of those five there is but one material and of any consequence in the main concernments of the Cause the other four being either extrinsecal or of less importance more then to shew that nothing in that History which was found liable to exception should escape uncensured Assuredly it had been a work more proper for so great an Antiquary a man so verst and studied in all parts of Learning to have returned a full and complete Answer to that History had he found it answerable then to except against some few passages in it of no greater moment and by so doing to justifie and confirm the Author in all the rest Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis is a good old rule and which I might crave leave to use to my best advantage but that I am resolved to try my fortune and make good those passages against which the Lord Primate hath excepted To the defence whereof with all due reverence to his Name and Memory I shall now proceed Noster duorum eventus ostendat utra gens sit melior And first the Lord Primate tells us this that when he gave himselfe to the reading of the Fathers he took no heed unto any thing that concerned this Argument as little dreaming that any such Controversie would have arisen amongst us p. 74. And I concur with him in words though perhaps not in meaning also there being none who reads the Fathers with care and caution who can suppose that any Controversie should arise about the Sabbath against the morality whereof the Fathers generally declare upon all occasions The Lord Primate tells us of Saint Augustin pag. 75. That purposely selecting those things which appertained unto us Christians he doth wholly pretermit that Precept in the recital of the Commandments of the Decalogue To which Testimony though this alone may seem sufficient to confirme the point I shall adde some more And first the said Saint Augustine tells us that it is no part of the Moral Law for he divides the Law of Moses into these two parts viz. Sacraments and Moral Duties accounting Circumcision the New Moons Sabbaths and the Sacrifices to appertain unto the first ad mores autem Non occides c. and these Commandments Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery and the rest to be contained within the second The like saith Chrysostom that this Commandment is not any of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which naturally were implanted in us or made known unto our conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that it was temporary and occasional and such as was to have an end where all the rest were necessary and perpetual Tertullian also in his Treatise against the Jewes saith that it was not Spirituale aeternum Mandatum sed temporale quod quandoque cessaret not a spiritual and eternal institution but a temporal onely Finally to ascend no higher Justine Martyr more expresly in his Dispute with Trypho a learned Jew maintains the Sabbath to be onely a Mosaical Ordinance and that it was imposed upon the Israelites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of their hard-heartedness and irregularity And as for the Lords day which succeeded in the place thereof the Fathers generally think no otherwise of it then as an Ecclesiastical Institution not founded upon any precept either of Christ or his Apostles but built perhaps upon some Apostolical practice which gave the Church authority to change the day and to translate it from the Seventh on which God rested to the First day of the week the day of our Saviours Resurrection And though the Lord Primate to gain unto the Lords day the Reputation of having somewhat in it of Divine Institution ascribes the alteration of the day to our Lord and Saviour page 76. yet neither the Author whom he cites nor the Authority by him cited will evince the point And first the Author will not do it the Homily De Semente out of which the following proof is taken being supposed by the Learned not to have been writ by Athanasius but put into his Works as his by some that had a mind to entitle him to it as generally all the Works of the Ancient Fathers have many supposititious writings intermingled with them Secondly the Authority or Words cited will not do it neither though at first sight they seem to come home to make proof thereof The words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the Lord translated the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the Lords day or first day of the week Which words are to be understood not as if done by his Commandment but on his occasion the Resurrection of our Lord upon that day being the principal motive which did induce his Church to make choice thereof for a day of Worship For otherwise the false Athanasius whosoever he was must cross and contradict the true who having told us that it was commanded at the first that the Sabbath should be observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his own words are in memory of the accomplishment of the worlds Creation ascribes the institution of the Lords day to the voluntary usage of the Church of God without any Commandment from our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We celebrate saith he the Lords day as a memorial of the beginning of a new Creation which is plain enough In the next place it is acknowledged by the Lord Primate That generally the word Sabbatum in the writings of the Fathers doth denote our Saturday p. 74. Which notwithstanding either because it was affirmed by the Historian History of the Sabbath Part 2. Chap. 2. Num. 12. that the word Sabbatum was not used to signifie the Lords day by any approved Writer for the space of a thousand years and upward or not to leave the Sabbatarian Brethren at so great a loss in that particular he would fain find out one though but one of a thousand who hath used it to denote our Christian Festivities also Where not that the Lord Primate doth not say as indeed he could not that the word Sabbatum was used to signifie the Lords day but onely to signifie the other Festivals of the Church the Christian Festivities as he calls them in which how much he is mistaken we shall see anon That one here meant and mentioned is Sidonius Apollinaris Bishop of Auvergne in France who describing the moderation of the Table of Theoderick King of the Goths upon the Eves and the excess on the Holy-day following he writeth of the one that his Convivium diebus profestis simile privato est that his Table on the working-dayes was furnished like the Table of private men but of the other dayes or Festivals he telleth us this De luxu autem illo Sabbatario narrationi mâ—ae supersedendum est qui nec latentes potest latere personas that is to say that his excess or Sabbatarian luxury required
RESPONDET PETRVS OR The ANSWER of PETER HEYLYN D. D. To so much of Dr. Bernard's Book Entituled The Judgement of the late Primate of Ireland c. As he is made a Party to by the said Lord Primate in the Point of the SABBATH And by the said DOCTOR in some others To which is added AN APPENDIX In Answer to certain Passages in Mr Sandersons HISTORY of the Life and Reign of K. CHARLES Relating to The Lord PRIMATE The ARTICLES of Ireland And the EARL of Strafford In which the RESPONDENT is concerned LONDON Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane and R. Marriot in S. Dunstans Church-yard Fleet-street M DC LVIII THE AUTHORS PREFACE To the Reader IT was upon the 2. of January that Doctor Bernards Book entituled The judgment of the late Primate of Ireland c. came to me from a friend in London which I had no sooner caused to be read over to me but I lookt upon it as the most unwelcome New-years-gift that could have been sent me from an enemy So far I found my self concerned in it that without a manifest betraying of my Fame and Innocence I was not to defer my Answer notwithstanding all the difficulties which appeared before me I considered of my own unfitness to enter into new disputes having so little use of my eyes and hands for such imployments the eminence of the name which I was to deal with in reference to whom I could be lookt upon no otherwise then as a Grashopper compared with the son of Anak and finally the disagreeableness of some part of the subject to the complexion and temper of the present times But on the other side that saying of S. Hierom Se nolle quenquam in suspicione Haereseos silentem esse That he would have no man hold his peace when suspected of Heresie over-ballanc'd all And in this Book of Doctor Bernards I found my self accused of Heterodoxie at the least if not of Heresie reproacht with violating my subscription and running cross unto the publick Doctrines of the Church of England in the Book of Homilies Reproches not to be endured but by guilty persons such as sink under the calamity of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-conviction So that being forced upon an answer I was resolved to make it as speedy as I could before prejudice and prepossessions had made too strong a head against me in the minds of men I never lov'd to have such work stick long in my fingers and therefore notwithstanding the extremity of the season and the tyrannie of a Quartan Ague under which I languished I gave it such a quick dispatch that it might easily have been publisht by the middle of the Term then following But contrary to my expectation it met with so many rubs between the Pen and the Press that the Term was past before it could be undertaken And then the undertakers were not willing to make too much haste a dead vacation being held to be no fit time to quicken and give life to the sale of new books not extremely popular But to say truth what I have lost one way by these delayes I have gained in another For by this means I have had the opportunity of seeing my self abused and reprochfully handled in the late History of the Life and Reign of King Charles the Author whereof hath been entertained by Doctor Bernard as a souldier of Fortune to undertake this Pen-combat for him though he would rather be supposed to serve under the Lord Primates Colours as the nobler General But serve he under whom he will t is all one to me who am design'd to bear the blowes not made the gentler by the Name and Reputation of the party who engaged him in it The best is that he hath not found me unprovided for my own defence and if he chance to fall back with some loss of Honour he must blame himself It hath been alwayes my desire not to die in debt and therefore I have paid this Creditor with an answer also For though I know well that neglected calumnies are of least continuance Convicia spreta exolescunt as it is in Tacitus yet this is to be understood of such common fames as pass upon the breath of rumor and are taken up on hear-say onely or from short-liv'd Pamphlets not of such calumnies as are enrolled upon Record or passe into the body of a publick History If contumelies of this nature were to go unanswered the party wronged must live defamed and die remedilesse a scorn unto the present times and a perpetual ignominy to the ages following To prevent which I have taken the best course I could to right my self against all opponents to let both Doctor Bernard and this fresh Adventurer understand the hazard which they so wilfully run into by provoking an unwilling Adversary who was resolv'd never to have looked back upon those Disputes which formerly had too much exercised both his Pen and Patience But being what is past cannot be recalled we must all submit our selves and our performances to the Readers judgment who I desire may be impartial and unbiassed on either side that so the truth onely may obtain the victory and let the people shout and say with them in Esdras Magna est veritas praevalet that is to say Great is truth and mighty above all things 1 Esdr c. 4. v. 41. From Lacies Court in Abingdon March 18. 1657. RESPONDET PETRVS Or the Answer of PETER HEYLYN D. D. TO So much of Doctor BERNARDS Book entitled The Judgement of the late Primate of Ireland c. SECT I. The priviledges of the dead infringed by Dr. Bernard The Answerer drawn unwillingly to this encounter The occasion and necessity of it The Fathers generally declared against the morality of the Sabbath The day of worship not transferred from the seventh day of the Week to the first by Christ our Saviour as the Lord Primate seems to make it The word Sabbatum not used to signisie the Lords Day by the Ancient Writers The Lord Primates great mistake in the meaning of Sidonius Apollinaris Sabbatarius Luxus what it was and of the riotous feastings of the Jews on the Sabbath day The Lords day vulgarly though but lately called the Sabbath by the artifice of the Sabbatarians contrary to the known meaning of the word Sabbatum in the Latine tongue IT was a pious wish of Tacitus that renouned Historian when he had brought Agricola to the funeral Pile ut in loco Piorum manibus destinato placidè quiescat that he might rest without disturbance in the place appointed for the souls of vertuous persons Thus Dido with like piety prayed ut senis Anchisae molliter ossa cubent that the bones of old Anchises might rest in peace and King Josia gave command that the Bones of the Prophet which prophesied against the Altar of Bethel should not be removed In which respect the grave is called by Tertullian
