THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH DEFENDED Against a Crying Evil in these Times of the Antisabitarians of our Age Wherein is shewed that the Morality of the fourth Commandement is still in force to bind Christians unto the Sanctification of the Sabbath Day Written by that learned Assertor of the Truth William Twisse D. D. late Prolocutor to the Assembly of Divines Exod. 20 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy Matth. 5.17 Think not I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill Verse 18. For verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth passe one jot or one title shall in no wise passe from the Law till all be fulfilled Verse 19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven LONDON Printed for Thomas Pierrepont and are to be sold at the signe of the Sun in Pauls Church-yard 1652. AVANCEZ ROWLAND HILL A.M. The Contents of the chiefe matters handled herein IN the answer to the Prefacer Section 1. 1. The ancients are alleadged in vaine to oppose the Institution of the Sabbath as from the beginning Section 2. 2. The untruth of the Praefacers legends concerning Peter Bruis Fulco and Eustathius and others discovered Section 3. 3. Calvin abused by the Prefacer and misconstrued Section 3. 2. What credite Barclay deserves relating a consultation of Calvin about transferring the Sabbath to the Thursday Section 3. 3. Of the force of Apostolicall example Section 4. 4. The vanity of the Prefacers pretence in saying Catarinus opposed Tostatus with ill successe while he maintained the Institution of the Sabbath from the Creation It is made apparant that his successe was far beyond that of Tostatus Section 4. 2. Whether Adam fell the first day wherein he was created 1. Pererius his arguments for the negative Sect. 4. 2. Doctor Willet his arguments for the affirmative Sect. 4. Section 4. 3. Pererius his reasons against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation answered Section 4. 4. Two Digressions in answer to Rivetus in two particulars 1. By way of reply upon his answer to Walaeus his arguments justifying the morality of one day in seven 2. To his arguments opposing the morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to the Lord. Section 5. Pa. 78. 5. A consideration of Walaeus his discourse in answer to those who conceave the institution of the Lords Day to have beene ordered by Christ himselfe Section 5. Pa. 70. 2. An examination of that phrase of some of our Divines affirming the ancients to have changed the Iewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day for a probable cause wherein it is shewed that the cause hereof was more then probable Section 6. 6. An examination of Chemnitius his discourse concerning the authority of the Lords Day Section 6. 2. A reply upon Doctor Rivets answer to Master Perkins his arguments standing for the Divine authority of the Lords Day 3. That the Lords Day and the Lords Supper are so called in the same notion 1. affirmed by Doctor Andrewes Perkins Thysius 2. justified by good reason Section 7. 7. A briefe of the arguments on each side for every point 1. As touching the originall institution of the Sabbath 2. As touching the Morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to Gods solemne worship 3. As touching the authority of the celebration of the Lords Day and the immutability thereof 8. The Prefacer and M. Rogers opposing D. Bownde are shewed in every particular to oppose D. Andrewes IN the consideration of D. Prideaux his Lecture Section 2. 1. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the time which ought to be set apart for Gods solemne service Section 2. 6. 2 Reasons why the Creator should prescribe the proportion of time to be consecrated unto himselfe Section 2. 6. 3. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the particularity of the day under the proportion of one in seven Sect. the same Section 3. 4. That Enosh with his holy company apparting themselves from others had a set time for divine worship Section 5. 5. That it becomes not us to affect liberty to designe the day for the Sabbath Section 6. 6 The danger of leaving it to man to make choyse of the day Section 7. 7. That the celebration of the Lords Day is of divine institution and how far justified by the old Testament and particularly by the fourth Commandement Section 8. 8. That it is nothing strange the Lords Day should be called by the name of the sabbath Section 8. 2. Sensuall pleasures are cleanly caried under the title of recreation The Preface I Have now a long time taken notice of much difference and contention about the morality of the fourth Commandement but I never gave my selfe to looke into the bottome of it till now I ever conceived it for the substance to be Morall otherwise what should it make among the ten Commandements which all account the Law morall in distinction both from the law judiciall and the law ceremoniall given by Moses unto the Jewes These ten Commandements the Lordspake from the top of mount Sina in the hearing of all the people and by way of preparation to so notable a service as to meet with God and to heare him speake unto them Exod. 19.10 two dayes were given them to sanctifie themselves and to wash their cloathes 11. that they might be ready on the third day for the third day the Lord would come downe on mount Sina And so it came to passe For when Moses brought forth the people out of the Campe to meet with God 17. and they stood at the nether part of the Mount 18. Mount Sina was altogether on a smoake because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoake thereof ascended as the smoake of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly And all the people saw the thundrings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet Exod. 20.18 and the mountaine smoaking and when the people saw it they removed and stood a farre off In such heavenly state was this Law delivered and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy amongst the rest without all example of the like in all the generations that went before And the Lord thought it fit to mind them hereof by his servant Moses Deut. 4.32 Aske now of the dayes that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man upon the earth and aske from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Did ever people heare the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire 33. as thou hast heard and live Out of heaven he made thee to heare his voice 36. that he might instruct thee and upon the earth he shewed
the sanctification of this day is apparantly commanded in the moral law spoken from Mount Sinai And those Christians who a long time kept this seventh day holy as well as the Lords day had no opinion of any danger at all in this their observation And it stood the ancient Fathers upon to oppose the observation of the law ceremoniall Yet what saith Austin against these heretickes to whom this Author in the first place referreth us All that hee delivers against the Cerinthians in reference to this particular is onely this They say that wee ought to bee circumcised and that other like precepts of the Law are to bee observed I translate it for the benefit of the common people Of the Ebionites thus They observe the carnall commandements of the Law to wit Circumcision of the flesh and the rest from whose burthens wee are freed by the new Testament Of Appollinaris and his sect this way Austin hath just nothing but Danaeus who collects out of other Authors also the hereticall opinions of the Apollinarists in the last place writes thus of them After the last resurrection say they Sabbaths Circumcision Iewish difference of meates and all other legall ceremonies shall have place yea also there shall bee a Temple amongst us And is not this wilde stuffe in reference to the sanctification of the Lords day now in question amongst us Now let the Reader judge with what modesty it is avouched That Hence it was that Irenaeus Justin Martyr Tertullian and Eusebius doe affirme for certaine that never any of the Patriarches before Moses Law did observe the Sabbath D. Prideaux saith not that Hence it was neither hath this Author given the least evidence hereof Sure I am that in those Patriarches dayes Christ was not as yet come in the flesh but rather to come long after their dayes and consequently though it be a dangerous course in these dayes to lay any ground of suspition that Christ is not already come but as yet to come yet this was of no dangerous condition at all in the dayes of the Patriarchs because in their dayes Christ was not come but to come long after D. Prideaux begins with Tertullian by this Author translated thus Let them saith he in a particular Tract against the Jewes assure me if they can that Adam ever kept the Sabbath or Abel when he offered unto God his accepted sacrifice had regard thereof or that Noah kept the same when he was busied in preparing the Arke against the Deluge or finally that Abraham in offering his sonne Isaak or that Melchisedech in execution of his Priest-hood tooke notice of it Now I appeale to every sober mans judgement whether to put the Jewes in those dayes to shew this be to affirme for certaine That never any of the Patriarches before Moses Law did observe the Sabbath It is true indeed we have no particular relation of the observation of the Sabbath in that Booke of Genesis and this Tertullian knew full well and againe it is as true that there is no testimony of ought to the contrary In the Booke of Josuah in like sort there is not any mention of the observation thereof any more than in the Booke of Judges of Ruth of the two Bookes of Samuel but rather something to the contrary to wit in the siege of Iericho and marching round about the walls of Iericho seven dayes together But yet in generall we reade in Genesis that when God had finished all his works in six dayes and rested the seventh he therefore blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and whether this hath not greater evidence that even then God ordered that that day should be sanctified than that the meaning should be that therefore God ordered this two thousand and certaine yeares after I appeale to every Christian to judge betweene us And if God did then order it which could not be otherwise than by command how could Adam be ignorant hereof and if he knew as much how improbable is it that he and his at least Abel and Enosh and his pious posterity should not observe it And if a time had not been set apart even in Adams dayes for divine service how improbable is it that Cain and Abel should concurre at the same time in bringing their offerings unto the Lord and if not at the same time how could Cain discern that Abels offering was respected and accepted of God when his was not Yet for certaine it was observed before Moses Law if by the Law we understand the Law given on mount Sina as appeares manifestly Exod. 16. And withall it is thereby evident that from the beginning of the world untill that time the distinction of the yeare into weekes was observed otherwise it were impossible to know which day was the seventh in correspondencie to the seventh from the Creation save by particular revelation whereof we reade nothing now that being unknowne the reason of sanctifying the seventh day by an holy rest drawne from Gods rest on the seventh that is the last day of the first weeke from the Creation had been utterly void and nothing at all agreeable And this distinction of time into weekes was observed from all Antiquity by the Gentiles as hath been confirmed by Wallaeus and Rivetus with the helpe of Claudius Salmasius that learned Antiquary and likewise that the seventh day was a Festivall even among the Gentiles And albeit divers others of the Ancients are alleaged to the same purpose as affirming that the Patriarches did not observe the Sabbath as namely Eusebius Eccles Hist lib. 1. cap. 4. saying They had no Circumcision of the body nor observation of the Sabbath as we have not And Iustin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew Lib. 4. cap. 30. saying Heretofore there were good men that pleased God though they kept not Sabbathes And Irenaeus in like manner thus Abraham himselfe without Circumcision and observation of the Sabbaths beleeved God and it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse Lid. Orthod lib. 4. cap. 24. and lastly Damascen When there was no Law nor Scripture of divine inspiration nor Sabbath consecrated unto God For as for Bede alleaged by Pererius to that purpose in his Hexameron I find in that place nothing answerable thereunto Now Hospinian is of opinion that these passages of the Ancients are to be understood of the rigorous observation of the Sabbath among the Jewes I adde or in reference to the other Sabbaths commanded in the Law of Moses or lastly in reference to the manner of solemnizing them among the Jewes who we know had a peculiar Sacrifice ordained for the Sabbaths and this I prove by these reasons First they deliver this as a thing well knowne for they take no paines to prove it Now consider what ground could they have for the custome of the Patriarchs before the Flood especially considering that the testimony of Moses Gen. 2.3 is far better evidence for the keeping of a weekly Sabbath in
perpetuall practise might bee confirmed in an opinion of the necessity of that which is not necessary It is apparent that as the Lords Day under the Law was one day in seven So the Lords Day in the Gospell was and still is one Day in seven And both himselfe and Gomarus are driven to professe that we may not allow a lesse proportion then one in seven to Divine worship And I appeale to every conscience to judge by the very light of nature whether the Lord requiring of the Jewes one day in seven to bee consecrated unto him it doth not manifestly follow that wee Christians can allow no lesse then one in seven and whether it bee not fiâ— that the Lords Day should bee our holy Day and as for the allowance of more in a weeke then one let them persuade their owne Churches thereunto first and then it will bee time enough for us to hearken unto them And what should move them to illustrate the memory of Christs Resurrection weekly whereas they contented themselves with a yearely memoriall if at all they observed any such of his Nativity Passion and Ascension and sending downe of the Holy Ghost Why doth hee not consider that the day of the weeke onely whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day in Scripture whereon Iohn the beloved Disciple received from his loving Lord and master that Divine revelation of his concerning things to come 4. If the number of seven that is the observation of one day in seven in this Commandement be changeable then as ceremoniall or as politicall not as ceremoniall for then the Church ought not to observe it Nor as politicall for in the morall Law precepts politicall are not given And to this Rivetus answereth that the observation of the seventh day is ceremoniall and that the Primitive Church kept it not neither did the Primitive Church keepe it nor doe we keepe it as ceremoniall but another seventh day for Ecclesiasticall policy sake not civill Respon When hee saith we keepe another seventh day he implieth that by the seventh formerly mentioned hee meant that particular day of the weeke which the Iewes kept and that wee indeed acknowledge to bee ceremoniall but in this interpretation of Wallaeus hee manifestly corrupts his adversaries argument which is plainly directed against the ceremoniality of one day in seven indefinitly considered and not against the ceremoniality of the Iewes seventh Yet when he saith the Primitive Church did and we doe keepe a seventh but not as ceremoniall hee speaks to the point but his words following have no coherence herewith so that hee may seeme to shuffle miserably in this affecting to decline that which he is not able to answer But take wee him at the best he must say that the observation of one day in seven was ceremoniall if hee speakes to the purpose Now let him shew us if he can the ceremoniality of one day in seven and how Christ was the body of it nothing more common then to affirme that the Iewes Sabbath was ceremoniall hand over head without any distinction of the sanctification of the day and the rest much lesse distinguishing betweene the rest of one day in seven and the rest of the seventh At length I found a faire way opened for the explication of the ceremoniality found in the rest on the seventh day But as for any ceremoniality in the rest of one day in seven never I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise that Lastly after such a ceremoniality is devised wee will conferre whether in reason such a thing ought to bee still observed as was ceremoniall unto the Iewes and why may wee not as well observe circumcision with the Ethiopians who observe it only in conformity to Christ who was circumcised Now because Rivetus brings arguments also to the contrary to prove that the observation of one day in seven under the Gospell is not necessary but free it is fit we should consider them also to prove what force is in them If by force of the Commandement a seventh day is to be kept Rivet 1. then that day is to be kept which the Commandement hath defined which is the Sabbath of the Iewes Respon To this I answer by denying the consequence and not contenting my selfe with a bare deniall I prove it to bee inconsequent For whereas God in commanding the seventh hath therewithall commanded one in seven and withall specified which of the seven shall bee rested on and sanctified unto his service If it may bee made appeare that the particularity of rest on the seventh day be abrogated and no colour can be brought for the abrogation of the proportion of time to wit of keeping one day in seven it will evidently appeare herewithall that this consequence of Doctor Rivetus is unsound Now this wee prove to bee most true forasmuch as the Jewes rest on the seventh day was ceremoniall prefiguring Christs rest on that day in his grave as both the fathers of old and moderne Divines both Papists and Protestants both Lutheranes and Calvinists have acknowledged but never any man was found to devise a ceremoniality of resting one day in seven they may as well give themselves to devise a ceremonality in the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods holy worship and service 2. Now this puts me in minde of another way clearely to demonstrate the inconsequence of Rivetus his argument thus If it will follow that in case wee are bound to such a proportion of time by vertue of this Commandement therefore wee are bound also to keepe the seventh day Then it will follow as well that because wee are bound to set apart some time for the service of God by vertue of this Commandement as all confesse therefore we are bound also to keepe such a proportion of time as is here specified and the seventh day also which is here particulated For like as God doth not command such a proportion of time in speciall but by commanding the observation of the seventh day in like sort neither doth God Command a time in generall to bee set apart for his service but by commanding of such a proportion of time in speciall and such a Day in particular Rivet 2. 2. His second argument runnes thus if the observation of every seventh day bee morall it must bee knowne by light of nature but so it is not Therefore it is not morall and seeing it is not politicall it must bee ceremoniall and therefore doth not oblige by force of Law morall To this I answer first Resp 1. Let but Doctor Rivetus stretch his wits to describe unto us what ceremoniality can possibly bee devised in the obsertion of one day in seven and when hee hath devised it I dare appeale to his owne judgement and conscience for the appobation of it For I doe not thinke it possible for the wit of man with any colour of reason to devise a ceremoniality to be
