kept from the Creation to the Flood 1. Gods rest upon the Seventh day and from what he rested 2. Zanchius conceit touching the Sanctifying of the first Seventh day by Christ our Saviour 3. The like of Torniellus touching the Sanctifying of the same by the Angels in Heaven 4. A general demonstration that the Fathers before the Law did not keep the Sabbath 5. Of Adam that he kept not the Sabbath 6. That Abel and Seth did not keep the Sabbath 7. Of Enos that he kept not the Sabbath 8. That Enoch and Methusalem did not keep the Sabbath 9. Of Noah that he kept not the Sabbath 10. The Sacrifices and devotions of the Ancients were occasional HOW little ground there is whereon to build the original of the Sabbath in the second of Genesis we have at large declared in the former Chapter Yet we deny not but that Text affords us a sufficient intimation of the equity and reason of it which is Gods rest upon that day after all his works that he had made Origen contra Cels l. 6. Not as once Celsus did object against the Christians of his time as if the Lord ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. like to some dull Artificer was weary of his labours and had need of sleep for he spake the word only and all things were made There went no greater labour to the whole Creation than a dixit Dominus De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 14. Therefore Saint Austin rightly noteth nec cum creavit defessus nec cum cessavit refectus est that God was neither weary of working nor refreshed with resting The meaning of the Text is this that he desisted then from adding any thing de novo unto the World by him created as having in the six former days fashioned the Heaven and Earth and every thing in them contained and furnished them with all things necessary both for use and ornament I say from adding any thing de novo unto the World by him created but not from governing the same which is a work by us as highly to be prized as the first Creation and from the which God never resteth Sabbaths and all days are alike in respect of providence in reference to the universal government of the World and Nature Semper videmus Deum operari Hom. 23. in Num. Sabbatum nullum est in quo Deus non operetur in quo non producat Solem suum super bonos malos No Sabbath whereon God doth rest from the administration of the World by him Created whereon he doth not make his Sun to shine both on good and bad whereon he rains not plenty upon the Sinner and the Just as Origen hath truly noted Nor is this more than what our Saviour said in his holy Gospel I work and my Father also worketh Contra Faustum Man l. 16. c. 6. A saying as Saint Augustine notes at which the Jews were much offended our Saviour meaning by those words that God rested not nec ullum sibi cessationis statuisse diem and that there was no day wherein he tended not the preservation of the Creature and therefore for his own part he would not cease from doing his Fathers business ne Sabbatis quidem no though it were upon the Sabbath By which it seemeth that when the Sabbath was observed and that if still it were in force it was not then and would not be unlawful unto any now to look to his estate on the Sabbath day and to take care that all things thrive and prosper which belong unto him though he increase it not or add thereto by following on that day the works of his daily labour And this according to their rules who would have Gods example so exactly followed in the Sabbaths rest who rested as we see from Creation only not from preservation So that the rest here mentioned was as before I said no more than a cessation or a leaving off from adding any thing as then unto the World by him Created Upon which ground he afterwards designed this day for his Holy Sabbath that so by his example the Jews might learn to rest from their wordly labours and be the better fitted to meditate on the works of God and to commemorate his goodness manifested in the Worlds Creation Of any other Sanctification of this day by the Lord our God than that he rested on it now and after did command the Jews that they should sanctifie the same we have no Constat in the Scriptures nor in any Author that I have met with until Zanchies time Indeed he tells us a large story of his own making how God the Son came down to Adam and sanctified this first Sabbath with him that he might know the better how to do the like De creat hominis l. 1. ad finem Ego quidem non dubito c. I little doubt saith he I will speak only what I think without wrong or prejudice to others I little doubt but that the Son of God taking the shape of man upon him was busied all this day in most holy conferences with Adam and that he made known himself both to him and Eve taught them the order that he used in the Worlds Creation exhorted them to meditate on those glorious works in them to praise the Name of God acknowledging him for their Creator and after his example to spend that day for ever in these pious exercises I doubt not finally saith he but that he taught them on that day the whole body of divinity and that he held them busied all day long in hearing him and celebrating with due praises their Lord and God and giving thanks unto him for so great and many benefits as God had graciously vouchsafed to bestow upon them Which said he shuts up all with this conclusion Haec est illius septimi diei benedictio sanctificatio in qua filius Dei una cum patre spiritu sancto quievit ab opere quod facerat This was saith he the blessing and sanctifying of that seventh day wherein the Son of God together with the Father and the Holy Ghost did rest from all the works that they had made How Zanchie thwarts himself in this we shall see hereafter Such strange conceptions See n. 5. though they miscarry not in birth yet commonly they serve to no other use than monsters in the works of nature to be seen and shewn with wonder at all times and sometimes with pity Had such a thing occurred in Pet. Comestors supplement which he made unto the Bible it had been more tolerable The Legendaries and the Rabbins might fairly also have been excused if any such device had been extant in them The gravity of the man makes the tale more pitiful though never the more to be regarded For certainly had there been such a weighty conference between God and Man and so much tending unto information and instruction it is not probable but that
Dion affirms it for the ancient Grecians that they knew it not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ought he could learn Natural 7. and Seneca more punctually that first they learnt the motions of the Planets of Eudoxus who brought that knowledge out of Egypt and consequently could not know the week before And for the Romans though they were well enough acquained with the Planets in their latter times yet they divided not their Calendar into weeks as now they do till near about the time of Dionysius Exiguus who lived about the year of Christ 520. Nor had they then received it in all probability had they not long before admitted Christianity throughout their Empire and therewithal the knowledge of the holy Scriptures where the accempt by weeks was exceeding obvious Therefore according to this rule the Chaldees Persians Greeks and Romans all the four great Monarchies did observe no Sabbaths because they did observe no weeks Which said in this place once for all we resolve it thus that as the Israelites kept no Sabbath before the Law so neither did the Gentiles when the Law was given which proves it one of Moses Ordinances no prescript of nature CHAP. V. The Practice of the Jews in such observances as were annexed unto the Sabbath 1. Of some particular adjuncts affixed unto the Jewish Sabbath 2. The Annual Festivals called Sabbaths in the Book of God and reckoned as a part of the fourth Commandment 3. The Annual Sabbaths no less solemnly observed and celebrated than the weekly were if not more solemnly 4. Of the Parasceue or Preparation to the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals 5. All manner of work as well forbidden on the Annual as the weekly Sabbaths 6. What things were lawful to be done on the Sabbath days 7. Touching the prohibitions of not kindling fire and not dressing meat 8. What moved the Gentiles generally to charge the Jews with Fasting on the Sabbath day 9. Touching this Prohibition Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day 10. All lawful recreations as Dancing Feasting Man-like Exercises allowed and practised by the Jews upon their Sabbaths I Shewed you in the former Chapter the institution of the Sabbath by whom it was first published and to whom prescribed It now remains to see how it was observed how far the People thought themselves obliged by it and in what cases they were pleased to dispense therewith Which that we may the better do we will take notice first of the Law it self what is contained in the same what the Sabbath signifieth and then of such particular observances which by particular statutes were affixed by God to the fourth Commandment either by way of Comment on it or addition to it and after were misconstrued by the Scribes and Pharisees to insnare the People And first not to say any thing in this place of the quid nominis or derivation of the word which Philo and Josephus and the seventy do often render by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã repose or rest Sabbath is used in Scripture to signifie some selected time by God himself deputed unto rest and holiness Most specially and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it pints out unto us the seventh day as that which was first honoured with the name of Sabbath Exod. 16.25 and in the second place those other Festivals which were by God prescribed to the house of Israel and are called Sabbaths also as the others were Of these the one was weekly and the other Annual the New-moons not being honoured with this title in the Book of God though in heathen Authors The weekly Sabbath was that day precisely whereon God rested from the works that he had made which he commanded to be kept for a day of rest unto the Jews that so they might the better meditate on the wondrous works that he had done every seventh day exactly in a continual revolution from time to time Therefore saith Damaseen De side Ortbod l. 4. c. 24. when we have reckoned to seven days ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã our computation of the time runs round and begins anew These as in general and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as before I said they were called Sabbaths so were there some of them that had particular adjuncts whereby to know them from the rest whereof the one was constant and the other casual The constant adjunct is that of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or sabbatum secundo primum as the Latine renders it mention whereof is made in Saint Lukes Gospel Our English reads it on the second Sabbath after the first Cap. 6.1 A place and passage that much exercised mens wits in the former times and brought forth many strange conceits until at last this and the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sophistarum Casaub Exerc. 14. n. 1. and super fluvios manare fontes came to be reckoned in a Proverb as preposterous things Scaliger hath of late untied the knot and resolved it thus Emend Temp. lib. 6. that all the Weeks or Sabbaths from Pasch to Pentecost did take their name ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from the second day of the Feast of Passeover that being the Epoche or point of time from which the fifty days were to be accompted by the Law and that the first Week or Sabbath after the said second day was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the second ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the third ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and so the rest According to which reckoning the second Sabbath after the first as we translate it must be the first Sabbath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from the second day of the Passcover The casual adjunct is that sometimes there was a Sabbath that was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the great Sabbath or as it is in Saint Johns Gospel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã magnus ille dies Sabbati Cap. 19.31 as the Latine hath it And is so called not for its own sake for Casaubon hath rightly noted Exerc. 16. n. 31. nunquam eam appellationem Sabbato tributam reperiri propter ipsum But because then as many other times it did the Passeover did either fall or else was celebrated on a Sabbath Even as in other cases and at other times when any of the greater and more solemn Festivals did fall upon the Sabbath day they used to call it Epist 110. l. 3. Sabbatum Sabba torum a Sabbath of Sabbaths ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Isidore Pelusiotes notes it For that the Annual Feasts were called Sabbaths too is most apparent in the Scriptures especially Levit. 23. where both the Passeover the Feast of Trumpets the Feast of Expiation and the Feast of Tabernacles are severally entituled by the name of Sabbaths The Fathers also note the same ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith Saint Chrysostom and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith Isidore in the place before remembred Hom. in Math. 39. Even the New-moons amongst the Gentiles had the same name also as may appear by
continued the same custom holding the Congregation from morn to noon and that the Jews came thither Fasting as generally men do now unto the Sacrament the better to prepare themselves and their attention for that holy Exercise Sure I am that Josephus tells us In vit sua that at mid-day they used to dismiss the Assemblies that being the ordinary hour for their repast as also that Buxtorfius saith of the modern Jews that ultra tempus meridianum jejunare non licet Syn. Jud. c. 10. it is not lawful for them to fast beyond the noon-tide on the Sabbath days Besides they which found so great fault with our Lords Disciples for eating a few ears of Corn on the Sabbath day are not unlikely in my mind to have aimed at this For neither was the bodily labour of that nature that it should any ways offend them in so high a measure and the defence made by our Lord in their behalf being that of Davids eating of the Shew-bread when he was an hungred is more direct and literal to justifie his Disciples eating than it was their working This abstinence of the Jews that lived amongst them the Romans noted and being good Trenchermen themselves at all times and seasons they used to hit them in the Teeth with their Sabbaths fasting But herein I submit my self to better judgments There was nother Prohibiton given by God about the Sabbath which being misinterpreted became as great a snare unto the Consciences of men as that before remembred of not kindling fire and dressing meat upon the Sabbath viz. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day Which Prohibition being a Bridle only unto the people to keep them in from seeking after Mannah as before they did upon the Sabbath was afterwards extended to restrain them also either from taking any Journey or walking forth into the Fields on the Sabbath days Nay so precise were some amongst them that they accounted it unlawful to stir hand or foot upon the Sabbath ne leviter quispiam se commoveat In Isa 58.13 quod si fecerit legis transgressor sit as St. Hierom hath it Others more charitably chalked them out a way how far they might adventure and how far they might not though in this the Doctors were divided Some made the Sabbath days journey to be 2000 Cubits ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ep. 151. of whom Origen tells us others restrained it to 2000 foot of whom Hierom speaks and some again enlarged it unto six surlongs which is three quarters of a mile For where Josephus hath informed us that Mount Olivet was six furlongs from Hierusalem and where the Scriptures tell us that they were distant about a Sabbath days journey we may perceive by that how much a Sabbath days journey was accounted then But of these things we may have opportunity to speak hereafter In the mean time if the Injunction be so absolute and general as they say it is we may demand of these great Clerks as their Successours did of our Lord and Saviour by what authority they do these things and warrant that which is not warranted in the Text if so the Text be to be expounded Certain I am that ab initio non fuit sic from the beginning was it neither so nor so The Scripture tells us that when the people were in the Wilderness they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day They found him where Not in the Camp he was not so audacious as to transgress the Law in the open view of all the people knowing how great a penalty was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker but in some place far off wherein he might offend without fear or danger Therefore the people were permitted to walk forth on the Sabbath day and to walk further than 2000 soot or 2000 Cubits otherwise they had never found out this unlucky fellow And so saith Philo De vita Mosis l. 3. that they did ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Some of the people going out into the Wilderness that they might find some quiet and retired place in which to make their Prayers to God saw what they looked not for that wretched and prohibited spectacle So that the people were not stinted in their goings on the Sabbath day nor now nor in a long time after as by the course of the ensuing story will at large appear Even in the time of Mannah they did not think themselves obliged not to stir abroad upon the Sabbath or not to travail above such and such a compass in case they did it not out of a meer dstrust in God as before they did to gather Mannah but either for their Meditation or their Recreation What said I for their Recreation what was that permitted yes no doubt it was Though the Commandment did prohibit all manner of work yet it permitted questionless some manner of Pleasures The Sabbaths rest had otherwise been more toilsom than the week-days labour and none had gained more by it than the Ox and Ass Yea this Injunction last related Let none go out of his place on the seventh day had been a greater bondage to that wretched people than all the drudgeries of Egypt Tostatus tells us on that Text non est simpliciter intelligendum c. It is not so to be conceived that on that day the people might not stir abroad or go out of their doors at all but that they might not go to labour or traffick about any worldly businesses Etenim die sabbati ambulari possunt Hebraei ad solaciandum c. For the Jews lawfully might walk forth on the Sabbath day to recreate and refresh themselves so it be not in pursuit of profit Cap. 10. And this he saith on the confession of the Jews themselves ut ipsi communiter confitentur Buxtorfius in his Jewish Synagogue informs us further Permissum est juvenibus ut tempore sabbati currendo spatiando saltando sese oblectent c. It is saith he permitted that their young men may walk and run yea and Dance also on the Sabbath day and leap and jump and use other manlike Exercises in case they do it for the honour of the holy Sabbath This speaks he of the modern Jews men as tenacious of their Sabbath and the rigours of it as any of the Ancients were save that the Essees and the Pharisies had their private flings above the meaning of the Law Of manly Exercises on the Sabbath we shall see more anon in the seventh Chapter And as for Dancing that they used anciently to Dance upon the Sabbath is a thing unquestionable Saint Augustine saith they used it and rebukes them for it not that they danced upon the Sabbath but that they spent and wasted the whole day in dancing There is no question an abuse even of lawful pleasures And this is that which he so often lays unto them Melius tota die soderent quam tota die saltarent In Psal
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
Sacrament was no such easie Ministery but that it did require much labour and many hands to go through with it ââb 2. Buxdorfius thus describes it in his Synagoga Tempore diei octavi matutino ca quae ad circumcisionem opus sunt tempestive parantur c. In the morning of the eighth day all things were made ready And first two seats are placed or else one so framed that two may set apart in it adorned wieh costly Carpets answerable unto the quality of the party Then comes the surety for the Child and placeth himself in the same seat and near to him the Circumciser Next followeth one bringing a great Torch in which were lighted twelve Wax-candles to represent the twelves Tribes of Israel after two Boys carrying two Cups full of red-Wine to wash the Circumcisers mouth when the work is done another bearing the Circumcisers Knife a third a dish of sand whereinto the foreskin must be cast being once cut off a fourth a dish of Oil wherein are linnen clouts to be applyed unto the wound some others spices and strong Wines to refresh those that faint if any should All this is necessarily required as preparations to the Act of Circumcision nor is the Act less troublesom than the preparations make shew of which I would now describe but that I am persuaded I have said enough to make it known how much ado was like to be used about it And though perhaps some of these Ceremonics were not used in this present time whereof we speak yet they grew up and became ordinary many of them before the Jewish Commonwealth was destroyed and ruinated Hom. de Semente ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Where there is Circumcision there must be Knifes and Sponges to receive the Bloud and such other necessaries said Athanasius And not such other only as conclern the work In Joh. l. 4. l. 50. Lib. 7. but such as appertain also to the following Cure Circumciditur curatur homo circumcisus in Sabbato as St. Cyril notes it Which argument our Saviour used in his own defence viz that he as well might make a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day as they one part Now that this Act of Circumcision was a plain breaking of the Sabbath besides the troublesomness of the work is affirmed by many of the Fathers L. 1. Haeres 30. n. 32. By Epiphanius expresly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If a Child was born upon the Sabbath the circumcision of that Child took away the Sabbath And St. Chrysestâm speaks more home than he Hom. 49. in Joh. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Sabbath saith the Father was broke many ways among the Jews but in no one thing more than in Circumcision Now what should move the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath unless it were because that Circumcision was the older ceremony I would gladly learn especially considering the resemblance that was between them in all manner of circumsiances Was Circumcision made to be a token of the Covenant between the Lord of Heaven and the seed of Abraham Gen. 17.17 So was the Sabbath between God and the house of Israel Exod. 31.17 Was Circumcision a perpetual covenant with the seed of Abraham in their generations Gen. 17.7 So was the Sabbath to be kept throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant also Exod 31.16 Was Circumcision so exacted that whosoever was not Circumcised that soul should be cut off from the People of God Gen. 17.14 So God hath said it of his Sabbath that whosoever breaks it or doth any manner of work therein that soul shall be cut off from among the People Exod. 31.14 In all these points there was a just and plain equality between them but had the Sabbath been a part of the Moral Law it must have infinitely gone before Circumcision What then should move the Jews to prefer the one before the other but that conceiving both alike they thought it best to give precedency to the elder and rather break the Sabbath than put off Circumcision to a further day Hence grew it into a common maxim amongst that People Circumcision pellit Sabbatum that Circumcision drives away the Sabbath as before I noted Nor could it be that they conceived a greater or more strict necessity to be in Circumcision than in the Sabbath the penalty and danger as before we shewed you being alike in both for in the Wilderness by the space of 40 years together when in some fort they kept the Sabbath most certain that they Circumcised not one not one of many hundred thousands that were born in so long a time Again had God intended Circumcision to have been so necessary that there was no deferring of it for a day or two he either had not made the Sabbaths rest so exact and rigid or else out of that generul rule had made exception in this case And on the other side had he intended that the Sabbaths resT should have been literally observed and that no manner of work should be done therein he had not so precisely limited Circumcision to the eighth day only Just Martyn cont Tryph. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã yea though it fell upon the Sabbath but would have respited the same till another day The Act of Circumcision was not restrained unto the eighth day so precisely but that it might be as it was sometimes deferred upon occasion as in the case of Moses Children and the whole People in the Wilderness before remembred Indeed it was not to be hastened and performed before Not out of any mystery in the number which might adapt it for that business as some Rabbins thought but because Children till that time are hardly purged of that blood and slime which they bring with them into the world Levit. 22. v. 27. Upon which ground the Lord appointed thus in the Law Levitical When a Bullock or a Sheep or a Goat is brought forth it shall be seven days under the dam and from the eighth day and thence-forth it shall be accepted for an offering to the Lord. This makes it manifest that the Jews thought the Sabbath to be no part of the Morallaw and therefore gave precedency to Circumcision as the older ceremony Not because it was of Moses but of the Fathers that is L. 4. in Joh. c. 49. saith Cyril on that place because they thought not fit to lay aside an ancient custom of their Ancestors for the Sabbaths sake Quia non putabant consuetudinem patrum propter honorem Sabbati contemnendam esse as the Father hath it Nay so far did they prize the one before the other that by this breaking of the Sabbath they were persuaded verily that they kept the Law Moses saith Christ our Saviour gave you Circumcision and you on be Sabbath day Circumcise a man that the Law of Moses should not be broken Job 7.22 It seems that Circumcision was much like Terminus and Juventus in the Toman story who
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
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
upon the Lords day shall yoak his Oxen and drive forth his wain dextrum bovem perdat his right hand Oxe shall be forthwith forfeit if he make Hay or carry it in if he now Corn or carry it in let him be once or twice admonished and if he amend not thereupon let him receive no less than 50 stripes Yet notwithstanding all this care when Charles the Great being King of France had mastered Germany which was 789. or thereabouts there had been little reformation in this point amongst them Therefore that Prince first published his own Regal Edict grounding himself secundum quod in lege praecepit dominus upon the prescript of Gods Law and there commands that all men do abstain from the works of Husbandry Which Edict since it speaks of more particulars at that time prohibited we will speak more thereof anon That not prevailing as it seems he caused five several Synods to be assembled at one time Anno 813. at Mentz at Rhemes at Tours at Chalons and Arles in all of which it was concluded against the Husband-man and many others more as we shall see in the next Section And yet we find some grudging still of the old disease as is apparent by a Synod held at Rome Anno 826. under Eugenius the second chap. 30. another in the same place Anno 853. under Leo the fourth Can. 30. the like in that of Compeigne held by Alexander the third what time he lived an exile in the Realm of France So for restraint of Law days or Courts of judgment those chiefly that determined of mens lives it was not brought about in these Western parts without great difficulty Witness besides the several Imperial Edicts before remembred Conc. Mogunt Anno. 813. Can. 37. Rhemens Can. 35. Turonens Can. 40. Arelatens Can. 16. being four of those Councils which were called by Charles as before was said as also that of Aken Anno 836. Can. 20. And though it was determined in the Roman Synod under Leo the fourth that no suspected person should receive judgment on that day a clause being added in the Canââ legibus infirmari judicium eo die depromptum that all Acts sped upon that day were void in Law yet more than 300 years after it was so resolved of was Alexander the third in Council of Compeigne before remembred enforced particularly to revive it and then and there to set it down Ne aliquis ad mortem vel ad poenam judicetur that no man should upon that day be doomed to death or otherwise condemned unto bodily punishment So difficult a thing it was to wean the People from their labours and other civil business unto which they had been accustomed there being nothing to inforce or induce them to it but humane authority On the same reason as it seems Leo Philosophus Emperour of Constantinople did make use of Scripture when in conformity with the Western Churches he purposed to restrain the works of Husbandry on that day which till his time had been permitted The Emperour Constantine had ordained as before was shewn that all Artificers and such as dwelt in Cities should on the Sunday leave their trades but by the same Edict gave licence to the Husbandman to pursue his business as well upon that day as on any other But contrary this Leo surnamed Philosophus he began his Reign Ann 886. grounding himself for so he tells us on the Authority of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles but where he sound that warrant from the Holy Ghost and from the holy Apostles that he tells us not restrained the Husbandman from his work as well as men of other callings Nicephorus mistakes the man and attributes it to the former Leo whom before we spake of in our fourth Chapter Eccl. hist c. 22. Quo tempore primus etiam Leo constitutione lata ut dies dominicus ab omnibus absque labore omni per ocium transigeretur festusque venerabilis esset quemadmodum divis Apostolis visum est praecepit Where the last clause with the substance of the Edict make the matter plain that he mistook the man though he hit the busineses the former Leo using no such motive in all his Edict Constit 54. But take it from the Emperour himself who having told us first that the Lords day was to be honoured with rest from labour adds next that he had seen a Law he means that of Constantine quae non omnes simul operari prohibendos nonnullosque uti operentur indulgendum censuit which having not restrained all works but permitted some did upon no sufficient reason dishonour that so sacred day Then followeth Statuimus nos etiam quod Sp. Sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit ut omnes in die sacro c. Ã labore vacent Neque Agricolae c. It is our will saith he according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles by him directed that on that sacred day whereon we were restored unto our integrity all men should rest themselves and surcease from labour neither the Husbandmen nor others putting their hand that day to prohibited work For if the Jews did so much reverence their Sabbath which only was a shadow of ours are not we which inhabit light and the truth of grace obliged to honour that day which the Lord hath honoured and hath therein delivered us both from dishonour and from death Are not we bound to keep it singularly and inviolably sufficiently contented with a liberal grant of all the rest and not encroaching on that one which God hath chosen for his service Nay were it not a retchless slighting and contempt of all Religion to make that day common and think that we may do thereon as we do on others So far this Emperour determins of it first and disputes it afterwards I only note it for the close that it was near 900 years from our Saviours birth if not quite so much before restraint of Husbandry on this day had been first thought of in the East and probably being thus restrained did find no more obedience there than it had done before in the Western parts As great a difficulty did it prove to restrain other things in these times projected although they carried it at the last The Emperour Constantine had before commanded that all Artificers in the Cities should surcease from labour on the Lords day as well as those whom he imployed in his seats of justice and questionless he found obedience answerable to his expectation But when the Western parts became a prey to new Kings and Nations and that those Kings and Nations had admitted the Laws of Christ yet did they not conceive it necessary to submit themselves to the Laws of Constantine and therefore followed their imployments as before they did And so it stood until the time of Charles the Great who in the year 789. published his regal Edict in this form that followeth In Legib.
it was a Ceremony and that the fourth Commandment is of a different nature from the other nine That whereas all the other precepts of the Decalogue are simply moral the fourth which is the third in their account 22. qu. 122. art 4. ad 1. is partly moral partly ceremonial Morale quidem quantum ad hoc quod homo deputet aliquod tempus vitae suae ad vacandum divinis c. Moral it is in this regard that men must set apart some particular time for Gods publick service it being natural to man to destinate particular times to particular actions as for his dinner for his sleep and such other actions Sed in quantum in hoc praecepto determinatur speciale tempus in s gnum creationis mundi sic est praeceptum ceremoniale But inasmuch as that there is a day appointed in the Law it self in token of Gods rest and the worlds creation in that respect the Law is ceremonial and ceremonial too they make it in reference to the Allegory our Saviours resting in the grave that day and in relation to the Analogical meaning of it as it prefigureth our eternal rest in the Heaven of glories Finally they conclude of the fourth Commandment that it is placed in the Decalogue in quantum est praeceptum morale non in quantum est ceremoniale only so far forth as it is moral and not as ceremonial that is that we are bound by the fourth Commandment to destinate some time to Gods publick service which is simply moral but not the Seventh day which is plainly ceremonial Aquinas so resolves it for all the rest In Gr at de Sabbato his judgment in this point if Doctor Prideaux note be true as I have no reason but to think so being universally embraced and followed by all the Schoolmen of what sect soever So that in him we have them all all of them consonant in this point to make up the Harmony however dissonant enough in many others But that this consent may appear the more full and perfect we will take notice of two others men famous in the Schools and eminent for the times in which they lived First Bonaventure who lived in the same time with Aquinas and died the same year with him which was 1274. hath determined thus Serm. de decem praecept Imelligendum est quod praeceptum illud habet aliquid quod est mere morale c. It is to be conceived saith he that in the fourth Commandment there is something which is simply moral something again that is plainly ceremonial and something mixt The sanctifying of a day is Moral the sanctifying of a Seventh day Ceremonial rest from the works of labour being mixt of both Quod praecipit Deus sanctificationem est Praeceptum morale Est in hoc praecepto aliquid ceremoniale ut figuratio dici septimae Item continetur aliquid quod est partim morale partim ceremoniale ut cessatio ab operibus Lastly In Exod. 20. qu. 11. Tostatus Bishop of Avila in Spain hath resolved the same aliquid est in eo juris naturalis aliquid legalis that in the fourth Commandment there is something Natural and something Legal that it is partly Moral and partly Ceremonial Naturale est quod dum Deum colimus ab aliis abstineamus c. Moral and Natural it is that for the time we worship God we do abstain from every thing of what kind soever which may divert our thoughts from that holy action But that we should design in every week one day unto that employment and that the whole day be thereto appointed and that in all that day a man shall do no manner of work those things he reckoneth there to be Ceremonial So for the Lords day it is thus determined by Aquinas that it depends on the authority of the Church the custom and consent of Gods faithful servants 2.20 qu. 122. art 4. ad 4. and not on any obligation laid upon us by the fourth Commandment Diei dominicae observantia in nova lege succedit observantiae sabbati non ex vi praecepti legis sed ex constitutione Ecclesiae consuetudine populi Christiani What followeth thereupon Et ideo non est ita arcta prohibitio operandi in die dominica sicut in die Sabbati Therefore saith he the prohibition of doing no work on the Lords day is not so rigorous and severe as upon the Sabbath many things being licensed on the one which were forbidden on the other as dressing meat and others of that kind and nature And not so only but he gives us a dispensatur facilius in nova lege an easier hope of dispensation under the Gospel in case upon necessity we meddle with prohibited labours than possibly could have been gotten under the Law The like Tostatus tells us though in different words save that he doth extend the prohibiton as well to all the Feasts of the Old Testament as all the Holy days of the New and neither to the Sabbath nor the Lords day only In veteri lege major fuit strictio in observatione festorum In Exod 20. qu. 13. quam in nova lege How so In omnibus enim festivitatibus nostris quantaecunque sint c. Because saith he in all our Festivals how great soever whether they be the Lords days or the feasts of Easter or any of the higher rank it is permitted to dress meat and to kindle fire c. As for the grounds whereon they stood he makes this difference between them that the Jews Sabbath had its warrant from Divine commandment but that the Lords day though it came in the place thereof is founded only on Ecclesiastical constitution Colebatur Sabbatum ex mandato Dei cujus loco successit dies dominica In Matth 23. qu. 148. tamen manifestum est quod observatio diei dominicae non est de jure divino sed de jure humano Canonico This is plain enough and this he proves because the Church hath still a power mutare illum diem vel totaliter tollere either to change the day or take it utterly away and to dispense touching the keeping of the same which possibly it neither could nor ought to do were the Lords day of any other institution than the Churches only They only have the power to repeal a Law which had power to make it Qui habet institutionem habet destitutionem as is the Bishops plea in a Quare Impedit As for the first of these two powers that by the Church the day may be transferred and abrogated Suarez hath thus distinguished in it verum id esse absolute non practice that is as I conceive his meaning that such a power is absolutely in the Church though not convenient now to be put in practice According unto that of St. Paul which probably was the ground of the distinction All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient This is
astringeret yet stood not he so much for the number of seven as to confine the Church unto it If Calvin elsewhere be of another mind and speak of keeping holy one day in seven as a matter necessary which some say he doth either they must accuse him of much inconstancy and forgetfulness or else interpret him with Rivet as speaking of an Ecclesiastical custom not to be neglected In decalog non de necessitate legis divinae and not of any obligation layed upon us by the Law of God Neither is he the only one that hath so determined Simler hath said it more expresly Quod dies una cultui divino consecretur ex lege naturae est quod autem haec sit septima non octava nona aut decima juris est divini sed ceremonialis In Exod. 20. That one day should be set apart for Gods publick Worship is the law of Nature but that this day should be the seventh and not the eighth ninth or tenth was of Divine appointment but as ceremonial Aretius also in his common places Loc. 55. distinguished between the substance of the Sabbath and the time thereof the substance of it which was rest and the works of Piety being in all times to continue tempus autem ut septime die observetur hoc non fuit necessarium in Ecclesia Christi but for the time to keep it on the seventh day always that was not necessary in the Church of Christ So also Frankisc Gomarus that great undertaker against Arminius in a Book written purposely de origine institutione Sabbati affirms for certain that it can neither be made good by the law of Nature Cap. 5. n. 8. or Text of Scripture or any solid Argument drawn from thence unum è septem diebus ex vi praecepti quarti ad cultum Dei necessario observandum that by the fourth Commandment one day in seven is of necessity to be dedicated to Gods service In Exod. 20. p. 1â0 And Ryvet as profest an Enemy of the Remonstrants though for the antiquity of the Sabbath he differeth from the said Gomarus yet he agreeth with him in this not only making the observance of one day in seven to be meerly positive as in our first part we observed but lays it down for the received opinion of most of the Reformed Divines unum ex septem diebus non esse necessario eligendum ex vi praecepti ad sacros conventus celebrandos the very same with what Gomarus affirmed before So lastly for the Lutheran Churches In Examin Conc. Trid. Chemnitius makes it part of our Christian liberty quod nec sint alligati nec debeant alligari ad certorum vel dierum vel temporum observationes opinione necessitatis in Novo Testamento c. That men are neither bound nor ought to be unto the observation of any days or times as matters necessary under the Gospel of our Saviour though otherwise he account it for a barbarous Folly not to observe that day with all due solemnity which hath for so long time been kept by the Church of God Therefore in his opinion also the keeping of one day in seven Medull Theel. l. 2.15 is neither any moral part of the fourth Commandment or parcel of the law of Nature As for the subtil shift of Amesius finding that keeping holy of one day in seven is positive indeed sed immutabilis plane institutionis but such a positive Law as is absolutely immutable and doth as much oblige as those which in themselves are plainly natural and moral it may then serve when there is nothing else to help us For that a positive Law should be immutable in its self and in its own nature be as universally binding as the Moral Law is such a piece of Learning and of contradiction as never was put up to shew in these latter times But he that learnt his lirry in England here and durst not broach it but by halves amongst the Hollanders For the next Thesis that the Lords day is not founded on divine Commandment but the authority of the Church it is a point so universally resolved on as no one thing more and first we will begin with Calvin who tells us how it was not without good reason that those of old appointed the Lords Day as we call it to supply the place of the Jewish Sabbath Institut l. 2. c. 8. l. 3. Non sine delectu dominicum quem vocamus diem veteres in locum sabbati subrogarunt as his words there are Where none I hope will think that he would give our Saviour Christ or his Apostles such a short come off as to include them in the name of Veteres only which makes it plain that he conceived it not to be their appointment In Matth. 12. Bucer resolves the point more clearly communi Christianorum consensu Dominicum diem publicis Ecclesiae conventibus ac quieti publicae dicatum esse ipso statim Apostolorum tempore and saith that in the Apostles times the Lords day by the common consent of Christian people was dedicated unto publick rest and the assemblies of the Church In Gen. 2. And Peter Martyr upon a question asked why the old seventh day was not kept in the Christian Church makes answer that upon that day and on all the rest we ought to rest from our own works the works of sin Sed quod is magis quam ille eligatur ad externum Dei cultum liberum fuit Ecclesiae per Christum ut id consuleret quod ex re magis judicaret nec illa pessime judicavit c. That this was rather chose than that for Gods publick service That saith he Christ left totally unto the liberty of the Church to do therein what should seem most expedient and that the Church did very well in that she did prefer the memory of the Resurrection before the memory of the Creation These two I have the rather thus joyned together as being sent for into England in King Edwards time and place by the Protector in our Universities the better to establish Reformation at that time begun and doubt we not but that they taught the self-same Doctrine if at the least they touched at all upon that point with that now extant in their writings In Apoc. 1. at the same time with them lived Bullinger and Gualter two great Learned men Of these the first informs us hunc diem loco sabbati in memoriam resurgentis Domini delegisse sibi Ecclesias that in memorial of our Saviours Resurrection the Churches set apart this day in the Sabbaths stead whereon to hold their solemn and religious meetings And after Sponte receperunt Ecclesiae illam diem non legimus eam ullibi praeceptam that of their own accord and by their own authority the Church made choice thereof for the use aforesaid it being no where to be found that it was commanded In Act. Ap.
