therewith they might deck and trim up the Lords day p Ibid. which is as if one should take the crowne off the head of a King and set it upon a common subject q Ibid. pag. 35. for Saturday saith hee is a King or Mistresse to the Lords day Hee had spoken with more congruity to himselfe though not unto the truth if hee had kept to his gender and called it a King and Master or a Queene and Mistresse hee objecteth further r Ibid. p. 50. that wee may as well call Å¿ Ibid. Baptisme Circumcision and the Lords Supper the Passeover and t Ibid. p. 494. that when the Minister saith Remember to sanctifie the Sabbath day to take it for the Lords day and so to say Lord have mercy upon us c. is to make answer as deafe men doe who when a man calleth for a knife doe bring him a sheath The resolution at which hee would have his reasons and exceptions arrive is this Let mee saith he for conclusion exhort Minister and people to refraine putting the name Sabbath day on the Lords day and let them take with it u Ib. p. 54 55. that they must with forbearance of the name Sabbath day refraine the use of the fourth Commandement for these goe unseparably together Where wee may see in him as in others that of Bishop Andrewes made good of shewing ill will to the thing by carping at the name as before wee have noted for Mr. Braburne and wee may say the like of some others knowing the right and title claimed for the Lords day by the fourth Commandement to bee kept a foote by the title Sabbath first fettereth it to the Jewish weekly holiday by affixing the word Saturday unto it not daring to trust it alone lest being left loose it should bee ready for use as an appellation of the Lords day Much like the Papists who pinion the name Catholick with the addition of Romane that so they might keepe it captive to their owne side and by it as by a lock or bolt might let in or keep out of the Church as please themselves But the most severe Censurer of the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day is the Authour of the Book called Altare Christianum wherein speaking of him who wrote the Letter to the Vicar of Grantham hee saith ″ D. Pockl. his book called Altare Christianum cap. 22. p. 130. Hee had shewed himselfe more like a sonne of the Church if he had said that the name Sabbath had crept into the Church in a kinde of complying in phrase with the people of the Jewes and that in a shadow of things to come as if Christ were not come in the flesh against the Apostles expresse doctrine and charge Colos 2. and from hence would have sought to have cast that old leaven out of our Church which hath sowred the affections of too many toward the Church and disturbed the peace and hindred the pious devotion thereof This is enough and bad enough yet hee saith more and worse in his Sermon preached at the Visitation of the Bishop of Lincolne Aug. 7. 1635. wherein hee visiteth with the rod those that call the Lords day Sabbath day and with it giveth such sharp jerks as these x D. Poâ—kl Visitation Serm. called Sunday nâ— Sabbath pag. 6. What shall wee thinke of Knox Whittingham and their fellowes anabaptizing the Lords day or Sunday after the minde of some Jew hired to bee Godfather thereof who call it Sabbath and doe disguise it with that name and who were the first that so called it and the Testators who have so bequeathed it to their Disciples and Proselites y D. Pockl. Ib. pag. 6 7. It was saith he thirty yeers before their children could turne their tongues to hit on Sabbath and if the Gileadites that met with the Ephraemites before they could frame to pronounce Shibboleth had snapt up these two before they had got their Sabbath by the end their counsell had brought much peace to the Church For this name Sabbath saith hee is not a bare name like a spot in the forehead to know Labans sheepe from Jacobs but it is a mystery of iniquity intended against the Church and the mystery as hee reveales it is to shut out the Letanie and all the Service of the Communion Book for that is no Service for their Sabbath but for Sunday z Ibid. p. 19. Item they must make a Sabbath of Sunday to keepe up that name otherwise their many citations of Scripture mentioning onely the Sabbath being applyed to Sunday will appeare so ridiculously distorted and wry neck'd that they will be a scorne and derision to the simplest of their now deluded Auditors a Ibid. p. 20. Others saith hee againe for the plot 's sake must uphold the name Sabbath that stalking behinde it they may shoote at the Service appointed for the Lords day Yet further hee maketh the name of the Sabbath as on the face of the Lords day to bee as an ugly vizzard which doth as well become it as the crowne b Ibid. of thornes did the Lord himselfe this was platted saith hee to expose him to damnable derision and that was plotted to impose on it detestable superstition Yet to die for it saith hee they will call it Sabbath presuming in their zealous ignorance or guilefull zeale to bee thought to speake the Scripture phrase when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouthes for that day which they nickname Sabbath is either no day at all or not the day they meane Thus farre hee who that his ill will to this word Sabbath as applyed to our Sunday might appeare in every page the Title throughout his Booke is Sunday no Sabbath CHAP. XIII Reasons why Sunday or the Lords day may be called Sabbath day delivered and defended BUt on the contrary if impetuous passion may bee so husht that religious reason may be heard wee shall shew cause sufficient to take up an Antititle to that of Doctor Pocklington his Sermon and to say Sunday a Sabbath and that upon such evidence both rationall and exemplary as without cavilling as I conceive cannot bee contradicted and first for Reason First The name a Joseph Ant. l. 1. c. 2. pag. 3. and in his first Book against Appion p. 783. Isidor etymolog l. 6. c. 18. fol. 32. p. 2. col 2. and all Hebrew Lexicons Sabbath signifieth rest reason 1 rest from the accustomed labours of the weeke But the Sunday is a day of rest wherein men are restrained from their wonted workes and ought to rest saith b B. White his Treat on the Sabb. pag. 152 153 158. Bishop white and to give themselves to religious exercises Therefore the Sunday may bee called a Sabbath For when the thing is acknowledged why should the word by which it is most fitly signified bee denyed And when the thing is denyed as rest on the Saturday by us
Deut. 16. the feast of Tabernacles from the tents and boothes wherein the people lived in the Desart and which more punctually meets with this objection their weekly holiday had its name not from him to whom it is dedicated but from Rest the duty of the day enjoyned Secondly In the Christian Church his rule of denomination doth not hold for wee call one holiday dedicated to Christ by his Birth another by his Circumcision another by his Ascension which are the things done on the day not by his name onely to whom they were dedicated If it bee said when wee speake of the Nativitie we understand the Birth of the Lord and so also the Circumcision of the Lord and the Ascension of the Lord I grant wee doe so and so when wee say the Sabbath wee may meane as in the Commandement is expressed the Sabbath of the Lord or to the Lord. Thirdly That the names of dayes should not bee taken from the quality of the person onely to whom they are intended is plaine by the feast of Pentecost so called from the number of the dayes betwixt it and Easter and the name of the Lords day called from its order by the Evangelists and the Apostle Paul the first day of the weeke and by the Ancients the day of light from illumination at the Sacrament of Paptisme and the day of Bread from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper administred every Lords day as n Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. p. 124 125. Mr. Ironside himselfe hath observed Fourthly If the names of holidayes should be taken from the quality of the person to whom they are intended as because our weekly holiday is intended to the honour of the Lord it must be called the Lords day then all the holidayes which are named by the Saints should have their names from their Lord for though the portions of Scripture read on them concerne their lives and deaths the honour and service of the day is directed and intended not to them but to the Lord yea all holidayes of both Testaments are dayes dedicated to his honour by that reason then all must bee called the Lords dayes and so names that should bee given for distinction would turne to confusion Thus much for the first Reason for the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day or Sunday which were more then enough if there had not beene much more then there was need and cause objected against it but the rest we shall contract into a narrower compasse The second Reason why our weekly holiday may be called Sabbath day is this Reas 2 It is confessed by all that are not branded with the note of heresie that there are ten Commandements to us Christians as well as to the lewes and that the fourth Commandement is one of the ten and requireth at least the assigning or setting apart of some time to religious rest and that by vertue of these words Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy that time then which the Church keepeth as in obedience to that part of the Commandement expressed in the letter of the law by the name Sabbath may or rather must be called by that name By that word Sabbath in that Commandement as o B◠Andr. his Serm. de Natic pag. 37. Bishop Andrewes said of the words which shall bee wee hold and though wee say not as hee farther addeth it is our best tenure yet a tenure it is which wee must not let goe but wee must as hee said of the word p Idem In his second Serm. of the Nativ pag. 15. nobis make much of it for thereby our tenure and interest groweth up to a further degree of assurance and evidence Thirdly Reas 3 q B. Hall dec of Ep. 6. epist 2. p. 384. Bishop Hall saith The sonne of righteousnesse rising upon that day called the Lords day drew the strength of that mor all Precept unto it for all the vertue and vigour of it is vanish'd from the Jewes Sabbath so that it remaineth a meere working day and if so the title of Rest surely did not stay behinde it but with the strength was transferred to the day for which it was changed Fourthly Reas 4 It is enough to gaine a title from one thing to another to possesse the place as Successor upon the decease and in stead of another as the Christians Lords day by the ordinance of the Lord himselfe as r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius de Semente Tom. 1. pag. 835. Edit Graeco-lat Commelian Ann. c 10.10 c. Athanasius saith succeeded the Jewish Sabbath whose name it may have in that respect if there were none other reason of more weight Here it will haply bee objected that so one might call Baptisme by the name of Circumcision and the Lords Supper by the name of the Passeover for these two Sacraments of the new Testament succeeded those two of the old which were to bring in a confusion of termes and times and so in part to incurre the scorne which the f Bish of Elie his examinat of the Dialogue pag. 85. Bishop of Elie putteth upon his Dialogist for his Argument drawn from the succession of the one day to the other I answer Howsoever the Argument of the Dialogist succeed which wee have nothing to doe withall at this time wee shall easily shake off this slight exception thus First Wee doe not ascribe the proper name of the old Sabbath to the Lords day for wee doe not say Saturday is Sunday or the Lords day but that name which is common to them both and wherein the one by a reall right and congruity of sense succeedeth the other and that is the name Sabbath signifying Rest which belongeth to them both and that is not as if one should call Baptisme Circumcision or the Lords Supper the Passeover but as if wee should call them Sacraments and Seales of the Covenant in which respect the later have both the authority and appellation of the former Or as if one should say Doctor White succeeded Doctor Buckeridge Bishop of Elie therefore hee hath the Title and Authoritie of the Bishop of Elie though hee bee not called by his Predecessors Christian or surname in particular hee saith indeede t Examinat of the Dialogue p. 63 69. marg That the fourth Commandement appointed a particular fixed day to wit Saturday but if that were true which I deny hee cannot say the word Saturday is named there and if it were wee would not take that but the name Sabbath for the true title of the Lords day against which no just exception hath yet beene taken nor in truth can bee And for a second Answer which in regard of the ground of it it will not become a Bishop to slight wee may say That upon a substitution of one thing in the roome of another it is not unusuall in our Church to assigne the name as well as the place to that which is substituted for a
regnare To these two Reverend Deanes I will add two worthy Doctors who are witnesses to the warrantable application of the word Sabbath to the Sunday and who though neither Bishops nor Deanes have had the reputation and not without desert of very learned and religious men viz. Doctor John White brother to Doctor Fr. White late Bishop of Elie and Doctor Daniel Featly houshold Chaplain to the late ″ Archbish Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury Doctor Joh. White in his answer to the Papists bragging of the holinesse of their Church and upbraiding of our Church for want of holinesse hath among other accusations of their courses these words i D. Joh. White in his way to the true Church §. 38. p. 210. And for mine owne part having spent most of my time among them this I have found that in all excesse of sinnes Papists have been the ring-leaders in royotous companies in drunken meetings in seditious assemblies and practices in profaning the Sabbath c. And againe Papists hold that it is lawfull on the Sabbath day to follow suits travell hunt dance keepe Faires and such like this is that which hath made Papists the most notorious Sabbath breakers that live And Doctor Featly as hee had more occasion to mention the day and the duties thereof so hee more frequently maketh use of the name Sabbath as in his Hand-maid to Devotion wee finde mention of an k Dr. Featly Hand-maid to Devotion in the direction for the use of the book p. 4. hymne and prayer before the Sabbath wherein saith hee the duties of the Sabbath are expressed and in preparation for the receiving of the Sacrament there is a confession in these words l Hand maid to devotion pag. 107. Thou commandest me to keepe holy thy Sabbath and settest an especiall marke of Remembrance upon it yet I have not remembred to put off my ordinary businesse and in the Devotion for the Christian Sabbath the name is m Ib. â— p. 172. ad pag. 200. often used for the day wee celebrate sometimes with the word Christian joyned to it sometimes the name Sabbath is set without it and in his volume of printed Sermons treating on these words Wherefore God hath highly exalted him hee saith n Dr. Featly Serm. which he calleth Lowlinesse exalted pag. 735. If the rest of God from the works of Creation were just cause of sanctifying a perpetuall Sabbath to the memory thereof may not the rest of our Lord from the worke of Redemption more painefull to him and more beneficiall to us challenge the like prerogative of a day to bee hallowed and consecrated unto it shall wee not keepe it as a Sabbath on earth for him which hath procured for us an eternall Sabbath in heaven And a little after hee addeth o Ib. pag. 735 736. The holy Apostles and their successors fixed the Christian Sabbath upon the first day of the weeke to eternize the memory of our Lords Resurrection and speaking of Easter day With what Religion saith p Ib. pag. 736. he is the Christian Sabbath of Sabbaths to be kept I could lengthen this Catalogue for the name Sabbath thus applyed with many more names of those whose sufficiencie and sincerity is such that it would little become them that carpe most at the name Sabbath in this sense to teach them how to speake without corrupting their dialect with the dregs of Ashdod as of q Mr. Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5 p. 183. 