my method which being that of the Schooles is of all others if used with sobriety most satisfying It is not then the pleasing of thy fancy with quaint language and apt cadences of words nor the drawing of thy affections with patheticall exclamations of holinesse religion c. nor appeales to mens consciences by which they are artificilly caught before encountred which I intended to such straines I professe my selfe a stranger but the unmasking of all apparences and discovery of naked truth And here let no man be offended if I speak freely that I have not found any convincing proofe in any point of their doctrine wherein we differ either out of the word of God or well governed reason It is therefore to be feared that men seek themselves not truth herein And sure selfe-seeking is more waies then one not only the desire of profit preferment favour greatnesse but those poorer phantasmes of popularity opinion of being the un-erring Rabbies in the Church or making good a side hunted after makes us guilty thereof And amongst the rest there is no such selfe-seeking as singularity Signa singularitatis non continere se intra suos fines fastidire dostrinas resolutas indebita doctorum doctrinarum appropriatio gaudere potius de alienâ impugnatione quâ—â— eoâ—â— ad concordiam ducere Gers if the Schoolemen have given us its true characters amongst others these To loath common resolutions already given to appropriate to our selves the infallibility of our Doctors and Doctrines to take more delight in oppugning our adversaries then reconciling of controversies If this be singularity and singularity selfe-seeking it is easily seen who seek themselves For not to speak of the two latter Characters which are as the proper passions of our Sabbatharians I will only relate what you may read in Mr Sprint concerning the first In this controversy saith he those reverend and goodly writers living in the times next aboue us were of more remisse and weake judgements but those of latter daies more syncere and strict God as it were rewarding the paines and diligence of every age with revealing some part of truth The which thing as he did to them of other times before reuealing unto them sundry truths wherewith their predecessors never were acquainted so dealt he with the Primitve Fathers in their severall times and so perhaps he will doe with them that follow us So he hath done to this age of ours and as he hath done it in sundry other truths so also in this of the Christian Sabbath Mavult curiositas quaerere invenienda quà m inventa intelligere ib. Singularity it seemes is a curious fancy which chuseth rather to invent new then to understand those Tenents which are already received Such I confesse was my ignorance as to beleeve that all necessary truths had been sufficiently revealed as for unnecessary revelations we bequeath them to such Phanatique spirits as affect them My opinion also was that those Pillars of our Church that liv'd in the former age next above us in whom might be discerned the very spirit of Elias had beeen no weak remisse unsincere or to speak plain prophane Gospellers Sit studium solius veritatis absque fermento vanitatis Let truth alone be studied and all leaven of vanity avoided But it hath been an ill lesson instill'd into the heads of young Students by those that were heretofore the great leaders of the Disciplinarians that howsoever the Ceremonies of the Church were in themselves tollerable yet no way to be used by such as had preached against them And the reason was as good as the Doctrine least the people seeing them in an errour in this should believe them in nothing else therefore needs must we magnify all our dictats whatsoever But first the supposition of the peoples scandalized infidelity is a meer fiction was St Peters doctrine the worse thought of because his errour was reproved by St Paul Are the errours of Origen Tertullian Cyprian Retractatiâ— Augustini non inhonoravit eum nec authoritatis dictorum suorum robuâ— evertit Gers or any other of the ancient Fathers prejudiciall to their other truths But suppose the people should thus stumble must we therefore pertinaciously adhere to our mis-opinions though but in Ceremonies Surely then they were not wise whosoever wrote Retractations The best that is may possibly be mistaken and if so let God have the honour of our humility To have erred may be the shame of our naturall frailty but to acknowledge our errors is the praise of our Christian ingenuity and to reforme them our glory I speak not this out of any hope conceived that this poore piece of mine should prevaile with any in this kind It is storied that when Philo the Iew was sent to Cajus the Emperour in behalfe of his nation against the Greekes that Appian who was sent by the Greeks against the Iewes spake first and the Emperour was so enraged by Appian that Philo was commanded out of his sight unheard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb lib. z. c. 5. It will be heer not much unlike save that Philo the