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
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
should be sanctified when it was ordered and appointed by the Law of Moses And this he calls Commentum ineptum contra literam ipsam contra ipsius Moseos declarationem A foolish and absurd conceit contrary unto Moses words and to his meaning Yet the same Catharin doth affirm in the self-same Book Scripturis frequentissimum esse multa per anticipationem narrare that nothing is more frequent in the holy Scriptures than these anticipations And in particular that whereas it is said in the former Chapter male and female created he them per anticipationem dictum esse non est dubitandum that without doubt it is so said by anticipation the Woman not being made as he is of opinion till the next day after which was the Sabbath For the Anticipation he cites St. Chrysostom who indeed tells us on that Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Behold saith he how that which was not done as yet is here related as if done already He might have added for that purpose Origen on the first of Genesis and Gregory the Great Moral lib. 32. cap. 9. both which take notice of a Prolepsis or Anticipation in that place of Moses For the creation of the Woman he brings in St. Jerom who in his Tract against the Jews expresly saith mulierem conditam fuisse die septimo that the Woman was created on the seventh day or Sabbath to which this Catharin assents and thinks that thereupon the Lord is said to have finished all his works on the seventh day that being the last that he created This seems indeed to be the old Tradition if it be lawful for me to digress a little it being supposed that Adam being wearied in giving names unto all creatures on the sixth day in the end whereof he was created did fall that night into a deep and heavy sleep and that upon the Sabbath or the seventh day morning his side was opened and a rib took thence for the creation of the Woman Aug. Steuchius in Gen. 2. So Augustinus Steuchius reports the Legend And this I have the rather noted to meet with Catharinus at his own weapon For whereas he concludes from the rest of God that without doubt the institution of the Sabbath began upon that very day wherein God rested it seems by him God did not rest on that day and so we either must have no Sabbath to be kept at all or else it will be lawful for us by the Lords example to do whatever works we have to do upon that day and after sanctifie the remainder And yet I needs must say withal that Catharinus was not the only he that thought God wrought upon the Sabbath Aretius also so conceived it Dies itaque tota non fuit quiete transacta Problem loc 55. sed perfecto opere ejus deinceps quievit ut Hebraeus contextus habet Mercer a man well skilled in Hebrew denieth not but the Hebrew Text will bear that meaning Who thereupon conceives that the seventy Elders in the translation of that place did purposely translate it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that on the sixth day God finished all the work that he had made and after rested on the seventh And this they did saith he ut omnem dubitandi occasionem tollerent to take away all hint of collecting thence that God did any kind of work upon that day For if he finished all his works on the seventh day it may be thought faith he that God wrought upon it Saint Hierom noted this before that the Greek Text was herein different from the Hebrew and turns it as an argument against the Jews and their rigid keeping of the Sabbath Artabimus igitur Judaeos qui de ocio Sabbati gloriantur Qâ Hebraicae in Gen. quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit dum Deus operatur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo benedicens ipst diei quia in ipso universa compleverat If so if God himself did break the Sabbath as St. Hierom turns upon the Jews we have small cause to think that he should at that very time impose the Sabbath as a Law upon his creatures But to proceed Others that have took part with Catharinus against Tostatus have had as ill success as he in being forced either to grant the use of Anticipation in the holy Scripture or else to run upon a Tenet wherein they are not like to have any seconds I will instance only in two particulars both Englishmen and both exceeding zealous in the present cause The first is Doctor Bound who first of all did set afoot these sabbatarian speculations in the Church of England 2. Edit p. 10. wherewith the Church is still disquieted He determines thus I deny not saith he but that the Scripture speaketh often of things as though they had been so before because they were so then when the things were written As when it is said of Abraham that he removed unto a Mountain Eastward of Bethel whereas it was not called Bethel till above a hundred years after The like may be said of another place in the Book of Judges called Bochin c. yet in this place of Genesis it is not so And why not so in this as well as those Because saith he Moses entreateth there of the sanctification of the Sabbath not only because it was so then when he wrote that Book but specially because it was so even from the Creation Medulla Theol. l. 2. c. 15. § 9. Which by his leave is not so much a reason of his opinion as a plain begging of the question The second Doctor Ames the first I take it that sowed Bounds doctrine of the Sabbath in the Netherlands Who saith expresly first and in general terms hujusmodi prolepseos exemplum nullum in tota scriptura dari posse that no example of the like anticipation can be found in Scripture the contrary whereof is already proved After more warily and in particular de hujusmodi institutione Proleptica that no such institution is set down in Scripture by way of a Prolepsis or Anticipation either in that Book or in any other And herein as before I said he is not like to find any seconds We find it in the sixteenth of Exodus that thus Moses said This is the thing which the Lord commandeth Verse 32 Fill an Omer of it of the Mannah to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the Wilderness when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt It followeth in the Text that as the Lord commanded Moses Verse 34 so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Here is an Ordinance of Gods an institution of the Lords and this related in the same manner by anticipation as the former was Lyra upon the place affirms expresly that it is spoken there per anticipationem and so doth Vatablus too in his Annotations on that Scripture But
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
of Enos Seths son that he was born Anno two hundred thirty six And till that time there was no Sabbath But then as some conceive the Sabbath day began to be had in honour because it is set down in Scripture that then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. That is as Torniellus descants upon the place then Gen. 4. Annal. Anno 236. n. 4. were spiritual Congregations instituted as we may probably conjecture certain set Forms of Prayers and Hymns devised to set forth Gods glory certain set times and places also set apart for those pious duties praecipue diebus Sabbati especially the sabbath-Sabbath-days in which most likely they began to abstain from all servile works in honour of that God whom they well knew had rested on the seventh day from all his labours Sure Torniellus's mind was upon his Mattins when he made this Paraphrase He had not else gathered a Sabbath from this Text considering that not long before he had thus concluded That sanctifying of the Sabbath here on Earth was not in use until the Law was given by Moses But certainly this Text will bear no such matter were it considered as it ought The Chaldee Paraphrase thus reads it Tunc in diebus ejus inceperunt filii hominum ut non orarent in nomine Domini V. 3. of this Chapter which is quite contrary to the English Our Bibles of the last Translation in the margin thus then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord and generally the Jews as Saint Hierom tells us do thus gloss upon it Tunc primum in nomine Domini Qu. Hebraic in Gen. in similitudine ejus fabricata sunt idola that then began men to set up Idols both in the name and after the similitude of God Ainsworth in his Translation thus Then began men prophanely to call upon the Name of the Lord who tells us also in his Annotations on this Text out of Rabbi Maimony That in these days Idolatry took its first beginning and the people worshipped the stars and all the host of Heaven so generally that at the last there were few left which acknowledged God as Enoch Methuselah Noah Sem and Heber So that we see not any thing in this Text sufficient to produce a Sabbath But take it as the English reads it which is agreeable to the Greek and vulgar Latin and may well stand with the Original yet will the cause be little better For men might call upon Gods Name and have their publick meetings and set Forms of Prayer without relation to the seventh day more than any other As for this Enos Eusebius proposeth him unto us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã De Praeparat Evang. l. 7 â as the first man commended in the Scripture for his love to God that we by his example might learn to call upon Gods Name with assured hope But yet withal he tells us of him that he observed not any of those Ordinances which Moses taught unto the Jews whereof the Sabbath was the chief as formerly we observed in Adam And Epiphanius ranks him amongst those Fathers who lived according to the Rules of the Christian Church Therefore no Sabbath kept by Enos We will next look on Enoch who as the Text tells us walked with God and therefore doubt we not but he would carefully have kept the Sabbath had it been required But of him also the Fathers generally say the same as they did before of others For Justin Martyr not only makes him one of those which without Circumcision and the Sabbath had been approved of by the Lord but pleads the matter more exactly The substance of his plea is this that if the Sabbath or Circumcision were to be counted necessary to eternal life we must needs fall upon this absurd opinion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dial. cum Tryphone that the same God whom the Jews worshipped was not the God of Enoch and of other men about those times which neither had been Circumcised ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã nor kept the Sabbath nor any other Ordinances of the Law of Moses So Irenaeus speaking before of Circumcision and the Sabbath placeth this Enoch among those Lib. 4. cap. 30. qui sine iis quae praedicta sunt justificationem adepti sunt which had been justified without any the Ordinances before remembred Tertullian more fully yet Enoch justissimum nec circumcisum Adv. Judaeos nec sabbatizantem de hoc mundo transtulit c. Enoch that righteous man being neither Circumcised nor a Sabbath-keeper was by the Lord translated and saw not death to be an Item or instruction unto us that we without the burden of the Law of Moses shall be found acceptable unto God He sets him also in his challenge as one whom never any of the Jews could prove Sabbati cultorem esse to have been a keeper of the Sabbath De Demonstr l. 4. c. 6. Eusebius too who makes the Sabbath one of Moses's institutions hath said of Enoch that he was neither circumcised nor medled with the Law of Moses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. and that he lived more like a Christian than a Jew the same Eusebius in his seventh de praeparatione and Epiphanius in the place before remembred affirm the same of him as they do of Adam Abel Seth and Enos and what this Epiphanius saith of him Scal. de Emend Temp. l. 7. that he affirms also of his son Methusalem Therefore nor Enoch nor Methusalem ever kept the Sabbath It 's true the Aethiopians in their Kalendar have a certain period which they call Sabbatum Enoch Enoch's Sabbath But this consisteth of seven hundred years and hath that name either because Enoch was born in the seventh Century from the Creation viz. in the year six hundred twenty two or because he was the seventh from Adam It 's true that many of the Jews Beda in Ger. 4. and some Christians too have made this Enoch an Emblem of the heavenly and eternal Sabbath which shall never end because he was the seventh from Adam and did never taste of death as did the six that went before him But this is no Argument I trow that Enoch ever kept the Sabbath whiles he was alive Note that this Enoch was translated about the year nine hundred eighty seven and that Methusalem died but one year only before the Flood which was 1655. And so far we are safely come without any rub To come unto the Flood it self to Noah who both saw it and escaped it it is affirmed by some that he kept the Sabbath and that both in the Ark and when he was released out of it if not before Yea they have arguments also for the proof hereof but very weak ones such as they dare not trust themselves It is delivered in the eighth of the Book of Genesis that after the return of the Dove into the Ark Noah stayed yet other seven days before he sent
to the sons of Noah To whom the Hebrew Doctors say their Father did bequeath seven several Commandments which they and their posterity were bound to keep In Lexilo p. 1530. Septem praecepta acceperunt filii Noah c. as Shindler reckoneth them out of the Rabbi Maimony First That they dealt uprightly with every man Secondly That they should bless and magnifie the Name of God Thirdly That they abstained from worshipping false gods and from all Idolatry Fourthly That they forbear all unlawful lusts and copulations The fifth against shedding Blood The sixth against Theft and Robbery The seventh and last a prohibition not to eat the flesh or any member of a Beast taken from it when it was alive whereby all cruelty was forbidden These precepts whosoever violated either of Noahs Sons or their Posterity was to be smitten with the sword Yea these Commandments were reputed so agreeable to nature that all such Heathens as would yield to obey the same were suffered to remain and dwell amongst the Israelites though they received not Circumcision nor any of the Ordinances which were given by Moses So that amongst the precepts given unto the Sons of Noah we find no footstep of the Sabbath And where a Modern Writer whom I spare to name hath made the keeping of the Sabbath a member of the second precept or included in it it was not so advisedly done there being no such thing at all Cunaeus de repab Hebr. 2.19 either in Schindler whom he cites nor in Cunaeus who repeats the self-same precepts from the self-same Rabbi Nay which is more the Rabbin out of whom they cite it doth in another place exclude expresly the observation of the Sabbath out of the number of these Precepts given to the Sons of Noah Ap. Ainsworth in Exod. 20. The Man and Woman servant saith he which are commanded to keep the Sabbath are Servants that are Circumcised or Baptized c. But Servants not Circumcised nor Baptised but only such as have received the seven Commandements given to the Sons of Noah they are as sojourning strangers and may do work for themselves openly on the Sabbath as any Israelite may on a working day So Rabbi Maymony in his Treatise of the Sabbath chap. 20. § 14. If then we find no Sabbath amongst the Sons of Noah whereof some of them were the Sons of their Fathers piety there is no thought of meeting with it in their Children or their Childrens Children the builders of the Tower of Babel For they being terrified with the late Deluge as some conjecture and to procure the name of great undertakers as the Scripture saith resolved to build themselves a Tower unto the top whereof the waters should in no wise reach Antiqu. Jud. l. 1. cap. 5. A work of a most vast extent if we may credit those reports that are made thereof and followed by the People as Josephus tells us with their utmost industry there being none amongst them idle If none amongst them would be idle as likely that no day was spared from so great an action as they conceived that work to be They that durst bid defiance to the Heaven of God were never like to keep a Sabbath to the God of Heaven The action was begun and ended Anno 1940. or thereabouts To ruinate these vain attempts it pleased the Lord first to confound the Language of the People which before was one and after to disperse them over all the earth By means of which dispersion they could not possibly have kept one and the same day for a Sabbath had it been commanded the days in places of a different longitude which is the distance of a place from the first Meridian beginning at such different times that no one day could be precisely kept amongst them The proof and ground whereof I will make bold to borrow from my late Learned friend Nath. Carpenter that I may manifest in some sort the love I bore him though probably I might have furnished out this argument from mine own wardrobe at least have had recourse to many other Learned men who have written of it For that the difference of time is varied according to the difference of longitudes in divers places of the earth may be made manifest to every mans understanding out of these two principles First if the earth is sphaerical and secondly that the Sun doth compass it about in twenty-four hours From hence it comes to pass that places situate Eastward see the Sun sooner than those do that are placed Westward And that with such a different proportion of time that unto every hour of the Suns motion there is assigned a certain number of miles upon the Earth every fifteen degrees which is the distance of the Meridians being computed to make one hour and every fifteen miles upon the Earth correspondent to one minute of that hour By this we may perceive how soon the noon-tide hapneth in one City before another For if one City stands Eastward of another the space of three of the aforesaid Meridians which is 2700. miles it is apparent that it will enjoy the noon-tide no less than three hours before the other and consequently in 10800. miles which is half the compass of the Earth there will be found no less than twelve hours difference in the rising and setting of the Sun as also in the noon and mid-night The reason of which difference of times is as before we said the difference of longitudes wherein to every hour Cosmographers have allotted fifteen degrees in the Suns diurnal motion so that fifteen degrees being multiplied by twenty-four hours which is the natural day the product will be 360. which is the number of degrees in the whole circle Now in these times wherein the Sons of Noah dispersed themselves in case the Sabbath was to have been kept as simply moral it must needs follow that the moral Law is subject unto manifold mutations and uncertainties which must not be granted For spreading as they did over all the Earth some farther some at shorter distance and thereby changing longitudes with their habitations they must of meer necessity alter the difference of times and days and so could keep no day together Nor could their issue since their time observe exactly and precisely the self-same day by reason of the manifold transportation of Colonies and transmigration of Nations from one Region to another whereby the times must of necessity be supposed to vary The Author of the Practice of Piety though he plead hard for the morality of the Sabbath cannot but confess that in respect of the diversity of the Meridians and the unequal rising and setting of the Sun every day varieth in some places a quarter in some half in others an whole day therefore the Jewish Sabbath cannot saith he be precisely kept in the same instant of time every where in the World Certainly if it cannot now then it never could and then it would be found that some
what is said before out of Theodoret and Sedulius Chap. 1. n. 6. Hesychius goes yet further and will not have the fourth Commandment to be any of the ten Etsi decem mandatis insertum sit non tamen ex iis esse In Levit. l. 6. c. 26. and howsoever it is placed amongst them yet it is not of them And therefore to make up the number divides the first Commandment into two as those of Rome have done the last to exclude the second But here Hesychius was deceived in taking this Commandment to be only Ceremonial whereas it is indeed of a mixt or middle nature for so the Schoolmen and other learned Authors in these later times grounding themselves upon the Fathers have resolved it generally Moral it is as to the Duty that there must be a time appointed for the service of God and Ceremonial as unto the Day to be one of seven and to continue that whole day and to surcease that day from all kind of work As moral placed amongst the ten Commandments extending unto all mankind and written naturally in our hearts by the hand of Nature as Ceremonial appertaining to the Law Levitical peculiar only to the Jews and to be reckoned with the rest of Moses Institutes Aquinas thus c. 2. 2ae qu. 122. art 4. resp ad primum Tostatus thus in Exod. 20. qu. 11. So Petr. Galatinus also lib. 11. cap. 9. and Bonaventure in his Sermon on the fourth Commandment And so divers others I say the fourth Commandment so far as it is Ceremonial in limiting the Sabbath day to be one of seven and to continue all that day and thereon to surcease from all kind of labour which three ingredients are required in the Law unto the making of a Sabbath is to be reckoned with the rest of Moses Institutes and proper only to the Jews For proof of this we have the Fathers very copious And first that it was one of Moses Institutes Justin the Martyr saith expresly Dial. eum Triphone ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. As Circumcision began from Abraham and as the Sabbath Sacrifices Feasts and Offerings came in by Moses so were they all to have an end And in another place of the same discourse seeing there was no use of Circumcision until Abrahams time ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã nor of the Sabbath until Moses by the same reason there is as little use now of them as had been before So doth Eusebius tell us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã De praeparat l. 7. c. 6. c. That Moses was the first Law-giver amongst the Jews who did appoint them to observe a certain Sabbath in memory of Gods rest from the Worlds Creation as also divers anniversary Festivals together with the difference of clean and unclean Creatures and of other Ceremonies not a few Next Athanasius lets us know that in the Book of Exodus we have the Institution of the Passeover Synopsis sacrae Script the sweetning of the bitter waters of Marah the sending down of Quails and Mannah the waters issuing from the rock ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what time the Sabbath took beginning and the Law was published by Moses on Mount Sinai Macarius a Contemporary of Athanasius doth affirm as much viz. that in the Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hom. 35. which was given by Moses it was commanded as in a figure or a shadow that every man should rest on the Sabbath day from the works of labour In Ezech. 20. Saint Hierom also lets us know though he name not Moses that the observation of the Sabbath amongst other Ordinances was given by God unto his People in the Wilderness Haec praecepta justificationes observantiam Sabbati Dominus dedit in deserto which is as much as if he had expresly told us that it was given unto them by the hand of Moses Then Epiphanius God saith he rested on the seventh day from all his labours De Pond mensur n. 22. which day he blessed and sanctified ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and by his Angel made known the same to his servant Moses See more unto this purpose advers haeres l. 1. haer 6. n. 5. And lastly Damascen hath assured us De fide Orthod lib. 4. c. 24. that when there was no Law nor Scripture that then there was no Sabbath neither but when the Law was given by Moses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã then was the Sabbath set apart for Gods publick worship Add here that Tacitus and Justin refer the Institution of the Sabbath unto Moses only of which more hereafter Next that the Sabbath was peculiar only to the Jews or those at least that were of the house of Israel the Fathers do affirm more fully than they did the other For so Saint Basil ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Sabbath was given unto the Jews in his first Homily of Fasting Saint Austin so Sabbatum datum est priori populo in otio corporali Epistola 119. Sabbatum Judaeis fuisse praeceptum in umbra futuri de Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. and in the 13. of the same Book unum diem observandum mandavit populo Hebraeo The like to which occurs Epist 86. ad Casulanum The Jews the Hebrews and the former People all these three are one and all do serve to shew that Saint Austin thought the Sabbath to be peculiar unto them only That it was given unto the Jews exclusively of all other Nations is the opinion and conceit also of the Jews themselves This Petrus Galatinus proves against them on the authority of their best Authors Ch. 16.29 Sic enim legitur apud eos in Glossa c. We read saith he in their Gloss on these words of Exodus The Lord hath given you the Sabbath What mean say they these words he hath given it you Quia vobis viz. Judaeis dedit non gentibus saeculi because it was given unto the Jews and not unto the Gentiles It is affirmed also saith he by R. Johannan that whatsoever statute God gave to Israel he gave it to them publickly except the Sabbath and that was given to them in secret according unto that of Exodus Exod. 31.17 Ainsworth in Exod. 13.9 It is a sign between me and the Children of Israel Quod si ita est non obligantur gentes ad sabbatum If so saith Galatinus the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath A sign between me and the Children of Israel It seems the Jews were all of the same opinion For where they used on other days to wear their Phylacteries on their arms or foreheads to be a sign or token to them as the Lord commanded they laid them by upon the Sabbaths because say they the Sabbath was it self a sign In Gen. 2. So truly said Procopius Gazaeus Its Judaeis imperavit supremum numen ut segregarent à caeteris deibus diem septimum c. God saith he did command the Jews
that of Horace who calls them in his Satyrs Tricesima Sabbata L. 1. Sat. 9. because they were continually celebrated every thirtieth day The like they did by all the rest if Joseph Scaligers note be true as I think it is who hath affirmed expresly Emend Temp. lib. 3. Omnem festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaeos sed Gentiles sabbatum vocare Nay as the weekly Sabbaths some of them had their proper adjuncts so had the annual Saint Athanasius tells us of the Feast of Expiation that it was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã De Sabbat Circumcis or the principal Sabbath for so I take it is his meaning which self same attribute is given by Origen to the Feast of Trumpets Clemens of Alexandria 6. Stromat In Num. 28. hom 23. brings in a difference of those Festivals out of a supposed work of Saint Peter the Apostle wherein besides the New-moons and Passeover which are there so named they are distributed into ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or the first Sabbath the Feast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so called and the Great day Casaubon for his part protesteth Exer. 14. n. 1. ipsi obscurum esse quid sit sabbatum primum that he was yet to seek what should the meaning be of that first Sabbath But Scaliger conceives and not improbably that by this first Sabbath Emend Temp. Prolog Edit 2. of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was meant the Feast of Trumpets because it was caput anni or the beginning of the civil year the same which Origen calls Sabbatum sabbatorum as before we noted As for the Feast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so named in Clemens that he conceives to be the Feast of Pentecost and the great day in him remembred the Feast of Tabernacles for the which last he hath authority in the Scriptures who tell of the Great day of this very Feast Joh. 7.37 Not that the Feast of Tabernacles was alone so called but in a more especial manner Contr. Marcian For there were other days so named besides the Sabbaths Dies observatis saith Tertullian sabbata ut opinor coenas puras jejunia dies magnos Where sabbata dies magni are distinguished plainly Indeed it stood with reason that these annual Sabbaths should have the honour also of particular adjuncts as the weekly had being all founded upon one and the same Commandment Philo affirms it for the Jews De Decalog ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The fourth Commandment saith he is of the Sabbath and the Festivals of Vows of Sacrifices forms of purifying and other parts of divine worship Which is made good by Zanchie for the Christian Writers who in his work upon the Decalogue doth resolve it thus In Mandat 4. Sabbati nomine ad Judaeos quod attinebat Deus intellexit non solum sabbatum septem dierum sed sabbata etiam annorum item omnia festa quae per Mosen illis explicavit It was the moral part of the fourth Commandment that some time should be set apart for Gods publick service and in the body of that Law it is determined of that time that it should be one day in seven Yet not exclusively that there should be no other time appointed either by God or by his Church than the seventh day only God therefore added other times as to him seemed best the list whereof we may behold in the twenty-third of Leviticus and the Church too by Gods example added also some as namely the Feast of Dedication and that of Purim Now as the Annual Festivals ordained by God had the name of Sabbath as the weekly had so the observances in them were the same or not much different if in some things the weekly Sabbaths seemed to have preheminence the Annual Sabbaths went beyond them in some others also For the continuance of these Feasts the weekly Sabbath was to be observed throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant Exod. 31.16 So for the Passeover you shall observe it throughout your Generations by an Ordinance for ever Exod. 12.14 The like of Pentecost it shall be a statute for ever throughout your Generations Levit. 23.21 So also for the Feast of Expiation Levit. 23.31 And for the Feast of Tabernacles Levit. 24.41 Where note that by these words for ever and throughout their Generations it is not to be understood that these Jewish Festivals were to be perpetual for then they would oblige us now as they did the Jews but that they were to last as long as the Republick of the Jews should stand and the Mosaical Ordinances were to be in force De bello l. 6. cap. 6. Per generationes vestras i. e. quam diu Respub Judaica constaret as Tostatus notes upon this twenty-third of Leviticus For the solemnity of these Feasts the presence of the High Priests was as necessary in the one as in the other The High Priests also saith Josephus ascended with the Priests into the Temple ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and yet not always but only on the Sabbaths and New-moons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as also on those other Feasts and solemn Assemblies which yearly were to be observed according unto the custom of the Country And hitherto we find no difference at all but in the manner of the rest there appears a little between the weekly Sabbath and some of the Annual For of the weekly Sabbath it is said expresly that thou shalt do no manner of work Levit. 23.7 21 25 36. as on the other side of the Passeover the Pentecost the Feast of Trumpets and of Tabernacles that they shall do no servile work which being well examined will be found the same in sence though not in sound But then again for sence and sound it is expresly said of the Expiation that therein thou shalt do no manner of work as was affirmed before of the weekly Sabbath So that besides the seventh day Sabbath there were seven Sabbaths in the year in six of which viz. the first and seventh of Unleavened bread the day of Pentecost the Feast of Trumpets and the first and eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles they were to do no servile works and on the Expiation day no work at all So that in this respect the weekly Sabbath and the day of Expiation were directly equal according to the very letter In other things the day of Expiation seems to have preheminence First that upon this day only the high Priest omnibus pontificalibus indumentis indutus attired in his Pontificals might go into the Sanctum sanctorum or the holiest of all to make attonement for the People whereof see Levit. 16. And secondly in that the sacrifices for this day were more and greater than those appointed by the Lord for the weekly Sabbaths which last is also true of the other Festivals For where the sacrifice appointed for the weekly Sabbath consisted only of two Lambs over and above the daily
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
these days the Clerk or Sexton goeth about from door to door to give notice of it De Bello l. 5. c. 9. The time was so indeed so Josephus tells us that in Hierusalem one of the Priests continually standing upon a Pillar ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã made known upon the even before by sound of Trumpet which time the Sabbath did begin and on the Evening of the Sabbath at which time it ended that so the People might be certified both at what time to rest from labour and at what time they might again apply their minds and hands unto it Now what Josephus saith of the weekly Sabbath the same was done saith Philo in the New-moons also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which is much alike Num. 10.10 And consequently we may say the same of the Annual Sabbaths in which the Sons of Aaron were to blow the Trumpets as well as in the New-moons or the weekly Sabbaths As for the works prohibited or permitted on these days of preparation whether before the weekly or the Anntal Sabbaths I find little difference This I am sure of that it was as much unlawful for the Judges to sit on any Capital crimes the day before the Annual Sabbath as before the weekly and the reason was because the morrow after of which sort soever was though to be no fit day for Execution Ap. Casaub Exc. 1. n. 20. Judices rerum Capitalium non judicant in parasceve Sabbati aut in parasceve diei festi quia non debet id fieri reus occidi postridie non potest So saith Rabbi Maimony Of the ridiculous nicety of the modern Jews in these Paraseeves we shall speak hereafter To come unto the day it self it is said expresly in the Law that therein thou shalt do no manner of work What no work at all How could they eat and drink and put on their cloaths These are some manner of works yet done every Sabbath yea by the Pharisees themselves In Matth. 12. which were most strict observers of the weekly Sabbaths Quis Pharisaeorum saith Saint Hierom in die sabbati non extendit manum portans cibum porrigens calicem caetera quae victui sunt necessaria yet all these were works How could they Circumcise and offer Sacrifice and set on the Shew-bread on the Sabbath Surely all these are works too some of them very troublesome yet commonly performed on the weekly Sabbaths of which more anon Therefore when all is done we must expound these words of ordinary and servile labours such as are toilsome in themselves and aim at profit In Mandat 4. Zanchie I am sure doth expound them so Nomen operis quod hic habet Moses non significat opus simplicitur sed opus quod propter opes comparandas suscipitur Tale autem opus est vere servile In Esa 58.13 Saint Hierom also expounds it Lege preceptum est ne in sabbatis opus servile faciamus c. We are commanded in the Law to do no servile works on the Sabbath days And on the fifth of Amos he affirms the same jubet ne quid in eo operis servilis fiat c. And so Tertullian Nec dubium est eos opus servile operatos c. in his second book against Marcion If so there is no difference at all between the weekly and the Annual Sabbaths in this one particular because all servile works expresly are forbidden in them also as before we shewed But take it in the very words no manner of work and ask the Hebrew Doctors what they mean thereby They will then tell you first there must be no marketting no not buying of Victuals for which they cite the 13 of Nehemiah verse 16 17. nor no Embalming of the Dead in which they vouch Saint Lukes Gospel Chap. 27. v. 54 56. This we acknowledge for a truth but then we say withal that neither of these two were lawful on the Annual Sabbaths For when it hapned any time as sometimes it did that a weekly Sabbath and an Annual Sabbath came next days together the Jews did commonly in their later times put off the Annual Sabbath to a farther day And this they did as themselves tell us because of burials and of meats which were fit for eating lest by deferring either the one or the other the carkasses should putrifie and the meats be spoiled Ap. Casaub Exerc. 10. n. 20. Non facimus duo sahbata continua propter olera propter mortuos ut Rabbini dictitant Which need not be in case they held it lawful either to bury or to buy on the Annual Sabbaths They tell us next that the Jews could not travel on the weekly Sabbath and this from Exod. 16.29 Whether that Text were so intended we shall see anon But sure I am that when the Jews began to reckon it an unlawful matter to travel on the weekly Sabbath they held it altogether as unlawful to travel on the Annual Sabbath Joseph Antiq. l. 13. c. 16. Nic. Damascen reporteth as Josephus tells us how that Antiochus the great King of Syria erected a Trophee near the flood Lycus and abode there awodays at the request of Hyrcanus the King of Jewry by reason of a solemn Feast at that time whereon it was not lawful for the Jews to travel In which he was no wise mistaken For saith Josephus the Feast of Pentecost was that year the morrow after the Sabbath for at that troublesome time the Pentecost was not deferred what then It followeth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and unto us it is not lawful either upon our Sabbaths or our Feasts to journey any whither They tell us also that it is not lawful to execute a Malefactor on the weekly Sabbath although it be commanded that he must be punished nor do they do it on the Feasts or Annual Sabbaths as before we noted As also that it is not lawful to Marry on the Sabbath day nor on the Even before the Sabbath nor the morrow after lest they pollute the Sabbath by dressing meat for the Feast and on the solemn Festivals or the Annual Sabbaths they were not suffered to be Married lest say the Rabbins the joy of the Festival be forgotten through the joy of the Wedding Ap. Ainsw in Levit. 23. The many other trifling matters which have been prohibited by the Jewish Doctors and are now practised by that senseless and besotted People shall somewhere be presented to you towards the end of this first Book Again demand of these great Doctors since it is said expresly that we shall do no manner of work whether there be at all no case in which it may be lawful to do work on the Sabbath day and then they have as many shifts to put off the Sabbath as they had niceties before wherewithal to beautifie it A Woman is in travel on the Sabbath day is it not lawful for the Midwife to discharge her duty although it be for gain and her
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
they observed this order and decree of Moses and every seventh year read the Law as he appointed they had then questionless escaped many of those great afflictions which afterwards God brought upon them for contempt thereof That in the after-times the Law was read unto them every Sabbath in their several Synagogues is most clear and manifest as by the testimony of Philo and Josephus before related and by sufficient evidence from the holy Gospel But in these times and after for a thousand years there were no Synagogues no publick Reading of the Law in the Congregation excepting every seventh year only and that not often Sure I am not so often as it should have been So that in reference to the People we have but one thing only to regard as yet touching the keeping of the Sabbath which is rest from labour rest from all manner of work as the Law commanded and how far this was kept and how far dispensed with we shall see plainly by the story The private meditations and devotions of particular men stand not upon record at all and therefore we must only judg by external actions This said and shewn we will pass over Jordan with the house of Israel and trace their footsteps in that Countrey This happened on the tenth day of the first month or the month of Nisan forty days after the death of Moses Anno 2584. Josh 4.19 That day they pitched their Tents in Gilgal And the first thing they did was to erect an Altar in memorial of it that done to circumcise the people who all the time that they continued in the Wilderness as many as were born that time were uncircumcised The 14th of the same month did they keep the Passeover Josh 5.10 12. and on the morrow after God did cease from raining Mannah the people eating of the fruits of the Land of Canaan And here the first Sabbath which they kept as I conjecture was the day before the Siege of Hiericho which Sabbath probably was that very day Josh 5. whereon the Lord appeared to Joshuah and gave him order how he should proceed in that great Business The morrow after being the first day of the week they began to compass it as the Lord commanded The Priests some of them bearing the Ark Josh 6. some going before with Trumpets and the residue of the people some before the Trumpeters some behind the Ark. This did they once a day for six days together But when the seventh day came which was the Sabbath they compassed the Town about seven times and the Priests blew the Trumpets and the people shouted and they took the City destroying in it young and old man woman and children I said it was the Sabbath day for so it is agreed on generally both by Jews and Christians One of the seven days be it which it will must needs be the Sabbath day and be it which it will there had been work enough done on it but the seventh day whereon they went about seven times and destroyed it finally was indeed the Sabbath For first the Jews expresly say it that the overthrow of Jericho fell upon the Sabbath and that from thence did come the saying Qui sancificari jussit sabbatum is profanari jussit sabbatum So R. Kimchi hath resolved on the 6th of Joshuah In Josh 6. qu. 2. The like Tostatus tells us is affirmed by R. Solomon who adds that both the falling of the wall and slaughter of that wicked people was purposely deferred In honorem sabbati to add the greater lustre unto the Sabbath l. 11. c. 10. Galatine proves the same out of divers Rabbins this Solomon before remembred and R. Joses in the Book called Sedar Olem and many of them joyned together in their Beresith ketanna or lesser exposition on the Book of Genesis they all agreeing upon this Dies sabbati erat cum fuit praelium in Hiericho and again Non capta fuit Hiericho nisi in sabbato That certainly both the Battel and the Execution fell upon the Sabbath So for the Christian Writers Adv. Marc. l. 2. Tertullian saith not only in the general that one of those seven days was the Sabbath day but makes that day to be the Sabbath wherein the Priests of God did not only work Sed in ore gladii praedata sit civitas ab omni populo but all the people sacked the City and put it to the sword Nec dubium est eas opus servile operatos c. Du. 61. ex n. Test 1. Exod. 20. And certainly saith he they did much servile work that day when they destroyed so great a City by the Lords Commandment Procopius Gazaeus doth affirm the same Sabbato Jesus expugnavit cepit Hiericho Austin thus Primus Jesus nunc divino praecepto sabbatum non servavit quo facto muri Hiericho ultro ceciderunt So lastly Lyra on the place who saith that dies septimus in quo capta Hiericho sabbatum erat and yet they did not sin saith he because they did it on that day by Gods own appointment this doth indeed excuse the parties both from the guilt of sin and from the penalty of the Law but then it shews withal that this Commandment is of a different quality from the other nine and that it is no part of the Law of Nature God never hath commanded any thing contrary to the Law of Nature unless it were tentandi causa as in the case of Abraham and Isaac As for the spoyling of the Eygptians that could be no Thest considering the Egyptians owed them more than they lent unto them in recompence of the service they had done them in the former times But was the Sabbath broken or neglected only on the Lords Commandment in some especial case and extraordinary occasion I think none will say it Nay was there ever any Sabbath which was not broken publickly by common approbation and of common course Surely not one In such a numerous Commonwealth as that of Jewry it is not to be thought but that each day was fruitful in the works of Nature Children born every Sabbath day as well as others and therefore to be Circumcised on the same day also And so they were continually Sabbath by Sabbath Feast by Feast not one day free in all the year from that Solemnity and this by no especial order and command from God but meerly to observe an ancient custom In case it was deferred some time as sometimes it was it was not sure in Conscience to observe the Sabbath but only on a tender care to preserve the Infant which was perchance infirm and weak not able to abide the torment No question but the Sabbath following the sack of Hiericho was in this kind broken and so were all that followed after In Job 7.21 Nullum enim Sabbatum praeteribat quin multi in Judaea infantes ' circumciderentur It is Calvins note broken I say For Circumcision though a
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
