c. That some Gentiles were thereto bound the pellucid fountain of verity sheweth plainly Let not the sonne of the stranger that hath joyned himself to the Lord speak saying God hath utterly separated me from his people If you say that these were Israelites by covenant though not by seed then why may not the Christian Gentiles who are covenantees as well as the Jews who are also the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise and united in Christ Jesus why may not they observe it also will you say because the day is abrogated and annulled and can you demonstratively prove it so The Jewish Sabbath was questionlesse indeed abolished but was the Sabbath of the fourth commandment so If you say Yea for they were both one I reply it is with greater facility said then proved And now we arive at the last circumstance considerable in the precept Quid. Of this it is controverted what day the precept enjoyneth whether the Jewish Sabbath the Saturday or any other particular and expresse day Most hold the Jewish seventh from the creation to be the day directly prescribed there but I think it no hard task to beat them or from that hold or in it For first I would gladly know where in expresse terms the Saturday-Sabbath or seventh from the creation is commanded in this precept examine and dissect it throughly Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day The Sabbath day it is you see not the seventh from the creation Therfore a Zanchie hath set a nota bene upon it That God not without cause said not Remember thou sanctifie the seventh day but the day of rest that is saith he b The day consecrated to rest by God either immediately by himself or mediately by the Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever day it be Thus he more circumspectly then what he delivered three columnes before where he saith that the word Sabbath here comprehendeth all the Jewish festivalls What hath moved him and other learned men to this fantasie it much amuseth me God telleth us distinctly what Sabbath he here meaneth the weekly of any other there is altum silentium not a word He saith Sanctifie the Sabbath in the singular not Sabbaths in the plurall number c The observation not of many festivals but of one onely is there enjoyned And what necessity of bringing these feasts within the compasse and obligation of this precept which have commands proper and peculiar to themselves As therefore ancient Canons d said to pragmaticall Bishops which invaded their jurisdiction so I to these Jewish feasts Let them keep their own home their own stations they have nothing to do here Well the Sabbath must be sanctified but what day that should be is not yet explained in the subsequent words indeed there is some hint of it six dayes shalt thou labour there is one character by which we may know it Six dayes are at our own dispose but we must not hold over our term The seventh is the Sabbath it is as Philosophers say Terminus minimus quod sic the least proposition of time we must allow God in a narrower limitation his worship will not subsist a seventh day he will have The seventh is the Sabbath The seventh what seventh he saith not the seventh from the creation he nameth no day if he had it would have restrained the Law to that day but because he meant the day should change and yet the Law continue he saith onely the seventh that is the seventh after six or one in a week e For f To depute one day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially one and the same day be not alwayes deputed Well but will one in a week serve the turn is there nothing else required is the determination of this one in seven in our power No there is a proviso for that it must be the Sabbath of the Lord thy God that is which he hath already or should declare to his Church to be his Sabbath and this is another character of the Sabbath It must be of Gods own choice But still not one word of the Jewish Sabbath no discovery of it yet but we have not done with the precept perhaps we shall find it in what remaineth It followeth then For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and all that therein is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it Here I confesse the precept seemeth very apposite very full so full as we are accused for no lesse then high treason against the holy Ghost in daring to affirm the contrary f These Dogmatists saith one are not affraid to make the holy Ghost a liar who teacheth in most clear and expresse terms That God Almightie blessed the very seventh day on which himself rested An heavie charge did we not plead not guiltie That God blessed the very seventh day whereon he rested we not deny but whether he did expresly command the observation of that day by this or any other member of the fourth precept that is the thing whereof we demand clear demonstration Nor yet should we call this into dispute had we not just cause to appeal from the old Translation which hath herein imbraced a strange singularitie for where it readeth God blessed the seventh day the Geneva Spanish that of Hierome all that I have perused the Septuagint onely excepted render it God blessed the Sabbath day as our most correct and new translation hath it indeed the very fountain it self the Hebrew giveth it so which being true can what we have said deserve so loud an outcry as hath been made let any neutrally affected judge Secondly the defect of direct and expresse command is not the onely the principall motive it is I grant which allureth us to think the Jewish Sabbath in especiall manner not injoyned here another argument there is accessory to it For if God had here expresly commanded the observation of the seventh from the Creation or Jewish Sabbath the fourth precept would have been in relation to that particular ceremoniall and by consequent changeable but I think it was and is in all parts intirely morall and perpetuall and my opinion is founded upon two not very defeasable reasons First it is marshalled in the Decalogue amongst the morall and immutable laws which were notably distinguished from the ceremoniall by many circumstances The Morall uttered by God himself proved page 39. in the presence of the whole multitude written by Gods own finger given without restraint to time how long or place where Contrarywise the Ceremoniall given to Moses onely and by him declared to the people called Ceremonies Judgements Ordinances and limited onely to the land of g Jury Now it could not be agreeable to the wisdome of the God of Order to shuffle and misplace a Ceremoniall amongst his Morall laws Secondly if you cast your eye upon the Sabbath of
very direct Thou shalt do no manner of work What not quench an house of fire not water a beast not provide necessary food yes works of necessitie works of mercy thou mayest do the precept onely interdicteth servile work ordinary work of our vocation All Doctours whatsoever so understand it which being granted the fourth precept for ought I see little exceedeth in rigour touching the Sabbath the Canon and Statute Law of this land concerning the meanest holy Day Differ I do herein from my sacred mother the Church of England it cannot be denied she hath expressed her self otherwise viz. That this Commandment of God doth not bind Christian people so straitly to observe the utter ceremonies of the Sabbath Day as touching the forbearing of work and labour in times of great necessitie But seeing in the substance viz. That we are not bound to observe the Lords Day with that extreme severitie which once belonged to the Jewish Sabbath we consent I hope a difference in the manner of expression is at most but a peccadillo but a veniall fault our dissent is onely this That strictnesse which she reduceth to the fourth Commandment I rather lodge and settle in those accessory and occasionall laws which are quite of another parish and have nothing to do here If it be here objected That this precept bindeth not to the observation of the Lords Day and therefore no matter what it injoyneth I answer it doth oblige to the observation of this day for no other day can properly be called Gods Sabbath then this because no other day is weekly solemnized in the Church and thereto destined by Divine appointment which are the certain characters of the Sabbath of that Commandment Besides all Expositours interpret this precept of this day especially and some of none other and above all our Church it self is so full as nothing can be desired more apposite to our purpose then what she hath delivered Like as it appeareth by this Commandment saith she that no man in the six dayes ought to be slothfull and idle but diligently labour in that estate wherein God hath set him even so God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the Sabbath Day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour and give themselves wholly to divine exercises of Gods true Religion and Service And a few lines after she saith That to keep the Christian Sabbath which is the Sunday is Gods expresse commandment These are lowd and clear demonstrations of what our Church then thought wherein two things are remarkable First that she reduceth the observation of the Lords Day to the fourth Commandment and secondly that without any scruple she very broadly calleth it our Sabbath yea and The Sabbath A word whereat much offence hath lately been taken and all that use it are checkt by our great Schoolman who good man in a tender care of us adviseth that we follow the language of the holy Ghost as also of the Primitive Church that we vary not from other reformed Churches that we gratifie not the Jews in their obstinacy against Christ that we offend not our weak brethren and lastly that we use that name which doth most edifie viz. the LORDS DAY As concerning the style Lords Day we quarrell not at it we are no enemies of it we use it for ought I know more frequently then Sabbath yet were it truly sensed and according to right sense duly observed it would contract not onely the title but nature of a Sabbath for what is our Lords Day but the Evangelicall Sabbath as the Legall Sabbath was the Jewish Lords Day Be the Lords Day thus stated call it then by that name ever if you please it not at all offendeth us but when it becometh from the Sabbath an ordinary holy day or rather playday from the Lords Day the Churches Day we have then just cause to rouse the world by shrill expressions and lowd manifestations that it is both the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment and also the Lords Day that is of his Institution But to persue this not without wonder behold the strange condition of these men who inveigh so bitterly against the word Sabbath which hath notwithstanding warrant both from our book of Homilies the Canons Ecclesiasticall and Edicts of our Princes behold their perversitie The words Altar Priest Sacrifice Holy of Holies will down with them so easily as now they begin to rellish nothing else It is rare very rare a great novelty to heare the course and homely terms of Table Minister Lords Supper or Chancel in their mouths Now I say and aver the word Sabbath hath not in it any semblance of danger to Gods Church comparable to that of Altar Priest c. For first the Lords Day is a Sabbath The Sabbath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} properly and directly whereas these words Altar Priest c. are used {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but figuratively and symbolically Besides the word Sabbath giveth no offence for if any incline to Judaisme it is in the strictnesse not now in the day But the other words stumble many especially in these times wherein we have cause and just cause to fear they are meant and intended of things other then metaphoricall And are not our fears just when Transsubstantiation beginneth not to be instilled in some subtile and Paracelsian spirit of School distinction but according to the Galenists to be exhibited in the grosse masse of corporeall presence in a corporeall sense so as the most unprepared and unbelieving receiver eateth his part thereof as well as the faithfull But admit this to be the tenet of some few extravagants yet are not our fears just when that uncouth and apish bowing toward if not to the Altar is not onely warranted and defended but commended to our observation by the chief of our Church which whosoever shall dive into it and search antiquitie will find it one of the Parents Elevation or Ostension being the other which begot adoration of the Host which begot Impanation or Transsubstantiation Let not any think here that by Antiquitie I understand the very Primitive Church with whom we challenge so near alliance in matters of Doctrine for certain it is that the first Church was utterly ignorant of this novel device you shall indeed many times very often find in the Fathers a that they bowed or worshipped towards the East and this they did onely at their entrance into the Church according to the Poet Vt Templi tetigere gradus procumbit uterque Pronus humi But of bowing for what some urge of Nazianzen's Gorgonia was geniculation not genuflection as will appear to any that duly peruseth the place towards the Altar as you call it or ducking as often as they approched unto or departed from it you shall not find mention anywhere till you arrive at Chrysostome's Liturgy which requireth {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