and in breaking bread Act. 2. and 5. and 1 Cor. 5. Now we willingly acknowledge that we Christians are not so bound to one day in the weeke as namely to the Lords Day as that we may not have our holy assemblies more often than once but onely so that we may not keep them lesse often nor omit the celebration of the Lords Day like as the Jews might not omit the celebration of their weekely Sabbath though sometimes many dayes together besides were kept holy by them So we Christians also having our Sabbath as our Saviour signified we should have when he said Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which Sabbath of ours wee keepe on the Lords Day though we may keep other days holy yet we may not omit this and if any shall take upon them to alter this Sabbath we may be bold to demand of them quo warranto by what warrant from the Lord of Sabbath But Chemnitius proceeds thus Now whereas afterwards the false Apostles did so urge those free observations of the Mosaicall Sabbath and other feasts as by law and with opinion of necessity as to condemne their consciences who observed them not Paul forbad the observation of them All which we willingly acknowledge but that hereupon they began first to ordaine another day in the weeke for their Ecclesiasticall assemblies and exercises of piety which yet Chemnitius proves not I leave it to the indifferent to judge by comparing his opinion with that of Austins who professeth as Chemnitius well knew that the Lords Day was declared unto Christians by the Lords resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity alleged by Chemnitius himselfe p. 156. especially considering the reason moving thē hereunto which Chemnitius confesseth to have been on that day the Lord role from the dead And seeing all festivals as Bishop Lake observes have beene observed in regard of some great worke done on such a day for the good of man whether ever any day brought forth a more wonderfull or more comfortable worke to mankind than the first day of the weeke which was the day of our Saviours resurrection from the dead let the Christian world judge This day Chemnitius saith seems to be called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day which appellation all antiquity did afterwards retaine and use yet notwithstanding saith he we doe not read that the Apostles did impose upon mens consciences in the new Testament the observation of that day by any Law or Precept but the observation was free for order sake Let us duly weigh and consider this together with the reasons following Calvine distinguisheth the observation of a day for order sake and the observation of a day for some mysterious signification sake had Chemnitius thus distinguished we would have subscribed thereunto and confessed that now adayes wee observe no day for any mysterious signification sake but onely for order sake And thus under the Gospel wee are freed from observation of daies for mysteries sake not free from observation of one certaine day in the weeke for order sake At for his phrase of imposing the observation of the Lords day upon mens consciences this phrase is most improper and unseasonable in this case it is onely proper and seasonable in case the thing imposed be of a burthensome nature like unto that Saint Peter speakes of Acts 15.10 saying Now therefore why tempt yee God to lay a yoke on the Disciples neckes which neither our Fathers nor we were able to beare Such indeed was the yoke of circumcision which provoked Zippora according to common opinion driven to circumcise her sonne to save her husbands life to throw the fore-skin at her husbands feet calling him a bloody husband for urging her thereunto But what burthen is it save unto the flesh to rejoyce in the Lord to sabbatize with him to walke with him in holy meditation Was it no burthen to the godly Jewes to consecrate one day in seaven to the exercises of Piety under the Law and shall it bee a burthen to us in the time of the Gospell Or can it bee conceaved to bee a greater burthen unto us to keepe our Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day then on any other day of the weeke was there ever any day of the weeke markt out unto us with a more honourable or more wonderfull worke to draw us to rejoyce in the Lord thereon then the first day of the weeke whereon our Saviour rose by his Resurrection to bring life and immortality to light yet we confesse we reade of no Law nor Precept for this in the new Testament but we reade that ever under the Gospell wee must have a Sabbath to observe Math. 24.20 And wee know and Chemnitius knew full well that it belongs to the Lord of the Sabbath to change it and consequently to ordaine it and that it was changed and the Lords Day observed generally in the Apostles dayes none that I know makes question of and how could thi◠bee but by the Apostles ordinance and is it likely they would take upon them this authority without a calling And why should that day of the weeke and not that day of the yeare bee called the Lords Day if not for the same use under the Gospell that the Lords Day was of under the Law especially that day under the Law which was the Jewes Sabbath being now abrogated and lastly wee finde it manifestly spoken of the day of Christs Resurrection Psal 118.24 This is the day that the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it yet lastly wheras Chemnitius will have it free and hee hath already manifested that hee speakes of it in this sense as not to be so tied to this day but that we may observe other dayes wee willingly grant that in this sense it is free Now let us consider his reason following For saith hee if we are freed from the Elements which by God himselfe in the old Testament were ordained and commanded how should we be tyed by the decrees of men But alas this reason of his hath no proportion the Elements hee speakes of were but shaddowes the body whereof is Christ and now Christ is revealed they were wont to bee called not onely Mortua but mortifera Yet the observation of one day in seven still continues to bee the Commandement of God delivered not to Moses as ceremonies were but by word of mouth proclaimed on mount Sina and naturall reason suggests unto us that wee must allow unto Gods service as good a proportion of time under the Gospell as hee required of the Jewes under the Law Now if one day in seven must bee set apart in common reason what day is to bee preferred for this before the Lords Day the day of Christs rest from the worke of redemption in suffering the sorrows of death as the day of the Lords rest from the Creation was appointed to the Jewes for their Sabbath And this Resurrection of
as that was rested on and sanctified in remembrance of Gods rest from the worke of Creation so is ours rested on in remembrance of Christs rest from the worke of Redemption so that our day of rest is but translated from the day of the Lord our Creators rest to the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest And on this ground might the Church justly teach us to pray at the hearing of this fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this law But like enough both Master Rogers and this Prefacer might be of Brentius his opinion that it is left indifferent to the Church at this day to content themselves with observing of one day in foureteene if it pleaseth them But this was not the opinion of Pope Alexand. the third who professeth that Tam vereris quam novi Testamenti pagina septimam diem ad humanam quietē specialiter deputavit Both the old and new Testament hath appointed the seventh day for the rest of man which Suarez thus interpreteth That is each Testament hath approved the custome of assigning every seventh day of the weeke for rest which is formally to appoint a seventh day though the same day materially be not alwayes appointed and thus it is true that that seventh day in the old Law was the Sabbath day but in the new it is the Lords Day now when we say the observation of one day in seven is naturall our meaning is not neither was it D. Bowndes meaning that this proportion of time is knowne by the light of nature to be that which of duty should be consecrated unto God herein rather it becomes us to wait upon God and he having defined it now we say nothing can be devised by man more agreeable to reason than this Azorius the Jesuit professing it to be most agreeable to reason And Doctor Field as Master Broade voucheth him spared not to say that to him who knowes the story of the creation it doth appeare in reason that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto God onely let us not looke for reason demonstrative in matter of morality Aristotle long agoe hath professed that not demonstration but perswasion alone hath place in Ethicks yet we may justly call that naturall which from the originall was common to all nations and that such was the observation of the seventh day the learned have sufficiently proved Secondly if it be not morall what shall it be Is it judiciall or ceremoniall Never any man hitherto devised any ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven well it may be positive yet so as to this day from the beginning of the world this proportion was never altered and if I should live till the day be altered by any sober Christian Congregation I thinke I should live till the comming of Christ which the Christians in Austins time conceived that it would be on the Lords day I come to the second charge which is this whereas all things else in the Iewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and for this Master Rogers quotes Doct. Bownde p. 20. onely Master Rogers saith not that all things were changed as the Prefacer doth but onely that all Iewish things were changed now judge whether Master Rogers might not have opposed Doctor Andrews as well as Doctor Bownde For in his Catechet doctrine pag. 209. having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ He answers it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is not changed but yet no ceremony proved Hee proceeds to prove that it was no ceremony first from the Law secondly from the Gospel Eph. 2.4 thus All ceremonies were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Matth. 24.20 Christ bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death Now what doth Doctor Bownde affirme forty yeeres agoe which Doctor Andrewes did not in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I come to the third and last That the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming This very point Doctor Andrewes maintaines by divers arguments as well as D. Bownde which yet is rightly to be understood to wit not of the observation of the seventh day from the creation but of the observation of one day in seven So that in M. Rogers his Brentian judgement in this particular Doctor Andrewes who afterwards became Bishop of Winchester might be accounted a Sabbatarian as well as D. Bownde All these positions the Prefacer saith are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England but by whom condemned by none but by M. Rogers and by the same reason he might say that the doctrine of Doctor Andrewes was condemned also for contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England to wit by M. Rogers And consider his absurd inference from the seventh Article of the Church of England The Article saith that Christians are not bound at all to the observation of Iudaicall ceremonies Hence he inferres that they whom he calls Our home Sabbatarians are adversaries to this truth in part namely in as much as they deny the Sabbath to be a ceremony But doth our Church affirme the Sabbath to be a ceremony Nothing lesse this M. Rogers of his owne head layes downe for a principle namely that the Sabbath was a ceremony to obtrude upon us as if himselfe had as much authority as a whole Convocation And D. Andrewes takes upon him to disprove this very point which Rogers supposeth as a principle and that by various arguments Belike D. Andrewes deserved not to be numbred amongst the greatest Clerks of these later times nor D. Lake neither nor Bishop Babington And as for the judgement of the ancient Fathers it appeares what skil the Prefacer hath in them and what respect he beares unto them by the learning he hath bewrayed in this preface Had he found in them how much the forbidding of dancing in their dayes did hinder the growth of Christian Religion we should have heard of it undoubtedly as well as how it hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion in France out of Heylins Geography yet their doctrinalls which I have shewed to be the doctrinalls of Doctor Andrewes as well as of Doctor Bownde yea and could shew it to be the doctrine of divers other late Bishops in this Church though dangerous in themselves not half so
successe of his labours For this good he saith hath ensued thereupon namely that the said bookes of the Sabbath comprehending the above mentioned and many more such fearefull and hereticall assertions have beene both called in and forbidden to be printed any more and to be made common and that Archbishop Whitgift by his letters and officers at Synods and Visitations Anno 99. did the one and Sir John Popham Lord chiefe Iustice of England at Bury Saint Edmunds in Suffolke Anno 1600. did the other For all this we have nothing but his word and as for the bookes he talkes of hee had formerly mentioned but one printed 95. at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man of the doctrine of the Sabbath which appeares to be D. Bowndes Now was this ever called in Sure I am D. Willet upon Genesis came forth the yeere after this M. Rogers his Analysis of the Articles of the Church of England This hee dedicated to King Iames and over and above hath a second dedication in Latine to Archbishop Bancroft and to the bishop of London then being wherein hee signifieth that the one of them was author the other hortator unto him to perfect this worke of his and therefore undoubtedly came forth with as good approbation as the Analysis of Master Rogers upon the second Chapter of Gen. he observes that As the Sabbath kept then upon the seventh day in remembrance of the Creation was of the Lords institution so the Lords Day is now observed by the same authority in remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ and redemption by the same And this hee delivers in opposition to the Rhemists who count the observation of the Lords Day but a tradition of the Church and Ecclesiasticall institution and having spent a whole page in folio upon this argument in the next page thus hee writeth I doe wonder then this doctrine of the Sabbath and day of rest now called the Lords Day having such evident demonstration out of the Scriptures and being confirmed by the constant and continuall practise of the Church in all ages that any professing the Gospell specially being exercised in the Study of the Scriptures should gainsay and impugne these positions following as erroneous 1. That the Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath is naturall morall and perpetuall For if it be not so then all the Commandements contained in the Decalogue are not morall so should we have 9. and not 10. Commandements and then Christ should come to destroy the Law and not to fulfill is contrary to our Saviours own words Math. 5.17 2. That all other things in the Law were so changed that they were cleane taken away as the priesthood Sacrifices and Sacraments this day namely the Sabbath was so changed that it yet remaines For it is evident by the Apostles practise Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 Apo. 1.10 that the day of rest called the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke and so was observed and kept holy under the name of the Lords Day 3. That it is not lawfull to use the seventh day to any other end but to the holy and sanctified end for which in the beginning it was created 4. As the Sabbath came in with the first man so must it not goe out but with the last 5. That we are restrained upon the Sabbath from works as the Jewes were though not in such strict particular manner as they were yet in generall we are forbidden all kind of worke upon the Lords Day as they were which may hinder the service of God Now the Author that hee intimates as opposing these positions hee describes by the title of his booke in the margent which is this The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England printed at Cambridge p. 37. And the author of his booke I have heard to be Master Rogers and it seemes likely enough especially by the 2. first positions Doctor Willet concludes in this manner after hee had made use of divers allegations for the confirmation of his doctrine in opposition to the fore-mentioned Author but these allegations are here superfluous seeing there is a learned Treatise of the Sabbath already published of this argument which containeth a most sound doctrine of the Sabbath as it is said in the former positions which shall be able to abide the triall of the Word of God and stand warranted thereby when other humane fantasies shall vanish howsoever some in their heate and intemperance are not afraid to call them Sabbatariorum errores yea hereticall assertions a new Iubilee S. Sabbath more then either Iewish or popish institution God grant it be not layd to their charge that so speake or write and God give them a better minde About two yeares before this were set forth Master Perkins his cases of conscience wherein hee manifesteth his concurrence with Doctor Bownde in the doctrine of the Sabbath Neither doth Doctor Andrewes in any materiall thing differ from Doctor Bownde Master Perkins Doctor Will t. In the next relation of his which is of a familiar nature undoubtedly the Prefacer deserves to be believed That in a Towne of his acquaintance the preachers there had brought the people to that passe that neither baked nor roste meate was to be found in all the Parish for a sunday dinner throughout the yeare and hee concludes it with such an Epiphonema These are the fruites of such dangerous doctrines as if the fortunes of the Church or state were hazarded for want of bak't meate or rost meate on the sundayes And to confesse a truth though I never was nor never am like to be so precise yet considering my meane condition I have divers times thought thus with my selfe why should my provision hinder any of my servants from Sermons on the Sabbath day so little did I feare any dangerous consequence of this practise but since I am better informed by the suggestions of this judicious Prefacer I will take heede how I cherish such thoughts in my brest henceforth and if hee come at any time to take paines amongst us seeing I finde hee respects bak't meate and rost meate so well it shall goe hard but wee will have a tith Pig for his entertainement And so much the rather that I may cleare my selfe from Judaisme for Iack of Newbery my Countreyman being a great Clothier in his dayes and then strangers came from farre to buy Cloath at his House and amongst the rest a company of Jewes were sometime entertained by him being a very hospitallous man and an excellent house-keeper his house being accounted the best Inne in the Towne to make himselfe merry caused the table to bee furnished with all variety of Hogges flesh which they perceaving tooke it for a flout but after they had grumbled a while upon it hee made shew as if but then hee had remembred himselfe of his errour and not till then considered that they were Jewes and forthwith hee commanded all the dishes to be remooved
