c. That some Gentiles were thereto bound the pellucid fountain of verity sheweth plainly Let not the sonne of the stranger that hath joyned himself to the Lord speak saying God hath utterly separated me from his people If you say that these were Israelites by covenant though not by seed then why may not the Christian Gentiles who are covenantees as well as the Jews who are also the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise and united in Christ Jesus why may not they observe it also will you say because the day is abrogated and annulled and can you demonstratively prove it so The Jewish Sabbath was questionlesse indeed abolished but was the Sabbath of the fourth commandment so If you say Yea for they were both one I reply it is with greater facility said then proved And now we arive at the last circumstance considerable in the precept Quid. Of this it is controverted what day the precept enjoyneth whether the Jewish Sabbath the Saturday or any other particular and expresse day Most hold the Jewish seventh from the creation to be the day directly prescribed there but I think it no hard task to beat them or from that hold or in it For first I would gladly know where in expresse terms the Saturday-Sabbath or seventh from the creation is commanded in this precept examine and dissect it throughly Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day The Sabbath day it is you see not the seventh from the creation Therfore a Zanchie hath set a nota bene upon it That God not without cause said not Remember thou sanctifie the seventh day but the day of rest that is saith he b The day consecrated to rest by God either immediately by himself or mediately by the Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever day it be Thus he more circumspectly then what he delivered three columnes before where he saith that the word Sabbath here comprehendeth all the Jewish festivalls What hath moved him and other learned men to this fantasie it much amuseth me God telleth us distinctly what Sabbath he here meaneth the weekly of any other there is altum silentium not a word He saith Sanctifie the Sabbath in the singular not Sabbaths in the plurall number c The observation not of many festivals but of one onely is there enjoyned And what necessity of bringing these feasts within the compasse and obligation of this precept which have commands proper and peculiar to themselves As therefore ancient Canons d said to pragmaticall Bishops which invaded their jurisdiction so I to these Jewish feasts Let them keep their own home their own stations they have nothing to do here Well the Sabbath must be sanctified but what day that should be is not yet explained in the subsequent words indeed there is some hint of it six dayes shalt thou labour there is one character by which we may know it Six dayes are at our own dispose but we must not hold over our term The seventh is the Sabbath it is as Philosophers say Terminus minimus quod sic the least proposition of time we must allow God in a narrower limitation his worship will not subsist a seventh day he will have The seventh is the Sabbath The seventh what seventh he saith not the seventh from the creation he nameth no day if he had it would have restrained the Law to that day but because he meant the day should change and yet the Law continue he saith onely the seventh that is the seventh after six or one in a week e For f To depute one day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially one and the same day be not alwayes deputed Well but will one in a week serve the turn is there nothing else required is the determination of this one in seven in our power No there is a proviso for that it must be the Sabbath of the Lord thy God that is which he hath already or should declare to his Church to be his Sabbath and this is another character of the Sabbath It must be of Gods own choice But still not one word of the Jewish Sabbath no discovery of it yet but we have not done with the precept perhaps we shall find it in what remaineth It followeth then For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and all that therein is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it Here I confesse the precept seemeth very apposite very full so full as we are accused for no lesse then high treason against the holy Ghost in daring to affirm the contrary f These Dogmatists saith one are not affraid to make the holy Ghost a liar who teacheth in most clear and expresse terms That God Almightie blessed the very seventh day on which himself rested An heavie charge did we not plead not guiltie That God blessed the very seventh day whereon he rested we not deny but whether he did expresly command the observation of that day by this or any other member of the fourth precept that is the thing whereof we demand clear demonstration Nor yet should we call this into dispute had we not just cause to appeal from the old Translation which hath herein imbraced a strange singularitie for where it readeth God blessed the seventh day the Geneva Spanish that of Hierome all that I have perused the Septuagint onely excepted render it God blessed the Sabbath day as our most correct and new translation hath it indeed the very fountain it self the Hebrew giveth it so which being true can what we have said deserve so loud an outcry as hath been made let any neutrally affected judge Secondly the defect of direct and expresse command is not the onely the principall motive it is I grant which allureth us to think the Jewish Sabbath in especiall manner not injoyned here another argument there is accessory to it For if God had here expresly commanded the observation of the seventh from the Creation or Jewish Sabbath the fourth precept would have been in relation to that particular ceremoniall and by consequent changeable but I think it was and is in all parts intirely morall and perpetuall and my opinion is founded upon two not very defeasable reasons First it is marshalled in the Decalogue amongst the morall and immutable laws which were notably distinguished from the ceremoniall by many circumstances The Morall uttered by God himself proved page 39. in the presence of the whole multitude written by Gods own finger given without restraint to time how long or place where Contrarywise the Ceremoniall given to Moses onely and by him declared to the people called Ceremonies Judgements Ordinances and limited onely to the land of g Jury Now it could not be agreeable to the wisdome of the God of Order to shuffle and misplace a Ceremoniall amongst his Morall laws Secondly if you cast your eye upon the Sabbath of
