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 minde 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 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 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 emblming 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 turh 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 forth with 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 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 Cerinthus 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 the sanctification of this day is apparantly commanded in the moral law spoken from Mount Sinai And those Christians who a long time kept this seventh day holy as well as the Lords day had no opinion of any danger at all in this their observation And it stood the ancient Fathers upon to oppose the observation of the law ceremoniall Yet what saith Austin against these heretickes to whom this Author in the first place referreth us All that hee delivers against the Cerinthians in reference to this particular is onely this They say that wee ought to bee circumcised and that other like precepts of the Law are to bee observed I translate it for the benefit of the common people Of the Ebionites thus
saith Veteres subrogarunt diem dominicum in locum Sabbati The Ancients subrogated the Lords Day in place of the Sabbath But he takes no notice of that which immediately followes in Calvin as a reason of the former thus For whereas in the Lords Resurrection is found the end and accomplishment of the true rest which the ancient Sabbath shaddowed by the very day which set an end to shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick unto the shadowing ceremonie Where observe First as touching the persons noted by Veteres the Ancients first and then by Christiani Christians Are not these the Apostles as much as any other and they in the first place as wee best knew what that was which did set an end to shadowes and accordingly to give notice of the pregnant signification of the Day of the Lords Resurrection and therefore 1 Cor. 16. 2. Hee doth intirely referre this to the Apostles as whom he confesseth constrayned by the Iewish superstition to have abrogated the Sabbath and in the place thereof ordeyned the Lords Day Secondly observe that the accomplishment of that which was signified by the Jewish Sabbath he ascribes to the Resurrection And Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech delivered in the Starre Chamber in the case of Traske professeth that It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath saith he was the last of them And that Christs Resurrection brought with it a new Creation and a new Creation requires a new Sabbath And hee alleageth Austin Ep. 119. saying The Lords Day was declared to Christians by Christ his Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity But that at this time Calvin should thinke it alterable by the Church no colour of proofe is brought and most unreasonable it is for any to conceave the Sabbath to be as alterable now as in the Apostles dayes it was when from the Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday For that alteration depended upon a second Creation as both Bishop Andrewes observes and that out of Athanasius de Sabbato circumcision◠And Bishop Lakes was of the same opinion as his discourse in Manuscript yet to be seene doth manifest So that unlesse this Prefacer can devise a third Creation and maintaine withall the rest on the Lords Day to bee as ceremoniall as the Jewes rest on the seventh Day was there is no colour why the Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day should bee as alterable now as the day of the Jewish Sabbath was As for the 3. conclusions which hee saith Calvin resolves upon the first whereof hee saith to be this that one day in seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement I say Calvin avoucheth no such thing and Wallaeus shewes that generally the friends of Calvin maintained the contrary between whom neverthelesse and Calvin it was never known that there was any contention herabouts And already I have shewed how unshamefastly this Prefacer abuseth Calvin in alledging one halfe of his sentence and leaving the other part quite out so making Calvin to deliver that absolutely which he affirmes onely conditionally The second resolution which he obtrudes upon Calvin is that the day was changed from the last day of the weeke to the first by the authority of the Church and not by any divine ordinance It is true Calvin sayth not that the day was changed by divine ordinance neither doth he say that it was changed by the authority of the Church but in plaine termes professeth that the Apostles changed it in one place and that admonition was given for the change of it by the consideration of the Day of Christs Resurrection in another to wit Institut lib. 2. cap. 8. Sect. 36. Now let every sober conscience consider whether that day which was first ordained by authority Divine the apostles would alter by lesse authority then authority Divine especially considering that Christs redemption of the World is the restauration of the World which is as a new Creation and as the Lord rested the seventh day from the workes of Creation so the day of Christs Resurrection was the day of his rest from the worke of redemption so that still the day of the Lords rest is the day of our rest not indeed the day of the Lord our Creators rest that ceasing as being ceremoniall as before hath beene shewed out of Doctor Andrewes but the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest which brought with it a new Creation is now the day of our rest And who was nearer or dearer unto Calvin then Beza whose words upon Revel 1 10. are to this effect He calls that the Lords Day which Paul calls the first of the Sabbaths 1 Cor. 16. 2. Acts 20. 7. on which day it appeares that even then were made the more frequent assemblies by Christians like as the Iewes came together in their Synagogues on the Sabbath Day wherby it may appeare that the fourth precept of sanctifying the seventh day as touching the day of the Sabbath and legall rites was ceremoniall but as touching the worship of God is of the morall Law unalterable and perpetually to continue in this life And that day of the Sabbath continued in force from the creation of the World to the day of Christs Resurrection which being as it were another Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former world or seventh day was assumed the first day of this new World the holy Ghost without doubt dictating thus much to the Apostles As for the third last resolutiō which he pins upon Calvins sleeve namely that the day of rest to be sanctified to the Lord is yet alterable by the church as at first it was neither that first alteration is by Calvin sayd to be made by the church but expressely by the apostles they admonished hereof by the day of Christs resurrection and Beza professeth that our Christian assemblies on the Lords Day are of Apostolicall and Divine tradition And observe I pray how Bishop Andrewes pleades for Episcopall authority as by Divine right in his answer to the first Epistle of Peter Moulin An est apostolicum factum aliquod jure non apostolico Apostolico autem id est ut ego interpretor Divino Nec enim aliquid ab apostolis factum non dictante hoe iis spiritu Sancto Divino Is there any fact of the Apostles by right not apostolicall But by apostolicall that is as I interpret it by Divine For neither was there any thing done by the Apostles which the holy and divine Spirit did not dictate unto them Shall this be of force for the institution of Bishops and shall it not be of force for the institution of the Lords Day as by Divine right But put the case it were so in every particular of Calvin as this Prefacer avoucheth how comes it about that our adversaries practise
to choake us with the authority of Calvin shall we beurged to yield to the authority of Calvin who are reproched usually as Calvinists and so nicknamed In my time of being in the University we heard by credible relation how in one of the Colleges questions were set up to be disputed Contrà Ioannem Calvinum and that disputations of that nature were sometimes concluded in this manner Relinquamus Calvinum in hisce faecibus and we commonly say there is no smoake without some fire No longer agoe then at the act in Oxford last save one Anno 1634. I heard Calvinists reckoned up amongst Papists Pelagians Arminians Puritans as sectaries at least if not as Heretiques by him that preached the act Sermon on the Lords Day in the afternoone and is it fit that we should be pregravated by the opinion of Calvin a man whose memory seemes to be hated by men of this Prefacers spirit so as few men more The fourth Section NEither was hee the onely one that hath so determined For for the first that to keepe holy one day of seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement our Doctor hath delivered in the third section that not Tostatus onely but even Aquinas and with him all the schoolemen have decreed upon it Nor was there any that opposed it in the schooles of Rome that I have met with till Catarinus tooke up Armes against Tostatus affirming but with ill successe that the Commandement of the Sabbath was imposed on Adam in the first cradle of the World there where the Lord is sayd to blesse the seventh Day and to sanctifie it 2 As for the Protestant schooles besides what is affirmed by Calvin and seconded by the Doctor in this following discourse this seemes to be the judgement of the Divines in the low Countries Franciscus Gomarus one knowne sufficiently for his undertakings against Arminians published An. 1628. a little treatise about the originall of the Sabbath and therein principally canvased these two questions First whether the Sabbath were ordained by God immediately upon the Creation of the World Then whether all Christians are obliged by the fourth Commandement alwayes to set a part one day in seven to Gods holy worship both which he determines negatively And Doctor Rivet one of the foure professors in Leyden although he differs in the first yet in the second which doth most concerne us Christians they agree together affirming also joyntly that the appointing of the Lords Day for Gods publique service was neither done by God himselfe nor by his Apostles but by the authority of the Church For seconds Gomarus brings in Vatablus and Wolfgangus Musculus and Rivet voucheth the authority of our Doctor here For so Gomarus in the assertion and defense of the first opinion against this Rivet De quibus etiam cl doctiss Doctor Prideaux in oratione de Sabbato consensionem extare eodem judicio by Rivets information libenter intelleximus I will adde one thing onely which is briefely this The Hollanders when they discovered Fretum le Morire An. 1615. though they observed a most exact accompt of their time at Sea yet at their comming home they found comparing their accompt with theirs in Holland that they had lost a day that which was Sunday to the one being Munday to the other Which of necessity must happen as it is calculated by Geographers to those that compasse the World from West to East as contrary they had got a day had they sayled it Eastward And what should these people doe when they were returned if they must sanctifie precisely one day in seven they must have sanctified a day a part from their to her Countreymen and had a Sabbath by themselves or to comply with with others must have broken the morall Law which must for no respects be violated See more hereof at large in Carpenters Geogr. p. 237. Exam. That Calvin hath any where so determined this Prefacer hath not prooved but shamefully dismembred him thereby to make him to deliver something absolutly which he delivers onely conditionally and that in opposition unto Papists who will have the Lords Day to be kept not onely for order and policy sake but by reason of some mystery and this Calvin professeth to be Jewish Aquinas his words are these Habere aliquod tempus deputatum ad vacandum Divinis cadit sub praecepto morali sed in quantum in hoc praecepto determinatur speciale tempus in signum creationis Mundi sic est praeceptum ceremoniale To have some time deputed wherein to rest for things Divine falls under the morall precept But for as much as in this precept is determined a speciall time in signe of the Creation of the World so it is a praecept ceremoniall Where I doe observe first that this ceremoniality is apparently ascribed to the seventh day and that considered as a signe of the Creation and not to one day in seven And this indeed may well be the concurrent opinion of Schole Divines As for Abulensis of what authority is he to preponderate any one of our Divines nay I appeale to every humane conscience whether no more be morall in this precept then to set some time apart for Gods service For what is it nothing materiall whether we set apart for divine Service one day in a weeke or one day in a month or one day in a yeare or one day in twenty yeares or one day throughout the whole course of a mans life what conscience can be found so cauteriate as to justifie this 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 itselfe 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 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 workedayes 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
observes it cannot bee denied but that undoubtedly as touching the time of their meeting they were therein ordered also by S. Paul as they were about the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper And accordingly Paraeus in the very passage alleaged by Gomarus doth take that place of 1 Cor. 16. 2. to notifie that the very time of their meeting there specified was by the ordinance of S. Paul Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Theses de Sabbato Thes 34. The Apostles directed by Christs not only example but spirit also observed the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. John in the Revelation 38. And from the Apostles the Catholique Church uniformly receaved it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39. And the Church hath receaved 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 he will take for his portion For he is Lord of the Sabbath 8. Master Fox upon the Rev. 1. v. 10. professeth that the observation of the Lords Day doth Niti authoritate institutionis Apostolicae depend upon the authority of Apostolicall institution 9. Walaeus dissert de Sab. p. 172. we conclude saith hee this first day of the weeke was by the Apostles put in the place of the Sabbath and commended to the Church not only by a power ordinary competent to all pastors for the ordering of indifferent rites in their Churches but by a singular power also as who had the oversight of the whole Churches and who as extraordinary Ministers of Christ were by the holy Ghost put in trust that they might be faithfull not only for the delivering of certaine precepts concerning faith and manners but also as touching upright ordering of the Church that so it might be made known to all Christians every where what day in the weeke was to be kept by vertue and Analogy of the fourth Commandement least dissension there abouts and consequently confusion might arise in the Church of God and to this purpose hee alleageth Beza before mentioned and Gallesius Calvins Collegue on Exod. 31. This ordinance to wit that the Lords Day should be substituted in the place of the Sabbath we have receaved saith hee not from men but from the Apostles that is from the Spirit of God whereby they were governed and after he had proved this out of three places of Scripture Acts 20 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Re. 1. 10. in the end hee addes For although we are not tied to the observation of dayes yet this necessary order must be observed least confusion should be bred in the Church 10. Fayus Calvins successor alleaged also by Walaeus disput 47. in q. praecept Iustly therefore may we say that the Apostles by the leading of the Holy Ghost for the seventh day of the Law substituted the first day of the week which was the first in the Creation of the first World 11. Hyperius in 1. Cor. 16. 1. The first day of the weeke in memory of the Lords Resurrection was called the Lords Day the observation of the Sabbath being translated thereunto through the command of the Holy Ghost by the Apostles 12. Adde unto these Master Perkins maintaining the same That which he delivers of the Parliament in the dayes of King Edward the sixt in that preamble of theirs concerning holy dayes as left by the authority of Gods Word to the authority of Christs Church by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers therof as they shall judge most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods Glory and edification of the people I say that this should bee understood not of holy dayes onely but of the Lords Day also is a thing most incredible neither doth hee offer to cite any parcell thereof to justifie this so bold an affirmation onely hee sayth that by the body of the act it doth appeare but what that is in the body of that act whereby this doth appeare hee very judiciously conceales How improbable is it t hat Bishop Andrewes would have opposed this Doctrine in the Starre Chamber if a Parliament of Prelates and that in the dayes of King Edward the sixt had maintained it For hee professeth that these two onely the Lords Day and the Lords Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum is alike to bee taken in both and takes upon him to shew that in the very Scripture there is found a precept for observation of the Lords Day And Bishop Lake in like manner professeth that it is not Liberae observationis but necessarily to be observed Doctor Fulks answer to the Rhemish Testament was set forth in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth and dedicated to her Majesty therein on Re. 1. v. 16. hath hee delivered that to change the Lords Day and to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath none authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles Was hee ever questioned for this or was it ever knowne that the state of this Land excepted against it for crossing the Doctrine of the Church manifested in a preamble to one of the Acts of Parliament which I presume was never yet repealed but leave we him to live on his own juice and to please himselfe in his holinesse A THIRD DIGRESSION CONTAINING A CONFERENCE With D. Walaeus about the Divine authority of the Lords Day I Come to consider somewhat in Walaeus whose dissertation of the Sabbath from the first hath liked mee so well and the spirit which it breathes throughout that I doe not affect to differ from him but rather heartily desire there may bee little or no difference betweene us and I hope in the end there will be found little or no difference of importance betweene us especially in this point of the institution of the Lord Day whether it be divine or humane and as for the originall institution of the Sabbath namely as from the beginning of the World and as touching the morality of one day in seven therein I concurre with him really and affectionately And as touching the quality of the institution I approve his learned paines in vindicating those three places of the new Testament Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and Re. 1. 10. from the interpretation that some give of them to quash the evidence which they import for the observation of the first day of the weeke commonly called the Lords Day even in those primitive and Apostolicall dayes of the Christian Church And I joyne with him pag. 167. in admiring that after so many accurate prejudices of the reformed Churches concurring in the same translation interpretation of those places which we embrace yet some should be found to take so unhappy paines as to quash the evidence of them which they seem to us
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 cripture 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 congruity 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 mad 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 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 our 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 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 Bearcbaitings 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 1◠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 superflutty in gluttony and drunkennesse like Rats and Swin they rest in brawling and railing in quarrelling and fighting they rest in want onnesse 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 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 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 atany 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
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 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 deale plainely my opinion is that all sports and pastimes on the Lords Day are a breaking of the rest belonging to it and a profanation of that day which ought to be sanctified And I trust herein I differ not one jot from the whole Parliament 1 o. Caroli wherein was expressely prohibited that any man should goe out of his owne Parish to any sports and pastimes on the Sabbath day and this is done to prevent the profanation of it as appeares clearely by the reasons of that Act which Parliament was held certaine yeares after this Lecture concerning the Doctrine of the Sabbath was read in the University And I nothing doubt but the censure of a Zelote will passe upon mee for this though wee shew no more zeale in saying that The Lords Day is by some licentiously profaned then others doe in professing that the Lord Day is by us superstitiously observed nay who are the greatest zelotes in their cause let the Christian World judge by the effects This is all I have to note concerning the first Section I come unto the second Secondly and here in the first place concerning the institution of it let mee take leave to professe that the question it selfe is not indifferenly stated when it is stated thus whether before the publishing of Moses Law the Sabbath was to be observed by the law of Nature For I am verily perswaded that the Doctor himselfe will not affirme that after the publishing of Moses law it was to be observed by the law of nature understanding by the law of nature as I presume he doth such a law as is knowne by the very light of nature Aristotle hath taught us in generall that morall duties are rather wrought upon a sober conscience by perswasion than doe carry with them any convincing evidence of demonstration Yet it is confessed that by the light of nature some time ought to be set apart even for the publike service and worship of God and not onely so but also it is nothing lesse cleare that a sufficient proportion of time must be alloted to the professed service of our Creator But wherein this sufficient proportion of time doth consist we are to seek being left unto our selves and in my judgement considering what we are it is very fit we should be to seeke in this that so our eyes may wait upon the direction of our Maker For is it fit that servants should cut out a proportion of service to their Master at their owne pleasure and
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 he 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 assiguation 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 his 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 the dayes of the Apostles all of them and their posterity successively to us Doth it therefore follow that wee may not keepe the seventh day in memory of the worlds Creation It doth for the Lords Day succeedeth in stead of that ut Thes 33. Therefore they cannot consist with the purpose of the alteration which is to note a New Creation Ib. Constantine commanded the sixt day should be kept in memory of Christs death Kept as a fasting day not as a festivall day and so the Church keepeth it still Ibid. Sabbato postridie Sabbati conveniunt So doth the Church now but Saturday is Parasceve to the Lords Day and least they should seeme to Judaize they did and do begin the Eve after noon to note it is but a preparation to Sunday Ibid. Saint Austin termeth the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement Sacramentum Umbratile True as the Jewes did observe it So himselfe there expoundeth himselfe Question 1. Section 4. The observance of the Sabbath day by Christ compared to Jewish sacrifice This speaketh not of the assignation of dayes but how strictly the day must be kept and it is as true of the Lords Day Section 5. Hebrewes 4. mention is made of three rests Or one rest rather which is Gods rest and the participation thereof 2 wayes Typically Spiritually The Typicall is the entrance into Canaan which carried with it a cessation from labours of the Jewish servitude and Pilgrimage From this Typicall many saith the Apostle were excluded through infidelity and by fayth some did partake it But there was another participation a spirituall which came by Jesus whereunto Iosuah could not bring which is a ceasing not from corporall but spirituall toyles and sinnes immediatly but mediately it will bring unto a spirituall blessed rest both of body and soule in Heaven This spirituall immediate rest or participation of Gods rest is called Sabbatismus populi Dei If this be as I conceave it is the meaning of the place what is this to dayes Ib. Section 6. Some will have a weekely Sabbath a shaddow in regard of the strictnesse of the Rest I thinke the strictnesse was not it at least not principally but the Accession of which in the Theses But you are out of your argument for S. Paul speakes of shadow whereof the body is Christ Now before the fall the Sabbath was a kinde of shadow of our eternall rest but not of that whereof Christ is the body And to us the Lords day is a foretast of that eternall rest and I hold this shadow to be as lasting as the World Ib. New Moone Et caetera shadowes in their substance not their accessories Ergo the Sabbath A weake collection for other feasts were instituted after the fall under the Pedagogy of the Law the Sabbath before therefore this might be made a shadow by accessorie these not so Ibid. Shall I demand of them when 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 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 Brfield 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 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 day And Cyrill in his 12. book on Iohn chap. 58. considering the Lords appearance a second time on the eight 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
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 praeda 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. Psalme 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 be 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 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 Selneccerus 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 and one day for the service of God And is it likely that Eve was about the service of God when the Divell assaulted her was shee not too neare the forbidden Fruit it was within her sight and the Fruit within her reach 2◠They urge that Vacation from service workes was then in vaine seeing nothing could then be laborious and troublesome unto him I answer though it were no paine to him to keepe the Garden and dresse it yet this must needs take up his thoughts while hee was about it and many a Gentleman in these dayes finds lesse imployment then Adam had will it therefore follow that the observation of the Sabbath is superfluous 3. The third reason is that if this Commandement were then given it should oblige all men but it is plaine that the Gentiles never observed it neither doe we reade the Patriarchs did I answer there is no soundnesse in all this For touching the Gentiles we have no History before the Flood nor till a long time after in which space of time this Doctrine of the institution of the Sabbath being carried onely by tradition might easily bee obliterated The Scriptures Divine are the most ancient Records in the World but it followes not that because the Scriptures doe not Record how the Patriarches did observe the Sabbath therefore they observed it not but much rather because the Scriptures Record that The Lord blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it therefore the Patriarches did observe it And the truth is untill the comming of the Israelites out of Egypt wee reade not of the Church of God any where but in single Families Neither doe wee reade of the Patriarches before
