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
illustri visione patefecit futurum Ecclesiae statum pag. 78. Thes 36. Advent comming or appearing of the Lord Amos 5.8 Malach. 3.1 2. and this appearing hee taketh to bee either the day of Christs birth or that peculiar day wherein in an especiall vision hee appeared to Saint John and revealed unto him the state of the Church for future times or the day of judgement e Sic 1 Cor. 5.5 ut spiritus salvus sit in die Domini quo scil apparebit ad judicium Dr. Gamar Invest Sav. c. 6. Ibid. Thes 34. 1 Cor. 5.5 but he f Si verò diem natalem intelligamus aliquanto expressior erit circumstantia temporis Dr. Gomar Ibid. pitcheth upon our Saviours birth day applying unto it that which hee said of Abraham viz. That hee rejoyced to see his day Joh. 8.56 Upon that Text that rarely learned g Bp. Andrews in his Serm. Joh. 8. ver 56. Bishop of Winchester observeth That Christ had two eminent dayes his Genesis or his comming into the world and his Exodus or his going out of the world the first of his Nativity the last of his Passion But for one Genesis hee might have noted a threefold Exodus one out of the world of men into the grave another out of the grave into the world among men againe and a third out of the neather world into the upper by his ascension from earth into heaven Master Braburn in his first discourse of the Sabbath having brought in the Jewish h The Sabbaths were called the Lords holidayes Es 58.13 now if the Sabbath be the Lords holiday it is the Lords day M. Brab in his discourse pag. 8. Sabbath and all the fore-named dayes except that of his apparition to Saint John which is Dr. Gomarus his peculiar conceipt so far as yet I have observed as rivals with the day of Christs Resurrection for reputation and right to the title Lords day of that title saith thus And which of them John had respect unto scil when hee mentioned the Lords day the Scripture is altogether silent and if hee and Doctor Gomarus had beene silent too it had beene much better but to make the matter worse against the Antiquity of it they both take such exceptions as these Master i Mr. Brab Defence of the Sabbath p. 243. Braburne in generall saith The name of the Lords day was but new and put upon Sunday since Christ and that not many yeeres too since Christ hee might haply have read in Symeon Metaphrastes that Silvester the first first gave that title unto it which k Baron Annal. tom 3. ad an 315. num 16. col 163. See also Pol. â—nrg de Invent rerum lâ—b 6. â— 5. p. 366. who relates the comeipt and refutes it aâ— Baroniuâ— doth Baronius confuteth Doctor l Si ista appâ—lâ—atio ab Apostolis promanasset in Ecclesia suâ—ssâ—t recepta an crediâ—ile est potuisse fieri ut Justinus Martyr antiquis simus atque incorruptus Scriptâ—r ea in accurata rituum descriptiâ—ne omissa solis diem aut unum Sabbatorum aut primam hebdomadis tantummodo nominaret quemadmodum in Apologia pro Christianis Dialogo cum Triphone Gom. Investig Sab. cap. 6. pag. 76. The like is in his defence of his Investig c. 10. pag. 135 137 141 142. Gomarus more particularly telleth us That in Justine Martyr ' s time the Christians weekley holiday was not noted by that name since hee useth other titles as Sunday and the First day of the weeke but maketh no mention of it at all by the name of the Lords day albeit if it had beene in use from the Apostles time to his hee had good occasion both to note it in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew and in his Apologie to Antoninus where hee maketh an accurate description of the rites of the Christian Religion From his silence then in so commodious places for remembrance Doctor Gomarus inferreth that it was not derived from the Apostles nor received into the Church till after Justine Martyr his dayes so that in summe their objections against this title are reduced into two heads Impertinency and Novelty First for Impertinency they would make the title Lords day no more pertinent or proper to the Christians weekely holiday then to divers dayes called in the Scripture the day of the Lord nay more pertinent to others then to it Whereto I answer for the present reserving further satisfaction to the next Chapter First That wee may conceive as a late m Rejicimus Haebraïsmum illum multum enim interest inter diem Domini Dominicum illa enim est appellatio generalior haec strictior specialior mâ—ltae enim dicuntur Domini tamen non sunt Dominica ut arbores Domini Psal 104 16. quas puto arbores Dominicas Gomarus non vocabit multa Dei dicebantur quae tamen divina non erant ut montes Dei Inquisit de Sabbaâ— pag. 84 85. Writer distinguisheth a difference betwixt the day of the Lord and the Lords day or Dominicall day as the Rhemists in English turne the text Rev. 1.10 not so much for congruity to the Originall as to make obscurity in the Translation for many things in the generall may be said to be the things of the Lord which yet are not to bee named Dominicall things as the trees of the Lord Psal 104.16 which Doctor Gomarus himselfe would not think sit to bee called Dominicall trees and many things are said to be Gods which are not godly nor divine for in use of speech the former importeth a common right which is a right in God to the creatures in common the later a right of peculiar appropriation to himselfe Secondly Howsoever that distinction prove and though it be true and pertinent it is I confesse somewhat nice and curious so that few upon their owne reading of the Scripture will take notice of it yet the distinction of n Gomar Invest Sab. cap. 6. p. 74. Thes 33. Doctor Gomarus is manifestly faulty both in it selfe and in respect of the purpose for which hee frameth it For hee distinguisheth betwixt the day of the Lords Advent comming or appearing and his Resurrection as his words partly expresse and partly imply and this to the end that hee may transferre the title Lords day from the day of the Resurrection to some other whereas indeed that day on which hee arose was as well an Advent or day of appearance unto men as that which hee so nameth by way of opposition unto it for hee came that day and as by a new and admirable birth appeared to many Mark 16.9 Thirdly To prevent mistaking of the Tenet which I hold in the triall of right betwixt the day of our Saviours Resurrection and other dayes set up with it in competition for the title Lords day I professe with o Mr. Primrose his treat of the Sab. or Lords day part 3. c. 1. p. 198. Mr
