day And Cyrill in his 12. book on Iohn chap. 58. considering the Lords appearance a second time on the eighth day Thomas then being present and upon consideration finding it to have beene the first day of the weeke concludes thus Iure igitur sanctae Congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis fiunt By right therefore holy Congregations in the Churches are made on the eighth day meaning thereby the first day of the week that is the Lords day and as hee concludeth thus so undoubtedly his opinion was the Apostles themselves did conclude in like manner Now albeit much had beene effected for the abrogation as well of all superstitious fancies about that day as of the day it selfe that is of the Jewish sabbath by the labours of the Fathers fore-mentioned and particularly of Damascen and venerable Bede among the rest yet there comes in an exception somewhat of the nature of a sixth finger and that is Saint Gregory tells us notwithstanding how some in Rome were so superstitious in this kinde that they would neither work upon the Saturday no nor so much as wash upon the Sunday So little effectuall were the labours of Damascen and venerable Bede that they could not prevent the superstitious fancies of some that lived an hundred yeares before For Gregory by Bellarmines account dyed in the yeare of our Lord 604. and Damascen lived long after the yeare 731. and Bede was living in the yeare 731. as Bellarmine observes out of his fifth booke of Historia Anglicana Who would desire an adversary should betray more weakenesse than this Author but wee see manifestly whither he tends and no marvell if God smites him with the spirit of giddinesse and confusion His quotation of Gregory seemes to bee the same with that which wee finde in the decrees De consecrat dist 3. cap. Pervenit Now whereas this Praefacer relates it as of the same persons it is farre otherwise in Gregory for apparantly the relation in Gregory is concerning different persons for thus it runnes Pervenit ad me c. Relation is made unto mee that certaine men of a perverse spirit have sowed amongst you some corrupt doctrine contrary to our holy faith so as to forbid any worke to be done on the Sabbath day these men we may well call the Preachers of Antichrist Then he sets downe what shall be the practise of Antichrist at his comming namely to command the Sabbath day and the Lords day both to be kept free from all works And why the Lords day to wit because he meanes to imitate Christ and therefore will conforme himselfe to the practise of Christians in celebrating the Lords day his words are these Quia enim mori se resurgere simulat haberi in veneratione vult diem Dominicum that is Because he counterfeits himselfe to die and rise againe therefore he will have the Lords day to be had in veneration Where by the way observe two things 1. The practise of Christians in Gregories dayes to keep themselves from all worke on the Lords day 2. That Antichrist would imitate Christ as in pretending to dye and rise againe so in commanding the Lords day to be kept holy A shrewd evidence that both Gregory and the whole Church in those dayes were of opinion that the Lords day was of Christs institution which Antichrist perceiving would conforme thereto the better to promote his owne counsailes Now the reason why he would command the Jewes Sabbath to be observed also was Quia populum Judaizare compellet ut exteriorem ritum revocet sibi Judaeorum perfidiam subdat therefore coli vult Sabbatum He will have the Iewes Sabbath kept also compelling the people to Iudaize and restoring the outward ceremonies of the Law that so he may bring the Iewes in subjection unto him also Then he makes mention of another relation Aliud quoque ad me perlatum est Another report was brought unto mee and what was that Vobis à perversis hominibus esse praedicatum ut Dominico die nullus debeat lavari That some perverse persons preach among you that on the Lords day none ought to be washed This is clearly another point maintained by other persons different from the former which yet this Prefacer confounds into one And marke it well that none ought to be washed lavari on the Lords day which this Author translates thus No nor so much as wash upon the Sunday What not so much as wash their hands or their face here indeed were strange superstition I willingly professe I was not a little moved at this his Translation nothing answerable to Gregories resolution which is this If any desire to be washed pro luxuria pro voluptate that is out of a luxurious disposition and for pleasure we doe not permit this to be done on any day But if the bodies necessity require it we doe not forbid this on the Lords day Now I doe not find that any man useth to wash hands or face out of any luxurious disposition neither doe I know in what sense the necessity of the body can require it For the necessity of the body in this place seems to me to be spoken in reference to the recovery of a mans health requiring no time to be neglected Hereupon I am verily perswaded that by Lavari in Gregory is to be understood a mans going into the Bath which may be done out of a luxurious disposition and meerely for pleasure Then againe the necessity of the body may require it and according to these different cases it is by Gregory both permitted on the Lords day to wit in case of necessity and denyed on any day in case it be done only to satisfie a mans lusts And I find a great difference in the Latine phrase betweene Lavare to wash and Lavari to be washed and that out of Varro his eight booke of the Latine tongue For the active is of use when a part only is washed as it is rightly said I wash my hands and my feet But the passive is in use only when the whole body is washed as in the Bath Quare in Balneis non rectè dicunt lavi sed lavor Wherefore in the Bathes it is not well said I have washed but I am washed And accordingly runnes that in Juvenal Sat. 2. Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere lavantur The Scholiast interprets this of Infants quia pueri non dant Balneaticum for the quadrant which was the usuall fee to bee paid of them that made use of the Bathes was not exacted of such Hence is that phrase Mercede lavari to goe into the Baths paying a fee and dum te quadrante lavatum in Horace to the same purpose The second Section BUt after in the darker times as it is thought by some Preface Peter de Bruis the founder of the Petrobrusians he was burnt for heresie 1126. began to draw too deep on these lees of Judaisme which here our Doctor intimates
it should be left to the servant to cut out what proportion of service he thinkes good unto his master 2. It is well that both he and Gomarus thinke we are bound to cut out a better proportion of Gods Service then was prescribed to the Jewes rather then a worse yet Brentius as great a writer as any of these thinkes otherwise as wee have heard 3. doth only our freedome from the yoke of ceremonies requires this and not much more 1. the love of God revealed unto us in Christ in the dayes of the Gospell 2. the encombrance of Gods Truth with errors and heresies and those very dangerous ones 3. and in a word the strong opposition that in these daies of the Gospell is made and will be made more and more as the end of all things doth approach both unto faith and holinesse It is noted to be the sinne of Christendom not to receave the love of the truth 2 Thess 2. And of these latter times Paul hath prophesied that men should be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God 3. as for this opinion of Gomarus and Rivetus I am glad they are so farre convicted of truth in this argument as to professe that we ought to keepe holy rather more dayes then fewer But why then doe not the states of Holland under whom they live if they be of the same opinion make it good by practise And the French-Churches also But they want example in antiquity for this Who seeth not that this is delivered onely to serve turne and helpe at a dead lift when no other way is open to shift off the Argument 3. And lastly whereas he grants with Calvin that after so many dayes to wit after six for no other number was specifyed rest must bee granted to servants on the seventh doth not this evidently convince that that day must bee our Christian Sabbath For what shall the masters keepe one and the servants another or shall the servants not give themselves to the service of God on the day of their rest but rather on the day of their labour in the workes of their proper callings observe I pray how at every turne the light of Gods direction doth meete with us to keepe us in the good wayes of the Lord if we will not wilfully shut our eyes against it Now let that seventh day which is our Christian Sabbath be well observed first and then let the states take what order they shall see good for the observation of another day also Yet we finde by experience that hardly are men able to maintaine a poore living by labouring hardly six whole dayes in the weeke I come to the second which Rivetus recapitulates in briefe thus 2. It is drawn from the number of six dayes allowed for worke which number cannot consist unlesse it be terminated in rest and in cessation on the seventh To this Rivetus answereth that the six dayes of labour are in reference to the seventh of rest the determination of which seventh day being now taken away a man may worke on any day so long as some day be chosen whether by Divine constitution or humane and reasonable disposition for Divine Service which may be in such sort that fewer dayes shall be left for worke But consider What more reasonable disposition humane Respon 1. then that which is conformable to constitution Divine now it is apparent that God required of the Jewes one day in seven neither was it ever knowen to bee abrogated the particularity of the day is abrogated not the proportion of time ground we have for the one by the ceremoniality of it no colour of ground for the other nor did ever I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise a ceremonialitie of one day in seven 2. But what shall the morality of rest granted to servants be altered also under the Gospell did Calvin any where teach this may not masters exact as many dayes worke of their servants under the Gospell as under the Law hath not Christ deserved at the hands of servants to be as serviceable to their masters as ever Lastly are these dayes of the World such as wherein a labouring man may maintaine himselfe by the labour of five dayes in a weeke as well as by the labour of six A long time I have found it observed by traffiquers in the World that nothing is more cheape then mens labours a notable evidence how unprofitable servants wee have beene unto God and therefore hee makes the labour of our hands and sweate of our browes to afford very unprofitable service unto us Can these Divines make the World more favourable to crafts-men and bring their commodities in better request then they are if they could let them then change the morality of servants rest and for one in seven allow them one in three or foure or five their masters will bee the more easily brought to entreat their consciences to condescend Or if Kings had power to make the commodities of their owne Country more worth and the commodities of other Countries lesse worth which upon due consideration will bee found as needfull equally then place might bee made for this Till then let us bee content with Calvines morality of the fourth Commandement in reference to servants rest namely one day after six and therewithall consider whether our Christian Sabbath must not bee confined to that day as the onely day of rest for servants and I hope wee shall not thinke it fit to allow one Sabbath for the masters and another for the servents 3. The third is drawne from the examples of the Apostles and the apostolicall Church who in place of the Iewes Sabbath observed the first day of the weeke without variation therefore by force of the precept one day in seven is to be observed still Never any hath beene found to change this therefore that which hath beene kept from the beginning of the VVorld and shall continue to the end is to bee taken for such as by the Analogy of Gods Commandement binds all men To this Rivetus answereth that the consequence is not firme for as much as Christians observed the Lords Day not of necessity by reason of any binding praecept but of free choise Yet was it wisely done of them lest by a greater change they might offend the Iewes And that it might be a free monument of their maintaining the weekly remembrance of Christs Resurrection Hee sayeth they did it freely Resp but of things freely done without any conscience of duty obliging it was never knowne that so universall a concurrence was found as the observation of the Lords Day Nay Philosophers observe that things freely done as often come to passe to the contrary Againe then it was free for them to observe one day in fourteene as well as one in seven as Breâ—tius professeth and consequently as well one in twenty which Rivetus denies Nay it stood them upon to change the observation lest men by universall and
new 2 Cor. 5.17 and this he brings in upon shewing what Christ hath deserved at our hands in as much as he died for us and rose againe vers 15. the end whereof was this that he might be Lord both of quicke and dead Rom. 14.9 and concludes that whosoever is in Christ is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 And how are we in Christ but by faith Gal. 2.20 And what is the object of this our faith let the same Apostle answer us If thou confesse with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved so that this faith in Christs resurrection is to us the beginning of a new creature And Christs resurrection Sedulius calls nasâ—â—ntis mundi primordium And Athanasius saith That as the Sabbath was the end of the first creation so the Lords Day is the beginning of the second creature And this is it that Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake doe worke upon for the celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine institution But I am not a little sensible of some appearance of incongruity rising hereupon Almighty God did not thinke it fit that the first day of creation should be our Sabbath but the seventh from the creation as whereon himselfe rested but in the second creation the first day is made our Sabbath To this I answer two things the first is this if man should not rest unto God till the second creation is finished hee should not rest at all in this world And the sixe dayes being the dayes of Gods worke the seventh was the first of mans worke which God would have to be an holy worke most convenient whereby to take livery and seasin of the world For albeit God commanded Adam to dresse the garden and keepe it when he placed him in it yet it is nothing probable it had need of dressing so soone as it was made and no mention of rest commanded at the first onely it is said that because God rested that day from all his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it This I deliver to save the expression of Athanasius 2. But in my judgement there is an exact congruity betweene rest and rest in each creation For as God rested the seventh day from the worke of creation so Christ rested the first day of the weeke from his worke of Redemption which was the meritorious cause of the new creation For Christs dying and continuing under the power of death for a certaine time I may justly reckon as one worke of Redemption in which time hee suffered ignominy not onely from the reproach of the world but from the weaknesse of his servants faith Acts 24. whose voyce was wee thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel As for Zanchy in the place cited by Gomarus hee confesseth hunc diem ex traditione Apostolica esse optimo jure ab Ecclesia retentum That the Lords Day is to be observed by Apostolicall tradition and by the best right retained by the Church this the Prefacer in his wisedome omitted indeed hee saith we no where reade that the Apostles commanded it but left it free but take with you the rest ita liberum ut omnino ipse dies sanctificandus sit nisi charitas aliud postulat In such a manner free that omninò undoubtedly the day it selfe ought to be sanctified unlesse charity require otherwise I conceive his meaning is and the meaning of all that use this language that wee are to keepe it by no other obligation not of speciall commandement than the reason of the day doth minister unto us it being the day that the Lord hath made joyfull to Gods Church by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and in this sense they say it doth not bind mens consciences to wit as a Precept doth whether we know the equity of it or no. And it were very strange that Christians in keeping any holy day in the weeke should not make choice of the Lords Day for that without any expresse commandement Aretius saith no more than that Christians changed the Sabbath unto the Lords Day and can any man doubt but that the Apostles were meant hereby For which is most likely that the practice and judgement of others was a leading cause to the Apostles or rather that the judgement and practise of the Apostles was a leading cause unto all others Simler hath no more but this that he calls it the custome of the Church so doth Tilenus yet he proposeth it as likely to have had its institution from Christ Paraeus in the very place cited by Gomarus ascribeth the change of the day to the Apostolicall Church and expressely saith that the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to meet together the first day of the weeke and make their collections I wonder the Prefacer omits Cuchlinus was it because that which others call consuetudinem Ecclesiae hee calls consuetudinem Apostolicam In the last place Bucer is named by the Prefacer but Gomarus is well content to omit what is delivered by him But to the contrary I will not forbeare to set downe what I find in his booke De Regno Christi lib. 1. cap. 11. For having formerly described what are the true workes of holy rests added upon the backe of it Eapropter For this cause the Lords Day was consecrated by the Apostles themselves to these kind of actions Which ordinance of theirs institutum he calls it the antient Churches observed most religiously Then he shews the cause why they changed the day 1. The first reason given is to testifie that Christians are not obliged to the Pedagogie of Moses law 2. The second is to celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which was performed on the first day of the weeke So that not one of the Authors mentioned by him makes any thing for him And if the passages of the sixe mentioned by him and related by Gomarus did make any thing for him we have no lesse of the ancient Fathers to the contrary as namely Athanasius Cyril Eusebius Austin lately mentioned to whom adde Sedulius operis Paschalis lib. 5. cap. 21. The glory of the eternall King illustrating the first day of the weeke with the trophy of his resurrection primatum cum religione concessum diâ—rum censuit retinere cunctorum thought good it should have the primacy of all dayes granted unto it with religion that is with an holy celebration thereof Adde unto him Gregory mentioned in the first Section affirming that Antichrist affecting to imitate Christ shall command the Lords Day to be kept holy Adde to these the universall consent of Christendome in antient times for when the question was proposed unto them as usually it was thus Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Sabbath their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum For Brentius alleged by him to little purpose let mee represent what Gerard the Lutherane writes of our Christian
and in breaking bread Act. 2. and 5. and 1 Cor. 5. Now we willingly acknowledge that we Christians are not so bound to one day in the weeke as namely to the Lords Day as that we may not have our holy assemblies more often than once but onely so that we may not keep them lesse often nor omit the celebration of the Lords Day like as the Jews might not omit the celebration of their weekely Sabbath though sometimes many dayes together besides were kept holy by them So we Christians also having our Sabbath as our Saviour signified we should have when he said Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which Sabbath of ours wee keepe on the Lords Day though we may keep other days holy yet we may not omit this and if any shall take upon them to alter this Sabbath we may be bold to demand of them quo warranto by what warrant from the Lord of Sabbath But Chemnitius proceeds thus Now whereas afterwards the false Apostles did so urge those free observations of the Mosaicall Sabbath and other feasts as by law and with opinion of necessity as to condemne their consciences who observed them not Paul forbad the observation of them All which we willingly acknowledge but that hereupon they began first to ordaine another day in the weeke for their Ecclesiasticall assemblies and exercises of piety which yet Chemnitius proves not I leave it to the indifferent to judge by comparing his opinion with that of Austins who professeth as Chemnitius well knew that the Lords Day was declared unto Christians by the Lords resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity alleged by Chemnitius himselfe p. 156. especially considering the reason moving thē hereunto which Chemnitius confesseth to have been on that day the Lord role from the dead And seeing all festivals as Bishop Lake observes have beene observed in regard of some great worke done on such a day for the good of man whether ever any day brought forth a more wonderfull or more comfortable worke to mankind than the first day of the weeke which was the day of our Saviours resurrection from the dead let the Christian world judge This day Chemnitius saith seems to be called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day which appellation all antiquity did afterwards retaine and use yet notwithstanding saith he we doe not read that the Apostles did impose upon mens consciences in the new Testament the observation of that day by any Law or Precept but the observation was free for order sake Let us duly weigh and consider this together with the reasons following Calvine distinguisheth the observation of a day for order sake and the observation of a day for some mysterious signification sake had Chemnitius thus distinguished we would have subscribed thereunto and confessed that now adayes wee observe no day for any mysterious signification sake but onely for order sake And thus under the Gospel wee are freed from observation of daies for mysteries sake not free from observation of one certaine day in the weeke for order sake At for his phrase of imposing the observation of the Lords day upon mens consciences this phrase is most improper and unseasonable in this case it is onely proper and seasonable in case the thing imposed be of a burthensome nature like unto that Saint Peter speakes of Acts 15.10 saying Now therefore why tempt yee God to lay a yoke on the Disciples neckes which neither our Fathers nor we were able to beare Such indeed was the yoke of circumcision which provoked Zippora according to common opinion driven to circumcise her sonne to save her husbands life to throw the fore-skin at her husbands feet calling him a bloody husband for urging her thereunto But what burthen is it save unto the flesh to rejoyce in the Lord to sabbatize with him to walke with him in holy meditation Was it no burthen to the godly Jewes to consecrate one day in seaven to the exercises of Piety under the Law and shall it bee a burthen to us in the time of the Gospell Or can it bee conceaved to bee a greater burthen unto us to keepe our Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day then on any other day of the weeke was there ever any day of the weeke markt out unto us with a more honourable or more wonderfull worke to draw us to rejoyce in the Lord thereon then the first day of the weeke whereon our Saviour rose by his Resurrection to bring life and immortality to light yet we confesse we reade of no Law nor Precept for this in the new Testament but we reade that ever under the Gospell wee must have a Sabbath to observe Math. 24.20 And wee know and Chemnitius knew full well that it belongs to the Lord of the Sabbath to change it and consequently to ordaine it and that it was changed and the Lords Day observed generally in the Apostles dayes none that I know makes question of and how could thi◠bee but by the Apostles ordinance and is it likely they would take upon them this authority without a calling And why should that day of the weeke and not that day of the yeare bee called the Lords Day if not for the same use under the Gospell that the Lords Day was of under the Law especially that day under the Law which was the Jewes Sabbath being now abrogated and lastly wee finde it manifestly spoken of the day of Christs Resurrection Psal 118.24 This is the day that the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it yet lastly wheras Chemnitius will have it free and hee hath already manifested that hee speakes of it in this sense as not to be so tied to this day but that we may observe other dayes wee willingly grant that in this sense it is free Now let us consider his reason following For saith hee if we are freed from the Elements which by God himselfe in the old Testament were ordained and commanded how should we be tyed by the decrees of men But alas this reason of his hath no proportion the Elements hee speakes of were but shaddowes the body whereof is Christ and now Christ is revealed they were wont to bee called not onely Mortua but mortifera Yet the observation of one day in seven still continues to bee the Commandement of God delivered not to Moses as ceremonies were but by word of mouth proclaimed on mount Sina and naturall reason suggests unto us that wee must allow unto Gods service as good a proportion of time under the Gospell as hee required of the Jewes under the Law Now if one day in seven must bee set apart in common reason what day is to bee preferred for this before the Lords Day the day of Christs rest from the worke of redemption in suffering the sorrows of death as the day of the Lords rest from the Creation was appointed to the Jewes for their Sabbath And this Resurrection of
successe of his labours For this good he saith hath ensued thereupon namely that the said bookes of the Sabbath comprehending the above mentioned and many more such fearefull and hereticall assertions have beene both called in and forbidden to be printed any more and to be made common and that Archbishop Whitgift by his letters and officers at Synods and Visitations Anno 99. did the one and Sir John Popham Lord chiefe Iustice of England at Bury Saint Edmunds in Suffolke Anno 1600. did the other For all this we have nothing but his word and as for the bookes he talkes of hee had formerly mentioned but one printed 95. at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man of the doctrine of the Sabbath which appeares to be D. Bowndes Now was this ever called in Sure I am D. Willet upon Genesis came forth the yeere after this M. Rogers his Analysis of the Articles of the Church of England This hee dedicated to King Iames and over and above hath a second dedication in Latine to Archbishop Bancroft and to the bishop of London then being wherein hee signifieth that the one of them was author the other hortator unto him to perfect this worke of his and therefore undoubtedly came forth with as good approbation as the Analysis of Master Rogers upon the second Chapter of Gen. he observes that As the Sabbath kept then upon the seventh day in remembrance of the Creation was of the Lords institution so the Lords Day is now observed by the same authority in remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ and redemption by the same And this hee delivers in opposition to the Rhemists who count the observation of the Lords Day but a tradition of the Church and Ecclesiasticall institution and having spent a whole page in folio upon this argument in the next page thus hee writeth I doe wonder then this doctrine of the Sabbath and day of rest now called the Lords Day having such evident demonstration out of the Scriptures and being confirmed by the constant and continuall practise of the Church in all ages that any professing the Gospell specially being exercised in the Study of the Scriptures should gainsay and impugne these positions following as erroneous 1. That the Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath is naturall morall and perpetuall For if it be not so then all the Commandements contained in the Decalogue are not morall so should we have 9. and not 10. Commandements and then Christ should come to destroy the Law and not to fulfill is contrary to our Saviours own words Math. 5.17 2. That all other things in the Law were so changed that they were cleane taken away as the priesthood Sacrifices and Sacraments this day namely the Sabbath was so changed that it yet remaines For it is evident by the Apostles practise Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 Apo. 1.10 that the day of rest called the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke and so was observed and kept holy under the name of the Lords Day 3. That it is not lawfull to use the seventh day to any other end but to the holy and sanctified end for which in the beginning it was created 4. As the Sabbath came in with the first man so must it not goe out but with the last 5. That we are restrained upon the Sabbath from works as the Jewes were though not in such strict particular manner as they were yet in generall we are forbidden all kind of worke upon the Lords Day as they were which may hinder the service of God Now the Author that hee intimates as opposing these positions hee describes by the title of his booke in the margent which is this The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England printed at Cambridge p. 37. And the author of his booke I have heard to be Master Rogers and it seemes likely enough especially by the 2. first positions Doctor Willet concludes in this manner after hee had made use of divers allegations for the confirmation of his doctrine in opposition to the fore-mentioned Author but these allegations are here superfluous seeing there is a learned Treatise of the Sabbath already published of this argument which containeth a most sound doctrine of the Sabbath as it is said in the former positions which shall be able to abide the triall of the Word of God and stand warranted thereby when other humane fantasies shall vanish howsoever some in their heate and intemperance are not afraid to call them Sabbatariorum errores yea hereticall assertions a new Iubilee S. Sabbath more then either Iewish or popish institution God grant it be not layd to their charge that so speake or write and God give them a better minde About two yeares before this were set forth Master Perkins his cases of conscience wherein hee manifesteth his concurrence with Doctor Bownde in the doctrine of the Sabbath Neither doth Doctor Andrewes in any materiall thing differ from Doctor Bownde Master Perkins Doctor Will t. In the next relation of his which is of a familiar nature undoubtedly the Prefacer deserves to be believed That in a Towne of his acquaintance the preachers there had brought the people to that passe that neither baked nor roste meate was to be found in all the Parish for a sunday dinner throughout the yeare and hee concludes it with such an Epiphonema These are the fruites of such dangerous doctrines as if the fortunes of the Church or state were hazarded for want of bak't meate or rost meate on the sundayes And to confesse a truth though I never was nor never am like to be so precise yet considering my meane condition I have divers times thought thus with my selfe why should my provision hinder any of my servants from Sermons on the Sabbath day so little did I feare any dangerous consequence of this practise but since I am better informed by the suggestions of this judicious Prefacer I will take heede how I cherish such thoughts in my brest henceforth and if hee come at any time to take paines amongst us seeing I finde hee respects bak't meate and rost meate so well it shall goe hard but wee will have a tith Pig for his entertainement And so much the rather that I may cleare my selfe from Judaisme for Iack of Newbery my Countreyman being a great Clothier in his dayes and then strangers came from farre to buy Cloath at his House and amongst the rest a company of Jewes were sometime entertained by him being a very hospitallous man and an excellent house-keeper his house being accounted the best Inne in the Towne to make himselfe merry caused the table to bee furnished with all variety of Hogges flesh which they perceaving tooke it for a flout but after they had grumbled a while upon it hee made shew as if but then hee had remembred himselfe of his errour and not till then considered that they were Jewes and forthwith hee commanded all the dishes to be remooved
