was my delight Pardon the pious theft to steale a sight And then to wish O that this might not be Imprison'd in a Latin liberty God heard my vote and now hath made it true You would not stoop to times * * My confidence for this the Reader may see in the end of my Preface written about five yeers agoe times should to you WILLIAM LEY Student of Christ-Church SUNDAY A SABBATH CHAP. I. In what cases wee may bee indifferent for the for bearance or use of Names In what wee must bee chary concerning both IF under the diversity of words there were no dissention touching the things that are treated of as a De verbo ut mea fert opinio controversia est de re quidem convanit Senec. de clement l. 2. e. 7. pag. 102. Seneca observeth of the words clemencie and pardon it were a waywardnesse or wantonnesse well worthy of sharpe reproofe to wrangle or spend many words about them which b Ne verbi controversiam vel superfluam faciam vâ—l meritò patiar quoniam cùm de re constat non est opus certare de nomine Aug. Ep. Hieronymo Ep. 28 tom 2. p. 108. Saint Augustine professeth hee would neither willingly doe nor deservedly suffer for where the sense is sound and consonant to truth on both sides embraced there is little appearance of perill in the difference of termes and as little cause to bee curiously nice either in the allowance or forbearance of their use So in effect hath c Dum resâ—ognoscitur non est de vocabulis laborandum Aug. de Gen. ad lit lib. 4. cap. 5. tom 3. pag. 730. S. Augustine after d Non obstant verba cùm sententia congruit veritati Lactant. Instit lib. 4. cap. 9. Lactantius resolved as directed thereto not onely by the rule of Religion which requireth among men Christians especially as much union as may bee 1 Cor. 1.10 but by the dictate of Reason For Logick which is artificiall and refined reason e Docuit me seil Dialectica cùm de re constat propter quam verba diâ—untur non de verbis debere contendi Aug. contra Academ lib. 3. cap. 13. tom 1. pag. 618. saith he hath taught me in consent of things not to contend about the acception of words But since wee cannot hold discourse of the one without helpe of the other for verball notions are to reall in the service of the mind as ″ Verba quasi vasa August Confes l. 1. c. 26. vessels are to meats for the sustenance of the body to serve them in to that both place and use for which they were before prepared Secondly Since not onely the things but words also which concerne the Christians weekly holiday are brought into vehement dispute and sometimes censoriously resolved on the wrong way Thirdly Since likewise men seldome except against a Word or Name but when they wish not altogether well to the thing it selfe as the f Nomen ferè non vellicat nifi qui rei non omnino benè vult Bp. Andrews Ep. 1. Pet. Du-Moulin opusc pag. 166. Bishop of winchester writeth in his first Epistle to Doctor Du-Moulin Fourthly Since sometimes by giving up words in a matter of weight to gratifie the desire of the Adversary there is advantage given therewith to the left hand and more courage taken to contend against the right of the cause in question which was the issue of that facility g De ousia vero nomine abjiciendo placuit auferri non erat curae Episcopis de vocabulo cum sensus esset in tuto Hieron adver Luciferian tom 2. pag. 144. The Arrians required the like for the word Consubstantialis as Theodoret writeth Hist Eccles lib. 2. cap. 18. pag. 533. which the Fathers at Ariminum shewed in condescending to the request of the Arrians for the abatement of the word ousia in the doctrine of the Trinity Lastly Since as h Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 123. Mr. Ironside hath out of S. Augustine observed of the Academicks They are not such simple men as not to know how to give things their proper names who purposely make choyce I may say as well purposely make refusall of words which may serve to hide from the simple and to intimate to the wiser sort of their Disciples their opinions whether Sabbatharie or Antisabbatharie if erroneous and dangerous it is equally materiall It is as I conceive upon all these considerations of weight and moment very requisite to make search and to seeke for satisfaction of scruples in this controversie of the Sabbath both for words and things And to conclude with our former comparison as vessels must be scoured before meat be served to the Table in them so words must first bee cleared which is requisite in the tryall of the title of the day of rest as well as in other Questions before the matters in difference which they import can well be brought in to be discussed CHAP. II. Of the divers Names of the Christians weekly holiday THe Names of that day which wee Christians keep for our weekly holiday are divers the first name was the first day of the week a name for Antiquity as old as the beginning of the first weeke of the world Gen. 1.5 And that title is given it by all the foure Evangelists by Saint Matthew chap. 28. ver 1. Saint Mark chap. 16. ver 2. by Saint Luke in Acts 20. ver 7. and by Saint John chap. 20. ver 1. as also by S. Paul 1 Cor. 16.2 eight times as a Mr. Braburn Defence p. 162 Master Braburne numbers them it is called the first day of the weeke by the holy writers of the new Testament all of them using in the Greek a cardinall number for the ordinall as Moses doth in the Hebrew in the forecited Text Gen. 1.5 b Ethnicis semel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi octavo queque die Tert. de Idol cap. 14. tom 2. p. 457. Tertullian c Hic dies octavus id est post Sabbatum primus dominicus Cypr. lib. 3. Epist 8. p. 80. col 2. Cyprian and d Dominicus verò post septimum quid nisi octavus Aug. praefat in Psal 150. tom 8. part 2. p. 1058.1059 Augustine and if wee may beleeve Master Braburne but wee finde no proofe for it all Churches call it the eighth day not that they would have a Christian weeke longer then after the old computation which took up with the number of seven but for that as it is cleare by the words of Saint Augustine it being after the Saturday which was the seventh if a man count on the next day following maketh the eighth and without any intention to make the circle of the weeke one day wider then it was before they made the account in this sort and named it the eighth day the rather with reference to Circumcision which was on the
Christians why should the word Sabbath signifying rest be allowed as applyed to it Is there any reason why names should not in sense bee surable to things to which they are applyed but rather contrary to them To call that day by a name of rest which is a day allowed for labour and to deny that name to the day wherein we are required to rest is not so little an absurdity as that which Master Braburne remembred of deafe men who when a man calleth for a knife doe bring him a sheath for there is that neernesse betwixt them that they may bee both together the one within the other but rest and labour are like light and darknesse in a contradictory distance which cannot be reconciled nor brought together It is no marvell that Master Braburne who denyeth the thing holding the Lords day for no day of rest but for a workeday should deny the name Sabbath as in application to it for hee taketh it to bee a proper name of the day of rest in the old Testament which if it were granted would doe him no good nor the Lords day any hurt for its right to this title for Adam was the proper name of the first man Gen. 3.8 9. and yet it is used in Scripture for man in generall Psal 9.1 ver 12 20. But saith c M. Ironside quest 3. cap. 12. pag. 122. Master Ironside the name Sabbath leads us onely to an outward cessation from bodily labour which of it selfe and precisely considered was indeed a dutie of the Jewish Sabbath but it is not so of the Christian Festivall d Ibid. cap. 13. pag. 123. The corporall rest was a chiefe thing aymed at in all the dayes of publick worship in the Jewish Synagogue being both memorative of some things past and figurative of things to come The name Sabbath is therefore no more morall and to bee retained in the Gospel then the names Priest Altar and Sacrifice To which wee may say First that the word Sabbath signifieth not a cessation with limitation to outward worke nor precisely a Jewish memorative or sigur ative rest proper to the weekely holiday of the Jewes but rest absolutely and therefore e Master Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 124. Si vocis primaevam signisicationem spectemus Sabbatum erit omnis dies sestus Estius 3d. Cent. d. 37. hee confesseth out of Estius That if wee looke to the first and originall signification of the word every holiday wherein men rest from their labours may be called a Sabbath and that f M. Irons ubi supra p. 123. God himselfe in Scripture imposed the name Sabbath upon all the dayes of publik worship in the Jewish Synagogues Secondly Hee acknowledgeth g Ibid. quest 6. cap. 24. p. 223. That there is a cessation from works required of Christian people under the Gospel upon all dayes of their publick worship and assemblies for Nature her selfe saith hee out of h Natura dictat aliquando vacuam diem quieti Gers de decem Precept Gerson teacheth all men sometimes to rest from their owne imployment and to spend that time in the prayses of God and prayers to him for as i Ibid. cap. 24. pag. 223. he very well saith to attend Gods publick worship and at the same time to follow our owne imployment are incompatible and imply contradiction And that 's enough to qualifie the Lords day or Sunday for the title Sabbath which hee implicitly yeeldeth when upon that ground hee saith k Ibid. The Turks nay the Indians have their Sabbaths Thirdly Whereas hee saith as by way of distinction of the old Sabbath of the Jewes from that day which Christians celebrate that it was memorative of things past and sigurative of things to come I answer That that cannot consine the name Sabbath to their day nor restraine it from ours for in the former of the two wee have as much interest as the Jewes for wee are to remember Gods finishing his workes in sixe dayes and his resting the seventh as well as they and to have a gratefull memory of the benefit of creation as they had and we need such a remembrance so much more as wee are at more distance from it and for the later wee build not the title upon a figure which is but a feeble and sandie foundation but upon the letter or sense already confessed which is firme and solide Fourthly For that hee saith That the name Sabbath is no more morall and to bee retained in the Church then the names Priest Altar and Sacrifice wee will him to remember what elsewhere hee hath said viz. l Mr. Ironside quest 6. cap. 25. pag. 231. That there is a rest which is eternall and morall to all dayes of publick and solemne worship if so the name Sabbath may bee eternall and reach as farre as the thing it selfe And whereas hee saith That rest to the Jewes was an essentiall dutie i. e. of it selfe and in its owne nature without reference or publick worship which hee denyeth to the Christians weekly holiday I answer That the question is not here whether the Jewes were more restrained from labour then the Christians but whether there be not so much rest required now both in respect of publick duties and of private which require also cessation from outward workes as that our Sunday or Lords day hath thereby a better title to the name Sabbath then Saturday hath which hath been long agoe deposed from the dignity of an holiday and made an ordinary workeday Lastly For the names Priest Altar and Sacrifice I perswade my selfe he will not deny the name Priest since hee tooke orders under that name and doth under that name officiate according to the Liturgie of the Church of England which hee will not say is rather Jewish then Christian Legall then Evangelicall and for the words Altar and Sacrifice I remit him if hee doubt of them to bee resolved by the late Treatises wherein both the Names and Things are busily discussed onely I will say by way of answer to his comparison that since wee have a literall Rest of a weekly recourse and not literall Altars and Sacrifices the name Sabbath thus may bee retained under the Gospel though the names Priest Altar and Sacrifice be abolished But saith m M. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 125. Mr. Ironside the day is to be named not from the nature of things done but from the quality of the person to whom they are intended and therefore not Sabbath but Lords day I answer The Antecedent is subject to exception many wayes First The chiefe holidayes in the old Testament were nominated from the things done and not from the quality of the person to whom they were intended as the Passeover from the Angels passing over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt without hurt Exod. 12.25 the feast of Trumpets from the solemne sounding of Trumpets at it Levit. 23. Levit. 23.
Deut. 16. the feast of Tabernacles from the tents and boothes wherein the people lived in the Desart and which more punctually meets with this objection their weekly holiday had its name not from him to whom it is dedicated but from Rest the duty of the day enjoyned Secondly In the Christian Church his rule of denomination doth not hold for wee call one holiday dedicated to Christ by his Birth another by his Circumcision another by his Ascension which are the things done on the day not by his name onely to whom they were dedicated If it bee said when wee speake of the Nativitie we understand the Birth of the Lord and so also the Circumcision of the Lord and the Ascension of the Lord I grant wee doe so and so when wee say the Sabbath wee may meane as in the Commandement is expressed the Sabbath of the Lord or to the Lord. Thirdly That the names of dayes should not bee taken from the quality of the person onely to whom they are intended is plaine by the feast of Pentecost so called from the number of the dayes betwixt it and Easter and the name of the Lords day called from its order by the Evangelists and the Apostle Paul the first day of the weeke and by the Ancients the day of light from illumination at the Sacrament of Paptisme and the day of Bread from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper administred every Lords day as n Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. p. 124 125. Mr. Ironside himselfe hath observed Fourthly If the names of holidayes should be taken from the quality of the person to whom they are intended as because our weekly holiday is intended to the honour of the Lord it must be called the Lords day then all the holidayes which are named by the Saints should have their names from their Lord for though the portions of Scripture read on them concerne their lives and deaths the honour and service of the day is directed and intended not to them but to the Lord yea all holidayes of both Testaments are dayes dedicated to his honour by that reason then all must bee called the Lords dayes and so names that should bee given for distinction would turne to confusion Thus much for the first Reason for the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day or Sunday which were more then enough if there had not beene much more then there was need and cause objected against it but the rest we shall contract into a narrower compasse The second Reason why our weekly holiday may be called Sabbath day is this Reas 2 It is confessed by all that are not branded with the note of heresie that there are ten Commandements to us Christians as well as to the lewes and that the fourth Commandement is one of the ten and requireth at least the assigning or setting apart of some time to religious rest and that by vertue of these words Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy that time then which the Church keepeth as in obedience to that part of the Commandement expressed in the letter of the law by the name Sabbath may or rather must be called by that name By that word Sabbath in that Commandement as o B◠Andr. his Serm. de Natic pag. 37. Bishop Andrewes said of the words which shall bee wee hold and though wee say not as hee farther addeth it is our best tenure yet a tenure it is which wee must not let goe but wee must as hee said of the word p Idem In his second Serm. of the Nativ pag. 15. nobis make much of it for thereby our tenure and interest groweth up to a further degree of assurance and evidence Thirdly Reas 3 q B. Hall dec of Ep. 6. epist 2. p. 384. Bishop Hall saith The sonne of righteousnesse rising upon that day called the Lords day drew the strength of that mor all Precept unto it for all the vertue and vigour of it is vanish'd from the Jewes Sabbath so that it remaineth a meere working day and if so the title of Rest surely did not stay behinde it but with the strength was transferred to the day for which it was changed Fourthly Reas 4 It is enough to gaine a title from one thing to another to possesse the place as Successor upon the decease and in stead of another as the Christians Lords day by the ordinance of the Lord himselfe as r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius de Semente Tom. 1. pag. 835. Edit Graeco-lat Commelian Ann. c 10.10 c. Athanasius saith succeeded the Jewish Sabbath whose name it may have in that respect if there were none other reason of more weight Here it will haply bee objected that so one might call Baptisme by the name of Circumcision and the Lords Supper by the name of the Passeover for these two Sacraments of the new Testament succeeded those two of the old which were to bring in a confusion of termes and times and so in part to incurre the scorne which the f Bish of Elie his examinat of the Dialogue pag. 85. Bishop of Elie putteth upon his Dialogist for his Argument drawn from the succession of the one day to the other I answer Howsoever the Argument of the Dialogist succeed which wee have nothing to doe withall at this time wee shall easily shake off this slight exception thus First Wee doe not ascribe the proper name of the old Sabbath to the Lords day for wee doe not say Saturday is Sunday or the Lords day but that name which is common to them both and wherein the one by a reall right and congruity of sense succeedeth the other and that is the name Sabbath signifying Rest which belongeth to them both and that is not as if one should call Baptisme Circumcision or the Lords Supper the Passeover but as if wee should call them Sacraments and Seales of the Covenant in which respect the later have both the authority and appellation of the former Or as if one should say Doctor White succeeded Doctor Buckeridge Bishop of Elie therefore hee hath the Title and Authoritie of the Bishop of Elie though hee bee not called by his Predecessors Christian or surname in particular hee saith indeede t Examinat of the Dialogue p. 63 69. marg That the fourth Commandement appointed a particular fixed day to wit Saturday but if that were true which I deny hee cannot say the word Saturday is named there and if it were wee would not take that but the name Sabbath for the true title of the Lords day against which no just exception hath yet beene taken nor in truth can bee And for a second Answer which in regard of the ground of it it will not become a Bishop to slight wee may say That upon a substitution of one thing in the roome of another it is not unusuall in our Church to assigne the name as well as the place to that which is substituted for a
parcell of Scripture is called by our Church the Epistle though it bee not taken out of those writings which are properly so called◠but out of some booke of * Prophes Isa ch 7. ver 10. On the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary 40. v. 1. On Saint John Baptists day 63. v. 1. On Munday in Passion week Jer. c. 23. ver 5. On the twenty fifth Sunday after Trinity Joel c. 2. v. 12. The first day in Lent Prophesie or ″ Hist Acts ch 1. ver 1. On Ascension day ver 15. On Saint Matthias day 2. v. 1. On whitsunday 5. v. 12. On Saint Bartholomewes day 7. v. 55. On Saint Stevens day 8. v. 14. On Tuesday in Whitsun week 9. ver 1. On the Convers of S. Paul 10. v. 34. On Munday in Easter week On Mund. in Whitsun week 11. ver 22. On Saint Barnabies day ver 27. On Saint James his day 12. ver 1. On Saint Peters day 13. v. 26. On Tuesday in Easter week Historie as in the Service of divers Sundayes and Holidayes in the yeer according to the Catalogue in the margine because it is read in the place and standeth in stead of the Epistle And thus u M. Brab Desence p. 600.601 Master Braburne will allow the Lords day not onely the name but the honour of a Sabbath viz. as in the roome of the old Sabbath for a time and for its sake Fifthly Reas 5 wee have already shewed out of Chrysostome of old and Jos Scaliger of late that the other holidays of the Jewes which were not weekely are called Sabbaths and * Doctor Hevl Hist Sab. part 1. c. 5. pag. 87 88. Doctor Heylin x M. Brab Discourse p. 81 82. Master Braburne and y Master Ironside queil 3. cap. 13. pag. 123. Master Ironside acknowledge no lesse and if they when the seventh dayes Sabbath was yet in force and use might be called by that name much more may the Lords day now which is a weekly day of rest as the old Sabbath was but now is not so that there is nothing in it much lesse in any other day of the week that may give it a better right to the title Sabbath then the Lords day hath Sixthly Reason 6 z There is a Sabbath or rest from sinne D. Heyl. Hist of the Sab. part 2. c. 5. pag. 157. Doctor Heylin alloweth the name Sabbath to bee given to cessation from sinne why then not rather to rest from labour Since this is literall and proper as the law of the Sabbath requireth that metaphoricall and sigurative and the right of appellation goeth rather by the letter then by the figure as a Bish Andr. 3. Serm. of the Nat. p. 64. Bishop Andrewes observing of the world day taken sometime figuratively for the whole time of mans life and sometimes properly and literally as in our ordinary speech for the seventh part of the weeke maketh his choice of the sense which consenteth with the letter and leaveth the figure Adde hereunto a further latitude of the word Sabbath allowed by b Mr. Broad in his 3d. quest p. 5. Master Broad and therewithall a greater liberty for the use of it to Christians which is That the Kingdome of heaven and the Sabbath have one common name and yet saith hee the difference betwixt them is as much as betwixt the sacrifices of beasts by the law and the sacrifice of Christ in the Gospel and if the difference bee lesse betwixt day and day rest and rest in observation of Jewish and Christians holidayes which cannot reasonably be denyed the same name may bee attributed to their holiday and to ours especially by turnes to theirs while it was in force to ours since that being put downe it hath obtained the honour of the day Seventhly Reas 7 Doctor Heylin againe notwithstanding his exceptions both against the name and thing it selfe noted by the name takes the name Sabbath to bee an honour where hee saith that the new Moones were not honoured with that title in the booke of God conceiving belike as c M. Brah. des of his disiourse pag. 53. Master Braburn said that the name was a crown on the head rather then as d D. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 20. Doctor Pocklington held a deformed vizzard on the face And if the Lords day have gotten the honour of the Jewes Festivity as indeed it hath since that was put down and this set up in its stead that name as well agreeing with the precedent proofes may be the more fitly attributed to it Eightly e M. Dowe in his Discourse of the Sabbath and Lords day pag. 41. Master Dowe observeth though by way of complaint for which there is no great cause that the day we celebrate is vulgarly called and known by the name of the Sabbath the like hath f Mr. Brab def p. 626. Master Braburne Doe not they saith hee usually call Sunday or Lords day the Sabbath And if it bee vulgarly knowne and called by that name the rule is Wee must speake with the vulgar and think with the wise Master Ironside by way of exception to this vertually I meane not expressely for hee maketh no mention of the rule saith g Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 126. Who speaks most religiously the Apostles and the whole Church or some few private persons of late yeeres is easie to determine wherein hee implyeth that the first and best and most Christians forbeare the name Sabbath and use rather the word Lords day therefore the name Sabbath must cease as savouring both of novelty and schisme Whereto I answer for the present that all the foure Evangelists note the day wee celebrate by the name of the first day of the weeke and onely one of them viz. S. John and that but once viz. Rev. 1.10 calleth it the Lords day yet without any imputation of novelty or schisme which we shall more cleerly fully take off and avoid for the denomination of the L. day by the name of the Sab. in the ensuing Chapters CHAP. XIIII Ancient evidence for calling the Lords day by the name of Sabbath observed especially against a D. Pockl. Visitation Serm. called Sunday no Sabbath Dr. Pocklington his Assertion viz. That no ancient Father no learned man tooke the name Sabbath otherwise from the beginning of the world till the yeere 1554. then for Saturday observed by the Jewes USe of speech which for the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day hath for our age beene b See c. 12. and c. 13. propè sin confessed by the adversaries of it is as the c Si volet usus Quem penes arbitrium est vis norma loquēdi Hor. de art poet Poet saith the rule of speech and of such authority that wise men willingly submit unto it and that sometimes so farre as to speake amisse that they may bee understood aright so did d Ossum sic enim potius
loquamur meliùs est ut reprehendant nos Grammatici quam non intelligant populi August enarrat in Psal 138. tom 8. part 2. p. 871 872. S. Augustine when he said e Ib. in Psal 36. part 1. p. 358. ossum for os and foenerat for foeneratur as being desirous rather that Grammarians should reprehend him then that the people should not understand him and among us many learned men use to say with the vulgar f The words Chirurgus and Apostema are so englished by Cooper in his Dictionary Surgeon for Chirurgeon and Impostume for Aposteme and there bee many more words of this sort But for the name Sabbath there being such sufficient reasons to set it as a title upon the Lords day when the more judicious make use of it in that sense they may well bee conceived to doe it not as complying with the erroneous dialect of the common sort but as guided to it by reason as well as by use And for such as have so taken it or the conjugate to it which is the same in sense wee may mention divers of eminent place both of ancient and of later times as first Ignatius the Disciple of Saint John the Evangelist who having spoken against the manner of the Jewes spending their Sabbath in sensuall jollity excessive feasting dancing and other revelling g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat ep ad Magnes pag. 57. adviseth Christians every one of them to sabbatize or keep the Sabbath spiritually that is rather to bestow the time in religious delights then in carnall contentments If any one except and say that hee meaneth this of the Jewish Sabbath day which in his dayes and a good while after was kept holy with the Lords day wee may thence inferre that if Ignatius could brook the observation of Saturdayes rest without any feare of Judaisme when that day was to give up to the Lords day the holinesse and honour of a weekely holiday which necessarily requireth both Rest and Religion hee would not have made scruple to call it the Sabbath h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as it is fore-cited cap. 13. lit ◠Athanasius hath a sentence from whence wee may derive the like inference for his opinion of the name Sabbath with reference to the Lords day The Lord hath changed the Sabbath day saith he into the Lords day Whereof saith i D◠Twisse in a MS. of the Sabbath a learned Doctor of our Church what can be the meaning but that the Lord himselfe hath now in these times of grace made the Lords day to become our Christian Sabbath So that upon the change the Saturday is not what before it was a day of rest but the Lords is so as before it was not And if the holy rest of Saturday bee translated to the Lords day shall not the name that is answerable to the nature of it passe along with it If more expresse and formall Testimonies be expected for these are but implyed and vertuall evidences wee finde k Origen in Numb cap. 28. Hom 23. tom 1. pag. 259. Origen in his three and twentieth Homily upon the book of Numbers expresly applying the name Sabbath to the day set apart for Evangelicall devotion Ob. l Dr. Pockling Sunday no Sab. pag. 16. But it will be said he addeth the word Christian to it calling it not simply Sabbath but the Christian Sabbath Ans Let them allow of the name Sabbath and wee will not stick with them for the title Christian if for distinction sake and to prevent misprision there bee any reason to make that addition but where the word will bee readily referred to the right day without another to explaine or restraine it it is needelesse to adde it Ob. Here Doctor Pocklington to extenuate this Testimonie saith m Dr. Pockl. Sunday no Sab. pag. 19. That Origen his Christian Sabbath is not kept on Sunday onely but every day in the weeke he meaneth I suppose according to the conceipt of divers of the Ancients a Sabbath consisting in cessation from sinne and sanctity of life Christ saith hee out of Origen is our Christian Sabbath and hee that lives in Christ rests from evill works and worketh uncessantly the works of Justice Answ This is no contradiction to that wee have said but a concession of much more then wee demand Christ himselfe saith Doctor Pocklington and every day in regard of the holy life of a Christian might be called a Sabbath If so the Lords day which was ordained and must bee observed with more generall and solemne holinesse and with more rest and cessation from worldly affaires for holinesse sake might much more bee called a Sabbath In the Latin Fathers the name Sabbath in this sense may also bee observed I will give some instances as in n Nos octava die quae ipsa prima est perfecti Sabbati festivitate laetamur Hilar. Prolog in Psal oper p. 335. Hilary Upon the eighth day which is also the first day saith he we rejoyce in the festivity of a perfect Sabbath Whereby we are to understand not an every dayes Sabbath in forbearance of sinne but an especiall sabbatizing above other dayes as in the celebration of the Lords day by cessation from works of the weeke dayes and exercise of religious duties belonging unto it which hee calleth the eighth day though it have a weekly returne in the number of seven because in the first observation counting on beyond the Jewish tale of dayes comming next after their seventh that maketh the eighth To this purpose wee may produce Saint Augustine o Observa diem Sabbati non carnaliter non Judaicls deliciis quae otio abutuntur ad nequitiam August enar in Psal 32. tom 8. part pag. 242. in his enarration upon the 32. Psalme where hee exhorteth to observe the Sabbath day not carnally with Judaicall delights for they abuse their Rest c. And in his p Observa diem Sabbati Magis nobis praecipitur quia spiritualiter observandum praecipitur Judaei enim serviliter observant diem Sabbati ad luxuriam ebrietatem August Tract 3. in Johan 1. tom 9. pag. 30. fourth Tract upon S. John Wee Christians saith he are more strictly commanded to keep the Sabbath then the Jewes for we are to keepe it spiritually they keepe it carnally in luxurie and drunkennesse which in the readiest construction of the words must runne thus Wee Christians are more strictly commanded to keepe not the Saturday Sabbath from which we are discharged Col. 2.16 but our Christian Sabbath then the Jewes keep their Jewish Sabbath If then wee bee commanded to keep a Sabbath wee must have the thing and the thing may have the name that belongeth to it and that name properly is Sabbath There is another allegation for the name Sabbath taken out of the 251. Sermon de tempore in Augustine his name which I forbeare to urge as his because the q B.