holy studies and meditations as worldly cares and both equally are noted out to be such as choake the Word Luk. 8.14 And therefore this day is altogether appointed to this end even to recreate our selves in the Lord For seeing God purposeth one day to keepe an everlasting Sabbath with us when God shall be all in all to make us the more fit for this even the more meete partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light therefore hee hath given us his Sabbaths to walke with him and to inure our selves to take delight in his company who takes delight to speake unto us as from Heaven in his holy Word and to give us liberty to speake unto him in our prayers confessions thanksgivings and supplications on other dayes wee care for the things of this World on this day our care should be spirituall and heavenly in caring for the things of another World so our pleasures should be spirituall on this day Esay 58.13 If thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight to consecrate it as glorious unto the Lord. Now have we not as much cause to performe this duty under the Gospell as ever the Jewes had under the Law And indeed there is no colour of reason against this but by affirming that now the setting of a day apart for Gods service is left at large to the liberty of the Church and albeit the Church hath set apart the Lords Day for this yet their meaning herein is no more then this that they shal come to Church twise a day and afterwards give themselves to what sports soever are not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land so that now a dayes wee are free from the obligation to the fourth Commandement and yet we are taught by the Church aswell at the hearing of this Commandement as at any other to say Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law and the booke of Homilies urgeth us to the sanctifying of our Christian Sabbath which is Sunday saith the booke expressely and that by vertue of Gods expresse Commandement And therefore I cannot but wonder at the indiscretion of this Prefacer who catcheth after such a superficiall advantage as the denomination of a feast amongst the Jewes not considering how little sutable it is to the grounds of his Tenet For by his Tenet after evening Prayer the Sabbath is at end the Churches meaning being not any further to oblige them to the sanctifying of the Lords Day but to give them liberty to use any sports or pastimes not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land But so was not the feast of the Jewes ended when they danced this being but an expression of that joy whereunto the present solemnity called them and they sinned no more herein then David did when hee danced before the Arke as wee see Ier. 31.12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together to the goodnesse of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oile and for the young of the flock and of the heard and their soule shall be as a well watered Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all 13 Then shall the Virgin rejoyce in the dance both yong men and old together for I will turne their mourning into joy and will comfort them make them rejoyce for their sorrow 14. And I will satiate the soule of the Priest with fatnesse and my people shall be satisfyed with my goodnesse saith the Lord. And the like wee reade Esay 30.19 Ye shall have a song as in the Night when an holy solemnity is kept and gladnesse of heart as when one goeth with a Pipe to come into the Mountaine of the Lord to the mighty One of Israel so that if Morricing and May-games and Dancing about May-poles were a sanctifying of the Sabbath Day in part as the Lord commands the day to be sanctifyed then indeed these sports were as lawfull on the Lords Day as the Jewes piping and dancing were lawfull on their feasts But that any such piping and dancing were used and allowed in those ancient times among the Jewes on their Sabbaths there is not the least colour of evidence And it is evident that such sports put them to lesse rest for their bodies then the workes of their calling neither is there any better evidence that any such piping and dancing were in use amongst the Jewes while they continued the people of God on every day of their solemne feasts for two dayes in each of them to wit the first day and the last they are commanded to keepe as Sabbaths whereon they were to have an holy convocation and thereon they are expressely commanded to rest from all servile workes and I should thinke the following of naturall pleasures are to be presumed as servile workes as the workes of a mans calling Lastly all recreations are to this end even to fit us to the workes of our calling either for the workes of our particular callings or the workes of our generall callings as we are Christians Such sports if they fit us for the service of God were more seasonable in the Morning then in the Evening If for the workes of our particular calling then are they inferiour to the workes of our calling the furthering whereof is their end and the meanes are alwayes inferiour in dignity unto the end Now if the more noble workes are forbidden on that day how much more such as are inferior are forbidden But it may be sayd that mens minds being burthened and oppressed with the former service of the day therefore some relaxatiō is to be granted for the refreshing of our spirits As much as to say a part of the Lords Day is to be allowed for profane sports and pastimes to refresh us after wee have beene tired out with serving God can this be savoury in the eares of a Christian should not wee rather complaine of these corruptions and bewaile it before God then give our selves to such courses as are apt to strengthen it It is true such is our naturall corruption that nothing is more tedious unto us as wee are in our selves then to converse with God but should not the consideration hereof provoke us so much the more to strive against it then give way to the nourishing and confirming of it And hath not our Saviour told us that not the cares of this World onely but voluptuous living also is it that choaks the good seede of Gods Word and causeth it to become unfruitfull in us As for the refreshing of our spirits and quickning them and thereby making us the fitter for Gods service as in any modest exercise of the body in private according to every mans particular disposition to prevent drowsinesse and dulnesse in attending to Gods Word in praying in singing of Psalmes I know none that takes any exception against it And as for the authority of the magistrate to appoint pastimes sure I am the high Court of
of Math. 24.20 that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and addes that Those which were ceremonies were abrogated but those which were not ceremonies were changed at the Ministery from the Levites to be chosen throughout the World So here the day changed from the day of the Jewes to the Lords Day Revel 1.10 And accordingly interpreteth the fourth Commandement as belonging unto us Christians as bound to observe the Sabbath 1. in our judgment by a reverend esteeming of it not as a day appointed by man 2. in our use set downe Esay 58.13 not following our owne will nor doing our owne workes Hereupon a question is proposed thus But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ and the answer is this Do as Christ did in the case of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sin and so before there needed any Saviour and if they say it prefigured the rest we shall have from our sins in Christ We grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved The practise of piety is a booke dedicated unto his Majesty that now is when hee was Prince Carles in the yeere 1626. which is now 15. yeeres agoe came forth the 10th Edition of it wee have heard it highly commended by King Iames and that it commended the author of the dedication to a Bishoprick The author of this treatise is large upon the Sabbath and concurres with us in every particular wherein wee are by the Prefacer to this translation opposed Amongst other particulars this is one that hee interpreteth the fourth Commandement as Zanchy doth saying The Commandement doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day next following the sixt day of the Creation or this or that seventh day but indefinitely Remember that thou keepe holy a Sabbath day and that Our Lord Iesus having authority as Lord over the Sabbath had likewise far greater reason to translate the Sabbath day from the Iewish seventh unto the seventh day whereon Christians doe keepe their Sabbath which also hee proves by diverse reasons And the booke of Homilies whereunto all our Ministers are required to subscribe professeth that wee Christians are still bound to the observation of the Sabbath and that the Sunday is now our Sabbath So then as the Jewes were tied to the observation of the Sabbath on the day prescribed too them so are wee Christians tied to the observation of the Sabbath too but on the day prescribed unto us should wee observe the same day with the Jewes wee should fall justly under Austins censure that every such one carnaliter sapit And the same Austin professeth that Doctores Ecclesiae decreverunt omnem gloriam Iudaici Sabbati in illam transferre August de Tem. Ser. 251. The Doctors of the Church have decreed to transferre all the glory of the Jewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day So that the censure following in these words They therefore are but idly busied who would so farre enlarge the Sabbath or seventh day in this commandement as to include the Lords Day in it must light not upon us onely but upon other greater Divines yea and upon the Church of England also but our comfort is that wee finde it very weakly grounded As for the institution of the Lords Day I never reade nor heard any that grounded it upon the fourth Commandement otherwise then by proportion That Commandement containes two things 1. the sanctification of the Sabbath 2. a designing of the time when both as touching the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven and as touching the particularity of the day under the forementioned proportion For in commanding a seventh it commands one day in seven the former inferring the latter as well as it doth inferre the setting of some time in generall a part for Gods service which not one that I know denies to bee the substance of this commandement Now as the Lord designed what should bee their Sabbath day unto the Jewes so hath hee designed what shall bee the Sabbath day to us Christians This designation made to us we do not derive from the fourth commandement but this day being by the word of God designed unto us still holding up the same proportion of time the rest of this day and the sanctification thereof this and this alone doe we derive from the fourth commandement and also that undoubtedly we Christians ought not to allow unto God a worse proportion of time for his Service then did the Jewes and the proportion is apparant betweene the Lord the creators rest and the Lord the redeemers rest And our rest on the day of our Lord the creators rest being abolished as a type of Christs rest in the grave what is more convenient to come in the place thereof then our rest on that day which is the Lord our redeemers rest As touching the passage here alleaged out of Calvin I am sorry to observe the common errour of others committed here also by dismembring Calvins sentence leaving out one halfe of it making him to deliver that absolutely which hee utters onely conditionally And the other halfe of the first sentence here mentioned doth manifest as much namely that Calvin speakes only against them who think themselves obliged to the observation of one day in 7. for some mysterious significations sake and accordingly Wallaeus sheweth that he opposeth none but Papists whose course is to observe festivall dayes for some mystery sake whereof hee gives good evidence by a passage which he allegeth out of Bellarmine all which I have formerly represented more at large in my answer to the Preface Sect. 4. I come to the fourth Section of the Author That some doe urge the words of this Commandement so farre till they draw blood insteed of comfort are but words nothing of this kind hath beene hitherto made good so much as in the least colour of probabilitie And who upon due observing of the fourth commandement may not well be brought to admire the wisedome of God that as hee hath placed it in the morall law which concerneth all times and persons so he hath ordered it after such a manner that howsoever the day should be altered yet the proportion of time still to be kept and a Sabbath still to bee of force whether on the seventh day which was the Sabbath day unto the Jewes or the Lords day which should be our Christian Sabbath thereon to rest unto God and to sanctifie that day unto his service we make no doubt but the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and so hath power to change it and none hath power to change it but hee that is Lord of it It is true this was one argument amongst many which the Author of the Practice of Pietie useth to prove that the fourth commandement stands still in force because our Saviour professeth that He came not to
the dayes of the Apostles all of them and their posterity successively to us Doth it therefore follow that wee may not keepe the seventh day in memory of the worlds Creation It doth for the Lords Day succeedeth in stead of that ut Thes 33. Therefore they cannot consist with the purpose of the alteration which is to note a New Creation Ib. Constantine commanded the sixt day should be kept in memory of Christs death Kept as a fasting day not as a festivall day and so the Church keepeth it still Ibid. Sabbato postridie Sabbati conveniunt So doth the Church now but Saturday is Parasceve to the Lords Day and least they should seeme to Judaize they did and do begin the Eve after noon to note it is but a preparation to Sunday Ibid. Saint Austin termeth the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement Sacramentum Vmbratile True as the Jewes did observe it So himselfe there expoundeth himselfe Question 1. Section 4. The observance of the Sabbath day by Christ compared to Jewish sacrifice This speaketh not of the assignation of dayes but how strictly the day must be kept and it is as true of the Lords Day Section 5. Hebrewes 4. mention is made of three rests Or one rest rather which is Gods rest Gen. 2. and the participation thereof 2 wayes Typically Spiritually The Typicall is the entrance into Canaan which carried with it a cessation from labours of the Jewish servitude and Pilgrimage From this Typicall many saith the Apostle were excluded through infidelity and by fayth some did partake it But there was another participation a spirituall which came by Jesus whereunto Iosuah could not bring which is a ceasing not from corporall but spirituall toyles and sinnes immediatly but mediately it will bring unto a spirituall blessed rest both of body and soule in Heaven This spirituall immediate rest or participation of Gods rest is called Sabbatismus populi Dei If this be as I conceave it is the meaning of the place what is this to dayes Ib. Section 6. Some will have a weekely Sabbath a shaddow in regard of the strictnesse of the Rest I thinke the strictnesse was not it at least not principally but the Accession of which in the Theses But you are out of your argument for S. Paul speakes of shadow whereof the body is Christ Now before the fall the Sabbath was a kinde of shadow of our eternall rest but not of that whereof Christ is the body And to us the Lords day is a foretast of that eternall rest and I hold this shadow to be as lasting as the World Ib. New Moone Et caetera shadowes in their substance not their accessories Ergo the Sabbath A weake collection for other feasts were instituted after the fall under the Pedagogy of the Law the Sabbath before therefore this might be made a shadow by accessorie these not so Ibid. Shall I demand of them when this Sabbath began to be a shadow When after the fall it received accessions it became such a shadow as Saint Paul speaketh of Col. 2. otherwise it was a kinde of shadow of eternall rest in the foundation and the Lords Day continueth so now Ib. The Apostle Hebrew 4 speaketh of the seventh as rested upon not sanctified Reade the mistake of this place before Ib. Section 6. The Sabbath more ceremoniall then the other Commandements you prove it out of S. Austin And it is plaine hee speaketh of the Sabbath as the Jewes observed it and had it given in charge with his accessories but I still call you to the Originall Sabbath Gen. 2. Res Respons ad quaestion 1. Section 1. Our words and meaning must not agree in our Prayer Lord have mercy upon us c. A strange answer I thinke they must and doe agree for by analogy is the Lords Day contained in the Commandement and the Church directeth us so to understand The apportionment of time is everlasting only the translation of the day is by all that have any understanding to Catechize taught to be grounded upon a new Creation succeeding the old The personall defects I cannot reply to but leave them to be reformed Though the imperfections of the ignorant should not be presented when the question is made so difficult that the learned can hardly assoile it As the author of the questions thinketh Question 2. How shall the fourth Commandement bind us considering the forme of words to keep any day but only the seventh I suppose in my Theses I have given a probable answer Seeing the apportionment of time is eternall which I thinke cannot justly be denyed I hold the translation of of the feast from the seventh to the first day is grounded upon Analogy For seeing God was pleased that the day of the Creation should be commemorated as appeareth by the Letter of the Commandement and the first Creation being by sin dissolved jure restored againe by Christ upon the first day where we find the rest after the new Creation there we must fix the feast And this is perswaded by the drift of the Law Except we lay this for a ground God will have the day of Creation observed Observed after the rule of the first Creation it cannot be for then we doe not acknowledge the dissolution thereof I meane still merito In testimony of that and Christs restitution we keepe the day of the new Creation and we are guided to it by the fourth Commandement Question 3. How shall it appeare to be the Law of nature to sanctifie one day every weeke Surely here the Author of the questions makes a strange answer For he looseth himselfe in his distinction of the Morall Law and the Law of nature which he seemeth not to understand well He would have the Law of nature to prescribe circumstances to actions and not the morall Law whereas the morality stands in observing the circumstance of actions as the Ethicks will teach and this in the phrase medium rationis Secondly hee thinketh that all the Lawes morall are as he calleth them of nature doe represent the Image of God and are unalterable even by God himselfe Not considering that there is a morality that concerneth man as he is Animal rationale and reason moderateth the sensuall part which commeth not within the compasse of the Image of God And in many particulars is mutable and dispensable in cases of necessity as it is held against the Law of Nature that brothers and sisters should marry but God dispensed with it but I should wade into a large argument if I should rippe up these two Errors I rather note that hee understandeth not the ground of a Festivall day that maketh no other ground of it than Omnia fiant ordine decenter The Lords Day had a higher ground which I opened in the Theses and that is Christs Resurrection and thereby a new Instauration of the World Which wee are bound to observe upon the grounds set downe in the Theses And in a word Hee
