likely to worke a setled worke upon his spirit to be still more and more for God and his soule Whereas those that are taken off from religious thoughts by worldly any thing soone doe apparantly in experience loose a great part not to say all sometimes of the benefit namely of the spirituall light of knowledge and heat of affection that they might have gotten in a longer Time or seemed to have gotten in that Time which they did bestow upon Religion in a Continuance Christians will confesse this and worldlings manifest it And particularly ignorants who live in a neglect of the Sabbath either through their owne fault or their superiours doe by their excuses of their ignorance beare strong witnesse to this Their language is We are dull headed and hard to learne any Catechisme being not booke learned and we have no Time to learne Their meaning is chiefely they have not leisure to allot a sufficient Continuance of Time at once being cald off by one businesse or other when they would as they pretend or doe set themselves to learne And there is much of truth in this if they acknowledge not and so improve not the Sabbaths Continuance which rightly used would much advance them even in one Day And so still all pleads the profit of a large Continuance determinated 5. XXVI It is very profitable to Religion to have Frequency of times Determined even single so it be as great a frequency as may be consistent with a mans worldly necessities as once or twice every day In as much as Religion and the Solemne worship of God for his honour and the good of mens souls is a businesse Permanently Necessary all a mans life long It appears also that it is profitable to Religion to have a Determination of the Frequency of returne to the Duties of it Even as great a Frequency as can be imagined compatible with the formerly mentioned Necessities of Naturall and worldly businesses Specially to secure a man that his Knowledge of God and Affections towards God in a word his acquaintance with God shall not be lost or diminisht As the intervention of Worldly businesses being so directly opposite to thoughts of God for the most part specially in spirits and hearts so corrupted as ours now are cannot but put in hazard The proper prevention whereof lyes mainly therefore in the Determination of as great a Frequency of returne as may be as suppose every day or every morning and every evening that is twice every Day viz. of those Dayes the maine of whose Continuance is taken up for worldly businesses according to the Ceremoniall Law of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice which carried along with the Duties the Frequency of the Time of tendring them together with a Remisse Determination that is within a Latitude of the Season also And such Determination of the Frequency even though there be nothing of the Continuance Determined at all or only Remisly if any is we say Remarkably Profitable to prevent strangenesse in the Soule toward God For while the not-Determining of any Continuance jointly with such Frequency of twice every Working-day will assure that it may be observed without any prejudice to a mans worldly businesses which ordinarily certainly cannot but admit a looking up to God even Solemnly every Day between morning and noone and again between noone and a mans lying down to sleep so that a man be Free to continue no longer then his occasions will then permit This very Frequency will yet keep the soule happily in breath and in dutifull respects toward God And withall will now and then afford him the Advantage of making some Remarkable Profit by Voluntary enlarging the Continuance of Time for Devotion when being at it he finds no particular businesse calling him of perhaps for an houre or more together However let the Continuance be never so short yet if a man do but Affectionately tender Solemne Worship in such Frequency Determined of Morning and Evening every Day It must needs preserve from a Totall Decay and strangenesse toward God which in a very seldome returne there would be very great danger if not certainty of and so proportionably according as such Determination of the Frequency single were more or lesse Frequent the prevention or danger of decay in Religion would without doubt be And so the Profitablenesse of the Determination of a very great Frequency even single is apparantly Evident And specially it may be and will be so if besides it there be for Religion a Determination made jointly of the Continuance with convenient largenesse and of the Revolution also with Convenient Frequency Of the profitablenesse of which joint-Determination XXVII A joint determination of both the Continuance and Frequency in a convenient largenesse is singularly profitable to Religion Even the most Profitable of all other making the proportion so determined the chiefest Time for Religion we are in the next place to speake 6. And upon the former Suppositions it can with no Reason be denied but such a joint Determination of the Continuance and Frequency in a convenient largenesse is not only Profitable to Religion but the most Profitable Determination of all other The Determination of the greatest importance to the maine businesse of Religion Gods honour and the good of mens soules as taking in the strength of the two Substantiall respects of Time the Continuance and Frequency joined And accordingly the Proportion of Time therein Determined is the chiefe Time for Religion of all other Therefore concerning this Time or this Determination it is a consideration of the greatest waight by what Rules it may be ordered wisely and made in a Convenient and just and Profitable Proportion or observed to be so if we speak of any already made as namely of that of One dayes Continuance in the Revolution of seven which we say was the Substance of the fourth Commandement Now here there may be a double consideration of the Wisdom and Conveniency of the Proportion of Time so determined between the Continuance and Frequency jointly One is in regard of the totall proportion Determined for Religion and so secluded from worldly businesse how so much in the whole as for instance the proportion of a Day in seven or the seventh part of time in the Revolution of seven dayes whether that be a wise and Convenient and Profitable Determination and not certainly too much or certainly too little for the chiefe Time for Religion And by what Rules to judge it either Way But this we leave the Discussion of to a following Chapter where we shall endeavour to beat it out clearly and at large The other is in regard of dividing and sharing such a proportion as a Day comes to in seven between the Continuance and Frequency On vvhich side the greatest Waight should be put whether on the Continuance to make that as large as may be and so put it all into one day as in the fourth Commandement Or on that side
whatsoever We conclude then We discerne nothing lesse then a spirituall priviledge or Christian liberty for this chiefe necessary and sufficient Time for Religion to be left to the Churches determination And therefore we say doubtlesse such authority of determination was not left to the Church XXXVI Arg. 8. Then a matter of great importance were left to great uncertainties As We argue yet againe in the eighth place If this authority of determining the necessary sufficient chiefe solemn Time for Religion unto its members be left to the Church Then is a matter of greatest importance in Religion left by God to manifold great uncertainties even among Christians But a matter of greatest importance in Religion cannot be supposed to be left by God to manifold uncertainties even among Christians Ergo This authority is not left to the Church The Antecedent needs little proof considering the perfection of the Scriptures and the singular love of God toward His Church His Christian Church specially Whom though He hath favoured with not prescribing to them many particularities to which He obliged His Israel of old Yet it is not to be believed that He would leave them at manifold uncertainties in a matter of greatest imporatnce to Religion His own honour and their soules good For this were no favour to them but a token of disfavour rather This will be cleareer when we have illustrated and proved our Consequence which we thus endeavour XXXVII 1. What is meant by the Church 1. It is uncertaine even to many Christians whose piety is not to be despised nor their learning neither what is meant by the Church to whom the authority is given in any matter by God Some pleading for particular Churches or Congregations to have it in themselves even Independently Others are for Classicall and Presbyteriall Assemblies of divers Churches and so higher Synods of Provinces and of a whole Nation Others again are for Bishops and the authority to be in them and Synods of them and Delegates under them and Archbishops and Primates c. above them Also all but those that are of the Independencie doe ascribe a chiefe authority the chiefest that the Church Chhistian hath to a Generall Councell representing the Church universall We name not here the Popish plea for their universall Bishops authority as beyond a question among Orthodox and Reformed Churches among whom our present dispute is Now we say that even this Vncertainty and the disputes about all these things doe so exceedingly enervate the strength of any Churches determinations as that it is apparently enough seen and known that they are scarce any where further obeyed then men stand in feare of the Church-censures and not alwayes then neither many chusing to incurre the censures rather then be tyed to such observances as they thinke God hath not tyed them unto Which Principle would be sure to make any determination that any Church should make except only a Generall Councell of the whole Church Of which yet we have divers things to say by and by little better then none at all with many perhaps with most specially if the Church should pretend to determine the Time to extend to domestick and most of all to solitary worship as we have shewed it ought so to extend 2. Againe where this is agreed XXXVIII 2. What persons have any votes that the Churches authority belongs to this or that Assembly Instance in any or all Yet is it not agreed nor certaine in many minds who againe we say are not to be despised what persons in these Assemblies have votes and suffrages to determine any thing by way of authority in those matters wherein that Church or Assembly hath authority Even those that are for Independencie of Churches agree not all in this Some plead for all the People that are Men Others only for the Officers Ministers and Elders and in some matters taking in the Deacons also Those that stand for Classes Presbyteries and Synods Some admit all the Ministers of a Province to the Provinciall Synod Others a lesse number chosen out of the severall Classes or Presbyteries Again some admit their Lay or Ruling Elders to have decisive voices in points even of Doctrine as well as Discipline Others restraine matters of Doctrine only to Ministers Pastors and Teachers Those that plead for Bishops some argue for their sole authority without the suffrages decisive at least of any Presbyters Others require a joint consent of a competent number of Presbyters and they again are divided Some standing for a set Presbyterie in or neere the City Others for all the Diocese which therefore they would argue ought to be but of a narrow extent Againe when they come to speak of a Provinciall or Nationall Synod of Bishops It is disputed whether any Presbyters ought there to have decisive voices and if so how many and by whom and in what manner they are to be chosen whether by Proxies or not Also of what validity any such determinations by any of these Assemblies Provinciall or Nationall for instance shall be of before or without the consent of Secular Princes and States specially being Christian And once more for Generall Councels what persons have right to vote there we meane not from humane custome or the like but divine authority of which we now dispute whether only Bishops as some say Or Presbyters also as others maintaine or also Lay-men as not a few doe likewise pleade And which way soever we take it What numbers to be chosen for each Nation And by what way and consent And when met whether to vote by Nations as in the Councell of Basill or by the major part of the whole Councell Now all this we say renders our determination in hand exceedingly the more uncertaine which would be argued by some to be a point of Doctrine by others to be a matter of discipline and by Princes and States to be a thing specially concerning the Civill State also by reason that men that while must be ordinarily forbidden all Civill businesses and so they are to have a share in this determination if in any at all And the issue must needs come to this that none would thinke themselves bound to hold such determination necessary or themselves or theirs bound to observe it necessarily if the whole way of the determination were not according to their opinion about the authority Besides that as much question would also be made by divers others about the sufficiency of the Time And so we say againe The determination could not be but unsufficient and unsatisfying greatly to great numbers of Christians XXXIX 3. Whether they doe not erre in their determination 3. Suppose a full agreement about the persons to whom the authority belongs Yet no man holds that all the decisions even of generall Councells are infallible The Major part may erre about the necessary proportion and determine too much about the sufficiency and determine too little The generall Councell