regnare To these two Reverend Deanes I will add two worthy Doctors who are witnesses to the warrantable application of the word Sabbath to the Sunday and who though neither Bishops nor Deanes have had the reputation and not without desert of very learned and religious men viz. Doctor John White brother to Doctor Fr. White late Bishop of Elie and Doctor Daniel Featly houshold Chaplain to the late ″ Archbish Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury Doctor Joh. White in his answer to the Papists bragging of the holinesse of their Church and upbraiding of our Church for want of holinesse hath among other accusations of their courses these words i D. Joh. White in his way to the true Church §. 38. p. 210. And for mine owne part having spent most of my time among them this I have found that in all excesse of sinnes Papists have been the ring-leaders in royotous companies in drunken meetings in seditious assemblies and practices in profaning the Sabbath c. And againe Papists hold that it is lawfull on the Sabbath day to follow suits travell hunt dance keepe Faires and such like this is that which hath made Papists the most notorious Sabbath breakers that live And Doctor Featly as hee had more occasion to mention the day and the duties thereof so hee more frequently maketh use of the name Sabbath as in his Hand-maid to Devotion wee finde mention of an k Dr. Featly Hand-maid to Devotion in the direction for the use of the book p. 4. hymne and prayer before the Sabbath wherein saith hee the duties of the Sabbath are expressed and in preparation for the receiving of the Sacrament there is a confession in these words l Hand maid to devotion pag. 107. Thou commandest me to keepe holy thy Sabbath and settest an especiall marke of Remembrance upon it yet I have not remembred to put off my ordinary businesse and in the Devotion for the Christian Sabbath the name is m Ib. â— p. 172. ad pag. 200. often used for the day wee celebrate sometimes with the word Christian joyned to it sometimes the name Sabbath is set without it and in his volume of printed Sermons treating on these words Wherefore God hath highly exalted him hee saith n Dr. Featly Serm. which he calleth Lowlinesse exalted pag. 735. If the rest of God from the works of Creation were just cause of sanctifying a perpetuall Sabbath to the memory thereof may not the rest of our Lord from the worke of Redemption more painefull to him and more beneficiall to us challenge the like prerogative of a day to bee hallowed and consecrated unto it shall wee not keepe it as a Sabbath on earth for him which hath procured for us an eternall Sabbath in heaven And a little after hee addeth o Ib. pag. 735 736. The holy Apostles and their successors fixed the Christian Sabbath upon the first day of the weeke to eternize the memory of our Lords Resurrection and speaking of Easter day With what Religion saith p Ib. pag. 736. he is the Christian Sabbath of Sabbaths to be kept I could lengthen this Catalogue for the name Sabbath thus applyed with many more names of those whose sufficiencie and sincerity is such that it would little become them that carpe most at the name Sabbath in this sense to teach them how to speake without corrupting their dialect with the dregs of Ashdod as of q Mr. Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5 p. 183. 385 M. Mâ—son who wrote of the consecrat of Bishops anno 1613. p. 269. Pet. Ramus de Relig. l. 2. c. 6. Master Hooker with divers others but that will not need especially if wee add unto these that which hath beene confessed or rather complained of by r M. Brab in his Desence p. 626. Master Braburne and Å¿ M. Dowe his discourse p. 4. Master Dowe viz. That the Lords day is usually and vulgarly called and known by the name Sabbath and then there will bee a full answer to Master Ironside his objection which soundeth as if the name Sabbath for the Lords day were a meere mistake of a t Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 126. few private persons of late yeeres I hope Kings Archbishops Bishops and Deanes and other eminent Doctors are not private persons nor they together with the vulgar few and wee may yet make them more by bringing in some of those to beare witnesse to the lawfull use of the word Sabbath for Sunday or the Lords day being drawne to yeeld some assent unto it by the force of truth who otherwise shew their great dislike of that denomination CHAP. XVI Of such as are adversaries to the name Sabbath as put for Sunday sometimes assenting thereunto and using the name in that sense or yeelding that which doth inferre it AS first Master Braburne in his discourse to this Objection the name Sabbath signifieth Rest Now on the Lords day we Rest therefore wee may call it Sabbath day answereth a M. Brab discourse p. 81. 'T is true the Sabbath signifieth Rest and so the Lords day might bee called Sabbath day but yet in no other sense then every common Holiday wherein we worke not may bee called Sabbath day that is Resting day We take his concession for the Lords day to be called Sabbath but not his comparison for as much as that hath more right to the name which hath a weekly recourse of Rest then that which cometh but once a yeare which himselfe doth in effect acknowledge when he so ″ In his Defence p. 276 277 481. often mentioneth the Lords day Sabbath as out of a kind of necessity to expresse his owne conceptions otherwise to use his owne b M Brab Defens p. 50. phrase hee would not so often have taken the crowne off his King Saturnes head and set it upon that day which in his conceipt is but a common Subject 2. Doctor Heylin notwithstanding what wee have before observed of him appeareth sometimes indifferently disposed to give to the Lords day the name of Sabbath as c Doct. Hâ—yl hist Sab. part 2. c. 6 pag. 182. where he saith By the Doctrine of the Helvetian Churches if I conceive their meaning rightly every particular Church may destinate what day they please to religious meetings and every day may bee a Lords day or a Sabbath If we were to judge of his opinion by this place we could not tell which word hee liked better Sabbath or Lords day hee sheweth himselfe so equally affected to them both seeming to bee the same man and of the same mind with him who in another booke wrote thus d Pet. Heylin Geogr. p. 702. I dare not so farre put my sickle into this harvest as to limit out the extent of Sabbath keeping which commanding us to doe no manner of worke doth seeme to prohibit us to worke for our owne safeguard Wherein hee sheweth such modesty in himselfe and such equity both to
the word and to the thing which is signified by it as if hee had observed the same throughout his booke of the History of the Sabbath it had neither been so bad nor so bigge as we see it is 3. Master e Mr. Primrose part 1. ch 13. paâ— 73. See also part 4. p. 302 304 305. to the same purpose Primrose though otherwise neither fondly nor friendly affected to the Christian Sabbath is sometimes so facile and liberall in his allowance of the use of the name Sabbath in the time and state of the Christian Church as to allow Christians liberty to keep every day holy and to say that all daies under the Gospel should be as so many Sabbaths all the dayes of the weeke and the whole yeare should bee as Sabbaths unto them If so the Sunday may be a Sabbath much more for the reasons and authority fore-alledged and if it have more of the thing it hath more right to the name Master f Mr. Ironside quest 3. c. 13. p. 123. Ironside also though he dispute against the title Sabbath as to our Christian Holiday ingenuously confesseth that the name Sabbath is lawfull and may be also used by such as have their wits well exercised in Scripture if without superstition fraud or scandall g Mr Ironside quaest 2. cap. 9. pag. 96 97. And that God must have his rest and appointed Sabbaths which is the essence life and spirit of that Commandement and for ever morall And if the thing Sabbath be morall and perpetuall and the effence life and spirit of the Law as hee saith can any one deny the title Sabbath Master Ironside cannot well doe it who affirmeth this and that by the expresse title of the Sabbath And of the Friday made a weekly Holiday by Constantine he faith h M. Ironside concius of his quest cap. 31. pag. 293. that he made it a Sabbath Object But when hee saith that the Lords day is Sabbath he meaneth not that it is properly so called but analogically and in its proportion To which I answer 1. That when men call the Lords day Sabbath there is no need to adde either properly or improperly or analogically therefore for ordinary speech it is no exception against the use of the word It is familiar with many to call the Lords Table Altar though it be not properly an Altar but analogically and yet he will not say they are bound to bring in this distinction when they mention it and to say it is an analogicall Altar and when Christ is called the Lambe of God the Lion of the Tribe of Juda hee is not properly but analogically a Lamb or a Lion yet he is commonly so called without adding either part of the distinction of properly or analogically 2. But the Lords day may bee called Sabbath properly because as it is an Holiday it is a day of Rest properly so taken a day of weekly Rest as the old Sabbath was And even in Doctor Pocklingtons Seâ—mon though we should not much accompt of his Testimony but where it is against himselfe there is something albeit hee meant it not which makes for the title Sabbath to belong to the Lords day viz. this i Doct. Pockl. Visitat Serm. p. 19. Cujus vis soluta nec nomen haerebit Ambr. so cited by Doct. Pockl. Ibid. When the Sabbath lost its force it forfeited its name saith hee out of Saint Ambrose and therefore ought not so to be called and so having lost both force and name is become nothing at all but a meere Idoll The Saturday then which was the day of Rest unto the Jewes is now no Sabbath nor must be so called which by the way is contradictory to that k With us the Sabbath is Saturday and no day else Doct. Pockl. Serm. pag. 21. which hee saith elsewhere for if it have forfeited its name forfeiture is not an annihilation but an alienation of a right from one to another and if that bee so let any body judge what day hath most right to that forfeiture Can any other day of the week put in for an interest in it before the Lords day or Sunday If the Lord of the Sabbath may be Judge he will give no sentence surely for any day against his owne CHAP. XVII Exceptions against some of the precedent Testimonies alledged for calling the Lords day Sabbath propounded and answered THe Bishop of Elie in his Treatise on the Sabbath day and in his Examination of the little Dialogue made in answer to it would avoid the allegations for the name Sabbath taken out of the Fathers the Book of Homilies Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker and his brother Doctor John Whites Booke of the Way to the true Church by such exceptions as these The first Exception touching the Fathers First for the Fathers The Question is not saith a Bish Whites exam pag. 109. he whether the ancient Fathers have at any time stiled the Lords day a Sabbath in a mysticall or spirituall sense that is a day wherein Christian people ought to abstaine from sinne for in this sense they have stiled every day of the weeke wherein Christians rest from sin a b His former Treatise of the Sabb. p. 203. Sabbath yea every day throughout their whole lives I have diligently searched saith c Ibid. p. 202. hee into Antiquitie and observed in the Fathers their formes of speech when they treat of the Lords day and I find it farre different from the usuall language of the Fathers to stile the Lords day the Sabbath and that they by the name Sabbath either understand the old legall Sabbath taken away by Christ or the spirituall or mysticall Sabbath which was typed and represented by the Sabbath of the fourth Commandement Wherein hee speaketh more warily though not altogether truly then d No ancient Father no learned man Heathen nor Christian took the name Sabbath otherwise then for Saturday from the beginning of the world untill the beginning of Schisme An. 1554. Doct. Pockl. visit Serm. p. 21. Doctor Pocklington did And when the Fathers distinguish and give proper names to the particular dayes of the weeke saith the Bishop they alwaies stile the Saturday Sabbatum the Sabbath and the Sunday or the first day of the weeke Dominicum the Lords day This is his reply to the Testimonies taken out of the Fathers whereto I answer This distinction of mysticall and literall is familiar with the Bishop and may serve for a shift to elude other Testimonies for the name Sabbath as well as those particularly mentioned But it is but a shift and will serve but for a while for to answer First concerning the Fathers though they in their times distinguished two dayes by the names of Sabbath and Lords day to avoid confusion when they celebrated both with services of devotion as the e Bish White his Treat of the Sab. pag. 202. Bishop hath observed out of Ignatius Ambrose Socrates
besides these which found to the same sense but these sufficiently shew that the Compilers of the Homily tooke the name Sabbath not in a meere mysticall sense but in a literall and herein their Doctrine is conformable to the letter of that Commandement Secondly for his similitude that our Lords day is called Sabbath but as Mortification is called Circumcision the circumcision of the heart Rom. 2.29 or as sincerity and truth are called unleavened bread 1 Cor. 8.5 or as Christ our Passover 1 Cor. 5.7 it is guilty of grosse disproportion for 1. In a naturall acception no two numerall things are more like then one day is like another but circumcision of the flesh and mortification of the corruptions of the heart sincerity and unleavened bread Christ and the Passover though in some respects semblable as the Kingdome of heaven and a graine of Mat. 13.31 mustard seed are yet in their kinds at very great distance for Circumcision is an act of the hand Mortification an act or rather an habit wrought by the spirit upon the mind unleavened bread is a visible substance sincerity an invisible quality Christ is a most excellent person consisting of a divine and humane nature the Passover an action literally the Angels passing over the doores which were sprinckled with the bloud of the Paschall Lambe which after the Angell was immediatly yet figuratively applyed to the Lambe it selfe and afterward by another figure more remote from the letter and so more mysticall our Saviour was called the Passover Secondly if wee take the two dayes in a religious as well as in a naturall acception there is much more conformity betwixt them then betwixt the termes of the Bishops comparison so much that the name Sabbath may bee literall to them both though in his instances one part be purely mysticall and analogicall For to say nothing of other conformities forementioned it may suffice to make them both partakers of the name Sabbath which signifieth Rest that rest or cessation from secular labours was on the one and is required and observed on the other wherein the advantage now rests upon the part of our Christian Sabbath since that is still and will be to the worlds end a day of religious rest and the Jewes day though it were so from the beginning was many an hundred years ago degraded from the dignity of a weekly Holiday and made a work-work-day and so shall be untill our temporall Sabbath on earth be changed into the eternall Sabbatism in heaven which the Apostle promiseth Heb. 4.9 The third Exception of Bishop White touching Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker applying the name Sabbath to our Sunday answered Thirdly For the Allegations out of Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker for application of the name Sabbath to the Lords day the Bishop taketh occasion to observe that m Bish White his examinat of the Dialog p. 89. 96. the greatest Doctors at some times and before errours and heresies are openly defended are not neither can bee so circumspect in their writing as to avoid all formes and expressions all sentences and propositions all and every Tenet which in after times may yeeld advantage to the adversaries of the truth and hee giveth instance in Augustine and Chrysostome speaking not so warily as they should have done concerning the naturall power of freewill before the Pelagian heresie did arise which hee applyeth to the precedent Testimonies thus Before there arose a controversie in our Church concerning the Sabbath or at least wise before the controversie grew to an height Divines spake and writ more freely and they were not alwayes so cautelous circumspect as to foresee the evill construction which the adversaries of the truth might make of their writing and speaking but now when the Sabbatarian heresie for necessary observation of the old Sabbath and a fanaticall opinion of some others for the observation of the Lords day in a more precise forme then the very Judaicall Law it selfe obliged the Jewes to keepe the old Sabbath when I say these errours sprang up and were defended with an high hand and obtruded upon the Church a necessity was cast upon us to examine all such positions as were the grounds and formes of speaking which were incident to the question in hand Now if upon evidence of truth saith hee wee shall in some passages dissent from some men of note living in this Church before us or use other termes in our writing or disputing nay if we should in some things have altered our owne former opinion and formes of speaking wee trust that godly Christians will not impute this unto us as an offence but in their charity will judge of us as the ancient Church did of Saint Augustine to wit that what wee doe in this kinde proceedeth from the care wee have in a faire and perspicuous manner to maintaine and defend the truth Thus farre the Bishop I have set downe his exception at large because I meane to make a full answer to it for that purpose three particulars are especially to be observed in this the saying of the Bishop The first Of the ancient Fathers unwary writings before heresies arose which is true but not to the purpose for none that reads them at the first hand unlesse hee bring with him a violent impression of prejudice against the Sabbath will conceive one syllable in them to sound to that sense which the Bishop intendeth The second His application thereof to the Sabbatarie controversies which is to the purpose but as hee states the difference not true The third is a request for charitable construction which in regard of the second he hath need of We need say nothing of the first and for the second it may be said First that though some have exceeded in severity both for the doctrine and practice of the Sabbath and yet I accompt not all to bee excessive which the Bishop approveth not many have much more exceeded in loosnesse and profanenesse which is more dangerous to the actors and more scandalous to the observers of their excesses and there was more need that all the Bishops of the Land should oppose this then that he should set upon that in such sort as he did Secondly for that he saith of the Sabbatarian heresie for the necessary observation of the old Sabbath the way to withstand it is not as he doth to take the title Sabbath from the Lords day and to shift it from the firme ground of the fourth Commandement and to make it stand so much upon meere tradition as hee doth nay so to give up that both title and text as hee hath done to the old Sabbath is to confirme rather then to confute the Sabbathary errour which by his manner of handling the matter neither is nor can be soundly convinced as it should be Thirdly whosoever will advisedly reade and consider what hath been lately written concerning the Sabbath will find as great cause to give caution against Anti-sabbathary
the things to which they are applyed and betwixt the name Sabbath and the Lords day there is that congruity for that word signifieth rest and the Lords day is a day of rest whether of such strict rest as the Jewes Sabbath was is a Question not now to be discussed Now if Master Doctor like his owne resemblance let him take the consequence of his odious comparison which is That it is as comely or not more uncomely to put a crowne of thornes upon the head of Christ then to call the Lords day by the name of Sabbath day and then hee may joyne hands and hold society for Paradoxes with them or rather bee the Ringleader to them in such absurd similitudes unto them who match in malignity and guilt h They cannot resolve whether the sinne bee greater to bowle shoot or dance on the Sabbath then to commit murther or the Father to cut the throat of his owne childe all which doubts will soone bee resolved by plucking off the vizzard of the Sabbath from the face of the Lords day which doth as well and truly become it as the crowne of thornes did the Lord himselfe D. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 20. bowling shooting or dancing on the Sabbath with the commitâ—ing of murther or the Fathers cutting the throat of his owne childe which barbarous absurdities he condemnes and within foure lines after commits the like himselfe in his comparison of the word Sabbath set upon the Lords day with the crowne of thornes on our Lords head Secondly for the persons for whom he seemeth to plead and put in an excuse saying If wee find the word Sabbath for Sunday used in some writings that of late came to our hands blame not the Clerkes good men for it c. It would be knowne First whom hee calleth these good men whether Clerkes or others for his words are ambiguous Secondly whether hee take the word Clerkes for Clergy-men or for such onely as transcribe the Dictats of others if of these as it seemeth he doth then Thirdly how hee knoweth that in such late writings as have the name Sabbath for Sunday or the Lords day the Clerkes who copied them out mistook the Authors mind and hand so much as to write the one for the other there being no such vicinity in the words as might lead them to such a misprision Fourthly whether it bee not more likely that the word might drop from the Authors pens as well as it did often escape the lips as he confesseth of such as he commends for men of judgement learning and vertue rather then that these Clerkes good men as hee calls them should corrupt their manuscripts in their transcription Fifthly how is it probable that a few pretenders to piety should so long deceive the world with zealous clamours of the word Sabbath men of judgment learning and vertue not excepted as hee pretendeth especially since as he saith they were most ignorant clamours hee addeth I grant or cunning clamours but how ignorance and cunning being so contrary should so indifferently bee disposed to produce the same effect in men of judgement and why ignorant clamours should not as much withhold from assent unto them as cunning clamours induce them to consort with them is that which my shallownesse cannot conceive and his wisdome I thinke will not bee able to manifest Sixthly how could hee come to know that these whom hee exempteth from society in this Sabbathary stratagem should detest the drift of the devisers in the closet of their hearts since not hee nor any but God onely hath the key of that closet and if they did so how could they have the name Sabbath whereby it is advanced so frequently in their mouthes If they knew it not how could they detest it If they did know it how could they being such men of judgment as hee taketh them for so familiarly use it without feare of scandall or danger by it Lastly how could so many reverend and learned men Prelates Deanes and other Doctors or these men of judgement learning and vertue i Men of learning judgement and verzue not heeding perhaps what crafty and wicked device may be managed under the vaile of a faire word Doct. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 21. whom hee commendeth be so blinded as not to see or so mindlesse as not to heed this crafty and wicked device managed under the vaile of a faire word as he suggesteth that not any one from the yeare 1554. when as hee feignes it was first set on foot apprehended it until this Doctor made discovery of such a dangerous plot and withall of their dulnesse who all the while could not discerne it Pardon me good Sir if I beleeve they were so wise and watchfull over the safety of the publicke service of the Church and the purity of Religion as to give due warning against such damnable superstition If there had been any such danger in the use of the word Sabbath as you seeme to conceive they would not have left the honour of that discovery and caution to you much lesse would they have used the word themselves as they have done whereto they were not induced by the Clamours of the pretenders of piety as k Doct. Pockl pag. 21. you pretend but rather in all likelihood by the fourth Commandement it selfe by the Liturgie of the Church requiring that to bee said as a part of divine Service and to be learned by heart as a part of the Catechisme as before was observed wherein all her children by her prescription are to be instructed and examined from hence might the word Sabbath be a name of vulgar use for our weekly Holiday and not from the noise which such men have rung in the eares of all men Here if a man should returne to Master Doctor some of his own language and say No ancient Father no learned man Heathen or Christian ever imagined such a plot or mystery of iniquity to lye hid under the name Sabbath before the yeare 1554. yea not one besides himselfe and yet one besides himselfe were the likest to light upon such fantastick Bugbeares from the beginning of the world untill the day and yeare of his preaching the Visitation Sermon at Ampthill August 17. 1635. ever found out or feigned such a dangerous device in the use of that word as hee hath invented in his study or elsewhere and vented in the Pulpit and since made publicke by the presse I am consident he cannot give one Instance to confute it nor name one man who may be thought to lead him to it and I hope he will find no more to follow him in his strange and extravagant surmises And may not a man cry quittance with him in it by taking a liberty to imagine that he who so vehemently inveigheth against the name Sabbath had a plot therein to shake the foundation of the Lords day which as it is a weekly day of Rest resteth on the fourth Commandement to slacken if
