CHAP. V. The Reason of observing the Lords Day was the Resurrection of Christ on that day it is called the first day of the week by the Evangelists and Fathers and Lords day and Sunday also and why the Sabbath and Christian Sabbath whereupon the Fathers did rarely use the name of Sabbath what the word Synaxis may signifie with the ancients THe things that are observed thus far have taught us that the Lords day was alwaies solemnized in the Church of Christ from his Resurrection now let us enter both upon opening the reasons for which the Primitive Christians were induced to this and also the names by which they usually called this day First one and the same reason of this days solemnity is assigned every where in the Fathers then it 's pointed out by the self-same names of them all though far remote from one another and the testimonies observed in the former Chapter do witness both these The Fathers plainly affirm that the Lords day was sacred with the Christians by reason of the Lords Resurrection and that he had a festival ever since that time So Ignatius Justin Martyr Constant Mag. Augustine c. in the places fore-cited But we meet with the reason of this Festival no where more accurately and to the life as they say painted out than in Athanasius de Sabb. Circumcis Of which place this is the summ to which because it is large I referr the Reader There Athanasius mentions a double world to the former whereof he tells us the saving Passion of Christ at which the Sun appeared not put an end and the beginning of a new creation came after it which took its beginning in our Saviour The Church relying on this reason which all the other Fathers acknowledge hath hitherto alwaies from the Resurrection of Christ had in reverence the Lords day namely because of the Lords Resurrection now the Resurrection presupposeth Christs Nativity and Death or the Resurrection is as it were the consummation of our Redemption therefore when the Apostles office is described of Luke Acts 1. 22. they are called witnesses of the Resurrection not because they testified of the Resurrection alone but since the Resurrection without which the Faith of Christians would be vain the great Apostle being witness 1 Cor. 15. is the chief article of the Gospel when they are said to give testimony of the Resurrection iqis as much as if they bore witness of the whole Gospel Hence it was that the ancients preferred the Passovers solemnity to all other Festivals Greg. Nazianzen calls it the festival of festivals a solemnity of solemnities which saith he doth so far excell all the other not only the humane and earthly but those also of Christ himself and are celebrated for his sake as the Sun excelleth the Stars because if he had not risen again neither had his Nativity nor Baptism nor the other Mysteries of Christ been confirmed nor made us believe them Therefore Gregory Nazianzen thinks the honour of that festival is far to be preferred to the solemnities of others as his interpreter Nicetas thinks Therefore while the Fathers consess that the Lords day was consecrated in memory of the Resurrection it 's the same as if they had said in memory of our Redemption which Resurrection is the chief point of the Gospel to hear and handle which on that day the Church is sequestred from Worldly affaires Some assign other reasons but this former is omitted by none although to it other are added by others Nor is there less harmonious consent amongst the ancient Fathers of the Church in the Name of this Festival than in assigning its reason and in its appellation they follow the Evangelists agreeing amongst themselves who were the Holy Ghosts amanuenses in whom it 's called by two names First it 's called by the Evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 28. Mar. 16. Luk. 24. Joh. 20. So Acts 20. 7. and 1 Cor. 16. 2. as we have observed in the second Chapter In which places una Sabbatoruni must be expounded by the Lords day saith Chrysostom Whose interpretation Hierom follows and expounds the reason thereof Ad Hebidam Quest 4. Because saith he every week is divided into the Sabbath and into the first and second and third and fourth and fifth and sixth day which the Heathens called by the names of their Idols and Elements and therefore in those Fathers opinion una Sabbatorum by Enallage of the plural number for the singular for it s seldome read in the singular number in the Old Testament which manner the Writers of the New Testament do imitate and prima Sabbatorum are all one for the name of Sabbath among the ancients denoteth not only the last day in the week but the whole week also which from finishing the creation and the day of rest is called the Sabbath for its excellent dignity as Theophylact in Luc. 18. 2. that is to say for the reverence of this day the Hebrews called the whole week the Sabbath And in this sense is the Pharisee to be understood about the Sabbath when being puffed up with extream Pride amongst other things he glories of Fasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi twice a Sabbath There by Sabbath we must of necessity understand the whole Week by an Hebraism and not the last day thereof For the Pharisees as the most learned searchers of Hebrew antiquity have often observed which thing also Epiphanius puts us in mind of instituted two Fasts every week namely on Munday and Thursday therefore the Lords day was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or una Sabbatorum as in the Evangelists and Apostles so in the Writers of the following age he that will look into their writings shall find examples enow And this for the first name of this day in the Scriptures The second is extant in Rev. 1. 10. where that which was before called of all the Evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John calls it denominative with an article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Lords Day and is hitherto called by that agnomination amongst the most ancient Fathers both Greek and Latine since the Apostles age which he that will consult them shall not deny So Ignatius Epist ad Magnes Eusebius when he speaks of the Ebionites Hist l. 3. c. 21. de Dionysio Corinthiaco Hist l. 4. c. 22. Cyp. Ep. 59 c. after the name of our Saviour Constantine the Great saith it 's called Dominicum because as Austin the Lord made it This reason perhaps will be of no great weight with some since the Lord made all other dayes but he seems to have made this day after a special manner namely by his Resurrection the commemoration of which benefit succeedeth the memory of the Creation from the dead whereby he perfected our Salvation or else because it was then destinated for worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ Austin assigneth both these reasons when he saith
authority of this command then that morality doth plainly perish when now there is not any other weekly Sabbath besides the Lords day without which as I said the Moral part of the Sabbath in the New Testament would not remain By right therefore as Alexander Hales hath it the vacation of the Lords day is the Moral part of the Decalogue in the time of grace as the seventh day in the time of the Law Moreover some may with great reason doubt why the Jewish Sabbath should be translated to the Lords day which yet we see hath been done for above one thousand six hundred years if so be that Christians be not obliged to observe the fourth Command as it is moral whenas otherwise there would be no need of any festival to succeed in place of the ancient Sabbath But because that Law doth perpetually bind all the worshippers of God to the observation of the Sabbath it necessarily follows that the day on which the Sabbath is to be observed must be determined by some positive Law and is designed by God for this purpose to be the seventh day in the Old Covenant and the the first in the New For it 's not for man saith Alexander Hales quaest 32. fol. 128. to determine but God when that time is c. It 's in Gods power only to define a fit time for performing his worship But we read this question of the Morality of the fourth Command discussed at large by divers amongst whom the famous Wallaeus doth it most excellently who to the great fruit of the Church hath copiously taught us what is Ceremonial and what Moral in writing of that Command of the Sabbath I will not therefore add any more about this question but do send the Reader to the learned labours of others in which this question is examined I will only add this one thing for a conclusion out of the observations of this Learned Divine namely an explication of the Sabbath's being a sign between God and men Since saith he it is in bred by nature in all Nations that in the external worship of that Deity which they take for supreme they should have some Symbole of Document which may shew to others whom they take for God as may be observed in the sacrifices of Bacchus and therefore in the Revelation they that worshipped God and the Lamb are read to have the mark of God in their foreheads Rev. 14. 1. and they that worshipped the Beast received his mark in their forehead or hand Rev. 14. 9. which were nothing else but external tokens by which they would plainly signifie that they worshipped either God or the Beast So of old we read that the Sabbath was instituted of God that it might be a symbole or sign to manifest to all the world who was the God of the Jews So Ezek. 20. 20. the Sabbaths are said to be signs between God and them that it might be known that the Lord was their God Now what it was that was shewn by that sign Moses tells us in divers places especially in Exod. ch 31. 16 17. Therefore the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever he speaks of the Sabbath for in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed As if he should say the pious observation of the Sabbath amongst them when every seventh day returns doth intimate that the Almighty Creatour of Heaven and Earth is their God In this sense Athanasius de Sabbatho Circumcisione saith The Sabbath is a sign whereby the day might be known on which the Creation was finished which being known they might ascend to the knowledge of the Creatour And by observing the Sabbath they attained unto that two manner of wayes First inasmuch as one day of the seven was solemn or because after they had ended their labours in the six dayes they must rest on the seventh Secondly by determining that rest on the last day of the weekly compass both wayes the Jewes signified that they worshipped none other than God the Creatour of Heaven and Earth because whereas they sanctified the seventh day after the six dayes labours were ended they openly professed that they were worshippers of that God who created Heaven and Earth and having finished his labour in beautifying that stupendious work on the seventh day he ceased from working for which cause he enjoyned them the observation of the seventh day that they might follow his fore-going example both in working and in resting He hath commanded saith Philo de Decalogo that whosoever received these Institutions as in other things so in this also they should follow God in working six dayes and resting the seventh and attending on the contemplation of things and study of VVisdome c. Afterwards Follow God thou hast Gods example and prescript in working six dayes And farther they set apart no other day in the weekly course but the seventh for the exercises of piety that they might profess they were the servants of that God which redeemed the Israelites out of the Land of Egypt and brought them out of the house of bondage which is collected from the repetition of the Decalogue Deuteronom 5. 15. where Moses omitting the argument taken from the Creation which he had used in the Decalogue doth excite them to sanctifie the Sabbath from their being freed out of the Land of Egypt namely because whenas they served in the Land of Egypt the Lord their God brought them out thence with a strong hand and stretched out arm and therefore he commanded them that they should observe the very day of the Sabbath in whose morning watch they came out of Egypt as the Learned Junius observes in his notes on Deuteronom 5. out of Exod. 12. 15. This seems to have been the cause of appointing this day rather than any other And thus much of the Jews Sabbath whereby as by a manifest document they professed to worship the Lord the Creator of this universe and their mighty Redeemer out of Egypt for which cause the Sabbath was had for a sign between God and them CHAP. X. A day in every week is to be sanctified under the Gospel which is not the seventh but first the celebrating of the Jewish Sabbath Col. 2. 16. and Gal. 4. 10. examined the places whereon the observation of the Lords Day in the New Testament is bottomed The Fathers acknowledge its Divine authority neither can the Church change that day and substitute another in its place A Stated Day in every Week being granted to perform Gods Worship on it remaineth now farther to find out what day is determined by God for his worship since the Light of the Gospel was up and down dispersed And whereas thus far we have spoken of the Jews Sabbath it remains in the second place to be considered Whether Christians or
cloyed with luxurious banquets drunken feasts and lewd drunkenness cannot devoutly consecrate the Lords day to God so they that delighting in luxury do give up themselves to pleasures are unfit for the sanctifying thereof because with their pleasures they defile the Lords holy day pleasure is the individual companion of drunkenness and intemperance in many becomes a cause of lasciviousness as we say in the Proverb When the belly is well filled then follow dances we read that these have been condemned with great fervour of mind and most holy zeal with the old friends of sincere piety which Chrysostom Hom. de Eleemosyna would not have any attend on and no wonder for all such worldly spectacles with Chrysostom are called Sathans Festivals from which he exhorts his hearers to abstain and sharply reproveth Parents that bring their children to spectacles and exhort them not to Doctrine Cyril was sorry as we have seen in the former Chapter that Christians should on feast dayes run to playes pageants and dancings because in his judgment these things cannot be done without mocking of Gods name and violation of the day for the holiness of festivals is miserably distained by petulant dancings therefore Leo and Authemius those good Emperours ordain that festivals being dedicated to the most High Majesty are by no pleasures which afterwards in detestation of them they call obscene to be defiled They say also We decree the Lords day alwayes to be so honourable and reverent that it be excused from all executions c. And after Nor yet do we relaxing the rest of this holy day suffer any one to be witholden by obscene pleasures Let the scene of the Theatre or the fights in the Cirque or the doleful sights of wild beasts challenge nothing to themselves on that day and if any solemnity fall out to be celebrated on our Birth-day let it be deferred If any one shall ever be present at â—â—ghts on this Feast-day he shall sustain the loss of his command in the Militia and the sale of his patrimony and likewise the Serjeant of every Judge that under pretence of either publick or private business doth believe that these things which are ordained in this law are to be violated The Fathers in the Council of Carthage were of the same mind who provided that no sights should be shewed on the Lords day or any other of the festivals Yea even in the thickest darkness of Popery so solemn was the splendour of this day that the Cimmerian darkness of Antichristianism could never overcome it Therefore it was provided Can. 10. part 9. of the Provincial Council of Colen that there should be an abstinence from these Wherefore say they it is our mind that on these dayes they speak of Festivals Fairs be prohibited Taverns be shut Riot Drunkenness Expences Strifes wicked Sports Dances full of madness evil Communication Bawdy Songs be avoided briefly all Luxury for by these and the blasphemies and perjuries which usually attend these the name of God is profaned and the Sabbath which admonisheth us to cease from doing perversly and learn to do well is defiled In the third Council also of Millain they decree Let the Bishop carefully prohibit and see to it that it be done that not only no leapings and dancings but no riot playes in honour of the Saints and other profane actions unmeet for the worship of those festival dayes and pious institutions be any wayes publickly acted on these dayes or brought in under pretence or occasion of them If men brought up in the Cimmerian darkness of Antichristianism declining the pure light of the Gospel like Owls yet could not through the splendour of truth but bear an illustrious testimony to the Lords festival and thereupon condemned what was opposite to its sanctification as dances which they call full of madness and wicked sports by which the Sabbath on which Christians are to cease from doing evil is violated if by no means under any pretence they permit leapings and danings to be acted to how tremendous a judgment do the ill-employed Libertines of this age expose themselves who now having the face of the Church happily discovered by the sacred Light of the Gospel are not afraid to tread under foot the holiness of this day by giving the reins to pleasures and dances running out into folly so often condemned by the Fathers As if they made haste to pass over into the heretical tents of the Heicetae who in other things following the Churches authority in their Monasteries by a company of Monks praised God using tripudiations and dances thereunto A wickedness indeed more becoming Hereticks than Christians What once the learned Morton in his Catholic Apolog lib. 2. cap. 14. related of Tollet we will apposirely apply to the Patrons of dancing on the Lords day Tollet affirms that a man is bound under a mortal sin to sanctifie a Festival but he is not bound to SANCTIFIE IT WELL. On the other side Morton cryes out and that justly What the foul ill what a sanctifying is this that wants Well without which no action can be acceptable to God So these mens sanctifying of this day while they grant the Lords day must be sanctified but labour not to sanctifie it Well is rather to be reckoned a profanation than sanctification thereof Alas Are these fruits beseeming so long a preaching of the holy Gospel while men do on the Lords day so profusely serve the pleasures of the flesh The primitive Christians whose souls are now in rest celebrated not so the Lords day who made conscience of intermitting its solemnity upon any occasion If on holy dayes we must abstain from lawful and necessary labours must we therefore attend upon unlawful vain and unhonest works God forbid The women of the Jews had better on the Sabbath day spin than dance on their New Moons as Augustin judgeth And on Psal 39. It is better to dig than dance on the Sabbath But these things are not so to be expounded as if St. Austin had commended the undertaking of gainful labour on that day but that grave Father doth praise the scope of those men rather who do apply their just and lawful labour than their unlawful vanities as otherwhere he relates of Socrates that swore by flesh a stone or any thing that was at hand to swear by not that he approved Socrates's fact but by this means he would instruct his hearers that although neither be agreeable to reason yet it is better to transferr Gods honour to Gods workmanship than to the works of mens hands So although we must not attend on the Lords day on labour undertaken for gain-sake but only on Divine worship yet the good Father judged it better on that day to employ our pains about labours lawful on other dayes than about vanities alwayes unlawful and severely condemned of God although neither will very well agree with the solemnity of that day If
