day God ended his work perhaps those copies which they followed expressed it so or else their aim was to suppresse the seeming discord which they knew not otherwise how to salve A discord indeed I confesse there is yet such an one as disturbeth not the sacred harmony yea rather a discord elegantly gracefull For you must know that in no operation the end is attained whilest the operation is in progression and untill it ceaseth a rest being Perficientis perfectio perfecti c The perfection of the perficient and of the thing perfected Now because rest demonstrateth the motion consummated therefore God is said most properly to have perfected his work on the seventh day whereon he rested so that the finishing and perfecting mentioned in this verse or period is no actuall operation but a mere desisting à motu creationis And indeed Moses giveth the honour of the perfection of the world to both the sixth and the seventh day not without great and weighty cause to the sixth to exclude all thought that God wrought upon the seventh to the seventh to assure us that he did not rest and give over on the sixth For the end of the sixth day gave end to the work of creation and denihilation and the beginning of the seventh gave beginning to Gods rest Therefore it is said that On the seventh day God perfected the work which he had made viz. on the six dayes before whence it is that Junius and Mercer a render it in the preterpluperfect tense Cùm absolvisset Deus When God had now perfected his work meaning that as soon as the seventh day arrived it might be truly said God had now perfected his work b And perfected it was undoubtedly on the sixth day God did not abruptly break off till he had throughly perfected all I confesse the Jews tell us a pretty story c How that God about the end of the sixth day was making Faunes Satyres and such imperfect creatures and that the evening of the Sabbath overtook him so fast that he was fain to leave them but half made up and therefore on the Sabbath dayes these creatures usually hide themselves in their kennels not daring to look out A perfect Jewish fable and by Mercer suspected to be rather derived from Tradition and heare-say then from any Hebrew Authour extant because he could never in all his reading light upon him for the satisfying of the like doubt in others I have troubled my margine with the Authours name as I find him cited by a Wierus That God gave but one positive law to Adam in Paradise is neither in it self likely nor in respect of repugnant Scripture credible for is it not said that God put Adam into the garden to dresse it was not this a command Augustine b holdeth clear it was so if a command then a law for Lex dicitur à ligando A law is called a law because it bindeth c and every command is so farre as it bindeth a law If then it was a law it must be either merely naturall or positive if merely naturall then immutable still in force and we must all tag and rag turn gardiners or plowmen if it was positive then their Prolepsis halteth on that foot Consider the Law it self and you shall see the positive accrue to the naturall by way of superfoetation Man must be alwayes busie alwayes in action there is the naturall his imployment is limited to tilling of the garden there is the positive law But if Adams apostasie and fall was the same day he was formed as many have thought and is still disputable this argument might well have been spared because the command concerning sanctifying the Sabbath might have been given in his corrupt and vitiated estate If we should yield them what they fain would have viz. that Jacob and the Israelites observed no Sabbath during their thraldome yet shall they never be able to inferre from thence that they had no command concerning it For did they alwayes observe whatsoever was commanded them Moses said to Pharaoh in the person of God Let my people go that they may hold a Feast to me in the wildernesse Was not this Feast some solemn time consecrated and commanded of God to be observed no doubt it was for will-worship is to God abominable Did they keep this Feast Certainly no It is resolved by all Divines ancient and modern the Patriarchs before the Law were by God appointed to offer sacrifice Did the Israelites under Pharaoh keep this commandment the Scripture answereth No God strictly injoyned that every male child eight dayes old should be circumcised was this performed by the Israelites in the wildernesse the Scripture answereth No there was not one circumcised all that while and yet they abode there fourtie years Now if they had upon such occasions a dispensation for not observing of other feasts for not sacrificing for not circumcising might they not have one for the weekly Sabbath also To their last argument from Nehemiah I say The Sabbath was at the time of the law given made known to them yet not then first but in a more solemn manner then before We have a saying none more frequent when the Sunne hath dispelled a cloud or mist and sheweth it self in its brightnesse we then say the Sunne shineth and yet no man is so simple but knoweth it shined before even while it was most befogged though not with equall splendour So the Sabbath is said to be made known to the Israelites upon mount Sinai because it was then as it were revived and proclaiâ—â—d in more state and pomp then before And if you restrain it strictly to mount Sinai as the letter seemeth to import you must of necessity offer violence to Exodus 16 where at the fall of Manna it is clear the Sabbath was made known before the Law pronounced on mount Sinai And so the Prolepsis faileth in this her last refuge as in the former Having thus disarmed them of those Reasons wherewith they esteemed