Iew hath first spoken our Sabbatharians have filled the eares of our people these many yeares and hearts fore-stalled with prejudice are unteachable saith S. Augustin I shall therefore think I am well dealt with if this be not avoided as a prohibited book for this Iesuited trick is also taken up but most happy if I may escape that which the * Psal 57.4 Psalmist stiles and I have already felt to be sharper then swords If any list to be contentious a book in Print is at every mans mercy if his arguments be gotten in his spleen be prosecuted by his passions till they conclude in evill speakings in some corner-creeping or scurriloâ—s invectives fitter for a Player then Divine let him know his answer shall be contempt But if any will be pleased in the spirit of meeknesse to shew me a better way I trust I shall neither be so wayward as to take it amisse nor so weak as not to profit by him My only suit unto thee Christian Reader is that thou peruse it with as single an eye as the heart was syncere from whence it proceeded Vpon this condition I bid thee heartily Farewell Thine in the truth of the Gospell of Christ Iesus GILBERT IRONSIDE The severall Chapters with their Contents The PROEME The Proeme containing the partition of the whole worke CAP. I. Wherein the first question is proposed with the arguments seeming to prove the Sabbath to be as ancient as Adam in Paradise CAP. II. The Arguments for the negative opinion are set downe CAP. III. Wherein it briefly declared what is to be thought of the present question CAP. IV. The Arguments proposed Chap. 2. are fully answered and the exposition of sanctification by destination is at large handled CAP. V. The second Question is proposed whether the letter of the fourth Commandement be a Morall precept CAP. VI. The
together to haue seene the sight and to haue gloryfied God for the same But I doe not obserue that our Saviour affected either ostentation or publication of his Miracles but pro renatâ shewed his glory in them as occasions offered themselues By this therefore which hath been said our third Conclusion doth appeare viz. That the Iewes might lawfull haue done whatsoever was not only of absolute necessity but also of conveniency unlesse in such things as were expressely forbidden them Fourthly It s also as I conceiue out of question that Christian liberty hath freed us by the Gospell from some part at least of the burthen of the Sabbath in regard of the strictnes of that rest which was commanded the Iewes This proposition is found in expresse tearmes in our Sabbatharians Treatises unlesse in some one or two who would perswade Christian people to Super-Iudaize Keeping the Lords day in a stricter and more precise manner then ever the Iewes kept the Saturday Sabbath But this being a strange fancy and almost singular I trust this fourth conclusion also will passe without contradiction And there is good reason it should for not only the rest of the Sabbath but the strictnesse of that rest was Typicall as hath been already shewed prefiguring that accurate holinesse which God requires of his people and that fulnesse of joy and perfection of happinesse unto which Christ admits us that belieue his Gospell Besides the whole Christian Church in all ages hath delivered this for an undoubted truth and b Vacent tanquam Christiani Qui inventi fuerint Iudatizare anathema sint Con. Load c. 29. abhorred a Iewish resting on the Lords day and ever accursed it where they found it By this then it is plaine that in the time of the Gospell we are not only allowed the same things on our day of rest which were permitted the Jewes upon their Sabbath but even those things also which they were expresly inhibited And if this be so it must needs follow that since no particular works are forbidden us as were forbidden them and in generall works either of absolute extreme or of moderate and convenient necessity are allowed us as well as them no restraint at all lies upon us in things appertaining to common life Fiftly there is notwithstanding a cessation from works required of Christian people under the Gospel upon all daies of their publique worship and Assemblies For nature her selfe teacheth all men saith c Natura dâ—ctat aliquanâ—ò vacandum quieti orationi Dei. Gers de decem praecept Gerson sometimes to rest from their owne imployments and to spend that time in the praises of God prayer to him This is evident of it selfe and therefore there is scarce any Nation so barbarous void of reason which obserues not this Law written in their hearts by sequestring sometime or other to such rest The Turks nay the Indians haue their Sabbaths And indeed these two viz to attend Gods publique worship and at the same time to follow our own imployments are incompatible and imply a contradiction as on the other side to be taken up with our owne affaires and neglect Gods publike worship is open irreligion and prophanenesse This conclusion therefore will passe for currant upon both sides also Sixthly Although the Law of nature