not to breake the bond of conscience to the duties of the day and to make way for more living and lesse labour to heap up Benefices and shrinke in the services due to the Lord of the Sabbath and to the soules of the people on that day to give them leave to turne a Christian Holiday into a profane play-day that his paines may be lesse looked for at his Pastor all charge and his negligence the lesse blamed when hee is absent from it or idle at it And if a man reade his booke over and give way to the working of his imagination as hee hath done may hee not haply thinke that by his setting upon the name Sabbath his plot was to prostitute the dignity of that day to such profanation as might bee a preparation to Popish superstition for if ever Popery like the uncleane spirit return to the place whence it was expelled the common breach of the fourth Commandement by violation of the Sabbath will be if not a wide gate yet at least an open wicket or window to receive it againe For as Bellarmine observeth well though hee apply it ill l Nec fere solet accidere ut ante circa fidem aliquis naufraget quà m naufragare caeperit circa mores Bellar. orat in Schol. ant tom 4 fine orat The shipwracke of manners is the readiest way to the shipwracke of faith And for shipwracke of manners there is not a readier way then profanely to rush upon the breach of that Commandement which is as a pale or wall to all the rest CHAP. XIX An Answer to Barkley the Papist his Dilemma against the name Sabbath for Sunday or Lords day THe next Exception to bee answered against the word Sabbath is the Quaere and a Dilemma of Barkley the Papist in his Parenaesis ad Sectar translated thence by the Translator of Doctor Prideaux his Lecture and by him called a notable Dilemma a The Translator of Dr. Prid. Lectine in Epist to the Reader p. ult but in Barkley his Paraenes ad Sectar it is l. 1. pag. 161. What is the cause saith hee that many of our Sectaries call this day meaning the Christian weekely Holiday by the name of Sabbath If they observe it saith hee as a Sabbath they must observe it because God rested on that day and then they ought to keepe that day wherein God rested and not the first as now they doe wherein the Lord began his labours If they observe it as the day of our Saviours Resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing that Christ did not altogether rest but valiantly overcame the power of death To which I answer Ans First That not onely Sectaries but prudent and potent Kings reverend and learned Bishops and other orthodox Divines have allowed of the word Sabbath for the Lords day as the Testimonies premised sufficiently shew Secondly for the Dilemma it is an absurd impertinency to the point in question for the Question is of the appellation and the Dilemma is made of the observation of the Sabbath yet as if it were not a squint-eyed and distorted Argument but looked directly to the title I answer 1. To the first part of it that to call a day Sabbath there is no necessity it should bee the same day on which God rested for the name is given to it not onely because of Gods example of rest but also because of his ordinance of rest for if he had not rested himselfe but onely instituted a day of rest such a day might significantly and sutably be called by such a name as wee have observed The Holidayes of the Jewes were so called besides the Sabbath of weekly recourse yet is not God said to have rested on them nor did hee for they were dayes of worke both to him and to us 2. The second part of it is If they observe it as the day of our Saviours Resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest but valiantly overcame the powers of death Which words are liable to the like exceptions as the former for the Resurrection containeth not the nature of the Christian Sabbath but the occasion of it nor is the day called Sabbath from Christs example and practice on that day but from Christians resting from their secular affaires for a religious gratefull and solemne memoriall thereof Secondly It is called Sabbath with reference to the Creation which was finished in sixe dayes and Gods rest on the seventh and to our duty to sinish our secular affaires in the like number of working dayes and after them to rest as God did after his workes but with reference to the Resurrection it is called not Sabbath day but Lords day because on that day the Lord of the Sabbath shewed his Lordship and Dominion over the Divell death and the grave in breaking their bonds and rising up in despigh◠of their power when they had him at their greatest advantage being under their Arrest And for that hee faith our Saviour did not rest on the day of his Resurrection wee may say with b See B. White his examinat of the Dialog pag. 110 111 113. Bishop White and his ″ Ibid. Adversary also for therein they are not adversaries but agree well together that though he were in action yet did he not labour for his glorifyed body had that ability and perfection in it that all motions and actions were as pleasing to it as any ease or rest could be and not onely that day but all the dayes betwixt the Resurrection and Ascension hee was conversant in Sabbatary or sanctified employment speaking of the things appertaining to the Kingdome of God for forty daies together Act. 1.3 and though hee did not rest nor needed it as wee doe yet wee must And if we may call the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ the Lords Supper though wee take it before dinner as Christ did not wee may call our day Sabbath since we rest though he did not So this notable Dilemma brought in with its two hornes against the two syllables of the word Sabbath hath not defaced one letter but left it entire for a title of the Lords day and Barkley hath but barked at it not bitten it to doe it any manner of hurt CHAP. XX. Master Braburne his objection of confusion in calling Sunday Sabbath answered ob 3 THe third objection may be that of M. Braburne who chargeth the Appellation with confusion a Mr. Braburns discourse pag. 1. 79. And in his def of the discourse p. 494. To call Sunday Sabbath day is saith he as if a man should call Sunday Saturday and what a confusion would this breed in time b M. Primrose Treat of the Sab. or Lords day part 2. c. 6. pag. 123. For this name Sabbath is the proper particular name of the seventh day i.e. from the Creation c M. Brab def p. 43 44 522
550. as John and Thomas are two proper names of two of Christs Apostles so the Sabbath is a proper name to Saturday Answ The comparison hath two parts The ground of it and the inconformity betwixt Sabbath and Sunday which hee maketh to bee as much as betwixt Sunday and Saturday and no more For the first Hee saith the name Sabbath is a proper name as Sunday and Saturday are which is not true for Sabbath is rather a name of office as King then a proper name as Edward or James or Charles and therefore any day of religious rest what day of the weeke soever it fell was called a Sabbath and so may the Lords day bee much more because it succeeds the Sabbath of the old Testament as a weekely day of rest as that was and other holidayes were not and exceeds it too in as much as the occasion of it and motive to observe it is doubled Secondly For his comparison saying That it is as great confusion to call Sunday Sabbath as to call Sunday Saturday hee will make it good when he can prove that the Sun and d Verstegan seemes to derive the word Saturday from Seater an Idol of the Saxons which hee saith is fondly supposed by some to be Saturne Versteg restuut of decayed Intelligence cap. 3 p. 77. but most learned men take the name of Saturday from the Planet Saturne Saturne are not two distinct Planets but that one may as well be called by the name of the other as the Sunne Saturne and Saturne the Sunne as either Saturday or Sunday when they be dayes of Rest may be called by a name of Rest Sabbath In the meane time it is but a Planetary or wandering comparison so farre from truth that it draweth neere to absurdity object 4 But saith hee againe e Mast Brab discours p. 200. The name Sabbath and the time of the seventh day cannot be separated I answer If that were true it maketh nothing against us for wee apply it to a seventh day now and to none else though not to that seventh day which was at first observed and if hee say that the name Sabbath and that seventh day which was Saturday cannot bee separated which is indeed his meaning I say First the name Sabbath may bee communicable to other dayes though it were not separable from the Saturday for if the day had never been changed yet other daies agreeing with it in cessation from worke might and did partake with it in the appellation of Rest At this day we may find it so in the Ethiopicke Church keeping both Saturday and Sunday holy and calling them both Sabbaths though with the distinction of Jewish and Christian as wee shall pertinently note afterward Secondly I say the name Sabbath and the seventh day from the Creation are separable for if Saturday may bee made a working day as the Christian world acknowledgeth both in position and practice and Master Brab himselfe in his dispensation whereof we shall speake in another place confesseth it may then the name of Rest viz. Sabbath may be separated from it unlesse the day shall be called by a name quite contrary to the nature and condition thereof CHAP. XXI The objection of Judaisme in using the name Sabbath answered and retorted as also the reproach of the name as from the Sabbatarian Heretickes removed object 5 BUt the a Bish of Ely his Treat pag. 207. Bishop of Ely misliketh the name Sabbath for the perill of Judaisme and the heresie of Judaizants The name Sabbath saith b Mast Dowe in his discourse of the Sab. and Lords day p. 4. Mr. Dowe is Jewish and which is more c Doct. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 6. Doctor Pocklington saith That Sunday was anabaptized after the mind of some Jew hired to be Godfather thereof and so called the Sabbath And d M. wonside q. 3. of the Sab. ch 12. p. 121. Master Ironside also objecteth That in using the name Sabbath we gratifie the Jewes in their superstitious obstinacy against Christ and his Gospel for they abhorre the name of the Lords day as the greatest blasphemy e Ibid. p. 121. adding withall that the ancient Christians fasted on Saturday when the Jewes feasted that they might be so farre from gratifying of them as to be quite contrary to them To all which I answer That many points of Religion both Jewes and Christians hold in common and that onely is to be refused as I wish which is peculiar to them but so is not the keeping of a day of religious Rest nor the proper name of that Rest if the word Sabbath did properly import sacrifices or shadowes of things to come as f Doct. Heyl. hist Sab. part 1. c. 6. pag. 111. Doctor Heylin would have it it might have some Jewish favour in the mouth of a Christian but that it doth not The word Altar hath a neerer reference to Judaisme and Popery and yet they g Doct. Pockâ— Visit Serm. pag. 28 29. the title of another book of his is Altare Christianum p. 50.80 doth D. Heyl. in Antidot Lincol. familiarly use it and thinke there is no danger of Jewish or Popish errour by calling the Communion Table by the name of an Altar but rather the discovery of a h Bish Whites Treatise of the Sab. pag. 207. perverse disposition of novell Sabbatarians by the way I doe not approve of his words but onely repeat them to make scruple of that while they call the Lords day by the name of a Sabbath as Bishop White objecteth Secondly i Bish White in his Treatise of the Sab. pag. 5. Bishop White and k Doct. Heyl. part 2. p. 236 237. hist of the Sab. Doct. Heylin bring in the sayings of John Frith and William Tindall for the Churches liberty to have chosen any other day then the Lords day for religious Rest the Jewes day not excepted and the Apostles and many Churches since the Apostles for three hundred years and more kept Saturday holy every weeke as well as Sunday as l Bish Whites Treatise of the Sab. pag. 109. Bishop White alledgeth and m M. Primros Treat p. 1. c. 12 Master Primrose alloweth a liberty to Christians to observe that day and in it to give themselves to all exercises of our Christian Religion and if any Holiday light upon a Saturday no man is to make scruple to observe it as an Holiday Besides our Church commandeth with the rest of the Decalogue the reading of the fourth Commandement for sanctification and this weekly with a prayer for pardon of profanation past and for grace for better observation in time to come and if there bee no danger of Judaisme in all this there is none surely in retaining the name of the Sabbath with another day then that which the Jewes solemnized Thirdly to deny the name of the Sabbath to the day wee Christians celebrate is rather Jewish for those that are Jewes indeed or
Jewish in opinion as n Mast Brab in his discours pag. 44. Master Braburne was in this point affixe the name Sabbath to Saturday whence it is that hee in his plea against applying the name to the Lords day appealeth to the Jewes at Amsterdam and elsewhere who call Saturday the Sabbath day o Ibid. whereto saith hee I may adde the Jewes reckoning of the dayes of the weeke Saturday they call Sabbath day Sunday they call the first day of the Sabbath Munday the second of the Sabbath c. In which accompt saith he no day is called Sabbath but Saturday nor can the Jewes or those that are Jewish abide to have the Lords day to be called Sabbath because they would exclude it from all right and title to the fourth Commandement as is plaine enough by that wee have already noted out of Master Brab and therefore that of p Doct. Pockl. Visit Serm. pag. 6. Doctor Pocklington before remembred viz. That a Jew should bee the Godfather and give it the name Sabbath as hee saith is a fancie which both superstitious Jewes and religious Christians will deny and deride Fourthly let those that thinke to call the Christian weekly Holiday by the name of Sabbath is Jewish consider whether it bee not now either Jewish or foolish to call Saturday by that name rather then the Lords day since Sabbath signifieth Rest and to say that Saturday must now be a day of Rest is Jewish and if it bee a workeday as wee take it to entitle it with a name so contrary to work is little lesse then foolish especially since wee have a day of rest to which that name with more congruity may be applyed For now to give Saturday a workeday with us that name of rest and to deny it to the Lords day wherein wee rest indeede is as if wee should call the body of a deceased King by the name of a King and deny that Royall title to the living person of his surviving Sonne and heire the heire of his Crowne Lastly For that which Master Ironside saith of gratifying the Jewes by applying the name Sabbath to ours Lords day and of their abhorring of the title Lords day as the greatest blasphemy I answer That wee shall gratifie the Jewes and those that are Jewish much more by giving up the name and title Sabbath unto their day then by applying it to ours for q M. Brab des of the Sab p. 54. Master Braburne when hee was most Jewish in this point made his exhortations to Ministers and people to refraine putting the name Sabbath day on the Lords day and with forbearance of the name hee requireth them r Ib. pag. 55. 288. to forbeare the use of the fourth Commandement the name Sabbath day therefore and the fourth Commandement saith hee must goe unseparable together hold the one and hold the other Ibid. renounce the one and renounce the other also But for the name of Lords day he was well enough pleased that it should be applyed to the day wee celebrate for when hee had exhorted to a forbearance of the name Sabbath hee enforceth his exhortation by this reason Å¿ Ibid. pag. 54. Wee have names enough besides wee may call it Sunday Lords day or First day of the weeke And which is more hee was then when hee did so Judaize in that point as never Christian did before him so farre from being offended at the title Lords day that hee pleaded for a right in it to the Jewes Sabbath t M. Brab defensâ— pag. 238. and in his discourse pag. 8. The Sonne of man saith hee is Lord of the Sabbath wherefore the seventh day may bee truely called the Lords day And if hee had beene a compleat Jew and so would not have allowed Christ to be called Lord yet it would have offended him more to heare the Lords day called Sabbath then Lords day simply For the name Sabbath in his conceipt dignifieth the Lords day with too high and holy a title u M. Brab his defence p. 52. for saith hee it is as if one should rob the Mistresse of her Jewels and bestow them on her Maid or should take the Crowne off the head of a King and set it upon a common subject as before wee had occasion to observe For Saturday saith hee hee meaneth as the Sabbath * Ib. pag. 53. is as the King or Mistresse to the Lords day which is x Ib. p. 52. but a common working day in Gods accompt And for that y M. Ironside cap. 12. of his quest of the Sab. pag. 121. Master Ironside saith of the Christians crossing of the Jewes in fasting on Saturday when they feasted it was not generall nay the greater part of the Christian world in z Aug. Ep. 19. ad Hier. p. 81. Saint Augustine his time did not fast on Saturday as hee hath recorded in his Epistle to Saint Hierom. Ob. 6. Yet by keeping up the name Sabbath some pretenders of piety cite many places of Scripture under that title which may incline to Jewish rigour and so cometh in the perill of Judaisme which the Bishop of Elie seemeth to suspect in the former objection Doctor a D. Pockl. Visitation Serm. p. 19. Pocklington more plainely complaineth of it when hee saith thus they must make a Sabbath of Sunday and keep up that name otherwise their many citations of Scripture mentioning onely the Sabbath applyed to Sunday will appeare so ridiculously distorted and wry neck'd that they will be a scorne and derision to the simplest of their deluded Auditorie And so doth b M. Brab def p. 53. Master Braburne in his Discourse By translating the name Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday saith hee the common people when they reade in the Scripture any thing of note touching the Sabbath day they presently cast that in their mindes upon the Lords day thinking it to bee meant of that The like is objected by c M. Irons Sab. quest 3. cap. 12. pag. 121 122. Master Ironside The name Sabbath may be and is become a snare to many weake ones and especially in reading of the Scriptures for wheresoever they finde the name Sabbath they presently conceive it to bee spoken of the Lords day and many times by this meanes fall into flat Judaisme as appeares by their quoting of the old Testament in the question in hand Answ First This objection if it have any weight in it maketh more against the reading of the fourth Commandement in our Communion Book and the Prayer annexed to it for inclination of the heart to keep that Law then against the simple name or title Sabbath for there is much more conformity with the Jewes in that then in this especially as some expound the Commandement with particular limitation of it to the Saturday Sabbath and whether it reach not also in part to prohibite the publick reading of some parts of Canonicall Scripture I will not determine
Secondly If any apply any place to our weekly holiday which is peculiar to the Jewes Sabbath he may as easily be answered by distinction of the Jewish and Christian Sabbath as if from the name Altar much in use with some in our dayes any should make inferences of Jewish Sacrifices to bee offered upon it hee may bee stopped which the Authour of this objection I thinke will not deny by the distinction of a Jewish and Christian Altar and application accordingly Thirdly To disavow the name Sabbath would become a more dangerous snare to Judaisme for that were to give up the fourth Commandement wholly unto the Jewes both for title and tenure for without the title how can our Christian Holiday be in any good sense set upon that ground and to establish their day by the best Authority that can bee viz. by a most holy and expresse law as the Jewes assume and some Christians too easily assent And to leave our Lords day floting upon the uncertaine conjectures of an Apostolicall tradition as some account it Who can tell saith d Mr. Ironside quest 5. of the Sabb. cap. 20. p. 200 201. Master Ironside whether the Lords day of which Saint John speakes were the Lords day which wee keepe or Easter day which Saint John and his Disciples observed as it fell out any day of the weeke according to the Jewish supputation This as I have e In my historicall part of the Sabbath shewed was a snare and scandall to M. Braburne which made him relapse from Sunday to Saturday And if his Books were as commonly read as they are cunningly penned to this purpose many more might bee taken in that snare at unawares unlesse they were more soundly answered then yet they have been Lastly There is a snare to profanenesse as well as to Judaisme to bee shunned by Christians but the taking of the name Sabbath from the Lords day as those that most dislike that title would have it may bee a snare to profanenesse and that in a higher degree then the Judaisme pretended for they that most mislike the name Sabbath as applyed to Sunday or Lords day disavow both the honour and holinesse of the day and would depose it from being a Queene to make it a drudge an ordinary workeday and therefore with the name they deny its right to the fourth Commandement as the uncommunicable charter of a weekely holiday in the Jewish Church whence will follow that many will be more bold familiarly to profane it Therefore in this respect also there is more danger in refusing or forbearing the name Sabbath when we speak of our day of religious rest then in receiving or approving thereof Object 7. Though Master Braburne accompt it too great an honour to the Lords day as before wee have noted to bee called Sabbath yet the Christian Church hath observed some matter of reproach in it and therefore hath shee called a sort of Heretickes by way of contempt and censure Sabbatarii and it is a ready reproach in the mouthes of many to call them as in disdaine Sabbatharians who put the name Sabbath upon Sunday Answ It is true but first the Church condemneth them not for calling and holding the Lords day to bee a Sabbath but Saturday as the Ebionites did of old and Master Brab of late and the Jewes doe to this day Secondly though Heretickes have been so entitled from the name Sabbath and some who are not Heretickes be too forward to cast that terme in contempt upon their Orthodox brethren yet the word is never the worse or lesse honourable for that for there were Heretickes called f Aug. de Haeres ad quod vul haer 39. p. 22. Angelici g Ibid. haer 40. Apostolici h Ibid. haer 34. pag. 21. Melchisedechians as well as Sabbatarii yet the names of Angels Apostles and of Melchisedech are for all that sacred and venerable CHAP. XXII The negative Argument drawne from the Apostles not using the name Sabbath for the Lords day answered ob 8 HOwsoever it bee lawfull to call the Lords day by the name Sabbath yet the name wherewith the Christians have anciently christned Sunday is the Lords day and not Sabbath day yea the Holy Ghost saith a M. Ironside quest ch 12. p. 120 121. Master Ironside doth every where in the New Testament call it the Lords day and no where Sabbath so did the Primitive Church in precedent times for the first three hundred yeares and so doe both Romane and Reformed Churches who stile it Lords day and not Sabbath day wherein to vary from them may bee justly noted of singularity affectation and if it be said that religious persons call it Sabbath day who speakes most religiously saith he the Apostles the whole Church or some private persons of late yeares is easie to determine In setting downe his Objection I have contracted three Arguments into one abating from the number not from the vigour of his reasons of exception because the answer I shall returne unto them will for the most part give satisfaction to them altogether The b Bish Whites Treatise of the Sab. and Lords day p. 127. See the like p. 135. Bishop of Ely maketh the like Objection We Christians saith he observe a weekly Holiday namely Sunday which with the Apostles we call not Sabbath but Lords day He saith further That the Lords day was not called Sabbath day by our Saviour nor by any of his Apostles or their immediate successors It is farre different saith c Ibid. p. 201. he againe and the like hath d M. Dow in his discourse pag. 4. Mr. Dowe from the language of the Fathers to stile the Lords day by the name of Sabbath The Sabbath and the seventh day saith e M. Primrose Treatise of the Sab. or Lords day part 2. ch 6. p. 132. M. Primrose and he meaneth the seventh from the Creation are indifferently taken for the same thing and the one is the explication of the other to which purpose hee quoteth many places of the Scripture but our Lords day saith f Idem Ibid. part 2. c. 20. pag. 138 184. he wherein wee apply our selves to Gods outward service is alwaies called in the New Testament the first day of the weeke or the Lords day and not Sabbath which name the Apostles and first Beleevers had not failed to give unto it if Jesus Christ had not so qualified and stiled it but they never termed it by such a name Hereof Master Broad in his Treatise of the Sabbath and Lords day which was sent me in a MS. by Mr. D. of B. hath these words g M. Broad in his MS. Treat of the Sab. and Lords day p. 41. The Scripture never calleth the Lords day by the name of the Sabbath neither any other I beleeve for the space of two hundred yeares and more since Christs time and whether it were so called by the Fathers saith he I