the Levites were appointed in the times before to bear about the Tabernacle as occasion was the Tabernacle now being fixed and setled in Hierusalem there was no further use of the Levites service in that kind 1 Chron. 23.4 5. Therefore King David thought it good to set them to some new employments and so he hid some of them to assist the Priests in the publick Ministery some to be Overseers and Judges of the people some to be Porters also in the house of God and finally some others to be Singers to praise the Lord with instruments that he had made with Harps with Viols and with Cymbals Of these the most considerable were the first and last The first appointed to assist at the daily Sacrifices Verse 31. as also at the Offering of all Burnt-offerings unto the Lord in the Sabbaths in the months and at the appointed times according to the number and according to their custom continually before the Lord. Those were instructed in the songs of the Lord. Cpap. 25.7 The other were chiefly which were made for the Sabbath days and the other Festivals and one he made himself of his own enditing entituled a Song or Psalm for the Sabbath day Psalm 92. Calvin upon the 92 Psalm is of opinion that he made many for that purpose as no doubt he did and so he did for the Feasts also Josephus tells us Antiq. Jud. l. 7. c. 10. that he composed Odes and Hymns to the praise of God as also that he made divers kinds of instruments and that he taught the Levites to praise Gods Name upon the Sabbath days ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the other Festivals as well upon the Annual as the weekly Sabbath Where note that in the distribution of the Levites into several Offices there was then no such Office thought of as to be Readers of the Law which proves sufficiently that the Law was not yet read publickly unto the people on the Sabbath day Nor did he only appoint them their Songs and Instruments but so exact and punctual was he that he prescribed what Habit they should wear in the discharging of their Ministery in singing praises to the Lord which was a white linnen Rayment such as the Surplice now in use in the Church of England 2 Chron. 5.12 13. Also the Levites saith the Text which were the singers being arrayed in white linnen having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Altar c. praising and thanking God for his Grace and wercies And this he did not by commandment from above or any warrant but his own as we find and that he thought it fit and decent David the Prophet of the Lord knew well what did belong to David the King of Israel in ordering matters of the Church and setling things about the Sabbath Nor can it be but worth the notice that the first King whom God raised up to be a nursing Father unto his Church should exercise his regal power in dictating what he would have done on the Sabbath day in reference to Gods publick Worship As if in him the Lord did mean to teach all others of the same condition as no doubt he did that it pertains to them to vindicate the day of his publick service as well from superstitious fancies as prophane contempts and to take special order that his name be glorified as well in the performances of the Priests as the devotions of the people This special care we shall find verified in Constantine the first Christian Emperour of whom more hereaster in the next Book and third Chapter Now what was there ordained by David was afterwards confirmed by Solomon whereof see 2 Chron. 8.14 who as he built a Temple for Gods publick Worship for the New-moons and weekly Sabbaths and the solemn Feasts as the Scripture tells us so he or some of his Sucessours built a fair feat within the Porch thereof wherein the Kings did use to sit both on the Sabbath and the annual Festivals The Scripture calls it tegmen sabbati the covert for the Sabbath that is saith Rabbi Solomon 2 Kings 16. locus quidam in porticu templi gratiose coopertus in quo Rex sedebat die sabbati in magnis festivitatibus as before was said So that in this too both were equal From David pass we to Elijah from one great Prophet to anotyher both persecuted and both fain to flie and both to flie upon the Sabbath Elijah had made havock of the Priests of Baal and Jezebel sent a message to him that he should arm himself to expect the like The Prophet warned hereof arose and being encouraged by an Angel 2 Kings 19.8 he did eat and drink and walked in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights until he came to Horeb the Mount of God What walked he forty days and as many nights without rest or ceasing So it is resolved on Elijah as we read in Damascen De fide Orthod l. 4. c. 24. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã disqueting himself non only by continual fasting but by his traveling on the Sabbath even for the space of forty days ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã did without question break the Sabbath yet God who made that Law was not at all offended with him but rather to reward his vertue Andae qu. 122.8.15.4 appeared to him in Mount Horeb. So Thomas Aquinas speaking of some men in the old Testament qui transgredientes observantiam subbati non peccabant who did transgress against the Sabbath and yet did not sin makes instance of Elijah and of his Journey Wherein saith he it must needs be granted that be did travel on the Sabbath And where a question might be made how possibly Elijab could spend forty days and forty nights in so small a Journey Tostatus makes reply that he went not directly forwards but wandred up and down and from place to place ex timore inquiectudine mentis In locum partly for fear of being sound and partly out of a disquieted and afflicted mind Now whiles Elijab was in exile Benbadad King of Syria invaded Israel and incamped near Aphek where Ahab also followed him and sat down by him with his Army And saith the Text they pitched one over against the other seven days 1 Kings 20.29 and so it was that in the seventh day the Battel was joyned and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an bundred thousand footmen in one day Ask Zanchius what this seventh day was and he will tell you plainly that it was the Sabbath 14 4 Mandat For shewing us that any servile works may be done lawfully on the Sabbath if either Charity or unavoidable necessity do so require he brings this History in for the proof thereof And then he adds Illi die ipso sabbati quia necessitas postulabat pugnam cum hostibus commiserunt c. The Israelites saith he fighting against their Enemies
means to attain that knowledg they entertained the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses and with them the Sabbath They were beholden to the Lions which God sent amongst them Otherwise they had never know the Sabbath nor the Lord who made it Themselves acknowledg this in an Epistle to Antiochus Epiphanes when he made havock of the Jews The Epistle thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. To King Antiochus Epiphancs the mighty God the suggestion of the Sidonians that dwell at Sichem Our Ancestors enforced by a continual plague which destrayed their Countrey this was the Lions before spoken of and induced by an ancient superstition Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. c. 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã took up a custom to observe that day as holy which the Jows call the Sabbath So that it seems by this Epistle that when the Assyrian sent back one of the Priests of Israel to teach this people what was the manner of the God of the Land that at that time they did receive the Sabbath also which was about the year of the Worlds Creation Orig. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 4. 3315. The Priest so sent is said to have been called Dosthai and as the word is mollified in the Greek it is the same with Dofitheus who as he taught these new Samaritans the observation of the Sabbath so as some say he mingled with the same some neat devices of his own For whereas it is said in the Book of Exodus Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day this Dositheus if at least this were he keeping the letter of the Text did affirm and teach that in what ever posture any man was found ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the beginning of the Sabbath in the self-same he was to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã even until the evening I say if this were he as some say because there was another Dositheus a Samaritan too that lived more near unto the time of Origen and is most like to be the man However we may take it for a Samaritan device as indeed it was though not so ancient as to take beginning with the first entertainment of the Sabbath in that place and people this transportation of the ten Tribes for their many sins was a fair warning unto those of the house of Judah to turn unto the Lord and amend their lives and observe his Sabbaths his sabbata annorum Sabbaths of years as well as either his weekly or his yearly Sabbaths The Jews had been regardless of them all and for neglect of all God resolved to punish them First Chap. 13. v. 18. for the weekly Sabbath that God avenged himself upon them for the breach thereof is evident by that one place of Nahemiah Did not your Fathers thus saith he and our God brought this plague upon us and upon our City yet ye increase the wrath upon Israel in breaking the Sabbath Next for the Annual Sabbaths God threatned that he would deprive them of them by his Prophet Hosea as before was said And lastly for his Sabbaths of years they had been long neglected and almost forgotten if observed at all Torniellus finds three only kepe in all the Scripture Nor are more specified in particular but sure more were kept the certain number of the which may easily be found by the proportion of the punishment God tells them that they should remain in bondage 1 Chrom 36.21 until the Land had enjoyed her Sabbaths for so long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfil threescore and ten years So that as many years as they were in bondage so many Sabbaths of years they had neglected Now from the year 2593. which was the seventh year after their possession of the Land of Canaan unto the year 3450. which was the year of their Captivity there passed in all 857. years just of which 122 were years Sabbatical By which account it is apparent that they had kept in all that time but fifty-two sabbatical years and for the seventy Sabbaths of years which they had neglected God made himself amends by laying desolate the whole Country seventy years together till the Earth had enjoyed ber Sabbaths Not that the Earth lay still all that while and was never tilled for those that did remain behind and inhabit there must have means to live but that the tillage was so little and the crop so small the People being few in numbers that in comparison of former times it might seem to rest But whatsoever Sabbaths the carth enjoyed the People kept not much themselves The solemn Feasts of Pentecost the Passeover and the Feast of Tabernacles they could not celebrate at all because they had no Temple to repair unto nor did they celebrate the New-moons and the weckly Sabbath as they ought to do Non neomeniae non sabbati exercere laetitiam In Hos 2. nee emnes festivitates quas uno nomine comprehendit as Saint Hierom hath it For that they used to work on the Sabbath day both in the Harvest and the Vintage during the Captivity we have just reason to suspect considering what great difficulty Nehemiah found to redress those errors So little had that People profited in the School of Piety that though they felt Gods heavy anger for the breach thereof yet could they hardly be induced to amend their follies But presently on their return from babylon they reared up the Altar and kept the Feast of Tabernacles and the burnt-offerings day by day and afterward the continual burnt-offering Ezra 3.4 5. both in the New-moons and the solemn feast-Feast-days that had been consecrate unto the Lord. This the first work that was endeavoured by Zorobabel and other Rulers of the People and it was somewhat that they went so far in the Reformation as to revive the Sabbaths and the publick Festivals I say the Sabbaths amongst others for so Josephus doth express it They Celebrated at that time saith he the feast of Tabernacles according as their Law-maker had ordained and afterwards they offered oblations and continual Sacrifices observing their Sabbaths and all holy solemnities Yet they observed them not so truly but that some evil customs which had crept amongst them during the Captivity were as yet continued Markets permitted on the Sabbath and the publick Festivals Burdens brought in and out the Vintage no less followed on those days than on any other And so continued till the year 3610. which was some ninety years after they were returned from Babel what time they celebrated that great Feast of Tabernacles and Ezra publickly read the Law before all the People Upon which Act this good ensued that both the Priests and Princes and many others of the People did enter covenant with the Lord that if the People of the Land brought ware Nch. 10. v. 31. or any Victuals to sell them on the Sabbath day that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath or on the holy-days and that we would
was a burden to him not what he carried upon both as Origen informs us of them So where they found it in the Law that thou shalt do no manner of work they would have no work done at all no though it were to save ones life neither to heal the wounded or to cure the sick both which they did object against Christ our Saviour nor finally to take sword in hand for the defence either of mens persons or their Countrey And though their rigour herein had been over-ruled by Mattathias and that it was concluded lawful to fight against their Enemies on the Sabbath day yet they found out a way to elude this order teaching the people this that they might fight that day against their Enemies if they were assaulted but not molest them in their preparations for assault and battery This is now made the meaning of the former Law and this cost them dear As good no Law at all as so bad a Comment For when that Pompey warred against them and besieged their Temple he quickly found on what foot they halted and did accordingly make use of the occasions which they gave unto him Had not the Ordinance of the Countrey as Josephus tells it commanded us to keep the Sabbath and do no labour on that day Antiq. Jud. l. 14. c. 8. the Romans never had been able to have raised their Bulwarks How so ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Because the Law permits us to defend our selves in case at any time we are assailed and urged to fight but not to set upon them or disturb them when they have other work in hand Which when the Romans found saith he they neither gave assault or profer'd any skirmish on the Sabbath days but built their Towers and Bulwarks and planted Engines thereupon and the next day put them in use against the Jews It seems they were not well resolved on the former point whether they might defend themselves on the Sabbath day Hist l. 5 â though they were assaulted For on that day it was that Pompey took the City and enslaved the people So Dio tells us touching the use the Romans made of that advantage adds for the close of all ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that at the last they were surprised upon the Saturday not doing any thing in their own defence Strabo therein concurs with Dio in making Saturday the day Geogr. l. 16. but takes it for a solemn Fast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã wherein it is not lawful to do any work And so it was a Fast indeed but such a Fast as fell that time upon the Sabbath Josephus tells us only that the Temple was taken in the third month on a fasting day which Casaubon conceives to be the seventh Exerc. 16.108 and Scaliger the seventeenth of the month called Tamuz but both agree upon it that it was the Sabbath Em. Temp. edit 2. l. 3. As for their fasting on that day it was permitted in this case and in this case only when as their City was besieged as before we shewed Yet could not this unfortunate rigour be any warning to the Jews but needs they must offend again in the self-same kind For just upon the same day seven and twenty years the City was again brought under by Sosius and Herod who had then besieged it in the same month L. 14 c. 24. l. 49. and on the same day as Josephus tells it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and on the day called Saturday as Dion hath it So fatal was it to the Jews to perish in the folly of their superstitions The first of these two actions is placed in Anno 3991. therefore the last being just 27 years after must be 4018 of the Worlds Creation Augustus Caesar being then in the Triumvirate By means of these two Victories the Jews being tributary to the Romans began to find admittance into their Dominions in many places of the which they began to plant and filled at last whole Townships with their numberous Families Scarce any City of good note in Syria and the lesser Asia wherein the Jews were not considerable for their members and in the which they had not Synagogues for their Devotions So that the manner of their lives and forms of their Religion being once observed the Roman people many of them became affected to the rites of the Jewish worship and amongst other Ceremonies to the Sabbath also It was the custom of the Romans to incorporate all Religions into their own and worship those Gods whom before they conquered Et quos post cladem triumphatos colere coeperunt in Minutius words Therefore the marvail is the less that they were fond of something in the Jews Religion though of all others they most hated that as most repugnant to their own Yet many of them out of wantonness and a love to Novelties began to stand upon the Sabbath some would be also circumcised and abstain from Swines flesh Javenal Sat. 14. others use Candlesticks and Tapers as they saw the Jews The Satyrist thus scoffs them for it Quidam sortiti metuentem Sabbata patrem Nil praeter nubes coeli numen adorant Nec distare putant humana carne suillam Qua pater abstinuit mox praeputia ponunt Some following him the Sabbaths who devised Only the Clouds and Sky for Gods adore Hating Swines flesh as they did mans before Cause he forbare it and are circumcised Remember Persius taunteth them with their Sabbata recutita as before we noted Now as the Poet did upbraid them with Circumcision and forbearing Swines flesh so Seneca derides them for the Sabbaths Epist 95. and their burning Tapers on the same as a thing unnecessary neither the Gods being destitute of light nor mortal men in love with smoak Accendere aliquam lucernam sabbatis praecipiamus quoniam nec lumine dii egent ne homines quidem delectantur fuligine Nay some of them bewail the same and wish their Empire never had extended so far as Jewry that so the Romans might not have been acquainted with these superstitions of their Sabbaths O utinam nunquam Judaea subacta fuisset Pompeii bellis Rubilius Imperioque Titi. Latius excisae gentis contagia serpunt Victoresque suos natio victa premit O would Judaea never had been won By Pompeys Armies or Vespasians Son Their superstition spreads it self so far That they give Laws unto the Conquerour Nor were the Sabbaths entertained only in Rome it self Some in almost all places of their Empire were that way enclined as Seneca most rightly noted Eo usque sceleratissimae gentis consuetudo invaluit ut per omnes jam terras recepta sit victi victoribus leges dederunt Cap. 11. De mund opis Saint Augustine so reports him in his sixth Book de civitate And this is that which Philo means when as he calls the Sabbath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the general Festival of all people when he sets up this
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
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
Sabbath knowest thou not that these days are Sisters and that whoever doth despise the one doth affront the other Sisters indeed and so accounted in those Churches not only in regard of the publick meetings but in this also that they were both exempt from the Lenten Fast of which more anon In the mean time we may remember how Saturday is by S. Basil made one of those four times whereon the Christians of those parts did assemble weekly to receive the Sacrament as before we noted And finally it is said by Epiphanius that howsoever it was not so in the Isle of Cyprus which it seems held more correspondence with the Church of Rome than those of Asia Expos fidei Cathol 24. yet in some places ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they used to celebrate the holy Sacrament and hold their publick meetings on the Sabbath day So as the difference was but this that whereas in the Eastern and Western Churches several days were in commission for Gods publick service the Lords day in both places was of the Quorum and therefore had the greater worship because more business They held their publick Meetings on the Sabbath-day yet did not keep it like a Sabbath The Fathers of this learned Age knew that Sabbath hath been abrogated and profest as much The Council of Laodicea before remembred though it ascribe much to this day in reference to the Congregations then held upon it yet it condemns the Jewish observations of the same ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. It is not fit for Christians saith the 29. Canon to Judaize and do no manner of work on the Sabbath days but to pursue their ordinary labours on it Conceive it so far forth as they were no impediment to the publick Meetings then appointed And in the close of all ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If any should be found so to play the Jews let them be Anathema So Athanasius though he defend the publick Meetings on this day stands strongly notwithstanding for the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath Not on the by but in a whole discourse writ and continued especially for that end and purpose entituled De Sabbato circumcisione One might conjecture by the title by coupling of these two together what his meaning was that he contrived them both to be of the same condition And in his homily De semente he tells us of the New-moons and Sabbaths that they were Ushers unto Christ and to be in Authority till the Master came ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Master being come the Usher grew out of all imployment the Sun once risen v.p. 1. chap. 8. the Lamp was darkened To other of the Fathers which have said as much and whereof we have spoken in a place more proper add Nazianz. Orat. 43. S. Cyril of Hierusalem Cat. 4. and Epiphanius in the confutation of those several Hereticks that held the Sabbath for a necessary part of Gods publick worship and to be now observed as before it was Of which kind over and above the Ebionites and Cerinthians which before we spake of were the Nazarai in the second Century who as this Epiphanius tell us differed both from the Jew and Christian First from the Jew in that they did believe in Christ next from the Christian ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in that they still retain the Law as Circumcision and the Sabbath and such things as those And these I have the rather noted in this place and time as being Cont. Cresconium l. 8. so Saint Austin tells us the Ancestors or Original of the Symmachiani who held out till this very Age and stood as much for Sabbaths and legal ceremonies as their founders did whereof consult S. Ambroses preface to the Galatians Now as these Nazarens or Symmachiani had made a mixt Religion of Jew and Christian Nazianz. Orat. 19. so did another sort of Hereticks in these present times contrive a miscellany of the Jew and Gentile Idols and Sacrifices they would not have and yet they worshipped the Fire and Candle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The Sabbath also they much reverenced and stood upon the difference of unclean and clean yet by no means would be induced to like of Circumcision These they called Hypsistarij or rather so those doughty fellows pleased to call themselves Add here that it was counted one of the great dotages of Appollinaris and afterwards of all his sect viz. that after the last Resurrection every thing should be done again Basil ep 74. according to the former Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. That we should be circumcised and observe the Sabbath and abstein from meats and offer Sacrifice and finally of Christians become Jews again Than which saith Basil who reports it what can be more absurd or more repugnant to the Gospel By which it is most plain and certain that though the Christians of the East retained the Saturday for a day of publick meeting yet they did never mean it to be a Sabbath reckoning them all for Hereticks that so observed it Next let us look upon the Sunday what they did on that For though it pleased the Emperor by his royal Edict to permit works of Husbandry in the Country and manumissions in the Cities on that sacred day yet probably there were some pure and pious souls who would not take the benefit of the declaration or think themselves beholden to him for so injurious and profane a dispensation This we will search into exactly that so the truth may be discovered And first beginning with the Council of Eliberis a Town of Spain in the beginning of this Age it was thus decreed Can. 21. Si quis in civitate positus per tres dominicas ecclesiam non accesserit tanto tempore abstineat ut correptus esse videatur If any Inhabitant of the Cities absent himself from Church three Lords days together let him be kept as long from the holy Sacrament that he may seem corrected for it Where note Si quis in civitate positus the Canon reacheth unto such only as dwelt in Cities near the Church and had no great business those of the Country being left unto their Husbandry and the like affairs no otherwise than in the Emperours Edict which came after this And in the Council of Laodicea not long after Can. 29. which clearly gave the Lords day place before the Sabbath it is commanded that the Christians should not Judaize on the Sabbath day but that they should prefer the Lords day before it and rest thereon from labour if at least they could but as Christians still The Canon is imperfect as it stands in the Greek Text of Binius edition no sense to be collected from it But the translation of Dionysius Exiguus which he acknowledgeth to be more near the Greek than the other two makes the meaning up Diem dominicum praeferentes ociari oportet si modo possint And this agreeably both unto Zonaras the Balsamon who
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
done afterwards in pursuit hereof consisted specially in beating down the opposition of the common people who were not easily induced to lay by their business next in a descant as it were on the former plain-song the adding of particular restrictions as occasion was which were before conteined though not plainly specified both in the Edicts of the former Emperours and Constitutions of the Churches before remembred Yet all this while we find not any one who did observe it as Sabbath or which taught others so to do not any who affirmed that any manner of work was unlawful on it further than as it was prohibited by the Prince or Prelate that so the people might assemble with their greater comfort not any one who preached or published that any pastime sport or recreation of an honest name such as were lawful on the other days were not fit for this And thereupon we may resolve as well of lawful business as of lawful pleasures that such as have not been forbidden by supream Authority whether in Proclamà tions of the Prince or Constitutions of the Church or Acts of Parliament or any such like Declaration of those higher Powers to which the Lord hath made us subject are to be counted lawful still It matters not in case we find it not recorded in particular terms that we may lawfully apply our selves to some kind of business or recreate our selves in every kind of honest pleasure at those particular hours and times which are left at large and have not been designed to Gods publick service All that we are to look for is to see how far we are restrained from labour or from recreations on the Holy days and what Authority it is that hath so restrained us that we may come to know our duty and conform unto it The Canons of particular Churches have no power to do it further than they have been admitted into the Church wherein we live for then being made a part of her Canon also they have power to bind us to observance As little power there is to be allowed unto the Declarations and Edicts of particular Princes but in their own dominions only Kings are Gods Deputies on the Earth but in those places only where the Lord hath set them their power no greater than their Empire and though they may command in their own Estates yet is it extra sphaeram activitatis to prescribe Laws to Nations not subject to them A King of France can make no Law to bind us in England Much less must we ascribe unto the dictates and directions of particular men which being themselves subject unto publick Order are to be hearkned to no further than by their life and doctrine they do preach obedience unto the publick Ordinances under which they live For were it otherwise every private man of name and credit would play the Tyrant with the liberty of his Christian Brethren and nothing should be lawful but what he allowed of especially if the pretence be fair and specious such as the keeping of a Sabbath to the Lord our God the holding of an holy convocation to the King of Heaven Example we had of it lately in the Gothes of Spain and that strange bondage into which some pragmatick and popular man had brought the French had not the Council held at Orleans gave a check unto it And with examples of this kind must we begin the story of the following Ages CHAP. V. That in the next six hundred years from Pope Gregory forwards the Lords day was not reckoned of as of a Sabbath 1. Pope Gregories care to set the Lords day free from Jewish rigours at that time obtruded on the Church 2. Strange fancies taken up by some about the Lords day in these darker Ages 3. Scriptures and Miracles in these times found out to justifie the keeping of the Lords day holy 4. That in the judgment of the most learned in these six Ages the Lords day hath no other ground than the Authority of the Church 5. With how much difficulty the people of these times were barred from following their Husbandry and Law-days on the Lords day 6. Husbandry not restrained on the Lords day in the Eastern parts until the time of Leo Philosophus 7. Markets and Handierafts restrained with no less opposition than the Plough and Pleading 8. Several casus reservati in the Laws themselves wherein men were permitted to attend those businesses on the Lords day which the laws restrained 9. Of divers great and publick actions done in these Ages on the Lords day 10. Dancing and other sports no otherwise prohibited on the Lords day than as they were an hindrance to Gods publick Service 11. The other Holy days as much esteemed of and observed as the Lords day was 12. The publick hallowing of the Lords day and the other Holy days in these present Ages 13. No Sabbath all these Ages heard of either on Saturday or Sunday and how it stood with Saturday in the Eastern Churches WE are now come to the declining Ages of the Church after the first 600 years were fully ended and in the entrance on the seventh some men had gone about to possess the people of Rome with two dangerous fancies one that it was not lawful to do any manner of work upon the Saturday or the old Sabbath ita ut die Sabbati aliquid operari prohiberent the other ut dominicorum die nullus debeat larari that no man ought to bathe himself on the Lords day or their new Sabbath With such a race of Christned Jews or Judaizing Christians was the Church then troubled Against these dangerous Doctrines did Pope Gregory write his Letter to the Roman Citizens stiling the first no other than the Preachers of Antichrist Epl. 3. l. 11. one of whose properties it shall be that he will have the Sabbath and the Lords day both so kept as that no manner of work shall be done on either qui veniens diem Sabbatum atque dominicum ab omni faciet opere custodire as the Father hath it Where note that to compell or teach the people that they must do no manner of work on the Lords day is a mark of Antichrist And why should Antichrist keep both days in so strict a manner Because saith he he will persuade the people that he shall die and rise again therefore he means to have the Lords day in especial honour and he will keep the Sabbath too that so he may the better allure the Jews to adhere unto him Against the other he thus reasoneth Et si quidem pro luxuria voluptate quis lavari appetit hoc fieri nec reliquo quolibet die concedimus c. If any man desires to bathe himself only out of a luxurious and voluptuous purpose observe this well this we conceive not to be lawful upon any day but if he do it only for the necessary refreshing of his body then neither is it fit it should be forbidden upon the
clearly that the observation of the former Sabbath had been translated very fitly to the Lords day by the custom and consent of Christian people For speaking how the Sabbath was accounted holy in the former times and that the Jews resting thereon from all manner of work did only give themselves to meditation and to fasting Homil. 18. post Penta he adds cujus observationem mos Christianus ad diem dominicum competentius transtulit Where plainly mos Christianus doth imply no precept no order or command from the Apostles that it should be so and much less any precept in the Old Testament which should still oblige And sure I am Rabanus Maurus speaks only as by way of exhortation and not armed with any warrant from the Apostles or other argument from Scripture Homil. in aiâb dom Where he adviseth us à vespera diei Sabbati usque ad vesperam diei dominici sequestrati à rurali opere omni negotio solo divino cultui vacemus Where no man will presume to say that either rest from Husbandry and such other business or the beginning of the Lords day on the Eve before were introduced by any precept of the Apostles considering how long it was before either of them had been used in the Christian Church And so Hesychius Bishop of Hierusalem who flourished at the self same time with Isidore speaks of it only as a custom or a matter of fact In Levit. lib. 2. cap. 5. descending by tradition from the Apostles Apostolorum sequentes traditionem diem dominicum conventibus divinis sequestramus which was the most that he could say for the original thereof indeed who could more And as for Isidore himself whom the others followed Etymolog l. 6. c. 18. it 's clear that they esteemed the Lords day for no other than a common Holiday by far inferior unto Ester Pascha festivitatum omnium prima est Then followeth Pentecost Epiphany Palm-sunday Maunday-thursday and in the last place Dies dominicus the Lords day Which questionless he had not placed in so low a room had he conceived it instituted by any precept or injunction of those blessed Spirits So in a Council held at Paris Anno 829. it was determined positively that keeping of the Lords day had no other ground than custom only and that this custom did descend ex Apostolorum traditione immo ecclesiae autoritate at most from Apostolical tradition but indeed rather from the Authority of holy Church And whereas Courts of Law or Law days had formerly been prohibited on this day that so men might in peace and concord go to Church together the several Councils that of Friburg Anno 895. and that of Erpford Anno 932. though then the times were at the darkest ascribe it not to any Law or Text of Scripture but only to the anient Canons Secundùm sanctorum statuta patrum saith the first Can. 26. Secundùm Canonicam institutionem saith the second Cap. 2. And howsoever some have said that Alexander Pope of Rome of that name the third refers the keeping of the Lords day to divine commandment yet they that look upon him well can find no such matter He saith indeed that both the Old and New Testament depute the seventh day unto rest but for the keeping of it holy both that and other days appointed for Gods publick service ecclesia decreverit observanda that he ascribes alone to the Churches order Decret l. 2. tit 9. de feriis cap. 3. The like may be affirmed also of restraint from labout that it is grounded only on the Authority of the Church and Christian Princes however in some regal and imperial Edicts there be some shew or colour added from the Law of God I say some shew or colour added from the Law of God For as before I said it is not utterly impossible but that those Princes might make use of some pretence or shew of Scripture the better to incline the People to yield obedience unto those restraints which were laid upon them The Synod held at Mascon and that in Auxerre both before remembred expresly had prohibited all works of Husbandry on this day the former having added for inforcing of it not only Ecclesiastical censures but corporal and civil punishments But yet this was not found enough to wean the people from their works their ordinary labours used before upon that day and it is no marvel The Jews were hardly brought unto it though they had heard God thundring from the holy mountain that they should do no manner of work upon their Sabbath It being added thereunto that whosoever should offend therein the should die the death And certainly it was very long before either Prince or Prelate or both joyned together with all their power and policy could prevail upon them either to lay aside their labours or forbear their Law days as may appear by many several Edicts of Emperours decrees of Popes Can. 18. and Canons of particular Councils which have successively been made in restraint thereof The Synod of Chalons Anno 662. wherein were 44. Bishops and amongst them S. Owen Arch-Bishop of Roman concluded as had been before non nova condentes sed vetera renovantes that on the Lords day no man should presume to Sow or Plough or Reap vel quicquid ad ruris culturam pertinet or deal in any thing that belonged to Husbandry and this on pain of Ecclesiastical censure and correction But when this did no good Clothaire the third of France for he I think it was who set out that Law beginning with the Word of God and ending with a threat of severe chastisement doth command the same Die dominico nemo servilia opera praesumat facere Ltg. Aleman tit 39. ap Brisson quia hoc lex prohibet sacra Scriptura in omnibus contradicit as before was said If any do offend herein in case he be a Bond-man let him be soundly hastinadoed in case a Freeman let him be thrice admonished of it if he offend again the third part of his patrimony was to be confiscated and finally if that prevailed not he was to be convented before the Governour and made a Bondslave So for the Realm of Germany a Council held at Dingulofinum in the lower Bavaria Anno 772. did determine thus Festo die Solis ocio divino intentus prophanis negotiis abstineto Upon the Sunday so they call it let every man abstain from prophane employments and be intent upon Gods worship If any man shall work his Cart this day or busie himself in any such like work jumenta ejus publica sunto his Teem shall presently be forseited to the publick use And if stubbornly they persist to provoke Gods anger be they sold for Bond-men Hist l. 3. Ap. Brisson ut supra So Aventine reports the Canon And somewhat like to this was ordered by Theodorius King of the Bavarians viz. Si quis die dominico c. If any man
times were certainly devout and therefore the less question to be made but that the Holy-days were employed as they ought to be in hearing of the Word of God receiving of the Sacraments and pouring forth their prayers unto him The sixth general Council holden at Constantinople appointed that those to whom the care of the Church was trusted should on all days ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã especially on the Lords day instruct the Clergy and the People out of the holy Scripture in the ways of Godliness I say the Clergy and the People for in these times the Revenue of the Church being great and the offerings liberal there were besides the Parish-Priest who had Cure of souls many assisting Ministers of inferiour Orders which lived upon Gods holy Altar Somewhat to this purpose of Preaching every Sunday yea and Saints days too in the Congregation we have seen before established in the Council at Mentz Anno 813. So for receiving of the Sacrament whereas some would that it should be administred every day singulis in anno diebus as Bertram hath it lib de corp sangu Christi Rabanus Maurus who lived 824. leaves it as a thing indifferent advising all men notwithstanding in case there be no lawful let to communicate every Lords day De Sermon prâpriâtat ãâã 4.10 Quotidie Eucharistiae communionem percipere nec vitupero nec laudo omnibus tamen dominicis diebus communicandum hortor si tamen mens in affectu peccandi non sit as his words there are And whereas this good custom had been long neglected Can. 21. it was appointed that the Sacrament should be administred every Lords day by the Council at Aken Anno 836. Ne forte qui longe est à sacramentis quibus est redemptus c. lest saith the Council they which keep so much distance from the Sacraments of their redemption be kept as much at distance from the fruition of their Salvation As for the Holy-days or Saints days there needed no such Canon to enjoyn on them the celebration of the Sacrament which was annexed to them of course So likewise for the publick prayers besides what scatteringly hath been said in former places Câââ Friburienâ Can. 26. the Council held at Friburg Anno 895. hath determined thus Diebus dominicis sanctorum festis vigiliis orationibus insistendum est ad missas cuilibet Christiano cum oblationibus currendum That on the Lords day and the Festivals of the Saints every Christian was to be intent upon his devotions to watch and pray and go to Mass and there make his offering It 's true the Service of the Church being in the Latine and in these times that Language being in some Provinces quite worn out and in some others grown into a different dialect from what it was that part of Gods worship which was publick prayer served not so much to comfort and to edification as it should have done As for the outward adjuncts of Gods publick service on the Churches part the principalwas that of Musick which in these Ages grew to a perfect height We shewed before that vocal Musick in the Church is no less ancient than the Liturgy of the Church it self which as it was begun in Ignatius time after the manner of plain-song or a melodious kind of pronunciation as before was said so in S. Austins time it became so excellent that it drew many to the Church and consequently many to the saith Now to that vocal Musick which was then in use and of which formerly we spake it pleased the Church in the beginning of these Ages to add Instrumental the Organ being added to the Voice by Pope Vitalian Anno 653. above 1000 years ago and long before the aberration of the Church from its pristine piety And certainly it was not done without good advice there being nothing of that kind more powerful than melody both Vocaland Instrumental for raising of mens hearts and sweetning their affections towards God Not any thing wherein the Militant Church here on Earth hath more resemblance to the Church in Heaven triumphant than in that sacred and harmonious way of singing praise and Allelujahs to the Lord our God which is and hath of long been used in the Church of Christ To bring this Chapter to an end in all that hath been said touching the keeping of the Lords day we find not any thing like a Sabbath either in the practice of the Church or writings of particular men however these last Ages grew to such an height in restraint of labours on this day that they might seem to have a mind to revive that part of the fourth Commandment Thou shalt do no manner of work upon it For where they tell us of this day as before was said that it was taken up by custom on the Authority of the Church as most on Apostolical tradition this makes it plain that they intended no such matter as a Sabbath day though that the Congregation might assemble in the greater numbers and men might joyn together in all Christian duties with the greater force it pleased the Church and principal powers thereof to restrain men from cororal labours and bind them to repair to the House of God Or if they did intend the Lords day for a Sabbath day it 's plain they must have made more Sabbaths than one day in seven those Holy-days which universally were observed in the Christian Church being no othersise to be kept than the Lords day was and those increasing in these Ages to so great a number that they became a burden to the common people Nor is it likely that being once free from the bondage of the Jewish Sabbath they would submit themselves unto another of their own devising and do therewith as the Idolaters of old with their woodden Gods first make them and then presently fall down and worship them Rather they took a course to restrain the Jews from sanctifhing their Sabbah and other legal Festivals as before they used Can. 10. Statutum est de Judaeis in the 12. Council of Tolledo Anno 681 Ne Sabbata caeterasque festivitates ritus sui celebrare praesumant and not so only Sed ut diebus dominicis ab opere cessent but that they should refrain from labour on the Lords day also of any Sabbath to be kept in the Christian Church some few might dream perhaps such filthy dreamers as Saint Jude speaks of but they did only dream thereof they few no such matter They which had better Visions could perceive no Subbath but in this life a Sabbath or a rest from sin and in the life to come a Sabbath or a rest from misery Plainly Rupertus so conceived it as great a Clerk as any in the times wherein he lived which was in the beginning of the twelfth Century Nam sicut signum circumcisionis incarnationem c. For as saith he the sign of Circumcisian foreshewed the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour
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
appointed by the Church for the assembly of Gods people we should lay by our daily business and all worldly thoughts and wholly give our selves to the heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and Service But to encounter them at their own weapon it is expresly said in the Act of Parliament about keeping Holy-days that on the days and times appointed as well the other Holy days as the Sunday Christians should cease from all kind of labour and only and wholly apply themselves to such holy works as appertain to true Religion the very same with that delivered in the Homily If wholly in the Homily must be applied unto the day then it must be there and then the Saints days and the other Holy-days must be wholly spent in religious exercises When once we see them do the one we will bethink our selves of doing the other As for the residue of that Homily which consists in popular reproofs and exhortations that concerns not us in reference to the point in hand The Homilies those parts thereof especially which tend to the correction of manners and reformation of abuses were made agreeable to those times wherein they were first published If in those times men made no difference between the Working-day and Holy-day ãâã kept their Fairs and Markets and bought and sold and rowed and ferried and drow and carried and rode and journeyed and did their other business on the Sunday as well as on the other days when there was no such need but that they might have tarried longer they were the more to blame no doubt in trespassing so wilfully against the Canons of the Church and Acts of Parliament which had restrained many of the things there specified The Homily did well to reprove them for it If on the other side they spent the day in ungodliness and filthiness in gluttony and drunkenness and such like other crying sins as are there particularly noted the Prelates of the Church had very ill discharged their duty had they not taken some course to have told them of it But what is that to us who do not spend the Lords day in such filthy fleshliness whatever one malicious sycophant hath affirmed therein or what is that to dancing shooting leaping vaulting may-games and meetings of good Neighbourhood or any other Recreation not by Law prohibited being no such ungodly and filthy acts as are therein mentioned Thus upon due search made and full examination of all parties we find no Lords day Sabbath in the book of Homilies no nor in any writings of particular men in more than 33 years after the Homilies were published I find indeed that in the year 1580 the Magistrates of the City of London obtained from Queen Elizabeth that Plays and Enterludes should no more be acted on the Sabbath-day within the liberties of their City As also that in 83. on the 14th of January being Sunday many were hurt and eight killed outright by the sudden falling of the Scaffolds in Paris-garden This shews that Enterludes and Bear-baitings were then permitted on the Sunday and so they were a long time after though not within the City of London which certainly had not been suffered had it been then conceived that Sunday was to be accounted for a Sabbath But in the year 1595. some of that faction which before had laboured with small profit to overthrow the Hierarchy and government of this Church of England now set themselves on work to ruinate all the orders of it to beat down at one blow all days and times which by the wisdom and authority of the Church had been appointed for Gods service and in the stead thereof to erect a Sabbath of their own devising These Sabbath speculations and Presbyterian directions as mine Author calls them they had been hammering more than ten years before thought they produced them not till now and in producing of them now they introduced saith he a more than cither Jewish or Popish superstition into the Land Rogers in preface to the Articles to the no small blemish of our Christian profession and scandal of the true servants of God and therewith doctrine most erroneous dangerous and Antichristian Of these the principal was one Dr. Bound who published first his Sabbath Doctrins Anno 1595. and after with additions to it and enlargements of it Anno 1606. Wherein he hath affirmed in general over all the book that the Commandment of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaical decalogue is natural moral and perpetual That where all other things in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were clean taken away as the Priesthood the Sacrifices and the Sacraments this day the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth p. 91. that there is great reason why we Christians should take our selves as straitly bound to rest upon the Lords day as the Jews were upon their Sabbath for being one of the moral Commandments it bindeth us as well as them being all of equal authority p. 247. And for the Rest upon this day that it must be a notable and singular Rest and most careful exact and precise Rest after another manner than men were accustomed p. 124. Then for particulars no buying of Victuals Flesh or Fish Bread or Drink 158. no Carriers to travel on that day 160. nor Parkmen or Drovers 162. Scholars not to study the liberal Arts nor Lawyers to consult the Case and peruse mens Evidences 163. Sergeants Apparitours and Sumners to be restrained from executing their Offices 164. Justices not to examine Causes for preservation of the Peace 166. no man to travel on that day 192. that ringing of more Bells than one that day is not to be justified p. 202. No solemn Feasts to be made on it 206 nor Wedding Dinners 209. with a permission notwithstanding to Lords Knights and Gentlemen he hoped to find good welcome for this dispensation p. 211. all lawful Pleasures and honest Recreations as Shooting Fencing Bowling but Bowling by his leave is no lawful pleasure for all sorts of people which are permitted on other days were on this day to be forborne 202. no man to speak or talk of pleasures p. 272. or any other worldly matter 275. Most Magisterially determined indeed more like a Jewish Rabbin than a Christian Doctor Yet Jewish and Rabbinical though his Doctrin were it carried a fair face and shew of Piety at the least in the opinion of the common people and such who stood not to examine the true grounds thereof but took it up on the appearance such who did judge thereof not by the workmanship of the stuff but the gloss and colour In which it is most strange to see how âuddenly men were induced not only to give way unto it but without more ado to abett the same till in the end and that in very little time it grew the most bewitching Errour the most popular Deceit that ever had been set on foot in the Church of England And verily I persuade my self
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
Parliament that is might have the force of a Law by a civil Sanction The whole debate with all the Traverses and emergent difficulties which appeared therein are specified at large in the Records of Convocation Anno 1532. But being you have not opportunity to consult those Records I shall prove it by the Act of Parliament called commonly The Act of submission of the Clergy but bearing this Title in the Abridgment of the Statutes set out by Poulton That the Clergy in their Convocations shall enact no constitutions without the Kings assent In which it is premised for granted that the Clergy of the Realm of England had not only acknowledged according to the truth that the Convocation of the same Celrgy is always hath been and ought to be assembled always by the Kings Writ but also submitting themselves to the Kings Majesty had promised in verbo Sacerdotis That they would never from henceforth presume to attempt alleadge claim or put in ure enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances provincial or other or by whatsoever other name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the Kings most Royal Assent may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same and that his Majesty do giv his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf Upon which ground-work of the Clergies the Parliament shortly after built this superstructure to the same effect viz. That none of the said Clergy from henceforth should presume to attempt alleadge claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodals or any other Canons norshall enact promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by whatsoever names or names they may be called in their Convocations in time coming which always shall be assembled by the Kings Writ unless the same Clergy may have the Kings most Royal Assent and Licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodical upon pain of every one of the said Clergy doing the contrary to this Act and thereof convicted to suffer Imprisonment and make Fine at the Kings Will 25 H. 8. c. 19. So that the Statute in effect is no more than this An Act to bind the Clergy to perform their promise to keep them fast unto their word for the time to come that no new Canon should be made in the times succeeding in the favour of the Pope or by his Authority or to the diminution of the Kings Royal Prerogative or contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm of England as many Papal Constitutions were in the former Ages Which Statute I desire you nto take notice of because it is the Rule and Measure of the Churches power in making Canons Constitutions or whatsoever else you shall please to call them in their Convocations The third and final Act conducing to the Popes Ejection was an Act of Parliament 28 H. 8 c. 10. entituled An Act extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome By which it was enacted That if any person should extol the Authority of the Bishop of Rome he should incur the penalty of a preamunire that every Officer both Ecclesiastioal and Lay should be Sworn to renounce the said Bishop and his Authority and to resist it to his power and to repute any Oath formerly taken in maintenance of the said Bishop or his Authority to be void and finally that the refusal of the said Oath should be judged High Treason But this was also usher'd in by the determination first and after by the practice of all the Clergy For in the year 1534. which was two years before the passing of this Act the King had sent this Proposition to be agitated in both Vniversities and in the greatest and most famous Monasteries of the Kingdom that is to say An aliquid authoritatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plusquam alii cuicunque Episcopo extero By whom it was determined Negatively that the Bishop of Rome had no more power of Right in the Kingdom of England than any other forreign Bishop Which being testified returned under the hands and seals respectively the Originals whereof are still remaining in the Library of Sr. Robert Cotton was a good preamble to the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy assembled in their Convocation to conclude the like And so accordingly they did and made an Instrument thereof subscribed by the hands of all the Bishops and others of the Clergy and afterwards confirmed the same by their corporal Oaths The copies of which Oaths and Instrument you shall find in Foxes Acts and Monumets Vol. 2. fol. 1203. and fol. 1210 1211. of the Edition of John Day Anno 1570. And this was semblably the ground of a following Statute 35 H. 8. c. 1. wherein another Oath was devised and ratified to be imposed upon the Subject for the more clear asserting of the Kings Supremacy and the utter exclusion fo the Popes for ever which Statutes though they were all repealed by an Act of Parliament 1 and 2 d. of Phil. and Mary c. 1. yet were they all revived in 1 Elize save that the name of supream Head was changed unto that of the supream Governour and certain clauses altered in the Oath of Supremacy Where by the way you must take notice that the Statutes which concern the Kings Supremacy are not introductory of any new Right that was not in the Crown before but only declaratory of an old as our best Lawyers tell us and the Statute of the 26 of H. 8. c. 1. doth clearly intimate So that in the Ejection of the Pope of Rome which was the firt and greatest steptowards the work of Reformation the Parliament did nothing for ought it appears but what was done before in the Convocation and did no more than fortifie the Results of Holy Church by the addition and corroboration of the Secular Power 3. Of the Translation of the Scriptures and permitting them to be read in the English Tongue THE second step towards the work of Reformation and indeed one of the most especial parts thereof was the Translation of the Bible into the English Tongue and the permitting all sorts of people to peruse the same as that which visibly did tend to the discovery of the errours and corruptions in the Church of Rome and the intolerable pride and tyranny of the Roman Prelates upon which grounds it had been formerly translated into English by the hand of Wickliff and after on the spreading of Luthers Doctrine by the pains of Tindal a stout and active man in K. Henries days but not so well befriended as the work deserved especially considering that it hapned in such a time when many Printed Pamphlets did disturb the State and some of them of Tindals making which seemed to tend unto sedition and the change of Government Which being remonstrated to the King he caused divers of his Bishops together with sundry of the Learned'st and
in the time of Moses 3. The prescribed rites and form of the legal Sacrifices 4. Set forms of Prayer and Benediction used at the offering of the Sacrifices in the time of Moses 5. The Song of Moses made a part of the Jewish Liturgie 6. The form and rites used in the Celebration of the Passeover according unto Joseph Scaliger 7. The same together with the Hymnes then used described by Beza 8. The several Prayers and Benedictions which were used therein according to the Jewish Rabbins 9. A form of Blessing of the People prescribed by God unto the Priests A prescribed form used by the People at the offering of their first fruits and tithes 10. The like in burning of their Leaven and in confessing of their Sins to Almighty God as also in the Excommunicating of Impenitent persons 11. An Answer to two main objections from and against the Jewish Rabbins 12. The form of Marriage and rites of Burial used amongst the Jews HItherto we have looked into the Actions and devotions of the blessed Patriarchs during the time they sojourned in the Land of Canaan in which we find not any apparent footstep either of appointed times or determinate places or set forms of worship more than the Consecrating of Jacobs Pillar and giving to the place the name of Bethel Follow them in their journey towards the Land of Egypt and we find Israel offering Sacrifices at Beersheba being in his way upon the rode unto the God of his Father Isaac Gen. xlvi 1. Which Sacrifice if we observe it as we ought Bersabe fuit ultima villa terra Chanaan eundi versus Aegyptum Lyran in Gen. 46. Ayns Annot. in Gen. 46.1 will prove to be as much occasional as any of the rest which we saw before It being very well observed by Aynsworth that Jacob in his Sacrifice upon the way did both give thanks to God for the good tidings which he heard of Joseph and also consulted with the Lord about his going into Egypt whither his Father Isaac had been forbidden to go in a time of Famine as this was Gen. xxvi Besides Beersheba being the last Town of the Land of Canaan in the way of Egypt this might be the last time for ought he could tell wherein he might have opportunity of offering Sacrifice to the Lord his God or tendring to him any publick testimony of his faith and duty And so it proved in the event nor he nor any one of his Posterity being permitted whilst they were in Egypt to offer any Sacrifice unto the Lord as before they used to do And this appears by the request which Moses made to Pharaoh in behalf of the House of Israel that he would suffer them to go three days journey into the Wilderness to offer Sacrifice therein to the Lord their God To which when Pharaoh made reply Exod. 5.3 that rather than let the People go he would permit them for that once to offer Sacrifice unto the Lord in the Land of Egypt Not so said Moses it is not meet we should do so for we shall Sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and they will stone us Exod. 8.26 His reason was because the Gods of the Egyptians were Bulls and Rams and Sheep and Oxen as Lyra notes upon the place Talia vero animalia ab Hebraeis erailt immolanda Lyran. in Exod cap. 8. quod non permisissent Aegyptii in terrasua And certainly the Egyptians could not well endure to see their gods knocked down before their faces So that for all the time that they lived in Egypt the piety and devotion of Gods people did consist especially in the integrity and honesty of their conversation and in those private exercises of Religion which might be done within their own walls in their several Families Nothing to make it known that they were Gods Servants ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as it is observed by Epiphanius but that they feared the Lord and were Circumcised Epiphan adv haeres l. 1. haer 5. nothing but that they did acknowledge one only God and exercised themselves in justice and in modesty in patience and long-suffering both towards one another and amongst the Egyptians framing their lives agreeably unto the will of God and the law of Nature But no sooner by a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm had God delivered them from thence but he disposed them being now grown numerous like to the Stars in Heaven for numbers into a constituted Church appointing them set times and places for Religious Worship ordaining a peculiar Priesthood for his publick service prescribing with what Rites and Ceremonies that publick service that religious worship was to be performed And first the time appointed for this purpose was the Sabbath-day Exod. 16.23 the keeping of the which was the first of the Commandments which God gave by Moses from whence the Hebrew Doctors say that the Commandment of the Sabath is the foundation and ground of all the rest quod ante alia praecepta hoc datum sit quando Manna acceperunt as being given before them all in the fall of Manna Hospini de Fest Judaeorum cap. 3. A day to be observed and sanctified both by Priest and People by the Priest in adding to the daily Sacrifice an offering of two Lambs of an year old without blemish one in the morning and the other in the evening and by the people in an absolute resting from the works of labour that they might give themselves the better to divine contemplation Unto which day it pleased God afterwards to adde divers solemn Festivals to be observed in their several and appointed seasons viz. the New-moons Lev. 1.23 the Feasts of Trumpets and of Tabernacles the Feasts of Pentecost and of the Passeover although this last had the precedency indeed both in regard of institution and of observation over all the rest this being both ordained and kept at their departure out of Egypt the other not enjoyned till they were come unto mount Sinai even in the bowels of the Wilderness The times being thus appointed and determined Exod. 12. per tot the next particular we meet withal is the designation of the place which was contrived by the direction of Almighty God according to the present condition of his People For being they were then in motion towards Canaan not yet setled there they were to be provided of a portable Temple if I may so call it which might be carried and removed according to the stations and removes of Israel This we find called in holy Scripture by the name of the Tabernacle the Tabernacle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Exod. 26. 31. 35. and by way of eminency the making and materials of the which are layed down at large in the xxvi Chapter of the Book of Exodus And it continued a long time the place of publick Worship for the Tribes of Israel not only when they were in their way or journeys
not only Prayers and Benedictions used and commanded to be used at the Celebration but such a prescribed and determinate Form as quickly was received over all the Church The Commentaries commonly ascribed to Ambrose which if not his are certainly both very pious and of great Antiquity give us the matter of those Prayers which here by the Apostles rule were ladi first of all as a preparatory to the Celebration Haec regula Ecclesiastica est tradita à magistro Gentium qua utuntur sacerdotes nostri ut pro omnibus supplicent Ambr. Comment in â ad Tim. c. 2. c. This Ecclesiastical Ordinance saith he was given by by the Doctor of the Gentiles which our Priests use unto this day making their Prayers to God for all men Praying for the Kings of the world that they may have their people in obedience that being governed in peace they may serve the Lord in rest and quietness of mind as also for all those which are in Authority under them that they may govern the Common-wealth in truth and equity with plenty of all things that so all tumults and seditions being far removed joyfulness may succeed in the place thereof For it is Bread that strengtheneth and Wine that maketh glad the heart of man They intercede also for all those who are in misery or necessity that being delivered from the same they may praise the Lord the Author of all health and safety finally giving thanks to God for all those blessings which he affordeth us in this life that God may so be praised from whom and Christ by whom so many benefits are bestowed upon us that all things being composed and quieted which might prove dangerous unto the Empire we may have liberty to serve the Lord in godliness and honesty Thus he And this I could fain know how little if at all this differs either for matter form or place from the Prayer entituled for the Church militan here on Earth continued till this day in the Church of England And that according to S. Ambrose if the work be his Secundum regulam Ecclesiasticam traditam à Magistro Gentium conform unto a rule of S. Paul's prescribing I add but this which is observed unto my hand by a very learned and industrious Gentleman for I am willing to acknowledge by whom I profit that in the meaning of the Apostle H. Thorndike of Religious Assemb cap. 10. p. 377. as well as in the practice of the primitive Church Prayers and Supplications were to be made for all men in the Celebration of the Eucharist for Kings c. it being neither strained nor forced as he notes full well to take the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or thanksgiving which S. Paul there useth in that very sense in which it hath been used by Clemens and Ignatius the Apostles Scholars for the Celebration of the Eucharist for the whole action and all the Prayers and supplications which it was celebrated withal For why not thus as well in this place of S. Paul 1 Cor. 14.16 as in another not so likely where the Apostle asks this question HOw shall he which occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he understandeth not what he saith Of which thus Beza in his notes Suspicor Apostolum attingere Beza Annot. in 1. ad Cor. c. 14. celebrandae Domini coenae ritum solennem illam gratiarum actionem I am saith he of an opinion that the Apostle in this place doth point unto the Rites of Celebrating the Lords holy Supper and that solemn giving of thanks which was therein used a full description of the which he gives us out of Justin Martyr which we shall see anon in its proper place Whence had the blessed Sacraments the name of Eucharist V. Casaubon in Annal. Eccl. Exerc. 16. n. 40. if our Grammarians and Philologers be not much mistaken but from this solemn giving thanks which was used therein Thus am I fallen at last upon S. Pauls Epistle unto those of Corinth wherein it is conceived that the performances of the Church are most fully handled as they relate unto the publick worship of Almighty God Which though it be as in relation to those times in which there were such wonderful effusions of the holy Spirit yet being that those effusions were miraculous and the publick offices of the Church were governed by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost there are not many things therein which may be drawn into example in these later times in which we must not look for such effusions For it is well observed by Chrysostom Chrysost Homil. 14. n. 18. ad Rom. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That many of those miracles which were frequent then are not to be expected now These extraordinary graces were not given but for an extraordinary end which was the planting of the Gospel in the midst of Paganism or where it was encountred by an obstinate faction of obdurate Jews And therefore they that do pretend to such special gifts as were in those times necessary for theordering and edification of the Church may by as strong a Charter for ought I can see lay claim unto the gift of Tongues and the power of Healing and the spirit of Prophesie which yet I see but few of them do aspire unto Passing by those things therefore in this Epistle which are not to be drawn into example if will appear most clearly from the xiv Chapter that to the constituting of Gods publick Service in the Congregation there went these three parts Prayer Praise and Prophesie which we have formerly observed to be the three ingredients that make up the same This last we find much spoke of throughout that Chapter particularly and by name verse 1 3 5 22 29 31 32 39. The other two he joyneth together in one verse 1 Cor. 14.15 viz. I will pray with the spirit and will pray with understanding also I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with understanding also Himself informs us what he means by Prophesying where it is said that he who Prophesyeth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation Ibid. v. 3. both which as the times then were there was a great ambition in the Prophets of the Church of Corinth for ostentation of their gifts to utter them in Tongues not understood by the common people This is the thing most blamed by the Apostle in the present Chapter viz. that in their exhortations to the people or explications of the Scriptures they used to speak in unknown tongues and not interpret Ibid. v. 5. 27 And that they did the like in the act of Prayer is conceived by Beza where he thus glosseth on the Text Orabo spiritu i. e. lingua peregrina quam mihi dictat spiritus Beâa in Annot. in 1. ad Cor. 14 I will pray in the spirit that is saith he in such an unknown tongue as the spirit
conferens bestowing with a liberal hand possessions and revenues both on Church and Church-men did ratifie the said donations by his publick Charters And this he saith on the Authority of Gildas who in a book of his entituled De victoria Aurelii Ambrosii not now extant had affirmed the same Radulphus de Diceto speaks more fully to the point in hand Eleutherus saith he Citat ap Armachan lib. de Primord c. 4. sent into Britain Faganus and Diwanus for so he calls him who having Baptized Lucius the King templa etiam quae in honorem plurimorum deorum fundata erant did dedicate unto the one and only God those Temples which had been built in former times to the honour of Idols More fully yet in fewer words Gervase of Tilbury doth relate it thus Hic Lucius omnia territoria templis pridem collata contulit Ecclesiis ampliavit Ap. eund c. 6. This Lucius saith he bestowed upon the Churches those Lands and Territories which had been formerly conferred on the Pagan Temples and inlarged them also So that we find the Church indowed and Bishops instituted in the time of Lucius and that I hold to be above all exception as will appear more evidently by the Episcopal succession reckoned from this time but whether in so large a number and upon that occasion as it is laid before us in our common Chroniclers that is the point to be considered Now our Historians old and new very few excepted report that in those times in Britain there were no less than 28 Cities of name and eminency whereof 25 had anciently been the seats of the Heathen Flamines the three remaining viz. York London and Caer-Leon upon Vske of the Archiflamines and that upon the introduction of the Gospel hither the Temples of the Idols being turned into Christian Churches instead of Flamines they placed Bishops Archbishops in the place of the Archi-Flamines All our own Writers which speak of the foundation of these Bishopricks from Geofry of Monmouth down to Polydore Virgil do report it thus And so do many forrein also beginning with Martinus Polonus who first took it up and so descending down to Platina and since to other later Authors both ours and theirs Erant tunc in Britannia vig inti octo Pontifices Idolorum quos Flamines vocabant inter quos tres Archiflamines erant Martin Polonus in Chron. Sed praedicti Sancti that is Faganus and Deruvianus de mandato Apostolici ubi erant Flamines instituerunt Episcopos ubi Archiflamines Archiepiscopos We had the same before in England save that the Popes appointment mandatum Apostolici doth here occur which there we had not And how far this may stand with probability or with truth of story is in the next place to be looked on And for the number of them first it cannot be denied but that of old there were no less than 28 Cities in these parts of Britain which we now call England Beda Hist Ecc. Angl. l. 1. cap. 1. Beda affirms it so expresly Erat viginti octo Civitatibus quondam nobilissimis insignita that Britain anciently was ennobled with 28 signal and noted Cities besides Towns and Castles Henry of Huntingdon doth not only declare as much Huntingdonen hist l. 1. in init but lets us know the several names whereby they had been called in the Britains time and by the which the most of them were known in the later Ages when he lived And possibly there might be Bishops in them all according as the Gospel did inlarge its borders and Provinces were gained to the Faith of Christ though neither all so early as the days of Lucius nor all of his foundation and endowment as it is supposed It was a work too mighty for a petty Prince to spread his arms at once over all the Island especially so many Provinces thereof being none of his What might be done in times succeeding and by his example is not now the question nor whether that which was done after might in some sort be ascribed to him as being the first that gave the on-set and shewed the way to others how to do the like as Rome is said to have been built by Romulus because he began it the greatest part thereof being built a long time after And this seems probable to me Ap. Bedam hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 29. as to the number of the Sees Episcopal that there were so many because that Gregory the great by his constitution appointed twelve Bishops for the Province of Canterbury and twelve also unto that of York which with the four in Wales which are still remaining will make up eight and twenty in the total But for the Flamines and Arch-flamines I must confess I am not so well satisfied in the probability and truth of that That by the name of Flamines the Gentiles used to call the Priests of their several Gods Isidor Origin l. 7. c. 12. I know well enough Socerdotes Gentilium Flamines dicebantur as it is in Isidore But being that one and the same City had not only many Flamines but also many Colleges of Flamines according to the number of the Gods they worshipped some for Mars others for Jupiter and some for Romulus and that there is no ancient Writer of the Roman stories which mentioneth either Archiflamines or Protoflamines Godwin Landavens tract de convers Brit. as is objected very well by B. Godwin I must confess I am not so well satisfied in this point as to deliver it for a certain and undoubted truth He that desires to see what may be answered unto those objections let him consult the learned and laborious work of Francis Mason Mason de Minist Ang. l. 2. c. 3. late Archdeacon of Norfolk De Ministerio Anglicano the sum whereof in brief is this Licet in una urbe multi Flamines that though there were many Flamines in one City yet was there only one which was called Pontifex or Primus Flaminum the Pope or principal of the Flamines of which kind one for every City were those whom our Historians speak of And for the Archiflamines or Proto-Flamines Beda hist eccl Angl. l. 2. c. 13. though the name occur not yet were there some in power and authority above the rest who were entituled primi Pontificum as indeed Coifi by that name is called in Beda which is the same in sense with Archiflamines although not in sound This if it satisfie the Reader shall not thwart with me who am no enemy unto the story or any part thereof which may well be justified If not but that it rather be accounted a device of Monkish ignorance I shall desire them who are so opinionated to consider this that few of the records of those elder days have come entire unto our hands and that it is no marvel it such an ancient story as this is considering through whose hands it passed hath in so long a tract of
since been ordained reverend for their Age for their Faith sincere tried in Affliction and proscribed in time of persecution Nor doth he speak this of his own time only which was somewhat after but as a matter of some standing cum jam pridem per omnes provincias that so it had been long ago and therefore must needs be so doubtless in this present Age being not long before his own And this extent of Christianity I do observe the rather in this place and time because that in the Age which followeth the multitudes of Christians being so increased we may perhaps behold a new face of things the times becoming quicker and more full of action Parishes or Parochial Churches set out in Country-Villages and Towns and several Presbyters allotted to them with an addition also both of trust and power unto the Presbyters themselves in the Cure of Souls committed to them by their Bishops with many other things which concern this business And therefore here we will conclude this present Century proceeding forward to the next in the name of God CHAP. IV. Of the authority in the government of the Church of Carthage enjoyed and exercised by Saint Cyprian and other Bishops of the same 1. Of the foundation and preheminences of the Church of Carthage 2. Of Agrippinus and Donatus two of St. Cyprian's Predecessors 3. The troublesom condition of that Church at Cyprian's first being Bishop there 4. Necessitated him to permit some things to the discretion of his Presbyters and consent of the People 5. Of the authority ascribed by Cyprian to the People in the Election of their Bishop 6. What Power the people had de facto in the said Elections 7. How far the testimony of the People was required in the Ordination of their Presbyters 8. The power of Excommunication reserved by St. Cyprian to the Bishop only 9. No reconciliation of a Penitent allowed by Cyprian without the Bishops leave and licence 10. The Bishop's power as well in the encouragement as in the punishment and censure of his Clergy 11. The memorable case of Geminius Faustinus one of the Presbyters of Carthage 12. The Bishop's Power in regulating and declaring Martyrs 13. The Divine Right and eminent authority of Bishops fully asserted by St. Cyprian SAint Hierom tells us of S. Cyprian Hieron de Scriâtor Eccl. in Tertulâd that he esteemed so highly of Tertulian's writings that he never suffered any day to pass over his head without reading somewhat in the same and that he did oft use to say when he demanded for his works Da mihi magistrum reach me my Tutor or Praeceptor So that considering the good opinion which S. Cyprian had harboured of the man for his Wit and Learrning and the nearness of the time in which they lived being both also members of the same Church the one a Presbyter the other Bishop of the Church of Carthage We will pass on unto S. Cyprian and to those monuments of Piety and Learning which he left behind him And this we shall the rather do because there is no Author of the Primitive times out of whose works we have such ample treasures of Ecclesiastical Antiquities as we have in his none who can give us better light for the discovery of the truth in the present search than that blessed Martyr But first before we come to the man himself we will a little look upon his charge on the Church of Carthage as well before as at his coming to be Bishop of it the knowledge of the which will give special light to our following business And first for the foundation of the Church of Carthage Cited by Baronius in Annal Eccl. Anno 51. if Metaphrastes may be credited it was the action of Saint Peter who leaving Rome at such time as the Jews were banished thence by the Decree of Claudius Caesar in Africam navigasse Carthaginensem erexisse Ecclesiam is by him said to sail to Africa and there to found the Church of Carthage leaving behind him Crescens one of his Disciples to be the Bishop of the same But whether this be so or not it is out of question that the Church of Carthage was not only of great Antiquity but that it also was of great power and credit as being the Metropolitan Church of Africk the Bishop of the same being the Primate of all Africa properly so called together with Numidia and both the Mauritanias as well Caesariensis as Sitisensis So witnesseth S. Cyprian himself Latius fusa est nostra Provincia Cypri Ep. 45. habet enim Numidiam Mauritanias duas sibi cohaerentes as his own words are And this appeareth also by the subscription of the Bishops to the Council of Carthage convented ex Provincia Africa Concil Tom. 1. p. 149. Edit Binil Numidia Mauritania as is most clear on the record For whereas antiently the Roman Empire was divided into fourteen Diocesses reckoning the Prefecture of the City of Rome for one every Diocess being subdivided into several Provinces as was said before the Diocess of Africa was not of the meanest containing in it six large Provinces Notitia Provinciarum and reaching from the greater Syrtis Eastward where it confined upon the Patriarchat of Alexandria to Mauritania Tingitana on the West which did belong unto the Diocess of Spain Now Carthage standing in that Province which was called Zeugitana or Proconsularis and being the Seat or Residence of the Vicarius or Lieutenant General of the Roman Empire for that Diocess The Bishop of it was not only the Metropolitan of his own Province but the Primate also in regard of the other sive which were Tripolitana Byzacena Numidia and the two Mauritanias before remembred Nor was he only the supream Bishop in regard of them but also absolute and independent in regard of others as being neither subject or subordinate to the Patriarchs of Alexandria though the prime City of all Africa nor to the Popes of Rome the Queen and Empress of the world Concil Carthaginiens 6. against whose machinations and attempts the Church of Carthage for a long time did maintain her liberty Such being the Authority and power of the Church of Carthage we must next look upon the Bishops of the same who though they had not got the name of Patriarchs as those of Antioch Rome and Alexandria now had and they of Constantinople and Hierusalem shall be found to have in the times succeeding yet had they all manner of Patriarchal jurisdiction Of these the first I meet withal was Agrippinus who flourished in the beginning of this Century bonae memoriae vir a man of blessed memory as S. Cyprian Cyprian Epist 71. Vincent Lerinen adv haeres cap. 9. Aug. de Bap. lib. 2. cap. 7 8. Cypr. Epi. 71. Venerabilis memoriae of venerable memory as Vincentius Lerinensis calls him S. Austin also mentioneth him in one of his discourses against the Donatists as a Predecessor of S. Cyprians
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
to make sure work of it I must send Doctor Ames to school to Calvin who tells us on this Text of Moses non contexuit Moses historiam suo ordine sed narratione ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã interposita melius confirmat c. Indeed it could not well be otherwise interpreted For how could Aaron lay up a pot of Mannah to be kept before the Testimony when as yet there was neither Ark nor Tabernacle and so no Testimony before which to keep it To bring this business to an end Moses hath told us in the place before remembred Verse 35 that the children of Israel did eat Mannah forty years which is not otherwise true in that place and time in which he tells it but by the help and figure of anticipation And this St. Austin noted in his questions upon Exodus Qu. 62. significat scriptura per Prolepsin i. e. hoc loco commemorando quod etiam postea factum est And lastly where Amesius sets it down for certain that no man ever thought of an anticipation in this place of Moses Verse supra qui praejudicio aliquo de observatione diei Dominicae non prius fuit prius anticipatus who was not first possessed with some manifest prejudice against the sanctifying of the Lords day this cannot possibly be said against Tostatus who had no Enemy to encounter nor no opinion to oppose and so no prejudice We conclude then that for this passage of the Scripture we find not any thing unto the contrary but that it was set down in that place and time by a plain and meer anticipation and doth relate unto the time wherein Moses wrote And therefore no sufficient warrant to setch the institution of the Sabbath from the first beginnings One only thing I have to add and that 's the reason which moved Moses to make this mention of the Sabbath even in the first beginning of the Book of God and so long time before the institution of the same Which doubtless was the better to excite the Jews to observe that day from which they seemed at first to be much averse and therefore were not only to be minded of it by a Memento in the front of the Commandment but by an intimation of the equity and reason of it even in the entrance of Gods Book derived from Gods first resting on that day after all his works Theodoret hath so resolved it in his Questions on the Book of Genesis Maxime autem Judaeis ista scribens necessario posuit hoc sanctificavit eum Qu. 21. ut majore cultu prosequantur Sabbatum Hoc enim in legibus sanciendis inquit sex diebus creavit Deus c. I say an intimation of the Equity and Reason of it for that 's as much as can be gathered from that place though some have laboured what they could to make the sanctifying of the seventh day therein mentioned a Precept given by God to our Father Adam touching the sanctifying of that day to his publick worship Of this I shall not now say much because the practice will disprove it Only I cannot but report the mind and judgment of Pererius a learned Jesuit Who amongst other reasons that he hath alledged to prove the observation of the Sabbath not to have taken beginning in the first infancy of the World makes this for one that generally the Fathers have agreed on this Deum non aliud imposuisse Adamo praeceptum omnino positivum nisi illud de non edendo fructu arboris scientiae c that God imposed no other Law on Adam than that of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of knowledg Of which since he hath instanced in none particularly I will make bold to lay before you some two or three that so out of the mouths of two or three witnesses the truth hereof may be established And first we have Tertullian who resolves it thus Adv. Judaeos Namque in principio mundi ipsi Adae Evae legem dedit c. In the beginning of the World the Lord commanded Adam and Eve that they should not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midle of the Garden Which Law saith he had been sufficient for their justification had it been observed For in that Law all other Precepts were included which afterwards were given by Moses St. Basil next who tells us first De jejunio that abstinence or fasting was commanded by the Lord in Paradise And then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. the first Commandment given by God to Adam was that he should not eat of the Tree of knowledg The very same which is affirmed by St. Ambrose in another language Et ut sciamus non esse novum jejunium primam illic legem Lib. de Elia jejunio c. 3. i. e. in Paradise constituit de jejunio So perfectly agree in this the greatest lights both of African the Eastern and the Western Churches If so if that the law of abstinence had been alone sufficient for the justification of our Father Adam as Tertullian thinks or if it were the first Law given by God unto him as both St. Basil and St. Ambrose are of opinion then was there no such Law at all then made as that of sanctifying of the Sabbath or else not made according to that time and order wherein this passage of the Scripture is laid down by Moses And if not then there is no other ground for this Commandment in the Book of God before the wandring of Gods people in the Wilderness and the fall of Mannah A thing so clear that some of those who willingly would have the Sabbath to have been kept from the first Creation and have not the confidence to ascribe the keeping of it to any Ordinance of God but only to the voluntary imitation of his people And this is Torniellus way amongst many others Anno 236. who though he attribute to Enos both set Forms of Prayer and certain times by him selected for the performance of that Duty praecipue vero diebus Sabbati In die 7. especially upon the Sabbath yet he resolves it as before that such as sanctified that day if such there were non ex praecepto divino quod nullum tunc extabat sed ex pietate solum id egisse Of which opinion Mercer seems to be as before I noted So that in this particular point the Fathers and the Modern Writers the Papist and the Protestant agree most lovingly together Much less did any of the Fathers or other ancient Christian Writers conceive that sanctifying of the Sabbath or one day in seven was naturally ingrafted in the mind of man from his first creation It 's true they tell us of a Law which naturally was ingrafted in him So Chrysostom affirms that neither Adam In Rom. 7.12 hom 12. nor any other man did ever live without the guidance of this Law and that it was imprinted in the soul of man