de Idol cap. 14. saith the Sabbaths are extraneous to Christians and that Holy dayes were sometime time beloved of God The Nazaraei observing the Sabbath are branded for Heresie by Epiphanius l. 1. num 30. and likewise the Ebionites If it had been the Christians duty to observe Sabbaths why had the Catholicks imputed its observation as a fault to the Hereticks which yet they have done more than once as sure as sure can be But Christians have celebrated their Lords day every where without brand of heresie or any other crime and therefore since the festivity of the Sabbath was not every where in use with the Christian Church nor doth any where occurr any Apostolical ordination for continuing it in the Church we do by good right affirm that Christians are not obliged to its celebration which to affirm of the Lords day that was observed in the Apostles age and ever after is an heirrous thing 2. When meetings were held on Sabbath dayes they met not weekly on all Sabbaths as they came about for on one Sabbath publick Conventions were to be omitted if we may believe the foresaid Constitutions so it 's ordained Constit Ap. lib. 5. cap. 19. and what that is they explain the Sabbath in the great week Constit Ap. c. 24. lib. 7. The Sabbath of the Lords burial on which it's fit we should fast but not celebrate a festival So also August to Casulanus Ep. 86. but for the omitting Church-assemblies on the Lords day as often as it came about and were safe for the Church for the Persecution of the Tyrants we read nothing was ever ordained of the ancients There is a sanction in the same Constitutions that the Lords day should be celebrated without intermission Lib. 7. cap. 31. 3. In populous Cities where without dammage to their Estates they could be present at reading of Scripture and their interpretation meetings were more frequently kept Therefore the Council of Laodicea decrees that the Gospels should be read on the Sabbath Can. 16. Ambrose treated of Prayer the same day de Sacram. lib. 4. c. 6. But all the exercises of piety were not every where performed in those assemblies that yet were not omitted on the Lords day Augustine saith in another place On the Lords day only the Communion of the Lords Body and Blood is used Socrates doth not record that they of Alexandria and Rome did celebrate those mysteries on the Sabbath While Chrysostom requireth it of the rich Lords of Villages that they build Churches in them Hom. 18. in Act. he distinguisheth those congregations that were on other days from those that were held upon the Lords day Upon those Congregations Prayers and hymns were had in these an oblation was made on every Lords day and for that cause the Lords day is in Chrysostom called dies panis i. the day of bread Athanasius purgeth himself of a calumny imputed to him for breaking the cup because it was not the time of administring the holy mysteries for it is not saith he the Lords day Whence it is evident that the Lords Supper was administred on the Lords dayes otherwise the argument wherewith Athanasius purgeth himself were of no weight Although therefore they met upon the Sabbath day yet did they not every where observe it equally to the Lords day on which they celebrated all the mysteries of Religion 4. The people were free to be present or absent from Sabbath-day meetings as they saw good that is they were not obliged by any necessity of law to meet on that day for the Sabbatarii contending for a necessary observation of the seventh day were of the whole Christian Church condemned of heresie in this behalf as I have briefly shewn before I confess Origen reproves his hearers which came seldom to hear the Word of God that scarce did come to the Church on Feast dayes Gregory Nyssen in that Oration which he made against those that would scarce endure reproofs nips the people that met not on the Sabbath With what eyes saith he lookest thou on the Lords Day that despisest the Sabbath Dost thou not know that these dayes are Sisters that if thou reproach the one thou offendest the other But he speaks of those who had oftener liberty to meet for hearing the Word which they regarded not to embrace out of a certain supine negligence or being puffed up with pride despised the Church-meetings on Sabbath-dayes Whether it was the sluggishness or arrogance of these men it was deservedly blameable whenas they might divers dayes meet at Church without dammage of their worldly affairs which yet to do they were not easily moved although the duties of their calling would bear it In the old Testament some hours in a week were consecrated to Gods Worship Numb 28. 3. but yet all the day long the whole people of Israel should not attend on the holy duties of piety this was only enjoyned to them that could commodiously do it So in the Churches planted by the Apostles they met on other dayes as often as they could besides the Lords dayes but on the Lords dayes appointed for this end they were bound to be present at the publick assemblies and their absence for a certain time from these on the Lords day was to be reprehended by the sentence of the first Concil Eliberitan Can. 21. And yet where are any Canons established for punishing their absence from Sabbathday-meetings Although the Fathers do often reprove those that come seldome on the Sabbath and other dayes to hear the Word 5. Although on the Sabbath dayes they might meet to hear the holy Oracles of God yet when that dayes meetings were ended they might not be idle but an Anathema is denounced to them that work not on that day Conc. Laodic Can. 29. Ignatius in an Epistle to the Magnesians exhorts them to spend the Sabbath in labours without rest and therefore the Sabbath had not its vacation from labours So Athan. de semente Ambros Ep. 72. which we never read was ordained of the Lords day on which it's a sin to give our selves to labour And let these things suffice for the Lords dayes prerogatives above the Sabbath by which we find that the Sabbath day was not kept holy of the Church i. e. the ancients did not separate it from common use and labour nor consecrate it wholly to God in an holy rest that on it the acts of Divine Worship and those things that pertain to a spiritual life should only be exercised neither were the conventions on that day to be compared with those held on the Lords day which things surely once to define had been much to our profit For the Institution of other dayes to hold meetings on it 's not needful to take much pains since we have nothing writ of it in the Word of God as of the Lords day and many things which were not instituted of the Apostles but first arose in
the Lords Resurrection hath consecrated for us the Lords day and it seems properly to belong to the Lord. It is therefore called the Lords because the Lord hath instituted its solemnity as the Lords Prayer is so called because the Lord endited it or the Lords Supper because Christ instituted it or else because it was chiefly instituted for the Lord and his worship while the Lord Christ is worshipped upon it but some others contend it is so called because that by the Lords Resurrection a way is opened to an eternal Sabbath but the former is more common and received of most Justin Martyr calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sunday about the beginning of his second Apology and his follower Tertullian writes that he and the Church gave themselves to rejoyce on the Sunday But in this they agree with the Heathen who use this word to whom they both directed their Apologies in which it is so named and to whom the names used by the Church were unknown For they distinguished the names of the seven dayes in the week by the names of the Planets yet in the Church it was called the Lords day so Justin disputing against Trypho a Jew useth a name accommodated to the man and calleth the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian also when he deals with the Christians useth the name Lords day as in his Book de Corona cap. 3. and lib. de Idol c. 14. and very seldome Sunday Hierom although spurious yet very willingly confesseth that it may be called Sunday because on it light arose to the world and the Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings A speech also which is reckoned amongst Ambrose's saith that the day which is called the Lords day in the Church by the men of the world is called Sunday where the name is set down by which it was called both by the Church and others In other Authors it is also called Sunday but Austin shews us that the Manichees rather than the Christians called it so Ye saith he to the Manichees worship the Sun on that day which they call Sunday as we call the same the Lords day because on it we reverence not the Sun but the Lords Resurrection And elsewhere he is earnest that Christians should not call dayes by Heathen names for the Church manner of speaking comes better from a Christian mouth Moreover also I am not ignorant that other of the Fathers do sometime express this day otherwise Cyprian sometimes calleth it the eighth because it is the eighth from the beginning of the Creation sometimes the first after the Sabbath So Tertullian Of Basil it is called the onely the first the eighth de Sp. Sanct. c. 27. By Hilary the eighth and first in his Prol. to the Expos of the Psalms So Aug. Epist 119. c. 13. While Chrysostom nippeth the Jews for abusing the Sabbath to idleness he sharply taxeth others also that indulged their vices on festival dayes under the name of the Sabbath The Feasts of Christians are called Sabbaths by Ruffinus the enemies saith he do deride our Sabbaths Ruffinus speaks there of the Christian not Jewish Sabbaths Athanasius says that he observed the Sabbath day not as it was prima aetate in the beginning of the world The Lords day with Origen is the Sabbath and the Christian Sabbath Where without doubt Origen speaks of the Lords day otherwise men must cease all the dayes of their life from worldly affairs which is required on the Christian Sabbath ibidem In the Council of Friuli Can. 13. the Sabbath is called Dedicatum Domini i. e. Dedicated to the Lord. But although the ancients have sometimes called the Lords day the Sabbath from its parent as it were the Jewish Sabbath as in the Scriptures the Holy Ghost calls Baptism Circumcision yet it 's certain they very rarely do note this day by the name of the Sabbath especially because they opposed the Jews that gloried in the Sabbaths solemnity whose observation they judged necessary to obtain eternal life as appears from Trypho in Justin Martyr and that contemned the Gospel And like as the Christians had nothing to do with the Jews in celebrating the Feast of the Passover because they abhorred to keep it with them at the same time as witnesseth Socrates lib. 5. cap. 22. so they abstained from names of Feasts in use with the Jews lest as St. Austin when he enquires whether a true Christian be to be called a Jew or Israelite for the ambiguity of the word which usual speech discerneth not that might seem to be uttered which is an enemy to the Christian name we ought not to confound the custome of mans speech by foolish loquacity for this reason we meet with the name of Sabbath rarely amongst the ancients This is also to be added because while the first Fathers were alive both the Sabbath and Lords day were observed of the Church although not in the same manner as we have before shewed out of the Fathers While therefore they spake of the Lords day they were forced to abstain from the word Sabbath that they might distinguish the Lords day from it and that difference they have also observed strictly in other things Like as what Collecta is with the Latines with the Greeks it is Synaxis namely a meeting of the Church as the word means And although it be derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence also the word Synagogue yet the first Christians which the learned Casaubon observeth for the nonce have abstained from the word Synagogue that they might discriminate the Christian meetings from the Jewish Synagogues therefore they called their assemblies Synaxes not Synagogues by Synaxin is meant the meeting of the Church it 's plain from Socrates speaking of the Alexandrians administring all things pertaining ad Synaxin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. besides the celebration of the Mysteries where he plainly distinguisheth between Synaxin and Eucharistiae administrationem So not once in Chrysostom the name of Synaxis is general which comprizeth all things that were wont to be done in the Christian assemblies and is distinguished from their oblation Hom. 18. in Act. Ap. where he teaches that in the Churches of Villages and Towns the Sacrament was wont to be celebrated only on Lords dayes but Prayers and hymns and Synaxes every day But this by the bye that it may appear to us how it was ordinary with Christians to abstain from words in use with the Jews therefore they are read seldome to have used the word Sabbath but as once Alexander Hales because the Sabbath day taken in determinately is called the day of rest or vacation to God after this manner the Lords day may be called the Sabbath day without any prejudice of the Christian name or scandal of Christians More names of this day do also occurr in other of the Fathers who only obiter ex re
celebrate the Sabbath He grants then that the Sabbaths observation was according to the law of Nature that is that it was constituted by God at the Creation of Nature St. Austin sayes also that the Jews acknowledge that God sanctified a day since which he began as it were to rest from his labours So Solomon Iarchi in Gen. 26. By whom is cited R. Simson in Is 58. Aben Ezra in Exod. 20. Da. Kimchi Manasses Ben-Israel in Deut. 5. and all the Doctors of the Jews excepting Maimonides These things shew that the Jews had knowledge that the Sabbath was observed from the Creation from whom the observation of the Sabbath was very well known to the inhabitants of the whole World Of the Christians also divers both antient and modern were of this opinion a few of whose testimonies we will lightly touch Theophilus Antiochenus lib. 2. ad Antolicum saith That God finished the work that he made on the seventh day and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it he rested from every work he made c. He saith not that God did consecrate the seventh day that afterwards only it might be sanctified of the Israelitish Church but so soon as the work of Creation was consummate the seventh day was of God both blessed and sanctified Afterwards he acknowledges that the seventh day was solemnized amongst all men which the Hebrews call the Sabbath and Greeks the seventh day although most know not the cause of that name And what cause was unknown to the most namely the holy resting of God on that day and its sanctification whereof Theophilus made mention a little before Tertullian saith that Christ fulfilled the Law while he made the Sabbath day which was holy from the beginning by the blessing of the Father more holy by his own doing good on it Cyprian confesseth that the Seventh day Holy day from the Creation of the world obtained authority because in six dayes Gods works were finished and the seventh consecrated to rest as holy and sanctifying honoured with a solemnity of vacation and entitled to the sanctifying Spirit Lactantius is of the same opinion God finished the world and this admirable work of the Creation in six dayes space and then ordained the seventh day whereon he rested from his works This is the Sabbath day Lactantius therefore fetcheth the sanctification of the Sabbath from the Creation and not from the History of Manna St. Athanasius saith that God rested when he had finished the former Creation and therefore the men of that generation observed the Sabbath on the seventh day Where he acknowledges that the Sabbath was observed from the Creation till Christ for he saith that all men of that generation did observe the Sabbath where he speaketh of the whole time from the beginning of the world till Christ Greg. Nyssen Lo here is for thee the Sabhath blessed from the beginning of the world mark it by that Sabbath this Sabbath the day of rest which God hath blessed above other dayes Chrysost God hath blessed and sanctified that day What is it that he hath sanctified it he hath set it apart from other dayes After when he tells us the cause why he hath sanctified it he addeth because on that he rested from all his works which God began to make Now God intimateth to us this Doctrine from the beginning teaching us that within the compass of a week one whole day is to be set apart and spent in spiritual work Therefore according to Chrysostom the Sabbath Day since the Creation was set apart from other dayes and plainly it appears that for that ordination the world is bound to dedicate one whole day of the week to the worship of God Aug. ult cap. postrem lib. de Civitate Dei while he is describing that everlasting Sabbath which the Saints shall enjoy in heaven he referrs the institution of the Sabbath to the resting of God from the work of creation He doth the like in Epist. ad Casulanum where he saith that God sanctified the seventh day when he rested on it from all his works and afterwards gave command about its observation to the Hebrew people Augustine therefore doth acknowledge that the use of the Sabbath was amongst the ancients before it grew common amongst the Hebrews namely first at the beginning before Moses and afterwards in the Church of the Jews Theodoret. He hath bestowed a blessing on the seventh day instead of creating lesâ— that day only above others should want its hoâ— nour and he hath put Hallowed it foâ— set it apart And afterwards In blessing the seventh day he hath shown that he thought it not an unprofitable and superfluous day but hath ordained it to be applied to rest Who doth not see that in Theodorets opinion from the beginning the Sabbath was set apart for the worship of God from other dayes So when he answers the question why he commanded not the Sabbath to be celebrated on another day because the God of all hath created every thing in six dayes but on the seventh day he made nothing but honoured this day with a blessing as it is added in six dayes the Lord thy God made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh wherein he teaches us that even then this day was consecrated of God to rest and sanctification from the beginning of the world Alexander Hales affirmes that the Sabbath before the Law was observed of the Fathers and of the same opinion are divers of the Schoolmen Now if any have a mind to reckon up the grave opinions of the aforesaid Fathers he will not deny that the Sabbath day was solemnly kept from the very beginning of the world because by the judgment of them all the Sabbath was sanctified by God nor do the Fathers speak of the purpose of God as though it was not then really set apart for the worship of God but according to his purpose it was only destined for this that after two thousand years it should be set apart for this end for say they when God had finished his work of Creation the Sabbath was sanctified from the beginning or from the creation of the world when he had rested from his works from the Creation till Christ c. and therefore they acknowledge that the Sabbath day was solemnized amongst all men or all men of the former generation that is from the beginning of the world till Christ a long time before its use was established amongst the Jews All these things are affirmed in round words by the Fathers Out of which it clearly appears that one day of the week was alwayes set apart to the worshipping of God publickly And as the best of the ancients were of this opinion so the chief of our late writers that have flourished in the Reformed Churches do affirm that God did from the beginning of the world sanctifie the seventh day for his
