but the revelation of Christs will there is nothing else now desiderable but onely to prove that in this very act of instituting the Lords day or Sabbath of the new Covenant they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or prompted by that guiding Spirit a thing little lesse visible then the former for shall we say that the Spirit seised upon them onely at certain tides and fits That he assisted them in their office both of writing and preaching the Gospel is most certain but did he onely then was every act of their superintendency a spell to drive him away did he onely wait upon them in the publication of the Gospel and abandon them in the moderation of the Church was the doctrine they taught inspired from above and were their constitutions Ecclesiasticall an humane device Certainly no the voyce of truth it self soundeth the contrary For in their first councel we reade of a Visum est Spiritui sancto nobis It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us But that was a businesse of great weight and so might require a more then ordinary assistance let us behold more triviall and petty matters S. Paul was to give his resolution concerning a question which amongst others the Corinthians put to him of Digamy whether it was lawfull for a widow to marry again after the death of her first husband and he determineth affirmatively yes but rather commendeth her containing her self in her widowhood Did S. Paul deliver herein his own opinion certainly no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I think I have the Spirit of God evinceth the contrary and I hope no man will affirm this to be a businesse of importance comparable to the instituting of the Lords day To dispatch without more ado there is a question the first hint whereof Aerius the heretick is supposed to have given and Hierome is not altogether dissenting from him whether the Episcopacy be jure Divino Much hath been said either way yet not enough to end the bickering and though the conflict be still on foot yet both the one and the other side grant the hole controversie to move upon Apostolicall Institution that which the one to prove the other to disprove do equally eagerly labour is onely Apostolicall Institution the decision whereof endeth the dispute King James ascendeth no higher That Bishops ought to be in the Church I ever maintained as an Apostolicall Institution and so the Ordinance of God Beza for the other part yieldeth as much If I could saith he be assured that this superioritie of a Bishop over the rest of his Clergie hath proceeded from the Apostles I would not doubt to attribute it holly to divine Institution Now if Episcopacy can contract Jus divinum divine Right from Apostolicall Institution why may not also the Lords Day which I am sure can shew as good cards for her descent do so too and then with what face can it be gain-said by any that either is or would be a Bishop yet so it hath come to passe that they who have most cried down the paritie of Clergy have most cried up the paritie of dayes But let any be he what he will that maligneth the honour of this glorious day mutter his pleasure yet nor he nor all the learning of the world shall be able to produce one solid argument sufficient to withstand this inevitable inference of divine Right from Apostolicall Institution It being by all learned men agreed upon that whatsoever the Apostles as Apostles and in their Apostolicall function or did or spake or writ is simply without modification Juris divini the Reason being evident because they were not sui Juris not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they had no power of themselves to speak or act any thing either in teaching or governing the Church but all was suggested by the spirit who could embreath nothing not diviâ—e With this Argument our adversaries are hard beset something they fain would retort knew they what and at last to shew their courage and that Nec victi possunt absistere ferro they will not yield though overcome forth steps one and assaults us with two distinctions of Apostolicall inspirations one of Apostolicall traditions the other Concerning the first he saith The Apostles are to be considered either as Apostles by extraordinary mission sent to plant the Gospel or as Pastours to govern the Church already planted As Apostles they were infallibly inspired with all truths upon all occasions As Pastours their inspirations were onely such irradiations influences and concurrences of the Spirit as are afforded at this day to Pastours of the Church unlesse by some personall miscariages they procure unto themselves spirituall derelictions I Answer a It is your dutie to prove indubitately both these to me but I am not covetous make good but one and I am satisfied And first tell me good Sir if to awaken you out of this dream I be not over-rude where find you the Pastorall and Apostolicall Office in the same persons distinct where reade you of a double Commission one to plant the Church the other to govern the