themselves sufficiently fortified I now apply my self to their Authority the Authority of men many of them singular both for learning and piety But shall we without more adoe yield to bare Authority Doth the end of dispute depend merely upon what they have said May we not examine the matter yet a little further May we not question whether these men spake as they meant whether their arguments jumped together for did they alwayes so No if Hierome be of any credit The Ancients are sometimes enforced to speak not so much what themselves think as what they conceive may most non-plus the Gentiles This was their policy against the Heathen might not they use it also against the Jews with whom they were in continuall conflict If they spake as they thought might not vehemency of dispute transport them to inconsiderate speeches in their heat and through too eager opposition to one errour to incurre
Eucharist otherwise then by implication as it was then an usuall work of that day because it is said that they might not intermittere which especially relateth to time as interpose to place and inferreth the not doing of a dutie in its proper quando which cannot be well interpreted of the celebration of the Eucharist it being not restrained by any positive Law of God to a certain time And indeed it was more proper to examine them whether they held their Christian assembly whether they met on the Lords Day considering it consequently inferred the performance of all sacred duties then to inquire whether they had celebrated the Eucharist which according to the custome of those times was often performed at home being reserved for the same purpose If Christ had either here on earth or after by revelation from Heaven given his Apostles any such charge of Instituting a new Sabbath sure Christs Apostles would not have concealed Christs command Besides the Apostles holding their first Synod would doubtlesse have exprest as much to the Gentiles First Christs Apostles did not conceal Christs command for what if perhaps it be not extant in their writings They were indeed our Saviours executours performers of his will but was his hole will exemplified in Scripture certainly no Some part thereof was declared in ima Cera as Civilians say and by Tradition For Tradition which is clearly known to be Apostolicall is as perfect evidence of Christs will as the Canonicall Scripture it self For the Scripture before it was Scripture was but a part of Tradition and became Scripture that it might be of more ready use and better preserved from perishing but mainly because it was the fundamentall Canon of our Religion Secondly The Apostles in their Synodicall Epistle had onely respect to the Judaicall not to Evangelicall observances Moreover the solemnity of the Lords Day was made known to them by former practice equivalent with precept at least if not by precept it self for according to our Church a The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in My learned Authour biddeth us here observe that the day was chosen by Christian people and if chosen by them then not injoyned by the Apostles I see a man may learn something every day for I professe ingeniously till this instant I took the Apostles to be Christians Lastly the precept was in the negative not in the affirmative If you say True and hence we may inferre that the first Christians were tied to no affirmatives but such as were expresly commanded by Evangelicall precept I answer then it must follow that women did not communicate children were not baptised Ministers not ordained incorrigible persons not excommunicated these being not expresly commanded by any Evangelicall Law Whatsoever is of divine Institution and by necessitie of precept laid upon the whole Church is a necessary dutie without which if it may possibly be observed no salvation can be had But no man will affirm so of the Lords Day Ergò c. The major is false for positive precepts omitted do not inevitably damne any man but where there is a malicious contempt or wilfull neglect of the ordinance The Sacrament of Baptisme shall be mine instance It was in the Primitive Church procrastinated by some many years by most in their usuall practice some moneths and is even in our own Church some dayes In all this delay no inevitable impossibility debarreth the competent or person to be baptized from this Sacrament will you then say that Heaven gates are precluded against all those whom hasty death cutteth off in this delay Heare the most uncharitable of all the Ancients in this point d S. Augustine The Sacrament of Baptisme is invisibly accomplished as long as the fault proceedeth from absolute necessitie not from contempt of the ordinance The Gospel commandeth onely such observations which are either means of grace as the Word and Sacraments or wherein the exercise and use of grace doth consist as the duties of love towards God and Man But the observation of the Lords Day is neither a means of grace nor exercise of grace Ergò c. That which is a part of divine worship is a means of grace But the observation of the Lords Day is so Ergò c. The minor I prove thus That is a part of divine worship whose Institution is divine But the Institution of the Lords Day is divine as I have made evident Ergò c. If you say that Junius * Amesius and others who hold the Day to be Jure divino make it yet onely an adjunct to not a part of divine worship I answer that as it is a time set apart for holy worship it is an adjunct to it but as it is a time determined by God himself the very observation thereof is a part of divine worship which is nothing but a religious observance of the true God according to the prescript of his own will Besides it is a means to