Pentateuch Secondly It appeareth not by any relation of sacred History that before the Babylonish captivitie there was any weekly reading or expounding the Law upon the Sabbath Lastly it is a thing to be admired that if the reading of the Law had been in continuall use among the Jews every Sabbath day there should be found in the dayes of King Josiah one copy onely or book of the Law and that Hilkiah should present this book to the King as a great raritie 2. King 22.8 9. But the unsoundnesse of the foundation argueth the assertion erroneous for First will nothing but expresse Text satisfie you suppose we find it not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not verbatim commanded thus Reade the Law publickly every Sabbath day is not I pray you necessary and inevitable deduction out of Text Scripture with you if yea then we need not travel farre for a command no farther then the fourth precept and not farre into that but to Remember thou keep holy or sanctifie the Sabbath day I told you before that things are then said to be sanctified when they are applied to holy worship now holy worship is the exhibiting to God his due and just honour and that is performed two wayes either by reverent attention to what he offereth us in his word or an humble presentment of what we preferre to him in our prayers For Hearing of the word Adoration are the two hands of religion the one we extend to receive what God communicateth to us the other to represent what in mercy he accepteth from us so as they are indeed the proper instruments of mutuall commerce betwixt him and us and though I allow them a parity of honour yet hath the one a precedency of order before the other and this belongeth to hearing of the word For the first of religious offices wherewith we publickly honour God on earth saith that worthy m Hooker is the receiving that knowledge which he imparteth to us in his word The reason is evident for prius est nosse Deum consequens n colere or rather according to that golden chain How o shall men invoke him in whom they have not believed how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher Hence it is that the Primitive Church had ever the Sermon before the Service to intimate that none ought to be admitted to pray with the Church before they have been inlightned in saving doctrine All tag and rag had free accesse to the Sermon to the service onely the faithfull and Catechumeni p Let the Bishop interdict none neither Gentile nor Heretick nor Jew to enter into the Church and heare the word of God untill the Service of the Catechumeni saith the Councel of Carthage For the clear understanding of which Canon you must know that Missa Catechumenorum signifieth here not the dismission of the Catechumeni but the service so called which began at the introitus and ended at the offertory If then the sanctification of the Sabbath be the application of it to Gods worship the consequence must and will be That all sacred actions tending to this worship as parts thereof but the hearing of the Law read most especially it being of the essence of that worship were commanded in and under the word sanctifie But you 'l say that many Doctours of note maintain that the letter of the fourth commandment imposed upon the Jews no other externall form of sanctifying the weekly Sabbath but resting from bodily labour I answer The literall sense of the fourth Commandment imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the Sabbath viz. by all such religious actions as are proper to holy worship the specialties whereof it not determineth least it should be thought to exclude any It also imposed rest and cessation from secular businesse but that it commanded it as any at all much lesse the onely externall form of sanctifying the Sabbath pardon me I cannot believe For what honour could accrue to God through an idle and lazie rest what worship could man perform waking more then a sleep How could the day be lesse sanctified by beasts then men Rest was injoyned as necessary indeed necessitate medii as a fit means but not necessitate causae as a necessary cause constituting sacred worship Against these Doctours of note I will oppose a Doctour of note too and of such note as his Dictates never any of the Primitive Church durst call into question a Athanasius the Great who in refutation of this Jewish fancie hath amongst others this invincible argument b If rest sanctifieth then by consequence labour polluteth for Contrariorum eadem est ratio yea the Father maketh the knowledge of God to be the chief end of the Sabbath Because knowledge is more necessary then rest c And therefore the beam of truth hath extorted from them this confession That some other religious actions were intended by God as the end of the precept but no other were formally commanded d What I pray did God intend those religious actions as the end of the precept how come you to know Gods intention hath he anywhere revealed it if yea then tell me is not that overture that declaration of his intendment equipollent to a command Besides when and where did God open this his mind in this precept and at the giving of the Law If now and here then these religious actions and rest were coordinate together both imposed at one and the same time the thing you deny If after then God imposed and man observed rest to no end and purpose all that while untill the manifestation of his intentions concerning the end of that rest came forth But God and nature do nothing in vain e even Philosophy could tell you so and sure Divinity much more Their second Argument is upon the old haunt still The want of expresse narration which were it true yet is it no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no demonstration of what they affirm as I have proved before pag. 5. Besides the contrary may be probably collected without detorting Scripture against reason For first when the Shunamite desired to go to the Prophet Elisha to acquaint him with the death of her sonne and to see if he could afford her any comfort her husband expostulated with her saying Why wilt thou go to day it is neither New-moon nor Sabbath day which had been an impertinent question if they had not accustomed to resort to the Prophets on those dayes to heare the word expounded That this was their practice scarce any Expositour upon the place but assureth us Though here is onely mention of the New-moon and Sabbath yet as we need not doubt but that they practiced the same upon other festivalls also so I conceive it to be implyed in both or either words which are often in Scripture taken in a generall notion not denoting
