day And Cyrill in his 12. book on Iohn chap. 58. considering the Lords appearance a second time on the eighth day Thomas then being present and upon consideration finding it to have beene the first day of the weeke concludes thus Iure igitur sanctae Congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis fiunt By right therefore holy Congregations in the Churches are made on the eighth day meaning thereby the first day of the week that is the Lords day and as hee concludeth thus so undoubtedly his opinion was the Apostles themselves did conclude in like manner Now albeit much had beene effected for the abrogation as well of all superstitious fancies about that day as of the day it selfe that is of the Jewish sabbath by the labours of the Fathers fore-mentioned and particularly of Damascen and venerable Bede among the rest yet there comes in an exception somewhat of the nature of a sixth finger and that is Saint Gregory tells us notwithstanding how some in Rome were so superstitious in this kinde that they would neither work upon the Saturday no nor so much as wash upon the Sunday So little effectuall were the labours of Damascen and venerable Bede that they could not prevent the superstitious fancies of some that lived an hundred yeares before For Gregory by Bellarmines account dyed in the yeare of our Lord 604. and Damascen lived long after the yeare 731. and Bede was living in the yeare 731. as Bellarmine observes out of his fifth booke of Historia Anglicana Who would desire an adversary should betray more weakenesse than this Author but wee see manifestly whither he tends and no marvell if God smites him with the spirit of giddinesse and confusion His quotation of Gregory seemes to bee the same with that which wee finde in the decrees De consecrat dist 3. cap. Pervenit Now whereas this Praefacer relates it as of the same persons it is farre otherwise in Gregory for apparantly the relation in Gregory is concerning different persons for thus it runnes Pervenit ad me c. Relation is made unto mee that certaine men of a perverse spirit have sowed amongst you some corrupt doctrine contrary to our holy faith so as to forbid any worke to be done on the Sabbath day these men we may well call the Preachers of Antichrist Then he sets downe what shall be the practise of Antichrist at his comming namely to command the Sabbath day and the Lords day both to be kept free from all works And why the Lords day to wit because he meanes to imitate Christ and therefore will conforme himselfe to the practise of Christians in celebrating the Lords day his words are these Quia enim mori se resurgere simulat haberi in veneratione vult diem Dominicum that is Because he counterfeits himselfe to die and rise againe therefore he will have the Lords day to be had in veneration Where by the way observe two things 1. The practise of Christians in Gregories dayes to keep themselves from all worke on the Lords day 2. That Antichrist would imitate Christ as in pretending to dye and rise againe so in commanding the Lords day to be kept holy A shrewd evidence that both Gregory and the whole Church in those dayes were of opinion that the Lords day was of Christs institution which Antichrist perceiving would conforme thereto the better to promote his owne counsailes Now the reason why he would command the Jewes Sabbath to be observed also was Quia populum Judaizare compellet ut exteriorem ritum revocet sibi Judaeorum perfidiam subdat therefore coli vult Sabbatum He will have the Iewes Sabbath kept also compelling the people to Iudaize and restoring the outward ceremonies of the Law that so he may bring the Iewes in subjection unto him also Then he makes mention of another relation Aliud quoque ad me perlatum est Another report was brought unto mee and what was that Vobis à perversis hominibus esse praedicatum ut Dominico die nullus debeat lavari That some perverse persons preach among you that on the Lords day none ought to be washed This is clearly another point maintained by other persons different from the former which yet this Prefacer confounds into one And marke it well that none ought to be washed lavari on the Lords day which this Author translates thus No nor so much as wash upon the Sunday What not so much as wash their hands or their face here indeed were strange superstition I willingly professe I was not a little moved at this his Translation nothing answerable to Gregories resolution which is this If any desire to be washed pro luxuria pro voluptate that is out of a luxurious disposition and for pleasure we doe not permit this to be done on any day But if the bodies necessity require it we doe not forbid this on the Lords day Now I doe not find that any man useth to wash hands or face out of any luxurious disposition neither doe I know in what sense the necessity of the body can require it For the necessity of the body in this place seems to me to be spoken in reference to the recovery of a mans health requiring no time to be neglected Hereupon I am verily perswaded that by Lavari in Gregory is to be understood a mans going into the Bath which may be done out of a luxurious disposition and meerely for pleasure Then againe the necessity of the body may require it and according to these different cases it is by Gregory both permitted on the Lords day to wit in case of necessity and denyed on any day in case it be done only to satisfie a mans lusts And I find a great difference in the Latine phrase betweene Lavare to wash and Lavari to be washed and that out of Varro his eight booke of the Latine tongue For the active is of use when a part only is washed as it is rightly said I wash my hands and my feet But the passive is in use only when the whole body is washed as in the Bath Quare in Balneis non rectè dicunt lavi sed lavor Wherefore in the Bathes it is not well said I have washed but I am washed And accordingly runnes that in Juvenal Sat. 2. Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere lavantur The Scholiast interprets this of Infants quia pueri non dant Balneaticum for the quadrant which was the usuall fee to bee paid of them that made use of the Bathes was not exacted of such Hence is that phrase Mercede lavari to goe into the Baths paying a fee and dum te quadrante lavatum in Horace to the same purpose The second Section BUt after in the darker times as it is thought by some Preface Peter de Bruis the founder of the Petrobrusians he was burnt for heresie 1126. began to draw too deep on these lees of Judaisme which here our Doctor intimates
thee his great fire and thou heardst his words out of the midst of the fire And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he chose their seed after them And in his last blessing upon the people when now he was going out of the world Moses as a King putteth them in mind of this saying Deut. 33.2 3 4 5. The Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them he shined forth from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints from his right hand went a fiery law for them Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hands and they sate downe at thy feet every one shall receive of thy words Moses commanded a Law even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together It is true there is an hole pickt in the fourth Commandement concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath as if that among all the rest were not morall but ceremoniall Yet this honour it hath from God that immediatly after the Creation the Lord resting on the seventh day from his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 And therefore Doctor Andrewes ere he died Bishop of Winchester in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I commonly cite it under his name because it is commonly received to bee his and as I have heard upon divers good grounds treating upon this Commandement and having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a Ceremony and so abrogated by Christ Makes answer to it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce look whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any Ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved And yet we are not ignorant how Papists have practised to raze the second commandement also out of the Law given on mount Sina as if that also were out of date being as they conceive but of a positive nature at first so little evidence doe they finde for it by the light of Nature and now the world is growne so wise that they know how to worship God by Images without committing any idolatry at all though this mystery of religious state is not thought fit to be communicated unto the vulgar But doe we not all acknowledge the light of Nature to be much corrupted since the fall of Adam how much more our judgement of morall things wherein Aristotle confesseth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. 1. c. 3. demonstration is not to be expected but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswasion And if way be given to mens wanton wils for the gratifying of corrupt affections more breaches than these are like to be made in the Decalogue I have heard that Cardinall Cusanus undertooke to justifie the sin of Sodome Sure I am amongst the Lacedemonians wives were common And Brennus that Ancient Invader of other Nations made profession that he knew no other Law of Nature but this that The weaker should be in subjection to the stronger like as King Pyrrhus in his death-bed being demanded who should succeed him in the Kingdom made answer even He whose sword is the longest Carneades I thinke was the man who having on a day made a singular speech in commendation of Justice afterwards discoursed as eloquently to the contrary shewing that there was no justice at all by the law of nature every naturall thing seeking to maintaine it selfe by the destruction of others So the fire maintaines it selfe by the combustion of each combustible thing whereunto it approacheth and the water overflowes all naturally and beats downe all dammes it can to make roome for it selfe And the greatest Beasts maintain themselves by praying on those that have no power to resist them The more cause have wee to blesse God for giving us the Law Morall in writing which grew so miserably defaced in the hearts of men And that herein the sanctifying of the Sabbath is mentioned among the rest this hath ever satisfied mee and assured that the substance thereof is Morall and that accordingly wee ought to inure our selves to the sanctification of the Sabbath though naturally we find in our selves no greater reluctation to any Commandement than to this Pardon me if I judge of others by my selfe in this particular Nay upon this very consideration have we not the more cause to strive against this intestine corruption of ours His Majesty is much delighted in hunting it is a recreation mixt with manly exercise well becomming a King but I heare he never useth to hunt on the Lords day And so much the rather should the Lords Sabbaths be deare unto us because the goodnesse and mercy of God appeares no where more than in giving us his Sabbaths calling upon us thereby to rest from the world unto him and God knowes a Christian soule finds no rest any where but in him and to walke with him in holy meditation as he is pleased to walk in the midst of us as a Hos 11.9 the Holy One of Israel so to draw us away from worldly cares and pleasures to the entertaining of heavenly and holy cares to enrich our selves with the knowledge of God and to recreate our soules in the Lord as hee solaceth himselfe in us according to that Prov. 8.31 Hee tooke his solace in the compasse of the earth and his delight was in the children of men On the Lords day it is that in speciall sort we Christians take hold of that holy Cōmunion which God in great mercy in his Son Jesus Christ vouchsafeth unto us with himselfe speaking unto us as from heaven in his holy Word and giving us liberty to speak unto him The Lord pitcheth his Tabernacle amongst us here on earth and we are as it were taken up into the mount of God there to be transfigured before him When the Lord appeared unto Jacob in a vision by night when he fled from his brother Esau and he saw a ladder erected between heaven and earth and the Lord on the top of it the Angels ascending and descending by it when he awoke How dreadfull saith he is this place Gen. 28.16 17. The Lord was here and I was not a ware surely it is no other than the house of God and the gate of heaven And are not our Temples the houses of God are they not the very gates of heaven In our solemne assemblies is not a ladder erected betweene earth and heaven is not the Lord on the top of it Deut. 33.3 and are not we humbled at his feet to heare his Word The gracious instructions which we receive from him are they
the Sabbath to abstaine from such a course whereby a mans strength would become more and more weakned and impaired Not that these things were commanded on the Sabbath day but permitted as is often signified by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is lawfull and for good reason “ Matth. 12.10.12 Mar 3.4 Luk. 6.9 For the Sabbath being ordained to promote a mans bene esse his well being and that in the best things it supposeth libertie to provide for his esse in case of necessitie lest otherwise he shall be found uncapable of those things that concerne his bene esse his well being For our nature wanting necessarie refreshment doth thereby many times become the more unfit for holy excerises and to performe that dutie which God requires and hath deserved at our hands How were Ionathans eyes enlightned upon the tasting of a little honey 1 Sam. 14.29 But this Translator desires as it seemes from the generalitie of mans good to seale up an opinion in the minds of his Readers that the Sabbath was made not onely for the service of God and for the promoting of a man in the knowledge and feare of God but for the furthering of his carnall pleasures also But never was it knowne that our Saviour justified any libertie to such courses on the Sabbath Neither were any such things as it seemes in course in the dayes of the Prophet Amos who reprehends them for saying Am. 8.5 When will the Sabbath be gone that they might returne to their worldly courses Rather they could wish their sun might stand still on that day as sometimes it did in the dayes of Ioshua if libertie were given to sports pastimes and pleasures on that day and it wvre wondrous strange that libertie should bee debarred them from kindling a fire to set forward the structure of the Sanctuarie Exod. 35 3. Luke 33.25 â—ast made to this very end that the Lord might dwell among them And from so precious a worke as the embalming of the body of Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and that at the very end of the day if at that time they were not restrained from any sensuall course of recreation according to the common fashion of the world Undoubtedly howsoever it stands now with us Christians in the dayes of our Saviour they that rested on their Sabbath from embalming the body of Christ Luk. 23.56 and that according to the appointment which is as much as to say according to the Law of God surely they by the same Law of God were much more restrained from worldly pleasures these standing far more in opposition to the sanctification of the Lords Sabbath then the embalming of the body of the Sonne of God who was Lord of the Sabbath And therefore this text is most unseasonably and impertinently alleaged by the Translator to serve his turn being farre more fit to crosse his purposes then any way to promote them So from the consideration of the title I come to the preface If the antiquitie of this controversie concerning the Sabbath were any thing materiall this Praefacer were foundered at the first For what if the Sabbath bee a part of the Law of Moses Was not the law of sanctifying the name of God the law forbidding images the law commanding them to have no other Gods but him that brought them out of the land of Aegypt the law commanding to honour parents to abstaine from murther adultery theft were not all these the Law of Moses Is not the law of sanctifying the Sabbath one of the tenne Commandements delivered by God from Mount Sinai as well as the other nine and was it not kept in the Arke as well as the rest Circumcision was no law of Moses and therefore albeit it be said Ioh. 7.22 That Moses gave unto them Circumcision yet forthwith it is added not because it is of Moses but of the Fathers so that Moses rather confirmed it then was the first giver of it So that the Law of Moses in this place is to bee understood of the ceremoniall law not of the morall law contained in the Decalogue and among these tenne Commandements that of the Sabbath is one and commended unto them in that state as none so much Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it and not onely before Moses but before Abraham and Noah also wee read Gen. 2. â— â— that the seventh day God rested from all the workes that hee had made and that therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Of any Minister or Pastor in the Church of England that maintaines us Christians to be obliged to the observation and sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath or of any Sabbath that is a shadow of things to come the body whereof is of Christ I never heard or read Yet for some hundred yeares in the Primitive Church not the Lords day onely but the seventh day also was religiously observed not by Ebion and Cerinthus onely but by pious Christians also as Baronius writeth and Gomarus confesseth and Rivet also that we are bound in conscience under the Gospell to allow for Gods service a better proportion of time than the Jewes did under the law rather than a worse And further it is well knowne that besides the weekely Sabbath there was variety of observation of times amongst the Jewes and divers of them called Sabbaths also as some think not one whereof was mentioned in the Decalogue or pronounced by the Lord from Mount Sinai as the fourth Commandement was for the sanctifying of the weekly Sabbath So that this Praefacer every way sheweth miserable loosenesse in his discourse And if Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris how wretched heretickes soever did still inforce the sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath whose wretchednesse yet consisted not so much in inforcing this as in inforcing all the ceremonies of Moses the Jewish Sabbath long after Corinthus continuing to be observed by many pious Christians as Baronius observeth others and Saint Paul doth oppose all such doctrine and practise in these passages of his here mentioned did not this Author know that upon these very passages of Saint Paul the Anabaptists and Socinians as vile heretickes as Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris for their blood have gone so farre as not onely to overthrow the observation of the Jewish Sabbath but the sanctifying of the Lords day also The opinion of the law ceremoniall standing still in force which indeed was the opinion of the heretickes mentioned is I confesse a dangerous point and such as not onely seemed as this Praefacer minceth it out of what degree of wisdome or providence I know not to confirme the Jewes in their incredulitie but indeed justly might confirme them nor onely occasion but justly cause also others to make question of our Saviours comming in the flesh not so the observation of the seventh day to sanctifie it for ought this Author hath hitherto manifested or throughout this preface of his doth manifest and
judgement writing thus August epist 86. ad Casulanum When God sanctified the seventh day because thereon hee rested from all his workes hee did not deliver ought concerning the Fast or Dinner of the Sabbath nor afterwards when to the Hebrew people hee gave commandement for the observation of the day it selfe did hee mention ought as touching the receiving or not receiving of food onely commandement is given concerning mens vacation from their owne or from servile workes which vacation the former people receiving as a shadow of things to come in such manner rested from their workes as now wee behold the Iewes to rest Hee citeth also Theophilus Patriarch of Antioch a most ancient writer in his second booke to Autolychus writing thus Furthermore as touching the seventh which amongst al people is celebrious most men are in great ignorance For this day which is celebrious amongst all is called the Sabbath if a man interpret in Greeke it is called Septimana by this name all men call this day but the cause of this denomination they know not Now what was the cause hereof in his judgement but the Lords resting thereon as the seventh after hee had finished all his workes in six dayes and thereupon blessing it and sanctifying it whereupon it grew to bee a festivall day generally amongst all Tertullian though alleaged on the other side yet hath beene already shewed to bee of the same minde in this particular with Chrysostome and Austin Adde unto these Epiphanius haer 51. Sabbatum primum est quod ab initio decretum est ac dictum à Domino in mundi creatione quod per circuitum ab eo tempore usque huc juxta septem dies revolvitur The first Sabbath is that which the Lord from the beginning ordained and spake in the creation of the world which by revolution from that time to this according to the circle of seven dayes returneth Athanasius also upon those words of our Saviour Matth. 11.27 All things are given to mee of my Father distinguisheth betweene the Sabbath day and the Lords day affirming the Sabbath day to have been the end of the first creation and the Lords day the beginning of the second creation Beda in his Hexameron professeth that the rest of the seventh day after sixe dayes working semper celebrari solebat was alwayes wont to bee celebrated If alwayes then before the children of Israels comming out of Aegypt before Abraham before the flood even from the beginning of the dayes of Adam the first of men Adde unto this the received and most currant opinion of the Jewes by the testimonies of Philo and Josephus vouched by Wallaeus Philo in his second book of Moses writing thus Quis sacrum illum diem per singulas hebdomadas recurrentem non honorat Who doth not honour that holy day according to the weekely revolution thereof and hee delivers this not of the Jewes onely but of the Greekes and Barbarians of inhabitants of Mayn-land and Ilands those of Europe of Asia and of the whole habitable part of the world to the very ends thereof Iosephus l. 2. against Appion professing that there is no City of Grecians or Barbarians nor any Nation to whom the customary observation of the seventh whereon the Jewes rested had not reached Adde unto this the testimony of two Rabbins mentioned by Broughton in his Consent of Scriptures acknowledging this and another Rabbin alleaged by Peter Martyr upon Genesis both cited by Master Richard Bâ—field in his answer to Master Breerwood Give me leave to adde my mite also of mine owne observation The 92. Psalme hath this title A Psalme and Song for the Sabbath The Chalde paraphrase hereupon writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A praise and Song which Adam the first of men spoke on the Sabbath day manifestly evidencing that in the received opinion of the Jewes in those dayes Adam sanctified the Sabbath Rabbi David Kimchi testifies the same in his Commentary upon that Psalme to be the doctrine delivered in their Darash namely that Adam the first conceived this Psalme after hee was created on the Sabbath day and that afterwards he sinned and so prophaned the Sabbath So that notwithstanding all the bluster which this Author makes this fourth Commandement may continue morall neverthelesse And sure I am Irenaeus puts this difference betweene the words of the Decalogue so he speaks and consequently expungeth not but rather includeth the fourth Commandement and the ceremoniall lawes Iren. l. 4. cap. 31. that Decalogi verba the words of the Decalogue spoken by God himselfe unto all doe therefore continue in like manner with us receiving extension and augmentation by the comming of Christ in the flesh but no dissolution But the precept of bondage so he calls the ceremonials by themselves hee commanded unto the people by Moses fit for their instruction and discipline And Doctor Andrewes I am sure so great a Prelate in our Church denies all ceremonialitie thereunto save only so farre as may justifie the change of the day and in reference to the rigorous rest of the Jewes And Azorius confesseth as before hath beene alleaged that after six dayes worke one day should bee consecrate to divine service is a thing most agreeable to reason Yet I know none that accounteth this a Dictate of nature simply as this Author would faine obtrude upon us but rather with Chrysostom that God by creation hath taught us as much and now God hath gone before us herein wee conceive it to bee most agreeable to reason And D. Field did professe as much upon acknowledgement of the Creation as Master Brode confesseth If all talke of observation of the Jewish Sabbath vanished not till the daies of Bede it was 700. years first in the account of Bellarmine And of any resolutions made by Bede or Damascen hereabouts in D. Prideux sect 2. I finde no mention Yet I thinke it likely enough that both they and Procopius might easily contrive as many resolutions hereabouts as either Theodoret upon the twentieth of Ezekiel or Epiphanius against the Ebionites for neither of them in the places mentioned make any resolutions on this point at al. He grants the Lords day to have beene instituted by the Church from the Apostles dayes which latter clause is an ambiguous phrase For it may bee applyed to the dayes after the Apostles If in the Apostles dayes then undoubtedly it was instituted by the Apostles what meant hee then to say it was instituted by the Church and not to bee so ingenuous as to confesse that it was instituted by the Apostles How far off is he from acknowledging it to have beene instituted by the Lord yet Athanasius openly professeth thus much Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solennitatem Dominus transtulit in diem Dominicum Heretofore with men of old time the Sabbath day was in great price which Festivitie truly the Lord hath translated unto the Lords
over our heads we know not how soone for wee see examples before our eyes of sufferings in this kind and how soone our owne turne may come to suffer in the same kinde it is uncertaine unto us Therefore to returne to Iohn Barcley wee have heard that his father before his death commended him to the Patronage of King Iames who accordingly had him attending in his Court somewhile with intent to preferre him untill on a sodaine his minde was changed having receaved intelligence that this Gentleman playd false with him living in his Court but as an espie and intelligencer to discover what he could of his Majesties affayres unto Queene mother of France which mooved King Iames ever after and that most justly to abominate him Now such a one if he could not proove true and loyall unto his naturall Prince can it bee expected hee being of a popish spirit should carry himselfe truely and honestly towards Iohn Calvin But sure it is in this Prefacers judgement that Calvin tooke the Lords Day to be an Ecclesiasticall and humane constitution only appointed by our Ancestors to supply the place of the Iewish Sabbath and as our Doctor tells us alterable by the Church at this present time as first it was when from the Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday For proofe hereof this Prefacer alleageth nothing but that out of Calvin where he saith Veteres subrogarunt diem dominicum in locum Sabbati The Ancients subrogated the Lords Day in place of the Sabbath But he takes no notice of that which immediately followes in Calvin as a reason of the former thus For whereas in the Lords Resurrection is found the end and accomplishment of the true rest which the ancient Sabbath shaddowed by the very day which set an end to shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick unto the shadowing ceremonie Where observe First as touching the persons noted by Veteres the Ancients first and then by Christiani Christians Are not these the Apostles as much as any other and they in the first place as wee best knew what that was which did set an end to shadowes and accordingly to give notice of the pregnant signification of the Day of the Lords Resurrection and therefore 1 Cor. 16.2 Hee doth intirely referre this to the Apostles as whom he confesseth constrayned by the Iewish superstition to have abrogated the Sabbath and in the place thereof ordeyned the Lords Day Secondly observe that the accomplishment of that which was signified by the Jewish Sabbath he ascribes to the Resurrection And Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech delivered in the Starre Chamber in the case of Traske professeth that It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath saith he was the last of them And that Christs Resurrection brought with it a new Creation and a new Creation requires a new Sabbath And hee alleageth Austin Ep. 119. saying The Lords Day was declared to Christians by Christ his Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity But that at this time Calvin should thinke it alterable by the Church no colour of proofe is brought and most unreasonable it is for any to conceave the Sabbath to be as alterable now as in the Apostles dayes it was when from the Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday For that alteration depended upon a second Creation as both Bishop Andrewes observes and that out of Athanasius de Sabbato circumcisione And Bishop Lakes was of the same opinion as his discourse in Manuscript yet to be seene doth manifest So that unlesse this Prefacer can devise a third Creation and maintaine withall the rest on the Lords Day to bee as ceremoniall as the Jewes rest on the seventh Day was there is no colour why the Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day should bee as alterable now as the day of the Jewish Sabbath was As for the 3. conclusions which hee saith Calvin resolves upon the first whereof hee saith to be this that one day in seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement I say Calvin avoucheth no such thing and Wallaeus shewes that generally the friends of Calvin maintained the contrary between whom neverthelesse and Calvin it was never known that there was any contention herabouts And already I have shewed how unshamefastly this Prefacer abuseth Calvin in alledging one halfe of his sentence and leaving the other part quite out so making Calvin to deliver that absolutely which he affirmes onely conditionally The second resolution which he obtrudes upon Calvin is that the day was changed from the last day of the weeke to the first by the authority of the Church and not by any divine ordinance It is true Calvin sayth not that the day was changed by divine ordinance Comment in t ep ad cor cap. 16. neither doth he say that it was changed by the authority of the Church but in plaine termes professeth that the Apostles changed it in one place and that admonition was given for the change of it by the consideration of the Day of Christs Resurrection in another to wit Institut lib. 2. cap. 8. Sect. 36. Now let every sober conscience consider whether that day which was first ordained by authority Divine the apostles would alter by lesse authority then authority Divine especially considering that Christs redemption of the World is the restauration of the World which is as a new Creation and as the Lord rested the seventh day from the workes of Creation so the day of Christs Resurrection was the day of his rest from the worke of redemption so that still the day of the Lords rest is the day of our rest not indeed the day of the Lord our Creators rest that ceasing as being ceremoniall as before hath beene shewed out of Doctor Andrewes but the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest which brought with it a new Creation is now the day of our rest And who was nearer or dearer unto Calvin then Beza whose words upon Revel 1 10. are to this effect He calls that the Lords Day which Paul calls the first of the Sabbaths 1 Cor. 16.2 Acts 20.7 on which day it appeares that even then were made the more frequent assemblies by Christians like as the Iewes came together in their Synagogues on the Sabbath Day wherby it may appeare that the fourth precept of sanctifying the seventh day as touching the day of the Sabbath and legall rites was ceremoniall but as touching the worship of God is of the morall Law unalterable and perpetually to continue in this life And that day of the Sabbath continued in force from the creation of the World to the day of Christs Resurrection which being as it were another Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former world or seventh day was assumed the first day of this new World the holy Ghost
any the least superstitious rigour esteeming it to bee a day left arbitrary and therefore open to all honest exercises and lawfull recreations by which the mind may bee refreshed and the spirits quickened Even in Geneva it selfe according as it is related in the enlargement of Boterus by Robert Johnson all honest exercises shooting in pieces long Bowes crossebowes c. are used on the Sabbath Day and that both in the morning before and after Sermon neither doe the Ministers finde fault therewithall so that they hinder not from hearing of the word at the time appointed Dancing indeed they doe not suffer But this is not in relation to the Sunday but the sport it selfe which is held unlawfull and generally forbidden in the French Churches which strictnesse as some note considering how the French doe delight in dancing hath beene a great hinderance to the growth of the reformed religion in that Kingdome The Doctor indeed saith that Calvin Bullenger Bucerus Exam. Brentius Chemnitius Vrsine and others of the reformed Churches affirme that still the Church hath power to change the Lords Day to some other but hee neither cites their words nor quotes any place out of their writings And as for Calvin whom this Prefacer proposeth as chiefe and the rest as thinking no otherwise thereof then hee did I make no doubt but the passage in Calvin is instit 2. cap. 8. sect 34. where thus he writeth Neque sic tamen septenarium numerum moror ut ejus servituti Ecclesiam astringerem I doe not so regard the number of seven as to tie the Church to the servitude thereof which considered in it selfe might intimate that in his opinion it is indifferent whether wee keepe holy one day in seven or one day in foureteene but the words immediately following doe manifest his meaning to be farre otherwise as namely that we are not so tied to a seventh but that we may solemnize other dayes also by our holy assemblies For thus it followes Neque enim damnavero qui alios conventibus suis solennes dies habeant I condemne not them that keep other dayes holy will any man suppose that some there were well knowne to Calvin who kept other dayes solemn and not the Lords Day and that these men Calvin would not condemne And Gomarus who is most opposite to us in this argument professeth that seeing not onely a time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be set apart for Divine service therefore we must now under the Gospel allow rather a better proportion of time for Divine service than a worse And in this also Rivetus rests in his answer to the first argument of Walaeus contending for one day in seven as necessarily to be allowed to the worship of God De reg Chr. lib. 1. ap 11. For Bullinger I know not where to seeke that which the Doctor aimes at As for Bucer I have shewed before out of him that the Lords Day was by the Apostles themselves consecrated to Divine actions which ordinance the antient Churches observed most religiously and that one of the chief causes hereof was that they might celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which fell out on the first day of the weeke of power to abrogate this day left unto the Church he saith nothing but to the contrary rather that all they who desire the restoring of Christs Kingdome ought to labour that the religion of the Lords Day may be soundly called backe and be of force Yet saith he it is agreeable to our piety to sanctifie other festivalls also to the commemoration of the Lords chiefe workes whereby he perfected our redemption as the day of his incarnation nativity the Epiphany the passion the resurrection ascension and Pentecost And the place which Doctor Rivet explic decal pag. 189. col 2. allegeth out of Bucer in Mat. 10. to prove that he maintained the day to be alterable is nothing to the purpose and as little doe they make for it which hee allegeth out of Musculus To find out what Chemnitius saith hereupon I turne to his Examen of the connsell of Trent concerning festivalls There pag. 154. col 2. he saith that Christ to show that he kept the Jewes Sabbath freely and not of necessitie against the opinion of necessity touching the abrogation of the Mosaicall Sabbath hee taught both by word and deed By word in saying that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and by his deeds as in healing on the Sabbath day and defending his Disciples in plucking the eares of corne Now hereby I take it to be manifest and acknowledged by Chemnitius that none hath power to abrogate the Sabbath but he that is Lord of the Sabbath And seeing even Christians were to have their Sabbath as appeareth by those words of our Saviour pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day which is delivered of the time about the destruction of the Temple by Titus at what time Paul had suffered martyrdome divers yeeres before by whose writings it doth appeare that the Lords Day was kept in place of the Jewes Sabbath both by the practice of the Apostles and the Churches of Galatia and Achaia as Chemnitius acknowledgeth from the force of those places Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 and Apoc. 1.10 in the next columne it followeth that the Lords Day was the Christian Sabbath and so to this day continueth and consequently that none hath power to alter it but hee that is Lord of the Sabbath which is Christ himselfe it being accordingly called the Lords Day Therefore if any pretend that Christ hath delegated this power of his unto the Church it stands upon them to make it good But Chemnitius proceeds pag. 155. col 1. and shewes how the Apostles at the first tolerated their weak faith who without superstition observed dayes Mosaicall Rom. 14. and that such as were stronger in faith after the abrogation of the old Testament judged all dayes to be equall in themselves and none more holy then another We willingly grant as much and adde the reason hereof to wit because the holinesse of the day preferred before his fellowes consisted in some mysterious signification which had reference unto Christ as to come all which kind of shadowes the body being come are now vanished away Hee proceeds saying The Apostles also manifested by their example that in the new Testament it was free to come together either every day or what day soever they thought good to handle the Word and Sacraments and to the publique or common exercises of piety So the Sabbath day and other festivall dayes they taught All this wee willingly grant but here-hence it followeth not that one day of the weeke was not of more necessary observation for the exercises of piety than another Farther saith he that they might manifest that the exercises of Ecclesiasticall assemblies were not tied to certaine dayes they daily persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles
Besides I have shewed in reason the unreasonablenesse both of changing the day and the intollerable scandall that would follow upon it and the unreasonablenesse of not changing it if it be not of divine institution considering how prone wee are through the continuall observation thereof to conceave that to be a necessary duty and so to be plunged into superstition ere we are aware if it prove to be no necessary duty In the next place hee tells us how that some amongst us have revived againe the Iewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the Commandement of sanctifying every seaventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Iewish were so changed that they were cleane to be done away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were only abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest Here wee have a distinction of a Jewish Sabbath brought in yet not the day a distinction contrived with such wisedome and perspicacity as it seemes to exceed all humane discretion For I verily thinke that from the beginning of the Primitive Church there was never heard of a Jewish Sabbath to be kept any other then upon their day The materialls are first that the name Sabbath is retained and well may it be in my judgement though some entertaine sublime reaches to the contrary if our Saviour have any authority with us who adviseth his Disciples to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which is spoken by him in reference to the time about the destruction of Ierusalem at what time the Lords Day was come in place of the Jewes Sabbath among the Christian congregations and that by apostolicall substitution And in the very booke of our Homilies it is expressely sayd that the Sunday is now our Sabbath And his Majesties briefes for collection so stile it And in the conference at Hampton Court it was so stiled by Doctor Raynolds and the motion he made thereabout generally yeelded unto so that the State hitherto seemes to be censured by this bold Prefacer The next aspersion is that the thing also is revived But what thing the Jewes had peculiar sacrifice both morning and evening which doubled the dayly sacrifice this surely is not revived There were besides two things in the Jewish Sabbath the one was a rest the other was the sanctifying of that rest As for the rest if that were not it were no Sabbath Yet our Saviour calls it a Sabbath our Church calls it a Sabbath our State calls it a Sabbath And Austin calls us to such a rest on the Lords Day as that therein we must tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare onely rest to God onely rest for divine worship And Calvin who is taken to be no friend of ours in this case professeth that we must rest from all our works so farre forth as they are avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations but not for any mysterious signification sake and that herein consists the difference betweene the Jewish rest and our Christians rest and I am exactly of his opinion for this As for the sanctification of this rest I trust wee are as much bound to the performance hereof and that in as great measure and with as great devotion under the Gospel as ever the Jewes were under the Law And at the hearing of this Commandement as well as of any other our Church hath taught us to pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law And I find it wondrous strange to heare that some should not spare to professe that this was shuffled in they know not how At length wee come to the particular charges the first is that some should teach that The Commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall and Master Rogers is quoted for this on the Article Art 7. hee quotes Master Doctor Bownde pag. 7. Now truely it cannot be denied but that when the fourth Commandement is read unto us in our Congregations wee are taught to pray unto God to shew such mercy unto us as to incline our hearts to the keeping of this law And both master Rogers and this Prefacer are to be presumed to have subscribed as well as others and by their subscription acknowledged that this is nothing contrary to Gods Word that we are as much bound to the observation of this Commandement as of any other and consequently to keepe the Sabbath and doe no manner of worke thereon that may hinder the sanctifying thereof Now Master Doctor Bownds words after hee had cited Chrysostome speaking thus I am hic ab initio c. Here now even from the beginning God hath insinuated this Doctrine unto us teaching us in circulo hebdomadis diem unum that in the compasse of a weeke one whole day is to be put apart for a spirituall rest unto God are these Vnto all which may be added that for profe oth at this Commandement is naturall morall and perpetuall that I say may be added which was practised among the Gentiles and all the Heathen And now Do. Bowndes purpose unto the p. 30. is to be proved only this that a Sabbath was from the beginning and still is to be kept and that in the proportion of one day in seven and after that proceeds to prove what day the Sabbath should be kept his words are these p. 30. Now as we have hitherto seene that there ought to be a Sabbath day so it remaineth that we should heare upon what day this Sabbath should be kept and here he sheweth that this is not left unto the Church but prescribed by God himselfe as who prescribed one day unto the Jewes and another day unto us Christians but still one in seven The same was the opinion both of Bellarmine and Master Hooker in his Ecclesiasticall policy Whereas both Master Rogers and the Prefacer so carry the matter as if by Doctor Bowndes opinion we Christians were bound to keepe our Sabbath on the same day whereon the Jewes were bound to keepe theirs which is most untrue though the fourth Commandement may be indifferently accommodated to our Christian Sabbath as it was unto the Jewish Sabbath save onely as touching the reason given which hath expresse reference to the creation but our Christian Sabbath stands in reference to the worke of Redemption Each is the rest on a seventh day after six dayes of labour and as they were bound to sanctifie their seventh so are we bound to sanctifie ours and