instruct the Israelites that Gods resting from his works on the seventh day was the reason why he had selected and appointed by his commandment given to them that day rather then any other to be sanctified for his Sabbath Indeed if the fourth commandment had onely mentioned the seventh day to be the Sabbath without more ado and had supprest the reason Moses had had fit occasion to give them here this observation But seeing that Reason was fully and with indeleble characters ingraven in the Decalogue it had been mere supervacaneous and impertinent tautologie to recite it here especially considering it is the most received opinion that Moses compiled the history of Genesis after the Law was promulgated on mount Sinai and so this reason was no news to them If any notwithstanding these grosse and palpable absurdities seemeth desperately enamoured of this forlorn and despicable Prolepsis enjoy her he shall without me his rival I envy him not Come we now to survey that little which the Divine remembrancer hath afforded us of the actual observation of the Sabbath before the Law whereof two onely examples are extant the one for the observation notable the other for the violation For the observation we reade Exod. 16.22 when the Israelites had on the sixth day gathered twice as much Manna as on any other day before the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses and he said to them This is that which the Lord hath said To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord We do not find here that the Israelites were amused at the word Sabbath that they expostulated with themselves as before concerning Manna what it should be no they knew well enough what it was with the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord they had been long acquainted it was no novelty to them the new attendance and long train of strict observances that now waited on it were the things so puzzled so possest them with wonder of a How is it changed from what it was Their old wont was to dresse their necessary viands upon the Sabbath and being now interrupted now disturbed in their accustomed practice by an uncouth innovation of Bake that which you will bake to day and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept untill the morning well might they be in a study well demand a reason of this change And whereas it is by some stiffly affirmed that the Jews did bake their Manna on the Sabbath day an opinion ascribed to Theophilus Brabourn the first as my Authour telleth me that looked so near into Moses his meaning he must know that in Opticks amongst other requisites to perfect discerning justa distantia a a fit distance is one and Mr Brabourn might perhaps by looking too near see to little where the fault was whether in this or in some defect of the organe his understanding or through what other cause I not dispute sure I am that an hallucination an errour of the sight there was and that a grosse one The paraphrase they give of this Text Bake that which you will bake to day c. is this As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day that bake or boyl as you use to do and for the rest lay it up to be baked or boyled to morrow and to this interpretation they the rather betake them because the Israelites laid it up as Moses bad and it did not stink now say they it had been no wonder at all that it did neither breed worm nor stink had it been baked the day before Things of that nature so preserved are farre enough from putrifying in so short a space Not to dwell long in discussing this point They have mistaken both Gods miracle and Moses his meaning Gods miracle for the baking or boyling excludeth not the miracle of its not putrifying things so dressed are indeed the lesse disposed to corrupt therefore the putrefaction which Manna contracted by procrastination on other dayes notwithstanding the same order taken for preservation of it by baking and boyling was the greater miracle and because it tainted against nature and miraculously reserved upon other dayes Gods ceasing to work the same miracle upon the Sabbath might it self seem a miracle The mind of Moses they have not reacht whose words resolve themselves into this construction What you mean to bake bake to day what to seethe seethe to day and what remaineth not unbaked or unboyled but of that which you have baked or boyled more then sufficient for this dayes food lay up for you to eat to morrow and therefore Hierome hath rendred it Quodcunque operandum est facite Whatsoever belongeth to the dressing of the Manna dispatch it now But to put it out of all doubt that this errour may never readvance God himself vers. 5. commanded Moses that the people should Prepare that which they bring in and it should be twice as much as they gathered daily what was this Preparing but dressing but cooking of it so the English will bear and by a word of the same energy and signification it is rendred in I am sure most Translations so the Septuagint so Hierome so the Spanish so the French a thing so manifest as the very Friday was thence denominated {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Preparation to the Sabbath For the violation of the Sabbath we have it recorded vers 27. that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather and they found none this I conceive most likely to have reference to the chap. 18. v. 12. Now because it is held by some that the primum esse and first dawning of the Sabbath began at this fall of Manna though I hope I have already sufficiently proved the contrary I would further know why it should begin then and but then was it to chalk out to the Israelites the precise seventh day from the Creation whereof they were at that time ignorant It could not be for of the seventh day whereon God rested they were not they could not be ignorant in some profane and irreligious houses it might perhaps have been lost but in others more piously affected it was certainly preserved For it is most undeniable and irrefragably true what Sr. Walter Raleigh a hath delivered and it is in substance affirmed by many others That if the story of the Creation had not been written by divine inspiration yet it is manifest that the knowledge thereof might by Tradition then used be delivered unto Moses by a more certain presumption then any or all the testimonies which profane Antiquitie had preserved and left to their successours And this he proveth by the light which Moses might have either by Cabala or letters For that the most notable occurrents of every severall age were transmitted downwards by tradition and heare-say is without all controversie a and for letters it is so clear
Pentateuch Secondly It appeareth not by any relation of sacred History that before the Babylonish captivitie there was any weekly reading or expounding the Law upon the Sabbath Lastly it is a thing to be admired that if the reading of the Law had been in continuall use among the Jews every Sabbath day there should be found in the dayes of King Josiah one copy onely or book of the Law and that Hilkiah should present this book to the King as a great raritie 2. King 22.8 9. But the unsoundnesse of the foundation argueth the assertion erroneous for First will nothing but expresse Text satisfie you suppose we find it not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not verbatim commanded thus Reade the Law publickly every Sabbath day is not I pray you necessary and inevitable deduction out of Text Scripture with you if yea then we need not travel farre for a command no farther then the fourth precept and not farre into that but to Remember thou keep holy or sanctifie the Sabbath day I told you before that things are then said to be sanctified when they are applied to holy worship now holy worship is the exhibiting to God his due and just honour and that is performed two wayes either by reverent attention to what he offereth us in his word or an humble presentment of what we preferre to him in our prayers For Hearing of the word Adoration are the two hands of religion the one we extend to receive what God communicateth to us the other to represent what in mercy he accepteth from us so as they are indeed the proper instruments of mutuall commerce betwixt him and us and though I allow them a parity of honour yet hath the one a precedency of order before the other and this belongeth to hearing of the word For the first of religious offices wherewith we publickly honour God on earth saith that worthy m Hooker is the receiving that knowledge which he imparteth to us in his word The reason is evident for prius est nosse Deum consequens n colere or rather according to that golden chain How o shall men invoke him in whom they have not believed how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher Hence it is that the Primitive Church had ever the Sermon before the Service to intimate that none ought to be admitted to pray with the Church before they have been inlightned in saving doctrine All tag and rag had free accesse to the Sermon to the service onely the faithfull and Catechumeni p Let the Bishop interdict none neither Gentile nor Heretick nor Jew to enter into the Church and heare the word of God untill the Service of the Catechumeni saith the Councel of Carthage For the clear understanding of which Canon you must know that Missa Catechumenorum signifieth here not the dismission of the Catechumeni but the service so called which began at the introitus and ended at the offertory If then the sanctification of the Sabbath be the application of it to Gods worship the consequence must and will be That all sacred actions tending to this worship as parts thereof but the hearing of the Law read most especially it being of the essence of that worship were commanded in and under the word sanctifie But you 'l say that many Doctours of note maintain that the letter of the fourth commandment imposed upon the Jews no other externall form of sanctifying the weekly Sabbath but resting from bodily labour I answer The literall sense of the fourth Commandment imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the Sabbath viz. by all such religious actions as are proper to holy worship the specialties whereof it not determineth least it should be thought to exclude any It also imposed rest and cessation from secular businesse but that it commanded it as any at all much lesse the onely externall form of sanctifying the Sabbath pardon me I cannot believe For what honour could accrue to God through an idle and lazie rest what worship could man perform waking more then a sleep How could the day be lesse sanctified by beasts then men Rest was injoyned as necessary indeed necessitate medii as a fit means but not necessitate causae as a necessary cause constituting sacred worship Against these Doctours of note I will oppose a Doctour of note too and of such note as his Dictates never any of the Primitive Church durst call into question a Athanasius the Great who in refutation of this Jewish fancie hath amongst others this invincible argument b If rest sanctifieth then by consequence labour polluteth for Contrariorum eadem est ratio yea the Father maketh the knowledge of God to be the chief end of the Sabbath Because knowledge is more necessary then rest c And therefore the beam of truth hath extorted from them this confession That some other religious actions were intended by God as the end of the precept but no other were formally commanded d What I pray did God intend those religious actions as the end of the precept how come you to know Gods intention hath he anywhere revealed it if yea then tell me is not that overture that declaration of his intendment equipollent to a command Besides when and where did God open this his mind in this precept and at the giving of the Law If now and here then these religious actions and rest were coordinate together both imposed at one and the same time the thing you deny If after then God imposed and man observed rest to no end and purpose all that while untill the manifestation of his intentions concerning the end of that rest came forth But God and nature do nothing in vain e even Philosophy could tell you so and sure Divinity much more Their second Argument is upon the old haunt still The want of expresse narration which were it true yet is it no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no demonstration of what they affirm as I have proved before pag. 5. Besides the contrary may be probably collected without detorting Scripture against reason For first when the Shunamite desired to go to the Prophet Elisha to acquaint him with the death of her sonne and to see if he could afford her any comfort her husband expostulated with her saying Why wilt thou go to day it is neither New-moon nor Sabbath day which had been an impertinent question if they had not accustomed to resort to the Prophets on those dayes to heare the word expounded That this was their practice scarce any Expositour upon the place but assureth us Though here is onely mention of the New-moon and Sabbath yet as we need not doubt but that they practiced the same upon other festivalls also so I conceive it to be implyed in both or either words which are often in Scripture taken in a generall notion not denoting
