GODS SABBATH Before the LAW Under the LAW and Under the GOSPEL Briefly vindicated from novell and heterodox assertions By HAMON L' ESTRANGE Gent. Nemo nostrûm dicat jam se invenisse veritatem sic eam quaeramus quasi ab utrisque nesciatur Aug. cont. Epist. Manichaei CAMBRIDGE Printed by Roger Daniel Printer to the Universitie 1641. And are to be sold at the Angel in Lumbardstreet 20. Maii 1641. At a Committee appointed by the Honourable House of Commons for the examination of the licensing and suppressing of books c. It is ordered that this Treatise be published in print at Cambridge unlesse the Vice-Chancellour do shew just cause to the contrary within convenient time EDWARD DERING I have read over this Treatise and am so farre from pretending any thing against the printing of it that I must needs professe it to be a work both Learned and Orthodox and highly meriting both the best care of the Printer now and the best attendance of any Reader afterwards RICH. HOLDSWORTH Procan To the most Honourable The Court Paramount within this Realm The High Court of Parliament or Assembly of the three Estates August Senate Mightie Sovereigne of Courts WHen I call to mind that of Aristides That the Gods are to be honoured with the consecration of Temples but eminent men with the dedication of Books I could not represent to my consideration a fitter Patrone for these my weak labours then the glorious Assembly and bright Constellation of the chief and prime lights of the kingdome I invoke not your aid to boulster out mischievous doctrine the main scope of too many late Dedications but to vindicate the Truth to maintain that Truth which contrary to the Proverb hath fled to corners hath lived in blind recesse and like a needy bankrupt dareth not yet walk confidently abroad without a Parliament Protection But you being now the Lord be praised upon the great work of Reformation your wisdomes will I doubt not make narrow inquiry not onely into State but Church-Monopolists those Gnosticks I mean which seemed to have ingrost all knowledge to themselves and under that pretence have in stead of Truth obtruded upon us their own pernicious errours Amongst those truths which these Projectours have laboured to suppresse none have been more furiously persued then those which relate to the Lords Day and which maketh the prodigie none have stickled therein more then they who have with so much clamour cried up Tithes and the Episcopacy things innocent yea commendable enough onely I wish with the Athenian in Gellius they had been defended by other men Whence we may collect that if this unhappy day could any thing have promoved their greedy or ambitious desires it had surely escaped the late indignities which these mens liberall malice hath profusely shed upon it it had still continued in the esteem of a day Divinely instituted immutable and totally to be sanctified three essentiall properties thereof which they have much endeavoured to evert I in this my work as much to uphold At the first instant of its manumission it hath a strong ambition great Councel to live under the influence of your favour a boldnesse on which it durst never have adventured had it not been assured the Truth which it professeth will gain it some measure of acceptance with so profest a Patriot of Truth The God of Truth prosper you and in you us he direct all your consultations that their issue may be his glory in the peace and safetie both of this Church and State with all true English Christians so fervently prayeth Illustrious Assembly In the highest degree of the lowest obedience Your L' ESTRANGE To the right worshipfull his highly honoured Father Sr. HAMON l' ESTRANGE knight of Hunstanton in Norfolk Most honoured Sr. TO this worthlesse Tract having meditated a double dedication not then purposing to prefix both or that I thought one not enough which of these two should preponderate my equall inclination to either I could not though with long debate determine at length therefore that I might dwell no longer in this suspence I resolved to issue out both and the rather because their errands were so difform so divers for This Treatise is the first fruits of my studies therefore of common right sacred to God and the rather because the main subject thereof is His Day His by institution His by denomination and it being the first fruits of dayes as Saint Basill elegantly calleth it of right his Now seeing all offerings were according to Gods prescript First to be brought to the high Priest who was to examine them whether they were such as God would accept and then to present them before the Lord To whom sooner then to your self Sir should I bring this my petty oblation It is said that Cain and Abel brought their offerings that is as most learned men conceive to Adam their Father that he might present them why then may not I mine to you If he was their Priest why may not you be mine Fathers of Families you know were anciently all such And though Consecration and Ordination hath somewhat dimmed their wonted