or to the seventh precisely from the Worlds Creation Constitui potuisset quod in die sabbati coleretur Deus aut in die Martis Aut in altera die God saith Tostatus might have ordered it to have his Sabbath on the Saturday In Exod. 20. qu. 11. or on the Tuesday or any other day what ever what any other of the week and no more than so No he might have appointed it aut bis aut semel tantum in anno aut in mense once or twice a year or every month as he had listed And might not God as well exceed this number as fall short thereof Yes say the Protestant Doctors that he might have done He might have made each third or fourth or fifth day a Sabbath indeed as many as he pleased In Exod. 20. Si voluisset Deus absolute uti dominio suo potuit plures dies imperare cultui suo impendendos So saith Dr. Ryvet one of the Professors of Leiden and a great Friend to the Antiquity of the Sabbath What was the principal motive then why the seventh day way chosen for this purpose and none but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep God always in their minds so saith Justin Martyr But why should that be rather done by a seventh day Sabbath than by any other Dial. Cum Try phone Detsest Paschal hom 6. Saint Cyril answers to that point exceeding fully The Jews saith he became infected with the Idolatries of Egypt worshipped the Sun and Moon and Stars and the Host of Heaven which seems to be insinuated in the fourth of Deut. v. 19. Therefore that they might understand the Heavens to be Gods workmanship eos opificem suum imitari jubet he willeth them that they imitate their Creator that resting on the Sabbath day they might the better understand the reason of the Festival Which if they did saith he in case they rested on that day whereon God had rested it was a plain confession that all things were made by him and consequently that there were no other Gods besides him Et haec una ratio sabbato indicatae quietis Indeed the one and only reason that is mentioned in the body of the Commandment which reflects only on Gods rest from all his work which he had made and leaves that as the absolute and sole occasion why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than the sixth or eighth or any other Which being so it is the more to be admired that Philo being a learned Jew or any learned Christian Writer leaving the cause expressed in the Law it self should seek some secret reason for it out of the nature of the day or of the number De Abrahamo First Fhilo tells us that the Jews do call their seventh day by the name of Sabbath which signifieth repose and rest Not because they did rest that day from their weekly labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because seven is found to be both in the world and man himself the most quiet number most free from trouble war and all manner of contention A strange conceit to take beginning from a Jew Problem loc 5 5. yet that that follows of Aretius is as strange as this Who thinks that day was therefore consecrated unto rest even amongst the Gentiles quod putarent civilibus actionibus ineptum esse fortasse propter frigus planetae contemplationibus vero idoneum Because they thought that day by reason of the dulness of the Planet Saturn more fit for contemplation than it was for action Some had it seems conceived so in the former times whom thereupon Tostatus censures in his Comment on the fifth of Deuteronomy Qu. 3. For where it was Gods purpose as before we noted out of Cyril to wean the People from Idolatry and Superstition to lay down such a reason for the observation of the Sabbath was to reduce them to the worship of those Stars and Planets from which he did intend to wean them I had almost omitted the conceit of Zanchie See n. 1. before remembred who thinks that God made choice of this day the rather because that on the same day he had brought his People out of Egypt In case the ground be true that on this day the Lord wrought this deliverance for his People Israel then his conceit may probably be countenanced from the fifth of Deuteronomy where God recounting to his People that with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm he had delivered them from Egypt hath thereupon commanded them that they should keep the Sabbath day Lay all that hath been said together and it will come in all to this that as the Sabbath was not known till Moses time Annal. d. 7. so being known it was peculiar unto Israel only Non nisi Mosaicae legis temporibus in usu fuisse septimi diei cultum nec postea nisi penes Hebraeos perdurasse as Torniellus doth conclude it For that the Gentiles used to keep the seventh day sacred as some give it out is no where to be found I dare boldly say it in all the Writings of the Gentiles The seventh day of the moneth indeed they hallowed and so they did the first and fourth as Hesiod tells us Opera dies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not the first day and the fourth and seventh of every week for then they must have gone beyond the Jews but as the Scholiast upon Hesiod notes it of every month à novilunio exorsus laudat tres the first fourth and seventh And lest it should be thought that the seventh day is to be counted holier than the other two because the attribute of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems joyned unto it the Scholiast takes away that scruple à novilunio exorsus tres laudat omnes sacras dicens septimam etiam ut Apollinis natalem celebrans and tells us that all three are accounted holy and that the seventh was also celebrated as Apollos birth-day For so it followeth in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the Flamines or Gentile Priests did use to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the God born on the seventh day Dies Geniales l. 3. c. 18. For further proof hereof we find in Alexander ab Alexandro that the first day of evry moneth was consecrated to Apollo the fourth to Mercury the seventh again unto Apollo the eighth to Theseus The like doth Plutarch say of Theseus that the Athenians offered to him their greatest Sacrifice upon the eighth day of October because of his arrival that day from Crete and that they also honoured him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the eighth day of the other moneths because he was derived from Neptune to whom on the eighth day of every month they did offer sacrifice To make the matter yet more sure De Decalogo Philo hath put this difference between the Gentiles and the Jews that divers Cities of the Gentiles did solemnize the seventh
Dion affirms it for the ancient Grecians that they knew it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ought he could learn Natural 7. and Seneca more punctually that first they learnt the motions of the Planets of Eudoxus who brought that knowledge out of Egypt and consequently could not know the week before And for the Romans though they were well enough acquained with the Planets in their latter times yet they divided not their Calendar into weeks as now they do till near about the time of Dionysius Exiguus who lived about the year of Christ 520. Nor had they then received it in all probability had they not long before admitted Christianity throughout their Empire and therewithal the knowledge of the holy Scriptures where the accempt by weeks was exceeding obvious Therefore according to this rule the Chaldees Persians Greeks and Romans all the four great Monarchies did observe no Sabbaths because they did observe no weeks Which said in this place once for all we resolve it thus that as the Israelites kept no Sabbath before the Law so neither did the Gentiles when the Law was given which proves it one of Moses Ordinances no prescript of nature CHAP. V. The Practice of the Jews in such observances as were annexed unto the Sabbath 1. Of some particular adjuncts affixed unto the Jewish Sabbath 2. The Annual Festivals called Sabbaths in the Book of God and reckoned as a part of the fourth Commandment 3. The Annual Sabbaths no less solemnly observed and celebrated than the weekly were if not more solemnly 4. Of the Parasceue or Preparation to the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals 5. All manner of work as well forbidden on the Annual as the weekly Sabbaths 6. What things were lawful to be done on the Sabbath days 7. Touching the prohibitions of not kindling fire and not dressing meat 8. What moved the Gentiles generally to charge the Jews with Fasting on the Sabbath day 9. Touching this Prohibition Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day 10. All lawful recreations as Dancing Feasting Man-like Exercises allowed and practised by the Jews upon their Sabbaths I Shewed you in the former Chapter the institution of the Sabbath by whom it was first published and to whom prescribed It now remains to see how it was observed how far the People thought themselves obliged by it and in what cases they were pleased to dispense therewith Which that we may the better do we will take notice first of the Law it self what is contained in the same what the Sabbath signifieth and then of such particular observances which by particular statutes were affixed by God to the fourth Commandment either by way of Comment on it or addition to it and after were misconstrued by the Scribes and Pharisees to insnare the People And first not to say any thing in this place of the quid nominis or derivation of the word which Philo and Josephus and the seventy do often render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repose or rest Sabbath is used in Scripture to signifie some selected time by God himself deputed unto rest and holiness Most specially and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it pints out unto us the seventh day as that which was first honoured with the name of Sabbath Exod. 16.25 and in the second place those other Festivals which were by God prescribed to the house of Israel and are called Sabbaths also as the others were Of these the one was weekly and the other Annual the New-moons not being honoured with this title in the Book of God though in heathen Authors The weekly Sabbath was that day precisely whereon God rested from the works that he had made which he commanded to be kept for a day of rest unto the Jews that so they might the better meditate on the wondrous works that he had done every seventh day exactly in a continual revolution from time to time Therefore saith Damaseen De side Ortbod l. 4. c. 24. when we have reckoned to seven days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our computation of the time runs round and begins anew These as in general and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before I said they were called Sabbaths so were there some of them that had particular adjuncts whereby to know them from the rest whereof the one was constant and the other casual The constant adjunct is that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sabbatum secundo primum as the Latine renders it mention whereof is made in Saint Lukes Gospel Our English reads it on the second Sabbath after the first Cap. 6.1 A place and passage that much exercised mens wits in the former times and brought forth many strange conceits until at last this and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sophistarum Casaub Exerc. 14. n. 1. and super fluvios manare fontes came to be reckoned in a Proverb as preposterous things Scaliger hath of late untied the knot and resolved it thus Emend Temp. lib. 6. that all the Weeks or Sabbaths from Pasch to Pentecost did take their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the second day of the Feast of Passeover that being the Epoche or point of time from which the fifty days were to be accompted by the Law and that the first Week or Sabbath after the said second day was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the rest According to which reckoning the second Sabbath after the first as we translate it must be the first Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the second day of the Passcover The casual adjunct is that sometimes there was a Sabbath that was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Sabbath or as it is in Saint Johns Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 magnus ille dies Sabbati Cap. 19.31 as the Latine hath it And is so called not for its own sake for Casaubon hath rightly noted Exerc. 16. n. 31. nunquam eam appellationem Sabbato tributam reperiri propter ipsum But because then as many other times it did the Passeover did either fall or else was celebrated on a Sabbath Even as in other cases and at other times when any of the greater and more solemn Festivals did fall upon the Sabbath day they used to call it Epist 110. l. 3. Sabbatum Sabba torum a Sabbath of Sabbaths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isidore Pelusiotes notes it For that the Annual Feasts were called Sabbaths too is most apparent in the Scriptures especially Levit. 23. where both the Passeover the Feast of Trumpets the Feast of Expiation and the Feast of Tabernacles are severally entituled by the name of Sabbaths The Fathers also note the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostom and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidore in the place before remembred Hom. in Math. 39. Even the New-moons amongst the Gentiles had the same name also as may appear by
that of Horace who calls them in his Satyrs Tricesima Sabbata L. 1. Sat. 9. because they were continually celebrated every thirtieth day The like they did by all the rest if Joseph Scaligers note be true as I think it is who hath affirmed expresly Emend Temp. lib. 3. Omnem festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaeos sed Gentiles sabbatum vocare Nay as the weekly Sabbaths some of them had their proper adjuncts so had the annual Saint Athanasius tells us of the Feast of Expiation that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Sabbat Circumcis or the principal Sabbath for so I take it is his meaning which self same attribute is given by Origen to the Feast of Trumpets Clemens of Alexandria 6. Stromat In Num. 28. hom 23. brings in a difference of those Festivals out of a supposed work of Saint Peter the Apostle wherein besides the New-moons and Passeover which are there so named they are distributed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the first Sabbath the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called and the Great day Casaubon for his part protesteth Exer. 14. n. 1. ipsi obscurum esse quid sit sabbatum primum that he was yet to seek what should the meaning be of that first Sabbath But Scaliger conceives and not improbably that by this first Sabbath Emend Temp. Prolog Edit 2. of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was meant the Feast of Trumpets because it was caput anni or the beginning of the civil year the same which Origen calls Sabbatum sabbatorum as before we noted As for the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so named in Clemens that he conceives to be the Feast of Pentecost and the great day in him remembred the Feast of Tabernacles for the which last he hath authority in the Scriptures who tell of the Great day of this very Feast Joh. 7.37 Not that the Feast of Tabernacles was alone so called but in a more especial manner Contr. Marcian For there were other days so named besides the Sabbaths Dies observatis saith Tertullian sabbata ut opinor coenas puras jejunia dies magnos Where sabbata dies magni are distinguished plainly Indeed it stood with reason that these annual Sabbaths should have the honour also of particular adjuncts as the weekly had being all founded upon one and the same Commandment Philo affirms it for the Jews De Decalog 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The fourth Commandment saith he is of the Sabbath and the Festivals of Vows of Sacrifices forms of purifying and other parts of divine worship Which is made good by Zanchie for the Christian Writers who in his work upon the Decalogue doth resolve it thus In Mandat 4. Sabbati nomine ad Judaeos quod attinebat Deus intellexit non solum sabbatum septem dierum sed sabbata etiam annorum item omnia festa quae per Mosen illis explicavit It was the moral part of the fourth Commandment that some time should be set apart for Gods publick service and in the body of that Law it is determined of that time that it should be one day in seven Yet not exclusively that there should be no other time appointed either by God or by his Church than the seventh day only God therefore added other times as to him seemed best the list whereof we may behold in the twenty-third of Leviticus and the Church too by Gods example added also some as namely the Feast of Dedication and that of Purim Now as the Annual Festivals ordained by God had the name of Sabbath as the weekly had so the observances in them were the same or not much different if in some things the weekly Sabbaths seemed to have preheminence the Annual Sabbaths went beyond them in some others also For the continuance of these Feasts the weekly Sabbath was to be observed throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant Exod. 31.16 So for the Passeover you shall observe it throughout your Generations by an Ordinance for ever Exod. 12.14 The like of Pentecost it shall be a statute for ever throughout your Generations Levit. 23.21 So also for the Feast of Expiation Levit. 23.31 And for the Feast of Tabernacles Levit. 24.41 Where note that by these words for ever and throughout their Generations it is not to be understood that these Jewish Festivals were to be perpetual for then they would oblige us now as they did the Jews but that they were to last as long as the Republick of the Jews should stand and the Mosaical Ordinances were to be in force De bello l. 6. cap. 6. Per generationes vestras i. e. quam diu Respub Judaica constaret as Tostatus notes upon this twenty-third of Leviticus For the solemnity of these Feasts the presence of the High Priests was as necessary in the one as in the other The High Priests also saith Josephus ascended with the Priests into the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet not always but only on the Sabbaths and New-moons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also on those other Feasts and solemn Assemblies which yearly were to be observed according unto the custom of the Country And hitherto we find no difference at all but in the manner of the rest there appears a little between the weekly Sabbath and some of the Annual For of the weekly Sabbath it is said expresly that thou shalt do no manner of work Levit. 23.7 21 25 36. as on the other side of the Passeover the Pentecost the Feast of Trumpets and of Tabernacles that they shall do no servile work which being well examined will be found the same in sence though not in sound But then again for sence and sound it is expresly said of the Expiation that therein thou shalt do no manner of work as was affirmed before of the weekly Sabbath So that besides the seventh day Sabbath there were seven Sabbaths in the year in six of which viz. the first and seventh of Unleavened bread the day of Pentecost the Feast of Trumpets and the first and eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles they were to do no servile works and on the Expiation day no work at all So that in this respect the weekly Sabbath and the day of Expiation were directly equal according to the very letter In other things the day of Expiation seems to have preheminence First that upon this day only the high Priest omnibus pontificalibus indumentis indutus attired in his Pontificals might go into the Sanctum sanctorum or the holiest of all to make attonement for the People whereof see Levit. 16. And secondly in that the sacrifices for this day were more and greater than those appointed by the Lord for the weekly Sabbaths which last is also true of the other Festivals For where the sacrifice appointed for the weekly Sabbath consisted only of two Lambs over and above the daily
32. better the men did dig all day than dance all day And for the Women melius eorum foeminae lanam facerent quam illo die in neomeniis saltarent Tract 3. in Joh. 1. better the Women spin than waste all that day and the New-Moons in dancing as they use to do I have translated it all that day agreeable unto the Fathers words in another place where it is said expresly in tota die De decem chordis c. 3. Melius foeminae eorum die sabbati lanas facerent quam tota die in neomeniis suis impudice saltarent Where note not dancing simply but lascivious dancing and dancing all day long without respect to pious and religious Duties are by him disliked Ignatius also saith the same Ad Magnesianos where he exhorts the people not to observe the Sabbath in a Jewish fashion walking a limited space and setting all their mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they did in dancing and in capering They used also on that day to make invitations Feasts and assemblies of good neighbourhood to foster Brotherly love and concord amongst one another a thing even by the Pharisees themselves both allowed and practised Luke 14.1 Saint Luke hath given an instance of it how Christ went into the house of a chief Pharisee to eat Bread on the Sabbath day In plainer terms the Pharisees invited him that day to Dinner We may assure our selves so famous a Professour had not invited so great a Prophet nor had our Saviour Christ accepted of the invitation had they not both esteemed it a lawful matter It seems it was a common practice for friends to meet and feast together on the Sabbath Finito cultu Dei solebant amici convenire Harmon c. 119. inter se convivia agitare as Chemnitius notes upon the place Lastly they used upon this day as to invite their Friends and Neighbours so to make them welcom oynting their Heads with Oil to refresh their Bodies and spending store of Wine amongst them to make glad their hearts In which regard whereas all other marketting was unlawful on the Sabbath days there never was restraint of selling Wine the Jews believed that therein they brake no Commandment Hebraei faciunt aliquid speciale in vino In Exod. 12. viz. quod cum in sabbato suo à caeteris venditionibus emptionibus cessent solum vlnum vendunt credentes se non solvere sabbatum as Tostatus hath it How they abused this lawful custom of Feasting with their Friends and Neighbours on the Sabbath day into foul riot and excess we have seen already So having spoken of the weekly and the Annual Sabbaths the difference and agreement which was between them both in the Institution and the Observation as also of such several observances as were annexed unto the same what things the Jews accounted lawful to be done and what unlawful and how far they declared the same in their constant practice it is high time that we continue on the story ranking such special passages as occur hereafter in their place and order CHAP. VI. Touching the observation of the SABBATH unto the time the people were established in the Promised Land 1. The Sabbath not kept constantly during the time the people wandred in the Wilderness 2. Of him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day 3. Wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist in the time of Moses 4. The Law not ordered to be read in the Congregation every Sabbath day 5. The sack of Hiericho and the destruction of that people was upon the Sabbath 6. No Sabbath after this without Circumcision and how that Ceremony could consist with the Sabbaths rest 7. What moved the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath 8. The standing still of the Sun at the prayers of Josuah c. could not but make some alteration about the Sabbath 9. What was the Priests work on the Sabbath day and whether it might stand with the Sabbaths rest 10. The scattering of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation unto the reading of the Law on the Sabbaths-days WE left this people in the Wilderness where the Law was given them and whether this Commandment were there kept or not hath been made a question and that both by the Jewish Doctors and by the Christian Some have resolved it negatively that it was not kept in all that time which was forty years and others that it was at some times omitted according to the stations or removes of Israel or other great and weighty businesses which might intermit it It is affirmed by Rabbi Solomon that there was only one Passeover observed whiles they continued in the Deserts notwithstanding that it was the principal solemnity of all the year Et si illud fuit omissum multo fortius alia minus principalia If that saith he then by an argument à majore ad minus much rather were the lesser Festivals omitted also More punctually Rabbi Eleazar Ap. Galation l. 11. c. 10. who on those words of Exodus and the people rested the seventh day Chap. 16.30 gives us to understand that for the space of forty years whilest they were in the wilderness non fecerunt nisi duntaxat primum sabbatum they kept no more than that first Sabbath Chap. 5.25 According unto that of the Prophet Amos Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years O house of Israel On which authority Aretius for the Christian Doctors doth affirm the same Probl. lo◠55. Sabbata per annos 40. non observavit in deserto populus Dei Amos 5.25 The argument may be yet inforced by one more particular that Circumcision was omitted for all that while and yet it had precedency of the Sabbath both in the institution for the times before and in the observation for the times that followed If therefore neither Circumcision nor the daily sacrifices nor the Feast of Passeover being the principal of the Annual Sabbaths were observed by them till they came to the Land of Canaan why may not one conclude the same of the weekly Sabbaths Others conceive not so directly but that it was omitted at some times and on some occasions Omitted at some times as when the people journied in the Wilderness many days together In Exod. 12. nulla requie aliquorum dierum habita without rest or ceasing and this the Hebrew Doctors willingly confess as Tostatus tells us Omitted too on some occasions as when the Spies were sent to discover the Land what was the strength thereof and what the riches in which discovery they spent forty days it is not to be thought that they kept the Sabbath It was a perillous work that they went about not to be discontinued and layed by so often as there were Sabbaths in that time But not to stand upon conjectures the Jewish Doctors say expresly Lib. 11. c. 10. that they did not keep it So
Galatine reports from their own Records that in their latter exposition on the Book of Numbers upon those words send men that they may search the land of Canaan Chap. 13.2 they thus resolve it Nuncio praecepti licitum est c. A Messenger that goes upon Command may travail any day at what time be will And why because he is a Messenger upon Command Nuncius autem praecepti excludit sabbatum The phrase is somwhat dark but the meaning plain that those which went upon that Errand did not keep the Sabbath Certain it also is that for all that time no nor for any part thereof the people did not keep the Sabbath compleatly as the Law appointed For where there were two things concurring to make up the Sabbath first rest from labour and secondly the sacrifices destinate unto the day however they might rest some Sabbaths from their daily labours yet sacrifices they had none until they came into the Land of Canaan Now that they rested sometimes on the Sabbath day and perhaps did so generally in those forty years is manifest by that great and memorable Business touching the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath The case is briefly this the people being in the Wilderness Numb 15. Verse 32. ad 37. found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day and brought him presently unto Moses Moses consulted with the Lord and it was resolved that the offender should be stoned to death which was done accordingly The Law before had ordered it that he who so offended should be put to death but the particular manner of his death was not known till now The more remarkable is this case because it was the only time that we can hear of that execution had been done upon any one according as the Law enacted and thereupon the Fathers have took some pains to search into the reasons of so great severity De vit Mos l. 3. Philo accuseth him of a double crime in one whereof he was the principal and an Accessary only in the other For where it was before commanded that there should be no fire kindled on the Sabbath day this party did not only labour on the day of rest but also laboured in the gathering of such materials 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might administer fuel to prohibited fire Saint Basil seems a little to bemoan the man De judicio Dei in that he smarted so for his first offence not having otherwise offended either God or Man and makes the motive of his death neither to consist in the multitude of his sins or the greatness of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only in his disobedience to the will of God But we must have a more particular motive yet than this And first Rupertus tells us per superbiam illud quod videbatur exiguum commisit In locum that he did sin presumptuously with an high hand against the Lord and therefore God decreed he should die the death God not regarding either what or how great it was sed qua mente fecerat but with what mind it was committed But this is more I think than Rupertus knew being no searcher of the heart Rather I shall subscribe herein unto Saint Chrysostom Who makes this Quaere first Hom. 39. in Matth. 12. seeing the Sabbath as Christ saith was made for man why was he put to death that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath And then returns this answer to his own demand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because in case God had permitted that the Law should have been slighted in the first beginning none would have kept it for the future Theodoret to that purpose also ne autor fieret leges transgrediendi Qu. 31. in Num. lest other men encouraged by his example should have done the like the punishment of this one man striking a terrour unto all No question but it made the people far more observant of the Sabbath than they would have been who were at first but backwards in the keeping of it as is apparent by that passage in the sixteenth of Exod. v. 27. And therefore stood the more in need not only of a watch-word or Memento even in the very front of the Law it self but of some sharper course to stir up their memory Therefore this execution was the more requisite at this instant as well because the Jews by reason of their long abode in a place of continual servile toil could not be suddenly drawn unto contrary offices without some strong impression of terrour as also because nothing is more needful than with extremity to punish the first transgressours of those Laws that do require a more exact observation for the times to come What time this Tragedy was acted is not known for certain By Torniellus it is placed in the year 2548. of the Worlds Creation which was some four years after the Law was given More than this is not extant in the Scripture touching the keeping of the Sabbath all the life of Moses What was done after we shall see in the Land of Promise In the mean time It is most proper to this place to take a little notice of those several Duties wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist especially that we may know the better what we are to look for at the peoples hands when we bring them thither Two things the Lord commanded in his holy Scripture that concern the Sabbath the keeping holy of the same one in relation to the People the other in reference to the Priest In reference to the People he commanded only rest from labour that they should do no manner of work and that 's contained expresly in the Law it self In reference to the Priest he commanded sacrifice that on the Sabbath day over and above the daily sacrifice there should be offered to the Lord two Lambs of an year old without blemish one in the morning and the other in the evening Numb 28. as also to prepare first and then place the Shewbread being twelve loaves one for every Tribe continually before the Lord every Sabbath day These several references so divided the Priest might do his part without the People and contrary the People do their part without the Priest Of any Sabbath duties which were to be performed between them wherein the Priest and People were to join together the Scriptures are directly silent As for these several Duties that of the Priest the Shew-bread and the sacrifice was not in practice till they came to the Land of Canaan and then though the Priest offered for the People yet he did not with them So that for forty years together all the life of Moses the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist only for ought we find in a Bodily rest a ceasing from the works of their weekly labours and afterwards in that and in the Sacrifices which the Priest made for them Which as they seem to be the greater of the two so
being left unto the Prelates of the Church by them to be appointed as occasion was What others of the ancient Writers Cap. 24. v. 20. and what the Protestant Divines have affirmed herein we shall hereafter see in their proper places As for these words of our Redeemer in S. Matthews Gospel Pray that your flight be not in the Winter neither on the Sabbath day they have indeed been much alledged to prove that Christ did intimate at the least unto his Apostles and the rest that there was a particular day by him appointed whereof he willed them to be careful which being not the Jewish Sabbath must of necessity as they think be the Lords day But certainly the Fathers tell us no such matter nay they say the contrary and make these words a part of our Redeemers admonition to the Jews not to the Apostles In Matth. 24. Saint Chrysostom hath it so expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Behold saith he how he addresseth his discourse unto the Jews and tells them of the evils which should fall upon them for neither were the Apostles bound to observe the Sabbath nor were they there when those Calamities fell upon the Jewish Nation Not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath and why so saith he Because their flight being so quick and sudden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither the Jews would dare to flie on the Sabbath for such their superstition was in the later times nor would the Winter but be very troublesome in such distresses In Matth. 24. Theophilact doth affirm expresly that this was spoken unto the Jews and spoken upon the self same reasons adding withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that before any of those miserles fell upon that Nation the Apostles were all departed from out Jerusalem S. Hierom saith as much as unto the time that those Calamities which by our Saviour were foretold were generally referred unto the Wars of Titus and Vespasian and that both in his Comment on S. Matthew's Gospel and his Epistle to Algasia And for the thing that the Apostles and the rest of the Disciples were all departed from Jerusalem before that heavy war began is no less evident in story Qu. 4. For the Apostles long before that time were either martyred or dispersed in several places for the enlargement of the Gospel not any of them resident in Jerusalem after the Martyrdom of S. James who was Bishop there And for the residue of the Disciples they had forsook the Country also before the Wars being admonished so to do by an Heavenly Vision which warned them to withdraw from thence and repair to Pella beyond Jordan Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 5. as Eusebius tells us So that these words of our Redeemer could not be spoke as to the Apostles and in them unto all the rest of the Disciples which should follow after but to the People of the Jews To whom our Saviour gave this caution not that he did not think it lawful for them to flie upon the Sabbath day but that as things then were and as their consciences were intangled by the Scribes and Pharisees he found that they would count it a most grievous misery to be put unto it To return then unto our story as the chief reason why the Christians of the Primitive times did set apart this day to religious uses was because Christ that day did rise again from death to life for our justification so there was some Analogy or proportion which this day seemed to hold with the former Sabbath which might more easily induce them to observe the same For as God rested on the Sabbath from all the works which he had done in the Creation so did the Son of God rest also on the day of his Resurrection from all the works which he had done in our Redemption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. in sanct Pascha as Gregory Nyssen notes it for us Yet so that as the Father rested not on the former Sabbath from the works of preservation so neither doth our Saviour rest at any time from perfecting this work of our redemption by a perpetual application of the benefit and effects thereof This was the cause and these the motives which did induce the Church in some tract of time to solemnize the day of Christs Resurrection as a weekly Festival though not to keep it as a Sabbath I say in tract of time for ab initio non fuit sic it was not so in the beginning The very day it self was not so observed though it was known to the Apostles in the morning early that the Lord was risen We find not on the news that they came together for the performance of divine and religious exercises much less that they intended it for a Sabbath day or that our Saviour came amongst them until late at night as in likelihood he would have done had any such performance been thought necessary as was required unto the making of a Sabbath Nay which is more our blessed Saviour on that day and two of the Disciples whatsoever the others did were otherwise employed than in Sabbath duties Luke 24.13 For from Hierusalem to Emaus whither the two Disciples went was sixty furlongs which is seven miles and an half and so much back again unto Hierusalem which is fifteen miles And Christ who went the journey with them at least part thereof and left them not until they came unto Emaus was back again that night and put himself into the middest of the Apostles Had he intended it for a Sabbath day doubtless he would have rather joyned himself with the Apostles who as it is most likely kept themselves together in expectation of the issue and so were most prepared and fitted to begin the new Christian Sabbath than with those men who contrary to the nature of a Sabbaths rest were now ingaged in a journey and that for ought we know about worldly businesses Nor may we think but that our Saviour would have told them of so great a fault as violating the new Christian Sabbath even in the first beginning of it had any Sabbath been intended As for the being of the eleven in a place together that could not have relation to any Sabbath duties or religious exercises being none such were yet commanded but only to those cares and fears wherewith poor men they were distracted which made them loth to part asunder till they were setled in their hopes or otherwise resolved on somewhat whereunto to trust And where it is conceived by some that our most blessed Saviour shewed himself oftner unto the Apostles upon the first day of the week than on any other and therefore by his own appearings did sanctifie that day instead of the Jewish Sabbath neither the premisses are true nor the sequel necessary The premisses not true for it is no where to be found that he appeared oftner on the First day than any other of the week Acts 1.3 it being
entertained in the Christian Church as also to have mercy on them for the neglect thereof in those Holy days which by the wisdom and authority of the Church had been set apart for Gods publick Service Besides this Prayer was then conceived when there was no suspition that any would make use thereof to introduce a Jewish Sabbath but when men rather were inclined to the contrary errour to take away those certain and appointed times Lords days and other Holy days which by the wisdom of the Church had been retained in the Reformation The Anabaptists were strongly bent that way as before we shewed and if we look into the Articles of our Church See Art 26.37 38 39. we shall then find what special care was taken to suppress their errours in other points which had taken footing as it seems in this Church and Kingdom Therefore the more likely it is that this Cluse was added to crush their furious fancies in this particular of not hallowing certain days and times to Gods publick Service Yet I conceive withal that had those Reverend Prelates foreseen how much their pious purpose would have been abused by wresting it to introduce a Sabbath which they never meant they would have cast their meaning in another mould Proceed we to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth that so much celebrated Princess and in the first place we shall meet with her Injunctions published the first year of her Empire in which the Sunday is not only counted with the other Holy days but labour at some times permitted and which is more enjoyn'd upon it For thus it pleased her to declare her will and pleasure Injunct 20. All the Queens faithful and loving Subjects shall from henceforth celebrate and keep their holy day according to Gods holy will and pleasure that is in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publick Prayers in knowledging their offences unto God and amendment of the same in reconciling of themselves charitably to their Neighbours where displeasure hath been in oftentimes receiving the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ in bistting the Poor and Sick using all soberness and godly conversation This seems to be severe enough but what followeth next Yet notwithstanding all Parsons Vicars and Curats shall teach and declare to their Parishioners that they may with a safe and quiet conscience after their Common Prayer in the time of Harvest labour upon the boly and Festival days and save that thing which God hath sent And if for any scrupulosity or grudg of Conscience men should superstitiously abstain from working on these days that then they should grievously offend and displease God This makes it evident that Qu. Elizabeth in her own particular took not the Lords day for a Sabbath or to be of a different nature from the other Holy days nor was it taken so by the whole Body of our Church and State in the first Parliament of her Reign 1 Eliz. c. 2. what time it was enacted That all and every person and persons inhabiting within this Realm and any other the Queens Dominious shall diligently and faithfully having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent endeavour themselves to resort to their Parish Church or Chappel accustomed or upon reasonable let thereof to some usual place where Common Prayer shall be used in such time of let upon every Sunday and other days ordained and used to be kept as Holy day and then and there to abide orderly and soverly During the time of Common Prayer Preaching or other Service of God upon pain of punishment c. This Law is still in force and still like to be and by this Law the Sundays and the Holy days are alike regarded Nor by the Law only but by the purpose and intent of holy Church who in her publick Liturgy is as full and large for every one of the Holy days as for the Sunday the Letany excepted only For otherwise by the rule and prescript thereof the same Religious Offices are designed for both the same devout attendance required for both and whatsoever else may make both equal And therefore by this Statute and the Common Prayer-Book we are to keep more Sabbaths than the Lords Day Sabbath or else none at all Next look we on the Homilies part of the publick Monuments of the Church of England set forth and authorized Anno 1562. being the fourth of that Queens Reign In that entituled Of the place and time of Prayer we shall find it thus As concerning the Time in which God hath appointed his people to assemble together solemnly it doth appear by the fourth Commandment c. And Albeit this Commandment of God doth noâ— hind Christian people so straitly to observe and keep the utter ceremonies of the Sabbath day as it did the Jews as touching the forbearing of work and labour in the time of great necessity and as thouching the precise keeping of the seventh Day after the manner of the Jews for we keep now the first day which is our Sunday and make that our Sabbath that is our day of rest in honour of our Saviour Christ who as upon that day he rose from death conquering the same most triumphantly Yet notwithstanding whatsoever is found in the Comandment appertaining to the Law of Nature as a thing most godly most just and needful for the setting forth of Gods glory ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian people And therefore by this Commandment we ought to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest yea from our lawful and needful words For like as it appeareth by this Commandment that no man in the six days ought to be slothful and idle but diligently to labour in that state wherein God hath set him even so God hath given express charge to all men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-work-day labour to the intent that like as God 〈◊〉 wrought six days and rested the seventh and blessed and sanctified it and consecrated it to quietness and rest from labour even so Gods obedient people should use the Sunday Holily and rest from their common and daily business and aisa give themselves wholly to Heavenly exercises of Gods true religion and service â—o that God doth not only command the observation of this holy day but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to the diligent keeping of the same c. Thus it may plainly appear that Gods will and Commandment was to have a solemn time and standing day in the week Wherein the people should come together and have in remembrance his wonderful benefits and to render him thank 's for them an appertaineth to loving kind and obedient people This example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow imâ—ediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ and began to choose them a standing day of
should be sanctified when it was ordered and appointed by the Law of Moses And this he calls Commentum ineptum contra literam ipsam contra ipsius Moseos declarationem A foolish and absurd conceit contrary unto Moses words and to his meaning Yet the same Catharin doth affirm in the self-same Book Scripturis frequentissimum esse multa per anticipationem narrare that nothing is more frequent in the holy Scriptures than these anticipations And in particular that whereas it is said in the former Chapter male and female created he them per anticipationem dictum esse non est dubitandum that without doubt it is so said by anticipation the Woman not being made as he is of opinion till the next day after which was the Sabbath For the Anticipation he cites St. Chrysostom who indeed tells us on that Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold saith he how that which was not done as yet is here related as if done already He might have added for that purpose Origen on the first of Genesis and Gregory the Great Moral lib. 32. cap. 9. both which take notice of a Prolepsis or Anticipation in that place of Moses For the creation of the Woman he brings in St. Jerom who in his Tract against the Jews expresly saith mulierem conditam fuisse die septimo that the Woman was created on the seventh day or Sabbath to which this Catharin assents and thinks that thereupon the Lord is said to have finished all his works on the seventh day that being the last that he created This seems indeed to be the old Tradition if it be lawful for me to digress a little it being supposed that Adam being wearied in giving names unto all creatures on the sixth day in the end whereof he was created did fall that night into a deep and heavy sleep and that upon the Sabbath or the seventh day morning his side was opened and a rib took thence for the creation of the Woman Aug. Steuchius in Gen. 2. So Augustinus Steuchius reports the Legend And this I have the rather noted to meet with Catharinus at his own weapon For whereas he concludes from the rest of God that without doubt the institution of the Sabbath began upon that very day wherein God rested it seems by him God did not rest on that day and so we either must have no Sabbath to be kept at all or else it will be lawful for us by the Lords example to do whatever works we have to do upon that day and after sanctifie the remainder And yet I needs must say withal that Catharinus was not the only he that thought God wrought upon the Sabbath Aretius also so conceived it Dies itaque tota non fuit quiete transacta Problem loc 55. sed perfecto opere ejus deinceps quievit ut Hebraeus contextus habet Mercer a man well skilled in Hebrew denieth not but the Hebrew Text will bear that meaning Who thereupon conceives that the seventy Elders in the translation of that place did purposely translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on the sixth day God finished all the work that he had made and after rested on the seventh And this they did saith he ut omnem dubitandi occasionem tollerent to take away all hint of collecting thence that God did any kind of work upon that day For if he finished all his works on the seventh day it may be thought faith he that God wrought upon it Saint Hierom noted this before that the Greek Text was herein different from the Hebrew and turns it as an argument against the Jews and their rigid keeping of the Sabbath Artabimus igitur Judaeos qui de ocio Sabbati gloriantur Q◠Hebraicae in Gen. quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit dum Deus operatur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo benedicens ipst diei quia in ipso universa compleverat If so if God himself did break the Sabbath as St. Hierom turns upon the Jews we have small cause to think that he should at that very time impose the Sabbath as a Law upon his creatures But to proceed Others that have took part with Catharinus against Tostatus have had as ill success as he in being forced either to grant the use of Anticipation in the holy Scripture or else to run upon a Tenet wherein they are not like to have any seconds I will instance only in two particulars both Englishmen and both exceeding zealous in the present cause The first is Doctor Bound who first of all did set afoot these sabbatarian speculations in the Church of England 2. Edit p. 10. wherewith the Church is still disquieted He determines thus I deny not saith he but that the Scripture speaketh often of things as though they had been so before because they were so then when the things were written As when it is said of Abraham that he removed unto a Mountain Eastward of Bethel whereas it was not called Bethel till above a hundred years after The like may be said of another place in the Book of Judges called Bochin c. yet in this place of Genesis it is not so And why not so in this as well as those Because saith he Moses entreateth there of the sanctification of the Sabbath not only because it was so then when he wrote that Book but specially because it was so even from the Creation Medulla Theol. l. 2. c. 15. § 9. Which by his leave is not so much a reason of his opinion as a plain begging of the question The second Doctor Ames the first I take it that sowed Bounds doctrine of the Sabbath in the Netherlands Who saith expresly first and in general terms hujusmodi prolepseos exemplum nullum in tota scriptura dari posse that no example of the like anticipation can be found in Scripture the contrary whereof is already proved After more warily and in particular de hujusmodi institutione Proleptica that no such institution is set down in Scripture by way of a Prolepsis or Anticipation either in that Book or in any other And herein as before I said he is not like to find any seconds We find it in the sixteenth of Exodus that thus Moses said This is the thing which the Lord commandeth Verse 32 Fill an Omer of it of the Mannah to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the Wilderness when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt It followeth in the Text that as the Lord commanded Moses Verse 34 so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Here is an Ordinance of Gods an institution of the Lords and this related in the same manner by anticipation as the former was Lyra upon the place affirms expresly that it is spoken there per anticipationem and so doth Vatablus too in his Annotations on that Scripture But