any certain or particular but an indefinite feast The word Sabbath especially this so frequently as no meanly lettered man is such a novice to whom it is a novelty The New-moon more sparingly yet when mated with Sabbath seldome retaineth it any other signification Examples whereof are first this text of the Kings then that of Isaiah 66.23 From one New-moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord Again that of Ezech. 46.3 The people of the land shall worship at the doore of this gate before the Lord in the Sabbaths and in the New-moons Lastly that of Amos 8.5 When will the New-moon be gone that we may sell our corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat In all these portions of Scriture Sabbaths New-moons by the figure {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is when one thing is expressed by two words are onely put for solemn feasts generally not particularly accepted Nor is the word New-moon taken thus onely when linked with the Sabbath but somewhile also when single and alone as 1. Kings 12.33 For where in our translation as in I am sure most if not all others it is said that Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth moneth the Hebrew word for that feast is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth the New-moon but to speak properly the New-moon it could not be for the Moon was then in her full it being the 15 day and the feast is thought by learned men to be devised by Jeroboam in imitation indeed to suppresse it in oblivion of the feast of Tabernacles which was to be on the 15 of the seventh moneth But not to expatiate too farre in collaterall transcursions the reading of the Law may not absurdly be expiscated out of Acts 15.21 where James giving definitive sentence in the Councel of Hierusalem saith Moses of old time hath in every citie them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day But against this place they except viz. that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is used in Scripture of many things not very ancient as Matth. 5.21 27 33. Acts 15.7 But this objection is easily repelled the question is not what sense the like phrase hath Matth. 5.21 c. but what it meaneth here and that it is to be taken in the construction we make of it an eminent Bishop r witnesseth The sound of the Spirit viz. preaching all the Law-long sounded in them by whom Moses was preached every Sabbath day So he upon this very text But in defence of the contrary interpretation it may be objected That the text speaketh of Synagogues which came not into use untill the captivitie To which I say that the most and best Divines s hold it probable that Synagogues had their beginning from the plantation of the land of Canaan when the priestly and propheticall offices ceased in the first-born and masters of families but were supplyed the first by the Leviticall priests the second by the seventy Elders as some suppose t but more certainly by the Prophets whose ordinary calling was to reade and expound the Law The numerous provision of which sacred preachers maketh it incredible that they were destitute of places no matter how or Colledges or Synagogues or otherwise denominated destinate to that and such like holy-duties Their last argument is not compounded of much better stuff For first the finding of the book of the Law by Hilkiah and presenting of it to Josiah is no infallible signe Quod alioqui nulli ejus essent alii codices That there were besides no other books thereof not to Genebrard u I am sure and it may well be controverted For if in times of harder pressures when the Temple and the authentick books in it were burnt when utter havock was made of all and the people of God led captives into Babylon even in the extremitie of that desolation if some copies were no doubt preserved in private mens hands as Daniels Ezechiels a Jeremies c. For how otherwise could Esdras restore the Sacred volume to its first integrity then by comparing divers exemplaries then extant together and so reforming what errours had been committed by negligent penmen if I say some copies escaped the fire at that time probable it is that all perished not before Josiahs reign But be it granted that all were lost not one to be found before Hilkiah chanced to light upon that yet are you short still your argument is not ad idem for the question is of a duty part of Gods publick and solemn worship and your instance is of a time under persecution when the ensigne of the Church was the Crosse when there was no solemn worship of the true God publickly tolerated and you may as well upon this instance inferre that there was no Sabbath observed as deny the observation of it by this dutie of Reading and Hearing the Law No man for ought I know contendeth that the solemn reading of the Law alwayes every Sabbath and that in times of distresse was practiced and that it was at other times even Cajetan b himself who holdeth that that book which Hilkiah found was of all other the onely remnant acknowledgeth Holy exercises as reading and expounding the Law during Manasses his wicked reign were so long neglected and neglect I hope insinuateth a dutie formerly practiced that the book of the Law is related as a thing new discovered So he True it is he mentioneth not the Sabbath day as whereon these neglecta divina ought to have been performed but seeing the words seem to referre to duties which ought to have been publickly performed their publick performance ought to have regard to both times and places destinate thereto This point I prosecute no further enough I hope if not too much hath been said to perswade that the Law was read on the weekly Sabbath as well as on the annuall of Tabernacles in the septennuall of Release I passe then to the last question In this as brief I shall be as in the former I was tedious At the end of every seven years in the solemnitie of the year of Release in the feast of Tabernacles thou shalt reade the Law before Israel in their hearing saith the text Upon which words Tostatus thus c The Law saith he is meant especially of Deuteronomy And d others since have imbraced the same opinion but none have thought us worthy to be privy to the reasons inducing that opinion nor indeed can any be devised For who knoweth not that the word Law importeth the whole Pentateuch of Moses of I believe an hundred of instances I will produce but one and that of any the likeliest to make for their purpose God injoyneth the future King should write him a copy of this Law in a book Now I pray tell me is Deuteronomy onely
this matter we may be assured there was no such thing done The Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as well a preparation and destination as actuall application to holinesse as Exod. 19.10 Josh. 3.5 7.3 Jerem. 1.5 If God at that time whereof Moses wrote did give any command to Adam to sanctifie the Sabbath it must of necessity follow that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise But in Paradise there was no need of a Sabbath where there should have been no toyl no necessity of sanctifying any day to Gods worship where every day should have been a day of rest and the hole life a continuall Sabbath God would not then impose the Sabbath as a law when he himself brake it for according to Hierome and Catharinus he formed Eve upon the seventh day and so wrought upon it God imposed upon Adam in Paradise no other positive Law then that of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge It is probable that Jacob whilest he kept Labans sheep the Israelites while they were under the bondage of Pharaoh and his mercilesse taskmasters kept no Sabbath but if it had been commanded sure it had been kept Lastly it is said Nehem. 9. vers. 13 14. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai c. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath The authorities they alledge are especially emergent from the Primitive Church Justin Martyr leadeth the way Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize is Tertullians a challenge to the Jews All the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath saith b Ireneus There was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us so c Eusebius When there was no Scripture nor Law divinely inspired the Sabbath was not consecrated to God d Damascen Of late Adherers to this opinion the most eminent are Tostatus Musculus and Gomarus In this array the arguments and authorities upholding the Prolepsis are marshalled yet is it not universally entertained many there have been and are and those of no mean note neither who have applied themselves to the genuine and proper sense of the words and from thence deduced the institution of the Sabbath from that very article of time whereof Moses wrote And this interpretation I conceive most agreeable to the mind of Moses for many reasons which shall exhibit themselves in their due place for first I bend my self to encounter the objections formerly made and to lay open where they are crazy or invalid Divine revelation is indeed the best means to understand Gods will and act and though the Scripture doth not mention Gods expresse command to Adam though we reade it not said to him as after it was in the Law Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day yet a command we find and there being then at that time whereof Moses wrote none on earth capable of a command but Adam and Eve it necessarily followeth that they received the command For what is meant by Gods sanctifying of the seventh day but the application of it to divine worship Those things are said to be sanctified in the Law which are applyed to sacred worship saith a Aquinas now if it was then applyed to sacred worship sure it was by command Nor is the argument of force The Scripture mentioneth it not Ergò It was not many things were to the first Patriarchs commanded which are not recorded It is by farre the major part of learned men b affirmed that God dictated and prescribed to Adam all circumstances of his worship which by tradition past to his posteritie and were in every severall family untill Moses observed and it is in part evidently and infallibly confirmed by Scripture it self for we reade that Cain sinned but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4.15 Where there is no law there can be no transgression for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1. John 3.4 yet of this or any other command concerning religious duties holy text hath not one syllable Perhaps the command was not so solemn as afterward not vivâ voce in an audible voyce there being not the same reason and yet a command there might be