Sabbath day namely when the Creation was finished endured onely till the time of the new Creation in which al things were made new by Christ at which time it ceased or at least a second reason taken from that new Creation comming in place the former both reason day become now old are passed away and behold all things are become new For this worke of redemption or new Creation being the greater may deservedly take place of the other And as the Prophet Ieremy speaking of the deliverance that God would vouchsafe his people from the Babilonish captivity saith Behold the dayes shall come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North c. So may wee say of the day appointed for his worship that the day wherein he finished the worke of Creation shall no more be observed but the day wherein our Lord Iesus Christ by his resurrection from the dead finished the worke of our redemption and begun a new life to be finished in all his members who as S. Peter tels us are by his resurrection begotten vnto a lively hope of an eternall Inheritance The fourth and last thing in this Commandement and that which denominated the day is the resting from ordinary labours And this in regard of the divers ends it had admits a diverse consideration 1. This rest may be considered as a means without which the dutyes of Gods worship cannot be performed For seeing the generall publique dutyes of piety and devotion and our owne private businesses cannot both bee followed at once there must be such a cessation from ordinary labours on that day wherein men are to performe those dutyes as that thereby they be not hindered in the performance thereof in which regardthose workes that in themselves and at other times are not prohibited are on that day vnlawfull so farre as they hinder a man from applying himself to divine dutyes and therein are contrary to the observance of that precept which requires the performance of them And therefore when God commands a day to be dedicated to Him he doth likewise in the same command such a rest as a meanes necessary to that end So that thus farre it is connected with participates of the morality of that Precept that enjoynes the dutyes for which it was appointed in this consideration we are no lesse bound at this day to rest from our labours on the dayes devoted to Gods solemne worship then were the Iewes and as Uenerable Hooker sayth The voluntary scandalous contempt of that rest from labour wherewith God is publikely served we cannot too severely correct and bridle Another end of this rest is mentioned Deut. 5. 14. viz that there might be a time of rest allowed to servants and labourers for their refreshment And this no lesse concernes us then it did them for necessity of nature requires some time of remission from labour and religion teacheth us to be mercifull even to our beasts and much more to our servants who are our brethren But this is not so connected with the observance of the day of Gods publique worship but that it may at other times be supplyed yet is then so far requisite as it makes for the solemne performances of the duties of the day that all as well servants as others may joyne together in the service of God which while they doe they at once enjoy the refreshment of their bodyes and freedome to refresh their soules with holy and religious exercises But this rest as it was prescribed to the Iews had yet a further end in regard of which it was exacted so strictly and beyond that which eyther the solemne service of God or the necessary refreshment of labouring persons did require And that was figurative for the signifying of things past present and future 1. Things past and so it was a memoriall of Gods resting from his worke of Creation and as the day which they observed so the strict rest upon that day served as a sign of the cōmon benefit of Creation which they thereby acknowledged to bee Gods work when they celebrated that day wherein God rested from creating sanctified it by an holy and totall surcease from their owne workes And this end is assigned by God himselfe and annexed to the commandement as a principal reason of the institution of it Secondly it was a memoriall likewise of their deliverance out of Egypt so expressely said to bee Deut. 5. 15. where in the repetition of the Law this reason is added instead of the former God is therefore sayd to command them to keepe the Sabbath that they might remember their servitude in Egypt and their deliverance from thence Againe the Sabbath was a signe also of their present condition and a note to distinguish them from all other people they being then the onely peculiar people of God whom hee had separated and sanctified to himselfe For a signe of which peculiar sanctification they were commanded to observe the Sabbath as we read Exod. 31. 13. Ezech. 20. 12. 3. Lastly the rest of the Sabbath was a Type whereby was prefigured that rest which remained for the people of God to be purchased for them by Christ Into which rest they which believe do enter and shall have the full possession thereof in the Kingdome of glory when after all their works finished they shall rest from their labours And this rest the Apostle designing by the name of a Sabbatisme intimates the prefiguring of it by that Sabbath which the people of God under the Law were to observe So that as the place of this Celestiall and eternall rest was shadowed out by the promised Land so the rest it selfe for the nature condition of it was no lesse presignified by their usuall Sabbaths Now in relation to these good things which were thus vailed under the outward observation of this rest it was very requisite that the rest whereby they were represented should be as strict as might be for the more exact the figure is the better it signifies and the more strictly the rest was observed the more lively was the representation of those things which it aymed at To this if we add the condition of those to whom it was enjoyned we shall have the compleate reason why it was with that strictnesse commanded and exacted the violation of it with such severity punished For first the Iewes though the people of God heire Lord of all yet being as the Apostle saith a child differed not from a servant and as servants were to be held in bondage under the strict yoke of outward observances of this among the rest till the fulnesse of time came when God sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the law to redeem them
