Hereticks before remembred had been hardly heard of it was plainly otherwise that day not only not being honoured with their publick meetings but destinate to a setled or a constant fast Some which have looked more nearly into the reasons of this difference conceive that they appointed this day for fasting in memory of Saint Peters conflict with Simon Magus which being to be done on a Sunday following the Church of Rome ordained a solemn fast on the day before the better to obtain Gods blessing in so great a business which falling out as they desired they kept it for a fasting day for ever after Saint Austin so relates it as a general and received opinion but then he adds Quod eam esse falsam perhibeant plerique Romani That very many of the Romans did take it only for a fable As for St. Austin he conceives the reason of it to be the several uses which men made of our Saviours resting in the grave the whole Sabbath day For thence it came to pass saith he that some especially the Eastern people Ad requiem significandam mallent relaxare jejunium to signifie and denote that rest did not use to fast where on the other side those of the Church of Rome and some Western Churches kept it always fasting Propter humilitatem mortis Domini by reason that our Lord that day lay buried in the sleep of Death But as the Father comes not home unto the reason of this usage in the Eastern Countreys so in my mind Pope Innocent gives a likelier reason for the contrary custom in the Western Concil Tom. 1. For in a Decretal by him made touching the keeping of this Fast he gives this reason of it unto Decentius Eugubinus who desired it of him because that day and the day before were spent by the Apostles in grief and heaviness Nam constat Apostolos biduo isto in moerore fuisse propter metum Judaeorum se occuluisse as his words there are The like saith Platina that Innocentius did ordain the Saturday or Sabbath to be always fasted Quod tali die Christus in sepulchro jacuisset quod discipuli ejus jejunassent In Innocent Because our Saviour lay in the grave that day and it was fasted by his Disciples Not that it was not fasted before Innocents time as some vainly think but that being formerly an arbitrary practice only it was by him intended for a binding Law Now as the African and the Western Churches were severally devoted either to the Church of Rome or other Churches in the East so did they follow in this matter of the Sabbaths fast the practice of those parts to which they did most adhere Millain though near to Rome followed the practice of the East which shews how little power the Popes then had even within Italy it self Paulinus tells us also of St. Ambrose that he did never use to dine nisi die sabbati Dominico c. but on the Sabbath the Lords day In vita Ambros and on the Anniversaries of the Saints and Martyrs Yet so that when he was at Rome he used to do as they there did submitting to the Orders of the Church in the which he was Whence that so celebrated speeeh of his Cum hic sum non jejuno sabbato cum Romae sum jejuno sabbato at Rome he did at Millain he did not fast the Sabbath Nay which is more Epist â6 Saint Augustine tells us that many times in Africa one and the self-same Church at least the several Churches in the self-same Province had some that dined upon the Sabbath and some that fasted And in this difference it stood a long time together till in the end the Roman Church obtained the cause and Saturday became a Fast almost through all the parts of the Western World I say the Western World and of that alone The Eastern Churches being so far from altering their ancient custom that in the sixth Council of Constantinople Anno 692 they did admonish those of Rome to forbear fasting on that day upon pain of Censures Which I have noted here in its proper place that we might know the better how the matter stood between the Lords day and the Sabbath how hard a thing it was for one to get the mastery of the other both days being in themselves indifferent for sacred uses and holding by no other Tenure than by the courtesie of the Church Much of this kind was that great conflict between the East and Western Churches about keeping Easter and much like conduced as it was maintained unto the honour of the Lords Day or neglect thereof The Passeover of the Jews was changed in the Apostles times to the Feast of Easter the anniversary memorial of our Saviours Resurrection and not changed only in their times but by their Authority Certain it is that they observed it for Polycarpus kept it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã both with Saint John and with the rest of the Apostles as Irenaeus tells us in Eusebius's History Lib. 5. c. 26. The like Polycarpus affirms of Saint Philip also whereof see Euseb l. 5. c. 14. Nor was the difference which arose in the times succeeding about the Festival it self but for the time wherein it was to be observed The Eastern Churches following the custom of Hierusalem kept it directly at the same time the Jews did their Passeover and at Hierusalem they so kept it the Bishops there for fifteen several successions being of the Circumcision the better to content the Jews their Brethren and to win upon them But in the Churches of the West they did not celebrate this Feast decima quarta lunae upon what day soever it was as the others did but on some Sunday following after partly in honour of the day and partly to express some difference between Jews and Christians A thing of great importance in the present case For the Christians of the East reflected not upon the Sunday in the Annual return of so great a Feast but kept it on the fourteenth day of the month be it what it will it may be very strongly gathered that they regarded not the Lords Day so highly which was the weekly memory of the Resurrection as to prefer that day before any other in their publick meetings And thereupon Baronius pleads it very well that certainly Saint John was not the Author of the contrary practice Annal. An. 15 9. as some gave it out Nam quaenam potuit esse ratio c. For what saith he might be the reason why in the Revelation he should make mention of the Lords Day as a day of note and of good credit in the Church had it not got that name in reference to the Resurrection And if it were thought fit by the Apostles to celebrate the weekly memory thereof upon the Sunday then to what purpose should they keep the Anniversary on another day And so far questionless we may joyn issue with
to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred 2. The Lords day and the other Holy days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the authority of the Church 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Keign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his declaration about lawful sports on the Lords day 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days have stood in Scotland since the reformation of Religion in that Kingdom 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James 14. An exhortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History THUS are we safely come to these present times the times of Reformation wherein whatever had been taught or done in the former days was publickly brought unto the test and if not well approved of layed aside either as unprofitable or plainly hurtful So dealt the Reformators of the church of England as with other things with that which we have now in hand the Lords day and the other Holy days keeping the days as many of them as were thought convenient for the advancement of true godliness and increase of piety but paring off those superstitious conceits and matters of opinion which had been entertained about them But first before we come to this we will by way of preparation lay down the judgments of some men in the present point men of good quality in their times and such as were content to be made a sacrifice in the common Cause Of these I shall take notice of three particularly according to the several times in the which they lived And first we will begin with Master Frith who suffered in the year 1533. who in his declaration of Baptism thus declares himself Our forefathers saith he Page 96. which were in the beginning of the Church did abrogate the Sabbath to the intent that men might have an ensample of Christian liberty c. Howbeith because it was necessary that a day should be reserved in which the people should come together to hear the Word of God they ordained instead of the Sabbath which was Saturday the next day following which is Sunday And although they might have kept the Saturday with the Jew as a thing indifferent yet they did much better Some three years after him Anno 1536. being the 28. of Henry the eighth suffered Master Tyndall who in his answer to Sir Thomas More hath resolved it thus As for the Sabbath we be Lords over the Sabbath Page 287. and may yet change it into Monday or into any other day as we see need or may make every tenth day Holy day only if we see cause why Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday but to put a difference between us and the Jews neither reed we any Holy day at all if the people might be taught without it Last of all bishop Hooper sometimes Bishop of Gloucester who suffered in Queen Maries Reign doth in a Treatise by him written on the Ten Commandments and printed in the year 1550. go the self-same way age 103. We may not think saith he that God gave any more holiness to the Sabbath than to the other days For if ye consider Friday Pag. 103. Saturday or Sunday inasmuch as they be days and the work of God the one is no more holy than the other but that day is always most holy in the which we most apply and give our selves unto holy works To that end did he sanctifie the Sabbath day not that we should give our selves to illness or such Ethnical pastime as is now used amongst Ethnical people but being free that day from the travels of this World we might consider the works and benefits of God with thanksgiving hear the Word of God honour him and fear him then to learn who and where be the poor of Christ that want our help Thus they and they amongst them have resolved on these four conclusions First that one day is no more holy than another the Sunday than the Saturday or the Friday further than they are set apart for holy Uses Secondly that the Lords day hath no institution from divine authority but was ordained by our fore-fathers in the beginning of the Church that so the people might have a Day to come together and hear Gods Word Thirdly that still the Church hath power to change the day from Sunday unto Monday or what day she will And lastly that one day in seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment for Mr. Tyndal saith expresly that by the Church of God each tenth day only may be kept holy if we see cause why So that the marvel is the greater that any man should now affirm as some men have done that they are willing to lay down both their Lives and Livings in maintenance of those contrary Opinions which in these latter days have been taken up Now that which was affirmed by them in their particulars was not long afterwards made good by the general Body of this Church and State the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all the Commons met in Parliament Anno the fifth and sixth of King Edward the sixth 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 3. where to the honour of Almighty God it was thus enacted For as much as men be not at all times so mindful to Iaud and praise God so ready to resort to hear Gods holy Word and to come to the holy Communion c. as their bounden duty doth require therefore to call men to remembrance of their duty and to help their infirmity it hath been wholsomly provided that there should be some certain times and days appointed wherein the Christians should cease from all kind of labour and apply themselves only and wholly unto the aforesaid holy works properly pertaining to true Keligion c. Which works as they may well be called Gods Service so the time
Christ Synag l. 6. c. 6. Which if it were so as I have no reason to suspect the Author it was not without good cause affirmed by the Historian if one should look no further than those outward circumstances Novos illic ritus caeteris mortalibus contrarios Tacit. hist l. 5. the very same with that which is affirmed of them in the book of Hester viz. their Laws are diverse from all people Finally Hester 3.8 at the ending of their prayers the people which were present used to say Amen which word from thence hath been derived and incorporated into all the Languages which make profession of the faith Only observe that they had several Amens amongst them Christ Synag l. 1. c. 6. § 5. The first of which they called Pupillum when one understandeth not what he answers the second Surreptum when he saith Amen before the prayer be fully ended the third is Otiosum when a man thinks of something else and so saith it idly the fourth Justorum of the just when a mans mind is set on his devotions and thinks upon no other thing And so much of the Rites and Gestures which they used in prayer But it is well observed by Aynsworth that as the Lamps mention whereof is made in the 30th of Exodus do signifie the light of Gods Word and Incense the Sacrifice of prayers Aynsw Annot. in Exod. 30. so the doing of both these at one time the Incense being to be offered when the Lamps were either dressed or lighted as before was said did signifie the joyning of the word with prayer We must look therefore in the next place what room there was or whether any room at all for reading of the Law in Gods holy Temples And first for that of Solomon taking the Temple in the largest and most ample sense not only for the House but the Courts and Out-works it was ordained by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy that there the Law should publickly be read at the end of every seven years to the Congregation At the end of every seven years saith he in the solemnity of the year of release at the feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord their God in the place that he shall choose thou shalt read this Law before all Israel Deut. 31.11 in their hearing But then withal we must take notice that such a reading as is there commanded could not be taken as a part of the publick Liturgy For by the order and prescript of Moses the Law was to be read publickly before the people in the seventh year only in the year of release because then Servants being manumitted from their bondage and Debtors from the danger of their Creditors they might attend the hearing of the Law with the greater chearfulness And in the feast of Tabernacles because it lasted longer than the other Festivals and so it might be read with the greater leisure and then it was but this Law too the book of Deuteronomy This as it was to be performed in that place alone in which the Lord should choose to place his Tabernacle and afterwards to build his Temple so makes it little if at all unto the frequent reading of the Law in the House of God It 's true that Philo tells us in a book not extant that Moses did ordain the publick reading of the Law every Sabbath day Philo. ap Euseb de Praepar Evang. l. 8. c. 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. What then did Moses order to be dene on the Sabbath day He did appoint saith he that we should meet all in some place together and there sit down with modesty and a general filence ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to hear the Law that none plead ignorance thereof Which custom we continue still saith he breakning with wonderful silence to the Word of God unless perhaps we give some joyful acclamation on the bearing of it some of the Priests if any present or otherwise some of the Elders reading the Law and then expounding it till the night came on But hereof by the leave of Philo we must make some doubt This was indeed the custom in our Saviours time and when Philo lived and he was willing as it seems to setch the pedigree thereof as high as might be So Salianus tells him on the like occasion Videtur Philo Judaeorum morem in Synogogis disserendi antiquitate donare voluisse quem à Christe Apostolis observatum legimus Salian Annal. anno m. 25 46. n. 10. And we must make the same Answer to Josephus also who tells us of their Law-maker that he appointed not that they should only hear the Law once or twice a year no oftner ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Joseph contr Apion l. 2. but that once every week we should come together to hear the Law that so we might become the more perfect in it Which thing saith he all other Law givers did omit And so did Moses too by Josephus's leave For besides that no such order or command is to be found in the books of Moses there were not then nor long time after any set places destinate to religious Uses but the holy Tabernacle And how the people being planted all about the Countrey could be assembled every week before the Tabernacle or afterwards unto the Temple weekly let Philo and Josephus judge And this appears more plainly by the Book of God where we are told that K. Jehosaphat sent abroad his Visitors who carried the Book of the Law of the Lord with them 2 Chron. 17.7 9. and went through all the Cities of Judaea and taught the people A needless Office had it been as those Authors tell us if all the people met together weekly to be taught the Law But that which follows of Josiah is more full than this Of whom it is recorded that when Hilkiah the High Priest in looking over the decays and ruins of the Temple had found a book of the Law which lay hidden there and brought the same unto the King how the good Prince upon the hearing of the words of the Law rent his Garments 2 King 22.11 23.1 2. and not so only but gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Hierusalem and read in their ears all the words of the Book and joyned together in a Covenant with the Lord their God Had it been formerly the custom to read the law each Sabbath every week once at least unto all the people neither had that religious Prince been so ignorant of it nor had the finding of the book been counted for so strange an accident nor could it be to any purpose to call the People altogether from their several dwellings only to hear the Law read to them and go home again if it were read amongst them weekly on the Sabbath days and that of ordinary course So that whatever Philo and Josephus say there was no weekly reading
Prayers and Benedictions devised by Ezra Which had they been the very first stinted forms of prayer which ever had been heard of in the Jewish Church Smectymn indicat p. 20. as some men give out although indeed it be not so it would make more than they imagine both for the Authority and Antiquity of set forms of worship But to return again unto the Reading of the Law set on foot by Ezra besides that by this institution the reading of the Law of Moses became an ordinary part of the Jewish Liturgy for the Sabbath days he caused it also to be read upon the second and the fift days being our Monday and Thursday that they might not rest three days from hearing the Law and at the Evening prayer of the Sabbath days because of idle persons who perhaps were absent at the Morning service Id. in Tephillah ubircath c. 12. cited by H. Thorndike In his religious Assemblies c. 8. The difference was only this that in these Readings on the by if I may so call them the Minister or the Reader was not tyed to read the whole Section or Parasha as upon the Sabbath but was therein left unto himself conditioned that he read no less than ten verses at each several reading and that there were three men to read it on the days aforesaid Now to this reading of the Law in the Congregation every Sabbath day was also added at some times and on some occasions the Exposition of the same and that I find to have been done two ways either by way of Comment and Application or else by reading with the Law some part of passage of the Prophets as seemed most parallel unto it Of these the first may seem to take beginning from the Act of Ezra who in that famous reading of the Law mention whereof is made in Nehemiah cap. viii not only caused a Pulpit of wood to be provided for that purpose that so he might be heard the better but placed about the same divers Priests and Levites to expound the Text and give the sense and meaning of it that so the people might the better understand the reading Whereof as of a thing never used before the reason is thus given by Torniellus because the Hebrew tongue wherein the Scriptures were first written was grown strange unto them Torniel annal A.M. 3610. n. 9. Chaldaico seu Syriaco idiomate in locum ejus surrogato the Syriack or Chaldee language being generally received in the place thereof And hereunto agrees Cunaeus who saith expresly that whilst the former Temple stood Interpretatio magistrorum commentatio nulla there was no gloss or exposition of the Law made as of course unto the people Cunaeus de Repub. Jud. l. 1. c. 17. That office being supplyed when there was occasion by such holy Prophets as God raised amongst them at extraordinary times and for no ordinary purposes But that these Expositions of the Law thus begun by Ezra were afterwards used constantly amongst the Jews every Sabbath day as I do no where find it so I dare not say it If so it were it could not be done presently but in tract of time of which more anon In the mean time we will behold the second kind of Exposition which before we spake of that which was made by reading with the Law some part or passage of the Prophets which came near unto it The first beginning of the which the Jews refer unto the furious raging of Antiochus furnamed Epiphanes who had not only defiled the Temple and forbid the use of Circumcision but also did prohibit the reading of the Law of Moses upon pain of death On which occasion and to prevent the mischief which might thereby grow if the reading of the Law should be quite left off they chose chapters and divisions out of the writings of the Prophets which were most answerable to those parts of the Law of Moses which were read before as for this Section of the Law In the beginning God Created c. They made choice of that in Esa xlii 5. So saith the Lord the Creator of Heaven and Earth continuing to the 11. verse of the xliii These fractions of the Law they called Haphtara And though the tyranny of Antiochus being over-blown Christ Synag lib. 1. cap. 4. they fell again unto the reading of the Law of Moses as was used before yet they continued still the reading of the holy Propohets as finding it a very wholsome institution and sometimes joyned thereunto such Expositions as the Scribes and Rabbins made upon the same according to their several Talents Certain I am that so it was in our Saviurs time and in the time of his Apostles For thus we find in S. Luke's Gospel that when our Saviour came into the Synagogue of Nazareth and stood up to read Luk. 4.16 c. there was delivered him the book of the Prophet Esay and that when he had read the place he closed the Book and gave it again unto the Minister the Apostle of the Congregation as the Rabbins call him and afterwards expounded and applyed the Text. And in his History of the Apostles we find that Paul and Barnabas being present at the Synagogue of Antiochia Act. 13.14 15. on the Sabbath day sate down and that after the reading of the Law and Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying Ye Men and Brethren if ye have any word of Exhortation for the people say on c. In which we have at once the custom of those latter times for the expounding of the Law in the Congregation as being by this time made a part of Gods holy Service as the place and room also which it held in the publick Liturgy that is to say next to the reading of the Law and Prophets as now the Sermon followeth on the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel As for the gesture which was used by these several Ministers in the discharge of those distinct and several Offices I find that the reading of the Law and Prophets and the exposition of the same was with the face of him that did it towards the face of the people whereof see Luk. iv 16. And that the Minister who read the Prayers whom they called the Apparitour of the Synagogue stood with his back towards the people his face being turned unto the Ark. This leads me on unto another Institution not known before the building of the second Temple or the times of Ezra which was the setting up of Synagogues and Oratories throughout the Countrey Of these we find no mention in the former times and but little Use the total sum of all Gods publick worship being cast into the Temple of Hierusalem For where it is supposed by some that there were Synagogues of the Jews in the time of David who for the proof thereof did produce these words They have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land Psal lxxiv. the supposition
prayers been left to the discretion or ability of him that made them assuredly the Bishop or the Presbyters being men of greater gifts and more practised in them than the Deacons were supposed to be would not have left a business of that weight and moment to be discharged by men of the lowest Order themselves attending on the service as if not concerned And so much for and on occasion of the so Celebrated Council of Laodicea one of the ancientest upon true record in the Church of Christ You see by this that in the time of the renowned Constantine and long time before the Church was sorted and disposed into ranks and files and every sort of men had a particular Form of Service fitted and framed thereunto besides those Common-prayers wherein all did joyn We will next see whether they were not in condition as well to amplifie the times and beautifie the places of Gods publick worship as to agree upon the Forms and then we will go forwards in our purposed search till we have set the business above all gain-saying And for the times we shewed before with what a general consent they had transferred the Jewish Sabbath on the which God rested unto the first day of the week on the which Christ rose Nor was it long before they had their daily meetings and thereon their set hours of Prayer Morning and Evening as was proved before from S. Cyprians words To which was after added as appeareth by the Council of Laodicea before remembred an hour of prayer at nine of the Clock Concil Laodicen Can. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith the Text which hours are still observed at nine of the Clock ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith the Text which hours are still observed in all the Cathedrals of this Kingdom Besides these as their numbers multiplied and their affairs were crowned by God with peace and happiness they instituted several Annual Festivals to be observed with greater solemnity and concourse of people than any of their ordinary Assemblies in memory of especial blessings which God had given them by his Son or conferred on them by his Saints Of these the Feasts of Easter and Whitsontide as they are most eminent so they are most antient as being instituted in the times of the Lords Apostles to which were added in short time the two days next following that so those seacred Festivals might be solemnized with the greater measure of devotion in which regard Easter is called by Gregory Nyssen Gregor Nyssen Homil. 1. de Paschat ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or the three days Feast See of this also Augustin de Civitate Dei l. 22. cap. 8. The Feast of Christis Nativity began if not before in the second Age. Theophilus Caesariensis who lived about the times of Commodus and Severus makes mention of it and placeth it on the 25th of December quocunque die 8. Calend. Januar. venerit so his own words are as we still observe it A Festival of so great erninency that Chrysostom entituleth it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the mother or Metropolis of all other Feasts Chrysost Orat. de Phalagon See for this also in Nicephorus where it will be found to have been universally received before the time of Dioclesians persecution who burnt many eminent Christians at Nicomedia whilst they were Celebrating this great Festival in the House God Niceph. histor Eccl. l. 7. c. 6. That of the Incarnation was ordained in the beginning of the third Century there being an Homily of Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus who lived An. 230. entituled de Annunciatione B. Virginis another for of this there is made some question writ by Athanasius who lived in the beginning of the following Age whereof there is no doubt amongst Learned men That of the Passion or Good-Friday as we call it now is of the same Antiquity as the other was for we find mention of it in the Books of Origen Origen contra Celsum l. 4. And for the Feasts of the Apostles Evangelists and other blessed Saints of God they took beginning most of them in the time of Constantine who by his Edict gave command to all the Deputies and Lieutenants of the Roman Empire that the memorials of the Martyrs should be duely honoured Euseb de vita Constat l. 4. c. 23 and solemn Feasts to be appointed for that end and purpose most of which brought their Fasts or Vigils along with them The Church lost nothing of that power by our Saviours coming which she enjoyed and practised in the times before but did ordain both Feasts and Fasts too if she saw occasion and as she found it might conduce to the advantage of Gods publique worship Now as the Christians of these two Ages did augment the Times so they increased the places also of Gods publique worship In the first Age they had their meeting or Assemblies in some privage Houses which being separated from all profane and common use were by the Owners dedicated to Religious exercises and therefore honoured in the Scriptures with the name of Churches But as they grew in numbers so they grew in confidence and in these Ages had their Churches visible and obvious to the eyes of all men Witness hereto Ignatius the Apostles Scholar and Successor to St. Peter in the See of Antioch who lived in the beginning of the second Century and writing to the Magnesians an Epistle hitherto unquestioned by our modern Criticks doth exhort them thus Omnes ad orandum in idem loci convenite Ignat. Epist ad Magnes una sit communis precatio una mens una spes in charitate c. That is to say Assemble all together in the same place to pour fourth your prayers unto the Lord let there be one Common-prayer amongst you one mind one onely hope in love and an unblamable faith in Jesus Christ run all together as one man to the Temple of God as to one Altar as to Jesus Christ the High Priest of the uncreated and immortal God Witness hereto for the middle of this second Century two several Epistles of Pope Pius the first and those unquestioned hitherto which we shall have occasion to make use of in the last Chapter of this Tract and the sixth Section of that Chapter And finally witness hereunto for the close thereof these words of Clemens Alexandrinus where speaking of the spiritual Church or the Congregation of Gods Elect he doth phrase it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Clem Alex. Strom. lib. 7. I call not now saith he the place but the Congregation of Gods Elect by the name of the Church By which it is mosT plain and evident that the word Ecclesia or the Church signified in his time as well the place of the Assembly as the general body of the Congregation or Elect of God Now that these Churches mentioned by Ignatius in the first beginning and specially by Clemens in the latter end of this second Century were not only some rooms
Antioch Onesimus B. of Ephesus mentioned in the former Century is made a Martyr 118. Papias B. of Hierapolis in Phrygia at this time flourisheth 128. Quadratus B. of Athens publisheth an Apologie in behalf of Christians 138. Marcus made B. of Hierusalem the first that ever had that place of the Vncircumcision 150. Justin Martyr writeth his Apologie 160. Hegesippus beginneth his travels towards Rome conferring with the Bishops as he past along 169. Polycarpus the famous B. of Smyrna Martyred 172. Melito B. of Sardis publisheth an Apologie 175. Dionysius B. of Corinth flourished and writeth many of his Epistles Theophilus B. of Antioch writes in defence of Christianity 177. Eleutherius succeedeth Soter in the Church of Rome Lucius a British King sendeth an Ambassage unto Eleutherius desiring to be made a Christian 178. Several Episcopal Sees erected in the Isle of Britain 180. The holy Father Irenaeus made B. of Lyons 190. Demetrius succeedeth Julianus in the See of Alexandria being the twelfth Bishop of that Church 191. Serapion succeedeth Maximinus in the Church of Antioch the ninth Bishop of that See 198. Victor the Successor of Eleutherius excommunicates the Asian Churches about their observation of the Feast of Easter Irenaeus B of Lyons and Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus write against him for it Several Councils called about it by the Metropolitans and other Bishops of this time 199. Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea at this time flourished as did Narcissus also the thirtieth Bishop of Hierusalem 200. Tertullian Who began to be in estimation Anno 196. doth this year publish his Apologie 203. Zepherinus succeedeth Victor in the Church of Rome 204. Clemens of Alexandria flourisheth in the publick Schools of that famous City 205. Origen one of his Disciples beginneth at this time to be of Credit Irenaeus B. of Lyons crowned with Martyrdom 217. Agrippinus Bishop of Carthage lived about this time Origen preacheth in Caesarea Demetrius Bishop of Alexandria and Theoctistus of Caesarea disagree about it 230. Origen made a Presbyter by Theoctistus B. of Caesarea and Alexander B. of Hierusalem 232. Origen Excommunicated by Demetrius 233. Heraclas Origen's Successor in the Schools of Alexandria is made the Bishop of that City 240. Donatus Successor of Agrippinus in the See of Carthage 248. Dionysius who before succeeded Heraclas in the Professorship of Alexandria doth now succeed him in his See 250. Cyprian a right godly man succeeds Donatus in the Church of Carthage 253. Cyprian by reason of the Persecution retires awhile Fabius succeedeth Babilas in the See of Antioch 254. A faction raised against Saint Cyprian by Felicissimus and his Associates Cornelius chosen Pope of Rome in the place of Fabian Novatianus makes a Schism in the Church of Rome causing himself to be ordained B. of the same Cyprian returns again to Carthage 255. Several Councils held against the Schism and Heresie of the Novatians 256. The death of Origen 257. The memorable case of Geminius Faustinus one of the Presbyters of the Church of Carthage 261. Cyprian and divers other Bishops Martyred Lucian succeeding Cyprian in the See of Carthage Dyonisius chosen Pope of Rome who caused Parishes to be set forth in Country Villages 266. The first Council of Antioch against Samosatenus 272. Paulus Samosatenus the sixteenth Bishop of Antioch deposed for his Heresie by the Council there and Doninus chosen in his place Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria dieth and Maximus succeedeth in that See The Bishops of Italy and Rome made Judges in the case of Paulus by the Emperor Aurelianus 277. The Manichean Heresie now first made known and the impiety thereof confuted by several Bishops Felix succeedeth Dionysius in the See of Rome Doninus Bishop of Antioch dieth and Timaeus succeedeth in that charge 283. Cyrillus Successor unto Timaeus 285. Theonus succeedeth Maximus in the Church of Alexandria 296. Zamdas succeedeth Hymenaeus in Hierusalem Marcellinus the third from Felix succeeds Eutychianus in the See of Rome 298. Tyrannus succeedeth Cyril in the Church of Antioch being the twentieth Bishop of this See and the last of this Age. 299. Hermon succeedeth Zamdas in the Church of Hierusalem the thirty-ninth Bishop of the same and the last of this Century 300. Petrus succeeds Theonus in the See of Alexandria the seventeenth Bishop of that Church 302. the Persecution raised by Dioclesian growes unto the height The grievous lapse of Marcellinus Pope of Rome 303. The Council held at Sinuessa by the Western Bishops for the condemnation of Marcellinus Mensurius Bishop of Carthage the Successor of Lucianus at this time flourisheth 304. Marcellinus honoured with the crown of Martyrdom leaveth Marcellus his Successor who was the twenty-ninth Bishop of this Church reckoning from S. Peter 305. The Council of Eliberis assembled by the Spanish Prelates 306. Constantine most worthily surnamed the Great attaineth the Empire setleth the Church of Christ in peace safety and honour on the Clergie The end of the Second Part. FINIS THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH IN TWO BOOKS By PETER HEYLYN D. D. DEUT. xxxii 7. Remember the days of old consider the years of many Generations ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. TO THE MOST HIGH and MIGHTY Prince Charles By the Grace of God KING of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Dread Soveraign YOVR Majesties most Christian care to suppress those rigours which some in maintenance of their Sabbath-Doctrines had pressed upon this Church in these latter days justly deserves to be recorded amongst the principal Monuments of your Zeal and Piety Of the two great and publick Enemies of Gods holy Worship although Prophaneness in it self be the more offensive yet Superstition is more spreading and more quick of growth In such a Church as this so setled in a constant practice of Religious Offices and so confirmed by godly Canons for the performance of the same there was no fear that ever the Lords Day the day appointed by Gods Church for his publick Service would have been over-run by the Prophane neglect of any pious duties on that day required Rather the danger was lest by the violent torrent of some mens affections it might have been o're-flown by those Superstitions wherewith in imitation of the Jews they began to charge it and thereby made it far more burdensome to their Christian Brethren than was the Sabbath to the Israelites by the Law of MOSES Nor know we where they would have staid had not your Majesty been pleased out of a tender care of the Churches safety to give a check to their proceedings in Licencing on that day those Lawful Pastimes which some without Authority from Gods Word or from the practice of Gods Church had of late restrained Yet so it is your Majesties most Pious and most Christian purpose hath not found answerable entertainment especially amongst those men who have so long dreamt of a Sabbath
point of time some have referred the institution and original of the Sabbath taking these words to be a plain Narration of a thing then done according to that very time wherein the Scripture doth report it And that the sanctifying of the seventh day therein mentioned was a Commandment given by God to our Father Adam touching the sanctifying of that day to his publick Worship Conceiving also that there is some special Mystery and morality in the number of seven for which that day and none but that could be designed and set apart for this employment Others and those the ancienter and of more authority conceive these words to have been spoken by a Prolepsis or Anticipation and to relate unto the times wherein Moses wrote And that it was an intimation only of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctifying rather of the seventh day than of any other no Precept to that purpose being given to Adam and to his posterity nor any mystery in that number why of it self it should be thought most proper for Gods publick service The perfect stating of these points will give great light to the following story And therefore we will first crave leave to remove these doubts before we come to matter of fact that afterwards I may proceed with the greater ease unto my self and satisfaction to the Reader The ground-work or foundation laid the Building will be raised the surer And first it is conceived by many learned men that Moses in the second of Genesis relates unto the times in the which he lived and wrote the History of the Creation when God had now made known his holy Will unto him and the Commandment of the Sabbath had by his Ministery been delivered to the house of Israel This is indeed the ancienter and more general tendry unanimously delivered both by Jew and Christian and not so much as questioned till these later days And howsoever some ascribe it to Tostatus as to the first inventer of it yet is it ancienter far than he though were it so it could not be denied but that it had an able and a learned Author A man considering the times in which he lived and the short time of life it pleased God to give him that hardly ever had his equal It 's true Tostatus thus resolves it In Gen. 2. He makes this quaere first Num Sabbatum cum à Deo sanctificatum fuerit in primordio mundi rerum c. Whether the Sabbath being sanctified by God in the first infancy of the World had been observed of men by the Law of Nature And thereunto returns this Answer quod Deus non dederit praceptum illud de observatione Sabbati in principio sed per Mosen datum esse c. that God commanded not the Sabbath to be sanctified in the beginning of the World but that it was commanded afterwards by the Law of Moses when God did publickly make known his Will upon Mount Sinai And that whereas the Scripture speaketh of sanctifying the seventh-day in the second of Genesis it is not to be understood as if the Lord did then appoint it for his publick Worship but is to be referred unto the time wherein Moses wrote which was in the Wilderness Et sic Moses intendebat dicere quod Deus illum diem sanctificavit sc nobis c. And so the meaning of the Prophet will be briefly this that God did sanctifie that day that is to us to us that are his people of the house of Jacob that we might consecrate it to his service So far Tostatus In which I must confess that I see not any thing but what Josephus said before him though in other words who speaking of the Worlds Creation doth conclude it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Antiqu. l. 1.2 So that Moses saith that the World and all that is therein was made in six whole days and that upon the seventh day God took rest and ceased from his labours ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. By reason whereof we likewise desist from travail on that day which we call the Sabbath i. e. Repose So that the institution of the Sabbath by Tostatus and the observation of it by Josephus are both of them referred by their us and we unto the times of Moses and the house of Israel Nor is Josephus the only learned man amongst the Jews that so interpreteth Moses's meaning Solomon Iarchi one of the principal of the Rabbins speaks more expresly to this purpose and makes this Gloss or Comment upon Moses words Benedixit ei i. e. in manna c. God blessed the seventh day i. e. in Mannah because for every day of the week an Homer of it fell upon the Earth and a double portion on the sixth and sanctified it i. e. in Mannah because it fell not on the seventh day at all Et scriptura loquitur de re futura And in this place saith he the Scripture speaks as of a thing that was to came But what need more be said Mercer a learned Protestant and one much conversant in the Rabbins In Gen. 2. confesseth that the Rabbins generally referred this place and passage to the following times even to the sanctification of the Sabbath established by the Law of Moses Hebraei fere ad futurum referunt i.e. sanctificationem Sabbati postea lege per Mosen sancitam unde Manna eo die non descendit And howsoever for his own part he is of opinion that the first Fathers being taught by God kept the seventh day holy yet he conceives withal that the Commandment of keeping holy the Sabbath day was not made till afterwards Nam hinc from Gods own resting on that day postea praeceptum de Sabbato natum est as he there hath it Doubtless the Jews who so much doted on their Sabbath would not by any means have robbed it of so great antiquity had they had any ground to approve thereof or not known the contrary So that the scope of Moses in this present place was not to shew the time when but the occasion why the Lord did after sanctifie the seventh day for a Sabbath day viz. because that on that day he rested from the works which he had created Nor was it otherwise conceived than that Moses here did speak by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation till Ambrose Catharin one of the great sticklers in the Trent-Council opined the contrary He in his Comment on that Text falls very foul upon Tostatus and therein leads the Dance to others who have since taken up the same opinion Ineptum est quod quidam commentus est c. It is a foolish thing saith he that In Gen. 2. as a certain Writer fancieth the sanctification of that day which Moses speaks of should not be true as of that very point of time whereof he speaks it but rather to be referred unto the time wherein be wrote as if the meaning only were that then it