stirre up our souls to the exercise of grace in pious meditations when we consider it in all its prerogatives superlative above other dayes as that which was the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and in all probability shall be the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of dayes and therefore aptly dedicated to him who calleth himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the day of our Saviours resurrection by which we are justified as the day of the holy spirits descension by whom we are sanctified as the day which mystically prefigureth our eternall rest when we shall be glorified And therefore it is worthily and truly called by * Ignatius The sublimest and primate of all dayes That day which cannot be kept universally throughout the whole world was never commanded the whole Church of Christ by an Evangelicall Law For the Gospel is given to all Nations But the Lords day cannot thus be universally observed considering the diversitie of meridians and unequall rising and setting of the sunne in divers Regions in some whereof time is not distinguished into weeks or dayes by morning and evening as in Groinland Finmark Lapland c. The positive Laws of God do not alwayes imply a possibility in them upon whom they are imposed The Jews were injoyned many observances of sacrifices feasts c. which could not alwayes be performed by them as in case of captivity or durance So the Christians are commanded the celebration of the Eucharist and yet the condition of some Countreys is such as they have not bread a of others as they have not wine b The truth is Gods commandment may impose but never oblige unto things sometimes impossible where there is an utter impossibility of observation as in this or the like case that
they had the benefit of them as some have not set down content to believe that the prophesie of Enoch mentioned by S. Jude was written and that what Josephus relateth of the Pillars errected by the posterity of Seth is true but they conceive also that Adam and all the succeeding Patriarchs compiled the histories of their own times But how Moses attained his knowledge I leave to the disquisition of them who affect curiosities yet this give me leave to note as received amongst the best Divines That the holy Ghost was not so much an intelligencer as a directer and guide to Moses in the framing the history of Genesis For the omniscient Wisdome foreseeing that it would not be alwayes safe to make Tradition the perpetuall depositary of so rare choice a jewel as the story of his Primitive Church which might either through carelesnesse loose part of what was betrusted to her or under colour of sole possessing the Truth vend counterfeit and sophisticate stuff thought it necessary for the good of his Church that a set and certain story of the first times should be compiled to which purpose he selected Moses as his Amanuensis and Register aiding him extraordinarily with his holy Spirit by whose assistance he was enabled to distinguish truth from fables which had by surreption intruded exactly to describe many minute circumstances of time place persons names c. which memory was not able to comprehend and to digest it into that perfect order wherein we now see it So that one way or other either by tradition or letters or both the precise seventh day could not at that time have been lost or forgot and consequently that no cause for the Sabbath to begin at the fall of Manna And was there any other what To be a preamble and preparation to the subsequent Sabbath this would be proved A preparation to the after strictnesse of the Sabbath it was that I confesse not to the Sabbath it self this I deny an introduction it might be to the solemnity of the Sabbath which began after not so to the Sabbath it self which was long before For though it was but in its minority but magni nominis umbra a very shadow of the after celebrity yet a Sabbath it was and the seventh day Sabbath too and this not my singular assertion but the consent of the most profound Doctours as well ancient as modern So the Fathers Origen a What was afterward commanded in the Law concerning the Sabbath the same Job both observed himself and taught his children to do the like Cyprian b This septenary number gained Authority from the creation of the world because the first works of God were made in six dayes and the seventh was dedicated to rest as sacred it being honoured with the solemnity of a command and entitled to the sanctifying Spirit Basil c The Sabbath which was the seventh day from the first creation is a type of our perfect Rest in the remission of our sinnes Nazianzen d The Creation began on the Lords day as is evident because the seventh from it is made the Sabbath bringing rest from labours Athanasius e As long as the first age or Creation was inforce so long the Sabbath was observed Epiphanius f mentioneth a twofold Sabbath under the old Law the Naturall or Weekly which was defined from the Creation the Legall or Ceremoniall which was enjoyned by the law of Moses At the heels of the Fathers follow the Schoolmen who busying themselves about nicer subtilties have left us little of their opinions concerning the Sabbath Alexander Halensis a the irrefragable Doctour though he thinketh the Sabbath was not observed by virtue of any precept before the Law yet he granteth that it was inspired as a thing meet and fit to be observed All these before Ambrose Catharine b he then not the first that understood Moses according to the letter nor yet the last no not of his own Partie Genebrard c The Sabbath was sanctified in Paradise which was also observed all the time till the Law promulgated as the Hebrews and Lyranus upon Gen. 