CHAP. IV. Christ performed all these Promises to his Apostles and gave them his Spirit to enable them to all their commissioned work p. 11 CHAP. V. The Apostles did actually separate and appoint the first day of the Week for Holy Worship especially in Church Assemblies Which is explained in several subordinate Propositions And proved 1. By Scripture 2. By unquestionable History And the validity of this proof evinced and the denyers of it proved to subvert the Churches certainty of greater matters p. 12 CHAP. VI. This act of the Apostles appointing the Lords Day for holy Worship was done by the especial inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost p. 69 CHAP. VII Whether the seventh day Sabbath should be still kept by Christians as of Divine obligation Neg. proved Where is shewed how far the fourth Commandment is abrogated and all the Law of Moses p. 71 CHAP. VIII Of the Beginning of the Day p. 91 CHAP. IX How the Lords Day should be kept Of the length of the time and the Objection about weariness p. 93 CHAP. X. How the Lords Day should not be spent or what is unlawful on it Of worldly business Of recreations of Idleness c. p. 108 CHAP. XI What things should not be scrupled as un lawful on the Lords Day p. 129 CHAP. XII Of what importance the due observing of the Lords Day is Many great Reasons for it p. 139 CHAP. XIII What other Church Festivals or separated Dayes are lawful p. 148 THE CONTENTS OF THE Appendix CHAP. I. An Answer to certain Objections against the Lords Day p. 157 CHAP. II. An Answer to more Arguments for the seventh day Sabbath p. 180 CHAP. III. Whether the seventh day Sabbath be part of the Law of Nature or only a Positive Law p. 202 CHAP. IV. Whether every word in the Decalogue be of the Law of Nature and of perpetual obligation And whether all that was of the Law of Nature was in the Decalogue p. 214 CHAP. V. Whether the truest Antiquity be for the seventh day Sabbath as kept by the Churches of Christ p. 220 The Divine Appointment of the LORDS DAY proved as a separated Day for holy Worship especially in the Church-Assemblies And consequently the Cessation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath CHAP. I. Though the principal thing desired by the Enquirers is That I would prove to them the Cessation of the Seventh-day Sabbath yet because they cast off the Lords day which I take to be a far greater error and sin than the observation of both dayes and because that when I have proved the Institution of the Lords Day I shall the more easily take them off the other by proving that there are not two weekly dayes set apart by God for holy Worship Therefore I will begin with the first Question Whether the Lords day or first day of the week be separated by Gods Institution for holy Worship especially in publick Church-conventions Aff. And here for the right stating of the Question let it be noted 1. That it is not the Name of a Sabbath that we now meddle with or stand upon Let us agree in the Thing and we shall easily bear a difference about the name Grant that it is A day separated by Gods Institution for holy Assemblies and Worship and then call it a Sabbath or the Lords day as you please Though for my self I add That the Lords day is the name that the Holy Ghost hath set upon it and the name which the first Churches principally used and that they call it also sometimes by the name of the Christian Sabbath but that is only Analogically as it is resembled to the Jewish Sabbath and as they used the names Sacrifice and Altar at the same time for the Christians Commemoration of Christs Sacrifice in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and for the Table or as Dr. Young saith pag. 23. As in Scripture Baptism is called Circumcision And that very rarely too 2. That the Question of the manner of observing the Lords day and what exercises of Worship it must be spent in and what Diversions are lawful or unlawful as also when the day beginneth are not to be here medled with in the beginning but afterwards when the Divine Institution of the Day it self is first sufficiently proved Which is done as followeth Arg. That day which was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost was separated to holy Worship by God the Father and the Son But the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost Therefore the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by God the Father and the Son The Minor only needeth proof among Christians That day which was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost But the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost Therefore the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost The Minor which only needeth proof is thus proved That day which was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles who had the Holy Ghost promised them by Christ and given them to lead them into all truth and to bring all his Doctrines to their remembrance and to teach the Churches to do all his Commands and to feed and guide and order them as his principal commissioned Church-Minister was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost But such is the first day of the Week Therefore the first day of the Week is separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost I have five Propositions now distinctly to be proved four for the proof of the Major and one for the proof of the Minor The first Proposition is That Christ commissioned his Apostles as his principal Church-Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and deliver them all his Commands and Orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches The second Proposition is That Christ promised them his Spirit to enable them to do what he had commissioned them to do by leading them into all truth and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance and by guiding them as his Churches Guides The third Proposition is That Christ performed this promise and gave his Spirit accordingly to his Apostles to enable them to all their commissioned work The fourth Proposition is That the Apostles did actually separate or appoint the first day of the Week for holy Worship especially in Church-assemblies The fifth Proposition is That this act of theirs was done by the Guidance or inspiration of the Holy Ghost which was given them And when I have distinctly proved these five things no sober understanding Christian can expect that I should prove any more towards the proof of the Question in hand Whether the first day of the Week be separated by Gods
THE Divine Appointment OF THE Lords Day Proved As a separated Day for Holy Worship especially in the Church Assemblies And consequently the Cessation of the Seventh day Sabbath Written for the satisfaction of some Religious Persons who are lately drawn into Error or doubting in both these Points By Richard Baxter Rev. 1. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Loras Day Col. 2. 16 17. Let no 〈◊〉 judge you in Meat or in Driak or in respect of an Holy day or Feast or of the New 〈◊〉 or Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ. LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the three Crowns near Holborn Conduit 1671. THE PREFACE Reader IF thou think this Treatise both superfluous and Defective when so many larger have better done the work already I shall not at all gainsay the latter nor much the former The reason of my writing it was the necessity and request of some very upright Godly persons who are lately faln into doubt or Errour in point of the Sabbath day conceiving that because the fourth Commandment was Written in Stone it is wholly unchangeable and consequently the seventh day Sabbath in force and that the Lords day is not a Day separated by God to holy Worship I knew that there was enough written on this Subject long agoe But 1. Much of it is in Latine 2. Some Writings which prove the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath do withal treat so loosly of the Lords day as that they require a Confutation in the latter as well as a commendation for the former 3. Some are so large that the persons that I write for will hardly be brought to read them 4. Most go upon those grounds which I take to be less clear and build so much more than I can do on the fourth Commandment and on many passages of the old Testament and plead so much for the old Sabbatical notion and rest that I fear this is the chief occasion of many peoples Errours who when they find themselves in a wood of difficulties and nothing plain and convincing that is pleaded with them do therefore think it safest to stick to the old Jewish Sabbath The friends and acquaintance of some of these persons importuning me to take the plainest and nearest way to satisfie such honest doubters I have here done it according to my judgement not contending against any that go another way to work but thinking my self that this is very clear and satisfactory viz. to prove 1. That Christ did Commission his Apostles to Teach us all things which he commanded and to settle Orders in his Church 2. And that he gave them his spirit to enable them to do all this Infallibly by bringing all his words to their remembrance and by leading them into all truth 3. And that his Apostles by this spirit did de facto separate the Lords day for holy Worship especially in Church-Assemblies and declared the cessation of the Jewish Sabbaths 4. And that as this change had the very same Author as the Holy Scriptures the Holy Ghost in the Apostles so that fact hath the same kind of proof that we have of the Canon and the integrity and uncorruptness of the particular Scripture Books and Texts And that if so much Scripture as mencioneth the keeping of the Lords day expounded by the Concent and Practice of the Universal Church from the dayes of the Apostles all keeping this day as holy without the dissent of any one Sect or single person that I remember to have read of I say if all this History will not fully prove the point of fact that this day was kept in the Apostles times and consequently by their appointment then the same proof will not serve to evince that any text of Scripture is Canonical and uncorrupted nor can we think that any thing in the world that is past can have Historical proof I have been put to say somewhat particularly out of Antiquity for this evidence of the fact because it is that which I lay the greatest stress upon But I have not done it so largely as might be done 1. Because I would not lose the unlearned Reader in a Wood of History nor overwhelm him instead of edifying him 2. Because it is done already in Latine by Dr. Young in his Dies Dominica under the name of Theophilus Loncardiensis which I take to be the moderatest soundest and strongest Treatise on this subject that I have seen Though Mr. Cawdry and Palmer joyntly have done well and at greater length and Mr. Eaton Mr. Shephard Dr. Bound Wallaeus Rivet and my dear friend Mr. George Abbot against Broad have said very much And in their way Dr. White Dr. Heylin Bishop Ironside Mr. Brierwood c. 3. I chose most of the same Citations which Dr. Heylin himself produceth because he being the man that I am most put to defend my self against his confessions are my advantage 4. And if I had been willing I could not have been so full in this as the Subject will bespeak because I have almost eleven years been separated from my Library and long from the neighbourhood of any ones else I much pitty and wonder at those Godly men who are so much for stretching the words of Scripture to a sense that other men cannot find in them as that in the word Graven Images in the second Commandment they can find all set Formes of Prayer all composed studyed Sermons and all things about Worship of mans invention to be Images or Idolatry and yet they cannot find the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath in the express words of Col. 2. 16. nor the other Texts which I have cited nor can they find the Institution of the Lords day in all the Texts and Evidences produced for it But though Satan may somewhat disturbe our Concord and tempt some mens Charity to remissness by these differences he shall never keep them out of Heaven who worship God through Christ by the Spirit even in spirit and truth Nor shall he I hope ever draw me to think such holy persons as herein differ from me to be worse than my self though I think them in this to be unhappily mistaken much less to approve either of their own separation from others or of other mens condemning them as Hereticks and inflicting severities upon them for these their opinions sake THE CONTENTS CHAP. 1. THE state of the Question with the summary proof of the Divine separation of the Lords Day page 1. CHAP II. That Christ commissioned his Apostles as his principal Church-Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and to deliver them all his Commands and Orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches p. 5. CHAP. III. Christ promised his Spirit to his Apostles to enable them to do what he had commissioned them to do by leading them into all truth and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance and by guiding them at his Churches Guides p. 9.
customs taken up upon reasons proper to those times and places Obj. But by the reason aforesaid you will prove the continuance of the seventh day Sabbath as grounded on the Creation rest Answ. This is anom to be answered in due place I only prove that it continued till a successive dispensation and Gods own change did put an end to it but no longer Obj. But to commemorate the Creation and praise the Creator is a Moral work and therefore ceaseth not Answ. True but that it be done on the seventh day is that which ceaseth For the same work is transferred to the Lords day and the Creator and Redeemer to be honoured together in our Commemoration For the Son is the only way to the Father who hath restored us to Peace with our Creator And as no man cometh to the Father but by the Son and as we must not now worship God as a Creator and Father never offended but as a Creator and Father reconciled by Christ so is it the appointment of Christ by the Holy Ghost that we commemorate the work of Creation now as repaired and restored by the work of Redemption on the Lords day which is now separated to these works That the Sabbath was appointed to Adam Wallaeus on the fourth Commandment cap. 3. and Rivet dissert de sab c. 1. have most copiously proved And Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 5. out of Homer Hesiod Callimachus and others proveth that the Heathens knew of it We may therefore summ up the prerogatives of the Lords day as Leo did Ep. 81. c. 1. On this day the world began on this day by Christs Resurrection Death did receive Death and Life its beginning on this day the Apostles take the trumpet of the Gospel to be preached to all Nations on this day the Holy Ghost came from the Lord to the Apostles c. See more in Athanas. de Sab. Circ August Serm. 154. de Tempore Therefore saith Isychius in Levit. l. 2. c. 9. The Church setteth apart the Lords day for holy Assemblies And in the times of Heathenish persecution when men were asked Whether they were Christians and kept the Lords dayes they answered that they were and kept the Lords day which Christians must not omit as you may see Act. Martyâ— apud Baron an 303. n. 37 38 39. They would die rather than not keep the holy assemblies and the Lords dayes For saith Ignatius After the Sabbath every lover of Christ celebrateth the Lordâ— day 〈◊〉 to or by the Lords resurrection the Queen and chief of 〈◊〉 dâ—yes as is afore cited For saith Augustine The Lords Resurrection hath promised us an eternal Day and consecrated to us the Lords day which is called the Lords and properly belongeth to the Lord Serm. 15. de Verb. Apost And saith Hilary Prâ—leg in Psalm Though the name and observance of a Sabbath was placed to the seventh day yet is it the eighth day which is also the first on which we rejoyce with the perfect festivity of the Sabbath Of the fâ—â—l keeping of the whole day and of the several Exercises in which it was spent and of the more numerous testimonies of Antiquity hereupon Dr. Yâ—ung in his Dies Dominica hath said so much with so much evidence and judgement 〈◊〉 I purposely omit abundance of such Testimonies because I will not do that which he hath already done The Learned Reader may there find unanswerable proof of the matter of fact that the Lords day was kept in the Apostles dayes and ever since as by their appointment And for the unlearned Reader I fear lest I have too much interrupted him with Citations already I only tell him in the Conclusion that If Scripture Hiâ—tory interpreted and seconded by fullest practice and History of all the Churches of Christ and by the consent of Heathens and Heretickâ— and not contradicted by any Sect in the world be to be believed then we must say that the Lords day was commonly kept by the Christians in and from the Apostles times Prop. 11. This evidence of the Churches universal constant usage is a full and sufficient proof of the matter of fact that it was a day set apart by the Apostles for holy Worship especially in the publick Church-assemblies 1. It is a full proof that such Assemblies were held on that day above others as a separated day For if it was the usage in Anno 100. in which the Apostle John dyed it must needs be the usage in the year 99. in which he wrote his Revelations where he calleth it the Lords day For all the Churches could not silently agree on a sudden to take up a new day without debate and publick notice which could not be concealed And if it was the universal usage in the dayes of Ignatius or Justin Martyr it was so also in the dayes of St. John and so before For the Churches were then so far dispersed over the world that it would have taken up much time to have had Councils and meetings or any other means for agreement on such things And it is utterly improbable that there would have been no dissenters For 1. Did no Christians in the world so neer to the Apostles daies make any scruple of superstition or of such an addition to Divine institutions 2. Was there no Countrey nor no persons whose interest would not better suit with another day or an uncertain day or at least their opinions when we find it now so hard a matter to bring men in one Countrey to be all of one opinion 3. And there was then no Magistrate to fâ—rce them to such an Union And therefore it mast be voluntary 4. And they had in the second age such Pastors as the Apostles themselves had ordained and as had conversed with them and been trained up by them and knew their mind and cannot soberly be thought likely to consent all on a sudden to such a new institution without and contrary to the Apostles sense and practice 5. Yea they had yet Ministers that had that extraordinary spirit which was given by the laying on of the Apostles hands For if the aged Apostles ordained young men it is to be supposed that most of those young men such as Timothy overlived them 6. Yea and the ordinary Christians in those times had those extraordinary gifts by the laying on of the Apostles hands as appeareth evidently in the case of Samaria Act. 8. and of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 12. 14. and of the Galathians Gal. 3. 1 2 3. And it is not to be suspected that all these inspired Ministers and people would consent to a superstitious innovation without and against the Apostles minds 2. Therefore this history is a full proof that these things were done by the consent and appointment of the Apostles For 1. As is said the inspired persons and Churches could not so suddenly be brought to forsake them universally in such a case 2. The Churches had all so high an esteem of the Apostles