as soon as he was made a living creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father hath it But neither he nor any other did ever tell us that the Sabbath was a part of this Law of Nature nay In Ezech. c. 20. some of them expresly have affirmed the contrary Theodoret for example that these Commandments Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal and others of that kind alios quoque homines natura edocuit were generally implanted by the law of Nature in the minds of men But for the keeping of the Sabbath it came not in by Nature but by Moses Law At Sabbati observandi non natura magistra sed latio legis So Theodoret. And answerably thereunto Sedulius doth divide the Law into three chief parts In Rom. 3. Whereof the first is de Sacramentis of signs and Sacraments as Circumcision and the Passeover the second is quae congruit legi naturali the body of the Law of Nature and is the summary of those things which are prohibited by the words of God the third and last factorum of Rites and Ceremonies for so I take it is his meaning as new Moons and Sabbaths which clearly doth exempt the Sabbath from having any thing to do with the Law of Nature And Damascen assures too De Orthod fide l. 4. c. 24. that when there was no Law enacted nor any Scripture inspired by God that then there was no Sabbath neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To which three Ancients we might add many more of these later times In Decalog Medulla theol l. 2. cap. 15. Rivet and Ames and divers others who though they plead hard for the antiquity of the Sabbath dare not refer the keeping of it to the Law of Nature but only as we shall see anon unto positive Laws and divine Authority But hereof we shall speak more largely when we are come unto the promulgating of this Law in the time of Moses where it will evidently appear to be a positive Constitution only fitted peculiarly to the Jews and never otherwise esteemed of than a Jewish Ordinance It 's true that all men generally have agreed on this that it is consonant to the Law of Nature to set apart some time to Gods publick service but that this time should rather be the seventh day than any other that they impute not unto any thing in Nature but either to Divine Legal or Ecclesiastical institution The School-men Papists Protestants men of almost all persuasions in Religion have so resolved it And for the Ancients our venerable Bede assures us that to the Fathers before the Law all days were equal the seventh day having no prerogative before the others and this he calls naturalis Sabbati libertatem In Luc. 19. the liberty of the Natural Sabbath which ought saith he to be restored at our Saviours coming If so if that the Sabbath or time of rest unto the Lord was naturally left free and arbitrary then certainly it was not restrained more unto one day than another or to the seventh day more than to the sixth or eighth Even Ambrose Catharin as stout a Champion as he was for the antiquity of the Sabbath finds himself at a loss about it For having took for granted as he might indeed that men by the prescript of Nature were to assign Peculiar times for the service of God and adding that the very Gentiles used so to do is fain to shut up all with an Ignoramus Nescimus modo quem diem praecipue observarunt priscà illi Dei cultores We cannot well resolve saith he what day especially was observed by those who worshipped God in the times of old Wherein he doth agree exactly with Abulensis against whom principally he took up the Bucklers who could have taught him this if he would have learnt of such a Master that howsoever the Hebrew people or any other before the giving of the Law were bound to set apart some time for religious Duties In Exod. 20. Qu. 11. non tamen magis in Sabbato quam in quolibet aliorum dierum yet were they no more bound to the Sabbath day than to any other So for the Protestant Writers two of the greatest Advocates of the Sabbath have resolved accordingly Quod dies ille solennis unus debeat esse in septimana hoc positivi juris est that 's Amesius doctrine And Ryvet also saith the same Lege de Sabbato positivam non naturalem agnoscimus The places were both cited in the former Section and both do make the Sabbath a meer positive Law But what need more be saidin so clear a case or what need further Witnesses be produced to give in evidence when we have confitentem reum For Dr. Bound who first amongst us here endeavoured to advance the Lords day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath and feigned a pedigree of the Sabbath even from Adams infancy hath herein said enough to betray his cause and those that since have either built upon his foundation or beautified their undertakings with his collections Indeed saith he this Law was given in the beginning not so much by the light of Nature as the rest of the nine Commandments were but by express words when God sanctified it For though this be in the Law of Nature that some days should be separated to Gods worship 2. Edit p. 11. 16. as appears by the practice of the Gentiles yet that it should be every seventh day the Lord himself set down in express words which otherwise by the light of Nature they could never have found So that by his confession there is no Sabbath to be found in the Law of Nature no more than by the testimony of the Fathers in any positive Law or divine appointment until the Decalogue was given by Moses Nay Doctor Bound goeth further yet and robs his friends and followers of a special Argument For where Danaeus asks this question Why one of seven rather than one of eight or nine and thereunto makes answer that the number of seven doth signifie perfection and perpetuity First saith the Doctor I do not see that proved that there is any such mystical signification Ib. p. 60. rather than of any other And though that were granted yet do I not find that to be any cause at all in Scripture why the seventh day should be commanded to be kept holy rather than the sixth or eighth And in the former page The special reason why the seventh day should be rather kept than any other is not the excellency or perfection of that number or that there is any mystery in it or that God delighteth more in it than in any other Though I confess saith he that much is said that way both in divine and humane Writers Much hath been said therein indeed so much that we may wonder at the strange niceties of some men and the unprofitable pains they have taken amongst them in fearching
out the mysteries of this number the better to advance as they conceive the reputation of the Sabbath Aug. Steuchius hath affirmed in general In Gen. 2. that this day and number is most natural and most agreeable to divine employments and therefore in omni aetate inter omnes gentes habitus venerabilis sacer accounted in all times and Nations as most venerable and so have many others said since him But he that led the way unto him and to all the rest is Philo the Jew who being a great follower of Platos took up his way of trading in the mysteries of several numbers wherein he was so intricate and perplexed that numero Platonis obscurius did grow at last into a Proverb This Philo therefore Platonizing Tall. ad Attie l. 7 â—pl 13. 〈◊〉 opisiâ—â—o first tells us of this number of seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he persuâ—â—les himself there is not any man able sufficiently to extol it as being far above all thâ— powers of Rhetorick and that the Pythagoreans from them first Plato learnt those trifles did usually resemble it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to Jove himself Then that Hippocrates doth divide the life of man into seven Ages â—aâ—â— age câ—nteining seven full years to which the changes of mans constitution are all framed and fitted as also that the Bear or Arcturus as they use to call it and the constellation called the Pleiades consist of seven Stars severally neither more nor less He shews us also how much Nature is delighted in this number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De legis Alleg. l. 1. as viz. that there are seven Planets and that the Moon quartereth every se venth day that Infants born in the seventh month are usually like enough to live that they are seven several motions of the body seven intrails so many outward members seven holes or out-lets in the same seven sorts of excrements as also that the seventh is the Critical day in most kinds of maladies And to what purpose this and much more of the same condition every where scattered in his Writings but to devise some natural reason for the Sabbath For so he manifests himself in another place Ap. Euâ—â—b Praepar l. 8. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Now why God chose the seventh day and established it by Law for the day of rest you need not ask at all of me since both Physicians and Philosophers have so oft declared of what great power and vertue that number is as in all other things so specially on the nature and state of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus saith he you have the reason of the seventh-day Sabbath Indeed Philosophers and Physicians and other learned men of great name and credit have spoken much in honour of the number of seven and severally impute great power unto it in the works of Nature and several changes of mans Body Whereof see Censorinus de die natali cap. 12. Varro in Gellium lib. 3. c. 10. Hippocrates Solon Hermippus Beritus in the sixth Book of Clemens of Alexandria besides divers others Nay it grew up so high in the opinion of some men that they derived it at the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. ab insita majestate So Philo tells us Macrobius also saith the same Apud veteres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocitatur De legis Allegor quod graeco nomine testabatur venerationem debitam numero Thus he in somnio Scipionis But other men as good as they find no such mystery in this number but that the rest may keep pace with it if not go before it and some of those which so much magnifie the seventh have found as weighty mysteries in many of the others also In which I shall the rather enlarge my self that seeing the exceeding great both contradiction and contention that is between them in these needless curiosities we may the better find the slightness of those Arguments which seem to place a great morality in this number of seven as if it were by Nature the most proper number for the service of God And first whereas the learned men before mentioned affix a special power unto it in the works of Nature Respons ad qu. 69. Justin the Martyr plainly tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that the accomplishment of the works of Nature is to be ascribed to Nature only not unto any period of time accounted by the number of seven and that they oft-times come to their perfection sooner or later than the said periods which could not be in case that Nature were observant of this number as they say she is and not this number tied to the course of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Therefore saith he this number hath no influence on the works of Nature Then whereas others attribute I know not what perfection to this number above all the rest Cicero affirming that it is plenus numerus Macrobius that it is numerus solidus perfectus De Republ. l. 4. Bodinus doth affirm expresly neutrum de septenario dici potest that neither of those Attributes is to be ascribed unto this number that the eighth number is a solid number although not a perfect one the sixth a perfect number also Now as Bodinus makes the eighth more solid and the sixth more perfect So Servius on these words of Virgil In Georgic 1. Septima post decimam foelix prefers the tenth number a far deal before it Vt primum locum decimae ferat quae sit valde foelix secundum septimae ut quae post decimae foelicitatem secunda sit Nay which may seem more strange than this Oratio secunda the Arithmeticians generally as we read in Nyssen make this seventh number to be utterly barren and unfruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to go forwards in this matter Macrobius who before had said of this number of seven that it is plenus venerabilis hath in the same Book said of this number of one that it is principium finis omnium and that it hath a special reference or resemblance unto God on high which is by far the greater commendation of the two And Hierom In Amos 5. that however there be many mysteries in the number of seven prima tamen beatitudo est esse in primo numero yet the prime happiness or beatitude is to be sought for in the first So for the third Origen generally affirms that it is aptus sacramentis even made for Mysteries In Gen. hom 8. and some particulars he nameth Macrobius findeth in it all the natural faculties of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rational 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or irascible Ad Antioch qu. 51. and last of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or concupiscible Saint Athanasius makes it equal altogether with the seventh the one being no less memorable for the holy Trinity than the other for
kept from the Creation to the Flood 1. Gods rest upon the Seventh day and from what he rested 2. Zanchius conceit touching the Sanctifying of the first Seventh day by Christ our Saviour 3. The like of Torniellus touching the Sanctifying of the same by the Angels in Heaven 4. A general demonstration that the Fathers before the Law did not keep the Sabbath 5. Of Adam that he kept not the Sabbath 6. That Abel and Seth did not keep the Sabbath 7. Of Enos that he kept not the Sabbath 8. That Enoch and Methusalem did not keep the Sabbath 9. Of Noah that he kept not the Sabbath 10. The Sacrifices and devotions of the Ancients were occasional HOW little ground there is whereon to build the original of the Sabbath in the second of Genesis we have at large declared in the former Chapter Yet we deny not but that Text affords us a sufficient intimation of the equity and reason of it which is Gods rest upon that day after all his works that he had made Origen contra Cels l. 6. Not as once Celsus did object against the Christians of his time as if the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. like to some dull Artificer was weary of his labours and had need of sleep for he spake the word only and all things were made There went no greater labour to the whole Creation than a dixit Dominus De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 14. Therefore Saint Austin rightly noteth nec cum creavit defessus nec cum cessavit refectus est that God was neither weary of working nor refreshed with resting The meaning of the Text is this that he desisted then from adding any thing de novo unto the World by him created as having in the six former days fashioned the Heaven and Earth and every thing in them contained and furnished them with all things necessary both for use and ornament I say from adding any thing de novo unto the World by him created but not from governing the same which is a work by us as highly to be prized as the first Creation and from the which God never resteth Sabbaths and all days are alike in respect of providence in reference to the universal government of the World and Nature Semper videmus Deum operari Hom. 23. in Num. Sabbatum nullum est in quo Deus non operetur in quo non producat Solem suum super bonos malos No Sabbath whereon God doth rest from the administration of the World by him Created whereon he doth not make his Sun to shine both on good and bad whereon he rains not plenty upon the Sinner and the Just as Origen hath truly noted Nor is this more than what our Saviour said in his holy Gospel I work and my Father also worketh Contra Faustum Man l. 16. c. 6. A saying as Saint Augustine notes at which the Jews were much offended our Saviour meaning by those words that God rested not nec ullum sibi cessationis statuisse diem and that there was no day wherein he tended not the preservation of the Creature and therefore for his own part he would not cease from doing his Fathers business ne Sabbatis quidem no though it were upon the Sabbath By which it seemeth that when the Sabbath was observed and that if still it were in force it was not then and would not be unlawful unto any now to look to his estate on the Sabbath day and to take care that all things thrive and prosper which belong unto him though he increase it not or add thereto by following on that day the works of his daily labour And this according to their rules who would have Gods example so exactly followed in the Sabbaths rest who rested as we see from Creation only not from preservation So that the rest here mentioned was as before I said no more than a cessation or a leaving off from adding any thing as then unto the World by him Created Upon which ground he afterwards designed this day for his Holy Sabbath that so by his example the Jews might learn to rest from their wordly labours and be the better fitted to meditate on the works of God and to commemorate his goodness manifested in the Worlds Creation Of any other Sanctification of this day by the Lord our God than that he rested on it now and after did command the Jews that they should sanctifie the same we have no Constat in the Scriptures nor in any Author that I have met with until Zanchies time Indeed he tells us a large story of his own making how God the Son came down to Adam and sanctified this first Sabbath with him that he might know the better how to do the like De creat hominis l. 1. ad finem Ego quidem non dubito c. I little doubt saith he I will speak only what I think without wrong or prejudice to others I little doubt but that the Son of God taking the shape of man upon him was busied all this day in most holy conferences with Adam and that he made known himself both to him and Eve taught them the order that he used in the Worlds Creation exhorted them to meditate on those glorious works in them to praise the Name of God acknowledging him for their Creator and after his example to spend that day for ever in these pious exercises I doubt not finally saith he but that he taught them on that day the whole body of divinity and that he held them busied all day long in hearing him and celebrating with due praises their Lord and God and giving thanks unto him for so great and many benefits as God had graciously vouchsafed to bestow upon them Which said he shuts up all with this conclusion Haec est illius septimi diei benedictio sanctificatio in qua filius Dei una cum patre spiritu sancto quievit ab opere quod facerat This was saith he the blessing and sanctifying of that seventh day wherein the Son of God together with the Father and the Holy Ghost did rest from all the works that they had made How Zanchie thwarts himself in this we shall see hereafter Such strange conceptions See n. 5. though they miscarry not in birth yet commonly they serve to no other use than monsters in the works of nature to be seen and shewn with wonder at all times and sometimes with pity Had such a thing occurred in Pet. Comestors supplement which he made unto the Bible it had been more tolerable The Legendaries and the Rabbins might fairly also have been excused if any such device had been extant in them The gravity of the man makes the tale more pitiful though never the more to be regarded For certainly had there been such a weighty conference between God and Man and so much tending unto information and instruction it is not probable but that
and were Circumcised as Epiphanius hath resolved it nothing but that they did acknowledge one only God and exercised themselves in justice in modesty in patience and long suffering both towards one another and amongst the Egyptians framing their lives agreeably to the will of God and the law of nature Therefore we may conclude with safety that hitherto no Sabbath had been kept in all the World from the Creation of our first Father Adam to this very time which was above 2500. years no nor commanded to be kept amongst them in their generations I say there was none kept no nor none commanded for had it been commanded sure it had been kept It was not all the pride of Pharaoh or subtle tyranny of his subjects that could have made them violate that sacred day had it been commended to them from the Lord. The miseries which they after suffered under Antiochus rather than that they would prophane the Sabbath and those calamities which they chose to fall upon them by the hands of the Romans rather than make resistance upon that day when lawfully they might have done it are proofs sufficient that neither force nor fear could now have wrought upon them not to keep the same had such a duty been commanded Questionless Joseph for his part that did prefer a loathsom Prison before the unchast imbraces of his Masters Wife would no less carefully have kept the Sabbath than he did his chastity had there been any Sabbath then to have been observed either as dictated by nature or prescribed by Law And certainly either the Sabbath was not reckoned all this while as any part or branch of the Law of nature or else it finds hard measure in the Book of God that there should be particular proofs how punctually the rest of the moral Law was observed and practised amongst the Patriarchs and not one word or Item that concerns the observation of the Sabbath Now that the whole Law was written in the hearts of the Fathers and that they had some knowledge of all the other Commandments and did live accordingly the Scripture doth sufficiently declare unto us First for the first I am God all-sufficient Gen. 17.1 walk before me and be thou perfect So said God to Abraham Then Jacobs going up from Bethel to cleanse his house from Idolatry Gen. 25.2 is proof enough that they were acquainted with the second The pious care they had not to take the Name of the Lord their God in vain appears at full in the religious making of their Oaths Gen. 21.27 c. 31.51 Abraham with Abimelech and Jacob with Laban Next for the fifth Commandment what duties Children owe their Parents the practice of Isaac and Jacob doth declare abundantly Gen. 24.67 28.42 in being ruled by them in the choice of their Wives and readily obeying all their directions So for the sin of Murder the History of Jacobs Children Gen. 34.26 30. and the grieved Fathers curse upon them for the slaughter of the Sichemites together with Gods precept given to Noah against shedding blood Gen. 9.6 shew us that both it was forbidden and condemned being done The continency of Joseph before remembred Gen. 39.8 and the punishment threatned to Abimelech for keeping Sarah Abrahams Wife Gen. 30.3.31.30.44.4 the quarrelling of Laban for his stoln Idols and Josephs pursuit after his Brethren for the silver cup that was supposed to be purloined are proofs sufficient that Adultery and Theft were deemed unlawful And last of all Abimelechs reprehension of Abraham and Isaac for bearing false witness in the denial of their Wives Gen. 20.9.26.10 shew plainly that they had the knowledge of that Law also The like may also be affirmed of their not coveting the Wives and goods or any thing that was their Neighbours For though the History cannot tell us of mens secret thoughts yet we may judge of good mens thoughts by their outward actions Had Joseph coveted his Masters Wife he might have enjoyed her And Job more home unto the point affirms expresly of himself Job 31.26 that his heart was never secretly enticed which is the same with this that he did not covet We conclude then that seeing there is particular mention how all the residue of the Commandments had been observed and practised by the Saints of old and that no word at all is found which concerns the sanctifying of the Sabbath that certainly there was no Sabbath sanctified in all that time from the Creation to the Law of Moses nor reckoned any part of the Law of Nature or an especial Ordinance of God CHAP. IV. The nature of the fourth Commandment and that the SABBATH was not kept among the Gentiles 1. The Sabbath first made known in the fall of Mannah 2. The giving of the Decalogue and how far it bindeth 3. That in the judgment of the Fathers in the Christian Church the fourth Commandment is of a different nature from the other nine 4. The Sabbath was first given for a Law by Moses 5. And being given was proper only to the Jews 6. What moved the Lord to give the Israelites a Sabbath 7. Why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than any other 8. The seventh day not more honoured by the Gentiles than the eighth or ninth 9. The Attributes given by some Greek Poets to the seventh day no argument that they kept the Sabbath 10. The Jews derided for their Sabbath by the Graecians Romans and Egyptians 11. The division of the year into weeks not generally used of old amongst the Gentiles THus have we shewn you how Gods Church continued without a Sabbath the space of 2500 years and upwards even till the Children of Israel came out of Egypt And if the Saints of God in the line of Seth and the house of Abraham assigned not every seventh day for Gods publick Worship it is not to be thought that the posterity of Cain and the sons of Canaan were observant of it To proceed therefore in the History of the Lords own people as they observed no Sabbath when they were in Egypt so neither did they presently after their departure thence The day of their deliverance thence was the seventh day as some conceive it which after was appointed for a Sabbath to them Torniellus I am sure is of that opinion and so is Zanchie too who withal gives it for the reason why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath In quartum praeceptum than any other Populus die septima liberatus fuit ex Egypto tunc jussit in hujus rei memoriam diem illam sanctificare Which were it so yet could not that day be a Sabbath or a day of rest considering the sudden and tumultuous manner of their going thence their sons and daughters maid-servants and men-servants the cattel and the strangers within their gates being all put hardly to it and fain to flie away for their life and safety
And if St. Austins note be true and the note be his Serm. de temp 154. that on the first day of the week transgressi sunt filii Israel mare rubrum siccis pedibus the Israelites went dry-foot over the Red-sea or Sea of Edom then must the day before if any be the Sabbath-day the next seventh day after the day of their departure But that day certainly was not kept as a Sabbath day For it was wholly spent in murmuring and complaints against God and Moses They cryed unto the Lord Exod. 14.11 12. and they said to Moses why hast thou brought us out of Egypt to die in the Wilderness Had it not been better far for us to serve the Egyptians Nothing in all these murmurings and seditious Clamours that may denote it for a Sabbath for an holy Festival Nor do we find that for the after-times they made any scruple of journying on that day till the Law was given unto the contrary in Mount Sinai which was the eleventh station after their escape from Egypt It was the fancy of Rabbi Solomon that the Sabbath was first given in Marah and that the sacrifice of the Red Cow mentioned in the nineteenth of Numbers Exod. 15.26 was instituted at that time also This fancy founded on those words in the Book of Exodus If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God c. then will I bring none of those Diseases upon thee that I brought on the Egyptians But Torniellus and Tostatus and Lyra though himself a Jew count it no other than a Jewish and Rabbinical folly Sure I am that on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure out of Egypt being that day seventhnight before the first Sabbath was discovered in the fall of Manna we find not any thing that implies either Rest or Worship We read indeed how all the Congregation murmured as they did before against Moses and against Aaron Exod. 16.2 wishing that they had died in the Land of Egypt where they had Bread their bellies full rather than be destroyed with Famine So eagerly they murmured that to content them God sent them Quailes that night and rained down Bread from Heaven next morning Was this think you the sanctifying of a Sabbath to the Lord their God Indeed the next seventh day that followed was by the Lord commended to them for a Sabbath and ratified by a great and signal miracle the day before wherein it pleased him to give them double what they used to gather on the former days that they might rest upon the seventh with the greater comfort This was a preamble or preparative to the following Sabbath for by this miracle this rest of God from raining Mannah on the seventh day the people came to know which was precisely the seventh day from the Worlds Creation whereof they were quite ignorant at that present time Philo assures us in his third Book de vita Mosis that the knowledg of that day on which God rested from his works had been quite forgotten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of those many miseries which had befaln the World by fire and water and so continued till by this miracle the Lord revived again the remembrance of it And in another place De vita Mosis l. 1. when men had made a long enquiry after the birth-day of the World and were yet to seek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God made it known to them by a special miracle which had so long been hidden from their Ancestors The falling of a double portion of Mannah on the sixth day and the not putrifying of it on the seventh was the first light that Moses had to descry the Sabbath which he accordingly commended unto all the people to be a day of rest unto them that as God ceased that day from sending so they should rest from looking after their daily Bread But what need Philo be produced when we have such an ample Testimony from the word it self For it is manifest in the story that when the people on the sixth day had gathered twice as much Mannah as they used to do Exod. 16.5 according as the Lord had directed by his servant Moses they understood not what they did at least why they did it The Rulers of the Congregation as the Text informs us Verse 22 came and told Moses of it and he as God before had taught him acquainted them Verse 23 that on the morrow should be the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord and that they were to keep the over-plus until the morning Nay so far were the people from knowing any thing of the Sabbath or of Gods rest upon that day that though the Prophet had thus preached unto them of a Sabbaths rest the people gave small credit to him For it is said that some of the people went out to gather on the seventh day Verse 27 which was the seventh day after or the second Sabbath as some think notwithstanding all that had been spoken and that the Mannah stank not as on other days So that this resting of the people was the first sanctifying of the Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures and Gods great care to make provision for his people on the day before the blessing he bestowed upon it And this is that which Solomon Iarchi tells us Ch. 1. n. 2. as before we noted Benedixit ei i.e. in Mannah quia omnibus diebus septimanae descendit Omer pro singulis sexto panis duplex sanctificavit eum i.e. in Mannah quia non descendit omnino Nay generally the Hebrew Doctors do affirm the same assuring us that the Commandment of the Sabbath is the foundation and ground of all the rest as being given before them all at the fall of Mannah Vnde dicunt Hebraei sabbatum fundamentum esse aliorum praeceptorum quod ante alia praecepta hoc datum sit De fest Judaeor c. 3. quando Mannah acceperunt So Hospinian tells us Therefore the Sabbath was not given before in their own confession This happened on the two and twentieth day of the second month after their coming out of Egypt and of the Worlds Creation Anno 2044. the people being then in the Wilderness of Sin which was their seventh station The seventh day after being the nine and twentieth of the second month is thought by some I know not upon what authority to be that day whereon some of the people distrusting all that Moses said went out to gather Mannah Numb 35. as on other days but whether they were then in the Wilderness of Sin or were incamped in Dophkath Alush or Rephidim which were their next removes that the Scriptures say not Most likely that they were in the last station considering the great businesses there performed the fight with Amalek and the new ordering of the Government by Jethroes Counsel and that upon the third day of the third moneth which
what is said before out of Theodoret and Sedulius Chap. 1. n. 6. Hesychius goes yet further and will not have the fourth Commandment to be any of the ten Etsi decem mandatis insertum sit non tamen ex iis esse In Levit. l. 6. c. 26. and howsoever it is placed amongst them yet it is not of them And therefore to make up the number divides the first Commandment into two as those of Rome have done the last to exclude the second But here Hesychius was deceived in taking this Commandment to be only Ceremonial whereas it is indeed of a mixt or middle nature for so the Schoolmen and other learned Authors in these later times grounding themselves upon the Fathers have resolved it generally Moral it is as to the Duty that there must be a time appointed for the service of God and Ceremonial as unto the Day to be one of seven and to continue that whole day and to surcease that day from all kind of work As moral placed amongst the ten Commandments extending unto all mankind and written naturally in our hearts by the hand of Nature as Ceremonial appertaining to the Law Levitical peculiar only to the Jews and to be reckoned with the rest of Moses Institutes Aquinas thus c. 2. 2ae qu. 122. art 4. resp ad primum Tostatus thus in Exod. 20. qu. 11. So Petr. Galatinus also lib. 11. cap. 9. and Bonaventure in his Sermon on the fourth Commandment And so divers others I say the fourth Commandment so far as it is Ceremonial in limiting the Sabbath day to be one of seven and to continue all that day and thereon to surcease from all kind of labour which three ingredients are required in the Law unto the making of a Sabbath is to be reckoned with the rest of Moses Institutes and proper only to the Jews For proof of this we have the Fathers very copious And first that it was one of Moses Institutes Justin the Martyr saith expresly Dial. eum Triphone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As Circumcision began from Abraham and as the Sabbath Sacrifices Feasts and Offerings came in by Moses so were they all to have an end And in another place of the same discourse seeing there was no use of Circumcision until Abrahams time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of the Sabbath until Moses by the same reason there is as little use now of them as had been before So doth Eusebius tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De praeparat l. 7. c. 6. c. That Moses was the first Law-giver amongst the Jews who did appoint them to observe a certain Sabbath in memory of Gods rest from the Worlds Creation as also divers anniversary Festivals together with the difference of clean and unclean Creatures and of other Ceremonies not a few Next Athanasius lets us know that in the Book of Exodus we have the Institution of the Passeover Synopsis sacrae Script the sweetning of the bitter waters of Marah the sending down of Quails and Mannah the waters issuing from the rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what time the Sabbath took beginning and the Law was published by Moses on Mount Sinai Macarius a Contemporary of Athanasius doth affirm as much viz. that in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 35. which was given by Moses it was commanded as in a figure or a shadow that every man should rest on the Sabbath day from the works of labour In Ezech. 20. Saint Hierom also lets us know though he name not Moses that the observation of the Sabbath amongst other Ordinances was given by God unto his People in the Wilderness Haec praecepta justificationes observantiam Sabbati Dominus dedit in deserto which is as much as if he had expresly told us that it was given unto them by the hand of Moses Then Epiphanius God saith he rested on the seventh day from all his labours De Pond mensur n. 22. which day he blessed and sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by his Angel made known the same to his servant Moses See more unto this purpose advers haeres l. 1. haer 6. n. 5. And lastly Damascen hath assured us De fide Orthod lib. 4. c. 24. that when there was no Law nor Scripture that then there was no Sabbath neither but when the Law was given by Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then was the Sabbath set apart for Gods publick worship Add here that Tacitus and Justin refer the Institution of the Sabbath unto Moses only of which more hereafter Next that the Sabbath was peculiar only to the Jews or those at least that were of the house of Israel the Fathers do affirm more fully than they did the other For so Saint Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath was given unto the Jews in his first Homily of Fasting Saint Austin so Sabbatum datum est priori populo in otio corporali Epistola 119. Sabbatum Judaeis fuisse praeceptum in umbra futuri de Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. and in the 13. of the same Book unum diem observandum mandavit populo Hebraeo The like to which occurs Epist 86. ad Casulanum The Jews the Hebrews and the former People all these three are one and all do serve to shew that Saint Austin thought the Sabbath to be peculiar unto them only That it was given unto the Jews exclusively of all other Nations is the opinion and conceit also of the Jews themselves This Petrus Galatinus proves against them on the authority of their best Authors Ch. 16.29 Sic enim legitur apud eos in Glossa c. We read saith he in their Gloss on these words of Exodus The Lord hath given you the Sabbath What mean say they these words he hath given it you Quia vobis viz. Judaeis dedit non gentibus saeculi because it was given unto the Jews and not unto the Gentiles It is affirmed also saith he by R. Johannan that whatsoever statute God gave to Israel he gave it to them publickly except the Sabbath and that was given to them in secret according unto that of Exodus Exod. 31.17 Ainsworth in Exod. 13.9 It is a sign between me and the Children of Israel Quod si ita est non obligantur gentes ad sabbatum If so saith Galatinus the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath A sign between me and the Children of Israel It seems the Jews were all of the same opinion For where they used on other days to wear their Phylacteries on their arms or foreheads to be a sign or token to them as the Lord commanded they laid them by upon the Sabbaths because say they the Sabbath was it self a sign In Gen. 2. So truly said Procopius Gazaeus Its Judaeis imperavit supremum numen ut segregarent à caeteris deibus diem septimum c. God saith he did command the Jews
to set apart the seventh day to his holy worship that if by chance they should forget the Lord their God that day might call him back unto their remembrances where note it was commanded to the Jews alone Add that Josephus calls the Sabbath in many places a national or local custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a law peculiar to that People as Antiue l. 14. c. 18. de bello l. 2. c. 16. as we shall see hereafter more at large Lastly so given to the Jews alone that it became a difference between them and all other People Saint Cyril hath resolved it so In Ezech. 20. God saith he gave the Jews a Sabbath not that the keeping of the same should be sufficient to conduct them to eternal life Sed ut haec civilis administration is ratio peculiaris à gentium institutis distinguat eos but that so different a form of civil government should put a difference between them and all Nations else Theodoret more fully that the Jews being in other things like to other People in observatione sabbati propriam videbantur obtinere rempublicam In Ezech. 20. seemed in keeping of the Sabbath to have a custom by themselves And which is more saith he their Sabbath put a greater difference between the Jews and other People than their Circumcision For Circumcision had been used by the Idumaeans and Aegyptians Sabbati verò observation 〈◊〉 a Judaeorum natio custodiebat but the observation of the Sabbath was peculiar only to the Jews Nay even the very Gentiles took it for a Jewish Ceremony sufficient proof whereof we shall see ere long But what need more be said in this either that this was one of the Laws of Moses or that it was peculiar to the Jews alone seeing the same is testified by the holy Scripture Thou camest down upon Mount Sinai saith Nehemiah Cap. 19.13 Vers 14. and spakest with them the house of Israel from Heaven and gavest them right judgments and true Laws good Statutes and Commandments what more It followeth And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbaths and commandest them Precepts Statutes and Laws by the hand of thy Servant Moses Now on what motives God was pleased to prescribe a Sabbath to the Jews more at this time than any of the former Ages the Fathers severally have told us yea and the Scriptures too in several places Justin Martyr as before we noted gives this general reason Qu. ex Nov. Test 69. because of their hard-heartedness and irregular courses wherein Saint Austin closeth with him Cessarunt onera legis quae ad duritiem cordis Judaici fuerunt data in escis sabbatis neomeniis Where note how he hath joyned together New-moons and Sabbaths and the Jewish difference between meat and meat Particularly Gregory Nyssen makes the special motive to be this Testim adventus Dei in carne ad sedandum nimium eorum pecuniae studium so to restrain the People from the love of money For coming out of Egypt very poor and bare and having almost nothing but what they borrowed of the Egyptians they gave themselves saith he unto continual and incessant labour the sooner to attain to riches Therefore said God that they should labour six days and rest the seventh Damascen somewhat to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God De side Orth. l. 4. c. 24 saith he seeing the carnal and the covetous disposition of the Israelites appointed them to keep a Sabbath that so their Servants and their Cattel might partake of rest And then he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as also that thus resting from their worldly businesses they might repair unto the Lord in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and meditation of the Scriptures Rupertus harps on the same string that the others did L 5. in Joh c. 5. save that he thinks the Sabbath given for no other cause than that the labouring man being wearied with his weekly toyl might have some time to refresh his spirits Sabbatum nihil aliud est nisi requies vel quam ab causam data est nisi ut operarius fessus caeteris septimanae diebus uno die requiesceret Gaudentius Brixianus in his twelfth Homily or Sermon is of the same mind also that the others were These seem to ground themselves on the fifth of Deuteronomy where God commands his People to observe his Sabbaths Vers 14 that thy Man servant and thy Maid servant may rest as well as thou And then it followeth Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt Vers 15 and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence though with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath-Sabbath-day The force of which illation is no more than this that as God brought them out of Egypt wherein they were Servants so he commands them to take pity on their Servants and let them rest upon the Sabbath considering that they themselves would willingly have had some time of rest had they been permitted A second motive might be this to make them always mindful of that spiritual rest which they were to keep from the acts of sin and that eternal rest that they did expect from all toyl and misery In reference unto this eternal rest Saint Augustine tells us that the Sabbath was commanded to the Jews in umbra suturi De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. quae spiritalem requiem figuraret as a shadow of the things to come in S. Pauls Language which God doth promise unto those that do the works of Righteousness And in relation to the other the Lord himself hath told us that he had given his Sabbath unto the Jews to be a sign between him and them that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them Exod. 31.13 which is again repeated by Ezech. cap. 20.12 That they may know that I am the Lord which sanctifieth them For God as Gregory Nyssen notes it seems only to propose this unto himself that by all means he might at least destroy in man his inbred corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was his aim in Circumcision and in the Sabbath De resurrect Chr. Orat. 1. and in forbidding them some kind of meats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For by the Sabbath he informed them of a rest from sin To cite more Fathers to this purpose were a thing unnecessary and indeed sensibile super sensum This yet confirms us further that the Sabbath was intended for the Jews alone For had God given the Sabbath to all other People as he did to them it must have also been a sign that the Lord had sanctified all People as he did the Jews There is another motive yet to be considered and that concerns as well the day as the Institution God might have given the Jews a Sabbath and yet not tied the Sabbath to one day of seven
day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once a month beginning their account with the New-moon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that the Jews did keep every seventh day constantly It 's true that Philo tells us more than once or twice how that the Sabbath was become a general Festival but that was rather taken up in imitation of the Jess than practised out of any instinct or light of nature as we shall see hereafter in a place more proper Besides which days before remembred the second day was consecrate to the bonus Genius Hospin de orig Fest cap. 5. the third and fifteenth to Minerva the ninth unto the Sun the last to Pluto and every twentieth day kept holy by the Epicures Now as the Greeks did consecrate the New-moons and seventh day to Phoebus the fourth of every month to Mercury and the eighth to Neptune sic de caeteris So every ninth day in the year was by the Romans anciently kept sacred unto Jupiter the Flamines or Priests upon that day offering a Ram unto him for a Sacrifice Nundinas Jovis ferias esse ait Granius Licinius Saturnal l. 1. c. 16. siquidem Flaminica omnibus nundinis every ninth day in regia Jovi arietem solere immolare as in Macrobius So that we see the seventh day was no more in honour than either the first fourth or eighth and not so much as was the ninth this being as it were a weekly Festival and that a monthly A thing so clear and evident 2. Edit p. 65. that Dr. Bound could tell us that the memory of Weeks and Sabbaths was altogether suppressed and buried amongst the Gentiles And in the former page But how the memory of the seventh day was taken away amongst the Romans Ex veteri nundinarum instituto apparet saith Beroaldus And Satan did altogether take away from the Graecians the boly memory of the seventh day by obtruding on the wicked Rites of Superstition which on the eighth day they did keep in bonour of Neptune So that besides other holy days the one of them observed the eighth day and the other the ninth and neither of them both the seventh as the Church doth now and hath done always from the beginning It 's true Diogenes the Grammarian Sueton. in Tiber. c. 32. did hold his disputations constantly upon the Saturday or Sabbath and when Tiberius at an extraordinary time came to hear his exercises in diem septimum distulerat the Pedant put him off until the saturday next following A right Diogenes indeed and as rightly served For coming to attend upon Tiberius being then made Emperour he sent him word ut post annum septimum rediret that he would have him come again the seventh year after But then as true it is De illustrib Grammat which the same Suetonius tells us of Antonius Gnipho a Grammarian too that he taught Rhetorick every day declamaret vero non nisi nundinis but declaimed only on the ninth But then as true it is which Juvenal hath told us of the Roman Rhetoricians that they pronounced their Declamations on the sixth day chiefly Nil salit Arcadico juveni cujus mihi sextâ Sat. Quâque die miserum dirus caput Annibal implet As the Poet hath it All days it seems alike to them the first fourth sixth eighth ninth and indeed what not as much in honour as the seventh whether it were in civil or in sacred matters I am not ignorant that many goodly Epithets are by some ancient Poets amongst the Grecians appropriated to this day which we find gathered up together Clem. Strom. l. 5. Euseb Praepar l. 13. c. 12. by Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius but before either of them by one Aristobulus a learned Jew who lived about the time of Ptolomy Philometor King of Egypt both Hesiod and Homer as they there are cited give it the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an holy day and so it was esteemed amongst them as before is shewn but other days esteemed as holy From Homer they produce two Verses wherein the Poet seems to be acquainted with the Worlds Creation and the perfection of it on the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the seventh day all things were fully done On that we left the waves of Acheron The like are cited out of Linus as related by Eusebius from the collections of Aristobulus before remembred but are by Clemens fathered on Callimachus another of the old Greek Poets who between them thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which put together may be thus Englished in the main though not verbatim On the seventh day all things were made compleat The birth-day of the World most good most great Seven brought forth all things in the starry Skie Keeping each year their courses constantly This Clemens makes an argument that not the Jews only but the Gentiles also knew that the seventh day had a priviledg yea and was hallowed above other days on which the World and all things in it were compleat and finished And so we grant they did but neither by the light of Nature nor any observation of that day amongst themselves more than any other Not by the light of Nature For Ariftobulus from whom Clemens probably might take his hint speaks plainly that the Poets had consulted with the holy Bible and from thence sucked this knowledg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author saith of Hesiod and Homer Which well might be Ap. Euseb considering that Homer who was the oldest of them flourished about five hundred years after Moses death Callimachus who was the latest above Seven hundred years after Homers time Nor did they speak it out of any observation of that day more than any other amongst themselves The general practice of the Gentiles before related hath throughly as we hope removed that scruple They that from these words can collect a Sabbath had need of as good eys as Clemens who out of Plato in his second de republ Strom. l. 5. conceives that he hath found a sufficient warrant for the observing of the Lords day above all the rest because it is there said by Plato That such as had for seven days solaced in the pleasant Meadows were to depart upon the eighth and not return till four days after As much a Lords day in the one as any Sabbath in the other Indeed the Argument is weak that some of those that thought it of especial weight have now deserted it as too light and trivial Ryvet by name who cites most of these Verses in his notes on Genesis to prove the Sabbath no less ancient than the Worlds Creation doth on the Decalogue think them utterly unable to
conclude that point nisi aliunde suffulciantur unless they be well backed with better Argumens and Authorities out of other Authors Nay more than this the Gentiles were so far from sanctifying the Sabbath or seventh day themselves that they derided those that kept it The Circumcision of the Jews was not more ridiculous amongst the Heathens than their Sabbaths were not were they more extreamly scoffed at for the one than for the other by all sorts of Writers Ap. Aug. de civit Dei l. 6. c. 11. Hist l. 5. Seneca lays it to their charge that by occasion of their Sabbaths septimam fere aetatis suae partem vacando perdant they spent the seventh part of their lives in floth and idleness and Tacitus that not the seventh day but the seventh year also was as unprofitably wasted Septimo quoque die otium placuisse ferunt dein blandiente intertia septimum quoque annum ignaviae datum Moses saith he had so appointed because that after a long six days march the People became quietly setled on the seventh Juvenal makes also the same objection against the keeping of the Sabbath by the Jewish Nation Sat. 14. quod septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava partem vitae non attigit ullam And Ovid doth not only call them peregrina sabbata as things with which the Romans had but small and that late acquaintance but makes them a peculiar mark of the Jewish Religion Reme amor l. 1. Quaque die redeunt rebus minus apta gerendis De Arte l. 1. Culta Palestino septima sacra viro The seventh day comes for business unfit Held sacred by the Jew who halloweth it Where by the way Tostatus notes upon these words In Exod. 20. that sacra septima are here ascribed unto the Jews as their badge or cognizance which had been most improper and indeed untrue si gentes aliae servarent sabbatum if any other Nation specially the Romans had observed the same But to proceed Persius hits them in the teeth with their recutita sabbata And Martial scornfully calleth them Sabbatarians Sat. 5. l. 4. ep 4. Ap. Josephum Antiq. l. 12.1 in an Epigram of his to Bassus where reckoning up some things of an unsavoury smell he reckoneth Sabbatariorum jejunia amongst the principal So Agatharebides who wrote the lives of Alexanders successors accuseth them of an unspeakable superstition in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they suffered Ptolomy to take their City of Hierusalem on a Sabbath day rather than stand upon their guard But that of Apion Joseph adv Apion l. 2. the great Clerk of Alexandria is the most shameful and reproachful of all the rest Who to despight the Jews the more and lay the deeper stain upon their Sabbaths relates in his Egyptian story that at their going out of Egypt having travelled for the space of six whole days they became stricken with certain inflammations in the privy parts which the Egyptians call by the name of Sabbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for that cause they were compelled to rest on the seventh day which afterwards the called the Sabbath Than which what greater calumny could a malicious Sycophant invent against them Doubtless those men that speak so despicably and reproachfully of the Jewish Sabbath had never any of their own Nor did the Greeks and Latines and Egyptians only out of the plenty or the redundance rather of their wit deride and scoff the Sabbaths celebrated by those of Jewry Cap. 1. v. 7. it was a scorn that had before been fastned on them when wit was not so plentiful as in later times For so the Prophet Jeremiah in his Lamentations made on the death of King Josiah The adversaries saw her and did mock at her Sabbaths The Jews must needs be singular in this observation All Nations else both Graecian and Barbarian had never so agreed together to deride them for it Yet we deny not all this while but that the fourth Commandment so much thereof as is agreeable to the law and light of nature was not alone imprinted in the minds of the Gentiles but practised by them For they had statos dies some appointed times appropriated to the worship of their several gods as before was shewed their holy-days and half-holy-days accordding to that estimation which their gods had gotten in the world And this as well to comfort and refresh their spirits which otherwise had been spent and wasted with continual labour as to do service to those Deities which they chiefly honoured Dii genus bominum laboribus natura pressum miserati De leg l. 2. remissionem laborum statuerunt solennia festa was the resolution once of Plato But this concludes not any thing that they kept the Sabbath or that they were obliged to keep it by the law of nature And where it is conceived by some that the Gentiles by the light of nature had their Weeks Purch Pilgr l. 1. c. 4. which is supposed to be an argument that they kept the Sabbath a week being only of seven days and commonly so called both in Greek and Latine We on the other side affirm that by this very rule the Gentilos many of them if not the most could observe no Sabbath because they did observe no weeks For first the Caldees and the Persians had no weeks at all but to the several days of each several month appropriated a particular name of some King or other Emend temp l. 3. as the Peruvians do at this present time nomina diebus mensis indunt ut prisci Persae as Scaliger hath noted of them The Grecians also did the like in the times of old there being an old Attick Calendar to be seen in Scaliger wherein is no division of the month into weeks at all Then for the Romans they divided their accompt into eighths and eighths as the Jews did by sevens and sevens the one reflecting on their nundinae Id. l. 4. as the other did upon their Sabbath Ogdoas Romanorum in tributione dierum servabatur propter nundinas ut habdomas apud Judaeos propter sabbatum For proof of which there are some ancient Roman Calendars to be seen as yet one in the aforesaid Sealiger the other in the Roman Antiquities of John Rossinus wherein the days are noted from A. to H as in our common Almanacks from A to G. The Mexicans go a little further 〈…〉 and they have 13 days to the week as the same Scaliger hath observed of them Nay even the Jews themselves were ignorant of this division of the year into weeks as tostatus thinks In Levit. 23. qu. 3. till Moses learnt it of the Lord in the fall of Mannah Nor were the Greeks and Romans destitute of this accompt only whiles they were rude and untrained People as the Peruvians and the Mexicans at this present time but when they were in their greatest flourish for Arts and Empire Hist l. 36.
