very direct Thou shalt do no manner of work What not quench an house of fire not water a beast not provide necessary food yes works of necessitie works of mercy thou mayest do the precept onely interdicteth servile work ordinary work of our vocation All Doctours whatsoever so understand it which being granted the fourth precept for ought I see little exceedeth in rigour touching the Sabbath the Canon and Statute Law of this land concerning the meanest holy Day Differ I do herein from my sacred mother the Church of England it cannot be denied she hath expressed her self otherwise viz. That this Commandment of God doth not bind Christian people so straitly to observe the utter ceremonies of the Sabbath Day as touching the forbearing of work and labour in times of great necessitie But seeing in the substance viz. That we are not bound to observe the Lords Day with that extreme severitie which once belonged to the Jewish Sabbath we consent I hope a difference in the manner of expression is at most but a peccadillo but a veniall fault our dissent is onely this That strictnesse which she reduceth to the fourth Commandment I rather lodge and settle in those accessory and occasionall laws which are quite of another parish and have nothing to do here If it be here objected That this precept bindeth not to the observation of the Lords Day and therefore no matter what it injoyneth I answer it doth oblige to the observation of this day for no other day can properly be called Gods Sabbath then this because no other day is weekly solemnized in the Church and thereto destined by Divine appointment which are the certain characters of the Sabbath of that Commandment Besides all Expositours interpret this precept of this day especially and some of none other and above all our Church it self is so full as nothing can be desired more apposite to our purpose then what she hath delivered Like as it appeareth by this Commandment saith she that no man in the six dayes ought to be slothfull and idle but diligently labour in that estate wherein God hath set him even so God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the Sabbath Day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour and give themselves wholly to divine exercises of Gods true Religion and Service And a few lines after she saith That to keep the Christian Sabbath which is the Sunday is Gods expresse commandment These are lowd and clear demonstrations of what our Church then thought wherein two things are remarkable First that she reduceth the observation of the Lords Day to the fourth Commandment and secondly that without any scruple she very broadly calleth it our Sabbath yea and The Sabbath A word whereat much offence hath lately been taken and all that use it are checkt by our great Schoolman who good man in a tender care of us adviseth that we follow the language of the holy Ghost as also of the Primitive Church that we vary not from other reformed Churches that we gratifie not the Jews in their obstinacy against Christ that we offend not our weak brethren and lastly that we use that name which doth most edifie viz. the LORDS DAY As concerning the style Lords Day we quarrell not at it we are no enemies of it we use it for ought I know more frequently then Sabbath yet were it truly sensed and according to right sense duly observed it would contract not onely the title but nature of a Sabbath for what is our Lords Day but the Evangelicall Sabbath as the Legall Sabbath was the Jewish Lords Day Be the Lords Day thus stated call it then by that name ever if you please it not at all offendeth us but when it becometh from the Sabbath an ordinary holy day or rather playday from the Lords Day the Churches Day we have then just cause to rouse the world by shrill expressions and lowd manifestations that it is both the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment and also the Lords Day that is of his Institution But to persue this not without wonder behold the strange condition of these men who inveigh so bitterly against the word Sabbath which hath notwithstanding warrant both from our book of Homilies the Canons Ecclesiasticall and Edicts of our Princes behold their perversitie The words Altar Priest Sacrifice Holy of Holies will down with them so easily as now they begin to rellish nothing else It is rare very rare a great novelty to heare the course and homely terms of Table Minister Lords Supper or Chancel in their mouths Now I say and aver the word Sabbath hath not in it any semblance of danger to Gods Church comparable to that of Altar Priest c. For first the Lords Day is a Sabbath The Sabbath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} properly and directly whereas these words Altar Priest c. are used {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but figuratively and symbolically Besides the word Sabbath giveth no offence for if any incline to Judaisme it is in the strictnesse not now in the day But the other words stumble