They observe the carnall commandements of the Law to wit Circumcision of the flesh and the rest from whose burthens wee are freed by the new Testament Of Appollinaris and his sect this way Austin hath just nothing but Danaeus who collects out of other Authors also the hereticall opinions of the Apollinarists in the last place writes thus of them After the last resurrection say they Sabbaths Circumcision Iewish difference of meates and all other legall ceremonies shall have place yea also there shall bee a Temple amongst us And is not this wilde stuffe in reference to the sanctification of the Lords day now in question amongst us Now let the Reader judge with what modesty it is avouched That Hence it was that Irenaeus Justin Martyr Tertullian and Eusebius doe affirme for certaine that never any of the Patriarches before Moses Law did observe the Sabbath D. Prideaux saith not that Hence it was neither hath this Author given the least evidence hereof Sure I am that in those Patriarches dayes Christ was not as yet come in the flesh but rather to come long after their dayes and consequently though it be a dangerous course in these dayes to lay any ground of suspition that Christ is not already come but as yet to come yet this was of no dangerous condition at all in the dayes of the Patriarchs because in their dayes Christ was not come but to come long after D. Prideaux begins with Tertullian by this Author translated thus Let them saith he in a particular Tract against the Jewes assure me if they can that Adam ever kept the Sabbath or Abel when he offered unto God his accepted sacrifice had regard thereof or that Noah kept the same when he was busied in preparing the Arke against the Deluge or finally that Abraham in offering his sonne Isaak or that Melchisedech in execution of his Priest-hood tooke notice of it Now I appeale to every sober mans judgement whether to put the Jewes in those dayes to shew this be to affirme for certaine That never any of the Patriarches before Moses Law did observe the Sabbath It is true indeed we have no particular relation of the observation of the Sabbath in that Booke of Genesis and this Tertullian knew full well and againe it is as true that there is no testimony of ought to the contrary In the Booke of Iosuah in like sort there is not any mention of the observation thereof any more than in the Booke of Iudges of Ruth of the two Bookes of Samuel but rather something to the contrary to wit in the siege of Iericho and marching round about the walls of Iericho seven dayes together But yet in generall we reade in Genesis that when God had finished all his works in six dayes and rested the seventh he therefore blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and whether this hath not greater evidence that even then God ordered that that day should be sanctified than that the meaning should be that therefore God ordered this two thousand and certaine yeares after I appeale to every Christian to judge betweene us And if God did then order it which could not be otherwise than by command how could Adam be ignorant hereof and if he knew as much how improbable is it that he and his at least Abel and Enosh and his pious posterity should not observe it And if a time had not been set apart even in Adams dayes for divine service how improbable is it that Cain and Abel should concurre at the same time in bringing their offerings unto the Lord and if not at the same time how could Cain discern that Abels offering was respected and accepted of God when his was not Yet for certaine it was observed before Moses Law if by the Law we understand the Law given on mount Sina as appeares manifestly Exod. 16. And withall it is thereby evident that from the beginning of the world untill that time the distinction of the yeare into weekes was observed otherwise it were impossible to know which day was the seventh in correspondencie to the seventh from the Creation save by particular revelation whereof we reade nothing now that being unknowne the reason of sanctifying the seventh day by an holy rest drawne from Gods rest on the seventh that is the last day of the first weeke from the Creation had been utterly void and nothing at all agreeable And this distinction of time into weekes was observed from all Antiquity by the Gentiles as hath been confirmed by Wallaeus and Rivetus with the helpe of Claudius Salmasius that learned Antiquary and likewise that the seventh day was a Festivall even among the Gentiles And albeit divers others of the Ancients are alleaged to the same purpose as affirming that the Patriarches did not observe the Sabbath as namely Eusebius saying They had no Circumcision of the body nor observation of the Sabbath as we have not And Iustin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew saying Heretofore there were good men that pleased God though they kept not Sabbathes And Irenaeus in like manner thus Abraham himselfe without Circumcision and observation of the Sabbaths beleeved God and it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse and lastly Damascen When there was no Law nor Scripture of divine inspiration nor Sabbath consecrated unto God For as for Bede alleaged by Pererius to that purpose in his Hexameron I find in that place nothing answerable thereunto Now Hospinian is of opinion that these passages of the Ancients are to be understood of the rigorous observation of the Sabbath among the Jewes I adde or in reference to the other Sabbaths commanded in the Law of Moses or lastly in reference to the manner of solemnizing them among the Jewes who we know had a peculiar Sacrifice ordained for the Sabbaths and this I prove by these reasons First they deliver this as a thing well knowne for they take no paines to prove it Now consider what ground could they have for the custome of the Patriarchs before the Flood especially considering that the testimony of Moses Gen. 2. 3. is far better evidence for the keeping of a weekly Sabbath in a morall way only than any they could bring to the contrary Secondly then againe could they have better grounds for the practise of those ancient Patriarchs both before and after the Floud than the Jewes themselves I presume none will be so immodest as to affirme this and if they had any such evidence it stood them upon to produce it especially in dealing against the Jewes Thirdly they deliver this as a thing undeniable by the Jewes themselves with whom they deale in this particular but the Jewes had no such faith as to beleeve that the ancient Patriarchs never observed the weekly Sabbath For none are of this opinion but such as thinke that passage Gen. 2. 3. of Gods blessing the seventh day and hallowing it was not delivered of that present time as if then
by God himselfe in the second Commandement yea otherwise than he ordained in the first Creation when he sanctified precisely the Sabbath day and not the day following Such great power did Christ leave to his Church and for such causes gave he the Holy Ghost to be resident in it to guide it into all truthes even such as in the Scripture are not expressed And if the Church had authority and inspiration from God to make Sunday being a working day before an everlasting holy day and the Saturday that before was holy day now a common work-day why may not the same Church prescribe and appoint the other feasts of Easter Whitsontide Christmas and the rest for the same warrant she hath for the one as she hath for the other Now to this Doctor Fulk makes answer after this manner The Apostles did not abrogate the Jewish Sabbath but Christ himselfe by his death as he did all other ceremonies of the Law that were figures and shadowes of things to come whereof he was the body and they were fulfulled and accomplished in him and by him And this the Apostles knew both by the Scriptures and by the Word of Christ and his holy Spirit By the Scriptures also they knew that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever during the World as consecrated and hallowed to the publike exercise of the Religion of God Although the ceremoniall rest and prescript day according to the Law were abrogated by the death of Christ Now for the prescription of this day before any other of seven they had without doubt either the expresse commandement of Christ before his ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdome of God and the order and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his Spirit that it was his will and pleasure it should be so and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how in the words following he falls in upon the same reason of the change of the day which of old was mentioned by Athanasius formerly rehearsed herein by Beza Doctor Andrews D. Lake as I have already shewed Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying the day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the world by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lordrested from the creation of the world And after many lines nothing necessary to be recited he comes to the comparison made betweene the Lords Day and other Festivalls saying Although the Church in dayes or times which are indifferent may take order for some other dayes or times to be solemnized for the exercises of Religion or the remembrance of Christs nativity resurrection ascension or the comming of the holy Ghost may be celebrated either on the Lords Day or any other time yet there is great difference between the authority of the Church in this case and the prescription of the Lords Day by the Apostles for the speciall memory of those things are indifferent of their nature either to be kept on certaine daies or left to the discretion of the Governours of the Church But to change the Lords Day or to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles And againe in the next place The cause of this change it was not our estimation that either we have or ought to have of our redemption before our creation but the Ordinance of God who as first he sanctified the rest from creation for the glory of that weeke so now also he sanctifieth the day of the restitution of the world for his glory of the accomplishment of our redemption Thus wee have not onely authority Humane but authority Divine for the alteration of the Day and that by the testimony of more Bishops antient and late than this Prefacer makes shew of amongst farre meaner names Yet he doth immodestly abuse Doctor Prideaux in putting it upon him that in the fifth Section he maintaines the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution For in that Section he onely opposeth them who would derive the Divine authority which they stand for of the alteration of the Day from the old Testament but as for those who derive the Divine authority thereof from the new they hee confesseth doe carry themselves herein more warily the other more weakly and them alone he disputes against in that Section In the sixth Section he comes to the deriving thereof from the new Testament and first he challengeth them who boast that they have found the institution of the Lords Day in the new Testament expressely to shew the place Then in the often disputations of our Saviour with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath Day he demands where is the least suspicion of the abrogation of it or any mention that the Lords Day was instituted in the place thereof And indeed the time hereof was not yet come onely the death of Christ setting an end to ceremonies Then he demands whether the Apostles did not keepe the Jewish Sabbath now I doe not find they did although they tooke occasions of their meetings on that day to dispute with them and to instruct them in the Faith of Christ Then he demands whether the Primitive Church did not designe as well the Sabbath as the Lords Day to sacred meetings I find in Baronius that Orthodoxi Orientales did and the occasion also to wit in detestation of the Marcionites yet without any such respect it had been nothing strange considering that even now adayes Saturday is counted halfe holy day and that the Jewes had a preparation for the Sabbath in such sort that on their behalfe Augustus made a rescript that no Jewes should be compelled to make good their suretiships as much to say they should not be arrested either on the Sabbath dayes or after three a clocke of the day going before Hereupon which is yet a very weake ground in my judgement he saith that Papists inferre that the Lords Day is not of Divine institution he doth not make any such inference himselfe Yet notwithstanding he confesseth that even in the Church of Rome Anchoranus Panormitane Angelus and Sylvester all which this Prefacer conceals very judiciously for his owne advantage have stoutly set themselves against these luke-warme Advocates in affirmation of the Divine authority of the Lords Day And I find that Azorius in his institutions makes mention of them to the same purpose and addes that Sylvester professeth hanc esse opinionem communem that this is the common opinion And after this Doctor Prideaux in that Section disputes for the Divine institution thereof rather than against it After this he takes notice of Pauls fact Acts 20. 7. and disputes therehence for a custome to celebrate on
the rest to wit in the way of fitnesse for holy use because of the worke of God on that day Whence it is evidently concluded that the Apostles did not thinke it indifferent therefore though it were left to their liberty in as much as no Commandement was given to them thereabout for ought wee reade yet by the spirit of God they were directed to make choyse of this day and that in reference to such a worke on that day as the like on no other Not that the sanctifying of a rest on this day would make us more holy then the sanctifying of a rest on any other day but onely in reference to some speciall worke of God on that day upon which consideration the ancient Fathers doe generally insist and Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake after them doe joyntly rely and not Beza onely Secondly That both Ursine and Paraeus call this a probable reason onely now give me leave to insist upon this and try whether I cannot shew that this reason is more then probable And that first à Posteriori For let us soberly consider how came it to passe that not onely the day whereon Christ rose but answerably hereunto the Day of the weeke to wit the first Day of the weeke was accompted by the Apostles and so commonly called the Lords Day and generally knowne to Christians by that name otherwise S. Iohn had not beene so well understood in his Revelation chap. 1. vers 10. Is it not apparent that Christs rising did ever after give the denomination of the Lords Day to the first day of the weeke Againe the day of Christs Paspassion upon the Crosse is not called the Lords day and why the day of the Resurrection rather surely because S. Paul saith that Christ was declared mightily to be the Sonne of God by the spirit of sanctification in his Resurrection from the dead Hereby then was he manifested to be the Sonne of God the very Lord of Glory and is not this reason more then probable why it should bee called the Lords day Secondly consider that day of the moneth or that day of the yeare whereon the Lord rose wee no where finde that it was usually called the Lords Day but onely that day of the weeke not the day of the weeke wherein hee ascended into Heaven but the day of the weeke wherein hee rose Now the Jewes Sabbath was called the Lords Sabbath the Lords holy Day Es 58. 13. If thou shalt turne away thy foote from my Sabbath from doing thy will on my holy Day Hath the Lord a Day under the Gospell but no Sabbath no holy Day what an unreasonable conceite were this that hee should have an holy Day one in every weeke under the Law and none under the Gospell Now if the Lord hath a day that is peculiarly called his under the Gospell and that day is in the Scripture styled the Lords Day I appeale to every Christian conscience whether the sanctifying of this day as holy to the Lord ought not by more then probable yea even by necessary reason come in place of the sanctifying of the seventh day as an holy rest to the Lord in the dayes of old Otherwise we should have two different dayes in the weeke the one called the Lords Day the other the Lords holy Day or no holy day at all though wee have the Lords Day Lastly consider the very definition of a thing probable which Aristotle makes to be such as seemes so in the judgement of most or in the judgement of most of the wisest or of some few provided they are wiser then the rest but the sanctifying of the first day of the weeke to the Lord that is the Lords Day to the Lord hath seemed fit not to some of the wisest onely in the Church of God but to all even to all the Apostles yea and Evangelists and Pastors and teachers in their dayes and to the whole Church for 1600. yeares since and shall wee call the reason moving them hereunto onely probable 2. yet all this is but a posteriori which yet for the evidence of it I presume most sufficient for the convicting of every sober Christian conscience of that truth to the demonstration whereof it tends I come to give a reason hereof à priori The first creation in the wisedome of God who proceeds not merely according unto probable reason drew after it a Sabbath day the seventh day where on God rested But if God vouchsafeth us a new creation in the same congruity may wee not justly expect a new Sabbath Now the Apostle tells us plainly that old things are passed away and that all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. and this he brings in upon shewing what Christ hath deserved at our hands in as much as he died for us and rose againe vers 15. the end whereof was this that he might be Lord both of quicke and dead Rom. 14. 9. and concludes that whosoever is in Christ is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. And how are we in Christ but by faith Gal. 2. 20. And what is the object of this our faith let the same Apostle answer us If thou confesse with the mouth the Lord Iesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved so that this faith in Christs resurrection is to us the beginning of a new creature And Christs resurrection Sedulius calls nascentis mundi primordium And Athanasius saith That as the Sabbath was the end of the first creation so the Lords Day is the beginning of the second creature And this is it that Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake doe worke upon for the celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine institution But I am not a little sensible of some appearance of incongruity rising hereupon Almighty God did not thinke it fit that the first day of creation should be our Sabbath but the seventh from the creation as whereon himselfe rested but in the second creation the first day is made our Sabbath To this I answer two things the first is this if man should not rest unto God till the second creation is finished hee should not rest at all in this world And the sixe dayes being the dayes of Gods worke the seventh was the first of mans worke which God would have to be an holy worke most convenient whereby to take livery and seasin of the world For albeit God commanded Adam to dresse the garden and keepe it when he placed him in it yet it is nothing probable it had need of dressing so soone as it was made and no mention of rest commanded at the first onely it is said that because God rested that day from all his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it This I deliver to save the expression of Athanasius 2. But in my judgement there is an exact congruity betweene rest and rest in each creation For as God rested the seventh day from the
