of Rom. 16. 5. Gods people being scattered as fruitful clouds which Col. 4. 15. are melted into their several drops let us repair to the lesser Church our family and follow Christ home and entertain Privata familia quae ob religiosam sanctitatem illustris est ecclesiae nomen promeruit Daven him there with holy communion Christ hath his lesser as well as his greater banquetting house Cant. 2. 4. And will meet us in our houses as well as in his own Mal. 21. 13. the place of more solemn assemblies He who will come to the house of a Pharisee Luke 14. 1. will come to the house of a believer Therefore after the publick ordinances are done and finished let us haste to our habitations as fast as Zacheus to his Luke 19. 6. to the same end with Familiam suam privata fecit ecclesia eam pietate religione exornans Theod. him to entertain our dear Jesus and pursue those family duties which are incumbent upon us which now shall be opened and discoursed upon There are several duties which must take up this interval that it may not be an empty and unbeautiful chasm Let our meal be adorned with temperance and made lushious and sweet with holy and savory discourse Heavenly communication is salt at the table is sauce in the dish Non prius discumbunt quà m Oratio ad deum praegustetur editur quantum esurientes capiunt bibitur quantum pudicis est utile ita saturantur ut qui meminerint etiam per noctem sibi adorandum deum esse Tertul. is a flavour in our drink Full meales are those which are spiritualized and they have most of rarity which have most of heaven Our tables are spread with variety not from our dishes but from our discourse Tertull. speaking of the carriage of private Christians at their meals tells us That they do not sit down before they have prayed they eat as much as may satisfie hunger they drink so much as is sufficient for temperate men and are so filled as they that remember that God must be worshipped even in the night season O the golden temper of these golden times Temperance must be the Caterer and holy discourse must be the musick of our tables Our tongues are instruments but the good spirit must tune them Holy discourses are perfumes which are not only pleasant to our selves but delightful to others they are the trumpets of our piety the sparks which fly from our zeal the disburdening of a gracious soul they are a celestial harmony which makes a meal on a Sabbath pleasant and seraphical Vivunt impii ut bibant et edant sed bibuâ—◠èt edunt bène ut vivant Socrâ—t And therefore let us discourse at our Sabbath meals on some things delivered by the Minister or some spiritual matter which may administer grace to the hearers and let us avoid the common rock of vain and worldly talk Xenocrates the Philosopher being in company with some who used evil language he was very mute and being asked the reason he replyed It hath often repented me that I have spoken but never that I have held my peace Oh that our hearts and lips were heavenly on the Lords day that there might be more sprinkling of grace in our discourses Sermo noster sit ad aedificationem necessitatis Theoph. This would turn our food into Manna and drop dissolved Pearls into our Cup and turn our board into a Communion table Holy discourse it Et ad aedificationem utilitatis Erasm First Warms the heart Secondly It gives vent for grace Thirdly It is the bellows of zeal Et ad aedificationeâ— opportunitatis Sermo aedificet quoties opus vel opportunitas est alios docere Theoph. Fourthly It often awakens conscience Fifthly It is the Gangrene of sin as silence and flattery are the promoters of it Sixthly Nay it countermines Satan and turns him out of the room where our table stands Seventhly Holy discourses are the freedom of imprisoned piety and the Midwife of that holiness which lies in the womb of the heart the turning up of that truly golden Ore they are the Saints Shibboleth which distinguishes him from the foolish world which travels with froth and vanity In a word holy discourse is the ease of Conscience the sacrifice of Religion the Saints refreshment the sinners chain and astonishment heavens eccho the delight of Christian Society It is a twofold Charity First To our selves it enfranchises our affections to Christ our heart is full of love to him and holy discourse gives vent to our full hearts it is the discharge of our duty Cant. 5. 10 11 and so frees us from the guilt of disobedience and Col. 4. 6. moreover it gives fire to our dedolent hearts Our hearts Luke 24. 31. must be awakened and raised sometimes by ordinances Mal. 3. 16. sometimes by prayer sometimes by holy discourses Sequi debet in unaâ—uaque familiâ mutua communicatio et mutua familiae institutio Rivet in Decal Secondly Which likewise are charity to others They may be their satisfaction an answer to their scruples a corrosive to their lusts a check to their sin thou knowest not but thy good discourse may be as an Angel in the way to stop some sinfull progress or a flame to anothers zeal and a salve to anothers sore Such discourse becomes our table on the Lords day and becomes the Sabbath as rich attire the Luke 14. 1 7. beautiful person the garment sets off the person and the person adorns the garment It is reported of the hearers of holy Mr. Heldersham that they would go home from Church discoursing of he powerful and precious truths which were delivered and so they did strew the way home with Roses and made their miles short by heart-sweetning discourse Christ when he was with his little family his twelve Apostles he would always be speaking of the things Deut. 6. 6 7. of heaven Mark 4. 10. Gracious words would flow from Job 32. 18 19 20. him as drops from the fountain or the morning dew from above It was a charge laid upon the Israelites to discourse Deut. 11. 19. of the statutes of God when they were in their Mat. 12. 34. houses sitting with their Children and Servants about them Deut. 6 6 7. The two Disciples going from Emaus Christus suo exemplo declaravit quomedo tempus inter matutinos et vespertinos caetus Sabbati insumendum est Ipse enim suos discipulos dissipatâ turbâ de rebus regni examinavit Chemn were talking of the sufferings and the affairs of Christ and then their dear Mediatour joyns in with them Luke 24. 15. Dr. Bound observeth That when we have heard the word upon a Sabbath we must discourse of it unless we will lose a great part of the fruit of it A talking of worldly affairs will chase away that truth we have been made
not drinking things luke-warme nor walking measured paces not rejoycing in dances c. And Chrysostom urges with much holy fervency That on the Sabbath we should lay aside all the affairs of this life and withdraw our selves from them and spend all the leisure of the Sabbath in things spiritual and divine which concern our souls This eminent Person makes a difference between sloth and rest the one concerns the body the other the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Tom 5 p 225. and he clearly states the Question that the Sabbath was never given us to please a piece of clay but to serve the interest of that piece of eternity which every one of us carry in our own bosoms And on this manner Augustine courts his Auditors We must know dearly beloved That it is therefore August appointed of our holy Fathers and commanded to us Christians that upon the Lords day we should rest that reposing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Load Can 29. from all worldly business we might be more fresh and prompt for Gods divine worship and may with more ease attend upon the will and service of God Nay a whole council viz. of Laodicea in the twenty ninth Canon hath these words It doth not become Christians to Judaize and to be idle on the Sabbaths This was the spirit and temper of the Primitive times they press that our Sabbaths might be spiritualized not that our work should wholly cease but only should be changed that the labour of the hand should be turned into the working of the heart that manual operations should be turned into mental contemplations and on this day our work must not be servile but seraphical we must not throw away the Pen but we must write the fairer In the middle times of the Church when such dark Thom. Aquin. 22dae quaest 122. 4 3. 11. 3 dist Art 15 Quest 1. clouds had over-spread it that spiritual worship was as Saul among the Prophets rare to a Proverb yet then the employing of the time of a Sabbath in holy service was accounted morall in the fourth Commandments and scoffs were bestowed freely by the writers of those times on those who wasted the Sabbath in plays or idleness This bright Alex de Alens p. 3. quaest 32. Scol l. 2 de instit qu 4. Artic. 4. truth like a star in the night made its way to shine in the darkest times The fine spun disputes of the Schoolmen could not distinguish it away but it brake through all their curious webs This truth was so fastned in the Church it could not be disputed out by the School And let Semper eadem not only be Queen Elizabeths Motto but the Sabbaths holy observation In the dawning of Reformation there was light enough to discover this truth many eminent Divines those burning and shining lights which blaze more because they are nearer to us give in their suffrage for spending the Sabbath in holy exercises sharply decrying Hinc colligimus deum non de re nihili aut flâ—cci loqui cùm sanctificationem Sabbati nobis commendâ—verit Calv. sluggishness and sloth on this blessed day It is the grave observation of incomparable Calvin That God speaks not of a small matter when he commands the sanctification of the Sabbath but doth exhort us to a diligent marking of it and our want of care to mark is a breach of this Commandment This worthy man could not imagine that a Memento should Preface a day of sloth and idleness that we might take our carnal ease without such an alarm To walk in the fields to sit idling at the door of our house to chat in a room upon a Sabbath are no such importances as to require such diligent attention or exact observation there is little holiness in any thing of this A carnal man may rest from labour and never much mind or need a command Nature will let us to take our case without any special command from the God of nature The great Jehovah had never needed in the midst of thundrings and lightnings with great Exod 10. 