in the Generall and Morall part of the fourth Commandement requires us to rest upon the day of Gods publique worship yet how long we are bound to abandon the labours of our callings either before or between or after the publique worship is neither set down in Scripture nor can be determined by the Law of Nature Generall directions the light of every mans conscience will suggest unto him and may be deduced out of the writen word concluding that whatsoever may hinder either the worship it selfe or our profiting thereby should be forborne and avoided But when we descend to practice no generall rule is or may be given For as they say Practica est multiplex and no Law can justly be framed of Particulars in this kinde For all men are not alike of themselues that which may be an impediment to one may not hinder another more time is allow'd some men though to dispatch but a little businesse then others need haue for weighty matters How therefore to governe our selues therein we must haue some other direction besides the generall rule and dictate of nature Ob. If any man say that the case is already overruled by Moses in the Commandement which requires a whole dayes rest of twenty foure houres of all men whatsoever Resp I answer that this is to proue a thing unknown by that which is more unknowne For the Christian Church knowes no such commandement of Moses as being her children under the Gospell the letter of the Law of Moses being wholy ceremoniall as hath formerly been shewed Seventhly Therefore it must needs be that the determinate time of cessation from works together with the manner in regard of the strictnes thereof is wholy left to the power and wisdome of the Church and Magistrate It is therefore the common direction of the Casuists d Quilibet eâ— die abstine at ab omni labore aut mercatione aut alio quovis laborioso opere secundum ritum consuetudinem patriae quam consuetudinem Praelatus spiritualis illius loci cognoscens non prohibet quod si aliqua super talicoâ—â—uetudine â—â—bietas occurrat consulat superiores Gers de Decal praecepâ— that men abstaine from the works of their severall callings according to the custome of the place in which they live and if any scruple happen to arise herein they should consult with their Superiors in the Church and Communâ—â—y who only may dictate unto them their pleasures herein And thus hath it been in all ages of the Church with great variety contrariety of Lawes and constitutions as the state of the times wherin they lived required How it was before Constantines time who was the first ChristiaÌ„ Emperour the History of the Church doth not shew but very imperfectly This we may be assured of that had their cessation from works been such as at this day is pressed on mens consciences by our Sabbatharians CoÌ„stantine might haue sau'd his labor in ordering this point Constantine having begun divers Synods in particular nationall Churches followed together with sundry Lawes of Kings and Princes in their Territories dominions some restraining others enlarging the peoples liberty For when some had brought the people even to a Iewish superstition equaling if not exceeding that which is now required by the Adversaries Others taught the people to stand fast in this part of their Christian liberty For proofe whereof I will only trouble the Reader with two instances Synodus e Quia ersuâ—sum est populo die dominicâ cum caballis bobus vehiculiâ—itinerari non debere neque ullam rem ad victum comparare c. Syn. Aurel. 32. c. 10. Aurelianensis Can.
of the law giving men sixe for one for God ever was and ever will be alike liberall to all men in all ages in this kind The second drawn from Gods interest in the seventh day The Seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord and what sons of Adam are exempted from giving God his owne The third is Gods example proposed for our imitation for all men are bound by the very light of nature to be followers of God as deare children The fourth is the promise which is made therein For it will be as blessed a day or a day as full of blessing unto us if we sanctify it as ever it was to the Iews God being not lesse good nor his grace lesse powerfull nor his promise lesse sure The fift is the ease refreshing of our servants and beasts to whom Christians must not be lesse mercifull then the Iews Lastly the Sabbath taught them that they were the Lords people and no man will say but that we also are so by as many and by more strong tyes and relations then were ever any Ergo c. Sixtly the law Ceremoniall and Iudiciall were given only to the Iewes and such as were circumcised but the fourth commandement was directed not only to those within the covenant but also to strangers and aliens The strangers within thy gates And upon this ground a Neh. 13.16 Nehemiah reproved the Tyrian Merchants which were strangers therefore c. Seventhly from the words of Christ in the Gospell b Mat. 24.20 pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day Those words were spoken to