God's SABBATH 

Before the LAW  
Under the LAW  
and Under the GOSPEL.    
Briefly vindicated from novel and heterodox assertions: By HAMON L' ESTRANGE, Gent.  
Nemo nostrûm dicat jam se invenisse veritatem, sic eam quaeramus quasi ab utrisque nesciatur,  Aug. cont. Epist. Manichaei. 
CAMBRIDGE, Printed by Roger Daniel, Printer to the university, 1641. And are to be sold at the Angel in Lumbardstreet.   

20. Maii 1641.  
At a Committee appointed by the Honourable House of Commons, for the examination of the licensing and suppressing of books, &c.  
It is ordered that this Treatise be published in print at Cambridge, unless the vicechancellor do show just cause to the contrary, within convenient time.  
EDWARD DERING.   

I have read over this Treatise, and am so far from pretending any thing against the printing of it, that I must needs profess it to be a work both Learned and Orthodox, and highly meriting both the best care of the Printer now, and the best attendance of any Reader afterwards.  
RICH. HOLDSWORTH Procan.   

To the most Honourable The Court Paramount within this Realm, The High Court of Parliament, or Assembly of the three Estates.  
August Senate, mighty sovereign of Courts,  
WHen I call to mind that of Aristides, That the Gods are to be honoured with the consecration of Temples, but eminent men with the dedication of Books; I could not represent to my consideration a fitter patron for these my weak labours, than the glorious Assembly and bright Constellation of the chief and prime lights of the kingdom.  
I invoke not your aid to bolster out mischievous doctrine (the main scope of too many late Dedications) but to vindicate the Truth, to maintain that Truth, which contrary to the Proverb hath fled to corners, hath lived in blind recess, (and like a needy bankrupt) dareth not yet walk confidently abroad without a Parliament Protection.  
But you being now (the Lord be praised) upon the great work of Reformation, your wisdom's will (I doubt not) make narrow inquiry not only into State but Church-Monopolists, those gnostics I mean, which seemed to have engrossed all knowledge to themselves, and under that pretence have in stead of Truth obtruded upon us their own pernicious errors.  
Amongst those truths which these projectors have laboured to suppress, none have been more furiously pursued then those which relate to the Lord's Day; and (which maketh the prodigy) none have stickled therein more than they who have with so much clamour cried up Tithes and the Episcopacy (things innocent, yea, commendable enough: only I wish with the Athenian in Gellius they had been defended by other men. 
Lib. 18. c. 3. ) Whence we may collect that if this unhappy day could any thing have promoved their greedy or ambitious desires, it had surely escaped the late indignities which these men's liberal malice hath profusely shed upon it; it had still continued in the esteem of a day Divinely instituted, immutable, and totally to be sanctified; three essential properties thereof, which they have much endeavoured to evert, I in this my work as much to uphold.  
At the first instant of its manumission, it hath a strong ambition, (great council) to live under the influence of your favour; a boldness on which it durst never have adventured had it not been assured, the Truth which it professeth will gain it some measure of acceptance with so professed a Patriot of Truth.  
The God of Truth prosper you, and in you, us; he direct all your consultations, that their issue may be his glory, in the peace and safety both of this Church and State: with all true English Christians so fervently prayeth,  
Illustrious Assembly, In the highest degree of the lowest obedience Your L' ESTRANGE.   

To the right worshipful, his highly honoured Father, Sr. HAMON l' ESTRANGE knight, of Hunstanton in Norfolk.  
Most honoured Sr.  
TO this worthless Tract, having meditated a double dedication (not then purposing to prefix both, or that I thought one not enough) which of these two should preponderate my equal inclination to either, I could not though with long debate determine; at length therefore that I might dwell no longer in this suspense, I resolved to issue out both, and the rather because their errands were so difform, so divers: for  
This Treatise is the first fruits of my studies, therefore of common right sacred to God; and the rather because the main subject thereof is His Day: His, by institution; His, by denomination, and (it being the first fruits of days, 
Hexam.  as Saint Basill elegantly calleth it) of right his. Now seeing all offerings were according to God's prescript; First, to be brought to the high Priest, who was to examine them whether they were such as God would accept, and then to present them before the Lord. To whom sooner than to yourself, Sir, should I bring this my petty oblation? It is said that Cain and Abel brought their offerings, that is, (as most learned men conceive) to Adam their Father, that he might present them; why then may not I mine to you? If he was their Priest, why may not you be mine? Fathers of Families (you know) were anciently all such: And though Consecration and Ordination hath somewhat dimmed their wonted splendour, yet I hold for certain that their Priestly office neither is, nor shall be utterly extinguished. To you therefore, Sir, I hope not impertinently, I bring this my poor oblation; I know too well how strong frailty is in me, to say it is without blemish, or not lame; yet if your judgement shall conceive it a work acceptable to God, and beneficial to his Church, I most humbly crave you would be pleased to present it to him for me. And this is the first cause of this address to you; The other, this:  

Phocylides.  Sir, you are my Parent, second in honour to God; so the wisdom of the Ancients styleth you: and certainly if any Parent may challenge honour from a Son, you may from me. To which honour you have a double title: One, wherein all Fathers intercommon by Generation; the other, almost peculiar to yourself by Education, I had almost said, Regeneration; perhaps not altogether unfitly, for good nurture is a kind of moral Regeneration, and usually a preparative to the spiritual. I call the Education you have bestowed upon me almost peculiar to yourself, because that whereas most Parents are either sordid in their allowance, or negligent in instructing, or become lewd patterns to their children; you have in breeding me failed neither in purse, nor in precept, nor in example. I write not this to flatter you, but to manifest that I set a due and just value upon this your Fatherly care, and that though there were no Divine Law to constrain me to it, yet this alone were sufficient reason for me to honour you.  
And if every the meanest part of my education obligeth me to this acknowledgement, sure your training me up to letters much more, especially in this age, when to know even fundamentals and necessary Truths, is accounted at least pedantical, if not as (Saint Paul said of preaching) foolishness. I do not hereby arrogate to myself the name of a scholar; for my delight in learning hath been more than my proficiency, 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 original 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 than natural.  
Be pleased, Sir, to entertain them as testimonials of my filial 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 weakness) as what I am, that is,  
Sir, Your most honouring and Most obedient son, 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 possessed the stage without control so many years? Secondly, why at all, in regard there have of late issued out Tracts homogeneal, wherein the Truth hath been evidently enough demonstrated, error convinced? To both these I hold it requisite to give my answer, and (if I can) satisfaction: To the first than I say, I was retarded upon these reasons especially.  
First, though my studies have been most conversant in Eristick theology, yet I delight therein more as a slander by and spectator of others digladiations, than out of an itch to enter the lists myself, which of all things (through a desire to suppress from public notice my private infirmities) my Genius most declineth. Secondly, being conscious of mine own failings, I was loath to betray so good a cause by so mean a champion as myself, and so — ipsíque oneríque 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 only commenced; but (as I then 
* At Christmas la●●.  thought) finished 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 eternal 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 ourselves, verifying that, 
* Unus alio plura invemre potest, nemo omni●, Ausonius.  One man may find out more than 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 natural corruption to embrace it (as any thing which relisheth of liberty) then from predominancy of arguments, though backed with the authority of men eminent for their knowledge in letters; three 
* 
B. Whi●e, Dr. Prid. Mr. Brerewood.  
Si cui displiceo, non ●tatun 〈◊〉 opponat, Tu solus sapis, &c. Per asinam enim quandoque locutus est D●us quod Prophetam c●lavit, & Samu●li puero ostendit quod ●li sacerdoti non rev●l●v●●, Tom. 1 Res●l. super Propos. Lipsie 〈◊〉. conclus. 1.   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 possess the laurel they have deserved; yet if any shall therefore wonder (as I doubt not some will) that such a Sciolus as myself have dared to oppose them, I must reply what Luther did before in the like case, God once spoke that by an ass, 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 personal 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. 
De me existima ut libet, tantùm de ipsa veritate cave quid sentias, Aug. cont. M●nich. lib. unus.  But to him who misliketh Truth, and shuneth her because he meeteth her in my apparel, let me give Augustine's check, Think of me your pleasure, but beware what opinion you have of Truth.  
This short advertisement being premised, I address myself to the ensuing discourse.   

Errata.  
Page 11. l. 13. the matter, read 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. caremoni●. p. 97. l. 9 prosekenique, r. pro-selenique.   

God's 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 Virgil.  must begin this Tract. A task intricate and obnoxious to many precipices; David's curse I am sure to meet with, A way dark and slippery. I could indeed solace myself in this, that I walk not alone, and that on which side soever I fall, I shall have learned associates. But to err for company, or for singularity, are to me alike odious. Truth I serve, and so far 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 dim, 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 Orig. Pr●oem. H●. in Cant. Hieron. ●pist. ad Paul. in bibl. Hier. Naz. orat. 7. , and which hath set eminent doctors, as well ancient as modern, at odds. 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 only an intimation of the reason, why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the seventh rather than of any other day; the subsequent of which gloss is the assertion, That the Sabbath was not, or commanded or observed, until Moses his days; for the sustaining whereof they produce reasons specious, and authority venerable.  

1. Reason. B. White, pag. 46.  First, There is (say they) no other means for us to understand what God's will and act was Gen. 2.3. but only 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 historical narration of Adam's, 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 this matter, we may be assured there was no such thing done.  

2. Reason. Brerew p. 65.  The Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as well a preparation and destination, as actual application to holiness; as Exod. 19.10 Josh. 3.5. & 7.3. Jerem. 1.5.  

3. Reason. B. White, ubi suprá.  If God at that time whereof Moses wrote did give any command to Adam to sanctify 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 toil; no necessity of sanctifying any day to God's worship, where every day should have been a day of rest, and the hole life a continual Sabbath.  
God would not then impose the Sabbath as a law when he himself broke it, 
4. Reason. D. Heilen. p. 9  for (according to Jerome and Catharinus) he formed Eve upon the seventh day, and so wrought upon it.  
God imposed upon Adam in Paradise no other positive Law, 
5. Reason. B. White, ubi suprá.  then that of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge.  
It is probable that Jacob whilst he kept Laban's sheep, 
6. Reason.  the Israelites while they were under the bondage of Pharaoh and his merciless taskmasters kept no Sabbath; but if it had been commanded sure it had been kept.  
Lastly, it is said Nehem. 9 vers. 13, 14. 
7. Reason.  Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, &c. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath.  
The authorities they allege are especially emergent from the Primitive Church.  
Justin Martyr leadeth the way; Before Moses, 
Dialog. cum Tryphone.  none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath.  
Let them show that the ancient Patriarchs did sabbatise, is Tertullian's 
a adv. Judaeos  challenge to the Jews.  
All the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath, saith 
b l. 4. c. 30.  Ireneus  
There was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs, as also none amongst us, so 
c Hist. Eccles. l. 1. c. 4.  Eusebius.  
When there was no Scripture nor Law divinely inspired the Sabbath was not consecrated to God, 
d Fid. Orth. l 4. c. 24.  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 marshaled, 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 myself to encounter the objections formerly made, and to lay open where they are crazy or invalid.  

Solut. of the 1. Reas.  Divine revelation is indeed the best means to understand God's will and act: and though the Scripture doth not mention God's express command to Adam, though we read it not said to him as after it was in the Law, Remember thou sanctify 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 God's 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 applied to sacred worship, saith 
a 2 2 ae. qu. 22· a●t. 4. ●●la dicuntur in Lege sanctificari quae divino cultui applicantur.  Aquinas: now if it was then applied 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 far the major part of learned men 
b Athanas. de Sabb. & circum. Genebrard. Chronol. l. 1. Zanch. de Ser. Bell. de v. Dei l. 4. c. 4. Pa●aeus Com. in Gen. 4. v. 3. Mercer. praelect. in Gen. Rawly Hist. l. 2. c. 4. S. 8.  affirmed that God dictated and prescribed to Adam all circumstances of his worship, which by tradition past to his posterity, and were in every several family until Moses observed; and it is in part evidently and infallibly confirmed by Scripture itself, for we read 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}, sin 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 viuâ voce, in an audible voice, there being not the same reason; and yet a command there might be internal though not external. God might by his guiding spirit direct Adam to sanctify the seventh day, as he did both him and other Patriarchs to other observances, if Aquinas 
a 1.2 ae. q 103. act. 1. Musculus in Gen. c. 4. v. 3.  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 historical narration of the praxis of those times, is also as weakly urged. You know Ab autoritate negatiuè nihil concluditur ex argumentis, Arguments drawn from silent authority conclude nothing. An axiom never firmer than when applied to the history of the world, from the Creation to the Law, the period of this discourse. There is no mention of Adam's 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 read 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 without 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 Paul's steeple in Hondius his map of the world. Abbridgements of stories are nets of a larger mash which only enclose great fishes, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, things worth mentioning; smaller fry, things of less consequence, escape them.  

De Incarn. Verbi.  Athanasius his rule is right enough itself, if it be not bowed by violence. Comparing the miracles of Christ with those of the Prophets, he demonstrateth the odds to be this; Christ was born of a Virgin, so none of them; Christ made the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the dumb 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 margin directs to the place omitted by the Bishop.  

Solut. of the 2. Reason.  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 holiness; doth this preparation exclude application thereunto? Nay doth not preparation imply application, are they not coordinate and coincident together? Examine the places quoted, and see if they will not confess as much. 
Exod. 19.10.  Moses was commanded to sanctify the Israelites the third day, that is, to prepare them, as you say: To prepare them? how? nothing but to have them in a readiness, that they lazily wait the time or so? no there is more in it yet: application to holiness you shall meet with positive, Let them wash their clothes, vers. 10. negative, Come not at your wives, vers. 15. A thing so clear as the very Heathen were enlightened with it, and not only in the general decorum of it, which they couched under their Ite, missa est, or Procul ô procul este profani, Hence all profane, before their sacrifices; but some glimpse they had even of those external Mosaical ceremonies I now mentioned: Preparatory lotions they had before they durst approach their sacred mysteries. 
Virg. Aen. 2.  Aeneas would not so much as touch his Tutelary Gods, till he might rinse himself in fountain water. Abstinence also from the nuptial bed was at least for one night interdicted: 
— Discedite ab aris  
Queis tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus, 
Tibul. l. 2· El. 1.   
Casta placent superis.   
And though we read in this Text only of external preparatory rites enjoined, yet must we know that they were but as significant emblems of that spiritual preparation, which should truly dispose the soul in a sanctified frame for the approaching near that God which is clothed in majesty and honour. Apply that which I have now said for illustration of this portion of Exodus to those parallel places of Joshua, and there will only remain that of Jeremy unanswered, where the Prophet is said to be sanctified in his mother's womb; 
cap. 1. v. 5.  which I confess could no otherways be then in the preordination of God. But what? because the word signifieth Destination in Jeremy, must it needs infer as much in Genesis? I see no such law imposed upon Interpreters: That of Jeremy could not without extreme violence be wrested to any other sense then that of Destination, which out of Gen. 2. is neither necessarily nor probably emergent.  

Solut. of the 3. Reas.  I see no necessity that the Institution, Genesis 2. must suppose it to be in Paradise, and before the fall, for it is not improbable (I determine nothing) that Adam sinned and was expelled out of Paradise the very day he was formed, as the Fathers almost universally have thought, from whose full consent in this point proceeded that Greek saying, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, The same day he was created he fell.  
Neither was Paradise (in my opinion) compounded of any such ingredients as would in no wise incorporate with a Sabbath: it was indeed a place exempted from the works both of toil and sin, and therefore no otium to refresh the body, no Sabbath to sanctify the soul, in respect either of the one or the other, necessary. And though the whole tract of time spent in that innocent condition might worthily seem a continued Sabbath, yet some parts and portion even of that time should (I conceive) have been allotted to a more solemn worship than others. For God imposed upon man a calling of husbandry: should he so incessantly have intended his tillage, as never to intermit, never to give over? should he have spared no time to exercise himself in the contemplation of his creator, the truest object of perfect beatitude? or could he simul & semel at one instant, intend both his vocation and God's worship? God created in him the natural appetite of food and sleep: Is it likely that Adam would have applied himself either to repast or repose, without some more than ordinary thanksgiving. It is by all confessed that in Adam's heart the Law of nature was most perfectly implanted and imprinted; and as unanimously agreed, that to consecrate some time to the worship of God was and is a member of that Law; nay more than so it must be certum aliquod tempus, some certain and determinate time, 
tossed. in Exod. 20. qu. 11.  as the very Atlas of the Prolepsis Tostatus assureth us: which being granted it followeth that the state of innocency was no bar or obstacle to the seposing times, not only occasional, and pro renata, but set and constant, to the service of God.  
That God framed Eve upon the seventh day, is a most horrible and gross untruth, 
Solut. of the 4. Reas.  and giveth the lie to Moses, or rather to the holy Ghost, who saith, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, 
Gen. 2.1.  and all the host of them, that is, all things visible and invisible, according to the Nicene Creed; and this was before God's rest on the seventh day: and evident it is that the hole second Chapter of Genesis, from the fourth verse to the twenty fifth, is but a larger narration by way of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or postscript, of what was most remarkable in the third and sixth days work, and was for brevity sake omitted in the first chapter, but upon weighty cause mentioned in the second. For, as S. 
a Hexaem. Hom. 11.  Basil excellently, If Moses had only said that God made man, thou mightest have thought that he made him after the same manner that he created brutes, plants, and herbs; therefore to denote to thee that thou oughtest to have nothing common with unreasonable creatures, the Scripture hath mentioned a peculiar and distinct work of God in framing thee.  
Besides, it is most evident out of Genesis 1.27. that Adam and Eve were both created on the sixth day; Male and female created he them, not by Prolepsis (as they fancy) but really & truly upon that very day  
That wherewith they would palliate this error, is the second verse of Genesis 2. On the seventh day God ended his work: whence they collect that he wrought upon part of it (which meaning a learned commentator 
b Mercer. in loc.  acknowledgeth the Text will bear) and because Eve is the last work of creation whereof the Scripture maketh mention, they infer that she must have been formed on the seventh day. But to uncase this foul error, and to show it in its proper deformities, is no hard task. What meaning the Text will bear, is many times not so considerable as what the Context 
c Ex antecedentibus & consequentibus colligitur verus Scripturae sensus, Aug. De doct. Christ. c. 31. : {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or contradiction is for the Spirit of Truth no companion; nor will he own that sense which maketh him speak things repugnant. If in the end of the sixth day God beheld all that he had made, c. 1.31. and had finished the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, c. 2.1. what could be left for him to finish and actually to perfect on the seventh day? Well; but then there is an interfering, a jarring betwixt Scripture and Scripture, how shall they be reconciled? I answer, It is not amiss to acquaint you, that whereas the Hebrew readeth it, And on the seventh day God ended his work, the Septuagint and Samaritans 
a Seld. Marm. Arundel.  render it, On the sixth day God ended his work: perhaps those copies which they followed expressed it so, or else their aim was to suppress the seeming discord, which they knew not otherwise how to salve. A discord indeed I confess there is, yet such an one as disturbeth not the sacred harmony; yea, rather a discord elegantly graceful. For you must know that in no operation the end is attained whilst the operation is in progression and until it ceaseth 
a In motu continuo quamdiu aliquid potest mover● ulteriùs non dicitur motus perfectus, Aquin. p. 1. qu. 73 art. 1. ; rest being Perficientis perfectio & perfecti 
c Scal. Exerc. , The perfection of the perficient and of the thing perfected. Now because rest demonstrateth the motion consummated, therefore God is said most properly to have perfected his work on the seventh day whereon he rested; so that the finishing and perfecting mentioned in this verse or period is no actual operation, but a mere desisting à motu creationis. And indeed Moses giveth the honour of the perfection of the world to both the sixth and the seventh day, not without great and weighty cause: to the sixth, to exclude all thought that God wrought upon the seventh; to the seventh, to assure us that he did not rest and give over on the sixth: For the end of the sixth day gave end to the work of creation and denihilation, and the beginning of the seventh gave beginning to God's rest. Therefore it is said that On the seventh day God perfected the work which he had made, viz. on the six days before; whence it is that Junius and Mercer 
a In loc.  render it in the preterpluperfect tense, Cùm absolvisset Deus, When God had now perfected his work, meaning that as soon as the seventh day arrived, it might be truly said, God had now perfected his work 
b Ubi primùm dies septimus advenisset, verum erat de Deo dicere, quòd jam complesset opus suam, Merc. in loc. : And perfected it was undoubtedly on the sixth day; God did not abruptly break off till he had throughly perfected all. I confess the Jews tell us a pretty story 
c Rabbi Abraham. author libri Zeror Hammor (vel fasciculus myrrhae apud Buxdors.) in Gen. , How that God about the end of the sixth day was making fauns, satyrs, and such imperfect creatures, and that the evening of the Sabbath overtook him so fast, that he was fain to leave them but half made up: and therefore on the Sabbath days these creatures usually hide themselves in their kennels, not daring to look out. A perfect Jewish fable, and by Mercer suspected to be rather derived from Tradition and hearsay, then from any Hebrew author extant, because he could never in all his reading light upon him: for the satisfying of the like doubt in others, I have troubled my margin with the authors name as I find him cited by 
a De Praestigiis lib. 1. c. 6. Sol. of the 5. Reason.  Wierus.  
That God gave but one positive law to Adam in Paradise, is neither in itself likely, nor in respect of repugnant Scripture credible: for is it not said that God put Adam into the garden to dress it? was not this a command? Augustine 
b De Gen. ad lit. l. 8. c. 8.  holdeth clear it was so: if a command, than a law; for Lex dicitur à ligando, A law is called a law because it bindeth 
c Aqu. 1.2 ae. qu. 90. , and every command is, so far as it bindeth, a law. If then it was a law, it must be either merely natural, or positive; if merely natural, then immutable, still in force, and we must all, tag and rag, turn gardiners or plowmen: if it was positive, than their Prolepsis halteth on that foot. Consider the Law itself, and you shall see the positive accrue to the natural by way of superfoetation; Man must be always busy, always in action, there is the natural; his employment is limited to tilling of the garden, there is the positive law. But if Adam's apostasy and fall was the same day he was formed, as many have thought, and is still disputable, this argument might well have been spared, because the command concerning sanctifying the Sabbath might have been given in his corrupt and vitiated estate.  
If we should yield them, 
Solut. of the 6. Reas.  what they fain would have, viz. that Jacob and the Israelites observed no Sabbath during their thraldom, yet shall they never be able to infer from thence, that they had no command concerning it. For did they always observe whatsoever was commanded them? Moses said to Pharaoh in the person of God, 
Exod. 5. v. 1.  Let my people go that they may hold a Feast to me in the wilderness. Was not this Feast some solemn time consecrated and commanded of God to be observed? no doubt it was; for will-worship is to God abominable: Did they keep this Feast? Certainly no. It is resolved by all Divines, ancient and modern, the Patriarchs before the Law were by God appointed to offer sacrifice: Did the Israelites under Pharaoh keep this commandment? the Scripture answereth, No. God strictly enjoined that every male child eight days old should be circumcised: was this performed by the Israelites in the wilderness? the Scripture answereth, No: there was not one circumcised all that while, and yet they abode there forty years. Now if they had upon such occasions a dispensation for not observing of other feasts, for not sacrificing, for not circumcising, might they not have one for the weekly Sabbath also?  