been the judgement of Ursinus and Paraeus of the Palatinate of Alstedius Professor at Herborne together with Lansbergius and Festus Hommius all maintaining the morality of one day in seven to bee consecrated to Divine Service And in the close professeth hee could adde the testimonies of many English and Scottish Divines who ever have beene accompted Orthodox concurring in judgement with the former on this point Last of all consider what is Gomarus his owne opinion to wit that we are not so precisely bound to this proportion of time but that wee may allow a better The condition of Divine worship saith he commanded in the fourth Commandement requires that not only certaine dayes for order and for Gods better service sake be observed but also that sufficient dayes be observed it cannot be inferred from this that God hath not defined a certaine day to us that it is indifferent whether we make choyce of one in fifty or in an hundred or one in a thousand Then proceeding to define what are sufficient hee acknowledgeth that the dayes set apart for this must bee either as frequent or more frequent then one day in seven And in this answer of Gomarus to an argument of Wallaeus made for the morality of one day in seven doth Rivetus rest namely that to us who are eased of the burthen of Iewish ceremonies the dayes consecrated to Divine Service may be more they may not be fewer And addes of his own that we cannot in charity require of our servants the labour of so many dayes to wit of six without some rest As for the seconds which this Prefacer saith Gomarus brings to wit Vatablus and Wolfgangus Musculus this is nothing to the present purpose For these are not brought in by him in the point of the morality of one day in seven but onely in the point of the originall institution of the Sabbath but this is his jugling course to mendicate some shew of authority to serve his turne where substance faileth him 3. As for the Hollanders who in travailing about the World Westward had lost a day that is came to observe our Christian Sabbath one day too late when this Prefacer askes hereupon what should those people doe when they were returned I will not answer by advising them to travaile the World over againe Eastward that they may finde the day which they had lost by travailing round the World Westward much lesse that they should renew their travailes the same way till they had lost six dayes more that so their Sabbath might concurre with the Sabbath of their Countreymen at home but according to the particulars proposed by him namely to concurre now with their Countrymen a day before their time that so they might make amends for that time which they had lost if any neede of amends and not rather for uniformities sake For when in the dayes of Joshuah the Sunne standing still one day was as long as two dayes yet this was nothing materiall to the altering of their Sabbath much lesse when the Sunne went backe 10. degrees in the diall of Ahaz while King Hezechiah reigned No sober man I thinke will say the morall Law was broken by this though one weeke in Josuahs dayes contained more time by 1 2. houres then any former weeke and another weeke in King Hezechiahs dayes was found to bee many houres longer then his fellowes THE SECOND DIGRESSION CONSISTING OF TWO PARTS I. In making good Doctor Wallaeus his arguments for the morality of one day in seven against the answer of Doctor Rivetus II. In answering of Doctor Rivetus his arguments directed against the morality of one day in seven NOW whereas Doctor Rivetus about the observation of one day in seven as necessary differeth in opinion from his two Collegues Doctor Thysius and Doctor Walaeus and not so onely but directs himselfe after Gomarus to take into consideration the arguments proposed by doctor Walaeus for the morality of one day in seven and to accommodate an answer thereunto I thinke it fit not to omit the discussion of that answer of his and that in such sort that I may carry my selfe correspondently to his ingenuous behaviour herein The first argument of Walaeus is this if by the force and analogy of the fourth Commandement it be not rightly collected that one day of seven is to be consecrated to Divine worship then no certaine number or circle of dayes can be limited to the foresaid purpose by any Divine precept seeing in no other precept is found mention of any other number and therefore it shall be lawfull to choose either a thirtieth day or a fiftieth day without transgression of any Divine precept But this is absurd This argument is of great force considering the difference betweene proportion of time allowed unto Divine Service and the difference of the day keeping still the same proportion For every master from the greatest Prince to the meanest housholder expects that his servant should be profitable unto him and accordingly hee expects a certaine proportion of service to bee performed by him as namely a good dayes worke for every day a good weeks worke for every weeke And in every trade it is well known by them that are seene therein wherein consists a good dayes worke whereof whosoever failes he is accompted but an idle and unprofitable servant but so the worke of the day be done whether he laboureth more in one houre then in another he regardeth not Such in like manner is every ones consideration of a weekes worke So likewise as touching the service of God it is nothing materiall as touching the substance of Gods service what day of the weeke is set apart for that For whether we consider the advantagious nature of it for setting forth the glory of God who is our maker and as we came from him so we must be for him Rom. 11. Heb. 2. The supreame efficient being ever of duty the supreame end or whether we consider the profitable nature of it to our owne soules in comming acquainted with him both touching his nature touching his counsaile concerning us and touching his will For when we despise him we despise him against our selves and when wee provoke him wee provoke him to the confusion of our owne faces himselfe being nothing profited by our service but our owne soules rather though he be pleased to accompt himselfe glorified thereby it being his glory to doe us good This advancement of his glory and our good is no more promoted by setting one day in a weeke apart for this then another But betweene the proportion of one day in a weeke or one day in a moneth or one day in a yeare there is a vast and momentous difference For we come to the knowledge of God and of the mysteries of godlinesse by small degrees and in the wayes of holinesse we clamber as it were up an high and steepe hill and our life is a wayfare our condition is the condition
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 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 those 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 fervants 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 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 Breatius 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 perpetuall practise might bee confirmed in an opinion of the necessity of that which is not necessary It is apparent that as the Lords Day under the Law was one day in seven So the Lords Day in the Gospell was and still is one Day in seven And both himselfe and Gomarus are driven to professe that we may not allow a lesse proportion then one in seven to Divine worship And I appeale to every conscience to judge by the very light of nature whether the Lord requiring of the Jewes one day in seven to bee consecrated unto him it doth not manifestly follow that wee Christians can allow no lesse then one in seven and whether it bee not fit that the Lords Day should bee our holy Day and as for the allowance of more in a weeke then one let them persuade their owne Churches thereunto first and then it will bee time enough for us to hearken unto them And what should move them to illustrate the memory of Christs Resurrection weekly whereas they contented themselves with a yearely memoriall if at all they observed any such of his Nativity Passion and Ascension and sending downe of the Holy Ghost Why doth hee not consider that the day of the weeke onely whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day in Scripture whereon Iohn the beloved Disciple received from his loving Lord and master that Divine revelation of his concerning things to come 4. If the number of seven that is the observation of one day in seven in this Commandement be changeable then as ceremoniall or as politicall not as ceremoniall for then the Church ought not to observe it Nor as politicall for in the morall Law precepts politicall are not given And to this Rivetus answereth that the observation of the seventh day is ceremoniall and that the Primitive
of it but upon presupposition of the History of the Creation knowne unto us Doctor Feild spares not to professe as Master Broad reportes him that by light of nature it is known that one day in seven ought to bee consecrated to Divine Service Yet I am not forward to say so much but rather with Chrysostome that now from the Creation God hath manifested that one day in a weeke is to bee appōrtioned for his service and with Azorius that it is most agreeable to reason after six dayes of worke to set apart one to his service And seeing God did require such a portion of time to bee consecrated unto him under the Law Undoubtedly and by the very light of nature it is cleare and evident that no lesse proportion of time can wee in conscience allow unto him under the Gospell 3. I come to his third argument which is this the necessity of one day in seven cannot consist with that liberty which the Apostle intimates Col. 2. 16. Let no man judge you in meate and drinke or in the part of a day or of Sabbaths which are shadowes of things to come Which they explicate by a similitude As nature requires meates and drinke but Christian liberty is not tied to choise of meates according to Moses his Lawes so reason dictates that some time is to be set apart for Gods publique worship but the Gospell freeth us from the necessity of the Iewish Sabbath To this I answer 1. By granting the conclusion for the Iewish Sabbath Christians observe not 2. but one day in seven they alwayes have observed a manifest evidence that they never conceaved this to be any impeachment to their Christian liberty And no marvell for they manifestly perceaved that God required this proportion of time under the Law and from the beginning of the World how much more should we be carefull to performe no lesse under the Gospell And indeed rest on the seventh day did pregnantly represent before hand Christs rest that day and that day alone full and whole in the grave But as for any ceremoniality to be found in the speciall proportion of time to wit as one day in seven never any man devised any ceremoniality therein more then in the time in generall which all confesse by the very light of nature is to be consecrated unto God So that we have no need of Doctor Rivetus his answer to helpe us in the solution of this his argument And whereas he conceaves our Christian liberty to be impeached if any proportion of time be observed of necessity by force of precept and of free choise 1. This is as much as to say that our liberty is impeached if we suffer our Lord and master to prescribe unto us his servants what proportion of service we shall performe unto him and not rather have him leave it to the servant to cut out unto him as little or as much as he thinkes good yet we do not deny but he may allow unto him more all that we stand for is that we ought not to allow him lesse under the Gospell then he required under the Law and then he required from the beginning of the World 2. I marvell that Doctor Rivetus doth not observe how herein he contradicts himselfe for hath he not formerly rested in this answer of Gomarus that by vertue of the fourth Commandement we must allow unto him dayes sufficient for his service and that these dayes must be rather Frequentiores then Rariores more rather then fewer and if it be no prejudice to our Christian liberty to be tyed and that by vertue of the fourth Commandement to allow unto him a better proportion of time for his service then that of one day in seven how can it bee prejudiciall to our Christian liberty to allow unto him this and that by vertue of the fourth Commandement Now whether Doctor Rivetus his answers to the arguments of Wallaeus or his owne arguments to the contrary bee of any force to hold him to that opinion which he conceaves to bee Calvirs in opposition to the Doctrine delivered by Wallaeus I am consent the indifferent may judge as also whether the two causes mentioned by him for the observation of the Sabbath contained in the Commandement doth not infer the third also which Rivetus opposeth namely the proportion of one day in seven And that this is as free from all colour of ceremoniality as any of the other two The first was that some time is to be set apart for Gods Service now this generall is not commanded there but as contained in the speciall to wit the proportion of one day in seven Both of them being equally contained in the particularity of the seventh day in that Commandement expressed And as for the morality of rest to bee allowed to servants after six dayes of labour this doth clearely draw with it the confinement of the time appointed for Gods Service to the proportion of one day in seven unlesse the day of rest for servants shal not be the day consecrated to the exercises of piety And I much wonder that Doctor Rivetus a man of such judgement and perspicacity doth not observe this The only way to helpe this anomaly is in plaine termes to professe that some rest is to be allowed to servants by their Masters but in what proportion that is not defined but left at large to the pleasure of their Masters And as for ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven never any man devised any such thing more then in the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods Service all confessing this to be a duty known by the very light of nature But I doe not finde that Calvin hath any other meaning then that we are not so tied to one day in seven but that more time then this may be consecrated to Divine Service which as I have disputed before so now I am the more confirmed herein Doctor Rivetus manifesting this to be his opinion also as well as it was the opinion of Gomarus For in this he rests as may appeare by his answer to the first argument of Doctor Wallaeus Neither is it true that Calvin did censure them who simply maintained that the observation of one day in the weeke doth still remaine as morall but that so maintained it as in reference to some mysterious signification as Doctor Wallaeus hath manifested and the words immediatly following in Calvin doe evince which are these but this is no other thing then in contumely of the Jewes to change the day and in heart to retaine the same holinesse of the day Here commonly the alleagers of Calvin to the same intent that Doctor Rivetus doth use to make a period as if Calvin delivered this absolutely whereas Calvin proposeth it onely conditionally as appeares by the other halfe of the sentence thus If so bee there remaine yet unto us a signification in the dayes equally mysterious to that which
had place among the Iewes And though I marvell not at others who dealing in this argument dismember Calvins sentence so to make him to deliver that absolutely which hee delivers onely conditionally yet I cannot sufficiently marvell that Rivetus of rough improvidence should do so too especially considering the good paines that Doctor Walaeus hath taken to cleare Calvins meaning in this point Neither is Master Robert Low in his effigiation of the true Sabbatisme of any such authority as to counterpoise the concurrent testimonies of so many of our English Divines to the contrary not to speake of the multitude of outlandish Divines whom Doctor Walaeus mustereth up concurring in the same opinion and whereas hee saith as Doctor Rivetus reports him that some great men who vehemently contend that the perpetuall sanctity of manners doth require that one day in seven should be celebrated have more authority then reason I may bee bold to say that they who with him have hitherto opposed the Doctrine we maintaine what authority they have I know not but as for their reasons they are of so hungry a nature that hereby they manifest that nothing but affection and their private ends they have to beare them out in this And whereas I doubt not but Rivetus hath brought on the Stage the best reasons hee could picke both out of master Robert Low and out of Gomarus let every indifferent person judge of them as they deserve though I verily thinke that nothing but his affection to Calvin to hold up his credite and reputation hath carried him all along and yet either my selfe and Walaeus mystake Calvin or Rivetus miserably mystaketh him But as for our reason we call all the World to judge of it God did require one day in seven to be set apart for his publique service under the Law how much more doth he require as good a proportion of time under the Gospell Nay from the beginning of the World he hath required it and to this day both Iewes and Christian Gentiles have observed the same proportion Againe God in his morall Law hath required this and that not as ceremoniall never any man hitherunto having set his wits on worke to devise any ceremoniality herein neyther was it ever knowne that God abrogated this proportion of time to be allowed unto him for his service therefore it continueth still as a morall Law to bind us and shall continue untill God himselfe set an end unto it now let master Lowes reasons be compared with these in every indifferent conscience and let them have that authority which they deserve because being well conceited of the strength of his reasons hee sensibly complaines of his want of authority It seemes Pope Alexander the third was a man of more authority then reason For hee maintaines in Cap. licet de feriis as Doctor Rivetus relates it that both the old and new Testament have in speciall manner appointed the seventh day for man to rest thereon and hee takes it out of Suarez de relig l. 2. c. 2. but Rivetus cannot assent unto him if he delivers this of any morall institution yet that it was so appointed by the fourth Commandement unto the Iewes it cannot bee denied and that not as ceremoniall for we have seene how odly Rivetus hath carried himselfe in comming to speake of the ceremoniality For to make this good hee flyes to the particularity of the seventh day and if the ceremoniality thereof bee enough to inferre the ceremoniality of such a speciall proportion of time as of one day in seven it may suffice as well to constitute a ceremoniality in the generall namely in this that some time is to be set apart for Gods Service which yet all account to bee morall by the very light of nature If Zanchy hath no better argument to prove that the Decalogue as given by Moses to the Israelites doth not pertaine to us but onely so farre forth as it agrees with the Law of nature then by instancing in the Sabbath which the Gentiles were not bound to sanctifie it stands Rivetus upon to oppose him as much as any who maintaines that the Law concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath was given to Adam and who brings diverse authorities to prove the observation of it generally by the Gentiles This I speake upon consideration of his reply to Gomarus taking exception against somewhat in this argument delivered by him in his explication of the Decalogue But I hope the morall Law shall be sufficient to binde us Christians if no other way yet by this argument of proportion If God required of the Iewes under the Law that one day in seven should bee set apart to his service how much more doth it become us Christians to allow as good a proportion of time for his service under the Gospell This I say shall suffice untill Rivetus answeareth it which never will be for he as good as confesseth that we are bound to allow God for his service rather a better proportion of time then a worse And as for Doctor Prideaux I nothing doubt but he will cleare us from Judaisme in arguing thus as who Sect. 7. professeth that if they against whom he disputes required no more but the Analogy the equity or the reason of that Commandement we would not sticke to yeeld unto it And whereas Rivetus addes that the argument which hee annexeth seemes to him of great weight namely that hee who stickes to the Commandement must exactly observe it And that therefore into the place of the seventh from the Creation no day is to bee substituted But this argument I have answered before all for the most part grant some ceremoniality in that Commandement now if rest on the seventh be found to bee ceremoniall but not the rest of one day in seven in an indefinite consideracion it will follow herehence that the seventh must not be observed as accomplished in Christ and that the proportion of time is still to continue as indeed by experience wee finde it verified in each For the observation of the seventh is ceased as prefiguring Christs rest in his Grave but the observation of one day in seven still continueth unto this day Next for the second Thesis that the alteration of the day is onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution the Doctor sheweth in the first Section the generall consent of all sorts of Papists Jesuites Canonists and Schoolemen of some great Lutheranes by names and generally of the remonstrant or Arminian Divines in their confession whose tendries in this point wee may conceave with reason not to bee different from the Doctrine of the Belgicke Churches in that foure professors of Leyden in their examination or review of that confession have passed them over without note or opposition To these besides are added diverse of our own Et è nostris non pauci as hee speakes it in the generall that is as I conceave his meaning such as are neither of the Lutheran nor of
And no lesse necessitie is there for the keeping of them in the wayes of holinesse such is the degenerate condition of the World Long agoe it is that the severe judgement of God had its course in giving men over to illusions to beleeve lies and all for not receiving the love of the truth as much as to say for the profanenesse of the Christian World in not making it their care to walke worthy of their calling worthy of the Gospell whereunto the Apostle so often exhorts Christians So that if at any time it were requisite to set one day in seven apart for the service of God surely by the very dictate of common reason it is most requisite in these latter dayes of the Gospell Especially considering the rage and fury of Satan in opposing the Kingdome of Christ more now than ever because he knoweth hee hath but a short time As for the alteration of the day the same proportion of time still continuing from the seventh to the first day of the weeke that I confesse willingly seemes not at first sight to have the like evidence But whereas this Prefacer contends for the alteration of the day as onely by an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution observe that not one of the ancient Fathers are mentioned by him for the justifying of this though divers are referred unto by him as against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation But wee have divers of the ancients bearing witnesse to the Divine institution of the Lords day to come in place of the seventh As first Athanasius Homil de Semente Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solemnitatem Dominus in diem Dominicum transtulit Heretofore truly the Sabbath was in great price with men of old time which solemnity the Lord hath translated unto the Lords Day Austine hath divers other passages to the same purpose de civitate dei lib. 22. cap. ult Dominicus dies velut octavus aeternus qui Christi Resurrectione sacratus est aeternam non solum Spiritus verumetiam corporis requiem praefigurans The Lords Day as the eighth eternall which was sacred by Christs Resurrection prefiguring an eternall rest not of the spirit only but of the body also and in his Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium The Lords Day is declared not to the Iewes but to Christians by the Lords Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity and de verbis Apostoli Sermo 15. The Lords Resurrection promised unto us an eternall day and hath consecrated to us the Lords Day which is called the Lords because the Lord rose on that day and de Temp. Serm. 251. The Apostles and Apostolicall men have therefore ordained the Lords day to be kept with a religious solemnity because on that day our redeemer rose from the dead Cyril in Joan. lib. 12. cap. 58. From Christ presenting himself unto his Apostles on the eighth day which hee interpreteth of the first day of the weeke concludes therehence that by right therefore holy Congregations are kept in the Churches on that day And as Walaeus observes the celebrity of this day Eusebius referres to Christ himselfe in these words Who ever prescribed to all the inhabitants of the World either by Sea or Land that meeting together one day in the weeke they should celebrate the Dominicall festivity Adde to this that of Gregory mentioned Section the 1. Nay Athanasius goes further and shewes the equity of it in proportion to the new Creation compared with the old The end of the first Creation was the Sabbath but the beginning of the second Creature is the Lords Day wherein hee renewed and repayred the old man Like as therefore in former times he would have the Sabbath day to be kept so we keepe holy the Lords Day as a monument of the beginning of the second Creation And this proportion is apprehended by Beza also on the Revelation the first Chap. and 10. verse That Sabbath day saith hee continued from the Creation of the World to the Lords resurrection which seeing it is as it were an other Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former World or seventh day was assumed and that undoubtedly by the Holy Ghost suggesting this to the Apostles the first day of this new World in which not the corporall or corruptible light in the first day of the first World was created but that heavenly and eternall light did spring unto us In all which Beza doth exactly treade in the steps of that ancient Father Athanasius and concludes that the assemblies of the Lords Day which Iustine expresly makes mention of in his second Apologetium are of tradition apostolicall and truly Divine And after him Doctor Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester whom Doctor Hall now Bishop of Exceter some where calls the Oracle of these times upon the same ground maintaines the equity of bringing our Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath The Sabbath saith hee 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 againe It hath ever beene 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 for the confirmation hereof brings in that of Austin Ep. 119 ad Ianuarium The Lords Day by Christs Resurrection hath beene declared unto Christians and from that time began to have its festivity Doctor Lakes Bishop of Wells maintaines the same Doctrine after the same manner in his Theses de Sabbato thes 27. Man having sinned and so by sinne abolished the first Creation De jure though not de facto God was pleased by Christ to make a new instauration of the World 28. He as the Scripture speakes of Christs redemptions 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 made 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 But a man may easily perceive whither this Prefacer tends and such as are of his Spirit The Rhemists upon the first of the Revel and 10. verse doe observe that the Apostles and the 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 and that without all Scriptures and Commandements of Christ that we read of yea which is more not only otherwise then was by the Law observed but plainly otherwise than was prescribed