recorded in the fourth Commandment p. 113. And in these words we have two several propositions viz. First That the setting apart of some whole day to Gods solemn worship is juris Divini naturalis and secondly that the Sabbath which he meaneth by this solemn day was juris Divini positivi recorded in the fourth Commandment both which shall be examined in their several turns And first I would fain know of Doctor Bernard or any other of the Lord Primates Chaplains since he cannot answer for himselfe where we shall find that the setting apart of some whole day for Gods solemn worship was juris Divini naturalis That some time was to be set apart for the worship of God is agreed by all and reckoned by most knowing men not interessed in any party to be the moral part of the fourth Commandment but that this time should be some whole day is neither imprinted in mans heart by the Law of Nature nor ever required of the Iews nor observed by the Christians Or granting that some such whole day was to be set apart for Gods solemn worship I would fain know in the first place when the said whole day was to begin and how long to continue whether it were a whole natural day or a whole artificial day as they use to phrase it And if it were a whole natural day then whether to extend from midnight to midnight after the reckoning of the Gentiles or from Sun-setting to Sun-setting from Even to Even according to the account of the Iewes or if a whole artificial day then whether a day of twelve hours onely after the reckoning of the Iewes or from Sun-rising to Sun-setting be they more or less according to the several Climates under which men lived Which points unless they be well stated the conscience will have nothing in this case to rely upon In the next place considering that the Lord Primate speaks indefinitely of some whole day without determining when and how often the said whole day was to be observed I would fain know whether such a whole day was to be set apart once or twice in the week or whether it would suffice to the fulfilling of the moral part of the fourth Commandment if it were onely once a month or once a year or once in seven year or once in the course of a mans whole life For being it is said indefinitly that the setting apart of some whole day to Gods solemn worship is juris Divini naturalis ingraffed in the Heart of man by the Law of Nature it may be probably inferred that the setting apart of one whole day at what time soever a man pleaseth may very sufficiently comply with the intention of that Law and consequently discharge the man so doing from all further observance which how far it will satisfie the consciences of men or be accounted acceptable in the sight of God I shall leave to others to determine But admitting that this whole day which the Lord Primate speaks of was to have as frequent a return as the Iewish Sabbath I would then know when such a whole day was either ordinarily kept or required to be kept by the Iewes or Gentiles That no such whole day was ever ordinarily kept by the Iewes appears by their riotous feastings on the Sabbath day which before we spake of by which it is most evident that the one half of that day was either spent in Luxury and Riot or in Rest and Idleness and that the least part of the other moyety was spent in holy Meditation and much less in the solemn worship of God which in the first settlement of that Nation in the Land of Canaan was performed onely in the Tabernacle as afterwards in the Holy Temple at which but few of the people and those which dwelt near the place of worship could give any attendance We meet indeed with a Commandment that the Sabbath was to be continued from Even to Even Levit. 23. 32. that is to say from Friday evening at Sun-set until the like time of Sun-set on the Sabbath day Which Precept being first given by God with reference to the day of Atonement or Expiation and commonly applyed by the Iewes to the weekly Sabbaths requires no otherkeeping of the day for that space of time more then the afflicting of their souls by a solemn fast then onely rest from labour all servile works And this appears plainly by the first words of the said 32. verse where it is said That it should be unto them a Sabbath of rest compared with vers 30 31. where forbearing all or any manner of work is the chief thing required to the observation of that day And yet that rest from labour and cessation from all manner of work frequently intermitted also either with reference to the solemn keeping of the day it self Mat. 12. 5. or the preservation of the creature Luke 13. 15. 14. 5. But that the whole day extending from Even to Even should be either spent in afflicting their souls as it is meant onely of the day of Atonement or Expiation which was observed but once a year or in the acts of solemn and religious worship if it be understood of the weekly Sabbath to which the Iews commonly applied it also as before was said as I no where find So have I no reason to believe it without better grounds Certain I am that so much of the Sabbath day after this account as intervened between the Sun-setting on the Friday and the Sun-rising on the Sabbath was partly spent in rest from labour and making necessary preparations for the day ensuing and part thereof in necessary repose and sleep for the refreshing of their bodies and support of nature and how the rest of that day was spent we have seen before There is another place in Scripture much prest upon the consciences of the people by the rigid Sabbatarians of these times to stave them off from any lawful recreation on their new made Sabbath that is to say Isa 58. 13 14. where God speaks thus unto that people If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord. But if we look better on this Text and compare it with vers 3. of the same Chapter where we find mention of a fast and of the afflicting of their Souls on the day of that fast we may see easily that the Text so much insisted on by our Sabbatarians relates onely to the day of Atonement which being a day of publick humiliation and of confessing their sins to the Lord their God required a stricter withholding of themselves from their lawful pleasures then any of the weekly Sabbaths So as admitting that this whole day was by God required to be
precept of the Moral Law or the Law of Natures are not to be dispenst withal upon any occasion or necessity whatsoever it be and much less to be changed and abrogated at the will of man which explanation not to dispute the mutability or immutability of a positive Law will find as many Adversaries as the proposition as that which crosseth with the Doctrine of some of the first Martyrs in the Church of England and with the first Reformers and other leading men of the Protestant and Reformed Churches And first it is resolved thus by Mr. Tyndal a man sufficiently famous for his great pains in translating the Bible into English who suffered Martyrdom in the year 1536. As for the Sabbath saith he we be Lords over the Sabbath and may yet change it into Monday or into any other day as we see need or may make every tenth day a holy day onely if we see cause why Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday but to put a difference between us and the Jewes neither need we any holy day at all if the people might be taught without it And somewhat to this purpose though not in terms so fully significant and express we find affirmed by John Frith a man of much learning for his age who suffered Martyrdom in the year 1533. Our fore-fathers saith he which were in the beginning of the Church did abrogate the Sabbath to the intent that men might have an example of Christian liberty c. Howbeit because it was necessary that a day should be reserved in which the people should come together to hear the word of God they ordained in stead of the Sabbath which was Saturday the next day following which is Sunday And although they might have kept the Saturday with the Jew as a thing indifferent yet they did much better Which words of his if they seem rather to demonstrate the Churches power in altering the time of worship from one day to another then the mutability of the precept on the which it was founded I am sure that Zuinglius the first Reformer of the Church among the Switzers will speak more fully to the purpose Hearken now Valentine saith he by what wayes and means the Sabbath may be made a ceremony if either we observe that day which the Jewes once did or think the Lords day so affixed unto any time Vt nefas sit illum in aliud tempus transferre that we conceive it an impiety it should be changed unto another on which as well as upon that we may not rest from labour and hearken to the word of God if perhaps such necessity should be this would indeed make it become a ceremony But Calvin speaks more plain then he when he professeth that he regarded not so much the number of seven Vt ejus servituti Ecclesias astringeret as to enthral the Church unto it And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as can be comprehended in so narrow a compass More largely Vrsine the Divinity Reader in the University of Heidelberg and a great follower of Calvin in all his writings who makes this difference between the Lords day and the Sabbath That it was utterly unlawful to the Jewes either to neglect or change the Sabbath without express Commandment from God himself as being a ceremonial part of Divine Worship but for the Christian Church that that may design the first or second or any other day to Gods publick service so that our Christian Liberty be not thereby infringed or any opinion of necessity or holiness affixt unto them Ecclesia verò Christiana primum vel alium diem tribuit ministerio salva sua libertate sine opinions cultus vel necessitatis as his own words are Chemnitius yet more plainly for the Lutheran Churches who frequently affirms that it is libera observatio a voluntary observation that it is an especial part of our Christian liberty not to be tied to dayes and times in matters which concern Gods service and that the Apostles made it manifest by their example singulis diebus vel quocunque die that every day or any day may by the Church be set apart for religious exercises And finally as Bullinger Bucer Brentius cited by Dr. Prideaux in his Tract De Sabbato è nostri◠non pauci besides many others of the Reformed Churches by telling us that the Church hath still a power to change the time of worship from one day to another do tacitly infer that the Church hath power to change that time from the seventh day to the tenth or twelfth as well as from the first day of the week to the third or fourth so they which teach us that the sanctifying of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment do imply no less Of which opinion beside Tostatus and the Schoolmen before remembred we find also Calvin to have been Lib. Instit 2. c. 8. 11. 34. besides Simler in Exod. 20. Aretius in his common places Loco 55. Franciscus Gomarus in his Book De origine Institutione Sabbati Ryvet in Exod. 20. p. 190. to whom Chemnitius may be added for the Lutheran Churches In one of which it is affirmed that the sanctifying of a seventh day rather then of the eighth or ninth juris est Divini sed ceremonialis And if it be ceremonial only though of Gods appointment it must be subject unto change and mutability as well as Circumcision and the Passover or any other of the legal or Mosaical Ordinances And by another it is said that it can neither be made good by the Law of Nature or Text of Scripture or any solid Argument drawn from thence Vnum è septem diebus ex vi praecepti quarti ad cultum Dei necessariò observandum that by the fourth commandment one day in seven is of necessity to be dedicated to Gods service which does as plainly contradict the Lord Primates second Proposition as the Explication of it is found contrary to the rest before The second way whereby the Lord Primate doth strengthen and support his positive Law and makes it to come more near to the Sabbatarians of these later times is by his fixing the first Institution of it on the second of Genesis which makes it equal in a manner to the Law of Nature if not part thereof For that the institution of it in the first beginning is the very same with making it a part or branch of the Law of Nature may be inferred first from these words of Tostatus in Gen. 2. Num Sabbatum cùm à Deo sanctificatum fuerit in primordio rerum c. whether the Sabbath being sanctified by God in the infancy of the World had been observed by men by the Law of Nature And secondly it may be inferred from Dr. Prideaux in his Tract De Sabbato Sect. 2. Some saith he fetch the Original of the Sabbath from the beginning of the World
