the contrary The Ancients whilest might and main they endeavour to beat down one errour many times fall into another So a Sixtus Senensis A thing too infallibly true witnesse three of the foresaid Fathers Justin Ireneus and Tertullian who in their fierce bickerings with the Valentinians Marcionites and Manichees violently bare down their Chrysippean fate and inevitable necessitie but upon the ruines of that errour laid the foundation of the doctrine of Freewill which afterwards was so augmented by the superstruction of Pelagius and his Ape Arminius If they writ in cool blood did they throughly scanne and sift the point did they ruminate upon what they delivered or did it rather carelesly escape from them in passage b Every man though never so learned is one way to be esteemed when he onely glanceth upon the question otherwise when he undertaketh to examine and discusse it throughly saith our great Prelate Lastly it must be inquired whether the question was started before they delivered themselves thus for if it was not they are not so much to be regarded For they often delivered things somewhat negligently not doubting but what they writ was orthodox enough because it had past once for currant till it came to the touch Augustine hath no other shift to salve the Fathers aforesaid from Pelagianisme in the point of Originall sinne and Freewill Many things indeed go a while for granted and without controul which in tract of time are discovered to be of dangerous consequence and then justly exploded for men are wont till they foresee the mischief which may ensue to deliver things as they took them by way of frolick one from another and so in a plodding carelesnesse a which way most go all follow But all these exceptions laid aside one there is from which no appeal will be admitted It is naturall to man to erre Men they were and might erre yea and did every one in other things why might they not in this I speak not this to avile them or abate any thing of the reverence we owe them and if it be suspected that I bear them no good will Of my self they were b Zanchy's words once but shall now be mine and mine own Genius I speak it From the unanimous consent of the Fathers where necessitie compelleth not I am very scrupulous to differ No my onely scope and intention is to tell you what Saint Augustine c hath told me That humane authoritie though never so learned never so holy is not to be trusted unlesse it produceth Canonicall Scripture to prove or probable reason to demonstrate what it saith How farre the Fathers slipt in other things is not cognoscible in this place whether in the point in question they did yea or nay is now to be debated and that they did I think it probable at least if not evident For is it not said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it What is this Blessing but the dispensing a peculiar favour towards it what this Sanctifying but a separation and consecration of it to holy worship If yea what then shall hinder but that we think the Sabbath instituted in that very article of time whereof Moses wrote shall this prodigious Prolepsis a Nothing is easier then to cry out O that is a Trope a Figure a peculiar manner of expression A strange wantonnesse in Expositours to apply Tropes devised upon necessity to places clear as the mid-day That according to Augustines b rule is a figurative speech which being properly understood can neither be applied to Faith Charitie nor Edification Somewhat fuller is that of Bellarmine c The Scripture ought to be understood according to the true proprietie of the words where we are not diverted by some manifest absurditie and this he calleth Commune axioma Theologorum the universall tenet of all Divines which I take to be granted on all parts the rather because neither Chamier Amesius nor any other as farre as I have examined hath accriminated the Jesuite for it Now lest we should misconstrue the word Absurd he explaineth himself in another place thus d Vnlesse we be inforced by some other portion of Scripture or other article of Faith or the universall interpretation of the Church Let this rule then judge us I for my part compromise to be tried by it God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it there is the Text God did honour the seventh day and consecrated it to his worship there is the genuine and proper sense and because in the tissure and series of divine story Moses hath inserted this sanctification of the Sabbath immediately next after the six dayes creation why should we not conclude that it was sanctified then and in the same order of time whereof he wrote why should we not take Moses his meaning as we find his words Is there any portion of Scripture any article of Faith the generall explication of the hole Church repugnant to it Is there any absurdity compelleth us to think otherwise Ostendant let them shew it which till they do let them give us leave to hold our first opinion to which the absurditie of the Prolepsis hath compelled us Absurd it is for it is clear the Patriarchs had a Sabbath and that they observed the seventh day Sabbath is evident from the reasons thereof common to both times They had a Sabbath For the Law of Nature instilleth this notion a That as every thing else which excelleth so especially God Paramount and superlative in excellency is to be worshipped as also That to the performance of this worship certain times are to be b deputed Is it likely that the Patriarchs failed in so necessary a dutie was Gods Church then so supinely governed or indeed so not governed at all that no time was set apart for solemn assemblies There was a consecration of Materials for