18. terrour and Majesty to give out a command for us to go to a Bench to sit on to a couch to talk on or to a bed to lie on A School-master need not make a set speech or tune his language to strains of Oratory to perswade his Scholars to go to play and be idle Idleness needs no great enforcements wants no arguments of reason nor paintings of Rhetorick we can prate of worldly affairs and take our pleasing pastimes without any attractive engine Zanchy speaks very pregnantly to this purpose I call saith he this dayes rest Zanch. de oper creat p. 3. l. 1. c. 1. divine and holy because as God is never idle so he would have us take rest in soul and conscience after that manner that yet notwithstanding we be alwayes employed in those things which are of Gods spirit and which appertain to the glory of God and to the good both of our selves and others The cause of commanding rest upon the Sabbath was not for rest sake and that man might be idle but that he might altogether spend that whole day in divine worship Thus this Reverend Person Sed ut toto illo die possint vacare cultui divino Zanc. in quartum praecept rightly stateâ— the Question and truly asserts that as rest is included in the Commandment so holy and spiritual worship is the end of that rest God calls us off from Earth to mind Heaven and the body must have a vacation that the soul may have a Term the body must decrease that the soul may increase Corporal rest is only the means by Non igitur cum Ethnicis sentiendum festos dtes tantúm quietâ—s remissionis causa suscipi quorum finis â—sset recoâ—datio beneficiorum dei in convocatione sancta c. which we may pursue our eternal rest This learned Rivet looks upon it as a brutish and heathenish Opinion to think that God should give us a holy day for sloth and remisness and he positively tells us That the end of the Sabbath must be the recordation of divine benefits and to refresh our memories with most grateful rehearsals of Gods bounty and to put up prayers for future grace for the leisure of Saints must not be fruitless The eccho of this golden sentence is true and sweet A godly mans leisure must not run waste When the world gives him a short quietus est he must rest in God His spare hours from his outward affairs must be his serious hours for his soul The Saints have alwayes work to do on this side eternity but especially on that day when rest is commanded us to look after eternity Hospinian here accents Finis tertius est Sabbati ejusque otii ille est subliâ—â—or Vt vir spirituaâ—is ad aeternam sui saluteâ— propior accedat ut vitae sanctae â—fficiâ—â— occupetur
aut mundi cura et ille cibrae immò mille temporalium rerum onera quae nos adigunt ad irregularitatem Chrysost homil 9. with drowsiness Mat. 26. 40. And yet our sweetest Saviour puts a good construction upon this failing And if the Apostles of Christ cannot hold up how shall ordinary Christians of the lower form in Christs School Few are vigorous as they should be on Gods holy day what would they do if every day must be a Sabbath This is impossible to flesh and bloud Man carries clogs about him to holy opportunities which yet are soon over he carries a naughty heart which is apt to wander and a faint nature which is apt to tire and a heavy eye which is apt to close besides he never leaves Satan behind him to be at least the shadow to darken the light and joy of Ordinances And therefore to assert a constant Sabbath an every day Sabbath is to throw a mountain upon an infant And 6. This opinion takes away all distinction between our Vltra hunc mundum est veri Sabbati observatio Orig. Sabbath on earth and our Sabbath in heaven In heaven indeed we shall keep a perpetual Sabbath and all shall be true which this opinion holds forth there shall be no labours no shops no merchandise All our employment shall be to celebrate the praises of God and the Lamb who sits upon the Throne Rev. 5. 13. But to fancy such a Sabbath in this life is to act the Prâ—soner who dreams of golden Rev. 4. 9 â—0 11. treasure pleasing delights sensual satisfaction and wakeing in the morning finds himself shackled in an iron chain and lockt up in a dark dungeon And let this be added to dream of a perpetual Sabâ—ath here and so lay aside the Lords day as groundless and useless is the next way to miss of an everlasting Sabbath above To make every day a Christian Sabbath is only a more subtle design to undermine the publick Ordinances Such would be every day in private that they may be no day in publick and so they set the closet against the Sanctuary and so the pretence of secret duty shall wholly subvert the reality of solemn worship For it is not to be imagined that all people should meet every day in publick and solemn assemblies Mark 14. 49. And how unsutable is this to a Saints spirit David his emphatical option and desire was to dwell in the Temple Psal Luke 19. 44. 27. 4. And he bewailed his loss of opportunities to go with Acts 17. 10. the multitude Psal 42. 4. The Jews kept the Temple worship Acts 18. 4. till they turned their backs upon the Messiah Paul Acts 13. 14. preached in the Synagogue and commanded the Hebrews not Joel 1. 14. to neglect the publick assemblies Heb. 10. 25. Now the Heb. 10. 25. drift of this wild fancy is to leave all Christians to their Certum est ad cessationem simplicem Sabbatum non suisse institutum sed ut convenirent Christiani ad ea pietatis eteercitia quae toti multitudini erant communia Riv. own private observations to their Chamber and closet duties that so there may be no use of publick Ministers publick Administrations publick Schools and publick Universities or a publick solemn day for divine worship and what is this but to bury all Order Discipline and Beauty in ruine and confusion This is to act Dioclesians part to destroy the devout ministry to act Julians part to shut up the Schools and so hinder all Knowledge and Learning and to run with Faustus Socinus to pluck up the Lords day and at last to slide into the blasphemies and insolence of Lucian and Porphiry to deride all Religion To make every day a Sabbath solemnly condemns the practice of the Church in all ages The Church of Christ never understood but one Sabbath in a week which is the blessed Lords day Shall we run it up to the fountain head and take a prospect of the practice of the Church in every Century In the purest times of the Church holy Ignatius the Disciple of the Apostle John the Martyr of Jesus Christ lays it upon Christians as they would shew any love to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ignat. that they should keep holy the Lords day So zealous was this blessed man and Martyr for the observation of this particular day and it s most probable if not most certain that he should know the mind of God when he lay in the Apostle Johns bosom and John lay in Christs John 13. 23. And Ignatius calls the Lords day the Queen of dayes and therefore all dayes are not equal but every day of the week is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Apol. secund inferiour to this Supream of dayes Justin Martyr who lived in the second Century relates the practice of the Church in his time telling us That on Sunday solemn Conventions of people meet together in Villages or Cities for the exercices of divine worship This holy man and Martyr who sealed the truth of Christ with his bloud is the unbiassed Historian of Sabbath observation in the most orient and glorious times of the Church when the truths of God were warm newly dropt from the mouth and heart of Christ Then Euseb Hist l. 4. c. 22. the Lords day was call'd Sunday for reasons hereafter to be shewn not Saturday not Friday not every day but it was the best and highest of dayes and was solemnly set apart Tertul. de Idol c. 14. for solemn and Gospel-worship Dionysius Corinthiacus who lived in the third Century speaks of his observation of Prima Sabbati est initium dierum et tunc ecclesia erecta perficiebat deprecationes Basil the Lords day and the same attests Tertullian who was his Contemporary and speaks largely of the solemn keeping of that blessed day One day is still solemnized not every day no more then every one in a Nation can be crowned and wear the badge of Supremacy Basil who lived in the fourth Century calls the Lords day the beginning of dayes and every Greek Letter is not Alpha And this renowned Father saith That the Church then devoutly poured out their prayers to God And with him joyn Chrysostom Ambrose Augustine Hilary those bright and burning lights of the Primitive Church whose copious descants upon this holy day it will be too much to set down Now this opinion hath no patronage from antiquity unless it be from the mistake of Clemens or the figurative fancy of allegorizing Origen In the darkest times of the Church when it was overspread with palpaâ—le darkness even then Authority commanded Exod. 10. 21. Sabbath-observation one solemn day not every day that was a strange notion in the very midnight of the Church When the clouds were thickest so much brake forth to lead the Christian World to keep one day every week to the Lord. Charles the
by the Father's benediction The before-mentioned Lactantius tells us The Sabbath took its rise not from the History of Manna but from Gods resting on the Sabbath-day after the finishing of the six days works Theodoret most elegantly observes That least the seventh day should want its honour nothing Tertul. contr Marcion lib. 4. cap. 12. Septimo die deus nihil facit sed hunc diem benedictione honoravit being created thereon God set it apart to be a Sabbath a day of holy Rest And indeed Gods chief work on the Sabbath is forming the new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. not creating the Man but the Saint not springing man out of the dust of the Earth but raising him out of the Theodor. quaest 43. in Exod. dregs of sin That he may be his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2. 10. Eph. 4. 24. On the holy Sabbath the works of God are works of grace not of nature and he doth not multiply but beautifie the Creation God doth not create on it new species and kinds of Creatures but new hearts and new spirits The Schoolmen who lived in the Iron Age of the Church Estius in lib. 3. Sentent Dist 37. Sylvestranus Richardus de mediâ villâ Alex. Alens part 3. quaest 39. fol. 128 Benedixit sanctificavit deus diem septimum i. e sanctum celebrem esse voluit Sanctificavit i e. consecravit Caeteros dies operum exercitio deputans il lum suo cultui emancipavit Hugo Card. Sabbatum est dies requiei i. e. vacationis ad deum Alex. Alens and rose at Midnight yet by their dark-Lanthorn they could see this truth they generally refer the Institution of the Sabbath to the beginning of the World and fairly conclude That Gods blessing and sanctifying the Seventh day was its consecration to be a day of holy Rest and a future Sabbath Alexander Hales saith positively That the Sabbath was observed of the Fathers before the Law Hugo Cardinalis truly asserts That the other six days God deputes to the affairs of the world but the seventh day he hath ordained for his own worship and this was originated from Gods sanctifying the seventh day in the primitive Institution The Schoolmen generally say God sanctified the seventh day Gen. 2. 