SUNDAY NO SABBATH. A SERMON Preached before the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, at his Lordship's visitation at Ampthill in the County of Bedford, Aug. 17. 1635.  
BY JOHN POCKLINGTON Doctor of Divinity, late fellow and Precedent both of Pembroke Hall and Sidney College in Cambridge, and Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of LINCOLN.  1 TIM. 6.20. 
O Timothee, depositum custodi, devitans profanas vocum novitates, & oppositiones falsi nominis scientiae, quam quidam promittentes circa fidem exciderunt.  
LONDON, Printed by ROBERT YOUNG. 1636.   

SUNDAY NO SABBATH.  ACTS 20.7, 8. 
7 And upon the first day of the week, when the Disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to departed on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight.  
8. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together.  
THis Text, I conceive, is not unfit for this time. In the text is synaxis, a meeting; and at this time there is synodus, a meeting.  
In the text is a meeting of Disciples; and such is the meeting at this time. He that called the Disciples together, and sat Precedent in that meeting, was the Apostle Paul; and he that called us hither, and sits Precedent in this meeting, is our Diocesan; who can derive himself the successor of an Apostle: otherwise we should have taken his call for the voice of a stranger, and not have here appeared. It is Saint Austin's resolution, 
S. Aug. cont. M●nich. ep. c. 4. ●om. 6.  Successio Episcoporum ab ipsâ sede Petri, is that which, amongst other things by him named, keeps us in gremio Ecclesiae, and subjects us to our Bishop's jurisdiction. The meeting in the text is intended for two Actions, Breaking of bread, and Preaching. And the especial intent of this meeting is, to receive our Bishop's directions for the administration of the Sacraments and Preaching, as his Articles inform us. Hitherto, if I can but hold me by my text, I hope not to fall into impertinencies. But in the next place the day of meeting in the text jumpeth not with the day of meeting for this our Synod. For that is the first day of the week: yet this comes as near it as may be, for with Jacob it holds his brother by the heel; this is the second. And had it been appointed on a Sunday, the authority of the Council of Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, would have justified it against all Sabbatarians. For by the Emperor's edict they were precisely commanded to meet, and did meet, and sat, and gave suffrages, and dispatched letters on a Sunday.  
But in the other circumstances the text and the time are nothing at all allied. The place of meeting than was an upper chamber, ours a Church dedicated & consecrated for those holy duties in the text, and used also for Synods. That meeting was in the night, ours in the day. They had the benefit of many lights, we of one great light that ruleth the day. In the text the Sermon continued till midnight; but herein if I leave not my text, you will leave me. And if none of us all follow St. Paul in preaching in an upper chamber, in the night, and till midnight, neither he, nor his successors will tax us. For Saint Luke is fain to make an Apology for him in these respects, He was to departed the next morrow. So that necessity put him upon that time and place; and the importunity of his Disciples would not be satisfied with a shorter discourse. For fons abiturus, (says Saint Austin) they knew they should never see his face any more, 
S. Aug. ep. 86.  nor refresh their thirsty souls with those waters of life that issued from the fountain of his blessed lips; that he which could shake the Viper from his hand, could not find in his heart to cast these Babes from his breasts. Therefore, contrary to his own rules given to the Corinthians, he did administer the Sacrament and preach, where men did both eat and drink, and continued the same (out of order) till midnight. And so without any curious division, I come, after my plain manner, to handle the words in the text: and for your better memory take them up as they lie in order, and begin with the time of this meeting.  
Upon the first day of the week.] Herein I conceive four things considerable. 1. what is meant by the first day of the week. 2. & 3. next, when and by whom was that day appointed for holy assemblies to meet on. 4. when doth the holy observation of that day begin.  
For the first. 
S Basil H●xam. ●om. 2. & a● S●. S●●ct. 27.  The words in the Original are one day of the Sabbaths, one being put for first (says S. Basil) as the evening and the morning were one day, i.e. the first. So una Sabbathi is that quam primam dicimus, (says St. Ambrose) as we find it written, 
S. Amb. ps. 47.  Mat. 28.1. Vesperi Sabbathi quae lucescit in primam Sabbathi, In the end of the Sabbath when the first day of the week began to dawn. 
S. Aug. ep. 86.  For that day (says Saint Augustine) which three of the Evangelists call unam Sabbathi, one Sabbath, prima Sabbathi à Matthaeo dicitur, Saint Matthew expounds them, and calls the first day of the week. And it is manifest (saith the same Father) that this first day of the week is that day, qui posteà dies Dominicus appellatus est, which afterward was called the Lords day. 
S. Cyril. in Johan. l. 8. c. 58.  Saint Cyril affirms the very same; Christ appeared to his Disciples una Sabbathi, on one Sabbath, or on the first day of the week, i.e. die Dominico, on the Lords day. It is manifest then, that by one day of the Sabbaths is meant the first day of the week; and the first day of the week is the Lords day. So we see what is meant by the first day of the week, it is the Lords day.  
The next points are, when and by whom was the observation of the Lords day appointed. The Church (saith St. Ignatius) hath set apart one day, 
S Ignat. ep. ad Magnes.  and called it the Lords day, in confutation of those sons of perdition that deny the Lords work performed on that day, that is, his resurrection. So have you the time when, and the authority that did appoint the observation of the Lords day, delivered by Ignatius scholar to Saint John, 
Niceph. l. 2. c. 35  that first so called it; and, as it is recorded, one of those babes whom our Saviour took up into his arms, as his master was received in his bosom. The time was the time the Apostles lived in. The authority was the Church.  
What mean you by the Church? Take that cleared out of St. Augustine, 
S. Aug. ep. 119.  Apostoli & Apostolici viri sanxerunt, the Apostles and Apostolic men have ordained, that the first day of the week should be set apart for the religious and solemn service of God, because our Redeemer arose on that day; and therefore it is called ever since dies Dominicus, the Lords day, & ex illo caepit habere festivitatem, and from the very Apostles time and from their constitution, it began to be kept as a festival day.  
A festival day! what mean you by that? Why à sanctis patribus constitutum & mandatum (says the same Father) it is a constitution and command received from our holy Fathers, 
S. Aug▪ serm. 251. de temp.  that men should leave all worldly business on Saints daves, & maximè diebus Dominicis, and especially on the Lord's day, that they may betake themselves wholly to the Lords service. The first day of the week than is the Lords day, appointed to be kept as a holy feast for the Lords service, by the Apostles themselves in their own time. And this day which the Apostles call the Lords day, 
S. Justin. ora● ad Anton▪  St. Justine Martyr an Apostolic man calls Sunday. Solis autem die communiter omnes conventum agimus ad preces & supplicationes, on Sunday we all meet together to prayers and supplications, because that is primus dies, the first day on which our Saviour arose. For he was crucified pridiè Saturni diei, the day before Saturday, and the next day after Saturday, qui sc. Solis est dies, which is Sunday, Apostolis & Discipulis suis apparuit, he appeared to his Apostles and Disciples. And hereupon his Apostles and Disciples thought fit to appoint and command this day to be kept holy. The Lord's day than is by the Apostles so called, and by this Apostolic man named Sunday; and may fitly so be called, because (says Saint Ambrose) in eo ortus Sol justitiae illuminat, 
S. Amb ser. 61.  the Sun of righteousness than arose, that enlighteneth every one of us. The first day of the week than is the Lords day, and Sunday. And the Lords day was by the Apostles themselves in their own time appointed for holy assemblies to meet on, as on a feast day dedicated to the Lords service. And so hath that day been called, and used ever since in the true Catholic Church of God for 1554. years together without interruption, both in the Greek and Latin Church.  
What shall we think then of Knox and Whittingham, 
Troubles at 〈◊〉. pag. 30.  and their fellows, that in their letter to Calvin departed from the constitution, ordinance, and practice of the Apostles and Apostolic men, and call not this day the Lords day, or Sunday, but with the piety of Jeroboam make such a day of it, as they have devised in their own hearts, to serve their own turn, and anabaptizing of it after the mind of some Jew hired to be the godfather thereof, call it the Sabbath, and so disguised with that name become both the first that so called it, and the Testators that have so bequeathed it to their Disciples and Proselytes to be observed accordingly?  
It was full thirty years before their children could turn their tongues from Sunday to hit on Sabbath: and if the Gileadites that met with the Ephraimites before they could frame to pronounce Shibboleth, had snapped these too, before they had got their Sabbath by the end, their counsel had brought much peace to the Church. For this name Sabbath is not a bare name, like a spot in their foreheads to know Laban's sheep from jacob's; but indeed it is a mystery of iniquity, intended against the Church. For allow them but their Sabbath, and you must allow them the service that belongs to their Sabbath. Then must you have no Litany, for that is no service for their Sabbath, (containing suffrages devised by Pope Gregory) but for Sundays; nay, 
Troubles at Frankf. pag. 30.  for Wednesdays and Fridays, which must not so be used, for six days thou must labour: nay, you must have no part of the Service in the Communion book used, for that is Service also for holy days, 
Welph. detemp● l. 2. c. 4.  which are abominated as idolatricall, being dedicated to Saints. Well then, the Sabbath must be yielded them, otherwise there will be no day left for God to be served on.  