things not absolutely necessary so as thereby the service of God the due preparation thereto be not hindered under which the use of honest and seemly recreations after the publike dutyes of the Day are finished may be comprehended For though it cannot be denied that a man may commendably spend the whole day in workes of piety and devotion yet that cannot prescribe to all Christians or infringe their liberty For it is one thinge to exhorte to a thing as commendable another to urge it as necessary one thing to say this or that is a good worke and is wel done at this or that time another to enjoyn it by way of Precept so as at such time it may not be omitted nor other worke permitted And the reason is because Gods affirmative Precepts though they warrant and commend the workes that they enjoyne and make them good and commendable whensoever they are performed yet they bind not precisely to any determinate time for their performāce For example we are commanded to pray and that continually so that he that is most frequent in prayer observes this Precept best and deserves the praise of a devout and religious man yet he that prayes not at this or at that time when haply another doth cannot therefore be sayd to sin and much lesse bee counted irreligious or profane David prayed gave thanks unto God at midnight so did S. Paul and Silas and surely those Godly Soules were blessedly employed but shall wee therefore condemne him who doth not the like S. Paul also being to depart from Troas continued his Sermon till midnight on the Sunday and no doubt but he did well yet no man will therefore prescribe the like length to every Sunday Sermon The case is the same in this businesse we have in hand for we doe not presently affixe these duties to the day which wee say may be commendably on that day performed nor on the other side doe we disallow the spending of the whole Sunday in holy and religious actions because we dare not rigidly tye all men so to do or lay it upon them by way of Precept as if God had expresly commanded that time to be no otherwise spent There is a good and a safe use of that distinction of Precepts and Counsells though the Romanists abuse it to the patronising of their imaginary workes of super erogation and things in themselves good without relation to any determinate time we may wish exhort and counsell men to performe at any time when wee cannot by Precept impose them upon all Wee know our Saviour commended some things to his Disciples with a Let him that is able to receive it recieve it advising and exciting all to that which nowing the infirmity of many hee would not exact by his authority as necessary to be performed by all And in this case wee may doe well to imitate him considering that it is no where enjoyned in Scripture and that such is the condition of many that they are not capable of such an injunction as namely those who by reason of their mean education or naturall parts are not fitted for long meditation requisite for the spending of the vacant time of the Day and to whom in regard of their hard labour in the weeke dayes it is a mercy to permit some bodily recreation on this day which certainely cannot be displeasing to him who hath said I will have mercy not Sacrifice And if they who use to judge the use of all recreation on this day sinfull had known what that meaneth they would not have condemned the guiltlesse If any thinke that God hath so commanded let him produce the place of Scripture and I will quickly recant The places which are usually alledged for that purpose and wherewith men are so frighted and thundred against out of the Pulpet being intended for the Iewes and that in regard of that speciall positive Precept given for the strict rest upon their Sabbath cannot with any shew of reason bee extended to Christians when both Day and Precept are out of date But haply some may yet further contend that though the Day bee changed yet the equity of it still remaines and that they may argue thence à pari or as some thinke à minori as from the lesse to the greater That if the Iewes upon their Sabbath which was instituted in memory of the Creation and of their deliverance out of Egypt ought to doe no worke nor so much as to speake their owne words and that for the whole day then by the like reason nay much rather ought Christians so to doe on their Sabbath or Sunday which is consecrated to the memory of a farre more glorious worke the worke of our Redemption accomplished in the resurrection of our Saviour Here in this kinde of reasoning there is some truth but as it is too common it is over-strayned and so is but a meere colour to countenance that for which it is brought and not any solid foundation whereon to build it The truth is Christians have as much if not more cause to celebrate the Redemption of mankind by a solemne weekely Commemoration as ever the Iewes had to celebrate the Creation of the world or their deliverance out of Egypt and this may serve as a good ground to justifie the Institution of the Lords Day and the Churches practise in observing it But this truth is overstrained being applied to the manner of Celebration which was peculiar to the Jewes and accommodated to the then-State of the Church which was as hath beene shewed to be held under the yoke of a strict outward rest in expectation and for the prefiguring of that eternall rest which now Christ hath actually purchased and therefore injuriously laid upon Christians who are freed from that yoke under which they groaned And they may as well upon the same ground conclude against making of fires and dressing of meate upon the Sunday and make the gathering of a few sticks upon that Day to deserve no lesse now then hee suffered for doing the like upon the Sabbath So that wee may say to those who thus argue as hee in Saint Augustine upon farre better ground then he did Either let us be Christians and keepe the Lords Day or let us bee Iewes and observe the Sabbath But is it not reason that God should have one whole day in seven given unto him now as well as heretofore Yes certainely but yet with such difference as suites with the different condition of the Church that now is from that which then was that being guided by the spirit of feare this of love that in a state of bondage under the unsupportable burthen of legall Ceremonies this in a state of liberty and under Christs easie yoake In a word they Iewes and we Christians and this being considered we may be said to give God a Day no lesse now then they then though in that Day wee