and other dishes already prepared to be set on the board wherewith his table was as well furnished as it was with guests But to returne it is an easy matter now a dayes to accuse of any thing as Doctor Prideaux hee saith accuseth us of Judaisme but si accusare sufficiat quis innocens erit when hee or Doctor Prideaux shall prove their accusations then let us be condemned and if wee be not condemned till then wee care not Yet it is untrue which hee pins upon Doctor Prideaux his sleeve as if hee should alleage Austin saying that they who literally understand the fourth Commandement doe not yet savour of the spirit neither S. Austin speakes this of the fourth Commandement nor is hee so alleaged by Doctor Prideaux but of the seventh day Quisquis diem illum observat sicut litera sonat carnà liter sapit As much as to say whosoever keeps that day which the Jew keepes favoureth carnally Neither did I know any of my brethren to stand for the sanctifying of the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day Sect. 8. from the Creation but onely of one day in seaven which day must also be prescribed by God as the seventh day of the weeke was to the Jewes which is the next thing imputed unto us but the Lords Day is the first day of the weeke to us Christians Sect. 8. Pref. This when I had considered when I had seriously observed how much these fancies were repugnant both to the tendries of this Church and judgments of all kinde of writers and how unsafe to be admitted I thought I could not goe about a better worke then to exhibite to the view of my deare Countreymen this following Treatise delivered first and afterwards published by the Author in another language The rather since of late the clamour is encreased and that there is not any thing now more frequent in some Zelotes mouthes to use the Doctors words then that the Lords Day is with us licentiously yea sacrilegiously profaned Section first To satisfie whose scruples and give content unto their mindes I doubt not but this following discourse will be sufficient which for that cause I have translated faithfully and with as good propriety as I could not swerving any where from the sense and as little as I could from the phrase and letter Gratum opus agricolis a worke as I conceave it not unsuitable unto the present times wherein besides these peccant fancies before remembred some have so farre proceeded as not alone to make the Lords Day subject to the Jewish rigour but to bring in against the Jewish Sabbath and abrogate the Lords Day altogether I will no longer detaine the reader from the benefit hee shall reape thereby Onely I will crave leave for his greater benefit to repeat the summe thereof which is briefely this First that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first Creation of the World nor ever kept by any of the ancient patriarchs who lived before the Law of Moses therefore no morall and perpetuall precept as the other are Sect. 2. Secondly that the sanctifying of one day in seven is ceremoniall onely and obliged the Jewes not morall to oblige us Christians to the like observance Sect. 3. and 4. Thirdly that the Lords Day is founded onely on the authority of the Church guided therein by the practice of the Apostles not on the fourth Commandement which hee calls a scandalous doctrine Sect. 7. nor any other expresse authority in holy Scripture Sect 6. and 7. Then fourthly that the Church hath still authority to change the day though such authority be not fit to be put in practice Sect. 7. Fifthly that in the celebration of it there is no such cessation from works of labour required from us as was exacted of the Jewes but that we may lawfully dresse meat proportionable to every mans estate and doe such other things as are no hindrance to the publique service appointed for the day Sect. 8. Sixthly that on the Lords Day all recreations whatsoever are to be allowed which honestly may refresh the spirits and increase mutuall love and neighbour-hood amongst us and that the names whereby the Jewes were wont to call their festivalls whereof the Sabbath was the chiefe were borrowed from an Hebrew word which signifieth to dance and to be merry or make glad the countenance If so if all such ceremonies as do increase good neighbor-hood then wakes and feasts and other meetings of that nature If such as honestly may refresh the spirits then dancing wrestling shooting and all other pastimes not by law prohibited which either exercise the body or revive the mind And lastly that it appertaines to the Christian Magistrate to order and appoint what pastimes are to be permitted and what are not obedience unto whose commands is better farre than sacrifice to the Idols of our owne inventions not unto every private person or as the Doctors owne words are not unto every mans rash zeale who out of a schismaticall Stoicisme debarring men from lawfull pastimes doth incline to Judaisme Sect. 8. Adde for the close of all how doubtingly our Author speakes of the name of Sabbath which now is growne so rife amongst us Sect. 8. Concerning which take here that notable dilemma of Iohn Barkley the better to encounter those who still retaine the name and impose the rigor Paren l. 1. c. ult Cur porrò illum diem plerique Sectariorum Sabbatum appellatis What is the cause saith he that many of our Sectaries call this day the Sabbath If they observe it as a Sabbath they must observe it because God rested on the day and then they ought to keepe that day whereon God rested and not the first as now they doe whereon the Lord began his labours If they observe it as the day of our Saviours resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest the day but valiantly overcame the powers of death This is the summe of all and this is all that I have to say unto thee good Christian reader in this present businesse God give thee a right understanding in all things and a good will to doe thereafter Exam. This Prefacer accounts the opinions opposite to his to be fancies D. Willet on the contrary as wee have heard accounts this Prefacers opinion maintained by M. Rogers no better than fantasies which shall vanish however now for a time they flourish Sure wee are every plant that our heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out This Prefacer professeth those whom hee opposeth be opposite to the tendries of our Church and indeed the Author whom D. Willet intimateth intitled his booke audaciously enough The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England but D. Willet on the other side wondred that any professing the Gospel should gain-say and impugne the positions maintained by D. Bownde And sure I am Bishop Babington Bishop Andrewes Bishop Lake agreed with
Parliament with us and that in the dayes of King Charles hath forbidden every man to come out of his parish about any sports and pastimes a manifest evidence that in their judgement the publique prosecuting of such sports and pastimes is a plaine profanation of the Sabbath and so by this authors profound judgement they deserve to be censured as inclining to Judaisme Indeed the use of the very name of Sabbath is now a dayes carped at and why but because it is a sore offence unto them in their way for if a rest from any thing otherwise lawfull in it selfe be required on the Lords Day it seemes most reasonable that a rest is required from sports and pastimes undoubtedly they have neither reason nor authority to except against this For our Saviour useth the word even of Christian times Mat. 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath Day Doctor Andrewes one of the greatest Prelates of this Kingdome accommodates this place to the same purpose All ceremonies saith hee were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Mat. 24.20 Christs bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath Day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and by this name hee commonly calls this day wee keepe weekely as holy unto the Lord. The booke of Homilies plainly tells us that the Sunday is our Sabbath In the conference at Hampton Court it is so called without any dislike shewed by any one there present And the onely reason why the ancients put a difference in this not calling it the Sabbath day but the Lords Day was this because Dies Sabbati in Latine signifieth the Saturday which was the Jewes Sabbath But they generally call us to a rest on this day and that most exact as wherein wee must Tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare as Austin by name not sparing to confesse that Arare melius est quam saltare But Barklay it seemes is of more authority with this Prefacer then Doctor Andrewes and the Church yea and of our Saviour too yet wee calling it by that name understand no other thing then our Christian Sabbath and had rather it were generally called the Lords Day and Doctor Bownde also standeth for this denomination and urgeth it yet is hee accounted a Sabbatarian by Master Rogers though wee all concurre in this that thereon wee ought to keepe and sanctifie our Christian Sabbath And Iacobus de Valentia who was no sectary in the opinion of Barklay to distinguish the Jewish Sabbath from ours calls it Sabbatum legale and conclus 4. hee saith that Christiana religio celebrat verum Sabbatum morale in die Dominica Christian Religion keepeth a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day yet I willingly confesse this is the usuall course of Papists now a dayes not to call the Lords Day so much as by the name of our Sabbath As for Barklays discourse hee is much fitter to write somthing answerable to Don Quixot then to reason we doe observe the Lords Day as a Sabbath not because God rested that day from the Creation for our Doctor Andrewes of somewhat more credit with us and that not onely for his place but for his sufficiency then Barklay hath delivered it in the Starre Chamber that It hath ever been the Churches Doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And againe That the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this hee sayth is deduced plainly First by practise then by precept And this new Sabbath on the Lords Day wee observe because on that day Christ rested from the worke of redemption which was wrought by his death So that though the Lord began his labours in the worke of Creation on the first day of the weeke yet the Lord Christ set an end to his labors in the worke of redemption on the same day of the weeke As for Christs vanquishing the powers of death on that day to wit the first day of the weeke the Women that came to the Sepulchre at sun rising found that he was risen And what powers are these powers of death hee rhetoricates of is there any positive nature in death that our Saviour had neede to take such paines to overcome them The Lord himselfe when hee rested he rested onely from Creation he that was best acquainted with his courses hath told us saying Pater usque hodie peratur my Father to this day works still and I worke with him yet hee proceeds no farther in the worke of Creation nor Christ being once risen in the worke of redemption S. Iude exhorts us to contend the more earnestly for the faith because some there were craftily crept in who otherwise were like to bereave them of it In like sort wee had never more neede then now to contend for the maintainance of the Lords Day as our Christian Sabbath because too many there are whose practise it is to bereave us of the comfort of it The Doctrine of the Sabbath considered FIrst I come to the Doctrine of the Sabbath translated by the Prefacer I nothing doubt but the Author thereof will take in good part my paines in the discussion of it considering the present occasion urging mee hereunto Out of the variety of his reading hee observes many wild derivations of the name Sabbath and out of his judgment doth pronounce that the Jewes by their Bacchanalian rites gave the World just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate the Sabbath unto Revells rather then Gods service As for the rigorous keeping of the day in such sort Sect. 2. as neither to kindle fire in the Winter-time wherewith to warme themselves or to dresse meat for the sustentation of themselves I am so farre from justifying it that I willingly professe I am utterly ignorant where any such Christians live that presse any such rigorous observation of it The Jewes were bound to observe the rest on that day for a mysterious signification sake and thereupon depended their rigorous observing of a rest as many thinke and not Lyra alone We must know saith hee that rest from manuall works is not now so rigorously observed as in the old Law because meate may be dressed and other things done on the Lords Day which were not lawfull on the Sabbath because that rest was in part figurative as was the whole state under the Law 1 Cor. 10. All things befell them in figure Now in that which is figurative if you take away never so little that is if that which is figurative bee not exactly observed the whole and intire signification faileth like as if you take away but one letter from the name of Lapis the whole and intire signification is destroyed To
in some notable worke what reason is there why man should choose any other day rather than that 1. This discourse proceeds upon supposition of one day in seven to be set a part for Gods service and accordingly wee being upon the election of the day Now consider the base of Adam God having revealed unto him how many dayes he had spent in the creating of all things and in what order hee created them the last day of the six being the day wherein he created the beasts of the field then man and after placing him in Paradise and after experience of his wisedome appearing in the naming of the beasts brought before him not finding an help meet for him casting him in a sleepe and taking a rib out of his side thereof made a woman to be a help meet for him The next day which was the seventh God resting from his worke what day should man have preferred for Gods service before this considering the proportion betweene Gods rest from his works and mans rest from his and that as this day was the first of Gods rest so it was the first of mans worke And the very Heathens have counted it reasonable à Iove principium to begin with God especially there being no better meanes to take livery and seisin of the world made by God for the service of man than by the service of God man being made to this end and accordingly after Gods image indued with an understanding heart to know him and with rationall affections to feare and serve him And that with the first as Caietan observeth and that out of the judgement of reason Par est ut post accepta beneficia agnoscamus benefactorem quandoque uno statÃm It is fit after benefits received wee should acknowledge our Creator sometimes yea forthwith As wee reade the Angels did as the Booke of Iob informes us Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth declare if thou hast understanding who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened or who laid the corner stone thereof When the morning starres sang together and all the sonnes of God shouted for joy The summe of all is this 1. It is generally confessed and that by the very light of nature that sometime and that in a sufficient proportion is to be set apart for Gods service 2. God being our great Lord and Master it is most fit by the very suggestion of nature that God himselfe should set forth unto us his servants both the proportion of time according to which and the particularity of the day wherein he will be served by us 3 We judge that proportion which God hath designed and the day also which he hath marked out to us in his Word to be most agreeable unto reason in the consideration of his works And in all this I am very willing to remit my selfe to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux The next reason here mentioned followeth Can we conceive that this onely ceremoniall law crept in we know not how amongst the morall Or that the Prophet Moses would have used such care in ordering the Decalogue onely to bring the Church into greater troubles I answer that some time should be set apart for Gods service was never accounted ceremoniall As touching the proportion of one day in seven dayes to be consecrated unto God I never found any Divine ancient or moderne busie his wits about devising any ceremoniality therein neither did I observe any ancient produced to acknowledge any ceremoniality therein but as it is fit wee should wait upon God for designing the proportion of time in which respect divers count that positive so God having designed unto us the proportion of time we are bold to say with Azorius that rationi maxime comsentaneum est It is most agreeable to reason after six worke dayes to consecrate one unto God As touching the particularity of the day under the proportion of one in seven there is to be considered both rest and sanctification As for sanctification I never read nor heard any man that constituted any ceremoniality in the sanctification of the day but onely in the rest of the day yet all these are shuffled together and usually men talke of the ceremoniality of the fourth Commandement hand over-head without all distinction Now it is true the ancient Fathers generally conceived a ceremoniality in the rest of the seventh day but what was signified by this ceremony I no where find expressely neither in Master Broad nor in this discourse Other Divines of these dayes had rather call it positive but how Surely in reference onely to the particular day not to the rest of it there being a morall rest necessarily required to the sanctification of it namely so farre forth in resting from our works as they are avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from sacred studies and meditations as Calvin expresseth it and I know none that differ from him herein Aquinas is of the same judgement but withall he confesseth that the Jewes observed the rest of this day for a mysterious signification sake which is as much as to say ceremonially in which respect it ought to be abrogated when the body came that was signified thereby So that this nothing hinders the morality of one day in seven no nor the observation of any one particular day that Gods Word shall commend unto us for our Sabbath and that unalterable save by that authority whereby it was introduced Neither had Moses any hand that I know in ordering the Decalogue it being first pronounced by the mouth of God and afterwards written in tables by the finger of God Nor did the designing of a day expose the Church to any trouble much lesse the designing the proportion of time It being most requisite the Law-maker should designe each of these for the preventing of trouble and each being thus designed we find the designation of them to be most agreeable unto reason If Torniellus thought it hardly credible that Enosh should appart himselfe from the sonnes of Cain to call upon the Name of the Lord without some certaine and appointed time for that performance I doe not thinke that Doctor Prideaux conceaves it credible that any wise man would thinke it fit that the servant and not rather the Master should apportion out that service which is due unto his Lord and master or that it is more fit the servant should have the designation of the particular time rather then the master the former reasons duly considered Or is there any reason why Calvin should have so little authority when hee discourseth in reason for the originall institution of the Sabbath as from the Creation and so great authority when hee speakes upon his bare word against the morality of one day in seven as some thinke Septenarium numerum non ita moror ut ejus servituti quicquam astringerem It
a festivall unto him when hee calleth us thereunto lest otherwise it prove out of season when it is begun a long time after and utterly neglected upon the fresh memory thereof Wee reade that when the Ilienses inhabitants of Ilium called anciently by the name of Troy sent an Embassage to Tiberius to condole the death of his Father Augustus hee considering the unseasonablenesse thereof it being a long time after his death requited them accordingly saying that hee was sorry for their heavinesse also having lost so renowned a Knight as Hector was to wit above a thousand years before in the warres of Troy Surely when in the fourth Commandement and in the reason given it is sayd For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it it stands with far better reason to conceave the meaning hereof in reference to time past thus therefore the Lord commanded the sanctification of it 2500 yeares before then to understand Moses words Gen. 2.3 Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it in reference to the time to come thus therefore the Lord commanded that seventh day to be sanctified 2500 yeares after And observe I pray the forme of words in the fourth Commandement when it is sayd Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it not of the time present that hee now doth blesse it and sanctify it but of the time past therefore hee did blesse it and sanctifie it and when I pray but immediately from the Creation that very day whereon hee first rested and consequently that very day he commanded the seventh day to be sanctified for to sanctifie the day is to command the sanctification of it as is confessed otherwise there were no place to plead anticipation And that the phrase of speech must signifie Gods Command for the sanctification of it I have already proved As for the Fathers affirming that the ancient Patriarches did not observe the Sabbath albeit their authority is of no force to countervaile so manifest evidence both of Scripture it selfe and of the reason drawne from the division of time into weekes even from the creation and so continued unto the Jewes in the very dayes of Moses Yet I may be bold to say we have better authority from the ancients for justifying of our cause than our adversaries have for theirs Walaeus hath represented Chrysostome Theophilus Antiochenus Austin Theodor maintaining that the justification of the Sabbath hath beene from the Creation To these Rivelies addes Tertullian as of the same mind howsoever alleged on the adversaries part And he also acknowledgeth the Jewes to be of the same opinion Beda is alleged indeed by Pererius as on the part of Tostatus but no such thing appeares in his Hexameron but rather expressely the contrary his words being these of the Sabbath semper celebrari solebat as I have shewed in my answer to the preface Sect. 1. Where also are represented the testimonies of Athanasius and Epiphanius as maintaining the institution of the Sabbath to have beene from the Creation which also hath beene shewed to have beene the opinion of Philo and Iosephus and divers of the Jewish Rabbins and of the author of the Chaldee Paraphrase upon the Psalms and of divers others In Psalm 29. Againe concerning the passages alleged out of some Fathers to the contrary not onely Hospinian answereth that those proceed of the rigorous observation of the Sabbath but Iacobus Salianus a Papist in particular thus interpreteth Tertullian and Tertullian must be in some such sense understood as namely either of observation of other Sabbaths in use among the Jewes or of the rigorous observation of the Jewish Sabbath or of the Jewish manner in observing it by particular sacrifices appointed for that day for as much as he clearely professeth that the Sabbath day was à primordio sanctus as Rivetus sheweth and that the other Fathers which are but foure truly alleged are to be interpreted by some such manner I have endeavoured to evince by divers reasons in my answer to the Preface Sect. 1. And though some are willing to admit that of Torniellus that in the accomplishment of the Creation the Angels did observe the Sabbath provided he recompence them in this particular now in question and adde that the observance of it here upon the earth was not till many ages after Yet this naked authority being little worth his reason is so weake in the former that we have cause to suspect it will not prove any thing stronger in the latter though I should have beene content to afford it due consideration had it been proposed As for the Angels singing and shouting for joy this was performed as Torritallus acknowledgeth the day wherein the foundation of the earth was laid which undoubtedly could not be after the first day of the creation For if the foundation of the earth was not laid then when the Lord said that it was without forme and voyd and the waters covered it I cannot devise when it should be It is granted that it may be probably conjectured that the sanctification of the Sabbath was before the Law as concurring herein with Calvin but that Calvin saith that no more is not proved neither is that passage exhibited wherein Calvin should deliver his mind so coldly thereof but Calvin in his harmony upon the foure bookes of Moses and on the fourth Precept is expresse that Diem septimū sibi sumpsit Deus ac consecravit completa mundi creatione that God assumed and consecrated the seventh day unto himselfe upon the finishing of the worlds creation And it is enough for us that then it was instituted and hereupon let every sober reader judge whether it be not more then probable that the holy Patriarches at least observed it Neither doe we affect that any man should rest satisfied with our conjectures but let our reasons be considered and the plaine Text of Scripture professing that because God rested the seventh day Sect. 3. therefore hee blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and let them yeeld thereunto no more in this particular then whereof it doth convince a man in conscience Yet who those late Writers be who are so unsatisfied in this point I know not well I verily thinke they are very few Protestants Gomarus as I remember allegeth but two Vatablus and Musculus whereas Walaeus and Rivetus between them have alleged no lesse than thirty maintaining the contrary As for the Papists we shall take notice of them in the next Section It is confessed that this proofe is good God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore he commanded it to be kept holy by his people The sanctifying of the day in the true notion thereof being nothing but Gods commanding man to sanctifie it which yet if any man deny I appeale to my former argument delivered in the former
although the determination of such a time be not designed But heretofore the seventh day was designed by a Divine praecept positive in the Law of grace the day of the Lords Resurrection so that amongst the people of God one day in the weeke hath been determined for divine service As for our Divines the most generall opinion amongst them is that the observation of one day in seven is of perpetuall observation For albeit Brentius upon Leviticus affirmes that the Church may in these dayes observe but one day in 14. if they will Yet not onely Gomarus and Rivet professe that under the Gospell wee must allow a better proportion of time for Gods service rather then a worse in reference to that which was allowed under the Law But Luther tom 5. fol. 610. professeth that ad minimum unus dies aliquis per hebdomadam is to be chosen for Gods worship and Baldwin in his cases of conscience 2. c. 13. cas 2. touching feasts It is morall saith hee to sanctifie one day in seven Master Hooker confesseth as much in his Ecclesiasticall policy And if Calvin hath a way by himselfe in this there is no reason hee should be introduced to affront the most generall current of our owne Divines mustered up by Walaeus as a cloud of witnesses standing for the morality of one day in seven Yet Walaeus hath cleared also Calvin in this point and that in reference to more pregnant passages then are produced here where nothing is delivered in opposition thereunto the last tends to the confirmation of it For if it be reasonable that one day in seven should be allowed for the ease and recreation of servants what day shall be their Sabbath if not the day of rest and if this be most reasonable I hope in the second place it will be judged most unreasonable that there should be one Sabbath for the Master and another for the servants undoubtedly now God hath gone before us in allotting this proportion of time for his service wee may be bold to say with Azorius and that incorrespondency to Tostatus his discourse that rationi maximè consentaneum est after six worke dayes to consecrate one unto divine service And seeing God hath required such a proportion of time for his service under the Law by the very light of nature it appeares to be most unreasonable wee should allow him a worse proportion under the Gospell and Calvin professeth that Nobis cum veteri populo quoad hanc partem communis est Sabbati necessitas Harm in 4. lib. Mosis in praecep 4. We have as much neede of a Sabbath as ever the Jewes had As touching the three particulars wherein Tostatus is vouched to affirme the fourth Commandement to bee an unstable and alterable ceremony First I have not hitherto found that Tostatus confoundeth the proportion of one day in seven with the particular day under this proportion as if these were equally ceremoniall The rest on the seventh day in the judgement of the ancients prefigured the rest of Christ that day in his grave and in that respect was accompted by them ceremoniall But as for the proportion of one day in seven never yet did I meete with any who set his wits on worke to devise any thing in Christ to be prefigured thereby that so it also might be accompted ceremoniall Yet I nothing doubt but this proportion is alterable by that power whereby it was prescribed but not by any inferour power and so it is accompted by Jacobus de Valentia stabile aeternum stable and everlasting and most unreasonable that wee should not be bound to allow as good a proportion of service unto God under the Gospell as the Jewes were bound to allow him under the Law The rest of the seventh day being ceremoniall wee hold not onely with Tostatus that it is alterable but with Stella that it must be altered and I hope the word it selfe affords evidence enough for this It is true the fourth Commandement in the very front commands the sanctifying the Sabbath not the seventh day but the Sabbath and in like maner it ends with professing that the Lord Blessed the Sabbath day not the seventh sanctified it But when the question is made what Sabbath I should rather answer a rest from all servile works then as here it is answered The seventh day For undoubtedly God doth not therein command us to rest the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation there is commanded one day in seven and a seventh after six dayes of worke But wee must leave it unto God as to prescribe unto us the Master to his servants the proportion of time to be set apart for his service so the particularity of the day also under the specified proportion least otherwise there might be as many different opinions hereabouts and courses according thereunto amongst the people of God as there be dayes in the weeke Now God did appoint the seventh day of the weeke unto the Jewes for their Sabbath but the first day of the weeke hee hath appointed unto us for our Sabbath still observing six dayes worke before and a seventh of rest unto God after And thus Zanchy a learned and judicious Divine interpreteth the fourth Commandement in 4. praecept p. 599. Col. 2. Stat sententia non sine causa factum esse ut in substantia praecepti dictum non sit Memento ut diem septimum sed ut diem Sabbati i. quietis sanctifices Hac enim ratione nos quoque praeceptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem Dominicum quia hic quietis dies nobis est sicut Judaeis fuit septimus I am still of opinion that not without cause it is so ordered that in the substance of the precept it is not sayd remember the seventh day but remember the Sabbath day that is the day of rest to sanctifie it For by this meanes wee also keepe this precept in sanctifying the Lords Day So that this is not the opinion of Doctor Bownde onely and of Master Perkins but of Zanchy also and Iacobus de Valentia advers Iudaeos qu. 2. conclus 4. Christian Religion celebrates a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day as touching the time in as much as it celebrates it on the day whereon it ought to be celebrated and concludes So the precept of the Sabbath as it is morall remaines in the new time celebrated on the Lords day So Dominicus Bannes formerly alleaged distinguisheth the substance of the praecept from the particular determination of the day and addes that by a positive precept the seventh day was designed unto the Iewes Bannes 22. 4. 44 art 1. but afterwards under the Law of grace was designed the day of the Lords Resurrection So that alwayes to Gods faithfull people was designed one day in the weeke for Divine Service Whereas other festivities sayth hee are in course by the institution of the Church And Doctor Andrewes also sheweth out
of Math. 24.20 that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and addes that Those which were ceremonies were abrogated but those which were not ceremonies were changed at the Ministery from the Levites to be chosen throughout the World So here the day changed from the day of the Jewes to the Lords Day Revel 1.10 And accordingly interpreteth the fourth Commandement as belonging unto us Christians as bound to observe the Sabbath 1. in our judgment by a reverend esteeming of it not as a day appointed by man 2. in our use set downe Esay 58.13 not following our owne will nor doing our owne workes Hereupon a question is proposed thus But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ and the answer is this Do as Christ did in the case of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sin and so before there needed any Saviour and if they say it prefigured the rest we shall have from our sins in Christ We grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved The practise of piety is a booke dedicated unto his Majesty that now is when hee was Prince Carles in the yeere 1626. which is now 15. yeeres agoe came forth the 10th Edition of it wee have heard it highly commended by King Iames and that it commended the author of the dedication to a Bishoprick The author of this treatise is large upon the Sabbath and concurres with us in every particular wherein wee are by the Prefacer to this translation opposed Amongst other particulars this is one that hee interpreteth the fourth Commandement as Zanchy doth saying The Commandement doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day next following the sixt day of the Creation or this or that seventh day but indefinitely Remember that thou keepe holy a Sabbath day and that Our Lord Iesus having authority as Lord over the Sabbath had likewise far greater reason to translate the Sabbath day from the Iewish seventh unto the seventh day whereon Christians doe keepe their Sabbath which also hee proves by diverse reasons And the booke of Homilies whereunto all our Ministers are required to subscribe professeth that wee Christians are still bound to the observation of the Sabbath and that the Sunday is now our Sabbath So then as the Jewes were tied to the observation of the Sabbath on the day prescribed too them so are wee Christians tied to the observation of the Sabbath too but on the day prescribed unto us should wee observe the same day with the Jewes wee should fall justly under Austins censure that every such one carnaliter sapit And the same Austin professeth that Doctores Ecclesiae decreverunt omnem gloriam Iudaici Sabbati in illam transferre August de Tem. Ser. 251. The Doctors of the Church have decreed to transferre all the glory of the Jewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day So that the censure following in these words They therefore are but idly busied who would so farre enlarge the Sabbath or seventh day in this commandement as to include the Lords Day in it must light not upon us onely but upon other greater Divines yea and upon the Church of England also but our comfort is that wee finde it very weakly grounded As for the institution of the Lords Day I never reade nor heard any that grounded it upon the fourth Commandement otherwise then by proportion That Commandement containes two things 1. the sanctification of the Sabbath 2. a designing of the time when both as touching the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven and as touching the particularity of the day under the forementioned proportion For in commanding a seventh it commands one day in seven the former inferring the latter as well as it doth inferre the setting of some time in generall a part for Gods service which not one that I know denies to bee the substance of this commandement Now as the Lord designed what should bee their Sabbath day unto the Jewes so hath hee designed what shall bee the Sabbath day to us Christians This designation made to us we do not derive from the fourth commandement but this day being by the word of God designed unto us still holding up the same proportion of time the rest of this day and the sanctification thereof this and this alone doe we derive from the fourth commandement and also that undoubtedly we Christians ought not to allow unto God a worse proportion of time for his Service then did the Jewes and the proportion is apparant betweene the Lord the creators rest and the Lord the redeemers rest And our rest on the day of our Lord the creators rest being abolished as a type of Christs rest in the grave what is more convenient to come in the place thereof then our rest on that day which is the Lord our redeemers rest As touching the passage here alleaged out of Calvin I am sorry to observe the common errour of others committed here also by dismembring Calvins sentence leaving out one halfe of it making him to deliver that absolutely which hee utters onely conditionally And the other halfe of the first sentence here mentioned doth manifest as much namely that Calvin speakes only against them who think themselves obliged to the observation of one day in 7. for some mysterious significations sake and accordingly Wallaeus sheweth that he opposeth none but Papists whose course is to observe festivall dayes for some mystery sake whereof hee gives good evidence by a passage which he allegeth out of Bellarmine all which I have formerly represented more at large in my answer to the Preface Sect. 4. I come to the fourth Section of the Author That some doe urge the words of this Commandement so farre till they draw blood insteed of comfort are but words nothing of this kind hath beene hitherto made good so much as in the least colour of probabilitie And who upon due observing of the fourth commandement may not well be brought to admire the wisedome of God that as hee hath placed it in the morall law which concerneth all times and persons so he hath ordered it after such a manner that howsoever the day should be altered yet the proportion of time still to be kept and a Sabbath still to bee of force whether on the seventh day which was the Sabbath day unto the Jewes or the Lords day which should be our Christian Sabbath thereon to rest unto God and to sanctifie that day unto his service we make no doubt but the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and so hath power to change it and none hath power to change it but hee that is Lord of it It is true this was one argument amongst many which the Author of the Practice of Pietie useth to prove that the fourth commandement stands still in force because our Saviour professeth that He came not to