3. and this is no more then his separating of it to holy purposes for his own more solemn and immediate worship Gerson the famous Chancellor of Paris speaks even the same words with Hugo Cardinalis and as the Schoolmen of the middle times of the Church heartily assented to this truth so those of latter times agree in the same opinion Suarez saith It is most probable that the Sabbath was from the beginning and so propagated by tradition to posterity For we must know that the Church in the first times of the world was immured in Famiâ—ies and most easie it was for one Family to hand down to another those Solemnities which God enjoyned them and more especially the blessed Sabbath wherein those pious Ancestors were to enjoy more solemn and sweet communion with their glorious Jehovah To frequent Gods worship is most adaequate to natural reason saith the above-mentioned Suarez Surely this great truth of the Sabbaths origination must gain much credit from the School-mens attestation when they were Similiter est naturali rationi consentaneum ut dei cultus frequentèr exerceatur ideò temporis determinatio est ex morali ratione Suarez too prone to dispute every thing and to make the most evidential truths problematical The Schools were ever for pro and con to question every the most sacred truth which passed by they would bandy those Scriptural assertions which carryed most light with them and subject those things which were most taken for granted to their discussion and ventilation But to close this particular with a good rule of the Schools viz. To dedicate some time to the service of God this is natural to dedicate the seventh part Filiut Mor. Quaest Tom. 2 in tertium Praeceptum Bannes secunda secundae Quaest 44. Art 1. of the week to the service of God this is moral but to sanctfie this weekly Sabbath as we should this is supernatural the spirit of God teacheth us to sanctifie the Sabbath this is only from grace In the midst of all their Sceptiscims this is a most worthy speech And as for our modern Divines who stood upon Giants shoulders and therefore had a fairer Prospect of divine Covarruv Resol l. 4. c. 19. truth They generally assert the Sabbaths original from the beginning of the world Luther who led the Van of the great Ministers of Reformation plainly asserts That if Ambros Cathar enar in Gen 2. toto dejust jure l. 2. Quaest 3. Cultus est à naturâ modus a lege virtus est a gratiâ Scholast Adam had never fell yet he should have kept holy the seventh day as a Sabbath to the Lord and should have transmitted the knowledge of this day which was to be spent in divine worship Other dayes Adam was to till the ground to look to the Beasts of the field but this day to converse with God and this day saith Luther Adam kept solemnly after the fall and a testimony of this are the sacrifices of Cain and Abel therefore the Sabbath was designed to the worship of God from the beginning of the world What more full more clear Si Adam in innocentiâ stetisset tamen habuisset sacrum diem septimum eo die decrevisset posteros de voluntate cultu dei laudasset deum et gratias egisseâ— obâ—uâ—â—sset aliis diebus coluisset agrum pecora curasset Immò post lapsum habuit diem illum septimum sacrum Luther in Genes more plain Zuinglius agreeing with Luther saith roundly That the Sabbath was ordained from the beginning of the world and took its first rise from the close of the Creation This blessed man who lost his life in defence of the Protestant cause sealed this with other truths with his precious bloud Calvin saith expresly That God rested on the seventh day and then blessed it that this day might be through all ages dedicated to rest not to idleness but to holy rest that our minds might be freer for boly contemplation on God the great Creator of heaven and earth For God saith he is no way pleased with empty leisure that man should do nothing but with a necessary vacation for converse with himself And Reverend Beza who was so rare in sacred Criticks gives us in his judgment acquiescing in this truth and plainly tells us That the seventh day stood from the Creation of the world unto the Resurrection of Christ when the seventh day Sabbath was turned into the first day Sabbath by the holy Apostles Zuingl com in Exod. 20. So that now we cannot say of the Sabbath as is said of the River Nilus that its fountain head cannot be known when
Father before we go to the Psal 119. 27. publick Ordinances on the blessed Sabbath Rev. 3. 18. Secondly As we must pray that God would take away the scales from our eyes so likewise that he would remove the caul from our hearts that he would open our hearts to receive the word Judgment discerns truth but affection embraceth it Indeed the understanding takes a view of Gods word and finds it to be holy just and good Rom. 7. 12. But the heart entertains it and lays it up as its choicest Luke 2. 19. treasure A poor man goes by a Goldsmiths shop and seeth Mandata dei sancta sunt quia praescribunt quomodo deus sanctè colâ— debet justa quia praescribunt ut proximum non laedas sed ei quoâ— suum est tribuns bona quia praescribunt eâ— quibus quisque in se bonus est Alap Nisi Sp. s cordi sit audientis otiosus est Sermo Doctoris Greg. Money Jewels and Plate but he is not enriched by this wealth and a traveller in his journey takes a view of pleasant Lands delicate Mountains and amiable Prospects but his own Tenure is not amplified by all that he seeth So our judgment views truth and is convinced of its beauty and excellency but the heart only espouses the blessed truths of God and makes them his own to all intents and purposes Gospel discoveries are no riches till they are locked up in the heart and therefore God must be intreated for this thing for he that opens the eye must open the heart or else when the Sermon is done all the Prospect is over and we are not at all the better Lydia's attending was unavailable untill God opened her heart Arts 16. 14. The Apostle speaks of receiving truth in the love thereof 2 Thes 2. 10. Truth is pleasant to the Understanding but profitable to the Will Then the Gospel advantageth us when the Doctrine of it is not only the guide of our eye but the good of our heart It is love and affection which squeezeth the Grapes of truth and maketh it generous wine to the soul Where Acts 2. 37. the word Preached by Peter wrought upon the Jews it Christimors morita sacramenta praecepta promissa licet incredulis pudorismâ— et risui tamen nobis virtus dei et potentia pricked them to the heart Acts. 2. 37. If we buy the truth as Solomon adviseth us Prov. 23. 23. the heart must be the Chapman If we taste the word 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. the heart must be the Palate we then rellish truth when we affect it If we delight in truth Psal 119. 47. It is the joy and the rejoycing of the heart as Jeremy speaks Jer. 15. 16. A learned man observes It is the love of truth which is one of those graces which accompany Salvation Therefore on the morning of a Sabbath let us importune the Lord to engage our hearts in the service of truth and for the entertainment of it he who searches must draw the heart Rom. 1. 16. Thirdly Let us wrestle with God for the strengthning of our memories that he would make them pillars of Marble to write divine truth on It is very sad when heavenly Doctrines are written in sand or dust and after our hearing of them they run out again as the sands in the hour glass sad it is that truth which cost so dear should be lost so soon If God is so gracious to keep a book of remembrance for our discourses Mal. 3. 16. how serious should we be to keep a book of remembrance for Gospel discoveries It is most reasonable that those truths which were bought with Christs bloud should be wrought on our hearts Indeed in this case Jonah 2. 8. to forget our mercies is to forsake them How earnest was the Apostle Peter that the Saints might not forget those Doctrines which he â—ad preached how doth he reduplicate his care and their duty 2 Pet. 1. 12 13. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of 2 Pet. 1. 12 13 15. these things yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance And so in the fifth verse Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance Thus this blessed Apostle again and again stirs up and urges their mindfulness and remembrance of those Gospel truths he had discovered to them and presses that the Gospel might not die with them when he was dead and gone Our memories are naturally sieves of vanity and therefore need divine assistance to close up the chinks and stop the holes that the waters of life run not out in waste Indeed mans memory is never so usefull as in the time of Ordinances it is then a sacred Register and a holy repository like 1 Cor. 4. 17. the Ark where the two Tables in which the Decalogue was written were put and lodged After a good heart and 2 Tim. 2. 14. a good life nothing more conduceth to mans happiness then a good memory Forgetfulness is the grave of Gods truth 1 Tim. 4. 6. and mans treasure what I forget I can neither dwell upon by meditation nor feed upon by love and affection nor live upon in a holy and fruitful conversation Forgotten promises cannot support my faith forgotten commands cannot regulate my life forgotten truths cannot enrich my mind Forgetfulness is never happy but when injury is the object when we bury our injuries in that silent sepulchre One glorious office of the spirit is to bring things divine to our remembrance John 16. 26. and to fasten truth upon the Spiritus sanctus non solùm ut sciamus Author est sed ut verè sapiamus Doctor est ut beati simus intimae suavitatis largitor est Aug. soul we should therefore be earnest with God on the morning of a Sabbath to cause his spirit to execute this blessed office For though in preaching of the word the Mysteries of the Gospel are propounded to us yet it is the spirit must open our minds to understand the word else it will be a book sealed as the Prophet speaks Isa 29. 11. It is the spirit must give us wisdom to apply the word Eph. 1. 17 18. It is the spirit must support our memory to retain the word A learned man observes The Holy Ghost performs his office Isa 29. 11. not only by revealing truth to us but by imprinting it upon us Else the sounding of the Gospel will be like the sounding of Eph. 1. 18. a Clock after it hath struck a little noise there is for the present but it ceases by degrees and at last no sound at all is heard In a word forgetful hearers go from Ordinances Spiritus Sanctus apud nos officium suum peragit non solùm docendo sed et suggerendo just