Solut. of the last Reason.  To their last argument from Nehemiah, I say, The Sabbath was at the time of the law given made known to them, yet not then first, but in a more solemn manner then before. We have a saying, none more frequent: when the sun hath dispelled a cloud or mist, and showeth itself in its brightness, we then say the sun shineth, and yet no man is so simple but knoweth it shined before, even while it was most befogged, though not with equal splendour: So the Sabbath is said to be made known to the Israelites upon mount Sinai, because it was then as it were revived, and proclai●●d in more state and pomp then before. And if you restrain it strictly to mount Sinai, as the letter seemeth to import, you must of necessity offer violence to Exodus 16, where at the fall of Manna it is clear the Sabbath was made known before the Law pronounced on mount Sinai: And so the Prolepsis faileth in this her last refuge as in the former.  
Having thus disarmed them of those Reasons wherewith they esteemed themselves sufficiently fortified, I now apply myself to their Authority, the Authority of men, many of them, singular both for learning and piety: But shall we without more ado yield to bare Authority? Doth the end of dispute depend merely upon what they have said? May we not examine the matter yet a little further? May we not question whether these men spoke as they meant, whether their arguments jumped together? for did they always so? No, if Jerome be of any credit; 
Veteres interdum coguntur loqui, non quod sentiunt, sed quod necesse esse ducunt adversùs ea quae dicunt Gentiles.  The Ancients are sometimes enforced to speak, not so much what themselves think, as what they conceive may most nonplus the Gentiles. This was their policy against the Heathen, might not they use it also against the Jews, with whom they were in continual conflict? If they spoke as they thought, might not vehemency of dispute transport them to inconsiderate speeches in their heat, and through too eager opposition to one error to incur the contrary: The Ancients, 
Veteres dum unum errorem, omnium virium conatu, destruere adnituntur, saepe in alterum deciderunt.  whilst might and main they endeavour to beat down one error, many times fall into another. So 
a Praefat. l. 3. Bibliothec.  Sixtus Senensis. A thing too infallibly true; witness 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 necessity, but upon the ruins of that error 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 scan and sift the point, did they ruminate upon what they delivered, or did it rather carelessly escape from them in passage? 
b Quivis, vel doctissimus vir, aliter habendus est cùm salurat quaestionem, & perstringit leviter; aliter cùm in manus sumit, atque excu●it, Winton. Opusc. posth. de usuris.  Every man though never so learned is one way to be esteemed when he only glanceth upon the question, otherwise when he undertaketh to examine and discuss 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 father's aforesaid from Pelagianism in the point of original sin, and Freewill. Many things indeed go a while for granted, and without control, 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 frolic one from another, and so, in a plodding carelessness, 
a Tacitus. Quò plures eunt, omnes sequuntur. Humanum est errare.  which way most go all follow.  
But all these exceptions laid aside, one there is from which no appeal will be admitted, It is natural to man to err. Men they were and might err, 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 myself, (they were 
b Epist. l. 2. Epist. ad Bez. Demeloquor deque meo ingenio, A communi Patrum consensu, nullâ cogente necessitate, dissentire mihi summa est religio.  Zanchy's words once, but shall now be mine) and mine own Genius I speak it, From the unanimous consent of the Fathers, where necessity compelleth not, I am very scrupulous to differ. No, my only scope and intention is to tell you what Saint Augustine 
c Epist. 19  hath told me, That human authority, though never so learned, never so holy, is not to be trusted, unless it produceth canonical Scripture to prove, or probable reason to demonstrate, what it saith. How far the Fathers slipped 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 Nihil faciliùs est quàm dicere, Tropus est, Figura est, Modus quidam dicendi est, Aug. de Doctr. Christ. l. 3. c. 10. oh  Nothing is easier than to cry out, O that is a Trope, a Figure, a peculiar manner of expression. A strange wantonness in expositors, to apply Tropes devised upon necessity to places clear as the midday. That (according to Augustine's 
b Oratio figurata est, quae proptiè intellecta, nec ad fidem, nec ad dilectionem, nec ad ullam aedificationem accommodari potest, ibid.  rule) is a figurative speech, which being properly understood, can neither be applied to Faith, charity, nor Edification. Somewhat fuller is that of Bellarmine; 
c Oportet Scripturam intelligere secund●m verbor●m proptietatem, ubi non cogimur evidenti absurdo, De Bapt. l. 1. c. 4.  The Scripture ought to be understood according to the true propriety of the words, where we are not diverted by some manifest absurdity: and this he calleth, Commune axioma Theologorum, the universal tenet of all Divines; which I take to be granted on all parts, the rather because neither Chamier, Amesius nor any other (as far as I have examined) hath accriminated the Jesuit for it. Now lest we should misconstrue the word Absurd, he explaineth himself in another place thus, 
d Nisi cogamur ab aliqua alia Scriptura, vel ab aliquo articulo fidei, aut certè à communi totius Ecclesiae explicatione, De Euch. lib. 1. c. 9  unless we be enforced by some other portion of Scripture, or other article of Faith, or the universal 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 days' 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 general explication of the hole Church repugnant to it? Is there any absurdity compelleth us to think otherwise? Ostendant, let them show it; which till they do, let them give us leave to hold our first opinion, to which the absurdity of the Prolepsis hath compelled us.  

1. absurdity.  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 Habet venerationem ● justam quicquid excellit, Cic. De Nat. Deor. l. 1.  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 Aqu. 2.2 ae. q. 122. art. 4.  deputed. Is it likely that the Patriarchs failed in so necessary a duty? was God's 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, 
Gen. 7. ●.  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 De Civ. Dei. l. 15. c. 7.  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 Part. 2. p. 67.  Brerewood calleth them) what are they but Vacation or Rest from bodily labour, and the Sanctification of that rest by dedicating the soul to God's worship? Were the bodies both of man and beast before the Law of a more brassy and adamantine durableness then after? were they not conditioned, not attempered alike? was not the sweet repose of lucid intervals equally necessary and welcome to both? Did not devout sequestration to pious exercises as well suit 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 indelible memory, and that whilst man is amused with admiration of so miraculous a structure he may be excited to a grateful recognition of the goodness of God, who created all these things for man, and only man for himself? Is not this benefit of Creation common and universal? do not all participate of it, but the elect especially and inexplicably? Had not the Church before Moses as ample a share in the blessings which result from it, as that since? and ought it not then as freely, as frequently to celebrate its sacred festival? If then before and since the Law there were the same reasons, sure there was also the same thing observed, yea and the same commanded; for from the Reason to the Law, from the Cause to the Effect, from the End to the Means, is a solid argument, and never faileth but when that end may be acquired by a better means; and impossible it is to demonstrate how the tired bodies both of man and beast could have been more charitably provided for, God's solemn worship in a more sweet decorum performed, and the memory of the Creation better preserved from the immerging deluge of time, and profaneness, by any day other than the weekly Sabbath, the day which God indigitated for the same purposes by his own example; an example equivalent to a Law: For though there had been no vocal, no verbal institution of the Sabbath, yet Adam and the succeeding Patriarchs (who had a view and clear notion of all God's works, their orderly existencies, and exact consummation; but especially who were manuducted and guided by an inerring spirit) could not but collect from God's example 
a Omnis actio Dei nobis pietatis & virtutis est regula, Basil. Ascet.  the analogical equity for man to employ six days in the works of his calling, and to interferiate the seventh, consecrating that to religious duties. And therefore that main Argument from the want of a solemn Institution, is but like a ruffled arrow, that maketh a great noise in the air, but falleth short of the mark: For the controversy is not de Modo, neither of the command, whether internal or external, nor of the observation, whether voluntary or imposed by precept; but de Re, whether it was or observed or commanded yea or nay: that it was observed, the equity thereof common and agreeable to both times evinceth; and observed it could not be otherwise then in obedience to command, either prolated or tacitly inspired by the holy Ghost: for impute we must not to those sanctified men superstitious and will-worship. If then the Sabbath was both observed and commanded before the Law, why might not the command arise out of God's blessing and sanctifying the seventh day, mentioned Gen. 2.3? why should we not rather embrace the proper and grammatical sense of the words, then resort to a peerless and senseless Prolepsis that hath neither fellow to associate, nor reason to strengthen it?  
It hath not its match in the hole sacred volume, 
2. Absurdity.  which is another note of its absurdity: There is not one Prolepsis (of such an Institution, 
Medul Theol. lib. 2. cap. 15.  saith Amesius) of any Institution at all (so I, and yet I doubt not to find many seconds.) One place there is, I grant, which at the first blush seemeth to persuade the contrary: but upon more mature consideration it exhibiteth nothing less. The text is, Exod. 16.32. The words these, This is that which the Lord commandeth, fill an Omer thereof (viz. of the Manna) to be kept for your generations, &c. And as the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept. 
D. Heilen, part. 1. cap, 1. p. 10.  Lo here (say they) an Institution of the Lords related by anticipation, as the former was: for how could Aaron lay up a pot of Manna to be kept before the Testimony, when as yet there was neither Ark nor Tabernacle, and so no Testimony before which to keep it.  
An Institution indeed I see here, but no Anticipation, nor can I without your spectacles: I say, no Anticipation of the Institution. For might not (I pray) this command, this Institution, be dictated to Moses at the same time whereof he wrote? might not the precept be given now, though the execution of the precept was adjourned? nay, is it not most likely it was so? for where in the hole bible meet you with any injunction concerning it but here: touching the building of the Tabernacle, and the ordering every thing else appertaining to it, God did exactly lesson Moses on the mount, but of the filling the pot of Manna, and placing it before the Testimony, no hint at all was given there, nor anywhere else but here only. And though we should grant that this command was given after the Tabernacle finished, yet cannot the mentioning of it here be properly said to be by Prolepsis. This narration taken hole and together is (I confess) mentioned by Prolepsis; not so the parts of it: Hole and Part have not things so common betwixt them, that what belongeth to the hole, 
Quicquid totius est, idem & partis.  belongeth also to the part. A total Prolepsis of an entire story before another there may be, and yet no partial of one part of that story before another: the parts may be marshaled in their due order, though the hole be antedated. All that series of Divine story, from Genesis to Job, may be said to be related by Prolepsis; for it is the currant opinion that Job was comtemporary with Jacob and Joseph: but improper it were to say that the fall of Manna, the giving of the Law, the building of Solomon's Temple, and such particulars, are, in respect of the history of Job, set down by way of Prolepsis. Prolepsis only aimeth at what is next her; she beholdeth not things remote: So it is in this text; the verses from the 27 to the end of the chapter constitute a narration distinct, and in a canton by itself. For Moses having, in the former 26 verses, reported so much of the history of Manna, as was peculiar to that time whereof he wrote, thought it not amiss to superadd what else concerned it (though he delayed a while the ensuing occurrents, which should have been precedents to it) because it being not much he had to say, and that so homogeneal with what went before, he was resolved to take now an ultimum vale of it: therefore he telleth you of an after ordinance of God, concerning the filling an urn with Manna, the disposing of it before the Testimony, the execution of that command by Aaron, and lastly the duration of the use thereof by the Israelites forty-year; which last is supposed to be the supplement of Joshua or Eleazar. If now you consider this digression, abstracted from the ensuing story, you will find the hole preposterously related, and yet the parts not at all inordinate; and if you look wistly upon Calvin's 
a In Exod.  words, you shall find him not repugnant to what I have here delivered.  
Lastly, it is absurd: 
Last Absurdity.  for there can no solid reason be given why Moses should by a Prolepsis of about 2670 years insert this Institution. 
Brerew. p. 66.  It could not be to instruct the Israelites, that God's resting from his works on the seventh day was the reason why he had selected and appointed by his commandment given to them that day rather than any other to be sanctified for his Sabbath. Indeed if the fourth commandment had only mentioned the seventh day to be the Sabbath, without more ado, and had suppressed the reason, Moses had had fit occasion to give them here this observation: But seeing that Reason was fully and with indelible characters engraven in the Decalogue, it had been mere supervacaneous and impertinent tautology to recite it here; especially considering it is the most received opinion, that Moses compiled the history of Genesis after the Law was promulgated on mount Sinai, and so this reason was no news to them.  
If any, notwithstanding these gross and palpable absurdities, seemeth desperately enamoured of this forlorn and despicable Prolepsis, enjoy her he shall without me his rival, I envy him not.  
Come we now to survey that little which the Divine remembrancer hath afforded us of the actual observation of the Sabbath before the Law; whereof two only examples are extant, the one for the observation notable, the other for the violation.  
For the observation, we read, Exod. 16.22. when the Israelites had on the sixth day gathered twice as much Manna as on any other day before, the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses, and he said to them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: We do not find here that the Israelites were amused at the word Sabbath, that they expostulated with themselves (as before concerning Manna) what it should be; no, they knew well enough what it was, with the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord they had been long acquainted, it was no novelty to them; the new attendance, and long train of strict observances that now waited on it were the things so puzzled, so possessed them with wonder of a How is it changed from what it was? 
Quantum mutatus ab illo?  Their old wont was to dress their necessary viands upon the Sabbath, and being now interrupted, now disturbed in their accustomed practice, by an uncouth innovation of Bake that which you will bake to day, and seethe that which you will seethe, and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept until the morning, well might they be in a study, well demand a reason of this change. And whereas it is by some stiffly affirmed, that the Jews did bake their Manna on the Sabbath day, an opinion ascribed to Theophilus Brabourn, 
Heilen, p. 1. pag. 108.  the first (as my author telleth me) that looked so near into Moses his meaning; he must know, that in optics, amongst other requisites to perfect discerning, justa distantia, 
a Bacon. Persp. Dist. 8.  a fit distance, is one; and Mr Brabourn might perhaps by looking too near see to little: where the fault was, whether in this, or in some defect of the organ (his understanding) or through what other cause, I not dispute; sure I am that an hallucination, an error of the sight there was, and that a gross one. The paraphrase they give of this Text, Bake that which you will bake to day, &c. is this, As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day, that bake or boil as you use to do, and for the rest lay it up to be baked or boiled to morrow: and to this interpretation they the rather betake them, because the Israelites laid it up as Moses bade, and it did not stink; now (say they) it had been no wonder at all, that it did neither breed worm, nor stink, had it been baked the day before: Things of that nature, so preserved, are far enough from putrifying in so short a space.  
Not to dwell long in discussing this point: They have mistaken both God's miracle and Moses his meaning. God's miracle; for the baking or boiling excludeth not the miracle of its not putrifying: things so dressed are indeed the less disposed to corrupt; therefore the putrefaction which Manna contracted by procrastination on other days, notwithstanding the same order taken for preservation of it by baking and boiling, was the greater miracle: and because it tainted against nature, and miraculously reserved upon other days, God's ceasing to work the same miracle upon the Sabbath might itself seem a miracle. The mind of Moses they have not reached, whose words resolve themselves into this construction, What you mean to bake, bake to day, what to seethe, seethe to day, and what remaineth (not unbaked or unboyled but) of that which you have baked, or boiled, more than sufficient for this day's food, lay up for you to eat to morrow: and therefore Jerome hath rendered it, Quodcunque operandum est facite, Whatsoever belongeth to the dressing of the Manna, dispatch it now. But to put it out of all doubt, that this error may never readvance, God himself, vers. 5. commanded Moses that the people should Prepare that which they bring in, and it should be twice as much as they gathered daily: what was this Preparing but dressing, but cooking of it? so the English will bear; and by a word of the same energy and signification it is rendered in, I am sure, most Translations; so the Septuagint, so Jerome, so the Spanish, so the French: a thing so manifest, as the very Friday was thence denominated {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the Preparation to the Sabbath.  
For the violation of the Sabbath, we have it recorded vers. 27. that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather, and they found none: this I conceive most likely to have reference to the chap. 18. v. 12.  
Now, because it is held by some that the primum esse and first dawning of the Sabbath began at this fall of Manna, though I hope I have already sufficiently proved the contrary, I would further know, why it should begin then, and but then: was it to chalk out to the Israelites the precise seventh day from the Creation, whereof they were at that time ignorant? It could not be; for of the seventh day whereon God rested they were not, they could not be ignorant: in some profane and irreligious houses it might perhaps have been lost, but in others more piously affected it was certainly preserved. For it is most undeniable, and irrefragably true what Sr. Walter Raleigh 
a Hist. lib. 1. p. 1. c. 8. s. 6.  hath delivered (and it is in substance affirmed by many others) That if the story of the Creation had not been written by divine inspiration, yet it is manifest, that the knowledge thereof might by Tradition (then used) be delivered unto Moses, by a more certain presumption, than any or all the testimonies which profane antiquity had preserved, and left to their successors. And this he proveth by the light which Moses might have, either by Cabala or letters: For that the most notable occurrents of every several age were transmitted downwards by tradition and hearsay, is without all controversy 
a Basil Schol. in Psal. 77.2. ; and for letters, it is so clear they had the benefit of them, as some have not set down content to believe that the prophecy of Enoch, mentioned by S. Jude, was written; and that what Josephus relateth of the Pillars errected by the posterity of Seth, is true; but they conceive also that Adam and all the succeeding Patriarchs compiled the histories of their own times. But how Moses attained his knowledge, I leave to the disquisition of them who affect curiosities: yet this give me leave to note as received amongst the best Divines, That the holy Ghost was not so much an intelligencer, as a directer and guide to Moses in the framing the history of Genesis. For the omniscient wisdom, foreseeing that it would not be always safe to make Tradition the perpetual depositary of so rare & choice a jewel as the story of his Primitive Church, which might either through carelessness loose part of what was betrusted to her, or under colour of sole possessing the Truth, vend counterfeit and sophisticate stuff, thought it necessary for the good of his Church, that a set and certain story of the first times should be compiled: to which purpose he selected Moses as his Amanuensis and Register, aiding him extraordinarily with his holy Spirit, by whose assistance he was enabled to distinguish truth from fables, which had by surreption intruded; exactly to describe many minute circumstances of time, place, persons, names, &c. which memory was not able to comprehend, and to digest it into that perfect order wherein we now see it. So that one way or other, either by tradition or letters, or both, the precise seventh day could not at that time have been lost or forgot, and consequently that no cause for the Sabbath to begin at the fall of Manna. And was there any other? what? To be a preamble and preparation to the subsequent Sabbath? this would be proved. A preparation to the after strictness of the Sabbath it was, that I confess; not to the Sabbath itself, this I deny: an introduction it might be to the solemnity of the Sabbath, which began after, not so to the Sabbath itself, which was long before. For though it was but in its minority, but magni nominis umbra, a very shadow of the after celebrity, yet a Sabbath it was, and the seventh day Sabbath too; and this not my singular assertion, but the consent of the most profound doctors, as well ancient as modern. So the Fathers.  
Origen, 
a Quae in Lege post hac praecepta sunt de sabbato, haec nimirum anticipans Job, & ipse implevit, & filios implere docuit, Hom. sup. Job. c. 1. v. 5  What was afterward commanded in the Law concerning the Sabbath, the same Job both observed himself, and taught his children to do the like.  
Cyprian 
b Septenarius hic numerus à conditione mundi autoritatem obtinuit, &c. De Spiritu sancto. , This septenary number gained Authority from the creation of the world, because the first works of God were made in six days, and the seventh was dedicated to rest as sacred; it being honoured with the solemnity of a command, and entitled to the sanctifying Spirit.  
Basil 
c Per●ectae qu●e●s & remissioni● peccatorum signum est septimus à primo●ciis generationis dies, Hexaem. , The Sabbath, which was the seventh day from the first creation, is a type of our perfect Rest in the remission of our sins.  
Nazianzen 
d Creatio principium à die Dominico accepit; ideo liquet, quòd septimus ab ea dies Sabbatum efficitur, nimirum cessationem ab operibus ferens, In Nov. Dom. , The Creation began on the Lord's day as is evident, because the seventh from it is made the Sabbath bringing rest from labours.  
Athanasius 
e Quamdiu prior aetas & cr●atio vim su●m & efficaciam obtinebat, tam diu Sabbata suam observationem habuere, De Sabb. & Circum. , As long as the first age or Creation was enforce, so long the Sabbath was observed.  
Epiphanius 
f Contra Ebionaos, p. 73. To {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  mentioneth a twofold Sabbath under the old Law: the natural or Weekly, which was defined from the Creation; the legal or ceremonial, which was enjoined by the law of Moses.  
At the heels of the Fathers follow the Schoolmen, who busying themselves about nicer subtleties have left us little of their opinions concerning the Sabbath.  
Alexander Halensis, 
a Part. 3. quaest. 32. memb. 3. art. 1.  the irrefragable doctor, though he thinketh the Sabbath was not observed by virtue of any precept before the Law, yet he granteth that it was inspired as a thing meet and fit to be observed.  
All these before Ambrose Catharine; 
b Com. in 〈◊〉  he than not the first that understood Moses according to the letter, nor yet the last, no not of his own party.  
Genebrard, 
c In Paradiso fuit Sabbati sanctificatio, quod & observatum toto Legis naturae tempore tradunt Hebraei & Lyranus in Gen. 7. Chron. ad annum Mundi. 1.  The Sabbath was sanctified in Paradise, which was also observed all the time till the Law promulgated, as the Hebrews and Lyranus upon Gen. 7. deliver. And in another place he telleth us out of Rabbi Abraham that Job did observe it.  
Cornelius à lapide, 
d Patet Sabbatum institutum fuisse & sancitum primitus non à Mose, Exod. 20. sed longè anter●ùs, pu●à ab origine mundi.  It is manifest that the Sabbath was instituted and established, not first by Moses, Exod. 20. but long before, to wit, from the beginning of the world. Salianus also in his ecclesiastical Annals, doth at large refute the Prolepsis as absurd.  
As for Protestant writers, whether they be Lutherans, Calvinists, or our own English, we dare vie it with the Anticiparians, and give them odds, two for one at least, and bate the preciser sort too.  
Luther 
e Sabbatum ab initio mundi destinatum est ad cultum Dei, Com. in Gen.  himself shall lead the van, The Sabbath was destined from the beginning of the world to religious worship. Baldwin, 
f Sabbatum ab initio mundi observatum est, Cas. Conscien. circa Fest. l. 2 c. 13. Cas. 2.  The Sabbath was observed from the Creation. Calvin in Exod. apud 
a Praelect. de Sabb.  Prideaux.  
Gualther, 
b Non dubium quin Patres ante legem diligenter observarint Sabbatum, in Matth.  doubtless the Fathers before the Law diligently observed the Sabbath.  
P. Martyr, 
c In Gen. 2.  That people rest from labour one day in the week, did not only appertain to Moses Law, but had beginning from Gen. 2.  
Zanchy, 
d 
Ego quidem non dubito, &c.  
De Creatione Hominis, l. 1.   I doubt not (mine own I relate without prejudice to others opinions) I doubt not, I say, but the son of God in human shape was all this seventh day busied in most holy colloquies with Adam; but he fully revealed himself to him and Eve, showed him how and in what order he created all things, wished him to meditate upon these works, and in them to praise and acknowledge the True God his creator, & taught him that after his example every seventh day, all labour set aside, he should spend in this exercise of piety, &c. What could modesty herself more modestly assever? he doth not imperiously obtrude for truth what he saith, he only telleth you his own conceit; and it hath ever been permitted for men in such cases as this, both to think what they will, and speak what they think, as the Historian saith. Can any therefore but wonder that the bare delivery of a private opinion, so soberly without encroachment upon others liberties, should gain the author no better esteem then to be reckoned amongst lying Legendaries and fabulous rabbins? What Zanchy was, his works speak him: a learned and good man, in that repute he lived, in that he died. I never heard him defamed for a Palephatus or tale-coiner till now, and I hope never shall again.  

a Catech. Part. 3.  Ursin, The Sabbath was commanded from the beginning of the world by God unto all men.  

b Decad. 3. Serm. 5. le Sabbat. este obserué, &c.  Bullinger, The Sabbath was observed from the beginning of the world by a law natural and divine.  

c Thes. 33. art. 2. Praeceptum Sabbati sancitum fuit in ipsa mundi creatione, etiam ante hominis Lapsum.  Beza, The Precept of the Sabbath was established in the very Creation of the world, even before man's fall; and elsewhere he saith that Job did sanctify at least every seventh day. A saucy fellow to control Justin Martyr his better; and therefore is taught manners by my author: 
d D. Heilen. p. 1. pag. 58.  Hence forward he must know his distance. Comparisons (Gentle Sir) the Proverb saith are odious; therefore this excursion might (no disparagement to your discretion) have been spared. Yet hath your luxuriancy erred not more in civility then morality: you impute this opinion to Beza as a device of his own, which were it true, yet your presumption exceedeth your knowledge: for how, I pray, is it possible for you to be assured of this, unless Beza had either mediately or immediately revealed it to you? and if he did not, you were very rash, very ill advised, to father it on him, when as I have proved he might probably enough have derived the opinion from Origen, or R. Abraham, if not from others.  
Junius, 
e Deus institutum Sabbati exemplo suo ac cessatione, &c. Anal. in Gen. 2.  God gave Testimony of the Institution of the Sabbath by his own exemplary Rest, and by Instituting it in the Church, that Adam and Eve (then living) might acknowledge that day to be holy by the Ordinance of God.  
Pareus, 
f Deus in prima creatione Sabbati sanctificationem sanxit, & haud dubiè in familiis sanctorum Patrum sedulò observata fuit, Com. in Gen.  God sanctified the Sabbath in the very prime Creation, and doubtless that sanctification was observed in the patriarchal families.  
I could tire both the Reader and myself, should I amass all foreigners, whose suffrage hath been given for this patriarchal Sabbath; if any desireth further authorities, I transmit him to Rivet or Waleus, who can furnish him completely.  
To come home and encounter Tostatus with one of our own, in dignity of Order a Bishop, in that his Match, and for learning so beyond him, as (if I might use your liberty of comparison) I might say he is but another Didymus, a mere scribbler to this man. The beginning of the Sabbath, saith he, 
Winton. Catechist. Doct. in 4. precept.  was in Paradise before there was any sin, and so before there needed any Saviour, and so before there was any ceremony or figure of a Saviour.  
I could produce Perkins, Willet, Babington, Amesius, &c. all famous lights of our Church, and that most incomparable piece, the Practice of piety; but because it will perhaps be thought that their affection was better than their judgement, I forbear them, and the rather because also our most rational adversaries begin to reel towards us: Brerewood confesseth it to be instituted in Paradise, 
p. 63.  which is as much as any ever affirmed; for according to the Canonists, Leges instituuntur cùm promulgantur, 
Dist. 4. can. In istis temporalibus.  Laws are then instituted when they are promulgated: and though he explaineth himself afterward, denying the commandment to be then instituted, yet this he acknowledgeth that God's resting from Creation (his Sabbath) and resting in himself (the sanctification of it) might be exemplary, though not obligatory to men to observe the Sabbath then. Nor doth 
a Praelect. de Sabbato.  Prideaux vary much from him: which is enough, for if it be granted that Adam or the Patriarchs observed it, we shall soon discover a command.  
Having thus laid down the Arguments which support the Prolepsis, and to every one fitted the proper solution, having also set before you those reasons which most seem to advantage the grammatical sense, and having with authority encountered authority, I desire now nothing more than a neutral Judge, and that this difference may have the same decision which Aristippus 
b Diog. Laert. in vit. Arist.  advised in another case, Mitte ambas ad ignotos; Let disinteressed arbitrators end it. And thus I have finished my first stage.   