this matter we may be assured there was no such thing done The Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as well a preparation and destination as actuall application to holinesse as Exod. 19.10 Josh. 3.5 7.3 Jerem. 1.5 If God at that time whereof Moses wrote did give any command to Adam to sanctifie the Sabbath it must of necessity follow that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise But in Paradise there was no need of a Sabbath where there should have been no toyl no necessity of sanctifying any day to Gods worship where every day should have been a day of rest and the hole life a continuall Sabbath God would not then impose the Sabbath as a law when he himself brake it for according to Hierome and Catharinus he formed Eve upon the seventh day and so wrought upon it God imposed upon Adam in Paradise no other positive Law then that of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge It is probable that Jacob whilest he kept Labans sheep the Israelites while they were under the bondage of Pharaoh and his mercilesse taskmasters kept no Sabbath but if it had been commanded sure it had been kept Lastly it is said Nehem. 9. vers. 13 14. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai c. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath The authorities they alledge are especially emergent from the Primitive Church Justin Martyr leadeth the way Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize is Tertullians a challenge to the Jews All the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath saith b Ireneus There was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us so c Eusebius When there was no Scripture nor Law divinely inspired the Sabbath was not consecrated to God d Damascen Of late Adherers to this opinion the most eminent are Tostatus Musculus and Gomarus In this array the arguments and authorities upholding the Prolepsis are marshalled yet is it not universally entertained many there have been and are and those of no mean note neither who have applied themselves to the genuine and proper sense of the words and from thence deduced the institution of the Sabbath from that very article of time whereof Moses wrote And this interpretation I conceive most agreeable to the mind of Moses for many reasons which shall exhibit themselves in their due place for first I bend my self to encounter the objections formerly made and to lay open where they are crazy or invalid Divine revelation is indeed the best means to understand Gods will and act and though the Scripture doth not mention Gods expresse command to Adam though we reade it not said to him as after it was in the Law Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day yet a command we find and there being then at that time whereof Moses wrote none on earth capable of a command but Adam and Eve it necessarily followeth that they received the command For what is meant by Gods sanctifying of the seventh day but the application of it to divine worship Those things are said to be sanctified in the Law which are applyed to sacred worship saith a Aquinas now if it was then applyed to sacred worship sure it was by command Nor is the argument of force The Scripture mentioneth it not Ergò It was not many things were to the first Patriarchs commanded which are not recorded It is by farre the major part of learned men b affirmed that God dictated and prescribed to Adam all circumstances of his worship which by tradition past to his posteritie and were in every severall family untill Moses observed and it is in part evidently and infallibly confirmed by Scripture it self for we reade that Cain sinned but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4.15 Where there is no law there can be no transgression for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1. John 3.4 yet of this or any other command concerning religious duties holy text hath not one syllable Perhaps the command was not so solemn as afterward not vivâ voce in an audible voyce there being not the same reason and yet a command there might be internall though not externall God might by his guiding spirit direct Adam to sanctifie the seventh day as he did both him and other Patriarchs to other observances if Aquinas a hath aimed right It is credible saith he that the Patriarchs by divine instinct as by an hidden and tacit law were induced to worship God in a set and determinate form agreeable to the inward worship and signification of mysteries to be fulfilled in Christ The want of an Historicall narration of the praxis of those times is also as weakly urged You know Ab autoritate negativè nihil concluditur ex argumentis Arguments drawn from silent authority conclude nothing An axiome never firmer then when applied to the history of the world from the Creation to the Law the period of this discourse There is no mention of Adams penitence after his fall none of his sacrificing of his performing any other pious exercises during his hole abode upon earth none What then shall we say that he lived like an Atheist never invoked never praised God We reade of no Parents that Melchisedech had what shall we hold with the letter of S. Paul that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} really whithout father or mother ◠Heb. 7.23 He that in so compendious a story as this of Moses looketh for a full relation of every small circumstance is like to lose his longing and may as wisely seek Pauls steeple in Hondius his map of the world Abbridgements of stories are nets of a larger mash which onely inclose great fishes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things worth mentioning smaller fry things of lesse consequence escape them Athanasius his rule is right enough it self if it be not bowed by violence Comparing the miracles of Christ with those of the Prophets he demonstrateth the oddes to be this Christ was born of a Virgin so none of them Christ made the lame to walk the deaf to heare the dumbe to speak the blind to see so did not they For then saith he the Scripture would not have omitted it Therefore because the Scripture is altogether silent in the matter it is sure there was no such thing done The Father speaks of miracles but I hope the observation of the Sabbath was none and therefore Athanasius stands you in little stead My margent directs to the place omitted by the Bishop The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} little also avails them for be it granted that it signifies a preparation to holinesse doth this preparation exclude
they had the benefit of them as some have not set down content to believe that the prophesie of Enoch mentioned by S. Jude was written and that what Josephus relateth of the Pillars errected by the posterity of Seth is true but they conceive also that Adam and all the succeeding Patriarchs compiled the histories of their own times But how Moses attained his knowledge I leave to the disquisition of them who affect curiosities yet this give me leave to note as received amongst the best Divines That the holy Ghost was not so much an intelligencer as a directer and guide to Moses in the framing the history of Genesis For the omniscient Wisdome foreseeing that it would not be alwayes safe to make Tradition the perpetuall depositary of so rare choice a jewel as the story of his Primitive Church which might either through carelesnesse loose part of what was betrusted to her or under colour of sole possessing the Truth vend counterfeit and sophisticate stuff thought it necessary for the good of his Church that a set and certain story of the first times should be compiled to which purpose he selected Moses as his Amanuensis and Register aiding him extraordinarily with his holy Spirit by whose assistance he was enabled to distinguish truth from fables which had by surreption intruded exactly to describe many minute circumstances of time place persons names c. which memory was not able to comprehend and to digest it into that perfect order wherein we now see it So that one way or other either by tradition or letters or both the precise seventh day could not at that time have been lost or forgot and consequently that no cause for the Sabbath to begin at the fall of Manna And was there any other what To be a preamble and preparation to