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 but that which they object saith hee concerning the Lords Day not as yet instituted in the time of Iohn 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 keep all those things which I have commanded unto you On the Lords Day also John was in the spirit and in the spirit saw and heard the Revelation concerning the state of the Church that was to come Apoc. 1. 10. whence we may gather that even then he rested to holy meditations such as became the Lords Day There is not a passage in all this but of great weight and very considerable 6. As for Doctor Fulk upon the Re. 1. 10. I have represented him formerly at large that for the prescription of this day before any other of the seven they had without doubt ether the expresse Commandement of Christ before his Ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdom of God and the ordering and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his spirit that it was his will and pleasure that it should so be and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how hee falls upon the same reason that Athanasius and the ancient Fathers insist upon Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying that day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the World by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lord rested from the Creation of the World 7. Doctor Andrewes in like manner Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Traske hee not onely professeth 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 that this new Sabbath is the Lords Day declared unto us by the resurrection of Christ for which he alleageth Austin Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium But also for the confirmation of it saith it is deduced plainly by practise adding that these two onely the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose and the Supper are called the Lords to shew that the word Dominicum is taken alike in both Nay hee goes farther as namely to alleage not onely practise but precept also for it from the first of the Epistle to the Corin. cap. 16. 2. For albeit the Apostle there doth expressely constitute onely an order for collections for the poore on the day of their meeting yet as Piscator
precepts is once proposed as subservient indifferently as to faith and manners so also to the well ordering of the Church and that in this particular of notifying unto all what day of the weeke is it to bee sanctified to Gods Service As for the places Rom. 14. Gal. 2. Coloss 2. I answer that if wee made the observation of the day as it denotes a circumstance of time any part of Gods Service or for some mysterious signification contained therein then indeed wee should carry our selves in contradiction to the places mentioned but seeing we observe times onely out of respect to order and policy which is necessary for the edification of the Church and God having always required one day in seven to be set apart for this even when there was not so great need nor had God manifested his love to mankinde in such sort as in these latter dayes and of our selves wee are to seeke of the particularity of the day under a fit proportion of time from the beginning of the World rquired and hereupon were we left to our owne judgements a way would bee opened to miserable dissension and confusion what cause have wee to blesse the Lord for marking out a day to us with such notable characters to make it our Sabbath and to honour it by his appearance amongst his Apostles when they were assembled together both that day and that day senight after as also by his Apostles to commend it and establish it in such sort that for 1600. yeares the observation thereof hath continued unto this day which order of the Apostles doth carry pregnant presumption that it proceeded originally from the institution of Christ The necessity of the Church Christian requiring the specification of the day for the preventing of dissension and confusion as much as ever the necessity of the Jewish Church required the like and over and above by reason of the fourth Commandement wee have now better evidence to conclude therehence the observation of the Lords Day by the congruity that Christs Resurrection hath to the Lords rest from Creation better means I say to conclude ours then they without a Commandement to inferre the observation of their seventh forstill the day of the Lords rest is made the day of our rest Thirdly that which is alleadged in the third place that both ancient and late writers doe maintaine that wee celebrate the Lords Day not as any part of Divine worship nor as absolutely necessary For the first of these wee willingly grant for as much as wee conceave the observation of the 7 th by the Jewes was no otherwise a part of Divine worship then as it was a ceremony and shadow the body whereof was Christ prefigured thereby and it is well knowne that no Christians observe it in any such Notion But the observation thereof wee hold to bee absolutely necessary and so doth Doctor Walaeus in holding it to bee invariable and that it cannot bee altered without the greatest scandall And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells professeth it to bee not liberae observationis but necessariae And if it were free then not to use this freedome at all doth manifestly give way to superstition in taking that for a thing necessary which is not though not as touching the substance of Gods worship and service yet as touching a circumstance thereof such as is the circumstance of time As for expresse precept if hee meanes a precept expressely written no man I trow ever stood for that but if hee meanes a precept given by Christs expresse charge to his Apostles no man that I have met with saith more hereupon then Doctor Walaeus seemes to affirme himselfe in saying that they were entrusted by the Holy Ghost as extraordinary Ministers that they should bee faithfull ad tradenda praecepta to give praecepts of faith and manners and of the good government of the Church and right order and particularly in this that might be known to all what day in the weeke was to be set apart for Gods service both by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and to praevent dissension and confusion among the Churches Neither doe we acknowledge any other celebrity of the day then this and therefore doe no more affront Hierome then Doctor Walaeus himselfe As for festivall dayes in Socrates and Nicephorus I see no cause why as touching that they speake thereof the Lords Day should bee comprehended under them and as for apostolicall precept concerning this Doctor VValaeus is as expresse as any And it is not credible to mee that the Apostles should make such an invariable ordinance to the Church and not bee verily perswaded that it was the Will of God the Father and of God the Sonne it 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
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 darkned 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 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 M r. PERKINS his Arguments for the Divine institution of the Lords Day against the answer made unto them by Doctor RIVETVS THeir first Argument saith he is taken from the appellation of the Lords Day I suppose faith 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 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 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 what 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 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 doe 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 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. Iohn Like as the Sabbath in the Old Testament is called the Lords Day which which if he had and withall considered how strange it were for us to set any day in the weeke apart for the exercises of Piety rather then the Lords Day I am perswaded hee would not have contented himselfe with this answer For certainly many other holy dayes have beene and are set apart for Divine Service yet never were called any one of them the Lords day He talkes of a bare custome of the Church for it a thing incredible that both Jewes and Gentiles throughout all Nations should so universally concurre without the guidance of some authorative constitution or some generally convincing evidence by the very light of common Christian evidence or both And as for liberty left to the Church hereabout it seemeth so unreasonable unto my poore judgement that if it were it should become us by earnest and hearty prayer to seeke unto God to take that liberty from us and bee pleased himselfe to guide us by some manifest ordinance to prevent dissension and confusion yet well fare Doctor Rivetus hee will not have this liberty extend any further then provided that some reason and necessity should urge the changing of the day for in the next columne hee professeth that a sufficient cause of the change and abrogation of the day cannot bee given The observation of other dayes and particularly of the Sabbath as well as the Lords Day by some in the Primitive Church is no evidence at all that it was indifferent unto them whether they would observe the Lords Day or no. The third argument Rivetus omits the fourth is this That which was prefigured in that it was prefigured was prescribed But the Lords Day was prefigured in the eighth day wherin the children of the Iewes were circumcised therefore it was prescribed to be kept the eighth day This the ancient Fathers by name Cyprian and Austin have reasoned and taught To this Doctor Rivetus answers by denying the assumption and saying that no probable reason can be brought to prove that day was prefigured by the eighth day wherein children were circumcised And indeed that day being the eighth day after birth doth not so conveniently denote the first day of the weeke But Master Perkins his argument hath another part farre more principall drawne from
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. Ursinus 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 acknowledged 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 acknowledgeth 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 drawne 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 opinion of men of severall professions as this author presseth it both Papists and Protestants both Lutheranes and Calvinists and this Prefacer can lay no just title to any one of them in this particular The second point he hath insisted upon is about the morality of one day in seven For this he pretends onely Papists in the first place and not a Father throughout and as Chrysostome to the contrary hath professed that God from the beginning hath manifested that on that day in the circle of the week must be consecrated unto his service much lesse Scripture And it is apparant that God commanded that the proportion of one day in seven should bee allotted to his service and it was never to bee abrogated nor ever did any man devise any ceremoniality therein And to this day it hath continued in the Church of God To Tostatus wee have opposed Azorius the Jesuite professing that it is most agreeable to reason after six worke dayes to consecrate one to Gods service Adde to him Stella upon Luke Jacobus de Valentia Dominicus Bannes As for Aquinas that which hee accounts ceremoniall in the fourth Commandement was expressed by him to bee not one day in seven but the particulating of the seaventh day But whereas he goes no farther in illustrating the morality of this Commandement then in saying that some time must be set apart for Gods service I appeale to every mans conscience whether the very light of nature doth not suggest that not onely some time but a convenient proportion of time ought to be consecrated unto God and when God hath manifested this to bee one day in seaven under the Law doth not the very light of nature suggest that wee should sin against God if wee should not allow unto him as good a proportion of time under the Gospell And further if the Lords Day be of Divine institution amongst us Christians is it not still the Law of God even unto us to allow unto him one day in seven Now Doctor Prideaux himselfe alleageth more Papists for this opinion than for the contrary and one of them to wit Silvester professeth it is the common opinion as Azorius voucheth him And as for Protestants to side with him herein hee alleageth none but Gomarius and Rivet it may seeme by his carriage that Vatablus â—nd Musculus also are for him in this but that is untrue they are alleaged
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 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 them And it is well knowne to some what the former Archbishop of Canterbury professed to the face of M. Broade when he came to move for the printing of a second book concerning the Sabbath What Bishop can our opposites name of this Church whose praise is among the writers of these times that hath manifested his opinion in opposition to these As for the judgements of all kinde of writers which he boasts of I thinke never came a Divine to take pen in hand to vaunt so much and performe so little As for the unsafe condition of our Tenets which he suggests excepting those monstrous and wild Tenets mentioned by M. Rogers for which I know no better evidence than his word and that in very odde manner delivered I know nothing unsafe nothing dangerous in any Tenet of ours who now seeme to walke as upon the pinacles of the Temple and indeed in this respect they are like to prove very dangerous to us yet I would it were not more dangerous to the Church of God to be bereaved of so many faithfull Pastors For certainly it shall be honourable unto them they cannot suffer in a more honorable cause than this in standing for the sanctifying of the Lords Day in memory of his resurrection who that day being formerly a stone refused of the builders was made the head of the corner For what danger is it to maintaine that from the Creation the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and what a shamefull course is it so to expound it as in reference to a time 2000. and 4. or 500. yeeres after and that in spight of the ancient Fathers And manifest reason as appeares by division of time into weekes even from the creation and so continuing to the time of the Law delivered on the mount Sinai as appeares by the story of falling of Manna and the Jewes gathering of it on sixe dayes none fallingnow being gathered on the seventh as the day on the week whereon God rested after he had made the world in six What danger in maintaining that God required from the beginning and afterwards specified so much in the Law that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto Gods service and hence to inferre that if God required so much of the Jews under the Law it were most unreasonable and unconscionable we should not afford unto him and his service as good a proportion of time under the Gospel Thirdly what danger is
there in affirming that the Lords Day is of Divine institution Is it not Scripture that calls it the Lords Day And what day was called the Lords Day before but the day of the Jewes Sabbath And hath not our Saviour manifestly given us to understand that even Christians were to have their Sabbath as the Jewes had theirs as Bishop Andrewes accommodates the place Matth. 24. 20. And was the resurrection of Christ any thing inferiour to the creation to give a day unto us Christians like as Gods rest from creation commended that day to the Jewes Especially considering that a new creation requires a new Sabbath as Athanasius delivered it of old And D. Andrewes of late yeeres treading in the steps of that ancient Father or rather of all the ancient Fathers And what danger in maintaining that the Lords Day is entire and whole to be consecrated to Divine service did Austin speake dangerously when he professeth that thereon we must tantum Deo vacare tantū cultibus divinis vacare would this Prefacer be content to be found dancing about a Maypole or in a Morrice-dance that day that Christ should come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all them that know not God nor obey the Gospel of Christ Jesus Nay would hee not feare to rue the danger of his doctrine when it will be too late to correct it and all the profanenesse that hee hath promoted by this preface of his should rise up in judgement against him yet now he thinkes he could not goe about a better worke than by this preface translation to harden them in their profane and impure courses all his care at this time is to prevent superstition a wonder it is to see how zealous men of his spirit are to avoyd and shun superstition Belike all these must be censured for Zelotes that complaine that the Lords day is with us licentiously yea sacrilegiously profaned yet these are the times whereof S. Paul prophecied that men should be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God yet Doctor Prideaux could take liberty to professe of the Jewes that by their Bacchanalian rites they gave the world just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate their Sabbaths unto devils rather than unto Gods service yet now adayes they that oppose revels on the Sabbath day are censured and condemned of Judaisme Neither is D. Prideaux censured by way of scorne for a zelote in this but unlesse wee concurre with this Prefacer in thinking that the forbidding of dancing in the French Churches hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion there and that upon the bare credit of Heylins Geography wee must in scorne be termed zelotes Belike Bishop Babington by this bold Prefacer would be censured for a zelote considering that on Exodus 16. pag. 122. hve writes in this manner May not a good soule thus reason with himselfe This people of his might not gather Manna and may I safely goe to markets dancings drinkings to wakes and wantons to Beare-baitings and Bul-baitings and such like wicked profanations on the Lords Day 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 And Bishop Austin too deserves to be censured a zelote for that which hee writes in his 3. tract upon Iohn Observe the Sabbath Day it is rather commanded unto us because it is commanded to be observed in a spirituall manner For the Jewes observe the Sabbath day servilely unto luxury unto drunkennesse How much better were it for their Women to spinne Wooll then to dance on that day in their new Moones and in his 44. tract The Jewes rest unto toyes and whereas God commanded the Sabbath to be observed they spend the Sabbath in such things which the Lord forbids Our rest is from evill works their rest is from good works For it is better to goe to plow then to dance but albeit hee be censured as a Zelote yet surely there is no colour why hee should be thought to Judaize in this And let Bishop Nazianzene passe under the same censure with them who as Dialericus upon the 17. Dominicall after Trinitie Sunday alleageth him professeth that the sanctification of the Sabbath consists not in the hilarity of our bodies nor in the variety of glorious garments nor in eatings the fruite wherof we know to be wantonnesse nor in strewing of Flowers in the wayes which we know to be the manner of the Gentiles but rather in the purity of the soule and chearefulnesse of the mind and pious Meditations as when we use holy Hymnes in stead of Tabers and Psalmes in stead of wicked songs and dancings The same Dialericus alleageth Pope Gregory out of his 91. booke of his Epistles and 3. Epistle affirming That therefore on the Lords Day we ought to rest from all Earthly worke and by all meanes insist on prayer that if ought hath been committed by us negligently on the six dayes on the day of the Lords Resurrection it might be cleared by prayers And which is yet more out of Chrysostome 5. Homily on Mathew hee shewes how in that Bishops judgement we should be exercised on the Lords Day in our private Families thus When we depart from the Ecclesiasticall assembly we ought not in any case intangle our selves in businesses of a contrary nature but as soone as we come home turne over the Holy Scriptures and call thy Wife and thy Children to conferre about those things which have been delivered and after they have been deepely rooted in our minds then to proceed to provide for such things as are necessary for this life So anciently is the pious exercise of repeating Sermons commended unto us by this holy Bishop which in these dayes I have heard to bee cryed downe by profane persons as a cause of increase of Brownisme And I willingly confesse that when I first came to this place there were no lesse then tenne that partly had withdrawne themselves partly were upon the point of withdrawing themselves from our Common Prayers but within a short time there was not one such to be found amongst us and so wee have continued to this day But to returne Ephrem Syrus may goe for a zelote in like manner who as hee is alleged by Rivetus treating of the Sabbath exhorts to honour the Lords festivities celebrating them not panegyrically but Heavenly not secularly but spiritually not like Heathens but like Christians and he shewes wherein this consists in the words following Quare non portarum frontes coronemus let us not hang Garlands upon the frontispice of our Gates non choreas ducamus let us not leade a dance non chorum adornemus let us not by our presence beautifie any such company non tibiis auditum effaminemus let us not effeminate our Eares with their Musick or with their fidles Nay as Doctor Prideaux complaines of the Jewes corrupting themselves to the
I have already proved in the former Section and also that reason justifieth this drawne from the division of time into weekes as which had its course from the beginning of the World and how authority both ancient and moderne doth countenance this way of ours farre more then the contrary And Manasses ben Israel one of the ancient wise Doctors of the Jewes observes that when the Jewes are bid to remember that they were servants in Egypt this is as if it had beene sayd remember how that in Egypt where thou servedst thou wast constrayned to worke even upon the Sabbath day In Exod. quaest 36. Upon the Lords blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it from the beginning of the World and upon the fourth Commandement is founded our observation of the Sabbath as Chrysostome hath professed that God hath manifested from the beginning that one day in the circle of the weeke ought to be set apart for a spirituall rest All confesse that there is a difference betweene 1. Time in generall to be set apart for Gods service 2. And the proportion of that time 3. And the particularity of the day in that proportion The first is generally receaved to be morall the other two some had rather call positive then ceremoniall because they conceave it to have beene instituted in Paradise before the fall when there was no neede of any ceremony They who do most judiciously discourse of ceremony in the fourth Commandement doe not call it ceremoniall hand over head but with reference to the rest of the day And herein the ceremoniality they apply to the rest on the seventh day As for the ceremoniality to be found in the proportion of time indefinitely considered as in one day of seaven I never read nor heard till now Yet wherein this ceremoniality doth consist I meane the thing signified thereby is not explicated at all neither in respect of the proportion of time as of one day in seven nor in reference to the particular day Yet the Jewes rest on the seventh day is generally conceaved to prefigure Christs rest in the grave that day full and whole and onely that day And as Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Chamber speech professeth 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 So Austin de Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. Beda in Hexameron on Genesis Aquin. 2. 2. q. 121. art 4. Piscat on Luc. 14. And albeit the rest from workes may have a ceremoniall signification of a rest from sinne in the way of grace as Ezech. 20. 12. and a rest both from sin and sorrow which is also a speciall worke of ours through sin Ier. 2. 17. hast thou not procured this unto thy selfe because thou hast forsaken the Lord. and that in the way of glory Hebr. 4. yet this is no such ceremony as to be abolished upon the fulfilling of the thing signified for even the Jewes under the Law had their rest from sinne in the way of grace as wee Christians under the Gospell yet neverthelesse observed the Sabbath and that glorious rest which shall not be accomplished till the end of the World is commonly called an eternall Sabbath And undoubtedly that is to be accompted as a rest morall whereunto the sanctification of the day calleth us namely to rest from all workes as they are Avocations from sacred studies and meditations But doth Abulensis accompt the rest of one day in seven ceremoniall and not morall Doctor Willet relates him as of an other opinion and distinguishing thus There are some things which are simply morall and some things simply ceremoniall and some things of a mixt kinde as being partly morall partly ceremoniall Simply morall are those things which are grounded on the judgement of naturall reason as when naturall reason doth dictate that some time is to be set apart for Gods service But precisely to appoint the seventh day more then any day of the weeke is simply ceremoniall quia non habet fundamentum à ratione sed à voluntate condentis legem because it is not groundedon reason but on the will of the law-maker But to appoint one day of seven and that day wholy for the space of 24. houres to consecrate to Gods service as therein to abstaine from all kinds of worke these things are not purely or simply ceremoniall but partly morall as grounded on the judgement 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 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 Ecclesiá 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 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