God's Sabbath under the Law.  
THe precedent discourse was spent in the discovery of a Sabbath before the Law; a time (for so much as concerneth God's external worship) nearest allied to Varro's {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or uncertain time before the Ogygian flood. 
Apud Censorinum.  Our next station must be under the Law, a time more enlightened with the ray of divine Story than the former: yet is not the light, even of this time, so uniform, so evenly diffused, but that some opaque parts are therein discerned. For though we are not now (as before) at a loss for a Sabbath, yet doth not the Sabbath we discern show itself in so perfect lineaments and just proportion, as excludeth all diversity of opinion concerning it. The questions indeed which relate to it are neither very numerous, nor absolutely necessary to be discussed; yet as they are by accident subservient to my ensuing tract, an elucidation I must and will afford them, according to that order wherein method disposeth them, which I take to be this.  
Some result from the precept, some again from the practice: from the precept, Quis, Quibus, Quid.  
Quis, Who gave the precept? Who promulgated it? And this question is not peculiar to the fourth precept distinctly taken, but only as it is a member of the decalogue, whereof the question is especially made: for controverted it is, whether the ten Commandments were on mount Sinai promulgated by God's immediate voice, or the ministry of his Angels, or one or more. And not unworthily: for Moses seemeth to attribute it to God himself; but Stephen, Acts 7. vers. 38.53. and Paul, Gal. 3.19. and Heb. 2.2. to the Angels: in regard of which specious opposition, eminent and famous men have been diversely inclined: some to Moses are propense, for these reasons.  
First it is said, Dixit Jehova Elohim, God spoke these words, not an Angel create: and though the word Elohim is once (and but once) applied to the Angels in the plural, but never in the singular number, as Psalm 8. yet here it can have no such signification: for the verb is Dixit, and the pronoun Ego, both singular.  
Secondly, the person speaking saith, I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; but an Angel create did not deliver them out of Egypt.  
Lastly, Saint Paul himself saith, that it was the voice of Christ which shook the earth, Heb. 12, 26. Therefore where it is said, Acts 7.38. that Moses was with the Angel in the wilderness, the word Angel must not be understood of an Angel create, but of Christ, who is often called both an Angel and God in similary places, as Gen. 31. vers. 11, 13. and 48.15. Exod. 3.2. in all which places the word Angel can mean no other person than Christ. Thus far 
a Zanch. de tribus Elohim. l. 2. c. 3.  Zanchy; but short still of the full solution. For though Acts 7.38. the word is Angel in the singular number, yet in the other place it is Angels in the plural, excluding utterly the application of it to Christ, or any single person. Where Zanchy broke off, the explication is continued and supplied by the thrice-excellent 
b Parallel. l. 1.  Junius, who resolveth it thus, At the delivering of the Law on Mount Sinai, God was attended with many Millions of Angels, (so both the state and service of their Lord, and the great business in hand required) and from amidst this glorious host he spoke unto the people, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, inter Angelos, amidst the 
c Mixtis penè hominibus atque Angelis, Sab. De Gub. Del, l. 1.  Angels; all the Angels being witnesses to the Covenant, God proclaimed the Law: so he interpreteth it; a gloss rather new then absurd.  
Others incline to Stephen and Paul, and conceive that God did not utter the 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 spoke, 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) attained by neither. That which hath misled the whole stream of expositors, is a conceit that Stephen and Paul spoke of the pronouncing of the Law in Mount Sinai, whereas indeed their words only aim at the delivering of the Tables of stone, called the Law also by a Metonymia subjecti, the containing by the name of the contained; these being put into the hands of Moses by the ministry of his Angels, as is evident, Gal. 3.19. For where is it said that the Angels pronounced the Law? that God did, we read often. As Scripture saith not they did; so reason, that they did not: For how could the vocal prolation by many Angels but generate confusion of sound? or if God by extraordinary guidance of their voice might make them speak not only 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 employ 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 only for those reasons (yet solid enough) mentioned by Zanchy, but especially because it is agreed by all the Ancients, not one (S. Augustine only excepted) impugning. That God (the second person) did himself often appear to the Patriarchs, and bespoke them viuâ voce, so Justin 
d Dial. cum Tryph.  Martyr, 
e D. Trinit.  Tertullian, 
f Contr. Arium serm. 4.  Athanasius, 
g Hist. l. 1. c. 2.  Eusebius and 
h In Gal. 3.  Jerome affirm; and that he did so expressly on Mount Sinai or Horeb, 
i l. 4 c. 31.  Ireneus, 
k Orat. 7.  Nazianzen, 
l Serm. de Jejun.  Basil and divers others have affirmed. That immovable pillar of sound doctrine (as an Eastern 
m {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Jo. Euchait. Aet. editus.  Bishop calleth him) 
n qu. in Deut.  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 God's immediate presence, as in this Text: For first there is thunder, the voice of God, psalm 29.8. and the concomitant of it, John 12.20. Secondly, the words are very direct, very express, where Moses telleth the Israelites, The Lord spoke unto you, Deut. 4.12 out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, only ye heard a voice. Now take it for a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, an infallible token, of God's 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 enjoined, the people not to approach nearer than the foot of the Mount; Aaron and Nadab, Abihu and the seventy Elders, up to the Mount; but Moses only into the Cloud: from hence also note another certain argument of God's immediate presence; which is always 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 creator, 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 Hieron. Praefat. in Isaiam.  Isaiah 63.9. where he is called the Angel of God's presence. In the 53 vers. of the same chapter, the word Law intendeth not the Law promulgated, but engraven in the 
p Aug. contr. F. Man. l. 15.  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 approach to God, as to receive them from him: therefore S. Paul saith, It was delivered by Angels into the hand of a mediator, that is, not Christ, as Calvine and some others suppose, but Moses (as Basil 
q De Spir. S. cap. 4. ) who was the internuncius betwixt God and the Israelites, Deut. 5.7. Lastly, 
Vide sis Cl. vir. D Heinsi●, Ex. Sacr. in loc.  that place of Heb. 2.2. is merely mistaken: for neither in the text or context is there any, either express or implicit, 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 only given to the Jews, and so only obliged them; or under them to the Gentiles also, who were to become the Church and people of God. Zanchie 
r In Decalog. , Dominicus à Soto 
s Lib. 2. De justitia & jure, qu. 5. art 4. , and some others are of opinion it was peculiar to the Jews only, from these reasons.  

1. Reason.  First, laws only bind them, to whom they are only given: But the Decalogue was given only to the Jews, as is manifest by the preface: Ergò, it only bindeth them.  

Answer.  The Decalogue was indeed given to the Jews; but was it as Jews, or a Nation distinct by themselves? No; rather as covenanties, and the then select people of God, so that whosoever were after implanted in the Covenant, and enrolled God's people, to them, as pòst nati, did and doth the Decalogue belong. Nor was the Preface prefixed 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 always formally though not materially the same) his moral and immutable laws, had here just reason to apply himself first to them, as Jews, and to rouse their attention by inculcating into their memory the recent and signal 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 confess, be proper to the Jews only, and yet the Decalogue itself have a larger province and extent, and be spoken 
s Irenaeus, l. 4. c. 31.  omnibus similiter, to all alike. Though, should I deny what I partly grant, I could vouch men of no mean note to rescue me from error. 
t In hac praefatione ità Deus Israelem compellat speciatim ut in eo tamen omnes Gentes comprehendar, Thes. 29. art. 5.  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 Roman party, 
u De Justif. l. 4. c. 6.  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, &c.  
That some Gentiles were thereto bound, the pellucid fountain of verity showeth plainly; 
Answ. Isai. 56.3.  Let not the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, God hath utterly separated me from his people. If you say, that these were Israelites by covenant though not by seed; then why may not the Christian Gentiles, who are covenanties as well as the Jews, who are also the seed of Abraham, 
Gal. 3.28, 29.  and heirs according to the promise, and united in Christ Jesus, why may not they observe it also? will you say, because the day is abrogated and annulled? and can you demonstratively prove it so? The Jewish Sabbath was questionless indeed abolished, but was the Sabbath of the fourth commandment so? If you say, Yea, for they were both one; I reply, it is with greater facility said then proved. And now we arrive at the last circumstance considerable in the precept, Quid.  
Of this it is controverted, what day the precept enjoineth, whether the Jewish Sabbath, the Saturday, or any other particular and express day? Most hold the Jewish seventh from the creation to be the day directly prescribed there; but I think it no hard task to beat them, or from that hold or in it. For first I would gladly know where in express terms the Saturday-Sabbath or seventh from the creation is commanded in this precept; examine and dissect it throughly: Remember thou sanctify the Sabbath day; The Sabbath day it is you see, not the seventh from the creation. Therefore 
a in 4. precept. p. 657.  Zanchie hath set a nota bene upon it, That God (not without cause) said not, Remember thou sanctify the seventh day, but, the day of rest; that is, saith he, 
b Di●m quieti consecratum à Deo ipso v●l im●●edi te p●r ●e, v●l med●tēper Ecclesi●m à Spiritu s●ncto 〈◊〉, quisquis ille sit.  The day consecrated to rest by God, either immediately by himself or mediately by the Church directed by the holy Ghost, whatsoever day it be. Thus he; more circumspectly than what he delivered three columns before: where he saith that the word Sabbath here comprehendeth all the Jewish festivals. What hath moved him and other learned men to this fantasy, it much amuseth me: God telleth us distinctly what Sabbath he here meaneth, the weekly; of any other there is altum silentium, not a word. He saith, sanctify the Sabbath, in the singular, not Sabbaths in the plural number: 
c Non festorum observatio ibi praecipitur, sed unius festi dies, Jun. animaedv. in Bel. cont. 7. p. 1●79.  The observation, not of many festivals, but of one only is there enjoined. And what necessity of bringing these feasts within the compass and obligation of this precept, which have commands proper and peculiar to themselves? As therefore ancient Canons 
d Conc. Nicenum Ancir. &c.  said to pragmatical Bishops, which invaded their jurisdiction, so I to these Jewish feasts, Let them keep their own home, their own stations, they have nothing to do here.  
Well, the Sabbath must be sanctified, but what day that should be is not yet explained: in the subsequent words indeed there is some hint of it, six days shalt thou labour; there is one character by which we may know it: Six days are at our own dispose, but we must not hold over our term; The seventh is the Sabbath, it is as Philosophers say Terminus minimus quod sic, the least proposition of time we must allow God: in a narrower limitation his worship will not subsist, a seventh day he will have. The seventh is the Sabbath: The seventh? what seventh? he saith not, the seventh from the creation, he nameth no day; if he had, it would have restrained the Law to that day: but because he meant the day should change, and yet the Law continue, he saith only the seventh, that is, the seventh after six, or one in a week 
e Jun. Pol. Moses c. 8. . For 
f Suarez, De dieb. festis, c. 1 Deputa●e septimum diem in hebdomade, est formaliter deputare septimum diem, licèt materialiter non idem dies semper fuerit deputatu●, Episcopus breach. in Epist. dedic. praefix. artic. Per●h.  To depute one day in a week, is formally to depute the seventh day, though materially one and the same day be not always deputed. Well; but will one in a week serve the turn? is there nothing else required? is the determination of this one in seven in our power? No, there is a proviso for that; it must be the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, that is, which he hath already, or should declare to his Church to be his Sabbath: and this is another character of the Sabbath, It must be of God's own choice. But still not one word of the Jewish Sabbath, no discovery of it yet; but we have not done with the precept, perhaps we shall find it in what remaineth: It followeth then, For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth, and all that therein is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it: Here, I confess, the precept seemeth very apposite, very full, so full as we are accused for no less than high treason against the holy Ghost, in daring to affirm the contrary. 
f 〈…〉  These Dogmatists, saith one, are not afraid to make the holy Ghost a liar, who teacheth in most clear and express terms, That God almighty blessed the very seventh day on which himself rested. An heavy charge, did we not plead, not guilty. That God blessed the very seventh day whereon he rested, we not deny; but whether he did expressly command the observation of that day by this or any other member of the fourth precept, that is the thing whereof we demand clear demonstration. Nor yet should we call this into dispute, had we not just cause to appeal from the old Translation, which hath herein embraced a strange singularity; for where it readeth, God blessed the seventh day, the Geneva, Spanish, that of Jerome, all that I have perused (the Septuagint only excepted) render it, God blessed the Sabbath day, as our most correct and new translation hath it: indeed the very fountain itself, the Hebrew giveth it so; which being true, can what we have said deserve so loud an outcry as hath been made? let any neutrally affected judge.  
Secondly, the defect of direct and express command is not the only, the principal motive it is, I grant, which allureth us to think the Jewish Sabbath in especial manner not enjoined here: another argument there is accessary to it. For if God had here expressly commanded the observation of the seventh from the Creation, or Jewish Sabbath, the fourth precept would have been in relation to that particular ceremonial, and by consequent changeable: but I think it was and is in all parts entirely moral, and perpetual; and my opinion is founded upon two not very defeasable reasons.  
First, it is marshaled in the Decalogue amongst the moral and immutable laws, which were notably distinguished from the ceremonial by many circumstances; The moral uttered by God himself, (proved page 39) in the presence of the whole multitude, written by God's own finger, given without restraint to time, how long; or place, where: contrariwise the ceremonial given to Moses only, and by him declared to the people, called Ceremonies, Judgements, Ordinances, and limited only to the land of 
g H●oker. Eccl. Pol. l. 3▪ §. 11.  Jury: Now it could not be agreeable to the wisdom of the God of Order to shuffle and misplace a ceremonial amongst his moral laws.  
Secondly, if you cast your eye upon the Sabbath of the fourth precept, you shall behold it quite deplumed and stripped of all legal observances: for those things which are all urged as ceremonial, and several of the Jews, touching the Sabbath, are all, every one, Postscripts and By-laws, not one emergent from the fourth precept. It was a sign betwixt God and his people, Exod. 31.17. Ezech. 20.20. It was enjoined with extreme rigour, No meat to be dressed, Exod. 17.5. no fire to be kindled, Exod. 35.3. These were all peculiar to the Jews: if the commandment of the Sabbath was so too, how cometh it to pass they are thus discriminated, thus severed? Very suspicious it is then that they were not uniform precepts, not all of a piece.  

Object.  But you will say that Deut. 5.15. the observation of the Sabbath is inserted in the fourth precept, as peculiar to the Jews, in regard it was a commemorative of their strange deliverance out of Egypt.  

Answ.  I answer, True: But there is a great diversity betwixt the Decalogue given on Mount Sinai, and that described in Deuteronomy; That appertaining to God's Church indefinitely taken, this to the Jews only: And this is evident from the due consideration of Deuteronomy: for though there be many things in it which may of common right belong to the hole Church, yet certain it is that book was especially penned for the Jews, it being {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, an explanation of that Law (whether moral, ceremonial, or judicial) which Moses received on the Mount, and application of it to the particular state and condition of that people: So that this objection doth not only not evert but establish my assertion, it being a manifest argument that the Sabbath of the Decalogue engraven in the Tables was of larger extent than that mentioned in Deuteronomy: for else why should the reason of one be universal, viz. as a monument of the creation; of the other, particular, as a memorial of the redemption out of Egypt: and consequently it may persuade that the Sabbath of the one was moral, of the other ceremonial. 
U●rùm praeceptum de sanctificatione Sabbat●, convenienter trad●tur inter praecepta Decalogi?  And therefore when Aquinas had framed this question, Whether the commandment concerning sanctifying the Sabbath was fitly delivered in the Decalogue? he found no evasion but this; 
h Ponitur inter praecepta Decalogi in quantum praeceptum morale, non in quantum est caeremoniale, 2. 2 ae. q. 122. art. 4.  It is placed, saith he, in the Decalogue as it was a moral precept, not as ceremonial. Which is in effect but one and the same thing with what I maintain: For I distinguish betwixt those precepts of the Sabbath which occur elsewhere, and the fourth Commandment, and therefore I apply what is ceremonial in the Sabbath to them, what is moral I restrain to this. So much for the Quid, and indeed for the precept.  
Survey we now the practice and observation thereof, wherein the circumstances which offer themselves to our consideration are these, Quando, Quomodo.  
By the Quando I understand the Terminus à quo and beginning of the Sabbath, which some derive from the evening preceding the artificial day, and deduce it from Levit. 23.22. Others 
i Perkins, Cas. consc. l. 2. c. 15. q. 3.  again suppose it commenced in the morning; and are induced thereto by the two Evangelists, Matth. 28.1. In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week; Mark 16.1, 2. When the Sabbath was past, very early in the morning, the first day of the week: and therefore the levitical Law they conceived only concerned the Passeover, and such solemn feasts.  
But I rather embrace the more received opinion, that the Sabbath began at eve, and suppose 
k Beza, Casaub. & al●i.  that the Evangelists respected the manner of the Gentiles, whose day commenced from midnight: For methinks the restriction of that ordinance in Leviticus to the solemn feasts only, is more nice than solid; and the contrary is very probably indigitated in both the old and new Covenant. In the old, Nehemiah saith, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, 
c. 13. v. 19  he commanded they should be shut, and not be opened till after the Sabbath: whence I infer that the Sabbath began at twilight; for else why should the gates be shut up so soon? In the new Testament also Luke saith, that the women when they had bought their spices rested the Sabbath according to the commandment; 
c. 23 v. 56.  which seemeth to insinuate that the Sabbath presently succeeded the buying of those spices. And (though it be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) give me leave to note to you that by Saint Luke here it is evident the spices were bought on friday towards evening, not on Monday morning, not penitus exacto Sabbato, as 
l Exerc. 16. c. 113.  Casaubon affirmeth. Saint Mark 
m Cap 16 v. 1  indeed, whom he citeth, seemeth to relate it otherwise: But I say first with judicious Calvine, that 
n Marcus duas res divers●s eodem contextu referens tempora minùs accuratè quam Lucas distinguit; nam quod priùs actum ●rat unà cum profectione miscet, Calv. H●●m Evang.  Mark relating two divers things in one and the same context, did not so exactly distinguish their times as Saint Luke; for what was acted before (viz. the buying of the spices) he mingleth with the setting out and going forth of the women. And in truth S. Mark minded more the substance than circumstance of the story (a thing so familiar in Scripture as it hath begot a proverb, 
Non est prius & posterius in Scripturâ saciâ.  There is not always an orderly disposition of first and last in holy Scripture:) Nor doth it reflect at all to the debasing and disparagement of the divine History, for a small diversity touching circumstance is nothing ad summam narrationis, to the substance of the narration, as the same Casaubon hath well observed. Secondly, 
Annot. in loc.  it is very probable what Beza hath applied by way of salve to this of Mark (though it relisheth not well (and perhaps the worse because Beza's) with the learned Heinsius) that there is a dislocation of the words by some unwary Scribe, 
Exercit. in loc.  who hath put them out of joint: for the latter part of this verse aught, as he conceiveth, to conclude the preceding chapter: as though the words had been thus ordered, And Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Jesus beheld where he was laid, and bought spices that they might come and anoint him; and that which maketh it seem still to him more probable is an ancient copy, reading it, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, i. e. They went and bought spices, without repeating the name of any woman.  
The Quando I have briefly dispatched; and the dispatch of that giveth me access to the Quomodo, the manner of observing the Sabbath, that is, what holy duties were performed that day. And from this arise two questions: First whether the Law was read publicly every Sabbath, or only in the year of release at the feast of Tabernacles; and this question is limited too, to the period from the Law given to the captivity. The other quaere is, what Law, whether the hole Pentateuch, or Deuteronomy only, was read in that year of Release.  
As concerning the First; they which hold the negative ground their opinion on these reasons:  

B. White, p 144.  First, that there should be any public or solemn reading of the Law upon Sabbath days, is not expressly required and commanded in the Pentateuch.  
Secondly, It appeareth not by any relation of sacred History, that before the Babylonish captivity 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 continual use among the Jews every Sabbath day, there should be found in the days of King Josiah one copy only or book of the Law, and that Hilkiah should present this book to the King, as a great rarity, 2. King. 22.8, 9  
But the unsoundness of the foundation argueth the assertion erroneous: for,  
First, will nothing but express Text satisfy you? suppose we find it not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, not verbatim commanded thus, read the Law publicly every Sabbath day; is not, I pray you, necessary and inevitable deduction out of Text Scripture with you? if yea, than we need not travel far for a command, no farther than the fourth precept, and not far into that, but to Remember thou keep holy or sanctify 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 ways, either by reverent attention to what he offereth us in his word, or an humble presentment of what we prefer 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 mutual 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 publicly honour God on earth (saith that worthy 
m Eccl. pol. l. 5 §. 18.  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 Lactant. Inst. l. 4.  colere: or rather according to that golden chain, How 
o Rom. 10 14.  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 hear 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 enlightened in saving doctrine: All, tag and rag had free access to the Sermon; to the service only the faithful, and Catechumeni. 
p Episcopus nullum prohi●eat i●gredi ad Ecclesiam & audire verbum Dei, sive Gentilem, sive Haereticum, sive Judaeum, usque ad missam Catechumenotum, Concil. 4. Can. 85.  Let the Bishop interdict none, neither Gentile, nor heretic, nor Jew, to enter into the Church and hear the word of God, until the Service of the Catechumeni, saith the council 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 God's 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 sanctify.  