the subsequent Sabbath this would be proved A preparation to the after strictnesse of the Sabbath it was that I confesse not to the Sabbath it self this I deny an introduction it might be to the solemnity of the Sabbath which began after not so to the Sabbath it self which was long before For though it was but in its minority but magni nominis umbra a very shadow of the after celebrity yet a Sabbath it was and the seventh day Sabbath too and this not my singular assertion but the consent of the most profound Doctours as well ancient as modern So the Fathers Origen a What was afterward commanded in the Law concerning the Sabbath the same Job both observed himself and taught his children to do the like Cyprian b This septenary number gained Authority from the creation of the world because the first works of God were made in six dayes and the seventh was dedicated to rest as sacred it being honoured with the solemnity of a command and entitled to the sanctifying Spirit Basil c The Sabbath which was the seventh day from the first creation is a type of our perfect Rest in the remission of our sinnes Nazianzen d The Creation began on the Lords day as is evident because the seventh from it is made the Sabbath bringing rest from labours Athanasius e As long as the first age or Creation was inforce so long the Sabbath was observed Epiphanius f mentioneth a twofold Sabbath under the old Law the Naturall or Weekly which was defined from the Creation the Legall or Ceremoniall which was enjoyned by the law of Moses At the heels of the Fathers follow the Schoolmen who busying themselves about nicer subtilties have left us little of their opinions concerning the Sabbath Alexander Halensis a the irrefragable Doctour though he thinketh the Sabbath was not observed by virtue of any precept before the Law yet he granteth that it was inspired as a thing meet and fit to be observed All these before Ambrose Catharine b he then not the first that understood Moses according to the letter nor yet the last no not of his own Partie Genebrard c The Sabbath was sanctified in Paradise which was also observed all the time till the Law promulgated as the Hebrews and Lyranus upon Gen. 7. deliver And in another place he telleth us out of Rabbi Abraham that Job did observe it Cornelius à lapide d It is manifest that the Sabbath was instituted and established not first by Moses Exod. 20. but long before to wit from the beginning of the world Salianus also in his Ecclesiasticall Annals doth at large refute the Prolepsis as absurd As for Protestant writers whether they be Lutheranes Calvinists or our own English we dare vie it with the Anticiparians and give them oddes two for one at least and bate the preciser sort too Luther e himself shall lead the van The Sabbath was destined from the beginning of the world to religious worship Baldwin f The Sabbath was observed from the Creation Calvin in Exod. apud a Prideaux Gualter b Doubtlesse the Fathers before the Law diligently observed the Sabbath P. Martyr c That people rest from labour one day in the week did not onely appertain to Moses Law but had beginning from Gen. 2. Zanchy d I doubt not mine own I relate without prejudice to others opinions I doubt not I say but the Sonne of God in humane shape was all this seventh day busied in most holy colloquies with Adam but he fully revealed himself to him and Eve shewed him how and in what order he created all things wisht him to meditate upon these works and in them to praise and acknowledge the True God his Creatour taught him that after his example every seventh day all labour set aside he should spend in this exercise of Pietie c. What could modesty her self more modestly assever he doth not imperiously obtrude for truth what he saith he onely telleth you his own conceit and it hath ever been permitted for men in such cases as this both to think what they will and speak what they think as the Historian saith Can any therefore but wonder that the bare delivery of a private opinion so soberly without incrochment upon others liberties should gain the Authour no better esteem then to be reckoned amongst lying Legendaries and fabulous Rabbines What Zanchy was his works speak him a learned and good man in that repute he lived in that he died I never heard him defamed for a Palephatus or Tale-coyner till now and I hope never shall again a Ursin The Sabbath was commanded from the beginning of the world by God unto all men b Bullinger The Sabbath was observed from the beginning of the world by a law naturall and divine c Beza The Precept of the Sabbath was established in the very Creation of the world even before mans fall and elsewhere he saith that Job did sanctifie at least every seventh day A saucy fellow to controul Justin Martyr his better and therefore is taught manners by my Authour
d Hence forward he must know his distance Comparisons Gentle Sir the Proverb saith are odious therefore this excursion might no disparagement to your discretion have been spared Yet hath your luxuriancy erred not more in civilitie then moralitie you impute this opinion to Beza as a device of his own which were it true yet your presumption exceedeth your knowledge for how I pray is it possible for you to be assured of this unlesse Beza had either mediately or immediately revealed it to you and if he did not you were very rash very ill advised to father it on him when as I have proved he might probably enough have derived the opinion from Origen or R. Abraham if not from others Junius e God gave Testimony of the Institution of the Sabbath by his own exemplary Rest and by Instituting it in the Church that Adam and Eve then living might acknowledge that day to be holy by the Ordinance of God Pareus f God sanctified the Sabbath in the very prime Creation and doubtlesse that sanctification was observed in the Patriarchall families I could tire both the Reader and my self should I amasse all foreiners whose suffrage hath been given for this Patriarchall Sabbath if any desireth further authorities I transmit him to Rivet or Waleus who can furnish him completely To come home and encounter Tostatus with one of our own in dignitie of Order a Bishop in that his Match and for learning so beyond him as if I might use your libertie of comparison I might say he is but another Didymus a mere scribbler to this man The beginning of the Sabbath saith he was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any ceremony or figure of a Saviour I could produce Perkins Willet Babington Amesius c. all famous lights of our Church and that most incomparable piece the Practice of Pietie but because it will perhaps be thought that their affection was better then their judgement I forbear them and the rather because also our most Rationall adversaries begin to reel towards us Brerewood confesseth it to be instituted in Paradise which is as much as any ever affirmed for according to the Canonists Leges instituuntur cùm promulgantur Laws are then instituted when they are promulgated and though he explaineth himself afterward denying the commandment to be then instituted yet this he acknowledgeth that Gods resting from Creation his Sabbath and resting in himself the sanctification of it might be exemplary though not obligatory to men to observe the Sabbath then Nor doth a Prideaux vary much from him which is enough for if it be granted that Adam or the Patriarchs observed it we shall soon discover a command Having thus laid down