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
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
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
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
for none was ever so raised none ever raised such a one and so in this respect even by his owne argument the dayes are even but herein the day of his Resurrection hath the advantage of dignity above the day of his Birth by his Resurrection hee was declared mightily to bee the Sonne of God Rom. 1.4 for hee rose by his owne power as none ever did and by his Birth hee was in some respects declared scarce to bee the Sonne of man for as Saint Luke sheweth chap. 2. ver 7. hee was borne in a stable among the beasts and laid in a manger for a cradle Hereof saith the learned Bishop g Bp. Andr. Serm. 12. on the Nat. p. 114. The Divell breathed upon our first Parents with Eritis sicut dii and infected them with it to make themselves equall with God which is plaine robbery for that robbery of theirs was the Sonne of God robbed as I may say and quite spoyled of his glory for their puffing up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee was made empty for their lifting up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was hee brought low for their comparing with God came hee to compared with the beasts that perish lay in their manger Wee see this saith hee preaching of his Birth-day and therewith we may observe that though hee were a Lord hee shewed himselfe no Lord in this respect as at his Resurrection hee did and for the title of the day we celebrate to that title in Saint John as by a peculiar right the Bishop is expresse and peremptory as by h B. Andrewes in his Speech in the Starre-Chamber against Master Trask pag. 73 74. his words will appeare which here we forbear since we shall more seasonably bring them in another place Thirdly For the day of Christs Passion i Mr. Braburne his defence of his Discourse pag. 249 250. Hee saith also for Friday May not a man say thus Friday must bee a Sabbath day because on Friday Christ suffered and Thursday must bee a Sabbath day because on that Christ ascended thus wee may as well have three Sabbaths in a weeke as this one Lords day Master Braburne Defence page 249. Master Braburne saith that Friday was the greatest day for on it Christ bore the unsupportable wrath of his Father which made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee But on the Resurrection day there was onely Christs soule put into his body and so revived again Now it was a greater matter as I think saith hee every one will confesse for the Deity to support the humanity on his Passion day then to put his soule into his dead body on the Resurrection day To which I answer that though it bee granted to be a ″ I say greater not harder for to the divine Power which is insinite nothing is hard but all things not only possible but easie greater worke for the Divinity to support the humanity in the Passion of our Saviour then to restore his soule to his body at his Resurrection from the grave yet was not the day of his Passion so fit to be set up for a constant Festivity which was to bee celebrated with rejoycing for the day of our Saviours Passion as the k Bish Andr. his Serm. on Joh. 8.56 p. 64. Bish of Winchester well noteth was no such day nay saith he that day was none of his for he saith to them that took him haec est hor a vestra this is your houre so theirs it was not his and if not his not so fit to be called by his name the Lords day Secondly It was not his day nay it was no day neither but the houre and power tenebrarum of darknesse This is your houre and the power of darknesse Luk. 22.53 and as he there addeth so night rather then day Thirdly But without all question no day of joy the heavens were darkned the earth quaking the stones renting every one going their wayes beating their breasts for sorrow that was no sight to rejoyce at that no day to rejoyce in Thus farre that reverend Prelate Fourthly Nor did the day of Ascension though an high day ever ascend to that height of this titular honour howsoever l Epiphan orat de Ascens Epiphanius preferre it before the Nativity Resurrection and the Feast of Pentecost to be stiled in the usuall language of the learned Fathers of the Church by the name of the Lords day as I shall shew anon as the day of the Resurrection was nor need it seeme strange that rather that day then either the day of his Passion on the one side or of his Ascension on the other should have the dignity of that denomination for it holds the middle place though with a different distance and the middle place for the most part is most honourable as in the request of the mother of Zebedees children for the next seats to our Saviour in his Kingdome though it were a presumptuous suit ″ Mat. 20. vers 21. that one might sit on his right hand and the other on his left yet it implyed a little modestie and