houres for the dayly sacrifices the building of Synagogues throughout the land to heare the word of God and to pray in when they came not up to Ierusaleme the Feast of the Dedication which was solemnised even by our Saviour and yet never spoken of in the Law and many more which the Church without any particular command onely following the light of reason in her discretion judged meete And certainly the Church of Christ hath not now lesse power or priviledge then the Jewish Church then had to which it is no way inferiour but farre superiour in regard of the measure of grace and the presence of the spirit of Christ by which it is assisted as in other things so in ordaining Lawes for the edification of the Church Now least any should thinke it a matter of indifferencie to obey or disobey the Orders of the Church which are thus constituted without the expresse command of God in Scripture and that the transgressions of such Constitutions are no sinnes I will close this point with that which worthy Hooker from whom I have borrowed the greatest part of this last discourse hath judiciously and fully delivered to this purpose Vnto Lawes thus made saith he and received by a whole Church they which live within the bosome of that Church must not thinke it a matter indifferent either to yeeld or not to yeeld obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My sonne keepe thy Fathers commandement saith Salomon and forget not thy mothers instruction binde them both alwayes about thine heart It doth not stand with the duty which wee owe to our Heavenly Father that to the Ordinance of our Mother the Church we should shew ourselves disobedient Let us not say we keepe the commandements of the one when wee breake the Law of the other for unlesse we observe both wee obey neither Yea that which is more the Lawes thus made God himselfe doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them Him Thus hee with much more to the same purpose Which I therefore thought good to adde that no man might think that while I ascribe it to its true Originall I goe about to impaire the authority of it or to withdraw any thing from the due observance of it And thus I have done with this second Question viz. When and by whom the Sunday or Lords Day was instituted These things thus discussed and cleared it may now seeme superfluous to enquire into the liberty that wee Christians have how farre it may justly be extended in regard of ordinary labours upon the Sunday For if it be granted that the strict rest on the Sabbath was Ceremoniall and abrogated with the Day and that the Day which we keepe is not by vertue of the fourth Commandement but by the custome or Constitution of the Church It wil not be hard for any to conclude that Christians are not bound to rest on that day from all works further then the duties of the day and they who enjoyned it require Yet for more full satisfaction I will adde some-what more particularly concerning those two Questions that remaine To enquire then first What works the lewes might doe or their Sabbath This wil easily be dispatcht in as much as herein the Scripture is very plaine and little or no difference of opinion among Divines Yet will it not be altogether needlesse in regard that the liberty we now have under the Gospell when it is compared with theirs under the Law will the better appeare Now these workes are fitly reduced under three heads The first of which are Workes of necessity such as could not well be deferred or prevented Of which sort are reckoned divers which how ever Pharisaicall superstition had prevailed with the people to scruple at yet were never in the intention of the Law-giver prohibited them as may appeare by the doctrine practise of our Saviour who was both wayes the best expositor of the Law and who both wayes came not to destroy but to fulfill it And among those thus allowed by our Saviour we finde the providing of foode in the case of hunger the watering and by the like reason the foddering of cattell the saving them from imminent danger Whence by analogie and congruity of reason wee may conclude the lawfulnesse of many more things of the like nature as that of Mattathias and his company resolving to fight upon the Sabbath to save their lives So the quenching of an house on fire the saving of corne and other necessary substance from perishing and the like To which wee may adde workes communis honestatis as the decent attiring of our selves and all other workes which necessity of nature hath imposed upon men and thereby allowed as fit to be done The second sort of workes permitted them were workes of mercie and charity as to visite the sicke heale the diseased and the like which wee finde approved by our Saviours often practise and together with those before-mentioned justified by that axiome of his The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath that is according to Erasmus's Glosse it is fit that the observation of the Sabbath should give place to mans benefit and not that man should perish for the Sabbath as also by that of the Prophet by him cited God will have mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather have the miseries of men relceved then the letter of the Law observed The third and last sort of works were workes of piety belonging to the service of God as to reade the Law to teach the people to circumcise children to offer Sacrifice with their attendants as to make fires for them to slay and prepare the beasts for these workes though servile in themselves being directed to the service of God were sacred and no way violating the Sabbaths rest So our Saviour testifies that notwithstanding these workes done by the Priests in the Temple yet the Priests were blamelesse and not transgressours of the Law And the Jewes had it among their traditions that in the Temple there was no Sabbath Intimating that the Sabbaths rest must give place to those things which were to be done by the Priest in the Temple for the service of God Having seene what might be done on the Sabbath let us now see whether and what liberty Christians now have on the Sunday and how farre that liberty is to be extended which is the last part of our Inquirie And here though some few transported with a heedlesse zeale of maintayning the dignity of this day have not strucke to affirme that the Iewes had as much liberty as we have that we are as much restrained as they were Yet the most even of the strictest and most precise exactors of the Sundayes rest doe grant a liberty which Christians now have more then the Iewes had But what liberty this is wherein it consists how