many especially in these times wherein we have cause and just cause to fear they are meant and intended of things other then metaphoricall And are not our fears just when Transsubstantiation beginneth not to be instilled in some subtile and Paracelsian spirit of School distinction but according to the Galenists to be exhibited in the grosse masse of corporeall presence in a corporeall sense so as the most unprepared and unbelieving receiver eateth his part thereof as well as the faithfull But admit this to be the tenet of some few extravagants yet are not our fears just when that uncouth and apish bowing toward if not to the Altar is not onely warranted and defended but commended to our observation by the chief of our Church which whosoever shall dive into it and search antiquitie will find it one of the Parents Elevation or Ostension being the other which begot adoration of the Host which begot Impanation or Transsubstantiation Let not any think here that by Antiquitie I understand the very Primitive Church with whom we challenge so near alliance in matters of Doctrine for certain it is that the first Church was utterly ignorant of this novel device you shall indeed many times very often find in the Fathers a that they bowed or worshipped towards the East and this they did onely at their entrance into the Church according to the Poet Vt Templi tetigere gradus procumbit uterque Pronus humi But of bowing for what some urge of Nazianzen's Gorgonia was geniculation not genuflection as will appear to any that duly peruseth the place towards the Altar as you call it or ducking as often as they approched unto or departed from it you shall not find mention anywhere till you arrive at Chrysostome's Liturgy which requireth {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
they had the benefit of them as some have not set down content to believe that the prophesie of Enoch mentioned by S. Jude was written and that what Josephus relateth of the Pillars errected by the posterity of Seth is true but they conceive also that Adam and all the succeeding Patriarchs compiled the histories of their own times But how Moses attained his knowledge I leave to the disquisition of them who affect curiosities yet this give me leave to note as received amongst the best Divines That the holy Ghost was not so much an intelligencer as a directer and guide to Moses in the framing the history of Genesis For the omniscient Wisdome foreseeing that it would not be alwayes safe to make Tradition the perpetuall depositary of so rare choice a jewel as the story of his Primitive Church which might either through carelesnesse loose part of what was betrusted to her or under colour of sole possessing the Truth vend counterfeit and sophisticate stuff thought it necessary for the good of his Church that a set and certain story of the first times should be compiled to which purpose he selected Moses as his Amanuensis and Register aiding him extraordinarily with his holy Spirit by whose assistance he was enabled to distinguish truth from fables which had by surreption intruded exactly to describe many minute circumstances of time place persons names c. which memory was not able to comprehend and to digest it into that perfect order wherein we now see it So that one way or other either by tradition or letters or both the precise seventh day could not at that time have been lost or forgot and consequently that no cause for the Sabbath to begin at the fall of Manna And was there any other what To be a preamble and preparation to the subsequent Sabbath this would be proved A preparation to the after strictnesse of the Sabbath it was that I confesse not to the Sabbath it self this I deny an introduction it might be to the solemnity of the Sabbath which began after not so to the Sabbath it self which was long before For though it was but in its minority but magni nominis umbra a very shadow of the after celebrity yet a Sabbath it was and the seventh day Sabbath too and this not my singular assertion but the consent of the most profound Doctours as well ancient as modern So the Fathers Origen a What was afterward commanded in the Law concerning the Sabbath the same Job both observed himself and taught his children to do the like Cyprian b This septenary number gained Authority from the creation of the world because the first works of God were made in six dayes and the seventh was dedicated to rest as sacred it being honoured with the solemnity of a command and entitled to the sanctifying Spirit Basil c The Sabbath which was the seventh day from the first creation is a type of our perfect Rest in the remission of our sinnes Nazianzen d The Creation began on the Lords day as is evident because the seventh from it is made the Sabbath bringing rest from labours Athanasius e As long as the first age or Creation was inforce so long the Sabbath was observed Epiphanius f mentioneth a twofold Sabbath under the old Law the Naturall or Weekly which was