7. deliver And in another place he telleth us out of Rabbi Abraham that Job did observe it Cornelius à lapide d It is manifest that the Sabbath was instituted and established not first by Moses Exod. 20. but long before to wit from the beginning of the world Salianus also in his Ecclesiasticall Annals doth at large refute the Prolepsis as absurd As for Protestant writers whether they be Lutheranes Calvinists or our own English we dare vie it with the Anticiparians and give them oddes two for one at least and bate the preciser sort too Luther e himself shall lead the van The Sabbath was destined from the beginning of the world to religious worship Baldwin f The Sabbath was observed from the Creation Calvin in Exod. apud a Prideaux Gualter b Doubtlesse the Fathers before the Law diligently observed the Sabbath P. Martyr c That people rest from labour one day in the week did not onely appertain to Moses Law but had beginning from Gen. 2. Zanchy d I doubt not mine own I relate without prejudice to others opinions I doubt not I say but the Sonne of God in humane shape was all this seventh day busied in most holy colloquies with Adam but he fully revealed himself to him and Eve shewed him how and in what order he created all things wisht him to meditate upon these works and in them to praise and acknowledge the True God his Creatour taught him that after his example every seventh day all labour set aside he should spend in this exercise of Pietie c. What could modesty her self more modestly assever he doth not imperiously obtrude for truth what he saith he onely telleth you his own conceit and it hath ever been permitted for men in such cases as this both to think what they will and speak what they think as the Historian saith Can any therefore but wonder that the bare delivery of a private opinion so soberly without incrochment upon others liberties should gain the Authour no better esteem then to be reckoned amongst lying Legendaries and fabulous Rabbines What Zanchy was his works speak him a learned and good man in that repute he lived in that he died I never heard him defamed for a Palephatus or Tale-coyner till now and I hope never shall again a Ursin The Sabbath was commanded from the beginning of the world by God unto all men b Bullinger The Sabbath was observed from the beginning of the world by a law naturall and divine c Beza The Precept of the Sabbath was established in the very Creation of the world even before mans fall and elsewhere he saith that Job did sanctifie at least every seventh day A saucy fellow to controul Justin Martyr his better and therefore is taught manners by my Authour
primum esse of the Lords day The Lords Day was by the Resurrection of Christ declared to be the Christians Day and from that very time of Christs Resurrection it began to be celebrated as the Christian mans Festivall So hath a profound a Bishop rendered him and truly unlesse ex illo relateth to Christ which I believe you will difficultly grant though it be lesse monstrous then to marry it with Resurrectione in despight of Priscian Nor is Augustines opinion utterly of truth abandoned For though we reade not of any Sabbath-duties expresly performed on that very day of Christs Resurrection by the Apostles yet this we find that when Christ appeared to them on that day they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Assembled on that day and the place is thought by learned men to be the coenaculum in which Christ celebrated the last Passeover and from thence derived a perpetuall consecration nor is it likely that he would inspire them in an ordinary place If then they were assembled and in a Church we may safely collect they were busied in sacred exercises The first day of our Saviours appearing to his Disciples this and the first Christian Sabbath he honoured with his beatificall presence The next was the next {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. John What on some indefinite time after eight dayes as you b would have it A word with you Sir Saint Mark telleth us that our Saviour should * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will you therefore have our Lords Resurrection to be on some one day after three expired you will not sure nay though I think you dare as much as another yet this you dare not No by after eight dayes is meant the eighth day after which was the next Sunday So the * Fathers agree It is necessary that that day should be the Lords day saith Cyrill c and he thence deriveth the equity of Assemblies upon that day Nay more this very day is so farre honoured by Nazianzene d as he made an Homily on purpose for it as he hath entitled it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nova Dominica because the first Lords day solemnized in the weekly revolution after the Resurrection or rather because it was the encenium of the Resurrection for betwixt the day of the Resurrection and this he thus distinguisheth That was saith he salutifera this salutis natale That the day that brought forth salvation into the world this the commemorative Festivall of that day Though this be the last first day mentioned in holy writ which our Saviour hallowed in his assembling with the Apostles yet probable it is that he practiced the same even till his Apoge and Ascension But conjecturall arguments we will not urge when demonstrative are so hardly obtained Well our Saviour is ascended Let us now behold what honour the Spirit of Comfort which in his late valediction he promised to send his Apostles hath conferred on this Day Our Saviour is ascended and the holy Ghost descendeth but on what day the first of the week Not expresly yet consequently and by deduction yes for it was when Pentecost was