have heard by them both which do only contend for this that they may teach that the ancient Fathers were not justified by the Sabbath and Circumcision and add no more CHAP. IX That one day in a week is under the Gospel also to be sanctified The Morality of the fourth Command which is perpetual requireth this Christ hath not abolished the Law How the Sabbath may be said to be a sign between God and the Church THus far of the first Epocha in which we have found that from the beginning of the world one day in the weekly compass was to be set apart for the solemn performing of the worship of God and for the second from Moses to Christs resurrection none doubteth therefore I 'le add nothing of it and will come to the third Epocha of which is the greatest controversie namely Whether under the Gospel in the compass of a week one day be to be sanctified Some men of great name do deny this and some do strongly affirm it which later opinion being grounded upon so many testimonies and reasons of the ancients and the continual practise of the Christian Church I freely embrace for this is neither a new nor an unheard of assertion but by several Divines of a well exercised judgment is sufficiently manifested to all pious souls and prone to the fear of God in demonstrating whereof they have recourse to the morality of the fourth Command in the Decalogue whose moral part is perpetual for it is one of the ten words of God engraven by his own hand in Tables of Stone Exod. 35. 28. Deut. 4. 13. out of which number if the Sabbath should be expunged there would only nine remain Now the Moral part of the Decalogue which remaineth also in the new Law Bonavent l. 3. q. 37. p. 781. as Alexander Hales once wittily is said to be so two manner of wayes one way which is of the very essence of the Decalogue according to the primary intention and so vacation to a time indeterminately is moral in the Decalogue another way it 's said to be moral in the Decalogue which is to determine the Decalogue and according to this vacation on the Lords day is moral in the Decalogue in the time of grace as the seventh day in the time of the Law and that is moral by discipline i. e. by Divine institution and therefore even by the sole instinct of nature it must needs be granted that man at some time must attend upon God yea nature it self dictates that sufficient dayes be set apart to perform his worship And who is to determine those dayes but him whose the day and night are Psal 74. 15. So Alexander Hales The observance of a day indeterminately that at some time we should attend on God is moral in nature and immutable but the observance of a determinate time is moral by discipline by the adding of Divine institution Afterwards he saith when that time ought to be is not for man to determine but God because it is his part to define the certain time for worship whose it is to prescribe the worship it self it pertaineth not to inferiours whose part it is to perform offices to others to determine of a fit time to perform them in Superiours to whom they are to be exhibited do prescribe others when ex officio they ought to attend these Nor can it be otherwise because if the way of setting apart the time for worshipping God in should not depend upon Divine institution the mind of man would hang pendulous in this business neither would it appear to us what dayes would be sufficient since if we look at Gods benefits conferred upon us it would not be sufficient to consecrate the whole course of our life to this work and if we look at our covetousness and sloth how many of us would suffer the very least part of our time saith the famous Mr. D. G. to be cut off either from our labour or rest A certain time is therefore to be defined of God at least for their sakes who attend more upon this world than God as Hierom and left the conscience of men should stick in doubt or God be defrauded of his due worship very reason it self seemeth to require that a certain day should be assigned by the most Blessed and Almighty God especially when as Scotus saith man is bound to no act pro tempore indeterminato to which he is not bound pro aliquo signato because if then worship be not to be exhibited to God by like reason not now and by the same reason of every other time Besides he that will not think much to compare the reason of the present age with the times of Adam the Patriarchs and the Jews he shall see it equal and just to set apart in every seven dayes one whole one for the worship of God For why should the Lord indulge a further liberty to the men of our age in his service than he granted them especially when God since he hath repealed his Gospel is more propitious to us than to them Farther if we weigh the nature of our present men we shall find for certain that no less time is required to the instructing of them than of the ancients And to conclude relaxation from labour is no less necessary in this age to servants and those that live under other mens government than to men in former ages He that without prejudice weigheth these things cannot deny that one day in seven is as well to be set apart for the publick worship of God by Christians as men of the former age I will add nothing of the nature of the Decalogue never abrogated by the blessed coming of Christ Faith in Christ makes not void the Law the matter of which all men acknowledge to be written in mens hearts from the Creation the great Apostle being witness although we acknowledge with the same Apostle Gal. 4. and Col. 2. that the ceremonial and typical observation thereof being fulfilled by Christs coming in the flesh be now ceased This doth also Irenaeus witness adv haeres l. 4. c. 31. who affirmeth that God spoke the words of the Decalogue immediately by himself and thereupon they remain permanent and fixed with us admitting of extension and augmentation but no dissolution by the coming of Christ in the flesh So St. Austin in Psalm 32. Fulfill the Law saith he which the Lord thy God came not to dissolve but to fulfill And certainly no body that throughly weighs with himself the morality of that precept will doubt that the solemnity of the Lords day grew up by vertue of the fourth Command in the Decalogue For it is granted of all that the substance of the Command included in these words Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day i. e. the day of rest not as the seventh day is moral and to be continued for ever But if the Lords day festivity be not bottomed upon the
being withdrawn from the cares of temporal things its rest should be spent in spirituals as Chrisostom Hom. 1. de Lazaro Athanasius of the same judgment de Sabbat Circumcis for he saith the end of the Sabbath was the knowledge of the creation and not idleness that men keeping holy that day they might know God who rested on that day having finished the work of Creation In the third Council of Orleans it 's provided that men abstain from rural labour and they shew the end of this abstinence that they might go more easily to Church to pray Therefore by the very dictates of nature the Priests affirmed that Holy dayes were polluted if any work was done upon their proclaimed and moveable Feasts Numa Pompilius ordained that alwayes on the Priests Festivals the Cryers should go before them through the city who should give charge that men should rest and cease from their works He thought it was fit that he who worshipped the Gods should be freed from other things and in worshipping of the Gods to apply the mind as to a thing greatly conducing to piety Therefore the minds of men without a cessation from worldly things cannot be applied in a holy devotion to Divine Worship Handy labour saith Cyril is forbidden on a Feast day that you may exercise your selves more entirely in Divine matters The ancients thus ordained that we must cease on a Festival day from all secular works and no worldly thing is to be done on that day which may hinder its sanctification Now in worldly matters men are intent either upon gain or pleasure but here must be a cessation from both First and foremost the observation of the Lords day is not to be profaned by gainful labour for which cause it was provided for by the ancients that Christians should wholly abstain from all things whereby the body is either wearied or the mind alienated from divine to humane things Which clearly enough shews that they were not of that opinion which Austin reports Seneca sometimes was Seneca derided the Jews especially for their Sabbaths that lost the seventh part of their life time in idleness and did not many urgent affairs in their season Christians were not so intent upon their labour for profit as not to be pulled from it to attend Religion They would not give themselves up to their commodities when the season called for obedience When Origen describes how a Christian ought to observe the Sabbath he concludes nothing of worldly actions must be done and he must abstain from all secular works as we have observed before in Chap. 10. where we cited a place in which there is a truly golden and pious image of the Christian Sabbath which Origen divinely inspired hath happily drawn to the life as they say and in which are elegantly described what things are on that day by Christians to be followed and what to be fled while he teacheth us that leaving earthly works on the Lords day we must attend on Divine which that it may be done with greater advantage we must go to the Church in which he exhorts us to attend on the things of Religion and if men shall faithfully do this they will make it evident to all that they have a greater care of their hope for the future inheritance reserved in Heaven than of the profits of this present life Chrysostom confesses that the Lords day is free from business and labours and hath a rest appointed for it and elsewhere Hom. against those that run to playes he accuseth those that meddle with worldly cares on that day although they may pretend poverty necessity of getting food and other urgent occasions But although Chrysostom seems manifestly â—o think that gainful labour is not on the Lords day to be undertaken by Christians yet some make a question whether according to Chrysostom all the day or only so long as the publick assemblies of the Church are held there ought to be an abstinence from labours especially whenas he doth indulge his hearers when they are returned from the Church-assembly if they shall repeat the Scriptures and discourse of that which they have once heard then go to look after the things which are necessary for this life But I will set down the very words of the Father lest I should either keep in suspense the well-minded Reader or seem to darken the truth You must not saith he when you are returned from the Church-meeting intangle your selves in businesses contrary to this exercise but returning home straightway repeat the holy Scriptures and call your wife and children together to confer of those things that have been spoken and these things being fixed more deeply and thoroughly in their mind than to go and look after the things which are necessary for this life c. it never came into St. Chrysostom's mind who asserts that the Lords day should be free from labour and doth not so much as grant any on the Lords day to labour for getting food or avoiding poverty to give any liberty that they should freely attend any worldly affairs which hinder piety And he that sayes thus will do Chrysostom no wrong but rather he who affirms that he indulges men to use these kind of labours on that day which he often finds fault with will fasten the lye on him And I fear not to say this of them that so assert that by their crooked interpretation they do apply the words of that grave Father to quite another sense than Chrysostom thought of This will be evident with a small adoe to him that observes the cited place and compares him with other places that do occurr in him in which it is Chrysostoms purpose to check them who though in the Church they did attentively enough hear what was said yet being departed and forth with mingling themselves with their secular affairs do extinguish the fire of devotion which the Word praeach'd had kindled in them For this evil he prescribes this remedy that so soon as they are returned home they read the holy Scripture and commune amongst themselves about those things that were spoken which things being deeply fixed in their mind then to go and look after those things that they judge necessary for this life they may freely for him as afterwards Bedâ— relates after the exercises of piety are finished there was liberty to take care to refresh the flesh but to care for any other secular businesses than those that pertained to their sustenance he gave them no liberty Which also we read was done by Gunteramnus Baron 588. 26. Because first the very phrase of Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may in a sense commodious enough be expounded of things pertaining to life so Arrianus translates the words of Chrysostom even Trapezuntius one of Greece approving it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie life to which death is opposed or sustenance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
writings about the time of later Lammas Moreover if on other dayes on which the Church was permitted to attend on worldly labours they took pains in so often interpreting of Scripture who will be so far a stranger to right reason as that he should believe that they would not bestow so much labour for this business on the Lords dayes on which they abstaining from all others were only intent on Divine worship much rather and better â—â—ould they say in my judgment if on other dayes they Treated twice out of Scripture they would if occasion served much oftener give themselves to this labour on the Lords day As sometimes Sisinnius being asked why he would wash himself twice every day in the publick bath being a Bishop he answered because I cannot wash thrice So the ancient Bishops of the Church were seriously intent twice on the Lords dayes on the explication of Scripture And if they could get any just occasion to do more than this they would not avoid the labour of doing it the third or fourth time as may be seen by that Sermon in Austin when he whoever he was that was the author of that Sermon had twice performed the office of explaining Scripture when a new occasion was offered which was an extraordinary one on the same day he did the same the third time For thus he begins Wonder not dear brethren if I to day this third time by Gods assistance preach unto you Serm. 33. ad fratres in eremo We have formerly seen some of Basils both morning and evening Sermons we read also that he preach'd twice before noon In the beginning of his Hom. in Psalm 114. he excuseth himself that he came somewhat late to some that had waited on him from midnight and gives the reason because before he came to them he had preached in another Church yet those Vigils were onely continued from mid-night to mid-day And thus these things shew that the Fathers did oftener than once treat out of the Scripture on one and the same day CHAP. IX Both in Old and New Testament in celebrating the Sabbaths solemnity after reading of the Scriptures followed the interpretation of them It 's considered whether before the Babylonish captivity the interpretating of the Law was in use among the Jews on their Sabbath dayes THere are some who being not content with the aforesaid testimonies do further demand an example to be shewn either in the Old or New Testament of any Pastour labouring in preaching of the Word who bestowed his labour in this work twice on the Sabbath dayes I cannot enough wonder at these mens wit who will not be removed from the opinion they have espoused and rather would pluck out their their own eyes than see what will they nill they they are enforced to see But come on iâ— there be any satisfying of these mens expectation and let us consider what light may be setch'd from the fountains of Scripture to answer this question From both Testaments it is evident that in the publick assemblies of the Church after reading of Scripture there followed the interpretation of the same This we have shewn in Chap. 3. So Neh. 8. 5 6 7 8. they did not onely read plainly the Law of God in the publick assembly but they also expounded the sense of it and therefore the naked reading of Scripture was not thought sufficient by the Levites to give the people understanding otherwise they would have abstained from expounding them from day to noon So in the Jews assemblies which are mentioned in the New Testament alwayes after reading of Scripture followed their explication see Luk. 4. 20. Act. 13. 15. The sacred books being read they that excelled in Doctrine did afterwards interpret them So Acts 15. 21. we read that Moses had in every Town those that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day the sense of which Scripture we have declared out of Philo Judaeus And these things shew that the Scriptures were both read and by interpretation illustrated in the Jewish Church But some there are that they may elude this answer who contend that this manner of interpreting Scripture on Sabbath dayes was not in use under the former Temple that is before the Babylonish captivity because in the writings of Moses in which is extant the institution of the Sabbath before they were returned out of Babylon into the Land of Canaan we meet with no mention thereof neither as they think is there any command extant by virtue whereof the Priests are obliged to interpret the Law on Sabbath dayes successively returning which opinion is entertained by some with applause Now if it be true which they say then the whole manner of the Jews keeping holy the Sabbath consisted in meer idleness or a cessation from labours by Gods command which yet none will easily admit since not onely in the old Sabbath God enjoyned the rest to the people of the Jews but also required holiness in those that ceased from their labours otherwise he had not determined the day on which we are to rest to be sanctified which yet he did Observe saith Moses the Sabbath day to sanctifie it as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee The rest commanded by God on the Sabbath day was not a part properly called but an help to its sanctification as we have taught out of the Fathers Book 1. chap. 11. The Sabbath saith Chrysostome is given not for idleness but that men being withdrawn from the care of temporal things they might spend the rest of it in spiritual matters Yea he saith in the same place that the Jews were to attend the hearing of Divine Sermons So also Origen confesses that the Reader or Doctor of the Law did not cease on Sabbath dayes from his work and yet did not break the Sabbath Now what was the work of the Reader or Doctor of the Law on which they did attend but to instruct the people in the understanding thereof Athanasius also saith The Sabbath signifieth or intimateth not idleness but the knowledge of the author The Sabbath was given for knowledge and not for idleness because knowledge is more necessary than idleness He blamed those who were idle on the Sabbath because they had not that which was proper for the Sabbath that is to say knowledge of the truth The Sabbath therefore according to St. Athanasius was given men that they ceasing from worldly businesses might freely apply their minds to the means by which they might attain some knowledge of God And what those means are we have shewn from Chrysostom and Origen St. Austin thought that the Jews women might better spin wool and their men dig the ground as formerly we have observed out of him than that they ceasing from labour should spend their time in playes according to whom something else was required to the sanctification of the Sabbath than meer rest namely the sanctifying of the