of Abraham and his Posterity Which is no more than what we shall see shortly out of Eusebius Hospinian next De festis 1. cap. 3. who though he fain would have the sanctifying of the Sabbath to be as old as the beginning of the world yet he confesseth at the last Patres idcirco Sabbatum observasse ante legem that for all that it cannot be made good by the Word of God that any of the Fathers did observe it before the Law These two I have the rather cited because they have been often vouched in the publick controversie as men that wished well to the cause and say somewhat in it We are now come unto particulars And first we must begin with the first man Adam The time of his Creation as the Scriptures tell us the sixth day of the week being as Scaliger conjectured in the first Edition of his work Emend temp l. 5. the three and twentieth day of April and so the first Sabbath Sabbatum primum so he calls it was the four and twentieth Doctrina temp l. 4. c. 6. Petavius by his computation makes the first Sabbath to be the first day of November and Scaliger in his last Edition the five and twentieth of October more near to one another than before they were Yet saith not Scaliger that that primum Sabbatum had any reference to Adam though first he left it so at large that probably some might so conceive it for in his later thoughts he declares his meaning to be this Sabbatum primum in quo Deus requievit ab opere Hexaemeri Indeed the Chaldee paraphrase seems to affirm of Adam that he kept the Sabbath For where the 92 Psalm doth bear this title A Song or Psalm for the Sabbath day the Authors of that Paraphrase do expound it thus Laus Canticum quod dixit homo primus pro die Sabbati the Song or Psalm which Adam said for the Sabbath day Somewhat more wary in this point was Rabbi Kimchi who tells us how that Adam was created upon Friday about three of the Clock fell at eleven was censured and driven out of Paradise at twelve that all the residue of that day and the following night he bemoaned his miseries was taken into grace next morning being Sabbath day and taking then into consideration all the works of God brake out into such words as those although not the same A tale that hath as much foundation as that narration of Zanchy before remembred Who though he seem to put the matter out of doubt with his three non dubito's that Christ himself did sanctifie the first Sabbath with our Father Adam and did command him ever after to observe that day yet in another place he makes it only a matter of probability In 4. Mandatum that the commandment of the Sabbath was given at all to our first Parents Quomodo autem sanctificavit Non solum decreto voluntate sed reipsa quia illum diem ut non pauci volunt probabile est mandavit primis parentibus sanctificandum So easily doth he overthrow his former structure But to return unto the Rabbins and this dream of theirs besides the strangeness of the thing that Adam should continue not above eight hours in Paradise and yet give names to all the ââatures fall into such an heavy sleep and have the Woman taken out of him that the must be instructed tempted and that both must sin and both must suffer in so short a time Besides all this the Christian Fathers are express that Adam never kept the Sabbath Justin the Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho a learned Jew makes Adam one of those ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which being neither circumcised nor keeping any Sabbath Adv. Judaeos were yet accepted by the Lord. And so Tertullian in a Treatise written against the Jews affirms of Adam quod nec circumcisum nec sabbatizantem Deus eum instituerit Nay which is more he makes a challenge to the Jews to prove unto him if they could that Adam ever kept the Sabbath Doceant Adamum sabbatizasse as he there hath it Which doubtless neither of them would have done considering with whom the one disputed and against whom the other wrote had they not been very well assured of what they said The like may be affirmed both of Eusebius and Epiphanius De Praepar Evang l. 7. c. 8. and most learned Fathers Whereof the first maintaining positively that the Sabbath was first given by Moses makes Adam one of those which neither troubled himself with Circumcision ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã nor any of the Law of Moses Adv. haereses l. 1. n. 5. The other reckoneth him amongst those also who lived according to that faith which when he wrote was generally received in the Christian Church Therefore no Sabbath kept by our Father Adam But whatsoever Adam did Abel I hope was more observant of this duty Thus some have said indeed but on no authority It is true the Scriptures tell us that he offered Sacrifice but yet the Scriptures do not tell us that in his Sacrifices he had more regard unto the seventh day than to any other To offer Sacrifice he might learn of Adam or of natural reason which doth sufficiently instruct us that we ought all to make some publick testimony of our subjection to the Lord. But neither Adam did observe the Sabbath nor could Nature teach it as before is shewn And howsoever some Modern Writers have conjectured and conjectured only that Abel in his Sacrifices might have respect unto the Sabbath yet those whom we may better trust have affirm'd the contrary For Justin Martyr disputing against Trypho brings Abel in for an example that neither Circumcision nor the Sabbath the two great glories of the Jews were to be counted necessary For if they were saith he God had not had so much regard to Abels Sacrifice being as he was uncircumcised and then he adds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that though he was no Sabbath-keeper yet was he acceptable unto God Adv. Judaeos And so Tertullian that God accepted of his Sacrifice though he were neither circumcised nor kept the Sabbath Abelem offerentem sacrificia incircumcisum neque sabbatizantem laudavit Deus accepta ferens quae in simplicitate cordis offerebat Yea and he brings him also into his challenge Doceant Abel hostiam Deo sanctam offerentem Sabbati religionem placuisse which is directly contrary to that which is conjectured by some Modern Writers Adv. haeres l. 1. n. 5. So Epiphanius also makes him one of those who lived according to the tendries of the Christian Faith The like he also saith of Seth whom God raised up instead of Abel to our Father Adam Therefore no Sabbath kept by either It is conceived of Abel that he was killed in the one hundred and thirtieth year of the Worlds Creation
And if St. Austins note be true and the note be his Serm. de temp 154. that on the first day of the week transgressi sunt filii Israel mare rubrum siccis pedibus the Israelites went dry-foot over the Red-sea or Sea of Edom then must the day before if any be the Sabbath-day the next seventh day after the day of their departure But that day certainly was not kept as a Sabbath day For it was wholly spent in murmuring and complaints against God and Moses They cryed unto the Lord Exod. 14.11 12. and they said to Moses why hast thou brought us out of Egypt to die in the Wilderness Had it not been better far for us to serve the Egyptians Nothing in all these murmurings and seditious Clamours that may denote it for a Sabbath for an holy Festival Nor do we find that for the after-times they made any scruple of journying on that day till the Law was given unto the contrary in Mount Sinai which was the eleventh station after their escape from Egypt It was the fancy of Rabbi Solomon that the Sabbath was first given in Marah and that the sacrifice of the Red Cow mentioned in the nineteenth of Numbers Exod. 15.26 was instituted at that time also This fancy founded on those words in the Book of Exodus If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God c. then will I bring none of those Diseases upon thee that I brought on the Egyptians But Torniellus and Tostatus and Lyra though himself a Jew count it no other than a Jewish and Rabbinical folly Sure I am that on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure out of Egypt being that day seventhnight before the first Sabbath was discovered in the fall of Manna we find not any thing that implies either Rest or Worship We read indeed how all the Congregation murmured as they did before against Moses and against Aaron Exod. 16.2 wishing that they had died in the Land of Egypt where they had Bread their bellies full rather than be destroyed with Famine So eagerly they murmured that to content them God sent them Quailes that night and rained down Bread from Heaven next morning Was this think you the sanctifying of a Sabbath to the Lord their God Indeed the next seventh day that followed was by the Lord commended to them for a Sabbath and ratified by a great and signal miracle the day before wherein it pleased him to give them double what they used to gather on the former days that they might rest upon the seventh with the greater comfort This was a preamble or preparative to the following Sabbath for by this miracle this rest of God from raining Mannah on the seventh day the people came to know which was precisely the seventh day from the Worlds Creation whereof they were quite ignorant at that present time Philo assures us in his third Book de vita Mosis that the knowledg of that day on which God rested from his works had been quite forgotten ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by reason of those many miseries which had befaln the World by fire and water and so continued till by this miracle the Lord revived again the remembrance of it And in another place De vita Mosis l. 1. when men had made a long enquiry after the birth-day of the World and were yet to seek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. God made it known to them by a special miracle which had so long been hidden from their Ancestors The falling of a double portion of Mannah on the sixth day and the not putrifying of it on the seventh was the first light that Moses had to descry the Sabbath which he accordingly commended unto all the people to be a day of rest unto them that as God ceased that day from sending so they should rest from looking after their daily Bread But what need Philo be produced when we have such an ample Testimony from the word it self For it is manifest in the story that when the people on the sixth day had gathered twice as much Mannah as they used to do Exod. 16.5 according as the Lord had directed by his servant Moses they understood not what they did at least why they did it The Rulers of the Congregation as the Text informs us Verse 22 came and told Moses of it and he as God before had taught him acquainted them Verse 23 that on the morrow should be the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord and that they were to keep the over-plus until the morning Nay so far were the people from knowing any thing of the Sabbath or of Gods rest upon that day that though the Prophet had thus preached unto them of a Sabbaths rest the people gave small credit to him For it is said that some of the people went out to gather on the seventh day Verse 27 which was the seventh day after or the second Sabbath as some think notwithstanding all that had been spoken and that the Mannah stank not as on other days So that this resting of the people was the first sanctifying of the Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures and Gods great care to make provision for his people on the day before the blessing he bestowed upon it And this is that which Solomon Iarchi tells us Ch. 1. n. 2. as before we noted Benedixit ei i.e. in Mannah quia omnibus diebus septimanae descendit Omer pro singulis sexto panis duplex sanctificavit eum i.e. in Mannah quia non descendit omnino Nay generally the Hebrew Doctors do affirm the same assuring us that the Commandment of the Sabbath is the foundation and ground of all the rest as being given before them all at the fall of Mannah Vnde dicunt Hebraei sabbatum fundamentum esse aliorum praeceptorum quod ante alia praecepta hoc datum sit De fest Judaeor c. 3. quando Mannah acceperunt So Hospinian tells us Therefore the Sabbath was not given before in their own confession This happened on the two and twentieth day of the second month after their coming out of Egypt and of the Worlds Creation Anno 2044. the people being then in the Wilderness of Sin which was their seventh station The seventh day after being the nine and twentieth of the second month is thought by some I know not upon what authority to be that day whereon some of the people distrusting all that Moses said went out to gather Mannah Numb 35. as on other days but whether they were then in the Wilderness of Sin or were incamped in Dophkath Alush or Rephidim which were their next removes that the Scriptures say not Most likely that they were in the last station considering the great businesses there performed the fight with Amalek and the new ordering of the Government by Jethroes Counsel and that upon the third day of the third moneth which
sacrifice with a meat-offering and a drink-offering thereunto proportioned on the New-moons and all the Annual Sabbaths before remembred the sacrifices were enlarged nay more than trebled as is expressed in the 28 and 29 of the book of Numbers Nay if it hapned any time as sometimes it did that any of these Festivals did fall upon the weekly Sabbath or that two of them as the New-moons and the Feast of Trumpets fell upon the same the service of the weekly Sabbath lessened not at all the sacrifices destinate to the Annual Sabbath but they were all performed in their several turns Ap. Ainsworth in Num. 28. The Text it self affirms as much in the two Chapters before specified and for the practice of it that so it was it is apparent to be seen in the Hebrew Calendars Only the difference was this as Rabbi Maimony informs us that the addition of the Sabbath was first performed and after the addition of the New-moon and then the addition of the Good day or other Festival So that in case the weekly Sabbath had a priviledge above the Annual in that the Shew-bread or the loaves of proposition were only set before the Lord on the weekly Sabbaths the Annual Sabbaths seem to have had amends all of them in the multiplicity of their sacrifices and three of them in the great solemnity and concourse of people all Israel being bound to appear before the Lord on those three great Festivals the Passeover the Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles As for the penalty inflicted on the breakers of these solemn Festivals it is expresly said of the weekly Sabbath that whosoever doth any work therein shall be put to death Exod. 31.15 And in the Verse before that whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off or as the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it that man shall be destroyed from amongst his People Whic if it signifie the same as by the Chaldee Paraphrase it seems to do it is no more than what is elsewhere said of the Expiation for so saith the Text. And whatsoever soul it be that doth any work in that same day Levit. 23.30 that soul will I destroy from amongst his People But if the phrase be different as the Rabbins say the difference is no more than this that they that break the weekly Sabbath are to be put to death by the Civil Magistrate and they that work upon the Feast of Expiation shall be cut off by God by untimely deaths As for the other Annual Sabbaths the rabbins have determined thus Ap. Ainsworth in Levit. 23.7 That whosoever doth in any of them such works as are not necessary for food as if he build or pull down or weave and the like he breaketh a Commandment and transgresseth against this prohibition Ye shall not do any servile work and if he do and there be Witnesses and evident proof he is by law to be beaten or scourged for it So that we see that whether we regard the institution or continuance of these several Sabbaths or the solemnities of the same either in reference to the Priests the Sacrifices and concourse of People or finally the punishment inflicted on the breakers of them the difference is so little it is scarce remarkable considering especially that if the weekly Sabbaths do gain in one point they lose as often in another For the particulars we shall speak of them hereafter as occasion is As for the time when they began their Sabbaths and when they ended them they took beginning on the Evening of the day before and so continued till the Evening of the Feast it self The Scripture speaks it only as I remember of the Expiation which is appointed by the Lord to be observed on the tenth day of the seventh month Lev. 23.27 yet so that it is ordered thus in the 31. It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest and ye shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month at even And then it followeth From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath But in the Practice of the Jews it was so in all either because they took those words for a general precept or else because they commonly did accompt their day from even to even For where the Romans and Egyptians began the day at midnight âmend Temp. l. 1. the Chaldees and the Persians with the rising Sun and the Vmbri an Italian People reckoned theirs from noon to noon the Jews and the athenians took the beginning of their day ab occasu solis from Sun-setting as Scaliger and divers others have observed Yet sure I am Honorius Augustodunensis De imagine mundi l. 2. who lived four hundred years ago and upwards placeth the Jews together with the Persians and Chaldeans as men that do begin their day at the Sun-rising However in this case it is not to be thought that the Even was any part of the Sabbath following for the additional sacrifices were offered only on the Morning and the Evening of the several Sabbaths but a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or preparation thereunto which preparation if it were before the weekly Sabbath it was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã if before any of the Annual it was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In imitation of the Gentiles the Latine Writers call these Parasceve's or Evens of preparation by the name of Coena pura as Augustine noteth upon the nineteenth of S. John because of some resemblance that was between them but yet they had a difference too Exer. 16. n. 100. For Casaubon hath taught us this that in the Coena pura amongst the Gentiles a part of the ceremony did consist in the choice of meats where no such thing occurs at all in these preparations of the Jews Now these Parasceves or preparation days the Jews did afterward divide into these four parts The first was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a preparative as it were to the preparation which began in the morning and held on till noon The second was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã largely taken from Noon until the Evening-sacrifice of the day The third ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or the approaching of the Sabbath which began after the Evening sacrifice continued till Sun-set and was properly called the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the fourth was the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or entrance of the Sabbath which lasted from Sun-set unto the dawning of the day They had amongst them a tradition or a custom rather that on the whole day from the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã till Sun-set they might not travel above twelve miles lest coming home too late they might not have sufficient leisure to prepare things before the Sabbath Synag Jud. c. 10. The time was as Buxdorfius tells us quo cornu vel inflata tuba daretur signum when there was publick warning given by sound of Trumpet that every man should cease from work and make all things ready for the Sabbath though in
morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth what ye will seeth and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept until the morning i.e. As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day that bake or boil according as you use to do and for the rest let it be laid by to be baked or boiled to morrow that you may have wherewith to feed you on the Sabbath day That this interpretation is most true and proper appears by that which followeth in the holy Scripture Vers 24. viz. They laid it up as Moses bade and it did not stink neither was any worm therein as that which they had kept till morning on some day before Verse 20. This makes it evident that the Mannah was laid up unbaked for otherwise what wonder had it been at all that it did neither breed worm nor stink had it been baked the day before Things of that nature so preserved are far enough from putrifying in so short a time This I am verily persuaded was the practice then and for this light unto that practice I must ingenuously confess my self obliged to Theophilus Braborn the first that ever looked so near into Moses meaning Chap. 4. And this most likely was the practice of the Jews in after times even till the Phartsees had almost made the words of God of no effect by their traditions for then came in those many rigid Ordinances about this day which made the day and them ridiculous unto all the Heathens Sure I am that the Scriptures call it a day of gladness for it was a Festival and therefore probable it is that they had good cheer 2 Edit p. 137.138 And I am sure that Dr. Bound the founder of these Sabbatarian fancies though he conceive that dressing meat upon the Sabbath was by the words of Moses utterly unlawful in the time of Mannah yet he conceives withal that that Commandment was proper only unto the time of Mannah in the Wilderness and so to be restrained unto that time only Therefore by his confession the Jews for after times might as well dress their meat on the Sabbath day as on any other notwithstanding this Injurction of not kindling fire Indeed why not as well dress meat as serve it in the attendance of the servant at his Masters Table being no less considerable on the Sabbath day than of the Cooks about the Kitchin especially in those riotous and excessive Feasts which the Jews kept upon this day however probably they might dress their meat on the day before I say those riotons and excessive Feasts which the Jews kept upon that day and I have good authority for what I say Saint Augustine tells us of them they kept the Sabbath only ad luxuriam ebrietatem and that they rested only ad nugas luxurias sitas that they consumed the day languido luxurioso otio Tâast 3. in Joh. De 10. chordis c. 3. In Psalm 91. In Psalm 32. Sympos Isiac l. 4. and finally did abuse the same not only deliciis Judacis but ad nequitiam even to sin and naughtiness Put all together and we have luxury and drunkenness and sports and pleasures enough to manifest that they spared not any Dainties to set forth their Sabbath though on a Pharisaical prohibition they forbare to dress their meats upon it Nay Plutarch lays it to their charge that they did feast it on their Sabbath with no small excess but of Wine especially Who thereupon conjectureth that the name of Sabbath had its original from the Orgies or Feasts of Bacchus whose Priests used often to ingeminate the word Sabbi Sabbi in their drunken Ceremonies Which being so it is the more to be admired that generally the Romans did upbraid this peopled with their Sabbaths fast Augustus having been at the Bathes and fasting there a long time together Sueton. in Octav. c. 76. gives notice of it to Tiberius thus ne Judaeus quidem tam diligenter sabbatis Jejunium servat that never any Jew had fasted more exactly on the Sabbaths than he did that day So Martial reckoning up some things of unsavoury smell names amongst others jejunia sabbatriorum for by that name he did contemptuously mean the Jews as before I noted And where the Romans in those times began some of them to incline to the Jewish Ceremonies and were observant of the Sabbath as we shall see hereaster in a place more proper Persius objects against them this labra monent taciti Sat. 5. recutitaque sabbata pallent i.e. that being Romans as they were they muttered out their Prayers as the Jews accustomed and by observing of the Fast on the Jewish Sabbaths grew lean and pale for very hunger So saith Petronius Arbiter that the Jews did celebrate their Sabbath jejunia lege by a legal Fast and Justin yet more generally Hist l. 36. septimum diem more gentis sabbatum appellatum in omne aevum jejunio sacravit Moses that Moses did ordain the Sabbath to be a fasting day for ever That the Jews fasted very often sometimes twice a week the Pharisee hath told us in Saint Lukes Gospel and probably the jejunia sabbatariorum in the Poet Martial might reflect on this But that they fasted on the Sabbath is a thing repugnant both to the Scriptures Fathers and all good antiquity except in one case only which was when their City was besieged as Rabbi Moyses Egyptius hath resolved it Nay if a man had fasted any time upon the Sabbath they used to punish him in his sort ut sequenti etiam die jejunaret Ap. Baron A. 34. n. 156. to make him fast the next day after Yet on the other side I cannot but conceive that those before remembred had some ground or reason why they did charge the Jews with the Sabbaths Fast for to suppose them ignorant of the Jewish custom considering how thick they lived amongst them even in Rome it self were a strange opinion The rather since by Plutarch who lived not long after Sueton if he lived not with him the Jews are generally accused for too much riot and excess upon that day For my part I conceive it thus I find in Nehemiah that when the people were returned from the Captivity Ezra the Priest brought forth the Law before the Congregation Cap. 8.2 3. and read it to them from the morning until mid-day which done they were dismissed by Nehemiah to eat and drink and make great joy which they did accordingly Verse 10 12. This was upon the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles one of the solemn Annual Sabbaths and this they did for eight days together Verse 18. from the first day unto the last that the Feast continued After when as the Church was setled and that the Law was read amongst them in their Synagogues on the weekly Sabbaths most probable it is that they
so many manners of work as that day they did However as it was our blessed Saviour did account these works of theirs to be a publick prophanation of the Sabbath day Read ye not in the Law saith he Math. 12.5 how that upon the Sabbath days the Priests in the Temple do prophane the Sabbath Yet he deelared withal that the Priests were blameless in that they did it by direction from the God of Heaven The Sabbath then was daily broken but the Priest excusable For Fathers that affirm the same see Justin Martyr dial qu. 27. ad Orthod Epiphan l. 1. haer 19. n. 5. Hierom. in Psal 92. Athanas de Sabb. Circumcis Aust in Qu. ex N. Test 61. Isidore Pelusiot Epl. 72. l. 1. and divers others These were the Offices of the Priest on the Sabbath day and questionless they were sufficient to take up the time Of any other Sabbath duties by them performed at this present time there is no Constat in the Scripture no nor of any place as yet designed for the performance of such other duties as some conceive to appertain unto the Levites That they were scattered and dispersed over all the Tribes is indeed most true The Curse of Jacob now was become ' a blessing to them Forty-eight Cities had they given them for their inheritance whereof thirteen were proper only to the Priests besides their several sorts of Tithes and what accrewed unto them from the publick sacrifices to an infinite value Yet was not this dispersion of the Tribe of Levi in reference to any Sabbath duties that so they might the better assist the People in the solemnities and sanctifying of that day The Scripture tells us no such matter The reasons manifested in the word were these two especially First that they might be near at hand to instruct the People Levit. 10.10 11. and teach them all the Statutes which the Lord had spoken by the hand of Moses as also to let them know the difference between the holy and unholy the unclean and clean Many particular things there were in the Law Levitical touching pollutions purifyings and the like legal Ordinances which were not necessary to be ordered by the Priests above those that attended at the Altar and were resorted to in most difficult cases Therefore both for the Peoples ease and that the Priests above might not be troubled every day in matters of inferiour moment the Priests and Levites were thus mingled amongst the Tribes A second reason was that there might be as well some nursery to train up the Levites until they were of Age fit for the service of the Tabernacle as also some retirement unto the which they might repair when by the Law they were dismissed from their attendance The number of the Tribe of Levi in the first general muster of them from a month old and upwards was 22000. just out of which number all from 30 years of age to 50. being in all 8580 persons were taken to attend the publick Ministery The residue with their Wives and Daughters were to be severally disposed of in the Cities allotted to them therein to rest themselves with their goods and cattel and do those other Offices above remembred Which Offices as they were the works of every day so if the People came unto them upon the Sabbaths or New-moons as they did on both to be instructed by them in particular cases of the Law 2 King 23. no doubt but they informed them answerably unto their knowledge But this was but occasional only no constant duty Indeed it is conceived by Master Samuel Purchas on the authority of Cornelius Bertram Pilg. almost as modern as himself That the forty-eight Cities of the Levites had their fit places for Assemblies and that thence the Synagogues had their beginnings Which were it so it would be no good argument that in those places of Assemblies the Priests and Levites publickly did expound the Law unto the People on the Sabbath days as after in the Synagogues For where those Cities were but four in every Tribe one with another the People must needs travel more than six furlongs which was a Sabbath days journey of the largest measure as before we noted or else that nice restriction was not then in use And were it that they took the pains to go up unto them yet were not those few Cities able to contain the multitudes When Joab not long after this did muster Israel at the command of david 2 Sam. 24. he found no fewer than thirteen hundred thousand fighting men Suppose we then that unto every one fighting man there were three old Men Women and Children fit to hear the Law as no doubt there were Put these together and it will amount in all to two and fifty hundred thousand Now out of these set by four hundred thousand for Hierusalem and the service there and then there will remain one hundred thousand just which must owe suit and service every Sabbath day to each several City of the Levites Too vast a number to be entertained in any of their Cities and much less in their synagogues had each house been one So that we may resolve for certain that the dispersion of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation hitherto unto the reading of the Law or any publick Sabbath duties CHAP. VII Touching the keeping of the SABBATH from the time of David to the Maccabees 1. Particular necessities must give place to the Law of Nature 2. That Davids flight from Saul was upon the Sabbath 3. What David did being King of Israel in ordering things about the Sabbath 4. Elijahs flight upon the Sabbath and what else hapned on the Sabbath in Elijah's time 5. The limitation of a Sabbath days journey not known amongst the Jews when Elisha lived 6. The Lord become offended with the Jewish Sabbaths and on what occasion 7. The Sabbath entertained by the Samaritans and their strange niceties therein 8. Whether the Sabbaths were observed during the Captivity 9. The special care of Nehemiah to reform the Sabbath 10. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days begun by Ezra 11. No Synagogues nor weekly reading of the Law during the Government of the Kings 12. The Scribes and Doctors of the Law impose new rigours on the People about their Sabbaths THUS have we traced the Sabbath from the Mount to Silo the space of forty five years or thereabouts wherein it was observed sometimes and sometimes broken broken by publick order from the Lord himself and broken by the publick practice both of Priest and People No precept in the Decalogue so controuled and justled by the legal Ceremonies forced to give place to Circumcision because the younger and to the legal Sacrifices though it was their elders and all this while no blame or imputation to be laid on them that so prophaned it Men durst not thus have dallied with the other nine no nor with this neither had it
leave the seventh year free and the exaction of every debt Where still observe that they had no less care of the annual Sabbaths yea of the Sabbaths of years than of the weekly and Marketting not more restrained on the weekly Sabbaths than on the Annual A Covenant not so well performed as it was agreed For Nehemiah who was principal on the Peoples part being gone for Babylon at his return found all things contrary to what he looked for I saw saith he Chap. 13.15 in Judah them that trode Wine presses on the Sabbath and that brought in Sheafs and which laded Asses also with Wine Grapes and Figgs and brought them into Hierusalem on the Sabbath day and others men of Tyrus that brought Fish and all manner of Ware Verse 16. and sold it on the Sabbath unto the Children of Judah a most strange disorder So general was the crime become that the chief Rulers of the People were most guilty of it So that to rectifie this misrule Nehemiah was not only forced to shut up the Gates upon the Even before the Sabbath yea and to keep them shut all the Sabbath day whereby the Merchants were compelled to rest with their Commodities without the Walls but to use threatning words unto them that if from that time forwards they came with Merchandize on the Sabbath he would forbear no longer but lay hands upon them A course not more severe than necessary as the case then stood Nor had those mischiefs been redressed being now countenanced by custom and some chief men among the People had they not met a man both resolved and constant one that both knew his work and had a will to see it finished This reformation of the Sabbath or rather of those foul abuses which had of late defiled it and even made it despicable is placed by Torniellus An. 3629. which was above an hundred years after the restitution of this people to their Native Countrey So difficult a thing it is to overcome an evil custom Things ordered thus and all those publick scandals being thus removed there followed a more strict observance of the Sabbath day than ever had been kept before The rather since about these times began the reading of the Law in the Congregation Not every seventh year only and on the Feast of Tabernacles as before it was or should have been at the least by the Law of Moses but every sabbath day and each solemn meeting not only in the Temple of Hierusalem as it is used to be but in the Towns and principal places of each several Tribe Ezra first set this course on foot a Priest by calling one very skilful in the Laws of Moses who having taken great pains to seek out the Law and other Oracles of God digested and disposed them into that form and method in which we have them at this present Of this see Iren. l. 3.25 Tertullian de habitu mulierum Clem. Alexandr l. 1. Strom. Chrysost hom 8. ad Hebraeos and divers others This done and all the people met together at the Feast of Tabernacles Anno 3610 Nehem. 8.4 which was some ninty years after the return from Babylon as before was said he took that opportunity to make known the Law unto the people For this cause he provided a Pulpit of Wood that so he might be heard the better and round about him stood the Priests Verse 4.7 Verse 8. Verse 18. and Levites learned men of purpose to expound the Text and to give the sense thereof that so the people might the better understand the reading And this they did eight days together from the first day until the last when the Feast was ended Now in this Act of Ezra's there was nothing common nothing according to the custom of the former times neither in time or place or any other circumstance For the time although it was the Feast of Tabernacles yet was it not the seventh year as Moses ordered it that year which was the first of Nehemiahs coming unto Hierusalem Neh. 8.1 3. not being the sabbatical year but the third year after as Torniellus doth compute it Then for the place it should have been performed in the Temple only as both by Moses Ordinance and Josiahs practice doth at large appear but now they did it in the street before the Water-gates as the Text informs us So for manner of the Reading it was not only published as it had been formerly but expounded also An. 3610. n. 9. Whereof as of a thing never known before this reason is laid down by Torniellus quod lingua Hebraica desierat jam vulgaris esse Chaldaico seu Syriaco idiomate in ejus locum surrogato because the Hebrew tongue wherein the Scriptures were first written was now grown strange unto the people the Chaldee or the Syriack being generally received in the place thereof And last of all for the continuance of this Exercise it held out eight days all the whole time the Feast continued whereas it was appointed by the Law of Moses that only the first and last days of the Feast of Tabernacles should be esteemed and solemnized as holy convocations to the Lord their God Levit. 23.35 36. Here was a total alteration of the ancient custom and a fair overture to the Priests who were then Rulers of the people to begin a new a fair instruction to them all that reading of the Law of God was not confined to place or time but that all times and places were alike to his holy Word Every seventh day as fit for so good a Duty as every seventh year was accounted in the former times the Villages and Towns as capable of the Word of God as was the great and glorious Temple of Hierusalem and what prerogative had the Feast of Tabernacles but that the Word of God might be as necessary to be heard on the other Festivals as it was on that The Law had first been given them on a Sabbath day and therefore might be read unto them every Sabbath day This might be pleaded in behalf of this alteration and that great change which followed after in the weekly Sabbaths whereon the Law of God was not only read unto the people such of them as inhabited over all Judaea but publickly made known unto them in all the Provinces and Towns abroad where they had either Synagogues or habitations God certainly had so disposed it in his heavenly Counsels that so his holy Word might be more generally known throughout the World and a more easie way layed open for the admittance and receipt of the Messiah whom he meant to send that so Hierusalem and the Temple might by degrees be lesned in their reputation and men might know that neither of them was the only place John 4.20 where they ought to worship This I am sure of that by this breaking of the custom although an institute of Moses the Law was read more frequently than in times of old there being
howsoever it was with those of Jewry such of their Countrymen as dwelt abroad amongst other Nations made no such scruple of the Sabbath but that they were prepared if occasion were as well to bid the Battel as to expect it as may appear by this short story which I shall here present in brief leaving the Reader to Josephus for the whole at large Two Brethren Asinaeus and Auilaeus born in Nearda in the territory of Babylon began to fortifie themselves and commit great outrages which known the Governour of Babylon prepares his Forces to suppress them Having drawn up his Army he lies in Ambush near a Marsh and the next day which was the Sabbath wherein the Jews did use to rest from all manner of work making account that without stroke stricken they would yield themselves he marched against them fair and softly to come upon them unawares But being discovered by the scouts of Asinaeus it was resolved amongst them to be far more safe valiantly to behave themselves in that necessity yea though it were a breaking of the very Law than to submit themselves and make proud the Enemy Whereupon all of them at once marched forth and slaughtered a great many of the Enemies the residue being constrained to save themselves by a speedy flight The like did Anilaeus after being provoked by Mithridates another Chieftain of those parts This happened much about the year 3957. that of the Maccabees before remembred Anno 3887 or thereabouts Happy it was these Brethren lived not in Judaea for had they done so there the Scribes and Pharisees would have taken an order with them and cast them out of the Synagogues if not used them worse For by this time those Sects which before we spake of began to shew themselves and disperse their Doctrines Josephus speaks not of them till the time of Jonathan who entred on the Government of the Jewish Nation Anno 3894. Questionless they were known and followed in the former times though probably not so much in credit their dictates not so much adored as in the Ages that came after Of those the Pharisees were of most Authority being most active in their courses severe professors of the Law and such as by a seeming sanctity had gained exceedingly on the affections of the common people The Sadduces were of less repute though otherwise they had their dependants as men that questioned some of the common principles denying the Resurrection of the dead the hope of immortality As for the Essees or Esseni they were a kind of Monkish men retired and private of far more honesty than the Pharisees but of far less cunning therefore their tendries not so generally received or hearkened after as the others were In matters of the Sabbath they were strict alike but with some difference in the points wherein their strictness did consist Joseph de bello li. 2.7 In this the Essee seems to go beyond the Pharisee that they not only did abstain from dressing meat and kindling fire upon the Sabbath as probably the others did ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But unto them it was unlawful to remove a dish or any other Vessel out of the place wherein they found it yea or to go aside to ease Nature And on the other side the Pharisee in the multiplicity of his Sabbath speculations went beyond the Essee all which were thrust upon the people as prescribed by God and grounded in his holy Law the perfect keeping of the which seemed their utmost industry There is a dictate in the Scripture that No man go out of his place on the Sabbath day Exod. 16. This was impossible to be kept according to the words and letter therefore there must be some device to expound this Text and make the matter feasible Hereupon Achiba Simeon and Hillel three principal Rabbins of these times found out a shift to satisfie the Text and yet not bind the people to impossible burdens This was to limit out the Sabbaths journey allowing them 2000 foot to stir up and down for the ease and comfort of the Body by which devise they thought the matter well made up the people happily contented and the Law observed This was the refuge of the Jews when afterwards the Christians pressed them with the not keeping of this Text R. Achiba Simeon Hillel magistri nostri tradiderunt nobis ut bis mille pedes ambularemus in sabbato as St. Hierom tells us Ad Algesiâm But this being somewhat of the least they afterwards improved it to 2000 Cubits then to three quarters of a mile as before we noted and this with this inlargement too that in their Towns and Cities they might walk as much and as far as they listed though as big as Nineveh This Rab. Hiliel above named lived in the year 3928. which was some fifteen years after Jonathans death and therefore to be reckoned of these times in the which we are The other two for ought we know were his Coaetanei and lived about the same times also So for the other Text Thou shalt not kindle fire on the Sabbath day this also must be literally understood and then comparing this with that in Exodus Bake that which ye will bake to day it needs must follow that no meat must be made ready on the Sabbath We shewed before that generally the people did use to fast on the Sabbath day till they came from Church that so they might be more attent unto the reading of the Law this might suggest a plausible pretence unto the Pharisee to teach the people that they should forbear from dressing meat that so their servants also might be present when the Law was read Hence came the saying used amongst them Qui parat in parasceve vescetur in Sabbato he that doth cook it on the Eve may eat upon the Sabbath There is a Text in Jeremy expresly against bearing of burdens on the Sabbath day Chap. 17. v. 11. This by the Christian Fathers is interpreted of the burden of sin Custodit animam suam qui non portat pondera peccatorum in die quietis sabbati as St. Hierom hath it on the place See the same Father also on the 58 of Esay and Basil on the first of the same Prophet And certainly had Gods intent been plain and peremptory that whosoever did bear any burden on the Sabbath day should never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven our Saviour never had commanded the poor lame man to take up his Bed upon the Sabbath But for the Pharisees they have so dallied with the Text that they have made both it and themselves ridiculous For finding it impossible that men should carry nothing at all about them to salve the matter they devised some nice absurdities A man might wear no nailed shoos on the Sabbath day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã l. 4. because the nails would be a burden ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that which a man did carry on one shoulder only
