therewith they might deck and trim up the Lords day p Ibid. which is as if one should take the crowne off the head of a King and set it upon a common subject q Ibid. pag. 35. for Saturday saith hee is a King or Mistresse to the Lords day Hee had spoken with more congruity to himselfe though not unto the truth if hee had kept to his gender and called it a King and Master or a Queene and Mistresse hee objecteth further r Ibid. p. 50. that wee may as well call Å¿ Ibid. Baptisme Circumcision and the Lords Supper the Passeover and t Ibid. p. 494. that when the Minister saith Remember to sanctifie the Sabbath day to take it for the Lords day and so to say Lord have mercy upon us c. is to make answer as deafe men doe who when a man calleth for a knife doe bring him a sheath The resolution at which hee would have his reasons and exceptions arrive is this Let mee saith he for conclusion exhort Minister and people to refraine putting the name Sabbath day on the Lords day and let them take with it u Ib. p. 54 55. that they must with forbearance of the name Sabbath day refraine the use of the fourth Commandement for these goe unseparably together Where wee may see in him as in others that of Bishop Andrewes made good of shewing ill will to the thing by carping at the name as before wee have noted for Mr. Braburne and wee may say the like of some others knowing the right and title claimed for the Lords day by the fourth Commandement to bee kept a foote by the title Sabbath first fettereth it to the Jewish weekly holiday by affixing the word Saturday unto it not daring to trust it alone lest being left loose it should bee ready for use as an appellation of the Lords day Much like the Papists who pinion the name Catholick with the addition of Romane that so they might keepe it captive to their owne side and by it as by a lock or bolt might let in or keep out of the Church as please themselves But the most severe Censurer of the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day is the Authour of the Book called Altare Christianum wherein speaking of him who wrote the Letter to the Vicar of Grantham hee saith ″ D. Pockl. his book called Altare Christianum cap. 22. p. 130. Hee had shewed himselfe more like a sonne of the Church if he had said that the name Sabbath had crept into the Church in a kinde of complying in phrase with the people of the Jewes and that in a shadow of things to come as if Christ were not come in the flesh against the Apostles expresse doctrine and charge Colos 2. and from hence would have sought to have cast that old leaven out of our Church which hath sowred the affections of too many toward the Church and disturbed the peace and hindred the pious devotion thereof This is enough and bad enough yet hee saith more and worse in his Sermon preached at the Visitation of the Bishop of Lincolne Aug. 7. 1635. wherein hee visiteth with the rod those that call the Lords day Sabbath day and with it giveth such sharp jerks as these x D. Poâ—kl Visitation Serm. called Sunday nâ— Sabbath pag. 6. What shall wee thinke of Knox Whittingham and their fellowes anabaptizing the Lords day or Sunday after the minde of some Jew hired to bee Godfather thereof who call it Sabbath and doe disguise it with that name and who were the first that so called it and the Testators who have so bequeathed it to their Disciples and Proselites y D. Pockl. Ib. pag. 6 7. It was saith he thirty yeers before their children could turne their tongues to hit on Sabbath and if the Gileadites that met with the Ephraemites before they could frame to pronounce Shibboleth had snapt up these two before they had got their Sabbath by the end their counsell had brought much peace to the Church For this name Sabbath saith hee is not a bare name like a spot in the forehead to know Labans sheepe from Jacobs but it is a mystery of iniquity intended against the Church and the mystery as hee reveales it is to shut out the Letanie and all the Service of the Communion Book for that is no Service for their Sabbath but for Sunday z Ibid. p. 19. Item they must make a Sabbath of Sunday to keepe up that name otherwise their many citations of Scripture mentioning onely the Sabbath being applyed to Sunday will appeare so ridiculously distorted and wry neck'd that they will be a scorne and derision to the simplest of their now deluded Auditors a Ibid. p. 20. Others saith hee againe for the plot 's sake must uphold the name Sabbath that stalking behinde it they may shoote at the Service appointed for the Lords day Yet further hee maketh the name of the Sabbath as on the face of the Lords day to bee as an ugly vizzard which doth as well become it as the crowne b Ibid. of thornes did the Lord himselfe this was platted saith hee to expose him to damnable derision and that was plotted to impose on it detestable superstition Yet to die for it saith hee they will call it Sabbath presuming in their zealous ignorance or guilefull zeale to bee thought to speake the Scripture phrase when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouthes for that day which they nickname Sabbath is either no day at all or not the day they meane Thus farre hee who that his ill will to this word Sabbath as applyed to our Sunday might appeare in every page the Title throughout his Booke is Sunday no Sabbath CHAP. XIII Reasons why Sunday or the Lords day may be called Sabbath day delivered and defended BUt on the contrary if impetuous passion may bee so husht that religious reason may be heard wee shall shew cause sufficient to take up an Antititle to that of Doctor Pocklington his Sermon and to say Sunday a Sabbath and that upon such evidence both rationall and exemplary as without cavilling as I conceive cannot bee contradicted and first for Reason First The name a Joseph Ant. l. 1. c. 2. pag. 3. and in his first Book against Appion p. 783. Isidor etymolog l. 6. c. 18. fol. 32. p. 2. col 2. and all Hebrew Lexicons Sabbath signifieth rest reason 1 rest from the accustomed labours of the weeke But the Sunday is a day of rest wherein men are restrained from their wonted workes and ought to rest saith b B. White his Treat on the Sabb. pag. 152 153 158. Bishop white and to give themselves to religious exercises Therefore the Sunday may bee called a Sabbath For when the thing is acknowledged why should the word by which it is most fitly signified bee denyed And when the thing is denyed as rest on the Saturday by us
regnare To these two Reverend Deanes I will add two worthy Doctors who are witnesses to the warrantable application of the word Sabbath to the Sunday and who though neither Bishops nor Deanes have had the reputation and not without desert of very learned and religious men viz. Doctor John White brother to Doctor Fr. White late Bishop of Elie and Doctor Daniel Featly houshold Chaplain to the late ″ Archbish Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury Doctor Joh. White in his answer to the Papists bragging of the holinesse of their Church and upbraiding of our Church for want of holinesse hath among other accusations of their courses these words i D. Joh. White in his way to the true Church §. 38. p. 210. And for mine owne part having spent most of my time among them this I have found that in all excesse of sinnes Papists have been the ring-leaders in royotous companies in drunken meetings in seditious assemblies and practices in profaning the Sabbath c. And againe Papists hold that it is lawfull on the Sabbath day to follow suits travell hunt dance keepe Faires and such like this is that which hath made Papists the most notorious Sabbath breakers that live And Doctor Featly as hee had more occasion to mention the day and the duties thereof so hee more frequently maketh use of the name Sabbath as in his Hand-maid to Devotion wee finde mention of an k Dr. Featly Hand-maid to Devotion in the direction for the use of the book p. 4. hymne and prayer before the Sabbath wherein saith hee the duties of the Sabbath are expressed and in preparation for the receiving of the Sacrament there is a confession in these words l Hand maid to devotion pag. 107. Thou commandest me to keepe holy thy Sabbath and settest an especiall marke of Remembrance upon it yet I have not remembred to put off my ordinary businesse and in the Devotion for the Christian Sabbath the name is m Ib. â— p. 172. ad pag. 200. often used for the day wee celebrate sometimes with the word Christian joyned to it sometimes the name Sabbath is set without it and in his volume of printed Sermons treating on these words Wherefore God hath highly exalted him hee saith n Dr. Featly Serm. which he calleth Lowlinesse exalted pag. 735. If the rest of God from the works of Creation were just cause of sanctifying a perpetuall Sabbath to the memory thereof may not the rest of our Lord from the worke of Redemption more painefull to him and more beneficiall to us challenge the like prerogative of a day to bee hallowed and consecrated unto it shall wee not keepe it as a Sabbath on earth for him which hath procured for us an eternall Sabbath in heaven And a little after hee addeth o Ib. pag. 735 736. The holy Apostles and their successors fixed the Christian Sabbath upon the first day of the weeke to eternize the memory of our Lords Resurrection and speaking of Easter day With what Religion saith p Ib. pag. 736. he is the Christian Sabbath of Sabbaths to be kept I could lengthen this Catalogue for the name Sabbath thus applyed with many more names of those whose sufficiencie and sincerity is such that it would little become them that carpe most at the name Sabbath in this sense to teach them how to speake without corrupting their dialect with the dregs of Ashdod as of q Mr. Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5 p. 183. 385 M. Mâ—son who wrote of the consecrat of Bishops anno 1613. p. 269. Pet. Ramus de Relig. l. 2. c. 6. Master Hooker with divers others but that will not need especially if wee add unto these that which hath beene confessed or rather complained of by r M. Brab in his Desence p. 626. Master Braburne and Å¿ M. Dowe his discourse p. 4. Master Dowe viz. That the Lords day is usually and vulgarly called and known by the name Sabbath and then there will bee a full answer to Master Ironside his objection which soundeth as if the name Sabbath for the Lords day were a meere mistake of a t Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 126. few private persons of late yeeres I hope Kings Archbishops Bishops and Deanes and other eminent Doctors are not private persons nor they together with the vulgar few and wee may yet make them more by bringing in some of those to beare witnesse to the lawfull use of the word Sabbath for Sunday or the Lords day being drawne to yeeld some assent unto it by the force of truth who otherwise shew their great dislike of that denomination CHAP. XVI Of such as are adversaries to the name Sabbath as put for Sunday sometimes assenting thereunto and using the name in that sense or yeelding that which doth inferre it AS first Master Braburne in his discourse to this Objection the name Sabbath signifieth Rest Now on the Lords day we Rest therefore wee may call it Sabbath day answereth a M. Brab discourse p. 81. 'T is true the Sabbath signifieth Rest and so the Lords day might bee called Sabbath day but yet in no other sense then every common Holiday wherein we worke not may bee called Sabbath day that is Resting day We take his concession for the Lords day to be called Sabbath but not his comparison for as much as that hath more right to the name which hath a weekly recourse of Rest then that which cometh but once a yeare which himselfe doth in effect acknowledge when he so ″ In his Defence p. 276 277 481. often mentioneth the Lords day Sabbath as out of a kind of necessity to expresse his owne conceptions otherwise to use his owne b M Brab Defens p. 50. phrase hee would not so often have taken the crowne off his King Saturnes head and set it upon that day which in his conceipt is but a common Subject 2. Doctor Heylin notwithstanding what wee have before observed of him appeareth sometimes indifferently disposed to give to the Lords day the name of Sabbath as c Doct. Hâ—yl hist Sab. part 2. c. 6 pag. 182. where he saith By the Doctrine of the Helvetian Churches if I conceive their meaning rightly every particular Church may destinate what day they please to religious meetings and every day may bee a Lords day or a Sabbath If we were to judge of his opinion by this place we could not tell which word hee liked better Sabbath or Lords day hee sheweth himselfe so equally affected to them both seeming to bee the same man and of the same mind with him who in another booke wrote thus d Pet. Heylin Geogr. p. 702. I dare not so farre put my sickle into this harvest as to limit out the extent of Sabbath keeping which commanding us to doe no manner of worke doth seeme to prohibit us to worke for our owne safeguard Wherein hee sheweth such modesty in himselfe and such equity both to