our service shall be acceptable with God for of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin we reade that Hee offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month even in the month which he had devised of his owne heart which latter clause undoubtedly is added by way of exprobration as also to prevent divisions by reason of different opinions thereabouts and as different courses therin it is fit that herein we should wait for the Lords direction and designation of the particular day And even this also was so ordered by God himselfe and that in great congruitie as appeares to as many as are acquainted with the story of the Creation For the Lord having dispatched all his workes in six dayes and resting on the seventh commanded man to imitate him For in this respect it was that at the first the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and some thousand of yeares after gives this reason why after six dayes of labour the seventh being the Sabbath of the Lord our God no manner of worke should be done therein which being once thus ordered by the Lord of the Sabbath it must be in force of perpetuall observation as a requisite determination of the morality of this Law and not of an alterable nature save only by the same authority whereby it was ordained Now to my understanding by the fourth Commandement it is cleare First that God commanded some time to bee set apart and sanctified unto his service Secondly that the proportion of this time he hath defined to be one day in seven Thirdly that the particular day under this proportion was designed to be the seventh and that unto the Iews in correspondencie to the seventh day from the first creation whereon God commanded them to rest from all their workes like as on that day the Lord rested from his works And I thinke there is no question amongst Christians but that all this ought to be religiously observed by the people of God untill the Lord himselfe manifest his pleasure for alteration and no farther in any particular than God shall manifest his pleasure for alteration As for example First for the time then son the rest lastly for the service of the day it selfe First If God hath not manifested his will for any alteration of setting apart some time for divine service we must still continue to set some time apart for divine service Likewise if God hath not manifested his pleasure to have the proportion of time altered which hath bin originally allotted unto his service we must not presume to allow a lesse proportion of time for his service than hath been formerly prescribed by him Only both Gomarus and Rivet concur in this that we may allow more and that in reason it is fit now under the Gospell to allow more time for Gods service rather than lesse in comparison to that which he would have allowed him under the Law And as for the particularity of the day if God hath manifested his pleasure to have it altered it must be altered as in case it appeare to have been ceremoniall in respect of the rest commanded thereon and another in the seven substituted in the place thereof and that according to Gods direction and not otherwise Secondly so as touching the rest of the day commanded upon Mount Sina unto the Jewes not so unto Adam upon the Creation but onely wee reade that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it which sanctification yet on mans part drawes a rest with it if there be found a just distinction betweene a rest morall so far forth as the sanctification of the day requireth and a rest ceremonial of a more rigorous nature and that prefiguring some thing in Christ it will follow herehence that the rest morall still continueth together with the sanctification of the day as much as ever and that the rigorous rest must fall and be abolished Thirdly so in the last place as touching the service of the day whatsoever was prescribed unto the Jewes thereon as ceremoniall is at end as namely the Sabbath sacrifice which doubled the daily sacrifice Only the publique ministery of the Word and Prayer as morall still continueth together with our Sacramentall ceremonies which Christ hath given unto his Church Baptisme and the Lords Supper and therefore the Lords day was called by the Ancients the day of light in reference unto Baptisme Baptisme being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illumination the first worke of grace and the day of Bread in reference to the Lords Supper Now all this I hope to make appeare before I give over this taske which I have taken in hand And I was the more confirmed in my meditations when I heard by one of my Auditors a Divine that in this doctrine of mine concerning the Sabbath as touching the substance of that which was delivered by me I nothing differed from the opinion of D. Prideaux whose discourse on that argument at that time I had not been acquainted with But since I finde that Sect. 8. of that his Lecture be professeth that the Jewish rest cannot stand with our Christian libertie I say so too and withall endevour to give evidence for the abrogation thereof Further the same Reverend Doctor professeth That we only are so farre to abstaine from worke as it is an impediment to the performance of such duties as are then commanded I am not only of his opinion herein but withall desire no more than this to be granted for the maintenance of the morall rest of the fourth Commandement But I have observed some to deny any thing in the Iewish Sabbath to have been ceremoniall yet will not have that fourth Commandement morall but positive rather as touching both the observation of one day in seven and as touching the particularity of the day And therefore they deny it to be morall because it hath not evidence by light of nature But was it evident to the Jewes by light of nature that the God of their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob and that brought them out of the land of Aegypt was the true God of the world and that therefore they ought to have no other gods but him Is it evident by the light of nature that God is not to be worshipped by an Image Or if naturall evidence hereof faile us in this state of corrupt nature wherein we are shall these lawes be denied to be the morall Law of God yet I nothing doubt but the proportion of time allowed for Gods service much more the particularity of the day appointed thereunto is alterable at the pleasure of God And ceremonials I confesse are in such a sense positive or rather more than positive namely such as not only may but must like shadowes fly away when the body of them comes in place And yet I find that Cajetan in this point confounds ceremoniall with positive though I think he would not call it ceremoniall
unlesse he conceived that this which he cals positive had some ceremoniality in it But their reason whereupon they deny the ceremoniality of it in my judgment is not sufficient 1. Because they ground it upon a supposition very questionable namely that the Sabbath was instituted before the fall which some deny and that with very great probability in my judgment 2. Their consequence is not good For though it were no ceremony at the first yet others say it might be afterwards and give instance in the rain-bow which though in course of nature extant before yet was not a signe till after the Flood and though I know some who would not admit of this instance yet the Thesis seemes very possible and clearely of such a condition was matrimony ordained without all question before the fall 3. What is that which they say is not ceremoniall is it the service of the day in the sanctifying of it None that I know maintains that to be necessarily ceremoniall Or is it the rest of the day Observe well and you shal find no rest expresly commanded at the first but only it is signified that God dedicated it to his service which yet I confesse willingly draws after it a rest from all works opposite or impedimentall to the sanctification of it 4. Thus they take little care to satisfie the Fathers who generally concurre in acknowledging the ceremoniality of it And we are too weak in these dayes to beare up an opinion in flat contradiction to the Ancients and to keepe our selves blamelesse Yet Doctor Andrews Bishop of Winchester ere hee died in his pattern of Catechetical doctrine professeth against the ceremoniality of it but so as acknowledging it to prefigure the rest we shall have from our sins in Christ and that therefore the day is changed though as he thinks the ceremony not thereby proved Yet pag. 241. having proposed such a question Whether we must observe the Sabbath as the Jewes did not to kindle a fire nor to dresse any meat on that day answereth thus We say No for this was but ceremoniall and belonged only unto them 5. Vpon this ground to wit upon the denying of the ceremoniality of the particular day they will hardly be able to justifie the abrogation of it For albeit they find some ground for observation of the Lords day yet no ground at all for the abrogation of the seventh And that which is only positive must still continue till it be abrogated by as good authority as whereby it was made 1. And wee find the practise of the Church for the observation of both some hundreds of yeares continued 2. And it seemes congruous to reason in the judgement of those who oppose both the institution of it forthwith after the creation and the morality of one day in seven that wee should consecrate to Gods service rather more dayes than fewer And surely to discover as good ground for observation of the Lords day now as for observation of the seventh formerly is the greatest difficulty that I find in this argument if not insuperable whereof yet wee shall find our selves in greater measure eased if we can shew manifest evidence for the abrogation of the seventh which was sabbaticall to the Jewes Now first this is clearly performed by acknowledgeing the ceremoniality of it which yet I doe not affect should be acknowledged without proofe Secondly thus also the Fathers shall fairely be satisfied Thirdly and the Introduction of the Lords day in the place therof advanced Fourthly especially if the ceremoniality be so cleared as plainly to manifest that the body thereof was Christ which is a very hard taske to performe of all other ceremonies yea of all other Sabbaths or any other Sabbath save of the weekely Sabbath But of all these to wit 1. Of the originall institution of it 2. Of the morality of one day in seven as perpetually to be observed 3. Of the authority of the Lords day introduced into the place of the seventh by more than Ecclesiasticall or Humane constitution we shall speak more by occasion of the severall passages in this discourse which comes to be examined so to make way to enquire about the sanctification of the Lords day whether in opposition as much to worldly sports and pastimes or more rather as to the works of our calling For to the consideration hereof we are now driven it being now held that they who speak or write against such sports and pastimes upon the Lords day our Christian Sabbath doe oppose truth Now whether we do oppose truth in standing for the sanctification of the Lords day and maintaining these pastimes specified to be an impediment thereunto we desire to commend our selves to the judgement of every Christian conscience upon consideration of our reasons herein represented Our Savior commands us to give unto Caesar that which is Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods and wee hold our selves bound to hearken unto his voice as we hope to be saved by his grace And because in some cases it may bee doubtfull what belongs unto Caesar and what belongs unto God by reason of the darknesse of our understanding and weaknesse of our judgement it behooves us so much the more to labour in the investigation of this difference and carefully looke unto it that under colour of giving unto Caesar that which is Caesars we doe not give unto Caesar that which is not Caesars and not give unto God that which is Gods and under colour of giving unto God that which is Gods we doe not give unto God that which is not Gods and not give unto Caesar that which is Caesars And albeit D. Prideaux his Lecture was neither delivered as I am perswaded by word of mouth nor afterwards set forth in print to strengthen so sharpe proceedings against the Ministers of God as now are in course yet seeing it hath been of late translated and published in English with a Preface to the justifying of the same proceedings even then as it seemes intended and that neither according to any Law or Canon that we know of therefore I am driven who otherwise I am verily perswaded should never have set hand unto this worke but lest it unto others who are better versed in practicall and pastorall Divinity than my selfe to give my self to the examination both of the Preface and of the Booke it selfe for we labour as it were for life under the burthen of it and this is set forth as it seemes to promote our condemnation THE DOCTRINE OF THE SABBATH DELIVERED in the Act at Oxenford Anno 1622. By D. PRIDEAUX His Majesties Professor in Divinity in that UNIVERSITIE And now translated into English for the benefit of the common people Marke 2.27 The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath Together with an Examination thereof The Preface of the Translator to the Christian Reader Preface 1 OF all the Controversies which have exercised Sect. 1 the Church of Christ
the Sabbath to abstaine from such a course whereby a mans strength would become more and more weakned and impaired Not that these things were commanded on the Sabbath day but permitted as is often signified by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is lawfull and for good reason “ Matth. 12.10.12 Mar 3.4 Luk. 6.9 For the Sabbath being ordained to promote a mans bene esse his well being and that in the best things it supposeth libertie to provide for his esse in case of necessitie lest otherwise he shall be found uncapable of those things that concerne his bene esse his well being For our nature wanting necessarie refreshment doth thereby many times become the more unfit for holy excerises and to performe that dutie which God requires and hath deserved at our hands How were Ionathans eyes enlightned upon the tasting of a little honey 1 Sam. 14.29 But this Translator desires as it seemes from the generalitie of mans good to seale up an opinion in the minds of his Readers that the Sabbath was made not onely for the service of God and for the promoting of a man in the knowledge and feare of God but for the furthering of his carnall pleasures also But never was it knowne that our Saviour justified any libertie to such courses on the Sabbath Neither were any such things as it seemes in course in the dayes of the Prophet Amos who reprehends them for saying Am. 8.5 When will the Sabbath be gone that they might returne to their worldly courses Rather they could wish their sun might stand still on that day as sometimes it did in the dayes of Ioshua if libertie were given to sports pastimes and pleasures on that day and it wvre wondrous strange that libertie should bee debarred them from kindling a fire to set forward the structure of the Sanctuarie Exod. 35 3. Luke 33.25 â—ast made to this very end that the Lord might dwell among them And from so precious a worke as the embalming of the body of Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and that at the very end of the day if at that time they were not restrained from any sensuall course of recreation according to the common fashion of the world Undoubtedly howsoever it stands now with us Christians in the dayes of our Saviour they that rested on their Sabbath from embalming the body of Christ Luk. 23.56 and that according to the appointment which is as much as to say according to the Law of God surely they by the same Law of God were much more restrained from worldly pleasures these standing far more in opposition to the sanctification of the Lords Sabbath then the embalming of the body of the Sonne of God who was Lord of the Sabbath And therefore this text is most unseasonably and impertinently alleaged by the Translator to serve his turn being farre more fit to crosse his purposes then any way to promote them So from the consideration of the title I come to the preface If the antiquitie of this controversie concerning the Sabbath were any thing materiall this Praefacer were foundered at the first For what if the Sabbath bee a part of the Law of Moses Was not the law of sanctifying the name of God the law forbidding images the law commanding them to have no other Gods but him that brought them out of the land of Aegypt the law commanding to honour parents to abstaine from murther adultery theft were not all these the Law of Moses Is not the law of sanctifying the Sabbath one of the tenne Commandements delivered by God from Mount Sinai as well as the other nine and was it not kept in the Arke as well as the rest Circumcision was no law of Moses and therefore albeit it be said Ioh. 7.22 That Moses gave unto them Circumcision yet forthwith it is added not because it is of Moses but of the Fathers so that Moses rather confirmed it then was the first giver of it So that the Law of Moses in this place is to bee understood of the ceremoniall law not of the morall law contained in the Decalogue and among these tenne Commandements that of the Sabbath is one and commended unto them in that state as none so much Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it and not onely before Moses but before Abraham and Noah also wee read Gen. 2. â— â— that the seventh day God rested from all the workes that hee had made and that therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Of any Minister or Pastor in the Church of England that maintaines us Christians to be obliged to the observation and sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath or of any Sabbath that is a shadow of things to come the body whereof is of Christ I never heard or read Yet for some hundred yeares in the Primitive Church not the Lords day onely but the seventh day also was religiously observed not by Ebion and Cerinthus onely but by pious Christians also as Baronius writeth and Gomarus confesseth and Rivet also that we are bound in conscience under the Gospell to allow for Gods service a better proportion of time than the Jewes did under the law rather than a worse And further it is well knowne that besides the weekely Sabbath there was variety of observation of times amongst the Jewes and divers of them called Sabbaths also as some think not one whereof was mentioned in the Decalogue or pronounced by the Lord from Mount Sinai as the fourth Commandement was for the sanctifying of the weekly Sabbath So that this Praefacer every way sheweth miserable loosenesse in his discourse And if Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris how wretched heretickes soever did still inforce the sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath whose wretchednesse yet consisted not so much in inforcing this as in inforcing all the ceremonies of Moses the Jewish Sabbath long after Corinthus continuing to be observed by many pious Christians as Baronius observeth others and Saint Paul doth oppose all such doctrine and practise in these passages of his here mentioned did not this Author know that upon these very passages of Saint Paul the Anabaptists and Socinians as vile heretickes as Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris for their blood have gone so farre as not onely to overthrow the observation of the Jewish Sabbath but the sanctifying of the Lords day also The opinion of the law ceremoniall standing still in force which indeed was the opinion of the heretickes mentioned is I confesse a dangerous point and such as not onely seemed as this Praefacer minceth it out of what degree of wisdome or providence I know not to confirme the Jewes in their incredulitie but indeed justly might confirme them nor onely occasion but justly cause also others to make question of our Saviours comming in the flesh not so the observation of the seventh day to sanctifie it for ought this Author hath hitherto manifested or throughout this preface of his doth manifest and
suspect every motion that should arise to withdraw them from it Fourthly and it was fit saith he that man sinning should be cast out of paradise before he had fully tasted of the pleasure thereof lest he afterward might be tormented with the losse and attemted to returne This reason my palate doth not relish so well the more Adam should be tormented with the losse of paradise the better it should be for him in my judgement rather then worse And as for attempting to returne I cannot conceave how he should be so vaine as to presume to evacuate Gods judgements and then againe of any such paradise after Adams banishment therence wee read nothing Fiftly And it is cleare saith Doctor Willet by the Serpents first on set hath God sayd ye shall not eate of every Tree that they had not yet tasted of any fruit but at the very first the forbidden fruit was offered before their appetite had beene served with any other But first I doe not finde that the Text mentioned hath any such importment Secondly this supposeth that the tast of other fruits would have beene apt to hinder the course of Satans temptations but how in respect of giving so good content and satisfaction yea but this satisfaction was no other then to the sensuall appetite but the Tree forbidden in the very name of it whence Satan tooke advantage to promote his temptation seemed to promise satisfaction in a far different kinde namely to the spirituall appetite of the minde 6. Adam saith he had not yet eaten of the Tree of life as it is evident verse 21. But if they had stayed any time in paradise it is not unlikely but they should have tasted of the tree of life it being in the heart of paradise This at first seemed to me very considerable but upon after thoughts not so For certainly it assured not life but upon obedience and therefore without obedience the tasting thereof if accessible in that case would have stood him in small stead 7. Likewise saith he seeing presently after the Creation they were bidden to encrease and multiply it is no other like but the man should have known his wife in paradise if they had stayed there so long and so they should have gotten children without sin This reason is not to be despised although to stay a day or two in Paradise was not to stay there long But considering that then they might company together without all sinne so much as in thought or circumstance of act the want whereof makes even acts naturall in this condition of ours shamefull unto us why should they deferre the propagation of mankinde especially considering that the child conceaved in the state of innocency should have beene without sinne 8. The eighth reason is in effect the same with that of Broughtons If Adam had not sinned the first day the Lion had eaten Grasse this in my judgement is a most insipid reason First because God had ordained that all beasts at the first should live by Grasse Gen. 1.30 Secondly In the arke of Noah Lions must have eaten Grasse or Hay or else have starved they had no power to prey upon their fellow passengers Thirdly if Lyons and Beares at first had lived by pray even after Adams fall what had become of the rest of Gods Creatures Imbelles damae quid nisi praedae sumus Lastly it is well knowne that in these dayes in new England Beares doe live by Grasse and their flesh for mans meate is accompted better then Venison 9. Never any man on Earth Christ only excepted kept the Sabbath without sin the Apostle saith he that is entred into his rest hath also ceased from his own works as God did from his Hebr. 4.10 It is the rest only of Christ where there shall be a cessation from all the works of sin But that rest which Adam should have kept in paradise was not Christs rest therefore he kept no rest there without sin he fell then before the Sabbath This argument I confesse seemes to be very ponderous and savoury as built upon the Apostles discourse Heb. 4. But the proposition is not sufficiently proved For to cease from a mans owne workes as they are taken from sinnes is evidently competent to none but such as have formerly sinned which cannot agree to Adam in the state of innocency Yet it cannot be denyed but that Adam continued in innocency and without sinne untill his fall And so long rested from sinne though not in Christ save that to rest from sinne supposeth the precedency of sinne But albeit this were granted it followeth not that he fell before the Sabbath for he might fall on the very Sabbath which was the opinion of the author of the Jewes Darash mentioned by Rabbi David Kimchi on the 92. Psalm 10. That place lastly makes to this purpose Psalme 49.13 Adam lodged not one night in honour for so are the words if they be properly translated the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to lodge or stay all night and thus diverse of the Rabbins doe expound this place of Adam and he quotes Rabbi Nathan R. Menachem and Midras Tehillim It cannot be denied but this place is very pregnantly appliable unto Adam as the first and chiefest object on whom this truth is verified as being in the chiefest honour that ever man had on Earth Lord of all the World and the Father of mankinde and placed in Paradise and the verbe properly signifies pernoctare to continue a night Onely it is of the future tense which yet to beare the signification of the time past is nothing strange in the Hebrew though it hath not alwayes Vau conversivum the signe of such conversion And the very word Adam is here expressed and we are very apt usually to accommodate unto Adam without all reference to this question or consideration of the propriety of the Hebrew word signifying pernoctare But let us returne to that from whence we have digressed Be it so that Adam continued in his integrity untill the end of the seventh day doe we not read expressely Gen. 2.5 that God tooke the man and put him in the Garden of Eden that he might dresse it and keepe it therefore God had worke for him to doe even in things of this World as well as hee hath for us And Martin Luther professeth as much Tom 6. in Gen. c. 2. v. 3. It followes from hence saith he that if Adam had stood in his innocency yet he should have kept the seventh day holy that is on that day he should have taught his children and childrens children what was the will of God and wherein his worship did consist he should have praysed God given thanks and offered On other dayes he should have tilled the ground looked to his Cattell And Selncecerus treads in Luthers steps treating upon the Commandement of the Sabbath Why then should it be thought superfluous to ordaine some dayes for the works of this World