understood by this Law No it is not all Expositours take it for the hole five books and yet for this there may be some colour because the 70. render it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hierome Deuteronomium legis hujus But to return to the first text of Moses we need no other Expositour then himself what Law he appointed then to be reâ—d he telleth us in the immediate precedent verse it was that Law which he delivered to the Levites that Law which he commanded them to put in the side of the Ark Now if they can prove that onely Deuteronomy was delivered to the Levites and laid up there they shall gain my subscription Having thus proceeded as farre as my first intendment bounded me lest this discourse should jut too farre into that insuing of the Sabbath under the Gospel now no more Gods Sabbath under the Gospel WE have at last shaked off those remora's which retarded our arrivall at the Christian Sabbath at Gods Sabbath under the Gospel For a Sabbath God hath still but not the Jewish not the seventh from the creation No a The seventh day is vanisht our Lord is buried the first now dawneth our Lord is risen and his Resurrection hath consecrated to us a new Sabbath for a Sabbath God must have by the immutable Law of the fourth precept Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day that is that day which for the time being God hath marked out and appointed for his own {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For if this Commandment injoyneth now no particular and set time under the Gospel then is the Law an Ennealogue not a Decalogue and so God hath lost one of his ten words but he payeth no tithe out of his Commandments his full Denary he must and will have If you say the Morall equitie viz. to yield God a competent and convenient time for his worship remaineth still and so the Commandment is not lost I answer This Fundamentall Law is tacitly implyed in this precept but so it was also in the institution of all other ceremoniall festivals the Passeover Pentecost c. to which we may as well resort as to the fourth precept for it And if this morall or naturall Law be the onely reliques of that Commandment I would fain learn what was in the Sabbath extraordinary more then in other Feasts which might intitle it to a roome amongst the morall Laws of the Decalogue when as the other Feasts were excluded Besides if this morall law of Festos dies coles maketh a distinct precept by it self I see no reason but there should be another for going to Church another for allowing God a convenient portion of our substance for these are also morall equities and so there will be an even dozen Lastly how cometh this morall equitie to be a peculiar of the Gospel onely God had from the Creation to the Law from the Law to Christ a day appropriated and that by himself to his worship what hath he lesse reason to require it under the Gospel hath he left the Christian Church to that liberty that every man may serve him as the toy taketh him and so God stand to our courtesie to be worshipped when we list You will say Nay we are not left at that libertie The observation of the Holy dayes appointed by the Church is reduced to the fourth Commandment as a speciall to a generall viz. Gods people must observe holy times because the equitie of the fourth Commandment obligeth thereunto But Easter and Christmasse day and Sunday c. are holy dayes lawfully appointed by the Governours of the Church and subordinate to the equitie of the fourth Commandment therefore Christian people are bound to observe these Holy dayes in obedience to the equitie of the fourth Commandment I answer The Church hath a power indeed to ordain festivals but is the observation of her constitutions concerning them a fulfilling the disobedience a breach of the fourth Commandment How can this be First what needs an Obligation be derived from the last precept of the first Table when the first of the latter is alsufficient Secondly is it not a mere non sequitur The fourth Commandment bindeth us to yield God a convenient time for his worship Ergò It obligeth us to observe the festivals of the Church Where learned you this Logick Suppose I pray the Church should injoyn but one day in a moneth doth he I pray who observeth her order that one day and not once more in the interim serve God perform his dutie which God in this Commandment requireth or doth he who plieth God with frequent addresses who strictly observeth canonicall houres yet onely perhaps faileth that one day which the Church injoyneth doth he I say violate the morall law of this precept which saith not Set apart such times for pious exercises as thy Governours prescribe but such as thou thy self thinkest meet In short to make this more evident Every Law positive is built upon some morall as upon a foundation now it is manifest that the foundation may stand and yet the superstructure fall as may be