not to breake the bond of conscience to the duties of the day and to make way for more living and lesse labour to heap up Benefices and shrinke in the services due to the Lord of the Sabbath and to the soules of the people on that day to give them leave to turne a Christian Holiday into a profane play-day that his paines may be lesse looked for at his Pastor all charge and his negligence the lesse blamed when hee is absent from it or idle at it And if a man reade his booke over and give way to the working of his imagination as hee hath done may hee not haply thinke that by his setting upon the name Sabbath his plot was to prostitute the dignity of that day to such profanation as might bee a preparation to Popish superstition for if ever Popery like the uncleane spirit return to the place whence it was expelled the common breach of the fourth Commandement by violation of the Sabbath will be if not a wide gate yet at least an open wicket or window to receive it againe For as Bellarmine observeth well though hee apply it ill l Nec fere solet accidere ut ante circa fidem aliquis naufraget quà m naufragare caeperit circa mores Bellar. orat in Schol. ant tom 4 fine orat The shipwracke of manners is the readiest way to the shipwracke of faith And for shipwracke of manners there is not a readier way then profanely to rush upon the breach of that Commandement which is as a pale or wall to all the rest CHAP. XIX An Answer to Barkley the Papist his Dilemma against the name Sabbath for Sunday or Lords day THe next Exception to bee answered against the word Sabbath is the Quaere and a Dilemma of Barkley the Papist in his Parenaesis ad Sectar translated thence by the Translator of Doctor Prideaux his Lecture and by him called a notable Dilemma a The Translator of Dr. Prid. Lectine in Epist to the Reader p. ult but in Barkley his Paraenes ad Sectar it is l. 1. pag. 161. What is the cause saith hee that many of our Sectaries call this day meaning the Christian weekely Holiday by the name of Sabbath If they observe it saith hee as a Sabbath they must observe it because God rested on that day and then they ought to keepe that day wherein God rested and not the first as now they doe wherein the Lord began his labours If they observe it as the day of our Saviours Resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing that Christ did not altogether rest but valiantly overcame the power of death To which I answer Ans First That not onely Sectaries but prudent and potent Kings reverend and learned Bishops and other orthodox Divines have allowed of the word Sabbath for the Lords day as the Testimonies premised sufficiently shew Secondly for the Dilemma it is an absurd impertinency to the point in question for the Question is of the appellation and the Dilemma is made of the observation of the Sabbath yet as if it were not a squint-eyed and distorted Argument but looked directly to the title I answer 1. To the first part of it that to call a day Sabbath there is no necessity it should bee the same day on which God rested for the name is given to it not onely because of Gods example of rest but also because of his ordinance of rest for if he had not rested himselfe but onely instituted a day of rest such a day might significantly and sutably be called by such a name as wee have observed The Holidayes of the Jewes were so called besides the Sabbath of weekly recourse yet is not God said to have rested on them nor did hee for they were dayes of worke both to him and to us 2. The second part of it is If they observe it as the day of our Saviours Resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest but valiantly overcame the powers of death Which words are liable to the like exceptions as the former for the Resurrection containeth not the nature of the Christian Sabbath but the occasion of it nor is the day called Sabbath from Christs example and practice on that day but from Christians resting from their secular affaires for a religious gratefull and solemne memoriall thereof Secondly It is called Sabbath with reference to the Creation which was finished in sixe dayes and Gods rest on the seventh and to our duty to sinish our secular affaires in the like number of working dayes and after them to rest as God did after his workes but with reference to the Resurrection it is called not Sabbath day but Lords day because on that day the Lord of the Sabbath shewed his Lordship and Dominion over the Divell death and the grave in breaking their bonds and rising up in despigh◠of their power when they had him at their greatest advantage being under their Arrest And for that hee faith our Saviour did not rest on the day of his Resurrection wee may say with b See B. White his examinat of the Dialog pag. 110 111 113. Bishop White and his ″ Ibid. Adversary also for therein they are not adversaries but agree well together that though he were in action yet did he not labour for his glorifyed body had that ability and perfection in it that all motions and actions were as pleasing to it as any ease or rest could be and not onely that day but all the dayes betwixt the Resurrection and Ascension hee was conversant in Sabbatary or sanctified employment speaking of the things appertaining to the Kingdome of God for forty daies together Act. 1.3 and though hee did not rest nor needed it as wee doe yet wee must And if we may call the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ the Lords Supper though wee take it before dinner as Christ did not wee may call our day Sabbath since we rest though he did not So this notable Dilemma brought in with its two hornes against the two syllables of the word Sabbath hath not defaced one letter but left it entire for a title of the Lords day and Barkley hath but barked at it not bitten it to doe it any manner of hurt CHAP. XX. Master Braburne his objection of confusion in calling Sunday Sabbath answered ob 3 THe third objection may be that of M. Braburne who chargeth the Appellation with confusion a Mr. Braburns discourse pag. 1. 79. And in his def of the discourse p. 494. To call Sunday Sabbath day is saith he as if a man should call Sunday Saturday and what a confusion would this breed in time b M. Primrose Treat of the Sab. or Lords day part 2. c. 6. pag. 123. For this name Sabbath is the proper particular name of the seventh day i.e. from the Creation c M. Brab def p. 43 44 522
550. as John and Thomas are two proper names of two of Christs Apostles so the Sabbath is a proper name to Saturday Answ The comparison hath two parts The ground of it and the inconformity betwixt Sabbath and Sunday which hee maketh to bee as much as betwixt Sunday and Saturday and no more For the first Hee saith the name Sabbath is a proper name as Sunday and Saturday are which is not true for Sabbath is rather a name of office as King then a proper name as Edward or James or Charles and therefore any day of religious rest what day of the weeke soever it fell was called a Sabbath and so may the Lords day bee much more because it succeeds the Sabbath of the old Testament as a weekely day of rest as that was and other holidayes were not and exceeds it too in as much as the occasion of it and motive to observe it is doubled Secondly For his comparison saying That it is as great confusion to call Sunday Sabbath as to call Sunday Saturday hee will make it good when he can prove that the Sun and d Verstegan seemes to derive the word Saturday from Seater an Idol of the Saxons which hee saith is fondly supposed by some to be Saturne Versteg restuut of decayed Intelligence cap. 3 p. 77. but most learned men take the name of Saturday from the Planet Saturne Saturne are not two distinct Planets but that one may as well be called by the name of the other as the Sunne Saturne and Saturne the Sunne as either Saturday or Sunday when they be dayes of Rest may be called by a name of Rest Sabbath In the meane time it is but a Planetary or wandering comparison so farre from truth that it draweth neere to absurdity object 4 But saith hee againe e Mast Brab discours p. 200. The name Sabbath and the time of the seventh day cannot be separated I answer If that were true it maketh nothing against us for wee apply it to a seventh day now and to none else though not to that seventh day which was at first observed and if hee say that the name Sabbath and that seventh day which was Saturday cannot bee separated which is indeed his meaning I say First the name Sabbath may bee communicable to other dayes though it were not separable from the Saturday for if the day had never been changed yet other daies agreeing with it in cessation from worke might and did partake with it in the appellation of Rest At this day we may find it so in the Ethiopicke Church keeping both Saturday and Sunday holy and calling them both Sabbaths though with the distinction of Jewish and Christian as wee shall pertinently note afterward Secondly I say the name Sabbath and the seventh day from the Creation are separable for if Saturday may bee made a working day as the Christian world acknowledgeth both in position and practice and Master Brab himselfe in his dispensation whereof we shall speake in another place confesseth it may then the name of Rest viz. Sabbath may be separated from it unlesse the day shall be called by a name quite contrary to the nature and condition thereof CHAP. XXI The objection of Judaisme in using the name Sabbath answered and retorted as also the reproach of the name as from the Sabbatarian Heretickes removed object 5 BUt the a Bish of Ely his Treat pag. 207. Bishop of Ely misliketh the name Sabbath for the perill of Judaisme and the heresie of Judaizants The name Sabbath saith b Mast Dowe in his discourse of the Sab. and Lords day p. 4. Mr. Dowe is Jewish and which is more c Doct. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 6. Doctor Pocklington saith That Sunday was anabaptized after the mind of some Jew hired to be Godfather thereof and so called the Sabbath And d M. wonside q. 3. of the Sab. ch 12. p. 121. Master Ironside also objecteth That in using the name Sabbath we gratifie the Jewes in their superstitious obstinacy against Christ and his Gospel for they abhorre the name of the Lords day as the greatest blasphemy e Ibid. p. 121. adding withall that the ancient Christians fasted on Saturday when the Jewes feasted that they might be so farre from gratifying of them as to be quite contrary to them To all which I answer That many points of Religion both Jewes and Christians hold in common and that onely is to be refused as I wish which is peculiar to them but so is not the keeping of a day of religious Rest nor the proper name of that Rest if the word Sabbath did properly import sacrifices or shadowes of things to come as f Doct. Heyl. hist Sab. part 1. c. 6. pag. 111. Doctor Heylin would have it it might have some Jewish favour in the mouth of a Christian but that it doth not The word Altar hath a neerer reference to Judaisme and Popery and yet they g Doct. Pockâ— Visit Serm. pag. 28 29. the title of another book of his is Altare Christianum p. 50.80 doth D. Heyl. in Antidot Lincol. familiarly use it and thinke there is no danger of Jewish or Popish errour by calling the Communion Table by the name of an Altar but rather the discovery of a h Bish Whites Treatise of the Sab. pag. 207. perverse disposition of novell Sabbatarians by the way I doe not approve of his words but onely repeat them to make scruple of that while they call the Lords day by the name of a Sabbath as Bishop White objecteth Secondly i Bish White in his Treatise of the Sab. pag. 5. Bishop White and k Doct. Heyl. part 2. p. 236 237. hist of the Sab. Doct. Heylin bring in the sayings of John Frith and William Tindall for the Churches liberty to have chosen any other day then the Lords day for religious Rest the Jewes day not excepted and the Apostles and many Churches since the Apostles for three hundred years and more kept Saturday holy every weeke as well as Sunday as l Bish Whites Treatise of the Sab. pag. 109. Bishop White alledgeth and m M. Primros Treat p. 1. c. 12 Master Primrose alloweth a liberty to Christians to observe that day and in it to give themselves to all exercises of our Christian Religion and if any Holiday light upon a Saturday no man is to make scruple to observe it as an Holiday Besides our Church commandeth with the rest of the Decalogue the reading of the fourth Commandement for sanctification and this weekly with a prayer for pardon of profanation past and for grace for better observation in time to come and if there bee no danger of Judaisme in all this there is none surely in retaining the name of the Sabbath with another day then that which the Jewes solemnized Thirdly to deny the name of the Sabbath to the day wee Christians celebrate is rather Jewish for those that are Jewes indeed or
efficacie to edification which ought to bee of most accompt with us we may say First That the name Sabbath and Lords day at first apprehension are more ready and effectuall to minde us of and dispose us to pious conceits then the name Sunday is which at first blench according to the literall sense and primitive use hath an idolatrous intimation for it was so called with reference to and reverence of the Planet Sol which was made an Idol by the Saxons our predecessors in this Kingdome though the word be capable of a better sense as before hath beene shewed upon Malach. 4.2 and hath beene a good while since purged from the smack and suspicion of idolatry or superstition wherewith it hath been tainted in former times Secondly That though the title Lords day designe some day of eminent note and by consent of most be taken for the day on which Christ rose from the dead and though it may also import with a little working of the understanding upon it that he is Lord both of times and persons with other religious documents which conduce much to the edification of the Church yet the name Sabbath edifieth much more as to the solemne services of religion which ought to prevail in this comparison for it signifieth rest or cessation from secular labours without which no day can be holily and solemnly observed and that by an easie transition from the letter to a figure may admonish us of our Saviours resting in the grave all the Sabbath day which hee punctually observed while it was in force and of his resting from all further paine or suffering for our Redemption upon his Resurrection and of Gods resting satisfied with us hee having then fully discharged all our debt and quit himselfe from prison as by a most compleat satisfaction to his Fathers Justice and last of all of that everlasting rest Hebr. 4.9 which in the literall Sabbath was partly prefigured Besides the name Sabbath guides us to the fourth Commandement of the Decalogue where the proportion of time for the weekly recourse of it is to be read and the personall extent of the Commandement to superiours and inferiours home-borne or aliens together with the duties of the day both affirmative and negative and the reasons both of the institution and observation of them and those both many and weighty and so it upholdeth our solemne and sacred Assemblies once a weeke then which nothing is of more moment to edisication And all this it doth in such sort that no cavills of men can either weaken or darken its tenure from that text in the judgement of any reasonable man nor can any one who considereth that hold himselfe so little obliged to an holy celebration of one day in the weeke as if no more should be pleaded for it then what is either formally or vertually contained in the title Lords day or in any part of holy Scripture besides the fourth Commandement whereto it directeth us Thirdly the name Sabbath keepeth title to that ground which while it is made good for the proportion of one day in seven and not for Saturday Sabbath in particular as it easily may is the best meanes to maintaine the Authority of our weekly Holiday against any Adversary whatsoever To wind up those comparisons to a conclusion though every one of the words may lawfully be used as before hath been said I conceive and hope in the vertue of the premisses I may resolve that for our Church and time the name Sabbath is fittest to bee familiarly used for the day wee keep holy every weeke since for Antiquity Authority Propriety Significancie Facility Frequency of use among the religious of later times and which is most to bee heeded for efficacie to edification it hath the preheminence of the other two names compared with it To which wee may adde and it is a consideration of some moment that those that have most ill will to our Christian Holiday as b Mast Brab in his defence pag. 54. Master Braburne had would rob it of its right to the name Sabbath and therewith of its right for this authenticke Tenure by the fourth Commandement which it cannot claime under the name Sunday nor will it bee allowed under the name Lords day for I marvell with what face saith c Ibid. p. 55 56. he men can presse the fourth Commandement upon that day which themselves confesse is named Lords day and not Sabbath day and if hee could have supplanted it for that support hee would have had it to depend upon the meere power of man so as to stand or fall at his pleasure and rather to fall then to stand for that was his drift in both his bookes to which purpose hee hath said so much as requireth a farther and fuller answer then hath been made unto them for the Bishop of Ely who professedly undertooke the defence of our Christian Sabbath against his Judaizing Arguments dealeth but with one of his bookes and for the other it seemeth hee hath not seen it for hee never maketh any mention of it Object Against this prelation of the name Sabbath it may bee said by way of exception that the name Sabbath is lesse proper then the name Lords day or Sunday for it is a name for any day of Rest as hath been observed and acknowledged on all hands Answ It is true the name Sabbath may be communicated to more dayes then the weekly Holiday whereof we treat if there bee a cessation from labour upon them and so it was in the Old Testament for the Jewes had many Holidayes which were named sometimes Sabbaths and yet the weekly Sabbath by an excellency had that denomination belonging unto it which other Holidayes had not If a Papist object this I will give for instance the word Pope which anciently was a generall title for all Bishops as I have d In my Christian Nomenclature observed and proved at large in another worke but now use hath confined it to the Bishop of Rome If a Protestant the word Bible may serve to answer him which as the learned know signifieth in the Greeke tongue a booke in generall and hath been in use with that latitude of extent yet by an Antinomasie or excellency and we may say the same of the word Scripture it is now taken onely for the booke of the holy Scripture and it is though a common word of old now become so proper as that we know what one meaneth when hee saith a Bible as well as if hee said Gods Booke so wee may know as most men use the word Sabbath as well what day is meant by it as if we said the Lords day or Sunday Besides the Lords day is in its Grammaticall signification of as large extent as the Sabbath both because the Apostle saith there be Lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 as wee noted even now and for that it may belong to all dayes dedicated to publicke devotion whereby God our great Lord
