Sabbath pag. 168. I ad the equitie of it sheweth that it is not the lightnesse of the worke if it bee once opposed to Gods that makes it that day sinlesse Ceremoniall is a meere phansie you must flie to some other reason and you might have knowne it hath beene alledged by divers to bee this that the Lord there answered a particular case about working at the Tabernacle and prohibits every worke though never so light about the erection thereof for that day because it tended not immediately to the worship of God and thus now at this day it were sinfull to build Churches on the Sabbath or to kindle a fire to prepare or fit any worke thereabout So the precept about the boyling and baking of the Manna gathered on the sixt day that it might not be left till the Sabbath to be then dressed was b Vatablus in locum Trem. Junius Bysh Babingt in v 4. of Ch. 31. Exod. pag. 319. A precept that concerned that present time while the Manna fell that they might see the miraculous power of God in the keeping of it without corrupting till the next day and because on the Sabbath they should not finde it in the field Consider it well if to kindle a fire to prepare things for the building of a Church be unlawfull which your selfe hold to be a light worke and cannot but confesse to be no worke of private gaine then certainely much more are all other light workes forbidden that fall not under the works afore-rehearsed Thirdly but let us see what you alledge in our Saviour He approved of the letting of the Oxe to the water of rubbing the eares of corne He made clay to annoint the eyes of the blinde He bade the lame man healed take up his bed What then Are therefore light workes to be done It is no light worke to make clay and carry beds or that cannot be your reason nay your instances are all wide from your purpose you neede clay or glue to glue them together Christ alloweth not these workes of letting the Oxe to water and rubbing the eares of Corne because they are light but because they were workes of mercie to save life that could not bee deferred and did those other workes himselfe not because they were light but inlightning He commanded the impotent man to carry his bed not because it was laborlesse for it was laborsome and therefore did he prescribe him that and no light worke to shew his perfect soundnesse and the truth of the miracle to excite him and all to glorifie God Mayer in his English Catechisme explained pag 262. sheweth that all the reasons of the Commandements binde us and reach to us as to the Iewes and alledgeth it to prove that this Law is of force for every one of us aswel as Iewes and as much in force as any of the other nine pag. 261. Fourthly thus we neede not dispensation for our Saviour but a pardon for your abuse of his blessed words and deeds That also which you alledge touching his being under the Law cuts the throat of your solution to the objection and gives us just cause to consider and conclude that all that you or any other Divine hath ever said for the Christians freedome on the Lords day will bee found but the Iewes freedome which both they might have had and had also by the Law of the fourth Commandement had not their superstition or superstitious teachers wrongd the Law and them for see what Christ did on the Sabbath and allowed and in that behold those burdens of Iewish superstition abandoned and that as some call it of Christian libertie which yet are no other than matter of Christian dutie to the eternall and morall Law delivered in the fourth Commandement First you would have allowed a comfortable use of the Creatures not onely an use for meere necessitie God ever gave it on this day for the Sabbath was a festivall ever The Iewes were usually as too many are now for want of right collation of Scriptures together either superstitious or sacrilegious Fifthly you would that things that tend to decency might be done without which the ordinances cannot bee so used to order and edification They ever might The Priests might blow their Trumpets and Hornes on the Sabbath day for the assembling of the people Numb 10. 2. So may our Bells be thus rung Sixthly it is not against Christian liberty to have the precise day appointed of God it was not against the liberty and glory of our nature in integritie And tell me I pray you whether it make more to Christian liberty to observe a day by the constitution of the Church or by institution of God whose Service is perfect liberty Yea since it is usuall with God to powre upon the Church on the Lords day the holy Ghost which is the Spirit of liberty certainely it never returnes but it increaseth that liberty with greater accessions daily That which some Divines have said that the Sabbath in the Law was a day n In se per se sanctus Per se pars instrumentum â—ultûs in it selfe and of it selfe holy and was of it selfe a part and instrument of piety in respect of the rest I cannot see how it can bee grounded on the Commandement or any other Scripture the Commandement is Remember the Sabbath or resting day to keepe it holy it was sanctified and the rest injoyned that it might be subservient to piety and holinesse as also the Lords day is If any such thing were found to belong to that day it was accessary and if ought of type were in it to the Iewes it was not injoyned in the precept but given as an appendix to it and so is taken away by Christ and no way bindeth us to the use thereof CHAP. XXI Breerwood Pag. 36 37. BVt let that be admitted also first that the commandement was immediatly given to servants Secondly that it was given touching the lightest degree of workes Let servants bee the persons and those workes the matter to whom and of which the commandement was given is your doctrine yet justified hereby subject to no other reproofe The persons have afforded me exceptions against it because the commandment was not given to servants And the matter because it was not imposed touching that light sort of works the time also will because it cannot be understood of the Lords day for what day was it of which the charge of vacation was so strictly given Was it not the seventh day of the weeke The seventh saith the precept is the Sabaoth of the Lord thy God In it thou shalt doe no worke And why the seventh Because in sixe dayes the Lord finished all the workes of creation and rested the seventh day therefore he sanctified the seventh day and what day is it whereof we question The Lords day That the first day of the weeke It is therefore the seventh day of the weeke the Sabaoth of
aeternum diem consecravit nobis Dominicum Domini Qui vocatur Dominicus ipse propriè videtur ad Dominum pertinere quia eo die Dominus resurrexit Aug. de verbis Apost Serm. 15. Dominicum ergò diem Apostoli Apostolici viri ideò religiosâ— solennitate habeâ—dum sanxerunt quia in eodem Redemptor noster â— mortuis resurrexit Serm. de temp 251. The Lords Resurrection hath promised us an eternall day and hath consecrated to us the Dominicall day of the Lord. The day which is called the Lords day it seemeth properly to pertaine to the Lord because that day the Lord rose againe The same Father tells us that in this resurrection of Christ the Apostles and Apostolicall men saw as much he saith the Lords day the Apostles and Apostolicall men have ordained with religious solemnity to be kept because in the same our Redeemer rose from the dead Ignatius r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Magnâ—s giveth this for the onely Reason binding every one to keepe this day saying Let every one that loveth Christ celebrate the Lords day the day pertaining to the Resurrection the Queene and Prince of all dayes Athanasius Å¿ Athanas de Sabbat circumcis Psal 118. 124. calls the Lords day in which Christ renewed the old Man the beginning of the new Creature and therefore hee saith when hee had renewed the Creature which was made within sixe dayes he would have that day consecrated to this instauration which the Spirit foretells in the Psalme This is the day which the Lord hath made Iunius t Tempus ad conventus sacros semper est dies octavus quem inde à resurrectione Christi Ecclesia vocavit Dominicum quod Christus suaresurrectione sacto sacris coetibus dicavit quem Apostoli observarunt coetibus dicatum esse docâ—erunt quem Christiana Ecclesia dictis corum obsequens facta imitans concelebrat Eccles lib. 1. cap. 4. sub sinem speaking of the time necessary to publike worship saith It is the eighth day for ever which the Church from the resurrection of Christ hath called the Lords day which Christ by his resurrection and deed hath dedicated to holy assemblies which the Apostles have observed and have taught that it is dedicated thereto and which the Christian Church obedient to their words and imitating their deeds doth joyntly celebrate In the Preface to the Assembly of the Church of Scotland at Perth Anno 1618. the question being moved how the particular and materiall day may bee knowne that the Christian Church should observe the answer is that the particular day was demonstrated by our Saviours Resurrection and his apparitions made thereon by the Apostolicall practice and the perpetuall observation of the Church ever since that time of the day which in Scripture is called the Lords day as that which the Iewes observed was called the Lords Sabbath because as the one was appointed by the Lord for a memoriall of his rest after the Creation so the other was instituted by the Lord for a memoriall of his Resurrection after the Redemption For this we must hold as a sure ground whatever the Catholike Church hath observed in all Ages and is found in Scripture expressely to have been practised by Christ and the Apostles such as is the sanctification of the Lords day the same most certainely was instituted by the Lord to bee observed and his practice in Word of the Lord and of equall worth as if the Lord by voice from heaven had spoken it and more sure for us than such a voice 1 Pet. 1. 12 25. and 2 Pet. 1. 19 20 21. Whence it is cleare that the Gospell preached by the Apostles with the holy Ghost sent downe from heaven is the Word of the Lord that endureth for ever Secondly it was enjoyned by the Apostles precept and observed by them enjoyned and the worke of the day in part prescribed 1 Cor. 16. 2. observed Act. 20. 7. Thirdly the Apostle saith that which you have seene and heard in me that doe and the God of peace shall be with you Phil. 4. 9. But this was seene and heard of to bee done by him Act. 20. 7. Therefore do it Perkins on Gal. 4. vers 10. Fourthly if the same reason grounded on Gods Word be as well for the first day of the weeke as it was once for the Sabbath of the Iewes then we are as certainely tyed by the Lord to the observation of this day as they were for their Sabbath for the same reason is of the same force But there is the same reason therefore wee are bound by the Lord. That there is the same reason is apparant by those three places laid together Exod. 20. 10. Mat. 12. 8. Ioh. 5. 23. The maine reason of the Iewes Sabbath is because it was the Sabbath of the Lord. In like manner ours is the Sabbath of the Lord Christ when hee had finished the worke of our redemption for which cause hee taketh this name the son of man is even Lord of the Sabbath as if in more words he should say when God the Father had once ended the making of the world hee rested and published himselfe to be the Lord of that rest and dedicated it to himselfe giving it the name of the Sabbath of the Lord. In like manner when I shall have finished the worke of mans Redemption I will rest have the day of my rest dedicated unto my selfe for which cause I say that the sonne of man is even Lord of the Sabbath also it shall be called the Lords day And thus the will of the Father shall be fulfilled which is that as they honoured the Father in keeping the Sabbath betwixt the Creation and Redemption so they should honour the Sonne in keeping the Sabbath betwixt the redemption and consummation of the world Fifthly the judgments of God fearefully and to miracles lighting on the contemners and prophaners of this day by worldlinesse the opposition of godlesse and most evill men the Conscience working on men for the observation and against the neglect thereof the errors of Familists Anabaptists Papists and such loose pleaders as you and others have shewed themselves to be are strong and impregnable arguments for the Divine Authority of it together with the contradictions and the grosse opinions you are forced to runne into which argue that you rebell against the light in you and your prophane Atheisticall hearts would have that true which yet your owne light disproveth in the truths that are forced thereby to drop from you Sixthly yea I shall through Gods grace evince this that it is of the Lords owne institution for besides that his resurrection institutes it as I sayd before First it is called the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. Which cannot bee for any reason but because it is of the Lords institution for so first the phrase his day not by creation for so all daies are his not by destinatioÌ„ for that
intendeth a time yet to come and so the day of generall judgement is his 1 Thes 5. 2. but by consecration and choise and institution a fourth way I would heare designed and then I shall bee ready to make answer SecoÌ„dly the like phrases of Scripture prove it in the same case in Exod. 20. 10. the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord in other ordinances of Christ the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 10. the Table of the Lord 1. Cor. 10. 21. his ministry 1. Tim. 1. 12. Thirdly the manner of predication sheweth x Thom. Aquin. 3. q. 16. art 3. that this day belongeth to him by his owne assuming properly for it s predicated of him denominatively because it is said to bee of the Lord denominatively the man Christ is not the Lords but the Lord but his will hand Passion is lightly called the Lords Will the Lords hand the Lords passion for that which is of and belonging properly to the Lord is called the Lords â—he first day of the weeke saith Tylenus g Is destinated Primus Hebdomadis dies sacris congressiâ—us destinatus est isque non modo ab Apostolis observatus sed etiam ab ipso Christo institutê° videri potest quem hoc die in conventus discipulorum venisse testatur historia Evangelica Tylen Synt. loc 44. p. 276. to holy assemblies and that not alone observed of the Apostles Act. 20. 17. 1 Cor. 16. 1. But also it may bee seene to be Instituted by Christ himselfe whom the evangelicall History doth testifie to have come this day into the assemblies of the Disciples Ioh. 20. 19 26. Polyander Rivet Walaeus Thysius affirme h Hic dies absolutè non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tantum sed denominativè cum articulo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nominari coepit Apoc. 1. 10. nempe non solum quod eo resurrexit Dominus vivum se exhibuit sedetiam quod ei rei imò universim Dominò imò à Domino sacratus dediâ—aiusque esset Qualiter coena Domini 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellatur locus conventus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praecâ—tiosâ—lemnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scitè declarat Aug. de verbis Apost Serm. 15. Si autem Apostolicae institutionis divinae quoque fuâ—rit authoritatis synops pur Theo. 2. disp 1. p. 263. that this day began to be named not onely the day of the Lord but also denominatively the Lords day Apoc. 1. 10. To wit not only because the Lord rose thereon and presented himselfe alive but also because it was made holy and dedicated to that thing yea wholly to the Lord yea and of the Lord so sanctified and dedicated like as also the Supper of the Lord is called the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. 20. and the place of assemblies the Lords and the solemne prayer The Lords Prayer as wittily Augustine declareth in his fifteenth Sermon of the words of the Apostle But if it were of Apostolike Institution it were also of Divine authoritie Bishop Andrewes saith i Serm. 13. of the Resur p. 529. the Lords day hath testimony in Scripture for how came it to bee the Lords day But that as it is in the Psalmest the Lord made it and why made he it but because on it the stone cast aside that is Christ was made the head stone of the corner that is because then the Lord arose because his resurrection fell on it Who altered it I answer saith Master Attersol k Attersoll on Numb 15. vers 3â— p. 644. Christ himselfe is the Author of this change the Apostles often teach that whatsoever they taught they received it from Christ they learned it at his hands before either by word of his mouth or by revelation of his Spirit but the Apostles enjoyned the first day of the weeke to be kept as a Sabbath of rest 1 Cor. 16. 1. Master Barker l On the fourth Commandement p. 186. God did change the dayes and to shew the alteration the Apostles gave this day the name of the Lords day they themselves kept it and ordained that the Churches in their time should observe it Our renowned Champion Doctor Fulke in the confutation of the Rhemists saith m Dr. Fulke on Reve. 1. 10. sect 6. To change the Lords day and keepe it upon Monday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authoritie for it is not a matter of indifferencie but a necessarie prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles Christ did appoint the new Sabbath saith Wolphius n Wolph Chronol l. 2. c. 1. when our last enemy death being overcome hee made an end of the labours of our Redemption which in his humanitie were to be borne and the next day with the new man restored he brought out a new time the time of our Redemption and of the new Covenant Adde hereunto Docter Bownd in the booke of the Sabbath commended by that painefull and learned Divine Doctor Willet and Doctor Iones in two latine epistles prefixed To conclude this matter the Apostles made this day the Lords day by a declaratorie consecration which Christ himselfe made before the Lords day by a fundamentall and binding relation to wit His resurrection thereon and by blessed and actuall applycation to his use in his apparitions and expositions thereon and by institution in his deedes and words for the Apostles taught to doe but what Christ commanded Matth. 28. 20. Act. 1. 3. CHAP. XXII Breerwood Pag. 38 39. HOw then hath the first day of the weeke gained the celebration and solemnity to become the Sabaoth of the Christians By the constitution of the Church and onely by that yet of that most ancient Church I confesse that next followed the ascention of our redeemer But yet all this is but Ius humanum it is but the decree of Secondly but you go about to prove the Iewes Sabbath ceremoniall because first it was a signe of difference betweene Iewes and Gentiles and part of the partition wall The first part of this proofe was answered before it was a signe betweene God and them that the Lord sanctified them so the Sanctification of the Sabbath understand it of ours is still a signe that God sanctifieth a man every signe is not a ceremonie as every living creature is not a man The Sabbath was a signe of the creation saith Athaenasiuâ— r Athanas de Sabbato Circumcis yet not therefore a ceremonie The second part of your proofe implyed when you say it was a part of the partition wall is very unsound the partition wall Å¿ Zanch. in Ephes 2. v. 14. 15. spoken of in Ephe. 2. 14. was the Law of Commandements contained in ordinances spoken of in the next verse which was not the Law morall but the ceremoniall therefore you must prove first the Sabbath to bee ceremoniall and then wee yeeld it is taken away and so farre forth as you can make that good Thirdly againe to prove it
