followeth in that Statute Be it enacted c. that all the dayes hereafter mentioned shall be kept and commanded to be kept holy dayes and none other that is to say all Sundayes in the year the feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphany of the Purification with all the rest now kept and there named particularly The like ennumeration we have also in the Book of Common-prayer the publick Liturgy of this Church by Law established where we shall find it thus expressed That these shall be accounted holy dayes and none other that is to say all Sundayes in the year the feast of the Circumcision the Epiphany with all the rest before specified in the Act of Parliament Nor doth the Church onely rank the Lords day with other holy dayes in that enumeration of them but hath appointed the same Divine offices the Letany excepted onely to be performed upon the Saints days other festivals as upon the Sundays each of them having his proper Lesson Collect Epistle and Gospel as the Sunday hath and some of them their proper Psalms also which the Sunday hath not And as for the attendance of the people it is required with as much diligence upon the Saints dayes and other Festivals as upon the Lords day by the Laws of this land For so it is enacted in the Statute of the first of Queen Elizabeth viz. That all and every Person and Persons inhabiting within this Realm c. shall diligently and faithfully endeavour themselves to resort to their Parish Church or Chappel c. upon every Sunday and other dayes ordained and used to be kept as holy dayes then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of common prayer preaching or other service of God Nor was it only enacted that men should diligently repair to their Church or Chappel as well upon the other holy dayes as upon the Sunday but that the same penalty was imposed on such as without any reasonable let did absent themselves as well upon the one as upon the other For so it follows in that Statute viz. That every person so offending shall not alone be subject unto the censures of the Church but shall forfeit for every such offence twelve pence to be levied to the use of the poor of the same parish by the Church-wardens of the same c. Which grounds thus laid the Lord Primates Argument from the Book of Homilies will be easily answered For if the weight of his argument lie in the first words cited out of the Homily that in the fourth Commandment God hath given express charge to all men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday c. and therefore that the Sunday or Lords day may be called a Sabbath this will prove nothing but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a contention about words and not within the compass of the Homily neither it being declared in the former words of the same Homily that we keep now the first day which is our Sunday and make that our Sabbath that is our day of rest So that the destinating of the Sunday or first day of the week for the day of rest makes it at the most but a tanquam to the Sabbath neither entituling it to the name nor prerogatives of it But if the weight of the Argument lie in these words viz. That men upon the Sunday or Lords day should cease from all weekly and work-day labour c. and also give themselves wholly to Heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service For the first part thereof touching the forbearing of all weekly and work-day labour is no otherwise to be understood but of such labours as are prohibited by the Laws of the Realm or otherwise may prove an avocation from Gods publick service at the times appointed for the same And as for the last words touching mens giving of themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service they are of a far differing meaning from the Article of the Church of Ireland for which the Lord Primate chiefly stickleth in which it is declared that the first day of the week which is the Lords day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God For certainly there is a great difference between the dedicating of a day wholly to the service of God as in the Articles of Ireland and the giving of our selves wholly to heavenly exercises as in the Homilies of England the one implying that no part of the day is to be otherwise spent then in the service of God no place being left either for necessary business or for lawful pleasure the other that in the Acts and times of publick worship we should give our selves wholly that is our whole selves souls and bodies to the performance of those heavenly exercises which are then required It had before been told us in this very Homily that nothing in the fourth Commandment was to be retained but what was found appertaining to the Law of Nature but it appertaineth not to the Law of Nature either that one day in seven should be set apart for Religious worship or that this one day wholly be so imployed vel quod per totam diem abstineatur ab operibus servilibus as Tostatus hath it or that there be an absolute cessation during the whole day from all servile works By consequence there is no more required of us by the Law of Nature in this case but that at the times appointed for Gods publick worship we wholly sequester our selves yea our very thoughts from all worldly business fixing our souls and all the faculties thereof upon that great and weighty business which we are in hand with That does indeed appertain to the Law of Nature Naturale est quod dum Deum colimus ab aliis abstineamus as Tostatus hath it and to this point we have been trained in the Schools of Piety Orantis est nihil nisi coelestia cogitare as was said before So that the meaning of the Homily in that place will be onely this that for those times which are appointed by the Church for the assembly of Gods people we should lay by our daily business and all worldly thoughts and wholly give our selves to the heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service as in the Homily we are willed And that this only was the meaning of the Homily in that place may be convincingly concluded from the reasons following First from the improbability that the Authors of that Homily should propound a Doctrine so evidently contrary to the Declaration of the Act of Parliament in the 5 6. of Edw. 6. which was then in force and unto which not onely the Commons and the Lords Temporal but even the Lords Spiritual and the King himselfe did most unanimously concur or that the Queen should authorize a Doctrin in the Book of Homilies as by ratifying the 39. Articles she must be supposed to have done
not to be spoken of because it could not be concealed from those who lived most retiredly If either the Lord Primate or Sirmondus the Jesuite could infer from hence that the word Sabbatum was used by Apollinaris to signifie or denote our Christian Festivities much less the Sunday or Lords day I shall miss my mark They say it is a sign of ill luck for a man to stumble at the threshold and never was such a stumble made by a man of learning in the first beginning of a work for clearly Sabbatarius luxus relates not to the Lords day nor the other Festivals but is there used proverbially to signifie that excess and riot which that King used at his Table on the dayes aforesaid The proverb borrowed from the Jewes and the riotous feastings on the Sabbath It s true the Jews did commonly fast till noon upon their Sabbath till the devotions of the morning were complete and ended on which account they tax the Disciples of our Saviour for eating a few ears of Corn on the Sabbath day Matth. 12. 2. but then it is as true withal that they spent all the rest of the day in their riotous feastings not onely with plenty of good cheer but excess of wine In which regard whereas all other marketing was unlawful on the Sabbath dayes there never was restraint of selling Wine the Jews believing that therein they brake no Commandment Hebraei faciunt aliquid speciale in vino viz. quòd cùm in Sabbato suo à caeteris venditionibus emptionibus cessent solum vinum vendunt credentes se non solvere Sabbatum as Tostatus hath it And for the rest of their excesses Saint Augustine telleth us that they kept the Sabbath onely ad luxuriam ebrietatem in rioting and drunkenness and that they rested onely ad nugas luxurias suas to luxury and wantonness they consumed the day languido luxurioso otio in an effeminate slothful ease and finally did abuse the same not onely deliâ—iis Judaicis in Jewish follies but ad nequitiam even to sin and naughtiness Put altogether and we have luxury and drunkenness and sports and pleasures enough to manifest that they spared not any dainties to set forth their Sabbath Tertullian hath observed the same but in fewer words according to his wonted manner who speaking of the Jewes in his Apologeticum adversus Gentes Cap. 16. hath told us of them that they did Diem Saturni otio victui decernere devote the Saturday or Sabbath unto Ease and Luxury But before either of them this was noted by Plutarch also an Heathen but a great and grave Philosopher who layes it to their charge that they did feast it on their Sabbath with no small excess but of wine especially and thereupon conjectureth that the name of Sabbath had its original from the Orgies or feasts of Bacchus whose Priest used often to ingeminate the word Sabbi Sabbi in their drunken ceremonies From whence we have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to triumph dance or make glad the countenance And from hence also came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sirname of Bacchus or at the least some Son of his mentioned in Coelius Rhodiginus as is observed by Dr. Prideaux in his Tract De Sabbato This said the meaning of Apollinaris will be onely this that though Theoderick kept a spare Table on the other dayes yet on the Festivals of the Church he indulged unto himself a kind of Sabbatarian luxury that is to say such riotous feasting and excess as the Iewes used upon their Sabbath Nothing in this to prove that the word Sabbatum was used by any approved Writer for the space of a thousand years and upward to signifie either the Lords day or any of the Christian Festivities as the Lord Primate would sain have had it which notwithstanding partly by the diligence of our Sabbatarians and their active Emissaries and partly by the ignorance of some and the easiness of the rest of the people the Sunday or Lords day is generally called by no other name then by that of the Sabbath he who shall call it otherwise then the vulgar do being branded commonly with profaneness or singularity And yet if any of these fine fellows should be asked the English of the Latine word Sabbatum they could not chuse but answer that it signified the seventh day of the week or the Saturday onely Or if they should every Clerk Notary and Register in the Courts of Judicature would deride them for it who in drawing up their Processes Declarations Entries Judgements and Commissions never used other Latine word for Saturday but Dies Sabbati as long as any of those forms were written in the Latine tongue And they continued in that tongue till toward the later end of the late long Parliament in which it was ordered that all Writs Declarations and other legal instruments of what kind soever should be made in English the readiest way to make all Clerks Atturnies Registers c. more ignorant of Grammar learning then they were before SECT II. The Lord Primates judgement of the Sabbath delivered in two Propositions His first Proposition for setting apart some whole day for Gods solemn worship by the Law of Nature found both uncertain and unsafe no such whole day kept or required to be kept by the Jewes or Gentiles His second Proposition neither agreeable to the School-men or the Sabbatarians nor grounded upon Text of Scripture He reconciles himself with the Sabbatarians by ascribing an immutability to a Positive Law but contrary therein to the first Reformers and other learned men of the Protestant and Reformed Churches He founds the Institution of the Sabbath on Genesis 2. An Anticipation or Prolepsis in that place of Gen. maintained explicitly by Josephus and many of the most learned of the Jewish Rabbins as also by Tostatus and his followers amongst the Christians implicitly by those who maintained that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first beginning The like Anticipations frequent in the holy Scripture and justified by many of the Ancient Fathers and not a few learned men of the later times The Sabbath not a part of the Law of Nature BUt now before we can proceed to such other passages which the Lord Primate hath excepted against in History of the Sabbath either by name or on the by it will be necessary that we know his own Judgement and Opinion in the ground of this Controversie as well concerning the morality of the fourth Commandment as the true ground and institution of the Sabbath And to find that we must consult his Letter to Mr. Ley in which he telleth us That for his own part he never yet doubted but took it for granted that as the setting of some whole day apart for Gods solemn worship was juris Divini naturalis so that this solemn day he means the Sabbath should be one in seven was juris Divini positivi