sacrifices whereof beasts therefore distinguished by clean and unclean a consecration of Persons who a consecration of Places where was there none of Times when assuredly yes and therefore S. c Augustine hath put the Quando as one of those circumstances wherein Cain might have been deficient So a Sabbath they had The seventh day Sabbath they had Look into the Essence the body and soul of that Sabbath as d Brerewood calleth them what are they but Vacation or Rest from bodily labour and the Sanctification of that rest by dedicating the soul to Gods worship Were the bodies both of man and beast before the Law of a more brassie and adamantine durablenesse then after were they not conditioned not attempered alike was not the sweet repose of lucid intervalls equally necessary and welcome to both Did not devout sequestration to pious exercises as well sute and become the souls of them as of these Look especially into the end peculiar to it as the seventh from the Creation what is it but to eternize the honour of the Creation in
this matter we may be assured there was no such thing done The Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as well a preparation and destination as actuall application to holinesse as Exod. 19.10 Josh. 3.5 7.3 Jerem. 1.5 If God at that time whereof Moses wrote did give any command to Adam to sanctifie the Sabbath it must of necessity follow that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise But in Paradise there was no need of a Sabbath where there should have been no toyl no necessity of sanctifying any day to Gods worship where every day should have been a day of rest and the hole life a continuall Sabbath God would not then impose the Sabbath as a law when he himself brake it for according to Hierome and Catharinus he formed Eve upon the seventh day and so wrought upon it God imposed upon Adam in Paradise no other positive Law then that of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge It is probable that Jacob whilest he kept Labans sheep the Israelites while they were under the bondage of Pharaoh and his mercilesse taskmasters kept no Sabbath but if it had been commanded sure it had been kept Lastly it is said Nehem. 9. vers. 13 14. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai c. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath The authorities they alledge are especially emergent from the Primitive Church Justin Martyr leadeth the way Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize is Tertullians a challenge to the Jews All the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath saith b Ireneus There was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us so c Eusebius When there was no Scripture nor Law divinely inspired the Sabbath was not consecrated to God d Damascen Of late Adherers to this opinion the most eminent are Tostatus Musculus and Gomarus In this array the arguments and authorities upholding the Prolepsis are marshalled yet is it not universally entertained many there have been and are and those of no mean note neither who have applied themselves to the genuine and proper sense of the words and from thence deduced the institution of the Sabbath from that very article of time whereof Moses wrote And this interpretation I conceive most agreeable to the mind of Moses for many reasons which shall exhibit themselves in their due place for first I bend my self to encounter the objections formerly made and to lay open where they are crazy or invalid Divine revelation is indeed the best means to understand Gods will and act and though the Scripture doth not mention Gods expresse command to Adam though we reade it not said to him as after it was in the Law Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day yet a command we find and there being then at that time whereof Moses wrote none on earth capable of a command but Adam and Eve it necessarily followeth that they received the command For what is meant by Gods sanctifying of the seventh day but the application of it to divine worship Those things are said to be sanctified in the Law which are applyed to sacred worship saith a Aquinas now if it was then applyed to sacred worship sure it was by command Nor is the argument of force The Scripture mentioneth it not Ergò It was not many things were to the first Patriarchs commanded which are not recorded It is by farre the major part of learned men b affirmed that God dictated and prescribed to Adam all circumstances of his worship which by tradition past to his posteritie and were in every severall family untill Moses observed and it is in part evidently and infallibly confirmed by Scripture it self for we reade that Cain sinned but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4.15 Where there is no law there can be no transgression for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1. John 3.4 yet of this or any other command concerning religious duties holy text hath not one syllable Perhaps the command was not so solemn as afterward not vivâ voce in an audible voyce there being not the same reason and yet a command there might be internall though not externall God might by his guiding spirit direct Adam to sanctifie the seventh day as he did both him and other Patriarchs to other observances if Aquinas a hath aimed right It is credible saith he that the Patriarchs by divine instinct as by an hidden and tacit law were induced to worship God in a set and determinate form agreeable to the inward worship and signification of mysteries to be fulfilled in Christ The want of an Historicall narration of the praxis of those times is also as weakly urged You know Ab