B. White, pag. 146.  But you'll say that many doctors of note maintain that the letter of the fourth commandment imposed upon the Jews no other external form of sanctifying the weekly Sabbath, but resting from bodily labour.  
I answer, The literal 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, lest it should be thought to exclude any. It also imposed rest and cessation from secular business; but that it commanded it as any at all, much less the only external form of sanctifying the Sabbath, pardon me, I cannot believe. For what honour could accrue to God through an idle and lazy rest? what worship could man perform waking more than a sleep? How could the day be less sanctified by beasts than men? Rest was enjoined as necessary indeed necessitate medii, as a fit means; but not necessitate causae, as a necessary cause constituting sacred worship. Against these doctors of note, I will oppose a doctor of note too, and of such note as his Dictates never any of the Primitive Church durst call into question 
a Hieron. apud Aquin. pag. 1. qu. 61. art. 3. , Athanasius the Great, who in refutation of this Jewish fancy hath amongst others this invincible argument, 
b Si otium sanctificet, ergò sequitur ut negotium contaminet, De Sabb. & Circumcis.  If rest sanctifieth, than 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 than rest 
c Quia cognitio magìs est necessaria quàm otium, Idem, ibid. . 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 B. White, p. 146. . What I pray, did God intend those religious actions as the end of the precept? how come you to know God's 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, than these religious actions and rest were coordinate together, both imposed at one and the same time, the thing you deny: If after, than God imposed, and man observed rest to no end and purpose all that while, until the manifestation of his intentions concerning the end of that rest came forth. But God and nature do nothing in vain 
e Aristot. de Coelo. lib. 1. cap. 4. ; even Philosophy could tell you so, and sure Divinity much more.  
Their second Argument is upon the old haunt still, The want of express 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 son, 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 days, to hear the word expounded. That this was their practice scarce any expositor upon the place but assureth us.  
Though here is only mention of the New-moon and Sabbath, yet as we need not doubt but that they practised the same upon other festivals also, so I conceive it to be employed in both or either words, which are often in Scripture taken in a general notion, not denoting 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 seldom 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 door 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 scripture 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 only put for solemn feasts generally not particularly accepted. Nor is the word New-moon taken thus only when linked with the Sabbath, but somewhile also when single and alone, as 1. King's 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 month, the Hebrew word for that feast is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, which signifieth the New-moon; 
Seld. Marm. Arundel. pag. 134.  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 suppress it in oblivion) of the feast of Tabernacles which was to be on the 15 of the seventh month. 
Hospin. de origine Fest. pag. 24.   
But not to expatiate too far in collateral transcursions; the reading of the Law may (not absurdly) be expiscated out of Acts 15.21. where James giving definitive sentence in the council of Jerusalem, saith, Moses of old time hath in every city 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 Winto●. Serm. Pentec. 1.  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 until the captivity. To which I say, that the most and best Divines 
s Hosp. de orig. Templi è C. Bertramo  hold it probable that Synagogues had their beginning from the plantation of the land of Canaan, when the priestly and prophetical offices ceased in the first-born, and masters of families, but were supplied, the first, by the levitical priests; the second, by the seventy Elders, as some suppose 
t Genebrard. Chron. p. 102. , but more certainly by the Prophets, whose ordinary calling was to read and expound the Law. The numerous provision of which sacred preachers maketh it incredible that they were destitute of places (no matter how, or colleges, 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 sign, Quod alioqui nulli ejus essent alii codices, That there were besides no other books thereof, not to Genebrard 
u Chron. in ann. 3526.  I am sure: and it may well be controverted. For if in times of harder pressures, when the Temple and the authentic books in it were burnt, when utter havoc was made of all, and the people of God led captives into Babylon; even in the extremity of that desolation, if some copies were no doubt preserved in private men's hands, as Daniels, Ezekiel's, 
a Bell. de verb. Dei, l. 2. c. 1. & Jun. anim. adv. in eum.  Jeremy's, &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 errors 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 Josiah's 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 God's public and solemn worship, and your instance is of a time under persecution, when the ensign of the Church was the cross, when there was no solemn worship of the true God publicly tolerated; and you may as well upon this instance infer that there was no Sabbath observed, as deny the observation of it by this duty of Reading and Hearing the Law. No man (for aught I know) contendeth that the solemn reading of the Law always every Sabbath, and that in times of distress, was practised: and that it was at other times, even Cajetan 
b Cajet. in locum.  himself (who holdeth that that book which Hilkiah found was of all other the only remnant) acknowledgeth: 
Tanto tempore neglecta erant divina tempore Manassis, ut liber Legis tanquam res noviter inventa scribatur.  Holy exercises (as reading and expounding the Law) during Manasses his wicked reign were so long neglected; (and neglect I hope insinuateth a duty formerly practised) 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 refer to duties which ought to have been publicly performed, their public 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 persuade that the Law was read on the weekly Sabbath, as well as on the annual of Tabernacles in the septennuall of Release.  
I pass 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 solemnity of the year of Release, in the feast of Tabernacles, thou shalt read the Law before Israel in their hearing, saith the text: Upon which words Tostatus thus, 
c Accipitur specialiter LEX pro Deuteronomio, Tostat. in Matth. 5. q. 91.  The Law, saith he, is meant especially of Deuteronomy. And 
d B. White D. Heilen.  others since have embraced 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.  

Deut. 17. v. 17.  God enjoineth the future King should write him a copy of this Law in a book: Now I pray, tell me, is Deuteronomy only understood by this Law? No, it is not: all expositors take it for the hole five books; and yet for this there may be some colour, because the 70. render it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Jerome, Deuteronomium legis hujus. But to return to the first text of Moses; we need no other expositor than himself: what Law he appointed then to be re●d, he telleth us in the immediate precedent verse, it was that Law which he delivered to the Levites; 
Cap. 31.9, & 26.  that Law which he commanded them to put in the side of the Ark. Now if they can prove that only Deuteronomy was delivered to the Levites and laid up there, they shall gain my subscription.  
Having thus proceeded as far as my first intendment bounded me, lest this discourse should jut too far into that ensuing, of the Sabbath under the Gospel, now no more.   

God's Sabbath under the Gospel.  
WE have at last shaked off those remoras which retarded our arrival at the Christian Sabbath, at God's Sabbath under the Gospel. For a Sabbath God hath still, but not the Jewish, not the seventh from the creation: No; 
a Finitur septimus, Dominus sepultus; reditur ad primum, Dominus resuscitatus, Aug. de verbis Apost. Serm. 15.  The seventh day is vanished, our Lord is buried; the first now dawneth, our Lord is risen, and his Resurrection hath consecrated to us a new Sabbath: for a Sabbath God must have by the immutable Law of the fourth precept, Remember thou sanctify the Sabbath day, that is, that day which for the time being God hath marked out and appointed for his own, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. For if this Commandment enjoineth now no particular and set time under the Gospel, than is the Law an Ennealogue, not a Decalogue, and so God hath lost one of his ten words; but he payeth no tithe out of his Commandments, his full Denary he must and will have.  

Object.  If you say the moral equity, viz. to yield God a competent and convenient time for his worship remaineth still, and so the Commandment is not lost.  

Solut.  I answer, This fundamental Law is tacitly employed in this precept, but so it was also in the institution of all other ceremonial festivals, the Passeover, Pentecost, &c. to which we may as well resort as to the fourth precept for it. And if this moral or natural Law be the only relics of that Commandment: I would fain learn what was in the Sabbath extraordinary more than in other Feasts, which might entitle it to a room amongst the moral Laws of the Decalogue, when as the other Feasts were excluded. Besides, if this moral law of Festos dies coals maketh a distinct precept by itself, I see no reason but there should be another for going to Church, another for allowing God a convenient portion of our substance (for these are also moral equities) and so there will be an even dozen. Lastly, how cometh this moral equity to be a peculiar of the Gospel only? God had from the Creation to the Law, from the Law to Christ, a day appropriated (and that by himself) to his worship: what? hath he less reason to require it under the Gospel? hath he left the Christian Church to that liberty that every man may serve him as the toy taketh him, and so God stand to our courtesy to be worshipped when we list? 
B. White p. 121.  You will say Nay; we are not left at that liberty: The observation of the Holy days appointed by the Church, is reduced to the fourth Commandment, as a special to a general: viz. God's people must observe holy times, because the equity of the fourth Commandment obligeth thereunto: But Easter and Christmas day, and Sunday, &c. are holy days lawfully appointed by the governors of the Church, and subordinate to the equity of the fourth Commandment; therefore Christian people are bound to observe these Holy days, in obedience to the equity of the fourth Commandment.  
I answer, The Church hath a power indeed to ordain festivals; but is the observation of her constitutions concerning them, a fulfilling; the disobedience, a breach of the fourth Commandment? How can this be? First, what needs an Obligation be derived from the last precept of the first Table, when the first of the latter is all-sufficient? Secondly, is it not a mere non sequitur? The fourth Commandment bindeth us to yield God a convenient time for his worship: Ergò It obligeth us to observe the festivals of the Church? Where learned you this logic? Suppose I pray, the Church should enjoin but one day in a month, doth he I pray who observeth her order that one day, and not once more in the interim serve God perform his duty which God in this Commandment requireth? or doth he who plieth God with frequent addresses, who strictly observeth canonical hours, yet only perhaps faileth that one day which the Church enjoineth; doth he, I say, violate the moral law of this precept, which saith not, Set apart such times for pious exercises as thy governors prescribe, but, such as thou thyself thinkest meet. In short, to make this more evident, Every Law positive is built upon some moral, as upon a foundation; now it is manifest that the foundation may stand, and yet the superstructure fall, as may be demonstrated in an example familiar to us: The equity of State requireth that particular persons be not enriched any way which reflecteth to the damage of a community; upon this sociable equity, there is a positive, a Statute law 
b 5. Ed. 6. c. 14.  enacted, that None shall buy or contract for any victuals or wares before they come to the Market, Fair, or Port. But in some parts of this Realm, especially in Norfolk, such plenty of corn there is growing in most Towns, as maketh every of them a kind of Market, so as few men need go out of their own Villages to be supplied with materials either for bread or beer; yea the superfluity is such, as many Towns vend a thousand quarters of grain, over and besides what supplieth their families and lands; by reason of which great plenty little or none is sold in many Markets: and the usual practice hath been, and is, for Merchants to buy, not in open Market, but at the Barn door great quantity thereof, and export it into other parts of the kingdom where scarcity is. This act of theirs some Merchants have by smart experience lately found to be illegal, but yet no violation of the foresaid equity: for who complaineth that they are damnified thereby? Not the Norfolcians, they are eased; not the Shires deficient, they are relieved: either part desireth it: one, ut impleatur, that it may be stored; the other, ut depleatur, that it may be disburdened.  
Nor doth the fourth Commandment only infer out of these words, Remember thou sanctify the Sabbath, that God must have a Sabbath in a special manner; but it declareth also his will concerning the quotient and limitation thereof, Six days' shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do, but the Seventh is the Sabbath, so that one in a week he must have.  
If you say, the limitation of one in a week was ceremonial, 
Object.  and so abrogated.  
I answer, prove you it ceremonial, 
Solut.  and I will yield it abrogated: but there hath not yet been any argument or reason shown us whereby we might be persuaded to conceive it ceremonial, nor hath it so much as one Character of a ceremony in it.  
For first, it was not typical; it did not prenote any thing to ensue or be accomplished under the Gospel. If that fancy of the Jewish Cabala be true, that the world shall continue but six thousand years, and then the day of judgement shall follow, it might prefigure that, and yet no ceremony proved; for that time is not yet elapsed, and the type must continue till the thing typified be fulfilled: so that this rather evinceth the duration than abrogation of this limitation.  
Secondly, it had no particular relation to the land of Canaan, the proper place of ceremonies; nor yet to the Jews, upon whom it was not imposed as Jews, as a mark of difference to distinguish them from the Gentiles. If you object, Exod. 31.13. & 17. Ezech. 20.12, & 20. where the Sabbath is called a sign betwixt God and them; I say, the Sabbath was at that time a mark of difference and separation betwixt the Jews and Gentiles, that is confessed; but was it so as a seventh day? No; that which caused the distinction was the sanctification of them on that day, not any thing in the number of seven. God's seposing of a certain time for their, and only their (for, God worthily neglected those of whom he was not worshipped 
a Eos à quibus non coleb●tur meritò neglexit, August. De Civ. Dei, l. 2. c. 14. ) Sanctification was an argument that he had an especial care of them above others, and that they were his only people.  
It was not imposed as an heavy burden upon the Jews. If the sequestering one day in a week had been burdensome to them, it would be also a grievance now to us Christians, who observe the same: But we are under the law of grace and liberty, exempted from such pressures, and if it were in any respect onerous, we would and might renounce it; so that it being not to us heavy, it is consequently probable, that it was to them tolerable. 
Exod. 23.12.  And indeed in the explanation of the law, or rather application of it to the state of the Jews, it is rather recited as an ordinance of comfort, and refreshing, as of mercy and and favour, then of rigour, or severity, then of depression and of servitude.  
Lastly, it was not commanded in recognition of any special favour conferred upon the Jews: It was a memorial of God's creating the world in six days, and his resting on the seventh; but this being a benefit wherein all mankind inter common, the Jews can claim no property therein several to themselves. And so in respect of this Character, as of the three preceding, no tidings of a ceremony yet, and so no cause of abolition: for you will not have more abrogated than was ceremonial, will you?  
If you say, it was and must be ceremonial: 
Object.  for moral it was not, and therefore positive; and because positive, ceremonial.  
I answer, 
Sol.  denying that positive either necessarily implieth ceremonial, or excludeth moral. Nay more: disputable it is whether positive may be admitted here or no. Sure I am a great Prelate 
d In divinis non datur jus Positivum, Winton. Op. posth. Determ de decimis.  hath resolved it, In Divine constitutions Positive law hath no place; and so 
e Aqu. 1.2 ae. qu. 99 art. 3.  Schoolmen and Civilians use to speak: but in regard the propriety of the word signifieth the imposing of what before was in its nature arbitrary, whether the imposition be Divine or human, it constituteth (in my opinion) a Law positive denominated accordingly. Be it then Positive: is it therefore ceremonial, or not moral? Let the definition of either word end the strife. Moral is derived from mores or mos, and may be defined as Lirinensis 
f Contr. Haer. cap. 3.  doth Catholic, Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus, That which hath been observed everywhere, always, and of all men. And though in its remotest latitude of signification it is synonymal with what Civilians call Jus Gentium, or the Law of Nations, yet may it not unfitly be restrained to lesser societies, as to God's Church; and so what hath been always observed in his Church, may not unfitly be called moral; and than the observation of a weekly day will become so too; yet with this restriction and difference, that one is moral by natural infusion, the other by external Imposition 
g Halens. 3. qu. 32. memb. 5. .  
But suppose it granted that Positive were a privative of moral, yet can you never prove that it must inevitably infer ceremonial: for ceremonies are in their very nature changeable, to last but a while; their etymology giveth them that definition, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} (therefore they who write ceremony do ill deduce it from Ceres) whereas Positive laws may be, and are some of them, immutable. The prohibition of incestuous matches within certain degrees, decimation and tithing, were Positive; and yet I hope you will yield unchangeable: The last, I am sure, you demand by virtue of the first injunction. Nor doth the tenth content you, you are (you think) defrauded of your right, unless we allow it as due jure Divino, the truth whereof is here not to be discussed; and though I as yet rather incline to the affirmative, yet this for undeniable verity I dare and do aver, that to evince a jus Divinum, there is far, infinitely far clearer evidence and demonstration in the Scripture for the Lord's day then for Tithes. But I digress. All Laws Divine derive their firmness or mutability two ways: either from that which giveth them their first constitution, Reason; (Qualis Ratio Praecepti tale Praeceptum, as the Reason is permanent or movable, so is the Law; for the form of all laws is the reason, as that which diversifieth all things is the form) or from the subject, or matter about which they are conversant; for if that be constant, the law must also be the same. For those Laws Divine, which belong, whether naturally or supernaturally, to men as men, or to men as they live in politic society, or to men as they are of that politic society which is the Church, without any further respect had to any such variable accident as the state of men, and of societies of men, and of the Church itself is subject to in this world; all Laws that so belong unto men, they belong for ever, although they be positive laws, unless being positive, God himself that made them altereth them, saith Hooker. 
Eccl. Pol. l. 1. §. 15.   
Now no man will deny the reason of commanding a weekly day in memory of the creation to be immutable; therefore the Law itself for that cause also, though at first positive, must be so. And that it was imposed on God's Church, without respect had to any particular Place, People, Time, or the like variable occasion, is so clear as none can solidly refute: and for this cause also it must continue so long as that society the Church, for which it was first given, shall abide. Therefore we may conclude this point with Leo, 
h Cessantibus significationibus & peractis figuris, &c. De Jejunio decimi mensis, serm. 6  The shadows being dispelled by the presence of the verity, those things which tending either to morality or the pure worship of God for piety sake were instituted, do still continue in the same form with us wherein they were at first framed, and what was agreeable to both Testaments, is by no change altered.  
They 
i Heilen. p. 2. pag. 184.  to whom positive-immutable seemeth so prodigious a thing, may now spare their wonder at Amesius, and bestow it upon their own ignorance: what he taught in this point he might and did learn (no doubt) in England, and not only of the Puritans. For what say you  
To Whitgift? 
k Defen. of the Answ. to the Adm. p. 553.  No man doubteth the meaning of these words, Six days' shalt thou labour, &c. to be this, That seeing God hath permitted to us six days to do our own works in, we ought in the seventh wholly to serve him.  
To Hooker 
l Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. §. 70. ? We are to account the sanctification of one day in a week, a duty which God's immutable Law doth exact for ever.  
To Donne 
m Epist to S. H. Goodier. ? God seposed a seventh of our time for his exterior worship.  
To Andrews 
n Serm. ●. of the P. treas. vide etiam Catech. doct. pag 237. ? The numbers of seven and ten are not without their weight: the seventh the Sabbath, the tenth God's part; the Sabbath and Tenth both sacred to God.  
To Bacon 
o Adv. of Learn. p. 309 ? God demandeth a tenth of our substance, and which is more strict a seventh of our time.  
What say you to these? But what if Amesius had been born and lived an alien to this kingdom, had he then escaped the contagion of this error? Is England in this assertion divided from the continent of other Christian Churches? assuredly no. Those two lights of the reforming age, Bucer and his Achates P. Martyr, as in other things their judgements concurred with a rare and happy identity 
a Bucer. Epist. P. Martyr. de Euch. , so in this they differed not.  
Our God hath sanctified one day in seven for the promoving of our faith, and consequently of eternal life, Bucer 
b Deus noster è septem diebus unum instaur●ndae fidei nostrae atque adeò vitae aeternae sanctificavit, De re●n. Christ lib. 1. c 11. .  
That someone day in a week men attend Divine worship is no human device, Martyr 
c Ut aliq●o die in heb●omade homines cult●● divino v●●ent non est humanum commentum, Loc. come. c 7. .  
It is a moral precept as it biddeth us dedicate one day in a week for the external service of God, so Zanchie. 
d Morale est quatenus 〈…〉 diebus ut●●m consecremus externo ●ultui divino, in 4 praecept.   
God therefore sanctified the seventh day, that man might know that in the weekly circuit one day is to be bestowed upon the public worship of God, Pareus 
e Ideo Deus diem septimum sanctificavit, ut homo sciret in circulo hebdomadico diem unum esse di●ino cultui publico tribuendum, Com. in Ge●. c. 2. vers. 3.   
It is a natural law that every seventh day be sacred to God, Junius 
f Naturale est, diem septimumquemque D●o s●crum esse, In Gen. .  
That enemy of God, 
g K. J. declare. adv. Vorst.  Arminius, 
h Morale est ut ex septem diebus unus cultui divino consecretur, Disp. 77. §. 10.  It is moral to set apart one day of seven for God's service.  
The Lutheran Churches dissent not: Conradus Dietericus, as my author 
i Heilen. p. 2 pag.  informeth me.  
Baldwin, 
k Morale est sanctificare unum ex septem diebus, Cas. consc. circa Fesla, l. 2. c. 13. Cas. ●.  It is moral to sanctify one day of seven.  
And to make up the harmony complete, the Papists themselves are in this reconciled with us.  
God would have at least one day in a week to be allowed him, saith Fenus 
l Voluit deus ad minus unum diem in hebdomade sibi impendi, in Gen. .  
To depute every seventh day in a week, is formally to depute the seventh day, though materially the same day be not always deputed, so Suarez 
m Deputare septimum quemque diem in hebdomade, est deputare septimum diem, licèt idem dies non semper fuerit deputatus, De diebus F●stis, c 1. .  
The Divine Law required that one day in a week should be sequestered for holy worship, so Bellarmine 
n Jus divinum requirebat ut unus dies in hebdomade dicaretur cultui divino, De cultu sanct. l. 3. c. 11. . Nor is the opinion an upstart: I appeal to Chrysostom 
o Hom. 5 in Math. , who calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, an immovable Law, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, to sepose one day in a week for religious actions.  
And thus I have proved that one day in seven he must have by the perpetual ordinance of the fourth Commandment.  
Nor will the allowance of one in seven satisfy him, unless he have the designation and determination of that one. 
p Di●● quieti consecratus à Deo ipso, vel immediatè per se, vel mediatè per Ecclesiam a Spi●itu sancto gubernatam, quisquis ille sit.  It must be the day consecrated by God, either immediately by himself, or mediately by his Church directed by the holy Ghost, whatsoever the Day be, as I told you before out of Zanchy; so that the Day must be of Divine Institution.  
And this is evident: First de Jure; Christ calleth himself Lord of the Sabbath: his dominion was not only over the old Sabbath, to abrogate that; but over the new also, to surrogate that as succenturiate to the other. Secondly, de Facto; For God's own act is the best interpreter of his will, and if he had meant the Church should have had her liberty, her congee d' Eslier, leave to choose, he would not have anticipated her with his own act of instituting the Evangelical Sabbath, whereof (as well as of the legal) he was not only the efficient but the exemplary cause, by finishing the work of our redemption on that day.  

Object.  But here it is demanded, 
p B●erewood, p. 3●.  Is the old Sabbath translated into the Lord's day? If yea; by whom? By any commandment of Christ, where is it? Produce one precept or one word of God out of the old Testament, that it should be translated, or out of the new commanding it to be translated, or intimating that by Christ's commandment it was translated.  