when God first blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Whence well this question may be raised Whether before the publishing of Moses ' s Law the Sabbath was to be observed by the Law of Nature And that the Lord Primate doth fetch the original of the Sabbath from the beginning of the World is evident from a passage in his Letter to Dr. Twisse p. 78. In which saith he addressing his speech unto that Doctor The Text of Gen. 2. 3. as you well note is so clear for the ancient institution of the Sabbath and so fully vindicated by Dr. Ryvet from the exceptions of Gomarus that I see no reason in the earth why any man should make doubt thereof And yet the matter is not past all doubt neither I am sure of that For other men as eminent in all parts of Learning and as great Masters of Reason as Doctor Ryvet ever was have affirmed the contrary conceiving further that those words in the second of Genesis are spoken in the way of a Prolepsis or Anticipation Gods sanctifying the day of his Rest being mentioned in that time and place not because the Sabbath was then instituted but because it was the occasion of setting apart that day by the fourth Commandment to be a Sabbath or a day of holy repose and rest to the House of Israel Of this opinion was Tostatus in his Comment on Gen. 2. countenanced by Iosephus Antiq. l. 1. c. 2. by Solomon Iarchi one of the principal of the Rabbins and many other learned men of the Iewish Nation as appears by Mercer a learned Protestant Writer and one well verst in all the learning of the Iewes in his Comment on Gen. 2. who addes de proprio that from Gods resting on that day Postea praeceptum de Sabbato natum est the Commandment for sanctifying the seventh day was afterwards given And this opinion of Tostatus passed generally for good and currant with all sorts of people till Ambrose Catharinus one of the principal sticklers in the Councel of Trent opposed him in it who though he grant the like Anticipation Gen. 1. v. 27. disalloweth it here And disallowing it in this place he not onely crosseth with Tostatus but with some of the most learned Christian Writers both of the Church of Rome and the Protestant Churches who hold that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first beginning nor imposed on Adam as a Law to be observed by him and his posterity Of this opinion was Pererius a learned and industrious man of the Romish party in his Comment on the second of Genesis And of this opinion was Gomarus that great undertaker against the Arminians in his Tract De origine institution Sabbati with many other eminent men of both Religions too many to be named in this place and time whose opinions in this point cannot otherwise be made good and justifiable but by maintaining an Anticipation in this Text of Moses though few of them speak their minds so fully and explicitely in it as Dr. Prideaux no way inferiour to the best of those who opine the contrary For what weak proofs are they saith he which before were urged God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore he then commanded it to be kept holy by his people And then he addes Moses as Abulensis hath it spake this by way of Anticipation rather to shew the equity of the Commandment then the original thereof So he in the third Section of his Tract De Sabbato Nor are such Anticipations strange in Holy Scripture for besides that Anticipation in the first of Genesis vers 27. allowed by Catharinus as before was said defended by St. Chrysostome on Gen. 2. Origen on Gen. 1. Gregory the Great in his Morals lib. 32. cap. 9. and finally justified by St. Hierom who in his Tract against the Jewes doth affirm as much we find the like Gen 12. 8. Judges c. 2. v. 1. both which are granted without scruple by Dr. Bound the first who set on foot the Sabbatarian Doctrines in the Church of England The like Anticipation is observed in Exod. 16. 32. as appears plainly both by Lyra and Vatablus two right learned men the first a Jew the second eminently studied in the Jewish Antiquities And yet the observation is much elder then either of them made by St. Augustine who lived long before the time of Lyra in his 62. Question on the Book of Exodus and by Calvin who preceded Vatablus in his Comment on that Tract of Scripture These passages and Testimonies I have onely toucht and pointed at as plainly and briefly as I could for the Readers better satisfaction in the present difference referring for the Quotations at large to the History of the Sabbath Part 1. c. 1. n. 2 3. 4. and there he shall be sure to find them From all which laid together it is there concluded that for this passage of the Scripture there is nothing found unto the contrary but that it was set down in that place and time by a plain and neer Anticipation and doth relate unto the time wherein Moses wrote and therefore no sufficient warrant to fetch the institution of the Sabbath from the first beginning Nor could I find when I had Doctor Ryvet under my eye that his Arguments against Gomarus were of weight enough to counter ballance the Authority of so many learned Writers both Jewes and Christians or to weigh down so many Texts of holy Scripture in which the like Anticipations are observed by Origen Hierom Chrysostome and Gregory the Great men of renown for Piety and Learning in the primitive times and by many other learned men in the times succeeding though otherwise of different perswasions in the things of God But Ryvet and the Lord Primate held the same opinion both of them grounding the first institution of the Sabbath on a Positive Law Legem de Sabbato positivam non naturalem agnoscimus are the words of Ryvet p. 173. which is the same with the Lord Primates jus Divinum positivum though in different terms And therefore it can be no marvel if Ryvets Arguments be cried up for vindicating that passage in the second of Genesis in so full a manner that the Lord Primate can see no reason in the earth why any man should make doubt thereof And yet there may be good reason for it though he see it not Now that the seventh day Sabbath was not a part or branch of the Law of Nature which is observed to be a necessary consequent following upon the fixing of the first institution of it in the second of Genesis will evidently appear by the concurrent testimonies of learned men both of the elder and last times It was indeed naturally ingraffed in the heart of man that God was to be worshipped by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Grecian Orator Imprimis venerare Dium said the Latine Poet. And it was also naturally ingraffed in the heart of man not
which grew in the middle of the Garden as namely by Tertullian adversus Iudaeos Basil de jejunio Ambrose Lib. de Elia jejunio c. 3. Chrysostom Hom 14. 16. on the Book of Genesis Austin de Civitate l. 14. c. 12. As also by many other Christian Doctors of all times and ages who from hence aggravate the offence of Adam in that he had but one Commandment imposed on him and yet kept it not By others it is said expresly that Adam never kept the Sabbath as certainly he would have done at some time or other if any such Commandment had been given him by the Lord his God as namely by Iustin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Iew Tertullian in his Book adversus Iudaeos which may be gathered also in the way of a necessary consequence from the words of Eusebius De Praep. Evang. l. 7. c. 8. and those of Epiphanius adversus Haereses l. 1. n. 5. Whose words we have laid down at large Hist of Sub. p. 1. c. 1. n. 5. This is enough to prove that no command for keeping of the Sabbath day was given to Adam in his own personal capacity and no more then so besides the necessary expiring of the Sabbath with him had it been so given And that it was not given to him as the common Root of Mankind will appear as plainly by the not keeping of that day by any which descended from him till it was declared unto the Israelites in the fall of Mannah and afterwards imposed upon them by the fourth Commandment for if it had been kept by any it must have been by those of the godly Line from whom our Saviour was to derive his Humane nature and yet it hath been proved out of very good Authors that it was never kept by Abel Seth Enos Enoch or Methusalem nor finally by Noah himselfe though called in Scripture by the name of a Preacher of Righteousness the proofs whereof may be found at large in the History of the Sabbath Part 1. Chap. 2. Num. 6 7 8 9. And if it were not kept by those of the godly Line we have no hope to find any thing for the keeping of it in the house of Cain or in the families of any of the other Sons of Adam whose extreme wickedness grew so abominable in the sight of God that he was forced to wash away the filth thereof by a general Deluge After the Flood we find the world repeopled by the Sons of Noah the godly Line being as ignorant of the Sabbath as the rest of the Nations for it hath been sufficiently proved out of very good Authors that neither Sem nor Melchisedech if a different person from him nor Heber nor Lot ever kept the Sabbath and that it was not kept by Abraham or any of his Sons as neither by Iacob Ioseph Moses or any of the House of Israel as long as they remained in Egypt in the House of Bondage for which see Hist of Sab. Part. 1. c. 3. n. 4 5 7 8 9. And if we find no such observance in the House of Sem who were more careful of their wayes and walked agreeably to the declared will and pleasure of Almighty God it were in vain to look for it in the House of Iaphet or in that of the accursed Cain the founders of the Europaean and African Nations or amongst any others which descended from the Sons of Sem who pass together with the rest by the name of Gentiles Now that the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath is proved by divers of the Fathers and many of the greatest Clerks among the Iewes whom affirm expresly that the Commandment of the Sabbath was given to none but those of the House of Israel Of this mind was St. Austin Epist 119. De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11 13. Epist 86. Ad Casalanum in all which places he appropriates this Commandment to the Iewes or Hebrews St. Cyril in Ezek. h. 20. Theodoret in Ezek. 20. Procopius Gazaeus in Gen. 21. And for the Iews it was a common opinion received amongst them that the Sabbath was given to them onely and not to the Gentiles as Petrus Galatinus proves from the best of their Authors who thereupon inferreth Quod Gentes non obligantur ad Sabbatum that the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath The like may be gathered from Iosephus who in many places calls the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a national custome Antiq. lib. 4. cap 8. de bello lib. 2. cap. 16. to whom I shall now adde another of later date of my Lord Primates own commending that is to say Manasses Ben Israel who telleth in his Book De Creatione that the observation of the Sabbath was commanded onely unto the Israelites and that all the Duties which the Heathen were tied unto were comprised in the precepts given to the sons of Noah as is affirmed in the Letter to Dr. Twisse p. 78. And that the Sabbath was not kept by the Gentiles as well as not imposed upon them by any Commandment the Historian hath made good by two several Mediums whereof the first is taken from the writings of the Gentiles themselves by which it doth appear that they gave no greater respect to the Saturday then to any other day whatever and that though they celebrate the seventh day as a festival day yet was it not the seventh day of the weeek but the seventh day onely of every month which might happen as well upon any of the six dayes as upon the Saturday And so it is observed by Philo a right learned Jew who puts this difference between the Gentiles and the Jews that divers Cities of the Gentiles did solemnize the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once a month beginning their account with the new Moon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that the Jewes did keep every seventh day constantly Nor was the seventh day of the month on which they sacrificed to Apollo esteemed more holy by the Gentiles then their other Festivals on which they tendered their Devotions to their other Gods and in particular was not accounted more holy then the first or fourth which Hesiod placeth in the same parallel with the seventh in this following verse viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which if any should take notice that the attribute of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or holy is affixt unto the seventh day onely the Scholiast on that Author shall remove that scruple A novilunio exorsus tres laudat omnes sacras dicens septimam etiam ut Apollinis natalem celebrans and tells us that all three are accounted holy and that the seventh was also celebrated as Apollo's birth-day As for the first day of the month as is observed by Alexander ab Alexandro it was consecrated by the Greeks to Apollo also the fourth to Mercury the eighth to Theseus because he was derived from Neptune to whom as Plutarch saith they