a ceremony but too too crudely and without all explication of what it figured yet we willingly grant a faire prefiguration of somewhat concerning Christ is found in the seventh day acknowledged by the Ancients and by moderne writers both Papists and Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists but that is not in reference to the worship restrained to that day but in reference to the rest fairely representing Christs rest that day in his grave and thereupon grounding the rigorous condition of the Jewish rest which is the practise both of Papists of Protestants so that the Sabbath is not taken away neither as touching some time in generall to be sanctified unto God nor as touching the proportion of time in speciall as of one day in seven but only as touching the particular day which is changed into the Lords day Our Saviour professing that a Sabbath still was to bee kept of Christians as Doctor Andrewes proveth out of Matth. 24. 20. As for the second to wit the light that is said to be retained and spread wider then before this is meere darknesse unto me for I cannot by any meanes comprehend the meaning of it Neither is here any course taken to expound it and bring us acquainted with the interpretation of it Suppose by the light is meant the thing prefigured and that is devised to bee a spirituall rest from sinne But this I hope the Prophets and holy servants of God under the Law were partakers of together with the rest of the Sabbath and the sanctification of it as well as we under the Gospell and if the sanctification of the Sabbath I speak of our Christian Sabbath according to our Saviours language Matth. 24. 20. be taken from us I doubt wee shall enjoy that spirituall rest from sinne in farre lesse measure under the Gospell then the Jewes did under the law Yet neither they nor we shall enjoy it intirely till we are brought to our rest in glory Certainely the conscionable observation of the Sabbath ever was and is a principall meanes to draw us to that spirituall rest from sin and eternall rest in glory If Saint Paul by taxing the Jewish observation of dayes times doth therewithall tax the observation of the Lords day in place of the Jewish then let us turne Anabaptists and Socinians and utterly renounce the observation of the Lords day as well as of the Jewish Sabbath The same Apostle Col. 2. speakes not of the Sabbath but of Sabbaths and there were dayes enough so called amongst the Jewes and that by the Lord both of dayes and yeares besides the weekely Sabbath yet we are content the rest of the seventh may be ranged amongst other Sabbaths as prefiguring Christs rest that day in the grave But to speake of the Sabbath hand-over-head without distinction we love not nor see I any cause why men should be in love therewith unlesse withall they love confusion and to fish in troubled waters is many times an advantage to serve turnes Let the rest of the seventh be in Gods name crucified with Christ upon the crosse or at least be buryed with him in his grave and so as never to rise with him but let our Christian Sabbath our Saviour speakes of Matth. 24. 20. take life together with our Saviours resurrection that brought with it a new creation a new world and there withall a new Sabbath as Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester delivers it in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Trask As reason tells us that there must be some certaine appointed time for Gods publique Service so as good reason tells us wee Christians cannot without sinne allow unto God for his publique service a worse proportion of time under the Gospell then the Jewes were bound to allow unto him under the Law God himselfe never having deserved so much at the hands of man as under the Gospell and there never being greater necessitie of observing a Sabbath then under the Gospell the way of truth and holinesse being so beset and with such encombrances as the like were never knowne to the world before yet still from the bondage and necessitie of the Iewish Sabbath we are delivered by the Gospell for neither doe we keepe their day then called the Lords holy day but the first day of the weeke the day of Christs resurrection in the new Testament called the Lords day Revel 1. 10. And so willingly we come to the consideration of the right whereby The Lords day hath succeeded in the place thereof Let it be the shame of the Anabaptist Familist and Swenk feldian to make all dayes equall and equally to be regarded so insteed of Christian libertie to bring into the Church an Heathenish licentiousnesse yet surely the heathens ever had their festivalls even weekely and that on the seventh day which was sometimes called in this respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And at this day the Turkes festivall is their Friday the first day of Mahumets kingdome when hee fled from Maecha to Iethrib and thenceforth constituted both the first day of their weeke and of their yeare Let as many as by their Sabbatarian speculations bring all to Iudaisme bee censured as they deserve but as for them that desire to have all the glory of the Iewes Sabbath transferred to the Lords day take heed how you censure them least you censure Austin also and the Doctors of the Church mentioned by him who have decreed this As for the river called Sabbaticus let such lettice serves their lips that like them Censures of fanatick and peevish spirits are as liberally bestowed by some as the Baiocchi and Bagalini which the Pope scatters at the day of his coronation but who they be that deserve them God will one day Judge But I perceive whither this tends If some conceive the Lords day to be prophaned by Maygames and Morice dances they are censured for men fanatick of peevish spirits but they little think that all the Prelates of the kingdome may as well come under their lash and the whole Parliament in the first of king Charles But that thred which here is begun is drawne out somewhat longer in the next Section following 5 In this fifth Section things are so carryed that it is an hard matter to discerne the Doctors meaning especially in relating the different opinions concealing the Authors of them and the place where they are to be found and their arguments which here are only said to be derived from the sanctification of the seventh day in the first creation of the world and from the institution of the Sabbath in the fourth commandement For herence it is said that they who stand for the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the Lords day as by divine authority doe draw their arguments for the justifying of their Tenet which I willingly professe doth seeme a prodigy unto me namely that any man should dispute thus In the beginning of the world the Lord commanded
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 not variable in his choice as everlasting as the World because appointed before the fall 26. And so should the hallowing of the seventh ayfm 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 observéd 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 remarkeable 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
after them And in his last blessing upon the people when now he was going out of the world Moses as a King putteth them in mind of this saying The Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them he shined forth from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints from his right hand went a fiery law for them Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hands and they sate downe at thy feet every one shall receive of thy words Moses commanded a Law even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together It is true there is an hole pickt in the fourth Commandement concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath as if that among all the rest were not morall but ceremoniall Yet this honour it hath from God that immediatly after the Creation the Lord resting on the seventh day from his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it And therefore Doctor Andrewes ere he died Bishop of Winchester in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I commonly cite it under his name because it is commonly received to bee his and as I have heard upon divers good grounds treating upon this Commandement and having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a Ceremony and so abrogated by Christ Makes answer to it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce look whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any Ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved And yet we are not ignorant how Papists have practised to raze the second commandement also out of the Law given on mount Sina as if that also were out of date being as they conceive but of a positive nature at first so little evidence doe they finde for it by the light of Nature and now the world is growne so wise that they know how to worship God by Images without committing any idolatry at all though this mystery of religious state is not thought fit to be communicated unto the vulgar But doe we not all acknowledge the light of Nature to be much corrupted since the fall of Adam how much more our judgement of morall things wherein Aristotle confesseth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 demonstration is not to be expected only but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswasion And if way be given to mens wanton wils for the gratisying of corrupt affections more breaches than these are like to be made in the Decalogue I have heard that Cardinall Cusanus undertooke to justifie the sin of Sodome Sure I am amongst the Lacedemonians wives were common And Brennus that Ancient Invader of other Nations made profession that he knew no other Law of Nature but this that The weaker should be in subjection to the stronger like as King Pyrrhus in his death-bed being demanded who should succeed him in the Kingdom made answer even He whose sword is the longest Carneades I thinke was the man who having on a day made a singular speech in commendation of Justice afterwards discoursed as eloquently to the contrary shewing that there was no justice at all by the law of nature every naturall thing seeking to maintaine it selfe by the destruction of others So the fire maintaines itselfe by the combustion of each combustible thing whereunto it approacheth and the water overflowes all naturally and beats downe all dammes it can to make roome for it selfe And the greatest Beasts maintain themselves by preying on those that have no power to resist them The more cause have wee to blesse God for giving us the Law Morall in writing which grew so miserably defaced in the hearts of men And that herein the sanctifying of the Sabbath is mentioned among the rest this hath ever satisfied mee and assured that the substance thereof is Morall and that accordingly wee ought to inure our selves to the sanctification of the Sabbath though naturally we find in our selves no greater reluctation to any Commandement than to this Pardon me if I judge of others by my selfe in this particular Nay upon this very consideration have we not the more cause to strive against this intestine corruption of ours His Majesty is much delighted in hunting it is a recreation mixt with manly exercise well becomming a King but I he are he never useth to hunt on the Lords day And so much the rather should the Lords Sabbaths be deare unto us because the goodnesse and mercy of God appeares no where more than in giving us his Sabbaths calling upon us thereby to rest from the world unto him and God knowes a Christian soule finds no rest any where but in him and to walke with him in holy meditation as he is pleased to walk in the midst of us as the Holy One of Israel so to draw us away from worldly cares and pleasures to the entertaining of heavenly and holy cares to enrich our selves with the knowledge of God and to recreate our soules in the Lord as hee solaceth himselfe in us according to that Hee tooke his solace in the compasse of the earth and his delight was in the children of men On the Lords day it is that in speciall sort we Christians take hold of that holy Cōmunion which God in great mercy in his Son Jesus Christ vouchsafeth unto us with himselfe speaking unto us as from heaven in his holy Word and giving us liberty to speak unto him The Lord pitcheth his Tabernacle amongst us here on earth and we are as it were taken up into the mount of God there to be transfigured before him When the Lord appeared unto Jacob in a vision by night when he fled from his brother Esau and he saw a ladder erected between heaven and earth and the Lord on the top of it the Angels ascending and descending by it when he awoke How dreadfull saith he is this place The Lord was here and I was not a ware surely it is no other than the house of God and the gate of heaven And are not our Temples the houses of God are they not the very gates of heaven In our solemne assemblies is not aladder erected betweene earth and heaven is not the Lord on the top of it and are not we humbled at his feet to heare his Word The gracious instructions which we receive from him are they not as so many Angels descending unto us the gracious motions that arise in our hearts upon meditation of his Word of thankesgiving to him of rejoycing in him yea of sorrowing for our sins are they not as so many Angels ascending to him Our teares have
a double motion one naturall downwards another spiritual upwards for the Lord puts them into his bottels the hairs of our head are numbred how much more the sighes of our heart and groanes of our spirit And have we not great cause to inure our selves betimes thus to sabbatize with God as he sabbatizeth with us that we may be the fitter to keepe our eternall Sabbath with him for so is our eternall happinesse represented unto us in the enjoying of him for ever and being filled with his glory which Austin calls Sabbatum maximum our greatest Sabbath and Plenitudo Sabbati and to that purpose casts his eye upon that Sabbatum Sabbatorum Sabbath of Sabbaths Revel 25. For when Christ hath put downe all rule and all authority and power then shall he deliver up the Kingdome to God even the Father and God shall be all in all Yet I willingly confesse that in my observation two things there are which seeme to be of great moment in opposition to the morality of the fourth Commandement 1. The change of the day 2. The generall opinion of the Fathers pronouncing in an indefinit manner the fourth Commandement to be ceremoniall Yet notwithstanding the registring of it in the Decalogue which is generally accompted the Law morall I say this consideration hath even prevailed more with mee to accompt the substance thereof morall Neverthelesse for the honour I owe and respect I beare to Antiquity I have endevoured to understand the Antients aright and to enquire in what respect they accompted it ceremoniall For to my understanding the sanctification of the rest or the service of the day especially unto us Christians is meerely morall But as concerning the rest it selfe it may be some ceremoniality may be found therein especially considered in conjunction with the time appointed for the worship and service of God And herein I thanke God I have found good satisfaction unto my selfe at last how I shall satisfie others I know not And when sometimes I had waded thorow the Epistle to the Romans unto the fourteenth Chapter there occasion was given me to consider further of this controversie so farre as a few dayes would give libertie to provide my next Sermon and therein I made use of Hospinian and of Pererius and no more as I remember but in Pererius I came acquainted with Tostatus his Arguments directed against the ancient institution of the Sabbath from the Creation which till then I imagined had been generally received without contradiction according to that which the story of Genesis at first sight seemes to commend unto us And by this occasion my mind working hereupon in my meditations I thought fit for opening a way to the better clearing of the truth to distinguish three things in subordination the latter to the former 1. The first was a time in generall to be set apart for Gods service 2. The second was the proportion of this time 3. The third the particularity of the day according to the specified proportion 1. The first seemed tome of necessary duty by the very light of nature to as many as know God and acknowledge him to be their Creator and this I tooke and doe take to be the highest degree of morality in this precept and herein hitherto I have found no opposition 2. As touching the second by light of nature we are somewhat to seeke as whether one day in a weeke or more or one day in a month or more or one day in a yeare or more ought to be set apart for the solemne worship and service of God So that herein it is fit we should expect direction from God the Lord of the Sabbath 1. Because the service of the day is his and it seemes fit he should cut out what proportion of time he thinkes convenient 2. For the maintenance of uniformitie therein and lest otherwise there might be as many divisions hereabouts as there are Churches in the world and contentions also consequently each standing for their owne election For reason of a conjecturall nature is very various and therein commonly affection beares the greatest sway and drawes the judgement to comply with it But when God hath determined a certaine proportion of time it may be we shall find great congruitie therein even to naturall reason and farre more than in any other D. Field as Master Broad reports professeth that to one who knowes the story of the Creation it is evident by light of nature that one day in seven is to be consecrated to Gods service And Azorius the Jesuit in his morall Institutions acknowledgeth that It is most agreeable to reason that after six work dayes one day should be consecrated to divine worship The least division of dayes is into a weeke the next greater division is into a month the next into a yeare Now by light of nature it seemes farre more reasonable that one day in seven should be imployed in Gods service than one day in a moneth And if a seventh part of our time be to be consecrated unto God better a seventh day than a seventh part of every day because the worldly occupations of each of those dayes must needs cause miserable distraction Thus reason may discourse in probable manner when God hath gone before us to open a way unto us Certainly when God hath once determined the proportion of time it is so farre from being accounted morall as perpetuall and still to hold untill God himselfe shall alter it 3. As for the particularity of the day according to the forenamed proportion therein we should be farre more to seeke were wee left unto our selves time consisting in a continuall flux and succession one part afore and another after As namely supposing one day in seven is to be consecrated to Gods service yet wee shall still be to seeke which day of the seven is to be set apart for an holy use And no marvell for in it selfe it is nothing materiall For a proportion of service being required within a certaine compasse so it be done within that compasse every Master rests satisfied with his servants worke But as for difference in the proportion every one accounts that a matter of great moment God himselfe acknowledgeth this therefore to whom he gives but little at their hands he expects but little to whom hee gives much of them he expects much as our Saviour teacheth And Saint John exhorts Christians so to carry themselves in the Lords service that they may receive a full reward Yet both for our assurance that 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
wearing Yea they had miracles in store pretended to to be wrought on such as had not yeelded to their doctrine thereby to countenance the superstitious and confound the weake And which was more than this for the authority of their device they had to shew a letter sent from God himselfe and left prodigiously over the Altar in Saint Simeons Church in Golgotha wherin the Sabbatarian dream was imposed forsooth upon all the world on paine of diverse plagues and terrible comminations if it were not punctually observed The letter is at large reported by Roger Hoveden and out of him as I suppose by Matthew Paris who doe withall repeat the miracles wherby this doctrine was confirmed I adde no more but this that could I either beleeve those miracles which are there related or saw I any now like those to countenance the reviving of this strange opinion for now it is received and published I might perhaps perswade my selfe to entertain it Exam. It seemes this Author is not of their opinion who thinke those times wherein Peter de Bruis lived about the yeare 1126. to have been darker times than the dayes of Gregory though some passe such censure on those times accompting them times of darknesse hee is more wise than to concurre in opinion with them and it is a part of his wisedome as it seemes to affect that the world should take notice of so much namely that he puts it upon some only to censure those times as times of darknesse Now who are those some not Papists I presume but Protestants rather and what true Protestant can he name that thinkes otherwise we have cause to feare that too many for their advantage can be content to veile themselves under the vizard of Protestants when in heart they are Papists neither is it possible I should thinke that any other but such should thinke any better of those times than as of times of darknesse It is very likely this Author is not of opinion that the man of sinne is yet revealed or any such time the Apostle prophecyeth of 2 Thess 2. of giving men over to illusions to beleeve lyes for not receiving the love of the truth I much doubt whether he beleeves that Rome is the whore of Babylon whereof Saint Iohn speaketh Revel 17. though he professeth of that whore of Babylon that it is that City which in his dayes did rule over the Kings of the earth yet in that which he accounts light he can be content to concurre with Calvin in denying the morality of the fourth Commandement as touching one day in seven to be sanctified unto the Lord. But whatsoever this Peter de Bruis was whom he professeth to have drawne too deepe on the lees of Judaisme hee avoucheth no testimony hereof but only D. Prideaux his joyning the Petrobrusians with the Ebionites Sect. 7. Now Hospinian professeth that which is directly contrary of the Petrobrusians as whom he joynes with the Anabaptists maintaining Festos dies omnes ad ceremonias Iudaeorum pertinere propterea nullos esse debere apud Christianos quum ceremoniae veteris Testamenti omnes Christi adventu sint impletae ideo sublatae Quorum etiam sententiae Anabaptistae hodie suffragari videntur That all Holidayes belong to the ceremonies of the Iewes and that therefore none such are to be observed by Christians seeing all the ceremonies of the old Testament are fulfilled and abrogated by the comming of Christ And the Anabaptists now adayes seeme to be of the same opinion In the third Tome of the Councels set forth by Binius and 2. part there is an enumeration of his opinions in five particulars and that as it seemes by the close out of Petrus Cluniacensis not one of them is any thing a kin to those Sabbatarian fancies which this Prefacer insists upon Petrus Cluniacensis as it seemes was the man that most opposed this Petrus de Bruis Against his errors he wrote a book in forme of an Epistle on these points 1. Of the Baptisme of children 2. Of the authority of the booke of the Acts of the Apostles 3. Of the authority of the Epistles of Saint Paul 4. Of the authority of the Church 5. Of the authority of the old Testament 6. Againe of the baptisme of children 7. Of Temples Churches and Altars 8. Of the veneration of the holy Crosse 9. Of the sacrifice of the Masse and of the truth of Transubstantiation 10. Of prayers for the deceased 11. Of praising God by Hymnes and musicall instruments Thus Bellarmine relates the heads of that discourse of his not any of which for ought I perceive savoureth of any such Sabbatarian fancie as this Author driveth it unto At length I got into my hands Bibliotheca Cluniacensis and therein the writing of Petrus Cluniacensis against the Petrobrusians Upon all which one Andreas Puercetanus Turonensis hath written certaine notes wherein upon these words in the Preface Contra haereses Petri de Bruis hee writes thus Of this Peter of Bruis who gave name to the Petrobrusian heretiques no mention is found neither in the historians who write the story of those times nor with them who then or a little after contrived the Indices of haeresies and heresiarches Alphonsus à Castro as I thinke was the first who after this our Author remembred him lib. 3. 5. Baptisma haeres 5. and writes that he was a French man of the province of Narbon Although Bernard the sonne of Guido writes that Pope Calixtus the second in the yeare 1128. on the eight of the Ides of Iune held a Councell at Tolouse with Cardinals Archbishops Bishops and Abbats of the Province of Gothia Gascony Spaine and hither Britany In which Councell amongst other things ordered there all those haeretiques were damned and driven out of the Church who counterfeiting a shew of religion did condemne the Sacrament of the Lords body and blood the Baptisme of children and all Ecclesiasticall Orders and the bands of lawfull marriages All which heresies as invented by Peter Bruis and propagated by Henry his successour our 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
the Flood or a long time after that they kept any Day consecrate to GODS Service will it therefore follow that those holy Patriarchs did set no time at all apart for Gods ervice yet is it generally acknowledged as by the light of nature that some time ought to be set apart for Divine service And formerly I have shewed out of Manasses Ben Israel that whereas the Lord enjoyning to the Israelites the observation of the Sabbath bids them remember that they were servants in Egypt this the antient wise men among the Jewes doe aply in this manner Cogita in Egypto ubi serviebas etiam ipso Sabbato per vim te coactum ad labores thinke with thy selfe how that in Egypt where thou servedst that by force thou wast constrained to worke even on the Sabbath So that the observation of the Sabbath was a duty even in those dayes Observe farther that in the fourth Commandement the Jewes are charged to looke unto it not onely that their children and their servants did observe the Sabbath but also the stranger that was within their gates Now these kinde of strangers commonly called Strangers of the gate and thereby distinguished from Strangers of the Covenant were such as were not circumcised though accompted Proselytes in the first degree And on them was usually imposed no other burthen besides the observation of the seven precepts of Noah as Schindler observes upon the roote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which seven precepts of Noah are also reckoned up by the same Schindler in the roote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and albeit the observation of the Sabbath were none of them expresse yet in as much as the Lord gives expresse charge that the strangers within their Gates should observe the Sabbath it seemes it was comprehended under one of them And therefore some thinke it was comprehended under that which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benedictio Dei that is the worship of no other God but the Creator of Heaven and Earth and by name my worthy friend Master Joseph Mede as I have seene in a Manuscript of his touching the interpretation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Acts and hereof he gives this reason namely that the observation of the seventh day was the badge of this namely of worshioping the Creator of Heaven and Earth according to that the Sabbath is a signe between me and you that I Jehovah am your God because in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh Now if the observation of the Sabbath were comprehended under the seven precepts of Noah undoubtedly it was in force and practise amongest the Patriarchs and that not only after but before the flood for undoubtedly they all worshipped the Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth 2. We have notable evidence for the observation of the Sabbath Day even among the Gentiles And first the distinction of the whole course of time into weekes for the antiquity thereof is remarkable and now lately justified by Rivetus against Gomarus with great variety of learned observation and that especially by Claudius Salmasius that renowned Scholar and Antiquary one of them who with great instance urged Rivetus not to suffer Gomarus to passe unansweared in this point It is true as Rivetus observes that Causabon writing upon Suetonius l. 3. 52. and upon these words Diogenes the Grammarian was wont to dispute at Rhodâ—s on the Sabbath professeth his opinion that the observation of weekes now a dayes generally receaved was not commonly receaved before the dayes of Theodosius though he confesseth that long before it was in use among the Grecians especially those of Asia Yet Rivet makes it good and that out of Tertullian that long before it was in use among the Latines Ioannes Philoponus in his Commentary upon the History of the Creation a book commended by Photius in his Bibliotheca lib. 7. cap. 14 and lately set forth at Vienna in Austria writes thus All men doe agree in this that there are seven dayes only which by revolution in themselves doe complete whole time whereof what reason can wee give but that which Moses gave to wit that in six dayes the Lord made the World and rested the seventh And Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius prove the same out of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seventh day was that wherein all things were finished and out of Callimachus and out of Linus in diverse passages to the same purse as Rivetus hath shewed in his answer to Gomarus And further that in the French Kings library there is a Chronology of George Syncellus from Adam to Dioclesian wherein Salmasius observes that the computation of times by weekes was before the computation of times by moneths and yeares was found out by Astrologers and that the ancient fathers distinguished the spaces of times only by weekes and that the Caldean Astrologers having observed the course of the Sunne Moone and other planets were the first that bestowed on the seven dayes of the weeke the names of the planets and that by the testimony of an antient author Manuscript Zoroastres and Hystaspis were the authors of these demonstrations But that this circuit of seven dayes was in use before Zoroastres and the first authors of Astrology But the Jewes kept themselves as to the distinction of times by weekes so to call the dayes by their order the first the second and that the Pythagoreans did the like and called the first day of the weeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like as the Hellenists called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the yeare 1627. There was set forth a book at Venice as the same Doctor Rivet writes intitled Thesaurus praeceptorum Isaaci Atiae Iudaei in the first part whereof and 157. praecept touching the Sabbath he writes to this effect that the holinesse of that sacred day is so well known that it were superfluous to use many words in the explication thereof seeing it is found to have impression in the very hearts of the Heathens themselves becaase there is none that knoweth not that when his highnesse to whom none can approch built this wonderfull frame he rested on the seventh day 2. And thus ere I am aware I am fallen upon the holinesse of the day acknowledged generally by the Heathens themselves as this Jewish writer conceaved Theophilus Antiochenus an antient Father in his second booke written to Autolycus acknowledgeth the celebrity of this day amongst all men though the reason thereof was not so well known to most to wit as drawn from Gods rest on that day after he had created the World Tertullian also acknowledged the Heathens to solemnize the seventh much after the same manner that the Jewes did confirmed by the learned observation of Iacobus Godefridus notwithstanding some exceptions made against it And that this was the practise of the Romans he proves farther out of Tibullus and Ovid namely that they did feriari rest on the