ceremoniall you alledge the place in Col. 2. 16. but that the Apost speaketh not there of the fourth Commandement is evident First because hee treateth expresly of those Sabbaths which were of the same ranke with the New-Moones and were ceremoniall shadowes of things to come in Christ but the Sabbath prescribed in the Decalogue is altogether of another nature as hath beene and shall be further shewed Secondly he speaketh as the Apostles doth to the Galatians cap. 4. 10. but the place there treates only of the observation of the dayes moneths and yeeres which pertained to the servitude and bondage of weake and beggerly rudiments as in vers 9. appeareth Now that any precept of the Decalogue should bee so accounted and reckoned as a weake and beggerly rudiment was farre from the Apostle to thinke and is abhorred to Christian eares and religion Whatsoever also was Ceremoniall in the Sabbath if it bee granted according to the opinion of many Divines that some ceremony was in the day in respect of that precise day that is by constitution annexed to it extrinsecally and not of the nature of the Sabbath and first institution therof which nothing hinders the morality of the seventh dayes institution for so in the Authority of Fathers and first borne which pertaines to the fifth commandement there was annexed a Ceremoniall reason of a type namely the shadowing out of Christ the first borne among many brethren yet by this annexed typical figure the fifth commandement nor the priviledge of the first borne in respect of the first nature of it is not ceremoniall Nevertheles by Scripture there appeareth not unto me of certainty any ceremony or type in the observation of the seventh day properly so called for the mention of a spirituall Sabbatisme in Heb 4. 9. presignified in some type foregoing under the nature of a type if referred only to the rest in Canaan and by comparison of the like to the rest of God but by no meanes in the least signification is it referred to the rest commanded in the fourth precept as to a type and shadow And whereas the Fathers and many others include the Iewish Sabbath within the former text they must in my judgement bee understood of that day as it was the day in which the ceremoniall worship which was then the worship of God was the sanctification of the Sabbath and as that precise day was till Christ came apt and fit but now after Christs resurrection not fit for the new world but swallowed up of the greater namely the Lords day fit for the memoriall of the workes of Creation and Redemption For to observe the Sabbath with Moses Rites were to deny Christ come in the flesh whose Kingdome is not meat and drinke but righteousnesse peace and joy in the holy Ghost and to this the old Sabbatarian Heretikes had an aime and to observe the Iewish seventh for Sabbath now deserves worthily the Anathema of ancient Councels and Saint Austins sharpe sentence who saith thus t Quisque illum diem observat ut litera sonat carnaliter sapit Despir lit c. 14. Whosoever shall keepe that day as the letter soundeth savoureth of the flesh And lastly to observe the Sabbath in the devised assumed superstitious strictnesse Iewish which was never commanded but taken up of their owne heads or in the luxurious heathenish sports that others of them used is deservedly condemned by the Ancients and is against or Christian liberty or Christian sanctity Fourthly but to returne grant it to bee ceremoniall yet your arguing will not hold that the Sabbath in the Commandement is utterly vanished for all that place ceremony in that rest do hold that the rest in heaven was that which was chiefely aymed at Now this maketh against you for then a Sabbaths rest must remaine till that eternall rest bee come for though it bee assured yet it is not come And if the assurance by word and pledge would have cut off the necessity of a Sabbath rest to shadow it then might all the shadowes of the ceremoniall Law have been spared for they had the Word Oath and Spirit of God to assume Christs comming and from that place in Heb. 4. Doctor Willet u D. Willet on Gen. 2. his places of doctrine saw enough to prove the divine institution of the Lords day as a Sabbath rest he thus reasoneth Every simbole significative or representing signe mentioned in Scripture had a divine institution but so is the Sabbath a simbole or type of our everlasting rest Heb. 4. 9. there remaineth therefore Sabbatismus a Sabbath rest to the people of God Which words doe conclude that both the type remaineth that is a Sabbatisme and the signification of the type everlasting rest CHAP. XXIV Breerwood Pag. 39. BVt might not the celebration of the Sabaoth which thus ceased bee justly translated by the Church to the first day of the weeke Yes certainely both might and was iustly For I consider that the generality was of the morall law of the law of nature namely that men should sequester sometime from worldly affaires which they might dedicate to the honour of God onely the speciality that is the limitation and designement of that time was the churches ordinance appointing first one certaine day and that in relation of Christian assemblies namely that they might meete and pray and and praise God together with one voyce in the congregation And secondly designing that one day to the first day of the weeke for some speciall reasons and remembrances For first it was the day of Christs resurrection from the dead Secondly it was the day of the holy Ghosts descention from Heauen to powre infinite graces vpon Christians The first of them for our iustification as the Apostle speaketh The second for the sanctification and edification of the whole Church to omit some other reasons of lesse importance iustly therefore was the consecration of the Sabaoth translated to that day Answer First Yea a shadow Of which we have the substance in Christ Out of Date and expired of it selfe Part of the partition wall And yet the celebration and consecration of the Sabbath translated justly Then the Church by your Doctrine may revive the ceremoniall law and put life into the dead carcase thereof the Church may not alone embrace the shadow of which Christ is the body but also appoint it to bee embraced the Church may translate part of the ceremonial Law which yet Moses the typicall mediator would not might not order a tittle of it to a loope lace or placing of either but keepe to the patterne shewed him in the Mount and so by the same reason translate priesthood and all Heb. 6. The Church then is Lord of the Sabbath and can consecrate and not only celebrate the Sabbath all full of blasphemy against Christ and blemish to his chast spouse Secondly and for your distinction of generality and speciality of the commandement besides what hath been said before if you
Saviours ascension Gods people hath alwayes in all ages without any gaine-saying used to come together ken of which was the point of the Apostles doctrine I especially remembred you of That God I say which commanded and that doctrine which instructed servants to disobey their Masters and by depriving them of their service caused their hindrance The Apostle knew full well this was not the way to propagate the Gospell and enlarge the kingdome of Christ he knew it was Christian meekenes and obedience and humility and patience that must doe it and therefore hee commandeth Christian servants to give their masters all honour to obey them in all things and to please them in al things that so their masters seeing them more serviceable and profitable servants and withall more vertuous than others were might sooner be drawne to like of the religion that made them such whereas the contrary would have bin manifestly a scandall and grievous impeachment to the propagation of the Gospell and defamed it for a doctrine of contumacy and disobedience and for a seminary as it were of disturbance and sedition of families and common-wealths And not onely alienated the affections of masters from their Christian servants but inflamed all men with indignation and hatred against the Christian religion and the Professors of it Such therefore evidently is the importance and intendment of the Apostles doctrine as unpartiall men whom prejudice or selfe conceipt leads not away may soone discerne very farre differing from this doctrine of yours Touching which point of the Apostles instruction given to servants for this effectuall and generall obedience you will not reply I hope as some have done that at first indeede it was permitted for the good of the Church lest the increase of it and proceeding of the Gospell should be hindred by offence given to the Gentiles For would that have beene permitted if it had beene unlawfull Or could the Church of God bee increased by the sinnes of men His Church increased by that whereby himselfe was dishonoured Or would the Apostles have permitted men to sinne as now Iesuites do for the good of the Church nay exhorted and commanded to it who had himselfe expresly taught that wee must not doe evill that good may come of it No neither of both can bee because either of both were a staine and derogation to the righteousnesse of God the intention therefore of the Apostles was simple without all trickes of policie to teach servants all exact and entire obedience to their masters touching all workes that belong to the dutie of servants namely that were in themselves honest and lawfull without excepting of any day Answer First here you would prove your Tenet for servants obedience to their masters commands for worke on the Lords day even worke prohibited to bee more agreeable to the Apostles Doctrine than the contrary and to this end you alledge Texts to prove their obedience in al things to all masters at all times and thence conclude the answerablenesse of yours the unanswerablenesse of ours thereunto First object that you bring no proofe of Scripture to confirme this your universall obedience at all times viz. on the Sabbath day though you should have done it especially the doctrine of the Commandement touching cessation of worke lying so fully upon the servant If you reply that there is no exception of time I answer there is exception of obedience to unlawfull commands and such are workes otherwise lawfull enjoyned to bee done on the Sabbath and so we have equivalent exceptions to that of time Your ground therefore which you lay and say it is founded on Apostolike truth namely that Apostles permit servants no point of libertie but command them obedience without exception of master of labour or of time we thus impugne The Apostles Doctrine touching servants obedience doth admit of three limitations by themselves expressed First it must be an obedience in the Lord n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scholia that is according to the will of the Lord in all things in which godlinesse may not be overthrowne in all things provided that we admit of nothing against the Lord. If the masters covenant should crosse the covenant of the servant as he is a man and Christian to his God it is sinfull in the making if such should be made and worse in the keeping and alwayes voide ipso facto The ground of this limitation is this that all authoritie and superioritie is derived from God and subordinate to him therefore the command of an inferior power binds not to obedience when it is contrary to the precept of the superior power as Durand o Durand lib. 2. distinct 39. quaest 5. well noteth That therefore of Gregorie touching wives must bee held touching servants for ever p Sic placeat uxor voluntati conjugis ut non displiceat voluntati conditoris Let the wife so please the will of her husband that she doe not displease the Will of her Creator This limitation excepts the servants labour in servile worke on the Sabbath or Lords day Secondly it must bee an obedience wherein they abide with God in their service that is in the observation of the Commandements of God saith the ordinarie Glosse q Glossa interlin and saith Lyra r 1 Cor. 7. 20 24 Lyra. as farre as pertaines to those things which are not repugnant to the state of Faith thus also your doctrine is plainely condemned for God hath provided by his unchangeable Law that one day in seven the servants shall rest from their labour and with their master attend on God with whom there is neither master nor servant Thirdly yea but the master commands him to worke then otherwise indeede he ought not Nay the Apostles doctrine hath yet a third limitation That they be not the servants of men Vpon which place saith Chrysostome ſ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost tom 3. in 1 Cor. 7. 23. pag. 362. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. pag. 363. There are bounds set of God to servants and how farre they ought to keepe them this is also ordered by Law and they may not passe over them for when the master enjoyneth none of those things which are displeasing to God and disallowed hee ought to follow and obey but beyond this by no meanes for thus the servant is a free man And if thou yeeld any further although thou were free thou art become a slave This therefore he intimates saying bee yee not the servants of men And not farre after he briefly expounds it thus t Obey not men that command absurd things yea neither yeeld to their owne selves Are not these Commandements of the masters for servile worke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absurd and without place and footing in Gods Word are they not of things displeasing to God These these are the servants limits beyond which if hee passe hee is the servant of men even of mens humours and a very slave because hee
commandement from being a Law of Nature according to your exposition of a thing that hath in it native ilnesse for to make an image setting aside the circumstance to bow to it is no more evil than for a servant to worke setting aside this circumstance on the Sabbath This your slye arguing savours of Popery which hath thrust out the second Commandement as a positive and ceremoniall Law upon the same grounds And when you say that the prohibition of other things is caused by their native illnesse if you meane their illnesse was before the Law not understanding by Law the promulgation thereof but the Law of Nature written in the heart of man inasmuch as this Law is the expresse righteousnesse of God it is a blasphemous Tenet for hereby transgression shall bee where there is no Law and a chiefe evill a summum malum as well as a chiefe good or an absolute goodnesse out of God which this illnesse swerveth from For my part I cannot tell how any thing should bee evill natively but evill because it is defective of good which good perfecting man is the Law of righteousnesse If by prohibition you meane the promulgation of the Law then I say that this maketh not the thing prohibited unlawfull but onely makes the sinne the greater in them that yet offend after God by lively voyce hath renewed those obliterated precepts offuscated with sinne in the heart of man Thirdly the Commandement it selfe in these five things you say is meerely Ceremoniall brought in by positive Law and is not of the Law of Nature first to observe one day in seven secondly to observe a certaine day of that number thirdly to observe the seventh in the ranke fourthly to observe a whole day by the revolution of the Sunne fifthly to observe it with severe exactnesse of restraining all worke This you essay to prove first by a place of Scripture secondly by the example of the Patriarchs and thirdly by the absurditie that else will follow This matter shall bee more largely discussed because it will much cleare the Doctrine of the Sabbath for now you strike at the roote of it and would lay Religion on the ground but your owne staffe will breake your backe which you give by the handle into our hands This you yeeld that the secret instinct of nature hath taught all men even the prophanest Gentiles that some time is to be set apart and dedicated to the solemne worship of God as set times to be spent in sacrifice and devotion Now goe on this instinct is the Law written in their hearts therefore the Sabbath is a Law of Nature But did this instinct of Nature guide them to your former five particulars about the time of worship If it did and that the sheards hereof are found among the Gentiles you cannot nor any other for you conclude unlesse you will play the mad-men with reason that every of them hath lesse than moralitie and perpetuitie in it It is true the Gentiles a thousand wayes depraved the use of the Sabbath by keeping holyday to their Idols saith Aretius y Aret. problem loc 55. de Sabb. obser they also wrested the name to a wanton and ridiculous signification in which notwithstanding there hath remained some footsteps of the ancient originall to which serò tandem Gentes redire debuerunt