A Threefold Treatise of the Sabbath, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. Of the firſt day of the week; that it is the Lords day, and alſo the ſeventh day.
AS we muſt have a day within the week, ſo is it needfull to know which day in the week it is, which we are to obſerve for the Lords day, elſe ſhould wee be uncertaine; for one would keep one day, and others another day.
In Scripture the firſt day in the week mentioned in Mat. 28. 1. Mark. 16. 2. 9. Luk. 24. 1. Joh. 20. 1. 19. Act. 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2.) is that which is called in Rev. 1. 10. the Lords day: So ſaith S. Auguſt. the firſt day of the week is that day, Epig. 86.qui poſtea Dies Dominicus appellatus eſt: S. Cyrill affirmeth In Iohn lib. 8. cap. 58. Apoſt. 2.the very ſame. Our Sunday, ſaith Juſtine Martyr, is the firſt day of the week: Our Homily ſaith the firſt day after the Jewiſh Sabbath is our Sunday: It is our Lords day, ſaid the Divines in Ireland. The former Scriptures are interpreted See the many Expoſit. cited by Maſter Spr. pag. 61.by all Expoſitors, the Fathers Greek and Latine, the later writers, Proteſtants and Papiſts, to bee the Lords day: It cannot well be d…nyed, ſaith B. White, that the firſt day of every week was the Chriſtian weekly holy day; It is manifest, ſaith Doctor Pocklington, that the firſt day of the week is the Lords day: and to ſtrengthen more this truth, learned Beza ſaith, that he hath read in a Manuſcript, foreign, added to the Text in 1 Cor. 16. 2. ſo Criſpine in his Greek Lexicon.
This firſt day of the week hath beene obſerved for our Lords day ever, and no true Chriſtian Church can be named that ever brake off the cuſtome of this day. This univerſall unity of ſo Catholique a cuſtome is ſufficient to ſettle any Chriſtian in his faith of this truth, that the firſt day of the week is the Lords day: For what better Expoſitor than the Churches continuall practice and obſervation, which muſt needs bee from a ſetled judgement of the truth of the time obſerved. Our Church telleth us in the Homily, that this cuſtome hath beene kept in all ages, without any gaine-ſaying.
And although this day, after the Jewiſh account, bee the firſt day of the week, yet nevertheleſſe it keepeth the proportion of time, in the Commandement, the ſeventh part of a week, ſo as it may be called the ſeventh day, though not that ſeventh day, I ſay the ſeventh day. Let none here make a ſtir about the ſeventh and a ſeventh, for the ſeventh day, and not a ſeventh day, is the Sabbath of the Lord our God: for the particle the and not a is to bee prefixed to ſeventh, and not only becauſe of the ſix dayes in which the world was made, the dayes of the Creation (as is commonly and onelyonly ſo ſuppoſed to bee taken) but for the donation of ſix dayes to us by God, and that in the promulgation of this Law, and Commandement, as is in the former Treatiſe ſhewed. Alwayes in counting of numbers, we our ſelves, in any ordinary number of ſeven, when ſix is taken out, doe not ſay, there remaineth a ſeventh, but the ſeventh; for a ſhould note an uncetainty, but the doth not.
God, of ſeventh dayes (for there are no more in a week, nor ever was) hath given us for ever irrevocably ſix of them for to labour in, and to doe all that wee have to doe, Exod. 20. 9. Theſe dayes we take to our ſelves as Gods gift, from his words in the Law: Now if we have ſix of the ſeven certainly knowne unto us, can we reaſonably ſay a ſeventh is the Lords, or the ſeventh is his? A ſeventh may be ſpoken of whole numbers, where a certainty is not determined, nor pitched upon, nor taken out, but where the number is no more but ſeven in a week (as none heretofore, nor any now count more) there ſix being taken out for us, the ſeventh is left, as a certaine day not to bee doubted of, for the Lord. So as yet the ſeventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, both by Gods donation of ſix to us, and our counting our dayes to come to the ſeventh, having taken to us the ſix.
For our firſt day of the week is Munday, and ſo wee account forward to the Lords day, as the ſeventh day, and our Sabbath and reſting day.
And moſt fit it is, that wee ſhould ſtill hold the ſeventh day for our Sabbath *Dies dominica repreſentat m…moriam Creation is mundi, non minus quam Sabbagim; nam die dominica incepit mundus fieri, unde Iuſtinus Apo. 2. Et Leo Epiſt. ad Dioſcorum, dicunt diem dominicam colitam ob memoriam mundi Creationis, quàm ob reſurrectionem Chriſti: Bellarm. de …l…u ſanct. lib. 3. cap. 110., that we might, whilſt we honour the Sonne in finiſhing the work of our redemption, not forget the honour of his Father for his perfecting of the work of the worlds Creation, and his reſting from the ſame, which cannot bee by obſerving any other day, but the ſeventh day.