autoritate negativè nihil concluditur ex argumentis Arguments drawn from silent authority conclude nothing An axiome never firmer then when applied to the history of the world from the Creation to the Law the period of this discourse There is no mention of Adams penitence after his fall none of his sacrificing of his performing any other pious exercises during his hole abode upon earth none What then shall we say that he lived like an Atheist never invoked never praised God We reade of no Parents that Melchisedech had what shall we hold with the letter of S. Paul that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} really whithout father or mother ◠Heb. 7.23 He that in so compendious a story as this of Moses looketh for a full relation of every small circumstance is like to lose his longing and may as wisely seek Pauls steeple in Hondius his map of the world Abbridgements of stories are nets of a larger mash which onely inclose great fishes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things worth mentioning smaller fry things of lesse consequence escape them Athanasius his rule is right enough it self if it be not bowed by violence Comparing the miracles of Christ with those of the Prophets he demonstrateth the oddes to be this Christ was born of a Virgin so none of them Christ made the lame to walk the deaf to heare the dumbe to speak the blind to see so did not they For then saith he the Scripture would not have omitted it Therefore because the Scripture is altogether silent in the matter it is sure there was no such thing done The Father speaks of miracles but I hope the observation of the Sabbath was none and therefore Athanasius stands you in little stead My margent directs to the place omitted by the Bishop The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} little also avails them for be it granted that it signifies a preparation to holinesse doth this preparation exclude
Law himself but by delegation of his Angels to which they are the rather disposed because in some places of Scripture the Angels use such a form of speech as though God himself spake and yet it is manifest that themselves were the immediate utterers of those words as Numb. 23.32 If it be now demanded which interpretation I favour I answer neither The Scripture salved by both I see but the mind of the holy Ghost is I take it atteined by neither That which hath misled the whole stream of Expositours is a conceit that Stephen and Paul spake of the pronouncing of the Law in Mount Sinai whereas indeed their words onely aim at the delivering of the Tables of stone called the Law also by a Metonymia subjecti the conteining by the name of the conteined these being put into the hands of Moses by the Ministery of his Angels as is evident Gal. 3.19 For where is it said that the Angels pronounced the Law that God did we reade often As Scripture saith not they did so reason that they did not For how could the vocall prolation by many Angels but generate confusion of sound or if God by extraordinary guidance of their voice might make them speak not onely one and the same thing but in one and the same articulate sound yet seeing frustrà fit per plura it might full as well have been uttered by one why should he imploy so many No out of all question if duly considered it is that God did himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in his own person as Philo saith speak the Law and not onely for those reasons yet solid enough mentioned by Zanchy but especially because it is agreed by all the Ancients not one S. Augustine onely excepted impugning That God the second person did himself often appear to the Patriarchs and bespake them vivâ voce so Justin d Martyr e Tertullian f Athanasius g Eusebius and h Hierome affirm and that he did so expressely on Mount Sinai or Horeb i Ireneus k Nazianzen l Basil and divers others have affirmed That immovable pillar of sound doctrine as an Eastern m Bishop calleth him n Theodoret shall speak for all treating of the narration of Moses And further saith he he recounteth how the Word the God of all things exhibited himself openly to the Israelites appearing through the fire but not in any visible shape And throughout the whole systeme or body of the old Testament there are not so evident marks of Gods immediate presence as in this Text For first there is thunder the voice of God Psalme 29.8 and the concomitant of it John 12.20 Secondly the words are very direct very expresse where Moses telleth the Israelites The Lord spake unto you Deut. 4.12 out of the midst of the fire ye heard the voyce of the words but saw no similitude onely ye heard a voyce Now take it for a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an infallible token of Gods immediate presence wheresoever in the Scripture he is said to speak except in vision or so and no visible shape is seen Lastly there are degrees of distance injoyned the people not to approch nearer then the foot of the Mount Aaron and Nadab Abihu and the seventie Elders up to the Mount but Moses onely into the Cloud from hence also note another certain argument of Gods immediate presence which is alwayes concomitant with such procession-bounds as Exod. 3.5 Josh. 5.14 For the full clearing then of this seeming repugnancy I say Acts 7.38 with Zanchy The word Angel denoteth no Angel create but the Angel Creatour Christ the second Person in the Trinity For Stephen alluded to that of Malachy 4.1 where our Saviour is called Angelus Foederis The Angel of the Covenant viz. with whom the covenant was made Exod. 24.7 8. and Deut. 5.2 as also to that of the Prophet or rather Evangelist o Isaiah 63.9 where he