385 M. Mâ—son who wrote of the consecrat of Bishops anno 1613. p. 269. Pet. Ramus de Relig. l. 2. c. 6. Master Hooker with divers others but that will not need especially if wee add unto these that which hath beene confessed or rather complained of by r M. Brab in his Desence p. 626. Master Braburne and Å¿ M. Dowe his discourse p. 4. Master Dowe viz. That the Lords day is usually and vulgarly called and known by the name Sabbath and then there will bee a full answer to Master Ironside his objection which soundeth as if the name Sabbath for the Lords day were a meere mistake of a t Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 126. few private persons of late yeeres I hope Kings Archbishops Bishops and Deanes and other eminent Doctors are not private persons nor they together with the vulgar few and wee may yet make them more by bringing in some of those to beare witnesse to the lawfull use of the word Sabbath for Sunday or the Lords day being drawne to yeeld some assent unto it by the force of truth who otherwise shew their great dislike of that denomination CHAP. XVI Of such as are adversaries to the name Sabbath as put for Sunday sometimes assenting thereunto and using the name in that sense or yeelding that which doth inferre it AS first Master Braburne in his discourse to this Objection the name Sabbath signifieth Rest Now on the Lords day we Rest therefore wee may call it Sabbath day answereth a M. Brab discourse p. 81. 'T is true the Sabbath signifieth Rest and so the Lords day might bee called Sabbath day but yet in no other sense then every common Holiday wherein we worke not may bee called Sabbath day that is Resting day We take his concession for the Lords day to be called Sabbath but not his comparison for as much as that hath more right to the name which hath a weekly recourse of Rest then that which cometh but once a yeare which himselfe doth in effect acknowledge when he so ″ In his Defence p. 276 277 481. often mentioneth the Lords day Sabbath as out of a kind of necessity to expresse his owne conceptions otherwise to use his owne b M Brab Defens p. 50. phrase hee would not so often have taken the crowne off his King Saturnes head and set it upon that day which in his conceipt is but a common Subject 2. Doctor Heylin notwithstanding what wee have before observed of him appeareth sometimes indifferently disposed to give to the Lords day the name of Sabbath as c Doct. Hâ—yl hist Sab. part 2. c. 6 pag. 182. where he saith By the Doctrine of the Helvetian Churches if I conceive their meaning rightly every particular Church may destinate what day they please to religious meetings and every day may bee a Lords day or a Sabbath If we were to judge of his opinion by this place we could not tell which word hee liked better Sabbath or Lords day hee sheweth himselfe so equally affected to them both seeming to bee the same man and of the same mind with him who in another booke wrote thus d Pet. Heylin Geogr. p. 702. I dare not so farre put my sickle into this harvest as to limit out the extent of Sabbath keeping which commanding us to doe no manner of worke doth seeme to prohibit us to worke for our owne safeguard Wherein hee sheweth such modesty in himselfe and such equity both to
and Clemens Romanus yet there is no reason we should give up the proper title of the religious Rest of the fourth Commandement to a day which wee use neither for Rest nor for Religion Secondly If they held a mysticall conformity betwixt the Jewes Sabbath and a Christians holy conversation sufficient ground for bestowing the name Sabbath upon a spirituall rest from sin it must needs bee so much more warrantable to call the Lords day Sabbath as there is the more agreement betwixt it and the Jewish Sabbath now betwixt them there is an agreement much more then mysticall for whereas that mysticall Sabbath as the Bishop taketh it may bee every day in the weeke and all the dayes of mans life our solemne Sabbath commeth onely once every weeke as the Jewes Sabbath did In ours wee forbid and forbeare secular imployments so was it with the Jewes there was a cessation from such works with them that they might the better attend upon religious exercises and those principally publick and so it is with us Christians The reason of the Commandement drawne from Gods example in his proportion of working six dayes and resting on the seventh is exemplary to us as well as to the Jewes it belongeth to Christians to deale as equally with God in letting him have one day in seven for his honour who alloweth us sixe for one for our owne occasions as to the Jewes And for their end and use of the Sabbath which is a gratefull remembrance of their creation and the blessing of God upon their carefull and holy observation of it wee Christians are as much bound to the one and may hope for as much benefit by the other as the Jewes All which literall conformities considered betwixt their Sabbath and ours with reference to the letter of the fourth Commandement our Church taketh that Commandement wholly into her Liturgy and prayeth as after the other nine Lord have mercy upon us c. and therefore the distinction of literall and mysticall to say the least of it is impertinently applyed to preclude the title Sabbath in a literall sense from the day wee celebrate Bishop Whites second Exception touching the name Sabbath in the Homilies answered Secondly Against that which is propounded for the name Sabbath out of the Homilies of our Church hee saith f Exam. p. 37. It may be questioned in what sense the Homilie stileth Sunday the Sabbath whether in a proper and a literall sense according to the stile of the old Law or in a mysticall and analogicall sense as Christ is called our Passeover 1 Cor. 5.7 But a little after hee putteth the matter out of question by a peremptory resolution which is this The Lords day is not the literall Sabbath of the fourth Commandement and therefore in propriety of speech it cannot be called the Sabbath day expresly and in particular commanded in the Decalogue but the same is stiled by the Homily our Christian Sabbath in a mysticall and analogicall sense even as mortification is called circumcision g Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit not in the letter Rom. 2.29 Rom. 2.29 sincerity truth are called unleavened bread 1 Cor. 8.5 This exception of his touching the name Sabbath taken out of our Homilies is obnoxious to so many exceptions that I wish rather some weak and worthlesse Adversary to our cause had made it then a man of so great learning gravity and authority as he was for whose sake I will deale as respectively in the returne of mine answer as I well may without betraying the truth and so first I say 1. That in saying That the Lords day is not expresly and in particular commanded in the fourth Commandement hee implyeth which h Bish White in his treat of the Sab. day p. 112 126 269. and in his examinat of the Decalog p. 46 52 63. marg 69. marg elsewhere hee expresly delivereth that the Jewes Sabbath which was Saturday is expresly and in particular there commanded which is not true in it selfe as I shall prove in handling the materiall points of that Commandement and being yet acknowledged by learned Christians doth gratifie the Jewes and prejudice our Christian Holiday so much that upon that ground Master Braburne set up the Saturday for a Sabbath and did what hee could to demolish the doctrine and observation of the Lords day and others have and many more may if that be granted incurre the like scandall It is not i April 26. 1636. long since a woman one Margaret Former examined before Sir John Lambe Doct. Turner and Doctor Somes disclaimed our Saviours Doctrine by the name of Ceremonies Rites and Sabbaths and professed to keep the Sabbath of the Lord of Hosts which said she is Saturday If shee had been examined why shee did so could shee have given a better answer then such a one as the Bishops examination of the Dialogue ministreth to the Reader viz. k Bish Thites examinat pag. 63. marg p. 69. marg That the fourth Commandement appointed a particular fixed day to wit Saturday The time commanded in the fourth Commandement is Saturday Who can desire a better warrant for any thing hee will say or doe then that and what is there to bee alledged for the Lords day which may preponderate such a proofe which yet is no proofe but against such as are so inconsiderate as to confesse that which the adversary cannot prove viz. that Saturday is particularly prescribed in the fourth Commandement Secondly the Commandement appointeth the proportion of one day in seven for sacred and solemne services of Religion which is as the Characteristicon to the Jewes Sabbath and the Christians which are the variations into which it is divided while neither of them is expresly and in particular there commanded so that to say the Jewes Sabbath is literall and the Christians onely mysticall is as if one should say that Homo signifieth literally a man but hominis homini and hominem note not a man literally but mystically Thirdly whereas hee saith the Homily useth the word Sabbath for the Lords day but in a mysticall and analogicall sense even as Mortification is called Circumcision c. There bee two particulars very faulty The one is his assertion the other his similitude 1. For his assertion l The Homily of the time place of praier pag. 164. edit 1582. That the Homily useth the name Sabbath but in a mysticall and analogicall sense the contrary is evident to any intelligent Reader of the Homily for such a one may out of it deduce these literall observations 1. That by the fourth Commandement Christians must have one standing day in a week for the exercises of Religion 2. That they must rest upon it after Gods example 3. That on that day lawfull workes must bee forborne 4. That yet they must not be idle but wholly give themselves to exercises of Gods true Religion and Service There bee other deductions
besides these which found to the same sense but these sufficiently shew that the Compilers of the Homily tooke the name Sabbath not in a meere mysticall sense but in a literall and herein their Doctrine is conformable to the letter of that Commandement Secondly for his similitude that our Lords day is called Sabbath but as Mortification is called Circumcision the circumcision of the heart Rom. 2.29 or as sincerity and truth are called unleavened bread 1 Cor. 8.5 or as Christ our Passover 1 Cor. 5.7 it is guilty of grosse disproportion for 1. In a naturall acception no two numerall things are more like then one day is like another but circumcision of the flesh and mortification of the corruptions of the heart sincerity and unleavened bread Christ and the Passover though in some respects semblable as the Kingdome of heaven and a graine of Mat. 13.31 mustard seed are yet in their kinds at very great distance for Circumcision is an act of the hand Mortification an act or rather an habit wrought by the spirit upon the mind unleavened bread is a visible substance sincerity an invisible quality Christ is a most excellent person consisting of a divine and humane nature the Passover an action literally the Angels passing over the doores which were sprinckled with the bloud of the Paschall Lambe which after the Angell was immediatly yet figuratively applyed to the Lambe it selfe and afterward by another figure more remote from the letter and so more mysticall our Saviour was called the Passover Secondly if wee take the two dayes in a religious as well as in a naturall acception there is much more conformity betwixt them then betwixt the termes of the Bishops comparison so much that the name Sabbath may bee literall to them both though in his instances one part be purely mysticall and analogicall For to say nothing of other conformities forementioned it may suffice to make them both partakers of the name Sabbath which signifieth Rest that rest or cessation from secular labours was on the one and is required and observed on the other wherein the advantage now rests upon the part of our Christian Sabbath since that is still and will be to the worlds end a day of religious rest and the Jewes day though it were so from the beginning was many an hundred years ago degraded from the dignity of a weekly Holiday and made a work-day and so shall be untill our temporall Sabbath on earth be changed into the eternall Sabbatism in heaven which the Apostle promiseth Heb. 4.9 The third Exception of Bishop White touching Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker applying the name Sabbath to our Sunday answered Thirdly For the Allegations out of Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker for application of the name Sabbath to the Lords day the Bishop taketh occasion to observe that m Bish White his examinat of the Dialog p. 89. 96. the greatest Doctors at some times and before errours and heresies are openly defended are not neither can bee so circumspect in their writing as to avoid all formes and expressions all sentences and propositions all and every Tenet which in after times may yeeld advantage to the adversaries of the truth and hee giveth instance in Augustine and Chrysostome speaking not so warily as they should have done concerning the naturall power of freewill before the Pelagian heresie did arise which hee applyeth to the precedent Testimonies thus Before there arose a controversie in our Church concerning the Sabbath or at least wise before the controversie grew to an height Divines spake and writ more freely and they were not alwayes so cautelous circumspect as to foresee the evill construction which the adversaries of the truth might make of their writing and speaking but now when the Sabbatarian heresie for necessary observation of the old Sabbath and a fanaticall opinion of some others for the observation of the Lords day in a more precise forme then the very Judaicall Law it selfe obliged the Jewes to keepe the old Sabbath when I say these errours sprang up and were defended with an high hand and obtruded upon the Church a necessity was cast upon us to examine all such positions as were the grounds and formes of speaking which were incident to the question in hand Now if upon evidence of truth saith hee wee shall in some passages dissent from some men of note living in this Church before us or use other termes in our writing or disputing nay if we should in some things have altered our owne former opinion and formes of speaking wee trust that godly Christians will not impute this unto us as an offence but in their charity will judge of us as the ancient Church did of Saint Augustine to wit that what wee doe in this kinde proceedeth from the care wee have in a faire and perspicuous manner to maintaine and defend the truth Thus farre the Bishop I have set downe his exception at large because I meane to make a full answer to it for that purpose three particulars are especially to be observed in this the saying of the Bishop The first Of the ancient Fathers unwary writings before heresies arose which is true but not to the purpose for none that reads them at the first hand unlesse hee bring with him a violent impression of prejudice against the Sabbath will conceive one syllable in them to sound to that sense which the Bishop intendeth The second His application thereof to the Sabbatarie controversies which is to the purpose but as hee states the difference not true The third is a request for charitable construction which in regard of the second he hath need of We need say nothing of the first and for the second it may be said First that though some have exceeded in severity both for the doctrine and practice of the Sabbath and yet I accompt not all to bee excessive which the Bishop approveth not many have much more exceeded in loosnesse and profanenesse which is more dangerous to the actors and more scandalous to the observers of their excesses and there was more need that all the Bishops of the Land should oppose this then that he should set upon that in such sort as he did Secondly for that he saith of the Sabbatarian heresie for the necessary observation of the old Sabbath the way to withstand it is not as he doth to take the title Sabbath from the Lords day and to shift it from the firme ground of the fourth Commandement and to make it stand so much upon meere tradition as hee doth nay so to give up that both title and text as hee hath done to the old Sabbath is to confirme rather then to confute the Sabbathary errour which by his manner of handling the matter neither is nor can be soundly convinced as it should be Thirdly whosoever will advisedly reade and consider what hath been lately written concerning the Sabbath will find as great cause to give caution against Anti-sabbathary
