and no other Let no man therefore contend with me saying Moses meant not as thou saiest but as I say it were foolish and rash thus to affirme If the doubt be whether the place in the second of Genesis which lies at stake in this question may admit both interpretations without any prejudice to the Analogy of faith that g Quam stultum fit in tantâ copiâ verissunarum sententiarum quae erui possunt temere affirmare quam earum Moses potissmum senserit pernitiosis contentionibus ipsam offendere charitatem which is given by our Adversaries may justly be suspected ours I am sure cannot CAP. IV. The arguments proposed Chap. 2. are fully answered and the exposition of sanctification by destination is at large handled VNto the first supposing that the words of the text blessed and Sanctified are expository this I say supposed because b Aquin. p. 1. q. 7 3. art 3. some have distinguished between them the meaning of the place is that God bestowed a speciall prerogative and preferment upon the seventh day setting it apart from the rest of the weeke for so the word signifies That this was done we all agree when it was done is the question for this circumstance we have not expresly in the Text. Now because it may be doubted whether Moses wrote the story before the deliverance of Israel as c Lib. 7. de preparation Evangeliâ— c. 2. Eusebius Caesariensis thinkes or after the Law was given as d Hexamer Beda e Abulensis in Genes Abulensis and most others are of opinion let our Adversaries make their election and this Text nothing favours them For if Moses writ after the Law was given as is most probable then the proposition that Gods resting from his works and the Sabbaths sanctification were coetaneous is denyed and these words stand not in reference to the begining of the world but to the Law given Object If any demand why then doth Moses speake of this sanctification in the history of the Creation whereas the proper place for this had been Exodus the History of Israel in the Wildernesse Answere It will be said that it is fitly mentioned by Moses in that place because there he had occasion to speak of the severall daies of the week and of the reason of the seventh daies Sanctification Gods resting from all his works As if Moses should have said you know how God hath lately separated the seventh day from others to his service here is the reason when he made the World he himselfe rested upon that day as is also expressed in the Law it selfe But sâ—â—ing Moses wrot that history before the Law we must distinguish for things are said in Scripture to be sanctified or set a part two manner of waies First by way of purpose and destination only as God sanctified Ieremy to be a Prophet unto him before he was born Secondly by way of actualluse and imployment as when the Levites were admitted to the actuall service of the Tabernacle True it is that Gods resting from his works and sanctifying the Sabbath were coetaneous in the first sense by way of purpose and intention which Moses relates but not in the latter by way of actuall execution As soone as he had ended his workes he ordained appointed that the seventh day the day of his owne rest should be that on which his Church should rest and follow his example and this was that great blessing and prerogative bestowed on that day Therefore a Musâ—m â—ee com Musculus doth well expresse sanctificatus by destinat us a day sanctified because a day destinated and fore-appointed And b Bysield against Brerewood M. Byfield himselfe hath observed and that rightly that the word in the Originall doth signifie to prepare to prepare is one thing and actually to appoint is another So then the Sabbath had not an actuall existence in the world from the begining it had only a Metaphysicall being as all naturall things are said to be in their causes For the cause or reason of the Sabbaths sanctification Gods rest was from the begining though the sanctification it selfe was long time after Object You will say doth any man write an history of things not existent Answ I answere that the Prophets and pen-men of holy writ usually doe so and this is one chiefe reason which doth manifest the Scripures to be the word of God I hope no man will deny that Moses also wrot by inspiration but heer we read what God hath done as well as what man should doe and so'tis an history of what was past if we rightly understand the Text this therefore is but a cavill Ob. It will be againe objected that never anything which had actuall being and ability unto thatservice whereunto it was used was thus sanctified and aforehand set apart and not presently employed but the seventh day was from the begining and every way fit to be the holy Sabbath Answ I would aske only Esai 45.1 whether Cyrus was not thus sanctified to be the destroyer of Babylon and restorer of Gods Church or whether this service were the first that ever Cyrus did when hee was every way fitted thereunto Nay was not Christ thus sanctified to be the Messias yet was he neere thirty yeares old before he actually manifested himselfe to be the Messias and shewed froth his glory I presume that no man will say that all the time before hee wanted abilities thereunto Ob. You perhaps will say Christ indeed was ready but the people were not fitted Answ I answere our Saviour himselfe saith the reason was neither in himselfe nor in the people but only in the time thereunto ordained his houre was not yet come And thus all things else are done by him as c Nihil incomptum â—tque intempestivum apud verbum Praecognita sunt enim huic omnia à patre perficiâ—â—â—tur autem à filio apto tempore expectante eamhoram qua est à patrc praecognita Irenae lib. 3. Cont. haeres c. 18. Ireneus well observes So heere indeed the seventh day was from the begining the day of Gods rest and might have been employed as the Lords Sabbath and some daies doubtlesse were thus bestowed and perhaps this But the time unto which God had destined or ordained it wherein solemnely to make it his holy Sabbath was not yet come viz. the redeeming of his Church out of the bondage of AEgypt for of it was the Sabbath a speciall memoriall For my part I cannot understand why any man should mislike this interpretation since the word sanctified when it is attributed to such things as are not capable of holinesse is mostly used in this sense especially since nothing hath hitherto been objected of any moment but what may be reduced unto these heads Ob. First they say there is no ground for such a destination in the text and to interpret Scripture without ground is to build without a foundation But who sees not
which could not be without kindling of fires But I cannot conceive that any Mosaicall ceremony once instituted could be abolished till they were altogether nailed to the crosse especially having reference to any benefit which the faithfull receive from Christ as hath this of the Sabbath Now though the Iews rest were so strict and exact yet we may justly wonder at the penalty inflicted on the transgressors death since God passed over greater things with lesse censures as fornication and theft which are contrary to the Law and light of nature it selfe i Nisi eximium aliquid singulare fuisset in Sabbatho videri posset aequa atrocius iubere hominem interfici tantùm quoniam ligna deciderat Calv. in Exod. Calvin therefore saith rightly that unlesse there were some excellent and singular thing in the Sabbath more then is expressed in the letter it might seeme to savour of cruelty to put a man to death for gathering a few sticks and kindling a fire with sticks already gathered But saith he what was this great and excellent thing in the Sabbath Doubtlesse not the litterall rest for then the punishment should continue still the same and the precise observation of this rest ought to remaine It is therefore the mystery that is so excellent and highly esteemed of the Lord viz. that the faithfull should sanctify unto him an k Sabbathum commendatum est priori populo in otio corporali temporaliter ut sigura esset sanctificationis in requiem spiritus sancti Aug. ad Ian. ep 119. entire rest from all even the least servile works of sinne and Sathan leaving no one lust unmortified to raigne in them into which absolute liberty Christ will also at last bring us This is the meere reason why God doth by his Prophets so punctually stand upon the observation of the Sabbath because in the violation of the litterall rest they did in effect spurne at this spirituall rest which was the substance of that shadow If any man aske whether then under the Gospell no bodily rest be at all commanded we shall I trust in due time give him satisfaction herein when we come to those questions which concerne the Lords day The next thing in the letter of the commandement are the persons there named thy sonne thy daughter thy man servant thy maid servant cattell and stranger although l Damasc lib. 4. sidei vnbodox cap. 24. Damascen avoucheth it for Ceremoniall making children Servants Strangers a Type of our sinfull and naturall affections and the Oxe and the Asse figures of the flesh or sensuality Yet I rather consent with those amongst whom also are some of our adversaries in this question who affirme this passage to be partly Memorative looking back to their seruitude in Egypt partly Iudiciall teaching that mercilesse people that God expected that their servants nay their beasts should then at that time have rest and refreshing We have in the next place the prescribed time the seventh day even that day which God himselfe rested on which how and in what respects it was mysticall and figurative let others speak m Magdeb. Cent. 12. Petrus Alphonsus a Iew baptized in the Christian faith 1106 being then 40 yeares of age and having for witnesse of his baptisme Alphonsus that pious King of Aragon from whom he received the name of Alphonsus in honour of his worth and learning This Alphonsus I say presently upon his baptisme and being a Christian had many and great contestations with the Iewes from whom he revolted Amongst other things was questioned the law of the Sabbath which he affirmed to be Ceremoniall even in this very part thereof which concerned the time For said he as God the Father ended all his works in six daies and rested the seventh at the worlds Creation so the sonne finished his course also upon the same day and rested with it is finished on the seventh at the worlds redemption His conclusion therefore is that since that is accomplished of which the observation of the Sabbath was a signe it is altogether needlesse that any such observation should be longer continued And indeed it may well be thought to be more then casuall that Christ should pronounce his Consummatum est upon the Crosse much about the same time as we may probably conjecture in which God the Father made the woman last of all his creatures n Ipso die Sabbathi requievit in sepuichro postquà m sexto are consummavit omnia opera sua Aug in Gen. ad lit lib. 4. c. 11. St Augustine teacheth the same almost in the same words and o Omnes solennitates veteris legis fuerunt institutae in coÌ„memorationem alicujus beneficij divini vel iam exhibiti vel figurati ideo observantia Sabbathi in quâ commemoratur beneficium creationis figurabatur quies corporis Christi in sepulchro fuit potissima Durand lib. 3. dist 37. q. 10. ad quartum Durand also upon the third of the sentences and many others Lastly Gods example is proposed but upon this the Apostle hath a plaine comment when he saith he that entred into rest hath ceased from his own works as God did from his which being a reason of that which immediatly goeth before there remaineth a rest unto Gods people must needs make Gods resting from his works a Proto-type of our resting in Christ which is indeed the rest of God as St Chrysostome expounds it This day therefore of which the Commandement speaketh as of the day of rest is observed to have no evening annexed unto it as the others had when it is said the evening and the morning were the first day because Gods rest which we have in Christs is permanent to last for ever This p Ego vero non dubito quin Deus sex diebus condiderit mundum ac septimo quieverit ut documentum ederet summae operum suorum perfection is it a ut dum se typum proponit ad imitationem significat se ad veram fâ—licitatis metam suoâ— vocare Calv. in Exod. Mr Calvin puts to be out of question the meaning of the letter God saith he made all the world in six daies and rested the seventh to shew us the perfection of his works And therefore he proposed himselfe in the Commandement to be imitated by the Iewes in the Mosaicall law to teach them that he calls all them that believe in him to compleat perfect and everlasting happinesse even that spoken of Esai 66.23 CHAP. IX The Arguments for the affirmative examined THe first which is commonly famed for invincible and unanswerable is as weak as any of the rest All the Commandements of the Decalogue are Morall but still with that distinction and difference of Morality spoken of in the former Chap. All are Morall but every one in his proportion and degree and so is that of the Sabbath Morall it is for substance not circumstance Morall in regard of the purpose and intention of the Law-giver that some
home or abroad This done give not your selves a breathing while suffer neither Child nor Servant to have any recreation for this were to prophane the day Assemble therefore your selves together recount what the Afternoon hath brought forth doe also likewise after supper Nor yet are you by all this discharged of the duties of the holy Sabbath unlesse the former practices have made such deep impression in your phansies as to season the nights sleep with holy dreames which is the last duty of the Sabbath These things thus done you may not only well expect a blessing upon what you have heard but upon all that is yours the whole week after For so highly is the seventh day in Gods favour that he doth not only sanctify it but also blesse it Now let another come and say the commandements of the Decalogue be not all of the same rank but amongst these the fourth is partly Morall partly Ceremoniall The Morall part is that God must have set and standing times for his outward and solemne worship all which times are religiously to be observed But the letter concernes only the Iewes written indeed as other holy things of Moses for our edification and consolation of which every part if full For first we must consider that the Sabbath as it is there litterally expressed was a signe of the separation of the Iewes to be Gods people from all other nations of the world which is now by the coming of Christ abolished as all other peices of the wall of partition are taken down that the Gentiles may glorify God as it is written a Deut. 32.43 Reioyce ye Gentiles with his people It did also shew them the pronenesse of our corrupt nature to doe our own wills and to fulfill our own lusts not suffering the Lord to rule in us by his Spirit whereas he requires perfect conformity of the whole man with an utter cessation from all his servile works of sinne and Satan It did in the third place lead them unto Christ who alone gives us test from these cruell Taskmasters who hath crucified the body of sinne in us and triumphed over Satan in his crosse And therefore as God the Father having made the World in sixe daies rested the seventh so God the Sonne finished all things which were written of him for our redemption on the sixt day and began his rest on the seventh obtaining for us the rest both of grace and glory The rest therefore of the Sabbath given in such severe precepts unto the Iewes doth lead us Christians under the Gospell unto the rest of sanctification which we must endeavour to keep inviolable with all watchfulnesse not suffering the least fire to be kindled in any of our lusts And as it doth thus edify so it ministreth no small comfort assuring us that as God rested from all his works and Christ from his so we also by degrees shall enter into rest in the Church militant till it be perfectly consummated in the Church Triumphant as the Apostle saith b Heb. 4.9 there remaineth a rest for Gods people Now let the indifferent Reader judge whether the former of these doe not burthen and indeed ensnare the consciences of men with many outward unprofitable impossible performances even to superstition and without end whereas this latter doctrine containes the very pith and marrow of Religion promotes the care and study of true sanctification and is most quickening and cordiall to weak and tender consciences But not to stray in this by-path any farther it were much to be wished as one of the greatest blessings of God upon his Church that a Sacra Theolegia pium prudentem Lectorem requirit Brad. L. 2. c. 31. Bradwardines rule were once well observed on all hands the study of Theology saith he requires both a pious and a prudent Reader pious in himselfe prudent in his doctrine a dove for the one a serpent for the other When these are divided in the Ministers divisions must needs be amongst the people and a house divided cannot long continue One looks at the holinesse of his Minister another to the learning of his neither as they ought and therefore the one straines at Gnats the other swallowes Camels both pester the Church the one with loosenesse the other with singularity He that is licentious like the Camels of the Ishmaelites carrying many a sweet burthen but never tasting them Against whom b Erasm Dial. Erasmus hath a bitter Satyr in his Cyclops Evangeliophorus is in shew a friend of the Churches peace a zealous promoter of the goverment thereof but indeed an enemy occasionally increasing that faction which he verbally cries downe For men think of him and all his disciplinarian invectives as c Non nisi magnum bonum à Nerone damnatum Tert. Ap. c. 5. Tertullian speaks of Nero and his persecuting the Gospell it must needs be some good thing which so wicked a man as he condemned In vaine doe these Vipers goe about to devoure with their mouthes that faction which themselves either breed or cherish at least by their lives On the other side he that is singular whom with Aelians Tiger either the sound of a Bell or musick of a Timbrell causeth to run mad cares not whether he runs and drawes others after him so long as he runs as the phrase is on the right hand By this meanes his duties in Religion daily grow and multiply as either his own or some other mans head and fancy runs this is Idolatry that superstition this is prophane that is abomination and Antichristian and what not And he that dares think otherwise is tantùm non Anathema But did these men rightly consider of errours they should find little difference in regard of their malignity He that fals from a bridge hath as little safety as comfort though it be on the right hand Nay it would be no paradoxe to affirme that errours of this kind are most dangerous being lesse discerneable in themselves lesse burdensome to the conscience lesse hopefull to be reformed and being indeed the illusions of Satan transforming himselfe into an Angell of light in which shape he becomes the fowler Divell CHAP. XI Wherein the name of the Christian mans Feast day is proposed with those arguments which seem to conclude for the name Sabbath THe names of things if rightly given serve much to disover their natures On the other side a Omnia periâ—litanâ—ur alitèr accipi quà m sunt amittere quod sunt dum aliter accipiuntur si aliter quà m sunt cognominantur Tert. de car Chr. Tertullian saith well all things are in danger to be mistaken if they retaine not their true and proper names Being therefore to treat of the Christian festivall and the Questions moved concerning the same the first thing which offers it selfe is whether it must or fitly may be stiled the Sabbath day The affirmative tenent is supported by these reasons First those names which God himselfe
shall be broken fulfilled both in the paschall a Numb 9.12 Lamb and b Ioh. 19.36 Christ our passover Out of Egypt have I called my Sonne first verified of c Hos 11.1 Israel his adopted Sonne then of d Math. 2.15 Christ his naturall Sonne A voyce was heard in Ramah understood first of the captivity of the Iewes foretold by the e Jer. 31.15 Prophet then f Math. 2.18 of the number of the Innocents by the cruelty of Herod As it is in these and divers other places of this kind so it is in the letter of the fourth Commandement where either we have two literall sences one for the Iewes Sabbath an other for the Christians or at least one literall sence twice fulfilled once under Moses and once under Christ Now whatsoever is commanded the Church in the Scripture under any literall Sence is of divine institution But the Lords day is commanded in the fourth precept though not in the first yet in the second literall sence Therefore c. Fourthly that which was foretold and typified in the old Testament is of divine institution in the new for where the ceremony is commanded the Iew the substance is commanded the Christian for example where unleavened bread is commanded them there sincerity and truth is commanded us But the Lords day was thus typified and foretold in the Testament This the Rabbins themselues have observed in sundry passages First in the words of God saying let there be light therefore the Messiah should rise the first day of the week Secondly from the fall of Adam on the sixt day therefore the Messiah should suffer that day rest in the grave the seventh and rise the next Thirdly from the words of Boaz to Ruth g Ruth 3.13 sleep untill the morning therefore the Messiah should sleep in the grave all night and rise in the morning Fourthly from the cloud covering the people first on this day from Aaron and his sonnes executing their Priesthood first on this day from the Princes of the congregation who made their offerings towards the erecting of the Tabernacle on this day From the fire also which first came down from heaven and consumed the Sacrifices upon this day And if any man be so prophane hearted as not to be convinced by these grave collections of the Iewish Rabbins he shall find the same averred by the Fathers and Synods in the Church of Christ Both h Hic dies octavus i. e. SabbathuÌ„ primus praecessit in imagine quae imago cessavit superventente post-modâ—â— veritate Cyp. ad Fid. Ep 59. Saint Cyprian and i Sanctos patrer plenos spirita octavae dieâ— sacramentum non latebat quo figuraâ—atur resurrectio nam pro octavâ— Psalmus inscribitur octava lic circumciâ—e bantur â—â—â—â—nteâ— Aug. ad Lan. Fo. 119. Saint Austin make the Administration of the Circumcision on this day a Type and Figure of its future observation The Synod called Foro-Iuliensis affirmes that Isaiah prophesied of this day An other Synod held at Matiscon said expresly that this day which was intimated unto us by the shadow of the Iewes seventh-day is made known unto us both by the Law and Prophets what can be more evident Fiftly that day which the Lord himselfe hath made must needs be a day of the Lords own instituting for to make and to ordaine and appoint are in this case termes equivalent But the Lords day is a day of the Lords own making and appointing k â—pse est dâ—e◠〈◊〉 perpetâ—â—â— ipse nobis per septimae dici umbram insinuatus noscitur in lege Prophetis Câ—nâ— â—â—â—atis c. â— Syn For. c. 13. so saith the Prophet David l Psal 118. This is the day which the Lord hath made And therefore m Exultemus Laetemur in eo qui à lumine vero nostras tenebras fugaturus illuxit nos ergo constituamus diâ—m dominicam in frequentationibus usque ad cornua altaris Arnob. in locum Arnobius upon this place saith let us also make our Lords day a great day since God himselfe hath so made it A learned Prelate also of our Church hath a Sermon extant upon that text much to the same purpose Therefore c. Sixtly that day which the Lord ever doth and will blesse unto his Church and people which religiously observe it is doubtlesse a day of his own ordaining and appointing therefore sanctified and blessed are put together in the Commandement But God hath and continually doth and ever will blesse this day with groth of grace and all spirituall blessings in Christ to all such as Religiously observe it Therefore c. Seventhly that which the example of God the Creator resting from all his works was to the Iewes in regard of their Sabbath that also the example of God the Redeemer is and must be to us that are Christians in regard of ours But the example of God the Father resting from his works was a sufficient institution of the Iewes Sabbath for therefore they rested because God rested it should therefore be a sufficient Institution unto us under the Gospell to rest on the Lords day because in it Christ rested Eightly If a day of holy rest were instituted by God the Father in memory of the worlds Creation which was the lesse much more was there a day of holy rest instituted by God the Sonne in remembrance of the worlds redemption which was the greater The consequent is authorized by n Athan Hom. de â—â—â—en Athanasius in his Homily of the Sower But a day of holy rest was ordained by God the Father in memory of the Worlds creation as is undenyable Therefore c. Ninthly Certaine it is that nothing but divine authority can bind and overcome the Conscience in regard of any outward observations in their own natures indifferent for the Conscience is a Throne in which God only sits and commands But the conscience is bound and over-awed to the observation of the Lords day as all men confesse and feel by experience unlesse they bely their consciences Therefore c. Tenthly That day which the Church observeth in regard of some mysticall signification therein contained is a part of Gods worship and must therefore be under precept unlesse we will worship God after our own fancies But the Church observes the Lords day in regard of some mysticall doctrine therein contained the Lords resurrection our own future glorification therefore it must be under precept Eleventhly Whatsoever is not under divine precept is mutable and may utterly be abolished in the Church of God by the authority of the Governors thereof but the Lords day cannot by any humane authority whatsoever be changed and abolished Therefore c. Twelfthly If the observation of the Lords day be not of divine but only Ecclesiasticall constitution then are all festivalls or holy-daies of the yeare of equall dignity and honour with it But it were little lesse then blasphemy to affirme