What Service then must you allow them for their Sabbath? Why nothing but preaching. How shall that be known? Why out of their own mouths. Thus soon after the Conventicle in London in 84. about the 31th. year of the Sabbaths nativity, writeth one of them in his letter to some Superintendent amongst them, to whom he gives an account of his Sabbaths' exercise: Ego singulis Sabbath is, si non alius adveniens locum suppleat, (cum praescriptà Leiturgeias formulâ nihil habens commercit) in caetu concionem habeo, idque reverendorum fratrum consilio; I preach every Sabbath in the congregation, (having nothing at all to do with the order prescribed in the book of Common Prayer;) and this he does, not of his own head, but by the counsel of the reverend brethren, delivered doubtless in that late Synod.  
Now you see the Common Prayer book, which the King's Majesty's authority in causes Ecclesiastical, with the Convocation house, have appointed, and the Parliament the reunto assented, is clean cast out of their Sabbath, and no service allowed or used but preaching. Marvel not then at the casting out of lawful sports; their zeal could and did dispense with them well enough for a long time together, as they of Genevah and the Low-countries (even sitting the Synod of Dort) did, and still do. But the plot with us will not bear them, for they must gain elbow room for their Sabbaths' exercise, or preaching, falsely so called, being for the most part (as their hearers will justify) but violent discourses, and personal invectives against the present State, and settled laws of the Land, with the Governors, thereby to get themselves magnified for the great power of God with Simon, that having cried down all Laws, Ecclesiastical and Temporal too in time that suit not with their Sabbath doctrine, they may be able (making their reliance on their inveigled thousands whereof they brag) to put their hands to their mouths, 
Mar. ju. epiles.  and to say with him in the story, 
Petition to his Majesty in 1603. Richard. 2●.  Behold the fountain from whence all laws for government of Church and Common wealth must shortly spring.  
You see then what the plot was that bred, and still keeps the name of Sabbath on foot; that if St. John or the Apostles that first called and appointed the Lords day, should come amongst them, and happen to call it the Lords day, they would quickly find him to be none of their Tribe, nor for their turn, being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, without his watch word of the Sabbath. But if Justin that blessed Martyr should be so profane as to call it Sunday, he would be in danger under their discipline to be martyred the second time for not adoring their idol Sabbath, as he was under Antonius for not worshipping Jupiter.  
Ob. Secondly, if the Lords day was appointed and kept by the Apostles, what shall we say to those turbulent spirits (as master Calvin calls them) qui tumultuantur ob diem Dominicum, 
Calv. i●s●●. ● c. 8 S. 33. 〈◊〉 3●  that are all up in a hurly-burly for being abridged of their Christian liberty, and made to observe days and Feasts, and particularly the Lords day? Whereupon it was sadly demurred upon, even in Genevah, 
Barcl●i● paroen. l. 1 c. 13.  to have that day altered to Thursday; and himself holds it alterable. What shall we think also of the Centurists, 
Cent. 1. l. 2. c. 6. de fe●●●.  that not only say there is no place of Scripture to command the observation of the Lords day; 
Cent. 2. c. 6. pag. 11 ●.  but that the contentions raised by Anicetus and Victor, Popes of Rome, touching the observation of Easter on the Lord's day, do sufficiently declare, that for two hundred years after Christ some kept the Sabbath holy, some the Lords day; and that they were false Apostles that attempted at first to bind the Church to the observation of Feasts, as of the Lords day: and for this cause they stick the mystery of iniquity on the foreheads of those two blessed Martyrs.  
Sol. To that part of the objection which is framed out of the Centurists, some perhaps would answer, that the guise of the Centurists is to use the Catholic Fathers and holy Martyrs as Balaam used his Ass. For if they will not go that way that they would have them, though God's Angel suffer them not so to do, but the Spirit of truth lead them quite otherwise, they fall upon them, and use them as rudely as he did the Ass. A wrong which cannot but be highly displeasing to that good God, who was so moved upon the sight of the injury done the poor beast, that he was upon the point to have taken a sharp revenge upon the false hypocrite, in habit of a Prophet, for the same.  
But with cruel Balaam I will not compare them, because he wished for a sword to be avenged of the poor Ass; whereas these, like diligent Schoolmasters, examine the exercises of the ancient Fathers, show them their errors, tell them of the many spots and blots they find in them, and let them see how they are put to the trouble to correct them at every turn; whereupon their patience is so moved, that they rebuke them sometime with very sharp language: and when all is done, they are so ashamed of diverse things they hear from them, that they set them to school again to learn their lessons backward.  
This their diligence and pains in correcting and wiping the Fathers, as one wipes a dish that turneth it upside down, is not well accepted on all hands: for some passionate men think they whip the Fathers without cause, and for not running the way of their errors, which these Auditors account to be so many, and so costly too, that the Merchant pays more for them than for all the truths, 
〈…〉.  moral, natural, supernatural, that are in Aristotle, Plato, or the blessed Bible, though you give the Apocrypha leave to be bound up with it. I would be loath to say as Saint Paul doth of the testimony of Epimenides, This witness is true. But be it truth, or some counterfeit, like Jeroboams' wife, their credit is eclipsed, and their testimony abated by their doings. So I leave them till anon.  
Secondly, I answer, true it is, that Saint Paul and other Apostles preached to the Jews in the Synagogue on the Sabbath day, because they would meet upon no other: but it is untrue, that they set that day apart to preach unto the Gentiles, or the Jews either. They were false Apostles that laboured to lay that yoke on the Disciples necks, whom Saint Paul opposed with all his might, Col. 2.16. Gal. 4.10. and did utterly reject their Sabbath, and appointed no day of public meetings but the first day of the week, when their collections were ever made, 1 Cor. 16.1. and so continued to be made on that day, and on no day else, in all succeeding ages. And because Saint Paul did keep the first day of the week, and opposed the observation of the Jewish Sabbath, therefore the Ebionites (say St. Irenaeus and Epiphanius) rejected his writings, Apostatam legis dicentes, 
S. Irer. l. 1. c. 26. S. Ep●ph●h●e. 31.  rating him for an Apostata.  
So likewise the blessed Martyrs in the Primitive Church, 
Euseb. l. 3. c. 24. S. Ignatap. 3. ad M●g.  by the doctrine and example of Saint Paul and the Apostles, so unfeignedly abhorred the observation of the Jewish Sabbath, that they esteemed the observers thereof, and the contemners of the Lords day, the very sons of perdition, enemies of our Saviour, and sellers of Christ: and, as Saint Justin Martyrtells Trypho, 
S. Just. 〈◊〉. Triph. Tom. 2.  they gladly endured the most horrible torments that men and devils could devise to inflict upon them, rather than yield Sabbatha vestra & solennes dies observare, to keep your Sabbaths and days of solemn assemblies; which (saith he) could not hurt us, were they not forbidden us by the doctrine and practice of the Apostles, and Christ himself. 
S. Just. ad Anton.  But the observation of Sunday was so generally and religiously observed of all Christians, that then was the common meeting of all, qui vel in oppidis vel rure degunt, both Citizens and Country men. All sorts of Christians met on Sundays, and none on the Sabbath day but Jew's only.  
With what face then dare the Centurists vent such untruths, that the keeping of the Lords day was a thing indifferent for two hundred years? And with what conscience dare they forge those to be false Apostles, that were the bringers in of the observation of Feasts, and particularly of the Lords day? Or with what conscience dare they use the Martyrs of God, members of Christ's body, so unworthily, as to make the blessed Saints in heaven, fellow heirs with Christ Jesus, meet vessels for the mystery of iniquity to begin to work in, who did no more than either was appointed by the Apostles and Apostolic men before themselves, or was afterward confirmed by the Council of Nice, the Edicts of Constantine and his successors, the Decrees of the Council of Constantinople, and other Synods, as well in the Greek as Latin Church, in all succeeding ages?  
Ob. But they say there is no place of Scripture to command the observation of the Lords day, but only the Tradition from the Apostles; therefore the day may be altered.  
Sol. Be it so: yet (as Chemnitius excellently says) though we be not bound by any necessity of law in Novo Testamento, 
C●em. Exam. de ●est. 4. pars.  in the New Testament to observe the Lords day for solemn assemblies, barbarica tamen petulantia, yet were it barbarous sauciness to refuse to observe the custom of the Apostles and Primitive Church. For (as Saint Augustine says) wherein the Scripture hath determined nothing, mos populi Dei, 
S. Aug. ep. Cas. 86.  & instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt, the custom of God's people, and the ordinance of our Elders, are to be observed as laws. And in this case for any man to doubt whether he should relinquish and abandon his own new devices, & ita faciendum, and that it becomes him to do as he sees the whole Church of God to do, insolentissimae insaniae est, is an insolency with madness to boot (says Saint Augustine. 
S. Aug aep. 119. Ja. ) And to talk with such, interminata orietur luctatio, were to uphold wrangling world without end.  
3 If the first day of the week be the Lords day, we must look to do the Lords work on it, and not trench upon him by doing our own work thereon. For no excuse of business ought to keep us from the service of God on that day. No necessity is a greater tyrant than poverty, yet is that no good excuse for thy absence from Church (says Saint Chrysostome) to say thou art poor, and must follow thy business. 