Church already planted were not both these parts of the Apostolicall function were they not Apostles i. e. sent to do the one as well as the other Instance in any one act of their Pastorall office which was not in the latitude of their Apostolicall patent Secondly admit them for severall functions where I pray learn you that they had a distinct inspiration according to those severall functions If those irradiations you talk of which were shed upon them as Pastours were no other then what God now dispenseth to ordinary Ministers then I say the beams or species intentionall of such irradiations must needs have a tincture of the Medium naturall corruption through which they passed and every thing which as Pastours they did not onely may but must have a rellish of sinne or errour which ever did and ever shall more or lesse distain the best action of the justest man infected with originall corruption and not extraordinarily and infallibly inspired living upon earth If then the Apostles as Pastours were but ordinarily inspired and that ordinary inspiration did not exempt their Pastorall works from sinne and errour it were a worthy labour to put the New Testament into Purgatory to weed out all those passages which relate to the Pastorall office of the Apostles and to bind them up with the old Apocrypha I see also no necessitie why Children should be baptized why women nay why any of the Laitie should be admitted to the Eucharist which are Apostolicall devices whereof expresse command from our Saviour to them we find none and to speak to the point in question I see no necessitie of celebrating the Lords day but of observing the Jewish Sabbath I see a necessitie for I see Gods command to observe it and I see no countermand to abolish it If
they had the benefit of them as some have not set down content to believe that the prophesie of Enoch mentioned by S. Jude was written and that what Josephus relateth of the Pillars errected by the posterity of Seth is true but they conceive also that Adam and all the succeeding Patriarchs compiled the histories of their own times But how Moses attained his knowledge I leave to the disquisition of them who affect curiosities yet this give me leave to note as received amongst the best Divines That the holy Ghost was not so much an intelligencer as a directer and guide to Moses in the framing the history of Genesis For the omniscient Wisdome foreseeing that it would not be alwayes safe to make Tradition the perpetuall depositary of so rare choice a jewel as the story of his Primitive Church which might either through carelesnesse loose part of what was betrusted to her or under colour of sole possessing the Truth vend counterfeit and sophisticate stuff thought it necessary for the good of his Church that a set and certain story of the first times should be compiled to which purpose he selected Moses as his Amanuensis and Register aiding him extraordinarily with his holy Spirit by whose assistance he was enabled to distinguish truth from fables which had by surreption intruded exactly to describe many minute circumstances of time place persons names c. which memory was not able to comprehend and to digest it into that perfect order wherein we now see it So that one way or other either by tradition or letters or both the precise seventh day could not at that time have been lost or forgot and consequently that no cause for the Sabbath to begin at the fall of Manna And was there any other what To be a preamble and preparation to the subsequent Sabbath this would be proved A preparation to the after strictnesse of the Sabbath it was that I confesse not to the Sabbath it self this I deny an introduction it might be to the solemnity of the Sabbath which began after not so to the Sabbath it self which was long before For though it was but in its minority but magni nominis umbra a very shadow of the after celebrity yet a Sabbath it was and the seventh day Sabbath too and this not my singular assertion but the consent of the most profound Doctours as well ancient as modern So the Fathers Origen a What was afterward commanded in the Law concerning the Sabbath the same Job both observed himself and taught his children to do the like Cyprian b This septenary number gained Authority from the creation of the world because the first works of God were made in six dayes and the seventh was dedicated to rest as sacred it being honoured with the solemnity of a command and entitled to the sanctifying Spirit Basil c The Sabbath which was the seventh day from the first creation is a type of our perfect Rest in the remission of our sinnes Nazianzen d The Creation began on the Lords day as is evident because the seventh from it is made the Sabbath bringing rest from labours Athanasius e As long as the first age or Creation was inforce so long the Sabbath was observed Epiphanius f mentioneth a twofold Sabbath under the old Law the Naturall or Weekly which was defined from the Creation the Legall or Ceremoniall which was enjoyned by