good manners that shee left the middle place as the prime place to Christ himselfe as a Judge on the Bench with his Assistants and Assessors on either side Secondly In this situation of the Resurrection of our Saviour it hath on the one side the black shadow of his Passion on the other the reslexive rayes of his Ascension to add to its glory for so soone as hee had raised himselfe from the dead his glorified bodie had its qualification for ascent and was readily disposed thereunto if the time had beene come and when it did come as his Resurrection made an addition of honour to his Passion for it gave proof that his life was rather freely given by himselfe then forcibly taken from him by others so did his Ascension to his Resurrection for that gave evidence that his bodie was raised with all those excellent qualifications which made it meet to mount up on high and much more sit for heaven then for earth and though hee tarried still below in his person his Resurrection was not the lesse glorious for that the Angels of heaven are as excellent spirits when they come downe Jacobs ladder as when they goe up Thirdly Though the Ascension of our Saviour locally considered be an high degree of elevation above his Resurrection yet Theologically taken it hath not such an exaltation of dignity above it for his high humility in conversing still among men on earth when hee might have immediately mounted up into heaven addeth much to the honour of his Resurrection for hereby as ″ Te ad siderâ— tollit humus Plin. Panegyr Plinie saith in his Panegyriâ—k to Trajane may the highest grow yet higher when hee comes downe and so may wee say when they keep downe below the elevation of his owne advancement And who would not think Solomon worthy of as much honour
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
was scil the 94. yeare after Christ before wee finde the Church took notice of it by a proper name and when hee hath brought in the opinion of Gomarus against it with a smile as if hee meant to favour it hee puts it out againe with a frowne saying p D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 1. pag. 73. But touching this meaning i. e. of Doctor Gomarus applying of that name to the day of judgement which Saint John might see being rapt in Spirit as if it were come already wee will not meddle let them that owne it looke unto it the rather since Saint John hath generally beene expounded in the other sense by q Arethas Andr. Caesariens taken by D. Heyl. for two Writers are but severall names of the same Authour or Work in Vos his Thes de Advent Christ pag. 273. but the reconciliation may be that though the men were two the work in a manner was but one for Arethas Caesariens made a compendium out of the larger commentary of Andr. Caesariens Bellarm. de Eccles Script pag. 134. Arethas and Andr. Caesariensis upon the place and by Bede de Rat. Temp. cap. 6. and by the suffrage of the Church the best exposition of Gods Word wherein this day hath constantly since the time of that Apostle beene honoured by that name above other daies yea and r Qâ—ae ratio etsi non mihi sufficere videtur ad rejiciendum communem interpretationeÌ„ facilè concedam diem Dominicum eam significare quâ Dominus resurrexit c. D. Gomar def Invest Sab. c. 10. p. 133. Doctor Gomarus himselfe confesseth it to bee the common interpretation of those words the Lords day and that they signifie the day wherein Christ rose from the dead I need the lesse here to bring in a Catalogue of the names of the Ancients to this purpose they will come in to doe more service when wee treat of the Authority and Antiquitie of the day where we shall with one labour further cleare both the title and tenure of it by such testimonies as make indifferently for them both and for the present that which hath been said may I conceive be sufficient to secure the title of the Lords day to the day wee celebrate against such exceptions as have been taken by these two opposites Doctor Gomarus or Master Braburne and two more I think will hardly be found since the first spring of that day who have shut their eyes against such light of truth or opened their mouthes to speake or moved their pens to write in such sort against it as they two have done In whose confutation is virtually included an answer to that which Mr. Primrose since them hath affirmed by way of comparison of the daies of Christs Passion Ascension and of Pentecost viz. Å¿ M. Primrose part 3. c. 8. pag. 140. that the day of the Resurrection hath none advantage beyond the daies of Christs Passion Ascension or of Pentecost For it was saith hee inferiour to the day of Christs Passion in regard of the merit to purchase and to the day of Pentecost in regard of efficacie to communicate the spirituall and heavenly gifts the Ascension day is conforme unto it in the same correspondency both to the acquisition and to the execution of the establishment of the Church For