the disciples foreshewing that if their flight should happen to befall them on the Sabbath their affliction would thereby be increased But if the fourth commandement be not Morall what addition of sorrow had it been if their flight had befallen them that day Christians and such were the disciples need not trouble themselves about a law Ceremoniall Thus then That commandement the breaking whereof might justly grieve a Christian forced thereunto by flight is doubtlesse morall but the fourth commandement is such therefore c. Eightly that commandement against which humane corruptions doe especially arise and band themselves both in the Godly and the wicked must needs be morall but our corruptions doe chiefly fight against the Sabbath as the Godly feele by experience in themselves and experience doth also make evident in the wicked of the world therefore c. Ninthly that cannot be a truth of God which overthrowes all religion le ts in Atheisme Epicureisme and all prophanesse no good tree can bring forth such evill fruit But that doctrine which denieth the morality of the Sabbath overthroweth all religion le ts in Epicureisme and Prophanesse as appeares in those Churches wherein it is taught in forraine parts Ergo. Tenthly that wich the Church of England teacheth in her Homilies ought to be held for truth by all the obedient children of that Church but the morality of the Sabbath is that which the Church of England teacheth in her Homily of the time and place of prayer as will appeare to every one that will read the same Therefore all the obedient children of the Church of England ought to acknowledge it to be true Eleventhly if you make the fourth commandement Ceremoniall you make the Church of England guilty of Iudaisme For that Church which readeth to her children a Ceremoniall Law and commands them to kneele whilst it is read in acknowledgment of their subjection thereunto and at the end to pray Lord have mercy vpon us and incline our hearts to keep this law cannot but be a Iewish Church But the Church of England thus teacheth her children Ergo. Twelfthly unlesse the fourth commandement be morall there will be but nine commandements in the Decalogue which is contrary not only to the received opinion of all men but to the calculation of the whole Catholique Church in all ages and is no meane Sacriledge to affirme Ergo. Thirteenthly that which is taught by men which are most spirituall and alone discerne the things of God must needs be true and so on the contrary But the Morality of the Sabbath is taught by men that are most spirituall the contrary by men that are carnall therefore c. Lastly we have the authority of all our English writers almost ever since the reformation unto this time neither was it hitherto ever contradicted for at least these threescore and ten yeares unlesse by Papists Anabaptists or Familists Ergo. CHAP. VII In which are set downe the arguments for the negative THe negative tenent hath also its arguments which in the next place must be produced and First it is alleadged That commandement over which Christ was absolute Lord as he was the sonne of man is not morall for a morall precept is part of Gods eternall law over which the sonne of man can have no power being made under the law But Christ as the sonne of man was Lord of the Sabbath as himselfe upon two sundry occasions hath twice told us Math. 12. Mark 2. To these Texts these exceptions have been made 1 Excep 1. That this phrase doth no more import the Sabbath to be a ceremony then the same used by the Apostle doth conclude the dead and the living to be a ceremony for he rose againe that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living But this is to play with the ambiguity of the word it 's one thing to be Lord of the Church to guide governe perfect quicken raise glorify her for this is the meaning of the Apostle upon which that in the Ephesians may seeme as a comment Eph. 1.20.21.22 And another thing to be Lord of the Law or constitution to moderate dispence order alter abolish for in what other construction can any one be said to be Lord of a law 2 Except 2. It is said that Christ did not intend by these words of his any such Lordship because he did not then abrogate the Sabbath Nor is this to the purpose for never any man yet dreamed that Christ did in those words abolish the Sabbath for both it and the rest of the legall ordinances were in force till they were nailed with him to the Crosse 3 Except 3. It is excepted that our Saviour in those words doth only dispence with his Disciples in that particular case and challenge to himselfe the power and prerogative of expounding the Law against the Pharisees who pretended only to the Chayre and to give interpretations of the Law But to satisfy this also and to cleare the Text we affirme 1 That Christ doth not there or in any other place ever dispence with the law in himselfe or any other for he took upon him the form of a servant and came not to break the Law but to fulfill it 2 That in those words Christ doth not intend to expound the law only for this he had done before by the example of David and by the