other Festivals whatsoever it is yet greater boldness without proof to exclude the principal part from whence the rest did receive the name 3. Besides the Feasts and New Moons being here named as distinct from the Sabbath are like to include so much of the other separated dayes as will leave it still more unmeet to exclude the weekly Sabbath in the Explication of that word Sabbaths when so many Feasts are first distinguished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incuit Grotius hic sunt Azyma dies omer scenopegia dies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obj. But the Sabbath mentioned in the Decalogue could not be included Answ. This is spoken without proof and the contrary is before proved Obj. By this you will make the Christian Sabbath also to be excluded Is not the Lords day a Sabbath Answ. I am here to speak but of the name of which I say that the common sense of the word Sabbath was a Day so appointed to Rest as that the bodily Rest of it was a primary part of its observation to be kept for it self and such the Jewish Sabbaths were Though spiritual Worship was then also commanded yet the corporal Rest was more expresly or frequently urged in the Law and this not only subordinately as an advantage to the spiritual worship but for it self as an immediate and most visible and notable part of Sabbatizing Even as other Ceremonies under the Law were commanded not only as doctrinal Types of things spiritual but as external Acts of Ceremonious operous obedience suited to the Jews Minority which is after called the yoke which they and their Fathers were unable to bear Acts 15. Whereas the Lords day is appointed but as a seasonable time subserviently to the spiritual work of the day And the bodily Rest not required as primary obedience for it self but only for the spiritual work sake and therefore no bodily labour is now unlawful but such as 〈◊〉 hinderance to the spiritual work of the day 〈◊〉 or accidentally a scandal and temptation to others whereas the breach of the outward Rest of the Jews Sabbath was a sin directly of it self without hinderance of or respect to the spiritual Worship So that the first notion and sense of a Sabbath in those dayes being in common use A day of such Ceremonial Corporal Rest as the Jewish Sabbath was the Lords day is never in Scripture called by that name but the proper name is The Lords day And the ancient Churches called it constantly by that name and never called it the Sabbath but when they spake Analogically by allusion to the Jews Sabbath even as they called the holy Table the Altar and the Bread and Wine the Sacrifice Therefore it is plain that Paul is to be understood of all proper Sabbaths and not of the Lords day which was then and long after distinguished from the Sabbath And this Ceremonial Sabbatizing of the Jews was so strict that the Ceremonicusness made them the scorn of the Heathens as appeareth by the derisions of Horat. li. 1. sat 9. Persius sat 5. Juvenal sat 6. Martial lib. 4. and others whereas they derided not the Christians for the Ceremonious Rest but for their Worship on that day The Lords day being not called a Sabbath in the old sense then only in use but distinguished from the Sabbath cannot be meant by the Apostle in his exclusion of the Sabbath Obj. But the Apostles then met in the Synagogues with the Jews on the Sabbaths Therefore it is not those dayes that he meaneth here Col. 2. 16. Answ 1. You might as well say that therefore he is not for the cessation of the Jewish manner of Worship or Communion with them in it because he met with them 2. And you may as well say that he was for the continuance of Circumcision and Purification because he purified himself and circumcised Timothy 3. Or that he was for the continuance of their other Feasts in which also he refused not to joyn with them 4. But Paul did not keep their Sabbaths formally as Sabbaths but only take the advantage of their Assemblies to teach them and convince them and to keep an interest in them And not scandalize them by an unseasonable violation and contradiction 5. And you must note also that the Text saith not Observe not Sabbath dayes but Let no man judge you that is Let none take it for your sin that you observe them not nor do you receive any such Doctrine of the necessity of keeping the Law of Moses The case seemeth like that of things strangled and blood which were to be forborn among the Jews while they were offensive and the use of them hindred their conversion Obj. But the ancient Christians did observe both dayes Answ. 1. In the first Ages they did as the Apostles did that is 1. They observed no day strictly as a Sabbath in the notion then in use 2. They observed the Lords day as a day set apart by the Holy Ghost for Christian Worship 3. They so far observed the Jews Sabbath materialy as to avoid their scandal and to take opportunity to win them 2. But those that lived far from all Jews and those that lived after the Law was sufficiently taken down did keep but one day even the Lords day as separated to holy uses except some Christians who differed from the rest as the followers of Papias did in the Millenary point 3. And note that even these dissenters did still make no question of keeping the Lords day which sheweth that it was on foot from the times of the Apostles 〈◊〉 whoever it was and whenever he wrote saith that After the Sabbath we keep the Lords day And Pseudo-Clemens Can. 33. saith Servants work five dayes but on the Sabbath and Lords day they keep holy day in the Church for the Doctrine or Learning of Godliness The Text of Gal. 4. 10. is of the same sense with Col. 2. 16. against the Jews Sabbath and therefore needeth no other defence And I would have you consider whether as Christs Resurrection was the foundation of the Lords day so Christs lying dead and buried in a Grave on the seventh day Sabbath was not a fundamental abrogation of it I say not the Actual and plenary abrogation For it was the Command of Christ by his Word Spirit or both to the Apostles before proved which fully made the change But as the Resurrection was the Ground of the new day so his Burial seemeth to intimate that the day with all the Jewish Law which it was the symbolical profession of lay dead and buried with him Sure I am that he saith when the Bridegroom is taken from them then shall they fast and mourn but he was most notably taken from them when he lay dead in the Grave And if they must fast and mourn that day they could not keep it as a Sabbath which was a day of joy Therefore as by death he overcame him that had the power of death Heb. 2. 14. and
subjects obedience to this Law it will make men to be in some sort Religious whether they will or not Though they cannot be truly Religious against their will it will make them visibly religious Yea Gods own Law if mans did nothing would lay arrawe on the Consciences of most who believe that there is a God that made that Law And the weekly Assemblies keep up the knowledge and profession of the Christian faith and keep God and Heaven in the peoples remembrance and keep sin under constant rebukes and disgrace And were it not for this Heathenisme Infidelity and prophaneness would quickly overspread the world The Lords day keepeth up the Christian Religion in the World III. The lamentable Ignorance of the generality in the world doth require the strict and diligent observation of the whole Lords day Children and Servants and ordinary Countrey people yea and too many of higher quality are so exceeding Ignorant of the things of God and their Salvation that all the constantest diligence that can be used with them in Preaching Exhorting Catechizing c. will not overcome it with the most The most diligent Masters of Families lament it how Ignorant their Families are when they have done the best they can Let those that plead for dancing and sporting away much of the day but do like men that do not secretly scorn Christianity nor despise their servants souls and let them but try what measure of knowledge the bare hearing of Common Prayer yea and a Sermon or two with it will beget in their servants if the rest of the day be spent in sports and let them judge according to experience If ever knowledge be propagated to such and families made fit to live like Christians it is likest to be by the holy improvement of this day in the diligent teaching and Learning the substance of Religion and in the Sacred exercises thereof IV. The great Carnality Wordliness and Carelesness of the most and their great averseness to the things of God doth require that they be called and kept to a close and diligent improvement of the Lords day Whatever unexperienced or carnal persons may pretend that such constant duty so long together will make them worse and more averse reason experience and Scripture are all against them If there be some backwardness at the first it is not sports and idleness that will cure it but resisting of the slothful humour and keeping to the work For there is that in Religion that tendeth to overcome mens averseness to Religion And it must be overcome by Religion and not by playing or idleness if ever it be overcome It is want of knowledge and experience of it which maketh them loath it or be weary of it when they have tryed it more and know it better they will if ever be reconciled to it Six dayes in a Week are a sufficient diversion Apprentices and Pupils and School-boyes will hold on in learning though they be averse And you think not all the six dayes too much to hold them to it A School-boy must learn daily eight or nine hours in a day and yet some wretched men yea Teachers would perswade poor souls that must learn how to be saved or perish for ever that less than eight hours one day in seven is too much to be spent in the needfullest excellentest and pleasantest matters in all the World If you say that the sublimity or difficulty maketh it wearisome I answer that Philosophers do much longer hold on in harder speculations If you say Divinity being unsuitable to carnal minds their sick Stomachs must take no more than they can digest I answer 1. Cannot a Carnal Preacher for his gain and honour and fancy hold on all the year in the study even of Divinity perhaps eight or ten hours every day in the week And may not ignorant people be brought one day to endure to be taught as long 2. That which you call Digesting is but Vnderstanding and believing and receiving it And one truth tendeth to introduce another And he that cannot learn with an hours labour may learn more in two 3. And it is hearing and exercise that must cure their want of appetite Experience telleth us that when people take the liberty of playes and sports and idleness for a recreation they come back with much more want of Love to holy exercises than they that continue longer at them Gratifying sloth and sensuality increaseth it and increaseth an averseness to all that is good For who are more averse than they that are most voluptuous If ever people be made seriously holy it is a due observation of the whole Lords day that is like to bring them to it I mean observing it in such Learning and seeking duties as they are capable of till they can do better For when the mind long dwelleth on the truth it will sink in and work And many strokes will drive the nail to the head Let the Adversaries of this day and diligence but observe And if true experience tell not the World that more souls are Converted on the Lords dayes than on all other dayes besides and that Religion best prospereth both as to the Number and the knowledge and serious Holiness of the professours of it where the Lords day is carefully sanctified rather than where Idleness and playing do make intermission than I will confess that I am uncapable of knowing any thing of this nature by experiences But if it be so fight not against the common light V. The Poverty Servitude and worldly necessities of the most do require a strict observation of the whole Lords day Tenants and Labourers Carters and Carryers and abundance of Tradesmen are so poor that they can hardly spare any other considerable proportion of time much less all their Children and Servants whose subjection with their Parents and Masters poverty restraineth them Alas they are fain to rise early and hasten to their work and scarce have leisure to eat and sleep as nature requireth And they are so toiled and wearied with hard labour that if they have at night a quarter of an hour to read a Chapter and Pray they can scarce hold open their eyes from sleeping What time hath the Minister then to come and teach them if we had such Ministers again as would be at the pains to do it And what time have they to hear or learn You must teach them on the Lords day or scarcely at all Almost all that they must learn must be then learnt I deny not but in those former years when the Law forbad me not to Preach the Gospel the people came to me on the week day house by house and also that they Learned much in their shops while they were working But 1. It came to each Families turn but one hour or little more in a whole Year For about fourteen families a week so Catechized and instructed did no sooner bring their course about 2. And our people were mostly Weavers whose
humane Nature 2. It is uncertain whether it was before the fall because we know not whether man fell on the same day in which he was Created which is the commonest opinion though unproved Whereupon Mr. ◠Walker in his Treat of the Sabbath maintaineth that the fall and promise went before the Sabbath and so that Gods rest had respect to Christ promised as the perfection of his works and that the Sabbath was first founded on Christ and the promise But because all this is unproved Opinion I incline to the Objectors and the common sense Reasons 4. The seventh day Sabbath was kept by Abraham Gen. 26. 5. by the Israelites Exod. 5. 5. The Law for the seventh day was repeated Exod. 16. 22 23. Answers 4. I am of the same opinion but it is uncertain so far as it is uncertain whether it was instituted actually at first But the rest Ex. 5. 5. seemeth plainly to referr to no Sabbath but to the peoples neglect of their tasks while Moses kept them in hope of deliverance and treated for them And their tasks with their desire to go into the Wilderness to Sacrifice maketh it probable that Pharaoh never allowed them the Sabbaths rest Reasons 5. The Decalogue was spoken by Jehovah Christ Exod. 20. 1. see the Assemblies lesser Catechisme on the Preamble in the Commands Because the Lord is our God c. Redeemer c. therefore we are bound to keep c. Exod. 19. 3. compared with Act. 7. 38. Esa. 63. 9. Ex. 19. 17. The Decalogue written by his Finger Ex. 31. 18. On Tables of Stone Ex. 32. 15 16 19. 34 1 28. and kept by all the Prophets Answers 5. All true and uncontroverted with these suppositions 1. That the Father as well as the Son gave the Decalogue 2. That the second person was not 〈◊〉 Incarnate Christ. 3. That the Law was given by the Ministration of Angels who its like are called the Voice and Finger of God 4. That God our Redeemer did variously Govern his Kingdom by his Law and Covenant in various Editions of which more anon Reasons 6. The Decalogue was confirmed by Jehovah Christ Ma◠5. 17 18 19. Luk. 16. 17. Mat. 28. 20. Joh. 14. 15. 15. 14. Rom 3. 31. 7. 12. Jam. 2. 8 12. NewCovenant Heb. 8. 10. 1 Joh. 3. 22 24. 1 Joh. 5. 3. 2 Ep. Joh. 5. 6. Rev. 12. 17. 14. 12. 22. 14 18. compared with Mal. 4. 4. Answers 6. Here beginneth our fundamental difference I shall first tell you what we take for the truth and then consider of what you alledge against it 1. We hold that every Law is the Law of some one some Law-maker or Soveraign power And therefore Christ being now the Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1. 22 23. whatever Law is now in Being to the Church must needs be the Law of Christ. 2. We hold that Christs Redeemed Kingdom hath been Governed by him with variety of Administrations by various Editions of his Law or Covenant That is I. Universally to Mankind viz. 1. Before his Incarnation which was first To Adam and secondly to Noah and to mankind in them both 2. After his Incarnation II. Particularly to the seed of Abraham even the Jews as a particular Political society chosen out of the World not as the only people or Church of God on Earth but for peculiar extraordinary mercies as a peculiar people 3. We believe that each of these Administrations was fittest for its proper time and subject according to the manifold Wisdom of God But yet the Alterations were many and great and all tended towards perfection so that the last Edition of the Covenant by Christ Incarnate and his Holy Spirit much excelled all that went before in the Kingdom of the Mediatour And all these changes were made by God-Redeemer himself 4. As it was the work of the Redeemer to be the Repairer of Nature and recoverer of man to God so in all the several Administrations the great Laws of Nature containing mans duty to God resulting from and manifested in our Nature as related to God and in the Natura rerum or the Works of God was still made the chief part of the Redeemers Law so that this Law of Nature whose summe is the Love of God and of his Image is ever the Primitive unchangeable Law and the rest are secondary subservient Laws either Positive or remedying or both And no tittle of this shall ever cease if nature cease not 5. But yet there are temporary Laws of Nature which are about Temporary things or where the Nature of the thing it self is mutable from whence the Natural duty doth result As it was a duty by the then Law of Nature it self for Adams Sons and Daughters to Marry Increase and multiply being made a natural Benediction and the means a natural Duty And yet now it is incest against the Law of Nature for Brother and Sister to Marry So it was a Natural duty for Adam and Eve before their Fall to love each other as innocent but not so when they ceased to be innocent For cessanie materiâ cessat obligatio 6. So also some Positive Commands made to Adam in Innocence ceased on the fall and sentence As to dress that Garden And some positives of the first Administrations of Grace did cease by the supervening of a more perfect administration As the two Symbolical or Sacramental Trees in the Garden were no longer such to man when he was turned out so no positive Ordinance of Grace was any longer in force when God himself repealed it by the introduction of a more perfect Administration 7. Accordingly we hold that a change is now made of the sanctified day Where note 1. That we take not the seventh day no nor one day in seven though that be nothing to our Controversie to be a Duty by the proper Law of Nature but by a Positive Law 2. That the seventh day is never called a Sahbath till Moses time but only a Sanctified and blessed day the word Sabbath being ever taken in Scripture for a day of Ceremonial Rest as well as of spiritual Rest and Worship 3. That Christ himself hath continued a seventh day but changed the seventh day to the first not as a Sabbath that is A day of Ceremonial Rest for he hath ended all Sabbaths as shadows of things that were to come even of rest which remained for the people of God Heb. 4. 9. Col. 2. 16. And this is it which is incumbent upon us to prove and I think I have fully proved already 4. That having proved the thing done the positive Law of the seventh day changed by the Holy Ghost to the first day it concerneth us not much to give the reasons of Gods doings But yet this reason may secondarily be observed That God having made the whole frame of Nature very good did thereby make it the glass in which he was to be seen by man and the Book