Solution.  Take both, or which you will, either the old or new Covenant, and withal the best and ancientest Interpreters thereof, and then I dare presume you will soon descry a Translation. For the first, it was adumbrated in their Circumcision on the eight day, It was a type of that eight day whereon our Lord rose again for our justification. So saith Cyprian 
q Sacramentum hoc fuit diei illius octavi, quo Dominus resurrexit ad justificationem nostram, Cypr. Epist. ad Fidum. l. 3. c. 10. ; and with him Augustine, 
r Sanctos Patres plenos Spiritu Propherico non lateret Dominicus dies, nam PRO OCTAVO Psalmus inscribitur, & octavo die circumcidebantur infants, Aug. de Celebratione Paschae.  The Lord's day could not but be known to the holy Prophets, for there is a psalm entitled FOR THE EIGHT DAY, and on the Eight day Children were circumcised, and the like elsewhere.  
It was prophesied in the title of the psalms, the sixth and eleventh, In finem pro octavo. So Ignatius 
s Ep. ad Magn. , Nazianzene 
t De Nov. Domin. , & Augustine. Prophesied in the 
* It is the 102 in our Translation.  101. Psalm, Scribatur illa in generationem novam, This shall be written for the Generation to come, vers. 18. so Athanasius. In the 
* In our Translation, 110. v. 3.  109. for so Basil understandeth diem virtutis, the day of Power: but above all prophesied in the 118. vers. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made. So all the Fathers who have saluted and cited that place.  
For the second or new Covenant, we need search no higher than to the practice of our Saviour, and his Apostles from the Resurrection downwards, to warrant and assure us of this Translation; I say, from the Resurrection: for this their practice did not, as some suppose, begin in long wast of time. There was no interregnum, no vacancy at all, no cessation of a Sabbath; No, not the first week: No sooner was the old Sabbath abolished then the new established and installed. The Jewish Sabbath, that slept (we all know) its last in the grave with our Saviour: Its ghost (according to country dialect) or the shadow of that shadow walked indeed a while after, but itself, the old Sabbath, expired then, and immediately entered the Lord's day. Immediately, when Christ himself was but newly up, from that very day whereon he arose, doth S. Augustine 
u Epist. ad Jan. 119. c. 13.  derive the primum esse of the Lord's day. The Lords Day was by the Resurrection of Christ declared to be the Christians Day, 
Christi Resurrectione declaratus est, & ex illo coepit habe●e festivitatem suam.  and from that very time (of Christ's Resurrection) it began to be celebrated as the Christian man's festival. So hath a profound 
a Winton Opusc de Sp. c. Trask.  Bishop rendered him; and truly, unless ex illo relateth to Christ, which I believe you will difficultly grant, though it be less monstrous than to marry it with Resurrectione, in despite of Priscian. Nor is Augustine's opinion utterly of truth abandoned. For (though we read not of any Sabbath-duties expressly performed on that very day of Christ's Resurrection by the Apostles, yet) this we find, that when Christ appeared to them on that day, they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Assembled on that day; and the place is thought by learned men to be the coenaculum, 
John 20.19. Meade Churches, p. 9  in which Christ celebrated the last Passeover, and from thence derived a perpetual consecration: nor is it likely that he would inspire them in an ordinary place. If then they were assembled, and in a Church, we may safely collect they were busied in sacred exercises. The first day of our saviour's appearing to his Disciples, this, and the first Christian Sabbath he honoured with his beatifical presence. The next was the next: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, saith S. John. What? on some indefinite time after eight days, as you 
b Heilen, p. 2. pag. 13.  would have it? A word with you, Sir. Saint Mark telleth us that our Saviour should 
* cap. 8.31.  {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, will you therefore have our Lord's Resurrection to be on some one day after three expired? you will not sure, nay (though I think you dare as much as another, yet this) you dare not. No, by after eight days is meant the eighth day after, which was the next Sunday. So the 
* Aug. ad Cas. Epist. 86. Chrysost. ser. 5 De Resurr.  Fathers agree: It is necessary that that day should be the Lord's day, saith Cyrill 
c Dominicum diem esse necesse est, In John l. 12. c. 58. , and he thence deriveth the equity of Assemblies upon that day. Nay more, this very day is so far honoured by Nazianzene 
d Orat. 43.  as he made an Homily on purpose for it, as he hath entitled it, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Nova Dominica, because the first Lord's day solemnised in the weekly revolution after the Resurrection, or rather because it was the encenium of the Resurrection: for betwixt the day of the Resurrection and this he thus distinguisheth; That was, saith he, salutifera, this, salutis natale, That the day that brought forth salvation into the world, this the commemorative festival of that day.  
Though this be the last first day mentioned in holy writ, which our Saviour hallowed in his assembling with the Apostles, yet probable it is that he practised the same even till his Apoge and Ascension. But conjectural arguments we will not urge, when demonstrative are so hardly obtained.  
Well; our Saviour is ascended: Let us now behold what honour the Spirit of Comfort (which in his late valediction he promised to send his Apostles) hath conferred on this Day. Our Saviour is ascended, and the holy Ghost descendeth; but on what day? the first of the week? Not expressly, yet consequently and by deduction, yes: for it was when Pentecost was arrived, and this fell that year on the Sunday. 
Acts 2.  The Allwise God so disposing that the Gospel should every way parallel the Law: The one given on mount Sinai, on the day of Pentecost, the then legal Sabbath; the other on mount Zion, on the day of Pentecost, the then evangelical Sabbath. 
Heilen p. 1. pag. 14.  But some are of opinion the Lord's day need not brag of this honour, it being more than was meant it; for it was, say they, a casual thing that Pentecost should fall on the Sunday: which I confess seemeth to me a prodigy in divinity. For those things only are casual, which happen, praeter intentionem operantis, contrary to the expectation of the agent: But here God was the agent, whose omniscience nothing could escape, who is privy to all events as the disposer of them. True it is, that necessarium and contingens necessary and contingent are terms which Theology can endure well enough, when they are spoken with regard to intermediate and second causes (For those Effects which are the emanations of such Causes as can in nature produce no other, are said to be necessary; and those which proceed from such as are in their own nature not determined to certain and definite effects, are called contingent) but when they are referred to the supreme and paramount Cause of all, they are then, and must be called, Necessary. Nor could the falling of Pentecost on the Sunday be a contingent thing in respect of the second Causes, which were all (no doubt thereof is made) necessary. For Scaliger hath informed you right, that the Pentecosts terminus à quo was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or the morrow after the Passeover: so ever; no contingency there: and the Passeover itself ever as certain, always upon the fifteenth day, or the full Moon following upon or next after the vernal Aequinox: and so none there.  
There were certainly other reasons which induced the holy Ghost to make choice of this day and time; yet seeing all antiquity hath accounted his descent upon the Apostles amongst those titles of honour which have been dispensed upon this day, I see no reason why it should be now denied it. And though no glory at all (the thing by some over eagerly desired) should accrue to it thereby, yet this is most legible, that on this day the Apostles were solemnly though closely assembled in prayer and holy duties. But so, you will say, they were on other days; which I grant, with this distinction of aequè and aequaliter: for some days amongst them were doubtless dignified with a more solemn observance than others, in respect whereof they were especially reputed, if not denominated, holidays. For how else can our Church 
e Hom. of time and place of Prayer. Similiter Brer. pag. 37.  be understood, where she saith that The Christian people, immediately after the Ascension, began to choose them a standing day of the week to come together in: so that both the preferring one day before another, and the time of that choice, viz. immediately after the Ascension, she indigitateth to us.  
The next mention of apostolical observation of this day occurreth, Acts 20. vers. 7. The first day of the week, the Disciples being come together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.  
Against this Text two exceptions lie: First that by Breaking of bread is only meant their ordinary repast, 
Heilen, p. 2. p. 23.  no sacred Duties or celebration of the Eucharist; and this they seem to make good by Saint Chrysostom and Lyra, as also by the English Bible, which paralleleth this place with Acts 2. verse 46.  
I answer, some have indeed interpreted this Text of bodily repast; yet the major part take it for the mystical breaking of bread in the Communion: And for our Church, 
So. contra Tr.  B. Andrews out of this very place affirmeth positively that the Apostles were assembled, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, to preach, to pray, to break bread on this day; 
pag. 211.  and B. White averreth as much. And as to that Text of Acts 2. vers. 46. whether the margin of our English Testament transmitteth us, I say, that it is not inevitably, not evidently to be understood of common food. For 
f Ecce verax Evangelista testatur sub Apostolis fideles quotidie oras●e, & panem fregisse: Et vos, qui e●tis, qui dicitis duobus tantùm diebus hebdomadae Missam fieri debere perfectam? contra lib. Nicet. ap. Cassand. liturg. cap. 30.  Humbertus taketh it for the Eucharist, Behold the true Evangelist testifieth that the faithful in the apostolical times assembled every day in Prayer and breaking of bread: what are you then who say that full mass (that is, the celebrating of the Eucharist) ought to be performed only twice a week? And though the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may seem to bolster out the contrary opinion, yet if you take them, as they are both by the Syriack and Arabic, and our own margin rendered, for At home, the meaning may very consonant to truth be (as my learned 
* Mead. Churches▪ pag. 13.  tutor conceiveth) That when they had performed their daily devotions in the Temple, at the accustomed times of Prayer there, they used to resort to this Coenaculum immediately, and there having celebrated the mystical banquet of the holy Eucharist, afterward took their ordinary repast with gladness and singleness of heart. In which interpretation there is enough to reconcile both parts, something for illustration being superadded. For the holy Ghost doth here (so I take it) regard the practice of the Christians in their Love-feasts 
g Chrysost. in 1. Cor. 11. Hom. 27.  (and happily from hence they took their commencement) which consisting of divers viands provided by a common purse and collation, their fashion was to take so much thereof as they thought sufficient for the Communicants, and so to celebrate the Lord's Supper together; which done they presently fell to their spare and slender cheer, entertaining and solacing themselves with spiritual and divine colloquies. So that the fraction of bread here might have reference to their mystical repast in the blessed Eucharist, which was the first course or part of their Agape; and the latter part of the verse might look at the other part thereof, viz. corporal refection.  
Their next cavil is, that this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} denoteth not the first, but some one day of the week, wherein as they are become Separatists from our Church in her most absolute Translation, so them and her I leave to end the quarrel.  
We meet with it also, 1. Cor. 16.1. and there an ordinance of the Apostles, that their oblations should be upon that day. Now I would gladly learn why this day rather than any other should be appointed for an alms-day, had it not been observed Holy in those times.  
Lastly, we meet with it Apoc. 1.10. but not now as formerly styled the First day of the week, but apparelled in a Christian name, and called the lordsday; which certainly the holy Ghost would not have done, had it not passed for currant amongst Christians by that name: and how could it obtain that name, had it not been destined then to religious actions as a weekly holiday?  
Laying all these premised evidences of Apostolic practice together, do they not clearly demonstrate the translation of the Sabbath into the Lord's day? For why should the Christian Church, even in those times when every day was sanctified with devout exercises and seemed an holy Sabbath, select any one distinct and peculiar day to be kept holy? and why one in a week, rather than in a month or year? and why not in the weekly circuit, the old Sabbath rather than the Lord's day, had not God some way made known his will to them, that he would still have a Sabbath exempted from the common condition of other days, & that Sabbath to be weekly, and that weekly, not the old Jewish, but the new Christian, to be the first of the week, as dignified by the Resurrection of our Saviour, 
Baptismo flaminis die Pentecost.  and the Anabaptism of the Apostles. Vtrumque mysterium nostrum, utrumque utilitas nostrae, as Jerome 
a Serm. de Nat. Dom. T. 2.  in another case: dispenser's both of inestimable benefits upon his Church; the one of her justification, the other of her sanctification: and so this day a fit memorial of both.  
But here it will be demanded, By whom this translation was made? and to clear this doubt, Hic labour, hoc opus est.  
Athanasius the great hath resolutely affirmed that Christ was the author thereof; 
Homil. de sement.  {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, The Lord translated the Sabbath into the Lord's day. But some have found (as they think) an evasion for this, 
Heilen. p. ●. pag. 9  viz. That Christ was not the author by any mandate of his, but only the occasion of the translation: which unparalleled gloss suggests to my memory that of Augustine, 
b Facilè est cuiquam videri respondisse qui tacere noluerit, De Civit. Dei, lib. 5. cap. 27.  It is easy with every man to reply who can not hold his tongue. But let us look upon the colour or fucus wherewith this interpretation (as false as new) is daubed over, and see if it will not with great facility wash off. If Christ himself translated it, than the Father thwarteth what he said before 
c De Sabb. & Circumcis. , where he tells us that the Lord's day was taken up as a voluntary usage, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, we honour the Lord's day; he mentions no command, whereas of the Sabbath he saith, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, he commanded it to be kept. This indeed were something to decline our objection out of the Father, if we were not assured otherwise of his mind; for apparent it is that the Father neither regarded in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} voluntary usage, nor in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} imposed command; for do we not meet in him the same in effect counter-changed? Doth he not elsewhere say as much of the Sabbath, as here of the Lord's day? That when God had finished the prime creation he rested, and therefore men did OBSERVE the Sabbath in those days while the first creation was especially in force 
d Sabbatum in die illo OBSERVABANT homines istius generationis. . He mentions here no command; was therefore their observation of the Sabbath a voluntary usage? Nay, saith he not as much of the Lord's day, as of the Sabbath? 
e Cùm creaturam intra sex dies conditam renovatione interpolasset, ideo diem illam huic instaurationi consecratam voluit, quam in Psalmo Spiritus praenunciat, Haec est dies quam fecit Dominus.  When God had renewed and restored man by finishing the work of redemption, he willed that the same day should be dedicated to that Restauration which the holy Ghost foreshowed by the Prophet, saying, This is the day which the Lord hath made. And again, 
f Deus Dominicum diem certum decla●a●úmque esse veluit, ut finem praeteriti sentites.  God's will was that the Lord's day should be manifest and declared, that thou mayest know the end of the first generation to be accomplished. What say you now, Sir? will your ingenuity descend to recant, or your pregnant invention afford you another refuge.  
Now there be many ways by which Christ may be said to be the translator of the Sabbath: Either by immediate institution, and example, as Junius 
a In Gen. 2. ; or by ratifying and approving the Translation already made by the Apostles, as Maldonate 
b In John cap. 28. v. 24. ; or by giving them direct and express commission to do it; or lastly, by revealing his will to them by the holy Ghost after his Ascension. To render mine own opinion, and beyond opinion I will not adventure, Furiosares est in tenebris impetus, it is madness to run too boldly in the dark; where the Scripture is silent, it is never safe dogmatically to determine any thing: to render (I say) mine own opinion, the first way seems to me the more probable, considering our saviour's apparition, the assembling of the Apostles upon that day, whilst he abode with them, and the testimony of Athanasius, Nazianzene, and Augustine; but especially, because Clemens a contemporary of the Apostles, in his genuine epistle to the Corinthians, saith, 
g Dominus oblationes & Liturgias non t●me●è, vel inordinatè voluit fieri, sed statutis temporibus, Pag. 52.  Our saviour's pleasure was that oblations and public service of the Church should not be inordinately and uncertainly performed but at times appointed. Which if it were true, we need not then doubt but that Christ himself made the Lord's day a weekly holiday, it being the principal day we read of, destined to sacred duties in the apostolical age. But the matter is not much, by which, so we be able to prove that at least by one of these ways he did it. And this is a thing very feasible. For (to take a short and speeding course) the most embraced and popular opinion is, that the Apostles instituted and translated the Sabbath into the lordsday: this is agreed upon by all, ancient and modern.  
Augustine, 
a Dominicum diem Apostoli & Apostolici viri religiosâ solemnitate habendum sanxerunt, De Temp. serm. 251.  The Apostles and Apostolic men ordained the Lord's day to be celebrated with religious solemnity.  
The author 
b De Spir. S. cap. 27.  of that Tract (or at least of that Chapter) falsely ascribed to Basil, affirmeth the station and custom of standing upon the Lord's day to be an apostolical Tradition; if so, than the day itself much more.  
Isichius 
c Nos illorum (Apostolorum) sequentes Traditionem, Dominicum diem divinis conventibus sequestram u●in Levit. c. 9 , We following the Tradition of them (that is, the Apostles) sequestre the Lord's day for holy meetings.  
Epiphanius 
d De Fide Cath. l. 11. c. 22.  saith that the Apostles ordained the Synaxes to be held {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, on the Wednesday, Friday, and Lord's day. I keep the original word Synaxes, because of the diverse sense whereof it is capable 
e Casaub. Exerc. p. 537. .  
The same is affirmed by Zanchy, in quartum praeceptum, pag. 669. Melancth. tom. 2. fol. 363. Bucer, Ratio Can. examine. Mercer, in Gen. Beza, in Apoc. Pareus also ascribeth the Translation of the day, Apostolicae Ecclesiae, to the Apostolic Church; only of the time when they translated it he leaveth, as he findeth, doubtful: Quando autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris literis non apparet. And so 〈◊〉 his words in two several editions I have perused, that in quarto, and the other in folio: which I note the rather to whisper to you D. Heilens fidelity, who in his also two several editions hath by a new transubstantiation converted Quando into Quomodo; 
Heilen, p. 2. Cap. 6. §. 7.  and to make it apparent he did it de industria, he descants on it and renders it, How, by what authority. Ursin, Catech. p. 3. in Decalogum, is of the same mind: and so Junius in Gen. Baldwin Cas. pag. 474. Alsted. catech. in precept. 4. Bellarm. De cultu Sanctor. l. 3. c. 11. and infinite others: indeed what needs more? it is confessed by our very Antagonists themselves, Brerewood 
a Pag. 44. , B. White 
b Pag. 189. , Heilen 
c Part. 2 p. 32 , who all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, with one mind acknowledge the Apostles to be the instituters of the Lord's day.  
This foundation of apostolical institution being thus laid, I advance forward to inquire whether this act of the Apostles did flow only from the general authority delegated to them by Christ, or some definite and express command to that effect; or rather (in clear terms) I proceed to discuss that great question, Whether the Lord's day be established Jure Divino. Great I call it, not for any abstruse and perplexed intricacy in it, no; Learned and eminent maintainers it hath got, and therefore great: but it is not her great Patronage shall advantage error, Magna est veritas & praevalebit, Truth is great and will prevail: yea, but that is the question, whose Truth is. It is so, and come then for the decision of this question, 
d Rationem veritatis, quae nec mea nec tua est, sed utrique nostrûm ad contemplandum proposita, sine pervicaciae caligine, serenatis mentibus attendamus, Aug. contra Man. l. un.  To that truth which is neither mine nor thine but the equal object of us both let us give attention, our clear and 〈◊〉 judgements not beclouded with peevish stubbornness.  
To entitle a command Divine, it is not only required, saith (that thus far judiciously learned) Brerewood, 
Brerew. p. 2. pag. 63.  that the Authority be so whereby it is originally warranted (for there may be Divine authority for human decrees) but that the author also by whom it is established be Divine. Because Divine commandments are not so much evidences of God's authority, as they are declarations of his will and pleasure. Which being without controversy true, that which we are to make good is, That this Act of the Apostles was but the execution of a particular and several command to that purpose; which can no sooner render itself manifest, then by surveying the apostolical both Mission and Commission. As for their Mission, it was with all the grace and honour that might be, nothing wanting that might any way enhance it; As my Father sent me, so send I you, John 20.21. He that heareth you, heareth me, Luke 10.16. where our Saviour maketh them a kind of letter of attorney, to receive what obedience himself might claim. And having dignified their embassage with these previous expressions, Go, saith he, Matth. 28.19. there is their Mission and Legation; and teach, there is their Commission. But what? to teach what themselves think fit? no, there is a limitation, a restriction, 
Vers. 20.  it must be only the observation of what thin●s I have commanded you; and lest through frailty of their memories any thing should perish which was essential to their message, Christ himself will have an eye to them, I am with you always even to the end of the world, saith he. With them? how? 
Matth. ult.  in corporeal presence? that could not be, for he was now ready to leave them. No, he was with them in Spirit by the Comforter, whom he promised to send them, John 15.26. And this Comforter had his Commission too, To bring all things to their remembrance, whatsoever Christ had formerly said to them, John 14. ●6. And though this Comforter is called the Spirit of Truth, and so impossible it is that he should inspire any thing less than truth; yet when Christ telleth his Apostles that this Comforter should guide them into all truth, he presently saith withal, That he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that he shall speak: He shall receive of mine, and show it to you: which denoteth to us that the doctrine of the Gospel is in a more especial manner to be ascribed to Christ, then to the holy Ghost, who was but our Saviours delegate and Committee; therefore S. Paul saith that Christ spoke in him, 2. Cor. 13.3.  
It being then indisputably clear, that the Apostles were inspired by the holy Ghost, and that that Divine enthusiasm was but the revelation of Christ's will, there is nothing else now desiderable, but only to prove, that in this very act of instituting the Lord's day or Sabbath of the new Covenant, they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or prompted by that guiding Spirit; a thing little less visible than the former: for shall we say that the Spirit seized upon them only at certain tides and fits? That he assisted them in their office, both of writing and preaching the Gospel is most certain: but did he only then? was every act of their superintendency a spell to drive him away? did he only wait upon them in the publication of the Gospel, and abandon them in the moderation of the Church? was the doctrine they taught inspired from above, and were their constitutions ecclesiastical an human device? Certainly no; the voice of truth itself soundeth the contrary. For in their first council we read of a Visum est Spiritui sancto & nobis, It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us. But that was a business of great weight, and so might require a more than ordinary assistance: let us behold more trivial and petty matters. 
1 Cor. 7●  S. Paul was to give his resolution concerning a question, which (amongst others) the Corinthians put to him of Digamy, whether it was lawful for a widow to marry again after the death of her first husband, and he determineth affirmatively, yes; but rather commendeth her containing herself in her widowhood. Did S. Paul deliver herein his own opinion? certainly no. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, 
1. Cor. 7.40.  I think I have the Spirit of God, evinceth the contrary: and I hope no man will affirm this to be a business of importance comparable to the instituting of the Lord's day. To dispatch without more ado; there is a question (the first hint whereof Aerius the heretic is supposed to have given, and Jerome is not altogether dissenting from him) whether the Episcopacy be jure Divino. Much hath been said either way, yet not enough to end the bickering; and though the conflict be still on foot, yet both the one and the other side grant the hole controversy to move upon apostolical Institution: that which the one to prove, the other to disprove, do equally eagerly labour, is only apostolical Institution, the decision whereof endeth the dispute. King James ascendeth no higher, That Bishops ought to be in the Church, 
Epist. Praemon. Winton. Opusc. Posth. Athanas. ad Dracont. De diversis grad Eccl. cap. 23.  I ever maintained as an apostolical Institution, and so the Ordinance of God. Beza for the other part yieldeth as much, If I could (saith he) be assured that this superiority of a Bishop over the rest of his clergy hath proceeded from the Apostles, I would not doubt to attribute it holly to divine Institution. Now if Episcopacy can contract Jus divinum, divine Right, from apostolical Institution, why may not also the Lord's Day (which I am sure can show as good cards for her descent) do so too? and then with what face can it be gainsaid by any that either is or would be a Bishop? yet so it hath come to pass that they, who have most cried down the parity of Clergy, have most cried up the parity of days. But let any (be he what he will) that maligneth the honour of this glorious day, mutter his pleasure; yet nor he, nor all the learning of the world, shall be able to produce one solid argument, sufficient to withstand this inevitable inference of divine Right from apostolical Institution. It being by all learned men agreed upon, that whatsoever the Apostles (as Apostles and in their apostolical function) or did, or spoke, or writ, is simply without modification Juris divini; the Reason being evident, because they were not sui Juris, 
Cantuar. c. Fish. p. 81. Junius animadv. in Bel. c. 1. l. 3.  not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, they had no power of themselves to speak, or act any thing either in teaching or governing the Church, but all was suggested by the spirit, who could embreath nothing not divi●e.  
With this Argument our adversaries are hard beset, something they fain would retort, knew they what; and at last to show their courage, and that— Nec victi possunt absistere ferro, they will not yield though overcome, forth steps one, 
Ironside, p. 172.  and assaults us with two distinctions; of apostolical inspirations one, of apostolical traditions the other. Concerning the first he saith, The Apostles are to be considered, either as Apostles by extraordinary mission sent to plant the Gospel, or as pastors to govern the Church already planted. As Apostles they were infallibly inspired with all truths, upon all occasions. As pastors, their inspirations were only such irradiations, influences and concurrences of the Spirit, as are afforded at this day to pastors of the Church, unless by some personal miscarriages they procure unto themselves spiritual derelictions.  
I Answer, 
a Utrumque abs te fine ulla dubitatione cognoscere debui, sed non sum avarus, unum horum doce, Aug. contr. Epist. Manich. lib. un.  It is your duty to prove indubitately both these to me, but I am not covetous, make good but one and I am satisfied. And first, tell me, good Sir, (if to awaken you out of this dream I be not over-rude) where find you the pastoral and apostolical Office, in the same persons, distinct? where read you of a double Commission, one to plant the Church, the other to govern the Church already planted? were not both these parts of the apostolical function? were they not Apostles, i. e. sent to do the one as well as the other? Instance in any one act of their pastoral office, which was not in the latitude of their apostolical patent.  
Secondly, admit them for several functions: where I pray learn you that they had a distinct inspiration, according to those several functions? If those irradiations you talk of, which were shed upon them as pastors, were no other than what God now dispenseth to ordinary Ministers, than (I say) the beams or species intentional of such irradiations must needs have a tincture of the Medium (Natural corruption) through which they passed; and every thing, which as pastors they did, not only may but must have a relish of sin or error, which ever did, and ever shall, more or less, distain the best action of the justest man (infected with original corruption, and not extraordinarily and infallibly inspired) living upon earth. If then the Apostles as pastors were but ordinarily inspired, and that ordinary inspiration did not exempt their pastoral works from sin and error, it were a worthy labour to put the New Testament into Purgatory, to weed out all those passages which relate to the pastoral office of the Apostles, and to bind them up with the old Apocrypha; I see also no necessity why Children should be baptised, why women, nay why any of the laity should be admitted to the Eucharist, which are apostolical devices, whereof express command from our Saviour to them we find none: and to speak to the point in question, I see no necessity of celebrating the Lord's day, but of observing the Jewish Sabbath I see a necessity; for I see God's command to observe it, and I see no countermand to abolish it. If the Apostles abrogated it without express warrant from God, they did it as pastors; and their pastoral constitutions by your rule ought not oblige the Church for ever.  
But let us take view of the proofs which confirm this your distinction. 
Idem. 174.  First you say the Apostles considered as pastors, were subject to mistake, 
Gal. 2. 1●.  as appeareth by Saint Peter; who living at Antioch as a pastor, was justly reproved by Saint Paul, for not walking as behooved a pastor. And Paul and Barnabas dissented from one another, and that in such heat, as it maketh it apparent they were not both, if either, directed by the Spirit.  
I answer, That Peter and the other two Apostles were too blame, I not deny; but were they in Cathedra, or doing any pastoral work? assuredly No. He offended about the choice of meat, these about the choice of a companion; which are not things relating to the pastoral office. And for aught I see, you may as well argue, Such a Minister is a temporizer; Such and such a pastor were choleric one with another; Ergò they preach false doctrine, and so transfer the faults of the Person, to the office or calling.  
Secondly, you instance in places of Scripture, where you bring in the Apostle speaking some things of himself, not as dictates of God's Spirit. 
1. Cor. 7.  I speak this by permission, not of commandment, vers. 6. To the rest speak I, not the Lord, vers. 12. And, I have no commandment of the Lord, vers. 25. And, I give my judgement, vers. 40.  
I answer, Your first is nothing ad oppositum: for the Apostle there distinguisheth not his permissive counsel from Christ's command. In the following Text, where S. Paul is said to speak, and not the Lord, it is only meant, that Christ did not expressly determine the doubt, whilst he conversed on earth, it being not then on foot: and this is the solution of the 25. verse also. Where it is said, verse 40. I give my judgement, we must not think it to proceed from his own head, but dictated by the Spirit; and so by way of precaution he telleth us, I think I have the Spirit of God. Nor do these words, I think, imply, as though the Apostle were not confident of it, but by way of Irony seem to gird those who boasted of extraordinary illumination: and this is the constant interpretation of all learned expositors.  
Let us now see how you distinguish apostolical Traditions: These (you say) are either such as they received immediately from Christ, or such as were suggested to them by the Spirit; the first (you say) they delivered as Apostles, and they are therefore Divine; the other as pastors, and may be dispensed with. I did expect you would have derived this distinction from the Primitive Fathers, or some reformed Writers, men of some credit with us; but I see you are put to hard shifts, and are glad to appeal to them whom we renounce as incompetent judges, 
Canus, loc. l. 3. cap. 5.  the Papists. But you say, according to this sense you find the Fathers speak of Traditions. Your talk of Fathers at first affrighted me, till I saw your instance only attain a bare singular number. But what find you in Cyprian, your Fathers, or universal particular? when Stephen accused his Anabaptism for novelty, and repugnant to the ancient Tradition, 
Cypr. Epist. ad Pomp. 74.  True, saith Cyprian, but whence is this Tradition? from Christ in the Gospel, or from the Apostles in their Epistles? For what is written must be observed. There (you say) we have the first kind. 
Cyp. Ep. 68  But elsewhere Saint Cyprian saith, that the choice of Bishops and Ministers in the presence and with the approbation of the people, was of Divine and apostolical Tradition. Now who seeth not that here Saint Cyprian speaketh of those other Traditions, delivered and practised by the Apostles as the church's pastors, which are no longer in force then the Church (you forget yourself, you mean the Pope, for so your Canus singeth) shall like.  
I answer, what you see I know not; this I dare affirm, that whosoever shall behold directly and with equal angles this passage of Cyprian, will clearly discern these two things: First, 
Diligenter de Traditione Divina & Apostolica observandum est & tenendum.  that he couples Divine and apostolical Traditions together. Secondly, that he annexeth to apostolical Tradition an observandum & tenendum est, it must be observed, which implieth their perpetual Obligation: and by both these, Cyprian will be discovered to differ from your assertion, secundùm terminos oppositos, as wide as may be. And whereas you would enforce your interpretation upon us, as agreeable to the mind of this Father, from an assurance that such a choice of Bishops and Ministers is neither delivered in the Gospel, the Acts, or the Epistles; the thing is not so evident as you persuade: yea the contrary is the more probable, for Acts 14. vers. 23. where it is said, they had ordained them Elders in every Church, the word is, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, which most properly implieth that the suffrage of the Laity was used therein. Mistake me not, I say not the Popular vote made, but only confirmed the Election: to choose is one thing, to ratify the choice made another; therefore to commentators and others, who render the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, To elect by Popular suffrage, I cannot subscribe. 
Animadv. in Bell. contr. 5. l. 1. c. 7. a 59  The energy of the word may best be collected from Junius his description thereof: Chirotony (saith he) is a signification of suffrage by the hand, the people being entreated thereto by the common crier in this form, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Let him that approveth not of this lift up his hand. And in like manner I have observed Xenophon 
a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  bespeaking his soldiers, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. This description with some small elucidation will give you a plenary notion of the Athenian Chirotony. For further illustration therefore you must know, that regularly in whatsoever thing this Popular suffrage was required, the matter itself was first debated and resolved upon by the Nomothetes or legislators in their council-house, and after such consultation it was then posted up in the most remarkable place of the city some few days, to the end the people might have time to consider of it; which time elapsed, the common crier in open Market propounded it to the people: next an Oration 
b Hence came that scum of Anacharsis, Sapientes in concionibus sententiam dicere apud Graecos, stultos verò dijudicare, Alex. ab Alexand. gen. dierum, l. 4.  was made to them, wherein the convenience and necessity of the thing offered was laid open: that Oration ended, the people were last demanded by the public crier their vote, ut suprà, according to whose suffrage the business in agitation or stood or fell. Conformable, to this custom apostolical practice, in the ordaining Ministers, most probably was, viz. That they first chose the men, and then presented them to the people, who if they had any thing to oppose against them were then required to declare it. And this is the rather likely, because the Primitive Church, curious in imitating Apostolic usage, did universally 
a Alexander Severus observed the same (according to the Christian practice) in his ordaining of Magistrates, are governors of Provinces: Nomina eorum proponebat, hortans populum, ut si quis quid haberet criminis probaret manifestis rebus; dicebátque grave esse, non fieri in provinci●rum rectoribus, cùm id Christiani & Ju●ae● facerent in praedicandis sacerdotibus, qui ordinandi sunt, Lampridius in vita ejus.  observe the same order; which is still retained also in our Church, as appeareth by the rubric of her book of Ordination of B. P. and Deacons 
b In the ordaining Deacons and Presbyters. : So that your assurance, as sure as you take yourself to be, may in this, for aught I see, deceive you. But be it as you would, that such an election is not to be found expressly written, yet will it neither follow, that it being an unwritten Tradition apostolical, it is not Divine; or that Cyprian in that place thought so. What his opinion there was, I have already told you; and sure I am, his words as well agree with your new-fangled distinction, as if he and you had been at cross purposes. As for Traditions apostolical, the greatest Papists hold them for divine. So Bellarmine 
c De verbo Dei non scripto. cap. 2. : and his reason is, Quòd non sine spiritu Dei eas Apostoli instituerint, Because the Apostles did not institute them without the direction of the holy Ghost: And for the same cause Roffensis 
d defence. Reg. Assert. co●tr. Capt. Bab. Luth.  calleth Consecration (by which Transubstantiation is effected) a divine Tradition, Licèt nullis possit Scripturis comprobari, Though it cannot be proved by any written Word. But none more home than Gerson, 
e Non est in potestate papae, aut Concilii, aut Ecclesiae, immutate Traditiones datas ab Evangelistis, vel à Paulo, ut quidam del●rant, De vita Spir. Animae.  It is not in the power of the Pope, Counsel or Church to alter Traditions, delivered either by the Evangelists or Saint Paul, as some blunderers think. Thus you see yourself deserted by them whom you took to be the greatest fautors of your opinion. Let me advise you, Sir, if you have any more distinctions of the same stuff with those former,— habitent tecum & sint pectore in isto, suppress them, for they will never credit you.  
Though I have by main force of this invincible argument of apostolical Institution and Tradition reinvested the Lord's Day into a possession of Jus divinum, assured and confirmed enough against all machinations of her greatest oppugners, yet wanteth she not other (should need so require) auxiliary to her.  
For that Evangelical day, which was prophesied of, and prefigured in and under the old Law, could not certainly be an human device: But the Lord's Day was shadowed under circuncision on the eighth day, prophesied in many psalms (both proved by sufficient Testimony of the Fathers) Ergò the Lord's Day is no human ordinance.  
Lastly, as the Eucharist is called the Lord's Supper, because he instituted it; for the same reason is the Sunday denominated the Lord's Day. For these two, the Day, and the Supper, have the epithet of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Scripture, 
Opusc. sp. cont. Traske.  to show that Dominicum is alike to be taken in both, saith B. Andrews.  
Before I take cognizance of other questions pertinent to the Lord's Day, lest I be thought over partial to mine own assertion, painting it as Apelles did one-eyed Antigonus, who presented him half faced; and lest our adversaries should upbraid us, that they have not been allowed to object, the negative arguments shall have audience, and, as they lie in order, their refutation.  
Whatsoever is of Divine Institution is to be found either in the natural or positive Law of God: 
Object. 1. Ironside, p. 159.  But that the First day of the week should be the Christian man's Sabbath, is not so found: Ergò, the Lord's Day no divine Ordinance.  
It is found in the positive Law of God delivered by his Apostles, 
Solut.  and founded upon the morality of the fourth Commandment, as I formerly showed.  
But saith one, You only showed what the Apostles observed themselves; 
Object. Heilen. p. 2. pag. 188.  that they imposed the keeping of the Lord's Day as necessary upon the conscience of God's people by any law or precept whatsoever, that we read not; and so it will become a Tradition, which (though apostolical) is no Commandment.  
Is not this fine stuff? assuredly an argument rather that they have not left speech, 
Solut.  then that they are returned to their right senses: for (to omit Augustine's sanxerunt, Bucer, Junius, Beza, and others, who make it the Institution of the Apostles) doth not Brerewood himself confess it to be the ordinance of the Apostles, and B. White 
b pag. 192.  the same also? what I pray is an Ordinance but a Law? and was this a Law that bound themselves only, and not at all the succeeding Church? is it like they would constitute a Law to expire with themselves? And whereas we are now taught a distinction betwixt Tradition and Command, we will for quiet sake (though it biddeth defiance to all antiquity) admit it in the same sense you impose upon it, and accept it for a mere leaving of the observation of this day to the Church, without any express command to observe it; yet, I say, you shall find Command so implicitly complicated with apostolical Tradition, as all your waters of separation, all your chemical extracts of School-distinctions, shall never be able to sever them. For are you able to unmake Tradition? to make that no Tradition which is Tradition? If you be not, so long as it is Tradition, it hath express command affixed to it, Tenete Traditiones, Hold the Traditions, 2. Thess. 2.15. So that if Tradition were itself no command, yet hath it here command annexed to it. And though I grant that our expositors understand this place especially of the written word, yet extend they it to Traditions unwritten also, such as are clearly held to be apostolical, and have, if not mention, yet foundation in Scripture: amongst which the observation of the Lord's Day is worthily accounted. 
a Habet approbationem Scripturarum itaque inter Non-scriptas Traditiones haud possit collocari, De Iudice ac Norma fidei.  It hath the approbation of the Scriptures, and therefore cannot be numbered amongst unwritten Traditions, saith the Reverend Salisbury with others 
b Zanch. de Tradit. Pareus in 1. Cor. 11. Whitakerus, Controv. quaest. 6. c. 12. . And for the Church succeeding the Apostles, it is most evident she held herself obliged to the same observation: For even in times of persecution, before any either imperial Edict, or Canon of council enjoned it, the observation of this Day was so taken notice of by the Heathen, that it became a constant Interrogatory to the Christians in their examining, Dominicum servasti? Have you kept the Lord's Day? To which their answer was ever ready, 
c Intermittere non possum, quia Christianus sum, & Lex Dei de eo agendo admonet, apud Baron. 30●. Num. 5●.  I cannot intermit it, for I am a Christian, and the Law of God prompteth me to it. Here we see these holy Saints had a Law for the celebrating of this day; and have we none? Perhaps you will say, It may be questioned whether Dominicum here signifieth the Lord's Day, because Baronius 
d Ubi suprá, n. 39  and Bellarmine 
e De Carem. Missae sub tit. Collecta.  apply it to the mass, and it may also well be understood of the Eucharist, which is often in antiquity called Dominicum. I answer, It cannot properly and distinctly be understood of either: Not of the mass; for though Papists inform their disciples of I know not what pro-sekenique antiquity it hath, yet sure we are that (as now stated) it was not in being above a thousand years after our Saviour, and so it could not be meant in this place. Besides, the question was propounded as well to the Lay as Clergy-Christians, of whom it had been absurd to expostulate, Num Dominicum egissent? whether they had said mass? which is only done by the Priest. Nor can it respect the Eucharist otherwise then by implication, as it was then an usual work of that day; because it is said that they might not intermittere, which especially relateth to time (as interpose to place) and inferreth the not doing of a duty in its proper quando: which cannot be well interpreted of the celebration of the Eucharist, it being not restrained by any positive Law of God to a certain time. And indeed it was more proper to examine them whether they held their Christian assembly, whether they met on the Lord's Day, considering it consequently inferred the performance of all sacred duties, then to inquire whether they had celebrated the Eucharist, which according to the custom of those times was often performed at home, being reserved for the same purpose.  
If Christ had either here on earth, 
Object. 2. Brerewood, page 7●.  or after by revelation from Heaven, given his Apostles any such charge of Instituting a new Sabbath, sure Christ's Apostles would not have concealed Christ's command. 
Ironside, p. 161.  Besides, the Apostles holding their first Synod would doubtless have expressed as much to the Gentiles.  