disproofe whereof wee have already said enough save that wee must adde that which himselfe hath said viz. That though the Resurrection of our Saviour be not the merit of our Redemption but rather the reward of it as t Aquia part 3. quast 57. art 2. Aquinas resolveth of his Ascension yet it is a demonstration that our debt is paid as when u M. Primrose part 3. cap. 8. pag. 139. a debter commeth out of prison and that is matter of more manifest rejoycing and so the fitter ground for a solemne and sacred gratulation then the payment of a debt especially then such a payment as was so painfull and pensive as our Saviours Passion was And for the day of Pentecost of which alone wee have said nothing hitherto it may bee sufficient to alledge First ″ In die Dominico venisse Spiritum sanctum communis traditio est Lorin in Act. 1. ver 1. pag. 74. col 1. That many have and not without reason taken it to have beene the same day of the weeke which we call Lords day Secondly That no age since that time hath observed a weekly holiday upon that occasion as all ages from the Apostles time have done upon the Resurrection But x Ea discrepantia exigui est momenti quia in re ipsa est consensus Gomar cap. 10. pa. 132. Defens Investig Sab. Doctor Gomarus saith It is a difference of small moment since in the thing it selfe there is consent and if so there hath been much waste of words about it in drawing on the dispute thus farre Not so neither for First Wee have under the title of words and names made some preparations for materiall points that come in question for the words we have here used have not beene an empty sound without solide and reall notions under them Secondly It is not a matter of small moment to set seducing glosses upon that sacred text which in the controversie of the Christians weekely holiday hath alwayes beene of speciall note and use from the Apostles time to this day Thirdly If it were a small difference and drew after it none evill consequence at all as it doth for it layeth a stumbling block at the doore of the Sanctuary causing men to stop or stumble at the very entrance of the cause which for the new Testament if Testimonies bee taken in due order beginneth there it was no small fault in him and the other for a small difference to runne out of the road way from so good and so great company to tread out a Schismaticall track by themselves CHAP. VI. Of the name Sunday Whether wee may call our weekly holiday by that name Objections against the use of the name Sunday for our weekly holiday THe next name of note which is stuck at is the name Sunday whereof some make scruple as if it had in it as wee use it an unsavoury smack of heathenish superstition and some againe as if therein they bewrayed a spice of Puritan precisenesse flout at them as for negative nicety in their forbearance of it as one who was in his time a man of eminent mark in a pleasant Poëm which hee calleth Iter Boreale speaking of the Professors of N. a Towne where hee lodged in his Northern journey from Oxford among other particulars at which hee scoffed as savouring of too much precisenesse bringeth in this for one a Proque die Sabb. scelus est ibi dicere Sunday Dr. Eades in his â—er Boreale That to call the Sabbath by the name of Sunday they account a crime But against that name some in sober sadnesse have framed this Argument
retained and used in a sense not idolatrous as Hermes the name of Mercury mentioned Rom. 16.14 as it signifieth a particular person and not the Idol of the Gentiles called by that name so the names of Frier Monke Abbat Pope as they are names of Families not of Offices or Callings may bee retained still as b M. Ainsw Ibid. p. 143. Master Ainsworth hath acknowledged though he as well as Master c M. Paget ib. p. 145. Paget thinks the Popes have beene made great Idols by too many people of all ranks and so think I. Fourthly Names that have beene Idolatrous or any way impious may in time having beene long accustomed to a better sense bee ayred and purged from all impiety for words are like to fashions which varie with the times and so either get or lose grace and acceptation thereafter as the vulgar use and common custome giveth the construction of them in whose power it is as the d Multa renascentur quae jam cecidere cadentque Quae nuÌ„c sunt in honore vocabula si volet usus Morat de arte Poetic Poet hath observed to ratifie or reject them both for use and sense But what is that which in the fore-cited Scriptures is forbidden then Not all mention of idolatrous names as we have already proved But either swearing by Idols or praising or approving of them or maintaining superstition towards them or giving scandall by them against which wee should bee so carefull as to prevent all suspicion and appearance of that evill as e Aug. de Civ Dei li. 19. c. 22. part 2. p. 525. Saint Augustine did who fearing the translation of Sacrificiendum Domino soli would imply that