arrived and this fell that yeare on the Sunday The Allwise God so disposing that the Gospel should every way parallel the Law The one given on mount Sinai on the day of Pentecost the then Legall Sabbath the other on mount Sion on the day of Pentecost the then Evangelicall Sabbath But some are of opinion the Lords day need not brag of this honour it being more then was meant it for it was say they a casuall thing that Pentecost should fall on the Sunday which I confesse seemeth to me a prodigy in Divinitie For those things onely are casuall which happen praeter intentionem operantis contrary to the expectation of the agent But here God was the agent whose omniscience nothing could escape who is privie to all events as the disposer of them True it is that necessarium and contingens necessary and contingent are terms which Theology can endure well enough when they are spoken with regard to intermediate and second causes For those Effects which are the emanations of such Causes as can in nature produce no other are said to be necessary and those which proceed from such as are in their own nature not determined to certain and definite effects are called contingent but when they are referred to the supreme and paramount Cause of all they are then and must be called Necessary Nor could the falling of Pentecost on the Sunday be a contingent thing in respect of the second Causes which were all no doubt thereof is made necessary For Scaliger hath informed you right that the Pentecost's terminus à quo was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the morrow after the Passeover so ever no contingency there and the Passeover it self ever as certain alwayes upon the fifteenth day or the full Moon following upon or next after the vernall Aequinox and so none there There were certainly other reasons which induced the holy Ghost to make choice of this day and time yet seeing all Antiquitie hath accounted his descent upon the Apostles amongst those titles of honour which have been dispensed upon this day I see no reason why it should be now denied it And though no glory at all the thing by some over eagerly desired should accrue to it thereby yet this is most legible that on this day the Apostles were solemnly though closely assembled in prayer and holy duties But so you will say they were on other dayes which I grant with this distinction of aequè and aequaliter for some dayes amongst them were doubtlesse dignified with a more solemn observancy then others in respect whereof they were especially reputed if not denominated Holy-dayes For how else can our Church e be understood where she saith that The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in so that both the preferring one day before another and the time of that choice viz. immediately after the Ascension she indigitateth to us The next mention of Apostolicall observation of this day occurreth Acts 20. vers. 7. The first day of the week the Disciples being come together to break bread Paul preached unto them Against this Text two exceptions lie First that by Breaking of bread is onely meant their ordinary repast no sacred Duties or celebration of the Eucharist and this they seem to make good by Saint Chrysostome and Lyra as also by the English Bible which paralleleth this place with Acts 2. verse 46. I answer some have indeed interpreted this Text of bodily repast yet the major part take it for the mysticall breaking of bread in the Communion And for our Church B. Andrews out of this very place affirmeth positively that the Apostles were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
but the revelation of Christs will there is nothing else now desiderable but onely to prove that in this very act of instituting the Lords day or Sabbath of the new Covenant they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or prompted by that guiding Spirit a thing little lesse visible then the former for shall we say that the Spirit seised upon them onely at certain tides and fits That he assisted them in their office both of writing and preaching the Gospel is most certain but did he onely then was every act of their superintendency a spell to drive him away did he onely wait upon them in the publication of the Gospel and abandon them in the moderation of the Church was the doctrine they taught inspired from above and were their constitutions Ecclesiasticall an humane device Certainly no the voyce of truth it self soundeth the contrary For in their first councel we reade of a Visum est Spiritui sancto nobis It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us But that was a businesse of great weight and so might require a more then ordinary assistance let us behold more triviall and petty matters S. Paul was to give his resolution concerning a question which amongst others the Corinthians put to him of Digamy whether it was lawfull for a widow to marry again after the death of her first husband and he determineth affirmatively yes but rather commendeth her containing her self in her widowhood Did S. Paul deliver herein his own opinion certainly no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I think I have the Spirit of God evinceth the contrary and I hope no man will affirm this to be a businesse of importance comparable to the instituting of the Lords day To dispatch without more ado there is a question the first hint whereof Aerius the heretick is supposed to have given and Hierome is not altogether dissenting from him whether the Episcopacy be jure Divino Much hath been said either way yet not enough to end the bickering and though the conflict be still on foot yet both the one and the other side grant the hole controversie to move upon Apostolicall