by God himselfe in the second Commandement yea otherwise than he ordained in the first Creation when he sanctified precisely the Sabbath day and not the day following Such great power did Christ leave to his Church and for such causes gave he the Holy Ghost to be resident in it to guide it into all truthes even such as in the Scripture are not expressed And if the Church had authority and inspiration from God to make Sunday being a working day before an everlasting holy day and the Saturday that before was holy day now a common work-day why may not the same Church prescribe and appoint the other feasts of Easter Whitsontide Christmas and the rest for the same warrant she hath for the one as she hath for the other Now to this Doctor Fulk makes answer after this manner The Apostles did not abrogate the Jewish Sabbath but Christ himselfe by his death as he did all other ceremonies of the Law that were figures and shadowes of things to come whereof he was the body and they were fulfulled and accomplished in him and by him And this the Apostles knew both by the Scriptures and by the Word of Christ and his holy Spirit By the Scriptures also they knew that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever during the World as consecrated and hallowed to the publike exercise of the Religion of God Although the ceremoniall rest and prescript day according to the Law were abrogated by the death of Christ Now for the prescription of this day before any other of seven they had without doubt either the expresse commandement of Christ before his ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdome of God and the order and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his Spirit that it was his will and pleasure it should be so and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how in the words following he falls in upon the same reason of the change of the day which of old was mentioned by Athanasius formerly rehearsed herein by Beza Doctor Andrews D. Lake as I have already shewed Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying the day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the world by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lordrested from the creation of the world And after many lines nothing necessary to be recited he comes to the comparison made betweene the Lords Day and other Festivalls saying Although the Church in dayes or times which are indifferent may take order for some other dayes or times to be solemnized for the exercises of Religion or the remembrance of Christs nativity resurrection ascension or the comming of the holy Ghost may be celebrated either on the Lords Day or any other time yet there is great difference between the authority of the Church in this case and the prescription of the Lords Day by the Apostles for the speciall memory of those things are indifferent of their nature either to be kept on certaine daies or left to the discretion of the Governours of the Church But to change the Lords Day or to 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 And againe in the next place The cause of this change it was not our estimation that either we have or ought to have of our redemption before our creation but the Ordinance of God who as first he sanctified the rest from creation for the glory of that weeke so now also he sanctifieth the day of the restitution of the world for his glory of the accomplishment of our redemption Thus wee have not onely authority Humane but authority Divine for the alteration of the Day and that by the testimony of more Bishops antient and late than this Prefacer makes shew of amongst farre meaner names Yet he doth immodestly abuse Doctor Prideaux in putting it upon him that in the fifth Section he maintaines the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution For in that Section he onely opposeth them who would derive the Divine authority which they stand for of the alteration of the Day from the old Testament but as for those who derive the Divine authority thereof from the new they hee confesseth doe carry themselves herein more warily the other more weakly and them alone he disputes against in that Section In the sixth Section he comes to the deriving thereof from the new Testament and first he challengeth them who boast that they have found the institution of the Lords Day in the new Testament expressely to shew the place Then in the often disputations of our Saviour with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath Day he demands where is the least suspicion of the abrogation of it or any mention that the Lords Day was instituted in the place thereof And indeed the time hereof was not yet come onely the death of Christ setting an end to ceremonies Then he demands whether the Apostles did not keepe the Jewish Sabbath now I doe not find they did although they tooke occasions of their meetings on that day to dispute with them and to instruct them in the Faith of Christ Then he demands whether the Primitive Church did not designe as well the Sabbath as the Lords Day to sacred meetings I find in Baronius that Orthodoxi Orientales did and the occasion also to wit in detestation of the Marcionites yet without any such respect it had been nothing strange considering that even now adayes Saturday is counted halfe holy day and that the Jewes had a preparation for the Sabbath in such sort that on their behalfe Augustus made a rescript that no Jewes should be compelled to make good their suretiships as much to say they should not be arrested either on the Sabbath dayes or after three a clocke of the day going before Hereupon which is yet a very weake ground in my judgement he saith that Papists inferre that the Lords Day is not of Divine institution he doth not make any such inference himselfe Yet notwithstanding he confesseth that even in the Church of Rome Anchoranus Panormitane Angelus and Sylvester all which this Prefacer conceals very judiciously for his owne advantage have stoutly set themselves against these luke-warme Advocates in affirmation of the Divine authority of the Lords Day And I find that Azorius in his institutions makes mention of them to the same purpose and addes that Sylvester professeth hanc esse opinionem communem that this is the common opinion And after this Doctor Prideaux in that Section disputes for the Divine institution thereof rather than against it After this he takes notice of Pauls fact Acts 20. 7. and disputes therehence for a custome to celebrate on
the first day of the weeke their publike meetings and confesseth that the Fathers and all Interpreters almost doe so conceive it though withall he professeth hee sees not how from a casuall fact so he calleth it upon what ground I know not a solemne institution may be justly grounded yet that which went before in some opposition whereunto this is delivered pleaded not for a solemne institution but for a custome onely although upon due consideration it may be found that such a custome if that be granted could not otherwise proceed originally than from a solemne institution It is enough if they ordained that on that day the Churches should be assembled for publique worship which Austin expressely professeth as formerly I have shewed neither doth it appeare in reason how it could be otherwise such assemblies being universall and so continuing to this day Is it credible such universall agreement should come to passe casually if it did yet their continuance of it without dislike doth manifest their joynt Apostolicall approbation who we know were guided by the Spirit of God and even in their time was the first day of the weeke called the Lords Day So that in all this I find no incoherence much lesse notable Indeed in the first of the Corinth chap. 16. 2. he doth not order that the first day should be set apart for Gods service but rather supposeth it and that not onely at Corinth but in the Churches of Galatia how improbable is it that this uniformity should be among them unlesse it proceeded from some authority superiour to the Churches themselves then comming to consider the denomination of the Lords Day and concluding it to be the first day of the weeke and therewithall concluding that sixth Section the seventh Section he begins thus what then Shall we affirme that the Lords Day is founded in Divine authority and answers the question thus For my part without prejudice to any mans opinion I assent unto it however the arguments like me not whereby the opinion is supported and so he proceeds in prosecuting of that which was affirmed by him in the last place concerning his private dislike of some particular courses taken to justifie it He opposeth I grant expresse institution but if by just consequence it may be deduced it serveth our turne both in the generall and in particular at this time and in this place to discover the immodest and unreasonable carriage of this Prefacer who would obtrude the contrary opinion upon Doctor Prideaux as it were in despite of him And indeed it is thought that hee owed him a spight and to pay that hee owed him hee came to this translation But herein the Doctors honour is easily preserved in the despight of this Prefacer yet see a greater degree of impudency in this Prefacer For he puts upon the Doctor as if hee had shewed the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution by the generall consent of all sorts of Papists Jesuits Canonists and Schoole-men of some great Lutherans by name whereas it is plaine that he mentioneth more Papists maintaining the Lords Day to be of Divine institution then opposing it And amongst them that maintaine it one to wit Sylvester professeth it to be opinionem communem not one avouched as affirming the contrary And as for the great Lutherans this Author speaketh of loving to speake with a full mouth they are but one and that Brentius who is said to affirme it to be a civill ordinance and not a commandement of the Gospel a very strange phrase in my opinion to call it a civill ordinance the ordinance being in force many hundred yeeres before the Church of God had any civill government of their own and being in the Apostles dayes how could it be lesse than Apostolicall undoubtedly not so much civill as Ecclesiasticall Wee grant willingly we have no expresse precept for it yet Austin is bold to say as wee have heard that Apostoli sanxerunt yet Gomarus allegeth no passage out of Brentius to this purpose But Melancthon ever as I take it accounted of better authoritie than Brentius professeth as Walaeus reports him that consentaneum est Apostolos hanc ipsam ob causam mutasse diem in plaine termes ascribing the change of the day to the Apostles As for the Remonstrants what authority have they deserved to have with us who are so neere a kinne to the Socinians who uttterly professe against all observation of the Lords Day But the foure professors of Leiden have passed over this of theirs without note or opposition And was not Walaeus one of the foure yet what his opinion is himselfe hath manifested to the world yea and his collegue Thysius also yet no cause had they to oppose in this when the other professed it to be a laudable and good custome according to the patterne of the Primitive Church and can the Primitive Church exclude the Apostles and not rather include them And is it probable that the Primitive Church prescribed it to the Apostles and not rather the Apostles to the Church Tilenus calls it Ecclesiae consuetudinem not denying it to be instituted by the Apostles nay elsewhere hee affirmes this or rather that it was instituted by Christ himselfe So little cause had these professors to quarrell with this phrase of the Remonstrants having weightier matters in hand wherein to oppose them What if Bullenger call it Ecclesiae consuettudinem so doth Tilenus de praecept 4. Thes 29. yet Thes 24. he professed it to be not onely observed by the Apostles but that it may seeme also to be instituted by Christ himselfe Bullenger saith sponte receperunt to wit in opposition to an expresse Precept as appeares by that which immediately followeth Non legimus eam ullibi praeceptam we doe not reade it any where commanded Ursine alleged in the next place clearely professeth in the very place quoted by Gomarus that God it is who hath abrogated the observation of the seventh day but he addes that he left it free to the Church to choose other daies which Church upon a probable cause chose the first day which was the day of Christs resurrection Now what Church was it but Apostolica Ecclesia as Paraeus upon Ursinus Catechisme observes p. 665. Pro libertate sibi à Christo donatâ pro septima die elegit diem primum propter probabilem causam out of the liberty which Christ hath given them insteed of the seventh day chose the first day of the weeke by reason of a probable cause to wit because on that day Christ rose by whose resurrection the spirituall and eternall rest is inchoated in us and p. 666. Apostoli ipsi mutarunt Sabbatum septimi diei The Apostles themselves changed the Sabbath of the seventh day By the way touch we a little upon this that First this was done in reference to Christs resurrection so Calvin acknowledgeth in reference whereunto this day had some prerogative above
the rest to wit in the way of fitnesse for holy use because of the worke of God on that day Whence it is evidently concluded that the Apostles did not thinke it indifferent therefore though it were left to their liberty in as much as no Commandement was given to them thereabout for ought wee reade yet by the spirit of God they were directed to make choyse of this day and that in reference to such a worke on that day as the like on no other Not that the sanctifying of a rest on this day would make us more holy then the sanctifying of a rest on any other day but onely in reference to some speciall worke of God on that day upon which consideration the ancient Fathers doe generally insist and Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake after them doe joyntly rely and not Beza onely Secondly That both Ursine and Paraeus call this a probable reason onely now give me leave to insist upon this and try whether I cannot shew that this reason is more then probable And that first à Posteriori For let us soberly consider how came it to passe that not onely the day whereon Christ rose but answerably hereunto the Day of the weeke to wit the first Day of the weeke was accompted by the Apostles and so commonly called the Lords Day and generally knowne to Christians by that name otherwise S. Iohn had not beene so well understood in his Revelation chap. 1. vers 10. Is it not apparent that Christs rising did ever after give the denomination of the Lords Day to the first day of the weeke Againe the day of Christs Paspassion upon the Crosse is not called the Lords day and why the day of the Resurrection rather surely because S. Paul saith that Christ was declared mightily to be the Sonne of God by the spirit of sanctification in his Resurrection from the dead Hereby then was he manifested to be the Sonne of God the very Lord of Glory and is not this reason more then probable why it should bee called the Lords day Secondly consider that day of the moneth or that day of the yeare whereon the Lord rose wee no where finde that it was usually called the Lords Day but onely that day of the weeke not the day of the weeke wherein hee ascended into Heaven but the day of the weeke wherein hee rose Now the Jewes Sabbath was called the Lords Sabbath the Lords holy Day Es 58. 13. If thou shalt turne away thy foote from my Sabbath from doing thy will on my holy Day Hath the Lord a Day under the Gospell but no Sabbath no holy Day what an unreasonable conceite were this that hee should have an holy Day one in every weeke under the Law and none under the Gospell Now if the Lord hath a day that is peculiarly called his under the Gospell and that day is in the Scripture styled the Lords Day I appeale to every Christian conscience whether the sanctifying of this day as holy to the Lord ought not by more then probable yea even by necessary reason come in place of the sanctifying of the seventh day as an holy rest to the Lord in the dayes of old Otherwise we should have two different dayes in the weeke the one called the Lords Day the other the Lords holy Day or no holy day at all though wee have the Lords Day Lastly consider the very definition of a thing probable which Aristotle makes to be such as seemes so in the judgement of most or in the judgement of most of the wisest or of some few provided they are wiser then the rest but the sanctifying of the first day of the weeke to the Lord that is the Lords Day to the Lord hath seemed fit not to some of the wisest onely in the Church of God but to all even to all the Apostles yea and Evangelists and Pastors and teachers in their dayes and to the whole Church for 1600. yeares since and shall wee call the reason moving them hereunto onely probable 2. yet all this is but a posteriori which yet for the evidence of it I presume most sufficient for the convicting of every sober Christian conscience of that truth to the demonstration whereof it tends I come to give a reason hereof à priori The first creation in the wisedome of God who proceeds not merely according unto probable reason drew after it a Sabbath day the seventh day where on God rested But if God vouchsafeth us a new creation in the same congruity may wee not justly expect a new Sabbath Now the Apostle tells us plainly that old things are passed away and that all things are become 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 Iesus 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 nascentis 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
plainly to import A manifest argument in my judgement that the observation of that day as in place of the Jewes Sabbath in the very days of the Apostles doth even convince their consciences that it can savour of nothing lesse than Apostolicall institution which because they doe impugne therefore they desire to impugne the use thereof as nothing so antient as to be received of the Apostles themselves For consider I pray how should the converted Jewes come to change their Sabbath if not by order from the Apostles themselves whose doctrine it was that Christ came to set an end to all ceremonies And as for the substitution of a day in the place of it that all did joyntly concurre herein without any dependance of some upon the judgement of others what strange strength of convicting evidence must there needs be in the resurrection of Christ to draw them hereunto farre beyond Almighty Gods resting on the seventh day from his worke of creation What could be devised to inferre greater morality by the very light of nature than this which should be so forcible to move all to concurre herein and that with the first But if they received it some from others how improbable it is that the Apostles should receive it from the Churches and not rather the Churches from the Apostles Then consider we no where reade of any difference here-abouts among the Apostles counting Paul amongst them who received from the Lord after his ascension into heaven what he delivered unto others How then came it to passe that they all so throughly and at the first agreed herein If as having received it from the Lord then the case is cleare that it is of most Divine institution But if onely as drawne hereunto by the consideration of Christs resurrection on that day being guided by the Spirit of God infallibly to order as other things so the time of Divine service to prevent the danger of division and confusion upon just ground even this is enough to manifest the strength of evidence which the Lords resurrection carrieth with it as to convince them so to appoint and to convince others of the reasonablenesse thereof seeing all Churches did so universally and so earely yeeld thereunto and since that time so constantly persevered therein The resurrection therefore of Christ is nothing inferiour to the Lords rest on the seventh to draw us to the sanctifying thereof And the Apostles ordering it in this manner especially as his extraordinary Ministers is answerable to the Lords Commandement for the sanctifying of the seventh especially that very commandement by just analogie having force also in this And albeit Walaeus saith no more pag. 174. of those three places Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Apoc. 1. 10. than that the whole Church reformed hath constantly gathered therehence Diet Dominicae usum the use of the Lords Day yet both pag. 183. he doth manifestly imply the Apostles to have instituted it where he saith that quae ab ipsis Apostolis instituta non sunt such things as have not beene ordained by the Apostles were never in that manner observed in all Christian Churches throughout the world as the observation of the Lords Day And before pag. 172. he concludes that the first day of the weeke was by the Apostles substituted in the place of the seventh and commended to the Church and that potestate singulari by singular power and as they were extraordinary Ministers of Christ put in trust by his Spirit to be faithfull in giving Precepts marke this well not onely touching faith and manners but also de Ecclesiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recto ordine for the well ordering of the Church and that in this particular what day of the weeke is to be observed by force and analogie of the fourth Commandement to prevent dissention and confusion among the Churches And I am verily perswaded that as many as stand for the Divine institution of the Lords Day would rest fully satisfied with this Austin I am sure who is alleged by Walaeus in the first place as maintaining it to be of Christs institution writes thus of it Serm. de temp 251. Dominicum ergodiem Apostoli Apostolici viri ideo religiosa solennitate habendum sanxerunt quia in eadom Redemptor noster à mortuis resurrexit this being premised let us come to the consideration of that which he delivers about the justification hereof from pag. 152. where he acknowledgeth that among the ancient Writers and Doctors of the reformed Church there have beene some who have referred the celebritie of this day to the fact and institution of Christ At the first by Christs fact in this place I understood Christ apparitions to the Apostles as they were assembled together on this day But upon better consideration and ponderation of the passages alleged by him out of Austine and Cyril I thinke rather that by Christs fact he means Christ resurrection or perhaps btoh the one and the other For the sentence taken out of Austine hath reference to the one and that out of Cyril to the other And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his thes 36. de Sabbato referres unto both this first day Christ sanctified not onely by his resurrection but by sundrie apparitions before his ascention by sending them the Holy Ghost But the latter seem to depend on the former And therefore that learned Bishop in his defence of that Thesis 36. writes thus I say not that the Apostles imprinted any holinesse upon the first day of the weeke it was Christs resurrection that honoured that day which I say the Apostles were to respect not arbitrarily but necessarily you may perceive the reason in my Thesis you cannot observe from the beginning of the world any other inducement to the institution of feasts but Gods worke done on the day Now neither Austin nor Cyril speake of any institution made by Christ Eusebius I confesse doth intimate such an institution and Gregory the great and so doth Athanasius seeme to expresse as much and Sodulius after him but I am apt to conceive that they meant no other thing hereby than that the consideration of Christs resurrection by the suggestion of Christs Spirit should move the Apostles to ordaine and establish the celebration of this day unto the Christian world Junius in my judgement seemes to have no other meaning when he professeth the cause of the change of the day to be the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ it is true he saith afterwards that the Lords Day succeeded the seventh Christi observatione atque instituto by Christ observation and ordinance but I understand thereby no other ordinance than is bespoken by Christs resurrection on the day and observation of the day For anon he tells us that the Lords Day was observed Christi facto exemplo institutoque Apostolorum vereris Ecclesiae observatione constantissimâ by Christs fact example and by the ordinance