p. 72. Bishop of Elie where hee observeth out of Athanasius his Tractate de semente That the Saturday Sabbath was so observed that it was not prohibited Thirdly For Africa Saint Augustine since hee was an African Bishop may informe us by that hee hath in the 91. Psalme where treating upon it as the text of his Sermon Å¿ Hodiernus dies Sabb. est Aug. in Psal 91. tom 8. part 1. pag. 158. hee saith this day is the Sabbath if it were the Jewes day on that day he preached to the people and they had an holy Assembly on that day with conformity it is like to other Churches for hee calleth it the Sabbath as a day designed to holy duties and as it is like with conformity to other Churches if it were the Lords day hee called that the Sabbath and so the title is authorised by his Testimony But whatsoever become of these Allegations or however they prove for force or feeblenesse certain it is that the Decree of the Councell of t Concil Laodicen can 29. Caranz sum concil p. 190. Bin. tom 1. p. 300. Laodicea about the yeare 368. prevailed not so far as quite to put downe the observation of the Saturday Sabbath though to u Si inventi fuerint Judaizare i. e. non operando in Sabbato non praeponendo diem Dominicam eidem diei Anathema sint Ibid. Sabbatize with a Jewish cessation were forbidden upon pain of an Anathema for in time of Pope Gregory the Great there were some who had it in too great honour and religious reverence but by this time the Lords day had so farre advanced in estimation above it and in operation against it that ″ Greg. â—p 3.11 hee is almost as sharpe with them who were precise observers of the Sabbath with the Lords day as Ignatius was with such as combined them both in superstitious abstinence or fasting Gregory held those who observed the old Sabbath to bee x Perversi spiritus homines die Sabbati operari prohibent quos quid aliud nisi Antichristi Praedicatores dixerim Greg. â—p ex Regist l. 11. c 3. fol. 452 p. 1. col 2. Antichristian and y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. ep ad Philip pag. 45. Ignatius termed those who fasted on the Lords day or Sabbath one day excepted the killers of Christ So in his Epistle to the Philippians But for all that of the Laodicean Councell and this of Gregory the Sabbath was in some places upheld with the sacred services not onely as that z Sabbat is evangelia cum alâ—is Scripturis legenda esse censemus Concil Laod. can 16 pag. 180. Councell decreed for the reading of Scripture for that day but as with an equall respect to the Lords day which the a Ibid. can 29. Councell forbad and so it is to this day in the Ethiopicke Churches as b Quod autem Sabbatâ—n aequè ac diem Dominicum ab opere immune habent id non est argumentum Judaisini sed veteris Christianismi quot enim Canones sunt qui vetant Sabbato opus facere Joseph Scal. de emend temp l. 7. p. 683. Joseph Scaliger sheweth which hee will have to bee no argument of Judaisme but of ancient Christianity for how many Canons saith hee are there to forbid men to worke on the Sabbath day meaning the Saturday I wish hee had set downe how many some I have met with but not many and of those that which is pretended to be of the greatest Authority is in true judgement of least accompt viz. that of c Clement const Apost l. 7. c. 24. Clement published in the name of the Apostles which commands to keep holy the Sabbath day in memory of the Creation and the Lords day in memory of the Resurrection which if Clement had received from the Apostles the Romans it is like would which they did not have received it from him for they reckon him for one of the prime successors of S. Peter in the Bishoprick of Rome The summe of these observations concerning sacred Assemblies twice a weeke viz. upon Saturday the old Sabbath and the Lords day the new begun by the Apostles for the quicker progresse of the Gospel and better advantage of devotion and continued by Christians in after ages after their examples is this In the primitive times the Lords day was seldome called the Sabbath because then the old Sabbath of the Jewes was religiously observed with solemne Assemblies and while and where two dayes were so solemnized i. e. Saturday and Sunday it was sit to call them for distinction sake and to avoid confusion by severall names and good reason that the Saturday having for some thousand of yeers had possession of the title Sabbath when yet the Lords day or Christian Sunday had never shined in the world should be called the Sabbath rather then any other day and that the Lords day should rather be called by another name then by that But now at least among us who use the day which was the Jewes holiday not as a Sabbath or a day of rest but as a workeday now that some Jewishly some prophanely affected doe deny the name of Sabbath to the day wee celebrate to supplant the support of it by the fourth Commandement not as it is the Lords day but as one of the seven there is no danger of confusion by calling the Lords day the Sabbath but due caution thereby given against such conceits as tend to impeach the preheminence thereof CHAP. XXIIII The objection taken from the use of the name Sabbath in Histories Dictionaries and the Roman and Reformed Churches answered NOr is it any thing to prejudice the preheminence of the title Sabbath among us that Latin Authours whether of Histories or Dictionaries take the word Sabbatum usually for Saturday as a M. Brab his defence p. 44. Master Braburn hath objected since so long a custome of the Sabbaths observation upon Saturday both in the Jewish the Christian Church might easily prevail with many Writers to take the terme as they found it in familiar use before their time wherein they might be more facile while they suspected none advantage would be made of it against the truth But if from that facility of phrase exception be taken against the right of the Christians weekely holiday though a day of rest to the name Sabbath a name of rest then we must have recourse to the proper sense of the word and correspondence of the thing and rather speake according to both then to the improper and abusive application of it though customarie or usuall And as for the word Catholick though many Protestants have familiarly called the Papists by that name yet since they have insolently gloryed in it and perversely inferred from our use of it agreeing with their usurpation that wee that call them Catholicks doe by consequence confesse that our selves are Hereticks who are opposite to them as Coqueus concluded from
to bee kept holy and Markets may bee kept upon the other And in Sir Edward Coke his first part of the Institutes of Litleton resolving what day is not dies Juridicus he saith In e Sir Edward Coke in that first part of his Institutes lib. 12. c. 11. Sect. 2. of Villenage pag. 135. calleth it â—oure times the Sabbath day in this page all the foure termes the Sabbath day is not dies Juridicus for that ought to be consecrated to divine service and in his Reports in the case of the Citie of London it is said f Le jour de Sabaoth so it is written for Sabbath solemnit Except Cokes reports part 8. p. 127. a. That every day in the week is a Market day the Sabbath day by which is understood the Lords day onely excepted And in Machellies case who being arrested on the Sunday slew the Sergeant it was objected against the Sergeant g Le jour de soleile est le Sabbath Idem Ib. part 9. p. 66. that Sunday was the Sabbath day and answer made that no judiciall act may be done that day but ministeriall may In this instance is both the word Sunday and Sabbath for the same day And those two and a third are all of them by an eminent h Sir Jo. Finch in his first book of the Law cap. 3. p. 7. Lawyer it is Sir John Finch in one side of a lease indifferently used for the day wee Christians celebrate and another bird of the same golden feather Master Henry Finch in his Nomotechnia shewing besides the lawfull use of the name Sabbath for the Lords day the separation of it from secular affaires i Si le jour del returne vel si le primer ou darraine jour del terme hap sur le Sabaoth jour donque se jour procheine en suaul server en lin de ceo So Master Hen. Finch in fol. 52. in which edition the figures are mis-reckoned for on that lease is set num 58. which commeth twice but the former should be 52. as I have cited it saith If the day of returne or the first or last day of the terme happen upon the Sabbath day by which must needs bee understood the Lords day then the day next ensuing shall serve or bee kept in stead thereof for the beginning of the terme or day of returne Now to answer to the objection taken from the Acts of Parliament I say First That in the k M. Pultons Abridgement fol. 134. p. b. Parliament of the 19. of Queen Elisabeth cap. 13. which is of Hats and Caps the name Sabbath is used for the Lords day Secondly For the Act fore-cited concerning the observation of the day wee Christians keepe giving it the name of Lords day or Sunday not of Sabbath I answer That I have heard a ″ M. Ed. Whitby late Recorder of Chester Parliament man of eminent note in his time say that the bill was penned and passed in the Commons House in the name of the Sabbath day and I have read that when an Act was made for reformation of abuse by profanation of the Sabbath l In a MS. of Doct. Twisse concerning the Sabbath Doct. Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells was somewhat eager to have it called by the name of Sabbath and it had not been the worse if that reverend Father had been allowed as a Godfather to give the name and title in the Statute Thirdly though some prime persons of the upper House thought it fit in the Act to make use rather of the word Sunday and Lords day then of the word Sabbath it doth not follow they disallowed or condemned the use of that word for they were not ignorant of his Majesties Proclamation and Briefes calling our weekly Holiday by the name Sabbath nor how the name and day were incorporated into our Communion Booke with a prayer at the end of the fourth Commandement for pardon of profanation past and for grace to shun the like in time to come nor that that Commandement as well as the rest was a part of the common Catechisme prescribed for the instruction of children before their confirmation Fourthly they might haply mention the day wee observe for a Sabbath by the name of Sunday because that name was used in the Statute of the 5. and 6. Stat. 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 3. p. 133 of Edward the sixth wherein it was enacted that all Sundaies in the yeare should be kept holy and by the name Lords day because that is the name which S. John giveth it Revel 1.10 and which the Latine Church most used to distinguish it from the Saturday Sabbath and for the name Sabbath they might at that time forbeare it First because these two names chosen for these reasons were sufficient to make it well enough known unto all Secondly because the name Sabbath in the Communion Booke was like to bee upheld with so much honour and reputation so long as the fourth Commandement is a part of the Liturgy and Catechisme and both of them are in force and use that there was no such need to grace it with a particular mention in the Act as the other two titles yet if all three had been brought to a serious consultation for the choice and use of one above the rest the name Sabbath of right might have had the preheminence and so much I hope to manifest in the next Chapter CHAP. XXVI A comparison of the names Sabbath Lords day and Sunday with a resolution of the Question for the name Sabbath as the best and fittest to be the most usuall title of our weekly Holiday THough all the three names be lawfull enough and may each of them as just occasion requireth bee used without either sinne or scandall if there be not more fault in the mind of the speaker or hearer then in the words themselves yet since they are not all at such an equipoize for sense or acceptation but that there may be observed a preheminence among them which may incline the custome of speech to one more then to another thereafter as it is apprehended when the name is uttered or heard It will bee a matter of some use to observe the importance and prelation of these names so farre as to resolve which of them in our Church and age is most sit to become most common among us Names are of chiefe accompt for these seven particulars First for Antiquity secondly for Authority thirdly for Significancy fourthly for Facility to the speaker fifthly for Acceptability with the hearer sixthly for Frequency seventhly for Efficacy First if we compare them for Antiquity the name Sunday in the language of the world is more ancient then Lords day the name Lords day in the language of the Church a more ancient name then Sunday for we find the Lords day in Revelat. 1.10 about the 94. yeare after Christ but the first mention of Sunday as a Christian Holiday is
efficacie to edification which ought to bee of most accompt with us we may say First That the name Sabbath and Lords day at first apprehension are more ready and effectuall to minde us of and dispose us to pious conceits then the name Sunday is which at first blench according to the literall sense and primitive use hath an idolatrous intimation for it was so called with reference to and reverence of the Planet Sol which was made an Idol by the Saxons our predecessors in this Kingdome though the word be capable of a better sense as before hath beene shewed upon Malach. 4.2 and hath beene a good while since purged from the smack and suspicion of idolatry or superstition wherewith it hath been tainted in former times Secondly That though the title Lords day designe some day of eminent note and by consent of most be taken for the day on which Christ rose from the dead and though it may also import with a little working of the understanding upon it that he is Lord both of times and persons with other religious documents which conduce much to the edification of the Church yet the name Sabbath edifieth much more as to the solemne services of religion which ought to prevail in this comparison for it signifieth rest or cessation from secular labours without which no day can be holily and solemnly observed and that by an easie transition from the letter to a figure may admonish us of our Saviours resting in the grave all the Sabbath day which hee punctually observed while it was in force and of his resting from all further paine or suffering for our Redemption upon his Resurrection and of Gods resting satisfied with us hee having then fully discharged all our debt and quit himselfe from prison as by a most compleat satisfaction to his Fathers Justice and last of all of that everlasting rest Hebr. 4.9 which in the literall Sabbath was partly prefigured Besides the name Sabbath guides us to the fourth Commandement of the Decalogue where the proportion of time for the weekly recourse of it is to be read and the personall extent of the Commandement to superiours and inferiours home-borne or aliens together with the duties of the day both affirmative and negative and the reasons both of the institution and observation of them and those both many and weighty and so it upholdeth our solemne and sacred Assemblies once a weeke then which nothing is of more moment to edisication And all this it doth in such sort that no cavills of men can either weaken or darken its tenure from that text in the judgement of any reasonable man nor can any one who considereth that hold himselfe so little obliged to an holy celebration of one day in the weeke as if no more should be pleaded for it then what is either formally or vertually contained in the title Lords day or in any part of holy Scripture besides the fourth Commandement whereto it directeth us Thirdly the name Sabbath keepeth title to that ground which while it is made good for the proportion of one day in seven and not for Saturday Sabbath in particular as it easily may is the best meanes to maintaine the Authority of our weekly Holiday against any Adversary whatsoever To wind up those comparisons to a conclusion though every one of the words may lawfully be used as before hath been said I conceive and hope in the vertue of the premisses I may resolve that for our Church and time the name Sabbath is fittest to bee familiarly used for the day wee keep holy every weeke since for Antiquity Authority Propriety Significancie Facility Frequency of use among the religious of later times and which is most to bee heeded for efficacie to edification it hath the preheminence of the other two names compared with it To which wee may adde and it is a consideration of some moment that those that have most ill will to our Christian Holiday as b Mast Brab in his defence pag. 54. Master Braburne had would rob it of its right to the name Sabbath and therewith of its right for this authenticke Tenure by the fourth Commandement which it cannot claime under the name Sunday nor will it bee allowed under the name Lords day for I marvell with what face saith c Ibid. p. 55 56. he men can presse the fourth Commandement upon that day which themselves confesse is named Lords day and not Sabbath day and if hee could have supplanted it for that support hee would have had it to depend upon the meere power of man so as to stand or fall at his pleasure and rather to fall then to stand for that was his drift in both his bookes to which purpose hee hath said so much as requireth a farther and fuller answer then hath been made unto them for the Bishop of Ely who professedly undertooke the defence of our Christian Sabbath against his Judaizing Arguments dealeth but with one of his bookes and for the other it seemeth hee hath not seen it for hee never maketh any mention of it Object Against this prelation of the name Sabbath it may bee said by way of exception that the name Sabbath is lesse proper then the name Lords day or Sunday for it is a name for any day of Rest as hath been observed and acknowledged on all hands Answ It is true the name Sabbath may be communicated to more dayes then the weekly Holiday whereof we treat if there bee a cessation from labour upon them and so it was in the Old Testament for the Jewes had many Holidayes which were named sometimes Sabbaths and yet the weekly Sabbath by an excellency had that denomination belonging unto it which other Holidayes had not If a Papist object this I will give for instance the word Pope which anciently was a generall title for all Bishops as I have d In my Christian Nomenclature observed and proved at large in another worke but now use hath confined it to the Bishop of Rome If a Protestant the word Bible may serve to answer him which as the learned know signifieth in the Greeke tongue a booke in generall and hath been in use with that latitude of extent yet by an Antinomasie or excellency and we may say the same of the word Scripture it is now taken onely for the booke of the holy Scripture and it is though a common word of old now become so proper as that we know what one meaneth when hee saith a Bible as well as if hee said Gods Booke so wee may know as most men use the word Sabbath as well what day is meant by it as if we said the Lords day or Sunday Besides the Lords day is in its Grammaticall signification of as large extent as the Sabbath both because the Apostle saith there be Lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 as wee noted even now and for that it may belong to all dayes dedicated to publicke devotion whereby God our great Lord
Christian Church first giveth the Lords day a reall preeminence above the old Sabbath saying f M. J. Walker in his book of the Doctrine of the Sabbath p. 89.90 that the old Sabbath had no other light nor life in it but onely from obscure promises and dark shadowes through which Christ was seen as things afarre off are seene and in the starre-light nights but the Lords day the first day of the weeke hath light and life from the Sunne of Righteousnesse who in it rose up to bee the light of life to all Nations And after that hee giveth it a nominall preheminence under the title Lords day g Ib. p. 90 91. God saith hee hath given it a most honourable name and title above all the daies of the weeke for the holy Evangelist and divine Apostle Saint John who was the intimate beloved and bosome Disciple of the Lord and did best know his minde calls it the Lords day Revel 1.10 and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord is the same in signification with Gods proper Name Jehovah and most commonly is used in the new Testament to expresse that sacred Name And if that day and name both be more excellent then that of the old Testament the denomination should be taken according to it and so we should call it rather Lords day then Sabbath To which I answer First That howsoever the new Sabbath bee in many respects more excellent then the old yet the name Sabbath may be very agreeable to them both Secondly that if name Lords day be a more excellent name then the name Sabbath it doth not follow it should be more usuall ordinary for there be many other intimatious of moment for the use of a name as before we have noted and for instance though the name Sonne of God bee a more excellent name then Sonne of man yet our Saviour who best knew how to speake for he spake as no man ever did John 7.46 called himselfe oftner Son of man then Son of God Thirdly the name Sabbath doth import more clearly and assuredly a weekly Holiday as wee observe it then the name Lords day doth for that is questionable as before wee have shewed whether it be to be taken for the day of our Saviours Resurrection or no and if that be resolved on then whether it note that individuall day onely on which he arose or other daies also that succeed it and if others whether onely an Anniversary day as Easter or a weekly day as the Sabbath is and hath been since it was first ordained but the word Sabbath without all question signifieth a day of Rest among sixe daies of labour and so one set day within the circle of the weeke Fourthly the name Sabbath being the title of the fourth Commandement which is the best warrant for a weekly Holiday and which prescribeth our duty both for what we must forbeare and what performe and presseth it by many effectuall reasons there is great reason that it should bee more used then any other which in such materiall considerations is not comparable to it Fifthly the name Sabbath guiding us to the fourth Commandement will bring us readily to the title Lords day as before hath been observed but the name Lords day in that text where it is noted viz. Revel 1.10 the chiefe if not the onely text for that title in the New Testament giveth none intimation of a Sabbath neither in Deed nor in Name therefore the name Sabbath as more significant and monitory is fitter for instruction and use then the name Lords day is Sixthly for such reasons as these or some other of like importance the fore-cited Authour useth the name Sabbath more frequently throughout his whole booke then any other whatsoever and setteth it as the title in the highest place of every page though no man expresse a dearer affection to the dignity of the Lords day then he doth Lastly he so far approves of the name Sabbath for our weekly Holiday that he setteth upon them who say the Lords day was not called Sabbath in the Primitive times next to the Apostles nor since by any but onely Jewish Sabbatharians with some sharp termes calling them h M. Walker in his Doctrine of the Sabb. ch 16. p. 113. but pag. 112 of the impression at London 1641. Adversaries of a bold and impudent face who make that objection Thus farre the exceptions against the name Sabbath both simple and comparative with other titles Though I have set my wits on worke on the Antisabbatarian side both to multiply fortifie objections against that name as applyed to the day of our Christian devotion I can find nothing more which is of any weight or worth to bee objected or answered concerning the comparison of the names of Sabbath Sunday and Lords day and the resolution for the name Sabbath of which we may now I hope without all appearance of partiality or presumption conclude That the name Sabbath is of best use to support the true Doctrine of our Christian Holiday both for the time and tenure of it for discovery of duties required on it and for incitement to the conscionable practice of them accordingly and therefore notwithstanding the contrary determination of i Better by farre and farre lesse danger to be feared in calling it the Sunday as the Gentiles did and as our Ancestors have done before us then calling it the Sabbath as too many doe and on lesse Authority nay contrary indeed to all Antiquity and Scripture Doct. Heyl. hist Sab. part 2. c. 2. p. 163 164. Doctor Heylin to bee most used when we speake of the weekly Holiday of the Christian Church yet without prejudice to the liberty of any one to call it Lords day or Sunday as just occasion shall incline them or religious discretion induce them to terme it CHAP. XXVII A briefe accommodation of this Nomenclature or nominall discourse to some purposes of importance concernning the Sabbath HE that doth reade thus farre will not I hope conceive I have need to make an Apology for this discourse as if it were some idle Logomachy or word war which the Apostle forbids 1 Tim. 6.4 for First it may serve to stint the strife of words Esay 29.21 which some have already raised up making a man an offender for a word which affords not a syllable of just exception or offence and to prevent the like in after times since by what we have said our lawfull liberty is fully declared and firmly assured so that we may without doubt or danger of sinne call the time or day we celebrate Lords day Sabbath day or both as the holy place of Gods publicke service was called the Lords house and the Temple And for the name Sunday wee have shewed the lawfull use of it if it be not brought in like the Sunne with a burning glasse as Doctor Pocklington doth to scortch the name Sabbath or to cast a shadow upon it to conceale or obscure