the spring of all irreligion Every flowr the beast feeds upon we have the sweetness of it in the milk and so all those truths we insinuate into the hearts of our Families in a chatechistical way we shall find in their behaviours and carriages The cost we bestow on our Gardens we find in the spring and then the sweetness of the Rose and the beauty of the Tulip will court both our eye and our smell so in this case our pains in chatechizing will be found in the towardliness of the youth of our Families and if we would turn our houses into little Churches chatechism must be Col. 4. 15. the chiefest consecration But if we lay aside this successful duty Ignorance will overgrow the Family and then a cloud of ignorance will easily melt into a shower of profaneness The darkness in the head will turn into darkness 1 Câ—r 2 8. in the deed and our Family may not love Christ probably because they do not know him Well instructed are usually well governed Families Let something then of the Sabbath Evening be spent and employed in this influentiall Duty CHAP. XXXV Singing of Psalmes is the Musique of a Sabbath THe Feast of a Sabbath is not to want the musique of a Ephes 5 19. Psalm The Lords day saith the Psalmist Psalm 118. Revel 5. 11. 24. is a day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it And Psalms are the ecchoes of joy the hearts Revel 4. 11. melody the Saints tuning his Hallelujahs When we sing Revel 5. 13. Psalms we seem to joyn issue with the 24 Elders mentioned in the Revelation and with the Quire of Angels the Psalm 100. 2. subject of whose Song is the Lord and the Lamb who sit 2 Sam. 23. 1. upon the Throne David was not onely the great King of Judah but the sweet Singer of Israel and he did not onely 1 Chron. 13. 8 compile his psalms for the Church but himself did sing Nehem. 12. 27. forth his Songs to the Lord nay the whole body of the Judg. 5. 3. people of Israel though they cannot be Psalmists they Psalm 30. 4. will be joyous in the praises of the Lord 1 Chron. 13. 8. The wall of the City was not dedicated without singing Psalm 147. 1. much more the worship of the Temple was not celebrated without the same method of praise thanksgiving Singing is the commanded mirth of Mountains Isa 44. 23. It is the Exultation of the Earth Isa 49. 13. It is the pleasant triumph of Saints Isa 51. 11. It is the Trophie of Victories Exod. 15. 21. It is the Musique of Israels Quire 1 Chron. 16. 9. And then surely it is the joyful melody of Gods holy day Gods praise is much set forth by singing and all varieties joyn in consort The trees of the Wood 1 Chron. 16. 33. The sphears of the Heavens Isa 44. 23. The Kingdomes of the Earth Psalm 68. 32. The Saints in their greatest numbers Psalm 149. 3. The Saints in their greatest straights Isa 26. 19. The Saints in their greatest flight Isa 42. 10 11. The Saints in their greatest deliverances Zeph. 3. 14 15. The Saints in their greatest necessities Isa 52. 9. Isa 54. 1. The Saints in their greatest plenties Isa 65. 14. Jer. 31. 12. How comely then doth singing divine praise to the divine Majesty befit the holy day of God And we are to take notice that Psalms are not onely calculated 1 Cor. 14. 26. for the publick Congregation but likewise for private Col. 3. 16. families There must be a Quire in our houses Our Loquitur Apostoâ—us non tantum de publicis in ecclesiâ cantatis hymnis sed etiam de privatis Dr Jun. children like the lesser birds must sing the praises of the Creatour Our servants must understand the chief service in singing forth thanksgivings to the Lord and Governours of Families must be guides of the Chore they must be Presidents in this complacential service Tertullian tells us That the Christians in the Primitive times had their meetings before day to sing to Jesus Christ so sweet was this Duty to Christiani habuere caetus antelucanos ad canendum Christo et Deo Tertul. Lib. â—0 Epist 97. Hymnipro sympanis sumantur Psalmodia pro flâ—gitiosis cantibus Naz. Niceph. lib. 13 cap. 8. Ruffin Histor lib. 10. cap. 9. them and reputed so necessary Eusebius mentions some Hymnes which the Christians in the early times of the Gospel used to recite and sing forth And Nepos compiled many of these divine Songs for the service of Dyonisius and his Brethren Plinius secundus though an Heathen makes mention of Christians singing of Psalms to their great praise in his Epistles to the Emperour Trajan Gregory Nazianzen much presseth the singing of Psalms and Hymns upon Christians in their solemn days for the avoidance of fidling Instruments and of light and jocular songs And as if psalms were not onely the discharge of our duty but the confutation of the errours of others Chrysostom commanded Psalms to be sung in the night for the suppression of the Arrian Heresie Basil as Ruffin attests commanded the people to meet for the pouring out of their prayers and singing of Psalms The Eastern Church from the time that the Mos cantandi in Orientâ—li ecclesiá jam inde ab Apostolis est observatus Dr. Jun. Sun of Righteousness arose in the East did propagate the use of singing of Psalms and Hymns to successive Generations Nor was the Western Church defective in praising and practising of this sweet and reviving Duty Holy Ambrose so zealously pressed this duty of singing of Psalms that he would not allow times of persecution a sufficient reason to intercept it But the Empress Justina raging against Plebs in ecclesiá excubâ—bat et tum psalmi et hymni cantabantur secundum morem in Orientalium partium ut populus reficeretur c. him He commanded the common people to lye in the Church and there sing Psalms and Hymns according to the practice of the Oriental Christians that they might not be sensible of any sorrow or tediousness and this custom prevailed in after-times and was scattered into other places the Churches in other parts imitating this worthy practice And Paulinus testifies that the same excellent Ambrose brought Hymnes and Psalms to be sung in publick in the Churches of Millain and this practice overspread almost the whole Western Per omnes penè Occidentis provincias manasse resert Paulin. Church Paulin. in Vit. Ambros And if you ask what Psalms were sung in those Early dayes of the Church Augustine informeth us The Psalms of David Aug. confes lib. 10. cap. 33. And Theodoret joyns in the same assertion Theodor Hist lib. 2. cap. 24. And these Oracles were warbled forth with a lively and sweet voyce that the truths which were sung did seem to get a new life by the tune as
Momentum unde pendet aeternitas Alap Now if ever this is the Sabbaths Motto This is our moment on which eternity depends Though there be no vacation for sin yet the Sabbath is the Term-time for the Torius mundi opes non conducunt nec sufficiunt ad redimendam unam animulam deperditaÌ„ sed omnes animae sunt redemptae pretio sanguinis Chemn soul the Sabbath is the Mart the Staple the Market for the soul and not to improve this opportunity judiciously savingly spiritually with the greatest intent of mind with the greatest severity of observance with the greatest inclinations and workings of spirit is the highest vanity and prophaneness A slight vain spirit on a Sabbath is like tears and sighs at a Nuptial Feast or laughter and jocularity in the house of mourning On the Lords day we must pray as for our souls hear as for eternity and improve Ordinances as those who are to deal with an infinite God in Ordinances What we do we must do with all our might as Qui rectè currit in Christianismo coron am gloriae accipiet Chrysost the Wise-man speaks Eccles 9. 10. Now especially we must run the race which is set before us and strive to enter in at the strait gate storm heaven that we may take it by force Sweat in our callings is our policy but sweat and labour in holy duties is our wisdom In the duties of the Sabbath 1 Cor. 9. 24. especially we wrestle for a prize we seek for life as those persons who fetched water for David from Bethlehem with Luke 13. 24. hazard and invincible magnanimity Frozen duties will Mat. 11. 12. speak cold answers and a light dead careless frame of spirit only teaches God to withdraw his presence from our 1 Chr. 11. 18. seeming approaches We must pray and hear on a Sabbath as David danced before the Ark with all our might 2 Sam. 6. 14. we must stretch out the hand of faith lift up the 2 Sam. 6. 14. voice of prayer and breath out the longings and anhelations of our souls These heights of spirit do exceedingly become the holy and blessed Sabbath Dir. 5 We must he frugall of the time of the Sabbath The filings of Gold are precious much more the filings of a Sabbath Every minute of a Sabbath is like a pearl small but of great value There are no loose minutes in the Lords day every little parcell of time is a holy fragment which must be gathered up that nothing be lost We must fill John 6. 12. up every space of a Sabbath either with holy thoughts divine meditations ejaculatory prayers reading of the Scriptures or some holy duty correspondent to that holy day Every branch of this consecrated time must bear precious fruit we should in our Sabbath below imitate our Sabbath above and there no time will be lost Not a drop of idleneness in an Ocean of rest Though there will be no pains in glory yet there will be perpetual praises eternall uninterrupted Hallelujahs and there shall be no breach or chasm in our Sabbatum eâ—t sanctum otium Leid Pros everlasting triumphs Indeed the Sabbath is rest from our callings but none from our duties it is an holy leisure for our souls which must not run waste Grains of Musk Fragmentorum collectione et asservatione Christus nos monet frugalitatis ne insumendo et prodigendo bona à deo nobis concessa uno impetu perdamus sed quae supersunt religiosè colligamus et seponamus Lyser are sweet and valuable so are the most minute pieces of a Sabbath The Romans were so ambitious of the Consulship that one Consul dying the last day of his Authority one sued for the remainder of the time whence that memorable speech of Cicero O vigilantem Consulem c. O watchfull Consul who slept not one night in his Authority Such holy ambition we should have for the time of a Sabbath we should sue for the smallest remains of it to improve for soul advantage The Author of the Practice of Piety complains of some who spent their Sabbath or a great part of it in trimming painting and pampering themselves and were like Jezabels doing the Devils work when they should be doing Gods Surely such are the greatest unthrifts Neque dominicis diebus quae sunt hilaritatis praeter sanctitatem aliquid dicere aut facere concedimus Clem. and are guilty of the most prodigious prodigality It was a pious constitution of Clemens That on the Lords day we should give no way to mirth or earthly delight but all our words and facts should savour of holiness Dr. Bound sadly bemoans the custom of some great personages who lay longest in their beds upon Gods holy day and made it a day of pleasing Sabbatum est observandum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the flesh which should be a day of sanctified rest And saith this worthy man in an extasie of zeal We must not give our selves to sleeping on this blessed day no more then to surfeting The Prophet Joel tells us On solemn Feasts the Priests were to lie all night in sackcloth Joel 2. 