Primrose though in many other points I must dissent from him that I doe not conceive there is any morall necessity that that day of the weeke on which Christ rose from the grave should bee kept holy in the Christian Church rather then the day wherein hee was borne or the day wherein he suffered on the Crosse or the day wherein he ascended into heaven Fourthly While therefore I plead for preheminence of right for the day of the Resurrection to the title in question I take not upon me to render reasons for it demonstratively necessary yet I doubt not but upon serious consideration they will bee found such as together with the consent of all or at least of the most and best approved Authours in all ages who have unanimously met in the explication of that title of Saint John and the application of it to the day of Christs Resurrection will appeare evidence sufficient in a point of no greater moment then this is and such as will not bee counterpoyzed by any proofe for the contrary Tenet CHAP. IIII. A comparison of the old Sabbath day the day of our Saviours Birth of the day of his Passion Ascension and of his Apparition to Saint John with the day of his Resurrection touching right to the Title Lords day and the preheminence and propriety of that Title to our weekly holiday THere bee many dayes that are set up with the day of our Saviours Resurrection in contestation for this title Lords day as in the precedent Chapter hath partly been observed viz. The old Sabbath our Saviours Birth day the day of his Passion Ascension the day of his Apparition to Saint John and the day of Judgement And first for the old Sabbath for here it may have the first place I The old Sabbath though I have given reasons why elsewhere I ranke it otherwise concerning which I say though in the fourth Commandement Exod. 20. it be called the Sabbath of the Lord thy God and so in that respect albeit it bee there rather declaratively then preceptively brought in it may bee named the Lords day as a Mr. Brab Discourse on the Sab. pag. 8. And in his Defence saith he The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath Wherefore the seventh dayes Sabbath may be truly called the Lords day Mr. Brab Defence pag. 238. Master Braburne pleadeth yet that is but by vertuall intimation not by formall denomination as S. John hath it Rev. 1.10 Secondly Though it had been called expressely by the name of the Lords day in the old Testament and so long as it was in force it was indeed the Lords day in especiall maner as is the day we celebrate now yet it is not probable that day being generally noted by the name of the Sabbath from its first originall both in the old Testament and in the new that Saint John would entitle it by a new name having an old one already of pertinent importance and permanent continuance especially there being a new day of especiall note and capable of that new title as b Mr. Braburn Discourse of the Sab. p. 8. Master Braburne confesseth viz. the day of the Resurrection to which for its dignity in it selfe and for distinction from other dayes it might more properly bee applyed Secondly II The day of Christs Birth for the day of Christs Birth or his first comming albeit it bee a day of high account yet the time of it was so farre from being so illustrious in the primitive times as that day which wee call the Lords day that neither the day of the weeke is certainely knowne nor the day of the moneth nor the moneth of the yeere no nor the yeere of our Lord so cleared but that there is and hath beene much controversie about them Hence is that c Vide variantes de eare sententias à Bellarmino collectas Bell. l. 2. de Ro. Po. cap. 5. p. 336. col 2. diversity in computation of his age while some reckon his life at 30. some at 33. some 34. and some at 50. yeeres of age There was difference also I confesse about the Feasts of the Resurrection commonly called the Feast of Easter as d Euseb Eccles Hist l. 5. c. 21. pag 91. Eusebius and other Ecclesiasticall Writers have observed To which I answer that the dissention was about the time of solemnitie whether it should be ordered by the course of the Moon which would cast it upon any day of the weeke as it fell out among the Jewes or were to bee confined to the day wee celebrate but there was no difference for the day of the Resurrection which it was in the order of the weeke a matter of chiefe moment in a weekely holiday for that there was good agreement on all hands there being cleare texts of Scripture to take off all doubt in that respect Which doth plainly evince that our Saviour arose the first day of the weeke viz. on the day the heathens câ—lled Sunday and wee Christians Lords day But there neither is nor can bee just plaine and apparent proofe for the day of Christs birth which it was either for order among the dayes of the week or moneth of the yeere or for number in the yeeres of the world Ob. The learned e Bp. Anâ—rewes his Sermon on Job c. 8. v. 56. part 1. pag. 62. Bishop of Winchester saith There is no day so properly Christs as his Birth day which may appeare saith hee if wee set it in comparison with other dayes of most memorable note as the day of his Passion Resurrection and Ascension for the day of his Passion that was not so properly his because two theeves suffered with him at the same time in the same place after the same manner Nor the day of his Resurrection for as hee rose from the dead so did others the same day and went into the holy Citie Nor the day of his Ascension for Enoch and Elias had their ascension too and that long before his But his Birth day was his without a fellow none ever so borne none ever born such a one and therefore as no Festivitie is besides it it is attended as Christ himselfe with an Apostolicall retinue of Holidayes which reckoning every day in Christmas being usually freed from secular labours for a moneth make up the fulnesse of time and so it is the recapitulation of the whole yeere as the f Bp. Andrewes Serm. on Gal. 3.4 p. 23. Bishop maketh the allusion and accompt Whereto wee shall returne a reasonable Reply which shall want neither light of truth nor weight of authority for wee shall bring in that great and reverend Prelate to drive back that Objection and this it is Repl. Though that day of Christs Birth have much in it which is peculiar to Christ because as he saith none was ever so borne none ever borne such a one yet that is no more then wee may say for the day of his Resurrection
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
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.