of all good meanes to keepe them out for future time Gods Providence which doth nothing in vaine may well bee thought after so long absence and so great distance of your ordinary residence to have brought you hither at this time for so great so good a purpose So that though there be some ſ Sunt qui quod sentiunt etiamsi optimum sit invidiae metu non audent dicere Cicero l. 1. de Offic. p. 362. who think better then for feare of envie they dare speake and so doe a great deale worse then perhaps they think for as t Veritatem reticere quoddam sacrilegium est Sedul in epist ad Rom. c. 11. sol 8. Sedulius saith to conceale the truth when there is just cause and a fit season to set it forth is a kind of sacriledge It is both beleeved and looked for that your Grace as you can upon occasion shew your selfe a Paul in eminence of knowledge and a Barnabas in sweetnesse of spirituall consolation so with Paul and Barnabas you will waxe bold in the cause of God and his truth though as it was their lot you should meet with contradiction even unto blasphemy Act. 13 ver 45 46. and indeed the sincerest and wisest working may sometimes not onely faile of due acceptance and successe but bee as wilfully withstood on the one side as it is zealously pursued on the other Yet your Grace may take the more heart to give free scope to your conscience herein because you are so generally gracious that as Hierome said to u Tuae dilectionis fama dispergitur ut non tam laudandus sit qui te amat quà m scelus putetur facere qui non amat Hier. ad Florentium priore epist tom 1. p. 53. Florentius To love you is not so much to be reputed a praise as not to love you a crime I should be guilty of no lesse if I should not in mine heartiest prayers to Almighty God commend your good health and long life for his glory and his Churches comfort and sincerely professe all humble observance to you as the duty of Your Graces most cordially devoted client and servant JOHN LEY From my lodging in Pauls Church-yard March 19. 1640. The PREFACE to the Reader THe Name and Lot of the Sabbath as many of this generation have used the matter are very unlike for that is fixed on an Hebrew root which signifieth Rest this as a watery reed tossed to and fro with contrary winds by the manifold oppositions that are made about it almost if not altogether Restlesse Not all the Commandements of the Decalogue besides that of the Sabbath which for number have the oddes of nine to one have suffered more or worse under the strife of tongues or conflict of pens then it hath done It was by divine Ordinance to be as Noahs Arke for in that not men alone but the unreasonable creatures likewise though most disposed to range abroad were under an arrest confined to a narrow compasse and though otherwise adverse to each other united in a quiet and peaceable repose among themselves So on the Sabbath both man and beast for that day were to have each of them their quietus est by the one sort Rest was only to be enjoyed as a benefit to the other it was enjoyned as a duty but not Rest onely but Religion with it nor Rest meerly for it selfe but for Religions sake and that so farre as it consisteth in communion with God is another kind of Rest and of all kinds the best and most delightfull But now is this Sabbath or day of rest and quietnesse become as a Ball betwixt two Rackets bandied this way and that way by mutuall contradiction not onely betwixt the godly and the profane which is no newes but among many of those who are in no mean accompt in the Church of God whether they bee valued by the eminence of their places the excellency of their parts or the holinesse of their lives The more is the griefe of religious hearts that doe observe it and the more hearty their desires no doubt to see some good accord at least betwixt the better sort or which is next unto a peace that the differences about it may bee carried with such pious and prudent moderation on both sides as that God may lose no part of his tribute of honour nor his servants be defrauded of the fruit of their holinesse nor fall to a change or cooling of those charitable affections towards each other without which Pomegranats even the golden Bells of Aaron are but like sounding brasse or tinkling Cimballs Towards this purpose if the employment of the Talent committed to my trust may any way conduce I shall make no scruple to adde unto my other taskes an assay of satisfaction to their Doubts or Reasons who either waver in the right or are already swayed to wrong opinions in this point And to this endeavour I shall with more diligence addresse my selfe First because the day in question is the training day of military Discipline by which the Church of Christ is unto the Synagogue of Satan as is said in the Canticles terrible as an Army with Banners Cantic 6.4 which if it should not be well united and often exercised the powers of darknesse would be mightily exalted It containeth as a Cùm subyersam omnem religionem vult apud Prophetas signisicare polluta violata non custodita non sanctificata sua Sabbatha conqueritur quasi omisso hoc obsequio nihil ampliùs restaret in quo posset honorari Calvin Instil l. 2. cap 8. parag 29. pag. 140. Calvin sheweth and b Mast Perk. exhortat to Repent vol. 3. pag. 421. col 2. Doct. Prid. his lect on the Sab. Doct. Rivet in Exod c. 31. ver 12. pag. 253. Grotius de jure belli ac pacis l. 2. c. 20. pag. 244. Mast Primrose Treat of the Sab. part 2. c. 6. p. 120 121. other learned Divines in effect say the same the summe and substance of all Religion The Sabbath is unto it as the border of Sinai to that mountaine of terrour and as the tower of Sion to that city of perfection and so cannot be battered or broken down without an open breach upon Religion it selfe Secondly because as it stands in eminency for force and use so it is the fairest marke for Satans malignity to aime at and as if he had given his souldiers some such charge against it as the King of Syria did once against the King of Israel fight against neither small nor great 1 Kin. 22.31 but against the King of Israel spend all your might against his person so against this whether King or Queen of dayes for both these titles are attributed to the day of Rest as I shall note in another place are all his forces set in battell array and though in some respects adverse to one another yet in their way they all of them doe violence to the
eighth day to bee received and therein as e Octavus dies id est post Sabbatum primus quo Dominus Circumcisionem spiritualem daret hic dies octavus praecessit in imagine Cypr. lib. 3. Ep. 8. pag. 80. col 2. S. Cyprian thought and f August in Psalm 150. tom 8. part 2. pag. 1059. S. Augustine hath the like conceipt was the Christians weekly holiday prefigured With these Appellations of number order we may remember those Titles of honour ascribed unto it by g Chrysologus Serm. 77. Chrysologus who calleth it the primate of dayes and by h Ignat. Epist ad Magnens vocat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 57. Edit Genev. 1623. Ignatius who advanced it to a denomination of an higher straine naming it the Queene and Princesse of dayes other feast-dayes being as i Mr. Godwin in his Moses and Aaron lib. 3. c. 3. p. 110 111. concubines and the worke-daies as hand-maids not as k Mr Brab in his Discourse upon the Sabbath in 8o. page 53. In his Defence in 4 to page 159. 488 490. Mr. Brab would have it as if hee left the Title of King and Prince for the Saturday Sabbath for if hee had meant such a titular prelation of that day above the Lords day hee would not surely where hee speaketh of them both have adorned the one with the title of a Queene and not the other with the title of a King which hee hath no where done nor any body else for ought that I have yet either read or heard but Mr. Brab it is his peculiar Courtship whereby he would restore the old Sabbath to the prerogative of a Crown after it hath been justly deposed from it for many hundred yeers together in the Christian Church Besides the Bishop of l Tho Bp. of Elie in his Treat of the Sab. pag. 75. Elie hath pertinently replyed to this imaginary preheminence of the Jewish Sabbath by giving instance of the Rabbins stiling it by the name not of a King but of a Queene and of the Philosopher and Oratour terming Justice Eloquence and Mony by the same title and hence hath hee rightly inferred that Ignatius named the Lords day the Queene of dayes not by way of derogation but to signifie the eminent and transcendent honour of the day But howsoever the words went in Ignatius his time to call the one a King the other a Queene in our daies would sound like an m The Ebionites keepe the Jewish Sabbath and celebrate the Sunday also Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 24. pag. 50. Ebionitish combination or marriage of Saturday and Sunday together for the Ebionites honoured them both with a weekly observation but for that Mr. Brab while hee disavowed the Lords day on the one side and others of sounder judgement disclayming the Saturday Sabbath on the other would bee ready to forbid the banes of matrimony before-hand or afterwards to sue out a divorce There is another name of this day which hath a sound of dignity with a sense of diminution for some of late saith n Dr. Bound on the Sabbath part 1. p. 117. Dr. Bound have given it a new name unknowne to the world and not properly belonging to it calling it the Kings day the Queens day the Emperours day So have some Divines done saith he but he nameth them not and it is not worth the while to seek after the names of such ungodly godfathers ungodly doubtlesse if in giving it these names they meant as there is good cause to suspect thereby to degrade the day from all sacred to meere secular Authority But these Appellations already specified are either out of use or out of Question and so wee may quickly quit them and may betake our selves to the consideration of other Titles of more regardable observation in our dayes CHAP. III. Of three most usuall names of the Christians weekely Holiday Lords day Sunday and Sabbath And first of the name Lords day Rov 1.10 The strange opinion of Doctor Gomarus and Master Braburne charging the Title as applyed to the Christian Sabbath with impertinencie and novelty THe names of our weekly Holiday more frequent in use and yet not free from exception are three the Lords day Sunday and Sabbath day I put the Lords day first though it bee the youngest name of the three not as a Dr. Bound on the Sab. part 1. p. 110. 120. some who preferre it so farre as by it to put downe the use of the other two but because it hath so much in preheminence of dignity by its notation of neere reference to the Authour of Rests and Father of Lights as maketh amends for what it wanteth in age and feniority and the Sabbath I place last though it bee the eldest of all because I shall most insist upon it and best conclude with it in regard of the reall inquiries and observations which with reference to it must begin when this Logomachie or word-warre is at an end The title Lords day is not taken from Saint Paul 2 Cor. 10.26 wherein hee saith the earth is the Lords and so that day may be called the Lords day in a common sense because the Lord made it for a common use as b As the earth is the Lords 1 Cor. 10.26 because the Lord made it and all things therein to serve man in his ordinary and common use Gen. 1.26 9.3 So this day is called the Lords day because Christ ordained it for mans ordinary and common use that is for a working day Mr. Brab defence of his Discourse pag. 240. Master Brab not by any common but by his own singular conceit hath said but from Saint John Rev. 1.10 where he saith I was in the Spirit on the Lords day that is on the day on which Christ our Lord rose from the dead Upon this ground grew the observation of that day we celebrate under that name wherein both the most and the best Authours doe agree Against this exceptions have been taken by two late Divines who each of them have written two Treatises a piece upon the weekely Holiday of the Church and have in all foure sought by new surmises to shift off the title both as in and to this text of Saint John the one is Doctor Francis Gomarus the States Professour of Divinity in the Universitie of Groning the other Mr. Theophilus Braburn a Minister of the County of Norfolke a man as the Bishop of Elie of whose Diocesse hee was when hee was Bishop of Norwich c In his Epist Dedic pag. 22 23. before his Treat of the Sabbath noteth of him who laid a load of disgrace and contempt on his Puritan adversaries as hee termeth them Doctor Gomarus maketh the Lords day to bee the same with the day of the Lord and by the day of the Lord understandeth the day of the d De die apparitionis Domini aut in carne ut dies natalis aut quâ
touching that number which seduced his opinion to that mis-conceipt besides that the congruity of the word in sound and confining of the weeke to that number of dayes both in the commandement and common practice might readily incline a man to that imagination for even those fables both of Appion the Grammarian and Justine the Historian before mentioned how wide soever they wander from the truth of the Sabbath in other points keepe within the compasse of the septenary number which is as a girdle of the dayes of the weeke of which the Sabbath is as a golden claspe or buckle binding them together Wee have reserved the best derivation as our Saviour did the best wine John 2. for the last place it is of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cessavit quievit hath rested which rendred with exact correspondence to the Hebrew characters should be written ″ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schabbath but for sweeter sound somewhat is abated of compleat expression and so it is usually written in the ″ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek translation of the old and the Greeke edition of the new Testament and the Latines in conformity to it rather then to the originall use the word Sabbatum and wee our English word Sabbath which as a participle in the former syllable taketh part with the Hebrew Greek and Latine in the later with the Hebrew onely And very fitly doth a name of rest agree with the day of rest or cessation from secular labours as the Sabbath day is and of this deduction and doctrine it is agreed by the best Divines on both sides In respect of this both rest and ranke the seventh being after all the rest hath the Planet Saturne a name of neere cognation to it signifying ease and lazinesse as e Planeta sedeÌ„tarius Gualper Syllog vocum exotic part prior pag. 106. Gualperius noteth which hee reckoneth for the last of the seven Planets beginning his account with the Moon as the first so still remembring what wee have before observed wee may say the number of seven the title of rest are joyned together in observations of the Sabbath whether with the religious or profane and so I could willingly derive it if the radicall characters would beare it from both words as a childe from its Parents of both sexes for as the Sabbath is every seventh day so it hath a neere affinity with the word which signifieth seven from whence Lactantius taketh it to be derived as hath been shewed And as it is a time of vacation from worldly labour so it hath as neere consanguinity with the word which signifieth rest But this derivation of it from rest is the right and to it wee shall stand CHAP. XI Of the sever all acceptions of the name Sabbath THe next inquirie of it is how farre the name Sabbath reacheth in sense and use especially whether this name of Rest may not bee applyed to the Lords day it being a day of Rest and that will the better appear if wee observe the distinction by severall acceptions which are chiefly these It is taken for 1 Rest from labour 2 Rest from sinne 3 Rest from both First for the first As the Sabbath signifieth a rest from labour it is used first generally for all dayes ordained for the solemne service and worship of God for as a Omnem Festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaei sed Gentiles Sabbatum vocant Scalâ—g de Emend Temp. lib. 3. p. 223. edit ult Scaliger observeth The Jewes and Gentiles both called every Festivall of the Jewes by the name of Sabbath b Idem ferè apud Chrysost Homil 40. in Matth. Doctor Gomarus would not have the new Moones numbred among the rest under that name though some learned men saith hee doe so hee might meane c Ursin catech pag. 580. Ursinus for one who reckoneth them for monethly Sabbaths because saith Gomarus there is no divine Authority for restraint of labour on those dayes Yet hee confesseth the Gentiles called them Sabbaths and they it is like had that name from the Jewes whose practice it was to observe those dayes with cessation from servile workes But this was upon their owne superstition saith hee and not by precept and yet hee confesseth that there were peculiar sacrifices for those solemnities for which hee quoteth Num. 28.11 15. And as they were Festivals they were distinguished from other dayes and a good part of the distinction of them consisted in cessation from secular labours which needs must be forborne while the people were imployed in other things and so farre the name of Sabbath might be communicated to them Secondly The name Sabbath is taken particularly and that divers wayes 1. The principall acception of it is for a weekely holiday ordayned by God in the fourth Commandement 2. By a Synechdoche of the part for the whole the word Sabbath is put sometimes for the whole weeke so in the speech of the Pharisee where hee saith I fast twice a weeke which precisely rendred according to the originall should bee d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 18.12 Jejuno biâ— in Sabbato hoc est in Hebdomada Cent. 1. lib. 1. cap. 6. col 244. read I fast twice a Sabbath which cannot bee meant of one day for though a man may eate thrice or oftner in a day it cannot bee said with good sense that in one day hee fasted more then once for if the fast be continued it makes but one fast though it last the whole day and if it bee broken by eating it cannot for that day bee pieced up againe 3. Sometimes the word is especially applyed to the first and last dayes of such solemne Festivals as consisted of many dayes together Levit. 23. à ver 24. c. 4. From dayes the Sabbath goeth on to the comprehension of yeers to the Jewes every seventh yeere was a Sabbatharie yeere wherein they were not to exact any debt of one another Deut. 15.1 nor to exercise the ground but to let it rest from tillage whereof wee have the Law at large Levit. 25. à vers 2. ad 7. The circle of the Sabbath grows yet to a further compasse for these seven-yeere Sabbaths multiplyed by sevens made up the whole number of 49. yeeres and the yeere after was the yeere of Jubilee a great Sabbath which was proclaimed by the sound of the Trumpet and rest from tillage as before with many other particulars prescribed whereof you may read more in the fore-cited Text from the eighth verse to the end of the Chapter These acceptions of the word Sabbath have especiall reference to rest from labour The second acception of the name Sabbath but counting on the fifth hath another sense it is that whereby it is taken for rest not from labour but from sinne In this it is frequent among the Fathers of the Church and well might they call it a Sabbath or rest in that sense as in opposition to the
restlesse turbulencie of sinne for that is a very troublesome evill the sinne of Simeon and Levi troubled Jacob Gen. 34.30 the sinne of Jonas troubled the aire and the sea and made it restlesse untill hee was offered up as a sacrifice to becalme it and The wicked saith Isaiah are like the troubled sea whose waves cast up mire and dirt Esa 57.20 and though the godly having lesse sinne have thereby the more rest yet to them it is a very troublesome and toylesome evill which will not suffer them to sleepe Davids teares are eye-witnesses hereof Psal 6.6 and for a more solide assurance of this truth hee bringeth in his bones to give testimony to it I finde no rest in my bones saith hee by reason of my sin Psal 38.3 The third acception of the name Sabbath but adding it to the former the sixth is that which the Apostle useth Heb. 4.9 the word in the originall is not Sabbatum but Sabbatismos but the termination troubles not the rest of the former part of the word and therefore our best Bibles render it as if it had beene the word Sabbatum by our English word Rest and this is the best Sabbath or Rest of all others wherein the Elect shall wholly cease from sinne and labour and it is that eternall Sabbath whereof the externall or temporall Sabbath was a Type in respect of the time of it as the Tabernacle or Temple was a Type for the place to the kingdome of Heaven where it shall bee enjoyned CHAP. XII Whether the day called Lords day or Sunday may not also be called Sabbath day or the Sabbath The exceptions which are taken up by divers against it THese acceptions premised it will bee the more easie to answer the exceptions which some have taken at the use of the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day who would have that name under so rigorous an arrest at the sute of Saturday that it may not stirre one step to the day next unto it and so wee may not by their leave call the Lords day the Sabbath day Of this minde are some of the greatest friends of the Lords day as well as they that as enemies oppose the divine authority of it for a D. bound l. 1. de Sab. p. 110. Doctor Bound a man sincerely devoted to the doctrine and duties of the fourth Commandement saith The name of the Sabbath was changed into the name of the Lords day which must bee retained and if the old name bee to bee changed and the new must be retained then the old name must bee taken to bee abolished at least to bee prohibited as to the day now solemnely observed and generally received And b M. Brerew repl p. 73. 74 Master Brerewood an opponent against divers points of Doctor Bound his Booke of the Sabbath in his Reply to Mr. Byfields Answer saith The name of the Sabbath remained appropriated to the old Sabbath and was never attributed to the Lords day for many hundreds of yeers after our Savious time none of the Apostles nor of the ancient Christians for many hundreds of yeers after them ever intituled it by the name of Sabbath and since him c Bish white treat of the Sab. pag. 134 135. Bishop White hath written Wee Christians keep a weekly holiday namely Sunday which with the holy Apostle Revel 1.10 wee stile the Lords day not the Sabbath day d D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 8. pag. 255. Doctor Heylin in his History of the Sabbath having objected against some an intent to cry downe holidayes as superstitious and Popish ordinances mentioneth as in scorne their new found Sabbath and Sabbath now saith he it must be called And the Translator of e The Transl of D ◠Prid. his Lect. on the Sab. Praef. pag. ult edit 2. Doctor Prideaux his Lecture of the Sabbath in his Preface before it bringeth in Barkley a Papist with a notable Dilemma as hee calleth it the better to encounter those who still retaine the name of the Sabbath What is the cause saith hee that many of our sectaries call this day meaning the Christians weekely holiday by the name Sabbath If they must observe it because God rested on that day then they ought to keepe that day whereon God rested and not the first as now they doe whereon the Lord began his labour If they observe it as the day of our Saviours Resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest but valiantly overcame the powers of death His question God willing shall bee answered anon as yet wee are to note onely his disallowing of the name as applyed to the Lords day which wee may observe also in f M. Dowe in his Discourse pag. 4. 19. Master Dowe his late Discourse of the Sabbath or Lords day and in g Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 12 13. Master Ironside his seven questions concerning the Sabbath h Mr. Broad his MS. of the Sab. part 2. cap. 2. p. 26. propè sin Master Broad forbiddeth Preachers in their Sermons to say Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it and would have them in stead thereof to say Remember to sanctifie the Lords day for the Lords day saith hee may bee called no more Sabbath then the Sabbath may bee called Lords day If as much it will bee enough as shall be shewed afterward But Master Braburne as hee misliketh that the Lords day should lord it over the Jewish Sabbath more then any so he cavilleth more at the calling of it by the name of the Sabbath lest under that name it should take up some authority from the fourth Commandement Hee beginneth his Discourse which is his former Book against it thus i Mr. Braburns Discourse of the Sab. p. 1. Bee pleased Christian Reader first of all to note that wee now adayes apply the name Sabbath to the Lords day promiscuously and without difference now thus to confound two proper names of dayes is as if wee should call Sunday Saturday and Saturday Sunday And to restraine the name Sabbath to the old day of the Jewes which hee pleads for hee would have the words of the Commandement rendred thus k Ibid. pag. 7. pag. 68. Remember the Saturdayes Rest to keepe it holy from which saith l Ibid. p. 200. hee the name Sabbath cannot bee separated And in his other Booke which hee wrote in defence of the former hee saith m M. Brab Defence p. 164. edit 2. That it is an errour of our Ministers to call the Lords day or the first day of the weeke by the name of Sabbath and a n Ibid p. 164. 626. meere fiction since none of the Apostles ever called it so nor is it any where so named in the Scripture hee addeth that o Ib. pag. 52. by calling the Lords day by the name of Sabbath they have robbed the Sabbath of its honourable ornaments that