is called the Angel of Gods presence In the 53 vers. of the same chapter the word Law intendeth not the Law promulgated but engraven in the p diptykes or tables which could not be delivered to Moses by God himself seeing he assumed no sensible shape nor was Moses admitted to so near an approch to God as to receive them from him therefore S. Paul saith It was delivered by Angels into the hand of a Mediatour that is not Christ as Calvine and some others suppose but Moses as Basil q who was the internuncius betwixt God and the Israelites Deut. 5.7 Lastly that place of Heb. 2.2 is merely mistaken for neither in the text or context is there any either expresse or implicite mention of the law And so much for the Quis. The next is Quibus Disputed it is whether the Law considered as delivered in Mount Sinai and abstracted from the ratification which it derived from Christ and his Apostles was onely given to the Jews and so onely obliged them or under them to the Gentiles also who were to become the Church and people of God Zanchie r Dominicus à Soto s and some others are of opinion it was peculiar to the Jews onely from these reasons First laws onely bind them to whom they are onely given But the Decalogue was given onely to the Jews as is manifest by the preface Ergò it onely bindeth them The Decalogue was indeed given to the Jews but was it as Jews or a Nation distinct by themselves No rather as Covenantees and the then select people of God so that whosoever were after implanted in the Covenant and inrolled Gods people to them as pòst nati did and doth the Decalogue belong Nor was the Preface prefixt to invest the Israelites with a sole propriety therein for God being now to give them as they were then his holy and chosen Church which is alwayes formally though not materially the same his morall and immutable laws had here just reason to apply himself first to them as Jews and to rowze their attention by inculcating into their memory the recent and signall blessing lately conferred upon them thereby to excite their more strict observance of what he was now to give them in charge So that this introduction might I confesse be proper to the Jews onely and yet the Decalogue it self have a larger province and extent and be spoken s omnibus similiter to all alike Though should I denie what I partly grant I could vouch men of no mean note to rescue me from errour t In this preface God bespeaketh the Israelites more especially but yet so as under them he comprehendeth all the Gentiles So Beza And for the Romane party u Bellarmine Secondly if the Law as given on Sinai obliged the Gentiles then were they at that time before and now are since Christ bound to observe the Sabbath But they neither were nor now are astricted to that observation Ergò
any certain or particular but an indefinite feast The word Sabbath especially this so frequently as no meanly lettered man is such a novice to whom it is a novelty The New-moon more sparingly yet when mated with Sabbath seldome retaineth it any other signification Examples whereof are first this text of the Kings then that of Isaiah 66.23 From one New-moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord Again that of Ezech. 46.3 The people of the land shall worship at the doore of this gate before the Lord in the Sabbaths and in the New-moons Lastly that of Amos 8.5 When will the New-moon be gone that we may sell our corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat In all these portions of Scriture Sabbaths New-moons by the figure {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is when one thing is expressed by two words are onely put for solemn feasts generally not particularly accepted Nor is the word New-moon taken thus onely when linked with the Sabbath but somewhile also when single and alone as 1. Kings 12.33 For where in our translation as in I am sure most if not all others it is said that Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth moneth the Hebrew word for that feast is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth the New-moon but to speak properly the New-moon it could not be for the Moon was then in her full it being the 15 day and the feast is thought by learned men to be devised by Jeroboam in imitation indeed to suppresse it in oblivion of the feast of Tabernacles which was to be on the 15 of the seventh moneth But not to expatiate too farre in collaterall transcursions the reading of the Law may not absurdly be expiscated out of Acts 15.21 where James giving definitive sentence in the Councel of Hierusalem saith Moses of old time hath in every citie them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day But against this place they except viz. that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is used in Scripture of many things not very ancient as Matth. 5.21 27 33. Acts 15.7 But this objection is easily repelled the question is not what sense the like phrase hath Matth. 