by Clemens Alexandrinus l. 5. Stromat Eusebius lib. 13. De praeparat Evangel which verses and four others to the same effect he might have found in the History of the Sabbath Part 1. Chap 4. Num. 9. And there he might have found also that those verses had been formerly alledged by a learned Iew named Aristobulus who lived about the time of Ptolemy Philometor King of Egypt The three Poets which I find here cited are Homer Linus and Callimachus the three verses these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But there is nothing in these verses which proves either the Proposition or the Supposition touching the honouring of the seventh day more then any other but onely that the Poets were not ignorant that the works of the Creation were finished on the seventh day as himself acknowledgeth p. 86. Now how these Poets came to know that the Creation of the World was finished on the seventh day is told us by Aristobulus before mentioned namely that the Poets had consulted with the holy Bible and from thence sucked this knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his own words are And this may be agreeable enough to the times they lived in For Homer who was the oldest of them flourished about 500. years from the death of Moses which hapned in or near the Reign of Solomon the Son of David the most mighty Monarch of the Hebrews at what time the people managed a great trade in Egypt and held good correspondence with those of Tyre from both of which being Sea-faring Nations the Greeks might come unto the knowledge derived to them from the Book of Moses of the Worlds Creation And as for Callimachus who was the latest of the three he lived not till 700. years from the time of Homer which hapned in the Reign of Seleucus Nicanor the first King of Syria of the Macedonian Race or Linage when the Jewes were under the command of one or other of the Princes of Greece as Successors to Alexander the Great in his Eastern Conquests Now for Tertullian on whose Authority the Lord Primate doth most rely we find him cited pag. 84. in two several places each place relating to a several Tract of that learned Writer The first is taken from the first Book and thirteenth Chapter of his Tract inscribed Ad Nationes published first amongst the rest of his Works in the Edition of Rigaltius and not long after in a small volume by it selfe at Geneva Anno 1625. with Gothofred his Notes upon it supposed by some to be but the rude draught of his Apologetick adversus gentes but whether it be so or not we must take it as it lies before us and the words are these viz. Qui solem diem ejus nobis exprobratis agnoscite vicinitatem non longè à Saturno Sabbatis vestris sumus Where first it is to be observed that Tertullian speaks not this of the ancient Gentiles but applies himself to those onely of the times he lived in and therefore no fit Author either to prove the Proposition That the Heathens did attribute some holiness to the seventh day and gave it a peculiar honour above the other days of the week unless he mean it of the Heathens amongst whom he lived much less to justifie the perpetual Tradition of the seventh day which the L Primate will not have to be derived unto them from the Common-wealth of Israel but the Sons of Noah And secondly we may observe that many of the Gentiles at that time when Tertullian wrote that Tract unto them had taken up many of the Jewish customs amongst others the observation of their Sabbath whose riotous feastings on the same might be communicated very readily unto all the rest But this can be no proof at all for the times preceding especially before the Jewes began to intermingle in the Provinces of the Roman Empire and much less serve to fill up that vast vacuity which was between that intermingling and the Sons of Noah Pass we on therefore to the next taken from the Apologetick Chap. 16. to which for the better understanding of the former passage we are referred by Gothofredus Aequè si diem solis saith Tertullian laetitiae indulgemus alia longè ratione quà m religione solis secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio victui decernunt exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant Which words of his though the Lord Primate would apply as spoken of because they are spoken to the Gentiles I doubt not but upon examination of the Authors meaning we shall find it otherwise which passage by the Scholiast is thus glossed Quod autem ad diem solis attinet alio ratio est à cultu solis quae nos eum diem qui est à Saturni secundus à Judaeis superstitiosè observatur celebrare persuadet nam illi nesciunt suam legem explosam jam exoletam refrixisse Pamelius gives this note upon it That the Christians celebrated the Sunday ut distinguantur à Judaeis qui diem Saturni id est Sabbatum solenniter etiamnum otio decernunt to the end they might be distinguished from the Jewes who devoted their Sabbath which the Romans call by the name of dies Saturni unto ease and eating What the effect is of the Scholiast and his Paraphrase we shall see anon In the mean time we may observe that Tertullian doth not say secundo loco à vobis sumus that we are in the next place to you by which he might understand the Gentiles but secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio victui decernunt who dedicate the Saturday unto sloth and luxury which must be understood of the Jewes and of none but them And whereas the Lord Primate layes the strength of his Argument on the last words of his Author viz. Exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant that is to say that the Gentiles by consuming that day in ease and riot had deviated from the custome of the Jewes of which they were ignorant yet certainly those words are capable of no such construction For certainly the Gentiles by consuming that day in Rest and Riot could not be said to deviate from the custom of the Jewes whose riotous feastings on their Sabbath had made them a reproch to the Greeks and Romans nor could they in any sense be said to be ignorant of the Jewish custome in that kind which Plutarch had before observed and charged upon them In the next place the Scholiast applying the former passage to the Jewes alone and their superstitious observation of their Sabbath or Saturn's-day gives us this gloss on the last words which are now before us viz. Nam illi nesciunt suam legem explosam jam exoletam refrixisse that is to say that they were ignorant that the Law by which their Sabbath had been ordained was repealed abrogated
observed by the ancient Gentiles whom that old Bishop of Antioch had no reference to in this citation Johannes Philoponus the Grammarian speaks more plainly then Theophilus did but he speaks nothing to the point which we have in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which Balthazar Corderius thus translateth Illud certè omnes homines consentiunt septem soles esse dies qui in seipsos revoluti totum tempus constituunt And so it was no question in that Authors time which was about the year 600. and somewhat after the distinction of time into weeks being then generally received by all civil Nations who either had received the Gospel or had been under the command of the Roman Empire That which comes after touching Moses Solus itaque magnus Moles septenarii dierum numeri rationem divina inspâ—ratione hominibus tradidit shewes rather the original of the distinction then the general practice it being more then a thousand years from the death of Moses before that distinction of time was received by the Gâ—eeks and Râ—mâ—ns and therefore not to be hoped nor look't for in the barbarous Nations And this is that which Petavius the Jesuite a right learned man hath thus delivered Anni divisio posterior est in Hebdomadas ea dividendi ratio prorsus à Iudaeis o iginem traxit Romani etiam ac Gentiles ante Tertulliani aevum adscivâ—sse videntur The last division of the year saith he is into weeks derived originally from the Hebrewes and seems to have been taken up by the Romans and other Gentiles before the time of Tertullian who takes notice of it By which it seems that this distinction was of no great standing in the Roman Empire till first their acquaintance with the Jewes and afterwards their receiving of the Christian faith had brought it into use and esteem amongst them The Proposition of the Histoâ—ian being thus made good I doubt not but the Application wil hold accordingly For hereupon it is inferred Hist of Sab. Part. 1. c. 4. n. 11. That the Chaldees Persians Greeks and Romans all the four great Monarchies did observe no Sabbaths because they did observe no weeks But the poor Historian must not pass with this truth neither which necessarily doth arise upon the proof of the Proposition And therefore he is told That if he had read how well the contrary is proved by Rivetus and Salmasius he would not have made such a Conclusion as he doth That because the Heathen of the four great Monarchies at least had no distinction of weeks therefore they could observe no Sabbath And I concur fully with the Lord Primate in this particular The Historian was not so irrational as to infer that the Heathen of the four great Monarchies could observe no Sabbath because they did observe no weeks in case it had been proved to his hand or that any sufficient Argument had been offered to him to demonstrate this that the very Gentiles both Civil and Barbarous both Ancient and of later dayes as it were by an universal kind of Tradition retained the distinction of the seven dayes of the week which is the point that Rivet and Salmasius are affirmed to have proved so well p. 79. But on the contrary the Historian having proved that there was no such distinction of the seven dayes of the week retained by the ancient Gentiles either Civil or Barbarous and so well proved it that the Lord Primate hath not any thing to except against him the Application will hold good against all opposition and I shall rest my selfe upon it that the Heathen which observed no Weeks could observe no Sabbath SECT V. The Historian taxt for saying that the falling of the first Pentecost after Christs Ascension upon the first day of the week was meerly casual The Lord Primates stating the Question and his inference on it Exceptions against the state of the Question as by him laid down viz. in making the Feast of First fruits to be otherwise called the feast of Pentecost or the feast of Weeks c. and that he did not rightly understand the meaning of the word Sabbath Levit. 23. 16. The Pentecost affixt by Moses to a certain day of the month as well as the Passover or any other Annual Feast made by the Primate to fall alwayes on the first day of the week and God brought into act a miracle every year that it might be so An Answer to the Lord Primates Argument from the practice of the Samaritans in their keeping of Pentecost The Quartodecimani and the Samaritans Schismaticks at the least if not Hereticks also The Lord Primate puts a wrong sense upon Isychius and Saint Ambrose to prove that they gave to the Lords day the name of Sabbath and his ill luck in it The inference of the Lord Primate examined and rejected The first day of the week not called the Lords day immediately after the first Pentecost as is collected from Waldensis nor in a long time after The Lord Primates great mistake in Tertullians meaning about the Pentecost Each of the fifty dayes which made up the Pentecost esteemed as holy by the Primitive Christians as the Lords day was The mystery of the First fruits not first opened by the Lord Primate as is conceived by Dr. Twisse who applauds him for it THe second charge which the Lord Primate layes upon the Historian relates unto the holding of the great feast of Pentecost upon which day the Holy Ghost came down and sate upon the heads of the Apostles in the shape of cloven fiery tongues and added by Saint Peters preaching no fewer then three thousand soules to the Church of Christ It was saith the Historian a casual thing that Pentecost should fall that year upon the Sunday It was a moveable feast as unto the day such as did change and shift it selfe according to the position of the feast of Passover the rule being this that that on what day soever the second of the Passover did fall upon that also fell the great feast of Pentecost Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semper eadem est feria quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scaliger hath rightly noted So that as often as the Passover did fall upon the Saturday or Sabbath as this year it did then Pentecost fell upon the Sunday but when the Passover did chance to fall upon the Tuesday the Pentecost fell that year upon the Wednesday sic de caeteris And if the Rule be true as I think it is that no sufficient Argument can be drawn from a casual fact and that the falling of the Pentecost that year upon the first day of the week be meerly casual the coming of the Holy Ghost upon that day will be no Argument nor Authority to state the first day of the week in the place and honour of the Iewish Sabbath But the Lord Primate will by no means allow of this and therefore having framed a discourse concerning the feast of Pentecost