other interpreting of the law used under the former Temple besides that which the Prophets being extraordinarily called undertook Which opinion being once admitted it will not be easie to avoid the aforesaid incommodities as to any one it will appear by a more narrow search into them Unto whose conjecture we will with their good-leave oppose the authorities both of Jews and Christians in that particular being bottomed upon the Holy Scripture Flavius Josephus whom according to Cunaeus we are to believe next to the Pen-men of Holy Writ pleading the Cause of the Jews against Appion in his Apology which in the famous Cunaeus opinion is learned to a miracle in express words affirms that Moses would have us hear the Law not once or twice or oftner but he commands all men leaving their other works to meet together to hear the Law and perfectly to learn it c. Thus he And if this Ordinance of a weekly meeting to hear and learn the Law was in force in Moses age then was it long before the Babylonish Captivity While Philo Judaeus contends that the Playes and ridiculous spectacles of Fools and Dancers ought to be put away he saith that it was the manner to study Philosophy on Sabbath dayes the Prince going before and teaching what was needful to be done or spoken the rest giving ear Whereupon he also affirms that they now should play the Philosophers upon Sabbath dayes more patrio in their country manner and he acknowledgeth that Oratories in Cities were for Schools of Virtue More credit therefore is deservedly to be given to the Jewes relating their countrey customes than to other mens conjectures of them Among the Christians divers very learned men treating of the Hebrews Common-wealth have taught the same Amongst whom Carolus Sigonius de Rep. Hebraeorum l. 5. c. 10. and Cornelius Bertramus p. 96. The famous Cunaeus to whom the Christian Church is much beholden for his labours in explaining the antiquities of the Hebrews saith that the right observation of Sabbaths consisted in the holiness of all their words and deeds and in Divine worship and Prayers All which doth plainly evidence that they used to read the Law and interpret it to the peoples capacity on the Sabbath dayes otherwise neither their words nor deeds had been noted for holiness or how else could the minds of the Jews have been furnished piously to conceive Prayers on Sabbath dayes without the explaining of the Scripture Yea the Learned Cunaeus confesses that the Levites in the Synagogues did deliver to the people in the Towns of Judaea the chief knowledge of all Laws both of Humane and Divine things and when could the Levites do this with greater profit than on the Sabbath dayes In a word although we deny that at that time the Talmudical interpretation of Scripture was grown in use which we confess the ancient Church of the Jews knew nothing of yet we cannot affirm this of the vocal interpretation of the Scriptures by the Levites But to return to our purpose We find that under the Old Testament the Scriptures were read and opened in the Jews assemblie even the Holy Ghost being witness although some doubt of the period of time at which their interpretation on Sabbath dayes began As for the Churches in the New Testament planted by the Apostles they could not so long as their Peace was disturbed with a storm of Persecutions meet together without very great difficulty for which cause as we said Chap. 1. they had their meetings sometime on the night and sometimes on the day neither again was it safe for them to hold a meeting all the day For which cause Tertullian judges that it was best for Christians if the Lords dayes solemnities could not be celebrated on the day time for persecutions whereof he speaks then ought they to keep them on the night if not with every one of them yet at least with three These things teach us that the Church was not permitted in that age with safety and as often as they list to meet together on the day time to perform the exercises of piety He therefore that requires of us some one example for expounding Scripture twice while the fire of Persecution raged with which that age abounded I desire him to tell me whether the Christians did during that Persecution twice every Lords day keep their meetings For if it were safe for them to meet why may they not as well be believed to meâ—t for interpreting of Scripture and Prayer to God since these duties are joyned by the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. and observed by Cyprian as he faithfully expounded the Scriptures Especially when it was the custom of the Church so often as Scripture was read to interpret the same This we have largely enough shewn out of Justin Origen Tertullian Ambrose Augustine and other Fathers of great authority chap. 4. Since therefore in the Jewish Apostolical and other Churches succeeding the Apostles there followed after the reading of the Scriptures an exposition of them it seems necessarily to follow that if they had liberty to meet on Lords dayes then they used to treat twice out of Scripture of which there is frequent mention in their assemblies And it 's certainly evident from the continual practiâ—â— of the Church that from the very Apostles times prayers and reading were reckoned both together which were celebrated both morning and evening No man therefore can judge it unreasonable to say that there followed an interpretation of those things which were read because reading was used to instruct the people But how could the people be instructed in the Scripture read without an interpretation The Eunucâ— answered Acts 8. 31. that he could not understand what he read except some one should guide him Yea they were wont to Treat out of the Reading or Lesson as was formerly said The calamitous condition also of those times wherein so many cruel persecutions were stirred up required the same Daily exhortations were very needful to the Christians for to bear the Cross of the Gospel patiently Neither must we think that these skilful Pastours who were set over the Church by the Apostles and Apostolical men did not endeavour as often as they could to instruct the People committed to them in the matters of Faith St. Cyprian Ep. 40. professes that he was sore troubled when he could not go to and exhort every one as the Lords and his Gospel Ministry required while he was in his banishment If it were a grief to this vigilant Bishop that because being hindred by his exile he could not provoke all who were commended to his inspection and care by his holy Exhortations to piety and patience certainly when he was with his people if he took care that by a Reader the bare reading of the Gospel was recited to them although he stirred not them up by his Exhortations to practise what they had heard read he would never in very deed have thought
those that were absent of what they heard in publick after they were departed from the publick assembly So Chrysostom Hom. 10. in Gen. And he sharply taxes those that did not thus Hom. 32. in Joh. whom when they are gone home he affirms they set upon no work beseeming a Christian Whilst they do not search out the sense of the Scriptures which they heard in the assembly And at length requires them that when they are gone home they endeavour the doing of what they are commanded c. Hom. 3. in Joh. Bafil was of the same mind who seriously wished that what they had heard at both morning and evening assembly all that might be the table talk to the hearers that is when they sat down to table they should talk of what they heard St. Austin counsels his hearers to conferr with those that were absent of what they heard and so their memory would be as his voice Praef. in Psal 50. And in the end of the interpretation of that Psalm he saith As it belongeth to us to speak in the Church to you so it belongeth to you to speak of it in your houses Thirdly Because the Lords Day is not onely ordained for a pious celebration of the memory of Christs Resurrection but also Basil the Great being witness is an image of the world to come although it be no type of the rest and happiness in the life to come yet as after he explaines it that in this daily commotion we neglect not to provide viands for a removal into that life that never will have end Basil de Spiritu Sancto cap. 27. Such viands shall he provide that on that day while he hath leisure from external things shall seriously think with himself that this is not his Countrey but he an Exile and at length he must remove hence into Heaven the Countrey of all the faithful Augustine or whoever it was else affirms in the Book De decem chordis cap. 3. that a Christian is commanded to observe the Sabbath spiritually in hope of the future rest which the Lord promiseth And elsewhere The Lords Day being consecrated by the Resurrection of Christ doth not onely prefigure the eternal rest of the Spirit but body also Aug. de Civitate Dei lib. 22. cap. 30. Christians therefore are on this day principally to think of this eternal rest taking an occasion from the rest of the Lords Day although as I said it be not properly instituted to signifie this rest as a type of that thing What Ignatius Epist ad Magnes delivers of the manner of observing the Sabbath may fitly be applied to the celebration of the Lords Day He would have every one to keep a Sabbath in a spiritual manner in meditating of the Law not in refreshing and releasing of the body and admiring the works of God which especially do agree to the solemnity of a Christian Sabbath on which Christians are to bend their care hither to recollect themselves and feed their souls with the pious thoughts of that eternal rest of which the Lords Dayes rest is an image according to Basil in the world to come by what means they can Therefore when the publick meeting was ended there followed also a pious meditation which very well agreeth to the sanctification of the Lords Day when the minds of men by hearing of the Word publick Prayers and other publick Offices of Religion performed on that day are inflamed with exceeding love to desire heavenly things And that the Ancients were of that mind the testimonies cited Book 1. Chap. 5. without me saying ought do bear witness For the Fathers as we have seen do acknowledge that the Lords Day was dedicated to Divine Worship and judged that nought was to be done on that day by Christians whether in their assemblies or after they were dismissed from them but what tended to the salvation of the soul This Origen alone for all will manifest Hom. 23. in Num. who while he shews in what things the observation of the Christian Sabbath consisteth bids in among other things to think of heavenly things to be careful about the future hope to have before our eyes the Judgment to come and not to look at present and visible things but at invisible and future These things do shew that pious meditation is of necessity to be had on the Lords Day by help whereof the minds of Christians may be carried up from earthly to heavenly things to the end that their conversation may be in heaven from whence they look for the Saviour Phil. 3. 20. even while they live on earth Chrysostom is earnest with his hearers Hom. 15. in Gen. that they would remember what was spoken in the Auditory and that they would weigh all things with themselves that what they had heard might settle in their thoughts Nor doth he ask this onely of them but doth also earnestly request it of God that not onely while they were present in the Auditory they would remember what he had said but that they would weigh them at home by themselves and in the market and wheresoever they did abide Hom. 5. ad Pop. Now if a Religious meditation on the Lords Day of what we have heard be a way to the eternal observation of a Sabbath in the Heavens for Christians for whom there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remaineth a Sabbatism Heb. 4. 9. if they are to have before their eyes the future hope and the tremendous judgment on that day and to exhilerate their minds with the thoughts of a future life if they are to hearken to what is said with an attentive mind not onely while they are present in the Auditory but after their their departure thence where-ever they abide they be to call to mind what they have heard Lastly if those vigilant Fathers were earnest with God that their Auditors minds might be perswaded to do this all which are manifest by the cited testimonies then not without cause have we affirmed that when the publick assemblies are ended Meditation upon what we have heard is of necessity required of Christians Fourthly we read that Gifts which afterwards they called Collects were given on the Lords Day for the use of the poor So St. Paul gave order 1 Cor. 16. 2. That upon the first day of the week every one of you lay by you in store as God hath prospered him c. The Apostle did very fitly make choice of a day of a sacred assembly for gathering Almes on That the minds of Christians might by hearing the Word publick Prayers and holy Lessons had on that Day be the better inflamed to bestâ—â— them upon the poors use Add also the consent of the antient Church Justin Martyr Ap. 2. saith that when the Church was met on the Sunday there was a larger contribution as their ability would bear and what they so gathered they committed to him that was the Praepositus to be bestowed for the use of all that were
other Heathens which I think needless to rehearse here because if any will not believe my relation the aforesaid testimonies of the Poets in Clemens may make the incredulous to believe Euseb de praepar Erang saith that God having finished his works allowed us a day for rest from our labours This he confirms by the authorities of divers Poets And the learned Rivet in dissertat de Sabbato cap. 5. proves that these testimonies are to be understood of the seventh day of every week While Suetonius describes the moderation of Tiberius exhibited even towards his inferiours he tells us amongst other things that Diogenes a certain Grammarian being wont to dispute on the Sabbath dayes at Rhodes would not admit Tiberius to hear him out of his order but by his servant put him off till the seventh day Whence it appears that the seventh day was known to Diogenes although the learned Casaubon on that place of Suetonius thinketh that the observation of weeks which holds at this day used among the Greeks was not commonly received before the times of Tiberius Yet the learned Rivet loc citato proves by divers testimonies that it was in use amongst the Latines so to distinguish their dayes Lampridius in Alexand. Severo tells us that when he was in the City he went up to the Capitol on the seventh day and frequented the Temples We meet with more testimonies to this purpose in the learned Amesius of pious memory in Medul Theolog. lib. 2. cap. 15. sect 10. And now I will conclude with the testimony of Josephus against Appion l. 2. That there is no nation either of Greeks or Barbarians or any where else amongst whom the custome of the seventh day which the Jews used to keep holy was not grown common With whom as we have seen agreeth Clemens Alexandrinus That the custome therefore of celebrating the seventh day was common amongst the Heathens can be doubted by none whether as I said from the instinct of nature or by the ordination of God which came by tradition to the posterity of Adam However if we may credit the fore-mentioned Authors it is certain that the Festival of this solemnity was known to the whole world although most know not the cause of this solemnity which Philo de vita Mosis lib. 3. observes and Theophilus Antiochenus in the fore-cited place Theophilus saith that all men call the seventh day the Sabbath but most know not the cause of its appellation Now that cause which most knew not was Gods resting on it when he had finished in six dayes that stupendious work of Creation which was obliterated amongst the Heathens by a long tract of time although they observed the day as appeareth by the mentioned testimonies This Irenaeus teacheth more at large in the end of the thirtieth chapter of his fourth book whither I send the Reader In the last place I will satisfie the second Question viz If the Gentiles were obliged to observe the Sabbath and the custom of observing it was grown common amongst them why are they never in Scripture reproved of God for profaning the Sabbath who can deny that the Gentiles as well as the Jews were obliged by the instinct of nature to worship God their great Creatour Besides divers of the Heathen had got the knowledge of God the Creation and Sabbath as Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius c. have plainly taught us Furthermore let him tell us who can why they as well as other men should not be obliged to observe the Sabbath by the Divine Law for we know that a determined time to perform a certain worship is no less necessary to them than others But many reasons there were for which God might reprove the Heathen and yet move no controversie against them about the Sabbath either because its institution was grown obsolete amongst many of the Gentiles though not all or because they had violated the whole worship of God for which cause he reprehends them yet he reproves them not for the Sabbath by name as being the time of worship because the Sabbath was onely ordained for performing the true worship of the true God now the Gentiles worshipped not God but Idols therefore God accuseth them of Idolatry and not for neglecting the Sabbath and in vain would they have had regard of the Sabbath while on the Sabbath they worshipped Idols and not God the author of the Sabbath I might also add here that it 's not manifest that all the sins committed by the Heathens were reprehended in Scripture particularly But the famous Rivet doth answer this objection more at large in whose learned answers they that do not abhorr the truth cannot but acquiesce And thus much for the reasons against the opinion of the Sabbath being observed from the beginning of the world Now to the authorities by which others busie themselves to infringe this opinion these are in number three The first whereof is that of Irenaeus who lib. 4. cap. 30. tells us that Abraham believed God without Circumcision and without the Sabbath The second is of Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew in whom it 's read that Abel and Enoch were just without the observation of the Sabbath and after them Abraham and his posterity untill Moses pleased God And after he adds Before Moses there was no need of celebrating the Sabbath In the third place Tertullian is produced in whom they read that neither Adam nor his off-spring Abel or Noah or Enoch did keep the Sabbath These are the chief places which are brought against the contrary opinion to which before I answer I might say that the Judgments of other Fathers that affirm it might be opposed to the authorities of them that deny it But lest by so saying I should seem to set together the grave Fathers amongst themselves I answer first He that equally weigheth the foresaid testimonies shall easily observe that the Fathers intention in the foresaid places was this that they might teach that men were not justified by observing of the Jewish Sabbath This at the first blush will appear to him that views the places Irenaeus he speaks of the multitude of them that were just before Abraham the Patriarchs and Moses and were justified without these namely without Circumcision and the Sabbath It was therefore Irenaeus his purpose to prove that the Sabbath or Circumcision were not the perfecting of righteousness neither doth Irenaeus simply speak of the observation of the Sabbath but of its observation in order to justification which thing his words do declare And Justin Martyr had the same meaning who disputed against Trypho the Jew propounding to himself means by which mercy might befall him from God as Trypho speaks amongst which he reckons the Sabbath and Circumcision that he might have some hope of salvation Whilst the blessed Martyr opposeth himself to this mans purpose he affirmeth that all the foresaid Fathers who kept the Sabbath pleased