Christians why should the word Sabbath signifying rest be allowed as applyed to it Is there any reason why names should not in sense bee surable to things to which they are applyed but rather contrary to them To call that day by a name of rest which is a day allowed for labour and to deny that name to the day wherein we are required to rest is not so little an absurdity as that which Master Braburne remembred of deafe men who when a man calleth for a knife doe bring him a sheath for there is that neernesse betwixt them that they may bee both together the one within the other but rest and labour are like light and darknesse in a contradictory distance which cannot be reconciled nor brought together It is no marvell that Master Braburne who denyeth the thing holding the Lords day for no day of rest but for a workeday should deny the name Sabbath as in application to it for hee taketh it to bee a proper name of the day of rest in the old Testament which if it were granted would doe him no good nor the Lords day any hurt for its right to this title for Adam was the proper name of the first man Gen. 3.8 9. and yet it is used in Scripture for man in generall Psal 9.1 ver 12 20. But saith c M. Ironside quest 3. cap. 12. pag. 122. Master Ironside the name Sabbath leads us onely to an outward cessation from bodily labour which of it selfe and precisely considered was indeed a dutie of the Jewish Sabbath but it is not so of the Christian Festivall d Ibid. cap. 13. pag. 123. The corporall rest was a chiefe thing aymed at in all the dayes of publick worship in the Jewish Synagogue being both memorative of some things past and figurative of things to come The name Sabbath is therefore no more morall and to bee retained in the Gospel then the names Priest Altar and Sacrifice To which wee may say First that the word Sabbath signifieth not a cessation with limitation to outward worke nor precisely a Jewish memorative or sigur ative rest proper to the weekely holiday of the Jewes but rest absolutely and therefore e Master Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 124. Si vocis primaevam signisicationem spectemus Sabbatum erit omnis dies sestus Estius 3d. Cent. d. 37. hee confesseth out of Estius That if wee looke to the first and originall signification of the word every holiday wherein men rest from their labours may be called a Sabbath and that f M. Irons ubi supra p. 123. God himselfe in Scripture imposed the name Sabbath upon all the dayes of publik worship in the Jewish Synagogues Secondly Hee acknowledgeth g Ibid. quest 6. cap. 24. p. 223. That there is a cessation from works required of Christian people under the Gospel upon all dayes of their publick worship and assemblies for Nature her selfe saith hee out of h Natura dictat aliquando vacuam diem quieti Gers de decem Precept Gerson teacheth all men sometimes to rest from their owne imployment and to spend that time in the prayses of God and prayers to him for as i Ibid. cap. 24. pag. 223. he very well saith to attend Gods publick worship and at the same time to follow our owne imployment are incompatible and imply contradiction And that 's enough to qualifie the Lords day or Sunday for the title Sabbath which hee implicitly yeeldeth when upon that ground hee saith k Ibid. The Turks nay the Indians have their Sabbaths Thirdly Whereas hee saith as by way of distinction of the old Sabbath of the Jewes from that day which Christians celebrate that it was memorative of things past and sigurative of things to come I answer That that cannot consine the name Sabbath to their day nor restraine it from ours for in the former of the two wee have as much interest as the Jewes for wee are to remember Gods finishing his workes in sixe dayes and his resting the seventh as well as they and to have a gratefull memory of the benefit of creation as they had and we need such a remembrance so much more as wee are at more distance from it and for the later wee build not the title upon a figure which is but a feeble and sandie foundation but upon the letter or sense already confessed which is firme and solide Fourthly For that hee saith That the name Sabbath is no more morall and to bee retained in the Church then the names Priest Altar and Sacrifice wee will him to remember what elsewhere hee hath said viz. l Mr. Ironside quest 6. cap. 25. pag. 231. That there is a rest which is eternall and morall to all dayes of publick and solemne worship if so the name Sabbath may bee eternall and reach as farre as the thing it selfe And whereas hee saith That rest to the Jewes was an essentiall dutie i. e. of it selfe and in its owne nature without reference or publick worship which hee denyeth to the Christians weekly holiday I answer That the question is not here whether the Jewes were more restrained from labour then the Christians but whether there be not so much rest required now both in respect of publick duties and of private which require also cessation from outward workes as that our Sunday or Lords day hath thereby a better title to the name Sabbath then Saturday hath which hath been long agoe deposed from the dignity of an holiday and made an ordinary workeday Lastly For the names Priest Altar and Sacrifice I perswade my selfe he will not deny the name Priest since hee tooke orders under that name and doth under that name officiate according to the Liturgie of the Church of England which hee will not say is rather Jewish then Christian Legall then Evangelicall and for the words Altar and Sacrifice I remit him if hee doubt of them to bee resolved by the late Treatises wherein both the Names and Things are busily discussed onely I will say by way of answer to his comparison that since wee have a literall Rest of a weekly recourse and not literall Altars and Sacrifices the name Sabbath thus may bee retained under the Gospel though the names Priest Altar and Sacrifice be abolished But saith m M. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 125. Mr. Ironside the day is to be named not from the nature of things done but from the quality of the person to whom they are intended and therefore not Sabbath but Lords day I answer The Antecedent is subject to exception many wayes First The chiefe holidayes in the old Testament were nominated from the things done and not from the quality of the person to whom they were intended as the Passeover from the Angels passing over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt without hurt Exod. 12.25 the feast of Trumpets from the solemne sounding of Trumpets at it Levit. 23. Levit. 23.
loquamur meliùs est ut reprehendant nos Grammatici quam non intelligant populi August enarrat in Psal 138. tom 8. part 2. p. 871 872. S. Augustine when he said e Ib. in Psal 36. part 1. p. 358. ossum for os and foenerat for foeneratur as being desirous rather that Grammarians should reprehend him then that the people should not understand him and among us many learned men use to say with the vulgar f The words Chirurgus and Apostema are so englished by Cooper in his Dictionary Surgeon for Chirurgeon and Impostume for Aposteme and there bee many more words of this sort But for the name Sabbath there being such sufficient reasons to set it as a title upon the Lords day when the more judicious make use of it in that sense they may well bee conceived to doe it not as complying with the erroneous dialect of the common sort but as guided to it by reason as well as by use And for such as have so taken it or the conjugate to it which is the same in sense wee may mention divers of eminent place both of ancient and of later times as first Ignatius the Disciple of Saint John the Evangelist who having spoken against the manner of the Jewes spending their Sabbath in sensuall jollity excessive feasting dancing and other revelling g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat ep ad Magnes pag. 57. adviseth Christians every one of them to sabbatize or keep the Sabbath spiritually that is rather to bestow the time in religious delights then in carnall contentments If any one except and say that hee meaneth this of the Jewish Sabbath day which in his dayes and a good while after was kept holy with the Lords day wee may thence inferre that if Ignatius could brook the observation of Saturdayes rest without any feare of Judaisme when that day was to give up to the Lords day the holinesse and honour of a weekely holiday which necessarily requireth both Rest and Religion hee would not have made scruple to call it the Sabbath h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as it is fore-cited cap. 13. lit ◠Athanasius hath a sentence from whence wee may derive the like inference for his opinion of the name Sabbath with reference to the Lords day The Lord hath changed the Sabbath day saith he into the Lords day Whereof saith i D◠Twisse in a MS. of the Sabbath a learned Doctor of our Church what can be the meaning but that the Lord himselfe hath now in these times of grace made the Lords day to become our Christian Sabbath So that upon the change the Saturday is not what before it was a day of rest but the Lords is so as before it was not And if the holy rest of Saturday bee translated to the Lords day shall not the name that is answerable to the nature of it passe along with it If more expresse and formall Testimonies be expected for these are but implyed and vertuall evidences wee finde k Origen in Numb cap. 28. Hom 23. tom 1. pag. 259. Origen in his three and twentieth Homily upon the book of Numbers expresly applying the name Sabbath to the day set apart for Evangelicall devotion Ob. l Dr. Pockling Sunday no Sab. pag. 16. But it will be said he addeth the word Christian to it calling it not simply Sabbath but the Christian Sabbath Ans Let them allow of the name Sabbath and wee will not stick with them for the title Christian if for distinction sake and to prevent misprision there bee any reason to make that addition but where the word will bee readily referred to the right day without another to explaine or restraine it it is needelesse to adde it Ob. Here Doctor Pocklington to extenuate this Testimonie saith m Dr. Pockl. Sunday no Sab. pag. 19. That Origen his Christian Sabbath is not kept on Sunday onely but every day in the weeke he meaneth I suppose according to the conceipt of divers of the Ancients a Sabbath consisting in cessation from sinne and sanctity of life Christ saith hee out of Origen is our Christian Sabbath and hee that lives in Christ rests from evill works and worketh uncessantly the works of Justice Answ This is no contradiction to that wee have said but a concession of much more then wee demand Christ himselfe saith Doctor Pocklington and every day in regard of the holy life of a Christian might be called a Sabbath If so the Lords day which was ordained and must bee observed with more generall and solemne holinesse and with more rest and cessation from worldly affaires for holinesse sake might much more bee called a Sabbath In the Latin Fathers the name Sabbath in this sense may also bee observed I will give some instances as in n Nos octava die quae ipsa prima est perfecti Sabbati festivitate laetamur Hilar. Prolog in Psal oper p. 335. Hilary Upon the eighth day which is also the first day saith he we rejoyce in the festivity of a perfect Sabbath Whereby we are to understand not an every dayes Sabbath in forbearance of sinne but an especiall sabbatizing above other dayes as in the celebration of the Lords day by cessation from works of the weeke dayes and exercise of religious duties belonging unto it which hee calleth the eighth day though it have a weekly returne in the number of seven because in the first observation counting on beyond the Jewish tale of dayes comming next after their seventh that maketh the eighth To this purpose wee may produce Saint Augustine o Observa diem Sabbati non carnaliter non Judaicls deliciis quae otio abutuntur ad nequitiam August enar in Psal 32. tom 8. part pag. 242. in his enarration upon the 32. Psalme where hee exhorteth to observe the Sabbath day not carnally with Judaicall delights for they abuse their Rest c. And in his p Observa diem Sabbati Magis nobis praecipitur quia spiritualiter observandum praecipitur Judaei enim serviliter observant diem Sabbati ad luxuriam ebrietatem August Tract 3. in Johan 1. tom 9. pag. 30. fourth Tract upon S. John Wee Christians saith he are more strictly commanded to keep the Sabbath then the Jewes for we are to keepe it spiritually they keepe it carnally in luxurie and drunkennesse which in the readiest construction of the words must runne thus Wee Christians are more strictly commanded to keepe not the Saturday Sabbath from which we are discharged Col. 2.16 but our Christian Sabbath then the Jewes keep their Jewish Sabbath If then wee bee commanded to keep a Sabbath wee must have the thing and the thing may have the name that belongeth to it and that name properly is Sabbath There is another allegation for the name Sabbath taken out of the 251. Sermon de tempore in Augustine his name which I forbeare to urge as his because the q B.