at length the Gentiles though late ought to returne To omit their depravations see in them the footsteps of every particular First the Gentiles set apart certaine and constant dayes not moveable and wandring Macrobius saith there are foure kinds of publike holydayes Feriarum that is dayes vacant from pleading and labour Stative Conceptive Imperative and nundinative and the Stative are common to all the people on certaine and set dayes and moneths and noted with standing observations in their Calendars Secondly they observed a certaine day of seven and particularly the seventh Hesiod saith z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh day is a holyday Lampridius telleth of Alexander Severus that on the seventh day when he was in the City he went up to the Capitoll and frequented the Temple Homer saith the seventh day is holy and was the day in which all things were perfected and on which we depart from the bankes of Hell Callimachus saith the like and that it is the birth-day chiefe and perfect a Clemens Alexandr stromat l. 5. Clemens Alexandrinus sheweth b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. l. 5. strom that not onely the Hebrewes but the Greekes also knew the seventh day holy And Eusebius c Euseb de prepar Evang. l. 13. c. 7. affirmeth that almost all as well Philosophers as Poets knew that the seventh day was more sacred And Philo d Philo. lib. 2. de vita Mosis the Iew saith Who doth not honour that sacred day which returneth every weeke The seventh day holydayes were wont to be granted to children in Schooles among them e Lucianus in Pseudo logista Certaine of the Ethnicke Doctors were wont onely to dispute on the Sabbaths f Aul Gell. l. 13. c. 2. Sueton. Lib. 3. Seneca g Senec. ep 95. in his 95. Epistle shewing that exhortations are not enough but wee need obliging precepts yea the decrees of wisedome bee reckoneth up the Sabbath as the festivall day for Religion but condemneth their manner of observing it when he saith Let us forbid any one to light a candle on the Sabbaths for neither doe the gods want light and men themselves are not delighted with smoke he worshippeth God who knoweth him h Macrob. Saturn l. 1. c. 7. Macrobius sheweth that Saturne of whom is the name of Saturday was honoured with Candles lighted at his Altars and wax-Tapers offered on his dayes Aretius hath these words i Aret. problem loc de Sabbathi observ The Greekes and Latines call the Sabbath The day of rest which the Gentiles But before I passe over this point I would take off the exceptions of one Franciscus Gomarus ſ Gomarus de Investigat sententiae originis sabbati cap. 4. pag. 42. a Germane who pleades that these allegations for the seventh dayes celebrity observed among the Gentiles are insufficient and the consequence thence drawne to proove this to have ought of the Law of Nature in it infirme The insufficiency of allegations out of the Poets hee would evince from this that those Poets talke as the proverbe is of Garlike but we speak of Onions and though Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius alledge them yet for this cause they deserve little credit because they speake of the seventh but the Poets only of a seventh I answere that they must needs availe and be of force to any that hath reason for be it they spake not of that seventh from the Creation yet that they speake of the celebrity of a seventh maketh wholly and sufficiently to proove that they were guided to a seventh and if they knew
not the seventh through iniquity and vanity that can no more disproove the festivity of the seventh to bee from the beginning and reach to all than the failings in many specialties of the first and second and third and other commandements can disproove their ingraving on the heart of man as Lawes of Nature and on the other side it prooveth as sufficiently that this commandement is a Law of Nature so farre as it is expressed in the Decalogue as the reliques of the other precepts in the hearts of Gentiles proove them to be Lawes of Nature and therefore his exception in speciall against that authority out of Hesiod if it should bee understood of every seventh day taking the calculation from the first day of the month doth no way supplant our intended purpose Well hath a learned Bishop t Patterne of Catech. Doctr. pag. 124. of our Church observed that sufficient is found in the heart of the Gentiles to their condemnation for breaking the Law of the fourth commandement they knew that numerus septenarius est Deo gratissimus and it was numerus quietis and thence they might have gathered that God would have his rest that day and so the seventh day after birth they kept exequiae and the seventh day after death the Funerall Note also that Gomarus passeth over those sayings brought by Clemens and Eusebius out of Homer and Callimachus untouched because they are not found in their writings now extant which proveth the weakenesse of this cause That quotation out of Philo Iudaeus he thinketh he hath taken off by that place of the same Author in his booke of the Decalogue whereby hee saith it is evident that Philo spake not properly but only by similitude of the number of seven because hee thus expounds himselfe in that place The fourth commandement saith he commands the seventh day commanding it to be spent holily and godly This certaine cities celebrate every month as a Festivall beginning their reckoning from the New Moone but to the Iewes every seventh day is holy I answer First it is a meere presumption of his to say that here Philo expounds his meaning in the other place for this is in his booke of the decalogue that in another booke viz. The second of the life of Moses nor doth he make the least intimation of reference thither Then this quotation that he maketh the exposition of his meaning in the former place cannot be for here he speaketh only of some few cities there in generall termes who honoureth not that holy day Moreover in another place u Philo de mundi opisicio hee calleth that very seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a generall Festivall to be observed of all people for ever Lastly if hee had but perused Philo or not perverted him willfully hee might have seene his plaine meaning whose words both for this purpose and for the rest of servants about which our dispute is I set downe not mangled but entire and they are these It admonisheth saith hee meaning the Divine Law it admonisheth all of dutie Barbarians Graecians inhabitants of maine continents aswell as of Ilands the Westerlings the Easterlings the Europeans and the Asians the whole habitable World even to the uttermost coasts For who doth not honor that holy day returning every weeke bringing remission of labour and holy vacations to the master of the familie with his houshold not onely to freemen but also to servants yea moreover to the beasts vnder the yoke and so forth Againe hee helpeth us to another authoritie out of losephus in his second booke against Appain who saith Neither is there any city of the Grecians or Barbarians nor any Nation to whom the custome of the seventh day in which wee rest hath not come A pregnant proofe But Gomarus saith there are words foregoing which doe end the controversie namely these Moreover the people doe now much emulate our piety Which words saith he do only shew that the observation of the Sabbath among the Gentiles was only an imitation of the Iewes by Proselites and perchance many others What were all the Gentiles East and West become Proselytes or would all of them admit a meere ceremony Some Nations besides Proselytes admitted Circumcision but did all the cities of Greeks and Barbarians admit thereof And if they imitated their piety could it bee thought that they imitated it as theirs and not rather as that which their naturall light glimmeringly guided them unto especially seeing the Iewes were naturally hated of all people For his quotation out of Theodoret upon the 20. chap. of Ezekiel to testifie to his tenet who saith That in the observation of the Sabbath the Iewes seemed to obtaine a certaine proper commonwealth for no other Nation did observe this rest and neither did Circumcision so distinguish them from others as did the Sabbath I answer This cannot bee understood of any kind of observation of the Sabbath for then Theodoret must speake directly against all received testimonies of antiquity which may not bee thought but of the true observing thereof in the solemne rituall worship of God which being all publike and solemnely used on that day as the sanctification thereof did asmuch more lively distinguish the Iewes Gods people from the Heathen Idolaters than did circumcision as the whole Law doth more than any one part thereof Thus wee have made good the sufficiency of the quotations excepted against wee leave them therefore with the rest fore-alleaged to be cavilled at by the next that dares to attempt it The infirmenesse of the consequence saith Gomarus is this that if the observation of the Sabbath had prevailed among the Gontiles yet from thence no such antiquity of the Sabbath may bee evinced but only thence appeareth the imitation of the Iewes by the Gentiles as by Proselytes and others perhaps I answer the consequent is firme for the former Heathen Authors have no reference to the Iewes and the Gentiles derided the Iewish Sabbathes Lament 1. 7. But suppose it came up among the Gentiles by imitation of the Iewes yet this spreading of it farre and wide prooveth the goodnes of the consequence that it is of the moral Law For hence it sufficiently appeares that the institution of a set seventh day in the weeke is immutable and not ceremoniall and temporall not proper to the Iewes onely but common to all seeing nature apprehends it meet and necessary that we often exercise the worship of God and cannot but acknowledge as we see in the inclination of the whole universe of men that this weekely determination of a day is most convenient and altogether absolute Hitherto of the answer to your position determining what is ceremoniall in the fourth commandement Your proofe for the ceremony of it in those respects is first taken from Texts of Scripture in Exod. 31. 13. and Ezek. 20. 12 20. Hence you reason thus That forme of keeping Sabbath was given to the Iewes as a speciall marke of their
yeeld not the speciality to bee morall you turne out one commandement of the ten from being morall for all your generality for to say that this is the morality of the commandment no more that some time shuld be sequestred to divine worship maketh this commandment no more morall then the building of the Tabernacle or Temple is morall for therein this perpetuall will of God was shewed that some place must bee assigned for Church assemblies and publike worship By this also it will follow that the Papists that in their Catechismes render the fourth commandement thus keepe holy the festivall dayes doe render the full sâ—nse of it Which being yeelded this also will follow that you may aswell put it downe thus frequent the assemblies Moreover all the feast daies of the Iewes conteined this generall equity Lastly then God should in this command nothing to particular men because it is not in their power to institute these daies and so nothing shal be commanded to them further than what publike persons shall injoyne be it but one day in the yeere and for them neither is there any thing commanded in speciall and they sinne not if they appoint but one day in a Moone or if they appoint but one in a quarter then also the Feasts of Christs Nativity of Easter of Whitsontide c. are of equall authority with the Lords day which thing what eares can heare with patience These also are constitutions of the ancient primitive Church CHAP. XXV Breerwood Pag. 39 40 41. BVt what of that What if the consecration of the Sabaoth was by the Church translated to the first day of the weeke Was therefore the commandement of God translated also That that day ought to be observed under the same obligation with the Sabaoth For if the commandement of God were not translated by the Church together with the celebration from the seventh day to the first day then is working on the first no violation of Gods commandement Was the commandement of God then translated from the Sabaoth to the Lords day by the decree of the Church No the Church did it not let mee see the act The Church could not doe it let me see the authority the Church could not translate the commandement to the first day which God himselfe had namely limited to the seventh For could the Church make that Gods commandement which was not his commandement Gods commandment was to rest on the seventh day and worke on the first therefore to rest on the first and worke on the seventh was not his commandement For doth the same commandement of God enioyne both labour and rest on the same day is there fast and lose in the same commandement â—â—th God Thou shalt work on the first day saith that and worke â—â— the seventh saith this Can the Church make these the same commandement But say the Church hath this incredible and uncoâ—ceivable power Say it may forbid to worke on the first day by the vertue of the very same precept That doth neither expresly command or license to worke on that day Say that the Church of God may translate the commandement of God from one day to another at their pleasure did they it therefore I spake before of their authority whether they might doe it I enquire now of the act whether they did it did the Church I say ever constitute that the same obligation of Gods commandement which lay on the Iewes for keeping of the Sabaoth day should be translated and laid upon the Christians for keeping of the Lords day Did the Church this no no they did it not all the wit and learning in the World will not prove it Answer First this reasoning is on false grounds supposed as hath beene proved and therefore fals to the ground Secondly yet take their owne grounds If the Church have powre to translate the day and consecrate it a Sabbath they may have power and had so to translate the Commandement for the Commandement is but the consecration of the Sabbath and determination thereof to a certaine day And if they doe not translate the Commandement yet the Commandement stands in force for that day to which by just power they have translated the Sabbath For the Commandement is in force as a law of nature you confesse for the celebration of a Sabbath or else you deny a moralitie in any part of that Commandement but if that your moralitie stand as without doubt it doth then is working on that day equally a violation of the Commandement of God as working on the seventh from the creation for then it was sinfull because that day was then Sabbath and now it is so because this is now Sabbath Thirdly and for those quaeres let me see the Act Let me see the Authoritie as they may bee retorted to your conceite of their translating the seventh day and consecrating it a Sabbath so in the true sense of consecrating that day you have seen before the Act and Authority and may now see if you winke not that the Commandement is not translated but remaines the same it was namely to keepe holy the Sabbath day Neither is there a making of that Gods Commandement which was not his nor yet doth the commandment containe any impossibilities and contradictions Distingue tempora tolle dubia Distinguish the times and the doubts vanish the Commandement enjoyneth rest and holinesse Sabbath-like on the Lords Sabbath then that seventh day now this seventh day and of both is it true the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God Then the seventh day was it and so enjoyned thereon Now the first day of the weeke and so enjoyned thereon Hence this reasoning is easily answered First God commanded to worke on the first and rest on the seventh therefore to rest on the first and work on the seventh was not his Commandement it was not then it is now moreover sixe dayes thou shalt worke doth not point out which sixe daies and the seventh day will containe both ours and theirs and their seventh they knew then by the worke of Creation as our seventh we know by the worke of Redemption For the authoritie and Act of the Church we need it not the Scripture as before hath saved the labour But that the act of this power was put forth the Church hath acknowledged and your selfe doe while you yeeld the first day consecrated Sabbath CHAP. XXVI Breerwood Pag. 41 42 43. Object BVt you may object if the old Sabaoth vanished and the commandement of God was limited and fixed to that day only then is one of Gods commandements perished Sol. I answere that the generality of that commandement to keepe a Sabaoth wherein God might be honoured was morall But the speciality of it namely to keepe 1 one day of seven 2 the seventh 3 one whole day 4 with precise vacancy from all worke were meerely ceremoniall the specialitie then of the commandements are vanished But for the generality of it it