thing be universally affirmed herein considering the different states graces and abilities of men To the ninth the Lords day is said to be holy no otherwise then other things which are consecrated to Gods publique and holy worship and how farre things of this nature are apt of themselues and therefore doe often cooperate unto holinesse in us hath already been declared To the tenth it is most true that God intended by the Law of the Sabbath to mind his people of the worlds creation in six dayes but that he did bind them thereby to contemplate the particulars thereof which few but Philosophers are able to doe I think no man will affirme So the Lords day was sett a-part for the memory of Christs resurrection But what those private duties are unto this I see not unles you say that article is to be studyed And to speak truth if men would upō this day preach Christ in publique spend their private meetings only upon this subiect for Christ is a Theame seldome insisted upon true Christianity would be better knowne mens consciences would be better setled those meetings more charitable and innocent and none could oppose them therein But as the Proverb is Quid haec ad Icphali boves to the continuate and un-interrupted exercises of which we speak Lastly those Authorities which are and may be brought to this purpose to which may be added that Canon of the Church of England in the dayes of King Edward for spending the Lords day in private prayer and thanksgiuing acknowledging our offences reconciling our selues unto our brethren visiting the sick comforting the afflicted releiving the necessities of the poore instructing children and servants in the nurture and feare of the Lord are not delivered by the Church or ancient Fathers as expositions upon the fourth Commandement as if they were the duties of the Lords day as it is a Sabbath but only as pious and Godly admonitions where by to traine up men in religion and allure them unto holinesse Num. 11.29 Moses would had been glad if all the Lords people had been Prophets but no man will say that Moses therefore commanded them to prophecy The * Acts 26.29 Apostle wisheth all men were such as himselfe was shall we therefore condemne as transgressours those that were not such It is so here for although the Church doe not account for evill doers those that either cannot or doe not spend the Lords day as aforesaid yet I assure my selfe that both the Magistrates and every good man will be glad to see men make a good progresse in true piety and religion But what may commendably be done by some and what must necessarily be done by all are distinct things and herein stands the present Question Ob. If any say that therefore the Sabbatharian tenent must needs be better and safer then the contrary Resp I answer it doth no way follow for though the practice may be better being rightly qualified which seldome is yet the doctrine is worse for First it is false in it selfe Secondly unnecessary burthens are laid upon the conscience Thirdly many doubtfull perplexities are occasioned thereby Lastly an apparant schisme is made and fomented in the Church CAP. XXXI Wherein is contained the conclusion of the whole setting downe a short delineation of both the opinions and tenents in these severall Questions FOR conclusion of the whole it will not be amisse to present the Reader with a summary of the doctrine on both sides that so with one cast of his eye he may be able to see both wherein they dissent and which is more rationall in it selfe and more suitable to the word of God And here let the Reader take notice first of that which a The observation of the Christian Sabbath Pag 15. Mr Sprint hath well observed that in the most materiall points we consentingly agree though in certaine circumstances we differ each one abounding in his severall fence which makes it strange to me that our Adversaries should so stick in these points even against Authority it selfe since we so consentingly agree in points materiall This I say being premised not to take notice of every thing which might be collected out of the severall treatises hitherto extant I conceiue that the finest thread in which these Sabbatharian positions can be spun may be thus drawn First that God having created Adam in Paradise revealed unto him the creation with the order and manner and time thereof within the compasse of six dayes That the seventh therefore was the day of his rest which he would haue observed as a Sabbath by him and his posterity That this day was most fit to be appointed not only in regard of God who then rested but in regard of man also who was on the seventh day to enter upon the domion of the world as the Master thereof and what better entrance then with the service of his Creatour in sanctifying the Sabbath day That hence came all his time to be divided by weeks the boundary whereof was and that by diuine institution the Sabbath God having blessed the seventh day and hallowed it That this hallowing the day was the declaration of Gods will not what himselfe meant to doe long after but what he would haue men to doe from that time forth in all their generations That thus it continued in the practice of the Patriarches before and after the flood for else it had been impossible for the Israelites to haue known as it is plaine they did by their gathering of Manna which were the six dayes of the creation and which the seuenth of Gods resting For sure we are the time was first divided into weeks moneths yeares being not knowne till by long observation found out by the course of the Sunne Moone That though in this manner the Sabbath was given Adam by positiue Law yet easy it is to follow the footsteps of nature guiding us thereunto For all men acknowledge even by naturall light that some time is to be sett a-part for the publique worship but being to seek of the proportion in speciall and portion in particular nature kindly reacheth forth her hand guiding us to these also assuming as followeth That not only some time but a sufficient proportion there of is necessarily required as to all other workes so to this of the publique service That reason teacheth it is fit the Creature should waite the leasure of his Creatour in the designation of this sufficient proportion the Creature being under his absolute power and being no equall carver to it selfe in things of this kind and reaping also greater comfort in any observance for which it hath the warrant of its Creatour That seeing the week was the originall partition of time it must needs be more convenient to sett one day of the week a-part for the service of God then one in a fortnight or one in a month That herein an uniformity ought to be observed by all man-kind throughout all generations
which God rested and which he sanctified which the Church of Christ neither doth nor ought to keep Ergo. Fiftly if the Sabbath had been observed by the Patriarches before Moses it is no way likely but that some footsteps of such their observation would have appeared in the Story wherein many things of lesse weight lesse tending to edification are punctually recited In the first sacrifice Moses observes the names of the men the quality of their oblations the successe of both All men know that the fittest time for such observances was the Sabbath would Moses think you haue omitted this circumstance who is so exact in all other For ' its most congruous to think if they had then a Sabbath they would have offered their Sacrifices chiefly upon that Sabbath In the daies of Seth men began to call upon the name of the Lord replanting and reforming religion every man will acknowledge that the observation of the Sabbath is a maine point of reformation and therefore sure if their fore-fathers had ever observed a Sabbath day that especially defaced no question among other things would have been reformed and this had been a materiall point in the story which yet speakes nothing thereof It is afterwards said that Noah offered a sacrifice of rest what fitter time for a sacrifice of rest then the day of rest But had this sacrifice of rest been offered upon the day of rest it had been as remarkable a thing in the story as that he builded an altar and offered of every beast and every fowle yet not a word hereof Come to Abraham we read of many Altars which he made to call upon the name of the Lord a world of small things are recorded of him yet no mention of any Sabbath which he ever observed If he had been bound to any set Sabbath doubtlesse he would have sealed the promises of God unto himselfe and his family upon that day especially but the Texttels us He circumcised himselfe and his houshold the selfe same day in which the Lord talked with him It is hard to proue that this was the seventh-day Sabbath and suppose it every man will confesse it to be an important circumstance which yet we read not The story of Iacob is full and exact but neither in his flight to Padan-Aram nor in his returne to Canaan nor going up to Bethel upon speciall command and reforming his houshold nor going down into Egypt nor in his abode there the least mention is made of a Sabbath observed by him I confesse that a negative argument from authority doth not conclude de rebus agendis to shew what is or is not to be done but de rebus actis to prove what was or was not done with such a concurrence of circumstances of times places persons occasions in this case I say a negative argument is more then probable a Lâ—gant proserant aliquem ducem norbarum praecepisse ut arrup to oppido naâ—us serireâ—ur qui in illo out in illo teÌ„plo suisset inventus de civ lib. 1. c. 6. Saint Austin thinkes it strong enough even against Heathens for being to prove that Christian religion is indeed the true religion and came from God he useth this medium because the barbarous Gothes in all their bloody conquests in Italy Spaine and Africa spared the temple of Christians and all such as fled unto them for sanctuary which was never vouchsafed in any conquests to the Idolatrous worshippers of Heathen Gods But how doth this appeare His proofe is only negative from authority let men saith b An illi saciebant et scriptores earunden rerum gestarum isla rettechantâ— It inc vero qui ea quâ— laudarent maxime requir ebant ill a praeclarissima pietatis indicia praeteâ—nent lb. c. 6. he read and alleadge any such example was any such thing done and did their historians hold their peace what would they who diligently sought for matter and occasion to commend the states and persons of whom they write passe over in silence such excellent monuments of piety Sure if this argument of Saint Austin be strong enough ours much more for the Holy Ghost omits not any thing in the story of the Saints which might apparently make for the pious instructions of after ages Sixtly had the Sabbath been so anciently observed by the Patriarches in all likely hood either Moses or some of the Prophets would have reproved the profanation and pressed the observation thereof upon the Israelites from their practice and examples I am sure Nehemiah doth so after the Law was given Nehem. 13.17 Then reproved I the rulers of Iudah and said unto them what evill thing is this that you doe and breake the Sabbath day did not your fathers thus and our God brought all this plague upon us Certaine also it is that the Israelites were superstitious observers of their fathers especially of Abraham Isaac and Iacob They eate not of the sinew that shranke in the hollow of his thigh unto this day saith Moses But neither Moses nor any of the Prophets though in other things they make frequent mention of their forefathers examples speake a syllable of this upon any occasion ergo Lastly this opinion is supported by men of farre greater authority then the former c Instituta legalia quae in typo data sunt populo Jsrael Orig. Hom. 5. in Num. Gen. 32.32 Origen reckons it amongst those legalls instituted by Moses and given unto Israell as types Tertullians treatise against the Iewes is nothing but the relation of a conference which passed betweene him and a Iew in which hee proves that the legall ceremonies of Moses are no way necessary unto salvation and amongst the rest d Qui contendunt Sabbathum adhuc observandum quasi salutis medelam doceant in praeteritum iustos Sabbatizasse Et paulo post Doceant sicut iam prâ—locuti sumus Adam Sabbatizasse ant Abel c. Tert adv Iuâ— daeos Sed dicturi sunt Iudaei ex quo hoc praeceptum datum est Per Mosen exin de observan dum suisse hee speakes of the Sabbath saying let them shew us that Adam or Abel or Enoch or Noah or Abraham or Melchisedech received the precept of the Sabbath Having made this challenge hee brings in the Iew replying that because it was given to Moses therefore it was to bee observed of all nations in Tertullians time therefore this truth was acknowledged even by the Iewes themselves To this purpose also is e Dicit Rabbi magister observatio Sabbathi in lege fuit instituta ut in fide po puli firmitèr permaneret novit is mundi Tho. in l. 2. Sent. dist 15. art 3. Rabbi Moses cited by Aquinas that the observation of the Sabbath was instituted in the Law S. f Cessanti a servilibus operibus populo iubetur ut dies Sabbathi sanctificet Cypr. de spirit Sancto Cyprian following the foot-steps of his master saith that it was commanded the
Iewes resting from their servile worke to sanctify the seventh day S. g Illud unum de Sabbato usque adeo figuratà diei septimi observatione apud Israelitas velatum fuit in mysterio praeceptum fuit quodam Sacramento figurabatur ut hodie a nobis non observetur dug quest sup Exod. l. 2. q. 172. Austin affirmeth the Sabbath to be a part of the vaile of Moses h Pro die sexto in Hebraeo diem septimum habet arctabimus igitur Iudaeos qui de otio Sabbathi gloriantur quod iam tunc in principio Sabbathum dissolutum sit Hieron tradit Heb in Gen. S. Hierome observing the Hebrew text to bee in the seventh day God ended his worke inferres that therefore the Iewes had little reason to glory in their Sabbath rest because God himselfe did not rest that day I commend neither his antecedent nor his consequent but by this it appears that in his opinion there was no Sabbath commanded or observed in Paradise And more expresly in c. 20. i Haec praecepta iustificationes observantiam Sabbathi dedit dominus in deserto Hieron in cap. 20. Ezek. Ezek. Adde to these k Neque cerre ulla corporis circumcisio illis fuit quia neque nob is est neque Sabbathorum observation quia neque neâ—is est Euseb lib. 1. c. 4. Eusebius in his ecclesiasticall history and l Proinde videtur non temerè interpretibus scripturae diligentioribus praedicendo fortè dominum sanctificasse Sabbathum cum ab exordio rerum sanctificâsse legitur Bulling Praefat. de Sab. Feriâ—â— Bullinger affirming it to be the opinion of the most diligent and accurate expositours of holy scriptures of what sort soever And lastly whereas it is said that Zanchius thinkes that Adam kept holy the first seventh day in Paradise and had Christ in shape of a man to be his preacher I will oppose none other then Mr Perkins that Adam sinned and was cast out of Paradise the sixt day Adde hereunto those a Nehem. 13.8 Exod. 20.31 Ezek 20.12 places of scripture which speak of the Sabbath as given to the Iewes by Moses as a part of his Leviticall covenant with which how this other opinion can agree I understand not b Quod Moses diem septimum nominet quomodo Deut orhem is sex diebus creavit hic est temporarius ornatus quo hoc praeceptum populo suo ornat nam ante Mosen hoc non invenitur neque de Abraham c. Luth. To. 7. epist ad amic vid. Epiph haeres 8. Luther I am sure affirmes that when Moses naming the seventh day addeth that God rested the seventh day having made the world in sixe did it to set it out to the people to whom it was then commanded for before Moses no such observation is to be found either in Abhaham or any of the Patriarches Chap 3. Wherein is briefely declared what is to be thought of the present Question IN this question so hotly debated on both sides I never conceived it of any great consequence which way soever the ballance fell For though they that affirme the question thinke it to make much for the morality of one in seven yet all me know that c Evane scant nugae Pseudo prophetarum abroragatum esse quod ceremoniale erat in hoc mandato remanere veró quod morale est nempe unius diei observationem in hebaomade Calvin Instiâ— lib. 20. c. 8.33.34 Calvin who is their greatest enemy in this joynes with them in the other as well 〈◊〉 he may without coÌ„tradicting himselfe especially if we speake of Adam and the Patriarches after the fall Indeed had it been given our first Parents in Paradise and state of innocency as it must universally have bound all men so neither could it have been in any thing ceremoniall relating unto Christ to bee abolished by him as is alleaged in the third and fourth arguments and wee must still have kept that day on which God rested But if it were in practice only after the fall so were many other ceremonies Altars Sacrifices washings circumcision which yet are not therefore morall but only positive precepts and forerunners of the ceremoniall Law to be established in the hands of Moses Ob. If any man say there is not the same reason because the Law of the Sabbath was afterwards made one of the ten words written in the tables of stone which since it cannot be affirmed of Sacrifices Circumcision c. seemes to make a great difference Ans I answere that the Sabbath being in the Decalogue Sacrifices all other ceremonialls were there also for the Sabbath is there placed as the Summum genus and short epitome of the whole ceremoniall Law as d Ex hisduebus iocis Levit 19. Levit. 26 manisestum est Sabbatho annexum fuisse aultum taber naculi nec modo res fuisse coniunctas insolubili vinculo sedotium à laboribus debuisse reserri ad sacrificia Calvin in Exod. Calvin hath well observed and long before him S. e PostaquaÌ„ descendit Moses de monte opera â—ommendantur rabernaculi coÌ„struendi vestis sacerdotalis de quiâ—â—â—â— faciendis antequam aliud praeciperet locutus est adpopulum de Sabbahi observatione Aug. q. Exod. â—â— 2. q. 72. Austin To the question therefore the whole seemes to move upon two hinges matter of fact and matter of faith The matter of fact is what Adam did or should have done in the state of innocency but this and all such of like nature since Adam stood not are meere speculations knowne only to the Almighty by that part of his infinite wisdome whereby hee beholdeth all possibilities of things The matter of faith may bee thought to be the text of Scripture alleadged out of Genesis Which is not so for not the text but the interpretation is here only questioned how it is to bee understood for circumstance of time only in which case though sundry interpretations be brought none can be said to be de fide as long as all accord with the analogy of faith Vpon those words in the beginning God made Heaven and Earth S. Austin saith they may have a two fold interpretation f Video vere potuisse dict quicquid horum diceretur sed quid horum in his verbis 〈◊〉 cogitaverit non ita video Nemo mihiiam molestus sit dicendo mihi non hoc sentiâ— Moses quod tâ— dicis sed hoc sentit quod ego dico Aug. 1.12 Con. c. 24. 25. The first that God made all things visible and invisible in that perfect and glorious frame in which now they are The second that he made the rudiments of all things out of which they were in their severall orders extracted I see saith the Father both may be true but which only was in Moses mind when he wrote the Story I see not nay who is able so perfectly to know as to affirme this was it