demonstrated in an example familiar to us The equitie of State requireth that particular persons be not inriched any way which reflecteth to the damage of a communitie upon this sociable equitie there is a positive a Statute law b inacted that None shall buy or contract for any victualls or wares before they come to the Market Fair or Port. But in some parts of this Realm especially in Norfolk such plentie of corn there is growing in most Towns as maketh every of them a kind of Market so as few men need go out of their own Villages to be supplied with materialls either for bread or beer yea the superfluitie is such as many Towns vend a thousand quarters of grain over and besides what supplieth their families and lands by reason of which great plenty little or none is sold in many Markets and the usuall practice hath been and is for Merchants to buy not in open Market but at the Barn doore great quantity thereof and export it into other parts of the kingdome where scarcitie is This act of theirs some Merchants have by smart experience lately found to be illegall but yet no violation of the foresaid equity for who complaineth that they are damnified thereby Not the Norfolcians they are eased not the Shires deficient they are relieved either part desireth it one ut impleatur that it may be stored the other ut depleatur that it may be disburthened Nor doth the fourth Commandment onely inferre out of these words Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath that God must have a Sabbath in a speciall manner but it declareth also his will concerning the quotient and limitation thereof Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the Seventh is the Sabbath so that one in a week he must have If you say the limitation
this matter we may be assured there was no such thing done The Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as well a preparation and destination as actuall application to holinesse as Exod. 19.10 Josh. 3.5 7.3 Jerem. 1.5 If God at that time whereof Moses wrote did give any command to Adam to sanctifie the Sabbath it must of necessity follow that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise But in Paradise there was no need of a Sabbath where there should have been no toyl no necessity of sanctifying any day to Gods worship where every day should have been a day of rest and the hole life a continuall Sabbath God would not then impose the Sabbath as a law when he himself brake it for according to Hierome and Catharinus he formed Eve upon the seventh day and so wrought upon it God imposed upon Adam in Paradise no other positive Law then that of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge It is probable that Jacob whilest he kept Labans sheep the Israelites while they were under the bondage of Pharaoh and his mercilesse taskmasters kept no Sabbath but if it had been commanded sure it had been kept Lastly it is said Nehem. 9. vers. 13 14. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai c. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath The authorities they alledge are especially emergent from the Primitive Church Justin Martyr leadeth the way Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize is Tertullians a challenge to the Jews All the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath saith b Ireneus There was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us so c Eusebius When there was no Scripture nor Law divinely inspired the Sabbath was not consecrated to God d Damascen Of late Adherers to this opinion the most eminent are Tostatus Musculus and Gomarus In this array the arguments and authorities upholding the Prolepsis are marshalled yet is it not universally entertained many there have been and are and those of no mean note neither who have applied themselves to the genuine and proper sense of the words and from thence deduced the institution of the Sabbath from that very article of time whereof Moses wrote And this interpretation I conceive most agreeable to the mind of Moses for many reasons which shall exhibit themselves in their due place for first I bend my self to encounter the objections formerly made and to lay open where they are crazy or invalid Divine revelation is indeed the best means to understand Gods will and act and though the Scripture doth not mention Gods expresse command to Adam though we reade it not said to him as after it was in the Law Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day yet a command we find and there being then at that time whereof Moses wrote none on earth capable of a command but Adam and Eve it necessarily followeth that they received the command For what is meant by Gods sanctifying of the seventh day but the application of it to divine worship Those things are said to be sanctified in the Law which are applyed to sacred worship saith a Aquinas now if it was then applyed to sacred worship sure it was by command Nor is the argument of force The Scripture mentioneth it not Ergò It was not many things were to the first Patriarchs commanded which are not recorded It is by farre the major part of learned men b affirmed that God dictated and prescribed to Adam all circumstances of his worship which by tradition past to his posteritie and were in every severall family untill Moses observed and it is in part evidently and infallibly confirmed by Scripture it self for we reade that Cain sinned but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4.15 Where there is no law there can be no transgression for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1. John 3.4 yet of this or any other command concerning religious duties holy text hath not one syllable Perhaps the command was not so solemn as afterward not vivâ voce in an audible voyce