as Sabbathary errours And though the Bishop pretend the errour of the old Sabbath and rigour of the new to have been so new that Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker could not take notice of it being before their time and that therefore they tooke the lesse heed to their termes when they spake of our Christian and Weekly Holiday yet it is not like that either was unknowne unto them as he saith the heresie of Pelagius was to Chrysostome and Augustine when they wrote somewhat uncircumspectly concerning some points which he perverted For the conceipt of the necessity and perpetuity of the Saturday Sabbath hath bin the heresie of all Jewes and of some Christians ever since the Christian Sabbath was ordained and the most rigorous excesses touching the observation of the Lords day were published in a n M Rogers Prefat to the Art of Relig. printed anno 1607. Booke of generall note and common use before the passages cited out of Bishop Andrewes writings were published by himselfe or any one else at least before his Starre-chamber speech against Mr. Traske was made and in that speech though Traske were Jewishly conceipted of the Saturday Sabbath he gives the name Sabbath to the Lords day as hath been noted and even Doctor Howson Bishop of Durham though in his Sermon of Festivities hee mention the same straines of ever-strained severity in observation of the Christian Sabbath calleth Sunday or the Lords day for all that by the name Sabbath Besides the wiser sort well knew that to prejudice the piety and authority of the Lords day as from the fourth Commandement from whence the name Sabbath is derived upon it would bee to give too much countenance to Libertines and Antinomists whose heresie being plausible to the flesh by the craft of the Divell was like to find more welcome entertainment with the world then that opinion of the Saturday Sabbath or then those extreme severities in observation of the Lords day So that all doubts and dangers duely considered on both sides I make no doubt if most of those Worthies whose testimonies wee have produced for the name Sabbath were now alive to see the carriage of the cause in our daies but they would thinke it most convenient to continue the title Sabbath to the Lords day to make good their precedent by subsequent attestations to this truth and to adde their further care to oppose profanenesse which hath mightily advanced since the Legall and Evangelicall authority and piety of this day hath been so opposed I may say in the Bishops owne words and with reference to him opposed with an high hand for no hand so high as his did ever strive so to weaken the one and darken the other since the darknesse of Popery was by the light of the Gospel driven out of our English Horizon as his hath done Fourthly yet for all that as he desires I will judge charitably of him for my charity inclines mee to conceive that he wrote what he thought but withall my discretion telleth me that his pen marched in this quarrell after Jehu's pace in some pangs of passion which are no helps to true information in any difference whether of Religion or otherwise else hee would not have stained his stile with such infected phrases as o Bish Whites answer to the Dialogue p. 72. the mangy objections of the Dialogue-dropper and the scabby similitudes of old Thomas Cartwright termes more meet for the Frocke then for the Rochet If his Adversary dealt uncivilly with him I excuse him not if I might be so bold as to speak my mind of them both I should freely blame them for mingling so much of the drosse of their owne corruptions with the pure Gold of the Sanctuary in this cause of the Sabbath The fourth exception of the Bishop touching the testimony of his Brother Doctor John White answered Fourthly for that which is brought in in the name of his brother Doctor John White calling the Lords day by the name of Sabbath he replyeth thus There is not any contradiction between the two brethren in this Doctrine for the one brother calleth the Lords day Sabbath in a mysticall sense and the other brother saith that it is not the Sabbath of the fourth Commandement in a literall and proper sense Where he bringeth in againe the distinction of literall and mysticall taking literall in a negative sense for his owne part for he denieth the name in that sense and giving mysticall in a positive acception but with an implicite negation of the letter to his brother to which I answer First that had Doctor John White been alive when the Bishop wrote thus he could not I beleeve have made him such a yonger brother though hee were the elder brother and a Bishop both as to put upon him his opinions of the Sabbath either for the title or tenure Secondly the mist of that mis-application of mysticall and literall is already dispelled by the exposition of the Homily which containeth the Tenet of the Church of England so that we may say supposing his brother an Orthodox Doctor of this Church hee did not howsoever he should not so take the name Sabbath in a mysticall sense as to deny the literall in application to the Lords day Thirdly by that I have heard of that learned and godly Doctor both for his Doctrine where he preached and for his conversation where he lived I have cause to suspect his brother imposeth an opinion on him which he did not hold as he did on our Churches Homily before rehearsed Fourthly whosoever shall please to peruse the p Chap. 16. quotation out of Doctor John Whites Booke shall evidently see that he tooke the word Sabbath not in a mysticall but in a literall sense and without absurd and perverse wrestling of his words they cannot otherwise be expounded CHAP. XVIII A particular Answer to the particular exceptions made against the name Sabbath as applyed to Sunday or Lords day and first of the dangerous plot pretended by Doctor Pocklington in the use of the name Sabbath for Sunday and of his prodigious comparison of the name Sabbath on the Lords day and the crowne of Thornes on the Lords head WHat before wee have observed by way of exception against the word Sabbath was onely to note how farre by some it was disliked now wee must particularly examine the grounds and reasons of their dislike and give answer to them though some of them be rather passionate reproaches then probable objections Here the clamours of Doctor Pocklington are so loud that hee must needs first be heard with his accusations against the word Sabbath which if they be as true as they are hainous just cause there is to decree downe and cry down the name Sabbath as the name of him who to bee famous burned the Temple of Diana at Ephesus and thereupon became so infamous that all mention of his name was forbidden by a solemne Decree His charge on the use of
in Justin Martyrs 2d. Apol. ad Antoninum pium about the yeare 150. but the name Sabbath for a weekly Holiday is ancienter then them both Secondly if we compare them for Authority we may consider it in a double sense as divine and humane First by divine Authority the Sabbath and Lords day have the best warrant for they are both Scripture names and the name Sunday is not so I confesse in the translation of the Bible published in King Henry the eight his daies anno 1540. before which Archbishop Cranmer prefixed a Preface the words of Saint John Revel 1.10 are rendred thus I was in the spret on a Sunday as I noted before but in the originall there is not that word which signifieth either Sun or Son and in all other translations that I have seen it is rendred according to the originall Lords day and not Sunday Secondly the name Sabbath for a weekly Holiday is in the fourth Commandement of the Decalogue the greatest warrant of Authority that can be thrice mentioned neither the name Lords day nor Sunday are so And for humane Authority in the Liturgy of our Church the name Sabbath and Sunday are both mentioned and the name Lords day to my remembrance not at all In the Canons of the Church though the name Sabbath for the English edition as I have already observed be not omitted the names Sunday or Lords day are more often mentioned and in the Latine Canons the title Lords day onely Thirdly if we compare them for significancy that swayeth the preheminence by three respects First by Dignity secondly Propriety thirdly Perspicuity First for Dignity the name Lords day hath prelation over the other two and carrieth a signification of his dignity who is Lord of all both Angels Men and Divels and imports with his person his absolute Lordship over the world especially over his Church and the name Sunday sheweth his illustrious excellency if wee understand the terme according to the Prophet Malachy for the Sunne of Righteousnesse but the name Sabbath in its Grammaticall sense signifieth onely Rest which is in dignity inferiour to them both Secondly for Propriety that is to be considered as opposed either to figurativenesse or to community taking proper for that which is not figurative the name Sabbath signifying in the Grammaticall sense a literall rest which is required on an holiday is a more proper word then either of the other which are not well understood without a figure for wee call the Sabbath Lords day by an a For all dayes are the Lords but this by an especiall eminency Antinomasie and Sunday by a b In the sense of the Heathens who dedicated the day to the Sun and thence gave it that name Metonymie or c In the religious sense in the Prophet Malach. c. 4. v. 2. Metaphor But taking propriety as opposed to generality or community the names Lords day and Sunday as in application to dayes are more proper and particular noting a set and certaine day in the weeke viz. that which wee Christians celebrate and none other as the d Soveraigne Antidote against Sabbatary errors pag. 7. Authour of the soveraigne Antidote well observeth Whereas Sabbath hath been a name for any holiday which may fall out any day of the weeke In which respect if there had not been other considerable reasons to the contrary hee had well resolved that when wee speake of a time of rest undeterminately and in generall the name Sabbath is the fittest the other two Lords day and Sunday when we speake determinately of that day which is observed in the Christian Church Thirdly For Perspicuitie that is most perspicuous which is least ambiguous so is the name Sunday which presently points all to the day wee observe but the names Sabbath and Lords day are not at all times and in all places so cleare since the name Sabbath hath beene for a long time taken for Saturday and the name Lords day hath beene taken not onely for the weekly Sabbath of the Resurrection but also for the day of Christs Nativity Passion Ascension and last Judgement as hath beene shewed in the second Chapter Besides the Apostle saith there bee Lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 and the more they bee the more ambiguous is the name whereof that word maketh up the one halfe Yet to say the truth in our Church and age they are all perspicuous and cleere enough so that there is scarce any one so silly but hee presently knoweth if hee heare the name Sabbath Lords day or Sunday what day of the week is understood by them Fourthly If wee compare them for facilitie or readinesse of speech the names Sabbath day or Sunday are more apt to be taken up as when wee speake of the weekly holiday past or to come it is readier to say and withall more distinctly understood the last Sabbath or the last Sunday next Sabbath or next Sunday some Sabbath or some Sunday as in his Majesties Briefes fore-noted then the last Lords day or the next Lords day or some Lords day Fifthly If for acceptation with speaker or hearer they are every one of them single for the most part of better relish then the other two with some or other some like best of the name Sabbath some of the name Lords day some of Sunday and by that wee have observed of each of them before it appeareth that there are many of the better sort of men who stand divided in their inclinations and prelations according to the diversity of the titles fore-mentioned and yet when two holidaies were observed in a week the name Lords day for the day wee celebrate was most acceptable to most men and since they have all of them beene taken to indifferent use by the wiser sort it hath been lesse obvious to exception then either the name Sabbath or Sunday have beene while some though without just cause have charged the one with Judaisme the other with Paganisme which is worse since our Religion hath more affinity with Jewish then with Heathenish principles Sixthly For frequencie or community of use all in our Church are bound to assent unto the name Sabbath and to use it also by the obligation that tyeth them to the Liturgy and Catechisme of the Church and as Religion hath advanced so hath that name prevailed and bin most frequently used by the religious of our Church untill that a very few yeers agoe some tooke up such exceptions against it as have beene seene in the precedent Discourse which either reason may work out or time wear out of mens opinions as in the title Lords day hath come to passe for that at at the first did not passe without cavill and contempt for in the memory of some yet alive many were as much offended suspecting a tang of excessive precisenesse that some said Lords day for Sunday as any now are at those who say rather Sabbath then either Seventhly and lastly If wee compare the three names for
their different Tenets come with indifferency to be examined In the meane time I thought this speech after so many inducements as before I have touched though directed to him was pertinent to mee And besides other respects somewhat more to mee then to Master Bifield in that a great f Mast W. C. Admirer of Master Breerwood brought mee divers of his Dictats on this Argument which are not in print that I might peruse them and so might either take the impression of his opinions from them or if my judgement swayed mee otherwise that I might endeavour to take off the errour of his and other mens mis-conceipts by some better evidence of truth herein then yet had been offered to their view At this marke while I direct mine aime and addresse mine endeavours my resolution is and care shall be to deale with such diligence as not to neglect any meanes of due information in matters of doubt and with such fidelity as not to tell a lye for God nor to out-face a truth against the meanest man And if while I devote my thoughts pains to make some truths not of meere speculation but of ordinary practice to shine which have been obscured with manifold scruples and to fence them from the storme of some mens oppositions it bee mine hap to derive contradictions upon my selfe it shall not discourage mee from any duty I owe unto the truth for he that gain-sayeth me in that maketh himselfe Gods adversary more then mine for truth is not any mans so much as his who I hope will give mee eyes to see both what wrong is done unto it and by what meanes and in what manner it should be righted But if the exception he taketh against what I write be true and just I will take it for a matter not of disgrace but of gratification for I shall accompt it a favour if he shew mee an errour of mine owne and it shall be no longer mine then untill it be seen which yet I see not For which discovery I shall hold it my duty to give him thankes without taking offence at any good office hee performeth for the truth and shall alwaies be ready to debate any doubtfull difference so as with the g Et refellere sine pertinacia refelli sine iracundia parati sumus Cicer. Tus qu. l. 2. p. 137. 