should bee so whether manifested by Christs particular charge unto them or by comparing Christs Resurrection with the Lords rest from the workes of Creation Otherwise in my judgement they had never called that day the Lords Day Fourthly he excepts against the argument drawne from Christs Resurrection denying that therehence it followes that that day was to bee consecrated to God But herein hee opposeth all the ancients neither doe I thinke hee can alleage any one that doth not hereon build the observation of the Lords Day which nuiversall concurrence doth manifestly argue to be more then probable Austin as Waleus alleadgeth him professeth not as his peculiar opinion but as he took it generally received without contradiction that Dies Dominicus Christianis resurrectione Domini declaratus est and that resuscitatio Domini consecravit nobis diem Dominicum And Athanasius plainly takes notice of the analogy it hath to the fourth Commandement and analogy Doctor Walaeus grants and I wonder hee takes no notice of it here by comparing the second Creation with the first Creation and so Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester professeth that the new Creation requires a new Sabbath especially seeing the old must bee abrogated as ceremoniall But the analogy I confesse may be differently shaped Athanasius shapes it thus that the Jewes Sabbath was the end of the first Creation and that the Lords Day is a beginning of the second Creature to wit as the day of Christs resurrection in reference whereunto the Apostle saith Old things are passed behold all things are become new And I conceive reason to justifie Athanasius in making the beginning of the new creature to be our Sabbath answerable to the end of the first creation to wit because the second creation hath no end in this world Againe Adam and Eve were made but the immediate day before the seventh and the seventh he was to spend in rejoycing in Gods works so Christs death was the worlds redemption and immediately after to wit with Christs rising it was as fit we should Sabbatize with God for joy of our Redemption Otherwise the analogie which Doctor Walaeus grants but doth not explicate may be conceived thus The seventh day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the worke of creation the first day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the work of redemption in the morning thereof rising from his grave and in respect of Christs resurrection on this day what colour hath any other day of the weeke comparable hereunto to make it fit to stand in competition with this Yes saith D. Walaeus the Thursday may and that in consideration of Christs ascension on that day yet Doctor Walaeus well knowes that that day of the week was never thereupon called the Lords Day either by the Apostles or by the Church as the day of our Saviors resurrection was Againe consider Christs resurrection and ascension are to be computed but as one compleate motion save that he was to stay some time by the way here on earth for the confirming of his Disciples faith and giving them commission for preaching the Gospel and order to wait at Jerusalem untill they were endued with power from on high to carry the glad tidings of salvation all the world over So Christs dying and continuing under the power of death is but one worke of Redemption He confesseth that Christs resurrection afforded an argument to the Church Apostolicall to prefer this day before all others very well even before the day of his ascention for religious assemblies as al the ancients testifie But it followeth not therefore that Christ by this his fact did institute the same day to the same end Now this is a very strange phrase by his fact on the day to institute the day to such an end T is well knowne facts doe not institute otherwise than as therefrom may be concluded that such a day is to be kept and in this sense he doth as good as confesse that Christ by his fact did institute for the Apostolicall Church did hereupon preferre this day as he confesseth all the ancients doe testifie And did they not inferre this there-hence also as most agreeable to the Will of God Doctor Walaeus proceedeth thus So God in the creation of the world rested the seventh day but unlesse God had proposed this rest of his as an example and confirmed it by precept never had the Church of the old Testament beene bound as from heaven to the weekly observation thereof To this I answer that the like may be said of the observation of one in seven yet seeing God did cōmand this proportion to the Jews without any new commandement we can inferre that surely God requires as good a proportion of us Christians In like manner seeing God commanded unto them the day of his rest from creation we without any the like commandement may better inferre that Christs resting day from the worke of Redemption ought to be our rest than they could that the seventh day ought to be their rest 2. Man could not possibly have knowne how many dayes God was creating the world so to know what day he rested that they might conforme unto him in their rest unlesse God had revealed it unto them but supposing God had revealed it and withall had called it his holy day and it were knowne unto them that one day in the weeke must be set apart as Gods holy Day in this case I appeal to every Christian conscience whether this were not sufficient to conclude that surely the day of the Lords rest being his holy Day ought to be the day of our rest and our holy day Now thus the case stands with us Christians we know what day our Saviour rose having finished the worke of mans Redemption we know the Jewes Sabbath is abrogated we know the proportion of one day in seven remaines still to be consecrated as an holy day to the Lord we know the Lord prescribed to the Jewes for their Sabbath his resting day from the creation which is called his holy day And in like manner we know that under the Gospel the first day of the weeke being the day of our Saviours resurrection is called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day as for Easter and Pentecost the case is nothing like those festivalls being not of single dayes but of whole weeks once in a yeere yet this proportion we find betweene them and the weekely Sabbath There are in a yeere seven times seven weeks and a fraction lesse than halfe a seven so that the memory of the creation was seven times in a yeere celebrated more than the memory either of their deliverance out of Egypt or of their reaping the fruits of the land of Canaan the one farre surmounting the other yet their Easter began the day of the yeere whereon they came out of Egypt And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells Thes 41. de Sabbat professeth that God sets out the day by the worke he doth on the
Christ bringing with it a new Creation Shall wee preferre the Saturday the Jewes festivall before it shall wee preferre the Friday the day of the Turkes festivall before it shall wee affect power and liberty to make any other day in the weeke the Lords holy day rather then that the Word of God commends unto us for the Lords Day in the time of the Gospell This I suppose may suffice for answering the rest also whensoever their suffrages shall bee brought to light for I presume none of them hath sayd more then Chemnitius hath done Azorius the Jesuite professeth of two things in this argument that they are most agreeable to reason First that after six worke dayes one entire day should bee consecrated to God 2. that the Lords Day should bee it Doctor Fulke in answer to the Remish Testament professeth that to change the Lords Day and keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles This was printed in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and dedicated unto her Majesty what Bishop as gouernour in this Church of England hath ever beene known to take exception against this Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his starre Chamber speech in the Case of Traske professeth that the Sabbath to wit of the Iewes had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are now Creatures As the Apostle S. Paul speakes a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this he saith is deduced plainly 1. by practise 2. by precept that these two onely the first day of the weeke and the Sacrament of the Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to be taken in both So that give power to the Church to alter the one and you may as well give power to the Church to alter the other He shewes also it was an usuall question put to Christians Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Lords Day And their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and I cannot intermit it Lastly he allegeth the Synod of Laodicea Can. 29. acknowledged in that of Chalcedon 133. that Christian men may not Judaize not make the Saturday their day of rest but that they are to worke on that day giving their honour of celebration to the Lords Day Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath 39. The Church hath received it the Lords Day not to be liberae observationis of free observation as if men might at pleasure accept or refuse it 40. But to be perpetually observed to the worlds end For as God onely hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that he will take for his portion For he is Lord of the Sabbath 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the works therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Adde unto these Iunius and Piscator who maintaine the subrogation of the Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath to have beene made by the ordinance of Christ and Beza acknowledgeth it to be traditionis Apostolicae verè divinae Doctor Brownde in his Treatise of the Sabbath lib. 1. pag. 47. having recited the opinion of Iunius referring the institution of the Lords Day to Christs ordinance as who rose from the dead on that day addeth hereunto after this manner Like unto the which because nothing can ever fall out in the world comparable unto it in glory and power therefore this day must continue in his first honour of sanctification unto the end of all things and no day be set up like to it or it changed into any other day lest the wonderfull glory of that thing be darkened and the infinite power of it weakned I meane the glorious and mighty worke of our redemption which by the sanctification of this Sabbath is commended unto us and we by keeping that holy still doe commend it to our posterity And this is it that is alleged as a reason of the observation of this day in the Apostles constitutions Const Apost l. 7. c. 37. It is called the Lords Day because it declares unto us Christ crucified and raised up againe and it is worthily commended to be kept as the Lords Day that wee might give thankes unto thee O Lord Christ for all these benefits for say they there is that grace bestowed upon us by thee Qua sua magnitudine omnia beneficia obscurat which by the greatnesse and as it were by the brightnesse of it doth obscure and darken all other So that though the day was once changed upon these considerations nay they being such as they be it could not but be changed yet forsomuch as the like cause can never be offered unto men to move them to enter into this consideration therefore the day must not onely not be changed any more but it must not so much as enter in mens thoughts to goe about to change it And therefore I doe so much the more marvell at him who saith That the keeping holy of the Lords Day is not commanded by the authority of the Gospel but rather received into use by the publique consent of the Church And a little after The observation of the Lords Day is profitable and not to be rejected but yet it is not to be accounted for a commandement of the Gospel but rather for a civill ordination And that the Church might have appointed but one day in ten or foureteene for the publique rest and Gods service Lastly Master Perkins maintaines the same not to mention Doctor Willet and that by divers reasons in his cases of conscience which because they are modestly answered by Doctor Rivet in his commentary upon the Decalogue I thinke good in this place to take them into consideration A FOVRTH DIGRESSION MAKING GOOD Mr. PERKINS his Arguments for the Divine institution of the Lords Day against the answer made unto them by Doctor RIVETVS Perkins THeir first Argument saith he is taken from the appellation of the Lords Day I suppose saith Master Perkins it is called the Lords Day as the last supper of Christ is called the Lords Supper for two causes First as God rested the seventh day after the creation so Christ having finished the worke of the new creation rested on this day from the work of Redemption Secondly as Christ did substitute the last supper in roome of the passeover so hee substituted the first day of the weeke in roome of the Jewes Sabbath to be a day set apart to his owne worship To this Doctor Rivet answereth after this manner Rivet Answ First hee denies that there is the same reason
of the Lords supper the Lords Day and that for two reasons first because we have a manifest institution thereof and Christs Precept for the observing of it Not so of the Lords Day Secondly if there were a Precept for keeping the Lords Day yet were it Ecclesiasticall and so mutable For men may choose daies for the worship of God as touching the particularity of this day or that But the institution of the Sacraments is of Divine authority by the consent of all To this I replie that Doctor Rivetus corrupts Master Perkins his answer in the proposing of it Repl. for he sayth not the same is the reason of the Lords Supper and of the day which wee call the Lords Day but supposeth and that most modestly that either of them being called the Lords they are called so in the same Notion That like as the Lords Supper is so called because he instituted it so the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day because hee instituted the observation of it And this Doctor Thysius collegue to Doctor Rivetus maintaines as well as Master Perkins and Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech against Traske saying that both these to wit the first day of the weeke and Christ last Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to bee taken in both For what reason can bee given why the day of Christs Resurrection not according to the day of the yeare wherein hee arose but according to the day of the weeke wherein hee arose should bee called the Lords Day but to signifie First that it was to succeed in the place of the Lords Dayunder the law which was the Jewish Sabbath 2. And that it was the good pleasure of God and not of man onely that it should bee consecrate to his service For consider wee have many other dayes consecrated by the Church unto Divine service which yet were never called the Lords Dayes And the Lords Day and the Lords feasts in the Old Testament and in the language of the Holy Ghost are no other then such that are of the Lords institution Secondly Doctor Rivetus omits the maine force of Master Perkins his argument or at least slightly passeth it over which is this As God rested the seventh day after the Creation so Christ having ended the worke of the new Creation rested on this day from his worke of redemption Athanasius of old considers a first and a second Creation and so accordingly a first and a second Sabbath our Saviour himselfe speakes of a Christian Sabbath Math. 24.20 and wâ—â—t should that bee but the Lords Day under the Gospell And Beza and Iunius and Bishop Andrewes worke upon the same And I wonder that men should thinke the Sabbath should bee altered and another brought into the place of it by any other authority then of him who is Lord of the Sabbath And as Bishop Lake observes in all feasts both Divine and humane that wee reade of in Scripture the worke of the day was the ground of hallowing the day And never was known to the World a more wonderfull worke in the way of grace and mercy then Christs Resurrection from the dead manifesting thereby the redemption of the World as then wrought by him How doth Christ take upon him to alter the Sacraments but as Lord of the Sacraments and apparently he shewes that upon the same ground hee takes upon him power to dispense or change the Sabbath as hee is Lord of the Sabbath But what is his ground to deny the parity of reason here meerely his owne prejudicate conceit that the obligation of the Lords Day is not so great as the observation of the Sabbath The contrary whereunto saith he omnes refugimus we all avoyd But who and how many are those all what one of the ancients can hee produce to have thought as hee thinks Hee may as well say according to the current of his private opinion that wee under the Gospell are not as much bound to the observation of one day in seaven as the Jewes were under the Law It is true that rigorous rest enjoyned to the Jewes wee utterly disclaime as well as hee againe the circumstance of the day wee make no part of Gods worship nor to have any mysterious signification as the Sabbath had to the Jewes Wee acknowledge no other use of this day then for order and policy sake in which case wee judge it farre better the Lord should prescribe it then wee unto our selves least if there were twenty dayes in the weeke there would bee twenty differences amongst Christians about the setting apart of one day in the weeke for Divine Service Perkins 2. Master Perkins his second argument is this The Church of Corinth every first day of the weeke made a collection for the poore 1 Cor. 16.2 and this collection for the poore in the primitive Church followed the preaching of the Word Prayer and the Sacraments as a fruite thereof Acts 2.42 and Paul commands the Corinths to due this as he had ordained in the Churches of Galatia whereby he makes it to be an Apostolicall and therefore a Divine Ordinance Yea that very Text doth in some part manifest thus much that it is an ordinance and institution of Christ that the first day of the weeke should be the Lords Day For Paul commandes nothing but what he receaved from Christ To this Doctor Rivetus alledgeth the answer of Doctor Prideaux Rivets Ans Reply demanding how that we contend for his inferred herehence we answer the generall practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes argues it manifestly that this order was established by the joynt consent of the Apostles otherwise it is incredible it should have beene so universally receaved and persevered in as it hath beene to this day Secondly wheras the Jewes Sabbath was by divine authority the abrogation thereof and substituting another day in the place thereof could bee done by no lesse authority then Divine which also wee conceave to bee fairely represented by the denomination of our Christian Sabbath S. Iohn calling it the Lords Day Secondly he sheweth what Gomarus answereth hereunto but this answer himselfe taketh off in this very place in part and much more in his reply to Gomarus But these places being granted to denote the first day of the weeke in the Apostles dayes set apart to Divine Service hee sayth it followes not herehence that it is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service much lesse that so it was by Divine ordination Yet Walaeus thinkes it his safest course to say t is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service as before wee have heard so to avoyd as hee thinkes the implication of Divine Ordination But to him I have answered before And Doctor Rivetus in my opinion doth not wel consider that not the day of the yeare but the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day by S.
desperate as that which followeth thereupon in practice Divers particulars whereof he reciteth out of the same Master Rogers his preface to his comment upon the Articles of the Church of England And indeed this Master Rogers glorieth there Pyrgopolynices-like that he hath beene the man and the meanes that these Sabbatarian errours and impieties were brought into light and knowledge of the State so he speakes and that this is a comfort to his soule and would be to his dying day And in very deed the particulars mentioned by him are very foule for hee saith It was preached in a market towne in Oxfordshire that to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly It was preached in Summersetshire that to throw a bowle on the Sabbath day is as great a sinne as to kill a man that it was preached in Norfolke that to make a feast or wedding-dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a father to take a knife and cut his childs throat I wonder the Prefacer doth not call them miracles Sommersetshire is a pretty large County and there be many market townes in Oxfordshire and I doe not doubt but there are many parishes in Norfolke But no particular is here set downe either of person or of place and wee have no better authority for the proofe of these imputations than this mans word which yet undoubtedly was not present at these Sermons for then he would have beene very carefull to expresse that as in the next story hee doth the like So that in the issue the strength of all comes but to this that he hath heard it thus reported Now I have heard it preached and that at Saint Maries in Oxford that a man in Bunbury or thereabouts having broken a bone his sonne refused to goe for a Bone-setter because it was the Lords Day and this Sermon afterwards comming into print the party finding himselfe agrieved by this scandalous report cast forth of him repaired to the quarter Sessions holden at Oxford and complained to the Justices of the wrong that was done unto him the Preacher of that Sermon being by and the whole matter being opened and the contrary justified the preacher professed that he delivered no more than he had heard but promised the next time that he printed that Sermon hee would leave that story out Doctor Hoskins of our house was present at the hearing of this businesse and brought us word of it But whether that Sermon ever came to be printed a second time I know not In like sort I have heard it reported of Master Bolton that when one fell into the River on the Sabbath day he would not suffer those that were with him being neere to runne to helpe him out I professed at the hearing of it I knew Master Bolton so well that it seemed uncredible to me but the reporter professed to deliver it upon knowledge But if it were so many there be that can beare witnesse thereunto in the place where he lived Lately it hath beene brought unto mee that one hath beene heard to lay to my charge behind my backe that I should say David sinned more in dancing about the Arke than either in deflouring Bathshebath or killing Vriah though it is such a comparison that never entered into my thoughts how much lesse to passe so prodigious a judgement upon the comparison In the last place he saith It was preached in Suffolke and that he could name the man and was present when he was convented before his ordinary for preaching the same that to ring more bels than one upon the Lords day to call the people unto Church is as great a sinne as to commit murther this is more particular than the rest and had hee added one thing more the evidence had been compleat namely that as he saith he was convented for it before his Ordinary so he was found convicted of it which if it were so I wonder he should conceale it if it were not so of what credit is this his relation He addes that many things to this effect he had read before in the Sabbath doctrine printed at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man what this booke was I could not devise but lately have gotten into my hands D. Bowndes booke of the Sabbath I finde by comparing it well that this is the booke he girds at Now I finde nothing in him to this effect though I have gone over most of the first booke and in the Index doe not finde any thing that can give me probability in the second booke tending to any such effect and I wonder he spared to quote the place where such doctrines are to be found nothing being more convenient to justifie his criminations than to quote for it something that is to be seene in print and thereby to cleare himselfe from the suspicion of a malignant But this Prefacer very judiciously believes him throughout because the Relator was present when the broacher of the last position was convented for it yet doth he not say he was convicted of it And upon what ground he proceeds so judiciously in believing it is remarkeable to wit because himselfe hath heard it preached in London that the Law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that whoever did the workes of his ordinary calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore Now I professe he seemes to me a great deale more politique herein than at the first I was ware of For had hee not believed Master Rogers his report this way others might have taken as great liberty to believe but their part concerning this Therefore it stood him upon first to manifest his ingenuous facility in believing another that this might be a shooing-horne to draw on others by way of the like ingenuous facility to believe him also yet such things may be for as long as the world lasts we shall be exercised with wilde wits and so no doubt we shall with tale-tellers too and so much the more in all likelihood the neerer the world approacheth to an end It hath beene so amongst Philosophers in Cicero his observation it hath been so amongst Schoole-divines it is so amongst Socinians and Arminians But let the saddle be set upon the right horse and let every man beare his owne burthen Now I have made it manifest that the doctrines which he picks out of D. Bownde and stiles Sabbatarian doctrines are the doctrines of D. Andrewes afterwards Bishop of Winchester I could shew them to be the doctrines of many other worthy Prelates that have been of this kingdome and it may be that if the votes of the Bishops of this kingdom were taken the major part would concurre with us as touching the doctrine of the Sabbath rather than against us The same Master Rogers sacrificeth to his net and burnes incense to his yarne and magnifies the good
and other dishes already prepared to be set on the board wherewith his table was as well furnished as it was with guests But to returne it is an easy matter now a dayes to accuse of any thing as Doctor Prideaux hee saith accuseth us of Judaisme but si accusare sufficiat quis innocens erit when hee or Doctor Prideaux shall prove their accusations then let us be condemned and if wee be not condemned till then wee care not Yet it is untrue which hee pins upon Doctor Prideaux his sleeve as if hee should alleage Austin saying that they who literally understand the fourth Commandement doe not yet savour of the spirit neither S. Austin speakes this of the fourth Commandement nor is hee so alleaged by Doctor Prideaux but of the seventh day Quisquis diem illum observat sicut litera sonat carnà liter sapit As much as to say whosoever keeps that day which the Jew keepes favoureth carnally Neither did I know any of my brethren to stand for the sanctifying of the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day Sect. 8. from the Creation but onely of one day in seaven which day must also be prescribed by God as the seventh day of the weeke was to the Jewes which is the next thing imputed unto us but the Lords Day is the first day of the weeke to us Christians Sect. 8. Pref. This when I had considered when I had seriously observed how much these fancies were repugnant both to the tendries of this Church and judgments of all kinde of writers and how unsafe to be admitted I thought I could not goe about a better worke then to exhibite to the view of my deare Countreymen this following Treatise delivered first and afterwards published by the Author in another language The rather since of late the clamour is encreased and that there is not any thing now more frequent in some Zelotes mouthes to use the Doctors words then that the Lords Day is with us licentiously yea sacrilegiously profaned Section first To satisfie whose scruples and give content unto their mindes I doubt not but this following discourse will be sufficient which for that cause I have translated faithfully and with as good propriety as I could not swerving any where from the sense and as little as I could from the phrase and letter Gratum opus agricolis a worke as I conceave it not unsuitable unto the present times wherein besides these peccant fancies before remembred some have so farre proceeded as not alone to make the Lords Day subject to the Jewish rigour but to bring in against the Jewish Sabbath and abrogate the Lords Day altogether I will no longer detaine the reader from the benefit hee shall reape thereby Onely I will crave leave for his greater benefit to repeat the summe thereof which is briefely this First that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first Creation of the World nor ever kept by any of the ancient patriarchs who lived before the Law of Moses therefore no morall and perpetuall precept as the other are Sect. 2. Secondly that the sanctifying of one day in seven is ceremoniall onely and obliged the Jewes not morall to oblige us Christians to the like observance Sect. 3. and 4. Thirdly that the Lords Day is founded onely on the authority of the Church guided therein by the practice of the Apostles not on the fourth Commandement which hee calls a scandalous doctrine Sect. 7. nor any other expresse authority in holy Scripture Sect 6. and 7. Then fourthly that the Church hath still authority to change the day though such authority be not fit to be put in practice Sect. 7. Fifthly that in the celebration of it there is no such cessation from works of labour required from us as was exacted of the Jewes but that we may lawfully dresse meat proportionable to every mans estate and doe such other things as are no hindrance to the publique service appointed for the day Sect. 8. Sixthly that on the Lords Day all recreations whatsoever are to be allowed which honestly may refresh the spirits and increase mutuall love and neighbour-hood amongst us and that the names whereby the Jewes were wont to call their festivalls whereof the Sabbath was the chiefe were borrowed from an Hebrew word which signifieth to dance and to be merry or make glad the countenance If so if all such ceremonies as do increase good neighbor-hood then wakes and feasts and other meetings of that nature If such as honestly may refresh the spirits then dancing wrestling shooting and all other pastimes not by law prohibited which either exercise the body or revive the mind And lastly that it appertaines to the Christian Magistrate to order and appoint what pastimes are to be permitted and what are not obedience unto whose commands is better farre than sacrifice to the Idols of our owne inventions not unto every private person or as the Doctors owne words are not unto every mans rash zeale who out of a schismaticall Stoicisme debarring men from lawfull pastimes doth incline to Judaisme Sect. 8. Adde for the close of all how doubtingly our Author speakes of the name of Sabbath which now is growne so rife amongst us Sect. 8. Concerning which take here that notable dilemma of Iohn Barkley the better to encounter those who still retaine the name and impose the rigor Paren l. 1. c. ult Cur porrò illum diem plerique Sectariorum Sabbatum appellatis What is the cause saith he that many of our Sectaries call this day the Sabbath If they observe it as a Sabbath they must observe it because God rested on the day and then they ought to keepe that day whereon God rested and not the first as now they doe whereon the Lord began his labours If they observe it as the day of our Saviours resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest the day but valiantly overcame the powers of death This is the summe of all and this is all that I have to say unto thee good Christian reader in this present businesse God give thee a right understanding in all things and a good will to doe thereafter Exam. This Prefacer accounts the opinions opposite to his to be fancies D. Willet on the contrary as wee have heard accounts this Prefacers opinion maintained by M. Rogers no better than fantasies which shall vanish however now for a time they flourish Sure wee are every plant that our heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out This Prefacer professeth those whom hee opposeth be opposite to the tendries of our Church and indeed the Author whom D. Willet intimateth intitled his booke audaciously enough The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England but D. Willet on the other side wondred that any professing the Gospel should gain-say and impugne the positions maintained by D. Bownde And sure I am Bishop Babington Bishop Andrewes Bishop Lake agreed with