so a ground of wisedome would there not be greater danger of variety about the Frequency and Continuance 2. In all Churches that were neere one another diversities of Dayes would breed great disturbance of one another and the members of each from others and hindrance also to trafficke and journies and all businesse and in a word introduce nothing but disorder and confusion Which yet would be more increased by a diversity in regard of the Frequency and Continuance whereby those that observed and were tied to more and oftener would be reproacht by others as over-precise and would be apt to grumble at their owne bondage And they that observed and were tied to lesse and seldomer would be censured as prophane and carelesse of Religion and perhaps would be in doubt of the sufficiency of their Churches determination and so be apt to make a schisme in it or from it 3. If it were resolved once that this authority did certainly belong to every particular Church it would hardly be agreed among them unto whom it did belong Whether to the Minister or Ministers alone as some would thinke Or to them and the Ruling Elders together as others would say Or to the whole people with them that is all the men growne as others would maintaine Or even taking in women also as the Anabaptists doe in matters of Church-government And in this the difficulty would be the greater because as we have urged before the thing concernes the consciences of every one exceedingly in a point of necessary practise for Gods Honour and their soules good and necessary freedome for their soules benefit and necessary satisfaction for their consciences We say this concernes people as well as Ministers or Elders and women as well as men and therefore all must have some share in the determination So farre as if it be not at all determined in any respect as even for Continuance they must determine it for themselves And 2. If it be too burdensomely and unnecessarily they may and must ease themselves of that burden And 3. If it be unsufficiently they must provide better for their consciences and soules and Gods Honour And so in effect it would devolve to every particular person for themselves single which we have before disproved as that which would infallibly fill the World and the Church with irreligion disorder and confusion 4. Place this authority where you will or can in a particular Church Yet considering the small number of Ministers and Elders take them together in particular Churches and the weaknesse and corruption that even they are not free from and specially the people are liable unto suppose them as good as can be supposed Upon how slender a pin doth Religion Gods Honour and the good of those soules depend if so important a determination for Religion be altogether trusted in their hands specially having no certaine Rule to make it by as we shall see straight way 5. Last of all can it with any reason be imagined That the Church of Troas or that of Corinth or those of Galatia all founded by Saint Paul unlesse that of Troas were by any other Apostle would have offered to have made so important a determination without the Apostle or some other of the Apostles For what least matter can be produced that any particular Church in those Dayes did ordaine by their owne authority And much lesse then would they have medled with this Neither can it be supposed as was noted before that the Apostles preaching the Abrogation of the old Jewish Day the Saturday-Sabbath and as our Adversaries imagine also the cessation of the whole fourth Commandement in regard of the words of it would not have determined to the Churches where they preached these things or at least with them this great matter which must of necessity be observed and so determined for the honour of God and the good of every Christian soule namely a new proportion of Continuance and Frequencie for the chiefe Time to Religion and a new Day for it Yet we shewed in a former Argument both by evident reason and our Adversaries assertions that the Apostles did not meddle to make any of those Determinations any where Therefore we suppose it to be fully cleare that the Particular Churches did not make those Determinations to themselves neither had they authority so to doe And so no Church had or hath But it ever belonged to God and was by Him done for all succeeding generations of His Church in the fourth Commandement for the Continuance of a whole Day and the Frequencie of one in seven And by vertue of this and other intimations in the New Testament for the Lords-day the first Day of the Weeke to be the particular Day And so we have as we are perswaded XLVI Arg. 12. All men want wisdome to determine it sufficiently and clearely refuted the supposed authority of the Church and of all men about the Determination of this chiefe solemne Time necessary and sufficient for the chiefe Time of Religion unto all Men and Christians that is in point of Authority properly But we conceive all will be much more strengthened which we have argued by the addition of another generall Argument against any mans or number of mens determinations of it even the Churches whether in times of the old Patriarks before Moses or the Christian Church of the New Testament and that is in point of Wisdome As having no Rule whereby possibly to guide themselves steadily in the making of this determination of the chiefe Time necessary and sufficient For whatsoever we take into consideration that may seem to make towards a Rule will and doth render it more perplexe Either calling for so much as men will never be willing to grant necessary or leaving them altogether uncertaine whether that they would pitch upon were sufficient both in reference to the whole proportion of the chiefe Time as also the distribution of that proportion whatever it be between the Continuance and Frequencie save only in case they would pitch upon a whole Dayes continuance to which Nature inclines very much as we have intimated before and must againe further urge Thus we reason If there be in Men no sufficiencie of wisdome to make this Determination of the necessary sufficient chiefe solemne Time for Religion to themselves and others Then this Determination belongs not to Men. But there is in Men no sufficiencie of wisdome to make this Determination Ergo It belongs not to Men. The Consequence needs no great labour to prove it God is too wise too jealous of His own Honour too full of love to His peoples soules to leave such a matter as this is so important to Religion to be determined by such as have not a sufficiencie of wisedome for it XLVII Having no rule to guide them The Antecedent is further proved in this manner If there be no Rule whereby Men may guide them steadily about the Proportion necessary and sufficient for the
Question the Anabaptists and they and we are all agreed They have no Adversary in this Cause But yet this is nothing For they may as well say this of all Times and Dayes under the Law as under the Gospel That all were materially equall and in themselves considered By the Sun-rising or setting no Theologicall difference appeared in any of them no more than now Here then lies no scruple Ames Medal Theol. lib. 2. c. 15 sect 50.53 2. It is also granted That the Church may set apart some Times and Dayes for publike Worship But with some limitations before insinuated 1. That they be not accounted as necessary to Religion or as essentiall parts of Gods Worship 2. That they be not esteemed and used as properly Holy so farre that it should be unlawfull to change them or to imploy them in any but sacred uses 3. Lastly that they be not esteemed as efficacious meanes of Holinesse and Blessing in reference to the particular Times Dayes or Houres to the observers of them But in this sense againe nor we nor the Anabaptists we thinke will much contend with them For the Anabaptists granting a publike Worship by Assemblies must needs confesse That there must be some Times or Dayes set apart for orders sake to that use and that every one may know when to joyne with the publike Assemblies B. of E. p. 132. Yea we are told that some of them did judaize and kept the Saturday-Sabbath as instituted of old by Divine authority and not the Sunday as being in their opinion and our disputers too but of humane institution There was therefore no reason to quarrell with the Anabaptists concerning the inequallity of Dayes if this be all the difference Rather it seemes the Anabaptists were offended at this that those Dayes which man only had instituted were called Holy dayes and observed as they conceited in that manner and with that opinion of Holinesse c. as those of Gods institution were to be observed 3. Nor is there any question made by any side Whether Divine institution alone doe not make any Times this or that particular Day or Houre properly Holy and necessary to Religion For this is granted there were some Dayes so made Holy under the Law And the reason is the same under the Gospel If God institute or perpetuate any 2. Our dissent Our opinion explained 4. But herein as we conceive lies the businesse and difference betweene us That we say All Times under the Gospel are not equall in reference to Religion But that some Times in the severall respects of Time some expresse and definite Continuances some expresse and definite Frequencies or Revolutions and some expresse and definite Seasons or particular Dayes are necessary to Religion and properly Holy so as they may not be changed abrogated or otherwise imployed by man and so necessary above others in sensu composito not by a Physicall necessity of ordinary nature but by a Theologicall necessity Consentancum est rationi naturali vel potius moraliter necessarium est ut fasti sint dice Suarez lib. 2. de Relig c. 2. or Ethicall and Morall as some other besides us have expressed themselves And that so it should be sin in all men except in the cases of reservation admitted by God to interrupt solemne Times not to observe those particular Times and Dayes which is not to be said of other Dayes and Times Our disputers contrarily do maintaine That no expresse or definite Continuances or expresse and definite Revolutions or expresse and definite particular Dayes 3. The contrary opinion explained are so necessary to Religion as that all men or all Christians should be guilty of sin for the in observation of them more then of others This we say is that which many of their reasonings apparantly tend unto and which they must meane if they understand themselves Also we cannot deny but that at other times they say that which will not stand with this as we shall even here by and by shew them But we cannot help that if they contradict themselves as they doe in more things than one but only by shewing it them and our Reasons on the one side As we shall here now doe for our Assertions to win them fully to them if it may be We say then for the confirmation of our Position IV. Confirmations of our Assertion Arg. 1. Nature determines a whole day at least once Ergo. and refuting of theirs 1. If the Law of Nature determine at least once in every mans life a whole Dayes continuance expresly as necessary to be altogether spent in Religion as we have argued in the ninth Chapter then is not all Time equall under the Gospel in respect of Continuance for Religion No other proportion will satisfie the Law of Nature no not two or three Halfe-Dayes in stead of one whole Day And so this