precepts is once proposed as subservient indifferently as to faith and manners so also to the well ordering of the Church and that in this particular of notifying unto all what day of the weeke is it to bee sanctified to Gods Service As for the places Rom. 14. Gal. 2. Coloss 2. I answer that if wee made the observation of the day as it denotes a circumstance of time any part of Gods Service or for some mysterious signification contained therein then indeed wee should carry our selves in contradiction to the places mentioned but seeing we observe times onely out of respect to order and policy which is necessary for the edification of the Church and God having always required one day in seven to be set apart for this even when there was not so great need nor had God manifested his love to mankinde in such sort as in these latter dayes and of our selves wee are to seeke of the particularity of the day under a fit proportion of time from the beginning of the World rquired and hereupon were we left to our owne judgements a way would bee opened to miserable dissension and confusion what cause have wee to blesse the Lord for marking out a day to us with such notable characters to make it our Sabbath and to honour it by his appearance amongst his Apostles when they were assembled together both that day and that day senight after as also by his Apostles to commend it and establish it in such sort that for 1600. yeares the observation thereof hath continued unto this day which order of the Apostles doth carry pregnant presumption that it proceeded originally from the institution of Christ The necessity of the Church Christian requiring the specification of the day for the preventing of dissension and confusion as much as ever the necessity of the Jewish Church required the like and over and above by reason of the fourth Commandement wee have now better evidence to conclude therehence the observation of the Lords Day by the congruity that Christs Resurrection hath to the Lords rest from Creation better means I say to conclude ours then they without a Commandement to inferre the observation of their seventh forstill the day of the Lords rest is made the day of our rest Thirdly that which is alleadged in the third place that both ancient and late writers doe maintaine that wee celebrate the Lords Day not as any part of Divine worship nor as absolutely necessary For the first of these wee willingly grant for as much as wee conceave the observation of the 7 th by the Jewes was no otherwise a part of Divine worship then as it was a ceremony and shadow the body whereof was Christ prefigured thereby and it is well knowne that no Christians observe it in any such Notion But the observation thereof wee hold to bee absolutely necessary and so doth Doctor Walaeus in holding it to bee invariable and that it cannot bee altered without the greatest scandall And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells professeth it to bee not liberae observationis but necessariae And if it were free then not to use this freedome at all doth manifestly give way to superstition in taking that for a thing necessary which is not though not as touching the substance of Gods worship and service yet as touching a circumstance thereof such as is the circumstance of time As for expresse precept if hee meanes a precept expressely written no man I trow ever stood for that but if hee meanes a precept given by Christs expresse charge to his Apostles no man that I have met with saith more hereupon then Doctor Walaeus seemes to affirme himselfe in saying that they were entrusted by the Holy Ghost as extraordinary Ministers that they should bee faithfull ad tradenda praecepta to give praecepts of faith and manners and of the good government of the Church and right order and particularly in this that might be known to all what day in the weeke was to be set apart for Gods service both by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and to praevent dissension and confusion among the Churches Neither doe we acknowledge any other celebrity of the day then this and therefore doe no more affront Hierome then Doctor Walaeus himselfe As for festivall dayes in Socrates and Nicephorus I see no cause why as touching that they speake thereof the Lords Day should bee comprehended under them and as for apostolicall precept concerning this Doctor VValaeus is as expresse as any And it is not credible to mee that the Apostles should make such an invariable ordinance to the Church and not bee verily perswaded that it was the Will of God the Father and of God the Sonne it should bee so whether manifested by Christs particular charge unto them or by comparing Christs Resurrection with the Lords rest from the workes of Creation Otherwise in my judgement they had never called that day the Lords Day Fourthly he excepts against the argument drawne from Christs Resurrection denying that therehence it followes that that day was to bee consecrated to God But herein hee opposeth all the ancients neither doe I thinke hee can alleage any one that doth not hereon build the observation of the Lords Day which nuiversall concurrence doth manifestly argue to be more then probable Austin as Waleus alleadgeth him professeth not as his peculiar opinion but as he took it generally received without contradiction that Dies Dominicus Christianis resurrectione Domini declaratus est and that resuscitatio Domini consecravit nobis diem Dominicum And Athanasius plainly takes notice of the analogy it hath to the fourth Commandement and analogy Doctor Walaeus grants and I wonder hee takes no notice of it here by comparing the second Creation with the first Creation and so Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester professeth that the new Creation requires a new Sabbath especially seeing the old must bee abrogated as ceremoniall But the analogy I confesse may be differently shaped Athanasius shapes it thus that the Jewes Sabbath was the end of the first Creation and that the Lords Day is a beginning of the second Creature to wit as the day of Christs resurrection in reference whereunto the Apostle saith Old things are passed behold all things are become new And I conceive reason to justifie Athanasius in making the beginning of the new creature to be our Sabbath answerable to the end of the first creation to wit because the second creation hath no end in this world Againe Adam and Eve were made but the immediate day before the seventh and the seventh he was to spend in rejoycing in Gods works so Christs death was the worlds redemption and immediately after to wit with Christs rising it was as fit we should Sabbatize with God for joy of our Redemption Otherwise the analogie which Doctor Walaeus grants but doth not explicate may be conceived thus The seventh day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the worke
of creation the first day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the work of redemption in the morning thereof rising from his grave and in respect of Christs resurrection on this day what colour hath any other day of the weeke comparable hereunto to make it fit to stand in competition with this Yes saith D. Walaeus the Thursday may and that in consideration of Christs ascension on that day yet Doctor Walaeus well knowes that that day of the week was never thereupon called the Lords Day either by the Apostles or by the Church as the day of our Saviors resurrection was Againe consider Christs resurrection and ascension are to be computed but as one compleate motion save that he was to stay some time by the way here on earth for the confirming of his Disciples faith and giving them commission for preaching the Gospel and order to wait at Jerusalem untill they were endued with power from on high to carry the glad tidings of salvation all the world over So Christs dying and continuing under the power of death is but one worke of Redemption He confesseth that Christs resurrection afforded an argument to the Church Apostolicall to prefer this day before all others very well even before the day of his ascention for religious assemblies as al the ancients testifie But it followeth not therefore that Christ by this his fact did institute the same day to the same end Now this is a very strange phrase by his fact on the day to institute the day to such an end T is well knowne facts doe not institute otherwise than as therefrom may be concluded that such a day is to be kept and in this sense he doth as good as confesse that Christ by his fact did institute for the Apostolicall Church did hereupon preferre this day as he confesseth all the ancients doe testifie And did they not inferre this there-hence also as most agreeable to the Will of God Doctor Walaeus proceedeth thus So God in the creation of the world rested the seventh day but unlesse God had proposed this rest of his as an example and confirmed it by precept never had the Church of the old Testament beene bound as from heaven to the weekly observation thereof To this I answer that the like may be said of the observation of one in seven yet seeing God did cōmand this proportion to the Jews without any new commandement we can inferre that surely God requires as good a proportion of us Christians In like manner seeing God commanded unto them the day of his rest from creation we without any the like commandement may better inferre that Christs resting day from the worke of Redemption ought to be our rest than they could that the seventh day ought to betheir rest 2. Man could not possibly have knowne how many dayes God was creating the world so to know what day he rested that they might conforme unto him in their rest unlesse God had revealed it unto them but supposing God had revealed it and withall had called it his holy day and it were knowne unto them that one day in the weeke must be set apart as Gods holy Day in this case I appeal to every Christian conscience whether this were not sufficient to conclude that surely the day of the Lords rest being his holy Day ought to be the day of our rest and our holy day Now thus the case stands with us Christians we know what day our Saviour rose having finished the worke of mans Redemption we know the Jewes Sabbath is abrogated we know the proportion of one day in seven remaines still to be consecrated as an holy day to the Lord we know the Lord prescribed to the Jewes for their Sabbath his resting day from the creation which is called his holy day And in like manner we know that under the Gospel the first day of the weeke being the day of our Saviours resurrection is called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day as for Easter and Pentecost the case is nothing like those festivalls being not of single dayes but of whole weeks once in a yeere yet this proportion we find betweene them and the weekely Sabbath There are in a yeere seven times seven weeks and a fraction lesse than halfe a seven so that the memory of the creation was seven times in a yeere celebrated more than the memory either of their deliverance out of Egypt or of their reaping the fruits of the land of Canaan the one farre surmounting the other yet their Easter began the day of the yeere whereon they came out of Egypt And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells Thes 41. de Sabbat professeth that God sets out the day by the worke he doth on the day the worke I say done doth difference a day from a day and Thes 43. Now then when God doth any remarkable worke then will he be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke If the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part and Thes 44. And his Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Catholique rule observed in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and history The very light of nature doth give testimony unto this as appeareth by the common practice of the heathens as to give some instance hereof what is the originall of the observation of the Fryday as a festivall day amongst Mahumetanes surely this on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib and so that day is accounted the first day of his kingdom and from thenceforth it was ordained to be the first day of their yeere and of their weeke So then the Will of God in the judgement of this reverend Divine is manifested not onely by Precept but by his Worke. And yet I know none speakes more of Precept in this particular than Doctor Walaeus as I have often alleged him pag. 172. Fifthly I grant Iunius went too farre in affirming that Christ did observe the same every weeke betweene his resurrection and ascention but neither doth the contrary appeare by Scripture undoubtedly the two first he did and it is not manifest that the three following he did not and though Cyril inferres here-hence the reasonablenesse of our Christian assemblies on this day yet wee doe not but as Doctor Walaeus concludes that which hee concludes not from any one place but from many places together that do we Neither is it any thing to the purpose that Doctor Walaeus observes of Christs appearing on other dayes as Ioh. 21. 24. once which was at a fish meeting And as little materiall is it that at such other times of his meetings he spake of the kingdome of God Sixthly On like sort Christ sending down
The next aspersion is that the thing also is revived But what thing the Jewes had peculiar sacrifice both morning and evening which doubled the dayly sacrifice this surely is not revived There were besides two things in the Jewish Sabbath the one was a rest the other was the sanctifying of that rest As for the rest if that were not it were no Sabbath Yet our Saviour calls it a Sabbath our Church calls it a Sabbath our State calls it a Sabbath And Austin calls us to such a rest on the Lords Day as that therein we must tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare onely rest to God onely rest for divine worship And Calvin who is taken to be no friend of ours in this case professeth that we must rest from all our works so farre forth as they are avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations but not for any mysterious signification sake and that herein consists the difference betweene the Jewish rest and our Christians rest and I am exactly of his opinion for this As for the sanctification of this rest I trust wee are as much bound to the performance hereof and that in as great measure and with as great devotion under the Gospel as ever the Jewes were under the Law And at the hearing of this Commandement as well as of any other our Church hath taught us to pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law And I find it wondrous strange to heare that some should not spare to professe that this was shuffled in they know not how At length wee come to the particular charges the first is that some should teach that The Commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall and Master Rogers is quoted for this on the Article Art 7. hee quotes Master Doctor Bownde pag. 7. Now truely it cannot be denied but that when the fourth Commandement is read unto us in our Congregations wee are taught to pray unto God to shew such mercy unto us as to incline our hearts to the keeping of this law And both master Rogers and this Prefacer are to be presumed to have subscribed as well as others and by their subscription acknowledged that this is nothing contrary to Gods Word that we are as much bound to the observation of this Commandement as of any other and consequently to keepe the Sabbath and doe no manner of worke thereon that may hinder the sanctifying thereof Now Master Doctor Bownds words after hee had cited Chrysostome speaking thus I am hic ab initio c. Here now even from the beginning God hath insinuated this Doctrine unto us teaching us in circulo hebdomadis diem unum that in the compasse of a weeke one whole day is to be put apart for a spirituall rest unto God are these Unto all which may be added that for profe oth at this Commandement is naturall morall and perpetuall that I say may be added which was practised among the Gentiles and all the Heathen And now Do. Bowndes purpose unto the p. 30. is to be proved only this that a Sabbath was from the beginning and still is to be kept and that in the proportion of one day in seven and after that proceeds to prove what day the Sabbath should be kept his words are these p. 30. Now as we have hitherto seene that there ought to be a Sabbath day so it remaineth that we should heare upon what day this Sabbath should be kept and here he sheweth that this is not left unto the Church but prescribed by God himselfe as who prescribed one day unto the Jewes and another day unto us Christians but still one in seven The same was the opinion both of Bellarmine and Master Hooker in his Ecclesiasticall policy Whereas both Master Rogers and the Prefacer so carry the matter as if by Doctor Bowndes opinion we Christians were bound to keepe our Sabbath on the same day whereon the Jewes were bound to keepe theirs which is most untrue though the fourth Commandement may be indifferently accommodated to our Christian Sabbath as it was unto the Jewish Sabbath save onely as touching the reason given which hath expresse reference to the creation but our Christian Sabbath stands in reference to the worke of Redemption Each is the rest on a seventh day after six dayes of labour and as they were bound to sanctifie their seventh so are we bound to sanctifie ours and as that was rested on and sanctified in remembrance of Gods rest from the worke of Creation so is ours rested on in remembrance of Christs rest from the worke of Redemption so that our day of rest is but translated from the day of the Lord our Creators rest to the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest And on this ground might the Church justly teach us to pray at the hearing of this fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this law But like enough both Master Rogers and this Prefacer might be of Brentius his opinion that it is left indifferent to the Church at this day to content themselves with observing of one day in foureteene if it pleaseth them But this was not the opinion of Pope Alexand. the third who professeth that Tam veteris quà m novi Testamenti pagina septimam diem ad humanam quietē specialitèr deputavit Both the old and new Testament hath appointed the seventh day for the rest of man which Suarez thus interpreteth That is each Testament hath approved the custome of assigning every seventh day of the weeke for rest which is formally to appoint a seventh day though the same day materially be not alwayes appointed and thus it is true that that seventh day in the old Law was the Sabbath day but in the new it is the Lords Day now when we say the observation of one day in seven is naturall our meaning is not neither was it D. Bowndes meaning that this proportion of time is knowne by the light of nature to be that which of duty should be consecrated unto God herein rather it becomes us to wait upon God and he having defined it now we say nothing can be devised by man more agreeable to reason than this Azorius the Jesuit professing it to be most agreeable to reason And Doctor Field as Master Broade voucheth him spared not to say that to him who knowes the story of the creation it doth appeare in reason that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto God onely let us not looke for reason demonstrative in matter of morality Aristotle long agoe hath professed that not demonstration but perswasion alone hath place in Ethicks yet we may justly call that naturall which from the originall was common to all nations and that such was the observation of the seventh day the learned have sufficiently proved Secondly if it be