splendour yet I hold for certain that their Priestly office neither is nor shall be utterly extinguished To you therefore Sir I hope not impertinently I bring this my poore oblation I know too well how strong frailty is in me to say it is without blemish or not lame yet if your judgement shall conceive it a work acceptable to God and beneficiall to his Church I most humbly crave you would be pleased to present it to him for me And this is the first cause of this addresse to you The other this Sir you are my Parent second in honour to God so the wisdome of the Ancients styleth you and certainly if any Parent may challenge honour from a Son you may from me To which honour you have a double title One wherein all Fathers intercommon by Generation the other almost peculiar to your self by Education I had almost said Regeneration perhaps not altogether unfitly for good nurture is a kind of morall Regeneration and usually a preparative to the Spirituall I call the Education you have bestowed upon me almost peculiar to your self because that whereas most Parents are either sordid in their allowance or negligent in instructing or become lewd patterns to their children you have in breeding me failed neither in purse nor in precept nor in example I write not this to flatter you but to manifest that I set a due and just value upon this your Fatherly care and that though there were no Divine Law to constrain me to it yet this alone were sufficient reason for me to honour you And if every the meanest part of my education obligeth me to this acknowledgement sure your training me up to letters much more especially in this age when to know even Fundamentalls and necessary Truths is accounted at least pedanticall if not as Saint Paul
will to them by the holy Ghost after his Ascension To render mine own opinion and beyond opinion I will not adventure Furiosares est in tenebris impetus it is madnesse to run too boldly in the dark where the Scripture is silent it is never safe dogmatically to determine any thing to render I say mine own opinion the first way seems to me the more probable considering our Saviours apparition the assembling of the Apostles upon that day whilest he abode with them and the testimony of Athanasius Nazianzene and Augustine but especially because Clemens a contemporary of the Apostles in his genuine epistle to the Corinthians saith g Our Saviours pleasure was that oblations and publick service of the Church should not be inordinately and uncertainly performed but at times appointed Which if it were true we need not then doubt but that Christ himself made the Lords day a weekly holyday it being the principall day we reade of destined to sacred duties in the Apostolicall age But the matter is not much by which so we be able to prove that at least by one of these waies he did it And this is a thing very feasable For to take a short and speeding course the most embraced and popular opinion is that the Apostles instituted and translated the Sabbath into the Lords-day this is agreed upon by all ancient and modern Augustine a The Apostles and Apostolick men ordained the Lords day to be celebrated with religious solemnity The Authour b of that Tract or at least of that Chapter falsely ascribed to Basil affirmeth the station and custome of standing upon the Lords day to be an Apostolicall Tradition if so then the day it self much more Isichius c We following the Tradition of them that is the Apostles sequestre the Lords day for holy meetings Epiphanius d saith that the Apostles ordained the Synaxes to be held {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} on the Wednesday Friday and Lords day I keep the originall word Synaxes because of the diverse sense whereof it is capable e The same is affirmed by Zanchy in quartum praeceptum pag. 669. Melancth. tom. 2. fol. 363. Bucer Ratio Can. Examin Mercer in Gen. Beza in Apoc. Pareus also ascribeth the Translation of the day Apostolicae Ecclesiae to the Apostolick Church onely of the time when they translated it he leaveth as he findeth doubtfull Quando autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris literis non apparet And so 〈◊〉 his words in two severall editions I have perused that in quarto and the other in folio which I note the rather to whisper to you D. Heilens fidelity who in his also two severall editions hath by a new transsubstantiation converted Quando into Quomodo and to make it apparent he did it de industria he descants on it and renders it How by what authority Ursin Catech. p. 3. in Decalogum is of the same mind and so Junius in Gen. Baldwin Cas. pag. 474. Alsted catech. in praecept 4. Bellarm. De cultu Sanctor l. 3. c. 11. and infinite others indeed what needs more it is confest by our very Antagonists themselves Brerewood a B. White b Heilen c who all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one mind acknowledge the Apostles to be the instituters of the Lords day This foundation of Apostolicall institution being thus laid I advance forward to enquire