Christianae Religionis observantissimus inter alia virtutum suarum praeconia hoc reliquit exemplum sanctimoniae die Dominico c. Albert. Krant metr l. 4. c. 8. p. 106. highly commended by Krantzius but for i Cum die Dominico cogitationibus gravatum cum gereret animum baculumque manibus reneret cultello ut sit scindulas fâ—â—it admonitus ab astante per jocum de violatione Sabbati non leviter in se punivit admissum scindulas collegit diligentissimè manuique suae impositus jussit incendi ut in se ulcisceretur quòd contra divinum praeceptum incautus admisisset Albert. Krantz Metrap lib. 4. cap. 8. pag. 106. our present purpose we are especially to note that that day which Dr. Heylin calleth Sunday was then called the Sabbath Ob. He saith the King was told by way of jest that he had trespassed therein against the Sabbath Ans So it might have been in jest if the party had used another name whether Lords day or Sunday and in using the name Sabbath rather then either of them it is most like that was a name rather of common use then of speciall choice to breake a jest withall l D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 5. pag. 158 159. Hee addeth for the yeere 1120 the time of Rupertus an observation of one Petrus Alphonsus calling the Lords day the Sabbath of the Christians but saith hee he meant none otherwise then the feast of Easter is called the Christian Passeover for which hee bringeth nothing out of that Authour that may bee a just ground for such a glosse And on the contrary it may be said that there is a Sabbath or Rest according to the letter confessed in the observation of the Lords day but the word Passcover was figurative even to the Jewes after their comming out of the Land of Egypt much more is it so to Christians since the comming of Christ Besides hee bringeth in one John de Burie Chancellor of the University of Cambridge about the later end of the reigne of King Henry the eighth assirming That every day designed to divine service might be called Sabbath which seemeth also to be the judgement of Bernard who expounds the fourth Commandement thus m Observa diem Sabbati quod est in sacris feriis te exeâ—ce quatenus per requiem praesentem discas sperare aeternam Bern. super salv Regina Serm. 4. col 1744. Observe the Sabbath that is Exercise thy selfe upon the holidayes that by present rest thou mayest learne to hope for rest eternall If so much more may the Lords day be called Sabbath which hath the preheminence of other dayes as the old Sabbath had every weeke throughout the yeere and not onely once a yeere as Easter and other holidayes which have in an anniversary revolution one turne and no more We need say no more then this to confute the fond and new found conceipt of Doctor Pockl. concerning the novelty of the name Sabbath wherein also n D. Heyl Hist Sab. part 2. c. 8. pag. 269. Dr. Heylins negative observation That a Sabbath day was not heard of in the Church of Christ forty yeeres agoe is disproved for a day of cessation from worldly works for religious duties which indeed is a Sabbath hath been in use in the Christian Church in every age since our Saviour ascended and the name Sabbath hath been often and answerably applyed to the thing as hath been shewed And if the Doctor said right touching the late time of the Sabbath and made a true returne by his ″ Search we did with all care and dil gence to see if we could find a Sabbath in any evidence of Scripture or Writings of the holy Fathers or edicts of Emperours or decrees of Councels or finaliy in any one of the publick acts and monumeÌ„ts of the christiaÌ„ Churcl but after severall searches made upon the aâ—ias and the pluries wee still â—eturne non est inventus So in the second page of his Epist to the Reader before the second part of his Hist of the Sabbath non est inventus for the fore going ages hee gave a wrong Title to the second part of his History when he called it The History of the Sabbath from the first preaching of the Gospel to these present times for if there were no Sabbath day heard of from the beginning of the Gospel untill forty yeers since he should rather have called it for that time the History of no Sabbath And albeit it be as strange to write an History de non ente or of a meer nullity as it is untrue that there was no Sabbath all that while yet such a Title had beene though more contradictory to the truth more correspondent to his owne tenet which with greater desire and more diligent endeavour hee striveth to defend yet haply as the truth in his conceipt and so without any contestation against his owne conscience I will yet think so charitably of him and if hee had done so by others it had been better both for them and him CHAP. XV. Royall and reverend Authority for putting the name Sabbath upon Sunday whereby it is cleared from schisme as well as from novelty THat it is no novelty to call the Lords day or Sunday by the name Sabbath wee have proved in the precedent Chapter by sundry Testimonies all of them of much ancienter date then the yeer 1554. designed by Dr. Pockl. for the first use of the word in that sense And for the time since which is long enough to gain allowance to a word especially such a one as hath congruity of reason to the thing whereto it is applyed we can name Authority for it sufficient to over sway any thing that he hath said against it and to cleare the use of it from schisme which the same Doctor Pockl. hath objected against it 1. The Book of a Homil. of the time and place of prayer pag. 102.164 twice p. 166. twice The Author of the Dialog betwixt A. and B. reckoneth ten times edit 2. p. 25. Homilies ratified by the Royall Authority of three Princes and by subscription of all the conformable Clergy in their severall reignes calleth the Lords day the Sabbath divers times 2. King James in his b Apud D. bound on the Sab. l. 1. p. 268 269. And D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. p. 257. Proclamation against profane sports dated at Theobalds May 7.1603 giveth to Sunday or the Lords day the name of Sabbath and in his second book of his c K. James Basilic Dor. lib. 2. pag. 164. Basilicon Doron having spoken of the lawfulnesse of recreations hee concludeth with a proviso that the Sabbath bee kept holy and no unlawfull thing done therein 3. 1639. 1. For the Towne of Weedenbeck 2. For John Cheny of Leftwich in Cheshire 3. For Walker in Yoâ—â—shire 1631. 4. For Riddlâ—hurâ—â— of Davâ—nhâ—m in Cheshire 5. For the Towne of Yaxall 6. For William Small of Cletham
is honoured yea and all weeke dayes as hee is Lord of all time however measured or entitled might bee called Lords daies and onely use hath shrunke in generality into a propriety and confined the title Lords day to that which hath a weekly recourse for religious observation as it hath done the name Scripture and Bible but now mentioned and in this also the name Sabbath hath as much propriety as it Object To succour this objection c M. Ironside qu. 3. ch 12. pag. 122. Master Ironside his Argument may be brought in which is this That name which doth lesse edifie is lesse proper this I thinke saith hee will be easily agreed on by all parties But the name Sabbath doth lesse edifie for it leads us onely to a cessation from bodily labour on the contrary the Lords day doth betoken and explaine the whole nature and duty of the day as the remembrance of Christs resurrection acknowledging his Lordship over the Church and over all other creatures in the world Ergo c. I answer Answ Both major and minor are infirme and unable to beget or bring forth the conclusion which hee desireth First for the major That name which doth lesse edifie is lesse proper saith he and hee saith it with confidence that all parties will yeeld consent to that conceipt But if his proposition bee generall and so it must be or it will be too narrow for a Logicall conclusion I conceive it is subject to just exception and so is not like to obtaine an acceptation of such an extent as he talketh of for it imports a neerer affinity betwixt propriety of words and edification then wee find in use and sets words not proper at a further distance from edification then there is cause First for the first Proper words doe not alwaies best edifie nor improper or figurative least nay many times improper words and figurative speeches give both most light to the understanding and worke with greatest force upon the affections and so are of best use for edification There are memorable instances hereof both in the Scripture and in other Authours which will be superfluous in this place since we need none other then his owne word edifie which as hee useth it is a figurative and not a proper terme for it signifieth properly the building of an house figuratively the bringing of light to the understanding working heat upon the affection or any furtherance in matter of Religion and in that sense it is usually both uttered and understood by men whether learned or illiterate Secondly if propriety and edification consort so well together as hee saith it maketh much for the preheminence we plead for for the name Sabbath is proper First as not figurative signifying a literall Rest which is requisite for celebration of our weekly Holiday and proper Secondly as not common to all Holidaies common use now having confined it to our weekly Holiday though called also Sunday or Lords day according to the different impressions set upon the fancy or affection of those that mention it Secondly for the minor which is But the name Sabbath doth lesse edifie then the Lords day doth for it leads us onely to an outward cessation I answer First that the name Sabbath doth lead us directly to the fourth Commandement the fundamentall Authority for a weekly Holiday and if the foundation be of most use in building and edification the name Sabbath leading us to that doth best edifie the word Lords day leads us to a tenure of lesse both evidence and assurance and consequently of lesse authority as hath partly been shewed already and we shall further manifest afterwards Secondly The name Sabbath leadeth not onely to a cessation from bodily labour but to holinesse also for it leadeth us to the Commandement which saith as well Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy as Thou shalt do no manner of work Thirdly Whereas hee saith The Lords day doth best open and explaine the nature and duty of the day as the remembrance of Christs Resurrection and acknowledgement of his Lordship over the Church and all other creatures of the world Let any one reade the fourth Commandement where the Sabbath is named and the first of the Revelat. ver 10. where the Lords day is named and let him tell mee which of them doth more explaine the duty of the day nay the name Lords day doth neither expressely nor by necessary consequence direct to the duties of the day nor to the Evangelicall ground of it the Resurrection of our Saviour since other dayes have been set up with our weekly holiday by way of competition for that title as hath before beene observed Besides When the name Sabbath leadeth to the fourth Commandement it bringeth us to the title Lords day for if it be the Sabbath of the Lord as it is there called it is the Lords day for the Sabbath is a day and hee is called Lord of the Sabbath Mat. 12.8 Mark 2.28 and the Lordship hee hath there is not onely particular over the Church but universall over the world for there it is said that in sixe dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and sea and every thing contained in them all Yet I deny not but the title Lords day is generally used for the day of our Saviours Resurrection wherein as a Lord of life and death he raised his body from the state of the dead and returned to the living accomplishing thereby actually his owne restitution to a glorious liberty and vertually ours but that consideration is more remote from the sanctification of one day in seven then that which the name Sabbath doth import Notwithstanding I deny not but that it might bee well used to edification if men would so take it to bee the Lords day as to take none of it from the advancement of his glory to the promotion of their owne profit or practice of their owne pleasures wherein most make as bold with it to serve their sâ—â—â—lar affaires or sensuall humours sometimes upon very sleight occasions as if not Christ but they were Lords of that day Object But the name Lords day inclineth to no erroneous conceipts and the name Sunday though once it did doth not in our dayes bring with it any perill of Paganisme but the name Sabbath may import some danger of Judaisme therefore the name Lords day is the best the name Sabbath the worst Answ I have in effect though not formally answered to this objection before and have made it plaine that Judaisme is best opposed and those that are Jewish most displeased by entitling our Lords day to the name Sabbath and to the authority of the fourth Commandement as it prescribeth the holy observation of one day in seven and by averring that their seventh day in order is not expressely there prescribed but a seventh day in number as shall be manifested in its proper place Object But a learned and zealous Pleader for a weekely Sabbath in the
Lords sacred ordinance of the Sabbath Some endeavouring to undermine and supplant the fabricke of it from the very foundation on which it is set and others piling upon it so many over rigorous positions and observances as with their sad and sullen weight may incline it to crack and fall asunder Thirdly The necessary instruction of the people in the heads of Catechisme pressed by especiall command of our dread Soveraigne that late was and of his Majestie that now is maketh the Decalogue and within it the Commandement of the Sabbath a more common Theme for popular discourses and therewith all a more fruitfull ground of erroneous descants then heretofore if in such variety of opinions which cast a mist upon the truth there be not some more means to cleare it and to guide men to that choice from which too many now endeavour to seduce them Fourthly I observed that as some set their wits on worke to impeach the piety of the doctrine of the Sabbath so many set their wils either to worke or play and so to pursue their profit or pleasure as to make the Lords holiday every way in practice as unholy and profane as in position it could be Irreligion and Libertinisme being a descent from Sion hill which hath no need of hands to thrust it downewards towards hell It was well said of a grave c The Bish of S. Asaph Prelate when hee heard of some too indulgent doctrines this way that therules of manners should be strict for mens behaviour would incline fast enough to loosenesse of themselves Besides there is a sinister zeale in some against superstition which proveth many times prejudiciall to the practice of religion for as our late learned d King James his Cign cant â— 8 Soveraigne hath observed under colour of weeding out superstition it will pluck up by the roots many plants of Paradise And wee see but too many ill harvest men using the weeding hooke to the wheat which should bee exercised onely to plucke up the tares of whose ill worke I shall beware for my selfe and I hope shall give such warning unto others as may not only withhold them from the like but may bee a direction to the simpler sort what to take and what to take heed of as either of them shall bee offered to their choice Fifthly While men make no scruple to violate the holy rest of the Lords day they become the more bold to disobey their Superiours whether supreme or subordinate for Mat. 22. v. 31. as giving to God the things that are Gods and unto Caesar the things that are Caesars are sociable duties and well sort together so commonly where dues are denyed detained from God the King is not like to receive his right either for aid or obedience for the fourth and fifth Commandements are so neere neighbours that the like lot whether of observance or of sleighting is like to befall them which wee may well perceive if wee doe but observe how our people have lately fallen not onely from piety but from civility and broke out into manifold offences against the lawes of the King since they were taught a lesson too easily learned to make light of this holy Commandement of God Nor is there any cause to expect any better behaviour among them untill their consciences let loose from this bond bee tucked up to it by a more religious regard both of the authority and observation of the Sabbath Then may wee have more hope and not till then under our Governours for whom the Apostle prescribeth all manner of prayer to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Sixthly These motives were the more sharpned and I the more quickned for the safer conduct of them that doubt to set out my light whether candle or torch I must leave to other men to judge by severall sollicitations of many religious and learned friends but especially by a joynt Letter the copie whereof I shall present to the view of the Reader next after this Preface sent me under the hands of many of my Brethren of the Ministery of whom there are divers