out the mysteries of this number the better to advance as they conceive the reputation of the Sabbath Aug. Steuchius hath affirmed in general In Gen. 2. that this day and number is most natural and most agreeable to divine employments and therefore in omni aetate inter omnes gentes habitus venerabilis sacer accounted in all times and Nations as most venerable and so have many others said since him But he that led the way unto him and to all the rest is Philo the Jew who being a great follower of Platos took up his way of trading in the mysteries of several numbers wherein he was so intricate and perplexed that numero Platonis obscurius did grow at last into a Proverb This Philo therefore Platonizing Tall. ad Attie l. 7 âpl 13. ãâã opisiââo first tells us of this number of seven ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that he persuââles himself there is not any man able sufficiently to extol it as being far above all thâ powers of Rhetorick and that the Pythagoreans from them first Plato learnt those trifles did usually resemble it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã even to Jove himself Then that Hippocrates doth divide the life of man into seven Ages âaââ age cânteining seven full years to which the changes of mans constitution are all framed and fitted as also that the Bear or Arcturus as they use to call it and the constellation called the Pleiades consist of seven Stars severally neither more nor less He shews us also how much Nature is delighted in this number ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã De legis Alleg. l. 1. as viz. that there are seven Planets and that the Moon quartereth every se venth day that Infants born in the seventh month are usually like enough to live that they are seven several motions of the body seven intrails so many outward members seven holes or out-lets in the same seven sorts of excrements as also that the seventh is the Critical day in most kinds of maladies And to what purpose this and much more of the same condition every where scattered in his Writings but to devise some natural reason for the Sabbath For so he manifests himself in another place Ap. Euââb Praepar l. 8. c. 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Now why God chose the seventh day and established it by Law for the day of rest you need not ask at all of me since both Physicians and Philosophers have so oft declared of what great power and vertue that number is as in all other things so specially on the nature and state of man ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And thus saith he you have the reason of the seventh-seventh-day Sabbath Indeed Philosophers and Physicians and other learned men of great name and credit have spoken much in honour of the number of seven and severally impute great power unto it in the works of Nature and several changes of mans Body Whereof see Censorinus de die natali cap. 12. Varro in Gellium lib. 3. c. 10. Hippocrates Solon Hermippus Beritus in the sixth Book of Clemens of Alexandria besides divers others Nay it grew up so high in the opinion of some men that they derived it at the last ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. ab insita majestate So Philo tells us Macrobius also saith the same Apud veteres ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vocitatur De legis Allegor quod graeco nomine testabatur venerationem debitam numero Thus he in somnio Scipionis But other men as good as they find no such mystery in this number but that the rest may keep pace with it if not go before it and some of those which so much magnifie the seventh have found as weighty mysteries in many of the others also In which I shall the rather enlarge my self that seeing the exceeding great both contradiction and contention that is between them in these needless curiosities we may the better find the slightness of those Arguments which seem to place a great morality in this number of seven as if it were by Nature the most proper number for the service of God And first whereas the learned men before mentioned affix a special power unto it in the works of Nature Respons ad qu. 69. Justin the Martyr plainly tells us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. that the accomplishment of the works of Nature is to be ascribed to Nature only not unto any period of time accounted by the number of seven and that they oft-times come to their perfection sooner or later than the said periods which could not be in case that Nature were observant of this number as they say she is and not this number tied to the course of Nature ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Therefore saith he this number hath no influence on the works of Nature Then whereas others attribute I know not what perfection to this number above all the rest Cicero affirming that it is plenus numerus Macrobius that it is numerus solidus perfectus De Republ. l. 4. Bodinus doth affirm expresly neutrum de septenario dici potest that neither of those Attributes is to be ascribed unto this number that the eighth number is a solid number although not a perfect one the sixth a perfect number also Now as Bodinus makes the eighth more solid and the sixth more perfect So Servius on these words of Virgil In Georgic 1. Septima post decimam foelix prefers the tenth number a far deal before it Vt primum locum decimae ferat quae sit valde foelix secundum septimae ut quae post decimae foelicitatem secunda sit Nay which may seem more strange than this Oratio secunda the Arithmeticians generally as we read in Nyssen make this seventh number to be utterly barren and unfruitful ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But to go forwards in this matter Macrobius who before had said of this number of seven that it is plenus venerabilis hath in the same Book said of this number of one that it is principium finis omnium and that it hath a special reference or resemblance unto God on high which is by far the greater commendation of the two And Hierom In Amos 5. that however there be many mysteries in the number of seven prima tamen beatitudo est esse in primo numero yet the prime happiness or beatitude is to be sought for in the first So for the third Origen generally affirms that it is aptus sacramentis even made for Mysteries In Gen. hom 8. and some particulars he nameth Macrobius findeth in it all the natural faculties of the Soul ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or rational ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or irascible Ad Antioch qu. 51. and last of all ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or concupiscible Saint Athanasius makes it equal altogether with the seventh the one being no less memorable for the holy Trinity than the other for
and Circumcision and the like de Sodomorum incendio liberatus est Therefore nor Lot nor Heber nor Melchisedech ever kept the Sabbath For Abraham next the Father of the Faithful with whom the Covenant was made and Circumcision as a seal annexed unto it The Scripture is exceeding copious in setting down his life and actions as also of the lives and actions of his Son and Nephews their flittings and removes their Sacrifices Forms of Prayer and whatsoever else was signal in the whole course of their affairs but yet no mention of the Sabbath Though such a memorable thing as sanctifying of a constant day unto the Lord might probably have been omitted in the former Patriarchs of whom there is but little left save their names and ages as if they had been only brought into the story to make way for him yet it is strange that in a punctual and particular relation of his life and piety there should not be one Item to point out the Sabbath had it been observed This is enough to make one think there was no such matter Et quod non invenis usquam esse putes nusquam in the Poets Language I grant indeed that Abraham kept the Christian Sabbath in righteousness and holiness serving the Lord his God all the days of his life and so did Isaac and Jacob. Sanctificate diem Sabbati saith the Prophet Jeremiah to the Jews i.e. ut omne tempus vitae nostrae in sanctificatione ducamus sicut fecerunt patres nostri In Hier. 17. Abraham Isaac Jacob as Saint Hierom glosseth it Our venerable Bede also hath affirmed as much that Abraham kept indeed the spiritual Sabbath quod semper à servili In Luc. 19. i.e. noxia vacabat actione whereby he always rested from the servile works of sin but that he kept or sanctified any other Sabbath the Christian Fathers deny unanimously In Dial. cum Tryphone Justin the Martyr numbring up the most of those before remembred concludes that they ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã were justified without the Sabbath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and so was Abraham after them and all his Children until Moses And whereas Trypho had exacted a necessary keeping of the Law Sabbaths New-moons and Circumcision the Martyr makes reply that Abraham Isaac Jacob Job and all the other Patriarchs both before and after them until Moses time yea and their Wives Sarah Rebecca Rachel Lea and all the rest of religious Women unto Moses Mother ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Neither kept any of them all nor had commandment so to do till Circumcision was enjoyned to Abraham and his Posterity So Irenaeus that Abraham Lib. 4.30 sine Circumcisione observatione sabbatorum credidit Deo without or Circumcision or the Sabbath did believe in God which was imputed to him for righteousness And where the Jews objected in defence of their ancient Ceremonies that Abraham had been circumcised Tertullian makes reply sed ante placuit Deo quam circumcideretur nec tamen sabbatizavit Adv. Judaeos that he was acceptable unto God before his being Circumcised and yet he never kept the Sabbath See more unto this purpose in Eusebius de Demonstr l. 1. c. 6. de praeparat l. 7. c. 8. where Isaac and Jacob are remembred too as also Epiphanius adv haeres l. 1. n. 5. Thus far the ancient Christian Writers have declared of Abraham that he kept no Sabbath and this in conference with the Jew and in Books against them Which doubtless they had never done had there been any possibility for the Jews to have proved the contrary Some of the Jews indeed not being willing thus to lose their Father Abraham have said and written too that he kept the Sabbath as they do and for a proof thereof they ground themselves on that of Genesis because that Abraham obeyed my Voice and kept my Charge my Commandments my Statutes and my Laws The Jews conclude from hence as Mercer and Tostatus tell us upon the Text that Abraham kept the Sabbath and all other ceremonies of the Law as much I think the one as he did the other Who those Jews were that said it of what name and quality that they have not told us and it were too much forwardness to credit any nameless Jew before so many Christian Fathers Tostatus though he do relate their dicunt yet believes them not and herein we will rather follow him than Mercer who seems a little to incline to that Jewish fancy The rather since some Jews of name and quality have gone the same way that the Fathers did before remembred De Arianis l. 11. c. 10. For Petrus Galatinus tell us how it is written in Beresith Ketanna or the lesser exposition upon Genesis a Book of publick use and great authority among them that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath And this he tells us on the credit of Rabbi Johannan who saith expresly that there upon these words God blessed the seventh day it is set down positively Non scripta est de Abrahamo observatio Sabbati And where it is objected for the Jew that in case Abraham did not keep it it was because it was not then commanded This Galatinus makes reply Ex hoc saltem infertur sabbati cultum non esse de lege naturae that therefore it is evident that the Sabbath is no part of the Law of nature As for the Text of Genesis we may expound it well enough and never find a Sabbath in it which that it may be done with the least suspition we will take the exposition of Saint Chrysostom who very fully hath explained it Because he hath obeyed my voice c. Right saith the Father God said unto him Get thee out from thy Fathers house and and from thy kindred and go into the Land that I shall shew thee And Abraham went out ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and left a fair possession for an expectation and this not wavering but with all alacrity and readiness Then followeth his expectation of a Son in his old age when nature was decayed in him as the Lord had promised his casting out of Ismael as the Lord commanded his readiness to offer Isaac as the Lord had willed and many others of that nature Enough to give occasion unto that applause because he hath obeyed my voice although he never kept the Sabbath Indeed the Sabbath could not have relation to those words in Gen. because it was not then commanded Next look on Jacob the heir as well of Abrahams travels as of his faith Take him as Labans Shepherd and the Text informs us of the pains he took Gen. 31.40 In the day time the drought consumed me and the frost by night and the sleep departed from mine eyes No time of rest much more no seventh part of his time allotted unto rest from his daily labours And in his flight from Laban it seems he stood not on the Sabbath For though he fled thence with his Wives
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
to set apart the seventh day to his holy worship that if by chance they should forget the Lord their God that day might call him back unto their remembrances where note it was commanded to the Jews alone Add that Josephus calls the Sabbath in many places a national or local custom ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a law peculiar to that People as Antiue l. 14. c. 18. de bello l. 2. c. 16. as we shall see hereafter more at large Lastly so given to the Jews alone that it became a difference between them and all other People Saint Cyril hath resolved it so In Ezech. 20. God saith he gave the Jews a Sabbath not that the keeping of the same should be sufficient to conduct them to eternal life Sed ut haec civilis administration is ratio peculiaris à gentium institutis distinguat eos but that so different a form of civil government should put a difference between them and all Nations else Theodoret more fully that the Jews being in other things like to other People in observatione sabbati propriam videbantur obtinere rempublicam In Ezech. 20. seemed in keeping of the Sabbath to have a custom by themselves And which is more saith he their Sabbath put a greater difference between the Jews and other People than their Circumcision For Circumcision had been used by the Idumaeans and Aegyptians Sabbati verò observation ãâã a Judaeorum natio custodiebat but the observation of the Sabbath was peculiar only to the Jews Nay even the very Gentiles took it for a Jewish Ceremony sufficient proof whereof we shall see ere long But what need more be said in this either that this was one of the Laws of Moses or that it was peculiar to the Jews alone seeing the same is testified by the holy Scripture Thou camest down upon Mount Sinai saith Nehemiah Cap. 19.13 Vers 14. and spakest with them the house of Israel from Heaven and gavest them right judgments and true Laws good Statutes and Commandments what more It followeth And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbaths and commandest them Precepts Statutes and Laws by the hand of thy Servant Moses Now on what motives God was pleased to prescribe a Sabbath to the Jews more at this time than any of the former Ages the Fathers severally have told us yea and the Scriptures too in several places Justin Martyr as before we noted gives this general reason Qu. ex Nov. Test 69. because of their hard-heartedness and irregular courses wherein Saint Austin closeth with him Cessarunt onera legis quae ad duritiem cordis Judaici fuerunt data in escis sabbatis neomeniis Where note how he hath joyned together New-moons and Sabbaths and the Jewish difference between meat and meat Particularly Gregory Nyssen makes the special motive to be this Testim adventus Dei in carne ad sedandum nimium eorum pecuniae studium so to restrain the People from the love of money For coming out of Egypt very poor and bare and having almost nothing but what they borrowed of the Egyptians they gave themselves saith he unto continual and incessant labour the sooner to attain to riches Therefore said God that they should labour six days and rest the seventh Damascen somewhat to this purpose ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. God De side Orth. l. 4. c. 24 saith he seeing the carnal and the covetous disposition of the Israelites appointed them to keep a Sabbath that so their Servants and their Cattel might partake of rest And then he adds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. as also that thus resting from their worldly businesses they might repair unto the Lord in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and meditation of the Scriptures Rupertus harps on the same string that the others did L 5. in Joh c. 5. save that he thinks the Sabbath given for no other cause than that the labouring man being wearied with his weekly toyl might have some time to refresh his spirits Sabbatum nihil aliud est nisi requies vel quam ab causam data est nisi ut operarius fessus caeteris septimanae diebus uno die requiesceret Gaudentius Brixianus in his twelfth Homily or Sermon is of the same mind also that the others were These seem to ground themselves on the fifth of Deuteronomy where God commands his People to observe his Sabbaths Vers 14 that thy Man servant and thy Maid servant may rest as well as thou And then it followeth Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt Vers 15 and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence though with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day The force of which illation is no more than this that as God brought them out of Egypt wherein they were Servants so he commands them to take pity on their Servants and let them rest upon the Sabbath considering that they themselves would willingly have had some time of rest had they been permitted A second motive might be this to make them always mindful of that spiritual rest which they were to keep from the acts of sin and that eternal rest that they did expect from all toyl and misery In reference unto this eternal rest Saint Augustine tells us that the Sabbath was commanded to the Jews in umbra suturi De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. quae spiritalem requiem figuraret as a shadow of the things to come in S. Pauls Language which God doth promise unto those that do the works of Righteousness And in relation to the other the Lord himself hath told us that he had given his Sabbath unto the Jews to be a sign between him and them that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them Exod. 31.13 which is again repeated by Ezech. cap. 20.12 That they may know that I am the Lord which sanctifieth them For God as Gregory Nyssen notes it seems only to propose this unto himself that by all means he might at least destroy in man his inbred corruption ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This was his aim in Circumcision and in the Sabbath De resurrect Chr. Orat. 1. and in forbidding them some kind of meats ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For by the Sabbath he informed them of a rest from sin To cite more Fathers to this purpose were a thing unnecessary and indeed sensibile super sensum This yet confirms us further that the Sabbath was intended for the Jews alone For had God given the Sabbath to all other People as he did to them it must have also been a sign that the Lord had sanctified all People as he did the Jews There is another motive yet to be considered and that concerns as well the day as the Institution God might have given the Jews a Sabbath and yet not tied the Sabbath to one day of seven
or to the seventh precisely from the Worlds Creation Constitui potuisset quod in die sabbati coleretur Deus aut in die Martis Aut in altera die God saith Tostatus might have ordered it to have his Sabbath on the Saturday In Exod. 20. qu. 11. or on the Tuesday or any other day what ever what any other of the week and no more than so No he might have appointed it aut bis aut semel tantum in anno aut in mense once or twice a year or every month as he had listed And might not God as well exceed this number as fall short thereof Yes say the Protestant Doctors that he might have done He might have made each third or fourth or fifth day a Sabbath indeed as many as he pleased In Exod. 20. Si voluisset Deus absolute uti dominio suo potuit plures dies imperare cultui suo impendendos So saith Dr. Ryvet one of the Professors of Leiden and a great Friend to the Antiquity of the Sabbath What was the principal motive then why the seventh day way chosen for this purpose and none but that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to keep God always in their minds so saith Justin Martyr But why should that be rather done by a seventh day Sabbath than by any other Dial. Cum Try phone Detsest Paschal hom 6. Saint Cyril answers to that point exceeding fully The Jews saith he became infected with the Idolatries of Egypt worshipped the Sun and Moon and Stars and the Host of Heaven which seems to be insinuated in the fourth of Deut. v. 19. Therefore that they might understand the Heavens to be Gods workmanship eos opificem suum imitari jubet he willeth them that they imitate their Creator that resting on the Sabbath day they might the better understand the reason of the Festival Which if they did saith he in case they rested on that day whereon God had rested it was a plain confession that all things were made by him and consequently that there were no other Gods besides him Et haec una ratio sabbato indicatae quietis Indeed the one and only reason that is mentioned in the body of the Commandment which reflects only on Gods rest from all his work which he had made and leaves that as the absolute and sole occasion why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than the sixth or eighth or any other Which being so it is the more to be admired that Philo being a learned Jew or any learned Christian Writer leaving the cause expressed in the Law it self should seek some secret reason for it out of the nature of the day or of the number De Abrahamo First Fhilo tells us that the Jews do call their seventh day by the name of Sabbath which signifieth repose and rest Not because they did rest that day from their weekly labours ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but because seven is found to be both in the world and man himself the most quiet number most free from trouble war and all manner of contention A strange conceit to take beginning from a Jew Problem loc 5 5. yet that that follows of Aretius is as strange as this Who thinks that day was therefore consecrated unto rest even amongst the Gentiles quod putarent civilibus actionibus ineptum esse fortasse propter frigus planetae contemplationibus vero idoneum Because they thought that day by reason of the dulness of the Planet Saturn more fit for contemplation than it was for action Some had it seems conceived so in the former times whom thereupon Tostatus censures in his Comment on the fifth of Deuteronomy Qu. 3. For where it was Gods purpose as before we noted out of Cyril to wean the People from Idolatry and Superstition to lay down such a reason for the observation of the Sabbath was to reduce them to the worship of those Stars and Planets from which he did intend to wean them I had almost omitted the conceit of Zanchie See n. 1. before remembred who thinks that God made choice of this day the rather because that on the same day he had brought his People out of Egypt In case the ground be true that on this day the Lord wrought this deliverance for his People Israel then his conceit may probably be countenanced from the fifth of Deuteronomy where God recounting to his People that with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm he had delivered them from Egypt hath thereupon commanded them that they should keep the Sabbath day Lay all that hath been said together and it will come in all to this that as the Sabbath was not known till Moses time Annal. d. 7. so being known it was peculiar unto Israel only Non nisi Mosaicae legis temporibus in usu fuisse septimi diei cultum nec postea nisi penes Hebraeos perdurasse as Torniellus doth conclude it For that the Gentiles used to keep the seventh day sacred as some give it out is no where to be found I dare boldly say it in all the Writings of the Gentiles The seventh day of the moneth indeed they hallowed and so they did the first and fourth as Hesiod tells us Opera dies ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Not the first day and the fourth and seventh of every week for then they must have gone beyond the Jews but as the Scholiast upon Hesiod notes it of every month à novilunio exorsus laudat tres the first fourth and seventh And lest it should be thought that the seventh day is to be counted holier than the other two because the attribute of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã seems joyned unto it the Scholiast takes away that scruple à novilunio exorsus tres laudat omnes sacras dicens septimam etiam ut Apollinis natalem celebrans and tells us that all three are accounted holy and that the seventh was also celebrated as Apollos birth-day For so it followeth in the Poet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from whence the Flamines or Gentile Priests did use to call him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. the God born on the seventh day Dies Geniales l. 3. c. 18. For further proof hereof we find in Alexander ab Alexandro that the first day of evry moneth was consecrated to Apollo the fourth to Mercury the seventh again unto Apollo the eighth to Theseus The like doth Plutarch say of Theseus that the Athenians offered to him their greatest Sacrifice upon the eighth day of October because of his arrival that day from Crete and that they also honoured him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on the eighth day of the other moneths because he was derived from Neptune to whom on the eighth day of every month they did offer sacrifice To make the matter yet more sure De Decalogo Philo hath put this difference between the Gentiles and the Jews that divers Cities of the Gentiles did solemnize the seventh
Galatine reports from their own Records that in their latter exposition on the Book of Numbers upon those words send men that they may search the land of Canaan Chap. 13.2 they thus resolve it Nuncio praecepti licitum est c. A Messenger that goes upon Command may travail any day at what time be will And why because he is a Messenger upon Command Nuncius autem praecepti excludit sabbatum The phrase is somwhat dark but the meaning plain that those which went upon that Errand did not keep the Sabbath Certain it also is that for all that time no nor for any part thereof the people did not keep the Sabbath compleatly as the Law appointed For where there were two things concurring to make up the Sabbath first rest from labour and secondly the sacrifices destinate unto the day however they might rest some Sabbaths from their daily labours yet sacrifices they had none until they came into the Land of Canaan Now that they rested sometimes on the Sabbath day and perhaps did so generally in those forty years is manifest by that great and memorable Business touching the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath The case is briefly this the people being in the Wilderness Numb 15. Verse 32. ad 37. found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day and brought him presently unto Moses Moses consulted with the Lord and it was resolved that the offender should be stoned to death which was done accordingly The Law before had ordered it that he who so offended should be put to death but the particular manner of his death was not known till now The more remarkable is this case because it was the only time that we can hear of that execution had been done upon any one according as the Law enacted and thereupon the Fathers have took some pains to search into the reasons of so great severity De vit Mos l. 3. Philo accuseth him of a double crime in one whereof he was the principal and an Accessary only in the other For where it was before commanded that there should be no fire kindled on the Sabbath day this party did not only labour on the day of rest but also laboured in the gathering of such materials ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which might administer fuel to prohibited fire Saint Basil seems a little to bemoan the man De judicio Dei in that he smarted so for his first offence not having otherwise offended either God or Man and makes the motive of his death neither to consist in the multitude of his sins or the greatness of them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but only in his disobedience to the will of God But we must have a more particular motive yet than this And first Rupertus tells us per superbiam illud quod videbatur exiguum commisit In locum that he did sin presumptuously with an high hand against the Lord and therefore God decreed he should die the death God not regarding either what or how great it was sed qua mente fecerat but with what mind it was committed But this is more I think than Rupertus knew being no searcher of the heart Rather I shall subscribe herein unto Saint Chrysostom Who makes this Quaere first Hom. 39. in Matth. 12. seeing the Sabbath as Christ saith was made for man why was he put to death that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath And then returns this answer to his own demand ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. because in case God had permitted that the Law should have been slighted in the first beginning none would have kept it for the future Theodoret to that purpose also ne autor fieret leges transgrediendi Qu. 31. in Num. lest other men encouraged by his example should have done the like the punishment of this one man striking a terrour unto all No question but it made the people far more observant of the Sabbath than they would have been who were at first but backwards in the keeping of it as is apparent by that passage in the sixteenth of Exod. v. 27. And therefore stood the more in need not only of a watch-word or Memento even in the very front of the Law it self but of some sharper course to stir up their memory Therefore this execution was the more requisite at this instant as well because the Jews by reason of their long abode in a place of continual servile toil could not be suddenly drawn unto contrary offices without some strong impression of terrour as also because nothing is more needful than with extremity to punish the first transgressours of those Laws that do require a more exact observation for the times to come What time this Tragedy was acted is not known for certain By Torniellus it is placed in the year 2548. of the Worlds Creation which was some four years after the Law was given More than this is not extant in the Scripture touching the keeping of the Sabbath all the life of Moses What was done after we shall see in the Land of Promise In the mean time It is most proper to this place to take a little notice of those several Duties wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist especially that we may know the better what we are to look for at the peoples hands when we bring them thither Two things the Lord commanded in his holy Scripture that concern the Sabbath the keeping holy of the same one in relation to the People the other in reference to the Priest In reference to the People he commanded only rest from labour that they should do no manner of work and that 's contained expresly in the Law it self In reference to the Priest he commanded sacrifice that on the Sabbath day over and above the daily sacrifice there should be offered to the Lord two Lambs of an year old without blemish one in the morning and the other in the evening Numb 28. as also to prepare first and then place the Shewbread being twelve loaves one for every Tribe continually before the Lord every Sabbath day These several references so divided the Priest might do his part without the People and contrary the People do their part without the Priest Of any Sabbath duties which were to be performed between them wherein the Priest and People were to join together the Scriptures are directly silent As for these several Duties that of the Priest the Shew-bread and the sacrifice was not in practice till they came to the Land of Canaan and then though the Priest offered for the People yet he did not with them So that for forty years together all the life of Moses the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist only for ought we find in a Bodily rest a ceasing from the works of their weekly labours and afterwards in that and in the Sacrifices which the Priest made for them Which as they seem to be the greater of the two 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
would not stir nor give the place not to Jove himself More of this point see Chrysost hom 49. in Job But to proceed the next great action that occurs in holy Scripture reducible unto the business now in hand is that so famous miracle of the Suns standing still at the Prayers of Josuab when as the Sun stood still in the middest of Heaven Jos 10.13 and hasted not to go down about a whole day as the Text hath it Or as it is in Ecclesiast Cap. 46.4 Did not the Sun go back by his means and was not one day as long as two The like to take them both together in this place was that great miracle of mercy shewed to Hezekiah 2 King 20. by bringing of the shadow ten degrees backward by which it had gone down in the Dial of Ahaz In each of these there was a signal alteration in the course of nature and the succession of time so notable that it were very difficult to find out the seventh day precisely from the worlds Creation or to proceed in that account since the late giving of the Law So that in this respect the Jews must needs be at a loss in their calculation and though they might hereafter set apart one day in seven for rest and meditation yet that this day so set apart could be precisely the seventh day from the first Creation is not so easie to be proved The Author of the Practice of Piety as zealously as he pleads for the morality of the Sabbath confesseth that in these regards the Sabbath could not be observed precisely on the day appointed And to speak properly saith he as we take a day for the distinction of time called either a day natural consisting of 24 hours or a day artificial consisting of 12 hours from Sun-rising to Sun setting And withal consider the Sun standing still at noon the space of an whole day in the time of Josuah and the Sun going back ten degrees viz. five hours which is almost half an artificial day in Hezekiahs time the Jews themselves could not keep their Sabbath on that precise and just distinction of time called at the first the seventh day from the Creation If so if they observed it not at the punctual time according as the Law commanded it followeth then on his conscssion that from the time of Josuah till the destruction of the Temple there was no Sabbath kept by the Jews at all because not on the day precisely which the Law appointed This miracle as it advantaged those of the house of Israel in the present slaughter of their Enemies so could it not but infinitely astonish all the Canaanites and make them faint and flie before the Conquerors In so much that in the compass of five years as Josephus tells us there was not any lest to make head against them So that the Victory being assured and many of the Tribes in vested in their new possessions it pleased the Congregation of Israel to come together at Shilo Jos 18.1 there to set up the Tabernacle of the Congregation Anti ju Jud. l. 5. c. 1. And they made choice thereof as Josephus saith because it seemed to be a very convenient place by reason of the beauty of the place Rather because if sorted best with Josuahs liking who being of the Tribe of Ephraim within whose lot that City stood was perhaps willing to confer that honour on it But whatsoever was the motive here was the Tabernacle erected and hitherto the Tribes resorted and finally here the legal Ceremonies were to take beginning God having told them many times these and these things ye are to do when ye are come into the Land that I shall give you viz. Levit. 48. and 23. Numb 15. Deut. 12. That Gilgal was the standing lamp and that the Levites there laid down the Tabernacle as in a place of strength and safety is plain in Scripture but that they there erected it or performed any legal Ministery therein hath no such evidence Though God had brought them then into the Land of Promise yet all this while they were unsetled The Land was given after when they had possession So that the next Sabbath which ensued on the removal of the Tabernacle unto Shilo was the first Sabbath which was celebrated with its legal Ceremonies and this was Anno Mundi 2589. In which if we consider as well the toylsomness as multiplicity of the Priestlike-offices we shall soon see that though the People rested then yet the Priest worked hardest First for the Loaves of Proposition Antiqu. Jud. l. 3. c. 10. or the Shew-bread however Josephus tells us that they were baked ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the day before the Sabbath and probably in his time it might be so 1 Chron. 9. yet it is otherwise in the Scriptures The Kohathites saith the Text were over the Shew-bread for to prepare it every Sabbath These Loaves were twelve in number one for every Tribe each of them two tenth deals or half a peck so the Scriptures say every Cake square ten hand-breaths long five square and seven fingers high so the Rabbins teach us The kneading baking and disposing of these Cakes must require some labour Athanas bom de semente ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Where there is baking saith the Father then must be beating of the Oven and carrying in of faggots and whatsoever work is necessary in the Bakers trade Then for the Sacrifices of the day the labour of the Priest when it was left was double what it was on the other days ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Chrysostom hath rightly noted The daily sacrifice was of two Lambs Concio 1. de lazaro the Supernumerary of the Sabbath was two more If the New-moon fell on the Sabbath as it often did there was besides these named already an offering of two Bullocks a Ram seven Lambs and if that New-moon were the Feast of Trumpets also as it sometimes was there was a further offering of seven Lambs one Ram one Bullock And which is more each of these had their several Meat-offerings and Drink-offerings Perfumes and Frankincense preportionable to attend upon them By that time all was done so many Beasts kill'd skinned washed quartered and made ready for the Altar so many fires kindled meat and drink-offerings in a readiness and the sweet Odours fitted for the work in hand no question but the Priest had small cause to boast himself of his Sabbaths rest or to take joy in any thing but his larger fees and that he had discharged his duty As for the People though they might all partake of the fruits hereof yet none but those that dwelt in Shilo or near unto it at the least could behold the sight or note what pains the Priests took for them whilst they themselves sate still and stirred not Had the Commandment been moral and every part thereof of the same condition the Priests had never done
been a part of the Law of nature Yet had the Sabbath been laid by in such cases only wherein the Lord had specially declared his will and pleasure that these and these things should be done upon it or preferred before it there was less reason of complaint But we shall see in that which followed that the poor Sabbath was inforced to yield up the place even to the several necessities and occasions of particular men and that without Injunction or Command from the Court of Heaven This further proves the fourth Commandment as far as it concerns the time Ryvet in Deca one whole day of seven to be no part nor parcel of the law of Nature for if it were the law of Nature it were not dispensable no not in any exigent or distress whatever Nullum periculum suadet ut quae ad legem naturalem directe pertinent infringamus No danger saith a modern Writer is to occasion us to break those bonds wherewith we are obliged by the law of Nature Nor is this only Protestant Divinity Aquinas 1.2 ae qu. 100. art 9. Qu. ex N. Test 61. for that Praecepta decalogi omnino sint indispen sabilia is a noted maxim of the School-men And yet it is not only School Divinity for the Fathers taught it It is a principle of Saint Austins Illud quod omnino non licet semper non licet nec aliqua necessitate mitigatur ut admissum non obsit est enim semper illicitum quod legibus quia criminosum est prohibetur That saith the Father which is unlawful in it self is unlawful always nor is there any exigent or extremity that can so excuse it being done but that it makes a man obnixious unto Gods displeasure For that is always to be reckoned an unlawful thing which is forbidden by the Law because simply evil So that in case this rule be true as no doubt it is and that the fourth Commandment prohibiting all manner of work on the Sabbath day as simply evil be to be reckoned part of the Moral Law they that transgress this Law in what case soever are in the self-same state with those who to preserve their lives or fortunes renounce their Faith in God and worship Idols which no man ought to do no though it were to gain the World For what will it profit a man to gain the world and to lose his soul But sure the Jews accounted not the Sabbath of so high a nature as not to venture the transgressing of that Law if occasion were Whereof or of the keeping it we have no monument in Scripture till we come to David The residue of Josuah and the Book of Judges give us nothing of it Nor have we much in the whole story of the Kings but what we have we shall present unto you in due place and order And first for David we read in Scripture how he stood in fear of Saul his Master how in the Festival of the New-moon his place was empty 1 Sam. 20. how Saul became offended at it and publickly declared his malicious purpose which in his heart he had before conceived against him On the next morning Jonathan takes his Bow and Arrows goes forth a shooting takes a Boy with him to bring back his Arrows and by a signal formerly agreed between them gives David notice that his Father did seek his life David on this makes haste and came to Nob unto Abimelech the Priest and being an hungry desires some sustenance at his hands The Priest not having ought else in readiness sets the Shew-hread before him which was not lawful for any man to eat but the Priest alone Now if we ask the Fathers of the Christian Church what day this was on which poor David fled from the face of Saul they answer that it was the Sabbath Saint Athanasius doubtingly with a peradventure Hom. de semente ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã most likely that it was the Sabbath His reason makes the matter surer than his resolution The Jews saith he upbraid our Saviour that his Disciples plucked the ears of Corn on the Sabbath day to satisfie which doubt he tells them what was done by David on a Sabbath also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as that Father hath it Saint Hierom tells us that the day whereon he fled away from Saul was both a Sabbath and New-moon In Math. 12. ad sabbati solennitatem accedebant neomeniarum dies Indeed the story makes it plain it could be no other The Shew-bread was changed every Sabbath in the morning early that which was brought in new not to be stirred off from the Table till the Week was out the other which was taken away being appropriated to the Priests and to be eaten by them only Being so stale before we may be easier think it lay not long upon their hands and had not David come as he did that morning perhaps he had not found the Priest so well provided in the afternoon Had David thought that breaking of the Sabbath in what case soever had been a sin against the eternal Law of Nature he would no doubt have hid himself that day in the Field by the stone Ezel as he had done two days before rather than so have run away 1 Sam. 20. Verse 19.24 as well from God as from the King Especially considering that on the Sabbath day he might have lurked there with more safety than before he did none being permitted as some say by the Law of God to walk abroad that day if occasion were Neither had David passed it over in so light a manner had he done contrary to the Law That heart of his which smote him for his Murder and Adultery and for his numbring of the People would sure have taken some impression upon the breaking of the Sabbath had he conceived that Law to be like the rest But David knew of no such matter neither did Jonathan as it seems For howsoever Davids fact might be excused by reason of the imminent peril yet surely Jonathans walking forth with his Bow and Arrows was of a very different nature Nor did he do it fearfully and by way of stealth as if he were affraid to avow the action but took his Page with him to bring back his Arrows and called aloud unto him to do thus and thus according as he was directed as if it were his usual custom Jonathan might have thought of some other way to give advertisement unto David of his Fathers anger rather than by a publick breaking of the Sabbath to provoke the Lord. But then as may from hence be gathered shooting and such like manlike Exercises were not accounted things unlawful on the Sabbath day This act and flight of Davids from the face of Saul hapned in Torniellus computation Anno 2974 and forty six years after that being 3020 of the Worlds Creation and the last year of Davids life he made a new division of the sons of Levi. For where