internall though not externall God might by his guiding spirit direct Adam to sanctifie the seventh day as he did both him and other Patriarchs to other observances if Aquinas a hath aimed right It is credible saith he that the Patriarchs by divine instinct as by an hidden and tacit law were induced to worship God in a set and determinate form agreeable to the inward worship and signification of mysteries to be fulfilled in Christ The want of an Historicall narration of the praxis of those times is also as weakly urged You know Ab autoritate negativè nihil concluditur ex argumentis Arguments drawn from silent authority conclude nothing An axiome never firmer then when applied to the history of the world from the Creation to the Law the period of this discourse There is no mention of Adams penitence after his fall none of his sacrificing of his performing any other pious exercises during his hole abode upon earth none What then shall we say that he lived like an Atheist never invoked never praised God We reade of no Parents that Melchisedech had what shall we hold with the letter of S. Paul that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} really whithout father or mother ◠Heb. 7.23 He that in so compendious a story as this of Moses looketh for a full relation of every small circumstance is like to lose his longing and may as wisely seek Pauls steeple in Hondius his map of the world Abbridgements of stories are nets of a larger mash which onely inclose great fishes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things worth mentioning smaller fry things of lesse consequence escape them Athanasius his rule is right enough it self if it be not bowed by violence Comparing the miracles of Christ with those of the Prophets he demonstrateth the oddes to be this Christ was born of a Virgin so none of them Christ made the lame to walk the deaf to heare the dumbe to speak the blind to see so did not they For then saith he the Scripture would not have omitted it Therefore because the Scripture is altogether silent in the matter it is sure there was no such thing done The Father speaks of miracles but I hope the observation of the Sabbath was none and therefore Athanasius stands you in little stead My margent directs to the place omitted by the Bishop The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} little also avails them for be it granted that it signifies a preparation to holinesse doth this preparation exclude
the contrary The Ancients whilest might and main they endeavour to beat down one errour many times fall into another So a Sixtus Senensis A thing too infallibly true witnesse three of the foresaid Fathers Justin Ireneus and Tertullian who in their fierce bickerings with the Valentinians Marcionites and Manichees violently bare down their Chrysippean fate and inevitable necessitie but upon the ruines of that errour laid the foundation of the doctrine of Freewill which afterwards was so augmented by the superstruction of Pelagius and his Ape Arminius If they writ in cool blood did they throughly scanne and sift the point did they ruminate upon what they delivered or did it rather carelesly escape from them in passage b Every man though never so learned is one way to be esteemed when he onely glanceth upon the question otherwise when he undertaketh to examine and discusse it throughly saith our great Prelate Lastly it must be inquired whether the question was started before they delivered themselves thus for if it was not they are not so much to be regarded For they often delivered things somewhat negligently not doubting but what they writ was orthodox enough because it had past once for currant till it came to the touch Augustine hath no other shift to salve the Fathers aforesaid from Pelagianisme in the point of Originall sinne and Freewill Many things indeed go a while for granted and without controul which in tract of time are discovered to be of dangerous consequence and then justly exploded for men are wont till they foresee the mischief which may ensue to deliver things as they took them by way of frolick one from another and so in a plodding carelesnesse a which way most go all follow But all these exceptions laid aside one there is from which no appeal will be admitted It is naturall to man to erre Men they were and might erre yea and did every one in other things why might they not in this I speak not this to avile them or abate any thing of the reverence we owe them and if it be suspected that I bear them no good will Of my self they were b Zanchy's words once but shall now be mine and mine own Genius I speak it From the unanimous consent of the Fathers where necessitie compelleth not I am very scrupulous to differ No my onely scope and intention is to tell you what Saint Augustine c hath told me That humane authoritie though never so learned never so holy is not to be trusted unlesse it produceth Canonicall Scripture to prove or probable reason to demonstrate what it saith How farre the Fathers slipt in other things is not cognoscible in this place whether in the point in question they did yea or nay is now to be debated and that they did I think it probable at least if not evident For is it not said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it What is this Blessing but the dispensing a peculiar favour towards it what this Sanctifying but a separation and consecration of it to holy worship If yea what then shall hinder but that we think the Sabbath instituted in that very article of time whereof Moses wrote shall this prodigious Prolepsis a Nothing is easier then to cry out O that is a Trope a Figure a peculiar manner of expression A strange wantonnesse in Expositours to apply Tropes devised upon necessity to places clear as the mid-day That according to Augustines b rule is a figurative speech which being properly understood can neither be applied to Faith Charitie nor Edification Somewhat fuller is that of Bellarmine c The Scripture ought to be understood according to the true proprietie of the words where we are not diverted by some manifest absurditie and this he calleth Commune axioma Theologorum the universall tenet of all Divines which I take to be granted on all parts the rather because neither Chamier Amesius nor any other as farre as I have examined hath accriminated the Jesuite for it Now lest we should misconstrue the word Absurd he explaineth himself in another place thus d Vnlesse we be inforced by some other portion of Scripture or other article of Faith or the universall interpretation of the Church Let this rule then judge us I for my part compromise to be tried by it God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it there is the Text God did honour the seventh day and consecrated it to his worship there is the genuine and proper sense and because in the tissure and series of divine story Moses hath inserted this sanctification of the Sabbath immediately next after the six dayes creation why should we not conclude that it was sanctified then and in the same order of time whereof he wrote why should we not take Moses his meaning as we find his words Is there any portion of Scripture any article of Faith the generall explication of the hole Church repugnant to it Is there any absurdity compelleth us to think otherwise Ostendant let them shew it which till they do let them give us leave to hold our first opinion to which the absurditie of the Prolepsis hath compelled us Absurd it is for it is clear the Patriarchs had a Sabbath and that they observed the seventh day Sabbath is evident from the reasons thereof common to both times They had a Sabbath For the Law of Nature instilleth this notion a That as every thing else which excelleth so especially God Paramount and superlative in excellency is to be worshipped as also That to the performance of this worship certain times are to be b deputed Is it likely that the Patriarchs failed in so necessary a dutie was Gods Church then so supinely governed or indeed so not governed at all that no time was set apart for solemn assemblies There was a consecration of Materials for sacrifices whereof beasts therefore distinguished by clean and unclean a consecration of Persons who a consecration of Places where was there none of Times when assuredly yes and therefore S. c Augustine hath put the Quando as one of those circumstances wherein Cain might have been deficient So a Sabbath they had The seventh day Sabbath they had Look into the Essence the body and soul of that Sabbath as d Brerewood calleth them what are they but Vacation or Rest from bodily labour and the Sanctification of that rest by dedicating the soul to Gods worship Were the bodies both of man and beast before the Law of a more brassie and adamantine durablenesse then after were they not conditioned not attempered alike was not the sweet repose of lucid intervalls equally necessary and welcome to both Did not devout sequestration to pious exercises as well sute and become the souls of them as of these Look especially into the end peculiar to it as the seventh from the Creation what is it but to eternize the honour of the Creation in
indeleble memory and that whilest man is amused with admiration of so miraculous a structure he may be excited to a gratefull recognition of the goodnesse of God who created all these things for man and onely man for himself Is not this benefit of Creation common and universall do not all participate of it but the elect especially and inexplicably Had not the Church before Moses as ample a share in the blessings which result from it as that since and ought it not then as freely as frequently to celebrate its sacred Festivall If then before and since the Law there were the same reasons sure there was also the same thing observed yea and the same commanded for from the Reason to the Law from the Cause to the Effect from the End to the Means is a solid argument and never faileth but when that end may be acquired by a better means and impossible it is to demonstrate how the tyred bodies both of man and beast could have been more charitably provided for Gods solemn worship in a more sweet decorum performed and the memory of the Creation better preserved from the immerging deluge of time and profanenesse by any day other then the weekly Sabbath the day which God indigitated for the same purposes by his own example an example equivalent to a Law For though there had been no vocall no verball institution of the Sabbath yet Adam and the succeeding Patriarchs who had a view and clear notion of all Gods works their orderly existencies and exact consummation but especially who were manuducted and guided by an inerring spirit could not but collect from Gods example a the analogicall equity for man to imploy six dayes in the works of his calling and to interferiate the seventh consecrating that to religious duties And therefore that main Argument from the want of a solemn Institution is but like a ruffled arrow that maketh a great noise in the aire but falleth short of the mark For the controversie is not de Modo neither of the command whether Internall or Externall nor of the observation whether voluntary or imposed by precept but de Re whether it was or observed or commanded yea or nay that it was observed the equity thereof common and agreeable to both times evinceth and observed it could not be otherwise then in obedience to command either prolated or tacitely inspired by the holy Ghost for impute we must not to those sanctified men superstitious and will-worship If then the Sabbath was both observed and commanded before the Law why might not the command arise out of Gods blessing and sanctifying the seventh day mentioned Gen. 2.3 why should we not rather embrace the proper and grammaticall sense of the words then resort to a peerlesse and senselesse Prolepsis that hath neither fellow to associate nor reason to strengthen it It hath not its match in the hole sacred volume which is another note of its absurdity There is not one Prolepsis of such an Institution saith Amesius of any Institution at all so I and yet I doubt not to find many seconds One place there is I grant which at the first blush seemeth to perswade the contrary but upon more mature consideration it exhibiteth nothing lesse The text is Exod. 16.32 The words these This is that which the Lord commandeth fill an Omer thereof viz. of the Manna to be kept for your generations c. And as