Solut.  First, Christ's Apostles did not conceal Christ's command: for what if perhaps it be not extant in their writings? They were indeed our saviour's executors, performers of his will; but was his hole will exemplified in Scripture? certainly no: Some part thereof was declared in ima Cera, (as Civilians say) and by Tradition. For Tradition, which is clearly known to be apostolical, is as perfect evidence of Christ's will as the canonical Scripture itself. For the Scripture before it was Scripture was but a part of Tradition, and became Scripture that it might be of more ready use and better preserved from perishing, but mainly because it was the fundamental Canon of our Religion.  
Secondly, The Apostles in their synodical Epistle had only respect to the Judaical, not to Evangelical observances. Moreover, the solemnity of the Lord's Day was made known to them by former practice (equivalent with precept) at least, if not by precept itself: for according to our Church, 
a Hom. of the place and time of prayer.  The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to choose them a standing day of the week to come together in. My learned author biddeth us here observe, that the day was chosen by Christian people; and if chosen by them, 
H●ilen. p. 2. pag. 175.  than not enjoined by the Apostles. I see a man may learn something every day; for I profess ingeniously, till this instant I took the Apostles to be Christians. Lastly, the precept was in the negative, not in the affirmative. If you say, True, and hence we may infer that the first Christians were tied to no affirmatives, but such as were expressly commanded by Evangelical precept. I answer, than it must follow that women did not communicate, children were not baptised, Ministers not ordained, incorrigible persons not excommunicated, these being not expressly commanded by any Evangelical Law.  
Whatsoever is of divine Institution, 
Object. 3. Ironside, c. 8. p. 162.  and by necessity of precept laid upon the whole Church, is a necessary duty, without which (if it may possibly be observed) no salvation can be had: But no man will affirm so of the Lord's Day: Ergò, &c.  
The major is false; 
Solut.  for positive precepts omitted do not inevitably damn any man, but where there is a malicious contempt, or wilful neglect of the ordinance. The Sacrament of baptism shall be mine instance. It was in the Primitive Church procrastinated, by some many years; by most in their usual practice some months; and is even in our own Church some days. In all this delay, no inevitable impossibility debarreth the competent or person to be baptised from this Sacrament: will you then say that Heaven gates are precluded against all those whom hasty death cutteth off in this delay? Hear the most uncharitable of all the Ancients in this point 
d 
Impletur invisibiliter, cùm mysterium baptismi, non contemptus religionis, sed articulus necessitatis, excludit.  
De Bapt. c. Donat. l. 4. c. 22.   S. Augustine, The Sacrament of baptism is invisibly accomplished as long as the fault proceedeth from absolute necessity, not from contempt of the ordinance.  
The Gospel commandeth only such observations 
Object. 4.  which are either means of grace, 
Ironside, c. 8. p. 162.  as the Word and Sacraments; or wherein the exercise and use of grace doth consist, as the duties of love towards God and Man: But the observation of the Lord's Day is neither a means of grace, nor exercise of grace: Ergò, &c.  

Solut.  That which is a part of divine worship is a means of grace: But the observation of the Lord's Day is so: Ergò, &c.  
The minor I prove thus, That is a part of divine worship, whose Institution is divine: But the Institution of the Lord's Day is divine, as I have made evident: Ergò, &c.  
If you say that Junius, 
* medulla. l. 2. c. 14.  Amesius and others, who hold the Day to be Jure divino, make it yet only an adjunct to not a part of divine worship. I answer, that as it is a time set apart for holy worship, it is an adjunct to it; but as it is a time determined by God himself, the very observation thereof is a part of divine worship, which is nothing but a religious observance of the true God according to the prescript of his own will. Besides, it is a means to stir up our souls to the exercise of grace in pious meditations, when we consider it in all its prerogatives superlative above other days; as that which was the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, and in all probability shall be the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of days, and therefore aptly dedicated to him who calleth himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; as the day of our saviour's resurrection, by which we are justified; as the day of the holy spirits descension, by whom we are sanctified; 
Aug. d. Civ. Dei l. 22. c. 30  as the day which mystically prefigureth our eternal rest, when we shall be glorified. And therefore it is worthily and truly called by 
* Ad Magnes.  Ignatius, The sublimest and primate of all days.  
That day which cannot be kept universally throughout the whole world, 
Object. 5. Ironside, ubi suprá.  was never commanded the whole Church of Christ by an Evangelical Law: (For the Gospel is given to all Nations) But the Lord's day cannot thus be universally observed, considering the diversity of meridians, and unequal rising and setting of the sun in divers Regions, in some whereof time is not distinguished into weeks or days, by morning and evening, as in Groinland, Finmark, Lapland, &c.  
The positive Laws of God do not always imply a possibility in them upon whom they are imposed. 
Solut.  The Jews were enjoined many observances of sacrifices, feasts, &c. which could not always be performed by them, as in case of captivity or durance. So the Christians are commanded the celebration of the Eucharist, and yet the condition of some countries is such as they have not bread 
a As the Indians, Teste Arriano, l. 8. de Reb●s Ind. and the Venetians, ut habet ●e Treas. Polit. ▪ of others, as they have not wine 
b As the Norwegians. . The truth is, God's commandment may impose, but never oblige unto, things sometimes impossible: where there is an utter impossibility of observation (as in this or the like case) that impossibility is a necessity with which the Law dispenseth. And this is the reason (to speak to the point in question) why the Sabbath being given to Adam, and in him to all mankind, Gen. 2. was not described as the other six days by evening and morning; as also why the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment, of like latitude with the former, is not set out by express bounds of from Eve to Eve, 
Levit. 23.32.  as that in the levitical Law, which only concerned the Jews: to intimate that the journal or daily round of the sun, should be no precise rule or character of his Sabbath in such places where time is not so distinguished, but that there his people are to give him a seventh of their time, as it is with them distinguished.  
And though the Regions abovesaid have not natural days described by the circulation of the Sun from East to West, yet times they have holding so near correspondence with such natural days, that in some parts they are denominated days; and for Island (if my intelligence misleadeth me not) their days are homonymall with ours in England (an argument of their not different either Planters or conquerors) as derived from the same idols in Planetary computation, 
Le Tresor. Polit. l. 3.  whereof the learned Selden and Verstegan can inform you.  

Object. 6. Ironside, ubi suprá.  There is the same reason of keeping a determinate set Sabbath under the Gospel, that there is of preaching, praying, administering the Sacraments, &c. But these are not determined how often they shall be done: Ergò, It is not limited what time shall be a set Sabbath.  