and the day on which it was to be holden he lets us see by a marginal Note p. 90. against whom it is that he bends his forces viz. against Dr. Heylyn Part 2. c. 1. pag. 14. Let us see therefore what he hath to say against Dr. Heylyn in this particular and into what inconveniencies he runs himselfe by the contradiction In order whereunto he must first observe how he states the question and then consider whether his proofs and arguments will come up to it The Israelites saith he by the Law of Moses were not onely to observe their weekly Sabbath every seventh day but also their feasts of weeks once in the year which although by the vulgar use of the Jewish Nation it may now fall upon any day of the week yet doe the Samaritans untill this day constantly observe it on the first day of the week which is our Sunday for which they produce the Letter of the Law Leviticus 23. 15 16. where the feast of the first fruits otherwise called Pentecost or the feast of weeks is prescribed to be kept the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which not they onely but also amongst our Christian Interpreters Isychius and Rupertus do interpret to be the first day of the week p. 87 88. This ground thus laid and some proofs offered quite beside the point in question to shew that the Lords day was called by the name of Sabbath in some ancient Writers he builds this superstructure on it and makes this following Descant on the former Plain song viz. But touching the old Pentecost it is very considerable that it is no where in Moses affixed unto any one certain day of the month as all the rest of the feasts are which is a very great presumption that it was a moveable Feast and so varied that it might alwayes fall upon the day immediately following the ordinary Sabbath And if God so order the matter that in the celebration of the feast of weeks the seventh day should purposely be passed over and that solemnity should be kept on the first what other thing may we imagine could be presignified thereby but that under the state of the Gospel the solemnity of the weekly service should be celebrated upon that day p. 90. Such is the state of the Question and such the inference which ariseth from that stating of it both which are now to be examined as they lie before us And first the feast of first fruits was not otherwise called Pentecost or the feast of weeks as the Lord Primate sayes it was For though two loves in the name of the first fruits of the second or wheat Harvest were to be offered to the Lord on the feast of weeks which being celebrated on the fiftieth day from the sixteenth of Nisan had the name of Pentecost yet was the name of the feast of first fruits appropriated more especially to the second day after the Passover or the sixteenth of Nisan on which the people offered the first fruits of their Barley which in that country was first ripe and from which the Computation of the said fifty dayes was to take beginning And it was thus appropriated for these reasons following 1. Because the sixteenth of Nisan was the first day of their Harvest on which the people were to offer the very first fruits of the increase of the earth which in that Country was their Barley before which time they were not to eat either bread or parched corn or the green ears of it this offering to be made in the Sheafe or Gripe before the Corn was thresht out v. 10. to the end that all the subsequent Harvest by the offering of these first fruits might be blest unto them whereas the offering of the two loves in the name of the first fruits of their Wheat was not until the end of Harvest above seven weeks after when the Wheat was hous'd and threshed and made into bread And secondly the name of the feast of first fruits was appropriated to the sixteenth of Nisan because it had no other name by which it might be dignified above the rest of the fifty and distinguished from them whereas the day on which the two loves were to be offered was eminently known by the name of the feast of weeks and the feast of Pentecost and sometimes also called the feast of the Law because the Law was given that day by the hand of Moses In the next place the Lord Primate either did not understand the meaning of the word Sabbath Levit. 23. 15 16. or if he did he would not seem to understand it the better to carry on some design for the Sabbatarians for by the tenour of his discourse it appeareth most evidently that in both places he understands the word Sabbath in no other sense but as it signifies the weekly Sabbath of the fourth Commandment and thereupon concludes that the computation of the fifty dayes beginning on the morrow after the Sabbath and continuing till seven Sabbaths should be complete even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath the feast of Pentecost must of necessity fall upon the first day of the week which is now our Sunday If so the Sabbatarian Brethren are in the right in making the falling of the first Christian Pentecost on which the Holy Ghost came down and sat on the heads of the Apostles three thousand souls being that day added to the Church of Christ to be an argument of some weight for their Lords-day Sabbath and Dr. Heylyn is in the wrong for making the falling of that Pentecost upon the first day of the week to be a matter of casualty the feast of Pentecost not being tyed to a certain day but falling on any day of the week as the year did vary But by his leave by Sabbath in verse 15. And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath we are to understand the feast of unleavened bread which with all other of the Annual feasts had the name of Sabbath as appears plainly by many several passages in this very Chapter And this is that which is observed by some of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostom Hom. in Matth. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidore Epist 110. l. 3. And secondly by Sabbath in the rest of those two verses viz. Seven Sabbaths shall be complete even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath c. we are not to understand the weekly Sabbath but the week it selfe the whole seven dayes which from the last in order but the first in dignity took the name of Sabbath For so we read it in Chap. 18. of Saint Luke where the Pharisee boasted of himself that he fasted twice a week verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek original Jejuno bis in Sabbato saith the vulgar Latine Thus also in Matth. 28. Luke 24. we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prima una Sabbati as the vulgar hath it to denote
violate the Law of Moses in keeping the feast of Pentecost on any day of the week whatsoever as it chanced to fall And on the other side the Samaritans being lookt upon by the Jewes as Schismaticks as Hereticks also by Epiphanius and divers other Christian Authors can make no president in this case nor ought to have their practice used for an Argument to consute the practise of the Jewes the more regular people and more observâ—â—â— of the Law and the punctualities or nicities of it then the others were Much like to this was the point in difference between the old Hereticks called Quartodecimani and the Orthodox Christians about the time of keeping Easter which the Quartodecimani kept alwayes on the fourteenth day of the month on what day soever it should happen on which day the Jewes also kept their Passeover the Orthodox Christians keeping it on the Sunday after in memory of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour for which the feast of Easter was first ordained He that shall justifie the Samaritans against the Jewes in the case of Pentecost may as well justifie the Quartodecimani against the Orthodox Christians in the case of Easter And yet to justifie the Samaritans it is after added that they produce the Letter of the Law Levit. 23. 15 16. where the feast of the first fruits otherwise called Pentecost or the feast of Weeks is prescribed to be kept the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which they interpret to be the first day of the week p. 87 88. As if the Jewes did not or could not keep themselves to the Letter of the Law in keeping Pentecost at the end of fifty dayes on what day soever it might fall because the Samaritans pretend to have the Law on their side in that particular Assuredly the Lord Primate did not consider of the absurdities he hath fallen into by thus advocating for the Samaritans and fixing the feast of Pentecost on the morrow after the seventh weekly Sabbath for by this means in stead of a feast of Pentecost to be observed on the fiftieth day from the first account we shall have a feast by what name soever we shall call it to be observed on the forty ninth forty eighth and forty seventh which though they may be called the feasts of Weeks or the feasts of the Law cannot by any means be called the feast of Pentecost For if the sixteenth of Nisan or the feast of first fruits fall upon the Monday the feast of Pentecost improperly so called must be kept upon the forty ninth if on Tuesday on the forty eighth day after and so abating of the number till we come to Saturday on which day if the sixteenth of Nisan should chance to fall as sometimes it must the next day after the seventh Sabbath would be but the forty fourth day and so by the Lord Primates Rule we shall have a feast of Pentecost but once in seven years that is to say when the sixteenth of Nisan did fall upon the first day of the week which is now our Sunday a feast of Weeks or of giving of the Law on the other six Adeo Argumenta ex absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus said Lactantius truely The second proof is borrowed from the testimony of Isychius an old Christian Writer who lived about the year 600. interpreting the morrow after the seventh Sabbath as the Samaritans also do to be the first day of the Week And true it is that Isychius doth so expound it and more then so makes it to be the first intention of the Law-giver that the day from which the fifty dayes were to be reckoned should be the first day of the week which is now our Sunday Planiùs laith he legislator intentionem suam demonstrare volens ab altero die Sabbati memorari praecepit quinquaginta dies dominicum diem proculdubio volens intelligi In which as the Lord Primate dares not justifie his Author for straining the signification of altera dies Sabbati to signifie the Lords day beyond that true meaning of the word which in Moses denoteth no more then the morrow after the Sabbath though produced by him to no other purpose then to prove that point so dare not I justifie the Lord Primate in straining the words of his Author beyond their meaning and telling us that he made no scruple to call the day of Christs resurrection another Sabbath day For if we look upon it well we shall not find that Isychius calls the day of the Resurrection by the name of another Sabbath day but onely telleth us that the Lords day the day on which our Saviour rose was altera dies Sabbati that is to say the first day of the Week or the morrow after the Sabbath understand by Sabbath in this place the feast of unleavened bread from whence the fifty dayes which ended in the feast of Pentecost were to take beginning as will appear by comparing these words with those before viz. ab altero die Sabbati memorari praecepit quinquaginta dies If the Lord Primate can find no better comfort from the Council of Friuli cap. 13. for calling the day of Christs Resurrection by the name of another Sabbath day he will finde but little if not less from those words of Saint Ambrose to which the said Council of Friuli is supposed to allude The Fathers words on which the Lord Primate doth rely to prove that the Lords day was then called a Sabbath as both Isychius and the said Council of Friuli are presumed to do are these that follow viz. Vbi Dominica dies coepit praecellere quâ Dominus resurrexit Sabbatum quod primum erat secundum haberi coepit à primo In which passage he would have us think that the Lords day is called primum Sabbatum or the first Sabbath and the Saturday Sabbatum secundum or the second Sabbath Whereas indeed the meaning of the Father is no more then this that after the Lords day had grown into estimation and got the better as it were of the Jewish Sabbath ubi Dominica dies coepit praecellere c. the Sabbath of the Jewes which was before the first in honour and account began to be lookt upon in the second place the first being given unto the day of the Resurrection And as for the Council of Friuli the Lord Primate doth not say for certain that the Lords day is there called Sabbatum primum and the Jewish Sabbath Sabbatum ultimum but that they are so called if he be not mistaken but if he be mistaken in it why not as well in this as in all the rest the Council of Friuli will conclude no more then Saint Ambrose did to whom it is said to have alluded And on the contrary if the Testimonies here alledged from Isychius the Council and Saint Ambrose may be properly used to prove that the Lords day was then called by the name of the Sabbath the Lord Primate must