the Arguments which support the Prolepsis and to every one fitted the proper solution having also set before you those reasons which most seem to advantage the Grammaticall sense and having with Authoritie encountred Authoritie I desire now nothing more then a neutrall Judge and that this difference may have the same decision which Aristippus b advised in another case Mitte ambas ad ignotos Let disinteressed Arbitratours end it And thus I have finished my first stage Gods Sabbath under the Law THe precedent discourse was spent in the discovery of a Sabbath before the Law a time for so much as concerneth Gods externall worship nearest allied to Varro's {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or uncertain time before the Ogygian flood Our next station must be under the Law a time more enlightned with the ray of divine Story then the former yet is not the light even of this time so uniform so evenly diffused but that some opake parts are therein discerned For though we are not now as before at a losse for a Sabbath yet doth not the Sabbath we discern shew it self in so perfect lineaments and just proportion as excludeth all diversitie of opinion concerning it The questions indeed which relate to it are neither very numerous nor absolutely necessary to be discussed yet as they are by accident subservient to my ensuing tract an elucidation I must and will afford them according to that order wherein method disposeth them which I take to be this Some result from the precept some again from the practice from the precept Quis Quibus Quid. Quis Who gave the precept Who promulgated it And this question is not peculiar to the fourth precept distinctly taken but onely as it is a member of the decalogue whereof the question is especially made for controverted it is whether the ten Commandments were on mount Sinai promulgated by Gods immediate voyce or the ministery of his Angels or one or more And not unworthily for Moses seemeth to attribute it to God himself but Stephen Acts 7. vers. 38.53 and Paul Gal. 3.19 and Heb. 2.2 to the Angels in regard of which specious opposition eminent and famous men have been diversly inclined some to Moses are propense for these reasons First it is said Dixit Jehova Elohim God spake these words not an Angel create and though the word Elohim is once and but once applied to the Angels in the plurall but never in the singular number as Psalm 8. yet here it can have no such signification for the verb is Dixit and the pronoun Ego both singular Secondly the person speaking saith I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt but an Angel create did not deliver them out of Egypt Lastly Saint Paul himself saith that it was the voyce of Christ which shook the earth Heb. 12 26. Therefore where it is said Acts 7.38 that Moses was with the Angel in the wildernesse the word Angel must not be understood of an Angel create but of Christ who is often called both an Angel and God in similary places as Gen. 31. vers. 11 13. and 48.15 Exod. 3.2 in all which places the word Angel can mean no other person then Christ Thus farre a Zanchy but short still of the full solution For though Acts 7.38 the word is Angel in the singular number yet in the other place it is Angels in the plurall excluding utterly the application of it to Christ or any single person Where Zanchy brake off the explication is continued and supplied by the thrice-excellent b Junius who resolveth it thus At the delivering of the Law on Mount Sinai God was attended with many Millions of Angels so both the state and service of their Lord and the great businesse in hand required and from amidst this glorious host he spake unto the people {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} inter Angelos amidst the c Angels all the Angels being witnesses to the Covenant God proclaimed the Law so he interpreteth it a glosse rather new then absurd Others incline to Stephen and Paul and conceive that God did not utter the
Pentateuch Secondly It appeareth not by any relation of sacred History that before the Babylonish captivitie there was any weekly reading or expounding the Law upon the Sabbath Lastly it is a thing to be admired that if the reading of the Law had been in continuall use among the Jews every Sabbath day there should be found in the dayes of King Josiah one copy onely or book of the Law and that Hilkiah should present this book to the King as a great raritie 2. King 22.8 9. But the unsoundnesse of the foundation argueth the assertion erroneous for First will nothing but expresse Text satisfie you suppose we find it not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not verbatim commanded thus Reade the Law publickly every Sabbath day is not I pray you necessary and inevitable deduction out of Text Scripture with you if yea then we need not travel farre for a command no farther then the fourth precept and not farre into that but to Remember thou keep holy or sanctifie the Sabbath day I told you before that things are then said to be sanctified when they are applied to holy worship now holy worship is the exhibiting to God his due and just honour and that is performed two wayes either by reverent attention to what he offereth us in his word or an humble presentment of what we preferre to him in our prayers For Hearing of the word Adoration are the two hands of religion the one we extend to receive what God communicateth to us the other to represent what in mercy he accepteth from us so as they are indeed the proper instruments of mutuall commerce betwixt him and us and though I allow them a parity of honour yet hath the one a precedency of order before the other and this belongeth to hearing of the word For the first of religious offices wherewith we publickly honour God on earth saith that worthy m Hooker is the receiving that knowledge which he imparteth to us in his word The reason is evident for prius est nosse Deum consequens n colere or rather according to that golden chain How o shall men invoke him in whom they have not believed how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher Hence it is that the Primitive Church had ever the Sermon before the Service to intimate that none ought to be admitted to pray with the Church before they have been inlightned in saving doctrine All tag and rag had free accesse to the Sermon to the service onely the faithfull and Catechumeni p Let the Bishop interdict none neither Gentile nor Heretick nor Jew to enter into the Church and heare the word of God untill the Service of the Catechumeni saith the Councel of Carthage For the clear understanding of which Canon you must know that Missa Catechumenorum signifieth here not the dismission of the Catechumeni but the service so called which began at the introitus and ended at the offertory If then the sanctification of the Sabbath be the application of it to Gods worship the consequence must and will be That all sacred actions tending to this worship as parts thereof but the hearing of the Law read most especially it being of the essence of that worship were commanded in and under the word sanctifie But you 'l say that many Doctours of note maintain that the letter of the fourth commandment imposed upon the Jews no other externall form of sanctifying the weekly Sabbath but resting from bodily labour I answer The literall sense of the fourth Commandment imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the Sabbath viz. by all such