S. Chrysoft. hom. 24. de bap. Christi.  For God hath not taken to himself the greatest part of the days of the week, but hath given thee six, unam vero sibi reliquit, and left himself but one; yet wilt thou find out the thief poverty to steal that away from him too, as sacrilegious persons do consecrate things. But what do I speak de integro die, of a whole day? Do but that in keeping the Lords day which the widow did in her alms, that gave two mites, sic tu duas horas, so give the Lord two hours. This if you do not, beware you lose not integrorum annorum labores, the labours of many whole years.  
Qu. May then no work of our own be done on the Lords day, not so much as out of the times of the Lords service?  
Resp. Out of doubt there may; yea, though we should suppose that Christians are bound to keep the Lords day as strictly as our Saviour kept the Sabbath. For our Saviour (says Epiphanius) non artem fabrilem, lignariam, 
S. Epip●●● 2. 〈◊〉 2. ber. 66. p. 229.  aut ferrariam, did not follow the trade of a Carpenter or Smith on the Sabbath day, though he was so poor that he used joseph's trade, and made both Carts and Ploughs, yet conversatione & doctrinâ, by his doctrine and course of life he shown that some works of our own might be done on the Sabbath out of the times of divine service; for himself made clay, est autem opu● lutum subigere, and to make clay is a kind of work: a work neither of necessity nor charity; for had it so pleased him, the work of charity had taken place before the clay could have been tempered. He commanded also the Cripple, grabbatum tollere, to carry away his bed, which then needed not, for the arrantest Pharisee thief in Jerusalem would not have meddled with it on that day. The Disciples also by his doctrine and example (says the same Father) spicas vellunt, torrent, & edunt, do pluck and parch their corn on the Sabbath day. And there was no law (says Saint Irenaeus) that forbade them so to do: 
〈…〉  metere autem & colligere in horreum lex vetabat, but the law forbade reaping and carrying into the barn on the Sabbath day. His reason is this, continere enim se jubeb at lex ab omni opere servili, (i.e.) ab omni avaritiâ quae per negotiationem & reliquo terreno actu ●gitatur, The law forbiddeth all servile works, wherein covetousness sticketh as a nail between two stones. Some small chares then of our own may be done on the Lord's day, out of the times of the Lords service.  
Secondly, meat may be dressed, and Feasts may be kept on the Lord's day by Christ's example, 
S. Luc. 14.13.  who was at a feast on the Sabbath day; and none ought to blame us for doing the like. For rectè Ecclesiae festa colunt, 
S. Aug. de temp. ser. 253. & 255.  qui Ecclesiae filios se esse recognoscunt, they do well to keep the Feasts of the Church, that remember themselves to be the sons of the Church. This doctrine Saint Augustine taught his people, Novit sanctitas vestra fraires, my brethren, your holiness knoweth very well that to day consecrationem altaris celebramus, we celebrate the Feast for the consecration of the Altar, in quo unctus vel benedictus est lapis, in quo divina sacrificia consecrantur, ac meritò gaudentes celebramus; and we do well to keep this feast with joy, not with wanton, lewd, or unchaste joy. (Saint Austin is no Proctor to plead for Baal, nor any that follow him.) For, nescio qua front (saith he) I cannot tell with what conscience he can show a cheerful countenance in altaris consecratione, that is not precise in cordis sui altari munditiam custodire, to preserve purity in the altar of his heart.  
The Lord's day than is and aught to be kept as a Feast, as the Sabbath was. 
Judith. 10.2.  For magnum scandalum (says Saint Augustine) nay magnum nefas (says Tertullian) it is a great scandal, 
S. Aug. ep. 86. Tert. de Coro. Mil.  and a foul sin to fast on the Lord's day. Therefore we condemn the Manichees (says Saint Ambrose) that fast on Sundays. 
S. Amb. ep. 33. l. 10.  We are bound to fast on Fridays, and of feast on Sundays; so have we a day & amaritudinis & laetitiae; in illo jejunemus, illo reficiamur; to fast on the one, to feast on the other. The Jews themselves (says Tertullian) kept not their Sabbath with fasting: for pridianâ paraturâ, by their provision of two Omers for a man, it plainly appeareth that they made as large a meal on the Sabbath as on any day else.  
Ob. But they were commanded to dress their Sabbath dinner the day before, and the Commandment says, On it thou shalt do no manner of work.  
Sol. Not to dispute it further, 
S. Aug. ep. 119. c. 12.  how, or to what the Jews were bound upon their Sabbath, however, this nothing concerns us christian's, if we understand the Commandment aright: for though all the nine Commandments sic observantur ut sonant, are to be kept according to the letter; observare tamen diem Sabbathi, non ad literam jubemur secundum etium ab opere corporali, sicut observant Judaei, yet we Christians are not commanded to observe the Sabbath after the letter by a strict rest, as did the Jews; nor the Lord's day after the manner of the Jewish Sabbath: for of all the ten Commandments, the third, which concerneth the Sabbath, figuratiuè intelligendum est, is to be understood figuratively. For this Commandment was given for no other end but only for a sign (says Saint Irenaeus) out of the Prophet Ezechiel, 
●. Iren. l. ●. c. 30.  cap. 20. and out of the Law of Moses, Exod. 31. and then shows whereof it was a sign. Sabbath a perseverantiam totius diei erga Deum deservitionis edocebant, their Sabbath taught our continual service of God; 
Orig. ho●. 2●. in 〈◊〉. 28.  which Origen calls Sabbathum Christianum, a Christian Sabbath. And because no man is justified either by the Sabbath or Circumcision, therefore in signo data sunt populo, they were given the people for a sign. This Theodoret largely showeth out of the plain words of the Prophet Ezechiel, cap. 20. ver. 11. 
S. Theod. in Ezech.  The Sabbath was none of those Commandments that could give life to the observers, but was given them only to be a sign, in signum temporis illius, 
Tert. de pr●●● lib. c. 4.  (as Tertullian speaks) and not in sallutis praerogativam, not to bring them salvation, but to make them known from other Nations. Other Nations that descended of Abraham used circumcision as well as the Jews, but no Nation kept the Sabbath but Jew's only. Therefore 1541. years they were known by that sign to be God's people: but the keeping of the Sabbath made neither them nor the Pharisees to be God's people. This is evident. For Abraham (saith Saint Irenaeus) was justified and called the friend of God, 
S. Iren. l. 4. c. 30.  sine observatione Sabbathorum, without keeping any Sabbaths.  
Nay, there was not any of the Patriarches (saith Tertullian) that kept the Sabbath, neither Adam, 
Tert. adv. ●udaeos de praeser● c. 2.4.  Enoch, Noah, Abraham, nor Melchizedek, for 2455. years, yet were they just men, and obtained salvation. This is so clear a truth, that the Jews could not deny it: and Trypho doth confess it, being pressed thereunto by Saint Justin. And for this 1635. 
S. Just. i●. Tryph. Tom. 2.  years it hath not been kept in the Christian world. Manifestum est igitur (says Tertullian) it is manifest therefore, that that cannot be moral, nor perpetual, that began but with Moses, 
S. Tusti●. 〈◊〉 verit. l. 2. in Tryph  (as Saint Justin Martyr says) and ended with Christ, when he nailed all the ceremonial law to his Cross, with those words, Consummatum est, it is finished. Therefore the third Commandment, (as Saint Austin) or the fourth (as Josephus and other Fathers call it) touching the Sabbath, must be understood only figuratively, and not after the letter, as the other nine commandments are. This is the doctrine of antiquity, which hath gotten a placet from Gomarus, 
Goma. invest. sab. c. 3.  whose followers may perhaps embrace the same.  
Ob. Dicunt autem Judaei, quòd primordio, etc. 
Tertul. de praescrip. c. 2. & 4.  But a Jew will object and say (says Tertullian) that God from the beginning did sanctify the Sabbath, and therefore the Sabbath ought to be kept holy, and no manner of work must be done thereon.  
Sol. This is the very argument which Martion learned of the Pharisees, 
John. 9.16.  and blasphemously useth to prove Christ not to the Son of God, because he carried himself so cross to his Father's actions and Laws. For the Sabbath which his Father sanctified and rested on, operatione destruxit, 
Tert. in Mar. l. 4.  he profaned and overthrew by working on it: so did his Disciples, for cibum operati (mark how pure this blasphemous Heretic was) they dress their meat on the Sabbath. My answer therefore is this, that the Lawgiver best knew how to observe his own laws; and if his Father's rest did not bind him from doing some work, no more doth it us. Besides, we see the Patriaches, even Melchizedek himself, a Priest of the most high God, did not take themselves bound to rest on the Sabbath at all. For though they saw God's example, yet they heard no commandment to enjoin them to rest on that day as he did; therefore they never observed the Sabbath.  
Thirdly, though a Jew will little regard what the patriarchs did, or what all good Christians resolve and practice, but will force the Lawgiver to keep his own law, not after his own meaning but after theirs, as the Pharisees did our Saviour, saying, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day, viz. as they construed and expounded the Commandment for the observation thereof: yet that nothing concerns us that keep the Lords day by virtue of Apostolical constitution and tradition of holy Church, and not the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandment, which the Apostles by Christ's doctrine and example understood solutum, to be dissolved. And, cujus vis soluta nec nomen haerebat, 
S. Amb●th Lu. 6. l. 5.  (says Saint Ambrose) when the Sabbath lost his force it forfeited the name; therefore ought not so to be called: and so having lost both force and name, is become nothing at all but a mere Idol. An Idol hath the shape of something, but because it hath eyes and sees not, etc. it is nothing in the world. So though their Sabbath hath the name of one of the Jews holy days, yet keepeth it not neither the day they kept, nor the service belonging to it, and so is become nothing in the world.  