institution of the Lords day But I have too long digressed yet not without cause in as much as they who seeme so zealous for the giving to God his due time refuse notwithstanding to give him that which the regular piety of the Ancient and our owne Mother Church hath ever upon so sound reason consecrated to him I returne now to answere another objection which they frame against the extending of our Christian liberty to the use of recreations on the Lords day The liberty of Christians say they ought to be spirituall and not in carnall and common things and therefore cannot bee extended to patronize recreations or ordinary labours on the Sunday but that they are as unlawfull on that day as ever they were on the Sabbath To this I answere that Christian liberty as it respects the things from which we are freed is not meerely spirituall but extends it selfe to carnall and common things also for thereby wee are freed not onely from the guilt and condemnation of sinne and the raigning power of it which are things spivituall but also from the servitude of the Ceremoniall Law which among other respects which it had was as a Schoole-Master or Tutour whereby the Church in her nonage or infancie was to bee kept under the Elements of the world as the Apostle calls them that is tyed to the observation of dayes and moneths and yeares and meates and drinks which being in themselves indifferent were yet forbidden the Church of those times that their bondage under these might nourish in them the hope and expectation of the promised Messias in whom they were to have deliverance and so lead or rather drive them to beleeve in Him Now when the fulnesse of time was come and that Christ was exhibited the Church being then no longer under age is not subject to those observances but for any tye of that Law of Moses now upon it enjoyes the free use and exercise of these things as indifferent As then there were many things which in themselves and to us now are indifferent prohibited to the Jewes so as they might not eate of all meates though otherwise wholsome they might not weare all kinde of garments though usefull and profitable c. So there were some workes in themselves not sinfull nor at other times unlawfull prohibited to be done at some speciall times in regard of the peculiar observance then due to those times which now when those times cease to be observed can by no meanes bee accounted sinfull or unlawfull Granting therefore that ordinary labours and all bodily recreations were on the Sabbath unlawfull yet being in themselves not sinfull and so under the Gospell indifferent they cannot be so upon our Sunday I answere further that I know no reason why honest recreations moderate feasting and such like expressions of rejoycing may not fitly be counted a part of the externall observance and sanctification of this day in as much as it is solemnized in memory of the resurrection of our Blessed Saviour and so our redemption fully wrought to which we may with S. Augustine apply that of the Psalmist This is the Day which the Lord hath made wee will rejoyce and be glad in it And as on the day of his Passion and other dayes appointed for solemne humiliation we expresse the sorrow of our hearts by our mourning and neglected attire by Fasting and abridging our selves of those delights which use to refresh our natures at which times The voyce of the Vyoll and of the Harpe the voyce of the Bridegroome and the voyce of the Bride are unseasonable so on the day of his resurrection to expresse our joy and rejoycing by our arraying our selves in our best attire by Feasting and other acts of cheerefulnesse is most agreeable to the solemnity of that Day Of which we may say in the words of Nehemiah and Ezra This Day is holy unto the Lord your God mourne not nor weepe but eate of the fat and drinke of the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared for this Day is holy unto the Lord. And however some men will have every fasting day a Sabbath and every Lords Day a fasting day not allowing either the dressing or liberall use of Gods creatures and therefore judging it inconvenient to celebrate marriages on that day yet the Church of God in better times condemned Fasting on the Lords Day as unlawfull and most incongruous and disagreeable to the use of that Day which was ordained as a Festivall and day of mirth and rejoycing For which end also the Church in her most ancient times had on that Day their Agapae or Love-feasts as for the refreshing of the poore and for the nourishing of mutuall love and amity so also for the unanimous expression of joy in all sober mirth and in the free though temperate use of Gods creatures Upon which ground doubtlesse wee may conclude the lawfulnesse of the use of such recreations feastings and other testifications of rejoycing upon the Lords Day as are in themselves honest and are so used as they prove no hinderances to the service of God which is the proper worke of the Day Besides even the Iewes themselves though out of superstition they did for the most part overdoe this Precept of the Sabbath abstaining from those things which they might have done without any violation of Gods commandement yet accounted their Sabbath a Feast not a Fast a day of rejoycing and not of sorrow or humiliation and judged it not unlawfull to make Feasts upon that Day as is evident by that Feast made upon the Sabbath by a chiefe Pharisee one of their strictest Sabbatarians whereat our Saviour himselfe who was no Sabbath-breaker vouchsafed his presence among many others that were invited And Paulus Burgensis himselfe a Iew reports that the Iewes held themselves bound to eate three meales that day which on other dayes they used not And Syranus another of the same Nation saith That the Hebrew Doctors held that the word Remember was prefixed to this Commandement that if they had any pretious garment or any other thing of price They should remember to keepe it till the Sabbath to give it at first a Sabbath-dayes wearing I am not of their minde but thinke that word prefixed for higher and more important reasons yet I verily beleeve that their conceit did speak their usuall custome of apparelling themselves in their most costly and best garments as best befitting the joy of that high Festivall which as one hath well observed hath this singular priviledge to be a day of rest and holinesse of delight and Feasting unto the world and therefore saith hee This day is not described by evening and morning as were the other six which consisted of light and darknesse but this is all day or light figuring out our perpetuall joyes And no question but that Day which was the memoriall of Gods resting from his worke when he rejoyced in