religious actions as are proper to holy worship the specialties whereof it not determineth least it should be thought to exclude any It also imposed rest and cessation from secular businesse but that it commanded it as any at all much lesse the onely externall form of sanctifying the Sabbath pardon me I cannot believe For what honour could accrue to God through an idle and lazie rest what worship could man perform waking more then a sleep How could the day be lesse sanctified by beasts then men Rest was injoyned as necessary indeed necessitate medii as a fit means but not necessitate causae as a necessary cause constituting sacred worship Against these Doctours of note I will oppose a Doctour of note too and of such note as his Dictates never any of the Primitive Church durst call into question a Athanasius the Great who in refutation of this Jewish fancie hath amongst others this invincible argument b If rest sanctifieth then by consequence labour polluteth for Contrariorum eadem est ratio yea the Father maketh the knowledge of God to be the chief end of the Sabbath Because knowledge is more necessary then rest c And therefore the beam of truth hath extorted from them this confession That some other religious actions were intended by God as the end of the precept but no other were formally commanded d What I pray did God intend those religious actions as the end of the precept how come you to know Gods intention hath he anywhere revealed it if yea then tell me is not that overture that declaration of his intendment equipollent to a command Besides when and where did God open this his mind in this precept and at the giving of the Law If now and here then these religious actions and rest were coordinate together both imposed at one and the same time the thing you deny If after then God imposed and man observed rest to no end and purpose all that while untill the manifestation of his intentions concerning the end of that rest came forth But God and nature do nothing in vain e even Philosophy could tell you so and sure Divinity much more Their second Argument is upon the old haunt still The want of expresse narration which were it true yet is it no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no demonstration of what they affirm as I have proved before pag. 5. Besides the contrary may be probably collected without detorting Scripture against reason For first when the Shunamite desired to go to the Prophet Elisha to acquaint him with the death of her sonne and to see if he could afford her any comfort her husband expostulated with her saying Why wilt thou go to day it is neither New-moon nor Sabbath day which had been an impertinent question if they had not accustomed to resort to the Prophets on those dayes to heare the word expounded That this was their practice scarce any Expositour upon the place but assureth us Though here is onely mention of the New-moon and Sabbath yet as we need not doubt but that they practiced the same upon other festivalls also so I conceive it to be implyed in both or either words which are often in Scripture taken in a generall notion not denoting
of one in a week was ceremoniall and so abrogated I answer prove you it ceremoniall and I will yield it abrogated but there hath not yet been any argument or reason shewn us whereby we might be perswaded to conceive it ceremoniall nor hath it so much as one Character of a ceremony in it For first it was not typicall it did not prenote any thing to ensue or be accomplisht under the Gospel If that fancy of the Jewish Cabala be true that the world shall continue but six thousand years and then the day of judgement shall follow it might prefigure that and yet no ceremony proved for that time is not yet elapsed and the type must continue till the thing typified be fulfilled so that this rather evinceth the duration then abrogation of this limitation Secondly it had no particular relation to the land of Canaan the proper place of ceremonies nor yet to the Jews upon whom it was not imposed as Jews as a mark of difference to distinguish them from the Gentiles If you object Exod. 31.13 17. Ezech. 20.12 20. where the Sabbath is called a signe betwixt God and them I say the Sabbath was at that time a mark of difference and separation betwixt the Jews and Gentiles that is confest but was it so as a seventh day No that which caused the distinction was the sanctification of them on that day not any thing in the number of seven Gods seposing of a certain time for their and onely their for God worthily neglected those of whom he was not worshipped a Sanctification was an argument that he had an especiall care of them above others and that they were his onely people It was not imposed as an heavy burthen upon the Jews If the sequestring one day in a week had been burthensome to them it would be also a grievance now to us Christians who observe the same But we are under the law of grace and liberty exempted from such pressures and if it were in any respect onerous we would and might renounce it so that it being not to us heavy it is consequently probable that it was to them tolerable And indeed in the explanation of the law or rather application of it to the state of the Jews it is rather recited as an ordinance of comfort and refreshing as of mercy and and favour then of rigour or severity then of depression and of servitude Lastly it was not commanded in recognition of any speciall favour conferred upon the Jews It was a memoriall of Gods creating the world in six dayes and his resting on the seventh but this being a benefit wherein all mankind inter common the Jews can claim no property therein several to themselves And so in respect of this Character as of the three preceding no tidings of a ceremony yet and so no cause of abolition for you will not have more abrogated then was ceremoniall will you If you say it was and must be ceremoniall for morall it was not and therefore positive and because positive ceremoniall I answer denying that positive either necessarily implyeth ceremoniall or excludeth morall Nay more disputable it is whether positive may be admitted here or no Sure I am a great Prelate d hath resolved it In Divine constitutions Positive law hath no place and so e Schoolmen and Civilians use to speak but in regard the propriety of the word signifieth the imposing of what before was in its nature arbitrary whether the imposition be Divine or Humane it constituteth in my opinion a Law positive denominated accordingly Be it then Positive is it therefore ceremoniall or not morall Let the definition of either word end the strife Morall is derived from mores or mos and may be defined as Lirinensis f doth Catholick Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus That which hath been observed every where alwayes and of all men And though in its remotest latitude of signification it is synonymall with what Civilians call Jus Gentium or the Law of Nations yet may it not unfitly be restrained to lesser societies as to Gods Church and so what hath been alwayes observed in his Church may not unfitly be called morall and then the observation of a weekly day will become so too yet with this restriction and difference that one is morall by Naturall infusion the other by externall Imposition g But suppose it granted that Positive were a privative of Morall yet can you never prove that it must inevitably inferre ceremoniall for ceremonies are in their very nature changeable