A Threefold Treatise of the Sabbath, Chapter 3 – Chapter 4
CHAP. III. Of the name Sabbath given to this our Lords day, or Sunday.
GReat offence is taken of late by ſome at this title Sabbath; firſt as a new upſtart name of Knox and Whitingham, as alſo for that it is not a bare name, but ſuppoſed to have in it a myſtery of iniquity: both which a learned man hath been pleaſed to utter in a D. Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabbath.Sermon preached at a viſitation; Maſter Christopher Dow, moderately handling this controverſie, in his diſcourſe of the Sabbath, and Lords day, acknowledgeth to have, in his reading, found it to be ſometime called the Sabbath or Sabbath of Chriſtians. A very reverend Learned and judicious Divine, in his Antidote againſt Sabbatarian errours, ſaith, That to call Sunday by the name of Sabbath day (rebus ſic ſtantibus) may for ſome reſpects be allowed in the Chriſtian Church, without any great inconvenience. And that therefore men (otherwiſe ſober and moderate) ought not to be cenſured, with too much ſeverity, nor charged with Iudaiſme, if ſometimes they ſo uſe it. Before the dayes of Kings Henry the eighth In Pupilla oc…li. pſa. 10. ca. 11. Diem Sabbati, ab …pſa di… Saturni hora pomeridiana tertia …ſque in lunaris di…i diluculum …eſ…um agitari. In Emenda. temp. lib. 7. Synopſ. ſol. 5…Iohn de Burgo Chancellour of the Univerſity of Cambridge, held, that the Lords day might be intituled the Sabbath day. King Edgar in his edict for keeping the Lords day, doth there call it the Sabbath and this was in Anno. 959. almoſt ſeven hundred yeers ago, before Knox was born hundreds of yeers, Scaliger, that man of Learning, telleth us, that the Habaſſines, or Ethiopian Chriſtians, call both Saturday and the Lords day, by the name of Sabbaths, the one Chriſts Sabbath, and the other the Jews Sabbath. Doctor Willet citeth Damaſcene, ſaying, Sacratum eſt Deo Sabbatum, ſpeaking of the Lords day: Saint Auguſtine calleth it the Chriſtian Sabbath, in 152 Tract de temp. & Pſ. 32. The Albigenſes and Waldenſes, in a Catechiſme of theirs, give it this name: In the fourteenth Seſſion of the Synod at Dort, conſiſting of many Learned Divines, it is called the Sabbath day. Doctor Heylin in his Hiſtoricall Search, telleth us, that the firſt he cap. 5. part 2. pag. 258.found was one Petrus Alfonſus, who called the Lords day our Chriſtian Sabbath: who lived about the time of Rupertus, many yeers before Knox and Whitingham took breath.
But come we neerer home, it is called the Sabbath day in King Iames his proclamation 1603. In all our Letters patente till very lately, in our Churches Eccleſiaſticall Conſtitutions, Canon 70, in our Homilies very often. Doctor Rainolds, in the Conference at Hampton Court, made a motion for the preſervation of the Lords day from prophaneſſe, under the name of the Sabbath day, without offence then, or any exception taken againſt it. The learned Doctor and reverend Biſhop, Biſhop Andrewes, in his ſpeech againſt Trask…, calleth it our new Sabbath; ſome Biſhops heretofore, in their Articles of Viſitation have called it the Sabbath day: Learned men in our Church of all degrees and ſorts, have in their writings, allowed by authority, expreſſed the Lords day by this name, without any diſlike, ever ſince the reformation in the dayes of Queene Elizabeths raign, in all the time of Learned King Iames, and alſo of this our now gracious Soveraign. Learned Doctor Featley, in his Handmaid to devotion, oftentimes calleth it the Sabbath, and in capitall letters, the Chriſtian Sabbath; Maſter Primroſe, in his very lately publiſhed book, concerning the Lords day, calls it often the Sabbath.