defined from the Creation the Legall or Ceremoniall which was enjoyned by the law of Moses At the heels of the Fathers follow the Schoolmen who busying themselves about nicer subtilties have left us little of their opinions concerning the Sabbath Alexander Halensis a the irrefragable Doctour though he thinketh the Sabbath was not observed by virtue of any precept before the Law yet he granteth that it was inspired as a thing meet and fit to be observed All these before Ambrose Catharine b he then not the first that understood Moses according to the letter nor yet the last no not of his own Partie Genebrard c The Sabbath was sanctified in Paradise which was also observed all the time till the Law promulgated as the Hebrews and Lyranus upon Gen. 7. deliver And in another place he telleth us out of Rabbi Abraham that Job did observe it Cornelius à lapide d It is manifest that the Sabbath was instituted and established not first by Moses Exod. 20. but long before to wit from the beginning of the world Salianus also in his Ecclesiasticall Annals doth at large refute the Prolepsis as absurd As for Protestant writers whether they be Lutheranes Calvinists or our own English we dare vie it with the Anticiparians and give them oddes two for one at least and bate the preciser sort too Luther e himself shall lead the van The Sabbath was destined from the beginning of the world to religious worship Baldwin f The Sabbath was observed from the Creation Calvin in Exod. apud a Prideaux Gualter b Doubtlesse the Fathers before the Law diligently observed the Sabbath P. Martyr c That people rest from labour one day in the week did not onely appertain to Moses Law but had beginning from Gen. 2. Zanchy d I doubt not mine own I relate without prejudice to others opinions I doubt not I say but the Sonne of God in humane shape was all this seventh day busied in most holy colloquies with Adam but he fully revealed himself to him and Eve shewed him how and in what order he created all things wisht him to meditate upon these works and in them to praise and acknowledge the True God his Creatour taught him that after his example every seventh day all labour set aside he should spend in this exercise of Pietie c. What could modesty her self more modestly assever he doth not imperiously obtrude for truth what he saith he onely telleth you his own conceit and it hath ever been permitted for men in such cases as this both to think what they will and speak what they think as the Historian saith Can any therefore but wonder that the bare delivery of a private opinion so soberly without incrochment upon others liberties should gain the Authour no better esteem then to be reckoned amongst lying Legendaries and fabulous Rabbines What Zanchy was his works speak him a learned and good man in that repute he lived in that he died I never heard him defamed for a Palephatus or Tale-coyner till now and I hope never shall again a Ursin The Sabbath was commanded from the beginning of the world by God unto all men b Bullinger The Sabbath was observed from the beginning of the world by a law naturall and divine c Beza The Precept of the Sabbath was established in the very Creation of the world even before mans fall and elsewhere he saith that Job did sanctifie at least every seventh day A saucy fellow to controul Justin Martyr his better and therefore is taught manners by my Authour
Eucharist otherwise then by implication as it was then an usuall work of that day because it is said that they might not intermittere which especially relateth to time as interpose to place and inferreth the not doing of a dutie in its proper quando which cannot be well interpreted of the celebration of the Eucharist it being not restrained by any positive Law of God to a certain time And indeed it was more proper to examine them whether they held their Christian assembly whether they met on the Lords Day considering it consequently inferred the performance of all sacred duties then to inquire whether they had celebrated the Eucharist which according to the custome of those times was often performed at home being reserved for the same purpose If Christ had either here on earth or after by revelation from Heaven given his Apostles any such charge of Instituting a new Sabbath sure Christs Apostles would not have concealed Christs command Besides the Apostles holding their first Synod would doubtlesse have exprest as much to the Gentiles First Christs Apostles did not conceal Christs command for what if perhaps it be not extant in their writings They were indeed our Saviours executours performers of his will but was his hole will exemplified in Scripture certainly no Some part thereof was declared in ima Cera as Civilians say and by Tradition For Tradition which is clearly known to be Apostolicall is as perfect evidence of Christs will as the Canonicall Scripture it self For the Scripture before it was Scripture was but a part of Tradition and became Scripture that it might