the Sun was a God presently brought in some words of caution to guide the Reader to a better sense Sacrificiendum Domino soli i. e. Domino tantum to the Lord alone and with these limitations the sentences of the Fathers may be interpreted As for the Canon of the Councell of Nice I will not for this particular by way of exception say it is one of those which is supernumerary and not any of those which are acknowledged to bee the legitimate ordinance of the Fathers of that Councell because it is capable of a very good sense but I answer thus The difference is great betwixt the new imposing a name and the old and received use over that wee have power over this not so And for the word Sunday in particular though it bee no more idolatrous then the names of other dayes of the week and some moneths of the yeere it may be the better borne withall First Because the Sunne is not as many Idols are to which for want of reall entity out of the fancie wee may pertinently apply the words of Saint Paul An Idol is nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8.4 for it hath a true solide and glorious being of its owne and a name it must have to expresse that being Secondly For joyning it with the day in the name Sunday as if it were devoted to the honour of the Sun though that were the intention of the first imposers and the like was their meaning in the names of the rest of the dayes of the week as many Authours have observed especially f Hosp de orig Festor Jud. Etha c. 5. fol. 52. a. 53. b. Hospinian g Verslegan Restitut of decayed Intellig. cap. 3. p 69. Verstegan yet the Christians that used it did cleere themselves from all participation with their impious superstition long agoe viz. in Justin Martyrs and h Tertull. dpol cap. 16. tom 2. pag. 632. Tertullians time since whom so many well minded men have made use of it that wee may well thinke all Pagan apprehensions are by this time quite worne out of it as well as out of the names of other dayes of the weeke or of the moneths of the yeere as of January of March of May of June which are Idolatrous names as i August contra Faust Manich. l. 18. c. 5. tom 6 p. 420. Saint Augustine sheweth for where is there one of a thousand that when he nameth k Of this and the derivation of the rest of the dayes see Versteg Restit of decayed intellig à p. 71. ad 77. Tuesday hath any reverence or reference to the Idol Tuisco or to Woden when hee nameth Wednesday or to Thor when hee nameth Thursday or to Frigo or Frea when he nameth Friday or to Janus in the name of January or to Mars in March or Juno in the name of the moneth of June It is more like that our vulgar people use the word without setting any note on the notation or etymology of it at all or if they doe they may think it is called Sunday from the Son of God who is Lord of the Sabbath And if wee distinguish all men into two sorts viz. learned and ignorant wee may say of the learned that it is not like that they having beene trained up in Christian religion should retaine any respective relish of such absurd Idolatry and for the unlearned they have no apprehensions of words and things so obscure and remote as these etymologicall mysteries but take the sense of words according to the use of the times wherein they live But thirdly If as the Sunne in the Firmament makes the day so the Sunne and the day make up the name Sunday there is yet for ought I see no perill of applying unto it an idolatrous fancie for wee may with good congruity of reason meane by it the splendour and glory of our Christian holiday in the many prerogatives of that day above the work-dayes of the weeke elsewhere to bee declared as the Sun is a more bright and resplendent Planet then any of the rest And whereas l Dr. bound treat on the Sab. part 1 pag. 13. Dr. Bound saith That the Divel that hee might retaine men in this errour or heresie rather and thereby hee meaneth the kâ—eping them by the name of Sunday from inquiring into the cause of the name Lords day caused this probable conjecture of the name Sunday to be given namely that seeing the Sun was the chiefe of all the Planets as that which filleth all things with light therefore in the number of the seven dayes the chiefe place was given unto it Though it cannot bee denyed but there is a comparative conformity betwixt this day and the other sixe as betwixt the Sun and the rest of the Planets whereby in an odd number the dayes and Planets are even both making up the number of seven yet may the name Sunday bee as ready for an orthodox as for an erroneous sense if wee come without prejudice to consider it Nor can it impeach the title Lords day either for truth or evidence any more then the calling of Christ so often the Sonne of man in the sacred Scripture doth darken that glorious name the Sonne of God nay rather as wee may use
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
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.