have very ill luck in finding no other testimony but that of luxus Sabbatarius in Apollinaris p. 75. to evidence that the Latine word Sabbatum used to denote our Christian Festivities of which in our first Section we have spoken suffiâ—iently Nor is the Lord Primate less zealous to entitle the Lords day to some Divinity then to gratifie the Sabbatarian Brethren by giving it the name of the Sabbath day For this is that which is chiefly aimed at in the inference wherein I would very cheerfully concur in opinion with him but that I am unsatisfied in the grounds of it For if I were satisfied in this that God so ordered the matter that in the celebration of the feast of Weeks the seventh day should purposely be passed over and that solemnity should be kept upon the first I should as easily grant as he that nothing was more likely to be presignified thereby then that under the state of the Gospel the solemnity of the weekly service should be celebrated upon that day p. 90. But being I cannot grant the first for the reasons formerly delivered I cannot on the like or for better reasons admit the second I grant that under the state of the Gospel the solemnities of the weekly service were celebrated on that day and yet I can neither agree with him nor with Thomas Waldensis whom he cites to that purpose that the Lords day did presently succeed Tunc intrasse Dominicam loco ejus in the place thereof as Baptism presently as he saith succeeded in the place of Circumcision For though Saint John Apocal. 1. call the first day of the week by the name of the Lords day as most Christian Writers think he did yet doth it not follow thereupon that it was so called statim post missionem spiritus Sancti as Waldensis would have it immediately on the comming down of the Holy Ghost For not onely in the eighteenth of the Acts which was some yeares after the first Christian Pentecost but in Saint Pauls Epistle to the Corinthians it is given us by no other name then that of the first day of the Week nor did Saint John write the Revelation in which the name of the Lords day is first given unto it till the ninty fourth or ninty fifth year from our Saviours birth which was sixty years or thereabouts from the coming down of the Holy Ghost the first Christian Pentecost And though I am not willing to derogate from the honour of so great a day yet I cannot agree with the Lord Primate That it is in a manner generally acknowledged by all that on that day viz. the first day of the week the famous Pentecost in the second of the Acts was observed For Lorinus in his Commentary on the second of the Acts tells us of some who hold that at the time of our Saviours suffering the Passover fell upon the Thursday and then the Pentecost must of necessity fall upon the Saturday or Jewish Sabbath But seeing it is said to be agreed on generally in a manner onely let it pass for once All which considered I shall and will adhere to my former vote viz. that if the rule be true as I think it is that no sufficient argument can be drawn from a casual fact and that the falling of the Pentecost that year upon the first day of the week be meerly casual the comming of the Holy Ghost upon that day will be no Argument nor Authority to state the first day of the week in the place and honour of the Jewish Sabbath And now before I shut up this Dispute about the Pentecost I shall crave leave to put the Lord Primate in mind of a great mistake which he hath fallen into by putting another sense on Tertullians words about the first Pentecost as observed by the Christians than was intended by that Author For telling us p. 85. That the Gentiles did not celebrate their Saturdays with that solemnity wherewith themselves did their Annual Festivities or the Jews their weekly Sabbaths he bringeth for a proof thereof a passage cited out of the fourteenth Chapter of Tertullian De Idololatria by which it may appear saith be that Tertullian thus speaks unto the Christians who observed 52. Lords days every year whereas all the Annual festivals of the Pagans put together did come short of fifty Ethnicis semel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi octavo quoque die Excerpe singulas solemnitates nationum in ordinem tâ—xe Pentecosten implere non poterunt But clearly Tertullian in thâ—t place neither relates to the 52 Lords dayes nor the number of 50. but onely to the Christian Pentecost which in his time was solemnized 50. dayes together and took up the whole space of time betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide And this appears plainly by the drift of the Author in that place in which he first taxeth the Christians with keeping many of the feasts of the Gentiles whereas the Gentiles kept not any of the feasts of the Christians non Dominicam non Pentecosten no not so much as the Lords day or the feast of Pentecost And then he addes that if they did it onâ—â—y to refresh their spirits or indulge something to the flesh they had more festivals of their own then the Gentiles had The number of the feasts observed by the Gentiles being so short of those which were kept by the Christians of his time ut Pentecosten non potuerint they could not equal the festival of the Pentecost onely much less the Pentecost and the Lords day together And so it is observed by Pamelius in his Notes upon that place where first he telleth us that the Author in that place understands not onely the feast of Pentecost it selfe or the last day of fifty sed etiam tempus illud integrum à die Paschae in Pentecosten but the whole space of time betwixt it and the Passeover taking the word Passover in the largest sense as it comprehends also the feast of unleavened bread But what need Pamelius come in place when it is commonly avowed by the ancient Writers that all the fifty dayes which made up the Pentecost were generally esteemed as holy and kept with as great reverence and solemnity as the Lords day was No fasting upon the one nor upon the other Die dominico jejunium nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare eadem immunitate à die Paschae in Pentecosten gaudemus as Tertullian hath it Saint Ambrose more expresly tells us Sermon 61. that every one of those fifty dayes was instar Dominicae and qualis est Dominica in all respects nothing inferiour to the Lords day and in his Comment on Saint Luke c. 17. l. 8. that omnes dies that is to say all those fifty dayes sunt tanquam Dominica Adde hereunto Saint Jeroms testimony Ad Lucinum and then I hope Tertullians words in his Book De Idololatria c. 14. will find another sense and meaning then that which the Lord
Primate hath ascribed unto it To shut up this Dispute in which we have encountred so many errors the Lord Primate tells us very rightly that on the day of the Passeover Christ our Passeover was slain for us that he rested in the grave the whole Sabbath following commonly called the feast of unleavened bread the next day after that the first fruits of the first or Barley Harvest was offered unto God and that from thence the count was taken of the seven Sabbaths and that upon the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which was our Lords day was celebrated the feast of weeks c. Upon which offering of the sheaf of the first fruits of the first or Barley Harvest which hapned at the time of our Saviours suffering on the first day of the Week he gives this note that Christ rose from the dead upon that day and became the first fruits of them that slept many bodies of the Saints that slept arising likewise after him p 91. And for this note he receives great thanks from Dr. Twisse signifying in a letter to him the great satisfaction which he received from him in opening the mystery of the feasts of first fruits to the singular advantage of the Lords day in the time of the Gospel p. 103. But herein Dr. Twisse may be said to be like those men of whom Tully speaks Qui non tantùm ornarent aliquem suis laudibus sed honorarent alienis For without derogating in the least from the honour due to the Lord Primate I cannot say that the honour of the first opening of this mystery doth belong to him it being an observation which I had both read in Books and heard in Sermons many years before 1640. in which or but the year before the Lord Primate wrote this present Letter to Doctor Twisse But because I have but few Books by me and cannot readily call to mind in what Books I read it I shall content my selfe at this present with the gloss of Deodati on the twentieth verse of the fifteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to those of Corinth where it is said that Christ was risen again and was become the first fruits of them that slept premising onely by the way that Diodati began those Annotations in the Italian tongue about the year 1606. to give his Country-men an insight of the darkness wherin they lived which afterwards he polished and perfected in such manner as they are now come into our hands Now Diodati his note is this viz. that Christ is called the first fruits of them that slept not onely because he was the first in the order of the Resurrection which is in Believers as it were a wakening from sleep but also in the quality of a Chief the cause and pledge of it in all his members inseparably united to him by communion of Spirit Rom. 8. 11. even as under the Law in the first fruits offered to God the people had an assurance of Gods blessing upon all their Harvest In a word as some things are defined or to speak more properly described amongst Philosophers rather by what they are not then by what they are so it is easier to declare to whom the first opening of this Mystery of the first fruits if there be any mystery in it doth not of right belong then to whom it doth SECT VI. The Historian charged for following the Greek Editions of Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians An old Latine Translation of Ignatius preferred by the Lord Primate before any of the Greek Editions and the reason why Proofs from the best of the Greek Fathers that the Sabbath was kept as an holy day by the Primitive Christians The contrary not proved by these two testimonies which are alledged from the Council of Laodicea and the words of Gregory the Great The Council of Laodicea prohibits not the keeping of the Sabbath day but the keeping of it after the manner of the Jews by abstaining from all kind of work The Sabbatarians by imposing a restraint from all manner of work on the Lords day are by Pope Gregory the Great made the Preachers of Antichrist The Lord Primate picks a needless quarrel with the Bishop of Ely THe third charge laid by name on the Historian relates unto a passage cited out of the Epistle of Ignatius Ad Magnesianos in which he doth not stand accused either for falsifying the words of his Author or putting a wrong sense upon them but onely for not consulting with an old Latine copy of Ignatius which he never heard of The Historian had then by him no fewer then four Editions of that Father one published by Mastreus the Jesuite both in Greek and Latine another in both languages published by Vedelius a Genevian with his notes upon it a third more ancient then either of them printed at Paris in both languages also but the year I remember not and a fourth in Latine onely but of a very old Print subjoyned unto the works of Dionysius the Areopagite Out of all which compared together he cited that passage out of the Epistle to the Magnesians against which the Lord Primate hath excepted and is this that followeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us not keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner in sloth and idleness for it is written that he that will not labour shall not eat and in the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread But let us keep it after a spiritual fashion not in bodily ease but in the study of the Law not eating meat dressed yesterday or drinking luke-warm drinks or walking out a limited space or setling our delights as they did on dancing but in the contemplation of the works of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And after we have so kept the Sabbath let every one that loveth Christ keep the Lords day festival the Resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all dayes in which our life was raised again and death was overcome by our Lord and Saviour So that we see he would have both dayes observed the Sabbath first though not as would the Ebionites in a Jewish sort and after that the Lords day which he so much magnifieth the better to abate that high esteem which some had cast upon the Sabbath Against this passage and the inference which is raised upon it the Lord Primate first objecteth saying that there is no such thing to be found in an old Latine copy of the works of Ignatius which is to be seen in the Library of Caius Colledge in Cambridge which for many respects he doth prefer before any Greek Edition then extant And in that old Latine copy saith he there is nothing to be found in the Epistle to the Magnesians touching the Sabbath and the Lords day but these words onely viz. Non amplius Sabbatizantes sed secundum Dominicam viventes in qua vita nostra orta est And thereupon he doth infer that all those other words alledged by