5. Oratour to give or receive a refutation without pertinacy or passion and as h Nobiscum nulla contentio cum uterque pari jugo non pro sese sed pro causa niteretur Plin. opist lib. 3. pag. 85. Lucius Albinus and his friend to joyne my necke with his in the yoak sociably to draw not the waine of our vaine conceipts or selfe-wills but the chariot of truth that shee may ride on in state and triumph which will I am sure be the last issue of these Sabbathary dissentions wherein falshood though for a time it may advance as Pageants doe by an unnaturall and violent force shall fall under her wheele and receive the reward of the wicked by Solomons doome Prov. 20.26 In hope whereof and heart by that hope I shall betake my selfe to my taske which will bee a double discourse The former Historicall wherein I shall shew how the controversie of the Sabbath hath proceeded from the Primitive to the present times The later Doctrinall and Practicall in which the differences of the Doctrine shall be discussed and the duties of practise accordingly delivered But because we can treat of none of them without the use of Termes and Names which are called in question and by some condemned of profanenesse or Judaisme especially the name i In the book called Sunday no Sabbath made by Doct. Pockl. Sabbath whereof we must needs make frequent mention it will bee very convenient and neere unto necessary first of all to discusse the exceptions taken at the titles of our weekly Holiday Yet so as that the discourse of them may be a preparative to reall resolutions afterwards In all which the God of Truth and Piety be mine aide and guide Amen The Copie of the Letter mentioned in the Preface To the Reverend and our worthy Friend and Brother in the Ministery Mr. John Ley these Reverend and worthy Sir SInce the due observation of the Lords Sabbath is of so much importance both for Gods glory and mans good that the whole Decalogue is usually with more or lesse conscience regarded as the Sabbath doth abound with or is abated of its due respect and observance and being conscious of the variety of opinions in these dayes of contention and controversie both touching the day and duties thereof Which it is When it begins By what force and how farre it obligeth with the distractions which these differences may produce in the mindes of all especially of weake though well-affected Christians wee are bold in assurance of your wisdome and abilility this way as well as otherwise to entreat you to add light to the truth in these points by a serious sifting of them and a seasonable divulging of your judicious Labours on them wherein you shall not onely gratifie us in particular that much desire to partake of your pious endeavours but promote the publick good and peace of Gods Church stop the mouthes and stay the pens of such as are carryed away with mis-conceit and errour settle and comfort their consciences that hover betweene doubt and resolution having neede of all learned and religious helpes to cleare this doctrine from such clouds as doe eclipse the brightnesse and beauty of it The Lord incline your heart to undertake this work and so direct and assist you every way to plead his cause that Truth may triumph over all subtleties and sophismes that with their faire appearances are apt to deceive the simple So wee commend you to the Grace of God and rest Your very respective Friends and Brethren in the Ministery William Moston Andrew Wood. John Conny Samuel Clerke Matthew Clayton William Shenton Richard Holker Robert Whittell Charles Herle Nathaniel Lancaster Richard Wilson Alexander Clerke John Glindale Thomas Holford The Contents of the Discourse following CHAP. I. IN what cases we may be indifferent for the for bearance or use of Names In what wee must bee chary concerning both Pag. 1. Chap. II. The divers names of the Christians weekely holiday pag. 4. Chap. III. Of three most usuall names of the Christians weekely holiday and first of the name Lords day Revel 1.10 The strange opinion of Dr. Gomarus and Mr. Braburne charging the title as applyed to the Christians Sabbath with impertinency and noveltie pag. 7 Chap. IIII. A comparison of the old Sabbath day the day of our Saviours Birth of his Passion Ascension and of his Apparition to S. John with the day of his Resurrection as touching right to the title Lords day and the pertinency and propriety of that title to our weekly holiday p. 13. Chap. V. The imputation of novelty in applying the title
Rev. 1.10 may bee conceived the day of the Lords comming to his last Judgement for which the one citeth Luk. 17.30 the other 1 Cor. 5.5 I answer first to the opinion it selfe and then to the proofe For the first I say That Saint John speaketh as wee noted before in the readiest construction of the words as of a day that was in being before that Vision and so knowne that the Reader might take notice when the Vision came unto him but the day of Judgment is not yet come and so unknowne to man that our Saviour saith of it but of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Angels of heaven but my Father onely Mat. 24.36 Secondly For their proofes though both places produced be meant of the day of Judgement yet that they appertaine not to the title now in question wee may observe that neither of them nameth the day as Saint John doth the Lords day for in the one viz. 1 Cor. 5.5 it is called the day of the Lord Jesus in the other viz. Luk. 17.30 the day of the Sonne of man So that this device of the day of judgement as to the day pointed out by Saint John in his appellation is void of all judgement and withall so full of presumption that if any man should goe on in commenting on the Revelation throughout to the last Chapter as hee begun with the first hee might thereby derive upon himselfe a wretched right to those plagues with commination whereof Saint John shuts up and seales up his mysticall Prophesie Revel 22.18 19. Ob. But if wee take the Lords day for the Resurrection for that as r M. Brab in his discourse pag. 8. Master Braburne notwithstanding his crosse conceits confesseth is properly the Lords day it will not follow that it should be a weekly Holiday it may suffice for that title being given it but once in Scripture f M. Brab in his Defence p. 163. and 175. if it be celebrated some one first day though but once a yeere as the Nativitie Passion and Ascension are and as the Feast of Easter is with us in reference unto it Ans To which I answer First That the question yet is not whether the Lords day should be a weekly Holiday or not But being such a one in fact for yet wee are not come to discusse in point of right whether it may not in its weekly recourse be intituled by that name Secondly That the day of the Resurrection being still noted in Scripture to bee the first day of the weeke and not such a day of the moneth as returnes but once a yeere or once in halfe a yeere or once a quarter or once a moneth onely it may bee called the Lords day once a weeke for its weekly recourse as well as once a yeere if as the Feast of Easter it came no oftner If it be said that no Friday is called good Friday nor any Thursday holy Thursday or Ascension day but one in the yeere it may bee replied to that if they were weekly observed as for a time good Friday was and the first day of the weeke hath beene since the Apostles time they might all be partners in the same appellation all holy Thursdaies all good Fridaies as well once a weeke as once a yeere though the first might have some preheminence above the rest and after the first that which answereth to the first in the season of the yeere as well as in the day of the week and by reason thereof as being no common guest it might have an Alablaster box of oyntment bestowed upon it more then upon those which were more ordinary guests as Easter Sunday was by a t A die Resurrectionis per integram hebdomadem sideles feriuntur Concil 6. gener Const Can. 66. pag. 646. Decree of the Councell of Constantinople to be kept holy and for its sake all the six dayes that followed next after it yet it might in its weekly recourse bee very well called the Lords day as though all the Jewish festivities were called Sabbaths and some in solemnity exceeded others yet the weekly holiday of the Jewes was best knowne by that name which was sometimes by especial priviledge u Shabbath Shabbathon given only to the Sabbath i.e. of the 4th Commandement or to such dayes as for cessation from worke were equivalent unto it Dr. Willet in Levit. 23. q. 31. p. 586. doubled upon it so the name of the Lords day howsoever it be sometimes attributed to other dayes all being his yet doth it most appertaine unto the weekly holiday of the Christians and the rather because it hath a more constant and continuall Lordship or dominion over the dayes of the weeke then any other by its comming in a weekely returne above fiftie times in the yeere for the other Festivities they have their turne but once a yeer And so we have answered the objection of Impertinency of that title Lords day to our weekly holiday which hath beene urged as if it did not more properly appertaine unto it then to some other daies before rehearsed CHAP. V. The imputation of Novelty in applying the title Lords day to the Christians weekly holiday answered WEE are now to answer the objection of Novelty which Doctor Gomarus and Master Braburne bring in against the setting of the title Lords day upon our weekly holiday and therewith wee shall further strengthen the truth against the last objection for which the best proofe alledged is a negative Argument or an Argument drawne from the negative testimony of one man which is of little authority in it selfe and the lesse in this case because it takes up with one Writer onely whereas if more could bee produced to that purpose the antiquity of that Name as now the Church applyeth it might yet be upheld by the advantage of a greater number of grave and ancient Authours positively which is better then negatively giving their votes and voyces to the contrary Tenet That singular Author who is brought in as a dumb shew speaking nothing of our weekly holiday by the name of the Lords day is Justin Martyr from whose silence Doctor Gomarus argueth thus a Si diei Dominici pro die Resurrectionis Domini seu primo hebdomadis appellatio ab Apostolis promanasset c. ut supra citatur cap. 3. lit m. If the title Lords day as applyed to the day of the Resurrection or the first day of the weeke had beene derived from the Apostles and received in the Primitive Church is it credible that Justin Martyr a most ancient and incorrupt Writer in his accurate description of the rites of the Christian Religion would have called the day by the name of Sunday or the first day of the week and not Lords day at all To which I dare not answer as b Dr. Bound on the Sabbath part 1. p. 114. Dr. Bound doth that Justin Martyr in his second Apologie hath the name of Lords
was scil the 94. yeare after Christ before wee finde the Church took notice of it by a proper name and when hee hath brought in the opinion of Gomarus against it with a smile as if hee meant to favour it hee puts it out againe with a frowne saying p D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 1. pag. 73. But touching this meaning i. e. of Doctor Gomarus applying of that name to the day of judgement which Saint John might see being rapt in Spirit as if it were come already wee will not meddle let them that owne it looke unto it the rather since Saint John hath generally beene expounded in the other sense by q Arethas Andr. Caesariens taken by D. Heyl. for two Writers are but severall names of the same Authour or Work in Vos his Thes de Advent Christ pag. 273. but the reconciliation may be that though the men were two the work in a manner was but one for Arethas Caesariens made a compendium out of the larger commentary of Andr. Caesariens Bellarm. de Eccles Script pag. 134. Arethas and Andr. Caesariensis upon the place and by Bede de Rat. Temp. cap. 6. and by the suffrage of the Church the best exposition of Gods Word wherein this day hath constantly since the time of that Apostle beene honoured by that name above other daies yea and r Qâ—ae ratio etsi non mihi sufficere videtur ad rejiciendum communem interpretationeÌ„ facilè concedam diem Dominicum eam significare quâ Dominus resurrexit c. D. Gomar def Invest Sab. c. 10. p. 133. Doctor Gomarus himselfe confesseth it to bee the common interpretation of those words the Lords day and that they signifie the day wherein Christ rose from the dead I need the lesse here to bring in a Catalogue of the names of the Ancients to this purpose they will come in to doe more service when wee treat of the Authority and Antiquitie of the day where we shall with one labour further cleare both the title and tenure of it by such testimonies as make indifferently for them both and for the present that which hath been said may I conceive be sufficient to secure the title of the Lords day to the day wee celebrate against such exceptions as have been taken by these two opposites Doctor Gomarus or Master Braburne and two more I think will hardly be found since the first spring of that day who have shut their eyes against such light of truth or opened their mouthes to speake or moved their pens to write in such sort against it as they two have done In whose confutation is virtually included an answer to that which Mr. Primrose since them hath affirmed by way of comparison of the daies of Christs Passion Ascension and of Pentecost viz. Å¿ M. Primrose part 3. c. 8. pag. 140. that the day of the Resurrection hath none advantage beyond the daies of Christs Passion Ascension or of Pentecost For it was saith hee inferiour to the day of Christs Passion in regard of the merit to purchase and to the day of Pentecost in regard of efficacie to communicate the spirituall and heavenly gifts the Ascension day is conforme unto it in the same correspondency both to the acquisition and to the execution of the establishment of the Church For disproofe whereof wee have already said enough save that wee must adde that which himselfe hath said viz. That though the Resurrection of our Saviour be not the merit of our Redemption but rather the reward of it as t Aquia part 3. quast 57. art 2. Aquinas resolveth of his Ascension yet it is a demonstration that our debt is paid as when u M. Primrose part 3. cap. 8. pag. 139. a debter commeth out of prison and that is matter of more manifest rejoycing and so the fitter ground for a solemne and sacred gratulation then the payment of a debt especially then such a payment as was so painfull and pensive as our Saviours Passion was And for the day of Pentecost of which alone wee have said nothing hitherto it may bee sufficient to alledge First ″ In die Dominico venisse Spiritum sanctum communis traditio est Lorin in Act. 1. ver 1. pag. 74. col 1. That many have and not without reason taken it to have beene the same day of the weeke which we call Lords day Secondly That no age since that time hath observed a weekly holiday upon that occasion as all ages from the Apostles time have done upon the Resurrection But x Ea discrepantia exigui est momenti quia in re ipsa est consensus Gomar cap. 10. pa. 132. Defens Investig Sab. Doctor Gomarus saith It is a difference of small moment since in the thing it selfe there is consent and if so there hath been much waste of words about it in drawing on the dispute thus farre Not so neither for First Wee have under the title of words and names made some preparations for materiall points that come in question for the words we have here used have not beene an empty sound without solide and reall notions under them Secondly It is not a matter of small moment to set seducing glosses upon that sacred text which in the controversie of the Christians weekely holiday hath alwayes beene of speciall note and use from the Apostles time to this day Thirdly If it were a small difference and drew after it none evill consequence at all as it doth for it layeth a stumbling block at the doore of the Sanctuary causing men to stop or stumble at the very entrance of the cause which for the new Testament if Testimonies bee taken in due order beginneth there it was no small fault in him and the other for a small difference to runne out of the road way from so good and so great company to tread out a Schismaticall track by themselves CHAP. VI. Of the name Sunday Whether wee may call our weekly holiday by that name Objections against the use of the name Sunday for our weekly holiday THe next name of note which is stuck at is the name Sunday whereof some make scruple as if it had in it as wee use it an unsavoury smack of heathenish superstition and some againe as if therein they bewrayed a spice of Puritan precisenesse flout at them as for negative nicety in their forbearance of it as one who was in his time a man of eminent mark in a pleasant Poëm which hee calleth Iter Boreale speaking of the Professors of N. a Towne where hee lodged in his Northern journey from Oxford among other particulars at which hee scoffed as savouring of too much precisenesse bringeth in this for one a Proque die Sabb. scelus est ibi dicere Sunday Dr. Eades in his â—er Boreale That to call the Sabbath by the name of Sunday they account a crime But against that name some in sober sadnesse have framed this Argument