day And for the most part they Celebrated not the Lords Supper on that day And they abhorred the keeping it as a day of Rest. 2. They met on that day for all these Reasons 1. Because having been used in the beginning to meet every day in the Week when they had all things common and were to shew the power of the Evangelical Doctrine to the height Act. 2. 44 45 46. 4. 33 34 35. as they found cause to retrive their community so did they to meet seldomer and yet not so seldome as once a Week And therefore as we now keep other meetings for Lectures and Prayers besides the Lords day so did they then on Wednesdayes Fridayes and Saturdayes 2. Because the Conversion of the Jews was a great part of their work and hope And therefore to win them they would with Paul become Jews that is not affect an unnecessary distance but come as neer them as Lawfully they could 3. Because Converted Jews were no small part of the Eastern Churches who could not easily be quite brought off from Jewish Customes And the rest were unwilling to offend them being taught not to despise the weak that observed meats and days Rom. 14. 15. Gal. 2. 4. Because the Assemblies on the seventh day were taken as fit preparatories to the sanctifying of the Lords day on which account the Church of England now appointeth them These things one that is acquainted with Church History needeth no proof of And they are sufficiently proved before Ignatius words before cited are full And those of the Council of Laodicea Can. 29. are more full who do at once appoint meetings on the seventh day and yet Anathematize them that Judaize thereon by bodily rest and would have men labour on it and preferr the Lords day before it Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho doth largely shew that Circumcision and the Sabbath are ceased by the coming of Christ and his Institutions and are not now to be used by Christians And what writer have we of full reputation and credibility more ancient than Justin from whom any testimony in this case might be sought Tertullian one of the next li. 2. against Marcion saith that the Sabbath was for that Time and present occasion or use and not for perpetuity Athanasius was one that was for meeting on the Sabbath And yet writeth his Book de Sab. Circum purposely to prove that the Sabbath is ceased with Circumcision as a Shadow and that now the Lords day is the sanctified day And the like he hath most expresly in Homil. de Semente as is cited before saying that The Master being come the Vsher was out of use and the Sun being risen the Lamps are darkened Basil Ep. 74. Writeth against Apollinaris for holding that after the Resurrection we should keep Sabbaths and Judaizeâ— As if that were the perfection to which Christ would restore men See Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 43. And Chrysoft Hom. 19. in Mat. 12. against the use of the Sabbath Cyril Hieros cat 4. Epiphan against the Nazaraei condemn them for keeping the Sabbath and Circumcision though withal they kept the Lords day The same doth Epiphanius li. 1. Haer. 30. nâ— 2. and before him Eusebius Hist. li. 3. say of the Ebionites Augustine oft telleth us that the observation or keeping of the seventh day Sabbath is ceased and not to be done by Christians Qu. ex N. Test. 69. Ad Bonif. l. 3. Contr. Faust. Manich. li. 6. c. 4. De Genes ad lit l. 4. c. 13. de spir lit c. 14. de util Cred. c. 3. 3. And as for the Abassians keeping the Sabbath It s true they keep that day in some sort But it is as true that they use Circumcision and many other Jewish Ceremonies besides oft Baptizings And that they profess not to use these as the Jews do but only as ancient Customes and as Paul did while he complyed with them using the outward action for other ends than Judaizers do And the rather because they think their Emperours descended from Solomon But the Lords day they keep on the same account as other Christians And if this instance make any thing for Sabbatizing it will make as much for Circumcising and other Jewish rites but nothing against the Sanctifying of the Lords day 4. And as for the matter of Fasting on the Sabbath the Churches greatly varyed in their Customes The Eastern Churches and Millan in the West were against Fasting on the Sabbath on two accounts 1. Because as is said they would not offend the Jewes Even as many peaceable Non-Conformists who are against many Holy dayes now established do yet forbear labouring and opening their Shops on those dayes because they will not give offence Yea and go to hear the Sermons on those dayes though they keep them not Holy as such dayes 2. Because there were many sorts of Hereticks in those times who held that the World was made by an evil God and thence came evil and so they Fasted on the seventh day on that reason Which made the Christians avoid it lest they should Symbolize with those Hereticks And therefore the real or pretended Ignatius speaketh so severely against Fasting on the Sabbath as well as on the Lords day And so do the Constitutions called the Apostles yea and the Canons called theirs Can. 65. But in the Western Churches as is aforesaid both Jews and Hereticks were more distant or less considerable for numbers and therefore they fasted on the seventh day and that the rather lest they should seem by Sabbatizing to Judaize Which was before Antichrists appearing unless you think all the holy Doctors before cited and all the Western Churches to be Antichristian Having gone thus far I here add two more Scripture Arguments to prove the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath The first is because it is frequently made as Circumcision is a sign of the particular Covenant between God and that Nation as they were a political body and peculiar people Therefore if their Policy cease and Gods relation to them as a Political body and peculiar people and so that Political Covenant with them then also the signe of the Covenant and Relation ceaseth And though the word for ever is sometime added it is no other than is oft added also to the Jewish Law and Ceremonies 2. From Act. 15. Where the case is determined by a Council of Apostles Elders and Brethren yea by the Holy Ghost V. 28. It appeareth by V. 24. that the thing asserted by the false Teachers was that the Gentiles must be Circumcised and keep the Law that is of Moses V. 1. Now the seventh day Sabbath was part of that Law As Sacrificing was though it was a Law before But the Holy Ghost determineth the case to lay on them no greater burden than these necessary things after named where the Sabbath is none of them and therefore hereby shut out The precepts given to Noah are named of which the Sabbath was not
certain As of the Government of Augustus Tiberius Herod Pilate Foelix Festus c. 2. There are other certain means known to us of which I must refer the Reader to what I have written in my Reasons of the Christian Religion Part 2. Cap. 7. specially pag. 335. to 340. 3. No man can doubt but that the Christians of that same age as till the year one hundred might easily and certainly know such a matter of publick fact as whether the Lords day was constantly set apart and observed by all the Christian Churches for holy Worship For 1. It is certain that they did know it by sight and sense and therefore had no need of History 2. It is certain that they knew it before the Scriptures were written which we now speak of For it is not possible that for all those years time before any of the New Testament was written the Christians who assembled to worship God should not know on what day they used to assemble And if they knew it in the year 100. they must needs know it as well in the year 101. 102. 103. and so on For those that were young Christians fifty years after Christ would be aged at an hundred And those that were young at an hundred would be aged at an hundred and fifty and so on So that an age of people not ending at the age of a single person Congregations and societies are like Rivers that keep the same channel and name while one part of water followeth another Nay some of the same men are there anno 100. who were there anno 50. some anno 150. who were there anno 100. and so on Ten thousand thousand men women and children can tell on what day the Congregations of England use to assemble whereas if an Apostle were among us and should write on what day we assemble fewer would know it by that means And they that knew it but by his writing would know it less confidently than they that knew it by sense and experience Yet forget not that I am far from ascribing a certainty or a credibility to all humane History Much more from equalling any with the credit of Divine History But only I say 1. That sense is more assuring as to the subject than any History whatever 2. And that some History besides Divine is certain 3. And that much History is credible 4. And that this instance of the Day on which all Churches in the world assembled for holy Worship is one of the most palpable for certainty that possibly could be imagined 4. And I add that if some humane History or Tradition be not certain there can be no certainty of much of the Divine History to any but the persons who were themselves inspired or that saw the Visions or Miracles that confirmed them For as internal sense or intuition must assure the Inspired persons themselves and external sense must assure those that saw the matters of fact so all the rest have no way to know them but either still by a succession of New Revelations from Heaven which God doth not give or else by Report And I can no otherwise know what was revealed to an Apostle nor what was done in those times Of which more anon Prop. 5. The first institution of Church Offices and Orders and so of the Lords day was not by Scripture The proof is undeniable Because the Old Testament did not contain the Institution e. g. of particular Churches Sacraments Presbyters Deacons Deaconesses and the Lords day c. And the New Testament was none of it written till anno 40. at soonest when some as Bucholtzer Bellarm c. think Matthews Gospel was written though others say many years after and it was not all written till ann 99. Now it is certain that the Church was not all these years without the Orders now in question nor without a day to meet on for publick Worship Even as Baptism and the Lords Supper were instituted by Christ himself long before the writing of any part of the New Testament and the Church was in long possession of them upon the bare verbal declaration of the Apostles Prop. 6. Therefore it is certain that no part of the New Testament was written to any such end as to institute Sacraments or Church Offices or standing Orders but to instruct men about those that were already instituted as to the use of those times For it could not be written to institute that which was instituted before so many years Prop. 7. No part of the New Testament was written to make known to the Churches of those times the said Sacraments Offices stated Orders and Time of Worship Still observe that by a part I mean any book And I except the Decree written in a Letter of the Apostles Elders and Brethren Act. 15. concerning Circumcision not to be imposed on the Gentiles which yet made no new institution nor declared any but only determined of the continued forbearance of some things forbidden before of God in the precepts called Noah's and Pauls Epistles which reduce the Churches to Orders before setled and urge them to duty and decide some doubts about particular cases of Conscience The proof is visible 1. In the Writings themselves 2. In that all the Churches were in the possession and use of all the things in question long before For mutable Orders and Circumstances are none of the things in question It would be vain to write a history now to tell English men of this present age that the Lords day is used in England as a day set apart for publike worship or that persons are Baptized or receive the Lords Supper in England For seeing it is the common usage of all the Christians almost of the Land it is needless to tell men among us by writing that it is so unless it be to inferr somewhat else from it Prop. 8. Yet those holy Scriptures which were written to men of those times were also intended for the instruction of all succeeding ages And so the foure Evangelists wrote the history of Christ and Luke wrote the history of Paul till his coming to Rome and longer and of some more of the Apostles And on the by in the Epistles extant the Churches Customes of those times are much intimated And all this together with the subordinate history and the universal tenure and practice of the Churches is that history by which we must know the matters of fact of those times Nor is there any room left for a rational pretense of Rome or any other Church to produce Divine Institutions which were committed only to them or entrusted to their particular keeping only and were not delivered in Scripture nor in Common to the whole Church Prop. 9. Thus according to the use of the writings of the New Testament the matter of fact in question of the Lords dayes separation is historically touched on and proved though but briefly and on the by as a thing as well known to the
Church before as what day goeth over their head The Historical hints of the New Testament must be taken together and not a part only that they may prove a usage And 1. That Christ rose on that day is past doubt among Christians Joh. 20. 1. Luk. 24. 1. Mar. 16. 2. Matth. 28. 1. 2. On that same day he taught the two disciples Luk. 24. 13. And the same day he appeared to the Disciples and instructed them and did eate with them Luk. 24. 33 36. Theâ— the Disciples were assembled and theâ— he blessed them gave them their Commission and the Holy Ghost Joh. 20. 19 20 21 22. 3. The next first day of the week Christ chose to appear to them again when Thomas was with them and convinced him Joh. 20. 26. 4. In Act. 20. 7. It is mentioned as the day of their Assembling to break bread which though they did oft on other daies yet no day else was peculiarly appointed for it As for the dissenters cavil about the Translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza hath given them Reason enough against it And Grotius and almost all expositors are against them And most that translate it literally una Sabbatorum take Vna and Prima here to be all one And Calvin with others noteth that the same phrase being used of the day of the Resurrection Matth. 26. 1. Luk. 24. 1. Joh. 20. 1. will direct us to expound this unless you mean also to deny the Resurrection to have been on the first day And 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must needs have the same signification And Mark 26. 9. compared with the other Evangelists so expounds them as Beza noteth who also telleth us that in one old Copy he found added the Lords day and citeth Hierome adv Vigilant saying Per unam Sabbati hoc est in die Dominico c. And Dr. Hammond well noteth that it plainly relateth to the Christian assemblies to which they were not to come empty but to deposite what they brought into the treasury of the Church or if it were in their private repositories it doth not much difference the case Calvins exception against Chrysostome here is groundless as the reasons before evince So that by this Text the custome of holding Church meetings on the Lords day as a peculiar day is intimated though but on the by as most Expositors agree And the denomination of the Lords day Joh. 1. 10. being the same which the Christian Churches ever used of the First day puts it yet further out of doubt As for his conjecture who doubteth whether it may be meant of the Anniversary day of Christs Resurrection when as the constant use of the name by all the Churches sheweth that it was taken ever since for the weekly day it deserveth no other refutation Now though all this set together shew that Scripture is not silent of the matter of fact yet it is the full and unquestionable expository evidence of the practice of all Churches in the world since the very daies of the Apostles which beyond all doubt assureth us that de facto the Lords day was by the Apostles separated for holy Worship especially in publick Church-assemblies But these several intimations being seconded with so full an Exposition tell us that the Scripture is not silent in the case nor doth pass it by I was loth to name the day of the sending down of the Holy Ghost as a proof Because that some do controvert it But it seemeth to me a very considerable thing 1. That the day that year 〈…〉 of Pentecost on which the Holy Ghost was given was indeed the first day of the week even Dr. Heylin granteth without any question or stop And the Churches observation of Whitsunday as the day and that so very early as Epiphanius and many others say from the Apostles doth seem a very credible history or tradition of it 2. It s agreed on that the Passoever that year fell on the Sabboth day and that Pentecost was fifty daies after the Passover which falleth out on the Lords day And Grotius noteth from Exod. 19. 1. that it was the day that the Law was given on and so on which the Spirit was given for the new Law 3. And considering that this great gift of the Holy Ghost which was to make the Apostles Infallible and to enable them for their commission-work and bring all Christs Doctrines and Commands to their remembrance was so memorable a thing that it was as it were the Beginning of the full Gospel-state of the Church and Kingdom of Christ which through all Christs abode on Earth was as the Infant existent indeed but in the womb and on this day was as it were Born before the world and brought into the open light the Lords day also seemeth to me to be as it were Conceived on the day of Christs Resurrection but Born on this day of the Holy Ghosts descent But Dr. Heylin hath one poor reason against it viz. Because it was but an accidental thing that the day fell out that year on the first day Answ. 1. Was it not according to the course of Nature How then can that be called Accidental 2. But however it was no contingent accidental thing in his sense that the Holy Ghost was sent down on that day rather than another If a sparrow fall not to the ground without Gods providence did God choose that day He knew not why Or did it fall out hap hazard or by chance I need not insist on the confutation of his Caviâ—s about the other Texts forecited Note only 1. That as to his exception about Christs travel on his Resurrection day I have after answered it 2. That he freely granteth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifiâ—th The first day of the week both in Act. 20. 7. and 1 Cor. 16. 2. 3. That he himself citeth afterward many testimonies that oblations and contributions were in the Churches a usual Lords dayes work 4. That he confesseth that Rev. 10. 1. is meant of the Lords day as by that time grown into reputation 5. That he thinketh it was in small reputation before because Paul chose the Sabbath so often to Preach on to the Jews and Hellenists or Greeks whereas he himself is forced to confess that it was not for the days sake but the Assemblies to do them good 6. That he vainly conceiteth that Because the Lords day was kept on the account of Christs Resurrection it implyeth that it was not kept by Gods command which needeth no confutation 7. That his labour to prove that Paul meant the Jewish Sabbath as abrogated is vain for we deny it not 8. That he cannot deny that Christians had all that time of the Apostles a stated day as Pliny himself witnesseth for solemn worship above other daies 9. That he vainly snatcheth a little countenance from Calvin and Beza c. when as no man since Cochlaeus writeth more detestably of them 10. That after he