thee his great fire and thou heardst his words out of the midst of the fire And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he chose their seed after them And in his last blessing upon the people when now he was going out of the world Moses as a King putteth them in mind of this saying Deut. 33.2 3 4 5. The Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them he shined forth from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints from his right hand went a fiery law for them Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hands and they sate downe at thy feet every one shall receive of thy words Moses commanded a Law even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together It is true there is an hole pickt in the fourth Commandement concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath as if that among all the rest were not morall but ceremoniall Yet this honour it hath from God that immediatly after the Creation the Lord resting on the seventh day from his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 And therefore Doctor Andrewes ere he died Bishop of Winchester in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I commonly cite it under his name because it is commonly received to bee his and as I have heard upon divers good grounds treating upon this Commandement and having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a Ceremony and so abrogated by Christ Makes answer to it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce look whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any Ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved And yet we are not ignorant how Papists have practised to raze the second commandement also out of the Law given on mount Sina as if that also were out of date being as they conceive but of a positive nature at first so little evidence doe they finde for it by the light of Nature and now the world is growne so wise that they know how to worship God by Images without committing any idolatry at all though this mystery of religious state is not thought fit to be communicated unto the vulgar But doe we not all acknowledge the light of Nature to be much corrupted since the fall of Adam how much more our judgement of morall things wherein Aristotle confesseth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. 1. c. 3. demonstration is not to be expected but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswasion And if way be given to mens wanton wils for the gratifying of corrupt affections more breaches than these are like to be made in the Decalogue I have heard that Cardinall Cusanus undertooke to justifie the sin of Sodome Sure I am amongst the Lacedemonians wives were common And Brennus that Ancient Invader of other Nations made profession that he knew no other Law of Nature but this that The weaker should be in subjection to the stronger like as King Pyrrhus in his death-bed being demanded who should succeed him in the Kingdom made answer even He whose sword is the longest Carneades I thinke was the man who having on a day made a singular speech in commendation of Justice afterwards discoursed as eloquently to the contrary shewing that there was no justice at all by the law of nature every naturall thing seeking to maintaine it selfe by the destruction of others So the fire maintaines it selfe by the combustion of each combustible thing whereunto it approacheth and the water overflowes all naturally and beats downe all dammes it can to make roome for it selfe And the greatest Beasts maintain themselves by praying on those that have no power to resist them The more cause have wee to blesse God for giving us the Law Morall in writing which grew so miserably defaced in the hearts of men And that herein the sanctifying of the Sabbath is mentioned among the rest this hath ever satisfied mee and assured that the substance thereof is Morall and that accordingly wee ought to inure our selves to the sanctification of the Sabbath though naturally we find in our selves no greater reluctation to any Commandement than to this Pardon me if I judge of others by my selfe in this particular Nay upon this very consideration have we not the more cause to strive against this intestine corruption of ours His Majesty is much delighted in hunting it is a recreation mixt with manly exercise well becomming a King but I heare he never useth to hunt on the Lords day And so much the rather should the Lords Sabbaths be deare unto us because the goodnesse and mercy of God appeares no where more than in giving us his Sabbaths calling upon us thereby to rest from the world unto him and God knowes a Christian soule finds no rest any where but in him and to walke with him in holy meditation as he is pleased to walk in the midst of us as a Hos 11.9 the Holy One of Israel so to draw us away from worldly cares and pleasures to the entertaining of heavenly and holy cares to enrich our selves with the knowledge of God and to recreate our soules in the Lord as hee solaceth himselfe in us according to that Prov. 8.31 Hee tooke his solace in the compasse of the earth and his delight was in the children of men On the Lords day it is that in speciall sort we Christians take hold of that holy Cōmunion which God in great mercy in his Son Jesus Christ vouchsafeth unto us with himselfe speaking unto us as from heaven in his holy Word and giving us liberty to speak unto him The Lord pitcheth his Tabernacle amongst us here on earth and we are as it were taken up into the mount of God there to be transfigured before him When the Lord appeared unto Jacob in a vision by night when he fled from his brother Esau and he saw a ladder erected between heaven and earth and the Lord on the top of it the Angels ascending and descending by it when he awoke How dreadfull saith he is this place Gen. 28.16 17. The Lord was here and I was not a ware surely it is no other than the house of God and the gate of heaven And are not our Temples the houses of God are they not the very gates of heaven In our solemne assemblies is not a ladder erected betweene earth and heaven is not the Lord on the top of it Deut. 33.3 and are not we humbled at his feet to heare his Word The gracious instructions which we receive from him are they
not as so many Angels descending unto us the gracious motions that arise in our hearts upon meditation of his Word of thankesgiving to him of rejoycing in him yea of sorrowing for our sins are they not as so many Angels ascending to him Our teares have a double motion one naturall downwards another spiritual upwards for the Lord puts them into his bottels the hairs of our head are numbred how much more the sighes of our heart and groanes of our spirit And have we not great cause to inure our selves betimes thus to sabbatize with God as he sabbatizeth with us that we may be the fitter to keepe our eternall Sabbath with him for so is our eternall happinesse represented unto us in the enjoying of him for ever Es 66.23 and being filled with his glory which Austin calls a De civit Dei lib. 22. c. 30. Sabbatum maximum our greatest Sabbath and b Quaest supra Exo. quaest 173. 1 Cor. 15.24.28 Plenitudo Sabbati and to that purpose casts his eye upon that Sabbatum Sabbatorum Sabbath of Sabbaths Revel 25. For when Christ hath put downe all rule and all authority and power then shall he deliver up the Kingdome to God even the Father and God shall be all in all Yet I willingly confesse that in my observation two things there are which seeme to be of great moment in opposition to the morality of the fourth Commandement 1. The change of the day 2. The generall opinion of the Fathers pronouncing in an indefinit manner the fourth Commandement to be ceremoniall Yet notwithstanding the registring of it in the Decalogue which is generally accompted the Law morall I say this consideration hath even prevailed more with mee to accompt the substance thereof morall Neverthelesse for the honour I owe and respect I beare to Antiquity I have endevoured to understand the Antients aright and to enquire in what respect they accompted it ceremoniall For to my understanding the sanctification of the rest or the service of the day especially unto us Christians is meerely morall But as concerning the rest it selfe it may be some ceremoniality may be found therein especially considered in conjunction with the time appointed for the worship and service of God And herein I thanke God I have found good satisfaction unto my selfe at last how I shall satisfie others I know not And when sometimes I had waded thorow the Epistle to the Romans unto the fourteenth Chapter there occasion was given me to consider further of this controversie so farre as a few dayes would give libertie to provide my next Sermon and therein I made use of Hospinian and of Pererius and no more as I remember but in Pererius I came acquainted with Tostatus his Arguments directed against the ancient institution of the Sabbath from the Creation which till then I imagined had been generally received without contradiction according to that which the story of Genesis at first sight seemes to commend unto us And by this occasion my mind working hereupon in my meditations I thought fit for opening a way to the better clearing of the truth to distinguish three things in subordination the latter to the former 1. The first was a time in generall to be set apart for Gods service 2. The second was the proportion of this time 3. The third the particularity of the day according to the specified proportion 1. The first seemed to me of necessary duty by the very light of nature to as many as know God and acknowledge him to be their Creator and this I tooke and doe take to be the highest degree of morality in this precept and herein hitherto I have found no opposition 2. As touching the second by light of nature we are somewhat to seeke as whether one day in a weeke or more or one day in a month or more or one day in a yeare or more ought to be set apart for the solemne worship and service of God So that herein it is fit we should expect direction from God the Lord of the Sabbath 1. Because the service of the day is his and it seemes fit he should cut out what proportion of time he thinkes convenient 2. For the maintenance of uniformitie therein and lest otherwise there might be as many divisions hereabouts as there are Churches in the world and contentions also consequently each standing for their owne election For reason of a conjecturall nature is very various and therein commonly affection beares the greatest sway and drawes the judgement to comply with it But when God hath determined a certaine proportion of time it may be we shall find great congruitie therein even to naturall reason and farre more than in any other D. Field as Master Broad reports professeth that to one who knowes the story of the Creation it is evident by light of nature that one day in seven is to be consecrated to Gods service Part. 2. lib. 1. cap. 2. And Azorius the Jesuit in his morall Institutions acknowledgeth that It is most agreeable to reason that after six work dayes one day should be consecrated to divine worship The least division of dayes is into a weeke the next greater division is into a month the next into a yeare Now by light of nature it seemes farre more reasonable that one day in seven should be imployed in Gods service than one day in a moneth And if a seventh part of our time be to be consecrated unto God better a seventh day than a seventh part of every day because the worldly occupations of each of those dayes must needs cause miserable distraction Thus reason may discourse in probable manner when God hath gone before us to open a way unto us Certainly when God hath once determined the proportion of time it is so farre from being accounted morall as perpetuall and still to hold untill God himselfe shall alter it 3. As for the particularity of the day according to the forenamed proportion therein we should be farre more to seeke were wee left unto our selves time consisting in a continuall flux and succession one part afore and another after As namely supposing one day in seven is to be consecrated to Gods service yet wee shall still be to seeke which day of the seven is to be set apart for an holy use And no marvell for in it selfe it is nothing materiall For a proportion of service being required within a certaine compasse so it be done within that compasse every Master rests satisfied with his servants worke But as for difference in the proportion every one accounts that a matter of great moment God himselfe acknowledgeth this therefore to whom he gives but little at their hands he expects but little to whom hee gives much of them he expects much as our Saviour teacheth And Saint John exhorts Christians so to carry themselves in the Lords service that they may receive a full reward 2 Iohn 8 Yet both for our assurance that
the Sabbath to abstaine from such a course whereby a mans strength would become more and more weakned and impaired Not that these things were commanded on the Sabbath day but permitted as is often signified by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is lawfull and for good reason “ Matth. 12.10.12 Mar 3.4 Luk. 6.9 For the Sabbath being ordained to promote a mans bene esse his well being and that in the best things it supposeth libertie to provide for his esse in case of necessitie lest otherwise he shall be found uncapable of those things that concerne his bene esse his well being For our nature wanting necessarie refreshment doth thereby many times become the more unfit for holy excerises and to performe that dutie which God requires and hath deserved at our hands How were Ionathans eyes enlightned upon the tasting of a little honey 1 Sam. 14.29 But this Translator desires as it seemes from the generalitie of mans good to seale up an opinion in the minds of his Readers that the Sabbath was made not onely for the service of God and for the promoting of a man in the knowledge and feare of God but for the furthering of his carnall pleasures also But never was it knowne that our Saviour justified any libertie to such courses on the Sabbath Neither were any such things as it seemes in course in the dayes of the Prophet Amos who reprehends them for saying Am. 8.5 When will the Sabbath be gone that they might returne to their worldly courses Rather they could wish their sun might stand still on that day as sometimes it did in the dayes of Ioshua if libertie were given to sports pastimes and pleasures on that day and it wvre wondrous strange that libertie should bee debarred them from kindling a fire to set forward the structure of the Sanctuarie Exod. 35 3. Luke 33.25 â—ast made to this very end that the Lord might dwell among them And from so precious a worke as the embalming of the body of Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and that at the very end of the day if at that time they were not restrained from any sensuall course of recreation according to the common fashion of the world Undoubtedly howsoever it stands now with us Christians in the dayes of our Saviour they that rested on their Sabbath from embalming the body of Christ Luk. 23.56 and that according to the appointment which is as much as to say according to the Law of God surely they by the same Law of God were much more restrained from worldly pleasures these standing far more in opposition to the sanctification of the Lords Sabbath then the embalming of the body of the Sonne of God who was Lord of the Sabbath And therefore this text is most unseasonably and impertinently alleaged by the Translator to serve his turn being farre more fit to crosse his purposes then any way to promote them So from the consideration of the title I come to the preface If the antiquitie of this controversie concerning the Sabbath were any thing materiall this Praefacer were foundered at the first For what if the Sabbath bee a part of the Law of Moses Was not the law of sanctifying the name of God the law forbidding images the law commanding them to have no other Gods but him that brought them out of the land of Aegypt the law commanding to honour parents to abstaine from murther adultery theft were not all these the Law of Moses Is not the law of sanctifying the Sabbath one of the tenne Commandements delivered by God from Mount Sinai as well as the other nine and was it not kept in the Arke as well as the rest Circumcision was no law of Moses and therefore albeit it be said Ioh. 7.22 That Moses gave unto them Circumcision yet forthwith it is added not because it is of Moses but of the Fathers so that Moses rather confirmed it then was the first giver of it So that the Law of Moses in this place is to bee understood of the ceremoniall law not of the morall law contained in the Decalogue and among these tenne Commandements that of the Sabbath is one and commended unto them in that state as none so much Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it and not onely before Moses but before Abraham and Noah also wee read Gen. 2. â— â— that the seventh day God rested from all the workes that hee had made and that therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Of any Minister or Pastor in the Church of England that maintaines us Christians to be obliged to the observation and sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath or of any Sabbath that is a shadow of things to come the body whereof is of Christ I never heard or read Yet for some hundred yeares in the Primitive Church not the Lords day onely but the seventh day also was religiously observed not by Ebion and Cerinthus onely but by pious Christians also as Baronius writeth and Gomarus confesseth and Rivet also that we are bound in conscience under the Gospell to allow for Gods service a better proportion of time than the Jewes did under the law rather than a worse And further it is well knowne that besides the weekely Sabbath there was variety of observation of times amongst the Jewes and divers of them called Sabbaths also as some think not one whereof was mentioned in the Decalogue or pronounced by the Lord from Mount Sinai as the fourth Commandement was for the sanctifying of the weekly Sabbath So that this Praefacer every way sheweth miserable loosenesse in his discourse And if Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris how wretched heretickes soever did still inforce the sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath whose wretchednesse yet consisted not so much in inforcing this as in inforcing all the ceremonies of Moses the Jewish Sabbath long after Corinthus continuing to be observed by many pious Christians as Baronius observeth others and Saint Paul doth oppose all such doctrine and practise in these passages of his here mentioned did not this Author know that upon these very passages of Saint Paul the Anabaptists and Socinians as vile heretickes as Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris for their blood have gone so farre as not onely to overthrow the observation of the Jewish Sabbath but the sanctifying of the Lords day also The opinion of the law ceremoniall standing still in force which indeed was the opinion of the heretickes mentioned is I confesse a dangerous point and such as not onely seemed as this Praefacer minceth it out of what degree of wisdome or providence I know not to confirme the Jewes in their incredulitie but indeed justly might confirme them nor onely occasion but justly cause also others to make question of our Saviours comming in the flesh not so the observation of the seventh day to sanctifie it for ought this Author hath hitherto manifested or throughout this preface of his doth manifest and