retained and used in a sense not idolatrous as Hermes the name of Mercury mentioned Rom. 16.14 as it signifieth a particular person and not the Idol of the Gentiles called by that name so the names of Frier Monke Abbat Pope as they are names of Families not of Offices or Callings may bee retained still as b M. Ainsw Ibid. p. 143. Master Ainsworth hath acknowledged though he as well as Master c M. Paget ib. p. 145. Paget thinks the Popes have beene made great Idols by too many people of all ranks and so think I. Fourthly Names that have beene Idolatrous or any way impious may in time having beene long accustomed to a better sense bee ayred and purged from all impiety for words are like to fashions which varie with the times and so either get or lose grace and acceptation thereafter as the vulgar use and common custome giveth the construction of them in whose power it is as the d Multa renascentur quae jam cecidere cadentque Quae nuÌ„c sunt in honore vocabula si volet usus Morat de arte Poetic Poet hath observed to ratifie or reject them both for use and sense But what is that which in the fore-cited Scriptures is forbidden then Not all mention of idolatrous names as we have already proved But either swearing by Idols or praising or approving of them or maintaining superstition towards them or giving scandall by them against which wee should bee so carefull as to prevent all suspicion and appearance of that evill as e Aug. de Civ Dei li. 19. c. 22. part 2. p. 525. Saint Augustine did who fearing the translation of Sacrificiendum Domino soli would imply that the Sun was a God presently brought in some words of caution to guide the Reader to a better sense Sacrificiendum Domino soli i. e. Domino tantum to the Lord alone and with these limitations the sentences of the Fathers may be interpreted As for the Canon of the Councell of Nice I will not for this particular by way of exception say it is one of those which is supernumerary and not any of those which are acknowledged to bee the legitimate ordinance of the Fathers of that Councell because it is capable of a very good sense but I answer thus The difference is great betwixt the new imposing a name and the old and received use over that wee have power over this not so And for the word Sunday in particular though it bee no more idolatrous then the names of other dayes of the week and some moneths of the yeere it may be the better borne withall First Because the Sunne is not as many Idols are to which for want of reall entity out of the fancie wee may pertinently apply the words of Saint Paul An Idol is nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8.4 for it hath a true solide and glorious being of its owne and a name it must have to expresse that being Secondly For joyning it with the day in the name Sunday as if it were devoted to the honour of the Sun though that were the intention of the first imposers and the like was their meaning in the names of the rest of the dayes of the week as many Authours have observed especially f Hosp de orig Festor Jud. Etha c. 5. fol. 52. a. 53. b. Hospinian g Verslegan Restitut of decayed Intellig. cap. 3. p 69. Verstegan yet the Christians that used it did cleere themselves from all participation with their impious superstition long agoe viz. in Justin Martyrs and h Tertull. dpol cap. 16. tom 2. pag. 632. Tertullians time since whom so many well minded men have made use of it that wee may well thinke all Pagan apprehensions are by this time quite worne out of it as well as out of the names of other dayes of the weeke or of the moneths of the yeere as of January of March of May of June which are Idolatrous names as i August contra Faust Manich. l. 18. c. 5. tom 6 p. 420. Saint Augustine sheweth for where is there one of a thousand that when he nameth k Of this and the derivation of the rest of the dayes see Versteg Restit of decayed intellig à p. 71. ad 77. Tuesday hath any reverence or reference to the Idol Tuisco or to Woden when hee nameth Wednesday or to Thor when hee nameth Thursday or to Frigo or Frea when he nameth Friday or to Janus in the name of January or to Mars in March or Juno in the name of the moneth of June It is more like that our vulgar people use the word without setting any note on the notation or etymology of it at all or if they doe they may think it is called Sunday from the Son of God who is Lord of the Sabbath And if wee distinguish all men into two sorts viz. learned and ignorant wee may say of the learned that it is not like that they having beene trained up in Christian religion should retaine any respective relish of such absurd Idolatry and for the unlearned they have no apprehensions of words and things so obscure and remote as these etymologicall mysteries but take the sense of words according to the use of the times wherein they live But thirdly If as the Sunne in the Firmament makes the day so the Sunne and the day make up the name Sunday there is yet for ought I see no perill of applying unto it an idolatrous fancie for wee may with good congruity of reason meane by it the splendour and glory of our Christian holiday in the many prerogatives of that day above the work-dayes of the weeke elsewhere to bee declared as the Sun is a more bright and resplendent Planet then any of the rest And whereas l Dr. bound treat on the Sab. part 1 pag. 13. Dr. Bound saith That the Divel that hee might retaine men in this errour or heresie rather and thereby hee meaneth the kâ—eping them by the name of Sunday from inquiring into the cause of the name Lords day caused this probable conjecture of the name Sunday to be given namely that seeing the Sun was the chiefe of all the Planets as that which filleth all things with light therefore in the number of the seven dayes the chiefe place was given unto it Though it cannot bee denyed but there is a comparative conformity betwixt this day and the other sixe as betwixt the Sun and the rest of the Planets whereby in an odd number the dayes and Planets are even both making up the number of seven yet may the name Sunday bee as ready for an orthodox as for an erroneous sense if wee come without prejudice to consider it Nor can it impeach the title Lords day either for truth or evidence any more then the calling of Christ so often the Sonne of man in the sacred Scripture doth darken that glorious name the Sonne of God nay rather as wee may use
touching that number which seduced his opinion to that mis-conceipt besides that the congruity of the word in sound and confining of the weeke to that number of dayes both in the commandement and common practice might readily incline a man to that imagination for even those fables both of Appion the Grammarian and Justine the Historian before mentioned how wide soever they wander from the truth of the Sabbath in other points keepe within the compasse of the septenary number which is as a girdle of the dayes of the weeke of which the Sabbath is as a golden claspe or buckle binding them together Wee have reserved the best derivation as our Saviour did the best wine John 2. for the last place it is of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cessavit quievit hath rested which rendred with exact correspondence to the Hebrew characters should be written ″ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schabbath but for sweeter sound somewhat is abated of compleat expression and so it is usually written in the ″ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek translation of the old and the Greeke edition of the new Testament and the Latines in conformity to it rather then to the originall use the word Sabbatum and wee our English word Sabbath which as a participle in the former syllable taketh part with the Hebrew Greek and Latine in the later with the Hebrew onely And very fitly doth a name of rest agree with the day of rest or cessation from secular labours as the Sabbath day is and of this deduction and doctrine it is agreed by the best Divines on both sides In respect of this both rest and ranke the seventh being after all the rest hath the Planet Saturne a name of neere cognation to it signifying ease and lazinesse as e Planeta sedeÌ„tarius Gualper Syllog vocum exotic part prior pag. 106. Gualperius noteth which hee reckoneth for the last of the seven Planets beginning his account with the Moon as the first so still remembring what wee have before observed wee may say the number of seven the title of rest are joyned together in observations of the Sabbath whether with the religious or profane and so I could willingly derive it if the radicall characters would beare it from both words as a childe from its Parents of both sexes for as the Sabbath is every seventh day so it hath a neere affinity with the word which signifieth seven from whence Lactantius taketh it to be derived as hath been shewed And as it is a time of vacation from worldly labour so it hath as neere consanguinity with the word which signifieth rest But this derivation of it from rest is the right and to it wee shall stand CHAP. XI Of the sever all acceptions of the name Sabbath THe next inquirie of it is how farre the name Sabbath reacheth in sense and use especially whether this name of Rest may not bee applyed to the Lords day it being a day of Rest and that will the better appear if wee observe the distinction by severall acceptions which are chiefly these It is taken for 1 Rest from labour 2 Rest from sinne 3 Rest from both First for the first As the Sabbath signifieth a rest from labour it is used first generally for all dayes ordained for the solemne service and worship of God for as a Omnem Festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaei sed Gentiles Sabbatum vocant Scalâ—g de Emend Temp. lib. 3. p. 223. edit ult Scaliger observeth The Jewes and Gentiles both called every Festivall of the Jewes by the name of Sabbath b Idem ferè apud Chrysost Homil 40. in Matth. Doctor Gomarus would not have the new Moones numbred among the rest under that name though some learned men saith hee doe so hee might meane c Ursin catech pag. 580. Ursinus for one who reckoneth them for monethly Sabbaths because saith Gomarus there is no divine Authority for restraint of labour on those dayes Yet hee confesseth the Gentiles called them Sabbaths and they it is like had that name from the Jewes whose practice it was to observe those dayes with cessation from servile workes But this was upon their owne superstition saith hee and not by precept and yet hee confesseth that there were peculiar sacrifices for those solemnities for which hee quoteth Num. 28.11 15. And as they were Festivals they were distinguished from other dayes and a good part of the distinction of them consisted in cessation from secular labours which needs must be forborne while the people were imployed in other things and so farre the name of Sabbath might be communicated to them Secondly The name Sabbath is taken particularly and that divers wayes 1. The principall acception of it is for a weekely holiday ordayned by God in the fourth Commandement 2. By a Synechdoche of the part for the whole the word Sabbath is put sometimes for the whole weeke so in the speech of the Pharisee where hee saith I fast twice a weeke which precisely rendred according to the originall should bee d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 18.12 Jejuno biâ— in Sabbato hoc est in Hebdomada Cent. 1. lib. 1. cap. 6. col 244. read I fast twice a Sabbath which cannot bee meant of one day for though a man may eate thrice or oftner in a day it cannot bee said with good sense that in one day hee fasted more then once for if the fast be continued it makes but one fast though it last the whole day and if it bee broken by eating it cannot for that day bee pieced up againe 3. Sometimes the word is especially applyed to the first and last dayes of such solemne Festivals as consisted of many dayes together Levit. 23. à ver 24. c. 4. From dayes the Sabbath goeth on to the comprehension of yeers to the Jewes every seventh yeere was a Sabbatharie yeere wherein they were not to exact any debt of one another Deut. 15.1 nor to exercise the ground but to let it rest from tillage whereof wee have the Law at large Levit. 25. à vers 2. ad 7. The circle of the Sabbath grows yet to a further compasse for these seven-yeere Sabbaths multiplyed by sevens made up the whole number of 49. yeeres and the yeere after was the yeere of Jubilee a great Sabbath which was proclaimed by the sound of the Trumpet and rest from tillage as before with many other particulars prescribed whereof you may read more in the fore-cited Text from the eighth verse to the end of the Chapter These acceptions of the word Sabbath have especiall reference to rest from labour The second acception of the name Sabbath but counting on the fifth hath another sense it is that whereby it is taken for rest not from labour but from sinne In this it is frequent among the Fathers of the Church and well might they call it a Sabbath or rest in that sense as in opposition to the
550. as John and Thomas are two proper names of two of Christs Apostles so the Sabbath is a proper name to Saturday Answ The comparison hath two parts The ground of it and the inconformity betwixt Sabbath and Sunday which hee maketh to bee as much as betwixt Sunday and Saturday and no more For the first Hee saith the name Sabbath is a proper name as Sunday and Saturday are which is not true for Sabbath is rather a name of office as King then a proper name as Edward or James or Charles and therefore any day of religious rest what day of the weeke soever it fell was called a Sabbath and so may the Lords day bee much more because it succeeds the Sabbath of the old Testament as a weekely day of rest as that was and other holidayes were not and exceeds it too in as much as the occasion of it and motive to observe it is doubled Secondly For his comparison saying That it is as great confusion to call Sunday Sabbath as to call Sunday Saturday hee will make it good when he can prove that the Sun and d Verstegan seemes to derive the word Saturday from Seater an Idol of the Saxons which hee saith is fondly supposed by some to be Saturne Versteg restuut of decayed Intelligence cap. 3 p. 77. but most learned men take the name of Saturday from the Planet Saturne Saturne are not two distinct Planets but that one may as well be called by the name of the other as the Sunne Saturne and Saturne the Sunne as either Saturday or Sunday when they be dayes of Rest may be called by a name of Rest Sabbath In the meane time it is but a Planetary or wandering comparison so farre from truth that it draweth neere to absurdity object 4 But saith hee againe e Mast Brab discours p. 200. The name Sabbath and the time of the seventh day cannot be separated I answer If that were true it maketh nothing against us for wee apply it to a seventh day now and to none else though not to that seventh day which was at first observed and if hee say that the name Sabbath and that seventh day which was Saturday cannot bee separated which is indeed his meaning I say First the name Sabbath may bee communicable to other dayes though it were not separable from the Saturday for if the day had never been changed yet other daies agreeing with it in cessation from worke might and did partake with it in the appellation of Rest At this day we may find it so in the Ethiopicke Church keeping both Saturday and Sunday holy and calling them both Sabbaths though with the distinction of Jewish and Christian as wee shall pertinently note afterward Secondly I say the name Sabbath and the seventh day from the Creation are separable for if Saturday may bee made a working day as the Christian world acknowledgeth both in position and practice and Master Brab himselfe in his dispensation whereof we shall speake in another place confesseth it may then the name of Rest viz. Sabbath may be separated from it unlesse the day shall be called by a name quite contrary to the nature and condition thereof CHAP. XXI The objection of Judaisme in using the name Sabbath answered and retorted as also the reproach of the name as from the Sabbatarian Heretickes removed object 5 BUt the a Bish of Ely his Treat pag. 207. Bishop of Ely misliketh the name Sabbath for the perill of Judaisme and the heresie of Judaizants The name Sabbath saith b Mast Dowe in his discourse of the Sab. and Lords day p. 4. Mr. Dowe is Jewish and which is more c Doct. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 6. Doctor Pocklington saith That Sunday was anabaptized after the mind of some Jew hired to be Godfather thereof and so called the Sabbath And d M. wonside q. 3. of the Sab. ch 12. p. 121. Master Ironside also objecteth That in using the name Sabbath we gratifie the Jewes in their superstitious obstinacy against Christ and his Gospel for they abhorre the name of the Lords day as the greatest blasphemy e Ibid. p. 121. adding withall that the ancient Christians fasted on Saturday when the Jewes feasted that they might be so farre from gratifying of them as to be quite contrary to them To all which I answer That many points of Religion both Jewes and Christians hold in common and that onely is to be refused as I wish which is peculiar to them but so is not the keeping of a day of religious Rest nor the proper name of that Rest if the word Sabbath did properly import sacrifices or shadowes of things to come as f Doct. Heyl. hist Sab. part 1. c. 6. pag. 111. Doctor Heylin would have it it might have some Jewish favour in the mouth of a Christian but that it doth not The word Altar hath a neerer reference to Judaisme and Popery and yet they g Doct. Pockâ— Visit Serm. pag. 28 29. the title of another book of his is Altare Christianum p. 50.80 doth D. Heyl. in Antidot Lincol. familiarly use it and thinke there is no danger of Jewish or Popish errour by calling the Communion Table by the name of an Altar but rather the discovery of a h Bish Whites Treatise of the Sab. pag. 207. perverse disposition of novell Sabbatarians by the way I doe not approve of his words but onely repeat them to make scruple of that while they call the Lords day by the name of a Sabbath as Bishop White objecteth Secondly i Bish White in his Treatise of the Sab. pag. 5. Bishop White and k Doct. Heyl. part 2. p. 236 237. hist of the Sab. Doct. Heylin bring in the sayings of John Frith and William Tindall for the Churches liberty to have chosen any other day then the Lords day for religious Rest the Jewes day not excepted and the Apostles and many Churches since the Apostles for three hundred years and more kept Saturday holy every weeke as well as Sunday as l Bish Whites Treatise of the Sab. pag. 109. Bishop White alledgeth and m M. Primros Treat p. 1. c. 12 Master Primrose alloweth a liberty to Christians to observe that day and in it to give themselves to all exercises of our Christian Religion and if any Holiday light upon a Saturday no man is to make scruple to observe it as an Holiday Besides our Church commandeth with the rest of the Decalogue the reading of the fourth Commandement for sanctification and this weekly with a prayer for pardon of profanation past and for grace for better observation in time to come and if there bee no danger of Judaisme in all this there is none surely in retaining the name of the Sabbath with another day then that which the Jewes solemnized Thirdly to deny the name of the Sabbath to the day wee Christians celebrate is rather Jewish for those that are Jewes indeed or
Lords sacred ordinance of the Sabbath Some endeavouring to undermine and supplant the fabricke of it from the very foundation on which it is set and others piling upon it so many over rigorous positions and observances as with their sad and sullen weight may incline it to crack and fall asunder Thirdly The necessary instruction of the people in the heads of Catechisme pressed by especiall command of our dread Soveraigne that late was and of his Majestie that now is maketh the Decalogue and within it the Commandement of the Sabbath a more common Theme for popular discourses and therewith all a more fruitfull ground of erroneous descants then heretofore if in such variety of opinions which cast a mist upon the truth there be not some more means to cleare it and to guide men to that choice from which too many now endeavour to seduce them Fourthly I observed that as some set their wits on worke to impeach the piety of the doctrine of the Sabbath so many set their wils either to worke or play and so to pursue their profit or pleasure as to make the Lords holiday every way in practice as unholy and profane as in position it could be Irreligion and Libertinisme being a descent from Sion hill which hath no need of hands to thrust it downewards towards hell It was well said of a grave c The Bish of S. Asaph Prelate when hee heard of some too indulgent doctrines this way that therules of manners should be strict for mens behaviour would incline fast enough to loosenesse of themselves Besides there is a sinister zeale in some against superstition which proveth many times prejudiciall to the practice of religion for as our late learned d King James his Cign cant â— 8 Soveraigne hath observed under colour of weeding out superstition it will pluck up by the roots many plants of Paradise And wee see but too many ill harvest men using the weeding hooke to the wheat which should bee exercised onely to plucke up the tares of whose ill worke I shall beware for my selfe and I hope shall give such warning unto others as may not only withhold them from the like but may bee a direction to the simpler sort what to take and what to take heed of as either of them shall bee offered to their choice Fifthly While men make no scruple to violate the holy rest of the Lords day they become the more bold to disobey their Superiours whether supreme or subordinate for Mat. 22. v. 31. as giving to God the things that are Gods and unto Caesar the things that are Caesars are sociable duties and well sort together so commonly where dues are denyed detained from God the King is not like to receive his right either for aid or obedience for the fourth and fifth Commandements are so neere neighbours that the like lot whether of observance or of sleighting is like to befall them which wee may well perceive if wee doe but observe how our people have lately fallen not onely from piety but from civility and broke out into manifold offences against the lawes of the King since they were taught a lesson too easily learned to make light of this holy Commandement of God Nor is there any cause to expect any better behaviour among them untill their consciences let loose from this bond bee tucked up to it by a more religious regard both of the authority and observation of the Sabbath Then may wee have more hope and not till then under our Governours for whom the Apostle prescribeth all manner of prayer to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Sixthly These motives were the more sharpned and I the more quickned for the safer conduct of them that doubt to set out my light whether candle or torch I must leave to other men to judge by severall sollicitations of many religious and learned friends but especially by a joynt Letter the copie whereof I shall present to the view of the Reader next after this Preface sent me under the hands of many of my Brethren of the Ministery of whom there are divers for their gifts and parts of especiall note and all of them painefull and profitable Preachers in their places and such as build up the walls of our Jerusalem as with both hands with sound doctrine and religious conversation Seventhly Since that time I have received not onely incouragement but incitement to the same service with a Manuscript Treatise of the Sabbath from the hand of a great Prelate a glorious Starre of the first magnitude shining illustriously in the Church both by his admirable learning and answerable living Eighthly I was not a little provoked to lend my poore ability to the protection of the truth herein by the importunate pressing of Master Breerewood whereby Master Nic. Byfield was forced to the field when hee had no thought nor minde to fight as wee shall seasonably note in another place for when hee had excused himselfe for being unwilling to enter the lists of controversie with him as wanting warrant to leave his calling and to spend his time about such confutations Mast Breerwood returnes upon him with this patheticall expostulation e M Breerw his first Treat of the Sabbath p. 89 90. How Sir is the defending of the doctrine you have taught a leaving of your calling Are you called to teach the truth and not to defend it Are not Gods Ministers to defend Christs truth is that no part of their calling or have you no warrant say you for such confutations What no warrant to confute them in the behalfe of the truth whom ye yet condemn for adversaries of the truth Why Christ is the authour of the truth John 14.6 or the truth it selfe you are a Minister of Christ there is a warrant for you The holy Ghost is the spirit of truth Ephes 1.13 and he sanctified you to that Ministry there is a warrant for you The Gospel is the word of truth you are a Preacher of the Gospel there is a warrant for you The Church is the Pillar of truth you are a Pillar of the Church there is a more warrant for you For would not the Authour of the truth the spirit of truth c. and to all these you owe your service and allegiance have their Minister to defend the truth A strange thing that Christs Ministers should have no warrant to confute oppositions made against the truth who are bound to give their lives in defence of it Must they spend their life and bloud for confirmation of it and may they not spend a little labour and time about such confutations So farre he Where whether the goodnesse of Master Breerwood his cause or the apprehension of his owne better abilities and more list and leasure then Master Bifield had to reciprocate disputes of this sort did more prompt him to these braving provocations may bee better discerned when
day for I finde it otherwise But c Dr. Rivet disscriat de orig Sab. cap. 10. pag. 180. Dr. Rivet replyeth very well whose answer I shall a little transpose and alter to make it more serviceable to the truth First That it is no marvell that Justin Martyr writing to an Heathen and discoursing with a Jew used such termes as they were best acquainted with and best liked of as did the Translater of the Bible out of which the Epistles and Gospels of our Liturgie were taken as we shall observe in the seventh Chapter and such was the name Sunday to the Heathens and the first day of the week to the Jewes and therefore which hee might further have observed out of d Justin Apol. ad Anson 2d. propè sin pag. 419. Justin speaking to the Gentiles hee calleth the day before it not the Sabbath though among the Religious it were both of most ancient and common use but Saturday or the day of Saturne Secondly Whereas Doctor Gomarus grounds the weight of his Argument upon Justin Martyrs accurate description of the rites of the Christian Religion as that if the name Lords day for the Christians weekly holiday had beene in use before that time in the Church it must either there bee mentioned or from the omission of it there it might well bee denyed to have beene the title of it in his time Doctor Rivet answereth by retortion of his reason out of Tertullian That when the Gentiles conceived from the Christians weekly Assemblies upon Sundaies c Tert. Apol. cap. 16. tom 2. pag. 632. that the Sun was the god they worshipped hee stands to the name with denyall of their sinister conceit of the Christians practice and takes not that occasion to tell them though it bee a better inducement then Justin had any in the place fore-alledged to mention the Lords day that they had another name for that day viz. the Lords day and another reason of their religious observation of it then they imagined viz. the memoriall of the Lords Resurrection their Lord and Saviour f An non hic erat opportunissimus declarandi locus Dr. Rivet ubi ante pag. 182. Here surely was a most meete place to have made some declaration of the day as under that title the Lords day and because hee did it not there will it follow that it was not in use in his time among the Christians the contrary will appeare by his Booke g Die Dominico jejunare nâ—sas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare Tertul. de corona milit cap. 3. com 1. pag. 747. de corona militis and h O melior sides nationum quae nullam solennitatem Christianorum sibi vendicar non Dominicum diem non Pentecosten Tert. de Idol cap. 14. tom 2. pag. 457. de Idololatria wherein having to do with Christians hee useth the name or title Lords day for the Christians weekly holiday And to answer both Doctor Gomarus and Master Braburne together the observation of i Bish Andrewes in his Speech in the Star-chamber against Master Trask pag. 73. 74. Bishop Andrewes is of some weight as himselfe setteth downe in these words This day this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came to have the name of dies Dominicus in the Apostles time and is so expressely called by Saint John in the Revelation ch 1. ver 10. and that name from that day to this hath holden still with continuance of it from the Apostles age and may bee deduced downe from Fathers to Fathers even to the Councell of Nice and lower I trust saith hee we need not follow it no doubt is made since then by any one that hath read any thing Yet some raise a doubt upon the Constitution of Constantine by whose authority they say Sunday was made a generall and a publick holiday and with it Friday and both of them were to be observed weekly as k Euseb de vita Constantin l. 4. c. 18. p. 254. Eusebius sheweth why then may not Friday bee the day to which that title Lords day might belong especially since as in English wee commonly call it it hath an addition of especiall weight and worth good Friday good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminence and excellencie above all other dayes But notwithstanding this the day of the Resurrection hath the preheminence as in dignitie as before hath beene proved so in antiquitie perpetuitie and generalitie of solemne observation above all other dayes for it was a l Originem hujus denominationis ab ipso Apostolorum tempore accersendam omnibus ferè Scriptoribus placet D. Walaeus dissertat de quart praecept cap. 7. pag. 150. weekly holiday from the Apostles time as wee shall manifest elsewhere and though it were to gaine ground of the Jewish Sabbath but by degrees in Ignatius his time who lived in the first Centurie or hundred yeeres of Christianitie it was growne to that credit as not onely to bee well knowne by the name Lords day but to bee dignified with that royall title the Queene of daies as hath been observed and it is to bee noted that this Ignatius was his disciple who first used that title Lords day viz. the disciple of the Evangelist S. John and so was most like to know what day he meant by that appellation Secondly For that Decree of Constantine it was not made untill the fourth Century was begun above two hundred yeers after this of Ignatius Thirdly As Friday was made a weekely holiday much later then Sunday was not to stand upon comparisons betwixt Apostolicall and Imperiall powers for the making of holidaies in which respect Sunday hath the advantage above good Friday so hath Sunday continued much longer by many hundred yeers and hath been both for time more perpetuall and for place in the Christian Church more generall then Friday ever was And as the observation of that day hath been almost universall so hath the application of this title Lords day been unto it likewise for as Doctor m Omnes ferè sacrae Scripturae interpretes tam veteres quam recentiores de primo dic Septimanae intelligunt ac proinde nova planè interpretatio est corum qui Apocalypscos diem c. Wallaeus dissertat de quart praecept cap. 6. pag. 150. Walaeus noteth the deriving of the originall of that name from the Apostles time out of Apoc. 1.10 is approved almost by all Writers and Doctor ″ D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 1. ad sinem cap. p. 37. Heylin though otherwise farre from doting on the dignity of our weekly holiday not onely for the tenure of it but for the title too having referred the originall of it to the yeere of our Lord 94. wherein he followeth n M. Broad his MS. part 2. c. 10. p. 62. M. Broad his note upon it which sheweth but little good will unto it saith thus o D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. a. 1. pag. 30. So long it