therewith they might deck and trim up the Lords day p Ibid. which is as if one should take the crowne off the head of a King and set it upon a common subject q Ibid. pag. 35. for Saturday saith hee is a King or Mistresse to the Lords day Hee had spoken with more congruity to himselfe though not unto the truth if hee had kept to his gender and called it a King and Master or a Queene and Mistresse hee objecteth further r Ibid. p. 50. that wee may as well call Å¿ Ibid. Baptisme Circumcision and the Lords Supper the Passeover and t Ibid. p. 494. that when the Minister saith Remember to sanctifie the Sabbath day to take it for the Lords day and so to say Lord have mercy upon us c. is to make answer as deafe men doe who when a man calleth for a knife doe bring him a sheath The resolution at which hee would have his reasons and exceptions arrive is this Let mee saith he for conclusion exhort Minister and people to refraine putting the name Sabbath day on the Lords day and let them take with it u Ib. p. 54 55. that they must with forbearance of the name Sabbath day refraine the use of the fourth Commandement for these goe unseparably together Where wee may see in him as in others that of Bishop Andrewes made good of shewing ill will to the thing by carping at the name as before wee have noted for Mr. Braburne and wee may say the like of some others knowing the right and title claimed for the Lords day by the fourth Commandement to bee kept a foote by the title Sabbath first fettereth it to the Jewish weekly holiday by affixing the word Saturday unto it not daring to trust it alone lest being left loose it should bee ready for use as an appellation of the Lords day Much like the Papists who pinion the name Catholick with the addition of Romane that so they might keepe it captive to their owne side and by it as by a lock or bolt might let in or keep out of the Church as please themselves But the most severe Censurer of the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day is the Authour of the Book called Altare Christianum wherein speaking of him who wrote the Letter to the Vicar of Grantham hee saith ″ D. Pockl. his book called Altare Christianum cap. 22. p. 130. Hee had shewed himselfe more like a sonne of the Church if he had said that the name Sabbath had crept into the Church in a kinde of complying in phrase with the people of the Jewes and that in a shadow of things to come as if Christ were not come in the flesh against the Apostles expresse doctrine and charge Colos 2. and from hence would have sought to have cast that old leaven out of our Church which hath sowred the affections of too many toward the Church and disturbed the peace and hindred the pious devotion thereof This is enough and bad enough yet hee saith more and worse in his Sermon preached at the Visitation of the Bishop of Lincolne Aug. 7. 1635. wherein hee visiteth with the rod those that call the Lords day Sabbath day and with it giveth such sharp jerks as these x D. Poâ—kl Visitation Serm. called Sunday nâ— Sabbath pag. 6. What shall wee thinke of Knox Whittingham and their fellowes anabaptizing the Lords day or Sunday after the minde of some Jew hired to bee Godfather thereof who call it Sabbath and doe disguise it with that name and who were the first that so called it and the Testators who have so bequeathed it to their Disciples and Proselites y D. Pockl. Ib. pag. 6 7. It was saith he thirty yeers before their children could turne their tongues to hit on Sabbath and if the Gileadites that met with the Ephraemites before they could frame to pronounce Shibboleth had snapt up these two before they had got their Sabbath by the end their counsell had brought much peace to the Church For this name Sabbath saith hee is not a bare name like a spot in the forehead to know Labans sheepe from Jacobs but it is a mystery of iniquity intended against the Church and the mystery as hee reveales it is to shut out the Letanie and all the Service of the Communion Book for that is no Service for their Sabbath but for Sunday z Ibid. p. 19. Item they must make a Sabbath of Sunday to keepe up that name otherwise their many citations of Scripture mentioning onely the Sabbath being applyed to Sunday will appeare so ridiculously distorted and wry neck'd that they will be a scorne and derision to the simplest of their now deluded Auditors a Ibid. p. 20. Others saith hee againe for the plot 's sake must uphold the name Sabbath that stalking behinde it they may shoote at the Service appointed for the Lords day Yet further hee maketh the name of the Sabbath as on the face of the Lords day to bee as an ugly vizzard which doth as well become it as the crowne b Ibid. of thornes did the Lord himselfe this was platted saith hee to expose him to damnable derision and that was plotted to impose on it detestable superstition Yet to die for it saith hee they will call it Sabbath presuming in their zealous ignorance or guilefull zeale to bee thought to speake the Scripture phrase when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouthes for that day which they nickname Sabbath is either no day at all or not the day they meane Thus farre hee who that his ill will to this word Sabbath as applyed to our Sunday might appeare in every page the Title throughout his Booke is Sunday no Sabbath CHAP. XIII Reasons why Sunday or the Lords day may be called Sabbath day delivered and defended BUt on the contrary if impetuous passion may bee so husht that religious reason may be heard wee shall shew cause sufficient to take up an Antititle to that of Doctor Pocklington his Sermon and to say Sunday a Sabbath and that upon such evidence both rationall and exemplary as without cavilling as I conceive cannot bee contradicted and first for Reason First The name a Joseph Ant. l. 1. c. 2. pag. 3. and in his first Book against Appion p. 783. Isidor etymolog l. 6. c. 18. fol. 32. p. 2. col 2. and all Hebrew Lexicons Sabbath signifieth rest reason 1 rest from the accustomed labours of the weeke But the Sunday is a day of rest wherein men are restrained from their wonted workes and ought to rest saith b B. White his Treat on the Sabb. pag. 152 153 158. Bishop white and to give themselves to religious exercises Therefore the Sunday may bee called a Sabbath For when the thing is acknowledged why should the word by which it is most fitly signified bee denyed And when the thing is denyed as rest on the Saturday by us
Anno 1605. Bishop Lloyd in the 2.4.8.44 45. Artic. calls that day Sabbath day So did Bishop Morton in his Visitation of the same Diocesse Anno 1617. Artic. 11.30.33.39 Bishop Morton And Bishop Bridgman in his trienniall Visitation Anno 1631. Bish Bridgman Artic. 11.41.43 used the word Sabbath for the weekly Holiday of our Church who were yet all of them both in judgement language and practice far enough from siding with Schismaticall Novelties To these Bishops of England I will adde two out of Ireland and so conclude my Episcopall Testimonies for the name Sabbath The one is Bishop Usher the most reverend Archbishop and Primate of Armagh who I know by conference with him approveth of the application of the name Sabbath to our Sunday or Lords day The other is Bishop Downham the Bishop of Derty who hath done and suffered much in the defence of the Prelacie he in his abstract of the duties commanded and sinnes forbidden in the Decalogue treating of the fourth Commandement taxeth with reference to our times those that are mindfull of the Sabbath to profane it who having extraordinary businesse will not bestow any part of the weeke upon it but will reserve it for the Sabbath and make bold with God to borrow part of his day and those who observe the Sabbath for fashion sake keeping the outward rest onely putting on gay clothes and doing nothing c. After these reverend Prelates in number sixteene whereof foure are Archbishops wee will give in the names of some Cathedrall Deanes and Doctours of venerable estimation in our Church noting the Lords day by the name Sabbath as y Doct. Boys expos of the Liturgy p. 92. Doctor Boys Archbish Whitgifts Chaplaine and Deane of Canterbury and Doctor Donne Deane of Pauls The Deane of Canterbury saith The Sabbath is as one calls it Gods schoole-Schoole-day the Preachers are his ushers and the Church is his open Schoole house which he doth not onely repeat but approve of and when Sabbath breakers are rebuked saith z Doct. Boys ubi sup pag. 93. he all their answer is that most doe so If they will follow fashion and example let them follow the best scil Gods example And againe a Ibid. pag. 95. The duties required on the Lords day are principally two Rest and Sanctification of this rest a double Sabbath rest from labour and rest from sinne and if there bee a double Sabbath in it it hath a double right to the title Sabbath Doctor Donne the Deane of Pauls Dr. Donne preaching at the dedication of a new Chappell in Lincolnes Inne where hee was Lecturer speaketh thus b Doctor Donne of Pauls in his Sermon Joâ—n 10. vers 22. which hee calls the Feast of Dedication at the dedication of a new Chappell in Lincolnes Inne consecrated by the Bishop of London anno 1623. pag. 7. Though God take a seventh part of our time in the Sabbath yet hee takes more too for hee appoints other Sabbaths other Festivals and in all the Sabbaths there is still a cessation Hee saith not God tooke but takes in the present tense a seventh part of our time not of the Jewes onely though hee tooke it first of theirs and though hee call other Festivals Sabbaths also the seventh day may have an especiall right to the name Sabbath above the Rest for so it had under the old Testament though then there were other holidaies which for their congruity with it in rest or cessation for in all Sabbaths saith hee there is still a cessation might be partakers of the same title and prosecuting the same point afterwards he reproveth some who think we are bound to no festivals at all but to the Sabbath but God requires as much service from us as from the Jewes saith c Ib. pag. 10 of his dedication Sermon he and to them hee enlarged his Sabbaths and made them divers And to the same purpose hee speaketh in his Sermon on the 10. of John As God taketh the tenth part of our goods in Tythes but yet more in Sacrifices so though hee take a seventh part of our time in the Sabbath yet hee takes more too for hee appoints other Sabbaths or Festivals There bee some to take in a doubt by the way which his coupling of Sabbaths and Festivals as Synonymaes induceth us to consider who so precisely distinguish betwixt Sabbaths and Festivals as to deny that the Sabbath may be called by the name of a Festivall The Sabbath saith the d Re-examiner of Perth Assemb p. 187. printed in anno 1636. Re-examiner of Perth Assembly under the Law was never called Jom tob a good that is a merry day as were the solemn Feasts which seemeth to bee a portion of Sacrifice taken from the e Altare Damasc pag. 666 667. Altar of Damascus where the same observation is made and concerning Festivals in particular the Authour saith It was not lawfull to fast on a Festivall But it may bee answered that though there bee difference betwixt the Sabbath and other dayes properly called dies festi in regard of particular occasion of the institution and of more liberty in meats and delights then on the Sabbath yet might the Sabbaths yea all publick solemnities even the Fast of Expiation not excepted bee sometimes called Feasts or Festivals and so much the Authour of the f Ib. pag. 666. Altar of Damascus not without some apparant contradiction to himselfe hath acknowledged And as the old Sabbath was unto the Jewes a day of spirituall delight for which purpose some cite Isa 58. how fitly wee shall note in another place so is the new Sabbath to the Christians on which in g Die dominico jâ—junium nesas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare Tert. de coronmilit c. 3. tom 2. pag. 747. Tertullians time it was held a great offence to fast and in all times when the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is administred which in the Primitive times was as oft as that day returned it exhibiteth a Feast of the body and bloud of Christ the best and most delicious cheer that can be desired to him who is rightly prepared to receive it But this onely by the way or rather as an occasionall digression out of the way takâ—n from the doubt in the words of the Deane concerning the Sabbath from whom wee have one observation more to remember and that is in his Sermon on Mat. 21. h Idem Serm. on Mat. 21.44 pag. 16. printed 1634. at Cambridge We will admit of Christ saith hee but wee will not admit him to reigne over us If hee will bee content with a Consulship with a Colleagueship that hee and the world may joyne in Governement that wee may give the weeke to the world and the Sabbath unto him that of the day wee may give the forenoone to him the afternoone to our pleasures If this will serve Christ wee can bee content to admit him but nolumus
and Clemens Romanus yet there is no reason we should give up the proper title of the religious Rest of the fourth Commandement to a day which wee use neither for Rest nor for Religion Secondly If they held a mysticall conformity betwixt the Jewes Sabbath and a Christians holy conversation sufficient ground for bestowing the name Sabbath upon a spirituall rest from sin it must needs bee so much more warrantable to call the Lords day Sabbath as there is the more agreement betwixt it and the Jewish Sabbath now betwixt them there is an agreement much more then mysticall for whereas that mysticall Sabbath as the Bishop taketh it may bee every day in the weeke and all the dayes of mans life our solemne Sabbath commeth onely once every weeke as the Jewes Sabbath did In ours wee forbid and forbeare secular imployments so was it with the Jewes there was a cessation from such works with them that they might the better attend upon religious exercises and those principally publick and so it is with us Christians The reason of the Commandement drawne from Gods example in his proportion of working six dayes and resting on the seventh is exemplary to us as well as to the Jewes it belongeth to Christians to deale as equally with God in letting him have one day in seven for his honour who alloweth us sixe for one for our owne occasions as to the Jewes And for their end and use of the Sabbath which is a gratefull remembrance of their creation and the blessing of God upon their carefull and holy observation of it wee Christians are as much bound to the one and may hope for as much benefit by the other as the Jewes All which literall conformities considered betwixt their Sabbath and ours with reference to the letter of the fourth Commandement our Church taketh that Commandement wholly into her Liturgy and prayeth as after the other nine Lord have mercy upon us c. and therefore the distinction of literall and mysticall to say the least of it is impertinently applyed to preclude the title Sabbath in a literall sense from the day wee celebrate Bishop Whites second Exception touching the name Sabbath in the Homilies answered Secondly Against that which is propounded for the name Sabbath out of the Homilies of our Church hee saith f Exam. p. 37. It may be questioned in what sense the Homilie stileth Sunday the Sabbath whether in a proper and a literall sense according to the stile of the old Law or in a mysticall and analogicall sense as Christ is called our Passeover 1 Cor. 5.7 But a little after hee putteth the matter out of question by a peremptory resolution which is this The Lords day is not the literall Sabbath of the fourth Commandement and therefore in propriety of speech it cannot be called the Sabbath day expresly and in particular commanded in the Decalogue but the same is stiled by the Homily our Christian Sabbath in a mysticall and analogicall sense even as mortification is called circumcision g Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit not in the letter Rom. 2.29 Rom. 2.29 sincerity truth are called unleavened bread 1 Cor. 8.5 This exception of his touching the name Sabbath taken out of our Homilies is obnoxious to so many exceptions that I wish rather some weak and worthlesse Adversary to our cause had made it then a man of so great learning gravity and authority as he was for whose sake I will deale as respectively in the returne of mine answer as I well may without betraying the truth and so first I say 1. That in saying That the Lords day is not expresly and in particular commanded in the fourth Commandement hee implyeth which h Bish White in his treat of the Sab. day p. 112 126 269. and in his examinat of the Decalog p. 46 52 63. marg 69. marg elsewhere hee expresly delivereth that the Jewes Sabbath which was Saturday is expresly and in particular there commanded which is not true in it selfe as I shall prove in handling the materiall points of that Commandement and being yet acknowledged by learned Christians doth gratifie the Jewes and prejudice our Christian Holiday so much that upon that ground Master Braburne set up the Saturday for a Sabbath and did what hee could to demolish the doctrine and observation of the Lords day and others have and many more may if that be granted incurre the like scandall It is not i April 26. 1636. long since a woman one Margaret Former examined before Sir John Lambe Doct. Turner and Doctor Somes disclaimed our Saviours Doctrine by the name of Ceremonies Rites and Sabbaths and professed to keep the Sabbath of the Lord of Hosts which said she is Saturday If shee had been examined why shee did so could shee have given a better answer then such a one as the Bishops examination of the Dialogue ministreth to the Reader viz. k Bish Thites examinat pag. 63. marg p. 69. marg That the fourth Commandement appointed a particular fixed day to wit Saturday The time commanded in the fourth Commandement is Saturday Who can desire a better warrant for any thing hee will say or doe then that and what is there to bee alledged for the Lords day which may preponderate such a proofe which yet is no proofe but against such as are so inconsiderate as to confesse that which the adversary cannot prove viz. that Saturday is particularly prescribed in the fourth Commandement Secondly the Commandement appointeth the proportion of one day in seven for sacred and solemne services of Religion which is as the Characteristicon to the Jewes Sabbath and the Christians which are the variations into which it is divided while neither of them is expresly and in particular there commanded so that to say the Jewes Sabbath is literall and the Christians onely mysticall is as if one should say that Homo signifieth literally a man but hominis homini and hominem note not a man literally but mystically Thirdly whereas hee saith the Homily useth the word Sabbath for the Lords day but in a mysticall and analogicall sense even as Mortification is called Circumcision c. There bee two particulars very faulty The one is his assertion the other his similitude 1. For his assertion l The Homily of the time place of praier pag. 164. edit 1582. That the Homily useth the name Sabbath but in a mysticall and analogicall sense the contrary is evident to any intelligent Reader of the Homily for such a one may out of it deduce these literall observations 1. That by the fourth Commandement Christians must have one standing day in a week for the exercises of Religion 2. That they must rest upon it after Gods example 3. That on that day lawfull workes must bee forborne 4. That yet they must not be idle but wholly give themselves to exercises of Gods true Religion and Service There bee other deductions
King James his courteous charientismes in the use of that title it is requisite that wee take it according to the right sense and signification which it properly importeth and so to deny them and affirme our selves to be Catholicks as the learned and judicious Chamier hath done who in his controversies continually calleth the Protestant tenets and arguments by the name of Catholick and the contrary Popish or the doctrine arguments or objections of the Papists So since the name Sabbath is impertinently applyed to the wrong day and wrongfully with-held from the right with purpose to impeach the tenure of our Christian Sabbath by the fourth Commandement wee must not so much regard how it hath been rightly used in former times while Saturday was allowed and observed for a Sabbath or day of rest or how the tyranny of custome hath carryed the name along where there is no realty to answer it as what it properly signifieth and how that propriety of signification now belongeth rather to our day which we celebrate with religious rest then to the Jewes day which we hold not for an holiday but for a workday as the other dayes of the week allowed and imployed in secular labours and wee must inure our tongues with correspondent titles to make mention of them And for the proper signification of the word wee may appeale more pertinently and truely then Master Braburn could to all Dictionaries in all languages which render the word Sabbath according to the ″ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sabbatum à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cessavit quievit destitit is dies quietis Hebraeis est septimus vel dies Saturni Christianis verò est primus vel Solis So Schindler Pentaglot pag. 1801. col 1. Hebrew originall by rest repose or cessation from bodily labours And though it bee usuall with them to take the terme rather according to custome then to truth and to apply it to Saturday the day of rest which anciently was but now is not many of the b So Thomasius word for word followeth Morelius in exposition and application of the name Sabbath later transcribing what they find in the former yet c Sabbath a day of rest among the Jewes celebrated on Saturday among the Christians on Sunday or the Lords day Minshei Dictionarium 10437. some more wisely and warily distinguish the name and render it according to the difference of time first to Saturday and then to Sunday for that day first and for a long time had and this now hath and shall have the honour of a sacred Sabbath untill the worlds end and therefore if it bee fit to speake rather according to the tenour of things as for the present they are and in perpetuity they shall bee then as formerly they were but now are not and must be no more when wee render the word Sabbath without distinction and difference of times wee should rather say according to d Cotgraves French Dictionary verb. Sab. printed 1632. the French Dictionarie that the Sabbath is Sunday then as Master Braburn would have it Saturday Ob. But then it will bee said though wee may differ in phrase and forme of speech from the primitive times because wee differ in practice from them wee should not so dissent from the Churches of later ages who have left off the observation of the Jewish Sabbath and with it the word Sabbath also Wee of the reformed Churches saith e Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 17. pag. 121. Master Ironside should not forsake the Roman Church but where necessity doth inforce us for then wee are guilty of the schisme made in the Christian world f Ibid. neither should we vary from our selves so much as were it possible in a sound or syllable for then wee may justly bee noted of singularity and affectation but both the Roman Churches and all the Reformed use to stile it the Lords day not Sabbath day Ergo c. This Argument is made up of three particulars whereof there is not one but it is liable to reasonable exception The first is That there should bee a strict union betwixt the Church of Rome and the Reformed and betwixt other reformed Churches among themselves except where necessity doth enforce a difference Secondly That to differ except in such a case from the Romane Church is to become guilty of Schisme and from the Reformed is to bee guilty of singularity and affectation Thirdly that to stile the Lords day Sabbath is to make our selves obnoxious to the charge of both Whereto I answer First that not to allow one Church to differ from another but where necessity doth inforce is to take away the Christian liberty which God hath granted to his Church contrary to the 34. Article of subscription which runneth thus It is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places one or utterly alike for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to diversity of countries times and manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word and a little afterward every particular or nationall Church hath authority to ordaine change or abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mens authority And accordingly we find them exercising their power in varieties of Rites and Ceremonies for the ancient g Die Dominico jejunare nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare Tert. de Coron milit c 3. tom 1 pag. 747. quoniam sunt in Dominico die quidam adoratione genua flectentes propterea utique statutum est à sancto Synodo quoniam consona conveniens per omnes Ecclesias custodienda consuetudo est ut stantes ad orationem vota Domino reddamus Concil Nicen. 1. can 20. apud Caranz sum Concil pag. 109 edit 1633. in 8no. Bin. tom 1. pag. 345. edit Paris 1636. Die Dominico per omnem Pentecosten nec de geniculis adorare jejunium solvere Hieron advers Lucifer tom 2. epist p. 140. So also in a Councell of Towers an 813. can 57. Patr. Symps hist of the Church lib. 4. pag. 557. Church for many hundred yeares partly forbad and partly forbore kneeling at prayer all the Lords daies in the yeare and all the daies betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide the later Churches neither forbad nor forbore it The Popish Church keeps the celebration of our Lords Nativity and other Holidaies according to the Gregorian Calendar ten daies sooner then the Reformed especially in England Scotland and Ireland And in many other points they differ besides these which are not of necessity as if necessity required might bee abundantly manifested out of William Durandus his Rationale and John Steph. Durantus his three bookes de Ritibus Eccles Cathol The Reformed Churches differ among themselves in many particulars For instance we in England observe more Holidaies then the Transmarine Churches more then his Majesty that last was required to be kept of the Church of Scotland by the Articles enacted at