whether this act of the Apostles did flow onely from the generall authority delegated to them by Christ or some definite and expresse command to that effect or rather in clear terms I proceed to discusse that great question Whether the Lords day be established Jure Divino Great I call it not for any abstruse and perplexed intricacy in it no Learned and eminent maintainers it hath got and therefore great but it is not her great Patronage shall advantage errour Magna est veritas praevalebit Truth is great and will prevail yea but that is the question whose Truth is It is so and come then for the decision of this question d To that truth which is neither mine nor thine but the equall object of us both let us give attention our clear and 〈◊〉 judgements not beclouded with peevish stubbornnesse To entitle a command Divine it is not onely required saith that thus farre judiciously learned Brerewood that the Authority be so whereby it is originally warranted for there may be Divine authority for humane decrees but that the Authour also by whom it is established be Divine Because Divine commandments are not so much evidences of Gods authority as they are declarations of his will and pleasure Which being without controversie true that which we are to make good is That this Act of the Apostles was but the execution of a particular and severall command to that purpose which can no sooner render it self manifest then by surveying the Apostolicall both Mission and Commission As for their Mission it was with all the grace and honour that might be nothing wanting that might any way enhance it As my Father sent me so send I you John 20.21 He that heareth you heareth me Luke 10.16 where our Saviour maketh them a kind of letter of Atturney to receive what obedience himself might claim And having dignified their embassage with these previous expressions Go saith he Matth. 28.19 there is their Mission and Legation and teach there is their Commission But what to teach what themselves think fit no there is a limitation a restriction it must be onely the observation of what thinâ—s I have commanded you and lest through frailty of their memories any thing should perish which was essentiall to their message Christ himself will have an eye to them I am with you alway even to the end of the world saith he With them how in corporeall presence that could not be for he was now ready to leave them No he was with them in Spirit by the Comforter whom he promised to send them John 15.26 And this Comforter had his Commission too To bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever Christ had formerly said to them John 14. â—6 And though this Comforter is called the Spirit of Truth and so impossible it is that he should inspire any thing lesse then truth yet when Christ telleth his Apostles that this Comforter should guide them into all truth he presently saith withall That he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall heare that he shall speak He shall receive of mine and shew it to you which denoteth to us that the doctrine of the Gospel is in a more especiall manner to be ascribed to Christ then to the holy Ghost who was but our Saviours delegate and Committee therefore S. Paul saith that Christ spake in him 2. Cor. 13.3 It being then indisputably clear that the Apostles were inspired by the holy Ghost and that that Divine enthusiasme was
said of preaching foolishnesse I do not hereby arrogate to my self the name of a Scholer for my delight in learning hath been more then my proficiencie which God knoweth is very slender so slender as these my simple labours dare not approach you from any assurance of their own worth but because they are the products of those studies which derive their originall from your extraordinary both charge and care they think themselves of right to belong to you and so their motion towards you is not more voluntary then naturall Be pleased Sir to entertain them as testimonials of my filiall gratitude which is the chief end of this their second resort to you for they exceed their Commission if they speak so much what they are themselves though that is mere weaknesse as what I am that is Sir Your most honouring and Most obedient sonne HAMON L'ESTRANGE The Preface COncerning the publishing of this Treatise I expect to meet with two Interrogatories First why so late considering the Antisabbatarians have possest the stage without controul so many years Secondly why at all in regard there have of late issued out Tracts homogeneall wherein the Truth hath been evidently enough demonstrated Errour convinced To both these I hold it requisite to give my answer and if I can satisfaction To the first then I say I was retarded upon these reasons especially First though my studies have been most conversant in Eristick Theologie yet I delight therein more as a stander by and spectatour of others digladiations then out of an itch to enter the lists my self which of all things through a desire to suppresse from publick notice my private infirmities