the works of his hands so the Chaldee Paraphrast expounds Gods resting on the seaventh day and of the deliverance from the Aegyptian Bondage was celebrated with mirth and rejoyoing so that I can hardly be induced to thinke that on their Sabbath day they were bound to abstaine from all kinde of recreations but that they did or at least might use such expressions of joy mirth as at their other Festivalls were usuall among them as feasting singing dancing and the like which I conceive were no way forbidden in the commandement which onely seemes to ayme at workes of toyle or such as are servile or undertaken for profit or gaine or at least that might hinder them in the service of God and not to exclude all recreations which though they may haply in a large sense be termed workes yet being such as doe refresh not weary nature and being so used as that the worship of God might notwithstanding be duly and solemnly performed cannot be said to crosse the intent of the Law which was the decent and solemne service of God and the testification of their freedome from Egyptian servitude But let this passe as a private conceit yet sure I am that Tostatus whom Doctor Willet approves saith They were not bound to attend all the day upon Gods service And the same Doctor Willet expounding these words Abide yee every man in his place Let no man goe out of his place on the seaventh day saith They were not to goe forth that is with intent to gather Manna which lay round about the Hoast or to doe any other businesse they were not forbidden all kinde of walking and going out for their solace and recreation Certainly then Christians cannot justly be blamed if on the Lords day God be solemnly and decently served at fit times and no other worke entertained to the hinderance of this though every moment of that Day be not spent in performance of the acts of Gods worship nor the vacant space observed with a superstitious rest which shall exclude all other works and all even lawfull recreations which to exact at the hands of Christians what is it but to surpasse the Jewes in superstition about the Sabbath and having only changed the day in dishonour and contempt of the Jewes to require notwithstanding the same Ceremoniality of observance which what fruits it hath had or can have I cannot see save the engendring of endlesse scruples and inextricable doubts and the needlesse wounding of the consciences of many well-meaning people when they have no sure guide to direct their practise and when that which is required is beyond the ability of mortalls to performe For I will appeale to the consciences of these rigid Task-masters whether ever they or any other did yet or could possibly keepe the Lords day in that strict manner as they urge it But haply this little moves them who being taught that it is impossible to keepe Gods Commandements will therefore the rather be induced to thinke it is commanded because they are unable to keepe it Yet sure our Saviour would never have stiled his yoke easie and his burthen light had this strict observance of the Lords Day beene a part of it and Gods Commandements so as hee now under the Gospel requires them to bee done and with the assistance of his grace wherewith he seconds them whatever men rashly say of them are not grievous much lesse impossible to be done To set downe briefly and plainely that which in more words hath beene hitherto driven at and it is but this There are three things considerable in the Sunday or Lords day 1. A Day 2. That Day 3. The manner of celebrating it The first is Gods immediate precept The other two not so but mediate and by the power he hath given to his Church First God commanded some time wherein men setting aside all worldly businesse and thoughts should apply themselves to the duties of his solemne and publique Worship and this is the substance or that which is Morall in the fourth Commandement Secondly the Custome or Constitution of the Church warranted by the Apostles practise and the honour vouchsafed unto it by our Saviour himselfe determined that time or day to the Sunday or first day of the week secondly prescribed how and when for the decent time and manner of performing those duties By these our liberty is limited which must not be without necessity extended to the violation of either of them Hence then 1. Hee sinnes that doth not separate some time for God c. as violating the immediate precept of GOD in the fourth Commandement 2. He sinnes no lesse that for this end observes not the Sunday and that in that decent manner which the nature of the duties and the authority of the Church hath enioyned and this hee doth in two respects First because hee violates Gods mediate Command who hath authorized the Church in his right and by his power to ordaine such things so that to neglect the Church in this case is to neglect God Secondly because the immediate Precept of God is wrapt up in the Precept of the Church by which that which by him was left indefinite is defined and determined But that liberty either for ordinary labours or honest recreations which may stand with the observation of these Precepts no man can justly account sinfull unlesse hee can produce not the phansies of some Zelotes or the opinion of this or that man though accounted never so good or learned but some other Precept given by God or those whom God hath commanded us to obey For it is an undoubted Maxime which the Apostle delivers Where no Law is there is no transgression The prohibition of the Law only is that whereby things are exempted from our power and liberty which otherwise except in case of scandall remaines intire And this alone is sufficient to terminate this Dispute upon which wee will joyne issue with those that are contrary minded being not more confident that they can shew no binding Precept for the restraining of our Christian liberty in this case then willing to retract what hath beene said if they shall prove themselves able to doe it FINIS What the Morall law is What the ceremoniall law is What the judiciall law is Aquin. 1. 2. qu. 101. Col. 2. 17. Aq. 1. 2. q. 100. Moral precepts not all equally belonging to the law of nature Aq. ibid. a Inter emnia illa 10. praecepta solum ibi quod de Sabbato positum est sigurate observandum praecipitur Aug. ep 118 cap. 12. Caetera ibi praecepta propriè sicut praecepta sunt sine ulla figura a significatione observamus Idem Ibid. b Inst l. 2. 8 §. 28. Vinbratile veteres nuncupare solent Dinudia tantum exparte rem attingunt Id. Ibid. c Sabbati praeceptum est partim Morale partim Ceremoniale unde into contineâ—…er aliquid aternum et aliquid temporarium Mart. Thes in Exod. 2.