restlesse turbulencie of sinne for that is a very troublesome evill the sinne of Simeon and Levi troubled Jacob Gen. 34.30 the sinne of Jonas troubled the aire and the sea and made it restlesse untill hee was offered up as a sacrifice to becalme it and The wicked saith Isaiah are like the troubled sea whose waves cast up mire and dirt Esa 57.20 and though the godly having lesse sinne have thereby the more rest yet to them it is a very troublesome and toylesome evill which will not suffer them to sleepe Davids teares are eye-witnesses hereof Psal 6.6 and for a more solide assurance of this truth hee bringeth in his bones to give testimony to it I finde no rest in my bones saith hee by reason of my sin Psal 38.3 The third acception of the name Sabbath but adding it to the former the sixth is that which the Apostle useth Heb. 4.9 the word in the originall is not Sabbatum but Sabbatismos but the termination troubles not the rest of the former part of the word and therefore our best Bibles render it as if it had beene the word Sabbatum by our English word Rest and this is the best Sabbath or Rest of all others wherein the Elect shall wholly cease from sinne and labour and it is that eternall Sabbath whereof the externall or temporall Sabbath was a Type in respect of the time of it as the Tabernacle or Temple was a Type for the place to the kingdome of Heaven where it shall bee enjoyned CHAP. XII Whether the day called Lords day or Sunday may not also be called Sabbath day or the Sabbath The exceptions which are taken up by divers against it THese acceptions premised it will bee the more easie to answer the exceptions which some have taken at the use of the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day who would have that name under so rigorous an arrest at the sute of Saturday that it may not stirre one step to the day next unto it and so wee may not by their leave call the Lords day the Sabbath day Of this minde are some of the greatest friends of the Lords day as well as they that as enemies oppose the divine authority of it for a D. bound l. 1. de Sab. p. 110. Doctor Bound a man sincerely devoted to the doctrine and duties of the fourth Commandement saith The name of the Sabbath was changed into the name of the Lords day which must bee retained and if the old name bee to bee changed and the new must be retained then the old name must bee taken to bee abolished at least to bee prohibited as to the day now solemnely observed and generally received And b M. Brerew repl p. 73. 74 Master Brerewood an opponent against divers points of Doctor Bound his Booke of the Sabbath in his Reply to Mr. Byfields Answer saith The name of the Sabbath remained appropriated to the old Sabbath and was never attributed to the Lords day for many hundreds of yeers after our Savious time none of the Apostles nor of the ancient Christians for many hundreds of yeers after them ever intituled it by the name of Sabbath and since him c Bish white treat of the Sab. pag. 134 135. Bishop White hath written Wee Christians keep a weekly holiday namely Sunday which with the holy Apostle Revel 1.10 wee stile the Lords day not the Sabbath day d D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 8. pag. 255. Doctor Heylin in his History of the Sabbath having objected against some an intent to cry downe holidayes as superstitious and Popish ordinances mentioneth as in scorne their new found Sabbath and Sabbath now saith he it must be called And the Translator of e The Transl of D ◠Prid. his Lect. on the Sab. Praef. pag. ult edit 2. Doctor Prideaux his Lecture of the Sabbath in his Preface before it bringeth in Barkley a Papist with a notable Dilemma as hee calleth it the better to encounter those who still retaine the name of the Sabbath What is the cause saith hee that many of our sectaries call this day meaning the Christians weekely holiday by the name Sabbath If they must observe it because God rested on that day then they ought to keepe that day whereon God rested and not the first as now they doe whereon the Lord began his labour If they observe it as the day of our Saviours Resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest but valiantly overcame the powers of death His question God willing shall bee answered anon as yet wee are to note onely his disallowing of the name as applyed to the Lords day which wee may observe also in f M. Dowe in his Discourse pag. 4. 19. Master Dowe his late Discourse of the Sabbath or Lords day and in g Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 12 13. Master Ironside his seven questions concerning the Sabbath h Mr. Broad his MS. of the Sab. part 2. cap. 2. p. 26. propè sin Master Broad forbiddeth Preachers in their Sermons to say Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it and would have them in stead thereof to say Remember to sanctifie the Lords day for the Lords day saith hee may bee called no more Sabbath then the Sabbath may bee called Lords day If as much it will bee enough as shall be shewed afterward But Master Braburne as hee misliketh that the Lords day should lord it over the Jewish Sabbath more then any so he cavilleth more at the calling of it by the name of the Sabbath lest under that name it should take up some authority from the fourth Commandement Hee beginneth his Discourse which is his former Book against it thus i Mr. Braburns Discourse of the Sab. p. 1. Bee pleased Christian Reader first of all to note that wee now adayes apply the name Sabbath to the Lords day promiscuously and without difference now thus to confound two proper names of dayes is as if wee should call Sunday Saturday and Saturday Sunday And to restraine the name Sabbath to the old day of the Jewes which hee pleads for hee would have the words of the Commandement rendred thus k Ibid. pag. 7. pag. 68. Remember the Saturdayes Rest to keepe it holy from which saith l Ibid. p. 200. hee the name Sabbath cannot bee separated And in his other Booke which hee wrote in defence of the former hee saith m M. Brab Defence p. 164. edit 2. That it is an errour of our Ministers to call the Lords day or the first day of the weeke by the name of Sabbath and a n Ibid p. 164. 626. meere fiction since none of the Apostles ever called it so nor is it any where so named in the Scripture hee addeth that o Ib. pag. 52. by calling the Lords day by the name of Sabbath they have robbed the Sabbath of its honourable ornaments that
Christianae Religionis observantissimus inter alia virtutum suarum praeconia hoc reliquit exemplum sanctimoniae die Dominico c. Albert. Krant metr l. 4. c. 8. p. 106. highly commended by Krantzius but for i Cum die Dominico cogitationibus gravatum cum gereret animum baculumque manibus reneret cultello ut sit scindulas fâ—â—it admonitus ab astante per jocum de violatione Sabbati non leviter in se punivit admissum scindulas collegit diligentissimè manuique suae impositus jussit incendi ut in se ulcisceretur quòd contra divinum praeceptum incautus admisisset Albert. Krantz Metrap lib. 4. cap. 8. pag. 106. our present purpose we are especially to note that that day which Dr. Heylin calleth Sunday was then called the Sabbath Ob. He saith the King was told by way of jest that he had trespassed therein against the Sabbath Ans So it might have been in jest if the party had used another name whether Lords day or Sunday and in using the name Sabbath rather then either of them it is most like that was a name rather of common use then of speciall choice to breake a jest withall l D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 5. pag. 158 159. Hee addeth for the yeere 1120 the time of Rupertus an observation of one Petrus Alphonsus calling the Lords day the Sabbath of the Christians but saith hee he meant none otherwise then the feast of Easter is called the Christian Passeover for which hee bringeth nothing out of that Authour that may bee a just ground for such a glosse And on the contrary it may be said that there is a Sabbath or Rest according to the letter confessed in the observation of the Lords day but the word Passcover was figurative even to the Jewes after their comming out of the Land of Egypt much more is it so to Christians since the comming of Christ Besides hee bringeth in one John de Burie Chancellor of the University of Cambridge about the later end of the reigne of King Henry the eighth assirming That every day designed to divine service might be called Sabbath which seemeth also to be the judgement of Bernard who expounds the fourth Commandement thus m Observa diem Sabbati quod est in sacris feriis te exeâ—ce quatenus per requiem praesentem discas sperare aeternam Bern. super salv Regina Serm. 4. col 1744. Observe the Sabbath that is Exercise thy selfe upon the holidayes that by present rest thou mayest learne to hope for rest eternall If so much more may the Lords day be called Sabbath which hath the preheminence of other dayes as the old Sabbath had every weeke throughout the yeere and not onely once a yeere as Easter and other holidayes which have in an anniversary revolution one turne and no more We need say no more then this to confute the fond and new found conceipt of Doctor Pockl. concerning the novelty of the name Sabbath wherein also n D. Heyl Hist Sab. part 2. c. 8. pag. 269. Dr. Heylins negative observation That a Sabbath day was not heard of in the Church of Christ forty yeeres agoe is disproved for a day of cessation from worldly works for religious duties which indeed is a Sabbath hath been in use in the Christian Church in every age since our Saviour ascended and the name Sabbath hath been often and answerably applyed to the thing as hath been shewed And if the Doctor said right touching the late time of the Sabbath and made a true returne by his ″ Search we did with all care and dil gence to see if we could find a Sabbath in any evidence of Scripture or Writings of the holy Fathers or edicts of Emperours or decrees of Councels or finaliy in any one of the publick acts and monumeÌ„ts of the christiaÌ„ Churcl but after severall searches made upon the aâ—ias and the pluries wee still â—eturne non est inventus So in the second page of his Epist to the Reader before the second part of his Hist of the Sabbath non est inventus for the fore going ages hee gave a wrong Title to the second part of his History when he called it The History of the Sabbath from the first preaching of the Gospel to these present times for if there were no Sabbath day heard of from the beginning of the Gospel untill forty yeers since he should rather have called it for that time the History of no Sabbath And albeit it be as strange to write an History de non ente or of a meer nullity as it is untrue that there was no Sabbath all that while yet such a Title had beene though more contradictory to the truth more correspondent to his owne tenet which with greater desire and more diligent endeavour hee striveth to defend yet haply as the truth in his conceipt and so without any contestation against his owne conscience I will yet think so charitably of him and if hee had done so by others it had been better both for them and him CHAP. XV. Royall and reverend Authority for putting the name Sabbath upon Sunday whereby it is cleared from schisme as well as from novelty THat it is no novelty to call the Lords day or Sunday by the name Sabbath wee have proved in the precedent Chapter by sundry Testimonies all of them of much ancienter date then the yeer 1554. designed by Dr. Pockl. for the first use of the word in that sense And for the time since which is long enough to gain allowance to a word especially such a one as hath congruity of reason to the thing whereto it is applyed we can name Authority for it sufficient to over sway any thing that he hath said against it and to cleare the use of it from schisme which the same Doctor Pockl. hath objected against it 1. The Book of a Homil. of the time and place of prayer pag. 102.164 twice p. 166. twice The Author of the Dialog betwixt A. and B. reckoneth ten times edit 2. p. 25. Homilies ratified by the Royall Authority of three Princes and by subscription of all the conformable Clergy in their severall reignes calleth the Lords day the Sabbath divers times 2. King James in his b Apud D. bound on the Sab. l. 1. p. 268 269. And D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. p. 257. Proclamation against profane sports dated at Theobalds May 7.1603 giveth to Sunday or the Lords day the name of Sabbath and in his second book of his c K. James Basilic Dor. lib. 2. pag. 164. Basilicon Doron having spoken of the lawfulnesse of recreations hee concludeth with a proviso that the Sabbath bee kept holy and no unlawfull thing done therein 3. 1639. 1. For the Towne of Weedenbeck 2. For John Cheny of Leftwich in Cheshire 3. For Walker in Yoâ—â—shire 1631. 4. For Riddlâ—hurâ—â— of Davâ—nhâ—m in Cheshire 5. For the Towne of Yaxall 6. For William Small of Cletham
1632. 7. For Richard Wood of Haâ—ton 8. For East and West Rebford 9. For Mariners of Hâ—lbâ—iâ— 10. For Amos Bedford a Minister in Lincolne shire 11. For Thomas Wilson of old Whitingham in Cheshire 1633. 12. For Underhill in Shropshire 13. For one Hubie in Yorkeshire 14. For Roger Posterne of Salop. 15. For the Town of Stone in Staffordshire 1634. 16. For Lincolneshire poore 17. For the poore of Haâ—lscot in the County of Salop. 18. For John Jackson of Langer in Nottingham shire 1635. 19. For Port Patricke and Doneghday in Scotland 20. For Broughton of Southampton where the Church Parsonage house and Schoole-house c. were burnt K. Charles our gracious Soveraigne that now is in his Briefes appointing the time for collections under his broad Seale setting downe the day when they shall be made nameth it the Sabbath day wherby it is plaine he meaneth not Saturday but Sunday and so which is directly against Dr. Pockl. his tenet and title that Sunday is a Sabbath The most that I have seen untill the yeer 1636. have directed to our weekely Holiday under the name Sabbath For intimation of the frequencie of that word in the sence wherein wee take it I have made a List of twenty Instances of Briefs for this County of Cheshire within these few yeeres and noted them in the margine not doubting but there have been many more both within it without which have not come to my view And I doubt not when the truth upon impartiall triall hath broken through all clouds of contradiction as certainely it will doe but the name Sabbath will out-shine the name Sunday and be again received into the stile of the Kings Briefes as formerly it hath been 4. The Reverend Bishops of the Land in the d Confer at Hamp Court p. 44 and 45. Conference at Hampton Court as conscious of the lawfull use of the word Sabbath day for Sunday when Doctor Reynolds desired a reformation of the abuse of the Sabbath before his Majesty that late was and themselves gave a generall and unanimous assent thereunto none of them for ought appeareth in the Booke taking exception that hee called the Lords day by that name And howsoever the name of the Lords day bee more usuall in their Ecclesiasticall Courts for our weekely holiday then the name Sabbath day is yet that they condemne not the use of it is plaine by the seventh Canon wherein they prescribe the use of the Register booke upon every Sabbath day In the Latin edition I confesse the words are diebus Dominicis and not Sabbath and there might bee reason for it because in Latine the word might bee more ambiguous that tongue being more generall and reaching haply to such places as yet have both the Saturday and Sunday in honour and use for the exercise of Religion yet had it beene Sabbath in the Latine also it had beene no prejudice but rather an advantage to the truth if withall it had beene understood to bee meant not of the old Sabbath but of the new Besides they meant no doubt by using the name Sabbath in the Canon in English to shew the lawfull use of that word as well as of others by which the same day is signified unto us and if the Latin bee of more authority then the English which in some respects may be so as before hath been observed wee can quote a Latin Booke of good authority for it it is the Book called Reformatio legum Ecclesiasticarum which mentioning the observation of our religious rest doth it under this e Praecipuus Sabbatorum cultus Reform Leg. Eccles fol. 18. b. Title the principall celebration of the Sabbath The high Commissioners of whom the Archbishop of Canterbury is chiefe are in Ecclesiasticall authority next to a publick Synod and of their indifferency for the use of the word Sabbath as well as the word Sunday or Lords day may appeare by the recantation enjoyned by them to John Hethrington wherein hee was to f The Sermon called the White Wolfe by Steph. Denison preached at Pauls Crosse the same day pag. 34. disavow that which formerly hee had delivered viz. that the Sabbath day or Sunday which wee commonly call Lords day since the Apostles time was of no force and that every day is as much a Sabbath day as that which wee call the Sabbath day Lords day or Sunday and in these termes hee was to publish it at Pauls Crosse Febr. 11. 