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.
in Justin Martyrs 2d. Apol. ad Antoninum pium about the yeare 150. but the name Sabbath for a weekly Holiday is ancienter then them both Secondly if we compare them for Authority we may consider it in a double sense as divine and humane First by divine Authority the Sabbath and Lords day have the best warrant for they are both Scripture names and the name Sunday is not so I confesse in the translation of the Bible published in King Henry the eight his daies anno 1540. before which Archbishop Cranmer prefixed a Preface the words of Saint John Revel 1.10 are rendred thus I was in the spret on a Sunday as I noted before but in the originall there is not that word which signifieth either Sun or Son and in all other translations that I have seen it is rendred according to the originall Lords day and not Sunday Secondly the name Sabbath for a weekly Holiday is in the fourth Commandement of the Decalogue the greatest warrant of Authority that can be thrice mentioned neither the name Lords day nor Sunday are so And for humane Authority in the Liturgy of our Church the name Sabbath and Sunday are both mentioned and the name Lords day to my remembrance not at all In the Canons of the Church though the name Sabbath for the English edition as I have already observed be not omitted the names Sunday or Lords day are more often mentioned and in the Latine Canons the title Lords day onely Thirdly if we compare them for significancy that swayeth the preheminence by three respects First by Dignity secondly Propriety thirdly Perspicuity First for Dignity the name Lords day hath prelation over the other two and carrieth a signification of his dignity who is Lord of all both Angels Men and Divels and imports with his person his absolute Lordship over the world especially over his Church and the name Sunday sheweth his illustrious excellency if wee understand the terme according to the Prophet Malachy for the Sunne of Righteousnesse but the name Sabbath in its Grammaticall sense signifieth onely Rest which is in dignity inferiour to them both Secondly for Propriety that is to be considered as opposed either to figurativenesse or to community taking proper for that which is not figurative the name Sabbath signifying in the Grammaticall sense a literall rest which is required on an holiday is a more proper word then either of the other which are not well understood without a figure for wee call the Sabbath Lords day by an a For all dayes are the Lords but this by an especiall eminency Antinomasie and Sunday by a b In the sense of the Heathens who dedicated the day to the Sun and thence gave it that name Metonymie or c In the religious sense in the Prophet Malach. c. 4. v. 2. Metaphor But taking propriety as opposed to generality or community the names Lords day and Sunday as in application to dayes are more proper and particular noting a set and certaine day in the weeke viz. that which wee Christians celebrate and none other as the d Soveraigne Antidote against Sabbatary errors pag. 7. Authour of the soveraigne Antidote well observeth Whereas Sabbath hath been a name for any holiday which may fall out any day of the weeke In which respect if there had not been other considerable reasons to the contrary hee had well resolved that when wee speake of a time of rest undeterminately and in generall the name Sabbath is the fittest the other two Lords day and Sunday when we speake determinately of that day which is observed in the Christian Church Thirdly For Perspicuitie that is most perspicuous which is least ambiguous so is the name Sunday which presently points all to the day wee observe but the names Sabbath and Lords day are not at all times and in all places so cleare since the name Sabbath hath beene for a long time taken for Saturday and the name Lords day hath beene taken not onely for the weekly Sabbath of the Resurrection but also for the day of Christs Nativity Passion Ascension and last Judgement as hath beene shewed in the second Chapter Besides the Apostle saith there bee Lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 and the more they bee the more ambiguous is the name whereof that word maketh up the one halfe Yet to say the truth in our Church and age they are all perspicuous and cleere enough so that there is scarce any one so silly but hee presently knoweth if hee heare the name Sabbath Lords day or Sunday what day of the week is understood by them Fourthly If wee compare them for facilitie or readinesse of speech the names Sabbath day or Sunday are more apt to be taken up as when wee speake of the weekly holiday past or to come it is readier to say and withall more distinctly understood the last Sabbath or the last Sunday next Sabbath or next Sunday some Sabbath or some Sunday as in his Majesties Briefes fore-noted then the last Lords day or the next Lords day or some Lords day Fifthly If for acceptation with speaker or hearer they are every one of