to last but a while their etymologie giveth them that definition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} therefore they who write ceremonie do ill deduce it from Ceres whereas Positive laws may be and are some of them immutable The prohibition of incestuous matches within certain degrees decimation and tithing were Positive and yet I hope you will yield unchangeable The last I am sure you demand by virtue of the first injunction Nor doth the tenth content you you are you think defrauded of your right unlesse we allow it as due jure Divino the truth whereof is here not to be discussed and though I as yet rather incline to the affirmative yet this for undeniable veritie I dare and do averre that to evince a jus Divinum there is farre infinitely farre clearer evidence and demonstration in the Scripture for the Lords day then for Tithes But I digresse All Laws Divine derive their firmnesse or mutability two wayes either from that which giveth them their first constitution Reason Qualis Ratio Praecepti tale Praeceptum as the Reason is permanent or moveable so is the Law for the form of all laws is the reason as that which diversifieth all things is the form or from the subject or matter about which they are conversant for if that be constant the law must also be the same For those Laws Divine which belong whether naturally or supernaturally to men as men or to men as they live in Politick society or to men as they are of that politick society which is the Church without any further respect had to any such variable accident as the state of men and of societies of men and of the Church it self is subject to in this world all Laws that so belong unto men they belong for ever although they be positive laws unlesse being positive God himself that made them altereth them saith Hooker Now no man will deny the reason of commanding a weekly day in memory of the creation to be immutable therefore the Law it self for that cause also though at first positive must be so And that it was imposed on Gods Church without respect had to any particular Place People Time or the like variable occasion is so clear as none can solidly refute and for this cause also it must continue so long as that society the Church for which it was first
the right observation of the Christian Sabbath Is it now likely that the doctrine of so eminent a Teacher as Origen should perswade none to conformitie with what he here delivered But suppose the worst and that you were able to afford us an example or two of labour on this day must it therefore follow that there was no decree of restraint made by the Apostles and that we are at libertie to plow and cart on this day notwithstanding any divine Law to the contrary Nothing lesse for as his late Majestie g judiciously said It is not sound reasoning from things done before a Church be settled and grounded unto those which are to be performed in a Church estalibshed and flourishing There might be and was weighty cause to dispence with so strict a vacancie from worldly businesse as the state of the Church then stood Heavy were their pressures many thousands were the slaves of miscreant masters who in likelihood would not forbear their servants work an hole day in a week but exact it from them under the penaltie of many stripes so that should any of that servile condition have refused his masters work on that day nothing could he expect but severe if not inhumane usage and should the Christian Church have engaged herself in the vindication and justification of such contempt it had been the high-way to have made both her Religion and self even to eradication odious as the incendiaries of disobedience and maintainers of Anarchie And therefore very discreetly the fathers of the Laodicean Councel wary of giving offence yet willing to shew how they stood affected decreed in the twentie ninth canon of that Councel that Christians should rest from labour on the Lords day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} if they could that is if their Pagane masters would not constrain them to work and so it is by Brerewood understood But here it will be excepted If the Law of God commanded their rest and cessation upon the Lords Day the law of man enjoyning the contrary was not to be weighed for in such cases h No man is subject to a law of an inferiour repugnant to another of a superiour or It is better to obey God then man Acts c. 5. v. 29. I answer Better it is indeed to obey God then man when they command things repugnant but it must be with this proviso that the Law of God be fundamentall and paramount from which there is no appeal to an higher For if it be a positive or ceremoniall law a law of lesser caract then Aquinas his rule must be retorted with the losse but of one letter No man is obliged by an inferiour law against a superiour All positive laws whatsoever are subordinate and when they stand in competition with moralls and fundamentalls they must strike sail Because the point is tickle and may perhaps give offence to weaker apprehensions I will illustrate it with two examples taken out of Holy writ where God dispenced with ceremoniall laws for a while that the morall might be preserved inviolate The ceremoniall law of God enjoyned the Israelites to offer such and such sacrifices at such and such times in such and such places directly crosse to which Pharaoh their King imposed upon them such a task as would not afford them any leisure to perform those sacred duties Now the fundamentall law of God enjoyned them as it doth all men to obey their superiours in all things either simply good or not simply evil and betwixt this fundamentall and the other ceremoniall laws stood the contest But what was the issue Did God with the Israelites in this case as Popes in their fury by a Nos Sanctorum with the subjects of an heretick Prince absolve them from their obedience The Israelites were more and mightier then their adversaries did he instigate and spurre them on to rebell or by assassination to make away their King No he sent to Pharaoh and commanded him to let his people go he knew the fault and impediment to be in him alone the Israelites were blamelesse and as Augustine saith in a similarie case i The obliquitie of the command made the King blame-worthy the ordinance of obeying made the subject innocent Nay to pursue this example a little further when Pharaoh condescended to let the people go to sacrifice provided they went not farre Moses refused the leave upon such conditions as were like to bring them in peril of their lives It is not meet so to do shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Aegyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us Exod. 8.26 A true confirmation of Gods impresse I will have mercie and not sacrifice Hos. 6.6 Both he will have where both may be had but if he must part with one mercie he will have let the other go Upon this text a learned Commentatour thus k God preferreth the moralls of the second Table before ceremonialls of the first And the same is the opinion of divers others * The second dispensation was in the wildernesse and that from observation of a sacramentall law for we reade Joshua 5.5 that circumcision was omitted all that time and the Israelites abode there 40 years The most probable cause of this omission was because they were every minute to watch the motion of the convoy-cloud and to march with it but circumcision would either retard their expedition or