recorded in the fourth Commandment p. 113. And in these words we have two several propositions viz. First That the setting apart of some whole day to Gods solemn worship is juris Divini naturalis and secondly that the Sabbath which he meaneth by this solemn day was juris Divini positivi recorded in the fourth Commandment both which shall be examined in their several turns And first I would fain know of Doctor Bernard or any other of the Lord Primates Chaplains since he cannot answer for himselfe where we shall find that the setting apart of some whole day for Gods solemn worship was juris Divini naturalis That some time was to be set apart for the worship of God is agreed by all and reckoned by most knowing men not interessed in any party to be the moral part of the fourth Commandment but that this time should be some whole day is neither imprinted in mans heart by the Law of Nature nor ever required of the Iews nor observed by the Christians Or granting that some such whole day was to be set apart for Gods solemn worship I would fain know in the first place when the said whole day was to begin and how long to continue whether it were a whole natural day or a whole artificial day as they use to phrase it And if it were a whole natural day then whether to extend from midnight to midnight after the reckoning of the Gentiles or from Sun-setting to Sun-setting from Even to Even according to the account of the Iewes or if a whole artificial day then whether a day of twelve hours onely after the reckoning of the Iewes or from Sun-rising to Sun-setting be they more or less according to the several Climates under which men lived Which points unless they be well stated the conscience will have nothing in this case to rely upon In the next place considering that the Lord Primate speaks indefinitely of some whole day without determining when and how often the said whole day was to be observed I would fain know whether such a whole day was to be set apart once or twice in the week or whether it would suffice to the fulfilling of the moral part of the fourth Commandment if it were onely once a month or once a year or once in seven year or once in the course of a mans whole life For being it is said indefinitly that the setting apart of some whole day to Gods solemn worship is juris Divini naturalis ingraffed in the Heart of man by the Law of Nature it may be probably inferred that the setting apart of one whole day at what time soever a man pleaseth may very sufficiently comply with the intention of that Law and consequently discharge the man so doing from all further observance which how far it will satisfie the consciences of men or be accounted acceptable in the sight of God I shall leave to others to determine But admitting that this whole day which the Lord Primate speaks of was to have as frequent a return as the Iewish Sabbath I would then know when such a whole day was either ordinarily kept or required to be kept by the Iewes or Gentiles That no such whole day was ever ordinarily kept by the Iewes appears by their riotous feastings on the Sabbath day which before we spake of by which it is most evident that the one half of that day was either spent in Luxury and Riot or in Rest and Idleness and that the least part of the other moyety was spent in holy Meditation and much less in the solemn worship of God which in the first settlement of that Nation in the Land of Canaan was performed onely in the Tabernacle as afterwards in the Holy Temple at which but few of the people and those which dwelt near the place of worship could give any attendance We meet indeed with a Commandment that the Sabbath was to be continued from Even to Even Levit. 23. 32. that is to say from Friday evening at Sun-set until the like time of Sun-set on the Sabbath day Which Precept being first given by God with reference to the day of Atonement or Expiation and commonly applyed by the Iewes to the weekly Sabbaths requires no otherkeeping of the day for that space of time more then the afflicting of their souls by a solemn fast then onely rest from labour all servile works And this appears plainly by the first words of the said 32. verse where it is said That it should be unto them a Sabbath of rest compared with vers 30 31. where forbearing all or any manner of work is the chief thing required to the observation of that day And yet that rest from labour and cessation from all manner of work frequently intermitted also either with reference to the solemn keeping of the day it self Mat. 12. 5. or the preservation of the creature Luke 13. 15. 14. 5. But that the whole day extending from Even to Even should be either spent in afflicting their souls as it is meant onely of the day of Atonement or Expiation which was observed but once a year or in the acts of solemn and religious worship if it be understood of the weekly Sabbath to which the Iews commonly applied it also as before was said as I no where find So have I no reason to believe it without better grounds Certain I am that so much of the Sabbath day after this account as intervened between the Sun-setting on the Friday and the Sun-rising on the Sabbath was partly spent in rest from labour and making necessary preparations for the day ensuing and part thereof in necessary repose and sleep for the refreshing of their bodies and support of nature and how the rest of that day was spent we have seen before There is another place in Scripture much prest upon the consciences of the people by the rigid Sabbatarians of these times to stave them off from any lawful recreation on their new made Sabbath that is to say Isa 58. 13 14. where God speaks thus unto that people If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord. But if we look better on this Text and compare it with vers 3. of the same Chapter where we find mention of a fast and of the afflicting of their Souls on the day of that fast we may see easily that the Text so much insisted on by our Sabbatarians relates onely to the day of Atonement which being a day of publick humiliation and of confessing their sins to the Lord their God required a stricter withholding of themselves from their lawful pleasures then any of the weekly Sabbaths So as admitting that this whole day was by God required to be
when God first blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Whence well this question may be raised Whether before the publishing of Moses ' s Law the Sabbath was to be observed by the Law of Nature And that the Lord Primate doth fetch the original of the Sabbath from the beginning of the World is evident from a passage in his Letter to Dr. Twisse p. 78. In which saith he addressing his speech unto that Doctor The Text of Gen. 2. 3. as you well note is so clear for the ancient institution of the Sabbath and so fully vindicated by Dr. Ryvet from the exceptions of Gomarus that I see no reason in the earth why any man should make doubt thereof And yet the matter is not past all doubt neither I am sure of that For other men as eminent in all parts of Learning and as great Masters of Reason as Doctor Ryvet ever was have affirmed the contrary conceiving further that those words in the second of Genesis are spoken in the way of a Prolepsis or Anticipation Gods sanctifying the day of his Rest being mentioned in that time and place not because the Sabbath was then instituted but because it was the occasion of setting apart that day by the fourth Commandment to be a Sabbath or a day of holy repose and rest to the House of Israel Of this opinion was Tostatus in his Comment on Gen. 2. countenanced by Iosephus Antiq. l. 1. c. 2. by Solomon Iarchi one of the principal of the Rabbins and many other learned men of the Iewish Nation as appears by Mercer a learned Protestant Writer and one well verst in all the learning of the Iewes in his Comment on Gen. 2. who addes de proprio that from Gods resting on that day Postea praeceptum de Sabbato natum est the Commandment for sanctifying the seventh day was afterwards given And this opinion of Tostatus passed generally for good and currant with all sorts of people till Ambrose Catharinus one of the principal sticklers in the Councel of Trent opposed him in it who though he grant the like Anticipation Gen. 1. v. 27. disalloweth it here And disallowing it in this place he not onely crosseth with Tostatus but with some of the most learned Christian Writers both of the Church of Rome and the Protestant Churches who hold that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first beginning nor imposed on Adam as a Law to be observed by him and his posterity Of this opinion was Pererius a learned and industrious man of the Romish party in his Comment on the second of Genesis And of this opinion was Gomarus that great undertaker against the Arminians in his Tract De origine institution Sabbati with many other eminent men of both Religions too many to be named in this place and time whose opinions in this point cannot otherwise be made good and justifiable but by maintaining an Anticipation in this Text of Moses though few of them speak their minds so fully and explicitely in it as Dr. Prideaux no way inferiour to the best of those who opine the contrary For what weak proofs are they saith he which before were urged God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore he then commanded it to be kept holy by his people And then he addes Moses as Abulensis hath it spake this by way of Anticipation rather to shew the equity of the Commandment then the original thereof So he in the third Section of his Tract De Sabbato Nor are such Anticipations strange in Holy Scripture for besides that Anticipation in the first of Genesis vers 27. allowed by Catharinus as before was said defended by St. Chrysostome on Gen. 2. Origen on Gen. 1. Gregory the Great in his Morals lib. 32. cap. 9. and finally justified by St. Hierom who in his Tract against the Jewes doth affirm as much we find the like Gen 12. 8. Judges c. 2. v. 1. both which are granted without scruple by Dr. Bound the first who set on foot the Sabbatarian Doctrines in the Church of England The like Anticipation is observed in Exod. 16. 32. as appears plainly both by Lyra and Vatablus two right learned men the first a Jew the second eminently studied in the Jewish Antiquities And yet the observation is much elder then either of them made by St. Augustine who lived long before the time of Lyra in his 62. Question on the Book of Exodus and by Calvin who preceded Vatablus in his Comment on that Tract of Scripture These passages and Testimonies I have onely toucht and pointed at as plainly and briefly as I could for the Readers better satisfaction in the present difference referring for the Quotations at large to the History of the Sabbath Part 1. c. 1. n. 2 3. 4. and there he shall be sure to find them From all which laid together it is there concluded that for this passage of the Scripture there is nothing found unto the contrary but that it was set down in that place and time by a plain and neer Anticipation and doth relate unto the time wherein Moses wrote and therefore no sufficient warrant to fetch the institution of the Sabbath from the first beginning Nor could I find when I had Doctor Ryvet under my eye that his Arguments against Gomarus were of weight enough to counter ballance the Authority of so many learned Writers both Jewes and Christians or to weigh down so many Texts of holy Scripture in which the like Anticipations are observed by Origen Hierom Chrysostome and Gregory the Great men of renown for Piety and Learning in the primitive times and by many other learned men in the times succeeding though otherwise of different perswasions in the things of God But Ryvet and the Lord Primate held the same opinion both of them grounding the first institution of the Sabbath on a Positive Law Legem de Sabbato positivam non naturalem agnoscimus are the words of Ryvet p. 173. which is the same with the Lord Primates jus Divinum positivum though in different terms And therefore it can be no marvel if Ryvets Arguments be cried up for vindicating that passage in the second of Genesis in so full a manner that the Lord Primate can see no reason in the earth why any man should make doubt thereof And yet there may be good reason for it though he see it not Now that the seventh day Sabbath was not a part or branch of the Law of Nature which is observed to be a necessary consequent following upon the fixing of the first institution of it in the second of Genesis will evidently appear by the concurrent testimonies of learned men both of the elder and last times It was indeed naturally ingraffed in the heart of man that God was to be worshipped by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Grecian Orator Imprimis venerare Dium said the Latine Poet. And it was also naturally ingraffed in the heart of man not