exhorts them at such a time to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24.20 what will you conclude herence therefore the observation of the Jewish Sabbath was still to continue among Christians if you doe who shall more deservedly be obnoxious to the censure of Judaisme you or wee yet when he tells them that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath how few interpreters writing hereupon doe not take notice of his power to abrogat it But is it not enough that Paul cryeth downe the ceremonies of the Jewes and in speciall their holy dayes and particularly Sabbaths to wit so far forth as they are found to be shadowes the body whereof was Christ such was the rest on the seventh day as prefiguring Christs rest in the grave But no sober man I trow will herence conclude that herewithall hee cryeth downe the setting apart of any time for Gods service that having no colour of ceremony or rest from such workes as hinder us in the service of God this being as little ceremoniall as the former I make bold to goe one step farther and conclude by the same reason that neither doth he cry downe the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven to be set a part for the exercises of piety because in this particular there is no more ceremonialitie to be found then in any one of the former But to proceed what indifferent man would once expect that in our Saviours disputations with the Pharisees about the Sabbath mention should bee made of the Lords day instituted in the place thereof It is enough wee find it instituted after our Saviours resurrection and sufficient I trowe it is to prove that it was instituted and that in the best manner namely by establishing it de facto in practise amongst the Churches I say this is sufficiently proved by the observation of it which undoubtedly neither was nor could be by chance A Sowe mufling in the earth may make something like the letter A. but not Ennius his Andromacha saith Cicero In like sort the concurrence of the Churches in the observation hereof from the Apostles and continuance therein unto this day could not be by chance but by order and that from the Apostles When you aske Did not the Apostles keepe the Iewish Sabbath I answer I doe not finde they did yet I finde revelations were made unto them of what was to be done by degrees Peter was challenged Acts 11. by the rest of the Apostles for preaching the Gospell unto the Gentiles They tooke indeed advantage of the Jewes Sabbath to preach the Gospell unto them congregated together Act. 13. so did they to the same end take the oppotunity of the feast of Pentecost Acts 18.21 I grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that which is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience Sect. 6. whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24.20 D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles ' as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and
penall statutes may provide for such restraints by such punishments as whereof every naturall man will be sensible enough we have other considerations to propose as 1. Touching the proportion of time to be allowed to Gods service which concerneth the quantity of the service it selfe 1. This is a thing very considerable and of moment 2. We have no example that the quantity of service to be performed to the master was left unto the conscience or pleasure of the servant but rather is to be prescribed by the Master especially by such a Master as God is 1. Who hath made us 2. Who will infinitely reward us 3. To serve whom is our most perfect freedome and happinesse 4. And who is able to give us strength to performe it 5. And who is tenderly sensible of our weaknesses as he is most privy to them 6. And after God hath discovered this unto us and required the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to him and that under the Law surely reason doth suggest that we cannot performe lesse unto him under the Gospell 2. As touching the particularity of the day under this proportion 1. We read that there is one that is Lord of the Sabbath Now in reason who shall appoint this day but he that is Lord of it especially considering that it is his holy day Es 58. and such festivalls were said to be of his making Psalme 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made not of mans making secondly but it may be said he may leave unto man the appointing of it if it please him I answer that in this case it stands them upon to shew their Charter for this Thirdly for my part I see no cause we should desire any such liberty but rather pray unto God to blesse us from it 1. For as I am flesh I shall bee sure to put it off to the end of the weeke and I may be gone out of the world ere that day comes and when that day comes I shall be as loath to come to the service that day requires as ever and assoone weary of it and say when will the Sabbath be gone that I may returne to my former courses secondly as I am spirit I have cause to make choyce of the first day for à Iove principium and Adam and Eve being after the beasts of the field made on the sixt day and planted in Paradise the seventh day was the first entire day to him 4. Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells observes that festivalls dayes have ever beene commended unto us by some notable worke done on that day Now what worke like unto the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the weeke 5. Bishop Andrewes observes in his Starre Chamber speech that this resurrection brings with it a new creation and calls for a new Sabbath and I find this to have beene the observation of Athanasius about 1300. yeeres agoe 6. If we were left at liberty in the choyce of the day it is to be feared that if there were twenty dayes in the weeke there would be twenty differences betweene us thereabouts 7. Lastly if left at libertie I find no reason why we should keepe ourselves to the observation of the same day this is so apt and prone to breed in us an opinion of the necessitie thereof and so plunge us into superstition ere we are aware and thereby make our whole service of God on that day distastfull unto him To proceed the Practise of the Apostles is in Scripture represented unto us in three severall places the first whereof is Act. 20 7. upon the first day of the weeke when the Disciples came together to breake bread Paul preached unto them The practise is improved thus why is it said expressely that the Disciples came together to heare the word preached and receive the Sacraments rather on this day then any other rather then on the Iewish Sabbath were it not then a custome to celebrate on that day their publique meetings the Sabbath of the Iewes beginning by degrees to vanish It is farther confessed that the Fathers and all interpreters almost doe so conceive it Observe not a Father is found to take it in any other sense only the Magdeburgenses and Calvin are said to stick at the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it might signifie some one day of the weeke and yet in Scripture phrase it is apparant that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. 16.9 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 20.19 And it is Salmasius his observation that the Pythagoreans called the first day of the weeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insteed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Doctor professeth that from a casuall fact he seeth not how a solemne Institution may be justly grounded but it is not proved that this fact was casuall nay the text carryeth in the face of it manifest evidence against casualitie For it is said that they came together to eat bread all then convening to a sacred action how could this be done if they had not agreed hereupon before especially it being a businesse whereabout they came that required solemne and sacred preparation all which affront casualitie Take the circumstances aright The Disciples from divers parts came together that day about solemne and sacred action therefore it was ordered before to meet together on that day Now this concludes only concerning them and therefore Wallaeus professeth that the force of these three texts taken apart doe not conclude but joyntly Now by the next place 1. Cor. 16.2 it appeareth that the same day was the ordinary day of meeting for the Corinths and for the Churches of Galatia also Now how came it to passe the same day was the day of meeting about holy exercises in the Church of Ephesus the Church of Corinth and in the Churches of Galatia could this ordinary course for so much is signified 1. Cor. 16.2 of so many Churches concurring herein come to passe by chance or could their consent herein so many Churches so farre distant one from another be wrought by chance and not rather in all reason was wrought by authority Apostolicall And as for the second place 1 Cor. 16.2 whereas the exception is that there it is said the Apostles ordered collections on that day but not their meetings yet Doctor Andrewes in his Starre Chamber speech alleageth it as the Apostles precept for their meetings on that day and so doth Paraeus for though it be not expressed yet so much is implyed as by the reason formerly mentioned hath beene argued especially considering the last place Revel 1.10 where the first day of the weeke is called the Lords day a notable evidence of the divine authority the Scripture phrase no where calling any the Lords day or the Lords Altars or the Lords feasts but such as are of the Lords institution and in this particular Bishop Andrewes compares the Lords day with the Lords Supper professing the
And when all comes to all I doubt the issue will be to stile the pleasures of our senses by the cleanly name of recreations Now the Jewes were expressely forbidden to find their owne pleasure on the Lords holy day Es 58.13 yet were they not forbidden all pleasure that belonged only to such a Sabbath as was a fast and therein indeed hypocrites are taxed for finding pleasure on that day Es 58.3 But the weekely Sabbath was for pleasure and delight but not for mans owne pleasure nor for the doing of their owne wayes But to delight in the Lord which is spirituall pleasure and the recreating of our souls in the Lord this is a blessed rest thus to rest unto him and the word of God is the best food of the soule No recreates like unto Gods holy ordinances Of wisedome it is said that her wayes are the wayes of pleasantnesse I willingly confesse that to the naturall man as the things of God are foolishnesse so the word of God is a reproach unto him Pro. 3.17 1 Cor. 2.14 Ier. 6.10 Luc. 8.14 hee hath no delight in it Hee delights rather in carnall pleasures and is it fit to humour him in such courses and that on the Lords day our Saviour expresly tells us that The pleasures of life choake the word and make it become unfruitfull Therefore it no way fits a man to Gods Service And if way be opened to such courses though not till after evening prayer as many as are taken with them will have their minds running upon them so as to say when will the Sabbath be gone and the time of Divine service be over that so they may come to their sports as well as covetous persons longed after the like that they may returne to their trading A naturall man before his calling is discribed unto us in Scripture to bee such a one as served lusts and diverse pleasures Tit. 3.3 Iob. 36.11 Es 47.8 and the wicked are said to spend their dayes in pleasure and such are they whom the Prophet describeth after this manner Heare now thou that art given to pleasure As for the children of God as they are renewed in their affections generally so the matter of their delight is much altered His delight is in the Law of the Lord Psal 1.2 Psal 40.1 as Christ sayeth I delight to do thy will and Psal 119.16 J delight my selfe in thy Statutes v. 24. thy testimonies are my delight and 47. I will delight my selfe in the commandement and Psalme 94.19 Thy comforts delight my soule on the other side the Character of the foole is this H◠hath no delight in understanding Psal 18.2 As for the reformation of such fooles let every wise sober Christian consider whether it be a fit course to let the reynes loose upon their neck and give them liberty to take their courses and not rather to endevour to weane them therefrom by representing the vanity of them witnessed by the experience of King Solomon Eccles 2.8 who was acquainted with the delights of the Sonnes of men as much as any and tells us what fruit and profit hee reaped by them saying vanitie of vanities all is but vanitiy and that the end of all that discourse of his is to promote this exhortation Feare God and keepe his commandements For this is whole man then on the other side the blessed the comfortable and only profitable condition of delighting in the Lord in the judgement of David the Father of King Solomon Delight thou in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire to meete with the contrary judgement of carnall men who say It profitteth not a man Ps 37.4 Job 34.9 that he should delight himselfe with God If it be said that such sports are tolerated to fit a man for his calling the day following It is very strange that workes of our calling should not be permitted on any part of the Sabbath day and sports and pastimes should And shall not the spending of our time in Gods Service not publique only but private also farre better fit us to serve God in the workes of our calling and make us more capable of his blessing upon our labours then the exercising of our selves in sports and pastimes As for the maintaining of good neighbourhood I appeale to every mans conscience whether Christian neighbourhood be not better maintained in meeting together in the repeating of a Sermon the word in the originall being only Consortium or in edifying one another in holy communication then in meeting together at beare-baiting or at a play or at a may game or to look upon a morice dance 2. whether on the Lords day which is our Christian Sabbath it is not fit to maintaine neighbourhood and Communion in things spirituall as at other times to maintaine neighbourhood in things civill and temporall To conclude this there are 3. things that in this discourse give little satisfaction 1. that under recreations are comprehended not only such courses as recreate and refresh the Spirits wherby men are made more fit for labour both of body and minde but also and that more principally intended as it semees the pleasing of the senses and especially the eye and the eare and thus mens pleasures carnall pleasures are cleanely carryed under the stile of recreations and refreshments of the spirit when they deserve rather to be called the tickling of the flesh 2. here is no mention made of the end whereunto recreations tend which ought to be only to fit us either for the labours of our speciall vocations or for the works of our generall calling as sause is for meats 3. Lastly under recreations lawfull there seemes to be no intention to acknowledge our conversing with God in any recreation yet Aristotle could take notice of a pleasure taken in this that a man knowes by curious demonstration that a Triangle containes three angles equall to two right such like thing was that which Archimedes rejoyced in when he cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Pythagoras as I remember sacrificed a great sacrifice upon the finding out the equality of the square of the subtendent line in a rectangle Triangle to the squares of the two sides So a scholar takes delight in finding out by curious demonstration the squaring of a Circle a thing confessed by Aristotle to be knowable but the demonstration of it hath not beene found untill about fifty yeares agoe as Salmuth writes upon Pancirolla Should any pleasure taken in any other worldly thing be comparable to that which ought to be taken in the enjoying of friends and their mutuall communication I have heard it accompted the best musick how much lesse should be all other pleasure in comparison to that pleasure which is taken in God Psal 36.8 who hath Rivers of pleasures in his house wherewith to entertaine us not to speake of that fulnesse of joy which is in his presence Psal 16.11 and at his
our service shall be acceptable with God for of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin we reade that Hee offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month even in the month which he had devised of his owne heart which latter clause undoubtedly is added by way of exprobration as also to prevent divisions by reason of different opinions thereabouts and as different courses therin it is fit that herein we should wait for the Lords direction and designation of the particular day And even this also was so ordered by God himselfe and that in great congruitie as appeares to as many as are acquainted with the story of the Creation For the Lord having dispatched all his workes in six dayes and resting on the seventh commanded man to imitate him For in this respect it was that at the first the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and some thousand of yeares after gives this reason why after six dayes of labour the seventh being the Sabbath of the Lord our God no manner of worke should be done therein which being once thus ordered by the Lord of the Sabbath it must be in force of perpetuall observation as a requisite determination of the morality of this Law and not of an alterable nature save only by the same authority whereby it was ordained Now to my understanding by the fourth Commandement it is cleare First that God commanded some time to bee set apart and sanctified unto his service Secondly that the proportion of this time he hath defined to be one day in seven Thirdly that the particular day under this proportion was designed to be the seventh and that unto the Iews in correspondencie to the seventh day from the first creation whereon God commanded them to rest from all their workes like as on that day the Lord rested from his works And I thinke there is no question amongst Christians but that all this ought to be religiously observed by the people of God untill the Lord himselfe manifest his pleasure for alteration and no farther in any particular than God shall manifest his pleasure for alteration As for example First for the time then son the rest lastly for the service of the day it selfe First If God hath not manifested his will for any alteration of setting apart some time for divine service we must still continue to set some time apart for divine service Likewise if God hath not manifested his pleasure to have the proportion of time altered which hath bin originally allotted unto his service we must not presume to allow a lesse proportion of time for his service than hath been formerly prescribed by him Only both Gomarus and Rivet concur in this that we may allow more and that in reason it is fit now under the Gospell to allow more time for Gods service rather than lesse in comparison to that which he would have allowed him under the Law And as for the particularity of the day if God hath manifested his pleasure to have it altered it must be altered as in case it appeare to have been ceremoniall in respect of the rest commanded thereon and another in the seven substituted in the place thereof and that according to Gods direction and not otherwise Secondly so as touching the rest of the day commanded upon Mount Sina unto the Jewes not so unto Adam upon the Creation but onely wee reade that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it which sanctification yet on mans part drawes a rest with it if there be found a just distinction betweene a rest morall so far forth as the sanctification of the day requireth and a rest ceremonial of a more rigorous nature and that prefiguring some thing in Christ it will follow herehence that the rest morall still continueth together with the sanctification of the day as much as ever and that the rigorous rest must fall and be abolished Thirdly so in the last place as touching the service of the day whatsoever was prescribed unto the Jewes thereon as ceremoniall is at end as namely the Sabbath sacrifice which doubled the daily sacrifice Only the publique ministery of the Word and Prayer as morall still continueth together with our Sacramentall ceremonies which Christ hath given unto his Church Baptisme and the Lords Supper and therefore the Lords day was called by the Ancients the day of light in reference unto Baptisme Baptisme being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illumination the first worke of grace and the day of Bread in reference to the Lords Supper Now all this I hope to make appeare before I give over this taske which I have taken in hand And I was the more confirmed in my meditations when I heard by one of my Auditors a Divine that in this doctrine of mine concerning the Sabbath as touching the substance of that which was delivered by me I nothing differed from the opinion of D. Prideaux whose discourse on that argument at that time I had not been acquainted with But since I finde that Sect. 8. of that his Lecture be professeth that the Jewish rest cannot stand with our Christian libertie I say so too and withall endevour to give evidence for the abrogation thereof Further the same Reverend Doctor professeth That we only are so farre to abstaine from worke as it is an impediment to the performance of such duties as are then commanded I am not only of his opinion herein but withall desire no more than this to be granted for the maintenance of the morall rest of the fourth Commandement But I have observed some to deny any thing in the Iewish Sabbath to have been ceremoniall yet will not have that fourth Commandement morall but positive rather as touching both the observation of one day in seven and as touching the particularity of the day And therefore they deny it to be morall because it hath not evidence by light of nature But was it evident to the Jewes by light of nature that the God of their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob and that brought them out of the land of Aegypt was the true God of the world and that therefore they ought to have no other gods but him Is it evident by the light of nature that God is not to be worshipped by an Image Or if naturall evidence hereof faile us in this state of corrupt nature wherein we are shall these lawes be denied to be the morall Law of God yet I nothing doubt but the proportion of time allowed for Gods service much more the particularity of the day appointed thereunto is alterable at the pleasure of God And ceremonials I confesse are in such a sense positive or rather more than positive namely such as not only may but must like shadowes fly away when the body of them comes in place And yet I find that Cajetan in this point confounds ceremoniall with positive though I think he would not call it ceremoniall
a morall way only than any they could bring to the contrary Secondly then againe could they have better grounds for the practise of those ancient Patriarchs both before and after the Floud than the Jewes themselves I presume none will be so immodest as to affirme this and if they had any such evidence it stood them upon to produce it especially in dealing against the Jewes Thirdly they deliver this as a thing undeniable by the Jewes themselves with whom they deale in this particular but the Jewes had no such faith as to beleeve that the ancient Patriarchs never observed the weekly Sabbath For none are of this opinion but such as thinke that passage Gen. 2.3 of Gods blessing the seventh day and hallowing it was not delivered of that present time as if then God ordained it should be sanctified but only by way of anticipation for the time to come But this was not the opinion of the Jewes Manasseth Ben Israel a moderne Rabbin in his booke intituled The Reconciler Conciliator according to the argument of that his writing which is to reconcile places of Scripture in shew disagreeing and that upon enquiry into all the Rabbins both ancient and later in his 36. Question upon Exodus writes thus as out of the opinion of the Ancients those words Thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in Egypt observe how he expounds them Ac si diceret cogita in Aegypto ubi serviebas etiam ipso Sabbato per vim te coactum ad labores as if he should say thinke with thy selfe that in Egypt where thou servedst thou wast by force constrained to labour on the very Sabbath Evidently manifesting not out of his owne particular opinion but as out of the generall opinion of their ancient Rabbins that the Sabbath and the observation thereof was a duty in the very dayes of the Patriarchs And in the end concludes thus Igitur Deus benedictus cupiens Sabbatum cujus sanctimoniam tantis documentis approbaverat in aeternum ab omnibus coli decâ—m praeceptis illud inseruit quo scientes praecepta aeterna esse etiam hoc inter ea habendum intelligerent Therefore the blessed God it is fit I should translate it for the benefit of the common people desiring that the Sabbath might bee observed for ever of all whose sanctity by so many documents he had commended placed it in the Dealogue that it made it one of the tenne Commandements to the end that knowing those precepts to bee everlasting they should understand that this Commandement also was to be accomplished amongst them And indeed Tertullian himselfe professeth that the Jewes were of this opinion as Rivetus observes out of his booke against the Jewes thus translated God from the beginning did sanctifie the seventh day resting from all the workes that hee had made and that thereupon Moses said unto the people Remember yee the Sabbath day to sanctifie it And therefore when Mercer saith concerning the meaning of these words Genes 2.3 Hebraei fere referunt in futurum the Jewes for the most part referre it to the time to come he is to be understood of the later Jewes but of this more shall be spoken ere wee part from this section 4 Fourthly not one of the ancient Fathers is alleaged by our adversaries delivering his opinion upon that passage Genes 2.3 to shew what hee conceives to bee the true meaning thereof which yet is the onely ground whereupon our doctrine is built concerning the originall institution of the Sabbath and seeing it contains a meaning at first sight manifestly contradictious to that which they affirne as wee interpret it of the weekely Sabbath without reference unto the Jewish manner of observing it therefore in this case it stood them upon to take notice of that place and by some faire interpretation vindicate themselves from suspition of contradicting the expresse Word of God 5 Tertullian himselfe justifies our doctrine namely that God from the beginning sanctified the seventh day as Rivetus shewes out of his fourth booke against Marcion cap. 12. where hee sayth Christum ipsum Sabbati diem benedictione Patris à primordio sanctum benefactione sua efficere sanctiorem That Christ himselfe made that day more holy by his well doing on that day which by the benediction of the Father was made holy from the beginning So that Tertullians meaning in the place alleaged to the contrary cannot bee that the ancient Patriarchs simply observed not the weekely Sabbath but onely that they observed it not after that manner the Jewes did and that the like interpretation must bee given of the passages alleaged out of other of the Ancients 6 For further proofe whereof observe that Theodoret albeit on the 20. of Ezekiel hee saith in like manner that God prescribed unto the Jewes the sabbaticall vacations Vt haec civilis administrationis ratio peculiaris à Gentium quidem eos distingueret institutis that this peculiar administration might distinguish them from the customes of the Gentiles yet Wallaeus shewes that the same Theodoret in his questions upon Genesis Dissert de 4. praecep p. 44. doth manifestly declare that even from the beginning of the creation God did ordaine this day to rest and sanctification As who having created the creatures in six dayes by the rest of the seventh day manifested the creation to be perfected like as in seven dayes hee concluded the whole circle of dayes And that by blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it he declared Quod non illum diem inutilem putabat ad creandum sed ad quietem accommodatum statuit The meaning whereof in effect is this that hee did not thinke that day unfit to have any thing created therin but onely it was his pleasure to ordaine it for a day of rest The same Author shewes Chrysostome to bee of the same opinion in his 10. Homily on Genesis whose words in Latine he rendreth thus Iam hinc ab initio doctrinam hanc nobis insinuat Deus erudiens in circulo hebdomedae diem unum integrum segregandum reponendum ad spiritualem operationem Now from the beginning God insinuates this instruction teaching that in the circle of the weeke one entire day is to bee sequestred and imployed on spirituall actions These authorities in my judgement should bee of the greater force for as much as they deliver their opinion by way of interpretation of Gods Word and that according to the plaine literall meaning and that such as whereunto every Christians conscience not fore-stalled with prejudice is prone enough to yeeld by reason of the native evidence of the words For they denote an externall action and transient not an internall and immanent in God all of which kinde are eternall which externall action is the dedication of the day to holy uses which cannot bee imagined to bee done any other way as I should thinke then by commanding it to bee sanctified The same Author shewes Austin to have beene of the same
to those shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick to the shadowing ceremony and upon the Epistle to the Corinthians in these words In 1. ad Cor. ca. 16. Electus autem potissimum dies Dominicus quod Resurrectio domini finem legis umbris attulit The Lords Day was chiefely chosen because the Lords Resurrection did set an end to the shadowes of the Law And in the words immediately preceding he expressely professeth that this change was made by the Apostles though not so soone in his opinion as Chrysostome thought who interprets that the first day of the weeke of the Lords Day And Cyrill long agoe upon consideration of our Saviours apparitions on that day and then againe the eighth day after makes bold to conclude Cyrill in Ioan. 1.12 that Jure igitur sanctae congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis siunt By right therefore holy assemblies on the eighth day are made in the Churches 2 Observe by the way this authors spirit he accompts it more exorbitant to thinke that the observation of the Lords Day is prescribed unto us by Divine authority or the religious observation of one day in seven then to maintaine that none at all is to be set apart to religious worship by Divine authority And to this purpose he premiseth a generall rule that commonly the excesse is more exorbitant then the defect yet I never heard that prodigality was censured as worse then covetousnesse in opposition to liberality or rashnesse accompted worse then cowardlinesse in opposition to fortitude or superstition worse then prophanenesse in opposition to true Religion As for the sanctity of the day in Calvins phrase which this Author calls Sanctity affixed to the day shall I say this Prefacer understands it not it is incredible more likely he is to pervert Calvins plaine meaning not out of excesse in the way of superstition but out of a lesse exorbitant defect For the sanctity of the day in Calvins language is when Religione quadam feriando mysteria olim commendata recolore se somniabant by resting in a religious mannor they thought as it were dreaming that they observed certaine mysteries of old recommended unto them As appeares in his sect 33. Of the 8. Chap. of his second booke of institutions and such indeed was the sanctity of the day in the Jewish observation thereof This religion this holinesse Calvin will have to be at an end and that the Apostle Gal. 1. and Coloss 2. disputed against them who would have that holinesse that religion to continue still not against them who will have one day in the weeke set apart thereon to rest from manuall workes as they are avocations from holy studies and meditations And in the former case he doth not say as this author in a mincing manner feynes him to say to wit that So the change seemed to be only of the day but in plaine termes that this were no other then to change the day and that in contumely of the Iewes siquidem manet nobis etiamnum par mysterii in diebus significatio quae apud Iudaeos locum habebat if so be there yet remaines with us a mysterious signification equally in the daies such as had place amongst the Iewes Now this caution nothing concernes any of our protestant Divines who mainteine the observation of one day in seven as necessary in resting from manuall workes onely as they are impediments to the service of God Nay that one day in seven was observed by the Jewes for any mysterious signification conteyned therein or by the Patriarchs either or by Adam himselfe in whose dayes even from the first the seventh day was sanctified that is set apart for the service of God in the opinion of Calvin This is to bee understood of one day in seven indefinitly considered For as for the rest of the seventh precisely that is acknowledged to have beene mysterious Sect. 32. to this day I never heard or read This latter clause in Calvin which containes the condition whereupon this censure of his passeth upon those that so stand for the observation of one day in seven this Prefacerslily concealeth though Calvins censure be not passed absolutely but merely upon this condition Thus indeed to stand for the necessary observation of one day in seven namely as conteyning some mysterious signification were to exceede the Iewes in a grosse and carnall superstition of a Sabbatisme As touching the observation of some time set a part for Gods holy worship and service Calvin professeth that the same necessity lieth upon us Christians for reliefe whereof the Lord appointed the Sabbath to the Iewes and that it pleased our most provident and tender Father to provide for our necessity no lesse then for the necessity of the Iewes Now it is apparent that God commanded the Jewes to set one day in seven apart for the service of God and doth it not manifestly follow herehence that the Lord would have us also set apart one day of the weeke for his service And Calvin concludes that Section thus Why then doe we not obey that reason which we see to be imposed upon us by the will of God And therefore Wallaeus saith that Calvin delivered not these words whereupon this Prefacer grateth so much against his own Colleagues or fellowes in the reformation with whom he never contended in this argument but against certaine Papists schoolemen who thought they had provided sufficiently for themselves for Christian liberty and for the edification of the Church by teaching that the taxation of the seventh day as ceremoniall was abolished yet that one day in seven and by name the Lords Day was to be observed after such a manner and to such an end as the Jewes observed their Sabbath by which Doctrine way was opened to superstition in this dayes observation His words are plainely directed against such when he saith Thus vanish the toyes of false Prophets who possessed the people in former times with a Iewish opinion And againe But that is no other thing then in contempt of the Jewes to change the day and in mind to retaine the same sanctity of the day if so be there remaines unto us to wit by their opinion an equall mysterious signification of dayes to that which had place among the Jewes Now saith Wallaeus This agrees not to be spoken of any of the reformed but of Sophisters and Papists who urge new mysteries and new significations and holinesses in their holy daies as it is well known Bellarmine lib. 3. cap. 10. of the veneration of Saints writes against our Divines that the feasts of Christians are kept not only in respect of order and policy but also by reason of a mystery and that holydays are truly more holy and sacred then other dayes and a certaine part of Divine worship This Prefacer is content to make use of Iohn Barclayes report concerning Calvin namely that he had a consultation once de transferenda solennitate dominicain feriam
without doubt dictating thus much to the Apostles As for the third last resolutiō which he pins upon Calvins sleeve namely that the day of rest to be sanctified to the Lord is yet alterable by the church as at first it was neither that first alteration is by Calvin sayd to be made by the church but expressely by the apostles they admonished hereof by the day of Christs resurrection and Beza professeth that our Christian assembles on the Lords Day are of Apostolicall and Divine tradition And observe I pray how Bishop Andrewes pleades for Episcopall authority as by Divine right in his answer to the first Epistle of Peter Moulin An est apostolicum factum aliquod jure non apostolico Apostolico autem id est ut ego interpretor Divino Nec enim aliquid ab apostolis factum non dictante hoe iis spiritu Sancto Divino Is there any fact of the Apostles by right not apostolicall But by apostolicall that is as I interpret it by Divine For neither was there any thing done by the Apostles which the holy and divine Spirit did not dictate unto them Shall this be of force for the institution of Bishops and shall it not be of force for the institution of the Lords Day as by Divine right But put the case it were so in every particular of Calvin as this Prefacer avoucheth how comes it about that our adversaries practise to choake us with the authority of Calvin shall we be urged to yield to the authority of Calvin who are reproched usually as Calvinists and so nicknamed In my time of being in the University we heard by credible relation how in one of the Colleges questions were set up to be disputed Contrà Ioannem Calvinum and that disputations of that nature were sometimes concluded in this manner Relinquamus Calvinum in hisce facibus and we commonly say there is no smoake without some fire No longer agoe then at the act in Oxford last save one Anno 1634. I heard Calvinists reckoned up amongst Papists Pelagians Arminians Puritans as sectaries at least if not as Heretiques by him that preached the act Sermon on the Lords Day in the afternoone and is it fit that we should be pregravated by the opinion of Calvin a man whose memory seemes to be hated by men of this Prefacers spirit so as few men more The fourth Section Preface NEither was hee the onely one that hath so determined For for the first that to keepe holy one day of seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement our Doctor hath delivered in the third section that not Tostatus onely but even Aquinas and with him all the schoolemen have decreed upon it Nor was there any that opposed it in the schooles of Rome that I have met with till Catarinus tooke up Armes against Tostatus affirming but with ill successe that the Commandement of the Sabbath was imposed on Adam in the first cradle of the World there where the Lord is sayd to blesse the seventh Day and to sanctifie it 2 As for the Protestant schooles besides what is affirmed by Calvin and seconded by the Doctor in this following discourse this seemes to be the judgement of the Divines in the low Countries Franciscus Gomarus one knowne sufficiently for his undertakings against Arminians published An. 1628. a little treatise about the originall of the Sabbath and therein principally canvased these two questions First whether the Sabbath were ordained by God immediately upon the Creation of the World Then whether all Christians are obliged by the fourth Commandement alwayes to set a part one day in seven to Gods holy worship both which he determines negatively And Doctor Rivet one of the foure professors in Leyden although he differs in the first yet in the second which doth most concerne us Christians they agree together affirming also joyntly that the appointing of the Lords Day for Gods publique service was neither done by God himselfe nor by his Apostles but by the authority of the Church For seconds Gomarus brings in Vatablus and Wolfgangus Musculus and Rivet voucheth the authority of our Doctor here For so Gomarus in the assertion and defense of the first opinion against this Rivet De quibus etiam cl doctiss Doctor Prideaux in oratione de Sabbato consensionem extare codem judicio by Rivets information libenter intelleximus I will adde one thing onely which is briefely this The Hollanders when they discovered Fretum le Morire An. 1615. though they observed a most exact accompt of their time at Sea yet at their comming home they found comparing their accompt with theirs in Holland that they had lost a day that which was Sunday to the one being Munday to the other Which of necessity must happen as it is calculated by Geographers to those that compasse the World from West to East as contrary they had got a day had they sayled it Eastward And what should these people doe when they were returned if they must sanctifie precisely one day in seven they must have sanctified a day a part from their to her Countreymen and had a Sabbath by themselves or to comply with with others must have broken the morall Law which must for no respects be violated See more hereof at large in Carpenters Geogr. p. 237. Exam. That Calvin hath any where so determined this Prefacer hath not prooved but shamefully dismembred him thereby to make him to deliver something absolutly which he delivers onely conditionally and that in opposition unto Papists who will have the Lords Day to be kept not onely for order and policy sake but by reason of some mystery and this Calvin professeth to be Jewish Aquinas his words are these Habere aliquod tempus deputatum ad vacandum Divinis cadit sub praecepto morali sed in quantum in hoc praecepto determinatur speciale tempus in signum creationis Mundi sic est praeceptum ceremoniale To have some time deputed wherein to rest for things Divine falls under the morall precept But for as much as in this precept is determined a speciall time in signe of the Creation of the World so it is a praecept ceremoniall Where I doe observe first that this ceremoniality is apparently ascribed to the seventh day and that considered as a signe of the Creation and not to one day in seven And this indeed may well be the concurrent opinion of Schole Divines As for Abulensis of what authority is he to preponderate any one of our Divines nay I appeale to every humane conscience whether no more be morall in this precept then to set some time apart for Gods service For what is it nothing materiall whether we set apart for divine Service one day in a weeke or one day in a month or one day in a yeare or one day in twenty yeares or one day throughout the whole course of a mans life what conscience can be found so cauteriate as to justifie this