hazard the lives of the infants therefore God in mercie had rather respect to the safety of those innocents then to his ordinance of circumcision I could also instance in Gods dispensation during the persecution under Manasses and other idolatrous Kings as also under the Captivitie of Babylon in all which severall times doubtlesse there was a fail in many ceremoniall duties otherwise observable The truth is all ceremoniall laws have respect to the latitude of Jury and the land of Canaan as well in a morall as a literall sense viz. they are framed onely for the Church whilest she enjoyeth a visible and open profession of her religion whilest her peace remaineth indisturbed for when the fury of persecution hunteth her like a partridge on the mountains when times of tribulation and calamitie seise upon her God then accepteth what service she can with her own safety afford him he standeth not upon shadows the substance is that he onely then looketh after Ceremonies are but the outward dresse of religion onely made to decore her in publick profession and therefore not absolutely of the essence of a Church and so but respectively necessary The very Sacraments themselves are but so as the glory of our Church l hath rightly observed upon that fail of circumcision in the wildernesse yet Sacraments I take it are the highest stair and degree of ceremonies Now these premises considered nothing discern I to the contrary but a constitution of the Apostles concerning labour to be omitted on this day there might be though not to
take a full effect untill the Church should attain her land of Canaan a settled and flourishing peace And the event seemeth to prove the ordinance for no sooner did Constantine a second Joshuah or Josiah sit sure in his throne then Gods externall worship began to be magnificently solemnized and as an especiall badge thereof his day superlatively honoured both by Imperiall edict and example and that with strict vacation from all worldly avocations ab omni opere from all work so his Histriographer m reporteth Elsewhere I grant there occurreth a constitution of this Religious Emperour tolerating labour on this day but it was in countrey villages onely and that too but in case of necessitie n lest pretermitting the opportunitie offered by the divine providence it might not occurre again o This dispensation is much urged by the Anti-sabbatarians but it hath no great force with us For first it may be well controverted whether Constantine ever made any such indulgence or no because if he had is it credible it could have escaped Eusebius who was not onely contemporary but in a manner companion with this Emperour who took speciall notice of all his actions having in designe the compiling of the Historie of his life and who over lived him yet this Bishop hath not one word of it But be it Constantine's sure we are it was after rescinded by Leo with a We ordain that all men cease from labour on the Lords day that neither husbandmen nor any other take in handwork unlawfull on that day And before Leo divers of the Fathers in their popular tracts or sermons pressed this vacation upon the people On the festivall day all handy-work is prohibited to the end that men may more intirely exercise themselves in sacred matters So Cyril o Chrysostome p calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an immoveable law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that this first day of the week be holly set apart for sacred exercâ—sâ—s But there are also fathers you will say that seem to incline to the contrary First Hierome he relateth of a religious woman governesse of the Nunnes at Bethlehem how she every Lords day resorted to the Church and after service she and her company fell to their ordinary work of making garments for themselves or others To this I answer consider Paula as a subject and then tell me how can you acquit her of the breach I will not say of the fourth but of the fifth precept if Bethlehem was within the latitude of Constantine's decree and certainly it was for that reached Omnes Romano Imperio parentes all men subject to the Romane Empire And if this Lady was not within the verge of the dispensation for that was for husbandmen onely was not then this her act a disobedience to her Princes law and therefore her example no rule of those times it being it self irregular Besides S. Hierome telleth us of religious persons of the other sex Monks that they did orationi tantùm lectionibus vacare busie themselves in prayer and reading on the Lords day Now consider Paula and her Nunnes as women and compare their practice with that of these Monks and then if the masculine practice be not more worthy then the feminine let Grammar scholars judge Out of Gregory they tell us that he giveth it as one cognizance of Antichrist q That he shall enjoyn the Lords Day and the Sabbath to be oâ—served with abstinence from all work To which I answer There are two things which Gregorie here reproveth in the observation of the Dominicall Day first a Jewish not a moderate and sober restraint and this is certain for in the very same epistle he saith r On the Lords day we must cease from labour and by all means attend our prayers secondly the celebrating it together with the Sabbath for it is Diem Dominicum Sabbatum the Lords Day and Sabbath both which was the errour of the Ebionites And therefore Gregorie for ought I see standeth their friend no more then Hierome This Gregory was a man of the sixth Centurie an age wherein themselves acknowledge this restraint took deep root and so it continued successively downward even to the times of Reformation nor did the first Reformers those of our Church especially exercise themselves in varying any thing at all in this point from the received practice as may appear both in the statute and canon laws both of this and other countreys But hitherto I have onely insisted upon restraint from labour and servile work there is yet another question concerning restraint not from work but play and from recreations viz. Whether recreations such as are at other times lawfull are tolerable and lawfull on the Lords day To this I answer in short All recreations at other times lawfull are interdicted on this day but such whereby the mind is better disposed towards the sanctification of the day or such as are no impediments to that sanctification For the day is appointed to be sanctified that is to be an holy not a playday and it is a rule in the decalogue and all other divine laws that where any thing is commanded to be done all things subservient to the performance of it are consequently enjoyned as also all lets and hinderances prohibited Besides Gods house hath been ever thought profaned and polluted by sports and meetings of good fellowship why also not his day Nor is it enough that these recreations be not an hindrance to publick exercises in the Church but they must not disturb even private duties at home as meditation prayer holy conference c. For God commandeth not the sanctification of some few houres but of a day that is an hole day allowing sufficient time for repose and repast to the body And so our Church a interpreteth the command Gods obedient people saith she should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and dayly businesse and give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises And consonant to her her sister the Church b of Ireland The Lords Day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God If holly to Gods service where have recreations a room These articles are it seemeth called in for what reason I not dispute sure I am the nulling of them was very acceptable to the disciples and followers of Arminius Men too bold and frequent in these Dominions c whose accursed tenets were there damned As an appendix to this discourse of recreations if now my opinion be demanded concerning his Majesties book I shall say of that onely this His Princely intentions were therein I doubt not pious enough not so I fear theirs who first suggested the convenience and fitnesse of that liberty unto him But in regard the foundation thereof seemeth especially to be the preserving in observation Encaenia or Church dedications of them I shall say somewhat perhaps not known to all Of their