13. And we know Hester spent three nights and three dayes with her Maids in fasting and prayer Hest 4. 10. And can there be a greater solemnity then the Sabbath the day Imperatum suit â— deo ut sanctifices et consecres totum Sabbati diem et in illo toto die divinis vacare possis Zanch. Iren. contr valent for transacting the great affairs of eternity our golden spot of time to get a Christ to get a crown Zanchy observes That the whole of a Sabbath without abatement and curtail is to be consecrated to God Irenaeus one of the morning stars of the Church informs us That the Sabbath doth teach us there ought to be a perseverance and a continuance of a whole day in the service of God And the Council of Paris an assembly of learned men give in their suffrage to this truth in these words Let your eyes and hands be lifted up to God all this day To the same purpose speaks the Council Conc. Turon cap. 40. Calv. in Deut. Serm. 34. Muscul in quartum praeceptum Pet. Martyr in Gen. 2. of Turon But I shall not over-load or clog the Reader with humane testimonies Let me only subjoyn the attestation of incomparable Calvin This day saith he is not ordained for us only to come to a Sermon but to the end that we may employ the rest of our time to laud and praise God Here we may take up that of the Prophet Mat. 1. 14. Cursed is the deceiver And this is too much to imitate Ananias and Saphira to keep back part of the price of a blessed Sabbath Acts 5. 2. God will not have us to divide the Sabbath between himself and our selves this is to make a separation between God and us Gods day must be spent in
tabernacle for Mercurius The beauty of holiness is written on Gods house where Ordinances are marrow and fatness and communion with Christ the wine on the lees Let us no more halt between two Opinions If Jehovah be God let us keep his day holy but if with Julian we have Apostatized to the Idols of the Gentiles let us proclaim it to the world by making the Sabbath a stage to Dagon est deus venter quia ventris gratiâ colebatur deducitur à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frumentum Alap act our lewdness upon Alapide doth elegantly and pregnantly observe that Dagon mentioned in the Scriptures 1 Sam. 5. 2 3 4. is nothing but a belly god if then we will turn Philistinis and worship their Idol we may with more excuse pursue our surfets on the Lords day In the Primitive times a holy observation of the Lords day was an infallible sign of a Christian Professour and in all times lewdness upon that day spake a totalchange from that holy profession but if we are still ambitious of the name of Christian let the holy observance of Gods blessed day be our testimonial for to live in pleasures on that day speaks us dead while we live 1 Tim. 5. 6. To pollute the Sabbath by vioious practices is to break many Commnadments at once The Adulterer on a Sabbath breaks the 7th and the fourth Commandment the Swearer breaks the third and the fourth Commandment the rioter breaks the sixth and the fourth Commandment Prophaneness on a Sabbath is a multiplyed sin a twisted wickedness it is as the Prophet speaks Isa 5. 18. to draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope We may say of this lowdness as Leah said of Gad Behold a troop Gen. 30. Si quis ad hoc Sabbatum requitsceret at memoriam beneficiorum dei recolerct interim tamen in aliud peceatum incidit Annon judicandus erat violasse hoc praeceptum de sanctificando Sabbato Est 11. Estius sharply expostulates If God give us a Sabbath to solemnize his great and glorious benefits if on this day we fall into any sin shall we not be accounted violatours of this holy day Both the streams meet the particular sin committed and the breach of the Sabbath This Sabbath prophanation brings forth twins at least this evil is as the grapes of Sodom which were in clusters Deut. 32. 32. It is not a common seam-rent but it is a rent in the whole cloath This cursed emphasis may be annexed to every lewdness on the Sabbath the sinner added this to all the rest of his evils he brake the Commandment also concerning Sabbath-holiness and observation Luke 3. 20. To prophane Gods holy and sacred day is not only morally sinful but it is opinionatively evil and Popish It is the Finito priùs sacro licet iter facere venari studere super lites propter pecuniam Vendere Animalia occidere ad victum constituere Theatra prospectaculis Tol. inst Sacerdot l. 4. c. 25. round assertion of Cardinal Tollet That the publick service being over on the Sabbath it is lawful to ride journeys to hunt and follow the game to plead Causes for money and advantage to kill beasts for provision to set any thing to sail and to set up Theatres for plays and shows This then is the Doctrine of the Romish Conclave So we see to act loosly on the Lords day is not only the corruption of our life but of our opinion and it taints our judgment as well as our conversation it is the distemper of the head as well as of the heart and is a plain striking hand with the Mother of Harlots Rev. 17. 5. So that to act our debaucheries upon Gods holy and blessed Sabbath it is to turn Jew to turn Heathen to turn Papist nay to turn every thing but Saint and in so doing we are not only prophane Felis. f. 305. Catan in Chatec Rom. f. 235. Tit. Fest f. 185. but heretical To add only one thing more to what hath been said a Learned man observes that it is put into the Roman Catechise that it is lawful to kill provisions bake fish mend and repair Bridges High-wayes Churches teach Vaulx Chatec c. 3. f. 53. prophane Arts Card Fence Fiddle and make musick for gain and hire on Gods most blessed day CHAP. XLII An expostulation with Enthusiastick persons who cry down the Sabbath under the specious pretence that every day is a Christians Sabbath IT hath been the lot of the Christian Sabbath in all ages of the Church even from the very Resurrection of Christ and the first dawnings of the Gospel to run the gantlet and to endure the lashes of virulent and impetuous adversaries Ebionitae Sabbatum diei dominicae pari observantiâ celebrandum adjungebant Euseb l. 3. c. 21. Presently after the Apostles the Ebionites vented their malice against it and did proclaim to the world that the Jewish Sabbath was to be observed by all with great Reverence nay with equal respect to the Christian both were to walk hand in hand with equal degree of honour and veneration as Eusebius that Ecclesiastical Historian of Renown informs us at large Others there were who treading in the steps of former Hereticks asserted the Jewish Sabbath to deserve as rich a Crown as the Christian and to be celebrated with as much care and observation And these are mentioned by Clemens Roman Episc l. Constit Apostol 2. c. 63. c. 7. c. 24. Clemens Romanus in his second book of Apostolical Constitutions But against these the venerable Council of Laodicea passed sentence in detestation of the errour as may be seen in the Canons of that Council But it is no wonder if those who deny the Divinity of Christs Person as the Ebionites Sâ—n. Laodic Can. 29. did will likewise take away the honour of his day and bring in an obsolete Festival to strip it of a moiety of its glory and observance whenas two Suns may as well become the firmament as two Sabbaths the Church In the grosser times of Popery Gods day lay under some Chatec Rom. part 3. in tertium praecept Catan in Chat. Rom. fol. 234. eclipse as well as his truth and then it was horribly defiled by stupendious idolatry by Will-worship Mass-worship Bread-worship Saint-worship Image-worship and other Mysteries of Antichristian hypocrisie then it was hard Canis Chat. cap. 3. fol. 84. to find the gold of a Sabbath in the rubbish of superstition In these latter dayes our Christian Sabbath like Christ the Author of it hath been Crucified between two thieves Prophane persons on the one hand and Familistical spirits on the other the former wounding it by grosser abominations How many in these latter ages have known no Temple but a Tavern no Sanctuary but a Stews no Chalice but a drinking Bowle no Psalm but an immodest Song no Communion but good fellowship on Gods holy day And
indeed how much do these Sons of Belial cloud Gods blessed day with their deeds of infernal darkness But there is another generation risen up in our present Incessimus diei dominicae eversores sub praetextu libertatis Christianae ut bodie sunt Anabaptistae Prof. Leid age who sub larvâ pietatis under a pretence of religion attempt to over-throw and wholly to subvert the Lords day and yet they are so passionate in their love to the Sabbath that they would have every day a Sabbath As he said would all the Lords people were Prophets Numb 11. 29. so these wish all the dayes of the week were Lords dayes They think they give Christ too scant measure to give him but one day in the week they conceive our whole life should be a continual Sabbath And thus the Devil according to his wonted custome turns himself into an Angel of light that he 2 Cor. 11. 