sacrifice with a meat-offering and a drink-offering thereunto proportioned on the New-moons and all the Annual Sabbaths before remembred the sacrifices were enlarged nay more than trebled as is expressed in the 28 and 29 of the book of Numbers Nay if it hapned any time as sometimes it did that any of these Festivals did fall upon the weekly Sabbath or that two of them as the New-moons and the Feast of Trumpets fell upon the same the service of the weekly Sabbath lessened not at all the sacrifices destinate to the Annual Sabbath but they were all performed in their several turns Ap. Ainsworth in Num. 28. The Text it self affirms as much in the two Chapters before specified and for the practice of it that so it was it is apparent to be seen in the Hebrew Calendars Only the difference was this as Rabbi Maimony informs us that the addition of the Sabbath was first performed and after the addition of the New-moon and then the addition of the Good day or other Festival So that in case the weekly Sabbath had a priviledge above the Annual in that the Shew-bread or the loaves of proposition were only set before the Lord on the weekly Sabbaths the Annual Sabbaths seem to have had amends all of them in the multiplicity of their sacrifices and three of them in the great solemnity and concourse of people all Israel being bound to appear before the Lord on those three great Festivals the Passeover the Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles As for the penalty inflicted on the breakers of these solemn Festivals it is expresly said of the weekly Sabbath that whosoever doth any work therein shall be put to death Exod. 31.15 And in the Verse before that whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off or as the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it that man shall be destroyed from amongst his People Whic if it signifie the same as by the Chaldee Paraphrase it seems to do it is no more than what is elsewhere said of the Expiation for so saith the Text. And whatsoever soul it be that doth any work in that same day Levit. 23.30 that soul will I destroy from amongst his People But if the phrase be different as the Rabbins say the difference is no more than this that they that break the weekly Sabbath are to be put to death by the Civil Magistrate and they that work upon the Feast of Expiation shall be cut off by God by untimely deaths As for the other Annual Sabbaths the rabbins have determined thus Ap. Ainsworth in Levit. 23.7 That whosoever doth in any of them such works as are not necessary for food as if he build or pull down or weave and the like he breaketh a Commandment and transgresseth against this prohibition Ye shall not do any servile work and if he do and there be Witnesses and evident proof he is by law to be beaten or scourged for it So that we see that whether we regard the institution or continuance of these several Sabbaths or the solemnities of the same either in reference to the Priests the Sacrifices and concourse of People or finally the punishment inflicted on the breakers of them the difference is so little it is scarce remarkable considering especially that if the weekly Sabbaths do gain in one point they lose as often in another For the particulars we shall speak of them hereafter as occasion is As for the time when they began their Sabbaths and when they ended them they took beginning on the Evening of the day before and so continued till the Evening of the Feast it self The Scripture speaks it only as I remember of the Expiation which is appointed by the Lord to be observed on the tenth day of the seventh month Lev. 23.27 yet so that it is ordered thus in the 31. It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest and ye shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month at even And then it followeth From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath But in the Practice of the Jews it was so in all either because they took those words for a general precept or else because they commonly did accompt their day from even to even For where the Romans and Egyptians began the day at midnight â—mend Temp. l. 1. the Chaldees and the Persians with the rising Sun and the Vmbri an Italian People reckoned theirs from noon to noon the Jews and the athenians took the beginning of their day ab occasu solis from Sun-setting as Scaliger and divers others have observed Yet sure I am Honorius Augustodunensis De imagine mundi l. 2. who lived four hundred years ago and upwards placeth the Jews together with the Persians and Chaldeans as men that do begin their day at the Sun-rising However in this case it is not to be thought that the Even was any part of the Sabbath following for the additional sacrifices were offered only on the Morning and the Evening of the several Sabbaths but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or preparation thereunto which preparation if it were before the weekly Sabbath it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if before any of the Annual it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In imitation of the Gentiles the Latine Writers call these Parasceve's or Evens of preparation by the name of Coena pura as Augustine noteth upon the nineteenth of S. John because of some resemblance that was between them but yet they had a difference too Exer. 16. n. 100. For Casaubon hath taught us this that in the Coena pura amongst the Gentiles a part of the ceremony did consist in the choice of meats where no such thing occurs at all in these preparations of the Jews Now these Parasceves or preparation days the Jews did afterward divide into these four parts The first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a preparative as it were to the preparation which began in the morning and held on till noon The second was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 largely taken from Noon until the Evening-sacrifice of the day The third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the approaching of the Sabbath which began after the Evening sacrifice continued till Sun-set and was properly called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fourth was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or entrance of the Sabbath which lasted from Sun-set unto the dawning of the day They had amongst them a tradition or a custom rather that on the whole day from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till Sun-set they might not travel above twelve miles lest coming home too late they might not have sufficient leisure to prepare things before the Sabbath Synag Jud. c. 10. The time was as Buxdorfius tells us quo cornu vel inflata tuba daretur signum when there was publick warning given by sound of Trumpet that every man should cease from work and make all things ready for the Sabbath though in
usual trade Yea saith that great Clerk Rabbi Simeon Pet. Galatin l. 11. c. 10. propter puerum unius diei vivum solvunt sabbatum to save a Child alive we may break the Sabbath This Child being born must needs be Circumcised on the eighth day after which is the Sabbath May not the Ministers do their office yes for the Rabbins have a maxim that Circumcisio pellit sabbatum And what Doth only Circumcision drive away the Sabbath No any common danger doth it And then they change the phrase a little periculum mortis pellit sabbatum Nay more the Priest that waiteth at the Altar doth he do no work upon the Sabbath Yes more than on the other days and for that too they have a maxim viz. qui observari jussit sabbatum Ap. Casaub Exer. 16. n. 20. is profanari jussit sabbatum We shall meet with some of these again hereafter Therefore we must expound these words no manner of work i.e. no kind of servile work as before we did or else the weekly Sabbath and the fourth Commandment must be a nose of wax and a Lesbian rule fit only to be wrested and applied to whatsoever end and purpose it shall please the Rabbins More warily and more soundly have the Christian Doctors yea and the very Heathens determined of it who judge that all such corporal labours as tend unto the moral part of the fourth command which are Rest and Sanctity are fit and lawful to be done on the Sabbath day That men should rest upon such times as are designed and set apart for Gods publick service and leave their daily labours till some other season the Gentiles knew full well by the light of nature Macâ—ob Sat l. 1. c. 16. Therefore the Flamines were to take especial care ne feriis opus fieret that no work should be done on the solemn days and to make it known by Proclamation ne quid tale ageretur that no man should presume to do it Which done if any one offended he was forthwith mulcted yet was not this enjoyned so strictly that no work was permitted in what case soever All things which did concern the Gods and their publick worship vel ad urgentem vitae utilitatem respicerent or were important any way to mans life and wellfare were accounted lawful More punctually Scevola being then chief Pontifex Who being demanded what was lawful to be done on the Holy-days made answer quod praetermissum noceret which would miscarry if it were left undone He therefore that did underprop a ruinous building or raise the Cattel that was fallen into the ditch did not break the Holy-day in his opinion No more did he that washed his Sheep si hoc remedii cause fieret were it not done to cleanse the Wool and make it ready for the Shearers but only for the cure of some sore or other according unto that of Virgil Balantumque gregem fluvio mersare salubri Georgie Thus far the Gentiles have resolved it agreeably to the Law of nature and so far do the Christian Doctors yea and our Lord and Saviour determine of it The corporal labours of the Priest on the Sabbath day as far as it concerns Gods service were accounted lawful The Priests in the Temple break the Sabbath and yet were blameless So was the corporal labour of a man either to save his own life or preserve anothers Christ justified his Disciples for gathering Corn upon the Sabbath being then an hungred Matth. 12. v. 1.3 and restored many unto health on the Sabbath day Matth. 12.13 and in other places Finally corporal labours to preserve Gods Creatures as to draw the Sheep out of the Pit Matth. 12.11 and consequently to save their Cattel from the Thief a ruinous house from being over-blown by tempest their Corn and Hay also from a sudden Inundation these and the like to these were all judged lawful on the Sabbath And thus you see the practice of the Gentiles governed by the light of nature is every way conformable to our Saviours doctrine and the best Comment also on the fourth Commandment as far as it contains the law of natue For such particular Ordinances which have been severally affixed to the fourth Commandment either by way of Comment on it or addition to it that which is most considerable Vers 12. is that Prohibition in the 35 of Exodus viz. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day The Rabbins some of them conceive that hereby is meant that no man must be beaten or put to death upon the Sabbath and then it must be thus expounded Ye shall kindle no fire i. e. to burn a man upon the Sabbath who is condemned by the Law to that kind of death and consequently not to put him on that day unto any punishment at all Others of late refer that prohibition unto the building of the Tabernacle in that Chapter mentioned and then the meaning will be this that they should make no fire on the Sabbath no though it were to hasten on the work of the holy Tabernacle Philo restrains it chiefly â—â—to manual Trades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such whereby men do get their livings And then it must be thus interpreted Ye shall not kindle any sire that is to do any common ordinary and servile works like as do common Bakers Smiths and Brewers De vit Mos l. 3. by making it part of their usual trade The later Rabbins almost all and many Christian Writers also taking the hint from Vatablus and Tremelius it their Annotations refer it unto dressing of Meat according to the latter custom Nay generally the Jews in the latter times were more severe and rigid in the exposition of that Text Tostat in Josua c. q. 2. and would allow no fire at all except in sacred matters only For whereas Rabbi Aben Ezra had so expounded it quod liceat ignem accendere ad caiefaciendum siurgeret srigus that it was lawful to make a fire wherewith to warm ones self in the extremity of cold weather though not to dress meat with it for that days expence the Rabbins generally would have proceeded against him as an Heretick and purposely writ a Book in contutation of him which they called the Sabbath How this interpretation was thus generally received I cannot say But I am verily persuaded that it was not so in the beginning Exod. 16.23 and that those words of Moses quae coquenda sunt hodie coquite bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth what ye will seeth which words are commonly produced to justifie and confirm this fancy do prove quite contrary to what some would have them The Text and Context both make it plain and manifest that the Jews baked their Mannah on the Sabbath day The People on the sixth day had gathered twice as much as they used to do whereof the Rulers of the Congregation acquainted Moses And Moses said to morrow is the rest of
the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth what ye will seeth and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept until the morning i.e. As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day that bake or boil according as you use to do and for the rest let it be laid by to be baked or boiled to morrow that you may have wherewith to feed you on the Sabbath day That this interpretation is most true and proper appears by that which followeth in the holy Scripture Vers 24. viz. They laid it up as Moses bade and it did not stink neither was any worm therein as that which they had kept till morning on some day before Verse 20. This makes it evident that the Mannah was laid up unbaked for otherwise what wonder had it been at all that it did neither breed worm nor stink had it been baked the day before Things of that nature so preserved are far enough from putrifying in so short a time This I am verily persuaded was the practice then and for this light unto that practice I must ingenuously confess my self obliged to Theophilus Braborn the first that ever looked so near into Moses meaning Chap. 4. And this most likely was the practice of the Jews in after times even till the Phartsees had almost made the words of God of no effect by their traditions for then came in those many rigid Ordinances about this day which made the day and them ridiculous unto all the Heathens Sure I am that the Scriptures call it a day of gladness for it was a Festival and therefore probable it is that they had good cheer 2 Edit p. 137.138 And I am sure that Dr. Bound the founder of these Sabbatarian fancies though he conceive that dressing meat upon the Sabbath was by the words of Moses utterly unlawful in the time of Mannah yet he conceives withal that that Commandment was proper only unto the time of Mannah in the Wilderness and so to be restrained unto that time only Therefore by his confession the Jews for after times might as well dress their meat on the Sabbath day as on any other notwithstanding this Injurction of not kindling fire Indeed why not as well dress meat as serve it in the attendance of the servant at his Masters Table being no less considerable on the Sabbath day than of the Cooks about the Kitchin especially in those riotous and excessive Feasts which the Jews kept upon this day however probably they might dress their meat on the day before I say those riotons and excessive Feasts which the Jews kept upon that day and I have good authority for what I say Saint Augustine tells us of them they kept the Sabbath only ad luxuriam ebrietatem and that they rested only ad nugas luxurias sitas that they consumed the day languido luxurioso otio Tâ—ast 3. in Joh. De 10. chordis c. 3. In Psalm 91. In Psalm 32. Sympos Isiac l. 4. and finally did abuse the same not only deliciis Judacis but ad nequitiam even to sin and naughtiness Put all together and we have luxury and drunkenness and sports and pleasures enough to manifest that they spared not any Dainties to set forth their Sabbath though on a Pharisaical prohibition they forbare to dress their meats upon it Nay Plutarch lays it to their charge that they did feast it on their Sabbath with no small excess but of Wine especially Who thereupon conjectureth that the name of Sabbath had its original from the Orgies or Feasts of Bacchus whose Priests used often to ingeminate the word Sabbi Sabbi in their drunken Ceremonies Which being so it is the more to be admired that generally the Romans did upbraid this peopled with their Sabbaths fast Augustus having been at the Bathes and fasting there a long time together Sueton. in Octav. c. 76. gives notice of it to Tiberius thus ne Judaeus quidem tam diligenter sabbatis Jejunium servat that never any Jew had fasted more exactly on the Sabbaths than he did that day So Martial reckoning up some things of unsavoury smell names amongst others jejunia sabbatriorum for by that name he did contemptuously mean the Jews as before I noted And where the Romans in those times began some of them to incline to the Jewish Ceremonies and were observant of the Sabbath as we shall see hereaster in a place more proper Persius objects against them this labra monent taciti Sat. 5. recutitaque sabbata pallent i.e. that being Romans as they were they muttered out their Prayers as the Jews accustomed and by observing of the Fast on the Jewish Sabbaths grew lean and pale for very hunger So saith Petronius Arbiter that the Jews did celebrate their Sabbath jejunia lege by a legal Fast and Justin yet more generally Hist l. 36. septimum diem more gentis sabbatum appellatum in omne aevum jejunio sacravit Moses that Moses did ordain the Sabbath to be a fasting day for ever That the Jews fasted very often sometimes twice a week the Pharisee hath told us in Saint Lukes Gospel and probably the jejunia sabbatariorum in the Poet Martial might reflect on this But that they fasted on the Sabbath is a thing repugnant both to the Scriptures Fathers and all good antiquity except in one case only which was when their City was besieged as Rabbi Moyses Egyptius hath resolved it Nay if a man had fasted any time upon the Sabbath they used to punish him in his sort ut sequenti etiam die jejunaret Ap. Baron A. 34. n. 156. to make him fast the next day after Yet on the other side I cannot but conceive that those before remembred had some ground or reason why they did charge the Jews with the Sabbaths Fast for to suppose them ignorant of the Jewish custom considering how thick they lived amongst them even in Rome it self were a strange opinion The rather since by Plutarch who lived not long after Sueton if he lived not with him the Jews are generally accused for too much riot and excess upon that day For my part I conceive it thus I find in Nehemiah that when the people were returned from the Captivity Ezra the Priest brought forth the Law before the Congregation Cap. 8.2 3. and read it to them from the morning until mid-day which done they were dismissed by Nehemiah to eat and drink and make great joy which they did accordingly Verse 10 12. This was upon the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles one of the solemn Annual Sabbaths and this they did for eight days together Verse 18. from the first day unto the last that the Feast continued After when as the Church was setled and that the Law was read amongst them in their Synagogues on the weekly Sabbaths most probable it is that they
Sacrament was no such easie Ministery but that it did require much labour and many hands to go through with it â—â—b 2. Buxdorfius thus describes it in his Synagoga Tempore diei octavi matutino ca quae ad circumcisionem opus sunt tempestive parantur c. In the morning of the eighth day all things were made ready And first two seats are placed or else one so framed that two may set apart in it adorned wieh costly Carpets answerable unto the quality of the party Then comes the surety for the Child and placeth himself in the same seat and near to him the Circumciser Next followeth one bringing a great Torch in which were lighted twelve Wax-candles to represent the twelves Tribes of Israel after two Boys carrying two Cups full of red-Wine to wash the Circumcisers mouth when the work is done another bearing the Circumcisers Knife a third a dish of sand whereinto the foreskin must be cast being once cut off a fourth a dish of Oil wherein are linnen clouts to be applyed unto the wound some others spices and strong Wines to refresh those that faint if any should All this is necessarily required as preparations to the Act of Circumcision nor is the Act less troublesom than the preparations make shew of which I would now describe but that I am persuaded I have said enough to make it known how much ado was like to be used about it And though perhaps some of these Ceremonics were not used in this present time whereof we speak yet they grew up and became ordinary many of them before the Jewish Commonwealth was destroyed and ruinated Hom. de Semente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where there is Circumcision there must be Knifes and Sponges to receive the Bloud and such other necessaries said Athanasius And not such other only as conclern the work In Joh. l. 4. l. 50. Lib. 7. but such as appertain also to the following Cure Circumciditur curatur homo circumcisus in Sabbato as St. Cyril notes it Which argument our Saviour used in his own defence viz that he as well might make a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day as they one part Now that this Act of Circumcision was a plain breaking of the Sabbath besides the troublesomness of the work is affirmed by many of the Fathers L. 1. Haeres 30. n. 32. By Epiphanius expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a Child was born upon the Sabbath the circumcision of that Child took away the Sabbath And St. Chrysestâ—m speaks more home than he Hom. 49. in Joh. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sabbath saith the Father was broke many ways among the Jews but in no one thing more than in Circumcision Now what should move the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath unless it were because that Circumcision was the older ceremony I would gladly learn especially considering the resemblance that was between them in all manner of circumsiances Was Circumcision made to be a token of the Covenant between the Lord of Heaven and the seed of Abraham Gen. 17.17 So was the Sabbath between God and the house of Israel Exod. 31.17 Was Circumcision a perpetual covenant with the seed of Abraham in their generations Gen. 17.7 So was the Sabbath to be kept throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant also Exod 31.16 Was Circumcision so exacted that whosoever was not Circumcised that soul should be cut off from the People of God Gen. 17.14 So God hath said it of his Sabbath that whosoever breaks it or doth any manner of work therein that soul shall be cut off from among the People Exod. 31.14 In all these points there was a just and plain equality between them but had the Sabbath been a part of the Moral Law it must have infinitely gone before Circumcision What then should move the Jews to prefer the one before the other but that conceiving both alike they thought it best to give precedency to the elder and rather break the Sabbath than put off Circumcision to a further day Hence grew it into a common maxim amongst that People Circumcision pellit Sabbatum that Circumcision drives away the Sabbath as before I noted Nor could it be that they conceived a greater or more strict necessity to be in Circumcision than in the Sabbath the penalty and danger as before we shewed you being alike in both for in the Wilderness by the space of 40 years together when in some fort they kept the Sabbath most certain that they Circumcised not one not one of many hundred thousands that were born in so long a time Again had God intended Circumcision to have been so necessary that there was no deferring of it for a day or two he either had not made the Sabbaths rest so exact and rigid or else out of that generul rule had made exception in this case And on the other side had he intended that the Sabbaths resT should have been literally observed and that no manner of work should be done therein he had not so precisely limited Circumcision to the eighth day only Just Martyn cont Tryph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea though it fell upon the Sabbath but would have respited the same till another day The Act of Circumcision was not restrained unto the eighth day so precisely but that it might be as it was sometimes deferred upon occasion as in the case of Moses Children and the whole People in the Wilderness before remembred Indeed it was not to be hastened and performed before Not out of any mystery in the number which might adapt it for that business as some Rabbins thought but because Children till that time are hardly purged of that blood and slime which they bring with them into the world Levit. 22. v. 27. Upon which ground the Lord appointed thus in the Law Levitical When a Bullock or a Sheep or a Goat is brought forth it shall be seven days under the dam and from the eighth day and thence-forth it shall be accepted for an offering to the Lord. This makes it manifest that the Jews thought the Sabbath to be no part of the Morallaw and therefore gave precedency to Circumcision as the older ceremony Not because it was of Moses but of the Fathers that is L. 4. in Joh. c. 49. saith Cyril on that place because they thought not fit to lay aside an ancient custom of their Ancestors for the Sabbaths sake Quia non putabant consuetudinem patrum propter honorem Sabbati contemnendam esse as the Father hath it Nay so far did they prize the one before the other that by this breaking of the Sabbath they were persuaded verily that they kept the Law Moses saith Christ our Saviour gave you Circumcision and you on be Sabbath day Circumcise a man that the Law of Moses should not be broken Job 7.22 It seems that Circumcision was much like Terminus and Juventus in the Toman story who
the second Temple when there were no Prophets then did the Scribes and Doctors begin to comment and make their several expositions on the holy Text Ex quo natae disputationes sententiae contrariae from whence saith he sprung up debates and doubtful disputations Most probable it is that from this liberty of interpretation sprung up diversity of judgments from whence arose the several sects of Pharisees Essenes and Sadduces who by their difference of opinions did distract the multitude and condemn each other Of whom and what they taught about the Sabbath we shall see next Chapter Nor is it to be doubted but as the reading of the Law did make the people more observant of the Sabbath than they were before so that libertas prophetandi which they had amongst them occasioned many of those rigours which were brought in after The people had before neglected the sabbatical years Joseph Ant. li. 11. ca. ult but now they carefully observed them So carefully that when Alexander the Great being in Hierusalem Anno 3721 commanded them to take some Boon wherein he might express his favour and love unto them the High Priest answered for them all that they desired but leave to exercise the Ordinances of their Fore-fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that each seventh year might be free from Tribute because their Lands lay then untilled But then again the liberty and variety of Interpretation bred no little mischief For where in former times according to Gods own appointment the Sabbath was conceived to be a day of Rest whereon both Man and Beast might refresh themselves and be the more inabled for their ordinary labours by canvassing some Texts of Scripture and wringing bloud from thence instead of comfort they made the Sabbath such a yoke as was supportable Nor were these weeds of doctrine very long in growing Within an hundred years and less after Nehemiah the people were so far from working on the Sabbath day as in his time we see they did and hardly could be weaned from so great a sin but thought it utterly unlawful to take sword in hand yea though it were to save their liberty and defend Religion A folly which their neighbour Ptolomy Joseph Ant. li 12. c. 1. the great King of Egypt made especial use of For having notice of this humour as it was no better he entred the City on the Sabbath day under pretence to offer sacrifice and presently without resistance surprised the same the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not laying hand on any weapon or doing any thing in defence thereof but sitting still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an idle slothfulness suffered themselves to be subdued by a Tyrant Conquerour This hapned Ann. M. 3730. And many more such fruits of so bad a doctrine did there happen afterwards to which now we hasten CHAP. VIII What doth occur about the SABBATH from the Maccabees to destruction of the Temple 1. The Jews refuse to fight in their own defence upon the Sabbath and what was ordered thereupon 2. The Pharisees about these times had made the Sabbath burdensom by their Traditions it 3. Hierusalem twice taken by the Romans on the Sabbath day 4. The Romans many of them Judaize and take up the Sabbath as other Nations did by the Jews example 5. Augustus Caesar very gracious to the Jews in matters that concerned their Sabbath 6. What our Redeemer taught and did to rectifie the abuses of and in the Sabbath 7. The final ruin of the Temple and the Jewish Ceremonies on a Sabbath day 8. The Sabbath abrogated with the other Ceremonies 9. Wherein consists the Christian Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures and amongst the Fathers 10. The idle and ridiculous niceties of the modern Jews in their Parasceves and their Sabbaths conclude the first Part. li WE shewed you in the former Chapter how strange an alteration had been made in an hundred years touching the keeping of the Sabbath The people hardly at the first restrained from working when there was no need and after easily induced to abstain from fighting though tending to the necessary defence both of their liberty and Religion Of so much swifter growth is superstition than true piety Nor was this only for a fit as easily layed aside as taken up but it continued a long time yea and was every day improved it being judged at last unlawful to defend themselves in case they were assaulted on the Sabbath day Antiochus Epiphanes the great King of Syria intending utterly to subvert the Church and Common-wealth of Judah did not alone defile the Sanctuary 1 Mac. 1. by shedding innocent bloud therein but absolutely prohibited the Burnt-offerings and the Sacrifices commanding also that they should prophane the Sabbaths and the Festival days So that the Sanctuary was layed waste the holy Days turned into mourning and the Sabbath into a reproach as the story tells us some of the people so far yielding through fear and faintness that they both offered unto Idols and prophaned the Sabbaths as the King commanded But others who preferr'd their Piety before their fortunes went down into the Wilderness and there hid themselves in Caves and other secret places Thither the Enemies pursued them and finding where they were in covert assailed them on the Sabbath day the Jews not making any the least resistance Joseph ll 1◠ca. 8. no not so much as stopping up the mouths of the Caves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men resolved not to offend against the honour of the Sabbath in what extremity soever These men were certainly more persuaded of the morality of the Sabbath than David or Elijah in the former times and being so persuaded thought it not fit to fly or fight upon that day no though the supream Law of Nature which was the saving of their lives did call them to it Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum in the Poets language But Mattathias one of the Priests a man that durst as much as any in the cause of God and had not been infected with those dangerous fancies taught those that were about him a more saving doctrine Assuring them that they were bound to fight upon the Sabbath if they were assaulted For otherwise if that they scrupulously observed the Law in such necessities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they would be Enemies to themselves and finally be destroyed both they and their Religion It was concluded thereupon 2 Macc. 2. that whosoever came to make Battel with them on the Sabbath day they would fight against him and afterwards it held for currant as Josephus tells us that if necessity required they made no scruple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight against their Enemies on the Sabbath day Yet by Josephus leave it held not long as he himself shall tell us in another place what time the purpose of this resolution was perverted quite by the nice vanities of those men who took upon them to declare the meaning of it But
Manich. l. 1. c. 22. contr Adimant ca. 2. Qu. in Exod. l. 2. qu. 173. And thirdly that it is not lawful for a Christian to observe the Sabbath Deiutil crecendi c. 3. For speaking of the Law how it was a Paedagogie to bring us unto the knowledg of Christ he adds that in those Institutes and Ordinances Quibus Christians uti fas non est quale est sabbatum circumcisio sacrificia c. which are not lawful to be used by any Christian such as are the Sabbath Circumcision Sacrifices and such other things many great Mysteries were contained And in another place Quisquis diem illum observat sicut litera sonat carnaliter sapit Sapere autem secundum carnem mors est He that doth literally keep the Sabbath favours of the flesh De Sp. lit c. 14. but to savour of the flesh is death Therefore no Sabbath to be kept by the sons of life No Sabbath to be kept at all We affirm not so We know there is a Christian Sabbath a Sabbath figured out unto us in the fourth Commandment which every Christian man must keep that doth desire to enter into the Rest of God This is that Sabbath which the Prophet Isaiah hath commended to us Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it Quid autem sabbatum est quod praecipit observandum c. What Sabbath is it saith St. Hierom that is here commanded The following words saith he will inform us that keeping our hands from doing evil This is the Sabbath here commanded Si bona faciens quiescat à malis if doing what is good we do rest from sin Nor was this his conceit alone the later Writers so expound it The Prophet in this place saith Ryvet thus prophecies of the Church of Christ Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it In Decalog and keepeth his hands from doing any evil Vbi custodire sabbatum in Ecclesia Christiana est custodire manus suas à malo And in these words saith he to keep a Sabbath in a Christian Church is only to preserve our hands from doing evil The like spiritual Sabbath doth the man of God prescribe unto us in the 58 Chapter of his Book Verse 13.14 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day not doing thine own way nor finding thine own pleasure nor sheapking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high plaes of the earth c. What saith Hierom unto this It must be understood saith he spiritually Alioquin si haec tantum prohibentur in sabbato ergo in aliis sex diebus tribuitur nobis libertas delinquendi In locum For otherwise if those things above remembred are prohibited only on the Sabbaths then were it lawful for us on the other days to follow our own finful courses speak our own idle words and pursue our own voluptuous pleasures which were most foolish to imagine And so saith Ryvet too for the modern Writers In Decalog Repetuum ab omnibus operibus nostris vitiosis cessationem c. That everlasting rest from all sinful works which is begun in this life here and finished in the life to come is signified and represented by those words of Isaiab ca. 58. They therefore much mistake these Texts and the meaning of them who grounding thereupon forbid all manner of REcreations and lawful pleasures on their supposed Sabbath day as being utterly prohibited by Gods holy Prophet The Jews did thus abuse this Scripture Maymon ap Ains in Ex. 20. in the times before and made it an unlawful matter for any man to walk into the Fields or to see his Gardens on the Sabbath day either to mark what things they wanted or how well they prospered because this was to do his own pleasure and so forbidden by the Prophet But those that understand the true Christian Sabbath apply them to a better purpose as was shewed before And for the Christian Sabbath what it is and in what things it doth consist besides what hath been said already we shall add something more from the ancient Fathers If any man Dial. cum Trypbon saith Justin Martyr that hath been formerly a perjured person a deceiver of his Neighbour an incontinent liver repentshim of his sins and amends his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that man doth keep a true and holy Sabbath to the Lord his God See to this purpose also Clemens of Alexandria Strom. l. 4. So Origen Omnis qui vivit in Christo semper in sabbatis vivit That man Tract 19. in Math. whose life is hid with Christ in God keeps a daily Sabbath See to that purpose Hom. 23. in Numbers Macarius also tells us that the Sabbath given from God by Moses Hom. 35. was a Type only and a shadow of that real Sabbth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by the Lord unto the soul More fully Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What use saith he is there of a Sabbath to him whose Conscience is a continual feast to him whose conversation is in Heaven For now we feast it every day doing no manner of wickedness but keeping a spiritual rest holding our hands from covet ousness our Bodies from uncleanness What need we more The Law of righteousness contains ten Commandments The first to know one God the second to abstain from Idols the third not to prophane Gods Name the fourth Sabbatum celebrare spirituale Hom. 29. in Math. 24. to keep the true spiritual Sabbath c. So he that made the Opus imperfectum on Saint Matthews Gospel Saint Augustine finally makes the fourth Commandment so far as it concerns us Christians to be no more than requies cordis De conven 10 praec 10. plagarum tranquillitas mentis quam facit bona conscientia the quiet of the heart and the peace of mind occasioned by a good Conscience Of any other Sabbath to be looked for now the Fathers utterly are silent and therefore we may well resolve there is no such thing Yet notwithstanding this the Jews still dote upon their Sabbath and that more sottishly and with more superstition far than they ever did A view whereof I shall present and so conclude the first part of this present Argument And first for the Parasceves or their Eves Synag Jud. c. 10. Buxdorfius thus informs us of their vain behaviour Die Veneris singuli ungues de digitis abscindunt c. On Friday in the afternoon they pare their Nails and whet their Knives and lay their Holiday-cloaths in readiness for the reception of Queen Sabbath for so they call it and after lay the Cloth and set on their Meat that nothing be to be done upon the morrow About the evening goes the Sexton from door to door commanding all the people to abstain from work
vel sabbatum esset vel dies Dominicus as the Father hath it and choose you which you will we shall find little in it for a Christian Sabbath In case it was on the Sabbath then Peter did not keep the Lords day holy as he should have done in case that day was then selected for Gods worship for the Text tells us that the next day he did begin his journey to Cornelius house Acts 10.24 In case it was upon the Lords day as we call it now then neither did Saint Peter sanctifie that day in the Congregation as he ought to do had that day then been made the Sabbath and his conversion of Cornelius being three days after must of necessity be done on the Wednesday following So that we find no Lords day Sabbath either of S. Peters keeping or of S. Philips or else the preaching of the Word and the administring the Sacraments were not affixed at all unto the first day of the week as the peculiar marks and characers thereof So for Saint Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles who laboured more abundantly than the other Apostles besides what shall be said particularly in the following section it may appear in general that he observed no Lords-day-sabbath but taught on all days travelled on all days and wrought according to his Trade upon all days too when he had no employment in the Congregation That he did teach on all days is not to be questioned by any that considers how great a work he had to do and how little time That he did travel upon all days is no less notorious to all that look upon his life which was still in motion And howsoever he might rest sometimes on the Lords day as questionless he did on others as often as upon that day he Preached the Gospel yet when he was a Prisoner in the hands of the Roman Souldiers there is no doubt but that he travelled as they did Lords days and Sabbaths In Dominieam 17. post Trinit all days equally many days together Of this see what Saint Luke hath written in the last Chapters of the Acts. Lastly for working at his Trade which was Tent-making on the Lords day as well as others Conradus Dietericus proves â—t out of Hierom that when he had none unto whom to preach in the Congregation he followed on the Lords day the works of his Occupation Hieronymus colligit ex Act. 18. vers 3. 4. quod die etiam Dominica quando quibus in publico conventu concionaretur non habebat manibus suis laboravit So Dietericus speaking of our Apostle Now what is proved of these Apostles and of S. Philip the Evangelist may be affirmed of all the rest whose lives and actions are not left upon record in holy Scripture Their Ministery being the same and their work as great no question but their liberty was correspondent and that they took all times to be alike in the advancing of the business which they went about and cherished all occasions presented to them on what day soever What further may be said hereof in reference to Saint John who lived longest of them and saw the Church established and her publick meetings in some order we shall see hereafter in his own place and time Mean while we may conclude for certain that in the planting of the Church he used all days equally kept none more holy than another and after when the Church was setled however he might keep this holy and honour it for the use which was made thereof yet he kept other days so used as holy but never any like a Sabbath Proceed we next unto Saint Paul in this particular of whom the Scripture tells us more than of all the rest and we shall find that he no sooner was converted but that forthwith he Preached in the Synagogues that Jesus was the Christ Acts 9.20 If in the Synagogues most likely that it was on the Jewish Sabbath the Synagogues being destinate especially to the Sabbath days So after he was called to the publick Ministery he came to Antiochia Acts 13.14 and went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and there Preached the Word What was the issue of his Sermon That the Text informs us And when the Jews were gone out of the Synagogue the Gentiles besought that these words might be Preached again the next Sabbath Verse 42 Saint Paul assented thereunto and the next Sabbath day as the Text tells us Verse 44 came almost the whole City together to hear the Word of God It seems the Lords day was not grown as yet into any credit especially not into the repute of the Jewish Sabbath for if it had Saint Paul might easily have told these Gentiles that is such Gentiles as had been converted to the Jewish Church that the next day would be a more convenient time and indeed opus diei in die suo the doctrine of the Resurrection on the day thereof This hapned in the forty sixth year of Christs Nativity some twelve years after his Passion and Resurrection and often after this did the Apostle shew himself in the Jewish Synagogues on the Sabbath days which I shall speak of here together that so we may go on unto the rest of this Discourse with less interruption And first it was upon the Sabbath that he did preach to the Philippians and baptized Lydia with her houshold Acts 16. Amongst the Thessalonians he reasoned three sabbath days together out of the Scriptures Acts 17. At Corinth every sabbath day with the Jews and Greeks Acts 18. besides those many Texts of Scripture when it is said of him that he went into the Synagogues and therefore probably that it was upon the Sabbath as before we said Not that Saint Paul was so affected to the Sabbath as to prefer that day before any other but that he found the people at those times assembled and so might preach the Word with the greater profit Saint Chrysostom for the Ancients have resolved it so In Acts 13.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it So Calvin for the modern Writers makes this the special cause of St. Pauls resort unto the places of Assembly on the Sabbath day quod profecium aliquem sperabat In Acts 16.13 because in such concourse of people he hoped the Word of God would find the better entertainment Any thing rather to be thought than that S. Paul who had withstood so stoutly those false Apostles who would have Circumcision and the Law observed when there was nothing publickly determined of it would after the decision of so great a Council wherein the Law of Moses was for ever abrogated eieither himself observe the Sabbath for the sabbaths sake or by his own example teach the Gentiles how to Judaize which he so blamed in St. Peter The sabbath with the legal Ceremonies did receive their doom as they related to the Gentiles in that great Council holden in Hierusalem which though it was not
Hereticks before remembred had been hardly heard of it was plainly otherwise that day not only not being honoured with their publick meetings but destinate to a setled or a constant fast Some which have looked more nearly into the reasons of this difference conceive that they appointed this day for fasting in memory of Saint Peters conflict with Simon Magus which being to be done on a Sunday following the Church of Rome ordained a solemn fast on the day before the better to obtain Gods blessing in so great a business which falling out as they desired they kept it for a fasting day for ever after Saint Austin so relates it as a general and received opinion but then he adds Quod eam esse falsam perhibeant plerique Romani That very many of the Romans did take it only for a fable As for St. Austin he conceives the reason of it to be the several uses which men made of our Saviours resting in the grave the whole Sabbath day For thence it came to pass saith he that some especially the Eastern people Ad requiem significandam mallent relaxare jejunium to signifie and denote that rest did not use to fast where on the other side those of the Church of Rome and some Western Churches kept it always fasting Propter humilitatem mortis Domini by reason that our Lord that day lay buried in the sleep of Death But as the Father comes not home unto the reason of this usage in the Eastern Countreys so in my mind Pope Innocent gives a likelier reason for the contrary custom in the Western Concil Tom. 1. For in a Decretal by him made touching the keeping of this Fast he gives this reason of it unto Decentius Eugubinus who desired it of him because that day and the day before were spent by the Apostles in grief and heaviness Nam constat Apostolos biduo isto in moerore fuisse propter metum Judaeorum se occuluisse as his words there are The like saith Platina that Innocentius did ordain the Saturday or Sabbath to be always fasted Quod tali die Christus in sepulchro jacuisset quod discipuli ejus jejunassent In Innocent Because our Saviour lay in the grave that day and it was fasted by his Disciples Not that it was not fasted before Innocents time as some vainly think but that being formerly an arbitrary practice only it was by him intended for a binding Law Now as the African and the Western Churches were severally devoted either to the Church of Rome or other Churches in the East so did they follow in this matter of the Sabbaths fast the practice of those parts to which they did most adhere Millain though near to Rome followed the practice of the East which shews how little power the Popes then had even within Italy it self Paulinus tells us also of St. Ambrose that he did never use to dine nisi die sabbati Dominico c. but on the Sabbath the Lords day In vita Ambros and on the Anniversaries of the Saints and Martyrs Yet so that when he was at Rome he used to do as they there did submitting to the Orders of the Church in the which he was Whence that so celebrated speeeh of his Cum hic sum non jejuno sabbato cum Romae sum jejuno sabbato at Rome he did at Millain he did not fast the Sabbath Nay which is more Epist â—6 Saint Augustine tells us that many times in Africa one and the self-same Church at least the several Churches in the self-same Province had some that dined upon the Sabbath and some that fasted And in this difference it stood a long time together till in the end the Roman Church obtained the cause and Saturday became a Fast almost through all the parts of the Western World I say the Western World and of that alone The Eastern Churches being so far from altering their ancient custom that in the sixth Council of Constantinople Anno 692 they did admonish those of Rome to forbear fasting on that day upon pain of Censures Which I have noted here in its proper place that we might know the better how the matter stood between the Lords day and the Sabbath how hard a thing it was for one to get the mastery of the other both days being in themselves indifferent for sacred uses and holding by no other Tenure than by the courtesie of the Church Much of this kind was that great conflict between the East and Western Churches about keeping Easter and much like conduced as it was maintained unto the honour of the Lords Day or neglect thereof The Passeover of the Jews was changed in the Apostles times to the Feast of Easter the anniversary memorial of our Saviours Resurrection and not changed only in their times but by their Authority Certain it is that they observed it for Polycarpus kept it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both with Saint John and with the rest of the Apostles as Irenaeus tells us in Eusebius's History Lib. 5. c. 26. The like Polycarpus affirms of Saint Philip also whereof see Euseb l. 5. c. 14. Nor was the difference which arose in the times succeeding about the Festival it self but for the time wherein it was to be observed The Eastern Churches following the custom of Hierusalem kept it directly at the same time the Jews did their Passeover and at Hierusalem they so kept it the Bishops there for fifteen several successions being of the Circumcision the better to content the Jews their Brethren and to win upon them But in the Churches of the West they did not celebrate this Feast decima quarta lunae upon what day soever it was as the others did but on some Sunday following after partly in honour of the day and partly to express some difference between Jews and Christians A thing of great importance in the present case For the Christians of the East reflected not upon the Sunday in the Annual return of so great a Feast but kept it on the fourteenth day of the month be it what it will it may be very strongly gathered that they regarded not the Lords Day so highly which was the weekly memory of the Resurrection as to prefer that day before any other in their publick meetings And thereupon Baronius pleads it very well that certainly Saint John was not the Author of the contrary practice Annal. An. 15 9. as some gave it out Nam quaenam potuit esse ratio c. For what saith he might be the reason why in the Revelation he should make mention of the Lords Day as a day of note and of good credit in the Church had it not got that name in reference to the Resurrection And if it were thought fit by the Apostles to celebrate the weekly memory thereof upon the Sunday then to what purpose should they keep the Anniversary on another day And so far questionless we may joyn issue with