also further strength to this that Saint John in his Revel calleth this our Sabbath day the Sunday Dominicumdiem and afterward having set downe some generall duties of the day saith he m Ibid. p. 74. These things are not to bee done onely on the Sabbath day but every day even all our life long So doth that renowned and so admired n Sacratissimus antistes Lancelotus Andrewes linguarum artium scientiarum humanorum divinorum omnium infinitus Thesaurus stupendium oraâ—ulum c. So in the Title page the second edition of his Sermons Bishop of Winchester Bishop Andrewes who used to make a curious choice of his words as well as of his matter in his third Sermon of the Resurrection where speaking of the women that would have embalmed our blessed Saviour hee saith o B. Andrewes his 3d Sermâ—n on the Resurrection p. 406 407. Though they faine would have been embalming him yet not with breach of the Sabbath their diligence leap'd over none of Gods Commandements for haste no not this Commandement which of all other the world is most bold with and if they have haste somewhat else may but sure the Sabbath shall never stay them And beginning his Sermon at the Court on Whitsunday 1606. hee saith thus p B. Andr. his Serm. Acts 2. vers 2 3 4. pag. 595. Wee are this day besides our weekly due of the Sabbath to renew and to celebrate the yeerely memory of the sending down of the holy Ghost And even there where he set himselfe most seriously against Judaicall opinions viz. in his Speech against Mr. Traske in the Star-chamber hee saith thus q Ibid. In his Speech to the Starre-Chamber against Master Tracke pag. 72 73. and this name new Sabbath hee hath if the Authour of the Dialogue betwixt A. and B. reckon right twenty times in his Book called Catec Doctr. So the Dialogue betwixt two Divines A. B. edit 2. pag. 20. the Sabbath had reference to the old creation but in Christ wee are a new creature a new creation by him and so to have a new Sabbath if a new Sabbath then not no Sabbath as Doctor Pocklington would have it And the Bishop meaneth by that the Lords day which hee maintaineth against Master Traske who stood for Saturday the Sabbath of the Jewes Bishop Alley Bishop of Exceter in his Book called The poore mans Library printed Anno 1560. speaking of the due observation of the day wee celebrate saith r Bish Alleys Poore mans Library miscelan praelect 5. fol. 143. p. 2. All Governours and Housholders offend against this precept if they doe not their diligence to retaine the sanctifying of the Sabbath in their houses whosoever despise the Religion of the Sabbath give evident testimony in themselves of impiety and contempt of God c. Bishop King not long since Bishop of London Bishop King who in his time was accompted a very venerable Prelate and alwaies well affected to the Government of the Church before himselfe was made a Governour of it in his Lectures upon Jonah of severall impressions useth the name Sabbath divers times for Sunday or the Lords day as in his sixth Lecture where he reproveth carelesse dissolute and ill disposed persons he saith f Bishop King lect 6. p. 90. They love the thresholds of their private doores upon the Sabbaths of the Lord and their benches and ale-houses better then the Courts of the Lords house And a little after he taxeth them by the name of Profaners of our sanctified Sabbaths And in his seventh Lecture he hath these words t Ibid. lect 7. pag. 96. The Sabbath is reserved as the unprofitablest day of the seven for idlenesse sleeping walking rioting tipling bowling dancing and what not I speake what I know saith he upon a principall Sabbath For if the resurrection of Christ deserve to alter the Sabbath from day to day I see no cause but the comming downe of the Holy Ghost should adde honour and ornament to it I say upon a principall Sabbath c. Doctor Howson late Bishop of Durham though a reall opposite to the Sabbath in some particulars was not an enemy to that name when hee made mention of the thing for in his Sermon u Bish Howsons Sermon of Festiv pag. 6. edit 2. in defence of Festivities he hath these words Beloved Christians were any of those excellent Fathers in our times what thinke you he would say if he should see Oratoria turned into Auditoria Churches into Schooles our Sabbaths and Festivities not spent in cultu latriae but in hearing of Exercises as some call it c. though hee were no friend to the Sabbath either for the dignity of the day or the duties belonging unto it for both in opinion and practice he was opposite to preaching yet was hee not so ill affected to the name as Doctor Pocklington and others have been That very learned Bishop of Bath and Wells whose Sermons were so approved by Doctor Reynolds Bishop Lake that what he heard him preach hee still desired to reade and therefore used to crave a copy of his Sermon was not onely a friend to the name Sabbath for Sunday but a zealous pleader for it as we shall observe in another place And the Bishop of Exceter that now is who hath so decently dressed Devotion and Piety with delicacie of conceipt and elegancy of expression as to make it amiable in all eyes in his art of divine meditation saith in approbation of it thus * Bish Hall in the art of divine meditation cap. 10. p. 111. No Manna fell to the Israelites on their Sabbath on ours it doth Where the word Sabbath must bee necessarily understood in the word Ours And if so it be not plaine enough see further in his second booke of Characters where part of his description of a distrustfull man is this x Lib. 2. Charact p. 196. Hee dares not come to the Church for feare of the croud nor spare the Sabbaths labour for feare of want nor come neere the Parliament house for feare it should be blowne up I make no doubt but the Articles of Episcopall Visitations give allowance for the like use of the name Sabbath for Sunday or Lords day for so it is in the 15. Article of Archbishop Parker his Visitation Nor is it to be doubted but in Archbishop Whitgifts Articles the word was in the same sense for as we have noted before hee turned the word Sunday into Sabbath in translating a testimony out of Justin Martyr And sure wee are that Archbishop Bancroft used the word Sabbath for the Lords day foure times in his Articles of Visitation twice in two Articles viz. 75 76. whence it is probable that other Bishops were in phrase and forme of speech for that name conformable to them for in the Province of Yorke much more in that of Canterbury it was so as in our Diocesse of Chester Bishop Lloyd in his Visitation
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
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
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
day for I finde it otherwise But c Dr. Rivet disscriat de orig Sab. cap. 10. pag. 180. Dr. Rivet replyeth very well whose answer I shall a little transpose and alter to make it more serviceable to the truth First That it is no marvell that Justin Martyr writing to an Heathen and discoursing with a Jew used such termes as they were best acquainted with and best liked of as did the Translater of the Bible out of which the Epistles and Gospels of our Liturgie were taken as we shall observe in the seventh Chapter and such was the name Sunday to the Heathens and the first day of the week to the Jewes and therefore which hee might further have observed out of d Justin Apol. ad Anson 2d. propè sin pag. 419. Justin speaking to the Gentiles hee calleth the day before it not the Sabbath though among the Religious it were both of most ancient and common use but Saturday or the day of Saturne Secondly Whereas Doctor Gomarus grounds the weight of his Argument upon Justin Martyrs accurate description of the rites of the Christian Religion as that if the name Lords day for the Christians weekly holiday had beene in use before that time in the Church it must either there bee mentioned or from the omission of it there it might well bee denyed to have beene the title of it in his time Doctor Rivet answereth by retortion of his reason out of Tertullian That when the Gentiles conceived from the Christians weekly Assemblies upon Sundaies c Tert. Apol. cap. 