zeale of Gods Glory and it becomes us to be zealous of his Glory considering how zealous hee is for our good Esay 9.7 Esay 59.17 Of the sufficiency of the following discourse we shall by Gods helpe consider in due time But I confesse it may be very sutable to these times whereof the Apostle prophecied men should be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God and undoubtedly it will suit well with their affections like a sweete morsell to the epicure which hee roules under his tongue but all the praise is in parting and I would they would but thinke of that of the Prophet What will be the end thereof when wee shall give God cause to say of our Sabbath as hee sayd of the Jewish I have hated your Sabbaths And if there be any such practises of Satan on foote as to bring in the Jewish Sabbath let it be considered in the feare of God what doctrine doth more promote therein whether that which makes the celebration of the Lords Day Divine or rather that which makes it merely of humane institution and who seeth not that if it be left to the liberty of the Church they may bring in the Jewish Sabbath if it pleaseth them Though it be notoriously untrue as may be made to appeare both by Scripture evident reason and authority humane both ancient and moderne both Papists and Protestants that the Sabbath was not ordained immediately upon the creation yet were that negative granted since God hath manifested in his Law that he requires one day in seven to be set apart for his service it evidently followes even by the very light of nature that it were most unreasonable wee should allow him a worse proportion of time for his service under the Gospell that consequently the observation of one day in seven is to be kept holy unto the Lord is now become morall and perpetuall unto the very end of the world neither was it ever heard that any man did set his wits on worke in devising a ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven A prefiguration of Christ in some respect hath beene found in the Jewish rest on the seventh day of the weeke but of any prefiguration of ought in Christ by an indefinite proportion of one day in seven the world dreamed not of till now neither doth any man offer to devise what possibly this might prefigure in Christ As for the third it cannot be denied but that Christ manifested before his death that his Christian Churches should observe a Sabbath as well as the Jewes did this appeares Matth. 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day and thus Bishop Andrewes accommodates that place in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine It is as manifest that the day of Christs resurrection is called in the Scripture the Lords Day as manifest that not the day of the yeere but the day of the week whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day which few take notice of Likewise in the old Testament is manifest that the Jews Sabbath is called the Lords holy Day Then the congiuity in reference to the reason of the originall institution is most exact For first Christ by his resurrection brought with him a new creation and this new creation as D. Andrewes expresseth it treading herein in the steps of the ancients requireth a new Sabbath and as the Lord rested on the seventh day from the worke of creation so our Saviour on the first day of the weeke from the worke of Redemption And lastly the day of Christs resurrection was the day whereon Christ the stone formerly refused by the builders was made the head of the corner and of this day the Prophet professeth of old saying This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it which can have no other congruous meaning but this this is the day which the Lord hath made festivall especially considering the doctrine of Bishop Lake which is this that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day as is to be seene in the institution of all festivalls both Humane and Divine And I have already shewed how absurd it is that wee should expect it should be left unto the Church her liberty to appoint it considering the great danger of dissention thereabouts and extreme confusion thereupon And it cannot be denyed but this day was established by the Apostles and that as of authority Divine as appeares generally by the ancients Athanasius professing that Dominus consecravit hunc diem Austin that Apostoli sanxerunt and Gregory that Antichrist when hee comes into an humour of imitating Christ should command the observation of the Lords Day and Eusebius hath as pregnant a testimony to the same purpose as any and Sedulius and that not one of the Ancients as I know alleged to the contrary So that to ascribe the institution of it to humane authority that every way were a scandalous doctrine and so would the practice be also according thereunto And consequently the Church hath no authority to change the day as Doctor Fulke professeth against the Rhemists And to say the contrary is to say that the Church hath authority to concurre with the Jewes in keeping with them the Saturday with the Turks in keeping with them the Friday yea that they have authority to divide the dayes of the weeke one nation taken one day to observe and another another which is as much as to say that the Church hath authority to be notoriously scandalous In the fifth he delivers more truth than in all his preface besides we make no question but that workes of necessity and workes of charity may be done on this day though the proper workes of the day are the workes of holinesse I know none that thinkes it unlawfull to dresse meat proportionable to a mans estate on this day some are of opinion that this was not forbidden unto the Jewes and that albeit to go abroad on that day to gather Manna was forbidden yet not the preparing or dressing of it though the most common opinion of our Divines is to the contrary Some thinke a greater strictnesse was enjoyned them in the wildernesse than afterward observed by them Neh. 5.18 As in the story of Nehemiah it is said there was prepared for his table daily an Oxe and five chosen Sheepe and our Saviours entertainment by some on the Sabbath day doth seeme to them to intimate as much howsoever in after times it came to passe that they grew superstitious this way As Austin observes of them in his dayes that Iudaei neque occidunt neque coquunt Others who think it was both enjoyned to them and practised by them with greater strictnesse conceive that this was by reason of the mysterious signification to wit of some exact rest in Christ this was their ceremoniall rest we acknowledge no rest but morall which we understand in that sense which here is
expressed in part and but in part after a halting manner For hee professeth that on the Lords Day we are to abstaine from such workes as are an hinderance to Gods service but he delivers this onely of the publique service as if to spend an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the afternoone in Gods service were enough for the sanctifying of the day yet Gerardus the Lutherane observes that God commands the day to be sanctified not a part of the day And let the law of this nation or of any nation of the world be judge between us whether in case one man owe another a dayes service I say let the world judge whether in common equity this be to be interpreted of an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the evening or onely of a part of the day and not rather the whole day And what vile courses are these that men should carry themselves so basely in dispensing unto God the proportion of his service In the sixth and last place we have that wherunto all the former discourse is consecrated namely to make way for such profane sports and pastimes which here are glosed with the cleanely stiles of recreations to refresh the spirits and for the increase of mutuall love and neighbourhood amongst us as if he were ashamed to speake out that all this tends to the countenance of May-games and morricing and dancing about May-poles on the Lords Day D. Andrewes sometimes Bishop of Winchester Patterne of Catech. p. 244 245. on the Con. spared not to professe that vacare choreis to be at leisure on that day for dancing is the Sabbath of the golden calfe and hee allegeth Austin for it though hee cannot justifie his quotation Doctor Downeham Bishop of Derry calls such like courses profane sports and pastimes which more distract and more hinder our workes than honest labours and he censures also such a Sabbath calling it the Sabbath of the calfe Exod. 23.6.18.19 Bishop Babington on Exod. 16. puts a Christian soule upon this meditation Good Lord what doe I upon the Sabbath day This people of his might not gather Manna and may I safely gad to faires and markets to dancings and drinkings to wakes and wantons to Beare-baitings and Bulbaitings with such like wicked profanations of the Lords Day Are these workes for the Sabbath Is this to keepe the holy day Can I answer this to my God that gives mee six dayes for my selfe and takes but one to himselfe of which I rob him also No no assuredly I shall not be able to indure his wrath for these things one day and therefore I will leave them and regard his holy day hereafter better than I have done And in his exposition of the Commandements by way of question and answer p. 44. reproves expressely Summer-games on the Lords Day and in his Examen of conscience annexed to the fourth Commandement he speakes against going to Church-ales and Summer-games nay is it not apparent that by the very act of Parliament 1º Caroli that to goe out of a mans owne parish about any sports or pastimes on the Sabbath day is to profane the Sabbath For to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath is that statute made Now unlesse the sports themselves be profanations of the Sabbath it is as evident that to goe forth of a mans parish unto such sports is no profanation any more than to goe out of a mans parish walking or to conferre in pious manner with a friend or to fetch a Physitian or Surgeon if need be or to heare a Sermon And it is very strange that wee of the reformed Churches shall justifie such liberty on the Lords Day which Papists condemne on their holy dayes who usually complaine of dancing upon such dayes as Polydor Virgil upon Luke and Parisiensis de legibus cap. 4. And of old such courses have beene forbidden by the decrees of Leo and Anthemius Emperours It is condemned also in the synod of Toledo Can. 23. as Baldwin the Lutheran shewes who also writes devoutly against such courses on the Lords Day and gives this reason For if the labours of our calling are forbidden in the holy day how much more such recreations and p. 48. He shewed how the Sabbath was profaned by unchast dancings and any manner of wantonnesse what need I here to make mention of Austin who professeth and that against the Jewes that it is better to goe to plow then to dance and that it were better for their Women to spin Wooll then immodestly to dance as they did yet now a dayes such as oppose the same courses as Austin did are censured for Judaizing thus the World seemes to be turned upside downe Is it not high time Christ should come to set an end to it Dielericus the Lutherane complaines of the like profanations of the Sabbath too much in course amongst them in his Analysis of the Gospells for the Lords Day p. 559. and let every Christian conscience be judge whether to follow May-poles May-games and Morrice dancing be to sanctifie the Sabbath as God commands if any man shall say that the fourth Commandement concerned the Jewes and not us Christians hee must therewithall renounce the booke of Homilies For it professeth that this Commandement binds us to the observation of our Sabbath which is Sunday the words are these So if we will be the children of our Heavenly Father we must be carefull to keep the Christian Sabbath Day which is the Sunday not only for that it is Gods Commandement but also to declare our selves to be loving children in following the example of our gracious Lord and Father Then complaining how the Sabbath is profaned Some use all dayes alike The other sort worse For although they will not travaile nor labour on the Sunday yet they will not rest in holinesse as God commandeth but they rest in ungodlinesse and filthinesse prancing in their pride pranking and pricking poynting painting themselves to be gorgeous and gay They rest in excesse superfluity in gluttony and drunkennesse like Rats and Swin they rest in brawling and railing in quarrelling and fighting they rest in wantonnesse in toyish talking in filthy fleshlinesse and concludes after this manner so that it doth too evidently appeare that God is more dishonored and the Divell better served on Sunday then upon all the dayes of the weeke beside And that distinction which Calvin makes of the Jewish observation of the Sabbath and our Christian observation of a Sabbath is for ought I know generally receaved of all and the distinction is this that the Jewes observed their Sabbath so strictly in the point of rest for a mysterious signification but wee observe it in resting from other works so farre forth as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations now it is apparant that sports and pleasures are as strong avocations from
Parliament with us and that in the dayes of King Charles hath forbidden every man to come out of his parish about any sports and pastimes a manifest evidence that in their judgement the publique prosecuting of such sports and pastimes is a plaine profanation of the Sabbath and so by this authors profound judgement they deserve to be censured as inclining to Judaisme Indeed the use of the very name of Sabbath is now a dayes carped at and why but because it is a sore offence unto them in their way for if a rest from any thing otherwise lawfull in it selfe be required on the Lords Day it seemes most reasonable that a rest is required from sports and pastimes undoubtedly they have neither reason nor authority to except against this For our Saviour useth the word even of Christian times Mat. 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath Day Doctor Andrewes one of the greatest Prelates of this Kingdome accommodates this place to the same purpose All ceremonies saith hee were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Mat. 24.20 Christs bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath Day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and by this name hee commonly calls this day wee keepe weekely as holy unto the Lord. The booke of Homilies plainly tells us that the Sunday is our Sabbath In the conference at Hampton Court it is so called without any dislike shewed by any one there present And the onely reason why the ancients put a difference in this not calling it the Sabbath day but the Lords Day was this because Dies Sabbati in Latine signifieth the Saturday which was the Jewes Sabbath But they generally call us to a rest on this day and that most exact as wherein wee must Tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare as Austin by name not sparing to confesse that Arare melius est quam saltare But Barklay it seemes is of more authority with this Prefacer then Doctor Andrewes and the Church yea and of our Saviour too yet wee calling it by that name understand no other thing then our Christian Sabbath and had rather it were generally called the Lords Day and Doctor Bownde also standeth for this denomination and urgeth it yet is hee accounted a Sabbatarian by Master Rogers though wee all concurre in this that thereon wee ought to keepe and sanctifie our Christian Sabbath And Iacobus de Valentia who was no sectary in the opinion of Barklay to distinguish the Jewish Sabbath from ours calls it Sabbatum legale and conclus 4. hee saith that Christiana religio celebrat verum Sabbatum morale in die Dominica Christian Religion keepeth a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day yet I willingly confesse this is the usuall course of Papists now a dayes not to call the Lords Day so much as by the name of our Sabbath As for Barklays discourse hee is much fitter to write somthing answerable to Don Quixot then to reason we doe observe the Lords Day as a Sabbath not because God rested that day from the Creation for our Doctor Andrewes of somewhat more credit with us and that not onely for his place but for his sufficiency then Barklay hath delivered it in the Starre Chamber that It hath ever been the Churches Doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And againe That the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this hee sayth is deduced plainly First by practise then by precept And this new Sabbath on the Lords Day wee observe because on that day Christ rested from the worke of redemption which was wrought by his death So that though the Lord began his labours in the worke of Creation on the first day of the weeke yet the Lord Christ set an end to his labors in the worke of redemption on the same day of the weeke As for Christs vanquishing the powers of death on that day to wit the first day of the weeke the Women that came to the Sepulchre at sun rising found that he was risen And what powers are these powers of death hee rhetoricates of is there any positive nature in death that our Saviour had neede to take such paines to overcome them The Lord himselfe when hee rested he rested onely from Creation he that was best acquainted with his courses hath told us saying Pater usque hodie peratur my Father to this day works still and I worke with him yet hee proceeds no farther in the worke of Creation nor Christ being once risen in the worke of redemption S. Iude exhorts us to contend the more earnestly for the faith because some there were craftily crept in who otherwise were like to bereave them of it In like sort wee had never more neede then now to contend for the maintainance of the Lords Day as our Christian Sabbath because too many there are whose practise it is to bereave us of the comfort of it The Doctrine of the Sabbath considered FIrst I come to the Doctrine of the Sabbath translated by the Prefacer I nothing doubt but the Author thereof will take in good part my paines in the discussion of it considering the present occasion urging mee hereunto Out of the variety of his reading hee observes many wild derivations of the name Sabbath and out of his judgment doth pronounce that the Jewes by their Bacchanalian rites gave the World just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate the Sabbath unto Revells rather then Gods service As for the rigorous keeping of the day in such sort Sect. 2. as neither to kindle fire in the Winter-time wherewith to warme themselves or to dresse meat for the sustentation of themselves I am so farre from justifying it that I willingly professe I am utterly ignorant where any such Christians live that presse any such rigorous observation of it The Jewes were bound to observe the rest on that day for a mysterious signification sake and thereupon depended their rigorous observing of a rest as many thinke and not Lyra alone We must know saith hee that rest from manuall works is not now so rigorously observed as in the old Law because meate may be dressed and other things done on the Lords Day which were not lawfull on the Sabbath because that rest was in part figurative as was the whole state under the Law 1 Cor. 10. All things befell them in figure Now in that which is figurative if you take away never so little that is if that which is figurative bee not exactly observed the whole and intire signification faileth like as if you take away but one letter from the name of Lapis the whole and intire signification is destroyed To
is an easy matter to say they conclude nothing though I may justly wonder any reasonable man should say so of the argument drawne from those words Gen. 2.3 Therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctifyed it the author alleadging no other exception against it but the interpretation of Tostatus namely that it is delivered by way of anticipation For this is as good as to confesse that to blesse and sanctify the seventh day is all one as if hee had said that God commanded it to be sanctified Onely they will not have it understood of that time when the Lord rested from the works of Creation So that the meaning of Moses must be this In the seventh day God ended the works which he had made and the seventh day God rested from all the workes which he had made and because God rested on that seventh day from all the works that he had made therefore he commanded not then that that day from thence forward but 2400. yeares after that men should consecrate that day to divine service Now in disputing against the unreasonablenesse of this interpretation given by Tostatus I am very willing to make Doctor Prideaux my judge and as it were under his moderation to proceed in this And here I purpose not to revive the disputations of Walaeus and Rivetus against Tostatus his anticipation but onely to content my selfe with the ground layd by Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath Thes 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monthly or yearely as particulars evince in Scripture and History I make bold to lay this for my ground in this place because it is apparant that God made his worke on the seventh day the ground of hallowing that day namely because it was the day of Gods rest therfore to make it the day of mens rest for the sanctifying of it unto the Lord. Now I pray consider is it reasonable that because such or such a worke hath beene done in such a day provoking us to keepe it a festivall day unto the Lord therefore it becomes us accordingly to sanctify it but when not that day nor the same day senight nor throughout the 52. weekes of that yeare nor any of the 52. weekes the next yeare no nor for the space of a 1000 yeares or two thousand but after the expiration of 2500 yeares and more then and not till then to sanctify that day because on that day of the weeke the Lord rested from the worke of Creation 2500 yeares before why might not the wisdome of our Parliament have imitated God and in memory of our deliverance from the Gunpowder treason on the 5. of November ordeined that day should bee kept festivall so far forth as in the publique congregation to make a solemne and thankfull commemoration of that wonderfull deliverance to begin forsooth a thousand or two thousand yeares after So the Jewes observed yearely the feast of Purim in remembrance of Gods mercifull deliverance of them from the conspiracy of Haman but when did they ordaine this feast to begin not till a thousand yeares after had they done so who would not have said that their wisdome herein had exceeded all humane discretion Or to avoid the like unreasonablenesse on their side well they say that the case is not alike for as much as the fresh remembrance of the Creation and of Gods resting on the seventh day was sufficient unto them both for the maintaining of the division of time into weekes or seven dayes and of sanctifying each seventh unto the Lord but when the memory hereof began to be obliterated to wit about some 900 yeares after the flood then it was fit the Lord should revive the observation of this day by a particular Commandement But herby they shall make the fourth Commandement not only morall but also more naturall then they are aware Though I willingly confesse they might well conceave that after some 15 or 1600 yeares men might grow weary of observing the seventh day the day of Gods rest from the worke of Creation because by experience we finde that after some 15 or 1600 yeares Christians seem to grow weary of keeping holy the Lords day the day whereon the Lord Christ rose from the grave so rested from his worke of redemption But as not long after 1600 yeares the flood came to set an end to the World by water so it may be after 1600 yeares of the Gospell there are but as few yeares to the comming of Christ to set an end unto this World by fire certainely as often as some festivall day is grounded upon some singular worke of God done on that day which Doctor Lake proposeth as a generall and undoubted rule alwayes to hold concerning festivalls no time more fit for the observation of such a day then when the memory of the worke is fresh then is a man like to be more devout more chearefull in Gods service more thankefull unto him for his great goodnesse like as the Angells immediatly upon their Creation praised God Iob. 38.7 When the Starres of the morning praised me and all the children of God rejoyced which in Cornelius his language was to observe the Sabbath Now give mee leave to enlarge this by proportion As there are Sabbaths of rejoycing so there are Sabbaths of mourning And the expiatiō day commanded unto the Jewes was an annuall feast to inure them to this holy exercise not onely once a yeare but oftner as God should minister occasion Now this day is called by the Lord also a Sabbath Levit. 16.31 And Doctor Andrewes in his paterne of Catecheticall doctrine handles the duties of such a day in his doctrine of the Sabbath And it is well knowne that dayes of wrath have their course and shall have their course as long as this World lasteth as well as dayes of mercy And wee have cause to blesse God that hee hath inclined his Majesties heart to take notice of such dayes of wrath and accordingly by Proclamation to command a generall humiliation throughout the Land divers and sundry times So wee reade that the Jewes observed a fast on the first moneth besides the fast of the seventh which God commanded as wee reade Zach. 7.3.5 and it was observed on the tenth day of that moneth that being the day whereon Nebuchadnezzar burnt the house of the Lord as wee reade Ier. 52.12 13. Now thus far had they observed the 70 yeares of their captivity Zach. 7.5 they did not put off the observation of it till a thousand yeares after it being most fit then especially to mourne when God calleth us thereunto and not to put it off when hee calleth us thereunto the Lord sore complayning of such courses and pronouncing an heavy judgement upon offenders in this kinde Esay 22.12 13 14. Now like as it becomes us to mourne when first God calleth us thereunto so it becommeth us to rejoyce in keeping
from the fourth commandement they may make bold to conclude that it ought to be sanctified And this Zanchy himselfe justifies in the place quoted Chap. 19 as before hath beene shewed And our booke of homilies expresly tell us that now Sunday is become our Sabbath But we keepe not the seventh day the rest on that day being ceremoniall and prefiguring the rest of Christ that day in his grave And as for the authority whereby wee have substituted the Lords Day in the place of the seventh we answer that we are not they that have substituted but the Apostles have substituted it unto our hands God having marked out that day unto them by a worke nothing inferior to the worke of Creation to wit the worke of Christs Resurrection such a worke as brings with it a new Creation and therewithall a new Sabbath as Doctor Andrewes observes out of the ancients and delivered as much in the Starre Chamber And whereas under the Law the Jewish Sabbath was called the Lords Day Now under the Gospell the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day in the language of the holy Ghost in the new Testament And whereas our Saviour gives us plainly to understand that wee are to have a Sabbath under the Gospell Math. 24.20 as the aforementioned Doctor Andrewes doth observe in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine In common reason and in the conscience of a Christian what day ought to be this our Sabbath rather then the Lords Day so called in the language of the holy Ghost especially considering that not that day of the yeere but that day of the weeke is called the Lords Day as by most generall acknowledgement of all the ancients hath beene supposed And to urge one place more out of the old Testament then here is in a violent manner obtruded upon us Psal 118 14. This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it is evidently spoken of that day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner Now by that stone the holy Ghost chiefely understands the Lord Christ Mat. 21.42 Marc. 12.10 Luc. 20.17 Acts 4.11 1 Pet 2.7 and when was hee made the head of the corner Sect. 5. but in the day of his Resurrection Rom. 1.4 the Apostle professing that He was declared mightily to be the Sonne of God touching the spirit of sanctification by the Resurrection from the dead And under what stile did they reject him and condemne him as a blasphemer but for making himselfe the Son of God As for the rigorous observation of the rest prescribed unto the Jewes as from kindling of fire and dressing of meate some qualifie that rigour conceaving that kindling of fire was forbidden onely for the works to be done about making the Tabernacle This being delivered as a preface Exod. 35.2 when the free will offerings were now to be receaved for the promoting of the workemanship of that which formerly was commanded And that dressing of meate was not forbidden them no not in the gathering of Manna as some thinke if then yet not as a generall course to be observed for ever And as touching the Table that Nehemiah kept thus we reade Moreover there were at my Table Nehem. 5.17.18 an 150. of the Iewes and rulers which came unto us from among the Heathen that are about us And there was prepared daily an Oxe and six chosen Sheepe and Birds were prepared for me and hee was so farre from consciousnesse of profaning the Lords Sabbath herein that hee concludes thus Remember me O my God in goodnesse according to all that I have done for this people But suppose they were tied so strictly to such a rest as from workes not servile onely in seeking againe as Zanchy instanceth the condition of a worke servile but even from such as ten led to the refreshing of their natures yet the reason hereof depended upon the mysterious signification of this rest as formerly I have represented out of Lyra from which ceremoniality wee are absolved and consequently freed from that rigorous rest depending thereupon and rest onely from works so farre forth as they are avocations from Sacred Studies and meditations as Calvin expresseth it and this wee accompt a morall rest distinguished from ceremoniall And whereas the Doctor tells us that such a like distinction is infirme being content to say nothing to confirme it save that the Text as hee saith affords it not I had thought the very light of nature had beene sufficient to embolden us to conclude Sect. 6. that where the sanctification of the day is commanded therewithall is commanded abstinence from all such things as would hinder the sanctification of it And as for the text it selfe it is apparent that neither the kindling of the fire nor dressing of meate is particularly forbidden in the fourth Commandement Neither doth hee so much as obtrude upon his adversaries that they derive the sanctification of their christian Sabbath from ought in the old Testament save from Gen. 2.3 and from the fourth Commandement In neither of which doth he deale fairely but is content to confound things that differ as if in this particular he affected to fish in troubled waters and we have better evidence and indeed it is our only evidence therence out of the old Testament for the festivity of the Lords day then he is willing to take notice of namely out of the Psal 118.24 Neither is it possible he should be ignorant thereof howsoever hee doth dissemble his knowledge of it Yet I hope it is enough for us to finde evidence for it in the Sunshine of the Gospell and indeed here alone we have the originall observation of it though that it should be observed is as evidently prophecied in the old Testament as that Christ is the stone which was first refused of the builders and after made the head of the corner adding only this unto it that the day wherein the Lord did this and made so glorious a worke marvellous in the eyes of men was the day of the resurrection which I suppose no intelligent Christian will deny I come unto the 6. Section 6 Who they be that make their boast that they have found the institution of the Lords day in the new Testament expressely J willingly professe I know not neither doe I thinke the Doctor knowes It is true our Saviour oftentimes disputed with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath day which at length degenerated into voluptuous living on that day in so much that Austin tells the Jewes plainly It is better to goe to plough then to dance but if hereupon you aske where is any the least suspicion of the abrogating of it I answer every one knowes The time was not yet come for the abrogating of it Nay he discourseth so as if 40. yeares after his death the observation of the Sabbath should continue Sect. 4. as when he