of the Apostles unlesse instituto there be to be referred to that which goes before and ought to be distinguished from Apostolorum which comes after by a comma though it be not But let this be the opinion of Iunius and Piscator which perhaps we may meet with some more evidence for than hitherto Neither doe I see any necessity of expressing concerning every thing they taught that they received it of the Lord Neither doe I thinke fit to conclude that whatsoever they ordered they ordered by Gods Commandement But consider there is a great difference between things ordered by them some were concerning particulars others for the Church universall Some ordered by them for a certaine time other things to continue to the worlds end The ordinance of the Lords Day concerned the whole Church and to this day no Church throughout the world hath thought fit to alter it a notable evidence that the Church generally hath conceived it as an ordinance of the Apostles intended to continue to the worlds end The ingenuity of Master Perkins is to be commended confessing ingenuously that hee proposeth his arguments not as necessary but as probable onely to inferre the institution of the first day of the weeke to be observed by Christians in place of the seventh I would those that oppose him would carry themselves with the like ingenuity nothing inferiour is the ingenuity of Doctor Walaeus pag. 156. professing that this opinion touching Christs institution of the Lords Day seeing it hath so great Divines as favourers thereof is neither to be accused of novelty nor easily to be despised as false provided that they themselves doe not propose it as necessary but as probable nor inveigh against such as are of another opinion or condemne them Now let us see upon what grounds he preferres the second opinion making the institution of the Lords Day to depend upon Apostolicall authoritie before it Therefore first he urgeth that the Apostles have given no expresse commandement as being charged thereto by Christ nor Christ himselfe In briefe thus neither Christ hath any where in Scripture commanded it nor doe the Apostles any where signify that hee did I answer the Apostles doe not use to signify that what they deliver in particular was given them in charge by Christ sometimes they doe but this extends not to the hundreth part of that they doe deliver And it may bee by S. Iohns calling it the Lords Day compared with that which our Saviour delivers in the Gospell pray that your flight bee not in the Winter nor upon the Sabbath day and with the denomination of the Jewes Sabbath called in the Old Testament the Lords holy day wee shall finde sufficient intimation of Christs institution Especially considering that the question is but of the circumstance of a particular day not of the proportion of time and withall the analogy of the day of Christs Resurrection to the day of the Lords rest from Creation And whereas the Doctor further sayth that it seemes not likely that Christ should not command it if he meant to binde us to the observation of any day as a part of his worship and service Now I wonder what the worthy Doctor meanes to thrust in the circumstance as a part of Gods Worship If the Apostles might command it as he thinkes they did yet not as a part of Gods worship why might not Christ command the observation of that day yet not as a part of his worship I am not perswaded that when God at the first sanctifyed the seventh day hee made the observation of that day a part of his worship And it is strange that the circumstance of time should bee an homogeneall part of Gods worship First it is true the rest on that day commanded afterwards might bee and was as a ceremony preaching something unto them All that is to bee considered in time pertaining to Gods Worship is the proportion of it as whether one day in a weeke bee most fit or one day in a moneth bee sufficient and this is of momentous consideration whether wee consider the advancing GODS Glory thereby or our owne good in a greater or lesser proportion But the particularity of the day in seven whether first or last or middlemost this consideration in my judgement is of no moment Only for the avoyding of dissention confusion we have neede of authoritative specification and that God did not define at the first without congruous reason to still all motion tending to alteration and if we have as fayre evidence under the Gospell for our Sabbath as the Jewes had for theirs wee are by Gods goodnesse as much freed from dissension and confusion as they and nothing the more ingaged in superstition as making the observation of the day a part of Divine worship which never was but in the way of prefiguration of somewhat in Christ which kind of pedagogy is now quite out of date neither is there any place for it in the observation of the Lords day Doctor Walaeus his second argument is because those places of Scripture Rom. 14. Gal. 4. Coloss 2. in which the Apostle takes away all difference of dayes can hardly bee reconciled with this opinion or if Christ himselfe not by example onely but by an ordinance commanded unto his Disciples the observation of this day it cannot bee imagined as it seemes that any liberty should now remaine in the observation of this day for that which Christ hath determined is not left under Christian liberty any more then the observation of the seventh day from the Creation was left free to the Jewes when God not onely by his example but also by precept separated it from all other dayes to his service To this I answer 1. I finde no liberty at all left to the Church to change the day by the Doctors owne grounds for hee holds it to bee invariable p. 168. Secondly Hee professeth the change of the day cannot bee attempted without the greatest scandall of the Church p. 169. Now what sober Christian would affect liberty to bee scandalous 3. others who acknowledge the observation of the day by Apostolicall institution and withall to bee changeable and left to the liberty of the Church doe withall maintaine that the Apostles did not command it as extraordinary Ministers of Christ but Doctor Waleus p. 172. acknowledgeth the institution of it made by the Apostles as Ministers extraordinary 4. the Doctor professeth that the Apostles were entrusted by the Holy Ghost to give precepts concerning the good government of the Church and that in this particular case to make knowne to all Christians every where what day in the weeke ought to be kept holy and that by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and withall to prevent dissension and confusion amongst the Churches thereabouts 5. and lastly hee joynes the precepts concerning this with precepts concerning faith and manners and this hee doth without specifying any the least difference nay the word
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 betheir 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 day the worke I say done doth difference a day from a day and Thes 43. Now then when God doth any remarkable worke then will he 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 and Thes 44. And his Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Catholique rule observed 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 weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and history The very light of nature doth give testimony unto this as appeareth by the common practice of the heathens as to give some instance hereof what is the originall of the observation of the Fryday as a festivall day amongst Mahumetanes surely this on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib and so that day is accounted the first day of his kingdom and from thenceforth it was ordained to be the first day of their yeere and of their weeke So then the Will of God in the judgement of this reverend Divine is manifested not onely by Precept but by his Worke. And yet I know none speakes more of Precept in this particular than Doctor Walaeus as I have often alleged him pag. 172. Fifthly I grant Iunius went too farre in affirming that Christ did observe the same every weeke betweene his resurrection and ascention but neither doth the contrary appeare by Scripture undoubtedly the two first he did and it is not manifest that the three following he did not and though Cyril inferres here-hence the reasonablenesse of our Christian assemblies on this day yet wee doe not but as Doctor Walaeus concludes that which hee concludes not from any one place but from many places together that do we Neither is it any thing to the purpose that Doctor Walaeus observes of Christs appearing on other dayes as Ioh. 21. 24. once which was at a fish meeting And as little materiall is it that at such other times of his meetings he spake of the kingdome of God Sixthly On like sort Christ sending down
would not condemne And Gomarus who is most opposite to us in this argument professeth that seeing not onely a time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be set apart for Divine service therefore we must now under the Gospel allow rather a better proportion of time for Divine service than a worse And in this also Rivetus rests in his answer to the first argument of Walaeus contending for one day in seven as necessarily to be allowed to the worship of God For Bullinger I know not where to seeke that which the Doctor aimes at As for Bucer I have shewed before out of him that the Lords Day was by the Apostles themselves consecrated to Divine actions which ordinance the antient Churches observed most religiously and that one of the chief causes hereof was that they might celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which fell out on the first day of the weeke of power to abrogate this day left unto the Church he saith nothing but to the contrary rather that all they who desire the restoring of Christs Kingdome ought to labour that the religion of the Lords Day may be soundly called backe and be of force Yet saith he it is agreeable to our piety to sanctifie other festivalls also to the commemoration of the Lords chiefe workes whereby he perfected our redemption as the day of his incarnation nativity the Epiphany the passion the resurrection ascension and Pentecast And the place which Doctor Rivet explic decal pag. 189. col 2. allegeth out of Bucer in Mat. 10. to prove that he maintained the day to be alterable is nothing to the purpose and as little doe they make for it which hee allegeth out of Musculus To find out what Chemnitius saith hereupon I turne to his Examen of the counsell of Trent concerning festivalls There pag. 154. col 2. he saith that Christ to show that he kept the Jewes Sabbath freely and not of necessitie against the opinion of necessity touching the abrogation of the Mosaicall Sabbath hee taught both by word and deed By word in saying that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and by his deeds as in healing on the Sabbath day and defending his Disciples in plucking the eares of corne Now hereby I take it to be manifest and acknowledged by Chemnitius that none hath power to abrogate the Sabbath but he that is Lord of the Sabbath And seeing even Christians were to have their Sabbath as appeareth by those words of our Saviour pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day which is delivered of the time about the destruction of the Temple by Titus at what time Paul had suffered martyrdome divers yeeres before by whose writings it doth appeare that the Lords Day was kept in place of the Jewes Sabbath both by the practice of the Apostles and the Churches of Galatia and Achaia as Chemnitius acknowledgeth from the force of those places Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and Apoc. 1. 10. in the next columne it followeth that the Lords Day was the Christian Sabbath and so to this day continueth and consequently that none hath power to alter it but hee that is Lord of the Sabbath which is Christ himselfe it being accordingly called the Lords Day Therefore if any pretend that Christ hath delegated this power of his unto the Church it stands upon them to make it good But Chemnitius proceeds pag. 155. col 1. and shewes how the Apostles at the first tolerated their weak faith who without superstition observed dayes Mosaicall Rom. 14. and that such as were stronger in faith after the abrogation of the old Testament judged all dayes to be equall in themselves and none more holy then another We willingly grant as much and adde the reason hereof to wit because the holinesse of the day preferred before his fellowes consisted in some mysterious signification which had reference unto Christ as to come all which kind of shadowes the body being come are now vanished away Hee proceeds saying The Apostles also manifested by their example that in the new Testament it was free to come together either every day or what day soever they thought good to handle the Word and Sacraments and to the publique or common exercises of piety So the Sabbath day and other festivall dayes they taught All this wee willingly grant but here-hence it followeth not that one day of the weeke was not of more necessary observation for the exercises of piety than another Farther saith he that they might manifest that the exercises of Ecclesiasticall assemblies were not tied to certaine dayes they daily persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles 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 rose 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
Church in case they should exercise this liberty what inconvenience would follow upon the exercising of a lawfull liberty But infinit inconvenience would follow hereupon for seeing this liberty is equally communicated to each particular Church it will follow that it is lawfull for our English Church to institute the Munday the French Church the Tuesday the Hollanders the Wednesday the Germans Thursday the Danes Friday the Swedes the Saturday and the Polonians the Sunday what an intolerable scandall were this amongst Christians Thus our liberty opens way to revive the Jewes Sabbath or to concurre with the Turks who make Friday their holy day nay what scandall also to all the Heathens throughout the world For suppose that as the Jewes keepe the Saturday and the Turks their Fryday so other heathenish nations according to their severall religions should divide the other daies of the weeke to be hallowed between them each religion keeping to their own day most exactly When they should find no agreement amongst Christians what an intolerable scandall were this unto them to harden them against the profession of the Gospel when they see so little agreement among the professors of it And what should move us to affect liberty in this which opens a way to such dissention and confusion and not rather rejoyce in this that to prevent such miserable inconveniences God himselfe hath marked out unto us the first day of the weeke to be the Lords Day in place of the Jewish Sabbath which was the Lords holy day unto them by the most wonderful and comfortable work that ever was wrought even the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour from the dead thereby manifesting him to be the Sonne of God and fulfilling that prophecie of old concerning the stone which the builders refused and making him the head of the corner on that day all power being given unto him both in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. thus drawing us in the Prophets language to professe and say first This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and secondly to conclude there-hence in the words immediately following This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it this undoubtedly is our Christian festivall this day of the weeke and not this day of the yeere which is remarkable being called by Saint Iohn The Lords Day the day wherein Christ appeared unto him and gave unto him the booke of Revelation concerning the secrets of his providence to be fulfilled upon the world for the time to come even till his second comming to destroy the world with fire and to blesse us with new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse the metropolis of which new world shall be new Jerusalem And albeit Doctor Rivetus according to his pious ingenuity which crownes his learning and cathedrall sufficiencies professeth that what hitherto hath beene spoken by him of the choyce and possible change of that day he hath not to any such end ventilated as to favour their profanesse who on holy dayes and chiefely on that day which by so universall a consent even from the beginning of Christianity hath beene consecrated to such use neglecting Gods Service not onely refuse to omit one day in prosecuting workes tending to the use of life temporall but also by unnecessary actions as by pleasant sports stage playes by intemperance also and riot profane the day not without reason dedicated to the Lord. Yet what just occasion hereby may bee in all places and like enough is taken in most places by this doctrine of his who seeth not For albeit publike authority in some places hath by lawes countenanced the solemnization of the Lords Day for which wee of this land have cause to blesse God so as I thinke no Nation more in consideration of many Lawes one after another and by degrees made to restraine abuses on that day as tending to the manifest profanation thereof and by none more then by that act of Parliament in the first of King Charles wherein all men are forbidden to come out of their Parishes upon that day about any sports and pastime evidently manifesting hereby as formerly hath beene proved that all sports and pastimes are prophanations of our Christian Sabbath observed on that day and that in the judgement of the whole Parliament consisting of the Kings Majesty the head thereof with his Lords spirituall all the Bishops of the Kingdome and temporal together with the House of Commons yet if once it shall be receaved according to D. Rivets doctrine of the Sabbath that it 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 our 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 opposethem onely it were well but it is apparant that hee disputes not so much against Papists in this argument as against Protestants even such as himselfe But can hee
not morall what shall it be Is it judiciall or ceremoniall Never any man hitherto devised any ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven well it may be positive yet so as to this day from the beginning of the world this proportion was never altered and if I should live till the day be altered by any sober Christian Congregation I thinke I should live till the comming of Christ which the Christians in Austins time conceived that it would be on the Lords day I come to the second charge which is this whereas all things else in the Iewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and for this Master Rogers quotes Doct. Bownde p. 20. onely Master Rogers saith not that all things were changed as the Prefacer doth but onely that all Iewish things were changed now judge whether Master Rogers might not have opposed Doctor Andrews as well as Doctor Bownde For in his Catechet doctrine pag. 209. having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ He answers it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is not changed but yet no ceremony proved Hee proceeds to prove that it was no ceremony first from the Law secondly from the Gospel Eph. 2. 4. thus All ceremonies were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Matth. 24. 20. Christ bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death Now what doth Doctor Bownde affirme forty yeeres agoe which Doctor Andrewes did not in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I come to the third and last That the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming This very point Doctor Andrewes maintaines by divers arguments as well as D. Bownde which yet is rightly to be understood to wit not of the observation of the seventh day from the creation but of the observation of one day in seven So that in M. Rogers his Brentian judgement in this particular Doctor Andrewes who afterwards became Bishop of Winchester might be accounted a Sabbatarian as well as D. Bownde All these positions the Prefacer saith are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England but by whom condemned â—â— by none but by M. Rogers and by the same reason he might say that the doctrine of Doctor Andrewes was condemned also for contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England to wit by M. Rogers And consider his absurd inference from the seventh Article of the Church of England The Article saith that Christians are not bound at all to the observation of Iudaicall ceremonies Hence he inferres that they whom he calls Our home Sabbatarians are adversaries to this truth in part namely in as much as they deny the Sabbath to be a ceremony But doth our Church affirme the Sabbath to be a ceremony Nothing lesse this M. Rogers of his owne head layes downe for a principle namely that the Sabbath was a ceremony to obtrude upon us as if himselfe had as much authority as a whole Convocation And D. Andrewes takes upon him to disprove this very point which Rogers supposeth as a principle and that by various arguments Belike D. Andrewes deserved not to be numbred amongst the greatest Clerks of these later times nor D. Lake neither nor Bishop Babington And as for the judgement of the ancient Fathers it appeares what skil the Prefacer hath in them and what respect he beares unto them by the learning he hath bewrayed in this preface Had he found in them how much the forbidding of dancing in their dayes did hinder the growth of Christian Religion we should have heard of it undoubtedly as well as how it hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion in France out of Heylins Geography yet their doctrinalls which I have shewed to be the doctrinalls of Doctor Andrewes as well as of Doctor Bownde yea and could shew it to be the doctrine of divers other late Bishops in this Church though dangerous in themselves not half so 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
profaning of their Sabbaths so Polidor Virgil complaines of the like corruptions among Christians on their festivalls lib. 6. cap. 8. not imploying their time in prayer and in the exercise of Gods Word for which cause such festivalls were instituted but in all manner of evill courses tending to the corrupting of mens manners and that herein they imitate Heathens though of ancient times Tertullian as hee sayth reprehended Heathens for such courses as in his Apologeticum speaking of the holy solemnity of their Emperours Therefore saith hee Christians are compted enemies to the State because they doe not dedicate vaine lying and rash honors to their Prince Forsooth it is a great good office to make bonfiers and dances in publique and to feast in every parish to transforme the City into the habite of a Taverne Vino lutum cogere which Junius sayth was a fruit of their desperate Luxury and a signe of their madnesse and fury he proceedes to strive who shall exceed one another in running about to doe injuries to commit impudencies to provoke unto lust And is the publike joy after such a manner exprest to wit by publique shame O how deservedly are we Christians to be condemned he speakes it ironically who by carrying our selves soberly chastly honestly doe oppose the vowes made and the joyes expressed for the Emperors to wit when for their sober and chast and vertuous carriage on such dayes not concurring with others to the same excesse of riot were censured as enemies untotheir Princes Yet even in those primitive times the manners of Christians became degenerate as Baldwin observes in his cases of conscience p. 479. and that out of Tertullian as whom hee observes to have complained of it namely that Christans imitated the manners of the Heathen in this yea and grew worse then they in his booke de Idol c. 14. O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam Christianorum solennitatem sibi vendicat non Dominicam non Pentecostem etiam si nossent nobiscum non communicassent ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronuntiemur non veremur O the fayth of the Nations better then ours towards their own sect as who chalenge not to themselves any Christian solemnity not that of the Lords Day nor that of Whitsuntide Had they known it they would not communicate with us lest they should seem Christians we Christians feare not to be accompted Heathens O what a zelote did Tertullian shew himselfe in this nay what thinke wee of Leo and Anthemius Emperours were not they zelotes too in that decree of theirs alleaged by the former Baldwin Diesfestos majestati Altissimi dedicatos nullis volumus voluptatibus occupari undoubtedly they meane hereby worldly pleasures such they would have no place on holy festivities and why but because they accounted those holy festivalls profaned thereby And may not King Iames also be censured for a zelote in making that proclamation of his for the reformation of abuses in profaning the Lords Day at his first comming into the Land to receave this Kingdome as his rightfull inheritance In the Conference before his Majesty at Hampton Court I finde mention made of it by D. Reynolds in this manner To the former Doctor Reynolds did adde the profanation of the Sabbath day and contempt of his Majesties proclamation made for the reforming of that abuse of which he earnestly desired a streighter course for reformation thereof and unto this he found a generall and unanimous assent All these be like were zelotes So was his Majesty also that now is together with all the Lords both spirituall and temporall and the house of Commons in that Act made in the first yeare of King Charles to preserve the Lords Day from profanation wherein are forbidden expressely and by name bearebaiting bulbaiting enterludes common playes and in generall all other unlawfull exercises and pastimes and over and above all meetings and assemblies or concourse of people out of their owne parishes for any sports or pastimes whatsoever and consequently no man ought on the Lords Day goe forth of his owne parish to any may-game or to see a Morrice-dance or dancing about May-poles and seeing the Apostle professeth that it is good to be zealous alwayes in a good thing Gal. 4. 18. and Christ hath died for us to redeeme us from all iniquity and to purge us a peculiar people unto himselfe zealous of good workes Tii 2. 14. let them in the Name of God be such zelots still this zeale being a 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 Ghrist 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
not rather be guided herein by their Masters pleasure especially by such a Master to whom wee owe not onely all that wee doe enjoy but our selves also who holdeth our soules in life and in whose hands is the breath of all man-kinde The question thus untowardly proposed it is subjoyned that They commonly which are more apt to say any thing than able afterward to prove it maintaine affirmatively that it was Doctor Rivet having proposed this addeth that if it be spoken of the law of nature properly so called scarce any one will be found to maintaine any such thing And indeed the question in hand is of the institution of the Sabbath Now no wise man useth to inquire of the institution of that which is written in our hearts and knowne unto us by the very common light of nature It is true some fetch the originall thereof from the beginning of the world when God first blessed the seventh day and sanctified it And what other sense this can have than that God commanded it to be set apart for holy uses wee cannot devise For seeing Gods blessing and sanctifying of it doth undoubtedly denote some act of God this must be either an immanent act or an act transient Not an act immanent for all such are eternall but this was temporall following upon Gods rest on the seventh For therefore it is said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and being an act transient and temporall it must declare his will to have it sanctified that is by the generall notion of the word set apart that is from profane and secular to holy uses And how could this will of God be manifested but by commandement seeing it is a will of God not so much concerning what shall be done as concerning what shall be mans duty to doe And this hath both Walaeus and after him Rivetus justified and this latter against Gomarus once and againe and that by divers arguments And thus as we have expresse Scripture for it so we have as evident reason to justifie it For no other ground can be devised for the dividing of the whole course of time into weeks each consisting of seven dayes than as it stands in congruity to Gods making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh Which division of time was undoubtedly observed by the Israelites and received by them from their forefathers yea and from the Patriarches of old who lived before the flood and that continued without alteration even from the Creation of the world For otherwise they could not have discerned what days had been answerable to the first six of the Creation and what day to the seventh wherein God rested having finished the creation But this was well known unto them as appears by their gathering Manna and promulgation of the 4 th Commandement together with the rest on Mount Sinai Nay this division of time into weeks was generally observed among the heathens as hath been shewed by great variety of reading and that this hath beene the most ancient division of time those other divisions into moneths and into yeeres comming in place long after according as the motion of the Moone and of the Sunne were found out by Astrologers not till then like as the denomination of the seven dayes of the weeke by the severall names of the planets was not brought in untill the severall motions of all the Planets come to be discovered As for the second reason proposed thus on our part If all the rest of the Commandements flow from the principles of nature how is this excluded It is not fit that any man should take upon him the shaping of his adversaries arguments That this Commandement should be taken for a part of the morall Law I wonder that any man should be so unreasonable as to deny but that this Commandement should flow from the Principles of nature and that delivered without distinction I know no man that affirmes But let us distinguish and I make no doubt but there will be found no difference of moment betweene Doctor Prideaux and us For I find no man to deny but that some time in generall is to be set a part as well for Gods publique worship and service as for private and that this is acknowledged by the very light of nature Only as touching the proportion of time that is to be set apart for Gods service herein we are to seeke yet herein also the light of nature doth advantage us and that sufficiently in two particulars For the truth whereof I dare appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux himselfe 1. The first is this that not onely some time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be consecrated to the exercises of piety both publique and private Gomarus and Rivetus are driven to acknowledge this in answer to Walaeus about the proportion of one day in seven And whereas we may be to seeke of agreement about what is sufficient 2. Therefore in the next place the very light of nature doth suggest unto us that it is farre more fit that the Master should prescribe unto the servant what proportion of service he expects from his hands than that the servant at his pleasure should cut out what proportion of service he thinks good unto his Master how much more fit that the Creator should prescribe unto his creature then that the creature should prescribe unto his Creator considering 1. how the dominion of God over his creature is incomparably greater than that which any other Master hath over his servant 2. That man may become unreasonable in his demands and commands God cannot 3. God can give strength to his creature to performe what he commands man cannot 4. The more cleare and expresse the Commandement is the more comfortable to the creature being hereby assured the service hee performes is in the way of obedience not unto his owne will but to the will of his Master 3. May I not adde a third namely that by the very equity of a naturall conscience it is more fit to apportion unto Gods service one day in a weeke rather than one day in a moneth especially considering that originally time hath beene divided into weekes and not into moneths untill a long time after In all which I am content to appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux himselfe Yet we have not done in this argument For in the fourth Commandement there is enjoyned not onely the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods service and the proportion of one day in seven in speciall but also the particulating of a certaine day under this proportion and who seeth not that so many different things though one in subordination to another being duly considered it is no way fit to confound them and to speake hand over head of the fourth Commandement without distinctions Now as touching the particularity of the day herein I confesse wee are more to seeke by the light of nature than for the speciall proportion