no be bound by the Fourth Command in the Decalogue to sanctifie one day weekly Amongst equal estimates of things saith the foresaid Learned Divine it cannot but be without controversie that it is as well for Christians as Jews having finished their labours on the six dayes to sanctifie the seventh that with the Jews they acknowledge that they worship the most blessed and Almighty God the Maker of Heaven and Earth But although in this both Jew and Christian do agree that when they have spent six dayes in their labours on the seventh they should rest yet they differ amongst themselves in the determination or designation of the day destined to this holy rest For the Christians keep holy that day which to the Jews was the first in the week and call it the Lords day that they might prove themselves the servants of God who in the dawning of that day subdued the Devil that spiritual Pharaoh and redeemed his people from a spiritual servitude by raising up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead who hath regenerated the Christian Church not unto a sublunary Canaan but unto a lively hope of an immortal inheritance preserved for us in the Heavens And that I may dispatch in a word The Christian by sanctifying the Lords day doth prosess that he is a Christian that is as St. Peter interprets it believes in hinâ— that raised up Christ from the dead Hence it easily appears that both Jews and Christians though the same day be not solemnized amongst them both were led by the same reason to sanctifie the seventh day which to the Jews might call to mind their liberty restored from Egypt and servitude of a worldly Pharaoh and to Christians from a spiritual Egypt and Pharaoh But lest any one should object unto me Christians might profess this by sanctifying the last day in the week I add moreover they could not do so by right for if the Christians should keep holy day after the manner of the Jews then they would declare that their spiritual Redemption was not yet perfected but yet did look for it especially whenas the Redemption of Israel out of Egypt by the Ministry of Moses was a type and pledge of our future and spiritual liberty by Christ and the inheritance of the earthly Canaan which those that were freed from Egyptian bondage did seek after prefigured a celestial inheritance which the redeemed by the holy Blood of Christ did look for Since therefore the shadow vanished when the body was present we must not believe in God foretelling future things by types and shadows but in him that hath most faithfully accomplished the truth according to the prophecies foretold by him So Austin against Faustus the Manichee It is not saith he a diverse doctrine but a different time it was one thing for these things that they must be foretold by figurative prophecies and another thing that they must now be fulfilled by the truth made manifest and accomplished As by an apt similitude Mr. D. G. illustrateth it There is saith he in all Nations the same law of all the Stars and the same motion although a great variety may arise from the difference of the Horizon whereupon it may be our day when it 's night with our Antipodes so the law of Nature is the same with us and the Jews yet in some things it admitteth of some mutation from the difference of the Horizon as I may say whilst they inhabited the old world and we the new that is the Sun of Righteousness on the seventh day came to their Meridian by Creation to ours on the eighth day by Christs Resurrection whence that which was a festival to them to us is none Although the Sabbath be translated to the Lords day yet for that reason its being a sign between God and his people is not taken away but translated to another day Neither is the thing changed that was signified by that sign but only the manner and circumstance of time and clearness of signification I will hasten therefore to demonstrate the cessation of celebrating the Sabbath after the Jewish manner and substitution of the Lords Day into its place both out of Scriptures and Fathers The holy writings of the Apostles do testifie that the observation of the Jewish Sabbath as well as other festivals in use amongst them is removed from off the Christians shoulders So St. Paul Col. 2. 16. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath dayes In that Chapter while the Apostle mentions various corruptions of the Sacred Religion which he teacheth will be profitable for the Church diligently to shun he reckons up three sorts of them the first whereof by false teachers was drawn from Philosophy the second from humane traditions the third from the rudiments of the world Now by the rudiments of the world he means the pedagogy of Moses out of which ver 16. he brings forth two corruptions to wit of the choice of meats prohibited by the Law and sanctifying of Festivals observed under the same Amongst the Jews there were divers Feasts some of great name and authorty celebrated yearly namely of the Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles and then besides these they celebrated their New Moons every Month and their Sabbath every week the Apostle affirms that all these Festivals which after a manner were the shadow of Christ to come and Christ their truth and body that is they did portend what afterwards were truly exhibited of Christ had their end when Christ was once come for when the body is come the shadow vanisheth Even as in the Emperours absence his image hath authority but when he is present hath not so these things also before the coming of the Lord in their time were to be observed but when he is come do want authority And therefore they that contend for observing the Sabbath after the Jewish manner do deny that Christ is come witness the blessed Apostle for gaping at the shadow they embrace not the body There was a time when they were to be trained up by the shadow but he that follows the shadow when the body is present is deceived Therefore from that place of the Apostle we must believe that the Jewish Sabbath of which he speaks under the number of a Multitude Sabbaths because it was celebrated every week and seldome do we meet with it in the singular number as before was observed is ceased by the coming of Christ or that Christ is not yet come The same Apostle sharply taxeth the Galatians for observing of days that having rejected the wholsom Doctrine of the Gospel they returned to the same beggarly Elements that is legal observations Gal. 4. 10. Ye observe saith he dayes and months and times and yeares Where according to Tertullian contra Marcion lib. 1. c. 20. Chrysostom Theodoret Primasius c. in Gal. 4. by dayes the Apostle understandeth
the Sabbaths of the Jews and by the names of Months New moons by years the computing of years according to the Jews The false Apostles did urge the Sabbath New moons and the other Feast dayes of the Jews because they were legal observations but the Apostle having pious bowels rolling within him doth seasonably admonish the Galatians that they should not yield to them in this business and so his labour in promulging the Gospel be in vain And to any that considers the circumstances of the Text it is a thing without controversie that the Apostle properly doth reprehend the Galatians because that after they had acknowledged and received the Doctrine of the Gospel in a Jewish manner to whom not only the day for the worship but also the celebration in its rest was of it self religious they had observed Feast dayes as if such a kind of observation were so necessary to the worship of God that by its neglect their salvation was in hazard Neither are the words of the Apostle so to be taken as if he only reprehended the Galatians for observing dayes on this ground that they might make a guess of the success of their actions as the Heathens did as St. Austin would have it Epist ad Januarium although in another place he interprets this place doubtfully Austin in Epist ad Cal. expounds it first of the Heathens custom and then of the Jews Also the Commentaries in Gal. attributed to Ambrose do interpret the place of the Apostle in the same manner but because the observation of dayes which was rejected of the Apostle was done according to those weak and beggarly elements Gal. 4. 9. i. e. as we said legal observations which the Galatians did seriously sue for being so taught of the false Apostles The sense of the Apostles words cannot be expounded according to the foresaid Fathers These sacred testimonies of the blessed Apostle do shew that the Jewish Sabbath was abrogated by Christs coming Nor do I dissent from the gravest Lights in the Churh in teaching the cessation thereof for with an-unanimous consent they do teach that the observation of the Jewish Sabbath is not to be imposed on Christians So Athanas Hom. de semente Homil. de Sab. Circumcis Cyprian would have the eighth day to be to the Christians what the Sabbath was which as he saith is as it were the Image of the Lords day August Ep. 118. c. 12. Ambros in Eph. 2. Chrysost in Cal. 1. Tertullian calls the Sabbath temporal which in time should cease Chrysostom confesses the same Hom. 12. ad Pop. Aug. l. 6. c. 4. contr Faust Manich. de Gen. ad literam lib. 4. c. 13. Hither also are to be referred other fore-cited testimonies of the Fathers which yield a testimony evident enough for the cessation of the Jewish Sabbath Now since these holy Fathers do assert that the precept of the Sabbath is not to be observed of Christians whether do they simply contend for abrogating the observation of the weekly Sabbath or only that it must not be kept on that manner and on the seventh day as the Sabbath was commanded the Jews Which is very worthy our consideration and the later seems to be intimated by the following examples Whereas the name is put upon the seventh day and the observation thereof ordained yet we saith Hilary do rejoyce on the eighth which is also the first the festival of the Sabbath being finished Therefore Hilary affirmeth not a simple abrogation but change of the Sabbath whose name we often meet with and the observation prescribed because he confesseth that Christians did observe the festival of the Sabbath though on the Sabbath day i. e. the seventh day from the Creation it was not done Tertullian while he disputeth that the Patriarchs did not acknowledge the use of the Jewish Sabbath yet he granteth the Sabbath which he calls eternal that is it was before the Law and must last when it ceaseth for no where doth Tertullian deny the sanctification of the seventh day from the Creation which the Jewes do assert St. Austin contr Faust Manich. whilst he teacheth that the Sabbath and Circumcision were figures saith it is no diverse doctrine namely ours from that of the Jews about the observation of the Sabbath but a different time it was one thing for these things that they must be foretold by figurative prophecies and another thing that they now must be fulfilled by the truth made manifest and accomplished Where Augustine confesseth that both the Jews and Christians observation of the Sabbath is grounded upon the same foundations of Doctrine though the same consideration of time be had amongst both Yea in another place he acknowledgeth that the command of the Sabbaths observation was more enjoyned to us than the Jews The 251 Sermon in August de tempore saith also that the glory of the Sabbath is transferred upon the Lords day that is the positive determination of the seventh day is changed which yet he affirmeth not is abolished For where there is only a mutation of a thing there is not an utter destruction of it Therefore according to the author of that Sermon the Law of the Sabbath is not vanished and made void so that by it we are not obliged to observe any Sabbath Origen grants that every holy and just man ought to observe the Sabbath's festival and he shews how this must be done neither doth he yet speak of that spiritual Sabbath of which we meet with frequent mention in the Fathers but of the Christian Sabbath which now is succeeded into place of the former Sabbath which he shews by the works that are to be done on that day Leaving therefore saith he the Judaical observations of the Sabbath let us see how the Christian ought to observe the Sabbath On the Sabbath day he speaks of the Lords day under that name he ought not to work any of all the worlds actions If therefore thou ceasest from all thy secular works and doest no worldly thing but attendest on spiritual works goest to the Church hearest godly Lectures and Treatises lookest not after present and visible things but at invisible and things future this is the observation of the Christian Sabbath This shews that Origen speaks of the Sabbath as it is to be observed of Christians and not of the spiritual Sabbath or else Christians all their dayes ought not to be troubled with their secular labours which Origen never thought on Athanasius saith that he observed the Sabbath day not as they in the first age Now what else meaneth the observation of the Sabbath in Athanasius but keeping it holy day by vertue of the command in the Decalogue about the Sabbath The image of the Lords day according to Cyprian went before in the Sabbath Whereby he infinuateth that the Lords day is to us what the Sabbath was to the Jews whose place it now supplieth in the
Festival namely Christ whom he tells us translated the Sabbath day into the Lords and then denies that the Church of her self or by her own authority did ordain that translation for saith he we set not light by the Sabbath of our selves Therefore Athanasius being Judge it appears that the Church doth not of her self but by the authority of Christ whereby the Lords day was ordained observe its solemnity and honour it as he else where speaketh And let it move no body that while he expresseth the honour wherewith the Church honoureth it he doth not speak in that manner of its institution as of the Sabbath of which when he speaks he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God hath commanded but when he mentions the Lords day he only saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we hnour the Lords day Nor doth he say that this honour is given of the Church to the Lords day by authority of any Divine precept Let this I say move no body as if Athanasius had acknowledged the institution of this solemnity to be received from the Churches ordination and not Christs for if this grave Prelate had so meant it he would have contradicted himself as appeareth out of the place forecited Homil de sement in which he plainly acknowledgeth not the Church but the Lord to be the author of the Lords day neither can any thing else be inferred from that later phrase which Athanasius useth When Subjects do openly profess that they with all honour do honour their own Kings and Magistrates shall not I therefore conclude that they are not obliged by Divine authority to this duty No verily but the Subjects perform this to their Princes with a most ready will because by Divine Law and authority they are bound to perform this duty So Christians honour the Lords day because the Divine institution of this Festival by Christ which Athanasius makes mention of in the same place requires this by right of them Chrysostom in the often fore-cited place acknowledges God to be the author of instituting one day in the week to be set apart for spiritual work When Eusebius gathers divers arguments to demonstrate the Divine power of Christ above all the Heroes of the Heathens amongst the rest he adds this Who saith he meaning what God of the Heathen or Heroes hath prescribed to all the inhabitants of the whole world whether they be on land or sea that meeting weekly on one day they should celebrate the Lords Festival and ordain that as they fed their bodies with food so they should refresh their Souls with divine instructions Therefore in Eusebius's judgment the solemnity of this day is ascribed to Christs institution And Leo acknowledges this solemnity to be received from the Holy Ghost and Apostles ordained by him Augustine confesses that the Lords day was consecrated by Christs Resurrection where he intimateth that the Church did not only take occasion from the Resurrection of Christ to celebrate this solemnity on that day but that the very Resurrection of Christ did administer it unto Christians and if the Resurrection of Christ hath consecrated the Lords day which he confesses as well in this place as elsewhere Serm. 15. de verbis Apostoli then Christ and no other is to be reputed for the author of its institution for his Resurrection hath consecrated that day and since that time he began to have his festival Moreover if Augustine had not believed that God was the author of this Festival by what right could he have derided Urbicus speaking after this manner as if there were one Lord of the Sabbath and another of the Lords day if he had not esteemed him for the author of the Lords day who was author of the Sabbath the contrary whereof he thought Urbicus judged Augustine would never have blamed him for that which yet the premises do testifie he did And he that shall look over that Epistle shall see that he in round words doth acknowledge that there is one Lord of the Sabbath and Lords day pag. 389. He adds It was made the Lords Day through Christ pag. 383. And while that Learned Father renders a reason why it is called the Lords day he assigns this because saith he the Lord made it And how since he is the author of all dayes yet may be said especially to make that we have before chap. 4. out of Augustin himself explained And after Augustin the Fathers in Concil Forojubensi have also explained this The Lord hath sanctified it by the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ What needs more It 's enough to point at briefly the Divine institution of this day and these things manifest enough do suffice in a matter smelling of Piety Therefore as Basil the Great sometime concluded his Sermon of the perpetual virginity of the blessed Virgin These reasons saith he we think are sufficient because Christian ears cannot endure the contrary so also we being content with these testimonies which although few in number are yet we trust of great authority with equal estimators of things we will add no more And though many badges of this day have thus far been observed as that Christ rose again on that day Luke 24. 6. on that oftener than once he appeared to his Disciples Joh. 20. 19 26. on that day the Apostles taught and administred the Sacraments Act. 20. 7. on that day John received a Divine Revelation Rev. 1. 10. I could also reckon up others mentioned by divers as on this day the world received its beginning on this by the Resurrection of Christ both death received its destruction and life its beginning on this the Apostles took up thetrumpet of the Gospel to preach to all nations on this lastly the Holy Ghost came down from the Lord on the Apostles More badges are also extant in Austin of the Lords Day Serm. 154. de Tempore And others relate that other Miracles were done on that day These are indeed great badges but because amongst certain some of these are reckoned for uncertain they are not proper enough in their judgment to demonstrate the truth only whereas at every perfect period of time the very Heathens do testifie that certain festival dayes were to be celebrated for some eminent benefits of God conserred upon us and when any thing eminent was ordained of God it was done in honour of this day the reason of whose observation arises not from the foresaid prerogatives but is founded in the authority of God the institutor I am more easily induced to believe with the ancients its solemnity was instituted of God Here I could out of the Fathers tell you the punishments of some that violated the solemnity of the Lords Day In Concil Parisiensi so we read Many of us by the sight of our own countrey men and many of us by the relation of others have been informed that certain men exercising on this day their