at that time When Moses saith it is the holy Sabbath the present tense is put for the future as is most usuall when we speak of daies or solemnities though novell and occasionall To the fifth we say that Noah in sending or forbearing to send forth his Dove was not guided by any rule of Religion For I would aske any sober man whether if Noah had sent out the Dove upon the Sabbath supposing a Sabbath to have been in the daies of Noah he had thereby sinned in breaking the Sabbath For if the Sabbath were broken thereby it must be either by the Dove flying on that day which were too ridiculous or by Noahs letting her out of the Arke and by this rule he that should open a casement of his house to let a bird abroad upon the Sabbath for Noah did no more should prophane it which to affirme is more then Iewish superstition But you will say Noah regarded not the flying of the Dove only he durst not doe it on the Sabbath because it was his own work and his thoughts should have been imployed about his worldly estate and condition which the d Esai 52. Prophet forbids This place of the Prophet we shall have fitter occasion hereafter to examine For the present it shall suffice to remember that Noah at this time though he were saved from drowning yet he suffered also under the common distresse of the flood Was it sin think you for Noah to think upon this calamity on the seventh day or to labour to know how neere God had set a period to that misery If a man were at sea where or in what part of the world he knew not would you hold him guilty of prophanesse if he should goe about to discry the land upon the Sabbath day But what other reason can be given of this seventh days expectation which is thus noted in the text Some perhaps will say because seven is the number of perfection that Noah might have conceived that God would compleat his Iudgement and make dry the earth upon some seventh day or that knowing that God made the world in seven daies of nothings he might hope that he would new make it againe as it were out of the flood in some such time But for mine owne part I doe not conceive that the observation of numbers was yet extant but rather that Noah was directed hereunto by the change of the Moone in every seven daies well a He resolved to open the windowes or flood-gates of heaven giving extraordinary strength of influence to the starres Bolton knowing that the element of water is most subject to this Planet as experience sheweth And there is no doubt to be made but that as God did miraculously both powre downe the flood and withdraw it so in both works he used the help of second causes and strengthned the naturall influences of those heavenly bodies This reason therefore doth no way conclude To the sixt which is the place of Iob. understanding by the sons of God Iob and his children and their standing before the Lord their keeping of the Sabbath If it be the interpretation of Pineda the Iesuit I think it is a singular phantasy of his owne But to give Pineda his due although he seeme to say that this sence may be gathered out of the septuagint yet he himselfe affirmes that by the sons of God in that place are meant the holy Angels and proves by many reasons borrowed from b Ex quibus omnibus efficitur vt qui filâ—â— Dei venerunt ut assisterent coram Domino Sancti Angeli nocessariò sint Pined ex Aquin part 3. q. 13. Aquinas that the title of the sons of God doth more often agree to the Angels then to men in holy Scripture This argument therefore as it is forsaken of reason so also of authority only we may note by the way that Iob offered sacrifice for his children every day not upon any one set day more religiously observed then another To the seventh be it granted that time hath ever been divided by weeks notwithstanding some say that before Israels coming out of Egypt we find no mention of them at all in Scripture But that there should be no such division of time without the seventh-day Sabbath hath no ground of reason For look how time came to be measured by quarters and months which was by the Sun and Moon set for that purpose in the heavens so likewise by weeks And therefore I make no question but that the heathen who never heard of a seventh-day Sabbath have weeks as well as months and years For men doe naturally observe the course of those great lights and by the revolution of the Sunne recken their yeares by the Moone their Months Now the subdivision of the moneth into weeks is chalked out unto them by the foure changes of the Moone This argument therefore seemeth to suppose that which is against the light of nature viz. that men first began to divide time by weeks and so adding week unto week made up the yeare whereas they are naturally taught first to accompt months and yeares and afterwards to subdivide these into weeks Lastly this argument supposeth that Adam observed the next day after his creation for a Sabbath which I suppose few will affirme sure I am none can prove To the eight be it granted that God never failes in necessaries that the points of faith and hope mentioned in the argument were behoovefull instructions for Adam and the Patriarches that they are also included in the ordinance of the Sabbath but that they are only shut up in this ordinance or that Adam and the Fathers before the law learned them not else where is no way to be yeclded For they might have them as questionles they had both by the light of nature and of revelation By naturall light for we must not think that Adam utterly lost the knowledge of his Creator or works of creation he knew after his fall a Gen. 3.12 the voice of God he knew also that God had given him the woman It was also known by the light of revelation in the promise of the blessed seed in which is comprised both our creation redemption and translation to a better life as b Mihi ne quid dissimutem non subinnui tantùm boc loto sed â—ltâ voce proclamari videtur relegatae gentis restituâ—io Park l. 1. de delcen one hath well observed Our creation in these words out of the earth wast thou taken and thou art but dust our redemption in those he shall break thine head our translation in the last clause till thou returne in which he proclaimes the restitution of Adam and his posterity that are his seed to the happinesse of Paradise not earthly but heavenly To the ninth we say the Patriarches no doubt did publikely worship God their altars and sacrifices make it manifest neither was it any will-worship in them but appointed by
hath imposed are without all question most proper and most fit to be retained But God himselfe hath imposed the Name Sabbath upon all daies of his solemne and publique worship and such is the Christian mans feast day The Assumption appears For not only the seventh day in the fourth Commandement but all the new Moones and other festivals of the Iewes are commonly called Sabbaths Therefore c. Secondly those names are commonly best which are most ancient Inquire saith b Iob. 8.8 Iob of the former ages and prepare thy selfe to the search of their Fathers But the name Sabbath is more ancient then any other being the name that was first given to daies of this nature Therefore c. Thirdly that name is alwaies best which doth most acquaint us with the nature of the thing In this the excellent Wisdome which God gave unto Adam appeared that he gave names to all the creatures answerable to their natures But the name Sabbath given to the daies of publique worship is such for they are daies of rest unto us and they were instituted in remembrance of Gods rest at the Creation and of Christs rest in the Resurrection and are pledges of our future rest in glory What name therefore can better agree unto them then Sabbath which is as much as Rest Fourthly that name is doubtlesse best which best directs us to the duties of the day For if c 1. Cor. 1â— 26 all things must be done for edifying such names are best to be imposed and used as are most accommodated unto edifying But the name Sabbath best leads us unto the duties of this day both outward and inward Outward Resting from all Corporall and worldly employments Inward resting from the spirituall slavery of sin and Satan Adde thereunto that it doth not only best direct us unto the duties of the day but it doth also help to confirme our faith and hope in the promises of God concerning the life to come and our d Math. 8.11 sitting down to rest with Abraham Isaack and Iacob in Gods kingdome Therefore c. Fiftly we must not affect to be singular in anything not so much as in words and Phrases Loquendum cum vulgo saith the proverbe But not only the vulgar but all men whaâ—soever speak religiously and reverently of the Sabbath day Therefore c. CHAP. XII The reasons against the name of Sabbath are briefly alleadged FOr the Negative opinion stand these reasons First he speaks best of things whose language is most conformable to the holy Ghost in the Scripture But the holy Ghost doth every where in the new Testament which alone speaks of the Christian mans Holy-day as having being and existency call it the Lords day no where the Sabbath day The name of the Lords day is therefore best and fittest to be used Secondly we should retaine those names which the Primitive Church in the purest times the first three hundered yeares chiefly used unlesse through any corruption or abuse they are scandalous But the name of the Lords day hath been chiefly used in the Primitive Church and in the purest times neither is it since through any abuse become scandalous Ergo c. Thirdly we of the reformed Churches should not forsake the Roman Church but where necessity doth inforce us For then we are guilty of that Schisme which is made in the Christian world Neither should we vary from our selves so much as were it possible in sounds and Syllables for then we may be justly noted for singularity and affectation But both the Romane Church and all reformed Churches use to stile it the Lords day not the Sabbath Ergo c. Fourthly we that are Christians should beware how we gratify the Iewes in their superstitious obstinacy against Christ and his Gospell in the least things least we partake with them in their hardnesse of heart the ancient Christians fasted Saturday especially for this reason because the Iewes fasted on Sattâ—rday But in using the name Sabbath we gratify the Iewes in their obstinacy against Christ and his Gospell For they abhorre the name of the Lords day as the greatest Blasphemy Therefore c. Fiftly it is one of the chiefest points of a Christian mans wisdome so to speak as not to put a stumbling block before his weaker Brethren He that doth otherwise a Rom. 14.15 walketh not charitably saith the Apostle But the name Sabbath may be and is become a snare to many weak ones especially in reading of the Scriptures For where ever they find the name Sabbath they presently conceive it to be spoken of and to agree to the Lords day and many times by this means fall into flat Iudaisme as appears by their quoting of the old Testament in the Questions in hand Therefore c. Sixtly that name which doth lesse edify is lesse proper This I thinke will easily be agreed on by all parties But the name Sabbath doth lesse edify For it leads us only to an outward cessation from bodily labour which of it selfe and precisely considered was indeed a duty of the Iewish Sabbath but is not so of the Christian Festivall as hereafter shall appeare On the contrary the name Lords day doth best open and explain the whole nature and duty of the day as the remembrance of Christs resurrection the acknowledgment of his Lordship over the Church and all other Creatures in the world Ergo c. CHAP. XIII Wherein is briefly shewed what is to be thought of this Question IT is a frequent rule in c Cùm de re constat propter quam ver ba dicuntur de verbis non debere contendi si quis id facit imperitiâ docendum esse simalitiâ deserendum Aug. cont Acad. lib. 3. cap. 13. lib. 2. cap. 11. S. Austine that wise men should not strive about words unlesse when there is some reall difference in the things But I doubt whether this question be only a fight about words For as the d Non illos viros â—os fuisse arbitror qui rebus nescirent nomina imponere seâ— mihi videntur haec vocabula elegisse ad occultandum tardioribus ad significandum vigilantioribus scientiam suam Ibid. lib. 2. cap. 10. same father speaks of the Academicks so may we without breach of charity suspect of our Sabbatharians at this day They are not saith he such simple men as know not to give things their proper names but they purposely make choice of such words as may best serve both to hide from the simple and to intimate to the wiser sort of their disciples their opinions Else I see no reason at all why the name Sabbath should be so common and that of Lords day so seldome used I deny not but the name Sabbath is lawfull and may also be used by such as have their wits well exercised in Scriptures if without superstition fraud or scandall But yet notwithstanding the name Lords day is both more fit in it selfe serving
more for edification and the Arguments to the contrary doe not conclude To the first true it is indeed that God himselfe in Scripture imposeth the name Sabbath upon all daies of publique worship in the Iewish Synagogue and the reason was because the very corporall rest was a chiefe thing aimed at in them being both memorative of some things passed and figurative of things also to come But that therefore the daies also of Christian Assemblies should be so called doth not follow because the reason is not the same as shall appear in it's proper place The name Sabbath therefore is no more Morall and to be retained in the times of the Gospell then the name Priest Altar Sacrifice which perhaps our adversaries themselves will allow of in a common large and Analogicall construction If therefore we look to the e Si vocis primaevam significationem spectemus Sabbathum erit omnis dies festus At Scripturae consuetudine Sabbathi nomâ— ferè appropriatum est diei septimo Estius 3. Sent. d. 37. first and originall signification of the word every Holy-day wherein men rest from their labours and attend the publique worship may be called a Sabbath but if we look at the application of it in Scripture we shall find it appropriated in the first and chiefest sense to the Sabbath day or Satturday in the fourth commandements in the next and subordinate construction to all the Iewish festivals never to the Lords day To the second No man will deny but that antiquity is a good guide in the search of the truth for all errors are upstarts even those that are gray-headed The f Ier. 6.16 Prophet therefore adviseth to ask for the the old way which is the good way but his meaning is that which is simply old not comparatively only The corrupt Glosses of the Pharisees were very ancient * Math. 5.38 Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time an eye for an eye The superstitions of the Romanists are like so many old aches in the body of the Church yet as the one so also the other meere novelties in religion Should I grant the name Sabbath as applyed to the Christian Feast to be of some good standing yet without all Controversy it was not known to the true Primitive times Indeed antiquity ever used one of these foure either Sunday not from g ' Dum solâ—s lâ—ttâ—iae indulgemus longè aliâ ratione quam religione solis Tert. Ap. cap. 16. the Sunne in the firmament but h Mal. 4.2 the Sonne of Righteousnesse with healing in his wings or the Day of light from the Sacrament of Baptisme called by the Fathers our Illumination or the Day of Bread not from holy bread as Papists now use it but from the other Sacrament of the Supper administred every Lords day or the Lords day which doth and will continue to the worlds end To the third The name Sabbath doth not best acquaint us with the Nature of the Lords day as is pretended For the nature thereof consisteth not either in our corporall or Spirituall Rest or in Remembring the Rest of God in the Creation or in being a pledge unto us of our eternall rest All these are accidentall considerations of the Lords day Indeed the memory of Christs resurrection is essentiall thereunto but not so much in regard of his rest as of his conquest over death and the grave and being made the Lord of the Quick and the Dead It being therefore the Lordship of Christ made evident to all creatures both in heaven and in earth by the Glory of his Resurrection which is then celebrated it ought to be stiled the Lords day not a Sabbath To the fourth What the duties of the day be we shall see hereafter Let it be granted therefore for the present whatsoever the Argument doth suggest the consequent is denied For whatsoever duties are then performed are or at the least ought to be directed in a speciall manner unto the Lord Christ as our service of him The day therefore is to be named not from the nature of the things done but from the quality of the person to whom they are intended and therefore not Sabbath but Lords day And whereas it is said that the name Sabbath may serve to confirme our faith and hope of our eternall Rest I answere that indeed it may be so used by us but was never so intended in the first institution thereof and being a consideration so remote it cannot claime to denominate To the fifth It is indeed most rue that we ought not especially in matters of Religion to innovate though but words and Phrases although perhaps insignificant and improper much lesse ought we to swarve from such language as is most savory and religious but which name hath most salt the Sabbath or Lords day I hope it doth appear by this which hath been said And who speaks most Religiously the Apostles and the whole Church or some few private persons of late yeares is easy to determine CHAP. 14. Wherein the Question concerning the duration of the day is proposed and the arguments for the day naturall are set down AMongst those things which disquiet and perplexe the consciences of the weak concerning the Lords day this is not the least where it is to begin and how long it lasteth For God requiring of us perfect and entire obedience without diminution or defalcation and h Iames 2.10 S. Iames saying that he that faileth in one point is guilty of all unlesse every minute of time which the Lord requireth of us as his tribute and homage be duly tendred to him our whole labour bestowed upon the parts and peices of the day is not regarded It is also that which concernes the most sort of our inferiour people to be satisfied in leâ—st the Commandement requiring one thing their employments another they many times wound their Consciences and rob themselves of that peace which otherwise they might enjoy We must therefore before we proceed any farther inquire whether the Lords day be to consist of any certain determinate number of houres as being a Naturall day or Artificiall And here our Adversaries are very positive that the Christian mans Sabbath as well as that of the Iewes is to consist of full twenty foure houres and they have these reasons First all the time that the Commandement requires is to be observed But that the Commandement of the Sabbath requires a whole naturall day from evening to evening is undenyable Therefore c. If any man say the Commandement was Ceremoniall and so proves nothing for the Christian observation it may be replied that this being granted of all the other branches yet it is not so in this For no man can shew how the time of twenty foure houres can be in any respect mysticall Though therefore the rest of the latter should vanish as a shadow yet in this particular it must needs continue Morall Secondly no one
others or if any doe few I presume will believe him therein Secondly if the Christian Holyday were to consist of a certaine determinate number of houres either the new Testament which alone speaks of this day or the Church of Christ who alone observes it would have directed us where to begin those houres and where to end them For the Iewes were expresly so directed but neither the new Testament nor the Church of Christ hath given any such directions If any say we need no such new information in this point having already the same which the Iewes had in the fourth Commandement we shall I hope give him satisfaction in the answere to the first Argument of the precedent chapter which it doth concerne Thirdly if a Lords night be to be sanctifyed as well as the day this night and all the parts thereof must differ from other nights by some speciall appropriation to the Lord as the day differs from other daies But how can this be unlesse we rest not at all that night in our beds or serve God by dreames and visions Which to affirme were notoriously absurd Ob. If any man demand how did the Iewes then keep their Sabbath from evening to evening Sol. I answere that the reason is not the same for the very corporall rest of the Iewes was simply and of it selfe a Sabbath daies duty so that it was as unlawfull for them not to Rest in their beds that night as to work about their callings that day which I think no man will affirme of Christians under the Gospell Fourthly there is no morall law in nature nor positive law in Scripture but is in it selfe possible to all men in all parts of the world in regard of the thing commanded But a naturall day-day-Sabbath as it is made to consist of a day and a night is absolutely impossible for some men in some parts of the world in regard of the thing commanded in some parts there being nothing but day and in other places nothing but night for a long space together This is so apparent as needs no proofe Therefore c. Ob. It is objected that the Iewes also by this rule might have been as we say perplext had they at any time travailed towards either of the Poles Vnto which I answere Sol. First that the Iewes were in a manner confined unto the land of Canaan except in cases of necessity for the blessing and promise was annexed thereunto being therefore stiled the Lords Land Commerce indeed they had with other nations which proved their ruin but for any voyages they made or Colonies they deduced we read none Solomon it is true sent a navy unto Ophyr which is Peru as most conceive or as Iosephus some place in the East Indies Iehosaphat attempted the like but his ships were broken at Ezion Geber 1. Kings 22 48. For though Solomons navy found prosperous successe intending therein the glory of Gods house yet Iehosaphat having no such warrantable grounds failed in his expectation Some think that the Iewes travelled and tâ—â—ded into that part of the Indies which at this day we call New-England for there they finde a harbour which the natives call Nahum-Keik the harbour of him that comforts or of him that repents It 's usuall in this language to have contrary significations But let it be granted that they meet with some Hebrew words in that tongue what nation is there in whose language you may not make the like observation Say also that the Iewes travailed into the East and west Indies for Gold and Spices I think it easy to shew that those parts of the world in which are either continuall day or night were not known untill after Christ and the destruction of Hierusalem In a word had the Iewes at any time travailed into such places where they could not have kept their Sabbath from evening to evening it had been sinne unto them For when a man shall by any voluntary action of his own cast himselfe into an utter impossibility of fulfilling any positive precept of the law of God it becomes evill unto him though otherwise it be both lawfull and commendable The case therefore is not the same with the Iewes and us in this point they being precisely bound both to places and houses from both which Christ hath set us free The objection is of no weight Fiftly to make the night part of the Lords day to be observed by the Church of Christ is contrary to the ground of the institution thereof which is the Resurrection of Christ For Christ rose not in the night but early in the morning and being risen his Resurrection hath no night But how can the night remember us of that which hath no night If we keep the night before we solemnize not Christs resurrection for he was not as yet risen if the night after we seeme to be enemies of his resurrection as if the Sunne of righteousnesse were set the second time whereas r Rom. 6 9. Christ being risen dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him If any man say he keepeth not the night as a part of the Lords day the memoriall of Christ Resurrection but as a part of his Sabbath in the fourth Commandement He seemeth expresly to forsake Christ and to cleave to Moses and being weary of being a Christian defires to turne Iew. Sixtly A night Sabbath is contrary to the end of the Institution under the Gospell which was Gods publique worship in the congregation for other use thereof we find not in holy Scripture If any man object collections to be made for the poore private prayers and christian exercises c. we shall God willing speak thereof also in its place But night assemblies for the publique worship except in time of persecution are contrary to the Apostles Rule * 1. Cor. 14.40 let all things be done decently and in order Experience in former ages hath made it manifest what abuses were practised under such pretences Ob. If any man say that the publique was appointed for the day and the private for the night Sol. First there is no such rule in Scripture Secondly the Church hath no such custome Thirdly private night-conventicles are as little nay farre lesse to be trusted then publique meetings in the night Lastly the practice of the primitive Church was utterly without any set number of houres and there was much variety in their observation sometime they began their publique worship on Saturday after supper as in Syria and Aegypt Some-time they began their Lords day about the s Tempus publici conventûs fuit Anteluâ—anum Con. Antis cap. 11. dawning the time as they conceived of Christs Resurrection others also began upon satturday noon and held on untill Sunday morning At this day our Sabbatharians are devided in this point some affirming from evening to evening others from morning to morning others from midnight to midnight so that their position of a twenty-foure houres Sabbath