If so then let him proceed and say it is nothing materiall whether wee consecrate unto God one houre in a day or one houre in a weeke or one houre in a month or one houre in a yeare or but one houre throughout the whole course of a mans life So that I presume every sober man by the very light of nature will be driven to confesse that not only some time ought to be set apart for Gods worship as the Schoolemen commonly teach but that a convenient proportion of time ought to be destinated unto this Now let reason it selfe judge whether any more convenient proportion of time can be devised for this then the proportion of one day in seven And herein let us oppose Azorius to Tostatus if Tostatus doe oppose the morality of one day in seven Inistitut part 2. l. 1. cap. 2. which is more then I finde a Papist to confront a Papist who plainly affirmeth Rationi maximè consentaneum esse that it is most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one day should bee consecrated to the service of God Especially since God hath discovered unto us that this is his good pleasure namely that one day in seven should be consecrated unto his service First that we might not be left at large to our own hearts to proportion out the time for Gods Service Secondly for the maintenance of uniformity herein amongst his people who being left unto themselves might and in all likelyhood would have run different wayes And that God hath from the beginning manifested as much Wallaeus hath shewed out of Chrysostome in his 16. Homily upon Genesis Wallae dissert de Sabbato Now even from the beginning God insinuates unto us this Doctrine teaching that in the circle of the weeke one intire day is to be segregated and set apart for spirituall operation and to the same purpose are Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Theodoret and Augustine alledged by him Catarinus is in this place brought in quite against the hayre seeing it is not herein that he is so much as pretended to oppose Tostatus but rather as touching the originall institution of the Sabbath Yet why he should say that Catarinus hath herein had ill successe I know no reason neither doth this author once offer to give any especially considering that the very Romists doe acknowledge that the Sabbath was instituted immediately from the Creation Their words are these In Apoc. 1.10 The Apostles and faithfull abrogated the Sabbath which was the seventh day and made holy-day for it the next day following being the eighth day in compt from the Creation not onely otherwise then was by the Law observed but plainely otherwise then was prescribed by God himselfe in the * They meane the third but indeed it is the fourth second Commandement yea and otherwise then he ordained in the first Creation when hee sanctified precisely the Sabbath Day and not the day following Rivetus cites diverse Popish authors affirming the same with Catarinus contrary to the opinion of Tostatus and notwithstanding Pererius his concurrence with Tostatus no lesse then six Papists of note Steuchus Eugubinus in Cosmopaea ad cap. 2. Gen. Gilbert Genebrard in his chronology at the first yeare of the World Jacobus Salianus in his Annalls of the old Testament at the first yeare of the World and the seventh day Who expounds also Tertullian who is pretended to be of the contrary opinion Cornelius a lapide on the 2. cap. of Genesis Emanuel Sa. And lastly Ribera on the Epistle to the Hebrewes cap. 5. Num. 8. So that it seemes Catarinus did on this point oppose Tostatus with very good successe Neither doth the Doctor on whom this Prefacer relies shew any sufficient cause of rejecting Catarinus or bring ought sufficient to justify Tostatus It is true Tostatus brings divers reasons for the confirmation of this opinion and I have no cause to doubt but they were answered by Catarinus who opposeth him herein neither doe I finde any exception taken against his answer either by the Prefacer or by Doctor Prideaux himselfe And therefore I might content my selfe seeing nothing but Tostatus his authority is proposed to answer authority with authority yet I am content also to consider his reasons as they are proposed by Pererius THE FIRST DIGRESSION WHEREIN I. Answer is made to Tostatus his arguments proposed by Pererius to proove that the observation of the Sabbath was ordeyned by God immediately from the Creation II. Herewithall the question is disputed whether Adam fell the first day wherein he was Created THE first agrument of Tostatus proposed by Pererius is to this effect the observation of the Sabbath had been superfluous to Adam and Eve seeing nothing then could have called them away from the service of God to wit they being then in the state of innocency To which I answer first that herein is supposed somewhat wherabout there is much question namely that Adam fell not before the seventh Day Yet Pererius professeth that it was an opinion well knowne and confirmed by the consent of many and those noble and illustrious authors that Adam fell the first day wherein he was created This sayth he seemes to have been the opinion of Irenaeus and Cyrillus and Epiphanius are cited as approovers of it He addes that Moses Barcephas in his booke of Paradice both prooves it and avoucheth it as the opinion of many others and especially of Philopenus in his oration which he wrote of the tree of Life and of Ephrem in his Commentaries upon Genesis and of Jacobus Sabugensis in his oration of Christs Passion To whom may bee added saith Pererius Diodorus the Bishop of Tharsis as he is cited in the chaine of interpreters upon Genesis upon those words of the third chapter we do eate of every tree in Paradise Tostatus himselfe as this author writes was sometimes of the same opinion though afterwards he changed his minde and conceaved as more likely that Adam fell on the Sabbath Day which Pererius approves not though that was the opinion of the author of the Darash amongst the Jewes as David Kimchi writes upon that Psalme whose title is A psalme for the Sabbath and that so by sinning he profaned the Sabbath This opinion of Tostatus and the Jewes Pererius doth not approve but the reason he gives for his dissenting from them in my judgement is very weake For that it runnes because the Lord blessed that Sabbath Day and sanctified it resting from all his workes which he had made therefore it was not agreeable that on that day so severe a judgement of the Divine vengeance should be exercised Now I say this reason is very weake For we commonly say the better day the better deed and undoubtedly the Lord is holy as in all his workes so in the execution of condigne vengeance Ier. 9.2 4. In this he delights as in the execution of mercy And it is usually the Lords course even on the Lords Day
to recompence the wayes of the wicked upon their own heads in the profanation of his Sabbaths Secondly it may seeme strange that Pererius should serve himselfe with this reason namely of the Lords blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it seeing he professeth himselfe to be of Tostatus his opinion interpreting these words by way of anticipation and referring them to the giving of the Law upon Mount Sina Others were of opinion that Adam continued as long in Paradise as Christ lived here on Earth But this opinion Pererius thinkes no way probable Others devised a continuance of Adam in Paradise for the space of forty dayes answering to our Saviours fasting forty dayes but this he sayth hath no shew of probability His own conjecture is that Adam fell and was turned out of Paradise that day senight after he was created and the grounds of his conjecture are in my opinion as frivolous as any As first when he saith that eight dayes space was sufficient to have experience of the happinesse of that state For why not as well some dayes more or some dayes lesse nay rather by continuance in the same state we grow lesse and lesse sensible of the happinesse thereof And the happinesse of a state is best known by the contrary according to that rule Carendo magis quà m fruendo quid quidque sit cognoscimus As for the agreement herein which he conceites between Adam and Christ as who is thought of many to have been conceaved in the Virgins wombe on the sixt day of the weeke and on the same day of the weeke was indeed crucified upon the crosse who seeth not that this conveniency had been found as well on that day fortnight or on that day three weekes and so in Infinitum as on that day senight As ridiculous appeares to be his pretence of complying thus with the antients whose opinion was that Adam fell the same day wherein he was created which he would apply to that day senight after For why not as well to that day three weekes after or that day a month after and so in Infinitum But let us consider Pererius reasons whereby he undertakes to shew the unlikelihood of Adams falling the first day The first is drawn from the forme of Adams temptation thus why doe you not eate of every tree of paradise which supposeth as he saith that they had already eaten of every other Tree in Paradise and Eves answer he saith seems to confirm this in saying we eate of the fruit of the Trees in the Garden But of the fruit of the Tree which is in the mids of the Garden we eate not what is the meaning of we eate but this we are wont to eate quoth Pererius Yet forthwith he himselfe enervates this interpretation confessing that the meaning may be this It is lawfull for us to eate And I willingly confesse that no argument appeares to me so plausible as this namely that they had formerly tasted of every fruit of the Garden besides this for it seems very likly that not till then they were wel prepared for satans temptation And it seemes unlikely they would offer to taste of the fruit forbidden untill they had tasted of all the rest then indeed and not til then the commendation of that as of a more excellent fruit then any of the rest might the better allure them both to touch and taste But as Pererius proposeth it it hath no force for as much as he corrupteth the Text the Divells words being not such as these why doe yee not eate of every tree of paradise but running thus Yea hath God sayd yee shall not eate of every tree in the Garden or as Piscator takes it for a conclusion of a larger discourse yea in as much as God hath said ye shall not eate of the fruit of every tree in the Garden so giving a reason to proove what he objected namely that God envyed their happinesse As for the reasons which before I have given they may be answered thus If the benefit of this fruit had been of the same kinde with the benefit of others and onely in degree of excellency above them then were it no way likely they should begin with this But seeing it was pretended to be of a farre different kinde by Satans suggestion not so much for satisfying the appetite of sense as for satisfying the spirituall desire of the soule in knowing good and evill which the very denomination of the Tree given by God himselfe did fairely intimate and this being cunningly improoved by Satan to be a Divine condition in making them like unto God this consideration might well allure forthwith without all further stay to have experience of other fruit Secondly why might they not have tasted of the fruites of other Trees without any necessity of nature urging them and yet without any luxury at all but only to acquaint themselves with the condition of those good Creatures which God had provided for them Yet again considering that this experience made to no other end should so sensibly have brought home unto them the goodnesse of God in that state of holinesse and integrity that it would have exceedingly confirmed them in their obedience to God and made the motion of the Serpent at first hearing distastfull and to choose to be like unto God in obedience and thereby in conformity to his holy will then in forbidden knowledge And besides the tasting of all so soone can hardly be justified from Luxury or wast therefore I rest in my first answer Pererius his next reason caryeth a great deale of shew but in substance lesse forcible Certainly the making of the beasts of the Earth and of man might be done in as short a time as it pleased God to have it especially considering the opinion of some antients that all things were made together and that in a short space so mans placing in Paradise and the beasts brought unto him by God might be soone dispatched and surely Adams naming of them cost him no study and undoubtedly all this was done before the creating of Eve so that all this might be done before noone and space enough allowed for the Divells conference with Eve and his seducing her and her seducing Adam The making of them aprons to hide their nakednesse caryeth the greatest shew of requiring longer time but he who wanted not wit to name the beasts so congruously to their natures wanted not understanding to cover themselves with fig-leaves As for the Doctors alleaged by him for his opinion I doe not finde that any of them is expresse or by consequent direct for that whereunto they are alleaged but the inferences made from their wordes are meerely conjecturall For when hee writes that Ioseph in the first booke of his antiquities and Basil in his Homily of Paradise and Damascen in his second booke of orthodox faith and 10. Chapter seeme to be of this opinion his ground is only this because as he saith they write
that the Serpent in paradise did often come to our first parents and converse with them very gently and familiarly and that thereupon the Divell tooke hint to inveagle the Woman Now this is but a conjecture of theirs neither doe they say that he was wont to conferre with them yet all that they speake of may very well be fulfilled in a few houres That which to this purpose he alleageth out of Austin de civit dei lib. 11 c. 21. is onely this The Apple on the tree forbidden we are to believe it to be such as the rest of other trees which now they had found to be without hurt hence it seemes Pererius would inferre that before the Divells temptation they had tasted of them all but Austins speech is indefinite and verified in case they had tasted but of some and Eve might have tasted of some Adam of other some If it be further urged that Austin delivers it as a reason to shew how hereby they were made more pliable to yield to Satans temptation I answer that by tasting some yea and without tasting any they might be well assured they might be tasted of without hurt excepting that which God had forbidden them and the tasting of all without hurt was no tolerable reason to perswade that in like manner they might tast of the forbidden fruit without hurt the Lord having professed unto them that In the day they did eate thereof they should die the death Pererius addes that Austin in his twentieth Booke of the City of God and 26. Chapter doth not obscurely give to understand that albeit he thought Adam continued not long in paradise yet that he continued there longer then one day But I finde no such thing in the place quoted by him But I guesse the passage he aimes at is that wherein hee discourseth of those words of the Prophet Malachy Mal. 3. And the sacrifice of Iudah and Ierusalem shall please the Lord as in the dayes of old and in former yeares and he inquires what time that is which is signified by this phrase as in the dayes of old and in the former yeares And first he saith that perhaps thereby may be signified the time wherein our first parents were in Paradise And to this he referres that of Esay Es 65. According to the dayes of the Tree of life shall be the life of my people And who saith hee knowes not what that place was where the Lord planted the Tree of life But then to the contrary he discourseth thus If a man shall say those dayes of the Tree of life to be the dayes of the Church of Christ which are now current and that Christ himselfe is prophetically called the Tree of life and that these first men lived not any yeares in paradise from whence they were so soone ejected that they begate no sonne there and that therefore that time cannot be understood by this phrase of Malachy as in the dayes of old and former yeares I passe by this question to wit of the meaning of the Prophet Malachy Now had Austin simply sayd that our first Parents continued not many yeares in Paradise there had beene some colour as if he thought Adam had continued some few yeares or one yeare at least in Paradise But neither doth Austin deliver this as his owne opinion but as the discourse of others and that to proove that the words mentioned in Malachy cannot denote the time of Adams being in Paradise for as much as they speake of many yeares but Adam continued not yeares in Paradise which is proved by this that he was driven from thence before he had begotten any sonne which if it be referred to the conception of a child as in reason it seemes to be who seeth not that one day or a night might have sufficed for that So that all things considered this place rather makes against Pererius then for him In like sort that which he alleageth out of Gregory is onely this that Man in paradise was accustomed to the words of God and conversed with the spirit of the blessed Angells suppose it were so and with God himselfe so long as he continued in the state of integrity yet I hope they will give way to the temptation of Satan yet how little or how long that time continued is not specified Consider we now the reasons to the contrary delivered partly by Pererius himselfe partly by Doctor Willet upon Genesis Who on the third Chapter of that booke proposeth them in this order First the Angells that fell presently after their Creation sinned as our Saviour saith that the Divell did not stand or continue in the truth Ioh. 8.44 Hereunto Austin consenteth Factus continuò se à luce veritatis avertit as soone as he was made presently he turned aside from the light of the truth So it is likely that man also And indeed the inference from Angels to men in this particular seemes to proceede from that which is lesse likely to that which is more likely If the angells of themselves fell so soone how much more likely is it that both Satan would set himselfe with the first to tempt them and being tempted lesse strange it is that they should fall But concerning the angells defection it doth not follow either by our Saviours phrase or Austins phrase that either of them believed they fell so soone But whensoever that was proposed unto them which was the triall of their obedience had they approoved of it and submitted unto Gods Will that had beene or thereupon undoubtedly had followed their confirmation as it was u no them that stood and their not approoving it their not submitting unto it was their sinne in part though according to their spirituall nature it might be in the highest degree of stomach and pride like as their approbation thereof who obeyed was in an high degree of zeale and humility Aquinas professeth it to be more profitable Sum. Pt. 1. q. â—3 art 6. in corperâ— and more agreeable to the sayings of the Saints that the Divell sinned anon after the first instant of his Creation Secondly Doctor Willets second argument is this Ioh. 8.44 Our Saviour saith that the Devill was a murtherer from the beginning not of the World but of mans Creation therefore at the very first he set upon them But that phrase from the beginning doth not tie us to any such exact calculation Thirdly the subtilty of the Divell doth insinuate as much who would then assault them when they were least able to resist before they by experience were confirmed in their obedience In this I confesse there are two particulars of very momentous consideration First the Devills subtilty to set upon them before they were possessed and taken up with an holy walking with God Secondly that continuance in an holy walking with God could not but confirme them and make them more stedfast therein having as yet no principle of the flesh in them to make resistance and to
and one day for the service of God And is it likely that Eve was about the service of God when the Divell assaulted her was shee not too neare the forbidden Fruit it was within her sight and the Fruit within her reach 2. They urge that Vacation from servile workes was then in vaine seeing nothing could then be laborious and troublesome unto him I answer though it were no paine to him to keepe the Garden and dresse it yet this must needs take up his thoughts while hee was about it and many a Gentleman in these dayes finds lesse imployment then Adam had will it therefore follow that the observation of the Sabbath is superfluous 3. The third reason is that if this Commandement were then given it should oblige all men but it is plaine that the Gentiles never observed it neither doe we reade the Patriarchs did I answer there is no soundnesse in all this For touching the Gentiles we have no History before the Flood nor till a long time after in which space of time this Doctrine of the institution of the Sabbath being carried onely by tradition might easily bee obliterated The Scriptures Divine are the most ancient Records in the World but it followes not that because the Scriptures doe not Record how the Patriarches did observe the Sabbath therefore they observed it not but much rather because the Scriptures Record that The Lord blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it therefore the Patriarches did observe it And the truth is untill the comming of the Israelites out of Egypt wee reade not of the Church of God any where but in single Families Neither doe wee reade of the Patriarches before the Flood or a long time after that they kept any Day consecrate to GODS Service will it therefore follow that those holy Patriarchs did set no time at all apart for Gods ervice yet is it generally acknowledged as by the light of nature that some time ought to be set apart for Divine service And formerly I have shewed out of Manasses Ben Israel that whereas the Lord enjoyning to the Israelites the observation of the Sabbath bids them remember that they were servants in Egypt this the antient wise men among the Jewes doe aply in this manner Cogita in Egypto ubi serviebas etiam ipsu Sabbato per vim te coactum ad labores thinke with thy selfe how that in Egypt where thou servedst that by force thou wast constrained to worke even on the Sabbath So that the observation of the Sabbath was a duty even in those dayes Observe farther that in the fourth Commandement the Jewes are charged to looke unto it not onely that their children and their servants did observe the Sabbath but also the stranger that was within their gates Now these kinde of strangers commonly called Strangers of the gate and thereby distinguished from Strangers of the Covenant were such as were not circumcised though accompted Proselytes in the first dege e. And on them was usually imposed no other burthen besides the observation of the seven precepts of Noah as Schindler observes upon the roote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which seven precepts of Noah are also reckoned up by the same Schindler in the roote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and albeit the observation of the Sabbath were none of them expresse yet in as much as the Lord gives expresse charge that the strangers within their Gates should observe the Sabbath it seemes it was comprehended under one of them And therefore some thinke it was comprehended under that which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benedictio Dei that is the worship of no other God but the Creator of Heaven and Earth and by name my worthy friend Master Joseph Mede as I have seene in a Manuscript of his touching the interpretation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Acts and hereof he gives this reason namely that the observation of the seventh day was the badge of this namely of worshipping the Creator of Heaven and Earth according to that the Sabbath is a signe between me and you that I Jehovah am your God because in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh Now if the observation of the Sabbath were comprehended under the seven precepts of Noah undoubtedly it was in force and practise amongest the Patriarchs and that not only after but before the flood for undoubtedly they all worshipped the Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth 2. We have notable evidence for the observation of the Sabbath Day even among the Gentiles And first the distinction of the whole course of time into weekes for the antiquity thereof is remarkable and now lately justified by Rivetus against Gomarus with great variety of learned observation and that especially by Claudius Salmasius that renowned Scholar and Antiquary one of them who with great instance urged Rivetus not to suffer Gomarus to passe unansweared in this point It is true as Rivetus observes that Causabon writing upon Suetonius l. 3. 52. and upon these words Diogenes the Gramarian was wont to dispute at Rhodes on the Sabbath professeth his opinion that the observation of weekes now a dayes generally receaved was not commonly receaved before the dayes of Theodosius though he confesseth that long before it was in use among the Grecians especially those of Asia Yet Rivet makes it good and that out of Tertullian that long before it was in use among the Latines Ioannes Philoponus in his Commentary upon the History of the Creation a book commended by Photius in his Bibliotheca lib. 7. cap. 14. and lately set forth at Vienna in Austria writes thus All men doe agree in this that there are seven dayes only which by revolution in themselves doe complete whole time whereof what reason can wee give but that which Moses gave to wit that in six dayes the Lord made the World and rested the seventh And Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius prove the same out of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seventh day was that wherein all things were finished and out of Callimachus and out of Linus in diverse passages to the same purse as Rivetus hath shewed in his answer to Gomarus And further that in the French Kings library there is a Chronology of George Syncellus from Adam to Dioclesian wherein Salmasius observes that the computation of times by weekes was before the computation of times by moneths and yeares was found out by Astrologers and that the ancient fathers distinguished the spaces of times only by weekes and that the Caldean Astrologers having observed the course of the Sunne Moone and other planets were the first that bestowed on the seven dayes of the weeke the names of the planets and that by the testimony of an antient author Manuscript Zoroastres and Hystaspis were the authors of these demonstrations But that this circuit of seven dayes was in use before Zoroastres and the first authors of Astrology But the
Jewes kept themselves as to the distinction of times by weekes so to call the dayes by their order the first the second and that the Pythagoreans did the like and called the first day of the weeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like as the Hellenists called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the yeare 1627. There was set forth a book at Venice as the same Doctor Rivet writes intitled Thesaurus praeceptorum Isaaci Atiae Iudaei in the first part whereof and 157. praecept touching the Sabbath he writes to this effect that the holinesse of that sacred day is so well known that it were superfluous to use many words in the explication thereof seeing it is found to have impression in the very hearts of the Heathens themselves becaase there is none that knoweth not that when his highnesse to whom none can approch built this wonderfull frame he rested on the seventh day 2. And thus ere I am aware I am fallen upon the holinesse of the day acknowledged generally by the Heathens themselves as this Jewish writer conceaved Theophilus Antiochenus an antient Father in his second booke written to Autolycus acknowledgeth the celebrity of this day amongst all men though the reason thereof was not so well known to most to wit as drawn from Gods rest on that day after he had created the World Tertullian also acknowledged the Heathens to solemnize the seventh much after the same manner that the Jewes did confirmed by the learned observation of Iacobus Godefridus notwithstanding some exceptions made against it And that this was the practise of the Romans he proves farther out of Tibullus and Ovid namely that they did feriari rest on the Saturday as the Jewes did And Manasses Ben Israel in his 35. question upon Exodus writes thus Ne Agareni quidem Veneris diem religiosissimè colentes quem Algama vocant Sabbato nomen suum eripuerunt hauddubiè ita providente Deo ut omnium animis aeternitas ejus imprimeretur The very Agarenes most religiously observing the Friday which they call Algama have taken from the Sabbath its name doubtlesse God so providing that the eternity thereof should be imprinted in the minds of all men Belike as a testimony of Gods rest from his workes in the Creation therewithall to maintaine an acknowledgement of God the Creator More then this Salmasius acquainted Rivetus with some collections made by the forementioned Georgius Symellus out of certaine apocryphall bookes one whereof is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the litle generation the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life of Adam in which the author observes through many weeks that the seventh day was a day of rest and that he conceaved the author of that booke to have been a Jew translated by some Hellenist who makes mention of the Lords Day And Doctor Willet alleageth Philo calling the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a festivall of all Nations So little neede have wee to sticke upon that in Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh is an holy day which some observe to have beene spoken not of the seventh day of the weeke but of the seventh day of the moneth rather wherein Apollo was borne which yet is alleaged by Clement and Eusebius as for the seventh day of the weeke what is wanting herein being so plentifully supplyed other wayes And whereas Gomarus being convicted of the evidence of this truth betakes himselfe to a new course as to say that this practise of Heathens was taken from the Jewes and not from the ancient Patriarchs Doctor Rivetus brings a manifest place out of Iosephus to refute that conceite of his As who professeth that this custome of the Gentiles had beene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long agoe And how unlikely is it that either the Egyptians or the Nations bordering upon the Jewes should take this from the Jewes when we consider Solitum inter accolas odium as Tacitus observes the accustomed hatred between borderers Hist lib. 1. especially between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent * 1 Cor. 2.14 and how distastfull the things of God are unto naturall men even folishnesse unto them neither can they know them because they are spiritually discerned And Homer and Linus and Callimachus fetch the seventh day from the very Creation as whereon the making of all things was finished I come at length to the fourth Argument If the Patriarches had observed the Sabbath Moses would have mentioned the religious observation thereof by their ancestors to encourage them I answer 1. it is not likely they were ignorant of the practise of their ancestors The Chaldee paraphrase upon the Psal 92. supposeth Adam to have beene the author of the Psalm that is intitled for the Sabbath 2. If for Gods sake who delivered them out of Egypt they would not observe it neither would they observe it for their ancestors sake 3. Moses makes no mention of their ancestors practise in setting apart any time for the service of God shall we therefore deny that by the suggestion of light naturall some time is to be set apart for this The Fathers professe that no other positive precept was given to Adam then to abstein from the Fruit of a certaine Tree I answer Chrysostome professeth expressely that from the beginning God hath shewed that one day in the circle of the weeke is to bee set apart for spirituall operation Likewise the testimonies of Athanasius and Epiphanius are expresse for the acknowledgment of the institution of the Sabbath immediately from the Creation as before hath beene shewed Indeede both as touching the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods service and the proportion of one day in seven in speciall is more then positive Divines teach that before Christs comming the Gentiles might obtaine salvation by observing the morall Law and the Law of nature with some light of Divine faith and supernaturall assistance of God I answer 1. of what reputation those Divines hee speaks of deserve to bee with us let every Protestant judge 2. yet wee know that the Gentiles might have evidence enough of the holinesse of the seventh day and that God left not himselfe without witnesse in this even to Heathens is so notorious that we may justly wonder to observe how the monuments of the dignity of the seventh day were so strangely preserved among them 3. Yet where testimony sufficient was wanting not onely for the particularity of the day but for the proportion of time wee doe not hold these to be morall so absolutely and in such a degree as to say that failing in this alone in such a case should prejudice any mans salvation though we say with Chrysostome that God by the story of the Creation hath sufficiently manifested that one day in the weeke ought to be set apart for Gods Service and with Azorius the Jesuite that it is most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one day intire and whole should bee consecrated
it should be left to the servant to cut out what proportion of service he thinkes good unto his master 2. It is well that both he and Gomarus thinke we are bound to cut out a better proportion of Gods Service then was prescribed to the Jewes rather then a worse yet Brentius as great a writer as any of these thinkes otherwise as wee have heard 3. doth only our freedome from the yoke of ceremonies requires this and not much more 1. the love of God revealed unto us in Christ in the dayes of the Gospell 2. the encombrance of Gods Truth with errors and heresies and those very dangerous ones 3. and in a word the strong opposition that in these daies of the Gospell is made and will be made more and more as the end of all things doth approach both unto faith and holinesse It is noted to be the sinne of Christendom not to receave the love of the truth 2 Thess 2. And of these latter times Paul hath prophesied that men should be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God 3. as for this opinion of Gomarus and Rivetus I am glad they are so farre convicted of truth in this argument as to professe that we ought to keepe holy rather more dayes then fewer But why then doe not the states of Holland under whom they live if they be of the same opinion make it good by practise And the French-Churches also But they want example in antiquity for this Who seeth not that this is delivered onely to serve turne and helpe at a dead lift when no other way is open to shift off the Argument 3. And lastly whereas he grants with Calvin that after so many dayes to wit after six for no other number was specifyed rest must bee granted to servants on the seventh doth not this evidently convince that that day must bee our Christian Sabbath For what shall the masters keepe one and the servants another or shall the servants not give themselves to the service of God on the day of their rest but rather on the day of their labour in the workes of their proper callings observe I pray how at every turne the light of Gods direction doth meete with us to keepe us in the good wayes of the Lord if we will not wilfully shut our eyes against it Now let that seventh day which is our Christian Sabbath be well observed first and then let the states take what order they shall see good for the observation of another day also Yet we finde by experience that hardly are men able to maintaine a poore living by labouring hardly six whole dayes in the weeke I come to the second which Rivetus recapitulates in briefe thus 2. It is drawn from the number of six dayes allowed for worke which number cannot consist unlesse it be terminated in rest and in cessation on the seventh To this Rivetus answereth that the six dayes of labour are in reference to the seventh of rest the determination of which seventh day being now taken away a man may worke on any day so long as some day be chosen whether by Divine constitution or humane and reasonable disposition for Divine Service which may be in such sort that fewer dayes shall be left for worke But consider What more reasonable disposition humane Respon 1. then that which is conformable to constitution Divine now it is apparent that God required of the Jewes one day in seven neither was it ever knowen to bee abrogated the particularity of the day is abrogated not the proportion of time ground we have for the one by the ceremoniality of it no colour of ground for the other nor did ever I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise a ceremonialitie of one day in seven 2. But what shall the morality of rest granted to servants be altered also under the Gospell did Calvin any where teach this may not masters exact as many dayes worke of their servants under the Gospell as under the Law hath not Christ deserved at the hands of servants to be as serviceable to their masters as ever Lastly are these dayes of the World such as wherein a labouring man may maintaine himselfe by the labour of five dayes in a weeke as well as by the labour of six A long time I have found it observed by traffiquers in the World that nothing is more cheape then mens labours a notable evidence how unprofitable servants wee have beene unto God and therefore hee makes the labour of our hands and sweate of our browes to afford very unprofitable service unto us Can these Divines make the World more favourable to crafts-men and bring their commodities in better request then they are if they could let them then change the morality of servants rest and for one in seven allow them one in three or foure or five their masters will bee the more easily brought to entreat their consciences to condescend Or if Kings had power to make the commodities of their owne Country more worth and the commodities of other Countries lesse worth which upon due consideration will bee found as needfull equally then place might bee made for this Till then let us bee content with Calvines morality of the fourth Commandement in reference to servants rest namely one day after six and therewithall consider whether our Christian Sabbath must not bee confined to that day as the onely day of rest for servants and I hope wee shall not thinke it fit to allow one Sabbath for the masters and another for the servents 3. The third is drawne from the examples of the Apostles and the apostolicall Church who in place of the Iewes Sabbath observed the first day of the weeke without variation therefore by force of the precept one day in seven is to be observed still Never any hath beene found to change this therefore that which hath beene kept from the beginning of the VVorld and shall continue to the end is to bee taken for such as by the Analogy of Gods Commandement binds all men To this Rivetus answereth that the consequence is not firme for as much as Christians observed the Lords Day not of necessity by reason of any binding praecept but of free choise Yet was it wisely done of them lest by a greater change they might offend the Iewes And that it might be a free monument of their maintaining the weekly remembrance of Christs Resurrection Hee sayeth they did it freely Resp but of things freely done without any conscience of duty obliging it was never knowne that so universall a concurrence was found as the observation of the Lords Day Nay Philosophers observe that things freely done as often come to passe to the contrary Againe then it was free for them to observe one day in fourteene as well as one in seven as Breâ—tius professeth and consequently as well one in twenty which Rivetus denies Nay it stood them upon to change the observation lest men by universall and
perpetuall practise might bee confirmed in an opinion of the necessity of that which is not necessary It is apparent that as the Lords Day under the Law was one day in seven So the Lords Day in the Gospell was and still is one Day in seven And both himselfe and Gomarus are driven to professe that we may not allow a lesse proportion then one in seven to Divine worship And I appeale to every conscience to judge by the very light of nature whether the Lord requiring of the Jewes one day in seven to bee consecrated unto him it doth not manifestly follow that wee Christians can allow no lesse then one in seven and whether it bee not fiâ— that the Lords Day should bee our holy Day and as for the allowance of more in a weeke then one let them persuade their owne Churches thereunto first and then it will bee time enough for us to hearken unto them And what should move them to illustrate the memory of Christs Resurrection weekly whereas they contented themselves with a yearely memoriall if at all they observed any such of his Nativity Passion and Ascension and sending downe of the Holy Ghost Why doth hee not consider that the day of the weeke onely whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day in Scripture whereon Iohn the beloved Disciple received from his loving Lord and master that Divine revelation of his concerning things to come 4. If the number of seven that is the observation of one day in seven in this Commandement be changeable then as ceremoniall or as politicall not as ceremoniall for then the Church ought not to observe it Nor as politicall for in the morall Law precepts politicall are not given And to this Rivetus answereth that the observation of the seventh day is ceremoniall and that the Primitive Church kept it not neither did the Primitive Church keepe it nor doe we keepe it as ceremoniall but another seventh day for Ecclesiasticall policy sake not civill Respon When hee saith we keepe another seventh day he implieth that by the seventh formerly mentioned hee meant that particular day of the weeke which the Iewes kept and that wee indeed acknowledge to bee ceremoniall but in this interpretation of Wallaeus hee manifestly corrupts his adversaries argument which is plainly directed against the ceremoniality of one day in seven indefinitly considered and not against the ceremoniality of the Iewes seventh Yet when he saith the Primitive Church did and we doe keepe a seventh but not as ceremoniall hee speaks to the point but his words following have no coherence herewith so that hee may seeme to shuffle miserably in this affecting to decline that which he is not able to answer But take wee him at the best he must say that the observation of one day in seven was ceremoniall if hee speakes to the purpose Now let him shew us if he can the ceremoniality of one day in seven and how Christ was the body of it nothing more common then to affirme that the Iewes Sabbath was ceremoniall hand over head without any distinction of the sanctification of the day and the rest much lesse distinguishing betweene the rest of one day in seven and the rest of the seventh At length I found a faire way opened for the explication of the ceremoniality found in the rest on the seventh day But as for any ceremoniality in the rest of one day in seven never I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise that Lastly after such a ceremoniality is devised wee will conferre whether in reason such a thing ought to bee still observed as was ceremoniall unto the Iewes and why may wee not as well observe circumcision with the Ethiopians who observe it only in conformity to Christ who was circumcised Now because Rivetus brings arguments also to the contrary to prove that the observation of one day in seven under the Gospell is not necessary but free it is fit we should consider them also to prove what force is in them If by force of the Commandement a seventh day is to be kept Rivet 1. then that day is to be kept which the Commandement hath defined which is the Sabbath of the Iewes Respon To this I answer by denying the consequence and not contenting my selfe with a bare deniall I prove it to bee inconsequent For whereas God in commanding the seventh hath therewithall commanded one in seven and withall specified which of the seven shall bee rested on and sanctified unto his service If it may bee made appeare that the particularity of rest on the seventh day be abrogated and no colour can be brought for the abrogation of the proportion of time to wit of keeping one day in seven it will evidently appeare herewithall that this consequence of Doctor Rivetus is unsound Now this wee prove to bee most true forasmuch as the Jewes rest on the seventh day was ceremoniall prefiguring Christs rest on that day in his grave as both the fathers of old and moderne Divines both Papists and Protestants both Lutheranes and Calvinists have acknowledged but never any man was found to devise a ceremoniality of resting one day in seven they may as well give themselves to devise a ceremonality in the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods holy worship and service 2. Now this puts me in minde of another way clearely to demonstrate the inconsequence of Rivetus his argument thus If it will follow that in case wee are bound to such a proportion of time by vertue of this Commandement therefore wee are bound also to keepe the seventh day Then it will follow as well that because wee are bound to set apart some time for the service of God by vertue of this Commandement as all confesse therefore we are bound also to keepe such a proportion of time as is here specified and the seventh day also which is here particulated For like as God doth not command such a proportion of time in speciall but by commanding the observation of the seventh day in like sort neither doth God Command a time in generall to bee set apart for his service but by commanding of such a proportion of time in speciall and such a Day in particular Rivet 2. 2. His second argument runnes thus if the observation of every seventh day bee morall it must bee knowne by light of nature but so it is not Therefore it is not morall and seeing it is not politicall it must bee ceremoniall and therefore doth not oblige by force of Law morall To this I answer first Resp 1. Let but Doctor Rivetus stretch his wits to describe unto us what ceremoniality can possibly bee devised in the obsertion of one day in seven and when hee hath devised it I dare appeale to his owne judgement and conscience for the appobation of it For I doe not thinke it possible for the wit of man with any colour of reason to devise a ceremoniality to be