my Genius most declineth Secondly being conscious of mine own failings I was loth to betray so good a cause by so mean a champion as my self and so ipsÃque onerÃque timebam Lastly being of a Lay condition I held it discreet and good manners to leave the work to be performed by others who had both greater abilities and a calling more suitable to it To the second my answer is That this Tract was not onely commenced but as I then * thought finisht before intelligence arrived at me of any books extant of the same subject And when I first heard thereof I forthwith destined my pains as a sacrifice to eternall oblivion but having after compared our labours together it manifestly appeared that we varied much in frame every of us having somethings proper and peculiar to our selves verifying that * One man may find out more then another no man all things for which reason alone some learned friends to whom I had communicated it animated me with the advice of some additions to publish it Let no man therefore fore-judge me so obliquely as if I thought the labours of those worthy men either imperfect or impertinent to any whereof whosoever resorteth shall there find Antidote enough against the Anti-Sabbatarian infection a disease which hath prevailed rather through a secret disposition of naturall corruption to embrace it as any thing which rellisheth of liberty then from predominancy of arguments though backt with the authority of men eminent for their knowledge in letters three * of them especially to whom though I willingly afford all titles of honour which learning meriteth yet I boldly affirm had they left us no other demonstrations of their excellency that way then their Sabbatary Tracts they should never have attained so high a repute amongst us But let them without envy possesse the laurell they have deserved yet if any shall therefore wonder as I doubt not some will that such a Sciolus as my self have dared to oppose them I must reply what Luther did before in the like case God once spake that by an Asse which he concealed from the Prophet and revealed to the child Samuel what he hid from Eli the Priest They then that upbraid me with personall frailty be what they say as great and evident truth as they desire must know they quite mistake the question which is not whether I be illiterate ignorant weak or what else they please to call me but whether it be truth which I have here delivered and if any man will yield me the last yea whether he will or not I will freely grant him the first But to him who misliketh Truth and shunneth her because he meeteth her in my apparell let me give Augustines check Think of me your pleasure but beware what opinion you have of Truth This short advertisement being premised I addresse my self to the ensuing discourse Errata Page 11. l. 13. the matter reade this matter p. 15. l. 2. r. arguments and opinions p. 20. l. 18. view r. vive p. 43. l. 8. their r. others p. 66. l. 8. ceremony r. caremoniâ— p. 97. l. 9. prosekenique r. pro-selenique Gods Sabbath before the Law I Begin a work whose hardest work is to begin a work of the Sabbath and the beginning of the Sabbath which like Fame caput inter nubila condit a must begin this Tract. A task intricate and obnoxious to many precipices Davids curse I am sure to meet with A way dark and slippery I could indeed solace my self in this that I walk not alone and that on which side soever I fall I shall have learned associates But to erre for company or for singularity are to me alike odious Truth I serve and so farre as that Primary light Holy writ shall enlighten me Truth will follow not at all disanimated though the spark which should direct me to her seemeth to burn somewhat dimme as being a portion of one of those three first chapters of Genesis which were for their obscurity with the Canticles and some part of Ezechiel by the Hebrews interdicted to be read of any under thirty years of age b and which hath set eminent Doctours as well ancient as modern at oddes For whereas it is said Gen. 2.3 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he rested from all his works which God created and made it is by some supposed that Moses regarded not the time whereof but wherein he wrote by a Prolepsis and that it was onely an intimation of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the seventh rather then of any other day the subsequent of which glosse is the assertion That the Sabbath was not or commanded or observed untill Moses his dayes for the sustaining whereof they produce reasons specious and authority venerable First There is say they no other means for us to understand what Gods will and act was Gen. 2.3 but onely divine revelation But the holy Scripture neither maketh mention of any command of God given to Adam concerning resting upon the Sabbath day neither maketh any historicall narration of Adams or any other the Patriarchs observation of the Sabbath day now in cases of this nature Athanasius his rule is Because the Scripture is altogether silent in