c Lex nova in exterioribus illa solum praecipere debuit vel prohibere per quae in gratiam intrâ—ducimur vel quae pertinenâ— ad rectum usum gratiae ex necessitate Aquin 1.2 q. 108. art 2. Gospell commands only such observations which are either meanes of Grace as the word and Sacraments or wherein the use and excercise of grace doth consist as the duties of love towards God and man But that the first day of the weeke should be observed Sabbath nothing concernes the kingdome of God within us because it s neither a meanes of grace nor exercise of grace Ob. If any man say the keeping of the Lords day Sabbath is both these first a meanes of grace by reason of the word and Sacraments then administred and an exercise of grace for then we returne prayses and send vp our prayers to the throne of grace and manifest our loue both to Christ and our brethren Sol. I answere that he wholy mistakes for the question is not whether the duties done upon the day be either meanes or exercises of grace for this is of it selfe manifest but whether the keeping of this day Sabbath more then an other be such The day is one thing the duties are an other these belong to the kingdome of God preserving and encreasing them in us that is but a circumstance of time and of it selfe nothing in this respect All things of this nature as time place manner are not precisely and of themselues considered of the essence or necessity of grace and therefore are not commanded in the Gospell but left to the wisdome and descretion of the Church Fiftly that day which cannot be kept universally through the whole world was never commanded the whole Church of Christ by an Evangelicall Law for the law of the Gospell is given to all nations But the first day of the weeke which is the Lords day observed in memory of the Lords resurrection cannot be thus universally kept considering the diversity of Meridians and the unequall rising and setting of the Sunne in diverse Climates in the world Some of our adversaries foresaw this objection but could never avoyd it only they tell us that it was so with the Iewes in regard of their Sabbath and therefore d Practice of piety affirme that they were not bound to keepe their Sabbath upon that precise and just distinction of time called the seventh day from the Creation For the Sunne stood still in Iosuah's time it went back ten degrees fiue houres in Hezekia's time besides the variation of the Climates throughout the world Vpon this they inferre two things 1. that God by his prerogatiue might dispence with men in these cases 2. that the Commandement meaneth not the determinate seventh from the Creation but indefinitely a seventh But what absurdities doe hence follow First they seem to affirme that the standing still and the going back of the Sunne made an alteration in the day as it was the seventh from the creation Indeed they made it longer and to consist of a greater number of houres for the present but what is this to the number of seven One and the selfe same day may be longer in Summer shorter in Winter yet keeps its ranke amongst the other daies of the week for place and number Secondly they affirme that the Iewes were not bound to any determinate day not to this seventh but a seventh Expresly contrary to the words of Moses * Exod. 20.10 the seventh is the Sabbath Thirdly there is the same reason in all the forenamed particulars between the Iewes Sabbath and the Christians If therefore their day were indefinitely a seventh ours must also be indefinitely a first and by this meanes they say and unsay with one and the same breath the first day is our Sabbath by divine institution and yet not the first but a first which is to yeeld the question Sixtly there is the same reason of keeping a determinate set Sabbath under the Gospell that there is of preaching praying and administring the Sacraments Ordaining of Ministers doing works of mercy at set-times For I think no man is so farre infatuated with this paradox as either to preferre the Sabbath before these or to sever the day from the duties which are the main end of the daies observation But all these are commanded in generall not prescribed in particular when or where or how so all things be done decently and in order We no where read how often in a year we must receive the Sacrament of the Lords supper how often we should hear a Sermon or when to give or how much either publikely or privatly If therefore there be no set times appointed for the maine duties of religion under the Gospell there is no set time appointed to be kept Sabbath Therefore c. Seventhly That which is expresly against Christian liberty was never commanded by Christ or his Apostles but to have the conscience burthened with any outward observations putting Religion in them as being parts and branches of Gods worship is directly against Christian liberty for how is he free that is thus bound to times and daies We have then only exchanged not shaken off the Iewish bondage If any man say that this was both the argument and error of the Patrobrusians of old and Anabaptists of late he is much mistaken for they pretend not to Christian liberty when the conscience is not burthened immediatly from God but to unchristian licence and confusion to be exempted from the lawes of men and decent order of the Church Eightly There is no duty I think essentiall in religion ordained by Christ or his Apostles of which we find not either exhortations in respect of performance or reprehensions in regard of their neglect either in the Gospell the Acts or the Epistles But the keeping of the first day of the week Sabbath is no where pressed or exhorted unto the neglect thereof no where reproved or forbidden in all the new Testament Ergo. Ob. If any man say it is frequently mentioned with approbation Resp I answer that so are divers things besides which are no divine institutions binding the Church of Christ as extream unction the Presbytery womens vayles widdowes these are mentioned with honour but so is not the manner of observing the Lords day which is now cried up nor any divine institution thereof Whereupon these things will necessarily follow That either the Apostles never held this observation to be a divine precept or that having given it for such to the primitive Christians in the Churches planted by them they never failed in the observation thereof which is not imaginable considering what grosse abuses and prophanations were found amongst them or lastly that the Apostles knowing the Lords day which they had injoyned theÌ„ as a divine precept to haue been neglected winked connived thereat though so ready even with the rod to reforme all other disorders which also cannot be well conceived Ninthly Had the
like we also affirme of the example of God the Sonne at the worlds redemption resting from all his labours for though it be not a Law instituting yet it is sufficient ground and warrant why it was at first instituted and hath ever since been observed To the eight all arguments of this kind from the lesse to the greater are but probable and must be understood of great and lesse in the same kind For that which is lesse in one respect may be greater in another it 's so in this particular For the creation of the world is a greater work of power 〈…〉 then the redemption and the redemption is a greater work of goodnes then the creation Besides in reasons of this kind we must alwaies adde si caeterasint paria for any disparity in any circumstance of time place person overthroweth all conclusions built upon comparisons Now suppose that the argument speak of the same kind of great and lesse which yet it doth not nothing can be concluded because the circumstances of time and persons are not equall For the Iewish Sabbath was given in the child-hood and nonage of the Church to a people of dull eares stiffe necks heavy hearts to such the appointing of a determinate time was necessary but the children of the light men of ripe eares that have their eares bored their hearts illuminated need no such childish rudiments as the observation of daies And this a Sicùt praeceptum de sacrificiis habuit aliquam causam moralem non simplicitèr sèdsecunduÌ„ congruentiam llorum quibus ilex dabatur qui ad Idololatriam proni erant sic praeceptum de observatione Sabbathi habuit aliquam causam moralem ex conditione eorum quibus lex dabatur qui propter avaritiam iis inditam c. Aqu. in 3. sent dist 37. art 5. in corp Aquinas long since observed The words of Athanasius alleadged in the Homily of the Sower c. are a meere allusion or illustration shewing only the conveniencie which was never doubted not the necessity of this observation which is the point in question To the ninth I briefly answer that he whose conscience is not over-awed by the lawes of the Church states in outward observations in things lawfull and in different established upon good grounds Christian considerations is neither good subject nor good Christian It is true indeed that the conscience is the Throne of God yet I think no man will so restrain him to that Throne as to say he cannot put another thereinto That b Lex aliqua potest condâ— cui sit necessariò etià m 〈◊〉 mortali parendum quaeque vi suâ quamvis non nisi dependentèr à lege divinâ aeternâ obliget sub mortali Greg. Val. de lege hum Vbi pater iubet quod centra dominum non sit sic audiendus est quomodo Deus Aug. in Ps 70. our superiors especially those that derive their power immediatly from God himselfe may if cause so require lay their authority immediatly upon the conscience binding it to sinne in cause either of neglect disobedience or contempt is to all sober mindes a Maxime in Divinity To the tenth the mysticall signification of any ceremony or observation whatsoever is either of divine imposing as in the sacraments and all such ceremonies as are parts branches of Gods worship or of humane invention as building of Churches East and west bowing towards the Altar usingthe surplice the Crosse after baptisme upon infants or otherwise as the Primitive Christians used Such as those are no parts of Gods worship neither is the conscience bound thereunto but in obedience only to authority To the eleventh the observation of the Lords day is not only metaphysically and speculatively mutable but also Morally and practically as well in our times as in the Primitive Church For amongst the first Christians for some hundred yeares we cannot find any regular and constant practice thereof Supposing therefore the decrees of Councells the practice of the Christian world the edicts of Emperors the statutes of the Land it is unchangeable in sensu composito all things standing as they doe but supposing c Neque Christus neque Apostolus celebrationem primi diei lege aliquâ praeccperunt sed propter praesentem commtaitatem ita sanxeâ—â—nâ— Ã qua quidem sanctione recedere possumus si evidens Ecclesiae utilitas posâ—ulaverit Bald. de Sabbath cap. 20. that the Church and state should find sufficient cause to repeal all such constitutions it may and ought to be changed in sensu diviso as well as any other observation whose ground is only decency and order when it comes to be abused to superstition To the twelfth if we consider all daies which the Church hath set apart for publique worship absolutely as being so set apart I hope it will not be thought blasphemy to affirme that the Lords day and all other holy-daies are equall So I am sure d Omnes diâ—s aeaquales esse Hier. in Gal. 4 S. Hierome affirmed of old and our learned Bishop e Down tables Downham of late but in some respecttive and accidentall considerations one day may be said to be greater and better then another And this may be either from the ground or reason of its observation so it is said by the * Ioh. 19.31 Evangelist that the Sabbath was a high day because the feast of the passover fell upon that day by translation which was the manner of the Iewes when any of their feasts fell out to be the day before the Sabbath and in this respect we may call the Lords day the Queen of daies because it is kept in memory of Christs resurrection which is farre to be preferred before any festivall celebration in memory and for imitation of any Saint whatsoever Or from the solemnity of the publique worship according to the custome of the Church Or lastly from the intention of the Church appointing as when she intends only halfe or some part of the day to be kept holy forbiding all manner of works upon some daies but allowing them upon others as Markets and Faires In this latter respect also no Holy-day is equall with the Lords day especially in the Church of England however it be in forraine parts notwithstanding if we look to the outward solemnity of Gods worship some holy-dayes may be greater then it To the thirteenth that one day should have more holinesse in it then another as it is this day or that day by divine institution under the Gospell is a proposition Atheologicall and part of the Egyptian and Iudaicall superstition which the Apostle condemneth in the Epistle to the Galathians and against which S. Hierom reasons irrefragably For then this holinesse faith a Aut haberent sanctitatem ex lapsu syderum aut Dei beneficio aut hominum inssituto hee must be derived either from the motion and influence of the heavens or from the impression of Gods holinesse made upon it
Sabbath in Paradise And if he sinned the sixt day as most conceiue this was a bad preparation to the next dayes Sabbath such as was likely to disturb the whole work If he stood the sixt day and sinned the seventh long he stood not all agree was the day of his fall think you the day of his Sabbath That he entred upon the dominion of the creatures upon the seventh day contradicts the very Text it selfe which saith they were delivered up unto him upon the sixt day unlesse we like to interpret Moses by the figure Anticipation in that Chapter which is so much condemned in the next That time was first divided by weeks afterward by months which is the very pillar of all the rest is as weakly as confidently affirmed For not to speak of the circle here used the division of time into weeks being brought to proue the Sabbath to haue beene from the beginning the Sabbath being blest sanctified from the beginning to proue this division of time by weeks no such thing can be concluded from that Text unlesse we grant that all separated and sanctified daies and such were all the Iewish Festivalls are presently to be the divisions of time On the other side sure we are that man in the beginning was put to Schoole unto the creature and that the Sunne and Moone were purposely set in the Firmament to shew him times and seasons Is it now probable or can it stand with the intention of the Creator that man should come by the divisions of times otherwise then by observing the Sunne and Moone especially since the Changes of the Moon doe so punctually lead us unto weeks In the next place it was wisely foreseene that a positiue precept serues not our turne and therefore we fetch about for a morality also therein which cannot be without sundry suppositions That nature tels us of time to be set apart for Gods worship is most true but that shee directs us to this in speciall or that in particular is fallaciously collected For what if the creature be under the absolute power of the Creator are therefore no Circumstantials left to the discretion of the Church in holy things What though some particular persons would unequally carue therein as Prometheus did betweene himselfe and Iupiter would the Church alwaies assisted by Gods spirit think we doe the like So for the comfortable performance which is pretended I would aske which is more comfortable when we haue some things voluntary which may be a free gift or when we are fettered in our performances like flaues more then sonnes Lastly that uniformity in publique actions cannot be observed unlesse God interpose his immediate authority savours of something else then Sabbatharian tenents If those daies are alwaies holy which are honoured with some notable work of God I see no reason why the day of our Saviours incarnation and hypostaticall union the most unsearchable a Nunquam ' Deus adeò grande fecit miraculum in caelo aut terrâ sive resuscitando mertuos sive illuminando caecos sic de aliis sicut est miraculum hoc ' unionis humanitatis addivinitatem Gers parte 4 â ser de Nativitate and glorious work ad extra or Friday wherein was finished the work of our redemption should not be a Sabbath as b Euseb lib. 4. c. 18. Constantine made it Surely although all Sabbaths haue beene kept upon daies chalked out by Gods famous works yet all daies thus chalked out haue not been forthwith Sabbaths by divine institution That the proportion of one in seven to be kept Sabbath cannot be ceremoniall that never any found any Ceremony therein is utterly untrue For to omit others c Videri ergo possit Dominus per diem septimum populo suo delineasse suturam sui Sabbathi perfectionem Cal. de 4. prae Sic eliam Clemens Alexandrinus ex Elatone lib. 5. Stlomaâ— Calvin hath long since observed that it did not only historically teach the Iewes the perfection of the works of nature but mystically also the perfection of the works of grace and that nothing should be wanting unto us in the person of the promised Messias the number of seven being the number of perfection Alike solid is that which followeth that the Rest of the seventh day had relation unto Christs rest only in the Graue but was not mystically referred unto the grace of the Gospell which is contrary both to the Scripture and to the streame of all Divines Ancient and Moderne And what if the Iews were partakers of the grace of Christ yet were they led thereunto by the hand as children in these and the like figures and how doth this hang together There is a taxation of one in seven under the Gospell therefore that which the Iewes had under Moses could not be ceremoniall That we under the Gospell keep the fourth Commandement is most true understood in generall of the substance of the Commandement for times of publique worship but in nothing else For thought it say Remember the Sabbath day not the seventh yet immediatly it addeth by way of exposition the seventh is the Sabbath and which it meaneth of the seventh even the next after the creatioÌ„ We must not then make God wise according to our fancies by making his word a Lesbian rule broken asunder and patched together at our own pleasures But say it speaks of a Sabbath in generall how doth it speak of a seventh day-Sabbath in speciall under the Gospell or of the Lords day in particular This therefore must be helped with another heap of superstâ—â—ons Christians you say must not giue a worse time unto the Lords service then did the Iewes must it therefore be just the same that a better would proue a publique grievance is a plausible put off why might we not giue him every sixt day if the whole Church should think it fit would it not be all one upon the matter to Trades-men Labourers But the Lord hath marked out unto us his own day by his own resurrection This is most true and therefore the Church alwaies hath and I doubt not but ever wil obserue it to the worlds end though only by the Churches authority But supposing it to be our Sabbath must it not be kept for time and manner as that of the Iewes was If it be not the Iewish why should we keep the Iewish time of just so many houres with the Iewish manner of rest for such or such cessations As for the rest he that is a Teacher of prophanenesse and an Abettour of licentiousnesse an untempered morter-dauber let him be accursed The other patterne of doctrine therefore in this point is That God created man in that high measure of knowledge as made him little lower then the Angels Psal 8.5 That man continued in this estate but a very short time perhaps not many houres That notwithstanding his fall a great part of his wisdome remained with him especially his naturall knowledge of the creature and the worlds creation That God admitting fal'n man into the state of grace through repentance was pleased to converse with him though not so familiarly as otherwise he would haue done by apparitions and revelations That the light of nature remaining taught him that this God must be publiquely worshipped That he being not unmindefull of his fall and the curse which thereby was brought upon him death and being instructed in the faith of the Messias to be slaine hence God came to be publiquely worshipped by the sacrifices of slaine beasts That the set time of this publique sacrificing is not mentioned in Scripture That the place in the second of Genesis was written by Moses after the Law was given and had relation thereunto That nothing can be averred of the Patriarchs practice till Israels comming into the wildernesse and the fall of Manna That the Law delivered in the fourth precept is morall for substance as that God must haue times for publique worship Ceremoniall for circumstance in the rest binding the Iewes only leading them partly backward to their state in Egypt the fall of Manna partly forward to good things to come in Christ That Christ therefore and the Gospell being exhibited this circumstantiall Sabbath must cease but expired not quite untill the destruction of the Temple That during this while the Apostles kept the Iewish Sabbath as they did other Ceremonies That withall they kept in a manner the Lords day also for breaking of bread though this was not alwaies done upon that day only That whatsoever the Apostles did in the Churches by them planted was not by Apostolicall authority they being the Churches Pastors as well as Christs Apostles That the discipline of the Church of which the time and manner of publique Assemblies is not the least part was established by them as Pastors not Apostles and might afterward receiue such changes as the state of succeeding times should require That therefore the institution of the Lords day is by Ecclesiasticall authority and that this is a sufficient tye of conscience to all such as list not to be obstinately wilfull That the Lords day thus established must be observed and set apart for Gods publique worship and all meanes used for the supporting thereof That those that joyne not with the Congregation therein are guilty of prophanation That whatsoever doth hinder this in any man of which no generall rule can be given ought to be avoided by him and that herein every mans experience can best informe him That such things as are used only as diversions of the minde and recreations of the body are lawfull on this day so they offend not in any other circumstance That those that are inclined and inabled to private holy exercises performed without fraud or sinister respect doe that which is most profitable and commendable though not bound thereto by the Law of the Lords day That all men should be watchfull over themselues to keep a spirituall Sabbath from the servile works of sinne throughout the whole course of this life having alwaies an eye to that Sabbath of Sabbaths promised us in the kingdome of GOD our Father and of his deare Sonne IESUS CHRIST to whom be honour and glory now and for ever more Amen FINIS