must he therefore succeede him in equality of power The Lords day therefore succeedeth the Sabaoth in the point of sanctification for celebration of the assemblies for the Church hath precisely commanded that but not in the point of exact and extreme vacation from every kind of worke for that the Church hath not commanded and so although the Lords day may well be tearmed the heire of the Sabaoth yet is it not ex asse haeres as the civill Lawyers speake It inheriteth not the whole right of the Sabaoth for that right and prerogative of the Sabaoth was not given to the Sabaoth and its heires it was no fee simple and if I may speake in the Lawyers stile it was onely a tenure for tearme of life namely during the life of the ceremoniall law which life ended in the death of our Saviour This reason therefore of the succession of the Lords day in place of the Sabaoth is no reason Answer First what was acknowledged by the Church as injoyned by the point of vacancie from all labour without the least rellish of Iewish ceremonies wee shall see in the next Chapter Here onely wee examine your supposed confutation of a reason to prove it which reason is this The Lords day is succeeded in the place of the Sabbath or as some say as Heire of the Sabbath therefore to bee kept Sabbath-like You confute it thus If it succeeds it in place must it succeede in equall precisenesse of observation No It succeeded in point of Sanctification not of exact vacation I reply your distinction is not distinct for if in Sanctification then in exact vacation namely vacation Sabbaticall for if in the end in the meanes necessary to that end and for that end ordained which is exact vacation so farre as it may further Sanctification Now for your playing on the termes about an Heire it is frivolous Secondly for your instance in the Pope succeeding Peter arguing from place to power it little conduceth to this matter for the Pope succeedeth not in place Apostolicall if he did I should not much doubt of his power Apostolicall Had there beene a certaine Commandement of God to shew that God in his eternall Law commanded his people to obey the Apostolicall place But by place you mean roome not Officiall function and then what kinne betweene your instance and the matter in hand CHAP. XXIX Breerwood Pag. 45 46 47. ANy other reason besides this or else authority which I might in your behalfe object to my selfe I know none worthy mentioning for the commandement of God as I have proved is not of this day The commandement of the Church is of this day but not of these workes neither will all the histories of the ancient Church nor canons of the ancient councels nor any other monuments or registers of antiquity afford you as I am certainely perswaded search them as curiously as you can record of any such constitution of the Church for the generall restraint of workes on the Lords day You may finde I know in some of the ancient Fathers much sounding the prerogative of that day as that it was a holy day in * Hist Eccles lib. 4. cap. 22. Eusebius a day of Christian emblies in * Apolog. 2. Iustin Martyr and a day of rejoycing in * Apolog. c. 16 Tertullian a festivall day in * Epi. ad mag Ignatius and some more of the like but doth any of all these import or imply a generall restraint a desistance from all worke No they doe not neither shall you finde in these nor in any other records of antiquity any constitutions of the Apostles and of the first Church extant to that effect no nor any relation or remembrance that such a constitution had ever beene made by them nay I finde cleare evidence to the contrary for would Constantine the Great that most holy Emperour and best nursing Father of Christian religion that ever Prince was would he I say have licensed by his decree the country people freely liberè liciteque are the words of the constitution to attend their sowing of graine setting of vines and other husbandry on the Lords day if those workes had beene forbidden by the commandement of God or decree of the Apostles and first Church Or would the Fathers in the councell of Laodicea one of the most ancient and approved councells of the Church inioyne the vacancy of the Lords day with this condition And if men can Certainely servants full ill can if they be constrained by their Masters to worke would they I say have added such a condition had it beene simply unlawfull for all sorts of people by the ancient sanctification of the first Church to doe any worke that day It appeareth therefore that there were no such universall constitutions of the Church The actuall forbearing of all workes by some Christians that day stand not on nor on the exhortations of some ancient Fathers to that purpose some remembrances of both are to be found I know but these are particular examples and perswasions constitutions of the Church they are not edicts of sundry Princes likewise and decrees of some provinciall councells are extant I confesse in record to the same effect and those are constitutions indeede but partly not of the Church partly not universall nor very ancient and therefore are no sanctions to oblige the whole Church which beside the law of God and decrees of the Apostles to whom the government of the whole Church by our Saviour was committed and the canons of the universall Synods no positive constitution can doe Answer Having made it evident that the Commandement of God stands in force for our Sabbath I might easily cast off all that you shall say to the end of your Discourse but to cleare and scoure the coast and make it apparant that what you say is nothing and all maketh for us who in this thing hold the Truth we proceede You say you finde nothing for the generall restraint of works on the Lords day in any Historie cannon monument and register of Antiquitie but cleare evidence to the contrarie First for the first let the places you alleage speake out that all may heare them and not be blindly huddled up That in Euseb l. 4. cap. 22. is a passage in the Epistle of Dionysius Bishop of Corinth to Soter Bishop of Rome concerning the accustomed reading of the Epistle of Clement to the Corinths in their publike assemblies on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords day of which hee saith thus Wee have spent or passed through to the end of it the Lords day to day an Holy day Now to spend the Lords day throughout an holy day is not to spend any of it in servile worke let Scripture Heathen writers and all men testifie this was done saith that Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After their ancient custome Iustin Martyr after he hath recorded all the duties of their publike assemblies addeth this having spoken in the
Those that hold against the antiquity of the Commandement of the Sabbath that it was not given to Adam yet give no such interpretation of those words God sanctified the seventh day Not Master Broad not Doctor Prideaâ—x not Gomarus not Tostatus and Pererius nor any that I have met withall but they make it an institution by anticipation of which afterwards your selfe perceived it was too bold an assertion to say that the ever blessed Creator laid downe a Law for himself with apromise of blessednesse annexed and therefore confesse that both Gods resting and sanctifying of that day were exemplary to men though you would not they should bee obligatory till the commandement in Sin and Sinai But what then have you done If the Sabbath bee instituted in Paradise as you acknowledge from that place in Gen. 2. and this be exemplary to men as likewise you confesse how can it bee lesse than obligatory to men though it bee not delivered in a forme of words expresly mandatory Gods action which he would have exemplary cannot be lesse than obligatory Secondly but you say this sanctification might be in destination ordained then to holines but not to be applied till the time of the Law Was it ordained then to holinesse It was not then at mans liberty to spend it to other imployment than that to which it was ordained Gods preparation of a time to sanctification 2000. yeares before it should be sanctified is without example intimation in any Text or solid reason Had he ordained it then to holinesse What God hath sanctified why call you it common or how can you thinke that Adam and the Patriarchs would make it common The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say you signifieth a preparation as well as an actuall application to holinesse I could tell you that the word is used both in way of praise and dispraise as Rabbi David Kinchi observeth is it therefore to bee taken in dispraise here But to close with you the word signifieth to prepare apply it now to the seventh day and it noteth that God blessed and prepared the seventh day above other daies of the weeke to bee set apart to rest and the memory of the great worke of the Creation that so piety and religion for ever among posterity Gentiles aswell as Iewes might be nourished Had this beene driven out of use among the Holy Seed as it was among the Gentiles Satan had soone thrust on them also as hee did on the Gentiles the fiction of the worlds eternity and had blowne away as all memory of the Creation so also all faith and true piety out of the minds of men Now such a preparation which is the actuall separation of a thing to use is not of destination but present readinesse and such is the preparation this word signifieth as may bee seene in Rabbi Mardochai Nathans concordance When this word concernes holinesse for sometimes it signifieth preparation in generall as in Micah 3. 5. to prepare warre it signifieth to make holy Lev. 21. 23. to declare holinesse Ezek. 39. 27. to set a part to an holy use Ioel 1. 14. to command that it bee sanctified Exod. 13. 2. But to destinate aforehand without present and actuall separation of the thing so soone as it doth exist and is capable of that to which it is separated which must needs be your meaning hath no warrant of Scripture or Author that I know of For those places in Exo. 19. 10. Iosh 3. 5. and 7. 13. As they all meane by sanctifying to sanctifie by command that they bee sanctified so they speake not of a Destination of them to sanctity or a preparation without actuall application to holinesse but a present sanctifying themselves that day that they might be the fitter for attendance on the Lord it is not read thus in Exo. 19. 10 11. Sanctifie them against the third day but sanctifie them to day and to morrow and be ready against the third day So true is it also of the Sabbath sanctifie this Sabbath and the next Sabbath and every Sabbath It is senselesse to talke of a preparatory sanctification without application that were to separate to holines and yet to let it lye common Kades in Galilee Ioh. 20. was sanctified that is separated for a City of refuge was it only destinated and not actually set apart to that use Besides all those sanctifications are of persons not of times was there ever a set time sanctified and the time not separated to sanctity actually But what do I fighting with suppositions you say it might so signifie not it doth so How many interpreters ancient and moderne do say it doth signifie to command that it bee sanctified Thirdly you go on to a third evasion and say it might be a command and institution by anticipation shewing why not when God instituted the Sabbath That cannot be because Moses makes an Historicall narration of the creation according to seven daies time and in every day distinguisheth it by its proper worke and comming to the seventh he saith that was Gods resting day which was not inferiour to any of the sixe because God wrought no eminent worke of Creation thereon but extolled above them because it was not a day of empty rest but inriched above the other and advanced by Gods blessing and sanctifying of it that is he ordained it a time of greater and more holy workes and crowned those workes with richer fruit Esa 58. 14. and did chuse it above the rest to an holy use And that hee then sanctified that day both the connexion of the words sheweth and the words of the fouâ—th commandement in sixe daies hee made all hee rested the seventh and therefore blessed it This Anticipation never came into any mans mind who was not first anticipated with some prejudice about the observation of the Lords day the Iewes never dreamt of it and in the new Testament no such thing is taught or intimated The Authors of that opinion yeeld it is probable that the seventh day was observed froÌ„ the beginning Zuar de dieb festis Moreover there can be produced out of Scripture no example of such an Anticipation there is an Anticipation of the names of some places with the like but not an anticipation of an institution Besides the perfection of the creation on that day is twice joyned with the Sanctification of it in the same manner and phrase in which the creation both of man and of other living Creatures is joyned with the blessing of them Gen. 2. 2 3. with Gen. 1. 21 22 27 28. The new Testament confirmes our Text which teacheth that the people of God partake in the Old Testament of d Heb. 4. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. a twofold rest in this life the rest of the Sabbath and the rest in Canaan but David speaking in the 45. Psal of a rest speaketh not of the Sabbath rest for that was from the beginning of the world nor of that in Canaan for that
Master Breerwoods doctrine is like the waters of Marah and Meribah page 181. That the fruites of this doctrine can be no other but disturbance and sedition by fiue consequences that follow vpon it pag. 181. 182. CHAP. XXXV Answereth Master Breerwoods prouocation and adiuration to a polemicke discourse pag. 183. CHAP. XXXVI Sheweth the true relation of the occasion of the controuersie betwixt Master Breerwood and Master Byfield That Master Byfield did not indeed giue any such aduice to John Breerwood That this pretended scruple did not make John Breerwood disobedient to his Master who would not vrge him nor did it occasion his hard vsage nor tend to his ruine his Master being deceiued with his false pretences desired the more to inioy him THE SECOND PART CONTAINES A BRIEFE SVRVEY OF Master BREERVVOODS Reply and Sheweth THAT Master Byfields declining of the controuersie with Master Breerwood could not impeach his Knowledge Zeale or Charity pag. 193. 194. 195. That Master Breerwood opposeth Gods Sabbath pag. 195. 196. That the Commandement concerning the Rest and Sanctification of the Sabbath was giuen to Adam pag. 197. Diuers distinctions vsed by Master Breerwood against this truth answered pag. 197. 198. 199. 200. The true sence of the words of the text Genesis 2. verse 2 3. pag. 202. Authorities to confirme that exposition pag. 203. 204. 205. 206. 207. The Commandement concerning the Sabbath was one of the ten perpetuall words from the beginning pag. 208 209. That place in the 56. of Esay 4 5. must be vnderstood of the Christian Sabbath pag. 210. No mysticall Sabbath spoken of in the Scripture pag. 210. The Sabbath translated by the authority of Christ pag. 211 212. That place in Matthew 24. 20. meant of the Christian Sabbath prooued at large pag. 213 214. That the Ceremonies of the old Law were deadly at the time of the siege of Jerusalem pag. 215. That the old Sabbath was not obserued in the East Churches 300. yeeres after our Sauiours death as Master Breerwood affirmeth pag. 216. The sufficiency of Master Byfields Reasons not to answere the Treatise at that time sent to him by Master Breerwood pag. 218 to 222. A letter of Master Breerwoods in which hee promiseth that this controuersie betweene him and Master Byfield shall neuer be made publique pag. 223 c. FINIS ⧠A TABLE OF THE ABSVRD AND GROSSE POsitions that lye scattered in this Treatise of the Sabbath written by Master BREERWOOD 1 THe seruant as touching bodily labour is meerely subiect to his Masters power pag. 11. 2. The seruant as touching bodily seruice incident to mankinde is in like degree of subiection to his Master as is the Oxe and Asse pag. 11. 3. Children are meerely vnder their Parents power as the Cattell are vnder their owners pag. 13. 4. Seruants are vnder their Masters power for seruice onely pag. 14. 5. A seruant cannot justly performe any labour which his Master forbids nor omit any which his Master commands pag. 14. 6. If the fourth Commandement * be giuen to seruants they cannot keepe it Their calling carrieth a necessity of breaking the Law as this Author would haue it as they are the seruants of men pag. 17. 7. The compassion and goodnesse of God is such that it agreeth not therewith to giue to man such a Commandement which through the wickednesse of other men he cannot keepe without an inconuenience and mischiefe that is without sharpe punishment pag. 17. 8. Sinne essentially is nothing else but the inordinate and vnruly election or resolution of the will varying from the Scripture or Gods Law pag. 19. 9. Outward vnlawfull actions are not sinne properly pag. 19. 10. Actions are no whit further sinfull then they are voluntary pag. 20. 11. The guilt of sinne is the forme of sinne pag. 12. 12. The eie beholding vanity the tongue loose to blaspheme slander and lie and the hand stretched out to shead blood sinne not pag. 20. 13. To worke on the Lords day is certainely no breach of any diuine Commandement pag. 37. 14. The designement of the first day of the weeke to be Sabbath is but ceremoniall pag. 42. 15. Gods resting from Creation was his Sabbath and his resting in himselfe the sanctification thereof other institution or sanctification of the Sabbath in Paradise will neuer bee prooued out of the place in Gen. 2. 2. pag. 63 64. 16. The Sabbath for the morall part of it I keepe his owne phrase became in the wildernesse on Sinai one of the ten perpetuall words not before pag. 67. 17. By the Iudiciall law of Moses it was death for a man in case of necessity or danger to depart from the place of his residence on the Sabbath further then a Sabbath-dayes iourney pag. 73. FINIS THE PREFACE BEfore I touch upon this Antisabbato-Dominicall Pamphlet to grapple with it it is requisite briefly to skan the title and sentences of Scripture prefixed and to propose the case or question controverted First the Booke is intituled A learned Treatise of the Sabaoth What the Treatise affords shall bee seene anon God willing the Title savours of little learning wherein for Sabbath is written Sabaoth which signifieth hostes as in a Esay 1. 9. Esay Vnlesse the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a remnant What hostes bringeth in this Treatise What the hostes of flies of which Saint Austine speaketh b Serm. de temp 95. Consideremus ergo cur ibi decem praecepta hic decemplagae memorentur ideo sine dubio quia in illis erant vulnera inâ—stis medicamenta Attendite tertiam plagam huic tertio praecepts contrariam Cyniphesnati sunt in terra Aegyptide lino muscae minutissimae inquiretissimae inordinate volantes in oculos irruenâ—â—s non permittentes hominem quirescere dum abiguntur iâ—erum irruunt dum expulsae suerint iterum redeunt Quales istae sunt muscae tolâ—s sunt homines inquieti qui Sabbaâ—â—m spiritalitèr observares id est bonis operibus studere lectioni vel orationi insistâ—re nolâ—nt Who comparing the ten Precepts and ten Plagues of Egypt together as the diseases and the medicines doth paralell the plague of flies to the Commandement of the Sabbath and thus applyeth it Such as â—â—e saith he these Dog-flies or Lice as our Translation readeth it Exod. 8. 16. such are unquiet men which will not spiritually observe the Sabbath that is which will not study good workes nor insist in reading and prayer Hold yee the Precept beware of the Plague These are hostes under the command of that Don-Beelzebub c The Lord of Flies I would haue imputed this to the Printers oversight if either the Errata had mentioned it or the whole Treatise in any one place had given the tâ—ue Orthography Well but be it so the Treatise plyed to this Discourse and therefore how prophanely abused to Gods high dishonour appeareth by setting other places to them and applying them to the matter in hand Take them thus The first