and the day on which it was to be holden he lets us see by a marginal Note p. 90. against whom it is that he bends his forces viz. against Dr. Heylyn Part 2. c. 1. pag. 14. Let us see therefore what he hath to say against Dr. Heylyn in this particular and into what inconveniencies he runs himselfe by the contradiction In order whereunto he must first observe how he states the question and then consider whether his proofs and arguments will come up to it The Israelites saith he by the Law of Moses were not onely to observe their weekly Sabbath every seventh day but also their feasts of weeks once in the year which although by the vulgar use of the Jewish Nation it may now fall upon any day of the week yet doe the Samaritans untill this day constantly observe it on the first day of the week which is our Sunday for which they produce the Letter of the Law Leviticus 23. 15 16. where the feast of the first fruits otherwise called Pentecost or the feast of weeks is prescribed to be kept the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which not they onely but also amongst our Christian Interpreters Isychius and Rupertus do interpret to be the first day of the week p. 87 88. This ground thus laid and some proofs offered quite beside the point in question to shew that the Lords day was called by the name of Sabbath in some ancient Writers he builds this superstructure on it and makes this following Descant on the former Plain song viz. But touching the old Pentecost it is very considerable that it is no where in Moses affixed unto any one certain day of the month as all the rest of the feasts are which is a very great presumption that it was a moveable Feast and so varied that it might alwayes fall upon the day immediately following the ordinary Sabbath And if God so order the matter that in the celebration of the feast of weeks the seventh day should purposely be passed over and that solemnity should be kept on the first what other thing may we imagine could be presignified thereby but that under the state of the Gospel the solemnity of the weekly service should be celebrated upon that day p. 90. Such is the state of the Question and such the inference which ariseth from that stating of it both which are now to be examined as they lie before us And first the feast of first fruits was not otherwise called Pentecost or the feast of weeks as the Lord Primate sayes it was For though two loves in the name of the first fruits of the second or wheat Harvest were to be offered to the Lord on the feast of weeks which being celebrated on the fiftieth day from the sixteenth of Nisan had the name of Pentecost yet was the name of the feast of first fruits appropriated more especially to the second day after the Passover or the sixteenth of Nisan on which the people offered the first fruits of their Barley which in that country was first ripe and from which the Computation of the said fifty dayes was to take beginning And it was thus appropriated for these reasons following 1. Because the sixteenth of Nisan was the first day of their Harvest on which the people were to offer the very first fruits of the increase of the earth which in that Country was their Barley before which time they were not to eat either bread or parched corn or the green ears of it this offering to be made in the Sheafe or Gripe before the Corn was thresht out v. 10. to the end that all the subsequent Harvest by the offering of these first fruits might be blest unto them whereas the offering of the two loves in the name of the first fruits of their Wheat was not until the end of Harvest above seven weeks after when the Wheat was hous'd and threshed and made into bread And secondly the name of the feast of first fruits was appropriated to the sixteenth of Nisan because it had no other name by which it might be dignified above the rest of the fifty and distinguished from them whereas the day on which the two loves were to be offered was eminently known by the name of the feast of weeks and the feast of Pentecost and sometimes also called the feast of the Law because the Law was given that day by the hand of Moses In the next place the Lord Primate either did not understand the meaning of the word Sabbath Levit. 23. 15 16. or if he did he would not seem to understand it the better to carry on some design for the Sabbatarians for by the tenour of his discourse it appeareth most evidently that in both places he understands the word Sabbath in no other sense but as it signifies the weekly Sabbath of the fourth Commandment and thereupon concludes that the computation of the fifty dayes beginning on the morrow after the Sabbath and continuing till seven Sabbaths should be complete even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath the feast of Pentecost must of necessity fall upon the first day of the week which is now our Sunday If so the Sabbatarian Brethren are in the right in making the falling of the first Christian Pentecost on which the Holy Ghost came down and sat on the heads of the Apostles three thousand souls being that day added to the Church of Christ to be an argument of some weight for their Lords-day Sabbath and Dr. Heylyn is in the wrong for making the falling of that Pentecost upon the first day of the week to be a matter of casualty the feast of Pentecost not being tyed to a certain day but falling on any day of the week as the year did vary But by his leave by Sabbath in verse 15. And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath we are to understand the feast of unleavened bread which with all other of the Annual feasts had the name of Sabbath as appears plainly by many several passages in this very Chapter And this is that which is observed by some of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostom Hom. in Matth. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidore Epist 110. l. 3. And secondly by Sabbath in the rest of those two verses viz. Seven Sabbaths shall be complete even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath c. we are not to understand the weekly Sabbath but the week it selfe the whole seven dayes which from the last in order but the first in dignity took the name of Sabbath For so we read it in Chap. 18. of Saint Luke where the Pharisee boasted of himself that he fasted twice a week verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek original Jejuno bis in Sabbato saith the vulgar Latine Thus also in Matth. 28. Luke 24. we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prima una Sabbati as the vulgar hath it to denote
the first day of the week as our English reads it And then the meaning of the Text will be briefly this that the feast of Pentecost reckoning the computation from the morrow after the Sabbath that is to say the feast of unleavened bread was to be kept precisely on the morrow after the end of the seventh week from the sixteenth of Nisan on what day soever it should happen and not on the morrow after the seventh weekly Sabbath as the Lord Primate would fain have it And therefore thirdly if the Samaritans observing it until this day upon the first day of the week which is our Sunday produce the letter of the Law Levit. 23. 15 16. by keeping it upon that day they transgress the Law because they take not along with them the true meaning of it and the intent of him that gave it for a Law to the House of Israel And this is just the case of Origen in the Primitive times who by following the letter of the Gospel made himself an Eunuch contrary to the mind and meaning of Christ our Saviour and therefore sinned against God and his own body Fourthly and finally if Ruportus speak no otherwise then Isychius doth he must be reprehended by the Lord Primate as Isychius is for straining the signification of altera dies Sabbati to express thereby the Lords day though both produced in this place to no other purpose then to prove that the morrow after the seventh Sabbath was the first day of the week which is now our Sunday Let us next see what Superstructures have been made by the Lord Primate on the former grounds what descant he hath made on the plain-song which before we toucht at And first he telleth us how considerable it is thâ—t the old Pentecost is no where in Moses affixed unto any one certain day of the month as all the rest of the feasts are p. 90. But this is gratis dictum also the feast of Pentecost being as precisely tied to a certain day as either the Passover the feast of Expiation or the feast of Tabernacles for being the Passover is sixt on the fourteenth of Nisan the feast of unleavened bread on the fifteenth the offering of the first fruits on the sixteenth and that the feast of Pentecost was to be kept on the fiftieth day after that it must-needs fall expresly and of course allowing thirty dayes to the month as the Jewes computed it on the fifth of Sivan which makes it evident that the old Pentecost was affixt by Moses to one certain day of the month as well as any of the rest He telleth us next that the old Pentecost may be presumed to have been a moveable feast but varied so that it might alwayes fall upon the day immediately following the ordinary Sabbath Which were it so it must needs be a movable immovable feast though being constantly reckoned from the sixteenth of Nisan and kept as constantly on the morrow after the end of the seven weeks from thence computed seems to have nothing moveable in it but all fixt and firm Thirdly whereas it is took for granted and affirmed expresly that the Pentecost did alwayes fall upon the day immediately following the ordinary Sabbâ—th there is not any thing more different from the truth it self nor less agreeable to right reason The Passovâ—r though it was fixt on the fourteenth of Nisan as to the day of the month did â—all in course as the fâ—ast of Christmas the Epiphany the Annuntiation and all the rest of the Festivals which depend not on the keeping of Easter do with us in England on every day of the week successively in their turns and courses So that if the fourteenth of Nisan full upon the second day of the week the feast of Pentecost must fall that year upon the Wednesday and if the fourteenth of Nisan fell upon the Tuesday then the Pentecost must fall that year upon the Thursday sic de caeteris Besides the year was so unequal amongst the Jewes that it was impossible the feast of Pentecost should be kept always on the first day of the week or the morrow after the ordinary Sabbath as the Lord Primate would fain have it For the Jewes measuring their months by the course of the Moon they made their year fall shorter by eleven dayes than those who measured their year by the course of the Sun and therefore were necessitated at the end of every 2d or 3d. year to insert a month which they commonly called Veadar or the second Adar because it followed after the 12th month which they called Adar By reason whereof it was altogether impossible in the course of nature or in the ordinary revolution of times and seasons that the Pentecost should always fall on the first day of the week and therfore God himself is brought upon the Stage and must work a miracle every year to make up the matter for so it followeth viz God saith he so ordered the matter that in the celebration of the feast of Weeks the seventh day should purposely be passed over and that solemnity should be kept upon the first p. 90 And this I needs must look on as an high presumption in another man absit reverentia vero in the Poets language that God should be entitled to the maintenance of our private fancies and brought to act his part without any necessity in the abetting of mens quarrels The Heathen Poet was a better Divine then so who would not have God made an Actor in the common Enterâ—udes Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus Inciderit as his own words are unless some great and weighty difficulty not otherwise to be resolved did require the same But I am sure there is no such difficulty in the case which we have before us as to make God a party in it to bring him down once in every year to act a miracle in ordering the matter so that howsoever the course of the year did change and vary the Pentecost or feast of weeks should alwayes fall upon the first day of the week which is now our Sunday Now though I should proceed to the examination of the inference which ariseth from the former premises yet I shall first consider of the proofs and testimonies which the Lord Primate hath produced in this particular And the first Argument which he brings is from the practice of the Samaritans of whom he tells us that the Samaritans do constantly observe the Pentecost on the first day of the week which is now our Sunday p. 87. their practise in it being preferred before the vulgar use of the Jewish Nation by whose account it may now fall on any day of the week as is there affirmed Assuredly the Jews who so tenaciously adhere to their Circumcision and their Sabbaths and so religiously observe the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of Purim according to the times appointed in the holy Scripture cannot be thought to