Arguments for the affirmative are propounded and inforced CAP. VII In which are set down the Arguments for the negative CAP. VIII The question is stated and explained CAP. IX The Arguments for the affirmative examin'd CAP. X. Containing two digressions the first shewing who are the best interpreters of holy things The second wherein the two opposite tenents in this question of the Sabbath are compared one with another CAP. XI Wherein the name of the Christian mans Feast-day is proposed with those Arguments which seem to conclude for the name Sabbath CAP. XII The reasons against the name of Sabbath are briefly alleadged CAP. XIII Wherein is briefly shewed what is to be thought of this Question CAP. XIV Wherein the Question concerning the duration of the day is proposed and the Arguments for the day naturall are set down CAP. XV. The Arguments against the day naturall are proposed CAP. XVI Wherein something concerning the day naturall and artificiall being premised the former Arguments are briefly answered CAP. XVII The Question concerning the institution of the Lords day proposed with arguments for the divine authority CAP. XVIII The Arguments for the negative are briefly set down CAP. XIX The Question is briefly stated and resolved CAP. XX. The affirmative Arguments are breifly answered CAP. XXI A preparative discourse to the two maine questions which follow concerning the observation of the Lords day CAP. XXII The question concerning the corporall rest is proposed with the arguments for the affirmative CAP. XXIII The Arguments for the Negative are also related CAP. XXIV The Question is unfolded in nine propositions CAP. XXV The Arguments brought for the affirmative are answered and in particular that which is drawn from the Iudgements of God is handled more at large CAP. XXVI Wherein is inquired after those duties of holinesse unto which the conscience is bound on the Lords day CAP. XXVII The Arguments which seeme to conclude for all duties of holinesse in generall are set down CAP. XXVIII The Arguments for the Negative are briefly expressed CAP. XXIX Wherein is declared what is to be conceived in this question CAP. XXX Wherein satisfaction is given to the reasons formerly alleadged CAP. XXXI Wherein is contained the conclusion of the whole setting down a short delineation of both the opinions and tenents in these severall questions THE PROEME containing the partition of the whole Work OF the questions of the Sabbath some are fundamentall serving as pillars to support the rest others are lesse principall and subordinate and are the Corollaries of the former Those of the first kinde are two the one concerning the originall and institution of the Sabbath whether it were given to Adam in Paradise or to Moses when Israell came into the Wildernesse the other of the morality of the letter it selfe as it is expressed in the decalogue for by this it will appeare whom the Law-giver intended to bind thereby and how long as also what be the severall shadowes and ceremonies contained therein Those disputes of the latter kind are such as are raised about the Christian mans Feast or Holy-day for this our late Sabbatharians haue of themselves the Scripture being in a manner silent squared in all proportions to the Iewish Sabbath both for doctrine and practice and in a sort confounded them Here therefore we must enquire first quid nominis what name is proper or at least most suitable thereunto Secondly quidrei what this Sabbath is in it selfe and its owne nature And because it may undergoe a two fold consideration the one as it is a day and portion of our time the other as it is the Lords day dedicated to his use and service it is necessary in the next place to enquire of the dimensions of this day of what duration continuance of time it must be then considered quatenus the Lords two things offer themselues to be coÌ„sidered first by what authority it came to be instituted imposed upon the Church of Christ and secondly how it ought to be celebrated observed by us The latter doth also divide it selfe for there being two things which concurre to the nature and being of a Sabbath first the outward rest of the Body or cessation from works which we may call the materiall part secondly the duties of holinesse wherein consists the life and spirit of the observation wee must examine both what that rest is which is enjoyned and what are those holy duties which are commanded CAP. I. Wherein the first question is proposed with the arguments seeming to prove the Sabbath to be as ancient as Adam in paradise AS in the maladies of the body the symptomes are removed when the roote of the disease is purged out so our errors the only sicknesse of our minds are reformed when the foundations on which they are built are overthrowne Our first question therefore is when the Sabbath had its originall whether it were commanded Adam and the Patriarches immediatly from God himselfe in the beginning or only to the Israelites in the wildernesse by the ministery of Moses The former tenent seemeth to have many evidences both from Scripture from reason and from the authority of many of the Learned First from the words of Moses So Gold blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it hee rested from all his works an argument may be framed thus The resting of God from all his works and the blessing and sanctifying of the Sabbath were coetaneous for when Moses saith So God blessed he referrs us both to the reason why and the time when and the manner how the Sabbath was first instituted but God rested from all his works immediatly from the Creation while Adam was yet in Paradise therefore immediatly mediatly from the Creation God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day Secondly Gen. 1.14 in the same Scripture God said let there be lights in the firmament for signes and for seasons for daies and for yeares in which place the word in the Originall signifieth holy convocations From whence thus As soone as there was Sunne and Moone there were times appointed for holy convocations for this was one maine end of their Creation But the Sunne and Moone were from the beginning therefore from the beginning there were times appointed for holy Convocations therefore the Sabbath Thirdly Heb. 4.3.4 from the words of the Apostle who seemeth to Comment upon the words of Moses As I have sworne in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest although the works were finished from the foundation When the works were finished a rest was appointed for Gods people but the works of God creating the world were finished from the foundation therefore from the foundation was a rest or Sabbath appointed Gods people Fourthly a Nondum lata erat lex sed Sabhathum â—am servabatur Bar. Itin. Moses could not haue spoken of the Sabbath unto the Israelites in the Wildernesse as of a thing well known and practised unlesse the
Sabbath had been observed by them their fore fathers before their comeing thither but Moses doth thus speake unto them of the Sabbath in the wildernesse before the law was given in Sinai To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord Exod. 16.23 and the seventh day which is the Sabbath Where note that first he calls it the holy Sabbath Secondly he saith it is the Sabbath but unles it had been already instituted it could neither he holy nor be at all therefore c. Fiftly that which was observed by Noah at the time of the flood was doubtlesse observed of him before the Flood and so from the begining but the Sabbath was religiously observed by Noah Gen. 8.10.12 in the time of the flood For having sent out the dove and shee returning finding no rest for the sole of her foot he abode other seven daies and afterward other seven daies therefore c. Sixtly that which Iob and his children observed was long in use before Israell came into the Wildernesse for all agree that Iob was descended either from Shem or from Nahor or from Ishmaell and b Moses magnus homo non ita scripsir quemadmodâ— Diabolus locutus est sed deceÌ„tius utpote devotus Dei famulus Orig. in v. 11. c. 1. Origen affirmes that Moses wrote that story but Iob and his children kept holy the Sabbath day for there was a day c Iob. 1.6 saith the Text wherein came the sons of God to present themselves before the Lord these sons of God are Iob and his children and this day the Sabbath saith d In cap. 1. Pineda the Iesuit therefore c. Seventhly that which hath ever been the boundary of the weeke was ever from the begining but the Sabbath hath ever been the boundary of the weeke for time hath ever been divided by weeks therefore the Sabbath hath ever been from the begining Eightly God left not Adam and the Patriarches without any necessary instructions for God never failes in necessaries but the Sabbath contained matter of necessary instructions for Adam the Patriarches both in regard of their faith in the article of the creation of the World in sixe daies and in respect of their hope that there remained a rest for them in Gods Kingdome Therefore God left them not without the ordinance of the Sabbath Ninthly to whom God appointed publique worship to them he appointed the time of worship which is the Sabbath but God appointed to Adam and the Patriarches publique worship for men called on the name of the Lord neither was this any will-worship of their owne Therefore c. Lastly the testimony of many of the Learned a Est enim festus dies non untus populi regioni soâ— sed in universum omnium quae sola digna est ut dicatur popularis festivitas natalis mundi Philo Iud. de oper Mund. Philo the Iew saith that this feast did appertain to all nations from the beginning Mr Broughton affirmes that the Fathers observed it before Moses b Benedictio ista nihil aliud est quam solennis consecratio qui sibi Deus studia occupationes hominum asserit die septimo Calvin in c. 2. Genes v. 3. Calvin saith that the blessing of the Seventh day was a solemne consecration whereby God laid claime to the studies and employments of men for himselfe upon the seventh day And againe God saith c Primum ergo quievit Deus deinde benedixit hanc quietem ut faeculis omnibus inter homines sancta foret vel septimum quemque diem quietâ— dicavit ut suum exemplum perpetua â—sset regula Calv. ib. Cathar in Genes Alcuin quaestionib in Genes he did two things at the begining first hee rested then he blessed that rest that it might bee holy amongst all men throughout their generations Vnto this Catharinus Alcuinus and many of the Popish schoole subscribe Zanchius affirmes as probable that Adam kept the first seventh day in Paradise and that the second person in the Trinity tooke upon him the shape of a man and instructed him and his wife upon that day in the works of the creation CAP. II. Wherein the arguments for the negative part are set downe FOr the negative are also produced many reasons as First the Sabbath was not given to Adam either before his fall or after his fall therefore not at all given him Not before his fall for God doth nothing that is needlesse or superfluous but to Adam yet in Paradise a Sabbath was needlesse First in regard of his body which needed not any rest or refreshing being not only immortall but a Communis est sententia Patrum Theologorum hominem in statu innocentie fuisse impassibilem Greg. Val. Tom. 5. disp 7. q. 4. p. â— impassible not so much as of sleepe it selfe b Alex. Hal. part 2. q. 86. memb 30. Alexander of Hales brings many probable arguments to this purpose Secondly it was needlesse in regard of his soule which wanted neither the practice nor instructions of the Sabbath not the practice for every day was to Adam before his fall a practicall Sabbath his whole life being nothing else but a perpetuall contemplation of holy things the dressing of the garden was no impeachment at all to his heavenly thoughts not the instructions of the Sabbath for c Primus homo sic institutus est à Deo ut haberet omnium scientiam in quibus homo natus est instrui Th. â— 1. q. 94. art 3. in corpore his knowledge of the Creator and all things created was of it selfe perfect and needed not the helpes of teaching preaching catechizing No man will say I presume that he needed to be instructed in the mystery of the Sabbath as our spirituall rest froÌ„ under the burthen of sin in the kingdome of grace and our eternall rest in heaven in the kingdome of glory Divines generally affirme that he knew not that he should fall or need a Redeemer though perhaps the fall of Angells was revealed unto him And a Aquin. 2â— 2 oe q. 2. art 7. those that affirme him to have knowne the Incarnation of Christ say he knew it not as appointed for mans redemption from sinne but as ordained for mans translation to farther happinesse The Sabbath could not mind him of the eternall rest in Heaven for suppose that if Adam had stood hee should have been translated with his posterity to fill up the roome of the Angells which is as groundlesly as commonly affirmed yet that very estate of glory could not have been to them as it shall be to us a rest for this rest is opposed to misery from which the state of innocency was priviledged Object It may perhaps be objected that the Sabbath was necessary even in that estate that God might be publikely worshipped by way of acknowledgement of his infinite goodnesse towards man and supreame dominion over all his creatures Answere To
which I answere that such outward worship in publique coÌ„gregations should not have been required in that state of innocency for then the whole world should have been but one temple and all men therein but one Congregation as the glorified Saints make but one Quire whose antheme is day and night Praise Honour Glory and Power be to him that sitteth on the throne Wee may well conceive that if Adam had not fallen our estate should have been much like though much inferiour to the Saints in glory I know that b Aquin. pare 1. q. 44. art 31. Schoolemen commonly teach that Adam in the state of innocency should have beene a priest a Prophet and a King having to this purpose a personall kind of knowledge imparted unto him enabling him to be the head and teacher of all mankind But this being grounded upon a false principle viz That his originall righteousnesse of which his knowledge was a part was a supernaturall endowment superadded to the estate of pure naturalls must needs be a consequent like the antecedent out of which it is deduced Order then should have been in that estate for so there is amongst the Angels but no division of men into pastorall charges and congregations which neither are amongst the Angels nor shall be hereafter amongst the glorified Saints The precept therefore of the Sabbath to be observed by Adam in Paradise was in all respects superfluous Ergo. Secondly it is generally affirmed by c In principle mundi ipsi Adae Evae legem dedit ne defructu arboris plantatae in medio paradisi ederent quae lex iâ— sufficeret se esset custodita Tert. ad Iud. Divines ancient and moderne that Adam in the estate of innocency had but one positive law imposed upon him even that of the forbidden fruit neither doe we read of more in Scripture And this we commonly say with d Hoc tam leve preceptum ad observandum tam breve ad memoriâ retinenduÌ„ tanto 〈◊〉 inju titiâ violatum est quanto saciliori possit obser vantia custodiri Aug. â—e Câ—vâ—t l. 14. c. 15. S. Augustine made his disobedience the greater God requiring no more at his hands but if Adam had a commandement to observe the Sabbath God gave him more positive Lawes then one Ergo. If any man say he needed no positive law for the Sabbath being bound thereunto by the light of nature for nature teacheth men to keepe holy unto God those daies upon which they have received greatest mercies for this guided even the Heathens to their holydaies Answere I answere indeed that nature teacheth men thankfully to acknowledge Gods mercies but how and in what manner it must be done or that the same day must be kept holy upon which we receive them nature teacheth not For by this reason Adam should have kept the sixt day for in it he received from the hands of God an helper meet for him in it he and his wife received a blessing upon their Creation and full power and dominion over all creatures being thereby enstalled the happy Princes of the whole world Object If any say that though God did all this for them on the sixt day yet he had not given the operative power of propagation to the whole creation till the seventh day and without this their former day was nothing worth Answere I answere that indeed a In hoc discordat nostra translatio ab alia quam augustinus exponit nostrâ enim translatione consummatio operum oscribitur diei septimo in alia diei sexto utâ—â— autem veritatemâ—â—here potest distinguenda est rei duplex perfectio c. super sent l. 2. c. â— 15. 9 3. Aquinas both in his summes and upon the sentences affirmeth as much There is saith he a two-fold perfection the one wherein things receive their perfect being this all things had upon the sixt day the other which regardeth not the being but only the operation of things in being this was bestowed on creatures the seventh day for then God resting from giving being unto things began to set nature to the worke of propagation but any man may see First that this is only said without any ground Secondly that he was forced thereunto by labouring to reconcile the vulgar translation with that of Saint Austin the one reading in the seventh day the other in the sixt day God ended his worke Gen. 2.2 But what a small fly this is to choak so great a Camel will soone appeare for the text meaneth not that God did any thing upon the seventh day as Aquinas conceived but that b Inde ab hoc die destitit ab omni opificio Trem. in iâ—cum when the seventh day was come all things were finished nothing being defective either in regard of the first or second perfections of which the distinction speaketh Adam therefore had all things perfected and so delivered into his hands on the sixt day And c Hoc loco non dicit Deus rebus ipsis benedixisse sed diei Est 2. Dist 15. art 9. one observes rightly that the text saith God blessed the day not the creatures so that if it were true that nature binds us to keepe those very daies on which we have received mercies Adam was obliged to the Friday which I thinke no man will presume to affirme Thirdly whatsoever was commanded Adam in paradise was universally commanded unto all mankind in all their generations for we were all in Adam neither had our first parents any personall or temporary precept but the Law of the seventh-day Sabbath is of no such universall extent neither is it still in force The first appears because the d So Moses The Lord hath given you the Sabbath Exod. 16.29 So Nehemiah thou madest knowne unto them thy holy Sabbath by the hand of Moses thy servant Neb. 9.14 So Ezek. 20.12 reckoning up Gods favours to that nation saith moreover I gave them also my Sabbaths Scriptures doe ever appropriate the Sabbath as a peculiar rite prescribed the Iewes The second is also manifest for we observe not at this day that Sabbath which is said to have been given Adam which we must have done had it been commanded in paradise unlesse we could shew expresse precepts given to Adam to the contrary but such a countermaine certaine it is Adam never received Fourthly that which is eyther naturall or commanded in Paradise before the fall was not to be abrogated by Christ in the fulnesse of time the reason hereof is because that fulnesse of time wherein Christ came and did all things appertaining to the Messias is to be reckoned from the promise of the seed which was not made till after the fall that therefore which preceeded this promise appertained not to the Messias either to establish or abolish but the observation of that Sabbath which is pretended to have been commanded Adam in paradise is abrogated by Christ as he is the Messias even that day on