rural works have been slain with Lightning others punished with contraction of their limbs others having their bodies and bones also consumed in an instant by visible fire and on a sudden resolved into ashes have died in great torment as many other terrible judgments have been and to this day are by which it is declared that God is offended at the dishonour of so great a day These tremendous judgments of God do shew that God the avenger of all sin is angry as the Fathers speak at the impious violators of this solemnity But if the holy festival of the Lords Day were not Gods own ordinance his severe anger would not be so hot upon those that are guilty of the violation thereof We therefore of right do esteem the Lords Day above other dayes and that by reason of its solemnity because it was by a positive determination of Christ by the Apostles set apart from other days in the week that it might supply the room of the ancient Sabbath that it might preserve Religion and the external Worship of God both publick lest the disorderly congregating of the people should diminish their faith in Christ and also private that all might be obliged to attend meditations and pious exercises on a certain stated day which otherwise would seldome or never be done by men attending on the world rather than God therefore is the Lords day ordained that they being at liberty from worldly things might give up themselves wholly to Divine matters Lastly It only remaineth that this question may sufficiently be satisfied Whether it be in the Churches power to abrogate the Lords Day and substitute another in its room Surely he that saith that so innocent a custome so long received of the Church and that through authority of God by the Apostles caught not to be troubled with a change seems to be in the right unless any think that now greater authority doth reside in the Church than the Apostles were endued with wherewith it being endued it can change those things which were ordained of the Apostles or unless some greater occasion than the Resurrection of Christ do occurr than which the world never saw a greater miracle And Chrysostom calls the Lords day or the first day of the week Hom. 2. Tom. 6. because of Christs Resurrection the birth day of the whole humane nature Lastly if the custome of the Church from which arguments are not once fetched by the Apostle as 1 Cor. 11. 26. grounded on the word of God be of any right amongst Christians I see not why the Lords Festival celebrared first by them of Hierusalem secondly by them of Troas thirdly by the Galatians and Corinthians fourthly by them of the Isles Rev. 1. fifthly by the Greeks and Latines and lastly by the whole Churh through the world professing Christs name I say why this innocent custome which is attended with no incommodity but much profit happily continued from the very Apostles age hitherto should not be by us derived to our posterity Whilst Julius blames the preposterous irruption of Georgius the Arrian into the Bishoprick of Athanasius he uses this argument It is not fitting that this new manner of canons should be brought into the Church for where is there such an Ecclesiastical Canon or such an Apostolical tradition so we say here It is by no means fitting that a new custome should be introduced against an innocent order so long received by the Church which is neither supported by the Canons of the Church or tradition received from the Apostles None in this found mind can grant that things ordained by the Apostles can be changed of the Church I confess all the ordinances of the Apostles were not of the same kind for some of them pertained to Doctrine some to rites as Wallaeus observes chap. 7. those are perpetual neither any wayes obnoxious to change he must be anathematized that preacheth any other Gospel than what we have received from the Apostles Gal. 1. 8. but these which respect the rites or circumstances of Divine worship are of a double nature for either their causes were singular and such as perpetually should not have place in the Church therefore these ordinances were to be varied because when the cause was taken away the ordinances themselves ceased but other ordinances respecting rites were not to be changed whose occasions perpetually continued in the Church such was the laying on of hands in the ordinations of Ministers and therefore when the causes of ordinances made by the Apostles are changed the ordinations themselves are to be changed but while the cause remains the ordinances also remain unmoved Which things being considered it 's easie to see that the ordinance about the Lords day is not to be varied because no greater cause than what it 's bottomed on can ever occurr for whose sake it should be changed neither hath the Church ever thus far since the Apostles age once attempted this Therefore the foresaid question is superfluous that I may say no worse and altogether unworthy a farther answer especially whenas we know that many priviledges necessary for a Church to be founded were granted by God to the Apostles which were not derived from them to the Doctors of the Church founded for they were personal and could not lawfully be challenged by others which is shewn more at large in the seventh chapter CHAP. XI In what things the sanctification of the Lords day doth consist Where about resting from gainful labours which the Fathers carefully cautioned against that they should not be used on that day A place of Chrysostom Gregory and the Council of Laodicea is explained also a Canon of the Council of Matiscon WE have seen by the judgment of the Fathers that the Lords Day is to be sanctified and that by Divine authority Now it remaineth which we undertook in the third place to be proved to find out in what the solemn observation thereof consisteth The Fathers think that to Christians the Lords day succeeded in place of the old Sabbath and therefore as Hilary speaketh is to be celebrated with the festivity of the Sabbath that is as August Serm. de Temp. 251. even as the ancients observed the Sabbath Now it appeareth by the Scriptures of the Old Testament that the observation of the Jewish Sabbath consisted first in the rest and secondly in the sanctification of this rest and in the observation of these things their records will inform us that the Lords day was solemnized by the ancients As for the rest the Church of Christ hath used it not as necessary of it self to the worship of God but only as an help thereto without which the worship commanded of God could not conveniently be performed of the people For while men are intangled in the affairs of this world they cannot religiously attend as is fitting on the things that pertain to God and his worship The Sabbath was not allowed for idleness but that men
〈◊〉 in its native signification doth plainly signifie any thing belonging to sustain life and getting sustenance or any thing for the use of this life whence Clem. Alexand. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is administring necessaries for this life also in the same man it occurrs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all necessity pertaining to life But amongst Divines as Stephanus observes when it is spoken of a man then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is secular or one that is addicted to the affairs of this secular life And so it often occurrs in Chrysostom as Hom. 9. in Col. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and Hom. 3. de Lazaro c. In the same sense in Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he that lives in common life is distinguished from him that lives in solitariness a Monk Therefore according to the native signification of Chrysostoms words by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are denoted things that pertain to life and sustenance from the sober use whereof no Christian is debarred on the Lords day How little those things conduce to the defence of secular businesses being undertaken on that day they know who look into Chrysostom We will omit any disputation about the propriety and use of the word because it pertains to the Grammarian and ought to be left to others we will produce the rest which Chrysostom himself helpeth us to Secondly we intreat the Reader to consider that Chrys in the aforesaid place is displeased with those that after they are returned from the Church-meeting are intangled in businesses which are contrary to the exercise as he speaks which is held in the Church-assembly Surely if in Chrysostoms judgment worldly matters might safely be medled with on the Lords day he would never have reproved those that looked after them which yet his very words shew that he sharply did Thirdly he thinks it is too much yea altogether extreme indevotion to spend five or 6 days in wordly matters not to employ one in spirituals He that weighs this will easily grant that Chrysostom would never have any part of that day consecrated to affairs that smell not of piety And he that abuses the authority of this holy Father to palliate the using of labour on that day although I scruple to accuse him of too much indevotion yet I am troubled that he hath no more religious a care of the Lords festival Fourthly this he layes as a law upon his Auditors in the same place that they bestow that onely day of the whole week on which they meet to hear all of it in the meditation of those things that are delivered He that requireth that the rest of the day which remaineth after hearing the Word in the publick Church meetings should be spent about meditation conference of the things they have heard will allow no liberty after the aforesaid meetings are ended to dispatch worldly affairs by which pious meditation may be hindred If therefore Chrysost being judge no other exercises be to be medled with on the Lords day out of the Church-assembly which are contrary to the duties of piety performed in those assemblies if by his grave judgment it be thought a very irreligious thing not to spend one whole day in the exercises of piety yea if he earnestly require it from his Auditors that they consecrate that whole day to their devotion of all which he tells us his judgment in these very words then surely it was far from Chrysostoms mind to give liberty for ordinary labours on the Lords Day Lastly if his words which make mention of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be stretched to that sense because sometimes in Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a secular person Chrysost did that which Gregory the Great in an other sense did whom the custom of the Laityes seasting on the Lords day usually vexed yet thought they were not to be punished by law lest that being made against them they should become worse and therefore to avoid the danger of schisme left them to themselves so that what he approved not being constrained through the necessity of the time he permitted So here whatever Chrysostom indulged the people in he did it against his will for their sakes whose minds were not so easily called back from earthly things to whom yielding in some things he did gradually bring them on to higher exercises of piety and indulged them that which he did not approve lest any thing worse should happen he as it were unwilling willed it But as for his part he judged that a whole day should be consecrated to the exercises of Religion any part whareof as we have seen he would not have employed in worldly affairs And thus we have seen St. Chrysostom vindicating himself from some mens foolish gloss nor is there any body whose senses either stupour or phlegmatickness hath not dulled which will think otherwise Origen also takes it ill that some do but assign an hour or two of the whole day to God and come to prayer in the Church while they spend the rest of the day about the world and their belly but if Christians were at liberty when their assemblies are ended to betake themselves to their worldly occasions then this reproof of his had been unjust against which they might truly answer that the custom of the Church was to define the sanctification of the day within the terms of two or three houres Gregory the Great 's judgment is also for ceasing from earthly labour on the Lords day Indeed in the beginning of that Epistle he tells us that Antichrist will make both the Sabbath and Lords day to be kept free from all labour But lest any one should unwarily deceive himself by not well considering the phrase as if Gregory had judged that Antichrist would forbid labour on the Lords day it is to be noted that he intimates this that Antichrist will have an equal regard of the Sabbath as of the Lords day because as Gregory thinketh Antichrist would call back the observation of the Sabbath and directs the stile of the former part of his Epistle against those that forbid the working of any thing on the Sabbath day Nor can the sense of those words of his be otherwise expounded who thought that labour was to be undertaken on the Sabbath from which yet we ought to abstain on the Lords day but i◠never came into Gregory's mind to reckon rest from labour on the Lords day for an interdiction of Antichrist since Gregory himself doth plainly condemn labour undertaken on that day Augustine It is therefore called the Lords day that we abstaining on it from earthly works and worldly pleasures should onely attend on Divine worship giving honour and reverence to this day for the hope of our resurrection which we have in it Augustin or whoever was the author of that Sermon doth plainly prohibit Christians attending their labours
on that day and thinks it is to be honoured with Divine Worship for the day which is called the Lords day is by right to be dedicated to the Lord. Constantine the Great about the year 300 ordained that all the Subjects of the Roman Empire should on those dayes called by our Saviours name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. rest from all work So Sozomen lib. 1. cap. 8. Divers passages occurr amongst the ancients which shew that no earthly labour for the sake of gain is to be undertaken on that day which would be needless to run over severally since the premises demonstrate the truth to all that reject it not But lest any should be deceived in Can. 29. of the Council of Laodicea held before Constantines time I will add something to illustrate the true meaning thereof In which Christians are commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that honouring the Lords day they should rest if they can as Christians By which exception if they can Zonaras on Can. 29. Conc. Laodic thinks that labour on the Lords day was prohibited all Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except the Husbandmans works to whom the civil Law grants an indulgence Whose opinion the patrons of labouring on that day do follow But in this doubtless Zonaras derives them and they others who adhere to his gloss For first the very words of the Canon shew that Christians as Christians ought on that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rest whence it appears that labour on the Lords day is unlawful to Christians Now the exception which the Canon mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they can ought rather to be understood with a respect had to the time in which the Council was gathered than to performing namely of harvest labours For the Council was assembled before Constantine the Great entred upon the Empire at what time the inseriour sort of Christians were compelled by their heathen Lords to whom they were subject and not of their own minds to perform worldly works on that day as on others as a long time after that Council was congregated the Christians were forced to sit and see the playes for remedy whereof the Africans ordain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no Christian should be forced to those playes For their sakes therefore who were forced to labour by others was that exception added by the Laodicean Fathers not that labours used on that day were approved by them but because of those that were in bondage to others and by their severe authority or impetuousness compelled to undergo them on the Lords dayes I say for the comfort of these they put in this exception if any contrary to their minds were forced by others to do so Although divers that were stronger in the faith rather died for it than that they would any wayes violate the Lords day as formerly we heard out of Baronius under the reign of Dioclesian And that this which we have brought is the genuine sense of the Laodicean Canon divers authorities of Fathers before the Council of Laodicea wherein Christians are prohibited earthly labours do shew neither can there from thence any in this our age in which all God be thanked have given up their name to Christ take a pretence to defend the using of worldly labour on the Lords day since now it is the fashion as well of Masters as servants to rest from their labours on that day And secondly that Civil Law on whose authority Zonaras exposition depends was made by Constantine of which briefly anon wherein the countrey men had liberty freely to attend their countrey labours on the Lords day Now the Laodicean Fathers being gathered before the first Council of Nice could have no respect unto a law made some time after the meeting of their Council but are to be understood as I said according to the condition of that age in which the Christians although they of themselves rested from labours were by others compelled that had not yet embraced the Christian faith to undergo them In the second Council of Matiscon Can. 1. about the year 588. it is ordained that none give themselves to labours as on private dayes as they speak for this is in a rash manner to give up the Lords day to contempt But the words of the Canon come a little more narrowly to be examined lest at the first sight the Reader be imposed upon through some mens perverse interpretation of them First the Fathers ordain that if any have a Church near him that he betake himself thither These words are not so to be expounded as if none were bound to be present at Church-meetings but those that had neighbouring Churches at hand from which they that lived farther off might at their pleasure be absent He that will attentively read the beginning of that Canon will not say that this was the sense of the Bishops in that Council who had it put upon them by King Guntheramnus's command that by all means they could they look to that the Christian people should not in a rash manner give up the Lords day to contempt and therefore the Bishops admonished all Christians in this matter from which admonition they neither exempt Lawyers nor Countrey men nor the Clergy or Monks as the words of the Canon do shew And when Guntheramnus required it of them that the body of all the people should assemble on that day to exercise their devotion he decrees that those who set at nought this admonition should by right be corrected with canonical severity or the punishment of the Law If therefore he by his own authority according to the vigor of the Bishops decree allowed none a liberty to be absent from Church assemblies none can interpret the aforesaid words of the Canon as if only those that are near to Churches were bound to be present at them since all as well near as far off are bound by one and the same law when therefore they say if any have a Church near him it is the same with Let all go to the Church as afterwards in Concil Foroju Can. 13. Secondly Let none wonder that the Matiscon Fathers reciting the exercises of the L. Day in that Canon do there only make mention of Prayers Hymns as if there were no other exercises of piety besides Prayers and singing of Psalms to attend on that day for afterwards in the same Council they have ordained something of the Sacraments Can. 6. And Guntheramnus doth faithfully charge his Bishops that by frequent preaching they study to amend the people by Gods providence committed to their charge Therefore they declare that no offices of piety be pretermitted on that day Nor do they define those things only for the exercises of Hymns or Prayers but peradventure they mention hymns and prayers because they direct the Canon to the people whose part it was to attend these offices and celebrate the same and not to preach the Word Thirdly The