for servants shal not be the day consecrated to the exercises of piety And I much wonder that Doctor Rivetus a man of such judgement and perspicacity doth not observe this The only way to helpe this anomaly is in plaine termes to professe that some rest is to be allowed to servants by their Masters but in what proportion that is not defined but left at large to the pleasure of their Masters And as for ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven never any man devised any such thing more then in the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods Service all confessing this to be a duty known by the very light of nature But I doe not finde that Calvin hath any other meaning then that we are not so tied to one day in seven but that more time then this may be consecrated to Divine Service which as I have disputed before so now I am the more confirmed herein Doctor Rivetus manifesting this to be his opinion also as well as it was the opinion of Gomarus For in this he rests as may appeare by his answer to the first argument of Doctor Wallaeus Neither is it true that Calvin did censure them who simply maintained that the observation of one day in the weeke doth still remaine as morall but that so maintained it as in reference to some mysterious signification a Doctor Wallaeus hath manifested and the words immediatly following in Calvin doe evince which are these but this is no other thing then in contumely of the Jewes to change the day and in heart to retaine the same holinesse of the day Here commonly the alleagers of Calvin to the same intent that Doctor Rivetus doth use to make a period as if Calvin delivered this absolutely whereas Calvin proposeth it onely conditionally as appeares by the other halfe of the sentence thus If so bee there remaine yet unto us a signification in the dayes equally mysterious to that which had place among the Iewes And though I marvell not at others who dealing in this argument dismember Calvins sentence so to make him to deliver that absolutely which hee delivers onely conditionally yet I cannot sufficiently marvell that Rivetus of rough improvidence should do so too especially considering the good paines that Doctor Walaeus hath taken to cleare Calvins meaning in this point Neither is Master Robert Low in his effigiation of the true Sabbatisme of any such authority as to counterpoise the concurrent testimonies of so many of our English Divines to the contrary not to speake of the multitude of outlandish Divines whom Doctor Walaeus mustereth up concurring in the same opinion and whereas hee saith as Doctor Rivetus reports him that some great men who vehemently contend that the perpetuall sanctity of manners doth require that one day in seven should be celebrated have more authority then reason I may bee bold to say that they who with him have hitherto opposed the Doctrine we maintaine what authority they have I know not but as for their reasons they are of so hungry a nature that hereby they manifest that nothing but affection and their private ends they have to beare them out in this And whereas I doubt not but Rivetus hath brought on the Stage the best reasons hee could picke both out of master Robert Low and out of Gomarus let every indifferent person judge of them as they deserve though I verily thinke that nothing but his affection to Calvin to hold up his credite and reputation hath carried him all along and yet either my selfe and Walaeus mystake Calvin or Rivetus miserably mystaketh him But as for our reason we call all the World to judge of it God did require one day in seven to be set apart for his publique service under the Law how much more doth he require as good a proportion of time under the Gospell Nay from the beginning of the World he hath required it and to this day both Iewes and Christian Gentiles have observed the same proportion Againe God in his morall Law hath required this and that not as ceremoniall never any man hitherunto having set his wits on worke to devise any ceremoniality herein neyther was it ever knowne that God abrogated this proportion of time to be allowed unto him for his service therefore it continueth still as a morall Law to bind us and shall continue untill God himselfe set an end unto it now let master Lowes reasons be compared with these in every indifferent conscience and let them have that authority which they deserve because being well conceited of the strength of his reasons hee sensibly complaines of his want of authority It seemes Pope Alexander the third was a man of more authority then reason For hee maintaines in Cap. licet de feriis as Doctor Rivetus relates it that both the old and new Testament have in speciall manner appointed the seventh day for man to rest thereon and hee takes it out of Suarez de relig l. 2. c. 2. but Rivetus cannot assent unto him if he delivers this of any morall institution yet that it was so appointed by the fourth Commandement unto the Iewes it cannot bee denied and that not as ceremoniall for we have seene how odly Rivetus hath carried himselfe in comming to speake of the ceremoniality For to make this good hee flyes to the particularity of the seventh day and if the ceremoniality thereof bee enough to inferre the ceremoniality of such a speciall proportion of time as of one day in seven it may suffice as well to constitute a ceremoniality in the generall namely in this that some time is to be set apart for Gods Service which yet all account to bee morall by the very light of nature If Zanchy hath no better argument to prove that the Decalogue as given by Moses to the Israelites doth not pertaine to us but onely so farre forth as it agrees with the Law of nature then by instancing in the Sabbath which the Gentiles were not bound to sanctifie it stands Rivetus upon to oppose him as much as any who maintaines that the Law concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath was given to Adam and who brings diverse authorities to prove the observation of it generally by the Gentiles This I speake upon consideration of his reply to Gomarus taking exception against somewhat in this argument delivered by him in his explication of the Decalogue But I hope the morall Law shall be sufficient to binde us Christians if no other way yet by this argument of proportion If God required of the Iewes under the Law that one day in seven should bee set apart to his service how much more doth it become us Christians to allow as good a proportion of time for his service under the Gospell This I say shall suffice untill Rivetus answeareth it which never will be for he as good as confesseth that we are bound to allow God for his service rather a better proportion of time then
a worse And as for Doctor Prideaux I nothing doubt but he will cleare us from Judaisme in arguing thus as who Sect. 7. professeth that if they against whom he disputes required no more but the Analogy the equity or the reason of that Commandement we would not sticke to yeeld unto it And whereas Rivetus addes that the argument which hee annexeth seemes to him of great weight namely that hee who stickes to the Commandement must exactly observe it And that therefore into the place of the seventh from the Creation no day is to bee substituted But this argument I have answered before all for the most part grant some ceremoniality in that Commandement now if rest on the seventh be found to bee ceremoniall but not the rest of one day in seven in an indefinite consideration it will follow herehence that the seventh must not be observed as accomplished in Christ and that the proportion of time is still to continue as indeed by experience wee finde it verified in each For the observation of the seventh is ceased as prefiguring Christs rest in his Grave but the observation of one day in seven still continueth unto this day Next for the second Thesis Preface that the alteration of the day is onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution the Doctor sheweth in the first Section the generall consent of all sorts of Papists Jesuites Canonists and Schoolemen of some great Lutheranes by names and generally of the remonstrant or Arminian Divines in their confession whose tendries in this point wee may conceave with reason not to bee different from the Doctrine of the Belgicke Churches in that foure professors of Leyden in their examination or review of that confession have passed them over without note or opposition To these besides are added diverse of our own Et è nostris non pauci as hee speakes it in the generall that is as I conceave his meaning such as are neither of the Lutheran nor of the Arminian party of which since he hath instanced in none particularly I will make bold to borrow two or three testimonies out of the tractate of Gomarus before remembred And first hee brings in Bullenger who in his comment on the first of the Revelation calls it Ecclesiae consuetudinem an Ecclesiasticall Ordinance and after addes Sponte Ecclesiae receperunt illum diem The Church did of its owne accord agree upon that day for wee reade not any where that it was commanded Next Vrsinus telling us that God had abrogated the Iewish Sabbath addes presently that hee left it free unto the Church Alios dies eligere to make choise of any other day to be selected for his service and that the Church made choyse of this in honour of our Saviours Resurrection Zanchius affirmes the same Nullibi legimus Apostolos c. We reade not any where saith hee that the Apostles did command this day to bee observed in the Church of God onely wee finde what the Apostles and others of the faithfull used to doe upon it Liberum ergo reliquerunt which is an argument that they left it holy to the disposition of the Church Aretius Sinâ—ler David Paraeus and Bucerus which are all there alleaged might bee here produced were not these sufficient Adde hereunto the generall consent of our English Prelats the Architects of our reformation in the time of King Edward the sixt who in the Act of Parlament about keeping holy dayes have determined thus together with the rest of that grand assembly viz. Neither is it to bee thought that there is any certaine time or definite number of dayes prescribed in holy Scriptures but that the appointment both of the time and also of the number of the dayes is left by the authority of Gods Word to the authority of Christs Church to bee determined and assigned orderly in every Country by the discretion of the rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judge most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods glory and edification of Gods People Which preamble is not to be understood of holy dayes or of Saints dayes onely whose being left to the authority of the Church was never questioned but of the Lords Day also as by the body of the Act doth at full appeare Exam. In this Section the Prefacer makes a greater bluster by farre then in the former For to except against the proportion of time as of one day in seven to be set apart for the service of God in these dayes of the Gospell is so unreasonable a course and that not onely in the judgement of a Christian conscience but even in the judgement of a naturall man that I cannot easily devise any thing more unreasonable For whereas all confesse that by the very light of nature some time ought to bee set apart for the service of God and not so onely but that a fit and competent proportion of time is to bee consecrated to holy uses as Gomarus acknowledgeth though one of the most eager opposers of the morality of the Sabbath that hitherto have beene knowne Albeit this convenient proportion of time cannot bee so convincingly concluded upon by the light of nature as to draw all to an unanimous consent thereunto yet after God himselfe hath gone before us herein by blessing the seventh day and sanctifying 〈◊〉 and that upon the ground mentioned both Gen. 2. and in the fourth Commandement henceforth as Chrysostome observeth God hath manifested that one day in seven is to be set apart I may say consequently that one day in seven is that fit proportioÌ„ of time which is to be sanctified to Gods holy worship and service and that God hath now manifested as much ever since the Creation And herupon as I imagin Azorius the Jesuite in his institutions is bold to conclude that this course is most agreeable unto reason Now if the Lord under the Law did require such a proportion of time to be sequestred from profan use to Divine at the hands of the Iewes can it enter into the heart of a sober man that God should require lesse of us Christians under the Gospell then he did require of the Jewes under the Law Or that God hath now left it to the liberty of the Church whether they will set apart the proportion of one day in seven or lesse to bee spent in Gods worship If wee consider the service of the day as whereby God is honoured undoubtedly God hath deserved more service at our hands under the Gospell then hee did at the hands of the Jewes under the Law for as much as the love of God to mankinde was never so revealed in former times as in these latter times So God loved the World that he gave his only begottet Sonne c. And hereupon undoubtedly it is that our Saviour professeth that from the time of Iohn the Baptist the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force To such an height of devotion hath the
Love of God manifested in his Sonne inflamed his true servants according to that of Iohn We love him because he loved us first Againe if wee consider the service of that day as such wherby our soules are profited and promoted in faith and holinesse never was there more need then in these dayes of sanctifying a better proportion of time unto God Service rather then a worse and that in each respect For the truth of God was never so encombred with oppositions before the comming of our Saviour in the flesh as it hath beene since No heretiques to speake of were knowne to trouble the peace of the Church in those former times in comparison to the multitude of heresies that have beene broached since and began to bee set on foote in the very dayes of the Apostles Saint Paul professing that even then the mystery of iniquity did worke And whereas Saint Peter tells us that false teachers should come privily bringing in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Saint Iude tells them to whom hee writes that such were already crept in turning the grace of God into wantonnesse and denying God the onely Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ And Saint Iohn after the same manner little children saith hee it is the last time and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists And no marvaile for as much as the mysteries of godlinesse concerning the Trinity of persons and incarnation of the Sonne of God whereat carnall wits are so apt to stumble were never so punctually and distinctly expressed in the books of the old Testament as now they are particularly delivered in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists So that had wee in these dayes two Sabbaths in a weeke insteed of one all were little enough to instruct our people and strengthen them against the oppositions made by men of carnall mindes and thereby to keepe them in the right way of Gods saving truth And no lesse necessitie is there for the keeping of them in the wayes of holinesse such is the degenerate condition of the World Long agoe it is that the severe judgement of God had its course in giving men over to illusions to beleeve lies and all for not receiving the love of the truth as much as to say for the profanenesse of the Christian World in not making it their care to walke worthy of their calling worthy of the Gospell whereunto the Apostle so often exhorts Christians So that if at any time it were requisite to set one day in seven apart for the service of God surely by the very dictate of common reason it is most requisite in these latter dayes of the Gospell Especially considering the rage and fury of Satan in opposing the Kingdome of Christ more now than ever because he knoweth hee hath but a short time As for the alteration of the day the same proportion of time still continuing from the seventh to the first day of the weeke that I confesse willingly seemes not at first sight to have the like evidence But whereas this Prefacer contends for the alteration of the day as onely by an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution observe that not one of the ancient Fathers are mentioned by him for the justifying of this though divers are referred unto by him as against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation But wee have divers of the ancients bearing witnesse to the Divine institution of the Lords day to come in place of the seventh As first Athanasius Homil. de Semente Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solemnitatem Dominus in diem Dominicum transtulit Heretofore truly the Sabbath was in great price with men of old time which solemnity the Lord hath translated unto the Lords Day Austine hath divers other passages to the same purpose de civitate dei lib. 22. cap. ult Dominicus dies velut octavus aeternus qui Christi Resurrectione sacratus est aeternam non solum Spiritus verumetiam corporis requiem prafigurans The Lords Day as the eighth eternall which was sacred by Christs Resurrection prefiguring an eternall rest not of the spirit only but of the body also and in his Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium The Lords Day is declared not to the Iewes but to Christians by the Lords Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity and de verbis Apostoli Sermo 15. The Lords Resurrection promised unto us an eternall day and hath consecrated to us the Lords Day which is called the Lords because the Lord rose on that day and de Temp. Serm. 251. The Apostles and Apostolicall men have therefore ordained the Lords day to be kept with a religious solemnity because on that day our redeemer rose from the dead Cyril in Joan. lib. 12. cap. 58. From Christ presenting himself unto his Apostles on the eighth day which hee interpreteth of the first day of the weeke concludes therehence that by right therefore holy Congregations are kept in the Churches on that day And as Walaeus observes the celebrity of this day Eusebius referres to Christ himselfe in these words Who ever prescribed to all the inhabitants of the World either by Sea or Land that meeting together one day in the weeke they should celebrate the Dominicall festivity Athan. on that of Mat. 11.27 All things are given to me of my Father Adde to this that of Gregory mentioned Section the 1. Nay Athanasius goes further and shewes the equity of it in proportion to the new Creation compared with the old The end of the first Creation was the Sabbath but the beginning of the second Creature is the Lords Day wherein hee renewed and repayred the old man Like as therefore in former times he would have the Sabbath day to be kept so we keepe holy the Lords Day as a monument of the beginning of the second Creation And this proportion is apprehended by Beza also on the Revelation the first Chap. and 10. verse That Sabbath day saith hee continued from the Creation of the World to the Lords resurrection which seeing it is as it were an other Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former World or seventh day was assumed and that undoubtedly by the Holy Ghost suggesting this to the Apostles the first day of this new World in which not the corporall or corruptible light in the first day of the first World was created but that heavenly and eternall light did spring unto us In all which Beza doth exactly treade in the steps of that ancient Father Athanasius and concludes that the assemblies of the Lords Day which Justine expresly makes mention of in his second Apologetium are of tradition apostolicall and truly Divine And after him Doctor Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester whom Doctor Hall now Bishop of Exceter some where calls the Oracle of these times upon the same ground maintaines the
Sabbath in his common places tom 3. pag. 146. Est Sabbatum Christianum quo juxta Apostolorum constitutionem dies hebdomadae primus publicis ecclesiae congressibus destinatus est Our Christian Sabbath is that whereby the first day of the weeke is destinated to the publique assemblies of the Church by the constitution of the Apostles See how plainly hee referres the celebration of this day to Apostolicall constitution and pag. 148. he sheweth the analogie between the Jewes Sabbath and our Christian Sabbath consisting in two or three particulars 1. As on the seventh day God rested from the six dayes worke of creation in remembrance of which benefit the Sabbath was instituted in the old Testament so in the first day of the weeke after Christ-by his death and passion had accomplished the mysterie of our Redemption he returned gloriously as a conqueror from the dead in remembrance of which benefit the first day of the weeke is celebrated in the new Testament 2. As in the old Testament the Sabbath was instituted that it might be a memoriall of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5.15 So in the new Testament the Lords Day is a memoriall of our spirituall deliverance out of the kingdome and captivity of Satan procured unto us by the resurrection of Christ a type whereof was that deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt 3. By Christs death and resurrection were abrogated Leviticall ceremonies and legall shadowes amongst which the Sabbath is reckoned Col. 2.17 Therfore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Day is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in antient time was ordained Adde to him Melanchthon alleged by Walaeus pag. 265. affirming that the Apostles for this cause changed the day that in this particular they might give an example of the abrogation of the ceremoniall Lawes of Mosaicall policy As for our Popish Divines for which he referres us to Doctor Prideaux it is apparent that more of them are alleaged for the jus divinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee professeth it a thing most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one intire day should bee consecrated to Divine worship so withall saith that it is most agreeable to reason that the Lords Day should be that Day Adde unto these Sixtus Senensis Biblioth lib. 7. p. 603. Col. 1. but that which they object saith hee concerning the Lords Day not as yet instituted in the time of John is most false the consent of the whole Church disclaiming it which doth beleeve the solemnity of the Lords Day was appointed by the Appostles themselves in memory of the Lords Resurrection concerning the institution whereof by the Apostles Austin Ser. 25. de temp testifyeth in these words therefore the Apostles themselves Apostolicall men appointed that the Lords Day should for that reason bee religiously solemnized because on it our Redeemer rose from the dead In the last place come wee to our Divines Now Bucer I have already shewed to stand for us rather then for him 2. And Calvin expresly acknowledgeth that the Apostles did change the day 3. Beza upon Re. 1. v. 10. hath an excellent passage to the same purpose For hee considers Christs resurrection to bee as it were a second creation of a World spirituall and thereupon doubts not but that the spirit of God did suggest unto them the change of the seventh day into the Lords day as to bee consecrated to Divine Service 4. Iunius on Gen. 2. writes that the cause of the change of the day was the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ The commemoration of which benefit succeeded to the commemoration of the Creation not by humane tradition but by the observation of Christ himselfe and his institution 5. Piscator on Exod. 20.10 It is to bee observed that the circumstance of the seventh day in celebrating the Sabbath is abolished by Christ as who for that day ordained the first day of the weeke which wee call the Lords Day and that in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection performed on that day And upon Luk. 14. v. 2. He makes this observation By occasion of this story it is fit to consider what was the religion of the Sabbath in the new Testament and what place it hath at this day among us Christians and how it is to be observed And first we must hold that the Sabbath is abrogated by Christs comming as touching the seventh or last day in the week and that in the place thereof is ordained the first day which we call the Lords Day because on that day the Lord rose from the dead and shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and divers times speaking with them of the Kingdom of God aod so by his own example consecrating that day to Church assemblies and for the performance of the outward service of God The reason of the abrogation is because that ceremoniall rest observed in the Law was a type of that rest which the Lord made in his grave as is perceived by the words of Paul Col. 2.16.17 Now of the apparitions of the Lord S. John testifies Chap. 21. where he shewes how first he appeared to them gathered together on that very day whereon he rose And againe eight dayes after Now that in these dayes he spake unto them of the Kingdom of God Luke shewes Acts 1.3 Whence it was undoubtedly that the Apostles observed that day by the Lords ordinance to keep their Ecclesiasticall assemblies thereon as it appeares they did Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 And hence it was without doubt on the Lords day John was in the spirit and receaved the Revelation To the same purpose is that which Doctor Walaeus alleageth out of Piscators Aphoris 18. It may be doubted concerning the Lords Day whether it be appointed by God for his service in the New Testament My opinion hereof is this although we read no expresse Commandement concerning it yet that such an institution may be gathered from the example of Christ and his Disciples For on that day whereon the Lord rose from the dead therefore called the Lords-Day he shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and spake to them of the Kingdom of God And Paul on that day in an assembly of the faithfull met together to celebrate the Lords Supper preached to them on that day Acts 20.7 and that the Christians at Corinth were wont to meet on that day for publique prayer appeares 1 Cor. 16.2 Now it cannot be doubted but Paul ordained that day amongst them as also the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper and that according to the Commandement of Christ Math. 28. the last Teach them to wit as many as receave the Gospell to
keep all those things which I have commanded unto you On the Lords Day also John was in the spirit and in the spirit saw and heard the Revelation concerning the state of the Church that was to come Apoc. 1.10 whence we may gather that even then he rested to holy meditations such as became the Lords Day There is not a passage in all this but of great weight and very considerable 6. As for Doctor Fulk upon the Re. 1.10 I have represented him formerly at large that for the prescription of this day before any other of the seven they had without doubt ether the expresse Commandement of Christ before his Ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdom of God and the ordering and government of the Church Acts 1.2 or else the certaine direction of his spirit that it was his will and pleasure that it should so be and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how hee falls upon the same reason that Athanasius and the ancient Fathers insist upon Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying that day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the World by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lord rested from the Creation of the World 7. Doctor Andrewes in like manner Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Traske hee not onely professeth that the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath and that this new Sabbath is the Lords Day declared unto us by the resurrection of Christ for which he alleageth Austin Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium But also for the confirmation of it saith it is deduced plainly by practise adding that these two onely the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose and the Supper are called the Lords to shew that the word Dominicum is taken alike in both Nay hee goes farther as namely to alleage not onely practise but precept also for it from the first of the Epistle to the Corin. cap. 16.2 For albeit the Apostle there doth expressely constitute onely an order for collections for the poore on the day of their meeting yet as Piscator observes it cannot bee denied but that undoubtedly as touching the time of their meeting they were therein ordered also by S. Paul as they were about the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper And accordingly Paraeus in the very passage alleaged by Gomarus doth take that place of 1 Cor. 16.2 to notifie that the very time of their meeting there specified was by the ordinance of S. Paul Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Theses de Sabbato Thes 34. The Apostles directed by Christs not only example but spirit also observed the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. John in the Revelation 38. And from the Apostles the Catholique Church uniformly receaved it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39. And the Church hath receaved it not to be liberae observationis as if men might at their pleasure accept or refuse it 40. but to be perpetually observed to the Worlds end For as God only hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that he will take for his portion For he is Lord of the Sabbath 8. Master Fox upon the Rev. 1. v. 10. professeth that the observation of the Lords Day doth Niti authoritate institutionis Apostolicae depend upon the authority of Apostolicall institution 9. Walaeus dissert de Sab. p. 172. we conclude saith hee this first day of the weeke was by the Apostles put in the place of the Sabbath and commended to the Church not only by a power ordinary competent to all pastors for the ordering of indifferent rites in their Churches but by a singular power also as who had the oversight of the whole Churches and who as extraordinary Ministers of Christ were by the holy Ghost put in trust that they might be faithfull not only for the delivering of certaine precepts concerning faith and manners but also as touching upright ordering of the Church that so it might be made known to all Christians every where what day in the weeke was to be kept by vertue and Analogy of the fourth Commandement least dissension thereabouts and consequently confusion might arise in the Church of God and to this purpose hee alleageth Beza before mentioned and Gallesius Calvins Collegue on Exod. 31. This ordinance to wit that the Lords Day should be substituted in the place of the Sabbath we have reâ—aved saith hee not from men but from the Apostles that is from the Spirit of God whereby they were governed and after he had proved this out of three places of Scripture Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16 2. Re. 1.10 in the end hee addes For although we are not tied to the observation of dayes yet this necessary order must be observed least confusion should be bred in the Church 10. Fayus Calvins successor alleaged also by Walaeus disput 47. in q. praecept Iustly therefore may we say that the Apostles by the leading of the Holy Ghost for the seventh day of the Law substituted the first day of the week which was the first in the Creation of the first World 11. Hyperius in 1. Cor. 16. 1. The first day of the weeke in memory of the Lords Resurrection was called the Lords Day the observation of the Sabbath being translated thereunto through the command of the Holy Ghost by the Apostles 12. Adde unto these Master Perkins maintaining the same That which he delivers of the Parliament in the dayes of King Edward the sixt in that preamble of theirs concerning holy dayes as left by the authority of Gods Word to the authority of Christs Church by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers therof as they shall judge most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods Glory and edification of the people I say that this should bee understood not of holy dayes onely but of the Lords Day also is a thing most incredible neither doth hee offer to cite any parcell thereof to justifie this so bold an affirmation onely hee sayth that by the body of the act it doth appeare but what that is in the body of that act whereby this doth appeare hee very judiciously conceales How improbable is it that Bishop Andrewes would have opposed this Doctrine in the Starte Chamber if a Parliament of Prelates and that in the dayes of King Edward the sixt had maintained it For hee professeth that these two onely the Lords Day and the Lords Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum is alike to bee taken in both and takes upon him to shew that in the very Scripture there is found a precept for observation of the Lords Day And Bishop Lake in like manner professeth that it is not Liberae observatio nis but necessarily to be observed Doctor Fulks answer
day the worke I say done doth difference a day from a day and Thes 43. Now then when God doth any remarkable worke thou will he be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke If the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part and Thes 44. And his Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Ca holique rule observed in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and history The very light of nature doth give testimony unto this as appeareth by the common practice of the heathens as to give some instance hereof what is the originall of the observation of the Fryday as a festivall day amongst Mahumetanes surely this on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib and so that day is accounted the first day of his kingdom and from thenceforth it was ordained to be the first day of their yeere and of their weeke So then the Will of God in the judgement of this reverend Divine is manifested not onely by Precept but by his Worke. And yet I know none speakes more of Precept in this particular than Doctor Walaeus as I have often alleged him pag. 172. Fifthly I grant Iunius went too farre in affirming that Christ did observe the same every weeke betweene his resurrection and ascention but neither doth the contrary appeare by Scripture undoubtedly the two first he did and it is not manifest that the three following he did not and though Cyril inferres here-hence the reasonablenesse of our Christian assemblies on this day yet wee doe not but as Doctor Walaeus concludes that which hee concludes not from any one place but from many places together that do we Neither is it any thing to the purpose that Doctor Walaeus observes of Christs appearing on other dayes as Ioh. 21.24 once which was at a fish meeting And as little materiall is it that at such other times of his meetings he spake of the kingdome of God Sixthly On like sort Christ sending down the Spirit on his Apostles on the day of Pentecost hath not so much force considered alone but onely in a conjunct consideration with Christs resurrection on that day And like as after his death he arose on that day manifesting himselfe mightily thereby to be the Sonne of God so after his ascension into heaven he came downe by his Spirit on that day the seventh first day of the weeke after his resurrection manifesting thereby as Peter signifieth that he had obtained the dispensation of the Spirit We doe not say the Spirit was on the day of Pentecost sent downe because it was the Lords day But being sent down on that day as the Law is confessed to have beene delivered on that day this tends to the marking out of that day more and more for manifestation of the power of Christ That day they receiving power from on high by the descending of the holy Ghost upon them whereby they were inabled to preach the Gospel And that day of the weeke which is set apart for Divine service as our Christian Sabbath as that day whereon the Holy Ghost doth ordinarily come downe upon his servants in the ministerie of his Word and celebration of the Sacraments and putting up of our joynt prayers unto him for the sanctifying and edifying Christ body which is the Church and even in this respect that day hath a farre better congruitie to the day that is to be set apart for Divine service than any other day in the week besides The day of his ascension he departed from them as touching his presence corporall but on the day of Pentecost he came downe upon them as touching his presence spirituall and so he doth still in our Sabbath exercises on the Lords day though not in so extraordinary a manner yet no lesse effectually to that edification and sanctification of our soules Seventhly And whereas some urged that it Christ himselfe had not instituted this day after his resurrection the most Primitive Church should have beene left destitute of a certaine day of Gods worship to wit from the time of Christs resurrection to the first consecrating of the Lords Day which they take to be absurd and I confesse it seems unlikely that the Apostles tooke upon them to order ought untill they received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost that being the day they were to receive power from on high to execute the commission given them Mat. 28.19 to teach all nations till which time they gathered no Churches For the strengthning the former reason it is added That the Jewes Sabbath was now abolished by Christs death and resurrection This I doe not deny but the Apostles might very well be ignorant hereof as yet as not having received the Spirit as yet yea after the receiving it we find they challenged Peter for going to the Gentiles to preach the Gospel Acts 11. to this argument some answer as Walaeus saith that the daies between Christs ascension and the comming downe of the Holy Ghost upon them were spent in continuall meetings of the Apostles and other Disciples But from the day of Pentecost the Lords day thenceforth observed This answer reacheth not unto the daies interceding betweene Christs resurrection and his ascention And when I consider Bishop Lake his discourse grounded as he professeth upon universall observation and which I find no reason to resist namely that the worke of the day commends the day If ever any day deserved to be festivall to any surely the day of our Saviours resurrection deserved to be festivall unto them to rejoyce in the Lord thereon according to that of the Psalmist Psalm 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce therein the ancient Fathers accommodating the place thereunto The two verses immediatly preceding carrying in the forehead of them a manifest relation unto Christ as the proprietary of their meaning 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner 23. This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Now when was this manifested namely that the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner but by Christs Resurrection from the dead being thereby mightily declared to bee the Sonne of God Rom. 14. and was there ever worke more marvellous in the eyes of Gods Servants then the Resurrection of Christ especially considering the disconfolate condition of his Disciples Luke 24 21. We trusted it had beene he that should have delivered Israel The women departed from the Sepulcher though with feare by reason of the consternation receaved from Angelicall presence their countenance being like lightning yet with great joy by reason of the newes they heard from them