16. tom 2. pag. 632. that the Sun was the god they worshipped hee stands to the name with denyall of their sinister conceit of the Christians practice and takes not that occasion to tell them though it bee a better inducement then Justin had any in the place fore-alledged to mention the Lords day that they had another name for that day viz. the Lords day and another reason of their religious observation of it then they imagined viz. the memoriall of the Lords Resurrection their Lord and Saviour f An non hic erat opportunissimus declarandi locus Dr. Rivet ubi ante pag. 182. Here surely was a most meete place to have made some declaration of the day as under that title the Lords day and because hee did it not there will it follow that it was not in use in his time among the Christians the contrary will appeare by his Booke g Die Dominico jejunare nâ—sas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare Tertul. de corona milit cap. 3. com 1. pag. 747. de corona militis and h O melior sides nationum quae nullam solennitatem Christianorum sibi vendicar non Dominicum diem non Pentecosten Tert. de Idol cap. 14. tom 2. pag. 457. de Idololatria wherein having to do with Christians hee useth the name or title Lords day for the Christians weekly holiday And to answer both Doctor Gomarus and Master Braburne together the observation of i Bish Andrewes in his Speech in the Star-chamber against Master Trask pag. 73. 74. Bishop Andrewes is of some weight as himselfe setteth downe in these words This day this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came to have the name of dies Dominicus in the Apostles time and is so expressely called by Saint John in the Revelation ch 1. ver 10. and that name from that day to this hath holden still with continuance of it from the Apostles age and may bee deduced downe from Fathers to Fathers even to the Councell of Nice and lower I trust saith hee we need not follow it no doubt is made since then by any one that hath read any thing Yet some raise a doubt upon the Constitution of Constantine by whose authority they say Sunday was made a generall and a publick holiday and with it Friday and both of them were to be observed weekly as k Euseb de vita Constantin l. 4. c. 18. p. 254. Eusebius sheweth why then may not Friday bee the day to which that title Lords day might belong especially since as in English wee commonly call it it hath an addition of especiall weight and worth good Friday good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminence and excellencie above all other dayes But notwithstanding this the day of the Resurrection hath the preheminence as in dignitie as before hath beene proved so in antiquitie perpetuitie and generalitie of solemne observation above all other dayes for it was a l Originem hujus denominationis ab ipso Apostolorum tempore accersendam omnibus ferè Scriptoribus placet D. Walaeus dissertat de quart praecept cap. 7. pag. 150. weekly holiday from the Apostles time as wee shall manifest elsewhere and though it were to gaine ground of the Jewish Sabbath but by degrees in Ignatius his time who lived in the first Centurie or hundred yeeres of Christianitie it was growne to that credit as not onely to bee well knowne by the name Lords day but to bee dignified with that royall title the Queene of daies as hath been observed and it is to bee noted that this Ignatius was his disciple who first used that title Lords day viz. the disciple of the Evangelist S. John and so was most like to know what day he meant by that appellation Secondly For that Decree of Constantine it was not made untill the fourth Century was begun above two hundred yeers after this of Ignatius Thirdly As Friday was made a weekely holiday much later then Sunday was not to stand upon comparisons betwixt Apostolicall and Imperiall powers for the making of holidaies in which respect Sunday hath the advantage above good Friday so hath Sunday continued much longer by many hundred yeers and hath been both for time more perpetuall and for place in the Christian Church more generall then Friday ever was And as the observation of that day hath been almost universall so hath the application of this title Lords day been unto it likewise for as Doctor m Omnes ferè sacrae Scripturae interpretes tam veteres quam recentiores de primo dic Septimanae intelligunt ac proinde nova planè interpretatio est corum qui Apocalypscos diem c. Wallaeus dissertat de quart praecept cap. 6. pag. 150. Walaeus noteth the deriving of the originall of that name from the Apostles time out of Apoc. 1.10 is approved almost by all Writers and Doctor ″ D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 1. ad sinem cap. p. 37. Heylin though otherwise farre from doting on the dignity of our weekly holiday not onely for the tenure of it but for the title too having referred the originall of it to the yeere of our Lord 94. wherein he followeth n M. Broad his MS. part 2. c. 10. p. 62. M. Broad his note upon it which sheweth but little good will unto it saith thus o D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. a. 1. pag. 30. So long it
the matter this name may give us light to see the shining beauty of that day M. Herb. Temple pag 66.67 and in a religious and sound sense to say as that pious and ingenious Poet doth O day most calme and bright The week were dark but for thy light the other dayes and thou Make up one man See many pertinent conformities betwixt Christ and the Sun in Dr. Tailors Meditat. on the creatures from pa. 44. to 55. at the end of his treatise of the practice of Repentance whose face thou art Knocking at heaven with thy brow The working dayes are but thy back part The Sundayes of mans life Thredded together on times string Make bracelets to adorne the wife Of the eternall glorious King Thou art the day of mirth And where the work-daies traile on ground Thy flight is higher as thy birth O let mee take thee at thy bound Leaping with thee from seven to seven Till that we both being toss'd from earth Fly hand in hand to heaven If yet any bee afraid of Idolatry or Superstition in the use of the word and wee may so shun one superstition as to slip into another as Pope Sylvester did when he left the old names of the dayes of the week and called them ferias that m Feriae dictae à feriendis victimis Polidor Virg. de Invent. rer l. 6. c. 5. pag. 367. The like hath Dr. Fulke observed out of Isidor orig l. 6. Sext. Pomp. de verb. veteribus in Rev. c. 1. v. 10. Sect. 6. word as some give the Etymologie of it being very much stained with idolatrous bloud wee may call the day Sunday as n Dominica nobis ideo venerabilis atque solennis est quia in ea Salvator velut Sol oriens discussis infernorum tenebris luce Resurrectionis emicuit propterea ipsa dies ab hominibus dies Solis vocatur quòd ortus eum Sol Justitiae Christus illuminet Ambr. Serm. l. 6. tom 3. pag. 286. Saint Ambrose o Aug. cont Faust Manich. tom 6. lib. 18. c. 5. p. 420. Saint Augustine and others do with especiall respect to that of the Prophet Malachy chap. 4. ver 2. where Christ is called the Sunne of Righteousnesse enlightning as the Sunne doth every one that cometh into the world Joh. 1.9 And if the Lord bee likened to the Sun and for that likenesse be called by that name as he is by David Psal 19 the Lords day as his day may in that sense bee called Sunday and so the title will not as Dr. Bound feareth lead us from the Lord but light us to him Hereto if wee add Saint Hieromes note upon the text in Malachy the name Sunday may bee improved to a more profitable use thus p Orietur Sol Justitiae quiverè omnia indicabit nec bona nec mala nec virtutes nec vitia latere patietur Hier. in Mal. 4.2 tom 6. pag. 365. col 2. The Lord as the Sun will bring every thing to light so that as he saith he will suffer neither good nor bad vertue nor vice any more to lye hid I will say no more for the warrant of this word Sunday for I think I need not save that it hath had the honour to bee many times named in the publick Liturgie of the Church of England and hath beene allowed by divers who were so farre estranged from that grosse Idolatry of the heathens in