Fathers in the same place say The Lord doth not require of us to celebrate the Lords day by corporal abstinence Nor are these words so to be taken as if we were not by virtue of a Divine precept obliged to rest from worldly affairs and that vacation from worldly labours on that day were not a Divine but humane ordinance For the Fathers are intent on this to teach them that corporal abstinence as they speak is not on the Lords day only required of us but that God also seeks for that obedience through which treading under foot all earthly actions he may in his mercy advance us to Heaven In that phrase therefore there is an Ellipsis as appears from the premises which the Holy Ghost often uses in both the Testaments As Gen. 32. 28. Thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel that is thou shalt not only be called Jacob but also Israel 1. Sam. 8. 7. They have not despised thee but me that is not only thee 1 Cor. 1. 17. Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel that is he was not only or chiefly intent on baptizing those that had embraced the Christian faith So here they grant that God requires the body to rest from labour but they affirm that he doth not only require that and they certifie all if they disesteem their wholesome counsel that they should be punished of God yet no vengeance of God would pursue them where they transgressed a command prescribed of him It appears therefore from the punishment with which according to these Fathers the violation of this rest is attended by God that God requires of all to rest on the Lords day otherwise his anger would not wax hot against those that pollute the holiness of this Festival by worldly labours or slothful idleness And now these things do evidently enough shew that gainful labour is to be avoided on the Lords day CHAP. XII How far forth on the Lords day we may attend labours namely of necessity and piety Countrey men are boud to sanctifie the Lords day the indulgence granted to Countrey men by Constantine the Great is examined and revoked the fact of Paula and practise of the Coenobita or Monasticks in Hierom is weighed Also the sense of a Canon in the Council of Orleans Manumissions and certain transactions lawful on the Lords Day ALthough the Ancients thought that labour tending to gain was on the Lords day by no means to be undertaken of Christians yet do they not require a cessation from all labour generally but according to the Scriptures do permit that which men moved by necessity do undertake Mat. 12. 11. where Christ teaches us that a sheep which is on the Sabbath day fallen into a pit may lawfully be laid hold on lift up and drawn out for no laws are appointed to necessity which defendeth whatever it enforceth It is ordained in the Council of Narbo that every man as well free-born as servant Goth Roman Syrian Greek or Jew should do no work on the Lords day nor yoke oxen except there be a necessity murando for walling otherwise in metendo for fetching in corn Can. 4. They therefore allow labour undertaken for necessity Of which nature there are divers reserved cases of which frequent mention is made in the Decretals In which number is the taking of Fishes which unless they be then taken cannot be taken at another time This appears in the catching of Herrings which do appear seldome or but upon certain dayes to catch which although some think it no case of present necessity there is liberty granted whenever they appear Decret Greg. l. 2. de feriis Tit. 9. cap. licet Gregorius Ep. l. 11. cap. 3. Although he denies that the body is to be washed on the Lords day out of luxury of mind or for pleasure-sake yet he condemns it not necessity so requiring whereby it appears that under the name of baths all things done out of necessity to the body are allowed Neither doth any one find fault with that bour that is bestowed in the exercises of piety as being that which directly tends to the worship and glory of God and doth promote it Of ancient time saith Tertullian the law of the Sabbath forbad humane labours not divine The Heathens allowed a liberty to labour about both these Macrob. Saturn l. 1. c. 16. in whose judgment works undertaken for religious devotion sake or any necessity were lawful amongst them even on a Festival day In another case also there is by some a certain indulging of labour yielded By Constantine the Great the Countrey men were permitted to attend on the tilling their ground on that day But I will set down the words of that indulgence Let all Judges and people in cities and all crafts-men rest upon the honourable Sunday Yet let those that live in the countrey freely and at their liberty serve husbandry because it frequently falls out that on another day the corn and vines cannot so conveniently be committed to the furrows and so by missing of that advantage the profit yielded by the heavenly providence perish Now if any one because of that indulgence granted to to countrey men to work on the Lords day think that they are not at all obliged to sanctifie this solemnity especially whereas the Fathers of the Church about the year 305. in 1 Eliber Concil appointing a Canon about celebrating the Lords day do only make mention of those that live in Cities when they say If any dwelling in the Cities shall not for three Lords dayes come to the Church let him abstain for a while that he may be thought as one rebuked If I say any will interpret these words so as if attending this Festivals solemnity belonged only to Citizens and that Countrey men were left at liberty on that to bestow their labour in their trades and affairs setting aside all care of Religion as if the Lords day were like those Holy dayes which among the Romans were proper to some Families which they observed according to the use of their houshold celebrity or like those Feriae Imperativae which the Consuls or Praetors proclaimed by the freedome of their power as if it were for Princes and Magistrates to determine by their power to whom it belongs to celebrate the Lords day they that so think neither do reach the sense of the Law made by Constantine nor of the Eliberitan Canon because a long while before Constantine of blessed memory by the grace of God came to the Empire there was meeting of all in the same place on the Sunday whether they lived in City or Country as Just Martyr witnesses Ap. 2. And Origen perswades all that on the Christian Sabbath they would come to Church and there hearken to holy Lectures and Treatises These are the duties which Christians are to attend from which none no not Countrey men are exempted but as well they in the Countrey as
any one till his ground on the Lords day he violates the holy rest but if the refore he leaving his husbandry be drunk or commit whoredome shall he not be thought to profane the holiness of the Lords Day If all profaneness and carnal delight ought to be banished from the Church then especially it should when man doth peculiarly apply himself to the worship of God If Tertullian thought it an uncomely thing and altogether alien from the Religion of publick joy to celebrate those dayes which were dedicated to the Nativities of the Emperours with that vanity which the Heathens abused in such kind of Festivals whereas what was acted on the solemn birth-dayes of Princes would not be thought comely on other dayes with what spirit are they acted to whom unchaste dancings obscene sports and mad tripudiations shall seem lawful on the Day dedicated to our Lords honour Shall the licentiousness of evil manners be piety an occasion of Luxury be reckoned Religion We must rather say with Tertullian That it is for men of the true Religion to celebrate both the Emperours solemnities and the Lords day out of conscience rather than licentiousness And if any like dancing I earnestly ask it of him that he would apply his mind to those spiritual dances which Chrysostom mentions in which there is much comeliness and modesty with which Christians must dance not to the measures of harp and pipe for they themselves ought to be both harp and pipe to the Holy Ghost and when others lead the dance to the Devil these being in the Church offer themselves the organs and vessels to the Spirit and afford their souls as musical instruments which the Holy Ghost should play upon and move and they give their hearts as Organs into which he may inspire his grace These are those dances of the Angels and what can be more blessed than upon the earth to imitate the dance of Angels approved by the Holy Ghost and worthy the Christian name in which he that on the Lords day shall diligently be busied will not bend his mind to those immodest leapings or dancings which Chrysostom calls Diabolical Hom. 55. in Gen. because where this wanton dancing is there the Devil is Chrysost Hom. 49. in Math. so often condemned but will refresh his soul wearied with the sad burden of his fins by the spiritual joy of these dances and prepare himself the better to celebrate that eternal Sabbath in the Heavens which must be observed for ever with all the Saints And that this is the solemnity which beseemeth the Feasts of Christians Gregory Nazianzen sheweth at large and exhorts us to take hymns for timbrels singing Psalms for filthy and ribald songs a clapping of hands when we give thanks for clapping the hands in the Theatre gravity for laughter prudent speech for drunkenness comliness and honesty for delicious pleasures And if it be convenient for thee when thou celebratest a Festival merrily to dance then dance yet not the dance of Herodias but of David when he danced for the resting of the Ark by which I think mystically is meant the nimbleness and volubility of our holy journeying and that which is pleasing to God Thus he Ephrem Syrus gives the same counsel whose testimony deserves to be added here Let us honour saith he the Lords Festivals divinely not in a worldly manner but spiritually not after the custome of the Heathens but Christians let us not lead dances nor effeminate our ears with pipes and harps You both small and great men and women let us in a Christian manner celebrate the Lords Festivals in Psalms and Hymns in spiritual Songs and Angelical melody That blessed Soul uttered this about the Lords Festivity the reason of all which is extant in Chrysostom There is saith he a time for Prayers not for drunkenness and that alwayes and especially at solemnities For a solemnity is therefore instituted not to live filthily nor to abound in sin but to extoll present things These and many other testimonies of the Ancients do shew that all carnal following of worldly delights whereby the sparks of the Holy Ghost being stirred up in the Lords day holy exercises of piety are choaked by which either Divine worship may be hindred or the fruit thereof prevented ought far to be banished from the Christian Church For it is as sure as can be as sometimes Ruffinus that when we are idle and negligent when we lift not up our mind in heavenly desires when we grow cold in the love of our Lord when we spend the day in fables and wicked cogitations then we more attend upon the Devil than God And after The enemy derides our Sabbaths when they see us to be at leisure for the idleness and vanities of the evil spirit If Plutarch thought that the Jews did worship Bacchus on their Sabbath because they then strove at their cups and riotings and gave themselves wholly to drunkenness and for that cause called the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Bacchus or the son of Bacchus how much more truly might he at this day say it of many in the Church if he observed how they are given to Bacchus Venus sports and mad dances and yet these sins do rage all abroad without danger of punishment to the great ignominy of the Christian name for there is no wickedness so heinous which is not most of all committed on the Lords holy day While the greatest part of men do daily more and more spend the rest of Festival dayes not in praying not in hearing the Scriptures for which cause the rest was given but for all manner of encreasing the corruption of good manners saying that they do it for their mind sake as if they were altogether of Plato's mind who said that for that very purpose did God institute such holy Festivals And he repeats the same complaint in his Exposition of the Lords Prayer when he explains the fourth Petition and thus laments At this day no time is usually more spent in all manner of sports in dances wanton love company-keeping dicing bargains and fairs These do abundantly shew that dancings sports and sights were both forbidden of the Emperours and Fathers that they should not at all be kept on the Lords day which he that views the sacred Decrees of the one and the grave Records of the other will not deny Yet when all is done lest some think whom the Doctrine of the â—…e delights and those who release their minds to pleasure more than is fitting that not all but some kinds of those sports were forbidden and that only while the Church-assemblies were held as though the Christian people were at their liberty to use certain kinds of dances and sights even upon the Lords day when the publick Church-assemblies were finished to whom it seems such extrinsecal solaces of the eyes and ears do nothing interrupt the Religion in their mind and conscience
unjust If therefore Conscience dictate as Chrysostom thinks that the very art of this pleasure be dishonest and unjust let them who commend them to the Church see where those sober and modest dances which they speak of can find any place and to those that expound choreas ducere only of lascivious dances we will in a form of speech commodious enough interpret these dances to be meant of all dancings whatsoever otherwise St. Cyprian had not affirmed that David danced before God unless any should think that the Bl. Martyr which never came into his mind would brand the Royal Prophet with a mark of lascivious and obscene dancing And if there be any that think that dancing be sober and modest they are at their liberty for me to abound in their own sense at least with Octavius that good defender of the Christian Religion and other lights of Reformed Christianity it seems meet for me to repute them as obscene and evil pleasures Lastly let the patrons of those dances which they call sober bring forth any testimony out of approved Authors whereby any dances on the Lords Dayes can be defended and then we will believe them that such dances were not prohibited by the Fathers which till it be done we will with the ancients say we ought not to lead dances or effeminate our ears with pipes and harps The ancients cursed those kinds of pleasures which then were in use If the things which at this day are highly esteemed by the world and are reckoned as sober had in their age put up the head doubtless they would have condemned them with the same zeal and holy fervour of spirit as being contrary to the Lords solemnity and which hindred the sanctification thereof In the mean while since we see that sports and dances by St. Cyril all pleasures by Leo and Anthemius sports and dances by the Fathers of Colen dancings by the Council of Millain to be condemned the pleasures of showes to be reckoned evil of Octavius and Chrysostome to reprehend dances as leading to the Devil we affirm that these worldly showes which are the very fomes of pleasures and whose art witness Chrysostom is dishonest and unbeseeming the Christian name are not to be kept on the Lords day Moreover neither are the fore-mentioned prohibitions so to be expounded as if dances and showes were only forbidden while the sacred exercises of piety were held on the Lords day in the publick assemblies which being finished who will may lawfully be employed in them for that indeed would be nothing else but to go straight out of Gods Church into the Devils But God grant that such a desire of destructive pleasure be prevented from his people We have in the fifth Chapter declared that Christians must keep all the whole day holy and afterwards God willing will teach what duties of piety are to be done by Christians when Church-meetings are ended And thus from the premises we find that the Lords Day is to be violated by no pleasures For we must honour this day with a spiritual honour not in feasting and drinking not in drunkenness and dances c. The End of the First Book THE Lords-Day THE SECOND BOOK In Which It 's shewed at large out of the Records of the ancients what things are required to the sanctification of the Lords Day CHAP. I. The Lords Day ordinary duties were both publick and private publick Church-assemblies on the Lords Day the mention of which we oftener meet with in the following than in the former Church Night-meetings and why abolished Meetings before day and on the day in the morning and in the evening WHat we have recited in the foregoing Book do shew that the Lords day was alwayes solemnized by the Church and what things they were which did ordinarily hinder the solemnity thereof amongst the men of this world now we come to those things in which the solemn sanctification thereof consisteth for we must not onely abstain from labours and pleasures on that day but also we must attend upon Divine worship neither is the rest commanded on the Lords day to be dedicated to our affections sports pleasures or sins but to the Worship of God alone which the pious practise of the Apostles and of the Church following them doth declare Among the ancients there were Lords day solemnities or ordinary duties which were performed in the Church and what they were the same author explains in the same Chapter namely reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms Adlocutiones q. d. speakings unto and Prayers By those Adlocutiones which were uttered in the Church assembly the Battologies as Pamelius on that place would have it frequently repeated in the Mass as Dominus vobiscum The Lord be with you Pax vobiscum Peace be to you Oremus Let us pray Gratias agamus Domino Let us give thanks to God c. which are in the Mass offices repeated ad nauseam are not to be understood but by adlocutiones in Tertullian are meant the Ministers Sermons to the people after the Scriptures were read in the assembly For those that expounded the Scriptures spoke to the people by exhortations admonitions c. as afterwards will appear And in this sense of ours we meet with the word adlocutio in Cyprian de Lapsis sect prima Those offices also to be performed on the Lords day are extant in Clemens Constit p. 2. c. 59. The Lords day solemnities wherewith they honoured this day are the duties that appertain to godliness whereof some were of a publick others of a private right those were to be performed by every Church in the publick assemblies and these of the faithful members of the Church when they were returned home the publick assembly being ended This place therefore requireth that something be added about the publick meetings of the Church being held on the Lords dayes In describing whereof we will first teach that they were in use with the Church of God even from the Apostles age Secondly we will enquire what was done in them by the Church Thirdly we will add something of the places wherein they were held Although the ancients as we have seen in the former book ch 5. did destinate the whole Lords day or the first day of the week to the exercises of Divine Worship yet did they hold their publick assemblies at certain hours and what time remained besides they spent it also privately in holy duties Whence we may easily observe that there was a solemn and religious observation of the Lords day both publick and private the publick was performed in the publick conventions of the Church and that Christians in what part of the world soever they lived so often as they could for persecution were wont to meet together in one place to handle the duties of piety is so clear from divers places of the New Testament that it wanteth no testimony These assemblies could not be held without a stated time