Institution that which the one to prove the other to disprove do equally eagerly labour is onely Apostolicall Institution the decision whereof endeth the dispute King James ascendeth no higher That Bishops ought to be in the Church I ever maintained as an Apostolicall Institution and so the Ordinance of God Beza for the other part yieldeth as much If I could saith he be assured that this superioritie of a Bishop over the rest of his Clergie hath proceeded from the Apostles I would not doubt to attribute it holly to divine Institution Now if Episcopacy can contract Jus divinum divine Right from Apostolicall Institution why may not also the Lords Day which I am sure can shew as good cards for her descent do so too and then with what face can it be gain-said by any that either is or would be a Bishop yet so it hath come to passe that they who have most cried down the paritie of Clergy have most cried up the paritie of dayes But let any be he what he will that maligneth the honour of this glorious day mutter his pleasure yet nor he nor all the learning of the world shall be able to produce one solid argument sufficient to withstand this inevitable inference of divine Right from Apostolicall Institution It being by all learned men agreed upon that whatsoever the Apostles as Apostles and in their Apostolicall function or did or spake or writ is simply without modification Juris divini the Reason being evident because they were not sui Juris not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they had no power of themselves to speak or act any thing either in teaching or governing the Church but all was suggested by the spirit who could embreath nothing not diviâ—e With this Argument our adversaries are hard beset something they fain would retort knew they what and at last to shew their courage and that Nec victi possunt absistere ferro they will not yield though overcome forth steps one and assaults us with two distinctions of Apostolicall inspirations one of Apostolicall traditions the other Concerning the first he saith The Apostles are to be considered either as Apostles by extraordinary mission sent to plant the Gospel or as Pastours to govern the Church already planted As Apostles they were infallibly inspired with all truths upon all occasions As Pastours their inspirations were onely such irradiations influences and concurrences of the Spirit as are afforded at this day to Pastours of the Church unlesse by some personall miscariages they procure unto themselves spirituall derelictions I Answer a It is your dutie to prove indubitately both these to me but I am not covetous make good but one and I am satisfied And first tell me good Sir if to awaken you out of this dream I be not over-rude where find you the Pastorall and Apostolicall Office in the same persons distinct where reade you of a double Commission one to plant the Church the other to govern the Church already planted were not both these parts of the Apostolicall function were they not Apostles i. e. sent to do the one as well as the other Instance in any one act of their Pastorall office which was not in the latitude of their Apostolicall patent Secondly admit them for severall functions where I pray learn you that they had a distinct inspiration according to those severall functions If those irradiations you talk of which were shed upon them as Pastours were no other then what God now dispenseth to ordinary Ministers then I say the beams or species intentionall of such irradiations must needs have a tincture of the Medium naturall corruption through which they passed and every thing which as Pastours they did not onely may but must have a rellish of sinne or errour which ever did and ever shall more or lesse distain the best action of the justest man infected with originall corruption and not extraordinarily and infallibly inspired living upon earth If then the Apostles as Pastours were but ordinarily inspired and that ordinary inspiration did not exempt their Pastorall works from sinne and errour it were a worthy labour to put the New Testament into Purgatory to weed out all those passages which relate to the Pastorall office of the Apostles and to bind them up with the old Apocrypha I see also no necessitie why Children should be baptized why women nay why any of the Laitie should be admitted to the Eucharist which are Apostolicall devices whereof expresse command from our Saviour to them we find none and to speak to the point in question I see no necessitie of celebrating the Lords day but of observing the Jewish Sabbath I see a necessitie for I see Gods command to observe it and I see no countermand to abolish it If
very direct Thou shalt do no manner of work What not quench an house of fire not water a beast not provide necessary food yes works of necessitie works of mercy thou mayest do the precept onely interdicteth servile work ordinary work of our vocation All Doctours whatsoever so understand it which being granted the fourth precept for ought I see little exceedeth in rigour touching the Sabbath the Canon and Statute Law of this land concerning the meanest holy Day Differ I do herein from my sacred mother the Church of England it cannot be denied she hath expressed her self otherwise viz. That this Commandment of God doth not bind Christian people so straitly to observe the utter ceremonies of the Sabbath Day as touching the forbearing of work and labour in times of great necessitie But seeing in the substance viz. That we are not bound to observe the Lords Day with that extreme severitie which once belonged to the Jewish Sabbath we consent I hope a difference in the manner of expression is at most but a peccadillo but a veniall fault