offering up Sacrifice to the Sun that they offered themselves to be sacrificed in the fire for the Sonne of God rather then they would yeeld to the Idolatry of the Papists for there were of those that approved of the Communion Booke in King Edwards dayes who suffered martyrdome in the dayes of Queene Mary and in that Book the name Sunday is brought in in the titles of the Epistles and Gospels five and twenty severall times in order without interruption besides that it is mentioned often also in other places of the same Booke and with that Book for this note agree our Service Books of all editions in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth King James and our Soveraigne that now is And that the name Sunday was taken up by them who first penned the Communion Book not as a profane but as a Scripture name it is very probable by this The Epistles and Gospels in the Communion Booke agree with the ancient Translation of the Bible printed in the yeere 1540. to which Archbishop Cranmer prefixed a Preface and that Translation rendereth Saint John Revel 1.10 I was in the Spirit upon a Sunday So also in 1 Cor. 16.2 q In Master Tindall his second edition of his Translation printed 1540. hee useth the same word thus Upon some Sunday c. 1 Cor. 16.2 Upon some Sunday let every one of you put aside c. Wherein the Translator descended to the capacity of simple persons to whom the day in those times was best knowne by that name Of that Translation is the Bible of the Chapelrie of Warburton in Cheshire which is the eldest of that sort and best accordeth with the Service book in use of any that I have seene That which hath beene said on both sides if duely considered will serve to commend a caveat unto us against that fault which the Prophet Isaiah reproveth in making a man an offendor for a word Isa 29.21 either for not speaking of a word as those who with some scruple of conscience doe forbeare the name Sunday whom for Saint Hieromes and Saint Augustines sake as before wee have produced their Authorities wee should not too sharply censure or for speaking of a word as if men could not name it without some savour of Pagan superstition Whereas the common people use it out of common custome and without any intention or intimation of ill and the wiser sort may well bee thought to mention it with an intimation of good as out of Saint Ambrose and Saint Hierome we have observed And so wee will shut up all for this question of the name Sunday with a conclusion like that which the Apostle maketh concerning the difference of meates Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth Rom. 14.3 So let not him who useth the word Sunday despise him as foolishly precise that useth it not and let not him who useth it not judge him as carelesly prophane that useth it since in that sense wherein wee have taken it there is neither duty nor sinne either in the use or forbearance of it CHAP. VIII Of the name Sabbath And first of the writing Sabboth Sabaoth and Sabbath which of them is the right And by occasion thereof some observations of skill and ignorance of the originall Tongues THere is difference though not much controversie for it goeth rather by a diverse practice then by an adverse position about the writing of the word more about the etymologie but most and that which is of
and drinking and other riotous and disorderly living and of one of that humour wee use to say in our language Hee is a merry Greeke And it may bee Plutarch though hee were a Boetian and not a Cretian and so came not under the reproach of the Apostle borrowed of the heathen Poet who saith of the Cretians that they are alwayes lyars Tit. 1.12 yet as a Grecian for a Grecian is in a little better credit for truth with the m Quicquid Graecia mendax audet in Historia Juvenal Satyr 14. pag. 89. Latine Poet then a Cretian with the Greek hee might use some of the outlashing and lawlesse liberty of his native Countrey either in faining of his owne or spreading others reproaches against the Jewes but to conclude with him as hee corrupts the derivation of the word Sabbath so in the same place doth hee the word Levita deriving it from Evios another name of Bacchus And if hee had thought of it such was his scornefull spight toward the Jewes it is like hee would have derived the word Hebraeus from ebrius a drunkard and had he understood the Hebrew it may bee hee would have drawne it as a full cup from an Hebrew vessell out of the word Saba which signifieth as n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. Hens exer sacr c. 1. p. 11. Hensius giveth it in the Greek to drinke profoundly and to bee full of wine but neither could that disparage the parentage of the word Sabbath for Saba is written with Samech and Sabbath with Scin and yet I confesse besides the Pagan oppositions and contempts of all Religions but their owne which most of all deserved them there might bee and was much miscarriage in the manners of the Jewes well knowne to the Greeks which might give occasion of such a scandall and scorne as Plutarch hath taken up against them and others partly from him have put upon them though his derivation of the name Sabbath for all that bee no Btymologie but a Pseudologie And it is very like that their excesses of that sort procured their reproach for Saint Augustine comparing our Saviours caveat in Saint Luke Take heede that your hearts be not over-charged with surfetting and drunkennesse and with the cares of this life and so that day come upon you at unawares Luk 21.34 with that in Saint Matthew Pray that your slight be not in Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24.20 referreth the cares of this life to the winter and surfetting and drunkennesse to the Sabbath which evill saith o Crapula vero ebrietas carnali laetitia luxuriaque cor submergit arque obruit quod malum Sabbati nomine propterea signisicatum quia hoc erat sicut ut nune est Judaeorum pessima consuetudo illo die deliciis affluere dum spirituale Sabbatum ignorant Aug. de consensu Evangelist lib. 2. cap. 77. pag. 536. tom 4. part 1. pag. 635 636. hee is signified by the name of the Sabbath because this was and yet is the impious practice of the Jewes to overflow that day with carnall delights not knowing the spirituall observation of the Sabbath And it may be also that in their sports as well as in their meats and drinks they were too neere allied to Bacchanall behaviours for Saint Augustine in the 91. Psalme chargeth them not only with luxurie but with trifling vanity and wickednesse of other kindes p Ecce hodiernus dies Sabbati est hunc in praesenti tempore otio quodam corporaliter languido luxurioso celebrant Judaei vacant enim ad nugas cum Deus praeceperit observari Sabbatum illi in his quae Deus prohibet exercent Sabbatum vacatio nostra à malis vacatio illorum à bonis operibus meliù enim est arare quam saltare August in Psal 91. tom 8. part 2. pag. 158. They are at leasure for toyes saith hee and for such things as God forbids our Rest should bee a restraint from wicked workes but theirs is from good works it is better to plow which they do not then to dance which they do on that day And thus much for the erroneous derivations of the name Sabbath out of Heathen and Christian Authours which were too much for the notation of the Name but that withall there may bee intimation given of more caution to all that professe the Gospel of Christ to looke to their lives that they bee so much more fearfull to give as some are more forward to take up occasion of scandall and calumnie against them that Christians to Pagans orthodox Christians to Hereticks Catholicks to Papists strict Professors to Protestants at large minister no matter of reproach in their manner of observing the day and time especially dedicated to Gods solemne worship that as at all times so at such most of all they bee carefull to conforme themselves to that of the Apostle Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 And let this advertisement at the entrance of the doctrine of the Sabbath be as an Inscription or Title on the Porch of the Temple that all prophanenesse may bee kept procul à Fano both farre from the