equity of bringing our Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath In his speech in the Starre Chamber against Traske The Sabbath saith hee had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And againe It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And for the confirmation hereof brings in that of Austin Ep. 119 ad Ianuarium The Lords Day by Christs Resurrection hath beene declared unto Christians and from that time began to have its festivity These Theses of his were written as it seemes in opposition to Broade Doctor Lakes Bishop of Wells maintaines the same Doctrine after the same manner in his Theses de Sabbato thes 27. Man having sinned and so by sinne abolished the first Creation De jure though not de facto God was pleased by Christ to make a new instauration of the World 28. He as the Scripture speakes of Christs redemptions made a new Heaven and a new Earth Old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29. Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30. As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31. So did Christ when he ended his worke made a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable But a man may easily perceive whither this Prefacer tends and such as are of his Spirit The Rhemists upon the first of the Revel and 10. verse doe observe that the Apostles and the faithfull abrogated the Sabbath which was the seventh day and made holy day for it the next day following being the eighth day in compt from the Creation and that without all Scriptures and Commandements of Christ that we read of yea which is more not only otherwise then was by the Law observed but plainly otherwise than was prescribed by God himselfe in the second Commandement yea otherwise than he ordained in the first Creation when he sanctified precisely the Sabbath day and not the day following Such great power did Christ leave to his Church and for such causes gave he the Holy Ghost to be resident in it to guide it into all truthes even such as in the Scripture are not expressed And if the Church had authority and inspiration from God to make Sunday being a working day before an everlasting holy day and the Saturday that before was holy day now a common work-day why may not the same Church prescribe and appoint the other feasts of Easter Whitsontide Christmas and the rest for the same warrant she hath for the one as she hath for the other Now to this Doctor Fulk makes answer after this manner The Apostles did not abrogate the Jewish Sabbath but Christ himselfe by his death as he did all other ceremonies of the Law that were figures and shadowes of things to come whereof he was the body and they were fulfulled and accomplished in him and by him And this the Apostles knew both by the Scriptures and by the Word of Christ and his holy Spirit By the Scriptures also they knew that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever during the World as consecrated and hallowed to the publike exercise of the Religion of God Although the ceremoniall rest and prescript day according to the Law were abrogated by the death of Christ Now for the prescription of this day before any other of seven they had without doubt either the expresse commandement of Christ before his ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdome of God and the order and government of the Church Acts 1.2 or else the certaine direction of his Spirit that it was his will and pleasure it should be so and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how in the words following he falls in upon the same reason of the change of the day which of old was mentioned by Athanasius formerly rehearsed herein by Beza Doctor Andrews D. Lake as I have already shewed Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying the day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the world by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lord rested from the creation of the world And after many lines nothing necessary to be recited he comes to the comparison made betweene the Lords Day and other Festivalls saying Although the Church in dayes or times which are indifferent may take order for some other dayes or times to be solemnized for the exercises of Religion or the remembrance of Christs nativity resurrection ascension or the comming of the holy Ghost may be celebrated either on the Lords Day or any other time yet there is great difference between the authority of the Church in this case and the prescription of the Lords Day by the Apostles for the speciall memory of those things are indifferent of their nature either to be kept on certaine daies or left to the discretion of the Governours of the Church But to change the Lords Day or to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles And againe in the next place The cause of this change it was not our estimation that either we have or ought to have of our redemption before our creation but the Ordinance of God who as first he sanctified the rest from creation for the glory of that weeke so now also he sanctifieth the day of the restitution of the world for his glory of the accomplishment of our redemption Thus wee have not onely authority Humane but authority Divine for the alteration of the Day and that by the testimony of more Bishops antient and late than this Prefacer makes shew of amongst farre meaner names Yet he doth immodestly abuse Doctor Prideaux in putting it upon him that in the fifth Section he maintaines the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution For in that Section he onely opposeth them who would derive the Divine authority which they stand for of the alteration of the Day from the old Testament but as for those who derive the Divine authority thereof from the new they hee confesseth doe carry themselves herein more warily the other more weakly and them alone he disputes against in that Section In the sixth Section he comes to the deriving thereof from the new Testament and first he challengeth them who boast that they have found the insti ution of the Lords Day in the new Testament expressely
opinion of men of severall professions as this author presseth it both Papists and Protestants both Lutheranes and Calvinists and this Prefacer can lay no just title to any one of them in this particular The second point he hath insisted upon is about the morality of one day in seven For this he pretends onely Papists in the first place and not a Father throughout and as Chrysostome to the contrary hath professed that God from the beginning hath manifested that on that day in the circle of the week must be consecrated unto his service much lesse Scripture And it is apparant that God commanded that the proportion of one day in seven should bee allotted to his service and it was never to bee abrogated nor ever did any man devise any ceremoniality therein And to this day it hath continued in the Church of God To Tostatus wee have opposed Azorius the Jesuite professing that it is most agreeable to reason after six worke dayes to consecrate one to Gods service Adde to him Stella upon Luke Jacobus de Valentia Dominicus Bannes As for Aquiaas that which hee accounts ceremoniall in the fourth Commandement was expressed by him to bee not one day in seven but the particulating of the seaventh day But whereas he goes no farther in illustrating the morality of this Commandement then in saying that some time must be set apart for Gods service I appeale to every mans conscience whether the very light of nature doth not suggest that not onely some time but a convenient proportion of time ought to be consecrated unto God and when God hath manifested this to bee one day in seaven under the Law doth not the very light of nature suggest that wee should sin against God if wee should not allow unto him as good a proportion of time under the Gospell And further if the Lords Day be of Divine institution amongst us Christians is it not still the Law of God even unto us to allow unto him one day in seven Now Doctor Prideaux himselfe alleageth more Papists for this opinion than for the contrary and one of them to wit Silvester professeth it is the common opinion as Azorius voucheth him And as for Protestants to side with him herein hee alleageth none but Gomarius and Rivet it may seeme by his carriage that Vatablus nd Musculus also are for him in this but that is untrue they are alleaged by Gomarus on the first point onely as touching the originall institution of the Sabbath Now Rivet is opposed herein by his two Collegues Walaeus and Thysius and whereas he takes upon him to answer Walaeus his reasons to the contrary and represent his owne reasons for his opinion herein I have taken into consideration both the one and the other and I trust have represented the weaknesse of his discourse throughout though otherwise a very learned and worthy Divine Now Waleus hath not onely alleadged amongst the Fathers Chrysostome Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Augustine Theodoret but a multitude of Protestant writers maintaining the morality of one day in seaven as Luther Melancthon Calvin Beza Bucer Peter Martyr Zanchius Junius Viretus Danaeus Fayus Martinius Vrsinus Alstedius Lorasegius Festus Hommius besides English and Scottish writers whom he might have produced more then enough yea of Bishops in this Kingdome as Bishop Babington Bishop Andrewes Bishop Lake yea and Master Hooker in his Ecclesiasticall policy Now let the readers judge by this of the modesty of this Prefacer in this particular also and whether the miracle as he phraseth it be on our side in dissenting from others unreasonably or on his rather The third particular is touching the celebration of the Lords Day as whether it bee by authority humane or divine rather wee say it is of divine hee will have it to be left arbitrary yet was it never knowne that any earthly Master did leave the proportion of service to bee performed unto him to the pleasure of his servant neither did God leave it thus from the beginning of the World untill Christ as hath beene proved Yet this Prefacer will have it thus left unto us in these latter dayes of which the Apostle hath prophecied 1 Tim. 3.4 that Men should be lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God For this he boasts of all sorts of Papists this he begins withall which was not wont to bee the course of English Divines yet hee belies Doctor Prideaux in this who alleageth more Papists standing for the divine right hereof then for the contrary and one of them as formerly I sayd professeth that it is the common opinion And Azorius the Jesuite professeth that it is most agreeable to reason that as after six dayes worke one should bee consecrate unto the Lord so the Lords Day should be it That many of our Protestants Divines call the observation of the Lords Day Ecclesiae consuetudinem and that it was left free unto the Church to choose another after the Iewes Sabbath was abrogated I have shewed how little all this makes for him answering to every passage punctually as they are alleaged by him For it is confessed that the Church they spake of was the apostolicall Church and the cause moving them to choose this day was the Resurrection of Christ and whereas some two of them call this Causam probabilem I have discussed that and prooved it to be more then probable I have shewed withall how the ancient fathers have acknowledged it some expressely divine some equivalently and expressely apostolicall constitution or sanction as Athanasius whose reason drawne from the congruity betweene the first creation and the second Creation by vertue of Christs death is remarkeable and followed by many both English and outlandish Divines Austin Sedulius Gregory and others And with them the concurrence of our Protestant divines Bucer Calvin Beza Junius Piscator Wolsius Fulke against the Remish Doctor Andrewes bishop of Winchester Doctor Lake bishop of Bath and Wells in expressing it to be observationis not liberae but necessariae Master Fox Walaeus Fayus Hyperius Perkins Brownde By this lot the reader judge of the modesty of the Praefacer in this particular also and whether the miracle bee on our side in dissenting from others in an unreasonable manner and not on his rather The fourth and last particular is the mutability of the day which this Prefacer stands for we on the contrary professing it to be unchangeable Now the resolution of this followeth upon the resolution of the former for this onely names are produced both by the Prefacer and Doctor Prideaux Yet I have endeavored to finde out Chemnitius his discourse thereon and enter upon a discussion thereof Bucer I am sure alleaged by Rivet is nothing for this purpose Doctor Fulke directly opposeth it Doctor Andrewes Doctor Lake above mentioned Doctor Brownde Doctor Willet Master Perkins The Christian Church anciently being demanded whether they had kept the Lords Day were wont to answer I am a Christian I cannot intermit it
Besides I have shewed in reason the unreasonablenesse both of changing the day and the intollerable scandall that would follow upon it and the unreasonablenesse of not changing it if it be not of divine institution considering how prone wee are through the continuall observation thereof to conceave that to be a necessary duty and so to be plunged into superstition ere we are aware if it prove to be no necessary duty In the next place hee tells us how that some amongst us have revived againe the Iewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the Commandement of sanctifying every seaventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Iewish were so changed that they were cleane to be done away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were only abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest Here wee have a distinction of a Jewish Sabbath brought in yet not the day a distinction contrived with such wisedome and perspicacity as it seemes to exceed all humane discretion For I verily thinke that from the beginning of the Primitive Church there was never heard of a Jewish Sabbath to be kept any other then upon their day The materialls are first that the name Sabbath is retained and well may it be in my judgement though some entertaine sublime reaches to the contrary if our Saviour have any authority with us who adviseth his Disciples to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which is spoken by him in reference to the time about the destruction of Ierusalem at what time the Lords Day was come in place of the Jewes Sabbath among the Christian congregations and that by apostolicall substitution And in the very booke of our Homilies it is expressely sayd that the Sunday is now our Sabbath And his Majesties briefes for collection so stile it And in the conference at Hampton Court it was so stiled by Doctor Raynolds and the motion he made thereabout generally yeelded unto so that the State hitherto seemes to be censured by this bold Prefacer The next aspersion is that the thing also is revived But what thing the Jewes had peculiar sacrifice both morning and evening which doubled the dayly sacrifice this surely is not revived There were besides two things in the Jewish Sabbath the one was a rest the other was the sanctifying of that rest As for the rest if that were not it were no Sabbath Yet our Saviour calls it a Sabbath our Church calls it a Sabbath our State calls it a Sabbath And Austin calls us to such a rest on the Lords Day as that therein we must tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare onely rest to God onely rest for divine worship And Calvin who is taken to be no friend of ours in this case professeth that we must rest from all our works so farre forth as they are avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations but not for any mysterious signification sake and that herein consists the difference betweene the Jewish rest and our Christians rest and I am exactly of his opinion for this As for the sanctification of this rest I trust wee are as much bound to the performance hereof and that in as great measure and with as great devotion under the Gospel as ever the Jewes were under the Law And at the hearing of this Commandement as well as of any other our Church hath taught us to pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law And I find it wondrous strange to heare that some should not spare to professe that this was shuffled in they know not how At length wee come to the particular charges the first is that some should teach that The Commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall and Master Rogers is quoted for this on the Article Art 7. hee quotes Master Doctor Bownde pag. 7. Now truely it cannot be denied but that when the fourth Commandement is read unto us in our Congregations wee are taught to pray unto God to shew such mercy unto us as to incline our hearts to the keeping of this law And both master Rogers and this Prefacer are to be presumed to have subscribed as well as others and by their subscription acknowledged that this is nothing contrary to Gods Word that we are as much bound to the observation of this Commandement as of any other and consequently to keepe the Sabbath and doe no manner of worke thereon that may hinder the sanctifying thereof Now Master Doctor Bownds words after hee had cited Chrysostome speaking thus I am hic ab initio c. Here now even from the beginning God hath insinuated this Doctrine unto us teaching us in circulo hebdomadis diem unum that in the compasse of a weeke one whole day is to be put apart for a spirituall rest unto God are these Vnto all which may be added that for profe oth at this Commandement is naturall morall and perpetuall that I say may be added which was practised among the Gentiles and all the Heathen And now Do. Bowndes purpose unto the p. 30. is to be proved only this that a Sabbath was from the beginning and still is to be kept and that in the proportion of one day in seven and after that proceeds to prove what day the Sabbath should be kept his words are these p. 30. Now as we have hitherto seene that there ought to be a Sabbath day so it remaineth that we should heare upon what day this Sabbath should be kept and here he sheweth that this is not left unto the Church but prescribed by God himselfe as who prescribed one day unto the Jewes and another day unto us Christians but still one in seven The same was the opinion both of Bellarmine and Master Hooker in his Ecclesiasticall policy Whereas both Master Rogers and the Prefacer so carry the matter as if by Doctor Bowndes opinion we Christians were bound to keepe our Sabbath on the same day whereon the Jewes were bound to keepe theirs which is most untrue though the fourth Commandement may be indifferently accommodated to our Christian Sabbath as it was unto the Jewish Sabbath save onely as touching the reason given which hath expresse reference to the creation but our Christian Sabbath stands in reference to the worke of Redemption Each is the rest on a seventh day after six dayes of labour and as they were bound to sanctifie their seventh so are we bound to sanctifie ours and
day of Christs resurrection in the new Testament called the Lords day Revel 1.10 And so willingly we come to the consideration of the right whereby The Lords day hath succeeded in the place thereof Let it be the shame of the Anabaptist Familist and Swenk feldian to make all dayes equall and equally to be regarded so insteed of Christian libertie to bring into the Church an Heathenish licentiousnesse yet surely the heathens ever had their festivalls even weekely and that on the seventh day which was sometimes called in this respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And at this day the Turkes festivall is their Friday the first day of Mahumets kingdome when hee fled from Maecha to Iethrib and thenceforth constituted both the first day of their weeke and of their yeare Let as many as by their Sabbatarian speculations bring all to Iudaisme bee censured as they deserve but as for them that desire to have all the glory of the Iewes Sabbath transferred to the Lords day take heed how you censure them least you censure Austin also and the Doctors of the Church mentioned by him who have decreed this As for the river called Sabbaticus let such lettice serves their lips that like them Censures of fanatick and peevish spirits are as liberally bestowed by some as the Baiocchi and Bagalini which the Pope scatters at the day of his coronation but who they be that deserve them God will one day Judge But I perceive whither this tends If some conceive the Lords day to be prophaned by Maygames and Morice dances they are censured for men fanatick of peevish spirits but they little think that all the Prelates of the kingdome may as well come under their lash and the whole Parliament in the first of king Charles Sect. 3. But that thred which here is begun is drawne out somewhat longer in the next Section following 5 In this fifth Section things are so carryed that it is an hard matter to discerne the Doctors meaning especially in relating the different opinions concealing the Authors of them and the place where they are to be found and their arguments which here are only said to be derived from the sanctification of the seventh day in the first creation of the world and from the institution of the Sabbath in the fourth commandement For herence it is said that they who stand for the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the Lords day as by divine authority doe draw their arguments for the justifying of their Tenet which I willingly professe doth seeme a prodigy unto me namely that any man should dispute thus In the beginning of the world the Lord commanded the seventh day to be sanctified therefore now under the Gospell the Sabbath is to be translated from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke Or thus the Lord in the fourth commandement gave in charge to sanctifie the Sabbath and tells them that the seventh day of the weeke was their Sabbath therefore the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day of the weeke to the Lords day is of divine institution As touching the first of these deductions that which comes nearest thereunto is the discourse of Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in the Starre Chamber The Sabbath had reference to the old creation but in Christ we are a new creature a new creation and so to have a new Sabbath And Athanasius his discourse long agone upon that of Matth. 