to be cut off from the Congregation of Israel g Exod. 12. 19. See Junius on the place Now shall the servant be left to the subjection to that command that makes him unfit for communion with the people of God God forbid Yet thus would you provide for servants and be such a sinner against their soules Seventhly how much better might you have tuned to Lyra's Harpe than to runne a new straine he saith thus h Non loquitur de adultis qui jam sciebant legem Sabbati quia prohibiti sunt simul cum parentibus sed hoc additur propueris ignorantibus legem qui non debebant permitti dparentibus aliquid operari in diem Sabbati Lyra. he speaketh not of those of ripe age which did now know the Law of the Sabbath because they are forbidden together with their parents but this is added for childrens sake that knew not the Law which ought not to bee permitted to doe any workes on the Sabbath day This interpretation hee had from Rabbi Solomon I doe not say it is the truth of the place but this I say you have neither truth nor patron for your abortive opinion Let all Christians be warned how they receive every one that pretends Scripture all Heretikes were such according to that of Irenaeuâ— they were evill Expositors of things well spoken i Pravi expositores probè dictorum Iraeneus l. 1. advers Haeres in prooem Satan laid his most dangerous assaults against Christ and would perswade them by Scripture too Behold here one professing to stay within the compasse of the Word and by a futilous distinction of of and to erres from the A. B. C. Such words fiet like a Canker or Gangreene k 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shall be your wisedome not to serve God by distinctions and to learne Divinitie of your Teachers and not Divisions of Sophisters CHAP. II. Breerwood Pag. 5. 6. FOr the better clearing of which point let me aske you a question or two of other Commandements that for their forme are paralell to this and whereof you have no prejudice God commanded the Israelites that no stranger should eate of the Paschall Lambe againe that no Ammonite nor Moabite should enter into the Congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation Good Sir tell me did the Stranger sinne if he eat of the Passeover being supposed invited or did the Ammonites and Moabites sinne if they came into the Congregation being admitted Did the Stranger I say and the Ammonites and the Moabites in these cases sinne of whom the Commandements were given or the Israelites to whom the Commandements were given touching them no but it is clearely the Lords meaning that the Israelites should not admit of any Gentile to the participation of the Passeover nor receive the Ammonites and Moabites into the Congregation of the Lord. Answer First I reply these Commandements are not paralell and so your ground faileth these Commandements I say this Thy servant shall doe no manner of worke and this No stranger shall eate of the Passeover In the first you acknowledge the masters worke is forbidden to the master whether done by himselfe or by his servant In the latter the Passeover forbidden to the stranger is enjoyned to the Iew. The Iew must eate the Passeover the Iew must not admit the stranger to eate but the master must not worke and must not admit his servant to worke The thing prohibited viz. to doe servile worke on the Sabbath is sinfull in it selfe but the eating of the Passeover which is the thing forbidden the stranger was the speciall worship of God his ordinance and service required of the Iew. Now this makes a wide difference in the sense of those precepts that sound alike for where the thing is evill it cannot but be evill who ever doth it that is capable of the divine precept as the servant is for he is a reasonable creature and was a Iew but where the thing it selfe is holy it becomes evill onely to him that prophaneth and defileth it The Iew is made the observer of the Passeover and the preserver of it from the strangers observation but here the master and servant are both made observers of the command of ceasing from work and the master is to preserve it to the servants observation Besides where the words runne in the same forme the precepts are not presently paralell or the prohibitions for to make them so the parties commanded must stand alike capable of the Law or uncapable Wee 'le not goe farre for instance the words in this precept are every way for forme of words paralell Thy sonne shall doe no manner of worke the stranger within thy gate shall doe no manner of worke yet the forme of the precept is not the same because the sonne of the Iew stood otherwise obliged to the Sabbath as your selfe doe yeeld pag. 25. than the stranger And to put it beyond all exception these for forme of words are paralell Thy sonne shall doe no worke Thy cattell shall doe no worke yet the precept is not paralell because the sonne is capable of Gods Law to obey it properlyâ— and the Soli homines capaces sunt propriae legit Zuarez de leg l. 1. c. 6. cattell are not There is a difference betweene the forme of precepts and the forme of words in which precepts are signified The forme of the precept must partly bee gathered from the subjects to which they have reference and as they are capable or lesse capable of law so the precepts to be understood for the Law in its owne nature carrieth a certaine respect and disposition to them on whom it is imposed m Lex essentialâ—â—er quandam habitudinem ad eos dicâ—â— quibut imponitur Zuarez l. 1. ca. 6. de leg Now for the Law of the Passeover the stranger was not so capable of it as being not under the Law but the servant being a Iew is alike capable of the Law of the fourth Commandement as is his Master because equally under the Law What the Law speaketh it speaketh to them who are under the Law n Rom. 3. 19. saith the Apostle Secondly I affirme that the strangers Moabites and Ammonites did sinne in thus doing though invited or admitted they prophaned holy things as Balthazar did the Bowles of the Temple o Dan. 5. â— Now the Iewes sinfull invitation cannot take away their prophanation It is all one as if a Pagan living among us that refused our Religion and were not baptized should yet come and eate of the Bread of the Lord though some Minister for some by respect should be supposed to invite him There were among the Iewes strangers that kept house and had servants that yet were no Proselytes but onely strangers within the gates these sinned against this precept if they would kill the Passeover and eate it although the sewes should through remissenesse suffer it Further that a stranger
the Jewes not the first day of the weeke the Sabaoth of Christians that was so strictly by Gods commandement destined to rest Therefore the workes done on the Sabaoth day are no transgressions of Gods commandements Object But you will say the old Sabaoth is abolished and the celebration of it translated to the first day of the weeke Translated by whom By any commandement of God Where is it The holy Scripture we know to be sufficient it containeth all the commandements of God whether of things to be done or to be avoided or to be beleeved Sol. Let me heare either one precept one Word of God out of the old Testament that it should be translated or one precept one word of the Sonne of God out of the new Testament commanding it to bee translated I say one word of any of his Apostles intimating that by Christs commandement it was translated It is certaine that there is none Therfore it is evident that the solemnitie of the Lords day was not established Iure divino Not by any commandement of God and consequently that to worke on that day is certainely no breach of any Divine commandement Answer You proceed and would prove this wicked assertion That it is no breach of any Divine commandement for a servant at the commandement of his master nay for any one on his owne head to worke on our Sabbath which is the Lords day the first day of the weeke First the commandement say you cannot be understood of the Lords day Why I pray you can you understand it of any other day save the Sabbath day Doth not the tenor of the precept sound thus Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it You yeeld in the next breath that the Lords day is the Christians Sabbath You must then yeeld that the commandement is understood of it You would bee thus understood and take it very hainously that you should be said to oppose Gods Sabbath do you No you doe not nor ever did Farre bee it from you to thinke it were to wrong you to write it were to calumniate you thus you pleade for your selfe in the first section of your Reply pag. 61 62. Yet lo now the commandement cannot be understood of the Lords day Why then say man the Lords day is not the Sabbath for of the Sabbath is the commandement Secondly but to your reasoning for it is not reason nor religion What day was it of which the charge was so strictly given was it not of the seventh day of the weeke say you Yes indeed of the seventh as the precept was first applied to man But aske againe Why of the seventh more than the sixth And the Lord answereth Because it was the Sabbath of the Lord for wheÌ„ it ceaseth to be the Lords Sabbath the commandement is not of it as you also acknowledge or else why keepe you it not Yet the commandement standeth in full vigor viz. of sanctifying and resting on the Sabbath To the Iewes the seventh from the Creation was the Sabbath the commandement stood in vigor to them for that day to the Christian the seventh even the first day of the weeke is the Sabbath the commandement stands in vigor to them also for that day Therefore he saith not Remember thou sanctifie the seventh day and keep it Sabbath nor thou shalt doe no worke on the Sabbath day for it is the seventh but he saith Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it and Thou shalt do no worke on the seventh for it is the Sabbath This Reason you leape and yet you aske a Why And why the seventh Because God rested thereon and sanctified the seventh day Here you violate first the words of the commandement written with Gods owne finger and then the sense for it is thus read o Exod. 20. 11. Therefore hee sanctified the Sabbath day or resting day and so hee sanctified our Sabbath day as well as theirs for the Sabbath he sanctified be it what day hee shall be pleased to nominate a matter of infinite comfort to us that desire to doe the duties of the day with faith in Gods both blessing and acceptation And hereby your conclusion is utterly weakened Thirdly this reason is given both as a reason of the rest on that day and as a plaine declaration of the institution of that Sabbath day and of this day in the precept now Hee rested the seventh day Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it When did hee so Gen. 2. 3. In the beginning Yea he did sanctifie the seventh Yea then he sanctified the Sabbath it was instituted when he blessed and sanctified it and this was in the Creation But how was this done The very worke of the day instituted the day which was this the Lords resting blessing and sanctifying it Now this teacheth us that the institution of the Sabbath in respect of the determination of the time is to bee looked for in the worke of God Gods resting blessing and sanctifying the seventh day made it the Sabbath day therefore in the commandement it is said The seventh is the Sabbath and the following words shew how it was made the Sabbath and what day he blesseth and sanctifieth is the Sabbath Now Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath by whom the worlds were made Col. 1. 16. by whom also they are renewed looke in his worke and find undoubtedly the making and institution of the day to the world renewed the seventh day he lay in the grave here was no worke of blessing and sanctifying but the first day of the weeke very early he arose and appeared to his Disciples and unfolded the Scriptures and opened their understandings to understand them The fourth commandement to speake all clearely stands in p Nomine Sabbathi nobis significatur quòd in nostris debeamus nos Sabbathiê â—â— Hoc est quiescere ab illis operibus à quibus Iudaei quiescere jubebantur Zanch. de red l. 1. c. 19. force to us and the Lords resurrection resting from the worke of our redemption and rejoycing in it blessing it with that worke with divers apparitions that very day and sanctifying it with spending it among his Disciples in his presence bodily now glorified in heavenly expositions and operations upon their hearts and in the returne of the day many times and in speciall upon the returne of it at Whitsontide with the mission of the Holy Ghost This I say applieth and determineth it to this day we now observe And as the Iewes are sent to seeke the precise day in the Lords resting from the workes of Creation so we are sent to the rest from the worke of redemption The institution of this day is clearely in the very worke of the Resurrection as the institution of the seventh day was in the worke of finishing the Creation This hath been anciently taught and still is sparsed in the writings of the godly learned S. Augustine saith q Domini resuscitatio promisit nobis
is a law of nature and remaineth But as the speciality of that commandement implyeth plaine contradiction with the sabbaticall of the Lords day so the generality of it can enforce nothing for it for these are miserable consequents indeed plaine fallacies of the consequeÌ„t that God hath sometime commanded vacancy for his honour therefore he hath commanded the first day of the weeke to be that time or this God hath commanded us some time to rest therefore that time we must precisely abstaine from all manner of workes can the Church make these good consequences If it cannot the celebration of the Lords day can with no enforcement of reason be deduced out of the morality of Gods commandement But if you will reply that the Church hath established the first day of the weeke to be the Christians Sabaoth not by way of consequence as deducing it out of commandement but meerely by authority appropriating and fixing Gods morall commandement to it you may say your pleasure but I shall neither beleeve nor you prove that such authority belongs to the Church or that such an act hath beene established by the Church which I am sure you can never doe neither of both for seeing that all Divines acknowledge that the singling out of such a day to be sanctified namely the seventh rather than any other was meerely ceremoniall although it was Gods owne designation I hope that you will confesse the speciall designement of the first day of the weeke to that honour before other daies being made only by the Church to be also but ceremoniall But certaine it is that no ceremonies which come not under the obligation of Gods morall law should oblige to the observation of ceremonies Therefore it will never consist with reason that the morall law of God can by any authoritie of the Church oblige Christians to the celebration of the Lords day It is not therefore the translation of the old commandement of God from the one day to the other which yet if it were translated can oblige servants no otherwise than it did under the old law but the institution of a new commandement of the Church her selfe yet guided by the spirit of God that consecrated that day to the solemne service of God Answer First this objection we owne and for your distinction thus disprove it Your granted Generality is commanded in the commandements fore-going in which God that commands a worship commands also time for it as when he created the world time was concreated of necessity Besides this vaine conceit was before blowne up Therefore if all you name and put into the speciality of the Commandement be meerely ceremoniall we have no fourth Commandement distinct from the former Secondly for your speciality which you say is all meerly ceremoniall we proved before that the light of nature would prove the contrary and now we assault every particular with the sword of the spirit that the hairy scalpe of it may be wounded and in the welding of the same put our hands on the hands of the Lords Worthies to fetch the blowes with more force First that one day of seven and particularly the seventh is not ceremoniall is evident by the commandement which delivered with Gods owne mouth in the mount and charged by way of command is no other than morall and indispensable And by the celebration of the Christian Sabbath in the New testament which was on the seventh day viz. the first day of the weeke and was constantly in weekely revolution celebrated Calvin saith y Calvin in quarâ—uÌ„ praecâ—ptum diem unum separat a reliquis ab omnibus terrenis negotiis curis immâ—neÌ„ quoad hanc partem nobis cum veteri populo communis est Sabbaâ—i necessitas ut die uno liberi simus atque ita melius parati tam ad discendum qudm ad fidem nostram testandum God separateth one day from the rest and wills that it be free from all earthly businesse and cares In this respect the necessity of the Sabbath is common to us with the ancient people that one day wee be free and so the better prepared as well to learne as to testifie our faith so Peter Martyr on Gen. 2. and Mast Perkins on Gal. 4. 10. and infinite many more The Apostles knew and that by the Scriptures saith learned Fulke that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever during the world consecrated to the publike exercises of Gods true Religion The Church of Scotland saith that the Preface to the assembly at Perth day commanded in the Law formally must remaine and ever bee the seventh after sixe dayes worke Chemnitius z Chemnit examen Concil trident cap. de dieb fest Tam Veteris quà m Novi Testamenti pagina septimaÌ„ diem ad humanam quietem specialiter deputat id est interprete Zuâ—rez de diebus festis Cap. 1. utrúmque Testamentun appro bavit morem deputandi ad quietem humanam septimum quenque diem hebdomadae quod est formaliter deputate septimuÌ„ dicm licet materialiter non idem dies fuerit semper deputatus hoc modo verum est scptimum diem in lege veteri esse Sabbathum in nova verò esse dominicam diem De fcriis cap. licet who with the Lutherans ascribeth too much in this thing to the Churches liberty yet affirmeth truely thus much This is that which is said usually and truely that the New Testament in the commandement of keeping holy the Sabbath day abrogated not the Genus the generall which is morall but the species the speciall that is hath not taken away the generall which is the seventh day for this is naturall but the speciall or particular namely that seventh day which the Iewes kept in remembrance of the first Creation Alexander the third Pope of Rome affirmeth that the page as well of the old as the new Testament hath specially deputed the seventh day to humane rest that is by the interpretation of Zuarez both Testaments have approved the manner of deputing every seventh day of the weeke to humane Rest which is to depute the seventh day formally although the same day materially hath not alwaies been deputed and by this meanes it is true that that seventh day in the old law was Sabbath but in the New the Lords day is Sabbath M. Attersoll on Numbers 15. 35. p. 645. well observeth that if one day in seven be not morall and perpetuall a man may say that one day in seven weekes or seven yeeres is enough and so at length it shall be said wee are not bound to meet together publikely above one day in a 100. yeers But this absurdity Gomarus a that holds the contrary opinion thinketh hee Gomarus de invest haeret orig Sab. c. 5. pa. 61. Certi dies sufficientes hath evaded by these words when he holdeth that not only certaine daies but also sufficient dayes be observed for Gods worship But this is just