there being not the same reason and yet a command there might be internall though not externall God might by his guiding spirit direct Adam to sanctifie the seventh day as he did both him and other Patriarchs to other observances if Aquinas a hath aimed right It is credible saith he that the Patriarchs by divine instinct as by an hidden and tacit law were induced to worship God in a set and determinate form agreeable to the inward worship and signification of mysteries to be fulfilled in Christ The want of an Historicall narration of the praxis of those times is also as weakly urged You know Ab autoritate negativè nihil concluditur ex argumentis Arguments drawn from silent authority conclude nothing An axiome never firmer then when applied to the history of the world from the Creation to the Law the period of this discourse There is no mention of Adams penitence after his fall none of his sacrificing of his performing any other pious exercises during his hole abode upon earth none What then shall we say that he lived like an Atheist never invoked never praised God We reade of no Parents that Melchisedech had what shall we hold with the letter of S. Paul that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} really whithout father or mother ◠Heb. 7.23 He that in so compendious a story as this of Moses looketh for a full relation of every small circumstance is like to lose his longing and may as wisely seek Pauls steeple in Hondius his map of the world Abbridgements of stories are nets of a larger mash which onely inclose great fishes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things worth mentioning smaller fry things of lesse consequence escape them Athanasius his rule is right enough it self if it be not bowed by violence Comparing the miracles of Christ with those of the Prophets he demonstrateth the oddes to be this Christ was born of a Virgin so none of them Christ made the lame to walk the deaf to heare the dumbe to speak the blind to see so did not they For then saith he the Scripture would not have omitted it Therefore because the Scripture is altogether silent in the matter it is sure there was no such thing done The Father speaks of miracles but I hope the observation of the Sabbath was none and therefore Athanasius stands you in little stead My margent directs to the place omitted by the Bishop The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} little also avails them for be it granted that it signifies a preparation to holinesse doth this preparation exclude
application thereunto Nay doth not preparation imply application are they not coordinate and coincident together Examine the places quoted and see if they will not confesse as much Moses was commanded to sanctifie the Israelites the third day that is to prepare them as you say To prepare them how nothing but to have them in a readinesse that they lasily wait the time or so no there is more in it yet application to holinesse you shall meet with positive Let them wash their clothes vers. 10. negative Come not at your wives vers. 15. A thing so clear as the very Heathen were enlightned with it and not onely in the generall decorum of it which they couched under their Ite missa est or Procul ô procul este profani Hence all prophane before their sacrifices but some glimpse they had even of those externall Mosaicall ceremonies I now mentioned Preparatory lotions they had before they durst approch their sacred mysteries Aeneas would not so much as touch his Tutelary Gods till he might rinse himself in fountain water Abstinence also from the Nuptiall bed was at least for one night interdicted Discedite ab aris Queis tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus Casta placent superis And though we reade in this Text onely of externall preparatory rites enjoyned yet must we know that they were but as significant Emblemes of that spirituall preparation which should truly dispose the soul in a sanctified frame for the approching near that God which is clothed in majestie and honour Apply that which I have now said for illustration of this portion of Exodus to those parallel places of Joshua and there will onely remain that of Jeremie unanswered where the Prophet is said to be sanctified in his mothers womb which I confesse could no otherwayes be then in the preordination of God But what because the word signifieth Destination in Jeremy must it needs inferre as much in Genesis I see no such law imposed upon Interpreters That of Jeremy could not without extreme violence be wrested to any other sense then that of Destination which out of Gen. 2. is neither necessarily nor probably emergent I see no necessitie that the Institution Genesis 2. must suppose it to be in Paradise and before the fall for it is not improbable I determine nothing that Adam sinned and was expelled out of Paradise the very day he was formed as the Fathers almost universally have thought from whose full consent in this point proceeded that Greek saying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The same day he was created he fell Neither was Paradise in my opinion compounded of any such ingredients as would in no wise incorporate with a Sabbath it was indeed a place exempted from the works both of toil and sinne and therefore no otium to refresh the body no Sabbath to sanctifie the soul in respect either of the one or the other necessary And though the whole tract of time spent in that innocent condition might worthily seem a continued Sabbath yet some parts and portion even of that time should I conceive have been allotted to a more solemn worship then others For God imposed upon man a calling of husbandry should he so incessantly have intended his tillage as never to intermit never to give over should he