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
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
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
challenge against all the World ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. De vita Mos â 2. What man is there in all the World who doth not reverence this our holy Sabbath which bringeth rest and ease to all sorts of Men Masters and Servants bond and free yea to the very brute beasts also Not that they knew the Sabbath by the light of Nature or had observed the same in all Ages past but that they had admitted it in Philos time as a Jewish ceremony For let Josephus be the Comment upon Philo's Text and he will thus unfold his meaning The Laws saith he established amongst us have been imitated of all other Nations ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã L. 2. cont Apiox Yea and the common people did long since imitate our piety Neither is there any Nation Greek or Barbarous to which our use of resting on the seventh day hath not spread it self who also keep not Fasting days and Lamps with lights and many of those Ordinances about Meats and Drinks which are enjoyned us by the Law So far Josephus These Romans and what other Nations they were soever which did thus Judaize about the Sabbath were many of them Proselytes of the Jews such as had been admitted into that Religion for it appears that they did also worship the God of Heaven and were Circumcised and abstained from Swines flesh Otherwise we may well believe that of their own accord they had not bound themselves so generally to observe the Sabbath being no parts nor members of the Jewish state considering that such strangers as lived amongst them not being circumcised nor within the Covenant were not obliged so to do Tostatus tells us of two sorts of strangers amongst the Jews In Exod. 20. qu. 14. The first qui adveniebat de Gentilitate convertebatur ad Judaismum c. who being originally of the Gentiles had been converted to the Religion of the Jews and were Circumcised and lived amongst them and such were bound saith he to observe the Sabbath omnes observantias legis and all other rites of the Law of Moses This is evident by that in the twelfth of Exodus where it is said that every man servant bought with money when he was circumcised should eat the Passeover but that the foreigner and hired servant conceive it not being circumcised might not eat thereof The other sort of strangers were such as lived amongst them only for a certain time to trade and traffique or upon any other business of what sort soever And they saith he were not obliged by the Commandment to keep the Sabbath quia non poterant cogi ad aliquam observantiam legalem nisi vellent accipere circumcisionem because they could not be constrained to any legal Ordinance except they would be Circumcised which was the door unto the rest Finally he resolves it thus that by the stranger within their gates which by the Law were bonnd to observe the Sabbath were only meant such strangers de gentilitate ad Judaismum conversi which had renouced their Gentilism and embraced the Religion of the Jews And he resolved it so no doubt according to the practice of the Jews amongst whom he lived and to the doctrine of their Rabbins amongst whose writings he was very conversant Lyra himself a Jew and therefore one who knew their customs as well as any doth affirm as much and tells us that the stranger in the Law intended Gentilis est conversus ad ritum Judaeorum is such a stranger as had been converted to the Jewish Church And this may yet appear in part by the present practice of that people who though themselves milk not their Kine on the Sabbath day permissium est iis ut die Sabbatino dicant Christiano Buxdorf Synagog c. 11. c. Yet they may give a Christian leave to perform that Office and then to buy the milk of him for a toy or trifle Add here what formerly we noted of their Servants Ch. 3. n. 1. Of whom we told you out of Rabbi Maimony that if they were not circumcised or baptized they were as sojourning strangers and may do work for themselves openly on the Sabbath as any of the Israelites might on a working day By which it seems that strangers yea and servants too in case they were not Circumcised or otherwise initiated into their Churches were not obliged to keep the Sabbath Which plainly shews that by the Jews themselves the keeping of the Sabbath was not taken for a moral Law or to concern any but themselves and those of their Religion only For had they took it for a part of the Law of Nature as universally to be observed as any other they had not suffered it to be broke amongst them before their faces and that without controul of censure no more than they would have permitted a sojourning stranger to blaspheme their God or publickly to set up Idolatry or without punishment to steal their goods or destroy their persons The rather since their Sabbath had prevailed so far as to be taken up with other parts of their Religion in many principal Cities of the Roman Empire or otherwise by way of imitation so much in use among the Gentiles And this I have the rather noted in this place and time because that in these times the Countrey of the Jews was most resorted to by all sorts of strangers and they themselves in favour with the Roman Emperours Indeed these customs of the Jews did fly about the Roman Empire with a swifter wing by reason of that countenance which great Augustus Caesar did shew both to the men Philo. leg ad Caium and unto their Sabbath First for the men he did not only suffer them to enjoy the liberty of Conscience in their own Countrey and there to have their Synagogues and publick places of Assembly as before they had but he permitted them to inhabit a great part of Rome and there to live according to their Countrey Laws ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and yet saith he he knew that they had their Proseuchas or Oratories that they assembled in the same especially on the holy Sabbaths and finally that there they were instructed in their own Religion Then for the Sabbath the Jews had anciently been accustomed not to appear in judgment either upon the Sabbath day or the Eve before Augustus doth confirm this priviledg bestows upon their Synagogues the prerogative of Sanctuary Jos Antiq. l. 16. c. 30. enables them to live according to the Laws of their own Countrey and finally threatneth severe punishment on those which should presume to do any thing against his Edict The tenour of which Edict is as followeth Caesar Augustus Pont. Max. Trib. Pleb ita censet Quoniam Judaeorum gens semper fida grata fuit populo Rom. c. placet mihi de communi Senatus sententia eos propriis uti legibus ritibus quibus utebantur tempore Hyrcani Pontificis Dei
and to make ready for the Sabbath That done they take no work in hand Only the Women when the Sun is near its setting light up their Sabbath-lamps in their dining rooms and stretching out their hands towards them give them their Blessing and depart To morrow they begin their Sabbath very early and for entrance thereunto array themselves in their best Cloaths and their richest Jewels it being the conceit of Rabby Solomon that the Memento in the front of the fourth Commandment was placed there especially to put the Jews in mind of their Holiday Garments Nay so precise they are in these Preparations and the following Rest that if a Jew go forth on Friday and on the night falls short of home more than is lawful to be travelled on the Sabbath day there must he set him down and there keep his Sabbath though in a Wood or in the Field or the High-way side without all fear of wind or weather of Thieves or Robbers without all care also of Meat and Drink Periculo latronum praedonumque omui penuria item omni cibi potusque neglectis as that Authour hath it For their behaviour on the Sabbath and the strange niceties wherewith they abuse themselves he describes it thus Equus aut asinus Domini ipsius stabulo exiens Id. cap. 11. froenum aut capistrum non aliud quicquam portabit c. An Horse may have a Bridle or an Halter to lead not a Saddle to load him and he that leadeth him must not let it hang so loose that it may seem he rather carrieth the Bridle than leads the Horse An Hen must not wear her Hose sowed about her Leg They may not milk their Kine nor eat any of the milk though they have procured some Christian to do that work unless they buy it A Taylor may not wear his Needle sticking on his sleeve The lame may use a staff but the blind may not They may not burthen themselves with Cloggs or Pattens to keep their feet out of the dirt nor rub their Shoos if foul against the ground but against a wall nor wipe their dirty Hands with a Cloth or Towel but with a Cows or Horses tail they may do it lawfully A wounded Man may wear a Plaster on his sore that formerly was applyed unto it but if it fall off he may not lay it on anew or bind up any wound that day nor carry money in their Purses or about their Clothes They may not carry a Fan or flap to drive away the Flies If a Flea bite they may remove it but not kill it but a Lowse they may yet Rabbi Eliezer thinks one may as lawfully kill a Camel They must not fling more Corn unto their Poultry than will serve that day lest it may grow by lying still and they be said to sow their Corn upon the Sabbath To whistle a tune with ones Mouth or play it on an Instrument is unlawful utterly as also to knock with the ring or hammer of a Door or knock ones hand upon a Table though it be only to still a Child So likewise to draw Letters either in dust or ashes or on a wet Board is prohibited but not to fancy them in the Air. With many other infinite absurdities of the like poor nature wherewith the Rabbins have been pleased to afflict their Brethren and make good sport to all the World which are not either Jews or Jewishly affected Nay to despite our Saviour as Buxdorfius tells us they have determined since that it is unlawful to life the Ox or Ass out of the Ditch which in the strictest time of the Pharisaical rigours was accounted lawful Indeed the marvel is the less that they are so uncharitable to poor Brute creatures when as they take such little pitty upon themselves Crantzius reports a story of a Jew of Magdeburg who falling on a Saturday into a Privy would not be taken out because it was the Sabbath day and that the Bishop gave command that there he should continue on the Sunday also so that between both the poor Jew was poisoned with the very stink The like our Annals do relate of a Jew of Tewkesbury whose story being cast into three riming Verses according to the Poetry of those times I have here presented and translated Dialogue-wise as they first made it Tende manus Solomon ut te de stercore tollam Sabbata nostra colo de stercore surgere nolo Sabbata nostra quidem Solomon celebrabis ibidem Friend Solomon thy Hands up-rear And from the Jakes I will thee bear Our Sabbath I so highly prize That from the place I will not rise Then Solomon without more adoe Our Sabbath thou shalt keep there too For the continuance of their Sabbath as they begin it early on the day before so they prolong it on the day till late at night And this they do in pity to the souls in Hell who all the while the Sabbath lasteth have free leave to play For as they tell us silly wretches upon the Eve before the Sabbath it is proclaimed in the Hall that every one may go his way and take his pleasure and when the Sabbath is concluded they are recalled again to the house of Torments I am ashamed to meddle longer in these trifles these Dreams and dotages of infatuated men given over to a reprobate sense Nor had I stood so long upon them but that in this Anatomy of the Jewish follies I might let some amongst us see into what dangers they are falling For there are some indeed too many who taking his for granted which they cannot prove that the Lords Day succeeds into the place and rights of the Jewish sabbath and is to be observed by vertue of the fourth Commandment have trenched too near upon the Rabbins in binding men to nice and scrupulous observances which neither we nor our Fore-fathers were ever able to endure But with what warrant they have made a sabbath day in the Christian Church where there was never any known in all times before or upon what Authority they have presumed to lay heavy Burthens upon the Consciences of poor men which are free in Christ we shall the better see by tracing down the story from our Saviours time unto the times in which we live But I will here sit down and rest beseeching God who enabled me thus far to guide me onwards to the end Tu qui principio medium medio adjice finem THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH The Second BOOK From the first preaching of the Gospel to these present Times By PETER HEYLYN D.D. COLOSS. ii 16 17. Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the SABBATH Days which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. To the Christian Reader AND such I hope to meet with in this Part especially which treating
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
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-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
those of Corinth in that they joyn'd not with the Assembly but had their Psalms unto themselves Whereby it seems that they had left the true use of Psalms which being so many acclamations exultations and holy provocations to give God the glory were to be sung together by the whole Assembly their singing at that time being little more than a melodious kind of pronuntiation such as is commonly now used in singing of the ordinary Psalms and Prayers in Cathedral Churches And so it stood till in the entrance of this Age Ignatius Bishop of Antiochia one who was conversant with the Apostles brought in the use of singing alternatim course by course according as it still continues in our publick Quires where one side answers to another some shew whereof is left in Parochial Churches in which the Minister and the People answer one another in their several turns Hist li. 6. c. 8. To him doth Socrates refer it and withal affirms that he first learnt it of the Angels whom in a vision he had heard to sing the praise of God after such a manner ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as that Author hath it Hist l. 2. c. 24. And where Theodoret doth refer it to Flavianus and Diodorus Priests of Antiochia during the busilings of the Arian Hereticks In Damaso and Platina unto Damasus Pope of Rome Theodoret is to be interpreted of the restitution of this custom having been left off and Platina of the bringing of it into the Western Churches For that it was in use in Ignatius time who suffered in the time of Trajan and therefore probably begun by him as is said by Socrates is evident by that which Pliny signified to the self same Trajan where he informs him of the Christians Quod soliti essent stato die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo tanquam Deo dicere secum invicem c. Their greatest crime said he was this that at a certain day but what that day was that he tells not they did meet together before day-light and there sing hymns to Christ as unto a God one with another in their courses and after bind themselves together by a common Sacrament not unto any wicked or unjust attempt but to live orderly without committing Robbery Theft Adultery or the like offences Now for the day there meant by Pliny it must be Saturday or Sunday if it were not both both of them being in those times and in those parts where Pliny lived in especial honour as may be gathered from Ignatius who at that time flourished For demonstration of the which we must first take notice how that the world as then was very full of dangerous fancies and heretical dotages whereby the Church was much disquieted and Gods worship hindred The Ebionites they stood hard for the Jewish Sabbath and would by all means have it celebrated as it had been formerly observing yet the Lords day as the Christians did in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Eusebius tells Hist l. 3. c.x. 3. The like saith Epiphanius of them l. 1. Haeres 30. n. 2. And on the other side there was a sort of Hereticks in the Eastern parts whereof see Irenaeus li. 1. ca. 20.21 22 23 24 25. who thought that this world being corruptible could not be made but by a very evil Author Therefore as the Jews did by the festival solemnity of their Sabbath rejoyce in God that created the world as in the Author of all goodness so they in hatred of the maker of the world sorrowed and wept and fasted on that day as being the birth-day of all evil And whereas Christian men of sound belief did solemnize the Sunday in a joyful memory of Christs Resurrection So likewise at that self same time such Hereticks as denied the Resurrection did contrary to them that held it and fasted when the rest rejoyced For the expressing of which two last Heresies Ignat. it was that he affirmed with such zeal and earnestness ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If any one did fast either upon the Lords day or the Sabbath except one Sabbath in the year which was Easter Eve he was a murderer of Christ So he in his Epistle ad Philippenses Cax 65. The Canons attributed to the Apostles take notice of the misdemeanor though they condemn it not with so high a censure it being in them only ordered that if a Clergy-man offended in that kind he should be degraded ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã if any of the Laity they should be excommunicated Which makes me marvel by the way that those which take such pains to justifie Ignatius as Baronius doth in Ann. 57. of his grand Annales should yet condemn this Canon of imposture which is not so severe as Ignatius is only because it speaks against the Saturdays fast Whereof consult the Annales Ann. 102. Now as Ignatius labours here to advance the Sabbath in opposition of those Hereticks before remembred making it equally a festival with the Lords day so being to deal with those which too much magnified the Sabbath and thought the Christians bound unto it as the Jews had been he bends himself another way and resolves it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Let us not keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner in sloth and idleness for it is written that he that will not labour shall not eat and in the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread But let us keep it after a spiritual fashion not in bodily ease but in the study of the Law not eating meat drest yesterday or drinking luke-warm drinks or walking out a limited space or setling our delights as they did on dancing but in the contemplation of the works of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. And after we have so kept the Sabbath let every one that loveth Christ keep the Lords day Festival the Resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all days in which our life was raised again and death was overcome by our Lord and Saviour So that we see that he would have both days observed the Sabbath first though not as would the Ebionites in a Jewish sort and after that the Lords day which he so much magnifieth the better to abate that high esteem which some had cast upon the Sabbath Agreeable unto this we find that in the Constitutions of the Apostles for by that name they pass though not made by them both days are ordered to be kept Holy one in memorial of the Creation the other of the Resurrection ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã See the like l. 8. c. 33. Of which more hereafter And so it was observed in the Eastern parts where those of the dispension had took up their seats and having long time had their meetings on the Sabbath day could not so easily be persuaded from it But in the Western Churches in the which the Jews were not so considerable and where those
only in our common speech but in the Canons of the Church and our Acts of Parliament as being used indifferently by so many eminent persons in the Primitive Church as also in an open Synod as before was thewn from thence transmitted by our Fathers unto their posterity Better by far and far less danger to be feared in calling it the Sunday as the Gentiles did and as our Ancestors have done before us than calling it the Sabbath as too many do and on less authority nay contrary indeed to all Antiquity and Scripture CHAP. III. That in the fourth Age from the time of Constantine to Saint Austin the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath day 1. The Lords day first established by the Emperour Constantine 2. What Labours were permitted and what restrained on the Lords day by this Emperours Edict 3. Of other Holy days and Saints days instituted in the time of Constantine 4. That weekly other days particularly the Wednesday and the Friday were in this Age and those before appointed for the meetings of the Congregation 5. The Saturday as highly honoured in the Eastern Churches as the Lords day was 6. The Fathers of the Eastern Churches cry down the Jewish Sabbath though they held the Saturday 7. The Lords day not spent wholly in Religious Exercises and what was done with that part of it which was left at large 8. The Lords day in this Age a day of Feasting and that it hath been always deemed Heretical to hold Fasts thereon 9. Of Recreation on the Lords day and of what kind those Dancings were against the which the Fathers inveigh so sharply 10. Other Imperial Edicts about the keeping of the Lords day and the other Holy-days 11. The Orders at this time in use on the Lords day and other days of publick meeting in the Congregation 12. The infinite differences between the Lords day and the Sabbath HItherto have we spoken of the Lords day as taken up by the common consent of the Church not instituted or established by any Text of Scripture or Edict of Emperour or Decree of Council save that some few particular Councils did reflect upon it in the point of Esater In that which followeth we shall find both Emperours and Councils very frequent in ordering things about this day and the service of it And first we have the Emperour Constantine who being the first Christian Prince that publickly profest the Gospel was the first also that made any Law about the keeping of the Lords day or Sunday De vit Const lib. 4. c. 18. Of him Eusebius tells us that thinking that the chiefest and most proper day for the devotion of his Subjects he presently declared his pleasure ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that every one who lived in the Roman Empire should take their ease or rest in that day weekly which is intituled to our Saviour Now where the Souldiers in his Camp were partly Christians and partly the Gentiles it was permitted unto them who professed the Gospel upon the Sunday so he calls it freely to go unto the Churches and there offer up their Prayers to Almighty God But such as had continued still in their ancient Errours were ordered to assemble in the open Fields upon those days and on a signal given to make their prayers unto the Lord after a form by him prescribed The Form being in the Latin Tongue was this that followeth Te solum Deum agnoscimus te regem prositemur te adjutorem invocamus per te victorias consecuti sumus Cap. 20. per te hostes superavimus à te praesentem felicitatem consecuntos fatemur futuram adepturos speramus tui omnes supplices sumus à te petimus ut Constantinum Imperatorem nostrum una cum piis ejus liberis quam diutissime nobis salvum victorem conserves In English thus We do acknowledge thee to be the only God we confess thee to be the King we call upon thee as our helper and defender by thee alone it is that we have got the Victory and subdued our Enemies to thee as we refer all our present happiness so from thee also do we expect our future Thee therefore we beseech that thou wouldest please to keep in all health and safety our noble Emperour Constantine with his hopeful Progeny Nor was this only to be done in the Fields of Rome in patentibus suburbiorum campis as the Edict ran but after by another Proclamation he did command the same over all the Provinces of the Empire Cap. 23. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Eusebius hath it So natural a power it is in a Christian Prince to order things about Religion that he not only took upon him to command the day but also to prescribe the scrvice to those I mean who had no publick Liturgy or set Form of Prayer Nor did he only take upon him to command or appoint the day as to all his subjects and to prescribe a form of Prayer as unto the Gentiles but to decree what works should be allowed upon it and what intermitted In former times though the Lords day had got the credit as to be honoured with the publick meetings of the Congregation yet was it not so strictly kept no not in time of divine service but that the publick Magistrates Judges and other Ministers of State were to attend those great Employments they were called unto without relation to this day or cessation on it and so did other men that had less employments and those not so necessary These things this pious Emperour taking into consideration and finding no necessity but that his Judges and other publick Ministers might attend Gods service on that day at least not be a means to keep others from it and knowing that such as dwelt in Cities had sufficient leisure to frequent the Church and that Artificers without any publick discommodity might for that time forbear their ordinary labours he ordered and appointed that all of them in their several places should this day lay aside their own Business to attend the Lords But then withal considering that such as followed Husbandry could not so well neglect the times of Seed and Harvest but that they were to take advantage of the fairest and most seasonable weather as God pleased to send it he left it free to them to follow their affairs on what day soever left otherwise they might lose those blessings which God in his great bounty had bestowed upon them This mentioned in the very Edict he set forth about it First for his Judges Citizens or inhabitants of the greater Towns L. Omnes cap. de feriis and all Artificers therein dwelling Omnes Judices urbanaeque plebes cunctarum artium officia venerabili die Solis quiescant Next for the people of the Contrey Rure tamen positi libere licenterque agrorum culture inserviant quoniam frequenter evenit ut non aptius alio die frumenta sulcis vinea scrobibus mandentur
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
specified and to the course whereof the Council held at Orleans gave so wise a check but by imputing such Calamities as had fallen amongst them to the neglect or ill observance of this day A flash of Lightning or some other fire from Heaven as it was conceived had on the Lords day made great spoil of men and houses in the City of Limoges This Gregory of Tours who lived about the end of this sixth Century pronounceth to have fallen upon them ob diei dominici injuriam because some of them used to work upon the Sunday But how could he tell that or who made him acquainted with Gods secret counsels Had Gregory been Bishop of Limoges as he was of Tours it may be Limoges might have scaped so fierce a censure and only Tours have suffered in it For presently he adds in Turonico vero nonnulli ab hoc igne sed non die dominico adusti sunt that even in Tours it self many had perished by the self same fire but being it fell not on the Sunday as it did at Limoges therefore that misery fell on them for some other reason Indeed he tells us of this day that being it was the day whereon God made the light and after was the witness of our Saviours resurrection Ideo omni fide à Christianis observari debet ne fiat in eo omne opus publicum therefore it was to be observed of every Christian no manner of publick business to be done upon it A piece of new Divinity and never heard of till this Age nor in any afterwards Not heard of till this Age but in this it was For in the 24th year of Gunthram King of the Burgundians Conc. Matisonens 11. Can. 1. Anno 588. there was a Council called at Mascon a Town situate in the Duchy of Burgundy as we now distinguish it wherein were present Priscus Evantius Praetextatus and many other reverend and learned Prelates They taking into consideration how much the Lords day was of late neglected for remedy thereof ordained that it should be observed more carefully for the times to come Which Canon I shall therefore set down at large because it hath been often produced as a principal ground of those precise observances which some amongst us have endeavoured to force upon the consciences of weak and ignorant men It is as followeth Videmus populum Christianum temerario more diem dominicum contemptui tradere c. It is observed that Christian people do very rashly slight and neglect the Lords day giving themselves thereon as on other days to continual labours c. Therefore let every Christian in case be carry not that name in vain give ear to our instruction knowing that we have care that you should do well as well as power to bridle you that you do not ill It followeth Custodite diem dominicum qui nos denuo peperit c. Keep the Lords day the day of our new birth whereon we were delivered from the snares of sin Let no man meddle in litigious Controversies or deal in Actions or Law-suits or put himself at all upon such an exigent that needs he must prepare his Oxen for their daily work but exercise your selves in Hymns and singing Praises unto God being intent thereon both in mind and body If any have a Church at hand let him to unto it and there pour forth his soul in tears and prayers his eyes and hands being all that day lifted up to God It is the everlasting day of rest insinuated to us under the shadow of the seventh day or Sabbath in the Law and the Prophets and therefore it is very meet that we should celebrate this day with one accord whereon we have been made what at first we were not Let us then offer unto God our free and voluntary service by those great goodness we are freed from the Goal of errour not that the Lord exacts it of us that we should celebrate this day in a corporal abstinence or rest from labour who only looks that we do yield obedience to his holy will by which contemning earthly things he may conduct us to the heavens of his infinite mercy However if any man shall set at nought this our exhortation be he assured that God shall punish him as he hath deserved and that he shall be also subject unto the censures of the Church In case he be a Lawyer he shall lose his cause if that he be an Husbandman or Servant he shall be corporally punished for it but if a Clergy-man or Monk he shall be six months separated from the Congregation Add here that two years after this being the second year of the second Clotaire King of France there was a Synod holden at Auxerre a Town of Champagne concilium Antisiodorense in the Latin Writers wherein in it was decreed as in this of Mascon Non licet die dominico boves jungere vel alia opera exercere no man should be suffered to yoak his Oxen or do any manner of work upon the Sunday This is the Canon so much urged I mean that of Mascon to prove that we must spend the Lords day wholly in religious exercises and that there is no part thereof which is to be imployed unto other uses But there are many things to be considered before we yield unto this Canon or the authority thereof some of them being of that nature that those who most insist upon it must be fain to traverse For first it was contrived of purpose with so great a strictness to meet the better with those men which so extreamly had neglected that sacred day A stick that bends too much one way cannot be brought to any straightness till it be bent as much the other This Synod secondly was Provincial only and therefore can oblige none other but those for whom it was intended or such who after did submit unto it by taking it into their Canon Nor will some part thereof be approved by them who most stand upon it none being bound hereby to repair to Church to magnifie the name of God in the Congregation but such as have some Church at hand and what will then become of those that have a mile two three or more to their Parish Churches and no Chappel neither they are permitted by the Canon to abide at home As for Religious duties here are none expressed as proper for the Congregation but Psalms and Hymns and singing Praise unto the Lord and pouring forth our souls unto him in tears and prayers and then what shall we do for Preaching for Preaching of the Word which we so much call for Besides King Gunthram on whose Authority this Council met in his Confirmatory Letters doth extend this Canon as well unto the other Holy-days as unto the Sunday commanding all his Subjects Vigore hujus decreti definitionis generalis by vertue of his present mandate that on the Lords day vel in quibuscunque alijs solennitatibus and all solemn
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
Aquif granens Statuimus secundum quod in lege dominus praecepit c. We do ordain according as it is commanded in the Law of God that no man do any servile work on the Lords day This in the general had been before commanded by his Father Pepin in the Council holden in Friuli but he now explicates himself in these particulars That is to say that neither men imploy themselves in works of Husbandry in dressing of their Vines ploughing their Lands making their Hay fencing their grounds grubbing of felling Treââ working in Mines building of Houses planting their Gardens nor that they plead that day or go forth on hunting and that it be not lawful for the Women to weave or dress cloth to make Garments or Needle work to card their Wool beat Hemp wash Cloaths in publick or sheer Sheep but that they come unto the Church to divine service and magnifie the Lord their God for those good things which on that day he hath done for them After considering with himself that Fairs and Markets on this day were an especial means to keep men from Church he set out his Imperial Edict de nundinis non concedendis as my Author tells me Nor did he trust so far to his own Edict as not to strengthen it as the times then were by the Authority of the Church and therefore caused those five Councils before remembred to be Assembled at one time in four of which it was determined against all servile works and Law days as also ut mercatus in iis minime sit Concil Mogunt Can. 37. ne mercata excerceant Remens can 35. and so in those of Tours 40. and Arles 16. That of Chalons which was the fifth did only intimate that whereas the Lords day had been much neglected the better keeping of the same was to be established authentica constitutione Can. 50. by some Authentical constitution of the Emperour himself But whatsoever care this Emperour took to see his will performed and the Lords day sanctified it seems his Successour Ludovicus was remiss enough which being found as found it was the People fell again to their former labours Ploughing and Marketting and Law-days as before they did The Council held at Paris Concil Parisiens l. 1. c. 50. Anno 829. which was but sixteen years after the holding of the aforesaid Synods much complains thereof and withal adds that many of the Prelates assembled there knew both by same and by their own proper knowledge quosdam in hoc dit ruralia opera eâcercentes fulmine interemptos that certain men following their Husbandry on that day had been killed with lightning and others with a strange convulsion of their joints had miserably perished whereby say they it is apparent that God was very much offended with their so great neglect of that Holy day Rather with their so great neglect of their Superiours in that nor declaration of their King nor constitution of the Church could work so far upon them as to gain obedience in things conducing to Gods service Had working on that day been so much offensive in the sight of God likely it is we might have heard of some such judgments in the times before but being not prohibited it was not unlawful Now being made unlawful because prohibited God smote them for their frequent workings at times which were designed to another use not in relation to the day but their disobedience Therefore the Council did advise that first of all the Priests and Prelates then that Kings Princes and all faithful people would do their best endeavour for the restoring of that day to its ancient lustre which had so foully been neglected Next they addressed themselves particularly to Lodowick and Lotharius then the Roman Emperours ut cunctis metum incutiant that by some sharp injunction they would strike a terrour into all their Subjects that for the times to come none should presume to Plough or hold Law-days or Market as of late was used This probably occasioned the said two Emperours 852. to call a Synod at Rome under Leo the fourth Syn. Rom. Can. 30. where it was ordered more precisely than in former times ut die dominico nullus audeat mercationes nec in cibariis rebus aut quaelibet opera rustica facere that no man should from thenceforth dare to make any Markets on the Lords day no not for things that were to eat neither to do any kind of work that belonged to Husbandry Which Canon being made at Rome confirmed at Compeigne and afterwards incorporated as it was into the body of the Canon Law whereof see Decretal l. 2. tit 9. de feriis cap. 2. became to be admitted without further question in most parts of Christendom especially when the Popes had attained their height and brought all Christian Princes to be at their devotion For then the people who before had most opposed it might have justly said Behold two Kings stood not before him how then shall we stand 2 Kings 10. Out of which consternation all men pre sently obeyed Tradesmen of all sorts being brought to lay by their Labours and amongst those the Miller though his work was easiest and least of all required his presence Nec aliquis à vespera diei Sabbati usque ad vesperam diei dominicae ad molendina aquarum vel ad aliqua alia molere audeat So was it ordered in the Council of Angeirs of which see Bochellus Anno 1282 wherein the Barber also was forbidden to use his Trade Yet were not those restraints so strict as that there was no liberty to be allowed of either for business or pleasure A time there was for both and that time made use of there being in the Imperial Edicts and Constitutions of the Church yea and the decretals of the Popes many reservations whereby the people might have liberty to enjoy themselves They had been else in worse condition than the Jews before In the Edict of Charles the Great before remembred though otherwise precise enough there were three several kinds of carriages allowed and licensed o the Lords day i.e. Hortalia carra vel victualia vel si forte necesse erit corpus cujuslibet ducere ad sepulchrum that is to say carriage of gardening Ware and carts of Victuals and such as are to carry a dead corps to burial So Theodulphus Aurelianensis who lived about the year 836. having first ut it down for a positive Rule that the Lords day ought with such care to be observed ut praeter orationes missarum solennia Epl. ap Bibl. Patr. ea quae ad vescendum pertinent nil aliud fiat that besides Prayer and hearing Mass and such things as belong to Food there is directly nothing that may be done admits of an exception or a reservation Nam si necessitaâ fuerit navigandi vel itinerandi licentia datur For if saith he there be a necessary occasion either of setting Sail or
going a Journey this may be allowed of in case they permit not Mass and Prayers This I find extant as a Canon of the 6. General Council holden in Constantinople but since both this and all the rest of the same stamp there are nine in all are thought not to belong of right unto it I have chosen rather to rafer it to this Theodulphus though a private man amongst whose works I find it in the great Bibliotheca Patrum Tom. 9. Thus in a Synod held at Coy within the Realm and Diocess of Oviedo Anno 1050. it was decreed that all men should repair to Church on the Lords day and there hear Mattins Mass and other the canonical hours as also Opus servile non exerceant nec sectentur itinera that they should do no servile work Tit. 6. nor take any Journey Yet with exceptions four or five namely unless it were for Devotions sake or to bury the Dead or to visit the Sick or finally pro secreto regis Saracenorum impetu on special business of the Kings or to make head against the Saracens The King was much beholden to them that they would take such care of his State Affairs more than some Princes might be now in case their business were at the disposing of particular men So had it been decreed by several Emperours yea and by several Councils too which for the East pars was confirmed by Emanuel Comneus the Eastern Emperiour Anno 1174. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that all access to the Tribunal should be quite shut up that none of those who sat in Judgment should sit on any Cause that day Yet this not absolutely but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. unless the King shall please on any new emergent cause as many times business comes unlooked for to appoint it otherwise Thus also for the works of labour fishing had been resirained on the Lords day as toilsom Act and on he other Holy days as well as that yet did it please Pope Alexander the third he entred on the Chair of Rome Decretal l. 2. tit 9. c 3. Anno 1160. to order by his decretal that on the Lords day and the rest it might be lawful unto those who dwelt upon the Coast Si halecia terrae inclinarint eorum captioni ingruente necessitate intendere to set themselves unto their fishing in case the Herring came within their reach and the time was seasonable Provided that they sent a convenient portion unto the Churches round about them and unto the poor Nay even the works of Handicrafts were in some sort suffered For whereas in the Council of Laodicea it was determined that men should rest on the Lords day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from all their handy work and repair to Church Balsamon tells us in his Glass In Can. 29. concil Laod. that so it was resolved amongst them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not absolutely but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã if with conveniency they could For still saith he he lived in Anno 1191 in case men labour on that day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã either because of want or any other necessity they are held excusable Lastly Chronic. Aditâi whereas Pope Gregory the ninth had on the Sundays and the Holy days commanded ut homines jumenta omnia quiescant that there should be a general restraint from labour both of man and beast there was a refervation also nisi urgens necessitas instet vel nisi pauperibus vel Ecclesiae gratis fiat unless on great necessity or some good Office to be done unto the poor or to the Church Nor were there reservations and exceptions only in point of business and nothing found in point of practice but there are many passages especially of the greatest persons and most publick actions left upon Record to let us know what liberty that assumed unto themselves as well on this day as the rest And in such only shall I instance and as being most exemplary and therefore most conducing to my present purpose Aventine Hist l. 3. And first we read of a great Battel fought on Palm-Sunday An. 718. between Charles Martel Grand master of the Houshold of the King of France and Hilpericus the King himself wherein the Victory fell to Charles and yet we read not there of any great necessity nay of none at all but that they might on both sides have deferred the Battel had they conceived it any sin to fight that day Upon the Sunday before Lent Anno 835. Ludovick the Emperour âurnamed Pius or the godly together with his Prelates and others Baron which had been present with him at the Assembly held at Theonville went on his Journey unto Mets nor do we find that it did derogate at all from his Name and Piety Upon the Sunday after Whitsontide Anno 844. Ludowick Son unto Lotharius the Emperour made his solemn entrance into Rome the Roman Citizens attending him with their Flaggs and Ensigns the Pope and Clergy staying his coming in St. Peters Church there to entertain him Upon a Sunday Anno 1014. Ditmarus Hist l. 7. Otho Frising hist l. 6. c. 29. Henry the Emperour duodecim senatoribus vallatus environed with twelve of the Roman Senatours came to St. Peters Church and there was crowned together with his Wife by the Pope then being On Easter day in ipsa die paschalis solennitatis Anno 1027. Conrade the Emperour was solemnly inaugurated by Pope John Canutus King of England and Rodalph King of the Burgundians being then both present and the next Sunday after began his Journey towards Germany Upon Palm Sunday Anno 1084. Wibert Archbishop of Ravenna was solemnly inthronized in the Chair of Rome ââspergen Chronicon and the next Sunday after being Easter day Henry the third Imperiali dignitate sublimatus est was crowned Emperour On Passion Sunday Anno 1148. Lewis the King of France afterwards Canonized for a Saint made his first entry into Hierusalem with all his Army and yet we read not any where that it was laid in Bar against him to put by his Sainting as possibly it might be now were it yet to do What should I speak of Councils on this day assembled as that of Chartres Anno 1146. for the recovery of the Holy land of Tours on Trinity Sunday as we call it now Anno 1164. against Octavian the Pseudo-Pope that of Ferrara upon Passion Sunday Anno 1177. against Frederick the Emperour or that of Paris Anno 1226. summoned by Stephen then Bishop there on the fourth Sunday in Lent for the condemning of certain dangerous and erronious positions at that time on foot I have the rather instanced in these particulars partly because they hapned about these times when Prince and Prelate were most intent in laying more and more restraints upon their people for the more honour of this day and partly because being all of them publick actions and such as moved not forwards but by divers wheels they did require