of time due unto God Yet consider whether herein also we are not assisted in good measure by the light of nature and that in certaine particulars 1. As first the decent proportion of time being observed it is nothing materiall in it selfe as touching the advancement of the substance of Gods service what day of the weeke it be performed under the duly specified proportion For wee find by experience that all Masters stand for a proportion of service which they expect from the hands of their servants the quantity of service being a very considerable matter in the judgement of all but whether a man worke the first houre of the day and rest the second or five houres in the morning and rest the sixth or in what other difference soever so the quantity and proportion of service for that day be performed all Masters rest satisfied So for the service of the weeke if it be sufficient to performe thus much service as namely a dayes service in a weeke it matters not what day it be done so the work be performed I say it matters not as touching the substance of the worke it selfe to be performed 2. But though it matters not in this respect on what day the service is performed yet it may matter much in another respect For whereas we are all Gods creatures and consequently his servants and the service wee speake of concernes us all in generall and that equally and all wee are reasonable creatures 1. First it seemes fit in reason that there should be an uniformity For like as we converse together by commerce and trade in the workes of our calling on other dayes of the weeke so it seemes most fit we should walke together with God in the performance of his service otherwise there would be a manifest breach of society For suppose there be in such a towne as ours seven times foure hundred persons for wee have almost 2000. Communicants one of the three parishes in Reading hath as many if one 400. should keepe the first day of the weeke for their Sabbath another 400. the second day of the weeke and so to divide the dayes of the weeke betweene them here were a manifest breach of society both in thinges humane and in things Divine for every day in the weeke 400. would be excluded from conversing with their brethren in businesses temporall and all the rest from them whose day it is to rest unto God in exercises spirituall which all I presume by the very light of nature would judge intolerable And this order would have place not onely in particular townes among themselves but with other also confidering that six dayes in the weeke wee have converse by commerce and trade not with our neighbours onely but with other townes also farre and neere Againe another inconvenience would arise and that a miserable one more dangerous than the former For hereupon a window will be opened unto dissention each standing for his owne way as the manner of man is and what could be expected but wretched confusion should follow hereupon Lastly consider should not the service of man prove more comfortable unto him if God as hee hath appointed him the proportion of time so he would be pleased not to leave him to seeke of the particularity of the day under the forementioned proportion 2. Therefore as it is fit there should be an uniformity for the reasons given so for the maintenance of uniformity no meanes sufficient but Gods owne prescribing of it hereupon all just occasion of dissention will be cut off confusion will be prevented and the service of God as every way even in the very circumstance of time according to his will shall be the more cheerefully and comfortably performed 3. Thirdly consider what D. Lake writes in his Theses de Sabbato Thes 44. Gods Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Catholique 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 yeerely as particulars evidence in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the workes therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Now suppose God had not commanded the observation of any one day in the weeke but left it unto man to choose if withall hee should observe one day preferred before another in some notable worke what reason is there why man should choose any other day rather than that 1. This discourse proceeds upon supposition of one day in seven to be set apart for Gods service and accordingly wee being upon the election of the day Now consider the case of Adam God having revealed unto him how many dayes he had spent in the creating of all things and in what order hee created them the last day of the six being the day wherein he created the beasts of the field then man and after placing him in Paradise and after experience of his wisedome appearing in the naming of the beasts brought before him not finding an help meet for him casting him in a sleepe and taking a rib out of his side thereof made a woman to be a help meet for him The next day which was the seventh God resting from his worke what day should man have preferred for Gods service before this considering the proportion betweene Gods rest from his works and mans rest from his and that as this day was the first of Gods rest so it was the first of mans worke And the very Heathens have counted it reasonable à Iove principium to begin with God especially there being no better meanes to take livery and seisin of the world made by God for the service of man than by the service of God man being made to this end and accordingly after Gods image indued with an understanding heart to know him and with rationall affections to feare and serve him And that with the first as Caietan observeth and that out of the judgement of reason Par est ut post accepta beneficia agnoscamus benefactorem quandoque uno statim It is fit after benefits received wee should acknowledge our Creator sometimes yea forthwith As wee reade the Angels did as the Booke of Iob informes us Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth declare if thou hast understanding who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened or who laid the corner stone thereof When the morning starres sang together and all the sonnes of God shouted for joy The summe of all is this 1. It is generally confessed and that by the very light of nature that sometime and that in a sufficient proportion is to be set apart for Gods service 2. God being our great Lord and Master it is most fit by the
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 a festivall unto him when hee calleth us thereunto lest otherwise it prove out of season when it is begun a long time after and utterly neglected upon the fresh memory thereof Wee reade that when the Ilienses inhabitants of Ilium called anciently by the name of Troy sent an Embassage to Tiberius to condole the death of his Father Augustus hee considering the unseasonablenesse thereof it being a long time after his death requited them accordingly saying that hee was sorry for their heavinesse also having lost so renowned a Knight as Hector was to wit above a thousand years before in the warres of Troy Surely when in the fourth Commandement and in the reason given it is sayd For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it it stands with far better reason to conceave the meaning hereof in reference to time past thus therefore the Lord commanded the sanctification of it 2500 yeares before then to understand Moses words Gen. 2. 3. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it in reference to the time to come thus therefore the Lord commanded that seventh day to be sanctified 2500 yeares after And observe I pray the forme of words in the fourth Commandement when it is sayd Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it not of the time present that hee now doth blesse it and sanctify it but of the time past therefore hee did blesse it and sanctifie it and when I pray but immediately from the Creation that very day whereon hee first rested and consequently that very day he commanded the seventh day to be sanctified for to sanctifie the day is to command the sanctification of it as is confessed otherwise there were no place to plead anticipation And that the phrase of speech must signifie Gods Command for the sanctification of it I have already proved As for the Fathers affirming that the ancient Patriarches did not observe the Sabbath albeit their authority is of no force to countervaile so manifest evidence both of Scripture it selfe and of the reason drawne from the division of time into weekes even from the creation and so continued unto the Jewes in the very dayes of Moses Yet I may be bold to say we have better authority from the ancients for justifying of our cause than our adversaries have for theirs
Walaeus hath represented Chrysostome Theophilus Antiochenus Austin Theodor maintaining that the justification of the Sabbath hath beene from the Creation To these Rivetus addes Tertullian as of the same mind howsoever alleged on the adversaries part And he also acknowledgeth the Jewes to be of the same opinion Beda is alleged indeed by Perenius as on the part of Tostatus but no such thing appeares in his Hexameron but rather expressely the contrary his words being these of the Sabbath semper celebrari solebat as I have shewed in my answer to the preface Sect. 1. Where also are represented the testimonies of Athanasius and Epiphanius as maintaining the institution of the Sabbath to have beene from the Creation which also hath beene shewed to have beene the opinion of Philo and Iosephus and divers of the Jewish Rabbins and of the author of the Chaldee-Paraphrase upon the Psalms and of divers others Againe concerning the passages alleged out of some Fathers to the contrary not onely Hospinian answereth that those proceed of the rigorous observation of the Sabbath but Iacobus Salianus a Papist in particular thus interpreteth Tentullian and Tertullian must be in some such sense understood as namely either of observation of other Sabbaths in use among the Jewes or of the rigorous observation of the Jewish Sabbath or of the Jewish manner in observing it by particular sacrifices appointed for that day for as much as he clearely professeth that the Sabbath day was à primordio sanctus as Rivetus sheweth and that the other Fathers which are but foure truly alleged are to be interpreted by some such manner I have endeavoured to evince by divers reasons in my answer to the Preface And though some are willing to admit that of Torniellus that in the accomplishment of the Creation the Angels did observe the Sabbath provided he recompence them in this particular now in question and adde that the observance of it here upon the earth was not till many ages after Yet this naked authority being little worth his reason is so weake in the former that we have cause to suspect it will not prove any thing stronger in the latter though I should have beene content to afford it due consideration had it been proposed As for the Angels singing and shouting for joy this was performed as Torritallus acknowledgeth the day wherein the foundation of the earth was laid which undoubtedly could not be after the first day of the creation For if the foundation of the earth was not laid then when the Lord said that it was without forme and voyd and the waters covered it I cannot devise when it should be It is granted that it may be probably conjectured that the sanctification of the Sabbath was before the Law as concurring herein with Calvin but that Calvin saith that no more is not proved neither is that passage exhibited wherein Calvin should deliver his mind so coldly thereof but Calvin in his harmony upon the foure bookes of Moses and on the fourth Precept is expresse that Diem septimū sibi sumpsit Deus ac consecravit completa mundi creatione that God assumed and consecrated the seventh day unto himselfe upon the finishing of the worlds creation And it is enough for us that then it was instituted and hereupon let every sober reader judge whether it be not more then probable that the holy Patriarches at least observed it Neither doe we affect that any man should rest satisfied with our conjectures but let our reasons be considered and the plaine Text of Scripture professing that because God rested the seventh day therefore hee blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and let them yeeld thereunto no more in this particular then whereof it doth convince a man in conscience Yet who those late Writers be who are so unsatisfied in this point I know not well I verily thinke they are very few Protestants Gomarus as I remember allegeth but two Vatablus and Musculus whereas Walaus and Rivetus between them have alleged no lesse than thirty maintaining the contrary As for the Papists we shall take notice of them in the next Section It is confessed that this proofe is good God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore he commanded it to be kept holy by his people The sanctifying of the day in the true notion thereof being nothing but Gods commanding man to sanctifie it which yet if any man deny I appeale to my former argument delivered in the former Section for the justifying thereof Onely it is said that therence it followeth not that Then or at that time to wit the very day whereon God rested he commanded it to be kept holy by his people Now this exception also I have remooved in the former Section And it is very strange we should be to seeke of the time in reference whereunto this is delivered most of all if spoken onely in reference to 2500 yeares after and not the least intimation of so strange an anticipation beyond all example as Walaeus and Rivetus have proved When Abulensis saith that Moses spake this by anticipation rather to shew the equity of the Commandement then the Originall If the booke of Genesis were written before the Commandement was given on mount Sina this interpretation must suppose that the Lord had already revealed to Moses what hee would doe on Mount Sina and what ground is produced for the building of so much as any conjecture hereof thereupon And what wise man would expect that any man should be satisfied herewith Doth it not concerne them who maintaine this affirmative to make it good by Texts of Scripture If after the Commandements were delivered on Mount Sina what neede of representing the equity thereof seeing the equity and that in this very way is expressed in the Commandement it selfe and that in such manner as to manifest evidently that God did not now begin to command this but that hee commanded it of old even from the Creation as already I have disputed and proved And though Abulensis were of this opinion yet Catarinus was not and though Pererius the Jesuite tooke part with Tostatus yet Rivetus hath shewed that Cornelius de lapide Emmanuel Sa. Ribera all Jesuites do not but with Catarinus rather or that Steuchus Eugubinus Genebrard and Iacobus Salianus concurre with them against the opinion of Tostatus Gomarus acknowledgeth Marius also to be of the same minde all Papists and let mee adde unto these all the Remists as appeares in their notes upon Apoc. 1. 10. Enosh might call upon the Lord and Abraham offer sacrifice without relation to a set and appointed time oftner and seldomer as they had occasion It was in the former Section signified to be Torniellus his reason which here is answered now Torniellus was of a contrary opinion to us in this particular yet hee confesseth that it seemed hardly credible neither doth the Doctor deny it onely hee saith that Enosh might so doe hee doth not say hee did
the Jewes had As touching the three particulars wherein Tostatus is vouched to affirme the fourth Commandement to bee an unstable and alterable ceremony First I have not hitherto found that Tostatus confoundeth the proportion of one day in seven with the particular day under this proportion as if these were equally ceremoniall The rest on the seventh day in the judgement of the ancients prefigured the rest of Christ that day in his grave and in that respect was accompted by them ceremoniall But as for the proportion of one day in seven never yet did I meete with any who set his wits on worke to devise any thing in Christ to be prefigured thereby that so it also might be accompted ceremoniall Yet I nothing doubt but this proportion is alterable by that power whereby it was prescribed but not by any inferiour power and so it is accompted by Jacobus de Valentia stabile aeternum stable and everlasting and most unreasonable that wee should not be bound to allow as good a proportion of service unto God under the Gospell as the Jewes were bound to allow him under the Law The rest of the seventh day being ceremoniall wee hold not onely with Tostatus that it is alterable but with Stella that it must be altered and I hope the word it selfe affords evidence enough for this It is true the fourth Commandement in the very front commands the sanctifying the Sabbath not the seventh day but the Sabbath and in like maner it ends with professing that the Lord Blessed the Sabbath day not the seventh sanctified it But when the question is made what Sabbath I should rather answer a rest from all servile works then as here it is answered The seventh day For undoubtedly God doth not therein command us to rest the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation there is commanded one day in seven and a seventh after six dayes of worke But wee must leave it unto God as to prescribe unto us the Master to his servants the proportion of time to be set apart for his service so the particularity of the day also under the specified proportion least otherwise there might be as many different opinions hereabouts and courses according thereunto amongst the people of God as there be dayes in the weeke Now God did appoint the seventh day of the weeke unto the Jewes for their Sabbath but the first day of the weeke hee hath appointed unto us for our Sabbath still observing six dayes worke before and a seventh of rest unto God after And thus Zanchy a learned and judicious Divine interpreteth the fourth Commandement in 4. praecept p. 599. Col. 2. Stat sententia non sine causa factum esse ut in substantia praecepti dictum non sit Memento ut diem septimum sed ut diem Sabbati i. quietis sanctifices Hac enim ratione nos quoque praeceptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem Dominicum quia hic quietis dies nobis est sicut Judaeis fuit septimus I am still of opinion that not without cause it is so ordered that in the substance of the precept it is not sayd remember the seventh day but remember the Sabbath day that is the day of rest to sanctifie it For by this meanes wee also keepe this precept in sanctifying the Lords Day So that this is not the opinion of Doctor Bownde onely and of Master Perkins but of Zanchy also and Iacobus de Valentia advers Iudaeos qu. 2. conclus 4. Christian Religion celebrates a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day as touching the time in as much as it celebrates it on the day whereon it ought to be celebrated and concludes So the precept of the Sabbath as it is morall remaines in the new time celebrated on the Lords day So Dominicus Bannes formerly alleaged distinguisheth the substance of the praecept from the particular determination of the day and addes that by a positive precept the seventh day was designed unto the Iewes but afterwards under the Law of grace was designed the day of the Lords Resurrection So that alwayes to Gods faithfull people was designed one day in the weeke for Divine Service Whereas other festivities sayth hee are in course by the institution of the Church And Doctor Andreues also sheweth out 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 as 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 10 th 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 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 destroy the law but to fulfill it and that the least of them should not be abrogated in his kingdome of the new Testament In so much that whosoever breaketh one of the least of these tenne commandments and teacheth men so hee should be called the least in the Kingdome of heaven that is saith the Author he should have no place in his Church To the first of these here the Doctor answereth thus To which we say with the Apostle Doe we destroy the Law by faith God forbid We confirme it rather 2 Christ then hath put away the shadow but retained the light and spreads it wider then before shewing thereby the excellent harmony betweene the Gospell and the Law As touching the first part of this present answer that is too aliene from our present purpose the question betweene us being not whether the Law be destroyed by preaching justification by faith we know that as touching the ceremoniall Law whatsoever was prefigured thereby is fulfilled by Christ and as touching the morall Law Christ hath fulfilled that also partly in himselfe by perfect obedience thereunto and making satisfaction for our disobedience and partly in us by giving us more power to performe obedience thereunto through faith in him then ever we had before since the fall of Adam But our Saviour Matth. 5. treats of destroying the law by abrogating it or any part thereof which how they can avoid who teach that Christ by his death hath freed us from the Yoke of the fourth commandement I cannot comprehend Suppose it be but one of the least commandements yet let them looke to it who discourse of abrogating it and teach men that they are not obliged by it hand over head least they be accompted by the Lord of Sabbath the least in the kingdome of heaven therefore it stands them upon to confirme it rather as they professe but how they doe performe that which they pretend I am utterly to seeke 2. I come therefore to the consideration of the second part of the answer consisting of two parts 1. That Christ hath put away the shadow 2. That he hath retained the light spreads it further As for the first wee have heard the proportion of one day in seven allowed unto Gods service to be called a ceremony and consequently a shadow But what this prefigured is not explaned at all nor ever hath beene that ever I read or heard Neither is this put away but continueth still in the observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over and I doubt not but it will continue to the end of the world The restraint of the worship to the seventh day hath beene also called
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 w ch 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 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
nor any that I know that in this sense all or any are bound to keep the seventh or a seventh day holy but onely by vertue of Gods command Yet this wee professe that seeing it is generally confessed that by the very light of nature some time is to be set apart for Gods service Wee cannot devise in reason any better course then to set one day in seaven apart for this considering the first division of dayes is into weekes and if a seventh part of our time be in reason to be consecrated unto God wee thinke it more convenient to set one intire day in seven apart for this then the seventh part of every day because the other businesses of every day are apt to cause distraction from the Lords service And as I have but erst discoursed it is more fit the Master should appoint unto the servant what proportion of service hee shall performe unto him then that this should be left to the discretion or liberty of the servant 1. both the honour of the Master requiring this 2. and the good of the servant for hereby hee shall be assured of the better acceptance at the hands of his master And so for the particular day it is fit the Master should marke out that also unto him by some prerogative set upon the day as hee did the seventh day by finishing the worke of Creation and by his rest thereon from his workes to call man to an holy rest from his so to be more free for the service of his Creator In which cases both touching the proportion of the time and particularity of the day the Law being made it shall continue immutable and unalterable by the will of the Creature but mutable and alterable according to the will of the Creator so that things being well distinguished and rightly considered and stated I see no bug-beare of inconvenience in all this Neyther doe I see any reason why the spending of one day in Gods holy worship as a morall and perpetuall duty should seeme distastfull to any Since it is apparant that God commanded it unto his people of the Jewes and for 1600 yeares it hath beene continually observed by Christian Churches unto this day and I make no doubt but it shall hold till Christs comming though from the beginning of the World it was never found to be so hotly opposed as at this day And why should any man stick in acknowledging it to be morall when never any man busied himselfe to finde out any ceremoniality in reference to the proportion of one day in seven Neither doe I thinke ever any man called it judiciall but Azorius professeth it to be rationi maximè consontaneum most agreeable to reason and no man that I know hath at any time set himselfe to devise a proportion of time to be spent in Gods service more agreeable to reason then this And as for the third offence taken for I know not any that give it The fourth Commandement is brought by none that I know to prove that the Lords Day is now become our Christian Sabbath but supposing it to be our Sabbath as the booke of Homilies sayth it is and our Saviour signified that Christians should have their Sabbath as well as the Jewes had theirs Math. 24. 20. wee produce the fourth Commandement to prove that wee ought to sanctifie it and that we may the better sanctifie it to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification thereof And indeed the Commandedement is so drawen as to command one day in seaven to be observed and whatsoever is that seventh prescribed by lawfull authority to sanctifie it and abstaine from all works whereby the hallowing of it is disturbed and all this we take to be morall namely the worshipping of God in a certaine proportion of time prescribed by him and to that purpose to rest from workes not for any mysterious signification sake as did the Jewes wee thinke the practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes is sufficient to inferre the apostolicall and divine institution thereof from hence Athanasius Cyrill Austin and the Fathers generally for I know not one alleaged to the contrary so take it And the Lords Day hath no other notion in Scripture 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 congruity 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