have spared no time to exercise himself in the contemplation of his Creatour the truest object of perfect beatitude or could he simul semel at one instant intend both his vocation and Gods worship God created in him the naturall appetite of food and sleep Is it likely that Adam would have applied himself either to repast or repose without some more then ordinary thanksgiving It is by all confessed that in Adams heart the Law of nature was most perfectly implanted and imprinted and as unanimously agreed that to consecrate some time to the worship of God was and is a member of that Law nay more then so it must be certum aliquod tempus some certain and determinate time as the very Atlas of the Prolepsis Tostatus assureth us which being granted it followeth that the state of innocency was no barre or obstacle to the seposing times not onely occasionall and pro renata but set and constant to the service of God That God framed Eve upon the seventh day is a most horrible and grosse untruth and giveth the lie to Moses or rather to the holy Ghost who saith Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them that is all things visible and invisible according to the Nicene Creed and this was before Gods rest on the seventh day and evident it is that the hole second Chapter of Genesis from the fourth verse to the twenty fifth is but a larger narration by way of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or postscript of what was most remarkable in the third and sixth dayes work and was for brevity sake omitted in the first chapter but upon weighty cause mentioned in the second For as S. a Basil excellently If Moses had onely said that God made man thou mightest have thought that he made him after the same manner that he created brutes plants and herbs therefore to denote to thee that thou oughtest to have nothing common with unreasonable creatures the Scripture hath mentioned a peculiar and distinct work of God in framing thee Besides it is most evident out of Genesis 1.27 that Adam and Eve were both created on the sixth day Male and female created he them not by Prolepsis as they fancy but really truly upon that very day That wherewith they would palliate this errour is the second verse of Genesis 2. On the seventh day God ended his work whence they collect that he wrought upon part of it which meaning a learned Commentatour b acknowledgeth the Text will bear and because Eve is the last work of creation whereof the Scripture maketh mention they inferre that she must have been formed on the seventh day But to uncase this foul errour and to shew it in its proper deformities is no hard task What meaning the Text will bear is many times not so considerable as what the Context c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or contradiction is for the Spirit of Truth no companion nor will he own that sense which maketh him speak things repugnant If in the end of the sixth day God beheld all that he had made c. 1.31 and had finished the heavens and the earth and all the host of them c. 2.1 what could be left for him to finish and actually to perfect on the seventh day Well but then there is an interfering a jarring betwixt Scripture and Scripture how shall they be reconciled I answer It is not amisse to acquaint you that whereas the Hebrew readeth it And on the seventh day God ended his work the Septuagint and Samaritanes a render it On the sixth
Law himself but by delegation of his Angels to which they are the rather disposed because in some places of Scripture the Angels use such a form of speech as though God himself spake and yet it is manifest that themselves were the immediate utterers of those words as Numb. 23.32 If it be now demanded which interpretation I favour I answer neither The Scripture salved by both I see but the mind of the holy Ghost is I take it atteined by neither That which hath misled the whole stream of Expositours is a conceit that Stephen and Paul spake of the pronouncing of the Law in Mount Sinai whereas indeed their words onely aim at the delivering of the Tables of stone called the Law also by a Metonymia subjecti the conteining by the name of the conteined these being put into the hands of Moses by the Ministery of his Angels as is evident Gal. 3.19 For where is it said that the Angels pronounced the Law that God did we reade often As Scripture saith not they did so reason that they did not For how could the vocall prolation by many Angels but generate confusion of sound or if God by extraordinary guidance of their voice might make them speak not onely one and the same thing but in one and the same articulate sound yet seeing frustrà fit per plura it might full as well have been uttered by one why should he imploy so many No out of all question if duly considered it is that God did himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in his own person as Philo saith speak the Law and not onely for those reasons yet solid enough mentioned by Zanchy but especially because it is agreed by all the Ancients not one S. Augustine onely excepted impugning That God the second person did himself often appear to the Patriarchs and bespake them vivâ voce so Justin d Martyr e Tertullian f Athanasius g Eusebius and h Hierome affirm and that he did so expressely on Mount Sinai or Horeb i Ireneus k Nazianzen l Basil and divers others have affirmed That immovable pillar of sound doctrine as an Eastern m Bishop calleth him n Theodoret shall speak for all treating of the narration of Moses And further saith he he recounteth how the Word the God of all things exhibited himself openly to the Israelites appearing through the fire but not in any visible shape And throughout the whole systeme or body of the old Testament there are not so evident marks