nothing for are not one day in a yeere yeerely certaine dayes and so of the rest and if that some shall say they are enough though others speake against it who shal tel which of these two sides sides with the truth when what is enough you hold God hath not particularly determined yea but Gomarus saith that what dayes are sufficient may be gathered out of the precept of the Sabbath namely that they be either not more seldome or else a little more oft than the Sabbaths of the Israelites as the indulgence of God in giving that precept sheweth For when the Lord for his clemency sake tooke one of seven onely to his worship for the Israelites men of a stiffe-necke and pressed with the heavy yoke of feasts and other ceremonies how shall more seldome suffice among Christians that are free from that yoke and burden Very good Can any looke on this without griefe and laughter If out of the precept you must gather your sufficient dayes why will you not take the dayes God hath in precept warranted for sufficient and sufficiently blessed one of seven the seventh If this your sufficiency must be gathered from the precept and that too as you gather that they bee more to us than were to Iewes then we are to have two Sabbaths a weeke at the least and the Church erred that Anathematized the keepers of Saturday in the time of the Gospell and still erreth that never saw this yet much lesse observed it Or if you say no they must not be Sabbaths how then gather you this sufficiency of the dayes out of the fourth Commandement which concerneth the Sabbath and not halfe holidaies and other feasts and if the Iewes were yoked with observation of feasts therfore Gods clemency would they should keep but the seventh day What an insupportable yoke doe you lay upon Christians that must as you say keepe more than one of seven or else they keepe not a sufficient number all the Iewish feasts would hardly arise to the number that two in a weeke constantly doe amount to and what interfearing is here One of the seven daies of the weeke in perpetuall revolution is not necessarily to be observed by force of the fourth Commandement And yet fewer than one a weeke cannot be sufficient and that by vertue of the fourth Commandement What would you have more than one a weeke by vertue of the Commandement and therefore you say one is not necessary Or is that which is onely sufficient not necessary Why then take that which is insufficient and let that be yet necessary even one when you will and more when you will now this day now that you may do them all a favour to take them over by turnes Thus farre for Gomarus in this thing Secondly that one whole day be kept holy and no lesse is morall and not ceremoniall you yeelde that the commandement for a Sabbath is morall now God never mentioned lesse than a day saying Remember thou keepe holy the Sabbath day the distinction also of time by the Lord of time cleareth this for the whole weeke is divided into seven daies and every of those dayes consisteth of 24. houres David in his Psalme for the Sabbath day b Psal 92. title with verse 2. describeth the time thus It is good to shew forth thy loving kindnesse in the morning and thy faithfulnesse every night meaning every Sabbath day morning and night as the title sheweth The apparition of our Saviour at the night of the day of his Resurrection in the midst of the Disciples assembled c Ioh 20. 19. Profunda jam nocte it being now very late at night saith Areâ—ius proveth that the night following of the day of Sabbath take here day for the day-light betweene sunne and sunne is of the Sabbath and lastly the celebration of the Lords day by Paul at Troas in Act. 20. 7. out of which saith Mr. Perkins I note two things First that the night mentioned there was a part of the seventh day of Pauls abode at Troas for if it were not so then he had staied at least a night longer and so more than seven dayes because he should have staied part of another day Secondly that this night was part of the Sabbath which they then kept For the Apostles keepe it in manner of a Sabbath in the exercises of piety and divine worship Answer This also suffereth just exception both in it selfe and in reference to the matter in hand it bindeth you yeeld because Gods command bindeth to obey the Churches just constitutions Consider it is Gods Command that bindeth and not the Churches but as it is Gods Now Gods Command bindeth equally and to despise Christ and despise him in his Apostles in as much as he saith He that despiseth you despiseth me is alike sinfull or what if it binde not equally to take your owne words if it bind enough to make the transgressor a sinner before God For this was never questioned whether the Master or Servant were the greater sinner in the servants working on the Sabbath Againe it bindeth equally by your owne doctrine because you say in pag. 43. lib. 1. it is of the Church guided by the Spirit of God unlesse you will say that the doctrine of the New Testament preached and written by men with the Holy Ghost sent downe from Heaven is of lesse binding power than the Ten Commandements delivered on Mount Sinai which runneth against not onely all Christian religion but also those Texts in speciall Heb. 2. 2 3. 12. CHAP. XXVIII Breerwood Pag. 43 44 45. BVt if you aske me how farre doth that constitution of the Church oblige the conscience I answere you as farre as it doth command you will desire no more further it cannot It cannot oblige farther than it doth ordaine it cannot bind the conscience for guiltinesse further than it doth for obedience because all guiltinesse both presuppose disobedience now that the Church ordained solemne assemblies of Christians to bee celebrated that day to the honour of God and in them the invocation of Gods holy name thankes-giving hearing of the holy Scriptures and receiving of the Sacraments is not denied It is out of question all antiquity affordeth plentifull remembrance of it But that it injoyneth that severe and exact vacation from all workes on the Lords day which the commandement of God required in the Iewes Sabaoth you will never prove It relisheth too much of the Iewish Ceremonies to be proved by Christian divinity for this is no proofe of it that the Lords day is succeeded in place of the Sabaoth or as some Divines tearme it as the heyre of the Sabaoth It is I say no proofe at all except it were established by the same authority and the observance of it charged with the same strictnesse of commandement for if it succeed the Sabaoth in place must it therefore succeed in equall precisenesse of observation So if the Pope succeedeth Peter in place
was past therefore of a third rest hee must needs speake Lastly the Prophet gathered a perpetuall Rule and Law for marriage from the first example in the creation of married persons Mal. 2. 15. Made hee not one And wherefore one Because hee sought a godly seed So here did not God rest the seventh day but why the seventh that wee should sanctifie to God the seventh Yea but the Prophet made no such collection Yes such a one though not that very one And a greater than that Prophet God himselfe puts into us that very collection when he saith that he Rested and that he blessed and sanctified this his resting day Fourthly you would make good your conceite by shewing the needlesnesse of such a command when there was no toyle to the body nor distraction to the mind that called for Rest or sanctification one day in seven There was labour in Paradise Gen. 2. 15. And therefore there might bee need of a Rest There was danger of sinne in Paradise and therefore need of some speciall time by Gods ordinance and that time blessed of him to uphold the sanctification of the soule If you reply there was no such toyle in labour I answer it was no toyle to God to worke the sixe dayes and yet God rested the seventh Besides God that knew mans estate knew reasons for his commandement and therefore it is ill divining against the light of Gods truth And if it had beene but a commandement of triall man ought to have obeyed Fifthly hitherto of the eversion of your Tenet now for the Text in Gen. 2. 2 3. That the true sense of the words is this The Lord blessed the seventh day that is hee appointed it to be a Fountaine of blessing to the observers of that day and sanctified it That is Commanded it to be set apart by men from common businesses and applied to holy uses That this I say is the true sense not only the Hebrew and Greeke words do both give but the universall opinion of Divines ancient and moderne Cyprian writes thus e Cyprian de Spiritu Sancto sc edition Pamelianam Antuerp 1589. This sacred number of seven obtained authority from the creation of the World because the first workes of God were made in sixe daies and the seventh day was consecrated to rest as holy hallowing honored with the solemnity of abidding and entitled to the Spirit the Sanctifier Epiphanius speaketh thus of those words in the Gospell of Saint Luke It came to passe on the second first Sabbath f Epiphan advers Haeres lib. 2. tom 1. contra Hares Anoetâ—n Haeres 51. that the first Sabbath is that which was defined from the beginning and called so of the Lord in the Creation of the world which returneth by circuit according to the revolution of seven dayes from that time untill now but the second Sabbath is that which is described by the Law Origen answereth Celsus objecting against the History of the Creation that God like some Artificer that were wearied should need a resting and vacation in this manner g Origen contra Celsum lib. 6. fol. 81. Truely this man seeth not after the creation of the world as soone as the world was made what a one the day of the Sabbath and of God resting was in which both men rest to God and keep this day a festivall unto him which have dispatched their workes on the sixt day and because they let passe nothing that is urgent they ascend by contemplation to the feast day of the just and blessed men Chrysostome unfolds the Text in Genesis thus h Chrysost tomâ— in Gen. serm 10. sc edit Savilianam What is this and hee sanctified it he separated it Then the Divine Scripture teaching us the cause also for which it is said hee sanctified it addeth because in it he rested from all his workes which hee began to make Now hence God giveth to us darkely i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this instruction that we set apart and separate one day in the circuit of every weeke to the use of spirituall things for for this cause did the Lord finish all the fabricke of the world in six daies and honouring the seventh with his blessing sanctified it Hierome was of the mind that the k Hieron tradit Hebr. in Genes Sabbath was instituted in the beginning who reprehends the Iewes idlenesse on their Sabbath and empty rest in which yet they gloried from the example of God who in the beginning wrought on the day which he blessed and so brake the Sabbath in the Iewes sense Learned Mercerus upon this place following the choise and greatest Lights saith I doubt not but by the first fathers before the Law this day was solemne and sacred God himselfe being their teacher c. That the people of God might know that the Fathers observed it not of themselves but as taught of God to reteine them in the exercise of Gods worship Athanasius l Athanas de Sabbat circumcis also giveth his voice Who sheweth that that seventh day had its observation among all men of those generations from the creation to the resurrection of our Saviour Augustine was of this mind When God saith he m August ad Casul epist 86. sanctified the seventh day because in it he rested from all his works he expressed not any thing concerning the fast or dinner of the Sabbath The Fathers alledged by Gomarus that plead the Sabbath was not kept by the Fathers before Moses as Iustin Martyr Tertullian Irenaeus and Eusebius are to bee understood of the Ceremoniall observation thereof and so the Fathers were no observers of the Sabbath as those ancients rightly maintained against the Iewes and wee readily subscribe unto it and that they thus meant is apparent by some passages in their foresaid bookes Iustin Martyr in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Iew saith Neither thinke ye it grievous that we drinke some warme thing on the Sabbath seeing God also governeth the world on this day in like manner as he doth on other dayes And Tertullian in his booke against the Iewes saith That the temporall observation of the Sabbath ceaseth as it is a type Irenaeus also affirmeth in his booke against Heresies lib. 4. c. 3. That the precepts spoken by Gods owne voice receive not diminution but increase by our Saviours comming which precepts he saith were naturall liberall and common to all And in his 30. chap. of the same booke he saith That the godly Fathers had the substance of the Decalogue written in their hearts and soules and had in themselves the righteousnesse of the Law Beda therefore upon the sixt chapter of Luke maketh a distinction betweene the observation of the legall Sabbath and the liberty of the Naturall Sabbath which till Moses time was like other dayes See hee acknowledgeth a Naturall Sabbath under those first times of liberty Annexe to these the Iewish Doctors Philo thus openeth the Text
o Philo de mundi opificio After that this Vniverse was perfected according to the perfect nature of the number of sixe the Father added honour to the following seventh day which when he had praised presently he vouchsafed to call it holy For it is the feast not of one people or Region but of all universally which alone is worthy to be called a popular festivity and the birth-day of the world Broughton in his consent of Scriptures alleageth Ramban upon Gen. 26. fol. 46. And Aben Ezra upon Exodus the twentieth to prove that the Lord appointed the seventh day from creating to bee an holy rest and that the fathers observed it before Moses Peter Matyr alleadgeth p Pet. Mart. â—oâ— in Genes Rabbi Agnon for that same point Thomas Aquinas interpreteth it on this wise q he sanctified it that is he deputed it to sanctitie for he willeth that the Lords day be kept holy of us therefore that especially we be also vacant to Gods holy worship and in it and the memoriall therof we call to mind the continuall benefit of our creation and therefore in the old law it is commanded that on that day we cease from servile workes that we may intend more freely God and his divine worship whence that day is called Sabbath which is the same that rest it Selneccerus saith that r Nicol selnecceri Com. in Genes God would by this very sanctifying of the Sabbath institute a certaine worship in which mankind even in innocencie that is although Adam had not falled should publish the goodnesse of God and celebrate worship acceptable to God when as other things on other dayes were to be looked unto And then he giveth foure causes or ends of the institution of the Sabbath It was instituted First for rest Secondly for the excellencie of man Thirdly for the upholding of a certaine worship Fourthly and for the testimonie of immortalitie And here saith he Children may learne the answer of that Schoole argument the Apostle in Col. 2. bids that none judge in respect of the Sabbath dayes therefore we are not to keepe a Sabbath Answer the antecedent Paul speaketh of the ceremonie and the observation of externall circumstances he speaketh not of the generall or the principall meaning of the precept and the finall cause thereof which is naturall and unchangeable This Author calleth our Sabbath the Sabbath of Redemption Marius is full in this thing Å¿ Marius in Gen. 2. He blessed that is hee consecrated it to his blessing to bee kept of men and sanctified it not as if he estamped holinesse on it but because hee appointed it to his sanctification and praise and to the holy conversation of men Because with the Hebrewes to sanctifie is the same as to separate from pollution a day is said to be sanctified in which we ought to be separated from pollution It was made presently from that very day of the World as the letter sheweth a positive precept given to our first Parents concerning this thing which they passed over to posteritie by tradition as in the Church the celebration of the first or eight day is passed over for since it is of the Law of Nature that some time be peculiarly insinuated for the worship of God it was meete that that should be determined in the very beginning by a positive law whence even among the Gentiles the Religion on the Seventh day was famous Beza affirmeth t Beza paraph. in Iob 1. 