which was so plainly and professedly contrary to her own Injunctions Secondly from the strong Alarm which was taken generally by the Clergy and the most knowing men of the Laity also at the coming out of Doctor Bounds Book about the Sabbath Anno 1595. In which book it is declared amongst other things that the Commandment of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaical Decalogue is Natural Moral and Perpetual That there is great reason why we Christians should take our selves as straightly bound to rest upon the Lords day as the Jewes were upon their Sabbath that there should be no buying of victuals upon that day no Carriers Packmen Drovers or other men to be suffered to travel no Scholars to study the Liberal Arts no Lawyers to consult the case of their Clients or peruse their Evidences no Justices to examine Causes for preservation of the peace no Bells to ring upon that day no solemn Feasts or Wedding Dinners to be made on it with so many other prohibitions and negative precepts that men of all sorts and professions looked upon it as a common grievance Thirdly from the great care which was presently taken by such as were in Authority to suppress those Doctrines the said Book being called in by Arch-Bishop Whitgift both by his Letters missive and his visitations as soon as the danger was discovered Anno 1599. and a command signified in the Queens name by Chief Justice Popham at the Assizes held at Bury in Suffolk Anno 1600. that the said Book should no more be printed though afterward in the more remiss Government of King James it came out again with many Additions Anno 1606. Fourthly and finally from the permitting of all sorts of Recreations even common Enterludes and Bear-baitings in the so much celebrated Reign of Queen Elizabeth as also by the Declaration about Lawful sports published by King James An. 1618. and revived afterwards by King Charles Anno 1633 which certainly those godly and religions Princes would neither have suffered nor have done had they conceived it to be contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England of which they were such zealous Patrons and such stout Defenders No breaking of Subscription here by the Historian no crossing or opposing of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Book of Homilies and consequently no such need of Sophistry to elude the Lord Primates Argument which was drawn from thence as the said Honourable Person N. N. must believe there was SECT VIII A further Argument to prove the meaning of the Homily as before laid down The high esteem which the Church of England hath of the ancient Fathers as also of the usages of the primitive times with her respect unto the neighbouring Reformed Churches No restraint from labour on the Lords day imposed by the Council of Laodicea Beza's opinion of the liberty in those times allowed of Law-suits and Handy-crafts prohibited in great Cities on the Lords day by the Emperour Constantine but Husbandry permitted in the country Villages Proof from Saint Jerome Chrysostom Augustine that after the Divine service of the day was ended the rest of the day was spent in mens several businesses Husbandry first restrained in the Western Churches in the Council of Orleans Anno 540. and by the Edict of the Emperour Leo Philosophus in the Eastern parts about the year 890. Several restraints laid on the Lords day by the Council of Mascon Anno 588. Pope Gregory offended at such restraints and his censure of such as did enioyn them The liberty allowed in the Lutheran Churches on the Lords day as also in those of the Palatinate till after the year 1612. Nor in the Churches of the Low-Countries till the year 1618. Not onely servile Works but Fairs and Markets continued on the Lords day in those Countries till the same year also Necessary labour permitted on the Lords day in the Reformed Churches of the Switzers and honest Recreations in the French and Genevian Churches as also in the Kirk of Scotland The conclusion and application of the last Argument IT hath been proved sufficiently in the former Section that the passage alledged by the Lord Primate from the Book of Homilies and that twice for failing is capable of no such sense and meaning as he puts upon it for if it were the Homily must not only contradict it self but the Authors of it must be thought to propound a Doctrine directly contrary to the Queens Injunctions and the publick Liturgy of this Church and several Acts of Parliament which were then in force And which is more the whole body of Gods people in this Land by following their necessary business and lawful pleasures upon the Sunday or Lords day when no attendance at the place and hours of Gods publick service was required of them must be supposed to have run on in a course of sin against Gods Commandments and of contempt and disobedience to the publick Doctrine of the Church for the space of 80. years and upwards without contradiction or restraint which to imagine in a Church so wisely constituted and in a State founded on so many good Lawes cannot find place with any man of sober judgement But there is one Argument yet to come of as much weight and consequence as those before that is to say that if any such restraint from labour and honest recreations was by the Doctrine of this Church imposed on the people of God this Church must openly oppose the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers the laudable usages and customes of the Primitive times together with the general practise and perswasion of all the Protestant and Reformed Churches in these parts of the world a matter so abhorrent from the principles of the first Reformers and from the Canons and Determinations of this Church and the Rulers of it that no surmises of this kind can consist with reason The Church of England hath alwayes held the Fathers in an high regard whether we look upon them in their learned and laborious writings or as convened in General National and Provincial Councils appealing to them in all Differences between her and the Church of Rome and making use of their authority and consent in expounding Scripture witness that famous challenge made by Bishop Jewel in a Sermon preached at Saint Pauls Cross Anno 1560. in which he publickly declared that if all or any of the learned men of the Church of Rome could produce any one sentence out of the writings of any of the ancient Fathers or any General or National Council for the space of the first 600. years in justification of some Doctrines by them maintained and by us denied he would relinquish his own Religion and subscribe to theirs Witness the Canon made in a Convocation of the Prelates and Câ—ergy of England Anno 1571. Cap. De concionatoribus by which it was ordered and decreed that nothing should be preacht to the people but what was consonant unto the Doctrine of the old and
new Testament quodque ex illa ipsa Doctrina Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint and had been thence collected by the Orthodox Fathers and ancient Bishops And though H. B. of Friday-street in his seditious Sermon preached on the fifth of November Anno 1636. and the Author of the Book entituled The Liberty of Prophecy published in the year 1647. endevour to make them of no reckoning yet was King James a learned and well studied Prince perswaded otherwise then so And thereupon in some Directions sent by him to the Vice-Chancellor and other of the Heads of the University of Oxford bearing date January 18. An. 1616. it was advised and required That young Students in Divinity be directed to study such Books as be most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and excited to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councils School-men Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abbreviators making them the grounds of their study in Divinity By which we see that the first place is given to Fathers and Councils as they whose writings and decrees were thought to have been most agreeable to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England The like may be said also of the usages and customes of the Primitive times which the first Reformers of this Church had a principal care of it being asfirmed in the Act of Parliament 2. 3. of Edw. 6. by which the first Liturgy of that Kings time was confirmed and ratified that the Compilers of the same not onely had an eye to the most pure sincere Christian Religion taught in the Scriptures but also a respect to the usages in the Primitive Church They had not else retained so many of the ancient Ceremonies as bowing at the name of Jesus kneeling at the Communion the Cross in Baptism standing up at the Creed and Gospels praying toward the East c. besides the ancient Festivals of the Saints and Martyrs who have their place and distinct offices in the present Liturgy And as for the neighbouring Protestant and Reformed Churches although she differ from them in her Polity and form of government yet did she never authorize any publick Doctrine which might have proved a scandal to them in the condemning of those Recreations works of labour and other matters of that nature which the general practice of those Churches both approve and tolerate And therefore if it can be proved that the spending of the whole Lords day or the Lords day wholly in Religious exercises accompanied as needs it must be with a restraint from necessary labour and lawful pleasures be contrary to the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers the usages and customes of the Primitive times and to the general practice of the Protestant and Reformed Churches I doubt not but it will appear to all equal and indifferent men that there is no such mind and meaning in the Book of Homilies or in them that made it as the Lord Primate hath been pleas'd to put upon it or to gather from it And first beginning with the Fathers Councils and the Usages of the Primitive Church it is not to be found that ever they required that the whole day should be employed in Gods publick service without permission of such necessary business and honest recreations as mens occasions might require or invite them to It was ordained indeed by the Council of Laodicea spoken of before that Christians on the Lords day should give themselves to ease and rest otiari is the word in Latine which possibly may be meant also of a rest from labour but it is qualified with a si modo possint if it may stand with the conveniences of their Affairs and the condition which they lived in And so the Canon is expounded by Zonaras in his gloss upon it It is appointed saith he by this Canon that none abstain from labour on the Sabbath day which plainly was a Jewish custome and an Anathema laid on those who offended herein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But they are willing to rest from labour on the Lords day in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour But here we must observe that the Canon addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in case they may For by the Civil Law it is precisely ordered that every man shall rest that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hindes and Husbandmen excepted his reason is the very same with that before expressed in the Emperours Edict 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. for unto them it is permitted to work and travel on that day because perhaps if they neglect it they may not find another day so fit and serviceable for their occasions Besides which it is to be considered that many Christians of those times were servants unto Heathen Masters or otherwise obnoxious to the power of those under whom they lived and therefore could not on the Lords day abstain from any manner of work further then it might stand with the will and pleasure of those Superiours to whom the Lord had made them subject A Christian servant living under the command of an Heathen Master might otherwise neglect this Masters business one whole day in seven and plead the Canon of this Council for his justification which whether it would have saved him from correction or the Church from scandal I leave to be considered by all sober and unbiassed men All that the Church required of her conformable Children during the first 300. years was onely to attend the publick ministration or morning-service of the day leaving them to dispose of the rest thereof at their will and pleasure the very toil of Husbandry not being prohibited or restrained for some ages following For proof whereof take these words of Beza a man of great credit and esteem not onely with our English Presbyterians but the Lord Primate himself Vt autem Christiani eo die à suis quotidianis laboribus abstinerent praeter id temporis quod in coetu ponebatur id neque illis Apostolicis temporibus mandatum neque prius fuit observatum quam id à Christianis Imperatoribus nequis à rerum sacrarum meditatione abstraheretur quidem non ita praecise observatum That Christians ought saith he to abstain that day from their labour except that part alone which was appointed for the meetings of the Congregation was never either commanded in the Apostles times nor otherwise observed in the Church until such time that so it was enjoyned by Christian Emperours to the end the people might not be diverted from meditating on holy matters nor was it then so strictly kept as it was enjoyned Now the first Christian Emperour was the famous and renowned Constantine who was the first that established the Lords day which formerly had stood on no other ground then the Authority of the Church and consent of Gods people by Imperial Edicts so by the like Imperial Edict he restrained