maximi eorum fanis jus Asyli manere c. neque cogi ad praestanda vadimonia sabbatis aut pridie sabbatorum post horam nonam in Parasceve Quod si quis contra decretum ausus fuerit gravi poena mulctabitur This Edict was set forth Anno 4045. and after many of that kind were published in several Provinces by Mar. Agrippa Provost General under Caesar Phil. legat ad Caium as also by Norbanus Flaceus and Julius Antonius Proconsuls at that time whereof see Josephus Nay when the Jews were grown so strict that it was thought unlawful either to give or take an Alms on the Sabbath day Augustus for his part was willing not to break them of it yet so to order and dispose his Bounties that they might be no losers by so fond a strictness For whereas he did use to distribute monthly a certain Donative either in Mony or in Corn this distribution sometimes happened on the Sabbath days ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Philo hath it whereon the Jews might neither give nor take neither indeed do any thing that did tend to sustenance Therefore saith he it was provided that their proportion should be given them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on the next day after that so they might be made partakers of the publick benefit Not give nor take an Alms on the Sabbath day Their superstition sure was now very vehement seeing it would not suffer men to do the works of mercy on the day of mercy And therefore it was more than time they should be sent to School again to learn this Lesson I will have mercy and not sacrifice And so indeed they were sent unto School to him who in himself was both the Teacher and the Truth For at this time our Saviour came into the World And had there been no other business for him to do this only might have seemed to require his presence viz. to rectifie those dangerous Errours which had been spread abroad in these latter times about the Sabbath The service of the Sabbath in the Congregation he found full enough The custom was to read a Section of the Law out of the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses and after to illustrate or confirm the same out of some parallel place amongst the Prophets That ended if occasion were and that the Rulers of the Synagogue did consent unto it there was a word of Exhortation made unto the people Chap. 13.15 conducing to obedience and the works of Piety So far it is apparent by that passage in the Acts of the Apostles touching Paul and Barnabas that being at Antioch in Pisidia on the Sabbath day after the reading of the Law and Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying Ye men and brethren if ye have any word of exhortation to speak unto the people dicite say on As for the Law I note this only by the way they had divided it into 54 Sections which they read over in the two and fifty sabbaths joyning two of the shortest twice together that so it might be all read over within the year beginning on the Sabbath which next followed the Feast of Tabernacles ending on that which came before it So far our Saviour found no fault but rather countenanced and confirmed the custom by his gracious presence and example But in these rigid Vanities and absurd Traditions by which the Scribes and Pharisees had abused the Sabbath and made it of an ease to become a drudgery in those he thought it requisite to detect their follies and ease the people of that bondage which they in their proud humours had imposed upon them The Pharisees had taught that it was unlawful on the sabbath day either to heal the impotent or relieve the sick or feed the hungry but he confutes them in them all both by his Acts and by his Disputations Whatever he maintain'd by Argument he made good by Practice Did they accuse his followers of gathering Corn upon the Sabbath being then an hungred he le ts them know what David did in the same extremity Their eating or their gathering on the Sabbath day take you which you will was not more blameable nay not so blameable by the Law as David's eating of the Shew-bread which plainly was not to be eaten by any but the Priest alone The Cures he did upon the Sabbath what were they more than which themselves did daily do in laying salves unto those Infants whom on the Sabbath day they had Circumcised His bidding of the impotent man to take up his Bed and get him gone which seemed so odious in their eyes was it so great a toyl as to walk round the walls of Hiericho and bear the Ark upon their shoulders or any greater burden to their idle backs than to lift up the Ox and set him free out of that dangerous Ditch into the which the hasty Beast might fall as well upon the Sabbath as the other days Should men take care of Oxen and not God of Man Not so The Sabbath was not made for a lazy Idol which all the Nations of the World should fall down and worship but for the ease and comfort of the labouring man that he might have some time to refresh his spirits Sabbatum propter hominem factum est The Sabbath saith our Saviour was made for man man was not made to serve the Sabbath Nor had God so irrevocably spoke the word touching the sanctifying of the Sabbath that he had left himself no power to repeal that Law in case he saw the purpose of the Law perverted the Son of man even he that was the Son both of God and Man being Lord also of the Sabbath Nay it is rightly marked by some that Christ our Saviour did more works of Charity on the Sabbath day than on all days else Zanchius observes it out of Irenaeus In Mandat 4. Saepius multo Christum in die Sabbati praestitisse opera charitatis quam in aliis diebus and his note is good Not that there was some urgent and extream necessity either the Cures to be performed that day or the man to perish For if we look into the story of our Saviours actions we find no such matter It 's true that the Centurions son and Peters mother-in-law were even sick to death and there might be some reason in it why he should haste unto their Cures on the Sabbath day But on the other side the man that had the withered Hand Matth. 13. and the Woman with her flux of Blood eighteen years together Luke 13. he that was troubled with the Dropsie Luke 14. and the poor wretch which was afflicted with the Palsie John 5. in none of these was found any such necessity but that the Cure might have been respited to another day What then Shall it be thought our Saviour came to destroy the Law No. God forbid Himself hath told us that he came to fulfil it rather He came to let them understand
Manich. l. 1. c. 22. contr Adimant ca. 2. Qu. in Exod. l. 2. qu. 173. And thirdly that it is not lawful for a Christian to observe the Sabbath Deiutil crecendi c. 3. For speaking of the Law how it was a Paedagogie to bring us unto the knowledg of Christ he adds that in those Institutes and Ordinances Quibus Christians uti fas non est quale est sabbatum circumcisio sacrificia c. which are not lawful to be used by any Christian such as are the Sabbath Circumcision Sacrifices and such other things many great Mysteries were contained And in another place Quisquis diem illum observat sicut litera sonat carnaliter sapit Sapere autem secundum carnem mors est He that doth literally keep the Sabbath favours of the flesh De Sp. lit c. 14. but to savour of the flesh is death Therefore no Sabbath to be kept by the sons of life No Sabbath to be kept at all We affirm not so We know there is a Christian Sabbath a Sabbath figured out unto us in the fourth Commandment which every Christian man must keep that doth desire to enter into the Rest of God This is that Sabbath which the Prophet Isaiah hath commended to us Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it Quid autem sabbatum est quod praecipit observandum c. What Sabbath is it saith St. Hierom that is here commanded The following words saith he will inform us that keeping our hands from doing evil This is the Sabbath here commanded Si bona faciens quiescat à malis if doing what is good we do rest from sin Nor was this his conceit alone the later Writers so expound it The Prophet in this place saith Ryvet thus prophecies of the Church of Christ Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it In Decalog and keepeth his hands from doing any evil Vbi custodire sabbatum in Ecclesia Christiana est custodire manus suas à malo And in these words saith he to keep a Sabbath in a Christian Church is only to preserve our hands from doing evil The like spiritual Sabbath doth the man of God prescribe unto us in the 58 Chapter of his Book Verse 13.14 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day not doing thine own way nor finding thine own pleasure nor sheapking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high plaes of the earth c. What saith Hierom unto this It must be understood saith he spiritually Alioquin si haec tantum prohibentur in sabbato ergo in aliis sex diebus tribuitur nobis libertas delinquendi In locum For otherwise if those things above remembred are prohibited only on the Sabbaths then were it lawful for us on the other days to follow our own finful courses speak our own idle words and pursue our own voluptuous pleasures which were most foolish to imagine And so saith Ryvet too for the modern Writers In Decalog Repetuum ab omnibus operibus nostris vitiosis cessationem c. That everlasting rest from all sinful works which is begun in this life here and finished in the life to come is signified and represented by those words of Isaiab ca. 58. They therefore much mistake these Texts and the meaning of them who grounding thereupon forbid all manner of REcreations and lawful pleasures on their supposed Sabbath day as being utterly prohibited by Gods holy Prophet The Jews did thus abuse this Scripture Maymon ap Ains in Ex. 20. in the times before and made it an unlawful matter for any man to walk into the Fields or to see his Gardens on the Sabbath day either to mark what things they wanted or how well they prospered because this was to do his own pleasure and so forbidden by the Prophet But those that understand the true Christian Sabbath apply them to a better purpose as was shewed before And for the Christian Sabbath what it is and in what things it doth consist besides what hath been said already we shall add something more from the ancient Fathers If any man Dial. cum Trypbon saith Justin Martyr that hath been formerly a perjured person a deceiver of his Neighbour an incontinent liver repentshim of his sins and amends his life ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that man doth keep a true and holy Sabbath to the Lord his God See to this purpose also Clemens of Alexandria Strom. l. 4. So Origen Omnis qui vivit in Christo semper in sabbatis vivit That man Tract 19. in Math. whose life is hid with Christ in God keeps a daily Sabbath See to that purpose Hom. 23. in Numbers Macarius also tells us that the Sabbath given from God by Moses Hom. 35. was a Type only and a shadow of that real Sabbth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã given by the Lord unto the soul More fully Chrysostom ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. What use saith he is there of a Sabbath to him whose Conscience is a continual feast to him whose conversation is in Heaven For now we feast it every day doing no manner of wickedness but keeping a spiritual rest holding our hands from covet ousness our Bodies from uncleanness What need we more The Law of righteousness contains ten Commandments The first to know one God the second to abstain from Idols the third not to prophane Gods Name the fourth Sabbatum celebrare spirituale Hom. 29. in Math. 24. to keep the true spiritual Sabbath c. So he that made the Opus imperfectum on Saint Matthews Gospel Saint Augustine finally makes the fourth Commandment so far as it concerns us Christians to be no more than requies cordis De conven 10 praec 10. plagarum tranquillitas mentis quam facit bona conscientia the quiet of the heart and the peace of mind occasioned by a good Conscience Of any other Sabbath to be looked for now the Fathers utterly are silent and therefore we may well resolve there is no such thing Yet notwithstanding this the Jews still dote upon their Sabbath and that more sottishly and with more superstition far than they ever did A view whereof I shall present and so conclude the first part of this present Argument And first for the Parasceves or their Eves Synag Jud. c. 10. Buxdorfius thus informs us of their vain behaviour Die Veneris singuli ungues de digitis abscindunt c. On Friday in the afternoon they pare their Nails and whet their Knives and lay their Holiday-cloaths in readiness for the reception of Queen Sabbath for so they call it and after lay the Cloth and set on their Meat that nothing be to be done upon the morrow About the evening goes the Sexton from door to door commanding all the people to abstain from work
burdensome there being many casus reservati wherein they could dispense with the fourth Commandment though not with any of the other Had they been all alike equally natural and moral as it is conceived they had been all alike observed all alike immutable no jot or syllable of that Law which was ingraft by nature in the soul of man being to fall unto the ground till Heaven and Earth shall pass away and decay together till the whole frame of Nature Luk. 16.17 for preservation of the which the Law was given be dissolved for ever The Abrogation of the Sabbath which before we spake of shews plainly that it was no part of the Moral Law or Law of Nature there being no Law natural which is not perpetual Tertullian takes it for confest or at least makes it plain and evident Contr. Mare l. 2. Temporale fuisse mandatum quod quandoque cessaret that it was only a temporary constitution which was in time to have an end And after him Procopius Gazaeus in his notes on Exodus e. 16. lays down two several sorts of Laws whereof some were to be perpetual and some were not of which last sort were Circumcision and the Sabbath Quae duraverunt usque in adventum Christi which lasted till our Saviours coming and he being come went out insensibly of themselves For as S. Ambrose rightly tells us In Col. 2.16 Absent imperatore imago ejus habet autoritatem praesente non habet c. What time the Emperour is absent we give some honour to his State or representation but none at all when he is present And so saith he the Sabbaths and New-moons and the other Festivals before our Saviours coming had a time of honour during the which they were observed but he being present once they became neglected But hereof we have spoke more fully in our former Book Neglected not at once and upon the sudden but leisurely and by degrees There were preparatives unto the Sabbath as before we shewed before it was proclaimed as a Law by Moses and there were some preparatives required before that Law of Moses was to be repealed These we shall easiliest discover if we shall please to look on our Saviours actions who gave the first hint unto his Disciples for the abolishing of the Sabbath amongst other ceremonies It 's true that he did frequently repair unto the Synagogues on the Sabbath days and on those days did frequently both read and expound the Law unto the People And he came to Nazareth saith the Text where be had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day Luk. 4.16 and stood up to read It was his custom so to do both when he lived a private life to frequent the Synagogue that other men might do the like by his good example and after when he undertook the Ministery to expound the Law unto them there that they might be the better by his good instructions Yet did not he conceive that teaching or expounding the Word of God was annexed only to the Synagogue or to the Sabbath That most divine and heavenly Sermon which takes up three whole Chapters of S. Matthew's Gospel was questionless a weak days work and so were most of those delivered to us in S. John as also that which he did preach unto them from the Ship side and divers others Nay the Text tells us that he went through every City and Village Preaching and shewing the glad tydings of God Luk. 8.1 Too great a task to be performed only on the Sabbath days and therefore doubt we not but that all days equally were taken up for so great a business So when he sent out his Apostles to Preach the Kingdom of God he bound them not to days and times but left all at liberty that they might take their best advantages as occasion was and lose no time in the advancing of their Masters service Now as in this he seemed to give all days the like prerogative with the Sabbath so many other ways did he abate that estimation which generally the People had conceived of the Sabbath day And howsoever the opinion which the People generally had conceived thereof was grounded as the times then were on superstition rather than true sense of piety yet that opinion once abated it was more easily prepared for a dissolution and went away at last with less noise and clamour Particulars of this nature we will take along as they lie in order His casting out the unclean spirit out of a man in the Synagogue of Caperndum on the Sabbath day his curing of Peters Wives Mother and healing many which were sick of divers diseases on the self same day being all works of marvellous mercy and effected only by his word brought no clamour with them But when he cured the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda and had commanded him to take up his Bed and walk Joh. 5. then did the Jews begin to Persecute him and seek to slay him And how did he excuse the matter My Father worketh bitherto saith he and I also work Hom. 23. in Numer Ostendens per hac in nullo seculi bujus Sabbato requiescere Deum à dispensationibus mundi provisionibus generis humani Whereby saith Origen he let them understand that there was never any Sabbath wherein God rested or left off from having a due care of man-kind and therefore neither would he intermit such a weighty business in any reference to the Sabbath Joh. 7. Which answer when it pleased them not but that they sought their times to kill him he then remembreth them how they upon the Sabbath used to Circumcise a man and that as lawfully he might do the one as they the other This precedent made his Disciples a little bolder than otherwise perhaps they would have been Pulling the ears of Corn Matth. 12. and rubbing them with their hands and eating them to satisfie and allay their hunger Li. 1. haeres 30. n. 32. which Epiphanius thinks they would not have done though they were an hungred had they not found both by his doctrine and example that the Sabbath did begin to be in its declination For which when he and they were joyntly questioned by the Pharisees he choaks them with the instances of what David did in the same extremity when he ate the Shew-bread and what the Priests did every Sabbath when they slew the Sacrifices In which it is to be considered that in these several defences our Saviour goes no higher than the legal Ceremonies the Sacrifice the Shew-bread and the Circumcision No argument or parallel case drawn for his justification from the moral Law or any such neglect thereof on the like occasions Which plainly shews that he conceived the Sabbath to be no part or member of the moral Law Luk. 6.6 Hom. de Semente but only to be ranked amongst the Mosaical Ordinances It happened
being left unto the Prelates of the Church by them to be appointed as occasion was What others of the ancient Writers Cap. 24. v. 20. and what the Protestant Divines have affirmed herein we shall hereafter see in their proper places As for these words of our Redeemer in S. Matthews Gospel Pray that your flight be not in the Winter neither on the Sabbath day they have indeed been much alledged to prove that Christ did intimate at the least unto his Apostles and the rest that there was a particular day by him appointed whereof he willed them to be careful which being not the Jewish Sabbath must of necessity as they think be the Lords day But certainly the Fathers tell us no such matter nay they say the contrary and make these words a part of our Redeemers admonition to the Jews not to the Apostles In Matth. 24. Saint Chrysostom hath it so expresly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Behold saith he how he addresseth his discourse unto the Jews and tells them of the evils which should fall upon them for neither were the Apostles bound to observe the Sabbath nor were they there when those Calamities fell upon the Jewish Nation Not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath and why so saith he Because their flight being so quick and sudden ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã neither the Jews would dare to flie on the Sabbath for such their superstition was in the later times nor would the Winter but be very troublesome in such distresses In Matth. 24. Theophilact doth affirm expresly that this was spoken unto the Jews and spoken upon the self same reasons adding withal ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that before any of those miserles fell upon that Nation the Apostles were all departed from out Jerusalem S. Hierom saith as much as unto the time that those Calamities which by our Saviour were foretold were generally referred unto the Wars of Titus and Vespasian and that both in his Comment on S. Matthew's Gospel and his Epistle to Algasia And for the thing that the Apostles and the rest of the Disciples were all departed from Jerusalem before that heavy war began is no less evident in story Qu. 4. For the Apostles long before that time were either martyred or dispersed in several places for the enlargement of the Gospel not any of them resident in Jerusalem after the Martyrdom of S. James who was Bishop there And for the residue of the Disciples they had forsook the Country also before the Wars being admonished so to do by an Heavenly Vision which warned them to withdraw from thence and repair to Pella beyond Jordan Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 5. as Eusebius tells us So that these words of our Redeemer could not be spoke as to the Apostles and in them unto all the rest of the Disciples which should follow after but to the People of the Jews To whom our Saviour gave this caution not that he did not think it lawful for them to flie upon the Sabbath day but that as things then were and as their consciences were intangled by the Scribes and Pharisees he found that they would count it a most grievous misery to be put unto it To return then unto our story as the chief reason why the Christians of the Primitive times did set apart this day to religious uses was because Christ that day did rise again from death to life for our justification so there was some Analogy or proportion which this day seemed to hold with the former Sabbath which might more easily induce them to observe the same For as God rested on the Sabbath from all the works which he had done in the Creation so did the Son of God rest also on the day of his Resurrection from all the works which he had done in our Redemption ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Orat. in sanct Pascha as Gregory Nyssen notes it for us Yet so that as the Father rested not on the former Sabbath from the works of preservation so neither doth our Saviour rest at any time from perfecting this work of our redemption by a perpetual application of the benefit and effects thereof This was the cause and these the motives which did induce the Church in some tract of time to solemnize the day of Christs Resurrection as a weekly Festival though not to keep it as a Sabbath I say in tract of time for ab initio non fuit sic it was not so in the beginning The very day it self was not so observed though it was known to the Apostles in the morning early that the Lord was risen We find not on the news that they came together for the performance of divine and religious exercises much less that they intended it for a Sabbath day or that our Saviour came amongst them until late at night as in likelihood he would have done had any such performance been thought necessary as was required unto the making of a Sabbath Nay which is more our blessed Saviour on that day and two of the Disciples whatsoever the others did were otherwise employed than in Sabbath duties Luke 24.13 For from Hierusalem to Emaus whither the two Disciples went was sixty furlongs which is seven miles and an half and so much back again unto Hierusalem which is fifteen miles And Christ who went the journey with them at least part thereof and left them not until they came unto Emaus was back again that night and put himself into the middest of the Apostles Had he intended it for a Sabbath day doubtless he would have rather joyned himself with the Apostles who as it is most likely kept themselves together in expectation of the issue and so were most prepared and fitted to begin the new Christian Sabbath than with those men who contrary to the nature of a Sabbaths rest were now ingaged in a journey and that for ought we know about worldly businesses Nor may we think but that our Saviour would have told them of so great a fault as violating the new Christian Sabbath even in the first beginning of it had any Sabbath been intended As for the being of the eleven in a place together that could not have relation to any Sabbath duties or religious exercises being none such were yet commanded but only to those cares and fears wherewith poor men they were distracted which made them loth to part asunder till they were setled in their hopes or otherwise resolved on somewhat whereunto to trust And where it is conceived by some that our most blessed Saviour shewed himself oftner unto the Apostles upon the first day of the week than on any other and therefore by his own appearings did sanctifie that day instead of the Jewish Sabbath neither the premisses are true nor the sequel necessary The premisses not true for it is no where to be found that he appeared oftner on the First day than any other of the week Acts 1.3 it being
said in holy Scripture that he was seen of them by the space of forty days as much on one as on another His first appearing after the night following his Resurrection which is particularly specified in the Book of God was when he shewed himself to Thomas who before was absent That the Text tells us John 20.26 was after eight days from the time before remembred which some conceive to be the eighth day after or the next first day of the week and thereupon conclude that day to be most proper for the Congregations or publick Meetings of the Church Diem octavum quo Christus Thomae apparuit In Joh. l. 17. cap. 18. Dominicum diem esse necesse est as Saint Cyril hath it Jure igitur sanctae congregationes die octavo in Ecclesia fiunt But where the Greek Text reads it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã post octo dies in the vulgar Latine after eight days according to our English Bibles that should be rather understood of the ninth or tenth than the eighth day after and therefore could not be upon the first day of the week as it is imagined Now as the premisses are untrue so the Conclusion is unfirm For if our Saviours apparition unto his Disciples were of it self sufficient to create a Sabbath then must that day whereon Saint Peter went on fishing John 21.3 be a Sabbath also and so must holy Thursday too it being most evident that Christ appeared on those days unto his Apostles So that as yet from our Redeemers Resurrection unto his Ascension we find not any word or Item of a new Christian Sabbath to be kept amongst them or any evidence for the Lords day in the four Evangelists either in precept or in practice The first particular passage which doth occur in holy Scripture touching the first day of the week is that upon that day the Holy Ghost did first come down on the Apostles and that upon the same Saint Peter Preached his first Sermon unto the Jews and Baptized such of them as believed there being added to the Church that day three thousand souls This hapned on the Feast of Pentecost which fell that year upon the Sunday or first day of the week as elsewhere the Scripture calls it but as it was a special and a casual thing so can it yield but little proof if it yield us any that the Lords Day was then observed or that the Holy Ghost did by selecting of that day for his descent on the Apostles intend to dignifie it for Sabbath For first it was a casual thing that Pentecost should fall that year upon the Sunday It was a moveable Feast as unto the day such as did change and shift it self according to the position of the Feast of Passeover the rule being this that on what day soever the second of the Passeover did fall upon that also fell the great Feast of Pentecost Emend Temp. l. 2. Nam ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã semper eadem est feria quae ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Scaliger hath rightly noted So that as often as the Passeover did fall upon the Saturday or Sabbath as this year it did then Pentecost fell upon the Sunday But when the Passeover did chance to fall upon the Tuesday the Pentecost fell that year upon the Wednesday sic de caeteris And if the rule be true as I think it is that no sufficient argument can be drawn from a casual fact and that the falling of the Pentecost that year upon the first day of the week be meerly casual the coming of the Holy Ghost upon that day will be no argument nor authority to state the first day of the week in the place and honour of the Jewish Sabbath There may be other reasons given why God made choice of that time rather than of any other As first because about that very time before he had proclaimed the Law upon Mount Sinai And secondly that so he might the better conntenance and grace the Gospel in the sight of men and add the more authority unto the doctrine of the Apostles The Feast of Pentecost was a great and famous Festival at which the Jews all of them were to come unto Hierusalem there to appear before the Lord and amongst others those which had their hands in our Saviours blood And therefore as S. Chrysostom notes it did God send down the Holy Ghost at that time of Pentecost In Act. 2. because those men that did consent to our Saviours death might publickly receive rebuke for that bloody act and so bear record to the power of our Saviours Gospel before all the World ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as that Father hath it So that the thing being casual as unto the day and special as unto the business then by God intended it will afford us little proof as before I said either that the Lords Day was as then observed or that the Holy Ghost did select that day for so great a work to dignifie it for a Sabbath As for Saint Peters Preaching upon that day and the Baptizing of so many as were converted to the faith upon the same it might have been some proof that now at least if nor before the first day of the week was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises had they not honoured all days with the same performances But if we search the Scriptures we shall easily find that all days were alike to them in that respect no day in which they did not preach the word of life and administer the Sacraments of their Lord and Saviour to such as either wanted it or did desire it Or were it that the Scriptures had not told us of it yet natural reason would inform us that those who were imployed in so great a work as the Conversion of the World could not confine themselves unto times and seasons but must take all advantages whensoever they came But for the Scripture it is said in terms express first generally that the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved and therefore without doubt Acts 2.47 the means of their salvation were daily ministred unto them and in the fifth Chapter of the Acts Verse 42 and daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ Acts 8. So for particulars when Philip did Baptize the Eunuch either he did it on a working day as we now distinguish them and not upon the first day of the week and so it was no Lords day duty or else it was not held unlawful to take a journey on that day as some think it is Saint Peters Preaching to Cornelius and his Baptizing of that house was a week-days work as may be gathered from Saint Hierom. That Father tells us that the day whereon the vision appeared to Peter was probably the Sabbath Advers Jovinian l. 2. or the Lords Day as we call it now fieri potuit ut
vel sabbatum esset vel dies Dominicus as the Father hath it and choose you which you will we shall find little in it for a Christian Sabbath In case it was on the Sabbath then Peter did not keep the Lords day holy as he should have done in case that day was then selected for Gods worship for the Text tells us that the next day he did begin his journey to Cornelius house Acts 10.24 In case it was upon the Lords day as we call it now then neither did Saint Peter sanctifie that day in the Congregation as he ought to do had that day then been made the Sabbath and his conversion of Cornelius being three days after must of necessity be done on the Wednesday following So that we find no Lords day Sabbath either of S. Peters keeping or of S. Philips or else the preaching of the Word and the administring the Sacraments were not affixed at all unto the first day of the week as the peculiar marks and characers thereof So for Saint Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles who laboured more abundantly than the other Apostles besides what shall be said particularly in the following section it may appear in general that he observed no lords-day-Lords-day-sabbath but taught on all days travelled on all days and wrought according to his Trade upon all days too when he had no employment in the Congregation That he did teach on all days is not to be questioned by any that considers how great a work he had to do and how little time That he did travel upon all days is no less notorious to all that look upon his life which was still in motion And howsoever he might rest sometimes on the Lords day as questionless he did on others as often as upon that day he Preached the Gospel yet when he was a Prisoner in the hands of the Roman Souldiers there is no doubt but that he travelled as they did Lords days and Sabbaths In Dominieam 17. post Trinit all days equally many days together Of this see what Saint Luke hath written in the last Chapters of the Acts. Lastly for working at his Trade which was Tent-making on the Lords day as well as others Conradus Dietericus proves ât out of Hierom that when he had none unto whom to preach in the Congregation he followed on the Lords day the works of his Occupation Hieronymus colligit ex Act. 18. vers 3. 4. quod die etiam Dominica quando quibus in publico conventu concionaretur non habebat manibus suis laboravit So Dietericus speaking of our Apostle Now what is proved of these Apostles and of S. Philip the Evangelist may be affirmed of all the rest whose lives and actions are not left upon record in holy Scripture Their Ministery being the same and their work as great no question but their liberty was correspondent and that they took all times to be alike in the advancing of the business which they went about and cherished all occasions presented to them on what day soever What further may be said hereof in reference to Saint John who lived longest of them and saw the Church established and her publick meetings in some order we shall see hereafter in his own place and time Mean while we may conclude for certain that in the planting of the Church he used all days equally kept none more holy than another and after when the Church was setled however he might keep this holy and honour it for the use which was made thereof yet he kept other days so used as holy but never any like a Sabbath Proceed we next unto Saint Paul in this particular of whom the Scripture tells us more than of all the rest and we shall find that he no sooner was converted but that forthwith he Preached in the Synagogues that Jesus was the Christ Acts 9.20 If in the Synagogues most likely that it was on the Jewish Sabbath the Synagogues being destinate especially to the Sabbath days So after he was called to the publick Ministery he came to Antiochia Acts 13.14 and went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and there Preached the Word What was the issue of his Sermon That the Text informs us And when the Jews were gone out of the Synagogue the Gentiles besought that these words might be Preached again the next Sabbath Verse 42 Saint Paul assented thereunto and the next Sabbath day as the Text tells us Verse 44 came almost the whole City together to hear the Word of God It seems the Lords day was not grown as yet into any credit especially not into the repute of the Jewish Sabbath for if it had Saint Paul might easily have told these Gentiles that is such Gentiles as had been converted to the Jewish Church that the next day would be a more convenient time and indeed opus diei in die suo the doctrine of the Resurrection on the day thereof This hapned in the forty sixth year of Christs Nativity some twelve years after his Passion and Resurrection and often after this did the Apostle shew himself in the Jewish Synagogues on the Sabbath days which I shall speak of here together that so we may go on unto the rest of this Discourse with less interruption And first it was upon the Sabbath that he did preach to the Philippians and baptized Lydia with her houshold Acts 16. Amongst the Thessalonians he reasoned three sabbath days together out of the Scriptures Acts 17. At Corinth every sabbath day with the Jews and Greeks Acts 18. besides those many Texts of Scripture when it is said of him that he went into the Synagogues and therefore probably that it was upon the Sabbath as before we said Not that Saint Paul was so affected to the Sabbath as to prefer that day before any other but that he found the people at those times assembled and so might preach the Word with the greater profit Saint Chrysostom for the Ancients have resolved it so In Acts 13.14 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Father hath it So Calvin for the modern Writers makes this the special cause of St. Pauls resort unto the places of Assembly on the Sabbath day quod profecium aliquem sperabat In Acts 16.13 because in such concourse of people he hoped the Word of God would find the better entertainment Any thing rather to be thought than that S. Paul who had withstood so stoutly those false Apostles who would have Circumcision and the Law observed when there was nothing publickly determined of it would after the decision of so great a Council wherein the Law of Moses was for ever abrogated eieither himself observe the Sabbath for the sabbaths sake or by his own example teach the Gentiles how to Judaize which he so blamed in St. Peter The sabbath with the legal Ceremonies did receive their doom as they related to the Gentiles in that great Council holden in Hierusalem which though it was not
Hierusalem as when the Town was razed by Adrian or after peopled by the Saracens Surely if not before yet then this Duty was to cease and no Collection to be made by those of Corinth and consequently no Lords day to be kept amongst them because no Collection in case Collections for the Saints as some do gather from this place were a sufficient argument to prove the Lords day instituted by divine Authority But let us take the Text with such observations as have been made upon it by the Fathers In locum Vpon the first day of the week i. e. as generally they conceive it on the Lords day And why on that Chrysostom gives this reason of it that so the very day might prompt them to be bountiful to their poor Brethren as being that day whereon they had received such inestimable bounties at the hands of God in the resurrection of our Saviour ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as that Father hath it What to be dene on that day Unusquisque apud se reponat Let every man lay by himself saith the Apostle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He saith not saith St. Chrysostom let every man bring it to the Church And why ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for fear lest some might be ashamed at the smallness of their offering but let them lay it by saith be and add unto it week by week that at my coming it may grow to a fit proportion That there be no gathering when I come but that the money may be ready to be sent away immediatly upon my coming and being thus raised up by little and little they might not be so sensible thereos In locum as if upon his coming to them it were to be collected all at once and upon the sudden Vt paulatim reservantes non una bora gravari se putent as St. Hierom hath it Now as it is most clear that this makes nothing for the Lords day or the translation of the Sabbath thereunto by any Apostolical Precept so is it not so clear that this was done upon the first day of the week but that some learned men have made doubt thereof Calvin upon the place takes notice how St. Chrysostom expounds the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Apostle by primo sabbati the first day of the week as the English reads it but likes it not Cui ego non assentior as his phrase is conceiving rather this to be the meaning of St. Paul that on some sabbath day or other until his coming every man should lay up somewhat toward the Collection And in the second of his Institutes he affirms expresly Cap. 8. n. 33. that the day destinate by St. Paul to these Collections was the Sabbath day The like do Victorinus Strigelius Hunnius and Aretius Protestant Writers all note upon the place Singulis sabbatis saith Strigelius per singula sabbata so Aretius diebus sabbatorum saith Egidius Hunnius all rendring ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on the Sabbath days More largely yet Hemingius who in his Comment on the place takes it indefinitely for any day in the week so they fixed on one Vult enim ut quilibet certum diem in septimana constituat in quo apud se seponat quod irrogaturus est in pauperes Take which you will either of the Fathers or the Moderns and we shall find no Lords Day instituted by any Apostolical Mandate no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week as some would have it much less that any such Ordinance should be hence collected out of these words of the Apostle Indeed it is not probable that he who so opposed himself against the old Sabbath would crect a new This had not been to abrogate the Ceremony but to change the day whereas he laboured what he could to beat down all the difference of days and times which had been formerly observed In his Epistle to the Galatians written in Anno 59 Cap. 4. v. 10. he lays it home unto their charge that they observed days and months and times and years and seems a little to bewail his own misfortune and if he had bestowed his labour in vain amongst them I know it is conceived by some that St. Paul spake it of the observation of those days and times that had been used among the Gentiles and so had no relation to the Jewish Sabbath or any difference of times observed amongst them Saint Ambrose so conceived it and so did St. Augustine Dies observant In locum qui dicunt crastino non est proficiscendum c. They observe days who say I will not go abroad to morrow or begin any work upon such a day because of some unfortunate aspect as St. Ambrose hath it from whom it seems Saint Augustine learnt it who in his 119 Epistle directly falls upon the very same expression Eos inculpat qui dicunt non proficiscor quia posterus dies est aut quia luna sic fertur vel proficiscar ut prospere cedat quia ita se babet positio syderum c. The like conceit he hath in his Encheiridion ad Laurentium cap. 79. But whatsoever St. Ambrose did St. Augustine lived I am sure to correct his errour observing very rightly that his former doctrine could not consist with St. Pauls purpose in that place which was to beat down that esteem which the Jews had amongst them of the Mosaical Ordinances their New moons and Sabbaths I shall report the place at large for the better clearing of the point Vulgatissiânus est Gentilium error ut vel in agendis rebus vel expectandis eventabus vitae ac negotiorum suorum ab Astrologis Chaldeis notatos dies observent This was the ground whereon he built his former errour Then followeth the correction of it Fortasse tamen non opus est ut baec de Gentilium errore intelligamus ne intentionem causae mark that quam ab exordio susceptam ad finem usque perducit subito in alind temere detorquere velle vide imur sed de his potius de quibus cavendis eum agere per totam Epistolam apparet Nam Judaei serviliter observant dies menses annos tempora in carnali observatione sabbati neomeniae c. But yet perhaps saith he it is not necessary that we should understand this of the Gentiles lest so we vary from the scope and purpose of the Apostle but rather of those men of the avoiding of whose Doctrines he seems to treat in all this Epistle which were the Jews who in their carnal keeping of New-moons and Sabbaths did observe days and years and times as he here objecteth Compare this with Saint Hieroms Preface to the Galatians and then the matter will be clear Cap. 8. n. 33. that St. Paul meant not this of any Heathenish but of the Jewish observation of days and times So in the Epistle to the Colossians writ in the sixtieth
Musick used in the Congregation it grew more exquisite in these times than it had been formerly that which before was only a melodious kind of pronunciation being now ordered into a more exact and artificial Harmony This change was principally occasioned by a Canon of the Council of Laodicea in the first entrance of this Age. For where before it was permitted unto all promiscuously to sing in the Church it was observed that in such dissonancy of Voices and most of them unskilful in the notes of Musick there was no small jarring and unpleasant sounds This Council thereupon ordained Conc. Laodic Can. 15. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that none should sing hereafter in the Congregation but such as were Canonically appointed to it and skilful in it By means whereof before the shutting up of this fourth Century the Musick of the Church became very perfect and harmonious suavi artificiosa voce cantata Confess l. 10. cap. 33. as St. Austin tells us So perfect and harmonious that it did work exceedingly on the affections of the Hearers and did movere animos ardentius in flammam pietatis inflame their minds with a more lively flame of Piety taking them Prisoners by the ears and so conducting them unto the glories of Gods Kingdom Ibid. Saint Austin attributes a great cause of Conversion to the power thereof calling to mind those frequent tears quas fudi ad cantus Ecclesiae tuae which had been drawn from him by this sacred Musick by which his soul was humbled and his affections raised to an height of godliness The like he also tells us in his ninth Book of Confessions and sixth Chapter Nor doubt we but it did produce the same effect on divers others who coming to the Churches as he then did to be partakers of the Musick return'd prepared in mind and well disposed in their intentions to be converted unto God Now that the Church might be frequented at the times appointed and so all secret Conventicles stopped in these divided times wherein so many Heresies did domineer and that the itching ears of men might not persuade them to such Churches where God had not placed them so to discourage their own proper Minister it pleased the Fathers in the Council of Saragossa Anno 368. âan 2. or thereabouts to decree it thus First Ne latibulis cubiculorum montium habitent qui in suspicionibus perseverent that none who were suspected of Priscillianism which was the humour that then reigned should lurk in secret corners either in Houses or in Hills but follow the example and direction of the Priests of God And secondly ad alienas villas agendorum conventuum causa non conveniant that none should go to other places under pretence of joyning there to the Assembly but keep themselves unto their own Which prudent Constitutions upon the self-same pious grounds are still preserved amongst us in the Church of England Thus do we see upon what grounds the Lords day stands on custom first and voluntary consecration of it to religious Meetings that custom countenanced by the Authority of the Church of God which tacitely approved the same and finally confirmed and ratified by Christian Princes throughout their Empires And as the day so rest from Labours and restraint from Business upon that day received its greatest strength from the supream Magistrate as long as he reteined that Power which to him belonged as after from the Canons and decrees of Councils the Decretals of Popes and Orders of particular Prelates when the sole managing of Ecclesiastical affairs was committed to them I hope it was not so with the former Sabbath which neither took original from custom that people being not so forward to give God a day nor required any countenance or authority from the Kings of Israel to confirm and ratifie it The Lord had spoken the word that he would have one day in seven precisely the seventh day from the Worlds Creation to be a day of rest unto all his people which said there was no more to do but gladly to submit and obey his pleasure nec quicquam reliquum erat praeter obsequii gloriam in the greatest Prince And this done all at once not by degrees by little and little as he could see the people affected to it or as he found it fittest for them like a probation Law made to continue till the next Session and then on further liking to hold good for ever but by a plain and peremptory Order that it should be so without further trial But thus it was not done in our present Business The Lords day had no such command that it should be sanctified but was left plainly to Gods people to pitch on this or any other for the publick use And being taken up amongst them and made a day of meeting in the Congregation for religious Exercises yet for 300 years there was neither Law to bind them to it nor any rest from labour or from worldly businesses required upon it And when it seemed good unto Christian Princes the nursing Fathers of Gods Church to lay restraints upon their people yet at the first they were not general but only thus that certain men in cetrain places should lay aside their ordinary and daily works to attend Gods service in the Church those whose employments were most toilsome and most repugnant to the true nature of a Sabbath being allowed to follow and pursue their labours because most necessary to the Common-wealth And in following times when as the Prince and Prelate in their several places indeavoured to restrain them from that also which formerly they had permitted and interdicted almost all kind of bodily labour upon that day it was not brought about without much strugling and on opposition of the People more than a thousand years being past after Christs Ascension before the Lords day had attained that state in which now it standeth as will appear at full in the following story And being brought unto that state wherein now it stands it doth not stand so firmly and on such sure grounds but that those powers which raised it up may take it lower if they please yea take it quite away as unto the time and settle it on any other day as to them seems best which is the doctrine of some School-men and divers Protestant Writers of great name and credit in the world A power which no man will presume to say was ever challenged by the Jews over the Sabbath Besides all things are plainly contrary in these two days as to the purpose and intent of the Institution For in the Sabbath that which was principally aimed at was rest from labour that neither they nor any that belonged unto them should do any manner of work upon that day but sit still and rest themselves Their meditating on Gods Word or on his goodness manifested in the worlds Creation was to that an accessory and as for reading of