not rather be guided herein by their Masters pleasure especially by such a Master to whom wee owe not onely all that wee doe enjoy but our selves also who holdeth our soules in life and in whose hands is the breath of all man-kinde The question thus untowardly proposed it is subjoyned that They commonly which are more apt to say any thing than able afterward to prove it maintaine affirmatively that it was Doctor Rivet having proposed this addeth that if it be spoken of the law of nature properly so called scarce any one will be found to maintaine any such thing And indeed the question in hand is of the institution of the Sabbath Now no wise man useth to inquire of the institution of that which is written in our hearts and knowne unto us by the very common light of nature It is true some fetch the originall thereof from the beginning of the world when God first blessed the seventh day and sanctified it And what other sense this can have than that God commanded it to be set apart for holy uses wee cannot devise For seeing Gods blessing and sanctifying of it doth undoubtedly denote some act of God this must be either an immanent act or an act transient Not an act immanent for all such are eternall but this was temporall following upon Gods rest on the seventh For therefore it is said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and being an act transient and temporall it must declare his will to have it sanctified that is by the generall notion of the word set apart that is from profane and secular to holy uses And how could this will of God be manifested but by commandement seeing it is a will of God not so much concerning what shall be done as concerning what shall be mans duty to doe And this hath both Walaeus and after him Rivetus justified and this latter against Gomarus once and againe and that by divers arguments And thus as we have expresse Scripture for it so we have as evident reason to justifie it For no other ground can be devised for the dividing of the whole course of time into weeks each consisting of seven dayes than as it stands in congruity to Gods making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh Which division of time was undoubtedly observed by the Israelites and received by them from their forefathers yea and from the Patriarches of old who lived before the flood and that continued without alteration even from the Creation of the world For otherwise they could not have discerned what days had been answerable to the first six of the Creation and what day to the seventh wherein God rested having finished the creation But this was well known unto them as appears by their gathering Manna and promulgation of the 4 th Commandement together with the rest on Mount Sinai Nay this division of time into weeks was generally observed among the heathens as hath been shewed by great variety of reading and that this hath beene the most ancient division of time those other divisions into moneths and into yeeres comming in place long after according as the motion of the Moone and of the Sunne were found out by Astrologers not till then like as the denomination of the seven dayes of the weeke by the severall names of the planets was not brought in untill the severall motions of all the Planets come to be discovered As for the second reason proposed thus on our part If all the rest of the Commandements flow from the principles of nature how is this excluded It is not fit that any man should take upon him the shaping of his adversaries arguments That this Commandement should be taken for a part of the morall Law I wonder that any man should be so unreasonable as to deny but that this Commandement should flow from the Principles of nature and that delivered without distinction I know no man that affirmes But let us distinguish and I make no doubt but there will be found no difference of moment betweene Doctor Prideaux and us For I find no man to deny but that some time in generall is to be set a part as well for Gods publique worship and service as for private and that this is acknowledged by the very light of nature Only as touching the proportion of time that is to be set apart for Gods service herein we are to seeke yet herein also the light of nature doth advantage us and that sufficiently in two particulars For the truth whereof I dare appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux himselfe 1. The first is this that not onely some time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be consecrated to the exercises of piety both publique and private Gomarus and Rivetus are driven to acknowledge this in answer to Walaeus about the proportion of one day in seven And whereas we may be to seeke of agreement about what is sufficient 2. Therefore in the next place the very light of nature doth suggest unto us that it is farre more fit that the Master should prescribe unto the servant what proportion of service he expects from his hands than that the servant at his pleasure should cut out what proportion of service he thinks good unto his Master how much more fit that the Creator should prescribe unto his creature then that the creature should prescribe unto his Creator considering 1. how the dominion of God over his creature is incomparably greater than that which any other Master hath over his servant 2. That man may become unreasonable in his demands and commands God cannot 3. God can give strength to his creature to performe what he commands man cannot 4. The more cleare and expresse the Commandement is the more comfortable to the creature being hereby assured the service hee performes is in the way of obedience not unto his owne will but to the will of his Master 3. May I not adde a third namely that by the very equity of a naturall conscience it is more fit to apportion unto Gods service one day in a weeke rather than one day in a moneth especially considering that originally time hath beene divided into weekes and not into moneths untill a long time after In all which I am content to appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux himselfe Yet we have not done in this argument For in the fourth Commandement there is enjoyned not onely the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods service and the proportion of one day in seven in speciall but also the particulating of a certaine day under this proportion and who seeth not that so many different things though one in subordination to another being duly considered it is no way fit to confound them and to speake hand over head of the fourth Commandement without distinctions Now as touching the particularity of the day herein I confesse wee are more to seeke by the light of nature than for the speciall proportion
grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that w ch is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24. 20. D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and penall statutes may provide for such restraints by such punishments as whereof every naturall man will be sensible enough we have other considerations to propose as 1. Touching the proportion of time to be allowed to Gods service which concerneth the quantity of the service it selfe 1. This is a thing very considerable and of moment 2. We have no example that the quantity of service to be performed to the master was left unto the conscience or pleasure of the servant but rather is to be prescribed by the Master especially by such a Master as God is 1. Who hath made us 2. Who will infinitely reward us 3. To serve whom is our most perfect freedome and happinesse 4. And who is able to give us strength to performe it 5. And who is tenderly sensible of our weaknesses as he is most privy to them 6. And after God hath discovered this unto us and required the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to him and that under the Law surely reason doth suggest that we cannot performe lesse unto him under the Gospell 2. As touching the particularity of the day under this proportion 1. We read that there is one that is Lord of the Sabbath Now in reason who shall appoint this day but he that is Lord of it especially considering that it is his holy day Es 58. and such festivalls were said to be of his making Psalme 118. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made not of mans making secondly but it may be said he may leave unto man the appointing of it if it please him I answer that in this case it stands them upon to shew their Charter for this Thirdly for my part I see no cause we should desire any such liberty but rather pray unto God to blesse us from it 1. For as I am flesh I shall bee sure to put it off to the end of the weeke and I may be gone out of the world ere that day comes and when that day comes I shall be as loath to come to the service that day requires as ever and assoone weary of it and say when will the Sabbath be gone that I may returne to my former courses secondly as I am spirit I have cause to make choyce of the first day for à Iove principium and Adam and Eve being after the beasts of the field made on the sixt day and planted in Paradise the seventh day was the first entire day to him 4. Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells observes that festivalls dayes have ever beene commended unto us by some notable worke done on that day Now what worke like unto the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the weeke 5. Bishop Andrewes observes in his Starre Chamber speech that this
as different courses therin it is fit that herein we should wait for the Lords direction and designation of the particular day And even this also was so ordered by God himselfe and that in great congruitie as appeares to as many as are acquainted with the story of the Creation For the Lord having dispatched all his workes in six dayes and resting on the seventh commanded man to imitate him For in this respect it was that at the first the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and some thousand of yeares after gives this reason why after six dayes of labour the seventh being the Sabbath of the Lord our God no manner of worke should be done therein which being once thus ordered by the Lord of the Sabbath it must be in force of perpetuall observation as a requisite determination of the morality of this Law and not of an alterable nature save only by the same authority whereby it was ordained Now to my understanding by the fourth Commandement it is cleare First that God commanded some time to bee set apart and sanctified unto his service Secondly that the proportion of this time he hath defined to be one day in seven Thirdly that the particular day under this proportion was designed to be the seventh and that unto the Iews in correspondencie to the seventh day from the first creation where in God commanded them to rest from all their workes like as on that day the Lord rested from his works And I thinke there is no question amongst Christians but that all this ought to be religiously observed by the people of God untill the Lord himselfe manifest his pleasure for alteration and no farther in any particular than God shall manifest his pleasure for alteration As for example First for the time then for the rest lastly for the service of the day itselfe First If God hath not manifested his will for any alteration of setting apart some time for divine service we must still continue to set some time apart for divine service Likewise if God hath not manifested his pleasure to have the proportion of time altered which hath bin originally allotted unto his service we must not presume to allow a lesse proportion of time for his service than hath been formerly prescribed by him Only both Gomarus and Rivet concur in this that we may allow more and that in reason it is sit now under the Gospell to allow more time for Gods service rather than lesse in comparison to that which he would have allowed him under the Law And as for the particularity of the day if God hath manifested his pleasure to have it altered it must be altered as in case it appeare to have been ceremoniall in respect of the rest commanded thereon and another in the seven substituted in the place thereof and that according to Gods direction and not otherwise Secondly so as touching the rest of the day commanded upon Mount Sinaunto the Jewes not so unto Adam upon the Creation but onely wee reade that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it which sanctification yet on mans part drawes a rest with it if there be found a just distinction betweene a rest morall so far forth as the sanctification of the day requireth and a rest ceremonial of a more rigorous nature and that prefiguring something in Christ it will follow herehence that the rest morall still continueth together with the sanctification of the day as much as ever and that the rigorous rest must fall and be abolished Thirdly so in the last place as touching the service of the day whatsoever was prescribed unto the Jewes thereon as ceremoniall is at end as namely the Sabbath sacrifice which doubled the daily sacrifice Only the publique ministery of the Word and Prayer as morall still continueth together with our Sacramentall ceremonies which Christ hath given unto his Church Baptisme and the Lords Supper and therefore the Lords day was called by the Ancients the day of light in reference unto Baptisme Baptisme being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illumination the first worke of grace and the day of Bread in reference to the Lords Supper Now all this I hope to make appeare before I give over this taske which I have taken in hand And I was the more confirmed in my meditations when I heard by one of my Auditors a Divine that in this doctrine of mine concerning the Sabbath as touching the substance of that which was delivered by me I nothing differed from the opinion of D. Prideaux whose discourse on that argument at that time I had not been acquainted with But since I finde that Sect. 8. of that his Lecture he professeth that the Jewish rest cannot stand with our Christian libertie I say so too and withall endevour to give evidence for the abrogation thereof Further the same Reverend Doctor professeth That we only are so farre to abstaine from worke as it is an impediment to the performance of such duties as are then commanded I am not only of his opinion herein but withall desire no more than this to be granted for the maintenance of the morall rest of the fourth Commandement But I have observed some to deny any thing in the Iewish Sabbath to have been ceremoniall yet will not have that fourth Commandement morall but positive rather as touching both the observation of one day in seven and as touching the particularity of the day And therefore they deny it to be morall because it hath not evidence by light of nature But was it evident to the Jewes by light of nature that the God of their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob and that brought them out of the land of Aegypt was the true God of the world and that therefore they ought to have no other gods but him Is it evident by the light of nature that God is not to be worshipped by an Image Or if naturall evidence hereof faile us in this state of corrupt nature wherein we are shall these lawes be denied to be the morall Law of God yet I nothing doubt but the proportion of time allowed for Gods service much more the particularity of the day appointed thereunto is alterable at the pleasure of God And ceremonials I confesse are in such a sense positive or rather more than positive namely such as not only may but must like shadowes fly away when the body of them comes in place And yet I find that Cajetan in this point confounds ceremoniall with positive though I think he would not call it ceremoniall unlesse he conceived that this which he cals positive had some ceremoniality in it But their reason whereupon they deny the ceremoniality of it in my judgment is not sufficient 1. Because they ground it upon a supposition very questionable namely that the Sabbath was instituted before the fall which some deny and that with very great probability in my judgment 2. Their consequence is not good For though it were no ceremony
God ordained it should be sanctified but only by way of anticipation for the time to come But this was not the opinion of the Jewes Manasseth Ben Israel a moderne Rabbin in his booke intituled The Reconciler Conciliator according to the argument of that his writing which is to reconcile places of Scripture in shew disagreeing and that upon enquiry into all the Rabbins both ancient and later in his 36. Question upon Exodus writes thus as out of the opinion of the Ancients those words Thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in Egypt observe how he expounds them Ac si diceret cogita in Aegypto ubi serviebas etiam ipso Sabbato per vim te coactum ad labores as if he should say thinke with thy selfe that in Egypt where thou servedst thou wast by force constrained to labour on the very Sabbath Evidently manifesting not out of his owne particular opinion but as out of the generall opinion of their ancient Rabbins that the Sabbath and the observation thereof was a duty in the very dayes of the Patriarchs And in the end concludes thus Igitur Deus benedictus cupiens Sabbatum cujus sanctimoniam tantis document is approbaverat in aeternum ab omnibus coli decem praeceptis illud inseruit quo scientes praecepta aterna esse etiam hoc inter ea habendum intelligerent Therefore the blessed God it is fit I should translate it for the benefit of the common people desiring that the Sabbath might bee observed for ever of all whose sanctity by so many documents he had commended placed it in the Dialogue that it made it one of the tenne Commandements to the end that knowing those precepts to bee everlasting they should understand that this Commandement also was to be accomplished amongst them And indeed Tertullian himselfe professeth that the Jewes were of this opinion as Rivetus observes out of his booke against the Jewes thus translated God from the beginning did sanctifie the seventh day resting from all the workes that hee had made and that thereupon Moses said unto the people Remember yee the Sabbath day to sanctifie it And therefore when Mercer saith concerning the meaning of these words Genes 2. 3. Hebraei fere referunt in futurum the Jewes for the most part referre it to the time to come he is to be understood of the later Jewes but of this more shall be spoken ere wee part from this section 4 Fourthly not one of the ancient Fathers is alleaged by our adversaries delivering his opinion upon that passage Genes 2. 3. to shew what hee conceives to bee the true meaning thereof which yet is the onely ground whereupon our doctrine is built concerning the originall institution of the Sabbath and seeing it contains a meaning at first sight manifestly contradictious to that which they affirne as wee interpret it of the weekely Sabbath without reference unto the Jewish manner of observing it therefore in this case it stood them upon to take notice of that place and by some faire interpretation vindicate themselves from suspition of contradicting the expresse Word of God 5 Tertullian himselfe justifies our doctrine namely that God from the beginning sanctified the seventh day as Rivetus shewes out of his fourth booke against Marcion cap. 12. where hee sayth Christum ipsum Sabbati diem benedictione Patris à primordio sanctum benefactione sua efficâ—re sanctiorem That Christ himselfe made that day more holy by his well doing on that day which by the benediction of the Father was made holy from the beginning So that Tertullians meaning in the place alleaged to the contrary cannot bee that the ancient Patriarchs simply observed not the weekely Sabbath but onely that they observed it not after that manner the Jewes did and that the like interpretation must bee given of the passages alleaged out of other of the Ancients 6 For further proofe whereof observe that Theodoret albeit on the 20. of Ezekiel hee saith in like manner that God prescribed unto the Jewes the sabbaticall vacations Ut haec civilis administrationis ratio peculiaris à Gentium quidem eos distingueret institutis that this peculiar administration might distinguish them from the customes of the Gentiles yet Wallaeus shewes that the same Theodoret in his questions upon Genesis doth manifestly declare that even from the beginning of the creation God did ordaine this day to rest and sanctification As who having created the creatures in six dayes by the rest of the seventh day manifested the creation to be perfected like as in seven dayes hee concluded the whole circle of dayes And that by blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it he declared Quod non illum diem inutilem putabat ad creandum sed ad quietem accommodatum statuit The meaning whereof in effect is this that hee did not thinke that day unfit to have any thing created therin but onely it was his pleasure to ordaine it for a day of rest The same Author shewes Chrysostome to bee of the same opinion in his 10. Homily on Genesis whose words in Latine he rendreth thus Iam hinc ab initio doctrinam hanc nobis insinuat Deus erudiens in circulo hebdomodae diem unum integrum segregandum reponendum ad spiritualem operationem Now from the beginning God insinuates this instruction teaching that in the circle of the weeke one entire day is to bee sequestred and imployed on spirituall actions These authorities in my judgement should bee of the greater force for as much as they deliver their opinion by way of interpretation of Gods Word and that according to the plaine literall meaning and that such as whereunto every Christians conscience not fore-stalled with prejudice is prone enough to yeeld by reason of the native evidence of the words For they denote an externall action and transient not an internall and immanent in God all of which kinde are eternall which externall action is the dedication of the day to holy uses which cannot bee imagined to bee done any other way as I should thinke then by commanding it to bee sanctified The same Author shewes Austin to have beene of the same judgement writing thus When God sanctified the seventh day because thereon hee rested from all his workes hee did not deliver ought concerning the Fast or Dinner of the Sabbath nor afterwards when to the Hebrew people hee gave commandement for the observation of the day it selfe did hee mention ought as touching the receiving or not receiving of food onely commandement is given concerning mens vacation from their owne or from servile workes which vacation the former people receiving as a shadow of things to come in such manner rested from their workes as now wee behold the Iewes to rest Hee citeth also Theophilus Patriarch of Antioch a most ancient writer in his second booke to Autolychus writing thus Furthermore as touching the seventh which amongst al people is celebrious most men are in great ignorance For this