True it is, that some that with great zeal and little judgement exclaim against recreations, and dressing of meat, and the like, on Sundays, must make a Sabbath of Sunday, and keep up that name, otherwise their many citations of Scripture, mentioning only the Sabbath of being applied to Sunday, will appear so ridiculously distorted and wry-necked, that they will be a scorn and derision to the simplest of their now deluded Auditors, who are abused with the name of a Christian Sabbath out of Origen, which is not kept on Sunday only, 
〈…〉  but every day. Christ is our Christian Sabbath (saith Origen) and he that lives in Christ, semper in Sabbatho vivit, requiescendo ab operibus malis, operatur autem opera justitiae incessanter.  
Others also for the plot-sake must uphold the name of Sabbath, that stalking behind it they may shoot against the Service appointed for the Lords day. Hence it is that some for want of wit, some for too much, adore the Sabbath as an Image dropped down from Jupiter, and cry before it, as they did before the golden Calf, This is an holy day unto the Lord; whereas indeed it is the great Diana of the Ephesians as they use it, whereby the minds of their Proselytes are so perplexed and bewitched, that they cannot resolve whether the sin be greater to bowl, shoot, or dance on their Sabbath, than to commit murder, or the father to cut the throat of his own child. All which doubts would soon be resolved by plucking the vizard of the Sabbath from the face of the Lords day, which doth as well and truly become it as the Crown of thorns did the Lord himself. This was plaited to expose him to damnable derision, and that was plotted to impose on it detestable superstition.  
Yet to die for it they will call it a Sabbath, presuming in their zealous ignorance or guileful zeal, to be thought to speak the Scripture phrase, when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouths. For that day which they nickname the Sabbath, is either no day at all, or not the day that they mean. It were well therefore that they would forbear to speak strange languages in the Church for Saint Paul's sake, and use them then when they all meet together in new England amongst them that understand the language; for with us the Sabbath is Saturday, and no day else. No ancient Father, Father! Nay, no learned man, Heathen or Christian, took it otherwise from the beginning of the world till the beginning of their schism in 1554. And if we find the word otherwise used in some writings that of late come unto our hands, blame not the Clerks, good men, for it, nor entitle the misprision any higher, or otherwise than to these pretenders to piety, who for their own ends have for a long time deceived the world with their zealous and most ignorant or cunning clamours, and rung the name of Sabbath so commonly into all men's ears, that not Clerks only, but men of judgement, learning and virtue, not heeding peradventure so much as is requisite, what crafty and wicked device may be managed under the veil of a fair word used in God's law, do likewise suffer the same often to scape the door of their lips, that detest the drift of the devisers in the closet of their hearts.  
I will now shut up this point in Saint Hilaries words. 
S. Hilar. l. 6.  Non sum nescius difficillimo me asperrimoque tempore haec disserere, multis jam per omnes fermè Romani Imperii provincias Ecclesiis morbo pestiferae hujus praedicationis infectis, & velut ad piae fidei hujus malà usurpatam persuasionem, longo doctrinae usu, & ementito nomine verae religionis imbutis, non ignorans difficilem esse ad emendationis profectum, voluntatem: quam in erroris sui studio per plurimorum assensum authoritas publicae sententiae contineret. Gravis enim est, & periculosus error inplurimis, & multorum lapsus, etiamsi se intellig at, tamen exurgendi pudore authoritatem sibi praesumit, ex numero habens hoc impudentiae, ut quod errat, intelligentiam esse veritatis asserat, dum minus erroris esse existimatur in multis.  
There are so many that see so little benefit will be sucked out of the constitutions of the Apostles, practice and tradition of holy Church, doctrine of godly and learned Fathers, that they have got themselves heaps of teachers, that to serve their own turns will call and keep the Lords day as a Sabbath, and so proclaim it with such loud outcries, that the voice of truth will become silence, and herself made error, and so made to believe of herself, or to forgo her own modesty, and to believe none but herself.  
But with Moses, liberavi animam meam, being called hither very unwillingly, I have set before you good and evil, light and darkness, life and death, the doctrine and practice of the Church of God, and the leaven of Pharisees, and fashion of schismatics and novelists; choose which you will, and the Lord be your guide. Only of this be you well assured, that if you will have Manna reigned down unto you, you must forgo your Sabbath, and stick only to the Lords day: for in nostrâ Dominicâ die semper Dominus pluit Manna, 
Orig. super 15. Exod. hom. 7.  & in Sabbatho non pluit.  
The last point touching the day of meeting is, When doth the Lord's day begin?  
Resp. I answer, 
S. Ambra. in Ps. ●7.  out of Saint Ambrose, The first day of the week began when the Sabbath ended. The Sabbath ended when Christ arose. Christ the true light arose with the light and spring of the morning; for vesperi Sabbathi quae lucescit in primam Sabbathi, are Saint Matthews words. Nihil pulchrius, nihil expressius (saith he) this place is as fit and pat for our purpose as may be. The Sabbaths evening is in the light of the first day of the week.  
So Saint Leo resolveth Dioscorus Patriarch of Alexandria, vespera Sabbathi initium diei Dominici, 
S. Leo epist. ●d Diosc.  the beginning of the Lords day is in the end of the Sabbath. The end of the Sabbath is in the light of the first day of the week. Look then for jacob's hand on Esau's heel, or the beginning of the Lords day in the end of the Sabbath. But Saint Nyssen is more punctual and clear: 
S. Nyssen. deresur. orat. 2.  the Lords day (saith he) gins at Cock-crowing, atque in hoc ipso articulo temporis, and at that very knot and joint of time: For then end we our Sabbaths', or Saturdays fast, and then begin we nos oblectare & laetari, to keep our Sundays feast, and that by an ancient custom, which all are bound to observe. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (saith he) doth not signify the evening, or that part of the night which is post occasum Solis, after Sun set; but the rise of the morning, with which the Sabbath ended.  
Yet for all this the Church by way of preparation for the better sanctification of the Lords day, hath prudently and piously appointed holy offices to be used on the Eve before. And in obedience to this positive constitution of holy Church Saint Augustine would have his hearers to observe the Lords day, 
S. Aug. ser. de tem. 25.  à vesperâ ad vesperam, from Even to Even, sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbatho, as it was also commanded the Jews concerning the Sabbath. And therefore (saith he) look that from Saturday at Even, us que ad vesperam diei Dominici, till the Lord's day at even, we set aside all rural and worldly business, ut solo divino culivi vacemus, that we may attend only on the Lord's service, and begin to repair to the Church to evening prayer on Saturday nights; and he that cannot so do, let him be sure to pray at home.  
Remember then that you which will needs have the Lords day a Sabbath, do set aside all business, and flock to the Church to say or hear Service on Saturday Evens; which hitherto you have not done, notwithstanding the order of the Church, which prescribeth that part of that day to prepare us for the more devout observation of the Lords day. Thus much of the day of meeting, The first day of the week.  
2 In the next place, we have in the next words to consider of the persons that then met. These were not Jew's, for then the Sabbath had been the day of their meeting; but Gentiles, Asians, Macedonians, Thessalonians, Paul, with his companions and Disciples. Now Paul had ordered before this time in Galatia, and in Corinth, that his Disciples were to have their meetings on the first day of the week, whereunto they submitted themselves. For on the first day of the week they now met, and so did the whole Church of God by their example for ever after. Wherefore their obedience and humility would better beseem us, than the pride and opposition of Diotrephes against St. John, and St Paul, and the whole Church of God, about the day of meeting, or the Service thereon used, only for pre-eminence sake.  
3 Now I come in the next place to the holy duties wherein the Apostle and his Disciples spent the Lord's day. The first of these is breaking of bread. How is that done? St. Augustine tells us, sicut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi, 
S. Aug. ep. 86.  not as bread is broken in a Tavern, but as it is broken in the Sacrament of the Lords body. Therefore the Syriac plainly calleth this breaking of bread, receiving the Eucharist. So doth Justin Martyr. And none is so fit as he to expound St. Augustine's sicut, to tell us how bread was broken in the holy Eucharist in those primitive times. This he doth in his information given thereof unto Antoninus plus.  
Sunday (says he) is the day of our meeting, 
S. Justin. orat, ad Anton.  for taking that nourishment which with us is called the Eucharist. Then the brethren come together add communes preces & supplicationes, to common prayers and supplications: then are read the writings of the Prophets and Apostles: deinde Lectore quiescente, when the Reader hath finished all divine Service, Praesidens orationem habet, he that hath the chief place maketh an Oration or Sermon, and instructs the people, and exhorts them to imitate those excellent things which they have heard read.  
Here is reading of prayers and lessons, both out of the Old and New Testament, and after them a Sermon; and the Sermon doth not justle out any part of divine Service, though the Precedent or Bishop himself made it. Thus the first Service endeth with a Sermon.  