language then a day of the Lords institution and this is confirmed in that it comes in the place of the Jewes Sabbath which is called in Scripture the Lords holy day Esay 58. and Psal 118.24 of the day wherein Christ was made the head of the corner having beene formerly refused of the builders it is expresly said that it is the day that the Lord hath made and thereupon wee are called to rejoyce and be glad in it And it hath this congiuity in the cause of its institution to the first Sabbath that as on the seventh day the Lord rested from his worke of Creation so on the first day of the weeke the Lord Christ rising from the dead then rested from his worke of redemption And lastly Christ bringing with him a new Creation is it strange that he should bring with him a new Sabbath and no day so fit for this as the day of his Resurrection And lastly whosoever doth not rest satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church must hee not be driven to acknowledge an ordination more then humane requirable thereunto Of the necessity of my consequences and evidence of expresse Scripture formerly mentioned I leave it to the indifferent to judge and to none sooner then to Doctor Prideaux himselfe none being more able to judge of consequences then hee being so versed therein and I am well persuaded of the indifferency of his affections and had those writings in the canvassing of this point beene extant before this Lecture of his which hath since come to the light of the presse I am apt to conceave that either hee would have given way to that which seemes in my judgement to be the truth or represented good reason of his dissenting from it The Apostles example nor so onely but drawing the Churches generally to the same practise doth argue a constitution yet more is brought for the confirmation of the authority of the Lords Day then example That of searching into the veyles and shadowes of the old Testament to finde this institution is a mystery unto mee and so farre am I from that course that I know none guilty of it The ancient Fathers sometimes doe expatiate this way for the setting forth of the honorable condition of the Lords Day but they build not doctrines thereupon which if they had done in some particular case advantageous to our adversaries it had beene enough to have cryed us downe As for Judaisme I have often shewed how little colour there is for any such imputation to be cast upon us but rather upon our adversaries I see no cause to range the Petrobusian with the Ebionite but were they yoake-fellowes whereof I finde not the least evidence yet should not wee draw with them under the same yoake Chemnitius his discourse I have formerly examined somewhat at large The voluntary consecration of it by Christians no man hath cause to embrace who professeth himselfe not satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church as but erst the Doctor did Of Brentius I have spoken enough yet well fare him that professeth the authority of the day to be so farre divine that he who shall neglect it or rashly breake it doth forthwith become worse then the Jew or Infidell As for the Arminians what respect soever they pretend to the patterne of the primitive Church like enough they could be very well content with the Socinians to make all dayes equall in use as well as they are in nature or in respect of any mysterious signification I leave Azorius to refresh himselfe with the juyce of his owne distinction It is well that Suarez comes so farre as to professe that practically it is not alterable by the Church As for Calvin Bucer Chemnitius and the rest who are onely sayd to affirme that still the Church hath power to change the Lords day to some other I finde no such thing in Calvin and Bucer as for what Chemnitius delivers hereupon in my judgement hee sayth no more then Calvin though some particulars in him I have found to be weake enough upon discussion in the 6 Section of my answer to the Preface having there met with the same names named to the same purpose It is not credible to mee they should give power to the Church to bring us backe to the Jewish Sabbath in that case who should savour most of Judaisme or preferre us to the Turkes festivall day which is the Friday To be instituted in memory of our redemption admits an ambiguous signification That bringing with it a new Creation and so requiring a new Sabbath as Bishop Andrewes discourseth and Athanasius 1200 yeares before him No day had a better marke for this to be preferred into the place of the Jewes Sabbath then the day of Christs Resurrection yet considering that not that day of the yeare but that day of the weeke is called in Scripture the Lords Day this maketh it evidently to savour of Divine institution yet it is well that here it is acknowledged to be expresly of traditions Apostolicall Beza addeth vere Divinae on Revel 1.10 I trust we shall ever give due respect both to Law and Gospell and the better concurrence wee finde of them for the maintenance of any doctrine of ours the more cause wee shall have to rejoyce therein without feare of censure for the mixing of them or framing any Sabbaticall Idoll out of them It is not the first time I have read of some such aspersion in Rogers his preface to his Analysis of the Articles of the Church of England And the next yeere was printed D. Willet upon Genesis dedicated to King Iames where on the 2. ch 3. v. he concludes his discourse on this argument after this manner But these allegations are here superfluous seeing there is a learned treatise of the Sabbath already published of this argument meaning D. Bownds discourse thereon Which containeth a most sound doctrine of the Sabbath Girded at by Mr. Rogers as is layd downe in the former positions which shal be able to abide the triall of the Word of God and stand warranted thereby when other humane fantasies shall vanish howsoever some in their heate and intemperance are not afraid to call them Sabbatarian errors yea hereticall assertions a new Iubily Saint Sabbath more then either Iewish or Popish institution much lesse doe wee feare the story of the Jew of Teukesbury Solomon hath taught us that the righteous spareth his beast and in our Saviours dayes the Jewes themselves though very superstitious in the observation of their Sabbath yet shewed mercy towards their beasts in leading to them to water and helping them out of the ditch on their Sabbath day But God can give men over into a minde voyd of all judgement as to the destruction of their soules so to the temporall destruction of their bodies also and that as in the way of profanenes wherof we have manifold experience so in the way of superstition Now such stories are pretty
not variable in his choice as everlasting as the World because appointed before the fall 26. And so should the hallowing of the seventh day from the Creation have beene as lasting had it not beene for sin for what could have altered it but a new Creation 27. But man having sinned and so by sin abolished the first Creation de jure though not de facto God was pleased to make by Christan instauration of the World 28. Hee as the Scripture speakes of Christs Redemption made a new Heaven and a new Earth old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29 Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30 As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31 So did Christ when he ended his worke make a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable Therefore 33. This first day succeeded the seventh and by that was this memoriall abolished 34 And although the Apostles were indulgent to the Jewes in keeping the seventh as well as the first when they conversed with them untill the destruction of the Temple 35 Yet would they not endure that the Gentiles should be tied to the observation thereof 36. This first day Christ sanctified not only by his resurrection but also by sundry apparitions before his ascension and after his ascension by sending thereon the Holy Ghost this is cleare in the Gospell and Actes 37 The Apostles directed by Christs not onely example but spirits also observed the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. Iohn in the Revelation 38 And from the Apostles the Catholike Church uniformly received it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39 And the Church hath received it not to be Liberae observationis as if men might at their pleasure accept or refuse it 40 But to be perpetually observed to the Worlds end for as God only hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that hee will take for his portion for hee is Lord of the Sabbath 41 And he doth it by the worke which hee doth on the day the worke I say doth difference a day from a day 42 Whereas otherwise all dayes are equall and the same in themselves as the sonne of Syrach teacheth 43 Now then when God doth any remarkable worke then will hee be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke if the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part 44 And his will is understood often by his precept but when we have not that the practise doth guide the Church 45 This is a catholick rule observeable in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46 The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monethly or yearly as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47 No man can translate the worke therefore can no man translate the day this is an undoubted rule in Theology 48 And no man can in reason deny due respect unto the worke therefore hee cannot deny the hallowing of the day a true rule in morality 49 Now then seeing the Lords Day hath not altered the proportion of time but onely changed the day though not properly yet by analogy though not with the accessories yet according to the Originall Sabbath It may well agree with the tenor of the fourth Commandement and the observance thereof be commanded therein According to these Theses which I hold true untill any of them be confuted I will point out what I mislike in the Questions or the Answers not every particular but some principall points Figure the Section of the Answers in your booke and you shall the better fit my Theses to them Question 1. VVHat doe you mean when you pray after the fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us c. The 49 Theses answereth that we meane not the Jewish Sabbath but that which analogically to the Originall Sabbath we observe The Lords Day Question 2. Sect. 1. The observation of the Sabbath some say is morall and perpetuall By Sabbath you must understand the Lords Day otherwise none but Hereticks hold this opinion Then I thinke the proportion of time is perpetuall Thesi 15 though if you looke to the assignation of the day it is not perpetuall sin hath altered it occasionally and God Causally absque hoc it was intended that it should be perpetuall Thesi 26. But whether is the observation of the Lords Day morall Certainly this is a morall rule to hallow the day wherein God doth some remarkable worke Thes 43. 48. But Christ did rise for the restauration of the World this day therefore the observance thereof morall Were it an absolute assignation of time the appointing of the Lords Day it might be doubted but take this circumstance as it cloatheth the worke then I hold it cleare that though time be but a circumstance yet the observance of time so understood is Morall But there is a mutability in the observance of such times as cloath Gods works because the works themselves are subject to mutability and so the seventh day was changed for the first because the first Creation needed an instauration and he that caused the Instauration might make the alteration Thesi 33. Question 1. Section 1. The Text is cleare Colos 2. that the observation of the Sabbath was ceremoniall As a shadow meane you this of the originall Sabbath or the declaratory cloathed with the accessories Thes 18 19 c. It is certaine the originall could be no shaddow for it is precedent to the fall The declaration may true as considered with his accessories but the author of the Questions I thinke mistaketh the text of S. Paul For the words referre to the controversie betweene the Jewes and Gentiles both believers but the beleeving Jew would have put upon the believing Gentile the ceremonies which S. Paul indureth not either here or in the Galat. As for the place to the Rom that tempereth the presumption of the Gentile who out of the conceipt of Christian liberty forgot to beare with the weake Jew All this is nothing to the Originall Sabbath whereunto I say the Lords Day succeedeth and is by analogy in the fourth Commandement which hath no mixture of those accessories for ought I can see in the words Question 1. Section 2. It cannot be proved that the Apostles commanded to sanctifie the Lords day in memory of Christs Resurrection No can what author ancient is there that doth not hold it to have had its originall from the Apostles he should doe well to alleage them It is something discrepant from the doctrine of our Church You alleage the words of the Homily but streighten the tense of them for the Christian People that chose the first day were those that lived in
a morall way only than any they could bring to the contrary Secondly then againe could they have better grounds for the practise of those ancient Patriarchs both before and after the Floud than the Jewes themselves I presume none will be so immodest as to affirme this and if they had any such evidence it stood them upon to produce it especially in dealing against the Jewes Thirdly they deliver this as a thing undeniable by the Jewes themselves with whom they deale in this particular but the Jewes had no such faith as to beleeve that the ancient Patriarchs never observed the weekly Sabbath For none are of this opinion but such as thinke that passage Gen. 2.3 of Gods blessing the seventh day and hallowing it was not delivered of that present time as if then God ordained it should be sanctified but only by way of anticipation for the time to come But this was not the opinion of the Jewes Manasseth Ben Israel a moderne Rabbin in his booke intituled The Reconciler Conciliator according to the argument of that his writing which is to reconcile places of Scripture in shew disagreeing and that upon enquiry into all the Rabbins both ancient and later in his 36. Question upon Exodus writes thus as out of the opinion of the Ancients those words Thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in Egypt observe how he expounds them Ac si diceret cogita in Aegypto ubi serviebas etiam ipso Sabbato per vim te coactum ad labores as if he should say thinke with thy selfe that in Egypt where thou servedst thou wast by force constrained to labour on the very Sabbath Evidently manifesting not out of his owne particular opinion but as out of the generall opinion of their ancient Rabbins that the Sabbath and the observation thereof was a duty in the very dayes of the Patriarchs And in the end concludes thus Igitur Deus benedictus cupiens Sabbatum cujus sanctimoniam tantis documentis approbaverat in aeternum ab omnibus coli decâ—m praeceptis illud inseruit quo scientes praecepta aeterna esse etiam hoc inter ea habendum intelligerent Therefore the blessed God it is fit I should translate it for the benefit of the common people desiring that the Sabbath might bee observed for ever of all whose sanctity by so many documents he had commended placed it in the Dealogue that it made it one of the tenne Commandements to the end that knowing those precepts to bee everlasting they should understand that this Commandement also was to be accomplished amongst them And indeed Tertullian himselfe professeth that the Jewes were of this opinion as Rivetus observes out of his booke against the Jewes thus translated God from the beginning did sanctifie the seventh day resting from all the workes that hee had made and that thereupon Moses said unto the people Remember yee the Sabbath day to sanctifie it And therefore when Mercer saith concerning the meaning of these words Genes 2.3 Hebraei fere referunt in futurum the Jewes for the most part referre it to the time to come he is to be understood of the later Jewes but of this more shall be spoken ere wee part from this section 4 Fourthly not one of the ancient Fathers is alleaged by our adversaries delivering his opinion upon that passage Genes 2.3 to shew what hee conceives to bee the true meaning thereof which yet is the onely ground whereupon our doctrine is built concerning the originall institution of the Sabbath and seeing it contains a meaning at first sight manifestly contradictious to that which they affirne as wee interpret it of the weekely Sabbath without reference unto the Jewish manner of observing it therefore in this case it stood them upon to take notice of that place and by some faire interpretation vindicate themselves from suspition of contradicting the expresse Word of God 5 Tertullian himselfe justifies our doctrine namely that God from the beginning sanctified the seventh day as Rivetus shewes out of his fourth booke against Marcion cap. 12. where hee sayth Christum ipsum Sabbati diem benedictione Patris à primordio sanctum benefactione sua efficere sanctiorem That Christ himselfe made that day more holy by his well doing on that day which by the benediction of the Father was made holy from the beginning So that Tertullians meaning in the place alleaged to the contrary cannot bee that the ancient Patriarchs simply observed not the weekely Sabbath but onely that they observed it not after that manner the Jewes did and that the like interpretation must bee given of the passages alleaged out of other of the Ancients 6 For further proofe whereof observe that Theodoret albeit on the 20. of Ezekiel hee saith in like manner that God prescribed unto the Jewes the sabbaticall vacations Vt haec civilis administrationis ratio peculiaris à Gentium quidem eos distingueret institutis that this peculiar administration might distinguish them from the customes of the Gentiles yet Wallaeus shewes that the same Theodoret in his questions upon Genesis Dissert de 4. praecep p. 44. doth manifestly declare that even from the beginning of the creation God did ordaine this day to rest and sanctification As who having created the creatures in six dayes by the rest of the seventh day manifested the creation to be perfected like as in seven dayes hee concluded the whole circle of dayes And that by blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it he declared Quod non illum diem inutilem putabat ad creandum sed ad quietem accommodatum statuit The meaning whereof in effect is this that hee did not thinke that day unfit to have any thing created therin but onely it was his pleasure to ordaine it for a day of rest The same Author shewes Chrysostome to bee of the same opinion in his 10. Homily on Genesis whose words in Latine he rendreth thus Iam hinc ab initio doctrinam hanc nobis insinuat Deus erudiens in circulo hebdomedae diem unum integrum segregandum reponendum ad spiritualem operationem Now from the beginning God insinuates this instruction teaching that in the circle of the weeke one entire day is to bee sequestred and imployed on spirituall actions These authorities in my judgement should bee of the greater force for as much as they deliver their opinion by way of interpretation of Gods Word and that according to the plaine literall meaning and that such as whereunto every Christians conscience not fore-stalled with prejudice is prone enough to yeeld by reason of the native evidence of the words For they denote an externall action and transient not an internall and immanent in God all of which kinde are eternall which externall action is the dedication of the day to holy uses which cannot bee imagined to bee done any other way as I should thinke then by commanding it to bee sanctified The same Author shewes Austin to have beene of the same
judgement writing thus August epist 86. ad Casulanum When God sanctified the seventh day because thereon hee rested from all his workes hee did not deliver ought concerning the Fast or Dinner of the Sabbath nor afterwards when to the Hebrew people hee gave commandement for the observation of the day it selfe did hee mention ought as touching the receiving or not receiving of food onely commandement is given concerning mens vacation from their owne or from servile workes which vacation the former people receiving as a shadow of things to come in such manner rested from their workes as now wee behold the Iewes to rest Hee citeth also Theophilus Patriarch of Antioch a most ancient writer in his second booke to Autolychus writing thus Furthermore as touching the seventh which amongst al people is celebrious most men are in great ignorance For this day which is celebrious amongst all is called the Sabbath if a man interpret in Greeke it is called Septimana by this name all men call this day but the cause of this denomination they know not Now what was the cause hereof in his judgement but the Lords resting thereon as the seventh after hee had finished all his workes in six dayes and thereupon blessing it and sanctifying it whereupon it grew to bee a festivall day generally amongst all Tertullian though alleaged on the other side yet hath beene already shewed to bee of the same minde in this particular with Chrysostome and Austin Adde unto these Epiphanius haer 51. Sabbatum primum est quod ab initio decretum est ac dictum à Domino in mundi creatione quod per circuitum ab eo tempore usque huc juxta septem dies revolvitur The first Sabbath is that which the Lord from the beginning ordained and spake in the creation of the world which by revolution from that time to this according to the circle of seven dayes returneth Athanasius also upon those words of our Saviour Matth. 11.27 All things are given to mee of my Father distinguisheth betweene the Sabbath day and the Lords day affirming the Sabbath day to have been the end of the first creation and the Lords day the beginning of the second creation Beda in his Hexameron professeth that the rest of the seventh day after sixe dayes working semper celebrari solebat was alwayes wont to bee celebrated If alwayes then before the children of Israels comming out of Aegypt before Abraham before the flood even from the beginning of the dayes of Adam the first of men Adde unto this the received and most currant opinion of the Jewes by the testimonies of Philo and Josephus vouched by Wallaeus Philo in his second book of Moses writing thus Quis sacrum illum diem per singulas hebdomadas recurrentem non honorat Who doth not honour that holy day according to the weekely revolution thereof and hee delivers this not of the Jewes onely but of the Greekes and Barbarians of inhabitants of Mayn-land and Ilands those of Europe of Asia and of the whole habitable part of the world to the very ends thereof Iosephus l. 2. against Appion professing that there is no City of Grecians or Barbarians nor any Nation to whom the customary observation of the seventh whereon the Jewes rested had not reached Adde unto this the testimony of two Rabbins mentioned by Broughton in his Consent of Scriptures acknowledging this and another Rabbin alleaged by Peter Martyr upon Genesis both cited by Master Richard Bâ—field in his answer to Master Breerwood Give me leave to adde my mite also of mine owne observation The 92. Psalme hath this title A Psalme and Song for the Sabbath The Chalde paraphrase hereupon writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A praise and Song which Adam the first of men spoke on the Sabbath day manifestly evidencing that in the received opinion of the Jewes in those dayes Adam sanctified the Sabbath Rabbi David Kimchi testifies the same in his Commentary upon that Psalme to be the doctrine delivered in their Darash namely that Adam the first conceived this Psalme after hee was created on the Sabbath day and that afterwards he sinned and so prophaned the Sabbath So that notwithstanding all the bluster which this Author makes this fourth Commandement may continue morall neverthelesse And sure I am Irenaeus puts this difference betweene the words of the Decalogue so he speaks and consequently expungeth not but rather includeth the fourth Commandement and the ceremoniall lawes Iren. l. 4. cap. 31. that Decalogi verba the words of the Decalogue spoken by God himselfe unto all doe therefore continue in like manner with us receiving extension and augmentation by the comming of Christ in the flesh but no dissolution But the precept of bondage so he calls the ceremonials by themselves hee commanded unto the people by Moses fit for their instruction and discipline And Doctor Andrewes I am sure so great a Prelate in our Church denies all ceremonialitie thereunto save only so farre as may justifie the change of the day and in reference to the rigorous rest of the Jewes And Azorius confesseth as before hath beene alleaged that after six dayes worke one day should bee consecrate to divine service is a thing most agreeable to reason Yet I know none that accounteth this a Dictate of nature simply as this Author would faine obtrude upon us but rather with Chrysostom that God by creation hath taught us as much and now God hath gone before us herein wee conceive it to bee most agreeable to reason And D. Field did professe as much upon acknowledgement of the Creation as Master Brode confesseth If all talke of observation of the Jewish Sabbath vanished not till the daies of Bede it was 700. years first in the account of Bellarmine And of any resolutions made by Bede or Damascen hereabouts in D. Prideux sect 2. I finde no mention Yet I thinke it likely enough that both they and Procopius might easily contrive as many resolutions hereabouts as either Theodoret upon the twentieth of Ezekiel or Epiphanius against the Ebionites for neither of them in the places mentioned make any resolutions on this point at al. He grants the Lords day to have beene instituted by the Church from the Apostles dayes which latter clause is an ambiguous phrase For it may bee applyed to the dayes after the Apostles If in the Apostles dayes then undoubtedly it was instituted by the Apostles what meant hee then to say it was instituted by the Church and not to bee so ingenuous as to confesse that it was instituted by the Apostles How far off is he from acknowledging it to have beene instituted by the Lord yet Athanasius openly professeth thus much Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solennitatem Dominus transtulit in diem Dominicum Heretofore with men of old time the Sabbath day was in great price which Festivitie truly the Lord hath translated unto the Lords