sanctificatio una qua sanctificatum est a Deo altera qua praecipieâ—atur Israeli Sanctificatio Deiest quâ dics septimus statim initio est quieti deputatus consecratus sanctificatio Israelis est diem septimum â— Deo quieti sanctificatum pro sancto habere Mus praecept 4. Musculus that there is a twofold sanctification of the Sabbath For both God sanctified it and Israel sanctified it God sanctified the Sabbath when presently from the begining he deputed and consecrated the seventh day unto rest Israels sanctifying was the keeping holy that day which God had long before deputed to be kept According to this twofold sanctification there is a twofold respect of the word Remember For in the commandement they are bid to remember the ground of the seventh-daies destination to this holy use from the begining In that of Deuteronomy they are bid remember the immediat ground or reason of the actuall institution and observation of the day The word therefore Remember in the commandement hath not as is supposed primarily any reference either to the works of God or to the finishing of those works but secondarily inclusively only as being the occasion of Gods destinating the day to be in time to come the Churches Sabbath which they are primarily and immediatly commanded to remember And in that other place Remember hath respect unto their deliverance out of Egypt as being the primary and immediat reason of the Sabbaths institution actuall observation And indeed if wee will speake of things as they are wee shall finde that the Sabbath could not congruously have been instituted and observed untill this time of their deliverance For now God makes to himselfe a glorious Church which before lay hid in private families in the midst of Idolaters without Ceremony without sanctuary and therefore without Sabbath for Sabbath and Sanctuary are relatives in Moses a Levit. 19.30 Ye shall keepe my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary No Sanctuary no Sabbath Now and not till now God hath a separated people unto himself and the Sabbath we know was given them as a pledge and seale of this separation Therefore the Prophet Speaking of the great favours of God to this people as distinguished from others saith b Ezek. 20.12 moreover I gave them my Sabbaths to be a signe betweene me and them that I am the Lord that sanctify them Where first the prophet speakes of them Emphatically he gave his Sabbaths to them and none but them to be a signe between him and them and none but them that he doth sanctify them and none but them and all this when he lifted up his hand unto them to deliver them Secondly he speaks of Sabbaths in the plurall number meaning all their three sorts of Sabbaths of daies months and yeares all which are made the signes and pledges of their separation That this is the common exposition of that place by all but himselfe is confessed by a Aliqui consent dici hic Sabbatha in plurali ut significet triplex Sabbathum primum dierum quod proprie dicebatur Sabbathum secundum mesium tertium annorum nam Sabbata haec o ania dedit Deus Iudaeis in signum salutis quietis danâ—â— per Christum Cor. Lap. Cornelius à Lapide the Iesuite as great an enemy to this destination as any other But if any list to be contentious herein declining this place as they doe that of the Colossians as if the prophet spake not of their weekly Sabbath but only of their other feasts the words of b Neh. 9.13.14 Nehemiah seeme to me as cleare as the noone-day saying thou madest knowne unto them thy holy sabbath the weekly sabbath and commandest them precepts and ordinances and lawes by the hand of Moses thy servant God we see made known now unto them not unto their fathers this weekly Sabbath by the hand of Moses his servant Ob. If any say it was now made known unto them only by way of remembrance reviving that old ordinance of his which had now been a long time intermitted by reason of their bondage in Egypt Sol. I answere that our Sabbatharians when it serves their purpose tell us that this law of the Sabbath and the practice thereof was ever on foot from the begining amongst the very heathen by the light of nature and that from hence the number of seven came to be so highly magnified amongst them if this be so it s in vaine to tell us now that the Sabbath was either forgotten or neglected especially in Egypt where all kind of knowledge at this time flourished how can that be revived which never perished Ob. You will perhaps reply to that place in Nehemiah that the whole morall law was given unto Israel by the hand of Moses in the wildernesse may we from hence conclude that therefore they never were in the world till then in precept or practice Sol. I answere that the text it selfe puts a remarkable difference between the other commandements of the decalogue and this of the Sabbath named there as the head of the Ceremonials and Iudicials For those words thou madst known unto them thy holy Sabbath and commandedst them precepts and ordinances and laws by the hand of Moses thy servant cannot in any congruity be understood of the morals which are immediatly engraven upon the conscience and I thinke are no where said to be made known by the hand of Moses But let this be granted yet let it be considered what he saith in the words immediatly going before Thou camest downe also upon mount Sinai and spakest unto them from heaven and gavest them right judgements and true lawes good statutes and commandements and then I conceive we may well conclude that when he addeth and thou madest knowen unto them thy holy Sabbath and commandedst them precepts and ordinances and lawes by the hand of Moses thy servant either he meaneth the same lawes spoken of immediatly before which were such a tautology as I think cannot be paraleld in Scripture or that the text apparently distinguisheth between the morals in the thirteenth and the ceremonials and Iudicialls of which the Sabbath was head in the fourteenth verse Ob. Fiftly it is objected that the words of the commandement in the twentieth of Exodus have expresse relation to the words of the story Genesis the second and that therefore the word Remember bids them look back to what God had appointed from the begining Now the words of the commandement speake not of any destination but of an institution therefore that also in Genesis must so be understood Answ I answere that since the booke of Genesis was written after the law was given as most of the learned acknowledge and were very easy to be demonstrated the contrary is most true that the words Gen. the second have relation to the words of Exodus the twentieth as being first written in the tables of stone and from thence transferred by the historian Neither doth the word
Remember which is more frequently then solidly insisted upon look to the practice of former ages and Gods institution from the begining but is a plaine caveat if men list to see it for the time to come And I appeale to common sence how the words remember thou keepe holy the Sabbath day can be construed remember how your fathers kept it or how God did institute it from the begining It is far more rationally said by some of our adversaries in this point that Remember is added to this and to no other commandement of the decalogue as for other reasons so because of the ceremoniality thereof For they indeed were formerly practised by all man kind and were naturally though imperfectly knowne so that they could not be forgotten but this of the Sabbath was a new ordinance of another nature and made known by the hand of Moses It was withall the chiefe of all the ceremonies containing in the mystery thereof the Epitome of Gods mercies in Christ in whom the father blesseth us with all spirituall blessings therefore is this Remember thus prefixed Object Lastly it is said that the sixe daies of Gods working were presently exemplary unto Adam even in the state of inocency and therefore as soone as he was created he was set to dresse the garden and to worke therein in imitation of Gods working There is the like reason of Gods resting as of his working that the one should be exemplary as well as the other no doubt therefore but that this was injoyned him as well as that Ans I answere that here I must confesse my ignorance for how Gods working on the sixe daies was exemplary to Adam in the state of innocency as binding him to follow Gods example herein I understand not Sure I am it hath no footing in Scriptures and is spoken gratìs and the whole argument a pari is a meere fancy Especially considering that as Calvin hath well observed Gods example recorded in the commandement binds not us at this day though in the estate of corruption For the words of the commandement sixe daies shalt thou labour are not preceptive but only permissive And a Pro sua â—bertate permittit Neque enim ut inscitè quidam putârunt exigit sex dierum laborem sedipsà facilitate â—oâ— ad parendum allicit Calv. in Exod. Calvin bitterly but justly derides those that expound them otherwise saying God doth not as some have ignorantly thought exact of his people the labour of sixe daies but allures them by the facility of that which he requires to obey the command If those words therefore set not a binding precedent before us but permit us only to follow our occasions on the sixe daies as shall seeme good unto us much lesse was Gods example preceptive unto Adam in that condition Vntill therefore something else shall be more substantially alleadged I shall ever read with Musculus sanctified that is destinated for time to come To conclude whereas the argument might seeme to be inforced from the particle So in the Originall it is only a copulative our last translation therefore reads it And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it To the second be it granted that the word in the originall be the same which is elsewhere used for holy convocations and that God when he made those great lights had an eye to this their use to which also he afterwards appointed them in the new moones and other festivals of the Iews yet from hence to inferre that from the begining there were such times thus observed by the course of those great lights draws blood from the text For this was neither a principall nor naturall end of their creation Though therefore God did appoint the Iewes in their solemne feasts to be guided by the Moone yet we see the Christians follow no such directions If this had been either a principall or a naturall end of the moone from the begining surely that which was naturall is become mutable and we that looke not to this use of the Moone in our times of holy convocations save only in a few moveable feasts are most unnaturall The whole argument thus grounded upon the signification of the word is in all the parts thereof unsound To the testimony of the Apostle Heb. 4. the Iesuit a Hinc satis clare elicitur evincitus Sabbathi cultum requiem in usu fuisse apud homines ab origine mundi aliâ—s vim non haberet discursus argumentum Pauli Corn. à Lap. in loc Cornelius à Lapide saith it is by this place cleerely evinced that the Sabbath was in use amongst men from the begining or else the whole discourse of the Apostle in that place is overthrowne For tryall whereof and clearing of this Scripture we must first set downe the Iesuits deduction and then compare it with the text out of which it is deduced The words of the Apostle are We which have beleeved doe enter into rest as it is said As I have sworne in my wrath if they enter into my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world These words b Est occupatio per quam ascendit Apostolus ad explicandam anagogen Sabbathi c. saith he are brought in by way of preoccupation wherein the Apostle ascendeth in his discourse to explaine the anagogicall meaning of the Sabbath and from the rest thereof and that of Canaan to prove that there remaineth to the true believers a third rest in heaven As if the Apostle should have said c Quod duplex requies promissa fuit patribus nostris primarequies fuit Sabbathi God did heretofore promise a twofold rest unto our fathers the first of the Sabbath in which he commanded them to rest from their daily labours the second of Canaan where he gave them rest from all their enemies But David speaks Psal 9â— neither of the test of the Sabbath because all men were already brought into that rest from the begining of the world when God having perfected the creation commanded men to rest therein in imitation of his rest neither doth the Apostle speak of therest of Canaan as appears v. 7.8 therefore a third rest is there meant by the Prophet even the rest of heaven If this be compared with the Text it will be found out of square in three things First in that he makes the Sabbath to be a promise to the Patriarches but where doe we finde any such promise Nay how could it be a promise if instituted in paradise For a promise is of a thing to come not already in being Secondly the Apostle speaks of those rests which were given the Iewes as types and figures of our spirituall rest but the Iesuit affirmes the Sabbath not to have been given to the Iews but man kind from the begining which indeed overthroweth the whole scope of the Apostle Lastly the maine intention of the Apostle is mistaken which is not to explaine the Anagogicall or heavenly
of the law giving men sixe for one for God ever was and ever will be alike liberall to all men in all ages in this kind The second drawn from Gods interest in the seventh day The Seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord and what sons of Adam are exempted from giving God his owne The third is Gods example proposed for our imitation for all men are bound by the very light of nature to be followers of God as deare children The fourth is the promise which is made therein For it will be as blessed a day or a day as full of blessing unto us if we sanctify it as ever it was to the Iews God being not lesse good nor his grace lesse powerfull nor his promise lesse sure The fift is the ease refreshing of our servants and beasts to whom Christians must not be lesse mercifull then the Iews Lastly the Sabbath taught them that they were the Lords people and no man will say but that we also are so by as many and by more strong tyes and relations then were ever any Ergo c. Sixtly the law Ceremoniall and Iudiciall were given only to the Iewes and such as were circumcised but the fourth commandement was directed not only to those within the covenant but also to strangers and aliens The strangers within thy gates And upon this ground a Neh. 13.16 Nehemiah reproved the Tyrian Merchants which were strangers therefore c. Seventhly from the words of Christ in the Gospell b Mat. 24.20 pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day Those words were spoken to the disciples foreshewing that if their flight should happen to befall them on the Sabbath their affliction would thereby be increased But if the fourth commandement be not Morall what addition of sorrow had it been if their flight had befallen them that day Christians and such were the disciples need not trouble themselves about a law Ceremoniall Thus then That commandement the breaking whereof might justly grieve a Christian forced thereunto by flight is doubtlesse morall but the fourth commandement is such therefore c. Eightly that commandement against which humane corruptions doe especially arise and band themselves both in the Godly and the wicked must needs be morall but our corruptions doe chiefly fight against the Sabbath as the Godly feele by experience in themselves and experience doth also make evident in the wicked of the world therefore c. Ninthly that cannot be a truth of God which overthrowes all religion le ts in Atheisme Epicureisme and all prophanesse no good tree can bring forth such evill fruit But that doctrine which denieth the morality of the Sabbath overthroweth all religion le ts in Epicureisme and Prophanesse as appeares in those Churches wherein it is taught in forraine parts Ergo. Tenthly that wich the Church of England teacheth in her Homilies ought to be held for truth by all the obedient children of that Church but the morality of the Sabbath is that which the Church of England teacheth in her Homily of the time and place of prayer as will appeare to every one that will read the same Therefore all the obedient children of the Church of England ought to acknowledge it to be true Eleventhly if you make the fourth commandement Ceremoniall you make the Church of England guilty of Iudaisme For that Church which readeth to her children a Ceremoniall Law and commands them to kneele whilst it is read in acknowledgment of their subjection thereunto and at the end to pray Lord have mercy vpon us and incline our hearts to keep this law cannot but be a Iewish Church But the Church of England thus teacheth her children Ergo. Twelfthly unlesse the fourth commandement be morall there will be but nine commandements in the Decalogue which is contrary not only to the received opinion of all men but to the calculation of the whole Catholique Church in all ages and is no meane Sacriledge to affirme Ergo. Thirteenthly that which is taught by men which are most spirituall and alone discerne the things of God must needs be true and so on the contrary But the Morality of the Sabbath is taught by men that are most spirituall the contrary by men that are carnall therefore c. Lastly we have the authority of all our English writers almost ever since the reformation unto this time neither was it hitherto ever contradicted for at least these threescore and ten yeares unlesse by Papists Anabaptists or Familists Ergo. CHAP. VII In which are set downe the arguments for the negative THe negative tenent hath also its arguments which in the next place must be produced and First it is alleadged That commandement over which Christ was absolute Lord as he was the sonne of man is not morall for a morall precept is part of Gods eternall law over which the sonne of man can have no power being made under the law But Christ as the sonne of man was Lord of the Sabbath as himselfe upon two sundry occasions hath twice told us Math. 12. Mark 2. To these Texts these exceptions have been made 1 Excep 1. That this phrase doth no more import the Sabbath to be a ceremony then the same used by the Apostle doth conclude the dead and the living to be a ceremony for he rose againe that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living But this is to play with the ambiguity of the word it 's one thing to be Lord of the Church to guide governe perfect quicken raise glorify her for this is the meaning of the Apostle upon which that in the Ephesians may seeme as a comment Eph. 1.20.21.22 And another thing to be Lord of the Law or constitution to moderate dispence order alter abolish for in what other construction can any one be said to be Lord of a law 2 Except 2. It is said that Christ did not intend by these words of his any such Lordship because he did not then abrogate the Sabbath Nor is this to the purpose for never any man yet dreamed that Christ did in those words abolish the Sabbath for both it and the rest of the legall ordinances were in force till they were nailed with him to the Crosse 3 Except 3. It is excepted that our Saviour in those words doth only dispence with his Disciples in that particular case and challenge to himselfe the power and prerogative of expounding the Law against the Pharisees who pretended only to the Chayre and to give interpretations of the Law But to satisfy this also and to cleare the Text we affirme 1 That Christ doth not there or in any other place ever dispence with the law in himselfe or any other for he took upon him the form of a servant and came not to break the Law but to fulfill it 2 That in those words Christ doth not intend to expound the law only for this he had done before by the example of David and by the
can be pleaded to make it lawfull A man must not lye no though it be a holy fraud Commit Idolatry Rebellion Murther Theft to save his life nay his soule or a thousand soules But the fourth Commandement admits of many excuses and dispensations and that when neither Charity Piety nor necessity require I never heard a Physitian blamed for tending his Patient on the Sabbath though not in extream danger nor a Sheepheard condemned for following or folding his flock upon that day yet the folding of Sheep is neither a worke of Piety towards God nor mercy to the cattell which would be better unfolded only it 's a matter of profit to the owner The c Laurent in Tert. advers Iudaeos ex Rabbinâ—s in Ios c. 6. Iewish Rabbins tell us that the children of Israel never kept but the first Sabbath during their whole pilgrimage in the wildernesse No man will say they were forced by necessity to this long intermission d Chrysost ib. St Chrysostome is of opinion e Abraham cuÌ„m consensiâ— occidere filiuÌ„ non consensic in homicidium quia debitum erat eum occidi per mandatum Die qui est dominus vitae mortis Aquin 12. q. 100. art 8 ad 3. how justly I say not that our Saviour in his own person brake the Sabbath when no occasion compelled him thereunto As when he made clay with his spittle for the blind mans eyes If any object that even morall lawes admit of dispensations as in the case of Abraham who was commanded to sacrifice his owne sonne and of the Israelites who were also commanded to robbe and spoile the Egyptians The f Communitèr dicitur quòd Deus mutare potest materiam praeceptorum sed manente materiâ non potest dispensare Vig. c. 15. v. 7. Schoolemen have long since untied this knot distinguishing between the dispensation of the law and the mutation or change of the thing concerning which the commandement is given And this change of the thing may be made in regard of some of the commandements by the omnipotent soveraignty of the Lord but not in others God by prerogative royall over all create beings may call for any mans life by the hands of whom he pleaseth as in Abrahams case He may likewise deprive any man of his propriety in any of his goods and so give them as a prey to another as in Israels case But God cannot change the matter of other Commandements as make himselfe more Gods then one or worthy to be dishonoured So then in the forenamed particulars there was no dispensation in the commandement but an alteration in the things And the reason of this distinction is plaine for had the Egyptians continued the lawfull owners of their Iewels and ray ment the Israelites must have been theeues keeping them from them without their consents God can no more make theft to be no theft then deny himselfe Object But perhaps you will say that the matter of the fourth commandement is also changed in the former instances the law not dispensed with at all Ans I answere that the matter of the fourth commandement is the seventh day the sanctifying thereof the forme but how the seventh day can be changed and not be the seventh day to the Physitian or sheepheard or any other is not imagineable Omne quod est dum est necessariò est Whatsoever hath being whilest it hath being must necessarily be that which it is Seventhly whatsoever is contained under the name of legall sacrifice in the old Testament is not morall for not only the Leviticall sacrifices but even those which were offered by Adam and the Patriarches were Ceremoniall But the Sabbath is referred unto this head by g Mat. 9.13 vide Mald. in locum In voce Misericordiâ Synecdoche est notando nam sub hoc nomine Christus omnia humanitatis officia comprehendit ut nomine sacrisicâ—â— omnes caeremonias quiequid est externum Marlor Christ himselfe disputing with the Pharisees and citeing against them the Prophet Hosea For as under mercy are comprehended all works of love to our neighbours so under the title of sacrifice are contained all the rites of the Mosaicall Law Eightly that Commandement for the observing whereof man was not made is not Morall h Ordinatur homo ad Deum non per interiores actus mentis sid etâ—am per exteriora opera quibus divâ—â—am servitutem prositetur ista opera cultus Caeremonia vocatur Aquin. 1. 2â— q. 99. art 3. in corp for therefore God made man that by the observation of the Morall Law he should beare his own image in the world serving him in righteousnesse and holinesse to the glory of his Creator But man was not made to keep the Sabbath in regard of any circumstances of the commandement but on the contrary the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Therefore c. Ninthly that Law which determines Ecclesiasticall rites and ceremonies prescribing set times of holy worship and the outward solemnities there of is not Morall but Ceremoniall This I take to be a Theologicall Maxime among all sorts i Lex Caeremontalis est quae praescribit riâ—us Ecclesiasticos externas Caereinonias sacrificia vasa loca tempera But. loc com of Divines the reason is because the law Morall being the same with that of Nature doth not descend to any particular circumstances But the fourth commandement prescribes and determines set and particular times of holy worship and the outward solemnities of the same saying the seventh is the sabbath in it thon shalt doe no manner of work Therefore c. Lastly may be produced many witnesses of all kinds * Ignat. Ep. ad Magnes Ignatius saith that old things are passed away applies it to the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement k In quibus fingulis lex non dicam impossibilis infirma sed planè ià m mortâ—ae Orig lib. 6. in Rom. cap. 8. Origen upon these words of the Apostle the law was weak through the flesh expounds it of the Ceremoniall law which saith he understood according to the letter and so observed was weak and not able to doe us good His first instance is in the law of the Sabbath l Tertul. adversus Iudoeos Tertullian calleth it a Temporall Sabbath m Iam temporegratic revelatâ— observatio illa Sabbathi quae unius dici vacatione figurabatur ablata est ab observatione fidelium Aug. in Gen. ad lit lib. 4. c. 11. S. Augustine doth every where distinguish the fourth from the other as being Ceremoniall and not belonging to the new Testament n Hier. lib. 28. in Galatas S. Ierome makes it a Iewish observation o Literalis illa observatie Sabbathi sonantis requiem non dantis indictus saerisifciorum ritus interdictus porcinae carnis esus pluvia est ex illa nube Mosi descendens sed nolo in hortum meum descendat Bern.