be of more ready use and better preserved from perishing but mainly because it was the fundamentall Canon of our Religion Secondly The Apostles in their Synodicall Epistle had onely respect to the Judaicall not to Evangelicall observances Moreover the solemnity of the Lords Day was made known to them by former practice equivalent with precept at least if not by precept it self for according to our Church a The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in My learned Authour biddeth us here observe that the day was chosen by Christian people and if chosen by them then not injoyned by the Apostles I see a man may learn something every day for I professe ingeniously till this instant I took the Apostles to be Christians Lastly the precept was in the negative not in the affirmative If you say True and hence we may inferre that the first Christians were tied to no affirmatives but such as were expresly commanded by Evangelicall precept I answer then it must follow that women did not communicate children were not baptised Ministers not ordained incorrigible persons not excommunicated these being not expresly commanded by any Evangelicall Law Whatsoever is of divine Institution and by necessitie of precept laid upon the whole Church is a necessary dutie without which if it may possibly be observed no salvation can be had But no man will affirm so of the Lords Day Ergò c. The major is false for positive precepts omitted do not inevitably damne any man but where there is a malicious contempt or wilfull neglect of the ordinance The Sacrament of Baptisme shall be mine instance It was in the Primitive Church procrastinated by some many years by most in their usuall practice some moneths and is even in our own Church some dayes In all this delay no inevitable impossibility debarreth the competent or person to be baptized from this Sacrament will you then say that Heaven gates are precluded against all those whom hasty death cutteth off in this delay Heare the most uncharitable of all the Ancients in this point d S. Augustine The Sacrament of Baptisme is invisibly accomplished as long as the fault proceedeth from absolute necessitie not from contempt of the ordinance The Gospel commandeth onely such observations which are either means of grace as the Word and Sacraments or wherein the exercise and use of grace doth consist as the duties of love towards God and Man But the observation of the Lords Day is neither a means of grace nor exercise of grace Ergò c. That which is a part of divine worship is a means of grace But the observation of the Lords Day is so Ergò c. The minor I prove thus That is a part of divine worship whose Institution is divine But the Institution of the Lords Day is divine as I have made evident Ergò c. If you say that Junius * Amesius and others who hold the Day to be Jure divino make it yet onely an adjunct to not a part of divine worship I answer that as it is a time set apart for holy worship it is an adjunct to it but as it is a time determined by God himself the very observation thereof is a part of divine worship which is nothing but a religious observance of the true God according to the prescript of his own will Besides it is a means to stirre up our souls to the exercise of grace in pious meditations when we consider it in all its prerogatives superlative above other dayes as that which was the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and in all probability shall be the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of dayes and therefore aptly dedicated to him who calleth himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the day of our Saviours resurrection by which we are justified as the day of the holy spirits descension by whom we are sanctified as the day which mystically prefigureth our eternall rest when we shall be glorified And therefore it is worthily and truly called by * Ignatius The sublimest and primate of all dayes That day which cannot be kept universally throughout the whole world was never commanded the whole Church of Christ by an Evangelicall Law For the Gospel is given to all Nations But the Lords day cannot thus be universally observed considering the diversitie of meridians and unequall rising and setting of the sunne in divers Regions in some whereof time is not distinguished into weeks or dayes by morning and evening as in Groinland Finmark Lapland c. The positive Laws of God do not alwayes imply a possibility in them upon whom they are imposed The Jews were injoyned many observances of sacrifices feasts c. which could not alwayes be performed by them as in case of captivity or durance So the Christians are commanded the celebration of the Eucharist and yet the condition of some Countreys is such as they have not bread a of others as they have not wine b The truth is Gods commandment may impose but never oblige unto things sometimes impossible where there is an utter impossibility of observation as in this or the like case that