Continuance of a whole Day may not by man be abrogated altered or alienated and is more properly Holy than any other Continuance of Time for Religion that is than any other that is lesse For greater there can be none in Nature as hath been shewed 2. If the Law of Nature determines for every Work-day of a mans life at least a double Frequencie of attendance upon God V. Arg. 2. Nature determines for twice every day Ergo. as necessary unto all men which we have also argued in the forenoted place Then is not all Number or Frequencie of Times equall in Religion Or all Times equall in respect of an expresse Frequencie or Revolution so often Halfe the Day spent in Religion will not suffice to discharge from the second due attendance nor ten times upon the Day before or the Day after compensate for that neglect Because the Continuance being not here determined the Service may be so suddenly dispatcht as nothing but want of Will and Devotion can be assigned as the cause of not tendring that double proportion on the most busie Day that any man hath in his whole life VI. Arg. 3. Nature requires a determination for Continuance and Frequencie Ergo. 3. If the Law of Nature require any determination of Time at all for Continuance and Frequencie jointly as we have also proved at large and all our Adversaries also acknowledge under the termes of a Sufficient Time to be Morall-Naturall Then whosoever be the determiner of this sufficient Time or whatever the proportions be though but an houre in a yeere yet is not all Time equall in Religion under the Gospel for Continuance and Frequencie both For this houre in a yeere is necessary to Religion and so properly holy and unchangeable by man who may not take a shorter Continuance or lesse Frequencie because this is necessary not a longer Continuance and greater Frequencie because this is sufficient for the chiefe Time lesse and seldomer being against the Law of Nature which cannot be said of other Continuancies and Frequencies more large Yet againe more and
occasionally and the Lords Supper seldome oftner then once a moneth in any Church which would so far forth prejudice the good that might have been gotten by that which is so omitted Or else very much scanty each of them and so weaken the good to be received by every one of them singly and jointly XXX 2. With respect to mens worldly businesses But withall on the other hand the considerations of mens worldly callings and necessary businesses would suffer no lesse if not more sensible prejudice by dividing the Time between more dayes then if it were all put into one It would hinder journies and day-labourers and all men of much businesse exceedingly For the publike worship being then to be waited on it could not be in most places of the country particularly and for the sake of weaker bodies till about nine a clocke in the morning or toward three in the afternoone if the beginning were not in the morning and this would marvelously disappoint travelling and indeed every worke which could noâ— at the clocke striking as one may say be laid downe and the â—â—r those that dwell a mile or two from Church as much Time would be spent in going to the publike worship and home againe if not more then in the worship it selfe and so it would be a most greivous interruption and hindrance to all their worldly businesses Neither doubt we but if the consent of men were asked one by one the most part by farre both of good and bad the willing and unwilling those that love the service of God and the businesse of their soules and those that love it not All would give their voyces to have the whole Time how much or how little soever the porportion were for houres upon one Day in such a revolution rather then upon more frequent Dayes with a shorter Continuance that so they that love Gods worship and their soules good might have more full scope for that And they that love the world better might have the lesse interruption in their worldly businesses and more freedome to follow them From which discourse before we passe to another Consideration XXXI A consequence from thence Let us make bold to put the reader in mind of a consequence that we suppose will undeniably follow if these premises stand good namely That unlesse fourteen or sixteen houres be too large a proportion to be determined for Gods Honour and the good of all mens soules within the revolution of seven Dayes then the dermination of one whole Dayes Continuance for so many houres in such a revolution will prove so substantially a profitable determination for all men in all ages As they will find it a very hard taske that will afterward goe about to prove either that this determination was not from the beginning considering what is said at least towards it Gen. 2. Or that it is not perpetuall since there is certainly no expresse repeale of such a proportion of Continuance within that revelution And whether now under the Gospell such a proportion be too large in the whole as we wish the readers conscience to bethinke it selfe seriously even now that he is upon this discourse So we shall give him a further occasion to resolve in a Chapter or two after Meane Time we have one Consideration more yet to adde about the kinds of determination of these respects of Time and which is the last of this sort 8. XXXII How the determination of the Quando or season is profitable As a joynt determination of the Continuance and Frequencie so largely as hath been said must needs be Profitable for all men alike because all men are a like concerned in the Worship of God and care of their soules good To which tend all the determinations of Time religiously so it cannot be denied but upon the supposition of such a determination there will be at last a Profitablenesse accidentall not only of some Quando season or order of beginning but of the same for all that live neere one another at least so farre as to secure the helping one of another in family or publike Worship and to prevent hindring one another even in solitary Worship or the admitting of hindrances one from another Only it is to be observed withall that as all accidents are in Nature after the substances to which they are accidents though they are oft together for Time And againe all separable accidents may be after in Time So this accidentall determination of the Season or order of Time for Religion is in Nature after the substantiall determination of the Continuance and Frequencie even though possibly it was in Time determined together as the Seventh Day from the Creation together with one Day of seven Gen. 2. Supposing we say the particular Day determined to Adam the same moment with the other yet was the determination of it after it in Nature as being but meerely accidentall to the businesse of Religion for which infallibly the determination of one Day in seven was made And if what we have discoursed of the alteration of the order without prejudice to Religion be good it might possibly be determined some while after in Time But however it must not be forgotten that the particular order or season of beginning this or that Day is only accidentally and in no sort substantially profitable to Religion as hath been proved before XXIII For the manner of Determinations And so we come to the third and last main Consideration about the Profitablenesse of determinations of Time for Religion namely about the manner of determination of any of the respects of Time or all of them 1. No Exclusive Determination is profitable 1. Here is specially to be noted That no Exclusive Determination for the generall businesse of Religion can be conceived to be Profitable That is It cannot be profitable to have a Determination of so much Continuance at once and never longer as well as not shorter and of so frequent a revolution and never oftener as well as no seldomer and at such a season or in such an order for beginning that is on such a particular Day or part of the Day Evening or Morning this or that Houre and never sooner as well as no later never at any other Houre or on any other Day This we say cannot be profitable to Religion because Religion in both the intendments of it Gods honour and the good of mens soules is every mans chiefest and most important businesse of all other all the time of his life The attendance therefore upon this must never be forbidden strictly which is in the nature of an Exclusive Determination in any respect But it is ever lawfull not now to say necessary to prosecute the businesse of Religion both voluntarily without determination of the Time beforehand as also to determine Time for it where the necessities of a mans worldly condition and worldly imployments can and doth admit it It is true that if
Determinate solemne Time for Gods Worship is Morall Naturall This we must first Explaine and then we shall set upon the proofe of it For explication we desire it may be observed 1. 1. Meant onely of the Continuance and Frequency That We affirme it onely in regard of the quantity or Proportion of time but yet of that in both the respects of it the Quamdiu or Continuance and the Quoties or Frequency That some Determinate solemne Continuance is Morall Naturall and again some Determinate solemne Frequency is commanded by the very Law of nature namely according to our former description of the law of nature c. 1. That every reasonable man notwithstanding the present corruption of his nature may be forced to acknowledge it necessary to be given to God in duties of His immediate and solemne worship in regard of the importance of those respects of time for Religion Gods Honour and the good of mens soules And that accordingly duties must attend those Determinations of Time to fill up the whole Continuance and answer the revolutions But we say no such thing of the Quando season III. Not of the season or order of beginning by it self considered as not being of it self any way materiall to Religion as hath been discoursed before Only when the other respects are discerned to be determined there will also appeare some kind of necessity of some Determination of this also at least to secure mens helping one another and prevent their hindring one another who live in a neernesse together as we shall see more hereafter IIII. 2. Of those both single and joyntly 2. We affirme this Determination of the law of nature not onely of each of those respects single of some Continuance and some Frequency but of both of them jointly that some Determination of such a Continuance so often V. 3. Not remisse only nor conclusive nor exclusive but only Initiall and of such a Frequency with such Continuance is Morall Naturall and made by the very law of nature 3. That by the Determinations which we maintaine in this position to be made by the law of nature of these respects of time As on the one hand we understand more then a remisse Determination to say as many disputers do onely a convenient Time or a sufficient Time leaving both the termes and limits for length or shortnesse of Continuance and for Frequency or seldomenesse of Revolution wholly undesigned So on the other hand we meane not a conclusive Determination assigning exactly the limits on both sides much lesse an exclusive determination of which sort we have before noted that we find none absolutely given out by God any where in reference to the generall businesse of Religion But onely such Determination as we have before termed Initiall wherein the Initiall terme of either of those respects of Time of the Continuance and of the Frequency is determined that is the Continuance to be so long together at least and no lesse while as also the revolution so often at least and no seldomer So requiring somewhat both for Continuance and Frequency strictly and implying withall somewhat more in each respect but leaving that somewhat to some other Determination of God or man More plainly we meane that the Law of nature determines the Continuance in regard of the shortest proportion That so much together at least cannot but be necessary to be presented to God at one time or other of every manslife and so again That so often at least in a revolution to waite upon God solemnely in duties of Religion and Divine Worship cannot but be necessary to every man during his life upon earth VI. 2 Proved of the Continuance single And now we come to prove our Position 1. For the Quamdiu or Continuance single If there may be sin against the law of nature in giving God too little time at once in waiting upon him in the dutyes of solemne worship then some Determined solemne Time is Morall