the offering of the Paschal Lamb his Death and Passion Sic Sabbatismus ille requiem annunciabat quae post hanc vitam posita âât fanctis âlectis so did the Sabbath signifie that eternal rest which after this life is provided for the Saints and elect of God And more than this Spiritualis homo non uno die hebdomadis sed omni tempore Sabbatizare satagit the true spiritual man keeps not his Subbath once a week but at all times whatever every hour and minute What then would he have no day set apart for Gods publick service no but not the Sabbath Because saith he we are not to rejoyce in this world that perisheth but in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection therefore we ought not rest the seventh day in sloth and idleness But we dispose our selves to prayers and hearing of the Word of God upon the first day of the week on the which Christ rose cum summa cura providentes ut tam illo quam caeteris diebus feriati semper simus à servili opere peccati Provided always that upon that and all days else we keep our selves free from the servile Acts of sin This was the Sabbath which they principally looked for in this present life never applying of that name to the Lords day in any of those monuments of Learning they have left behind them The first who ever used it to denote the Lords day the first that I have met with in all this search is one Petrus Alfonsus he lived about the times that Rupertus did who calls the Lords day by the name of the Christian Sabbath Dies domnica dies viz. resurrectionis quae suae salvationis causa extitit Christianorum sabbatum est But this no otherwise to be construed than by Analogy and resemblance no otherwise than the Feast of Easter is called the Christian Passeover As for the Saturday the old Sabbath day though it continued not a Sabbath yet it was still held in an high esteem in the Eastern Churches counted a festival day or at least no fast and honoured with the meetings of the Congregation In reference to the first we find how it was charged on the Church of Rome by the sixth Council in Constantinople Anno 692. that in the holy time of Lent ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they used to fast the Saturday which was directly contrary to the Canons of the Apostles as they there alledge This also was objected by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople against Pope Nicolas of Rome Anno 867. and after that by Michael of Constantinople against Leo the ninth Anno 1053. which plainly shews that in the Eastern Churches they observed it otherwise And in relation to the other Curopalat we find that whereas in the principal Church of Constantinople the holy Sacrament was celebrated only on the greater feasts as also on the Saturdays and the Sundays Sabbatis dominicis and not on other days as at Rome it was Constantine surnamed Mononiachus Anno 1054 enriched it with revenue and bestowed much fair plate upon it that so they might be able every day to perform that office Which proves sufficiently that Saturday was always one in all publick duties and that it kept even pace with Sunday But it was otherwise of old in the Church of Rome where they did laborare jejunare as Humbertus saith in his defence of Leo the ninth against Nicetas And this with little opposition or interruption save that which had been made in the City of Rome in the beginning of the seventh Century and was soon crushed by Gregory then Bishop there as before we noted And howsoever Vrban of that name the second Hect. Boet. hist l. 22. did consecrate it to the weekly service of the blessEd Virgin and instituted in the Council held at Clermont Anno 1095. that our Ladies office Officium B. Mariae should be said upon it Eandemque Sabbato quoque die praecipua devotione populum Christianum colere debere and that upon that day all Christian folk should worship her with their best devotions yet it continued still as before it was a day of fasting and of working So that in all this time in 1200 years we have found no Sabbath nor do we think to meet with any in the times that follow either amongst the Schoolmen or amongst the Protestants which next shall come upon the Stage CHAP. VI. What is the judgment of the Schoolmen and of the Protestants and what the practice of those Churches in this Lords day business 1. That in the judgment of the Schoolmen the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment 2. As also that the Lords day is not founded on Divine Authority but the Authority of the Church 3. A Catalogue of the Holy-days drawn up in the Council of Lyons and the new Doctrine of the Schools touching the native sanctity of the Holy-days 4. In what estate the Lords day stood in matter of restraint from labour at the reformation 5. The Reformators find great fault both with the said new doctrine and restraints from labour 6. That in the judgment of the Protestant Divines the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment 7. As that the Lords day hath no other ground on which to stand than the Authority of the Church 8. And that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other 9. What is the practice of all Churches the Roman Lutheran and Calvinian chiefly in matter of Devotion rest from labour and sufferance of lawful pleasures 10. Dancing cried down by Calvin and the French Churches not in relation to the Lords day but the sport it self 11. In what estate the Lords day stands in the Eastern Churches and that the Saturday is no less esteemed of by the Ethiopians than the said Lords day WE are now come unto an Age wherein the Learning of the world began to make a different shew from what it did to such a period of time in which was made the greatest alteration in the whole fabrick of the Church that ever any time could speak of The Schoolmen who sprung up in the beginning of the thirteenth Age contracted Learning which before was diffused and scattered into fine subtilties and distinctions the Protestants in the beginning of the sixteenth endeavouring to destroy those buildings which with such diligence and curiosity had been erected by the Schoolmen though they consented well enough in the present business so far as it concern'd the Institution either of the Lords day or the Sabbath Of these and what they taught and did in reference to the point in hand we are now to speak taking along with us such passages of especial note as hapned in the Christian world by which we may learn any thing that concerns our business And first beginning with the Schoolmen they tell us generally of the Sabbath that
pomeridianum diebus Dominicis maxime in pagis plerunque transigi soleret that by their Edicts they would restrain all servile works the works of ordinary days and especially Games Drinking-matches and other profanations of the Sabbath wherewith the afternoon or Sundays chiefly in smaller Towns and Villages had before been spent that so the people might repair to the Catechising By which we also may perceive that there was no restraint on Sundays in the afternoon from any kind of servile works or daily labours but that men might and did apply themselves to their several businesses as on other days As for the greater Towns there is scarce any of them wherein there are not Fairs and Markets Kirk-masses as they use to call them upon the Sunday and those as much frequented in the afternoon as were the Churches in the forenoon A thing from which they could not hold not in Dort it self what time the Synod was assembled Nor had it now been called upon as it is most likely had not Amesius and some other of the English Malecontents scattered abroad Bounds principles amongst the Netherlands which they had sown before in England And certainly they had made as strong a faction there before this time their learned men beginning to bandy one against the other in the debates about the Sabbath but that the livelihood of the States consisting most on Trade and Traffick cannot spare any day Sunday no more than any other from venting their commodities and providing others So that in general the Lords day is no otherwise observed with them though somewhat better than it was twelve years ago than an Half-holiday is with us the Morning though not all of that unto the Church the afternoon to their Employments So for the French and German Churches we may perceive by their Divines Calvin and Beze and Martin Bucer who do so highly charge the Romanists for the restraint of working on the Lords day that they were well enough content to allow the same And for the Churches of the Switzers Resp ad Vaâ Gentilem Zuinglius avoweth it to be lawful Die dominico peractis sacris laboribus incumbere On the Lords day after the end of Divine Service for any man to follow and pursue his labours as commonly we do saith he in the time of Harvest Indeed the Polish Churches formerly decreed in two several Synods the one at Cracow An. 1573. the other at Petricow Ann. 1578. Vt Domini in suis ditionibus prohibeant Dominicis diebus nundinas annuas septimanales That Lords of Mannours as we call them should not permit on the Lords day either Fairs or Markets in any of the Towns unto them belonging Neque iisdem diebus colonos suos ullos laboribus aut vecturis onerent nor on those days imploy their Tenants in carriages or such servile labours But this was rather done to please the Lutherans amongst whom and those of the Communion of the Church of Rome under whom they live than out of any principle or example of those Churches whom they chiefly followed For Recreations last of all there is no question to be made but that where working is permitted and most kind of business a man may lawfully enjoy himself and his honest pleasures and without danger of offence pursue those pastimes by which the mind may be refreshed and the spirits quickned Already have we told you what the custom is in the Palatine Churches And for the Belgick besides it was before declared from the Synod of Dort touching the usual spending of that day in Games and Drinking-matches Sââps ãâã aâp 81. n. 58. their four great Doctors Polyander Ryvet Thysius and Walaeus make Recreation to be part of the Sabbaths rest Et inter fines Sabbati esse and to be reckoned as a principal intent thereof Even in Geneva it self the Mother Church unto the rest as Robert Johnson tells us in his enlargement of Boterus All honest exercises Shooting in Peeces Long-bows Cross-bows c. are used on the Sabbath day and that in the morning both before and after Sermon neither do the Ministers find fault therewith so they hinder not from hearing of the Word at the time appointed Indeed there is no reason why they should find fault the practice so directly rising upon their principles Dancing indeed they do not suffer either in Geneva or the French Churches though not prohibited for ought I can learn in either Germany or any of the Lutheran Kingdoms but this not in relation to the day but the sport it self which absolutely they have forbidden on all days whatever Calvin took great offence thereat of so austere a life would he have the People and kept a great ado about it in Geneva when he lived amongst them Epist ad Farel as he doth thus relate the story to his friend Farellus Corneus and Perinus two of special power and quality in that City together with one Heinrichus one of the Elders of the Church a Syndic which is one of the four chief Officers of the Common-wealth and some others of their friends being merry at an Invitation fell to dancing Notice hereof being given to Calvin by some false brother they were all called into the Consistory excepting Corneus and Perinus and being interrogated thereupon Impudenter Deo nobis mentiti sunt they lyed saith he most impudently unto God and us Most Apostolically said At that saith he I grew offended as the indignity of the thing deserved and they persisting in their contumacy Censui ut jure-jurando ad veri confessionem adigerentur I thought it fit to put them to their Oaths about it So said so done and they not only did confess their former dancing but that that very day they had been dancing in the house of one Balthasats Widdow On his confession he proceeded unto the censure which certainly was sharp enough for so small a fault for a fault it was if he would have it the Syndick being displaced the Elder turned out of his office Perryn and his Wife both clapt in Prison and all the rest pudore confusi put to open shame This was in Anno 1546. And afterwards considering how much he disliked it their Ministers and Preachers cried down dancing as a most sinful and unchristian pastime and published divers tracts against it At last in Anno 1571. it was concluded in a Synod held at Rochel and made to be a part of their publick discipline viz. that all Congregations should be admonished by their Ministers seriously to reprehend and suppress all Dances Mummeries and Enterludes As also that all Dancing-masters or those who make any dancing meetings after they have been oft admonished to desist ought to be excommunicate for that their contumacy and disobedience Which rigidness of theirs as it is conceived considering how the French do delight in Dancing Dallingtons ââew of ãâã hath been no small impediment unto the general entertainment of the reformed Religion in that
that many an honest and well-meaning man both of the Clergy and the Laity either because of the appearance of the thing it self or out of some opinion of those men who first endeavoured to promote it became exceedingly affected towards the same as taking it to be a Doctrin sent down from Heaven for encrease of Piety So easily did they believe it and grew at last so strongly possessed therewith that in the end they would not willingly be persuaded to conceive otherwise thereof than at first they did or think they swallowed down the hook when they took the bait An hook indeed which had so fastned them to those men who love to fish in troubled waters that by this Artifice there was no small hope conceived amongst them to fortifie their side and make good that cause which till this trim Deceit was thought of was almost grown desperate Once I am sure that by this means the Brethren who before endeavoured to bring all Christian Kings and Princes under the yoke of their Presbyteries made little doubt to bring them under the command of their Sabbath Doctrines And though they failed of that applauded parity which they so much aimed at in the advancing of their Elderships yet hoped they without more ado to bring all higher Powers whatever into an equal rank with the common people in the observance of their Jewish Sabbatarian rigours So Doctor Bound declares himself pag. 171. The Magistrate saith he and Governours in authority how High soever cannot take any priviledg to himself whereby he might be occupied about worldly business when other men should rest from labour It seems they hoped to see the greatest Kings and Princes make suit unto their Consistory for a Dispensation as often as the great Affairs of State or what cause soever induced them otherwise to spend that Day or any part or parcel of it than by the new Sabbath Doctrine had been permitted For the endearing of the which as formerly to endear their Elderships they spared no place or Text of Scripture where the word Elder did occur and without going to the Heralds had framed a Pedigree thereof from Jethro from Noahs Ark and from Adam finally so did these men proceed in their new devices publishing out of holy Writ both the antiquity and authority of their Sabbath day No passage of Gods Book unransacked where there was mention of a Sabbath whether the legal Sabbath charged on the Jews or the spiritual Sabbath of the Soul from sin which was not fitted and applied to the present purpose though if examined as it ought with no better reason than Paveant illi non paveam ego was by an ignorant Priest alledged from Scripture to prove that his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Yet upon confidence of these proofs they did already begin to sing Victoria especially by reason of the enterteinment which the said Doctrines found with the common people For thus the Doctor boasts himself in his second Edition Anno 606. as before was said Many godly learned both in their Preachings Writings and Disputations did concur with him in that Argument and that the lives of many Christians in many places of the Kingdom were framed according to his Doctrine p. 61. Particularly in the Epistle to the Reader that within few years three several profitable Treatises successively were written by three godly learned Preachers Greenhams was one whoseever were the other two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses the Doctrine of the Sabbath might be established Egregiam verò laudem spolia ampla But whatsoever cause he had thus to boast himself in the success of his new Doctrines the Church I am sure had little cause to rejoyce thereat For what did follow hereupon but such monstrous Paradoxes and those delivered in the Pulpit as would make every good man tremble at the hearing of them First as my Author tells me it was preached at a Market Town in Oxfordshire that to do any servile work or business on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly preached in Somersetshire that to throw a Bowl on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man Thirdly in Norfolk that to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lords day was as great a sin as for a Father to take a knife and cut his childs throat Fourthly in Suffolk that to ring more Bells than one on the Lords day was as great a sin as to commit Murder I add what once I heard my self at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet about five years since that temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath-breaker on him that on the Lords day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application unto my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking Fees and giving Counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God And certainly these and the like conclusions cannot but follow most directly on the former Principles For that the fourth Commandment be plainly moral obliging us as straitly as it did the Jews and that the Lords day be to be observed according to the prescript of that Commandment it must needs be that every wilful breach thereof is of no lower nature than Idolatry or blaspheming of the Name of GOD or any other deadly sin against the first Table and therefore questionless as great as Murder or Adultery or any sin against the second But to go forwards where I left my Author whom before I spake of being present when the Suffolk Minister was convented for his so lewd and impious Doctrine was the occasion that those Sabbatarian errours and impieties were first brought to light and to the knowledg of the State On which discovery as he tells us this good ensued that the said books of the Sabbath were called in and forbidden to be printed and made common Archbishop Whitguift by his Letters and Visitations did the one Anno 1599. and Sir John Popham Lord Chief Justice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applyed yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the books of Brown against the service of the Church Nor was this all the fruit of so bad a Doctrine For by inculcating to the people these new Sabbath speculations teaching that that day only was of Gods appointment and all the rest observed in the Church of England a remnant of the will-worship in the Church of Rome the other holy days in this Church established were so shrewdly shaken that till this day they are not well recovered of the blow then given Nor came this on the by or besides their purpose but as a thing that specially was intended from the first beginning from
which afterwards in the year 1625. he published to the World with his other Lectures Now in this Speech or Determination he did thus resolve it 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 moral and perpetual Precept as the others are Sect. 2. Secondly That the sanctifying of one day in seven is ceremonial only and obliged the Jews not Moral to oblige us Christians to the like Observance Sect. 3. 4. Thirdly That the Lords day is founded only on the Authority of the Church guided therein by the practice of the Apostles not on the fourth Commandment which in the 7. Section he entituleth a seandalous Doctrine nor any other authority in holy Scripture Sect. 6. 7. 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 the works of labour required of us as was exacted of the Jews but that we lawfully may dress Meat proportionable unto every mans estate and do such other things as be no hinderance to the publick 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 encrease mutual love and Neighbourhood amongst us and that the Names whereby the Jews did use to call their Festival whereof the Sabbath was the chief were borrowed from an Hebrew word which signifies to Dance and to make merry or rejoyce And lastly that it appertains to the Christian Magistrate to order and appoint what Pastimes on the Lords day are to be permitted and what prohibited not unto every private person much less to every mans rash Zeal as his own words are who out of a schismatical Stoicism debarring men from lawful Pastimes doth incline to Judaisin Sect. 8. This was the sum and substance of his resolution then which as it gave content unto the sounder and the better part of the Assembly so it did infinitely stomack and displease the greater numbers such as were formerly possessed with the other Doctrines though they were wiser than to make it a publick Quarrel Only it pleased Mr. Bifeild of Surrey in his Reply in a Discourse of Mr. Brerewoods of Cresham Colledg Anno 1631. to tax the Doctor as a spreader of wicked Doctrine and much to marvel with himself how either he durst be so hold to say Page 161. or having said it could be suffered to put it forth viz. That to establish the Lords day on the fourth Commandment were to incline too much to Judaism This the said M. Bifeild thinks to be a foul aspertion on this famous Church But in so thinking I conceive that he consulted more his own opinion and his private interest than any publick maintenance of the Churches cause which was not injured by the Doctor but defended rather But to proceed or rather to go back a little About a year before the Doctor thus declared his judgment one Tho. Broad of Gloucestorshire had published something in this kind wherein to speak my mind thereof he rather shewed that he disliked those Sabbath Doctrines than durst disprove them And before either M. Brerewood whom before I named had writ a learned Treatise about the Sabbath on a particular occasion therein mentioned but published it was not till after both Anno 1629. Add here to joyn them altogether that in the Schools at Oxon Anno 1628. it was maintained by Dr. Robinson now Archdeacon of Gloucester viz. Ludos Recreationis gratia in die Dominico non esse prohibitos Divina Lege That Recreations on the Lords day were not at all prohibited by the Word of God As for our neighbour Church of Scotland as they proceeded not at first with that mature deliberation in the reforming of that Church which had been here observed with us so did they run upon a course of Reformation which after was thought fitting to be reformed The Queen was young and absent in the Court of France the Regent was a desolate Widow a Stranger to the Nation and not well obeyed So that the people there possessed by Cnoxe and other of their Teachers took the cause in hand and went that way which came most near unto Geneva where this Cnoxe had lived Among the first things wherewithal they were offended were the Holy days Proceedings at Perth These in their Book of Discipline Anno 1560. they condemned at once particularly the observation of Holy days entituled by the names of Saints the Feasts of Christmas Circumcision Epiphany the Purification and others of the Virgin Mary all which they ranked awongst the abominations of the Roman Religion as having neither Commandment nor assurance in the Word of God But having brought this Book to be subsigned by the Lords of secret Counsel it was first rejected some of them giving it the Title of Devote Imaginations Cnoxe Hist of Scotl. p. 523. whereof Cnoxe complains Yet notwithstanding on they went and at last prevailed for in the middle of the Tumults the Queen Regent died and did not only put down all the Holy days the Lords day excepted but when an uprore had been made in Edenburg about a Robin-hood or a Whitson-Lord they of the Consistory excommunicated the whole multitud Now Proceedings at Perth that the holy days were put down may appear by this That in the year 1566. when the Confession of the Helvetian Churches was proposed unto them they generally approved the same save that they liked not of those Holy days which were there retained But whatsoever they intended and howsoever they had utterly suppressed those days which were entituled by the Names of particular Saints yet they could never so prevail but that the people would retain some memory of the two great and principal Feasts of Christs Nativity and Resurrection For in the year 1575. Complaint was made unto the Regent how in Dunfreis they had conveyed the Reader to the Church with Taber and Whissel to read Prayers all the Holy days of Zule or Christmas Thereupon Anno 1577. it was ordained in an Assembly of the Church That the Visitors should admonish Ministers preaching or ministring the Communion at Pasche or Zule or other like superstitious times under pain of deprivation to desist therefrom Anno 1587. it was complained of to his Majesty That Pasche and Zule were superstitiously observed in Fife and about Dunfreis and in the year 1592. the Act of the Queen Regent granting licence to keep the said two Feasts was by them repealed Yet find we by the Bishop of Brechin in his Discourse of the Proceedings at the Synod of Perth that notwithstanding all the Acts Civil and Ecclesiastick made against the superstitious observation and prophane abuse of Zule day the people could never be induced to labour on
be placed according to ancient custom at the East end of the Chancel and railed about decently to prevent base and profane usages and where the Chancel wanted any thing of repairs or the Church it self both to be amended Having thus shewed his care first for the House of God to set it in good order the next work followed was to make his own dwelling House a fit and convenient Habitation that to the old Building he added a new one which was far more graceful and made thereto a Chappel next to the Dining-room that was beautified and adorned with silk Hangings about the Altar in which Chappel himself or his Curate read Morning and Evening Prayer to the Family calling in his Labourers and Workfolks for he was seldom without them while he liv'd saying that he loved the noise of a Work-mans hammer for he thought it a deed of Charity as well as to please his own fancy by often building repairing to set poor People a work and encourage painful Artificers and Tradesmen in their honest Callings Yet after his death his Eldest Son was sued for Dilapidations in the Court of Arches by Dr. Beamont his Fathers Successor but the ingenious Gentleman pleaded his cause so notably before Sir Giles Swet then Judge of the Court that he was discharged there being no reason or justice he should be troubled for Dilapidations occasioned by the long War when his Father was unjustly turn'd out of his House and Living In July 1630. he took his Degree of Batchelor in Divinity His Latin Sermon was upon these words Mal. 4.19 Facim vos fieri piscatores hominum Upon the Sunday following being the time of the Act he Preach'd in the Afternoon on Matth. 13.25 In Feb. 13. A. D. 1633. He took his Degree of Dr. in Divinity an honour not usually in those days conferr'd upon men of such green years but our young Doctor verified those excellent words of the Son of Syrach That honourable Age is not that which standeth in length of time nor that is measured by number of years but Wisdom is the grey unto men and an unspotted life is an old Age Wisd 4.8 9. He entertain'd some hopes that Dr. Prideaux his animosities in so long a Tract of time as from 1627. to 1633. might have cooled In his first Disputation he had insisted on the Churches Visibility and now he resolved to assert and establish its Authority and to that purpose made choice to answer for his Degree upon these three questions viz. An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem In determinandis fidei controversus An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem Interpretandi S. scripturas An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem Decernendi Ritus Caeremonias All which he held in the Affirmative according to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the 20th Article But Dr. Prideaux was as little pleased with these questions and the Respondents stating of them as he was with the former And therefore to create unto the Respondent a greater odium he openly declared that the Respondent had falsified the publick Doctrine of the Church and changed the Article with that sentence viz. Habet Ecclesia ritus sive caeremonias c. which was not to be found in the whole body of it and for the proof thereof he read the Article out of a Book which lay before him beginning thus Non licet Ecclesiae quicquam instituere quod verbo Dei scripto adversetur c. To which the Respondent readily answered That he perceived by the bigness of the Book which lay on the Doctors Cushion that he had read that Article out of the harmony of Confessions published at Geneva A. D. 1612. which therein followed the Edition of the Articles in the time of King Edward VI. A.D. 1552. in which that sentence was not found but that it was otherwise in the Articles agreed on in the Convocation A. D. 1562. The Respondent caused the Book of Articles to be sent for out of the Book-sellers shop which being observed by the Doctor he declared himself very willing to decline any further prosecution of that particular But Dr. Heylyn was resolved to proceed on no further Vsquedum liberaverit animam suam ab ista calumnia as his own words were At the coming in of the Book the Respondent read the Article in the English Tongue viz. The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith c. Which done he delivered the Book to one of the Standers by who desired it of him the Book passing from one hand to another till all men were satisfied The Regius Professor had no other subterfuge but this He went to prove that not the Convocation but the High Court of Parliament had power of ordering matters in the Church in making Canons ordaining Ceremonies and determining Controversies in Religion And he could find no other medium to make it good but the Authority of Sir Edward Coke in one of the Books of his Reports An Argument that Dr. Heylyn gratified with no better answer than Non Credendum est cuique extra suam artem For these things and the Professors ill words in the former Disputation Dr. Heylyn caused him to be brought before the Council Table at Woodstock where he was publickly reprehended And upon the coming out of the Kings Declaration concerning lawful sports Dr. Heylyn translated the Regius Professors Lecture upon the Sabbath into English and putting a Preface before it caused it to be Printed a performance which did not only justifie his Majesties proceedings but took off much of that opinion which Dr. Prideaux had amongst the Puritanical Faction in those days A. D. 1634. The grievances which the Collegiate Church of Westminster suffered under the Government of John Lord Bishop of Lincoln then Commendatory Dean thereof became so intolerable that Dr. Heylyn with Dr. Tho. Wilson Dr. Gabriel Moor and Dr. Lud. Wemys with other of the Prebends drew up a Charge of no less than 36 Articles against the Bishop and by way of complaint humbly Petitioned his Majesty for redress of these grievances Whereupon a Commission was issued out to the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York the Earl of Manchester Earl of Portland the Lord Bishop of London and the two Secretaries of State Authorizing them to hold a Visitation of the Church of Westminster to examine the particular Charges made against John Lord Bishop of Lincoln who afterwards calling the Prebends to meet him in the Jerusalem-Chamber desired to know of them what these things were that were amiss that so he might presently redress them But to that Dr. Heylyn replied that seeing they had put the business into his Majesties hands it would but ill become them to take the matters out of his into their own Amongst other grievances the Bishop had most disgracefully turned out the Prebends of the great Seat or Pew under the Pulpit Dr. Heylyn being chosen Advocate for his Brothren did prove before
the Jews or Christians Considering therefore they appeal'd to the ancient practice of the Jews and Christians I was resolved that to the ancient practice they should go for their justification and to that end drew down the Pedigree and Descent of Liturgies among the Jews from the time of Moses unto CHRIST carrying it on thorow the constant practice of the Greeks and Romans and finally thorow the whole state of the Christian Church from the time of CHRIST our Saviour till the death of Saint Augustin when Liturgies and Set Forms of Prayer were universally received in all parts of Christendom But hardly had I finished my Undertaking Plutarch in Mario when the War broke out and I knew well as Marius was once heard to say in another case That the voice of the Laws could not be heard for the noise of Weapons the Dispute being then like to be determin'd by stronger Arguments than could be urged on either side by pen and paper On which consideration the Work lay by me as it was till the Ordinance of the third of January 1644. did seem to put an end to the Disputation by abolishing the Book of Common Prayer and authorizing the Directory or New Form of Worship to be observed in the three Kingdoms But finding in that Directory that all set times of Publick Worship were reduced to One that one supposed to be commanded in the Scripture and that the Festival days vulgarly called Holy-days Direct pag. ult having no warrant in the Word of God were not to be continued longer I took that hint or opportunity to enlarge my self in laying down the ancient practice both of Jews and Christians in appointing Holy-days and recommending them to the pious practice of all men which did desire to live conformably to establisht Laws And finding afterwards that notwithstanding the Care taken by that Directory That Places of publick assembling for worship among us should be continued and employed to their former use Ibid. some Men began to threaten them with a speedy destruction and breathed out nothing but Down with them Down with them even unto the ground reproaching them in the mean time with the name of Steeple-houses I interserted also in convenient places the pious care of the Jewish Nation in erecting Synagogues and Oratories for Gods publick Worship and of the Primitive Christians not to say any thing of the like care in the ancient Gentiles in building consecrating and adorning Churches for the like employments And this I did to let the Reader understand that the accustomed times and places which were designed and set apart for Gods publick service had more authority to rest on than those Men gave out the Liturgy it self being apt enough to be beaten down without any such Ordinance if once those times and places should be discontinued By these degrees and on these several occasions the whole Work came to that perfection in which it is now presented to thee not to be now presented to thee neither if the necessity of doing my Duty unto God and the Church and offering something unto the consideration of the Higher Powers had not prevailed with me above all respects of my private interest Liturgies and Set Forms of Worship being thus asserted my next care was to vindicate the Church in that Form of Prayer which is prescribed to be used by Preachers before their Sermons Can. 55. For certainly the Church had not sufficiently provided for the Common peace if she had tied her Ministers to Set Forms in the Daily Office and left them to their own liberty in conceiving Prayers to be used by them in the Pulpit before their Sermons The inconvenience which that liberty hath brought upon us in these latter days being so apparent that it is very hard to say whether the Liberty of Prophesying or the Licenciousness in Praying what and how we list hath more conduced to these distractions which are now amongst us And if there were no such effect too visible of this licentiousness which I desire the present State to take notice of the scandal which is thereby given unto our Religion in speaking so irreverently with such vain repetitions and tautologies to Almighty God as in extemporary and unpremeditated Prayers is too frequently done seems a sufficient consideration to bring us back again to that ancient Form which the wisdom of the Church prescribed to prevent the Mischief Such was the care and providence of the elder times and happiest ages of the Church as to ordain that no unlearned person should make use of any of those Prayers which himself had framed nisi prius eas cum instructioribus fratribus contulerit Concil Carthag Can. 23. before he had conferred about them with more learned men The reason of which is thus given in the Council of Milevis Can. 12. Ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum for fear lest any thing should escape them against faith and piety either through the ignorance of the Composer or carelesness in the Composition And if such care were taken of Mens private Prayers no question but a greater care is to be observed in ordering those publick Prayers which are to be offered unto God in the Congregation Never did Men so literally offer unto God the Calves of their lips as they have done of late since the extemporary way of Praying hath been taken up And if it were prohibited by the Law of Moses to offer any thing unto God in the way of the legal Sacrifices which was maim'd spotted or imperfect how can it rationally be conceived that God should be delighted with those Oblations or Spiritual Sacrifices which have nothing almost in them but maims spots and blemishes In which respect I have subjoyned to the Tract of Liturgies a brief Discourse about restraining Preachers to that Form of Prayer which is prescribed them by the Church and that not only in the Canon of 603. but in the Injunction of King Harry the 8th King Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth of famous memories till the predominating Humour of drawing all Gods publick Worship to the Pulpit-prayer carried all before it But here it is to be observed that one of the chief reasons for abolishing the publick Liturgy was that the Ministers might put forth themselves to exercise the Gift of Prayer with which our Lord Jesus Christ pleaseth to furnish all his servants whom he calls to that Office Pref. to the Direct p. 2 3. and that nothing was less effected than the end intended For first the Directory which prescribes not alone the Heads but the sense and scope which is the whole matter of the Prayers and other parts of publick Worship Ibid. p. 4. doth in effect leave nothing to the Ministers spirit but the wording of it which if it be not a restraining of the Gift of Prayer I am much to seek the Spirit being as much restrained and
Apologet cap. 39. disciplinam nihilominus praeceptorum inculcationibus densamus We meet saith he in an Assembly or Congregation that we may besiege God in our prayers as with an Army Such violence is acceptable unto God We pray for Emperors and their Ministers and Potestates for the state of the whole world the quiet government of the affairs thereof and for the putting off of the last day We are assembled to commemorate or hear the holy Scriptures if the condition of our present state doth either need to be premonished or reviewed Assuredly by the repetition of those holy words our faith is nourished our hope assured our confidence confirmed yet so that the severity of discipline is strengthened by the frequent inculcating of Gods Commandments In which description of their meetings there is no mention of the Eucharist not that it was not Celebrated then in all publick Assemblies but because as Cassander well observeth ad Paganos nondum initiatos sermo haberetur he did address his whole discourse to Heathen-men such as were not yet initiated in the faith of Christ to whom the Christians of those times imparted not the knowledge of the holy Mysteries In other of his books especially in those entituled ad uxorem there 's enough of that Nor is it to be thought because Tertullian speaks not of the present place nor Justin Martyr in the passage produced before that they sung no Psalms nor gave that part of worship no convenient place in the performance of their Service We find that and the course of their publick worship thus pointed at unto us in another place Jam vero prout Scripturae leguntur aut Psalmi canuntur aut adlocutiones proferuntur Id. de Anima cap. 9. aut petitiones delegantur ita inde materae visionibus subministrantur Now saith he as the Scriptures are read or Psalms sung or Exhortations made or Prayers tendred so is matter ministred unto her visions Where we may see that singing of the Psalms was in use amongst them as well as any other part of publick worship of what sort soever Conceive by singing here as in other Books and Authors about this time such singing of the Psalms as is now in use in the Cathedrals of this Kingdom after a plain tune as it is directed in the Rubricks of the Common-prayer book and not the singing of the Psalms in Metre as hath been used and is still in Parochial Churches The singing in those times in use was little more than a melodious pronunciation though afterwards upon occasion of a Canon made in the Council of Laodicea it came to be more perfect and exact according to the rules of harmony and in St. Austins time was so full and absolute that he ascribes a great cause of his conversion to the powers thereof calling to mind those frequent tears quas fudi ad cantus Ecclesiae tuae which had been drawn from him by this sacred Musick by which his soul was humbled and his affections raised to the height of godliness But whatsoever was the Musick of these first times Musick assuredly they had in their publick service as Tertullian tells us whom we may credit in this point And if we please to look we may be also sure to find the same in that place of Pliny which before we touched at Which here take more at large in the Authors words The Christians on examination did acknowledge Plin. Ep. 97. l. 10. Euser hist Eccl. l. â c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quod soliti essent state die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo tanquam Deo canere secum invicem seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere sed ne furta ne larocinia ne adulteria committerent ne fidem fallerent ne depositum appellati abnegarent His peractis morem sihi discedendi fuisse rursusque coeundi ad capiendum cibum promiscuum tamen innoxium They did confess saith he that they were accustomed to assemble on their appointed times before day-light and to sing Hymns or Songs of praise to Christ as to a god amongst themselves and to bind themselves by Oath or Sacrament not to the doing of any wickedness but not to commit Thefts Robberies or Adulteries demanded and this being done they used to depart and then meet again to eat together their meat being ordinary and the manner of their eating inoffensive Which last was added as I take it to clear them of the slander which was raised against them by their malicious Enemies who charged them with eating humane flesh and the blood of Infants as you may see in most of the Apologies which the Christians published in those times Note also that their meeting thus to eat together which is here last spoken of by Pliny was for their Love-feasts or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã described so fully by Tertullian in his Apologetick and by him also joyned to the description of their course or order at their publick meetings But here perhaps it will be said that the question is not at the present about a set order or Rubrick of Administrations but about set and imposed Forms of prayer Vindication of Smectymn p. 19 And that although Tertullian do describe a set course and order yet he is quite against a set From of prayer where he saith That the Christians of those times did in their publick Assemblies pray sine monitore quia de pectore without any prompter but their own hearts Smectym p. 7. And say they that it should be so the same Father as they call him proves in his Treatise de Oratione Sunt quae petuntur c. There are some things to be asked according to the occasions of every man the lawful and ordinary prayer that is the Lords prayer being laid as a foundation it is lawful to build upon that foundation other prayers according to every ones occasion So they and to them it may thus be answered that either those two passages of Tertullian are ill laid together or else they must be understood of private not of publick prayer For that the latter place is meant of those private prayers which every man may make for his own occasions is beyond all question And in their private Prayers it is not denied but men may use what words and what Forms they please so they consider as they ought what it is they ask and of whom they ask it And if this place be meant of private prayer as by the Authors drift and scope it appears to be then must the other passage be so understood or else they are ill laid together as before was said Now that the other place so insisted on is also meant of private not of publick Prayers will appear by this that there Tertullian speaks of the private carriage of the Christians and of their good affections to the Roman Emperors but medleth not with their behaviour as a publick body assembled and convened for a