Sabbath began to be a shadow When after the fall it received accessions it became such a shadow as Saint Paul speaketh of Col. 2. otherwise it was a kinde of shadow of eternall rest in the foundation and the Lords Day continueth so now Ib. The Apostle Hebrew 4 speaketh of the seventh as rested upon not sanctified Reade the mistake of this place before Ib. Section 6. The Sabbath more ceremoniall then the other Commandements you prove it out of S. Austin And it is plaine hee speaketh of the Sabbath as the Jewes observed it and had it given in charge with his accessories but I still call you to the Originall Sabbath Gen. 2. Res Respons ad quaestion 1. Section 1. Our words and meaning must not agree in our Prayer Lord have mercy upon us c. A strange answer I thinke they must and doe agree for by analogy is the Lords Day contained in the Commandement and the Church directeth us so to understand The apportionment of time is everlasting only the translation of the day is by all that have any understanding to Catechize taught to be grounded upon a new Creation succeeding the old The personall defects I cannot reply to but leave them to be reformed Though the imperfections of the ignorant should not be presented when the question is made so difficult that the learned can hardly assoile it As the author of the questions thinketh Question 2. How shall the fourth Commandement bind us considering the forme of words to keep any day but only the seventh I suppose in my Theses I have given a probable answer Seeing the apportionment of time is eternall which I thinke cannot justly be denyed I hold the translation of of the feast from the seventh to the first day is grounded upon Analogy For seeing God was pleased that the day of the Creation should be commemorated as appeareth by the Letter of the Commandement and the first Creation being by sin dissolved jure restored againe by Christ upon the first day where we find the rest after the new Creation there we must fix the feast And this is perswaded by the drift of the Law Except we lay this for a ground God will have the day of Creation observed Observed after the rule of the first Creation it cannot be for then we doe not acknowledge the dissolution thereof I meane still merito In testimony of that and Christs restitution we keepe the day of the new Creation and we are guided to it by the fourth Commandement Question 3. How shall it appeare to be the Law of nature to sanctifie one day every weeke Surely here the Author of the questions makes a strange answer For he looseth himselfe in his distinction of the Morall Law and the Law of nature which he seemeth not to understand well He would have the Law of nature to prescribe circumstances to actions and not the morall Law whereas the morality stands in observing the circumstance of actions as the Ethicks will teach and this in the phrase medium rationis Secondly hee thinketh that all the Lawes morall are as he calleth them of nature doe represent the Image of God and are unalterable even by God himselfe Not considering that there is a morality that concerneth man as he is Animal rationale and reason moderateth the sensuall part which commeth not within the compasse of the Image of God And in many particulars is mutable and dispensable in cases of necessity as it is held against the Law of Nature that brothers and sisters should marry but God dispensed with it but I should wade into a large argument if I should rippe up these two Errors I rather note that hee understandeth not the ground of a Festivall day that maketh no other ground of it than Omnia siant ordine decenter The Lords Day had a higher ground which I opened in the Theses and that is Christs Resurrection and thereby a new Instauration of the World Which wee are bound to observe upon the grounds set downe in the Theses And in a word Hee that doth not let Gods Word be the guide directing to sanctifie a Festivall day I thinke hee squareth not his opinion according to truth neither hath he any president from Gods Word FINIS Defensio Thesium de Sabbato 13 I Take notice of Tertull Iustin Martyr true but they alter not my judgement And why I finde in them onely a bare assertion and that of a thing so remote from their times that they could not know it otherwise then by relation From the Scripture they had none happily they had it from some Jewes Galatinus alleadgeth some But I oppose Jewes to Jewes Philo Iudaeus de opificio Mundi not onely is of a contrary opinion but holdeth also that it was a feast common to all Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And peradventure some such thing is meant by Hesiod his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is not unlikely that God made the observation of the day a memoriall of the Creation But I will not enlarge that discourse It shall suffice that Philo Iudaeus and Aben Ezra also and others thinke otherwise whose judgement our Orthodox Divines doe if not all yet for the most part follow Read them upon the second of Genesis 14 What the Patriarks did in point of religion I thinke they did it by Divine direction Yee know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did never please God wherefore the Mosaicall Lawes other then those that had reference to the Church as nationall and delivered out of the Egyptian bondage are to be thought not introductory but declaratory Out of question those that concerned the substance of the service which stood in sacrifices and I thinke concerning the circumstance of time and place The place for there where God appeared there did they erect their altars yea and in the story of Rebecca it is plaine that shee went to a set place to consult the Lord. And why shall not the time come under the same condition 15 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must receive an answer from that which is added in confirmation of the 13 Thesis It is but an ungrounded conjecture 16 Where had Rhenanus that opinion his varying from those whom I answered on the 13 Thesis sheweth that hee was not of Iustin Martyr or Tertullian his opinion and yet giveth no reason that may move to credit him or countervaile what I have alleadged for my opinion 18 Yes there is more if you compare Deut. c. 5. with Exodus c. 20. but I meant not onely that but other passages which make the Sabbath a signe of Gods residence sanctifying the Jewes c. which I expressed in the next thesis 19 Bedes conceipt may passe for an allegory built upon a witty accommodation of the literall sense which other fathers observed before him But that cannot be the literall sense of the Commandement You will not deny it if you grant that the Sabbath was instituted before
the fall which I thinke more then probable though the Broughtonists hasten the fall before the Sabbath And I cannot without good reason yield that the patriarchs had no set time for divine service I meane a weekely time 31 True it is that Christ did rest from suffering upon the seventh but the last enemy death was not apparently overthrowne untill the reunion of his soule and body till he rose againe for our justification c. Therefore did the apostles make that the consummation of redemption in Christs Person 35 You cannot finde in all the 14. to the Romans that the Apostle is positive in the doctrine of dayes he expresseth a mutuall indulgence untill men had attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the liberty from Moses Law Neither doth he beare out the Gentiles against the Jewes but qualifie rather the destempered zeale of the Gentiles that were too hot against the Jewes Sensus dictorum sumendus est ex causis dicendorum It is plaine that there was a questioÌ„ whether the Christian gentile should be pressed to observe the ceremonies whereunto the christian Jewes were pertinaciously addicted but never was there for ought I read a question whether the Jewes should keepe the Lords day for I think they never refused it Had there been such a quarrell I would enlarge the sense of that Chapter as you doe to our question but seeing there was not I see not how it should be reasonably done 36 I say not that the Apostles imprinted any holinesse upon the first day of the weeke It was Christs resurrection that honoured that day which I say the Apostles were to respect not arbitrarily but necessarily You may perceive the reason in my Theses You cannot observe from the beginning of the world any other inducement to the institution of feasts but Gods worke done on the day If it were not a continued worke as the dwelling in Tabernacles But you thinke the Apostles did not prescribe the observation of that day No you confesse they made choice of it and were moved so to doe by the reason which I alleage And were they not scattered over all the world where they came did they not all give the same order for the sacred assemblies And shall we thinke that this could be done without an apostolicall prescript 37. 43. I conjoyne them because one answer will cleare both Let us then first agree what it is for a thing to be Liberae observationis The Questionist in his interpretation which commonly is received leaveth a possibility for an alteration by humane auctority if any reason shall perswade a conveniency so to doe though so long as publike auctority commandeth it he will have it dutifully observed Whereupon will follow a Consectary or two First that this Law doth not immediately bind the conscience because Merè humani Iuris positivi Secondly that Extra scandalum a man may transgresse it For example a Tradesman may worke in his Chamber if no body bee privy to it If this be the Commentary upon Libera observatio and if it be well inquired into you will finde that I doe not mistake the meaning then I professe I cannot like of such a Libera observatio For I am perswaded that if all Christendome should meete and have never so plausible a ground they cannot alter the day de jure though de facto they may but it is worse then pâ—evishnesse so to doe And why they cannot alter the first ground Christs rising upon that day Secondly they cannot alter the uniforme order that upon that undenyable ground was set down by the Apostles themselves which were infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost And out of these grounds I deduce that the Law doth immediately bind their conscience And that it is to be observed even where it may be transgressed without any scandall Christ and the Apostles were not absolutely bound to lay such a foundation of the Lords Day and so it was Liberae institutionis but they having layd it I deny that it is now Liberae Observationis so that under God I know no power that can alter it The Fathers speake of the Jewish Sabbath and Allegorize that as it was carnally used by the Jewes But we shall wrong the Fathers if we thinke they held that there was no Morality in the Letter of the Commandement For though there were a mystery figured in it yet they doe not deny that there was a morall proportioning of time for Divine Service prescribed therein which is the seventh part of the weeke It is one thing to say that all our life time we must be religious in our conversation and keepe a spirituall Sabbath anotherthing to affirme that we must not have a solemne weekely day wherein to intend onely Divine worship This last point the Fathers doe not say the former they doe and to argue from their Omission is to extend their words beyond their meaning at least their meaning is not adaequate to the sense of the Commandement No nor to their practise For they did constantly observe a seventh part of the weeke which I say is the first principle contained in the fourth Commandement Though I deny not but there is moreover a limitation to the seventh day from the Creation exprest which Christ and his Apostles altered but this alteration cannot overthrow the first principle they may both well goe together To the particular allegations out of the Fathers I will answer no more then that what they say is true but doth not contradict what I hold For the mysticall sense doth not overthrow the literall of the Commandement And they understand the seventh day precisely from the Creation which we confesse altered and speake not of the divine Ordinance for the apportioning of time but the carnall observation of the Jewes And your answer to the first Question grounded on the Fathers words may passe for good but there is more in the Commandement then so Your Answer to the second I cannot so well approve because it is Exclusive As for your third answer That the fourth Commandement is not the Law of nature but a positive law take the Law of Nature for Morall Reason then I think there is more then meere positivenesse in it For morall reason teacheth to honour the day whereon the work is done and that morall reason which gave this in charge was Apostolicall and so of a commanding power in both And then you see that it is neither meerely positive nor meerely naturall but mixt and so binding accordingly ut supra ad Thesin 37. 43. You adde two Questions 1 Whether seeing the Lords day succeeds the Jewish Sabbath wee are to keepe it in the same manner and with the same strictnesse First I hold in my Theses that our Lords day doth properly succeed the Sabbath instituted at the Creation Whereupon I separate all the Accessories from Moses Law Secondly The Jewes did misconsture the stricknesse of their Sabbath as appeareth by the many
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 Unto 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 as that was rested on and sanctified in remembrance of Gods rest from the worke of Creation so is ours rested on in remembrance of Christs rest from the worke of Redemption so that our day of rest is but translated from the day of the Lord our Creators rest to the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest And on this ground might the Church justly teach us to pray at the hearing of this fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this law But like enough both Master Rogers and this Prefacer might be of Brentius his opinion that it is left indifferent to the Church at this day to content themselves with observing of one day in foureteene if it pleaseth them But this was not the opinion of Pope Alexand. the third who professeth that Tam veteris quà m novi Testamenti pagina septimam diem ad humanam quietē specialitèr deputavit Both the old and new Testament hath appointed the seventh day for the rest of man which Suarez thus interpreteth That is each Testament hath approved the custome of assigning every seventh day of the weeke for rest which is formally to appoint a seventh day though the same day materially be not alwayes appointed and thus it is true that that seventh day in the old Law was the Sabbath day but in the new it is the Lords Day now when we say the observation of one day in seven is naturall our meaning is not neither was it D. Bowndes meaning that this proportion of time is knowne by the light of nature to be that which of duty should be consecrated unto God herein rather it becomes us to wait upon God and he having defined it now we say nothing can be devised by man more agreeable to reason than this Azorius the Jesuit professing it to be most agreeable to reason And Doctor Field as Master Broade voucheth him spared not to say that to him who knowes the story of the creation it doth appeare in reason that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto God onely let us not looke for reason demonstrative in matter of morality Aristotle long agoe hath professed that not demonstration but perswasion alone hath place in Ethicks yet we may justly call that naturall which from the originall was common to all nations and that such was the observation of the seventh day the learned have sufficiently proved Secondly if it be
yet undoubtedly many things are done that are hardly credible should be done much more might bee done though indeed they are not Yet this is none of our arguments but such as it is let us not extenuate it but take it aright as it deserves to be taken Torniellus supposeth that Enosh did apart himselfe from the sonnes of Cain Now Enosh was not alone in this for the Text saith Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord not Enosh alone Now in separation they that separate from the same company in an holy manner have reason to congregate themselves the same holinesse is as powerfully effectuall to the one as to the other and they are called the Sonnes of God in distinction from the sonnes and daughtes of men Gen. 6. 2. though then the very sonnes of God began to degenerate And that these meetings of many should be without a set and appointed time I cannot devise any colour of probability 1. For that they could not all meete in one congregation 2. that meeting in diverse the children of God should desire that at one time their meeting might be the prayers of many concurring in the same faith and joyning together doe besiege Gods Eares and worke an holy violence upon him 3. otherwise there would be a breach of society and mutuall commerce that being an holy day in one place or countrey which was not in another 4. being divided farre off it would be most difficult to make new appointments 5. little likelihood of agreement herein if left unto themselves without some divine direction and appointment But to returne the next portion of the discourse is this And as for the not falling of the Manna on the Sabbath day this rather was a preparation to the Commandement then any promulgation of it But suppose it had beene a promulgation of it what could that hinder the discourse of Iacobs not neglecting Labans flocke upon conscience of the Sabbath which was long before the children of Israells going downe into Egypt whereas Manna fell not untill their departing out of Egypt and comming into the Wildernesse which was diverse hundreds of yeeres after But yet the ordering of the Manna in the falling of it six dayes and not the seventh doth evidently argue that this seventh standing in just correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation as appeares by the story following the dividing of time into weekes and septenaries from the Creation was exactly observed from the Creation all along untill that time And no lesse evidently doth it manifest that the Sabbath day was observed before the Law given on Mount Sinai and consequently either by light of nature directing them to the day of the weeke whereon God rested or by Commandement and Commandement wee finde none before that on Mount Sinai unlesse that in Gen. 2. 3. Goe for a Commandement from the beginning The first mention wee reade of the Sabbath is that Exod. 16. 23. Where Moses saith This is that which the Lord hath sayd to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord and let every one judge whether there bee any forme of a Commandement in this and whether hee doth not speake unto them of a Sabbath as of a thing formerly well knowne unto them and v. 25. To day is the Sabbath unto the Lord to day yee shall not find it in the feild This is not spoken as if the condition of a Sabbath were any new thing unto them But let us see whether there be any great strength in that which followeth Put the case that Iacob on the Sabbath had neglected Labans flook and that the Israelites under Pharaoh had not made up their tale of brickes neither had he escaped a chiding nor they the insolent fury of their taskmasters And now according to the principles of these Sabbatarians what would you counsaile them to doe did they observe the Sabbath they were sure of punishment from man did they neglect it they were sure of vengeance from the Lord unto such streights are they reduced who would impose the Sabbath as a perpetuall Law of nature As for the first of these wee cannot be ignorant that both flockes of sheepe and heads of greater cattell were looked unto in the time of the most rigorous observation of the Sabbath Our Saviour observes the Jewes practise notwithstanding all their rigour this way was to unloose their Oxe and leade him to watering Neither was Laban so rigorous a Lord to Iacob being from the first his unckle and afterwards his father in Law and one that had as good meanes to know the story of the Creation as Jacob and how that the Lord from the beginning Blessedthe seaventh day and sanctified it afterwards Iacobs posterity met with Taske-masters in Egypt And if the Aegyptians had made conscience of setting some time apart for the service of God according to the suggestion of that light which is confessed to extend so farre by nature how improbable is it they would deny this unto their servants The Kings of Persia did not use them so hard but promoted their sacrifices that they might pray for the King and the Kings Children Traian made a Law that the Jewes should not be molested on their Sabbath The Turkes at this day give liberty unto Christians for the free exercise of their religion And why should wee thinke the Aegyptians more rigorous to the Israelites then the Babylonians were to the Iewes Or if alike why may not a man conclude as well of the Iewes in Babylon as of the Israelites in Egypt that If they did observe the Sabbath they were sure of punishment from man if they did neglect it they were sure of vengeance from God The Canon of Laodicea enjoyning the celebration of the Lords day hath this caution si possint which is thought to be spoken in reference to servants under the tyranny of Heathen masters And if the observation of the Sabbath may give way to the exercise of charity towards others and of mercy towards beasts may it not much more to the exercise of mercy towards our owne bodies yet what if all this were granted who seeth not that if there be any strength in this argument they may by as good reason dispute against the profession of Christianity under persecuting tyrants For if they doe professe christianity under such they are sure of punishment from man if not they are sure of vengeance from God So that to no such straights are wee put as is devised like as the state of the question obtruded upon us is devised also but that I have formerly cleered and shewed that wee are to distinguish 1. of time in generall to be set apart for Gods service 2. of the proportion of time in speciall 3. of the day under that proportion of time in particular And how farre the light of nature doth direct us in all these That the sanctification of the seventh day as commanded from the beginning unto man
the seventh day to be sanctified therefore now under the Gospell the Sabbath is to be translated from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke Or thus the Lord in the fourth commandement gave in charge to sanctifie the Sabbath and tells them that the seventh day of the weeke was their Sabbath therefore the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day of the weeke to the Lords day is of divine institution As touching the first of these deductions that which comes nearest thereunto is the discourse of Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in the Starre Chamber 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 Athanasius his discourse long agone upon that of Matth. 11. 27. All things are given to me of my Father Finis prioris creationis Sabbatum The end of the first creation was the Sabbath day but the beginning of the second creation is the Lords day and of this hee discourseth there more at large And we find manifestly this notable congruitie betweene the Sabbath day and the Lords day that like as God on the seventh day rested from the worke of creation so Christ our Saviour rising on the first day of the weeke from the dead made that the first day of his resting from the worke of redemption But when I consider the Doctors sharp censures of weaknesse of impudency of ignorance it is not credible he should closely let flee at such as Athanaesius and Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester Neither doe I find thoroughout this whole discourse any notice taken of this ground whereupon their discourse runnes It is more likely by farre that some meaner persons and poore snakes are herein set up as markes to shoot at and as signes to be spoken against It is true many doe prove herence the morality of the fourth commandement The author of the practice of pietie which goes under a Bishops name takes this course of his tenne arguments to prove the commandements of the Sabbath to be morall this is the second Because it was commanded of God to Adam in his innocency Bishop Andrewes in his Patterne of catecheticall doctrine taketh the like course as formerly hath beene mentioned and which is more professeth This to be a principle that the Decalogue is the law of nature revived and the law of nature is the Image of God now in God saith he there can be no ceremony but all must be eternall and so in this Image which is the law of nature and so in the Decalogue whereas a ceremony is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and accordingly that one day in seven is to bee observed and consecrated unto Gods Service as Chrysostome long agoe hath inferred herence but it is nothing usuall to inferre herence the celebration of the Lords day In like manner not one that I know ancient or late doe conclude from the fourth commandement either the celebration of the Lords day or the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke But herence indeed they inferre and most justly in my judgement that if one day in the weeke were to be consecrated unto the Lord by vertue of the morall law in the dayes of the old Testament much more doth it become us by the very light of nature to consecrate as good a proportion of time to Gods service under the Gospell And accordingly to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification of that day in the exercises of pietie and so farre forth as they are found to hinder it not for any mysterious significations sake in which respect a very rigorous rest is most commonly conceived to bee enjoyned to the Jewes I doe wonder the Canonists are reckoned amongst those who doe build the celebration of the Lords day upon the constitution of the Church and affirme this absolutely when in the next Section many Canonists are alleaged out of Azorius as maintaining the divine authority of the Lords dayes and one of them Sylvester by name professing it to be opinionem communem And as for Schoole-men it is apparant that Dominicus Bannes puts a manifest difference betweene the Lords day and other festivities which are ex institutione ecclesiae And whereas Bellarmine is alleaged as the mouth of the Schoolemen to affirme absolutely that the celebration of the Lords day is by the constitution of the Church and that in distinction from them who say it was ordered by the Apostles I find no such matter in the place quoted but rather the contrary both confirming that one day in a weeke is to be consecrated to the Lord by law divine and whereas it was not fit that now the Saturday should be it therefore the Sabbath was turned into the Lords day by the Apostles his words are these Ius divinū requirebat ut vnus dies hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino non autem conveniebat ut servaretur Sabbatum Itaque Sabbatum ab Apostolis in diem Dominicum versum est likewise Sixtus Senensis saith that the institution of the Lords day is of the Apostles as I have shewed in my answer to the preface S. 5. It is true that which is here reported of Brentius as who professeth it to be left indifferent to the Church to ordain one day in seven or on day in fourteene to be consecrated which whether it be not an unreasonable conceit I am willing to appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux yet Gemardus the Lutheran will not follow Brentius in this as I have shewed in my answer to the preface and 5. Section For hee acknowledgeth the celebration of the Lords day to be juxta Apostolorum constitutionem And as for Chemnitius what he writes hereof is not expressed but for the divine authority of the celebration of the Lords day I have represented the joynt consent of some 11. or 12. of our moderne divines in the place before mentioned Besides the concurrence of the ancient Fathers not one of them being so much as pleaded for the opposite Tenet and lastly the generall answer of Christians in the times of persecution when they were demanded in this manner Dominicum servasti hast thou kept the Lords day for usually it was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I cannot omit it for I am a Christian The first opinion to wit of those who maintained the divine authoritie of the celebritie of the Lords day by the old Testament is here censured for inclining much to Judaisine but it is not expressed wherein And it is apparant they doe not maintaine the observation of the seventh day Certainely this is delivered in reference to somewhat that is not thought fit to be expressed yet the prefacer did expresse it imputing unto them whom he opposeth that they doe observe the Jewish Sabbath not in respect of the Jewish day but of the Jewish manner observing it to wit in the way of a rigorous