and the unwritten Vniversal Traditions to be somewhat lower which there was no Scripture for at all Among which the white Garment and the Milk and Honey to the Baptized and the Adoration toward the East are numbred For he that is appointed to worship on the Lords dayes standing or toward the East is supposed to know that on that day he is to worship If the Mode on that day be of Universal Tradition as a Ceremony the day is supposed to be somewhat more than of unwritten Tradition 15. I add here also though in the fourth Century because it looks back to the Institution the words of Athanasius cited by Heylin himself Homil. de Semente though Nannius question it That our Lord transferred the Sabbath to the Lords day But saith Dr. Heylin This must be understood not as if done by his Commandment but on his occasion the Resurrection of our Lord on that day being the principal Motive which did influence his Church to make choice thereof for the Assemblies For otherwise it would cross what formerly had been said by Athanasius in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Answ. It expresseth the common judgement of the Church that Christ himself made the Change by these degrees 1. Fundamentally and as an Exemplar by his own Resurrection on that day giving the first cause of it as the Creation-rest did of the seventh day 2. Secretly commanding it to his Apostles 3. Commissioning them to promulgate all his Commands 4. Sending down the Spirit on that very day 5. And by that Spirit determining them by promulgation to determine publickly of the day and settle all the Churches in long possession of it before their death That which is thus done may well be said to be done by Christ 2. And what shew of Contradiction hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this It was commanded at first that the Sabbath day should be observed in memory of the accomplishment of the World so do we celebrate the Lords day as a Memorial of the beginning of a new Creation Had not he a Creating head here that out of these words could gather that we celebrate the Lords day without a command Voluntarily One would think so should signifie the contrary But ib. pag. 8. he citeth Socrates for the same saying that The designe of the Apostles was not to busie themselves in prescribing festival daies but to instruct the people in the wayes of Godliness Answ. Socrates plainly rebuketh the busie Ceremonious arrogancy of after Ages for making new holy dayes and doth not at all mean the Lords day but saith that to make festivals that is other and more as since they did was none of the Apostles business Nor is this any thing at all to the matter of fact which none denyed 16. I will add that as another Testimony which p. 9. he citeth against it The Council at Paris An. 829. c. 50. which as he speaketh ascribeth the keeping of the Lords day to Apostolical Tradition confirmed by the Authority of the Church The words are ut creditur Apostolorum traditione immo Ecclesiae authoritate descendu c. Now I have proved that if the Apostles did it they did it by the Holy Ghost and by Authority from Christ But he citeth p. 7 8. the words of Athanasius Maximus Taurinensis and Augustine saying that We honour the Lords day for the Resurrection and because Christ rose and Aug. The Lords day was declared to Christians by the Resurrection of our Lord and from that or from him rather began to have its festivity From whence he gathereth that it was only done by the authority of the Church and not by any precept of our Saviour Answ. As if Christs Resurrection could not be the fundamental occasion and yet Christs Law the obliging cause Would any else have thus argued The Jews observed the seventh day Sabbath because the Creator rested the seventh day Therefore they had no command from God for it Woe to the Churches that have such expositors of Gods commands Or as if Christ who both Commissioned and Inspired the Apostles by the Holy Ghost to teach all his commands and settle Church Orders were not thus the chief Author of what they did by his Commission and Spirit What Church can shew the like Commission or the like Miraculous and Infallible Spirit as they had See further August de Civitat Dei l. 22. c. 30. Serm. 15. de Verb. Apostol But saith he Christ and two of his Disciples travelled on the day of his Resurrection from Jerusalem to Emaus seven miles and back again which they would not have done if it had been a Sabbath Answ. 1. They would not have done it if it had been a Jewish Sabbath of Ceremonial Rest But those that you count too precise will go as far now in Case of need to hear a Sermon And remember that they spent the time in Christs preaching and their Hearing and Conferring after of it 2. But we grant that though the Foundation was laid by Christs Resurrection yet it was not a Law fully promulgate to and understood by the Apostles till the Coming down of the Holy Ghost nor many greater matters neither who was promised and given to teach them all things c. And it is worth the noting how Heylin beginneth his Chap. 3. l. 2. The Lords day taken up by the common consent of the Church not instituted or established by any Text of Scripture or Edict of Emperour or Decree of Council save that some few Councils did reflect upon it In that which follows we shall find both Emperours and Councils very frequent in ordering things about this day and the Service of it Answ. Note Reader What could possibly besides Christ and the Holy Ghost in the Apostles be the Instituter of a day which neither Emperour nor Council instituted and yet was received by the common consent of all Churches in the World even from and in the Apostles dayes Yea as this man confesseth by their Approbation and Authority But hence forward in the fourth Century I am prevented from bringing in my most numerous witnesses by Heylins Confession that now Emperours Councils and all were for it But yet let the Reader remember 1. How few and small Records be left of the second Century and not many of the third 2. And that Historical copious Testimonies of the fourth Century that is Emperours Councils and the most pious and learned Fathers attesting that the Universal Church received it from the Apostles is not vain or a small Evidence when as the fourth Century began but 200 years after St. Johns death or within less than a year And that the first Christian Emperour finding all Christians unanimous in the possession of the day should make a Law as our Kings do for the due observing of it And that the first General Council should establish uniformity in the very Gesture of Worship on that day are strong Confirmations of the matter of fact that the
the Reasons of them 1. A Law of Clâ—tharius King of France forbidding servile labours on the Lords day Because the Law forbids it and the holy Scripture wholly contradicteth it 2. A Constitution of the Emperour Leo Philosophus to the same purpose Secundum quod Spiritui sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit As it pleased the Holy Ghost and the Apostles instructed by him You see that then Christian Princes judged the Lords day to be of Divine Institution Yea to these he addeth two more Princes of the same mind confessing that Leo was himself a Scholar and Charles the Great had as Learned men about him as the times then bred and yet were thus perswaded of the day yea and that many Miracles were pretended in confirmation of it yet he affirmeth that the Church and the most learned men in it were of another mind Let us hear his proofs 1. Saith he Isidore a Bishop of Sevil makes it an Apostolical Sanction only no Divine Commandment a day designed by the Apostles for Religious Exercises in honour of our Saviours resurrection and it was called the Lords day therefore to this end and purpose that resting in the same from all earthly acts and the temptations of the world we might intend Gods holy Worship giving this day due honour for the hope of the resurrection which we have therein The same verbatim is repeated by Beds l. de Offic. and by Raban Maurus l. de inst Chr. l. 2. c. 24. and by Alcuinus de Die Offic. c. 24. which plainly shews that all these took it only for an Apostolical usage c. Answ. Reader is not here a strange kind of proof This is but just the same that we assert and I am proving save that he most grosly puts an Apostolical usage and sanction sanxerunt as distinct from and exclusive of a Command which I have fully proved to be Christs own Act and Law to us by vertue of 1. Their Commission 2. And the infallible Spirit given them And having brought the History to so fair an account by our chief Adversaries own Citations and confessions I will not tire my self and the Reader with any more but only wish every Christian to consider whether they that thus distinguish between Apostolical Sanctions and Divine Institutions as this man doth do not teach men to deny all the holy Scriptures of the New Testament as being but Apostolical writings and go far to deny or subvert Christianity it self by denying the Divine Authority of these Commissioned Inspired men who are foundations of the Church and sealed their Doctrine by Miracles and from whom it is that our Christian Faith and Laws and Church constitutions which are Universal and Divine are received I only remember you of Pliny a Heathens testimony of the Christians practice stato die No man can question Pliny on the account of Partiality And therefore though a Heathen his Historical testimony as joyned with all the Christian Church History hath its credibility He telleth Trajan that it was the use of Christians on a stated day before it was light to meet together to sing a Hymn to Christ as to God secum invicem among themselves by turns and to bind themselves by a Sacrament not to do any wickedness but that they commit not Thefts Robberies Adulteries that they break not their word or trust that they deny not the pledge or pawn which being ended they used to depart and to come again together to take meat but promiscuous and harmless Epist. 97. p. 306 307. Where note 1. That by a stated day he can mean no other than the Lords day as the consent of all other History will prove 2. That this is much like the testimonies of Justin and Tertullian and supposing what they say of the use of Reading the Scripture and Instructing the Church it sheweth that their chief work on that day was the Praises of God for our Redemption by Christ and the celebration of the Lords Supper and the Disciplinary exercises of Covenanters thereto belonging 3. That they had at that time where Pliny was two meetings that day that is they went home and came again to their Feast of Love in the Evening Which no doubt was varied as several times and places and occasions required sometimes departing and coming again and sometimes staying together all day 4. That this Epistle of Pliny was written in Trajans dayes and it is supposed in his second year And Trajan was Emperour the year that St. John the Apostle died if not a year before so that it is the Churches custom in the end of the Apostles dayes which Pliny here writeth of 5. That he had the fullest testimony of what he wrote it being the consent of the Christians whom he as Judge examined even of the timorous that denyed their Religion as well as of the rest And many of them upon his prohibition forbore these meetings 6. And the number of them he telleth Trajan in City and Countrey was great of persons of all degrees and ranks So that when 1. Christian History 2. And Heathen acquaint us with the matter of fact that the day was kept in the Apostles time 3. Yea when no Hereticks or Sects of Christians are found contradicting it but the Churches then and after universally practised it without any controversie what fuller historical evidence can there be And to say that 1. The Apostles would not have reproved this if it had not been their own doing 2. Or that it could be done and they not know it 3. And that all Christians who acknowledged their authority would have consented in such a practice superstitiously before their faces and against their wills and no testimony be left us of one faithful Church or Christian that contradicted it and stuck to the Apostolical authority even where the Churches received their writings and publickly read them all this is such as is not by sober Christians to be believed But the great Objection will be That other things also were then taken for Apostolical Traditions and were customs of the universal Church as well as this which things we now renounce as superstitious Answ. Though I answered this briefly before I now give you this fuller answer I. It is but few things that come under this charge viz. the Unction white Garment with the taste of Milk and Honey at Baptism Adoration towards the East and that standing and not kneeling on the Lords dayes and the Anniversary Observation of Easter and Whitsuntide And the last is but the keeping of one or two Lords dayes in the year with some note of distinction from the rest so far as there was any agreement in it 2. That these are not usually by the Antients called Apostolical Traditions but Customs of the Vniversal Church 3. That when they are called Traditions from the Apostles it is not with any assertion that the Apostles instituted them but that they are supposed to be from their times because their