the Lord commanded Moses so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Lo here say they an Institution of the Lords related by anticipation as the former was for how could Aaron lay up a pot of Manna to be kept before the Testimony when as yet there was neither Ark nor Tabernacle and so no Testimony before which to keep it An Institution indeed I see here but no Anticipation nor can I without your spectacles I say no Anticipation of the Institution For might not I pray this command this Institution be dictated to Moses at the same time whereof he wrote might not the precept be given now though the execution of the precept was adjourned nay is it not most likely it was so for where in the hole bible meet you with any injunction concerning it but here touching the building of the Tabernacle and the ordering every thing else appertaining to it God did exactly lesson Moses on the mount but of the filling the pot of Manna and placing it before the Testimony no hint at all was given there nor anywhere else but here onely And though we should grant that this command was given after the Tabernacle finished yet cannot the mentioning of it here be properly said to be by Prolepsis This narration taken hole and together is I confesse mentioned by Prolepsis not so the parts of it Hole and Part have not things so common betwixt them that what belongeth to the hole belongeth also to the part A total Prolepsis of an entire story before another there may be and yet no partial of one part of that story before another the parts may be marshalled in their due order though the hole be antedated All that series of Divine story from Genesis to Job may be said to be related by Prolepsis for it is the currant opinion that Job was comtemporary with Jacob and Joseph but improper it were to say that the fall of Manna the giving of the Law the building of Solomons Temple and such particulars are in respect of the history of Job set down by way of Prolepsis Prolepsis onely aimeth at what is next her she beholdeth not things remote So it is in this text the verses from the 27 to the end of the chapter constitute a narration distinct and in a canton by it self For Moses having in the former 26 verses reported so much of the history of Manna as was peculiar to that time whereof he wrote thought it not amisse to superadde what else concerned it though he delayed a while the ensuing occurrents which should have been precedents to it because it being not much he had to say and that so homogeneal with what went before he was resolved to take now an ultimum vale of it therefore he telleth you of an after ordinance of God concerning the filling an urn with Manna the disposing of it before the Testimony the execution of that command by Aaron and lastly the duration of the use thereof by the Israelites fourty-yeare which last is supposed to be the supplement of Joshua or Eleazar If now you consider this digression abstracted from the ensuing story you will find the hole preposterously related and yet the parts not at all inordinate and if you look wistly upon Calvines a words you shall find him not repugnant to what I have here delivered Lastly it is absurd for there can no solid reason be given why Moses should by a Prolepsis of about 2670 years insert this Institution It could not be to
understood by this Law No it is not all Expositours take it for the hole five books and yet for this there may be some colour because the 70. render it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hierome Deuteronomium legis hujus But to return to the first text of Moses we need no other Expositour then himself what Law he appointed then to be reâ—d he telleth us in the immediate precedent verse it was that Law which he delivered to the Levites that Law which he commanded them to put in the side of the Ark Now if they can prove that onely Deuteronomy was delivered to the Levites and laid up there they shall gain my subscription Having thus proceeded as farre as my first intendment bounded me lest this discourse should jut too farre into that insuing of the Sabbath under the Gospel now no more Gods Sabbath under the Gospel WE have at last shaked off those remora's which retarded our arrivall at the Christian Sabbath at Gods Sabbath under the Gospel For a Sabbath God hath still but not the Jewish not the seventh from the creation No a The seventh day is vanisht our Lord is buried the first now dawneth our Lord is risen and his Resurrection hath consecrated to us a new Sabbath for a Sabbath God must have by the immutable Law of the fourth precept Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day that is that day which for the time being God hath marked out and appointed for his own {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For if this Commandment injoyneth now no particular and set time under the Gospel then is the Law an Ennealogue not a Decalogue and so God hath lost one of his ten words but he payeth no tithe out of his Commandments his full Denary he must and will have If you say the Morall equitie viz. to yield God a competent and convenient time for his worship remaineth still and so the Commandment is not lost I answer This Fundamentall Law is tacitly implyed in this precept but so it was also in the institution of all other ceremoniall festivals the Passeover Pentecost c. to which we may as well resort as to the fourth precept for it And if this morall or naturall Law be the onely reliques of that Commandment I would fain learn what was in the Sabbath extraordinary more then in other Feasts which might intitle it to a roome amongst the morall Laws of the Decalogue when as the other Feasts were excluded Besides if this morall law of Festos dies coles maketh a distinct precept by it self I see no reason but there should be another for going to Church another for allowing God a convenient portion of our substance for these are also morall equities and so there will be an even dozen Lastly how cometh this morall equitie to be a peculiar of the Gospel onely God had from the Creation to the Law from the Law to Christ a day appropriated and that by himself to his worship what hath he lesse reason to require it under the Gospel hath he left the Christian Church to that liberty that every man may serve him as the toy taketh him and so God stand to our courtesie to be worshipped when we list You will say Nay we are not left at that libertie The observation of the Holy dayes appointed by the Church is reduced to the fourth Commandment as a speciall to a generall viz. Gods people must observe holy times because the equitie of the fourth Commandment obligeth thereunto But Easter and Christmasse day and Sunday c. are holy dayes lawfully appointed by the Governours of the Church and subordinate to the equitie of the fourth Commandment therefore Christian people are bound to observe these Holy dayes in obedience to the equitie of the fourth Commandment I answer The Church hath a power indeed to ordain festivals but is the observation of her constitutions concerning them a fulfilling the disobedience a breach of the fourth Commandment How can this be First what needs an Obligation be derived from the last precept of the first Table when the first of the latter is alsufficient Secondly is it not a mere non sequitur The fourth Commandment bindeth us to yield God a convenient time for his worship Ergò It obligeth us to observe the festivals of the Church Where learned you this Logick Suppose I pray the Church should injoyn but one day in a moneth doth he I pray who observeth her order that one day and not once more in the interim serve God perform his dutie which God in this Commandment requireth or doth he who plieth God with frequent addresses who strictly observeth canonicall houres yet onely perhaps faileth that one day which the Church injoyneth doth he I say violate the morall law of this precept which saith not Set apart such times for pious exercises as thy Governours prescribe but such as thou thy self thinkest meet In short to make this more evident Every Law positive is built upon some morall as upon a foundation now it is manifest that the foundation may stand and yet the superstructure fall as may be demonstrated in an example familiar to us The equitie of State requireth that particular persons be not inriched any way which reflecteth to the damage of a communitie upon this sociable equitie there is a positive a Statute law b inacted that None shall buy or contract for any victualls or wares before they come to the Market Fair or Port. But in some parts of this Realm especially in Norfolk such plentie of corn there is growing in most Towns as maketh every of them a kind of Market so as few men need go out of their own Villages to be supplied with materialls either for bread or beer yea the superfluitie is such as many Towns vend a thousand quarters of grain over and besides what supplieth their families and lands by reason of which great plenty little or none is sold in many Markets and the usuall practice hath been and is for Merchants to buy not in open Market but at the Barn doore great quantity thereof and export it into other parts of the kingdome where scarcitie is This act of theirs some Merchants have by smart experience lately found to be illegall but yet no violation of the foresaid equity for who complaineth that they are damnified thereby Not the Norfolcians they are eased not the Shires deficient they are relieved either part desireth it one ut impleatur that it may be stored the other ut depleatur that it may be disburthened Nor doth the fourth Commandment onely inferre out of these words Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath that God must have a Sabbath in a speciall manner but it declareth also his will concerning the quotient and limitation thereof Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the Seventh is the Sabbath so that one in a week he must have If you say the limitation
given shall abide Therefore we may conclude this point with Leo h The shadows being dispelled by the presence of the verity those things which tending either to morality or the pure worship of God for piety sake were instituted do still continue in the same form with us wherein they were at first framed and what was agreeable to both Testaments is by no change altered They i to whom positive-immulable seemeth so prodigious a thing may now spare their wonder at Amesius and bestow it upon their own ignorance what he taught in this point he might and did learn no doubt in England and not onely of the Puritanes For what say you To Whitgift k No man doubteth the meaning of these words Six dayes shalt thou labour c. to be this That seeing God hath permitted to us six dayes to do our own works in we ought in the seventh wholly to serve him To Hooker l We are to account the sanctification of one day in a week a duty which Gods immutable Law doth exact for ever To Donne m God seposed a seventh of our time for his exteriour worship To Andrews n The numbers of seven and ten are not without their weight the seventh the Sabbath the tenth Gods part the Sabbath and Tenth both sacred to God To Bacon o God demandeth a tenth of our substance and which is more strict a seventh of our time What say you to these But what if Amesius had been born and lived an alien to this Kingdome had he then escaped the contagion of this errour Is England in this assertion divided from the continent of other Christian Churches assuredly no Those two lights of the reforming age Bucer and his Achates P. Martyr as in other things their judgements concurred with a rare and happy identity a so in this they differed not Our God hath sanctified one day in seven for the promoving of our faith and consequently of eternall life Bucer b That someone day in a week men attend Divine worship is no humane device Martyr c It is a morall precept as it biddeth us dedicate one day in a week for the externall service of God so Zanchie d God therefore sanctified the seventh day that man might know that in the weekly circuit one day is to be bestowed upon the publick worship of God Pareus e It is a naturall law that every seventh day be sacred to God Junius f That enemy of God g Arminius h It is morall to set apart one day of seven for Gods service The Lutherane Churches dissent not Conradus Dietericus as my Authour i informeth me Baldwin k It is morall to sanctifie one day of seven And to make