our dissent is onely this That strictnesse which she reduceth to the fourth Commandment I rather lodge and settle in those accessory and occasionall laws which are quite of another parish and have nothing to do here If it be here objected That this precept bindeth not to the observation of the Lords Day and therefore no matter what it injoyneth I answer it doth oblige to the observation of this day for no other day can properly be called Gods Sabbath then this because no other day is weekly solemnized in the Church and thereto destined by Divine appointment which are the certain characters of the Sabbath of that Commandment Besides all Expositours interpret this precept of this day especially and some of none other and above all our Church it self is so full as nothing can be desired more apposite to our purpose then what she hath delivered Like as it appeareth by this Commandment saith she that no man in the six dayes ought to be slothfull and idle but diligently labour in that estate wherein God hath set him even so God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the Sabbath Day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour and give themselves wholly to divine exercises of Gods true Religion and Service And a few lines after she saith That to keep the Christian Sabbath which is the Sunday is Gods expresse commandment These are lowd and clear demonstrations of what our Church then thought wherein two things are remarkable First that she reduceth the observation of the Lords Day to the fourth Commandment and secondly that without any scruple she very broadly calleth it our Sabbath yea and The Sabbath A word whereat much offence hath lately been taken and all that use it are checkt by our great Schoolman who good man in a tender care of us adviseth that we follow the language of the holy Ghost as also of the Primitive Church that we vary not from other reformed Churches that we gratifie not the Jews in their obstinacy against Christ that we offend not our weak brethren and lastly that we use that name which doth most edifie viz. the LORDS DAY As concerning the style Lords Day we quarrell not at it we are no enemies of it we use it for ought I know more frequently then Sabbath yet were it truly sensed and according to right sense duly observed it would contract not onely the title but nature of a Sabbath for what is our Lords Day but the Evangelicall Sabbath as the Legall Sabbath was the Jewish Lords Day Be the Lords Day thus stated call it then by that name ever if you please it not at all offendeth us but when it becometh from the Sabbath an ordinary holy day or rather playday from the Lords Day the Churches Day we have then just cause to rouse the world by shrill expressions and lowd manifestations that it is both the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment and also the Lords Day that is of his Institution But to persue this not without wonder behold the strange condition of these men who inveigh so bitterly against the word Sabbath which hath notwithstanding warrant both from our book of Homilies the Canons Ecclesiasticall and Edicts of our Princes behold their perversitie The words Altar Priest Sacrifice Holy of Holies will down with them so easily as now they begin to rellish nothing else It is rare very rare a great novelty to heare the course and homely terms of Table Minister Lords Supper or Chancel in their mouths Now I say and aver the word Sabbath hath not in it any semblance of danger to Gods Church comparable to that of Altar Priest c. For first the Lords Day is a Sabbath The Sabbath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} properly and directly whereas these words Altar Priest c. are used {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but figuratively and symbolically Besides the word Sabbath giveth no offence for if any incline to Judaisme it is in the strictnesse not now in the day But the other words stumble many especially in these times wherein we have cause and just cause to fear they are meant and intended of things other then metaphoricall And are not our fears just when Transsubstantiation beginneth not to be instilled in some subtile and Paracelsian spirit of School distinction but according to the Galenists to be exhibited in the grosse masse of corporeall presence in a corporeall sense so as the most unprepared and unbelieving receiver eateth his part thereof as well as the faithfull But admit this to be the tenet of some few extravagants yet are not our fears just when that uncouth and apish bowing toward if not to the Altar is not onely warranted and defended but commended to our observation by the chief of our Church which whosoever shall dive into it and search antiquitie will find it one of the Parents Elevation or Ostension being the other which begot adoration of the Host which begot Impanation or Transsubstantiation Let not any think here that by Antiquitie I understand the very Primitive Church with whom we challenge so near alliance in matters of Doctrine for certain it is that the first Church was utterly ignorant of this novel device you shall indeed many times very often find in the Fathers a that they bowed or worshipped towards the East and this they did onely at their entrance into the Church according to the Poet Vt Templi tetigere gradus procumbit uterque Pronus humi But of bowing for what some urge of Nazianzen's Gorgonia was geniculation not genuflection as will appear to any that duly peruseth the place towards the Altar as you call it or ducking as often as they approched unto or departed from it you shall not find mention anywhere till you arrive at Chrysostome's Liturgy which requireth {non-Roman} {non-Roman}