Original is not known 4. That the Antients joyn not the Lords day with these but take the Lords day for an Apostolical institution written in Scripture though the universal practice of all Churches fullier deliver the certain History of it But the rest they take for unwritten Customs as distinct from Scripture Ordinances As Epiphanius fully sheweth 5. That most Christians are agreed that if these later could be proved Apostolical Institutions for the Church universal it would be our duty to use them though they were not in Scripture So that we reject them only for want of such proof But the proof of the Lords dayes separation being far better by concurrence of Scripture and all antient History it followeth not that we must doubt of that which hath full and certain proof because we must doubt of that which wants it 6. And if it were necessary that they stood or fell together as it is not it were necessary that we did receive those three or four Ceremonies for the sake of the Lords day which â—ath so great evidence rather than that we cast off the Lords day because of these Ceremonies Not only because there is more Good in the Lords dâ—y than there is evil to be any way suspected by a doubter in these Ceremonies but especially because the Evidence for the day is so great that if the said Ceremonies had but the same they were undoubtedly of Divine authority or institution In a word I have shewed you somewhat of the evidence for the Lords day Do you now shew me the like for them and then I will prove that both must be received But if you cannot do not pretend a parity 7. And the same Churches laying by the Customs aforesaid or most of them did shew that they â—â—ok them not indeed for Apostolical institutions as they did the Lords day which they continued to observe not as a Ceremony but as a necessary thing 8. And the ancient Churches did believe that even in the Apostles dayes some things were used as Indifferent which were mutable and were not Laws but temporary customs And some things were necessary setled by Law for perpetuity Of the former kind they thought were the greeting one another with a holy kiss the Womens praying covered with a Veil of which the Apostle saith that it was then and there so decent that the contrary would have been unseemly and the Churches of God had no such custom by which he answereth the contentious yet in other Countreys where custom altereth the signification it may be otherwise Also that a man wear not long hair and that they have a Love Feast on the Lords day which yet Paul seemeth to begin to alter in his rebuke of the abusers of it 1 Cor. 11. And if these ancient Churches thought the Milk and Honey and the white Garment and the Station and Adoration Eastwards to be also such like indifferent mutable customs as it is apparent they did this is nothing at all to invalidate our proof that the Lords day was used and consequently appointed in the dayes of the Apostles Obj. At least it will prove it mutable as they were Answ. No such matter Because the very nature of such Circumstances having no stated necessity or usefulness sheweth them to be mutable But the reason of the Lords dayes use is perpetual And it is founded partly in the Law of nature which telleth us that some stated dayes should be set apart for holy things and partly in the positive part of the fourth Commandment which telleth us that once God determined of one day in seven yea and this upon the ground of his own Cessation of his Creation-work that man on that day might observe a Holy Rest in the worshipping of the great Creator which is a Reason belonging not to the Jews only but to the whole world Yea and that Reason whatever Dr. Heylin say to the contrary from the meer silence of the former History in Genesis doth seem plainly to intimate that this is but the repetition of that Law of the Sabbath which was given to Adam For why should God begin two thousand years after to give men a Sabbath upon the reason of his rest from the Creation and for the Commemoration of it if he had never called man to that Commemoration before And it is certain that the Sabbath was observed at the falling of Manna before the giving of the Law And let any considerate Christian judge between Dr. Heylin and us in this 1. Whether the not falâ—ing of Manna or the Rest of God after the Creation was like to be the Original reason of the Sabbath 2. And whether if it had been the first it would not have been said Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day for on six dayes Manna fell and not on the seventh rather than For in six dayes God created Heaven and Earth c. and rested the seventh day And it is causally added Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it Nay consider whether this annexed Reason intimate not that the day on this ground being hallowed before therefore it was that God sent not down the Manna on that day and that he prohibited the people from seeking it And he that considereth the brevity of the History in Genesis will think he is very bold that obtrudeth on the world his Negative Argument The Sabbath is not there mentioned therefore it was not then kept And if it was a Positive Law given to Adam on the reason of the Creation Rest it was then such a Positive as must be next to a Law of Nature and was given to all mankind in Adam and Adam must needs be obliged to deliver it down to the world So that though the Mosaical Law even as given in Stone be ceased yea and Adams Positives too formally as such yet this is sure that once God himself determined by a Law that one stated day in seven was the fittest proportion of time to be separated to holy Worship And if it was so once yea to all the world from the Creation it is so still Because there is still the same reason for it And we are bound to judge Gods determination of the proportion to be wiser than any that we can make And so by parity of Reason consequentially even those abrogated Laws do thus far bind us still not so far as abrogated but because the record and reason of them is still a signification of the due proportion of time and consequently of our duty Now the Lords day supposing one weekly day to be due and being but that day determined of and this upon the Reason of the Resurrection and for the Commemoration of our Redemption and that by such inspired and authorized persons it followeth clearly that this is no such mutable ceremony as a Love Feast or the Kiss of Love or the Veil or the washing of feet or the anointing of the sick which were mostly occasionall actions and
History assureth us that they did III. Nor have we any fuller Scripture proof that the Apostles used to require of those that were to be Baptized any more than a general Profession of the substance of the Christian faith in God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Or of the ancient use of the Christian Creed either in the words now used or any of the same importance From whence many would inferr that any one is to be Baptized who will but say that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God with the Eunuch Act. 8. 37. or that Christ is come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4. 2 3. But Historical evidence assureth us that it was usual in those times to require of men a more explicite understanding profession of the Christian faith before they were admitted to Baptisme And that they had a summary or Symbole fitted to that use commonly called The Apostles Creed at least as to the constant tenour of the matter though some words might be left to the speakers will and some little subordinate Articles may be since added And that it was long after the use to keep men in the state of Catechised persons till they understood that Creed And it is in it self exceeding probable that though among the intelligent Jews who had long expected the Messiah the Apostles did Baptize thousands in a day Act. 2. Yet where the Miraculous communication of the Spirit did not antecede as it did Act. 10. they would make poor Heathens who had been bred in ignorance to understand what they did first and would require of them an understanding profession of their Belief in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which could not possibly if understanding contain much less than the Symbolum fidâ—i the Apostles Creed IV. Nor have we any Scripture proof except by inferring obedience from the precept that ever the Lords Prayer was used in words after Christ commanded or delivered it Whence some inferr that it should not be so used But Church History putteth that past doubt Other such instances I pretermit I think now that I have fully proved to sober considerate Christians that the matter of fact that the Lords day was appointed by the Apostles peculiarly for Church-Worship is certain to us by historical Evidence added to the historical intimations in Scripture as a full exposition and confirmation of it And that this is a proof that no Christian can deny without unsufferable injury to the Scriptures and the Christian cause CHAP. VI. Prop. 5. This Act of the Apostles appointing the Lords day for Christian Worship was done by the special inspiration or guidance of the Holy Ghost THis is proved 1. Because it is one of those Acts or works of their Office to which the Holy Ghost was promised them 2. Because that such like or smaller things are by them ascribed to the Holy Ghost Act. 15. 28. Iâ— seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us when they did but declare an antecedent duty and decide a Controversie thereabout See also Act. 4. 8. Act. 5. 3. 6. 3. with 7. 55. Act. 13. 2 4. 16. 6 7. 20. 23 28. 21. 11. 2 Tim. 1. 14. Jud. 20. Act. 11. 12 28. 19. 21. 20. 22. 1 Cor. 5. 3 4. 14. 2 15 16. And 1 Cor. 7. 40. When Paul doth but counsel to a single life he ascribeth it to the Spirit of God 3. And if any will presume to say that men purposely indued with the Spirit for the works of their commission did notwithstanding do such great things as this without the conduct of that Spirit they may by the same way of proceeding pretend it to be as uncertain of every particular Book and Chapter in the New Testament whether or no they wrote it by the Spirit For if it be a sound inference They had the promise and gift of the Spirit that they might infallibly leave in writing to the Churches the doctrines and precepts of Christ Ergo whatever they have left in Writing to the Churches as the doctrine and precepts of Christ is Infallibly done by the Guidance of that Spirit Then it will be as good an inference They had the promise and gift of the Spirit that they might infallibly settle Church-orders for all the Churches universalâ—y ergo Whatever Church-orders they setled for all the Churches universally they setled them by the infallible guidance of that Spirit But this few Christians will deny except some Papists who would bring down Apostolical Constitutions to a lower rank and rate that the Pope and his General Council may be capable of â—â—ying claim to the like themselves and so may make as many more Laws for the Church as they please and pretend such an authority for it as the Apostles had for theirs By which preâ—ense many would make too little distinction between Gods Laws given by his Spirit and the Laws 〈◊〉 a Pope and Popish Council and call then all but The Laws of the Church Whereas there is no Universal Head of the Church but Christ who hath reserved Universal Legislation to Himself alone to be performed by himself personally and by his Advocate the Holy Ghost in his Authorized and Infallibly-inspired Apostles who were the Promulgators and Recorders of them All following Pastors being but as the Jewish Priests were to Moses and the Prophets the preservers the expositers and the applyers of that Law CHAP. VII Qu. 2. Whether the seventh day Sabbath should be still kept by Christians as of Divine obligation Neg. I Shall here premise That as some superstition is less dangerous than prophaneness though it be troublesome and have ill consequents so the Errour of them who keep both daies as of Divine appointment is much less dangerous than theirs that keep none yea and less dangerous I think than theirs who reject the Lords day and keep the seventh day only Because these latter are guilty of two sins the rejecting of the right day and the keeping of the wrong but the other are guilty but of one the keeping of the wrong day Besides that if it were not done with a superstitious conceit that it is Gods Law in some cases a day may be voluntarily set apart for holy duties as daies of Thanksgiving and Humiliation now are But yet though the rejecting of the Lords day be the greater fault and I have no uncharitable censures of them that through weakness keep both daies I must conclude it as the truth that We are not obliged to the observation of the Saturday or seventh day as a Sabbath or separated day of holy Worship Arg. 1. That dayes observation which we are not obliged to either by the Law of Nature the Positive Law given to Adam the Positive Law given to Noah the Law of Moses nor the Law of Christ incarnate we are not obliged to by any Law of God as distinct from humane Laws But such is the observation of the seventh day as a Sabbath Ergo we are
he is in the right that maketh Conscience of the Lords day only 2. But yet I will not break Charity with any Brother that shall in tenderness of Conscience keep both dayes especially in times of prophaness when few will be brought to the true observation of one 3. But I think him that keepeth the seventh day only and neglecteth the Lords day to sin against very evident light with many aggravations 4. But I think him that keepeth no day whether professedly or practising contrary to his profession whether on pretence of avoiding Superstition or on pretence of keeping every day as a Sabbath to be far the worst of all I shall now add somewhat to some appendant Questions CHAP. VIII Of the beginning of the Day Quest. 1. When doth the Lords day begin Answ. 1. If we can tell when any day beginneth we may know when that beginneth If we cannot the necessity of our ignorance will shorten the trouble of our scruples by excusing us 2. Because the Lords day is not to be kept as a Jewish Sabbath ceremoniously but the Time and the Rest are here commanded subserviently for the work sake therefore we have not so much reason to be scrupulous about the hours of beginning and ending as the Jews had about their Sabbath 3. I think he that judgeth of the beginning and ending of the day according to the common estimation of the Countrey where he liveth will best answer the ends of the Institution For he will still keep the same proportion of time and so much as is ordinarily allowed on other dayes for work he will spend this day in holy works and so much in rest as is used to be spent in rest on other dayes which may ordinarily satisfie a well informed Conscience And if any extraordinary occasions as journeying or the like require him to doubt of any hours of the night whether they be part of the Lords day or not 1. It will be but his sleeping time and not his worshipping time which he will be in doubt of and 2. He will avoid all scandal and tempting others to break the day if he measure the day by the common estimate whereas if the Countrey where he liveth do esteem the day to begin at Sun-setting and he suppose it to begin at Midnight he may be scandalous by doing that which in the common opinion is a violation of the day If I thought that this short kind of solution were not the fittest to afford just quietness to the minds of sober Christians in this point I would take the pains to scan the Controversie about the true beginning of dayes But left it more puzzle and perplex than edifie or resolve and quiet the Conscience I save my self and the Reader that trouble CHAP. IX Quest. 2. HOw should the Lords day be kept or used Answ. The Practical Directions I have given in another Treatise I shall now give you but these generals I. The day being separated or set apart for Holy Worship must accordingly be spent therein To sanctifie it is to spend it in holy exercises How else should it be used as a Holy Day I was in the Spirit on the Lords day saith St. John Rev. 1. 10. II. The principal work of the day is the Communion of Christians in the publick exercises of Gods worship It is principally to be spent in holy assemblies And this is the use that the Scripture expresly mentioneth Acts 20. 7. and intimateth 1 Coâ— 16. 1 2. And as most Expotors think John 21. when the Disciples were gathered together with the door shut for fear of the Jews And all Church History assureth us that in these holy Assemblies principally the day was spent by the ancient Christians They spent almost all the day together 3. It is not only to be spent in holy exercises but also in such special holy exercises as are suitable to the purposes of the day That is it is a day of Commemorating the whole woâ—â— of our Redemption but especially the Resurrection of Christ. Therefore it is a day of Thanksgiving and Praise and the special services 〈◊〉 it must be Laudatory and Joyful exercises 4. But yet because it is sinners that are called to their work who are not yet fully delivered from their sin and misery these praises must be mixed with penitent Confessions and with earnest Petitions and with diligent Learning the will of God More particularly the publick exercises of the day are 1. Humble and penitent Confessions of sin 2. The faithful and fervent prayers of the Church 3. The Reading Preaching and Hearing of the Word of God 4. The Communion of the Church in the Lords Supper 5. The Laudatory Exhortations which attend it And the singing and speaking of the praises of our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier with joyful Thanksgiving for his wonderful benefits 6. The seasonable exercise of holy Discipline on particular persons for comforting the weak reforming the scandalous casting out the obstinately impenitent and absolving and receiving the penitent 7. The Pastors blessing the people in the name of the Lord. 8. And as an appurtenance in due season Oblations or Contributions for holy and Charitable uses even for the Church and Poor which yet may be put off to other dayes when it is more convenient so to do Qu. But who is it that must be present in all these exercises Answ. Where there is no Church yet called the whole day may be spent in Preaching to and teaching the unconverted Infidels But where there is a Church and no other persons mixt the whole exercises of the day must be such as are fitted to the state of the Church But where there is a Church and other persons Infidels or impenitent ones with them the day must be spent proportionably in exercises suitable to the good of both yet so that Church-exercises should be the principal work of the day And the ancient laudable practice of the Churches was to Preach to the Infidel auditors and Catechumens in the morning on such Subjects as were most suitable to them and then to dismiss them and retain the faithful or baptized only And to Teach them all the Commands of Christ To stir them up to the Joyful commemoration of Christ and his Resurrection and to sing Gods praises and celebrate the Lords Supper with Eucharistical acknowledgments and joy And they never kept a Lords day in the Church without the Lords Supper In which the bare administration of the signes was not their whole work but all their Thanksgiving and Praising exercises were principally then used and connexed to the Lords Supper which the Liturgies yet extant do at large express And I know no reason but thus it should be still or at least but that this course should be the ordinary celebration of the day Qu. But seeing the Sabbath was instituted in the beginning to commemorate the work of the Creation must that be laid by now because of our commemoration of the work of