And now gins the second Service. Sub haec consurgimus omnes, etc. prayers being finished, and the Sermon done, we all stand up at once and pour out our prayers. Stand up and pray! Marvel not at this. For in the Primitive Church prayers on the Lord's day were performed standing, in memory of Christ's resurrection. And it was not lawful de geniculis adorare, to pray kneeling, as appears out of Tertullian, 
Tertul. de Coron. mil. Concil. Nic. Can. 30. S. Bafil. de Sp. Sancto. c. 27. S. Aug. ep. 119. S. Epiph. l. 3. To. 2.  and the Nicene Council, and the Fathers that succeeded.  
Then precibus finitis, prayers being ended, ei qui fratribus praeest, offertur panis, etc. Bread, wine, and water are offered to the Priest, who taketh the same, and with all his might courageously preces & gratiarum actiones profundit, pours out prayers and benedictions over them: and then all the people give a cheerful acclamation, and cry Amen. Then is distribution made cuique praesenti, to every one present; doubtless to lay men as well as to Priests and Deacons. Then also the richer sort contribute what they think fit, which is laid up for the use of the poor.  
Here are reading of prayers and lessons, expounding of Scripture, supplications, benedictions, oblations to the Priest, collections for the poor, distribution of the Sacrament, all required to breaking of bread, ficut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi, as it is broken in the Eucharist. And so we see how the use of our first and second Service is founded on, and agreeth with the practice of the Primitive Church, by the testimony of this holy Martyr. Yet this may more clearly be delineated out of the Fathers that succeeded him. Christian Churches in the Primitive times had these distinct places in them: there was Sacrarium, Presbyterium, and Auditorium: the Sacrarium or holy place, was distinguished from the Presbytery by certain lists and rails: the Presbytery also was divided from the Auditory, Nave, and body of the Church per cancellos, by a certain partition that gave it the name of a Chancel. In the holy place stood the Altar, or Lords board, and not in the body of the Church. In the Presbytery was placed Cathedra Episcopi, & exedrae Presbyterorum, the Bishop's Chair or Throne, and stalls for Priests. For anciently none else, not so much as Deacons, were permitted to sit in the Church. In the Auditory stood the Pulpit, or Readers Tribunal (as Saint Cyprian calls it.) Now the Service that was performed in Sacrario, was much different from that which was done in Auditorio. None were allowed to come and stand within the lists of the holy place, where the Altar was fixed, but the Priests, 
Concil. Arel. Can. 15. S. Cyp. l. 1. ep. 9  whose office it was, non nisi altari deservire, to stand and serve at the altar, and none but they. 
Concil. Constantinop. 6. Can. 69.  And the Canon in the sixth general Council excludeth all lay men from thence, unless it were to come in to offer. And the passages in Theodoret between S. Ambrose and Theodosius make it manifest: 
S. Theod. l. 5. c. 18.  and they are much mistaken that produce the Council of Constantinople, to prove that communion Tables stood in the midst of the Church.  
But the Service in the Auditory might, and was much of it performed by such as had only a toleration to read from the Bishop, without imposition of hands by the Presbytery as Celerinus had from Saint Cyprian. 
S. Cypri. 2. ep. 7.  And such had authority to go into the Pulpit, and read the Service appointed: and when the Reader had finished the Ecclesiastical office, than the Expounder or Preacher went up into the Pulpit, and did expound some place of Scripture formerly read. 
Tert. depraeser. c. 16. Eusch. l. 6. c. 34. S. Cypr. l. 4. ep. 2. &. l. 2. ep. 1. & l. 1. ep. 7. & 4.  At this Service were present Catechumeni, Competentes, Neophyti, and all sorts of Auditors, believers or unbelievers. But at the second Service (which began in Sacrario, when this first Service ending with a Sermon was done in Auditorio) none were admitted to be present but only the faithful. And these kneeled behind the Deacons in the midst of the Presbytery, or Chancel, and with them such Priests as after penance done ad limina Ecclesiae, were admitted only in communionem laicorum. For Penitents were permitted to kneel together with the faithful, but that was post exomologesin, as Tertullian thinks fit to call it, after confession and penance; which was so district and severe in those primitive times performed in sackcloth and ashes, and the Penitents casting themselves down at the thresholds of the Church doors, and after admission into the Church, with much ado granted, then casting themselves down upon their knees before the Altar, or Lords board, to receive the Priest's absolution, that our silken ears will be in danger to be galled with the hearing of so rough a discipline. Yet all of us confess in the Commination, That in the Primitive Church there was such a godly discipline, whereby notorious sinners were put to open penance; and that it is a thing much to be wished for, that such discipline were restored again. Bishop Latimer soon miss it, or some such thing, and complains of the want thereof; therefore he, with the other godly Bishops of his time, send their wishes after it to fetch it again, till God be pleased to provide means powerful for the restoring thereof.  
Tertullian taxeth the Heretics of his time for neglect of this decent and godly discipline. 
Tertul. de praeser. c. 16.  They kept no distinction of places, nor of Service in their Conventicles. Quis catechumenus, quis fidelis incertum est; pariter adeunt, pariter audiunt, pariter orant. The whole heard of them ran in a rout together, both to Prayers, Sermon, and Sacrament, that you could not know one from another. 
Euseb. l. 5. c. 28 & l. 6. c. 34.  It was quite otherwise in the holy Catholic Church. That which Zepherinus required of Natalius, Fabianus of Philip, and Saint Cyprian of the Penitents of his time, 
S. Cyp. l. 2. ep. 7  make it manifest, that there were distinction of places in the Church to rank all sorts of Christians in. And Saint Ambrose his practice showeth a distinction of Service. The Catechumeni being dismissed, missam facere caepi; 
S. Amb. ep. 33.  Saint Ambrose began not the second Service, as our Church calleth it, at the Altar, 
Book of Fast 1. D●m. R●gi●  before the first Service in the body of the Church was finished, and the Catechumeni sent out: which still is the custom in our Church, and none will ever go about to put that sweet harmony which we keep with the Primitive Church out of tune, but such as Tertullian complains of, schismatics and Sectaries. And so we see that all those holy actions which are distinctly performed both in the first and second service, are all included in this action of breaking of bread, sicut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi. And so I come to the second holy action.  
2. This is Preaching. The Preacher is Saint Paul. What kind of Sermon than did Saint Paul make? for fit it is that his action be our direction.  
Saint Paul's preaching is of three kinds: 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he reasoned with them, or taught them by way of dialogue. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he continued his speech. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ver. 11. he used a long homily, which held from midnight till morning.  
For the first: Saint Paul's preaching did not stand only in making a long discourse, which some, pitifully perishing in a dearth of matter, and in an inundation of light and frothy words, trumpet up for the only preaching: But he gave others leave to speak as well as himself; for that must needs be to hold up the dialogue in the text, yet he preached for all that. Wherefore if the Curate catechise in the afternoon, as he is commanded, by question and answer, which makes the dialogue in the text, this man preacheth. There is therefore no cause at all why some should take the matter so grievously, that charge should be given by the King (whom they never mean to obey therein) that afternoon Sermons should be turned into catechising, that is, that one kind of preaching should be exchanged for another, the less profitable for the more useful. Certain also it is, that whether they travel all the Scriptures over, and then pass on to the ancient Fathers, they shall find no ground at all for the fruitless and disobedient exercise of their afternoon talon, till they come home to their own wilful self-conceitedness. Our Saviour came not to break the law, but to fulfil it, who being at Capernaum on a Sabbath day preached but once. For statim è Synagogâ from the Synagogue he went immediately to Simons house to dinner, where Simons wives mother ministered unto them, Mar. 1.31. and there stayed healing diseases till sun set, and went no more to the Synagogue to preach in the afternoon. The law that enjoined afternoon Sermons for keeping their Sabbath, was not then known to the Pharises themselves, who else were apt enough to have laid it in his dish at supper; 
Troubles at Frankford, pag. 194.  no nor to these men's progenitors for 1565. years after, as by their own confession may appear.  
True it is Saint Peter preached once at the ninth hour, or at three a clock in the afternoon, Act. 3.1. but the occasion, place, and other circumstances being so extraordinary, his example binds us no more to do the like, than Saint Paul's here doth to preach in an upper chamber all night long.  
The holy Fathers also in the best times had their Sermons in the forenoons, and it will be hard for the best or stubbornest of them all to show a Sermon preached by any of the Fathers in the afternoon, Saint Basil only excepted, who had his second and ninth homily in the afternoon; 
Socrat l. 5. c. 21. Niceph. l. 12. c. 34.  because as Socrates and Nicephorus affirm, the custom in Caesare a was not to preach in the forenoon, but Episcopi & Sacerdotes post lucernarum accensiones sacras Scripturae populo exponunt, the people have the Scripture, expounded to them in the afternoon. Their preaching was but expounding (as they call it) and that but once neither. Why then should they not yield to change their afternoon discoursing into preaching by way of dialogue, as St. Paul here did?  
Secondly, St. Paul preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all the while he was in his Homily. What his Homily was, it is hard for me to say; whether it was one that himself made, and did not read; or one that he read, and another made. An Homily I am sure it was, and it may be made by all the Apostles, or the chief of the Apostles, as (Bucer says) our Homilies were penned by some eminent Preachers.  