followeth in that Statute Be it enacted c. that all the dayes hereafter mentioned shall be kept and commanded to be kept holy dayes and none other that is to say all Sundayes in the year the feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphany of the Purification with all the rest now kept and there named particularly The like ennumeration we have also in the Book of Common-prayer the publick Liturgy of this Church by Law established where we shall find it thus expressed That these shall be accounted holy dayes and none other that is to say all Sundayes in the year the feast of the Circumcision the Epiphany with all the rest before specified in the Act of Parliament Nor doth the Church onely rank the Lords day with other holy dayes in that enumeration of them but hath appointed the same Divine offices the Letany excepted onely to be performed upon the Saints days other festivals as upon the Sundays each of them having his proper Lesson Collect Epistle and Gospel as the Sunday hath and some of them their proper Psalms also which the Sunday hath not And as for the attendance of the people it is required with as much diligence upon the Saints dayes and other Festivals as upon the Lords day by the Laws of this land For so it is enacted in the Statute of the first of Queen Elizabeth viz. That all and every Person and Persons inhabiting within this Realm c. shall diligently and faithfully endeavour themselves to resort to their Parish Church or Chappel c. upon every Sunday and other dayes ordained and used to be kept as holy dayes then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of common prayer preaching or other service of God Nor was it only enacted that men should diligently repair to their Church or Chappel as well upon the other holy dayes as upon the Sunday but that the same penalty was imposed on such as without any reasonable let did absent themselves as well upon the one as upon the other For so it follows in that Statute viz. That every person so offending shall not alone be subject unto the censures of the Church but shall forfeit for every such offence twelve pence to be levied to the use of the poor of the same parish by the Church-wardens of the same c. Which grounds thus laid the Lord Primates Argument from the Book of Homilies will be easily answered For if the weight of his argument lie in the first words cited out of the Homily that in the fourth Commandment God hath given express charge to all men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday c. and therefore that the Sunday or Lords day may be called a Sabbath this will prove nothing but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a contention about words and not within the compass of the Homily neither it being declared in the former words of the same Homily that we keep now the first day which is our Sunday and make that our Sabbath that is our day of rest So that the destinating of the Sunday or first day of the week for the day of rest makes it at the most but a tanquam to the Sabbath neither entituling it to the name nor prerogatives of it But if the weight of the Argument lie in these words viz. That men upon the Sunday or Lords day should cease from all weekly and work-day labour c. and also give themselves wholly to Heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service For the first part thereof touching the forbearing of all weekly and work-day labour is no otherwise to be understood but of such labours as are prohibited by the Laws of the Realm or otherwise may prove an avocation from Gods publick service at the times appointed for the same And as for the last words touching mens giving of themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service they are of a far differing meaning from the Article of the Church of Ireland for which the Lord Primate chiefly stickleth in which it is declared that the first day of the week which is the Lords day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God For certainly there is a great difference between the dedicating of a day wholly to the service of God as in the Articles of Ireland and the giving of our selves wholly to heavenly exercises as in the Homilies of England the one implying that no part of the day is to be otherwise spent then in the service of God no place being left either for necessary business or for lawful pleasure the other that in the Acts and times of publick worship we should give our selves wholly that is our whole selves souls and bodies to the performance of those heavenly exercises which are then required It had before been told us in this very Homily that nothing in the fourth Commandment was to be retained but what was found appertaining to the Law of Nature but it appertaineth not to the Law of Nature either that one day in seven should be set apart for Religious worship or that this one day wholly be so imployed vel quod per totam diem abstineatur ab operibus servilibus as Tostatus hath it or that there be an absolute cessation during the whole day from all servile works By consequence there is no more required of us by the Law of Nature in this case but that at the times appointed for Gods publick worship we wholly sequester our selves yea our very thoughts from all worldly business fixing our souls and all the faculties thereof upon that great and weighty business which we are in hand with That does indeed appertain to the Law of Nature Naturale est quod dum Deum colimus ab aliis abstineamus as Tostatus hath it and to this point we have been trained in the Schools of Piety Orantis est nihil nisi coelestia cogitare as was said before So that the meaning of the Homily in that place will be onely this that for those times which are appointed by the Church for the assembly of Gods people we should lay by our daily business and all worldly thoughts and wholly give our selves to the heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service as in the Homily we are willed And that this only was the meaning of the Homily in that place may be convincingly concluded from the reasons following First from the improbability that the Authors of that Homily should propound a Doctrine so evidently contrary to the Declaration of the Act of Parliament in the 5 6. of Edw. 6. which was then in force and unto which not onely the Commons and the Lords Temporal but even the Lords Spiritual and the King himselfe did most unanimously concur or that the Queen should authorize a Doctrin in the Book of Homilies as by ratifying the 39. Articles she must be supposed to have done
Bishops of his party should at an Ordination take the subscription of the party ordained to both Articles the Articles of England not being received instead but with those of Ireland p. 120 121. A sorry shift but such as was conceived to be better then none though as good as nothing But leaving this Dispute to another place as before was intimated we now proceed to the Examination of some other passages in the Lord Primates Letter unto his Honourable Friend in which he first chargeth the Historian for speaking inconsiderately in saying that before that time viz. Anno 1615. The Lords day had never attained such credit as to be thought an Article of the Faith though of some mens fancies And why was this so inconsiderately spoken Because saith he he that would confound the ten Commandments whereof this must he accounted for one unless he will leave us but nine with the Articles of Faith had need be put to learn his Catechisme again But this I look on as a flourish or a fansie onely For I hope the Lord Primate doth not think the Historian so extremely ignorant as to mean there a justifying and salvifical faith but that he takes faith there in the general notion as it importeth a firm perswasion and beliefe that those things are undoubtedly true which are commended to him by the Church in which he liveth or found in any creditable and unquestioned Author And in this notion of the word the matter of a Commandment being made a Doctrine may be called an Article of the Faith without any such scorn as to be put to learn the Catechism again The Articles of England by such as write of them in Latine are called Confessio Ecclesiae Anglicanae praeter Confessionem Anglicanam quam mihi ut modestam praedicabant c. saith the Arch-Bishop of Spalato In like manner and in the same sense and signification as the Articles of the Belgick Churches and the Kirk of Scotland are called confessio fidei Ecclesiarum Belgicarum Confessio fidei Scoticana sit de caeteris that is to say the confession of the Faith of those several Churches By which name the Articles of Ireland being also called by a most eminent learned and judicious person as Doctor Bernard sets him out p. 121. and the new Doctrine of the Sabbath being made a part of that Confession it may be said without any absurdity or being put to School again to learn the Catechisme that till that time viz. 1615. the Lords day never had attained that credit as to be thought an Article of the Faith But to make the matter sure and beyond exception I must put Dr. Bernard in mind of a Book entituled The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines assembled at Westminster by the Authority of Parliament concerning a Confession of Faith In which Confession of the Faith it is said expresly that As it is in the Law of Nature that in general a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God so in his word by a positive moral and perpetual Commandment binding all men in all ages he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto him which from the beginning of the world to the Resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week and from the Resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week which in Scripture is called the Lords day and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath The institution and keeping of the Lords day here is made an Article of the Faith an Article of that Confession of the Faith which by the Assembly of Divines whereof the Lord Primate was nominated to be one was recommended to the two Houses of Parliament and yet I trow the Lord Primate wil not send the whole Assembly to learn their Catechism again unless it were one of the Catechisms of their own making either the larger or the lesser 't is no matter which But the Lord Primate stayes not here he goes on and saith That he that would have every thing which is put into the Articles of Religion to be held for an Article of Faith should do well to tell us whether he hath as yet admitted the Book of the ordination of Bishops and the two volumes of Homilies into his Creed both which he shall find received in the Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Synod held at London Anno 1562. But unto this it may be answered that the Book of the Ordination of Bishops and the two Volumes of Homilies may be so far taken into the Historians Creed as to believe as much of either as is required of him in the Book of Articles For he may very warrantably and safely say that he does verily believe that the second Book of Homilies doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for those times that is to say the times in which they were first publisht and that the Book of Consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and ordering and that it hath nothing that of it self is superstitious or ungodly All this the Historian doth and may believe without making it an Article of his Faith except it be in that general notion of the word which before we spake of and in which notion of the word the Article of the Consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. may as well finde a place in the Confession of the Faith of the Church of England as that Article of the Parity of Ministers hath found admittance in the Confessions of the Belgick Scotish and other Reformed Churches For in the Belgick Confession Art 31. it is thus declared quantum vero attinet Divini verbi Ministros ubicunque locorum sint eandem illi Potestatem Authoritatem habent ut qui omnes sint Christi unici illius Episcopi universalis unicique Capitis Ecclesiae Ministri The French Confession bearing this Title Gallicarum Ecclesiarum Confessio fidei that is to say The Confession of the Faith of the French or Gallick Churches as the Scotish Confession is called Confessio fidei Scoticana doth affirm as much viz. Credimus omnes veros Pastores ubicunque locorum collocati fuerint eadem aequali inter se potestate esse praeditos sub unico illo capite summoque solo universali Episcopo Jesu Christo And so no question in the rest The Consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops may as well be an Article of the Faith amongst us in England as the Parity of Ministers amongst those of France or the Low-Countries These Interlocutories being thus passed over the Lord Primate comes at last to his final and definitive sentence for what remaineth after the Verdict is once given but that Judgment in the Case be pronounced accordingly And the Judgment is given us in these Words viz. By the