the Sabbath day Doct. Hollands Apology for the Queenes day folded up the whole Ceremoniall worship for so Sabbath is sometimes taken it might well challenge its place amongst the Moralis both in the Tables and in the Arke that so the whole Law Morall and Ceremoniall might at once be preserved together unto which Gods covenant did equally oblige the people of the Iewes To the third that this Commandement is naturally engraven upon the hearts of the Heathen is utterly untrue And whereas it is said in confirmation thereof that the Heathens generally admired the number of seven we nothing doubt thereof but to inferre that therfore they acknowledged the Sabbath for a naturall law were too loose a consequence The number of three was I thinke in as great esteem amongst them as the number of seven it were a pittifull inference therefore they naturally discerned the blessed Trinity The like may be said of the number of ten may we therefore say they knew there were ten commandements It is true that g Clemens Alexand Strom. lib. 5. Clemens Alexandrinus brings many authorities out of Homer Hesiod Callimachus to prove that the very Heathen knew the seventh day was to be kept holy But how As Naturall and Morall Nothing lesse but to shew that the wisest of the Heathens were theeves of holy things having stolne them out of Moses writings for these they had translated Or Israels practice and this is the maine scope of that place alleaged out of the fift book of his Stromata and therefore he doth not only instance in the seventh-day Sabbath but in the article of the Trinity the resurrection of the body the fire of the last day and the judgement following Besides that the Heathen in all ages gave great heed unto numbers is confessed But whence Not from any light of nature which directed them but partly from the delusions of Sathan in Sorcery Geomancy and curious arts partly from Pythagorean superstition and partly from their own experiments observations To insist a little upon the latter whence did they admire the number of three but that they observed there were three principles of every naturall body matter forme privation three kinds of soules that informed those bodies vegetative sensitive and rationall three sorts of good things which compleated the happinesse both of soule and body three regions of the soule like the three regions of the aire and thus they collected tria sunt omnia all things consist of three The number of ten was also in esteem and because ten is the greatest amongst the unites they conceited this to be the number of greatnesse even to the tenth egge of an hen and the tenth wave of the Sea But the Poet sets down their observations men have i Hic numerus magno tunc in honore fuit Seu quia tot ligiti per quos numerate solemus Ovid Fast 3. ten fingers women goe with child ten months when we have told unto ten we must begin again with the unites As for the number of seven they held it sacred and the number of perfection but k Gellius Noct. Attic. lib. 3. cap. 8. Gellius shews out of Varro whence they made that collection as seven Planets seven starres the Moone varieth her course by sevens mans conception in the womb is absolved in seven daies all his proportions are perfectly formed in seven weekes he is safely borne in seven months but he that is borne in the eight month never lives every seventh yeare is their climacterical the arteries of mans body keep a kind of musicall motion to the number of seven and a world of such stuffe Not only the Heathens but the Fathers themselves have exercised their wits but wantonly this way l Ego ad Deum potius argumentabor hune modum temporis ut decem menses decalogo magis inaugurent hominem ut tanto temporis numero nascamur quanto disciplinae numero renascimur Sed cum septimo mense nativitas plena est facilius quam octavo honorem Sabbathi agnoscam Tertul. lib. de Anima â— cap. 37. Tertullian speaking of mans nativity in the seventh and tenth month though he will not superstitiously attribute any thing to the force of numbers yet he dares say that God by the tenth would acquaint man with the ten Commandements and by the seventh honour the institution of the Sabbath m Septenarius iste numerus ex quaternario ternario constans habet ex partibus suis excellentiam maximam ternarius Creatorem propter Trinitatem enunciat quaternarius Creaturam propter quatur Elementa Cyp. de Spiritu Sancto S. Cyprian also speaking of the giving the Law upon the day of Pentecost saith there is a great mystery contained in that number for seven times seven with the addition of one unity makes the Pentecost in which the nine and forty are an embleme of this life and the unity of the life which is to come And that you may think he had great reason to call it the holy number he proves it to be so from the parts of which it doth consist foure and three for three is the number of the holy Trinity by whom all things were created and foure the number of the Elements of which they were made with much more to this purpose But what poore speculations are these to sway any mans reason in a point of Religion I leave to the judgement of any sober minded man It borders upon superstition and Cabalisticall Iudaisme to be observant of numbers which the holy Ghost hath not commended unto us for mysticall as the weekes of Daniell and the number of the beast To the fourth the letter of the Sabbath hath not one much lesse all those characters of Morality which are set down not to question the things themselves That God should have tribute of our time for publique worship was never by any man denied to be naturall and morall but for the determination of one in seven of this one more then of another that it must be a whole naturall day of twenty foure houres that it must be thus and thus observed and all these grounded upon Gods rest at the Creation hath no character of Morality at all That the wiser of the Heathen taught and practised most of them is confessed but as stolne amongst other holy things as hath been shewed The Law of the Sabbath appertained not to all nations neither did God give it unto mankind in Adam nor was it ever intended to any but to the Iewes as an especiall pledge to distinguish them from other nations That those things which are laid down in the letter of the law are necessary directions unto perfect happinesse hath lesse ground then the former for let any man shew how the number of seven doth guide to happinesse more then three five ten or to begin the day rather at night then in the morning or to doe no manner of work till this appear this argument
or lessen the time appointed by the Church for holy duties but this makes no more for twenty foure houres then it doth for forty or fifty or any other It is all men will confesse sacriledge to rob God of his time but it must be made to appear that God hath claimed unto himselfe this time in question till when nothing can be concluded The fourth indeed were unanswerable if the case were as is pretended between us and the Iewes But First the ground upon which this argument is builded is sandy for it supposeth that God appointed them from Evening to Evening to contemplate the mysteries of Godlinesse and mercies vouchsafed unto them whereas it was both memorative and mysticall as hath been proved neither did they spend the night of their Sabbath in contemplation but in bodily Rest Secondly it is utterly untrue that we under the Gospell have more work for the Lords day then the Iewes had for their Sabbath For as e Lib. 4. c. 4. Eusebius observes their religion was the same with Christian Religion which at this day we professe f 1. Cor. 10.2 For they all were baptized unto Moses and did all eat of the same spirituall meat and drink of the same spirituall Rock which was Christ his meaning is that the body and substance was the same only it was cloathed with many shadowes and as the Apostle cals them * Gal. 4.9 Beggarly rudiments so that their Sabbath daies work was in this respect as much as our Lords can be Thirdly I say it was much greater for how cumbersome was Gods worship to them by Sacrificings Purifyings Washings How did God seem to hide himselfe and his mercies from them in Types and figures whereas he reveales himselfe to us even in the face of Iesus Christ * 2. Cor. 3. And not only Moses had a vaile put upon him * 3.15 but also their hearts which remaineth unto this day There was also a restraint of Gods spirit unto them as of the raine in the daies of Elias whereas now the fountaine is opened and the spirit powred out All men know that when any thing is enquired after it is sooner found when it lies open then when it is hid by a man of understanding then by a child one that hath eyes to see then by one that is hoodwinked by one that hath many helpes then by one that hath none So is it between the Iewes and us in holy things This argument therefore is a meere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither can any more prevaricating reason be produced To the fift it were to be wished that Scripture might be handled if not with more reverence yet with greater gentlenesse not thus to be racked The 92. Psalme was the Psalme of the Sabbath and it makes mention of night and day to be spent in the Lords prayses But what then will any reasonable man imagine that they then had night meetings in the Temple or sate up late in their families that night Those times of morning and evening if we restraine them as spoken of the Sabbath day are metonymically to be understood for the whole worship of God whensoever performed upon that day and are as much as when we say Morning-prayer and Evening-prayer But farther notwithstanding the Psalme was the Sabbath-Psalme yet whatsoever is therein contained may not respectively be spoken of the Sabbath only And this is i Tantùm vult docere nisi nos nostra socordia impediat nunquam deesie argumentum laudandi Deum nec verè defungi officio gratitudinis nisi in eo siâ—â—us assidui sicut ipse bonitatem fidem erga nos perpetuat Calvin in locum Mr Calvins observation upon the very words alleadged affirming that day and night are there put in indefinitely for all times whatsoever as appears saith he by that which followes For his loving kindnesse and his truth are alwaies towards us But as those that have yellow eyes think every thing to be of that colour so these men cannot meet with the Lord to be praised night and day especially in the Sabbath-Psalme but it must presently conclude a foure and twenty houres-Sabbath To the sixt as Gods rest began so must ours is a proposition Atheologicall For the Iewes themselves who observed the Sabbath in imitation of Gods Rest looked not at their patterne in this particular but only at their deliverance out of Egypt into which deliverance they entred when they sacrificed the Passover The example of God is not proposed without limitation in the Commandement he so rested as that he never since returned to his labours from which he rested he so rested as that he blessed it in neither of which ought we to presume to imitate his Rest Lastly I wonder how the example of Gods rest proposed in the Commandement can concerne our Lords day which was not the day of the Lords Rest but the begining of his labours The seventh is not much unlike First therefore we observe not the Lords day in memory of Christs resting in the grave For though in some respects he may then be said to have entred into Rest yet was the grave part of his humiliation also and our Redemption and no compleat and perfect Rest Secondly let it be supposed that the grave to Christ was only a place of Rest and that he entred thereinto over-night what is this to a twenty foure houres-Sabbath unlesse perhaps Christ rested but just so many houres in the Grave but how then was he three daies and three nights in the Bowels of the earth This therefore is a meere pretence no proof The eight drawn from Apostolicall practice is in all parts thereof unsound Plaine it is that Apostolicall practice binds not the conscience but where there is a precept annexed Nay where there is a precept annexed both precept and practice may be as they say ambulatorium in lege of no lasting continuance But in this point we have neither precept nor practice either for the present or for after ages I presume that no man well considering the place alleadged can deny what k Curavit scriptor libri causam producendi sermonem produ cere Aug. epist 86. ad Cus S. Austine long since observed that S. Paul at that time took the advantage of the present occasion and necessity and not otherwise Sure I am that if the Apostles practice there recorded were a president for us to follow neither the whole Church of God can be excused who never since hath observed such a Sabbath nor the Apostle himselfe can be acquitted who for ought we read never did the like before or after in any part of the world Besides all this l Calv. in locum Mr Calvin thinks that the day there spoken of was the Iewes Sabbath not the Lords day reading in stead of uno Sabbathorum quodam Sabbatho upon a certain Sabbath day not Lords day But if any list to be contentions herein sure wee are out of
the latter and clean contrary to that of o Ignatìus Ep. ad Magne sianos circa medium epistolae Ignatius who lived wrote in the purest times styling it the Queene of daies Therefore c. Thirteenthly It 's only the divine prerogative of God himselfe to put holinesse into times and daies for he only is the fountaine of holinesse But the Lords day is an Holy-day and hath holinesse in it more then other daies whence it is that the Fathers frequently call it Sacred Mysticall Religiously to be observed Therefore doubtlesse made holy by God himselfe Fourteenthly None can appoint any thing to be a part of Gods worship in the Church but Christ who is the head of the Church to rule and govern her who can command the spouse but the husband But the observation of the Lords day is a speciall branch of Gods worship in the Church therefore none can none ought to institute it but Christ himselfe Fifteenthly There being a change of the Priesthood there was also a change of the Law saith the p Heb. 7.12 Apostle * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word there used in the Originall signifieth the transposing of things one being put in the room and steed of another But the Iewes Sabbath was one of those things thus to be exchanged being Ceremoniall therefore our high Priest put an other in the room thereof but no other therefore the Lords day Sixteenthly Only Christ is Lord of the Sabbath to appoint and dispose thereof as he thinks good the Church can claim no such Lordship but the Sabbath is changed and another appointed in the place thereof which the whole Church observeth this change therefore was made by Christ not the Church Seventeenthly Old things are passed away all things are become new so the q 2. Cor. 5.17 Apostle The meaning is that Christ hath made all things new in his Church as new Creatures new Man new Covenant new Commandement new Way new Names new Song new Garments new Hierusalem new Heaven new Earth But unlesse Christ hath also made a new Sabbath he hath not made all things new Ergo c. Eighteenthly It is no way to be beleeved that Christ would leave his Church under the Gospell in worse condition then he found the Synagogue under Moses But if Christ left not his Church under the Gospell a Sabbath of Divine Institution he left it in a farre worse condition then he found the Synagogue which received a Sabbath from God himself as a speciall token of his love Ergo c. Ninteenthly If Christ hath left us no day of his own appointment and Institution it were our safest way to turne Iewes as some have done upon this very motive at least in this point for the Iewes day we are well assured was from God but we may say of the Lords day as they did of the Lord himselfe we know not whence it is But no man will say it is best for us to turne Iewes in this point Ergo c. Twentiethly The very Name is a sufficient demonstration of a Divine Institution for all things belonging to Gods worship which have the Lords own name stamped upon them were ordained by the Lord himselfe as the Lords Prayer the Lords Supper c. But the observation of the Christian Sabbath is a thing appertaining to Gods worship and hath the Lords own name engraven upon it by the r Rev. 1.10 holy Ghost himselfe Ergo c. The one and Twentieth That which Christ did immediatly institute in his own person and with his own mouth ordaine must needs be of divine institution But that Christ did immediatly in his own person institute the Lords day the * Ioh. 20.19.22 Evangelist makes apparent for he came into the midst of his Disciples the holy assembly the two first daies of the two first weekes then he blessed them breathed on them gave them the keyes of the Kingdome It 's very likely he did this every first day of the week from his Resurrection to his Assension * Act. 1.2.3 speaking unto them the things appertaining to the Kingdome of God Ergo c. The two and twentieth Christ whiles he was upon the earth after his Resurrection gaue the Apostles instruction and commands Acts 1.2 what these commands were may be knowne say Divines partly by their Doctrine and partly by their practice But if Christ gaue them such commands as is most apparent without question he would not omit to command them a day to remember him and his Resurrection in and to performe vnto him holy worship nay that this he did appeares also by their practice Ergo. The three and twentieth makes it more evident thus Whatsoeuer is an Apostolicall tradition is of Divine Institution for they deliuered nothing but what they first receiued But the Lords-daies obseruation is certainly an Apostolicall tradition * 1. Cor. 10. ◠for they appointed collections to be made for the poore that day the ordaining of the one doth necessarily inferre the other the duty of the day supposeth the day And withall this day hath been constantly obserued by the whole Church in all ages and that without the authority of any generall Councell the very definition of an Apostolicall tradition deliuered by ſ Illa quae non scripta sed tradita custodimus quae quidè toto terrarum orbe observantur Aug. ad Ian. ep 118. S. Augustine Ergo. The foure and twentieth If the Lords day were not of Christs institution to his Apostles then surely they by their practice haue drawne the Church of Christ into an horrible presumption as great as that of Ieroboam Antiochus and Antichrist himselfe changing times and seasons But God forbid any man should thinke so uncharitably of the Apostles therefore certainly they receiued warrant for what they did from Christ himselfe The fiue and twentieth If we keepe the Lords day warranted thereunto only by the Apostles practice for which they themselues receiued no precept then by the same reason we haue only the Apostles practice for abolishing the Iewes Saturday-Sabbath But we forbeare not Saturday-Sabbath only upon the Apostles practice and example for which doubtlesse they receiued a precept And indeed the examples of holy men not seconded by precepts shew what we may doe the case being the same not what we must doe Now the Church not only may but must forbeare Satterday-Sabbath and obserue the Lords day Ergo c. The six and twentieth That day on which the holy Ghost was giuen with all his graces with such efficacy that * Acts 2.41 S. Peter immediately with one short Sermon conuerted three thousand soules must needs be a day of Christs owne Instituting But this day was the Lords day the day of Pentecost Ergo c. The seuen and twentieth That day on which Christ reuealed himselfe unto S. Iohn acquainting him with his whole counsell concerning his Church to the worlds end was doubtlesse a day
nothing more then when they come to specificate their tenent and shew how it is divine Sure it is that whatsoever is of divine ordination must be so either from God the Father in the law of nature or some positive precept of the old Testament Or from God the Sonne in some precept of the Gospell or from God the holy Ghost inspiring the Apostles * Iohn 16.13 leading them according to the promise of Christ into all truth Some therefore affirme a divine institution of the Lords day from God the Father grounding themselves upon the morality of the letter of the fourth commandement But this savouring too much of Iudaisme and the commandement speaking precisely of another day is generally exploded Others therefore pretend an institution from God the Sonne by Evangelicall law but being required to shew some word of Christs establishing this observation faile in their proof and are taken upon a Nihil dicit The third opinion therefore is now become most universall viz. That it is an institution from God the holy Ghost in and by the Apostles And this tenent is wisely taken up it being such a hiding place out of which men cannot so easily be drawn as out of the former especially considering that they extend to this purpose Apostolicall inspirations to the uttermost latitude for they were inspired say they what and how to teach the Church in all things And these inspirations whensoever they became notified to the Church were and are to be esteemed divine institution whether written or not written in Scriptures wherein they seeme to imitate young Respondents in Philosophy who use to shelter themselves under the secret qualities of naturall things which they know their Opponents cannot easily discover Or rather they are glad to plow with a Popish Heifar Tradition of which a Sacra nostrorum anchora est ubi nulla suppetat nostrarum falsitatum probatio Spal 2. de repub c. 11 ◠51. Spalatensis saith It is the very sacred anchor on which our men rely when they know not how otherwise to defend their falsehoods and against which themselves also have made ample invectives For the better clearing therefore of this point it is necessary something be said First of Apostolicall inspirations Secondly of Apostolicall traditions Concerning the first the Apostles we all know sustain'd a threefold person For we may consider them either as Apostles by extraordinary mission sent to plant the Gospell or as ordinary Pastors to govern the Churches already planted or thirdly as private persons As Apostles they were infallibly inspired with all truths upon all occasions which might plant the kingdome of Christ and bring men unto the obedience of the faith the end of their mission being to beare abroad Christs name Acts 9.15 To this purpose they were also furnish't with the gifts of Tongues Miracles Healings Discerning of Spirits being immediatly directed by the holy Ghost As Pastors they had a twofold worke First to perform the duties of the man of God exhorting reproving correcting instructing in righteousnesse Secondly as Elders to rule well erecting such goverment in their planted Churches as might best sort with the times and states in which they lived Thus considered no doubt but they were also inspired but not in like manner nor measure as before For their inspirations as pastors were only such irradiations influences and concurrences of the Spirit as are afforded at this day to the Pastors of the Church unlesse by some personall miscarriages they procure unto themselves spirituall derelictions Thus the spirit is at this day present in all Ecclesiasticall Synods nay even with private ministers using the right meanes in their places even in their privat labours For the promise of Christ reacheth also unto them and he is present with them unto the end of the world Where notwithstanding we must remember that as all dictates of Ecclesiasticall Synods or dictates of private Pastors are not to be esteemed divine precepts because they are subject to error as daily experience makes it manifest even in such persons and assemblies as are most regular nay when their resolutions are most conformable to the word of God yet they are not divine ordinances So it must be conceived of the Apostles considered as the Churches Pastors without any impeachment at all to their Apostolicall dignitie We know that even the Apostles considered as Pastours were subject to mistake as appeares by b Gal. 3.11 St Peter who living at Antioch as a Pastour was iustly reproued by S. Paul how ever c Hoc excedit modum fraternae correptionis quae Praelatis à subditis debetur Aquin. in 4. sent dist 19. art 2. Stap. de Doct. princip c. 14. Stapleton and Aquinas gloze it for not walking as behoved a Pastor or Minister of the Gospell And in another place Paul and Barnabas consulting the Churches Pastors in what manner and with what company they should set about the worke of the Ministry dissented from one another and d Acts 15.39 that in such heat as it makes it apparent they were not both if either directed by the Spirit but as God by his providence overruleth affections bringing by them his owne purposes to passe Nay plaine also it is that although as they were Apostles they delivered nothing but what they had received yet as Pastors and governours of particular Churches they delivered some things of themselves not as dictates of Gods spirit So e 1. Cor. 7.6 V. 12. V. 25. V. 40. S. Paul I speake this by permission not of commandement to the rest speak I and not the Lord and I haue no commandement of the Lord and I giue my iudgment and againe after my iudgment Neither is f Non est consilium divini-spiritus sed pro eius maie state praeceptum Tert. Exhor ad Castit Tertullians glosse to be regarded for he was now infected with Montanisme when out of that Scripture to condemne all second Mariages as unlawfull he saith it is no advise but a binding precept for the Apostle speaks of himselfe and his owne judgment as contradistinct unto the Lord and the spirits revelation Ob. If any man say why then doth he adde that * V. 25. he hath obtayned mercy of the Lord to be faithfull and againe * V. 40. I thinke also that I haue the spirit of God Resp g Haec non absque Ironiâ dicta qua Pseudo-Apostolos taxat qui Paulum traducebant quasi alienus à spiritu Christi esset indignus qui coeteris Apostolis annumeretur Martyr in locu◠Peter Martyr will giue him satisfaction saying it was to adde the more weight and authority to his words in opposition to the false Apostles who were crept into the Church of Corinth and undervalved S. Pauls judgment But observe whether S. Paul to vindicate his reputation against them saith more or as much as some of our adversaries say of themselves upon all occasions when their dictates come to be