himself in handling his Lectures upon Scripture in prooemio Epistolae Johannis And he addeth that the book of the Acts of the Apostles was every year read at an anniversary solemnity after the Lords Passion He reports also that Ps 21. was wont to be read every year in the last week before the Passion-day of Christ all the people being attentive Tract 13. in Joh. Moreover also when there were divers Feasts constituted in the Church some certain and peculiar lessons of Scripture were read every Feast-day which were annually so carefully observed that no others could be more Aug. in prooem Epist Jo. The same appears from a Sermon of Chrysostom against those that only met upon Feast-dayes who thinks it unseasonable at the solemnity of Pentecost to continue the Text formerly begun on and omit the commemoration of the benefits conserred on the Church at that time and after Pentecost he prosecutes the Text he was on before I will add no more testimonies for reading lessons out of the Holy Scripture in the Church-assembly in a case that is plain enough lest by repeating many things I cause weariness in the Reader I will now relate the second thing which I intended for the candid Readers sake namely forasmuch as the ancients judged the H. Scripture should be read in their conventions therefore they designed certain persons for to do that particular office whom they called Readers Cyprian ordained one Saturus a Reader in the Church He tells the Clergy and people that Aurelius a Confessor was ordained a Reader by him Ep. 34. and he designed the office of a Reader to Celerinus Ep. ead Now although this office was offered to some yet usually it was the Deacons work to read the Scripture in the holy Church-assembly Hierom reproved Sabinianus because after he had sollicited a Virgin to whoredome he as a Deacon read the Gospel Sozomen l. 7. c. 19. and Niceph. l. 12. c. 34. do witness that this office amongst divers was translated to the Deacons and the Deacons are judged worthy to read what Christ spoke in the Gospel Conc. Vasens 2. c. 2. And thereupon Optatus a Sub-deacon in Cyprian Ep. 24. is called Doctor audientium i. e. the teacher of them that hear The Audientes of whom more afterwards were called those that were lately admitted as if one should say the tyro's or new beginners in the Christian faith so called ab audiendo from hearing who though they were not admitted to the holy Eucharist yet might be present at the reading of the Scriptures and therefore the Readers to them were called Doctors or teachers In divers Churches also only the Priests and upon solemn dayes the Bishops performed this office as Sozomen Hist l. 7. c. 19. Lastly they that read the Scripture stood in a pulpit or tribunal of the Church as Cyprian Ep. 34. i. e. in some higher place than the rest from whence the lessons were read and Cypr. calls that place a tribunal metaphorically for the tribunal was an high place out of which Judgment was given to the tribes or wards So that he who performed publickly the offices of Religion in the Church-assembly was not severed from the presence of the people into an angle of the Church there secretly to celebrate the offices of Divine Worship like some Conjurer that mutters to himself what he sayes as now it is the practice in Popish Churches but in the sight of all he uttered what he had to say or read with a loud voice which all that were present might understand as once the holy man Ezra stood in a pulpit of wood which he had made for the purpose that he might speak freely in the face of the congregation Neh. 8. So in Cyprian's age he that read the Law and the Gospel of our Lord being raised up with the advantage of an higher place was seen of all the people that the reading of the Scriptures might better be observed of the hearers and the reader being set on high might be seen of the people that stood about him Eusebius confesses that the Scriptures were so publickly read in the Temples that through the world were erected to God that they might be heard of all De praepar Evang. l. 5. c. 1. Const. Ap. l. 2. c. 57. it is appointed that the Reader should read out of an high place That was also a token of reverence to the Scriptures as once it was amongst the Jews Neh. 8. 5. and therefore because a Bishop at Alexandria rose not up when the Gospel was read it is recited as an unusual fact in the Church Sozom. 7. 19. And thus much for the publick reading of the Scriptures every day especially on the Lords dayes in use among the ancients CHAP. III. Explaining of Scriptures on the Lords dayes which was called Tractatus or treating upon or handling a place Whose office it was to do this Who the Clerici were among the ancients Bishops q. Watchers Overseers Superintendents The Bishops interpreted the Scriptures the Presbyters Deacons Catechists and sometimes also private men did the same SInce the Sabbath was given for understanding the Creatour and not for Idleness sake as Athanasius de Sabb. Circumcis therefore the ancients have to the uttermost of their power endeavoured that by what means they could they might augment the Churches knowledge by their labours on that day For this end the Church being assembled the Holy Scriptures from whence the knowledge of Divine things flowes were distinctly read after the reading whereof followed their explication This was used in the Church while the Apostle was alive While he prescribes the manner to those that prophecy in the Church he charges them to look to that what they speak they may promote men in the study of piety while to that work they either make make use of exhortation or comfort 1 Cor. 14. 3. Neither was the use of prophecying left off in the following Church as may every where easily be observed in the Fathers After the Apostles and Prophets writings the Minister made an Oration wherein he instructed the people and exhorted them to the imitation of such excellent things Ambrose interpreted the appointed Lessons and did apply them to the peoples present use Origen saith the Christians in their readings and the explication of them did exhort the people to piety towards the blessed and great God and to other virtues the inseparable companions of piety Contra Celsum l. 3. After the ordinary Scriptures were read saith Austin I came to my Sermon The same appears every where out of the Fathers Treatises This explication of the Scriptures with us is called Sermon but with the ancients a Treatise Origen exhorteth to reading the Scripture and Treating Hom. 23. in Num. Ambrose l. 5. ep 33. Cyprian de bono pudicitiae And they that explained the Scriptures were called Tractatores Treatisers or Treaters Hieronym adv errores Joh.
observe Socr. l. 7. c. 22. Nor do I remember that I have read any where in the ancients that any man was interdicted who being not deprived of the faculty of preaching by the Church or was not subject to its censure that he should not so often as conveniently he could instruct the people committed to him in the knowledge of the Scriptures Cyprian asked the Presbyters in his absence that they would seriously execute both their own and his part in the instructing the Church of Christ Ep. 5. and he commends the Presbyters that did corroborate every one with their daily exhortations Ep. 40. The Roman Clergy exhorted the Clergy of Carthage to constancy in executing their office and to encourage the Christians to persevere in the confession of Faith and detestation of idolatry by arguments drawn out of the Holy Scriptures Cypr. Ep. 3. But neither Cyprian nor the Romans did prohibit the Presbyters of Carthage from the diligent function of this office but provoked them forward to perform it upon every occasion that was offered This St. Chrysostom teacheth elegantly and pithily Homil. 15. in 2 Tim. while he exciteth all the Doctors of the Church whom he contends ought so to be called because they teach to labour in the Word and Doctrine and stingeth some that say that there is no need of the Word and Doctrine because in his judgment it tendeth no little to the edification of the Church if those that are over the Church excell in the grace of teaching without which many things in the Church-discipline will perish He doth not therefore greatly reprove those that applied themselves to Doctrine but shews they are to be greatly honoured CHAP. VIII On the Lords Dayes they were wont to Treat twice out of the Holy Scriptures THat the ancients when a fit occasion was offered did treat out of the Scripture every day their own records do teach us but as I said in the former Chapter they especially buckled themselves to this work on the Lords day For it beâ—oveth those that are set over Churches on all dayes but especially Lords dayes to teach all the Clergy and people the oracles of piety and the right Religion And as they took pains to explain the Scripture every day so they judged that all times of the day were fit for a spiritual discourse Chrys Hom. 10. in Gen. Yea though night grâ—w on himself being judge it prejudiced not spiritual Doctrine And hence it was that we read that the ancients explained the Scriptures not only in the morning but evening for at both times the Church assembled as is shewn in the first Chapter This their very words will tell us It appears from the beginning of Basils second Hom. that one of those Sermons was had in the morning and the other after noon for he saith We took time in a few words from the first dawning of the day c. Hexaem Hom. 2. and he kept the second Hom. about the evening While on it he interpreted the evening Hom. of the first day he saith These our discourses of that evening being now occupied from this evening do here put an end to our Oration Hexaem Hom. secun circa finem And he saith in the beginning of his third Hom. that one part of these Homilies brought morning aliment and the other evening joy to his hearers In the end of his seventh Hom. he admonishes his hearers to give thanks and to talk among themselves of those things which both early and in the evening his Oration yesterday had offered them In the conclusion of the eighth Hom he puts an end to the morning feast lest the exuberant satiety of speech make his auditors more dull to receive his evening banquets In the beginning of the following Hom. had upon the same day he saith that his Oration had set a banquet before his auditors in the morning and that Oration was had about the evening for he concludes it in this manner Behold the Evening time commands us silence the Sun being now set a pretty while since here therefore we think it meet that this our Oration should bring us to our bed or rest All these to testifie that Basil the Great held a double Treatise out of the Scriptures the same day For he makes mention both of his evening and morning labour undertaken in performing that office by him Neither did Great Chrysostom give place to Basil although he was called Magnus in the diligent treating out of Scripture who saith What we have said to day is very like to that which we yet have determined to speak to day Hom. oportet haereses esse That place doth shew evidently enough that Chrysostom preach'd twice on one and the same day and if the Church were but to meet once a day to hear the word of God with what face could Chrysostom have reproved those his auditors that refused to come after their carnal table to a spiritual banquet which thing we find him to have done not once So Hom. 10. in Gen. Hom. 9. ad Populum Contrariwise he commends those that obeyed this admonition because when they had dined they met in the Church Hom. 10. ad populum In the beginning of 67 Oration T. 6. of the Greek Edition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he saith that he being wearied with the labours of the morning Sermon reserved the rest namely till afternoon and was wonderfully refreshed with the presence of Flavianus This testifies that he preached twice that day otherwise Bishop Flavianus had not been present to hear him in the afternoon He that shall look into the beginning of the second Sermon of Austins in Ps 88. will grant that Austin did the same For he commands his auditors to bend their mind to the rest of the Psalm of which he had been speaking in the morning Being content with these authorities of the Fathers although we meet with much more in them we will add no more And he that shall weigh these in an equal ballance will with a little adoe find that these grave Authors did endure the labour of Treating twice a day out of the Scriptures Now if any one whose palate nauâ—â—ating the old path that leadeth straight to the eternal salvation of the soul and seeking a new one the premises do not please shall object to me that from the aforesaid testimonies it is not evident that the Fathers did undergo those labours in interpreting and treating out of the Scripture twice on the Lords day which I should have proved Surely he that shall say so will not work me much trouble nor will he enervate my opinion of the Fathers labours declared in this sense unless he shall first demonstrate that the Church did on all dayes besides the Lords keep evening assemblies on which they had these Sermons and that they laboured to sanctifie other dayes more than the Lords Dayes which thing I suppose he will demonstrate from their grave
rest or the consecration of the rest to the publick exercise of Gods Worship which in what things can it better be observed than in reading of Gods Law and explaining the sense of its words prayers and other exercises of piety On the Sabbath saith Theodoret we are commanded to rest but it 's not any kind of rest since the Holy Ghost hath multiplied our work and what that work of the Spirit is that is multiplied on the Sabbath he afterwards expounds when he saith he hath commanded us to labour in Prayers and Psalms These things shew that something more than rest was required of the people on the Sabbath day Secondly if the Bible had not been publickly read and its sense expounded on Sabbath-dayes then none besides the Priests and Levites and some others that offered Sacrifices to the Priests had been bound to be present on Sabbath dayes in the place destined by God to sacrifice in for what need was there that they should onely be present with them that sacrificed But the contrary appears from the very Text Lev. 23. 3. where the solemnity of the Sabbath is shown God appoints that there shall be an holy convocation Now if a Convocation were by God required on the Sabbath dayes then it concerned the people as well as the Priests to be present at the common assembly which being finished that solemn benediction was pronounced by the Priest to the people assembled Num. 6. 23. Thirdly if there had been no reading of the Law and explaining thereof in use among the Jews under the former Temple then the Priests had been bound to nothing else but to serve for offering sacrifices But the Scripture testifies that the Levites were to teach Israel the Judgments and Law of God as well as to put incense upon the altar Deut. 33. 10. where two offices are assigned to the Levites In the first place that they teach the people in the Law and judgments of God and secondly that they put incense upon the altar But if they had not instructed the people in the Law then they had bestowed their chief care upon the less principal the other which was the principal duty being neglected And unless the people had been instructed in the meaning of the Law they had wholly been ignorant of the use for which the Sacrifices were ordained of God But Aaron and his sons were separated from others by God to teach the children of Israel the statutes of God Lev. 10. 11. Which they faithfully performed both privately as often as any consulted them upon any emergent question Deut. 17. 9 10. and publickly for they instructed all Israel in the Word of God 2 Chron. 35. 3. And that charge did ex officio lie upon the Levites as well before as after the captivity to be indued with the knowledge of all things that the Law might be sought for at their mouth M.al. 2. 7. But when could they with greater fruit draw out the knowledge of Gods Law to the peoples edification than in the publick assembly of the Church being gathered together on S. Dayes since on other dayes on which they were to attend their labours they could not do this Christ when he began his Ministry once did frequently teach in the Temple Why did the people wait for Zacharias when he was offering Sacrifice if it were not an usual thing for them to hear some short Sermon and benediction from him before they went out Christ sate in the Temple in the midst of the Doctors hearing and asking them questions which shews that it was the custome of a Doctor to teach the multitude in the Temple If therefore the Law of God was not on the Sabbath dayes expounded for the peoples use and no other exercises of piety but sacrifices were required of the people in what thing was the Sabbath ennobled above other dayes for sacrifices were offered on other besides the Sabbath dayes yea two Lambs were day by day offered for a continual burnt-offering Numb 28. Therefore the Sabbath was not made remarkable by the only worship of Sacrifices above other dayes on which they attended sacrifices but besides the sacrifices were superadded the interpreting of the Law and a serious and pious exercising themselves therein and other duties of piety upon which account the Sabbath day was reckoned more holy than other dayes of the week and the ninety second Psalm was for this end written that the people might sing it in the Church on the Sabbath day whereon a holy Convocation was held Fourthly the question propounded by the husband of the Shunamitess doth evince the same 2 Kin. 4. 23. He asks his wife why she would go to the Prophet that day since it was neither new moon nor Sabbath which were the ordinary dayes to consult God upon and to hear his word according to the famous Junius Lyra saith also the same on that place He spoke this saith he because men went more frequently on those dayes to the Prophets to hear Gods word because the Prophets were not to attend Sacrifices therefore they that went to the Prophets did it that they might be instructed in the Law and will of God by them but when could this be better done than on the Sabbath The famous Cunaeus upon the authority of Rabbi Aben Ezra affirms that Oracles were consulted on Sabbath dayes De Rep. Hebraeorum l. 2. c. 24. Fifthly if reading of Scriptures and a clear interpreting of them had not been prescribed of God then Christ and after him his Apostles who were faithfully diligent in expounding the Law on Sabbath dayes are to be taxed for Will-worship because they offered God a worship on the Sabbath which he had not commanded them Lastly that the use of Synagogues was among the Jews before the Babylonish captivity may be collected from Moses Lev. 26. 31. where the Hebrews by Sanctuaries do understand Synagogues in which the people met weekly on Sabbath dayes of whose ruine and vastation the Church expostulateth with God Psal 74. 7 8. the inscription of which Psalm shews that that Psalm was penned when David governed the Kingdome for the Inscription is for Asaph It was therefore either penned by Asaph who writ some of the Psalms as well as David 2 Chron. 29. 30. or was commended to his care who together with his sons is recited among those who sung holy songs 1 Chr. 25. 2. If therefore while Asaph survived then were Synagogues long in use before the captivity But for what end were they instituted in which sacrifices which it was lawful to offer no where else but at Hierusalem when the Temple was built were not offered but in them was the people instructed in the Law of God by the Levites who were dispersed up and down Israel and by others who were delegated of God to that charge and office Which things being considered let others judge what to say of their uncertain conjecture who contend that there was no