day which is celebrious amongst all is called the Sabbath if a man interpret in Greeke it is called Septimana by this name all men call this day but the cause of this denomination they know not Now what was the cause hereof in his judgement but the Lords resting thereon as the seventh after hee had finished all his workes in six dayes and thereupon blessing it and sanctifying it whereupon it grew to bee a festivall day generally amongst all Tertullian though alleaged on the other side yet hath beene already shewed to bee of the same minde in this particular with Chrysostome and Austin Adde unto these Epiphanius haer 51. Sabbatum primum est quod ab initio decretum est ac dictum à Domino in mundi creatione quod per circuitum ab eo tempore usque huc juxta septem dies revolvitur The first Sabbath is that which the Lord from the beginning ordained and spake in the creation of the world which by revolution from that time to this according to the circle of seven dayes returneth Athanasius also upon those words of our Saviour All things are given to mee of my Father distinguisheth betweene the Sabbath day and the Lords day affirming the Sabbath day to have been the end of the first creation and the Lords day the beginning of the second creation Beda in his Hexameron professeth that the rest of the seventh day after sixe dayes working semper celebrari solebat was alwayes wont to bee celebrated If alwayes then before the children of Israels comming out of Aegypt before Abraham before the flood even from the beginning of the dayes of Adam the first of men Adde unto this the received and most currant opinion of the Jewes by the testimonies of Philo and Josephus vouched by Wallaeus Philo in his second book of Moses writing thus Quis sacrum illum diem per singulas hebdomadas recurrentem non honorat Who doth not honour that holy day according to the weekely revolution thereof and hee delivers this not of the Jewes onely but of the Greekes and Barbarians of inhabitants of Mayn-land and Ilands those of Europe of Asia and of the whole habitable part of the world to the very ends thereof Iosephus l. 2. against Appion professing that there is no City of Grecians or Barbarians nor any Nation to whom the customary observation of the seventh whereon the Jewes rested had not reached Adde unto this the testimony of two Rabbins mentioned by Broughton in his Consent of Scriptures acknowledging this and another Rabbin alleaged by Peter Martyr upon Genesis both cited by Master Richard Brfield in his answer to Master Breerwood Give me leave to adde my mite also of mine owne observation The 92. Psalme hath this title A Psalme and Song for the Sabbath The Chalde paraphrase hereupon writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A praise and Song which Adam the first of men spoke on the Sabbath day manifestly evidencing that in the received opinion of the Jewes in those dayes Adam sanctified the Sabbath Rabbi David Kimchi testifies the same in his Commentary upon that Psalme to be the doctrine delivered in their Darash namely that Adam the first conceived this Psalme after hee was created on the Sabbath day and that afterwards he sinned and so prophaned the Sabbath So that notwithstanding all the bluster which this Author makes this fourth Commandement may continue morall neverthelesse And sure I am Irenaeus puts this difference betweene the words of the Decalogue so he speaks and consequently expungeth not but rather includeth the fourth Commandement and the ceremoniall lawes that Decalogi verba the words of the Decalogue spoken by God himselfe unto all doe therefore continue in like manner with us receiving extension and augmentation by the comming of Christ in the flesh but no dissolution But the precept of bondage so he calls the ceremonials by themselves hee commanded unto the people by Moses fit for their instruction and discipline And Doctor Andrewes I am sure so great a Prelate in our Church denies all ceremonialitie thereunto save only so farre as may justifie the change of the day and in reference to the rigorous rest of the Jewes And Azorius confesseth as before hath beene alleaged that after six dayes worke one day should bee consecrate to divine service is a thing most agreeable to reason Yet I know none that accounteth this a Dictate of nature simply as this Author would faine obtrude upon us but rather with Chrysostom that God by creation hath taught us as much and now God hath gone before us herein wee conceive it to bee most agreeable to reason And D. Field did professe as much upon acknowledgement of the Creation as Master Brode confesseth If all talke of observation of the Jewish Sabbath vanished not till the daies of Bede it was 700. years first in the account of Bellarmine And of any resolutions made by Bede or Damascen hereabouts in D. Prideux sect 2. I finde no mention Yet I thinke it likely enough that both they and Procopius might easily contrive as many resolutions hereabouts as either Theodoret upon the twentieth of Ezekiel or Epiphanius against the Ebionites for neither of them in the places mentioned make any resolutions on this point at al. He grants the Lords day to have beene instituted by the Church from the Apostles dayes which latter clause is an ambiguous phrase For it may bee applyed to the dayes after the Apostles If in the Apostles dayes then undoubtedly it was instituted by the Apostles what meant hee then to say it was instituted by the Church and not to bee so ingenuous as to confesse that it was instituted by the Apostles How far off is he from acknowledging it to have beene instituted by the Lord yet Athanasius openly professeth thus much Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solennitatem Dominus transtulit in diem Dominicum Heretofore with men of old time the Sabbath day was in great price which Festivitie truly the Lord hath translated unto the Lords day And Cyrill in his 12. book on Iohn chap. 58. considering the Lords appearance a second time on the eight day Thomas then being present and upon consideration finding it to have beene the first day of the weeke concludes thus Iure igitur sanctae Congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis fiunt By right therefore holy Congregations in the Churches are made on the eighth day meaning thereby the first day of the week that is the Lords day and as hee concludeth thus so undoubtedly his opinion was the Apostles themselves did conclude in like manner Now albeit much had beene effected for the abrogation as well of all superstitious fancies about that day as of the day it selfe that is of the Jewish sabbath by the labours of the Fathers fore-mentioned and particularly of Damascen and venerable Bede among the rest yet there comes in an exception somewhat of the nature
saith Veteres subrogarunt diem dominicum in locum Sabbati The Ancients subrogated the Lords Day in place of the Sabbath But he takes no notice of that which immediately followes in Calvin as a reason of the former thus For whereas in the Lords Resurrection is found the end and accomplishment of the true rest which the ancient Sabbath shaddowed by the very day which set an end to shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick unto the shadowing ceremonie Where observe First as touching the persons noted by Veteres the Ancients first and then by Christiani Christians Are not these the Apostles as much as any other and they in the first place as wee best knew what that was which did set an end to shadowes and accordingly to give notice of the pregnant signification of the Day of the Lords Resurrection and therefore 1 Cor. 16. 2. Hee doth intirely referre this to the Apostles as whom he confesseth constrayned by the Iewish superstition to have abrogated the Sabbath and in the place thereof ordeyned the Lords Day Secondly observe that the accomplishment of that which was signified by the Jewish Sabbath he ascribes to the Resurrection And Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech delivered in the Starre Chamber in the case of Traske professeth that It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath saith he was the last of them And that Christs Resurrection brought with it a new Creation and a new Creation requires a new Sabbath And hee alleageth Austin Ep. 119. saying The Lords Day was declared to Christians by Christ his Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity But that at this time Calvin should thinke it alterable by the Church no colour of proofe is brought and most unreasonable it is for any to conceave the Sabbath to be as alterable now as in the Apostles dayes it was when from the Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday For that alteration depended upon a second Creation as both Bishop Andrewes observes and that out of Athanasius de Sabbato circumcision◠And Bishop Lakes was of the same opinion as his discourse in Manuscript yet to be seene doth manifest So that unlesse this Prefacer can devise a third Creation and maintaine withall the rest on the Lords Day to bee as ceremoniall as the Jewes rest on the seventh Day was there is no colour why the Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day should bee as alterable now as the day of the Jewish Sabbath was As for the 3. conclusions which hee saith Calvin resolves upon the first whereof hee saith to be this that one day in seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement I say Calvin avoucheth no such thing and Wallaeus shewes that generally the friends of Calvin maintained the contrary between whom neverthelesse and Calvin it was never known that there was any contention herabouts And already I have shewed how unshamefastly this Prefacer abuseth Calvin in alledging one halfe of his sentence and leaving the other part quite out so making Calvin to deliver that absolutely which he affirmes onely conditionally The second resolution which he obtrudes upon Calvin is that the day was changed from the last day of the weeke to the first by the authority of the Church and not by any divine ordinance It is true Calvin sayth not that the day was changed by divine ordinance neither doth he say that it was changed by the authority of the Church but in plaine termes professeth that the Apostles changed it in one place and that admonition was given for the change of it by the consideration of the Day of Christs Resurrection in another to wit Institut lib. 2. cap. 8. Sect. 36. Now let every sober conscience consider whether that day which was first ordained by authority Divine the apostles would alter by lesse authority then authority Divine especially considering that Christs redemption of the World is the restauration of the World which is as a new Creation and as the Lord rested the seventh day from the workes of Creation so the day of Christs Resurrection was the day of his rest from the worke of redemption so that still the day of the Lords rest is the day of our rest not indeed the day of the Lord our Creators rest that ceasing as being ceremoniall as before hath beene shewed out of Doctor Andrewes but the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest which brought with it a new Creation is now the day of our rest And who was nearer or dearer unto Calvin then Beza whose words upon Revel 1 10. are to this effect He calls that the Lords Day which Paul calls the first of the Sabbaths 1 Cor. 16. 2. Acts 20. 7. on which day it appeares that even then were made the more frequent assemblies by Christians like as the Iewes came together in their Synagogues on the Sabbath Day wherby it may appeare that the fourth precept of sanctifying the seventh day as touching the day of the Sabbath and legall rites was ceremoniall but as touching the worship of God is of the morall Law unalterable and perpetually to continue in this life And that day of the Sabbath continued in force from the creation of the World to the day of Christs Resurrection which being as it were another Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former world or seventh day was assumed the first day of this new World the holy Ghost without doubt dictating thus much to the Apostles As for the third last resolutiō which he pins upon Calvins sleeve namely that the day of rest to be sanctified to the Lord is yet alterable by the church as at first it was neither that first alteration is by Calvin sayd to be made by the church but expressely by the apostles they admonished hereof by the day of Christs resurrection and Beza professeth that our Christian assemblies on the Lords Day are of Apostolicall and Divine tradition And observe I pray how Bishop Andrewes pleades for Episcopall authority as by Divine right in his answer to the first Epistle of Peter Moulin An est apostolicum factum aliquod jure non apostolico Apostolico autem id est ut ego interpretor Divino Nec enim aliquid ab apostolis factum non dictante hoe iis spiritu Sancto Divino Is there any fact of the Apostles by right not apostolicall But by apostolicall that is as I interpret it by Divine For neither was there any thing done by the Apostles which the holy and divine Spirit did not dictate unto them Shall this be of force for the institution of Bishops and shall it not be of force for the institution of the Lords Day as by Divine right But put the case it were so in every particular of Calvin as this Prefacer avoucheth how comes it about that our adversaries practise
Saturday as the Jewes did And Manasses Ben Israel in his 35. question upon Exodus writes thus Ne Agareni quidem Veneris diem religiosissimè colentes quem Algama vocant Sabbato nomen suum eripuerunt hauddubiè ita providente Deo ut omnium animis aeternitas ejus imprimeretur The very Agarenes most religiously observing the Friday which they call Algama have taken from the Sabbath its name doubtlesse God so providing that the eternity thereof should be imprinted in the minds of all men Belike as a testimony of Gods rest from his workes in the Creation therewithall to maintaine an acknowledgement of God the Creator More then this Salmasius acquainted Rivetus with some collections made by the forementioned Georgius Symellus out of certaine apocryphall bookes one whereof is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the litle generation the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life of Adam in which the author observes through many weeks that the seventh day was a day of rest and that he conceaved the author of that booke to have been a Iew translated by some Hellenist who makes mention of the Lords Day And Doctor Willet alleageth Philo calling the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a festivall of all Nations So little neede have wee to sticke upon that in Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh is an holy day which some observe to have beene spoken not of the seventh day of the weeke but of the seventh day of the moneth rather wherein Apollo was borne which yet is alleaged by Clement and Eusebius as for the seventh day of the weeke what is wanting herein being so plentifully supplyed other wayes And whereas Gomarus being convicted of the evidence of this truth betakes himselfe to a new course as to say that this practise of Heathens was taken from the Jewes and not from the ancient Patriarchs Doctor Rivetus brings a manifest place out of Iosephus to refute that conceite of his As who professeth that this custome of the Gentiles had beene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long agoe And how unlikely is it that either the Egyptians or the Nations bordering upon the Jewes should take this from the Jewes when we consider Solitum inter accolas odium as Tacitus observes the accustomed hatred between borderers especially between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent and how distastfull the things of God are unto naturall men even folishnesse unto them neither can they know them because they are spiritually discerned And Homer and Linus and Callimachus fetch the seventh day from the very Creation as whereon the making of all things was finished I come at length to the fourth Argument If the Patriarches had observed the Sabbath Moses would have mentioned the religious observation thereof by their ancestors to encourage them I answer 1. it is not likely they were ignorant of the practise of their ancestors The Chaldee paraphrase upon the Psal 92. supposeth Adam to have beene the author of the Psalm that is intitled for the Sabbath 2. If for Gods sake who delivered them out of Egypt they would not observe it neither would they observe it for their ancestors sake 3. Moses makes no mention of their ancestors practise in setting apart any time for the service of God shall we therefore deny that by the suggestion of light naturall some time is to be set apart for this The Fathers professe that no other positive precept was given to Adam then to abstein from the Fruit of a certaine Tree I answer Chrysostome professeth expressely that from the beginning God hath shewed that one day in the circle of the weeke is to bee set apart for spirituall operation Likewise the testimonies of Athanasius and Epiphanius are expresse for the acknowledgment of the institution of the Sabbath immediately from the Creation as before hath beene shewed Indeede both as touching the setting apart of sometime in generall for Gods service and the proportion of one day in seven in speciall is more then positive Divines teach that before Christs comming the Gentiles might obtaine salvation by observing the morall Law and the Law of nature with some light of Divine faith and supernaturall assistance of God I answer 1. of what reputation those Divines hee speaks of deserve to bee with us let every Protestant judge 2. yet wee know that the Gentiles might have evidence enough of the holinesse of the seventh day and that God left not himselfe without witnesse in this even to Heathens is so notorious that we may justly wonder to observe how the monuments of the dignity of the seventh day were so strangely preserved among them 3. Yet where testimony sufficient was wanting not onely for the particularity of the day but for the proportion of time wee doe not hold these to be morall so absolutely and in such a degree as to say that failing in this alone in such a case should prejudice any mans salvation though we say with Chrysostome that God by the story of the Creation hath sufficiently manifested that one day in the weeke ought to be set apart for Gods Service and with Azorius the Jesuite that it is most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one day intire and whole should bee consecrated to divine worship 2. From Papists this Prefacer proceedes to Protestants and tells us that this seemes to be the judgement of the Divines in the Low-Countries for proofe whereof he produceth none but Gomarus and Rivetus both which are well knowne to be opposite in the point of the originall institution of the Sabbath And as touching the morality of one day in seven both Wallaeus and Thysius two professors of Divinity in the University of Leyden are well known to differ from them both and Hyperius a low Countreyman too As for Calvin I have already shewed how he makes nothing for this Prefacer and that they catch advantage from him most unreasonably by dismembring him Wallaeus shewes the same to be the judgement of Martin Luther namely that one day in the weeke at least ought to bee consecrated to Divine Service and out of Melancthon that all the ceremoniality in the fourth Commandement is restrained to the observation of a certaine day that which remaines besides therein commanded continuing morall Beza likewise affirmes that the sanctifying of every seventh day as touching the Service of God is of morall obligation and unremoveable The like Wallaeus shewes to have beene the judgement of Bucer Peter Martyr Zanchy Iunius Viretus Calvins Colleague Danaeus Antonius Fayns Matthias Martinius and in a manner all that have written upon their Belgick Catechisme By this the Reader may consider the modesty of this Prefacer when hee professeth that it seemes to bee the judgement of the Divines in the Low-Countries that one day in seven to be set apart for Gods solemn worship is not of the morality of the fourth Commandement But Wallaeus proceeds and shewes the same to have