14. may the more undiscernedly deceive and beguile incautelous souls But the work of this Chapter will be to ferret this opinion out of all its lurking holes and to shew that the feigned sanctity of these pretenders is only a vain pretence Multitudo mediâ—orum interfecit Regem for by a seeming multiplication of Sabbaths they annihilate the true Sabbath and thrust it out of the world And as it was once said of the Graecian Emperour when he was sick that a multitude of Physicians killed the King So a multitude of pretended Sabbaths will destroy the true one which Ignatius calls the Queen of dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is some difference among Divines upon whom to father this demure fancy this feavourish zeal which runs over into all kind of absurdity The learned Professors of Leyden affix this opinion upon the Anabaptists and in downright terms call them the over-throwers of the Lords day notwithstanding with guilty Adam they run among the trees to hide themselves from the charge of the truth and think to take sanctuary in the notion of Christian liberty Dr. Twisse that mirrour of learning layes the brat at the door of Swenkfeldus as if he first gave new life to this old errour and received it by a large stride from Manes the father of the Manichees who threw this wild fire up and down in the Primitive Church against whom holy Augustine planted his batteries with glorious success Yet the Reverend Twisse will not exempt the Anabaptists from their share in the propagation of this pestilential errour Walaeus one of the Leyden Professors tells us that the Anabaptists turn the fourth The Manichees of old made all days equally holy under the Gospel Mr. Shep. Commandment into a meer Ceremony and so that Sun being set we are left in the dark and so know no distinction of dayes and he assures us that the Socinians are brethren in this iniquity The learned Rivet another of the Leyden Professors in his tract upon the Decalogue gives in his free suffrage to the judgement of his Collegue Walaeus The Familists likewise have set to their shoulder to carry on this work of Satan to level all dayes and so depose the Lords day Merè ceremoniale esse quartum preceptum ac proinde per adventum Christi planè abolitum bodiè ferè sentiunt Anabaptistae Wal. from its just royalty and honour These brain-sick persons who delight to call themselves the family of love have willingly drowned the Sabbath in the deluge of all other dayes But let it be the shame of all these Sects to make all dayes equall and equally to be regarded for so instead of Christian liberty there is brought into the Church an Heathenish licentiousness Nay the Heathenâ— had alwayes their set and solemn dayes nay weekly nay some of them the seventh day in imitation of or allusion to the Sabbath which first was fixed on that day and at this day the barbarous Turks have their weekly festival every Friday the first day of Quid est haec opinio nisi barbarieâ— petulantia Chemnit in Exam. Concil Trident. Mahomets Kingdome when he fled from Mecca to Jethrib and thenceforth constituted that day the first day of their week and of their year Chemnitius calls this levelling errour rude impudency and barbarous folly Nay it is the very dregs of ignorance not to observe that day with all due solemnity which hath so long been kept by the universal Church of God Against these Familists and Libertines many of our modern Divines have drawn up the battel wherein Truth hath gained a triumphant Victory But these spiritual levellers who make all dayes alike and would they not make all Estates alike and give no preheminence to the Lords day have some paper forts to fly unto to prevent a rout which are partly built upon pretended reason and partly upon mistaken Scripture I shall give them the full scope of their own defence and easily shew the vanity of their pleas and allegations They alledge for themselves that the fourth Commandment is meerly ceremonial and ceremonies are only for a Ceremonia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop Andr. time they include decay in their very name and expired ceremonies are no obligations upon us to obedience or observance 1. To this it may be replyed That no reason can be assigned why the rest of the decalogue should not follow and Quartum praeceptum est pars Decalogi in quo nihil merè ceremoniale praecipitur quum lex Decalogi est lex morilis et aeterna duabus tabulis à deo inscripta et decem verba non novem tantùm amplecti asseritur Wal. the other Nine Commandments breath out their last with the Fourth and so the hedge of Gods Ten Words being broken down we may leap over into any sin for the Apostle avers That where there is no Law there is no transgression Rom. 4. 15. Sin is the transgression of the Law as another Apostle affirms 1 John 3. 4. And the Law being expired and disanull'd the transgression ceaseth So we may covet our neighbours wife without immodesty the law against it being out of date and cassated and what a gap would this open to all licentiousness How would this turn the world into a Stews and a Brothel house For as Walaeus rightly argues The fourth Commandment is part of the Decalogue one of Gods ten words in which nothing meerly ceremonial is commanded seeing the Law of the Decalogue is moral and eternal written in two Tables by God Exod. 34 28. himself Deut. 10. 4. and is called Gods ten words Deut. 4. 13. not his nine words to intimate the indivisible Exod. 19. 16. union between the fourth and the rest of the Commandments Exod. 31. 16. Considering likewise it is a Commandment partaking Levit. 19 3. of the same priviledges with the rest 1. It was delivered with the same admirable Majesty 2. It was written with the same finger of God Levit. 23. 3. Exod. 31. 13. Jam.
Great thus Carol. Mag. leg Ecclesiast lib. 6. cap 202. begins his solemn Edict to this purpose It is our pleasure that all the faithfull do reverently observe the Lords day in which the Lord rose again And his Son Ludovicus Pius in his Additionals repeating the self same constitution of his Ludovic Piuâ— ibid. Addition cap. 9. Father word by word doth onely add these words Therefore it is necessary that first Priests Kings and Princes and all the faithfull do most devoutly give all due observance and reverence to this day These Princes not more happy in the Kingdomes they governed then unhappy in the times they lived in yet had such an impression upon their souls as to see to the holy observation of the Lords day a day not dayes one day not every day This levelling principle never yet got into the Courts of Princes into the Sessions of Councils nay not into the writings of any famous Patriot of Religion no not into the worst of times when the Church wore her blackest veil In the reforming times of the Church when the Sun of truth brake the cloud of popish ignorance and idolatry then Calvin in Deut. conc 34. our great reformers who reformed by their Pens as well as by their Preaching all unanimously utter their complaints against the prophanation of the Sabbath day and press the Bulling in Apocal. Concion 4. observance of it but still it is one day not every day The Sabbath day which is more honourable and not week dayes Muscul Comment in Mat. 12. which are more inconsiderable And here I might cite Calvin Bullinger Musculus Aretius Walaeus Bucer Gualter c. Nay the Waldenses and the Albigenses those zealous assertours Aretius Prob. Theolog. Loc. 123. of divine truth in the midst of Popish rage and fury I might here mention the Parliament of Prague held 1524. Wal. Epist and the Synod of Dort in the fourth Session who petitioned Dedic ante librum de Sabbato the States that they would emit severe Edicts against sports and servile works upon the Sabbath day Thus every age of the Church commands the solemn sanctification Bucer de regno Christi lib. 1. of one day not every day of Gods day and not ours This fancy hath been an unheard of dream in every Gualt in 162. Homil. in Mat. century of Christianity The Scripture Church and State that three-fold binding Authority doth wholly disclaime it Histor Wald. et Albigens Part. 3. lib. 1. cap. 9. But to wind up all 1. There is Sabbatum internum an internall Sabbath which is a rest from sin for the more holy walking before God 2. There is Sabbatum externum an external Sabbath Quies dei fuit septimanâ Quies Judaeorum in Palestinâ Quies sanctorum in puritate quies glorificatorum in aeternitate Alap which is a rest from labour for the more solemn worship of God The first indeed ought to be perpetual but the second is temporary and continues only for the space of twenty four hours every week Now these two do not abolish but establish one another A resting from sin continually doth more fit us for a weekly Sabbath and the keeping of a weekly Sabbath doth more fit us for the resting from sin continually The Jews were to keep the internal Sabbath they were alwayes to rest from sin though they were commanded a seventh day Sabbath And so Christians must keep an internal Sabbath they must alwayes rest from sin though they are enjoyned the first day Sabbath the blessed Lords day Eph. 5. 11. These two are subordinate not contrary one to another and 2 Cor. 7. 1. to make them inconsistent that the internal Sabbath should God will have the external Sabbath for the beginning perfecting of the spirituall Sabbath Vâ—s chase away the external is not onely gross weakness and mistake but it is Satans mine to blow up the Lords day which being lost Religion presently faints away and dies as take away the breast from the infant and it quickly dwindles away into the grave CHAP. XLIII There was a time when the Jews were exemplarily strict in Sabbath-Observation THis Treatise now spending it self and so drawing nearer to a conclusion the remaining task of it will mainly consist in pressing conscience upon the due and holy observation of the Lords day our Christian Sabbath Now to make way for the better accomplishment of this design I shall give the Reader as in a Landskip the Jewish practice on Exod. 20. 2. the Sabbath which indeed was sometimes very commendable when they did remember the Lord their God who brought them out of the Land of Aegypt and out of the house of bondage Exod. 20. 2. And we may well take our rise to this duty of keeping Gods blessed Sabbath from the advantage they give us It is true there were some seasons when Judaei spiritualia officia negligentes quae deus praecepit in diem Sabbati peragenda nefariè omiserunt otio et luxuriae in eundem diem se dederunt Gauden they were very remiss in the observation of Gods holy Sabbath especially not long before the Babylonish Captivity and in the Primitive times of the Christian Church then by their bruitish sensuality on the Sabbath they drew out the Pens of Christians and opened the mouths of Heathens but there were other times when their care of Gods day was written in a fair character and might inflame a Christians heart who hath any love to the Lord of the Sabbath Mark 2. 28. to a serious and a holy deportment on this sacred day Now to enucleate and set before you their practice on the Judaei Sabbata insumunt in crapulâ et ebrietate et infructuosis delitiis et voluptatibus Cyril Sabbath we should begin with their preparation to it for they were so exact that the best and wealthiest of them even those who kept many servants did with their owne hands further the preparation insomuch that sometimes the Masters themselves would chop herbs sweep the house cleave wood kindle the fire and such like as Buxtorf observes and which is very observable all the four Evangelists Buxtorf Synagog Judaic cap. 10. ex Talmud take notice of the Jews preparation day to their Sabbath But of this I have spoken largely already and so I shall pass it over for ingenuity forbids coincidencies and vain repetitions But to come to the Jews observation of the Sabbath a Mat. 27. 62. Mark 15. 42. Luke 23. 54. John 19. 42. learned man observes They dress no meat this day and therefore the Heathens heretofore thought they had fasted on that day And indeed a serious practice it was to keep down the body and prepare it for spiritual duties When the senses Aug. cap. 76. de jejun Sab. are cloyed the soul is much interrupted in heavenly converses Pampered bodies usually accompany pining souls The Sueton. Martial lib. 4.