in Justin Martyrs 2d. Apol. ad Antoninum pium about the yeare 150. but the name Sabbath for a weekly Holiday is ancienter then them both Secondly if we compare them for Authority we may consider it in a double sense as divine and humane First by divine Authority the Sabbath and Lords day have the best warrant for they are both Scripture names and the name Sunday is not so I confesse in the translation of the Bible published in King Henry the eight his daies anno 1540. before which Archbishop Cranmer prefixed a Preface the words of Saint John Revel 1.10 are rendred thus I was in the spret on a Sunday as I noted before but in the originall there is not that word which signifieth either Sun or Son and in all other translations that I have seen it is rendred according to the originall Lords day and not Sunday Secondly the name Sabbath for a weekly Holiday is in the fourth Commandement of the Decalogue the greatest warrant of Authority that can be thrice mentioned neither the name Lords day nor Sunday are so And for humane Authority in the Liturgy of our Church the name Sabbath and Sunday are both mentioned and the name Lords day to my remembrance not at all In the Canons of the Church though the name Sabbath for the English edition as I have already observed be not omitted the names Sunday or Lords day are more often mentioned and in the Latine Canons the title Lords day onely Thirdly if we compare them for significancy that swayeth the preheminence by three respects First by Dignity secondly Propriety thirdly Perspicuity First for Dignity the name Lords day hath prelation over the other two and carrieth a signification of his dignity who is Lord of all both Angels Men and Divels and imports with his person his absolute Lordship over the world especially over his Church and the name Sunday sheweth his illustrious excellency if wee understand the terme according to the Prophet Malachy for the Sunne of Righteousnesse but the name Sabbath in its Grammaticall sense signifieth onely Rest which is in dignity inferiour to them both Secondly for Propriety that is to be considered as opposed either to figurativenesse or to community taking proper for that which is not figurative the name Sabbath signifying in the Grammaticall sense a literall rest which is required on an holiday is a more proper word then either of the other which are not well understood without a figure for wee call the Sabbath Lords day by an a For all dayes are the Lords but this by an especiall eminency Antinomasie and Sunday by a b In the sense of the Heathens who dedicated the day to the Sun and thence gave it that name Metonymie or c In the religious sense in the Prophet Malach. c. 4. v. 2. Metaphor But taking propriety as opposed to generality or community the names Lords day and Sunday as in application to dayes are more proper and particular noting a set and certaine day in the weeke viz. that which wee Christians celebrate and none other as the d Soveraigne Antidote against Sabbatary errors pag. 7. Authour of the soveraigne Antidote well observeth Whereas Sabbath hath been a name for any holiday which may fall out any day of the weeke In which respect if there had not been other considerable reasons to the contrary hee had well resolved that when wee speake of a time of rest undeterminately and in generall the name Sabbath is the fittest the other two Lords day and Sunday when we speake determinately of that day which is observed in the Christian Church Thirdly For Perspicuitie that is most perspicuous which is least ambiguous so is the name Sunday which presently points all to the day wee observe but the names Sabbath and Lords day are not at all times and in all places so cleare since the name Sabbath hath beene for a long time taken for Saturday and the name Lords day hath beene taken not onely for the weekly Sabbath of the Resurrection but also for the day of Christs Nativity Passion Ascension and last Judgement as hath beene shewed in the second Chapter Besides the Apostle saith there bee Lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 and the more they bee the more ambiguous is the name whereof that word maketh up the one halfe Yet to say the truth in our Church and age they are all perspicuous and cleere enough so that there is scarce any one so silly but hee presently knoweth if hee heare the name Sabbath Lords day or Sunday what day of the week is understood by them Fourthly If wee compare them for facilitie or readinesse of speech the names Sabbath day or Sunday are more apt to be taken up as when wee speake of the weekly holiday past or to come it is readier to say and withall more distinctly understood the last Sabbath or the last Sunday next Sabbath or next Sunday some Sabbath or some Sunday as in his Majesties Briefes fore-noted then the last Lords day or the next Lords day or some Lords day Fifthly If for acceptation with speaker or hearer they are every one of them single for the most part of better relish then the other two with some or other some like best of the name Sabbath some of the name Lords day some of Sunday and by that wee have observed of each of them before it appeareth that there are many of the better sort of men who stand divided in their inclinations and prelations according to the diversity of the titles fore-mentioned and yet when two holidaies were observed in a week the name Lords day for the day wee celebrate was most acceptable to most men and since they have all of them beene taken to indifferent use by the wiser sort it hath been lesse obvious to exception then either the name Sabbath or Sunday have beene while some though without just cause have charged the one with Judaisme the other with Paganisme which is worse since our Religion hath more affinity with Jewish then with Heathenish principles Sixthly For frequencie or community of use all in our Church are bound to assent unto the name Sabbath and to use it also by the obligation that tyeth them to the Liturgy and Catechisme of the Church and as Religion hath advanced so hath that name prevailed and bin most frequently used by the religious of our Church untill that a very few yeers agoe some tooke up such exceptions against it as have beene seene in the precedent Discourse which either reason may work out or time wear out of mens opinions as in the title Lords day hath come to passe for that at at the first did not passe without cavill and contempt for in the memory of some yet alive many were as much offended suspecting a tang of excessive precisenesse that some said Lords day for Sunday as any now are at those who say rather Sabbath then either Seventhly and lastly If wee compare the three names for
honouring God upon his knees 2 Chron. 6.13 as sitting upon his Throne being no lesse a King on earth but an holyer humbler subject to the King of heaven in the one posture then in the other If altitude of place must carry away the preheminence of things and persons the fowles of the aire would flie up with it and leave men as their inferiours on earth below who by Gods primitive appointment were to bee their lords and to have dominion and soveraigntie over them Fourthly But howsoever the comparison betwixt the Resurrection and Ascension go in respect of themselves yet in respect of men who are to make observation of them both the Resurrection is more remarkeable in these respects First In that the Resurrection was made knowne unto more by his severall apparitions both to more in number and more oft in time for hee was seene at one time to no fewer then five hundred brethren at once 1 Cor. 15.6 His Ascension was seen but by a few viz. but by his Apostles Act. 1.2.9 Secondly As for number so for time his Resurrection was manifested more often then his Ascension for as Saint Luke observeth in that Chapter by many infallible tokens hee was seene of them by the space of forty dayes and spake of the things appertaining to the Kingdome of God But his Ascension was sudden in a manner in a moment Act. 1.9 Thirdly As Christs Resurrection was manifested to more and more often so more clearely also as the Sunne at his rising appeares to us more fully then when it is ascended to high noone And it is to bee observed that whereas our Saviours Resurrection is set downe with assured evidence of sense for hee was said to bee seene by many infallible tokens Acts 1.3 yea and hee was felt too for though hee said to Mary Joh. 20.17 Touch mee not for I am not yet ascended yet did Thomas touch him and put his hand into his side vers 27. But for his Ascension it was more sudden and at further distance and it is noted that it was lesse in sight for when hee ascended saith S. Luke a cloud took him out of their sight Act. 1.9 Fourthly Though the Ascension touching the particular day of the moneth be thought to have been the m Christus mortuus Martii 25. resurrexit Martii 27. ascendit Maii 5. Lorin in Act. 1. v. 11. pag. 33. sixth of May and for the day of the weeke by probable conjecture be supposed to have been Thursday for it is but probable else Saint Chrysostome would not have said as n Chrysost apud Lorin Ibid. hee did that hee ascended on the Sabbath nor would it bee doubted as it is by divers whether the forty dayes from our Saviours Resurrection to his Ascension mentioned Act. 1.3 be to be reckoned inclusively as taking in both ends of that accompt or exclusively for the one or both yet neither that viz. the day of his Ascension nor good Friday nor any other day which in any sense is called the Lords day is so often and so expressely and punctually noted with its place and order in the weeke as the day on which Christ rose from the dead which is precisely observed by all the Evangelists therefore none of them in all respects is so fit to bee set up for a weekly Holiday and to be named the Lords day as that is and being now weekely observed as the dayes of the Birth Passion and Ascension of Christ are not it hath best right to the red Letter and to bee eminent above the rest both in brightnesse of colour and dignity of denomination and so to bee called the Dominicall day or the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both before and above all the rest which title it may hold now not onely by originall right but by ancient prescription as we shall shew in another place Nor can this title bee so shrunke up in that place where it is mentioned scil Rev. 1.10 as to be confined to the day of the Lords appearance and revelation to Saint John as o Sic dies hic à Johanne Dominici dici appellatione insignitus dicatur quòd in eo Deus quam admiranda pro Ecclesiae effet salute facturus declarabat Apud Rob. Locum of fig. veri Sabbatism pag. 51. some would have it for it is opposite to common sense which may appear thus First The Apostle beginneth the narration of the vision with the time I was in the Spirit on the Lords day as not onely distinguishing the time from the Apparition but premising it as being indeede before it Secondly He mentioneth the day as a time known already to the Church as those that report to others a thing done at such a time presuppose that that time is not unknowne unto them but the day of his Revelation to Saint John was unknowne and the day of the Lords Resurrection was not therefore it is much more like the day of his Resurrection then of his Apparition to Saint John was intended by the Apostle Thirdly If the Lords day and the day of Apparition in this place were the same it were no Revelation or giving of light to the matter but the drawing of a curtaine in stead of the opening of a casement for this glosse doth rather darken then cleare the text Fourthly To understand by the title Lords day Rev. 1.10 the day of his Apparition to Saint John or the day wherein hee was ravished in spirit is as some conceive to make a meere p Si pro die Apparitionis solùm intelligatur tautalogia erit divina sapientiâ indigna sicâ—enim esset sensus In die apparitionis hujus vel in die quo correptus eram à Spiritu correptus cram à Spiritu Inquisit de Sabbat per Nath. Eal. pag. 86. tautalogie in the text as if it should bee read thus In the day of this Apparition hee appeared unto mee or in the day I was in the spirit I was in the spirit So the Authour of the Booke called Inquisitio de Sabbato wherein hee keepeth closer to Gomarus his Comment then Gomarus his Comment to the Text of S. John Fifthly Before Doctor Gomarus not any at least none that was held for an orthodoxe Doctor did ever light upon such an exposition as this viz. that by the Lords day Revel 1.10 should bee meant the day of the Lords apparition to S. John which the Doctor himselfe seemes sometimes not so well to like but that for right to this title Lords day q Gomar Invest Sab. cap. 6. Thes 36. p. 75. hee preferreth the day of Christs Nativity the day of his appearing in the veile of his slesh before the day of his appearing by revelation to Saint John as wee have noted his opinion before and withall so farre as it proceedeth to the prejudice of the day wee plead for confuted it And for the fancie both of Dr. Gomarus and Mr. Braburne that by the title Lords day
Rev. 1.10 may bee conceived the day of the Lords comming to his last Judgement for which the one citeth Luk. 17.30 the other 1 Cor. 5.5 I answer first to the opinion it selfe and then to the proofe For the first I say That Saint John speaketh as wee noted before in the readiest construction of the words as of a day that was in being before that Vision and so knowne that the Reader might take notice when the Vision came unto him but the day of Judgment is not yet come and so unknowne to man that our Saviour saith of it but of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Angels of heaven but my Father onely Mat. 24.36 Secondly For their proofes though both places produced be meant of the day of Judgement yet that they appertaine not to the title now in question wee may observe that neither of them nameth the day as Saint John doth the Lords day for in the one viz. 1 Cor. 5.5 it is called the day of the Lord Jesus in the other viz. Luk. 17.30 the day of the Sonne of man So that this device of the day of judgement as to the day pointed out by Saint John in his appellation is void of all judgement and withall so full of presumption that if any man should goe on in commenting on the Revelation throughout to the last Chapter as hee begun with the first hee might thereby derive upon himselfe a wretched right to those plagues with commination whereof Saint John shuts up and seales up his mysticall Prophesie Revel 22.18 19. Ob. But if wee take the Lords day for the Resurrection for that as r M. Brab in his discourse pag. 8. Master Braburne notwithstanding his crosse conceits confesseth is properly the Lords day it will not follow that it should be a weekly Holiday it may suffice for that title being given it but once in Scripture f M. Brab in his Defence p. 163. and 175. if it be celebrated some one first day though but once a yeere as the Nativitie Passion and Ascension are and as the Feast of Easter is with us in reference unto it Ans To which I answer First That the question yet is not whether the Lords day should be a weekly Holiday or not But being such a one in fact for yet wee are not come to discusse in point of right whether it may not in its weekly recourse be intituled by that name Secondly That the day of the Resurrection being still noted in Scripture to bee the first day of the weeke and not such a day of the moneth as returnes but once a yeere or once in halfe a yeere or once a quarter or once a moneth onely it may bee called the Lords day once a weeke for its weekly recourse as well as once a yeere if as the Feast of Easter it came no oftner If it be said that no Friday is called good Friday nor any Thursday holy Thursday or Ascension day but one in the yeere it may bee replied to that if they were weekly observed as for a time good Friday was and the first day of the weeke hath beene since the Apostles time they might all be partners in the same appellation all holy Thursdaies all good Fridaies as well once a weeke as once a yeere though the first might have some preheminence above the rest and after the first that which answereth to the first in the season of the yeere as well as in the day of the week and by reason thereof as being no common guest it might have an Alablaster box of oyntment bestowed upon it more then upon those which were more ordinary guests as Easter Sunday was by a t A die Resurrectionis per integram hebdomadem sideles feriuntur Concil 6. gener Const Can. 66. pag. 646. Decree of the Councell of Constantinople to be kept holy and for its sake all the six dayes that followed next after it yet it might in its weekly recourse bee very well called the Lords day as though all the Jewish festivities were called Sabbaths and some in solemnity exceeded others yet the weekly holiday of the Jewes was best knowne by that name which was sometimes by especial priviledge u Shabbath Shabbathon given only to the Sabbath i.e. of the 4th Commandement or to such dayes as for cessation from worke were equivalent unto it Dr. Willet in Levit. 23. q. 31. p. 586. doubled upon it so the name of the Lords day howsoever it be sometimes attributed to other dayes all being his yet doth it most appertaine unto the weekly holiday of the Christians and the rather because it hath a more constant and continuall Lordship or dominion over the dayes of the weeke then any other by its comming in a weekely returne above fiftie times in the yeere for the other Festivities they have their turne but once a yeer And so we have answered the objection of Impertinency of that title Lords day to our weekly holiday which hath beene urged as if it did not more properly appertaine unto it then to some other daies before rehearsed CHAP. V. The imputation of Novelty in applying the title Lords day to the Christians weekly holiday answered WEE are now to answer the objection of Novelty which Doctor Gomarus and Master Braburne bring in against the setting of the title Lords day upon our weekly holiday and therewith wee shall further strengthen the truth against the last objection for which the best proofe alledged is a negative Argument or an Argument drawne from the negative testimony of one man which is of little authority in it selfe and the lesse in this case because it takes up with one Writer onely whereas if more could bee produced to that purpose the antiquity of that Name as now the Church applyeth it might yet be upheld by the advantage of a greater number of grave and ancient Authours positively which is better then negatively giving their votes and voyces to the contrary Tenet That singular Author who is brought in as a dumb shew speaking nothing of our weekly holiday by the name of the Lords day is Justin Martyr from whose silence Doctor Gomarus argueth thus a Si diei Dominici pro die Resurrectionis Domini seu primo hebdomadis appellatio ab Apostolis promanasset c. ut supra citatur cap. 3. lit m. If the title Lords day as applyed to the day of the Resurrection or the first day of the weeke had beene derived from the Apostles and received in the Primitive Church is it credible that Justin Martyr a most ancient and incorrupt Writer in his accurate description of the rites of the Christian Religion would have called the day by the name of Sunday or the first day of the week and not Lords day at all To which I dare not answer as b Dr. Bound on the Sabbath part 1. p. 114. Dr. Bound doth that Justin Martyr in his second Apologie hath the name of Lords
Idolatrous names are not to bee used But the name Sunday is an idolatrous name Therefore the name Sunday is not to bee used To the major Proposition there is some consonant sound both in the Scripture and in the sayings of Ancient and late Writers both Protestants and Papists which wee must first alledge that wee may the better judge of the liberty of our lips for the use of that name First For Scripture the proofe produced by b Dr. Bound on the Sab. part 1. p. 116. Dr. Bound as most pertinent to oppose Idolatrous names in particular the name Sunday and to depose it from the dignity it hath in being taken into titular association with the Lords day is Exod. 23.13 In all things that I have said bee circumspect and make no mention of the names of other gods neither let it be heard out of thy mouth To which may be added the like prohibition Jos 23.7 Neither make mention of the name of their gods nor cause to sweare by them and that which goeth farther Deut. 12.3 where God commandeth not onely abstinence from them but an abolition of them as was done by the children of Reuben Num. 32.38 The children of Reuben built with other Cities Nebo and Baal and their names being changed they gave other names unto the Cities which they builded for Nebo and Baal were the names of Idols of Nebo wee read Isa 46.1 upon which the note of Doway Bibles is that It was otherwise called Dagon the Idol of the Philistines mentioned 1 Sam. 5.2 and of Baal wee read Judg. 6.30 31. and in divers other places and because it lay not altogether in the power of men as to leave out their names so to put out their memory God promiseth to put to his helping hand for their suppression I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth and they shall no more remember their names Hos 2.17 and I will destroy the names of Idols out of the earth saith he Zech. 13.2 Answerably hereunto we should not only forbear the names of Idols as David professeth he will doe Psal 16.5 but so farre as lyeth in our power utterly abandon and abolish them All this as well as that in Exod. 23.13 may be urged against the name Sunday though all this and more may be well answered but yet the objection is not at the strongest it must be further fortified by adding the Testimony of the Ancients to the Authority of the Scripture Secondly then for the ancient Fathers The most learned and religious of them have expressed their dislike of Idolatrous names c Absit ab ore Christiano sonet Jupiter omnipotens Mebercule Mecaster caetera magis portenta quam nomina Hier. Epist de filio prodigo frugi ad Damas tom 3. p. 231. Farre bee it from any Christians mouth saith Saint Hierome to take up the titles of Jupiter omnipotent or to say Mehercule or Mecaster or other such words which are rather prodigies then appellations And d Displicit mihi quòd Musas quasi Deas quamvis jocando commemorarim August retract lib. 1. cap. 3. S. Augustine censured himselfe for having named the Muses Goddesses though but in jest And which cometh home to the point wee have in hand having mentioned the Pagan names of divers dayes in the week as of Munday Tuesday Wednesday c. used by some Christians as well as by Pagans e Secunda Sab. secunda feria quam seculares diem Lunae vocant tertia Sabbat tertia feria quam diem illi Martis vocant quarta Sabbatorum quarta seria qui Mercurii dies dicitur à Paganis à muitis Christianis sed noluimus ut dicant atque utinam corrigantur ut non dicant August enarrat in Psal 93. tom 8. part 2. pag. 181. he saith as to the Christians I would not have them so to doe and I would to God that errour were corrected in them f Melius eâ—gò de ore Christiano ritus loqueÌ„di Ecclesiasticus procedit Aug. Ibid. It were better saith hee that Christians should speake in the phrase and stile of the Church which noteth them by other names And that this may seeme no uncanonicall nicetie of theirs there may be quoted for it a Canon of the first Councell of Nice g Ne fideles imponant nomina Gentilium suis filiis sed iis inter baptizandum nomina Christianorum indant Concil Nicen. Can. 30. Alph. Pisan Edit Can. Concil Nicen. lib. 3. Can. 30. tom 1. Concil p. 355. Edit Bin. 1606. apud Caranz Summa Concil fol. 632. where for feare of giving countenance to Idolatry by names the faithfull are forbidden to impose heathen names upon their children in Baptisme and prescribed to put upon them onely Christian names Thirdly For Protestants h Bish Pilking in Hag. c. 1. v. 1. Bishop Pilkington misliketh the heathenish names of the moneths and dayes suspecting great danger in the use of them though there seeme matter of small moment in them whose censure is cited as also that of i Beroald Chro. lib. 1. c. 4. Beroaldus touching the subtilty of Satan in putting Pagan names in stead of Christian names upon the dayes of the week and approved by k D. bound of the Sab. part 1. pag. 112 113. Doctor Bound in his first part of his Book of the Sabbath Fourthly For Papists though they detest not Idolatry so much as they should doe yet against the Idolatrous names of dayes they are very zealous as wee may well perceive by their sayings which wee shall have occasion presently to cite in the proofe of the minor Proposition which is this But the name Sunday is an Idolatrous name Of the dayes of the weeke wee have shewed the conceit of S. Augustine already which may be applyed to Sunday as well as to the rest For the Sunne was made an Idol by the Gentiles as is notorious to all the world and which cometh neerer unto us the Saxons our Predecessors in this Kingdome did adore it in this figure It was made as l Verstegan Restitut of decayed Intellig. cap. 3. p. 68 69. Verstegan giveth the description of it both by scheme and glosse like an halfe naked man set upon a pillar his face as it were brightned with gleames and holding with both his armes stretched out a burning wheele before his breast the wheele being to signifie the course which hee runneth round about the world and the fiery gleames and brightnesse the light and heat wherewith hee warmeth and comforteth the things that grow This Idol thus figured was placed in the Temple and there adored and sacrificed unto for that they beleeved that the Sun in the firmament did with or in this Idol correspond and co-operate And as the Christians for keeping holy that day which the Pagans dedicated to the Sunne and for directing their worship toward the East were suspected by them in that respest to bee of the