up the harmony complete the Papists themselves are in this reconciled with us God would have at least one day in a week to be allowed him saith Fenus l To depute every seventh day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially the same day be not alwayes deputed so Suarez m The Divine Law required that one day in a week should be sequestred for holy worship so Bellarmine n Nor is the opinion an upstart I appeal to Chrysostome o who calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an immoveable Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to sepose one day in a week for religious actions And thus I have proved that one day in seven he must have by the perpetuall ordinance of the fourth Commandment Nor will the allowance of one in seven satisfie him unlesse he have the designation and determination of that one p It must be the day consecrated by God either immediately by himself or mediately by his Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever the Day be as I told you before out of Zanchy so that the Day must be of Divine Institution And this is evident First de Jure Christ calleth himself Lord of the Sabbath his dominion was not onely over the old Sabbath to abrogate that but over the new also to surrogate that as succenturiate to the other Secondly de Facto For Gods own act is the best interpreter of his will and if he had meant the Church should have had her libertie her Conge d' Eslier leave to chuse he would not have anticipated her with his own act of instituting the Evangelicall Sabbath whereof as well as of the Legall he was not onely the efficient but the exemplary cause by finishing the work of our redemption on that day But here it is demanded p Is the old Sabbath translated into the Lords day If yea by whom By any commandment of Christ where is it Produce one precept or one word of God out of the old Testament that it should be translated or out of the new commanding it to be translated or intimating that by Christs commandment it was translated Take both or which you will either the old or new Covenant and withall the best and ancientest Interpreters thereof and then I dare presume you will soon discry a Translation For the first it was adumbrated in their Circumcision on the eight day It was a type of that eight day whereon our Lord rose again for our justification So saith Cyprian q and with him Augustine r The Lords day could not but be known to the holy Prophets for there is a Psalme entituled FOR THE EIGHT DAY and on the Eight day Children were circumcised and the like elsewhere It was Prophecied in the title of the Psalmes the sixth and eleventh In finem pro octavo So Ignatius s Nazianzene t Augustine Prophecied in the * 101. Psalme Scribatur illa in generationem novam This shall be written for the Generation to come vers. 18. so Athanasius In the * 109. for so Basil understandeth diem virtutis the day of Power but above all prophecied in the 118. vers. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made So all the Fathers who have saluted and cited that place For the second or new Covenant we need search no higher then to the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles from the Resurrection downwards to warrant and assure us of this Translation I say from the Resurrection for this their practice did not as some suppose begin in long wast of time There was no interregnum no vacancy at all no cessation of a Sabbath No not the first week No sooner was the old Sabbath abolished then the new established and installed The Jewish Sabbath that slept we all know its last in the grave with our Saviour Its ghost according to Countrey dialect or the shadow of that shadow walked indeed a while after but it self the old Sabbath expired then and immediately entered the Lords day Immediately when Christ himself was but newly up from that very day whereon he arose doth S. Augustine u derive the
primum esse of the Lords day The Lords Day was by the Resurrection of Christ declared to be the Christians Day and from that very time of Christs Resurrection it began to be celebrated as the Christian mans Festivall So hath a profound a Bishop rendered him and truly unlesse ex illo relateth to Christ which I believe you will difficultly grant though it be lesse monstrous then to marry it with Resurrectione in despight of Priscian Nor is Augustines opinion utterly of truth abandoned For though we reade not of any Sabbath-duties expresly performed on that very day of Christs Resurrection by the Apostles yet this we find that when Christ appeared to them on that day they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Assembled on that day and the place is thought by learned men to be the coenaculum in which Christ celebrated the last Passeover and from thence derived a perpetuall consecration nor is it likely that he would inspire them in an ordinary place If then they were assembled and in a Church we may safely collect they were busied in sacred exercises The first day of our Saviours appearing to his Disciples this and the first Christian Sabbath he honoured with his beatificall presence The next was the next {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. John What on some indefinite time after eight dayes as you b would have it A word with you Sir Saint Mark telleth us that our Saviour should * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will you therefore have our Lords Resurrection to be on some one day after three expired you will not sure nay though I think you dare as much as another yet this you dare not No by after eight dayes is meant the eighth day after which was the next Sunday So the * Fathers agree It is necessary that that day should be the Lords day saith Cyrill c and he thence deriveth the equity of Assemblies upon that day Nay more this very day is so farre honoured by Nazianzene d as he made an Homily on purpose for it as he hath entitled it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nova Dominica because the first Lords day solemnized in the weekly revolution after the Resurrection or rather because it was the encenium of the Resurrection for betwixt the day of the Resurrection and this he thus distinguisheth That was saith he salutifera this salutis natale That the day that brought forth salvation into the world this the commemorative Festivall of that day Though this be the last first day mentioned in holy writ which our Saviour hallowed in his assembling with the Apostles yet probable it is that he practiced the same even till his Apoge and Ascension But conjecturall arguments we will not urge when demonstrative are so hardly obtained Well our Saviour is ascended Let us now behold what honour the Spirit of Comfort which in his late valediction he promised to send his Apostles hath conferred on this Day Our Saviour is ascended and the holy Ghost descendeth but on what day the first of the week Not expresly yet consequently and by deduction yes for it was when Pentecost was arrived and this fell that yeare on the Sunday The Allwise God so disposing that the Gospel should every way parallel the Law The one given on mount Sinai on the day of Pentecost the then Legall Sabbath the other on mount Sion on the day of Pentecost the then Evangelicall Sabbath But some are of opinion the Lords day need not brag of this honour it being more then was meant it for it was say they a casuall thing that Pentecost should fall on the Sunday which I confesse seemeth to me a prodigy in Divinitie For those things onely are casuall which happen praeter intentionem operantis contrary to the expectation of the agent But here God was the agent whose omniscience nothing could escape who is privie to all events as the disposer of them True it is that necessarium and contingens necessary and contingent are terms which Theology can endure well enough when they are spoken with regard to intermediate and second causes For those Effects which are the emanations of such Causes as can in nature produce no other are said to be necessary and those which proceed from such as are in their own nature not determined to certain and definite effects are called contingent but when they are referred to the supreme and paramount Cause of all they are then and must be called Necessary Nor could the falling of Pentecost on the Sunday be a contingent thing in respect of the second Causes which were all no doubt thereof is made necessary For Scaliger hath informed you right that the Pentecost's terminus à quo was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the morrow after the Passeover so ever no contingency there and the Passeover it self ever as certain alwayes upon the fifteenth day or the full Moon following upon or next after the vernall Aequinox and so none there There were certainly other reasons which induced the holy Ghost to make choice of this day and time yet seeing all Antiquitie hath accounted his descent upon the Apostles amongst those titles of honour which have been dispensed upon this day I see no reason why it should be now denied it And though no glory at all the thing by some over eagerly desired should accrue to it thereby yet this is most legible that on this day the Apostles were solemnly though closely assembled in prayer and holy duties But so you will say they were on other dayes which I grant with this distinction of aequè and aequaliter for some dayes amongst them were doubtlesse dignified with a more solemn observancy then others in respect whereof they were especially reputed if not denominated Holy-dayes For how else can our Church e be understood where she saith that The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in so that both the preferring one day before another and the time of that choice viz. immediately after the Ascension she indigitateth to us The next mention of Apostolicall observation of this day occurreth Acts 20. vers. 7. The first day of the week the Disciples being come together to break bread Paul preached unto them Against this Text two exceptions lie First that by Breaking of bread is onely meant their ordinary repast no sacred Duties or celebration of the Eucharist and this they seem to make good by Saint Chrysostome and Lyra as also by the English Bible which paralleleth this place with Acts 2. verse 46. I answer some have indeed interpreted this Text of bodily repast yet the major part take it for the mysticall breaking of bread in the Communion And for our Church B. Andrews out of this very place affirmeth positively that the Apostles were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to preach to pray to break bread on this day and B. White averreth as much And as to that Text of Acts 2. vers. 46. whether the margent of our English Testament transmitteth us I say that it is not inevitably not evidently to be understood of common food For f Humbertus taketh it for the Eucharist Behold the true Evangelist testifieth that the faithfull in the Apostolicall times assembled every day in Prayer and breaking of bread what are you then who say that full Masse that is the celebrating of the Eucharist ought to be performed onely twice a week And though the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may seem to boulster out the contrary opinion yet if you take them as they are both by the Syriack and Arabick and our own margent rendered for At home the meaning may very consonant to truth be as my learned * Tutour conceiveth That when they had performed their dayly devotions in the Temple at the accustomed times of Prayer there they used to resort to this Coenaculum immediately and there having celebrated the mysticall banquet of the holy Eucharist afterward took their ordinary repast with gladnesse and singlenesse of heart In which interpretation there is enough to reconcile both parts something for illustration being super-added For the holy Ghost doth here so I take it regard the practice of the Christians in their Love-feasts g and happily from hence they took their commencement which consisting of divers viands provided by a common purse and collation their fashion was to take so much thereof as they thought sufficient for the Communicants and so to celebrate the Lords Supper together which done they presently fell to their spare and slender chear entertaining and solacing themselves with spirituall and divine colloquies So that the fraction of bread here might have reference to their mysticall