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his own Language Catech. orat 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the morrow after the Lords day Cat. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catech. Mystag 2. The like is very frequent in Saint Ambrose also Hesterno die de fonte disputavimus De Sacram lib. 3. cap. 1. Hesternus noster sermo ad sancti altaris sacramentum deductus est lib. 5. cap. 1. and in other places The like in Chrysostom as in many other places too many to be pointed at in this place and time so in his 18. Hom. on the 3d of Gen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But this perhaps was only in respect of Lectures or Expositions of the Scriptures such as were often used in the greater Cities where there was much people and but little business for I conceive not that they met every day in these times to receive the Sacraments Epl. 289. Of Wednesday and of Friday it is plain they did not to say any thing of the Saturday till the next Section Saint Basil names them all together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is saith he a profitable and pious thing every day to communicate and to participate of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ our Saviour he having told us in plain terms that Whosoever eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath eternal life We notwithstanding do communicate but four times weekly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. on the Lords day the Wednesday the Friday and the Saturday unless on any other days the memory of some Martyr be perhaps observed Expos fid Cath. 21.22 Epiphanius goeth a little farther andn he deriveth the Wednesdays and the Fridays Service even from the Apostles ranking them in the same Antiquity and grounding them upon the same Authority that he doth the Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only it seems the difference was that whereas formerly it had been the custom not to administer the Sacrament on these two days being both of them fasting-days and so accounted long before until towards Evening It had been changed of late and they did celebrate in the Mornings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as on the Lords day was accustomed Whether the meeting on these days were of such Antiquity as Epiphanius saith they were I will not meddle Certain it is that they were very antient in the Church of God as may appear by that of Origen and Tertullian before remembred So that if we consider either the preaching of the Word the ministration of the Sacraments or the publick Prayers the Sunday in the Eastern Churches had no great prerogative above other days especially above the Wednesday and Friday save that the meetings were more solemn and the concourse of people greater than at other times as it is most likely The footsteps of this ancient custom are yet to be observed in this Church of England by which it is appointed that on Wednesdays and Fridays weekly Can. 15. though they be not holy days the Minister at the accustomed hours of Service shall resort to Church and say the Letany prescribed in the Book of Common-prayer As for the Saturday that retained its wonted credit in the Eastern Church little inferiour to the Lords day if not plainly equal not as a Sabbath think not so but as a day designed unto sacred meetings The Constitutions of the Apostles said to be writ by Clemens one of Saint Peters first successours in the Church of Rome appoint both days to be observed as solemn Festivals both of them to be days of rest that so the servant might have time to repair unto the Church Lib. 8. c. 33. for this Edification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Constitution Not that they should devote them wholly unto rest from labour but only those set times of both which were appointed for the meetings of the Congregation Yet this had an exception too the Saturday before Easter day Lib. 1. cap. 19. whereupon Christ rested in the Grave being exempt from these Assemblies and destinated only unto grief and fasting And though these Constitutions in all likelihood were not writ by Clemens there being many things therein which could not be in use of a long time after yet ancient sure they were as being mentioned in Epiphanius De Scrip. Ecc. in Clemente and as the Cardinal confesseth à Graecis veteribus magni factos much made of by the ancient Grecians though not of such authority in the Church of Rome How their authority in this point is countenanced by Ignatius we have seen already and we shall see the same more fully throughout all this Age. Can. 16. And first beginning with the Synod held in Laodicea a Town of Phrygia Anno 314. there passed a Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching the reading of the Gospels with the other Scriptures upon the Saturday or Sabbath Canon 49. that in the time of Lent there should be no oblation made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but on the Saturday and the Lords day only neither that any Festival should be then observed in memory of any Martyrs Canon 51. but that their names only should be commemorated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Lords day and the Sabbaths Nor was this only the particular will of those two and thirty Prelates that there assembled it was the practice too of the Alexandrians S. Athanasius Patriarch there affirms that they assembled on the Sabbath days not that they were infected any whit with Judaism which was far from them Homil de Semente but that they came together on the Sabbath day to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it So for the Church of Millain which as before I said in some certain things followed the Churches of the East it seems the Saturday was held in a fair esteem and joyned together with the Sunday Crastino die Sabbato De Sacrament Lib. 4. cap. 6. dominice de orationis ordine dicemus as S. Ambrose hath it And probably his often mention of hesternus dies remembred in the former Section may have relation to the joynt observance of these two days and so may that which is reported then out of S. Chrysostom and S. Cyril Eastern Doctors both Hist Eccles Lib. 6. cap. 8. Sure I am Socrates counts both days for weekly Festivals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on them both the Congregation used to be assembled and the whole Liturgy performed Which plainly shews that in the practice of those Churches they were both regarded both alike observed Gregory Nyssen speaks more home and unto the purpose Some of the People had neglected to come unto the Church upon the Saturday and on the Sunday he thus chides and rebukes them for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. With what face saith the Father wilt thou look upon the lords day De Castigatione which hast dishonoured the
Musick used in the Congregation it grew more exquisite in these times than it had been formerly that which before was only a melodious kind of pronunciation being now ordered into a more exact and artificial Harmony This change was principally occasioned by a Canon of the Council of Laodicea in the first entrance of this Age. For where before it was permitted unto all promiscuously to sing in the Church it was observed that in such dissonancy of Voices and most of them unskilful in the notes of Musick there was no small jarring and unpleasant sounds This Council thereupon ordained Conc. Laodic Can. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that none should sing hereafter in the Congregation but such as were Canonically appointed to it and skilful in it By means whereof before the shutting up of this fourth Century the Musick of the Church became very perfect and harmonious suavi artificiosa voce cantata Confess l. 10. cap. 33. as St. Austin tells us So perfect and harmonious that it did work exceedingly on the affections of the Hearers and did movere animos ardentius in flammam pietatis inflame their minds with a more lively flame of Piety taking them Prisoners by the ears and so conducting them unto the glories of Gods Kingdom Ibid. Saint Austin attributes a great cause of Conversion to the power thereof calling to mind those frequent tears quas fudi ad cantus Ecclesiae tuae which had been drawn from him by this sacred Musick by which his soul was humbled and his affections raised to an height of godliness The like he also tells us in his ninth Book of Confessions and sixth Chapter Nor doubt we but it did produce the same effect on divers others who coming to the Churches as he then did to be partakers of the Musick return'd prepared in mind and well disposed in their intentions to be converted unto God Now that the Church might be frequented at the times appointed and so all secret Conventicles stopped in these divided times wherein so many Heresies did domineer and that the itching ears of men might not persuade them to such Churches where God had not placed them so to discourage their own proper Minister it pleased the Fathers in the Council of Saragossa Anno 368. â—an 2. or thereabouts to decree it thus First Ne latibulis cubiculorum montium habitent qui in suspicionibus perseverent that none who were suspected of Priscillianism which was the humour that then reigned should lurk in secret corners either in Houses or in Hills but follow the example and direction of the Priests of God And secondly ad alienas villas agendorum conventuum causa non conveniant that none should go to other places under pretence of joyning there to the Assembly but keep themselves unto their own Which prudent Constitutions upon the self-same pious grounds are still preserved amongst us in the Church of England Thus do we see upon what grounds the Lords day stands on custom first and voluntary consecration of it to religious Meetings that custom countenanced by the Authority of the Church of God which tacitely approved the same and finally confirmed and ratified by Christian Princes throughout their Empires And as the day so rest from Labours and restraint from Business upon that day received its greatest strength from the supream Magistrate as long as he reteined that Power which to him belonged as after from the Canons and decrees of Councils the Decretals of Popes and Orders of particular Prelates when the sole managing of Ecclesiastical affairs was committed to them I hope it was not so with the former Sabbath which neither took original from custom that people being not so forward to give God a day nor required any countenance or authority from the Kings of Israel to confirm and ratifie it The Lord had spoken the word that he would have one day in seven precisely the seventh day from the Worlds Creation to be a day of rest unto all his people which said there was no more to do but gladly to submit and obey his pleasure nec quicquam reliquum erat praeter obsequii gloriam in the greatest Prince And this done all at once not by degrees by little and little as he could see the people affected to it or as he found it fittest for them like a probation Law made to continue till the next Session and then on further liking to hold good for ever but by a plain and peremptory Order that it should be so without further trial But thus it was not done in our present Business The Lords day had no such command that it should be sanctified but was left plainly to Gods people to pitch on this or any other for the publick use And being taken up amongst them and made a day of meeting in the Congregation for religious Exercises yet for 300 years there was neither Law to bind them to it nor any rest from labour or from worldly businesses required upon it And when it seemed good unto Christian Princes the nursing Fathers of Gods Church to lay restraints upon their people yet at the first they were not general but only thus that certain men in cetrain places should lay aside their ordinary and daily works to attend Gods service in the Church those whose employments were most toilsome and most repugnant to the true nature of a Sabbath being allowed to follow and pursue their labours because most necessary to the Common-wealth And in following times when as the Prince and Prelate in their several places indeavoured to restrain them from that also which formerly they had permitted and interdicted almost all kind of bodily labour upon that day it was not brought about without much strugling and on opposition of the People more than a thousand years being past after Christs Ascension before the Lords day had attained that state in which now it standeth as will appear at full in the following story And being brought unto that state wherein now it stands it doth not stand so firmly and on such sure grounds but that those powers which raised it up may take it lower if they please yea take it quite away as unto the time and settle it on any other day as to them seems best which is the doctrine of some School-men and divers Protestant Writers of great name and credit in the world A power which no man will presume to say was ever challenged by the Jews over the Sabbath Besides all things are plainly contrary in these two days as to the purpose and intent of the Institution For in the Sabbath that which was principally aimed at was rest from labour that neither they nor any that belonged unto them should do any manner of work upon that day but sit still and rest themselves Their meditating on Gods Word or on his goodness manifested in the worlds Creation was to that an accessory and as for reading of
times were certainly devout and therefore the less question to be made but that the Holy-days were employed as they ought to be in hearing of the Word of God receiving of the Sacraments and pouring forth their prayers unto him The sixth general Council holden at Constantinople appointed that those to whom the care of the Church was trusted should on all days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially on the Lords day instruct the Clergy and the People out of the holy Scripture in the ways of Godliness I say the Clergy and the People for in these times the Revenue of the Church being great and the offerings liberal there were besides the Parish-Priest who had Cure of souls many assisting Ministers of inferiour Orders which lived upon Gods holy Altar Somewhat to this purpose of Preaching every Sunday yea and Saints days too in the Congregation we have seen before established in the Council at Mentz Anno 813. So for receiving of the Sacrament whereas some would that it should be administred every day singulis in anno diebus as Bertram hath it lib de corp sangu Christi Rabanus Maurus who lived 824. leaves it as a thing indifferent advising all men notwithstanding in case there be no lawful let to communicate every Lords day De Sermon prâ—priâ—tat 〈◊〉 4.10 Quotidie Eucharistiae communionem percipere nec vitupero nec laudo omnibus tamen dominicis diebus communicandum hortor si tamen mens in affectu peccandi non sit as his words there are And whereas this good custom had been long neglected Can. 21. it was appointed that the Sacrament should be administred every Lords day by the Council at Aken Anno 836. Ne forte qui longe est à sacramentis quibus est redemptus c. lest saith the Council they which keep so much distance from the Sacraments of their redemption be kept as much at distance from the fruition of their Salvation As for the Holy-days or Saints days there needed no such Canon to enjoyn on them the celebration of the Sacrament which was annexed to them of course So likewise for the publick prayers besides what scatteringly hath been said in former places Câ—â—â— Friburienâ— Can. 26. the Council held at Friburg Anno 895. hath determined thus Diebus dominicis sanctorum festis vigiliis orationibus insistendum est ad missas cuilibet Christiano cum oblationibus currendum That on the Lords day and the Festivals of the Saints every Christian was to be intent upon his devotions to watch and pray and go to Mass and there make his offering It 's true the Service of the Church being in the Latine and in these times that Language being in some Provinces quite worn out and in some others grown into a different dialect from what it was that part of Gods worship which was publick prayer served not so much to comfort and to edification as it should have done As for the outward adjuncts of Gods publick service on the Churches part the principalwas that of Musick which in these Ages grew to a perfect height We shewed before that vocal Musick in the Church is no less ancient than the Liturgy of the Church it self which as it was begun in Ignatius time after the manner of plain-song or a melodious kind of pronunciation as before was said so in S. Austins time it became so excellent that it drew many to the Church and consequently many to the saith Now to that vocal Musick which was then in use and of which formerly we spake it pleased the Church in the beginning of these Ages to add Instrumental the Organ being added to the Voice by Pope Vitalian Anno 653. above 1000 years ago and long before the aberration of the Church from its pristine piety And certainly it was not done without good advice there being nothing of that kind more powerful than melody both Vocaland Instrumental for raising of mens hearts and sweetning their affections towards God Not any thing wherein the Militant Church here on Earth hath more resemblance to the Church in Heaven triumphant than in that sacred and harmonious way of singing praise and Allelujahs to the Lord our God which is and hath of long been used in the Church of Christ To bring this Chapter to an end in all that hath been said touching the keeping of the Lords day we find not any thing like a Sabbath either in the practice of the Church or writings of particular men however these last Ages grew to such an height in restraint of labours on this day that they might seem to have a mind to revive that part of the fourth Commandment Thou shalt do no manner of work upon it For where they tell us of this day as before was said that it was taken up by custom on the Authority of the Church as most on Apostolical tradition this makes it plain that they intended no such matter as a Sabbath day though that the Congregation might assemble in the greater numbers and men might joyn together in all Christian duties with the greater force it pleased the Church and principal powers thereof to restrain men from cororal labours and bind them to repair to the House of God Or if they did intend the Lords day for a Sabbath day it 's plain they must have made more Sabbaths than one day in seven those Holy-days which universally were observed in the Christian Church being no othersise to be kept than the Lords day was and those increasing in these Ages to so great a number that they became a burden to the common people Nor is it likely that being once free from the bondage of the Jewish Sabbath they would submit themselves unto another of their own devising and do therewith as the Idolaters of old with their woodden Gods first make them and then presently fall down and worship them Rather they took a course to restrain the Jews from sanctifhing their Sabbah and other legal Festivals as before they used Can. 10. Statutum est de Judaeis in the 12. Council of Tolledo Anno 681 Ne Sabbata caeterasque festivitates ritus sui celebrare praesumant and not so only Sed ut diebus dominicis ab opere cessent but that they should refrain from labour on the Lords day also of any Sabbath to be kept in the Christian Church some few might dream perhaps such filthy dreamers as Saint Jude speaks of but they did only dream thereof they few no such matter They which had better Visions could perceive no Subbath but in this life a Sabbath or a rest from sin and in the life to come a Sabbath or a rest from misery Plainly Rupertus so conceived it as great a Clerk as any in the times wherein he lived which was in the beginning of the twelfth Century Nam sicut signum circumcisionis incarnationem c. For as saith he the sign of Circumcisian foreshewed the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour
astringeret yet stood not he so much for the number of seven as to confine the Church unto it If Calvin elsewhere be of another mind and speak of keeping holy one day in seven as a matter necessary which some say he doth either they must accuse him of much inconstancy and forgetfulness or else interpret him with Rivet as speaking of an Ecclesiastical custom not to be neglected In decalog non de necessitate legis divinae and not of any obligation layed upon us by the Law of God Neither is he the only one that hath so determined Simler hath said it more expresly Quod dies una cultui divino consecretur ex lege naturae est quod autem haec sit septima non octava nona aut decima juris est divini sed ceremonialis In Exod. 20. That one day should be set apart for Gods publick Worship is the law of Nature but that this day should be the seventh and not the eighth ninth or tenth was of Divine appointment but as ceremonial Aretius also in his common places Loc. 55. distinguished between the substance of the Sabbath and the time thereof the substance of it which was rest and the works of Piety being in all times to continue tempus autem ut septime die observetur hoc non fuit necessarium in Ecclesia Christi but for the time to keep it on the seventh day always that was not necessary in the Church of Christ So also Frankisc Gomarus that great undertaker against Arminius in a Book written purposely de origine institutione Sabbati affirms for certain that it can neither be made good by the law of Nature Cap. 5. n. 8. or Text of Scripture or any solid Argument drawn from thence unum è septem diebus ex vi praecepti quarti ad cultum Dei necessario observandum that by the fourth Commandment one day in seven is of necessity to be dedicated to Gods service In Exod. 20. p. 1â—0 And Ryvet as profest an Enemy of the Remonstrants though for the antiquity of the Sabbath he differeth from the said Gomarus yet he agreeth with him in this not only making the observance of one day in seven to be meerly positive as in our first part we observed but lays it down for the received opinion of most of the Reformed Divines unum ex septem diebus non esse necessario eligendum ex vi praecepti ad sacros conventus celebrandos the very same with what Gomarus affirmed before So lastly for the Lutheran Churches In Examin Conc. Trid. Chemnitius makes it part of our Christian liberty quod nec sint alligati nec debeant alligari ad certorum vel dierum vel temporum observationes opinione necessitatis in Novo Testamento c. That men are neither bound nor ought to be unto the observation of any days or times as matters necessary under the Gospel of our Saviour though otherwise he account it for a barbarous Folly not to observe that day with all due solemnity which hath for so long time been kept by the Church of God Therefore in his opinion also the keeping of one day in seven Medull Theel. l. 2.15 is neither any moral part of the fourth Commandment or parcel of the law of Nature As for the subtil shift of Amesius finding that keeping holy of one day in seven is positive indeed sed immutabilis plane institutionis but such a positive Law as is absolutely immutable and doth as much oblige as those which in themselves are plainly natural and moral it may then serve when there is nothing else to help us For that a positive Law should be immutable in its self and in its own nature be as universally binding as the Moral Law is such a piece of Learning and of contradiction as never was put up to shew in these latter times But he that learnt his lirry in England here and durst not broach it but by halves amongst the Hollanders For the next Thesis that the Lords day is not founded on divine Commandment but the authority of the Church it is a point so universally resolved on as no one thing more and first we will begin with Calvin who tells us how it was not without good reason that those of old appointed the Lords Day as we call it to supply the place of the Jewish Sabbath Institut l. 2. c. 8. l. 3. Non sine delectu dominicum quem vocamus diem veteres in locum sabbati subrogarunt as his words there are Where none I hope will think that he would give our Saviour Christ or his Apostles such a short come off as to include them in the name of Veteres only which makes it plain that he conceived it not to be their appointment In Matth. 12. Bucer resolves the point more clearly communi Christianorum consensu Dominicum diem publicis Ecclesiae conventibus ac quieti publicae dicatum esse ipso statim Apostolorum tempore and saith that in the Apostles times the Lords day by the common consent of Christian people was dedicated unto publick rest and the assemblies of the Church In Gen. 2. And Peter Martyr upon a question asked why the old seventh day was not kept in the Christian Church makes answer that upon that day and on all the rest we ought to rest from our own works the works of sin Sed quod is magis quam ille eligatur ad externum Dei cultum liberum fuit Ecclesiae per Christum ut id consuleret quod ex re magis judicaret nec illa pessime judicavit c. That this was rather chose than that for Gods publick service That saith he Christ left totally unto the liberty of the Church to do therein what should seem most expedient and that the Church did very well in that she did prefer the memory of the Resurrection before the memory of the Creation These two I have the rather thus joyned together as being sent for into England in King Edwards time and place by the Protector in our Universities the better to establish Reformation at that time begun and doubt we not but that they taught the self-same Doctrine if at the least they touched at all upon that point with that now extant in their writings In Apoc. 1. at the same time with them lived Bullinger and Gualter two great Learned men Of these the first informs us hunc diem loco sabbati in memoriam resurgentis Domini delegisse sibi Ecclesias that in memorial of our Saviours Resurrection the Churches set apart this day in the Sabbaths stead whereon to hold their solemn and religious meetings And after Sponte receperunt Ecclesiae illam diem non legimus eam ullibi praeceptam that of their own accord and by their own authority the Church made choice thereof for the use aforesaid it being no where to be found that it was commanded In Act. Ap.
pomeridianum diebus Dominicis maxime in pagis plerunque transigi soleret that by their Edicts they would restrain all servile works the works of ordinary days and especially Games Drinking-matches and other profanations of the Sabbath wherewith the afternoon or Sundays chiefly in smaller Towns and Villages had before been spent that so the people might repair to the Catechising By which we also may perceive that there was no restraint on Sundays in the afternoon from any kind of servile works or daily labours but that men might and did apply themselves to their several businesses as on other days As for the greater Towns there is scarce any of them wherein there are not Fairs and Markets Kirk-masses as they use to call them upon the Sunday and those as much frequented in the afternoon as were the Churches in the forenoon A thing from which they could not hold not in Dort it self what time the Synod was assembled Nor had it now been called upon as it is most likely had not Amesius and some other of the English Malecontents scattered abroad Bounds principles amongst the Netherlands which they had sown before in England And certainly they had made as strong a faction there before this time their learned men beginning to bandy one against the other in the debates about the Sabbath but that the livelihood of the States consisting most on Trade and Traffick cannot spare any day Sunday no more than any other from venting their commodities and providing others So that in general the Lords day is no otherwise observed with them though somewhat better than it was twelve years ago than an Half-holiday is with us the Morning though not all of that unto the Church the afternoon to their Employments So for the French and German Churches we may perceive by their Divines Calvin and Beze and Martin Bucer who do so highly charge the Romanists for the restraint of working on the Lords day that they were well enough content to allow the same And for the Churches of the Switzers Resp ad Vaâ— Gentilem Zuinglius avoweth it to be lawful Die dominico peractis sacris laboribus incumbere On the Lords day after the end of Divine Service for any man to follow and pursue his labours as commonly we do saith he in the time of Harvest Indeed the Polish Churches formerly decreed in two several Synods the one at Cracow An. 1573. the other at Petricow Ann. 1578. Vt Domini in suis ditionibus prohibeant Dominicis diebus nundinas annuas septimanales That Lords of Mannours as we call them should not permit on the Lords day either Fairs or Markets in any of the Towns unto them belonging Neque iisdem diebus colonos suos ullos laboribus aut vecturis onerent nor on those days imploy their Tenants in carriages or such servile labours But this was rather done to please the Lutherans amongst whom and those of the Communion of the Church of Rome under whom they live than out of any principle or example of those Churches whom they chiefly followed For Recreations last of all there is no question to be made but that where working is permitted and most kind of business a man may lawfully enjoy himself and his honest pleasures and without danger of offence pursue those pastimes by which the mind may be refreshed and the spirits quickned Already have we told you what the custom is in the Palatine Churches And for the Belgick besides it was before declared from the Synod of Dort touching the usual spending of that day in Games and Drinking-matches Sâ—â—ps 〈◊〉 aâ—p 81. n. 58. their four great Doctors Polyander Ryvet Thysius and Walaeus make Recreation to be part of the Sabbaths rest Et inter fines Sabbati esse and to be reckoned as a principal intent thereof Even in Geneva it self the Mother Church unto the rest as Robert Johnson tells us in his enlargement of Boterus All honest exercises Shooting in Peeces Long-bows Cross-bows c. are used on the Sabbath day and that in the morning both before and after Sermon neither do the Ministers find fault therewith so they hinder not from hearing of the Word at the time appointed Indeed there is no reason why they should find fault the practice so directly rising upon their principles Dancing indeed they do not suffer either in Geneva or the French Churches though not prohibited for ought I can learn in either Germany or any of the Lutheran Kingdoms but this not in relation to the day but the sport it self which absolutely they have forbidden on all days whatever Calvin took great offence thereat of so austere a life would he have the People and kept a great ado about it in Geneva when he lived amongst them Epist ad Farel as he doth thus relate the story to his friend Farellus Corneus and Perinus two of special power and quality in that City together with one Heinrichus one of the Elders of the Church a Syndic which is one of the four chief Officers of the Common-wealth and some others of their friends being merry at an Invitation fell to dancing Notice hereof being given to Calvin by some false brother they were all called into the Consistory excepting Corneus and Perinus and being interrogated thereupon Impudenter Deo nobis mentiti sunt they lyed saith he most impudently unto God and us Most Apostolically said At that saith he I grew offended as the indignity of the thing deserved and they persisting in their contumacy Censui ut jure-jurando ad veri confessionem adigerentur I thought it fit to put them to their Oaths about it So said so done and they not only did confess their former dancing but that that very day they had been dancing in the house of one Balthasats Widdow On his confession he proceeded unto the censure which certainly was sharp enough for so small a fault for a fault it was if he would have it the Syndick being displaced the Elder turned out of his office Perryn and his Wife both clapt in Prison and all the rest pudore confusi put to open shame This was in Anno 1546. And afterwards considering how much he disliked it their Ministers and Preachers cried down dancing as a most sinful and unchristian pastime and published divers tracts against it At last in Anno 1571. it was concluded in a Synod held at Rochel and made to be a part of their publick discipline viz. that all Congregations should be admonished by their Ministers seriously to reprehend and suppress all Dances Mummeries and Enterludes As also that all Dancing-masters or those who make any dancing meetings after they have been oft admonished to desist ought to be excommunicate for that their contumacy and disobedience Which rigidness of theirs as it is conceived considering how the French do delight in Dancing Dallingtons â—â—ew of 〈◊〉 hath been no small impediment unto the general entertainment of the reformed Religion in that
appointed by the Church for the assembly of Gods people we should lay by our daily business and all worldly thoughts and wholly give our selves to the heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and Service But to encounter them at their own weapon it is expresly said in the Act of Parliament about keeping Holy-days that on the days and times appointed as well the other Holy days as the Sunday Christians should cease from all kind of labour and only and wholly apply themselves to such holy works as appertain to true Religion the very same with that delivered in the Homily If wholly in the Homily must be applied unto the day then it must be there and then the Saints days and the other Holy-days must be wholly spent in religious exercises When once we see them do the one we will bethink our selves of doing the other As for the residue of that Homily which consists in popular reproofs and exhortations that concerns not us in reference to the point in hand The Homilies those parts thereof especially which tend to the correction of manners and reformation of abuses were made agreeable to those times wherein they were first published If in those times men made no difference between the Working-day and Holy-day 〈◊〉 kept their Fairs and Markets and bought and sold and rowed and ferried and drow and carried and rode and journeyed and did their other business on the Sunday as well as on the other days when there was no such need but that they might have tarried longer they were the more to blame no doubt in trespassing so wilfully against the Canons of the Church and Acts of Parliament which had restrained many of the things there specified The Homily did well to reprove them for it If on the other side they spent the day in ungodliness and filthiness in gluttony and drunkenness and such like other crying sins as are there particularly noted the Prelates of the Church had very ill discharged their duty had they not taken some course to have told them of it But what is that to us who do not spend the Lords day in such filthy fleshliness whatever one malicious sycophant hath affirmed therein or what is that to dancing shooting leaping vaulting may-games and meetings of good Neighbourhood or any other Recreation not by Law prohibited being no such ungodly and filthy acts as are therein mentioned Thus upon due search made and full examination of all parties we find no Lords day Sabbath in the book of Homilies no nor in any writings of particular men in more than 33 years after the Homilies were published I find indeed that in the year 1580 the Magistrates of the City of London obtained from Queen Elizabeth that Plays and Enterludes should no more be acted on the Sabbath-day within the liberties of their City As also that in 83. on the 14th of January being Sunday many were hurt and eight killed outright by the sudden falling of the Scaffolds in Paris-garden This shews that Enterludes and Bear-baitings were then permitted on the Sunday and so they were a long time after though not within the City of London which certainly had not been suffered had it been then conceived that Sunday was to be accounted for a Sabbath But in the year 1595. some of that faction which before had laboured with small profit to overthrow the Hierarchy and government of this Church of England now set themselves on work to ruinate all the orders of it to beat down at one blow all days and times which by the wisdom and authority of the Church had been appointed for Gods service and in the stead thereof to erect a Sabbath of their own devising These Sabbath speculations and Presbyterian directions as mine Author calls them they had been hammering more than ten years before thought they produced them not till now and in producing of them now they introduced saith he a more than cither Jewish or Popish superstition into the Land Rogers in preface to the Articles to the no small blemish of our Christian profession and scandal of the true servants of God and therewith doctrine most erroneous dangerous and Antichristian Of these the principal was one Dr. Bound who published first his Sabbath Doctrins Anno 1595. and after with additions to it and enlargements of it Anno 1606. Wherein he hath affirmed in general over all the book that the Commandment of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaical decalogue is natural moral and perpetual That where all other things in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were clean taken away as the Priesthood the Sacrifices and the Sacraments this day the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth p. 91. that there is great reason why we Christians should take our selves as straitly bound to rest upon the Lords day as the Jews were upon their Sabbath for being one of the moral Commandments it bindeth us as well as them being all of equal authority p. 247. And for the Rest upon this day that it must be a notable and singular Rest and most careful exact and precise Rest after another manner than men were accustomed p. 124. Then for particulars no buying of Victuals Flesh or Fish Bread or Drink 158. no Carriers to travel on that day 160. nor Parkmen or Drovers 162. Scholars not to study the liberal Arts nor Lawyers to consult the Case and peruse mens Evidences 163. Sergeants Apparitours and Sumners to be restrained from executing their Offices 164. Justices not to examine Causes for preservation of the Peace 166. no man to travel on that day 192. that ringing of more Bells than one that day is not to be justified p. 202. No solemn Feasts to be made on it 206 nor Wedding Dinners 209. with a permission notwithstanding to Lords Knights and Gentlemen he hoped to find good welcome for this dispensation p. 211. all lawful Pleasures and honest Recreations as Shooting Fencing Bowling but Bowling by his leave is no lawful pleasure for all sorts of people which are permitted on other days were on this day to be forborne 202. no man to speak or talk of pleasures p. 272. or any other worldly matter 275. Most Magisterially determined indeed more like a Jewish Rabbin than a Christian Doctor Yet Jewish and Rabbinical though his Doctrin were it carried a fair face and shew of Piety at the least in the opinion of the common people and such who stood not to examine the true grounds thereof but took it up on the appearance such who did judge thereof not by the workmanship of the stuff but the gloss and colour In which it is most strange to see how â—uddenly men were induced not only to give way unto it but without more ado to abett the same till in the end and that in very little time it grew the most bewitching Errour the most popular Deceit that ever had been set on foot in the Church of England And verily I persuade my self
that many an honest and well-meaning man both of the Clergy and the Laity either because of the appearance of the thing it self or out of some opinion of those men who first endeavoured to promote it became exceedingly affected towards the same as taking it to be a Doctrin sent down from Heaven for encrease of Piety So easily did they believe it and grew at last so strongly possessed therewith that in the end they would not willingly be persuaded to conceive otherwise thereof than at first they did or think they swallowed down the hook when they took the bait An hook indeed which had so fastned them to those men who love to fish in troubled waters that by this Artifice there was no small hope conceived amongst them to fortifie their side and make good that cause which till this trim Deceit was thought of was almost grown desperate Once I am sure that by this means the Brethren who before endeavoured to bring all Christian Kings and Princes under the yoke of their Presbyteries made little doubt to bring them under the command of their Sabbath Doctrines And though they failed of that applauded parity which they so much aimed at in the advancing of their Elderships yet hoped they without more ado to bring all higher Powers whatever into an equal rank with the common people in the observance of their Jewish Sabbatarian rigours So Doctor Bound declares himself pag. 171. The Magistrate saith he and Governours in authority how High soever cannot take any priviledg to himself whereby he might be occupied about worldly business when other men should rest from labour It seems they hoped to see the greatest Kings and Princes make suit unto their Consistory for a Dispensation as often as the great Affairs of State or what cause soever induced them otherwise to spend that Day or any part or parcel of it than by the new Sabbath Doctrine had been permitted For the endearing of the which as formerly to endear their Elderships they spared no place or Text of Scripture where the word Elder did occur and without going to the Heralds had framed a Pedigree thereof from Jethro from Noahs Ark and from Adam finally so did these men proceed in their new devices publishing out of holy Writ both the antiquity and authority of their Sabbath day No passage of Gods Book unransacked where there was mention of a Sabbath whether the legal Sabbath charged on the Jews or the spiritual Sabbath of the Soul from sin which was not fitted and applied to the present purpose though if examined as it ought with no better reason than Paveant illi non paveam ego was by an ignorant Priest alledged from Scripture to prove that his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Yet upon confidence of these proofs they did already begin to sing Victoria especially by reason of the enterteinment which the said Doctrines found with the common people For thus the Doctor boasts himself in his second Edition Anno 606. as before was said Many godly learned both in their Preachings Writings and Disputations did concur with him in that Argument and that the lives of many Christians in many places of the Kingdom were framed according to his Doctrine p. 61. Particularly in the Epistle to the Reader that within few years three several profitable Treatises successively were written by three godly learned Preachers Greenhams was one whoseever were the other two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses the Doctrine of the Sabbath might be established Egregiam verò laudem spolia ampla But whatsoever cause he had thus to boast himself in the success of his new Doctrines the Church I am sure had little cause to rejoyce thereat For what did follow hereupon but such monstrous Paradoxes and those delivered in the Pulpit as would make every good man tremble at the hearing of them First as my Author tells me it was preached at a Market Town in Oxfordshire that to do any servile work or business on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly preached in Somersetshire that to throw a Bowl on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man Thirdly in Norfolk that to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lords day was as great a sin as for a Father to take a knife and cut his childs throat Fourthly in Suffolk that to ring more Bells than one on the Lords day was as great a sin as to commit Murder I add what once I heard my self at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet about five years since that temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath-breaker on him that on the Lords day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application unto my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking Fees and giving Counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God And certainly these and the like conclusions cannot but follow most directly on the former Principles For that the fourth Commandment be plainly moral obliging us as straitly as it did the Jews and that the Lords day be to be observed according to the prescript of that Commandment it must needs be that every wilful breach thereof is of no lower nature than Idolatry or blaspheming of the Name of GOD or any other deadly sin against the first Table and therefore questionless as great as Murder or Adultery or any sin against the second But to go forwards where I left my Author whom before I spake of being present when the Suffolk Minister was convented for his so lewd and impious Doctrine was the occasion that those Sabbatarian errours and impieties were first brought to light and to the knowledg of the State On which discovery as he tells us this good ensued that the said books of the Sabbath were called in and forbidden to be printed and made common Archbishop Whitguift by his Letters and Visitations did the one Anno 1599. and Sir John Popham Lord Chief Justice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applyed yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the books of Brown against the service of the Church Nor was this all the fruit of so bad a Doctrine For by inculcating to the people these new Sabbath speculations teaching that that day only was of Gods appointment and all the rest observed in the Church of England a remnant of the will-worship in the Church of Rome the other holy days in this Church established were so shrewdly shaken that till this day they are not well recovered of the blow then given Nor came this on the by or besides their purpose but as a thing that specially was intended from the first beginning from
part of the fourth Commandment Page 359 3. The Annual Sabbaths no less solemnly observed and celebrated than the weekly were if not more solemnly Page 360 4. Of the Parasceue or Preparation to the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals Page 361 5. All manner of work as well forbidden on the Annual as the weekly Sabbaths Page 362 6. What things were lawful to be done on the Sabbath days Page 363 7. Touching the prohibitions of not kindling fire and not dressing meat Page 364 8. What moved the Gentiles generally to charge the Jews with Fasting on the Sabbath day Page 365 9. Touching this Prohibition Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day Page 366 10 All lawful recreations as Dancing Feasting Man-like Exercises allowed and practised by the Jews upon their Sabbaths ibid. CHAP. VI. Touching the observation of the Sabbath unto the time the People were established in the Promised Land 1. The Sabbath not kept constantly during the time the People wandred in the Wilderness Page 368 2. Of him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day ibid. 3. Wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist in the time of Moses Page 369 4. The Law not ordered to be read in the Congregation every Sabbath day Page 370 5. The sack of Hiericho and the destruction of that People was upon the Sabbath Page 371 6. No Sabbath after this without Circumcision and how that Ceremony could consist with the Sabbaths rest Page 372 7. What moved the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath Page 373 8. The standing still of the Sun at the prayers of Josuah c. could not but make some alteration about the Sabbath ibid. 9. What was the Priests work on the Sabbath day and whether it might stand with the Sabbaths rest Page 374 10. The scattering of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation unto the reading of the Law on the sabbath-Sabbath-days Page 375 CHAP. VII Touching the keeping of the Sabbath from the time of David to the Maccabees 1. Particular necessities must give place to the Law of Nature Page 376 2. That Davids flight from Saul was upon the Sabbath Page 377 3. What David did being King of Israel in ordering things about the Sabbath ibid. 4. Elijahs flight upon the Sabbath and what else hapned on the Sabbath in Elijah's time Page 378 5. The limitation of a Sabbath days journey not known amongst the Jews when Elisha lived Page 379 6. The Lord becomes offended with the Jewish Sabbaths and on what occasion ibid. 7. The Sabbath entertained by the Samaritans and their strange niceties therein Page 380 8. Whether the Sabbaths were observed during the Captivity ibid. 9. The special care of Nehemiah to reform the Sabbath Page 381 10. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days begun by Ezra Page 382 11. No Synagogues nor weekly reading of the Law during the Government of the Kings Page 383 11. The Scribes and Doctors of the Law impose new rigours on the People about their Sabbaths Page 384 CHAP. VIII What doth occur about the Sabbath from the Maccabees to the destruction of the Temple 1. The Jews refuse to fight in their own defence upon the Sabbath and what was ordered thereupon Page 385 2. The Pharisees about these times had made the Sabbath burdensome by their Traditions Page 386 3. Hierusalem twice taken by the Romans on the Sabbath day Page 387 4. The Romans many of them Judaize and take up the Sabbath as other Nations did by the Jews example Page 388 5. Augustus Caesar very gracious to the Jews in matters that concerned their Sabbath Page 390 6. What our Redeemer taught and did to rectifie the abuses of and in the Sabbath ibid. 7. The final ruin of the Temple and the Jewish Ceremonies on a Sabbath day Page 391 8. The Sabbath abrogated with the other Ceremonies Page 392 9. Wherein consists the Christian Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures and amongst the Fathers Page 393 10. The idle and ridiculous niceties of the modern Jews in their Perasceves and their Sabbaths conclude the first Part. Page 394 BOOK II. CHAP. I. That there is nothing found in Scripture touching the keeping of the Lords day 1. The Sabbath not intended for a perpetual ordinance Page 400 1. Preparatives unto the dissolution of the Sabbath by our Saviou Christ Page 401 3. The Lords day not enjoyned in the place thereof either by Christ or the Apostles but instituted by the authority of the Church Page 402 4. Our Saviours Resurrection on the first day of the week and apparitions on the same make it not a Sabbath Page 404 5. The coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the first day of the week makes it not a Sabbath Page 405 6. The first day of the week not made a Sabbath more than others by S. Peter S. Paul or any other of the Apostles ibid. 7. S. Paul frequents the Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath and upon what reasons Page 406 8. What was concluded against the Sabbath in the Council holden at Hierusalem Page 407 9. The preaching of S. Paul at Troas upon the first day of the week no argument that then that day was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises Page 408 10. Collections on the first day of the week 1 Cor. 16. conclude as little for that purpose Page 409 11. Those places of S. Paul Gal. 4.10 Coloss 2.16 do prove invincibly that there is no Sabbath to be looked for Page 410 12. The first day of the week not called the Lords day until the end of this first age and what that title adds unto it Page 411 CHAP. II. In what estate the Lords day stood from the death of the Apostles to the Reign of Constantine 1. Touching the orders setled by the Apostles for the Congregation Page 413 2. The Lords day and the Saturday both Festivals and both alike observed in the East in Ignatius time Page 414 3. The Saturday not without great difficulty made a Fasting day Page 415 4. The Controversie about keeping Easter and how much it conduceth to the present business Page 416 5. The Feast of Easter not affixed to the Lords day without much opposition of the Eastern Churches ibid. 6. What Justin Martyr and Dionysius of Corinth have left us of the Lords day Clemens of Alexandria his dislike thereof Page 417 7. Vpon what grounds the Christians of the former times used to pray standing on the Lords day and the time of Pentecost Page 418 8. What is recorded by Tertullian of the Lords day and the Assemblies of the Church Page 419 9. Origen as his Master Clemens had done before dislikes set days for the Assembly Page 420 10. S. Cyprian what he tells us of the Lords day and of the reading of the Scriptures in S. Cyprians time ibid. 11. Of other holy days established in these three first Ages and that they were observed as solemnly as the Lords day was Page 421 12. The
there being a specification of the Holy-days in the Book it self with this direction These to be observed for Holy-days and none other in which the Feasts of the Conversion of St. Paul and the Apostle Barnabas are omitted plainly and upon which specification the Stat. 5 6. Ed. 6. cap. 3. which concerns the Holy-days seems most expresly to be built And for the Offices on those days in the Common-prayer Book you may please to know that every Holy-day consisteth of two special parts that is to say rest or cessation from bodily labour and celebration of Divine or Religious duties and that the days before remembred are so far kept holy as to have still their proper and peculiar Offices which is observed in all the Cathedrals of this Kingdom and the Chappels Royal where the Service is read every day and in most Parish Churches also as oft as either of them falls upon a Sunday though the people be not in those days injoined to rest from bodily labour no more than on the Coronation-day or the Fifth of November which yet are reckoned by the people for a kind of Holy-days Put all which hath been said together and the sum is this That the proceedings of this Church in the Reformation were not meerly Regal as it is objected by some Puritans much less that they were Parliamentarian in so great a work as the Papists falsly charge upon us the Parliaments for the most part doing little in it but that they were directed in a justifiable way the work being done Synodically by the Clergy only according to the usage of the Primitive times the King concurring with them and corroborating what they had resolved on either by his own single Act in his letters Patent Proclamations and Injunctions or by some publick Act of State as in times and by Acts of Parliament 6. Of the power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy and the directing of the People in the publick Duties of Religion WE are now come to the last part of this design unto the power of making Canons in which the Parliament of England have had less to do than in either of the other which are gone before Concerning which I must desire you to remember that the Clergy who had power before to make such Canons and Constitutions in their Convocation as to them seemed meet promised the King in verbo Sacerdotij not to Enact or Execute and new Canons but by his Majesties Royal Assent and by his Authority first obtained in that behalf which is thus briefly touched upon in the Ant. Brit. in the life of William Warham Arch Bishop of Canterbury Clerus in verbe Sacerdotij sidem Regi dedit ne ullas deinceps in Synodo ferrent Ecclesiasticas leges nisi Synodus authoritate Regia congregata constitutiones in Synodis publicatae eadem authoritate ratae essent Upon which ground I doubt not but I might securely raise this proposition That whatsoever the Clergy did or might do lawfully before the act of Submission in their Convocation of their own power without the Kings Authority and consent concurring the same they can and may do still since the act of their Submission the Kings Authority and consent co-operating with them in their Councils and giving confirmation to their Constitutions as was said before Further it doth appear by the asoresaid Act 25 H. 8. c. 19. That all such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Provincial as were made before the said Submission which be not contrary or repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the damage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative Royal were to be used and executed as in former times And by the Statute 26 H. 8. c. 1. of the Kings Supremacy that according to the Recognition made in Convocation our said Soveraign Lord his Heirs and Successors Kings of this Realm shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit repress reform order correct c. all such Errours Heresies Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever they be .c as may be most to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of virtue in Christs Religion and for the peace unity and tranquillity of this Realm and the confirmation of the same So that you see these several ways of ordering matters for the publick weal and governance of the Church First by such ancient Canons and Constitutions as being made in former times are still in force Secondly by such new Canons as are or shall be made in Convocation with and by the Kings consent And thirdly By the Authority of the Sovereign Prince according to the Precedents laid down in the Book of God and the best ages of the Church concerning which you must remember what was said before viz. That the Statutes which concern the Kings Supremacy are Declaratory of an old power only not Introductory of a new which said we shall the better see whether the Parliament have had any thing to do either in making Canons or prescribing Orders for the regulating of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical matters and unto whom the same doth of right belong according to the Laws of the Realm of England And first King Henry being restored to his Headship of Supremacy call it which you will did not conceive himself so absolute in it though at the first much enamoured of it as not sometimes to take his Convocation with him but at all times to be advised by his Prelates when he had any thing to do that concerned the Church for which there had been no provision made by the ancient Canons grounding most times his Edicts and Injunctions Royal upon their advice and resolution For on this ground I mean the judgement and conclusions of his Convocation did he set out the Injunctions of the year 1536. for the abolishing of superstitious Holy-days the exterminating of the Popes Authority the publishing of the Book of Articles which before we spake of num 8. by all Parsons Vicars and Curates for preaching down the use of Images Reliques Pilgrimages and superstitious Miracles for rehearsing openly in the Church in the English tongue the Creed the Pater noster and the Ten Commandments for the due and reverend ministring of the Sacraments and Sacramentals for providing English Bibles to be set in every Church for the use of the people for the regular and sober life of Clergy-men and the relief of the poor And on the other side the King proceeded sometimes only by the advice of his Prelates as in the injunctions of the year 1538. for quarterly Sermons in each Parish for admitting none to Preach but men sufficiently Licenced for keeping a Register-book of Christnings Weddings and Burials for the due paying of Tythes as had been accustomed for the abolishing of the commemoration of St. Thomas Becket for singing a Parce nobis Domine instead of Ora pro nobis and the like to these And of this sort were the Injunctions which