And therefore without errour we may with the Ancients, with our Kings, with our reverend Biſhops, and learned Divines, call it the Sabbath day. And as no man of judgement and charitably minded will condemn them, that among us call the Lords day Sunday, for heatheniſh Solarians, ſo ſhould no moderate ſpirit brand others for Jewiſh Sabbatarians, who call the day a Sabbath, nor think a myſtery of iniquity to be in it: For will any ſay that our Kings, reverend Prelates, the Clergie compoſing the Canons, the Compilers of the Homilies, and learned Divines, as aforeſaid, had in their thoughts any myſtery of iniquity? No, God forbid; of which we may well be perſwaded, for God prophetically ſpeaketh of the Sabbath under the Goſpel, in Eſai. 66. 23.
CHAP. IIII. Of the Reaſons why it may be ſo called, without offence.
AS it is and hath been ſo called, ſo it is not without reaſon to give it this name: For,
1. It hath no evill in it, nor any ſuch myſtery to bring any, as is ſuppoſed by ſome, into Judaiſme, Moſaicall bo dage, or to caſt a legall burden upon mens Conſciences (from which heavy yoak we are freed by the Lord Jeſus Chriſt) as it would appear, if moderate and ſober ſpirits might have leave to make known the truth which they hold, yea, they would eaſily, to indifferent men, clear themſelves from Judaizing, which unjuſtly is charged upon them; What though ſome ignorant and raſh, have uttered their monſtrous Paradoxes, as ſome ſay they have, and ſo paſſed the bounds and limits of truth out of inconſiderate zeal, are all others to be cenſured to be men of the ſame mould? Brotherly love and Charitie cannot but be better Judges.
2 We ſee it carrieth antiquity with it, and hath had allowance for a long time in the Churches of Chriſt.
3 It is our reſt day, and ſo, indeed, a Sabbath; for the word Sabbath is nothing elſe but reſt, ſo the name well agreeth with the nature of the thing.
4 This name beſt leadeth us to the duty of the day, which is to ceaſe from weekely works, which are not works of piety, works of charity, nor works of neceſſity, and to imploy our holy reſt on this holy day in the publike worſhip and ſervice of Chriſt, and in other Chriſtian duties, as is very excellently ſet forth in our thirteenth Canon.
5 Learned and holy Biſhop Lakes ſaith in his Theſis, that eternali reſt was ſhadowed out in the firſt Sabbath, which our Lords day continueth, and is a fore-taſte of our eternall reſt, and a ſhadow thereof as laſting as the world. This being ſo, it may well be called the Sabbath day.
6 If the fourth Commandment hath any perpetuity in it, for a weekly day to be kept, and ours being a weekly reſting day; then it may be called a Sabbath, the Commandment propounding ſuch a day under the name of Sabbath.
7 All holy dayes, appointed by God, beſides the weekly Sabbath, were called Sabbaths, and that upon theſe reaſons; becauſe on them they reſted to perform holy duties, and had a holy Convocation: Now why may not our Lords day, becauſe of our reſt to holy duties, and for the publick aſſemblies on that day, be ſo called? Our Linwood out of Aquinas ſaith, Dies Dominicus dici poteſt dies Sabbati, quia eſt requies & vacatio ad Deum.
8 The very Gentiles gave the name of Sabbath to their Feſtivalls, as the Learned have obſerved.
9 Chriſt leſus is the Lord of the Sabbath, not only as God, but as he is God-man, or Mediatour, for ſo himſelfe ſaith, the ſonne of man is Lord alſo of the Sabbath. Mark 2. 28. Now this Lordſhip, as he is Mediatour, he never layeth down 1. Cor. 15. 24. 23whileſt the world doth laſt; and therefore he claimeth and holdeth the Sabbath for his honour, that all may with a Sabbath honour the ſonne, as they have honoured the Iohn 5. 27.Father.
10 If our reſt, into which Chriſt hath brought us, which is a ceaſing from ſinne, be called the keeping of a Sabbath, as it is. Heb. 4. 9, 10, 11. Then may a certain ſet day be ſo called, for that therein we do not only hear and learn how to attain to the ſpirituall reſt, but do eſpecially on this day labour, through Gods grace, to expreſſe the performance of it in holy and ſpirituall exerciſes.