5. of Iob That as oft as his children had made an end of feasting one another in their severall houses he sanctified them and offered burnt offerings according to their number but notwithstanding there is no doubt but that the dayly worship of God was diligently observed besides in this most holy family at least every seventh day was carefully sanctified as God from the beginning of the world had appointed This blessing saith reverend Calvin was nothing else but Calvin Com. in Gen. ca. 2. a solemne consecration whereby God claimes to himselfe the studies and imployments of men on the seventh day First God rested then hee blessed this rest that in all ages amongst men it might bee holy or he dedicated every seventh day to rest that his example might be a perpetuall rule Moreover we must know this exercise is not peculiar to one either age or people onely but common to all mankinde Wherefore when wee heare that by Christs comming the Sabbath was abrogated this distinction must be taken too What appertaines to the perpetuall ordering of humane life and what peculiarly agreeth to the old figures that the Sabbath figured the mortification of the flesh I say was temporall but that from the beginning it was commanded men that they should exercise themselves in the worship of God deservedly it ought to endure even to the end of the world Hereunto agree Zuinglius Iunius and Tremellius Vatablus Vrsin Catech. Bulling in Rom. 4 5. Decad. Danaeaeth Chri. l. 2 c. 10. Bertram pol. Iudaic. c. 2. Vrsinus Bullinger Danaeus Aretius Piscator Bertramus Hospinian Chemnitius and Zanchy who after this sense given upon the words of the Text in Genesis delivers his opinion of the manner of keeping the first Sabbath I doubt not saith he but that the Sonne of God Hospin de orig templ li. 2. c. 14. Chemnit loc Theo. de lege Dei Zanch. de hominis creat l. 1. c. 1 sub finem libri taking on him the shape of man was busied that whole seventh day in most holy colloquies with Adam and that he did also fully make himselfe knowne to Adam and Eve and did reveale the manner and order which hee had used in creating of all things and did exhort them both to meditate on these workes and in them to acknowledge their Creator and to prayse him and that by his owne example he did admonish them to imploy themselves in this exercise of godlinesse setting all other businesse aside and also that they would so instruct and teach their children To be short I doubtnot but that in that seventh day he taught them all Divinitie and did hold them busied in hearing of him and in praysing God their Creator for so many and so great benefits To this interpretation I am led by these two reasons The first taken from the Sanctification of the Sabbath which God hath prescribed in the Law the second because Adam ought to understand this sanctification of such a day therefore it is probable that the Sonne of God did open this unto Adam and Eve both in plaine words and by his owne example For even God also is said to rest upon that day and in Exodus hee doth exhort to the sanctification of the Sabbath by his owne example therefore he did sanctifie it with Adam and Eve Of this the Son of God gave us a shew for having finished the workes of our re-creating or Redemption being raised from the dead he conversed with his
Disciples appearing to them through forty dayes space and speaking the things that concerned the Kingdome of God and fully instructing them and teaching profound Theologie not so much with words as with the efficacie of the Spirit He so rested from both workes that hee ceased not yet to teach men and instruct them in the true worship The time would faile me to tell of our English worthies famous Westerne Lights that teach all this Truth as Willet Perkins Greenham Babington Bownd Gibbens Dod Scharpy Esty Williams with many more Behold what a cloude of witnesses doe compasse us about For further confirmation consider that place in Exod. 16. For first before all mention of Moses Law concerning the Sabbath it is storied that the People gathered on the sixt day twice as much bread two Omers for one man which Vers 22. 23. thing was observed by the Rulers of the Congregation who came and told Moses of it To what end was this but that they might apply themselves wholy to the observation of the Sabbath the day following Secondly the very phrase and words of Moses in giving admonition about the Sabbath in vers 23 is such as clearly sheweth that Moses spake not of the Sabbath as some new thing unheard of but cals to minde the ancient sanctimonie of that day which they had beene compelled to neglect of late in Egypt through Phâ—raohs cruell taske-masters This is that which the Lord hath said Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Thirdly the very command of Moses appointing them for after times to gather twice as much every sixth day as they did other dayes and giving this reason on the seventh day which is the Sabbath in it there shall bee none Vers 26. 29. sheweth that Moses himselfe was mindefull of the Law of the Sabbath delivered from Adam to the Fathers Out of this Text then it is evident that the Sabbath was from the beginning The third Section answered Vnto the Argument of Master Byfield for the mortalitie of the Sabbath taken from the manner of giving this Law by lively voyce on Sinai and by divine ingraving in Tables of stone by the finger of God and therefore differenced by the Lord from a ceremoniall Law which were all given mediately by Moses and from Gods owne testimonie by Moses that it is one of the Tenne words or Tenne Commandements you make here such an answer as doth not once come neare the force of the argument It became say you one of the Tenne perpetuall words then when it was given on Mount Sinai for the morall part perpetuall Thou shalt sanctifie the Sabbath for the ceremoniall part not perpetuall Thou shalt sanctifie the seventh day for the Sabbath If it became so because ingraven by the finger of God in Tables of stone then that part thou shalt sanctifie the seventh day for Sabbath is so because so ingraven If it became so but then that sufficeth us that have lived ever since and those that shall arise after us to the end of the world But this that you affirme that then when it was delivered on Sinai it became one of the perpetuall words hath no warrant in Scripture alledge the place nor in reason for as the other nine Commandements became not then first perpetuall though then first delivered in forme of lawes no more did this Were they perpetuall because written in Tables of stone and not rather because perpetuall so written This also is strange that you say that the morall part of the commandement Thou shalt sanctifie the Sabbath as you will have it became but then on Sinaia perpetuall word Was not obliging from the beginning and written in the heart that there should bee a vacant time for the worship of God If you deny it See your owne confession in pag. 24. of the Treatise The fourth Section answered That place in the fifty sixth Chapter of Esay vers 4 5. Vers 2. affords a strong argument against you for there the Christian Sabbath is prophesied of as that which every mortall man every sonne of Adam that would bee blessed must keepe in obedience to God It is therefore an ordinance of God charged in the fourth Commandement and no Command of men The strangers and Eunuchs there spoken of were not such as became proselytes under the law but Christians under the Gospell You object that the priviledge of Sonnes and Daughters was not tendered to strangers and so Master Byfield mistooke the Text. This is but a cavill the intent of the Prophet is to shew that the legall rules about strangers and Eunuchs shall not in Christs Kingdome where they are abolished hinder their election and choise into the number of his people but any of all sorts are accepted with God that thus take hold of his Covenant The Prophet expresly pronounceth them blessed v. 2. therefore it can be no wresting of the Text to say the stranger shall be a Sonne and the Eunuch made joyfull in the house of prayer nay if you take the Promise applyed in v. 5. to the Eunuchs exclusively shutting out the stranger how doth it answer so well the strangers objection who said The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people vers 3. You object further that the burnt offerings and sacrifices mentioned in vers 7. have no place in the New Testament therefore the Text must bee understood of the time of the Old Testament You might as well say that that place in Malach. 1. 11. is not spoken of the New Testament though it bee said Gods Name shall bee great among the Gentiles from the rising of the Sunne to the going downe thereof Because it is added In every place incense shall be offered and a pure offering Christians have their burnt offerings and sacrifices Rom. 12. 1. Heb. 13. But you say that then all the chapter must be understood in a mysticall sense and so of a mysticall Sabbath This consequence is utterly infirme as may be seene by that Text in Malachi forecited and that conceit of a mysticall Sabboth cannot have place here for these are made distinct to keepe the Sabbath from polluting it and to keepe the hand from doing any evill verse 2. To speake fully there is no one word in Scripture that speaketh of a mysticall Sabbath for what is spoken of a * Heb. 4. Spirituall Sabbatisme concernes our rest in Heaven and not a Spirituall Sabbath on earth and to say that servile workes condemned in the fourth Commandement are no other than sinnes or sinnes at all is nothing but an Allegoricall sporting with Gods Word for sinnes are not unlawfull on the Sabbath onely but alwayes and in all places nor doth the fourth Commandement intend to give a prohibition of all sinnes though it is true that in some sense sinnes receive an high aggravation when they are committed on so holy a day Esai 58. 4. Now how this mysticall and spirituall Sabbath of yours should serve to this
purpose which we intend I know not they are words of a disjoynted minde The fifth Section answered Concerning the authoritie that translated the Sabbath you say it is certaine that the translation thereof was actually and immediatly prescribed by the Church Deale ingenuously and shew me where if in Scripture then I answer that it was not immediatly prescribed by the Church for the Apostles were not Authors of the institution but Ministers of Christ and pen-men of the holy Ghost If in Ecclesiasticall writers I answer they all referre us to the Apostles and the Scriptures This opinion therefore is so farre from certaine that it is certainely false You say againe that certainely Christ never gave his Apostles particular charge of Instituting a new Sabbath either while hee conversed with them on Earth or afterwards by Revelation How know you this The Apostles delivered many things that the Evangelists did not set downe nor themselves expresly say they received them from the Lords mouth that they concealed Christs Command from the Church that is this particular expression in so many words that Christ commanded it this makes to prove it was given them in charge by Christ for else whē the Apostles enjoyned it they would have said of that their injunction as of other things x 1 Cor. 7. 6. 12. 25. We speake this by permission not by commandement wee have no commandement of the Lord but wee speake our judgement Herein speake wee not the Lord. This institution then to use your owne language of a new day of solemnitie in stead of the old Sabbath was of the exigence and necessitie of the Apostles commission not of the libertie The Apostles did nothing in ordering the Church but from Ioh 14. 26. and by Christ either by precept or by example or by divine inspiration It is out of question they had speciall warrant from Christ in expresse charge when you compare together their precept and practice with those two Texts Math. 28. 20. Act. 1. The first enjoyning the Apostles to teach what hee commanded and to teach and baptize in which ordinances teaching such things he would bee with them to the worlds end The latter declaring that Christ spake the things pertaining to the kingdome of God to his disciples in those fortie dayes before his assension For all that you say therefore it is certaine the Sabbath was translated by the same authoritie that first commanded it The Sixt Section answered First concerning that place in Matth. 24. 20. first you affirme that it is understood by all Divines of the old Sabbath by all the ancient without exception by all the latter for ought you know Could you know the judgement of the Ancients to be such because they held that there was a transgression of a law in hasting their flight on the Sabbath Did they hold thinke you that the fourth Commandement was in force then for the sanctifying of the Iewes Sabbath Or was there any other than the fourth Commandement which could bee transgressed by flight on the Sabbath Hierome saith That our Saviour bid them pray that their flight might not be in the winter nor on the Sabbath day because in the one the extremity of cold forbids to goe to the wildernesse and to lie hid in mountaines and desarts in the other there is either the transgression of the Law if they be willing to flie or imminent death if they abide Thus runneth also the ordinarie glosse and what a vaine boast is this concerning the judgement of the Ancients when they all almost give no other interpretation of that Text than what is Allegoricall as Origen Austine and others Many later Divines by Sabbath understand all inconveniences of flight caused by the necessary and enjoyned attendance on Gods worship This little favoureth your opinion and most understand the place of the Christian Sabbath And that this is the proper sense of the place will bee manifest to him that observeth three things First the persons to whom these words were spoken viz. to the Disciples privately and apart on the Mount of Olives vers 3. Secondly the time immediately before his death hee spake of that which should fall out fortie yeeres after Thirdly the intent of our Saviour which was to shew the great evils should then come to passe and the miserable exigents the enemies should put them to Now if it be not spoken of the Christian Sabbath what force could there bee in our Saviours speech saying pray that your flight bee not on the Sabbath who hereby intended to signifie that it should bee a singular griefe to them to flie on that day If the Sabbath had not beene in force what vexation had it beene to the Disciples to flie on that day more than any other nay it had beene an argument of comfort and our Saviour might have shewed them then that it was a singular mercie of God to them in such straites that now they were ridde of the obligation to the Sabbath and so might flie on that day as well as any of the rest otherwise they had more neede to have prayed for knowledge to see their libertie in Christ than to pray that they might not flie on such a Sabbath as should binde them but onely in their owne conceit Christ in this place acknowledgeth this day as His for it is manifest that this flight happened about forty yeares after when the Iewish Sabbath was gone As therefore when God gave to the people the Law of the Sabbath on Mount Sinai He said Remember the Sabbath day to keepe it Holy so the Lord Iesus in the Mount of Olives commands that they should studiously remember even in their Prayers the Christian Sabbath many yeeres before lest when the calamity came its holy rest should bee intercepted with the noyse of warlike tumults and with a tumultuary slight Secondly you say that to flie farre off on the Lords day in case of necessitie was never held unlawfull but on that Sabbath it was If it were not unlawfull to flie on the Lords day in such cases doth that make that it is not inconvenient and a griefe to a Christian heart to bee forced that day to forgoe the worship of God and misse the Lord in his ordinances and to taste that day of his heavie wrath in which he expects and uses to taste of his comforting and satiating blessings It was not unlawfull to flie in the winter yet it was needfull to pray that this flight might not then be and was it ever unlawfull in case of danger to flie on the Sabbath Have you forgot all while you eagerly pursue your owne phantasie The Iewes hold that being set upon by Theeves or enemies it was lawfull to flie that day as Rabbi Thanchuma teacheth in Ilmedenu 83. 4. the old rule amongst them is knowne to all Perill of life driveth away the Sabbath and as well knowne is their practice in the Maccabees The Sabbath-dayes journey was not an allowance in case of