them single for the most part of better relish then the other two with some or other some like best of the name Sabbath some of the name Lords day some of Sunday and by that wee have observed of each of them before it appeareth that there are many of the better sort of men who stand divided in their inclinations and prelations according to the diversity of the titles fore-mentioned and yet when two holidaies were observed in a week the name Lords day for the day wee celebrate was most acceptable to most men and since they have all of them beene taken to indifferent use by the wiser sort it hath been lesse obvious to exception then either the name Sabbath or Sunday have beene while some though without just cause have charged the one with Judaisme the other with Paganisme which is worse since our Religion hath more affinity with Jewish then with Heathenish principles Sixthly For frequencie or community of use all in our Church are bound to assent unto the name Sabbath and to use it also by the obligation that tyeth them to the Liturgy and Catechisme of the Church and as Religion hath advanced so hath that name prevailed and bin most frequently used by the religious of our Church untill that a very few yeers agoe some tooke up such exceptions against it as have beene seene in the precedent Discourse which either reason may work out or time wear out of mens opinions as in the title Lords day hath come to passe for that at at the first did not passe without cavill and contempt for in the memory of some yet alive many were as much offended suspecting a tang of excessive precisenesse that some said Lords day for Sunday as any now are at those who say rather Sabbath then either Seventhly and lastly If wee compare the three names for
Christian Church first giveth the Lords day a reall preeminence above the old Sabbath saying f M. J. Walker in his book of the Doctrine of the Sabbath p. 89.90 that the old Sabbath had no other light nor life in it but onely from obscure promises and dark shadowes through which Christ was seen as things afarre off are seene and in the starre-light nights but the Lords day the first day of the weeke hath light and life from the Sunne of Righteousnesse who in it rose up to bee the light of life to all Nations And after that hee giveth it a nominall preheminence under the title Lords day g Ib. p. 90 91. God saith hee hath given it a most honourable name and title above all the daies of the weeke for the holy Evangelist and divine Apostle Saint John who was the intimate beloved and bosome Disciple of the Lord and did best know his minde calls it the Lords day Revel 1.10 and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord is the same in signification with Gods proper Name Jehovah and most commonly is used in the new Testament to expresse that sacred Name And if that day and name both be more excellent then that of the old Testament the denomination should be taken according to it and so we should call it rather Lords day then Sabbath To which I answer First That howsoever the new Sabbath bee in many respects more excellent then the old yet the name Sabbath may be very agreeable to them both Secondly that if name Lords day be a more excellent name then the name Sabbath it doth not follow it should be more usuall ordinary for there be many other intimatious of moment for the use of a name as before we have noted and for instance though the name Sonne of God bee a more excellent name then Sonne of man yet our Saviour who best knew how to speake for he spake as no man ever did John 7.46 called himselfe oftner Son of man then Son of God Thirdly the name Sabbath doth import more clearly and assuredly a weekly Holiday as wee observe it then the name Lords day doth for that is questionable as before wee have shewed whether it be to be taken for the day of our Saviours Resurrection or no and if that be resolved on then whether it note that individuall day onely on which he arose or other daies also that succeed it and if others whether onely an Anniversary day as Easter or a weekly day as the Sabbath is and hath been since it was first ordained but the word Sabbath without all question signifieth a day of Rest among sixe daies of labour and so one set day within the circle of the weeke Fourthly the name Sabbath being the title of the fourth Commandement which is the best warrant for a weekly Holiday and which prescribeth our duty both for what we must forbeare and what performe and presseth it by many effectuall reasons there is great reason that it should bee more used then any other which in such materiall considerations is not comparable to it Fifthly the name Sabbath guiding us to the fourth Commandement will bring us readily to the title Lords day as before hath been observed but the name Lords day in that text where it is noted viz. Revel 1.10 the chiefe if not the onely text for that title in the New Testament giveth none intimation of a Sabbath neither in Deed nor in Name therefore