in the time of Moses 3. The prescribed rites and form of the legal Sacrifices 4. Set forms of Prayer and Benediction used at the offering of the Sacrifices in the time of Moses 5. The Song of Moses made a part of the Jewish Liturgie 6. The form and rites used in the Celebration of the Passeover according unto Joseph Scaliger 7. The same together with the Hymnes then used described by Beza 8. The several Prayers and Benedictions which were used therein according to the Jewish Rabbins 9. A form of Blessing of the People prescribed by God unto the Priests A prescribed form used by the People at the offering of their first fruits and tithes 10. The like in burning of their Leaven and in confessing of their Sins to Almighty God as also in the Excommunicating of Impenitent persons 11. An Answer to two main objections from and against the Jewish Rabbins 12. The form of Marriage and rites of Burial used amongst the Jews HItherto we have looked into the Actions and devotions of the blessed Patriarchs during the time they sojourned in the Land of Canaan in which we find not any apparent footstep either of appointed times or determinate places or set forms of worship more than the Consecrating of Jacobs Pillar and giving to the place the name of Bethel Follow them in their journey towards the Land of Egypt and we find Israel offering Sacrifices at Beersheba being in his way upon the rode unto the God of his Father Isaac Gen. xlvi 1. Which Sacrifice if we observe it as we ought Bersabe fuit ultima villa terra Chanaan eundi versus Aegyptum Lyran in Gen. 46. Ayns Annot. in Gen. 46.1 will prove to be as much occasional as any of the rest which we saw before It being very well observed by Aynsworth that Jacob in his Sacrifice upon the way did both give thanks to God for the good tidings which he heard of Joseph and also consulted with the Lord about his going into Egypt whither his Father Isaac had been forbidden to go in a time of Famine as this was Gen. xxvi Besides Beersheba being the last Town of the Land of Canaan in the way of Egypt this might be the last time for ought he could tell wherein he might have opportunity of offering Sacrifice to the Lord his God or tendring to him any publick testimony of his faith and duty And so it proved in the event nor he nor any one of his Posterity being permitted whilst they were in Egypt to offer any Sacrifice unto the Lord as before they used to do And this appears by the request which Moses made to Pharaoh in behalf of the House of Israel that he would suffer them to go three days journey into the Wilderness to offer Sacrifice therein to the Lord their God To which when Pharaoh made reply Exod. 5.3 that rather than let the People go he would permit them for that once to offer Sacrifice unto the Lord in the Land of Egypt Not so said Moses it is not meet we should do so for we shall Sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and they will stone us Exod. 8.26 His reason was because the Gods of the Egyptians were Bulls and Rams and Sheep and Oxen as Lyra notes upon the place Talia vero animalia ab Hebraeis erailt immolanda Lyran. in Exod cap. 8. quod non permisissent Aegyptii in terrasua And certainly the Egyptians could not well endure to see their gods knocked down before their faces So that for all the time that they lived in Egypt the piety and devotion of Gods people did consist especially in the integrity and honesty of their conversation and in those private exercises of Religion which might be done within their own walls in their several Families Nothing to make it known that they were Gods Servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is observed by Epiphanius but that they feared the Lord and were Circumcised Epiphan adv haeres l. 1. haer 5. nothing but that they did acknowledge one only God and exercised themselves in justice and in modesty in patience and long-suffering both towards one another and amongst the Egyptians framing their lives agreeably unto the will of God and the law of Nature But no sooner by a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm had God delivered them from thence but he disposed them being now grown numerous like to the Stars in Heaven for numbers into a constituted Church appointing them set times and places for Religious Worship ordaining a peculiar Priesthood for his publick service prescribing with what Rites and Ceremonies that publick service that religious worship was to be performed And first the time appointed for this purpose was the sabbath-Sabbath-day Exod. 16.23 the keeping of the which was the first of the Commandments which God gave by Moses from whence the Hebrew Doctors say that the Commandment of the Sabath is the foundation and ground of all the rest quod ante alia praecepta hoc datum sit quando Manna acceperunt as being given before them all in the fall of Manna Hospini de Fest Judaeorum cap. 3. A day to be observed and sanctified both by Priest and People by the Priest in adding to the daily Sacrifice an offering of two Lambs of an year old without blemish one in the morning and the other in the evening and by the people in an absolute resting from the works of labour that they might give themselves the better to divine contemplation Unto which day it pleased God afterwards to adde divers solemn Festivals to be observed in their several and appointed seasons viz. the New-moons Lev. 1.23 the Feasts of Trumpets and of Tabernacles the Feasts of Pentecost and of the Passeover although this last had the precedency indeed both in regard of institution and of observation over all the rest this being both ordained and kept at their departure out of Egypt the other not enjoyned till they were come unto mount Sinai even in the bowels of the Wilderness The times being thus appointed and determined Exod. 12. per tot the next particular we meet withal is the designation of the place which was contrived by the direction of Almighty God according to the present condition of his People For being they were then in motion towards Canaan not yet setled there they were to be provided of a portable Temple if I may so call it which might be carried and removed according to the stations and removes of Israel This we find called in holy Scripture by the name of the Tabernacle the Tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 26. 31. 35. and by way of eminency the making and materials of the which are layed down at large in the xxvi Chapter of the Book of Exodus And it continued a long time the place of publick Worship for the Tribes of Israel not only when they were in their way or journeys
but also after they were setled in the Land of Canaan though many times it changed its seat there as occasion was even till the building of the Temple by the hand of Salomon And for the Priests who were to minister unto the Lord in his Congregation no sooner were the times determined and the place designed but the Lord gave command to Moses saying Take thou unto thee Aaron thy Brother and his Sons with him from amongst the Children of Israel Exod. 28.1 that he may minister unto me in the Priests office Unto which office as they were designed by these words of God so were they after consecrated thereunto in a solemn form by the hand of Moses the state and manner of the which is upon record in the viii Chapter of Leviticus And now and not till now were the Tribes of Israel established in a Constituted Church by the Lord their God But as once Isaac said to Abraham Behold the fire and the wood but where is the Lamb for a Burnt-offering Gen. 22.7 So here we have the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals the Tabernacle and the Priests but where are the Sacrifices all this while where the forms of worship That now comes after in its course and that we will consider in its full extent either as legal or as moral First for the legal part thereof it was all prescribed nothing left arbitrary to the people either for the matter or the manner God knew full well that as they had been much infected with the Idolatries of Egypt where they lived before witness the Golden Calf which they made in Horeb so they were apt to be intangled in the Idolatries of those Nations which they were to neighbour and therefore thought it fittest for them to be tyed up and limited in all acts of worship by his prescriptions Which that we may the better see I shall present a brief Synopsis of those rites and ceremonies which were to be observed in these legal Sacrifices together with the Creatures to be Sacrificed according as I find them in Josephus who hath reduced into a lesser compass that which is laid down more at large in the holy Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Antiq. Judaic l. 3. c. 10. c. The Sacrifices are of two sorts the one of them is made for a private person the other for the people in general and these are made in two manners for in the one all is consumed which is upon the Altar which for that cause is called an Holocaust or an whole Burnt-offering the other is Eucharistical or of thanksgiving and they are made with Feasts by those that Sacrifice The particular person that offered a Burnt-offering killed an Oxe a Lamb or a Goat of an year old yet it was lawful to kill an Oxe of greater age being all Males And after their Throats are cut the Priests besprinkle the Altar round about with the blood then they dress the Beast and cut it in pieces and season it with salt and lay it on the Altar ready prepared with wood and fire and having well cleansed the feet and entrails they lay them with the rest and the Priest taketh the skins They that offer the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving kill likewise such sorts of Beasts without spot and more than a year old both Male and Female and after they have cut the throats they sprinkle the blood on the Altar then they take the reins the caul and the fat with the caul about the liver and the rump and lay it on the Altar but the breast and the left leg is left unto the Priests and as touching the rest of the flesh the Priests feast therewith for the space of two days and if then there remain any thing thereof it is burned The same is also observed in the Sin-offering but those that are not of ability to make these greater offerings do bring unto the Offerings a pair of Pigeons or two young Turtles the one of which the Priests have to feast withal the other is consumed with sire He that hath sinned upon Ignorance offereth a Lamb and a she Goat at the same time and the Priest besprinkleth the Altar with the blood thereof not in the same manner as before but the horns only of the Altar and on the Altar they offer the kidneys with the rest of the fat and the caul of the liver the Priests carrying away the skins and eating the flesh within the Tabernacle the very same day because the Law permitteth not to reserve any thing until the next He that hath sinned none but himself being privie to it offereth a Lamb according as the Law commandeth the flesh whereof is eaten in like sort by the Priests the same very day But if the Princes of the People offer for their sins they do in like sort as others do save that they bring a Bull or a Male-kid The Law also ordaineth that in all Sacrifices both private and common there should be a certain quantity of fine flower brought viz. for a Lamb one Assar An Assar as I take it is the tenth part of an Ephah or three pints and an half of Ale-measure An Hin contained three quarts of our measure for a Ram two for a Bull three which is first of all mingled and wrought with oyle and then set upon the Altar to be sanctified They that Sacrifice do likewise bring oyle the balf part of an Hin for a Bull for a Ram the third part for a Lamb the fourth They brought also the like measure of wine as of oyle and poured the wine near to the Altar And if any without Sacrificing offer up fine flower he putteth the first fruits upon the Altar that is to say one handful of it and the rest is taken by the Priests either fryed for it is kneaded with oyl or in loaves made thereof But whatsoever the Priest offereth that must all be hurnt The Law likewise forbiddeth to offer any Beast whatever the same day it is born or to kill it with its Dam or in any other sort before it hath fed twelve days There are also other Sacrifices made for deliverance from sickness or for other causes in which Sacrifices they imploy wine or liquor with that which is offered of which liquors it is not lawful to reserve any thing till the next day when the Priests have taken that portion which belongeth to them So far Josephus The rest that followeth of this Argument is a recital of those Sacrifices which were appointed for the Sabbath and the other Festivals in all which every thing was prescribed and limited by the Law of God And if such care was taken by the Lord our God in the prescribing of these Sacrifices and all the Rites and Ceremonies which belonged to them being the legal part only of this publick worship there is no question to be made but that the Church took care to prescribe forms of Prayers and Praises to be used in
not only Prayers and Benedictions used and commanded to be used at the Celebration but such a prescribed and determinate Form as quickly was received over all the Church The Commentaries commonly ascribed to Ambrose which if not his are certainly both very pious and of great Antiquity give us the matter of those Prayers which here by the Apostles rule were ladi first of all as a preparatory to the Celebration Haec regula Ecclesiastica est tradita à magistro Gentium qua utuntur sacerdotes nostri ut pro omnibus supplicent Ambr. Comment in â— ad Tim. c. 2. c. This Ecclesiastical Ordinance saith he was given by by the Doctor of the Gentiles which our Priests use unto this day making their Prayers to God for all men Praying for the Kings of the world that they may have their people in obedience that being governed in peace they may serve the Lord in rest and quietness of mind as also for all those which are in Authority under them that they may govern the Common-wealth in truth and equity with plenty of all things that so all tumults and seditions being far removed joyfulness may succeed in the place thereof For it is Bread that strengtheneth and Wine that maketh glad the heart of man They intercede also for all those who are in misery or necessity that being delivered from the same they may praise the Lord the Author of all health and safety finally giving thanks to God for all those blessings which he affordeth us in this life that God may so be praised from whom and Christ by whom so many benefits are bestowed upon us that all things being composed and quieted which might prove dangerous unto the Empire we may have liberty to serve the Lord in godliness and honesty Thus he And this I could fain know how little if at all this differs either for matter form or place from the Prayer entituled for the Church militan here on Earth continued till this day in the Church of England And that according to S. Ambrose if the work be his Secundum regulam Ecclesiasticam traditam à Magistro Gentium conform unto a rule of S. Paul's prescribing I add but this which is observed unto my hand by a very learned and industrious Gentleman for I am willing to acknowledge by whom I profit that in the meaning of the Apostle H. Thorndike of Religious Assemb cap. 10. p. 377. as well as in the practice of the primitive Church Prayers and Supplications were to be made for all men in the Celebration of the Eucharist for Kings c. it being neither strained nor forced as he notes full well to take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or thanksgiving which S. Paul there useth in that very sense in which it hath been used by Clemens and Ignatius the Apostles Scholars for the Celebration of the Eucharist for the whole action and all the Prayers and supplications which it was celebrated withal For why not thus as well in this place of S. Paul 1 Cor. 14.16 as in another not so likely where the Apostle asks this question HOw shall he which occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he understandeth not what he saith Of which thus Beza in his notes Suspicor Apostolum attingere Beza Annot. in 1. ad Cor. c. 14. celebrandae Domini coenae ritum solennem illam gratiarum actionem I am saith he of an opinion that the Apostle in this place doth point unto the Rites of Celebrating the Lords holy Supper and that solemn giving of thanks which was therein used a full description of the which he gives us out of Justin Martyr which we shall see anon in its proper place Whence had the blessed Sacraments the name of Eucharist V. Casaubon in Annal. Eccl. Exerc. 16. n. 40. if our Grammarians and Philologers be not much mistaken but from this solemn giving thanks which was used therein Thus am I fallen at last upon S. Pauls Epistle unto those of Corinth wherein it is conceived that the performances of the Church are most fully handled as they relate unto the publick worship of Almighty God Which though it be as in relation to those times in which there were such wonderful effusions of the holy Spirit yet being that those effusions were miraculous and the publick offices of the Church were governed by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost there are not many things therein which may be drawn into example in these later times in which we must not look for such effusions For it is well observed by Chrysostom Chrysost Homil. 14. n. 18. ad Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That many of those miracles which were frequent then are not to be expected now These extraordinary graces were not given but for an extraordinary end which was the planting of the Gospel in the midst of Paganism or where it was encountred by an obstinate faction of obdurate Jews And therefore they that do pretend to such special gifts as were in those times necessary for theordering and edification of the Church may by as strong a Charter for ought I can see lay claim unto the gift of Tongues and the power of Healing and the spirit of Prophesie which yet I see but few of them do aspire unto Passing by those things therefore in this Epistle which are not to be drawn into example if will appear most clearly from the xiv Chapter that to the constituting of Gods publick Service in the Congregation there went these three parts Prayer Praise and Prophesie which we have formerly observed to be the three ingredients that make up the same This last we find much spoke of throughout that Chapter particularly and by name verse 1 3 5 22 29 31 32 39. The other two he joyneth together in one verse 1 Cor. 14.15 viz. I will pray with the spirit and will pray with understanding also I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with understanding also Himself informs us what he means by Prophesying where it is said that he who Prophesyeth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation Ibid. v. 3. both which as the times then were there was a great ambition in the Prophets of the Church of Corinth for ostentation of their gifts to utter them in Tongues not understood by the common people This is the thing most blamed by the Apostle in the present Chapter viz. that in their exhortations to the people or explications of the Scriptures they used to speak in unknown tongues and not interpret Ibid. v. 5. 27 And that they did the like in the act of Prayer is conceived by Beza where he thus glosseth on the Text Orabo spiritu i. e. lingua peregrina quam mihi dictat spiritus Beâ—a in Annot. in 1. ad Cor. 14 I will pray in the spirit that is saith he in such an unknown tongue as the spirit
four Sees in those early days 7. The use made of this Episcopal succession by Saint Irenaeus 8. As also by Tertullian and some other Ancients 9. Of the Authority enjoyed by Bishops in Tertullians time in the administration of the Sacraments 10. As also in enjoyning Fasts and the disposing of the Churches Treasury 11. And in the dispensation of the Keys 12. Tertullian misalledged in maintenance of the Lay-Presbytery 13. The great extent of Christianity and Episcopacy in Tertullians time concludes this Century HAVING thus setled the affairs of the Church of Britain we will look back again towards Rome where we find Victor sitting as successor unto Eleutherius and the whole Church though free from persecutions yet terribly embroyled with Schisms and Heresies For in the later end of Eleutherius Blastus and Florinus two notorious Hereticks had broached this doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Eccl. hist l. 5. c. 19. that God was the author of sin and possibly might have spread the venom of their Heresie exceeding far if Irenaeus that great and learned Bishop of Lyons being then at Rome had not prescribed a speedy and a sovereign Antidote in several Tractates and Discourses against the same But Eleutherius being dead and Victor in his place there hapned such a Schism in the Church of Christ by his precipitance and perversness that all the water which Irenaeus and many other godly men could pour into it Id. l. 5. c. 23. 24. was hardly sufficient to quench the flame The business which occasioned it was the feast of Easter or indeed not the Feast it self upon the keeping of the which all Christians had agreed from the first beginnings but for the day in which it was to be observed wherein the Churches of Asia had an old Tradition differing from the rest of Christendom For whereas generally that festival had been solemnized in the Church of Christ on the Lords Day next after the Jewish Passeover as being the day which our Redeemer honoured with his Resurrection the Christians of the Asian Churches kept it upon the 14th day of the month precisely being the very day prescribed for the Jewish Passeover A business of no great importance more than for a general conformity in the Church of Christ yet such as long had exercised the patience of it even from the time of Pius Pope of Rome who first decreed it to be kept on the Lords Day Die Dominico Pascha celebrari as it is in Platina Platina in vita Pii Pont. Euscb Ecc. hist l. 5. c. 24. but followed with most heat and violence by this Victor perhaps upon the Omen of his name Of whom Eusebius thus reporteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that he attempted to cut off the whole Church of Asia together with the Churches adjacent from the Communion of the Catholick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they had maintained some heterodox or dangerous Doctrine contrary to the Faith of Christ A matter taken very tenderly not only by the Asian Bishops whom it most concerned but also by some other of the Western parts who more endeavoured the preservation of the Churches peace than the advancement and authority of the See of Rome those of chief note which interessed themselves therein being Irenaeus Polycrates the one Bishop of the Metropolitan Church of Lyons in France the other of the Church of Ephesus the Queen of Asia both honourable in their times and places And first Polycrates begins deriving the occasion and descent of their observation from Philip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. one of the twelve Apostles not of the seven Deacons as our Christopherson most ridiculously and falsly doth translate it who died at Hierapolis a City of Phrygia and from Saint John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who rested on the bosom of our Lord and Saviour as also from Polycarpus and Thracias Bishops of Smyrna and both Martyrs Sagaris B. of Laodicea Papyrus and Melito and many others who kept the feast of Easter as the Asians did As for himself he certifieth that following the Traditions of his Elders he had done the like that seven of his kindred had been Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself being the eighth and all which did so observe the feast of Easter when the Jews did prepare the Passeover that having served God 65 years diligently canvassed over the holy Scriptures and held both intercourse and correspondence with many of the brethren over all the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was the least disturbed at those Bruta fulmina Adding withal that he might here commemorate those several Bishops that were assembled at his call to debate the point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that this bare retital of their names was too great a trouble who though they could not but be sensible of his imperfections yet thinking that he bare not those gray hairs for nought did willingly subscribe unto his Epistle So far Id. ibid. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to this purpose he And on the other side Irenaeus writing unto Victor utterly dislikes that his severe and rigid manner of proceeding in cutting off so many Churches from the Communion of our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only because they did adhere to the Tradition of their Ancestors in a point of Ceremony shewing how much he differed in this business from the temper and moderation of his Predecessours Soter Anicetus Pius Higinus Sixtus and Telesphorus who though they held the same opinions that he did did notwithstanding entertain the Asian Bishops when they came unto them with great affection and humanity sending to those who lived far distant the most blessed Eucharist in testimony of their fellowship and Communion with them Nor did he write thus unto Victor only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to the Governours or Bishops of many other Churches also And certainly it was but need that such a Moderator should be raised to atone the difference the billows beating very highly and Victor being beset on every side for his stiff perversness by the Prelates of the adverse party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharply assaulting him both with words and Writings For the composing of this business before it grew to such a heat there could no better means be thought of than that the Bishops of the Church in their several quarters should meet together to debate and determine of it And so accordingly they did Euseb hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and many Synods and assemblies of the Bishops were held about it viz. one in Caesarea of Palestine wherein Theophilus B. of the place and Narcissus B. of Hierusalem did sit as Presidents another at Rome a third of all the Bishops of Pontus in the which Palmas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the chief amongst them of that Order did then preside A fourth there was of the French or Gallick Churches in the which Irenaeus sat
point of time some have referred the institution and original of the Sabbath taking these words to be a plain Narration of a thing then done according to that very time wherein the Scripture doth report it And that the sanctifying of the seventh day therein mentioned was a Commandment given by God to our Father Adam touching the sanctifying of that day to his publick Worship Conceiving also that there is some special Mystery and morality in the number of seven for which that day and none but that could be designed and set apart for this employment Others and those the ancienter and of more authority conceive these words to have been spoken by a Prolepsis or Anticipation and to relate unto the times wherein Moses wrote And that it was an intimation only of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctifying rather of the seventh day than of any other no Precept to that purpose being given to Adam and to his posterity nor any mystery in that number why of it self it should be thought most proper for Gods publick service The perfect stating of these points will give great light to the following story And therefore we will first crave leave to remove these doubts before we come to matter of fact that afterwards I may proceed with the greater ease unto my self and satisfaction to the Reader The ground-work or foundation laid the Building will be raised the surer And first it is conceived by many learned men that Moses in the second of Genesis relates unto the times in the which he lived and wrote the History of the Creation when God had now made known his holy Will unto him and the Commandment of the Sabbath had by his Ministery been delivered to the house of Israel This is indeed the ancienter and more general tendry unanimously delivered both by Jew and Christian and not so much as questioned till these later days And howsoever some ascribe it to Tostatus as to the first inventer of it yet is it ancienter far than he though were it so it could not be denied but that it had an able and a learned Author A man considering the times in which he lived and the short time of life it pleased God to give him that hardly ever had his equal It 's true Tostatus thus resolves it In Gen. 2. He makes this quaere first Num Sabbatum cum à Deo sanctificatum fuerit in primordio mundi rerum c. Whether the Sabbath being sanctified by God in the first infancy of the World had been observed of men by the Law of Nature And thereunto returns this Answer quod Deus non dederit praceptum illud de observatione Sabbati in principio sed per Mosen datum esse c. that God commanded not the Sabbath to be sanctified in the beginning of the World but that it was commanded afterwards by the Law of Moses when God did publickly make known his Will upon Mount Sinai And that whereas the Scripture speaketh of sanctifying the seventh-day in the second of Genesis it is not to be understood as if the Lord did then appoint it for his publick Worship but is to be referred unto the time wherein Moses wrote which was in the Wilderness Et sic Moses intendebat dicere quod Deus illum diem sanctificavit sc nobis c. And so the meaning of the Prophet will be briefly this that God did sanctifie that day that is to us to us that are his people of the house of Jacob that we might consecrate it to his service So far Tostatus In which I must confess that I see not any thing but what Josephus said before him though in other words who speaking of the Worlds Creation doth conclude it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Antiqu. l. 1.2 So that Moses saith that the World and all that is therein was made in six whole days and that upon the seventh day God took rest and ceased from his labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By reason whereof we likewise desist from travail on that day which we call the Sabbath i. e. Repose So that the institution of the Sabbath by Tostatus and the observation of it by Josephus are both of them referred by their us and we unto the times of Moses and the house of Israel Nor is Josephus the only learned man amongst the Jews that so interpreteth Moses's meaning Solomon Iarchi one of the principal of the Rabbins speaks more expresly to this purpose and makes this Gloss or Comment upon Moses words Benedixit ei i. e. in manna c. God blessed the seventh day i. e. in Mannah because for every day of the week an Homer of it fell upon the Earth and a double portion on the sixth and sanctified it i. e. in Mannah because it fell not on the seventh day at all Et scriptura loquitur de re futura And in this place saith he the Scripture speaks as of a thing that was to came But what need more be said Mercer a learned Protestant and one much conversant in the Rabbins In Gen. 2. confesseth that the Rabbins generally referred this place and passage to the following times even to the sanctification of the Sabbath established by the Law of Moses Hebraei fere ad futurum referunt i.e. sanctificationem Sabbati postea lege per Mosen sancitam unde Manna eo die non descendit And howsoever for his own part he is of opinion that the first Fathers being taught by God kept the seventh day holy yet he conceives withal that the Commandment of keeping holy the Sabbath day was not made till afterwards Nam hinc from Gods own resting on that day postea praeceptum de Sabbato natum est as he there hath it Doubtless the Jews who so much doted on their Sabbath would not by any means have robbed it of so great antiquity had they had any ground to approve thereof or not known the contrary So that the scope of Moses in this present place was not to shew the time when but the occasion why the Lord did after sanctifie the seventh day for a Sabbath day viz. because that on that day he rested from the works which he had created Nor was it otherwise conceived than that Moses here did speak by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation till Ambrose Catharin one of the great sticklers in the Trent-Council opined the contrary He in his Comment on that Text falls very foul upon Tostatus and therein leads the Dance to others who have since taken up the same opinion Ineptum est quod quidam commentus est c. It is a foolish thing saith he that In Gen. 2. as a certain Writer fancieth the sanctification of that day which Moses speaks of should not be true as of that very point of time whereof he speaks it but rather to be referred unto the time wherein be wrote as if the meaning only were that then it
and Circumcision and the like de Sodomorum incendio liberatus est Therefore nor Lot nor Heber nor Melchisedech ever kept the Sabbath For Abraham next the Father of the Faithful with whom the Covenant was made and Circumcision as a seal annexed unto it The Scripture is exceeding copious in setting down his life and actions as also of the lives and actions of his Son and Nephews their flittings and removes their Sacrifices Forms of Prayer and whatsoever else was signal in the whole course of their affairs but yet no mention of the Sabbath Though such a memorable thing as sanctifying of a constant day unto the Lord might probably have been omitted in the former Patriarchs of whom there is but little left save their names and ages as if they had been only brought into the story to make way for him yet it is strange that in a punctual and particular relation of his life and piety there should not be one Item to point out the Sabbath had it been observed This is enough to make one think there was no such matter Et quod non invenis usquam esse putes nusquam in the Poets Language I grant indeed that Abraham kept the Christian Sabbath in righteousness and holiness serving the Lord his God all the days of his life and so did Isaac and Jacob. Sanctificate diem Sabbati saith the Prophet Jeremiah to the Jews i.e. ut omne tempus vitae nostrae in sanctificatione ducamus sicut fecerunt patres nostri In Hier. 17. Abraham Isaac Jacob as Saint Hierom glosseth it Our venerable Bede also hath affirmed as much that Abraham kept indeed the spiritual Sabbath quod semper à servili In Luc. 19. i.e. noxia vacabat actione whereby he always rested from the servile works of sin but that he kept or sanctified any other Sabbath the Christian Fathers deny unanimously In Dial. cum Tryphone Justin the Martyr numbring up the most of those before remembred concludes that they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were justified without the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so was Abraham after them and all his Children until Moses And whereas Trypho had exacted a necessary keeping of the Law Sabbaths New-moons and Circumcision the Martyr makes reply that Abraham Isaac Jacob Job and all the other Patriarchs both before and after them until Moses time yea and their Wives Sarah Rebecca Rachel Lea and all the rest of religious Women unto Moses Mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither kept any of them all nor had commandment so to do till Circumcision was enjoyned to Abraham and his Posterity So Irenaeus that Abraham Lib. 4.30 sine Circumcisione observatione sabbatorum credidit Deo without or Circumcision or the Sabbath did believe in God which was imputed to him for righteousness And where the Jews objected in defence of their ancient Ceremonies that Abraham had been circumcised Tertullian makes reply sed ante placuit Deo quam circumcideretur nec tamen sabbatizavit Adv. Judaeos that he was acceptable unto God before his being Circumcised and yet he never kept the Sabbath See more unto this purpose in Eusebius de Demonstr l. 1. c. 6. de praeparat l. 7. c. 8. where Isaac and Jacob are remembred too as also Epiphanius adv haeres l. 1. n. 5. Thus far the ancient Christian Writers have declared of Abraham that he kept no Sabbath and this in conference with the Jew and in Books against them Which doubtless they had never done had there been any possibility for the Jews to have proved the contrary Some of the Jews indeed not being willing thus to lose their Father Abraham have said and written too that he kept the Sabbath as they do and for a proof thereof they ground themselves on that of Genesis because that Abraham obeyed my Voice and kept my Charge my Commandments my Statutes and my Laws The Jews conclude from hence as Mercer and Tostatus tell us upon the Text that Abraham kept the Sabbath and all other ceremonies of the Law as much I think the one as he did the other Who those Jews were that said it of what name and quality that they have not told us and it were too much forwardness to credit any nameless Jew before so many Christian Fathers Tostatus though he do relate their dicunt yet believes them not and herein we will rather follow him than Mercer who seems a little to incline to that Jewish fancy The rather since some Jews of name and quality have gone the same way that the Fathers did before remembred De Arianis l. 11. c. 10. For Petrus Galatinus tell us how it is written in Beresith Ketanna or the lesser exposition upon Genesis a Book of publick use and great authority among them that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath And this he tells us on the credit of Rabbi Johannan who saith expresly that there upon these words God blessed the seventh day it is set down positively Non scripta est de Abrahamo observatio Sabbati And where it is objected for the Jew that in case Abraham did not keep it it was because it was not then commanded This Galatinus makes reply Ex hoc saltem infertur sabbati cultum non esse de lege naturae that therefore it is evident that the Sabbath is no part of the Law of nature As for the Text of Genesis we may expound it well enough and never find a Sabbath in it which that it may be done with the least suspition we will take the exposition of Saint Chrysostom who very fully hath explained it Because he hath obeyed my voice c. Right saith the Father God said unto him Get thee out from thy Fathers house and and from thy kindred and go into the Land that I shall shew thee And Abraham went out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and left a fair possession for an expectation and this not wavering but with all alacrity and readiness Then followeth his expectation of a Son in his old age when nature was decayed in him as the Lord had promised his casting out of Ismael as the Lord commanded his readiness to offer Isaac as the Lord had willed and many others of that nature Enough to give occasion unto that applause because he hath obeyed my voice although he never kept the Sabbath Indeed the Sabbath could not have relation to those words in Gen. because it was not then commanded Next look on Jacob the heir as well of Abrahams travels as of his faith Take him as Labans Shepherd and the Text informs us of the pains he took Gen. 31.40 In the day time the drought consumed me and the frost by night and the sleep departed from mine eyes No time of rest much more no seventh part of his time allotted unto rest from his daily labours And in his flight from Laban it seems he stood not on the Sabbath For though he fled thence with his Wives
and Children and with all his substance and that he went but easily according as the Cattel and the Children were able to endure yet he went forwards still without any resting Otherwise Laban who heard of his departure on the third day and pursued after him amain must needs have overtaken him before the seventh Now for the rest of Jacobs time when he was setled in the Land appointed for him and afterwards removed to Egypt See n. 5. of this Chapter we must refer you unto Justin Martyr and Eusebius whereof one saith expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he kept no Sabbath the other makes him one of those which lived without the Law of Moses whereof the Sabbath was a part Having brought Jacob into Egypt we should proceed to Joseph Moses and the rest of his off-spring there but we will first take Job along as one of the posterity of Abraham that after we may have the more leisure to wait upon the Israelites in that house of bondage I say as one of the posterity of Abraham the fifth from Abraham Demonstr l. 1. c. 6. so Eusebius tells us who saith moreover that he kept no Sabbath What saith he shall we say of Job that just that pious that most blameless man What was the rule whereby be squared his life and governed his devotions Was any part of Moses Law Not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Was any keeping of the Sabbath or observation of any other Jewish order How could that be saith he considering that he was ancienter than Moses and lived before his Law was published For Moses was the seventh from Abraham and Job the eighth So far Eusebius And Justin Martyr also joyns him with Abraham and his Family as men that took not heed of New Moons or Sabbaths whereof see before n. 5. 2. Edit p. 14. I find indeed in Dr. Bound that Theodore Beza on his own Authority hath made Job very punctual in sanctifying septimum saltem quemque diem every seventh day at least as God saith he from the beginning had appointed But I hold Beza not a fit match for Justin and Eusebius nor to be credited in this kind when they say the contrary considering in what times they lived and with whom they dealt And now we come at last unto the Israelites in Egypt from Joseph who first brought them thither to Moses who conducted them in their flight from thence and so unto the body of the whole Nation Dem. l. 1. c. 6. For Joseph first Eusebius first tells us in the general that the same institution and course of life which by the Ordinance of Christ was preached unto the Gentiles had formerly been commended to the ancient Patriarchs particular instances whereof he makes Melchisedech and Noah and Enoch and Abraham till the time of Circumcision And then it follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Joseph in the Court of Egypt long time before the Law of Moses lived answerably to those ancient patterns and not according as the Jews Nay he affirms the same of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Law-giver himself the Chieftain of the Tribes of Israel As for the residue of the People we can expect no more of them that they lived in bondage under severe and cruel Masters who called upon them day by day to fulfil their tasks See Exod. 5. v. 5. 14. De vita Mosis lib. 1. and did expostulate with them in an heavy manner in case they wanted of their Tale. The Jews themselves can best resolve us in this point And amongst them Philo doth thus describe their troubles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Taskmasters or Overseers of the works were the most cruel and unmerciful men in all the Country who laid upon them greater tasks than they were able to endure inflicting on them no less punishment than death it self if any of them yea though by reason of infirmity should withdraw himself from his daily labour Some were commanded to employ themselves in the publick structures others in bringing in materials for such mighty buildings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never enjoying any rest either night or day that in the end they were even spent and tired with continual travel Antiqu. Jud. lib. 2. c. 5. Josephus goes a little further and tells us this that the Egyptians did not only tire the Israelites with continual labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that the Israelites endevoured to perform more than was expected Assuredly in such a woful state as this they had not leave nor leisure to observe the Sabbath And lastly Rabbi Maimony makes the matter yet more absolute Apud Ryvit in Deealog who saith it for a truth that when they were in Egypt neque quiescere vel sabbatum agere potuerunt they neither could have time to rest nor to keep the Sabbath seeing they were not then at their own disposing So he ad Deut. 5.15 Indeed it easily may be believed that the People kept no Sabbath in the Land of Egypt seeing they could not be permitted in all that time of their abode there to offer sacrifice which was the easier duty of the two and would less have taken them from their labours Those that accused the Israelites to have been wanton lazy and I know not what because they did desire to spend one only day in religious exercises What would they not have done had they desisted every seventh day from the works imposed upon them Doubtless they had been carried to the house of Correction if not worse handled I say in all that time they were not permitted to offer sacrifice in that Countrey and therefore when they purposed to escape from thence they made a suit to Pharaoh Exod. 8. that he would suffer them to go three days journey into the Wilderness to offer sacrifice there to the Lord their God Rather than so Pharaoh was willing to permit them for that once to sacrifice unto the Lord in the Land of Egypt And what said Moses thereunto It is not meet saith he so to do For we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God Vers 26 before their eyes and they will stone us His reason was because the Gods of the Egyptians were Bulls and Rams and Sheep and Oxen Vers 26 as Lyra notes upon that place talia verò animalia ab Hebraeis erant immolanda quod non permisissent Aegyptii in terra sua And certainly the Egyptians would not endure to see their Gods knocked down before their faces If any then demand wherein the Piety and Religion of Gods People did consist especially we must needs answer that it was in the integrity and honesty of their conversation Adv. haeres l. 1 har 5. and that they worshipped God only in the spirit and truth Nothing to make it known that they were Gods people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only that they feared the Lord
would not stir nor give the place not to Jove himself More of this point see Chrysost hom 49. in Job But to proceed the next great action that occurs in holy Scripture reducible unto the business now in hand is that so famous miracle of the Suns standing still at the Prayers of Josuab when as the Sun stood still in the middest of Heaven Jos 10.13 and hasted not to go down about a whole day as the Text hath it Or as it is in Ecclesiast Cap. 46.4 Did not the Sun go back by his means and was not one day as long as two The like to take them both together in this place was that great miracle of mercy shewed to Hezekiah 2 King 20. by bringing of the shadow ten degrees backward by which it had gone down in the Dial of Ahaz In each of these there was a signal alteration in the course of nature and the succession of time so notable that it were very difficult to find out the seventh day precisely from the worlds Creation or to proceed in that account since the late giving of the Law So that in this respect the Jews must needs be at a loss in their calculation and though they might hereafter set apart one day in seven for rest and meditation yet that this day so set apart could be precisely the seventh day from the first Creation is not so easie to be proved The Author of the Practice of Piety as zealously as he pleads for the morality of the Sabbath confesseth that in these regards the Sabbath could not be observed precisely on the day appointed And to speak properly saith he as we take a day for the distinction of time called either a day natural consisting of 24 hours or a day artificial consisting of 12 hours from Sun-rising to Sun setting And withal consider the Sun standing still at noon the space of an whole day in the time of Josuah and the Sun going back ten degrees viz. five hours which is almost half an artificial day in Hezekiahs time the Jews themselves could not keep their Sabbath on that precise and just distinction of time called at the first the seventh day from the Creation If so if they observed it not at the punctual time according as the Law commanded it followeth then on his conscssion that from the time of Josuah till the destruction of the Temple there was no Sabbath kept by the Jews at all because not on the day precisely which the Law appointed This miracle as it advantaged those of the house of Israel in the present slaughter of their Enemies so could it not but infinitely astonish all the Canaanites and make them faint and flie before the Conquerors In so much that in the compass of five years as Josephus tells us there was not any lest to make head against them So that the Victory being assured and many of the Tribes in vested in their new possessions it pleased the Congregation of Israel to come together at Shilo Jos 18.1 there to set up the Tabernacle of the Congregation Anti ju Jud. l. 5. c. 1. And they made choice thereof as Josephus saith because it seemed to be a very convenient place by reason of the beauty of the place Rather because if sorted best with Josuahs liking who being of the Tribe of Ephraim within whose lot that City stood was perhaps willing to confer that honour on it But whatsoever was the motive here was the Tabernacle erected and hitherto the Tribes resorted and finally here the legal Ceremonies were to take beginning God having told them many times these and these things ye are to do when ye are come into the Land that I shall give you viz. Levit. 48. and 23. Numb 15. Deut. 12. That Gilgal was the standing lamp and that the Levites there laid down the Tabernacle as in a place of strength and safety is plain in Scripture but that they there erected it or performed any legal Ministery therein hath no such evidence Though God had brought them then into the Land of Promise yet all this while they were unsetled The Land was given after when they had possession So that the next Sabbath which ensued on the removal of the Tabernacle unto Shilo was the first Sabbath which was celebrated with its legal Ceremonies and this was Anno Mundi 2589. In which if we consider as well the toylsomness as multiplicity of the Priestlike-offices we shall soon see that though the People rested then yet the Priest worked hardest First for the Loaves of Proposition Antiqu. Jud. l. 3. c. 10. or the Shew-bread however Josephus tells us that they were baked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day before the Sabbath and probably in his time it might be so 1 Chron. 9. yet it is otherwise in the Scriptures The Kohathites saith the Text were over the Shew-bread for to prepare it every Sabbath These Loaves were twelve in number one for every Tribe each of them two tenth deals or half a peck so the Scriptures say every Cake square ten hand-breaths long five square and seven fingers high so the Rabbins teach us The kneading baking and disposing of these Cakes must require some labour Athanas bom de semente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Where there is baking saith the Father then must be beating of the Oven and carrying in of faggots and whatsoever work is necessary in the Bakers trade Then for the Sacrifices of the day the labour of the Priest when it was left was double what it was on the other days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom hath rightly noted The daily sacrifice was of two Lambs Concio 1. de lazaro the Supernumerary of the Sabbath was two more If the New-moon fell on the Sabbath as it often did there was besides these named already an offering of two Bullocks a Ram seven Lambs and if that New-moon were the Feast of Trumpets also as it sometimes was there was a further offering of seven Lambs one Ram one Bullock And which is more each of these had their several Meat-offerings and Drink-offerings Perfumes and Frankincense preportionable to attend upon them By that time all was done so many Beasts kill'd skinned washed quartered and made ready for the Altar so many fires kindled meat and drink-offerings in a readiness and the sweet Odours fitted for the work in hand no question but the Priest had small cause to boast himself of his Sabbaths rest or to take joy in any thing but his larger fees and that he had discharged his duty As for the People though they might all partake of the fruits hereof yet none but those that dwelt in Shilo or near unto it at the least could behold the sight or note what pains the Priests took for them whilst they themselves sate still and stirred not Had the Commandment been moral and every part thereof of the same condition the Priests had never done