1627. If it bee needfull to add particular testimonies for calling Sunday by the name Sabbath and such scandalous invectives as some have made against it will not suffer it to be superfluous we may note by name divers Reverend Bishops who take the word Sabbath in that sense as to begin with Bishop Latimer whom g D. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 28 29. Doctor Pocklington brings in expresly with other Bishops unnamed as a godly Prelate and well affected to the godly discipline of the Church and he was besides that a Martyr h B. Latimer he in his Sermon upon the Gospel of a King that marryed his sonne after he hath cited the story of the man stoned for gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day hath these words i Bish Latimer in his Sermon upon the Gospel of a King that married his sonne preached an 1552. as the title sheweth sol 188. p. 1. Which is an example for us to take heed that wee transgresse not the law of the Sabbath day and a little after hee addeth These words pertaine as well to us at this time as they pertained to them in their time for God hateth the dis-hallowing of the Sabbath as well now as then for hee is and still remaineth the old God hee will have us to keepe his Sabbath as well now as then for upon the Sabbath day Gods seede-plow goeth that is to say the ministery of the Word is executed for the ministery of Gods Words is Gods plow In which few lines hee calleth the Lords day Sabbath no fewer then foure times he calleth it Sunday also I confesse but that is nothing to this purpose since the name Sabbath is in question not the name Sunday which we have treated on before and proved to bee lawfull k Archb. Whit. Ans to T. C. p. 578. or 758. Archbishop Whitgift was after him in time though above him in degree and dignity of the Church and he translating a Testimony out of Justin Martyrs Apologie turneth dies solis into the Sabbath day l B. Babington Bish Babington sometimes his Chaplaine was Bishop of Worcester in the late Queenes reign as Bishop Latimer was in King Edwards daies a venerable Prelate and a frequent and famous Preacher and hee useth the same name of the same day * B. Babington in com 4. p. 72. printed 1594. in 4th wee plainely see saith hee what day the Apostles celebrated and met upon having their solemne Assemblies namely on this our Sabbath and it addeth
p. 72. Bishop of Elie where hee observeth out of Athanasius his Tractate de semente That the Saturday Sabbath was so observed that it was not prohibited Thirdly For Africa Saint Augustine since hee was an African Bishop may informe us by that hee hath in the 91. Psalme where treating upon it as the text of his Sermon Å¿ Hodiernus dies Sabb. est Aug. in Psal 91. tom 8. part 1. pag. 158. hee saith this day is the Sabbath if it were the Jewes day on that day he preached to the people and they had an holy Assembly on that day with conformity it is like to other Churches for hee calleth it the Sabbath as a day designed to holy duties and as it is like with conformity to other Churches if it were the Lords day hee called that the Sabbath and so the title is authorised by his Testimony But whatsoever become of these Allegations or however they prove for force or feeblenesse certain it is that the Decree of the Councell of t Concil Laodicen can 29. Caranz sum concil p. 190. Bin. tom 1. p. 300. Laodicea about the yeare 368. prevailed not so far as quite to put downe the observation of the Saturday Sabbath though to u Si inventi fuerint Judaizare i. e. non operando in Sabbato non praeponendo diem Dominicam eidem diei Anathema sint Ibid. Sabbatize with a Jewish cessation were forbidden upon pain of an Anathema for in time of Pope Gregory the Great there were some who had it in too great honour and religious reverence but by this time the Lords day had so farre advanced in estimation above it and in operation against it that ″ Greg. â—p 3.11 hee is almost as sharpe with them who were precise observers of the Sabbath with the Lords day as Ignatius was with such as combined them both in superstitious abstinence or fasting Gregory held those who observed the old Sabbath to bee x Perversi spiritus homines die Sabbati operari prohibent quos quid aliud nisi Antichristi Praedicatores dixerim Greg. â—p ex Regist l. 11. c 3. fol. 452 p. 1. col 2. Antichristian and y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. ep ad Philip pag. 45. Ignatius termed those who fasted on the Lords day or Sabbath one day excepted the killers of Christ So in his Epistle to the Philippians But for all that of the Laodicean Councell and this of Gregory the Sabbath was in some places upheld with the sacred services not onely as that z Sabbat is evangelia cum alâ—is Scripturis legenda esse censemus Concil Laod. can 16 pag. 180. Councell decreed for the reading of Scripture for that day but as with an equall respect to the Lords day which the a Ibid. can 29. Councell forbad and so it is to this day in the Ethiopicke Churches as b Quod autem Sabbatâ—n aequè ac diem Dominicum ab opere immune habent id non est argumentum Judaisini sed veteris Christianismi quot enim Canones sunt qui vetant Sabbato opus facere Joseph Scal. de emend temp l. 7. p. 683. Joseph Scaliger sheweth which hee will have to bee no argument of Judaisme but of ancient Christianity for how many Canons saith hee are there to forbid men to worke on the Sabbath day meaning the Saturday I wish hee had set downe how many some I have met with but not many and of those that which is pretended to be of the greatest Authority is in true judgement of least accompt viz. that of c Clement const Apost l. 7. c. 24. Clement published in the name of the Apostles which commands to keep holy the Sabbath day in memory of the Creation and the Lords day in memory of the Resurrection which if Clement had received from the Apostles the Romans it is like would which they did not have received it from him for they reckon him for one of the prime successors of S. Peter in the Bishoprick of Rome The summe of these observations concerning sacred Assemblies twice a weeke viz. upon Saturday the old Sabbath and the Lords day the new begun by the Apostles for the quicker progresse of the Gospel and better advantage of devotion and continued by Christians in after ages after their examples is this In the primitive times the Lords day was seldome called the Sabbath because then the old Sabbath of the Jewes was religiously observed with solemne Assemblies and while and where two dayes were so solemnized i. e. Saturday and Sunday it was sit to call them for distinction sake and to avoid confusion by severall names and good reason that the Saturday having for some thousand of yeers had possession of the title Sabbath when yet the Lords day or Christian Sunday had never shined in the world should be called the Sabbath rather then any other day and that the Lords day should rather be called by another name then by that But now at least among us who use the day which was the Jewes holiday not as a Sabbath or a day of rest but as a workeday now that some Jewishly some prophanely affected doe deny the name of Sabbath to the day wee celebrate to supplant the support of it by the fourth Commandement not as it is the Lords day but as one of the seven there is no danger of confusion by calling the Lords day the Sabbath but due caution thereby given against such conceits as tend to impeach the preheminence thereof CHAP. XXIIII The objection taken from the use of the name Sabbath in Histories Dictionaries and the Roman and Reformed Churches answered NOr is it any thing to prejudice the preheminence of the title Sabbath among us that Latin Authours whether of Histories or Dictionaries take the word Sabbatum usually for Saturday as a M. Brab his defence p. 44. Master Braburn hath objected since so long a custome of the Sabbaths observation upon Saturday both in the Jewish the Christian Church might easily prevail with many Writers to take the terme as they found it in familiar use before their time wherein they might be more facile while they suspected none advantage would be made of it against the truth But if from that facility of phrase exception be taken against the right of the Christians weekely holiday though a day of rest to the name Sabbath a name of rest then we must have recourse to the proper sense of the word and correspondence of the thing and rather speake according to both then to the improper and abusive application of it though customarie or usuall And as for the word Catholick though many Protestants have familiarly called the Papists by that name yet since they have insolently gloryed in it and perversely inferred from our use of it agreeing with their usurpation that wee that call them Catholicks doe by consequence confesse that our selves are Hereticks who are opposite to them as Coqueus concluded from
King James his courteous charientismes in the use of that title it is requisite that wee take it according to the right sense and signification which it properly importeth and so to deny them and affirme our selves to be Catholicks as the learned and judicious Chamier hath done who in his controversies continually calleth the Protestant tenets and arguments by the name of Catholick and the contrary Popish or the doctrine arguments or objections of the Papists So since the name Sabbath is impertinently applyed to the wrong day and wrongfully with-held from the right with purpose to impeach the tenure of our Christian Sabbath by the fourth Commandement wee must not so much regard how it hath been rightly used in former times while Saturday was allowed and observed for a Sabbath or day of rest or how the tyranny of custome hath carryed the name along where there is no realty to answer it as what it properly signifieth and how that propriety of signification now belongeth rather to our day which we celebrate with religious rest then to the Jewes day which we hold not for an holiday but for a workday as the other dayes of the week allowed and imployed in secular labours and wee must inure our tongues with correspondent titles to make mention of them And for the proper signification of the word wee may appeale more pertinently and truely then Master Braburn could to all Dictionaries in all languages which render the word Sabbath according to the ″ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sabbatum à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cessavit quievit destitit is dies quietis Hebraeis est septimus vel dies Saturni Christianis verò est primus vel Solis So Schindler Pentaglot pag. 1801. col 1. Hebrew originall by rest repose or cessation from bodily labours And though it bee usuall with them to take the terme rather according to custome then to truth and to apply it to Saturday the day of rest which anciently was but now is not many of the b So Thomasius word for word followeth Morelius in exposition and application of the name Sabbath later transcribing what they find in the former yet c Sabbath a day of rest among the Jewes celebrated on Saturday among the Christians on Sunday or the Lords day Minshei Dictionarium 10437. some more wisely and warily distinguish the name and render it according to the difference of time first to Saturday and then to Sunday for that day first and for a long time had and this now hath and shall have the honour of a sacred Sabbath untill the worlds end and therefore if it bee fit to speake rather according to the tenour of things as for the present they are and in perpetuity they shall bee then as formerly they were but now are not and must be no more when wee render the word Sabbath without distinction and difference of times wee should rather say according to d Cotgraves French Dictionary verb. Sab. printed 1632. the French Dictionarie that the Sabbath is Sunday then as Master Braburn would have it Saturday Ob. But then it will bee said though wee may differ in phrase and forme of speech from the primitive times because wee differ in practice from them wee should not so dissent from the Churches of later ages who have left off the observation of the Jewish Sabbath and with it the word Sabbath also Wee of the reformed Churches saith e Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 17. pag. 121. Master Ironside should not forsake the Roman Church but where necessity doth inforce us for then wee are guilty of the schisme made in the Christian world f Ibid. neither should we vary from our selves so much as were it possible in a sound or syllable for then wee may justly bee noted of singularity and affectation but both the Roman Churches and all the Reformed use to stile it the Lords day not Sabbath day Ergo c. This Argument is made up of three particulars whereof there is not one but it is liable to reasonable exception The first is That there should bee a strict union betwixt the Church of Rome and the Reformed and betwixt other reformed Churches among themselves except where necessity doth enforce a difference Secondly That to differ except in such a case from the Romane Church is to become guilty of Schisme and from the Reformed is to bee guilty of singularity and affectation Thirdly that to stile the Lords day Sabbath is to make our selves obnoxious to the charge of both Whereto I answer First that not to allow one Church to differ from another but where necessity doth inforce is to take away the Christian liberty which God hath granted to his Church contrary to the 34. Article of subscription which runneth thus It is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places one or utterly alike for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to diversity of countries times and manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word and a little afterward every particular or nationall Church hath authority to ordaine change or abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mens authority And accordingly we find them exercising their power in varieties of Rites and Ceremonies for the ancient g Die Dominico jejunare nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare Tert. de Coron milit c 3. tom 1 pag. 747. quoniam sunt in Dominico die quidam adoratione genua flectentes propterea utique statutum est à sancto Synodo quoniam consona conveniens per omnes Ecclesias custodienda consuetudo est ut stantes ad orationem vota Domino reddamus Concil Nicen. 1. can 20. apud Caranz sum Concil pag. 109 edit 1633. in 8no. Bin. tom 1. pag. 345. edit Paris 1636. Die Dominico per omnem Pentecosten nec de geniculis adorare jejunium solvere Hieron advers Lucifer tom 2. epist p. 140. So also in a Councell of Towers an 813. can 57. Patr. Symps hist of the Church lib. 4. pag. 557. Church for many hundred yeares partly forbad and partly forbore kneeling at prayer all the Lords daies in the yeare and all the daies betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide the later Churches neither forbad nor forbore it The Popish Church keeps the celebration of our Lords Nativity and other Holidaies according to the Gregorian Calendar ten daies sooner then the Reformed especially in England Scotland and Ireland And in many other points they differ besides these which are not of necessity as if necessity required might bee abundantly manifested out of William Durandus his Rationale and John Steph. Durantus his three bookes de Ritibus Eccles Cathol The Reformed Churches differ among themselves in many particulars For instance we in England observe more Holidaies then the Transmarine Churches more then his Majesty that last was required to be kept of the Church of Scotland by the Articles enacted at