for their gifts and parts of especiall note and all of them painefull and profitable Preachers in their places and such as build up the walls of our Jerusalem as with both hands with sound doctrine and religious conversation Seventhly Since that time I have received not onely incouragement but incitement to the same service with a Manuscript Treatise of the Sabbath from the hand of a great Prelate a glorious Starre of the first magnitude shining illustriously in the Church both by his admirable learning and answerable living Eighthly I was not a little provoked to lend my poore ability to the protection of the truth herein by the importunate pressing of Master Breerewood whereby Master Nic. Byfield was forced to the field when hee had no thought nor minde to fight as wee shall seasonably note in another place for when hee had excused himselfe for being unwilling to enter the lists of controversie with him as wanting warrant to leave his calling and to spend his time about such confutations Mast Breerwood returnes upon him with this patheticall expostulation e M Breerw his first Treat of the Sabbath p. 89 90. How Sir is the defending of the doctrine you have taught a leaving of your calling Are you called to teach the truth and not to defend it Are not Gods Ministers to defend Christs truth is that no part of their calling or have you no warrant say you for such confutations What no warrant to confute them in the behalfe of the truth whom ye yet condemn for adversaries of the truth Why Christ is the authour of the truth John 14.6 or the truth it selfe you are a Minister of Christ there is a warrant for you The holy Ghost is the spirit of truth Ephes 1.13 and he sanctified you to that Ministry there is a warrant for you The Gospel is the word of truth you are a Preacher of the Gospel there is a warrant for you The Church is the Pillar of truth you are a Pillar of the Church there is a more warrant for you For would not the Authour of the truth the spirit of truth c. and to all these you owe your service and allegiance have their Minister to defend the truth A strange thing that Christs Ministers should have no warrant to confute oppositions made against the truth who are bound to give their lives in defence of it Must they spend their life and bloud for confirmation of it and may they not spend a little labour and time about such confutations So farre he Where whether the goodnesse of Master Breerwood his cause or the apprehension of his owne better abilities and more list and leasure then Master Bifield had to reciprocate disputes of this sort did more prompt him to these braving provocations may bee better discerned when
Lords day to the Christians weekly holiday answered p. 26. Chap. VI. Of the name Sunday Whether we may call our weekly holiday by that name objections against the use of the name Sunday for our weekly holiday p. 34. Chap. VII How farre it may be lawfull to use Idolatrous names an Answer to the Objection against the name Sunday pag. 41. Chap. VIII Of the name Sabbath and first of the writing Sabboth Sabaoth and Sabbath which of them is the right and by occasion thereof some observations of skill and ignorance of the originall tongues pag. 50. Chap. IX The Etymologie of the name Sabbath and first of the abusive derivations of it by Justin and Plutarch by way of contempt of the Jewes their Religion and Manners pag. 60. Chap. X. The derivation of the name Sabbath from two Hebrew words the one signifying seven the other Rest the former being the errour of Lactantius the later the true and most received Etymologie pag. 67. Chap. XI The sever all acceptions of the name Sabbath pag. 69. Chap. XII Whether the day called Lords day or Sunday may not also be called Sabbath day or the Sabbath the exceptions which are taken up by divers against it pag. 73. Chap. XIII Reasons why Sunday or the Lords day may be called Sabbath day delivered and defended pag. 79. Chap. XIV Ancient evidence for calling the Lords day by the name of Sabbath observed especially against Doctor Pocklington his assertion viz. That no ancient Father nor learned man tooke the name Sabbath otherwise from the beginning of the world till the yeare 1554. then for Saturday observed by the Jewes pag. 91. Chap. XV. Royall and reverend Authority for putting the name Sabbath upon Sunday whereby it is cleared from schism as well as from novelty pag. 101. Chap. XVI Of such as are Adversaries to the name Sabbath as put for Sunday sometimes assenting thereto and using the name in that sense or yeelding that which doth inferre it pag. 116. Chap. XVII Exceptions against some of the precedent Testimonies alledged for calling the Lords day Sabbath propounded and answered pag. 119. Chap. XVIII A particular answer to the particular exceptions made against the name Sabbath as applyed to Sunday or Lords day and first of the dangerous plot pretended by Doctor Pocklington in the use of the name Sabbath for Sunday and of his prodigious comparison of the name Sabbath on the Lords day to the crowne of Thornes on the Lords head pag. 133. Chap. XIX An answer to Barkley the Papist his dilemma against the name Sabbath for Sunday or Lords day pag. 143. Chap. XX. Master Braburne his objection of confusion in calling Sunday Sabbath answered pag. 146. Chap. XXI The objection of Judaisme in using the name Sabbath answered and retorted as also the reproach of the name as from the Sabbatarian Heretickes removed pag. 148. Chap. XXII The Negative argument drawne from the Apostles not using the name Sabbath for the Lords day answered pag. 156. Chap. XXIII Though neither the Apostles nor the ancient Fathers called Sunday Sabbath we may and the reasons why pag. 161. Chap. XXIV The Objection taken from the use of the name Sabbath in Dictionaries Histories and the Romane and Reformed Churches answered pag. 168. Chap. XXV The Objection taken from the statute and language of Lawyers answered pag. 175. Chap. XXVI A comparison of the names Sabbath Lords day and Sunday with a resolution of the Question for the name Sabbath as the best and fittest to be the most usuall title of our weekly Holiday pag. 180. Chap. XXVII A briefe accommodation of this Nomenclature or nominall discourse to some purposes of importance concerning the Sabbath pag. 197. A Premonition concerning my Sonnes Verses after written THough a learned and worthy a Doct. Primrose in his Preface to the Reader before his Sons Treatise on the Sabbath Doctor of the French Church honoured his Sonne so much as to write to him to deliver his mind concerning the Sabbath I am not so fond a Father as to conceive my Sonne being yet by his yeares in his minority and among Graduates of the University but a meere fresh-man having but newly stepp'd up to the first and lowest degree of the Schooles fit with that hand which was but lately taken from the ferula to take the Censors rod and to passe his judgement or if that be too grave a terme for one so young his opinion or conceipt either upon the Doctrine or any Dictates of the Sabbath yet his filiall affection and poeticall fancy prompting him to put pen to paper in these ensuing Verses and to send them to mee with his desire that I would allow them some vacant page in my Book as some what of kinne to mine own conceptions because they be his I have assented to him but with these two advertisements to the Reader 1. The one That hee thinke not the better of mee or my Booke for any praise they bestow upon either for Poetry is an Art of deceit which measureth expressions not by the truth of the subject but by the strength of imagination working upon it nor is it more disposed to deceive then naturall affection to be deceived especially in relations of neerest degree as betwixt us two though it be usually as more forcible so more fallible in a descending then in an ascending operation 2. The other is That my meaning in this admittance of his Muse before my Sabbatary discourse is to engage him openly to this holy cause as * Hamilcar Hannibalem filium non amplius novem annis natum ad aram adduxit eamque caeteris remotis tenentem jurare jussit nunquam in amicitiam cum Romanis fore Aemil. Probus in vita Hannib fol. 115. Hamilcar did his young sonne Hannibal privately in the cause of the Carthaginians against the Romans that when time and studie with Gods blessing have ripened him for any religious undertaking hee may hold himselfe solemnely bound to bee zealous for Gods right in this behalfe and faithfull and resolute to plead for it against all opposers With these premisses I have left him roome and given him leave under my name to write to the Reader in his owne stile as followeth On the learned Treatise of my much honoured Father intituled Sunday a Sabbath Deare Sir PArdon my fault if 't be presumption here Before your sacred labours to appeare But if you will not I shall make my pen To keepe a Sabbath and not write agen In former times you meant to put to presse Your English Sabbath in a ″ ″ I purposed to publish it in Latin because it would not passe in English Romane dresse But'twould have griev'd you sure your work should be Abus'd by what you hate flat Popery For your own name would make most think it good And some to read what they not understood I still lamented that your deske should bee The Sabbath's prison and still kept from mee As well as others and 't
for none was ever so raised none ever raised such a one and so in this respect even by his owne argument the dayes are even but herein the day of his Resurrection hath the advantage of dignity above the day of his Birth by his Resurrection hee was declared mightily to bee the Sonne of God Rom. 1.4 for hee rose by his owne power as none ever did and by his Birth hee was in some respects declared scarce to bee the Sonne of man for as Saint Luke sheweth chap. 2. ver 7. hee was borne in a stable among the beasts and laid in a manger for a cradle Hereof saith the learned Bishop g Bp. Andr. Serm. 12. on the Nat. p. 114. The Divell breathed upon our first Parents with Eritis sicut dii and infected them with it to make themselves equall with God which is plaine robbery for that robbery of theirs was the Sonne of God robbed as I may say and quite spoyled of his glory for their puffing up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee was made empty for their lifting up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was hee brought low for their comparing with God came hee to compared with the beasts that perish lay in their manger Wee see this saith hee preaching of his Birth-day and therewith we may observe that though hee were a Lord hee shewed himselfe no Lord in this respect as at his Resurrection hee did and for the title of the day we celebrate to that title in Saint John as by a peculiar right the Bishop is expresse and peremptory as by h B. Andrewes in his Speech in the Starre-Chamber against Master Trask pag. 73 74. his words will appeare which here we forbear since we shall more seasonably bring them in another place Thirdly For the day of Christs Passion i Mr. Braburne his defence of his Discourse pag. 249 250. Hee saith also for Friday May not a man say thus Friday must bee a Sabbath day because on Friday Christ suffered and Thursday must bee a Sabbath day because on that Christ ascended thus wee may as well have three Sabbaths in a weeke as this one Lords day Master Braburne Defence page 249. Master Braburne saith that Friday was the greatest day for on it Christ bore the unsupportable wrath of his Father which made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee But on the Resurrection day there was onely Christs soule put into his body and so revived again Now it was a greater matter as I think saith hee every one will confesse for the Deity to support the humanity on his Passion day then to put his soule into his dead body on the Resurrection day To which I answer that though it bee granted to be a ″ I say greater not harder for to the divine Power which is insinite nothing is hard but all things not only possible but easie greater worke for the Divinity to support the humanity in the Passion of our Saviour then to restore his soule to his body at his Resurrection from the grave yet was not the day of his Passion so fit to be set up for a constant Festivity which was to bee celebrated with rejoycing for the day of our Saviours Passion as the k Bish Andr. his Serm. on Joh. 8.56 p. 64. Bish of Winchester well noteth was no such day nay saith he that day was none of his for he saith to them that took him haec est hor a vestra this is your houre so theirs it was not his and if not his not so fit to be called by his name the Lords day Secondly It was not his day nay it was no day neither but the houre and power tenebrarum of darknesse This is your houre and the power of darknesse Luk. 22.53 and as he there addeth so night rather then day Thirdly But without all question no day of joy the heavens were darkned the earth quaking the stones renting every one going their wayes beating their breasts for sorrow that was no sight to rejoyce at that no day to rejoyce in Thus farre that reverend Prelate Fourthly Nor did the day of Ascension though an high day ever ascend to that height of this titular honour howsoever l Epiphan orat de Ascens Epiphanius preferre it before the Nativity Resurrection and the Feast of Pentecost to be stiled in the usuall language of the learned Fathers of the Church by the name of the Lords day as I shall shew anon as the day of the Resurrection was nor need it seeme strange that rather that day then either the day of his Passion on the one side or of his Ascension on the other should have the dignity of that denomination for it holds the middle place though with a different distance and the middle place for the most part is most honourable as in the request of the mother of Zebedees children for the next seats to our Saviour in his Kingdome though it were a presumptuous suit ″ Mat. 20. vers 21. that one might sit on his right hand and the other on his left yet it implyed a little modestie and good manners that shee left the middle place as the prime place to Christ himselfe as a Judge on the Bench with his Assistants and Assessors on either side Secondly In this situation of the Resurrection of our Saviour it hath on the one side the black shadow of his Passion on the other the reslexive rayes of his Ascension to add to its glory for so soone as hee had raised himselfe from the dead his glorified bodie had its qualification for ascent and was readily disposed thereunto if the time had beene come and when it did come as his Resurrection made an addition of honour to his Passion for it gave proof that his life was rather freely given by himselfe then forcibly taken from him by others so did his Ascension to his Resurrection for that gave evidence that his bodie was raised with all those excellent qualifications which made it meet to mount up on high and much more sit for heaven then for earth and though hee tarried still below in his person his Resurrection was not the lesse glorious for that the Angels of heaven are as excellent spirits when they come downe Jacobs ladder as when they goe up Thirdly Though the Ascension of our Saviour locally considered be an high degree of elevation above his Resurrection yet Theologically taken it hath not such an exaltation of dignity above it for his high humility in conversing still among men on earth when hee might have immediately mounted up into heaven addeth much to the honour of his Resurrection for hereby as ″ Te ad siderâ— tollit humus Plin. Panegyr Plinie saith in his Panegyriâ—k to Trajane may the highest grow yet higher when hee comes downe and so may wee say when they keep downe below the elevation of his owne advancement And who would not think Solomon worthy of as much honour