at all take those places of Scripture which so severely prohibit all work upon the Sabbath as if they did no lesse belong to us now then heretofore to the Iewes and by this meanes those precepts threatnings and promises which concerned the observation of the Sabbath are pressed upon us point blanck Whereas indeed they concerne us onely indirectly and cannot without fetching a compasse be alledged at all for our Sunday Now the Scripture being so expresse as it is apprehended for the strict observance of our Sunday under the name of the Sabbath no marvell if men have made it a prime Case of Conscience and that so many scruples are dayly raised and so many traditions broached about the beginning and ending of the Sabbath about the works of a mans particular Calling what they are and how farre lawfull on that Day what are the proper duties of the Day and the like For the cleare resolution therefore of this Question Whether the use of Recreations may stand with the due observation of the Lords Day it is convenient that I have some recourse to the Sabbath Where because I love not Cramben saepiùs coctam apponere or to stuffe my discourse with a tedious explanation of those things which are commonly known and every where to be found I will with as much brevity as the cause will suffer inquire into these 4. particulars 1. Whether and how farre forth the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is moral and perpetuall and so belonging to Christians 2. When and by whom the Lords day was instituted 3. What workes the lews might doe on their Sabbath 4. Whether and what liberty Christians now have on the Sunday more then they had and how farre that liberty is to be extended To begin with the first The law which God gave unto his people the Iewes according to the three-fold variety of the object or things prescribed is three-fold Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall The Morall is that which concernes the manners of men and belongs to them as men and this commands those things which are in themselves acceptable and well-pleasing to God and those which hee will have all men every where and at all times to observe as the perpetuall and unchangeable rule of living being the expresse image of the minde of God according to which hee who is the Law-giver judges it meete and right that the reasonable creatures should order their lives The Ceremoniall belongs to men as joyned together in that Society which is called the Church and this containes those precepts which concerne the externall worship of God and were given by him to the Iewish Church in accommodation to the times in which the Church was under age and under the promise and therefore instituted for the signifying prefiguring and sealing of the truth of the promises made to them to be fulfilled in the exhibition of our Saviour and withall for the preservation of order and decencie in their Ecclesiasticall meetings and performances The judiciall belongs to men as joyned in a civill Society or Cōmon-wealth contayning the forme of civill government to be used by them tending to their good as they were a Society and to the preservation and exacting of the eutward worship of God and the discipline thereof as it was commanded in the Morall and Ceremoniall Lawes So that the Ceremoniall Law determined the Morall in order to God the Politicall or judiciall in order to men in a civill society and both in accommodation to that state of the Church And these though they have in them something which is juris moralis and so farre forth are contained under the Morall precepts yet being fitted to serve that state of the Church which was to be held in expectation of the Messias when the time came that he was actually exhibited and so the promise fulfilled the shadowes were then of no longer use the body being come and therefore at the time of the death of Christ they were abrogated de jure so that they became unnecessary and unprofitable and had their power of obligation taken away And afterward when by the Apostles doctrine Christians came to understand that Christ was the end of the Law and when the Temple the seate of their religion and the place destined to the use of those ceremonies was destroyed they were de facto actually and fully taken away and those things which before the death of Christ were commanded and in that interim betweene his death and the destruction of the Temple which was the space allotted for the solemne funeralls of the Iewish Synagogue were tolerable though already dead became from that time forward deadly and intolerable So that onely the Morall Law remaines now in force for the practise of Christians The ceremoniall and judiciall excepting in that wherein they are reducible to this are antiquated and out of date Now the precepts of the Morall Law are summarily comprehended in the Decalogue or ten Commandements which had this prerogative peculiar to them that they were delivered not by Moses but by God himselfe and by him written in tables of stone and preserved in the Arke to shew their dignity above others and to note out the perpetuity of observance which was due unto them Where before wee apply these things to our present purpose two things are to be noted First That howsoever all the precepts of the Morall law belong to the Law of Nature as being agreeable to reason which is the rule of Humane actions and are in that respect of perpetuall observance yet all of them are not of the same ranke nor belong in the same degree and manner to the law of Nature There are some things which by the instinct of nature and naturall light of the understanding wee presently see to be good or bad and which are so plaine that without any great consideration they may by the first principles or common notions implanted in us be either approved or rejected and these are absolutely of the law of nature Others there are that require more consideration of circumstances and the use of Discourse to apprehend and judge of them and these are so of the law of nature that notwithstanding they require the helpe of discipline by which those which are ignorant and not able by diligent consideration or discourse to attaine to the knowledge of them may be instructed by the wise and learned And lastly there are some to the knowledge whereof humane reason stands in neede of Divine Instruction And these two latter sorts especially the last though they in some sort belong to the Law of Nature and were haply at our first Creation written in the tables of mans heart in more plaine Characters and more easie to be read then now since the fall they are may in respect of the other be termed morall non ratione naturae sed disciplinae not in regard of nature dictating but in regard of Discipline informing nature Secondly that