that the first day of the Week which is the Lords day was wholly to be dedicated to the service of God and therefore that men should be bound to rest therein from their common and daily business which is the Doctrine of the Articles of the Church of Ireland Next let us look upon the Protestant Lutheran Churches amongst whom though restraints from labour formerly imposed by many Canons Laws and Imperial Edicts do remain in force yet they indulge unto themselves all honest and lawful recreations and spare not to travel on that day as well as upon any other as their necessities or pleasures give occasion for it If they repair unto the Church and give their diligent attendance on Gods publick service there is no more expected of them they may dispose of all the rest of the day in their own affairs and follow all such businesses from which they are not barred by the Laws of the several Countries in which they live without being called to an account or censured for it And as for the Reformed or Calvinian Churches they give themselves more liberty on that day then the Lutherans doe few of them having any Divine offices until now of late in the Afternoons as neither had the Primitive Christians till toward the later end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth Century In those of the Palatinate the Gentlemen betake themselves in the Afternoon of the Lords day to Hawking and Hunting according as the season of the year is fit for either or spend it in taking the Air visiting their Friends or whatsoever else shall seem pleasing unto them as doth the Husbandman in looking over his grounds ordering his cattel or following of such Recreations as are most agreeable to his nature and education And so it stood in the year 1612. at what time the Lady Elizabeth daughter to King James and wife to Frederick the fifth Prince Elector Palatine came first into that Countrey whose having Divine Service every afternoon in her Chappel or Closet officiated by her own Chaplains according to the Liturgy of the Church of England might give some hint to the Prince her Husband to cause the like religious offices to be performed in some part of the Afternoon in the City of Heidelberg and after by degrees in other the Cities and towns of his Dominions In the Netherlands they have not onely practice but a Canon for it it being thus decreed by the Synod of Dort Anno 1574. Publicae vespertinae preces non sunt introducendae ubi non sunt introductae ubi sunt tollantur that is to say That in such Churches where publick Evening prayer had not been admitted it should continue as it was and where they were admitted they should be put down And if they had no Evening Prayers there is no question to be made but that they had their Evening Pastimes and that the Afternoon was spent in such employments as were most suitable to the condition of each several man And so it stood till the last Synod of Dort Anno 1618. in which it was ordained that Catechism-Lectures should be read in their Churches on Sundayes in the Afternoon the Minister not to be deterred from doing his duty propter Auditorum infrequentiam though possibly at the first he might have few Auditors and that the Civil Magistrate should be implored ut omnia opera servilia quotidiana c. That all servile works and other prophanations of that day might be restrained quibus tempus pomeridianum maxime in pagis plerumque transique soleret wherewith the Afternoon chiefly in smaller Towns and Villages had before been spent that so they might repair to the Catechizing For both before that time and since they held their Fairs and Markets their Kirk-masses as they used to call them as well upon the Lords day as on any other and those as well frequented in the Afternoon as were the Churches in the forenoon France and even in Geneva it self the New Rome of the Calvinian party all honest Exercises shooting in peeces long-bows cross-bows c. are used on the Sunday and that in the morning both before and after Sermon neither do the Ministers find fault therewith so they hinder not from hearing of the Word at the time appointed And as for the Churches of the Switzers Zuinglius avoweth it to be lawful Die dominico peractis sacris laboribus incumbere On the Lords day after the end of Divine Service for any man to follow and pursue his labours as commonly we do saith he in the time of Harvest And possible enough it is that the pure Kirk of Scotland might have thought so too the Ministers thereof being very inclinable to the Doctrine of Zuinglius and the practise of the Helvetian Churches which they had readily taken into their Confession Anno 1561 but that they were resolved not to keep those holy dayes which in those Churches are allowed of all Holy dayes but the Lords day onely having been formerly put down by their Book of Discipline Nor could I ever learn from any of my Acquaintance of that Kingdom but that men followed their necessary businesses and honest recreations on the Lords day till by commerce and correspondence with the Puritan or Presbyterian party here in England the Sabbatarian Doctrines began by little and little to get ground amongst them On all which premises I conclude that the Authors of that Homily had neither any mind or meaning to contradict the Ancient Fathers the usages and customes of the Primitive times in the general practice of the Protestant and Reformed Churches and therefore that the words of the Homily are not to be understood in any such sense as he puts upon them The Doctrine of the Church of England is clear and uniform every way consonant to it self not to be bowed to a compliance with the Irish Articles of the year 1615. and much less with the judgement and opinion of one single person in 640. No Sophistry in all this but good Topical Arguments and such as may be more easily contemned then answered And so much toward the exonerating of the fourth charge the most material of them all in which the Historian stands accused for opposing the Doctrine of this Church in the Book of Homilies to which he had formerly subscribed SECT IX The Historian charged for mistaking the affairs of Ireland in two particulars which he ingenuously confesseth The great cunning of the Puritan faction in effecting their desires in the Convocation of Dublin Anno 1615. which they could not compass here in England The Historian accused for shamelesness c. for the second mistake though onely in a point of Circumstance the Articles of Ireland being called in and those of England received in the place thereof by the Convocation though not by Parliament The Lord Primates narrative of this business he finds himself surprized in passing the Canon and makes use of a sorry shift to salve
onely that some time should be set apart for the worship of God of which we have so many evident examples in the Greeks and Romans that no man can make question of it but that in all the Acts of worship a man should totally abstract himself from all worldly thoughts which might divert him from the business he was then about Orantis est nihil nisi coelestia cogitare as we learned when School-boyes But that this time should rather be the seventh day then any other is not a part or branch of the Law of Nature never accounted so by the Ancient Writers nor reckoned so by some of those of note and eminency who otherwise are great friends to the Lords day Sabbath Certain I am that Theodoret doth not so account it who telleth us that the observation of the Sabbath came not in by nature but by Moses ' s Law Sabbati observandi non natura magistra sed latio legis which is short but full Nor is it so accounted by Sedulius another of the ancient Writers who ranks it amongst the legal ceremonies not amongst those things quae legi naturali congruunt which are directed meerly by the Law of Nature nor by Damascen amongst the Greeks who doth assure us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say that when there was no Law enacted no◠no Scripture inspired by God that then there was no Sabbath neither nor finally by our venerable Beda who lived about the same time with Damascen and was of the same judgement with him in this particular for he assures us That to the Fathers before the Law all dayes were equal the seventh day having no prerogative before the others which he calls naturalis Sabbati libertatem the liberty of the natural Sabbath and by that liberty if I rightly understand his meaning men were no more restrained to one day then unto another no more unto the seventh then the fourth or eighth Tostatus to the same effect for the middle times who telleth us That howsoever the Hebrew people or any other before the giving of the Law were bound to set a part some time for religious duties Non tamen magis in Sabbato quà m in quolibet aliorum dierum yet were they no more bound to the Sabbath day then to any other For this last age though I could help my selfe by many good Authors yet I shall rest content with two that is to say the Lord Primate himselfe and Doctor Ryvet before named who build the institution of the Sabbath on a positive Law and not upon the Law of Nature And therefore if the instituting of the Sabbath in the first beginning be in effect to make it all one with the Law of Nature as was inferred from Dr. Prideaux and Tostatus it must needs follow thereupon that the Sabbath not being lookt on as a part of the Law of Nature could not be instituted as the Lord Primate saies it was in the first beginning SECT III. The sanctifying of the Sabbath in the first beginning imports a Commandment given to Adam for the keeping of it No such Commandment given to Adam in his own personal capacity nor as the common root of mankind The Patriarchs before the flood did not keep the Sabbath The Sabbath not observed by the Patriarchs of the line of Sem nor by the Israelites in Egypt That the Commandment of the Sabbath was peculiar onely to the Jewes proved by the testimony of the Fathers and the Jewes themselves That the seventh day of every week was not kept holy by the Gentiles affirmed by some of their own best Authors and some late Divines The Jewes derided by the Gentiles for their seventh day Sabbath The Lord Primates Antithesis viz. that the seventh day was more honoured by the Gentiles then the other six not proved by any ancient Author either Greek or Latine The three Greek Poets whom he cites do not serve his turn and how they came to know that the Creation of the World was finished in seven dayes which is all they say The passage of Tertullian in his Tract Ad Nationes as little to his purpose as the three Greek Poets The meaning of that Author in his Apologeticum cap. 16. not rightly understood by the Lord Primate whose Arguments from Tibullus Lucian and Lampridius conclude as little as the rest The observation of the Sabbath and other Jewish Ceremonies taken up by the later Gentiles not upon any old Tradition but by Imitation The custome of the Romans in incorporating all Religions into their own and the reason of it BUt there is one Conclusion more which follows on the instituting of the Sabbath in the first beginning and is like to afford us more work then the other did For if it be all one to bless and sanctifie the seventh day in the beginning of the World as to impose it then on Adam to be kept and sanctified as some say it is it may be very well concluded that if no such commandment was then given to Adam the Sabbath was not blessed and sanctified in the first beginning Nor can it stand with Piety Reason that it should be otherwise For to suppose that God did set apart and sanctifie the seventh day for a day of worship and yet that no Commandment should be given for the keeping of it what is it but to call in question the most infinite wisedom of Almighty God which never did any thing in vain unless perhaps we may conceive with Tornelius that the Angels solemnized this first Sabbath with joyful shouts and acclamations as he gathereth from Iob 38. 4 6. Or that the WORD the second person in the Syntax of the blessed Trinity did take our humane shape upon him and came down to Adam and spent the whole day with him in spiritual exercises as is affirmed by Zanchius with an ego non dubito as a matter which no man need make doubt of but he that listed For if any such Commandment was given to Adam it must be either given him in his own personal capacity or as he was the common root of all mankind which was then virtually in his loyns as Levi is said by the Apostle to have paid Tithes unto Melchisedeck because he was then virtually in the Loyns of his Father Abraham when those Tithes were paid But no such precept or command was given to Adam in his own personal capacity for then the Sabbath must have died and been buried in the same grave with him nor was it given to him as the common root of all mankind for then all the Nations of the World had been bound to keep it the contrary whereof we shall see anon In the mean time let us take with us the Authority of the Ancient Writers by some of which it is affirmed that no commandment was given by God to our Father Adam but that he should abstain from eating of the fruit of the Tree