Rev. 1.10 may bee conceived the day of the Lords comming to his last Judgement for which the one citeth Luk. 17.30 the other 1 Cor. 5.5 I answer first to the opinion it selfe and then to the proofe For the first I say That Saint John speaketh as wee noted before in the readiest construction of the words as of a day that was in being before that Vision and so knowne that the Reader might take notice when the Vision came unto him but the day of Judgment is not yet come and so unknowne to man that our Saviour saith of it but of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Angels of heaven but my Father onely Mat. 24.36 Secondly For their proofes though both places produced be meant of the day of Judgement yet that they appertaine not to the title now in question wee may observe that neither of them nameth the day as Saint John doth the Lords day for in the one viz. 1 Cor. 5.5 it is called the day of the Lord Jesus in the other viz. Luk. 17.30 the day of the Sonne of man So that this device of the day of judgement as to the day pointed out by Saint John in his appellation is void of all judgement and withall so full of presumption that if any man should goe on in commenting on the Revelation throughout to the last Chapter as hee begun with the first hee might thereby derive upon himselfe a wretched right to those plagues with commination whereof Saint John shuts up and seales up his mysticall Prophesie Revel 22.18 19. Ob. But if wee take the Lords day for the Resurrection for that as r M. Brab in his discourse pag. 8. Master Braburne notwithstanding his crosse conceits confesseth is properly the Lords day it will not follow that it should be a weekly Holiday it may suffice for that title being given it but once in Scripture f M. Brab in his Defence p. 163. and 175. if it be celebrated some one first day though but once a yeere as the Nativitie Passion and Ascension are and as the Feast of Easter is with us in reference unto it Ans To which I answer First That the question yet is not whether the Lords day should be a weekly Holiday or not But being such a one in fact for yet wee are not come to discusse in point of right whether it may not in its weekly recourse be intituled by that name Secondly That the day of the Resurrection being still noted in Scripture to bee the first day of the weeke and not such a day of the moneth as returnes but once a yeere or once in halfe a yeere or once a quarter or once a moneth onely it may bee called the Lords day once a weeke for its weekly recourse as well as once a yeere if as the Feast of Easter it came no oftner If it be said that no Friday is called good Friday nor any Thursday holy Thursday or Ascension day but one in the yeere it may bee replied to that if they were weekly observed as for a time good Friday was and the first day of the weeke hath beene since the Apostles time they might all be partners in the same appellation all holy Thursdaies all good Fridaies as well once a weeke as once a yeere though the first might have some preheminence above the rest and after the first that which answereth to the first in the season of the yeere as well as in the day of the week and by reason thereof as being no common guest it might have an Alablaster box of oyntment bestowed upon it more then upon those which were more ordinary guests as Easter Sunday was by a t A die Resurrectionis per integram hebdomadem sideles feriuntur Concil 6. gener Const Can. 66. pag. 646. Decree of the Councell of Constantinople to be kept holy and for its sake all the six dayes that followed next after it yet it might in its weekly recourse bee very well called the Lords day as though all the Jewish festivities were called Sabbaths and some in solemnity exceeded others yet the weekly holiday of the Jewes was best knowne by that name which was sometimes by especial priviledge u Shabbath Shabbathon given only to the Sabbath i.e. of the 4th Commandement or to such dayes as for cessation from worke were equivalent unto it Dr. Willet in Levit. 23. q. 31. p. 586. doubled upon it so the name of the Lords day howsoever it be sometimes attributed to other dayes all being his yet doth it most appertaine unto the weekly holiday of the Christians and the rather because it hath a more constant and continuall Lordship or dominion over the dayes of the weeke then any other by its comming in a weekely returne above fiftie times in the yeere for the other Festivities they have their turne but once a yeer And so we have answered the objection of Impertinency of that title Lords day to our weekly holiday which hath beene urged as if it did not more properly appertaine unto it then to some other daies before rehearsed CHAP. V. The imputation of Novelty in applying the title Lords day to the Christians weekly holiday answered WEE are now to answer the objection of Novelty which Doctor Gomarus and Master Braburne bring in against the setting of the title Lords day upon our weekly holiday and therewith wee shall further strengthen the truth against the last objection for which the best proofe alledged is a negative Argument or an Argument drawne from the negative testimony of one man which is of little authority in it selfe and the lesse in this case because it takes up with one Writer onely whereas if more could bee produced to that purpose the antiquity of that Name as now the Church applyeth it might yet be upheld by the advantage of a greater number of grave and ancient Authours positively which is better then negatively giving their votes and voyces to the contrary Tenet That singular Author who is brought in as a dumb shew speaking nothing of our weekly holiday by the name of the Lords day is Justin Martyr from whose silence Doctor Gomarus argueth thus a Si diei Dominici pro die Resurrectionis Domini seu primo hebdomadis appellatio ab Apostolis promanasset c. ut supra citatur cap. 3. lit m. If the title Lords day as applyed to the day of the Resurrection or the first day of the weeke had beene derived from the Apostles and received in the Primitive Church is it credible that Justin Martyr a most ancient and incorrupt Writer in his accurate description of the rites of the Christian Religion would have called the day by the name of Sunday or the first day of the week and not Lords day at all To which I dare not answer as b Dr. Bound on the Sabbath part 1. p. 114. Dr. Bound doth that Justin Martyr in his second Apologie hath the name of Lords
sometime the Trumpet of the Latin tongue sometime the Rhodanus of Latin eloquence noting withall that Augustine would not cite him without a Preface of honour yet after all this and more which I forbeare to mention hee saith of him that p Hebraei seâ—monis prorsus rudis fuit Hilar. Ibid. porâ—o Graecas literas tenniter attigerat se quidem Hier. credimus Ibid. non admodum Graecè calluit Eras Iâ— p. 1169. hee was altogether ignorant of the Hebrew and was but little acquainted with the Greeke If wee should gradually draw downe all examples of this sort from the Ancients to our owne times wee should make this occasionall digression too long and so perhaps over-weary the Reader who would not be too much taken up with impertinent paines having made his recourse hither for a Rest or Sabbatharie repose of his apprehension I will therefore add but one Instance more of a man famous for his learning and yet unlearned in the originall tongues of both Testaments and it shall bee that of Cardinall Cajetane of whom the judicious Writer of the History of the Tridentine Councell maketh this observation ″ Hist Concil Trident. lib. 2. pag. 155. Cardinall Cajetane the Popes Legate in Germany a man very well read in Divinity having studied it even from a childe who for the happinesse of his wit and for his laborious diligence became the prime Divine of that and many more ages unto whom there was no Prelate or person in the Councell who would not yeeld in learning or thought himselfe too good to learne of him This Cardinall going Legate into Germany Anno 1523. studying exactly how those that erred might bee reduced to the Church found out the true Remedy which was the literall meaning of the text of Scripture expounding not the latine Translation but the Hebrew roots of the old and the Greeke of the new Testament In which tongues having no knowledge himselfe hee imployed men of understanding who made construction of the text unto him word by word as his workes upon the holy books do shew Nor was this or the like note on the names of others any impeachment of the high Commendation given of him before for mans knowledge was at the best when hee spake but one tongue and untill it come to that againe wee shall know but in part understand but in part 1 Cor. 13. and howsoever since the confusion of tongues there have been more use of verball learning then before and therefore the Apostles had the gift of q Quindecim linguarum dona tunc acceperunt Apostoli quemadmodum Chrysostomus inquit ad usum eorum qui praesentes erant Quid enim opus fuisset linguâ Persicâ vel aliis non praesentibus iis qui uterentur Glycas Annal. part 3. pag. 315. fifteene tongues fifteene and no more as some affirme conferred upon them for there was need of no more say they r Ibid. and they had not any that were not needfull yet the knowledge of things is farre better then the knowledge of words as Å¿ Multò melior doctrina quam verba Aug. de magist tom 1. pag. 793. Saint Augustine resolveth for words are but means to give intimation to and of the minde for reall notions so that if wee could intuitively know as the Angels doe without words wee might know so much more and better that words would be supersluous and so words are t Omne quod ad aliud est vilius est quam id propter quod est Ibid. pag. 792. inferiour to things as the means is inferiour to the end And wee may well conceive variety of languages to bee now lesse needfull because the community of the Latine tongue is a great part of the cure of the babling confusion besides a man may so much more abound in the knowledge of things as to make amends with copia rerum for want of copia verborum in the multiplicity of tongues for the u Nacti peritiam Graecae linguae patent fontes omnium d'sciplinarum quae a Graecis manarunt adest cognitio maximorum ingeniorum quorum suit semper Graecia feracissima Lud. Viv. de Adolescent Instit pag. 549. Grecians who were more learned then other nations and the very fountains of liberall arts and sciences and among them hee that is magnified for naturall knowledge above * The very first man that to any purpose knew the way wee speake of hath alone thereby performed more very neere in all parts of naturall knowledge then sithence in any one part thereof the whole world besides hath done So Mr. Hooker speaking of Aristotle in Eccles Pol. lib. 1. pag. 13. all other men had little acquaintance with any language but their owne and therefore set out their learnedst Workes in their owne tongue The ignorance then of an Hebrew word should carry no great prejudice against either the Book of the Sabbath or the Authour that made it I speake not this to diminish any part of the praise which may bee due to some learned men who have excelled both in languages and other learning nor to discourage any from being studious of these sacred tongues by exact knowledge whereof some have done great and profitable service to the Church for so farre I am from allowing of the fancie of x Galen apud Petrum Gregor Tholosan de rep l. 15. c. 4. p. 1088 Galen who thought it a disparagement to Alcibiades that hee spake severall languages and resolved it as best to make use but of one that besides my desire to bee competently furnished with the knowledge of the originals of both Testaments I have so farre as my leasure would give mee leave bestowed some time upon other tongues But if any have desired to have better store of things then of words the short and uncertaine life of man keeping him so farre below the omniscience of both that if hee abound in the one hee must abate in the other I thinke his more solide and substantiall learning should not bee undervalued for the defect of that wherein he that knoweth not much may have that ignorance recompenced otherwise and that with advantage both for kinde and measure as much as reall learning is better then verball and a great deale of that better then a little of this And on the contrary the knowledge of that language may bee had without any great store of other learning besides for y Sir Edwin Sands Relat. of Relig. of the West Church p. 222. little children of three yeers old are set to learne Hebrew among the Jewes as Sir Edwin Sands hath observed in his Relation of Religion and if the fundamentall rules of it may be attained in foure and twenty houres as z Edidit horologium Hebraeum Guilielmus Schickardus Tubingensi Suevor Academia Professor ubi ait se expertum esse fundamenta linguae Hebraeae spatio 24. horarum à Tyrone percipi addisci posse Editus est liber in
and drinking and other riotous and disorderly living and of one of that humour wee use to say in our language Hee is a merry Greeke And it may bee Plutarch though hee were a Boetian and not a Cretian and so came not under the reproach of the Apostle borrowed of the heathen Poet who saith of the Cretians that they are alwayes lyars Tit. 1.12 yet as a Grecian for a Grecian is in a little better credit for truth with the m Quicquid Graecia mendax audet in Historia Juvenal Satyr 14. pag. 89. Latine Poet then a Cretian with the Greek hee might use some of the outlashing and lawlesse liberty of his native Countrey either in faining of his owne or spreading others reproaches against the Jewes but to conclude with him as hee corrupts the derivation of the word Sabbath so in the same place doth hee the word Levita deriving it from Evios another name of Bacchus And if hee had thought of it such was his scornefull spight toward the Jewes it is like hee would have derived the word Hebraeus from ebrius a drunkard and had he understood the Hebrew it may bee hee would have drawne it as a full cup from an Hebrew vessell out of the word Saba which signifieth as n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. Hens exer sacr c. 1. p. 11. Hensius giveth it in the Greek to drinke profoundly and to bee full of wine but neither could that disparage the parentage of the word Sabbath for Saba is written with Samech and Sabbath with Scin and yet I confesse besides the Pagan oppositions and contempts of all Religions but their owne which most of all deserved them there might bee and was much miscarriage in the manners of the Jewes well knowne to the Greeks which might give occasion of such a scandall and scorne as Plutarch hath taken up against them and others partly from him have put upon them though his derivation of the name Sabbath for all that bee no Btymologie but a Pseudologie And it is very like that their excesses of that sort procured their reproach for Saint Augustine comparing our Saviours caveat in Saint Luke Take heede that your hearts be not over-charged with surfetting and drunkennesse and with the cares of this life and so that day come upon you at unawares Luk 21.34 with that in Saint Matthew Pray that your slight be not in Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24.20 referreth the cares of this life to the winter and surfetting and drunkennesse to the Sabbath which evill saith o Crapula vero ebrietas carnali laetitia luxuriaque cor submergit arque obruit quod malum Sabbati nomine propterea signisicatum quia hoc erat sicut ut nune est Judaeorum pessima consuetudo illo die deliciis affluere dum spirituale Sabbatum ignorant Aug. de consensu Evangelist lib. 2. cap. 77. pag. 536. tom 4. part 1. pag. 635 636. hee is signified by the name of the Sabbath because this was and yet is the impious practice of the Jewes to overflow that day with carnall delights not knowing the spirituall observation of the Sabbath And it may be also that in their sports as well as in their meats and drinks they were too neere allied to Bacchanall behaviours for Saint Augustine in the 91. Psalme chargeth them not only with luxurie but with trifling vanity and wickednesse of other kindes p Ecce hodiernus dies Sabbati est hunc in praesenti tempore otio quodam corporaliter languido luxurioso celebrant Judaei vacant enim ad nugas cum Deus praeceperit observari Sabbatum illi in his quae Deus prohibet exercent Sabbatum vacatio nostra à malis vacatio illorum à bonis operibus meliù enim est arare quam saltare August in Psal 91. tom 8. part 2. pag. 158. They are at leasure for toyes saith hee and for such things as God forbids our Rest should bee a restraint from wicked workes but theirs is from good works it is better to plow which they do not then to dance which they do on that day And thus much for the erroneous derivations of the name Sabbath out of Heathen and Christian Authours which were too much for the notation of the Name but that withall there may bee intimation given of more caution to all that professe the Gospel of Christ to looke to their lives that they bee so much more fearfull to give as some are more forward to take up occasion of scandall and calumnie against them that Christians to Pagans orthodox Christians to Hereticks Catholicks to Papists strict Professors to Protestants at large minister no matter of reproach in their manner of observing the day and time especially dedicated to Gods solemne worship that as at all times so at such most of all they bee carefull to conforme themselves to that of the Apostle Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 And let this advertisement at the entrance of the doctrine of the Sabbath be as an Inscription or Title on the Porch of the Temple that all prophanenesse may bee kept procul à Fano both farre from the Church and farre from the Sabbath which is most solemnly to be sanctified in it CHAP. X. Of the derivation of the name Sabbath from two Hebrew words the one signifying seven the other rest the former being the errour of Lactantius the later the true and most received Etymologie TO draw neere the etymology and to conclude this Criticisme a Hic est dies Sabbati qui linguâ Hebraeorum à numero nomen accepit unde septenarius numerus legitimus plenus est Lactant. Instit l. 7. c. 14. p. 640. Lactantius saith and the like is in Sypontinus which b Hospin de orig Fest Jud. Ethn. cap. 3. pag. 3. Hospinian noteth for his errour that the word Sabbath in the Hebrew tongue is derived from a word of number the word though hee name it not is Sheban as Hospinian Shebbang as c Ubi supra D. Gomar Invest Sab. cap. 1. pag. 3. Gomarus reads it for which saith hee for more easie utterance the vulgar take up with Seba signifying seven but joyned with a verbe as d Cum verbo adverbiascit Schindl pentag col 1793. D. Schindler noreth it it becometh an adverbe and so it is changed into seven times but though this come a little neerer the true notation of the word for that both the initiall letters and the sense sute better with the name Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for both begin with the letter Schin and the Sabbath hath its recourse and revolution in the circle of the weeke which is made up of seven dayes yet it is plaine to such as have any insight in the Hebrew tongue that Lactantius was mistaken and that as wee may well conjecture out of that which followeth his numerall notation by some mysterious superstition in his minde