a greater number of people to attend them And howsoever Councils in themselves be of an Ecclesiastical nature and that the crowning of a King in the act it self be mixed of sacred and of civil yet in the Train and great attendance that belongs unto them the Pomp the Triumphs and concourse of so many people they are meerly secular And secular although they were yet we may well persuade our selves that neither Actor or Spectator thought themselves guilty any wise of offering any the least wrong to the Lords day though those Solemnities no question might without any prejudice have been put off to another time No more did those who did attend the Princes before remembred in their magnificent Entries into Rome and Metz or the other military entrance into Hierusalem which were meer secular Acts and had not any the least mixture either of Ecclesiastical or Sacred Nature For Recreations in these times there is no question to be made but all were lawful to be used on the Lords day which were accounted lawful upon other days and had not been prohibited by Authority and we find none prohibited but dancing only Not that all kind of dancing was by Law restrained but either the abuse thereof at times unseasonable when men should have been present in the Church of God or else immodest shameless dancings such as were those against the which the Fathers did inveigh so sharply in the Primitive times In reference to the first Damascen tells us of some men who only wished for the LOrds day Parallellorum lib. 3. cap. 47. ut ab opera feriati vitiis operam dent that being quitted from their labours they might enjoy the better their sinful pleasures For look into the streets saith he upon other days and there is no man to be found die dominico egredere atque alios cithara canentes alios applaudentes saltantes c. But look abroad on the Lords day and you shall find some singing to the Harp others applauding of the Musick some Dancing others jeering of their Neighbours alios denique luctantes reperies and some also wrestling It followeth Praeco ad Ecclesiam vocat omnes segnitie torpent moras nectunt cithara aut tuba personuit omnes tanquam alis instructi currunt Doth the Clark call unto the Church they have a feaver-lurdane and they cannot stir doth the Harp of Trumpet call them to their Pastimes they fly as they had wings to help them They that can find in this a prohibition either of Musick Dancing publick sports or manlike Exercises such as wrestling is on the Lords day must certainly have better eyes than Lynceus and more wit than Oedipus Plainly they prove the contrary to what some alledg them and shew most clearly that the Recreations there remembred were allowed of publickly otherwise none durst use them as we see they did in the open streets Only the Father seems offended that they preferred their Pastimes before their Prayers that they made little or no haste to Church and ran upon the spur to their Recreations that where Gods publick Service was to be first considered in the Lords day and after on spare times mens private pleasures these had quite changed the course of Nature and loved the Lords day more for pleasure than for Devotion This is the most that can be made from this place of Damascen and this makes more for dancing and such Recreations than it doth against them in case they be not used at unfitting hours Much of this nature is the Canon produced by some to condemn dancing on the Lords day as unlawful utterly which being looked into condemns alone immodest and unseemly dancings such as no Canon could allow of upon any day of what name soever A Canon made by Pope Eugenius in a Synod held at Rome Anno 826. what time both Prince and Prelates did agree together to raise the Lords day to as high a pitch as they fairly might Now in this Synod there were made three Canons which concern this day the first prohibitive of business and the works of labour the second against process in causes criminal the third ne núlieres festis diebus vanis ludis vacent that Women do not give themselves on the Holy days unto wanton sports and is as followeth Sunt quidam maxime mulieres qui festis sacris diebus c. Certain there are but chiefly Women which on the Holy days Can. 35. and Festivals of the blessed Martyrs upon the which they ought to rest have no great list to come to Church as they ought to do sed balando turpia verba decantando c. but to spend the time in Dancing and in shameless Songs leading and holding cut their Dances as the Pagans used and in that manners come to the Congregation These if they come unto the Church with few sins about them return back with more and therefore are to be admonished by the Parish Priest that they must only come to Church to say their prayers such as do otherwise destroying not themselves alone but their Neighbours also Now in this Canon there are these three things to be considered First that these Women used not to come unto the Church with that sobriety and gravity which was fitting as they ought to do but dancing singing sporting as the Pagans used when they repaired unto their Temples secondly that these dancings were accompanied with immodest Songs and therefore as unfit for any day as they were for Sunday and thirdly that these kind of dancings were not prohibited on the Lords day only but on all the Holy days Such also was the Canon of the third Council of Tolledo Decret pars 3. de consecrat distinct 3. An. 589. which afterwards became a part of the Canon Law though by he oversight of the Collector it is there said to be the fourth and this will make as little to the purpose as the other did It is this that followeth Irreligiosa consuetudo est quam vulgus per sanctorum solennitates festivitates agere consuevit Populi qui divina officia debent attendere saltationibus turpibus invigilant cantica non solum mala canentes sed etiam religiosorum officiis perstrepunt Hoc enim ut ab omni Hispania the Decret reads ab omnibus provinciis depellatur sacerdotum ac judicum à sancto Concilio curae commit titur There is an irreligious custom taken up by the common people that on the Festivals of the Saints those which should be attent on Divine Service give themselves wholly to lascivious and shameless dances and do not only sing unseemly Songs but disturb the Service of the Church Which mischief that it may be soon removed out of all the Countrey the Council leave it to the care of the Priests and Judges Such dances and employed to so bad a purpose there is none could tolerate and yet this generally was upon the Holy days Saints days I mean as well
as Sundays whereby we see the Church had no less care of one than of the other And so indeed it had not in this alone but in all things else the Holy days as we now distinguish them being in most points equal to the Sunday and in some superiour Leo the Emperiour by his Edict shut up the Theater and the Cirque or shew-place on the Lords day The like is willed expresly in the sixth general Council holden at Constantinople Can. 66. Anno 692. for the whole Easter week Nequaquam ergo his diebus equorum cursus vel aliquod publicum fiat spectacum so the Canon hath it The Emperour Charles restrained the Husbandman and the Tradesman from following their usual work on the Lords day The Council of Melun doth the same for the said Easter week and in more particulars it being ordered by that Synod that men forbear Can. 77. during the time above remembred ab omni opere rurali fabrili carpentario gynaecaeo caementario pictorio venatorio forensi mercatorio audientiali ac sacramentis exigendis from Husbandry the craft of Smiths and Carpenters from Needle-work Cementing Painting Hunting Pleadings Merchandize casting of Accounts and from taking Oaths That Benedictines had but three mess of Pottage upon other days die vero dominico in praecipuis festivitatibus but on the Lords day and the principal Festivals a fourth was added as saith Theodomare the Abbot in an Epistle to Charles the Great Law-suits and Courts of Judgment were to be laid aside and quite shut up on the Lords day as many Emperours and Councils had determined severally The Council held at Friburg Anno 895. did resolve the samne of Holy days or Saints days and the time of Lent Nullusomnino secularis diebus dominicis vel Sanctorum in Festis Conc. Fribâriens Can. 26. seu Quadragesimae aut jejuniorum placitum habere sed nec populum illo praesumat coercere as the Canon goeth The very same with that of the Council of Erford Anno 932. cap. 2. But what need private and particular Synods be produced as witnesses herein when we have Emperours Popes and Patriarchs that affirm the same Ap. Balsam tit 7. cap. 1. To take them in the order in which they lived Photius the Patriarch of Constantinople Anno 858. thus reckoneth up the Festivals of especial note viz. Seven days before Easter and seven days after Christmas Epiphanie ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Feasts of the Apostles and the Lords day And then he adds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that on those days they neither suffer publick shews nor Courts of Justice Emanuel Comnenus next Ap. Balsam Emperour of Constantinople Anno 1174. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. We do ordain saith he that these days following be exempt from labour viz. the Nativity of the Virgin Mary Holy-rood day and so he reckoneth all the rest in those parts observed together with all the Sundays in the year and that in them there be not any access to the seats of judgment Lib. 2 tit ãâã feriis cap. 5. The like Pope Gregory the ninth Anno 1228. determineth in the Decretal where numbring up the Holy-days he concludes at last that neither any process hold nor sentence be in force pronounced on any of those days though both parts mutually should consent upon it Consentientibus etiam partibus nec processus habitus teneat nec sententia quam contingit diebus hujusmodi promulgari So the Law resolves it Now lest the feast of Whitsontide might not have some respect as well as Easter it was determined in the Council held at Engelheim Anno 948. that Munday Tuesday Wednesday in the Whitsun-week Cap. 6. non minus quam dies dominicus solenniter honorentur should no less solemnly be observed than the Lords day was So when that Otho Bishop of Bamberg had planted the faith of Christ in Pomerania and was to give account thereof to the Pope then being Urspergens Chronic. he certifieth him by his Letters Anno 1124. that having Christned them and built them Churches he left them three injunctions for their Christian carriage First that they eat no flesh on Fridays Secondly that they rest the Lords day ab omni opere malo from every evil work repairing to the Church for religious duties And thirdly Sanctorum solennitates cum vigiliis omni diligentia observent that they keep carefully the Saints days with the Eves attendant So that in all these outward matters we find fair equality save that in one respect the principal Festivals had preheminence above the Sunday For whereas Fishermen were permitted by the Decretal of Pope Alexander the third as before was said diebus dominicis aliis festis on the Lords day and other Holy-days to fish for Herring in some cases there was a special exception of the greater Festivals praeterquam in majoribus anni solennitatibus as the other was But not to deal in generals only Isidore Arch-bishop of Sevil in the beginning of the seventh Century making a Catalogue of the principal Festivals begins his list with Easter and ends it with the Lords day as before we noted in the fifth Section of this Chapter Now lest it should be thought that in sacred matters and points of substance the other Holy-days wee not as much regarded as the Lords day was The Council held at Mentz Anno 813. did appoint it thus that it the Bishop were infirm or not at home Non desit tamen diebus dominicis festivitatibus qui verbum Dei praedicet juxta quod populus intelligat yet there should still be some to preach Gods Word unto the People according unto their capacities both on the Lords day and the other Festivals Indeed why should not both be observed alike the Saints days being dedicated unto God as the Lords day is and standing both of them on the same authority on the authority of the Church for the particular Institution on the authority of Gods Law for the general Warrant It was commanded by the Lord and written in the heart of man by the pen of nature that certain times should be appointed for Gods publick worship the choicing of the times was left to the Churches power and she designed the Saints days as she did the Lords both his and both allotted to his service only This made Saint Bernard ground them all the Lords day and the other Holy-days on the fourth Commandment the third in the Account of the Church of Rome Serm. 3. Super Salve reg Spirituale obsequium Deo praebetur in observantia sanctarum solennitatum unde tertium praeceptum contexitur Observa diem Sabbati i. e. in sacris feriis te exerce So S. Bernard in his third Sermon Super salve Regina The Lords days and the Holy-days or Saints days being of so near a kin we must next see what care was taken by the Church in these present ages for hallowing them unto the Lord. The
the general tendry of the Roman Schools that which is publickly avowed and made good amongst them And howsoever Petrus de Anchorana and Nicholas Abbat of Patermo two learned Canonists as also Angelus de Clavasio and Silvester de Prierats two as learned Casuists seem to defend the institution of the Lords day to have its ground and warrant on divine Authority yet did the general current of the Schools and of the Canonists also run the other way And in that current still it holds the Jesuits and most learned men in the Church of Rome following the general and received opinion of the Schoolmen whereof see Bellarm. de cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 11. Estius in 3. Sent. dist 37. Sect. 13. but especially Agsorius in his Institut Moral part second cap. 2. who gives us an whole Catalogue or them which hold the Lords day to be founded only on the authority of the Church Touching the other power the power of Dispensation there is not any thing more certain than that the Church both may and doth dispense with such as have therein offended against her Canons The Canons in themselves do profess as much there being many casus reservati as before we said expressed particularly in those Laws and constitutions which have been made about the keeping of this day and the other Festivals wherein a dispensation lieth if we disobey them Many of these were specified in the former Ages and some occur in these whereof now we write It pleased Pope Gregory the ninth Decretal l. 2. tit de feriis cap. 5. Anno 1228. to inhibit all contentious Suits on the Lords day and the other Festivals and to inhibit them so far that judgment given on any of them should be counted void Etiam consentientibus partibus although both parties were consenting Yet was it with this clause or reservation nisi vel necessitas urgeat vel pietas suadeat unless necessity inforced or piety persuaded that it should be done So in a Synod holden in Valladolit apud vallem Oleti in the parts of Spain Concil Sabiness deâferiis Anno 1322. a general restraint was ratified that had been formerly in force quod nullus in diebus dominicis festivis agros colere audeat aut manualia artificia exercere praesitmat that none should henceforth follow Husbandry or exercise himself in mechanick Trades upon the Lords day or the other Holy days Yet was it with the same Proviso nisi urgente necessitate vel evidentis pietatis causa unless upon necessity or apparent piety or charity in each of which he might have licence from the Priest his own Parish-Priest to attend his business Where still observe that the restraint was no less peremptory on the other Holy days than on the Lords day These Holy days as they were named particularly in Pope Gregories Decretal so was a perfect list made of them in the Synod of Lyons âe consecrat distinct 3. c. 1. Anno 1244. which being celebrated with a great concourse of people from all parts of Christendom the Canons and decrees thereof began forthwith to find a general admittance The Holy days allowed of there were these that follow viz. the feast of Christs nativity St. Stephen St John the Evangelist the Innocents St. Silvâster the Circumcision of our Lord the Epiphany Easter together with the week precedent and the week succeeding the three days in Rogation week the day of Christs Ascension Whitsunday with the two days after St. John the Baptist the feasts of all the twelve Apostles all the festivities of our Lady St. Lawrence all the Lords days in the year St. Michael the Archangel All Saints St. Martins the Wakes or dedication of particular Churches together with the Feasts of such topical or local Saints which some particular people had been pleased to honour with a day particular amongst themselves On these and every one of them the people were restrained as before was said from many several kinds of work on pain of Ecclesiastical censures to be laid on them which did offend unless on some emergent causes either of charity or necessity they were dispensed with for so doing In other of the Festivals which had not yet attained to so great an height the Council thought not fit perhaps by reason of their numbers that men should be restrained from labour as neither that they should be incouraged to it but left them to themselves to bestow those times as might stand best with their affairs and the Common wealth For so the Synod did determine Reliquis festivitatibus quae per annum sunt non esse plebem cogendam ad feriandum sed nec probibendam And in this state things stood a long time together there being none that proferd opposition in reference to these restraints from labour on the greater Festivals though some there were that thought the Festivals too many on which those burden of restraints had unadvisedly been imposed on the common people Nicholas de Clemangis complained much as of some other abuses in the Church so of the multitude of Holy days Ap. Hospin cap. â de fest ãâã which had of late times been brought into it And Pet. de Aliaco Cardinal of Cambray in a Discourse by him exhibited to the Council of Constance made publick suit unto the Fathers there assembled that there might a stop be put in that kind hereafter as also that excepting Sundays and the greater Festivals liceret operari post auditum officium it might be lawful for the people after the end of Divine Service to attend their businesses the poor especially having little time enough on the working days ad vitae necessaria procuranda to get their livings But these were only the expressions of well wishing men The Popes were otherwise resolved and did not only keep the Holy days which they found established in the same state in which they found them but added others daily as they saw occasion At last it came unto that pass by reason of that rigorous and exact kind of rest which by the Canon Law had been fastned on them that both the Lords day and the other Festivals were accounted Holy not in relation to the use made of them or to the holy actions done on them in the honour of God but in and of themselves considered they were avowed to be vere aliis sanctiores Bell arm de cultu S. l. 3. c. 10. truly and properly invested with a greater sanctity than the other days Yea so far did they go at last that it is publickly maintained in the Schools of Rome non sublatam esse sed mutatam tantum in novo Testamento significationem discretionem dierum that the difference of days and times and the mysterious significations of the same which had before been used in the Jewish Church was not abolished but only changed in the Church of Christ Aquinas did first lead this Dance in fitting every legal Festival with some that were observed
in the Christian Church laying this ground that ours succeeded in the place of theirs Sabbatum mutatur in diem dominicum similiter aliis solennitatibus veteris legis novae solennitates succedunt 1. 2 ae qu. 103. Art 3. ad 4. as his words there are Upon which ground of his the Doctrines now remembred were no question raised and howsoever other men might think all days alike in themselves considered yet those of Rome will have some holier than the rest even by a natural and inherent holiness And in this state things stood both for the doctrine and the practice until such time as men began to look into the errours and abuses in the Church of Rome with a more serious eye than before they did the Canonists being no less nice in the point of practice than were the Schoolmen and the rest exorbitant in the point of Doctrine Whose Niceties especially in matter of restraint we have most fully represented to us by Tostatus In Exod. 12. one that had run through all the parts of Learning at that time on foot and was as well studied in the Canon as in the Schools He then determineth of it thus Itinerando pro negotiis peccatum esse mortale c. Qu. 25. He that doth travel on the Holy days for in that general Name the Lords day and the other Festivals are comprehended about worldly business commits mortal sin as also if he Trade or Traffick in the place wherein he liveth But this hath two exceptions or reservations First if the business by him done be but small and light quae quietem Sabbati non impediunt such as are no great hinderance to the Sabbaths rest and secondly nisi hoc sit in causa pia unless it were on some devout and pious purpose To read unto or teach a man to deal in actions of the Law or determine Suits Qu. 26. or to cast Accounts si quis doceret ut lucretur if it be done for hire or for present gain become servile works and are forbidden Otherwise if one do it gratis Qu. 27. If a Musitian wait upon a Gentleman to recreate his mind with Musick and that they are agreed on a certain wages or that he be hired only for a present turn he sins in case he play or sing unto him on the Holy days but not if his reward be doubtful Qu. 28. and depends only upon the bounty of the parties who enjoy his Musick A Cook that on the Holy days is hired to make a Feast or to dress a Dinner doth commit mortal sin sed non pro toto mense aut anno but not if he be hired by the month or by the year Meat may be dressed upon the Lords day or the other Holy days Qu. 29. but to wash Dishes on those days was esteemed unlawful differri in diem alteram Qu. 32. and was to be deferred till another day Lawyers that do their Clients business for their wonted see were not to draw their Bills or frame their Answers or peruse their Evidences on the Holy days Secus si causam agerent pro miserabilibus personis c. but it was otherwise if they dealt for poor indigent people such as did sue in forma pauperis as we call it or in the causes of a Church or Hospital in which the Popes had pleased to grant a Dispensation A man that travelled on the Holy days Qu. 34. to any special shrine or Saint did commit no sin Si autem in redeundo peccatum est mortale but if he did the like in his coming back he then sinned mortally Qu. 35. In any place where formerly it had been the custom neither to draw Water nor to sweep the House but to have those things ready on the day before the custom was to be observed where no such custom is there they may be done Actions of a long continuance if they were delightful or if one played three or four hours together on a Musical Instrument were not unlawful on the Holy days yet possibly they might be sinful at si quis hoc ageret ex lascivia as if one played only out of wantonness Qu. 36. or otherwise were so intent upon his Musick that he went not to Mass Artificers which work on the Holy days for their own profit only are in mortal sin unless the work be very small quia modicum non facit solennitatem dissolvi because a little thing dishonours not the Festival De minimis non curat lex as our saying is Contrary Butchers Vintners Bakers Coster-mongers sinned not in selling their Commodities because more profit doth redound to the Common wealth which cannot be without such commodities than to them that sell yet this extended not to Drapers Shoomakers or the like because there is not such a present necessity for cloaths as meat Yet where the custom was that Butchers did not sell on the Holy days but specially not upon the Lords day that commendable custom was to be observed though in those places also it was permitted to the Butcher that on those days at some convenient times thereof he might make ready what was to be sold on the morrow after as kill and skin his Bestial which were fit for sale in case he could not do it with so much convenience non ita congrue at another time Qu. 37. To write out or transcribe a Book though for a mans own private use was esteemed unlawful except it were exceeding small because this put no difference between the Holy days and the other yet was it not unlawful neither in case the Argument were Spiritual nor for a Preacher to write out his Sermons or for a Student to provide his Lecture for the day following Windmils were suffered to be used on the Holy days Qu. 38. not Watermills because the first required less labour and attendance than the other did This is the reason in Tostatus though I can see no reason in it the passage of the Water being once let run being of more certainty and continuance than the changeable blowing of the Wind. But to proceed Qu. 39. Ferry-men were not to transport such men in their Boats or Wherries as did begin their Journey on an Holy day unless they went to Mass or on such occasions but such as had begun their Journey and now were in pursuit thereof might be ferried over quia forte carebunt victu because they may perhaps want Victuals if they do not pass Qu. 41. To repair Churches on the Lords day and the other Holy-days was accounted lawful in case the Workmen did it gratis and that the Church were poor not able to hire Workmen on the other days not if the Church were rich and in case to do it Qu. 42. So also to build Bridges repair the walls of Towns and Castles or other publick Edifices on those days was not held unlawfu si instent hostes in case the
Enemy be at hand though otherwise not to be done where no danger was These are the special points observed and published by Tostatus And these I have the rather exactly noted partly that we may see in what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days were in the Church of Rome what time the reformation of Religion was first set on foot but principally to let others see how near they come in their new fancies and devices unto the Niceties of those men whom they most abhor Thus stood it as before I said both for the Doctrine and the Practice till men began to look into the Errours and abuses in the Roman Church with a more serious eye than before they did and at first sight they found what little pleased them in this particular Their Doctrine pleased them not in making one day holier than another not only in relation to the use made of them but to a natural and inherent holiness wherewith they thought they were invested Nor did their practice please much more in that they had imposed so many burdens of restraint upon the consciences of Gods people and thereby made that day a punishment which was intended for the ease of the labouring man Against the doctrine of these men and the whole practice of that Church Calvin declares himself in his book of Institutions And therewith taxeth those of Rome L. 2. cap. 8. p. 34. qui Judaica opinione populum superioribus seculis imbuerunt who in the times before possessed the peoples minds with so much Judaism that they had changed the day indeed as in dishonour of the Jew but otherwise retained the former sanctity thereof which needs must be saith he if there remain with us as the Papists taught the same opinion of the mysteries and various significations of days and times which the Jews once had And certainly saith he we see what dangerous effects have followed on so false a Doctrine those which adhere to their instructions having exceedingly out gone the Jews crassa carnalique Sabbatismi superstitione in their gross and carnal superstitions about the Sabbath In Apocal. 1. v. 10. Beza his Scholar and Achates sings the self-same Song that howsoever the Assemblies of the Lords day were of Apostolical and divine Tradition sic tamen ut Judaica cessatio ab omni opere non observaretur quoniam hoc plane fuisset Judaismum non abolere sed tantum quod ad diem attinet immutare yet so that there was no cessation from work required as was observed among the Jews For that saith he had not so much abolished Judaism as put it off and changed it to another day And then he adds that this cessation was first brought in by Constantine and afterwards confirmed with more and more restraints by the following Emperours by means of which it came to pass that that which first was done for a good intent viz. that men being free from their worldly businesses might wholly give themselves to hearing of the Word of God in merum Judaismum degenerarit degnerated at the last into down-right Judaism So for the Lutheran Churches Chemnitius challengeth the Romanists of superstition quasi dominicae diei reliquis diebus festis per se peculiaris quaedam insit sanctitas because they taught the people that the Holy days considered only in themselves had a Native Sanctity And howsoever for his part he think it requisite that men should be restrained from all such works as may be any hinderance unto the sanctifying of the day yet he accounts it but a part of the Jewish leaven nimis scrupulose diebus festis prohibere operas externas quie vel quando non impediunt publicum ministerium so scrupulously to prohibit such external Actions which are at all no hindrance to Gods publick service and mans Sabbath Duties Bueer goes further yet and doth not only call it a superstition In Mat. 12. but an Apostacy from Christ to think that working on the Lords day in it self considered is a sinful thing Si existimetur operari in eo die per se esse peccatum superstitio gratiae Christi qui ab elementis mundi nos suo sanguine liberavit negatio est as his own words are Then adds that he did very well approve of the Lords day meetings si eximatur è cordibus hominum opinio necessitatis if men were once dispossessed of these opinions that the day was necessary to be kept that it was holier in it self than the other days and that to work upon that day in it self was sinful Lastly the Churches of the Switzers profess in their Confession that in the keeping of the Lords day they give not the least hint to any Jewish superstitions Neque enim alteram diem altera sanctiorem esse credimus nec otium Deo per se probari existimamus For neither Cap. 24. as they said do we conceive one day to be more holy than another or think that rest from labour in it self considered is any way pleasing unto God By which we plainly may perceive what is the judgment of the Protestant Churches in the present point Indeed It is not to be thought that they could otherwise resolve and determine of it considering what their Doctrine is of the day it self how different they make it from a Sabbath day which Doctrine that we may perceive with the greater ease we will consider it in three Propositions in which most agree 1. That the keeping holy one day of seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment or to be reckoned as a part of the law of Nature 2. That the Lords day is not founded on Divine Commandment but only on the authority of the Church and 3. That the Church hath still authority to change the day and to transfer it to some other First for the first it seems that some of Rome considering the restraints before remembred and the new Doctrine thence arising about the Natural and inherent holiness which one day had above another had altered what was formerly delivered amongst the Schoolmen and made the keeping of one day in seven to be the Moral part of the fourth Commandment This Calvin chargeth them withal that they had taught the people in the former times Instit l. 1. Cap. 8.11 34. that whatsover was ceremonial in the fourth Commandment which was the keeping of the Jews seventh day had been long since abrogated remanere vero quod morale est nempe unius diei observationem in hebdomade but that the moral part thereof which was the keeping of one day in seven did continue still With what else is it as before was said than in dishonour of the Jews to change the day and to affix as great a sanctity thereunto as the Jews ever did And for his own part he professeth that howsoever he approved of the Lords day meetings Non tamen numerum septennarium ita se morari ut ejus servituti Ecclesias
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
as well upon the Saturday as upon the Sunday it is now time we turned our course and set sail for England where we shall find as little of it as in other places until that forty years ago no more some men began to introduce a Sabbath thereunto in hope thereby to countenance and advance their other projects CHAP. VII In what estate the Lords day stood in this Isle of Brittain from the first Planting of Religion to the Reformation 1. What doth occur about the Lords day and the other Festivals amongst the Churches of the Brittains 2. Of the estate of the Lords day and the other Holy-days in the Saxon Heptarchy 3. The honours done unto the Sunday and the other Holy-days by the Saxon Monarchs 4. Of the publick actions Civil Ecclesiastical mixt and Military done on the Lords day under the first six Norman Kings 5. New Sabbath Doctrins broached in England in King Johns Reign and the miraculous original of the same 6. The prosecution of the former story and ill success therein of the undertakers 7. Restraint of worldly business on the Lords day and the other Holy-days admitted in those times in Scotland 8. Restraint of certain servile works on Sundays Holy-days and the Wakes concluded in the Council of Oxon under Henry III. 9. Husbandry and Legal process prohibited on the Lords day first in the Reign of Edward III. 10. Selling of Wools on the Lords day and the solemn Feasts forbidden first by the said King Edward as after Fairs and Markets generally by King Henry VI. 11. The Cordwainers of London restrained from selling their Wares on the Lords day and some other Festivals by King Edward IV. and the repealing of that Act by King Henry VIII 12. In what estate the Lords day stood both for the doctrine and the practice in the beginning of the Reign of the said King Henry AND now at last we are for England that we may see what hath been done amongst our selves in this particular and thereby be the better lessoned what we are to do For as before I noted the Canons of particular Churches and Edicts of particular Princes though they sufficiently declare both what their practice and opinion was in the present point yet are no general rule nor prescript to others which lived not in the compass of their Authority Nor can they further bind us as was then observed than as they have been since admitted into our Church or State either by adding them unto the body of our Canon or imitating them in the composition of our Acts and Statutes Only the Decretals of the Popes the body of their Canon Law is to be excepted which being made for the direction and reiglement of the Church in general were by degrees admitted and obeyed in these parts of Christendome and are by Act of Parliament so far still in force as they oppose not the Prerogative Royal or the municipal Laws and Statutes of this Realm of England Now that we may the better see how it hath been adjudged of here and what hath been decreed ordome touching the Lords day and the other Holy-days we will ascend as high as possibly we can even to the Church and Empire of the Brittains Of them indeed we find not much and that delivered in as little it being said of them by Beda Hist l. 1. c. 8. that in the time of Constantine they did dies festos celebrare observe those Holy-days which were then in use which as before we said were Easter Whitsontide the Feasts of Christs Nativity and his Incarnation every year together with the Lords day weekly And yet it may be thought that in those times the Lords day was not here of any great account in that they kept the Feast of Easter after the fashion of the Churches in the Eastern parts decima quarta luna on what day of the week soever which certainly they had not done had the Lords day obtained amongst them that esteem which generally it had found in the Western Churches And howsoever a late writer of Ecclesiastical History endeavour to acquit the Brittains of these first Ages from the erroneous observation of that Feast Brought hist l. 4. c. 13. and make them therein followers of the Church of Rome yet I conceive not that his proofs come home to make good his purpose For where it is his purpose to prove by computation that that erroneous observation came not in amongst the Brittains till 30 years before the entrance of S. Austin and his associates into this Island and for that end hath brought a passage out of Beda touching the continuance of that custom It 's plain that Beda speaks not of the Brittish but the Scottish Christians Permansit autem apud eos the Scottish-Irish Christians as himself confesseth hujusmodi observantia Paschalis tempore non pauco hoc est usque ad annum Domini 717. per annos 150. which was as he computes it somewhat near the point but 30 years before the entrance of that Austin Now for the Scots it is apparent that they received not the faith till the year of Christ 430 not to say any thing of the time wherein they first set footing in this Island which was not very long before and probably might about that time of which Beda speaks receive the custom of keeping Easter from the Brittains who were next neighbours to them and a long time lived mingled with them But for the Brittains it is most certain that they had longer been accustomed to that observation though for the time thereof whether it came in with the first plantation of the Gospel here we will not contend as not pertaining to the business which we have in hand Suffice it that the Brittains anciently were observant of those publick Festivals which had been generally entertained in the Church of God though for the time of celebrating the Feast of Easter they might adhere more unto one Church than unto another As for the Canon of the Council of Nice Anno 198. which is there alledged Baronius rightly hath observed out of Athanasius that notwithstaning both the Canon and the Emperours Edicts thereupon tamen etiam postea Syros Cilices Mesopotamios in eodem errore permansisse the Syrians Cilicians and Mesopotamians continued in their former errours And why not then the Brittains which lay farther off as well as those that dwelt so near the then Regal City Proceed we next unto the Saxons who as they first received the faith from the Church of Rome so did they therewithal receive such institutions as were at that time generally entertained in the Roman Church the celebration of the Lords day and the other Festivals which were allowed of and observed when Gregory the Great attained the Popedom And here to take things as they lie in order we must begin with a narration concerning Westminster which for the prettiness of the story I will here insert Sebert the first Christian King of the East Saxons
to slaves and such as were in service unto other men viz. the twelve days after Christs Nativity dies ille quo Christus subegit diabolum the day wherein our Saviour overcame the Devil the Festival of Saint Gregory seven days before Easter and as many after the Festival day of Saint Peter and Paul the week before our Lady day in Harvest All Hallowtide and the four Wednesdays in the Ember-weeks Where note how many other days were priviledged in the self-same manner as the Lords day was in case that be the day then spoken of wherein our Saviour overcame the Devil as I think it is as also that this priviledg extended unto Freemen only servants and bondmen being left in the same condition as before they were to spend all days alike in their Masters businesses This Alured began his Reign Anno 871. and after him succeeded Edward surnamed the Elder in the year 900. who in a league between himself and Gunthrun King of the Danes in England did publickly on both sides prohibit as well all markettings on the Sunday as other kind of work whatsoever on the other Holy days Dacus si die Dominico quicquam fuerit mercatus reipsa Oris praeterea 12 mulctator Anglus 30 solidos numerato c. If a Dane bought any thing on the Lords day he was to forfeit the thing bought and to pay 12 Oras every Ora being the fifteenth part of a pound an Englishman doing the like to pay 30 shillings A Freeman if he did any work die quocunque festo on any of the Holy days was forthwith to be made a Bondman or to redeem himself with Money a Bondslave to be beaten for it or redeem his beating with his Purse The Master also whether that he were Englishman or Dane if he compelled his servants to work on any of the Holy days was to answer for it So when it had been generally received in other places to begin the Sunday-service on the Eve before it was enacted by King Edgar surnamed the Peaceable who began his Reign An. 959. diem Sabbati ab ipsa die Saturni hora pomeridiana tertia usque in lunaris diei diluculum festum agitari that the Sabbath should begin on Saturday at three of the clock in the afternoon and not as Fox relates it in his Acts and Monuments at nine in the morning and so hold on till day break on Monday Where by the way though it be dies Sabbati in the Latin yet in the Saxon Copy it is only Healde the Holy day After this Edgars death the Danes so plagued this Realm that there was nothing setled in it either in Church or State till finally they had won the Garland and obteined the Kingdom The first of these Canutus an heroick Prince of whom it is affirmed by Malmesbury omnes leges ab antiquis regibus maxime sub Etheldredo latas that he commanded all those Laws to be observed which had been made by any of the former Kings and those before remembred amongst the rest of which see the 42. of his Constitutions especially by Etheldred his predecessour and that upon a grievous mulct to be laid on such who should disobey them These are the Laws which afterwards were called K. Edwards non quòd ille statuerit sed quòd observarit not because he enacted them but that he caused them to be kept Of these more anon Besides which Laws so brought together there were some others made at Winchester by this King Canutus and amongst others this that on the Lords day there should be no markettings no Courts or publick meetings of the people for civil businesses Leg. 14.15 as also that all men abstein from Hunting and from all kind of earthly work Yet was there an exception too nisi flagitante necessitate in cases of necessity wherein it was permitted both to buy and sell and for the people to meet together in their Courts For so it passeth in the Law Die Dominico mercata concelebrari populive conventus agi nisi flagitante necessitate planissime vetamus ipso praeterea die sacrosancto à venatione opere terreno prorsus omni quisque abstineto Not that it is to be supposed as some would have it that he intended Sunday for a Sabbath day for entring on the Crown A. 1017. he did no more than what had formerly been enacted by Charles the Great and several Councils after him Lib. 6. c. 29. none of which dreamed of any Sabbath Besides it is affirmed of this Canutus by Otho Frisingensis that in the year 1027. he did accompany the Emperor Conrade at his Coronation on an Easter day which questionless he would not have done knowing those kind of Pomps to be meerly civil and to have in them much of ostentation had he intended any Sabbath when he restrained some works on Sunday But to make sure work of it without more ado the Laws by him collected which we call St. Edwards make the matter plain where Sunday hath no other priviledg than the other Feasts and which is more is ranked below them The Law is thus entituled Rog. de Hoveden in Henriâ secundo De temporibus diebus pacis Domini Regis the Text as followeth Ab adventu Domini usque ad octavam Epiphaniae pax Dei Ecclesiae per omne regnum c. From Advent to the Octavei of Epiphanie Let no mans Person be molested nor no Suit be pursued the like from Septuagesima to Low-sunday and so from Holy Thursday to the next Sunday after Whitsontide Item omnibus Sabbatis ab hora nona usque ad diem Lunae c. The like on Saturdays from three in the afternoon until Monday morning as also on the Eves of the Virgin Mary S. John the Baptist all the holy Apostles of such particular Saints whose Festivals are published in the Churches on the Sunday mornings the Eve of All Saints in November from three of the clock till the solemnity be ended As also that no Christian be molested going to Church for his Devotions or returning thence or travelling to the dedication of any new erected Church or to the Synods or any publick Chapter meeting Thus was it with the Lords day as with many others in S. Edwards Laws which after were confirmed and ratified by King Henry the second after they had long been neglected Now go we forwards to the Normans and let us see what care they took about the sanctifying of the Lords day whether they either took or meant it for a Sabbath And first beginning with the Reign of the first six Kings we find them times of action and full of troubles as it doth use to be in unsetled States no Law recorded to be made touching the keeping of this day but many actions of great note to be done upon it These we will rank for orders sake under these five Heads 1. Coronations 2. Synods Ecclesiastical 3. Councils of Estate 4. Civil business and 5.