the Levites were appointed in the times before to bear about the Tabernacle as occasion was the Tabernacle now being fixed and setled in Hierusalem there was no further use of the Levites service in that kind 1 Chron. 23.4 5. Therefore King David thought it good to set them to some new employments and so he hid some of them to assist the Priests in the publick Ministery some to be Overseers and Judges of the people some to be Porters also in the house of God and finally some others to be Singers to praise the Lord with instruments that he had made with Harps with Viols and with Cymbals Of these the most considerable were the first and last The first appointed to assist at the daily Sacrifices Verse 31. as also at the Offering of all Burnt-offerings unto the Lord in the Sabbaths in the months and at the appointed times according to the number and according to their custom continually before the Lord. Those were instructed in the songs of the Lord. Cpap. 25.7 The other were chiefly which were made for the Sabbath days and the other Festivals and one he made himself of his own enditing entituled a Song or Psalm for the Sabbath day Psalm 92. Calvin upon the 92 Psalm is of opinion that he made many for that purpose as no doubt he did and so he did for the Feasts also Josephus tells us Antiq. Jud. l. 7. c. 10. that he composed Odes and Hymns to the praise of God as also that he made divers kinds of instruments and that he taught the Levites to praise Gods Name upon the Sabbath days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other Festivals as well upon the Annual as the weekly Sabbath Where note that in the distribution of the Levites into several Offices there was then no such Office thought of as to be Readers of the Law which proves sufficiently that the Law was not yet read publickly unto the people on the Sabbath day Nor did he only appoint them their Songs and Instruments but so exact and punctual was he that he prescribed what Habit they should wear in the discharging of their Ministery in singing praises to the Lord which was a white linnen Rayment such as the Surplice now in use in the Church of England 2 Chron. 5.12 13. Also the Levites saith the Text which were the singers being arrayed in white linnen having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Altar c. praising and thanking God for his Grace and wercies And this he did not by commandment from above or any warrant but his own as we find and that he thought it fit and decent David the Prophet of the Lord knew well what did belong to David the King of Israel in ordering matters of the Church and setling things about the Sabbath Nor can it be but worth the notice that the first King whom God raised up to be a nursing Father unto his Church should exercise his regal power in dictating what he would have done on the Sabbath day in reference to Gods publick Worship As if in him the Lord did mean to teach all others of the same condition as no doubt he did that it pertains to them to vindicate the day of his publick service as well from superstitious fancies as prophane contempts and to take special order that his name be glorified as well in the performances of the Priests as the devotions of the people This special care we shall find verified in Constantine the first Christian Emperour of whom more hereaster in the next Book and third Chapter Now what was there ordained by David was afterwards confirmed by Solomon whereof see 2 Chron. 8.14 who as he built a Temple for Gods publick Worship for the New-moons and weekly Sabbaths and the solemn Feasts as the Scripture tells us so he or some of his Sucessours built a fair feat within the Porch thereof wherein the Kings did use to sit both on the Sabbath and the annual Festivals The Scripture calls it tegmen sabbati the covert for the Sabbath that is saith Rabbi Solomon 2 Kings 16. locus quidam in porticu templi gratiose coopertus in quo Rex sedebat die sabbati in magnis festivitatibus as before was said So that in this too both were equal From David pass we to Elijah from one great Prophet to anotyher both persecuted and both fain to flie and both to flie upon the Sabbath Elijah had made havock of the Priests of Baal and Jezebel sent a message to him that he should arm himself to expect the like The Prophet warned hereof arose and being encouraged by an Angel 2 Kings 19.8 he did eat and drink and walked in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights until he came to Horeb the Mount of God What walked he forty days and as many nights without rest or ceasing So it is resolved on Elijah as we read in Damascen De fide Orthod l. 4. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disqueting himself non only by continual fasting but by his traveling on the Sabbath even for the space of forty days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did without question break the Sabbath yet God who made that Law was not at all offended with him but rather to reward his vertue Andae qu. 122.8.15.4 appeared to him in Mount Horeb. So Thomas Aquinas speaking of some men in the old Testament qui transgredientes observantiam subbati non peccabant who did transgress against the Sabbath and yet did not sin makes instance of Elijah and of his Journey Wherein saith he it must needs be granted that be did travel on the Sabbath And where a question might be made how possibly Elijab could spend forty days and forty nights in so small a Journey Tostatus makes reply that he went not directly forwards but wandred up and down and from place to place ex timore inquiectudine mentis In locum partly for fear of being sound and partly out of a disquieted and afflicted mind Now whiles Elijab was in exile Benbadad King of Syria invaded Israel and incamped near Aphek where Ahab also followed him and sat down by him with his Army And saith the Text they pitched one over against the other seven days 1 Kings 20.29 and so it was that in the seventh day the Battel was joyned and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an bundred thousand footmen in one day Ask Zanchius what this seventh day was and he will tell you plainly that it was the Sabbath 14 4 Mandat For shewing us that any servile works may be done lawfully on the Sabbath if either Charity or unavoidable necessity do so require he brings this History in for the proof thereof And then he adds Illi die ipso sabbati quia necessitas postulabat pugnam cum hostibus commiserunt c. The Israelites saith he fighting against their Enemies
those of Corinth in that they joyn'd not with the Assembly but had their Psalms unto themselves Whereby it seems that they had left the true use of Psalms which being so many acclamations exultations and holy provocations to give God the glory were to be sung together by the whole Assembly their singing at that time being little more than a melodious kind of pronuntiation such as is commonly now used in singing of the ordinary Psalms and Prayers in Cathedral Churches And so it stood till in the entrance of this Age Ignatius Bishop of Antiochia one who was conversant with the Apostles brought in the use of singing alternatim course by course according as it still continues in our publick Quires where one side answers to another some shew whereof is left in Parochial Churches in which the Minister and the People answer one another in their several turns Hist li. 6. c. 8. To him doth Socrates refer it and withal affirms that he first learnt it of the Angels whom in a vision he had heard to sing the praise of God after such a manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author hath it Hist l. 2. c. 24. And where Theodoret doth refer it to Flavianus and Diodorus Priests of Antiochia during the busilings of the Arian Hereticks In Damaso and Platina unto Damasus Pope of Rome Theodoret is to be interpreted of the restitution of this custom having been left off and Platina of the bringing of it into the Western Churches For that it was in use in Ignatius time who suffered in the time of Trajan and therefore probably begun by him as is said by Socrates is evident by that which Pliny signified to the self same Trajan where he informs him of the Christians Quod soliti essent stato die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo tanquam Deo dicere secum invicem c. Their greatest crime said he was this that at a certain day but what that day was that he tells not they did meet together before day-light and there sing hymns to Christ as unto a God one with another in their courses and after bind themselves together by a common Sacrament not unto any wicked or unjust attempt but to live orderly without committing Robbery Theft Adultery or the like offences Now for the day there meant by Pliny it must be Saturday or Sunday if it were not both both of them being in those times and in those parts where Pliny lived in especial honour as may be gathered from Ignatius who at that time flourished For demonstration of the which we must first take notice how that the world as then was very full of dangerous fancies and heretical dotages whereby the Church was much disquieted and Gods worship hindred The Ebionites they stood hard for the Jewish Sabbath and would by all means have it celebrated as it had been formerly observing yet the Lords day as the Christians did in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius tells Hist l. 3. c.x. 3. The like saith Epiphanius of them l. 1. Haeres 30. n. 2. And on the other side there was a sort of Hereticks in the Eastern parts whereof see Irenaeus li. 1. ca. 20.21 22 23 24 25. who thought that this world being corruptible could not be made but by a very evil Author Therefore as the Jews did by the festival solemnity of their Sabbath rejoyce in God that created the world as in the Author of all goodness so they in hatred of the maker of the world sorrowed and wept and fasted on that day as being the birth-day of all evil And whereas Christian men of sound belief did solemnize the Sunday in a joyful memory of Christs Resurrection So likewise at that self same time such Hereticks as denied the Resurrection did contrary to them that held it and fasted when the rest rejoyced For the expressing of which two last Heresies Ignat. it was that he affirmed with such zeal and earnestness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one did fast either upon the Lords day or the Sabbath except one Sabbath in the year which was Easter Eve he was a murderer of Christ So he in his Epistle ad Philippenses Cax 65. The Canons attributed to the Apostles take notice of the misdemeanor though they condemn it not with so high a censure it being in them only ordered that if a Clergy-man offended in that kind he should be degraded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any of the Laity they should be excommunicated Which makes me marvel by the way that those which take such pains to justifie Ignatius as Baronius doth in Ann. 57. of his grand Annales should yet condemn this Canon of imposture which is not so severe as Ignatius is only because it speaks against the Saturdays fast Whereof consult the Annales Ann. 102. Now as Ignatius labours here to advance the Sabbath in opposition of those Hereticks before remembred making it equally a festival with the Lords day so being to deal with those which too much magnified the Sabbath and thought the Christians bound unto it as the Jews had been he bends himself another way and resolves it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us not keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner in sloth and idleness for it is written that he that will not labour shall not eat and in the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread But let us keep it after a spiritual fashion not in bodily ease but in the study of the Law not eating meat drest yesterday or drinking luke-warm drinks or walking out a limited space or setling our delights as they did on dancing but in the contemplation of the works of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And after we have so kept the Sabbath let every one that loveth Christ keep the Lords day Festival the Resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all days in which our life was raised again and death was overcome by our Lord and Saviour So that we see that he would have both days observed the Sabbath first though not as would the Ebionites in a Jewish sort and after that the Lords day which he so much magnifieth the better to abate that high esteem which some had cast upon the Sabbath Agreeable unto this we find that in the Constitutions of the Apostles for by that name they pass though not made by them both days are ordered to be kept Holy one in memorial of the Creation the other of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the like l. 8. c. 33. Of which more hereafter And so it was observed in the Eastern parts where those of the dispension had took up their seats and having long time had their meetings on the Sabbath day could not so easily be persuaded from it But in the Western Churches in the which the Jews were not so considerable and where those
his Book adv Psychicos About the middle of this Century did Saint Cyprian live another African and he hath left us somewhat although not much which concerns this business Aurelius one of excellent parts Lib. 2. Epist 5. was made a Reader in the Church I think of Carthage which being very welcome news to the common People Saint Cyprian makes it known unto them and withal lets them understand that Sunday was the day appointed for him to begin his Ministery Et quoniam semper gaudium properat nec mora ferre potest laetitia dominico legit So that as Sunday was a day which they used to meet on so reading of the Scripture was a special part of the Sundays exercise Not as an exercise to spend the time when one doth wait for anothers coming till the Assembly be compleat and that without or choice or stint appointed by determinate order as is now used both in the French and Belgick Churches for what need such an eminent man as Aurelius was be taken out with so much expectation to exercise the Clerks or the Sextons duty But it was used amongst them then as a chief portion of the service which they did to God in hearkening reverently unto his voice It being so ordered in the Church Preface to the Common Prayer that the whole Bible or the greatest part thereof should be read over once a year And this that so the Ministers of the Congregation by often reading and meditation of Gods Word be stirred up to godliness themselves and be the more able to exhort others by wholesome doctrine and to confute them that were Adversaries to the truth as that the People by daily hearing of the Scriptures should profit more and more in the knowledge of God and be the more inflamed with the love of his true Religion Now for the duties of the people on this day in the Congregation as they used formerly to hear the Word and receive the Sacraments Dâ—eru l. 5. c. 7. and to pour forth their souls to God in affectionate prayers So much about these times viz. in Ann. 237. it had been appointed by Pope Fabian that every man and woman should on the Lords day bring a quantity of bread and wine first to be offered on the Altar and then distributed in the Sacrament A thing that had been done before as of common course but now exacted as a duty for the neglect whereof Saint Cyprian chides with a rich Widdow of his time who neither brought her offering nor otherwise gave any thing to the Poor-mans Box and therefore did not keep the Lords day as she should have done De pietat Eleemos Locuples dives dominicum celebrare te credis quae Corbonam omnino non respicis quae in Dominicum here he means the Church sine sacrificio venis quae partem de sacrificio quod pauper obtulit sumis In after times this custom went away by little and little instead of which it was appointed by the Church and retained in ours that Bread and Wine for the Communion shall be provided by the Churchwardens at the charge of the Parish I should now leave Saint Cyprian here V. l. 3. Epi. 8. but that I am to tell you first that he conceives the Lords day to have been prefigured in the eighth day destinate to Circumcision Which being but a private opinion of his own I rather shall refer the Reader unto the place than repeat the words And this is all this Age affords me in the present search For other Holy-days instituted by the Church for Gods publick service in those three Centuries precedent besides the Lords day or the Sunday which came every week Origen names the Good Friday as we call it now the Parasceve as he calls it there Cont. Cels l. 8. the Feast of Easter and of Pentecost Of Easter we have spoken already For Pentecost or Whitsontide as it began with the Apostles so it continues till this present but not in that solemnity which before it had For antiently not that day only which we call Whitsunday or Pentecost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but all the fifty days from Easter forwards were accounted holy and solemnized with no less observation than the Sundays were no kneeling on the one nor upon the other no fasting on the one nor upon the other Of which days that of the Ascension or Holy-Thursday being one became in little time to be more highly reckoned of than all the rest as we shall prove hereafter out of S. Austin But for these 50 days aforesaid Tertullian tells us of them thus De Coron milit ca. 3. Die Dominico jejunium nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare Eadem immunitate à die Paschae in Pentecosten gaudemus which makes both alike Which words if any think too short to reach the point he tells us in another place that all the Festivals of the Gentiles contained not so many days as did that one Excerpe singulas solennitates nationum in ordinem texe De Ido l. c. 14. Pentecosten implere non poterunt The like he hath also in his Book adv Psychicos The like Saint Hierom. ad Lucinum the like Saint Ambrose or Maximus Taurinens which of the two soever it was that made those Sermons Serm. 60.61 In which last it is said expresly of those fifty days that every one of them was instar Dominicae and qualis est Dominica in all respects nothing inferior to the Lords day And in the Comment on Saint Luke which questionless was writ by Ambrose cap. 17. l. 8. it is said expresly Et sunt omnes dies tanquam Dominica That every day of all the fifty was to be reckoned of no otherwise in that regard especially than the Sunday was Some footsteps of this custom yet remain amongst us in that we fast not either on S. Marks Eve or on the Eve of Philip and Jacob happening within the time The fast of the Rogation week was after instituted on a particular and extraordinary occasion Now as these Festivals of Easter and of Whitsontide were instituted in the first Age or Century and with them those two days attendant which we still retain whereof see Austin de Civit. Dei li. 22. ca. 8. Nyssen in his first Hom. de Paschate where Easter is expresly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the three-days-feast So was the Feast of Christs Nativity ordained or instituted in the second that of his Incarnation in the third For this we have an Homily of Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus who lived in An. 230. entituled De annunciatione B. Virginis as we call it now But being it is questionable among the Learned whether that Homily be his or not there is an Homily of Athanasius on the self same argument he lived in the beginning of the following Century whereof there is no question to be made at all That of the Lords Nativity began if not before in the
only in our common speech but in the Canons of the Church and our Acts of Parliament as being used indifferently by so many eminent persons in the Primitive Church as also in an open Synod as before was thewn from thence transmitted by our Fathers unto their posterity Better by far and far less danger to be feared in calling it the Sunday as the Gentiles did and as our Ancestors have done before us than calling it the Sabbath as too many do and on less authority nay contrary indeed to all Antiquity and Scripture CHAP. III. That in the fourth Age from the time of Constantine to Saint Austin the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath day 1. The Lords day first established by the Emperour Constantine 2. What Labours were permitted and what restrained on the Lords day by this Emperours Edict 3. Of other Holy days and Saints days instituted in the time of Constantine 4. That weekly other days particularly the Wednesday and the Friday were in this Age and those before appointed for the meetings of the Congregation 5. The Saturday as highly honoured in the Eastern Churches as the Lords day was 6. The Fathers of the Eastern Churches cry down the Jewish Sabbath though they held the Saturday 7. The Lords day not spent wholly in Religious Exercises and what was done with that part of it which was left at large 8. The Lords day in this Age a day of Feasting and that it hath been always deemed Heretical to hold Fasts thereon 9. Of Recreation on the Lords day and of what kind those Dancings were against the which the Fathers inveigh so sharply 10. Other Imperial Edicts about the keeping of the Lords day and the other Holy-days 11. The Orders at this time in use on the Lords day and other days of publick meeting in the Congregation 12. The infinite differences between the Lords day and the Sabbath HItherto have we spoken of the Lords day as taken up by the common consent of the Church not instituted or established by any Text of Scripture or Edict of Emperour or Decree of Council save that some few particular Councils did reflect upon it in the point of Esater In that which followeth we shall find both Emperours and Councils very frequent in ordering things about this day and the service of it And first we have the Emperour Constantine who being the first Christian Prince that publickly profest the Gospel was the first also that made any Law about the keeping of the Lords day or Sunday De vit Const lib. 4. c. 18. Of him Eusebius tells us that thinking that the chiefest and most proper day for the devotion of his Subjects he presently declared his pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every one who lived in the Roman Empire should take their ease or rest in that day weekly which is intituled to our Saviour Now where the Souldiers in his Camp were partly Christians and partly the Gentiles it was permitted unto them who professed the Gospel upon the Sunday so he calls it freely to go unto the Churches and there offer up their Prayers to Almighty God But such as had continued still in their ancient Errours were ordered to assemble in the open Fields upon those days and on a signal given to make their prayers unto the Lord after a form by him prescribed The Form being in the Latin Tongue was this that followeth Te solum Deum agnoscimus te regem prositemur te adjutorem invocamus per te victorias consecuti sumus Cap. 20. per te hostes superavimus à te praesentem felicitatem consecuntos fatemur futuram adepturos speramus tui omnes supplices sumus à te petimus ut Constantinum Imperatorem nostrum una cum piis ejus liberis quam diutissime nobis salvum victorem conserves In English thus We do acknowledge thee to be the only God we confess thee to be the King we call upon thee as our helper and defender by thee alone it is that we have got the Victory and subdued our Enemies to thee as we refer all our present happiness so from thee also do we expect our future Thee therefore we beseech that thou wouldest please to keep in all health and safety our noble Emperour Constantine with his hopeful Progeny Nor was this only to be done in the Fields of Rome in patentibus suburbiorum campis as the Edict ran but after by another Proclamation he did command the same over all the Provinces of the Empire Cap. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius hath it So natural a power it is in a Christian Prince to order things about Religion that he not only took upon him to command the day but also to prescribe the scrvice to those I mean who had no publick Liturgy or set Form of Prayer Nor did he only take upon him to command or appoint the day as to all his subjects and to prescribe a form of Prayer as unto the Gentiles but to decree what works should be allowed upon it and what intermitted In former times though the Lords day had got the credit as to be honoured with the publick meetings of the Congregation yet was it not so strictly kept no not in time of divine service but that the publick Magistrates Judges and other Ministers of State were to attend those great Employments they were called unto without relation to this day or cessation on it and so did other men that had less employments and those not so necessary These things this pious Emperour taking into consideration and finding no necessity but that his Judges and other publick Ministers might attend Gods service on that day at least not be a means to keep others from it and knowing that such as dwelt in Cities had sufficient leisure to frequent the Church and that Artificers without any publick discommodity might for that time forbear their ordinary labours he ordered and appointed that all of them in their several places should this day lay aside their own Business to attend the Lords But then withal considering that such as followed Husbandry could not so well neglect the times of Seed and Harvest but that they were to take advantage of the fairest and most seasonable weather as God pleased to send it he left it free to them to follow their affairs on what day soever left otherwise they might lose those blessings which God in his great bounty had bestowed upon them This mentioned in the very Edict he set forth about it First for his Judges Citizens or inhabitants of the greater Towns L. Omnes cap. de feriis and all Artificers therein dwelling Omnes Judices urbanaeque plebes cunctarum artium officia venerabili die Solis quiescant Next for the people of the Contrey Rure tamen positi libere licenterque agrorum culture inserviant quoniam frequenter evenit ut non aptius alio die frumenta sulcis vinea scrobibus mandentur
do so expound it and saw no doubt the truest and most perfect copies Thus then saith Zonaras It is appointed by this Canon that none abstain from labour on the sabbath-Sabbath-day which plainly was a Jewish custom In Canon Conc. Laod. and an anathema laid on those who offend herein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but they are willed to rest from labour on the Lords day in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour But here we must observe that the Canon adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in case they may For by the civil Law it is precisely ordered that every man shall rest that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hindes and Husband-men excepted His reason is the very same with that expressed before in the Emperours Edict 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For unto them it is permitted to work and travel on that day because perhaps if they neglect it they may not find another day so fit and serviceable for their occasions The like saith Balsamon and more but him we will reserve for the 12th Ad Eusto chium Century at what time he lived S. Hierom long time after this tells us of his Egyptian Monks diebus dominicis orationi tantum lectionibus vacare that they designed the Lords day wholly unto prayer and reading of the holy Scriptures and that they did the like upon other days completis opusculis when their task was finished This plainly shews that it was otherwise with the common people For what need Hierom have observed it as a thing notable in his Monks and peculiar to them that they spent all the Lords day in religious exercises had other men so done as well as they But Hierom tells us more than this of Paula a most devout and pious woman who lived in Bethlehem accompanied with many Virgins and poor Widows in manner of a Nunnery Of whom he saith that every Lords day they repaired to the Church of God Et inde pariter revertentes instabant operi distributo vel sibi vel coeteris vestimenta faciebant and after their return from thence they set themselves unto their tasks which was the making garments for themselves or others A thing which questionless to good a Woman had not done and much less ordered it to be done by others had it been then accounted an unlawful Act. And finally S. Chrysostom though in his popupular discourses he seem to intimate to the People that God from the beginning did one day in every week to his publick worship Hom. 10. in Gen. and that he calls upon them often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to destinate that one day and that day wholly unto those imployments as Hom. 5. in Mat. 1. Sa. Hom. 3. in Joh. 3. yet he confesseth at the last that after the dismission of the Congregation every man might apply himself to his lawful business Only he seems offended with them that they went presently to the works of their Vocations as soon as they came out of the Church of God and did not meditate on the Word delivered to them Therefore he wooeth them unto this that presently upon their coming home they would take the Bible into their hands and recapitulate with their Wives and Children that which had been delivered from the Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and afterwards to go about their worldly businesses As for the time appointed to these publick exercises it seems not to be very long Chrysostom in the place before remembred Hom. 5. in Matth. 1. saith that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very small portion of the day Origen more precisely hath laid it out and limited the same ad unam aut duas horas ex die integro but to an hour or two at most no great space of time In Numer Hom. 2. Nor indeed could they hold them long the Sermons being most times exceeding shorts as may appear by those of the antient Fathers which are still extant in our hands and the Liturgy not so full as now it is Let it then go for granted that such as dwelt in populous Cities for of the Husbandman there is no question to be made might lawfully apply themselves to their several Businesses the Exercises being ended and the Assembly broken up may we conceive it lawful also for any man to follow his honest pleasures on the remainder of that day to feast it with his Friends and Neighbours to Dance or sport or to be merry in a civil manner There is a little question of it for Feasting first we must take notice how execrable a thing it was always held to fast the Sunday though some now place a great part of their Piety in their fond abstinence on that day In this respect Tertullian tells us touching the Christians of his time De Corona mil. c. 3. that they did hold it an impiety to fast the Lords day die dominico jejunium nefas esse ducimus as before we noted Such an impiety that the very Montanists though otherwise frequent in their Fasts did yet except this day and the former Sabbath out of their austerities as the same Author doth inform us adv Psychicos Cap. 15. What was Ignatius's censure of the Sundays Fast we have seen already In the declining of the third Age arose the Manichees and they revived the former dotage Dominica jejunare non possumus quia Manichaeos ob istius diei jejunia merito damnamus We fast not on the Lords day saith St. Ambrose but rather do condemn the Manichees for fasting on it Now what this Father said he made good by practice Baronius tells us out of Paulinus that he did never dine but on the Saturday the Sunday or the memorial of some Martyr Annals Anno 374. and that upon those days he did not only cherish and relieve the poor sed viri clarissimi exciperentur but entertained great Persons men of special eminence Vincentius Deputy of Gaul and Count Arbogastis are there said by name to have been often at his Table upon those days before remembred and doubt we not but they had all things fit for such eminent Persons The like hath been affirmed by St. Austin also Epl. 86. Die dominica jejunare scandalum est magnum c. It is a great offence or scandal to fast upon the Lords day in these times especially since the most damnable Heresie of the Manichees came into the World who have imposed it on their followers as the Law of God and thereby made the Lords day fast the more abominable Now for an instance of his Entertainments also upon this day see l. 22. de civitate dei c. 8. This probably occasioned Pope Meltiades who lived in the beginning of this present Century to publish a Decree Ne dominica neve feria quinta jejunaretur that no man should presume to fast upon the Sunday or the Thursday Not on the Sunday as the day of the Resurrection
the Law in the Congregation that was not taken up in more than a 1000. years after the Law was given and being taken up came in by Ecclesiastical Ordinance only no Divine Authority But in the Institution of the Lords day that which was principally aimed at was the performance of religious and Christian duties hearing the Word receiving of the Sacraments praising the Lord for all his mercies and praying to him joyntly with the Congregation for the continuance of the same rest and cessation from the works of labour came not in till afterwards and then but as an accessory to the former duties and that not setled and established in 1000 years as before was said when all the proper and peculiar duties of the day had been at their perfection a long time before So that if we regard either Institution or the Authority by which they were so instituted the end and purpose at the which they principally aimed or the proceedings in the setling and confirming of them the difference will be found so great that of the Lords day no man can affirm in sense and reason that it is a Sabbath or so to be observed as the Sabbath was CHAP. IV. The great improvement of the Lords day in the fifth and sixth Ages make it not a Sabbath 1. In what estate the Lords day stood in S. Austius time 2. Stage-plays and publick shews prohibited on the Lords day and the other holy-days by Imperial Edicts 3. The base and beastly nature of the Stage-plays at those times in use 4. The barbarous and bloody quality of the Spectacula or shews at this time prohibited 5. Neither all civil business nor all kind of pleasure restrained on the Lords day by the Emperour Leo as some give it out The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath 6. The French and Spaniards in the sixth Age begin to Judaize about the Lords day and of restraint of Husbandry on that day in that Age first thought of 7. The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath 8. Of publick honours done in these Ages to the Lords day by Prince and Prelate 9. No Evening Service on the Lords day till these present Ages 10. Of publick Orders now established for the better regulating of the Lords day-meetings 11. The Lords day not more reckoned of than the greater Festivals and of the other holy-days in these Ages instituted 12. All business and recreation not by Law prohibited are in themselves as lawful on the Lords day as on any other WE are now come unto the times wherein the Church began to settle having with much adoe got the better hand of Gentilism and mastered those stiff Heresies of the Arians Macedonians and such others as descended from them Unto those times wherein the troubles which before distracted her peace and quiet being well appeased all things began to grow together in a perfect harmony what time the faithful being united better than before in points of judgment became more uniform in matters of devotion and in that uniformity did agree together to give the Lords day all the honour of an holy Festival Yet was not this done all at once but by degrees the fifth and sixth Centuries being well-nigh spent before it came unto that height which hath since continued The Emperours and the Prelates in these times had the same affections both earnest to advance this day above all others and to the Edicts of the one and Ecclesiastical constitutions of the other it stands indebted for many of those priviledges and exemptions which it still enjoyeth But by degrees as now I said and not all at once For in S. Austin's time who lived in the beginning of this fifth Century it was no otherwise with the Lords day than as it was before in the former Age accounted one of those set days and probably the principal which was designed and set apart for Gods publick worship Amongst the writings of that Father which are his unquestionably we find not much that doth conduce to our present business but what we find we shall communicate with as much brevity as we can Epi. 86. Decivitat l. 22. c. 8. The Sundays fast he doth abominate as a publick scandal Quis deum non offendit si velit cum scandalo totius ecclesiae die dominico jejunare The exercise of the day he describes in brief in this form that followeth Venit Pascha atque ipso die dominico mane frequens populus praesens erat Facto silentio divinarum Scripturarum lecta sunt solennia c. Easter was come and on the Lords day in the morning the people had assembled themselves together All being silent and attent those lessons out of holy Scripture which were appointed for the time were read unto them when we were come unto that part of the publick service which was allotted for the Sermon I spake unto them what was proper for the present Festival and most agreeable to the time Service being done I took the man along to dinner a man he means that had recovered very strangely in the Church that morning who told us all the story of those sad Calamities which had befallen him This is not much but in this little there are two things worth our observation First that the Sermon in those times was not accounted either the only or the principal part of Gods publick service but only had a place in the common Liturgy which place was probably the same which it still retains post Scripturarum solennia after the reading of the Gospel Next that it was not thought unlawful in this Fathers time to talk of secular and humane affairs upon this day as some now imagine or to call friends or strangers to our Table as it is supposed S. Austin being one of so strict a life that he would rather have put off the invitation and the story both to another day had he so conceived it Nor doth the Father speak of Sunday as if it were the only Festival that was to be observed of a Christian man Cont. Adimant c. 16. Other Festivities there were which he tell us of First generally Nos quoque dominicum diem Pascha soleuniter celebramus quaslibet alias Christianas dierum festivitates The Lords day Easter and all other Christian Festivals were alike to him Epi. 118. And he enumerates some particulars too the Resurrection Passion and Ascension of our Lord and Saviour together with the coming of the Holy Ghost which constantly were celebrated anniversaria solennitate Not that there were no other Festivals then observed in the Christian Church but that those four were reckoned to be Apostolical and had been generally received in all Ages past As for the Sacrament it was not tyed to any day but was administred indifferently upon all alike except it were in some few places where it had been restrained to this day alone
inhumane Murder is grown into an Art and they that kill most have the greatest honour And so indeed they had there being Rewards designed for them that came off with victory liberty if they had been Bondmen if freemen sometimes money and sometimes a garland of Palm-tree which being wound about with certain woollen Ribbands called Lemnisci De spectac cap. 28. had generally the name of Palmae Lemniscatae With this Tertullian doth upbraid the Roman people that whereas sometimes they would cry out to have a notable Murderer cast unto the Lions Iidem gladiatori atroci rudem petunt pileum praemium conferunt the self-same men would have some cruel swash-buckler or Gladiator rewarded with a Rod and Cap the signs of freedom These barbarous and bloody sights being so far different from the spirit of meekness which was the badge and proper cognizance of a Christian were therefore bitterly inveighed against by the ancient Writers the Reverend Fathers of the Church and such as harkened not to their Exhortations esteemed as men given over to a reprobate sence such as had cast away their livery and forsook their Master The nature of these sights and the opinion had of those that did frequent them we cannot better shew than by the story of Alipius as St. Austin tells it and is briefly this Quidam amici ejus condiscipuli c. Confession lib. 6. c. 8. Some friends of his meeting him as he came from Dinner with a familiar kind of violence forced him against his will to go with them into the Amphitheater for there these sports were sometimes held crudelium funestorum ludorum diebus upon a day designed to these cruel pastimes He told them by the way that though they haled his body with them yet should his eys and soul be free from these bloody spectacles cum talia aversaretur detestaretur which of himself he so detested But thither he went and took his place and presently closed his eys that he might not see those dismal sights which were before him When as the fight waxed hot omnia fervebant immanissimis voluptatibus and all were taken up with those unmerciful delights upon a sudden shout occasioned in the fight he let loose his eys to see what it meant Et percussus est graviori vulnere in anima quam ille in corpore ceciditque miserabilius quam ille quo cadente factus est clamor By means whereof he became smitten with a greater wound in his soul than the poor fellow in his body and fell more miserably by far than he upon whose death the said noise was raised How so Ut enim vidit illum sanguinem immanitatem simul ebibit c. For presently assoon as he beheld the blood he sucked in cruelty and drew in the furies of the place being delighted with the wickedness of the sport and made drunk as it were with those bloody spectacles Such Plays and shews as these were not unlawful to be seen on the Lords day only but on all days else And such and none but such were the plays and shews against the which the Fathers do inveigh with so much bitterness which as they were unworthy of a Christian eye so as Religion did prevail they began to vanish and finally were put down I mean these last by Theodoricus King of the Goths in Italy Our plays and theirs our shews and theirs yea and our dancings too compared with theirs Annales Anno 469. are no more of kin than Alexander the Coppersmith was with Alexander the Great King of Macedon Nay if Baronius tells us true as I think he doth these Plays and Cirquefights were not prohibited by the Emperour Leo because he thought them not as lawful to be performed upon the Lords day as on any other but for a more particular reason He had a purpose to avenge himself of Asper and Ardaburius two great and powerful men that had conspired against his safety and for the execution of that purpose made choice of such a time when the Circensian sports were to be exhibited Which therefore he prohibited at this time to be presented on the Sunday because though his revenge was just yet the effusion of so much Christian blood on that sacred day might be a blemish to Religion Ne licet justa esset ultio tamen diem sacrum ignominia videri posset labefactasse So far the Cardinal A second thing which this Emperour did in the advancing of the Lords day was in relation unto Civil and legal businesses It was before appointed by the Emperour Constantine that Judges should not set that day in the open Court the Emperours Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius added thereunto that none should arbitrate in any brawling and litigious cause upon the same Cod. l. 2. de fer lex 2. And whereas Valentinian Theodosius and Arcadius had privileged other days as well as Sunday from the suits of Court which days are formerly remembred in their proper place The Emperour Thedosius the younger was pleased to add the Feast of Christs Nativity and so to the Epiphany or Twelfth-tide as we use to call it together with seven days before and seven days after Diem natalis domini epiphaniae septem qui praecedunt septem qui sequuntur making this Festival with the rest before remembred in this case equal with the Sunday where by the way we may observe of what antiquity the feast of Epiphany is to be accounted as having got unto such an height in this Emperours time he entred on the Empire Anno 408 as to be priviledged in the self-same manner as Christmas was And not in this respect alone in respect of pleadings but in a following Law of his Anno 425. he declared his pleasure that this day with the other principal Feasts as before we noted was not to be prophaned as it had been formerly by the Cirques and Theaters For the antiquity thereof more might be said were not this sufficient Only I add that in the Eastern Churches from the times of old they used to lengthen out the Feast of Christmass for 12 days together not ending the solemnities of the same till the Epiphany was gone over from whence in likelihood that custom came at last to these Western parts Nativitatem domini Epiphaniae continuantes duas illas festivitates unam faciunt Hist l. 7. c. 32. So Otho Frisingensis tells us of them But to proceed it seems that either these Edicts were not well observed or else the Ministers of the Courts used to meet together for dispatch of business on that day though the Judges did not Therefore it seemed good to this Emperour Leo in the year and day above recited to declare his pleasure thereupon in this form that followeth Dies festos Cod. Justin l. 3. tit 12. dies altissimae majestati dedicatos c. It is our will that the Holy-days being dedicated to the most High God should not be
spent or wholly taken up in pleasures or otherwise prophaned with vexatious suits Particularly for the Lords day that it be exempt from Executions Citations entring into Bonds Apparances Pleadings and such like that Cryers be not heard upon it and such as go to Law lay aside their Actions taking truce a while to see if they can otherwise compose their differences For so it passeth in the Edict Dominicum itaque ita semper honorabilem decernimus venerandum ut à cunctis executionibus excusetur Nulla quenquam urgeat admonitio nulla fidei-jussionis flagitetur exactio taceat apparitio advocatio delitescat sit idem dies à cognitionibus alienus praeconis horrida vox sileat respirent à controversiis litigantis habeant foederis intervallum c. I have the rather here laid down the Law it self that we may see how punctual the good Emperour was in silencing those troublesome suits and all preparatives or appurtenances thereunto that so men might with quieter minds repair unto the place of Gods publick service yet was not the Edict so strict that neither any kind of Pleasures were allowed upon that day as may be thought by the beginning of the Law nor any kind of secular and civil business to be done upon it The Emperour Constantine allowed of manumission and so did Theodosius too Cod. l. 2. de fer lex 2. Die dominico emancipare manumittere licet reliquae causae vel lites quiescant so the latter Emperour Nor do we find but that this Emperour Leo well allowed thereof sure we are that he well allowed of other civil businesses when he appointed in this very Edict that such as went to Law might meet together on this day to compose their differences to shew their evidences and compare their writings And sure I am that he prohibited not all kind of pleasures but only such as were of an obscene and unworthy nature For so it followeth in the Law First in relation unto businesses ad sese simul veniant adversarij non timentes pacta conserant transactiones loquantur Next in relation unto pleasures Nec tameÌ„n hujus religiosae dâ—ei â—cia relaxantes obscenis quemquam patimur voluptatibus detineri where note not simply voluptates but obseenae voluptates not pleasures but obscene and filthy pleasures are by him prohibited such as the Scena theatralis therein after mentioned not civil business of all sorts but brangling and litigious businesses are by him forbidden as the Law makes evident Collectar And thus must Theodorus Lector be interpreted who tells us of this Emperour Leo how he ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Lords day should be kept holy by all sorts of People that it should be a non-lee day a day of rest and ease unto them which is no otherwise to be understood than as the Law it self intended however the words of Theodorus seem to be more general Nor was it long before this Edict or the matter of it had found good entertainment in the Christian world the rather since those Churches which lay further off and were not under the command of the Roman Emperour taking perhaps their hint from hence had made a Canon to that purpose For in a Council held in Aragon Anno 516. being some 47 years after Leos Edict it was decreed that neither Bishop Priest or any other of the Clergy the Clergy at that time were possessed of some seats of judicature should pronounce sentence in any cause which should that day be brought before them Nullus Episcoporum aut presbyterorum vel Clericorum Can. 4. propositum cujuscunque causae negotium die dominico audeat judicare This was in Anno 516. as before I said the second year of Amalaricus King of the Gothes in Spain Nor stayed they here The People of this sixth Age wherein now we are began to Judaize a little in the imposing of so strict a rest upon this day especially in the Western Churches which naturally are more inclined to Superstition than the Eastern Nations Wherein they had so far proceeded that it was held at last unlawful to travel on the Lords day with Wains or Horses to dress Meat or make clean the House or meddle with any manner of Domestick businesses The third Council held at Orleans Anno 540. doth inform us so and plainly thereupon determined Can. 27. that since these prohibitions abovesaid Ad Judaicam magis quam ad Christianam observantiam pertinere probantur did savour far more of the Jew than of the Christian Die dominico quod ante licuit licere that therefore whatsoever had formerly been lawful on that day should be lawful still Yet so that it was thought convenient that men should rest that day from Husbandry and the Vintage from Sowing Reaping Hedging and such servile works quo facilius ad ecclesiam venientes orationis gratia vacent that so they might have better leisure to go unto the Church and there say their Prayers This was the first restraint which hitherto we have observed whereby the Husband-man was restrained from the Plough and Vintage or any work that did concern him And this was yielded as it seems to give them some content at least which aimed at greater and more slavish prohibitions than those here allowed of and would not otherwise be satisfied than by grant of this Nay so far had this superstition or superstitious conceit about this day prevailed amongst the Gothes in Spain a sad and melancholick People mingled and married with the Jews who then therein dwelt that in their dotage on this day they went before the Jews their Neighbours the Sabbath not so rigorously observed by one as was the Lords day by the other The Romans in this Age had utterly defeated the Vandals and their power in Africk becoming so bad Neighbours to the Gothes themselves To stop them in those prosperous courses Theude the Gothish King Anno 543. makes over into Africk with a compleat Army The Armies near together and occasion fair the Romans on a Sunday set upon them and put them all unto the sword the Gothes as formerly the Jews never so much as laying hand upon their Weapons or doing any thing at all in their own defence only in reverence to the day The general History of Spain so relates the story although more at large A superstition of so sudden and so quick a growth that whereas till this present Age we cannot find that any manner of Husbandry or Country labours were forbidden as upon this day it was now thought unlawful on the same to take a sword in hand for ones own defence Better such Doctrines had been crushed and such Teachers silenced in the first beginnings than that their Jewish speculations should in fine produce such sad and miserable effects Nor was Spain only thus infected where the Jews now lived the French we see began to be so inclined Not only in prohibiting things lawful which before we