Naturall in regard of the proportion of continuance in his worship But there may be sin even against the law of nature in giving God too little Time at once Ergo. The consequence of this argument is undeniably confirmed by those sentences of the Apostle that whosoever sins transgresses the law for sin is the transgression of the law and where no law is there is no transgression So that if to give God never above halfe a minute at once in waiting upon him in any solemne worship be a transgression and sinne even against the law of nature then the law of nature Determines a solemne Time at least somewhat above that Propotion of Continuance and so a whole minute or three quarters of a minute or the like is a Determinate solemne Time by the law of nature and morall naturall or any other proportion of continuance that can be named or imagined smaller then this will serve to illustrate and confirme this consequence The Antecedent is no lesse certaine and cleare what ever conscience of the most corrupted man be called to judge if he wholly deny not a God and a worship due to him for all men cannot but confesse that it were sin never throughout a mans whole life to give God above halfe a minute at once or a quarter of a minute or any lesse proportion of continuance if lesse can be mentioned or observed As for instance that of the Publican Luke 18. when he smote his breast and cried Lord be mercifull to me a sinner this was a solemne Worship and continued a little longer then an instant and so was measurable for Continuance but never to give God a larger Continuance cannot but be acknowledged a sinne Ergo our conclusion is firme that some Determinate solemne Time above that proportion of Continuance is Morall-Naturall and determined even by the law of nature The like argument will serve mutatis mutandis for some Determinate solemne Time in regard of the Quotie VII Of the frequency single or Frequency single If there may be sin against the law of nature in wayting upon God too seldome then some Determinate solemne Time is Morall Naturall in regard of the Frequency of revolution But there may be sin against the law of nature in waiting upon God too seldome Ergo. The consequence is proved as before That where no law is there is no transgression no sin c. So that if it be transgression and sinne even against natures law never through a mans life to waite upon God in his worship above once then the law of nature Determines a solemne Frequency above the proportion of once and so twice at least in a mans life is a Determinate Time by the law of nature and so Morall Naturall The Antecedent is also undeniable by any one that hath not altogether forsworne all conscience and renounced all Religion in regard of God For whether by waiting upon God we understand presenting unto him Eiaculatory Worship which may perhaps be dispatched
Day as their Naturall spirits can hold out unto as they are able to continue waking in the service of God But it doth not bind all then equally to the same proportions of minutes because all are not able to wake equally one as long as an other But so farre as men are able it binds all equally all being bound to serve God in the Day with all their strength the strength of all their Naturall abilities And so much we shall presently see The Law of Nature commands every one of mankind and more then so much it doth not command whether the Continuance be longer or shorter compared with others XXIV Answ 2. 2. But with all we say If any one of mankind through neglect of the service of God or misse-devotion to it doe willingly sleepe more and wake lesse Time then he need to doe whether againe the Continuance compared with other men be longer or shorter he is and will be found a transgressour against this Law of Nature For this is but corruption in him though perhaps he may pretend Naturall infirmity But of that and all other such like pretences this Rule in a word may be a certaine and sufficient judge That what Continuance soever a man is able to keep himselfe waking in a Day about any worldly businesse or matter of pleasure gaming or the like he is able to keepe himselfe according to Nature the same Continuance of Time in the service of God in one or other exercise of Religion which Naturally weary not the spirits more then worldly matters but rather lesse then many worldly matters and the varieties may refresh and doe greatly the mind so farre as carnallity and corruption oversway not And therefore in the first stating of this position concerning a Day to be determined by the Law of Nature we distinguisht Naturall abilities from corruption For we take it for a most undeniable Truth That corruption doth not hinder the Law of Nature from commanding to the utmost of Naturall abilities as long at least as it exceeds not them For the loving and so serving God withall our strength as was toucht before is infallibly of the Law of Nature and yet no mans corruption now suffers him to yeeld God so much love and service This also made be made good in manifold particular instances That the Law of Nature doth command us to doe things which now according to Our corruption it is impossible for any man to doe As to pray or read or hear the Word when ever he doth any of these Duties with a steady fixed heart and mind without any distractions or worldly thoughts at all that while for that they are so farre forth a taking of Gods holy name in vaine Yet this no man is able now to doe as all mens consciences will confesse even though they imploy but a very short Continuance in it And now we come to prove XXV An argument to prove that nature determines a dayes continuance that a Dayes Continuance for Religion is determined by the Law of Nature from grounds and principles in Nature which we have formerly made use of If it be sin against the Law of Nature never in a mans life to give God a whole Day at once then the Law of Nature determines to every man a whole Dayes Continuance once at least in his life But it is sinne against the Law of Nature never to God a whole Day at once Ergo The consequence is undeniable The Antecedent is thus further made good That which is contrary to the acknowledgement of Gods being the Lord of us and all our Time and Gods being our happinesse is a sinne against the Law of Nature But never in a mans life to give God a whole Day at once is contrary to those acknowledgements Ergo. The Major is most plaine and certaine The Minor also may be infallibly proved Because those acknowledgments call for as much Continuance at once as Nature can possibly determine and possibly give at once where all that a man hath is due that debt cannot be satisfied unlesse all be tendred to Him So unlesse all the Continuance of a Day be tendred to God he hath not all that is due to Him as Lord of all our Time Also where a man acknowledges his whole happinesse to lie that cannot but carry him with the whole of his strength to the utmost Continuance Nature hath to give For all that a man doth is toward his happinesse and nothing can draw his mind from it while his acknowledgement of it failes not Now we have already shewed that Nature can and doth determine such a Day to every man for businesse of what kind soever and that it can give it wholly to God imploy it wholly in the service of God taking in specially the Reservations of any necessary refreshings which Nature and not corruption calling for God allowes and any extraordinary other Necessary interruption as we have formerly said Therefore never throughout a mans life to give God that which Nature is so able to give Him is against those acknowledgements of Gods Soveraignty and His being our Happinesse and so a sinne against the Law of Nature XXVI An objection answered If here it be objected That the same Argument will as well prove the whole Continuance of every Day of our life as of one Day which yet it doth not doe nor cannot because our Naturall necessities allowed by God and even commanded by the Law of Nature as it concernes the second Table duties admits it not And therefore the Argument is either false or impertinent or both We answer that the Objection furnishes us with sufficient justification of the Arguments both truth and pertinencie For we grant according to the Objection that God in the Law of Nature commands to attend necessary Worldly businesses as well we say not as much that is as absolutely necessarily as His services and the pursuing immediately of the Soules happinesse in and by them Therefore in sensu composito it is not true that the Argument proves the whole of every Dayes continuance to be determined by the Law of Nature for Religion and Gods immediate worship Although in sensu diviso it proves of every particular Day that is this or that Quando as well as of one But we propound it not of any particular Day in respect of the Quando or Season this or that Day but only of one single Continuance of a Day And so it is both true and pertinent It is true For though naturall necessities of Worldly businesses will not admit the whole Continuance of every Day one after another that is the Quoties or Revolution joyned to the Continuance which we meddle not with in the Argument Yet they will certainly admit one Day in a mans life we mean ordinary businesses will and for extraordinary necessities we grant as before Reservation for them if they should fall out when a man were upon that one Dayes devotions Therefore
still Nature can give such a Day and therefore again we say It is true that the Law of Nature doth determine it And as for the pertinencie of this Discourse we shall shew it by and by A second Objection may be made Namely XXVII Another objection answered That what is necessary by the Law of Nature is alwayes and certainly so But so is not this because for any thing the light of Nature can see or say God may have declared that He will not have a whole Day at any time at once and then the Argument will overthrow it selfe He being the Soveraigne Lord of in and all our Time But to this we answer two things 1. That we have in part already prevented this Objection because before we propounded this Question of our judging of the Law of Natures determining a Continuance of Time conclusively for Religion we propounded it under the favour of Gods allowance of it even because all Time is His and He hath no need of any service of ours Therefore the Argument is intended but so far forth as God hath not refused a whole Dayes continuance at once to be tendred to Him in Solemn Worship 2. We adde that unlesse we had such an expresse refusall in Scripture we cannot conceive how the Light of Nature can suppose any such thing as that God should not allow His creatures to attend upon Him so long together at once as their naturall abilities are able to doe and their ordinary worldly necessities with the allowed reservations do certainly admit That it can stand we say with His Honour to refuse and forbid a whole Day The rather because none of our Adversaries notwithstanding their displeasure is mainly against the Continuance of a whole Day B. of E. p. 255. C. D. p 5â— G. Irons p. 268. did ever expresse any imagination that it should not be lawfull to observe a whole Day Only they will not admit it necessary But though we contend not for a necessity from the Law of Nature for a whole Day every seven Dayes yet if it be certainly lawfull to have one whole Day in a mans life as they more then grant while they yield it ordinarily lawfull every Week We suppose the Argument foregoing will prove so much necessary even by the Law of Nature as we have said XXVIII A third objection answered One Objection yet remaines That two halfe Dayes may doe as well as one whole Day as being the same proportion in the whole We answer divers things 1. We suppose we have already in the former Chapter proved That the longest Continuance is more profitable to Religion as also more convenient for leaving freedome for worldly businesses at other times then to divide the proportion of so many houres between divers Dayes 2. For any man unncecessarily to break off the continuance of his attendance upon Gods solemne Worship is undeniably to discover want of Devotion to the Service of his Lord and want of affection to God his happinesse If a Necessity take him off for a little while or for longer the Reservation which we have oft named acquits him of sinne but it may and should be a griefe to him Else Christ would not have bidden His Disciples Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath Mat. 24.20 Implying it ought to grieve