To call them together before they go to the solemn Assembly and to Pray with them and praise God and if there be time to read the Scripture and tell them what they have to do in publick 3. To see that Dinner and other common employments make no longer an intermission than is needful And to advise them that at their meat and necessary business they shew by their holy speeches that their minds do not forget the day and the employments of it 4. To sing Gods praises with them if there be time and bring them again together to the Church-assembly 5. When they return either to take some account of them what they have learned or to call them together to pray for a blessing on what they have heard and to sing praises to God and to urge the things which they have heard upon them 6. At Supper to behave themselves soberly and piously And after Supper to shut up the day in Prayer and Praise And either then or before either to examine or exhort inferiours according as the case of the persons and families shall require For in some Families it will be best on the same day to take an account of their profiting and to Catechize them And in other Families that have leisure other daies may be more convenient for Catechising and Examinations that the greater works of the Lords day may not be shortened IV. So much of the day as can be spared from publick and family worship must be spent in secret holy duties such as are 1. Secret Prayer 2. Reading of the Scriptures and good Books 3. Holy Meditation 4. And the secret Conference of bosome friends Of which I further adde 1. That where publick or family worship cannot be had as in impious places there secret duties must be the chief and make up the defect of others And it is a great happiness of good Christians who have willing minds that they have such secret substitutes and supplies That they have Bibles and so many good Books to read That they may have a friend to talk with of holy things But much more that they have a God to go to and a Heaven to Meditate on besides so many Sacred Verities 2. That my judgement is that in those places where the publick Worship taketh up almost all the day it is no sin to attend on it to the utmost and to omit all such Family and secret exercises as cannot be done without omission of the publick And that where the publick exercises allow but a little time at home the Family duties should take up all that little time except what some shorter secret Prayers or Meditations may have which will not hinder family duties And that it is a sinful disorder to do otherwise Because the Lords day is principally set apart for publick worship And the more private or secret is as it were included in the publick Your Families are at Church with you The same Prayers which you would put up in secret you may usually put up in publick and in Families And it is a turning Gods Worship into a Ceremony and Superstition to think that you must necessarily put up the same Prayers in a Closet which you put up in the Family or Church when you have not time for both Though when you have time secret prayer hath its proper advantages which are not to be neglected And also what secret or family duty you have not time for on that day you may do on another day when you cannot come to Church Assemblies And therefore it is an Errour to think that the day must be divided in equal proportions between Publick Family and Secret Duties Though yet I think it not amiss that some convenient time for Family and Secret duties be left on that day but not so much as is spent in publick nor nothing neer it If any shall now object I do not believe that we are bound to all this ado nor so to tire out our selves in Religious exercises Where is all this ado commanded us I answer 1. I have proved to you that in Nature and in Scripture set together as great a proportion of time as this for holy exercises is required 2. But O what a Carnal unthankful heart doth this objection signifie What do you account your Love to God and the Commemoration of his Love in Christ a toile What if God had only given you leave to lay by your worldly business and idle talk and Childish play for one dayes time and to learn how to be like Christ and Angels and how to make sure of a Heavenly Glory should you not gladly have accepted it as an unspeakable benefit O what hearts have these wretched men that must be constrained by fear to all that is good and holy and spiritual and will have none of Gods greatest mercies unless it be for fear of hell And they shall never have them indeed till they love them What hearts have those men that had rather be in an Ale-house or a Play-house or asleep than to be in heart with God That can find so much pleasure in jesting and idle talking and foolery that they can better endure it than to peruse a Map of Heaven and to read and hear the Sacred Oracles Who think it a toile to praise their Maker and Redeemer and a pleasure to game and dance and drink Who turn the glass upon the Preacher and grudge if he exceed his hour and can sit at a Tavern or Alehouse or hold on in any thing that 's vain many hours and never complain of weariness Do they not tell the world what enemies they are to God who love a pair of Cards or Dice or Wanton Dalliance better than his Word and Worship Who think six dayes together little enough for their worldly work and profit and one day in seven too much to spend in the thoughts of God and life Eternal Who love the dung of this present World so much better than all the joyes above as that they are weary to hear of Heaven above an hour at a time and long to be wallowing in the dirt again Is it not made by the Holy Ghost a mark not only of wicked men but of men notoriously wicked to be Lovers of pleasures more than of God 2 Tim. 3. 4. O Sinners that in these workings of the wickedness and malignity of your hearts you would at last but know your selves Is it not the Carnal mind that is thus at enmity to God and neither is nor can be subject to his Law Rom. 8. 6 7 8 Which will you take to be your friend Him that loveth your company or him that is a weary of it and is glad when he hath done with you and is got away What would you think of Wife or Child or Friend if they should reason as you do and say What Law doth bind 〈◊〉 to be so many hours in the House or Company or 〈◊〉 of my Husband my Father or my Friendâ—
exercise but on one only which was the first 2. Because as is said it was not a family or by-meeting but a Churchâ—meeting The Disciples came or assembled togetherâ— 3. Because it said that they assembled for this very end to bâ—â—â—k bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The great length of time which was spent in the holy exercises Besides the rest of the Worship and breaking of Bread Paul Preaching till midnight which intimateth that such work took up the day 5. Because it is mentioned as a matter of their custome They did not assemble because Paul called them to hear him only as being to depart on the morrow But Paul assembled with them at the time of their assembling to break Bread And it seemeth that he deferred his journey for that opportunity 6. Because other Texts as joyned with this and infallible Church History following do prove past all doubt that it was the constant custome of all the Churches so to do Obj. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. The first day of the week c. gr one of the Sabbaths It is an ordinance to lay aside for charitable uses but not one word about changing of the Sabbath Answ. The abolition of the Sabbath we prove not by this Text but by others All that we bring this for is but to shew in conjunction with others as part of the Sacred History that the first day was the Churches separated day And I pray mark the strength of the proof that the Apostle did give order that all the Churches of Galatia as well as the Corinthians should deposite their Almes on one and the same day viz. on the first day Was it not enough to tie them to the contribution but he must tie them all to one set day to lay it by or deposite it if it had not been because the Churches used to assemble on this day and not to appear before God empty as Dr. Hammond noteth on the Text Whoever heard else that God or man tyed several Countreys to one set day for the private depositing of their own moneys afterward to be distributed With such Sacrifices God is well pleased And therefore it was ever accounted by Christians a fit work for the sanctified day But no other day was ever appointed peculiarly for the set time of laying by mens gifts of Charity Obj. Rev. 1. 10. John was in the Spirit on the Lords day Compare Exod. 20. 10 c. Esa. 58. 13 c. Luk. 6. 5. Mark 2. 28. Mat. 12. 8 c. And if the Scriptures be the rule to judge resolve whether that day be not the Lords day of which day and of which only as distinguished from the other dayes of the week the Son of man is Lord. Answ. We are not upon a Controversie of title or propriety whether God be Lord of other dayes For so no doubt he is Lord of all and therefore no more of one than another because his propriety in each one is absolute And it can be no more in any Thus also he is absolute Lord of all things all places all persons c. And yet some things some places some persons have been separated to his service by a peculiar Dedication and Relation and thence have been peculiarly called The Lords And the Texts cited by you out of the old Testament prove that such was the seventh day Sabbath then But not that it is so now or was to be so for perpetuity And the words of the new Testament cited The Son of man is Lord also or even of the Sabbath day shews no more then that it was in his power He giveth it as a reason for his doing that which the Pharises counted Sabbath-breaking By which he oftentimes offended them and not as a reason of his astablishing it And it seemeth plainly to mean that being but a Positive Law and a Law of Moses he had power to change it and dispense with it as well as with other Positives and Mosaical Laws As it is said Ephes. 1. 22 23. he hath made him Head over all things to the Church not Head to all things so he is Lord over or of all dayes But all are not separated to his Worship As it is said Joh. 17. 2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him so it may be said he hath power over all dayes that he may sanctifie one to his peculiar service and use the rest in more common works But that which we bring this text for is but to know what day is notified to the world by this title of The Lords day and consequently was then accounted his separated peculiar day Now the signification of words is known but by use They are not Natural signes but Arbitrary You know not the sense of one word of Hebrew Greek or Latine but by the History of their use by Dictionaries Authors or other Tradition Now it is unquestionable to any man verst in antiquity that all the Churches and Authors Greek and Latine Syriack Aethiopick Persian Arabick that have been known among us and speak of such things do unanimously call the first day of the week by the name of the Lords day as being so called from the beginning even from the Apostles And all old expositors so interpret this present Text. And you may as well question what day the word Sabbath signified in the Old Testament almost as what day the name of The Lords day signified in the new Or what sort of people they were that were called Christians first at Antioch when only one sort hath ever since been notified by that name Even the Disciples of Christ. The Greek with the Syriack Translation the Arabick the vulgar Latine have all The Lords day and the Ethiopick as equipollent hath the first day And Dr. Heylin who would find something against it if any thing were to be found speaking of some of late that otherwise expound it is so ingenious as to say Par. 2. cap. 1. p. 37. Touching this we will not meddle Let them that own it look to it The rather since St. John hath generally been expounded in the other sense Aretas and Andr. Caesariensis on the place and by Bedae de rat temp c. 6. and by the suffrage of the Church the best expositor of the word of God wherein this day hath constantly since the time of the Apostles been honoured with that name above other daies And I know no one man nor many that at 1600 years distance almost is so worthy to be believed for the bare sense of a word as the constant use and universal testimony of all ages from that time till now As Christ is the Lord of all our Suppers yet all are not named The Lords Supper so is it in this case I must needs conclude therefore that if I should cast off the evidence of this Text upon no greater reason than you offer me I think I should resist the
holy Ghost and use violence against Gods word which I should obey Obj. There is no Law in the Scripture to observe the first day no promise made to observers of it no threatning against the breakers of it c. shew it And if no Law no transgression Rom. 4. 15. Sin is a transgression of the Law Answ. I have shewed you full proof of a Law for it before Though it is not Christs way to enact his Laws in that Majestick Commanding forms as God did to Moses on the Mount But as he condescended into flesh to be a Teacher and Saviour in the form of a Servant under the Law himself to redeem those that were under it so he maketh his Laws in a merciful Teaching stile All that is revealed by him as his will appointing our duty is his Law But that we observe the Lords day is revealed by him as his will making it our duty These are his Laws requiring us to Hear and obey his spirit in his Apostles Joh. 20. 21 22. As the Father hath sent me so send I you And when he had said this be breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost c. Luk. 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me And this is his Law requiring his Apostles by that spirit to promulgate his Laws and make known his will Mat. 28. 19 20. Go disciple me all Nations Baptizing them c. Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you and loe I am with you alwaies to the end of the world or age with the other Texts forecited And that the Spirit in the Apostles hath setled the Lords day as the separated day for holy assemblies and Worship I have proved to you both by the Texts which you now sought in vain to make void and by the unquestionable practice and history of the universal Church from that age untill this And withal by other Texts which you omit which not alone but all set together make up the proof because it is historical evidence of a matter of fact which we have to seek after 1. Christs Resurrection laid the foundation or gave the Cause as Gods ceasing from his works did of the Sabbath 2. Christs appearing to them assembled on that day began the actual separation 3. The Holy Ghost coming down on them on that day did more notably sanctifie it 4. The Holy Ghost as an infallible spirit in them did cause them to make a publick settlement of that day in all the Churches which was the full and actual establishment 5. This settlement is fully proved de facto in Scripture and infallible history 6. And that there are promises and threatnings to the obeyers and rejecters of Christs commands whom the Father commanded us to hear and who is the great Prophet of the Church I hope you believe Rev. 20. 14. Happy are they who do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life c. Heb. 12. 25. See that yee refuse not him that speaketh For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more c. Act. 3. 23. It shall come to pass that every soul that will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people 1 Joh. 4. 6. We are of God He that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of Errour If besides all this you must have particular precepts promises and threatnings in the form which you imagine to be fittest you may for want of those deny many other Gospel Laws as well as this Have you not much more for the separation of the Lords day than you have for Infants Baptism for a Christian Magistrate for Christians wageing Warr for prohibited degrees as to Marriage c. I am perswaded the sober study of these points would do much to convince the contrary minded 1. How much of Christs work as to the settlement of Church-Orders was committed to the Apostles to be done and how little he publickly setled himself in person before his Resurrection 2. How much the Gospel administration excelleth that of the Law And what eminent Glory God designeth to himself by the work of mans Redemption and how much more now he calleth man to Read and Study and Know him in the face of Jesus Christ than in the Creation And how largely the change of the Covenant is proved in the Epistle to the Hebrews 3. What a change is made herein as to mans duty since the fall of man under the wrath of the Creator who is not now his Rest but his terrour and a consuming fire till Reconciled and Adopting us in Christ And since the Earth is cursed to us as a punishment for our sins 4. How much of the certainty and Glory of the Christian faith and of all our Rest and Consolation in it is laid in the Gospel on the RESURRECTION of our Lord as beginning a new World or Creation as it were and as conquering and triumphing over death and Satan and sealing the promise and bringing Life and Immortality to Light and opening the Kingdom of Heaven to Believers 5. How much of Christs Legislation and administration of his Church-settlement and Government was to be done by the Holy Ghost And how glorious this office of the Holy Ghost is and of what grand importance to be understood As he was the promised Paraclete or Advocate or Agent of our glorified Lord to do his Work on Earth in his bodily absence To whom the Infallibility of the Scriptures the sealing operation of Miracles the Sanctification of Believers and forming them for Glory in the Image of God is to be ascribed Whom to Blaspheme is the unpardonable sin 6. How dangerous a thing it is made by the Holy Ghost to seek to set up Moses Law as the whole Epistle to the Gal. besides most of the other Epistles testifie as intimating a denyal of Christ and a falling from Grace and a perverse setting up of that which Christ came to take down as part of our own redemption And how large and plain Paul is upon this Subject and how the spirit in all the Apostles did determine it Act. 15. And how the Cerinthians Nicolaitans Ebionites Nazaraeans and many more of the condemned Heresies of that age which troubled the Churches and whom the Apostles wrote against went all that way of mingling the Jewish Law with the Gospel 7. How plainly and expresly Paul numbreth Sabbaths with the shaddows that cease Col. 2. 16. to pass by other Texts And what violence mens own wits must use in denying the evidence of so plain a Text. Their reason that he saith not Sabbath but Sabbaths is against themselves the plural number being most comprehensive and other Sabbaths receiving their name from this And the word Sabbath alwaies used in Scripture for a Rest which was partly Ceremonial See what Dr. Young in his excellent Dies Domin saith of this