of Gods immediate presence as in this Text For first there is thunder the voice of God Psalme 29.8 and the concomitant of it John 12.20 Secondly the words are very direct very expresse where Moses telleth the Israelites The Lord spake unto you Deut. 4.12 out of the midst of the fire ye heard the voyce of the words but saw no similitude onely ye heard a voyce Now take it for a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an infallible token of Gods immediate presence wheresoever in the Scripture he is said to speak except in vision or so and no visible shape is seen Lastly there are degrees of distance injoyned the people not to approch nearer then the foot of the Mount Aaron and Nadab Abihu and the seventie Elders up to the Mount but Moses onely into the Cloud from hence also note another certain argument of Gods immediate presence which is alwayes concomitant with such procession-bounds as Exod. 3.5 Josh. 5.14 For the full clearing then of this seeming repugnancy I say Acts 7.38 with Zanchy The word Angel denoteth no Angel create but the Angel Creatour Christ the second Person in the Trinity For Stephen alluded to that of Malachy 4.1 where our Saviour is called Angelus Foederis The Angel of the Covenant viz. with whom the covenant was made Exod. 24.7 8. and Deut. 5.2 as also to that of the Prophet or rather Evangelist o Isaiah 63.9 where he is called the Angel of Gods presence In the 53 vers. of the same chapter the word Law intendeth not the Law promulgated but engraven in the p diptykes or tables which could not be delivered to Moses by God himself seeing he assumed no sensible shape nor was Moses admitted to so near an approch to God as to receive them from him therefore S. Paul saith It was delivered by Angels into the hand of a Mediatour that is not Christ as Calvine and some others suppose but Moses as Basil q who was the internuncius betwixt God and the Israelites Deut. 5.7 Lastly that place of Heb. 2.2 is merely mistaken for neither in the text or context is there any either expresse or implicite mention of the law And so much for the Quis. The next is Quibus Disputed it is whether the Law considered as delivered in Mount Sinai and abstracted from the ratification which it derived from Christ and his Apostles was onely given to the Jews and so onely obliged them or under them to the Gentiles also who were to become the Church and people of God Zanchie r Dominicus à Soto s and some others are of opinion it was peculiar to the Jews onely from these reasons First laws onely bind them to whom they are onely given But the Decalogue was given onely to the Jews as is manifest by the preface Ergò it onely bindeth them The Decalogue was indeed given to the Jews but was it as Jews or a Nation distinct by themselves No rather as Covenantees and the then select people of God so that whosoever were after implanted in the Covenant and inrolled Gods people to them as pòst nati did and doth the Decalogue belong Nor was the Preface prefixt to invest the Israelites with a sole propriety therein for God being now to give them as they were then his holy and chosen Church which is alwayes formally though not materially the same his morall and immutable laws had here just reason to apply himself first to them as Jews and to rowze their attention by inculcating into their memory the recent and signall blessing lately conferred upon them thereby to excite their more strict observance of what he was now to give them in charge So that this introduction might I confesse be proper to the Jews onely and yet the Decalogue it self have a larger province and extent and be spoken s omnibus similiter to all alike Though should I denie what I partly grant I could vouch men of no mean note to rescue me from errour t In this preface God bespeaketh the Israelites more especially but yet so as under them he comprehendeth all the Gentiles So Beza And for the Romane party u Bellarmine Secondly if the Law as given on Sinai obliged the Gentiles then were they at that time before and now are since Christ bound to observe the Sabbath But they neither were nor now are astricted to that observation Ergò
any certain or particular but an indefinite feast The word Sabbath especially this so frequently as no meanly lettered man is such a novice to whom it is a novelty The New-moon more sparingly yet when mated with Sabbath seldome retaineth it any other signification Examples whereof are first this text of the Kings then that of Isaiah 66.23 From one New-moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord Again that of Ezech. 46.3 The people of the land shall worship at the doore of this gate before the Lord in the Sabbaths and in the New-moons Lastly that of Amos 8.5 When will the New-moon be gone that we may sell our corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat In all these portions of Scriture Sabbaths New-moons by the figure {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is when one thing is expressed by two words are onely put for solemn feasts generally not particularly accepted Nor is the word New-moon taken thus onely when linked with the Sabbath but somewhile also when single and alone as 1. Kings 12.33 For where in our translation as in I am sure most if not all others it is said that Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth moneth the Hebrew word for that feast is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth the New-moon but to speak properly the New-moon it could not be for the Moon was then in her full it being the 15 day and the feast is thought by learned men to be devised by Jeroboam in imitation indeed to suppresse it in oblivion of the feast of Tabernacles which was to be on the 15 of the seventh moneth But not to expatiate too farre in collaterall transcursions the reading of the Law may not absurdly be expiscated out of Acts 15.21 where James giving definitive sentence in the Councel of Hierusalem saith Moses of old time hath in every citie them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day But against this place they except viz. that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is used in Scripture of many things not very ancient as Matth. 