indulgence or no because if he had is it credible it could have escaped Eusebius who was not onely contemporary but in a manner companion with this Emperour who took speciall notice of all his actions having in designe the compiling of the Historie of his life and who over lived him yet this Bishop hath not one word of it But be it Constantine's sure we are it was after rescinded by Leo with a We ordain that all men cease from labour on the Lords day that neither husbandmen nor any other take in handwork unlawfull on that day And before Leo divers of the Fathers in their popular tracts or sermons pressed this vacation upon the people On the festivall day all handy-work is prohibited to the end that men may more intirely exercise themselves in sacred matters So Cyril o Chrysostome p calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an immoveable law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that this first day of the week be holly set apart for sacred exercâ—sâ—s But there are also fathers you will say that seem to incline to the contrary First Hierome he relateth of a religious woman governesse of the Nunnes at Bethlehem how she every Lords day resorted to the Church and after service she and her company fell to their ordinary work of making garments for themselves or others To this I answer consider Paula as a subject and then tell me how can you acquit her of the breach I will not say of the fourth but of the fifth precept if Bethlehem was within the latitude of Constantine's decree and certainly it was for that reached Omnes Romano Imperio parentes all men subject to the Romane Empire And if this Lady was not within the verge of the dispensation for that was for husbandmen onely was not then this her act a disobedience to her Princes law and therefore her example no rule of those times it being it self irregular Besides S. Hierome telleth us of religious persons of the other sex Monks that they did orationi tantùm lectionibus vacare busie themselves in prayer and reading on the Lords day Now consider Paula and her Nunnes as women and compare their practice with that of these Monks and then if the masculine practice be not more worthy then the feminine let Grammar scholars judge Out of Gregory they tell us that he giveth it as one cognizance of Antichrist q That he shall enjoyn the Lords Day and the Sabbath to be oâ—served with abstinence from all work To which I answer There are two things which Gregorie here reproveth in the observation of the Dominicall Day first a Jewish not a moderate and sober restraint and this is certain for in the very same epistle he saith r On the Lords day we must cease from labour and by all means attend our prayers secondly the celebrating it together with the Sabbath for it is Diem Dominicum Sabbatum the Lords Day and Sabbath both which was the errour of the Ebionites And therefore Gregorie for ought I see standeth their friend no more then Hierome This Gregory was a man of the sixth Centurie an age wherein themselves acknowledge this restraint took deep root and so it continued successively downward even to the times of Reformation nor did the first Reformers those of our Church especially exercise themselves in varying any thing at all in this point from the received practice as may appear both in the statute and canon laws both of this and other countreys But hitherto I have onely insisted upon restraint from labour and servile work there is yet another question concerning restraint not from work but play and from recreations viz. Whether recreations such as are at other times lawfull are tolerable and lawfull on the Lords day To this I answer in short All recreations at other times lawfull are interdicted on this day but such whereby the mind is better disposed towards the sanctification of the day or such as are no impediments to that sanctification For the day is appointed to be sanctified that is to be an holy not a playday and it is a rule in the decalogue and all other divine laws that where any thing is commanded to be done all things subservient to the performance of it are consequently enjoyned as also all lets and hinderances prohibited Besides Gods house hath been ever thought profaned and polluted by sports and meetings of good fellowship why also not his day Nor is it enough that these recreations be not an hindrance to publick exercises in the Church but they must not disturb even private duties at home as meditation prayer holy conference c. For God commandeth not the sanctification of some few houres but of a day that is an hole day allowing sufficient time for repose and repast to the body And so our Church a interpreteth the command Gods obedient people saith she should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and dayly businesse and give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises And consonant to her her sister the Church b of Ireland The Lords Day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God If holly to Gods service where have recreations a room These articles are it seemeth called in for what reason I not dispute sure I am the nulling of them was very acceptable to the disciples and followers of Arminius Men too bold and frequent in these Dominions c whose accursed tenets were there damned As an appendix to this discourse of recreations if now my opinion be demanded concerning his Majesties book I shall say of that onely this His Princely intentions were therein I doubt not pious enough not so I fear theirs who first suggested the convenience and fitnesse of that liberty unto him But in regard the foundation thereof seemeth especially to be the preserving in observation Encaenia or Church dedications of them I shall say somewhat perhaps not known to all Of their