or hidden from us when we do so fulfil and perform them all as they have been commended and delivered to us either by our great Bishop or his Sons Here then we have an evident proof that therer were several Rites and Ceremonies used by the Christians of this time in the officiating of divine Service several words and gestures used both in the celebration of the Eucharist and administration of baptism and divers Interrogatories with their prescribed Answers to be used therein Which Interrogatories doubtless are the same which we recited out of Clemens in the former Chapter and which this Author also doth recount in another place * Id in Numer cap. 21. Homil. 12. Recordetur unusquisque fidelium cum primum venit ad aquas Baptismi cum signacula fidei prima suscepit ad fontem salutaris accessit quibus ibi tunc usus sit verbis quid denunciaverit Diabolo non se usurum pompis ejus neque operibus ejus neque tellis omnino servitiis voluptatibus ejus pariturum Let every faithful Christian call to remembrance what words he used what he denounced against the Devil when first he came unto the waters of Baptism and received the first signs of Faith how he renounced all his pomps and works and did profess that he would never yield obedience to his lusts and pleasures So that a prescribed Form there was of abrenunciation in the Sacrament of holy Baptism and think we that there was not also a prescribed Form of Prayer in the time of Origen Himself shall tell you that there was and more than so shall give us such a fragment of a prescribed prayer as by that piece we may conjecture at the whole For thus saith he Frequenter in oratione dicimus Id in Hieremiam cap. 15. Homil. 11. Da omnipotens da partem cum Prophetis da cum Apostolis Christi tui tribue ut inveniamur ad vestigia unigeniti tui We say this often in our prayers Give us Almighty God give us our portion with thy Prophets and with the Apostles of thy Christ and grant that we may tread the footsteps of thine only Son In which saith he we ask we know not what for in effect we say no otherwise than make us to be hated as the Prophets were to fall into calamity and persecution as the Apostles did A prayer this was no question and a prescribed prayer said often by the people in their publick worship And what else think we were those prayers which in another place he calleth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã those solennes preces as the Latine hath it which he saith there they used ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Id contra Celsum lib. 6. constantly and of duty both night and day that is at Morning and at Evening prayer Assuredly it is not likely that if there were prescribed prayers such as he calleth solennes preces in the times of Origen men should be left at liberty in Tertullians days being so small a time before to use extemporary prayers in Gods publick worship of their own fancies and devising The like we may affirm of S. Cyprian also in whom mention more than once is made of those Solennia which were used in the celebration of the blessed Eucharist Solennibus adimpletis calicem Diaconus offerre praesentibus coepit Cyprian Sermo de lapsis the solemn prayers and therefore a set Form of prayers being finished the Deacon began to offer the Cup or Chalice to such as were present And in another place speaking of the Cup he calleth it Calicem solenni benedictione sacratum the Cup which had been consecrated with a solemn or set Form of benediction Of which we may conclude as before we did that if the Forms were solemn or prescribed in S. Cyprians days they were not likely to be otherwise in Tertullians time whatever other fancies have been railed about it And that they used the solenn or set Form of words in the ministration of holy things in S. Cyprians days besides the general proof before produced appears most plainly in his book de Oratione where we have it thus Id de oratione Dominica Ideo Sacerdos ante Orationem Praefatione praemissa parat fratrum mentes dicendo Sursum corda ut dum respondet plebs Habemus ad Dominum admoneatur nihil aliud se quam Dominum cogitare debere Therefore saith he the Priest before the prayer that of consecration doth by a Preface readily prepare the minds of the Brethren saying Lift up your bearts that when the people make this answer We lift them up unto the Lord they may be put in mind that they must think of nothing but the Lord when they are pouring out their prayers This passage of the Preface as our and it is also to be found in those ancient Liturgies of Rome Hierusalem and Alexandria assigned unto SS Peter James and Mark as before was said Liturgia S. Petri in Biblioth SS Patrum That attributed to S. Peter thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to which the people make this answer ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The very same with that of Cyprian And so is also that of Mark or rather of the Church of Alexandria save that the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is left out and it runs simply thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In that ascribed to S. James there is some difference the Priest saying thus Liturgia S. Jacobi in Biblioth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. Let us lift up our minds and hearts to which the people answer there ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is meet and right so to do But this I take to be an error in the Copy that being the answer of the people to another invitation of the Priest viz. to that of Gratias agamus Domino Let us give thanks unto the Lord And so it seems to be by that which followeth of the Priest in S. James his Liturgy who on the peoples saying it is meet and right goeth forwards in the usual Form ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is very meet and right and our bounden duty c. But to return again unto S. Cyprian we may conjecture by this piece that in his time there was a whole and perfect Liturgie though it be not come unto our hands And there 's another passage in that very book de Oratione which points us to that Form of abrenuntiation which was then used by the Church in holy Baptism Cyprian de oratione Dominica Potest autem tualis abjecimus cibum nobis tantum petamus victum That passage in the Pater noster Give us this day our daily bread may be thus interpreted that we which have renounced the World the riches and the pomps thereof by the benefit of faith and grace spiritual should only crave of God our Meat and Victual In which we have the matter although not the Form but that a Form there was we were shewed
having made confession of thehir faith according as we saw before from the Constitutions they were thrice dipped into the water in memory of our Saviours lying in the grace three days the formal words of Baptism being therewithal pronounced though not here expressed Which done the party is again anointed on the forehead nostrils Id. Catech. 3. ears and breasts upon the reasons there declared ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and cloathed in white garments Id. Catech. 4. which concludes the action But here it is to be observed that this last anointing was in the way of confirmation it being the custom of those times in the baptizing of all such as were Adulti or of riper years to minister both Baptism and Confirmation at the same time as our incomparable Hooke rightly noteth And note withal that in the anointing of the forehead in his later Unction Hooker Eccles Politic. l. 5. § 66. Cyril Catech. mystagog 4. Tertull. de resurrect carnis the party baptized was signed with the sign of the Cross ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Father there Which is no more than that so celebrated passage of Tertullian Caro signatur ut anims muniatur declares to be the antient and unquestionable practice of the Church of CHRIST Next for the celebration of the Eucharist he describes it thus Things being in readiness the Deacon bringeth water for the hands to the chief Minister Cyril Catechis mystagog 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and to the Priests that stand about the Altar and then saith aloud Complectimini osculemini vos invicem embrace and kiss ye one another which is done accordingly and this in token of that Vnion both of hearts and souls which is and ought to be between them Then saith the Priests Sursum corda or Lift up your hearts the people answer We lift them up unto the Lord The Priest again Let us give thanks unto the Lord the people say Dignum justum est or It is meet and right so to do And by this place I note this only by the way we make up the breach in S. James his Liturgy being the antient Liturgy of the Church of Hierusalem as before was said which breach we shewed and touched at obiter in the former Chapter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Then saith he we make mention of Heaven Earth and Sea and all the Creatures reasonable and unreasonable and also of the Angels and Archangels and the Powers of Heaven praising God and saying Sanctus sanctus sanctus Dominus Deus Sabbati By which celestial Hymns we do not only sanctifie our selves but beseech our good and gracious God that he would send his holy Spirit on the gifts presented that is to say the Bread and Wine that so the Bread may be made the Body of Christ and the Wine his Blood Then do we call upon the Lord ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the general peace of all the Churches the tranquillity of all the World for Princes and their Armies for our Friends and Brethren for all that be in need sickness or any other adversity and in a word for every one that wanteth help from the hands of God The rest that followeth as a part of this general Prayer upon the alteration of the Form and Person viz. from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We call upon the Lord in the third person unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the second person is most judiciously concluded by Dr. Rivet Rivet Critici sacri l. 3. c. 10. to be the fraud and forgery of some Impostor whose judgment in the same I heartily both applaud and follow But to proceed with that which is received for true and genuine and of unquestionble credit This general Prayer being thus concluded followe tht at ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Cyril Cateches mystagog 5. which Christ our Saviour gave unto his Disciples the Lords Prayer he means and meaning so shews plainly that the Church conceived how the Lords Prayer was given to be said and used not to be imitated only Then saith the Priest thus Sancta Sanctis unto the holy all things are holy or holy things are for holy persons the people answering Unus sanctus unus Dominus JESUS CHRISTUS That is to say there is but one Holy one Lord JESVS CHRIST Then sangt the Priest the divine Hymns exhorting you to the communion of the holy Mysteries and saying Gustate videte quam fuavis est Dominus O taste and see how good the Lord is This said they came to the Communion not with their hands spread out nor disjoyned singers but with the left hand placed under the right receiving the Lord's body in the palms of their hands lest any of the consecrated Bread should fall to the ground and therewith viz. to the Priests prayer when he gave the same each one said AMEN After they had received the Communion of the Body of CHRIST they received the Cup also of his Blood where still we have the whole Communion sub utraque specie what ever new Doctrines have been coyned at Rome not stretching out the hands ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but falling down as when Men are in the Act of Worship or Adoration they said AMEN as formerly at the receiving of the Bread ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Last of all tarrying for the parting or concluding Prayers they gave thanks to God who had vouchsafed to make them worthy of his holy Mysteries This was the course and these the footsteps of the Forms observed of old times in the Mother Church the holy City of Hierusalem And if we may conjecture ex pede Herculem what the dimensions were of the body of Hercules by the proportion of his foot we may be well conjecture by these evident footsteps what the whole bodies were of the antient Liturgies From Cyril on unto St. Basil another famous Bishop of the Eastern Churches Who having made some Rules for the better order of those who did intend to lead a Monastick life and being accused that in the singing of the Psalms and regulating the manner of that Melody he had somewhat innovated contrary to the received custom of the Church was forced to make his own Apology and send it to the Clergy of Neo-Caesarea * Basil Ep. 63. Thus then saith he ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The Rites saith he which we observe amongst us are such as are agreeable and consonant to all the Churches of God Our people rising in the night do before day repair unto the Chappel or house of Prayer and having made confession of their sins to God in sorrow tears and great compunction of the Soul they rise at last from Prayer and take themselves unto the Psalms Being divided into two parts they sing as it were in turns one second another or Quire-wise as is used in our Cathedrals so taking time to meditate on the words of God and therewithal making our hearts and minds more attent thereto Then
one to whom that charge or Office appertained began some other Psalm or Hymn and all sung together after him by which variety of singing ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã some Prayers being interserted or mingled with it they past over the night and on the dawning of the day all of them joyned together ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as if they had but one heart and one mouth amongst them and sung unto God a Psalm of Confession most likely one of the seven penitential Psalms and after every one made in his own words a profession of his penitence and so all returned Where note that howsoever this Form of Service was fitted only for a company of private Men who had embraced the Monastick life and to be used only by them in their private Oratories yet the most part thereof was borrowed from the publick Forms at that time extant in the Church Of the which Rites or Forms retained amongst them were the beginning of their service with a confession of their sins then p rayers to God and then the singing of the Psalms That which was singular herein and needed the Apology was that they met together before day and spent more time upon the Psalmody than in reading or preaching of the Word or in Common-prayer or any of the other parts of publick Worship Basil could tell as well as any wherein the Form of Service used amongst his Monks agreed with that which was received and used in publick Churches and wherein it differed as having took the pains to compose a Liturgie or rather to compleat and polish and fit unto the publick use such as had formerly been extant And though that Copy of it which occurs in the Bibliotheca and in the writings of Cassander have some things in it which are found to be of a latter date yet we shall clear that doubt anon when we come to Chrysostom against whose Liturgy I find the like Objections Mean time take this of Basil for a pregnant Argument that in his time and long before it the Service of the Chruch was not only ordered by Rules and Rubricks but put into set Forms of Worship which we have noted in his Books De spiritu sancto and is this that followeth For speaking there touching those publick Usages which came into the Church from the tradition of the Apostles Easil de sancto spiritu c. 27. he instanceth in these particulars ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The signing with the sign of the Cross all those who place their hopes in Christ what writing teacheth that in our prayers we should turn towards the East where is it taught us in the Scripture And then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Those words of invocation wherewithal in the holy Eucharist we consecrate the Bread and Cup of Benediction which of those blessed Saints have left in writing For not content with those things which the Apostles or the Gospel have committed to us many things have been added since both in the way of preface and of conclusion which are derived from unwritten Tradition And not long after thus of Baptism having first spoke of consecrating the Water of the Chrism or Oyl and the three Dippings then in use Those other things saith he which are done in Baptism viz. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Abrenuntiation which is made to Satan and to all his Angels out of what Scripture is it brought Next for S. Cyrsostom the evidence we have from him is beyond exception ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Chrysost in 2. ad Corinth hom 18. It is no now saith he as in the old Testament wherein the Priests eat this and the people that it being unlawful for the people to eat those things which were permitted to the Priest It is now otherwise with us For unto all is the same Body and the same Cup presented And in our very prayers it is easily seen how much we attribute unto the people ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. For both those who are possessed with the devil the Energumeni and those who yet are under penance both by the People and Priest ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã common Prayers are made and we say all one and the self same Prayer even that which is so full of mercy Where by the way though in the Greek it be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they say all one Prayer yet in the Latin it runs thus omnes unam eandemque precem concipiunt which would make well for unpremeditated and extemporary Prayers if it were possible that all the Congregation both Priest and people should fall upon the same conception But to go on ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Again saith he ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã when we repell all such from the holy Rayls which cannot be partakers of the holy Table there is another Prayer to be said and we all lie alike upon the ground and all rise together Then when the Peace or sign of peace is mutually to be given and taken we do all equally salute or kiss each other Thus also in the celebration of the sacred Mysteries as the Priest prayeth for the people so do they for him these usual words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And with thy Spirit importing nothing else but this And finally Et cum spirtu tuo Gratlas agamus Deo that Prayer wherein we give thanks to the Lord our God is common unto both alike the Priest not only giving thanks to God but the whole Assembly For when he hath demanded their suffrage first and they acknowledg thereupon ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dignum est justum that it is meet and right so to do then he begins the holy Eucharist Nor is it strange nor should it seem so unto any that the people should thus hold conference with the Priest o Minister considering that they sing those holy Hymns together with the Cherubins and the powers of Heaven So he And all this out of question Ideo cum Angelis Archangelis must needs be understood of prescribed Forms such as the people said by heart or could read in Books that either lay before them or were brought with them such as they were so throughly versed in as to make answer to the Minister upon all occasions For what else were those common Prayers those ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which he speaks of what else that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that one self-same Prayer that Prayer so full of mercy in which all did joyn were they not so determinate the prescribed that all could say them with the Minister And were not those returns and Answers so prescribed and set that all the people knew their Q. and were not ignorant of their turn when they were to speak Several other passages of the antient Liturgies might here and there be gathered from this Fathers writings if one would take the pains to seek them But I shall save that pains at present and indeed well may For what
Roman Presbyters till that time officiating in their turns or as their Bishop did appointed them in the Church Episcopal Thus are we to understand that passage of Rabanus Maurus cited in the last Section of our first Chapter where speaking of Jacobs anointing the Pillar he telleth us of him erexit Lapidem in Titulum vocans eum locum domum Dei De institut Cleric l. 1. c. 14. that by so doing he erected the Pillar into a consecrated place or Church calling it by the name of Bethel or the House of God His meaning is that by the anointing of this Pillar the place did after get the Title of a Church or reputation of a Temple by the name of Bethel And thus we are to understand that passage in the Canon Law in which it is decreed that Bishops shall admit none into holy Orders sine merito Titulo that is to say not being sufficiently qualified in respect of merit and not provided of some Church to officiate in For should the word Titulus be interpreted of any Academical or Civil Title any Man graduated in the Universities or dignified with the Title of Gent. Esquire c. and otherwise of sufficiency in point of Learning might challenge Orders from the Bishop which was the thing the Canon did purposely strike at the better to prevent the multitude of wandring clerks who having no Churches of their own would thrust themselves into other Mens Cures to the dishonour of their Order the great disturbance of the Church and the confusion of all sacred and spiritual Offices What inconveniences the gross neglect of this prudent Canon hath brought upon the Church in these latter times Notius est quam ut stilo egeat is too well known to be related And finally thus the word Titulus must be understood in the two Epistles of Pope Pius which before we spake of according to the Ecclesiastical notion of it in those elder times The next word here to be explained is the Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã promiscuously used both for the Act and Ceremonies of the Dedication and for the celebration of the Feasts of such Dedications either once or annually The word derived from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which is to consecrate and devote to an holy use and it is so taken in the 9th Chap. to the Heb. v. 19. where it is said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the first institution of which Festival as it related to the Jews in the Book of Maccabees the days thereof are called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the days of the Dedication of the Altar Macca 4.59 But in the Gospel of St. John in one word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i.e. Encaenia for so both Beza and the vulgar translation read it the word as it denoteth both the Dedication and the Festivals of it being continued long after in the Church of Christ A word so frequently used by the old Greek Fathers that it occurreth no less than seven times in one Column of the Greek and Latin Edition of Athanasius that is to say in his Apology to Constantius the then Roman Emperour More of this we shall see hereafter in some following Sections Now I note only for the close Athaâ Tom. 1. fol. 685. that the Dedication of Churches or places for Religious Worship hath all the characters of Antiquity universality and consent of people Semper ubique ab omnibus as Vincentius Lerinensts hath it which are required unto the knowledg or notification of an Apostolical Trandition as this seems to be Our second rank of Arguments to prove the high esteem which the Dedication of sacred places had in former times is taken from the great Solemnities the general concourse of people he magnificent Feasts used anciently by all sorts of Men on those occasions First look upon the Dedication of Solomons Temple and we shall find that there assembled at that time and on that occasion the Elders of Israel and all the heads of the Tribes the chief of the Fathers of the children of Israel 1 Kings 8.1 All the men of Israel v. 2. the Priests and Lveites v. 4. Nor were the Sacrifices short of this great Assembly it being said that Solomon sacrificed to the Lord 22000 Oxen and 120000. Sheep v. 63. so many that they could not be told nor numbred for multitude ver 5. Here is sufficient not only for a solemn Sacrifice but a Royal Feast sufficient for the entertainment of a million of people and such a Royal Feast indeed was made by Solomon to add the greater honour to the Dedication of of that glorious Temple For so it followeth in the Text. 1 Kings 8.65 And at that time Solomon held a Feast and all Israel with him a great Congregation from the entring in of Hamath unto the River of Egypt before the Lord our God seven days and seven days even fourteen days The second Temple as it was short of this in bigness and external beauties for which see Esr c. 3. v. 12. so fell it short also in the Pomps of the Dedication the people being then in a low condition impoverished by their long Captivity and not fully setled And yet the Scripture doth inform us Ezr. 6.16 17. That the children of Israel the Priests and the Levites and the rest of the children of the Captivity kept the Dedicatio of this House of God with joy And offered at the Dedication of this HOuse of God an hundred Bullocks two hundred Rams and four hundred Lambs For short indeed of the magnificence of Solomons in those glorious days described so fully in the 4th of the 1st of Kings and yet agreeable enough to their present fortunes as before was noted Of the Solemnities and Feasts of the Dedication in the time of Judas Maccabeus we have spoke already and shall speak more thereof anon that being the Original of the like Annual Feasts in the Church of Christ Proceed we next unto the Dedication of this Temple when new built of Herod of which Josephus telleth us thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That is to say Joseph l. 15. c. 14. They celebrated a great Feast in honour of the restauration of the Temple Which being told us in the general he next after addeth That the King offered 300 Oxen unto God and the rest of them each one accoring to his ability offered so many Sacrifices as that scarcely they may be comprehended in number for that their multitude exceeded their estimate The Romans guided by Example or the light of Nature performed these Dedications with as great solemnity as probably with as sumptuous Feasts as the Jews had done in the times before them Concerning which besides what hath been said already we need but look upon the Dedication of the Capitol in the time of Vespasian the pomp and order of it thus described by Tacitus first in the way of Preamble or preparation Cor. Tacit. hist l. 4. Vndecimo Kal. Julias serena
as soon as he was made a living creature ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as that Father hath it But neither he nor any other did ever tell us that the Sabbath was a part of this Law of Nature nay In Ezech. c. 20. some of them expresly have affirmed the contrary Theodoret for example that these Commandments Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal and others of that kind alios quoque homines natura edocuit were generally implanted by the law of Nature in the minds of men But for the keeping of the Sabbath it came not in by Nature but by Moses Law At Sabbati observandi non natura magistra sed latio legis So Theodoret. And answerably thereunto Sedulius doth divide the Law into three chief parts In Rom. 3. Whereof the first is de Sacramentis of signs and Sacraments as Circumcision and the Passeover the second is quae congruit legi naturali the body of the Law of Nature and is the summary of those things which are prohibited by the words of God the third and last factorum of Rites and Ceremonies for so I take it is his meaning as new Moons and Sabbaths which clearly doth exempt the Sabbath from having any thing to do with the Law of Nature And Damascen assures too De Orthod fide l. 4. c. 24. that when there was no Law enacted nor any Scripture inspired by God that then there was no Sabbath neither ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã To which three Ancients we might add many more of these later times In Decalog Medulla theol l. 2. cap. 15. Rivet and Ames and divers others who though they plead hard for the antiquity of the Sabbath dare not refer the keeping of it to the Law of Nature but only as we shall see anon unto positive Laws and divine Authority But hereof we shall speak more largely when we are come unto the promulgating of this Law in the time of Moses where it will evidently appear to be a positive Constitution only fitted peculiarly to the Jews and never otherwise esteemed of than a Jewish Ordinance It 's true that all men generally have agreed on this that it is consonant to the Law of Nature to set apart some time to Gods publick service but that this time should rather be the seventh day than any other that they impute not unto any thing in Nature but either to Divine Legal or Ecclesiastical institution The School-men Papists Protestants men of almost all persuasions in Religion have so resolved it And for the Ancients our venerable Bede assures us that to the Fathers before the Law all days were equal the seventh day having no prerogative before the others and this he calls naturalis Sabbati libertatem In Luc. 19. the liberty of the Natural Sabbath which ought saith he to be restored at our Saviours coming If so if that the Sabbath or time of rest unto the Lord was naturally left free and arbitrary then certainly it was not restrained more unto one day than another or to the seventh day more than to the sixth or eighth Even Ambrose Catharin as stout a Champion as he was for the antiquity of the Sabbath finds himself at a loss about it For having took for granted as he might indeed that men by the prescript of Nature were to assign Peculiar times for the service of God and adding that the very Gentiles used so to do is fain to shut up all with an Ignoramus Nescimus modo quem diem praecipue observarunt priscà illi Dei cultores We cannot well resolve saith he what day especially was observed by those who worshipped God in the times of old Wherein he doth agree exactly with Abulensis against whom principally he took up the Bucklers who could have taught him this if he would have learnt of such a Master that howsoever the Hebrew people or any other before the giving of the Law were bound to set apart some time for religious Duties In Exod. 20. Qu. 11. non tamen magis in Sabbato quam in quolibet aliorum dierum yet were they no more bound to the Sabbath day than to any other So for the Protestant Writers two of the greatest Advocates of the Sabbath have resolved accordingly Quod dies ille solennis unus debeat esse in septimana hoc positivi juris est that 's Amesius doctrine And Ryvet also saith the same Lege de Sabbato positivam non naturalem agnoscimus The places were both cited in the former Section and both do make the Sabbath a meer positive Law But what need more be saidin so clear a case or what need further Witnesses be produced to give in evidence when we have confitentem reum For Dr. Bound who first amongst us here endeavoured to advance the Lords day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath and feigned a pedigree of the Sabbath even from Adams infancy hath herein said enough to betray his cause and those that since have either built upon his foundation or beautified their undertakings with his collections Indeed saith he this Law was given in the beginning not so much by the light of Nature as the rest of the nine Commandments were but by express words when God sanctified it For though this be in the Law of Nature that some days should be separated to Gods worship 2. Edit p. 11. 16. as appears by the practice of the Gentiles yet that it should be every seventh day the Lord himself set down in express words which otherwise by the light of Nature they could never have found So that by his confession there is no Sabbath to be found in the Law of Nature no more than by the testimony of the Fathers in any positive Law or divine appointment until the Decalogue was given by Moses Nay Doctor Bound goeth further yet and robs his friends and followers of a special Argument For where Danaeus asks this question Why one of seven rather than one of eight or nine and thereunto makes answer that the number of seven doth signifie perfection and perpetuity First saith the Doctor I do not see that proved that there is any such mystical signification Ib. p. 60. rather than of any other And though that were granted yet do I not find that to be any cause at all in Scripture why the seventh day should be commanded to be kept holy rather than the sixth or eighth And in the former page The special reason why the seventh day should be rather kept than any other is not the excellency or perfection of that number or that there is any mystery in it or that God delighteth more in it than in any other Though I confess saith he that much is said that way both in divine and humane Writers Much hath been said therein indeed so much that we may wonder at the strange niceties of some men and the unprofitable pains they have taken amongst them in fearching
day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã once a month beginning their account with the New-moon ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but that the Jews did keep every seventh day constantly It 's true that Philo tells us more than once or twice how that the Sabbath was become a general Festival but that was rather taken up in imitation of the Jess than practised out of any instinct or light of nature as we shall see hereafter in a place more proper Besides which days before remembred the second day was consecrate to the bonus Genius Hospin de orig Fest cap. 5. the third and fifteenth to Minerva the ninth unto the Sun the last to Pluto and every twentieth day kept holy by the Epicures Now as the Greeks did consecrate the New-moons and seventh day to Phoebus the fourth of every month to Mercury and the eighth to Neptune sic de caeteris So every ninth day in the year was by the Romans anciently kept sacred unto Jupiter the Flamines or Priests upon that day offering a Ram unto him for a Sacrifice Nundinas Jovis ferias esse ait Granius Licinius Saturnal l. 1. c. 16. siquidem Flaminica omnibus nundinis every ninth day in regia Jovi arietem solere immolare as in Macrobius So that we see the seventh day was no more in honour than either the first fourth or eighth and not so much as was the ninth this being as it were a weekly Festival and that a monthly A thing so clear and evident 2. Edit p. 65. that Dr. Bound could tell us that the memory of Weeks and Sabbaths was altogether suppressed and buried amongst the Gentiles And in the former page But how the memory of the seventh day was taken away amongst the Romans Ex veteri nundinarum instituto apparet saith Beroaldus And Satan did altogether take away from the Graecians the boly memory of the seventh day by obtruding on the wicked Rites of Superstition which on the eighth day they did keep in bonour of Neptune So that besides other holy days the one of them observed the eighth day and the other the ninth and neither of them both the seventh as the Church doth now and hath done always from the beginning It 's true Diogenes the Grammarian Sueton. in Tiber. c. 32. did hold his disputations constantly upon the Saturday or Sabbath and when Tiberius at an extraordinary time came to hear his exercises in diem septimum distulerat the Pedant put him off until the saturday next following A right Diogenes indeed and as rightly served For coming to attend upon Tiberius being then made Emperour he sent him word ut post annum septimum rediret that he would have him come again the seventh year after But then as true it is De illustrib Grammat which the same Suetonius tells us of Antonius Gnipho a Grammarian too that he taught Rhetorick every day declamaret vero non nisi nundinis but declaimed only on the ninth But then as true it is which Juvenal hath told us of the Roman Rhetoricians that they pronounced their Declamations on the sixth day chiefly Nil salit Arcadico juveni cujus mihi sextâ Sat. Quâque die miserum dirus caput Annibal implet As the Poet hath it All days it seems alike to them the first fourth sixth eighth ninth and indeed what not as much in honour as the seventh whether it were in civil or in sacred matters I am not ignorant that many goodly Epithets are by some ancient Poets amongst the Grecians appropriated to this day which we find gathered up together Clem. Strom. l. 5. Euseb Praepar l. 13. c. 12. by Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius but before either of them by one Aristobulus a learned Jew who lived about the time of Ptolomy Philometor King of Egypt both Hesiod and Homer as they there are cited give it the Title of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or an holy day and so it was esteemed amongst them as before is shewn but other days esteemed as holy From Homer they produce two Verses wherein the Poet seems to be acquainted with the Worlds Creation and the perfection of it on the seventh day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã On the seventh day all things were fully done On that we left the waves of Acheron The like are cited out of Linus as related by Eusebius from the collections of Aristobulus before remembred but are by Clemens fathered on Callimachus another of the old Greek Poets who between them thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Which put together may be thus Englished in the main though not verbatim On the seventh day all things were made compleat The birth-day of the World most good most great Seven brought forth all things in the starry Skie Keeping each year their courses constantly This Clemens makes an argument that not the Jews only but the Gentiles also knew that the seventh day had a priviledg yea and was hallowed above other days on which the World and all things in it were compleat and finished And so we grant they did but neither by the light of Nature nor any observation of that day amongst themselves more than any other Not by the light of Nature For Ariftobulus from whom Clemens probably might take his hint speaks plainly that the Poets had consulted with the holy Bible and from thence sucked this knowledg ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as that Author saith of Hesiod and Homer Which well might be Ap. Euseb considering that Homer who was the oldest of them flourished about five hundred years after Moses death Callimachus who was the latest above Seven hundred years after Homers time Nor did they speak it out of any observation of that day more than any other amongst themselves The general practice of the Gentiles before related hath throughly as we hope removed that scruple They that from these words can collect a Sabbath had need of as good eys as Clemens who out of Plato in his second de republ Strom. l. 5. conceives that he hath found a sufficient warrant for the observing of the Lords day above all the rest because it is there said by Plato That such as had for seven days solaced in the pleasant Meadows were to depart upon the eighth and not return till four days after As much a Lords day in the one as any Sabbath in the other Indeed the Argument is weak that some of those that thought it of especial weight have now deserted it as too light and trivial Ryvet by name who cites most of these Verses in his notes on Genesis to prove the Sabbath no less ancient than the Worlds Creation doth on the Decalogue think them utterly unable to
conclude that point nisi aliunde suffulciantur unless they be well backed with better Argumens and Authorities out of other Authors Nay more than this the Gentiles were so far from sanctifying the Sabbath or seventh day themselves that they derided those that kept it The Circumcision of the Jews was not more ridiculous amongst the Heathens than their Sabbaths were not were they more extreamly scoffed at for the one than for the other by all sorts of Writers Ap. Aug. de civit Dei l. 6. c. 11. Hist l. 5. Seneca lays it to their charge that by occasion of their Sabbaths septimam fere aetatis suae partem vacando perdant they spent the seventh part of their lives in floth and idleness and Tacitus that not the seventh day but the seventh year also was as unprofitably wasted Septimo quoque die otium placuisse ferunt dein blandiente intertia septimum quoque annum ignaviae datum Moses saith he had so appointed because that after a long six days march the People became quietly setled on the seventh Juvenal makes also the same objection against the keeping of the Sabbath by the Jewish Nation Sat. 14. quod septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava partem vitae non attigit ullam And Ovid doth not only call them peregrina sabbata as things with which the Romans had but small and that late acquaintance but makes them a peculiar mark of the Jewish Religion Reme amor l. 1. Quaque die redeunt rebus minus apta gerendis De Arte l. 1. Culta Palestino septima sacra viro The seventh day comes for business unfit Held sacred by the Jew who halloweth it Where by the way Tostatus notes upon these words In Exod. 20. that sacra septima are here ascribed unto the Jews as their badge or cognizance which had been most improper and indeed untrue si gentes aliae servarent sabbatum if any other Nation specially the Romans had observed the same But to proceed Persius hits them in the teeth with their recutita sabbata And Martial scornfully calleth them Sabbatarians Sat. 5. l. 4. ep 4. Ap. Josephum Antiq. l. 12.1 in an Epigram of his to Bassus where reckoning up some things of an unsavoury smell he reckoneth Sabbatariorum jejunia amongst the principal So Agatharebides who wrote the lives of Alexanders successors accuseth them of an unspeakable superstition in that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they suffered Ptolomy to take their City of Hierusalem on a Sabbath day rather than stand upon their guard But that of Apion Joseph adv Apion l. 2. the great Clerk of Alexandria is the most shameful and reproachful of all the rest Who to despight the Jews the more and lay the deeper stain upon their Sabbaths relates in his Egyptian story that at their going out of Egypt having travelled for the space of six whole days they became stricken with certain inflammations in the privy parts which the Egyptians call by the name of Sabbo ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and for that cause they were compelled to rest on the seventh day which afterwards the called the Sabbath Than which what greater calumny could a malicious Sycophant invent against them Doubtless those men that speak so despicably and reproachfully of the Jewish Sabbath had never any of their own Nor did the Greeks and Latines and Egyptians only out of the plenty or the redundance rather of their wit deride and scoff the Sabbaths celebrated by those of Jewry Cap. 1. v. 7. it was a scorn that had before been fastned on them when wit was not so plentiful as in later times For so the Prophet Jeremiah in his Lamentations made on the death of King Josiah The adversaries saw her and did mock at her Sabbaths The Jews must needs be singular in this observation All Nations else both Graecian and Barbarian had never so agreed together to deride them for it Yet we deny not all this while but that the fourth Commandment so much thereof as is agreeable to the law and light of nature was not alone imprinted in the minds of the Gentiles but practised by them For they had statos dies some appointed times appropriated to the worship of their several gods as before was shewed their holy-days and half-holy-days accordding to that estimation which their gods had gotten in the world And this as well to comfort and refresh their spirits which otherwise had been spent and wasted with continual labour as to do service to those Deities which they chiefly honoured Dii genus bominum laboribus natura pressum miserati De leg l. 2. remissionem laborum statuerunt solennia festa was the resolution once of Plato But this concludes not any thing that they kept the Sabbath or that they were obliged to keep it by the law of nature And where it is conceived by some that the Gentiles by the light of nature had their Weeks Purch Pilgr l. 1. c. 4. which is supposed to be an argument that they kept the Sabbath a week being only of seven days and commonly so called both in Greek and Latine We on the other side affirm that by this very rule the Gentilos many of them if not the most could observe no Sabbath because they did observe no weeks For first the Caldees and the Persians had no weeks at all but to the several days of each several month appropriated a particular name of some King or other Emend temp l. 3. as the Peruvians do at this present time nomina diebus mensis indunt ut prisci Persae as Scaliger hath noted of them The Grecians also did the like in the times of old there being an old Attick Calendar to be seen in Scaliger wherein is no division of the month into weeks at all Then for the Romans they divided their accompt into eighths and eighths as the Jews did by sevens and sevens the one reflecting on their nundinae Id. l. 4. as the other did upon their Sabbath Ogdoas Romanorum in tributione dierum servabatur propter nundinas ut habdomas apud Judaeos propter sabbatum For proof of which there are some ancient Roman Calendars to be seen as yet one in the aforesaid Sealiger the other in the Roman Antiquities of John Rossinus wherein the days are noted from A. to H as in our common Almanacks from A to G. The Mexicans go a little further ãâ¦ã and they have 13 days to the week as the same Scaliger hath observed of them Nay even the Jews themselves were ignorant of this division of the year into weeks as tostatus thinks In Levit. 23. qu. 3. till Moses learnt it of the Lord in the fall of Mannah Nor were the Greeks and Romans destitute of this accompt only whiles they were rude and untrained People as the Peruvians and the Mexicans at this present time but when they were in their greatest flourish for Arts and Empire Hist l. 36.