the Worlds beginning long before the sacred Decalogue Tertul. lib. 4. adversus Judaeos was oracularly delivered upon Mount Sinai And the forementioned Philo so eminent among the Jews that he was sent in an Embassie to the Roman Caesar in the behalf of his Country-men And therefore there is a Book of his intituled Legatio ad Caesarem His Embassie to Caesar I say Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this eminent person calls the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing known to all Nations from the beginning of the World and Nostrum jus inquit omnes admonet officii Barbaros Graecos Continentis insularum Incolas Occidentales Orientales Europaeos Asiaticos c. dilating upon the honour of the Sabbath saith The Barbarians as the Jews call'd all the World besides themselves Graecians both of the Continent and the Islands both Eastern and Western both of Europe and of Asia nay all the habitable World to the utmost extent of it are Admirers of our Priviledge for who doth not honour that holy day which returns at the winding up of every Week And a learned man notes That it was the general Doctrine of the Jews That Adam kept the Sabbath-day and that that holy day derived its Original from the beginning of times Josephus the most learned Josephus Judaeus litteratâ—ssimus agnoscit deum septimâ requievissâ— ab operibus cessasse atquâ— eo nomine Judaeos hanc diem quam sabbatum appellant vacationem ad cultum divinum celebrare Joseph lib. 2. Historian among the Jewish Nation saith expresly That God rested on the seventh day and ceased from the works of Creation and upon that account the Jews keep that day they call the Sabbath a vacation to the Worship of God Thus Rabbi Jonathas and the whole Sanedrim of the Jews Gods ancient and select people give their free concurrence to this truth So that none of the Jewish Doctors seem to dissent excepting Maimonides as Truth will have some always to oppose it And this Augustine takes notice of and accounts it as the general opinion of the Jews which never was blasted with the heats of difference and contention and it is pregnantly animadverted by a learned man That though August tract 20. in Joan. Solom Jarchi in Gen. 26. Rabbi Simson in Isa 58. Rabbi Kimchi Manasseh Een Israel in Deut. 5. Aben Ezra in Exod. 20. Septem praecepta Noachi enumerantur in Schindlero in Radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the observation of the Sabbath was none of the seven Precepts of Noah yet in as much as the Lord gives command and express charge That the streangers within the gate should observe the Sabbath Exod. 20. 10. It seems it was comprehended under one of them and some think it was comprehended under that which was Intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Birchath Hashem i. e. The Worship of no other God but the Creatour of Heaven and Earth And the famous Mr. Joseph Mede gives us this reason That the observation of the seventh day was the badge of those who worshipped the Creatour of Heaven and Earth According to that The Sabbath is a sign between me and you that I am Jehovah your God Because in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day Thus it is clear by the Opinion and Observation of the Jews that the Sabbath was in force among the Patriarchs not only after but before the Flood for undoubtedly they worshipped the Lord God Creatour of Heaven and Earth As for the Fathers among them there were few Dissenters Sabbatum primum est qâ—od ab initio de câ—etum est ac dictum à domino in creatione mundi c. â—piphan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas de Sab. Chrysoss in Homil. 16. in Gen. they generally concluded the Sabbath to be from the beginning of the World Epiphanius speaks expresly The first Sabbath is that which the Lord from the beginning ordained and pronounced in the Creation of the World This learned Author whilest he is beating down Errour and Heresies by his learned Labours forgets not to establish this great and weighty Truth of the Sabbaths Original Athanasius in his Comment upon Matth. 11. 27. distinguisheth between the Sabbath-day and the Lords-day affirming the Sabbath to be the end of the first Creation and the Lords-day to be the beginning of the second Creation Beda solemnly professeth That the Rest of the seventh day after six days working was always wont to be celebrated And if always then before the Children of Israel's coming forth out of Egypt before Abraham before the Flood even from the beginning of the days of Adam the first of men And Chrysostom is most clear and full in this point New even from the beginning saith he God insinuates this Doctrine to us teaching that in the circle of the week one entire day is to be segregated and set apart for spiritual operation Many of Clem. Alex. the most glorious Stars of the Primitive Church give in abundant Theodor. light to this truth August Epist 86 in Epist ad Casulan Sabbati usus fuit apud veteres prius quà m apud Hebraeos increbuit Aug. Septenarius numerus à conditione mundi authoritatâ—m obtinuit quoniam in sex diebus opera dei complet a sunt ut septima consecrata quieti quasi sancta solennitate vacationis honorata à spiritu sanctificatore attitulata Cyp Christus legem adimplevit dum ipsum Sabbati diem benedictioneâ— Patris à primordio sanctum benefactione suâ sanctio em effect There are only three or four who are looked upon as dissenting Votes but upon a meer mistake as the Learned observe they speaking only of observing the Sabbath after the Jewish manner which was not before the Law was given on Mount Sinai they speak not against Sabbath-observation before the Law but against the observation of it ceremonially after the manner of the Jews in their double Sacrifices Meat-offerings Drink-offerings c. Numb 28. 9 10. Augustine in many places of his Works acknowledgeth that the Sabbath was observed among the Ancients before it grew so common among the Hebrews and he avers that the Sabbath was before Moses and afterwards it came into the Church of the Jews What more plain And whose testimony bears more sway in the Church of Christ than that of the incomparable Augustine whose Person and Learning was little less than a Miracle Cyprian saith That God sanctified the seventh day after his six days works and this day is honoured with a solemn Rest and Vacation and is intituled holy by the sanctified Spirit And to the same purpose Laciantius nay Tertullian who is often suppoenaed as a Witness to both parties in this Controversie yet speaketh most expresly Christ fulfilled the Law saith he whilest he makes the Sabbath more celebrious and holy by his own benefaction which was consecrated from the beginning
naturalis aeterna immutabilis Alap But the Sabbath went over Christs grave for Mat. 24. 20. Christ commands his Disciples to play that their visitation be not on the Sabbath day which visitation was many years after Christs Ascention to the Father So then the Sabbath survives after the decease and Funeral of all legal Ceremonies By the coming of Christ the Sabbath suffered a change but not a loss the circumstance of time was altered but the substance of the command was no way impaired the Sabbath did only slide down upon a new and most glorious occasion from the seventh day to the first The Commandment for the Sabbath hath not so much as any character of a Ceremony in it It was not typical it did not praenote any thing to be accomplished under the Gospel If that fancy of the Jewish Cabala be true that the world shall continue but 6000 Quartum praeceptum est morale quatenus praecipit ut e septem diebus unum consecremus cultui divino et quotenus tale nunquam abrogari potest Zanch. years and then the day of Judgment shall follow it might prefigure that and yet no Ceremony proved for the type must continue till the thing typified be fulfilled so this rather evinceth the duration then the abrogation of the Sabbath The Sabbath hath no particular relation to the Land of Canaan the proper place of Ceremonies nor yet to the Jews the proper subjects of Ceremonies and this hath been proved before But now if it be objected that the Sabbath was a sign between God and the Jews Exod. 31. 13 17. Ezek. 20. 12 20. It is answered the Sabbath was at that time a mark of difference and separation betwixt the Jews and the Gentiles But was it so as a seventh day No Eos à quibus deus non celebatur merito ipse neglexit Aug. de Civit. dei l. 2. c. 14. that which caused the distinction was the sanctification of them upon that day not any thing in the number seven Gods seposing of a time for them and only for their sanctification was an argument he had a more special care of them then of other Nations and they were his only people It was not imposed upon the Jews as any burden or yoak The Sabbath is a day of joy not toil our blessing not our I◠praefatione quarti praecepti ita deus alloquitur Israelitas speciatim ut in eo tamen omnes gentes comprehendat Beza burden In the explanation of the fourth Commandment it is rather recited as an Ordinance of comfort and refreshing of mercy and favour and not of rigour and severity of depression and servitude The Sabbath in its own nature is a day of relaxation to the body and of reviving to the soul a day of unbending the bow to the outward man and of heavenly visits to the inward man there is no knot in the cord to hold out any sharpness in this blessed Ordinance the Sabbath is our term not our task-master On a Sabbath we are not sent out to make brick without straw we are not to perform duties without promises of assistance Rom. 8. Exod. 16. 29. 26 27. without promises of acceptance John 14. 15. If we put our selves upon meeting Christ that day he hath engaged himself Mat. 18. 20. to give us the meeting The Sabbath is not a task but a gift Ezek. 20. 12. not a symptom of servitude but a sign of love Ezek. 20. 