repast in the blessed Eucharist which was the first course or part of their Agape and the latter part of the verse might look at the other part thereof viz. corporall refection Their next cavill is that this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} denoteth not the first but some one day of the week wherein as they are become Separatists from our Church in her most absolute Translation so them and her I leave to end the quarrel We meet with it also 1. Cor. 16.1 and there an ordinance of the Apostles that their oblations should be upon that day Now I would gladly learn why this day rather then any other should be appointed for an Almes-day had it not been observed Holy in those times Lastly we meet with it Apoc. 1.10 but not now as formerly styled the First day of the week but apparelled in a Christian name and called the Lords-day which certainly the holy Ghost would not have done had it not passed for currant amongst Christians by that name and how could it obtain that name had it not been destined then to religious actions as a weekly holy-day Laying all these premised evidences of Apostolick practice together do they not clearly demonstrate the translation of the Sabbath into the Lords day For why should the Christian Church even in those times when every day was sanctified with devout exercises and seemed an holy Sabbath select any one distinct and peculiar day to be kept holy and why one in a week rather then in a moneth or yeare and why not in the weekly circuit the old Sabbath rather then the Lords day had not God some way made known his will to them that he would still have a Sabbath exempted from the common condition of other dayes that Sabbath to be weekly and that weekly not the old Jewish but the new Christian to be the first of the week as dignified by the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Anabaptisme of the Apostles Vtrumque mysterium nostrum utrumque utilitas nostrae as Hierome a in another case Dispensers both of inestimable benefits upon his Church the one of her justification the other of her sanctification and so this day a fit memoriall of both But here it will be demanded By whom this translation was made and to clear this doubt Hic labor hoc opus est Athanasius the great hath resolutely affirmed that Christ was the authour thereof {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Lord translated the Sabbath into the Lords day But some have found as they think an evasion for this viz. That Christ was not the authour by any mandate of his but onely the occasion of the translation which unparalleled glosse suggests to my memory that of Augustine b It is easie with every man to reply who can not hold his tongue But let us look upon the colour or fucus wherewith this interpretation as false as new is dawbed over and see if it will not with great facility wash off If Christ himself translated it then the Father thwarteth what he said before c where he tells us that the Lords day was taken up as a voluntary usage {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we honour the Lords day he mentions no command whereas of the Sabbath he saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he commanded it to be kept This indeed were something to decline our objection out of the Father if we were not assured otherwise of his mind for apparent it is that the Father neither regarded in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} voluntary usage nor in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} imposed command for do we not meet in him the same in effect counter-changed Doth he not elswhere say as much of the Sabbath as here of the Lords day That when God had finished the prime creation he rested and therefore men did OBSERVE the Sabbath in those dayes while the first creation was especially in force d He mentions here no command was therefore their observation of the Sabbath a voluntary usage Nay saith he not as much of the Lords day as of the Sabbath e When God had renewed and restored man by finishing the work of redemption he willed that the same day should be dedicated to that Restauration which the holy Ghost foreshewed by the Prophet saying This is the day which the Lord hath made And again f Gods will was that the Lords day should be manifest and declared that thou mayest know the end of the first generation to be accomplished What say you now Sir will your ingenuity descend to recant or your pregnant invention afford you another refuge Now there be many wayes by which Christ may be said to be the Translatour of the Sabbath Either by immediate institution and example as Junius a or by ratifying and approving the Translation already made by the Apostles as Maldonate b or by giving them direct and expresse commission to do it or lastly by revealing his
will to them by the holy Ghost after his Ascension To render mine own opinion and beyond opinion I will not adventure Furiosares est in tenebris impetus it is madnesse to run too boldly in the dark where the Scripture is silent it is never safe dogmatically to determine any thing to render I say mine own opinion the first way seems to me the more probable considering our Saviours apparition the assembling of the Apostles upon that day whilest he abode with them and the testimony of Athanasius Nazianzene and Augustine but especially because Clemens a contemporary of the Apostles in his genuine epistle to the Corinthians saith g Our Saviours pleasure was that oblations and publick service of the Church should not be inordinately and uncertainly performed but at times appointed Which if it were true we need not then doubt but that Christ himself made the Lords day a weekly holyday it being the principall day we reade of destined to sacred duties in the Apostolicall age But the matter is not much by which so we be able to prove that at least by one of these waies he did it And this is a thing very feasable For to take a short and speeding course the most embraced and popular opinion is that the Apostles instituted and translated the Sabbath into the Lords-day this is agreed upon by all ancient and modern Augustine a The Apostles and Apostolick men ordained the Lords day to be celebrated with religious solemnity The Authour b of that Tract or at least of that Chapter falsely ascribed to Basil affirmeth the station and custome of standing upon the Lords day to be an Apostolicall Tradition if so then the day it self much more Isichius c We following the Tradition of them that is the Apostles sequestre the Lords day for holy meetings Epiphanius d saith that the Apostles ordained the Synaxes to be held {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} on the Wednesday Friday and Lords day I keep the originall word Synaxes because of the diverse sense whereof it is capable e The same is affirmed by Zanchy in quartum praeceptum pag. 669. Melancth. tom. 2. fol. 363. Bucer Ratio Can. Examin Mercer in Gen. Beza in Apoc. Pareus also ascribeth the Translation of the day Apostolicae Ecclesiae to the Apostolick Church onely of the time when they translated it he leaveth as he findeth doubtfull Quando autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris literis non apparet And so 〈◊〉 his words in two severall editions I have perused that in quarto and the other in folio which I note the rather to whisper to you D. Heilens fidelity who in his also two severall editions hath by a new transsubstantiation converted Quando into Quomodo and to make it apparent he did it de industria he descants on it and renders it How by what authority Ursin Catech. p. 3. in Decalogum is of the same mind and so Junius in Gen. Baldwin Cas. pag. 474. Alsted catech. in praecept 4. Bellarm. De cultu Sanctor l. 3. c. 11. and infinite others indeed what needs more it is confest by our very Antagonists themselves Brerewood a B. White b Heilen c who all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one mind acknowledge the Apostles to be the instituters of the Lords day This foundation of Apostolicall institution being thus laid I advance forward to enquire whether this act of the Apostles did flow onely from the generall authority delegated to them by Christ or some definite and expresse command to that effect or rather in clear terms I proceed to discusse that great question Whether the Lords day be established Jure Divino Great I call it not for any abstruse and perplexed intricacy in it no Learned and eminent maintainers it hath got and therefore great but it is not her great Patronage shall advantage errour Magna est veritas praevalebit Truth is great and will prevail yea but that is the question whose Truth is It is so and come then for the decision of this question d To that truth which is neither mine nor thine but the equall object of us both let us give attention our clear and 〈◊〉 judgements not beclouded with peevish stubbornnesse To entitle a command Divine it is not onely required saith that thus farre judiciously learned Brerewood that the Authority be so whereby it is originally warranted for there may be Divine authority for humane decrees but that the Authour also by whom it is established be Divine Because Divine commandments are not so much evidences of Gods authority as they are declarations of his will and pleasure Which being without controversie true that which we are to make good is That this Act of the Apostles was but the execution of a particular and severall command to that purpose which can no sooner render it self manifest then by surveying the Apostolicall both Mission and Commission As for their Mission it was with all the grace and honour that might be nothing wanting that might any way enhance it As my Father sent me so send I you John 20.21 He that heareth you heareth me Luke 10.16 where our Saviour maketh them a kind of letter of Atturney to receive what obedience himself might claim And having dignified their embassage with these previous expressions Go saith he Matth. 28.19 there is their Mission and Legation and teach there is their Commission But what to teach what themselves think fit no there is a limitation a restriction it must be onely the observation of what thinâ—s I have commanded you and lest through frailty of their memories any thing should perish which was essentiall to their message Christ himself will have an eye to them I am with you alway even to the end of the world saith he With them how in corporeall presence that could not be for he was now ready to leave them No he was with them in Spirit by the Comforter whom he promised to send them John 15.26 And this Comforter had his Commission too To bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever Christ had formerly said to them John 14. â—6 And though this Comforter is called the Spirit of Truth and so impossible it is that he should inspire any thing lesse then truth yet when Christ telleth his Apostles that this Comforter should guide them into all truth he presently saith withall That he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall heare that he shall speak He shall receive of mine and shew it to you which denoteth to us that the doctrine of the Gospel is in a more especiall manner to be ascribed to Christ then to the holy Ghost who was but our Saviours delegate and Committee therefore S. Paul saith that Christ spake in him 2. Cor. 13.3 It being then indisputably clear that the Apostles were inspired by the holy Ghost and that that Divine enthusiasme was