which grew in the middle of the Garden as namely by Tertullian adversus Iudaeos Basil de jejunio Ambrose Lib. de Elia jejunio c. 3. Chrysostom Hom 14. 16. on the Book of Genesis Austin de Civitate l. 14. c. 12. As also by many other Christian Doctors of all times and ages who from hence aggravate the offence of Adam in that he had but one Commandment imposed on him and yet kept it not By others it is said expresly that Adam never kept the Sabbath as certainly he would have done at some time or other if any such Commandment had been given him by the Lord his God as namely by Iustin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Iew Tertullian in his Book adversus Iudaeos which may be gathered also in the way of a necessary consequence from the words of Eusebius De Praep. Evang. l. 7. c. 8. and those of Epiphanius adversus Haereses l. 1. n. 5. Whose words we have laid down at large Hist of Sub. p. 1. c. 1. n. 5. This is enough to prove that no command for keeping of the Sabbath day was given to Adam in his own personal capacity and no more then so besides the necessary expiring of the Sabbath with him had it been so given And that it was not given to him as the common Root of Mankind will appear as plainly by the not keeping of that day by any which descended from him till it was declared unto the Israelites in the fall of Mannah and afterwards imposed upon them by the fourth Commandment for if it had been kept by any it must have been by those of the godly Line from whom our Saviour was to derive his Humane nature and yet it hath been proved out of very good Authors that it was never kept by Abel Seth Enos Enoch or Methusalem nor finally by Noah himselfe though called in Scripture by the name of a Preacher of Righteousness the proofs whereof may be found at large in the History of the Sabbath Part 1. Chap. 2. Num. 6 7 8 9. And if it were not kept by those of the godly Line we have no hope to find any thing for the keeping of it in the house of Cain or in the families of any of the other Sons of Adam whose extreme wickedness grew so abominable in the sight of God that he was forced to wash away the filth thereof by a general Deluge After the Flood we find the world repeopled by the Sons of Noah the godly Line being as ignorant of the Sabbath as the rest of the Nations for it hath been sufficiently proved out of very good Authors that neither Sem nor Melchisedech if a different person from him nor Heber nor Lot ever kept the Sabbath and that it was not kept by Abraham or any of his Sons as neither by Iacob Ioseph Moses or any of the House of Israel as long as they remained in Egypt in the House of Bondage for which see Hist of Sab. Part. 1. c. 3. n. 4 5 7 8 9. And if we find no such observance in the House of Sem who were more careful of their wayes and walked agreeably to the declared will and pleasure of Almighty God it were in vain to look for it in the House of Iaphet or in that of the accursed Cain the founders of the Europaean and African Nations or amongst any others which descended from the Sons of Sem who pass together with the rest by the name of Gentiles Now that the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath is proved by divers of the Fathers and many of the greatest Clerks among the Iewes whom affirm expresly that the Commandment of the Sabbath was given to none but those of the House of Israel Of this mind was St. Austin Epist 119. De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11 13. Epist 86. Ad Casalanum in all which places he appropriates this Commandment to the Iewes or Hebrews St. Cyril in Ezek. h. 20. Theodoret in Ezek. 20. Procopius Gazaeus in Gen. 21. And for the Iews it was a common opinion received amongst them that the Sabbath was given to them onely and not to the Gentiles as Petrus Galatinus proves from the best of their Authors who thereupon inferreth Quod Gentes non obligantur ad Sabbatum that the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath The like may be gathered from Iosephus who in many places calls the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a national custome Antiq. lib. 4. cap 8. de bello lib. 2. cap. 16. to whom I shall now adde another of later date of my Lord Primates own commending that is to say Manasses Ben Israel who telleth in his Book De Creatione that the observation of the Sabbath was commanded onely unto the Israelites and that all the Duties which the Heathen were tied unto were comprised in the precepts given to the sons of Noah as is affirmed in the Letter to Dr. Twisse p. 78. And that the Sabbath was not kept by the Gentiles as well as not imposed upon them by any Commandment the Historian hath made good by two several Mediums whereof the first is taken from the writings of the Gentiles themselves by which it doth appear that they gave no greater respect to the Saturday then to any other day whatever and that though they celebrate the seventh day as a festival day yet was it not the seventh day of the weeek but the seventh day onely of every month which might happen as well upon any of the six dayes as upon the Saturday And so it is observed by Philo a right learned Jew who puts this difference between the Gentiles and the Jews that divers Cities of the Gentiles did solemnize the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once a month beginning their account with the new Moon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that the Jewes did keep every seventh day constantly Nor was the seventh day of the month on which they sacrificed to Apollo esteemed more holy by the Gentiles then their other Festivals on which they tendered their Devotions to their other Gods and in particular was not accounted more holy then the first or fourth which Hesiod placeth in the same parallel with the seventh in this following verse viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which if any should take notice that the attribute of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or holy is affixt unto the seventh day onely the Scholiast on that Author shall remove that scruple A novilunio exorsus tres laudat omnes sacras dicens septimam etiam ut Apollinis natalem celebrans and tells us that all three are accounted holy and that the seventh was also celebrated as Apollo's birth-day As for the first day of the month as is observed by Alexander ab Alexandro it was consecrated by the Greeks to Apollo also the fourth to Mercury the eighth to Theseus because he was derived from Neptune to whom as Plutarch saith they
offered sacrifice on the same day also So was the second day of the month consecrated to the Bonus Genius the third and fifteenth to Minerva the last to Pluto and every twentieth day by the Epicures to their God the Belly Thus also had the Romans their several Festivals in every month some in one month and some in another the ninth day onely of every month being solemnly observed by them and from thence called Nundinae because devoted unto Iupiter the most supreme Deity But what need more be said in this when we have confitentem reum For Dr. Bound the first that set on foot these new Sabbath-Doctrines doth confess ingeniously That the memory of Weeks and Sabbaths was altogether suppressed and buried amongst the Gentiles to whom I shall subjoyn de novo the Lord Primate himself who though he stick hard to prove that the Saturday was held in greater estimation by the Gentiles then all the rest yet he acknowledgeth at the last that they did not celebrate their Saturdayes with that solemnity wherewith themselves did their Annual Festivities or the Jews their weekly Sabbaths p. 85. therefore not kept by them as a Sabbath there 's no doubt of that which was by the first of the two Mediums to be clearly proved The second Medium by which it is proved by the Historian that the Gentiles did not keep the Sabbath is gathered from those bitter scoffs and Satyrical jeers which the Gentiles put upon the Jewes and such of their own people as did Judaize for the observation of the same Of this we have an evâ—dent proof in the Prophet Ieremiah who telleth us in his book of Lamentations how the adversaries of the Jewes did mock at their Sabbath c. 1. v. 7. And adversaries they had of all sorts and of different Countreyes who did mock at them for their observation of the Sabbath day The name derived by Apion from Sabbo an Egyptian word signifying an inflammation in the privy parts from which by resting on the seventh day they received some ease then which what greater scorn could be put upon it by a wretched Sycophant But others with more modesty but as little truth from Sabbo signifying the Spleen with which the Jews were miserably tormented till on the seventh day released from it for which consult Giraldus in his Book De Annis Mensibus By Persius in his fifth Satyre called recutita Sabbata in which their Circumcision and their Sabbaths were both jeered together by Ovid Peregrina Sabbata in his first Book De Remedio Amoris because not known or commonly observed amongst the Romans the men themselves by Martial in his Epigram to Bassa reprochfully nick-named Sabbatarii Accused for spending the seventh part of their lives in sloth and idleness by Seneca apud August de Civit. Dei l. 6. c. 11. Iuvenal Sat. 14. Tacitus Hist l. 5. and therefore fitted with a day of equal dulness the Saturday or dies Saturni as the Latines call it being thought unfit for any business rebus minus apta gerendis as it is in Ovid whose words I shall produce at large because I am to relate to them on another accasion Quaque die redeunt rebus minus apta gerendis Culta Palaestino septima sacra viro The seventh day comes for business most unfit Held sacred by the Jew who halloweth it A fansie not so strange in Ovid as it seems in Philo a Jew by birth and a great stickler in behalf of the Jewish Ceremonies who telleth us that the seventh day was chosen for a day of rest because the seventh number in it selfe was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the most peaceable number the most free from trouble war and all kind of contention Yet not more strange in Philo then it is in Aretius a Writer of the Reformed Churches who thinks that day to have been chosen before any other Quod putaretur civilibus actionibus ineptum esse c Because that day was thought by reason of the dulness of the Planet Saturn more fit for contemplation then it was for action Adde more to end as I began with an Etymology that Plutarch derives the name of Sabbath from Sabbi Sabbi ingeminated by the Priests of Bacchus in his drunken Orgies as others do from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to celebrate those Orgies both with reproch enough to the Jewish Nation who by their riotous feastings and excesses on the Sabbath day gave such a scandal to the Gentiles that luxus Sabbatarius became at last to be a by-word as in that passage of Apollinaris spoken of before Out of all which it may be probably inferred that they that did so scornfully deride the Jewish Sabbaths did keep no Sabbath of their own by consequence that no command for the keeping of it was given to Adam as the common Root of all mankind and therefore no such institution in the second of Genesis as the Lord Primate would fain have it Against these passages proofs the L. Primate makes not any Exceptions and therefore it may be took for granted that the Gentileâ— neither were commanded to keep the Sabbath nor did keep the Sabbath which were the matters to be proved But for an Answer thereunto he sets upon Antithesis a contrary proposition of his own of purpose to run cross to that which is maintained by the Historian l. 4 c 1. n 8. For wheras it was there affirmed by the Historian that the 7th day was not more honoured by the Gentiles then the eighth or ninth the Lord Primate on the other side hath resolved the contrary affirming that the Heathens did attribute some holiness to the Seventh day and gave it a peculiar honour above the other dayes of the week p. 83. For proof of this he first supposeth a Tradition among the Jewes and Gentiles that the seventh day was not of Moses but the Fathers and did not begin with the Commonwealth of Israel but was derived to all Nations by lineal descent from the Sons of Noah p. 82. But where to find and how to prove this Tradition we are yet to seek the Lord Primate vouching no more ancient Author for it then Tertullian who lived almost two hundred years after Christ our Saviour and relates onely to his own times not to those of old No evidence produced to prove the Proposition or the Supposition out of any of those famous Writers Philosophers Historians Poets Orators who flourished in the heroick times of Learning amongst the Grecians nor from any of the like condition amongst the Romanâ— who lived and flourished before or after the triumphant Empire of Augustus Caesar one passage out of Tibullus excepted onely till we come to Aelius Lampridius an Historian who lived after Tertullian It 's true the Lord Primate cites three Greek verses from as many of the old Greek Poets but they make nothing to his purpose as himselfe confesseth The verses alledged as he telleth us