SEVEN QVESTIONS OF THE SABBATH BRIEFLY DISPVTED after the manner of the SCHOOLES Wherein such cases and scruples as are incident to this subject are cleared and resolved By GILBERT IRONSIDE B. D. HEB. 4.9.10.11 There remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God For he that is entred into his rest hath also ceased from his ovvne works as God did from his Let us study therefore to enter into that Rest c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iust Mart. dial cum Try OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the Famous Vniversity and are to be sold by EDWARD FORREST Anno Salutis M.DC.XXXVII TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD WILLIAM by Divine providence LORD ARCH-BISHOP OF CANTERBVRY His Grace Primate of all England and Metropolitane CHANCELLOUR of the University of OXFORD and one of his MAIESTIES Most Honourable Privy Councell HIM that is weake in the Faith receive you Rom. 14.1 but not unto doubtfull disputations saith the Apostle It may please your GRACE to remember that the Church of Rome was at this time like the Moone when shee is orient illustrious for her faith spoken of through the whole world Rom. 1.8 shining in all Christian piety and made gloriously red with the blood of her Martyrs Yet was there a duskie mist raised about her which did much obscure her glory For though she erred not in fundamentalls as did the Church of Corinth in the article of the resurrection nor with the Church of Galatia mixed the Law with the Gospell as if Christian religion were an extract of both as the Socinians at this day yet in things of lesse consequence God permitted the envious man to sow the seeds of contention in this goodly field Gen. 16.12 till as so many Ishmaels every mans hand was against every man The things in question were if any can be such in the time of the Gospell of which no sober man doubts of an indifferent nature as meats and daies the parties contending were the strong and the weake in faith the manner of the contention amounted unto a Schisme whilst the strong rejected the weake with scorne and contempt and the weake fell to their common ward of judging and condemning the strong It was therefore high time for the Apostle to put to his hand he is a master-builder and knowes that a house divided cannot stand of all things therefore hee laboured to procure amongst them a setled peace since as a Inveniat vos diabolus munitos concordiâ armatos quia pax vestra bellum est illi Tert ad Martyres Tertullian saith the Churches peace is to Satan the old enemy thereof a continuall warre Now the way which the Apostle takes in the worke is such as never failes of its effect the way of knowledge and the way of love a mutuall receiving of one another into a good opinion and a moderate discussing of the points in controversy This latter will doe little good without the former for till we can be content to receiue one another as brethren wee shall never satisfie one another as Divines Till this Victory will be sought not Truth and as b Se nec resâ—â—dere nec tacere potuisse Aug. Retract 1. cap 49. St Augustine notes of Gaudentius the Donatist in his time though he knewe not how to answere yet he knew not how to hold his peace It is well observed that there is Discordia personarum as well as opinionum Schisme is commonly more in the man then in his tenents in the heart of the Schismatique then in the discord of his judgement That men should not dissent in opinions is not to bee expected the Angells doe thus differ Discordia fieri potest uâ— vel â—â—llum sit peccatum vel saltem veniale quandò quis probabiliter existimêt non esse bonum quod alter 〈◊〉 Greg. Valen. as the Schoolemen teach This therefore is no sinne unlesse we become undecently pertinacious nay when the heart it selfe is growne Schismaticall the sinne is the lesse while we proceed not to definitive sentences against our opposites But how difficult and almost unpossible a thing it is to be thus temperate the continually interrupted peace of the Church in all ages hath made too-too apparent especially in the weaklings here spoken of whose religion hath much more of zeale then of knowledge For that the Church should consist of none but of strong is an Vtopian fancie of the perfectists whose Church is a Moone without spots a family in which are no children a firmament in which are no starres but of the first magnitude The true Church of Christ ever was and will be a mixt congregation in this like Nebuchadnezars Image which had mixed feet of clay and Iron There remaineth therefore the Apostles other remedy which is not only to receive them into our hearts but to support them also with our hands whilst with the one eye we looke upon their persons with the other upon their opinions bringing these into publique light for commonly they lurke in corners and the touchstone of disputations a Tertullian Suspecta