it is to be examined the Lords day being an Apostolicall Tradition whether it be immutable whether the Church hath power to alter the day and substitute another in liew thereof I answer Nay the Church hath not such a power the sphere of her activitie extendeth not so farre she cannot null and rescind the act of God If the Sunday be established and established so I have proved it Jure divino it is without all dispute unchangeable for Immutable is one ingredient into the definition of Jus divinum as the Canonists compound it who make it which is comprehended in the Law and Gospel and remaineth perpetuall a True it is I grant that many positive divine Laws are changeable by the same authority which first imposed them but that a divine Law can be abrogated yea or displaced by humane authority that no sober man will yield to And I hope though many have of late set her on her tip-toes and advanced her to a tickle point the Churches power and authority reacheth not Divine Besides there is an especiall and peculiar reason of the inalterability of the Lords Day more then is usuall in other constitutions though Divine for God hath a propriety therein Six dayes in the week he hath bestowed upon us but the seventh he reserved for himself wherein he hath as good nay better freehold estate then any man in his possessions and then the rule of the Law is b What is ours without our assent cannot be transferred to another So that the Church hath no power to make that a work-day which God himself hath consecrated to his holy worship Nor mattereth it whether this designation were performed by Christ immediately or by the mediation of his Spirit assisting and infallibly directing the Apostles and so it becometh an Apostolicall Tradition for even this though the lowest degree of Divine appointment doth conferre exemption enough upon this day to secure it from any jurisdiction the Church can claim over it I will not dissemble it some learned men have I confesse ascribed to the Church an authoritie over this day so as she may if it please her transferre it to another But you must know withall that not one of these do repute it as an Apostolicall Tradition which is the hinge upon which the hole question moveth nor if they did are we to give absolute credit to their dictates Men they were of excellent endowments great both for their piety and learning and amongst them I honour none more then that famous Bishop c of Geneva Mr Calvin yet in some things as this for one I may say of him as Augustine of Cyprian d As there were many things which learned Calvin taught others so were there some things which he might learn of others If you can produce any one who hath affirmed it to be an Apostolicall institution or tradition and withall an alterable ordinance and I will promise you to affoard you two at least for him who have resolved the contrary But here perhaps you will demand What are all Apostolicall Traditions immutable That restriction from eating bloud or things offered to idoles that of collections for the poore every Lords Day c. I answer let it be first agreed what Apostolicall Traditions are under which name many upstart and recent customes intruded themselves into the Church a Every Province accounteth the constitutions of its Forefathers Apostolick Traditions saith Hierome Apostolicall Traditions then I say were of two sorts the one particular the other generall Particular were such as were framed by the Apostles either joyntly or severally but restrained to some especiall circumstance of time place persons or the like and so having onely reference and regard to such circumstance the removall of that circumstance made the observation of the Law to cease Such are those Traditions above named in the objection such are supposed to be the different rites of the East and West b one observing both the Sabbath and Lords Day the other the Lords Day onely and fasting on the Sabbath one celebrating the Festivall of Easter on the fourteenth day of the Moon the other upon the Sunday after Generall were such as neither regarding any circumstance of time place c. nor any moveable occasion were universally agreed upon to be received and so prescribed to the Christian Church by all the Apostles such were the Creed the books of the Canonicall Scripture the observation of the Lords Day Paedobaptisme c. whereof that golden rule of S. Augustine b is a character What the Catholick and Vniversall Church holdeth not decreed by Councels but ever observed we may safely believe it proceeded from no lesse then Apostolick authoritie Now these generall Traditions I averre to be immutable and such as must ever be observed in the Church not onely because they have or mention or foundation in the Scripture for so the particular have also and they which have not are not by us owned for Traditions Apostolicall but because they were at first made without limitation and restriction and herein I have the suffrage of Zanchy c Pareus d and other learned men As for particular Traditions they being at first framed for speciall occasions are now those occasions being ceased but as laws dormant untill the emergency of the like occasion awakeneth them again Dormant I said not dead Life vigour and force they have still and should the same occasion arise again God would expect from the Church the same observation For they being Apostolicall and so evidences of the Divine will upon severall occasions we must not think that one and the same cause can operate in the Immutable Essence a diverse will seeing in Philosophy The same agent whilest he is the same effecteth the same thing Dead therefore they cannot be so long as there remaineth a possibilitie for the same occasion to set them on work again and so that School-rule may fit them well e They oblige alwayes but not upon all occasions Well be the Lords Day Divine be it Immutable what then are we obliged to observe it with that severe and rigid vacation which the Jewish Sabbath required I answer Yes f He which succedeth into anothers jurisdiction is invested in his predecessours right The same strictnesse of observation belongeth to the Lords Day that anciently did to the Sabbath I say by the fourth Commandment for that Commandment hath not lost under the Gospel the least scruple or atome of obligation which it injoyed during the Law but bindeth still without abbreviation of time or alleviation of restraint during that time As for the duration of time though I cannot discern such distinct abbuttalls thereof in this Commandment as some seem to perswade yet am I of opinion that the word Day comprehendeth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a hole naturall Day And as touching restraint from negotiation and toil on that Day the words are
said of preaching foolishnesse I do not hereby arrogate to my self the name of a Scholer for my delight in learning hath been more then my proficiencie which God knoweth is very slender so slender as these my simple labours dare not approach you from any assurance of their own worth but because they are the products of those studies which derive their originall from your extraordinary both charge and care they think themselves of right to belong to you and so their motion towards you is not more voluntary then naturall Be pleased Sir to entertain them as testimonials of my filiall gratitude which is the chief end of this their second resort to you for they exceed their Commission if they speak so much what they are themselves though that is mere weaknesse as what I am that is Sir Your most honouring and Most obedient sonne HAMON L'ESTRANGE The Preface COncerning the publishing of this Treatise I expect to meet with two Interrogatories First why so late considering the Antisabbatarians have possest the stage without controul so many years Secondly why at all in regard there have of late issued out Tracts homogeneall wherein the Truth hath been evidently enough demonstrated Errour convinced To both these I hold it requisite to give my answer and if I can satisfaction To the first then I say I was retarded upon these reasons especially First though my studies have been most conversant in Eristick Theologie yet I delight therein more as a stander by and spectatour of others digladiations then out of an itch to enter the lists my self which of all things through a desire to suppresse from publick notice my private infirmities my Genius most declineth Secondly being conscious of mine own failings I was loth to betray so good a cause by so mean a champion as my self and so ipsÃque onerÃque timebam Lastly being of a Lay condition I held it discreet and good manners to leave the work to be performed by others who had both greater abilities and a calling more suitable to it To the second my answer is That this Tract was not onely commenced but as I then * thought finisht before intelligence arrived at me of any books extant of the same subject And when I first heard thereof I forthwith destined my pains as a sacrifice to eternall oblivion but having after compared our labours together it manifestly appeared that we varied much in frame every of us having somethings proper and peculiar to our selves verifying that * One man may find out more then another no man all things for which reason alone some learned friends to whom I had communicated it animated me with the advice of some additions to publish it Let no man therefore fore-judge me so obliquely as if I thought the labours of those worthy men either imperfect or impertinent to any whereof whosoever resorteth shall there find Antidote enough against the Anti-Sabbatarian infection a disease which hath prevailed rather through a secret disposition of naturall corruption to embrace it as any thing which rellisheth of liberty then from predominancy of arguments though backt with the authority of men eminent for their knowledge in letters three * of them especially to whom though I willingly afford all titles of honour which learning meriteth yet I boldly affirm had they left us no other demonstrations of their excellency that way then their Sabbatary Tracts they should never have attained so high a repute amongst us But let them without envy possesse the laurell they have deserved yet if any shall therefore wonder as I doubt not some will that such a Sciolus as my self have dared to oppose them I must reply what Luther did before in the like case God once spake that by an Asse which he concealed from the Prophet and revealed to the child Samuel what he hid from Eli the Priest They then that upbraid me with personall frailty be what they say as great and evident truth as they desire must know they quite mistake the question which is not whether I be illiterate ignorant weak or what else they please to call me but whether it be truth which I have here delivered and if any man will yield me the last yea whether he will or not I will freely grant him the first But to him who misliketh Truth and shunneth her because he meeteth her in my apparell let me give Augustines check Think of me your pleasure but beware what opinion you have of Truth This short advertisement being premised I addresse my self to the ensuing discourse Errata Page 11. l. 13. the matter reade this matter p. 15. l. 2. r. arguments and opinions p. 20. l. 18. view r. vive p. 43. l. 8. their r. others p. 66. l. 8. ceremony r. caremoniâ— p. 97. l. 9. prosekenique r. pro-selenique Gods Sabbath before the Law I Begin a work whose hardest work is to begin a work of the Sabbath and the beginning of the Sabbath which like Fame caput inter nubila condit a must begin this Tract. A task intricate and obnoxious to many precipices Davids curse I am sure to meet with A way dark and slippery I could indeed solace my self in this that I walk not alone and that on which side soever I fall I shall have learned associates But to erre for company or for singularity are to me alike odious Truth I serve and so farre as that Primary light Holy writ shall enlighten me Truth will follow not at all disanimated though the spark which should direct me to her seemeth to burn somewhat dimme as being a portion of one of those three first chapters of Genesis which were for their obscurity with the Canticles and some part of Ezechiel by the Hebrews interdicted to be read of any under thirty years of age b and which hath set eminent Doctours as well ancient as modern at oddes For whereas it is said Gen. 2.3 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he rested from all his works which God created and made it is by some supposed that Moses regarded not the time whereof but wherein he wrote by a Prolepsis and that it was onely an intimation of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the seventh rather then of any other day the subsequent of which glosse is the assertion That the Sabbath was not or commanded or observed untill Moses his dayes for the sustaining whereof they produce reasons specious and authority venerable First There is say they no other means for us to understand what Gods will and act was Gen. 2.3 but onely divine revelation But the holy Scripture neither maketh mention of any command of God given to Adam concerning resting upon the Sabbath day neither maketh any historicall narration of Adams or any other the Patriarchs observation of the Sabbath day now in cases of this nature Athanasius his rule is Because the Scripture is altogether silent in