12. The golden knot between God and a people and not the iron chain The Sabbath was not commanded in recognition of any special favour shewed to the Jews it was a memorial of Gods creating the world in six dayes and his own resting on the Gen. 2. 3. seventh But this being a benefit wherein all mankind are Per Sabbata quasi per elementa omnes discerent deum creatorem et gubernatorem omnium Alap equally concerned and enter common the Jews can claim no property therein peculiar to themselves and so yet there is no tidings of a Ceremony and so no cause of abolition One very well observes that seeing the same Authority is for the Sabbath as is for marriage one may as well conclude the Law for marriage is Ceremonial as well as the Law for the Sabbath nay we may seriously consider that whereas Mat. 19. 6. marriage is but once termed the Covenant of God Prov. 2. 17. Levit. 23. 3. because instituted by God in the beginning the Sabbath Deut. 5. 14. is every where called the Sabbath of the Lord thy God because Exod. 20. 10. ordained by God in the same beginning both of Exod. 16. 29. Time State and Perpetuity and therefore no way Ceremonial It is a truth as unmoveable as the pillars of Heaven that God hath given to all men universally a rule of life to conduct them to their end now if the whole Decalogue be Gal. 2. 20. not it what shall be The Gospel is a rule of our faith John 5. 24. but not of our spiritual life which flows from faith the Law therefore is the rule of life now if nine of these be a compleat rule without a tenth exclude that one and then who sees not an open gap made for all the rest to go out also For where will men stop if once this principle be laid that the whole Law is not our guide and conduct May not men justly say the Decalogue is not a rule of life and so a way laid open for all looseness and enormity and if the Sabbath be a Ceremony we have but nine Commandments left Nor would the Scriptures make so much ado about a Ceremony there is no part of Scripture wherein their is not something remarkable about the Sabbath The institution of it we find in Genesis where the Sabbath Gen. 2. 3. is one of the best flowers in the Garden of Eden The solemn promulgation of it we meet with in Exodus Exod. 20. 8. when the mountain smoaks fire flames trumpet sounds at Exod. 19. 17. 13. the second Edition of this perpetual statute The manner of the sanctification of it we may take notice Levit. 16. 3◠of in the Book of Levitious God there turns paraphrast for Levit. 23. 3. the further dilucidation of this law The prophanation of it is vindicated in the Book of Numbers Numb 15. 3◠where God builds a wall about it with the stones which stoned the man who gathered sticks upon that blessed day The pressing arguments for the sanctification of it we may Deut. 5. 14. observe at large in the Book of Deuteronomy God knowing the advantage of Sabbath-holiness presses man urgently to pursue his own interest 2 Kings 4 23. 2 Kings 11. 5 7 9. 2 Chron. 36. 21. 1 Chron. 9. 32. The historical part of the Bible hath some remembrance of it either as observed or prophaned There is in the Book of Psalms a Psalm
absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves the leave of doing or neglecting any thing was there not something found in Scripture which more than any humane institution can bind the Conscience Mans institutions may over-awe the outward-man they will little influence the inward men may be shackled with something from the sacred Scriptures but if they are loose from those Bonds they will easily please themselves in their fancied liberty It is the rule of the word not humane dictates will bind men and stake them down to Obedience and it is no wonder if our Christian Sabbath be thrown upon the Dunghil of prophaneness if it hath nothing but Ecclesiastical Authority to shew for its institution if our Sabbath come among other holy days and acknowledge no other founder we cannot marvel if sports and walks and visits be the usual celebrations of it The result then of the whole is The Church in the earliest days observed but not instituted our Christian Sabbath and the Lords day is so called not onely from Christs resurrection but his institution The Lords day then is not of Ecclesiastical institution no Synod no Council no Convention of men subject to errour could give it its being or adopt it into its honour that John 1. 12. that it should have power to be called the Day of God Something more than humane power must authorize this blessed day and make it a weekly and standing Festival to the Christian Church Indeed some refer the institution of it to Christ himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so run up the chrystal stream to the fountain head Athanasius who was the sword and the buckler of truth and both received and repelled the darts of the Arrian World He positively affirms Christ to be the institutor of our Christian Sabbath Of old saith he The Sabbath was in great esteem among the Ancients but the Lord hath changed the Sabbath day into the Lords day Now what can be more plain Chrysostome in his tenth Homily upon Genesis calls God the Athanas homil de Semente Author of this institution And Eusebius in one of his Orations in the praise of the Emperour Constantine flies into a seraphick admiration of Jesus Christ and deriding the vanity of the Gentile Gods and Potentates Who saith he among the Heathen Gods hath appointed a solemn day weekly to all the inhabitants of the world whether they dwell on the Land or travel on the Seas to celebrate the Lords festival and hath taken care not only for the refreshing of bodies with the provisions of the creature but for the feeding and supplies of the Soul with discipline and divine repasts Thus this worthy man speaking of the glory of his Master Jesus Christ produces this eminent argument for it viz. He appoints a weekly Sabbath for all the world to observe and celebrate Nor was this doctrine only authentical and approved in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Euseb de laudibus Const Causa mutationis est resurrectio Christi cujus beneficii commemoratio successit memâ—riae creatiâ—nis non traditione humanâ sed Christi ipsius observatione et instituto Jun. in Genes primitive times of the Church but in the latter dayes of Reformation some of our choisest Divines have with much delight and resolution embraced and published this truth Learned Junius one of that couple who made the Old Testament speak Latine and so brought the Scriptures something nearer to the worlds understanding he solemnly professeth That the old Sabbath is changed into the Lords day in the Christian Church upon the account of Christs resurrection and that the Author of this change is not humane tradition but Christs own observation and appointment And Piscator a man eminent in the Church of Christ roundly asserts That though there be no express command for the Lords day in the Scriptures yet the facts of Christ and his Apostles on that day do undoubtedly declare its Divine Original and institution But not to surfet the Reader with too great a concourse of testimonies concurrent in this opinion there are not deficient many considerable and undeniable reasons asserting and affirming the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Author and Institutor of his own blessed day Reas 1 Whatsoever in holy Writ is said to be the Lords denominatively that he is the Author and Institutor of As for instance The Lords Supper because he ordained it 1 Cor. 11. 20 23. The Sabbath of the Lord Deut. 5. 12. Because he commanded it The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7. 4. because he appointed it the people of the Lord because he chose them the Messengers of the Lord because he sent Exod. 3. 7. 1. Cor. 4 9. them the Apostles of Christ because he put them into that office And no instance can be shewed to the contrary but the Christian Sabbath is called the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. Nay and Beza notes that he hath seen an old copy that which is called the first day of the week 1 Cor. 16. 2. stiled the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day not by Creation for so every day is his from the beginning not by destination for so properly the day of judgement is called the day of the Lord But our Christian Sabbath is called the Lords day by Divine Institution as other things are said to be the Lords and so Christ is the Author and appointer of it and therefore Bishop Andrews that library of learning in one of his Sermons upon Dies dominicus non ab alio sed ab ipsâ— Christo est institutus â—ilen Synt. loc 44. p. 2â—6 the Resurrection puts the query How can it be called the Lords day but that the Lord made it And Bishop Lake in his Sermon on the Eucharist saith positively That Christ did substitute the Lords day in the place of the Jewish Sabbath Doctor Fulk fears not to affirm That the Lords day is a necessary prescription of Christ himself And Doctor Linâ—â—â—â— Bishop of Brechen in his Preface to the Assembly at Perâ—â— and many other Divines heartily concur in this judgement If God by resting from his work of Creation and his blessing â—eas 2. of that seventh day made it a holy day for his set and solemn worship and service then Jesus Christ resting from Gen. 2. 3. the work of Redemption and his blessing of that day makes it a holy day for his solemn and set worship and service for there is the like or greater excellency in the resting of God the Son and the blessing of his day as there was in the resting of God the Father and his blessing of the seventh day Christ's work of the worlds redemption and the renovation 2 Cor. 5. 13. Factâ— sâ—nt 〈◊〉 nova ut novum castâ—llum 〈…〉 Bern. thereof the making of all things New a new Heaven and a new Earth is equall with if not â—uâ—passing of the Fathers work of Creatiâ—n The Sâ—ns blessing