Peter in this Treatise of his doth pursue So that this whole story seemes very obscure and yet the two latter points mentioned by this Andreas I doe not find to be any of the opinions laid to the charge of Peter Bruis by those that were contemporary with him For Petrus Cluniacensis reduceth all his heresies as hee calls them but to these five heads 1. He denyes that children before they come to the age of understanding can be saved by the Sacrament of Baptisme and that anothers faith can profit him who cannot use his owne because by their opinion not another mans faith but his owne with Baptisme saveth him the Lord professing that whosoever shall beleeve and bee baptized hee shall be saved but whosoever will not beleeve shall be damned 2. That there ought not to be any fabricke of Temples or Churches that such as are made ought to be throwne downe that holy places for prayers are not necessary for Christians because as well in a Taverne as in the Church as well in the Market-place as in the Temple before an Altar or before a stable God doth heare being called upon and heareth them who are worthy 3. He commands holy crosses to be broken in peeces and burned because the representation of such an instrument whereupon Christ was so direfully tortured and cruelly slaine is not worthy of any veneration or supplication but in revenge of Christs torments and death to be disgraced with all manner of ignominy and to be bewen in peeces with swords and burnt with fire 4. He doth not only deny the truth of the Lords body and blood daily and continually to be offered in the Church by the Sacrament but determines it to be altogether nothing and that it ought not to be offered unto God 5. He mocks at the sacrifices prayers almes and other good workes which the faithfull that are living performe for the faithfull that are departed and maintaines that they are nothing profitable to one that is dead Now in all this I find nothing at all that savoureth of any Jewish opinion concerning the observation of the Sabbath And more than that when I consider the matter of these Articles for the most part and the course of those times to make worse of their opinions who spake or wrote against the superstitions of those times then there was just cause I begin to suspect that this Peter of Bruis might be an honest man and more orthodox than they who procured his death And is it not wonderous strange that none of the Historians of those times should make any mention of him And that may be the reason why we finde no mention at all made of him in the Booke of Acts and Monuments And Philip Mornay in his mysterium iniquitatis Pag. 309 310. makes an apologie for this Peter de Bruis as being a pious man and thereupon hated and finally martyred by the Papists 2. Of any Sabbatarian speculation as this Prefacer calleth it that Fulco the French Priest lighted on this Author gives no evidence For as for Roger Hoveden I doe not finde that he attributes any such unto him He writes much in his commendation as that The Lord magnified him in the sight of Kings Pol. 448. pag. 2. and gave him power to give sight to the blind to cure the lame the blind and others of their diseases That Harlots and Vsurers were by his preaching taken off from their lewd courses That hee foretold the Kings of France and England that except they gave over their hostility the sooner one of them should shortly dye of an evill death But of any Sabbatarian speculation hee was addicted unto I finde no mention It is true King Richard sometime called him simply Hypocrite not notable Hypocrite as this Author expresseth it affecting rather to speake with a full mouth than according unto plaine truth And is it much if Kings take liberty to call men as they think good especially when they are provoked by them as King Richard was by this Priest as appeares by the story which is well worth the relating to observe both the present wit of that King and the liberty of Priests with Princes in telling them their faults in those dayes of yore For on a day that Priest Fulco came to King Richard and in very bold manner spake to him thus I tell thee O King as from Almighty God that thou make speed to bestow in marriage those three wretched daughters that thou hast lest some worse thing befall thee Thou Hypocrite quoth the King thou lyest against thine owne head for I have no daughter at all Truly I doe not lye quoth the Priest for as I said thou hast three wicked daughters one of them is Pride another Covetousnesse the third Luxury When the King heard this he called his Earles and Barons that were about him and said Heare the admonition of this hypocrite who saith I have three wicked daughters and commands me to marry them Therefore I bestow my Pride upon the proud Templers my Covetousnesse upon the Monkes of the Cistercian Order and my Luxury upon the Prelates of the Churches Who though they professed single life yet as Mr. Moulin observes in a like case of popish Priests did not professe continencie they might be luxurious enough and that not only in wayes naturall but in wayes unnaturall also This was a biting answer of the King which the Historian no way liked and therefore he cryes out in a poeticall straine O nimis indignum miseris inferre cachinnum But throughout no mention at all of any Sabbatarian speculation that Fulco was possessed with Indeed of Eustachius who was one of his followers we reade afterwards fol. 457. p. 2. what wonderous workes were wrought by him and what were the effects of his preaching among them namely that In London and divers other places in England they would no more presume to make the Lords dayes their market dayes And that in every Church there should be a lampe or some light burning continually before the Lords body and that Citizens and others would have an Almes vessell upon their table to lay aside therein some provision for the poore And that hereupon the Devill raised up against him some Ministers of iniquity who said unto him It is not lawfull for thee to put thy sithe into anothers harvest to whom he answered The harvest is great but the labourers are few Therefore the foresaid Abbat being thus rebuked by the ministers of Satan hee would no longer trouble the Prelats of England with his preaching but returned unto his owne home in Normandy from whence hee came Seven leaves after this we find in the same Author to wit fol. 466. p. 2. That this Abbat of Flay returned into England and preaching the Word of God from City to Citie forbade all to make the Lords dayes their market dayes For he said that this Commandement for observation of the Lords day came from heaven So that this speculation
of his was dominicall rather than Sabbatarian And the mandate concerning this is there set downe at large pretended to have come from Heaven to Jerusalem and to have been found on the Altar of Saint Simeon in Golgotha which whether it were feigned by him or by others and received by him on the faith of others the Author specifies not But at the end thereof he shewes how that this Predicant comming to York was there honourably entertained by the Archbishop and Clergie and whole people of that Citie and albeit these things you will say were acted in times of darknesse yet this Prefacer seemes to be of another opinion though little pleased with Eustachius his Sabbatarian speculation Here alone is mention made of the bounds he set to the observation of the Lords day namely that it was to continue from Saturday three of the clock in the afternoone untill the Sun-rising on Munday in which time he would have them doe nothing but that which was good and if they did to amend their errors by repentance A very reasonable motion in my judgement and if he had extended it to all the dayes of the weeke yea and houres too I see no cause why for this hee should be censured either as an hypocrite or heretique But as for the strictnesse of observation here mentioned as namely That during the foresaid time it was not lawfull to doe any kind of work what ever no not so much as to bake bread for the Sundayes eating to wash or dry linnen for the morrowes wearing I finde no such thing prescribed by Eustachius in the relation made by Roger Hoveden and if Parisiensis hath any such surely hee tooke it not out of Roger Hoveden from whom yet this Prefacer affirmes he tooke that which he writes hereof Nay it is directly contradictory to the Tenet of Eustachius as who determineth the observation of the Lords day to begin at three of the clock in the afternoone of the Eve preceding in which time is found space both to bake bread for the Sundayes eating and to wash or dry linnen for the morrowes wearing if the weather hinder not And as for the extension of the dominicall observation thus farre in respect of the bounds thereof I find no other doctrine preached by Eustachius than by the Lawes of the Kings who governed this Land was ordained long before even before the conquest For not only King Ina commanded Act. Mon. fol. 114 col 2. fol. 715. col 1. 2. That no man lay or spirituall free or bond should labour on the Sunday and Edward the elder with Gythrum the Dane made a law against all labour buying and selling upon the Sabbath Item for no execution to be done on the Sunday but amongst King Edgars lawes one was That the Sunday should be kept holy from Saturday at noone till Munday in the morning King Canutus also commanded celebration of the Sabbath from Saturday at noone till Munday morning forbidding markets huntings labours and Court-keepings during the said space And it seemes to be the generall practise of Christendome to allow or command rather a preparation for the sanctifying of the Lords day as appeares by the observation of Evening prayers the day before warning whereunto is usually given at three of the clocke by the ringing of a bell or as in some places especially in the winter season an houre sooner and schollars accordingly give up schoole and present themselves at Evening prayer And we commonly account Saturday to be halfe holiday and warning thereof is usually given at noone by chiming the bells And whereas we reade Exod. 31.15 Six dayes shalt thou doe thy worke and the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schindler renders it Sabbathum Sabbathuli and interprets it thus Sabbathum is from evening to evening Sabbathulum is that which of the profane day is added as a little Sabbath And as for the strict abstinence from dressing of meats on Saturday which this Author imputes to Eustachius as his doctrine but without all ground that I know we are so farre from any such Sabbatarian speculation that none of us in my knowledge doe think it unlawful to dresse meats on the Lords day And wheras the Prefacer addes that they had miracles in store pretended to be wrought on such as had not yeelded to their doctrine thereby to countenance the superstitious and confound the weake What one of an hundred in reading this would not imagine that Eustachius wrought these miracles for the countenancing of his former strictnesse whereas yet on the contrary neither doth it appeare that he taught or obtruded upon them any such strictnesse preaching onely against marketting on the Lords day Neither were those strange accidents which here are called miracles any miracles wrought by him But the Monke Roger of Hoveden writes That the Lord Iesus Christ whom wee must obey rather than men who by his Nativity Resurrection and Advent and sending the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples did advance this day which we call the Lords day and dedicated as most celebrious shewed miracles of his power upon some transgressors of the Lords day in this manner On a certaine Saturday after three of clocke a certaine Carpenter of Beverlac as he was making a woodden peg contrary to the wholesome admonitions of his wife fell to the ground taken with a palsie The like story followeth of a woman which this Author according to the Monks phrase is content to call Miracles Now when we heare of as strange a thing as this to have fallen out not long since in Bedfordshire as namely a match at Foot-ball being appointed on the Lords day in the afternoone while two were in the Belfrey and one of them tolling a bell to call the company together there was heard a clap of thunder and lightning seene by some sitting in the Church-porch as it came thorow a darke lane towards the Church and flasht in their faces who sate in the Church-porch and scared them thence it went into the Church and turning into the Belfery tript up his heeles who was tolling the bell and struck him starke dead and the other with him blasted in such manner that shortly after he dyed we doe not call this a miracle though we count it a remarkable judgement of God and such as deserves to be considered and seriously laid unto heart by all to admonish them to take heed that they be not found in like manner profaners of the Lords day In like sort when upon fresh relation we heare of the like sport at Foot-ball on the Lords day at a place called Tidworth after Evening prayer in the Church-yard and that therein one had his legge broken which thereupon gangrened so that forthwith he died thereof we doe not call this a miracle only it calls to our mind that of the Prophet The Lord hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance And we find that such like judgements
If so then let him proceed and say it is nothing materiall whether wee consecrate unto God one houre in a day or one houre in a weeke or one houre in a month or one houre in a yeare or but one houre throughout the whole course of a mans life So that I presume every sober man by the very light of nature will be driven to confesse that not only some time ought to be set apart for Gods worship as the Schoolemen commonly teach but that a convenient proportion of time ought to be destinated unto this Now let reason it selfe judge whether any more convenient proportion of time can be devised for this then the proportion of one day in seven And herein let us oppose Azorius to Tostatus if Tostatus doe oppose the morality of one day in seven Inistitut part 2. l. 1. cap. 2. which is more then I finde a Papist to confront a Papist who plainly affirmeth Rationi maximè consentaneum esse that it is most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one day should bee consecrated to the service of God Especially since God hath discovered unto us that this is his good pleasure namely that one day in seven should be consecrated unto his service First that we might not be left at large to our own hearts to proportion out the time for Gods Service Secondly for the maintenance of uniformity herein amongst his people who being left unto themselves might and in all likelyhood would have run different wayes And that God hath from the beginning manifested as much Wallaeus hath shewed out of Chrysostome in his 16. Homily upon Genesis Wallae dissert de Sabbato Now even from the beginning God insinuates unto us this Doctrine teaching that in the circle of the weeke one intire day is to be segregated and set apart for spirituall operation and to the same purpose are Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Theodoret and Augustine alledged by him Catarinus is in this place brought in quite against the hayre seeing it is not herein that he is so much as pretended to oppose Tostatus but rather as touching the originall institution of the Sabbath Yet why he should say that Catarinus hath herein had ill successe I know no reason neither doth this author once offer to give any especially considering that the very Romists doe acknowledge that the Sabbath was instituted immediately from the Creation Their words are these In Apoc. 1.10 The Apostles and faithfull abrogated the Sabbath which was the seventh day and made holy-day for it the next day following being the eighth day in compt from the Creation not onely otherwise then was by the Law observed but plainely otherwise then was prescribed by God himselfe in the * They meane the third but indeed it is the fourth second Commandement yea and otherwise then he ordained in the first Creation when hee sanctified precisely the Sabbath Day and not the day following Rivetus cites diverse Popish authors affirming the same with Catarinus contrary to the opinion of Tostatus and notwithstanding Pererius his concurrence with Tostatus no lesse then six Papists of note Steuchus Eugubinus in Cosmopaea ad cap. 2. Gen. Gilbert Genebrard in his chronology at the first yeare of the World Jacobus Salianus in his Annalls of the old Testament at the first yeare of the World and the seventh day Who expounds also Tertullian who is pretended to be of the contrary opinion Cornelius a lapide on the 2. cap. of Genesis Emanuel Sa. And lastly Ribera on the Epistle to the Hebrewes cap. 5. Num. 8. So that it seemes Catarinus did on this point oppose Tostatus with very good successe Neither doth the Doctor on whom this Prefacer relies shew any sufficient cause of rejecting Catarinus or bring ought sufficient to justify Tostatus It is true Tostatus brings divers reasons for the confirmation of this opinion and I have no cause to doubt but they were answered by Catarinus who opposeth him herein neither doe I finde any exception taken against his answer either by the Prefacer or by Doctor Prideaux himselfe And therefore I might content my selfe seeing nothing but Tostatus his authority is proposed to answer authority with authority yet I am content also to consider his reasons as they are proposed by Pererius THE FIRST DIGRESSION WHEREIN I. Answer is made to Tostatus his arguments proposed by Pererius to proove that the observation of the Sabbath was ordeyned by God immediately from the Creation II. Herewithall the question is disputed whether Adam fell the first day wherein he was Created THE first agrument of Tostatus proposed by Pererius is to this effect the observation of the Sabbath had been superfluous to Adam and Eve seeing nothing then could have called them away from the service of God to wit they being then in the state of innocency To which I answer first that herein is supposed somewhat wherabout there is much question namely that Adam fell not before the seventh Day Yet Pererius professeth that it was an opinion well knowne and confirmed by the consent of many and those noble and illustrious authors that Adam fell the first day wherein he was created This sayth he seemes to have been the opinion of Irenaeus and Cyrillus and Epiphanius are cited as approovers of it He addes that Moses Barcephas in his booke of Paradice both prooves it and avoucheth it as the opinion of many others and especially of Philopenus in his oration which he wrote of the tree of Life and of Ephrem in his Commentaries upon Genesis and of Jacobus Sabugensis in his oration of Christs Passion To whom may bee added saith Pererius Diodorus the Bishop of Tharsis as he is cited in the chaine of interpreters upon Genesis upon those words of the third chapter we do eate of every tree in Paradise Tostatus himselfe as this author writes was sometimes of the same opinion though afterwards he changed his minde and conceaved as more likely that Adam fell on the Sabbath Day which Pererius approves not though that was the opinion of the author of the Darash amongst the Jewes as David Kimchi writes upon that Psalme whose title is A psalme for the Sabbath and that so by sinning he profaned the Sabbath This opinion of Tostatus and the Jewes Pererius doth not approve but the reason he gives for his dissenting from them in my judgement is very weake For that it runnes because the Lord blessed that Sabbath Day and sanctified it resting from all his workes which he had made therefore it was not agreeable that on that day so severe a judgement of the Divine vengeance should be exercised Now I say this reason is very weake For we commonly say the better day the better deed and undoubtedly the Lord is holy as in all his workes so in the execution of condigne vengeance Ier. 9.2 4. In this he delights as in the execution of mercy And it is usually the Lords course even on the Lords Day
Sabbath in his common places tom 3. pag. 146. Est Sabbatum Christianum quo juxta Apostolorum constitutionem dies hebdomadae primus publicis ecclesiae congressibus destinatus est Our Christian Sabbath is that whereby the first day of the weeke is destinated to the publique assemblies of the Church by the constitution of the Apostles See how plainly hee referres the celebration of this day to Apostolicall constitution and pag. 148. he sheweth the analogie between the Jewes Sabbath and our Christian Sabbath consisting in two or three particulars 1. As on the seventh day God rested from the six dayes worke of creation in remembrance of which benefit the Sabbath was instituted in the old Testament so in the first day of the weeke after Christ-by his death and passion had accomplished the mysterie of our Redemption he returned gloriously as a conqueror from the dead in remembrance of which benefit the first day of the weeke is celebrated in the new Testament 2. As in the old Testament the Sabbath was instituted that it might be a memoriall of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5.15 So in the new Testament the Lords Day is a memoriall of our spirituall deliverance out of the kingdome and captivity of Satan procured unto us by the resurrection of Christ a type whereof was that deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt 3. By Christs death and resurrection were abrogated Leviticall ceremonies and legall shadowes amongst which the Sabbath is reckoned Col. 2.17 Therfore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Day is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in antient time was ordained Adde to him Melanchthon alleged by Walaeus pag. 265. affirming that the Apostles for this cause changed the day that in this particular they might give an example of the abrogation of the ceremoniall Lawes of Mosaicall policy As for our Popish Divines for which he referres us to Doctor Prideaux it is apparent that more of them are alleaged for the jus divinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee professeth it a thing most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one intire day should bee consecrated to Divine worship so withall saith that it is most agreeable to reason that the Lords Day should be that Day Adde unto these Sixtus Senensis Biblioth lib. 7. p. 603. Col. 1. but that which they object saith hee concerning the Lords Day not as yet instituted in the time of John is most false the consent of the whole Church disclaiming it which doth beleeve the solemnity of the Lords Day was appointed by the Appostles themselves in memory of the Lords Resurrection concerning the institution whereof by the Apostles Austin Ser. 25. de temp testifyeth in these words therefore the Apostles themselves Apostolicall men appointed that the Lords Day should for that reason bee religiously solemnized because on it our Redeemer rose from the dead In the last place come wee to our Divines Now Bucer I have already shewed to stand for us rather then for him 2. And Calvin expresly acknowledgeth that the Apostles did change the day 3. Beza upon Re. 1. v. 10. hath an excellent passage to the same purpose For hee considers Christs resurrection to bee as it were a second creation of a World spirituall and thereupon doubts not but that the spirit of God did suggest unto them the change of the seventh day into the Lords day as to bee consecrated to Divine Service 4. Iunius on Gen. 2. writes that the cause of the change of the day was the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ The commemoration of which benefit succeeded to the commemoration of the Creation not by humane tradition but by the observation of Christ himselfe and his institution 5. Piscator on Exod. 20.10 It is to bee observed that the circumstance of the seventh day in celebrating the Sabbath is abolished by Christ as who for that day ordained the first day of the weeke which wee call the Lords Day and that in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection performed on that day And upon Luk. 14. v. 2. He makes this observation By occasion of this story it is fit to consider what was the religion of the Sabbath in the new Testament and what place it hath at this day among us Christians and how it is to be observed And first we must hold that the Sabbath is abrogated by Christs comming as touching the seventh or last day in the week and that in the place thereof is ordained the first day which we call the Lords Day because on that day the Lord rose from the dead and shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and divers times speaking with them of the Kingdom of God aod so by his own example consecrating that day to Church assemblies and for the performance of the outward service of God The reason of the abrogation is because that ceremoniall rest observed in the Law was a type of that rest which the Lord made in his grave as is perceived by the words of Paul Col. 2.16.17 Now of the apparitions of the Lord S. John testifies Chap. 21. where he shewes how first he appeared to them gathered together on that very day whereon he rose And againe eight dayes after Now that in these dayes he spake unto them of the Kingdom of God Luke shewes Acts 1.3 Whence it was undoubtedly that the Apostles observed that day by the Lords ordinance to keep their Ecclesiasticall assemblies thereon as it appeares they did Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 And hence it was without doubt on the Lords day John was in the spirit and receaved the Revelation To the same purpose is that which Doctor Walaeus alleageth out of Piscators Aphoris 18. It may be doubted concerning the Lords Day whether it be appointed by God for his service in the New Testament My opinion hereof is this although we read no expresse Commandement concerning it yet that such an institution may be gathered from the example of Christ and his Disciples For on that day whereon the Lord rose from the dead therefore called the Lords-Day he shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and spake to them of the Kingdom of God And Paul on that day in an assembly of the faithfull met together to celebrate the Lords Supper preached to them on that day Acts 20.7 and that the Christians at Corinth were wont to meet on that day for publique prayer appeares 1 Cor. 16.2 Now it cannot be doubted but Paul ordained that day amongst them as also the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper and that according to the Commandement of Christ Math. 28. the last Teach them to wit as many as receave the Gospell to
is in the power of each Church to set apart what proportion of time they thinke fit for Divine Service and what day they thinke fit who perceives not that they may if they will order it in such a manner as that twise a day they shall come to Church and the rest of the day spend as they thinke good either in the works of their calling or upon their pleasures And whence all this zeale so opposite to holinesse in the issue proceeds I know not save onely to uphold the credit of Calvin who professeth that he doth not so regard the number of seaven as that he would tie any to the servitude thereof and yet I have endeavored to shew that neither this nor other passages taken out of his institutions makes any thing for them And withall it is a wonder to behold how this of Calvin is taken up and obtruded upon us by them who otherwise hate both the name and memory of Calvin And as for Doctor Rivets honest and pious instructions as concerning the duties and out demeanors to bee performed on this day we may easily perceive how little worth they are and how easily they vanish into smoake after that hee hath in the doctrinall part of the Sabbath layd so unhappy a foundation and that by so poore reasons and meane cariage of himselfe that as I verily thinke throughout all his writings there is not to bee found the like For consider whether hee had any hope to set so much as a face and outward shew of probability upon his discourse unlesse first he had manifestly corrupted the adversaries tenet as appeares by his proposing it p. 119. Col. 1. By these saith he and other arguments drawn from Christian liberty it is sufficiently deduced that they who maintaine the Sabbath day not so much to be taken away as to be translated unto the Lords Day and so changed and doe indeed thinke it more holy then another day and that not onely in regard of ordination and use but in respect of signification and effect doe crosse some without Christian liberty which is most certaine of the Papists And indeed Walaeus makes it appeare that Calvin writes herein against the superstitious Papists And did Rivetus oppose them onely it were well but it is apparent that hee disputes not so much against Papists in this argument as against Protestants even such as himselfe But can hee shew of any of them that they account the Lords Day more holy then any other in respect of any mysterious signification for so Calvin speaks in this place or effect undoubtedly he cannot We observe a day in the weeke only for order and policy sake Ecclesiasticall mysterious significations in dayes were peculiar only to the Jewes Only we thinke it fit that to prevent dissension and confusion God should marke out that day unto us to be observed and not leave it unto us and so hee hath the Scripture calling the first day of the weeke the Lords Day and that upon such a ground as a greater was never knowne to ground a festivity thereupon consecrated to the exercises of piety even the day wherein the stone that was refused by the builders was made the head of the corner This was the Lords doing and it is and ever shall be marvellous in our eyes and gives us cause to say with the Psalmist thereupon This is the day which the Lord hath made we will reioyce and be glad in it So that all the passages in the Apostles writings against difference of dayes are no more against us then against Doctor Rivetus himselfe Now it is time to returne to our Prefacer I doe not finde that Suarez undertakes to defend the Doctrine of Calvin and Chemnitius such as here is pretended to bee their Doctrine but rather opposeth it If such were their doctrine as this Prefacer would faine obtrude upon us from the authority of the D. discourse which hee translateth For Suarez professeth Celebritatem Dominicae diei haberi ex communi usu sensu Ecclesiae in ipsa scriptura Novi Testamenti commendari that the celebrity of the day is had by the universall use and sense of the Church and is commended unto us in the very Scripture of the New Testament I have endeavoured to justifie it out of the Old Testament also and in expresse tearmes that it is to bee unchangeable Practicè moraliter practically and morally as Doctor Prideaux acknowledgeth and withall expoundeth after his understanding of it and Doctor Rivetus also affirming this kinde of unchangeablenesse to arise from hence that no sufficient cause can be given of the change and abrogation of it This Prefacer and such as are of his spirit may doe well to deale plainly and to professe that it is in the power of the Church to make the Lords Day to cease to be the Lords Day From their Doctrine pretended by him hee proceedes to their practise professing it to bee devoyd of any the least superstitious rigour esteeming it to be a day left arbitrary and therefore open to all lawfull and honest recreations by which the minde may be refreshed and the spirit quickened as in Geneva all honest exercises shooting in pieces long Bowes crosse Bowes are used in the Sabbath day and that both in the morning before and after the Sermon And truly I doe not finde my selfe prone to censure them for any superstition in this But this author takes liberty to censure them for superstitious who thinke these courses unlawfull on the Sabbath Day I make bold to call the Lords Day our Sabbath because our Saviour plainly gives us to understand that wee Christians should have one day in the weeke for our Sabbath Ma. 24.20 as wel as the Jewes had and secondly because the booke of Homilies professeth that Sunday is our Sabbath Nobis non licet esse tam disertis We may not be so elegant as to censure them for profaning the Lords Day by these and such like courses Yet the act of Parlament 1. Caroli forbids any man to come out of his Parish on the Lords Day about any sports and pastimes which restraint tending to this end namely to preserve the Sabbath from profanation doth manifestly give us to understand that to come out of a mans parish on that day about any sports or pastimes is to profane the Sabbath and seeing as before I have shewed that to come out of a mans parish on that day about such a worke as doth not profane the Sabbath is not to profane the Sabbath as to heare a sermon or to fetch a surgeon or Physitian to a sick person in ease of necessity but onely to come out of a mans owne Parish about such a worke as doth profane the Sabbath such a comming out of a mans own Parish on that day and such alone doth profane the Sabbath hence it followeth evidently that all manner of sports and pastimes on that day are so many profanations of the Sabbath in