specified and to the course whereof the Council held at Orleans gave so wise a check but by imputing such Calamities as had fallen amongst them to the neglect or ill observance of this day A flash of Lightning or some other fire from Heaven as it was conceived had on the Lords day made great spoil of men and houses in the City of Limoges This Gregory of Tours who lived about the end of this sixth Century pronounceth to have fallen upon them ob diei dominici injuriam because some of them used to work upon the Sunday But how could he tell that or who made him acquainted with Gods secret counsels Had Gregory been Bishop of Limoges as he was of Tours it may be Limoges might have scaped so fierce a censure and only Tours have suffered in it For presently he adds in Turonico vero nonnulli ab hoc igne sed non die dominico adusti sunt that even in Tours it self many had perished by the self same fire but being it fell not on the Sunday as it did at Limoges therefore that misery fell on them for some other reason Indeed he tells us of this day that being it was the day whereon God made the light and after was the witness of our Saviours resurrection Ideo omni fide à Christianis observari debet ne fiat in eo omne opus publicum therefore it was to be observed of every Christian no manner of publick business to be done upon it A piece of new Divinity and never heard of till this Age nor in any afterwards Not heard of till this Age but in this it was For in the 24th year of Gunthram King of the Burgundians Conc. Matisonens 11. Can. 1. Anno 588. there was a Council called at Mascon a Town situate in the Duchy of Burgundy as we now distinguish it wherein were present Priscus Evantius Praetextatus and many other reverend and learned Prelates They taking into consideration how much the Lords day was of late neglected for remedy thereof ordained that it should be observed more carefully for the times to come Which Canon I shall therefore set down at large because it hath been often produced as a principal ground of those precise observances which some amongst us have endeavoured to force upon the consciences of weak and ignorant men It is as followeth Videmus populum Christianum temerario more diem dominicum contemptui tradere c. It is observed that Christian people do very rashly slight and neglect the Lords day giving themselves thereon as on other days to continual labours c. Therefore let every Christian in case be carry not that name in vain give ear to our instruction knowing that we have care that you should do well as well as power to bridle you that you do not ill It followeth Custodite diem dominicum qui nos denuo peperit c. Keep the Lords day the day of our new birth whereon we were delivered from the snares of sin Let no man meddle in litigious Controversies or deal in Actions or Law-suits or put himself at all upon such an exigent that needs he must prepare his Oxen for their daily work but exercise your selves in Hymns and singing Praises unto God being intent thereon both in mind and body If any have a Church at hand let him to unto it and there pour forth his soul in tears and prayers his eyes and hands being all that day lifted up to God It is the everlasting day of rest insinuated to us under the shadow of the seventh day or Sabbath in the Law and the Prophets and therefore it is very meet that we should celebrate this day with one accord whereon we have been made what at first we were not Let us then offer unto God our free and voluntary service by those great goodness we are freed from the Goal of errour not that the Lord exacts it of us that we should celebrate this day in a corporal abstinence or rest from labour who only looks that we do yield obedience to his holy will by which contemning earthly things he may conduct us to the heavens of his infinite mercy However if any man shall set at nought this our exhortation be he assured that God shall punish him as he hath deserved and that he shall be also subject unto the censures of the Church In case he be a Lawyer he shall lose his cause if that he be an Husbandman or Servant he shall be corporally punished for it but if a Clergy-man or Monk he shall be six months separated from the Congregation Add here that two years after this being the second year of the second Clotaire King of France there was a Synod holden at Auxerre a Town of Champagne concilium Antisiodorense in the Latin Writers wherein in it was decreed as in this of Mascon Non licet die dominico boves jungere vel alia opera exercere no man should be suffered to yoak his Oxen or do any manner of work upon the Sunday This is the Canon so much urged I mean that of Mascon to prove that we must spend the Lords day wholly in religious exercises and that there is no part thereof which is to be imployed unto other uses But there are many things to be considered before we yield unto this Canon or the authority thereof some of them being of that nature that those who most insist upon it must be fain to traverse For first it was contrived of purpose with so great a strictness to meet the better with those men which so extreamly had neglected that sacred day A stick that bends too much one way cannot be brought to any straightness till it be bent as much the other This Synod secondly was Provincial only and therefore can oblige none other but those for whom it was intended or such who after did submit unto it by taking it into their Canon Nor will some part thereof be approved by them who most stand upon it none being bound hereby to repair to Church to magnifie the name of God in the Congregation but such as have some Church at hand and what will then become of those that have a mile two three or more to their Parish Churches and no Chappel neither they are permitted by the Canon to abide at home As for Religious duties here are none expressed as proper for the Congregation but Psalms and Hymns and singing Praise unto the Lord and pouring forth our souls unto him in tears and prayers and then what shall we do for Preaching for Preaching of the Word which we so much call for Besides King Gunthram on whose Authority this Council met in his Confirmatory Letters doth extend this Canon as well unto the other Holy-days as unto the Sunday commanding all his Subjects Vigore hujus decreti definitionis generalis by vertue of his present mandate that on the Lords day vel in quibuscunque alijs solennitatibus and all solemn
joyn'd together So whereas those of the Monastick life did use to solemnize the Eve or Vigils of the Lords day and of other Festivals with the peculiar and preparatory service to the day it self that profitable and pious custom began about these times to be taken up and generally received in the Christian Church Of this there is much mention to be found in Cassian as Institut lib. 2. cap. 18. l. 3. c. 9. Collat. 21. c. 20. and in other places This gave the hint to Leo and St. Austin if he made the Sermon to make the Eve before a part or parcel of the day because some part of the Divine Offices of the day were begun upon it And hence it is that in these Ages and in those that followed but in none before we meet with the distinction of matutinae vespertinae precationes Mattins and Evensong as we call it the Canons of the Church about these times beginning to oblige men to the one as well as formerly to the other The Council held in Arragon Conc. Tartaconens Can. 7. hereupon ordained Vt omnis clerus die Sabbati ad vesperam paratus sit c. That all the Clergy be in readiness on the Saturday vespers that so they may be prepared with the more solemnity to celebrate the Lords day in the Congregation And not so only sed ut diebus omnibus vesperas matutinas celebrent but that they diligently say the morning and the evening service every day continually So for the mattins on the Sunday Gregory of Tours informs us of them Motum est signum ad matutinas Erat enim dies dominica how the Bell rung to mattins for it was a Sunday I have translated it the Bell according to the custom of these Ages whereof now we write wherein the use of Bells was first taken up for gathering of the people to the house of God there being mention in the Life and History of St. Loup or Lupus Baron Ann. Anno 614. who lived in the fifth Century of a great Bell that hung in the Church of Sens in France whereof he was Bishop ad convocandum populum for calling of the congregation Afterwards they were rung on the holy-day Eves to give the people notice of the Feast at hand and to advertise them that it was time to leave off their businesses Solebant vesperi initia feriarum campanis praenunciare so he that wrote the life of Codegundut Well then the Bells are rung and all the people met together what is expected at their hands That they behave themselves there like the Saints of God in fervent Prayers in frequent Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs hearing Gods holy Word receiving of the Sacraments These we have touched upon before as things that had been always used from the beginnings of the Church Collections for the poor had been sometimes used on this day before but now about these times the Offertory began to be an ordinary part of Gods publick Worship Pope Leo seems to intimate it in his fifth Sermon de collectis Et quia die dominico proxima futura est collectio vos omnes voluntariae devotioni praeparare c. and gives them warning of it that they may be ready For our behaviour in the Church it was first ordered by St. Paul that all things be done reverently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Angels according to which ground and warrant it was appointed in these Ages that every man should stand up at the reading of the Gospel and the Gloria Patri that none depart the Church till the service ended Pope Anastasius who lived in the beginning of the fifth Age is said to have decreed the one Dum S. S. Epl. Decret 1 ap Bin. Evangelia in Ecclesia recitantur sacerdotes caeteri omnes praesentes non sedentes sed venerabiliter curvi in conspectu sancti Evangclii stantes dominica verba attente audiant fideliter adorent The Priests and all else present are enjoyned to stand their Bodies bowed a little in sign of reverence during the reading of the Gospel but by no means to hear it sitting adding some joyful acclamation at the end thereof such as is that of Glory be to thee O Lord. So for the Gloria Patri that form of giving to the Lord the Glory which belongs unto him we find in Cassian that they used to stand upon their feet at the doing of it In clausula Psalmi Institut lib. 2 c. 8. omnes astantes pronunciant magno clamore Gloria Patri c. that gesture being thought most natural and most proper for it No constitution needed to enjoyn those Duties which natural discretion of it self could dictate As for the last it seemed the people in those parts used to depart the Church some of them before the Service ended and the blessing given for otherwise there had been no Canon to command the contrary Ex malis moribus bonae nascuntur leges the old saying is And out of this ill custom did arise a Law made in a Synod held in a Town of Gallia Narbonensis the 22 of the Reign of Alaricus King of the Visi-Gothes or Western-Gothes Anno 506. Conc. Agathens Can. 47. that on the Lords day all Lay-people should be present at the publick Liturgy and none depart before the Blessing Missas die dominico secularibus audire speciali ordine praecipimus ita ut egredi ante benedictionem sacerdotis populus non praesumat So the Canon hath it According unto which it is provided in the Canons of the Church of England Can. 19. that none depart out of the Church during the time of Service and Sermon without some reasonable or urgent cause The Benediction given and the Assembly broken up the people might go home no doubt and being there make merry with their Friends and Neighbours such as came either to them of their own accord or otherwise had been invited Gregory of Tours informs us of a certain Presbyter that thrust himself into the Bishoprick of the Arverni immediately upon the death of Sidonius Apollinaris who died about the year 487 and that to gain the peoples favour on the next Lords day after Jussit cunctos cives praeparato epulo invitari Hist l. 31. he had invited all the principal Citizens to a solemn Feast Whatever might be said of him that made the invitation no doubt but there were many pious and religious men that accepted of it Of Recreations after Dinner until Evening prayers and after Evening prayer till the time of Supper there is no question to be made but all were practised which were not prohibited Nam quod non prohibetur permissum est as Tertullian Of this more anon Thus have we brought the Lords day to the highest pitch the highest pitch that hitherto it had enjoyed both in relation unto rest from worldly business and to the full performance of religious Duties Whatever was
clearly that the observation of the former Sabbath had been translated very fitly to the Lords day by the custom and consent of Christian people For speaking how the Sabbath was accounted holy in the former times and that the Jews resting thereon from all manner of work did only give themselves to meditation and to fasting Homil. 18. post Penta he adds cujus observationem mos Christianus ad diem dominicum competentius transtulit Where plainly mos Christianus doth imply no precept no order or command from the Apostles that it should be so and much less any precept in the Old Testament which should still oblige And sure I am Rabanus Maurus speaks only as by way of exhortation and not armed with any warrant from the Apostles or other argument from Scripture Homil. in aiâ—b dom Where he adviseth us à vespera diei Sabbati usque ad vesperam diei dominici sequestrati à rurali opere omni negotio solo divino cultui vacemus Where no man will presume to say that either rest from Husbandry and such other business or the beginning of the Lords day on the Eve before were introduced by any precept of the Apostles considering how long it was before either of them had been used in the Christian Church And so Hesychius Bishop of Hierusalem who flourished at the self same time with Isidore speaks of it only as a custom or a matter of fact In Levit. lib. 2. cap. 5. descending by tradition from the Apostles Apostolorum sequentes traditionem diem dominicum conventibus divinis sequestramus which was the most that he could say for the original thereof indeed who could more And as for Isidore himself whom the others followed Etymolog l. 6. c. 18. it 's clear that they esteemed the Lords day for no other than a common Holiday by far inferior unto Ester Pascha festivitatum omnium prima est Then followeth Pentecost Epiphany Palm-sunday Maunday-thursday and in the last place Dies dominicus the Lords day Which questionless he had not placed in so low a room had he conceived it instituted by any precept or injunction of those blessed Spirits So in a Council held at Paris Anno 829. it was determined positively that keeping of the Lords day had no other ground than custom only and that this custom did descend ex Apostolorum traditione immo ecclesiae autoritate at most from Apostolical tradition but indeed rather from the Authority of holy Church And whereas Courts of Law or Law days had formerly been prohibited on this day that so men might in peace and concord go to Church together the several Councils that of Friburg Anno 895. and that of Erpford Anno 932. though then the times were at the darkest ascribe it not to any Law or Text of Scripture but only to the anient Canons Secundùm sanctorum statuta patrum saith the first Can. 26. Secundùm Canonicam institutionem saith the second Cap. 2. And howsoever some have said that Alexander Pope of Rome of that name the third refers the keeping of the Lords day to divine commandment yet they that look upon him well can find no such matter He saith indeed that both the Old and New Testament depute the seventh day unto rest but for the keeping of it holy both that and other days appointed for Gods publick service ecclesia decreverit observanda that he ascribes alone to the Churches order Decret l. 2. tit 9. de feriis cap. 3. The like may be affirmed also of restraint from labout that it is grounded only on the Authority of the Church and Christian Princes however in some regal and imperial Edicts there be some shew or colour added from the Law of God I say some shew or colour added from the Law of God For as before I said it is not utterly impossible but that those Princes might make use of some pretence or shew of Scripture the better to incline the People to yield obedience unto those restraints which were laid upon them The Synod held at Mascon and that in Auxerre both before remembred expresly had prohibited all works of Husbandry on this day the former having added for inforcing of it not only Ecclesiastical censures but corporal and civil punishments But yet this was not found enough to wean the people from their works their ordinary labours used before upon that day and it is no marvel The Jews were hardly brought unto it though they had heard God thundring from the holy mountain that they should do no manner of work upon their Sabbath It being added thereunto that whosoever should offend therein the should die the death And certainly it was very long before either Prince or Prelate or both joyned together with all their power and policy could prevail upon them either to lay aside their labours or forbear their Law days as may appear by many several Edicts of Emperours decrees of Popes Can. 18. and Canons of particular Councils which have successively been made in restraint thereof The Synod of Chalons Anno 662. wherein were 44. Bishops and amongst them S. Owen Arch-Bishop of Roman concluded as had been before non nova condentes sed vetera renovantes that on the Lords day no man should presume to Sow or Plough or Reap vel quicquid ad ruris culturam pertinet or deal in any thing that belonged to Husbandry and this on pain of Ecclesiastical censure and correction But when this did no good Clothaire the third of France for he I think it was who set out that Law beginning with the Word of God and ending with a threat of severe chastisement doth command the same Die dominico nemo servilia opera praesumat facere Ltg. Aleman tit 39. ap Brisson quia hoc lex prohibet sacra Scriptura in omnibus contradicit as before was said If any do offend herein in case he be a Bond-man let him be soundly hastinadoed in case a Freeman let him be thrice admonished of it if he offend again the third part of his patrimony was to be confiscated and finally if that prevailed not he was to be convented before the Governour and made a Bondslave So for the Realm of Germany a Council held at Dingulofinum in the lower Bavaria Anno 772. did determine thus Festo die Solis ocio divino intentus prophanis negotiis abstineto Upon the Sunday so they call it let every man abstain from prophane employments and be intent upon Gods worship If any man shall work his Cart this day or busie himself in any such like work jumenta ejus publica sunto his Teem shall presently be forseited to the publick use And if stubbornly they persist to provoke Gods anger be they sold for Bond-men Hist l. 3. Ap. Brisson ut supra So Aventine reports the Canon And somewhat like to this was ordered by Theodorius King of the Bavarians viz. Si quis die dominico c. If any man
upon the Lords day shall yoak his Oxen and drive forth his wain dextrum bovem perdat his right hand Oxe shall be forthwith forfeit if he make Hay or carry it in if he now Corn or carry it in let him be once or twice admonished and if he amend not thereupon let him receive no less than 50 stripes Yet notwithstanding all this care when Charles the Great being King of France had mastered Germany which was 789. or thereabouts there had been little reformation in this point amongst them Therefore that Prince first published his own Regal Edict grounding himself secundum quod in lege praecepit dominus upon the prescript of Gods Law and there commands that all men do abstain from the works of Husbandry Which Edict since it speaks of more particulars at that time prohibited we will speak more thereof anon That not prevailing as it seems he caused five several Synods to be assembled at one time Anno 813. at Mentz at Rhemes at Tours at Chalons and Arles in all of which it was concluded against the Husband-man and many others more as we shall see in the next Section And yet we find some grudging still of the old disease as is apparent by a Synod held at Rome Anno 826. under Eugenius the second chap. 30. another in the same place Anno 853. under Leo the fourth Can. 30. the like in that of Compeigne held by Alexander the third what time he lived an exile in the Realm of France So for restraint of Law days or Courts of judgment those chiefly that determined of mens lives it was not brought about in these Western parts without great difficulty Witness besides the several Imperial Edicts before remembred Conc. Mogunt Anno. 813. Can. 37. Rhemens Can. 35. Turonens Can. 40. Arelatens Can. 16. being four of those Councils which were called by Charles as before was said as also that of Aken Anno 836. Can. 20. And though it was determined in the Roman Synod under Leo the fourth that no suspected person should receive judgment on that day a clause being added in the Canâ—â— legibus infirmari judicium eo die depromptum that all Acts sped upon that day were void in Law yet more than 300 years after it was so resolved of was Alexander the third in Council of Compeigne before remembred enforced particularly to revive it and then and there to set it down Ne aliquis ad mortem vel ad poenam judicetur that no man should upon that day be doomed to death or otherwise condemned unto bodily punishment So difficult a thing it was to wean the People from their labours and other civil business unto which they had been accustomed there being nothing to inforce or induce them to it but humane authority On the same reason as it seems Leo Philosophus Emperour of Constantinople did make use of Scripture when in conformity with the Western Churches he purposed to restrain the works of Husbandry on that day which till his time had been permitted The Emperour Constantine had ordained as before was shewn that all Artificers and such as dwelt in Cities should on the Sunday leave their trades but by the same Edict gave licence to the Husbandman to pursue his business as well upon that day as on any other But contrary this Leo surnamed Philosophus he began his Reign Ann 886. grounding himself for so he tells us on the Authority of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles but where he sound that warrant from the Holy Ghost and from the holy Apostles that he tells us not restrained the Husbandman from his work as well as men of other callings Nicephorus mistakes the man and attributes it to the former Leo whom before we spake of in our fourth Chapter Eccl. hist c. 22. Quo tempore primus etiam Leo constitutione lata ut dies dominicus ab omnibus absque labore omni per ocium transigeretur festusque venerabilis esset quemadmodum divis Apostolis visum est praecepit Where the last clause with the substance of the Edict make the matter plain that he mistook the man though he hit the busineses the former Leo using no such motive in all his Edict Constit 54. But take it from the Emperour himself who having told us first that the Lords day was to be honoured with rest from labour adds next that he had seen a Law he means that of Constantine quae non omnes simul operari prohibendos nonnullosque uti operentur indulgendum censuit which having not restrained all works but permitted some did upon no sufficient reason dishonour that so sacred day Then followeth Statuimus nos etiam quod Sp. Sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit ut omnes in die sacro c. Ã labore vacent Neque Agricolae c. It is our will saith he according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles by him directed that on that sacred day whereon we were restored unto our integrity all men should rest themselves and surcease from labour neither the Husbandmen nor others putting their hand that day to prohibited work For if the Jews did so much reverence their Sabbath which only was a shadow of ours are not we which inhabit light and the truth of grace obliged to honour that day which the Lord hath honoured and hath therein delivered us both from dishonour and from death Are not we bound to keep it singularly and inviolably sufficiently contented with a liberal grant of all the rest and not encroaching on that one which God hath chosen for his service Nay were it not a retchless slighting and contempt of all Religion to make that day common and think that we may do thereon as we do on others So far this Emperour determins of it first and disputes it afterwards I only note it for the close that it was near 900 years from our Saviours birth if not quite so much before restraint of Husbandry on this day had been first thought of in the East and probably being thus restrained did find no more obedience there than it had done before in the Western parts As great a difficulty did it prove to restrain other things in these times projected although they carried it at the last The Emperour Constantine had before commanded that all Artificers in the Cities should surcease from labour on the Lords day as well as those whom he imployed in his seats of justice and questionless he found obedience answerable to his expectation But when the Western parts became a prey to new Kings and Nations and that those Kings and Nations had admitted the Laws of Christ yet did they not conceive it necessary to submit themselves to the Laws of Constantine and therefore followed their imployments as before they did And so it stood until the time of Charles the Great who in the year 789. published his regal Edict in this form that followeth In Legib.
going a Journey this may be allowed of in case they permit not Mass and Prayers This I find extant as a Canon of the 6. General Council holden in Constantinople but since both this and all the rest of the same stamp there are nine in all are thought not to belong of right unto it I have chosen rather to rafer it to this Theodulphus though a private man amongst whose works I find it in the great Bibliotheca Patrum Tom. 9. Thus in a Synod held at Coy within the Realm and Diocess of Oviedo Anno 1050. it was decreed that all men should repair to Church on the Lords day and there hear Mattins Mass and other the canonical hours as also Opus servile non exerceant nec sectentur itinera that they should do no servile work Tit. 6. nor take any Journey Yet with exceptions four or five namely unless it were for Devotions sake or to bury the Dead or to visit the Sick or finally pro secreto regis Saracenorum impetu on special business of the Kings or to make head against the Saracens The King was much beholden to them that they would take such care of his State Affairs more than some Princes might be now in case their business were at the disposing of particular men So had it been decreed by several Emperours yea and by several Councils too which for the East pars was confirmed by Emanuel Comneus the Eastern Emperiour Anno 1174. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all access to the Tribunal should be quite shut up that none of those who sat in Judgment should sit on any Cause that day Yet this not absolutely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. unless the King shall please on any new emergent cause as many times business comes unlooked for to appoint it otherwise Thus also for the works of labour fishing had been resirained on the Lords day as toilsom Act and on he other Holy days as well as that yet did it please Pope Alexander the third he entred on the Chair of Rome Decretal l. 2. tit 9. c 3. Anno 1160. to order by his decretal that on the Lords day and the rest it might be lawful unto those who dwelt upon the Coast Si halecia terrae inclinarint eorum captioni ingruente necessitate intendere to set themselves unto their fishing in case the Herring came within their reach and the time was seasonable Provided that they sent a convenient portion unto the Churches round about them and unto the poor Nay even the works of Handicrafts were in some sort suffered For whereas in the Council of Laodicea it was determined that men should rest on the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all their handy work and repair to Church Balsamon tells us in his Glass In Can. 29. concil Laod. that so it was resolved amongst them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not absolutely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if with conveniency they could For still saith he he lived in Anno 1191 in case men labour on that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either because of want or any other necessity they are held excusable Lastly Chronic. Aditâ—i whereas Pope Gregory the ninth had on the Sundays and the Holy days commanded ut homines jumenta omnia quiescant that there should be a general restraint from labour both of man and beast there was a refervation also nisi urgens necessitas instet vel nisi pauperibus vel Ecclesiae gratis fiat unless on great necessity or some good Office to be done unto the poor or to the Church Nor were there reservations and exceptions only in point of business and nothing found in point of practice but there are many passages especially of the greatest persons and most publick actions left upon Record to let us know what liberty that assumed unto themselves as well on this day as the rest And in such only shall I instance and as being most exemplary and therefore most conducing to my present purpose Aventine Hist l. 3. And first we read of a great Battel fought on Palm-Sunday An. 718. between Charles Martel Grand master of the Houshold of the King of France and Hilpericus the King himself wherein the Victory fell to Charles and yet we read not there of any great necessity nay of none at all but that they might on both sides have deferred the Battel had they conceived it any sin to fight that day Upon the Sunday before Lent Anno 835. Ludovick the Emperour â—urnamed Pius or the godly together with his Prelates and others Baron which had been present with him at the Assembly held at Theonville went on his Journey unto Mets nor do we find that it did derogate at all from his Name and Piety Upon the Sunday after Whitsontide Anno 844. Ludowick Son unto Lotharius the Emperour made his solemn entrance into Rome the Roman Citizens attending him with their Flaggs and Ensigns the Pope and Clergy staying his coming in St. Peters Church there to entertain him Upon a Sunday Anno 1014. Ditmarus Hist l. 7. Otho Frising hist l. 6. c. 29. Henry the Emperour duodecim senatoribus vallatus environed with twelve of the Roman Senatours came to St. Peters Church and there was crowned together with his Wife by the Pope then being On Easter day in ipsa die paschalis solennitatis Anno 1027. Conrade the Emperour was solemnly inaugurated by Pope John Canutus King of England and Rodalph King of the Burgundians being then both present and the next Sunday after began his Journey towards Germany Upon Palm Sunday Anno 1084. Wibert Archbishop of Ravenna was solemnly inthronized in the Chair of Rome â—â—spergen Chronicon and the next Sunday after being Easter day Henry the third Imperiali dignitate sublimatus est was crowned Emperour On Passion Sunday Anno 1148. Lewis the King of France afterwards Canonized for a Saint made his first entry into Hierusalem with all his Army and yet we read not any where that it was laid in Bar against him to put by his Sainting as possibly it might be now were it yet to do What should I speak of Councils on this day assembled as that of Chartres Anno 1146. for the recovery of the Holy land of Tours on Trinity Sunday as we call it now Anno 1164. against Octavian the Pseudo-Pope that of Ferrara upon Passion Sunday Anno 1177. against Frederick the Emperour or that of Paris Anno 1226. summoned by Stephen then Bishop there on the fourth Sunday in Lent for the condemning of certain dangerous and erronious positions at that time on foot I have the rather instanced in these particulars partly because they hapned about these times when Prince and Prelate were most intent in laying more and more restraints upon their people for the more honour of this day and partly because being all of them publick actions and such as moved not forwards but by divers wheels they did require
as Sundays whereby we see the Church had no less care of one than of the other And so indeed it had not in this alone but in all things else the Holy days as we now distinguish them being in most points equal to the Sunday and in some superiour Leo the Emperiour by his Edict shut up the Theater and the Cirque or shew-place on the Lords day The like is willed expresly in the sixth general Council holden at Constantinople Can. 66. Anno 692. for the whole Easter week Nequaquam ergo his diebus equorum cursus vel aliquod publicum fiat spectacum so the Canon hath it The Emperour Charles restrained the Husbandman and the Tradesman from following their usual work on the Lords day The Council of Melun doth the same for the said Easter week and in more particulars it being ordered by that Synod that men forbear Can. 77. during the time above remembred ab omni opere rurali fabrili carpentario gynaecaeo caementario pictorio venatorio forensi mercatorio audientiali ac sacramentis exigendis from Husbandry the craft of Smiths and Carpenters from Needle-work Cementing Painting Hunting Pleadings Merchandize casting of Accounts and from taking Oaths That Benedictines had but three mess of Pottage upon other days die vero dominico in praecipuis festivitatibus but on the Lords day and the principal Festivals a fourth was added as saith Theodomare the Abbot in an Epistle to Charles the Great Law-suits and Courts of Judgment were to be laid aside and quite shut up on the Lords day as many Emperours and Councils had determined severally The Council held at Friburg Anno 895. did resolve the samne of Holy days or Saints days and the time of Lent Nullusomnino secularis diebus dominicis vel Sanctorum in Festis Conc. Fribâ—riens Can. 26. seu Quadragesimae aut jejuniorum placitum habere sed nec populum illo praesumat coercere as the Canon goeth The very same with that of the Council of Erford Anno 932. cap. 2. But what need private and particular Synods be produced as witnesses herein when we have Emperours Popes and Patriarchs that affirm the same Ap. Balsam tit 7. cap. 1. To take them in the order in which they lived Photius the Patriarch of Constantinople Anno 858. thus reckoneth up the Festivals of especial note viz. Seven days before Easter and seven days after Christmas Epiphanie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Feasts of the Apostles and the Lords day And then he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on those days they neither suffer publick shews nor Courts of Justice Emanuel Comnenus next Ap. Balsam Emperour of Constantinople Anno 1174. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We do ordain saith he that these days following be exempt from labour viz. the Nativity of the Virgin Mary Holy-rood day and so he reckoneth all the rest in those parts observed together with all the Sundays in the year and that in them there be not any access to the seats of judgment Lib. 2 tit 〈◊〉 feriis cap. 5. The like Pope Gregory the ninth Anno 1228. determineth in the Decretal where numbring up the Holy-days he concludes at last that neither any process hold nor sentence be in force pronounced on any of those days though both parts mutually should consent upon it Consentientibus etiam partibus nec processus habitus teneat nec sententia quam contingit diebus hujusmodi promulgari So the Law resolves it Now lest the feast of Whitsontide might not have some respect as well as Easter it was determined in the Council held at Engelheim Anno 948. that Munday Tuesday Wednesday in the Whitsun-week Cap. 6. non minus quam dies dominicus solenniter honorentur should no less solemnly be observed than the Lords day was So when that Otho Bishop of Bamberg had planted the faith of Christ in Pomerania and was to give account thereof to the Pope then being Urspergens Chronic. he certifieth him by his Letters Anno 1124. that having Christned them and built them Churches he left them three injunctions for their Christian carriage First that they eat no flesh on Fridays Secondly that they rest the Lords day ab omni opere malo from every evil work repairing to the Church for religious duties And thirdly Sanctorum solennitates cum vigiliis omni diligentia observent that they keep carefully the Saints days with the Eves attendant So that in all these outward matters we find fair equality save that in one respect the principal Festivals had preheminence above the Sunday For whereas Fishermen were permitted by the Decretal of Pope Alexander the third as before was said diebus dominicis aliis festis on the Lords day and other Holy-days to fish for Herring in some cases there was a special exception of the greater Festivals praeterquam in majoribus anni solennitatibus as the other was But not to deal in generals only Isidore Arch-bishop of Sevil in the beginning of the seventh Century making a Catalogue of the principal Festivals begins his list with Easter and ends it with the Lords day as before we noted in the fifth Section of this Chapter Now lest it should be thought that in sacred matters and points of substance the other Holy-days wee not as much regarded as the Lords day was The Council held at Mentz Anno 813. did appoint it thus that it the Bishop were infirm or not at home Non desit tamen diebus dominicis festivitatibus qui verbum Dei praedicet juxta quod populus intelligat yet there should still be some to preach Gods Word unto the People according unto their capacities both on the Lords day and the other Festivals Indeed why should not both be observed alike the Saints days being dedicated unto God as the Lords day is and standing both of them on the same authority on the authority of the Church for the particular Institution on the authority of Gods Law for the general Warrant It was commanded by the Lord and written in the heart of man by the pen of nature that certain times should be appointed for Gods publick worship the choicing of the times was left to the Churches power and she designed the Saints days as she did the Lords both his and both allotted to his service only This made Saint Bernard ground them all the Lords day and the other Holy-days on the fourth Commandment the third in the Account of the Church of Rome Serm. 3. Super Salve reg Spirituale obsequium Deo praebetur in observantia sanctarum solennitatum unde tertium praeceptum contexitur Observa diem Sabbati i. e. in sacris feriis te exerce So S. Bernard in his third Sermon Super salve Regina The Lords days and the Holy-days or Saints days being of so near a kin we must next see what care was taken by the Church in these present ages for hallowing them unto the Lord. The
the offering of the Paschal Lamb his Death and Passion Sic Sabbatismus ille requiem annunciabat quae post hanc vitam posita â—â—t fanctis â—lectis so did the Sabbath signifie that eternal rest which after this life is provided for the Saints and elect of God And more than this Spiritualis homo non uno die hebdomadis sed omni tempore Sabbatizare satagit the true spiritual man keeps not his Subbath once a week but at all times whatever every hour and minute What then would he have no day set apart for Gods publick service no but not the Sabbath Because saith he we are not to rejoyce in this world that perisheth but in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection therefore we ought not rest the seventh day in sloth and idleness But we dispose our selves to prayers and hearing of the Word of God upon the first day of the week on the which Christ rose cum summa cura providentes ut tam illo quam caeteris diebus feriati semper simus à servili opere peccati Provided always that upon that and all days else we keep our selves free from the servile Acts of sin This was the Sabbath which they principally looked for in this present life never applying of that name to the Lords day in any of those monuments of Learning they have left behind them The first who ever used it to denote the Lords day the first that I have met with in all this search is one Petrus Alfonsus he lived about the times that Rupertus did who calls the Lords day by the name of the Christian Sabbath Dies domnica dies viz. resurrectionis quae suae salvationis causa extitit Christianorum sabbatum est But this no otherwise to be construed than by Analogy and resemblance no otherwise than the Feast of Easter is called the Christian Passeover As for the Saturday the old Sabbath day though it continued not a Sabbath yet it was still held in an high esteem in the Eastern Churches counted a festival day or at least no fast and honoured with the meetings of the Congregation In reference to the first we find how it was charged on the Church of Rome by the sixth Council in Constantinople Anno 692. that in the holy time of Lent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they used to fast the Saturday which was directly contrary to the Canons of the Apostles as they there alledge This also was objected by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople against Pope Nicolas of Rome Anno 867. and after that by Michael of Constantinople against Leo the ninth Anno 1053. which plainly shews that in the Eastern Churches they observed it otherwise And in relation to the other Curopalat we find that whereas in the principal Church of Constantinople the holy Sacrament was celebrated only on the greater feasts as also on the Saturdays and the Sundays Sabbatis dominicis and not on other days as at Rome it was Constantine surnamed Mononiachus Anno 1054 enriched it with revenue and bestowed much fair plate upon it that so they might be able every day to perform that office Which proves sufficiently that Saturday was always one in all publick duties and that it kept even pace with Sunday But it was otherwise of old in the Church of Rome where they did laborare jejunare as Humbertus saith in his defence of Leo the ninth against Nicetas And this with little opposition or interruption save that which had been made in the City of Rome in the beginning of the seventh Century and was soon crushed by Gregory then Bishop there as before we noted And howsoever Vrban of that name the second Hect. Boet. hist l. 22. did consecrate it to the weekly service of the blessEd Virgin and instituted in the Council held at Clermont Anno 1095. that our Ladies office Officium B. Mariae should be said upon it Eandemque Sabbato quoque die praecipua devotione populum Christianum colere debere and that upon that day all Christian folk should worship her with their best devotions yet it continued still as before it was a day of fasting and of working So that in all this time in 1200 years we have found no Sabbath nor do we think to meet with any in the times that follow either amongst the Schoolmen or amongst the Protestants which next shall come upon the Stage CHAP. VI. What is the judgment of the Schoolmen and of the Protestants and what the practice of those Churches in this Lords day business 1. That in the judgment of the Schoolmen the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment 2. As also that the Lords day is not founded on Divine Authority but the Authority of the Church 3. A Catalogue of the Holy-days drawn up in the Council of Lyons and the new Doctrine of the Schools touching the native sanctity of the Holy-days 4. In what estate the Lords day stood in matter of restraint from labour at the reformation 5. The Reformators find great fault both with the said new doctrine and restraints from labour 6. That in the judgment of the Protestant Divines the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment 7. As that the Lords day hath no other ground on which to stand than the Authority of the Church 8. And that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other 9. What is the practice of all Churches the Roman Lutheran and Calvinian chiefly in matter of Devotion rest from labour and sufferance of lawful pleasures 10. Dancing cried down by Calvin and the French Churches not in relation to the Lords day but the sport it self 11. In what estate the Lords day stands in the Eastern Churches and that the Saturday is no less esteemed of by the Ethiopians than the said Lords day WE are now come unto an Age wherein the Learning of the world began to make a different shew from what it did to such a period of time in which was made the greatest alteration in the whole fabrick of the Church that ever any time could speak of The Schoolmen who sprung up in the beginning of the thirteenth Age contracted Learning which before was diffused and scattered into fine subtilties and distinctions the Protestants in the beginning of the sixteenth endeavouring to destroy those buildings which with such diligence and curiosity had been erected by the Schoolmen though they consented well enough in the present business so far as it concern'd the Institution either of the Lords day or the Sabbath Of these and what they taught and did in reference to the point in hand we are now to speak taking along with us such passages of especial note as hapned in the Christian world by which we may learn any thing that concerns our business And first beginning with the Schoolmen they tell us generally of the Sabbath that
it was a Ceremony and that the fourth Commandment is of a different nature from the other nine That whereas all the other precepts of the Decalogue are simply moral the fourth which is the third in their account 22. qu. 122. art 4. ad 1. is partly moral partly ceremonial Morale quidem quantum ad hoc quod homo deputet aliquod tempus vitae suae ad vacandum divinis c. Moral it is in this regard that men must set apart some particular time for Gods publick service it being natural to man to destinate particular times to particular actions as for his dinner for his sleep and such other actions Sed in quantum in hoc praecepto determinatur speciale tempus in s gnum creationis mundi sic est praeceptum ceremoniale But inasmuch as that there is a day appointed in the Law it self in token of Gods rest and the worlds creation in that respect the Law is ceremonial and ceremonial too they make it in reference to the Allegory our Saviours resting in the grave that day and in relation to the Analogical meaning of it as it prefigureth our eternal rest in the Heaven of glories Finally they conclude of the fourth Commandment that it is placed in the Decalogue in quantum est praeceptum morale non in quantum est ceremoniale only so far forth as it is moral and not as ceremonial that is that we are bound by the fourth Commandment to destinate some time to Gods publick service which is simply moral but not the Seventh day which is plainly ceremonial Aquinas so resolves it for all the rest In Gr at de Sabbato his judgment in this point if Doctor Prideaux note be true as I have no reason but to think so being universally embraced and followed by all the Schoolmen of what sect soever So that in him we have them all all of them consonant in this point to make up the Harmony however dissonant enough in many others But that this consent may appear the more full and perfect we will take notice of two others men famous in the Schools and eminent for the times in which they lived First Bonaventure who lived in the same time with Aquinas and died the same year with him which was 1274. hath determined thus Serm. de decem praecept Imelligendum est quod praeceptum illud habet aliquid quod est mere morale c. It is to be conceived saith he that in the fourth Commandment there is something which is simply moral something again that is plainly ceremonial and something mixt The sanctifying of a day is Moral the sanctifying of a Seventh day Ceremonial rest from the works of labour being mixt of both Quod praecipit Deus sanctificationem est Praeceptum morale Est in hoc praecepto aliquid ceremoniale ut figuratio dici septimae Item continetur aliquid quod est partim morale partim ceremoniale ut cessatio ab operibus Lastly In Exod. 20. qu. 11. Tostatus Bishop of Avila in Spain hath resolved the same aliquid est in eo juris naturalis aliquid legalis that in the fourth Commandment there is something Natural and something Legal that it is partly Moral and partly Ceremonial Naturale est quod dum Deum colimus ab aliis abstineamus c. Moral and Natural it is that for the time we worship God we do abstain from every thing of what kind soever which may divert our thoughts from that holy action But that we should design in every week one day unto that employment and that the whole day be thereto appointed and that in all that day a man shall do no manner of work those things he reckoneth there to be Ceremonial So for the Lords day it is thus determined by Aquinas that it depends on the authority of the Church the custom and consent of Gods faithful servants 2.20 qu. 122. art 4. ad 4. and not on any obligation laid upon us by the fourth Commandment Diei dominicae observantia in nova lege succedit observantiae sabbati non ex vi praecepti legis sed ex constitutione Ecclesiae consuetudine populi Christiani What followeth thereupon Et ideo non est ita arcta prohibitio operandi in die dominica sicut in die Sabbati Therefore saith he the prohibition of doing no work on the Lords day is not so rigorous and severe as upon the Sabbath many things being licensed on the one which were forbidden on the other as dressing meat and others of that kind and nature And not so only but he gives us a dispensatur facilius in nova lege an easier hope of dispensation under the Gospel in case upon necessity we meddle with prohibited labours than possibly could have been gotten under the Law The like Tostatus tells us though in different words save that he doth extend the prohibiton as well to all the Feasts of the Old Testament as all the Holy days of the New and neither to the Sabbath nor the Lords day only In veteri lege major fuit strictio in observatione festorum In Exod 20. qu. 13. quam in nova lege How so In omnibus enim festivitatibus nostris quantaecunque sint c. Because saith he in all our Festivals how great soever whether they be the Lords days or the feasts of Easter or any of the higher rank it is permitted to dress meat and to kindle fire c. As for the grounds whereon they stood he makes this difference between them that the Jews Sabbath had its warrant from Divine commandment but that the Lords day though it came in the place thereof is founded only on Ecclesiastical constitution Colebatur Sabbatum ex mandato Dei cujus loco successit dies dominica In Matth 23. qu. 148. tamen manifestum est quod observatio diei dominicae non est de jure divino sed de jure humano Canonico This is plain enough and this he proves because the Church hath still a power mutare illum diem vel totaliter tollere either to change the day or take it utterly away and to dispense touching the keeping of the same which possibly it neither could nor ought to do were the Lords day of any other institution than the Churches only They only have the power to repeal a Law which had power to make it Qui habet institutionem habet destitutionem as is the Bishops plea in a Quare Impedit As for the first of these two powers that by the Church the day may be transferred and abrogated Suarez hath thus distinguished in it verum id esse absolute non practice that is as I conceive his meaning that such a power is absolutely in the Church though not convenient now to be put in practice According unto that of St. Paul which probably was the ground of the distinction All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient This is
the general tendry of the Roman Schools that which is publickly avowed and made good amongst them And howsoever Petrus de Anchorana and Nicholas Abbat of Patermo two learned Canonists as also Angelus de Clavasio and Silvester de Prierats two as learned Casuists seem to defend the institution of the Lords day to have its ground and warrant on divine Authority yet did the general current of the Schools and of the Canonists also run the other way And in that current still it holds the Jesuits and most learned men in the Church of Rome following the general and received opinion of the Schoolmen whereof see Bellarm. de cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 11. Estius in 3. Sent. dist 37. Sect. 13. but especially Agsorius in his Institut Moral part second cap. 2. who gives us an whole Catalogue or them which hold the Lords day to be founded only on the authority of the Church Touching the other power the power of Dispensation there is not any thing more certain than that the Church both may and doth dispense with such as have therein offended against her Canons The Canons in themselves do profess as much there being many casus reservati as before we said expressed particularly in those Laws and constitutions which have been made about the keeping of this day and the other Festivals wherein a dispensation lieth if we disobey them Many of these were specified in the former Ages and some occur in these whereof now we write It pleased Pope Gregory the ninth Decretal l. 2. tit de feriis cap. 5. Anno 1228. to inhibit all contentious Suits on the Lords day and the other Festivals and to inhibit them so far that judgment given on any of them should be counted void Etiam consentientibus partibus although both parties were consenting Yet was it with this clause or reservation nisi vel necessitas urgeat vel pietas suadeat unless necessity inforced or piety persuaded that it should be done So in a Synod holden in Valladolit apud vallem Oleti in the parts of Spain Concil Sabiness deâ—feriis Anno 1322. a general restraint was ratified that had been formerly in force quod nullus in diebus dominicis festivis agros colere audeat aut manualia artificia exercere praesitmat that none should henceforth follow Husbandry or exercise himself in mechanick Trades upon the Lords day or the other Holy days Yet was it with the same Proviso nisi urgente necessitate vel evidentis pietatis causa unless upon necessity or apparent piety or charity in each of which he might have licence from the Priest his own Parish-Priest to attend his business Where still observe that the restraint was no less peremptory on the other Holy days than on the Lords day These Holy days as they were named particularly in Pope Gregories Decretal so was a perfect list made of them in the Synod of Lyons â—e consecrat distinct 3. c. 1. Anno 1244. which being celebrated with a great concourse of people from all parts of Christendom the Canons and decrees thereof began forthwith to find a general admittance The Holy days allowed of there were these that follow viz. the feast of Christs nativity St. Stephen St John the Evangelist the Innocents St. Silvâ—ster the Circumcision of our Lord the Epiphany Easter together with the week precedent and the week succeeding the three days in Rogation week the day of Christs Ascension Whitsunday with the two days after St. John the Baptist the feasts of all the twelve Apostles all the festivities of our Lady St. Lawrence all the Lords days in the year St. Michael the Archangel All Saints St. Martins the Wakes or dedication of particular Churches together with the Feasts of such topical or local Saints which some particular people had been pleased to honour with a day particular amongst themselves On these and every one of them the people were restrained as before was said from many several kinds of work on pain of Ecclesiastical censures to be laid on them which did offend unless on some emergent causes either of charity or necessity they were dispensed with for so doing In other of the Festivals which had not yet attained to so great an height the Council thought not fit perhaps by reason of their numbers that men should be restrained from labour as neither that they should be incouraged to it but left them to themselves to bestow those times as might stand best with their affairs and the Common wealth For so the Synod did determine Reliquis festivitatibus quae per annum sunt non esse plebem cogendam ad feriandum sed nec probibendam And in this state things stood a long time together there being none that proferd opposition in reference to these restraints from labour on the greater Festivals though some there were that thought the Festivals too many on which those burden of restraints had unadvisedly been imposed on the common people Nicholas de Clemangis complained much as of some other abuses in the Church so of the multitude of Holy days Ap. Hospin cap. â— de fest 〈◊〉 which had of late times been brought into it And Pet. de Aliaco Cardinal of Cambray in a Discourse by him exhibited to the Council of Constance made publick suit unto the Fathers there assembled that there might a stop be put in that kind hereafter as also that excepting Sundays and the greater Festivals liceret operari post auditum officium it might be lawful for the people after the end of Divine Service to attend their businesses the poor especially having little time enough on the working days ad vitae necessaria procuranda to get their livings But these were only the expressions of well wishing men The Popes were otherwise resolved and did not only keep the Holy days which they found established in the same state in which they found them but added others daily as they saw occasion At last it came unto that pass by reason of that rigorous and exact kind of rest which by the Canon Law had been fastned on them that both the Lords day and the other Festivals were accounted Holy not in relation to the use made of them or to the holy actions done on them in the honour of God but in and of themselves considered they were avowed to be vere aliis sanctiores Bell arm de cultu S. l. 3. c. 10. truly and properly invested with a greater sanctity than the other days Yea so far did they go at last that it is publickly maintained in the Schools of Rome non sublatam esse sed mutatam tantum in novo Testamento significationem discretionem dierum that the difference of days and times and the mysterious significations of the same which had before been used in the Jewish Church was not abolished but only changed in the Church of Christ Aquinas did first lead this Dance in fitting every legal Festival with some that were observed