I pray you tell me, (when Saint Paul went through diverse Churches, as now he did, to establish them in the faith, and to that end took with him dogmata, the decrees made by the Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem, 
Act, 16.4.  and delivered them to the Churches to be kept) whether he did read them or no, or delivered them as a Roll sealed up? If he read them, there's his homily. And most certain it is he read them, even by his own rule. For if he caused Epistles from some one man to be read in the Church by him that brought them, it is more than evident that himself bringing the Decrees of the Apostles and Elders, he would not in any sort transgress his own rule, but do the decrees, himself and the Church that right as to read them, that the Churches might see what it was that he delivered them to keep, and be fully assured that himself walked in the self same steps with the rest of the Apostles, and so be enabled to stop the mouths of all false Apostles, who objected that against him, and thereby be fully established in the faith, which was the only end of his coming; which could not have been wrought nor obtained, if these Decrees had not been read at all, or read by any other. Wherefore I take it for a clear truth, that St. Paul read the Decrees, and sure I am by the word used in the text, that when he read them and did no more but read them, without adding or diminishing, that he preached by way of Homily: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
Reading of Homilies than is preaching, 
Concil. Rhem. Can. 15.  and so adjudged by the learned Bishops in the Council of Rheims. The Canon concerneth Bishops themselves, Ut Episcopi Sermons & Homilias sanctorum Patrum, prout omnes intelligant, secundum proprietatem linguae praedicare studeant. The Canon says not praedicari studeant, but praedicare; themselves must give good example, not only in preaching Sermons of their own making, as it is appointed, Can. 14. (which some cry up for the only preaching) but also read and interpret the Homilies of holy Fathers themselves, which is also here called preaching.  
So likewise when the Diptyches, containing the Decrees of the four first general Counsels, 
Constantinop. 5. Act. 10.  and of Saint Leo were read, pro utilitate & pace Ecclesiae praedicantur, they are said to be preached for the profit and peace of the Church. This reading of Decrees is called preaching in the Council of Constantinople.  
If then reading of decrees of the Apostles, and by that precedent reading of Diptyches and Homilies be preaching, and used for the profit and peace of the Church, and for the establishing of them in the faith, then surely is reading of lessons, Epistle and Gospel, much more preaching, and the Reader is a Preacher.  
The Council of Aquisgrane layeth down the office of a Reader, 
Concil. Aq. c. 3.  and to prevent all exceptions ex canonicâ authoritate, and saith thus, Lectores sunt qui verbum Dei praedicant, Readers are Preachers. This they might learn of Saint Ambrose, 
S. Ambr. in eph. c. 4. v. 11. S. Cypr. ep. 4. l. 4. & ep. 5. l. 2.  and he of Saint Cyprian. Saint Cyprian gives only a toleration to read unto Celerinus nobly descended, yet says it will make more for his honour in coelesti praedicatione fieri generosum, to be made a Gentleman for his heavenly preaching; yet this preaching was but reading. And further saith, that there is nothing wherein a Confessor magis prosit, can more profit his brethren, than by reading the Gospel, unde Martyres fiunt, whereby Confessors are made Martyrs. This was the doctrine of Origen before him. 
Orig. hom. 10. in Gen.  Reading then is preaching, nay heavenly preaching; and there is nothing more profitable for the Church, nor more powerful to make the most perfect men of God of all other, even to make Martyrs.  
What shall we think then of T. C. and such as he hath seduced, that traduce Readers for dumb dogs, blind guides, empty feeders, and say that reading is so fare from making the man of God perfect, that rather the quite contrary may be confirmed? Whether do you not think that this blessed Archbishop and Martyr, and these holy and learned Bishops would not sharply have censured the broachers of such doctrine within their Dioceses? or will you condemn them, their doctrine and Canons, to deify T.C.?  
For my part, qui Bavium non odit, amet tua Carmina Maevi, he that detesteth not the Father of such schismatics, with their Brood, I wish him no worse but that he may fall so fare in love with the pure zeal of those wand'ring Danites, their refined brethren led by such guides, that they may believe their spies, and follow them per mare, per terras, into new Laish, to dwell in a Land of their own, 
Cottons Sermon.  and to go no more out, but make themselves happy without corrivals, under an Ephod and Priest of Micha's own making. And surely if they did believe their own doctrines, and would be honest and true to their own positions, I cannot see how they should stay here longer than for a good wind. The government of our Church (they say) is Babylonish: while they stay here they are in the midst of Babylon, therefore the rites of Babylon they will not use; and there is no reason that they should. Why then doth not that loud cry awaken their consciences that calls them out hence, Come out of her my people, that you be not partaker in her plagues? How do they think that any man should trust them, that are so false to their own friends, their own followers, their own faith and doctrine, and will forsake them all, and with Demas embrace this present world in the midst of Babylon, with so great hazard of the plagues of Babylon?  
Doubtless these Church schismatics are the most gross, nay the most transparent Hypocrites, and most void of conscience of all others. They will take the benefit of the Church, but abjure the doctrine and discipline of the Church. These are whorish and Babylonish: But tithe milk is not whorish, if it be not mingled with water; nor a tithe sheaf Babylonish, till it be as big as great Babylon itself. Is not this ridiculous hypocrisy? If their stomaches be so queasy to rise against these things, because their pure nostril resenteth the dip of the Pope's foot in them, let them begin to abandon the Pope in that which he hath by Canons and Bulls allowed, viz. in tithes and offerings; and not in that which he never allowed, in our Book of Common Prayer, wherein is set down the only direction we have for keeping the Lords day in such godly duties as the text specifieth. If their condemnation or want of the Pope's confirmation of that holy book, were of power to hang a millstone about it, and to cast it into the bottom of the sea of their abominations, we might lie down in sorrow, and cry our last Ichabod, the glory is departed from Israel: And they might with the voice of melody sing and say, With great wrestle have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed to make her a very Babylon, and to cause her to sit in the dust, and never to rise any more. But praised be the Lord, whose day we will ever keep, and not their Sabbath, that hath delivered us as a prey out of their teeth.  
I will now conclude this point. We see that breaking of bread, and preaching in such sort as hath been explained, are the holy exercises used by St. Paul and his Disciples, and by the holy Martyrs and godly Fathers in the Primitive Church for the observation of the Lords day.  
From hence then we may conclude who are profaners of that most holy day; not those that use harmless recreations, or do some small useful chare, or perhaps take a nap on the Lord's day: But those that do these with Eutichus when Paul is preaching, or (as St. Austin says) caeteris ad Ecclesiam pergentibus, 
S Aug. Ser. de tem. 251.  when others go to Church, or in such sort that publicum impediunt ministerium (as Chemnitius speaks) they hinder them from the public service of God. 
Chem. de Fest. p. 4.  Those also are profaners of the Lords day, (as Origen says) qui sacris lectionibus terga vertunt, 
Orig. hom. 11. in Jer.  that make base account of Scripture read; and such (as Saint Cyrill says) that will not Ecclesiastico officio interest, 
S. Cyril. in Je, l. 8. c. 5.  come to Church till Service be ended, and the Sermon to begin: and such (as St. Austin says) that cogunt Sacerdotem ut abbreviet missam, make the Priest to curtail divine Service, 
S. Aug. Ser. de tem. 251.  aut ut ad eorum libitum cantet, or sing or say it after their fancy, not antiphonatim, the Priest one verse and the people another; which factious disposition St. Basil reproves in some Clergy men of Neocaesarea, 
S. Basil. ep. 45●  that being against the practice of the universal Church continued from Ignatius, who was directed thereunto by an Angel, as Socrates affirmeth. Those yet are worse profaners of the Lords day, 
Socrat. l. 6. c. 8.  that will not read the Litany on it, for excitavit Diabolus (says St. Chrysostome in plain terms) the Devil himself, and no body else, 
S. Chrys. Ser. antequam iret in exil. Bed. his. l. 1. c. 25.  hath stirred up those that make brabbles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, about the Litany to bring it into contempt, which was the means of the first conversion of our English Nation.  
Trypho the Jew allegeth Isa. 58.13. to prove Justin Martyr a breaker of the Sabbath, who tells him that the Prophet I say requireth no more than was before commanded by Moses in the law, 
S. Just. in Tryph. Tom. 2.  whereunto he had given his answer.  
This very place of Scripture our zealous Sabbatarians his issue, borrow of that Jew, and use as a sword to cut off all sports and recreations on their Sabbath, with all other actions of our own, because we are forbidden to do our own will, or to speak our own words, or vain words on the Sabbath. But let them beware that with Saul they fall not upon their own sword. For I pray you deal clearly, and say, whether those that will neither preach, pray, catechise, administer the Sacraments, nor perform any part of divine Service, as God's Magistrate appoints, do not their own wills? His I am sure they do not. And when they make new glosses and expositions of Scripture, never received in the Church of God, nor delivered by any ancient Father, whom by Canon they are bound to follow, and call the Lords day a Sabbath, 
Lib. Can. An. 1571. Can. 19  whether they do not speak their own words?  