the name Sabbath as more significant and monitory is fitter for instruction and use then the name Lords day is Sixthly for such reasons as these or some other of like importance the fore-cited Authour useth the name Sabbath more frequently throughout his whole booke then any other whatsoever and setteth it as the title in the highest place of every page though no man expresse a dearer affection to the dignity of the Lords day then he doth Lastly he so far approves of the name Sabbath for our weekly Holiday that he setteth upon them who say the Lords day was not called Sabbath in the Primitive times next to the Apostles nor since by any but onely Jewish Sabbatharians with some sharp termes calling them h M. Walker in his Doctrine of the Sabb. ch 16. p. 113. but pag. 112 of the impression at London 1641. Adversaries of a bold and impudent face who make that objection Thus farre the exceptions against the name Sabbath both simple and comparative with other titles Though I have set my wits on worke on the Antisabbatarian side both to multiply fortifie objections against that name as applyed to the day of our Christian devotion I can find nothing more which is of any weight or worth to bee objected or answered concerning the comparison of the names of Sabbath Sunday and Lords day and the resolution for the name Sabbath of which we may now I hope without all appearance of partiality or presumption conclude That the name Sabbath is of best use to support the true Doctrine of our Christian Holiday both for the time and tenure of it for discovery of duties required on it and for incitement to the conscionable practice of them accordingly and therefore notwithstanding the contrary determination of i Better by farre and farre lesse danger to be feared in calling it the Sunday as the Gentiles did and as our Ancestors have done before us then calling it the Sabbath as too many doe and on lesse Authority nay contrary indeed to all Antiquity and Scripture Doct. Heyl. hist Sab. part 2. c. 2. p. 163 164. Doctor Heylin to bee most used when we speake of the weekly Holiday of the Christian Church yet without prejudice to the liberty of any one to call it Lords day or Sunday as just occasion shall incline them or religious discretion induce them to terme it CHAP. XXVII A briefe accommodation of this Nomenclature or nominall discourse to some purposes of importance concernning the Sabbath HE that doth reade thus farre will not I hope conceive I have need to make an Apology for this discourse as if it were some idle Logomachy or word war which the Apostle forbids 1 Tim. 6.4 for First it may serve to stint the strife of words Esay 29.21 which some have already raised up making a man an offender for a word which affords not a syllable of just exception or offence and to prevent the like in after times since by what we have said our lawfull liberty is fully declared and firmly assured so that we may without doubt or danger of sinne call the time or day we celebrate Lords day Sabbath day or both as the holy place of Gods publicke service was called the Lords house and the Temple And for the name Sunday wee have shewed the lawfull use of it if it be not brought in like the Sunne with a burning glasse as Doctor Pocklington doth to scortch the name Sabbath or to cast a shadow upon it to conceale or obscure
1632. 7. For Richard Wood of Haâ—ton 8. For East and West Rebford 9. For Mariners of Hâ—lbâ—iâ— 10. For Amos Bedford a Minister in Lincolne shire 11. For Thomas Wilson of old Whitingham in Cheshire 1633. 12. For Underhill in Shropshire 13. For one Hubie in Yorkeshire 14. For Roger Posterne of Salop. 15. For the Town of Stone in Staffordshire 1634. 16. For Lincolneshire poore 17. For the poore of Haâ—lscot in the County of Salop. 18. For John Jackson of Langer in Nottingham shire 1635. 19. For Port Patricke and Doneghday in Scotland 20. For Broughton of Southampton where the Church Parsonage house and Schoole-house c. were burnt K. Charles our gracious Soveraigne that now is in his Briefes appointing the time for collections under his broad Seale setting downe the day when they shall be made nameth it the Sabbath day wherby it is plaine he meaneth not Saturday but Sunday and so which is directly against Dr. Pockl. his tenet and title that Sunday is a Sabbath The most that I have seen untill the yeer 1636. have directed to our weekely Holiday under the name Sabbath For intimation of the frequencie of that word in the sence wherein wee take it I have made a List of twenty Instances of Briefs for this County of Cheshire within these few yeeres and noted them in the margine not doubting but there have been many more both within it without which have not come to my view And I doubt not when the truth upon impartiall triall hath broken through all clouds of contradiction as certainely it will doe but the name Sabbath will out-shine the name Sunday and be again received into the stile of the Kings Briefes as formerly it hath been 