instruct the Israelites that Gods resting from his works on the seventh day was the reason why he had selected and appointed by his commandment given to them that day rather then any other to be sanctified for his Sabbath Indeed if the fourth commandment had onely mentioned the seventh day to be the Sabbath without more ado and had supprest the reason Moses had had fit occasion to give them here this observation But seeing that Reason was fully and with indeleble characters ingraven in the Decalogue it had been mere supervacaneous and impertinent tautologie to recite it here especially considering it is the most received opinion that Moses compiled the history of Genesis after the Law was promulgated on mount Sinai and so this reason was no news to them If any notwithstanding these grosse and palpable absurdities seemeth desperately enamoured of this forlorn and despicable Prolepsis enjoy her he shall without me his rival I envy him not Come we now to survey that little which the Divine remembrancer hath afforded us of the actual observation of the Sabbath before the Law whereof two onely examples are extant the one for the observation notable the other for the violation For the observation we reade Exod. 16.22 when the Israelites had on the sixth day gathered twice as much Manna as on any other day before the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses and he said to them This is that which the Lord hath said To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord We do not find here that the Israelites were amused at the word Sabbath that they expostulated with themselves as before concerning Manna what it should be no they knew well enough what it was with the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord they had been long acquainted it was no novelty to them the new attendance and long train of strict observances that now waited on it were the things so puzzled so possest them with wonder of a How is it changed from what it was Their old wont was to dresse their necessary viands upon the Sabbath and being now interrupted now disturbed in their accustomed practice by an uncouth innovation of Bake that which you will bake to day and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept untill the morning well might they be in a study well demand a reason of this change And whereas it is by some stiffly affirmed that the Jews did bake their Manna on the Sabbath day an opinion ascribed to Theophilus Brabourn the first as my Authour telleth me that looked so near into Moses his meaning he must know that in Opticks amongst other requisites to perfect discerning justa distantia a a fit distance is one and Mr Brabourn might perhaps by looking too near see to little where the fault was whether in this or in some defect of the organe his understanding or through what other cause I not dispute sure I am that an hallucination an errour of the sight there was and that a grosse one The paraphrase they give of this Text Bake that which you will bake to day c. is this As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day that bake or boyl as you use to do and for the rest lay it up to be baked or boyled to morrow and to this interpretation they the rather betake them because the Israelites laid it up as Moses bad and it did not stink now say they it had been no wonder at all that it did neither breed worm nor stink had it been baked the day before Things of that nature so preserved are farre enough from putrifying in so short a space Not to dwell long in discussing this point They have mistaken both Gods miracle and Moses his meaning Gods miracle for the baking or boyling excludeth not the miracle of its not putrifying things so dressed are indeed the lesse disposed to corrupt therefore the putrefaction which Manna contracted by procrastination on other dayes notwithstanding the same order taken for preservation of it by baking and boyling was the greater miracle and because it tainted against nature and miraculously reserved upon other dayes Gods ceasing to work the same miracle upon the Sabbath might it self seem a miracle The mind of Moses they have not reacht whose words resolve themselves into this construction What you mean to bake bake to day what to seethe seethe to day and what remaineth not unbaked or unboyled but of that which you have baked or boyled more then sufficient for this dayes food lay up for you to eat to morrow and therefore Hierome hath rendred it Quodcunque operandum est facite Whatsoever belongeth to the dressing of the Manna dispatch it now But to put it out of all doubt that this errour may never readvance God himself vers. 5. commanded Moses that the people should Prepare that which they bring in and it should be twice as much as they gathered daily what was this Preparing but dressing but cooking of it so the English will bear and by a word of the same energy and signification it is rendred in I am sure most Translations so the Septuagint so Hierome so the Spanish so the French a thing so manifest as the very Friday was thence denominated {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Preparation to the Sabbath For the violation of the Sabbath we have it recorded vers 27. that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather and they found none this I conceive most likely to have reference to the chap. 18. v. 12. Now because it is held by some that the primum esse and first dawning of the Sabbath began at this fall of Manna though I hope I have already sufficiently proved the contrary I would further know why it should begin then and but then was it to chalk out to the Israelites the precise seventh day from the Creation whereof they were at that time ignorant It could not be for of the seventh day whereon God rested they were not they could not be ignorant in some profane and irreligious houses it might perhaps have been lost but in others more piously affected it was certainly preserved For it is most undeniable and irrefragably true what Sr. Walter Raleigh a hath delivered and it is in substance affirmed by many others That if the story of the Creation had not been written by divine inspiration yet it is manifest that the knowledge thereof might by Tradition then used be delivered unto Moses by a more certain presumption then any or all the testimonies which profane Antiquitie had preserved and left to their successours And this he proveth by the light which Moses might have either by Cabala or letters For that the most notable occurrents of every severall age were transmitted downwards by tradition and heare-say is without all controversie a and for letters it is so clear