not to be spoken of because it could not be concealed from those who lived most retiredly If either the Lord Primate or Sirmondus the Jesuite could infer from hence that the word Sabbatum was used by Apollinaris to signifie or denote our Christian Festivities much less the Sunday or Lords day I shall miss my mark They say it is a sign of ill luck for a man to stumble at the threshold and never was such a stumble made by a man of learning in the first beginning of a work for clearly Sabbatarius luxus relates not to the Lords day nor the other Festivals but is there used proverbially to signifie that excess and riot which that King used at his Table on the dayes aforesaid The proverb borrowed from the Jewes and the riotous feastings on the Sabbath It s true the Jews did commonly fast till noon upon their Sabbath till the devotions of the morning were complete and ended on which account they tax the Disciples of our Saviour for eating a few ears of Corn on the Sabbath day Matth. 12. 2. but then it is as true withal that they spent all the rest of the day in their riotous feastings not onely with plenty of good cheer but excess of wine In which regard whereas all other marketing was unlawful on the Sabbath dayes there never was restraint of selling Wine the Jews believing that therein they brake no Commandment Hebraei faciunt aliquid speciale in vino viz. quòd cùm in Sabbato suo à caeteris venditionibus emptionibus cessent solum vinum vendunt credentes se non solvere Sabbatum as Tostatus hath it And for the rest of their excesses Saint Augustine telleth us that they kept the Sabbath onely ad luxuriam ebrietatem in rioting and drunkenness and that they rested onely ad nugas luxurias suas to luxury and wantonness they consumed the day languido luxurioso otio in an effeminate slothful ease and finally did abuse the same not onely deliâ—iis Judaicis in Jewish follies but ad nequitiam even to sin and naughtiness Put altogether and we have luxury and drunkenness and sports and pleasures enough to manifest that they spared not any dainties to set forth their Sabbath Tertullian hath observed the same but in fewer words according to his wonted manner who speaking of the Jewes in his Apologeticum adversus Gentes Cap. 16. hath told us of them that they did Diem Saturni otio victui decernere devote the Saturday or Sabbath unto Ease and Luxury But before either of them this was noted by Plutarch also an Heathen but a great and grave Philosopher who layes it to their charge that they did feast it on their Sabbath with no small excess but of wine especially and thereupon conjectureth that the name of Sabbath had its original from the Orgies or feasts of Bacchus whose Priest used often to ingeminate the word Sabbi Sabbi in their drunken ceremonies From whence we have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to triumph dance or make glad the countenance And from hence also came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sirname of Bacchus or at the least some Son of his mentioned in Coelius Rhodiginus as is observed by Dr. Prideaux in his Tract De Sabbato This said the meaning of Apollinaris will be onely this that though Theoderick kept a spare Table on the other dayes yet on the Festivals of the Church he indulged unto himself a kind of Sabbatarian luxury that is to say such riotous feasting and excess as the Iewes used upon their Sabbath Nothing in this to prove that the word Sabbatum was used by any approved Writer for the space of a thousand years and upward to signifie either the Lords day or any of the Christian Festivities as the Lord Primate would sain have had it which notwithstanding partly by the diligence of our Sabbatarians and their active Emissaries and partly by the ignorance of some and the easiness of the rest of the people the Sunday or Lords day is generally called by no other name then by that of the Sabbath he who shall call it otherwise then the vulgar do being branded commonly with profaneness or singularity And yet if any of these fine fellows should be asked the English of the Latine word Sabbatum they could not chuse but answer that it signified the seventh day of the week or the Saturday onely Or if they should every Clerk Notary and Register in the Courts of Judicature would deride them for it who in drawing up their Processes Declarations Entries Judgements and Commissions never used other Latine word for Saturday but Dies Sabbati as long as any of those forms were written in the Latine tongue And they continued in that tongue till toward the later end of the late long Parliament in which it was ordered that all Writs Declarations and other legal instruments of what kind soever should be made in English the readiest way to make all Clerks Atturnies Registers c. more ignorant of Grammar learning then they were before SECT II. The Lord Primates judgement of the Sabbath delivered in two Propositions His first Proposition for setting apart some whole day for Gods solemn worship by the Law of Nature found both uncertain and unsafe no such whole day kept or required to be kept by the Jewes or Gentiles His second Proposition neither agreeable to the School-men or the Sabbatarians nor grounded upon Text of Scripture He reconciles himself with the Sabbatarians by ascribing an immutability to a Positive Law but contrary therein to the first Reformers and other learned men of the Protestant and Reformed Churches He founds the Institution of the Sabbath on Genesis 2. An Anticipation or Prolepsis in that place of Gen. maintained explicitly by Josephus and many of the most learned of the Jewish Rabbins as also by Tostatus and his followers amongst the Christians implicitly by those who maintained that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first beginning The like Anticipations frequent in the holy Scripture and justified by many of the Ancient Fathers and not a few learned men of the later times The Sabbath not a part of the Law of Nature BUt now before we can proceed to such other passages which the Lord Primate hath excepted against in History of the Sabbath either by name or on the by it will be necessary that we know his own Judgement and Opinion in the ground of this Controversie as well concerning the morality of the fourth Commandment as the true ground and institution of the Sabbath And to find that we must consult his Letter to Mr. Ley in which he telleth us That for his own part he never yet doubted but took it for granted that as the setting of some whole day apart for Gods solemn worship was juris Divini naturalis so that this solemn day he means the Sabbath should be one in seven was juris Divini positivi
Doctor Heylyn Part 2. page 43. to prove that Ignatius would have both the Sabbath and the Lords day observed were afterwards added by some later Grecian who was afraid that the custome of keeping both dayes observed in his time should appear otherwise to be directly opposite to the sentence of Ignatius p. 95 96. This is the easiest charge that may be and if there were nothing else intended but to shew that the Historian was not the Master of so much good fortune as to have seen the old Latine Copy in Caius Library before he undertook that work we might here end this Section without more ado But the main matter aim'd at in it is to disprove that which the Historian hath delivered concerning the observing of both dayes as well the old Sabbath as the new Lords day by the Primitive Christians That which the Lord Primate cites out of the third Book of Eusebius to shew that the main intention of Ignatius was to oppose the Ebionites of his own time is no more then what he might have found in the same Part and Page of the History of the Sabbath which himselfe hath cited and therefore might have here been spared were it not used by him as an Argument to prove that which no body doth deny viz. That by their imitation of the Church herein the antiquity of the observation of the Lords day might be further confirmed p. 96. Nor is it to much better purpose that he proves the universality of the observance of the Lords day out of another passage of the same Eusebius in his Book De laudibus Constantini in which he doth but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having no other Adversary that I know of to contend withal The Author of that History had said so much of the Antiquity of the Lords day and the Universality of the observance of the same with many other things conducing to the honour of that sacred day that he received thanks for it sent to him in the name of divers Ministers living in Buckinghamshire and Surrey though of a different perswasion from him in other points about that day whom he never saw But that the Saturday or old Sabbath was not kept holy at the first by the Primitive Christians by those especially who lived in the Eastern parts of the Roman Empire neither the antiquity nor the universality of keeping the Lords day can evince at all For on the contrary that the old Sabbath was kept holy by the Primitive Christians is proved first by the Constitutions of the Apostles ascribed to Clement of good Authority in the Church though not made by them where it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By which it evidently appears that both dayes were ordered to be kept holy the one in memorial of the Creation the other of the Resurrection Which Constitutions being not thought to be of weight enough to make good the point though of so great antiquity and estimation as to be mentioned and made use of by Epiphanius a right learned man are somewhat backt by the Authority of Theophilus Antiochenus an old Eastern Bishop who lived not long time after Ignatius Anno 174. by whom we are told of that great honour which the seventh day or Jewish Sabbath had attained unto qui apud omnes mortales celebris est as before we had it in our fourth Section on another occasion with all sorts of people But if this be not plain enough as I think it is they are secondly most strongly countenanced by the Authority of the Synod held in Laodicea a Town of Phrygia Anno 314. where there passed a Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching the reading of the Gospels with the other Scriptures upon the Saturday or Sabbath that in the time of Lent there should be no oblation made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but on the Saturday and the Lords day onely neither that any festival should then be observed in memory of any Martyrs but that their names onely should be commemorated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Lords day and the Sabbaths Which Canons were not made as may appear plainly by the Histories of these elder times for the introduction of any new observance never used before but for the Declaration and Confirmation of the ancient usage Thirdly we find in Gregory Nyssen that some of the people who had neglected to observe the Saturday were reproved by him on the Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. With what face saith the Father wilt thou look upon the Lords day which hast dishonoured the Sabbath knowest thou not that these dayes are Sisters and that whosoever doth despise the one doth affront the other Fourthly by Saint Basil the Saturday or Sabbath is reckoned for one of those four dayes on which the Christians of his time used weekly to participate of the blessed Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day Wednesday and Friday being the other three And though it cannot be denied but that the observation of the Saturday began to lessen and decay in divers places towards the latter end of the fourth Century and in some other places as namely the Isle of Cyprus and the great City of Alexandria following therein the Custom of the Church of Rome had never been observed at all Yet fifthly Epiphanius Bishop of Salamis in the Isle of Cyprus could not but acknowledge that in other places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they used to celebrate the holy Sacrament and hold their publick meetings on the Sabbath day And sixthly the Homily De Semonte ascribed to Athanasius doth affirm as much as to the publick Assemblies of the Christians on the Sabbath day and so doth Socrates the Historian who accounts both dayes for weekly festivals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on them both the Congregation used to be assembled and the whole Liturgy performed By which account besides Socrates and the Author of the Constitutions against whom some objections have been pretended we have the Testimonies of Theophilus Antiochenus Gregory Nyssen Basil Epiphanius and the Author of the Homily De Semente ascribed to Athanasius most plain and positive in this point that both the Sabbath and the Lords day were observed for days of publick meeting by the Eastern Christians as was affirmed before out of the Epistle of Ignatius ad Magnes And I conceive that the Lord Primate did not or could not think or if he did cannot be justified for so thinking that men of such an eminent sanctity as those Fathers were would falsifie that Epistle of Ignatius to serve their turns or adde any thing to that Epistle which they found not in it out of a fear that the custome of keeping both dayes observed in their times should appear otherwise to be directly opposite to the sentence of Ignatius p. 96. And therefore Doctor Heylyn taking the words of Ignatius as he found them in the