4. The Reverend Bishops of the Land in the d Confer at Hamp Court p. 44 and 45. Conference at Hampton Court as conscious of the lawfull use of the word Sabbath day for Sunday when Doctor Reynolds desired a reformation of the abuse of the Sabbath before his Majesty that late was and themselves gave a generall and unanimous assent thereunto none of them for ought appeareth in the Booke taking exception that hee called the Lords day by that name And howsoever the name of the Lords day bee more usuall in their Ecclesiasticall Courts for our weekely holiday then the name Sabbath day is yet that they condemne not the use of it is plaine by the seventh Canon wherein they prescribe the use of the Register booke upon every Sabbath day In the Latin edition I confesse the words are diebus Dominicis and not Sabbath and there might bee reason for it because in Latine the word might bee more ambiguous that tongue being more generall and reaching haply to such places as yet have both the Saturday and Sunday in honour and use for the exercise of Religion yet had it beene Sabbath in the Latine also it had beene no prejudice but rather an advantage to the truth if withall it had beene understood to bee meant not of the old Sabbath but of the new Besides they meant no doubt by using the name Sabbath in the Canon in English to shew the lawfull use of that word as well as of others by which the same day is signified unto us and if the Latin bee of more authority then the English which in some respects may be so as before hath been observed wee can quote a Latin Booke of good authority for it it is the Book called Reformatio legum Ecclesiasticarum which mentioning the observation of our religious rest doth it under this e Praecipuus Sabbatorum cultus Reform Leg. Eccles fol. 18. b. Title the principall celebration of the Sabbath The high Commissioners of whom the Archbishop of Canterbury is chiefe are in Ecclesiasticall authority next to a publick Synod and of their indifferency for the use of the word Sabbath as well as the word Sunday or Lords day may appeare by the recantation enjoyned by them to John Hethrington wherein hee was to f The Sermon called the White Wolfe by Steph. Denison preached at Pauls Crosse the same day pag. 34. disavow that which formerly hee had delivered viz. that the Sabbath day or Sunday which wee commonly call Lords day since the Apostles time was of no force and that every day is as much a Sabbath day as that which wee call the Sabbath day Lords day or Sunday and in these termes hee was to publish it at Pauls Crosse Febr. 11. 1627. If it bee needfull to add particular testimonies for calling Sunday by the name Sabbath and such scandalous invectives as some have made against it will not suffer it to be superfluous we may note by name divers Reverend Bishops who take the word Sabbath in that sense as to begin with Bishop Latimer whom g D. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 28 29. Doctor Pocklington brings in expresly with other Bishops unnamed as a godly Prelate and well affected to the godly discipline of the Church and he was besides that a Martyr h B. Latimer he in his Sermon upon the Gospel of a King that marryed his sonne after he hath cited the story of the man stoned for gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day hath these words i Bish Latimer in his Sermon upon the Gospel of a King that married his sonne preached an 1552. as the title sheweth sol 188. p. 1. Which is an example for us to take heed that wee transgresse not the law of the Sabbath day and a little after hee addeth These words pertaine as well to us at this time as they pertained to them in their time for God hateth the dis-hallowing of the Sabbath as well now as then for hee is and still remaineth the old God hee will have us to keepe his Sabbath as well now as then for upon the Sabbath day Gods seede-plow goeth that is to say the ministery of the Word is executed for the ministery of Gods Words is Gods plow In which few lines hee calleth the Lords day Sabbath no fewer then foure times he calleth it Sunday also I confesse but that is nothing to this purpose since the name Sabbath is in question not the name Sunday which we have treated on before and proved to bee lawfull k Archb. Whit. Ans to T. C. p. 578. or 758. Archbishop Whitgift was after him in time though above him in degree and dignity of the Church and he translating a Testimony out of Justin Martyrs Apologie turneth dies solis into the Sabbath day l B. Babington Bish Babington sometimes his Chaplaine was Bishop of Worcester in the late Queenes reign as Bishop Latimer was in King Edwards daies a venerable Prelate and a frequent and famous Preacher and hee useth the same name of the same day * B. Babington in com 4. p. 72. printed 1594. in 4th wee plainely see saith hee what day the Apostles celebrated and met upon having their solemne Assemblies namely on this our Sabbath and it addeth
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