in the Christian Church laying this ground that ours succeeded in the place of theirs Sabbatum mutatur in diem dominicum similiter aliis solennitatibus veteris legis novae solennitates succedunt 1. 2 ae qu. 103. Art 3. ad 4. as his words there are Upon which ground of his the Doctrines now remembred were no question raised and howsoever other men might think all days alike in themselves considered yet those of Rome will have some holier than the rest even by a natural and inherent holiness And in this state things stood both for the doctrine and the practice until such time as men began to look into the errours and abuses in the Church of Rome with a more serious eye than before they did the Canonists being no less nice in the point of practice than were the Schoolmen and the rest exorbitant in the point of Doctrine Whose Niceties especially in matter of restraint we have most fully represented to us by Tostatus In Exod. 12. one that had run through all the parts of Learning at that time on foot and was as well studied in the Canon as in the Schools He then determineth of it thus Itinerando pro negotiis peccatum esse mortale c. Qu. 25. He that doth travel on the Holy days for in that general Name the Lords day and the other Festivals are comprehended about worldly business commits mortal sin as also if he Trade or Traffick in the place wherein he liveth But this hath two exceptions or reservations First if the business by him done be but small and light quae quietem Sabbati non impediunt such as are no great hinderance to the Sabbaths rest and secondly nisi hoc sit in causa pia unless it were on some devout and pious purpose To read unto or teach a man to deal in actions of the Law or determine Suits Qu. 26. or to cast Accounts si quis doceret ut lucretur if it be done for hire or for present gain become servile works and are forbidden Otherwise if one do it gratis Qu. 27. If a Musitian wait upon a Gentleman to recreate his mind with Musick and that they are agreed on a certain wages or that he be hired only for a present turn he sins in case he play or sing unto him on the Holy days but not if his reward be doubtful Qu. 28. and depends only upon the bounty of the parties who enjoy his Musick A Cook that on the Holy days is hired to make a Feast or to dress a Dinner doth commit mortal sin sed non pro toto mense aut anno but not if he be hired by the month or by the year Meat may be dressed upon the Lords day or the other Holy days Qu. 29. but to wash Dishes on those days was esteemed unlawful differri in diem alteram Qu. 32. and was to be deferred till another day Lawyers that do their Clients business for their wonted see were not to draw their Bills or frame their Answers or peruse their Evidences on the Holy days Secus si causam agerent pro miserabilibus personis c. but it was otherwise if they dealt for poor indigent people such as did sue in forma pauperis as we call it or in the causes of a Church or Hospital in which the Popes had pleased to grant a Dispensation A man that travelled on the Holy days Qu. 34. to any special shrine or Saint did commit no sin Si autem in redeundo peccatum est mortale but if he did the like in his coming back he then sinned mortally Qu. 35. In any place where formerly it had been the custom neither to draw Water nor to sweep the House but to have those things ready on the day before the custom was to be observed where no such custom is there they may be done Actions of a long continuance if they were delightful or if one played three or four hours together on a Musical Instrument were not unlawful on the Holy days yet possibly they might be sinful at si quis hoc ageret ex lascivia as if one played only out of wantonness Qu. 36. or otherwise were so intent upon his Musick that he went not to Mass Artificers which work on the Holy days for their own profit only are in mortal sin unless the work be very small quia modicum non facit solennitatem dissolvi because a little thing dishonours not the Festival De minimis non curat lex as our saying is Contrary Butchers Vintners Bakers Coster-mongers sinned not in selling their Commodities because more profit doth redound to the Common wealth which cannot be without such commodities than to them that sell yet this extended not to Drapers Shoomakers or the like because there is not such a present necessity for cloaths as meat Yet where the custom was that Butchers did not sell on the Holy days but specially not upon the Lords day that commendable custom was to be observed though in those places also it was permitted to the Butcher that on those days at some convenient times thereof he might make ready what was to be sold on the morrow after as kill and skin his Bestial which were fit for sale in case he could not do it with so much convenience non ita congrue at another time Qu. 37. To write out or transcribe a Book though for a mans own private use was esteemed unlawful except it were exceeding small because this put no difference between the Holy days and the other yet was it not unlawful neither in case the Argument were Spiritual nor for a Preacher to write out his Sermons or for a Student to provide his Lecture for the day following Windmils were suffered to be used on the Holy days Qu. 38. not Watermills because the first required less labour and attendance than the other did This is the reason in Tostatus though I can see no reason in it the passage of the Water being once let run being of more certainty and continuance than the changeable blowing of the Wind. But to proceed Qu. 39. Ferry-men were not to transport such men in their Boats or Wherries as did begin their Journey on an Holy day unless they went to Mass or on such occasions but such as had begun their Journey and now were in pursuit thereof might be ferried over quia forte carebunt victu because they may perhaps want Victuals if they do not pass Qu. 41. To repair Churches on the Lords day and the other Holy-days was accounted lawful in case the Workmen did it gratis and that the Church were poor not able to hire Workmen on the other days not if the Church were rich and in case to do it Qu. 42. So also to build Bridges repair the walls of Towns and Castles or other publick Edifices on those days was not held unlawfu si instent hostes in case the
Enemy be at hand though otherwise not to be done where no danger was These are the special points observed and published by Tostatus And these I have the rather exactly noted partly that we may see in what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days were in the Church of Rome what time the reformation of Religion was first set on foot but principally to let others see how near they come in their new fancies and devices unto the Niceties of those men whom they most abhor Thus stood it as before I said both for the Doctrine and the Practice till men began to look into the Errours and abuses in the Roman Church with a more serious eye than before they did and at first sight they found what little pleased them in this particular Their Doctrine pleased them not in making one day holier than another not only in relation to the use made of them but to a natural and inherent holiness wherewith they thought they were invested Nor did their practice please much more in that they had imposed so many burdens of restraint upon the consciences of Gods people and thereby made that day a punishment which was intended for the ease of the labouring man Against the doctrine of these men and the whole practice of that Church Calvin declares himself in his book of Institutions And therewith taxeth those of Rome L. 2. cap. 8. p. 34. qui Judaica opinione populum superioribus seculis imbuerunt who in the times before possessed the peoples minds with so much Judaism that they had changed the day indeed as in dishonour of the Jew but otherwise retained the former sanctity thereof which needs must be saith he if there remain with us as the Papists taught the same opinion of the mysteries and various significations of days and times which the Jews once had And certainly saith he we see what dangerous effects have followed on so false a Doctrine those which adhere to their instructions having exceedingly out gone the Jews crassa carnalique Sabbatismi superstitione in their gross and carnal superstitions about the Sabbath In Apocal. 1. v. 10. Beza his Scholar and Achates sings the self-same Song that howsoever the Assemblies of the Lords day were of Apostolical and divine Tradition sic tamen ut Judaica cessatio ab omni opere non observaretur quoniam hoc plane fuisset Judaismum non abolere sed tantum quod ad diem attinet immutare yet so that there was no cessation from work required as was observed among the Jews For that saith he had not so much abolished Judaism as put it off and changed it to another day And then he adds that this cessation was first brought in by Constantine and afterwards confirmed with more and more restraints by the following Emperours by means of which it came to pass that that which first was done for a good intent viz. that men being free from their worldly businesses might wholly give themselves to hearing of the Word of God in merum Judaismum degenerarit degnerated at the last into down-right Judaism So for the Lutheran Churches Chemnitius challengeth the Romanists of superstition quasi dominicae diei reliquis diebus festis per se peculiaris quaedam insit sanctitas because they taught the people that the Holy days considered only in themselves had a Native Sanctity And howsoever for his part he think it requisite that men should be restrained from all such works as may be any hinderance unto the sanctifying of the day yet he accounts it but a part of the Jewish leaven nimis scrupulose diebus festis prohibere operas externas quie vel quando non impediunt publicum ministerium so scrupulously to prohibit such external Actions which are at all no hindrance to Gods publick service and mans Sabbath Duties Bueer goes further yet and doth not only call it a superstition In Mat. 12. but an Apostacy from Christ to think that working on the Lords day in it self considered is a sinful thing Si existimetur operari in eo die per se esse peccatum superstitio gratiae Christi qui ab elementis mundi nos suo sanguine liberavit negatio est as his own words are Then adds that he did very well approve of the Lords day meetings si eximatur è cordibus hominum opinio necessitatis if men were once dispossessed of these opinions that the day was necessary to be kept that it was holier in it self than the other days and that to work upon that day in it self was sinful Lastly the Churches of the Switzers profess in their Confession that in the keeping of the Lords day they give not the least hint to any Jewish superstitions Neque enim alteram diem altera sanctiorem esse credimus nec otium Deo per se probari existimamus For neither Cap. 24. as they said do we conceive one day to be more holy than another or think that rest from labour in it self considered is any way pleasing unto God By which we plainly may perceive what is the judgment of the Protestant Churches in the present point Indeed It is not to be thought that they could otherwise resolve and determine of it considering what their Doctrine is of the day it self how different they make it from a Sabbath day which Doctrine that we may perceive with the greater ease we will consider it in three Propositions in which most agree 1. That the keeping holy one day of seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment or to be reckoned as a part of the law of Nature 2. That the Lords day is not founded on Divine Commandment but only on the authority of the Church and 3. That the Church hath still authority to change the day and to transfer it to some other First for the first it seems that some of Rome considering the restraints before remembred and the new Doctrine thence arising about the Natural and inherent holiness which one day had above another had altered what was formerly delivered amongst the Schoolmen and made the keeping of one day in seven to be the Moral part of the fourth Commandment This Calvin chargeth them withal that they had taught the people in the former times Instit l. 1. Cap. 8.11 34. that whatsover was ceremonial in the fourth Commandment which was the keeping of the Jews seventh day had been long since abrogated remanere vero quod morale est nempe unius diei observationem in hebdomade but that the moral part thereof which was the keeping of one day in seven did continue still With what else is it as before was said than in dishonour of the Jews to change the day and to affix as great a sanctity thereunto as the Jews ever did And for his own part he professeth that howsoever he approved of the Lords day meetings Non tamen numerum septennarium ita se morari ut ejus servituti Ecclesias
especially appointed for the same are called Holy days Rot for the matter or the nature either of the time or day c. for to all days and times are of like holiness but for the nature and condition of such holy works c. whereunto such times and days are sanctified and hallowed that is to say separated from all prophane uses and dedicated not unto any Saint or Creature but only unto God and his true worship Neither is it to be thought that there is any certain time or definitive number of days prescribed in holy Scripture but the appointment both of the time and also of the number of days is left by the authority of Gods Word unto the liberty of Christs Church to be determined and assigned orderly in every Countrey by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judg most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods glory and edification of their people Nor is it to be thought that all this Preamble was made in reference to the Holy days or Saints days only whose being left to the authority of the Church was never questioned but in relation to the Lords day also as by the Act it self doth at full appear for so it followeth in the Act Be it therefore enacted c. That all the days hereafter mentioned shall be kept and commanded to be kept Holy days and none other that is to say all Sundays in the Year the Feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphanie of the Purification with all the rest now kept and there named particularly and that none other day shall be kept and commanded to be kept holy day and to abstain from lawful bodily labour Nay which is more there is a further Clause in the self-same Act which plainly shews that they had no such thought of the Lords day as that it was a Sabbath or so to be observed as the Sabbath was and therefore did provide it and enact by the Authority aforesaid a bat it shall be lawful to every Husbandman Labourer Fisherman and to all and every other person or persons of what estate degree or condition be or they he upon the holy days aforesaid in Harvest or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require to labour ride fish or work any kind of work at their free-wills and pleasure any thing in this Act unto the contrary notwithstanding This is the total of this Act which if examined well as it ought to be will yield us all those propositions or conclusions before remembred which we collected from the writings of those three particular Martyrs Nor is it to be said that it is repealed and of no Authority Repealed indeed it was in the first year of Queen Mary and stood repealed in Law though otherwise in use and practice all the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth but in the first year of King James was revived again Note here that in the self-same Parliament the Common Prayer-Book now in use being reviewed by many godly Prelates was confirmed and authorized wherein so much of the said Act as doth concern the Names and Number of the Holy days is expressed and as it were incorporate into the same Which makes it manifest that in the purpose of the Church the Sunday was no otherwise esteemed of than another Holy day This Statute as before we said was made in Anno 5. 6. of Edward the sixth And in that very Parliament as before we said the Common-Prayer-Book was confirmed which still remains in use amongst us save that there was an alteration or addition of certain Lessons to be used on every Sunday of the Year 1 Eliz. cap. 2. the form of the Letany altered and corrected and two Sentences added in the delivery of the Sacrament unto the Communicants Now in this Common Prayer-Book thus confirmed in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the sixth Cap. 1. it pleased those that had the altering and revising of it that the Commandments which were not in the former Liturgy allowed of in the second of the said Kings Reign should now be added and accounted as a part of this the people being willed to say after the end of each Commandment Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law Which being used accordingly as well upon the hearing of the fourth Commandment as of any others hath given some men a colour to persuade themselves that certainly it was the meaning of the Church that we should keep a Sabbath still though the day be changed and that we are obliged to do it by the fourth Commandment Assuredly they who so conclude conclude against the meaning of the Book and of them that made it Against the meaning of the Book for if the Book had so intended that that Ejaculation was to be understood in a literal sence according as the words are laid down in terminis it then must be the meaning of the Book that we should pray unto the Lord to keep the Sabbath of the Jews even the seventh day precisely from the Worlds Creation and keep it in the self-same manner as the Jews once did which no man I presume will say was the meaning of it For of the changing of the day there is nothing said nor nothing intimated but the whole Law laid down in terminis as the Lord delivered it Against the meaning also of them that made it for they that made the Book and reviewed it afterwards and caused these Passages and Prayers to be added to it Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Ridley Bishop of London and certain others of the Prelates then and there assembled were the same men by whose advice and counsel the Act before remembred about keeping Holy days was in the self-same Parliament drawn up and perfected And is it possible we should conceive so ill of those reverend persons as that they would erect a Sabbath in the one Act and beat it down so totally in the other to tell us in the Service-Book that we are bound to keep a Sabbath and that the time and day of Gods publick Worship is either pointed out in the fourth Commandment or otherwise ordained by Divine Authority and in the self-same breath to tell us that there is neither certain time nor definite number of days prescribed in Scripture but all this left unto the liberty of the Church I say as formerly I said it is impossible we should think so ill of such Reverend persons nor do I think that any will so think hereafter when they have once considered the non sequitur of their own Conclusions As for the Prayer there used we may thus expound it according to the doctrine and the practice both of those very times viz. that their intent and meaning was to teach the people to pray unto the Lord to incline their hearts to keep that Law as far as it contained the Law of Nature and had been
prescribed by the Church of England shewed plainly their dislike of those Sabbath Doctrines which had been lately set on foot to the dithonour of the Church and diminution of her authority in destinating other days to the service of God than their new Saint-Sabbath Yet did not this the Churches care either so satisfie their desires or restrain the follies of those men who had embraced the New Sabbath Doctrines but that they still went forwards to advance that business which was now made a part of the common cause no book being published by that party either by way of Catechism or Comment on the Ten Commandments or moral Piety or systematical Divinity of all which these last times have produced too many wherein the Sabbath was not pressed upon the consciences of Gods people with as much violence as formerly with authority upon the Jews And hereunto they were encouraged a great deal the rather because in Ireland what time his Majesties Commissioners were employed about the setling of that Church Anno 1615. there passed an Article which much confirmed them in their Courses and hath been often since alledged to justifie both them and their proceedings Art 56. The Article is this The first day of the week which is the Lords day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business and to bestow that leisure upon holy Exercises both private and publick What moved his Majesties Commissioners to this strict austcrity that I cannot say but sure I am that till that time the Lords day never had attained such credit as to be thought an Article of the Faith though of some mens fancies Nor was it like to be of long continuance it was so violently followed the whole Book being now called in and in the place thereof the Articles of the Church of England confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdom Anno 1634. Nor was this all the fruit neither of such dangerous Doctrines that the Lords day was grown into the reputation of the Jewish Sabbath but some that built on their foundations and ploughed with no other than their Heifers endeavoured to bring back again the Jewish Sabbath as that which is expresly mentioned in the fourth Commandment and abrogate the Lords day for altogether as having no foundation in it nor warrant by it Of these one Thraske declared himself for such in King James his time and therewithal took up another Jewish Doctrine about Meats and Drinks as in the time of our dread Soveraign now being Theophilus Braborne grounding himself on the so much applauded Doctrine of the morality of the Sabbath maintained that the Jewish Sabbath ought to be observed and wrote a large Book in defence thereof which came into the World 1632. For which their Jewish doctrines the first received his censure in the Star-Chamber and what became of him I know not the other had his doom in the High-Commission and hath since altered his opinion being misguided only by the principles of some noted men to which he thought he might have trusted Of these I have here spoken together because the ground of their opinions so far as it concerned the Sabbath were the very same they only make the conclusions which of necessity must follow from the former premisses just as the Brownists did befoe when they abominated on the Communion of the Church of England on the Puritan principles But to proceed This of it self had been sufficient to bring all to ruin but this was not all Not only Judaism did begin but Popery took great occasion of increase by the preciseness of some Magistrates and Ministers in several places of this Kingdom in bindring people from their Recreations on the Sunday the Papists in this Realm being thereby persuaded that no honest Mirth or Recreation was tolerable in our Religion Which being noted by King James in his progress through Lancashire King James's Declarat it pleased his Majesty to set out his Declaration May 24. Anno 1618. the Court being then at Greenwich to this effect that for his good peoples lawful Recreations his pleasure was that after the end of Divine Service they should not be disturbed letted or discouraged from any lawful Recreations such as Dancing either Men or Women Archery for Men Leaping Vaulting or any other such harmless Recreations nor from having of May-games Whitsun-Ales or Morrice-dances and setting up of May-poles or other sports therewith used so as the same be had in due and cenvenient time without impediment or let of Divine Service and that Women should have leave to carry Rushes to the Church for the decoring of it atcording to their old custom withal prohibiting all unlawful Games to be used on the Sundays only as Bear-baiting Bull-baiting Enterludes and at all times in the meaner sort of people by Law prohibited Bowling A Declaration which occasioned much noise and clamour and many scandals spread abroad as if these Counsels had been put into that Princes head by some great Prelates which were then of most power about him But in that point they might have satisfied themselves that this was no Court-doctrine no New-divinity which that learned Prince had been taught in England He had declared himself before when he was King of the Scots only to the self-same purpose as may appear in his Basilicon Doron published Anno 1598. This was the first Blow in effect which had been given in all his time to the new Lords day Sabbath then so much applauded For howsoever as I said those who had entertained these Sabbatarian Principles spared neither care nor pains to advance the business by being instant in season and out of season by publick Writings private Preachings and clandestine insinuations or whatsoever other means might tend to the promotion of this Catholick Cause yet find we none that did oppose it in a publick way though there were many that disliked it only one Mr. Loe of the Church of Exeter declared himself in his Effigiatio veri Sabbatismi Anno 1606. to be of different judgment from them and did lay down indeed the truest and most justifiable Doctrine of the Sabbath of any Writer in that time But being written in the Latin Tongue it came not to the peoples hands many of those which understood it never meaning to let the people know the Contents thereof And whereas in the year 1603 at the Commencement held in Cambridg this Thesis or Proposition Dies Dominicus nititur Verbo Dei was publickly maintained by a Doctor there and by the then Vice-Chancellour so determined neither the following Doctors there or any in the other University that I can hear of did ever put up any Antithesis in opposition thereunto At last some four years after his Majesties Declaration before remembred Anno 1622. Doctor Prideaux his Majesties Professour for the University of Oxon did in the publick Act declare his judgment in this point de Sabbato
of the Delegates of the Belgick Churches to whom the foreign Divines were found inconsiderable The Differences as great at Dort as they were at Trent and as much care taken to adulce the discontented Parties whose Judgments were incompatible with the ends of either in the one as the other The British Divines together with one of those which came from the Breme maintained the Universal Redemption of mankind by the death of Christ But this by no means would be granted by the rest of the Synod especially by those of North-Holland for fear of yielding any thing to the Arminians as Soto in the Council of Trent opposed some moderate Opinions teaching the certainty of Salvation because they were too much in favour with the Lutheran Doctrines First The general body of the Synod not being able to avoid the inconveniences which the Supralapsarian way brought with it were generally intent on the Sublapsarian but on the other side the Commissioners of the Churches of South-Holland thought it not necessary to determine which were considered an faln or not faln while he passed the Decrees of Election and Reprobation But far more positive was Gomarus one of the four Professours of Leyden who stood as strongly to the absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree exclusive of mans sin and our Saviours Sufferings as he could have done for the HOly Trinity And not being able to draw the rest unto his Opinion not willing to conform to theirs he delivered his own Judgment in writing apart by it self not joyning in subscription with the rest of his Brethren for conformity sake as is accustomed in such cases But Macorius one of the Professors in Frankar in West-Friezland went beyond them all not only maintaining against Sibrandus Lubbertus his fellow Collegiate in their open Synod That God wills sin That he ordains sin as it is sin and That by no means he would have all men to be saved but openly declaring That if these Points were not maintained they must forsake their chief Doctors who had so great a hand in the Reformation Some other differences there were amongst them not reconcilable in this Synod as namely wether the Elect be loved out of Christ or not whether Christ were the cause and foundation of Election or only the Head of the Elect And many others of like nature Nor were these Differences managed with such sobriety as became the gravity of the persons and weight of the business but brake out many times into such open heats and violences as are not to be parallel'd in the like Assemblies the Provincial Divines banding against the Foreiners and the Foreiners falling foulupon one another for so it hapned that Martinius one of the Divines of Breme a moderate and learned man being desired to speak his mind in the Points last mentioned signitied to the Synod In his Letters p. 72. That he made some scruple touching the Doctrine Passant about the manner of Christs being Fundamentum electionis and that he thought Christ not only the Effector of our Election but also the Author and Procurer of it Gomarus presently as soon as Martinius had spoken starts up and tells the Synod Ego hanc rem in me recipio and therewithal casts his Glove and challenges Martinius with this Proverb Ecce Rhodum ecce Sullum and required the Synod to grant them a Duel adding That he knew Martinius could say nothing in Refutation of that Doctrine So my dear Friend Mr. Hales of Eaton relates the story of this passage in a Letter to Sir Dudly Carleton bearing date Jan. 25. 1618. according to the style of the Church of England and where he endeth Dr. Belcanqual shall begin relating in his Letters to the said Ambassadour the story of a greater Fray between the said Martinius and Sibandus Lubberius above mentioned upon this occasion Martinius had affirmed God to be Causa Physica Conversionis and for the truth thereof appealed to Goclenius a great Philosopher being then present in the Synod who thereupon discoursed upon it out of Themistinus Averores Alexander Aphrodisaeus and many more affirming it to be true in Philosophy although he would not have it to prescribe in Divinity Sibrandus Lubbert taking fire at this falls upon them both but the Fray parted at the present by the care of Boyerman Gomarus within few days after picks a new quarrel with Martinius and the rest of the Divines of Breme for running a more moderate course than the rest of the Synod many other of the Provincials seconding Gomarus in the quarrel and carrying themselves so uncivilly in the prosecution that Martinius was upon the Point of returning homewards But this quarrel being also taken up the former is revived by Sibrandus in the following Session concerning which Belcanqual writes to Sir Dudley Carleton this ensuing Letter which for the rarity and variety of the passages contained in it and the great light which it affords to the present business I shall crave leave to add it here Dr. Belcanqualis Letter to Sir Dudley Carleton My very good Lord SInce my last Letters to your Lordship there hath been no business of any great Note in the Synod â—â—â—canquals Letters p. 10. but that which I am sure your Lordship will be very sorry to hear Contention like to come to some head if it be not prevented in time for there hath been such a Plot laid ex compositò for disgracing of the Bremenses as I think the Synod shall receive small grace by it D. Gomarus being he at whom the last Disquisition of the third and fourth Articles ended was entreated by the President to speak his mind of the said Articles but Sibrandus desireth the President first to give him leave to add some few things to that he had poken the day before Now what he added was nothing but a renewing of the strife which was between him and Martinius in the last Session two things he alledged First That he had been at Goclenius his Lodging conferring with him about that Proposition whether God might be called Causa Physica of humane Actions and delivered certain Affirmations pronounced by Goclenius tending to the Negative for the truth of his relation he appealed to Goclenius there present who testified that it was so next Martinius had alledged a place out of Paraeus for the Affirmative in opere conversionis Sibrandus read a great many places out of Paraeus tending to the contrary and no question it being pleaded before be entreateth some of the Pallatines naming them all severally who were Paraeus his Colleagues would speak what they did know of Paraeus his mind concerning the said Proposition Scultetus beginneth with a set speech which he had written lying before him but such a Speech it was as I and I think all the Exteri were exceeding grieved it should have come from a man of so much worth the sum of it was this That he did know upon his own knowledge that Paraus did hold the contrary of
Faith as it cometh not by mans will as the Papists falsly pretend but only by the Election and free gift of God so it is only the immediate cause whereto the promise of our salvation is annexed according as we read And therefore of faith is the inheritance given as after grace that the promise might stand sure to every side Rom. 4. and in the same Chapter Faith believing in him that justifieth the wicked is imputed to righteousness And this concerning the causes of our salvation you see how Faith in Christ immediately and without condition doth justifie us being solicited with Gods mercy and Election that wheresoever Election goeth before Faith in Christ must needs follow after And again whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus through the vocation of God he must needs be partaker of Gods election whereupon resulteth the third note or consideration which is to consider whether a man in this life may be certain of his election To answer to which question this first is to be understood that although our election and vocation simply indeed be known to God only in himself a priore yet notwithstanding it may be known to every particular faithful man a posteriore that is by means which means is Faith in Christ Jesus crucified For as much as by Faith in Christ a man is justified and thereby made the child of salvation reason must needs lead the same to be then the child of election chosen of God to everlasting life For how can a man be saved but by consequence it followeth that he must also be elected And therefore of election it is truly said de electione judicandum est à posteriore that is to say we must judge of election by that which cometh after that is by our faith and belief in Christ which faith although in time it followeth after election yet this the proper immediate cause assigned by the Scripture which not only justifieth us but also certifieth us of this election of God whereunto likewise well agreeth this present Letter of Mr. Bradford wherein he saith Election albeit in God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened And therefore beginning first saith he with Creation I come from thence to Redemption and Justification by faith so to election not that faith is the cause efficient of election being rather the effect thereof but is to us the cause certificatory or the cause of our certification whereby we are brought to the feeling and knowledge of our election in Christ For albeit the election first be certain in the knowledge of God yet in our knowledge Faith only that we have in Christ is the thing that giveth to us our certificate and comfort of this election Wherefore whosoever desireth to be assured that he is one of the Elect number of God let him not climb up to Heaven to know but let him descend into himself and there search his faith in Christ the Son of God which if he find in him not feigned by the working of Gods Spirit accordingly thereupon let him stay and so wrap himself wholly both body and soul under Gods general promise and cumber his head with no further speculations knowing this that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish Joh. 3. shall not be confounded Rom. 9. shall not see death Joh. 8. shall not enter into judgment Joh. 5. shall have everlasting life Joh. 3.7 shall be saved Matth. 28. Act. 16. shall have remission of all his sins Act. 10. shall be justified Rom. 3. Gal. 2. shall have floods flowing out of him of the water of life Joh. 7. shall never die Joh. 11. shall be raised at the lest day Joh. 6. shall find rest in his soul and be refreshed Matth. 11. c. Such is the judgment and opinion of our Martyrologist in the great point of Predestination unto life the residue thereof touching justification being here purposely cut off with an c. as nothing pertinent to the business which we have in hand But between the Comment and the Text there is a great deal of difference the Comment laying the foundation of Election on the Will of God according to the Zuinglian or Calvinian way but the Text laying it wholly upon faith in Christ whom God the Father hath Predestinate in Christ unto eternal life according to the doctrine of the Church of England The Text first presupposeth an estate of sin and misery into which man was fallen a ransom paid by Christ for man and his whole Posterity a freedom left in man thus ransomed either to take or finally to refuse the benefit of so great mercy and then fixing or appropriating the benefit of so great a mercy as Christ and all his merits do amount to upon such only as believe But the Comment takes no notice of the fall of man grounding both Reprobation and Election on Gods absolute pleasure without relation to mans sin or our Saviours sufferings or any acceptation or refusal of his mercies in them As great a difference there is between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper as between the Comment and the Text Bishop Hooper telleth us cap. 10. num 2. that Saul was no more excluded from the promise of Christ than David Esau than Jacob Judas than Peter c. if they had not excluded themselves quite contrary to that of our present Author who having asked the question why Jacob was chosen and not Esau why David accepted and Saul refused c. makes answer that it cannot otherwise be answered than that so was the good will of God And this being said I would fain know upon what authority the Author hath placed Nachor amongst the Reprobates in the same rank with Esan Pharaoh and Saul all which he hath marked out to reprobation the Scripture laying no such censure on Nachor or his Posterity as the Author doth Or else the Author must know more of the estate of Nachor than Abraham his Brother did who certainly would never have chosen a Wife for his Son Isaac out of Nachors line if he had looked upon them as reprobated and accursed of God I observe secondly that plainly God is made an accepter of persons by the Authors doctrine For first he telleth us that the elder Son had a better will to tarry by his Father and so did indeed but the fatted Calf was given to the younger Son that ran away and thereupon he doth infer that the matter goeth not by the will of man but by the will of God as it pleaseth him to accept I observe thirdly that Vocation in the Authors judgment standeth upon Gods Election as the work thereof whereas Vocation is more general and is extended unto those also whom they call the Reprobate and therefore standeth not on Election as the Author hath it For many are called though out of those many which are called but a few are chosen Fourthly I observe that notwithstanding the Author builds the doctrine of Election on Gods
at Toledo by Ferdinand the Catholick 1479. for swearing to the succession of his Son Don John in which the Prelates the Nobility and almost all the Towns and Cities which sent Commissioners to the Assembly are expresly named Id. lib. Thus finally do we find a meeting of the Deputies of the three Estates of Navarre at the Town of Tasalla Anno 1481. for preserving the Kingdom in obedience to King Francis Phoebus being then a Minor under Age and that the Deputies of the Clergy Id. lib. 22. Nobility Provinces and good Towns and Portugal assembled at Tomara Anno 1581. to acknowledg Philip the second for their King and to settle the Government of that Kingdom for the times to come Id. lib. 30. Now let us take a view of the Northern Kingdoms and still we find the people ranked in the self-same manner and their great Councils to consist of the Clergy the Nobility and certain Deputies sent from the Provinces and Cities as in those before In Hungary before that Realm received the Gospel we read of none but Nobiles Plebeii Bonfinius in hist Hungar. Dec. l. 1. Id. ibid. Dec. 2. l. 2. Id. Decad. 2. l. 3. the Nobility and common people who did concur to the Election of their Kings but no sooner was the Faith of Christ admitted and a Clergy instituted but instantly we find a third Estate Episcopos Sacerdotum Collegia Bishops and others of the Clergy superadded to them for the Election of the Kings and the dispatch of other businesses which concerned the publick as it continueth to this day In Danemark we shall find the same if we mark it well For though Poutanus seem to count upon five Estates making the Regal Family to be the first and subdividing the Commons into two whereof the Yeomanry makes one and the Tradesman or Citizen the other Pontan in Doriae descript Id. in histor Rerum Danic l. 7. yet in the body of the History we find only three which are the Bishops the Nobility and Civitatum delegati the Deputies or Commissioners of Towns and Cities Take which of these Accounts you will and reckon either upon Five or on three Estates yet still the Ecclesiastick State or Ordo Ecclesiasticus as himself entituleth it is declared for one and hath been so declared as their stories tell us ever since the first admittance of the Faith amongst them the Bishops together with the Peers and Deputies making up the Comitia or Conventus Ordinum In Poland the chief sway and power of Government next to the King is in the Council of Estate Secundum Regem maxima Augustissima Senatus autoritas Thuan. hist sui temp l. 56. as Thuanus hath it And that consisteth of nine Bishops whereof the Archbishops of Guisna and Leopolis make always two of fifteen Palatines for by that name they call the greater sort of the Nobility and of sixty five Chastellans which are the better sort of the Polish Gentry who with the nine great Officers of the Kingdom or which the Clergy are as capable as any other sort or degree of Subjects do compleat that Council The Common people there are in no Authority à procuratione Reipub. omnino summota not having any Vote or suffrage in the great Comitia Thuan. hist sui temp l. 56. or general Assemblies of the Kingdom as in other places For Sweden it comes near the Government and Forms of Danemark and hath the same Estates and degrees of people as amongst the Danes that is to say Proceres Nobiles the greater and the less Nobility Episcopi Ecclesiastici the Bishops and inferiour Clergy Civitates universitates the Cities and Towns corporate for so I think he means by universitates as Thuanus mustereth them Id. lib. 131. And in this Realm the Bishops and Clergy enjoy the place and priviledges of the third Estate notwithstanding the alteration of Religion to this very day the Bishops in their own persons and a certain number of the Clergy out of every Sochen a division like our Rural Deanries in the name of the rest have a necessary Vote in all their Parliaments And as for Scotland their Parliament consisted anciently of three Estates as learned Cambden doth inform us that is to say the Lords spiritual as Bishops Abbots Priors the temporal Lords as Dukes Marquesses Earls Vicounts Barons Cambden in descript Scotiae and the Commissioners of the Cities and Burroughs To which were added by King James two Delegates or Commissioners out of every County to make it more conform to the English Parliaments And in some Acts the Prelates are by name declared to be the third Estate as in the Parliament Anno 1597. Anno 1606 c. for which I do refer you to the Book at large And now at last we are come to England where we shall find that from the first reception of the Christian Faith amongst the Saxons the Ecclesiasticks have been called to all publick Councils and their advice required in the weightiest matters touching the safety of the Kingdom No sooner had King Ethelbert received the Gospel but presently we read that as well the Clergy as the Laity were called unto the Common Council which the Saxons sometimes called Mysel Synoth the Great Assembly and sometimes Wittenagemots the Council or Assembly of the Wise men of the Realm Anno 605. Coke on Lit. l. 1.2 sect H. Spelman in Concil p. 126. Ethelbertus Rex in fide roboratus Catholica c. Cantuariae convocavit eommune concilium tam Cleri quam populi c King Ethelbert as my Author hath it being confirmed in the Faith in the year 605. which was but nine years after his conversion together with Bertha his Queen their son Eadbald the most Reverend Archbishop Augustine and all the rest of the Nobility did solemnize the Feast of Christs Nativity in the City of Canterbury and did there cause to be assembled on the ninth of January the Common-council of his Kingdom as well the Clergy as the Lay Subject by whose consent and approbation he caused the Monastery by him built to be dedicated to the honour of Almighty God by the hand of Augustine And though no question other Examples of this kind may be found amongst the Saxon Heptarchs yet being the West Saxon Kingdom did in fine prevail and united all the rest into one Monarchy we shall apply our selves unto that more punctually Where we shall find besides two Charters issued out by Athelston Consilio Wlfelmi Archiepiscopi mei aliorum Episcoporum meorum Ap. eund p. 402 403. by the advice of Wlfelm his Archbishop and his other Bishops that Ina in the year 702. caused the Great Council of his Realm to be assembled consisting ex Episcopis Principibus proceribus c. of Bishops Princes Nobles Earls and of all the Wise men Elders and people of the whole Kingdom and there enacted divers Laws for the weal of his
name of Sunday often used for the Lords day by the primitive Christians but the Sabbath never Page 422 CHAP. III. That in the fourth Age from the time of Constantine to Saint Austine the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath day 1. The Lords day first established by the Emperour Constantine Page 423 2. What labours were permitted and what restrained on the Lords day by this Emperours Edict Page 424 3. Of other Holy days and Saints days instituted in the time of Constantine Page 425 4. That weekly other days particularly the Wednesday and the Friday were in this Age and those before appointed for the meetings of the Congregation ibid. 5. The Saturday as highly honoured in the Eastern Churches as the Lords day was Page 426 6. The Fathers of the Eastern Churches cry down the Jewish Sabbath though they held the Saturday Page 427 7. The Lords day not spent wholly in Religious exercises and what was done with that part of it which was left at large Page 428 8. The Lords day in this Age a day of Feasting and that it hath been always deemed Heretical to hold Fasts thereon Page 429 9. Of Recreation on the Lords day and of what kind those Dancings were against the which the Fathers enveigh so sharply Page 430 10. Other Imperial Edicts about the keeping of the Lords day and the other Holy-days Page 432 11. The Orders at this time in use on the Lords day and other days of publick meeting in the Congregation Page 433 12. The infinite differences between the Lords day and the Sabbath Page 434 CHAP. IV. The great improvement of the Lords day in the fifth and sixth Ages make it not a Sabbath 1. In what estate the Lords day stood in S. Austins time Page 435 2. Stage plays and publick Shews prohibited on the Lords day and the other Holy days by Imperial Edicts Page 437 3. The base and beastly nature of the Stage-plays at those times in use Page 438 4. The barbarous bloody quality of the Spectacula or Shews at this time prohibited ibid. 5. Neither all civil business nor all kind of pleasure restrained on the Lords day by the Emperour Leo as some give it out The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath Page 440 6. The French and Spaniards in the sixth Age begin to Judaize about the Lords day and of restraint of Husbandry on that day in that Age first thought of Page 441 7. The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath Page 442 8. Of publick honours done in these Ages to the Lords day by Prince and Prelate Page 443 9. No Evening Service on the Lords day till these present Ages Page 444 10. Of publick Orders now Established for the better regulating of the Lords Day-meetings Page 445 11. All Business and Recreation not by Law prohibited are in themselves as lawful on the Lords day as on any other ibid. CHAP. V. That in the next six hundred years from Pope Gregory forwards the Lords day was not reckoned of as of a Sabbath 1. Pope Gregories care to set the Lords day free from some Jewish rigours at that time obtruded on the Church Page 447 2. Strange fancies taken up by some about the Lords day in these darker Ages ibid. 3. Scriptures and Miracles in these times found out to justifie the keeping of the Lords day Holy Page 448 4. That in the judgment of the most Learned in these six Ages the Lords day hath no other ground than the Authority of the Church Page 449 5. With how much difficulty the People of these times were barred from following their Husbandry and Law-days on the Lords day Page 450 6. Hüsbandry not restrained on the Lords day in the Eastern Parts until the time of Leo Philosophus Page 451 7. Markets and Handicrasts restrained with no less opposition than the Plough and Pleading Page 452 8. Several casus reservati in the Laws themselves wherein men were permitted to attend those businesses on the Lords day which the Laws restrained Page 453 9. Of divers great and publick actions done in these Ages on the Lords day Page 454 10. Dancing and other sports no otherwise prohibited on the Lords day than as they were an hinderance to Gods publick Service Page 455 11. The other Holy-days as much esteemed of and observed as the Lords day was Page 456 12. The publick hallowing of the Lords day and the other Holy-days in these present Ages Page 457 13. No Sabbath all these Ages heard of either on Saturday or Sunday and how it stood with Saturday in the Eastern Churches Page 458 CHAP. VI. What is the judgment of the School-men and of the Protestants and what the practice of those Churches in this Lords day business 1. That in the judgment of the School-men the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Page 640 2. As also that the Lords day is not founded on Divine Authority but the Authority of the Church Page 461 3. A Catalogue of the Holy-days drawn up in the Council of Lyons and the new Doctrine of the Schools touching the native sanctity of the Holy-days Page 462 4. In what estate the Lords day stood in matter of restraint from labour at the Reformation Page 463 5. The Reformators find great fault both with the said new doctrine and restraints from labour Page 464 6. That in the judgment of the Protestant Divines the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Page 465 7. As that the Lords day hath no other ground on which to stand than the Authority of the Church Page 466 8. And that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other Page 467 9. What is the practice of all Churches the Roman Lutheran and Calvinian chiefly in matter of Devotion rest from labour and sufferance of lawful pleasures Page 468 10. Dancing cryed down by Calvin and the French Churches not in relation to the Lords day but the sport it self Page 470 11. In what estate the Lords day stands in the Eastern Churches and that the Saturday is no less esteemed of by the Ethiopians than the said Lords day Page 471 CHAP. VII In what estate the Lords day stood in this Isle of Britain from the first planting of Religion to the Reformation 1. What doth occur about the Lords day and the other Festivals amongst the Churches of the Brittans Page 472 2. Of the estate of the Lords day and the other Holy days in the Saxon Heptarchie Page 473 3. The honours done unto the Sunday and the other Holy-days by the Saxon Monarchs Page 474 4. Of the publick actions Civil Ecclesiastical mixt and Military done on the Lords day under the first six Norman Kings Page 476 5. New Sabbath doctrines broached in England in King Johns Reign and the miraculous original of the same