Solut.  Every of these, though they be not absolutely restrained, yet their proper time is this very Sabbath, 

Dominum nostrâ Dominicâ semper manna de Coelo pluere, Hom. in Exod. 7.  
Omni modo orationibus insistendum, ut si quid negligentiae per s●x dies agitur, per diem resurrectionis Dominicae precibus expietur, Greg. M. li. 11. Epist 3.   whereof those duties were a final cause: to speak in particular, It is a Day of Preaching, and so ever was in the Primitive Church. Origen alluding to the first fall of Manna in the wilderness saith, The Lord ever raineth down Manna from Heaven on our Lord's day: and so in the apostolical age, Acts 20.7. It is a Day of Prayer. We must by all means intend our Prayers on the Lord's Day, that by them on that Day we may expiate for all our negligences and escapes in the weekdays. So Acts 2.1. the Christians were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, with one accord, on this Day: and how they were wont then to be employed, the Historian telleth you c. 1. v. 14. it was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, in Prayer. It is a 
* Chrysost. S. 5. de Resurrect. Athanas. Apol. 2.  Day proper for the Eucharist, and therefore anciently called Dies panis, and in some places (as in Alexandria) the only Day and Time for it. So Acts 20. vers. 7. the Disciples came together to break bread, that is, to communicate of the Eucharist. It is a day proper for the Sacrament of baptism, and therefore anciently called Dies lucis, the Day of illumination. 
Chrysost. ubi suprá.  This Sacrament not usually being conferred unless in case of eminent necessity, but upon this Day. So Acts 2.41. (the most notorious precedent extant) no less than {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, very near three thousand were this Day baptised. Lastly, it was a day of alms: 
Apol. 2.  Pro arbitrio quisque suo quod visum est contribuunt, & quod ità colligitur apud praepositum deponitur, saith Justin Martyr. And so 1. Cor. 16.1. Saint Paul ordained it should (the First of the week) be a day of collection for the poor.  
That which is expressly against Christian liberty was never commanded by Christ or his Apostles: 
Object. 7. Ironside, ubi suprá.  But to have the Conscience burdened with any outward observations, putting religion in them, as being parts of God's worship, is directly against Christian liberty: for how is he free that is thus bound to times and days?  
What you understand by Christian liberty I know not; 
Solut.  sure I am that Christ only delivered us from the observation of the old ceremonial Laws, and from the sting of punishment due to the breach of the moral; but that he exempted us from all outward observations whatsoever, is a fancy of your own, without warrant from the Scripture. For would he then have imposed the outward observation of Sacraments, if we had not been obliged to them? and you are in this implunged in error beyond the Anabaptiss: for they cry up Christian liberty to free them from the constitutions of men only, but you will have it reach to the very ordinations of God.  

Object. 8. Ironside, ubi suprá.  There is no duty essential in Religion ordained by Christ or his Apostles, of which we find not either exhortations in respect of performance, or reprehensions in regard of their neglect, either in the Gospel, Epistles, or Acts: But the keeping of the first Day of the week Sabbath, is nowhere pressed or exhorted unto, the neglect thereof nowhere reproved in all the new Testament: Ergò, &c.  
Paedobaptism, the communicating of women, is I hope essential in Religion, 
Solut.  secundùm esse perfectum; but where do you find any exhortation to the observation, any reproof for the neglect of these duties? Besides, I see nothing to the contrary but it may be included in Saint Paul's admonition of Tenete Traditiones, whereof before.  
Had the observation of the Lord's Day been of Divine Institution, 
Object. 9 Ironside, ubi suprá.  it is very probable that the Apostle reproving the Corinthians for going to law, would not have omitted the advantage of this circumstance: 
1. Cor. 6.  For plain it is that their pleadings were ordinarily upon the Lord's Day: But he omitteth, &c.  

Solut.  That which you make so probable, was, I affirm, (considering the Spirit which always assisted him) utterly impossible in the Apostle: for how could he (who knew his Lord and Master had often determined the contrary in very like cases, opposing pharisaical strictness) how could he, nay how durst he prevaricate or swerve from Christ's rule? he knew it lawful to cure a crazy body, and was it sin to consolidate a cracked estate upon the Sabbath? it was justifiable to drag a beast out of the ditch, why not also land out of the oppressors claws on that day when it could not be done on another?  
If Christ had appointed this day as the day of his Resurrection, 
Object. 10 Idem. ibid.  than the Eastern Churches which followed S. John transgressed this ordinance of Christ when they kept their Easter on another day: But they sinned not in it. Ergò, &c.  
Christ nor his Apostles (for aught we know) gave no commandment concerning Easter, 
Solut.  neither is it necessary that the anniversary and weekly memorial of one and the same benefit should always jump together. God's own precept, in almost the same case, we know was otherwise: The Jewish Sabbath and Passeover were both commemoratives of their redemption out of Egypt, yet one was fixed to the day of the week, the other to the full of the moon, so as they seldom met together.  
Had it been a Divine Institution, 
Object. 11 Idem.  doubtless those Fathers and Synods which have spoken so much in praise of the Day, displaying the prerogatives thereof, would never have omitted this which is the greatest of all: But none ever affirmed a Divine Institution: Ergò, &c.  
They do not indeed mention it sub terminis, because it was not questioned in their days; but if they make it instituted by Christ (as some) or by his Apostles (as almost all) and if they tell us, 
* Non minùs ratum est quod dictante Spiritu sancto Apostoli tradiderunt, quàm quod ipse Christus tradidit, Cypr. de Abl. ●edum.  Whatsoever the Apostles delivered by the dictate of the holy Ghost is as firm and indefeasable as what Christ himself, than I hope by necessary consequence they make it of Divine Institution.  
That which the orthodox condemn for popery should not be consented to by us: 
Object. 12. Id. ibid.  But that the Lord's day is a part of God's worship, and more holy than other days (as from Divine authority) is condemned by Reformists in the Papists: Therefore we ought not to symbolize with them.  

Solut.  No reformed Writers condemn this in the Papists, because they hold the Lord's Day more holy than others, but only such, and those very few, as think the Day to be of ecclesiastical not of Divine Institution. The orthodox Thesis is this, 
* Dies festiab hominibus non possunt fieri aliis sanctiores, Tom. 2. de diebus Fest. c. 10.  festival days cannot by human constitution be made more holy than others, as Amesius, to whom you appeal, could have informed you.  

Object. 13. Id. ibid.  Lastly, Socrates affirmeth that the Apostles never intended to establish laws concerning holidays; S. Augustine also maketh it will-worship or idolatry to observe any day as commanded of God. 
Soc. l 5. c. 2. Aug. cont. Adam Manich. c. 16. Hieronym. in Gal. c. 4.  S. Jerome likewise saith, we have no days having any holiness in them and necessity from Divine institution. The book of Homilies affirmeth that Christian men of themselves without any Divine precepts did take upon them the observation of the Lord's Day. All reformed church's consent with us; and many Martyrs in the Marian days, as Tindall, Frith, Barnes: Lastly, Master Perkins speaketh doubtfully herein, yet he was one of the first that took up this tenet.  
Socrates must have a candid Reader, 
Solut.  or be argued of overbold singularity against all antiquity, who affirmed the contrary. Augustine saith that the Christians in his time did not observe so much the festivals themselves as what was signified by them; and therefore he saith that the Apostle did blame the Galatians in this, because they did observe appointed times servilely, 
Serviliter, non intelligentes ad quarum rerum significationem pertinerent.  not knowing the mystery to which they tended: he speaketh nothing of their institution, not one word. Jerome indeed, I grant, was inclining to your opinion, but his single judgement is not equivalent to the many reasons and authorities urged on the contrary. The book of Homilies affirmeth no such thing as you say: these words, of themselves without any Divine precept, are yours not the Churches; not expressly, not interpretatively, so not hers as she is positive in the direct contrary. For there being two things wherein the Divine right of the Lord's Day is founded, upon legal Institution in the fourth Commandment, and evangelical by either Christ or his Apostles, for the first she saith that God expressly in that precept commandeth the observation of the Sabbath which is our Sunday; and not only commandeth it, but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to diligent keeping of the same. For the second, having a while after declared it to be God's Will and Commandment to have a solemn time and standing day in the week consecrated to him, she presently addeth, This example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow immediately after the ascension of our Lord Christ, and began to choose them a standing day in the week to come together in. Now where she speaketh of Godly Christian people, she doubtless meaneth the Apostles (for who else durst at that time take upon them to begin such a custom) and so as touching the Institution of the day as a weekly day, she reduceth it to the fourth precept, and as the first of the week, she foundeth it upon Apostolic practice.  
What some other reformed Churches think in this point of the Lord's Day, may plausibly enough against us be urged on your parts, I confess, and it is your Drusian, your keenest objection; and yet we can oppose many things to turn the edge of it. For first, they are only positive in setting down their own opinions, but the reasons inducing them thereto they suppress; and seeing they are not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, we must not be governed by their bare Thesis. Secondly, those confessions are not general, but particular to some Churches. Thirdly, were they the Canons of a general council, yet must they not predominate over Truth: 
a Ipsa concilia quae per singulas Regiones vel Provincias fiunt, plenariorum Conciliorum autoritati, quae fiunt ex universo orbe Christiano, sine ullis ambagibus cedere, ipsáque plenaria, saepe priora posterioribus, emendari, cùm aliquo experimento verum aperitur quod clausum erat, & cognoscitur quod latebat, August. de Bapt. c. Don. l. 2. c. 3.  national and provincial counsels ought to give place to the authority of universal and ecumenical; and these have been oftentimes amended, when experience hath cleared some truth which before lay hid, saith Augustine.  
Lastly, (though some will think it 
b Hieronym. Ep. ad Dam. Pap. in 4. Evang.  periculosa praesumptio judicare de caeteris, ipsum ab omnibus judicandum) to speak the truth, yet to speak it with all terms of venerable regard to those famous Churches, I dare pronounce they are not right in this point, not so full reformed but they stand yet in need of further reformation. Nor ought we to wonder at their mistake herein: For first the precept of the Lord's Day is not so legible in sacred Scripture as the rest which concern matters of faith, thereby to instruct us to put a difference betwixt fundamentals and ceremonies; it is written in a finer character, in a smaller Print, and therefore might well escape the eyes of those Churches at the first break of day of Reformation, when the light shone somewhat dim. Secondly, the question was never on foot in their times, and so the evidences demonstrating Divine Right were never laid open to them; and having inquiries concerning sacrifice of the Altar, Adoration, &c. more proper for those times, to employ them, they were not like to inform themselves better upon accident.  
What I have said concerning the Reformed Churches, may also be applied to those holy and blessed Martyrs you cite, and partly to master Perkins, who had he lived now would (I dare say) have been as positive and resolute as any other. And whereas you make him the prime inventor of this tenet, though what I have urged out of the book of Homilies is your sufficient confutation, yet will I produce one Testimony more, and that no less than royal, and as Reformation itself ancient. 
Injunct. of H. 8. anno 1636. apud Fox Martyr.  The Sabbath Day was used and ordained but for man's use, and therefore ought to give place to the necessity and behoof of the same whensoever that shall occur; much rather any other holy day instituted by man. What say you now, Sir? if Perkins was the first that took up this tenet, who I pray laid it down? and down it was laid for certain, if he took it up; for up it was you see in Henry the eighths time.  
Having thus waded through all the objections, and discovered their frame to consist of very loose and defeasable stuff, wherein truth is no ingredient, I step forward to other questions incident and pertinent to this discourse.  
And first, it is to be examined (the Lord's day being an apostolical Tradition) whether it be immutable, whether the Church hath power to alter the day, and substitute another in lieu thereof.  
I answer, Nay, the Church hath not such a power, the sphere of her activity extendeth not so far, she cannot null and rescind the act of God. If the Sunday be established (and established so I have proved it) Jure divino, it is without all dispute unchangeable; for Immutable is one ingredient into the definition of Jus divinum, as the Canonists compound it, who make it, which is comprehended in the Law and Gospel, and remaineth perpetual 
a Quod in Lege & Evangelio continetur, atque immutabile semper permanet, L●ncelot. Inst. Juris Canon. lib. 1. Tit. 2. . True it is, I grant, that many positive divine Laws are changeable by the same authority which first imposed them, but that a divine Law can be abrogated, yea or displaced, by human authority, that no sober man will yield to: And I hope (though many have of late set her on her tiptoes, and advanced her to a tickle point) the church's power and authority reacheth not Divine. Besides, there is an especial and peculiar reason of the inalterability of the Lord's Day more than is usual in other constitutions though Divine; for God hath a propriety therein. Six days in the week he hath bestowed upon us, but the seventh he reserved for himself, wherein he hath as good, nay better freehold estate, than any man in his possessions; and than the rule of the Law is, 
b Quod nostrum est, sine assensu nostro, ad alium transferri non potest, Reg. Juri●, lex 11.  What is ours without our assent cannot be transferred to another. So that the Church hath no power to make that a work-day, which God himself hath consecrated to his holy worship. Nor mattereth it whether this designation were performed by Christ immediately, or by the mediation of his Spirit assisting and infallibly directing the Apostles, and so it becometh an apostolical Tradition; for even this (though the lowest degree of Divine appointment) doth confer exemption enough upon this day, to secure it from any jurisdiction the Church can claim over it.  
I will not dissemble it, some learned men have I confess ascribed to the Church an authority over this day, so as she may if it please her transfer it to another: But you must know withal, that not one of these do repute it as an apostolical Tradition, which is the hinge upon which the hole question moveth; nor if they did, are we to give absolute credit to their dictates. Men they were of excellent endowments, great both for their piety and learning, and amongst them I honour none more than that famous Bishop 
c P. Paraus, de vit. & ob. Patris.  of Geneva Mr Calvin; yet in some things (as this for one) I may say of him as Augustine of Cyprian, 
d Sicut multa erant quae doctus Calvinus doceret, sic erat & aliquid, quod Calvinus docibilis disceret, contr. Donat. l. 5. c. 26.  As there were many things which learned Calvin taught others, so were there some things which he might learn of others. If you can, produce any one who hath affirmed it to be an apostolical institution or tradition, and withal an alterable ordinance, and I will promise you to afford you two at least for him who have resolved the contrary.  

Object.  But here perhaps you will demand, What? are all apostolical Traditions immutable? That restriction from eating blood, or things offered to idols? that of collections for the poor every Lord's Day? &c.  

Solut.  I answer, let it be first agreed what apostolical Traditions are, under which name many upstart and recent customs intruded themselves into the Church. 
a Unaquaeque Provincia praecepta Majorum leges Apostolicas arbitratur, Hieron. Epist. ad Lucinum.  Every Province accounteth the constitutions of its Forefathers Apostolic Traditions, saith Jerome. Apostolical Traditions than I say were of two sorts, the one particular, the other general. Particular were such, as were framed by the Apostles either jointly or severally, but restrained to some especial circumstance of time, place, persons, or the like; and so having only reference and regard to such circumstance, the removal of that circumstance made the observation of the Law to cease: Such are those Traditions above named in the objection, such are supposed to be the different rites of the East and West, 
b Azor. Inst. Moral. l. 8. c. 4.  one observing both the Sabbath and Lord's Day, the other the Lord's Day only, and fasting on the Sabbath; one celebrating the festival of Easter on the fourteenth day of the Moon, the other upon the Sunday after.  
General were such as neither regarding any circumstance of time, place &c. nor any movable occasion were universally agreed upon to be received, and so prescribed to the Christian Church by all the Apostles: such were the Creed, the books of the canonical Scripture, the observation of the Lord's Day, paedobaptism, &c. whereof that golden rule of S. Augustine 
b Quod universa tenet Ecclesia, nec conciliis institutum, sed semper retentum est, non nisi autoritate Apostolicâ traditum, rectissimê credimus, Cont. Donat. de Bapt. l. 4. c. 23.  is a character. What the Catholic and universal Church holdeth, not decreed by counsels but ever observed, we may safely believe it proceeded from no less than Apostolic authority. Now these general Traditions I aver to be immutable, and such as must ever be observed in the Church, not only because they have or mention, or foundation in the Scripture (for so the particular have also, and they which have not are not by us owned for Traditions apostolical) but because they were at first made without limitation and restriction; and herein I have the suffrage of Zanchy 
c De Tradition. , Pareus 
d Com. in 1. Cor. 11. , and other learned men.  
As for particular Traditions, they being at first framed for special occasions, are now (those occasions being ceased) but as laws dormant, until the emergency of the like occasion awakeneth them again. Dormant I said, not dead. Life, vigour, and force they have still, and should the same occasion arise again, God would expect from the Church the same observation: For they being apostolical, and so evidences of the Divine will upon several occasions, we must not think that one and the same cause can operate in the Immutable Essence a diverse will, seeing in Philosophy, The same agent, 
Idem, quà idem, semper facit idem.  whilst he is the same, effecteth the same thing: Dead therefore they cannot be, so long as there remaineth a possibility for the same occasion to set them on work again; and so that School-rule may fit them well, 
e Obligant semper, sed non ad semper, Bonavent. Diet. salutis.  They oblige always, but not upon all occasions.  
Well, be the Lord's Day Divine, be it Immutable, what then? are we obliged to observe it with that severe and rigid vacation, which the Jewish Sabbath required?  
I answer, Yes, 
f Qui in dominium alterius succedit jure ejus uti debet, Reg. Juris Lex 138▪  He which succeedeth into another's jurisdiction, is invested in his predecessors right. The same strictness of observation belongeth to the Lord's Day, that anciently did to the Sabbath; I say by the fourth Commandment: for that Commandment hath not lost under the Gospel the least scruple or atom of obligation, which it enjoyed during the Law, but bindeth still without abbreviation of time, or alleviation of restraint during that time. As for the duration of time, though I cannot discern such distinct abbuttalls thereof in this Commandment as some seem to persuade, yet am I of opinion that the word Day comprehendeth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a hole natural Day. And as touching restraint from negotiation and toil on that Day, the words are very direct, Thou shalt do no manner of work. What, not quench an house of fire? not water a beast? not provide necessary food? yes, works of necessity, works of mercy, thou mayest do: the precept only interdicteth servile work, ordinary work of our vocation (All doctors whatsoever so understand it:) which being granted, the fourth precept for aught I see little exceedeth in rigour touching the Sabbath, the Canon and Statute Law of this land, concerning the meanest holy Day. Differ I do herein from my sacred mother the Church of England, it cannot be denied; she hath expressed herself otherwise, 
Hom of the Time and Place of Prayer, Hom. 1.  viz. That this Commandment of God doth not bind Christian people, so straightly to observe the utter ceremonies of the Sabbath Day, as touching the forbearing of work and labour in times of great necessity. But seeing in the substance, viz. That we are not bound to observe the Lord's Day with that extreme severity which once belonged to the Jewish Sabbath, we consent, I hope a difference in the manner of expression is at most but a peccadillo, but a venial fault; our dissent is only this: That strictness which she reduceth to the fourth Commandment, I rather lodge and settle in those accessary and occasional laws, which are quite of another parish, and have nothing to do here.  
If it be here objected, That this precept bindeth not to the observation of the Lord's Day, and therefore no matter what it enjoineth.  
I answer, it doth oblige to the observation of this day; for no other day can properly be called God's Sabbath than this, because no other day is weekly solemnised in the Church, and thereto destined by Divine appointment, which are the certain characters of the Sabbath of that Commandment.  
Besides, all expositors interpret this precept of this day especially, and some of none other; and above all, our Church itself is so full as nothing can be desired more apposite to our purpose, than what she hath delivered. 
Hom. of the Place and Time of Prayer.  Like as it appeareth by this Commandment, saith she, that no man in the six days ought to be slothful and idle, but diligently labour in that estate wherein God hath set him; even so God hath given express charge to all men, that upon the Sabbath Day (which is now our Sunday) they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour, and give themselves wholly to divine exercises of God's true Religion and Service. And a few lines after she saith, That to keep the Christian Sabbath (which is the Sunday) is God's express commandment. These are loud and clear demonstrations of what our Church then thought; wherein two things are remarkable: First, that she reduceth the observation of the Lord's Day to the fourth Commandment: and secondly, that without any scruple she very broadly calleth it our Sabbath, 
See before, p. 109. Injunct. of H. 8.  yea and The Sabbath. A word whereat much offence hath lately been taken, and all that use it are checked by our great Schoolman; who (good man) in a tender care of us, 
Ironside, p. 120.  adviseth that we follow the language of the holy Ghost, as also of the Primitive Church, that we vary not from other reformed Churches, that we gratify not the Jews in their obstinacy against Christ, that we offend not our weak brethren, and lastly that we use that name which doth most edify, viz. the Lord's DAY. As concerning the style Lord's Day, we quarrel not at it, we are no enemies of it, we use it for aught I know more frequently than Sabbath; yet were it truly sensed, and according to right sense duly observed, it would contract not only the title but nature of a Sabbath; for what is our Lord's Day but the Evangelical Sabbath? as the legal Sabbath was the Jewish Lord's Day. Be the Lord's Day thus stated, call it then by that name ever if you please, it not at all offendeth us; but when it becometh from the Sabbath an ordinary holy day, or rather playday; from the Lord's Day, the church's Day, we have then just cause to rouse the world by shrill expressions, and loud manifestations, that it is both the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment, and also the Lord's Day, that is, of his Institution. But to pursue this not without wonder, behold the strange condition of these men who inveigh so bitterly against the word Sabbath, which hath notwithstanding warrant both from our book of Homilies, the Canons ecclesiastical, and Edicts of our Princes, behold their perversity: The words Altar, Priest, Sacrifice, Holy of Holies, will down with them so easily, as now they begin to relish nothing else. It is rare, very rare, a great novelty to hear the course and homely terms of Table, Minister, Lord's Supper, or Chancel in their mouths. Now I say, and aver, the word Sabbath hath not in it any semblance of danger to God's Church, comparable to that of Altar, Priest, &c. For first the Lord's Day is a Sabbath, & The Sabbath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, properly and directly; whereas these words Altar, Priest, &c. are used {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, but figuratively and symbolically. Besides the word Sabbath giveth no offence, for if any incline to Judaism it is in the strictness, not now in the day. But the other words stumble many, especially in these times wherein we have cause, and just cause, to fear they are meant and intended of things other then metaphorical: And are not our fears just? when transubstantiation beginneth not to be instilled in some subtle and Paracelsian spirit of School distinction, but according to the Galenists to be exhibited in the gross mass of corporeal presence in a corporeal sense; so as the most unprepared and unbelieving receiver eateth his part thereof as well as the faithful. But admit this to be the tenet of some few extravagants; yet are not our fears just? when that uncouth and apish bowing toward, if not to the Altar is not only warranted and defended, but commended to our observation by the chief of our Church: which whosoever shall dive into it, and search antiquity, will find it one of the Parents (Elevation or Ostension being the other) which begot adoration of the Host, which begot Impanation or transubstantiation. Let not any think here that by antiquity I understand the very Primitive Church, with whom we challenge so near alliance in matters of Doctrine; for certain it is, that the first Church was utterly ignorant of this novel device: you shall indeed many times, very often find in the Fathers 
a Just. M. q. ad Orth. 118. Tertul. Apol. c. 16 Orig. in Num. Hom. 5. Clem. Alex. storm. 7. Athan q. 37. Basil. de Sp. S. c. 27.  that they bowed or worshipped towards the East, and this they did only at their entrance into the Church according to the Poet, 
Vt Templi tetigere gradus procumbit uterque  

Ovid. Met. l. 1.  Pronus humi.   
But of bowing (for what some urge of Nazianzen's Gorgonia was geniculation, not genuflection, as will appear to any that duly peruseth the place) towards the Altar as you call it, or ducking as often as they approached unto, or departed from it, you shall not find mention anywhere till you arrive at Chrysostome's Liturgy, which requireth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, adorations to be made, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, towards the holy Table; and this we all know is a piece of yesterday, the author whereof was in being not full six hundred years past, which we are also as certain was the very time about which the Incarnation of Bread or transubstantiation began first to be whispered. I should not have dwelled so long upon this, but that I find it pressed as a necessary duty, yea a duty of necessity adequate to the observation of the Lord's Day, a Tenet which deserveth rather to be hissed at then answered.  
But to return from whence I have digressed: Let whatsoever is positive in the fourth Commandment stand for a cipher, is the Lord's Day to be observed one jot the more remiss? doth not apostolical Institution imply an equal Obligation both concerning the continuance of time and restraint from labour? what did they ordain? what institute? was it not, That the first day of the week should be consecrated to God and spiritual negotiations? you cannot yield us less. If then it was the first day, of what is it meant? of a natural day from sun to sun, or of an artificial from the sun-rise to his set? I answer, of the first, for these reasons. If all the other days of the week contained both night and day, why should not the Lord's Day have as large a proportion of time as the rest? do not all the days in the week hold by Gavelkind? and if it contained only daylight, than there was a night to spare, whereof I would gladly know what should become: Should the Saturday have it all? If so, than this would by sesquialter proportion exceed all the rest: should it pass by way of dividend amongst the other six, than there would be two hours in every day more than the sun's revolution maketh. Moreover, when God requireth any thing dedicated to him, his constant caveat and proviso is that it be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, not defective and without blemish, not lame, 
Deut. 15.21.  or imperfect. Now that which wanteth one minute of its full time cannot properly be called a day: regularly I say, and de jure, of right, it cannot, where the day is seposed by divine designation. 