of Christs Resurrection upon the noise whereof for they were commanded to carry word of it to his Disciples the Apostles as it seemes were gathered together and in the evening after hee had shewed himselfe to his Disciplcs going to Emaus Christ presented himselfe in the midst of them Eight dayes after they were met together and Thomas with them who being absent the time before gave out sperches of peremptory incredulity concerning his Resurrection therefore then and not till then also the dores being shut Christ came before them and calls unto Thomas to see his hand and to put his singer into his side These apparitions of our Saviour twice on the first day of the weeke might well adde somewhat to the confirmation of them in the festivity of this day and howsoever betweene his ascension and the day of Pentecost they had their meetings yet how improbable is it they should put no difference betweene such a festivall and other dayes of the weeke A second answer Walaeus gives namely that others say that from the day of Pentecost it was not necessary that the Lords Day should bee observed but that at the first the Apostles together with the Jewes observed their Sabbath not as a ceremony of the Old Testament but as a free circumstance of divine worship as for a while they reteyned Circumcision and difference of meats which they gave over after the Jewes were found obstinately to refuse the Gospell So that in these mens judgements the Lords Day was no festivall to the Apostles till by occasion of the Jewes obstinatenesse a proper occasion for the institution of a new festivall And give mee leave to differ from them in yoking Circumcision and difference of meats with the Jewes Sabbath neither of them prefiguring Christ as to come like as the Jewes Sabbath did prefiguring his rest that day in the grave as the ancients have conceived it without any contradiction that I know Had they permitted sacrifices for a time their comparison had beene more congruous I see no reason to withhold me from concurring with Austin and in him with all the ancients for ought I know to the contrary that Dies Dominicus Resurrectione Domini declaratus est Christianis ex illo coepit habere festivitatem suam yea with the very words of Scripture Psal 118.22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner 23. This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it Neither is it credible to mee that the Apostles were ignorant of it or of its application the day of Christs Resurrection from the very day thereof Heresbachius upon these words Haec dies quam fecit dominus They are saith hee the words of the people exulting in the Kingdome of David most of all of the glorious Resurrection of Christ which of all others was most glorious to mankinde as whereon Christ redeemed us in a triumphant manner from the Tyarnny of Satan and from everlasting death and restored unto us everlasting righteousnesse Arnobius interprets it of the Lords Day Eightly the last argument and which hee acknowledgeth of greatest moment is that which is taken out of Apoc. 1.10 Where the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day whence they conclude that it is of the Lords institution And indeed Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Camber speech professeth that this denomination is given onely to the first day of the weeke as called in Scripture the Lords day and to the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ as called the Lords Supper and that to shew that the word Dominicum the Lords is to bee taken alike in both In the same sense wee call the Prayer which our Savious taught his Disciples the Lords Prayer But let us heare Walaeus his answer that we may consider it This consequence saith hee is not necessary for it may bee called the Lords not onely that which is of his institution but even that which is made to the remembrance or in the honour of him or for his worship as the ancients speake as the altar of the Lord and feast of the Lord are often so called And that in this sence it was taken of the ancients it appeares by this that the ancient Fathers both Greeke and Latine called Temples by the name of Dominica and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which wee urge is the language of the Holy Ghost now throughout the holy Scripture it is not the language of the Holy Ghost to call either Altars the Lords Altars or Feasts the Lords Feasts but such as are of the Lords institution Neither doe the fathers in my observation call the first day of the weeke the Lords day otherwise then in reference to Christs Resurrection as the cause of the festivall nature thereof Temples indeed they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as consecrated to the Lord but the denomination is not to distinguish it from other Temples as the Lords Day hath its denomination to distinguish it from other dayes But the day of Christs Resurrection being called the Lords Day not as such a day in the yeare but as such a day in the weeke this to my understanding doth manifestly inferre the succession of it into the place of the Lords day of the weeke amongst the Jewes Both ancient and moderne Divines doe hold it lawfull to consecrate other dayes to the service of of God such as wee usually call holy dayes But never any man I thinke was found that durst call any of them Diem dominicum the Lords Day Adde to this wherefore doth our Saviour say that the sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath but plainely to conclude herence that hee can dispense with it hee can abrogate it and bring another into the place of it and none hath power for this but hee who is Lord of the Sabbath Lastly when he saith pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day what is the reason hereof but religio Sabbati as all confesse the religious observation of the Sabbath and did they understand any other religion of the Sabbath but as from Divine institution Now the time concerning which our Saviour delivers this now about the destruction of the Temple by Titus Sect. 6. after that no other Sabbath but of the Lords Day was generally established in the Churches Last of all for the third and last conclusion Pref. that still the Church hath power to change the day our Doctor in the 7. Section bringeth in Bullinger Bucer Brentius Vrsinus and Chemnitius aliisque nostris with divers others not named particularly as they are which thinke no otherwise thereof then Calvin did and shewes by what distinction Suarez though otherwise no friend unto the men doth defend their Doctrine Now as the doctrine was such also is the practise of those men and Churches devoid of
and in breaking bread Act. 2. and 5. and 1 Cor. 5. Now we willingly acknowledge that we Christians are not so bound to one day in the weeke as namely to the Lords Day as that we may not have our holy assemblies more often than once but onely so that we may not keep them lesse often nor omit the celebration of the Lords Day like as the Jews might not omit the celebration of their weekely Sabbath though sometimes many dayes together besides were kept holy by them So we Christians also having our Sabbath as our Saviour signified we should have when he said Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which Sabbath of ours wee keepe on the Lords Day though we may keep other days holy yet we may not omit this and if any shall take upon them to alter this Sabbath we may be bold to demand of them quo warranto by what warrant from the Lord of Sabbath But Chemnitius proceeds thus Now whereas afterwards the false Apostles did so urge those free observations of the Mosaicall Sabbath and other feasts as by law and with opinion of necessity as to condemne their consciences who observed them not Paul forbad the observation of them All which we willingly acknowledge but that hereupon they began first to ordaine another day in the weeke for their Ecclesiasticall assemblies and exercises of piety which yet Chemnitius proves not I leave it to the indifferent to judge by comparing his opinion with that of Austins who professeth as Chemnitius well knew that the Lords Day was declared unto Christians by the Lords resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity alleged by Chemnitius himselfe p. 156. especially considering the reason moving thē hereunto which Chemnitius confesseth to have been on that day the Lord role from the dead And seeing all festivals as Bishop Lake observes have beene observed in regard of some great worke done on such a day for the good of man whether ever any day brought forth a more wonderfull or more comfortable worke to mankind than the first day of the weeke which was the day of our Saviours resurrection from the dead let the Christian world judge This day Chemnitius saith seems to be called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day which appellation all antiquity did afterwards retaine and use yet notwithstanding saith he we doe not read that the Apostles did impose upon mens consciences in the new Testament the observation of that day by any Law or Precept but the observation was free for order sake Let us duly weigh and consider this together with the reasons following Calvine distinguisheth the observation of a day for order sake and the observation of a day for some mysterious signification sake had Chemnitius thus distinguished we would have subscribed thereunto and confessed that now adayes wee observe no day for any mysterious signification sake but onely for order sake And thus under the Gospel wee are freed from observation of daies for mysteries sake not free from observation of one certaine day in the weeke for order sake At for his phrase of imposing the observation of the Lords day upon mens consciences this phrase is most improper and unseasonable in this case it is onely proper and seasonable in case the thing imposed be of a burthensome nature like unto that Saint Peter speakes of Acts 15.10 saying Now therefore why tempt yee God to lay a yoke on the Disciples neckes which neither our Fathers nor we were able to beare Such indeed was the yoke of circumcision which provoked Zippora according to common opinion driven to circumcise her sonne to save her husbands life to throw the fore-skin at her husbands feet calling him a bloody husband for urging her thereunto But what burthen is it save unto the flesh to rejoyce in the Lord to sabbatize with him to walke with him in holy meditation Was it no burthen to the godly Jewes to consecrate one day in seaven to the exercises of Piety under the Law and shall it bee a burthen to us in the time of the Gospell Or can it bee conceaved to bee a greater burthen unto us to keepe our Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day then on any other day of the weeke was there ever any day of the weeke markt out unto us with a more honourable or more wonderfull worke to draw us to rejoyce in the Lord thereon then the first day of the weeke whereon our Saviour rose by his Resurrection to bring life and immortality to light yet we confesse we reade of no Law nor Precept for this in the new Testament but we reade that ever under the Gospell wee must have a Sabbath to observe Math. 24.20 And wee know and Chemnitius knew full well that it belongs to the Lord of the Sabbath to change it and consequently to ordaine it and that it was changed and the Lords Day observed generally in the Apostles dayes none that I know makes question of and how could thi◠bee but by the Apostles ordinance and is it likely they would take upon them this authority without a calling And why should that day of the weeke and not that day of the yeare bee called the Lords Day if not for the same use under the Gospell that the Lords Day was of under the Law especially that day under the Law which was the Jewes Sabbath being now abrogated and lastly wee finde it manifestly spoken of the day of Christs Resurrection Psal 118.24 This is the day that the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it yet lastly wheras Chemnitius will have it free and hee hath already manifested that hee speakes of it in this sense as not to be so tied to this day but that we may observe other dayes wee willingly grant that in this sense it is free Now let us consider his reason following For saith hee if we are freed from the Elements which by God himselfe in the old Testament were ordained and commanded how should we be tyed by the decrees of men But alas this reason of his hath no proportion the Elements hee speakes of were but shaddowes the body whereof is Christ and now Christ is revealed they were wont to bee called not onely Mortua but mortifera Yet the observation of one day in seven still continues to bee the Commandement of God delivered not to Moses as ceremonies were but by word of mouth proclaimed on mount Sina and naturall reason suggests unto us that wee must allow unto Gods service as good a proportion of time under the Gospell as hee required of the Jewes under the Law Now if one day in seven must bee set apart in common reason what day is to bee preferred for this before the Lords Day the day of Christs rest from the worke of redemption in suffering the sorrows of death as the day of the Lords rest from the Creation was appointed to the Jewes for their Sabbath And this Resurrection of
Christ bringing with it a new Creation Shall wee preferre the Saturday the Jewes festivall before it shall wee preferre the Friday the day of the Turkes festivall before it shall wee affect power and liberty to make any other day in the weeke the Lords holy day rather then that the Word of God commends unto us for the Lords Day in the time of the Gospell This I suppose may suffice for answering the rest also whensoever their suffrages shall bee brought to light for I presume none of them hath sayd more then Chemnitius hath done Azorius the Jesuite professeth of two things in this argument that they are most agreeable to reason First that after six worke dayes one entire day should bee consecrated to God 2. that the Lords Day should bee it Doctor Fulke in answer to the Remish Testament professeth that to change the Lords Day and keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles This was printed in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and dedicated unto her Majesty what Bishop as gouernour in this Church of England hath ever beene known to take exception against this Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his starre Chamber speech in the Case of Traske professeth that the Sabbath to wit of the Iewes had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are now Creatures As the Apostle S. Paul speakes a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this he saith is deduced plainly 1. by practise 2. by precept that these two onely the first day of the weeke and the Sacrament of the Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to be taken in both So that give power to the Church to alter the one and you may as well give power to the Church to alter the other He shewes also it was an usuall question put to Christians Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Lords Day And their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and I cannot intermit it Lastly he allegeth the Synod of Laodicea Can. 29. acknowledged in that of Chalcedon 133. that Christian men may not Judaize not make the Saturday their day of rest but that they are to worke on that day giving their honour of celebration to the Lords Day Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath 39. The Church hath received it the Lords Day not to be liberae observationis of free observation as if men might at pleasure accept or refuse it 40. But to be perpetually observed to the worlds end For as God onely hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that he will take for his portion For he is Lord of the Sabbath 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the works therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Adde unto these Iunius and Piscator who maintaine the subrogation of the Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath to have beene made by the ordinance of Christ and Beza acknowledgeth it to be traditionis Apostolicae verè divinae Doctor Brownde in his Treatise of the Sabbath lib. 1. pag. 47. having recited the opinion of Iunius referring the institution of the Lords Day to Christs ordinance as who rose from the dead on that day addeth hereunto after this manner Like unto the which because nothing can ever fall out in the world comparable unto it in glory and power therefore this day must continue in his first honour of sanctification unto the end of all things and no day be set up like to it or it changed into any other day lest the wonderfull glory of that thing be darkened and the infinite power of it weakned I meane the glorious and mighty worke of our redemption which by the sanctification of this Sabbath is commended unto us and we by keeping that holy still doe commend it to our posterity And this is it that is alleged as a reason of the observation of this day in the Apostles constitutions Const Apost l. 7. c. 37. It is called the Lords Day because it declares unto us Christ crucified and raised up againe and it is worthily commended to be kept as the Lords Day that wee might give thankes unto thee O Lord Christ for all these benefits for say they there is that grace bestowed upon us by thee Qua sua magnitudine omnia beneficia obscurat which by the greatnesse and as it were by the brightnesse of it doth obscure and darken all other So that though the day was once changed upon these considerations nay they being such as they be it could not but be changed yet forsomuch as the like cause can never be offered unto men to move them to enter into this consideration therefore the day must not onely not be changed any more but it must not so much as enter in mens thoughts to goe about to change it And therefore I doe so much the more marvell at him who saith That the keeping holy of the Lords Day is not commanded by the authority of the Gospel but rather received into use by the publique consent of the Church And a little after The observation of the Lords Day is profitable and not to be rejected but yet it is not to be accounted for a commandement of the Gospel but rather for a civill ordination And that the Church might have appointed but one day in ten or foureteene for the publique rest and Gods service Lastly Master Perkins maintaines the same not to mention Doctor Willet and that by divers reasons in his cases of conscience which because they are modestly answered by Doctor Rivet in his commentary upon the Decalogue I thinke good in this place to take them into consideration A FOVRTH DIGRESSION MAKING GOOD Mr. PERKINS his Arguments for the Divine institution of the Lords Day against the answer made unto them by Doctor RIVETVS Perkins THeir first Argument saith he is taken from the appellation of the Lords Day I suppose saith Master Perkins it is called the Lords Day as the last supper of Christ is called the Lords Supper for two causes First as God rested the seventh day after the creation so Christ having finished the worke of the new creation rested on this day from the work of Redemption Secondly as Christ did substitute the last supper in roome of the passeover so hee substituted the first day of the weeke in roome of the Jewes Sabbath to be a day set apart to his owne worship To this Doctor Rivet answereth after this manner Rivet Answ First hee denies that there is the same reason
of the Lords supper the Lords Day and that for two reasons first because we have a manifest institution thereof and Christs Precept for the observing of it Not so of the Lords Day Secondly if there were a Precept for keeping the Lords Day yet were it Ecclesiasticall and so mutable For men may choose daies for the worship of God as touching the particularity of this day or that But the institution of the Sacraments is of Divine authority by the consent of all To this I replie that Doctor Rivetus corrupts Master Perkins his answer in the proposing of it Repl. for he sayth not the same is the reason of the Lords Supper and of the day which wee call the Lords Day but supposeth and that most modestly that either of them being called the Lords they are called so in the same Notion That like as the Lords Supper is so called because he instituted it so the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day because hee instituted the observation of it And this Doctor Thysius collegue to Doctor Rivetus maintaines as well as Master Perkins and Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech against Traske saying that both these to wit the first day of the weeke and Christ last Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to bee taken in both For what reason can bee given why the day of Christs Resurrection not according to the day of the yeare wherein hee arose but according to the day of the weeke wherein hee arose should bee called the Lords Day but to signifie First that it was to succeed in the place of the Lords Dayunder the law which was the Jewish Sabbath 2. And that it was the good pleasure of God and not of man onely that it should bee consecrate to his service For consider wee have many other dayes consecrated by the Church unto Divine service which yet were never called the Lords Dayes And the Lords Day and the Lords feasts in the Old Testament and in the language of the Holy Ghost are no other then such that are of the Lords institution Secondly Doctor Rivetus omits the maine force of Master Perkins his argument or at least slightly passeth it over which is this As God rested the seventh day after the Creation so Christ having ended the worke of the new Creation rested on this day from his worke of redemption Athanasius of old considers a first and a second Creation and so accordingly a first and a second Sabbath our Saviour himselfe speakes of a Christian Sabbath Math. 24.20 and wâ—â—t should that bee but the Lords Day under the Gospell And Beza and Iunius and Bishop Andrewes worke upon the same And I wonder that men should thinke the Sabbath should bee altered and another brought into the place of it by any other authority then of him who is Lord of the Sabbath And as Bishop Lake observes in all feasts both Divine and humane that wee reade of in Scripture the worke of the day was the ground of hallowing the day And never was known to the World a more wonderfull worke in the way of grace and mercy then Christs Resurrection from the dead manifesting thereby the redemption of the World as then wrought by him How doth Christ take upon him to alter the Sacraments but as Lord of the Sacraments and apparently he shewes that upon the same ground hee takes upon him power to dispense or change the Sabbath as hee is Lord of the Sabbath But what is his ground to deny the parity of reason here meerely his owne prejudicate conceit that the obligation of the Lords Day is not so great as the observation of the Sabbath The contrary whereunto saith he omnes refugimus we all avoyd But who and how many are those all what one of the ancients can hee produce to have thought as hee thinks Hee may as well say according to the current of his private opinion that wee under the Gospell are not as much bound to the observation of one day in seaven as the Jewes were under the Law It is true that rigorous rest enjoyned to the Jewes wee utterly disclaime as well as hee againe the circumstance of the day wee make no part of Gods worship nor to have any mysterious signification as the Sabbath had to the Jewes Wee acknowledge no other use of this day then for order and policy sake in which case wee judge it farre better the Lord should prescribe it then wee unto our selves least if there were twenty dayes in the weeke there would bee twenty differences amongst Christians about the setting apart of one day in the weeke for Divine Service Perkins 2. Master Perkins his second argument is this The Church of Corinth every first day of the weeke made a collection for the poore 1 Cor. 16.2 and this collection for the poore in the primitive Church followed the preaching of the Word Prayer and the Sacraments as a fruite thereof Acts 2.42 and Paul commands the Corinths to due this as he had ordained in the Churches of Galatia whereby he makes it to be an Apostolicall and therefore a Divine Ordinance Yea that very Text doth in some part manifest thus much that it is an ordinance and institution of Christ that the first day of the weeke should be the Lords Day For Paul commandes nothing but what he receaved from Christ To this Doctor Rivetus alledgeth the answer of Doctor Prideaux Rivets Ans Reply demanding how that we contend for his inferred herehence we answer the generall practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes argues it manifestly that this order was established by the joynt consent of the Apostles otherwise it is incredible it should have beene so universally receaved and persevered in as it hath beene to this day Secondly wheras the Jewes Sabbath was by divine authority the abrogation thereof and substituting another day in the place thereof could bee done by no lesse authority then Divine which also wee conceave to bee fairely represented by the denomination of our Christian Sabbath S. Iohn calling it the Lords Day Secondly he sheweth what Gomarus answereth hereunto but this answer himselfe taketh off in this very place in part and much more in his reply to Gomarus But these places being granted to denote the first day of the weeke in the Apostles dayes set apart to Divine Service hee sayth it followes not herehence that it is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service much lesse that so it was by Divine ordination Yet Walaeus thinkes it his safest course to say t is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service as before wee have heard so to avoyd as hee thinkes the implication of Divine Ordination But to him I have answered before And Doctor Rivetus in my opinion doth not wel consider that not the day of the yeare but the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day by S.
Iohn Like as the Sabbath in the Old Testament is called the Lords Day which which if he had and withall considered how strange it were for us to set any day in the weeke apart for the exercises of Piety rather then the Lords Day I am perswaded hee would not have contented himselfe with this answer For certainly many other holy dayes have beene and are set apart for Divine Service yet never were called any one of them the Lords day He talkes of a bare custome of the Church for it a thing incredible that both Jewes and Gentiles throughout all Nations should so universally concurre without the guidance of some authorative constitution or some generally convincing evidence by the very light of common Christian evidence or both And as for liberty left to the Church hereabout it seemeth so unreasonable unto my poore judgement that if it were it should become us by earnest and hearty prayer to seeke unto God to take that liberty from us and bee pleased himselfe to guide us by some manifest ordinance to prevent dissension and confusion yet well fare Doctor Rivetus hee will not have this liberty extend any further then provided that some reason and necessity should urge the changing of the day for in the next columne hee professeth that a sufficient cause of the change and abrogation of the day cannot bee given The observation of other dayes and particularly of the Sabbath as well as the Lords Day by some in the Primitive Church is no evidence at all that it was indifferent unto them whether they would observe the Lords Day or no. Perk. The third argument Rivetus omits the fourth is this That which was prefigured in that it was prefigured was prescribed But the Lords Day was prefigured in the eighth day wherin the children of the Iewes were circumcised therefore it was prescribed to be kept the eighth day This the ancient Fathers by name Cyprian and Austin have reasoned and taught Rivet Answ To this Doctor Rivetus answers by denying the assumption and saying that no probable reason can be brought to prove that day was prefigured by the eighth day wherein children were circumcised Reply And indeed that day being the eighth day after birth doth not so conveniently denote the first day of the weeke But Master Perkins his argument hath another part farre more principall drawne from Psal 118.22.23.24 Which Doctor Rivetus relates after this menner Perk. The day of the Resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the Stone which the builders refused was made the head of the Corner But that day was the Sabbath Day therefore by the Sabbath was prefigured the Lords Day To this he answers by denying that the Sabbath day was the day wherein the builders refused that stone For the Scribes Rivet Answ Pharises and rulers of the people did alwayes reject Christ and not the Sabbath day onely And if Austin and Cyprian before him apprehended any such figure that was by way of accommodation onely not that herein they acknowledged any proper figure For answer whereunto I say first Reply that Master Perkins delivers not this simply of the Sabbath day but of the Sabbath of the new Testament as much as to say the first day of the weeke whereon Christ rose For this was the day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner and of this day the Prophet speakes when he saith This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it That like as the Jewes had cause to make that day festivall and to rejoyce therein wherein God advanced David to the kingdome who was as a stone refused before by the builders in like sort Christians had as great cause nay farre greater to keepe that day festivall and to rejoyce therein when God raised Christ from the dead and gave all power unto him and making him the head of his Church as being now manifested to be the sonne of God who was before as a stone despised and refused of the builders but as on this day was made the head of the corner And not Cyprian and Austin onely but Ambrose upon the Psalmes so understands it and Arnobius also upon the Psalmes as Hereshbachius observeth And Doctor Rivetus is too blame in construing Perkins in such manner as if he should confine the builders rejection of Christ to the Sabbath day whereof there is no colour in Master Perkins but that which he insists upon is this that the day wherein Christ formerly rejected by the builders was made hhead the of corner was the day of Christs resurrection and of this day it is said by the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it Which is most remarkable for the justification of our celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine authority Especially considering what Bishop Lake that learned and pious and most rationall Divine hath observed that alwayes the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and for proofe hereof hee appeales to the due consideration of all festivalls in the observation thereof whether Divine or humane Master Perkins his words are these but I know not how Doctor Rivetus might be deceived by a mis-translation of them The day of Christs resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner Psal 118.24 and in that it was prefigured it was appointed by God For then it appeared to be true which Peter said of Christ that God had made him both Lord and Christ Act. 12.36 And whereas he saith the Fathers doe so construe the place by way of accommodation that hath place onely when the Text it selfe doth not so accommodate it But the Text it selfe in this place doth manifestly evince that this is spoken in reference to the day of Christs resurrection Perkins The last reason of Master Perkins is this God is Lord of times and seasons and therefore in all equity the altering and disposing thereof is in his hands and belongs to him alone Act. 1.10 Times and seasons the Father hath kept in his own hands Againe Christ is called the Lord of the Sabbath And Antiochus Epiphanes is condemned by the Holy Ghost because hee tooke upon him to alter times Dan. 7.25 Besides that Daniel saith it is God alone that changeth times and seasons Dan. 2.4 Now if it be proper unto God as to create so to determine and dispose of times then he hath not left the same to the power of any creature And therefore as the knowledge thereof so the appointment and alteration of the same either in generall or particular belongs not to the Church but is reserved to him The Church then neither may nor can alter the Sabbath Day Rivet Answ To this D. Rivetus answereth that the words of Daniel touching the change of times and
opportunities are delivered in reference to the periods and changing of Kingdomes and Monarchies as appeares by the argument of the Prophecy Reply And no more doth D. Rivetus deliver in excepting against his annotations for as he acknowledgeth M. Perkins scriptorem modestissimum a most modest writer so he carryeth himselfe most modestly towards him But I hope without any breach of modesty I may professe that I find no accuratenesse in each of his allegations save one namely that wherein Christ professeth himself Lord of the Sabbath and it is enough for the present that God reserves to himself power of ordering times for his service yet it cannot be denied but God hath left power to his Church upon good occasion to set some time apart for exercise of piety But whereas it is apparant that God himselfe tooke upon him the ordering of the time for the Sabbath and accordingly Christ calls himselfe The Lord of the Sabbath as he constituted it so none but he can abrogate it and ordaine another in the place of it Now whereas D. Rivetus saith that hee hath left this power unto his Church it stands him upon to prove it We find our Saviour supposeth us Christians to have a Sabbath after his resurrection Matth. 24.20 as well as the Jewes had before wee find that in the Apostles dayes the first day of the weeke was set apart for this which could not be but by the joynt consent of the Apostles we find that the day of the weeke not the day of the yeere wherein Christ rose by Saint Iohn himselfe called the Lords Day an evident argument that in his time it was so generally received We find that never any worke of God did give better cause to professe that The day thereof was the day that the Lord had made let us be glad and rejoyce therein then the day wherein Christ rose from the dead and thereby was declared to be the Sonne of God even that stone which the builders refused to be made the head of the corner And how strange is it that the Church for 1500. yeeres space should no where offer to alter it if in no other respect yet in this to manifest that the Church is indued with such liberty and power and to prevent the superstitious observation of the day as a thing necessary if it be not necessary Lastly if this liberty be still in the Church in case they should exercise this liberty what inconvenience would follow upon the exercising of a lawfull liberty But infinit inconvenience would follow hereupon for seeing this liberty is equally communicated to each particular Church it will follow that it is lawfull for our English Church to institute the Munday the French Church the Tuesday the Hollanders the Wednesday the Germans Thursday the Danes Friday the Swedes the Saturday and the Polonians the Sunday what an intolerable scandall were this amongst Christians Thus our liberty opens way to revive the Jewes Sabbath or to concurre with the Turks who make Friday their holy day nay what scandall also to all the Heathens throughout the world For suppose that as the Jewes keepe the Saturday and the Turks their Fryday so other heathenish nations according to their severall religions should divide the other daies of the weeke to be hallowed between them each religion keeping to their own day most exactly When they should find no agreement amongst Christians what an intolerable scandall were this unto them to harden them against the profession of the Gospel when they see so little agreement among the professors of it And what should move us to affect liberty in this which opens a way to such dissention and confusion and not rather rejoyce in this that to prevent such miserable inconveniences God himselfe hath marked out unto us the first day of the weeke to be the Lords Day in place of the Jewish Sabbath which was the Lords holy day unto them by the most wonderful and comfortable work that ever was wrought even the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour from the dead thereby manifesting him to be the Sonne of God and fulfilling that prophecie of old concerning the stone which the builders refused and making him the head of the corner on that day all power being given unto him both in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. thus drawing us in the Prophets language to professe and say first This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and secondly to conclude there-hence in the words immediately following This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it this undoubtedly is our Christian festivall this day of the weeke and not this day of the yeere which is remarkable being called by Saint Iohn The Lords Day the day wherein Christ appeared unto him and gave unto him the booke of Revelation concerning the secrets of his providence to be fulfilled upon the world for the time to come even till his second comming to destroy the world with fire and to blesse us with new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse the metropolis of which new world shall be new Jerusalem And albeit Doctor Rivetus according to his pious ingenuity which crownes his learning and cathedrall sufficiencies professeth that what hitherto hath beene spoken by him of the choyce and possible change of that day he hath not to any such end ventilated as to favour their profanesse who on holy dayes and chiefely on that day which by so universall a consent even from the beginning of Christianity hath beene consecrated to such use neglecting Gods Service not onely refuse to omit one day in prosecuting workes tending to the use of life temporall but also by unnecessary actions as by pleasant sports stage playes by intemperance also and riot profane the day not without reason dedicated to the Lord. Yet what just occasion hereby may bee in all places and like enough is taken in most places by this doctrine of his who seeth not For albeit publike authority in some places hath by lawes countenanced the solemnization of the Lords Day for which wee of this land have cause to blesse God so as I thinke no Nation more in consideration of many Lawes one after another and by degrees made to restraine abuses on that day as tending to the manifest profanation thereof and by none more then by that act of Parliament in the first of King Charles wherein all men are forbidden to come out of their Parishes upon that day about any sports and pastime evidently manifesting hereby as formerly hath beene proved that all sports and pastimes are prophanations of our Christian Sabbath observed on that day and that in the judgement of the whole Parliament consisting of the Kings Majesty the head thereof with his Lords spirituall all the Bishops of the Kingdome and temporal together with the House of Commons yet if once it shall be receaved according to D. Rivets doctrine of the Sabbath that it
desperate as that which followeth thereupon in practice Divers particulars whereof he reciteth out of the same Master Rogers his preface to his comment upon the Articles of the Church of England And indeed this Master Rogers glorieth there Pyrgopolynices-like that he hath beene the man and the meanes that these Sabbatarian errours and impieties were brought into light and knowledge of the State so he speakes and that this is a comfort to his soule and would be to his dying day And in very deed the particulars mentioned by him are very foule for hee saith It was preached in a market towne in Oxfordshire that to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly It was preached in Summersetshire that to throw a bowle on the Sabbath day is as great a sinne as to kill a man that it was preached in Norfolke that to make a feast or wedding-dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a father to take a knife and cut his childs throat I wonder the Prefacer doth not call them miracles Sommersetshire is a pretty large County and there be many market townes in Oxfordshire and I doe not doubt but there are many parishes in Norfolke But no particular is here set downe either of person or of place and wee have no better authority for the proofe of these imputations than this mans word which yet undoubtedly was not present at these Sermons for then he would have beene very carefull to expresse that as in the next story hee doth the like So that in the issue the strength of all comes but to this that he hath heard it thus reported Now I have heard it preached and that at Saint Maries in Oxford that a man in Bunbury or thereabouts having broken a bone his sonne refused to goe for a Bone-setter because it was the Lords Day and this Sermon afterwards comming into print the party finding himselfe agrieved by this scandalous report cast forth of him repaired to the quarter Sessions holden at Oxford and complained to the Justices of the wrong that was done unto him the Preacher of that Sermon being by and the whole matter being opened and the contrary justified the preacher professed that he delivered no more than he had heard but promised the next time that he printed that Sermon hee would leave that story out Doctor Hoskins of our house was present at the hearing of this businesse and brought us word of it But whether that Sermon ever came to be printed a second time I know not In like sort I have heard it reported of Master Bolton that when one fell into the River on the Sabbath day he would not suffer those that were with him being neere to runne to helpe him out I professed at the hearing of it I knew Master Bolton so well that it seemed uncredible to me but the reporter professed to deliver it upon knowledge But if it were so many there be that can beare witnesse thereunto in the place where he lived Lately it hath beene brought unto mee that one hath beene heard to lay to my charge behind my backe that I should say David sinned more in dancing about the Arke than either in deflouring Bathshebath or killing Vriah though it is such a comparison that never entered into my thoughts how much lesse to passe so prodigious a judgement upon the comparison In the last place he saith It was preached in Suffolke and that he could name the man and was present when he was convented before his ordinary for preaching the same that to ring more bels than one upon the Lords day to call the people unto Church is as great a sinne as to commit murther this is more particular than the rest and had hee added one thing more the evidence had been compleat namely that as he saith he was convented for it before his Ordinary so he was found convicted of it which if it were so I wonder he should conceale it if it were not so of what credit is this his relation He addes that many things to this effect he had read before in the Sabbath doctrine printed at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man what this booke was I could not devise but lately have gotten into my hands D. Bowndes booke of the Sabbath I finde by comparing it well that this is the booke he girds at Now I finde nothing in him to this effect though I have gone over most of the first booke and in the Index doe not finde any thing that can give me probability in the second booke tending to any such effect and I wonder he spared to quote the place where such doctrines are to be found nothing being more convenient to justifie his criminations than to quote for it something that is to be seene in print and thereby to cleare himselfe from the suspicion of a malignant But this Prefacer very judiciously believes him throughout because the Relator was present when the broacher of the last position was convented for it yet doth he not say he was convicted of it And upon what ground he proceeds so judiciously in believing it is remarkeable to wit because himselfe hath heard it preached in London that the Law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that whoever did the workes of his ordinary calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore Now I professe he seemes to me a great deale more politique herein than at the first I was ware of For had hee not believed Master Rogers his report this way others might have taken as great liberty to believe but their part concerning this Therefore it stood him upon first to manifest his ingenuous facility in believing another that this might be a shooing-horne to draw on others by way of the like ingenuous facility to believe him also yet such things may be for as long as the world lasts we shall be exercised with wilde wits and so no doubt we shall with tale-tellers too and so much the more in all likelihood the neerer the world approacheth to an end It hath beene so amongst Philosophers in Cicero his observation it hath been so amongst Schoole-divines it is so amongst Socinians and Arminians But let the saddle be set upon the right horse and let every man beare his owne burthen Now I have made it manifest that the doctrines which he picks out of D. Bownde and stiles Sabbatarian doctrines are the doctrines of D. Andrewes afterwards Bishop of Winchester I could shew them to be the doctrines of many other worthy Prelates that have been of this kingdome and it may be that if the votes of the Bishops of this kingdom were taken the major part would concurre with us as touching the doctrine of the Sabbath rather than against us The same Master Rogers sacrificeth to his net and burnes incense to his yarne and magnifies the good