Text Though I know some say otherwise to the injury of their own cause 8. How many years together the Churches had been in possession and consequently in the undoubted knowledge of the true established day of holy Worship before a word of the New Testament was Written And therefore that it was not written to be the first enacting of this day or change but for other uses 9. And yet how much evidence of the fact there is in the Scripture it self that really such a day was used for the ordinary Church-assemblies as a peculiar separated day even by the Common order of the Apostles in the Churches as 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. speaks 10. And how impossible it is that all the Churches in the World should from their beginning keep this as the separated day even by the Apostles and from their times if it had not been so ordered by them indeed And whether it be possible that in no age neer the original hereof no Pastor no Christian no Heretick no Enemy would have detected the fraud or common Errour or once have written that this day was not separated or used by the Apostles or Apostolical Churches no nor any one that I know of that denyed not the Resurrection ever to have scrupled or opposed the day 11. Whether they that can reject such Historical evidence as this is do not unwittingly cast away the holy Scriptures what zeal soever they pretend or have for their honour and perfection 12. Whether they that can reject all this evidence and yet can find in the second Commandment the prohibition of all formes of Prayer Sermons Catechismes all modal inventions of men as Images if not Idols are without partiality or do not walk as men by very different measures and partial conceptions I would on my knees intreat some most dear and worthy friends on their knees to ponder these twelve particulars But because by their preterition of the Text Act. 2. 1 2. I perceive they observe not that the Holy Ghost came down on the Lords day Let them consider that the Passeover was on the Sabbath day that year and therefore it must needs be just fifty dayes to that Lords day and it must be the day of Pentecost And it is not a trifle that the first Sermon to 〈◊〉 people was Preached by Peter on that day and â—000 Converted by it and Baptized Dr. Heyliâ—s own words are these Part. 2. p. 13. The first particular passage which did occâ—â—â— in holy Scripturâ— touching the first day of the week is that upon that day the Holy Ghost did first come down on the Apostles and that on the same day St. Peter Preached his first Sermon to the Jews and Baptized such as believed there being added to the Church that day 3000 souls And to prove the day he saith p. 14. The rule being this that on what day soever the second of the Passover did fall on that also fell the great Feast of Pentecost as Scaliger de Emend Temp. l. 2. So that as often as the Passover did fall on the Sabbath as this year it did then Pentecost fell on the Sunday The last part of our Objections are from History and it is said Obj. Qu. Whether the observation of the first day was not brought into this Island by Antichrist about 408 or 409 years agoe Roger Hoveden about an 1202 above 1200 years after Christ mentioneth a Council held in Scotland for the initiation or first bringing in that which he calls the Dominical day see this testimony mentioned by Binius in his Councils and somewhat enlarged by Matth. Paris the old impression fol. 192 193. and the last Edition fol. 200 and 201 And how the King of England and the Nobility would not then receive this alteration I conceive that in the first Centuries the great Controversie relating to this was about translating the keeping the Passover which they now call Easter from the fourteenth day of the first Moon c. under the colour of honouring Christ to the first day of the Week as the Dominical day which the Popes first set themselves with great vehemency to introduce And as the Pope obtained his purpose for one day in a year so by degrees in some places came in one day in a week the first day to be observed and the seventh day by one of the Popes turned from a Festival 〈◊〉 Fast whilest many of the Eastern and some of the Western Churches did still retain withall the observation of the seventh-day Sabbath together with the first day and others of the Churches in the East and West kept only to the seventh day as the Christian Sabbath c. Answ. How much more desirable an Adversary is Heylin by his acquaintance with History 1. Were any of the Authors I before cited either Antichristian or 1200 years after Christ Ignatius if genuine was about an 102. If not as Dalaeus thinks then he was about 300. The Canons called the Apostles and the Constitutions called the Apostles very ancient Justin Martyr wrote his Apol an 150. about 50 years after St. Johns death where his testimony is as plain as can be spoken To which Plinyes who wrote about 107. some seven years after St. Johns death may be joyned that he may be understood of the day Clemens Alexand. about 94 years after St. John an 194. Tertullian who is most express and full and frequent about 198 that is 98 years after St. John Origen about 206 began his Teaching Cyprian about an 250. Athanasius who wrote largely of it about an 330. To what purpose should I mention again Eusebius Greg. Nazianzen Nyssen and all the rest It was but about an 309 that Constantine began his raign who made Laws for the Lords day which other Christian Emperours enlarged But how much earlier were all those Synods which Eusebius mentioned which in the determination of Easter owned the Lords day And that of Nice was but about an 327. The Council of Laodicea but about an 314 or 320. The Council of Eliberis about an 307. Can. 21. saith If any that live in the Cities shall stay from Church three Lords daies let him be so long suspended from the Sacrament till he be sensible of his punishment After this how many Councils and how many Imperial Laws take care of the Lords dayes It is tedious to cite them To these may be added 1. The common agreement that it is founded in the Resurrection and was from that time 2. The early contest for keeping Easter only on that day which you note as being a day by all Christians received 3. The common detestation of Fasting on that day 4. And the universal custome of not kneeling in adoration on that day which all shew that the day was specially observed Athanasius saith de sab Circ Even as at the first it was commanded that the Sabbath should be observed in memory of the finishing of the World so do we celebrate the Lords day as the commemoration
the Apostles actual settlement thereupon was the Promulgation 3. The gradual notification by the Preachers to the Churches and finally the destruction of the Jewish Policie and Temple and Priesthood were the fuller proclamation of it and the way of bringing the change that was made by Command into fuller Execution 10. The seventh day Sabbath was observed by the Apostles after the Resurrection and Ascension Act. 13. 14 15 16 42 44. 16. 13 14. And constantly Act. 17. 2. the same Greek phrase with that Luk. 14. 16. for Christ constant keeping the seventh day Sabbath as before Act. 18. 1 4. c. 10 A. 1. But withal in this time they stablished the Lords day as soon as on that day the Holy Ghost came down upon them 2. So all that while they kept other parts of the Jewish Law They scrupled yea refused a while Communion with the Gentiles as Act. 10. shews They so carryed it to the Jews that Paul made it his defence that he had not offended any thing at all either against the Law of the Jews or against the Temple Act. 25. 8. And when he Circumcised Timâ—thy purified himself shaved his head for his Vow c. Do you think that all these are duties to Believers 3. None of the Texts cited by you do prove that the Apostles kept the Sabbath at all as a Sabbath that is a day on which it was their duty to Rest But only that they Preached on that day in the Synagogues and to the people For when should they Preach to them but when they were Congregated and capable of hearing They took it for no sin to Preach on the Sabbath no more than I would do to Preach Christ on Friday which is their Sabbath to the Turks if they would hear me But Sabbatizing according to the Law was something else than Preaching 4. And it is most evident that for a long time the Christian Jews did still keep the Law of Moses And that all that the Apostles did against it then was but 1. To declare that Christ was the end of the Law and so to declare the keeping of it to be unnecessary to Salvation but not unlawful laying by the opinion of necessity 2. That the Gentile Christians should not be brought to use it because it was unnecessary For the Apostles Act. 15. do not forbid it to the Jews but only to the Gentiles who were never under it Therefore the Apostles who lived among the Jews no doubt did so far comply with them to win them as to keep the Law externally though not as a necessary thing that is not as a Law in force obliging them but as a thing yet lawful to further the Gospel And therefore no wonder if Peter went so far as to withdraw from the Gentiles when the Jews were present when even Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles who speaketh so much more than all the rest against the Law doth yet as aforesaid Circumcise Timothy shave his head purifie himself c. and as he became all things to all men so to the Jews he became a Jew But when the Jews Policie and Temple ceased the change was executively yet further made and the Jewish Christians themselves were weaned from their Law In the mean time Paul and John Rev. 2. 3. do openly rebuke the Judaizing Hereticks the Ebionites and Cerinthians and Nicolaitans and shew the perniciousness of their conceits 11. The Holy Spirit calls the seventh day and no other day the Sabbath throughout the Scriptures before and after the Death Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jehovah Christ Gen. 2. 2 3 4. Exod. 20. 10 c. Act. 13. 14 15 16 42 44. 16. 13 14. 17. 2. 18. 1 4. 11. A. Though it be not true that the seventh is called the Sabbath Gen. 2. and though others deny the sufficiency of your enumeration yet I grant your assertion as true And therefore am satisfied that it is the seventh day which is put down when Sabbatizing was put down and that it could be none but the seventh day which Paul meant Col. 2. 16. Let no man judge you in meaâ—s c. and Sabbaths which were Shadows of things to come For the first day is never called a Sabbath as you truly say therefore it was not put down with the Sabbath See Dr. Youngs Dies Dom. on Col. 2. 16. 12. The seventh day Sabbath was prophaned by the Church heretofore and reformed Neh. 10. 28 29 31. 13. 15 17 18 22. See Belg. Annot. on Dan. 7. 25 c. as prophesied who would change it 12. This is all granted Sacrificing also was then Prophaned and Reformed and polluted and destroyed by Antiochus And yet we are not still under the obligation of Sacrificing We are not under the Law but under Grace CHAP. III. Whether the seventh day Sabbath be part of the Law of Nature or only a Positive Law IT is but few that I have any Controversie with on this point But yet one there is who objecteth and argueth as followeth God hath put this into nature Ex. 20. 10. Thy Stranger Deut. 5. 14. The three first Chapters of Romans Particularly Chap. 2. 14 15 26 27. 3. 9. 21. 1 Cor. 11. 14. Nature hath its teachings The humane Nature in the first Adam was made and framed to the perfection of the ten words some Notions whereof are still retained even in the corrupt state of fallen man Gen. 1. 26 27. Eccl. 7. 29. Eph. 4. 20. Col. 3. 10. The Law of the seventh day Sabbath was given before the ten words were proclaimed at Sinai Exod. 16. 23. Even from the Creation Gen. 2. 2 3. Given to Adam in respect of his humane nature and in him to all the world of humane creatures Gen. 1. 14. Psalm 104. 19 Lev. 10. 23. Numb 28. 2 9 10. 'T is the 〈◊〉 word in the Original Seâ— times of Divine appointment fâ—r solemn asseâ—â—â—ing and for Gods instituted service are directed to and pointed at by those great Lights which the Creator hath set up in the Heavens Psal. 19. with Rom. 10. 4 5 6 7. 8 18 19 20. Deut. 30. 10 15. John 1. 9. Every man hath a Light and Law of Nature which he carrieth about him and is born and bred together with him These seeds of truth and light though they will not justifie in the sight of God and bring a soul throughly and safely hâ—me to glory Rom. 1. 20. Yet there are even since Adams fall those reliques and dark Letters of this holy Law of the ten words to preserve the memory of our first created dignity and for some other ends though these seeds are utterly corrupted now Titus 1. 15. Natural reason will tell men that seeing all men in all Nations do measure their Time by Weeks and their Weeks by seven dayes they should besides what of their time they offer up as due to God every day give one whole day of every Week to their Maker who
Certainty from Most certainly abundance of testimonies might be produced to prove that they came together early in the Morning and stayed till Evening if not till within Night The former Pliny and many others witness And the later many accusations of the Heathens that censured them for night-crimes at their meetings And all that report it almost tell us of the Sacrament administred and Tertullian and others of their feasting together their Love Feasts as a Supper before they parted Now let but the time be measured by the work By that time the Scriptures of the Old Testament and New were read and all the prayers then made and all the Preaching and Exhortations and then all the Prayers and Praises at the Celebration of the Lords Supper especially if they were half as long as the Liturgies ascribed to Basil Chrysostom and the rest in the Biblioth Patrum and by that time the Sacrament it self was administred with all the action and singing of Psalms and all the Oblations and Collections made and besides this all the Church Discipline on particular persons exercised where Questions and Answers and Proofs must take up a great deal of time sure one day would be at an end or very near it And after when the Love Feasts were left off and the Church met twice and made an intermission they did as we do now And the very Custom of Preaching all the Morning to the Audientes and Catechumens till almost Noon when they were dismist with a Missa est and spending the rest of the day in Teaching the Church and Celebrating the Sacrament with all the larger Eucharistical acts do fully shew how the day was spent Which I would quickly prove by particular Testimonies but that I am separated from my Library and Dr. Young hath fully done it to my hand The very Context of these testimonies with what Albaspinaeus hath of their Catechizing and Church order will soon satisfie the impartial searcher As for what he saith out of Justin of returning to their labours I can find no such word in him nor do I believe there is any such to be found unless of returning to their six dayes weekly labour when the Religious work was ended with the day And I imagine the Reader will find no more if so much 9. The next proof is universal even the consent of all the Christian Churches without one contradicting Vote that ever I read of that the Lords dayes worship was to be performed standing and that it was not allowed them to pray or worship kneeling upon any Lords day in the year or any week day between Easter and Whitsontide And the difficulty of these stations is expressed see Albaspinaeus of it which sheweth that it was for a long time Whatever they did in Hearing its like they sate for Justin saith We rise to pray but it is certain they stood in worshipping acts as prayer and praise This Justin Martyr hath before mentioned Tertullian hath it expresly and Heylin himself citeth him de Coron Mil. Basil l. de Spir. S. c. 27. Hieron advers Luciferian August Epist. 118. Hilar. Praef. in Psal. Ambros. Serm. 62. To which he may add Epiphanius and divers Councils especially Nic. 1. Trul. of which after I once pleaded this ancient custom with them that would have all excluded from the Sacrament that kneel not to prove that kneeling at the Sacrament on the Lords dayes could not be in the Church of many hundred years after the Apostles when the universal Church condemned kneeling on all Lords dayes worship And Dr. Heylin himself saith What time this custom was laid by I can hardly say but sure I am it was not laid aside in a long time after not till the time of Pope Alexander the third who lived about the year 1160. c. Now from all this it is most evident that the Lords day was then observed 10. In this place though by anticipation I add the two General Councils now named The first great General Council at Nice Can. 20. which reneweth and confirmeth this antient custom of not kneeling in prayer on the Lords dayes that there might be an uniformity kept in the Churches And the Canoâ— Conâ—â—â— Trul. have the same again which proveth what we seek the matter of fact of the dayes general observation 11. The next is Origen who is not denyed to witness to the matter of fact but Heylin thinks he was against the Right of it But his mistake is the same as about Clemens Alex. Origen did but desire that other dayes might be kept also as profitably as they could as our Lecture dayes are 12. Cyprian is the next whose testimonies for matter of fact are full and Heylin hath nothing to say against him but that it is his private opinion that the Lords day was prefigured in the eighth day destined to Circumcision Which is nothing at all to our business in hand 13. And he himself cites Pope Fabians Decretal Anno 237. a testimony therefore that he is not to refuse for every man and woman on the Lords dayes to bring a quantity of bread and wine to be first offered on the Altar and then distributed in the Sacrament The Canon of Clem. before mentioned I now pretermit But saith Dr. Heylin 1. All days between Easter and Whitsunday had adoration by genuflection also prohibited on them 2. And the Church had other Festivals also Answ. 1. The Reason of Station was to signifie Christs Resurrection and ours Therefore it continued for these dayes But that was for the short occasional meetings of those dayes which he himself will not say were separated to worship 2. And the other Festivals of the Church make nothing against us For 1. Some of them as Easter and Whitsunday were but the same Lords day 2. And some of them were but Anniversary and not weekly Holy dayes as the Nativity c. 3. And he confesseth even these were brought in long after the Apostles dayes and therefore can lay no claim to Apostolical institution Pag. 62. he himself saith that The Feast of Christs Nativity was ordained or instituted in the second Century and that of his Incarnation in the third And besides Easter and Whitsunday which are the Lords day Christmas is all that he nameth out of Beda so long after as the Majora Solennia The Eves were but hours for preparation 14. To these though in the fourth Century I may add Epiphanius who recordeth the Station and Adoration to the East on the Lords dayes as those Traditions received by the Universal Church And here I would have it specially noted that when Tertullian Epiphanius and others note standing on the Lords dayes to be an unwritten Tradition received by the whole Church they do not say the same of the Lords day it self though the Antients oft say that we received it from the Apostles Now by this it is plain that they took the Lords day to be of Apostolick Institution past all question