19. 4 5 6. bond and free indifferently entertained into the priviledge and honour of the Covenant and into the band of it and the reason the master hath both to obey and yeeld up his servant for that day to Gods commanding and appointing and also to use his authoritie for God in seeing that his servant keepe the Sabbath but in other respects both master and servant to rejoyce alike in the great worke of their redemption Thirdly but let us examine more narrowly some of the speciall passages Moses addeth in vers 14. that thy manservant and maid-servant may rest as well as thou it is to this Thou therefore to whom this charge is directed c. Which thou that in those words thou and thy sonne That makes nothing to the exemption of the servant as thy servant from the obligation of the first thou which is this thou shalt doe no manner of worke for thy servant is one contained under this thou as well as thou art that art the master Or if it bee meant of this first thou that were absonant from the very context It being meant of the latter thou we must ask what you meane when you say it is to this thou to whom this charge is directed Mean you by charge the charge to make the servants rest That you say afterwards were needlesse they need but licence and neither command nor intreat Or meane you the charge to give them leave to rest nay that is against your owne reading the master is to make a day of rest and your owne interpretation to make it to be so importeth not onely to observe it himselfe but to cause others also to observe it Or by charge meane you the command Thy servant shall doe manner of worke and this is directed to this thou namely the master of the servant Well bee it so And what will follow thence Why surely this Thou master must know that God commands thy servant to rest and thee to make him keepe the Sabbath day but not this Thou art commanded to rest but thy servant is not commanded to rest but may worke if thou biddest him the sinne and perill is thine only What new Divinitie and Logick is this We see then here is some motion in but no promotion of your cause Nay because the command is given that the servant may rest as well as the master and that all might be free to attend on Gods service that day alike therefore it cannot be that the servant should remaine bound to the commands of the master for servile worke on that day For as master Calvin well observes i Calvin in quartum praeceptum Tenendum est propriè spectatum fuisse unum Dei cultum Scimus enim totum Abrahae genus sic fuisse Deo sacrum ut serviessent quaedam accessio unde circumcisio illis communis fuit We must hold this that the alone worship of God was properly looked unto but wee know saith hee the whole off-spring of Abraham was so sacred to God that this that they were servants was a certaine accession whence also circumcision was common to them all If the commandement of rest had been directly and immediately given to servants Doth your owne conscience know and force out this acknowledgement that it is given to them though not directly and immediately Would not servants overset wearied with six daies toile be of themselves glad to rest on the seventh These interrogations are brought in to set on the proofe that the commandement of rest was not given at all to servants but how ill they conclude may bee seene by these certaine truths That the servant if not religious which God lookes not to find but by his word to make us such had rather oft times worke for his master than bee imployed in the duties of sanctification for a part much more for all the day for they are more irkesome to flesh and blood than handy worke True that question might take more place if it were rest alone that were aymed at and not rest for an higher end That the master if covetous and prophane will not stand upon pleasing or displeasing God in requiring such unlawfull worke but respect his gaine more than all and to the utmost call for the servants worke that day when the servant in the Court of God and man can have no redresse yea out of irreligious petulancy he will most exact worke then Againe that the toyled servant will be oft ready to worke for himselfe as in mending his clothes or the like now the master is charged to remember the condition of his slavery that hee may not dare to overset his sâ—rvant with worke in the sixe dayes but every way make a Sabbath day Hath it any other but to declare c. Yes it declares Gods just title over their servants to command them that day and their unequall and wicked carriage if they should offer to plead their covenant to evert Gods covenant Which reason could not bee intended nor directed to them that still remained in servitude No not at all intended nor could be This redemption prooved them Gods servants and not theirs nor any mans to use them as slaves to use them as servants on the Sabbaths as we read in Levit 25. vers 39 41 42. Thou shalt not compell him to serve as a bond-servant he shall returne in the yeere of Iubile for they are my servants which I brought out of the Land of Egypt And in vers 53. 55. The stranger meaning to whom the poore Iew was sold shall not rule with rigour over him he shall goe out in the yeere of Iubile for unto me the children of Israel are servants they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the Land of Egypt I am the Lord your God Here the servant saw that God put no difference betweene bond and free and that the Sabbath made master and servant equall in respect of freedome for attendance on God k Cessatiâ—nem indixit ut fulgeret ubique Sabbathi Sanctitas at que ita ad ejus observantiam terrae conspectu magis animarentur filii Israël Calvin com in 4. praeceptum in Lev. c. 25. Those Sabbaths of yeeres had all respect to engrave on them the respect of this Sabbath Heere no slavery but liberty for Gods service which is perfect freedome may passe upon the redeemed and therefore their servitude did not make the Redemption void to them But such an Expositor as you are would leave them slaves because servants and slaves without intermission even on the Lords Sabbath to drudgerie and not the Lords servants when yet they were the Redeemed of the Lord equally as their masters were Thus you derogate from the breadth of the coÌ„mandement and the reasons and clip the wings of Scripture while you take that precept to belong onely to masters and the master enjoyed no further than to make a rest for his servant when the text saith Hee shall make a
Sabbath day And the whole reason applied to the Sabbaths rest for servants sounds no lesse than this Remember when thou wast in Egypt the Egyptians made thee a slave and mard the Sabbath day now I have set thee free thou shalt free thy servant that day and make the Sabbath day Moses reasons are evidently directed to the masters not to the servants therefore the servant working at the masters command sinneth not What reasoning is this the master is by arguments peâ—swaded to make a day of rest therefore the servant must worke if the master bid him or therefore hee is not commanded to make a holy rest to his servant Who as touching bodily labour are meerely subject to their masters power This meerely in this place must needes exclude Gods power over the servant that he may not lawfully command him in any thing that respects the use of bodily labour but onely his master which wicked ground laid it will follow that the Lord may not command the master to let his servant rest but onely intreat or perswade but the Lord speakes pro imperio as a Lord and Emperor thy servant shall rest This meerely takes in all time so that the master may require their worke and not allow them any time for solemne worship now it is certaine that no man hath power to sell himselfe to any in such a manner no more than he hath to sell himselfe from God and to the divell for take away time from solemne worship and that falls to the ground nothing can bee done in an instant take away solemne worship and you are without God Ier. 10. 25 and without him under the power of Satan Act. 26. 18. This meerely in a word taketh away all bounds maketh the servants bondage and the masters power infinite Now Plato saith well l Servitus libertas infinita nullisque cancellis circumscripta summum est malum quod si modo quodaÌ„modo definiatur summum bonum Optimo illa modo constat servitus quae Deo paret Plat. tom 3. Epist 8. Servitude and liberty that is infinite and circumscribed with nolimitte is the chiefest evill but if some way it be defined by measure it is a chief good that servitude stands in the best forme which obeyeth God And Doct. Ames m Ames de conscientia lib. 5. c. 23. worthily in his Cases of Conscience it is the generall office of masters neither to exercise nor to imagine it is permitted them any absolute empire over their servants but a limited dominion the account whereof they must render to God as the common master of themselves and their servants Ephes 6. 9. Col. 4. 1. CHAP. VI. Breerwood Pag 11. OR if notwithstanding all these evidences you will still contend that the prohibition touching bodily labour on the Sabaoth is directly imposed on the servants themselves see whether you bring not the Oxe and the Asse and other cattle also under the obligation of this commandement whose worke is immediatly after that of servants prohibited and precisely under the same forme of words whose labours yet on the Sabaoth I hope you will not say to be in them sins and transgressions of Gods law Answer First No we doe not it is imposed on servants yet not on oxe or asse for the servant is forbidden labour because hee can labour without thee and so hee is capable properly of commandement to rest but the Oxe is not forbidden labour but to bee laboured and wrought for hee cannot worke without thee and is not capable of the commandement The servant is therefore forbidden labour even in his masters worke that hee might bee vacant to holy duties n Otio non otioso Zanch. in 4. praecep not so the Oxe The servant is forbidden to bee wrought by his master because now hee must acknowledge another master in whose service he is this day commanded to worke with whom there is no respect of persons and this end the servants obedience to his masters unlawfull commandement of worke that day would crosse no man can serve two masters Moreover doth God take care for Oxen No doubt it was written for the servants sake that he might not attend to guide the Oxes labour and that mercy due to the Oxe might call for more to man Zanchy is expresse that the commandement was given to the servant hee saith o Neminem vult excludi a sanctificatione Sabbati quia tam servi quam domini tam silii quà m parentes tam advenae quám indigenae obstricti Deo sunt natique â—d ejâ—s cultum De jumentis alia est ratio non enim jubentur quiâ—scere à laboribus ut possint vacare cultui divino sicut homines Id. ibid. God would have no man excluded from the sanctification of the Sabbath because aswell servants as masters sonnes as parents strangers as home-borne are bound to God and borne to his worship touching beasts there is another reason c. Secondly the Oxe is forbidden to bee wrought that they might have no snare to draw them to worke and may a servant worke at his masters command how great a snare would this bee to the master who naturally and such a master as will require his servant to worke on that day is not far from his pure naturals loveth profit more than his soule and feares a penny losse where he thinks it might bee gained more than the breach of a precept that God threatens with the curse and hell Hee will bee ready not onely to say with Rebecca p Gen. 27. 13. On me be the curse my sonne only doe as Ibid but in another tone Sirrah the sinne and curse is mine go you about your worke you shall not answer for my faults how comes on you this new religion now therefore I conclude against you thus he that forbade the strangers worke and the cattels that all examples and occasions might be remooved that might entise to evill it cannot bee that hee would leave sonne daughter man and maid in the family free to the master that they should and must obey him in his unlawfull commands Thirdly and to requite you out of the Text. In the same forme of words that the Oxe and Asse is prohibited the stranger within the gate of another is also forbidden work and is it not given to the stranger q It is partly understood of the strangers within the Covenant those saith Zanchy without controversie were commanded so to sanctifie the Sabbath even as other Iewes Zanch. in â— praecep aswell as of yet I hope you wil not say it is given to the oxe If you say it is not given to the stranger I vrge you thus The stranger is there meant partly of the stranger which being a Iew is with thee for the time as a guest r Dr. Williams of the Church l. 2 c. 8. and can this that he is a guest free him from the bond of this Law or if the Iew within whose
precedent words of the administration of the Lords Supper But we after those things for the remainder of the time doe ever remember one another of these things and those of us which have any thing helpe every one that wants and are alwayes together one with another A little after hee saith that the assemblies on that day were frequented of all in Citie and Countrie prayer preaching and the Sacrament was administred Collections for the poore which was after the assemblies distributed to the needy imprisoned stranger with the like whom they visited Tertullian in that 16 chapter of his Apologie against the Gentiles gives this as one cause of their conjecture that Christians worshipped the Sunne because they kept the Sunday Holy Wee give our selves to joy saith hee the Sunday for another farre wide reason than in honour of Diem solis laetitiae indulgemus the Sunne are we in the second place from them which appoint Saturday to idlenesse and feeding themselves also wandring from the Iewish custome which they know not What meaneth he hereby but that such a solemnitie is kept and ought to bee by Christians as should exceede in that kinde the feasts of the nations and Heathen as in his booke of Idolatrie chap. 14. he speaketh Ignatius speaketh enough to any man not prepossessed for he saith let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lords day as festivall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greek word signifieth a solemne festivall free from worke and workeday labour That others also of the ancients did understand this celebration to be with exact vacation is evident Saint Austin saith come ye to the Church every Lords day for if the unhappy Iewes doe celebrate the Sabbath with such devotion that in it no earthly workes were done how much more ought Christians to bee vacant to God alone on the Lords day and come together for the Salvation of their soules Againe Apostles and Apostolike men have therefore ordained that the Lords day be kept with religious solemnitie because in it our Redeemer arose from the Dead and which is therefore called the Lords day that in it abstaining from earthly affaires and the enticements of the world we may serve onely in divine worship That of Saint Clement is also worthy note neither on the Lords dayes which are dayes of joyfulnesse doe we grant any thing may be said or done besides holinesse Austin also in the sixt booke de Civitate Dei chap. 11. speaking of Seneca's scoffing at the Iewes Sabbath that they lost the seventh part of their time in vacancie addeth this Notwithstanding he durst not speake of the Christians even then most contrarie to the Iewes on either part lest either hee should praise them against the old custome of his owne Countrey or reprove them perhaps against his owne will Saint Austine likewise reproveth their telling of tales their slanders playing at dice and such unprofitable sports as if one part of the day were set apart for dutie to God and the rest of the day together with the night to their owne pleasures In the same place also he condemnes walking about the fields and woods when they should bee at Serm. 251. De Temp. Divine Service with clamour and laughter and saith the day must be sequestred a rurali opere ab omni negotio from countrey worke and all businesse that wee may give our selves wholly to the worship of God Saint Chrysostome speaking of the fitnesse of the Lords day for almes saith it is a convenient time to practise liberalitie with a ready and willing minde not onely in this regard but also because it hath rest remission freedome and vacation from labours Saint Ambrose q Ambros tom 3. Serm. 1. de granosinapis p. 225. reproving the peoples neglect of Church on the Lords dayes saith Whatsoever brother is not present at the Lords Sacraments of necessity he is with God a forsaker of the Divine truth For how can he excuse himselfe who preparing his dinner at home on the day of the Sacraments contemneth that heavenly Banket and taking care of the belly neglecteth the physicke of his soule The same Father in another place r Id. Serm. 33. pag. 259. tom 3. saith Let us all the day bee conversant in prayer or reading hee that cannot reade let him aske of some holy man that he may bee fed with his conference let no secular acts hinder divine acts let no Table-play carry away the mind let no pleasure of Dogs call away the senses let no dispatch of a businesse pervert the mind with covetousnesse True this Father in this place speaketh of a Fast but we know that a Fast and Sabbath are alike for the point of rest Saint ſ Hieron ad Rustich Dominicos dies orationi tantum lectionibus vacant Hierom also On the Lords day saith he they onely give themselves to prayer and reading Secondly now for your contrary evidences what if they also make for us You alleage a constitution of Constantines Iurge First the same Emperours Constitutions found in Ecclesiasticall Writers Eusebius in his life saith Wherefore he ordained that all that obeyed the Romane Empire should rest from all labour on the dayes that are called from our Saviours Name Further hee saith of this Christian Emperour He taught all his hoste to honour this day diligently those that partooke of the Divine Faith hee gave them leasure to frequent the Assemblies that no impediment should hinder their attendance on prayer but others that had no savor of Divine Doctrine hee gave charge of them by another Law that they should goe into the open fields of the Suburbs on the Lords day and that there altogether should use the same forme of prayer to God when asigne was given of some one of them for said he we ought not to use speares and place the hope of our affaires in weapons and bodily strength Sozomen in his tripartite history testifieth thus That day which is called the Lords day which the Hebrewes call the first day which the Grecians attribute to the Sunne and which is before the seventh day he ordained that all should cease from suites and other businesses and should onely bee occupied in prayers upon it t Sozom Hist Eccles tripert l. 1. c. 10. Behold Constantine against Constantine Secondly your Constitution is read Cod. l. 3. tit 12 l. 3. This Constitution was reversed by Leo the Emperour and another made in these words We ordaine according to the true meaning of the holy Ghost and of the Apostles thereby directed that on the sacred day wherein our integrity was restored all doe rest and surcease labour that neither husbandmen nor other on that day put their hands to forbidden workes for if the Iewes did so much reverence their Sabbath which was but a shadow of ours are not we which inhabit the light and truth of grace bound to honour that day which the Lord himselfe hath honoured and hath therein delivered