Synod and Fathers produced in the argument are nothing to the purpose For in the first place S. Cyprian is wilfully mistaken he treats in the place cited of Baptisme for Infants at two or three dayes old this Fidus a Bishop to whom he wrot held very unfit if not unlawfull for diverse reasons amongst the rest because circumcision was not administred unto any untill the eight day To this p Quod in Iadaticâ circumcisione carnali octavus dies observabatur sacramentum est in umbrâ in imagine nam quia octavus dies iâ—est post SabbathuÌ„ primus futurus erat nos viâ—iâ—icaret quo dominus resargeret circumcisâ—nem spiritualem daret hic dies praecessit in imagine Cyp. ad Fidum S. Cyprian replyes that to the Iewes the eight day was to be that where on Christ should rise and spiritually circumcise us the legall circumcision was given upon that day as a Type and figure thereof In which words of S. Cyprian we haue two Types and two things Typified first the carnall Circumcision is made a Type of the spiritual secondly the day wherein one was administred is made a Type of that day wherein the other should be performed but what is either of these to thâ— keeping of the Sabbath S. Augustine ad Ianuarium is no better handled for he saith indeed that the Type of the eight day was not unknowne to the Fathers filled with the spirit of prophecy for David hath a * Psal 118. Psalme intituled for the eight day Infants also were circumcised on that day A figure it was then and well knowne unto the Fathers but of what This followes expressely in S. Augustine of Christs resurrection and of our quickning and circumcision by him The q Inchoante noctis initio idest vespere Sabbathi c. 13. Omnibus mandamus Christi anis abstinere ab omni peccato ab omni opere carnali etiam â propriis coniugibus Ibid. Synod called Foro-Iuliensis commands divers things concerning the Lords day viz. to begin with Saturday Evening prayer to abstaine from all works sinnes companing of Men with their Wives c. Their reason is because the choysest of Gods mercies were vouchsafed unto the Church on this day they adde also that this is the Sabbath of the Lords delight spoken of by the Prophet * Isai 58.13 Isaiah for r Diceret taÌ„tùm Sabbathum non delicatum Jbid. saith the Synod had he spoken in that place of the Iewes Sabbath he would haue called it barely a Sabbath without any such attributes of delightfull or mine When this interpretation of the Prophet shall be averred by the Opponents we will thinke of an answer to this authority The Synod of Matiscon is more ancient then the former and purposely held concerning the Lords day here amongst other things we have this passage This is the perpetuall day of rest which is knowne by the law and the Prophets and insinuated unto us by the shaddow of the seventh day But that Synod intends no more then the former viz. That upon the day of Christs resurrection we were admitted into everlasting rest appeares evidently by that which followes it is Å¿ Iustum est ut hanc diem celebremus per quam facti sumus quod non fuimus Con. Matis ubi supra but equall therefore that we should celebrate this day by which we are made that which we were not Not therefore the keeping of the day it selfe but the mercies of the day peace and liberty in Christ is that which the Synod affirmes to be intimated unto us in the Type and to be knowne by the law and the Prophets To the fift the day of which the Psalmist speaks is literally the day wherein David was setled in his Kingdome and the unction of Samuell took effect As if the prophet should have said God long since annointed me to be King over his people but this was a day on which he decreed to settle me actually in my Kingdome There is no question but that Psalme is mystically spiritually to be understood as well as litterally of Christ and his Throne as of David and his Scepter one was a figure of the other I deny not also but that Davids day was a figure of Christs day though it did not appeare that David was setled in his Kingdome the same day of the week that Christ rose out of his grave But understand the place how we please all that can be gathered thence are but these three things First that God had in his counsell determined a sett day to performe his promise unto David making him King of Israel Secondly that God had also decreed a sett period of time wherein Christ should be exalted and set upon the Throne of his glory in the Kingdome of the Church Thirdly that as the Iewes had cause to rejoyce in the dayes of David God having given them a man after his own heart so the Christians have much more reason to rejoyce in Christ their King and to embrace the mercies of his glorious resurrection If any man now say that either the ancient or moderne Arnobius mentioned in the argument collect from hence the institution of the Lords day I answere they find it there instituted no otherwise then the whole Church hath ever found it viz. Logically because they ground the observation of the day upon the mercy of the day not morally as being formally and positively instituted either in that or any other Scripture To the sixt we have here a well known fallacy the effect being attributed to that which is no way the true cause thereof As when the wolfe in the fable quarrelled with the Lamb for troubling the water when the Lamb stood all the while below the Woolfe in the river And when the heathen in the daies of t Mala quae civitas pertulit Christo imputant bonâ— verò non imputant Christo nostro sed fato suo Aug. de civit lib. 10. c. 1. S. Austine charged the Christian religion to be the cause of the scourge of the Goths and Vandalls and all other evills which then afflicted the world But to returne to our Opponents I will only demand whether God doth not blesse his ordinance unto his people upon Lecture daies as well as upon Lords daies If not why are they in vaine so much frequented if so then evident it is that Gods ordinance may blesse the day and make it happy unto his people But the day doth not blesse the ordinance unto us the words in the Commandement hath blessed and sanctified are Exegetically put the one expounding the other To the seventh the example of God the Father resting from his works of creation was that indeed upon which the institution of the Iewes Sabbath was grounded but not the institution it selfe For to this there was required a law to be given which was not untill the daies of Moses and the fall of Manna in the wildernesse The
The former no man will affirme and for the latter if ever any such impression of Gods holinesse were communicated to any day doubtlesse it was to the seventh from the Creation But this in the time of the Gospell is accounted but as other common daies If any man say it may receive its holinesse from man sure we are that all the men in the world cannot make any creature in the world to be formally holy Daies are well stiled holy by accident and in regard of their end and appointment because set a part for holy things and no otherwise And this agrees not only to the Lords-day but to all Holy-daies whatsoever and that equally being all set apart by the same authority of the Church To the foureteenth the publique worship is an especiall part of our serving of God and in this the Church is to hearken only unâ—â— Christ her Soveraign Lord in regard of the 〈…〉 thereof but for ritualls and accidentals 〈…〉 liberty so all things be done decently and in order Who knowes not that the day wherein the worship is performed is meerely circumstantiall Only for orders sake least as b Hieron in Gal. 4. S. Hierom speaks the confused and unprescribed Assemblies should by degrees lessen the faith of men in Christ himselfe To the fifteenth it goes hard when to resolve a case of conscience men are forced to fly to Criticismes But if here a man should deny that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signify an exchange or putting of one thing in the room of another store of work would be cut out for Grammarians But this needs not for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to retract alter reverse as well as to exchange every man knowes We therefore grant that Christ hath brought in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having recalled and utterly abolished the Iewish Sabbath established in the letter of the fourth Commandement Furthermore I answere that if the exchange of the Priesthood had made only an exchange of the Law putting one thing in the roome of another Christian religion should now be as burthensome as the Iewish was heretofore in regard of the number though not for the quality of their observations which how absurd it is appears at first sight To the sixteenth we all acknowledge Christ to be the Lord of the Sabbath and of all things else in his Church The Iewish Sabbath also is abolished yet it followes not but this might be done by the authority of the Church For what doth he that is Lord in a house doe all things with his own hands In the house is nothing left to the power of wife and servants Christ indeed is Lord of the Church gives orders with his own mouth concerning things necessary and substantiall but he leaves ritualls and ceremonialls such as are time place manners of his worship to his wife and servants the Church and Magistrates To the seventeenth no man denies that * all things are become new so we take the rest of the text with us * 2. Cor. 5.17 old things are passed away for it was the passing of old things away which maketh all things to become new In the Gospell all things are become new no otherwise then the reformed religion is said to be new because it hath receded from the corruptions of Popery which had a long while stuck to the Church as an old ach lyes in the body The Ceremonies of Moses are vanished things themselves are exhibited and this is the novelty there spoken of But granting what the argument requireth that all things are become not only negatively but positively new as a new Testament a new and living way May not his spirit make other things new as new hearts new creatures May not the Church also make some thing new as new forme of goverment new exercise of publique worship with new circumstances thereof But as all things else are become new so I wish these men would leave their old abusing of Scripture and think of a new and better kind of reasoning To the eighteenth that Christ hath left his Church in worse estate then he found the Synagogue because he hath not burthened it with observations of dayes is a mystery in Divinity It is as if a man should say the Heire is in worst case when he is Lord of all then when being a Child he differed not from a servant because now he is no longer under Tutors and governours this is such a Paradox as few Wards will beleive To be freed from putting holynesse in dayes is part of the liberties of the Sonnes of God in which the Apostle wisheth * Gal. 5.1 vs to stand To the nineteenth To turne Iewes therefore in this poynt and upon this ground because they had a Sabbath of Gods owne appointing and we haue not were as great madnesse as for a Slaue that is once manumitted to returne unto bondage What if they had a day of Gods immediate appointment Had they not also Priests Vestments Sacrifices a set day of humiliation yearely c If it be best to turne Iewe in one why were it not so in all But this needes not for God hath hitherto and ever will giue vs our appointed Feasts though from men and by men as he giues vs Priests Altars Temples Sacrifices and all things belonging to his worship and service To the twentieth many things have the Lords name stampt upon them which never were of Gods immediate particular appointment Our Churches are called the houses of God our Communion-table the Lords table our Ministers the Lords Ministers yet are none of these of immediate institution from the Lord himselfe though all are such as appertaine to the Lords worship It is an old rule à nomine ad rem non valet argumentum from the name to the thing the argument doth conclude To the one and twentieth concerning our Saviours keeping of the Lords day with his Disciples as their Pastor after his resurrection enough hath already been spoken and the Scriptures alleadged haue been also cleared in which there is not any one footstep of an institution To the two and twentieth its most true that Christ after he was risen was fortie daies on the earth and conversed diverse times with his Disciples which times are particularly set downe in the history He gave them also instructions and commands but these are also upon record They were of two sorts either such as belong to their Apostolicall function as * Math. 28.19 to goe to all nations teaching and Baptizing having neither staffe nor scrip c. or some locall mandates as * Luk 24.49 to stay at Ierusalem till they received the promise These are all the commands of which I find Protestant c Per haec maÌ„data quidam nihil aliud intelligunt quà m illud ipsum mandatum quod pòst clariùs exponit ne Hierosolymis discedant sed rectius alij de praedicando Evangelio c. Marl. in locum Interpreters
the feasts of dedication of Churches or occasionall as marriages and Christning-dinners be forbidden Christian people as prophanations of the Lords day The second generall head and Lerna of perplexities is whether the duties of holinesse by which the day is sanctified be only acts of the publique worship of God in the Congregation or whether the private exercises also of Religion appertaine unto the day as necessary and immediate duties thereof and that during the whole time And under this head a world of particular cases are raised also and many times such as neither wise men nor learned men would imagine as daily appeares by experience to men of Pastorall employment in the Church But these and the forenamed particulars being delivered as Magisteriall dictates and conclusions out of the former Positions my purpose is only to make enquirie into the two generall heads under which they are contained For these being weighed in the Ballance of the Sanctuary and true iudgement the rest will evidence themselues as Corollaries CHAP. XXII The Question concerning the Corporall rest is proposed with the Arguments for the affirmatiue THat the outward bodily cessation from all secular employments whatsoever is of it selfe a duty of the Christians mans Feast-day may seeme to be proved by many undenyable arguments First that which is an essentiall duty of all Sabbaths in generall is an essential duty of every Sabbath in particular But the Lords day is the Christian mans Sabbath may so be called though improperly as hath beene formerly confessed and bodily rest is an essentiall duty of all Sabbaths in generall as appeares both by the very name of Sabbath which signifies as much as cessation and more expresly by the letter of the fourth Commandement In it thou shalt doe no manner of work confirm'd by the a Exod â—â— 15 commination of death from the Lords owne mouth upon all those that shall transgresse this Law Ergo c. Secondly the Prophets are the best Commentators of the Law and are therefore usually put together b Math. â—â— 40 The Law and the Prophets But the Prophet Isaiah saith that those who will honour the Lord in his Sabbath must not doe their owne works nor follow their own pleasures nor speak their owne words In which three whatsoever may be any businesse of our own is expresly forbidden us on the Lords Sabbath by which we honour him Therefore c. Thirdly in all Lawes whatsoever that is essentiall and for its owne sake commanded for whose sake other things in the Law are enjoyned according to the common Maxime Illud est perse propter quod est aliud But many things in the fourth precept are commanded that this duty of utter cessation from all secular employments may be performed For wherefore would God haue not only our Children and servants rest but our beasts also to rest unlesse only that all meanes and occasions of not resting might be taken from the Parents Masters and owners themselues Therefore c. Fourthly All theft is directly immediatly and for its owne sake forbidden and of thefts the cheife and capital is Sacriledge But to work upon the Lords day is theft nay sacriledge for we steale so much from God this day being his as we bestow upon our selues and our owne employments whereas on the contrary by resting on that day we abstaine from holy things and giue the Lord his own Therefore c. Fiftly whatsoever doth immediatly hinder any thing which God commandeth is immediatly forbidden in the Negatiue of every Affirmatiue This is a Maxime generally received in expounding the Decalogue But all kinds of works upon the Lords day whether serious or lusorie doe immediatly hinder that which God commands viz. To attend his worship and service suffering him to work effectually in us by his word and Spirit This Moses doth plainely teach us in saying * Lev. 23.3 There shall no work be done therein in is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings c. Where first he repeats his Commandement There shall no work be done therein Secondly he giues the reason for it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings It is not possible for you to performe the duties of the Lords Sabbath or that God should work on you therein unlesse there be an utter cessatioÌ„ from all kindes of works It stands also with reason for worldly imployments steale away the heart from holy things and according to our Saviours rule * Mat 6.24 We cannot serue God and Mammon Sixtly that which immediatly resisteth and overthroweth the Kingdome of God in us * Rom. 14.17 Which is righteousnesse peace ioy in the holy Ghost must needs be immediatly and for its owne sake forbidden by the Law of God But all secular imployments of what nature soever upon the Lords day immediatly resist and subvert the kingdome of God in us Righteousnesse take it how we will either for the righteousnesse of justification which is imputed or righteousnesse of sanctification which is inherent commeth by hearing groweth by praier is strengthned by meditating and conferring not by journying working and sporting on the Lords day and the more these are practised by us on that day the lesse righteousnesse must needs be in us The conscience also is deeply wounded by such grosse prophanations if it be not senselesse seared as appeares by the confessions of Converts Penitents and the Godly feele in themselues by daily experience And it cannot but diminish the joy of the holy Ghost for this is chiefly fed and nourished by holy meetings and godly exercises of religion Nay if it be true which many learned men affirme at least for probable that Christ shall come to judgement on the Lords day What little joy can any man finde in things earthly and sensuall on the day when for ought he knowes he may suddenly heare the voice of the Archangell summoning him before the Tribunall of the Lord whose Sabbath he is then prophaning Seventhly if there were no law prohibiting works on this day the very law of expediency were enough For it 's no way expedient on that day to make such a medly of things heavenly with things earthly to mix the holy things of God with things prophane base and vile things with things honourable and glorious this were to make the Lords-day a garment of linsy-woolsy But the Lords day and the duties thereof are things holy heavenly and glorious All secular imployments prophane vile contemptible The * 1. Cor. 6.2 Apostle calls the things of this life the smallest things Therefore c. Eightly that which was ever blasted in all ages with some extraordinary curse remarkable judgement is doubtlesse not only unlawfull but in an high manner abominable in Gods sight For the Lord * Exod. 34.6 being gracious long-suffering and slow to anger doth not usually reveale his wrath from heaven but against some unsufferable ungodlinesse of men But the prophanation of
without which there must needs follow a manifest Schisme in the Church rent in the State and also in the world if some in some places obserue one day Sabbath others in other places another day That there is no such ground of uniformity as the word of God to whom all men owe and professe there ready subjection as for mens constitutions though upon never so good groundes there are others as wise good as they at least in their owne opinions which will take liberty to vary from them That therefore it is fit God himselfe should shew us not only the specificate proportion but the particularity of that specification That in such designations as these the will of God is made manifest unto us sometimes by his words sometimes by his works so that if the Scripture were silent as it is not yet this is a generall direction that the work of God done upon any day is and ought to be the ground of its hallowing If therefore we discerne one day to be preferred before another in some great and notable work naturall reason teacheth that day of all others to be chosen for our publique Sabbath That thus stands the case both in regard of the Iewish and Christian Sabbath God having marked out unto them their Sabbath by the work of creation ours by the work of resurrection That there needs no such recourse notwithstanding to the works of God having so expresse a Text as that of the second of Genesis for the making good whereof against the fond Dreame of Anticipation may be brought whole Iuries of Fathers and moderne Divines And reason it selfe averreth it by an unanswerable Dilemma for that passage must be written either before the Law and then God must reveale to Moses before hand what he meant to doe in the Mount which is not probable or after the law and then what reason had Moses to speak there of in the story since it was so fully declared in the Tables That of those three things before spoken of the time in generall the proportion in speciall and taxation in particular the first only is generally received for Moral the other two are Positiue rather then Ceremoniall for what need of Ceremonies in Paradise That the specification of one in seven was ceremoniall only respectiuely to the rest of the seventh day not of the seventh it selfe for what ceremony can be found in the time indefinitely considered which is one of seven That the Iewes resting upon their seventh did prefigure Christs rest in the graue in which fence also it is abolished but not our rest from sinne here and from misery hereafter for these were common to the Iewes together with the Christians The rest therefore of the day was partly Morall partly Ceremoniall but not that one in seven should be sanctified for that this is simply Morall we haue the full cry of the Schoole-men themselues That the particular taxation of this one in seven more then of another was also Positiue not Ceremoniall for there is the same taxation of one in seven under the Gospell and yet no Ceremony is put therein nay God having as it were chalked it out unto us by his works it may well be reputed Moral As therefore God commanded the Iewes their day so hath he also appointed us ours even the first day of the week for our Christian Sabbath That herein the wisdome of God is most remarkable in his Law saying not Remember the Seventh day but Remember the Sabbath day the day of Rest to sanctifie it For by this meanes we also keep the fourth Commandement in sanctifying the Lords day For as the Jewes were tyed to the observation of the Sabbath and had one of he seven preferred unto them So we haue also our Sabbath and one also of seven prescribed us That though we take not the Lords day as it is such a day of seven from the Commandement yet the rest and sanctification thereof we justly deriue from thence That undoubtedly the Gospell doth not allow a worse proportion of time for the worship of God nor a worse manner of observing it then the law did and a greater doth not well stand with our ordinary callings That seeing the day of the Creatours rest is abolished none of the seven can be more proper for a Christian mans observation then the day on which his Redeemer rested whom the * Mark 2.23 Scripture stiles Lord of the Sabbath For God marked it out unto the Apostles to whom the translation of the day appertained by the resurrection of Christ a work no way inferiour to the Creation This therefore is the day which the Lord himselfe hath made faith the Prophet Psalme 118. ver 4. That although there be no expresse proofe in Scripture yet sufficient it is to proue an institution from the continuate un-inrerrupted practice of the Church which cannot be casuall and indeed nothing else can satisfie any whose judgment and conscience cannot be overawed by the ordinance of the Church That therefore we must remember this to be our Christian Sabbath for so we may justly call it though neither Scripture nor Antiquity so stile it because all acts of Parliament and Proclamations of the State so entitle it being I say our Sabbath we are to sanctifie it in all points as the Iewes did theirs both for the time which must be 24. houres and for the rest doing nothing which may be an avocation from holy things As for sports and pastimes howsoeuer the guilded titles of Christian liberty honest recreations and the like be put upon them yet it may justly be feared least prophanesse and luxurie be thereby intended and a wide gapp set open to all licentiousnesse That all men know how syncere soever the mind of the Magistrate be how greedily the vulgar are set upon these sports how incroaching upon liberty how undiscreet in enjoying it how impatient of any restraint therein On the other side that the Saints delight in consecrating a Sabbath gloriously unto the Lord so that when others instead of refreshing toyle themselues in May games or Morricedaunces or worse finding perhaps their own pleasure therein the Saints finde nothing so sweet as the Lords statutes nothing so ravishing as the refreshings of the holy Ghost nothing so amiable as the Assemblies of their Brethren being made thereby more painefull and conscionable in their severall callings the whole weeke after How these things which seeme thus handsomely contrived doe hang together like a rope of sand consisting of some truths more falsehoods most uncertainties let the indifferent Reader judge It is true that God created Adam in Paradise but not true that the creation of the world was made knowne unto him by revelation for then to what pupose was his excellent knowledge in which he was created and which many preferre beyond that of Solomons imparted unto him That God commanded the first seventh day to be his Sabbath is very improbable for what needed Adam a