usual trade Yea saith that great Clerk Rabbi Simeon Pet. Galatin l. 11. c. 10. propter puerum unius diei vivum solvunt sabbatum to save a Child alive we may break the Sabbath This Child being born must needs be Circumcised on the eighth day after which is the Sabbath May not the Ministers do their office yes for the Rabbins have a maxim that Circumcisio pellit sabbatum And what Doth only Circumcision drive away the Sabbath No any common danger doth it And then they change the phrase a little periculum mortis pellit sabbatum Nay more the Priest that waiteth at the Altar doth he do no work upon the Sabbath Yes more than on the other days and for that too they have a maxim viz. qui observari jussit sabbatum Ap. Casaub Exer. 16. n. 20. is profanari jussit sabbatum We shall meet with some of these again hereafter Therefore we must expound these words no manner of work i.e. no kind of servile work as before we did or else the weekly Sabbath and the fourth Commandment must be a nose of wax and a Lesbian rule fit only to be wrested and applied to whatsoever end and purpose it shall please the Rabbins More warily and more soundly have the Christian Doctors yea and the very Heathens determined of it who judge that all such corporal labours as tend unto the moral part of the fourth command which are Rest and Sanctity are fit and lawful to be done on the Sabbath day That men should rest upon such times as are designed and set apart for Gods publick service and leave their daily labours till some other season the Gentiles knew full well by the light of nature Macâob Sat l. 1. c. 16. Therefore the Flamines were to take especial care ne feriis opus fieret that no work should be done on the solemn days and to make it known by Proclamation ne quid tale ageretur that no man should presume to do it Which done if any one offended he was forthwith mulcted yet was not this enjoyned so strictly that no work was permitted in what case soever All things which did concern the Gods and their publick worship vel ad urgentem vitae utilitatem respicerent or were important any way to mans life and wellfare were accounted lawful More punctually Scevola being then chief Pontifex Who being demanded what was lawful to be done on the Holy-days made answer quod praetermissum noceret which would miscarry if it were left undone He therefore that did underprop a ruinous building or raise the Cattel that was fallen into the ditch did not break the Holy-day in his opinion No more did he that washed his Sheep si hoc remedii cause fieret were it not done to cleanse the Wool and make it ready for the Shearers but only for the cure of some sore or other according unto that of Virgil Balantumque gregem fluvio mersare salubri Georgie Thus far the Gentiles have resolved it agreeably to the Law of nature and so far do the Christian Doctors yea and our Lord and Saviour determine of it The corporal labours of the Priest on the Sabbath day as far as it concerns Gods service were accounted lawful The Priests in the Temple break the Sabbath and yet were blameless So was the corporal labour of a man either to save his own life or preserve anothers Christ justified his Disciples for gathering Corn upon the Sabbath being then an hungred Matth. 12. v. 1.3 and restored many unto health on the Sabbath day Matth. 12.13 and in other places Finally corporal labours to preserve Gods Creatures as to draw the Sheep out of the Pit Matth. 12.11 and consequently to save their Cattel from the Thief a ruinous house from being over-blown by tempest their Corn and Hay also from a sudden Inundation these and the like to these were all judged lawful on the Sabbath And thus you see the practice of the Gentiles governed by the light of nature is every way conformable to our Saviours doctrine and the best Comment also on the fourth Commandment as far as it contains the law of natue For such particular Ordinances which have been severally affixed to the fourth Commandment either by way of Comment on it or addition to it that which is most considerable Vers 12. is that Prohibition in the 35 of Exodus viz. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day The Rabbins some of them conceive that hereby is meant that no man must be beaten or put to death upon the Sabbath and then it must be thus expounded Ye shall kindle no fire i. e. to burn a man upon the Sabbath who is condemned by the Law to that kind of death and consequently not to put him on that day unto any punishment at all Others of late refer that prohibition unto the building of the Tabernacle in that Chapter mentioned and then the meaning will be this that they should make no fire on the Sabbath no though it were to hasten on the work of the holy Tabernacle Philo restrains it chiefly ââto manual Trades ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã such whereby men do get their livings And then it must be thus interpreted Ye shall not kindle any sire that is to do any common ordinary and servile works like as do common Bakers Smiths and Brewers De vit Mos l. 3. by making it part of their usual trade The later Rabbins almost all and many Christian Writers also taking the hint from Vatablus and Tremelius it their Annotations refer it unto dressing of Meat according to the latter custom Nay generally the Jews in the latter times were more severe and rigid in the exposition of that Text Tostat in Josua c. q. 2. and would allow no fire at all except in sacred matters only For whereas Rabbi Aben Ezra had so expounded it quod liceat ignem accendere ad caiefaciendum siurgeret srigus that it was lawful to make a fire wherewith to warm ones self in the extremity of cold weather though not to dress meat with it for that days expence the Rabbins generally would have proceeded against him as an Heretick and purposely writ a Book in contutation of him which they called the Sabbath How this interpretation was thus generally received I cannot say But I am verily persuaded that it was not so in the beginning Exod. 16.23 and that those words of Moses quae coquenda sunt hodie coquite bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth what ye will seeth which words are commonly produced to justifie and confirm this fancy do prove quite contrary to what some would have them The Text and Context both make it plain and manifest that the Jews baked their Mannah on the Sabbath day The People on the sixth day had gathered twice as much as they used to do whereof the Rulers of the Congregation acquainted Moses And Moses said to
32. better the men did dig all day than dance all day And for the Women melius eorum foeminae lanam facerent quam illo die in neomeniis saltarent Tract 3. in Joh. 1. better the Women spin than waste all that day and the New-Moons in dancing as they use to do I have translated it all that day agreeable unto the Fathers words in another place where it is said expresly in tota die De decem chordis c. 3. Melius foeminae eorum die sabbati lanas facerent quam tota die in neomeniis suis impudice saltarent Where note not dancing simply but lascivious dancing and dancing all day long without respect to pious and religious Duties are by him disliked Ignatius also saith the same Ad Magnesianos where he exhorts the people not to observe the Sabbath in a Jewish fashion walking a limited space and setting all their mind ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as they did in dancing and in capering They used also on that day to make invitations Feasts and assemblies of good neighbourhood to foster Brotherly love and concord amongst one another a thing even by the Pharisees themselves both allowed and practised Luke 14.1 Saint Luke hath given an instance of it how Christ went into the house of a chief Pharisee to eat Bread on the Sabbath day In plainer terms the Pharisees invited him that day to Dinner We may assure our selves so famous a Professour had not invited so great a Prophet nor had our Saviour Christ accepted of the invitation had they not both esteemed it a lawful matter It seems it was a common practice for friends to meet and feast together on the Sabbath Finito cultu Dei solebant amici convenire Harmon c. 119. inter se convivia agitare as Chemnitius notes upon the place Lastly they used upon this day as to invite their Friends and Neighbours so to make them welcom oynting their Heads with Oil to refresh their Bodies and spending store of Wine amongst them to make glad their hearts In which regard whereas all other marketting was unlawful on the Sabbath days there never was restraint of selling Wine the Jews believed that therein they brake no Commandment Hebraei faciunt aliquid speciale in vino In Exod. 12. viz. quod cum in sabbato suo à caeteris venditionibus emptionibus cessent solum vlnum vendunt credentes se non solvere sabbatum as Tostatus hath it How they abused this lawful custom of Feasting with their Friends and Neighbours on the Sabbath day into foul riot and excess we have seen already So having spoken of the weekly and the Annual Sabbaths the difference and agreement which was between them both in the Institution and the Observation as also of such several observances as were annexed unto the same what things the Jews accounted lawful to be done and what unlawful and how far they declared the same in their constant practice it is high time that we continue on the story ranking such special passages as occur hereafter in their place and order CHAP. VI. Touching the observation of the SABBATH unto the time the people were established in the Promised Land 1. The Sabbath not kept constantly during the time the people wandred in the Wilderness 2. Of him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day 3. Wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist in the time of Moses 4. The Law not ordered to be read in the Congregation every Sabbath day 5. The sack of Hiericho and the destruction of that people was upon the Sabbath 6. No Sabbath after this without Circumcision and how that Ceremony could consist with the Sabbaths rest 7. What moved the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath 8. The standing still of the Sun at the prayers of Josuah c. could not but make some alteration about the Sabbath 9. What was the Priests work on the Sabbath day and whether it might stand with the Sabbaths rest 10. The scattering of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation unto the reading of the Law on the Sabbaths-days WE left this people in the Wilderness where the Law was given them and whether this Commandment were there kept or not hath been made a question and that both by the Jewish Doctors and by the Christian Some have resolved it negatively that it was not kept in all that time which was forty years and others that it was at some times omitted according to the stations or removes of Israel or other great and weighty businesses which might intermit it It is affirmed by Rabbi Solomon that there was only one Passeover observed whiles they continued in the Deserts notwithstanding that it was the principal solemnity of all the year Et si illud fuit omissum multo fortius alia minus principalia If that saith he then by an argument à majore ad minus much rather were the lesser Festivals omitted also More punctually Rabbi Eleazar Ap. Galation l. 11. c. 10. who on those words of Exodus and the people rested the seventh day Chap. 16.30 gives us to understand that for the space of forty years whilest they were in the wilderness non fecerunt nisi duntaxat primum sabbatum they kept no more than that first Sabbath Chap. 5.25 According unto that of the Prophet Amos Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years O house of Israel On which authority Aretius for the Christian Doctors doth affirm the same Probl. loâ 55. Sabbata per annos 40. non observavit in deserto populus Dei Amos 5.25 The argument may be yet inforced by one more particular that Circumcision was omitted for all that while and yet it had precedency of the Sabbath both in the institution for the times before and in the observation for the times that followed If therefore neither Circumcision nor the daily sacrifices nor the Feast of Passeover being the principal of the Annual Sabbaths were observed by them till they came to the Land of Canaan why may not one conclude the same of the weekly Sabbaths Others conceive not so directly but that it was omitted at some times and on some occasions Omitted at some times as when the people journied in the Wilderness many days together In Exod. 12. nulla requie aliquorum dierum habita without rest or ceasing and this the Hebrew Doctors willingly confess as Tostatus tells us Omitted too on some occasions as when the Spies were sent to discover the Land what was the strength thereof and what the riches in which discovery they spent forty days it is not to be thought that they kept the Sabbath It was a perillous work that they went about not to be discontinued and layed by so often as there were Sabbaths in that time But not to stand upon conjectures the Jewish Doctors say expresly Lib. 11. c. 10. that they did not keep it So
was there nothing at all therein in which the People were to do no not so much except some few as to be Spectators the sacrifices being offered only in the Tabernacle as in the Temple after when they had a Temple the people being scattered over all the Country in their Towns and Villages Of any Reading of the Law or exposition of the same unto the People or publick form of Prayers to be presented to the Lord in the Congregation we find no footstep now nor a long time after None in the time of Moses for he had hardly perfected the Law before his death the Book of Deuteronomy being dedicated by him a very little before God took him None in a long time after no not till Nehemiahs days as we shall see hereafter in that place and time The resting of the people was the thing commanded in imitation of Gods Rest when his Works were finished that as he rested from the works which he had created so they might also rest in memorial of it But the employment of this Rest to particular purposes either of Contemplation or Devotion that 's not declared unto us in the Word of God but left at large either unto the liberty of the People or the Authority of the Church Now what the people did how they employed this rest of theirs that Philo tells us in his third Book of the life of Moses Moses saith he ordained that since the World was finished on the seventh day all of his Common-wealth following therein the course of Nature should spend the seventh day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Festival delights resting therein from all their works yet not to spend it as some do in laughter childish sports or as the Romans did their time of publick Feastings in beholding the activity either of the Jester or common Dancers but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and a little after ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the study of true Philosophy and in the contemplation of the works of Nature And in another place He did command De Decalog saith he that as in other things so in this also they should imitate the Lord their God working six days and resting on the seventh ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and spending it in meditation of the works of Nature as before is said And not so only but that upon that day they should consider of their actions in the week before if haply they had offended against the Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. that so they might correct what was done amiss and be the better armed to offend no more So in his Book de mundi opisicio he affirms the same that they imployed that day in divine Philosophy ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã even for the bettering of their manners and reckoning with their Consciences That thus the Jews did spend the day or some part thereof is very probable and we may take it well enough upon Philo's word but that they spent it thus by the direction or command of Moses is not so easily proved as it is affirmed though for my part I willingly durst assent unto it For be it Moses so appointed yet this concerns only the behaviour of particular persons and reflects nothing upon the publick Duties in the Congregation It 's true that Philo tells us in a Book not extant how Moses also did ordain these publick meetings Ap Eâseb Praepar l. 8. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã What then did Moses order to be done on the Sabbath day He did appoint saith he that we should meet all in some place together and there sit down with modesty and a general silence ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to hear the Law that none plead ignorance of the same Which custom we continue still harkning with wonderful silence to the Law of God unless perhaps we give some joyful acclamation at the hearing of it some of the Priests if any present or otherwise some of the Elders reading the Law and then expounding it unto us till the night come on Which done the people are dismissed full of divine instruction and true Piety So he or rather out of him Eusebius But here by Philo's leave we must pause a while This was indeed the custom in our Saviours time and when Philo lived and he was willing as it seems to fetch the pedigree thereof as far as possibly he could Annales An. 2546. n. 10. So Salianus tells him on the like occasion Videtur Philo Judaeorum merem in synagogis disserendi antiquitate donare voluisse quem à Christo Apostolis observatum legimus The same reply we make to Josephus also who tells us of their Law-maker that he appointed not that they should only hear the Law once or twice a year Cont. Ap. 2. Deut. 6.7 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but that once every week we should come together to hear the Laws that we might perfectly learn the same Which thing saith he all other Law-makers did omit And so did Moses too by Josephus leave unless we make a day and a year all one For being now to take his farewel of that people and having oft advised them in his Exhortation to meditate on the words that he had spoken even when they tarried in their houses and walked by the way when they rose up and when they went to bed he called the Priests unto him Verse 31.9 Verse 10. Verse 11. and gave the Law into their hands and into the hands of all the Elders of Israel And he commanded them and said At the end of every seven years in the solemnity of the year of Release at the Feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord their God in the place that thou shalt choose thou shalt read this Law before Israel in their hearing that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe all the words of this Law to do them Verse 12. This was the thing decreed by Moses and had been needless if not worse in case he had before provided that they should have the Law read openly unto them every Sabbath day So then by Moses order the Law was to be read publickly every seventh year only in the year of Release because then servants being manumitted from their Bondage and Debtours from their Creditours all sorts of men might hear the Law with the greater chearfulness and in the Feast of Tabernacles because it lasted longer than the other Festivals and so it might be read with the greater leisure and heard with more attention and then it was but this Law too the Book of Deuteronomy This to be done only in the place which the Lord shall choose to be the seat and receptacle of his holy Tabernacle not in inferiour Towns much less petty Villages and yet this thought sufficient to instruct the people in the true knowledg of Gods Law and keeping of his Testimonies And indeed happy had they been had
on the Sabbath day necessity inforcing them thereunto prevailed against them with a great and mighty slaughter Neither is he only one that so conceived it Peter Martyr saith as much and collects from hence Loci Coml l. 7.8 cl 2. die sabbati militaria munia obiisse eos that military matters were performed on the Sabbath day This Field was sought Anno Mundi 3135 and was eleven years after Elijabs flight Proceed we to Elisha next Of whom though nothing be recorded that concerns this business yet on occasion of his Piety and zeal to God there is a passage in the Scripture which gives light unto it 2. Kings 4. The Shunamite having received a Child at Elisha's hands and finding that it was deceased called to her husband and said send with me I pray thee one of the young Men and one of the Asses Verse 21. for I will haste to the man of God and come again And he said wherefore wilt thou go to him to day Verse 23. It is neither New-moon nor Sabbath day Had it been either of the two it seems she might have gone and sought out the Prophet and more than so she used to do it at those times else what need the question It was their custom as before we noted to travel on the Sabbhath days and the other Festivals to have some conference with the Levites if occasion were and to repair unto the Prophets at the same times also as well as any day whatever In illis diebus festivis Frequentius ibant ad prophetas ad audiendum verbum Dei as Lyra hath it on the place And this they did without regard unto that nicety of a Sabbath-days Journey which came not up till long after sure I am was not now in use Elisha at this time was retired to Carmel which from the Sbunamites City was ten miles at lest as is apparent both by Adrichomius Map of Issachar and all other Tables that I have met with And so the limitation of 2000 foot or 2000 Cubits or the six Furlongs at the most which some require to be allotted for the uttermost travel on the Sabbath is vanished suddenly into nothing Nay it is evident by the story that the Journey was not very short the Woman calling to her servant to drive on and go forwards and not to slack his riding unless she bid him Which needed not in case the Journey had not been above six Furlongs Neither New-moon nor Sabbath day It seems the times were both alike in this respect the Prophets to be sought unto and they to publish and make known the will of God as well at one time as the other In Num. 28. qu. 29. Quasi Sabbatum Calendae aequalis essent solennitatis as Tostatus hath it If so if the New-moons in this respect were as solemn as the weekly Sabbath no question but the Annual Sabbaths were as solemn also And not in this respect alone but in many others Markets prohibited in the New-moons as in the Sabbath When will the New-moon be gone that we may sell our Corn in the eighth of Amos the Sacrifices more in these than in the other of which last we have spoken already So when the Scriptures prophecy of those spiritual Feasts which should be celebrated by Gods Saints in the times to come they specifie the New-moons as particularly as they do the Sabbaths Esa 66.23 From one New-moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. See the like Prophecy in Ezech. Ch. 46. Verse 1.3 Upon which last St. Hierom tells us Quod privilegium habet dies septimus in habdomada In Ezech. 46. hoc haber privilegium mensis exordium the New-moons and the Sabbath have the like Prerogatives Nay when the Jews began to set at nought the Lord and to forget that God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt when they began to loath his Sabbaths and prophane his Festivals as they did too often the Lord expostulates the matter with them as well for one as for the other When they were weary of the New-moon Amos 8.5 and wished it gone that they might sell Corn and of the Sabbath because it went not fast enough away that they might set forth Wheat to sale the Lord objects against them both the one and the other by his Prophet Amos that they preferred their profit before his pleasure Et Dei solennitates turpis lucri gratia in sua verterent compendia In locum as Saint Hierom hath it When on the other side they did prophane his Sabbaths and the holy Festivals with excess and surfeiting carowsing Wine in Bowls Amos 6. stretching themselves upon their Couches and ointing of themselves with the chief Ointments the Lord made known unto them by his servant Isaiah how much he did dislike their courses Chap. 1.14 The New-moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting It seems they had exceedingly forgot themselves when now their very Festivals were become a sin Nay God goes further yet Chap. 1.14 your New-moons and your appointed Feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them Your New-moons and your Feasts saith God are not mine Non enim mea sunt quae geritis they are no Feasts of mine which you so abuse Servo 12. How so Judaei enim neglectis spiritualibus negotiis quae pro animae salute agenda Deus praeceperat omnia legitima sabbati ad ocium luxuriamque contulere So said Gaudentius Brixianus They Jews saith he neglecting those spiritual Duties which God commanded on that day abused the Sabbaths rest unto ease and luxury For whereas being free from temporal cares Cwil in Amos 8. they ought to have employed that day to spiritual ufes and to have spent the same in modesty and temperance ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in the repetition and commemoration of Gods holy Word they on the other side did the contrary ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã wasting the day in gluttony and drunkenness and idle delicacies How far Sr. Augustine chargeth them with the self-same crimes we have seen before Thus did the house of Israel rebell against the Lord and prophane his Sabbaths And therefore God did threaten them by the Prophet Hosea Hos 2.11 that he would canse their mirth to cease their Feast days their New-moons and Sabbaths and their solemn Festivals that so they might be punished in the want of that which formerly they had abused And so indeed he did beginning first with those of the revolted Tribes whom he gave over to the hand of Salmanassar the Assyrian by whom they were led Captive unto parts unknown and never suffered to return Those which were planted in their places as they desired in tract of time to know the manner of the God of the Land so for the better
one other Reading of it publickly and before the people related in the thirteenth of Nehemiah when it was neither Feast of Tabernacles nor sabbatical year for ought we find in holy Scripture Therefore most like it is that it was the Sabbath which much about those times began to be ennobled with the constant reading of the Word in the Congregation First in Hierusalem and after by degrees in most places else as men could fit themselves with convenient Synagogues Houses selected for that purpose to hear the Word of God and observe the same Of which times and of none before those passages of Philo and Josephus before remembred Chap. 6. n. 4. touching the weekly reading of the Law and the behaviour of the people in the publick places of Assembles are to be understood and verified as there we noted For that there was no Synagogue nor weekly reading of the Law before these times besides what hath been said already we will now make manifest No Synagogue before these times for there is neither mention of them in all the body of the old Testament nor any use of them in those days wherein there were no Congregations in particular places And first there is no mention of them in the old Testament For where it is supposed by some that there were Synagogues in the time of David and for the proof thereof they produce these words Psal 74.8 they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land the supposition and the proof are alike infirm For not to quarrel the Translation which is directly different from the Greek and vulgar Latine and somewhat from the former English this Psalm if writ by David was not composed in reference to any present misery which fefell the Church There had been no such havock made thereof in all Davids time as is there complained of Therefore if David writ that Psalm he writ it as inspired with the spirit of Prophecy and in the spirit of Prophecy did reflect on those wretched times wherein Antiochus laid waste the Church of God and ransacked his inheritance To those most probably must it be referred the miseries which are there bemoaned not being so exactly true in any other time of trouble as it was in this Magis probabilis est conjectura ad tempus Antiochi referri has querimonias as Calvin notes it In Psal 74. And secondly there was no use of them before because no reading of the Law in the Congregation of ordinary course and on the Sabbath days For had the Law been read unto the people every Sabbath day we either should have found some Commandment for it or some practice of it but we meet with neither Rather we find strong arguments to persuade the contrary We read it of Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17.7 that in the third year of his reign he sent his Princes Ben-hail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nathaneel and Micaiah to teach in the Cities of Judah These were the principal in Commission and unto them he joyned nine Levites and two Priests to bear them company and to assist them It followeth And they taught in Judah Verse 9. and had the book of the Law of the Lord with them and they went about throughout all the Cities of Judah and taught the people And they taught in Judah and had the Book of the Law with them This must needs be a needless labour in case the people had been taught every Sabbath day or that the Book of the Law had as then been extant and extant must it be if it had been read in every Town and Village over all Judaea Therefore there was no Synagogue no reading of the Law every Sabbath day in Jehosaphats time But that which follows of Josiah is more full than this 2 Kings 12. That godly Prince intended to repair the Temple and in pursuit of that intendment Hilkiah the Priest to whom the ordering of the work had been committed found hidden an old Copy of the Law of God which had been given unto them by the hand of Moses This Book is brought unto the King and read unto him And when the King had heard the words of the Law he rent his cloths And not so only Verse 11. Chap. 23.1 2. but he gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Hierusalem and read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. Had it been formerly the custom to read the Law each Sabbath unto all the people it is not to be thought that this good King Josiah could possibly have been such a stranger to the Law of God or that the finding of the Book had been related for so strange an accident when there was scarce a Town in Judah but was furnished with them Or what need such a sudden calling of all the Elders and on an extraordinary time to hear the Law if they had heard it every Sabbath and that of ordinary course Nay so far were they at this time from having the Law read amongst them every weekly Sabbath that as it seems it was not read amongst them in the sabbath of years as Moses had before appointed For if it had been read unto them once in seven years only that vertuous Prince had not so soon forgotten the contents thereof Therefore there was no Synagogue no weekly reading of the Law in Josiabs days And if not then and not before then not at all till Ezras time The finding of the Book of God before remembred is said to happen in the year 3412. of the Worlds Creation not forty years before the people were led Captives into Babylon in which short space the Princes being careless and the times distracted there could be nothing done that concern'd this business Now from this reading of the Law in the time of Ezra unto the Council holden in Hierusalem there passed 490 years or thereabouts Acts 15.21 Antiquity sufficient to give just cause to the Apostle there to affirm that Moses in old time in every City had them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day So that we may conclude for certain that till these times wherein we are there was no reading of the Law unto the people on the Sabbath days and in these times when it was taken up amongst them it was by Ecclesiastical institution only no divine Authority But being taken up on what ground soever it did continue afterwards though perhaps sometimes interrupted until the final dissolution of that Church and State and therewithal grew up a liberty of interpretation of the holy words which did at last divide the people into sects and factions Petrus Cunaeus doth affirm that howsoever the Law was read amongst them in the former times either in publick or in private De repub l. 2. ca. 17. yet the bare Text was only read without gloss or descant Interpretatio magistrorum commentatio nulla But in
the Cardinal that either Sunday is not meant in the Revelation or else Saint John was not the Author of keeping Easter with the Jews on what day soever Rather we may conceive that Saint John gave way unto the current of the times which in those places as is said were much intent upon the customs of the Jews most of the Christians of those parts being Jews originally For the composing of this difference and bringing of the Church to an uniformity the Popes of Rome bestirred themselves and so did many others also And first Pope Pius published a Declaration Com. Tom. 1. Pascha domini die dominica annuis solennitatibus celebrandum esse In Chronic. that Easter was to be solemnized on the Lords day only And here although I take the words of the letter decretory yet I rely rather upon Eusebius for the authority of the fact than on the Decretal it self which is neither for the substance probable and the date stark false not to be trusted there being no such Consuls it is Crabbes own note as are there set down But the Authority of Pope Pius did not reach so far as the Asian Churches and therefore it produced an effect accordingly This was 159. and seven years after Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna a Reverend and an holy man Euseb hist l. 4. c. 13. made away to Rome ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã then to confer with Anicetus then the Roman Prelate about this business And though one could not wooe the other to desert the cause yet they communicated together and so parted Friends But when that Blastus afterwards had made it necessary which before was arbitrary and taught it to be utterly unlawful to hold this Feast at any other time than the Jewish Passeover becoming so the Author of the Quarto-decimani as they used to call them then did both Eleutherius publish a Decree that it was only to be kept upon the Sunday and Irenaeus though otherwise a peaceable man writ a Discourse entituled De schismate contra Blastum now not extant A little before this time this hapned Anno 180. the controversie had took place in Laodicea ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã L. 4. c. 25. as Eusebius hath it which moved Melito Bishop of Sardis a man of special eminence to write two Books de Pascbate and one de die Dominico ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But to what side he took it is hard to say Were those Discourses extant as they both are lost we might no doubt find much that would conduce to our present business Two years before the close of this second Century Pope Victor Euseb l. 5. c. 23.24 presuming probably on his name sends abroad his Mandate touching the keeping of this Feast on the Lords day only against the which when as Polycrates and other Asian Prelates had set out their Manifests he presently without more ado declares them all for excommunicate But when this rather hindred than advanced the cause the Asian Bishops cared little for those Bruta fulmina and Irenaeus who held the same side with him having persuaded him to milder courses he went another way to work by practising with the Prelates of several Churches to end the matter in particular Councils Of these there was one held at Osroena another by Bachyllus Bishop of Corinth a third in Gaul by Irenaeus a fourth in Pontus a fifth in Rome a sixth in Palestine by Theophilus Bishop of Caesaria the Canons of all which were extant in Eusebius time and in all which it was concluded for the Sunday By means of these Syndical determinations the Asian Prelates by degrees let fall their rigour and yielded to the stronger and the surer side Yet waveringly and with some relapses till the great Council of Nice backed with the Authority of as great an Emperour setled it better than before none but some scattered Schismaticks now and then appearing that durst oppose the resolution of the that famous Synod So that you see that whether you look upon the day appointed for the Jewish sabbath or on the day appointed for the Jewish Passover the Lords day found it no small matter to obtain the victory And when it had prevailed so far that both the Feast of Easter was restrained unto it and that it had the honour of the Publick Meetings of the Congregation yet was not this I mean this last exclusively of all other days the former Sabbath the fourth and sixth days of the week having some share therein for a long time after as we shall see more plainly in the following Centuries But first to make an end of this this Century affords us three particular Writers that have made mention of this day First Justin Martyr who then lived in Rome doth thus relate ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Apolog. 2. c. Vpon the Sunday all of us assemble in the Congregation as being that first day wherein God separating the light and darkness did create the World and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again from the dead This for the day then for the service of the day he describes it thus Vpon the day called Sunday all that abide within the Cities or about the Fields do meet together in some place where the Records of the Apostles and writing of the Prophets as much as is appointed are read unto us The Reader having done the Priest or Prelate ministreth a word of Exhortation that we do imitate those good things which are there repeated Then standing up together we send up our prayers unto the Lord which ended there is delivered unto every one of us Bread and Wine with Water After all this the Priest or Prelate offers up our Prayers and Thanksgiving as much as in him is to God and all the people say Amen those of the richer sort ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã every man as he would himself contributing something towards the relief of the poorer Brethren which after the Priest or Prelate was disposed amongst them A Form of service not much different from that in the Church of England save that we make the entrance unto our Liturgy with some preparatory prayers The rest consisting as we know of Psalms and several Readings of the Scriptures out of the Old Testament and the New the Epistles and the holy Gospel that done the Homily or Sermon followeth they offer twice next then Prayers and after that the Sacrament and then Prayers again the people being finally dismissed with a Benediction The second testimony of these times is that of Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who lived about 175 some nine years after Justin Martyr wrote his last Apology who in an Epistle unto Soter Pope of Rome doth relate it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Euseb l. 4. c. 22. c. To day saith he we kept holy the Lords day wherein we read the Epistle which you writ unto us which we do always read for our instruction as also the first Epistle writ by Clemens Where note that not
the Scriptures only were in those times read publickly in the Congregation but the Epistles and discourses of such Learned men as had been eminent for place and piety as in the after-times on defect of Sermons it was the custom of the Church to read the Homilies of the Fathers for their edification Conciliorum Tom. 2. Concerning which it was ordained in a Council at Vaux Anno 444. that if the Priest were sick or otherwise infirm so that he could not preach himself the Deacons should rehearse some Homily of the holy Fathers Si presbyter aliqua infirmitate prohibente per seipsum non potuerit praedicare sanctorum Patrum homiliae à Diaconibus recitentur so the Council ordered it The third and last Writer of this Century which gives us any thing of the Lords day Strom. l. 7. is Clemens Alexandrinus he flourished in the year 190. who though he fetch the pedegree of the Lords day even as far as Plato which before we noted yet he seems well enough contented that the Lords day should not be observed at all ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We ought saith he to honour and to reverence him whom we are verily persuaded to be the Word our Saviour and our Captain and in him the Father ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not in selected times as some do amongst us but always during our whole lives and on all occasions The Royal Prophet tells us that he preaised God seven times a day Whence he that understands himself stands not upon determinate places or appointed Temples ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã much less on any Festivals or days assigned but in all places honours God though he be alone And a little after ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. making our whole lives a continual Festival and knowing God to be every where we praise him sometimes in the fields and sometimes sailing on the Seas and finally in all the times of our life whatever So in another place of the self-same Book ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. He that doth lead his life according to the Ordinances of the Gospel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã then keeps the Lords day when he casts away every evil thought and doing things with knowledge and understanding doth glorifie the Lord in his Resurrection By which it seems that whatsoever estimation the Lords day had attained unto at Rome and Corinth yet either it was not so much esteemed at Alexandria or else this Clemens did not think so rightly of it as he should have done Now in the place of Justin Martyr before remembred there is one special circumstance to be considered in reference to our present search for I say nothing here of mingling water with the Wine in the holy Sacrament as not conducing to the business which we have in hand This is that in their Sundays service they did use to stand during the time they made their Prayers unto the Lord ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as his words there are Such was the custom of this time and a long time after that though they kneeled on other days yet on the Lords day they prayed always standing Yet not upon the Lords day only but every day from Easter unto Pentecost The reason is thus given by him who made the Responsions ascribed to Justin That so saith he we might take notice as of our fall by sin so of our restitution by the grace of Christ Resp ad qu. 105. Six days we pray upon our knees and that 's in token of our fall ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. But on the Lords day we bow not the knee in token of the Resurrection by which according to the Grace of Christ we are set free from sin and the powers of death The like saith he is to be said of the days of Pentecost which custom as he tells us and cites Irenaeus for his Author did take beginning even in the times of the Apostles Rather we may conceive that they used this Ceremony to testifie their faith in the Refurrection of our Lord and Saviour which many Hereticks of those times did publickly gain-say as before we noted and shall speak more thereof hereafter But whatsoever was the reason it continued long and was confirm'd particularly by the great Synod of Nice what time some People had begun to neglect this custom The Synod therefore thus determined ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. that forasmuch as some did use to kneel on the Lords day Can. 20. and the time of Pentecost that all things in all places might be done with an uniformity it pleased the holy Synod to decree it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that men should stand at those times when they made their prayers For Fathers which avow this custom consult Tertullian lib. de corona mil. S. Basil l. de Sp. S. c. 27. S. Hierom. adv Luciferian S. Austin Epist 118. S. Hilaries Praefat. in Psalm Ambros Serm. 62. and divers others What time this custom was laid by I can hardly say but sure I am it was not laid aside in a long time after not till the time of Pope Alexander the third who lived about the year 1160. Decret l. 2. tit 9. c. 2. For in a Decretal of his confirmatory of the former custom it was prohibited to kneel on the times remembred Nisi aliquis ex devotioned id velit facere in secreto unless some out of pure devotion did it secretly Which dispensation probably occasioned the neglect thereof in the times succeeding the rather since those Hereticks who formerly had denied the resurrection were now quite exterminated This circumstance we have considered the more at large as being the most especial difference whereby the Sundays service was distinguished from the week-days worship in these present times whereof we write And yet the difference was not such that it was proper to the Lords day only but if it were a badge of honour communicated unto more than forty other days Of which more anon But being it was an Ecclesiastical and occasional custom the Church which first ordained it let it fall again by the same Authority In the third Century the first we meet with is Tertullian who flourished in the very first beginnings of it by whom this day is called by three several names For first he calls it Dies solis Sunday as commonly we now call it and saith that they did dedicate the same unto mirth and gladness not to devotion altogether Diem solis laetitiae indulgemus Cap. 16. in his Apologetick The same name is used by Justin Martyr in the passages before remembred partly because being to write to an Heathen Magistrate it had not been so proper to call it by the name of the Lords day which name they knew not and partly that delivering the form and substance of their service done upon that day they might the better quit themselves from being worshippers of the Sun as the Gentiles thought For by their meetings on this
day for religious exercises in greater numbers than on others in Africk and the West especially and by their use of turning towards the East when they made their prayers the world was sometimes so persuaded Inde suspicio quod innotuerit nos ad Orientis regionem precari as he there informed us Whereby we may perceive of what great antiquity that custom is which is retained in the Church of England of bowing kneeling and adoring towards the Eastern parts The second name by which Tertullian calls this day is the eighth day simply Ethnicis semel annuus dies quisquis festus est tibi octavo quoque die The third is De Idolat c. 14. De corona mil. c. 3. Dies Dominicus or the Lords day which is frequent in him as Die Dominico jejunium nefas ducimus we hold it utterly unlawful to fast the Lords day of which more hereafter For their performances in their publick meetings he describes them thus Coimus in coetum congregationem c. We come together into the Assembly or Congregation to our Common prayers that being banded as it were in a troop or Army Apol. c. 39. we may besiege God with our Petitions To him such violence is exceeding grateful It followeth Cogimur ad sacrarum lit commemorationem c. We meet to hear the holy Scriptures rehearsed unto us that so according to the quality of the times we may either be premonished or corrected by them Questionless by these holy speeches our faith is nourished our hopes erected our assurance setled and notwithstanding by inculcating the same we are the better established in our obedience to Gods precepts A little after Praesident probati quique seniores c. Now at these g eneral meetings some Priests or Elders do preside which have attained unto that honour not by money but by the good report that they have gotten in the Church And if there be a Poor-mans Box every one cast in somewhat menstrua die at least once a month according as they would and as they were able Thus he describes the form of their publick meetings but that such meetings were then used amongst them on the Sunday only that he doth not say Nor can we learn by him or by Justin Martyr who describes them also either how long those meetings lasted or whether they assembled more than once a day or what they did after the meetings were dissolved But sure it is that their Assemblies held no longer than our Morning service that they met only before noon for Justin saith that when they met they used to receive the Sacrament and that the service being done every man went again to his daily labours Of all these I shall speak hereafter Only I note it out of Beza that hitherto the People used to forbear their labours In Cant. Sol. hom 30. but while they were assembled in the Congregation there being no such duty enjoyned amongst them neither in the times of the Apostles nor after many years nor till the Emperours had embraced the Gospel and therewith published their Edicts to enforce men to it But take his words at large for the more assurance Vt autem Christiani eo die à suis quotidianis laboribus abstinerent praeter id temporis quod in coetu ponebatur id neque illis Apostolicis temporibus mandatum neque prius fuit observatum quam id à Christianis Imperatoribus ne quis à rerum sacrarum meditatione abstraheretur quidem non it a praecise observatum Which makes it manifest that the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath day in these three first Ages But for Tertullian where I left note that I rendred seniores by Priests or Elders because I think his meaning was to render the Greek Presbyter by the Latine senior For that he should there mean Lay-elders as some men would have it is a thing impossible considering that he tells us in another place that they received the Sacrament at the hands of those that did preside in the Assemblies De coron milit c. 3. Eucharistiae Sacramentum non de aliorum manu quam de Praesidentium sumimus and therefore sure they must be Priests that so presided Proceed we next to Origen who flourished at the same time also He being an Auditor of Clemens in the Schools of Alexandria became of his opinions too in many things and amongst others in dislike of those selected Festivals which by the Church were set apart for Gods publick service In Gen. hom 10. Cont. Cels l. 8. Dicite mihi vos qui festis tantum diebus ad Eccles convenitis coeteri dies non sunt festi non sunt dies Domini Judaeorum est dies certos raros observare solennes c. Christiani omni die carnes agni comedunt i. e. carnes verbi Dei quotidie sumunt Tell me saith he you that frequent the Church on the feast days only are not all days Festival are not all the Lords It appertains unto the Jews to observe days and Festivals The Christians every day eat the flesh of the Lamb Cent. 2. c. 6. i. e. they ever day do hear the word of God And in another place ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. He truly keeps the Festivals that performs his duty praying continually and offering every day the unbloody sacrifice in his Prayers to God Which whosoever doth and is upright in thought word and deed adhereing always unto God our natural Lord ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Every day is to him a Lords day It seems too that he had his desire in part it being noted by the Magdeburgians that every day there were Assemblies in Alexandria where he lived for hearing of the Word of God Et de collectis quotidie celebratis in quibus praedicatum sit verbum Dei Hom. 9. in Isa significare videtur as they note it from him Indeed the Proem to his several Homilies seem to intimate that if they met not every day to hear his Lectures they met very often But being a Learned man and one that had a good conceit of his own abilities he grew offended that there was not as great resort of People every day to hear him as upon the Festivals Of Sunday thee is little doubt but that it was observed amongst them and so was Saturday also as we shall see hereafter out of Athanasius Hist l. 5. c. 21. Of Wednesday and Friday it is positively said by Socrates that on them both the Scriptures were read openly and afterwards expounded by the Doctors of the Church and all things done appointed by the publick Liturgy save that they did not use to receive the Sacrament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And this saith he was the old use in Alexandria which he confirms by the practice of Origen who was accustomed as he tells us to preach upon these days to the Congregation Tertullian too takes special notice of these two days whereof consult him in