holy the Lords day and you have not kept it neither repented of your sins c. I caused Repentance to be preached unto you and you believed not Thent sent I Pagans amongst you c. and because you did not keep the Lords day holy I punished you a while with famine c. Therefore I charge you all that from the ninth hour on the Saturday until Sun rising on the Monday no man presume to do any work but what is good or if he do that he repent him of the same Verily I say and swear unto you by my Seat and Throne and by the Cherubins that keep my seat that if you do not harken to this my Mandat I will no more send to you any other Epistle but I will open the heavens and rain upon you stones and wood and scalding water c. This I avow that you shall die the death for the Lords day and other festivals of my Saints which you have not kept and I will send amongst you Beasts with the heads of Lyons and the hair of Women and the tailes of Camels and they shall eat you and devour you There is a great deal more of this wretched stuff but I am weary of abusing both my pains and patience Only I cannot choose but wish that those who have enlarged their Lords day Sabbath to the same extent would either shew us some such letter or bring us any of the miracles which hereafter follow or otherwise be pleased to lengthen out the Festivals of the Saints in the self same manner as by this goodly Script they are willed to do But to procced the said Eustathius thus furnished and having found but ill success the former year in the Southern parts where he did Angliae Praelatos praedicatione sua molestare disturb the Prelates by his preachings as my Author hath it he went up to York There did he preach his doctrins and absolve such as had offended conditioned that hereafter they did shew more reverence unto the Lords day and the other Holy days doing no servile works upon them nec in diebus Dominicis exercerent forum rerum venalium particularly that on the Lords day they should hold no Markets The people hereunto assented and promised they would neither buy nor sell on the Lords day nisi forte cibum potum praetereuntibus excepting meat and drink to passengers Whereby it seems that notwithstanding all this terrour men were permitted yet to travel on the Lords day as they had occasion This coming to the notice of the King and Council my men were all fetched up such specially qui in diebus Dominicis forum rerum venalium dejecerant which had disturbed the Markets and overthrown the Booths and Merchandize on the Lords day and made to fine unto the King for their misdemeanour Then were they fain to have recourse to pretended miracles A Carpenter making a wooden Pin and a Woman making up her Web both after three on Saturday in the afternoon are suddenly smitten with the Palsey A certain man of Nafferton baking a Cake on Saturday night and keeping part until the morrow no sooner brake it for his breakfast but it gushed out blood A Miller of Wakefield grinding Corn on Saturday after three of the clock instead of Meal found his Bin full of Blood his Mill-wheel standing still of its own accord One or two more there are of the same edition And so I think is that related in the Acts and Monuments out of an old Book entituled de Regibus Angliae which now I am fallen upon these fables shall be joyned with them King Henry the Second saith the story being at Cardiffe in Wales and being to take horse there stood a certain man by him having on him a white Coat and being barefoot who looked upon the King and spake in this wise Good old King John Baptist and Peter straightly charge you that on the Sundays throughout all your Dominions there be no buying or selling nor any other servile business those only except which appertain to the preparation of meat and drink which thing if thou shalt observe whatsoever thing thou takest in hand thou shalt happily finish Adding withal that unless he did these things and amend his life he should hear such news within the twelve-moneth as would make him mourn till his dying day But to conclude what was the issue of all this Hoveden this terrible letter and forged miracles That the Historian tells us with no small regret informing us that notwithstanding all these miracles whereby God did invite the people to observe this day Populus plus timens regiam potestatem quà m divinam the people fearing more the Kings power than Gods returned unto their Marketting as before they did I say that the Historian tells it with no small regret for in that passionate discontent he had said before that inimicus humani generis the Devil envying the proceedings of this holy man so far so possessed the King and the Princes of darkness so he calls the Council that they forthwith proceeded against them who had obeyed him Which makes me think that this Eustathius was a familiar of the Popes sent hither for the introducing of those restraints which had been formerly imposed on most parts of Christendom though here they found no entertainment the Popes had found full well how ill their justlings had succeeded hitherto with the Kings of England of the Norman race and therefore had recourse to their wonted arts by prodigies and miracles to insnare the people and bring them so unto their bent And this I do the rather think because that in the following year Anno 1203. there was a Legate sent from Rome to William King of Scots with several presents and many indulgences Quae quoniam grato accepit animo Hect. Boet. lib. 13. eodem concilio approbante decretum est c. Which he accepting very kindly it pleased him with the approbation of his Parliament at that time assembled to pass a Law that Saturday from twelve at noon should be counted holy and that no man should deal in such worldly businesses as on the Feast-days were forbidden As also that at the sounding of the Bell the People should be busied only about holy actions going to Sermons hearing the Vespers or the Evensong idque usque in diem Lunae facerent and that they should continue thus until Monday morning a penalty being laid on those who should do the contrary So passed it then and in the year 1214 some eleven years after it was enacted in a Parliament at Scone Lex aquarum cap. 16. §. 2. under Alexander the third King of the Scots that none should fish in any waters à die Sabbati post vesperas usque ad diem lunae post ortum solis from Saturday after Evening prayer until Sun-rising on the Munday This after was confirmed in the first Parliament of King James the first and is to this day called the
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
King c. hath ordained and established that no Cordwainer or Cobler within the City of London or within three miles of any part of the said City c. do upon any Sunday in the year or on the Feasts of the Ascension or Nativity of our Lord or on the Feasi of Corpus Christi sell or command to be sold any Shwe Huseans i. e. Bootes or Galoches or upon the Sunday or any other of the said Feasts shall set or put upon the feet or legs of any person any Shwes Huseans or Galoches upon pain of forfeiture and loss of O shillings as often as any person shall do contrary to this Ordinance Where note that this restraint was only for the City of London and the parts about it which shews that it was counted lawful in all places clse And therefore there must be some particular motive why this restraint was laid on those of London only either their insolencies or some notorious neglect of Gods publick service the Gentle craft had otherwise been ungently handled that they of all the Tradesmen in that populous City should be so restrained Note also that in this very Act there is a reservation or indulgence for the Inhabitants of S. Martins le Grand to do as formerly they were accustomed the said Act or Statute not withstanding 14 15 of H. 8. cap. 9. Which very clause did after move King Henry VIII to repeal this Statute that so all others of that trade might be free as they or as the very words of the Statute are That to the Honour of Almighty God all the Kings Subjects might be hereafter at their liberty as well as the Inbabitants of S. Martins le Grand Now where it seemeth by the Proeme of the Statute 17. of this King Edward IV. c. 3. that many in that time did spend their Holy-days in dice Quoits Tennis bowling and the like unlawful Games forbidden as is there affirmed by the Laws of the Realm which said unlawful Games are thereupon prohibited under a certain penalty in the Statute mentioned It is most manisest that the Prohibition was not in reference to the time Sundays or any other Holy-days but only to the Games themselves which were unlawful at all times For publick actions in the times of these two last Princes the greatest were the battels of Towton and Barnet one on Palm-Sunday and the other on Easter-day the greatest Fields that ever were fought in England And in this State things stood till King Henry VIII Now for the doctrine and the practice of these times before King Henry the VIII and the Reformation we cannot take a better view than in John de Burgo Chancellor of the University of Cambridg I pitta Oââi Pl. 12. 11. D. about the latter end of King Henry the sixth First Doctrinally he determincth as before was said that the Lords day was instituted by the authority of the Church and that it is no otherwise to be observed than by the Canons of the Church we are bound to keep it Then for the name of Sabbath that the Lords day quaelibet dies statuta ad divinam culturam Id. lb. E. and every day appointed for Gods publick service may be so entituled because in them we are to rest from all servile works such as are Arts Mechanick Husbandry Law-days and going to Markets with other things quae ab Ecclesia determinantur I l ply 5.9 cap. 7. H. which are determined by the Church Lastly that on those days insistendum est orationibus c. We must be busied at our prayers the publick service of the Church in Hymns and in spiritual Songs and in hearing Sermons Next practically for such things as were then allowed of he doth sort them thus First generally Non tamen prohibentur his diebus faccre quae pertinent ad providentiam necessariorum c. We are not those days restrained from doing such things as conduce to the providing of necessaries either for our selves or for our Neighbours as in preserving of our persons or of our substance or in avoiding any loss that might happen to us Id. ib. J. Particularly next si jacentibus c. In case our Corn and Hay in the Fields abroad be in danger of a Tempest we may bring it in yea though it be upon the Sabbath Butchers and Victualers if they make ready on the Holy days what they must sell the morrow after either in open Market or in their shops in case they cannot dress it on the day before or being dressed they cannot keep it Id. ib. L. non peccant mortaliter they fall not by so doing into mortal sin vectores mercium c. Carriers of Wares or Men or Victuals unto distant places in case they cannot do it upon other days without inconvenience are to be excused Barbers and Chirurgions Smiths or Farriers if on the Holy days they do the works of their daily labour Id. ib. M. especially propter necessitatem eorum quibus serviunt for the necessities of those who want their help are excusable also but not in case they do it chiefly for desire of gain Id. ib. N. Messengers Posts and Travellers that travel if some special occasion be on the Holy days whether they do it for reward or not non audeo condemnare are not at all to be condemned As neither Millers which do grind either with Water-mils or Wind-mils and so can do their Work without much labour but they may keep the custom of the place in the which they live not being otherwise commanded by their Ordinaries Id. ib. O. secus si traciu jumentorum multuram faciunt but if it be an Horse-mill then the case is altered So buying and selling on those days in some present exigent as the providing necessary Victuals for the day was not held unlawful dum tamen exercentes ea non subtrabunt se divinis officiis in case they did not thereby keep themselves from Gods publick Service Lastly Id. ib. Q. for Recreations for dancing on those days he determins thus that they which dance on any of the Holy days either to stir themselves or others unto carnal lusts commit mortal sin and so they do saith he in case they do it any day But it is otherwise if they dance upon honest causes and no naughty purpose and that the persons be not by Law restrained Choreas ducentes maxime in diebus sestis causa incitanda se vel alios ad peccatum mortale peccant mortaliter similiter si in profestis diebus hoc fiat secus si hoc fiat ex causa honesta intentione non corrupta à persona cui talia non sunt probibita With which determination I conclude this Chapter CHAP. VIII The story of the Lords Day from the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom till this present time 1. The doctrine of the Sabbath and the Lords day delivered by three several Martyrs conformably
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
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
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
Among which those of the Calvinian party would fain hook in Wicklif together with Fryth Barns and Tyndal which can by no means be brought under that account though some of them deserved well of the Churches for the times they lived in They that desire to hook in Wicklif do first confess that he stands accused by those of the Church of Rome for bringing in Fatal Necessity and making God the Author of sin and then conclude that therefore it may be made a probable guess that there was no disagreement between him and Calvin The cause of which Argument stands thus That there being an agreement in these points betwixt Wicklif and Calvin and the Reformers of our Church embracing the Doctrines of Wicklif therefore they must embrace the Doctrines of Calvin also But first it cannot be made good that our Reformers embraced the Doctrines of Wicklif or had any eye upon the man who though he held many points against those of Rome yet had his field more Tares than Wheat his Books more Heterodoxies than sound Catholick Doctrine And secondly admitting this Argument to be of any force in the present case it will as warrantably serve for all the Sects and Heresies which now swarm amongst us as well as for that of Calvin Wicklif affording them the grounds of their several dotages though possibly they are not so well studied in their own concernments For they who consult the works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklifiana writ by Harpsfield will tell us that Wicklif amongst many other errours maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of Bread 2. That Priests have no more Authority to minister Sacraments than Lay-men have 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawful to Christen a Child in a Tub of water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Churches 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any Divine Service in 7. That burying in Church-yards is unprofitable and in vain 8. That Holy-days ordained and instituted by the Church and taking the Lords day in for one are not to be observed and kept in reverence inasmuch as all days are alike 9. That it is sufficient and enough to believe though a man do no good works at all 10. That no Humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian 11. And finally That God never gave grace nor knowledge to a great person or rich man and that they in no wise follow the same What Anabaptists Brownists Ranters Quakers may not as well pretend that our first Reformers were of their Religion as the Calivinsts can if Wicklifs Doctrine be the rule of our Reformation Which because possibly it may obtain the less belief if they were found only in the works of Harpsfield and Waldensis before remembred the Reader may look for them in the Catalogue of those Mala Dogmata complained of by the Prolocutor in the Convocation Anno 1536. to have been publickly preached printed and professed by some of Wicklifs Followers for which consult the Church History lib. 4. fol. 208. and there he shall be sure to find them It is alledged in the next place that the Calvinistical Doctrines in these points may be found in the Writings of John Frith William Tyndal and Dr. Barns collected into one Volume and printed by John Day 1563. of which the first suffered-death for his conscience Anno 1533. the second Anno 1536. and the third Anno 1540 called therefore by Mr. Fox in a Preface of his before the Book the Ring-leaders of the Church of England And thereupon it is inferred that the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination must be the same with that which was embraced and countenanced by the first Reformers But first admitting that they speak as much in honour of Calvins Doctrine as can be possibly desired yet being of different judgments in the points disputed and not so Orthodox in all others as might make them any way considerable in the Reformation it is not to be thought that either their Writings or Opinions should be looked on by us for our direction in this case Barns was directly a Dominican in point of Doctrine Frith soared so high upon the Wing and quite out-flew the mark that Tyndal thought it not unfit to call him down and lure him back unto his pearch and as for Tyndal he declares himself with such care and caution excepting one of his fllyings out against Free-will that nothing to their purpose can be gathered from him Secondly I do not look on Mr. Fox as a competent Judge in matters which concern the Church of England the Articles of whose Confession he refused to subscribe he being thereunto required by Archbishop Parker and therefore Tyndal Frith and Barns not to be hearkned to the more for his commendation Thirdly if the testimony of Frith and Tyndal be of any force for defence of the Calvinists the Anti-Sabbatarians any more justly make use of of it in defence of themselves against the new Sabbath speculations of Dr. Bond and his Adherents embraced more passionately of late than any Article of Religion here by Law established Of which the first declares the Lords day to be no other than an Ecclesiastical Institution or Church Ordinance the last that it is still changeable from one day to another if the Church so please For which consult the Hist of Sab. l. 2. c. 8. Let Frith and Tyndal be admitted as sufficient Witnesses when they speak against the new Sabbath Doctrines or not admitted when they speak in behalf of Calvins and then I am sure his followers will lose more on the one side than they gained on the other and will prove one of the crossest bargains to them which they over made And then it is in the fourth place to be observed that the greatest Treasury of Learning which those and the Famerlines could boast of was lock'd up in the Cloisters of the Begging Fryers of which the Franciscans were accounted the most nimble Disputants the Dominicans the most diligent and painful Preachers the Augustinians for the most part siding wit the one and the Carmelites or White Fryers joyning with the other so that admitting Frith and Tyndal to maintain the same Doctrine in these points which afterwards was held forth by Calvin yet possibly they maintained them not as any points of Protestant Doctrine in opposition to the errours of the Church of Rome which had not then declared it self on either side but as the received Opinion of the Dominican Fryers in opposition to the Franciscans The Doctrine of which Dominican Fryers by reason of their diligent preaching had met with more plausible entertainment not only amongst the inferiour fort of people but also amongst many others of parts and
part of the fourth Commandment Page 359 3. The Annual Sabbaths no less solemnly observed and celebrated than the weekly were if not more solemnly Page 360 4. Of the Parasceue or Preparation to the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals Page 361 5. All manner of work as well forbidden on the Annual as the weekly Sabbaths Page 362 6. What things were lawful to be done on the Sabbath days Page 363 7. Touching the prohibitions of not kindling fire and not dressing meat Page 364 8. What moved the Gentiles generally to charge the Jews with Fasting on the Sabbath day Page 365 9. Touching this Prohibition Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day Page 366 10 All lawful recreations as Dancing Feasting Man-like Exercises allowed and practised by the Jews upon their Sabbaths ibid. 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 Page 368 2. Of him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day ibid. 3. Wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist in the time of Moses Page 369 4. The Law not ordered to be read in the Congregation every Sabbath day Page 370 5. The sack of Hiericho and the destruction of that People was upon the Sabbath Page 371 6. No Sabbath after this without Circumcision and how that Ceremony could consist with the Sabbaths rest Page 372 7. What moved the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath Page 373 8. The standing still of the Sun at the prayers of Josuah c. could not but make some alteration about the Sabbath ibid. 9. What was the Priests work on the Sabbath day and whether it might stand with the Sabbaths rest Page 374 10. The scattering of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation unto the reading of the Law on the Sabbath-days Page 375 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 Page 376 2. That Davids flight from Saul was upon the Sabbath Page 377 3. What David did being King of Israel in ordering things about the Sabbath ibid. 4. Elijahs flight upon the Sabbath and what else hapned on the Sabbath in Elijah's time Page 378 5. The limitation of a Sabbath days journey not known amongst the Jews when Elisha lived Page 379 6. The Lord becomes offended with the Jewish Sabbaths and on what occasion ibid. 7. The Sabbath entertained by the Samaritans and their strange niceties therein Page 380 8. Whether the Sabbaths were observed during the Captivity ibid. 9. The special care of Nehemiah to reform the Sabbath Page 381 10. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days begun by Ezra Page 382 11. No Synagogues nor weekly reading of the Law during the Government of the Kings Page 383 11. The Scribes and Doctors of the Law impose new rigours on the People about their Sabbaths Page 384 CHAP. VIII What doth occur about the Sabbath from the Maccabees to the destruction of the Temple 1. The Jews refuse to fight in their own defence upon the Sabbath and what was ordered thereupon Page 385 2. The Pharisees about these times had made the Sabbath burdensome by their Traditions Page 386 3. Hierusalem twice taken by the Romans on the Sabbath day Page 387 4. The Romans many of them Judaize and take up the Sabbath as other Nations did by the Jews example Page 388 5. Augustus Caesar very gracious to the Jews in matters that concerned their Sabbath Page 390 6. What our Redeemer taught and did to rectifie the abuses of and in the Sabbath ibid. 7. The final ruin of the Temple and the Jewish Ceremonies on a Sabbath day Page 391 8. The Sabbath abrogated with the other Ceremonies Page 392 9. Wherein consists the Christian Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures and amongst the Fathers Page 393 10. The idle and ridiculous niceties of the modern Jews in their Perasceves and their Sabbaths conclude the first Part. Page 394 BOOK II. CHAP. I. That there is nothing found in Scripture touching the keeping of the Lords day 1. The Sabbath not intended for a perpetual ordinance Page 400 1. Preparatives unto the dissolution of the Sabbath by our Saviou Christ Page 401 3. The Lords day not enjoyned in the place thereof either by Christ or the Apostles but instituted by the authority of the Church Page 402 4. Our Saviours Resurrection on the first day of the week and apparitions on the same make it not a Sabbath Page 404 5. The coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the first day of the week makes it not a Sabbath Page 405 6. The first day of the week not made a Sabbath more than others by S. Peter S. Paul or any other of the Apostles ibid. 7. S. Paul frequents the Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath and upon what reasons Page 406 8. What was concluded against the Sabbath in the Council holden at Hierusalem Page 407 9. The preaching of S. Paul at Troas upon the first day of the week no argument that then that day was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises Page 408 10. Collections on the first day of the week 1 Cor. 16. conclude as little for that purpose Page 409 11. Those places of S. Paul Gal. 4.10 Coloss 2.16 do prove invincibly that there is no Sabbath to be looked for Page 410 12. The first day of the week not called the Lords day until the end of this first age and what that title adds unto it Page 411 CHAP. II. In what estate the Lords day stood from the death of the Apostles to the Reign of Constantine 1. Touching the orders setled by the Apostles for the Congregation Page 413 2. The Lords day and the Saturday both Festivals and both alike observed in the East in Ignatius time Page 414 3. The Saturday not without great difficulty made a Fasting day Page 415 4. The Controversie about keeping Easter and how much it conduceth to the present business Page 416 5. The Feast of Easter not affixed to the Lords day without much opposition of the Eastern Churches ibid. 6. What Justin Martyr and Dionysius of Corinth have left us of the Lords day Clemens of Alexandria his dislike thereof Page 417 7. Vpon what grounds the Christians of the former times used to pray standing on the Lords day and the time of Pentecost Page 418 8. What is recorded by Tertullian of the Lords day and the Assemblies of the Church Page 419 9. Origen as his Master Clemens had done before dislikes set days for the Assembly Page 420 10. S. Cyprian what he tells us of the Lords day and of the reading of the Scriptures in S. Cyprians time ibid. 11. Of other holy days established in these three first Ages and that they were observed as solemnly as the Lords day was Page 421 12. The
Page 477 6. The prosecution of the former story and ill success therein of the undertakers ibid. 7. Restraint of worldly business on the Lords day and the other Holy-days admitted in those times in Scotland Page 478 8. Restraint of certain servile works on Sundays Holy-days and the Wakes concluded in the Council of Oxon under Henry III. ibid. 9. Husbandry and Legal process prohibited on the Lords day first in the Reign of Edward III. Page 479 10. Selling of Wools on the Lords day and the solemn Feasts forbidden first by the said King Edward as after Fairs and Markets generally by King Henry VI. Page 480 11. The Cordwainers of London restrained from selling their Wares on the Lords day and some other Festivals by King Edward IV. and the repealing of that Act by King Henry VIII Page 481 12. In what estate the Lords day stood both for the doctrine and the practice in the beginning of the Reign of the said King Henry ibid. CHAP. VIII The story of the Lords day from the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom till this present time 1. The doctrine of the Sabbath and the Lords day delivered by three several Martyrs conformably to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred Page 483 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 Page 484 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 Page 485 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Reign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day Page 486 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath ibid. 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath Page 487 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented Page 489 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof Page 490 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 Page 491 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his Declaration about Lawful sports on the Lords day Page 493 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred ibid. 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy-days have stood in Scotland since the Reformation of Religion in that Kingdom Page 494 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 Page 496 14. An exortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History Page 497 Historia Quinqu-Articularis Or a Declaration of the Judgment of the Western Churches and more particularly of the Church of England in the five Controverted Points c. CHAP. I. The several Heresies of those who make God to be the Author of Sin or attribute too much to the Natural freedom of Man's Will in the Works of Piety 1. God affirmed by Florinus to be the Author of sin the Blasphemy encountred by Irenaeus and the foul Consequents thereof Page 505 2. Revived in the last Ages by the Libertines said by the Papists to proceed from the Schools of Calvin and by the Calvinists to proceed from the Schools of Rome Page 506 3. Disguised by the Maniches in another dress and the necessity thereby imposed on the Wills of men ibid. 4. The like by Bardesanes and the Priscilianists the dangerous consequents thereof exemplified out of Homer and the words of St. Augustine Page 507 5. The Error of the Maniches touching the servitude of the Will revived by Luther and continued by the rigid Lutherans ibid. 6. As those of Bardesanes and Priscilian by that of Calvin touching the Absolute Decree the dangers which lie hidden under the Decree and the incompatibleness thereof with Christs coming to Judgment ibid. 7. The large expressions of the Ancient Fathers touching the freedom of the Will abused by Pelagius and his followers Page 508 8. The Heresie of Pelagius in what it did consist especially as to this particular and the dangers of it ibid. 9. The Pelagian Heresie condemned and recalled the temper of S. Augustine touching the freedom of the Will in spiritual matters ibid. 10. Pelagianism falsly charged on the Moderate Lutherans How far all parties do agree about the freedom of the Will and in what they differ Page 509 CHAP. II. Of the Debates amongst the Divines in the Council of Trent touching Predestination and Original Sin 1. The Articles drawn from the Writings of the Zuinglians touching Predestination and Reprobation Page 510 2. The Doctrine of Predestination according to the Dominican way ibid. 3. As also the old Franciscans with Reasons for their own and against the other Page 511 4. The Historians judgment interposed between the Parties ibid. 5. The middle way of Catarinus to compose the differences ibid. 6. The newness of St. Augustines Opinion and the dislike thereof by the most Learned men in the Ages following Page 512 7. The perplexities amongst the Theologues touching the absoluteness of the Decrees ibid. 8. The judgment of the said Divines touching the possibility of falling from Grace ibid. 9. The Debates about the nature and transmitting of Original Sin ibid. 10. The Doctrine of the Council in it Page 513 CHAP. III. The like Debates about Free-will with the Conclusions of the Council in the five Controverted Points 1. The Articles against the Freedom of the Will extracted out of Luther's Writings Page 314 2. The exclamation of the Divines against Luther's Doctrine in the Point and the absurdities thereof ibid. 3. The several judgments of Marinarus Catarinus and Andreas Vega ibid. 4. The different judgment of the Dominicans and Franciscans whether it lay in mans power to believe or not to believe and whether the freedom of the Will were lost in Adam ibid. 5. As also of the Point of the co-operation of mans Will with the Grace of God Page 515 6. The opinion of Frier Catanca in the point of irresistibility ibid. 7. Faintly maintained by Soto a Dominican Fryer and more cordially approved by others but in time rejected ibid. 8. The great care taken by the Legates in having the Articles so framed as to please all parties Page 516 9. The Doctrine of the Council in the five Controverted Points ibid. 10. A Transition from the Council of Trent to the Protestant and Reformed Churches Page 517 CHAP. IV. The judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Council of Dort 1. No difference in Five Points betwixt the
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