the law of Moses At the heels of the Fathers follow the Schoolmen who busying themselves about nicer subtilties have left us little of their opinions concerning the Sabbath Alexander Halensis a the irrefragable Doctour though he thinketh the Sabbath was not observed by virtue of any precept before the Law yet he granteth that it was inspired as a thing meet and fit to be observed All these before Ambrose Catharine b he then not the first that understood Moses according to the letter nor yet the last no not of his own Partie Genebrard c The Sabbath was sanctified in Paradise which was also observed all the time till the Law promulgated as the Hebrews and Lyranus upon Gen. 7. deliver And in another place he telleth us out of Rabbi Abraham that Job did observe it Cornelius à lapide d It is manifest that the Sabbath was instituted and established not first by Moses Exod. 20. but long before to wit from the beginning of the world Salianus also in his Ecclesiasticall Annals doth at large refute the Prolepsis as absurd As for Protestant writers whether they be Lutheranes Calvinists or our own English we dare vie it with the Anticiparians and give them oddes two for one at least and bate the preciser sort too Luther e himself shall lead the van The Sabbath was destined from the beginning of the world to religious worship Baldwin f The Sabbath was observed from the Creation Calvin in Exod. apud a Prideaux Gualter b Doubtlesse the Fathers before the Law diligently observed the Sabbath P. Martyr c That people rest from labour one day in the week did not onely appertain to Moses Law but had beginning from Gen. 2. Zanchy d I doubt not mine own I relate without prejudice to others opinions I doubt not I say but the Sonne of God in humane shape was all this seventh day busied in most holy colloquies with Adam but he fully revealed himself to him and Eve shewed him how and in what order he created all things wisht him to meditate upon these works and in them to praise and acknowledge the True God his Creatour taught him that after his example every seventh day all labour set aside he should spend in this exercise of Pietie c. What could modesty her self more modestly assever he doth not imperiously obtrude for truth what he saith he onely telleth you his own conceit and it hath ever been permitted for men in such cases as this both to think what they will and speak what they think as the Historian saith Can any therefore but wonder that the bare delivery of a private opinion so soberly without incrochment upon others liberties should gain the Authour no better esteem then to be reckoned amongst lying Legendaries and fabulous Rabbines What Zanchy was his works speak him a learned and good man in that repute he lived in that he died I never heard him defamed for a Palephatus or Tale-coyner till now and I hope never shall again a Ursin The Sabbath was commanded from the beginning of the world by God unto all men b Bullinger The Sabbath was observed from the beginning of the world by a law naturall and divine c Beza The Precept of the Sabbath was established in the very Creation of the world even before mans fall and elsewhere he saith that Job did sanctifie at least every seventh day A saucy fellow to controul Justin Martyr his better and therefore is taught manners by my Authour
which is the greatest of all But none ever affirmed a Divine Institution Ergò c. They do not indeed mention it sub terminis because it was not questioned in their dayes but if they make it instituted by Christ as some or by his Apostles as almost all and if they tell us * Whatsoever the Apostles delivered by the dictate of the holy Ghost is as firm and indefeasable as what Christ himself then I hope by necessary consequence they make it of Divine Institution That which the orthodox condemne for popery should not be consented to by us But that the Lords day is a part of Gods worship and more holy then other dayes as from Divine authoritie is condemned by Reformists in the Papists Therefore we ought not to symbolize with them No reformed Writers condemne this in the Papists because they hold the Lords Day more holy then others but onely such and those very few as think the Day to be of Ecclesiasticall not of Divine Institution The orthodox Thesis is this * Festivall dayes cannot by humane constitution be made more holy then others as Amesius to whom you appeal could have informed you Lastly Socrates affirmeth that the Apostles never intended to establish laws concerning Holydayes S. Augustine also maketh it will-worship or idolatry to observe any day as commanded of God S. Hierome likewise saith we have no dayes having any holinesse in them and necessitie from Divine institution The book of Homilies affirmeth that Christian men of themselves without any Divine precepts did take upon them the observation of the Lords Day All reformed Churches consent with us and many Martyrs in the Marian dayes as Tindall Frith Barnes Lastly Master Perkins speaketh doubtfully herein yet he was