And when they use vain repetitions, and babbling in their prayers and preaching, saying, Lord, Lord, oftener in one prayer, than there are words in all the Lords prayer, do not use vain words, and take the Lords name in vain; and be not punctually those whom our Saviour reproves by Saint Mark, cap. 7. ver. 7. In vanum me colunt, they honour me with vain words, vain glosses and expositions, vain babbling and repetitions, crying, Lord, Lord, and all in vain, for they do not the thing that I say. For I say, when you pray say Our Father, etc. and thus you will not do, but will pray an hour together before a Sermon: yet though Christ and his Church command them to say it, they will not do it.  
He that can say Corban, and cry up the Sabbath, the Sabbath, it is a sufficient Supersedeas, it is duty and piety enough, though he neither honour Father nor Mother, Christ, nor the King his Vicegerent, nor the Church his Spouse. Let those then that are so violent against such as recreate themselves civilly and modestly, in such wise as God's Magistrate doth allow, to prove them Sabbath breakers, which is no sin at all, look they be not found such as with an high hand and stiff neck profane the Lords day in despite of Authority, and so add drunkenness to thirst, namely, to their open profanation, rebellion or disobedience, which is as the sin of witchcraft. From which leprosy washing seven times in Jordan will not cleanse them, unless they can prove God's Magistrate Nebuchodonosor, and themselves the three children.  
Sure I am their disobedient and scornful contempt of our Church Liturgy is to many godly and learned men, fare their Superiors in these respects, very scandalous; and may drive many that reverence antiquity with us, and for that cause stand well affected to our Church, to withdraw themselves from us. That it is not to be wondered at if Recusants should increase, but rather it is a wonder that there are no more. For how can any man of judgement and discretion like that Liturgy and form of divine Service, which ourselves (they say) contemn, scorn, mangle, and misuse as we list, and some reject utterly as unlawful and Antichristian? Do we tell them it is poison, and do they see us cast it out of our hands, and do we wonder that they will not run and take it up and eat it, or that they refuse the use of it, as we do, or rather forbear the Church till it be used?  
They will use no Cross forsooth, nor Surplice, meet no coarse at the Church gate, Church no women, read no Service on Wednesdays, Fridays, saturdays, Holy days, nor on their Eves, will not stand at the Creed, nor Gospel, kneel at the Communion, nor bow the knee at the blessed name of the Lord JESUS, nor go in procession, or keep their perambulations, nor do any thing at all as the Church appoints; yet the worst is, they would be esteemed members, nay pillars of the Church: whereas indeed they are neither the one nor the other, but a disease, a fretting canker, a dangerous faction in the Church. They are wand'ring stars, and disastrous planets, who have and do blast the most flourishing and glorious Church under the cope of Heaven, were it not that these withered branches do appear her only spots of disgrace. And because they are such, hence it is that the Church for her own safety is fain to renounce all defence of them and their doctrines against the Romanists. Therefore she ought not in right to be upbraided or deserted for any thing they say or do.  
The Church knoweth, and every member thereof of seethe, that this generation had eaten out her bowels long since, like Vipers, and become her destruction, but that by God's providence they have as sufficiently discovered their malicious projects to be bend alike for the casting down of Crowns and Sceptres, and laws of the Land, and the Professors thereof, as for the trampling under their feet of Mitres and cornered Caps, Bishops and such as exercise jurisdiction under them, together with our Book of Common Prayer, and Canons Ecclesiastical. Therefore the Church hath little cause to honour them as her children, with her defence, before they will be brought to honour her and her orders, nay to honour the Lord and his day, in breaking of bread, and preaching in such sort as she hath learned of St. Paul, and delivered in the Book of Common Prayer. And now I have done with them.  
The last point, with which I will conclude, is the place where Saint Paul preached: In an upper chamber.  
Let no man think from hence, that he hath got a warrant to do so in these days. This is the third time Paul came to Troas. At the first time, being 41. years of age (as some account) he was called away by a vision into Macedonia, and made no stay at all. 
Acts 16.  About three years after he came thither again to look for Titus, 
2 Cor. 〈◊〉  but not finding him, he only faluted the brethren, and went away in great heaviness. Now in the 47th. year of his age he comes hither again, and stays but seven days; so that he had no time to take order for building of a Church to preach, and to celebrate the Euchrist in. Fellow him therefore to Corinth, where he stayed a year and six months, where we shall not take him preaching in an upper chamber. 
Acts 18.11.  For so soon as the Jews had driven him out of the Synagogue, and beaten Sosthenes the Ruler of the Synagogue for suffering him to preach on the Sabbath day, and also blasphemed his doctrine in all probability touching the observation of the Lords day, saying, as it was maliciously reported amongst the Jews, that the Lord was not risen, but that his Disciples stole him away, therefore the day of his resurrection ought not to be kept, nor preached on their Sabbath, tending so much to the overthrow thereof. Upon this or the like blasphemy St. Paul took just occasion to renounce them and their Synagogue, saying, From henceforth I go unto the Gentiles. And so immediately he took order for a public place to meet in, so large, that men and women, learned and unlearned, believers and unbelievers might all meet together. And this place was a CHURCH.  
If the whole Church be come together into one Place, they may speak languages, provided that they do interpret, 1 Cor. 14.33. Yea, but how doth it appear that this one place is a Church? Why because himself calls it so, saying, In the church I had rather speak five words, etc. ver. 19 So their coming together to eat the Lords body was into one place, 1 Cor. 11.20. and this one place was a Church, ver. 18. When ye come together in the Church, I hear, etc. this is not to eat the Lords body.  
This Church, or public place of meeting is many ways distinguished from private houses. The Church was free for all to come into, Jews or Gentiles, believers or unbelievers, 1 Cor. 14.24. so were not private houses. In private houses women might speak: not so in the Church. In private houses men might be covered, and women uncovered: 
S. Chrys. in Act. ho. 21. & de Sacer dot. l. 6. & hom. de eucha, in encaeniis.  not so in the Church. In the Church reverence was to be given to the Angels which attend the Lord our Saviour at his table in tremendis mysteriis (as St. Chrysostome speaks) where he is truly and really present: not so in private houses. In private houses they might eat and drink: not so in the Church. These Churches had Bishops set over them, which had power of excommunication, penance, and absolution; which was not used in private houses, but only in the Church, 1 Cor. 5.5. 2 Cor. 2.7. To these Churches belonged stocks of money, whereby Widows and others were maintained at the discretion of the Bishop, 1 Tim. 4.9. which authority they had not in private houses: but were at the courtesy of the owners to be received or not. 
Mat. 10.10.  In these Churches stood the Lord's board, which was not placed in any private house, 1 Cor. 10.21. This table of the Lord is called also an Altar, 1 Cor. 8.13. They that wait of the Altar are partakers of the Altar; which is not to be understood of Israel after the flesh. For habemus Altar, we under the Gospel have an Altar, Heb. 15.10. And so is the word Altar, and Lords table indifferently and alike anciently used in the writings of the Fathers, who best knew how to expound Scripture. These were some Tables or Altars of stone, quia Christus est lapis angularis: some were of wood, the better to express his death on the tree, 
S. Just. in Tryph. Tom. 2. Tert. l. 4. adv. Martion.  posuerunt lignum in panem ejus, Jer. 11. These wooden Altars or Tables the furious Circumcellions broke down in St. Augustine's time.  
So that from the 47th. year of Saint Paul's age, which was the 57th. of our Saviour, we may count out of Scripture, that the devotion of God's people began in building of Churches for breaking of bread and preaching, and with them began the solemn exercise of the jurisdiction of Bishops in excommunication, penance, confession, and absolution, which without Churches could not well be exercised. But in Ecclesiastical writers we find the beginning more early, and so the use continued without interruption in the midst of all their persecutions for 287. years together, until Dioclesian's time.  
I might be infinite in this kind, but I will give you but a touch thereof. 
Euseb. l. 5. c. 17.  The Apostles and disciples stayed in Jerusalem after Christ's resurrection twelve years together, and preached to the Jews in their Synagogues: but because they kept the Sabbath no better than their Lord did, but began to keep the Lords day, which the Jews detested, and to neglect the Sabbath, 
S. Justin. de verit. l. 2. in Try.  which they only doted on as necessary to salvation, they are driven out of Jerusalem, and dispersed into sundry Nations. And in the first year of their dispersion, which was about the 47th. of our Saviour, they began to build Churches to preach and administer the Sacraments in on the Lords day.  
About this time or before a goodly room in Theophilus his house in Antioch, 
An Christi 38. Hieron. in ep. 2. ad Gal. & Euseb. in Chr. S. Clemen. recogd. l. 10.  where ten thousand met at one time, was consecrated for a Church by St. Peter, and there was placed St. Peter's chair, which for a long time after there continued.  
S. Mark also about the same time caused diverse Churches to be built about Alexandria, 
Euseb. l. 2. c. 16.  wherein it was unlawful to eat and drink; but they were used only for reading, preaching, and meditating on God's word, praying, singing of Psalms, and the like. In the year 57 S. Paul caused a Church to be built in Corinth, and in diverse other places. Anno 63. Joseph of Arimathea caused a Church to be built in Glastonbury. 
Hist. Eccles. Angl.  Erat haec Ecclesia ab ipsis Apostolis Domini aedificata, witnesseth Henry the second in his Letters Patents: For being burnt in his time, he takes a Princely care for the building of it again, as the King's Majesty now doth for the repairing of that goodly edifice of S. Paul's Church, now fallen to decay. Anno 71. Crescens sent into Galatia by St. Paul, 
Euseb. l. 3. c. 4 Ado.  would not content himself to preach in private houses, but by S. Paul's example caused a Church to be built at Vienna. Anno 79. St. 