11.27 All things are given to me of my Father Finis prioris creationis Sabbatum The end of the first creation was the Sabbath day but the beginning of the second creation is the Lords day and of this hee discourseth there more at large And we find manifestly this notable congruitie betweene the Sabbath day and the Lords day that like as God on the seventh day rested from the worke of creation so Christ our Saviour rising on the first day of the weeke from the dead made that the first day of his resting from the worke of redemption But when I consider the Doctors sharp censures of weaknesse of impudency of ignorance it is not credible he should closely let flee at such as Athanasius and Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester Neither doe I find thoroughout this whole discourse any notice taken of this ground whereupon their discourse runnes It is more likely by farre that some loâ—ner persons and poore snakes are herein set up as markes to shoot at and as signes to be spoken against It is true many doe prove herence the morality of the fourth commandement The author of the practice of pietie which goes under a Bishops name takes this course of his tenne arguments to prove the commandements of the Sabbath to be morall this is the second Because it was commanded of God to Adam in his innocency Bishop Andrewes in his Patterne of catecheticall doctrine taketh the like course as formerly hath beene mentioned and which is more professeth This to be a principle that the Decalogue is the law of nature revived and the law of nature is the Image of God now in God saith he there can be no ceremony but all must be eternall and so in this Image which is the law of nature and so in the Decalogue whereas a ceremony is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and accordingly that one day in seven is to bee observed and consecrated unto Gods Service as Chrysostome long agoe hath inferred herence but it is nothing usuall to inferre herence the celebration of the Lords day In like manner not one that I know ancient or late doe conclude from the fourth commandement either the celebration of the Lords day or the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke But herence indeed they inferre and most justly in my judgement that if one day in the weeke were to be consecrated unto the Lord. by vertue of the morall law in the dayes of the old Testament much more doth it become us by the very light of nature to consecrate as good a proportion of time to Gods service under the Gospell And accordingly to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification of that day in the exercises of pietie and so farre forth as they are found to hinder it not for any mysterious significations sake in which respect a very rigorous rest is most commonly conceived to bee enjoyned to the Jewes I doe wonder the Canonists are reckoned amongst those who doe build the celebration of the Lords day upon the constitution of the Church and affirme this absolutely Sect. 4. when in the next Section many Canonists are alleaged out of Azorius as maintaining the divine authority of the Lords dayes and one of them Sylvester by name 22. q. 44. art 1. professing it to be opinionem communem And as for Schoole-men it is apparant that Dominicus Bannes puts a manifest difference betweene the Lords day and other festivities which are
ex institutione ecclesiae And whereas Bellarmine is alleaged as the mouth of the Schoolemen to affirme absolutely that the celebration of the Lords day is by the constitution of the Church and that in distinction from them who say it was ordered by the Apostles I find no such matter in the place quoted but rather the contrary both confirming that one day in a weeke is to be consecrated to the Lord by law divine and whereas it was not fit that now the Saturday should be it therefore the Sabbath was turned into the Lords day by the Apostles his words are these Ius divinū requirebat ut vnus dies hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino non autem conveniebat ut servaretur Sabbatum Itaque Sabbatum ab Apostolis in diem Dominicum versum est likewise Sixtus Senensis saith that the institution of the Lords day is of the Apostles as I have shewed in my answer to the preface S. 5. It is true that which is here reported of Brentius as who professeth it to be left indifferent to the Church to ordain one day in seven or on day in fourteene to be consecrated which whether it be not an unreasonable conceit I am willing to appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux yet Gemardus the Lutheran will not follow Brentius in this as I have shewed in my answer to the preface and 5. Section For hee acknowledgeth the celebration of the Lords day to be juxta Apostolorum constitutionem And as for Chemnitius what he writes hereof is not expressed but for the divine authority of the celebration of the Lords day I have represented the joynt consent of some 11. or 12. of our moderne divines in the place before mentioned Besides the concurrence of the ancient Fathers not one of them being so much as pleaded for the opposite Tenet and lastly the generall answer of Christians in the times of persecution when they were demanded in this manner Dominicum servasti hast thou kept the Lords day for usually it was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I cannot omit it for I am a Christian Sect. 5. The first opinion to wit of those who maintained the divine authoritie of the celebritie of the Lords day by the old Testament is here censured for inclining much to Judaisme but it is not expressed wherein And it is apparant they doe not maintaine the observation of the seventh day Certainely this is delivered in reference to somewhat that is not thought fit to be expressed yet the prefacer did expresse it imputing unto them whom he opposeth that they doe observe the Jewish Sabbath not in respect of the Jewish day but of the Jewish manner observing it to wit in the way of a rigorous rest But I know none that maintaines any other rest from works then as they are avocations from sacred studies and meditations whereas the Jewes observed it for some mysterious signification sake and thereupon were tyed to a more rigorous rest But let them speake plainly and say we are too rigorous in thinking sports and pastimes unlawfull on the Lords day And herein I appeale to every Christian conscience whether these be not as great avocations from sacred studies and meditations as the workes of our ordinary callings Then againe which of us comes nearest to Judaisme herein Is it not against the Jewes that Austin professeth Melius est orare quam saltare Better to goe to plough then to dances and Foeminae vestrae melius lanam facerent quam saltarent Better it were your women should spin wooll then dance as their course was in their festivalls Againe why should their opinion be Jewish by maintaining it out of the old Testament rather then out of the new Then who are they that maintaine it onely by the old Testament And lastly not one that I know neither doe I thinke it can be justly obtruded on any doe maintaine the succession of the Lords day in the place of the Jewish Sabbath either by the originall institution of it as from the creation or by the fourth commandement yet upon these nullities is founded the imputation of both impudency and ignorance in oppugning the received opinion of Divines That confidently taken up for a received opinion among divines which is in no tolerable sort proved not one Ancient alleaged for it and but two Papists quoted the one of which I have shewed to be of a plaine contrary opinion Sect. 4. And of Protestant Divines I have represented no lesse then eleven maintaining the Apostolicall and divine constitution of the Lords day besides Gerardus the Lutheran to affront Brentius Nay Doctor Prideaux himselfe Sect. 7. maintaines that it is of Divine authority and as I remember in the vespers at the last act unalterable by the Church That the Priesthood being changed there is made also a change of the law we beleeve because the Apostle saith it Heb. 7.12 it is well if the Schoolemen make the word of God their principles but of what Law of the morall law or of the tenne commandements or any one of them yet we willingly confesse a change of one particular in one of them not rather of the law of sacrifices such a change as to set an end to them That herence the Schoolemen conclude that at this day the morall law bindeth not as it was published and proclaimed by Moses but as at first it appertained no lesse to the Gentiles then to the Iewes this I say is a mystery And to confesse a truth when I met with this in a certaine manuscript of one Brewers it seemed to me a very wilde discourse from this place of the Apostle to inferre so much but now I meet with it in a lecture of so judicious and learned Divine as Doctor Prideaux I will suspend my judgement and waite untill I heare what those Schoolemen are and where it is that they make such inferences that being made acquainted with them I may judge of them according to my capacity as they deserve Certainely Zanchy in the place quoted makes no such Inference from that place Heb. 7.12 yet the Doctrine which he delivers is good and sound though the instance he makes of the Sabbath too weake to prove it as appeares to all that acknowledge the Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath to be given to Adam immediatly after his creation who deserve to be accompted more hot spurres then they in whom The desire of prey doth over-runne the sent Now what one of our Divines can be alleaged to derive the authority of the Lords day from the law of Moses I am verily perswaded not one The sanctifying of the Lords Sabbath they derive from thence and the sanctifying of one day in seven but not the authority of the Lords day But if it may appeare otherwise that the Lords day by good authority is substituted in the place of the seventh to become our Christian Sabbath such as our Saviour fore-prophecied of Matth. 24.20 then
notion to be a like in both And hereupon it is most ingenuously acknowledged that The alteration of the name doth intimate that the Sabbath was also altered in relation to Gods worship but the appointment of the tim c. wherein endeth this Section And the next begins with this question what then shall we affirme that the Lords day is founded on divine authority and the answer is For my part without prejudice to any mans opinion I assent unto it how ever the arguments like me not whereby it is supported well therefore let us lovingly and candidly as it becomes the gates of the muses conferre about these arguments First this inference offends me That in the cradle of the world God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore all men are bound to sanctifie it by the Law of Nature since I both doubt whether the Patriarches did observe it before Moses time and have learnt also that the Law of nature is immutable Doctor Andrewes in his patterne of Catecheticall Doctrine writes saying This is a principle that the Decalogue is the Law of nature revived and the law of nature is the Image of God But let us consider the argument It is one thing to except against the antecedent another to except against the inference made herence As touching the Antecedent it is one thing what God hath ordained and may be another thing what the Patriarches observed we say God ordained it in as much as hee commanded it in these words Therefore God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it that is commanded man to sanctifie it as hath beene proved and is also confessed only to helpe themselves as it were at a dead lift they say those words in Genesis are uttered by way of anticipation as much as to say because God rested on that day therefore God commanded man to rest on the same day and sanctifie it but when 2500. yeeres after for the unreasonablenesse of which interpretation and the incongruitie thereof unto the same words repeated in the fourth commandement I appeale to that which I have formerly discoursed hereupon Now if God from the beginning ordained the seventh day to be kept holy wee leave it to every sober conscience to judge whether it be not most likely that both Adam and the holy Patriarches observed it for we insist not in this argument upon humane observation but meerely upon Divine institution And though God did from the beginning command it yet it followeth not that all men are bound to sanctifie that day unlesse they have some evidence of Gods command wherewith we are made acquainted by the Scriptures If the law of nature be meant a light of nature convincing us we doe not infer herence or at all maintaine nor any that I know that in this sense all or any are bound to keep the seventh or a seventh day holy but onely by vertue of Gods command Yet this wee professe that seeing it is generally confessed that by the very light of nature some time is to be set apart for Gods service Wee cannot devise in reason any better course then to set one day in seaven apart for this considering the first division of dayes is into weekes and if a seventh part of our time be in reason to be consecrated unto God wee thinke it more convenient to set one intire day in seven apart for this then the seventh part of every day because the other businesses of every day are apt to cause distraction from the Lords service And as I have but erst discoursed it is more fit the Master should appoint unto the servant what proportion of service hee shall performe unto him then that this should be left to the discretion or liberty of the servant 1. both the honour of the Master requiring this 2. and the good of the servant for hereby hee shall be assured of the better acceptance at the hands of his master And so for the particular day it is fit the Master should marke out that also unto him by some prerogative set upon the day as hee did the seventh day by finishing the worke of Creation and by his rest thereon from his workes to call man to an holy rest from his so to be more free for the service of his Creator In which cases both touching the proportion of the time and particularity of the day the Law being made it shall continue immutable and unalterable by the will of the Creature but mutable and alterable according to the will of the Creator so that things being well distinguished and rightly considered and stated I see no bug beare of inconvenience in all this Neyther doe I see any reason why the spending of one day in Gods holy worship as a morall and perpetuall duty should seeme distastfull to any Since it is apparant that God commanded it unto his people of the Jewes and for 1600 yeares it hath beene continually observed by Christian Churches unto this day and I make no doubt but it shall hold till Christs comming though from the beginning of the World it was never found to be so hotly opposed as at this day And why should any man stick in acknowledging it to be morall when never any man busied himselfe to finde out any ceremoniality in reference to the proportion of one day in seven Neither doe I thinke ever any man called it judiciall but Azorius professeth it to be rationi maxime consentancum most agreeable to reason and no man that I know hath at any time set himselfe to devise a proportion of time to be spent in Gods service more agreeable to reason then this And as for the third offence taken for I know not any that give it The fourth Commandement is brought by none that I know to prove that the Lords Day is now become our Christian Sabbath but supposing it to be our Sabbath as the booke of Homilies sayth it is and our Saviour signified that Christians should have their Sabbath as well as the Jewes had theirs Math. 24 20. wee produce the fourth Commandement to prove that wee ought to sanctifie it and that we may the better sanctifie it to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification thereof And indeed the Commandedement is so drawen as to command one day in seaven to be observed and whatsoever is that seventh prescribed by lawfull authority to sanctifie it and abstaine from all works whereby the hallowing of it is disturbed and all this we take to be morall namely the worshipping of God in a certaine proportion of time prescribed by him and to that purpose to rest from workes not for any mysterious signification sake as did the Jewes wee thinke the practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes is sufficient to inferre the apostolicall and divine institution thereof from hence Athanasius Cyrill Austin and the Fathers generally for I know not one alleaged to the contrary so take it And the Lords Day hath no other notion in Scripture
single Person But we must take care Ne quid nimis in victu joy c. Alogia which S. Austin reproves Epist. 86. ad Casulanum must not be used And we must keepe the Apostles rule Whether wee eat or drinke we must doe all to the glory of God And it were to bee wished that the old practice whereof there is a Patterne in the Kings house some Cathedrall Churches were every where in use That at six a Clock in the Morning Prayers were every where appointed for Servants and such as were to prepare dinner to goe then to Church at whose returne the Masters might goe with the rest of their familie As for other recreations if they be not opposite or prejudiciall to Piety they may well stand with the solemnizing of the Sabbath and other feasts Too much Austerity doth rather hurt then good especially in those dayes wherein Indulgence where of we have Patternes in Gods Synchoreticall Lawes is extorted from those that are in Authoritie by the generall corruption of the time Wherefore I would distinguish in such cases betweene the Precept and permission The Precept sheweth whereunto men should tend and be exhorted and it were to be wished they would follow and keepe the Lords Day as they are directed by the Canon and Injunction The Permission sheweth what must be tollerated for the hardnesse of mens hearts Vacation from bodily labour is required both Per se for it is a figure of our freedome from those Animall toyles in the Church Triumphant and also Propter aliud that we may the better intend our spirituall life To conclude all seeing all agree that it must be observed and differ onely upon what ground and how farre seeing to fetch the authority from God and to keepe it with all reasonable strictnesse maketh most for Piety in a doubtfull case I incline thither though I condemne not them that are otherwise minded wishing that sobriety of judgement to all in such disputes which Saint Paul commendeth Rom. c. 14. FINIS An Errata IN the preface p. 8. li. 22. 23. it is so far to be accompted morall In the treatise p. 3. l. 20. report read repent p. 7. l. 28. to seale reade to steale p. 36. l. 35. a new Father r. a new master p. 37. l. 31. Mockel p. 38. l. 6. blot out and p. 39. l. 32. wee r. who r. â—â— l. 8. would read could p. 48. l 2. Piloponus p. 50. l. 39. rather then p. 53. l. 31. unto p. 56. l. 3. from sins read for sins p. 59 l. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 33. purse read purpose p. 110. l. 10. 6 toh read both p. 110. l. 16. and by sending the holy Ghost p. 122. l. 2. read Rom 1.4 p. 122. l. the last now read was p. 129. l. 4. read because on that day p. 133. l. 9. Qua read quae page 137. l. 5. his read is p. 144. l. 23. some without read shins with our p. 151. l 26. yet read yea p. 152. l. 6. walaeus that read walaus say that p. 152. l. 27. made read the seventh made line last that on that day read that one day p. 158. l. 11. is to be proved read is to prove only p. 162. l. 18. read Banbury p. 165. l. 7. Rogers upon read Rogers Vpon l. 26. is contrary read it contrary p. 167. l. the last dele which the Jewes keepe read as the letter soundeth p. 168. 29. against read againe p. 170. l. 16. be read to be l. 171. l. 1. 15. dele now being read to be p. 180. l. 6. though he read though I. p. 180. l. 27. that read and that p. 187. l. 12. peratur reads operatur p. 195. l. 5. uno read imo p. 196. l. 32. well read will p. 198. l. 6. observed the read observed it in the p. 20. l. 27. saith that no more read saith no more p. 205. l. 20. as read was p. 207. l. 24. he doth say read he doth not say p. 222. l. 27 Gerardus p. 230. li. 1. read supposition l. 6. that God dele that read God p. 233. l. 14. of Ephesus read of Troas p. 240. l. 4. I can read I call Thes de Sabbat Thes 26. the seventh day from 27. Christ an 37. Spirit