by Clemens Alexandrinus l. 5. Stromat Eusebius lib. 13. De praeparat Evangel which verses and four others to the same effect he might have found in the History of the Sabbath Part 1. Chap 4. Num. 9. And there he might have found also that those verses had been formerly alledged by a learned Iew named Aristobulus who lived about the time of Ptolemy Philometor King of Egypt The three Poets which I find here cited are Homer Linus and Callimachus the three verses these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But there is nothing in these verses which proves either the Proposition or the Supposition touching the honouring of the seventh day more then any other but onely that the Poets were not ignorant that the works of the Creation were finished on the seventh day as himself acknowledgeth p. 86. Now how these Poets came to know that the Creation of the World was finished on the seventh day is told us by Aristobulus before mentioned namely that the Poets had consulted with the holy Bible and from thence sucked this knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his own words are And this may be agreeable enough to the times they lived in For Homer who was the oldest of them flourished about 500. years from the death of Moses which hapned in or near the Reign of Solomon the Son of David the most mighty Monarch of the Hebrews at what time the people managed a great trade in Egypt and held good correspondence with those of Tyre from both of which being Sea-faring Nations the Greeks might come unto the knowledge derived to them from the Book of Moses of the Worlds Creation And as for Callimachus who was the latest of the three he lived not till 700. years from the time of Homer which hapned in the Reign of Seleucus Nicanor the first King of Syria of the Macedonian Race or Linage when the Jewes were under the command of one or other of the Princes of Greece as Successors to Alexander the Great in his Eastern Conquests Now for Tertullian on whose Authority the Lord Primate doth most rely we find him cited pag. 84. in two several places each place relating to a several Tract of that learned Writer The first is taken from the first Book and thirteenth Chapter of his Tract inscribed Ad Nationes published first amongst the rest of his Works in the Edition of Rigaltius and not long after in a small volume by it selfe at Geneva Anno 1625. with Gothofred his Notes upon it supposed by some to be but the rude draught of his Apologetick adversus gentes but whether it be so or not we must take it as it lies before us and the words are these viz. Qui solem diem ejus nobis exprobratis agnoscite vicinitatem non longè à Saturno Sabbatis vestris sumus Where first it is to be observed that Tertullian speaks not this of the ancient Gentiles but applies himself to those onely of the times he lived in and therefore no fit Author either to prove the Proposition That the Heathens did attribute some holiness to the seventh day and gave it a peculiar honour above the other days of the week unless he mean it of the Heathens amongst whom he lived much less to justifie the perpetual Tradition of the seventh day which the L Primate will not have to be derived unto them from the Common-wealth of Israel but the Sons of Noah And secondly we may observe that many of the Gentiles at that time when Tertullian wrote that Tract unto them had taken up many of the Jewish customs amongst others the observation of their Sabbath whose riotous feastings on the same might be communicated very readily unto all the rest But this can be no proof at all for the times preceding especially before the Jewes began to intermingle in the Provinces of the Roman Empire and much less serve to fill up that vast vacuity which was between that intermingling and the Sons of Noah Pass we on therefore to the next taken from the Apologetick Chap. 16. to which for the better understanding of the former passage we are referred by Gothofredus Aequè si diem solis saith Tertullian laetitiae indulgemus alia longè ratione quà m religione solis secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio victui decernunt exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant Which words of his though the Lord Primate would apply as spoken of because they are spoken to the Gentiles I doubt not but upon examination of the Authors meaning we shall find it otherwise which passage by the Scholiast is thus glossed Quod autem ad diem solis attinet alio ratio est à cultu solis quae nos eum diem qui est à Saturni secundus à Judaeis superstitiosè observatur celebrare persuadet nam illi nesciunt suam legem explosam jam exoletam refrixisse Pamelius gives this note upon it That the Christians celebrated the Sunday ut distinguantur à Judaeis qui diem Saturni id est Sabbatum solenniter etiamnum otio decernunt to the end they might be distinguished from the Jewes who devoted their Sabbath which the Romans call by the name of dies Saturni unto ease and eating What the effect is of the Scholiast and his Paraphrase we shall see anon In the mean time we may observe that Tertullian doth not say secundo loco à vobis sumus that we are in the next place to you by which he might understand the Gentiles but secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio victui decernunt who dedicate the Saturday unto sloth and luxury which must be understood of the Jewes and of none but them And whereas the Lord Primate layes the strength of his Argument on the last words of his Author viz. Exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant that is to say that the Gentiles by consuming that day in ease and riot had deviated from the custome of the Jewes of which they were ignorant yet certainly those words are capable of no such construction For certainly the Gentiles by consuming that day in Rest and Riot could not be said to deviate from the custom of the Jewes whose riotous feastings on their Sabbath had made them a reproch to the Greeks and Romans nor could they in any sense be said to be ignorant of the Jewish custome in that kind which Plutarch had before observed and charged upon them In the next place the Scholiast applying the former passage to the Jewes alone and their superstitious observation of their Sabbath or Saturn's-day gives us this gloss on the last words which are now before us viz. Nam illi nesciunt suam legem explosam jam exoletam refrixisse that is to say that they were ignorant that the Law by which their Sabbath had been ordained was repealed abrogated
Which though it may be true enough in the Proposition yet I cannot think that it agrees with the Authors meaning in the Application Nor am I better edified with the criticism of Gothofredus on this place who thinketh it to lie under some great corruption qui locus haectenus in foedissimo mendo cubat leaves in worse case then he found it by his pretended Emendation And therefore I conceive Tertullians meaning to be briefly this that the Jewes then living had so disused and estranged themselves by their riotous feastings on the Sabbath from that sobriety and moderation wherewith their Ancestors had used to observe that day that they seemed ignorant in a manner of the ancient custome of their own Nation in that case These passages of Tertullian being thus explained the Answer to the rest of the Lord Primates Authors will find less difficulty Tibullus in a verse of his Saturni sacrâ me tenuisse die bestowes the Epithet of Sacrâ upon the Saturday or day of Saturn But this I say and so sayes the Lord Primate too is not so properly to be understood of the Gentiles who made not the seventh day a festival or an holy-day as the Jewes did p. 83. but of the very Jewes themselves who kept it for a festival or an holy-day And then Tibullus sayes no more then what Ovid hath affirmed in the verse formerly cited in which he calleth the seventh day by the name of septima sacra dies with reference to the Jewes and to them alone That which comes next from Lucian in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touch the Boyes getting leave to play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the seventh day or Saturday p. 86. is of little consequence Lucian then lived in the East Countries where the Gentiles Jewes and Christians lived promiscuously with one another And it is probable enough that the School-masters observing that the Saturday was held in great veneration by the Christians and kept for a Festival by the Jewes the better to comply with both or to send home their Children if they had any such in their Schools in convenient time might rather chuse to gratifie the Boyes with a play day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the seventh day or Sabbath then on any other And as for the Emperor Alexander Severus and his using to go unto the Capitol and other Temples on the Saturday or seventh day as Aelius Lampridius hath informed us of him it is of less consequence then the former it being well known to all which have read the Stories of that age and time that being trained up under the wing of his Mother who was inclinable enough to the Christian Faith he had not onely somewhat in him of a Christian but a smack also of the Jew And therefore if he more frequented the Capitol and other Temples on the seventh day or Saturday then on any other it is not to be attributed to any Authority which the Lord Primates Tradition might have gained upon him but unto education or imitation no great matter which For that many of the Gentiles who lived within the verge of the Roman Empire had taken up divers of the customes and ceremonies of the Iewes who lived scattered and disperst amongst them is affirmed positively by Iosephus Quin etiam populi jam olim saith he multam nostram pietatem aemulantur nèque Civitas Graecorum ulla usquam aut Barbarorum nec ulla gens ad quam septimanae in qua vacamus consuetud◠minimè pervenerit c. that is to say that the Gentiles long since shewed themselves inclinable to the religion of the Jews and that there was no City of the Greeks or barbarous people or any Nation whatsoever in which their custome in observing the seventh day for a day of rest as also of their games and fasts was not taken up In which respect Philo hath told us more then once that the Sabbath was become a general Festival which in his Treatise De Dec alogo may be easily found And it was very agreeable to the ancient custom of the Romans that it should be so who used when they had conquered any Country not onely to carry away their gods and set them up amongst their own but to take from them some part of their religion thinking thereby to enlarge the bounds of their Empire and bring all the Nations of the World under their command Sic eorum Potestas Authoritas totius Orbis Ambitus occupavit sic imperium suum ultra solis vias ipsius Oceani limites propagavit sic dum Vniversarum gentium sacra suscipiunt etiam regnare meruerunt as Cecilius pleads the cause for them in Minutius Foelix SECT IV. The Historian charged by name for saying that the ancient Gentiles knew not the distinction of weeks and sent to be taught his lesson better of Dector Ryvet and Salmasius His Arguments to prove the point laid down at large and not refelled by the Lord Primate The Lord Primates opinion to the contrary not proved by any ancient Author either Greek or Latine The practice of the Sclavonians related by Helmoldus an obscure Writer and a Postnatus too doth not prove the point Nothing affirmed by Theophilus Antiochenus or Johannes Philoponus to prove that the distinction of weeks was anciently known amongst the Gentiles The Historians Application justified WE are now come at last to the first of those Charges in which the Author of the History is concerned by name touching the division of time into weeks whether observed or not observed by the ancient Gentiles in which the Lord Primate thus declares The Gentiles saith he both Civil and Barbarous both ancient and of later dayes as it were by an universal kind of Tradition retain the distinction of the seven dayes of the week which if Dr. Heylyn had read so well proved as it is by Rivetus and Salmasius he would not have made such a conclusion as he doth that because the Heathen of the four great Monarchies at least had no distinction of Weeks therefore they could observe no Sabbath p. 79. The Historian is here sent to School to learn of Ryvet and Salmasius that the Gentiles both civil and barbarous both ancient and of later dayes as it were by an universal kind of Tradition retained the distinction of the seven dayes of the week of Ryvet he must learn for one because he was of the same opinion with the Lord Primate in the point of the Sabbath and of Salmasius for the other because he was of the same judgement with him in the point of Episcopacy But the Historian will not learn of any such Masters but onely of the Lord Primate himselfe But first it will be necessary to know what the Historian saith to the point in hand and yet not onely what he saith as if he could carry it out on his own Authority but what he proves by witnesses of unquestioned credit The passage is not long and therefore without any