seventh doth not this evidently convince that that day must bee our Christian Sabbath For what shall the masters keepe one and the servants another or shall the servants not give themselves to the service of God on the day of their rest but rather on the day of their labour in the workes of their proper callings observe I pray how at every turne the light of Gods direction doth meete with us to keepe us in the good wayes of the Lord if we will not wilfully shut our eyes against it Now let that seventh day which is our Christian Sabbath be well observed first and then let the states take what order they shall see good for the observation of another day also Yet we finde by experience that hardly are men able to maintaine a poore living by labouring hardly six whole dayes in the weeke I come to the second which Rivetus recapitulates in briefe thus 2. It is drawn from the number of six dayes allowed for worke which number cannot consist unlesse it be terminated in rest and in cessation on the seventh To this Rivetus answereth that the six dayes of labour are in reference to the seventh of rest the determination of which seventh day being now taken away a man may worke on any day so long as some day be chosen whether by Divine constitution or humane and reasonable disposition for Divine Service which may be in such sort that fewer dayes shall be left for worke But consider What more reasonable disposition humane then that which is conformable to constitution Divine now it is apparent that God required of the Jewes one day in seven neither was it ever knowen to bee abrogated the particularity of the day is abrogated not the proportion of time ground we have for the one by the ceremoniality of it no colour of ground for the other nor did ever I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise a ceremonialitie of one day in seven 2. But what shall the morality of rest granted to servants be altered also under the Gospell did Calvin any where teach this may not masters exact as many dayes worke of their servants under the Gospell as under the Law hath not Christ deserved at the hands of servants to be as serviceable to their masters as ever Lastly are those dayes of the World such as wherein a labouring man may maintaine himselfe by the labour of five dayes in a weeke as well as by the labour of six A long time I have found it observed by traffiquers in the World that nothing is more cheape then mens labours a notable evidence how unprofitable servants wee have beene unto God and therefore hee makes the labour of our hands and sweate of our browes to afford very unprofitable service unto us Can these Divines make the World more favourable to crafts-men and bring their commodities in better request then they are if they could let them then change the morality of fervants rest and for one in seven allow them one in three or foure or five their masters will bee the more easily brought to entreat their consciences to condescend Or if Kings had power to make the commodities of their owne Country more worth and the commodities of other Countries lesse worth which upon due consideration will bee found as needfull equally then place might bee made for this Till then let us bee content with Calvines morality of the fourth Commandement in reference to servants rest namely one day after six and therewithall consider whether our Christian Sabbath must not bee confined to that day as the onely day of rest for servants and I hope wee shall not thinke it fit to allow one Sabbath for the masters and another for the servents 3. The third is drawne from the examples of the Apostles and the apostolicall Church who in place of the Iewes Sabbath observed the first day of the weeke without variation therefore by force of the precept one day in seven is to be observed still Never any hath beene found to change this therefore that which hath beene kept from the beginning of the VVorld and shall continue to the end is to bee taken for such as by the Analogy of Gods Commandement binds all men To this Rivetus answereth that the consequence is not firme for as much as Christians observed the Lords Day not of necessity by reason of any binding praecept but of free choise Yet was it wisely done of them lest by a greater change they might offend the Iewes And that it might be a free monument of their maintaining the weekly remembrance of Christs Resurrection Hee sayeth they did it freely but of things freely done without any conscience of duty obliging it was never knowne that so universall a concurrence was found as the observation of the Lords Day Nay Philosophers observe that things freely done as often come to passe to the contrary Againe then it was free for them to observe one day in fourteene as well as one in seven as Breatius professeth and consequently as well one in twenty which Rivetus denies Nay it stood them upon to change the observation lest men by universall and perpetuall practise might bee confirmed in an opinion of the necessity of that which is not necessary It is apparent that as the Lords Day under the Law was one day in seven So the Lords Day in the Gospell was and still is one Day in seven And both himselfe and Gomarus are driven to professe that we may not allow a lesse proportion then one in seven to Divine worship And I appeale to every conscience to judge by the very light of nature whether the Lord requiring of the Jewes one day in seven to bee consecrated unto him it doth not manifestly follow that wee Christians can allow no lesse then one in seven and whether it bee not fit that the Lords Day should bee our holy Day and as for the allowance of more in a weeke then one let them persuade their owne Churches thereunto first and then it will bee time enough for us to hearken unto them And what should move them to illustrate the memory of Christs Resurrection weekly whereas they contented themselves with a yearely memoriall if at all they observed any such of his Nativity Passion and Ascension and sending downe of the Holy Ghost Why doth hee not consider that the day of the weeke onely whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day in Scripture whereon Iohn the beloved Disciple received from his loving Lord and master that Divine revelation of his concerning things to come 4. If the number of seven that is the observation of one day in seven in this Commandement be changeable then as ceremoniall or as politicall not as ceremoniall for then the Church ought not to observe it Nor as politicall for in the morall Law precepts politicall are not given And to this Rivetus answereth that the observation of the seventh day is ceremoniall and that the Primitive
had place among the Iewes And though I marvell not at others who dealing in this argument dismember Calvins sentence so to make him to deliver that absolutely which hee delivers onely conditionally yet I cannot sufficiently marvell that Rivetus of rough improvidence should do so too especially considering the good paines that Doctor Walaeus hath taken to cleare Calvins meaning in this point Neither is Master Robert Low in his effigiation of the true Sabbatisme of any such authority as to counterpoise the concurrent testimonies of so many of our English Divines to the contrary not to speake of the multitude of outlandish Divines whom Doctor Walaeus mustereth up concurring in the same opinion and whereas hee saith as Doctor Rivetus reports him that some great men who vehemently contend that the perpetuall sanctity of manners doth require that one day in seven should be celebrated have more authority then reason I may bee bold to say that they who with him have hitherto opposed the Doctrine we maintaine what authority they have I know not but as for their reasons they are of so hungry a nature that hereby they manifest that nothing but affection and their private ends they have to beare them out in this And whereas I doubt not but Rivetus hath brought on the Stage the best reasons hee could picke both out of master Robert Low and out of Gomarus let every indifferent person judge of them as they deserve though I verily thinke that nothing but his affection to Calvin to hold up his credite and reputation hath carried him all along and yet either my selfe and Walaeus mystake Calvin or Rivetus miserably mystaketh him But as for our reason we call all the World to judge of it God did require one day in seven to be set apart for his publique service under the Law how much more doth he require as good a proportion of time under the Gospell Nay from the beginning of the World he hath required it and to this day both Iewes and Christian Gentiles have observed the same proportion Againe God in his morall Law hath required this and that not as ceremoniall never any man hitherunto having set his wits on worke to devise any ceremoniality herein neyther was it ever knowne that God abrogated this proportion of time to be allowed unto him for his service therefore it continueth still as a morall Law to bind us and shall continue untill God himselfe set an end unto it now let master Lowes reasons be compared with these in every indifferent conscience and let them have that authority which they deserve because being well conceited of the strength of his reasons hee sensibly complaines of his want of authority It seemes Pope Alexander the third was a man of more authority then reason For hee maintaines in Cap. licet de feriis as Doctor Rivetus relates it that both the old and new Testament have in speciall manner appointed the seventh day for man to rest thereon and hee takes it out of Suarez de relig l. 2. c. 2. but Rivetus cannot assent unto him if he delivers this of any morall institution yet that it was so appointed by the fourth Commandement unto the Iewes it cannot bee denied and that not as ceremoniall for we have seene how odly Rivetus hath carried himselfe in comming to speake of the ceremoniality For to make this good hee flyes to the particularity of the seventh day and if the ceremoniality thereof bee enough to inferre the ceremoniality of such a speciall proportion of time as of one day in seven it may suffice as well to constitute a ceremoniality in the generall namely in this that some time is to be set apart for Gods Service which yet all account to bee morall by the very light of nature If Zanchy hath no better argument to prove that the Decalogue as given by Moses to the Israelites doth not pertaine to us but onely so farre forth as it agrees with the Law of nature then by instancing in the Sabbath which the Gentiles were not bound to sanctifie it stands Rivetus upon to oppose him as much as any who maintaines that the Law concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath was given to Adam and who brings diverse authorities to prove the observation of it generally by the Gentiles This I speake upon consideration of his reply to Gomarus taking exception against somewhat in this argument delivered by him in his explication of the Decalogue But I hope the morall Law shall be sufficient to binde us Christians if no other way yet by this argument of proportion If God required of the Iewes under the Law that one day in seven should bee set apart to his service how much more doth it become us Christians to allow as good a proportion of time for his service under the Gospell This I say shall suffice untill Rivetus answeareth it which never will be for he as good as confesseth that we are bound to allow God for his service rather a better proportion of time then a worse And as for Doctor Prideaux I nothing doubt but he will cleare us from Judaisme in arguing thus as who Sect. 7. professeth that if they against whom he disputes required no more but the Analogy the equity or the reason of that Commandement we would not sticke to yeeld unto it And whereas Rivetus addes that the argument which hee annexeth seemes to him of great weight namely that hee who stickes to the Commandement must exactly observe it And that therefore into the place of the seventh from the Creation no day is to bee substituted But this argument I have answered before all for the most part grant some ceremoniality in that Commandement now if rest on the seventh be found to bee ceremoniall but not the rest of one day in seven in an indefinite consideracion it will follow herehence that the seventh must not be observed as accomplished in Christ and that the proportion of time is still to continue as indeed by experience wee finde it verified in each For the observation of the seventh is ceased as prefiguring Christs rest in his Grave but the observation of one day in seven still continueth unto this day Next for the second Thesis that the alteration of the day is onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution the Doctor sheweth in the first Section the generall consent of all sorts of Papists Jesuites Canonists and Schoolemen of some great Lutheranes by names and generally of the remonstrant or Arminian Divines in their confession whose tendries in this point wee may conceave with reason not to bee different from the Doctrine of the Belgicke Churches in that foure professors of Leyden in their examination or review of that confession have passed them over without note or opposition To these besides are added diverse of our own Et è nostris non pauci as hee speakes it in the generall that is as I conceave his meaning such as are neither of the Lutheran nor of
And no lesse necessitie is there for the keeping of them in the wayes of holinesse such is the degenerate condition of the World Long agoe it is that the severe judgement of God had its course in giving men over to illusions to beleeve lies and all for not receiving the love of the truth as much as to say for the profanenesse of the Christian World in not making it their care to walke worthy of their calling worthy of the Gospell whereunto the Apostle so often exhorts Christians So that if at any time it were requisite to set one day in seven apart for the service of God surely by the very dictate of common reason it is most requisite in these latter dayes of the Gospell Especially considering the rage and fury of Satan in opposing the Kingdome of Christ more now than ever because he knoweth hee hath but a short time As for the alteration of the day the same proportion of time still continuing from the seventh to the first day of the weeke that I confesse willingly seemes not at first sight to have the like evidence But whereas this Prefacer contends for the alteration of the day as onely by an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution observe that not one of the ancient Fathers are mentioned by him for the justifying of this though divers are referred unto by him as against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation But wee have divers of the ancients bearing witnesse to the Divine institution of the Lords day to come in place of the seventh As first Athanasius Homil de Semente Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solemnitatem Dominus in diem Dominicum transtulit Heretofore truly the Sabbath was in great price with men of old time which solemnity the Lord hath translated unto the Lords Day Austine hath divers other passages to the same purpose de civitate dei lib. 22. cap. ult Dominicus dies velut octavus aeternus qui Christi Resurrectione sacratus est aeternam non solum Spiritus verumetiam corporis requiem praefigurans The Lords Day as the eighth eternall which was sacred by Christs Resurrection prefiguring an eternall rest not of the spirit only but of the body also and in his Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium The Lords Day is declared not to the Iewes but to Christians by the Lords Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity and de verbis Apostoli Sermo 15. The Lords Resurrection promised unto us an eternall day and hath consecrated to us the Lords Day which is called the Lords because the Lord rose on that day and de Temp. Serm. 251. The Apostles and Apostolicall men have therefore ordained the Lords day to be kept with a religious solemnity because on that day our redeemer rose from the dead Cyril in Joan. lib. 12. cap. 58. From Christ presenting himself unto his Apostles on the eighth day which hee interpreteth of the first day of the weeke concludes therehence that by right therefore holy Congregations are kept in the Churches on that day And as Walaeus observes the celebrity of this day Eusebius referres to Christ himselfe in these words Who ever prescribed to all the inhabitants of the World either by Sea or Land that meeting together one day in the weeke they should celebrate the Dominicall festivity Adde to this that of Gregory mentioned Section the 1. Nay Athanasius goes further and shewes the equity of it in proportion to the new Creation compared with the old The end of the first Creation was the Sabbath but the beginning of the second Creature is the Lords Day wherein hee renewed and repayred the old man Like as therefore in former times he would have the Sabbath day to be kept so we keepe holy the Lords Day as a monument of the beginning of the second Creation And this proportion is apprehended by Beza also on the Revelation the first Chap. and 10. verse That Sabbath day saith hee continued from the Creation of the World to the Lords resurrection which seeing it is as it were an other Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former World or seventh day was assumed and that undoubtedly by the Holy Ghost suggesting this to the Apostles the first day of this new World in which not the corporall or corruptible light in the first day of the first World was created but that heavenly and eternall light did spring unto us In all which Beza doth exactly treade in the steps of that ancient Father Athanasius and concludes that the assemblies of the Lords Day which Iustine expresly makes mention of in his second Apologetium are of tradition apostolicall and truly Divine And after him Doctor Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester whom Doctor Hall now Bishop of Exceter some where calls the Oracle of these times upon the same ground maintaines the equity of bringing our Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath The Sabbath saith hee had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And againe It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And for the confirmation hereof brings in that of Austin Ep. 119 ad Ianuarium The Lords Day by Christs Resurrection hath beene declared unto Christians and from that time began to have its festivity Doctor Lakes Bishop of Wells maintaines the same Doctrine after the same manner in his Theses de Sabbato thes 27. Man having sinned and so by sinne abolished the first Creation De jure though not de facto God was pleased by Christ to make a new instauration of the World 28. He as the Scripture speakes of Christs redemptions made a new Heaven and a new Earth Old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29. Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30. As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31. So did Christ when he ended his worke made a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable But a man may easily perceive whither this Prefacer tends and such as are of his Spirit The Rhemists upon the first of the Revel and 10. verse doe observe that the Apostles and the faithfull abrogated the Sabbath which was the seventh day and made holy day for it the next day following being the eighth day in compt from the Creation and that without all Scriptures and Commandements of Christ that we read of yea which is more not only otherwise then was by the Law observed but plainly otherwise than was prescribed