broacher of the last position was convented for it And I believe him in the rest the rather since I have heard it preached in London that the law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that who ever did the works of his calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore And I know also that in a towne of mine acquaintance the Preachers there had brought the people to that passe that neither baked nor rost meat was to be found in all the parish for a Sundayes dinner throughout the yeere These are the ordinary fruits of such dangerous doctrines and against these and such as these our Author in this following Treatise doth addresse himselfe accusing them that entertaine the formall doctrinalls every where of no lesse than Judaisme and pressing them with that of Austin that they who literally understand the fourth Commandement doe not yet savour the Spirit Section the third Exam. Austin somewhere saith that he who lookes for miracles in these dayes for confirmation of the truth Magnum ipse prodigium est himselfe may goe for a monster he doth not say It is a miracle that men so should doe Men may be sottish even to admiration and such if this Prefacer proves we will not say it is a miracle mira wonderful things may be wrought not only by the practice of Satan but in the very courses of men but God is he alone that worketh miracles He talkes of unanimous concurrence of men of severall perswasions otherwise in the controverted points of Christian faith and that both in judgement and practice with him in his way he loves to speake with a full mouth and to make a great noise as the Hogs in Aelian did when their owner shore them which gave him occasion to say That there was a great deale of cry but a little wooll And let the indifferent judge whether the wooll be answerable to the noise this Prefacer makes Now the men of severall perswasions whom hee avoucheth are Papists and Protestants and amongst the Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists And hitherto he hath spoken of foure particulars I desire the reader would take notice of the modesty of this author in each of them compared with the noise here hee makes concerning them as if he were as much crackt in his braine as hee who standing upon the key at Athens with a note booke in his hands set downe every ship that entred into the road as his when he was not owner of any one of them So I shall make it appeare that this Prefacer hath title to none of the sides he boasts of for the countenancing of his way in any one of the particulars mentioned The first particular is about the originall institution of the Sabbath as whether God commanded it immediatly upon the creation This author denies the institution of it before the promulgation of the law upon mount Sina And what strength of suffrages doth he bring for this amongst the Protestants whether Lutherans or Calvinists Surely not one Lutherane that I know but of others all that he avoucheth by himselfe are but Doctor Prideaux and Gomarus and by his assistance Vatablus and Musculus on the contrary are alleged by Walaeus 1. Luther himselfe 2. Zuinglius 3. Calvin 4. Beza 5. Peter Martyr 6. Bullinger 7. Zanchius 8. Vrsinus 9. Gualterus 10. Aretius 11. Bertramus 12. Mercerus 13. Antonius Fayus 14. Iunius 15. Zepperus 16. Martinius 17. Alstedius The same is justified by Rivetus who voucheth no lesse than thirty Writers of note to concurre in this Now let the indifferent judge on whose side is the miracle this Prefacer speakes of in his rhetoricall amplifications on his side or on ours Yet not one English Divine is mentioned either by Walaeus or Rivetus amongst this number 2. Then as for Papists Tostatus indeed disputes against this opinion of ours but his reasons I have answered and Catarinus a Popish Prelate as well as Abulensis is acknowleged by this Author to oppose Tostatus in this neither hath he or Doctor Prideaux undertaken to answer him Onely this Prefacer after his bold fashion saith that Catarinus tooke up armes against Tostatus with ill successe it hath beene manifest that for ought doth appeare Catarinus hath had better successe than Tostatus For Pererius takes Tostatus his part yet all the Rhemists on Apoc. 1.10 doe manifest themselves to take part with Catarinus and Gomarus acknowledged as much of Marius And Rivetus also allegeth Augustinus Steuchus Genebrard Iacobus Solianus Cornelius de Lapide Emmanuel Sa and Ribera all concurring against Tostatus and all Papists yea many of them Jesuites Hereby let the reader judge of the modesty of this Author and on whose side the feigned miracle is on his side or on ours For it is manifest hitherto that the men he speakes of of seveverall perswasions otherwise are by farre more for us than for him But it may be in this particular his glory is that the Fathers are rather for his opinion than for us But upon what ground Is it from any evidence of Scripture nothing lesse not one of them building hereupon and as for evidences they bring none save that the Scripture doth not particulate that the Patriarches of old observed the Sabbath Yet it was not to be held a generall rule that Argumentum non valet ab authoritate negativè the argument drawâ—e from authority doth not hold negatively in matter of fact Secondly not onely our Divines as Hospinian and Walaeus that the meaning of the Fathers is onely this that the Patriarches did not observe it after a Jewish manner but Iacobus Salianus a Papist affirmes the same particularly of Tertullian as Rivetus voucheth him in his answer to Gomarus pag. 21. And it may be made apparant from Tertullian himselfe otherwise hee cannot be freed from contradiction as who plainly manifesteth his opinion in our side as Rivetus citeth him pag. 23. So that the Fathers alleged by our adversaries being rightly understood make nothing for them yet we want not variety of Fathers making expressely for us and against them and that grounding themselves upon expresse Scripture Gen. 2.3 therefore The Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it which our adversaries have no other meanes to avoid than by saying that it is spoken by anticipation according whereunto the meaning of Moses must be thus because the Lord rested the seventh day from creation therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it but would you know when to wit 2000. and 4. or 500. yeeres after And lastly the dividing of times into weekes proved to be the most ancient division of times in the world received by all nations and made a festivall day thereupon as many have most learnedly proved it doe justifie the sanctification of the Sabbath to have had its beginning and course from the very creation So that in this particular wee have on our side both Scripture and reason and Fathers and the
Besides I have shewed in reason the unreasonablenesse both of changing the day and the intollerable scandall that would follow upon it and the unreasonablenesse of not changing it if it be not of divine institution considering how prone wee are through the continuall observation thereof to conceave that to be a necessary duty and so to be plunged into superstition ere we are aware if it prove to be no necessary duty In the next place hee tells us how that some amongst us have revived againe the Iewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the Commandement of sanctifying every seaventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Iewish were so changed that they were cleane to be done away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were only abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest Here wee have a distinction of a Jewish Sabbath brought in yet not the day a distinction contrived with such wisedome and perspicacity as it seemes to exceed all humane discretion For I verily thinke that from the beginning of the Primitive Church there was never heard of a Jewish Sabbath to be kept any other then upon their day The materialls are first that the name Sabbath is retained and well may it be in my judgement though some entertaine sublime reaches to the contrary if our Saviour have any authority with us who adviseth his Disciples to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which is spoken by him in reference to the time about the destruction of Ierusalem at what time the Lords Day was come in place of the Jewes Sabbath among the Christian congregations and that by apostolicall substitution And in the very booke of our Homilies it is expressely sayd that the Sunday is now our Sabbath And his Majesties briefes for collection so stile it And in the conference at Hampton Court it was so stiled by Doctor Raynolds and the motion he made thereabout generally yeelded unto so that the State hitherto seemes to be censured by this bold Prefacer The next aspersion is that the thing also is revived But what thing the Jewes had peculiar sacrifice both morning and evening which doubled the dayly sacrifice this surely is not revived There were besides two things in the Jewish Sabbath the one was a rest the other was the sanctifying of that rest As for the rest if that were not it were no Sabbath Yet our Saviour calls it a Sabbath our Church calls it a Sabbath our State calls it a Sabbath And Austin calls us to such a rest on the Lords Day as that therein we must tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare onely rest to God onely rest for divine worship And Calvin who is taken to be no friend of ours in this case professeth that we must rest from all our works so farre forth as they are avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations but not for any mysterious signification sake and that herein consists the difference betweene the Jewish rest and our Christians rest and I am exactly of his opinion for this As for the sanctification of this rest I trust wee are as much bound to the performance hereof and that in as great measure and with as great devotion under the Gospel as ever the Jewes were under the Law And at the hearing of this Commandement as well as of any other our Church hath taught us to pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law And I find it wondrous strange to heare that some should not spare to professe that this was shuffled in they know not how At length wee come to the particular charges the first is that some should teach that The Commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall and Master Rogers is quoted for this on the Article Art 7. hee quotes Master Doctor Bownde pag. 7. Now truely it cannot be denied but that when the fourth Commandement is read unto us in our Congregations wee are taught to pray unto God to shew such mercy unto us as to incline our hearts to the keeping of this law And both master Rogers and this Prefacer are to be presumed to have subscribed as well as others and by their subscription acknowledged that this is nothing contrary to Gods Word that we are as much bound to the observation of this Commandement as of any other and consequently to keepe the Sabbath and doe no manner of worke thereon that may hinder the sanctifying thereof Now Master Doctor Bownds words after hee had cited Chrysostome speaking thus I am hic ab initio c. Here now even from the beginning God hath insinuated this Doctrine unto us teaching us in circulo hebdomadis diem unum that in the compasse of a weeke one whole day is to be put apart for a spirituall rest unto God are these Vnto all which may be added that for profe oth at this Commandement is naturall morall and perpetuall that I say may be added which was practised among the Gentiles and all the Heathen And now Do. Bowndes purpose unto the p. 30. is to be proved only this that a Sabbath was from the beginning and still is to be kept and that in the proportion of one day in seven and after that proceeds to prove what day the Sabbath should be kept his words are these p. 30. Now as we have hitherto seene that there ought to be a Sabbath day so it remaineth that we should heare upon what day this Sabbath should be kept and here he sheweth that this is not left unto the Church but prescribed by God himselfe as who prescribed one day unto the Jewes and another day unto us Christians but still one in seven The same was the opinion both of Bellarmine and Master Hooker in his Ecclesiasticall policy Whereas both Master Rogers and the Prefacer so carry the matter as if by Doctor Bowndes opinion we Christians were bound to keepe our Sabbath on the same day whereon the Jewes were bound to keepe theirs which is most untrue though the fourth Commandement may be indifferently accommodated to our Christian Sabbath as it was unto the Jewish Sabbath save onely as touching the reason given which hath expresse reference to the creation but our Christian Sabbath stands in reference to the worke of Redemption Each is the rest on a seventh day after six dayes of labour and as they were bound to sanctifie their seventh so are we bound to sanctifie ours and
holy studies and meditations as worldly cares and both equally are noted out to be such as choake the Word Luk. 8.14 And therefore this day is altogether appointed to this end even to recreate our selves in the Lord For seeing God purposeth one day to keepe an everlasting Sabbath with us when God shall be all in all to make us the more fit for this even the more meete partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light therefore hee hath given us his Sabbaths to walke with him and to inure our selves to take delight in his company who takes delight to speake unto us as from Heaven in his holy Word and to give us liberty to speake unto him in our prayers confessions thanksgivings and supplications on other dayes wee care for the things of this World on this day our care should be spirituall and heavenly in caring for the things of another World so our pleasures should be spirituall on this day Esay 58.13 If thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight to consecrate it as glorious unto the Lord. Now have we not as much cause to performe this duty under the Gospell as ever the Jewes had under the Law And indeed there is no colour of reason against this but by affirming that now the setting of a day apart for Gods service is left at large to the liberty of the Church and albeit the Church hath set apart the Lords Day for this yet their meaning herein is no more then this that they shal come to Church twise a day and afterwards give themselves to what sports soever are not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land so that now a dayes wee are free from the obligation to the fourth Commandement and yet we are taught by the Church aswell at the hearing of this Commandement as at any other to say Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law and the booke of Homilies urgeth us to the sanctifying of our Christian Sabbath which is Sunday saith the booke expressely and that by vertue of Gods expresse Commandement And therefore I cannot but wonder at the indiscretion of this Prefacer who catcheth after such a superficiall advantage as the denomination of a feast amongst the Jewes not considering how little sutable it is to the grounds of his Tenet For by his Tenet after evening Prayer the Sabbath is at end the Churches meaning being not any further to oblige them to the sanctifying of the Lords Day but to give them liberty to use any sports or pastimes not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land But so was not the feast of the Jewes ended when they danced this being but an expression of that joy whereunto the present solemnity called them and they sinned no more herein then David did when hee danced before the Arke as wee see Ier. 31.12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together to the goodnesse of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oile and for the young of the flock and of the heard and their soule shall be as a well watered Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all 13 Then shall the Virgin rejoyce in the dance both yong men and old together for I will turne their mourning into joy and will comfort them make them rejoyce for their sorrow 14. And I will satiate the soule of the Priest with fatnesse and my people shall be satisfyed with my goodnesse saith the Lord. And the like wee reade Esay 30.19 Ye shall have a song as in the Night when an holy solemnity is kept and gladnesse of heart as when one goeth with a Pipe to come into the Mountaine of the Lord to the mighty One of Israel so that if Morricing and May-games and Dancing about May-poles were a sanctifying of the Sabbath Day in part as the Lord commands the day to be sanctifyed then indeed these sports were as lawfull on the Lords Day as the Jewes piping and dancing were lawfull on their feasts But that any such piping and dancing were used and allowed in those ancient times among the Jewes on their Sabbaths there is not the least colour of evidence And it is evident that such sports put them to lesse rest for their bodies then the workes of their calling neither is there any better evidence that any such piping and dancing were in use amongst the Jewes while they continued the people of God on every day of their solemne feasts for two dayes in each of them to wit the first day and the last they are commanded to keepe as Sabbaths whereon they were to have an holy convocation and thereon they are expressely commanded to rest from all servile workes and I should thinke the following of naturall pleasures are to be presumed as servile workes as the workes of a mans calling Lastly all recreations are to this end even to fit us to the workes of our calling either for the workes of our particular callings or the workes of our generall callings as we are Christians Such sports if they fit us for the service of God were more seasonable in the Morning then in the Evening If for the workes of our particular calling then are they inferiour to the workes of our calling the furthering whereof is their end and the meanes are alwayes inferiour in dignity unto the end Now if the more noble workes are forbidden on that day how much more such as are inferior are forbidden But it may be sayd that mens minds being burthened and oppressed with the former service of the day therefore some relaxatiō is to be granted for the refreshing of our spirits As much as to say a part of the Lords Day is to be allowed for profane sports and pastimes to refresh us after wee have beene tired out with serving God can this be savoury in the eares of a Christian should not wee rather complaine of these corruptions and bewaile it before God then give our selves to such courses as are apt to strengthen it It is true such is our naturall corruption that nothing is more tedious unto us as wee are in our selves then to converse with God but should not the consideration hereof provoke us so much the more to strive against it then give way to the nourishing and confirming of it And hath not our Saviour told us that not the cares of this World onely but voluptuous living also is it that choaks the good seede of Gods Word and causeth it to become unfruitfull in us As for the refreshing of our spirits and quickning them and thereby making us the fitter for Gods service as in any modest exercise of the body in private according to every mans particular disposition to prevent drowsinesse and dulnesse in attending to Gods Word in praying in singing of Psalmes I know none that takes any exception against it And as for the authority of the magistrate to appoint pastimes sure I am the high Court of
reason though not totally and wholy For the first if above one day in the weeke should be kept perpetually holy Gravamen esset laborantibus toties vacare it were a grievance to labourers to rest from worke so oft his meaning is in this case they could not sufficiently provide for themselves and their families as touching the maintenance of this life temporall and if but one day in a fortnight or a month should be appointed oblivisceremur Dei per desuetudinem cultus ipsius We should forget God through not accustoming our selves sufficiently to his service Therefore it stands with reason that one day in seven should be celebrated to the Lord. This surely is not to deny the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated unto the Lord to be morall but to confirme it rather Neither doe I finde that Aquinas resolves it so as here it is pretended that which hee sayth to be ceremoniall is applied by him onely to the particular day of the weeke Indeed hee doth say that the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to the Lord is morall neither doth hee deny it onely hee sayth it is morall that some time should be set apart for Gods service Zan. in 4. praecep p. 599. And it may be under this he comprehends the proportion of one day in seven as Zanchy doth For albeit hee treads in Aquinas steps when hee sayth Morale est quatenus natura docet pietas postulat ut aliquis dies destinetur quieti ab operibus servilibus quo divino cultui vacare possit Ecclesia ceremoniale est quatenus septimus dies fuit praescriptus non alius It is morall to have a day destinate to rest from servile workes so to be free for Gods service It is ceremoniall that the seventh day and no other is prescribed for this yet a little before hee manifesteth that by one day to be set apart for this he meanes one day in seven when he thus sayth Ibid. p. 595. Con. 1. Morale est mandatum quatenus praecipit ut è septem diebus unum consecremus cultui divino proinde quatenus tale mandatum est nunquam fuit abrogatum nec abrogari potest The Commandement is morall as it commands us to consecrate one day in seven unto divine service And so doth Dominicus Bannes 22. q. 44. art 1. Bellarmine de cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 11. And if no other be the opinion of Aquinas if the schoolmen of what sect soever say the same it followeth that they differ no more from us then Aquinas did it may be they will be found to agree with us For I doe not thinke any schooleman being put to it will deny but that by the very light of nature not onely some time but a sufficient proportion of time must be set apart for Gods service And albeit had we beene left unto our selves without any indication of this proportion from God wee might well have beene to seeke in the setting forth of this convenient proportion Yet considering how God hath gone before us making the World in six daies and resting the seventh and considering thereupon the division of time into septenaries of dayes reason I should thinke with Tostatus doth dictate that the proportion of one day in seven was more convenient then any other Or if this were not sufficient for our direction herein yet when God hath manifested unto us both after the Creation and in the fourth Commandement what proportion of time hee likes best for this as it is in reason fit that the Master especially such a Master should prescribe what proportion of time shall be set apart for his service then with Chrysostome wee have cause by the very light of nature undoubtedly to conclude that if in the beginning and under the Law God required one day in seven to be consecrated to his service wee surely cannot allow unto him a worse proportion under the Gospell And Iacobus de Valentia advers Judae q. 2. Conclus Praeceptum de Sabbato celebrando est partim morale propter primam conditionem This first condition in respect whereof he sayth it is morall hee professeth to be two fold 1 in regard of the rest 2. in regard of the sanctification of it then hee proves it saying probatur Adi 2. Nam primo Sabbatum fuit praeceptum ad requiem hominis sanctificationem Dei ut homo cessaret ab omni negotio mundano ut facilius posset Deo servire latriam exhibere Then comming to specifie the proportion of time to be allowed hereunto Oportet saith hee ut aliqua dies in septimana ad hujusmodi sanctificationem latriam sit Deo dedicata Et ut sic hoc praeceptum est stabile aeternum ut patebit One day in the weeke must be dedicated unto God for this sanctification and worship and thus the precept is stable and everlasting as it shall appeare In like manner Stella upon Luke 14. In the sanctification of the Sabbath there was something morall and something ceremoniall It is morall to observe one day in the weeke but that it should be this day or that day this is ceremoniall Adde to these Bellarmine de cultu sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 11. Ius divinum requirebat ut unus dies hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino Thus we see these are directly for us Aquinas and the schoolemen are not directly against us as hitherto it hath appeared no more then Zanchy who yet is directly for us as hath beene shewed By the way it doth not follow from any evidence that either these or Tostatus have given that the assigning of one day above another was ceremoniall taking this word ceremoniall in proper speech for 1. it may be accompted positive 2. what have wee to doe with ceremonialls in proper speech now under the Gospell who yet doe still observe one day in seven 3. nay why may not that also justly be accompted morall if God hath marked out that day wee celebrate by some notable worke to be consecrated to the Lord above others especially according to Bishop Lake his grounds namely that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day for proofe whereof hee appeales to the institution of all feasts both humane and divine In this case I should thinke there is no colour for suspition of any Judaisme who those fathers are who have pronounced as here it is said the fourth Commandement to be a ceremony a shadow and a figure only here it is not mentioned but delivered at large but I finde that Isychrius rejects from the Decalogue this precept for the observation of the Sabbath esteeming it to be only ceremoniall opposed herein by Dominicus Bannes 22. q. 44. art 1. Sed profecto fallitur quoth Bannes for the precept is morall as touching the substance of the praecept to wit that there be a certaine time wherein a man ought to rest unto God
of Math. 24.20 that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and addes that Those which were ceremonies were abrogated but those which were not ceremonies were changed at the Ministery from the Levites to be chosen throughout the World So here the day changed from the day of the Jewes to the Lords Day Revel 1.10 And accordingly interpreteth the fourth Commandement as belonging unto us Christians as bound to observe the Sabbath 1. in our judgment by a reverend esteeming of it not as a day appointed by man 2. in our use set downe Esay 58.13 not following our owne will nor doing our owne workes Hereupon a question is proposed thus But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ and the answer is this Do as Christ did in the case of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sin and so before there needed any Saviour and if they say it prefigured the rest we shall have from our sins in Christ We grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved The practise of piety is a booke dedicated unto his Majesty that now is when hee was Prince Carles in the yeere 1626. which is now 15. yeeres agoe came forth the 10th Edition of it wee have heard it highly commended by King Iames and that it commended the author of the dedication to a Bishoprick The author of this treatise is large upon the Sabbath and concurres with us in every particular wherein wee are by the Prefacer to this translation opposed Amongst other particulars this is one that hee interpreteth the fourth Commandement as Zanchy doth saying The Commandement doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day next following the sixt day of the Creation or this or that seventh day but indefinitely Remember that thou keepe holy a Sabbath day and that Our Lord Iesus having authority as Lord over the Sabbath had likewise far greater reason to translate the Sabbath day from the Iewish seventh unto the seventh day whereon Christians doe keepe their Sabbath which also hee proves by diverse reasons And the booke of Homilies whereunto all our Ministers are required to subscribe professeth that wee Christians are still bound to the observation of the Sabbath and that the Sunday is now our Sabbath So then as the Jewes were tied to the observation of the Sabbath on the day prescribed too them so are wee Christians tied to the observation of the Sabbath too but on the day prescribed unto us should wee observe the same day with the Jewes wee should fall justly under Austins censure that every such one carnaliter sapit And the same Austin professeth that Doctores Ecclesiae decreverunt omnem gloriam Iudaici Sabbati in illam transferre August de Tem. Ser. 251. The Doctors of the Church have decreed to transferre all the glory of the Jewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day So that the censure following in these words They therefore are but idly busied who would so farre enlarge the Sabbath or seventh day in this commandement as to include the Lords Day in it must light not upon us onely but upon other greater Divines yea and upon the Church of England also but our comfort is that wee finde it very weakly grounded As for the institution of the Lords Day I never reade nor heard any that grounded it upon the fourth Commandement otherwise then by proportion That Commandement containes two things 1. the sanctification of the Sabbath 2. a designing of the time when both as touching the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven and as touching the particularity of the day under the forementioned proportion For in commanding a seventh it commands one day in seven the former inferring the latter as well as it doth inferre the setting of some time in generall a part for Gods service which not one that I know denies to bee the substance of this commandement Now as the Lord designed what should bee their Sabbath day unto the Jewes so hath hee designed what shall bee the Sabbath day to us Christians This designation made to us we do not derive from the fourth commandement but this day being by the word of God designed unto us still holding up the same proportion of time the rest of this day and the sanctification thereof this and this alone doe we derive from the fourth commandement and also that undoubtedly we Christians ought not to allow unto God a worse proportion of time for his Service then did the Jewes and the proportion is apparant betweene the Lord the creators rest and the Lord the redeemers rest And our rest on the day of our Lord the creators rest being abolished as a type of Christs rest in the grave what is more convenient to come in the place thereof then our rest on that day which is the Lord our redeemers rest As touching the passage here alleaged out of Calvin I am sorry to observe the common errour of others committed here also by dismembring Calvins sentence leaving out one halfe of it making him to deliver that absolutely which hee utters onely conditionally And the other halfe of the first sentence here mentioned doth manifest as much namely that Calvin speakes only against them who think themselves obliged to the observation of one day in 7. for some mysterious significations sake and accordingly Wallaeus sheweth that he opposeth none but Papists whose course is to observe festivall dayes for some mystery sake whereof hee gives good evidence by a passage which he allegeth out of Bellarmine all which I have formerly represented more at large in my answer to the Preface Sect. 4. I come to the fourth Section of the Author That some doe urge the words of this Commandement so farre till they draw blood insteed of comfort are but words nothing of this kind hath beene hitherto made good so much as in the least colour of probabilitie And who upon due observing of the fourth commandement may not well be brought to admire the wisedome of God that as hee hath placed it in the morall law which concerneth all times and persons so he hath ordered it after such a manner that howsoever the day should be altered yet the proportion of time still to be kept and a Sabbath still to bee of force whether on the seventh day which was the Sabbath day unto the Jewes or the Lords day which should be our Christian Sabbath thereon to rest unto God and to sanctifie that day unto his service we make no doubt but the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and so hath power to change it and none hath power to change it but hee that is Lord of it It is true this was one argument amongst many which the Author of the Practice of Pietie useth to prove that the fourth commandement stands still in force because our Saviour professeth that He came not to