his Book adv Psychicos About the middle of this Century did Saint Cyprian live another African and he hath left us somewhat although not much which concerns this business Aurelius one of excellent parts Lib. 2. Epist 5. was made a Reader in the Church I think of Carthage which being very welcome news to the common People Saint Cyprian makes it known unto them and withal lets them understand that Sunday was the day appointed for him to begin his Ministery Et quoniam semper gaudium properat nec mora ferre potest laetitia dominico legit So that as Sunday was a day which they used to meet on so reading of the Scripture was a special part of the Sundays exercise Not as an exercise to spend the time when one doth wait for anothers coming till the Assembly be compleat and that without or choice or stint appointed by determinate order as is now used both in the French and Belgick Churches for what need such an eminent man as Aurelius was be taken out with so much expectation to exercise the Clerks or the Sextons duty But it was used amongst them then as a chief portion of the service which they did to God in hearkening reverently unto his voice It being so ordered in the Church Preface to the Common Prayer that the whole Bible or the greatest part thereof should be read over once a year And this that so the Ministers of the Congregation by often reading and meditation of Gods Word be stirred up to godliness themselves and be the more able to exhort others by wholesome doctrine and to confute them that were Adversaries to the truth as that the People by daily hearing of the Scriptures should profit more and more in the knowledge of God and be the more inflamed with the love of his true Religion Now for the duties of the people on this day in the Congregation as they used formerly to hear the Word and receive the Sacraments Dâeru l. 5. c. 7. and to pour forth their souls to God in affectionate prayers So much about these times viz. in Ann. 237. it had been appointed by Pope Fabian that every man and woman should on the Lords day bring a quantity of bread and wine first to be offered on the Altar and then distributed in the Sacrament A thing that had been done before as of common course but now exacted as a duty for the neglect whereof Saint Cyprian chides with a rich Widdow of his time who neither brought her offering nor otherwise gave any thing to the Poor-mans Box and therefore did not keep the Lords day as she should have done De pietat Eleemos Locuples dives dominicum celebrare te credis quae Corbonam omnino non respicis quae in Dominicum here he means the Church sine sacrificio venis quae partem de sacrificio quod pauper obtulit sumis In after times this custom went away by little and little instead of which it was appointed by the Church and retained in ours that Bread and Wine for the Communion shall be provided by the Churchwardens at the charge of the Parish I should now leave Saint Cyprian here V. l. 3. Epi. 8. but that I am to tell you first that he conceives the Lords day to have been prefigured in the eighth day destinate to Circumcision Which being but a private opinion of his own I rather shall refer the Reader unto the place than repeat the words And this is all this Age affords me in the present search For other Holy-days instituted by the Church for Gods publick service in those three Centuries precedent besides the Lords day or the Sunday which came every week Origen names the Good Friday as we call it now the Parasceve as he calls it there Cont. Cels l. 8. the Feast of Easter and of Pentecost Of Easter we have spoken already For Pentecost or Whitsontide as it began with the Apostles so it continues till this present but not in that solemnity which before it had For antiently not that day only which we call Whitsunday or Pentecost ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but all the fifty days from Easter forwards were accounted holy and solemnized with no less observation than the Sundays were no kneeling on the one nor upon the other no fasting on the one nor upon the other Of which days that of the Ascension or Holy-Thursday being one became in little time to be more highly reckoned of than all the rest as we shall prove hereafter out of S. Austin But for these 50 days aforesaid Tertullian tells us of them thus De Coron milit ca. 3. Die Dominico jejunium nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare Eadem immunitate à die Paschae in Pentecosten gaudemus which makes both alike Which words if any think too short to reach the point he tells us in another place that all the Festivals of the Gentiles contained not so many days as did that one Excerpe singulas solennitates nationum in ordinem texe De Ido l. c. 14. Pentecosten implere non poterunt The like he hath also in his Book adv Psychicos The like Saint Hierom. ad Lucinum the like Saint Ambrose or Maximus Taurinens which of the two soever it was that made those Sermons Serm. 60.61 In which last it is said expresly of those fifty days that every one of them was instar Dominicae and qualis est Dominica in all respects nothing inferior to the Lords day And in the Comment on Saint Luke which questionless was writ by Ambrose cap. 17. l. 8. it is said expresly Et sunt omnes dies tanquam Dominica That every day of all the fifty was to be reckoned of no otherwise in that regard especially than the Sunday was Some footsteps of this custom yet remain amongst us in that we fast not either on S. Marks Eve or on the Eve of Philip and Jacob happening within the time The fast of the Rogation week was after instituted on a particular and extraordinary occasion Now as these Festivals of Easter and of Whitsontide were instituted in the first Age or Century and with them those two days attendant which we still retain whereof see Austin de Civit. Dei li. 22. ca. 8. Nyssen in his first Hom. de Paschate where Easter is expresly called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or the three-days-feast So was the Feast of Christs Nativity ordained or instituted in the second that of his Incarnation in the third For this we have an Homily of Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus who lived in An. 230. entituled De annunciatione B. Virginis as we call it now But being it is questionable among the Learned whether that Homily be his or not there is an Homily of Athanasius on the self same argument he lived in the beginning of the following Century whereof there is no question to be made at all That of the Lords Nativity began if not before in the
ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in his own Language Catech. orat 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the morrow after the Lords day Cat. 14. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Catech. Mystag 2. The like is very frequent in Saint Ambrose also Hesterno die de fonte disputavimus De Sacram lib. 3. cap. 1. Hesternus noster sermo ad sancti altaris sacramentum deductus est lib. 5. cap. 1. and in other places The like in Chrysostom as in many other places too many to be pointed at in this place and time so in his 18. Hom. on the 3d of Gen. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. But this perhaps was only in respect of Lectures or Expositions of the Scriptures such as were often used in the greater Cities where there was much people and but little business for I conceive not that they met every day in these times to receive the Sacraments Epl. 289. Of Wednesday and of Friday it is plain they did not to say any thing of the Saturday till the next Section Saint Basil names them all together ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. It is saith he a profitable and pious thing every day to communicate and to participate of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ our Saviour he having told us in plain terms that Whosoever eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath eternal life We notwithstanding do communicate but four times weekly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã viz. on the Lords day the Wednesday the Friday and the Saturday unless on any other days the memory of some Martyr be perhaps observed Expos fid Cath. 21.22 Epiphanius goeth a little farther andn he deriveth the Wednesdays and the Fridays Service even from the Apostles ranking them in the same Antiquity and grounding them upon the same Authority that he doth the Sunday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Only it seems the difference was that whereas formerly it had been the custom not to administer the Sacrament on these two days being both of them fasting-days and so accounted long before until towards Evening It had been changed of late and they did celebrate in the Mornings ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as on the Lords day was accustomed Whether the meeting on these days were of such Antiquity as Epiphanius saith they were I will not meddle Certain it is that they were very antient in the Church of God as may appear by that of Origen and Tertullian before remembred So that if we consider either the preaching of the Word the ministration of the Sacraments or the publick Prayers the Sunday in the Eastern Churches had no great prerogative above other days especially above the Wednesday and Friday save that the meetings were more solemn and the concourse of people greater than at other times as it is most likely The footsteps of this ancient custom are yet to be observed in this Church of England by which it is appointed that on Wednesdays and Fridays weekly Can. 15. though they be not holy days the Minister at the accustomed hours of Service shall resort to Church and say the Letany prescribed in the Book of Common-prayer As for the Saturday that retained its wonted credit in the Eastern Church little inferiour to the Lords day if not plainly equal not as a Sabbath think not so but as a day designed unto sacred meetings The Constitutions of the Apostles said to be writ by Clemens one of Saint Peters first successours in the Church of Rome appoint both days to be observed as solemn Festivals both of them to be days of rest that so the servant might have time to repair unto the Church Lib. 8. c. 33. for this Edification ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So the Constitution Not that they should devote them wholly unto rest from labour but only those set times of both which were appointed for the meetings of the Congregation Yet this had an exception too the Saturday before Easter day Lib. 1. cap. 19. whereupon Christ rested in the Grave being exempt from these Assemblies and destinated only unto grief and fasting And though these Constitutions in all likelihood were not writ by Clemens there being many things therein which could not be in use of a long time after yet ancient sure they were as being mentioned in Epiphanius De Scrip. Ecc. in Clemente and as the Cardinal confesseth à Graecis veteribus magni factos much made of by the ancient Grecians though not of such authority in the Church of Rome How their authority in this point is countenanced by Ignatius we have seen already and we shall see the same more fully throughout all this Age. Can. 16. And first beginning with the Synod held in Laodicea a Town of Phrygia Anno 314. there passed a Canon ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã touching the reading of the Gospels with the other Scriptures upon the Saturday or Sabbath Canon 49. that in the time of Lent there should be no oblation made ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but on the Saturday and the Lords day only neither that any Festival should be then observed in memory of any Martyrs Canon 51. but that their names only should be commemorated ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã upon the Lords day and the Sabbaths Nor was this only the particular will of those two and thirty Prelates that there assembled it was the practice too of the Alexandrians S. Athanasius Patriarch there affirms that they assembled on the Sabbath days not that they were infected any whit with Judaism which was far from them Homil de Semente but that they came together on the Sabbath day to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Father hath it So for the Church of Millain which as before I said in some certain things followed the Churches of the East it seems the Saturday was held in a fair esteem and joyned together with the Sunday Crastino die Sabbato De Sacrament Lib. 4. cap. 6. dominice de orationis ordine dicemus as S. Ambrose hath it And probably his often mention of hesternus dies remembred in the former Section may have relation to the joynt observance of these two days and so may that which is reported then out of S. Chrysostom and S. Cyril Eastern Doctors both Hist Eccles Lib. 6. cap. 8. Sure I am Socrates counts both days for weekly Festivals ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that on them both the Congregation used to be assembled and the whole Liturgy performed Which plainly shews that in the practice of those Churches they were both regarded both alike observed Gregory Nyssen speaks more home and unto the purpose Some of the People had neglected to come unto the Church upon the Saturday and on the Sunday he thus chides and rebukes them for it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. With what face saith the Father wilt thou look upon the lords day De Castigatione which hast dishonoured the
the Law in the Congregation that was not taken up in more than a 1000. years after the Law was given and being taken up came in by Ecclesiastical Ordinance only no Divine Authority But in the Institution of the Lords day that which was principally aimed at was the performance of religious and Christian duties hearing the Word receiving of the Sacraments praising the Lord for all his mercies and praying to him joyntly with the Congregation for the continuance of the same rest and cessation from the works of labour came not in till afterwards and then but as an accessory to the former duties and that not setled and established in 1000 years as before was said when all the proper and peculiar duties of the day had been at their perfection a long time before So that if we regard either Institution or the Authority by which they were so instituted the end and purpose at the which they principally aimed or the proceedings in the setling and confirming of them the difference will be found so great that of the Lords day no man can affirm in sense and reason that it is a Sabbath or so to be observed as the Sabbath was CHAP. IV. The great improvement of the Lords day in the fifth and sixth Ages make it not a Sabbath 1. In what estate the Lords day stood in S. Austius time 2. Stage-plays and publick shews prohibited on the Lords day and the other holy-days by Imperial Edicts 3. The base and beastly nature of the Stage-plays at those times in use 4. The barbarous and bloody quality of the Spectacula or shews at this time prohibited 5. Neither all civil business nor all kind of pleasure restrained on the Lords day by the Emperour Leo as some give it out The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath 6. The French and Spaniards in the sixth Age begin to Judaize about the Lords day and of restraint of Husbandry on that day in that Age first thought of 7. The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath 8. Of publick honours done in these Ages to the Lords day by Prince and Prelate 9. No Evening Service on the Lords day till these present Ages 10. Of publick Orders now established for the better regulating of the Lords day-meetings 11. The Lords day not more reckoned of than the greater Festivals and of the other holy-days in these Ages instituted 12. All business and recreation not by Law prohibited are in themselves as lawful on the Lords day as on any other WE are now come unto the times wherein the Church began to settle having with much adoe got the better hand of Gentilism and mastered those stiff Heresies of the Arians Macedonians and such others as descended from them Unto those times wherein the troubles which before distracted her peace and quiet being well appeased all things began to grow together in a perfect harmony what time the faithful being united better than before in points of judgment became more uniform in matters of devotion and in that uniformity did agree together to give the Lords day all the honour of an holy Festival Yet was not this done all at once but by degrees the fifth and sixth Centuries being well-nigh spent before it came unto that height which hath since continued The Emperours and the Prelates in these times had the same affections both earnest to advance this day above all others and to the Edicts of the one and Ecclesiastical constitutions of the other it stands indebted for many of those priviledges and exemptions which it still enjoyeth But by degrees as now I said and not all at once For in S. Austin's time who lived in the beginning of this fifth Century it was no otherwise with the Lords day than as it was before in the former Age accounted one of those set days and probably the principal which was designed and set apart for Gods publick worship Amongst the writings of that Father which are his unquestionably we find not much that doth conduce to our present business but what we find we shall communicate with as much brevity as we can Epi. 86. Decivitat l. 22. c. 8. The Sundays fast he doth abominate as a publick scandal Quis deum non offendit si velit cum scandalo totius ecclesiae die dominico jejunare The exercise of the day he describes in brief in this form that followeth Venit Pascha atque ipso die dominico mane frequens populus praesens erat Facto silentio divinarum Scripturarum lecta sunt solennia c. Easter was come and on the Lords day in the morning the people had assembled themselves together All being silent and attent those lessons out of holy Scripture which were appointed for the time were read unto them when we were come unto that part of the publick service which was allotted for the Sermon I spake unto them what was proper for the present Festival and most agreeable to the time Service being done I took the man along to dinner a man he means that had recovered very strangely in the Church that morning who told us all the story of those sad Calamities which had befallen him This is not much but in this little there are two things worth our observation First that the Sermon in those times was not accounted either the only or the principal part of Gods publick service but only had a place in the common Liturgy which place was probably the same which it still retains post Scripturarum solennia after the reading of the Gospel Next that it was not thought unlawful in this Fathers time to talk of secular and humane affairs upon this day as some now imagine or to call friends or strangers to our Table as it is supposed S. Austin being one of so strict a life that he would rather have put off the invitation and the story both to another day had he so conceived it Nor doth the Father speak of Sunday as if it were the only Festival that was to be observed of a Christian man Cont. Adimant c. 16. Other Festivities there were which he tell us of First generally Nos quoque dominicum diem Pascha soleuniter celebramus quaslibet alias Christianas dierum festivitates The Lords day Easter and all other Christian Festivals were alike to him Epi. 118. And he enumerates some particulars too the Resurrection Passion and Ascension of our Lord and Saviour together with the coming of the Holy Ghost which constantly were celebrated anniversaria solennitate Not that there were no other Festivals then observed in the Christian Church but that those four were reckoned to be Apostolical and had been generally received in all Ages past As for the Sacrament it was not tyed to any day but was administred indifferently upon all alike except it were in some few places where it had been restrained to this day alone
spent or wholly taken up in pleasures or otherwise prophaned with vexatious suits Particularly for the Lords day that it be exempt from Executions Citations entring into Bonds Apparances Pleadings and such like that Cryers be not heard upon it and such as go to Law lay aside their Actions taking truce a while to see if they can otherwise compose their differences For so it passeth in the Edict Dominicum itaque ita semper honorabilem decernimus venerandum ut à cunctis executionibus excusetur Nulla quenquam urgeat admonitio nulla fidei-jussionis flagitetur exactio taceat apparitio advocatio delitescat sit idem dies à cognitionibus alienus praeconis horrida vox sileat respirent à controversiis litigantis habeant foederis intervallum c. I have the rather here laid down the Law it self that we may see how punctual the good Emperour was in silencing those troublesome suits and all preparatives or appurtenances thereunto that so men might with quieter minds repair unto the place of Gods publick service yet was not the Edict so strict that neither any kind of Pleasures were allowed upon that day as may be thought by the beginning of the Law nor any kind of secular and civil business to be done upon it The Emperour Constantine allowed of manumission and so did Theodosius too Cod. l. 2. de fer lex 2. Die dominico emancipare manumittere licet reliquae causae vel lites quiescant so the latter Emperour Nor do we find but that this Emperour Leo well allowed thereof sure we are that he well allowed of other civil businesses when he appointed in this very Edict that such as went to Law might meet together on this day to compose their differences to shew their evidences and compare their writings And sure I am that he prohibited not all kind of pleasures but only such as were of an obscene and unworthy nature For so it followeth in the Law First in relation unto businesses ad sese simul veniant adversarij non timentes pacta conserant transactiones loquantur Next in relation unto pleasures Nec tameÌn hujus religiosae dâei âcia relaxantes obscenis quemquam patimur voluptatibus detineri where note not simply voluptates but obseenae voluptates not pleasures but obscene and filthy pleasures are by him prohibited such as the Scena theatralis therein after mentioned not civil business of all sorts but brangling and litigious businesses are by him forbidden as the Law makes evident Collectar And thus must Theodorus Lector be interpreted who tells us of this Emperour Leo how he ordained ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that the Lords day should be kept holy by all sorts of People that it should be a non-lee day a day of rest and ease unto them which is no otherwise to be understood than as the Law it self intended however the words of Theodorus seem to be more general Nor was it long before this Edict or the matter of it had found good entertainment in the Christian world the rather since those Churches which lay further off and were not under the command of the Roman Emperour taking perhaps their hint from hence had made a Canon to that purpose For in a Council held in Aragon Anno 516. being some 47 years after Leos Edict it was decreed that neither Bishop Priest or any other of the Clergy the Clergy at that time were possessed of some seats of judicature should pronounce sentence in any cause which should that day be brought before them Nullus Episcoporum aut presbyterorum vel Clericorum Can. 4. propositum cujuscunque causae negotium die dominico audeat judicare This was in Anno 516. as before I said the second year of Amalaricus King of the Gothes in Spain Nor stayed they here The People of this sixth Age wherein now we are began to Judaize a little in the imposing of so strict a rest upon this day especially in the Western Churches which naturally are more inclined to Superstition than the Eastern Nations Wherein they had so far proceeded that it was held at last unlawful to travel on the Lords day with Wains or Horses to dress Meat or make clean the House or meddle with any manner of Domestick businesses The third Council held at Orleans Anno 540. doth inform us so and plainly thereupon determined Can. 27. that since these prohibitions abovesaid Ad Judaicam magis quam ad Christianam observantiam pertinere probantur did savour far more of the Jew than of the Christian Die dominico quod ante licuit licere that therefore whatsoever had formerly been lawful on that day should be lawful still Yet so that it was thought convenient that men should rest that day from Husbandry and the Vintage from Sowing Reaping Hedging and such servile works quo facilius ad ecclesiam venientes orationis gratia vacent that so they might have better leisure to go unto the Church and there say their Prayers This was the first restraint which hitherto we have observed whereby the Husband-man was restrained from the Plough and Vintage or any work that did concern him And this was yielded as it seems to give them some content at least which aimed at greater and more slavish prohibitions than those here allowed of and would not otherwise be satisfied than by grant of this Nay so far had this superstition or superstitious conceit about this day prevailed amongst the Gothes in Spain a sad and melancholick People mingled and married with the Jews who then therein dwelt that in their dotage on this day they went before the Jews their Neighbours the Sabbath not so rigorously observed by one as was the Lords day by the other The Romans in this Age had utterly defeated the Vandals and their power in Africk becoming so bad Neighbours to the Gothes themselves To stop them in those prosperous courses Theude the Gothish King Anno 543. makes over into Africk with a compleat Army The Armies near together and occasion fair the Romans on a Sunday set upon them and put them all unto the sword the Gothes as formerly the Jews never so much as laying hand upon their Weapons or doing any thing at all in their own defence only in reverence to the day The general History of Spain so relates the story although more at large A superstition of so sudden and so quick a growth that whereas till this present Age we cannot find that any manner of Husbandry or Country labours were forbidden as upon this day it was now thought unlawful on the same to take a sword in hand for ones own defence Better such Doctrines had been crushed and such Teachers silenced in the first beginnings than that their Jewish speculations should in fine produce such sad and miserable effects Nor was Spain only thus infected where the Jews now lived the French we see began to be so inclined Not only in prohibiting things lawful which before we
Festivals whatsoever they should abstain from every kind of bodily labour save what belong'd to dressing meat But that which needs must most afflict them is that the Council doth profess this abstinence from bodily labour which is there decreed to be no Ordinance of the Lords that he exacteth no such duty from us and that it is an Ecclesiastical exhortation only and no more but so And if no more but so it were too great an undertaking to bring all Nations of the World to yield unto the prescript of a private and particular Canon made only for a private and particular cause and if no more but so it concludes no Sabbath Yet notwithstanding these restraints from work and labour the Church did never so resolve it that any work was in it self unlawful on the Lords day though to advance Gods publick service it was thought good that men should be restrained from some kind of work that so they might the better attend their prayers and follow their devotions It 's true these Centuries the fifth and sixth were fully bent to give the Lords day all fit honour not only in prohibiting unlawful pleasures but in commanding a forbearance of some lawful business such as they found to yield most hinderance to religious duties Yea and some works of piety they affixt unto it for its greater honour The Prisoners in the common Goals had formerly been kept in too strictly It was commanded by Honorius and Theodosius at that time Emperours Anno 412. that they should be permitted omnibus diebus dominicus every Lords day to walk abroad with a guard upon them as well to crave the charity of well disposed persons as to repair unto the Bathes for the refreshing of their bodies Nor did he only so command it but set a mulct of 20 pound in gold on all such publick ministers as should disobey the Bishops of the Church being trusted to see it done Where note that going to the Bathes on the Lords day was not thought unlawful though it required no question corporal labours for had it been so thought as some thought it afterwards the Prelates of the Church would not have taken it upon them to see the Emperours will fulfilled and the Law obeyed A second honour affixt in these Ages to the Lords day is that it was conceived the most proper day for giving holy Orders in the Church of God and a Law made by Leo then Pope of Rome and generally since taken up in the Western Church that they should be conferred upon no day else There had been some regard of Sunday in the times before and so much Leo doth acknowledge Quod ergo à patribus nostris propensiore cura novimus servatum esse à vobis quoque volumus custodiri ut non passim diebus omnibus sacerdotalis ordinatio celebretur Ept. Decret 81 But that which was before a voluntary act is by him made necessary and a Law given to all the Churches under his obedience Vt his qui consecrandi sunt nunquam benedictiones nisi in die resurrectionis dominicae tribuantur that Ordinations should be celebrated on the Lords day only And certainly he gives good reason why it should be so except in extraordinary and emergent cases wherein the Law admits of a dispensation For on that day saith he The holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles and thereby gave us as it were this celestial rule that on that day alone we should confer spiritual orders in quo collata sunt omnia dona gratiarum in which the Lord conferred upon his Church all spiritual graces Nay that this business might be done with the more solemnity and preparation it was appointed that those men who were to be invested with holy Orders should continue fasting from the Eve before that spending all that time in prayer and humbling of themselves before the Lord they might be better fitted to receive his Graces For much about these times the service of the Lords day was enlarged and multiplyed the Evenings of the day being honoured with religious meetings as the Mornings formerly Yea and the Eves before were reckoned as a part or parcel of the Lords day following Cui à vespere sabbati initium constat ascribi as the same Decretal informs us The 251. Sermon de tempore ascribed unto St. Austin doth affirm as much but we are not sure that it is his Note that this Leo entred on the Chair of Rome Anno 440. of our Saviours birth and did continue in the same full 20 years within which space of time he set out this decretal but in what year particularly that I cannot find I say that now the Evenings of the Lords day began to have the honour of religious Meetings for ab initio non fuit sic it was not so from the beginning Nor hd it been so now but that almost all sorts of people were restrained from works as well by the Imperial Edicts as by the constitutions of particular Churches by means whereof the afternoon was left at large to be disposed of for the best increase of Christian Piety Nor probably had the Church conceived it necessary had not the admiration which was then generally had of the Monastick kind of life facilitated the way unto it For whereas they had bound themselves to set hours of prayer Epitaphium Panlae matr Mane hora tertia sexta nona vespere noctis medio at three of the clock in the Morning at six at nine and after in the Evening and at midnight as St. Hierom tells us the people generally became much affected with their strict Devotions and seemed not unwilling to conform unto them as far at least as might consist with their Vocations upon this willingness of the people the service of the Church became more frequent than before and was performed thrice every day in the greater Churches where there were many Priests and Deacons to attend the same namely at six and nine before Noon and at some time appointed in the Evening for the afternoon accordingly as now we use it in our Cathedral and Collegiate Churches But in inferiour Towns and petty Villages where possibly the people could not every day attend so often it was conceived sufficient that they should have the Morning and the Evening prayer sung or said unto them that such as would might come to Church for their devotions and so it is by the appointment of the Rubrick in our Common Prayer book Only the Sundays and the Holy days were to be honoured with two several meetings in the Morning the one at six of the clock which simply was the morning service the other at nine for the administration of the holy Sacrament and Preaching of the Word to the Congregation This did occasion the distinction of the first and second Service as we call them still though now by reason of the peoples sloth and backwardness in coming to the Church of God they are in most places
had trespassed therein against the Sabbath he gathered the small chips together put them upon his hand and set fire unto them Vt in se ulcisceretur Matropol l. 4. t. 8. quod contra divinum praeceptum incautus admisisset that so saith Crantzius he might avenge that on himself which unawares he had committed against Gods Commandment Crantzius it seems did well enough approve the solly for in the entrance on this story he reckoneth this inter alia virtutum suarum praeconia amongst the monuments of his piety and sets it up as an especial instance of that Princes sanctity Lastly whereas the modern Jews are of opinion that all the while their Sabbath lasts the souls in Hell have liberty to range abroad and are released of all their torments Pâi ad Domivicum c. 5. So lest in any superstitious fancy they should have preheminence it was delivered of the souls in Purgatory by Petrus Damiani who lived in Anno 1056. Dominico die refrigerium poenarum habuisse that every Lords day they were manumitted from their pains and fluttered up and down the lake Avernus in the shape of Birds Indeed the marvel is the less that these and such like Jewish fancies should in those times begin to shew themselves in the Christian Church considering that now some had begun to think that the Lords day was founded on the fourth Commandment and all observances of the same grounded upon the Law of God As long as it was taken only for an Ecclesiastical Institution and had no other ground upon which to stand than the Authority of the Church we find not any of these rigours annexed unto it But being once conceived to have its warrant from the Scripture the Scripture presently was ransacked and whatsoever did concern the old Jewish Sabbath was applied thereto It had been ordered formerly that men should be restrained on the Lords day from some kind of labours that so they might assemble in the greater number the Princes and the Prelates both conceiving it convenient that it should be so But in these Ages there were Texts produced to make it necessary Thus Clotaire King of France grounded his Edict of restraint from servile labours on this day from the holy Scripture quia hoc lex prohibet sacra Scriptura in omnibus contradicit because the Law forbids it and the holy Scripture contradicts it And Charles the Great builds also on the self same ground Statuimus secundum quod in lege dominus praecepit c. We do ordain according as the Lord commands us that on the Lords day none presume to do any servile business Thus finally the Emperour Leo Philosophus in a constitution to that purpose of which more hereafter declares that he did so determine secundum quod Sp. Sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit according to the dictate of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles by him tutored So also when the Fathers of the Church had thought it requisite that men should cease from labour on the Saturday in the afternoon that they might be the better fitted for their devotions the next day some would not rest till they had found a Scripture for it Observemus diem dominicum fratres sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbato c. Let us observe the Lords day as it is commanded from even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath The 251. Sermon inscribed de tempore hath resolved it so And lastly that we go no further the superstitious act of the good King Olaus burning his hand as formerly was related was then conceived to be a very just revenge upon himself because he had offended although unaware contra divinum praeceptum against Gods Commandment Nor were these rigorous fancies left to the naked world but they had miracles to confirm them It is reported by Vincentius and Antoninus that Anstregisilus one that had probably preached such doctrine restored a Miller by his power whose hand had cleaved unto his Hatchet as he was mending of his Mill on the Lords day for now you must take notice that in the times in which they lived grinding had been prohibited on the Lords day by the Canon Laws As also how Sulpitius had caused a poor mans hand to wither only for cleaving wood on the Lords day no great crime assuredly save that some parallel must be found for him that gathered sticks on the former Sabbath and after on his special goodness made him whole again Of these the first was made Arch-Bishop of Burges Anno. 627. Sulpitius being Successor unto him in his See and as it seems too in his power of working miracles Such miracles as these they who list to credit shall find another of them in Gregorius Turonensis Miracul l. 1. c. 6. And some we shall hereafter meet with when we come to England forged purposely as no doubt these were to countenance some new device about the keeping of this day there being no new Gospel Preached but must have miracles to attend it for the greater state But howsoever it come to pass that those four Princes especially Leo who was himself a Scholar and Charles the Great who had as learned men about him as the times then bred were thus persuaded of this day that all restraints from work and labour on the same were to be found expressly in the Word of God yet was the Church and the most Learned men therein of another mind Nor is it utterly impossible but that those Princes might make use of some pretence or ground of Scripture the better to incline the People to yield obedience unto those restraints which were laid upon them First for the Church and men of special eminence in the same for place and learning there is no question to be made but they were otherwise persuaded Isidore Arch-Bishop of Sevil who goes highest De Eccles Offic. l. 1.29 makes it an Apostolical Sanction only on divine commandment a day designed by the Apostles for religious exercises in honour of our Saviours Resurrection on that day performed Diem dominicum Apostolì ideo religiosa solennitate sanxerunt quia in eo redemptor noster à mortuis resurrexit And adds that it was therefore called the Lords day to this end and purpose that resting in the same from all earthly acts and the temptations of the world we might intend Gods holy worship giving this day due honor for the hope of the resurrection which we have therein The same verbatim is repeated by Beda lib. de Offic. and by Rabanus Maurus lib. de institut Cleric l. 2. c. 24. and finally by Alcuinus de divin Offic. cap. 24. which plainly shews that all those took it only from an Apostolical usage an observation that grew up by custom rather than upon commandment Sure I am that Alcuinus one of principal credit with Charles the Great who lived about the end of the eighth Century as did this Isidore in the beginning of the seventh saith
Hom. 131. Gualter more generally that the Christians first assembled on the Sabbath day as being then most famous and so most in use but when the Churches were augmented preximus à sabbato dies rebus sacris destinatus the next day after the Sabbath was designed to those holy uses If not before then certainly not so commanded by our Saviour Christ and if designed only then not enjoyned by the Apostles Apoc. 1.10 Yea Beza though herein he differ from his Master Calvin and makes the Lords day meetings to be Apostolicae verae divinae traditionis to be indeed of Apostolical and divine Tradition yet being a Tradition only although Apostolical it is no Commandment And more than that he tells us in another place that from St. Pauls preaching at Troas and from the Text. In Act. 20. 1 Corinth 16.2 non inepte colligi it may be gathered not unfitly that then the Christians were accustomed to meet that day the ceremony of the Jewish Sabbath beginning by degrees to vanish But sure the custom of the people makes no divine Traditions and such conclusions as not unfitly may be gathered from the Text are not Text it self Others there be who attribute the changing of the day to the Apostles not to their precept but their practice So Mercer Apostoli in Dominicum converterunt In Gen. the Apostles changed the Sabbath to the Lords day in Gen. 2. Paraeus attributes the same Apostolicae Ecclesiae unto the Apostolical Church or Church in the Apostles time quomodo autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris liberis expressum non habemus but how by what authority such a change was made is not delivered in the Scripture In Thesib p. 733. And John Cuchlinus though he call it consuetudinem Apostolicam an Apostolical custom yet he is peremptory that the Apostles gave no such Commandment Apostolos praeceptum reliquisse constanter negamus So Simler calls it only consuetudinem tempore Apostolorum receptam a custom taken up in the Apostles time And so Hospinian De sestis Chr. p. 24. although saith he it be apparent that the Lords day was celebrated in the place of the Jewish Sabbath even in the times of the Apostles non invenitur tamen vel Apostolos vel alios lege aliqua praecepto observationem ejus instituisse yet find we not that either they or any other did institute the keeping of the same by any law or precept but left it free In 4. praecept Thus Zanchius nullibi legimus Apostolos c. We do not read saith he that the Apostles commanded any to observe this day We only read what they and others did upon it liberum ergo reliquerunt which is an argument that they left it to the Churches power To those add Vrsin in his Exposition of the fourth Commandment liberum Ecclesiae reliquit alios dies eligere In Catech. Palat. and that the Church made choice of this in honour of our Saviours Resurrection Aretius in his Common-places Christiani in Dominicum transtulerunt Gomarus and Ryvet in the Tracts before remembred Both which have also there determined that in the chusing of this day the Church did exercise as well her Wisdom as her Freedom her freedom being not obliged unto any day by the Law of God her wisdom ne majori mutatione Judaeos offenderet that by so small an alteration she might the less offend the Jews who were then considerable As for the Lutheran Divines it is affirmed by Doctor bound that for the most part they ascribe too much unto the liberty of the Church in appointing days for the assembly of the people which is plain confession But for particulars Brentius as Doctor Prideaux tells us calls it civilem institutionem a civil institution and no commandment of the Gospel which is no more indeed than what is elsewhere said by Calvin when he accounts no otherwise thereof than ut remedium retinendo ordini necessarium as a fit way to retain order in the Church And sure I am Chemnitius tells us that the Apostles did not impose the keeping of this day as necessary upon the consciences of Gods people by any Law or Precept whatsoever sed libera fuit observatio ordinis gratia but that for orders sake it had been voluntarily used amongst them of their own accord Thus have we proved that by the Doctrine of the Protestants of what side soever and those of greatest credit in the several Churches eighteen by name and all the Lutherans in general of the same opinion that the Lords day is of no other institution than the authority of the Church Which proved the last of the three Theses that still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other will follow of it self on the former grounds the Protestant Doctors before remembred in saying that the Church did institute the Lords day as we see they do confessing tacitely that still the Church hath power to change it Nor do they tacitely confess it as if they were affraid to speak it out but some of them in plain terms affirm it as a certain Truth Zuinglius the first Reformer of the Switzers hath resolved it so in his Discourse against one Valentine Gentilis a new Arian Heretick Audi mi Valentine quibus modis rationibus sabbatum ceremoniale reddatur Tom. 1. p. 254. â Harken now Valentine by what ways and means the Sabbath may be made a ceremony if either we observe that day which the Jews once did or think the Lords day so affixed unto any time ut nefas sit illum in aliud tempus transferre that we conceive it an impiety it should be changed unto another on which as well as upon that we may not rest from labour and harken to the Word of God if perhaps such necessity should be this would indeed make it become a ceremony Nothing can be more plain than this Yet Calvin is as plain when he professeth that he regardeth not so much the Number of seven ut ejus servituti Ecclesias astringeret as to enthral the Church unto it Sure I am Doctor Prideaux reckoneth him as one of them who teach us that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other and that John Barclaie makes report In orat de Sab. how once he had a Consultation de transferenda Dominica in feriam quintam of altering the Lords day unto the Thursday Bucer affirms as much as touching the Authority and so doth Bullinger and Brentius Vrsine and Chemnitius as Doctor Prideaux hath observed Of Bullinger Bucer Brentius I have nought to say because the places are not cited but take it as I think I may upon his credit But for Chemnitius he saith often that it is libera observatio a voluntary observation that it is an especial part of our Christian liberty not to be tied to Days and Times in matters which
concern Gods service and that the Apostles made it manifest by their Example Singulis diebus vel quocunque die That every day or any day Catech. qu. 103. §. 2. may by the Church be set apart for religious Exercises And as for Vrsine he makes this difference between the Lords day and the Sabbath that it was utterly unlawful to the Jews either to neglect or change the Sabbath without express Commandment from God himself as being a ceremonial part of divine Worship but for the Christian Church that may design the first or second or any other day to Gods publick service Ecclesia vero Christiana primum vel alium diem tribuit ministerio salva sua libertate sine opinione cultus vel necessitatis as his words there are To these add Dietericus a Lutheran Divine Dom. 17. post Trinit who though he makes the keeping of one day in seven to be the moral part of the fourth Commandment yet for that day it may be dies Sabbati or dies Solis or quicunque alius Sunday or Saturday or any other be it one in seven And so Hospinian is persuaded Dominicum diem mutare in alium transserre licet That is the occasions of the Church do so require the Lords day may be changed unto any other provided it be one of seven and that the change be so transacted that it produce no scandal or confusion in the Church of God Nay by the doctrine of the Helvetian Churches if I conceive their meaning rightly every particular Church may destinate what day they please to religious meetings and every day may be a Lords day Cap. 2. or a Sabbath For so they give it up in their Confession Deligit ergo quaevis Ecclesiae sibi certum tempus ad preces publicas Evangelii praedicationem necnon sacramentorum celebrationem though for their parts they kept that day which had been set apart for those holy uses even from the time of the Apostles yet so that they conceived it free to keep the Lords day or the Sabbath Sed Dominicum non Sabbatum libera observatione celebramus Some Sectaries since the Reformation have gone further yet and would have had all days alike as unto their use all equally to be regarded and reckoned that the Lords day as the Church continued it was a Jewish Ordinance thwarting the Doctrine of Saint Paul who seemed to them to abrogate that difference of days which the Church retained This was the fancy or the frenzy rather of the Anabaptist taking the hint perhaps from something which had been formerly delivered by some wiser men and after them of the Swinck feildian and the Familist as in the times before of the Petro-Brusians and if Waldensis wrong him not of Wiclef also Such being the Doctrine of those Churches the Protestant and those of Rome it is not to be thought but that their practice is according Both make the Lords day only an Ecclesiastical constitution and therefore keep it so far forth as by the Canons of their Churches they are enjoyned These what they are at Rome and those of her obedience we have seen already and little hath been added since It hath not been of late a time to make new restraints rather to mitigate the old to lay down such which were most burdensom and grievous to be born withal And so it seems they do Azorius the Jesuit being more remiss in stating and determining the restraints imposed on the Lords day and the other Holy days than Tostatus was who lived in safer times by far than these now present nor is their Discipline so severe as their Canon neither So that the Lords day there for ought I could observe when I was amongst them is solemnized much after the same manner as with us in England repairing to the Church both at Mass and Vespers riding abroad to take the Air or otherwise to refresh themselvas and following their honest pleasures at such leisure times as are not destir ate to the publick meetings the people not being barred from travelling about their lawful business as occasion is so they reserve some time for their Devotions in the publick Which is indeed agreeable to the most antient and most laudable custom in the Church of God Now for the protestant Churches the Lutherans do not differ much from that which we have said before of the Church of Rome and therefore there is nothing to be said of them But for the rest which follow Galvin and think themselves the only Orthodox and Reformed Churches we will consider them in three several circumstances first in the exercise of Religious Duties secondly in restraint from labours and thirdly in permission of Recreations And first for the excrcise of religious Duties they use it in the Morning only the Afternoon being left at large for any and for every man to dispose thereof as to him seems fitting So is it in the Churches of high Germany those of the Palatinate and all the others of that mould For I have heard from Gentlemen of good repute that at the first reception of the Lady Elizabeth into that Countrey on Sunday after Dinner the Coaches and the Horses were brought forth and all the Princes Court betook themselves unto their pleasures sures Hunting or Hawking as the season of the year was fit for either Which tend the Princcss thither answer was made it was their custom so to do and that they had no Evening-service but ended all the Duties of the day with the Morningsermon Nor is this custom only and no more but so art 46. There is a Canon for it in some places it must be no otherwise For in the first Council of Dort Anno 1574. it was Decreed Publicae vespertinae preces non sunt introducendae ubi non sunt introduciae ubi sunt tollantur that in such Churches where publick Evening Prayer had not been admitted it should continue as it was and where they were admitted they should be put down So Doctor Smith relates the Canon if so irregular a Decree may deserve that name in his collat doctr Cathol Protest cap. 68. Art 1. And so it stood till the last synod of Dort Anno 1618. what time to raise the reputation of the Palatine Catechisin Sess 14. being not long after to be admitted into their Canon it was concluded that Catechism-lectures should be read each Sunday in the afternoon nor to be laid aside propter auditorum infrequentiam for want of Auditors Now to allure the people thither being before staved off by a former Synod it was provided that their Ministers should read howsoever Coram paucis auditoribus immo vel coram suis famulis tantu Though few were present or none but their domestick servants in hope by little and little to attract the people And secondly it was resolved on to implore the civil Magistrate Vt opera omnia servilia seu quotidiana c. quibus tempus