successe of his labours For this good he saith hath ensued thereupon namely that the said bookes of the Sabbath comprehending the above mentioned and many more such fearefull and hereticall assertions have beene both called in and forbidden to be printed any more and to be made common and that Archbishop Whitgift by his letters and officers at Synods and Visitations Anno 99. did the one and Sir John Popham Lord chiefe Iustice of England at Bury Saint Edmunds in Suffolke Anno 1600. did the other For all this we have nothing but his word and as for the bookes he talkes of hee had formerly mentioned but one printed 95. at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man of the doctrine of the Sabbath which appeares to be D. Bowndes Now was this ever called in Sure I am D. Willet upon Genesis came forth the yeere after this M. Rogers his Analysis of the Articles of the Church of England This hee dedicated to King Iames and over and above hath a second dedication in Latine to Archbishop Bancroft and to the bishop of London then being wherein hee signifieth that the one of them was author the other hortator unto him to perfect this worke of his and therefore undoubtedly came forth with as good approbation as the Analysis of Master Rogers upon the second Chapter of Gen. he observes that As the Sabbath kept then upon the seventh day in remembrance of the Creation was of the Lords institution so the Lords Day is now observed by the same authority in remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ and redemption by the same And this hee delivers in opposition to the Rhemists who count the observation of the Lords Day but a tradition of the Church and Ecclesiasticall institution and having spent a whole page in folio upon this argument in the next page thus hee writeth I doe wonder then this doctrine of the Sabbath and day of rest now called the Lords Day having such evident demonstration out of the Scriptures and being confirmed by the constant and continuall practise of the Church in all ages that any professing the Gospell specially being exercised in the Study of the Scriptures should gainsay and impugne these positions following as erroneous 1. That the Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath is naturall morall and perpetuall For if it be not so then all the Commandements contained in the Decalogue are not morall so should we have 9. and not 10. Commandements and then Christ should come to destroy the Law and not to fulfill is contrary to our Saviours own words Math. 5.17 2. That all other things in the Law were so changed that they were cleane taken away as the priesthood Sacrifices and Sacraments this day namely the Sabbath was so changed that it yet remaines For it is evident by the Apostles practise Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 Apo. 1.10 that the day of rest called the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke and so was observed and kept holy under the name of the Lords Day 3. That it is not lawfull to use the seventh day to any other end but to the holy and sanctified end for which in the beginning it was created 4. As the Sabbath came in with the first man so must it not goe out but with the last 5. That we are restrained upon the Sabbath from works as the Jewes were though not in such strict particular manner as they were yet in generall we are forbidden all kind of worke upon the Lords Day as they were which may hinder the service of God Now the Author that hee intimates as opposing these positions hee describes by the title of his booke in the margent which is this The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England printed at Cambridge p. 37. And the author of his booke I have heard to be Master Rogers and it seemes likely enough especially by the 2. first positions Doctor Willet concludes in this manner after hee had made use of divers allegations for the confirmation of his doctrine in opposition to the fore-mentioned Author but these allegations are here superfluous seeing there is a learned Treatise of the Sabbath already published of this argument which containeth a most sound doctrine of the Sabbath as it is said in the former positions which shall be able to abide the triall of the Word of God and stand warranted thereby when other humane fantasies shall vanish howsoever some in their heate and intemperance are not afraid to call them Sabbatariorum errores yea hereticall assertions a new Iubilee S. Sabbath more then either Iewish or popish institution God grant it be not layd to their charge that so speake or write and God give them a better minde About two yeares before this were set forth Master Perkins his cases of conscience wherein hee manifesteth his concurrence with Doctor Bownde in the doctrine of the Sabbath Neither doth Doctor Andrewes in any materiall thing differ from Doctor Bownde Master Perkins Doctor Will t. In the next relation of his which is of a familiar nature undoubtedly the Prefacer deserves to be believed That in a Towne of his acquaintance the preachers there had brought the people to that passe that neither baked nor roste meate was to be found in all the Parish for a sunday dinner throughout the yeare and hee concludes it with such an Epiphonema These are the fruites of such dangerous doctrines as if the fortunes of the Church or state were hazarded for want of bak't meate or rost meate on the sundayes And to confesse a truth though I never was nor never am like to be so precise yet considering my meane condition I have divers times thought thus with my selfe why should my provision hinder any of my servants from Sermons on the Sabbath day so little did I feare any dangerous consequence of this practise but since I am better informed by the suggestions of this judicious Prefacer I will take heede how I cherish such thoughts in my brest henceforth and if hee come at any time to take paines amongst us seeing I finde hee respects bak't meate and rost meate so well it shall goe hard but wee will have a tith Pig for his entertainement And so much the rather that I may cleare my selfe from Judaisme for Iack of Newbery my Countreyman being a great Clothier in his dayes and then strangers came from farre to buy Cloath at his House and amongst the rest a company of Jewes were sometime entertained by him being a very hospitallous man and an excellent house-keeper his house being accounted the best Inne in the Towne to make himselfe merry caused the table to bee furnished with all variety of Hogges flesh which they perceaving tooke it for a flout but after they had grumbled a while upon it hee made shew as if but then hee had remembred himselfe of his errour and not till then considered that they were Jewes and forthwith hee commanded all the dishes to be remooved
expressed in part and but in part after a halting manner For hee professeth that on the Lords Day we are to abstaine from such workes as are an hinderance to Gods service but he delivers this onely of the publique service as if to spend an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the afternoone in Gods service were enough for the sanctifying of the day yet Gerardus the Lutherane observes that God commands the day to be sanctified not a part of the day And let the law of this nation or of any nation of the world be judge between us whether in case one man owe another a dayes service I say let the world judge whether in common equity this be to be interpreted of an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the evening or onely of a part of the day and not rather the whole day And what vile courses are these that men should carry themselves so basely in dispensing unto God the proportion of his service In the sixth and last place we have that wherunto all the former discourse is consecrated namely to make way for such profane sports and pastimes which here are glosed with the cleanely stiles of recreations to refresh the spirits and for the increase of mutuall love and neighbourhood amongst us as if he were ashamed to speake out that all this tends to the countenance of May-games and morricing and dancing about May-poles on the Lords Day D. Andrewes sometimes Bishop of Winchester Patterne of Catech. p. 244 245. on the Con. spared not to professe that vacare choreis to be at leisure on that day for dancing is the Sabbath of the golden calfe and hee allegeth Austin for it though hee cannot justifie his quotation Doctor Downeham Bishop of Derry calls such like courses profane sports and pastimes which more distract and more hinder our workes than honest labours and he censures also such a Sabbath calling it the Sabbath of the calfe Exod. 23.6.18.19 Bishop Babington on Exod. 16. puts a Christian soule upon this meditation Good Lord what doe I upon the Sabbath day This people of his might not gather Manna and may I safely gad to faires and markets to dancings and drinkings to wakes and wantons to Beare-baitings and Bulbaitings with such like wicked profanations of the Lords Day Are these workes for the Sabbath Is this to keepe the holy day Can I answer this to my God that gives mee six dayes for my selfe and takes but one to himselfe of which I rob him also No no assuredly I shall not be able to indure his wrath for these things one day and therefore I will leave them and regard his holy day hereafter better than I have done And in his exposition of the Commandements by way of question and answer p. 44. reproves expressely Summer-games on the Lords Day and in his Examen of conscience annexed to the fourth Commandement he speakes against going to Church-ales and Summer-games nay is it not apparent that by the very act of Parliament 1º Caroli that to goe out of a mans owne parish about any sports or pastimes on the Sabbath day is to profane the Sabbath For to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath is that statute made Now unlesse the sports themselves be profanations of the Sabbath it is as evident that to goe forth of a mans parish unto such sports is no profanation any more than to goe out of a mans parish walking or to conferre in pious manner with a friend or to fetch a Physitian or Surgeon if need be or to heare a Sermon And it is very strange that wee of the reformed Churches shall justifie such liberty on the Lords Day which Papists condemne on their holy dayes who usually complaine of dancing upon such dayes as Polydor Virgil upon Luke and Parisiensis de legibus cap. 4. And of old such courses have beene forbidden by the decrees of Leo and Anthemius Emperours It is condemned also in the synod of Toledo Can. 23. as Baldwin the Lutheran shewes who also writes devoutly against such courses on the Lords Day and gives this reason For if the labours of our calling are forbidden in the holy day how much more such recreations and p. 48. He shewed how the Sabbath was profaned by unchast dancings and any manner of wantonnesse what need I here to make mention of Austin who professeth and that against the Jewes that it is better to goe to plow then to dance and that it were better for their Women to spin Wooll then immodestly to dance as they did yet now a dayes such as oppose the same courses as Austin did are censured for Judaizing thus the World seemes to be turned upside downe Is it not high time Christ should come to set an end to it Dielericus the Lutherane complaines of the like profanations of the Sabbath too much in course amongst them in his Analysis of the Gospells for the Lords Day p. 559. and let every Christian conscience be judge whether to follow May-poles May-games and Morrice dancing be to sanctifie the Sabbath as God commands if any man shall say that the fourth Commandement concerned the Jewes and not us Christians hee must therewithall renounce the booke of Homilies For it professeth that this Commandement binds us to the observation of our Sabbath which is Sunday the words are these So if we will be the children of our Heavenly Father we must be carefull to keep the Christian Sabbath Day which is the Sunday not only for that it is Gods Commandement but also to declare our selves to be loving children in following the example of our gracious Lord and Father Then complaining how the Sabbath is profaned Some use all dayes alike The other sort worse For although they will not travaile nor labour on the Sunday yet they will not rest in holinesse as God commandeth but they rest in ungodlinesse and filthinesse prancing in their pride pranking and pricking poynting painting themselves to be gorgeous and gay They rest in excesse superfluity in gluttony and drunkennesse like Rats and Swin they rest in brawling and railing in quarrelling and fighting they rest in wantonnesse in toyish talking in filthy fleshlinesse and concludes after this manner so that it doth too evidently appeare that God is more dishonored and the Divell better served on Sunday then upon all the dayes of the weeke beside And that distinction which Calvin makes of the Jewish observation of the Sabbath and our Christian observation of a Sabbath is for ought I know generally receaved of all and the distinction is this that the Jewes observed their Sabbath so strictly in the point of rest for a mysterious signification but wee observe it in resting from other works so farre forth as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations now it is apparant that sports and pleasures are as strong avocations from
holy studies and meditations as worldly cares and both equally are noted out to be such as choake the Word Luk. 8.14 And therefore this day is altogether appointed to this end even to recreate our selves in the Lord For seeing God purposeth one day to keepe an everlasting Sabbath with us when God shall be all in all to make us the more fit for this even the more meete partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light therefore hee hath given us his Sabbaths to walke with him and to inure our selves to take delight in his company who takes delight to speake unto us as from Heaven in his holy Word and to give us liberty to speake unto him in our prayers confessions thanksgivings and supplications on other dayes wee care for the things of this World on this day our care should be spirituall and heavenly in caring for the things of another World so our pleasures should be spirituall on this day Esay 58.13 If thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight to consecrate it as glorious unto the Lord. Now have we not as much cause to performe this duty under the Gospell as ever the Jewes had under the Law And indeed there is no colour of reason against this but by affirming that now the setting of a day apart for Gods service is left at large to the liberty of the Church and albeit the Church hath set apart the Lords Day for this yet their meaning herein is no more then this that they shal come to Church twise a day and afterwards give themselves to what sports soever are not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land so that now a dayes wee are free from the obligation to the fourth Commandement and yet we are taught by the Church aswell at the hearing of this Commandement as at any other to say Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law and the booke of Homilies urgeth us to the sanctifying of our Christian Sabbath which is Sunday saith the booke expressely and that by vertue of Gods expresse Commandement And therefore I cannot but wonder at the indiscretion of this Prefacer who catcheth after such a superficiall advantage as the denomination of a feast amongst the Jewes not considering how little sutable it is to the grounds of his Tenet For by his Tenet after evening Prayer the Sabbath is at end the Churches meaning being not any further to oblige them to the sanctifying of the Lords Day but to give them liberty to use any sports or pastimes not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land But so was not the feast of the Jewes ended when they danced this being but an expression of that joy whereunto the present solemnity called them and they sinned no more herein then David did when hee danced before the Arke as wee see Ier. 31.12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together to the goodnesse of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oile and for the young of the flock and of the heard and their soule shall be as a well watered Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all 13 Then shall the Virgin rejoyce in the dance both yong men and old together for I will turne their mourning into joy and will comfort them make them rejoyce for their sorrow 14. And I will satiate the soule of the Priest with fatnesse and my people shall be satisfyed with my goodnesse saith the Lord. And the like wee reade Esay 30.19 Ye shall have a song as in the Night when an holy solemnity is kept and gladnesse of heart as when one goeth with a Pipe to come into the Mountaine of the Lord to the mighty One of Israel so that if Morricing and May-games and Dancing about May-poles were a sanctifying of the Sabbath Day in part as the Lord commands the day to be sanctifyed then indeed these sports were as lawfull on the Lords Day as the Jewes piping and dancing were lawfull on their feasts But that any such piping and dancing were used and allowed in those ancient times among the Jewes on their Sabbaths there is not the least colour of evidence And it is evident that such sports put them to lesse rest for their bodies then the workes of their calling neither is there any better evidence that any such piping and dancing were in use amongst the Jewes while they continued the people of God on every day of their solemne feasts for two dayes in each of them to wit the first day and the last they are commanded to keepe as Sabbaths whereon they were to have an holy convocation and thereon they are expressely commanded to rest from all servile workes and I should thinke the following of naturall pleasures are to be presumed as servile workes as the workes of a mans calling Lastly all recreations are to this end even to fit us to the workes of our calling either for the workes of our particular callings or the workes of our generall callings as we are Christians Such sports if they fit us for the service of God were more seasonable in the Morning then in the Evening If for the workes of our particular calling then are they inferiour to the workes of our calling the furthering whereof is their end and the meanes are alwayes inferiour in dignity unto the end Now if the more noble workes are forbidden on that day how much more such as are inferior are forbidden But it may be sayd that mens minds being burthened and oppressed with the former service of the day therefore some relaxatiō is to be granted for the refreshing of our spirits As much as to say a part of the Lords Day is to be allowed for profane sports and pastimes to refresh us after wee have beene tired out with serving God can this be savoury in the eares of a Christian should not wee rather complaine of these corruptions and bewaile it before God then give our selves to such courses as are apt to strengthen it It is true such is our naturall corruption that nothing is more tedious unto us as wee are in our selves then to converse with God but should not the consideration hereof provoke us so much the more to strive against it then give way to the nourishing and confirming of it And hath not our Saviour told us that not the cares of this World onely but voluptuous living also is it that choaks the good seede of Gods Word and causeth it to become unfruitfull in us As for the refreshing of our spirits and quickning them and thereby making us the fitter for Gods service as in any modest exercise of the body in private according to every mans particular disposition to prevent drowsinesse and dulnesse in attending to Gods Word in praying in singing of Psalmes I know none that takes any exception against it And as for the authority of the magistrate to appoint pastimes sure I am the high Court of
deale plainely my opinion is that all sports and pastimes on the Lords Day are a breaking of the rest belonging to it and a profanation of that day which ought to be sanctified And I trust herein I differ not one jot from the whole Parliament 1o. Caroli wherein was expressely prohibited that any man should goe out of his owne Parish to any sports and pastimes on the Sabbath day and this is done to prevent the profanation of it as appeares clearely by the reasons of that Act which Parliament was held certaine yeares after this Lecture concerning the Doctrine of the Sabbath was read in the Vniversity And I nothing doubt but the censure of a Zelote will passe upon mee for this though wee shew no more zeale in saying that The Lords Day is by some licentiously profaned then others doe in professing that the Lord Day is by us superstitiously observed nay who are the greatest zelotes in their cause let the Christian World judge by the effects This is all I have to note concerning the first Section I come unto the second Secondly and here in the first place concerning the institution of it let mee take leave to professe that the question it selfe is not indifferenly stated when it is stated thus whether before the publishing of Moses Law the Sabbath was to be observed by the law of Nature For I am verily perswaded that the Doctor himselfe will not affirme that after the publishing of Moses law it was to be observed by the law of nature understanding by the law of nature as I presume he doth such a law as is knowne by the very light of nature Aristotle hath taught us in generall that morall duties are rather wrought upon a sober conscience by perswasion than doe carry with them any convincing evidence of demonstration Yet it is confessed that by the light of nature some time ought to be set apart even for the publike service and worship of God and not onely so but also it is nothing lesse cleare that a sufficient proportion of time must be alloted to the professed service of our Creator But wherein this sufficient proportion of time doth consist we are to seek being left unto our selves and in my judgement considering what we are it is very fit we should be to seeke in this that so our eyes may wait upon the direction of our Maker For is it fit that servants should cut out a proportion of service to their Master at their owne pleasure and not rather be guided herein by their Masters pleasure especially by such a Master to whom wee owe not onely all that wee doe enjoy but our selves also who holdeth our soules in life and in whose hands is the breath of all man-kinde The question thus untowardly proposed it is subjoyned that They commonly which are more apt to say any thing than able afterward to prove it maintaine affirmatively that it was Doctor Rivet having proposed this addeth that if it be spoken of the law of nature properly so called scarce any one will be found to maintaine any such thing And indeed the question in hand is of the institution of the Sabbath Now no wise man useth to inquire of the institution of that which is written in our hearts and knowne unto us by the very common light of nature It is true some fetch the originall thereof from the beginning of the world when God first blessed the seventh day and sanctified it And what other sense this can have than that God commanded it to be set apart for holy uses wee cannot devise For seeing Gods blessing and sanctifying of it doth undoubtedly denote some act of God this must be either an immanent act or an act transient Not an act immanent for all such are eternall but this was temporall following upon Gods rest on the seventh For therefore it is said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and being an act transient and temporall it must declare his will to have it sanctified that is by the generall notion of the word set apart that is from profane and secular to holy uses And how could this will of God be manifested but by commandement seeing it is a will of God not so much concerning what shall be done as concerning what shall be mans duty to doe And this hath both Walaeus and after him Rivetus justified and this latter against Gomarus once and againe and that by divers arguments And thus as we have expresse Scripture for it so we have as evident reason to justifie it For no other ground can be devised for the dividing of the whole course of time into weeks each consisting of seven dayes than as it stands in congruity to Gods making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh Which division of time was undoubtedly observed by the Israelites and received by them from their forefathers yea and from the Patriarches of old who lived before the flood and that continued without alteration even from the Creation of the world For otherwise they could not have discerned what days had been answerable to the first six of the Creation and what day to the seventh wherein God rested having finished the creation But this was well known unto them as appears by their gathering Manna and promulgation of the 4th Commandement together with the rest on Mount Sinai Nay this division of time into weeks was generally observed among the heathens as hath been shewed by great variety of reading and that this hath beene the most ancient division of time those other divisions into moneths and into yeeres comming in place long after according as the motion of the Moone and of the Sunne were found out by Astrologers not till then like as the denomination of the seven dayes of the weeke by the severall names of the planets was not brought in untill the severall motions of all the Planets come to be discovered As for the second reason proposed thus on our part If all the rest of the Commandements flow from the principles of nature how is this excluded It is not fit that any man should take upon him the shaping of his adversaries arguments That this Commandement should be taken for a part of the morall Law I wonder that any man should be so unreasonable as to deny but that this Commandement should flow from the Principles of nature and that delivered without distinction I know no man that affirmes But let us distinguish and I make no doubt but there will be found no difference of moment betweene Doctor Prideaux and us For I find no man to deny but that some time in generall is to be set apart as well for Gods publique worship and service as for private and that this is acknowledged by the very light of nature Only as touching the proportion of time that is to be set apart for Gods service herein we are to seeke yet herein also the light of nature doth advantage us and that sufficiently
reason though not totally and wholy For the first if above one day in the weeke should be kept perpetually holy Gravamen esset laborantibus toties vacare it were a grievance to labourers to rest from worke so oft his meaning is in this case they could not sufficiently provide for themselves and their families as touching the maintenance of this life temporall and if but one day in a fortnight or a month should be appointed oblivisceremur Dei per desuetudinem cultus ipsius We should forget God through not accustoming our selves sufficiently to his service Therefore it stands with reason that one day in seven should be celebrated to the Lord. This surely is not to deny the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated unto the Lord to be morall but to confirme it rather Neither doe I finde that Aquinas resolves it so as here it is pretended that which hee sayth to be ceremoniall is applied by him onely to the particular day of the weeke Indeed hee doth say that the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to the Lord is morall neither doth hee deny it onely hee sayth it is morall that some time should be set apart for Gods service Zan. in 4. praecep p. 599. And it may be under this he comprehends the proportion of one day in seven as Zanchy doth For albeit hee treads in Aquinas steps when hee sayth Morale est quatenus natura docet pietas postulat ut aliquis dies destinetur quieti ab operibus servilibus quo divino cultui vacare possit Ecclesia ceremoniale est quatenus septimus dies fuit praescriptus non alius It is morall to have a day destinate to rest from servile workes so to be free for Gods service It is ceremoniall that the seventh day and no other is prescribed for this yet a little before hee manifesteth that by one day to be set apart for this he meanes one day in seven when he thus sayth Ibid. p. 595. Con. 1. Morale est mandatum quatenus praecipit ut è septem diebus unum consecremus cultui divino proinde quatenus tale mandatum est nunquam fuit abrogatum nec abrogari potest The Commandement is morall as it commands us to consecrate one day in seven unto divine service And so doth Dominicus Bannes 22. q. 44. art 1. Bellarmine de cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 11. And if no other be the opinion of Aquinas if the schoolmen of what sect soever say the same it followeth that they differ no more from us then Aquinas did it may be they will be found to agree with us For I doe not thinke any schooleman being put to it will deny but that by the very light of nature not onely some time but a sufficient proportion of time must be set apart for Gods service And albeit had we beene left unto our selves without any indication of this proportion from God wee might well have beene to seeke in the setting forth of this convenient proportion Yet considering how God hath gone before us making the World in six daies and resting the seventh and considering thereupon the division of time into septenaries of dayes reason I should thinke with Tostatus doth dictate that the proportion of one day in seven was more convenient then any other Or if this were not sufficient for our direction herein yet when God hath manifested unto us both after the Creation and in the fourth Commandement what proportion of time hee likes best for this as it is in reason fit that the Master especially such a Master should prescribe what proportion of time shall be set apart for his service then with Chrysostome wee have cause by the very light of nature undoubtedly to conclude that if in the beginning and under the Law God required one day in seven to be consecrated to his service wee surely cannot allow unto him a worse proportion under the Gospell And Iacobus de Valentia advers Judae q. 2. Conclus Praeceptum de Sabbato celebrando est partim morale propter primam conditionem This first condition in respect whereof he sayth it is morall hee professeth to be two fold 1 in regard of the rest 2. in regard of the sanctification of it then hee proves it saying probatur Adi 2. Nam primo Sabbatum fuit praeceptum ad requiem hominis sanctificationem Dei ut homo cessaret ab omni negotio mundano ut facilius posset Deo servire latriam exhibere Then comming to specifie the proportion of time to be allowed hereunto Oportet saith hee ut aliqua dies in septimana ad hujusmodi sanctificationem latriam sit Deo dedicata Et ut sic hoc praeceptum est stabile aeternum ut patebit One day in the weeke must be dedicated unto God for this sanctification and worship and thus the precept is stable and everlasting as it shall appeare In like manner Stella upon Luke 14. In the sanctification of the Sabbath there was something morall and something ceremoniall It is morall to observe one day in the weeke but that it should be this day or that day this is ceremoniall Adde to these Bellarmine de cultu sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 11. Ius divinum requirebat ut unus dies hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino Thus we see these are directly for us Aquinas and the schoolemen are not directly against us as hitherto it hath appeared no more then Zanchy who yet is directly for us as hath beene shewed By the way it doth not follow from any evidence that either these or Tostatus have given that the assigning of one day above another was ceremoniall taking this word ceremoniall in proper speech for 1. it may be accompted positive 2. what have wee to doe with ceremonialls in proper speech now under the Gospell who yet doe still observe one day in seven 3. nay why may not that also justly be accompted morall if God hath marked out that day wee celebrate by some notable worke to be consecrated to the Lord above others especially according to Bishop Lake his grounds namely that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day for proofe whereof hee appeales to the institution of all feasts both humane and divine In this case I should thinke there is no colour for suspition of any Judaisme who those fathers are who have pronounced as here it is said the fourth Commandement to be a ceremony a shadow and a figure only here it is not mentioned but delivered at large but I finde that Isychrius rejects from the Decalogue this precept for the observation of the Sabbath esteeming it to be only ceremoniall opposed herein by Dominicus Bannes 22. q. 44. art 1. Sed profecto fallitur quoth Bannes for the precept is morall as touching the substance of the praecept to wit that there be a certaine time wherein a man ought to rest unto God
ex institutione ecclesiae And whereas Bellarmine is alleaged as the mouth of the Schoolemen to affirme absolutely that the celebration of the Lords day is by the constitution of the Church and that in distinction from them who say it was ordered by the Apostles I find no such matter in the place quoted but rather the contrary both confirming that one day in a weeke is to be consecrated to the Lord by law divine and whereas it was not fit that now the Saturday should be it therefore the Sabbath was turned into the Lords day by the Apostles his words are these Ius divinū requirebat ut vnus dies hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino non autem conveniebat ut servaretur Sabbatum Itaque Sabbatum ab Apostolis in diem Dominicum versum est likewise Sixtus Senensis saith that the institution of the Lords day is of the Apostles as I have shewed in my answer to the preface S. 5. It is true that which is here reported of Brentius as who professeth it to be left indifferent to the Church to ordain one day in seven or on day in fourteene to be consecrated which whether it be not an unreasonable conceit I am willing to appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux yet Gemardus the Lutheran will not follow Brentius in this as I have shewed in my answer to the preface and 5. Section For hee acknowledgeth the celebration of the Lords day to be juxta Apostolorum constitutionem And as for Chemnitius what he writes hereof is not expressed but for the divine authority of the celebration of the Lords day I have represented the joynt consent of some 11. or 12. of our moderne divines in the place before mentioned Besides the concurrence of the ancient Fathers not one of them being so much as pleaded for the opposite Tenet and lastly the generall answer of Christians in the times of persecution when they were demanded in this manner Dominicum servasti hast thou kept the Lords day for usually it was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I cannot omit it for I am a Christian Sect. 5. The first opinion to wit of those who maintained the divine authoritie of the celebritie of the Lords day by the old Testament is here censured for inclining much to Judaisme but it is not expressed wherein And it is apparant they doe not maintaine the observation of the seventh day Certainely this is delivered in reference to somewhat that is not thought fit to be expressed yet the prefacer did expresse it imputing unto them whom he opposeth that they doe observe the Jewish Sabbath not in respect of the Jewish day but of the Jewish manner observing it to wit in the way of a rigorous rest But I know none that maintaines any other rest from works then as they are avocations from sacred studies and meditations whereas the Jewes observed it for some mysterious signification sake and thereupon were tyed to a more rigorous rest But let them speake plainly and say we are too rigorous in thinking sports and pastimes unlawfull on the Lords day And herein I appeale to every Christian conscience whether these be not as great avocations from sacred studies and meditations as the workes of our ordinary callings Then againe which of us comes nearest to Judaisme herein Is it not against the Jewes that Austin professeth Melius est orare quam saltare Better to goe to plough then to dances and Foeminae vestrae melius lanam facerent quam saltarent Better it were your women should spin wooll then dance as their course was in their festivalls Againe why should their opinion be Jewish by maintaining it out of the old Testament rather then out of the new Then who are they that maintaine it onely by the old Testament And lastly not one that I know neither doe I thinke it can be justly obtruded on any doe maintaine the succession of the Lords day in the place of the Jewish Sabbath either by the originall institution of it as from the creation or by the fourth commandement yet upon these nullities is founded the imputation of both impudency and ignorance in oppugning the received opinion of Divines That confidently taken up for a received opinion among divines which is in no tolerable sort proved not one Ancient alleaged for it and but two Papists quoted the one of which I have shewed to be of a plaine contrary opinion Sect. 4. And of Protestant Divines I have represented no lesse then eleven maintaining the Apostolicall and divine constitution of the Lords day besides Gerardus the Lutheran to affront Brentius Nay Doctor Prideaux himselfe Sect. 7. maintaines that it is of Divine authority and as I remember in the vespers at the last act unalterable by the Church That the Priesthood being changed there is made also a change of the law we beleeve because the Apostle saith it Heb. 7.12 it is well if the Schoolemen make the word of God their principles but of what Law of the morall law or of the tenne commandements or any one of them yet we willingly confesse a change of one particular in one of them not rather of the law of sacrifices such a change as to set an end to them That herence the Schoolemen conclude that at this day the morall law bindeth not as it was published and proclaimed by Moses but as at first it appertained no lesse to the Gentiles then to the Iewes this I say is a mystery And to confesse a truth when I met with this in a certaine manuscript of one Brewers it seemed to me a very wilde discourse from this place of the Apostle to inferre so much but now I meet with it in a lecture of so judicious and learned Divine as Doctor Prideaux I will suspend my judgement and waite untill I heare what those Schoolemen are and where it is that they make such inferences that being made acquainted with them I may judge of them according to my capacity as they deserve Certainely Zanchy in the place quoted makes no such Inference from that place Heb. 7.12 yet the Doctrine which he delivers is good and sound though the instance he makes of the Sabbath too weake to prove it as appeares to all that acknowledge the Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath to be given to Adam immediatly after his creation who deserve to be accompted more hot spurres then they in whom The desire of prey doth over-runne the sent Now what one of our Divines can be alleaged to derive the authority of the Lords day from the law of Moses I am verily perswaded not one The sanctifying of the Lords Sabbath they derive from thence and the sanctifying of one day in seven but not the authority of the Lords day But if it may appeare otherwise that the Lords day by good authority is substituted in the place of the seventh to become our Christian Sabbath such as our Saviour fore-prophecied of Matth. 24.20 then