judgement writing thus August epist 86. ad Casulanum When God sanctified the seventh day because thereon hee rested from all his workes hee did not deliver ought concerning the Fast or Dinner of the Sabbath nor afterwards when to the Hebrew people hee gave commandement for the observation of the day it selfe did hee mention ought as touching the receiving or not receiving of food onely commandement is given concerning mens vacation from their owne or from servile workes which vacation the former people receiving as a shadow of things to come in such manner rested from their workes as now wee behold the Iewes to rest Hee citeth also Theophilus Patriarch of Antioch a most ancient writer in his second booke to Autolychus writing thus Furthermore as touching the seventh which amongst al people is celebrious most men are in great ignorance For this day which is celebrious amongst all is called the Sabbath if a man interpret in Greeke it is called Septimana by this name all men call this day but the cause of this denomination they know not Now what was the cause hereof in his judgement but the Lords resting thereon as the seventh after hee had finished all his workes in six dayes and thereupon blessing it and sanctifying it whereupon it grew to bee a festivall day generally amongst all Tertullian though alleaged on the other side yet hath beene already shewed to bee of the same minde in this particular with Chrysostome and Austin Adde unto these Epiphanius haer 51. Sabbatum primum est quod ab initio decretum est ac dictum à Domino in mundi creatione quod per circuitum ab eo tempore usque huc juxta septem dies revolvitur The first Sabbath is that which the Lord from the beginning ordained and spake in the creation of the world which by revolution from that time to this according to the circle of seven dayes returneth Athanasius also upon those words of our Saviour Matth. 11.27 All things are given to mee of my Father distinguisheth betweene the Sabbath day and the Lords day affirming the Sabbath day to have been the end of the first creation and the Lords day the beginning of the second creation Beda in his Hexameron professeth that the rest of the seventh day after sixe dayes working semper celebrari solebat was alwayes wont to bee celebrated If alwayes then before the children of Israels comming out of Aegypt before Abraham before the flood even from the beginning of the dayes of Adam the first of men Adde unto this the received and most currant opinion of the Jewes by the testimonies of Philo and Josephus vouched by Wallaeus Philo in his second book of Moses writing thus Quis sacrum illum diem per singulas hebdomadas recurrentem non honorat Who doth not honour that holy day according to the weekely revolution thereof and hee delivers this not of the Jewes onely but of the Greekes and Barbarians of inhabitants of Mayn-land and Ilands those of Europe of Asia and of the whole habitable part of the world to the very ends thereof Iosephus l. 2. against Appion professing that there is no City of Grecians or Barbarians nor any Nation to whom the customary observation of the seventh whereon the Jewes rested had not reached Adde unto this the testimony of two Rabbins mentioned by Broughton in his Consent of Scriptures acknowledging this and another Rabbin alleaged by Peter Martyr upon Genesis both cited by Master Richard Bâ—field in his answer to Master Breerwood Give me leave to adde my mite also of mine owne observation The 92. Psalme hath this title A Psalme and Song for the Sabbath The Chalde paraphrase hereupon writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A praise and Song which Adam the first of men spoke on the Sabbath day manifestly evidencing that in the received opinion of the Jewes in those dayes Adam sanctified the Sabbath Rabbi David Kimchi testifies the same in his Commentary upon that Psalme to be the doctrine delivered in their Darash namely that Adam the first conceived this Psalme after hee was created on the Sabbath day and that afterwards he sinned and so prophaned the Sabbath So that notwithstanding all the bluster which this Author makes this fourth Commandement may continue morall neverthelesse And sure I am Irenaeus puts this difference betweene the words of the Decalogue so he speaks and consequently expungeth not but rather includeth the fourth Commandement and the ceremoniall lawes Iren. l. 4. cap. 31. that Decalogi verba the words of the Decalogue spoken by God himselfe unto all doe therefore continue in like manner with us receiving extension and augmentation by the comming of Christ in the flesh but no dissolution But the precept of bondage so he calls the ceremonials by themselves hee commanded unto the people by Moses fit for their instruction and discipline And Doctor Andrewes I am sure so great a Prelate in our Church denies all ceremonialitie thereunto save only so farre as may justifie the change of the day and in reference to the rigorous rest of the Jewes And Azorius confesseth as before hath beene alleaged that after six dayes worke one day should bee consecrate to divine service is a thing most agreeable to reason Yet I know none that accounteth this a Dictate of nature simply as this Author would faine obtrude upon us but rather with Chrysostom that God by creation hath taught us as much and now God hath gone before us herein wee conceive it to bee most agreeable to reason And D. Field did professe as much upon acknowledgement of the Creation as Master Brode confesseth If all talke of observation of the Jewish Sabbath vanished not till the daies of Bede it was 700. years first in the account of Bellarmine And of any resolutions made by Bede or Damascen hereabouts in D. Prideux sect 2. I finde no mention Yet I thinke it likely enough that both they and Procopius might easily contrive as many resolutions hereabouts as either Theodoret upon the twentieth of Ezekiel or Epiphanius against the Ebionites for neither of them in the places mentioned make any resolutions on this point at al. He grants the Lords day to have beene instituted by the Church from the Apostles dayes which latter clause is an ambiguous phrase For it may bee applyed to the dayes after the Apostles If in the Apostles dayes then undoubtedly it was instituted by the Apostles what meant hee then to say it was instituted by the Church and not to bee so ingenuous as to confesse that it was instituted by the Apostles How far off is he from acknowledging it to have beene instituted by the Lord yet Athanasius openly professeth thus much Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solennitatem Dominus transtulit in diem Dominicum Heretofore with men of old time the Sabbath day was in great price which Festivitie truly the Lord hath translated unto the Lords
of his was dominicall rather than Sabbatarian And the mandate concerning this is there set downe at large pretended to have come from Heaven to Jerusalem and to have been found on the Altar of Saint Simeon in Golgotha which whether it were feigned by him or by others and received by him on the faith of others the Author specifies not But at the end thereof he shewes how that this Predicant comming to York was there honourably entertained by the Archbishop and Clergie and whole people of that Citie and albeit these things you will say were acted in times of darknesse yet this Prefacer seemes to be of another opinion though little pleased with Eustachius his Sabbatarian speculation Here alone is mention made of the bounds he set to the observation of the Lords day namely that it was to continue from Saturday three of the clock in the afternoone untill the Sun-rising on Munday in which time he would have them doe nothing but that which was good and if they did to amend their errors by repentance A very reasonable motion in my judgement and if he had extended it to all the dayes of the weeke yea and houres too I see no cause why for this hee should be censured either as an hypocrite or heretique But as for the strictnesse of observation here mentioned as namely That during the foresaid time it was not lawfull to doe any kind of work what ever no not so much as to bake bread for the Sundayes eating to wash or dry linnen for the morrowes wearing I finde no such thing prescribed by Eustachius in the relation made by Roger Hoveden and if Parisiensis hath any such surely hee tooke it not out of Roger Hoveden from whom yet this Prefacer affirmes he tooke that which he writes hereof Nay it is directly contradictory to the Tenet of Eustachius as who determineth the observation of the Lords day to begin at three of the clock in the afternoone of the Eve preceding in which time is found space both to bake bread for the Sundayes eating and to wash or dry linnen for the morrowes wearing if the weather hinder not And as for the extension of the dominicall observation thus farre in respect of the bounds thereof I find no other doctrine preached by Eustachius than by the Lawes of the Kings who governed this Land was ordained long before even before the conquest For not only King Ina commanded Act. Mon. fol. 114 col 2. fol. 715. col 1. 2. That no man lay or spirituall free or bond should labour on the Sunday and Edward the elder with Gythrum the Dane made a law against all labour buying and selling upon the Sabbath Item for no execution to be done on the Sunday but amongst King Edgars lawes one was That the Sunday should be kept holy from Saturday at noone till Munday in the morning King Canutus also commanded celebration of the Sabbath from Saturday at noone till Munday morning forbidding markets huntings labours and Court-keepings during the said space And it seemes to be the generall practise of Christendome to allow or command rather a preparation for the sanctifying of the Lords day as appeares by the observation of Evening prayers the day before warning whereunto is usually given at three of the clocke by the ringing of a bell or as in some places especially in the winter season an houre sooner and schollars accordingly give up schoole and present themselves at Evening prayer And we commonly account Saturday to be halfe holiday and warning thereof is usually given at noone by chiming the bells And whereas we reade Exod. 31.15 Six dayes shalt thou doe thy worke and the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schindler renders it Sabbathum Sabbathuli and interprets it thus Sabbathum is from evening to evening Sabbathulum is that which of the profane day is added as a little Sabbath And as for the strict abstinence from dressing of meats on Saturday which this Author imputes to Eustachius as his doctrine but without all ground that I know we are so farre from any such Sabbatarian speculation that none of us in my knowledge doe think it unlawful to dresse meats on the Lords day And wheras the Prefacer addes that they had miracles in store pretended to be wrought on such as had not yeelded to their doctrine thereby to countenance the superstitious and confound the weake What one of an hundred in reading this would not imagine that Eustachius wrought these miracles for the countenancing of his former strictnesse whereas yet on the contrary neither doth it appeare that he taught or obtruded upon them any such strictnesse preaching onely against marketting on the Lords day Neither were those strange accidents which here are called miracles any miracles wrought by him But the Monke Roger of Hoveden writes That the Lord Iesus Christ whom wee must obey rather than men who by his Nativity Resurrection and Advent and sending the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples did advance this day which we call the Lords day and dedicated as most celebrious shewed miracles of his power upon some transgressors of the Lords day in this manner On a certaine Saturday after three of clocke a certaine Carpenter of Beverlac as he was making a woodden peg contrary to the wholesome admonitions of his wife fell to the ground taken with a palsie The like story followeth of a woman which this Author according to the Monks phrase is content to call Miracles Now when we heare of as strange a thing as this to have fallen out not long since in Bedfordshire as namely a match at Foot-ball being appointed on the Lords day in the afternoone while two were in the Belfrey and one of them tolling a bell to call the company together there was heard a clap of thunder and lightning seene by some sitting in the Church-porch as it came thorow a darke lane towards the Church and flasht in their faces who sate in the Church-porch and scared them thence it went into the Church and turning into the Belfery tript up his heeles who was tolling the bell and struck him starke dead and the other with him blasted in such manner that shortly after he dyed we doe not call this a miracle though we count it a remarkable judgement of God and such as deserves to be considered and seriously laid unto heart by all to admonish them to take heed that they be not found in like manner profaners of the Lords day In like sort when upon fresh relation we heare of the like sport at Foot-ball on the Lords day at a place called Tidworth after Evening prayer in the Church-yard and that therein one had his legge broken which thereupon gangrened so that forthwith he died thereof we doe not call this a miracle only it calls to our mind that of the Prophet The Lord hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance And we find that such like judgements
deale plainely my opinion is that all sports and pastimes on the Lords Day are a breaking of the rest belonging to it and a profanation of that day which ought to be sanctified And I trust herein I differ not one jot from the whole Parliament 1o. Caroli wherein was expressely prohibited that any man should goe out of his owne Parish to any sports and pastimes on the Sabbath day and this is done to prevent the profanation of it as appeares clearely by the reasons of that Act which Parliament was held certaine yeares after this Lecture concerning the Doctrine of the Sabbath was read in the Vniversity And I nothing doubt but the censure of a Zelote will passe upon mee for this though wee shew no more zeale in saying that The Lords Day is by some licentiously profaned then others doe in professing that the Lord Day is by us superstitiously observed nay who are the greatest zelotes in their cause let the Christian World judge by the effects This is all I have to note concerning the first Section I come unto the second Secondly and here in the first place concerning the institution of it let mee take leave to professe that the question it selfe is not indifferenly stated when it is stated thus whether before the publishing of Moses Law the Sabbath was to be observed by the law of Nature For I am verily perswaded that the Doctor himselfe will not affirme that after the publishing of Moses law it was to be observed by the law of nature understanding by the law of nature as I presume he doth such a law as is knowne by the very light of nature Aristotle hath taught us in generall that morall duties are rather wrought upon a sober conscience by perswasion than doe carry with them any convincing evidence of demonstration Yet it is confessed that by the light of nature some time ought to be set apart even for the publike service and worship of God and not onely so but also it is nothing lesse cleare that a sufficient proportion of time must be alloted to the professed service of our Creator But wherein this sufficient proportion of time doth consist we are to seek being left unto our selves and in my judgement considering what we are it is very fit we should be to seeke in this that so our eyes may wait upon the direction of our Maker For is it fit that servants should cut out a proportion of service to their Master at their owne pleasure and not rather be guided herein by their Masters pleasure especially by such a Master to whom wee owe not onely all that wee doe enjoy but our selves also who holdeth our soules in life and in whose hands is the breath of all man-kinde The question thus untowardly proposed it is subjoyned that They commonly which are more apt to say any thing than able afterward to prove it maintaine affirmatively that it was Doctor Rivet having proposed this addeth that if it be spoken of the law of nature properly so called scarce any one will be found to maintaine any such thing And indeed the question in hand is of the institution of the Sabbath Now no wise man useth to inquire of the institution of that which is written in our hearts and knowne unto us by the very common light of nature It is true some fetch the originall thereof from the beginning of the world when God first blessed the seventh day and sanctified it And what other sense this can have than that God commanded it to be set apart for holy uses wee cannot devise For seeing Gods blessing and sanctifying of it doth undoubtedly denote some act of God this must be either an immanent act or an act transient Not an act immanent for all such are eternall but this was temporall following upon Gods rest on the seventh For therefore it is said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and being an act transient and temporall it must declare his will to have it sanctified that is by the generall notion of the word set apart that is from profane and secular to holy uses And how could this will of God be manifested but by commandement seeing it is a will of God not so much concerning what shall be done as concerning what shall be mans duty to doe And this hath both Walaeus and after him Rivetus justified and this latter against Gomarus once and againe and that by divers arguments And thus as we have expresse Scripture for it so we have as evident reason to justifie it For no other ground can be devised for the dividing of the whole course of time into weeks each consisting of seven dayes than as it stands in congruity to Gods making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh Which division of time was undoubtedly observed by the Israelites and received by them from their forefathers yea and from the Patriarches of old who lived before the flood and that continued without alteration even from the Creation of the world For otherwise they could not have discerned what days had been answerable to the first six of the Creation and what day to the seventh wherein God rested having finished the creation But this was well known unto them as appears by their gathering Manna and promulgation of the 4th Commandement together with the rest on Mount Sinai Nay this division of time into weeks was generally observed among the heathens as hath been shewed by great variety of reading and that this hath beene the most ancient division of time those other divisions into moneths and into yeeres comming in place long after according as the motion of the Moone and of the Sunne were found out by Astrologers not till then like as the denomination of the seven dayes of the weeke by the severall names of the planets was not brought in untill the severall motions of all the Planets come to be discovered As for the second reason proposed thus on our part If all the rest of the Commandements flow from the principles of nature how is this excluded It is not fit that any man should take upon him the shaping of his adversaries arguments That this Commandement should be taken for a part of the morall Law I wonder that any man should be so unreasonable as to deny but that this Commandement should flow from the Principles of nature and that delivered without distinction I know no man that affirmes But let us distinguish and I make no doubt but there will be found no difference of moment betweene Doctor Prideaux and us For I find no man to deny but that some time in generall is to be set apart as well for Gods publique worship and service as for private and that this is acknowledged by the very light of nature Only as touching the proportion of time that is to be set apart for Gods service herein we are to seeke yet herein also the light of nature doth advantage us and that sufficiently