Saturdays Slop So easily did the Popes prevail with our now friends of Scotland that neither miracle nor any special packet from the Court of Heaven was accounted necessary But here with us in England it was not so though now the Popes had got the better of King John that unhappy Prince and had in Canterbury an Archbishop of their own appointment even that Steven Langton about whom so much strife was raised Which notwithstanding and that the King was then a Minor yet they proceeded here with great care and caution and brought the Holy-days into order not by command or any Decretal from Rome but by a Council held at Oxford Ap. Lindwood Anno 1222. where amongst other Ordinances tending unto the Government of the Church the Holy-days were divided into these three ranks In the first rank were those quae omni veneratione servanda erant which were to be observed with all reverence and solemnity of which sort were omnes dies Dominici c. all Sundays in the year the feast of Christs Nativity together with all others now observed in the Church of England as also all the Festivals of the Virgin Mary excepting that of her Conception which was left at large with divers which have since been abrogated And for conclusion festum dedicationis cujuslibet Ecclesiae in sua parochia the Wakes or Feasts of Dedication of particular Churches in their proper Parishes are there determined to be kept with the same reverence and solemnity as the Sundays were Nor was this of the Wakes or Feasts of Dedication any new device but such as could plead a fair original from the Council held in Mentz anno 813. If it went no higher For in a Catalogue there made of such principal feasts as annually were to be observed they reckon dedicationem templi the consecration Feast or Wake as we use to call it and place it in no lower rank in reference to the solemnity of the same than Easter Whitsontide and the rest of the greater Festivals Now at the first those Wakes or Feasts of dedication were either held upon the very day on which or the Saints day to which they had been first consecrated But after finding that so many Holy days brought no small detriment to the Common-wealth it came to pass that generally these Wakes or Feasts of dedication were respited until the Sunday following as we now observe them Of the next rank of Feasts in this Council mentioned were those which were by Priest and Curate to be celebrated most devoutly with all due performances minoribus operibus servilibus secundum consuetudinem loci illis diebus interdictis all servile works of an inferiour and less important nature according to the custom of the place being laid aside Such were Saint Fabian and Sebastian and some twenty more which are therein specified but now out of use and amongst them the Festival of Saint George was one which after in the year 1414. was made by Chicheley then Archbishop a Majus duplex and no less solemnly to be observed than the Feast of Christmass Of the last rank of Feasts were those in quibus post missam opera rusticana concedebantur sed antequam non wherein it was permitted that men might after Mass pursue their Countrey businesses though not before and these were only the Octaves of Epiphany and of John the Baptist and of Saint Peter together with the translations of Saint Benedict and Saint Martin But yet it seems that on the greater Festivals those of the first rank there was no restraint of Tillage and of Shipping if occasion were and that necessity did require though on those days Sundays and all before remembred there was a general restraint of all other works For so it standeth in the title prefixt before those Festivals haec sunt festa in quibus prohibitis aliis operibus conceduntur opera agriculturae carrucarum Where by the way I have translated carrucarum shipping the word not being put for Plough or Cart which may make it all one with the word foregoing but for ships and sayling Carruca signifieth a Ship of the greater burden such as to this day we call Carrects which first came from hence And in this sense the word is to be found in an Epistle writ by Gildas Illis ad sua remeantibus emergunt certatim de Carruchis quibus sunt trans Scyticam vallem avecti So then as yet Tillage and Sayling were allowed of on the Sunday if as before I said occasion were Math. Westmonaster and that necessity so required Of other passages considerable in the Reign of K. Henry III. the principal to this point and purpose are his own Coronation on Whitsunday anno 1220. two years before this Council which was performed with great solemnity and concourse of People Next his bestowing the order of Knighthood on Richard de Clare Earl of Gloucester accompanied with forty other gallants of great hopes and spirit on Whitsunday too Anno 1245. and last of all a Parliament Assembled on Mid-lent Sunday Parliamentum generalissimum the Historian calls it the next year after This was a fair beginning but they staid not here For after in a Synod of Archbishop Islippes he was advanced unto the See Lindw l. 2. tit de feriis Anno 1349. it was decreed de fratrum nostrorum consilio with the assent and counsel of all the Prelates then assembled that on the principal Feasts hereafter named there should be generally a restraint through all the Province ab universis servilibus operibus etiam reipubl utilibus even from all manner of servile works though otherwise necessary to the Common-wealth This general restraint in reference to the Sunday was to begin on Saturday night ab hora diei Sabbati vespertina as the Canon goes not a minute sooner and that upon good reason too ne Judaicae superstitionis participes videamur lest if they did begin it sooner as some now would have us they might be guilty of a Jewish superstition the same to be observed in such other Feasts quae suas habent vigilias whose Eves had formerly been kept As also that the like restraint should be observed upon the Feast of Christmass S. Steven S. John c. and finally on the Wakes or Dedication Feasts which before we spake of Now for the works before prohibited though necessary to the Common wealth as we may reckon Husbandry and all things appertaining thereunto so probably we may reckon Law-days and all publick Sessions in Courts of Justice in case they had not been left off in former times when as the Judges general being of the Clergy Finââ of the Law l. 1. c. 3. might in obedience to the Canon-law forbear their Sessions on those days the Lords day especially For as our Sages in the Law have resolved it generally that day is to be exempt from such business even by the Common Law for the solemnity thereof to the intent that people may apply
especially appointed for the same are called Holy days Rot for the matter or the nature either of the time or day c. for to all days and times are of like holiness but for the nature and condition of such holy works c. whereunto such times and days are sanctified and hallowed that is to say separated from all prophane uses and dedicated not unto any Saint or Creature but only unto God and his true worship Neither is it to be thought that there is any certain time or definitive number of days prescribed in holy Scripture but the appointment both of the time and also of the number of days is left by the authority of Gods Word unto the liberty of Christs Church to be determined and assigned orderly in every Countrey by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judg most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods glory and edification of their people Nor is it to be thought that all this Preamble was made in reference to the Holy days or Saints days only whose being left to the authority of the Church was never questioned but in relation to the Lords day also as by the Act it self doth at full appear for so it followeth in the Act Be it therefore enacted c. That all the days hereafter mentioned shall be kept and commanded to be kept Holy days and none other that is to say all Sundays in the Year the Feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphanie of the Purification with all the rest now kept and there named particularly and that none other day shall be kept and commanded to be kept holy day and to abstain from lawful bodily labour Nay which is more there is a further Clause in the self-same Act which plainly shews that they had no such thought of the Lords day as that it was a Sabbath or so to be observed as the Sabbath was and therefore did provide it and enact by the Authority aforesaid a bat it shall be lawful to every Husbandman Labourer Fisherman and to all and every other person or persons of what estate degree or condition be or they he upon the holy days aforesaid in Harvest or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require to labour ride fish or work any kind of work at their free-wills and pleasure any thing in this Act unto the contrary notwithstanding This is the total of this Act which if examined well as it ought to be will yield us all those propositions or conclusions before remembred which we collected from the writings of those three particular Martyrs Nor is it to be said that it is repealed and of no Authority Repealed indeed it was in the first year of Queen Mary and stood repealed in Law though otherwise in use and practice all the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth but in the first year of King James was revived again Note here that in the self-same Parliament the Common Prayer-Book now in use being reviewed by many godly Prelates was confirmed and authorized wherein so much of the said Act as doth concern the Names and Number of the Holy days is expressed and as it were incorporate into the same Which makes it manifest that in the purpose of the Church the Sunday was no otherwise esteemed of than another Holy day This Statute as before we said was made in Anno 5. 6. of Edward the sixth And in that very Parliament as before we said the Common-Prayer-Book was confirmed which still remains in use amongst us save that there was an alteration or addition of certain Lessons to be used on every Sunday of the Year 1 Eliz. cap. 2. the form of the Letany altered and corrected and two Sentences added in the delivery of the Sacrament unto the Communicants Now in this Common Prayer-Book thus confirmed in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the sixth Cap. 1. it pleased those that had the altering and revising of it that the Commandments which were not in the former Liturgy allowed of in the second of the said Kings Reign should now be added and accounted as a part of this the people being willed to say after the end of each Commandment Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law Which being used accordingly as well upon the hearing of the fourth Commandment as of any others hath given some men a colour to persuade themselves that certainly it was the meaning of the Church that we should keep a Sabbath still though the day be changed and that we are obliged to do it by the fourth Commandment Assuredly they who so conclude conclude against the meaning of the Book and of them that made it Against the meaning of the Book for if the Book had so intended that that Ejaculation was to be understood in a literal sence according as the words are laid down in terminis it then must be the meaning of the Book that we should pray unto the Lord to keep the Sabbath of the Jews even the seventh day precisely from the Worlds Creation and keep it in the self-same manner as the Jews once did which no man I presume will say was the meaning of it For of the changing of the day there is nothing said nor nothing intimated but the whole Law laid down in terminis as the Lord delivered it Against the meaning also of them that made it for they that made the Book and reviewed it afterwards and caused these Passages and Prayers to be added to it Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Ridley Bishop of London and certain others of the Prelates then and there assembled were the same men by whose advice and counsel the Act before remembred about keeping Holy days was in the self-same Parliament drawn up and perfected And is it possible we should conceive so ill of those reverend persons as that they would erect a Sabbath in the one Act and beat it down so totally in the other to tell us in the Service-Book that we are bound to keep a Sabbath and that the time and day of Gods publick Worship is either pointed out in the fourth Commandment or otherwise ordained by Divine Authority and in the self-same breath to tell us that there is neither certain time nor definite number of days prescribed in Scripture but all this left unto the liberty of the Church I say as formerly I said it is impossible we should think so ill of such Reverend persons nor do I think that any will so think hereafter when they have once considered the non sequitur of their own Conclusions As for the Prayer there used we may thus expound it according to the doctrine and the practice both of those very times viz. that their intent and meaning was to teach the people to pray unto the Lord to incline their hearts to keep that Law as far as it contained the Law of Nature and had been
entertained in the Christian Church as also to have mercy on them for the neglect thereof in those Holy days which by the wisdom and authority of the Church had been set apart for Gods publick Service Besides this Prayer was then conceived when there was no suspition that any would make use thereof to introduce a Jewish Sabbath but when men rather were inclined to the contrary errour to take away those certain and appointed times Lords days and other Holy days which by the wisdom of the Church had been retained in the Reformation The Anabaptists were strongly bent that way as before we shewed and if we look into the Articles of our Church See Art 26.37 38 39. we shall then find what special care was taken to suppress their errours in other points which had taken footing as it seems in this Church and Kingdom Therefore the more likely it is that this Cluse was added to crush their furious fancies in this particular of not hallowing certain days and times to Gods publick Service Yet I conceive withal that had those Reverend Prelates foreseen how much their pious purpose would have been abused by wresting it to introduce a Sabbath which they never meant they would have cast their meaning in another mould Proceed we to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth that so much celebrated Princess and in the first place we shall meet with her Injunctions published the first year of her Empire in which the Sunday is not only counted with the other Holy days but labour at some times permitted and which is more enjoyn'd upon it For thus it pleased her to declare her will and pleasure Injunct 20. All the Queens faithful and loving Subjects shall from henceforth celebrate and keep their holy day according to Gods holy will and pleasure that is in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publick Prayers in knowledging their offences unto God and amendment of the same in reconciling of themselves charitably to their Neighbours where displeasure hath been in oftentimes receiving the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ in bistting the Poor and Sick using all soberness and godly conversation This seems to be severe enough but what followeth next Yet notwithstanding all Parsons Vicars and Curats shall teach and declare to their Parishioners that they may with a safe and quiet conscience after their Common Prayer in the time of Harvest labour upon the boly and Festival days and save that thing which God hath sent And if for any scrupulosity or grudg of Conscience men should superstitiously abstain from working on these days that then they should grievously offend and displease God This makes it evident that Qu. Elizabeth in her own particular took not the Lords day for a Sabbath or to be of a different nature from the other Holy days nor was it taken so by the whole Body of our Church and State in the first Parliament of her Reign 1 Eliz. c. 2. what time it was enacted That all and every person and persons inhabiting within this Realm and any other the Queens Dominious shall diligently and faithfully having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent endeavour themselves to resort to their Parish Church or Chappel accustomed or upon reasonable let thereof to some usual place where Common Prayer shall be used in such time of let upon every Sunday and other days ordained and used to be kept as Holy day and then and there to abide orderly and soverly During the time of Common Prayer Preaching or other Service of God upon pain of punishment c. This Law is still in force and still like to be and by this Law the Sundays and the Holy days are alike regarded Nor by the Law only but by the purpose and intent of holy Church who in her publick Liturgy is as full and large for every one of the Holy days as for the Sunday the Letany excepted only For otherwise by the rule and prescript thereof the same Religious Offices are designed for both the same devout attendance required for both and whatsoever else may make both equal And therefore by this Statute and the Common Prayer-Book we are to keep more Sabbaths than the Lords Day Sabbath or else none at all Next look we on the Homilies part of the publick Monuments of the Church of England set forth and authorized Anno 1562. being the fourth of that Queens Reign In that entituled Of the place and time of Prayer we shall find it thus As concerning the Time in which God hath appointed his people to assemble together solemnly it doth appear by the fourth Commandment c. And Albeit this Commandment of God doth noâ hind Christian people so straitly to observe and keep the utter ceremonies of the Sabbath day as it did the Jews as touching the forbearing of work and labour in the time of great necessity and as thouching the precise keeping of the seventh Day after the manner of the Jews for we keep now the first day which is our Sunday and make that our Sabbath that is our day of rest in honour of our Saviour Christ who as upon that day he rose from death conquering the same most triumphantly Yet notwithstanding whatsoever is found in the Comandment appertaining to the Law of Nature as a thing most godly most just and needful for the setting forth of Gods glory ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian people And therefore by this Commandment we ought to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest yea from our lawful and needful words For like as it appeareth by this Commandment that no man in the six days ought to be slothful and idle but diligently to labour in that state wherein God hath set him even so God hath given express charge to all men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour to the intent that like as God ãâã wrought six days and rested the seventh and blessed and sanctified it and consecrated it to quietness and rest from labour even so Gods obedient people should use the Sunday Holily and rest from their common and daily business and aisa give themselves wholly to Heavenly exercises of Gods true religion and service âo that God doth not only command the observation of this holy day but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to the diligent keeping of the same c. Thus it may plainly appear that Gods will and Commandment was to have a solemn time and standing day in the week Wherein the people should come together and have in remembrance his wonderful benefits and to render him thank 's for them an appertaineth to loving kind and obedient people This example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow imâediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ and began to choose them a standing day of
the week to come together in yet not the seventh day which the Jews kept but the Lords day the day of the Lords resurrection the day after the seventh day which is the first day of the week c. Sithence which time Gods ãâã hath always in all Ages without any gain-saying used to come together ââ the Sunday to celebrate and honour the Lords blessed Name and carefully to ãâã that ãâ¦ã If it and quietness both Man and Woman Child Servant and Stranger So far the Homily and this is all thereof which is doctrinal The residue consists in reprehension of two sorts of men one of the which if they had any business to do though there were no extream need would not spare the Sunday but med all days alike the holy-days and work-days all as one the other so consumed the day in gluttony and drunkenness and such fleshly filthiness that as it is there said the Lord was more dishonoured and the I euil better served on the Sunday than upon all the days in the week besides This saith the Homily and this hath often been alledged as well to prove a Lords day Sabbath to be allowed of by the doctrine of the Church of England as at this present time to justifie the disobedience of those men who have refused to publish the Princes pleasure in point of Recreations But this if well examined will as little help them as Lord have mercy upon us in the Common-Prayer book For first it is here said that there is no more of the fourth Commandment to be retained and kept of good Christian people than whatsoever is found in it appertaining to the law of Nature But we have proved before that there is nothing in the fourth Commandment of the law of Nature but that some time be set apart for Gods publick service the precept so far forth as it enjoyns one day in seven or the seventh day precisely from the worlds creation being avowed for ceremonial by all kind of Writers Secondly it is said not that the Lords day was enjoyned by Divine Authority either by Christ himself or his Apostles but chosen for a standing day to come together in by godly Christian people immediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ If chose by them then not enjoyned by the Apostles if not till after the Ascension of our Saviour Christ then not at all by him commanded Thirdly whereas they chose themselves a standing day in the week to come together in they did not this by any obligation laid upon them by the fourth Commandment but only by a voluntary following of Gods example and the Analogy or equity of Gods Commandment which was they do not say which is that he would have amongst the Jews a solemn time and standing day in the week wherein the people ãâã have in remembrance his wonderful benefits and render thanks to him for the same For it is said that this example and Commandment of God the gody Christian people began to follow after Christs Ascension So that it seems they might have chosen whether they would have followed them or not Fourthly when they had chosen this day which we now observe for their publick meetings they did not think themselves obliged by the fourth Commandment to forbear work and labour in time of great necessity or to the precise keeping of the same after the manner of the Jews both which they must have done had they conceived the keeping of one day in seven to be the moral part of the fourth Commandment and to oblige us now no less than it did them formerly as some men have taught us Now whereas some have drawn from hence these two conclusions First that according to this Homily we ought to keep one day in seven by the fourth Commandment and secondly that we must spend it wholly in religious exercises I would fain know how those conclusions can be raised from the former premises It 's true the Homily hath told us that by the fourth Commandment we ought to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest from our needful works Where note that there it is not said that by the fourth Commandment we ought to have one day in the week which is plain and peremptory but that we ought to have a time as one day in the week which was plainly arbitrary A time we ought to have by the fourth Commandment as being that part of it which pertains to the law of Nature But for the next words as one day in the week they are not there laid down as imposed on us by the Law but only instanced in as setled at that time in the Church of God So where it is affirmed in another place that Gods will and commandment was to have a solemn time and standing day in the week we grant indeed that so it was and that the Godly Christian people in the Primitive times were easily induced to give God no less than what he formerly commanded But had the meaning of the Homily been this that we were bound to have a standing day in the week by the fourth Commandment they would have plainly said it is Gods will and pleasure that it should be so and not have told us what it was in the times before It 's true the Homily hath told us that we should rest our selves on Sunday from our common business and also give our selves wholly to Heavenly exercises of Gods true religion and service Where note it is not said that we should spend the day wholly in Heavenly exercises for then there were no time allowed us to eat and drink which are meer natural employments But that we give our selves wholly that is our whole selves body and soul to that performance of those heavenly exercises which are required of us in the way of true religion and Gods publick service It is accounted as we have formerly made plain to be the ceremonial part of the fourth Commandment In Exod. 20. qu. 11. quod fiat semel in qualibet hebdomada quod fiat in una die tota ista observatio quod per totam diem abstineatur ab operibus servilibus First the determining of the day to be one in seven next that this one day wholly be so employed and last of all that all that day there be an absolute cessation from all servile works Therefore the spending wholly of one day in seven being ceremonial comes not within the compass of the Homily which would have no more of the fourth Commandment to be kept amongst us than what is appertaining to the law of Nature Now it pertains unto the law of Nature that for the times appointed to Gods publick worship Id. ib. we wholly sequester our selves from all worldly businesses natural est quod dum Deum colimus ab aliis abstineamus as Tostatus hath it and then the meaning of the Homily will be briefly this that for those times which are
the first time that ever these Sabbath Doctrines peeped into the light For Dr. Bound the first sworn servant of the Sabbath hath in his first edition thus declared himself Page 31. that he sees not where the Lord hath given any authority to his Church ordinarily and perpetually to sanctifie any day except that which he hath sanctified himself and makes it an especial argument against the goodness of the Religion in the Church of Rome that to the seventh day they have joined so many other days Page 32. and made them equal with the seventh if not superiour thereunto as well in the solemnity of divine Offices as restraint from labour So that we may perceive by this that their intent from the beginning was to cry down the holy days as superstitious Popish Ordinances that so their new found Sabbath being placed alone and Sabbath now it must be called might become more eminent Nor were the other though more private effects thereof of less dangerous nature the people being so insnared with these new devices and pressed with rigours more than Jewish that certainly they are in as bad condition as were the Israelites of old when they were captivated and kept under by the Scribes and Pharisees Some I have known for in this point I will say nothing without good assurance who in a furious kind of zeal like the mad Prophetess in the Poet have run into the open streets yea and searched private Houses too to look for such as spent those hours on the Lords day in lawful pastimes which were not destinate by the Church to Gods publick service and having found them out scattered the company brake the Instruments and if my memory fail me not the Musitians head and which is more they thought that they were bound in conscience so to do Others that will not suffer either baked or roast to be made ready for their Dinners on their Sabbath day lest by so doing they should eat and drink their own damnation according to the doctrine preached unto them Some that upon the Sabbath will not sell a pint of Wine or the like Commodity though Wine was made by God not only for mans often infirmities but to make glad his heart and refresh his spirits and therefore no less requisite on the Lords day than on any other Others which have refused to carry provender to an Horse on the supposed Sabbath day though our Redeemer thought it no impiety on the true Sabbath day indeed to lead poor Cattel to the Water which was the motive and occasion of M. Brerewoods learned Treatise So for the female sex Maid-servants I have met with some two or three who though they were content to dress their meat upon the Sabbath yet by no means would be persuaded either to wash their Dishes or make clean their Kitchen But that which most of all affects me is that a Gentlewoman at whose House I lay in Leicester the last Northern Progress Anno 1634. expressed a great desire to see the King and Queen who were then both there And when I proferd her my service to satisfie that loyal longing she thanked me but refused the favour because it was the Sabbath day Unto so strange a bondage are the people brought that as before I said a greater never was imposed on the Jews themselves what time the consciences of that people were pinned most closely on the sleeves of the Scribes and Pharisees But to go forwards in my story it came to pass for all the care before remembred that having such a plausible and fair pretence as sanctifying a day unto the Lord and keeping a Commandment that had long been silenced it got strong footing in the Kingdom as before is said the rather because many things which were indeed strong avocations from Gods publick Service were as then permitted Therefore it pleased King James in the first entrance of his Reign so far to condescend unto them as to take off such things which seemed most offensive To which intent he signitied his loyal pleasure by Proclamation dated at Theobald May 7. 1603. that Whereas he had been informed that there had been in tormer times a greet neglect in keeping the Sabbath day for better obserbing of the same and for abeiding of all impious prophanarion of it be straitly charged and commanded that no Bear-baiting Bull baiting Enterludes common Plays or other like disordered or unlawful exercises or pastimes be frequented kept or used at any time hereafter upon any Sabbath day Not that his purpose was to debar himself of lawful pleasures on that day but to prohibit such disordered and unlawful pastimes whereby the common people were withdrawn from the Congregation they being only to be reckoned for Common Plays which at the instant of their Acting or representing are studied only for the entertainment of the common people on the publick Theaters Yet did not this though much content them And therefore in the Conference at Hampton Court it seemed good to D. Reynolds who had been made a party in the cause to touch upon the prophanation of the Sabbath for so he called it and contempt of his Majesties Proclamation made for the reforming of that abuse of which be earnestly desired a straiter course for reformation thereof to which he found a gentral and unanimous assent Nor was there an assent only and nothing done For presently in the following Convocation it pleased the Prelates there assembled to revive so much of the Queens Injunction before remembred as to them seemed fitting and to incorporate it into the Commons then agreed of only a little alteration to make it more agreeable to the present times being used therein That then they ordered in the Canon for due celebrution of Sundays and holp days Can. 13. viz. All manner of persons within the Church of England shall from beneeforth celebrote and heep the Lords day commonly called Sunday and other Holy days according to Gods holy will and pleasure and the Diders of the Church of England prescribed in that behalf i.e. in hearing the Word of God read and taught in pribate and publich Prapert in acknowledging their offences to God and amendment of the same in reconciling themselves charitably to their Neighbours where displeasure had been in offentimes receibing the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ using all godly and scber conversation The residue of the said Injunction touching work in Harvest it seemed fit unto them not to touch upon leaving the same to stand or fall by the statute of King Edward the sixth before remembred A Canon of an excellent composition For by enjoyning godly and sober conversation and diligent repair to Church to hear the Word of God and receive the Sacrament they stopped the course of that prophaneness which formerly had been complained of and by their ranking of the holy days in equal place and height with Sunday and limiting the celebration of the same unto the Orders in that case
Churches Protestant which make man in the work of his own Conversion to be no other than a Statue or a senseless stock Exhort to the reading of the Scrip. p. 6. Contrary whereunto we are instructed in the Homily exhorting to the reading of holy Scripture to use all possible endeavours in our own Salvation If we read once twice or thrice and understand not let us not cease so but still continue reading praying asking of other men and so by still knocking at last the door shall be opened as S. Augustine hath it which counsel had been vain and idle if man were not invested with a liberty of complying with it More plainly is the same exprest in many of our publick Prayers Collect for Easter day as partly in the Collect for Easter day in which we humbly beseech Almighty God That as by his special Grace preventing us he doth put in our mind good desires so by his continual fellowship that he would bring the same to good effect Col. after Trin. And in that on the seventh Sunday after Trinity That his Grace may always prevent and follow us and make us continually to be given to all good works But most significantly we have it in one of the Collects after the Communion that namely in which we pray to the Lord Col. before the Communion To prevent us in all our doings by his most glorious favour and further us with his continual help that in all our works begun and continued in him we may so glorifie his holy Name that finally by his mercy we may obtain life everlasting through Christ Jesus our Lord. So that upon the whole matter it needs must follow that as we can do nothing acceptable in the sight of God without Grace preventing so by the freedom of mans will co-operating with the Grace preventing and by the subsequent Grace of God co-operating with the Will of man we have a power of doing such works as are agreeable to the will of our Heavenly Father Now to this plain Song of the Articles the Homilies and the Publique Liturgy it may be thought superfluous to make a descant or add the light of any Commentary to so clear a Text. And yet I cannot baulk some passages in Bishop Hooper which declare his judgment in the point where he not only speaks of mans concurrence or co-operation with the Grace of God but lays his whole damnation on the want thereof Look not therefore saith he on the promises of God Preface to his Exposities c. but also what diligence and obedience he requireth of thee lest thou exclude thy self from the promise There was promised to all those that went out of Egypt with Moses the Land of Canaan howbeit for disobedience of Gods Commandments there were but one or two that entred This he affords in his Preface and more than this in his tenth Chapter of the Exposition relating to the common pretence of Ignorance For though saith he thou canst not come to so far knowledge in the Scripture as others that believe by reason thou art unlearned or else thy vocation will not suffer thee all days of thy life to be a Student yet must thou know and upon pain of damnation art bound to know God in Christ and the holy Catholick Church Hoop cap. dign by the Word written the Ten Commandments to know what works thou shouldst do and what to leave undone the Pater noster Christ his Prayer which is an Abridgement Epitomy or compendious Collection of all the Psalms and Prayers written in the whole Scripture in the which thou prayest for the remission of sin as well for thy self as for all others desirest the Grace of the Holy Ghost to preserve thee in vertue givest thanks for the goodness of God toward thee and all others He that knoweth less than this cannot be saved and he that knoweth no more than this if be follow his knowledge cannot be damned But the main Controversie in the point of mans Conversion moves upon this hinge that is to say whether the influences of gods Grace be so strong and powerful that withal they are absolutely irresistible so that it is not possible for the will of man not to consent unto the same Calvin first harped upon this string and all his followers since have danced to the tune thereof Illud toties à Chrysostomo repetitum repudiari necesse est Calv. Institut lib. 2. cap. 3. Quem trabit volentem trahit quo insinuat Dominum porrecta tantum manu expectare an suo auxilio juvari nobis adlubescat These words saith he so often repeated by Chrysostom viz. That God draws none but such as are willing to go are to be condemned the Father intimating by those words that God expecteth only with an out-stretched and ready arm whether we be willing or not In which though he doth not express clearly the good Fathers meaning yet he plainly doth declare his own insinuating Declar. p. 20. that God draws men forcibly and against their will to his Heavenly Kingdom Gomarus one of later date and a chief stickler in these Controversies comes up more fully to the sense which Calvin drives at For putting the question in this manner An gratia haec datur vi irresistibili id est efficaci operatione Dei ita ut voluntas ejus qui regeneratur facultatem non habeat illi resistendi He answereth presently Credo profiteor ita esse that is to say his question is Whether the Grace of God be given in an irresistible manner that is to say with such an efficacious operation that the will of him who is to be regenerated hath not the power to make resistance And then the answer follows thus I believe and profess it to be so More of which kind might be produced from other Authors but that this serves sufficiently to set forth a Doctrine which is so little countenanced by the burning and most shining lights of the Church of England Beginning first with Bishop Hooper we shall find it thus It is not saith he a Christian mans part to attribute his salvation to his own Free-will with the Pelagian Pres to his Exp. and extenuate Original sin nor to make God the Author of ill and damnation with the Maniche nor yet to say that God hath written Fatal Laws and with necessity of Destiny violently pulleth the one by the hair into Heaven and thrusteth the other headlong into Hell c. More fully in his gloss on the Text of St. John viz. No man cometh to me except my Father draw him chap. 6.44 Many saith he understand these words in a wrong sence as if God required no more in a reasonable man than in a dead post and mark not the words which follow Every man that heareth and learneth of my Father cometh unto me c. God draweth with his Word and the Holy Ghost but mans duty is to hear and learn that is
University For if it had been so appointed by the University he would have been rewarded for it by the same power and authority which had so appointed when he appeared a Candidate for the Professorship on the death of Whitacres but could not find a party of sufficient power to carry it for him of which see also Chap. 21. Numb 4. And thirdly as for the not Priting of the Sermon it is easily answered the genius of the time not carrying men so generally to the Printing of Sermons as it hath done since But it was Printed at the last though long first And being Printed at the last hath met with none so forward in the Confutation as Mr. Wotton is affirmed to be when at first it was Preached And therefore notwithstanding these three surmises which the Author of the Perpetuity c. hath presented to us it may be said for certain as before it was that Mr. Harsnet was never called in question for that Sermon of his by any having Authority to convent him for it and much less that he ever made any such Recantation as by the said Author is suggested In the next place we will behold a passage in one of the Lectures upon Jonah delivered at York Anno 1594. by the right learned Dr. John King discended from a Brother of Robert King the first Bishop of Oxon afterwards made Dean of Christ Church and from thence presented by the power and favour of Archbishop Bancroft to the See of London A Prelate of too known a zeal to the Church of England to be accused of Popery or any other Heterodoxies in Religion of what sort soever who in his Lecture on these words Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown cap. 3. verse 4. discoursed on them in this manner The only matter of Question herein Bishop King's Lecture upon Jonath Lect. 33. p. 450. is how it may stand with the constancy and truth of eternal God to pronounce a Judgment against a place which taketh not effect within one hundred years For either he weas ignorant of his own time which we cannot imagine of an omniscient God or his mind was altered which is unproble to suspect Numb 23. Heb. 13. Rev. 1. For is the strength of Israel a man that he should lie or as the Son of man that be should repent Is he not yesterday and to day and the same for ever that was that is and that which is to come I mean not only in substance but in Will and Intention Doth he use lightness Are the words that he speaketh yea and nay Doth he both affirm and deny too 2 Cor. 1. Are not all his Promises are not all his Threatnings are not all his Mercies are not all his Judgments are not all his Words are not all the titles and jots of his words yea and amen so firmly ratified that they cannot be broken Doubtless it shall stand immutable When the Heaven and the Earth shall be changed Mal. 3. and wax old like a garment Ego Deus non mutor I am God that am not changed Aliud mutare voluntatem aliud velle mutationem Aquin 1. qu. 19. art 7. The School in this respect hath a wise distinction It is one thing to change the will and another to will a change or to be willed that a change should be God will have the Law and Ceremony at one time Gospel without Ceremony at another this was his Will from Everlasting constant and unmoveable that in their several courses both should be Though there be a change in the matter and subject there is not a change in him that disposeth it Our Will is in Winter to use the fire in Summer a cold and an open air the thing is changed according to the season but our Will whereby we all decreed and determined in our selves so to do remain the same Sometimes the Decrees and purposes of God consist of two parts the one whereof God revealeth at the first and the other he concealeth a while and keepeth in his own knowledge as in the action enjoyned to Abraham the purpose of God was twofold 1. To try his Obedience 2. To save the Child A man may impute it inconstancy to bid and unbid Mutat seo tentiam non mutat consilium lib. 10. mor. cap. 23. but that the Will of the Lord was not plenarily understood in the first part This is it which Gregory expresseth in apt terms God changeth his intent pronounced sometimes but never his Counsel intended Sometimes things are decreed and spoken of according to inferiour cause which by the highest and over-ruling cause are otherwise disposed of One might have said and said truly both ways Lazarus shall rise again and Lazarus shall not rise again if we esteem it by the power and finger of God it shall be but if we leave it to nature and to the arm of flesh it shall never be The Prophet Esay told Hezekias the King put thy house in order Esa 38. for thou shalt die considering the weakness of his body and the extremity of his disease he had reason to warrant the same but if he told him contrariwise according to that which came to pass thou shalt not die looking to the might and merecy of God who received the prayers of the King he had said as truly But the best definition is that in most of these threatning there is a condition annexed unto them either exprest or understood which is as the hinges to the door Jer. 18. and turneth forward and backward the whole matter In Jeremy it is exprest I will speak suddenly against a Nation or a Kingdom to pluck it up to root it out and to destroy it But if this Nation Jer. 18. against whom I have pronounced turn from their wickedness I will repent of the plague which I thought to bring upon them So likewise for his mercy I will speak suddenly concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build it and to plant it but if yet do evil in my sight and hear not my voice I will repent of the good I thought to do for them Gen. 20. it is exprest where God telleth Abimeleck with-holding Abrahams Wife Thou art a dead man because of the Woman which thou hast taken the event fell out otherwise and Abimeleck purged himself with God With an upright mind and innocent hands have I done this There is no question but God inclosed a condition with his speech Thou art a dead man if thou restore not the Woman withoput touching her body and dishonouring her Husband Thus we may answer the scruple by all these ways 1. Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown and yet forty and forty days and Nineveh shall not be overthrown Wy Because Nineveh is changed and the unchangable will of God ever was that if Nineveh shewed a change it should be spared 2. There were two parts of Gods purpose the one disclosed
sake of Jesus Christ to lay aside all prejudice which possibly you may be possessed withal either in reference to the Argument or unto the Author and to peruse this following Story with as much singleness of heart and desire of truth and invocation of Gods Spirit to find out the same as was by me used in the writing of it It is your welfare which I aim at as before was said your restitution to your functions and reconciliation to the Church from which you are at point of falling that we with you and you with us laying aside those jealousies and distrusts which commonly attend on divided minds may joyn our hearts and hands together for the advancement of Gods honour and the Churches peace And God even our own God shall give us his blessing For others which shall read this Story whether by you misguided or yet left emire I do desire them to take notice that there is none so much a stranger to good Arts and Learning whom in this case and kind of writing I dare not trust with the full cognizance of the cause herein related In points of Law when as the matter seems to be above the wit of common persons or otherwise is so involved and intricate that there hath been no Precedent thereof in former times it is put off to a demurrer and argued by my Lords the Judges with their best maturity of deliberation But in a matter of fact we put our selves upon an ordinary Jury not doubting if the evidence prove fair the Witnesses of faith unquestioned and the Records without suspition of imposture but they will do their Conscience and find for Plaintiff or Defendant as the cause appears So in the business now in hand that part thereof which consists most of Argument and strength of Disputation in the examining of those reasons which Pro or Con have been alledged are by me left to be discussed and weighed by them who either by their place are called or by their Learning are inabled to so great a business But for the point of practice which is matter of fact how long it was before the Sabbath was commanded and how it was observed being once commanded how the Lords day hath stood in the Christian Church by what Authority first instituted in what kind regarded these things are offered to the judgment and consideration of the meanest Reader No man that is to be returned on the present Jury but may be able to give up his Verdict touching the title now in question unless he come with passion and so will not hear or else with prejudice and so will not value the evidence which is produced for his information For my part I shall deal ingenuously as the cause requires as of sworn counsel to the truth not using any of the mysteries or arts of pleading but as the holy Fathers of the Church the learned Writers of all Ages the most renowned Divines of these latter times and finally as the publick Monuments and Records of most Nations christned have furnished me in this enquiry What these or any of them have herein either said or done or otherwise left upon the Register for our direction I shall lay down in order in their several times either the times in which they lived or whereof they writ that so we may the better see the whole succession both of the doctrine and the practice of Gods Church in the present business And this with all integrity and sincere proceeding not making use of any Author who hath been probably suspected of fraud or forgery nor dealing otherwise in this search than as becomes a man who aims at nothing more than Gods publick service and the conducting of Gods People in the ways of truth This is the sum of what I had to say in this present Preface beseeching God the God of truth yea the truth it self to give us a right understanding and a good will to do thereafter THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH BOOK I. From the Creation of the World to the destruction of the Temple CHAP. I. That the SABBATH was not instituted in the Beginning of the World 1. The entrance to the Work in hand 2. That those words Genes 2. And God blessed the seventh day c. are there delivered as by way of anticipation 3. Anticipations in the Scripture confessed by them who deny it here 4. Anticipations of the same nature not strange in Scripture 5. No Law imposed by God on Adam touching the keeping of the Sabbath 6. The Sabbath not ingraft by Nature in the soul of man 7. The greatest Advocates for the Sabbath deny it to be any part of the Law of Nature 8. Of the morality and perfection supposed to be in the number of seven by some learned men 9. That other numbers in the confession of the same learned men particularly the first third and fourth are both as moral and as perfect as the seventh 10. The like is proved of the sixth eighth and tenth and of other numbers 11. The Scripture not more favourable to the number of seven than it is to others 12. Great caution to be used by those who love to recreate themselves in the mysteries of numbers I Purpose by the grace of God to write an History of the Sabbath and to make known what practically hath been done therein by the Church of God in all Ages past from the Creation till this present Primaque ab origine mundi ad mea perpetuum deducere tempora carmen One day as David tells us teacheth another Nor can we have a better Schoolmaster in the things of God than the continual and most constant practice of those famous men that have gone before us An undertaking of great difficulty but of greater profit In which I will crave leave to say as doth St. Austin in the entrance to his Books de Civitate Lib. 1. c. â Magnum opus arduum sed Deus est adjutor noster Therefore most humbly begging the assistance of Gods holy Spirit to guide me in the way of truth I shall apply my self to so great a work beginning with the first Beginnings and so continuing my Discourse successively unto these times wherein we live In which no accident of note as far as I can discern shall pass unobserved which may conduce to the discovery of the truth and seâling of the minds of men in a point so controverted On therefore ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the present business Gen. 2. In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth Which being finished and all the hosts of them made perfect on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And then it followeth And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made Unto this passage of the Text and this