He alone could change the day of the Sabbath that was Lord of it that is Christ So that according to him Christ was the Author of this change and that either mediately by his Apostles whom he assisted by his Spirit in the Institution of it no lesse then he did in the doctrine which they taught or else as hee holds to bee most probable immediately and in his owne person and the probability of this he labours to prove by divers Arguments wherein hee doth as one hath well observed in the like case as if one should demand a Legacy by force and vertue of some written Testament wherein there being no such thing specified he pleades that there it must needs be and bringeth arguments from the love and good will which alwayes the Testator bore him imagining that these or the like proofes will evince a Testament to have that in it which other men by reading can no where finde Certainely it is a bold and a strange course for men to adventure to argue that God must needs have done the thing which they imagine was to bee done whereas in matters that concerne the actions of God the most dutifull and safe way on our part is to search what God hath done and with meekeresse to admire that rather then to dispute what he in congruity of reason ought to doe Hee might therefore have spared all the reasons he brings and in stead thereof to have alledged one place out of the New Testament which doth command the change of the Day especially seeing he denies it and that for many reasons by him there urged to bee an unwritten Tradition which seeing hee doth not nor indeede can doe what doth he else by all his arguments but endeavour to lay an aspersion of imperfection upon the Scriptures and of neglect in Christ himselfe of that office which as the great Prophet of his Church belonged to him As if unlesse hee had beene as carefull to appoint the observation of this day as Moses was to appoint the old Sabbath hee could not absit verbo blasphemia be as faithfull in the house of God as Moses was But farre be such blasphemous thoughts from us farre be it from us to measure the faithfulnesse of our blessed Saviour by our phansies or to judge him unfaithfull because he did omit that which our shallow conceits judge necessary and fit for him to doe Wee know that the high Priest of our profession Christ Iesus was faithfull to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithfull in all his house And this faithfulnesse of his was by him sufficiently demonstrated in that hee fully declared the will of his Father to the world in all things to be beleeved and done and shewed how and what worship Christians must give unto God though the circumstances of that worship as Time and Place in as much as concerned the particular designing of either hee left to be determined by the Church whom he promised to be with to the end of the world And as he cannot be said to be lesse faithfull in the house of God then Moses or Salomon who provided the one a Tabernacle the other a Temple because he did not appoint set places for Gods worship so neither can hee be justly taxed for not appointing the set times for the same these two circumstances of time and place being of equall necessity and use and joyned together by God himselfe Lev. 19. 30. Yee shall keepe my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuarie I am the Lord. Neither is the difference of Places more taken away now under the Gospel then of Times But as the true worshippers of God are not tyed to worship either in Ierusalem or any other peculiar place but may worship him in spirit and truth in all places lifting up pure hands so neither are they tyed to any speciall time or day but may pray continually and at all times And therefore they who are so indifferent for the place that they can be content to account a Wood a Parlor or a Barne place good enough for Christians to meete in for the performance of Gods publick worship have no reason to complaine for want of a set day or time for the same purpose The truth is that that peculiar blessing which God once bestowed upon the Sabbath of the Temple thereby differenced them from all others is enlarged to all times places and any day and place may by the Church be dedicated and set apart for Gods worship and being so dedicated set apart they inherit that holinesse which was once peculiar unto the in relation to the duties then there performed to God who in regard of the abundance of grace vouchsafed now in the time of the Gospell may be said to be more present at such times and in such places then heretofore in those of his own assigning But it was not necessary that Christ himself or his Apostles from him should by expresse precept particularly designe either of these if any think such precept to be necessary let them shew the place of Scripture where such precept is to be found or else confesse the Scripture to be deficient in things necessary and so forsake their colours of reformation and passe over into the Campe of the Romanists If they be ashamed of this let them learne and confesse That however it be necessary that some time be dedicated to Gods service yet the determination to this or that particular day is not necessary to be defined by Scripture which they may perhaps the more easily be brought to see if they consider that in this it is no otherwise then it is with other things of equall necessity with this in the generall as the Sacraments Fasting and Prayer it selfe which yet for the particular when and how often they are to be used is not any where in Scripture defined nor necessary so to be But some who will have the Lords day so called because Christ himselfe instituted it say That the Apostles by the authority of that Spirit that alway assisted them in their ministeriall office did alter the day and themselves kept and ordained it to be kept in all Churches as may appeare 1. Cor. 16. 1. Where he saith Every first day of the weeke when yee meete together c. But certainly it is most evident even to a vulgar consideration that no such thing doth appeare out of that place For what doth Saint Paul say there That hee would have Christians meete every first day of the weeke to serve God No surely there is not a word of meeting in the text but what is foysted in to deceive the credulous Reader That which S. Paul saith is That on that day hee would have every one lay by him in store as God hath prospered him This implies neither the meeting together of the Church on that day nor the performance of any religious duty but onely a repositing or laying up