touching that number which seduced his opinion to that mis-conceipt besides that the congruity of the word in sound and confining of the weeke to that number of dayes both in the commandement and common practice might readily incline a man to that imagination for even those fables both of Appion the Grammarian and Justine the Historian before mentioned how wide soever they wander from the truth of the Sabbath in other points keepe within the compasse of the septenary number which is as a girdle of the dayes of the weeke of which the Sabbath is as a golden claspe or buckle binding them together Wee have reserved the best derivation as our Saviour did the best wine John 2. for the last place it is of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cessavit quievit hath rested which rendred with exact correspondence to the Hebrew characters should be written ″ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schabbath but for sweeter sound somewhat is abated of compleat expression and so it is usually written in the ″ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek translation of the old and the Greeke edition of the new Testament and the Latines in conformity to it rather then to the originall use the word Sabbatum and wee our English word Sabbath which as a participle in the former syllable taketh part with the Hebrew Greek and Latine in the later with the Hebrew onely And very fitly doth a name of rest agree with the day of rest or cessation from secular labours as the Sabbath day is and of this deduction and doctrine it is agreed by the best Divines on both sides In respect of this both rest and ranke the seventh being after all the rest hath the Planet Saturne a name of neere cognation to it signifying ease and lazinesse as e Planeta sedeÌ„tarius Gualper Syllog vocum exotic part prior pag. 106. Gualperius noteth which hee reckoneth for the last of the seven Planets beginning his account with the Moon as the first so still remembring what wee have before observed wee may say the number of seven the title of rest are joyned together in observations of the Sabbath whether with the religious or profane and so I could willingly derive it if the radicall characters would beare it from both words as a childe from its Parents of both sexes for as the Sabbath is every seventh day so it hath a neere affinity with the word which signifieth seven from whence Lactantius taketh it to be derived as hath been shewed And as it is a time of vacation from worldly labour so it hath as neere consanguinity with the word which signifieth rest But this derivation of it from rest is the right and to it wee shall stand CHAP. XI Of the sever all acceptions of the name Sabbath THe next inquirie of it is how farre the name Sabbath reacheth in sense and use especially whether this name of Rest may not bee applyed to the Lords day it being a day of Rest and that will the better appear if wee observe the distinction by severall acceptions which are chiefly these It is taken for 1 Rest from labour 2 Rest from sinne 3 Rest from both First for the first As the Sabbath signifieth a rest from labour it is used first generally for all dayes ordained for the solemne service and worship of God for as a Omnem Festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaei sed Gentiles Sabbatum vocant Scalâ—g de Emend Temp. lib. 3. p. 223. edit ult Scaliger observeth The Jewes and Gentiles both called every Festivall of the Jewes by the name of Sabbath b Idem ferè apud Chrysost Homil 40. in Matth. Doctor Gomarus would not have the new Moones numbred among the rest under that name though some learned men saith hee doe so hee might meane c Ursin catech pag. 580. Ursinus for one who reckoneth them for monethly Sabbaths because saith Gomarus there is no divine Authority for restraint of labour on those dayes Yet hee confesseth the Gentiles called them Sabbaths and they it is like had that name from the Jewes whose practice it was to observe those dayes with cessation from servile workes But this was upon their owne superstition saith hee and not by precept and yet hee confesseth that there were peculiar sacrifices for those solemnities for which hee quoteth Num. 28.11 15. And as they were Festivals they were distinguished from other dayes and a good part of the distinction of them consisted in cessation from secular labours which needs must be forborne while the people were imployed in other things and so farre the name of Sabbath might be communicated to them Secondly The name Sabbath is taken particularly and that divers wayes 1. The principall acception of it is for a weekely holiday ordayned by God in the fourth Commandement 2. By a Synechdoche of the part for the whole the word Sabbath is put sometimes for the whole weeke so in the speech of the Pharisee where hee saith I fast twice a weeke which precisely rendred according to the originall should bee d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 18.12 Jejuno biâ— in Sabbato hoc est in Hebdomada Cent. 1. lib. 1. cap. 6. col 244. read I fast twice a Sabbath which cannot bee meant of one day for though a man may eate thrice or oftner in a day it cannot bee said with good sense that in one day hee fasted more then once for if the fast be continued it makes but one fast though it last the whole day and if it bee broken by eating it cannot for that day bee pieced up againe 3. Sometimes the word is especially applyed to the first and last dayes of such solemne Festivals as consisted of many dayes together Levit. 23. à ver 24. c. 4. From dayes the Sabbath goeth on to the comprehension of yeers to the Jewes every seventh yeere was a Sabbatharie yeere wherein they were not to exact any debt of one another Deut. 15.1 nor to exercise the ground but to let it rest from tillage whereof wee have the Law at large Levit. 25. à vers 2. ad 7. The circle of the Sabbath grows yet to a further compasse for these seven-yeere Sabbaths multiplyed by sevens made up the whole number of 49. yeeres and the yeere after was the yeere of Jubilee a great Sabbath which was proclaimed by the sound of the Trumpet and rest from tillage as before with many other particulars prescribed whereof you may read more in the fore-cited Text from the eighth verse to the end of the Chapter These acceptions of the word Sabbath have especiall reference to rest from labour The second acception of the name Sabbath but counting on the fifth hath another sense it is that whereby it is taken for rest not from labour but from sinne In this it is frequent among the Fathers of the Church and well might they call it a Sabbath or rest in that sense as in opposition to the
and Clemens Romanus yet there is no reason we should give up the proper title of the religious Rest of the fourth Commandement to a day which wee use neither for Rest nor for Religion Secondly If they held a mysticall conformity betwixt the Jewes Sabbath and a Christians holy conversation sufficient ground for bestowing the name Sabbath upon a spirituall rest from sin it must needs bee so much more warrantable to call the Lords day Sabbath as there is the more agreement betwixt it and the Jewish Sabbath now betwixt them there is an agreement much more then mysticall for whereas that mysticall Sabbath as the Bishop taketh it may bee every day in the weeke and all the dayes of mans life our solemne Sabbath commeth onely once every weeke as the Jewes Sabbath did In ours wee forbid and forbeare secular imployments so was it with the Jewes there was a cessation from such works with them that they might the better attend upon religious exercises and those principally publick and so it is with us Christians The reason of the Commandement drawne from Gods example in his proportion of working six dayes and resting on the seventh is exemplary to us as well as to the Jewes it belongeth to Christians to deale as equally with God in letting him have one day in seven for his honour who alloweth us sixe for one for our owne occasions as to the Jewes And for their end and use of the Sabbath which is a gratefull remembrance of their creation and the blessing of God upon their carefull and holy observation of it wee Christians are as much bound to the one and may hope for as much benefit by the other as the Jewes All which literall conformities considered betwixt their Sabbath and ours with reference to the letter of the fourth Commandement our Church taketh that Commandement wholly into her Liturgy and prayeth as after the other nine Lord have mercy upon us c. and therefore the distinction of literall and mysticall to say the least of it is impertinently applyed to preclude the title Sabbath in a literall sense from the day wee celebrate Bishop Whites second Exception touching the name Sabbath in the Homilies answered Secondly Against that which is propounded for the name Sabbath out of the Homilies of our Church hee saith f Exam. p. 37. It may be questioned in what sense the Homilie stileth Sunday the Sabbath whether in a proper and a literall sense according to the stile of the old Law or in a mysticall and analogicall sense as Christ is called our Passeover 1 Cor. 5.7 But a little after hee putteth the matter out of question by a peremptory resolution which is this The Lords day is not the literall Sabbath of the fourth Commandement and therefore in propriety of speech it cannot be called the Sabbath day expresly and in particular commanded in the Decalogue but the same is stiled by the Homily our Christian Sabbath in a mysticall and analogicall sense even as mortification is called circumcision g Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit not in the letter Rom. 2.29 Rom. 2.29 sincerity truth are called unleavened bread 1 Cor. 8.5 This exception of his touching the name Sabbath taken out of our Homilies is obnoxious to so many exceptions that I wish rather some weak and worthlesse Adversary to our cause had made it then a man of so great learning gravity and authority as he was for whose sake I will deale as respectively in the returne of mine answer as I well may without betraying the truth and so first I say 1. That in saying That the Lords day is not expresly and in particular commanded in the fourth Commandement hee implyeth which h Bish White in his treat of the Sab. day p. 112 126 269. and in his examinat of the Decalog p. 46 52 63. marg 69. marg elsewhere hee expresly delivereth that the Jewes Sabbath which was Saturday is expresly and in particular there commanded which is not true in it selfe as I shall prove in handling the materiall points of that Commandement and being yet acknowledged by learned Christians doth gratifie the Jewes and prejudice our Christian Holiday so much that upon that ground Master Braburne set up the Saturday for a Sabbath and did what hee could to demolish the doctrine and observation of the Lords day and others have and many more may if that be granted incurre the like scandall It is not i April 26. 1636. long since a woman one Margaret Former examined before Sir John Lambe Doct. Turner and Doctor Somes disclaimed our Saviours Doctrine by the name of Ceremonies Rites and Sabbaths and professed to keep the Sabbath of the Lord of Hosts which said she is Saturday If shee had been examined why shee did so could shee have given a better answer then such a one as the Bishops examination of the Dialogue ministreth to the Reader viz. k Bish Thites examinat pag. 63. marg p. 69. marg That the fourth Commandement appointed a particular fixed day to wit Saturday The time commanded in the fourth Commandement is Saturday Who can desire a better warrant for any thing hee will say or doe then that and what is there to bee alledged for the Lords day which may preponderate such a proofe which yet is no proofe but against such as are so inconsiderate as to confesse that which the adversary cannot prove viz. that Saturday is particularly prescribed in the fourth Commandement Secondly the Commandement appointeth the proportion of one day in seven for sacred and solemne services of Religion which is as the Characteristicon to the Jewes Sabbath and the Christians which are the variations into which it is divided while neither of them is expresly and in particular there commanded so that to say the Jewes Sabbath is literall and the Christians onely mysticall is as if one should say that Homo signifieth literally a man but hominis homini and hominem note not a man literally but mystically Thirdly whereas hee saith the Homily useth the word Sabbath for the Lords day but in a mysticall and analogicall sense even as Mortification is called Circumcision c. There bee two particulars very faulty The one is his assertion the other his similitude 1. For his assertion l The Homily of the time place of praier pag. 164. edit 1582. That the Homily useth the name Sabbath but in a mysticall and analogicall sense the contrary is evident to any intelligent Reader of the Homily for such a one may out of it deduce these literall observations 1. That by the fourth Commandement Christians must have one standing day in a week for the exercises of Religion 2. That they must rest upon it after Gods example 3. That on that day lawfull workes must bee forborne 4. That yet they must not be idle but wholly give themselves to exercises of Gods true Religion and Service There bee other deductions
Christian Church first giveth the Lords day a reall preeminence above the old Sabbath saying f M. J. Walker in his book of the Doctrine of the Sabbath p. 89.90 that the old Sabbath had no other light nor life in it but onely from obscure promises and dark shadowes through which Christ was seen as things afarre off are seene and in the starre-light nights but the Lords day the first day of the weeke hath light and life from the Sunne of Righteousnesse who in it rose up to bee the light of life to all Nations And after that hee giveth it a nominall preheminence under the title Lords day g Ib. p. 90 91. God saith hee hath given it a most honourable name and title above all the daies of the weeke for the holy Evangelist and divine Apostle Saint John who was the intimate beloved and bosome Disciple of the Lord and did best know his minde calls it the Lords day Revel 1.10 and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord is the same in signification with Gods proper Name Jehovah and most commonly is used in the new Testament to expresse that sacred Name And if that day and name both be more excellent then that of the old Testament the denomination should be taken according to it and so we should call it rather Lords day then Sabbath To which I answer First That howsoever the new Sabbath bee in many respects more excellent then the old yet the name Sabbath may be very agreeable to them both Secondly that if name Lords day be a more excellent name then the name Sabbath it doth not follow it should be more usuall ordinary for there be many other intimatious of moment for the use of a name as before we have noted and for instance though the name Sonne of God bee a more excellent name then Sonne of man yet our Saviour who best knew how to speake for he spake as no man ever did John 7.46 called himselfe oftner Son of man then Son of God Thirdly the name Sabbath doth import more clearly and assuredly a weekly Holiday as wee observe it then the name Lords day doth for that is questionable as before wee have shewed whether it be to be taken for the day of our Saviours Resurrection or no and if that be resolved on then whether it note that individuall day onely on which he arose or other daies also that succeed it and if others whether onely an Anniversary day as Easter or a weekly day as the Sabbath is and hath been since it was first ordained but the word Sabbath without all question signifieth a day of Rest among sixe daies of labour and so one set day within the circle of the weeke Fourthly the name Sabbath being the title of the fourth Commandement which is the best warrant for a weekly Holiday and which prescribeth our duty both for what we must forbeare and what performe and presseth it by many effectuall reasons