worke of creation so Christ rested the first day of the weeke from his worke of Redemption which was the meritorious cause of the new creation For Christs dying and continuing under the power of death for a certaine time I may justly reckon as one worke of Redemption in which time hee suffered ignominy not onely from the reproach of the world but from the weaknesse of his servants faith whose voyce was wee thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel As for Zanohy in the place cited by Gomarus hee confesseth hunc diem ex traditione Apostolica esse optimo jure ab Ecclesia retentum That the Lords Day is to be observed by Apostolicall tradition and by the best right retained by the Church this the Prefacer in his wisedome omitted indeed hee saith we no where reade that the Apostles commanded it but left it free but take with you the rest ita liberum ut omnino ipse dies sanctificandus sit nisi charitas aliud postulat In such a manner free that omnino undoubtedly the day it selfe ought to be sanctified unlesse charity require otherwise I conceive his meaning is and the meaning of all that use this language that wee are to keepe it by no other obligation not of speciall commandement than the reason of the day doth minister unto us it being the day that the Lord hath made joyfull to Gods Church by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and in this sense they say it doth not bind mens consciences to wit as a Precept doth whether we know the equity of it or no. And it were very strange that Christians in keeping any holy day in the weeke should not make choice of the Lords Day for that without any expresse commandement Anetius saith no more than that Christians changed the Sabbath unto the Lords Day and can any man doubt but that the Apostles were meant hereby For which is most likely that the practice and judgement of others was a leading cause to the Apostles or rather that the judgement and practise of the Apostles was a leading cause unto all others Simler hath no more but this that he calls it the custome of the Church so doth Tilenus yet he proposeth it as likely to have had its institution from Christ Paraeus in the very place cited by Gomarus ascribeth the change of the day to the Apostolicall Church and expressely saith that the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to meet together the first day of the weeke and make their collections I wonder the Prefacer omits Cuohlinus was it because that which others call consuetudinem Ecclesiae hee calls consuetudinem Apostolicam In the last place Bucer is named by the Prefacer but Gomarus is well content to omit what is delivered by him But to the contrary I will not forbeare to set downe what I find in his booke De Regno Christi lib. 1. cap. 11. For having formerly described what are the true workes of holy rests added upon the backe of it Eapropter For this cause the Lords Day was consecrated by the Apostles themselves to these kind of actions Which ordinance of theirs institutum he calls it the antient Churches observed most religiously Then he shews the cause why they changed the day 1. The first reason given is to testifie that Christians are not obliged to the Pedagogie of Moses law 2. The second is to celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which was performed on the first day of the weeke So that not one of the Authors mentioned by him makes any thing for him And if the passages of the sixe mentioned by him and related by Gomarus did make any thing for him we have no lesse of the ancient Fathers to the contrary as namely Athanasius Cyril Eusebius Austin lately mentioned to whom adde Sedulius operis Paschalis lib. 5. cap. 21. The glory of the eternall King illustrating the first day of the weeke with the trophy of his resurrection primatum cum religione concessum dierum censuit retinere cunctorum thought good it should have the primacy of all dayes granted unto it with religion that is with an holy celebration thereof Adde unto him Gregory mentioned in the first Section affirming that Antichrist affecting to imitate Christ shall command the Lords Day to be kept holy Adde to these the universall consent of Christendome in antient times for when the question was proposed unto them as usually it was thus Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Sabbath their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum For Brentius alleged by him to little purpose let mee represent what Gerard the Lutherane writes of our Christian Sabbath in his common places tom 3. pag. 146. Est Sabbatum Christianum quo juxta Apostolorum constitutionem dies hebdomadae primus publicis ecclesiae congressibus dâ—stinatus est Our Christian Sabbath is that whereby the first day of the weeke is destinated to the publique assemblies of the Church by the constitution of the Apostles See how plainly hee referres the celebration of this day to Apostolicall constitution and pag. 148. he sheweth the analogie between the Jewes Sabbath and our Christian Sabbath consisting in two or three particulars 1. As on the seventh day God rested from the six dayes worke of creation in remembrance of which benefit the Sabbath was instituted in the old Testament so in the first day of the weeke after Christ by his death and passion had accomplished the mysterie of our Redemption he returned gloriously as a conqueror from the dead in remembrance of which benefit the first day of the weeke is celebrated in the new Testament 2. As in the old Testament the Sabbath was instituted that it might be a memoriall of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5. 15. So in the new Testament the Lords Day is a memoriall of our spirituall deliverance out of the kingdome and captivity of Satan procured unto us by the resurrection of Christ a type whereof was that deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt 3. By Christs death and resurrection were abrogated Leviticall ceremonies and legall shadowes amongst which the Sabbath is reckoned Col. 2. 17. Therefore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Dav is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in ancient time was ordained Adde to him Melanchthon alleged by Walaeus pag. 265. affirming that the Apostles for this cause changed the day that in this particular they might give an example of the abrogation of the ceremoniall Lawes of Mosaicall policy As for our Popish Divines for which he referres us to Doctor Prideaux it is apparent that more of them are alleaged for the jus d vinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee
of the Apostles unlesse instituto there be to be referred to that which goes before and ought to be distinguished from Apostolorum which comes after by a comma though it be not But let this be the opinion of Iunius and Piscator which perhaps we may meet with some more evidence for than hitherto Neither doe I see any necessity of expressing concerning every thing they taught that they received it of the Lord Neither doe I thinke fit to conclude that whatsoever they ordered they ordered by Gods Commandement But consider there is a great difference between things ordered by them some were concerning particulars others for the Church universall Some ordered by them for a certaine time other things to continue to the worlds end The ordinance of the Lords Day concerned the whole Church and to this day no Church throughout the world hath thought fit to alter it a notable evidence that the Church generally hath conceived it as an ordinance of the Apostles intended to continue to the worlds end The ingenuity of Master Perkins is to be commended confessing ingenuously that hee proposeth his arguments not as necessary but as probable onely to inferre the institution of the first day of the weeke to be observed by Christians in place of the seventh I would those that oppose him would carry themselves with the like ingenuity nothing inferiour is the ingenuity of Doctor Walaeus pag. 156. professing that this opinion touching Christs institution of the Lords Day seeing it hath so great Divines as favourers thereof is neither to be accused of novelty nor easily to be despised as false provided that they themselves doe not propose it as necessary but as probable nor inveigh against such as are of another opinion or condemne them Now let us see upon what grounds he preferres the second opinion making the institution of the Lords Day to depend upon Apostolicall authoritie before it Therefore first he urgeth that the Apostles have given no expresse commandement as being charged thereto by Christ nor Christ himselfe In briefe thus neither Christ hath any where in Scripture commanded it nor doe the Apostles any where signify that hee did I answer the Apostles doe not use to signify that what they deliver in particular was given them in charge by Christ sometimes they doe but this extends not to the hundreth part of that they doe deliver And it may bee by S. Iohns calling it the Lords Day compared with that which our Saviour delivers in the Gospell pray that your flight bee not in the Winter nor upon the Sabbath day and with the denomination of the Jewes Sabbath called in the Old Testament the Lords holy day wee shall finde sufficient intimation of Christs institution Especially considering that the question is but of the circumstance of a particular day not of the proportion of time and withall the analogy of the day of Christs Resurrection to the day of the Lords rest from Creation And whereas the Doctor further sayth that it seemes not likely that Christ should not command it if he meant to binde us to the observation of any day as a part of his worship and service Now I wonder what the worthy Doctor meanes to thrust in the circumstance as a part of Gods Worship If the Apostles might command it as he thinkes they did yet not as a part of Gods worship why might not Christ command the observation of that day yet not as a part of his worship I am not perswaded that when God at the first sanctifyed the seventh day hee made the observation of that day a part of his worship And it is strange that the circumstance of time should bee an homogeneall part of Gods worship First it is true the rest on that day commanded afterwards might bee and was as a ceremony preaching something unto them All that is to bee considered in time pertaining to Gods Worship is the proportion of it as whether one day in a weeke bee most fit or one day in a moneth bee sufficient and this is of momentous consideration whether wee consider the advancing GODS Glory thereby or our owne good in a greater or lesser proportion But the particularity of the day in seven whether first or last or middlemost this consideration in my judgement is of no moment Only for the avoyding of dissention confusion we have neede of authoritative specification and that God did not define at the first without congruous reason to still all motion tending to alteration and if we have as fayre evidence under the Gospell for our Sabbath as the Jewes had for theirs wee are by Gods goodnesse as much freed from dissension and confusion as they and nothing the more ingaged in superstition as making the observation of the day a part of Divine worship which never was but in the way of prefiguration of somewhat in Christ which kind of pedagogy is now quite out of date neither is there any place for it in the observation of the Lords day Doctor Walaeus his second argument is because those places of Scripture Rom. 14. Gal. 4. Coloss 2. in which the Apostle takes away all difference of dayes can hardly bee reconciled with this opinion or if Christ himselfe not by example onely but by an ordinance commanded unto his Disciples the observation of this day it cannot bee imagined as it seemes that any liberty should now remaine in the observation of this day for that which Christ hath determined is not left under Christian liberty any more then the observation of the seventh day from the Creation was left free to the Jewes when God not onely by his example but also by precept separated it from all other dayes to his service To this I answer 1. I finde no liberty at all left to the Church to change the day by the Doctors owne grounds for hee holds it to bee invariable p. 168. Secondly Hee professeth the change of the day cannot bee attempted without the greatest scandall of the Church p. 169. Now what sober Christian would affect liberty to bee scandalous 3. others who acknowledge the observation of the day by Apostolicall institution and withall to bee changeable and left to the liberty of the Church doe withall maintaine that the Apostles did not command it as extraordinary Ministers of Christ but Doctor Waleus p. 172. acknowledgeth the institution of it made by the Apostles as Ministers extraordinary 4. the Doctor professeth that the Apostles were entrusted by the Holy Ghost to give precepts concerning the good government of the Church and that in this particular case to make knowne to all Christians every where what day in the weeke ought to be kept holy and that by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and withall to prevent dissension and confusion amongst the Churches thereabouts 5. and lastly hee joynes the precepts concerning this with precepts concerning faith and manners and this hee doth without specifying any the least difference nay the word
Hoskins of our house was present at the hearing of this businesse and brought us word of it But whether that Sermon ever came to be printed a second time I know not In like sort I have heard it reported of Master Bolton that when one fell into the River on the Sabbath day he would not suffer those that were with him being neere to runne to helpe him out I professed at the hearing of it I knew Master Bolton so well that it seemed uncredible to me but the reporter professed to deliver it upon knowledge But if it were so many there be that can beare witnesse thereunto in the place where he lived Lately it hath beene brought unto mee that one hath beene heard to lay to my charge behind my backe that I should say David sinned more in dancing about the Arke than either in deflouring Bathshebath or killing Uriah though it is such a comparison that never entered into my thoughts how much lesse to passe so prodigious a judgement upon the comparison In the last place he saith It was preached in Suffolke and that he could name the man and was present when he was convented before his ordinary for preaching the same that to ring more bels than one upon the Lords day to call the people unto Church is as great a sinne as to commit murther this is more particular than the rest and had hee added one thing more the evidence had been compleat namely that as he saith he was convented for it before his Ordinary so he was found convicted of it which if it were so I wonder he should conceale it if it were not so of what credit is this his relation He addes that many things to this effect he had read before in the Sabbath doctrine printed at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man what this booke was I could not devise but lately have gotten into my hands D. Bowndes booke of the Sabbath I finde by comparing it well that this is the booke he girds at Now I finde nothing in him to this effect though I have gone over most of the first booke and in the Index doe not finde any thing that can give me probability in the second booke tending to any such effect and I wonder he spared to quote the place where such doctrines are to be found nothing being more convenient to justifie his criminations than to quote for it something that is to be seene in print and thereby to cleare himselfe from the suspicion of a malignant But this Prefacer very judiciously believes him throughout because the Relator was present when the broacher of the last position was convented for it yet doth he not say he was convicted of it And upon what ground he proceeds so judiciously in believing it is remarkeable to wit because himselfe hath heard it preached in London that the Law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that whoever did the workes of his ordinary calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore Now I professe he seemes to me a great deale more politique herein than at the first I was ware of For had hee not believed Master Rogers his report this way others might have taken as great liberty to believe but their part concerning this Therefore it stood him upon first to manifest his ingenuous facility in believing another that this might be a shooing-horne to draw on others by way of the like ingenuous facility to believe him also yet such things may be for as long as the world lasts we shall be exercised with wilde wits and so no doubt we shall with tale-tellers too and so much the more in all likelihood the neerer the world approacheth to an end It hath beene so amongst Philosophers in Cicero his observation it hath been so amongst Schoole-divines it is so amongst Socinians and Arminians But let the saddle be set upon the right horse and let every man beare his owne burthen Now I have made it manifest that the doctrines which he picks out of D. Bownde and stiles Sabbatarian doctrines are the doctrines of D. Andrewes afterwards Bishop of Winchester I could shew them to be the doctrines of many other worthy Prelates that have been of this kingdome and it may be that if the votes of the Bishops of this kingdom were taken the major part would concurre with us as touching the doctrine of the Sabbath rather than against us The same Master Rogers sacrificeth to his net and burnes incense to his yarne and magnifies the good successe of his labours For this good he saith hath ensued thereupon namely that the said bookes of the Sabbath comprehending the above mentioned and many more such fearefull and hereticall assertions have beene both called in and forbidden to be printed any more and to be made common and that Archbishop Whitgift by his letters and officers at Synods and Visitations Anno 99. did the one and Sir John Popham Lord chiefe Iustice of Eâ—gland at Bury Saint Edmunds in Suffolke Anno 1600. did the other For all this we have nothing but his word and as for the bookes he talkes of hee had formerly mentioned but one printed 95. at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man of the doctrine of the Sabbath which appeares to be D. Bowndes Now was this ever called in Sure I am D. Willet upon Genesis came forth the yeere after this M. Rogers his Analysis of the Articles of the Church of England This hee dedicated to King Iames and over and above hath a second dedication in Latine to Archbishop Bancroft and to the bishop of London then being wherein hee signifieth that the one of them was author the other hortator unto him to perfect this worke of his and therefore undoubtedly came forth with as good approbation as the Analysis of Master Rogers upon the second Chapter of Gen. he observes that As the Sabbath kept then upon the seventh day in remembrance of the Creation was of the Lords institution so the Lords Day is now observed by the same authority in remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ and redemption by the same And this hee delivers in opposition to the Rhemists who count the observation of the Lords Day but a tradition of the Church and Ecclesiasticall institution and having spent a whole page in folio upon this argument in the next page thus hee writeth I doe wonder then this doctrine of the Sabbath and day of rest now called the Lords Day having such evident demonstration out of the Scriptures and being confirmed by the constant and continuall practise of the Church in all ages that any professing the Gospell specially being exercised in the Study of the Scriptures should gainsay and impugne these positions following as erroneous 1. That the Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath is naturall morall and perpetuall For if it be not so then all the Commandements contained in the Decalogue are not morall so should we have 9. and not
10. Commandements and then Christ should come to destroy the Law and not to fulfill is contrary to our Saviours own words Math. 5. 17. 2. That all other things in the Law were so changed that they were cleane taken away as the priesthood Sacrifices and Sacraments this day namely the Sabbath was so changed that it yet remaines For it is evident by the Apostles practise Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Apo. 1. 10. that the day of rest called the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke and so was observed and kept holy under the name of the Lords Day 3. That it is not lawfull to use the seventh day to any other end but to the holy and sanctified end for which in the beginning it was created 4. As the Sabbath came in with the first man so must it not goe out but with the last 5. That we are restrained upon the Sabbath from works as the Jewes were though not in such strict particular manner as they were yet in generall we are forbidden all kind of worke upon the Lords Day as they were which may hinder the service of God Now the Author that hee intimates as opposing these positions hee describes by the title of his booke in the margent which is this The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England printed at Cambridge p. 37. And the author of his booke I have heard to be Master Rogers and it seemes likely enough especially by the 2. first positions Doctor Willet concludes in this manner after hee had made use of divers allegations for the confirmation of his doctrine in opposition to the fore-mentioned Author but these allegations are here superfluous seeing there is a learned Treatise of the Sabbath already published of this argument which containeth a most sound doctrine of the Sabbath as it is said in the former positions which shall be able to abide the triall of the Word of God and stand warranted thereby when other humane fantasies shall vanish howsoever some in their heate and intemperance are not afraid to call them Sabbatariorum errores yea hereticall assertions a new Iubilee S. Sabbath more then either Iewish or popish institution God grant it be not layd to their charge that so speake or write and God give them a better minde About two yeares before this were set forth Master Perkins his cases of conscience wherein hee manifesteth his concurrence with Doctor Bownde in the doctrine of the Sabbath Neither doth Doctor Andrewes in any materiall thing differ from Doctor Bownde Master Perkins Doctor Willet In the next relation of his which is of a familiar nature undoubtedly the Prefacer deserves to be believed That in a Towne of his acquaintance the preachers there had brought the people to that passe that neither baked nor roste meate was to be found in all the Parish for a sunday dinner throughout the yeare and hee concludes it with such an Epiphonema These are the fruites of such dangerous doctrines as if the fortunes of the Church or state were hazarded for want of bak't meate or rost meate on the sundayes And to confesse a truth though I never was nor never am like to be so precise yet considering my meane condition I have divers times thought thus with my selfe why should my provision hinder any of my servants from Sermons on the Sabbath day so little did I feare any dangerous consequence of this practise but since I am better informed by the suggestions of this judicious Prefacer I will take heede how I cherish such thoughts in my brest henceforth and if hee come at any time to take paines amongst us seeing I finde hee respects bak't meate and rost meate so well it shall goe hard but wee will have a tith Pig for his entertainement And so much the rather that I may cleare my selfe from Judaisme for Iack of Newbery my Countreyman being a great Clothier in his dayes and then strangers came from farre to buy Cloath at his House and amongst the rest a company of Jewes were sometime entertained by him being a very hospitallous man and an excellent house-keeper his house being accounted the best Inne in the Towne to make himselfe merry caused the table to bee furnished with all variety of Hogges flesh which they perceaving tooke it for a flout but after they had grumbled a while upon it hee made shew as if but then hee had remembred himselfe of his errour and not till then considered that they were Jewes and forthwith hee commanded all the dishes to be remooved and other dishes already prepared to be set on the board wherewith his table was as well furnished as it was with guests But to returne it is an easy matter now a dayes to accuse of any thing as Doctor Prideaux hee saith accuseth us of Judaisme but si accusare sufficiat quis innocens erit when hee or Doctor Prideaux shall prove their accusations then let us be condemned and if wee be not condemned till then wee care not Yet it is untrue which hee pins upon Doctor Prideaux his sleeve as if hee should alleage Austin saying that they who literally understand the fourth Commandement doe not yet savour of the spirit neither S. Austin speakes this of the fourth Commandement nor is hee so alleaged by Doctor Prideaux but of the seventh day Quisquis diem illum observat ficut litera sonat carnaliter sapit As much as to say whosoever keeps that day which the Jew keepes savoureth carnally Neither did I know any of my brethren to stand for the sanctifying of the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation but onely of one day in seaven which day must also be prescribed by God as the seventh day of the weeke was to the Jewes which is the next thing imputed unto us but the Lords Day is the first day of the weeke to us Christians Sect. 8. This when I had considered when I had seriously observed how much these fancies were repugnant both to the tendries of this Church and judgments of all kinde of writers and how unsafe to be admitted I thought I could not goe about a better worke then to exhibite to the view of my deare Countreymen this following Treatise delivered first and afterwards published by the Author in another language The rather since of late the clamour is encreased and that there is not any thing now more frequent in some Zelotes mouthes to use the Doctors words then that the Lords Day is with us licentiously yea sacrilegiously profaned Section first To satisfie whose scruples and give content unto their mindes I doubt not but this following discourse will be sufficient which for that cause I have translated faithfully and with as good propriety as I could not swerving any where from the sense and as little as I could from the phrase and letter Gratum opus agricolis a worke as I conceave it not unsuitable unto the present times