Church and farre from the Sabbath which is most solemnly to be sanctified in it CHAP. X. Of the derivation of the name Sabbath from two Hebrew words the one signifying seven the other rest the former being the errour of Lactantius the later the true and most received Etymologie TO draw neere the etymology and to conclude this Criticisme a Hic est dies Sabbati qui linguâ Hebraeorum à numero nomen accepit unde septenarius numerus legitimus plenus est Lactant. Instit l. 7. c. 14. p. 640. Lactantius saith and the like is in Sypontinus which b Hospin de orig Fest Jud. Ethn. cap. 3. pag. 3. Hospinian noteth for his errour that the word Sabbath in the Hebrew tongue is derived from a word of number the word though hee name it not is Sheban as Hospinian Shebbang as c Ubi supra D. Gomar Invest Sab. cap. 1. pag. 3. Gomarus reads it for which saith hee for more easie utterance the vulgar take up with Seba signifying seven but joyned with a verbe as d Cum verbo adverbiascit Schindl pentag col 1793. D. Schindler noreth it it becometh an adverbe and so it is changed into seven times but though this come a little neerer the true notation of the word for that both the initiall letters and the sense sute better with the name Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for both begin with the letter Schin and the Sabbath hath its recourse and revolution in the circle of the weeke which is made up of seven dayes yet it is plaine to such as have any insight in the Hebrew tongue that Lactantius was mistaken and that as wee may well conjecture out of that which followeth his numerall notation by some mysterious superstition in his minde
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
would then bee more willing to meet and the Gentiles being now converts would easily joyne with them having no holidayes of their own to pitch upon but such as were stained with odious idolatry and so the Apostles had the better opportunity to sow their sacred seed in larger fields with better hope of greater fruit And afterward the c B. of Elie Ib. p. 189. Bishop sheweth how long this double devotion of Christians was in use The Apostles saith he and likewise the successors of the Apostles for many ages at least three hundred yeers in some Churches kept holy the Saturday in every week as well as the Sunday Dr. Prid. who is brought in by the Translator of his Lecture as not well affected to the title Sabbath for the Christians holiday having said that Christ ascended up on high and left behind him his Apostles to preach the Gospel asketh d D. Prid. Lect. Sect. 6. p. 24. English And what did they not keep the Jewish Sabbath without noise or scruple and gladly teach the people congregated on the Sabbath dayes nay more then this did not the primitive Church designe as well the Sabbath day as the Lords day to sacred meetings Little doe you know saith e M. Breerwood his first treat against M. Byf. pag. 77. MS. pag. 48. Mr. Breerwood to Mr. Byfield if you know it not that the ancient Sabbath did remaine and was observed together with the Lords day by the Christians of the Easterne Church three hundred yeers and more after our Saviours Passion And f D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 2. pag. 56. c. 3. p. 57. Doct. Heylin hath an observation out of Basil That the Christians assembled foure times a week and Saturday and the Lords day were two of them and of these two the observation was more generall then of the other both for time and place both while the Apostles lived and after their decease which I note rather for the Jewes day for the present then for the Lords daies sake for that belongeth to another place To these Testimonies most what of the adverse party assenting to that which will inferre their conviction for application of the name Sabbath I will annexe other evidences both for the Apostles time and for some succeeding ages of the Church First for the time of the Apostles their practice for religious and solemne Assemblies on the Jewes Sabbath is plaine in the relation of their acts by St. Luke whereof they that doubt may reade their owne resolution and receive satisfaction in Act. 13. ver 14 42 44. Act. 16.23 and chap. 27. ver 2. besides other places Secondly from the Apostles time untill the counsell of Laodicea which was about the yeare 364. the holy observation of the Jewes Sabbath continued as may be proved out of many g Ignat. â—p ad Magnes p. 77. edit Vedel Athanas tract de semente Socrat Scholast hist lib. 6. ca. 8. ca. 29. Centuriat Cent. 406. col 410. Concil Laod. can 29. tom 1. concil pag. 300. edit Bin. 1636. Paris in lib. qui inscrib Canon Apost Sanctor Concil 4. per Jo. Tilium Hospin de orig Festor Christian cap. 9. Authors yea notwithstanding the Decree of that Councell against it about the yeare 380. h Quibus oculis diem Dominicum intueris qui Sabbathum dedecorâsti an nescis hos dies germanos fratres esse si in alterum injuriosus sis in alterum impingis Greg. Nyssen de castig in cos qui aegrè ferunt reprehens Greg. Nyssen passionately complained of the violation of the old Sabbath as an holy brother to the new Lords day questioning the profaners of it thus as the i Bish Whites Treat pag. 80. Bishop of Ely brings him in With what face saith he dost thou looke upon the Lords day who hast dishonoured the Sabbath Knowest thou not that they are Germane brethren and that thou canst doe wrong to neither but thou must be injurious to both But saith the k Bish of Ely his Treat of the Sab. p. 72. Bishop Saturday was not made a weekly Holiday universally in all Primitive Churches for l Cent. 4. ch 6. col 477. at Rome Alexandria and throughout Africa it was a work day To which I answer First that though Saturday were not universally kept as an Holiday in the Primitive Church yet it was observed as a sacred time and noted by its ancient name in so many places and I thinke I may say in most for the Easterne Church for divers hundred yeares after Christ as the places fore-cited in the margin shew So that then to have put the name Sabbath upon the Lords day had been to speak with confusion unlesse some other terme were added to it for distinction sake Secondly for the Churches specified by the Bishop viz. the Churches of Rome Alexandria and Africa I answer first for Rome First that there might bee some especiall reasons why they kept not holy the old Sabbath as the Eastern Church did and that either because they had a religious respect to Wednesdaies and Fridaies m Hieron com in â—p ad Galat. c. 4. as Saint Hierome sheweth more then the Easterne Church had Secondly or because the Jewes and the Romanes were by the warres betwixt them become most odious to each other as appeareth by the history of n Joseph de bello Jud. l. 6. 〈◊〉 26 l. 7. c. 18. Josephus and otherwise as I have observed in mine historicall part of the Sabbath though now which I point at but for a glance by the way toward the Popish Metropolis they bee better accepted at Rome then the best Christians who are not suffered there to live while the Jewes are o Sr. Ed. Sands his Relat. pag. 218. edit 1632. toler ated to trade in usury straining it up upon Christians after eighteene in the hundred whereas halfe that summe in a Christian is not allowed Thirdly Though the old Sabbath were sleighted at Rome it was not so farre out of request but that elsewhere even in Italie it was sociably observed with the Lords day and that in Millaine and there by p Crastino die Sabbati Dominico de orationis ordine dicemus Amb. de Sacr. l. 4. c. 6. Saint Ambrose and the people of his Church to whom it seemes by what hee saith in his discourse of the Sacraments hee preached as well on the one day as on the other Secondly For the Church of Alexandria we have cause to conceive that there the old Sabbath was observed for the Centurists observe out of Athanasius who was Bishop there a saying of his to that purpose q Cent. 4. col 410. q. Wee assemble on the Sabbath day saith hee not as if wee were infected with Judaisme but therefore wee meet together on the Sabbath that wee may worship the Lord of the Sabbath which in part is acknowledged by the r B. of Elie his Treat of the Sabb.