destroy the law but to fulfill it and that the least of them should not be abrogated in his kingdome of the new Testament In so much that whosoever breaketh one of the least of these tenne commandments and teacheth men so hee should be called the least in the Kingdome of heaven that is saith the Author he should have no place in his Church To the first of these here the Doctor answereth thus To which we say with the Apostle Doe we destroy the Law by faith God forbid We confirme it rather 2 Christ then hath put away the shadow but retained the light and spreads it wider then before shewing thereby the excellent harmony betweene the Gospell and the Law As touching the first part of this present answer that is too aliene from our present purpose the question betweene us being not whether the Law be destroyed by preaching justification by faith we know that as touching the ceremoniall Law whatsoever was prefigured thereby is fulfilled by Christ and as touching the morall Law Christ hath fulfilled that also partly in himselfe by perfect obedience thereunto and making satisfaction for our disobedience and partly in us by giving us more power to performe obedience thereunto through faith in him then ever we had before since the fall of Adam But our Saviour Matth. 5. treats of destroying the law by abrogating it or any part thereof which how they can avoid who teach that Christ by his death hath freed us from the Yoke of the fourth commandement I cannot comprehend Suppose it be but one of the least commandements yet let them looke to it who discourse of abrogating it and teach men that they are not obliged by it hand over head least they be accompted by the Lord of Sabbath the least in the kingdome of heaven therefore it stands them upon to confirme it rather as they professe but how they doe performe that which they pretend I am utterly to seeke 2. I come therefore to the consideration of the second part of the answer consisting of two parts 1. That Christ hath put away the shadow 2. That he hath retained the light spreads it further As for the first wee have heard the proportion of one day in seven allowed unto Gods service to be called a ceremony and consequently a shadow But what this prefigured is not explaned at all nor ever hath beene that ever I read or heard Neither is this put away but continueth still in the observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over and I doubt not but it will continue to the end of the world The restraint of the worship to the seventh day hath beene also called a ceremony but too too crudely and without all explication of what it figured yet we willingly grant a faire prefiguration of somewhat concerning Christ is found in the seventh day acknowledged by the Ancients and by moderne writers both Papists and Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists but that is not in reference to the worship restrained to that day but in reference to the test fairely representing Christs rest that day in his grave and thereupon grounding the rigorous condition of the Jewish rest which is the practise both of Papists of Protestants so that the Sabbath is not taken away neither as touching some time in generall to be sanctified unto God nor as touching the proportion of time in speciall as of one day in seven but only as touching the particular day which is changed into the Lords day Our Saviour professing that a Sabbath still was to bee kept of Christians as Doctor Andrewes proveth out of Matth. 24 20. As for the second to wit the light that is said to be retained and spread wider then before this is meere darknesse unto me for I cannot by any meanes comprehend the meaning of it Neither is here any course taken to expound it and bring us acquainted with the interpretation of it Suppose by the light is meant the thing prefigured and that is devised to bee a spirituall rest from sinne Sect. 4. But this I hope the Prophets and holy servants of God under the Law were partakers of together with the rest of the Sabbath and the sanctification of it as well as we under the Gospell and if the sanctification of the Sabbath I speak of our Christian Sabbath according to our Saviours language Matth. 24.20 be taken from us I doubt wee shall enjoy that spirituall rest from sinne in farre lesse measure under the Gospell then the Jewes did under the law Yet neither they nor we shall enjoy it intirely till we are brought to our rest in glory Certainely the conscionable observation of the Sabbath ever was and is a principall meanes to draw us to that spirituall rest from sin and eternall rest in glory If Saint Paul by taxing the Jewish observation of dayes times doth therewithall tax the observation of the Lords day in place of the Jewish then let us turne Anabaptists and Socinians and utterly renounce the observation of the Lords day as well as of the Jewish Sabbath The same Apostle Col. 2. speakes not of the Sabbath but of Sabbaths and there were dayes enough so called amongst the Jewes and that by the Lord both of dayes and yeares besides the weekely Sabbath yet we are content the rest of the seventh may be ranged amongst other Sabbaths as prefiguring Christs rest that day in the grave But to speake of the Sabbath hand-over-head without distinction we love not nor see I any cause why men should be in love therewith unlesse withall they love confusion and to fish in troubled waters is many times an advantage to serve turnes Let the rest of the seventh be in Gods name crucified with Christ upon the crosse or at least be buryed with him in his grave and so as never to rise with him but let our Christian Sabbath our Saviour speakes of Matth. 24.20 take life together with our Saviours resurrection that brought with it a new creation a new world and there withall a new Sabbath as Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester delivers it in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Trask As reason tells us that there must be some certaine appointed time for Gods publique Service so as good reason tells us wee Christians cannot without sinne allow unto God for his publique service a worse proportion of time under the Gospell then the Jewes were bound to allow unto him under the Law God himselfe never having deserved so much at the hands of man as under the Gospell and there never being greater necessitie of observing a Sabbath then under the Gospell the way of truth and holinesse being so beset and with such encombrances as the like were never knowne to the world before yet still from the bondage and necessitie of the Iewish Sabbath we are delivered by the Gospell for neither doe we keepe their day then called the Lords holy day but the first day of the weeke the
right hand pleasures for evermore Gods soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 takes pleasure in us why should not we take delight in him Is not all other rejoycing in comparison to our rejoycing in him a rejoycing in a thing of nought Amos 6.13 Certainly he that loveth any pleasure or pastime in comparison to this will in the end prove to be a very poore creature But to proceed after this a rule is given That this our christian liberty be voyd of scandall to wit of scandall justly given Prov. 21.17 and not vainely caught at but in what cases it falls out to be justly given and in what not in what case it is vainly caught at and in what not here we find no explication which yet I presume will seeme necessary in every wise mans judgement especially to me it must needs seeme so being as I am in extreame despaire of devising these different cases of mine owne head Of Christian liberty from the yoke of Jewish ceremonies I have read but of Christian liberty unto sports and pastimes under the gentile notion of recreations and that on the Lords day I never read till now The Jewes to this day continue their ceremonies but not any abstinence from al sports and pastimes on their Sabbath for if they did why should Austin tell them it were better for them to goe to plough then to dance In the very festivalls of the Jewes which were yearely a difference there was in the dayes of each the first and last were Sabbaths appointed for holy convocations and thereon abstinence commanded from all servile works I no where finde any piping and dancing on those dayes saving their temple musick how much more undecent is it to clap the weekely Sabbath together with other festivalls as if there were no difference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be moved round and consequently it signifies as sometimes to dance as 1 Sam. 30. so sometimes also to stagger like a drunken man Psal 107.27 And dancing was used sometimes in the festivalls of the Jewes whereby they testified their rejoycing in the Lord Ier. 31. and with a pipe they came to the mount of the Lord Es 30. and Miriam Moses sister and other women also with Timbrells and dances expressed their joy in the Lord for their deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians and for their safe passage through the red Sea wherein the enemies were drowned But of any such course used on the first and last day of their yearely feasts which were set apart for holy convocations we find no example amongst them much lesse as approved while they continued the Church and people of God least of all on the weekely Sabbath As for love feasts on the Sabbath untill abuse crept in they continued without exception in great sobriety only to quicken one another and provoke unto love and gracious communication for the edification of their souls I never heard of any schismatique how rashly zealous or Stoicall soever that tooke upon him the authority of the civill magistrate All for ought I know concurre in this that it belongs onely to the magistrate out of coercitive power to command and compell but to the Minister of what sect soever only to persuade and worke upon mens consciences so that the members of this comparison are most indecently yoaked feigning men to be of what spirit soever it pleaseth to shape them and to doe whatsoever they thinke good though never so unreasonably and without all example Of the Jewes I have read that they count it unlawfull to kill a Flea on the Sabbath and such things must be pinned upon the sleeve of opposites to grace their cause for want of better arguments to strengthen it Infine we have a buffe givē to debauched companions in words when under the cleanly terme of Recreations on the Lords Day the course here taken is to sacrifice unto them indeed and in effect FINIS Doctor LAKE Bishop of BATH and Wells Theses de Sabbato 1. GOD at first made us not only men but also children of God 2. Therefore wee had a double being or were fitted for a double Societie 1. Civill 2. Ecclesiasticall 3. These states are inwrapped the one in the other For the Ecclesiasticall presuposeth the Civill He that is a child of God is a man and hee must be of the Civill that is of the Ecclesiasticall society 4. And the Civill state must be seasoned with and moderated by the Ecclesiasticall for a man in his Civill state must live as a child of God and member of the Church 5. Notwithstanding God would that each of these states should during this World have successively their principall imployments 6. And for these imployments hee appointed certaine times 7. The proportion of time allowed the principall imployment of the civill state was six dayes And that which was allowed the principall imployment of Ecclesiasticall state was one day 8. What times himselfe tooke for to work in or rest after the Creation the same did hee assigne to men and made his patterne a perpetuall Law 9. So then of our time God reserved a seventh part for his service 10. But in this apportioning as he reserved a seventh part of time so was that seventh the seventh day of the weeke 11. Whereof the ground was his rest from labour 12. For that he would have to be the day of mans rest because he sanctified it 13. And though no meane both Jewes and Christians doubt of the beginning of this observance by man yet I thinke it began with Adam 14. God had a Church and a service of his owne prescript from the beginning and why should we doubt whether hee cloathed then his service with due circumstances of Time Place 15 Did he sanctifie it for his owne use That were absurd to thinke the Word sanctifying doth refute it for whom then surely for man 16. And the place Exod. 16. together with the Preface to the fourth Commandement remember weigh more with me then all the weake presumptions that are brought to the contrary 17. I conclude then that the fourth Commandement is not an introduction but a declaratory Law 18. But moreover I adde that when it was delivered to the Jewes there was superadded a distinguishing reference to that Church 19. For it was prescribed as a signe of Gods sanctifying residence amongst them and a memoriall of their freedome from Egyptian bondage 20. But these accessories derogate not from the first institution 21. No more doth the forme of Liturgy which was occasioned by the fall or their freedome 22. These things shew rather to what speciall use they did apply the time then touch the apportionment thereof 23. The apportionment of time of which I take these Questions moved hath two remarkable things 24. 1. That God reserveth a seventh part of time 2. That hee designeth which of the seven days shall be his 25. The reserving of the seventh part I hold to be by Gods Ordinance who is
Observationis so that under God I know no power that can alter it Thes 49. The Fathers speake of the Jewish Sabbath and Allegorize that as it was carnally used by the Jewes But we shall wrong the Fathers if we thinke they held that there was no Morality in the Letter of the Commandement For though there were a mystery figured in it yet they doe not deny that there was a morall proportioning of time for Divine Service prescribed therein which is the seventh part of the weeke It is one thing to say that all our life time we must be religious in our conversation and keepe a spirituall Sabbath another thing to affirme that we must not have a solemne weekely day wherein to intend onely Divine worship This last point the Fathers doe not say the former they doe and to argue from their Omission is to extend their words beyond their meaning at least their meaning is not adaequate to the sense of the Commandement No nor to their practise For they did constantly observe a seventh part of the weeke which I say is the first principle contained in the fourth Commandement Though I deny not but there is moreover a limitation to the seventh day from the Creation exprest which Christ and his Apostles altered but this alteration cannot overthrow the first principle they may both well goe together To the particular allegations out of the Fathers I will answer no more then that what they say is true but doth not contradict what I hold For the mysticall sense doth not overthrow the literall of the Commandement And they understand the seventh day precisely from the Creation which we confesse altered and speake not of the divine Ordinance for the apportioning of time but the carnall observation of the Jewes And your answer to the first Question grounded on the Fathers words may passe for good but there is more in the Commandement then so Your Answer to the second I cannot so well approve because it is Exclusive As for your third answer That the fourth Commandement is not the Law of nature but a positive law take the Law of Nature for Morall Reason then I think there is more then meere positivenesse in it For morall reason teacheth to honour the day whereon the work is done and that morall reason which gave this in charge was Apostolicall and so of a commanding power in both And then you see that it is neither meerely positive nor meerely naturall but mixt and so binding accordingly ut supra ad Thesin 37. 43. You adde two Questions 1 Whether seeing the Lords day succeeds the Jewish Sabbath wee are to keepe it in the same manner and with the same strictnesse First I hold in my Theses that our Lords day doth properly succeed the Sabbath instituted at the Creation Whereupon I separate all the Accessories from Moses Law Secondly The Jewes did misconstrue the stricknesse of their Sabbath as appeareth by the many corrections of our Saviour in the Gospell and his Generall Rule The Sabbath was made from man not man for the Sabbath Thirdly They held that they might not so much as kindle a fire or dresse Meat upon that day grounding their conceipt upon the Texts that are Ex. 35. cap. 16. But both Texts seeme to be wrested for that Exod. 35. about kindling a fire must be limited by the verse going before and is not to be understood of any other kindling of fire then for following of their Trades or Servile workes as they are called And so Munster Vatable and others upon that place censure their mistake And that it is a mistake against the meaning of the Commandment I gather from hence For the Jewes that will not put their owne hands to kindle a fire will hire Christians to doe it for them as if the Commandment did not reach Servants and strangers within their gates and they offend as much in doing it by others as if they did it by themselves But so doe they use to abuse the Scripture and confute their Glosses by their owne practice As for the 16. Chapter of Exod. which seemeth to forbid the dressing of Meat I hold that mistaken also Read the Chapter and mark whether you can finde that upon the sixth day they were to dresse any more then served for that day and to lay up the rest undressed untill the Sabbath at what time I hope they were to dresse it before they did eat it And indeed only the providing of Manna is there forbidden and a promise whereof they had experience that it would not putrifie upon the Sabbath though they kept it till then whereas upon other dayes it would And in this sense doe I understand the severe punishment of him that gathered sticks upon the seventh day it was because he then made his provision and did it it should seeme with an high hand Numb cap. 15. As for recreations I can say nothing but that seeing the Lords day is to be the exercise of that life which is spirituall and as a foretast of that which is eternall it were to be wisht that wee did intend those things as farre as our frailty will reach But Vivitur non cum perfectis hominibus and wee must be content to have men as good as we may when it is not to be hoped they will be as good as they should Yet we must take heed that we doe not solemnize our feast vainly as either the Iewes or Gentiles did Against whom Nazianzene is very tart Tertul. in his Apolog. In the Civill Law we finde a dispensation for Husbandmen in case of necessity contrary to the Jewish policy Exod. 34. Which is followed by our Law Edward the 6. Wee may in apparrell and diet be more liberall and costly on feasts then on other dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were Corporall feasts joyned to the Eucharist wherein the rich did feed the poore Which afterward for inconvenience was removed out of the Church I meane the Corporall feast although in Saint Austins confessions you shall find that in Saint Ambrose days there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Toombs of Martyrs which Saint Ambrose tooke away But though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were taken out of the Church yet upon those dayes the rich relieved their poore Brethren Which they little thinke of that for feare of breaking the Sabbath have taken away Hospitality Some men are over-nice in this point more nice then Christ himselfe Luc. 14. who on the Sabbath went to a feast and that was to a wedding feast And why not seeing the Sabbath is Symbolum Aeternae not only quietis but Laetitiae therefore resembled to a feast without the toyle of Acquisition So that the Sabbath is not violated by feasts if wee exceed not Necessitatem Personae though Naturae wee doe Now Necessitas Personae requireth that more be imployed in providing feasts as a Kings diet then a Subjects a Noble then a Common mans a Colledge then a