there in affirming that the Lords Day is of Divine institution Is it not Scripture that calls it the Lords Day And what day was called the Lords Day before but the day of the Jewes Sabbath And hath not our Saviour manifestly given us to understand that even Christians were to have their Sabbath as the Jewes had theirs as Bishop Andrewes accommodates the place Matth. 24. 20. And was the resurrection of Christ any thing inferiour to the creation to give a day unto us Christians like as Gods rest from creation commended that day to the Jewes Especially considering that a new creation requires a new Sabbath as Athanasius delivered it of old And D. Andrewes of late yeeres treading in the steps of that ancient Father or rather of all the ancient Fathers And what danger in maintaining that the Lords Day is entire and whole to be consecrated to Divine service did Austin speake dangerously when he professeth that thereon we must tantum Deo vacare tantū cultibus divinis vacare would this Prefacer be content to be found dancing about a Maypole or in a Morrice-dance that day that Christ should come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all them that know not God nor obey the Gospel of Christ Jesus Nay would hee not feare to rue the danger of his doctrine when it will be too late to correct it and all the profanenesse that hee hath promoted by this preface of his should rise up in judgement against him yet now he thinkes he could not goe about a better worke than by this preface translation to harden them in their profane and impure courses all his care at this time is to prevent superstition a wonder it is to see how zealous men of his spirit are to avoyd and shun superstition Belike all these must be censured for Zelotes that complaine that the Lords day is with us licentiously yea sacrilegiously profaned yet these are the times whereof S. Paul prophecied that men should be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God yet Doctor Prideaux could take liberty to professe of the Jewes that by their Bacchanalian rites they gave the world just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate their Sabbaths unto devils rather than unto Gods service yet now adayes they that oppose revels on the Sabbath day are censured and condemned of Judaisme Neither is D. Prideaux censured by way of scorne for a zelote in this but unlesse wee concurre with this Prefacer in thinking that the forbidding of dancing in the French Churches hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion there and that upon the bare credit of Heylins Geography wee must in scorne be termed zelotes Belike Bishop Babington by this bold Prefacer would be censured for a zelote considering that on Exodus 16. pag. 122. hve writes in this manner May not a good soule thus reason with himselfe This people of his might not gather Manna and may I safely goe to markets dancings drinkings to wakes and wantons to Beare-baitings and Bul-baitings and such like wicked profanations on the Lords Day Is this to keepe the holy day Can I answer this to my God that gives mee six dayes for my selfe and takes but one to himselfe of which I rob him also And Bishop Austin too deserves to be censured a zelote for that which hee writes in his 3. tract upon Iohn Observe the Sabbath Day it is rather commanded unto us because it is commanded to be observed in a spirituall manner For the Jewes observe the Sabbath day servilely unto luxury unto drunkennesse How much better were it for their Women to spinne Wooll then to dance on that day in their new Moones and in his 44. tract The Jewes rest unto toyes and whereas God commanded the Sabbath to be observed they spend the Sabbath in such things which the Lord forbids Our rest is from evill works their rest is from good works For it is better to goe to plow then to dance but albeit hee be censured as a Zelote yet surely there is no colour why hee should be thought to Judaize in this And let Bishop Nazianzene passe under the same censure with them who as Dialericus upon the 17. Dominicall after Trinitie Sunday alleageth him professeth that the sanctification of the Sabbath consists not in the hilarity of our bodies nor in the variety of glorious garments nor in eatings the fruite wherof we know to be wantonnesse nor in strewing of Flowers in the wayes which we know to be the manner of the Gentiles but rather in the purity of the soule and chearefulnesse of the mind and pious Meditations as when we use holy Hymnes in stead of Tabers and Psalmes in stead of wicked songs and dancings The same Dialericus alleageth Pope Gregory out of his 91. booke of his Epistles and 3. Epistle affirming That therefore on the Lords Day we ought to rest from all Earthly worke and by all meanes insist on prayer that if ought hath been committed by us negligently on the six dayes on the day of the Lords Resurrection it might be cleared by prayers And which is yet more out of Chrysostome 5. Homily on Mathew hee shewes how in that Bishops judgement we should be exercised on the Lords Day in our private Families thus When we depart from the Ecclesiasticall assembly we ought not in any case intangle our selves in businesses of a contrary nature but as soone as we come home turne over the Holy Scriptures and call thy Wife and thy Children to conferre about those things which have been delivered and after they have been deepely rooted in our minds then to proceed to provide for such things as are necessary for this life So anciently is the pious exercise of repeating Sermons commended unto us by this holy Bishop which in these dayes I have heard to bee cryed downe by profane persons as a cause of increase of Brownisme And I willingly confesse that when I first came to this place there were no lesse then tenne that partly had withdrawne themselves partly were upon the point of withdrawing themselves from our Common Prayers but within a short time there was not one such to be found amongst us and so wee have continued to this day But to returne Ephrem Syrus may goe for a zelote in like manner who as hee is alleged by Rivetus treating of the Sabbath exhorts to honour the Lords festivities celebrating them not panegyrically but Heavenly not secularly but spiritually not like Heathens but like Christians and he shewes wherein this consists in the words following Quare non portarum frontes coronemus let us not hang Garlands upon the frontispice of our Gates non choreas ducamus let us not leade a dance non chorum adornemus let us not by our presence beautifie any such company non tibiis auditum effaminemus let us not effeminate our Eares with their Musick or with their fidles Nay as Doctor Prideaux complaines of the Jewes corrupting themselves to the
profaning of their Sabbaths so Polidor Virgil complaines of the like corruptions among Christians on their festivalls lib. 6. cap. 8. not imploying their time in prayer and in the exercise of Gods Word for which cause such festivalls were instituted but in all manner of evill courses tending to the corrupting of mens manners and that herein they imitate Heathens though of ancient times Tertullian as hee sayth reprehended Heathens for such courses as in his Apologeticum speaking of the holy solemnity of their Emperours Therefore saith hee Christians are compted enemies to the State because they doe not dedicate vaine lying and rash honors to their Prince Forsooth it is a great good office to make bonfiers and dances in publique and to feast in every parish to transforme the City into the habite of a Taverne Vino lutum cogere which Junius sayth was a fruit of their desperate Luxury and a signe of their madnesse and fury he proceedes to strive who shall exceed one another in running about to doe injuries to commit impudencies to provoke unto lust And is the publike joy after such a manner exprest to wit by publique shame O how deservedly are we Christians to be condemned he speakes it ironically who by carrying our selves soberly chastly honestly doe oppose the vowes made and the joyes expressed for the Emperors to wit when for their sober and chast and vertuous carriage on such dayes not concurring with others to the same excesse of riot were censured as enemies untotheir Princes Yet even in those primitive times the manners of Christians became degenerate as Baldwin observes in his cases of conscience p. 479. and that out of Tertullian as whom hee observes to have complained of it namely that Christans imitated the manners of the Heathen in this yea and grew worse then they in his booke de Idol c. 14. O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam Christianorum solennitatem sibi vendicat non Dominicam non Pentecostem etiam si nossent nobiscum non communicassent ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronuntiemur non veremur O the fayth of the Nations better then ours towards their own sect as who chalenge not to themselves any Christian solemnity not that of the Lords Day nor that of Whitsuntide Had they known it they would not communicate with us lest they should seem Christians we Christians feare not to be accompted Heathens O what a zelote did Tertullian shew himselfe in this nay what thinke wee of Leo and Anthemius Emperours were not they zelotes too in that decree of theirs alleaged by the former Baldwin Diesfestos majestati Altissimi dedicatos nullis volumus voluptatibus occupari undoubtedly they meane hereby worldly pleasures such they would have no place on holy festivities and why but because they accounted those holy festivalls profaned thereby And may not King Iames also be censured for a zelote in making that proclamation of his for the reformation of abuses in profaning the Lords Day at his first comming into the Land to receave this Kingdome as his rightfull inheritance In the Conference before his Majesty at Hampton Court I finde mention made of it by D. Reynolds in this manner To the former Doctor Reynolds did adde the profanation of the Sabbath day and contempt of his Majesties proclamation made for the reforming of that abuse of which he earnestly desired a streighter course for reformation thereof and unto this he found a generall and unanimous assent All these be like were zelotes So was his Majesty also that now is together with all the Lords both spirituall and temporall and the house of Commons in that Act made in the first yeare of King Charles to preserve the Lords Day from profanation wherein are forbidden expressely and by name bearebaiting bulbaiting enterludes common playes and in generall all other unlawfull exercises and pastimes and over and above all meetings and assemblies or concourse of people out of their owne parishes for any sports or pastimes whatsoever and consequently no man ought on the Lords Day goe forth of his owne parish to any may-game or to see a Morrice-dance or dancing about May-poles and seeing the Apostle professeth that it is good to be zealous alwayes in a good thing Gal. 4. 18. and Christ hath died for us to redeeme us from all iniquity and to purge us a peculiar people unto himselfe zealous of good workes Tii 2. 14. let them in the Name of God be such zelots still this zeale being a zeale of Gods Glory and it becomes us to be zealous of his Glory considering how zealous hee is for our good Esay 9. 7. Esay 59. 17. Of the sufficiency of the following discourse we shall by Gods helpe consider in due time But I confesse it may be very sutable to these times whereof the Apostle prophecied men should be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God and undoubtedly it will suit well with their affections like a sweete morsell to the epicure which hee roules under his tongue but all the praise is in parting and I would they would but thinke of that of the Prophet What will be the end thereof when wee shall give God cause to say of our Sabbath as hee sayd of the Jewish I have hated your Sabbaths And if there be any such practises of Satan on foote as to bring in the Jewish Sabbath let it be considered in the feare of God what doctrine doth more promote therein whether that which makes the celebration of the Lords Day Divine or rather that which makes it merely of humane institution and who seeth not that if it be left to the liberty of the Church they may bring in the Jewish Sabbath if it pleaseth them Though it be notoriously untrue as may be made to appeare both by Scripture evident reason and authority humane both ancient and moderne both Papists and Protestants that the Sabbath was not ordained immediately upon the creation yet were that negative granted since God hath manifested in his Law that he requires one day in seven to be set apart for his service it evidently followes even by the very light of nature that it were most unreasonable wee should allow him a worse proportion of time for his service under the Gospell that consequently the observation of one day in seven is to be kept holy unto the Lord is now become morall and perpetuall unto the very end of the world neither was it ever heard that any man did set his wits on worke in devising a ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven A prefiguration of Ghrist in some respect hath beene found in the Jewish rest on the seventh day of the weeke but of any prefiguration of ought in Christ by an indefinite proportion of one day in seven the world dreamed not of till now neither doth any man offer to devise what possibly this might prefigure in Christ As for the third it cannot be denied but that
of time due unto God Yet consider whether herein also we are not assisted in good measure by the light of nature and that in certaine particulars 1. As first the decent proportion of time being observed it is nothing materiall in it selfe as touching the advancement of the substance of Gods service what day of the weeke it be performed under the duly specified proportion For wee find by experience that all Masters stand for a proportion of service which they expect from the hands of their servants the quantity of service being a very considerable matter in the judgement of all but whether a man worke the first houre of the day and rest the second or five houres in the morning and rest the sixth or in what other difference soever so the quantity and proportion of service for that day be performed all Masters rest satisfied So for the service of the weeke if it be sufficient to performe thus much service as namely a dayes service in a weeke it matters not what day it be done so the work be performed I say it matters not as touching the substance of the worke it selfe to be performed 2. But though it matters not in this respect on what day the service is performed yet it may matter much in another respect For whereas we are all Gods creatures and consequently his servants and the service wee speake of concernes us all in generall and that equally and all wee are reasonable creatures 1. First it seemes fit in reason that there should be an uniformity For like as we converse together by commerce and trade in the workes of our calling on other dayes of the weeke so it seemes most fit we should walke together with God in the performance of his service otherwise there would be a manifest breach of society For suppose there be in such a towne as ours seven times foure hundred persons for wee have almost 2000. Communicants one of the three parishes in Reading hath as many if one 400. should keepe the first day of the weeke for their Sabbath another 400. the second day of the weeke and so to divide the dayes of the weeke betweene them here were a manifest breach of society both in thinges humane and in things Divine for every day in the weeke 400. would be excluded from conversing with their brethren in businesses temporall and all the rest from them whose day it is to rest unto God in exercises spirituall which all I presume by the very light of nature would judge intolerable And this order would have place not onely in particular townes among themselves but with other also confidering that six dayes in the weeke wee have converse by commerce and trade not with our neighbours onely but with other townes also farre and neere Againe another inconvenience would arise and that a miserable one more dangerous than the former For hereupon a window will be opened unto dissention each standing for his owne way as the manner of man is and what could be expected but wretched confusion should follow hereupon Lastly consider should not the service of man prove more comfortable unto him if God as hee hath appointed him the proportion of time so he would be pleased not to leave him to seeke of the particularity of the day under the forementioned proportion 2. Therefore as it is fit there should be an uniformity for the reasons given so for the maintenance of uniformity no meanes sufficient but Gods owne prescribing of it hereupon all just occasion of dissention will be cut off confusion will be prevented and the service of God as every way even in the very circumstance of time according to his will shall be the more cheerefully and comfortably performed 3. Thirdly consider what D. Lake writes in his Theses de Sabbato Thes 44. Gods Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Catholique rule observeable in the institution of all sacred feasts both divine and humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monethly or yeerely as particulars evidence in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the workes therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Now suppose God had not commanded the observation of any one day in the weeke but left it unto man to choose if withall hee should observe one day preferred before another in some notable worke what reason is there why man should choose any other day rather than that 1. This discourse proceeds upon supposition of one day in seven to be set apart for Gods service and accordingly wee being upon the election of the day Now consider the case of Adam God having revealed unto him how many dayes he had spent in the creating of all things and in what order hee created them the last day of the six being the day wherein he created the beasts of the field then man and after placing him in Paradise and after experience of his wisedome appearing in the naming of the beasts brought before him not finding an help meet for him casting him in a sleepe and taking a rib out of his side thereof made a woman to be a help meet for him The next day which was the seventh God resting from his worke what day should man have preferred for Gods service before this considering the proportion betweene Gods rest from his works and mans rest from his and that as this day was the first of Gods rest so it was the first of mans worke And the very Heathens have counted it reasonable à Iove principium to begin with God especially there being no better meanes to take livery and seisin of the world made by God for the service of man than by the service of God man being made to this end and accordingly after Gods image indued with an understanding heart to know him and with rationall affections to feare and serve him And that with the first as Caietan observeth and that out of the judgement of reason Par est ut post accepta beneficia agnoscamus benefactorem quandoque uno statim It is fit after benefits received wee should acknowledge our Creator sometimes yea forthwith As wee reade the Angels did as the Booke of Iob informes us Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth declare if thou hast understanding who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened or who laid the corner stone thereof When the morning starres sang together and all the sonnes of God shouted for joy The summe of all is this 1. It is generally confessed and that by the very light of nature that sometime and that in a sufficient proportion is to be set apart for Gods service 2. God being our great Lord and Master it is most fit by the