our Redemption Answ. No Our Redeemers work is to restore us to the acknowledgement and Love of our Creator And the Commemoration of our Redemption fitteth us to a holy acknowledgement of the Almighty Creator in his works These therefore are still to go together according to their several proper places Even as the Son is the way to the Father and we must never separate them in the exercise of our Faith obedience or Love A Christian is a sanctified Philosopher And no man knoweth or acknowledgeth Gods works of Creation and Providence aright in their true sense but he that seeth God the Creator and Redeemer the Beginning the Governour and the End of all Other Philosophers are but as those Children that play with the Book and Letters but understand not the matter contained in it or like one that teacheth boyes â—litide literas pingere to write a curious hand while he understands not what he writeth Obj. But to spend so much of the day in publick as you speak of will tire out the Minister by speaking so long Few men are able to endure it Answ. 1. How did the Christians in the Primitive Churches They met in the morning and often as far as I can gatâ—â—er parted not till night And when they did go home between the Morning and Evening Service it was but for a little time Obj. Then they made it a fast and not a festival Answ. It was not the use then to eat dinners in those hot Countreys much less three meals a day as we do now And they accounted it a sufficient feasting to feast once at Supper which they did at the first all together at their Church-meeting with the Sacrament But afterward finding the inconvenience of that they feasted at home and used only the Sacrament in the Church which change was not made without the allowance of the Apostles Paul saying 1. Cor. 11. Have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God 2. I further answer that the work of the day being done according to the primitive use it will be no excessive labour to the Minister Because in the Celebration of the Lords Supper he is not still in one continued speech but hath the intermission of Action and useth shorter Speeches which do not so much spend him And the people bear a considerable part to wit in Gods praises which were spoken then in their laudatory tone and are now uttered by the singing of Psalms which should not be the least part of the work And though their manner of singing was not like ours in Rithmes and Tunes melâ—diously as neither were the Hebrew Greek or Latine Poems so sung but as most think more like to our Cathedral singing or saying yet it followeth not that this is the best way for us seeing use hath made our Tunes and Meeter and way of singing more meet for the ends to which we use them that is for the chearful consent of all the Church Neither should any think that it is a humane unlawful invention and a sinful change to turn the old way of singing used in Scripture times and long after into ours For the old way of singing was not a Divine institution but a use and several Countreys had their several uses herein And God commandeth us but to Praise him and sing Psalmes but doth not tell us what meeter or tunes we shall use or manner of singing but leaveth this to the use and convenience of every Countrey And if our way and tunes be to us by custome more convenient than those of other Nations in Scripture times we have no reason to forsake them and return to the old Though yet the old way is not to be judged a thing forbidden And we see that custome hath so far prevailed with us that many thousand Religious people do cheerfully sing Psalmes in the Church in our Tunes and way who cannot endure to sing in the Cathedral or the ancient Scripture or primitive way nor to use so much as the Laudatory Responses 3. And I further answer that every Church should have more Ministers than one as the ancient Churches had besides their Readers and then one may in speaking ease another 4. But lastly I answer that These circumstances being alterable according to the state of Countreys Conveniences I do not discommend the custome of our Countrey and of most Christian Churches in our times in making an intermission and going home to dinner as being fittest to our condition And then there remaineth the less force in the objection as to the weariness of the Ministers or the people I 〈◊〉 to say more of the publick Church-performances having described them all in a small Book called Vniversal Concord and having exemplified all except Preaching in our Reformed Liturgie given in to the Bishops at the Savoy Only here I will answer them who object much that the Ancient Churches spent not the whole day in exercises of Religion nor farbad other exercises out of the time of publick worship because we read of little other observation of it by them but what was done in the publick Assemblies Answ. 1. We find that they took it to be a sanctified or separated day And they never distinguish and say that Part of the day only was separated and sanctified to such uses If they did which part is the sanctified part of the day what houres were they which they thought thus separated But there is no such distinction or limitation in the writings of the ancient Doctors 2. What need you find much mention what they did out of the time of publick Worship when they spent all the day frequently at first and almost all the day in after times with small intermission in publick Worship Do you stay but as long at Church as they did even almost from Morning till Night and then you will find little time to Dance or Play in But yet 3. There want not Testimonies that they thought it unlawful to spend any part of the day in unnecessary diversions from holy things as Dr. Young hath shewed III. So much of the day as can be spared from publick Church-worship and diversions of necessity should be next spent most in holy family-exercises And in those unhappy places where the publick worship is slenderly and negligently performed on some small part only of the day or not at all or not so as it is lawful to joyne in it as in Idolatrous Worship c. there Family worship must take up most of the day And in better places it must take up so much as the publick Worship spareth And here the summ of holy exercises in Families is this which having elsewhere directed you in I must but briefly name 1. To see that the Family rise as early on this day as on others and make it not a day of sleep and idleness And not to suffer them to violate prophane or neglect the day by any of the sins hereafter named 2.
the Kings in their Drunkenness There are few in such sportful Assemblies that are not Drunk with Concupiscence and whose reason is not drowned in voluptuousness and vain imaginations Let those Divines if I may so call the Advocates of Sensuality and Sin which are otherwise minded give us leave to oppose against all their Cavils and the false names of harmless recreations but 1. Our own experience who in our youth have alwaies found such sports and revelling Assemblies to be corrupters of our minds and temptations to evil and quenchers of every holy motion and enemies to all that 's good 2. The experience of the visibly corrupted undone sensual youth that are round about us in all Countreys where we have lived 3. And the judgement of Sâ—lomon who saith as much for pleasure as any Sacred Writer Eccl. 7. 2 3 4 5 6. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting For that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the Countenance the heart is made better The heart of the wise is in the house of mouâ—ning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth I pray you do not say I raile at you by the reciting of these words nor that I diminish the honour of the Reverend Advocates for Wakes and Lords day Sports and Dancings It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the Song of fools For as the sound of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of the fool 3. Moreover these sports and pleasures and riotings are worse than Plowing and Labouring on the Lords day because as they are more adverse to spiritual and heavenly joyes so they do less good to recompense the hurt A Carpenter a Mason a Plowman c. may do some good by his unlawful unseasonable labour some one may be the better for it But Dancing and Sports and Gaming do no good but hurt They corrupt the Fantasie They imprint upon the Thinking faculty so strong an inclination to run out after such things and upon the Appetite so strong a list and longing for them that carnality is much encreased by them Mortification hindred Concupiscence gratified the flesh prevaileth the spirit is quenched and the soul made as unfit for heavenly things as a School-boy is for his Book whose heart is set upon his play Yea abundance more as Nature by Corruption is more averse to spiritual things than to the things of Art or Nature 4. These Dancings and Playes and Wakes and other riotous sports are a strong temptation also to them that are not of the riotous societies but have convictions on their hearts that they have greater and better things to mind Without accusing others I may say that I know this by bad experience I cannot forget when my Conscience was against their courses and called me to better things how hardly when I was young I passed by the Dancing and the Playing Congregations and especially when in the Passage I must bear their scorn And I was one Year a School-master and found how hard it was for the poor Children to avoid such snares even when they were sure to be whipt the next day for their pleasures 5. And those Riots and Playes are injurious to the pious and sober persons who dislike them For it is they that shall be made the Rabbles Scorn and the Drunkards Song Besides that the noise oft times annoyeth them when they should be calmely serving God And they are hindered from governing and instructing their Families while their Children and Servants are thus tempted to be gone and their hearts are all the while in the playing place Never did a hungry dog more grudge at his restraint from meat than Children and young Servants usually grudge to be Catechised or kept to holy exercises when they hear the pipe or the noise of the licentious multitude in the Streets I cannot forget that in my Youth in those late times when we lost the labours of some of our Conformable Godly Teachers for not Reading publickly the Book for Sports and Dancing on the Lords dayes one of my Fathers own Tenants was the Town Piper hired by the Year for many Years together and the place of the Dancing Assembly was not an hundred yards from our door and we could not on the Lords day either read a Chapter or Pray or sing a Psalm or Catechise or instruct a Servant but with the noise of the Pipe and Taber and the Whootings in the Street continually in our Ears And even among a tractable people we were the common Scorn of all the Rabble in the Streets and called Puritans Precisians and Hypocrites because we rather chose but to read the Scriptures than to do as they did Though there was no favour of any Non-conformity in our Family And when the people by the Book were allowed to Play and Dance out of publick Service-time they could so hardly break off their Sports that many a time the Reader was fain to stay till the Piper and Players would give over And sometimes the Morrice-Dancers would come into the Church in all their Linnen and Scarfs and Antick Dresses with Morrice-bells jingling at their leggs And as soon as Common Prayer was read did haste out presently to their Play again Was this a Heavenly Coversation Was this a help to holiness and Devotion or to the Mortification of fleshly Lusts Was this the way to train up youth in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord And were such Assemblies like to the primitive Churches Or such Families governed Christianly and in the fear of God O Lord set wise and holy Pastors over thy poor Flocks that have learnt themselves the holy Doctrine which they Preach and who love or at least abhorr not the service and imitation of a Crucified Christ and the practice of that Religion which they themselves profess Obj. But poor labouring people must have some recreation and they cannot through their poverty have leisure any other day Answ. 1. A sad Argument to be used by them that by racking of Rents do keep them in Poverty They that cannot live without all those superfluities which requireth many hundred pounds a Year to maintain them must for this gratifying pride and fleshly lusts set such bargains to their poor Tenants as that they confess they cannot live without taking the Lords day to recreate them from the toile and weariness of their excessive labours And will not God judge such self-condemning oppressours as these are 2. But is this an Argument fit for the mouth of a Minister or any Christian who knoweth how much the soul is more worth than the body and Eternity more valuable than the pleasures of this little time If Poverty deny the people liberty to play on the week dayes doth it not as much deny them liberty to Pray and to read the
Scriptures and to learn their Catechisms and the Word of God Surely it better beseemeth any man that believeth another life a Heaven and a Hell to say Poor Labourers have so little time to Learn to Meditate to Read to Pray on the week dayes that if they do not follow it close upon the Lords day they are like to perish in their ignorance For if the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 4. 3. which do you think it better to leave undone if one of them must be left undone Whether the learning of Gods Word or the Pleasures and Recreations of the flesh 3. It is either their Bodies or their Minds that need Recreation When the Body is tired with toilesome labour it is ease rather than toilesome Dancings or Plays that are fit to recreate it Or else God will be charged with mistake in the reasons of the ancient Sabbath But if it be the Mind that needeth recreation why should not the Learning of Heavenly truth and the Joyful Commemoration of our Redemption and the foresight of Heaven and the Praises of God be more delightful than the noise of Thornes under a pott even than the laughter and sport of fools or than the Dancings and Games that now you plead for But the truth is It is not the Minds of poor labouring men that are over-workt and tired on the week dayes but it is their bodies And therefore there is no Recreation so suitable to them as the ease of the body and the holy and joyful exercise of the mind upon their Creator their Redeemer and their Everlasting Rest. 4. But if you will needs have daies of temptation and sinful sports and pleasures for them let Landlords abate their Tenants as much Rent as one dayes vacancy from labour in a Month or a Fortnight will amount to or let the Common ` Saints dayes which of the two are more at mans disposal be made their sporting dayes and rob not their souls of that one weekly day which God hath separated for his Worship Obj. But there are Students and Lawyers and Ministers and Gentlemen whose labour is most that of the Brain and not the Plow-mans bodily toile and these have need of bodily Recreation Answ. And there are few of these so poor but they can take their bodily Recreation on the week dayes And many of them need as much the whole Lords day for their souls Edification as any others And no one that knoweth himself will say that he needs it not If any men need remission of Studies and bodily Exercise it is Ministers themselves And is it themselves that they plead for Sports and Dancing for Would they be companions of the vain in such like vanities Obj. But the mind of man is not able to endure a constant intension and elevation of devotion all the day long without recreation and intermission And putting men upon more than they can do will but hinder them when a little recreation will make them more fresh and fervent when they return to God Answ. O what an advantage is it to know by experience what one talketh of And what an inconvenience to talk of Holiness and Heavenliness by hearsay only 1. To poor people that have but one day in seven that one day should not seem too long 2. If it be from a Carnal enemity to God and spiritual things shortness and seldomeness will be no Cure But they have need rather to be provoked to diligence till they are cured than to be indulged in that averseness and floth which till its cured will prevail when you have done your best against it 3. But if it be a weariness of the flesh as the Disciples when they slept while Christ was Praying or a weariness through such imperfection of Grace and Remnant of Carnality which the sincere are lyable to then giving way to it will increase it and resisting it is the way to overcome it 4. How many necessary intermissions are there which confute this pretense of weariness Some time is taken up in dressing And some with poor Servants in waiting on their Masters and Mistrisses and in preparing Meat and drink some in going to Church and coming home some in eating usually more than once some in preparing again for sleep besides what Cattle and by-occasions will require And is the remainder of one day in a week yet too much for the business which we are Created preserved and Redeemed for and on which our endless life dependeth O that we knew what the Love of God is and what it is to regard our souls according to their worth Would not a soul that loveth God rather say Alas how short is the Lords day How quickly is it gone How many interruptions hinder my delight Shall I think a Week short enough for my worldly labours and one day thus parcelled too long to seek the face of God I see blind Worldlings and sensualists can be longer unwearied at Market in their Shops and Fields especially when their gain comes in and at Cards and Dice and Bowling and idle Prating c. And shall I be weary so soon of the most noble and necessary Work and of the sweetest pleasures upon Earth An Hypocrite that draweth near to God but with the lips whilest his heart is far from him as he never truly seeketh God so he never truly findeth him and hath none of the true spiritual delights of holiness nor ever feeleth the pleasure of exercising his Love to God by the help of faith in the hopes of Heaven And therefore no wonder if he be weary of such unprofitable sapless and unpleasant work as his dead formalities and affectations are But it is not so with the sincere experienced Christian who serving God in spirit and truth hath true and spiritual recreation pleasure and benefit in and by his Service And therefore we see that the holy experienced believers are still averse to these sensual diversions and do not think the Lords da or his Service too long And O Christian what happy advantage in such controversies have you in your holy sincerity and sweet experience 5. But yet I am not such a stranger to man to my self or others as to deny that our naughty hearts are inclined to be weary of well doing But mark what a cure God in Wisdom and mercy hath provided for us As it is but one day in seven which is thus to be wholly employed with God and as much of this day is taken up with the bodily necessaries aforesaid so for the rest God appointeth us variety of exercises that when we are weary of one another may be our recreation When we have heard we must pray and when we have prayed we must hear again We must Read we must Sing and speak Gods Praises we must celebrate the memorial of Christs death in the Sacrament we must Meditate we must Conferr we must instruct our Families And we have variety of subjects for each