esse debuit quae vult occludi that doctrine justly deserves to be suspected which desires to be concealed But herein also the Apostle directs us by a distinction for some disputations are perplext and perplexing others not so but serve to cleare the Vnderstanding settle the Conscience The former sort have ever been the bane of the Church a worme bred in religion and eating out the very bowels thereof To represse these kinds of disputes to confine turbulent searching witts hath ever been the wisdome of the Church Such wranglings the Apostle doth even abhorre as fitter for the Schooles of Heathens 2 Tim 2.23 then of Christians being how profound soever they seeme foolish and unlearned good only to beget new janglings filling the Church with disputing not edifying Such therefore were ever dangerous ending alwaies in greater hazard saith a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I sid Pel. ad Theo. Scholasticum Ep. 93. Isidore the Pelusiote neither are they more dangerous then endlesse for difficulties assoyle not doubts as the same b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Alipium Epist 97. Father gives the reason Questions of this kind are raised either about fundamentals wherein our faith stands as the Temple upon her pillars and miserable is that Church whose foundations are shaken things of this kinde ought to be be-beleeved not disputed and herein we should gladly give the hand to them of Rome were the decisions of the Tridentine Fathers the decisions of the Catholique Church or consonant thereunto Or about the secret things of Gods counsell the Quòd sit whereof is indeed revealed the Quomodò sit not so in which viam quietativam intellectus as Pennottus calls it like the North-west passage long since promised no man as yet hath ever found The latter kind of disputes concerne either the publique peace of the Church or the outward
distinction that there be but nine litterally morall Oh! but this is to curtoll the Decalogue cutting it short by a distinction But what ingenuity there is in this exception let any man judge When our adversaries themselves say that the taxation of the particular seventh day and the rest required therein was at least in some respect Ceremoniall may we cry out you curtoll the Decalogue let us have ten wholy and entirely Morall There may therefore be ten Moralls though the letter of the fourth be more or lesse Ceremoniall by their own confession To the thirteenth this stands in termes of comparison between the Patrons of the two opposite opinions but all comparisons as they say are odious and such as these more then any other My charity shall cover the want of charity in this objection But because it is a very disputable point whether the more spirituall taking Spirituall for strict zealous well affected desirous to walk before God as the Apostle speaks unto all well pleasing for this I take to be meant by spirituall in this place whether I say the more spirituall the man be the more sound and Orthodox are his positions it will not be amisse by way of digression to speak a word or two hereof especially it being amongst the Vulgar in these daies a point of no small importance CHAP. X. Containing two digressions the first shewing who are the best Interpreters of holy things The second wherein the two opposite tenents in this question of the Sabbath are compared one with another AS light and truth multiply themselves by reflection so doth darknesse and errour One errour therefore admitted many others are entertained either by way of consequence or imitation It was heretofore an opinion which at this day is ingrafted in the hearts of many of our people that an unconverted Minister could not convert his hearers being unregenerate himselfe he could not be used as an instrument of an others regeneration This position the very pillar of Puritanisme being rejected at least in shew by those that wished well to the cause an other point of doctrine began to be broached in the roome thereof but in effect much the same viz. that an unsanctified man cannot acquaint the people with the truth of God at least so well as others that God hides himselfe from men of corrupt mindes revealing himselfe only to some peculiar and selected ones If therefore we would at any time have our understandings informed in things we know not our consciences satisfied in things doubtfull or be directed in any of our waies either with God or men we must repaire to those that are of strictest lives of precisest carriages and sanctified conversations for the more holy the man the more sound and orthodox are all his resolutions Hence it hath come to passe that by pretending to holinesse so many Oracles have been of late yeares erected in sundry corners of this land unto which our well minded people have repayred as the Heathens did to the stoole of Apollo the Iewes to the breast of the high Priest the Papists this day to the Sea of Rome And to speak truth this point is nothing but Popery taken in at the back doore for