retained and used in a sense not idolatrous as Hermes the name of Mercury mentioned Rom. 16.14 as it signifieth a particular person and not the Idol of the Gentiles called by that name so the names of Frier Monke Abbat Pope as they are names of Families not of Offices or Callings may bee retained still as b M. Ainsw Ibid. p. 143. Master Ainsworth hath acknowledged though he as well as Master c M. Paget ib. p. 145. Paget thinks the Popes have beene made great Idols by too many people of all ranks and so think I. Fourthly Names that have beene Idolatrous or any way impious may in time having beene long accustomed to a better sense bee ayred and purged from all impiety for words are like to fashions which varie with the times and so either get or lose grace and acceptation thereafter as the vulgar use and common custome giveth the construction of them in whose power it is as the d Multa renascentur quae jam cecidere cadentque Quae nuÌ„c sunt in honore vocabula si volet usus Morat de arte Poetic Poet hath observed to ratifie or reject them both for use and sense But what is that which in the fore-cited Scriptures is forbidden then Not all mention of idolatrous names as we have already proved But either swearing by Idols or praising or approving of them or maintaining superstition towards them or giving scandall by them against which wee should bee so carefull as to prevent all suspicion and appearance of that evill as e Aug. de Civ Dei li. 19. c. 22. part 2. p. 525. Saint Augustine did who fearing the translation of Sacrificiendum Domino soli would imply that the Sun was a God presently brought in some words of caution to guide the Reader to a better sense Sacrificiendum Domino soli i. e. Domino tantum to the Lord alone and with these limitations the sentences of the Fathers may be interpreted As for the Canon of the Councell of Nice I will not for this particular by way of exception say it is one of those which is supernumerary and not any of those which are acknowledged to bee the legitimate ordinance of the Fathers of that Councell because it is capable of a very good sense but I answer thus The difference is great betwixt the new imposing a name and the old and received use over that wee have power over this not so And for the word Sunday in particular though it bee no more idolatrous then the names of other dayes of the week and some moneths of the yeere it may be the better borne withall First Because the Sunne is not as many Idols are to which for want of reall entity out of the fancie wee may pertinently apply the words of Saint Paul An Idol is nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8.4 for it hath a true solide and glorious being of its owne and a name it must have to expresse that being Secondly For joyning it with the day in the name Sunday as if it were devoted to the honour of the Sun though that were the intention of the first imposers and the like was their meaning in the names of the rest of the dayes of the week as many Authours have observed especially f Hosp de orig Festor Jud. Etha c. 5. fol. 52. a. 53. b. Hospinian g Verslegan Restitut of decayed Intellig. cap. 3. p 69. Verstegan yet the Christians that used it did cleere themselves from all participation with their impious superstition long agoe viz. in Justin Martyrs and h Tertull. dpol cap. 16. tom 2. pag. 632. Tertullians time since whom so many well minded men have made use of it that wee may well thinke all Pagan apprehensions are by this time quite worne out of it as well as out of the names of other dayes of the weeke or of the moneths of the yeere as of January of March of May of June which are Idolatrous names as i August contra Faust Manich. l. 18. c. 5. tom 6 p. 420. Saint Augustine sheweth for where is there one of a thousand that when he nameth k Of this and the derivation of the rest of the dayes see Versteg Restit of decayed intellig à p. 71. ad 77. Tuesday hath any reverence or reference to the Idol Tuisco or to Woden when hee nameth Wednesday or to Thor when hee nameth Thursday or to Frigo or Frea when he nameth Friday or to Janus in the name of January or to Mars in March or Juno in the name of the moneth of June It is more like that our vulgar people use the word without setting any note on the notation or etymology of it at all or if they doe they may think it is called Sunday from the Son of God who is Lord of the Sabbath And if wee distinguish all men into two sorts viz. learned and ignorant wee may say of the learned that it is not like that they having beene trained up in Christian religion should retaine any respective relish of such absurd Idolatry and for the unlearned they have no apprehensions of words and things so obscure and remote as these etymologicall mysteries but take the sense of words according to the use of the times wherein they live But thirdly If as the Sunne in the Firmament makes the day so the Sunne and the day make up the name Sunday there is yet for ought I see no perill of applying unto it an idolatrous fancie for wee may with good congruity of reason meane by it the splendour and glory of our Christian holiday in the many prerogatives of that day above the work-dayes of the weeke elsewhere to bee declared as the Sun is a more bright and resplendent Planet then any of the rest And whereas l Dr. bound treat on the Sab. part 1 pag. 13. Dr. Bound saith That the Divel that hee might retaine men in this errour or heresie rather and thereby hee meaneth the kâ—eping them by the name of Sunday from inquiring into the cause of the name Lords day caused this probable conjecture of the name Sunday to be given namely that seeing the Sun was the chiefe of all the Planets as that which filleth all things with light therefore in the number of the seven dayes the chiefe place was given unto it Though it cannot bee denyed but there is a comparative conformity betwixt this day and the other sixe as betwixt the Sun and the rest of the Planets whereby in an odd number the dayes and Planets are even both making up the number of seven yet may the name Sunday bee as ready for an orthodox as for an erroneous sense if wee come without prejudice to consider it Nor can it impeach the title Lords day either for truth or evidence any more then the calling of Christ so often the Sonne of man in the sacred Scripture doth darken that glorious name the Sonne of God nay rather as wee may use
in many points of more importance I must dissent and against whom for them I must dispute CHAP. IX Of the etymologie of the name Sabbath And first of the abusive derivations of it by Appion Justine and Plutarch by way of contempt of the Jewes Their Religion and manners THe second point proposed concerning the name Sabbath for that is the right writing and wee must stick to it is the etymologie of it wherein comparing some collections of mine owne with what I have met withall since in Doctor Prideaux his Lecture and Doctor Gomarus his Investigation of the Sabbath I finde that for a good part wee have all of us light upon the like observations yet without conspiracie or plagiarie dealing with one another for though that Booke of Doctor Gomarus came forth foure yeers after Doctor Prideaux his Lecture was in print yet when hee published the Defence of it two yeere after sixe in all hee had not seene it as in the tenth Chapter of his later Booke hee a De quibus etiam doctissimi Doctoris Prideaux in oratione de Sabbato consensionem extare eodem judicio libenter intelleximus etsi eam orationem videndi faelicitas nondum contigeret D. Gomar Defens Invest cap. 10. p. 136. expressely professeth and before either the one or the other came abroad viz. at least two yeeres before the Act in the yeere 1622. when our learned Doctor first delivered his Lecture of the Sabbath I had noted most of the observations of the notation of the name as some of good place well know to whom upon speciall occasion I imparted them with other points of this Argument in writing whereto if I adde any thing of theirs for which I am beholding to them I shall not bee more ready to make use of it then to give thankes for it by a respective mention of their names and so shall I deale with all other Authours as they shall give mee occasion in the like kinde yet not doubting but they may meet with some animadversions of mine by which if I borrow ought they may account themselves to be paid and mee sufficiently quit of that debt The derivations of the word Sabbath are foure derivations I say not etymologies for that word signifieth right speech and most of them are wrong two of them are aliens from the Common-weale of Israel or at least stragglers out of their owne Tribe and have no kindred with the stock or roote from whence the word Sabbath is deduced The first is that of Appion the Grammarian against whom Josephus wrote two books which is that of the Egyptian word Sabbo which as b Hosp de orig fest Judaeor Ethn. cap. 3. f. 7. pag. b. Hospinian out of Giraldus observeth signifieth the spleene but by c Josephus against App. l. 2. pag. 783. Josephus in his second Booke against Appion it is taken for a disease in the privie parts upon which Appion telleth this tale viz. That the Jewes troubled with it in their journey out of Egypt for sixe dayes together were constrained the seventh day to rest and thereupon when they came into Judea they kept an holiday under that name Justine the Historian telleth rather the Fable then the Story in another manner d Cum scabiem Egyptii pruriginem paterentur Just l. 36. p. 284. Edit Meae the edition which Dr. Gomar followeth readeth scabiem vitiliginem Gomar Investig Sab. cap. 1. pag. 2. The Egyptians saith hee being infected by the Jewes with the scab and itch but as some have it with the leprosie were warned lest the disease should spread any farther to drive out Moses and his diseased country-men who having wandred seven dayes in the desart of Arabia with much hunger and labour at mount Sinai obtained an end of both and therefore there they set up the Sabbath as a remembrance of their freedome from famine and wandring and being expelled from the Egyptians for feare of the infection lest for that cause they should grow odious to other people they forbad and forbare communion with them and by degrees turned their turning out of Egypt into a matter of discipline and religion So Justine in the fore-cited place But whatsoever Moses and the Jewes did by way of digression in the desart hee wandreth farre wide from truth in this Discourse but no marvell in matters of this kinde hee was a blinde man without a guide The second errour is that of Plutarch which I could not but observe having read him through with diligence and delight upon the especiall commendation of e Apud Claud. verd Cension in Auth. p. 174. Theodorus Gaza who said of him That if he must read but one mans Books hee would confine himselfe to Plutarch the more pitie to observe in so worthy a Writer so foule an errour as now I must note as f Caelius Rhodigin Antiq. lection lib. 7. c. 15 col 302. Hospin de origin Fest Judaeor Ethn. cap. 4. sol 7. pag. b. D. Prid. Lect. de Sab. p. 131. D. Gomar Invest Sab. cap. 1. pag. 2. D. Walaeus desertat de 4 to Praecepto c. 1. pag. 2. others have done about the notation of the word Sabbath hee having in divers particulars charged the Jewes with riotous rites like the Services of Bacchus in their principall g Plutarc Sympos lib. 4. cap. 5. pag. 712. Feasts will have it That their Sabbath holdeth neere affinity with the Feast of Asebesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the grammaticall sense doth signifie impiety and prophanenesse as h Budaeus in Locico Budaeus renders it but in Plutarch it is taken for the inordinate motion and agitation of the people devoted to Bacchus who are called in many places of Greece Sabboi and who in their Bacchinals used to reiterate these words Evoi and Sabboi as appeareth in the Oration of the Crowne which Demosthenes made against Eschines as also in the Poet Menander So farre Plutarch more like a vaine Poet then a grave Historian as most what hee was To which purpose it is pertinent to observe that as i Hensius exercit sacr cap. 1. pag. 11. Hensius hath it Sabasius is one of the names of Bacchus among the Greeks and thence is Sabazein a word used as k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Budaeus Lexic verb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Budaeus noteth among the Thracians importing Bacchanall excesse and disorder from that Plutarch saith Hensius insinuates the Hebrew word Sabbath to bee derived but hee is deceived I meane Plutarch for both word and practice are rather Greek then Hebrew and hence is that which l Graeco more potare interpretantur quidem grandibus poculis se invitare Cael Rhod. lib. 18. cap. 16. col 1292. princip Rhodiginus noteth of the Grecians viz. That to drink after the manner of the Greeks is to provoke one another to excesse with great cups and Pergraecari in Plautus is taken for excessive eating
the name Sabbath is That there is in it a double plot the a Doct. Pockl. Visit Serm. pag. 20. one is to stalke behind that name and to shoot at the service appointed for the Lords day the b Ibid. other is to impose upon the day damnable superstition which hee aggravates by this opprobrious comparison hee c Ibid. resembleth the putting of the name Sabbath upon the Lords day to the putting of a crowne of Thornes upon the head of the Lord himselfe making them both unsutable alike and saith This was platted to impose on him damnable derision that was plotted to impose on it damnable superstition Now because he was aware that his comparison might touch some to the quicke who were better then himselfe hee putteth on their heads as a linnen cap for an head-piece this poor Apology to save them from pricking d Ibid. p. 20. If we find the word Sabbath for Sunday saith he used in some writings that of late come unto our hands blame not the Clerks good men for it Nor entitle the misprision any higher or otherwise then to these pretenders of piety who for their own ends have for a long time deceived the world with their zealous and most ignorant or cunning clamours and rung the name Sabbath so commonly into all mens eares that not Clerkes onely but men of judgement learning and vertue not heeding peradventure so much as is requisite what crafty and wicked device may be managed under the vaile of a faire word used in Gods Law doe likewise suffer the name often to escape the doore of their lips that detest the drift of the deviser in the closet of their hearts In which speech to spare many other passages of his booke which lye open to just exception of reason and religion there are divers particulars worthy of examination and censure which we may referre First to the fault objected an impious plot Secondly to the persons for whom he putteth in a perplexed and impotent plea to acquit or excuse them from participation therein For the former viz. the plot it is twofold as hee takes it the one to stalke behind the name Sabbath and to shoot at the service appointed for the Lords day the other to impose upon the day damnable superstition For the first Let him remember what hee hath said page 7. viz. e Dr. Pockling Sunday no Sab. pag. â— Allow them their Sabbath and you must allow them the service that belongs to their Sabbath then must you have no Letany for that 's no service for their Sabbaths but for Sundayes To which I say First Hee seemeth to except against a Sabbatary service as faulty or offensive in some positive points but noteth nothing in particular but what is negative the leaving out of the Letany Secondly That those whom wee have produced for the use of the word Sabbath require no Jewish services on that day nor any other then such as the Church hath established under the name Sunday Thirdly That if the word Sabbath will serve for a stalking horse against the Letany and other service of the Church because that is enjoyned not under the name Sabbath but Sunday then the word Lords day which hee alloweth will serve as well for a stalking horse to the same purpose for the Service is entituled not with the name Lords day but with the name Sunday which as wee have observed before is the word that beareth the greatest sound and sway throughout all the Communion Books since the Reformation of Religion within this Realme yea the title Lords day will serve better to that purpose for the name Sabbath is incorporated into the service of the Church in the fourth Commandement where that title Sabbath is repeated thrice over and that Commandement with the other nine is appointed by the order of our Church to bee rehearsed in her publick Liturgie every Sunday and holiday and besides them on the fifth of November and on the dayes of solemne fasting prescribed upon especiall occasion of the Church and State and to bee learned by heart by the younger sort as a part of the Christian Catechisme but the name Lords day is not to my remembrance once mentioned in our Communion Book now in use Now for the other plot It is as hee saith to impose upon the day damnable superstition I answer That the day may lawfully be called by that name as before wee have proved the abuse of it in some if it were such as hee pretended but cannot prove cannot take away the Christian liberty of others for the lawfull use of it nor hinder but that good Christians may have their intentions when they use it truely pious though the mindes of others bee superstitious Secondly That this condemning censure of an harmelesse word in f Peccar qui damnat quasi peccata quae nulla sunt Aug. de lib. arb lib. 3. cap. 15. Saint Augustine his judgement is a sinne and that sinne may bee a severe and sowre superstition for there is a superstition negative as well as positive as in those who say Touch not taste not handle not Col. 2.21 The forbearance of a thing as unlawfull when it is lawfull is a superstition and the damning of such a thing may bee a damnable superstition but howsoever saith the Doctor it is a great indecorum to call the Lords day by the name Sabbath g D. Pockl. p. 20. The vizzard of the Sabbath on the face of the Lords day saith he doth as well become it as the crowne of thornes did the Lord himselfe A speech not sit to be delivered for shame without a vizzard on the face of him that speaketh it to hide his blushing at the guilt of such an excessive absurdity if hee have any modesty at all or to cover his impudency if hee have none Here by the way let him not thinke it much if we returne him a taste of rue or herbe grace for his full dos of vinegar and gall for what indecorum can bee conceived comparable to that of setting of a crowne of thornes upon his head who was so innocent and excellent that roses and the powder of gold were not good enough to bee strewed in his way nor worthy to be trodden on by the sandals of his feet Surely if there had beene an appearance of such uncomelinesse in calling the Lords day by the name of the Sabbath King James so pregnant in apprehension so sound in judgement and the learned Bishops with other Ecclesiasticks of especiall choice who were at the conference of Hampton Court would not have shewed an unanimous assent to the thing Doctor Reynolds proposed which was the Reformation of abuse of the Lords day by the name of the Sabbath day without any exception at the word used by him But indeed there was no cause of offence in it at all for want of comelinesse as Doctor Pocklington objecteth for the comelinesse of words chiefly consisteth in their congruity with
is honoured yea and all weeke dayes as hee is Lord of all time however measured or entitled might bee called Lords daies and onely use hath shrunke in generality into a propriety and confined the title Lords day to that which hath a weekly recourse for religious observation as it hath done the name Scripture and Bible but now mentioned and in this also the name Sabbath hath as much propriety as it Object To succour this objection c M. Ironside qu. 3. ch 12. pag. 122. Master Ironside his Argument may be brought in which is this That name which doth lesse edifie is lesse proper this I thinke saith hee will be easily agreed on by all parties But the name Sabbath doth lesse edifie for it leads us onely to a cessation from bodily labour on the contrary the Lords day doth betoken and explaine the whole nature and duty of the day as the remembrance of Christs resurrection acknowledging his Lordship over the Church and over all other creatures in the world Ergo c. I answer Answ Both major and minor are infirme and unable to beget or bring forth the conclusion which hee desireth First for the major That name which doth lesse edifie is lesse proper saith he and hee saith it with confidence that all parties will yeeld consent to that conceipt But if his proposition bee generall and so it must be or it will be too narrow for a Logicall conclusion I conceive it is subject to just exception and so is not like to obtaine an acceptation of such an extent as he talketh of for it imports a neerer affinity betwixt propriety of words and edification then wee find in use and sets words not proper at a further distance from edification then there is cause First for the first Proper words doe not alwaies best edifie nor improper or figurative least nay many times improper words and figurative speeches give both most light to the understanding and worke with greatest force upon the affections and so are of best use for edification There are memorable instances hereof both in the Scripture and in other Authours which will be superfluous in this place since we need none other then his owne word edifie which as hee useth it is a figurative and not a proper terme for it signifieth properly the building of an house figuratively the bringing of light to the understanding working heat upon the affection or any furtherance in matter of Religion and in that sense it is usually both uttered and understood by men whether learned or illiterate Secondly if propriety and edification consort so well together as hee saith it maketh much for the preheminence we plead for for the name Sabbath is proper First as not figurative signifying a literall Rest which is requisite for celebration of our weekly Holiday and proper Secondly as not common to all Holidaies common use now having confined it to our weekly Holiday though called also Sunday or Lords day according to the different impressions set upon the fancy or affection of those that mention it Secondly for the minor which is But the name Sabbath doth lesse edifie then the Lords day doth for it leads us onely to an outward cessation I answer First that the name Sabbath doth lead us directly to the fourth Commandement the fundamentall Authority for a weekly Holiday and if the foundation be of most use in building and edification the name Sabbath leading us to that doth best edifie the word Lords day leads us to a tenure of lesse both evidence and assurance and consequently of lesse authority as hath partly been shewed already and we shall further manifest afterwards Secondly The name Sabbath leadeth not onely to a cessation from bodily labour but to holinesse also for it leadeth us to the Commandement which saith as well Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy as Thou shalt do no manner of work Thirdly Whereas hee saith The Lords day doth best open and explaine the nature and duty of the day as the remembrance of Christs Resurrection and acknowledgement of his Lordship over the Church and all other creatures of the world Let any one reade the fourth Commandement where the Sabbath is named and the first of the Revelat. ver 10. where the Lords day is named and let him tell mee which of them doth more explaine the duty of the day nay the name Lords day doth neither expressely nor by necessary consequence direct to the duties of the day nor to the Evangelicall ground of it the Resurrection of our Saviour since other dayes have been set up with our weekly holiday by way of competition for that title as hath before beene observed Besides When the name Sabbath leadeth to the fourth Commandement it bringeth us to the title Lords day for if it be the Sabbath of the Lord as it is there called it is the Lords day for the Sabbath is a day and hee is called Lord of the Sabbath Mat. 12.8 Mark 2.28 and the Lordship hee hath there is not onely particular over the Church but universall over the world for there it is said that in sixe dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and sea and every thing contained in them all Yet I deny not but the title Lords day is generally used for the day of our Saviours Resurrection wherein as a Lord of life and death he raised his body from the state of the dead and returned to the living accomplishing thereby actually his owne restitution to a glorious liberty and vertually ours but that consideration is more remote from the sanctification of one day in seven then that which the name Sabbath doth import Notwithstanding I deny not but that it might bee well used to edification if men would so take it to bee the Lords day as to take none of it from the advancement of his glory to the promotion of their owne profit or practice of their owne pleasures wherein most make as bold with it to serve their sâ—â—â—lar affaires or sensuall humours sometimes upon very sleight occasions as if not Christ but they were Lords of that day Object But the name Lords day inclineth to no erroneous conceipts and the name Sunday though once it did doth not in our dayes bring with it any perill of Paganisme but the name Sabbath may import some danger of Judaisme therefore the name Lords day is the best the name Sabbath the worst Answ I have in effect though not formally answered to this objection before and have made it plaine that Judaisme is best opposed and those that are Jewish most displeased by entitling our Lords day to the name Sabbath and to the authority of the fourth Commandement as it prescribeth the holy observation of one day in seven and by averring that their seventh day in order is not expressely there prescribed but a seventh day in number as shall be manifested in its proper place Object But a learned and zealous Pleader for a weekely Sabbath in the