them though it were lawfull of which place we shall speak fully in due time But therefore we say again To break off unnecessarily when a man hath free liberty to attend on God is a sinne 3. Besides that He knowes not whether he may not be hindred to morrow or when he would make up his other halfe Day and so lose it altogether or be so long put off from Day to Day till a great deale of his Affections gotten or quickned in the former halfe Day be quenched again and lost A carefull Tenant when his Rent is due and he hath it all ready will not bring halfe and leave the rest to another time lest he be robbed in the mean while or be forced to spend it and so want it when he should pay it If a man be bound to give God the proportion of a whole Day as this Objection grants and that by unnecessary delaying he should die having tendred but one halfe Day when he might have given the whole he dies in a sinne Therefore for certainty two halfe Dayes are not so good as a whole Day 4. If after that one whole Day a man can certainly have freedome for another halfe Day we adde or even for another whole Day the Argument will again hold for that halfe Day also or that second whole Day and so will adde such a Frequencie to the Continuance But this were lost we mean the benefit of the second halfe Day if upon an unnecessary breaking off at the former halfe Dayes end or not beginning till halfe were gone this second must goe to make up the former proportion of a whole Day whereas here had been halfe a Day clearly gained to Religion if the former Day had been wholly observed Therefore we conclude that notwithstanding all these Objections A whole Dayes continuance at least once in every mans life is determined to him for Religious attendance upon God in that sort that hath been discoursed Other Arguments there are which will helpe to evince the same as we suppose But we shall have occasion to propound them hereafter in place convenient And we conceive we have sufficiently proved it here by this one And now if any ask To what purpose is all this paines XXIX A scruple removed seeing that this hath not come hitherto into an expresse Controversie but rather by some of our Disputers words seems to be granted as we have noted We answer That as the inquiry is pertinent to such as look narrowly into the nature of Religious Time as we professe to doe So we conceive it may be very usefull to our main Controversie which as we divers times noted is principally about the Continuance whether it be to be a whole Day at once or lesse and for the sake of this all the other Disputes are brought upon the stage Now we suppose that this being evinced and upon those grounds that have been produced It will hence follow when we come to joyn the Frequencie to the Continuance in a Conclusive Determination to be looked after of both these Respects of Time joyntly to make up the chiefe Solemne Time for Religion that whatever the Revolution be for number yet in all probability to say no more yet it must be of a whole Dayes Continuance unlesse it can be found that God hath now altogether rejected a whole Day or that Worldly Necessities even with the benefit of Reservation on the Day for some will not now admit so long a Continuance for Religion though they did of old For if God have not refused it nor can worldly necessities exclude it we see not but the Law of Nature will be
did so very much by the advantage and even necessity of their Callings being spirituall and in the road of Religion and their minds withall full of zeale and religious affections And thus we are the more inclined to believe because the very same Divines when they think of other men speak very fairly toward the Perpetuity of a seventh day Sabbath as necessary for all men As may be seen among others by that one place of him who is esteemed the chiefest of the Disputers against it of Mr. Calvin we meane in his Commentary upon Genesis 2.3 who thus speakes Benedictio ista nihil aliuâ—â—est quam solemnis consecratio qua sibi Deus studia occupationes hominum asserit die septimo Est quidem legitima hac totiua vitae meditatio in qua se quotidic exerceant immensam Dei bonitatem justitiam virtutem sapientiam in hoc magnifico coeli terraeque theatro considerare verum si fortominus sedulo quam par esset ad cam intenti essent homines ad supplendum quod assiduae meditationi deerat septimuâ— quisque dies peculiariter delectus est Primum ergo quievit Deus deinde benedixit hanc quietem in soeculis omnibus inter homines sancta soret vel septimum quemque diem quieti dicerit ut suum exemplum perpetua esset regula Denique sacra est ista vocatio quae homines mundi impedimentis eripit ut totos Dei cultui addicant Praetereasciendâ—â— est non 〈◊〉 tantum vel atatis vel populi sed totias humani generis commune esse hoc exercition Quies spirituisis est carnis mortificatio ne ampliussibi vivant filli Dei aut propriae voluntati indulgeant Quod eam Sabbathum figuravit temporale fuisse dico Quod autem ab initio mandatum fuit hominibus nise exerceant in Dei cultu meâ—ito ad mundi finem usque durare oportet Calv. in Gen. 2. That Blessing is nothing but a solemn Consecration whereby God challenges to Himselfe the cares and imployments of Man And afterward To supply the defects of Daily Meditation every seventh Day was peculiarly chosen First GOD rested and then He blessed this rest that it might be holy among Men in all ages He dedicated every seventh Day to rest that His example might be a perpetuall rule And again This Vocation is sacred which takes men off from Worldly impediments to give themselves wholly to GOD. And yet further VVe must know that this is the common exercise not of one Age or People only but of all Mankinde And finally after he had mentioned another end afterward added to the Sabbath under the Law to the Jews namely typicall of Christ he remarkably concludes with these words That the Sabbath did figure that sc our Mortification it was temporary But that it was given to Men from the beginning that they should exercise themselves in the VVorship of GOD worthily it ought to endure to the VVorlds end Thus he Than which and so the whole of the matter in that place nothing can be spoken more judiciously or more Orthodoxly But other where he and others forgetting we believe the necessary Worldly businesses of other men seem to speak as it besides a time for Publike Worship there were no other Sabbath now but a continuall every-dayes Sabbath It being as we said very much so with themselves and so they not finding a speciall need of a seventh Day wholly to be a Sabbath in regard of themselves spake more unwarily of the Commandement than we are perswaded they would now have done if they had lived in our Time and seen their own and other people undone by prophanations of it VVhich hath made also divers Divines of those Parts to speak more fully for the fourth Commandement of late then formerly as we shall note hereafter But this by the way and in a kind of digression not unusefull we hope And so having cleared our meaning in the Minor of our Argument we come to prove it Namely That without a Chiefe Time determined sufficiently for Solemn Worship Religion cannot certainly stand among all men Thus we further argue If without a sufficient Time determined both for Continuance XLIII The Minor confirmed and Frequencie jointly no sufficient Time will be generally observed among Mankind for Religion Then without such a Time determined Religion cannot certainly stand among all Mankind But without such a sufficient Time determined no sufficient Time will be generally observed Ergo Without such a sufficient Time determined Religion cannot certainly stand among all Mankind The Consequence of this Argument may be undeniably made good by the consideration that without a sufficient Time observed for Religion Men who are borne void of the knowledge of God and unapt enough to learne it will never attaine a sufficiencie of knowledge for the honouring of God in their hearts and lives and saving their own souls Nor is it imaginable that they can possibly come to such knowledge either by the Continuance of one whole Day once in their lives of which we disputed before or by the addition of a few Minutes twice or thrice or four times every Day by snatches and sudden fits Mans nature is too froward too much corrupted to learn the mystery of heaven and salvation so by the by as experience superabundantly proclaimes even where there is a great deale more Time then so allotted to it and observed for it Also 2. without such a sufficient Time observed for Religion The great duty of love to God which is the fundamentall affection and even the summe of all Piety can never in an ordinary course be attained or preserved or exercised and exprest Men are as averse from Gods love as ignorant in the knowledge of Him And even though they have a knowledge of the Doctrine of God as many have not only competently but even eminently by having been trained up to it and having spent much time upon it from their youth up yet they may be Atheists in regard of affection and wholly devoid of all love to God And there is no ordinary meanes to work their hearts to such a holy love but by their being busied a convenient space of Time and that frequently in the services of God hearing of Him and meditating of Him and the like whereby they may come to be convinced of the reality and certainty of those divine truths which they have learned to know and see a necessity of loving and imbracing them and God in them above all Acquaintance breeds love between those that were strangers So doth acquaintance with God by the observation of sufficient convenient times of attendance upon His Ordinances Also if in any some beginning of love and affection be bred there is no preserving of it from decay but by frequent and conveniently continued intercourses and converses in holy duties Any man that disuses these or curtals the Times of them will and doth find in himselfe if he consider himselfe
prove it and then the fourth Commandement which they like not because it would tie them to a whole Daies continuance would be their only sufficient refuge Therefore also their Reasons are very doubtfully and waveringly propounded And so we esteeme that such an Answer is over ambiguous to be sufficient to satisfie either of our Arguments And if they will hereafter or any for them offer to make an answer definitely and clearely either to the necessitie or sufficiencie of the proportion Let them have but one Day of ten or twenty as necessary and two houres of that Day or nominate those or any other proportions of Frequencie and Continuance as sufficient Whatever they instance in and whether it be well or ill yet will it suffice for our Arguments to justifie them and confirm that the Church hath no absolute or legislative authoritie to determine this chiefe Time necessary and sufficient to Religion But that Nature and Reason or Scripture some or all of these doe before-hand determine the necessitie and sufficiencie of it And that the Churches office herein is no more but of a Cryer or Preacher as our Divines urge against the Papists in point of the Churches authority to determine what Bookes are the Word of God to declare and pronounce and then consequently to use her authority over her members to urge them to the observation of it as much as may be and not at all of a Lawgiver to determine it And thus much we verily beleeve these Arguments have evinced undeniably Which therefore we againe desire our Readers to observe that so the Churches absolute and unlimited authority may be no more urged in this controversie no not in generall and so deceivable termes And then we doubt not but many Readers will soone see a necessity to have recourse to the fourth Commandement as Gods own determination of this necessary and sufficient chiefe Time for Continuance a whole Day for Frequencie one in seven as the only sure ground for consciences to rest upon in so important a matter And that many more not to say all that are not swallowed up with prejudices will be of the same mind when we have expresly discussed whether the Churches wisdome will or can suffice to determine from Nature and Reason and any thing in Scripture besides the precise determination of one Day in seven according to that fourth Commandement the just proportion of necessarie and sufficient Time for Religion Which we shall take to taske ere we make an end of this question in this Chapter In the meane Time we goe on to a fourth Argument If the Church have Authority to determine