instruct the Israelites that Gods resting from his works on the seventh day was the reason why he had selected and appointed by his commandment given to them that day rather then any other to be sanctified for his Sabbath Indeed if the fourth commandment had onely mentioned the seventh day to be the Sabbath without more ado and had supprest the reason Moses had had fit occasion to give them here this observation But seeing that Reason was fully and with indeleble characters ingraven in the Decalogue it had been mere supervacaneous and impertinent tautologie to recite it here especially considering it is the most received opinion that Moses compiled the history of Genesis after the Law was promulgated on mount Sinai and so this reason was no news to them If any notwithstanding these grosse and palpable absurdities seemeth desperately enamoured of this forlorn and despicable Prolepsis enjoy her he shall without me his rival I envy him not Come we now to survey that little which the Divine remembrancer hath afforded us of the actual observation of the Sabbath before the Law whereof two onely examples are extant the one for the observation notable the other for the violation For the observation we reade Exod. 16.22 when the Israelites had on the sixth day gathered twice as much Manna as on any other day before the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses and he said to them This is that which the Lord hath said To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord We do not find here that the Israelites were amused at the word Sabbath that they expostulated with themselves as before concerning Manna what it should be no they knew well enough what it was with the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord they had been long acquainted it was no novelty to them the new attendance and long train of strict observances that now waited on it were the things so puzzled so possest them with wonder of a How is it changed from what it was Their old wont was to dresse their necessary viands upon the Sabbath and being now interrupted now disturbed in their accustomed practice by an uncouth innovation of Bake that which you will bake to day and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept untill the morning well might they be in a study well demand a reason of this change And whereas it is by some stiffly affirmed that the Jews did bake their Manna on the Sabbath day an opinion ascribed to Theophilus Brabourn the first as my Authour telleth me that looked so near into Moses his meaning he must know that in Opticks amongst other requisites to perfect discerning justa distantia a a fit distance is one and Mr Brabourn might perhaps by looking too near see to little where the fault was whether in this or in some defect of the organe his understanding or through what other cause I not dispute sure I am that an hallucination an errour of the sight there was and that a grosse one The paraphrase they give of this Text Bake that which you will bake to day c. is this As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day that bake or boyl as you use to do and for the rest lay it up to be baked or boyled to morrow and to this interpretation they the rather betake them because the Israelites laid it up as Moses bad and it did not stink now say they it had been no wonder at all that it did neither breed worm nor stink had it been baked the day before Things of that nature so preserved are farre enough from putrifying in so short a space Not to dwell long in discussing this point They have mistaken both Gods miracle and Moses his meaning Gods miracle for the baking or boyling excludeth not the miracle of its not putrifying things so dressed are indeed the lesse disposed to corrupt therefore the putrefaction which Manna contracted by procrastination on other dayes notwithstanding the same order taken for preservation of it by baking and boyling was the greater miracle and because it tainted against nature and miraculously reserved upon other dayes Gods ceasing to work the same miracle upon the Sabbath might it self seem a miracle The mind of Moses they have not reacht whose words resolve themselves into this construction What you mean to bake bake to day what to seethe seethe to day and what remaineth not unbaked or unboyled but of that which you have baked or boyled more then sufficient for this dayes food lay up for you to eat to morrow and therefore Hierome hath rendred it Quodcunque operandum est facite Whatsoever belongeth to the dressing of the Manna dispatch it now But to put it out of all doubt that this errour may never readvance God himself vers. 5. commanded Moses that the people should Prepare that which they bring in and it should be twice as much as they gathered daily what was this Preparing but dressing but cooking of it so the English will bear and by a word of the same energy and signification it is rendred in I am sure most Translations so the Septuagint so Hierome so the Spanish so the French a thing so manifest as the very Friday was thence denominated {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Preparation to the Sabbath For the violation of the Sabbath we have it recorded vers 27. that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather and they found none this I conceive most likely to have reference to the chap. 18. v. 12. Now because it is held by some that the primum esse and first dawning of the Sabbath began at this fall of Manna though I hope I have already sufficiently proved the contrary I would further know why it should begin then and but then was it to chalk out to the Israelites the precise seventh day from the Creation whereof they were at that time ignorant It could not be for of the seventh day whereon God rested they were not they could not be ignorant in some profane and irreligious houses it might perhaps have been lost but in others more piously affected it was certainly preserved For it is most undeniable and irrefragably true what Sr. Walter Raleigh a hath delivered and it is in substance affirmed by many others That if the story of the Creation had not been written by divine inspiration yet it is manifest that the knowledge thereof might by Tradition then used be delivered unto Moses by a more certain presumption then any or all the testimonies which profane Antiquitie had preserved and left to their successours And this he proveth by the light which Moses might have either by Cabala or letters For that the most notable occurrents of every severall age were transmitted downwards by tradition and heare-say is without all controversie a and for letters it is so clear