5.21 27 33. Acts 15.7 But this objection is easily repelled the question is not what sense the like phrase hath Matth. 5.21 c. but what it meaneth here and that it is to be taken in the construction we make of it an eminent Bishop r witnesseth The sound of the Spirit viz. preaching all the Law-long sounded in them by whom Moses was preached every Sabbath day So he upon this very text But in defence of the contrary interpretation it may be objected That the text speaketh of Synagogues which came not into use untill the captivitie To which I say that the most and best Divines s hold it probable that Synagogues had their beginning from the plantation of the land of Canaan when the priestly and propheticall offices ceased in the first-born and masters of families but were supplyed the first by the Leviticall priests the second by the seventy Elders as some suppose t but more certainly by the Prophets whose ordinary calling was to reade and expound the Law The numerous provision of which sacred preachers maketh it incredible that they were destitute of places no matter how or Colledges or Synagogues or otherwise denominated destinate to that and such like holy-duties Their last argument is not compounded of much better stuff For first the finding of the book of the Law by Hilkiah and presenting of it to Josiah is no infallible signe Quod alioqui nulli ejus essent alii codices That there were besides no other books thereof not to Genebrard u I am sure and it may well be controverted For if in times of harder pressures when the Temple and the authentick books in it were burnt when utter havock was made of all and the people of God led captives into Babylon even in the extremitie of that desolation if some copies were no doubt preserved in private mens hands as Daniels Ezechiels a Jeremies c. For how otherwise could Esdras restore the Sacred volume to its first integrity then by comparing divers exemplaries then extant together and so reforming what errours had been committed by negligent penmen if I say some copies escaped the fire at that time probable it is that all perished not before Josiahs reign But be it granted that all were lost not one to be found before Hilkiah chanced to light upon that yet are you short still your argument is not ad idem for the question is of a duty part of Gods publick and solemn worship and your instance is of a time under persecution when the ensigne of the Church was the Crosse when there was no solemn worship of the true God publickly tolerated and you may as well upon this instance inferre that there was no Sabbath observed as deny the observation of it by this dutie of Reading and Hearing the Law No man for ought I know contendeth that the solemn reading of the Law alwayes every Sabbath and that in times of distresse was practiced and that it was at other times even Cajetan b himself who holdeth that that book which Hilkiah found was of all other the onely remnant acknowledgeth Holy exercises as reading and expounding the Law during Manasses his wicked reign were so long neglected and neglect I hope insinuateth a dutie formerly practiced that the book of the Law is related as a thing new discovered So he True it is he mentioneth not the Sabbath day as whereon these neglecta divina ought to have been performed but seeing the words seem to referre to duties which ought to have been publickly performed their publick performance ought to have regard to both times and places destinate thereto This point I prosecute no further enough I hope if not too much hath been said to perswade that the Law was read on the weekly Sabbath as well as on the annuall of Tabernacles in the septennuall of Release I passe then to the last question In this as brief I shall be as in the former I was tedious At the end of every seven years in the solemnitie of the year of Release in the feast of Tabernacles thou shalt reade the Law before Israel in their hearing saith the text Upon which words Tostatus thus c The Law saith he is meant especially of Deuteronomy And d others since have imbraced the same opinion but none have thought us worthy to be privy to the reasons inducing that opinion nor indeed can any be devised For who knoweth not that the word Law importeth the whole Pentateuch of Moses of I believe an hundred of instances I will produce but one and that of any the likeliest to make for their purpose God injoyneth the future King should write him a copy of this Law in a book Now I pray tell me is Deuteronomy onely