nor any that I know that in this sense all or any are bound to keep the seventh or a seventh day holy but onely by vertue of Gods command Yet this wee professe that seeing it is generally confessed that by the very light of nature some time is to be set apart for Gods service Wee cannot devise in reason any better course then to set one day in seaven apart for this considering the first division of dayes is into weekes and if a seventh part of our time be in reason to be consecrated unto God wee thinke it more convenient to set one intire day in seven apart for this then the seventh part of every day because the other businesses of every day are apt to cause distraction from the Lords service And as I have but erst discoursed it is more fit the Master should appoint unto the servant what proportion of service hee shall performe unto him then that this should be left to the discretion or liberty of the servant 1. both the honour of the Master requiring this 2. and the good of the servant for hereby hee shall be assured of the better acceptance at the hands of his master And so for the particular day it is fit the Master should marke out that also unto him by some prerogative set upon the day as hee did the seventh day by finishing the worke of Creation and by his rest thereon from his workes to call man to an holy rest from his so to be more free for the service of his Creator In which cases both touching the proportion of the time and particularity of the day the Law being made it shall continue immutable and unalterable by the will of the Creature but mutable and alterable according to the will of the Creator so that things being well distinguished and rightly considered and stated I see no bug-beare of inconvenience in all this Neyther doe I see any reason why the spending of one day in Gods holy worship as a morall and perpetuall duty should seeme distastfull to any Since it is apparant that God commanded it unto his people of the Jewes and for 1600 yeares it hath beene continually observed by Christian Churches unto this day and I make no doubt but it shall hold till Christs comming though from the beginning of the World it was never found to be so hotly opposed as at this day And why should any man stick in acknowledging it to be morall when never any man busied himselfe to finde out any ceremoniality in reference to the proportion of one day in seven Neither doe I thinke ever any man called it judiciall but Azorius professeth it to be rationi maximè consontaneum most agreeable to reason and no man that I know hath at any time set himselfe to devise a proportion of time to be spent in Gods service more agreeable to reason then this And as for the third offence taken for I know not any that give it The fourth Commandement is brought by none that I know to prove that the Lords Day is now become our Christian Sabbath but supposing it to be our Sabbath as the booke of Homilies sayth it is and our Saviour signified that Christians should have their Sabbath as well as the Jewes had theirs Math. 24. 20. wee produce the fourth Commandement to prove that wee ought to sanctifie it and that we may the better sanctifie it to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification thereof And indeed the Commandedement is so drawen as to command one day in seaven to be observed and whatsoever is that seventh prescribed by lawfull authority to sanctifie it and abstaine from all works whereby the hallowing of it is disturbed and all this we take to be morall namely the worshipping of God in a certaine proportion of time prescribed by him and to that purpose to rest from workes not for any mysterious signification sake as did the Jewes wee thinke the practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes is sufficient to inferre the apostolicall and divine institution thereof from hence Athanasius Cyrill Austin and the Fathers generally for I know not one alleaged to the contrary so take it And the Lords Day hath no other notion in Scripture language then a day of the Lords institution and this is confirmed in that it comes in the place of the Jewes Sabbath which is called in Scripture the Lords holy day Esay 58. and Psal 118. 24. of the day wherein Christ was made the head of the corner having beene formerly refused of the builders it is expresly said that it is the day that the Lord hath made and thereupon wee are called to rejoyce and be glad in it And it hath this congruity in the cause of its institution to the first Sabbath that as on the seventh day the Lord rested from his worke of Creation so on the first day of the weeke the Lord Christ rising from the dead then rested from his worke of redemption And lastly Christ bringing with him a new Creation is it strange that he should bring with him a new Sabbath and no day so fit for this as the day of his Resurrection And lastly whosoever doth not rest satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church must hee not be driven to acknowledge an ordination more then humane requirable thereunto Of the necessity of my consequences and evidence of expresse Scripture formerly mentioned I leave it to the indifferent to judge and to none sooner then to Doctor Prideaux himselfe none being more able to judge of consequences then hee being so versed therein and I am well persuaded of the indifferency of his affections and had those writings in the canvassing of this point beene extant before this Lecture of his which hath since come to the light of the presse I am apt to conceave that either hee would have given way to that which seemes in my judgement to be the truth or represented good reason of his dissenting from it The Apostles example nor so onely but drawing the Churches generally to the same practise doth argue a constitution yet more is brought for the confirmation of the authority of the Lords Day then example That of searching into the veyles and shadowes of the old Testament to finde this institution is a mystery unto mee and so farre am I from that course that I know none guilty of it The ancient Fathers sometimes doe expatiate this way for the setting forth of the honorable condition of the Lords Day but they build not doctrines thereupon which if they had done in some particular case advantageous to our adversaries it had beene enough to have cryed us downe As for Judaisme I have often shewed how little colour there is for any such imputation to be cast upon us but rather upon our adversaries I see no cause to range the Petrobusian with the Ebionite but were they yoake-fellowes whereof I finde not the least evidence yet should not wee draw with them under the
souls I never heard of any schismatique how rashly zealous or Stoicall soever that tooke upon him the authority of the civill magistrate All for ought I know concurre in this that it belongs onely to the magistrate out of coercitive power to command and compell but to the Minister of what sect soever only to persuade and worke upon mens consciences so that the members of this comparison are most indecently yoaked feigning men to be of what spirit soever it pleaseth to shape them and to doe whatsoever they thinke good though never so unreasonably and without all example Of the Jewes I have read that they count it unlawfull to kill a Flea on the Sabbath and such things must be pinned upon the sleeve of opposites to grace their cause for want of better arguments to strengthen it Infine we have a buffe givē to debauched companions in words when under the cleanly terme of Recreations on the Lords Day the course here taken is to sacrifice unto them indeed and in effect FINIS Doctor LAKE Bishop of BATH and Wells Theses de Sabbato 1. GOD at first made us not only men but also children of God 2. Therefore wee had a double being or were fitted for a double Societie 1. Civill 2. Ecclesiasticall 3. These states are inwrapped the one in the other For the Ecclesiasticall presuposeth the Civill He that is a child of God is a man and hee must be of the Civill that is of the Ecclesiasticall society 4. And the Civill state must be seasoned with and moderated by the Ecclesiasticall for a man in his Civill state must live as a child of God and member of the Church 5. Notwithstanding God would that each of these states should during this World have successively their principall imployments 6. And for these imployments hee appointed certaine times 7. The proportion of time allowed the principall imployment of the civill state was six dayes And that which was allowed the principall imployment of Ecclesiasticall state was one day 8. What times himselfe tooke for to work in or rest after the Creation the same did hee assigne to men and made his patterne a perpetuall Law 9. So then of our time God reserved a seventh part for his service 10. But in this apportioning as he reserved a seventh part of time so was that seventh the seventh day of the weeke 11. Whereof the ground was his rest from labour 12. For that he would have to be the day of mans rest because he sanctified it 13. And though no meane both Jewes and Christians doubt of the beginning of this observance by man yet I thinke it began with Adam 14. God had a Church and a service of his owne prescript from the beginning and why should we doubt whether hee cloathed then his service with due circumstances of Time Place 15. Did he sanctifie it for his owne use That were absurd to thinke the Word sanctifying doth refute it for whom then surely for man 16. And the place Exod. 16. together with the Preface to the fourth Commandement remember weigh more with me then all the weake presumptions that are brought to the contrary 17. I conclude then that the fourth Commandement is not an introduction but a declaratory Law 18 But moreover I adde that when it was delivered to the Jewes there was superadded a distinguishing reference to that Church 19. For it was prescribed as a signe of Gods sanctifying residence amongst them and a memoriall of their freedome from Egyptian bondage 20. But these accessories derogate not from the first institution 21. No more doth the forme of Liturgy which was occasioned by the fall or their freedome 22. These things shew rather to what speciall use they did apply the time then touch the apportionment thereof 23. The apportionment of time of which I take these Questions moved hath two remarkable things 24. 1. That God reserveth a seventh part of time 2. That hee designeth which of the seven days shall be his 25. The reserving of the seventh part I hold to be by Gods Ordinance who is not variable in his choice as everlasting as the World because appointed before the fall 26. And so should the hallowing of the seventh ayfm the Creation have beene as lasting had it not beene for sin for what could have altered it but a new Creation 27. But man having sinned and so by sin abolished the first Creation de jure though not de facto God was pleased to make by Christan instauration of the World 28. Hee as the Scripture speakes of Christs Redemption made a new Heaven and a new Earth old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29 Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30 As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31 So did Christ when he ended his worke make a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable Therefore 33. This first day succeeded the seventh and by that was this memoriall abolished 34. And although the Apostles were indulgent to the Jewes in keeping the seventh as well as the first when they conversed with them untill the destruction of the Temple 35 Yet would they not endure that the Gentiles should be tied to the observation thereof 36. This first day Christ sanctified not only by his resurrection but also by sundry apparitions before his ascension and after his ascension by sending thereon the Holy Ghost this is cleare in the Gospell and Actes 37 The Apostles directed by Christs not onely example but spirits also observéd the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. Iohn in the Revelation 38 And from the Apostles the Catholike Church uniformly received it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39 And the Church hath received it not to be Liberae observationis as if men might at their pleasure accept or refuse it 40 But to be perpetually observed to the Worlds end for as God only hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that hee will take for his portion for hee is Lord of the Sabbath 41 And he doth it by the worke which hee doth on the day the worke I say doth difference a day from a day 42 Whereas otherwise all dayes are equall and the same in themselves as the sonne of Syrach teacheth 43 Now then when God doth any remarkeable worke then will hee be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke if the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part 44 And his will is understood often by his precept but when we have not that the practise doth guide the Church 45 This is a catholick rule observeable in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46 The worke of the day is the ground of
Sabbath began to be a shadow When after the fall it received accessions it became such a shadow as Saint Paul speaketh of Col. 2. otherwise it was a kinde of shadow of eternall rest in the foundation and the Lords Day continueth so now Ib. The Apostle Hebrew 4 speaketh of the seventh as rested upon not sanctified Reade the mistake of this place before Ib. Section 6. The Sabbath more ceremoniall then the other Commandements you prove it out of S. Austin And it is plaine hee speaketh of the Sabbath as the Jewes observed it and had it given in charge with his accessories but I still call you to the Originall Sabbath Gen. 2. Res Respons ad quaestion 1. Section 1. Our words and meaning must not agree in our Prayer Lord have mercy upon us c. A strange answer I thinke they must and doe agree for by analogy is the Lords Day contained in the Commandement and the Church directeth us so to understand The apportionment of time is everlasting only the translation of the day is by all that have any understanding to Catechize taught to be grounded upon a new Creation succeeding the old The personall defects I cannot reply to but leave them to be reformed Though the imperfections of the ignorant should not be presented when the question is made so difficult that the learned can hardly assoile it As the author of the questions thinketh Question 2. How shall the fourth Commandement bind us considering the forme of words to keep any day but only the seventh I suppose in my Theses I have given a probable answer Seeing the apportionment of time is eternall which I thinke cannot justly be denyed I hold the translation of of the feast from the seventh to the first day is grounded upon Analogy For seeing God was pleased that the day of the Creation should be commemorated as appeareth by the Letter of the Commandement and the first Creation being by sin dissolved jure restored againe by Christ upon the first day where we find the rest after the new Creation there we must fix the feast And this is perswaded by the drift of the Law Except we lay this for a ground God will have the day of Creation observed Observed after the rule of the first Creation it cannot be for then we doe not acknowledge the dissolution thereof I meane still merito In testimony of that and Christs restitution we keepe the day of the new Creation and we are guided to it by the fourth Commandement Question 3. How shall it appeare to be the Law of nature to sanctifie one day every weeke Surely here the Author of the questions makes a strange answer For he looseth himselfe in his distinction of the Morall Law and the Law of nature which he seemeth not to understand well He would have the Law of nature to prescribe circumstances to actions and not the morall Law whereas the morality stands in observing the circumstance of actions as the Ethicks will teach and this in the phrase medium rationis Secondly hee thinketh that all the Lawes morall are as he calleth them of nature doe represent the Image of God and are unalterable even by God himselfe Not considering that there is a morality that concerneth man as he is Animal rationale and reason moderateth the sensuall part which commeth not within the compasse of the Image of God And in many particulars is mutable and dispensable in cases of necessity as it is held against the Law of Nature that brothers and sisters should marry but God dispensed with it but I should wade into a large argument if I should rippe up these two Errors I rather note that hee understandeth not the ground of a Festivall day that maketh no other ground of it than Omnia siant ordine decenter The Lords Day had a higher ground which I opened in the Theses and that is Christs Resurrection and thereby a new Instauration of the World Which wee are bound to observe upon the grounds set downe in the Theses And in a word Hee that doth not let Gods Word be the guide directing to sanctifie a Festivall day I thinke hee squareth not his opinion according to truth neither hath he any president from Gods Word FINIS Defensio Thesium de Sabbato 13 I Take notice of Tertull Iustin Martyr true but they alter not my judgement And why I finde in them onely a bare assertion and that of a thing so remote from their times that they could not know it otherwise then by relation From the Scripture they had none happily they had it from some Jewes Galatinus alleadgeth some But I oppose Jewes to Jewes Philo Iudaeus de opificio Mundi not onely is of a contrary opinion but holdeth also that it was a feast common to all Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And peradventure some such thing is meant by Hesiod his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is not unlikely that God made the observation of the day a memoriall of the Creation But I will not enlarge that discourse It shall suffice that Philo Iudaeus and Aben Ezra also and others thinke otherwise whose judgement our Orthodox Divines doe if not all yet for the most part follow Read them upon the second of Genesis 14 What the Patriarks did in point of religion I thinke they did it by Divine direction Yee know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did never please God wherefore the Mosaicall Lawes other then those that had reference to the Church as nationall and delivered out of the Egyptian bondage are to be thought not introductory but declaratory Out of question those that concerned the substance of the service which stood in sacrifices and I thinke concerning the circumstance of time and place The place for there where God appeared there did they erect their altars yea and in the story of Rebecca it is plaine that shee went to a set place to consult the Lord. And why shall not the time come under the same condition 15 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must receive an answer from that which is added in confirmation of the 13 Thesis It is but an ungrounded conjecture 16 Where had Rhenanus that opinion his varying from those whom I answered on the 13 Thesis sheweth that hee was not of Iustin Martyr or Tertullian his opinion and yet giveth no reason that may move to credit him or countervaile what I have alleadged for my opinion 18 Yes there is more if you compare Deut. c. 5. with Exodus c. 20. but I meant not onely that but other passages which make the Sabbath a signe of Gods residence sanctifying the Jewes c. which I expressed in the next thesis 19 Bedes conceipt may passe for an allegory built upon a witty accommodation of the literall sense which other fathers observed before him But that cannot be the literall sense of the Commandement You will not deny it if you grant that the Sabbath was instituted before