5.21 c. but what it meaneth here and that it is to be taken in the construction we make of it an eminent Bishop r witnesseth The sound of the Spirit viz. preaching all the Law-long sounded in them by whom Moses was preached every Sabbath day So he upon this very text But in defence of the contrary interpretation it may be objected That the text speaketh of Synagogues which came not into use untill the captivitie To which I say that the most and best Divines s hold it probable that Synagogues had their beginning from the plantation of the land of Canaan when the priestly and propheticall offices ceased in the first-born and masters of families but were supplyed the first by the Leviticall priests the second by the seventy Elders as some suppose t but more certainly by the Prophets whose ordinary calling was to reade and expound the Law The numerous provision of which sacred preachers maketh it incredible that they were destitute of places no matter how or Colledges or Synagogues or otherwise denominated destinate to that and such like holy-duties Their last argument is not compounded of much better stuff For first the finding of the book of the Law by Hilkiah and presenting of it to Josiah is no infallible signe Quod alioqui nulli ejus essent alii codices That there were besides no other books thereof not to Genebrard u I am sure and it may well be controverted For if in times of harder pressures when the Temple and the authentick books in it were burnt when utter havock was made of all and the people of God led captives into Babylon even in the extremitie of that desolation if some copies were no doubt preserved in private mens hands as Daniels Ezechiels a Jeremies c. For how otherwise could Esdras restore the Sacred volume to its first integrity then by comparing divers exemplaries then extant together and so reforming what errours had been committed by negligent penmen if I say some copies escaped the fire at that time probable it is that all perished not before Josiahs reign But be it granted that all were lost not one to be found before Hilkiah chanced to light upon that yet are you short still your argument is not ad idem for the question is of a duty part of Gods publick and solemn worship and your instance is of a time under persecution when the ensigne of the Church was the Crosse when there was no solemn worship of the true God publickly tolerated and you may as well upon this instance inferre that there was no Sabbath observed as deny the observation of it by this dutie of Reading and Hearing the Law No man for ought I know contendeth that the solemn reading of the Law alwayes every Sabbath and that in times of distresse was practiced and that it was at other times even Cajetan b himself who holdeth that that book which Hilkiah found was of all other the onely remnant acknowledgeth Holy exercises as reading and expounding the Law during Manasses his wicked reign were so long neglected and neglect I hope insinuateth a dutie formerly practiced that the book of the Law is related as a thing new discovered So he True it is he mentioneth not the Sabbath day as whereon these neglecta divina ought to have been performed but seeing the words seem to referre to duties which ought to have been publickly performed their publick performance ought to have regard to both times and places destinate thereto This point I prosecute no further enough I hope if not too much hath been said to perswade that the Law was read on the weekly Sabbath as well as on the annuall of Tabernacles in the septennuall of Release I passe then to the last question In this as brief I shall be as in the former I was tedious At the end of every seven years in the solemnitie of the year of Release in the feast of Tabernacles thou shalt reade the Law before Israel in their hearing saith the text Upon which words Tostatus thus c The Law saith he is meant especially of Deuteronomy And d others since have imbraced the same opinion but none have thought us worthy to be privy to the reasons inducing that opinion nor indeed can any be devised For who knoweth not that the word Law importeth the whole Pentateuch of Moses of I believe an hundred of instances I will produce but one and that of any the likeliest to make for their purpose God injoyneth the future King should write him a copy of this Law in a book Now I pray tell me is Deuteronomy onely
said of preaching foolishnesse I do not hereby arrogate to my self the name of a Scholer for my delight in learning hath been more then my proficiencie which God knoweth is very slender so slender as these my simple labours dare not approach you from any assurance of their own worth but because they are the products of those studies which derive their originall from your extraordinary both charge and care they think themselves of right to belong to you and so their motion towards you is not more voluntary then naturall Be pleased Sir to entertain them as testimonials of my filiall gratitude which is the chief end of this their second resort to you for they exceed their Commission if they speak so much what they are themselves though that is mere weaknesse as what I am that is Sir Your most honouring and Most obedient sonne HAMON L'ESTRANGE The Preface COncerning the publishing of this Treatise I expect to meet with two Interrogatories First why so late considering the Antisabbatarians have possest the stage without controul so many years Secondly why at all in regard there have of late issued out Tracts homogeneall wherein the Truth hath been evidently enough demonstrated Errour convinced To both these I hold it requisite to give my answer and if I can satisfaction To the first then I say I was retarded upon these reasons especially First though my studies have been most conversant in Eristick Theologie yet I delight therein more as a stander by and spectatour of others digladiations then out of an itch to enter the lists my self which of all things through a desire to suppresse from publick notice my private infirmities my Genius most declineth Secondly being conscious of mine own failings I was loth to betray so good a cause by so mean a champion as my self and so ipsÃque onerÃque timebam Lastly being of a Lay condition I held it discreet and good manners to leave the work to be performed by others who had both greater abilities and a calling