the chiefe Time for all its Members XXVIII Argument 4. The Church cannot determine Time for family or solitary Worship then it hath Authority to determine the Continuance so laregly to extend beyond the Publike Worship even to take in both domestick Worship where it may be had and specially solitary Worship by every Christian apart before and after the Publike Worship But the Church hath no Authority to determine of Continuance so largely as to extend beyond the publike Worship even to take in both family Worship where it may be had and specially solitary Worship by every Christian apart before and after the publike Worship Ergo The Church hath no Authority to determine the chiefe Time for all its Members The consequence hath beene proved before at large in the former Chapter that the Continuance of the chiefe Time must be so large as not only to allow but to necessitate before and after the publike Worship family Worship also where it may be had and however to necessitate as well as to afford liberty for solitary Worship by every one apart The Antecedent may be thus strengthned 1. It is usually said That the sword nor the keyes meddle not within doores that is Neither the Civill Magistrate nor the Church-governours take upon them to make affirmative Lawes for private families for negative they doe in reference to what they doe among themselves not directly concerning the service of the Church or State And least of all do they meddle with their Time of which every governour of a family is counted Lord and Master or Lady and Mistris for themselves and all under their authority Even when a man is bound by Indentures to teach his apprentise his trade yet not at this Time or that Time or so long together Therefore we find not that any Church or Christian Magistrate though forbidding worke to all even within doores upon such and such Dayes hath yet commanded Parents or Masters to catechise their children and servants within doores on those Dayes precisely or pray with them or examine them what they have learned in publike or any such like Duties of Religion 2. But specially in reference to solitary Worship secret prayers secret thanksgivings secret meditations of the word heard or of any other heavenly and divine matter concerning God and the soule The Church hath no authority to determine any Time which necessarily must be spent in any of these Duties or any other in secret Of which we conceive a double reason 1. Because no authority of man is supposed to reach to that which neither themselves nor any other man living can ever come to know whether it be observed or not Which is the case plainly here No man can know nor all the men in World when I retire my selfe any Day and shut my selfe up in my chamber whether I pray or meditate or performe any other solitary Worship to God or not Unlesse I tell them afterward or speake so loud as that they over-hear me which I am not bound to doe or rather am bound not to doe It is altogether vaine to say no more to determine and command that which no account can be taken of by those that command it or by any man else whether it be obeyed or not 2. But further secret Duties and so Time to be necessarily imployed in them are immediately Duties of conscience even the most inward and spirituall that can be Now no authority of man of the Church or any other reaches immediately to the conscience and the inward and spirituall part of Duties But only the Authority of God alone Here againe the Church or any superiour may give Counsell or declare the will of God about such Duties or such Time to be so imployed But cannot command or determine it Whereas we are speaking of a Time that must be determined of which therefore the Church hath no Authority If it be objected that the Christian Magistrate XXIX An Exception answered or the Church hath authority to appoint a publike Day of Fasting and Humiliation and this to be spent in Religious Duties as well private as publike till the end of the Day and if so why not for the ordinary chiefe solemne Time We Answer in a word Sol. that the Continuance of a publike Fast is before hand determined by God in Scripture
since the service of God is our perfect freedome if our Church say true in her prayers and are not to give God attendance constantly in Publique Worship and so constantly look after their soules And then what becomes of the Morality of the fourth Commandement for Publique VVorship and what of Publique Worship and a sufficient Time at least for it Morall Naturall It is beyond our wits how our adversaries can expedite themselves out of the intanglements of these contradictions whereas in our way all is plaine in three words God determining the Time to all all even sevants and inferiours are bound to observe it to His honour and the good of their soules so to be willing and carefull of it and they are free to observe it being willing notwithstanding any opposition of men Masters Parents or others And though they may and must regard Gods reservations and so stay at home to tend a sick person and do any thing which is truly necessary yet not upon slight pretences or trifling occasions and when they are at home they are to redeeme all Time possible to serve God and look after their soules by themselves And if for this they incurre their superiours displeasure they must trust God in that as well as if they would urge them to lye or do any other wickednesse XXXIII Proved by reason 2. Another proofe of our Antecedent against the Churches authority even for the Publique Worship in a word according to what hath been touchâ— in a former argument is that If the Church hath authority to commanded all its members to observe constantly that Time in Publique Worship which it determines to them It may command them 2 3 4 5. Dayes in a Weeke and 5. or 6. or 8. Houres of each of those Dayes both Masters and Servants Inferiours and Superiours and call them from their workes to publique Worship so often and so long But this must not be therefore the Church hath no such authority even for the Publique Worship and the Times for it A sixth argument is this XXXIIII Argument sixth The Church cannot make a perpetuall determination If the Church hath authority to make this determination of the chiefe solemne Time necessary and sufficient to its members for Religion Then it hath authority to make a perpetuall determination But the Church hath no authority to make a perpetuall determination Ergo The Church hath not authority to make this determination The Consequence may be thus confirmed that proportion of Time which is both necessary for Religion sufficient for Religion for the chiefe Time of Worship is in reference to men not to say in the nature of Perpetual For nothing can be taken from that which is necessary nor added by mans authority to that which is sufficient So that if the determination of the Church hath made the Time necessary and sufficient to Religion it hath made it withall perpetuall and unalterable The Antecedent that the Church cannot make a determination perpetuall Is partly proved by the confession of the adversaries in this case in hand For they dispute and argue divers of them for the Churches authority at this day to alter and change the Time the Lords Day not onely to some other Day of the week but to some other number greater or smaller Partly by the general confession of all Orthodoxe Divines even the Hereticall Papists also that all institutions determinations lawâ— of men even of the Church universall are in their own not â—e alterable and at least the Church universall may alter them in a generall Councell And so that it belongs to God only to make lawes perpetuall and unchangeable And therefore say we it belongs only to Him to make this determination of the necessary and sufficient chiefe solemne Time for all men and particularly for all the members of the Church which doing it is unquestionably in reference to men XXXIV Argument seventh perpetuall and unalterable A seventh Argument thuâ— proceeds If God have given the Christian Church this authority to determine the necessary sufficient chiefe solemne Time for Religion It is a burden to Christians that the Church have this authority to all its members Then it is by way of spirituall priviledge and liberty for Christians But it is not a spirituall priviledge or liberty to Christians to have this authority given to the Church Ergo God hath not given to the Church this authority The Consequence is not to be denyed 1. Because our adversaries do so much and so oft urge the notion of Christian liberty to prove Christians free from all Gods former determinations of Times even that of one day in seven for a Weekely Sabbath in the fourth Commandement and to prove that the Church is to determine the necessary and sufficient Time now 2. Indeed there can be no other reason imagined why God should set His Christian Church to make this determination or make voyde all His own former determinations but in favour to His people now for a spirituall priviledge and Christian liberty The Time of the Gospell being a Time of spirituall freedome above the Time of the Old Testament The Antecedent may be verifyed severall wayes 1. By the confession of the adversaries who say sometimes and offer at some reasons for it that the Christian Church may appoint and determine more and oftener dayes than the Jewes had determined to them by God himselfe And if it be absolutely left to the Church to determine they may determine as many as they will And so there wil be lesse liberty in that sence they plead for it lesse freedom for worldly occasions work and sports then the Jewes had or then we urge from the fourth Commandement for one whole Day in seven For two Dayes in a week or even twenty seven Holy dayes in a yeare besides the Lords dayes weekely which are in our Church if they must be observed at least by abstaining from all work as some urge in their bookes and to be sure the Ecclesiasticall Courts did urge in practise punishing all those that they could prove did work on any part even of a Holy day This we say was and would be lesse freedome then the Jewes had or then we would have if the Lords day were wholly observed and no other dayes strictly besides But they may determine as hath been said even twise thrise as many more dayes if they have such authority as we dispute of Where then is the liberty talked of 2. If the Church had not such an absolute authority to determine but as much as was of old one whole Day in seven And without an expresse prohibition or pregnant reasons to the contrary which our adversaries in their way have not yet alledged this cannot be denied by them And so keep the number and continuance still and onely change the Day as we say is done but by God not men We aske again where is the liberty talked of unlesse they will say