but the revelation of Christs will there is nothing else now desiderable but onely to prove that in this very act of instituting the Lords day or Sabbath of the new Covenant they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or prompted by that guiding Spirit a thing little lesse visible then the former for shall we say that the Spirit seised upon them onely at certain tides and fits That he assisted them in their office both of writing and preaching the Gospel is most certain but did he onely then was every act of their superintendency a spell to drive him away did he onely wait upon them in the publication of the Gospel and abandon them in the moderation of the Church was the doctrine they taught inspired from above and were their constitutions Ecclesiasticall an humane device Certainly no the voyce of truth it self soundeth the contrary For in their first councel we reade of a Visum est Spiritui sancto nobis It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us But that was a businesse of great weight and so might require a more then ordinary assistance let us behold more triviall and petty matters S. Paul was to give his resolution concerning a question which amongst others the Corinthians put to him of Digamy whether it was lawfull for a widow to marry again after the death of her first husband and he determineth affirmatively yes but rather commendeth her containing her self in her widowhood Did S. Paul deliver herein his own opinion certainly no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I think I have the Spirit of God evinceth the contrary and I hope no man will affirm this to be a businesse of importance comparable to the instituting of the Lords day To dispatch without more ado there is a question the first hint whereof Aerius the heretick is supposed to have given and Hierome is not altogether dissenting from him whether the Episcopacy be jure Divino Much hath been said either way yet not enough to end the bickering and though the conflict be still on foot yet both the one and the other side grant the hole controversie to move upon Apostolicall Institution that which the one to prove the other to disprove do equally eagerly labour is onely Apostolicall Institution the decision whereof endeth the dispute King James ascendeth no higher That Bishops ought to be in the Church I ever maintained as an Apostolicall Institution and so the Ordinance of God Beza for the other part yieldeth as much If I could saith he be assured that this superioritie of a Bishop over the rest of his Clergie hath proceeded from the Apostles I would not doubt to attribute it holly to divine Institution Now if Episcopacy can contract Jus divinum divine Right from Apostolicall Institution why may not also the Lords Day which I am sure can shew as good cards for her descent do so too and then with what face can it be gain-said by any that either is or would be a Bishop yet so it hath come to passe that they who have most cried down the paritie of Clergy have most cried up the paritie of dayes But let any be he what he will that maligneth the honour of this glorious day mutter his pleasure yet nor he nor all the learning of the world shall be able to produce one solid argument sufficient to withstand this inevitable inference of divine Right from Apostolicall Institution It being by all learned men agreed upon that whatsoever the Apostles as Apostles and in their Apostolicall function or did or spake or writ is simply without modification Juris divini the Reason being evident because they were not sui Juris not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they had no power of themselves to speak or act any thing either in teaching or governing the Church but all was suggested by the spirit who could embreath nothing not diviâ—e With this Argument our adversaries are hard beset something they fain would retort knew they what and at last to shew their courage and that Nec victi possunt absistere ferro they will not yield though overcome forth steps one and assaults us with two distinctions of Apostolicall inspirations one of Apostolicall traditions the other Concerning the first he saith The Apostles are to be considered either as Apostles by extraordinary mission sent to plant the Gospel or as Pastours to govern the Church already planted As Apostles they were infallibly inspired with all truths upon all occasions As Pastours their inspirations were onely such irradiations influences and concurrences of the Spirit as are afforded at this day to Pastours of the Church unlesse by some personall miscariages they procure unto themselves spirituall derelictions I Answer a It is your dutie to prove indubitately both these to me but I am not covetous make good but one and I am satisfied And first tell me good Sir if to awaken you out of this dream I be not over-rude where find you the Pastorall and Apostolicall Office in the same persons distinct where reade you of a double Commission one to plant the Church the other to govern the Church already planted were not both these parts of the Apostolicall function were they not Apostles i. e. sent to do the one as well as the other Instance in any one act of their Pastorall office which was not in the latitude of their Apostolicall patent Secondly admit them for severall functions where I pray learn you that they had a distinct inspiration according to those severall functions If those irradiations you talk of which were shed upon them as Pastours were no other then what God now dispenseth to ordinary Ministers then I say the beams or species intentionall of such irradiations must needs have a tincture of the Medium naturall corruption through which they passed and every thing which as Pastours they did not onely may but must have a rellish of sinne or errour which ever did and ever shall more or lesse distain the best action of the justest man infected with originall corruption and not extraordinarily and infallibly inspired living upon earth If then the Apostles as Pastours were but ordinarily inspired and that ordinary inspiration did not exempt their Pastorall works from sinne and errour it were a worthy labour to put the New Testament into Purgatory to weed out all those passages which relate to the Pastorall office of the Apostles and to bind them up with the old Apocrypha I see also no necessitie why Children should be baptized why women nay why any of the Laitie should be admitted to the Eucharist which are Apostolicall devices whereof expresse command from our Saviour to them we find none and to speak to the point in question I see no necessitie of celebrating the Lords day but of observing the Jewish Sabbath I see a necessitie for I see Gods command to observe it and I see no countermand to abolish it If