Neque ideo jussisse ut à vespera ad vesperam Sabbata sua celebrarent, ut diei initi 'em & finem designaret, sed ut integrum diem naturalem sibi vendicaret,  
Dr Garnons Determ. M. S. de Die Dom. Cant. Junii ultimo, 1632.   And this is the more evident by observing what God required under the law, it being no less than a full and complete natural day from eve to eve; which was, not (as a learned doctor conceiveth, and I think aright) to set out the beginning and end, the boundaries of a natural day, but to declare his own claim of a natural day to be dedicated to him which should begin at evening. If then the day must be understood of a natural day of 24 hours, it will then necessarily follow that vacation from labour during that time must be concomitant with it: For vacation from worldly affairs, which may impeach the worship of God, is so inseparable from times consecrated to that worship, as it is by Brerewood rightly accounted part of the morality and substance of the fourth Commandment, 
pag. 62.  and so in the Christian Church perpetually to be observed.  

Object.  If any shall now object that this vacation is only necessary and required during the time of public assembling in the Church, and that no more is exacted of us then that we attend such assemblies.  

Solut.  I answer, that God will admit no sharer in any thing consecrated to him; and though the Cardinal and chief end of the Sabbath is, that God be publicly honoured, yet doth he not leave the remainder thereof so at our dispose, that we may dispend it either in carnal pleasures, or terrene negotiations  
Those oratories which, from their dedication to the Lord, are in English denominated Churches, do from their destination to public and solemn address contract the name and repute of sacred: and though they be superlatively and above all venerable while employed to their destinate end, yet always, even at times of Cultustitium (as I may so say) or vacation from public worship there remaineth in them an indelible impression of awful regard, which ought to preserve them from all profanation inviolable. Mistake me not, I place no inherent sanctity, I immure not God in them, I approve not of their decoring, even to effeminate curiosity, nor allow them an honour as some of late (too close followers of Nazianzene 
a De funere Patris. ) even to ridiculousness superstititious; yet this I hold, God's houses they are, places where his honour dwelleth, for which cause such a relative veneration is due to them as always dignifieth and ennobleth them above any other house whatsoever, and secureth them from common use: and in this men both learned and moderate have led me the way, as Zanchy 
b In Decalog. , Hospinian 
c De orig. templ.. , &c. Now 
* 
Eâdem religione sanctificanda sunt Domino loca & tempora eju● nomini dicata,  
Bucer. Cens. Angl. ord.. p. 460. Levit. 26.2.   Places and Times consecrated to God's name are to be sanctified with equal religion; and so the ritual of the old Testament coupleth them together, Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuaries: And then I say, that the Lord's house may as well be impropriated to a warehouse, as his day to a work-day, when the congregation is dismissed. And this privilege it as well deriveth from evangelical, as legal institution: Therefore Leo 
d novel. Leon. c. 54. , when he made that edict of general restraint on the Lord's day, pleadeth conformity with the evangelical constitution, 
Statuimus quod Spiritui sancto ab ip●óque institutis placuit, &c.  We ordain as it seemed good to the holy Spirit & to them whom he instructed.  
But it will be here opposed, that neither the Apostles themselves, nor the Primitive Church, observed this day with any such strictness until Constantine's decree; and therefore it is like they enjoined it not.  
I answer, as touching the practice of the Apostles, there is, I confess, nothing either the one way or other clearly evident, nor much of that of the Primitive Church during the time limited: only Justin Martyr 
e Apol. 2.  (if I be not mistaken) hath something reflecting that way; for in his description of the custom of public assembling in those times upon the Lord's day, after he hath insisted awhile upon the duties performed in the Church, he setteth down what the Christians did postea, after their dismission, as their visiting & relieving the poor, their consorting together, and their repeating to one another what they had learned that day in the Church. Of the remainder of time, the solemn assembly being ended, I understand this postea probably enough, yet will not warrant it with over much pertinacity; if any other construction can vouch better reason in its defence, let that obtain. But though we should find no evidence of the Primitive practice of cessation from labour on this day, yet will it not follow that they did not forbore it if possibly they could: for we meet with exhortation to it by Origen, 
f Die Sabbati Christiani nihil ex omnibus mundi actibus oportet operari; si ergò desinas ab omnibus secularibus operibus, & nihil mundanum geras, sed spiritualibus operibus vaces, haec est observatio Sabbati Christiani, Hom. 23. in Num.  On the Christian Sabbath day we ought not to do any worldly business; if therefore thou dost surcease from all secular affairs, and dost nothing but employ thyself in spiritual negotiations, this is the right observation of the Christian Sabbath. Is it now likely that the doctrine of so eminent a Teacher as Origen should persuade none to conformity with what he here delivered? But suppose the worst, and that you were able to afford us an example or two of labour on this day, must it therefore follow that there was no decree of restraint made by the Apostles, and that we are at liberty to plow and cart on this day, notwithstanding any divine Law to the contrary? Nothing less: for as his late majesty 
g Conference at Hampton Court, p. 16.  judiciously said, It is not sound reasoning from things done before a Church be settled and grounded, unto those which are to be performed in a Church estalibshed and flourishing. There might be, and was, weighty cause to dispense with so strict a vacancy from worldly business, as the state of the Church then stood. Heavy were their pressures, many thousands were the slaves of miscreant masters, who in likelihood would not forbear their servants work an hole day in a week, but exact it from them under the penalty of many stripes; so that should any of that servile condition have refused his Master's work on that day, nothing could he expect but severe if not inhuman usage: and should the Christian Church have engaged herself in the vindication and justification of such contempt, it had been the highway to have made both her Religion and self (even to eradication) odious, as the incendiaries of disobedience and maintainers of anarchy. And therefore very discreetly the fathers of the Laodicean council, wary of giving offence, yet willing to show how they stood affected, decreed in the twenty ninth canon of that council, that Christians should rest from labour on the Lord's day, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, if they could, that is, if their pagan masters would not constrain them to work; and so it is by Brerewood understood.  
But here it will be excepted, If the Law of God commanded their rest and cessation upon the Lord's Day, the law of man enjoining the contrary was not to be weighed: for in such cases, 
h Nullus subjicitur legi inferioris contra superiorem, Aquin. 1.2 q 96.5. ad 3.  No man is subject to a law of an inferior repugnant to another of a superior. or It is better to obey God then man, Acts c 5. v. 29.  
I answer, Better it is indeed to obey God then man, when they command things repugnant; but it must be with this proviso, that the Law of God be fundamental and paramount, from which there is no appeal to an higher: For if it be a positive or ceremonial law, a law of lesser carat, than Aquinas his rule must be retorted with the loss but of one letter, No man is obliged by an inferior law against a superior. 
Nullus subjicitur legi inferiori contra superiorem.  All positive laws whatsoever are subordinate, and when they stand in competition with morals and fundamentals they must strike sail. Because the point is tickle, and may perhaps give offence to weaker apprehensions, I will illustrate it with two examples taken out of Holy writ, where God dispensed with ceremonial laws for a while, that the moral might be preserved inviolate. The ceremonial law of God enjoined the Israelites to offer such and such sacrifices, at such and such times, in such and such places; directly cross to which, Pharaoh their King imposed upon them such a task, as would not afford them any leisure to perform those sacred duties: Now the fundamental law of God enjoined them (as it doth all men) to obey their superiors in all things either simply good, or not simply evil; and betwixt this fundamental and the other ceremonial laws stood the contest. But what was the issue? Did God with the Israelites in this case (as Popes in their fury, by a Nos Sanctorum, 
Gratian D●e. p. 2. q. 7. causa 15. Exod. 1.  with the subjects of an heretic Prince) absolve them from their obedience? The Israelites were more and mightier than their adversaries; did he instigate and spur them on to rebel, or by assassination to make away their King? No, he sent to Pharaoh and commanded him to let his people go; he knew the fault and impediment to be in him alone, the Israelites were blameless: and as Augustine saith in a similarie case, 
i Reum Regem fecit iniquitas imperandi, innocentem subditum ordo serviendi, Cont. F. Man. l. 22. c. 75.  The obliquity of the command made the King blame-worthy, the ordinance of obeying made the subject innocent. Nay, to pursue this example a little further: when Pharaoh condescended to let the people go to sacrifice, provided they went not far, Moses refused the leave upon such conditions as were like to bring them in peril of their lives. It is not meet so to do: shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? Exod. 8.26. A true confirmation of God's impress, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, Hos. 6.6. Both he will have, where both may be had; but if he must part with one, mercy he will have, let the other go. 
Paraeus in loc.  Upon this text a learned commentator thus, 
k Deus caeremonialia primae Tabulae moralibus secundae tabulae post ponit.  God preferreth the morals of the second Table before ceremonials of the first. And the same is the opinion of divers others 
* Zanch. in loc. Jun. Parall. l. 1. c. 22. .  
The second dispensation was in the wilderness, and that from observation of a sacramental law: for we read Joshua 5.5. that circumcision was omitted all that time, and the Israelites abode there 40 years. The most probable cause of this omission was, because they were every minute to watch the motion of the convoy-cloud, and to march with it; but circumcision would either retard their expedition, or hazard the lives of the infants: therefore God in mercy had rather respect to the safety of those innocents, then to his ordinance of circumcision.  
I could also instance in God's dispensation during the persecution under Manasses and other idolatrous Kings, as also under the captivity of Babylon; in all which several times, doubtless, there was a fail in many ceremonial duties otherwise observable. The truth is, all ceremonial laws have respect to the latitude of Jury, and the land of Canaan, as well in a moral as a literal sense; viz. they are framed only for the Church, whilst she enjoyeth a visible and open profession of her religion, whilst her peace remaineth indisturbed: for when the fury of persecution hunteth her like a partridge on the mountains, when times of tribulation and calamity seize upon her, God then accepteth what service she can with her own safety afford him; he standeth not upon shadows, the substance is that he only then looketh after. Ceremonies are but the outward dress of religion, only made to decore her in public profession, and therefore not absolutely of the essence of a Church; and so but respectively necessary: The very Sacraments themselves are but so, as the glory of our Church 
l Perkins, case consc. l. 2. c. 8. q. 1.  hath rightly observed upon that fail of circumcision in the wilderness; yet Sacraments (I take it) are the highest stair and degree of ceremonies.  
Now these premises considered, nothing discern I to the contrary, but a constitution of the Apostles concerning labour to be omitted on this day there might be, though not to take a full effect until the Church should attain her land of Canaan, a settled and flourishing peace. And the event seemeth to prove the ordinance: for no sooner did Constantine (a second Joshuah or Josiah) sit sure in his throne, than God's external worship began to be magnificently solemnised, and (as an especial badge thereof) his day superlatively honoured both by imperial edict and example; and that with strict vacation from all worldly avocations: ab omni opere, from all work, so his Histriographer 
m Eusebius, de vita Const. l. 4. c. 18.  reporteth. Elsewhere (I grant) there occurreth a constitution of this Religious Emperor tolerating labour on this day, but it was in country villages only, and that too but in case of necessity, 
n Nè occasione momenti pereat commoditas coelesti provisione concessa. Cod. l. ●. Tit. 12. l. 3.  lest pretermitting the opportunity offered by the divine providence it might not occur again. This dispensation is much urged by the Antisabbatarians, but it hath no great force with us. For first, it may be well controverted, whether Constantine ever made any such indulgence or no; because if he had, is it credible it could have escaped Eusebius, who was not only contemporary but in a manner companion with this Emperor; who took special notice of all his actions, having in design the compiling of the history of his life, and who over lived him; yet this Bishop hath not one word of it. But be it Constantine's; sure we are it was after rescinded by Leo with a We ordain that all men cease from labour on the Lord's day, 
Statuimus ut omnes a labour vacent, neque agricolae neque quiquam in eo (die Dominico scil) illicitum opus aggrediantur.  that neither husbandmen nor any other take in handwork unlawful on that day. And before Leo, divers of the Fathers in their popular tracts or sermons pressed this vacation upon the people: On the festival day all handiwork is prohibited to the end that men may more entirely exercise themselves in sacred matters. So Cyril 
o Prohibetur die f●sto opus quod manu exercetur, ut integriùs rebus divinis exercere vos possitis, In Joan. l. 8. c. 1. . Chrysostom 
p Hom. 5. in Matth.  calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, an immovable law, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, that this first day of the week be holly set apart for sacred exerc●s●s. But there are also fathers, you will say, that seem to incline to the contrary. First Jerome: he relateth of a religious woman, governess of the nuns at Bethlehem, how she every Lord's day resorted to the Church, and after service she and her company fell to their ordinary work of making garments for themselves or others. To this I answer, consider Paula as a subject, and then tell me how can you acquit her of the breach (I will not say of the fourth but) of the fifth precept, if Bethlehem was within the latitude of Constantine's decree; and certainly it was: for that reached Omnes Romano Imperio parents, all men subject to the Roman Empire. And if this Lady was not within the verge of the dispensation, for that was for husbandmen only, was not then this her act a disobedience to her Prince's law, and therefore her example no rule of those times, it being itself irregular. Besides, S. Jerome telleth us of religious persons of the other sex, Monks, that they did orationi tantùm, & lectionibus vacare, busy themselves in prayer and reading on the Lord's day. Now consider Paula and her nuns as women, and compare their practice with that of these Monks, and then if the masculine practice be not more worthy than the feminine, let Grammar scholars judge.  
Out of Gregory they tell us, that he giveth it as one cognizance of Antichrist, 
q L. 11. ep. 3. Diem Dominicum & Sabbatum ab omni opere faciet custodiri.  That he shall enjoin the Lord's Day and the Sabbath to be o●served with abstinence from all work. To which I answer, There are two things which Gregory here reproveth in the observation of the dominical Day: first a Jewish not a moderate and sober restraint; and this is certain, for in the very same epistle he saith, 
r Dominico die à labore cessandum est, & omni modo orationibus vacandum.  On the Lord's day we must cease from labour, and by all means attend our prayers; secondly, the celebrating it together with the Sabbath, for it is Diem Dominicum & Sabbatum, the Lord's Day and Sabbath both, which was the error of the Ebionites. And therefore Gregory, for aught I see, standeth their friend no more than Jerome. This Gregory was a man of the sixth century, an age wherein themselves acknowledge this restraint took deep root, and so it continued successively downward, even to the times of Reformation; nor did the first Reformers, those of our Church especially, exercise themselves in varying any thing at all in this point from the received practice, as may appear both in the statute and canon laws both of this and other countries.  
But hitherto I have only insisted upon restraint from labour and servile work, there is yet another question concerning restraint, not from work, but play, and from recreations, viz. Whether recreations (such as are at other times lawful) are tolerable and lawful on the Lord's day.  
To this I answer in short, All recreations at other times lawful are interdicted on this day, but such whereby the mind is better disposed towards the sanctification of the day, or such as are no impediments to that sanctification. For the day is appointed to be sanctified, that is to be an holy, not a playday: and it is a rule in the decalogue and all other divine laws, that where any thing is commanded to be done, all things subservient to the performance of it are consequently enjoined, as also all lets and hindrances prohibited. 
Synod. Antisiodor. Can. 9  Besides, God's house hath been ever thought profaned and polluted by sports and meetings of good fellowship, why also not his day? Nor is it enough that these recreations be not an hindrance to public exercises in the Church, but they must not disturb even private duties at home, as meditation, prayer, holy conference, &c. For God commandeth not the sanctification of some few hours, but of a day, that is an hole day, allowing sufficient time for repose and repast to the body. And so our Church 
a Hom. ubi suprá.  interpreteth the command: God's obedient people, saith she, should use the Sunday holily, and rest from their common and daily business, and give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises. And consonant to her, her sister the Church 
b Art. 56.  of Ireland, The Lord's Day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God. If holly to God's service, where have recreations a room? These articles are it seemeth called in; for what reason I not dispute: sure I am the nulling of them was very acceptable to the disciples and followers of Arminius (Men too bold and frequent in these Dominions 
c K. J. cont. Vorst. p. 18. ) whose accursed tenets were there damned.  
As an appendix to this discourse of recreations, if now my opinion be demanded concerning his majesty's book, I shall say of that only this, His Princely intentions were therein (I doubt not) pious enough; not so, I fear, theirs who first suggested the convenience and fitness of that liberty unto him. But in regard the foundation thereof seemeth especially to be the preserving in observation Encaenia or Church dedications, of them I shall say somewhat, perhaps not known to all. Of their first Institution (innocent enowgh) I will not speak nor trouble myself and you in showing by what gradations they ceased to be what they ought, and became what they ought not; of their corrupt and degenerate estate I purpose only to give you some small hint, collected from what I have read, and partly from what I have seen.  
First therefore you must understand, there were in the late times of superstition and blindness in our Church (in our Church I say, for in other countries I confess they were united) two feasts, Maenechmi, very near resembling one the other; one called the Feast of Dedication, the other, the Feast of the patron or Church Holiday: the impious and profane fooleries were almost the same and common to both, only the Feast of the patron had this peculiar to it, The idol or image of the patron richly decked and dressed was set forth upon a table near the Church door, to the view of the People, 
— quod quia mutum est,  

Naogeorgus, de Dedicat.  Aut nondum populi linguam or áque barbara novit,  
Assidet interpres quidam; clamánsque rogánsque  
Intrantes, atque ingredientes munera praestent  
Patrono, & nummis redimant indulta Paparum,  
— which because 't is dumb  
And kennes not yet the people's idiom  
Its spokesman's by, who begs of all that come  
Toll for his patron, and sits there to sell  
Pardons for sins, but men must pay him well.   
But the first spark of light which shone in the beginning of Reformation soon quitted the world of this gross abuse: King Henry the eighth, anno 1536 amongst other things, enjoining that this Feast of the patron of every Church, commonly called the Church Holiday, should be no more observed within the Realm. The Feasts of Dedication indeed continued still, yet much eclipsed in their former wicked and abominable solemnity; for whereas before the custom was for divers vicine Parishes to assemble themselves together there where the Feast of Dedication was to be held, to feast and riot in the very Churches, to erect stalls for pedlars in the Churchyard, to spend the hole day in swinish swill, lascivious wantonness, in cudgellplay-matches, and in the true service of Satan; and because every parochial Church had its proper Sunday whereon the Feast was kept, and it was rare by reason thereof to have a Lord's Day observed (especially in summer time, wherein these Feasts are most frequent) with any tolerable devotion and exercise of Piety, it was therefore by the same Prince strictly enjoined, 
Anno praedicto.  That the Feasts of Dedication of Churches should in all places of the Realm be celebrated upon the first Sunday in October for ever, and upon none other day. The scope of this King was doubtless to restrain the disordered licentiousness of the people on this day, being occasioned by their joint resort to other Parishes where these Feasts were observed; and in this I cannot but commend that Declaration of his sacred Majesty, which restrained and prohibited that disorder so far as in it lay. Had there been due inquiry made into the violation of his majesty's will in this, and punishment inflicted upon the offenders, great I dare say had been the good it would have produced: but through general impunity, and the perverse corruption of human nature, choosing in every thing that which serveth its own (though never so inordinate) ends, and neglecting the rest, his majesty's godly purpose was (I know) much abused, and God's sacred Day not less dishonoured. And for proof thereof, I will give you a Relation of mine own autopsy, of what these eyes saw. It was some few years since my fortune to visit a kinsman (seated in a country where these Feasts are frequent) upon a saturday, and though I purposed to depart that day, yet he importuned and prevailed with me to repose myself with him the ensuing Lord's Day. I did so, and as duty required, in the morning I accompanied him to Church: A full assembly there was; service being read, the preacher, a man of no mean note or degree, 
Nè tantum nefas non rire fieret, Eccles. 2.24.  maketh a sermon, lest such profanation should want its due ceremony, upon this Text, There is nothing better for a man then that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul to enjoy good in his labour: he insisted his hole time upon the lawfulness of Feasting, and of Christian liberty in the use of the creatures; and to give him his due, nothing did he deliver amiss: something I grant he might, nay ought to have added, as in setting down the properties of a Christian Feast, and in opening to the people his majesty's will and pleasure concerning these Feasts, which certainly gave them not so free a scope as they took. Well, the sermon ended and congregation dismissed, in our return home I inquired of my kinsman the occasion of that Text; he told me it was the Feast of dedication of their Church. Home we went, took a moderate repast, and scarce had we dined before the bells summoned us to Church, whither with all convenient speed we hasted; and being come, behold the congregation, which in the morning amounted to about nine or ten score, could not (except the family we brought with us) make up now so many single persons: as the congregation was thin, so was the service suitable, being posted over in great haste. After this service, I was much requested by my kinsman to accompany him to the place of rendezvous where the Feast was kept; many denials had I given him, as fearing to be a spectator of God's dishonour, and did partly express as much, but he assured me I should find nothing but honest and innocent disport: at length, I confess not without much inward conflict, I yielded to him (and the rather out of a desire to inform myself of the manner of those Feasts, whereof I had heard much talk) So I accompanied him to the green which was the scene of their pastime, where lo we beheld a multitude of people, the muster whereof could not be less than a thousand. The main pretence of that assembly was to give testimony of their manhood by wrestling, cudgel-play, &c. (there being to that end a confederacy, league and siding of the neighbour towns, so many against so many) which exercises employed the body, and greater part of that multitude: but they who listed not to be either spectacles or spectators wanted not wherewith to entertain themselves, there being an alehouse by. The disorders of that meeting by drunkenness, swearing, malicious reviling one the other, which may easily be conceived, I purpose not to relate; that which I offer to consideration is, whether there was not by this assembly a great affront to his majesty's royal Declaration, which prohibited all concourse of people out of their own parish, yea or in their own parish until Evening Prayer were ended, when as I dare say there were near a thousand of this meeting, which were not of the parish wherein it was held, and of those not forty (I verily believe) had been present at Evening service; for how could they in regard some of them came four or five, most two or three, and all at least a mile off? which abuse of our Prince's pleasure is I think condignly meritorious of severe punishment, the execution whereof I leave to those whom it concerneth.  
Having thus stated the dominical Day, having proved it to be a Day divinely instituted, a Day immutable, a Day holly to be appropriated to sacred duties, I have finished my last part, and in that (my imperfect way) perfected what I first intended. Which done, my earnest suit is that my Christian perusers would fervently pray that this work undertaken for the honour of my Lord and blessed saviour's Day may through his merits So much (to speak with devout Salvian) avail the author with God, 

Tantum apud Deum scriptori suo profit, quantum eum prodesse ipse omnibus cupit, Epist. Salonio Episcopo.  
Jud. ult.   as he seriously desires it may profit all men. To which only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and for ever, Amen.  
FINIS.