notion to be a like in both And hereupon it is most ingenuously acknowledged that The alteration of the name doth intimate that the Sabbath was also altered in relation to Gods worship but the appointment of the tim c. wherein endeth this Section And the next begins with this question what then shall we affirme that the Lords day is founded on divine authority and the answer is For my part without prejudice to any mans opinion I assent unto it how ever the arguments like me not whereby it is supported well therefore let us lovingly and candidly as it becomes the gates of the muses conferre about these arguments First this inference offends me That in the cradle of the world God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore all men are bound to sanctifie it by the Law of Nature since I both doubt whether the Patriarches did observe it before Moses time and have learnt also that the Law of nature is immutable Doctor Andrewes in his patterne of Catecheticall Doctrine writes saying This is a principle that the Decalogue is the Law of nature revived and the law of nature is the Image of God But let us consider the argument It is one thing to except against the antecedent another to except against the inference made herence As touching the Antecedent it is one thing what God hath ordained and may be another thing what the Patriarches observed we say God ordained it in as much as hee commanded it in these words Therefore God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it that is commanded man to sanctifie it as hath beene proved and is also confessed only to helpe themselves as it were at a dead lift they say those words in Genesis are uttered by way of anticipation as much as to say because God rested on that day therefore God commanded man to rest on the same day and sanctifie it but when 2500. yeeres after for the unreasonablenesse of which interpretation and the incongruitie thereof unto the same words repeated in the fourth commandement I appeale to that which I have formerly discoursed hereupon Now if God from the beginning ordained the seventh day to be kept holy wee leave it to every sober conscience to judge whether it be not most likely that both Adam and the holy Patriarches observed it for we insist not in this argument upon humane observation but meerely upon Divine institution And though God did from the beginning command it yet it followeth not that all men are bound to sanctifie that day unlesse they have some evidence of Gods command wherewith we are made acquainted by the Scriptures If the law of nature be meant a light of nature convincing us we doe not infer herence or at all maintaine nor any that I know that in this sense all or any are bound to keep the seventh or a seventh day holy but onely by vertue of Gods command Yet this wee professe that seeing it is generally confessed that by the very light of nature some time is to be set apart for Gods service Wee cannot devise in reason any better course then to set one day in seaven apart for this considering the first division of dayes is into weekes and if a seventh part of our time be in reason to be consecrated unto God wee thinke it more convenient to set one intire day in seven apart for this then the seventh part of every day because the other businesses of every day are apt to cause distraction from the Lords service And as I have but erst discoursed it is more fit the Master should appoint unto the servant what proportion of service hee shall performe unto him then that this should be left to the discretion or liberty of the servant 1. both the honour of the Master requiring this 2. and the good of the servant for hereby hee shall be assured of the better acceptance at the hands of his master And so for the particular day it is fit the Master should marke out that also unto him by some prerogative set upon the day as hee did the seventh day by finishing the worke of Creation and by his rest thereon from his workes to call man to an holy rest from his so to be more free for the service of his Creator In which cases both touching the proportion of the time and particularity of the day the Law being made it shall continue immutable and unalterable by the will of the Creature but mutable and alterable according to the will of the Creator so that things being well distinguished and rightly considered and stated I see no bug beare of inconvenience in all this Neyther doe I see any reason why the spending of one day in Gods holy worship as a morall and perpetuall duty should seeme distastfull to any Since it is apparant that God commanded it unto his people of the Jewes and for 1600 yeares it hath beene continually observed by Christian Churches unto this day and I make no doubt but it shall hold till Christs comming though from the beginning of the World it was never found to be so hotly opposed as at this day And why should any man stick in acknowledging it to be morall when never any man busied himselfe to finde out any ceremoniality in reference to the proportion of one day in seven Neither doe I thinke ever any man called it judiciall but Azorius professeth it to be rationi maxime consentancum most agreeable to reason and no man that I know hath at any time set himselfe to devise a proportion of time to be spent in Gods service more agreeable to reason then this And as for the third offence taken for I know not any that give it The fourth Commandement is brought by none that I know to prove that the Lords Day is now become our Christian Sabbath but supposing it to be our Sabbath as the booke of Homilies sayth it is and our Saviour signified that Christians should have their Sabbath as well as the Jewes had theirs Math. 24 20. wee produce the fourth Commandement to prove that wee ought to sanctifie it and that we may the better sanctifie it to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification thereof And indeed the Commandedement is so drawen as to command one day in seaven to be observed and whatsoever is that seventh prescribed by lawfull authority to sanctifie it and abstaine from all works whereby the hallowing of it is disturbed and all this we take to be morall namely the worshipping of God in a certaine proportion of time prescribed by him and to that purpose to rest from workes not for any mysterious signification sake as did the Jewes wee thinke the practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes is sufficient to inferre the apostolicall and divine institution thereof from hence Athanasius Cyrill Austin and the Fathers generally for I know not one alleaged to the contrary so take it And the Lords Day hath no other notion in Scripture
language then a day of the Lords institution and this is confirmed in that it comes in the place of the Jewes Sabbath which is called in Scripture the Lords holy day Esay 58. and Psal 118.24 of the day wherein Christ was made the head of the corner having beene formerly refused of the builders it is expresly said that it is the day that the Lord hath made and thereupon wee are called to rejoyce and be glad in it And it hath this congiuity in the cause of its institution to the first Sabbath that as on the seventh day the Lord rested from his worke of Creation so on the first day of the weeke the Lord Christ rising from the dead then rested from his worke of redemption And lastly Christ bringing with him a new Creation is it strange that he should bring with him a new Sabbath and no day so fit for this as the day of his Resurrection And lastly whosoever doth not rest satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church must hee not be driven to acknowledge an ordination more then humane requirable thereunto Of the necessity of my consequences and evidence of expresse Scripture formerly mentioned I leave it to the indifferent to judge and to none sooner then to Doctor Prideaux himselfe none being more able to judge of consequences then hee being so versed therein and I am well persuaded of the indifferency of his affections and had those writings in the canvassing of this point beene extant before this Lecture of his which hath since come to the light of the presse I am apt to conceave that either hee would have given way to that which seemes in my judgement to be the truth or represented good reason of his dissenting from it The Apostles example nor so onely but drawing the Churches generally to the same practise doth argue a constitution yet more is brought for the confirmation of the authority of the Lords Day then example That of searching into the veyles and shadowes of the old Testament to finde this institution is a mystery unto mee and so farre am I from that course that I know none guilty of it The ancient Fathers sometimes doe expatiate this way for the setting forth of the honorable condition of the Lords Day but they build not doctrines thereupon which if they had done in some particular case advantageous to our adversaries it had beene enough to have cryed us downe As for Judaisme I have often shewed how little colour there is for any such imputation to be cast upon us but rather upon our adversaries I see no cause to range the Petrobusian with the Ebionite but were they yoake-fellowes whereof I finde not the least evidence yet should not wee draw with them under the same yoake Chemnitius his discourse I have formerly examined somewhat at large The voluntary consecration of it by Christians no man hath cause to embrace who professeth himselfe not satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church as but erst the Doctor did Of Brentius I have spoken enough yet well fare him that professeth the authority of the day to be so farre divine that he who shall neglect it or rashly breake it doth forthwith become worse then the Jew or Infidell As for the Arminians what respect soever they pretend to the patterne of the primitive Church like enough they could be very well content with the Socinians to make all dayes equall in use as well as they are in nature or in respect of any mysterious signification I leave Azorius to refresh himselfe with the juyce of his owne distinction It is well that Suarez comes so farre as to professe that practically it is not alterable by the Church As for Calvin Bucer Chemnitius and the rest who are onely sayd to affirme that still the Church hath power to change the Lords day to some other I finde no such thing in Calvin and Bucer as for what Chemnitius delivers hereupon in my judgement hee sayth no more then Calvin though some particulars in him I have found to be weake enough upon discussion in the 6 Section of my answer to the Preface having there met with the same names named to the same purpose It is not credible to mee they should give power to the Church to bring us backe to the Jewish Sabbath in that case who should savour most of Judaisme or preferre us to the Turkes festivall day which is the Friday To be instituted in memory of our redemption admits an ambiguous signification That bringing with it a new Creation and so requiring a new Sabbath as Bishop Andrewes discourseth and Athanasius 1200 yeares before him No day had a better marke for this to be preferred into the place of the Jewes Sabbath then the day of Christs Resurrection yet considering that not that day of the yeare but that day of the weeke is called in Scripture the Lords Day this maketh it evidently to savour of Divine institution yet it is well that here it is acknowledged to be expresly of traditions Apostolicall Beza addeth vere Divinae on Revel 1.10 I trust we shall ever give due respect both to Law and Gospell and the better concurrence wee finde of them for the maintenance of any doctrine of ours the more cause wee shall have to rejoyce therein without feare of censure for the mixing of them or framing any Sabbaticall Idoll out of them It is not the first time I have read of some such aspersion in Rogers his preface to his Analysis of the Articles of the Church of England And the next yeere was printed D. Willet upon Genesis dedicated to King Iames where on the 2. ch 3. v. he concludes his discourse on this argument after this manner But these allegations are here superfluous seeing there is a learned treatise of the Sabbath already published of this argument meaning D. Bownds discourse thereon Which containeth a most sound doctrine of the Sabbath Girded at by Mr. Rogers as is layd downe in the former positions which shal be able to abide the triall of the Word of God and stand warranted thereby when other humane fantasies shall vanish howsoever some in their heate and intemperance are not afraid to call them Sabbatarian errors yea hereticall assertions a new Iubily Saint Sabbath more then either Iewish or Popish institution much lesse doe wee feare the story of the Jew of Teukesbury Solomon hath taught us that the righteous spareth his beast and in our Saviours dayes the Jewes themselves though very superstitious in the observation of their Sabbath yet shewed mercy towards their beasts in leading to them to water and helping them out of the ditch on their Sabbath day But God can give men over into a minde voyd of all judgement as to the destruction of their soules so to the temporall destruction of their bodies also and that as in the way of profanenes wherof we have manifold experience so in the way of superstition Now such stories are pretty
not variable in his choice as everlasting as the World because appointed before the fall 26. And so should the hallowing of the seventh day from the Creation have beene as lasting had it not beene for sin for what could have altered it but a new Creation 27. But man having sinned and so by sin abolished the first Creation de jure though not de facto God was pleased to make by Christan instauration of the World 28. Hee as the Scripture speakes of Christs Redemption made a new Heaven and a new Earth old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29 Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30 As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31 So did Christ when he ended his worke make a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable Therefore 33. This first day succeeded the seventh and by that was this memoriall abolished 34 And although the Apostles were indulgent to the Jewes in keeping the seventh as well as the first when they conversed with them untill the destruction of the Temple 35 Yet would they not endure that the Gentiles should be tied to the observation thereof 36. This first day Christ sanctified not only by his resurrection but also by sundry apparitions before his ascension and after his ascension by sending thereon the Holy Ghost this is cleare in the Gospell and Actes 37 The Apostles directed by Christs not onely example but spirits also observed the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. Iohn in the Revelation 38 And from the Apostles the Catholike Church uniformly received it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39 And the Church hath received it not to be Liberae observationis as if men might at their pleasure accept or refuse it 40 But to be perpetually observed to the Worlds end for as God only hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that hee will take for his portion for hee is Lord of the Sabbath 41 And he doth it by the worke which hee doth on the day the worke I say doth difference a day from a day 42 Whereas otherwise all dayes are equall and the same in themselves as the sonne of Syrach teacheth 43 Now then when God doth any remarkable worke then will hee be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke if the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part 44 And his will is understood often by his precept but when we have not that the practise doth guide the Church 45 This is a catholick rule observeable in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46 The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monethly or yearly as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47 No man can translate the worke therefore can no man translate the day this is an undoubted rule in Theology 48 And no man can in reason deny due respect unto the worke therefore hee cannot deny the hallowing of the day a true rule in morality 49 Now then seeing the Lords Day hath not altered the proportion of time but onely changed the day though not properly yet by analogy though not with the accessories yet according to the Originall Sabbath It may well agree with the tenor of the fourth Commandement and the observance thereof be commanded therein According to these Theses which I hold true untill any of them be confuted I will point out what I mislike in the Questions or the Answers not every particular but some principall points Figure the Section of the Answers in your booke and you shall the better fit my Theses to them Question 1. VVHat doe you mean when you pray after the fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us c. The 49 Theses answereth that we meane not the Jewish Sabbath but that which analogically to the Originall Sabbath we observe The Lords Day Question 2. Sect. 1. The observation of the Sabbath some say is morall and perpetuall By Sabbath you must understand the Lords Day otherwise none but Hereticks hold this opinion Then I thinke the proportion of time is perpetuall Thesi 15 though if you looke to the assignation of the day it is not perpetuall sin hath altered it occasionally and God Causally absque hoc it was intended that it should be perpetuall Thesi 26. But whether is the observation of the Lords Day morall Certainly this is a morall rule to hallow the day wherein God doth some remarkable worke Thes 43. 48. But Christ did rise for the restauration of the World this day therefore the observance thereof morall Were it an absolute assignation of time the appointing of the Lords Day it might be doubted but take this circumstance as it cloatheth the worke then I hold it cleare that though time be but a circumstance yet the observance of time so understood is Morall But there is a mutability in the observance of such times as cloath Gods works because the works themselves are subject to mutability and so the seventh day was changed for the first because the first Creation needed an instauration and he that caused the Instauration might make the alteration Thesi 33. Question 1. Section 1. The Text is cleare Colos 2. that the observation of the Sabbath was ceremoniall As a shadow meane you this of the originall Sabbath or the declaratory cloathed with the accessories Thes 18 19 c. It is certaine the originall could be no shaddow for it is precedent to the fall The declaration may true as considered with his accessories but the author of the Questions I thinke mistaketh the text of S. Paul For the words referre to the controversie betweene the Jewes and Gentiles both believers but the beleeving Jew would have put upon the believing Gentile the ceremonies which S. Paul indureth not either here or in the Galat. As for the place to the Rom that tempereth the presumption of the Gentile who out of the conceipt of Christian liberty forgot to beare with the weake Jew All this is nothing to the Originall Sabbath whereunto I say the Lords Day succeedeth and is by analogy in the fourth Commandement which hath no mixture of those accessories for ought I can see in the words Question 1. Section 2. It cannot be proved that the Apostles commanded to sanctifie the Lords day in memory of Christs Resurrection No can what author ancient is there that doth not hold it to have had its originall from the Apostles he should doe well to alleage them It is something discrepant from the doctrine of our Church You alleage the words of the Homily but streighten the tense of them for the Christian People that chose the first day were those that lived in
the dayes of the Apostles all of them and their posterity successively to us Doth it therefore follow that wee may not keepe the seventh day in memory of the worlds Creation It doth for the Lords Day succeedeth in stead of that ut Thes 33. Therefore they cannot consist with the purpose of the alteration which is to note a New Creation Ib. Constantine commanded the sixt day should be kept in memory of Christs death Kept as a fasting day not as a festivall day and so the Church keepeth it still Ibid. Sabbato postridie Sabbati conveniunt So doth the Church now but Saturday is Parasceve to the Lords Day and least they should seeme to Judaize they did and do begin the Eve after noon to note it is but a preparation to Sunday Ibid. Saint Austin termeth the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement Sacramentum Vmbratile True as the Jewes did observe it So himselfe there expoundeth himselfe Question 1. Section 4. The observance of the Sabbath day by Christ compared to Jewish sacrifice This speaketh not of the assignation of dayes but how strictly the day must be kept and it is as true of the Lords Day Section 5. Hebrewes 4. mention is made of three rests Or one rest rather which is Gods rest Gen. 2. and the participation thereof 2 wayes Typically Spiritually The Typicall is the entrance into Canaan which carried with it a cessation from labours of the Jewish servitude and Pilgrimage From this Typicall many saith the Apostle were excluded through infidelity and by fayth some did partake it But there was another participation a spirituall which came by Jesus whereunto Iosuah could not bring which is a ceasing not from corporall but spirituall toyles and sinnes immediatly but mediately it will bring unto a spirituall blessed rest both of body and soule in Heaven This spirituall immediate rest or participation of Gods rest is called Sabbatismus populi Dei If this be as I conceave it is the meaning of the place what is this to dayes Ib. Section 6. Some will have a weekely Sabbath a shaddow in regard of the strictnesse of the Rest I thinke the strictnesse was not it at least not principally but the Accession of which in the Theses But you are out of your argument for S. Paul speakes of shadow whereof the body is Christ Now before the fall the Sabbath was a kinde of shadow of our eternall rest but not of that whereof Christ is the body And to us the Lords day is a foretast of that eternall rest and I hold this shadow to be as lasting as the World Ib. New Moone Et caetera shadowes in their substance not their accessories Ergo the Sabbath A weake collection for other feasts were instituted after the fall under the Pedagogy of the Law the Sabbath before therefore this might be made a shadow by accessorie these not so Ibid. Shall I demand of them when this Sabbath began to be a shadow When after the fall it received accessions it became such a shadow as Saint Paul speaketh of Col. 2. otherwise it was a kinde of shadow of eternall rest in the foundation and the Lords Day continueth so now Ib. The Apostle Hebrew 4 speaketh of the seventh as rested upon not sanctified Reade the mistake of this place before Ib. Section 6. The Sabbath more ceremoniall then the other Commandements you prove it out of S. Austin And it is plaine hee speaketh of the Sabbath as the Jewes observed it and had it given in charge with his accessories but I still call you to the Originall Sabbath Gen. 2. Res Respons ad quaestion 1. Section 1. Our words and meaning must not agree in our Prayer Lord have mercy upon us c. A strange answer I thinke they must and doe agree for by analogy is the Lords Day contained in the Commandement and the Church directeth us so to understand The apportionment of time is everlasting only the translation of the day is by all that have any understanding to Catechize taught to be grounded upon a new Creation succeeding the old The personall defects I cannot reply to but leave them to be reformed Though the imperfections of the ignorant should not be presented when the question is made so difficult that the learned can hardly assoile it As the author of the questions thinketh Question 2. How shall the fourth Commandement bind us considering the forme of words to keep any day but only the seventh I suppose in my Theses I have given a probable answer Seeing the apportionment of time is eternall which I thinke cannot justly be denyed I hold the translation of of the feast from the seventh to the first day is grounded upon Analogy For seeing God was pleased that the day of the Creation should be commemorated as appeareth by the Letter of the Commandement and the first Creation being by sin dissolved jure restored againe by Christ upon the first day where we find the rest after the new Creation there we must fix the feast And this is perswaded by the drift of the Law Except we lay this for a ground God will have the day of Creation observed Observed after the rule of the first Creation it cannot be for then we doe not acknowledge the dissolution thereof I meane still merito In testimony of that and Christs restitution we keepe the day of the new Creation and we are guided to it by the fourth Commandement Question 3. How shall it appeare to be the Law of nature to sanctifie one day every weeke Surely here the Author of the questions makes a strange answer For he looseth himselfe in his distinction of the Morall Law and the Law of nature which he seemeth not to understand well He would have the Law of nature to prescribe circumstances to actions and not the morall Law whereas the morality stands in observing the circumstance of actions as the Ethicks will teach and this in the phrase medium rationis Secondly hee thinketh that all the Lawes morall are as he calleth them of nature doe represent the Image of God and are unalterable even by God himselfe Not considering that there is a morality that concerneth man as he is Animal rationale and reason moderateth the sensuall part which commeth not within the compasse of the Image of God And in many particulars is mutable and dispensable in cases of necessity as it is held against the Law of Nature that brothers and sisters should marry but God dispensed with it but I should wade into a large argument if I should rippe up these two Errors I rather note that hee understandeth not the ground of a Festivall day that maketh no other ground of it than Omnia fiant ordine decenter The Lords Day had a higher ground which I opened in the Theses and that is Christs Resurrection and thereby a new Instauration of the World Which wee are bound to observe upon the grounds set downe in the Theses And in a word Hee
that doth not let Gods Word be the guide directing to sanctifie a Festivall day I thinke hee squareth not his opinion according to truth neither hath he any president from Gods Word FINIS Defensio Thesium de Sabbato 13 I Take notice of Tertull. Iustin Martyr Thes 1. true but they alter not my judgement And why I finde in them onely a bare assertion and that of a thing so remote from their times that they could not know it otherwise then by relation From the Scripture they had none happily they had it from some Jewes Galatinus alleadgeth some But I oppose Jewes to Jewes Philo Iudaeus de opificio Mundi not onely is of a contrary opinion but holdeth also that it was a feast common to all Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And peradventure some such thing is meant by Hesiod his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is not unlikely that God made the observation of the day a memoriall of the Creation But I will not enlarge that discourse It shall suffice that Philo Iudaeus In Decalog and Aben Ezra also and others thinke otherwise whose judgement our Orthodox Divines doe if not all yet for the most part follow Read them upon the second of Genesis 14 What the Patriarks did in point of religion 2. I thinke they did it by Divine direction Yee know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did never please God wherefore the Mosaicall Lawes other then those that had reference to the Church as nationall and delivered out of the Egyptian bondage are to be thought not introductory but declaratory Out of question those that concerned the substance of the service which stood in sacrifices and I thinke concerning the circumstance of time and place The place for there where God appeared there did they erect their altars yea and in the story of Rebecca it is plaine that shee went to a set place to consult the Lord. Gen. 25. And why shall not the time come under the same condition 15 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must receive an answer from that which is added in confirmation of the 13 Thesis It is but an ungrounded conjecture 16 Where had Rhenanus that opinion his varying from those whom I answered on the 13 Thesis sheweth that hee was not of Iustin Martyr or Tertullian his opinion and yet giveth no reason that may move to credit him or countervaile what I have alleadged for my opinion 18 Yes there is more if you compare Deut. c. 5. with Exodus c. 20. but I meant not onely that but other passages which make the Sabbath a signe of Gods residence sanctifying the Jewes c. which I expressed in the next thesis 19 Bedes conceipt may passe for an allegory built upon a witty accommodation of the literall sense which other fathers observed before him But that cannot be the literall sense of the Commandement You will not deny it if you grant that the Sabbath was instituted before the fall which I thinke more then probable though the Broughtonists hasten the fall before the Sabbath And I cannot without good reason yield that the patriarchs had no set time for divine service I meane a weekely time 31 True it is that Christ did rest from suffering upon the seventh but the last enemy death was not apparently overthrowne untill the reunion of his soule and body till he rose againe for our justification c. Therefore did the apostles make that the consummation of redemption in Christs Person 35 You cannot finde in all the 14. to the Romans that the Apostle is positive in the doctrine of dayes he expresseth a mutuall indulgence untill men had attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the liberty from Moses Law Neither doth he beare out the Gentiles against the Jewes but qualifie rather the destempered zeale of the Gentiles that were too hot against the Jewes Sensus dictorum sumendus est ex causis dicendorum It is plaine that there was a questiō whether the Christian gentile should be pressed to observe the ceremonies whereunto the christian Jewes were pertinaciously addicted but never was there for ought I read a question whether the Jewes should keepe the Lords day for I think they never refused it Had there been such a quarrell I would enlarge the sense of that Chapter as you doe to our question but seeing there was not I see not how it should be reasonably done 36 I say not that the Apostles imprinted any holinesse upon the first day of the weeke It was Christs resurrection that honoured that day which I say the Apostles were to respect not arbitrarily but necessarily You may perceive the reason in my Theses You cannot observe from the beginning of the world any other inducement to the institution of feasts but Gods worke done on the day If it were not a continued worke as the dwelling in Tabernacles But you thinke the Apostles did not prescribe the observation of that day No you confesse they made choice of it and were moved so to doe by the reason which I alleage And were they not scattered over all the world where they came did they not all give the same order for the sacred assemblies And shall we thinke that this could be done without an apostolicall prescript 37. 43. I conjoyne them because one answer will cleare both Let us then first agree what it is for a thing to be Liberae observationis The Questonist in his interpretation which commonly is received leaveth a possibility for an alteration by humane auctority if any reason shall perswade a conveniency so to doe though so long as publike auctority commandeth it he will have it dutifully observed Whereupon will follow a Consectary or two First that this Law doth not immediately bind the conscience because Merè humani Iuris positivi Secondly that Extra scandalum a man may transgresse it For example a Tradesman may worke in his Chamber if no body bee privy to it If this be the Commentary upon Libera observatio and if it be well inquired into you will finde that I doe not mistake the meaning then I prof sse I cannot like of such a Libera observatio For I am perswaded that if all Christendome should meete and have never so plausible a ground they cannot alter the day de jure though de facto they may but it is worse then previshnesse so to doe And why they cannot alter the first ground Christs rising upon that day Secondly they cannot alter the uniforme order that upon that undenyable ground was set down by the Apostles themselves which were infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost And out of these grounds I deduce that the Law doth immediately bind their conscience And that it is to be observed even where it may be transgressed without any scandall Christ and the Apostles were not absolutely bound to lay such a foundation of the Lords Day and so it was Liberae institutionis but they having layd it I deny that it is now Liberae
Observationis so that under God I know no power that can alter it Thes 49. The Fathers speake of the Jewish Sabbath and Allegorize that as it was carnally used by the Jewes But we shall wrong the Fathers if we thinke they held that there was no Morality in the Letter of the Commandement For though there were a mystery figured in it yet they doe not deny that there was a morall proportioning of time for Divine Service prescribed therein which is the seventh part of the weeke It is one thing to say that all our life time we must be religious in our conversation and keepe a spirituall Sabbath another thing to affirme that we must not have a solemne weekely day wherein to intend onely Divine worship This last point the Fathers doe not say the former they doe and to argue from their Omission is to extend their words beyond their meaning at least their meaning is not adaequate to the sense of the Commandement No nor to their practise For they did constantly observe a seventh part of the weeke which I say is the first principle contained in the fourth Commandement Though I deny not but there is moreover a limitation to the seventh day from the Creation exprest which Christ and his Apostles altered but this alteration cannot overthrow the first principle they may both well goe together To the particular allegations out of the Fathers I will answer no more then that what they say is true but doth not contradict what I hold For the mysticall sense doth not overthrow the literall of the Commandement And they understand the seventh day precisely from the Creation which we confesse altered and speake not of the divine Ordinance for the apportioning of time but the carnall observation of the Jewes And your answer to the first Question grounded on the Fathers words may passe for good but there is more in the Commandement then so Your Answer to the second I cannot so well approve because it is Exclusive As for your third answer That the fourth Commandement is not the Law of nature but a positive law take the Law of Nature for Morall Reason then I think there is more then meere positivenesse in it For morall reason teacheth to honour the day whereon the work is done and that morall reason which gave this in charge was Apostolicall and so of a commanding power in both And then you see that it is neither meerely positive nor meerely naturall but mixt and so binding accordingly ut supra ad Thesin 37. 43. You adde two Questions 1 Whether seeing the Lords day succeeds the Jewish Sabbath wee are to keepe it in the same manner and with the same strictnesse First I hold in my Theses that our Lords day doth properly succeed the Sabbath instituted at the Creation Whereupon I separate all the Accessories from Moses Law Secondly The Jewes did misconstrue the stricknesse of their Sabbath as appeareth by the many corrections of our Saviour in the Gospell and his Generall Rule The Sabbath was made from man not man for the Sabbath Thirdly They held that they might not so much as kindle a fire or dresse Meat upon that day grounding their conceipt upon the Texts that are Ex. 35. cap. 16. But both Texts seeme to be wrested for that Exod. 35. about kindling a fire must be limited by the verse going before and is not to be understood of any other kindling of fire then for following of their Trades or Servile workes as they are called And so Munster Vatable and others upon that place censure their mistake And that it is a mistake against the meaning of the Commandment I gather from hence For the Jewes that will not put their owne hands to kindle a fire will hire Christians to doe it for them as if the Commandment did not reach Servants and strangers within their gates and they offend as much in doing it by others as if they did it by themselves But so doe they use to abuse the Scripture and confute their Glosses by their owne practice As for the 16. Chapter of Exod. which seemeth to forbid the dressing of Meat I hold that mistaken also Read the Chapter and mark whether you can finde that upon the sixth day they were to dresse any more then served for that day and to lay up the rest undressed untill the Sabbath at what time I hope they were to dresse it before they did eat it And indeed only the providing of Manna is there forbidden and a promise whereof they had experience that it would not putrifie upon the Sabbath though they kept it till then whereas upon other dayes it would And in this sense doe I understand the severe punishment of him that gathered sticks upon the seventh day it was because he then made his provision and did it it should seeme with an high hand Numb cap. 15. As for recreations I can say nothing but that seeing the Lords day is to be the exercise of that life which is spirituall and as a foretast of that which is eternall it were to be wisht that wee did intend those things as farre as our frailty will reach But Vivitur non cum perfectis hominibus and wee must be content to have men as good as we may when it is not to be hoped they will be as good as they should Yet we must take heed that we doe not solemnize our feast vainly as either the Iewes or Gentiles did Against whom Nazianzene is very tart Tertul. in his Apolog. In the Civill Law we finde a dispensation for Husbandmen in case of necessity contrary to the Jewish policy Exod. 34. Which is followed by our Law Edward the 6. Wee may in apparrell and diet be more liberall and costly on feasts then on other dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were Corporall feasts joyned to the Eucharist wherein the rich did feed the poore Which afterward for inconvenience was removed out of the Church I meane the Corporall feast although in Saint Austins confessions you shall find that in Saint Ambrose days there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Toombs of Martyrs which Saint Ambrose tooke away But though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were taken out of the Church yet upon those dayes the rich relieved their poore Brethren Which they little thinke of that for feare of breaking the Sabbath have taken away Hospitality Some men are over-nice in this point more nice then Christ himselfe Luc. 14. who on the Sabbath went to a feast and that was to a wedding feast And why not seeing the Sabbath is Symbolum Aeternae not only quietis but Laetitiae therefore resembled to a feast without the toyle of Acquisition So that the Sabbath is not violated by feasts if wee exceed not Necessitatem Personae though Naturae wee doe Now Necessitas Personae requireth that more be imployed in providing feasts as a Kings diet then a Subjects a Noble then a Common mans a Colledge then a
have been observed by Christian Emperours thereupon moved more strictly to give in charge the observation of the Lords day as Ludovicus Pius by name as thus Didicimus quosdam in hoc die opera ruralia exercētes fulmine intèremptos quosdam artuum contractione multatos quosdam visibili igne absumptos subito in cincrē resolutos poenaliter occubuisse Proinde necesse est ut primum Sacerdotes Reges Principes cunctique fideles huic dici debitam observationem atque reverentiam devotissimè exhibeant We have knowne some busied in workes of husbandry on this day to have beene slaine with lightning some punished with the contraction of their limbes some with visible fire consumed on a sudden turned into ashes and so to have perished as by way of punishment Wherefore it is a necessary duty that in the first place Priests then Kings Princes and all faithfull persons most devoutly exhibite due observation and reverence unto this day The other miracles mentioned by the Monke are of another nature as of a cake bak't on the hearth on Saturday after three a clocke in the afternoone and how that part of it reserved to the morning and being then broken blood came out of it and another of the like nature and two more I say these are of Roger Hovedens relation not of Eustachius his preaching whom the Monke relates to have been in great esteeme of the Clergie in those dayes and to have prevailed much with many of the people though for the generall he could not bring them off from their marketing on the Lords day Yet what are these to be talkt of in comparison to those which are comprised in two bookes of miracles written by Cluniacensis and albeit those times may be accounted times of darknesse in comparison of ages fore-going yet this Prefacer is ready to make answer that that is but the opinion of some But whereas hee saith That this strange opinion is now revived and published first I desire to know his meaning For as for a preparation to the Sabbath and that to begin from about three a clock in the afternoone the whole Kingdome observes it as for the strict observation thereof here mentioned I have shewed that Eustachius speakes of no such thing If hee did what is that to those who suffer for standing for the strict observation of the Sabbath against those who would have the Lords day at least in part to be a day of sports and pastimes Can he shew this to be their opinion If he can why doth he not And if from three a clock on Saturday in the afternoone people doe prepare for the Lords day and abstaine from such workes dispatching both their baking bread and other works in the morning what danger or detriment is hereby likely to arise either to our faith or manners What danger either to Prince Church or State The third Section BUt to proceed Preface Immediately upon the Reformation of Religion in these Westerne parts the Controversie brake out a fresh though in another manner than before it did For there were some of whom Calvin speakes Instit lib. 2. sect 33. who would have had all dayes alike all equally to be regarded he means the Anabaptists as I take it and reckoned that the Lords day as the Church continued it was a Jewish ceremony Affirming it to crosse the doctrine of Saint Paul who in the text before remembred and in the fourteenth to the Romans did seeme to them to cry downe all such difference of dayes and times as the Church retained To meet which vaine and peccant humour Calvin was faine to bend his forces declaring how the Church might lawfully retaine set times for Gods service without infringing any of Saint Pauls commandements But on the other side as commonly the excesse is more exorbitant than the defect there wanted not some others who thought they could not honour the Lords day sufficiently unlesse they did affix as great a sanctitie unto it as the Jewes did unto their Sabbath So that the change seemed to be onely of the day the superstition still remaining no lesse Jewish than before it was These taught as now some doe moralem esse unius diei observationem in hebdomada Ibid. sect 34. the keeping holy to the Lord one day in seven to bee the morall part of the fourth Commandement which doctrine what else is it so he proceeds as here the Doctor so repeats it in his third section then in contempt of the Jews to change the day and to affix a greater sanctity to the day than those ever did As for himselfe so farre was he from favouring any such wayward fancie that as Iohn Barklay makes report he had a consultation once de transferenda solennitate Dominica in feriam quintam to alter the Lords day from Sunday to Thursday How true this is I cannot say But sure it is that Calvin tooke the Lords day to be an ecclesiasticall and humane constitution only Quem veteres in locum Sabbati subrogarunt appointed by our Ancestors to supply the place of the Jewish Sabbath and as our Doctor tells us from him in his seventh section as alterable by the Church at this present time as first it was when from Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday So that we see that Calvin here resolves upon three Conclusions First that the keeping holy one day in seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement Secondly that the day was changed from the last day of the weeke unto the first by this authority of the Church and not by any divine Ordinance And thirdly that the day is yet alterable by the Church as at first it was Exam. Thus at length this Prefacer observes that look upon what Scripture passages some did contend the Jewish Sabbath to be ceremoniall and accordingly to be abrogated by the Death and Resurrection of Christ Upon the very same grounds others contended against the observation of all Holy dayes even of the Lords day also as if that were Jewish This is the course of the Anabaptists unto whom Wallaeus addes the Socinians and Hospinian the Petrobrusians By what authoritie the Lords day was introduced Calvin disputes not He saith Dominicum diem veteres in locum Sabbati substituerunt Instit lib. 2. c. 8. sect 34. Calvin in 1. ad Corin. cap. 16. The Ancients brought the Lords day into the place of the Sabbath and that the day the Apostle prescribed to the Corinthians wherein they should lay apart something for the relieving of the Saints at Ierusalem was the day quo sacros conventus agebant whereon they kept their holy meetings Lib. 2. c. 8. sect 34. And that which moved the Apostles to change the Sabbath to the Lords day he shewes both in his institutions thus for seeing in the Lords Resurrection is found the end and fulfilling of the true rest which the old Sabbath shadowed by that very day which set an end