of one in a week was ceremoniall and so abrogated I answer prove you it ceremoniall and I will yield it abrogated but there hath not yet been any argument or reason shewn us whereby we might be perswaded to conceive it ceremoniall nor hath it so much as one Character of a ceremony in it For first it was not typicall it did not prenote any thing to ensue or be accomplisht under the Gospel If that fancy of the Jewish Cabala be true that the world shall continue but six thousand years and then the day of judgement shall follow it might prefigure that and yet no ceremony proved for that time is not yet elapsed and the type must continue till the thing typified be fulfilled so that this rather evinceth the duration then abrogation of this limitation Secondly it had no particular relation to the land of Canaan the proper place of ceremonies nor yet to the Jews upon whom it was not imposed as Jews as a mark of difference to distinguish them from the Gentiles If you object Exod. 31.13 17. Ezech. 20.12 20. where the Sabbath is called a signe betwixt God and them I say the Sabbath was at that time a mark of difference and separation betwixt the Jews and Gentiles that is confest but was it so as a seventh day No that which caused the distinction was the sanctification of them on that day not any thing in the number of seven Gods seposing of a certain time for their and onely their for God worthily neglected those of whom he was not worshipped a Sanctification was an argument that he had an especiall care of them above others and that they were his onely people It was not imposed as an heavy burthen upon the Jews If the sequestring one day in a week had been burthensome to them it would be also a grievance now to us Christians who observe the same But we are under the law of grace and liberty exempted from such pressures and if it were in any respect onerous we would and might renounce it so that it being not to us heavy it is consequently probable that it was to them tolerable And indeed in the explanation of the law or rather application of it to the state of the Jews it is rather recited as an ordinance of comfort and refreshing as of mercy and and favour then of rigour or severity then of depression and of servitude Lastly it was not commanded in recognition of any speciall favour conferred upon the Jews It was a memoriall of Gods creating the world in six dayes and his resting on the seventh but this being a benefit wherein all mankind inter common the Jews can claim no property therein several to themselves And so in respect of this Character as of the three preceding no tidings of a ceremony yet and so no cause of abolition for you will not have more abrogated then was ceremoniall will you If you say it was and must be ceremoniall for morall it was not and therefore positive and because positive ceremoniall I answer denying that positive either necessarily implyeth ceremoniall or excludeth morall Nay more disputable it is whether positive may be admitted here or no Sure I am a great Prelate d hath resolved it In Divine constitutions Positive law hath no place and so e Schoolmen and Civilians use to speak but in regard the propriety of the word signifieth the imposing of what before was in its nature arbitrary whether the imposition be Divine or Humane it constituteth in my opinion a Law positive denominated accordingly Be it then Positive is it therefore ceremoniall or not morall Let the definition of either word end the strife Morall is derived from mores or mos and may be defined as Lirinensis f doth Catholick Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus That which hath been observed every where alwayes and of all men And though in its remotest latitude of signification it is synonymall with what Civilians call Jus Gentium or the Law of Nations yet may it not unfitly be restrained to lesser societies as to Gods Church and so what hath been alwayes observed in his Church may not unfitly be called morall and then the observation of a weekly day will become so too yet with this restriction and difference that one is morall by Naturall infusion the other by externall Imposition g But suppose it granted that Positive were a privative of Morall yet can you never prove that it must inevitably inferre ceremoniall for ceremonies are in their very nature changeable to last but a while their etymologie giveth them that definition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} therefore they who write ceremonie do ill deduce it from Ceres whereas Positive laws may be and are some of them immutable The prohibition of incestuous matches within certain degrees decimation and tithing were Positive and yet I hope you will yield unchangeable The last I am sure you demand by virtue of the first injunction Nor doth the tenth content you you are you think defrauded of your right unlesse we allow it as due jure Divino the truth whereof is here not to be discussed and though I as yet rather incline to the affirmative yet this for undeniable veritie I dare and do averre that to evince a jus Divinum there is farre infinitely farre clearer evidence and demonstration in the Scripture for the Lords day then for Tithes But I digresse All Laws Divine derive their firmnesse or mutability two wayes either from that which giveth them their first constitution Reason Qualis Ratio Praecepti tale Praeceptum as the Reason is permanent or moveable so is the Law for the form of all laws is the reason as that which diversifieth all things is the form or from the subject or matter about which they are conversant for if that be constant the law must also be the same For those Laws Divine which belong whether naturally or supernaturally to men as men or to men as they live in Politick society or to men as they are of that politick society which is the Church without any further respect had to any such variable accident as the state of men and of societies of men and of the Church it self is subject to in this world all Laws that so belong unto men they belong for ever although they be positive laws unlesse being positive God himself that made them altereth them saith Hooker Now no man will deny the reason of commanding a weekly day in memory of the creation to be immutable therefore the Law it self for that cause also though at first positive must be so And that it was imposed on Gods Church without respect had to any particular Place People Time or the like variable occasion is so clear as none can solidly refute and for this cause also it must continue so long as that society the Church for which it was first