more suitable to it To the second my answer is That this Tract was not onely commenced but as I then * thought finisht before intelligence arrived at me of any books extant of the same subject And when I first heard thereof I forthwith destined my pains as a sacrifice to eternall oblivion but having after compared our labours together it manifestly appeared that we varied much in frame every of us having somethings proper and peculiar to our selves verifying that * One man may find out more then another no man all things for which reason alone some learned friends to whom I had communicated it animated me with the advice of some additions to publish it Let no man therefore fore-judge me so obliquely as if I thought the labours of those worthy men either imperfect or impertinent to any whereof whosoever resorteth shall there find Antidote enough against the Anti-Sabbatarian infection a disease which hath prevailed rather through a secret disposition of naturall corruption to embrace it as any thing which rellisheth of liberty then from predominancy of arguments though backt with the authority of men eminent for their knowledge in letters three * of them especially to whom though I willingly afford all titles of honour which learning meriteth yet I boldly affirm had they left us no other demonstrations of their excellency that way then their Sabbatary Tracts they should never have attained so high a repute amongst us But let them without envy possesse the laurell they have deserved yet if any shall therefore wonder as I doubt not some will that such a Sciolus as my self have dared to oppose them I must reply what Luther did before in the like case God once spake that by an Asse which he concealed from the Prophet and revealed to the child Samuel what he hid from Eli the Priest They then that upbraid me with personall frailty be what they say as great and evident truth as they desire must know they quite mistake the question which is not whether I be illiterate ignorant weak or what else they please to call me but whether it be truth which I have here delivered and if any man will yield me the last yea whether he will or not I will freely grant him the first But to him who misliketh Truth and shunneth her because he meeteth her in my apparell let me give Augustines check Think of me your pleasure but beware what opinion you have of Truth This short advertisement being premised I addresse my self to the ensuing discourse Errata Page 11. l. 13. the matter reade this matter p. 15. l. 2. r. arguments and opinions p. 20. l. 18. view r. vive p. 43. l. 8. their r. others p. 66. l. 8. ceremony r. caremoniâ— p. 97. l. 9. prosekenique r. pro-selenique Gods Sabbath before the Law I Begin a work whose hardest work is to begin a work of the Sabbath and the beginning of the Sabbath which like Fame caput inter nubila condit a must begin this Tract. A task intricate and obnoxious to many precipices Davids curse I am sure to meet with A way dark and slippery I could indeed solace my self in this that I walk not alone and that on which side soever I fall I shall have learned associates But to erre for company or for singularity are to me alike odious Truth I serve and so farre as that Primary light Holy writ shall enlighten me Truth will follow not at all disanimated though the spark which should direct me to her seemeth to burn somewhat dimme as being a portion of one of those three first chapters of Genesis which were for their obscurity with the Canticles and some part of Ezechiel by the Hebrews interdicted to be read of any under thirty years of age b and which hath set eminent Doctours as well ancient as modern at oddes For whereas it is said Gen. 2.3 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he rested from all his works which God created and made it is by some supposed that Moses regarded not the time whereof but wherein he wrote by a Prolepsis and that it was onely an intimation of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the seventh rather then of any other day the subsequent of which glosse is the assertion That the Sabbath was not or commanded or observed untill Moses his dayes for the sustaining whereof they produce reasons specious and authority venerable First There is say they no other means for us to understand what Gods will and act was Gen. 2.3 but onely divine revelation But the holy Scripture neither maketh mention of any command of God given to Adam concerning resting upon the Sabbath day neither maketh any historicall narration of Adams or any other the Patriarchs observation of the Sabbath day now in cases of this nature Athanasius his rule is Because the Scripture is altogether silent in
Pentateuch Secondly It appeareth not by any relation of sacred History that before the Babylonish captivitie there was any weekly reading or expounding the Law upon the Sabbath Lastly it is a thing to be admired that if the reading of the Law had been in continuall use among the Jews every Sabbath day there should be found in the dayes of King Josiah one copy onely or book of the Law and that Hilkiah should present this book to the King as a great raritie 2. King 22.8 9. But the unsoundnesse of the foundation argueth the assertion erroneous for First will nothing but expresse Text satisfie you suppose we find it not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not verbatim commanded thus Reade the Law publickly every Sabbath day is not I pray you necessary and inevitable deduction out of Text Scripture with you if yea then we need not travel farre for a command no farther then the fourth precept and not farre into that but to Remember thou keep