that were vnder the law that wee might receive the adoption of sonnes Secondly the Iews by reason of their long abode in a place of continuall servile toyle could not suddainely be weaned and drawne unto contrary offices without some impression of terror whence the severity with which this duty was enjoyned and the violation thereof punished was to them most necessary And besides we know that there is nothing more needfull then to punish with extremity the first transgressors of those Lawes that require a more exact observation for many ages to come These considerations then being peculiar unto them that strict rest which was thereupon exacted being but accidentally annexed to the principall sanctification of the Sabbath cannot belong unto us by vertue of that command by which it was enjoyned them And this is confessed even by those that stand most for the observation of the Sabbath who grant that the strictnesse of the rest on the Sabbath was Ceremoniall and did belong to the Iewes onely and is abrogated by the death of Christ So Elton And Amesius It may be granted that there was somewhat a more strict observation of the Sabbath commanded in those times as fitted to the pedagogy and time of servitade which obteynes not in all ages So he and generally the most of those which propugne the Doctrine of the Sabbath To give a briefe and full resolution to the first question propounded viz. whether and how farre forth the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is morall and perpetuall and so belonging to us Christians To the former part I say the fourth Commandement is partly morall and partly Ceremoniall To the latter I say First it is morall and perpetuall that some time be dedicated to the solemne publique worship and service of God Secondly that one day in the revolution of seaven be consecrated to this end is not morall yet very convenient and fitly observed and retayned by the Church of Christ Thirdly that the particular seaventh day which the Iewes observed is neither morall nor sit to bee observed being altogether abrogated and out of date ever since the death of Christ Lastly the resting from ordinary labours as it is connected with the dutyes of Gods worship and a means without which they cannot be performed is no lesse necessary on the dayes consecrated to that end now then heretofore but as it concerned the Iewish Sabbath it is together with the Sabbath abrogated So that Christians are not bound either to rest on that day which the Iewes did or to rest on their owne Sabbaths or dayes consecrated to Gods service with the same strictnesse which was enjoyned the Iewes on theirs Thus much shall serve to have spoken of the first generall question Having explained the nature of the fourth Commandement touching the Iewish Sabbath I come now to speake of the Lords Day in which that which was Morall in that Commandement is and ever hath beene observed by Christians The institution of which when and by whom it was being the second generall part of our inquirie And here all Divines are not of one opinion Some ground this no lesse then the Iewish Sabbath upon the fourth Commandement which say they includes both the Sabbath of the Iewes and of the Christians Because the Lord doth not say Remember that thou keepe holy the seventh Day but Remember that thou keepe holy the Sabbath Day that is the Day of rest which before the comming of Christ was the seventh from the Creation but afterward the first day of the weeke or Lords Day But these men while they over greedily seeke after a divine foundation for the Lords Day doe not consider that they stretch the Precept beyond the intent of the Lawgiver For though it bee granted that the Lord doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day but the day of ceasing indeterminately yet seeing in the following explication which God added it is determined unto that particular seventh which was the seventh from the Creation to which it expresly is referred as to the speciall reason of the Institution the Sabbath there cannot without forcing and manifest absurdity bee said to bee as the Genus to the Iewish and Christian Sabbath and to include both For is it not manifestly absurd and unbeseeming a rationall man and much more the wisdome of the Supreame Law-giver to say God in sixe dayes made heaven and earth and rested the seventh and for that cause sanctified the seventh Day Ergo Hee will have men in imitation of him to rest sometime viz. before the comming of Christ on that day whereon hee rested and sometime viz. after Christs comming to rest on the day in which hee began to worke Neither can this absurdity bee salved as some have endeavoured to doe by saying there is alwayes more meant in the Precepts and prohibitions then in words are expressed for those things which are so meant without particular expression must either be necessarily connected with or some way subordinat to that which is expressed that so it may be included in it Sure I am it ought no way to be excluded as we see this is by Gods owne exposition of himselfe and the reason which hee alledgeth which can no way agree both to the Jewish Sabbath and the Lords Day Again others urge the Institution of the Lords Day as founded upon Gods sanctification of the seventh Day at the Creation which being before all Ceremonies must say they needes binde Christians as well as the Jewes But this labours of the same weaknesse and absurdity which the other did For what day did God sanctifie there Surely not the first day of the Weeke but the seventh from the Creation which they must with the Jewes cry up againe if they will have their argument hold good But besides this the weaknesse of this foundation appeares in that as hath beene shewed they cannot prove that God instituted the Sabbath and commanded it to bee observed from that time forward but onely that Moses there relating the story of the Creation intimates the reason of Gods after Commanding his people to rest upon that Day And lastly granting that to be the Institution which cannot be proved and that not the seaventh day from the Creation as the words expresly say but a seaventh or one in seaven were thereby intended to be perpetuall to belong to us Christians If all this be granted here will yet be but a partiall foundatiō and no compleat institution of that particular day which we observe for all this notwithstanding why might not the second third fourth or any other have beene observed and yet that institution of one in seaven no way violated Others therefore no doubt espying the weaknesse of it forsake this hold and seeke for authority to prove it to be of Divine Institution out of the New Testament And among these Amesius will have it to bee done by Christ himselfe laying this for a ground worke that