why doe the Romanists think the Pope to be infallible but that they hold him to be as they stile him His holinesse being that spirituall man of whom the Apostle speaks that judgeth all things himselfe judged of none as a Soto in 4. sent dist 25. art 1. concl 1. Soto hath interpreted The difference only is the Pope challengeth unto himselfe absolute infallibility these men only likelyhood and probability and eminency above others This last errour is worse then the former for that was not only odious being raked out of the graves of some ancient Hereticks but destitute also of tolerable probability This latter is somewhat more refined and perfumed and seemes to be supported by Scripture reason and authority The ancient Prophets say they which only were the Lords Seers inabled to discover truth from falshood to separate the pretious from the vile and foretell the judgements of God upon the Church and State were as b Mich. 3. Micha speaks of himselfe full of the spirit of the Lord men sanctified throughout c 1. Cor. 7. St Paul when he would have his doctrine believed and imbraced sets it on with this I think that I also have the spirit of God d 1. Cor. 2. The naturall man as the same Apostle witnesseth perceiveth not the things of God they are spiritually discerned For it is the anointing that teacheth saith e 1. Iohn 2.27 S. Iohn f Rom. 12.2 Whosoever fashioneth himself according to the world can never prove try search or find out what the will of God is Men therefore g Math. 18 3. must be converted and become as Children new borne or else they cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven the doctrine of the Kingdome which is the Gospell This h Instituianimum meum intendere in sacras scripâ—uras ut videren quales essent ecce video rem non compertan superbis non eram talis ut intrare in eaÌ„ possem acies meanon penetrabat interiora 〈◊〉 Aug. Cons 3. c. 40. S. Augustine found verified when before his regeneration he addressed himselfe to the reading of the Scriptures he confesseth that he was not as yet such a one as could enter into theÌ„ He that will know Christs voice must be one of Christs sheep and if any man doe his will he shall know the doctrine whether it be of God And there is great reason it should be so because God and wicked men are meere strangers nay enemies and we know that amongst strangers and enemies there is no communication of counsels and secrets On the contrary those that are spirituall are not only his servants but i Iohn 10. friends nor friends alone but sons and daughters from whom their father concealeth nothing but k Psal 25. the very secret of the Lord is revealed to them that fear him This the very Schoolemen themselves faw and acknowledged Iohannes Damascenas videtur non parum â—rrâ—sse in vitâ cur ergo non potuit errare similiter in dectrinâ— Brad lib. 2. de causâ— Dei cap. 3â— Bradwardine setting down how many of the Ancients either did indeed or might be thought to comply with Pelagius reckons up Damascene amongst the rest but slighting his authority saith Damascene erred greatly in his life he meanes his dissembling at the Tombe of Mahomet and being thus erronious in his life why might he not also erre in his doctrine The learned m Contingit sâ—pe quòd Simplex aliqua bona persona melius intelligit aliquod Dei mysterium quà m magnus aliquis Doctor cum malus sit iniquâ—â— Ideo dicebat Christus Gratias tibi ago c. Gers par 4. serm de nativit Chancellour of Paris acknowledgeth that one good pious holy
can be no better then a snare to weak Consciences there being no certainty wherein to fasten CHAP. XVI Wherein something concerning the day naturall and artificiall being premised the former arguments are briefly answered TO give better satisfaction to weak and unstable minds we must know what a Naturall day is and where it is to begin where to end Some have of late fondly denied this distinction because it is not found as they think in Scripture And indeed the termes Naturall and Artificiall are not there read but what matter is it for sounds and syllables if we have the sence and substance a Math. 28 2â— St Mathew is plaine that it was the end of the Sabbath when the first day of the week began to dawn so that all that night untill the dawning of the first day was part of the Sabbath which were not possible without the distinction of Naturall and Artificiall Ob. If any say that the Iewes kept their Sabbath from evening to evening and therefore that the night following could be no part of the Sabbath Sol. I answere that S. Matthew in that place speaks not according as the Iewes accounted from evening to evening but as the Romanes from morning which was a naturall day of twenty-foure houres But not to spend time in so needlesse a point we must proceed to enquire where the naturall is to begin and end In this there is no small variety of opinions Astronomers begin at noon b Manè diem Gens Graecorum incipit astra sequentes in medio lucis Iudaei vespere sancta inchoat ecclesia medio sub tempore