the old Day abrogated by Christ and then as we have implyed heretofore and shall again urge further hereafter the first Day of the Weeke came even by vertue of the determination of one in seven in the roome of it immediately Besides what may be argued for Christs justification of it when we come to handle that question against the Jewish Sabbatarians And this being of lesse importance then the determination of the Continuance and Frequency God in His unsearcheable wisdome thought fit only to afford some designations of its observation and His owning it as His in the New Testament and not any peremptory command like to that of the Decalogue Of which also more hereafter XLIV Arg. 11. Then it should belong to every congregation We proceed in our arguments The next is this If the authority of determining to Christians the necessary sufficient chiefe Time for Religion belong to the Church Then it belongs to every particular congregationall Church to determine it unto its members But it belongs not to every particular congregationall Church to determine it unto its members Ergo It belongs not to the Church at all The Consequence hath been partly made good already But we must repeate those things briefly and bring them under one view together and adde some other things to them for fuller confirmation 1. The practise and observation of a necessary and sufficient Time for Religion immediately concernes every particular Church even every particular conscience as we have said for Gods honour among them and the benefiting of all their soules 2 The Time must be determined and that as necessary and sufficient that it may be so observed by that particular Church and all its members 3. It hath been already shewed the great uncertainties that there are about the determination of this Time belonging to a Church Nationall or Vniversall and the Possibilies of their erring either in the point of necessity or of sufficiency through want of zeale excesse of zeale and want of prudence In all these cases what can be said but that the authority must be devolved to each particular congregationall Church for its members that so God may have His honour among them though he hath it not aright among others and their souls may be benefited and their consciences not over-burthened however it be in other Churches 4. In case any particular Church be in a Paganish Country converted and gathered by meanes of some captive Christian or the like who yet is able to shew no authenticke proofe of any determination of the universall Church in this point nor of any Nationall Church which this particular Church should be bound to by vertue of their authority over it It is of necessity that that particular Church determine the Time for it selfe and its members 5. To this Day as we toucht before the universall Church hath not nor scarce any Nationall Church of late made a cleare determination or declaration of the Continuance of the Day which is by practise every where weekely observed How much we say of the Lords day is to be kept holy and strictly for God and the soule Yet this is necessary to be determined Therefore the authority to determine it must needs be devolved to every particular Church through the defect of the universall Churches determination of it and so of Nationall and Provinciall or Diocesan or Classicall Churches As also as was argued formerly in particular Churches default in like sort to particular Persons for themselves and their owne soules and consciences single 6. Finally the Scripture upon our Adversaries suppositions is undeniably we thinke for this And so is the practise of the Christian Church 1. The first certaine intimation we have in Scripture of the new Day observed by Christians for Religion though this also some quarrell with and question is Act. 20.7 which was in a particular Church at Troas and our Adversaries will not allow us to inferre from St. Pauls presence and observation of it with them that he instituted it there and much lesse among all Churches It was then as they contend the particular institution of that particular Church of Troas and so the determination of the particular Day and Frequency whatever was or was not of the Continuance belonged to particular Churches 2. Our Adversaries refuse also the intimation of 1 Cor. 16.2 notwithstanding the mention of an Ordination at least about the Collection that either to Corinth or to the Churches of Galatia the Apostle did institute or determine the first Day of the weeke to Religion Yet it was observed then as they doe not deny in their good moods though they can find in their hearts to dispute against that place also Therefore the institution and determination was made by those particular Churches for the Day and the Frequency at least 3. The practise of the Christian Church will say the same too For 300 yeeres after Christ there was not neither could there be till there was a Christian Emperour any generall Councell So that the universall Church determined it not neither could it Nor doe we read any Nationall or Provinciall Councell that seemes to determine it till that of Laodicea which was neer 300 yeeres after Christs resurrection Whereas the Lords day was practised and observed by that name and the name of the first Day of the weeke in every age from the Apostles Times as we shall shew hereafter It must be then instituted and determined by some particular Churches and imitated by others and so came to be universally practised Unlesse the Apostle instituted and determined it for all which our Adversaries admit not and we have disproved in their sense or that God and Christ ordained it whether immediately or mediately by the Apostles it matters not greatly and so certainly it was XLV Which is disproved by many reasons For now to prove our Antecedent That it belongs not to every particular congregationall Church to make this determination 1. It is not credible that all particular Churches if the power were in themselves would determine the same Continuance nor the same Frequency nor so much as the same particular Day For to speake of the first doe not our disputers now argue one while for Thursday to be as fit a Day in memory of Christs Ascention as the Lords day in memory of His Resurrection Another while for Friday in memory of His death How would this then be if they or such as they had the authority in their owne hand much if not altogether being the Ministers and so at least the chiefe in authority in the particular Congregations should we not be likely in a great City as London but specially in a Nation or Kingdome to have all the Dayes of the Weeke determined by one or other particular Church namely one by one and another by another and so others by others Againe in such diversities of tempers differences of zeale or worldlinesse wanting a steady Rule as we shall see and
chiefe solemne Time for Religion or the distribution of that proportion between the Continuance and Frequencie except only for a whole Dayes continuance which is refused Then they can have no sufficiencie of wisdome to make this Determination But there is no Rule whereby Men may guide themselves steadily about the Proportion necessary and sufficient or the distribution of it except c. Ergo Men can have no sufficiencie of wisedome to make this Determination The Consequence againe is evident enough For what is wisedome but to doe a thing steadily by a sufficient rule Whatsoever then is done without a sufficient rule cannot be said to be done wisely whatever other commendation may be given to it Neither doth the Exception interposed weaken the Consequence because as is exprest the Continuance of a whole Day is refused and so refused by all the Adversaries as that this is the maine and originall quarrell that hath bred all the rest and therefore that cannot be pretended by them on their part as possible to be determined by any rule of wisedome Though we for our parts may and must enforce it so as most apparently wise and by the perfectest rule of Nature and Reason against which there is no just gainsaying unlesse God himselfe did utterly reject it And they that say He hath have then we say no rule of wisedome to goe by For our Antecedent in this and in the whole will be abundantly cleared by a serious considering whatsoever may be pretended either generally or particularly in whole or in part to be a rule in these cases Generally there can be no rule but either 1. The Law and Light of Nature Or 2. some generall expressions of Scripture We say some generall expressions of Scripture For all the particular determinations there mentioned are expresly disputed against by the Adversaries as no necessary obligations or rules to Christians Again for particular rules totall or partiall There are none proper to this Question but one of these four Considerations 1. The Nature of the Object of Worship and the primary end of all Religious Time determined or observed Namely God whose nature is unquestionably infinite 2. The nature of the prime Subject of Worship and the secondary end of all Religious Time determined or observed namely the Soule of Man which in the duration of it is ordained to be infinite and in the necessities of it toward the provision for Eternity is next to Infinite 3. The nature of the Duties of Worship in which that is in the variety of some or other of them all Religious Time determined is to be imployed whose nature will appeare to be generally except in one case or two indefinite 4. The nature of the secondary Subject and usuall and certaine Impediment of Religious Worship that it cannot have all Time allotted to it namely the body and bodily and worldly businesses which allow not we say all Time to be devoted to Religion and Solemn Worship but call for a share of Time from every man both for Continuance and Frequencie all his life long The nature of which businesses will appeare to be 1. Sutable to corrupted Nature 2. Exceeding various numerous and uncertaine and capable also of taking up all the Time of life if they might be suffered 3. At the best but secondary and inferior businesses And these foure Considerations were all the rules that Adam or any of the old Patriarks could have to look to toward the making of this Determination of the necessary and sufficient chiefe Time for Religion if it had been as is supposed by our Disputers left to them to make for themselves and others And they are all also that the Christian Church can well pretend to supposing the Determination left to them Only to gratifie our Disputers who seem often to fancy as though the Proportion the Jewes observed or rather we say which God determined to them of one Day in seven may serve for some kind of rule to estimate this necessary and sufficient Time by Though by no means they will yield that particular proportion and distribution to be necessary and sufficient now For that were to yield in effect the whole Cause We will we say to gratifie them take this also into consideration And so with the best skill we have examine and set before our Readers all these five severally and distinctly according both to the Law and Light of Nature and generall expressions of Scripture And see what will come of it And whether after all men will not fall short of a sufficient Rule to make this Determination wisely by if it were left to them XLVIII 1. Not the Nature of God himselfe 1. We begin and worthily with the Consideration of the Nature of GOD the sole object of Worship and primary end of all Religious Time to whose Honour all Solemne Time and so this chiefe Time and all Worship tendred in it is to be observed Now we say The Nature of GOD whether we heare Scripture speak er even Naturall Reason is unquestionably infinite And so it cannot be possible to make a definite determination of any Time proportionable to that If you ask What Time is necessary for the Honour of GOD in it selfe considered The answer can be no other then All Time is necessary Or againe If you ask What Time is sufficient for the Honour of GOD The answer will still be Lesse then all Time cannot be sufficient Who can declare the mighty acts of the Lord who can shew forth all His praise saith the holy Psalmist Psal 106.2 Thy glorious Name is exalted above all blessing and praise say the holy Levites Nehem. 9.5 who afterward in the same confession remarkably blesse Him as for a singular favour for making known to them His holy Sabbaths the chiefe solemne Time of praising Him v. 16. Here then is nothing to proportion out only a parcell of our Time for Religion and leave the rest for other purposes to scanty God as if He were not worthy of all our Time and afford the world and worldly businesses what is not allotted to Him The question is not here whether a man may not imploy some Time upon worldly businesses by Gods allowance For we are far enough from denying that But whether the majesty glory and honour of the eternall God the Lord of us and all our Time in and by it selfe considered can afford to spare any Time from His attendance and specially which way it can be possible that the thoughts of His incomprehensible Excellencie and Glory should direct us to share Time between His immediate service and worldly matters The holy Angels in heaven keep an eternall Sabbath without intermission interruption or end We shall doe so too hereafter with them if we rightly and faithfully serve Him upon earth And without all controversie such an eternall Sabbath swallowing up all Time is not over-sufficient to give attendance upon Him and His praises Nor could be sufficient if any