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
of Elie in his Examinat of the title Dial. pag. 107. Bishop of Elie in his Examination of the Dialogue of the Sabbath taketh exceptions at it when it is brought in to this purpose and sheweth some reasons why it should be supposed to be none of his but of a later time and if it be none of Augustines when it is so cited it was none of his when himselfe cited it in his name and as his as he did in his r B. of Elie in his Treat of the Sab. pag. 110. former Treatise of the Sabbath After Augustine and as a neer follower of his both in tract of time and tractates of doctrine wee may note Prosper Aquitanie who in his sentences collected out of Å¿ Sententiae â—ine dubio sunt Augustini sed collectae à Sancto Prospero Bell. de Eccles script pag. 185. Saint Augustine saith t Malè celebrat Sabbatum qui ab operibus bonis vacat Prosper Aquitan sent 114. ex Aug. tom 3. part 2. p. 1402. that such celebrate the Sabbath in an ill sort who make it a vacation from doing good In which words hee vertually alloweth of the celebration of a Sabbath both for name and thing If the like exceptions be taken at these Testimonies out of Augustine and Prosper to those that have beene noted before concerning the saying of Ignatius the like answer may bee here returned which there was made By such authorities as these whereof I forbeare some being to bring them in upon another occasion I desire not to make shew that the Ancients did alwayes use to call the Lords day by the name of Sabbath as some u See B. White his treat of the Sab. pag. 201. have said or for the most part for no man can prove that And it is evident that in their Idiome it is more frequent and familiar to call the weekly holiday of the Jewes the Sabbath and the Christians weekly holiday Lords day but to observe that they did not condemne the name as in application to the Lords day nor forbeare it so constantly as some especially Doctor Pocklington have said nor upon such conceipts as hee and some others have imagined but upon some considerations which appertained to their times and not to ours as I shall seasonably shew in answer to another objection when it crosseth my way Now I will descend from the Primitive Church downeward where the Doctor may finde his Assertion gaine said by a Synod of Bishops and other Prelates collected by ″ Fox Mart. pag. 128. edit 2. Cuthbert Archbishop of Canterbury about the yeere 747. in which among other Ecclesiasticall matters it was decreed that the Sabbath day and by that was meant the day wee now keepe holy should bee reverently observed And in x M. Fox Ib. Dies Sabbati ab ipsa diei Saturni hora pomeridiana tertia usque in Lunaris diei diluculum festus agitator Sr. Hen. Spelman de concil c. cap. 5. an Christ 967. pag. 445. King Edgars dayes ann 959. the Christians weekly holiday was by a decree under the name of the Sabbath measured out from Saturday at three of the clock in the afternoone to Munday morning Against this Decree of King Edgar y D. Heyl. hist part 2. cap. 7. pag. 216. Dr. Heylin objecteth that though the Decree in Latine have the word Sabbath in the Saxon copie it is onely Heald which signifieth holiday which maketh nothing against our present observation unlesse he had shewed that the Latine edition of that constitution was much later then the Saxon and not a little for it Because First They that penned the Latine in likelihood were more learned and so the better able to judge of the fitnesse of the name then they that penned it in the Saxon language for it requireth lesse ability to speake a native tongue or to understand or translate a learned one then to pen or speake it Secondly As the Latine is a more learned language so it is more generall especially in the Christian world where the celebration of the day so named is received and so it implyeth either that the word was usually understood or that they would have it commonly taken in that sense And whereas the z D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 7. pag. 216. Doctor saith There is onely Heald or holiday in the Saxon Decree hee implyeth holiday to bee lesse then Sabbath whereas Sabbath in a meere Grammaticall sense signifieth lesse then holiday for so Sabbath signifieth rest and no more and so the a Levit. 25.2 chap. 26.34 earth hath its Sabbath when it is not tilled and the b Otium est Sabbatum Asinorum Bish Downam in his Analys of the ten Commandements Com. of the Sab. beasts their Sabbath when they are not toyled whereas the holinesse of the holiday belongeth to us as wee are c Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Deerat adhuc quod dominari caetera posset Ovid. Met. l. 1. men and much more as wee are d Ephes 1.4 Christians yet I confesse where both names are in use so distinguished that the Sabbath standeth for the Lords day and holiday for other dayes ordained for religious exercises the name Sabbath is of more and better importance then holiday is but that maketh nothing for the Doctors purpose In the Lawes of e Fox Martyr tom 1. p. 1017 col 2. edit ult Canutus anno 1016. there was a constitution like that in King Edgars time concerning the Lords day by the name of the Sabbath making the measure of it from Saturday noon till Munday morning which might yet be all one for the measure with the Decree of Edgar for the ninth houre which is called nona or noon was at three of the clock which now with us is the third houre after noone Againe f Fox Martyr tom 1. p. 1017. col 1. King Edward the elder and Gythrum the Danish King forbidding buying and selling and all labour upon the holiday of the Christians make their prohibition of them in the name not of Sunday or Lords day but of the Sabbath And out of g Albert. Krantz Metrap lib. 4. cap. 8. Krantzius h D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 15. pag. 131. Doctor Heylin noteth of Olaus King of Norway anno 1028. that taken up one Sunday on the Lords day saith Krantzius in serious thoughts and having in his hand a small walking stick hee tooke his knife and whirled it as men do sometimes when they are troubled or intent on businesse and when it had beene told him how hee had trespassed therein against the Sabbath hee gathered the small chips up together put them upon his hand and sit fire unto them that hee might take a revenge upon himselfe for violation of the divine Precept The matter most remarkeable in this story is his scrupulous conscience and precise severity for which hee is k Gloriosissimus Rex Olaus
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