exhorts them at such a time to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24.20 what will you conclude herence therefore the observation of the Jewish Sabbath was still to continue among Christians if you doe who shall more deservedly be obnoxious to the censure of Judaisme you or wee yet when he tells them that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath how few interpreters writing hereupon doe not take notice of his power to abrogat it But is it not enough that Paul cryeth downe the ceremonies of the Jewes and in speciall their holy dayes and particularly Sabbaths to wit so far forth as they are found to be shadowes the body whereof was Christ such was the rest on the seventh day as prefiguring Christs rest in the grave But no sober man I trow will herence conclude that herewithall hee cryeth downe the setting apart of any time for Gods service that having no colour of ceremony or rest from such workes as hinder us in the service of God this being as little ceremoniall as the former I make bold to goe one step farther and conclude by the same reason that neither doth he cry downe the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven to be set a part for the exercises of piety because in this particular there is no more ceremonialitie to be found then in any one of the former But to proceed what indifferent man would once expect that in our Saviours disputations with the Pharisees about the Sabbath mention should bee made of the Lords day instituted in the place thereof It is enough wee find it instituted after our Saviours resurrection and sufficient I trowe it is to prove that it was instituted and that in the best manner namely by establishing it de facto in practise amongst the Churches I say this is sufficiently proved by the observation of it which undoubtedly neither was nor could be by chance A Sowe mufling in the earth may make something like the letter A. but not Ennius his Andromacha saith Cicero In like sort the concurrence of the Churches in the observation hereof from the Apostles and continuance therein unto this day could not be by chance but by order and that from the Apostles When you aske Did not the Apostles keepe the Iewish Sabbath I answer I doe not finde they did yet I finde revelations were made unto them of what was to be done by degrees Peter was challenged Acts 11. by the rest of the Apostles for preaching the Gospell unto the Gentiles They tooke indeed advantage of the Jewes Sabbath to preach the Gospell unto them congregated together Act. 13. so did they to the same end take the oppotunity of the feast of Pentecost Acts 18.21 I grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that which is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience Sect. 6. whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24.20 D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles ' as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and
penall statutes may provide for such restraints by such punishments as whereof every naturall man will be sensible enough we have other considerations to propose as 1. Touching the proportion of time to be allowed to Gods service which concerneth the quantity of the service it selfe 1. This is a thing very considerable and of moment 2. We have no example that the quantity of service to be performed to the master was left unto the conscience or pleasure of the servant but rather is to be prescribed by the Master especially by such a Master as God is 1. Who hath made us 2. Who will infinitely reward us 3. To serve whom is our most perfect freedome and happinesse 4. And who is able to give us strength to performe it 5. And who is tenderly sensible of our weaknesses as he is most privy to them 6. And after God hath discovered this unto us and required the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to him and that under the Law surely reason doth suggest that we cannot performe lesse unto him under the Gospell 2. As touching the particularity of the day under this proportion 1. We read that there is one that is Lord of the Sabbath Now in reason who shall appoint this day but he that is Lord of it especially considering that it is his holy day Es 58. and such festivalls were said to be of his making Psalme 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made not of mans making secondly but it may be said he may leave unto man the appointing of it if it please him I answer that in this case it stands them upon to shew their Charter for this Thirdly for my part I see no cause we should desire any such liberty but rather pray unto God to blesse us from it 1. For as I am flesh I shall bee sure to put it off to the end of the weeke and I may be gone out of the world ere that day comes and when that day comes I shall be as loath to come to the service that day requires as ever and assoone weary of it and say when will the Sabbath be gone that I may returne to my former courses secondly as I am spirit I have cause to make choyce of the first day for à Iove principium and Adam and Eve being after the beasts of the field made on the sixt day and planted in Paradise the seventh day was the first entire day to him 4. Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells observes that festivalls dayes have ever beene commended unto us by some notable worke done on that day Now what worke like unto the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the weeke 5. Bishop Andrewes observes in his Starre Chamber speech that this resurrection brings with it a new creation and calls for a new Sabbath and I find this to have beene the observation of Athanasius about 1300. yeeres agoe 6. If we were left at liberty in the choyce of the day it is to be feared that if there were twenty dayes in the weeke there would be twenty differences betweene us thereabouts 7. Lastly if left at libertie I find no reason why we should keepe ourselves to the observation of the same day this is so apt and prone to breed in us an opinion of the necessitie thereof and so plunge us into superstition ere we are aware and thereby make our whole service of God on that day distastfull unto him To proceed the Practise of the Apostles is in Scripture represented unto us in three severall places the first whereof is Act. 20 7. upon the first day of the weeke when the Disciples came together to breake bread Paul preached unto them The practise is improved thus why is it said expressely that the Disciples came together to heare the word preached and receive the Sacraments rather on this day then any other rather then on the Iewish Sabbath were it not then a custome to celebrate on that day their publique meetings the Sabbath of the Iewes beginning by degrees to vanish It is farther confessed that the Fathers and all interpreters almost doe so conceive it Observe not a Father is found to take it in any other sense only the Magdeburgenses and Calvin are said to stick at the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it might signifie some one day of the weeke and yet in Scripture phrase it is apparant that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. 16.9 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 20.19 And it is Salmasius his observation that the Pythagoreans called the first day of the weeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insteed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Doctor professeth that from a casuall fact he seeth not how a solemne Institution may be justly grounded but it is not proved that this fact was casuall nay the text carryeth in the face of it manifest evidence against casualitie For it is said that they came together to eat bread all then convening to a sacred action how could this be done if they had not agreed hereupon before especially it being a businesse whereabout they came that required solemne and sacred preparation all which affront casualitie Take the circumstances aright The Disciples from divers parts came together that day about solemne and sacred action therefore it was ordered before to meet together on that day Now this concludes only concerning them and therefore Wallaeus professeth that the force of these three texts taken apart doe not conclude but joyntly Now by the next place 1. Cor. 16.2 it appeareth that the same day was the ordinary day of meeting for the Corinths and for the Churches of Galatia also Now how came it to passe the same day was the day of meeting about holy exercises in the Church of Ephesus the Church of Corinth and in the Churches of Galatia could this ordinary course for so much is signified 1. Cor. 16.2 of so many Churches concurring herein come to passe by chance or could their consent herein so many Churches so farre distant one from another be wrought by chance and not rather in all reason was wrought by authority Apostolicall And as for the second place 1 Cor. 16.2 whereas the exception is that there it is said the Apostles ordered collections on that day but not their meetings yet Doctor Andrewes in his Starre Chamber speech alleageth it as the Apostles precept for their meetings on that day and so doth Paraeus for though it be not expressed yet so much is implyed as by the reason formerly mentioned hath beene argued especially considering the last place Revel 1.10 where the first day of the weeke is called the Lords day a notable evidence of the divine authority the Scripture phrase no where calling any the Lords day or the Lords Altars or the Lords feasts but such as are of the Lords institution and in this particular Bishop Andrewes compares the Lords day with the Lords Supper professing the
flourishes and pleasing to the judicious provided they are to purpose and sound argument hath not beene wanting to justifie the doctrine they maintaine but when they are out of season or supply the want of better argument they want their grace and are pleasing only to the ignorant or partialist At length I am come unto the last Section For the one halfe of this Section there is little or nothing controverted betweene us But here we have a faire distinction as good as confessed betweene a ceremoniall rest and another rest which is described by a rest from workes as it is an impediment to the performance of such duties as are then commanded this I can a rest morall the rather that the distinction may not flye with one wing That of Saint Hierome is a quick passage on Act. 18. affirming that Saint Paul when hee had none to whom to preach in the congregation did on the Lords day use the workes of his occupation I will not answer as the outlandish Priests fashion was as Sir Thomas More reports the story Domine novi locum verum respondeo sumitur dupliciter so gratifying his adversaries argument with one member of his distinction and his owne in providing for escape out of the briers by the other least I might be served as Sir Thomas More served the Priest pretending to quote such a chapter of Saint Matthew or Marke when there were not so many in the whole Gospell or such a verse in a certaine Chapter when there were not so many verses at all Therefore I desire to consult Hierome but Hierome hath not at all written upon the Acts and where else to seeke it I know not Yet I deny not but that Dietericus the Lutheran upon the 17. Dominicall after Trinity Sunday hath such a passage Hieronymus ex Act. 18. v. 2. 4. colligit quod die etiam Dominica quando quibus in publico conciâ—naâ—etur Paâ—lus non habebat maâ—â—bus suis labâ—raviâ— But where it is that Hierome doth collect this he doth not specifie â—t our Saviour was borne under the Law and knew full well it became him to fulfill all righteousnesse and therefore undoubtedly he never did transgresse the fourth commandement indeed some there are who distaste the name of Sabbath now a dayes and truly the Ancients doe usually speake of the Lords day in distinction from the Sabbath because that denomination doth denote the Saturday but I doubt that in these dayes it is distasted in another respect even for the rest of it which I no where finde distasted amongst the Ancients nor any libertie given by them for sports and pastimes on the Lords day But our booke of Homilies speakes plainly in saying The Sunday is our Sabbath day And Proclamations that come forth in his Majesties name usually call the Lords day by the name of Sabbath And in the conference at Hampton Court Doctor Raynolds made a motion for preserving the Sabbath day from prophanation according to the Kings proclamation neither have we heard of any prelate of this kingdome that then interposed to alter that phrase And which is more our Saviour calls it the Sabbath speaking of the times of the Gospell when the Jewish Sabbath was to bee buried with Christ to wit Matth. 24.20 and Doctor Andrewes in his patterne of Catecheticall Doctrine justifieth this interpretation of that place and that to this end so to maintaine the continuance of a Sabbath amongst us Christians I doe highly approve the distinction following of things commanded and things permitted on the Lords day and the explication of each member the object of the one all actions advancing Gods service the object of the other such things as are no hinderance thereunto As in the first place workes of necessitie then workes of charitie yet the permitting of these is rightly to be understood not so as if the workes of necessity here mentioned were in such sort permitted as left to a mans liberty whether he will performe them or no. For undoubtedly we are bound as much as lyes in our power to quench a dangerous fire kindled in a Towne on the Sabbath day it being a worke of mercy necessarily required For if to returne a pledge ere the poore pawner of it went to his bed in case it were his covering were a worke of mercy how much more to save a mans house from burning how much more to save a whole Towne from being consumed whereby many might bee driven to lye without doores void of all comfort to the body So to draw the ox out of the ditch and to lead Cattels to watering I take it to bee a worke of mercy as tending to the preservation of life in a dum creature In like sort the dressing of meat for the health of mans body I take to bee a worke of mercy So that the performing of these in reference to the end whereto they tend I take to be of necessary duty as here they are called workes of necessitie and consequently not permitted only but commanded also in the generall though not in this commandement but in the second commandement of the second table only they are said to be permitted on the Lords day to signifie that the fourth commandement doth not enjoyne them nor forbid them in commanding rest from workes on that day and the sanctifying of that rest I doe not doubt but that charitie begins from it selfe and the Scripture commands us to love our neighbour as our selves And can wee performe better love to our selves in advancing our owne good then by making The Sabbath our delight to consecrate it as glorious to the Lord As for the recreations which are here said to serve lawfully to the refreshing of our Spirits this appellation is very ambiguous neither doe I know any difference betweene the recreating of our Spirits and the refreshing of our Spirits yet here the refreshing of our Spirits is made the end of recreation Againe it were good to distinguish betweene recreation of the body and recreation of the mind I thinke the refreshing of Spirits pertaines to the recreation of the body mens spirits are naturall and materiall things and they are apt to bee wasted first naturally for as life consists in calido in an hot matter so heate is apt to spend and waste the matter wherein it is and Spirits thus wasted are recreated that is repaired by eating and drinking And thus provisions of victuall are commonly called recreats 2. Secondly they are wasted also by labour voluntarily undertaken and these are repaired as by the former way so by rest also And each way we are allowed to recreate our spirits on the Lords day and as to allow such rest to our servants as a work of mercy so to our own bodies also But now a dayes many courses are called recreations wherein there is found little rest and the naturall Spirits of man are rather wasted and his nature tyred farre more then the one is repaired or the other eased
right hand pleasures for evermore Gods soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 takes pleasure in us why should not we take delight in him Is not all other rejoycing in comparison to our rejoycing in him a rejoycing in a thing of nought Amos 6.13 Certainly he that loveth any pleasure or pastime in comparison to this will in the end prove to be a very poore creature But to proceed after this a rule is given That this our christian liberty be voyd of scandall to wit of scandall justly given Prov. 21.17 and not vainely caught at but in what cases it falls out to be justly given and in what not in what case it is vainly caught at and in what not here we find no explication which yet I presume will seeme necessary in every wise mans judgement especially to me it must needs seeme so being as I am in extreame despaire of devising these different cases of mine owne head Of Christian liberty from the yoke of Jewish ceremonies I have read but of Christian liberty unto sports and pastimes under the gentile notion of recreations and that on the Lords day I never read till now The Jewes to this day continue their ceremonies but not any abstinence from al sports and pastimes on their Sabbath for if they did why should Austin tell them it were better for them to goe to plough then to dance In the very festivalls of the Jewes which were yearely a difference there was in the dayes of each the first and last were Sabbaths appointed for holy convocations and thereon abstinence commanded from all servile works I no where finde any piping and dancing on those dayes saving their temple musick how much more undecent is it to clap the weekely Sabbath together with other festivalls as if there were no difference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be moved round and consequently it signifies as sometimes to dance as 1 Sam. 30. so sometimes also to stagger like a drunken man Psal 107.27 And dancing was used sometimes in the festivalls of the Jewes whereby they testified their rejoycing in the Lord Ier. 31. and with a pipe they came to the mount of the Lord Es 30. and Miriam Moses sister and other women also with Timbrells and dances expressed their joy in the Lord for their deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians and for their safe passage through the red Sea wherein the enemies were drowned But of any such course used on the first and last day of their yearely feasts which were set apart for holy convocations we find no example amongst them much lesse as approved while they continued the Church and people of God least of all on the weekely Sabbath As for love feasts on the Sabbath untill abuse crept in they continued without exception in great sobriety only to quicken one another and provoke unto love and gracious communication for the edification of their souls I never heard of any schismatique how rashly zealous or Stoicall soever that tooke upon him the authority of the civill magistrate All for ought I know concurre in this that it belongs onely to the magistrate out of coercitive power to command and compell but to the Minister of what sect soever only to persuade and worke upon mens consciences so that the members of this comparison are most indecently yoaked feigning men to be of what spirit soever it pleaseth to shape them and to doe whatsoever they thinke good though never so unreasonably and without all example Of the Jewes I have read that they count it unlawfull to kill a Flea on the Sabbath and such things must be pinned upon the sleeve of opposites to grace their cause for want of better arguments to strengthen it Infine we have a buffe givē to debauched companions in words when under the cleanly terme of Recreations on the Lords Day the course here taken is to sacrifice unto them indeed and in effect FINIS Doctor LAKE Bishop of BATH and Wells Theses de Sabbato 1. GOD at first made us not only men but also children of God 2. Therefore wee had a double being or were fitted for a double Societie 1. Civill 2. Ecclesiasticall 3. These states are inwrapped the one in the other For the Ecclesiasticall presuposeth the Civill He that is a child of God is a man and hee must be of the Civill that is of the Ecclesiasticall society 4. And the Civill state must be seasoned with and moderated by the Ecclesiasticall for a man in his Civill state must live as a child of God and member of the Church 5. Notwithstanding God would that each of these states should during this World have successively their principall imployments 6. And for these imployments hee appointed certaine times 7. The proportion of time allowed the principall imployment of the civill state was six dayes And that which was allowed the principall imployment of Ecclesiasticall state was one day 8. What times himselfe tooke for to work in or rest after the Creation the same did hee assigne to men and made his patterne a perpetuall Law 9. So then of our time God reserved a seventh part for his service 10. But in this apportioning as he reserved a seventh part of time so was that seventh the seventh day of the weeke 11. Whereof the ground was his rest from labour 12. For that he would have to be the day of mans rest because he sanctified it 13. And though no meane both Jewes and Christians doubt of the beginning of this observance by man yet I thinke it began with Adam 14. God had a Church and a service of his owne prescript from the beginning and why should we doubt whether hee cloathed then his service with due circumstances of Time Place 15 Did he sanctifie it for his owne use That were absurd to thinke the Word sanctifying doth refute it for whom then surely for man 16. And the place Exod. 16. together with the Preface to the fourth Commandement remember weigh more with me then all the weake presumptions that are brought to the contrary 17. I conclude then that the fourth Commandement is not an introduction but a declaratory Law 18. But moreover I adde that when it was delivered to the Jewes there was superadded a distinguishing reference to that Church 19. For it was prescribed as a signe of Gods sanctifying residence amongst them and a memoriall of their freedome from Egyptian bondage 20. But these accessories derogate not from the first institution 21. No more doth the forme of Liturgy which was occasioned by the fall or their freedome 22. These things shew rather to what speciall use they did apply the time then touch the apportionment thereof 23. The apportionment of time of which I take these Questions moved hath two remarkable things 24. 1. That God reserveth a seventh part of time 2. That hee designeth which of the seven days shall be his 25. The reserving of the seventh part I hold to be by Gods Ordinance who is
to recompence the wayes of the wicked upon their own heads in the profanation of his Sabbaths Secondly it may seeme strange that Pererius should serve himselfe with this reason namely of the Lords blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it seeing he professeth himselfe to be of Tostatus his opinion interpreting these words by way of anticipation and referring them to the giving of the Law upon Mount Sina Others were of opinion that Adam continued as long in Paradise as Christ lived here on Earth But this opinion Pererius thinkes no way probable Others devised a continuance of Adam in Paradise for the space of forty dayes answering to our Saviours fasting forty dayes but this he sayth hath no shew of probability His own conjecture is that Adam fell and was turned out of Paradise that day senight after he was created and the grounds of his conjecture are in my opinion as frivolous as any As first when he saith that eight dayes space was sufficient to have experience of the happinesse of that state For why not as well some dayes more or some dayes lesse nay rather by continuance in the same state we grow lesse and lesse sensible of the happinesse thereof And the happinesse of a state is best known by the contrary according to that rule Carendo magis quà m fruendo quid quidque sit cognoscimus As for the agreement herein which he conceites between Adam and Christ as who is thought of many to have been conceaved in the Virgins wombe on the sixt day of the weeke and on the same day of the weeke was indeed crucified upon the crosse who seeth not that this conveniency had been found as well on that day fortnight or on that day three weekes and so in Infinitum as on that day senight As ridiculous appeares to be his pretence of complying thus with the antients whose opinion was that Adam fell the same day wherein he was created which he would apply to that day senight after For why not as well to that day three weekes after or that day a month after and so in Infinitum But let us consider Pererius reasons whereby he undertakes to shew the unlikelihood of Adams falling the first day The first is drawn from the forme of Adams temptation thus why doe you not eate of every tree of paradise which supposeth as he saith that they had already eaten of every other Tree in Paradise and Eves answer he saith seems to confirm this in saying we eate of the fruit of the Trees in the Garden But of the fruit of the Tree which is in the mids of the Garden we eate not what is the meaning of we eate but this we are wont to eate quoth Pererius Yet forthwith he himselfe enervates this interpretation confessing that the meaning may be this It is lawfull for us to eate And I willingly confesse that no argument appeares to me so plausible as this namely that they had formerly tasted of every fruit of the Garden besides this for it seems very likly that not till then they were wel prepared for satans temptation And it seemes unlikely they would offer to taste of the fruit forbidden untill they had tasted of all the rest then indeed and not til then the commendation of that as of a more excellent fruit then any of the rest might the better allure them both to touch and taste But as Pererius proposeth it it hath no force for as much as he corrupteth the Text the Divells words being not such as these why doe yee not eate of every tree of paradise but running thus Yea hath God sayd yee shall not eate of every tree in the Garden or as Piscator takes it for a conclusion of a larger discourse yea in as much as God hath said ye shall not eate of the fruit of every tree in the Garden so giving a reason to proove what he objected namely that God envyed their happinesse As for the reasons which before I have given they may be answered thus If the benefit of this fruit had been of the same kinde with the benefit of others and onely in degree of excellency above them then were it no way likely they should begin with this But seeing it was pretended to be of a farre different kinde by Satans suggestion not so much for satisfying the appetite of sense as for satisfying the spirituall desire of the soule in knowing good and evill which the very denomination of the Tree given by God himselfe did fairely intimate and this being cunningly improoved by Satan to be a Divine condition in making them like unto God this consideration might well allure forthwith without all further stay to have experience of other fruit Secondly why might they not have tasted of the fruites of other Trees without any necessity of nature urging them and yet without any luxury at all but only to acquaint themselves with the condition of those good Creatures which God had provided for them Yet again considering that this experience made to no other end should so sensibly have brought home unto them the goodnesse of God in that state of holinesse and integrity that it would have exceedingly confirmed them in their obedience to God and made the motion of the Serpent at first hearing distastfull and to choose to be like unto God in obedience and thereby in conformity to his holy will then in forbidden knowledge And besides the tasting of all so soone can hardly be justified from Luxury or wast therefore I rest in my first answer Pererius his next reason caryeth a great deale of shew but in substance lesse forcible Certainly the making of the beasts of the Earth and of man might be done in as short a time as it pleased God to have it especially considering the opinion of some antients that all things were made together and that in a short space so mans placing in Paradise and the beasts brought unto him by God might be soone dispatched and surely Adams naming of them cost him no study and undoubtedly all this was done before the creating of Eve so that all this might be done before noone and space enough allowed for the Divells conference with Eve and his seducing her and her seducing Adam The making of them aprons to hide their nakednesse caryeth the greatest shew of requiring longer time but he who wanted not wit to name the beasts so congruously to their natures wanted not understanding to cover themselves with fig-leaves As for the Doctors alleaged by him for his opinion I doe not finde that any of them is expresse or by consequent direct for that whereunto they are alleaged but the inferences made from their wordes are meerely conjecturall For when hee writes that Ioseph in the first booke of his antiquities and Basil in his Homily of Paradise and Damascen in his second booke of orthodox faith and 10. Chapter seeme to be of this opinion his ground is only this because as he saith they write