one of the first that took up this tenet Socrates must have a candid Reader or be argued of overbold singularitie against all Antiquitie who affirmed the contrary Augustine saith that the Christians in his time did not observe so much the festivals themselves as what was signified by them and therefore he saith that the Apostle did blame the Galatians in this because they did observe appointed times servilely not knowing the mystery to which they tended he speaketh nothing of their institution not one word Hierome indeed I grant was inclining to your opinion but his single judgement is not equivalent to the many reasons and authorities urged on the contrary The book of Homilies affirmeth no such thing as you say these words of themselves without any Divine precept are yours not the Churches not expresly not interpretatively so not hers as she is positive in the direct contrary For there being two things wherein the Divine right of the Lords Day is founded upon legall Institution in the fourth Commandment and Evangelicall by either Christ or his Apostles for the first she saith that God expresly in that precept commandeth the observation of the Sabbath which is our Sunday and not onely commandeth it but also by his own example doth stirre and provoke us to diligent keeping of the same For the second having a while after declared it to be Gods Will and Commandment to have a solemn time and standing day in the week consecrated to him she presently addeth This example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow immediately after the ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing day in the week to come together in Now where she speaketh of Godly Christian people she doubtlesse meaneth the Apostles for who else durst at that time take upon them to begin such a custome and so as touching the Institution of the day as a weekly day she reduceth it to the fourth precept and as the first of the week she foundeth it upon Apostolick practice What some other reformed Churches think in this point of the Lords Day may plausibly enough against us be urged on your parts I confesse and it is your Drusian your keenest objection and yet we can oppose many things to turn the edge of it For first they are onely positive in setting down their own opinions but the reasons inducing them thereto they suppresse and seeing they are not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we must not be governed by their bare Thesis Secondly those confessions are not generall but particular to some Churches Thirdly were they the Canons of a generall Councel yet must they not predominate over Truth a Nationall and Provinciall councels ought to give place to the authoritie of Vniversall and Oecumenicall and these have been oftentimes amended when experience hath cleared some truth which before lay hid saith Augustine Lastly though some will think it b periculosa praesumptio judicare de caeteris ipsum ab omnibus judicandum to speak the truth yet to speak it with all terms of venerable regard to those famous Churches I dare pronounce they are not right in this point not so full reformed but they stand yet in need of further reformation Nor ought we to wonder at their mistake herein For first the precept of the Lords Day is not so legible in sacred Scripture as the rest which concern matters of faith thereby to instruct us to put a difference betwixt fundamentalls and ceremonies it is written in a finer character in a smaller Print and therefore might well escape the eyes of those Churches at the first break of day of Reformation when the light shone somewhat dimme Secondly the question was never on foot in their times and so the evidences demonstrating Divine Right were never laid open to them and having inquiries concerning sacrifice of the Altar Adoration c. more proper for those times to imploy them they were not like to inform themselves better upon accident What I have said concerning the Reformed Churches may also be applyed to those holy and blessed Martyrs you cite and partly to master Perkins who had he lived now would I dare say have been as positive and resolute as any other And whereas you make him the prime inventer of this tenet though what I have urged out of the book of Homilies is your sufficient confutation yet will I produce one Testimony more and that no lesse then Royall and as Reformation it self ancient The Sabbath Day was used and ordained but for mans use and therefore ought to give place to the necessity and behoof of the same whensoever that shall occur much rather any other holy day instituted by man What say you now Sir if Perkins was the first that took up this tenet who I pray laid it down and down it was laid for certain if he took it up for up it was you see in Henry the eighths time Having thus waded through all the objections and discovered their frame to consist of very loose and defeasable stuff wherein truth is no ingredient I step forward to other questions incident and pertinent to this discourse And first