but halfe a quarter of an houre or a minute as Peters Sermon related Act. 10. exceeded not a minute or very little when the falling of the Holy Ghost on all them that heard the Word made an interruption proclaiming withall a sufficiency of acceptation and blessing for that Time of his speaking and their hearing it might be a true service of God acceptable to Him and profitable to souls And so the reading of a verse or sentence of the Scripture Or the singing of a verse or line Or the praying as long only as the Publicans God be mercifull to me a sinner And so a word or two of conference and a very speedy thought of meditation Any of all this might and would if want of affection to the duties were not the shortner of them be pleasing to God and beneficiall to soules in its degree There is nothing then on no hand in the nature of the duties of Worship that can possibly be a rule to say Such a proportion of Time is certainly necessary and such a proportion is certainly sufficient Or the distribution must be so and so to so much Continuance and no lesse and so much Frequency and no seldomer Neither can we run back to the considerations of Gods honour or the soules good to measure these by For they have already refused any absolute direction But still some other thing must estimate or helpe to estimate the due proportions of Time for the severalls of these And againe only the will of God some other way declared is that which must teach us to conclude that for the chiefe Time to be imployed in them any of them or at least all of them together have been sufficiently prolonged in a just Continuance on any Day or sufficiently frequently reiterated As also that all of them or some of them are necessary to be so long continued together or necessary to be so often reiterated nothing can justly determine but the expresse will of God which yet we are to proceed in the search of as being hitherto never a whit neerer the finding of it then we were when we begun to inquire after it LI. 4. Nor the nature of the body ot bodily necessities 4. And now we are arrived at our last Consideration specially for the world before Moses The nature of the body and worldly businesse The body being the secondary subject of religious Worship joyning with the soule in some sort in all solemne Worship of which we now discourse And yet it and specially worldly businesses are certaine impediments of Worship denying at least That all Time should be solemnly allotted to it or spent in it And so call for and challenge a share and proportion of all mens Time both for Continuance and Frequency But here also we are not like to find any better helpe toward the dividing of our Times betweene God and the World the soule and the body then before and that in the three regards forenoted 1. The businesses of the body and of the World doe greatly border upon corrupted Nature and so to looke at them chiefely to discover a Rule to proportion our Times is to be sure to be misled For the issue will undoubtedly be that the proportions for the body and the world will be taken too largely and too slender pittances left for God and the soul As is more then apparant in many who though their consciences cannot deny the fourth Commandement to concerne them and theirs even for a whole Day in a weeke yet doe not nor cannot afford God and their soules halfe the Day because their minds are so set upon pampering their bellies and giving way to their lazinesse by lying longer in bed that morning then all the weeke besides and going sooner to bed that night then any other besides sleeping sometimes in the very Day time not to say in the very Church and at the solemne service of God also finding sundry pretended necessities of this or that worldly businesse for themselves and theirs And much more is this evident in those who have learned the confidence to deny the Commandement for one whole Day of seven and only pretend to acknowledge with our disputers a sufficient Time that God must have But there is so much correspondency and sutablenesse betweene their bodily or worldly occasions and their carnall corruptions that they make a shift to shuffle God and their soules off with a very leane and thinne allowance of Time sufficient indeed for nothing but to render them the more inexcusable that making shew of acknowledging a sufficient Time to be necessary to Religion they allot such a miserable insufficient parcell to it And there is no reason to expect it will be any better ordered while mens corrupted nature hath no better counsellours then the body and worldly occasions under the name of necessities to helpe to divide and distribute the proportions of His Time for Religion 2. This the rather because the businesses of the body and of the world towards the bodily life are so numerous and various and uncertaine running round throughout the whole yeere as is said of a husband-mans worke that it is never done and so it is with all worldly businesses in one regard or other and capable also of ingrossing the whole of every day which is most apparant in servants and those that spend their Times chiefly at the pleasures of other men So that there is no possibility of concluding before hand with respect to worldly businesses I may certainly spare for Religion so many Dayes of a yeere or of a moneth or weeke or so many houres of a weeke or Day because I shall have nothing to doe about worldly affaires but may be free to attend on God We say this can never be said in reference to all mankind of whom our dispute now is and so we should have most wild determinations if men take their aimes only or chiefly from the considerations of bodily and worldly businesses in the proportioning a necessary and sufficient chiefe Time for God and the soule 3. For also at the best the bodily and worldly occasions are but secondary and inferiour matters farre beneath in worth not only the Honour of God but the good of soules And it cannot be fit or agreable to wisdome that inferiour matters should give a Rule to superiour or be a measure to them that is for the maine and chiefe part of our Time It is true indeed That Gods gracious indulgence to mans bodily life and outward comforts doth allow interruptions in some reserved cases from His solemnest services and so from His owne most solemne determined Times as we have often said But without such indulgence printed in Nature or exprest in His Word no conscience might no good conscience would dare so to interrupt His Times and services Much lesse then without His indulgence may any conscience conclude and determine That such bodily and worldly businesse as fals within the compasse of every
mans calling may be allowed to be the divider and the distributer of the chiefe Time of all men and so God and the soules of men have no other allowance for the chiefe Time to Religion then what those worldly considerations shall allot This thought about Gods indulgence is a most weighty and most necessary consideration in this dispute But it doth not seeme to be at all taken into consideration by our disputers in this question We shall therefore anon make a distinct argument of it that we may be sure they and all Readers that will take the paines to view those discourses shall not be able to misse it or passe it sleightly over But we must first make up this Argument and another in the meane Time We say then that by all this discourse of the Nature of God the Nature of the Soule the Nature of the Duties of Worship the Nature of the Body and worldly occasions Take any of them single and apart or joyne any of them or all of them together in the consultation and we are as farre as can be from any guesse how to proportion the Time betweene Religion and other matters except that we ought undoubtedly to say if we have nothing but these to direct us That to Gods honour and the souls benefit the farre greater proportion of Time is necessary and that it cannot be sufficient to let the world possesse the largest share And if this be true as we cannot see how it can possibly be denyed and we shall yet further confirme it in a following argument our Adversaries have made a goodly purchsse by disputing the abrogation of the fourth Commandement for one Day in seven In as much as in stead of their pretended Christian liberty not to be tyed to such a proportion all other rules call for twise thrise as much and rather for six Dayes of seven and leave but one for worldly businesses And if they shall object Excep that mens bodily lives could not be preserved with so little a proportion for worldly businesses and trades We Answer set aside the Wisdome of God Sol. and His allowance of six Dayes Worke in the fourth Commandement it is not possible for any man living or any number of men to assigne certainly how much Time is to be spent in worldly businesses for the preservation of mankind in a bodily life If there were that simplicity of Diet of Apparell of Buildings all other things that there was in the first Ages of the world and is yet in some Countries though our pride and curiosity call them Barbarous for it certainly a great deale lesse Time would serve then now doth for worldly matters And though as the constitution of the world now is we are far from blaming such Trades and Manufacturers or the using of them as sinnes because specially we beleeve God to have allowed six Dayes in a Week mainly for worldly businesse according to the fourth Commandement Yet we say still that if this allowance were not we see not any warrant to imploy mankind so much in these businesses which as we said have been spared of old and are spared in other places at this Day to so notorious prejudice and undervaluing of God and His honour and the good of soules And so still we are altogether at a lesse for a rule of wisdome how to determine our necessary and sufficient chiefe Solemne Time for Religion And therefore this determination could not be nor was ever left to man to Adam or the Partriarkes before Moses Much losse to the Gentiles and Heathen for themselves and theirs nor yet to the Church of the New Testament LII 5. Nor the old proportion of one Day in seven in the fou th Commandement But remained ever in Gods hand which is the thing to be proved But we must not forget our fifth Consideration mentioned in reference to the Christian Church That our Adversaries in their best moodes when they say The Church must not offend in excesse or defect not render the yoke of Christians too heavy by appointing too much nor slight or seeme to slight the service of God and render it contemptible by appointing too little They seeme to fancy that the proportion of one Day of seven though by no meanes necessary to be perpetuated may be a convenient direction that thereabouts it should be among Christians and accordingly in the Christian Church ever one Day in a week hath been observed which with the addition of Holy dayes more rarely appointed they count a sufficient Time for Religion equall if not superiour to the Time that God had from the Jewes under the Old Testament Now to this we have divers things to say though we will not offer to follow their extravagancies in and out step by step in this dispute but onely shew somewhat the insufficiency and absurdity of this pretence LIII This is proved absurd We say then 1. That for other Holy dayes besides the weekely Solemne day they come not properly into this dispute about the ordinary chiefe Time for Religion They are 1. Extraordinary Dayes of which kind the Jewes also had some of Gods appointing and some of their own more then many Christian Churches have though not so many as some others Also 2. These are taken up without any such rule as may either urge the conscience to judge them necessary or conclude them together to be sufficient Therefore 3. Also herein the Christian Churches greatly differ which as we have argued before must not be in the proportions of the chiefe solemne Time necessary and sufficient for all Christians Likewise 4. No Church Reformed that hath retained Holy dayes hath spoken fully and clearely about the Continuance of them and how necessarily they are to be observed to Religion and imployed wholly in Religious duties or not And so they come not properly into this dispute about the necessary chiefe Time for Religion 2. Leaving these out and considering the weekely solemne proportion it was of old determined to the Jewes in the fourth Commandement One whole Day of seven Both which as well as the particular seventh Day the Saturday Sabbath which they pin to the Commandement But we shal shew their errour in it hereafter our Adversaries make to be now abrogated by Christ that is both the number one Day of seven and the Continuance one whole Day Of both these we must now argue the case with them how upon the supposition of Gods making these void they can finde out a rule for the Christian Church to make a determination of the chiefe Time for Religion for Frequency and Continuance And first we must discourse of the Frequency LIV. 1. With respect to the Frequency For the number of one Day in seven which is from Christs Time to this Day observed and perpetuated among all Christians by all confession Some kept as is said more Dayes but all kept the Lords day the first Day of the Week and