the divine Authority of the day or to diminish ought of the duties of devotion belonging to it so that all three names if there bee not more fault in their minds that make use of them then in the words themselves may and will with peaceable men be passable without any cavill at all Secondly hereby may bee precluded their intents that they take not effect who by cavilling at the name bewray a mind to undermine and overthrow the thing it selfe which I will not say nor do I think of all that take exception at that name yet I have shewed it of some that they plead against the word Sabbath to supplant its fundamentall right by the fourth Commandement and there is no little power in the use or refusall of words to advance or undervalue the things themselves to which they are applyed as hath been proved in that wee have before produced yea sometimes as b Nescio quid veneni in syllabis latet Hier. ad Damasc tom 2. pag. 132. Saint Hierome observeth there lurketh a kind of poyson under syllables as in every page of Doctor Pocklington his booke which weares this title Sunday no Sabbath whereof I have said enough before and hee too much though very little to the purpose for proofe of his distructive determination against the name Sabbath Thirdly In clearing the doubts that are made of those names and titles of our Christian Sabbath divers personages of highest place with many more of the better sort though of inferiour rank in the Church or Common-weale are cleared from such reproachfull imputations as by taunting at or traducing of the lawfull use of those names especially that of the Sabbath some with Ismaelitish malignity expressely or by consequence have cast upon them to which purpose the fore noted judicious Divine hath said somewhat in his Antidote against Sabbatary errours though me thinks a little too faintly viz. c A soveraign Antidote against Sabbatary errors qu. 1. pag. 5. That men otherwise sober and moderate ought not to bee censured with too much severity not with any severity at all hee might have said nor charged with Judaisme if sometime they call Sunday by the name of Sabbath if hee had said if commonly they call Sunday by the name of Sabbath hee had spoken no more then the truth will beare d Ibid. p. 8. for there is none of the three names saith hee to bee condemned as unlawfull but every one is to bee left to his Christian liberty herein so long as superiour Authority restraineth it not and so that hee doe it without vanity or affectation in himselfe and without judging or despising of his brother that doth otherwise which is a pious and prudent proviso though so farre defective as it importeth a meere paritie without any preheminence on the Sabbaths behalfe Fourthly By explication of these titles in this sort wee may answer many passages of the ancient Fathers produced against our weekly holiday in the name of the Sabbath whereby they meane not as many misconceive them and so misapply them any prejudice to the holy observation of the Lords day as in weekely recourse in the Christian Church but precisely and punctually the Saturday Sabbath which we hold as much as they to be abolished and much more then some of them did Fifthly If all the names bee lawfull and that of the Sabbath most usefull as hath beene shewed let us bee sure to make use of it upon all faire and fit occasions though wee neither wholly forbeare the other two titles nor quarrell with any for their more familiar use of them that wee may uphold the tenure of the day together with the title of it by the fourth Commandement whereto I desire to exhort the Reader with the more earnest intreaty First Because some with such supercilious disdaine have indeavoured to disgrace that title that others as much too modest as they too bold have beene affraid or ashamed to use it and I remember one who was of eminent parts and place and who formerly had divers times used it in a printed booke having upon occasion named the Sabbath presently recalled the word as if it had beene a fault and tooke up the title Sunday in stead thereof Secondly Because if wee let goe the name of the time wee may bee like to lose the thing in time to come or at least to loosen and weaken its claime to the best authority on which it depends for as it is a weekly holiday wee cannot plead better for it then by the proportion of the fourth Commandement and that being made good upon that ground the difference about the particular day within the circle of seven will bee the more easily composed since it is no more then other proofe and evidence inferiour to an expresse precept of the Decalogue may well support I would now put a sinall period to this comparative discourse but that opportunity prompts mee and it may bee a twofold duty which I owe both to my superiours and to this sacred cause wherein they are interessed as supreme Judges over it and I as a faithfull Advocate for it bindes mee to bend my conclusion towards the Barre of the most awfull Court in the Kingdome and with prostrate humility to beseech you most Noble Lords and you most worthy Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the high Court of Parliament now assembled to take into your prudent and pious consideration the weighing of the precedent titles and the poyse of Religious reason swaying the resolution on the Sabbath side and that as you have occasion to mention the day by divine ordinance designed to the solemne service of God and the salvation of man in your Discussions or Decrees you will bee pleased to give it that authentick and edifying appellation which best serveth to uphold the surest tenure by which it holdeth and most mindeth us of that holy observation to which by many and weighty reasons we are obliged whereby as it haâ—h been most highly honoured from heaven by Gods owne hand writing in the fourth Commandement so it may bee ratified by the highest authority on earth the highest to us viz. an Act of Parliament to secure it from contempt and to restore it to the right whereof many either in simple ignorance or inconsiderate rashnesse or audacious profanenesse or partiall prejudice or in politicke impiety for all these are Antisabbatary symptomes in some or other have endeavoured to deprive it You have already to the great joy of the godly throughout the Land raised your devout indignation against the indignity done to Religion by the most irreligious Pamphlet of Doctor Pocklington though composed and published under the sacred title of a Sermon and if now as by an act of your Justice SUNDAY NO SABBATH must burn so by some act of your Grace SUNDAY A SABBATH may shine and the same holy zeale will dispose you to this double devotion you will further advance his honour who hath promised to returne you like for like in that kinde 1 Sam. 2.30 and hee will doe it not onely in kinde but in degree and give us of the Clergie the better meanes to perswade the people with better mindes to compose themselves to all due obedience for what your Honours shall decree concerning their dutie both to God and man And so I conclude the titles of our weekly Holiday which will both conduce to the contracting of our taske and to the clearing of the truth to our understandings when wee come to deliver more materiall observations which from henceforward are to follow and which we shall begin in another Booke and goe on withall as God giveth ability to performe and opportunity to publish what this great and weighty cause of his and his Church requireth at our hands FINIS Errata PAge 1. line 2. after the word times adde with many pag. 4. line 3. aâ— the end of the quotation c leave out Selden pag. 5. lin 8. for the word for read and. pag. 8. lin 5. for desire reade more pag. 8. lin 24. for Videlius reade Vedelius pag. 9. lin 3. after but adde the. pag. 10. lin 6. after the words crosse and blot the words crosse to pag. 12. in the margent over against the third line reade Mr. Duraeus and lin 11. for distraction reade division pag. penult lin 3. for grace reade honour In the subscript of the Letter to the Authour for Samuel reade Sabbath and for Glindale Glendole p. 15. l. 21. or reade of p. 16. initio lâ— 30. adde be pag. 38. l. 18. respest reade respect p. 63. in the mar for in locico reade in lexico pag. 64. lin 16. after the word is adde but. pag. 82. lin 22. for or reade to pag. 89. lin 21. for Christians reade Christian pag. 124. lin 25. for hominum reade hominem pag. 143. lin 7. for Parenaesis reade Paranesis pag. 179. lin 1. for Sabbath reade Lords day pag. 195. lin 2. after the word if adde the.