there is great reason that it should bee more used then any other which in such materiall considerations is not comparable to it Fifthly the name Sabbath guiding us to the fourth Commandement will bring us readily to the title Lords day as before hath been observed but the name Lords day in that text where it is noted viz. Revel 1.10 the chiefe if not the onely text for that title in the New Testament giveth none intimation of a Sabbath neither in Deed nor in Name therefore the name Sabbath as more significant and monitory is fitter for instruction and use then the name Lords day is Sixthly for such reasons as these or some other of like importance the fore-cited Authour useth the name Sabbath more frequently throughout his whole booke then any other whatsoever and setteth it as the title in the highest place of every page though no man expresse a dearer affection to the dignity of the Lords day then he doth Lastly he so far approves of the name Sabbath for our weekly Holiday that he setteth upon them who say the Lords day was not called Sabbath in the Primitive times next to the Apostles nor since by any but onely Jewish Sabbatharians with some sharp termes calling them h M. Walker in his Doctrine of the Sabb. ch 16. p. 113. but pag. 112 of the impression at London 1641. Adversaries of a bold and impudent face who make that objection Thus farre the exceptions against the name Sabbath both simple and comparative with other titles Though I have set my wits on worke on the Antisabbatarian side both to multiply fortifie objections against that name as applyed to the day of our Christian devotion I can find nothing more which is of any weight or worth to bee objected or answered concerning the comparison of the names of Sabbath Sunday and Lords day and the resolution for the name Sabbath of which we may now I hope without all appearance of partiality or presumption conclude That the name Sabbath is of best use to support the true Doctrine of our Christian Holiday both for the time and tenure of it for discovery of duties required on it and for incitement to the conscionable practice of them accordingly and therefore notwithstanding the contrary determination of i Better by farre and farre lesse danger to be feared in calling it the Sunday as the Gentiles did and as our Ancestors have done before us then calling it the Sabbath as too many doe and on lesse Authority nay contrary indeed to all Antiquity and Scripture Doct. Heyl. hist Sab. part 2. c. 2. p. 163 164. Doctor Heylin to bee most used when we speake of the weekly Holiday of the Christian Church yet without prejudice to the liberty of any one to call it Lords day or Sunday as just occasion shall incline them or religious discretion induce them to terme it CHAP. XXVII A briefe accommodation of this Nomenclature or nominall discourse to some purposes of importance concernning the Sabbath HE that doth reade thus farre will not I hope conceive I have need to make an Apology for this discourse as if it were some idle Logomachy or word war which the Apostle forbids 1 Tim. 6.4 for First it may serve to stint the strife of words Esay 29.21 which some have already raised up making a man an offender for a word which affords not a syllable of just exception or offence and to prevent the like in after times since by what we have said our lawfull liberty is fully declared and firmly assured so that we may without doubt or danger of sinne call the time or day we celebrate Lords day Sabbath day or both as the holy place of Gods publicke service was called the Lords house and the Temple And for the name Sunday wee have shewed the lawfull use of it if it be not brought in like the Sunne with a burning glasse as Doctor Pocklington doth to scortch the name Sabbath or to cast a shadow upon it to conceale or obscure
the word and to the thing which is signified by it as if hee had observed the same throughout his booke of the History of the Sabbath it had neither been so bad nor so bigge as we see it is 3. Master e Mr. Primrose part 1. ch 13. paâ— 73. See also part 4. p. 302 304 305. to the same purpose Primrose though otherwise neither fondly nor friendly affected to the Christian Sabbath is sometimes so facile and liberall in his allowance of the use of the name Sabbath in the time and state of the Christian Church as to allow Christians liberty to keep every day holy and to say that all daies under the Gospel should be as so many Sabbaths all the dayes of the weeke and the whole yeare should bee as Sabbaths unto them If so the Sunday may be a Sabbath much more for the reasons and authority fore-alledged and if it have more of the thing it hath more right to the name Master f Mr. Ironside quest 3. c. 13. p. 123. Ironside also though he dispute against the title Sabbath as to our Christian Holiday ingenuously confesseth that the name Sabbath is lawfull and may be also used by such as have their wits well exercised in Scripture if without superstition fraud or scandall g Mr Ironside quaest 2. cap. 9. pag. 96 97. And that God must have his rest and appointed Sabbaths which is the essence life and spirit of that Commandement and for ever morall And if the thing Sabbath be morall and perpetuall and the effence life and spirit of the Law as hee saith can any one deny the title Sabbath Master Ironside cannot well doe it who affirmeth this and that by the expresse title of the Sabbath And of the Friday made a weekly Holiday by Constantine he faith h M. Ironside concius of his quest cap. 31. pag. 293. that he made it a Sabbath Object But when hee saith that the Lords day is Sabbath he meaneth not that it is properly so called but analogically and in its proportion To which I answer 1. That when men call the Lords day Sabbath there is no need to adde either properly or improperly or analogically therefore for ordinary speech it is no exception against the use of the word It is familiar with many to call the Lords Table Altar though it be not properly an Altar but analogically and yet he will not say they are bound to bring in this distinction when they mention it and to say it is an analogicall Altar and when Christ is called the Lambe of God the Lion of the Tribe of Juda hee is not properly but analogically a Lamb or a Lion yet he is commonly so called without adding either part of the distinction of properly or analogically 2. But the Lords day may bee called Sabbath properly because as it is an Holiday it is a day of Rest properly so taken a day of weekly Rest as the old Sabbath was And even in Doctor Pocklingtons Seâ—mon though we should not much accompt of his Testimony but where it is against himselfe there is something albeit hee meant it not which makes for the title Sabbath to belong to the Lords day viz. this i Doct. Pockl. Visitat Serm. p. 19. Cujus vis soluta nec nomen haerebit Ambr. so cited by Doct. Pockl. Ibid. When the Sabbath lost its force it forfeited its name saith hee out of Saint Ambrose and therefore ought not so to be called and so having lost both force and name is become nothing at all but a meere Idoll The Saturday then which was the day of Rest unto the Jewes is now no Sabbath nor must be so called which by the way is contradictory to that k With us the Sabbath is Saturday and no day else Doct. Pockl. Serm. pag. 21. which hee saith elsewhere for if it have forfeited its name forfeiture is not an annihilation but an alienation of a right from one to another and if that bee so let any body judge what day hath most right to that forfeiture Can any other day of the week put in for an interest in it before the Lords day or Sunday If the Lord of the Sabbath may be Judge he will give no sentence surely for any day against his owne CHAP. XVII Exceptions against some of the precedent Testimonies alledged for calling the Lords day Sabbath propounded and answered THe Bishop of Elie in his Treatise on the Sabbath day and in his Examination of the little Dialogue made in answer to it would avoid the allegations for the name Sabbath taken out of the Fathers the Book of Homilies Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker and his brother Doctor John Whites Booke of the Way to the true Church by such exceptions as these The first Exception touching the Fathers First for the Fathers The Question is not saith a Bish Whites exam pag. 109. he whether the ancient Fathers have at any time stiled the Lords day a Sabbath in a mysticall or spirituall sense that is a day wherein Christian people ought to abstaine from sinne for in this sense they have stiled every day of the weeke wherein Christians rest from sin a b His former Treatise of the Sabb. p. 203. Sabbath yea every day throughout their whole lives I have diligently searched saith c Ibid. p. 202. hee into Antiquitie and observed in the Fathers their formes of speech when they treat of the Lords day and I find it farre different from the usuall language of the Fathers to stile the Lords day the Sabbath and that they by the name Sabbath either understand the old legall Sabbath taken away by Christ or the spirituall or mysticall Sabbath which was typed and represented by the Sabbath of the fourth Commandement Wherein hee speaketh more warily though not altogether truly then d No ancient Father no learned man Heathen nor Christian took the name Sabbath otherwise then for Saturday from the beginning of the world untill the beginning of Schisme An. 1554. Doct. Pockl. visit Serm. p. 21. Doctor Pocklington did And when the Fathers distinguish and give proper names to the particular dayes of the weeke saith the Bishop they alwaies stile the Saturday Sabbatum the Sabbath and the Sunday or the first day of the weeke Dominicum the Lords day This is his reply to the Testimonies taken out of the Fathers whereto I answer This distinction of mysticall and literall is familiar with the Bishop and may serve for a shift to elude other Testimonies for the name Sabbath as well as those particularly mentioned But it is but a shift and will serve but for a while for to answer First concerning the Fathers though they in their times distinguished two dayes by the names of Sabbath and Lords day to avoid confusion when they celebrated both with services of devotion as the e Bish White his Treat of the Sab. pag. 202. Bishop hath observed out of Ignatius Ambrose Socrates
besides these which found to the same sense but these sufficiently shew that the Compilers of the Homily tooke the name Sabbath not in a meere mysticall sense but in a literall and herein their Doctrine is conformable to the letter of that Commandement Secondly for his similitude that our Lords day is called Sabbath but as Mortification is called Circumcision the circumcision of the heart Rom. 2.29 or as sincerity and truth are called unleavened bread 1 Cor. 8.5 or as Christ our Passover 1 Cor. 5.7 it is guilty of grosse disproportion for 1. In a naturall acception no two numerall things are more like then one day is like another but circumcision of the flesh and mortification of the corruptions of the heart sincerity and unleavened bread Christ and the Passover though in some respects semblable as the Kingdome of heaven and a graine of Mat. 13.31 mustard seed are yet in their kinds at very great distance for Circumcision is an act of the hand Mortification an act or rather an habit wrought by the spirit upon the mind unleavened bread is a visible substance sincerity an invisible quality Christ is a most excellent person consisting of a divine and humane nature the Passover an action literally the Angels passing over the doores which were sprinckled with the bloud of the Paschall Lambe which after the Angell was immediatly yet figuratively applyed to the Lambe it selfe and afterward by another figure more remote from the letter and so more mysticall our Saviour was called the Passover Secondly if wee take the two dayes in a religious as well as in a naturall acception there is much more conformity betwixt them then betwixt the termes of the Bishops comparison so much that the name Sabbath may bee literall to them both though in his instances one part be purely mysticall and analogicall For to say nothing of other conformities forementioned it may suffice to make them both partakers of the name Sabbath which signifieth Rest that rest or cessation from secular labours was on the one and is required and observed on the other wherein the advantage now rests upon the part of our Christian Sabbath since that is still and will be to the worlds end a day of religious rest and the Jewes day though it were so from the beginning was many an hundred years ago degraded from the dignity of a weekly Holiday and made a work-day and so shall be untill our temporall Sabbath on earth be changed into the eternall Sabbatism in heaven which the Apostle promiseth Heb. 4.9 The third Exception of Bishop White touching Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker applying the name Sabbath to our Sunday answered Thirdly For the Allegations out of Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker for application of the name Sabbath to the Lords day the Bishop taketh occasion to observe that m Bish White his examinat of the Dialog p. 89. 96. the greatest Doctors at some times and before errours and heresies are openly defended are not neither can bee so circumspect in their writing as to avoid all formes and expressions all sentences and propositions all and every Tenet which in after times may yeeld advantage to the adversaries of the truth and hee giveth instance in Augustine and Chrysostome speaking not so warily as they should have done concerning the naturall power of freewill before the Pelagian heresie did arise which hee applyeth to the precedent Testimonies thus Before there arose a controversie in our Church concerning the Sabbath or at least wise before the controversie grew to an height Divines spake and writ more freely and they were not alwayes so cautelous circumspect as to foresee the evill construction which the adversaries of the truth might make of their writing and speaking but now when the Sabbatarian heresie for necessary observation of the old Sabbath and a fanaticall opinion of some others for the observation of the Lords day in a more precise forme then the very Judaicall Law it selfe obliged the Jewes to keepe the old Sabbath when I say these errours sprang up and were defended with an high hand and obtruded upon the Church a necessity was cast upon us to examine all such positions as were the grounds and formes of speaking which were incident to the question in hand Now if upon evidence of truth saith hee wee shall in some passages dissent from some men of note living in this Church before us or use other termes in our writing or disputing nay if we should in some things have altered our owne former opinion and formes of speaking wee trust that godly Christians will not impute this unto us as an offence but in their charity will judge of us as the ancient Church did of Saint Augustine to wit that what wee doe in this kinde proceedeth from the care wee have in a faire and perspicuous manner to maintaine and defend the truth Thus farre the Bishop I have set downe his exception at large because I meane to make a full answer to it for that purpose three particulars are especially to be observed in this the saying of the Bishop The first Of the ancient Fathers unwary writings before heresies arose which is true but not to the purpose for none that reads them at the first hand unlesse hee bring with him a violent impression of prejudice against the Sabbath will conceive one syllable in them to sound to that sense which the Bishop intendeth The second His application thereof to the Sabbatarie controversies which is to the purpose but as hee states the difference not true The third is a request for charitable construction which in regard of the second he hath need of We need say nothing of the first and for the second it may be said First that though some have exceeded in severity both for the doctrine and practice of the Sabbath and yet I accompt not all to bee excessive which the Bishop approveth not many have much more exceeded in loosnesse and profanenesse which is more dangerous to the actors and more scandalous to the observers of their excesses and there was more need that all the Bishops of the Land should oppose this then that he should set upon that in such sort as he did Secondly for that he saith of the Sabbatarian heresie for the necessary observation of the old Sabbath the way to withstand it is not as he doth to take the title Sabbath from the Lords day and to shift it from the firme ground of the fourth Commandement and to make it stand so much upon meere tradition as hee doth nay so to give up that both title and text as hee hath done to the old Sabbath is to confirme rather then to confute the Sabbathary errour which by his manner of handling the matter neither is nor can be soundly convinced as it should be Thirdly whosoever will advisedly reade and consider what hath been lately written concerning the Sabbath will find as great cause to give caution against Anti-sabbathary