the matter The matter of a Commandment how and in what sense made an Article of the Faith and made a matter of the faith in this particular of the Lords day by the Assemblie of Divines at Westminster The consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops as capable of being taken into the Creed as the Parity of Ministers No verdict passed in behalf of the Lords day Sabbath by the Church of England The great difference between the Lord Primate and the Church of England in this business of the Lords day Sabbath A parting dash bestowed by the Lord Primate on the Historian THis leads me on to the fifth and last charge laid on the Historian meerly extrinsecal as to the main concernments of the point in hand though such as hath better ground to stand on then the other four The Historian having carried on his design as far as he could by the help of Books was forced to take up two passages concerning the affairs of Ireland upon information an information not took up upon a vulgar hear-say but given to him by such hands from which he was confident he might receive it without doubt or scruple The first particular is this that at such time as his Majesties Commissioners in Ireland employed about the setling of that Church Anno 1615. there passed an Article touching the keeping of the Lords day by which the English Sabbatarians were much confirmed in their Courses and hath been often since alledged to justifie both them and their proceedings Hist Sab. p. 2. l c. 8. n. 9. But the Lotd Primate now assures us that the said Article was passed and the Book of Articles published in Print divers yeares before the Commissioners whom he meaneth came thither p. 109. And thereunto Doctor Bernard addeth that the said Articles were subscribed by the Arch-Bishop of Dublin then Speaker of the House of Bishops in Convocation by the Prolocutor of the House of the Clergy in their names and signed by the Lord Deputy Chichester in the name of King James If so as now I believe it was I must needs say that the Sabbatarians and the rest of the Calvinian party in England were wiser in their generations then the children of light who seeing that they had no hopes of thrusting the nine Articles of Lambeth their Sabbath Speculations and the rest of their Heterodoxies of which particularly hereafter on the Church of England they began to cast their eyes on Ireland which lying further off might be less looked after And in that Realm they made themselves so strong a party that they obtained those Points in the Convocation held at Dublin Anno 1615. which neither their seditious clamours in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth nor their Petition to King James at his first entrance on this Kingdom nor their motion at the Conference in Hampton Court nor their continual Addresses to the Houses of Parliament were able to effect in England The out-works being thus easily gained they made from thence their Batteries on the Fort it self of which they doubted not to make themselves Masters in short time as in fine they did For after this when the Sabbath Quarrels were revived and the Arminian Controversies in agitation no argument was more hotly prest by those of the Puritan faction then the Authority of these Articles and the infallible judgement of King James to confirm the same The other particular in which the Historian doth confess himself to have been too credulous in believing and inconsiderate in publishing such mistaken intelligence is that the Articles of Ireland were called in and that in their place the Articles of the Church of England were confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdom Anno 1634. For this mistake though it be only in the circumstance not in the substance of the fact which is now before us he stands accused by the Lord Primate of no less then shamelesness Nor shames he to affirm saith he that the whole Book of the Articles of Ireland is now called in which is a notorious untruth and that the Articles of the Church of England were confirmed by Parliament in this Kingdom Anno 1634. Which passage with some others in this Letter makes me apt to think that it was never the Lord Primates meaning or desire to have it published in Print though Dr. Bernard hath been pleased to adventure on it For if it had been so intended he would have shewed less passion and more civility towards a Doctor in Divinity Chaplain in ordinary to the King and one not altogether untravelled in the wayes of Learning then to brand him with Sophistry Shamelessness and extravagant Fancies to tax him with notorious untruths speaking inconsiderately and finally to send him back to School again to learn his Catechism Egregiam vero laudem spolia ampla tulistis Tuque puerque tuus Assuredly the Lord Primate and his Chaplain too have reapt great praise and micle meed for this notable victory by which notwithstanding they have gain'd nothing but the name and noise For if it can be proved as I think it may that the Articles of Ireland were called in and that those of England were received in their place then whether it were done by Parliament or Convocation is not much material But on the contrary it is affirmed by the Lord Primate That the House of Convocation in the beginning of their Canons for the manifestation of their agreement with the Church of England in the confession of the same Chrstian faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as themselves profess and for no other end in the world did receive and approve of the Articles of England but that either the Articles of Ireland were ever called in or any Article or Canons at all were ever here confirmed by Act of Parliament may well be reckoned amongst Dr. Heylyns fancies This the Lord Primate hath affirmed but takes no notice that the receiving of the Articles of England imports no less then the repealing of those of Ireland of which since Doctor Bernard hath discoursed more fully in his following Paper I shall reserve my Answer unto this Objection till I come to him In the mean time we are to know that the Lord Primate having been wrought on to propose the Canon which he speaks of about the Articles of England did readily consent unto it conceiving it to be without any prejudice to the other and thereupon he did not onely propose it in the House of the Bishops but commended it to the House of the Clergy where by his motion many assented the more readily as Dr. Bernard hath informed us p. 118. But afterwards the Lord Primate upon further consideration conceiving that he had been surprized and that he had passed more away in that Canon then he first intended began to cast about for some expedient to salve the matter and keep the Articles of Ireland in their former credit And thereupon it was thought fit that both the Lord Primate himself and some other
consent at least of the Metropolitan all other Bishops of the Province consenting to it and giving their assistance at that sacred Ceremony if not otherwise hindered And though this fourth Council of Carthage was but National onely yet was it universally received and that too in a very short time over all the Church and made the standing Rule by which the consecrating of Bishops and the ordaining of Priests and Deacons was to be officiated A Rule so punctually followed by the Church of England that it seemeth to be rather of the Carthaginian then the Roman party and more to savour of the Primitive then the popish Ordinals And to this Rule the Church did tie it selfe so strictly concerning the consecration of an Arch Bishop or Bishop that though a Bishop in some cases might ordain a Priest or Presbyter without the presence and co-operation of other Presbyters yet was there no case whatsoever in which it was lawful for one or more Priests or Presbyters to ordain another And so it was adjudged in the case of Coluthus whose ordinations were therfore declared void of no effect because he was no Bishop but a Presbyter onely as is affirmed by Athanasius in Apol. 2. Which as it clearly contradicted the Lord Primates judgement in the point of the lawfulness of the Ordination of Presbyters by Presbyters without the concurrence of a Bishop so doth it justifie the Church of England against him in the point of Episcopacy which she affirms and he denies to be a distinct Order from that of the Priest or Presbyter But nothing doth more fully manifest the Lord Primates judgement in this particular and consequently his dissent therein from the Church of England then his publishing the judgement and opinion of Doctor Reynolds in this point which he so far enlarged and explicated that Doctor Bernard reckoneth it amongst his works The title of the Book runs thus The judgement of Doctor Reynolds touching the Original of Episcopacy more largely confirmed out of Antiquity by James Arch-Bishop of Armagh The Doctors judgement is as followeth viz. When Elders were ordained by the Apostles in every Church through every City to feed the flock of Christ whereof the Holy Ghost had made them overseers they to the intent they might the better do it by common Counsel and consent did use to assemble themselves and meet together In which meetings for the more orderly handling and concluding of things pertaining to their charge they chose one amongst them to be the President of their Company and Moderator of their Actions As in the Church of Ephesus though it had sundry Elders and Pastors to guide it yet amongst those sundry was there one chief whom our Saviour calleth the Angel of the Church and writeth that to him which by him the rest should know And this is he whom afterwards in the Primitive Church the Fathers called Bishop So far the words of Dr. Reynolds then which there nothing can be said more contrary to the first institution nor more derogatory to the Order and Estate of Bishops And if the Lord Primate did magnifie his own office no better in other things then he did in publishing this piece Doctor Bernard might have spared that part of the character which he gives us of him for so doing p. 151. For by this magnifying of his Office he made himself no better then the President of the Presbyters within his Diocess the chief Priest or Arch-Priest we may fitly call him though possibly in regard of his personal abilities he might be suffered to enjoy that presidency for term of life such a perpetual Presidency as Calvin was possessed of when he reigned in Geneva and sate as Pope over all the Churches of his Platform and was enjoyed by Beza many years after his decease till Danaeus thinking himself as good a man as the best made a party against him and set him quite beside the Cushion Since which time that Presidency hath continued no longer in any one man then from Session to Session from one Classical meeting to another loco libertatis erat quod eligi coeperunt in the words of Tacitus Which fate would questionless befall all the Bishops in Christendom if their Presbyters were once possessed with this fansie that the Bishop was but a Creature of their own making as is affirmed by Doctor Reynolds or that they and their Bishop did not differ Ordine but Gradu onely which the Lord Primate to the great magnifying of his office hath declared to be his own constant opinion 3. In the next place the Church of England doth maintain an Universal Redemption of all mankind by the death and sufferings of our Saviour This first proved by that passage in the publick Catechism by which the party catechized is taught to believe in God the Son who redeemed him and all mankind secondly by that clause in the Letany viz. O God the Son Redeemer of the world have mercy upon us c. thirdly by the prayer of consecrating the Elements of Bread and Wine viz. Almighty God our Heavenly Father which of thy tender mercy didst give thine onely Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our Redemption who made there by his own oblation of himself once offered a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD c. Nor was it without some such meaning that she selected those words of our Saviour in Saint Johns Gospel viz. God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten Son c. to be used in the preparation to the Communion as she reiterated some others viz. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world incorporated into the Gloria in Excelsis at the end thereof But in this point the Lord Primate is of a contrary judgement to the Church of England For as he seems not to like their opinion who contract the riches of Christs satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any interess therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the world so he declareth his dislike of the other extreme as he is pleas'd to call it by which the benefit of this satisfaction is extended to the Redemption of all mankind The one extremity saith he extends the benefit of Christs satisfaction so far ut reconciliationem cum Deo peccatorum Remissionem singulis impetraverit as to obtain a Reconciliation with God and a Remission of sins for all men at his merciful hands p. 21. Which though they are the words of the Remonstrants at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1611. and are by him reckoned for untrue yet do they naturally result from the Doctrine of Universal Redemption which is maintained in the Church of England Not that all Mankind is so perfectly reconciled to Almighty God as to be really and actually discharged from all their sins before they actually believe which the Lord Primate makes to be