holy or sanctifie the Sabbath day I told you before that things are then said to be sanctified when they are applied to holy worship now holy worship is the exhibiting to God his due and just honour and that is performed two wayes either by reverent attention to what he offereth us in his word or an humble presentment of what we preferre to him in our prayers For Hearing of the word Adoration are the two hands of religion the one we extend to receive what God communicateth to us the other to represent what in mercy he accepteth from us so as they are indeed the proper instruments of mutuall commerce betwixt him and us and though I allow them a parity of honour yet hath the one a precedency of order before the other and this belongeth to hearing of the word For the first of religious offices wherewith we publickly honour God on earth saith that worthy m Hooker is the receiving that knowledge which he imparteth to us in his word The reason is evident for prius est nosse Deum consequens n colere or rather according to that golden chain How o shall men invoke him in whom they have not believed how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher Hence it is that the Primitive Church had ever the Sermon before the Service to intimate that none ought to be admitted to pray with the Church before they have been inlightned in saving doctrine All tag and rag had free accesse to the Sermon to the service onely the faithfull and Catechumeni p Let the Bishop interdict none neither Gentile nor Heretick nor Jew to enter into the Church and heare the word of God untill the Service of the Catechumeni saith the Councel of Carthage For the clear understanding of which Canon you must know that Missa Catechumenorum signifieth here not the dismission of the Catechumeni but the service so called which began at the introitus and ended at the offertory If then the sanctification of the Sabbath be the application of it to Gods worship the consequence must and will be That all sacred actions tending to this worship as parts thereof but the hearing of the Law read most especially it being of the essence of that worship were commanded in and under the word sanctifie But you 'l say that many Doctours of note maintain that the letter of the fourth commandment imposed upon the Jews no other externall form of sanctifying the weekly Sabbath but resting from bodily labour I answer The literall sense of the fourth Commandment imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the Sabbath viz. by all such religious actions as are proper to holy worship the specialties whereof it not determineth least it should be thought to exclude any It also imposed rest and cessation from secular businesse but that it commanded it as any at all much lesse the onely externall form of sanctifying the Sabbath pardon me I cannot believe For what honour could accrue to God through an idle and lazie rest what worship could man perform waking more then a sleep How could the day be lesse sanctified by beasts then men Rest was injoyned as necessary indeed necessitate medii as a fit means but not necessitate causae as a necessary cause constituting sacred worship Against these Doctours of note I will oppose a Doctour of note too and of such note as his Dictates never any of the Primitive Church durst call into question a Athanasius the Great who in refutation of this Jewish fancie hath amongst others this invincible argument b If rest sanctifieth then by consequence labour polluteth for Contrariorum eadem est ratio yea the Father maketh the knowledge of God to be the chief end of the Sabbath Because knowledge is more necessary then rest c And therefore the beam of truth hath extorted from them this confession That some other religious actions were intended by God as the end of the precept but no other were formally commanded d What I pray did God intend those religious actions as the end of the precept how come you to know Gods intention hath he anywhere revealed it if yea then tell me is not that overture that declaration of his intendment equipollent to a command Besides when and where did God open this his mind in this precept and at the giving of the Law If now and here then these religious actions and rest were coordinate together both imposed at one and the same time the thing you deny If after then God imposed and man observed rest to no end and purpose all that while untill the manifestation of his intentions concerning the end of that rest came forth But God and nature do nothing in vain e even Philosophy could tell you so and sure Divinity much more Their second Argument is upon the old haunt still The want of expresse narration which were it true yet is it no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no demonstration of what they affirm as I have proved before pag. 5. Besides the contrary may be probably collected without detorting Scripture against reason For first when the Shunamite desired to go to the Prophet Elisha to acquaint him with the death of her sonne and to see if he could afford her any comfort her husband expostulated with her saying Why wilt thou go to day it is neither New-moon nor Sabbath day which had been an impertinent question if they had not accustomed to resort to the Prophets on those dayes to heare the word expounded That this was their practice scarce any Expositour upon the place but assureth us Though here is onely mention of the New-moon and Sabbath yet as we need not doubt but that they practiced the same upon other festivalls also so I conceive it to be implyed in both or either words which are often in Scripture taken in a generall notion not denoting