Euseb. l. 3. c. 20.  John caused a goodly Church to be built about Ephesus, where himself, with an Archbishop & diverse Bishops of several Churches in Asia, met at a Synod. This Church stood over against the hill where he rob whom S. John converted. 
Euseb. l. 2. c. 25  Gaius Bishop of Rome affirmeth, that till his time for 220. years together Churches had continued near unto the Vatican, built by the Apostles, which had Churchyards belonging to them, and where were to be seen the Tombs and Monuments of the Apostles. Anno 110. Ignatius reproved Trajan in a Church. Anno 117. 
Niceph. l. 3. c. 19 Dion. in Adrian.  Adrian caused Churches to be built for Christians, wherein he forbade any of the Roman gods to be placed. Anno 160. 
Euseb. l. 5. c. 25.  Polycarpus received the Sacrament publicly in the Church of Rome. Anno 197. 
Bed. l. 1. c. 4.  Lucius' King of Great Britain desired of Eleutherius, ut per ejus mandatum fieret Christianus, which being granted, 
●lores hist.  he dedicated the Temples of the Heathen gods to the worship of the true God, and made Churches of them, and placed in them 28. Bishops, and three Archbishops Seas. 
Tertul. adv. Va●en. & in Apolog.  Anno 203. Tertullian maketh mention of these Churches built before his time, and saith that commonly they were built upon an hill, (as Isaac was offered and Christ crucified on an hill) and looked towards the East, Nostrae columbae Domus in editis & apertis, & Orientem amat. Hence it is (saith he) that the Heathen traduce us for worshipping the Sun, quòd innotuerit nos ad Orientis regionem praecari, because it is openly known that all we Christians pray unto God in our Churches with our faces to the East: and if they stand not so, they are not like Christian Churches, nor judged to be consecrated by Christian Bishops. 
S. Ire●. l. 3. c. 3.  Anno 180. Irenaeus saw Poly carpus sit in his Bishop's chair in Smyrna. S. James his chair stood in the Church of Jerusalem for 326. years together, saith Eusebius, and was there to be seen in St. Augustine's time, 
Euseb. l. 5. c. 20. & l 7. c. 19  notwithstanding Dioclesian's Decree. Anno 239. 
S. Aug. l 2. Con. lit. P●ttl. c. 51. Cus●b. l. 6. 〈◊〉 34.  Fabianus suffered not Philip the first Christian Emperor to join with the faithful in the Church, before he had stood in loco poenitentium. And so you see the zeal of Christians in building of Churches began in the Apostles times, and continued for 280. years together at least.  
And how necessary it was for the Apostles and their successors, planters of the Gospel, to build Churches, and not to pray, preach, administer the Sacraments, or exercise Ecclesiastical discipline of excommunication and absolution in private houses, 
S. Aug contr. M●n●●. epis. 〈◊〉. 4 ●●m. 6.  Irenaeus, Tertullian, St. Augustine, and diverse godly Fathers tell us. For hereby Catholics and good Christians were known from Heretics. For nullus Haereticorum basilicam suam audet ostendere, Heretics had no Churches to show, nor chair wherein they succeeded the Apostles.  
Thus Irenaeus confoundeth Valentinus, 
S. Iren. l. 3. c. 3.4.5.  Cerdon, and Martion; they could not show how they succeeded the Apostles: but he could prove his own succession, and reckon up all those that succeeded the Apostles in their several Churches; and so showeth who succeeded Peter and Paul in the Church of Rome. Whereby their vanity may in part appear, that against all Antiquity, upon idle ghesses, make fools believe that St. Peter was never at Rome, making the succession of Bishops and truth of the Latin Churches as questionable as the Centurists orders.  
Thus Tertullian putteth Valentinus and Apelles to it to show their descent. 
Tertul. de pra●●. ser. c. 11.  If they will not be accounted Heretics, aedant origines Ecclesiarum suarum, evolvant ordinem Sacerdotum, etc. it a ut primus sit aliquis ex Apostolis, let them show when their Church began, so that the first founder be an Apostle: as Polycarpus was placed by St. John in Smyrna, and Clemens by St. Peter in the Church of Rome. Confingant tale quid & Haeretici, let Heretics lay their heads together, 
Tert. de prae● ser c. 17.  and produce such a pedigree of their faith. Which he was sure they could not do: for sine matre, sine sede extorres vagantur, & Ecclesias non habent. They were not Christians that had no Churches for 200. years after Christ: but it plainly appears by St. Irenaeus and Tertullian, that they were Heretics that were so long without Churches. These had no Church for their Mother, no Sea for their Bishops, nor succession of them from the Apostles, but were mere stragglers. And for this cause (says St. Cyprian) Haereticus sanctificare non potest, 
S. Cyp. l. 1. ep. 12.  quia nec Ecclesiam nec Altarehabet; an Heretic cannot consecrate the Sacrament, because he hath neither Church nor Altar; for Eucharistia in Altari sanctificatur. Without Churches no Sacrament could be consecrated, nor received.  
In this sort St. Augustine confoundeth the Donatists and Sectaries of his time; 
S. Aug l. 2. cont. Petil. c. 51.  Numerate Sacerdotes, vel ab ipsa sede Petri, & in illo ordine, quis cui successit videte; Reckon up your Priests, who succeeded one another after St. Peter in his chair, if you will be esteemed members of the Church. Hereby we may by God's mercy make good the truth of our Church. For we are able lineally to set down the succession of our Bishops from St. Peter to S. Gregory, and from him to our first Archbishop St. Austin, our English Apostle as Bishop Godwin calls him, downward to his Grace that now sits in his chair, Primate of all England, and Metropolitan.  
This succession of Bishops to the Apostles, and exercise of Ecclesiastical discipline, preaching of the word of God, and consecrating of the Eucharist on the Lord's Board, or holy Altar, was judged a thing so necessary by the Apostles and their successors, 
Eus●●. l. 8. c. 1.  that (as Eusebius reports) Christians never ceased building, repairing, and enlarging of Churches, even in the hottest times of persecution. And though the Pastors were many times driven out of them, and wandered up and down in Mountains, and Dens, and Caves of the earth, yet they found such favour with the Emperors, that the Churches still continued. And their chairs were never empty, nor the succession of their Bishops interrupted, no not in Dioclesian's time, when so many Churches were demolished.  
True it is Cecilius in Minutius Foelix, and Celsus in Origen, and other Gentiles reviled Christians, and called them Atheists, quia nec templa nec deos haberent, because they had neither temples nor Gods. And indeed they had no such temples, nor worshipped such gods as they did. Yet Christians were never without Churches to serve the true God in. Howbeit, they were not called Temples, or Basilicae, before the Emperor Constantine's time, who built them in that stately and magnificent manner, that they might equalise or surmount the sumptuous Temples erected by the Heathen to Diana, Venus, Jupiter, or other heathen gods.  
Thus necessity of God's service, and exercise of Ecclesiastical discipline, caused and continued the use of Churches from time to time, and their zeal inflamed them to beautify and adorn them in the most sumptuous manner that might be, that with David and Solomon they might show (so fare as their poverty would suffer them) in such glorious and magnificent buildings, and by the sumptuous costliness bestowed in adorning of them with gold, silver, and precious stones, the incomparable glory, and infinite greatness of the Majesty of their God, to whom that poor house was dedicated, and before whom they presented themselves to perform such service as himself and his Vicegerents have appointed: which doubtless (as by the practice of S. Paul and the Apostles, and the best Saints of God, may appear) is much more acceptable unto him, being performed in an house of his own, than if it had been continued in one of ours, in some upper chamber, as now upon necessity it was.  
Wherefore since by God's mercy we do in part enjoy the piety and bounty of our Predecessors, and have the houses of God left us to serve God in; let us abandon the irregular fashion of straggling schismatics, in making Conventicles, praying, preaching, and breaking bread in corners, private houses, and dining rooms. And on the other side, let us conform ourselves in frequenting the Lords house, to the practice of the Lords Church, especially on the Lord's day, and say with David, O come let us go into the house of the Lord, and fall flat on our faces before his footstool.  
And if we do not only bend or bow our body to his blessed Board, or holy Altar, but fall flat on our faces before his footstool so soon as ever we approach in sight thereof, what Patriarch, Apostle, blessed Martyr, holy or learned Father, would condemn us for it? or rather would not be delighted to see their Lord so honoured, and their devotion so reverently imitated, and so good hope given to have it in such sort continued in the Lord's house, on the Lord's day, by the Lords servants, unto the Lords coming again, who doubtless will then ratify what he hath already pronounced, Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find so doing? Amen.  
FINIS.   

PErlegi hanc concionem habitam in visitatione Trionnali Reverendi in Christo Patris Episcopi Lincolniensis, in quâ nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium, quominùs cum utilitate pablicâ imprimatur; it a tamen ut si non intra tres menses proximè sequentes typis mandetur, haec licentia sit omnino irrita.  
Ex Aedibus Lambethanis II. Calend. Martii, 1635. GUIL. BRAY Rmo. Patri D. Arch. Cant. Sacellanus domesticus.