noctis Iewes at Sun-set the Grecians at morning the c Dies naturalis secundum ecclesiam Romanam incipit à mediâ nocte Aqui parte 3. q. 8. ad 5. Church of Rome with the Vmbrians at Mid-night But this is to find knots as they say in Bulrushes For if the naturall day be measured by the revolution of the Sunne as all confesse sure it is that untill the Sunne begin his course the day cannot begin At what time now did the Sunne set forth upon the fourth day at the creation Common reason will say when he first appeared in the Horizon the rising therefore of the Sunne in the Horizon must needs be the first period of the naturall day And so the words of d Gen. 1.5 Moses are to be understood saying the evening and the morning were the first day that is the shutting up of the day which is there called the evening and the begining of the next there called the morning e Permittitur autem vespere quia cum à luce dies inciperet priùs terminus occurrit lucis quod est vespere quam terminus noctis quod est mane vel secundum Chrysost ut designetur quòd dies naturalis non terminatur in verspere sed in maâ—e Aquin. parte 1. q. 74. art 3. ad 6. was the first day The words also of S. Mathew before cited make it apparent in which not only midnight but to the very dawning belonged not to the first but last day of the week It was not of it but towards it as the end of one contiguum is the begining of another By all which it is apparent that when God commanded the Iewes their Sabbaths from evening to evening the order of the naturall day was inverted by him not so much looking to the number of foure and twenty houres as to the time of Israels deliverance out of Egypt which began when the Passover was eaten at even of which their deliverance the Sabbath is a memoriall as hath been said Some thing also must be said of the day Artificiall which we may define to be a certain proportion of houres appointed by men and employed by Artificers about their crafts and trades This is not the whole time between Sunne and Sunne but generally I think conceived by all nations to be measured by twelve houres according to that of our Saviour * Iohn 11.9 Are there not twelve houres of the day And as the * Math. 27. Evangelist describes the passion of Christ by the third sixt and ninth houres Having thus briefly set down the day Naturall and Artificiall whereas it is generally supposed by all men almost that the Lords day must be measured by one of these two proportions of houres the truth is there is no such portion of time set us in the New Testament which alone can direct us in the Lords day neither expresly nor implicitly Vnlesse therefore we will have recourse unto the Iewish Sabbath and begin the observation thereof over night and that Analogically because Christ himselfe our Passover was sacrificed at Evening and our Redemption from the spirituall Egypt set on foot the Conscience hath no ground to settle upon But what warrant Christians have to follow the Iewes in observing the Lords day in regard of any circumstantialls I see not And that Analogicall respect before spoken of between the sacrificing of ours and their Passover cannot bind the conscience The whole therefore is left to the Church and Magistrates under the Gospell the time being such by their appointment as may be convenient for the publique worship of God neither doe the Arguments to the contrary conclude To the first the Iewes indeed were prescribed a naturall day not properly but equivocally so called consisting of twenty foure houres but that the time which limited them doth also limit us is utterly untrue And whereas it is said that the twenty-foure hovres were no way Mysticall or Ceremoniall It will be replyed that though the number of houres spoken of which are not so much as mentioned in Scripture was in no respect mysticall yet the time named from evening to evening was partly memorative looking to the time of their deliverance out of Egypt partly positive looking to the publique worship the morning and the evening sacrifice which concernes not us but only in a proportion For as the Iewes worshipped the Lord upon the day of their Sabbath and had set times of assembling themselves on that day both morning and evening so it is fit and convenient that the Christians also worship the Lord in their publique assemblies both in the begining and towards the evening of their Lords day To the second A day may have a twofold consideration the one Absolute as it is a day the other Relative as appointed for any use or service The fifth of November may be considered either as such a day of such a moneth and so it 's neither longer or shorter then any other naturall day or as a day set apart by the Church for publique thanksgiving and so it consists only of a morning as appears by the Statute from whence it hath authority The case is the same in the Lords day which continueth no longer then the duties of the day require To the third the saying of the Rabbines is a good admonition to all men not to abbreviat