A Threefold Treatise of the Sabbath, Chapter 7
CHAP. VII. Of the time when this firſt day began to be the Lords day, and upon what ground.
THis firſt day obſerved, was the very firſt day immediately Mat. 28. 1. Mar. 16. 2. 9. Luke 24. 1. Iob. 20. 1. 19. Ad Magneſ.after the Jewiſh Sabbath: ſo the Scriptures confirme it to us. whereto agreeth the exhortation of Ignatius, After the Sabbath, let every friend of Chriſt make the Lords day a ſolemne Feſtivall.
And the reaſon of this was, becauſe of the Lords reſurrection, S. Aug. ad Ian. epi. 119. & 130. De verbo Apo. ſer. 15. Epi. 93.by which the Lords day was declared to Chriſtians, and from that time began to be celebrated: and in another place it is ſaid, that the Lords Reſurrection promiſed us an eternall day, and it did conſecrate unto us the Lords day: And Leo ſaith the ſame, Dominicum diem nobis Salvatoris reſurrectio Lib. 8. c. 33.conſecravit. In the conſtitutions of the Apoſtles it is Ca. 50.ordained to be kept holy in the memoriall of the reſurrection; ſo a Councell held at Paris in Anno 829 ordeined the like. Biſhop White alleadging reaſons why the Lords day was Againſt Brab. pag. 269. 270.preferred before other weekly dayes, ſaith, that the Primitive Church could have made choyce of no other day of the week more proper and convenient for the ſolemne and religious worſhip and ſervice of Chriſt: Great was this work, ſaith Athanaſius, foreign.for we doe celebrate it, as a memoriall of the beginning of a new Creation: Yea, ob excellentiam tanti miraculi propriè In Pſ. 23.dies Dominica appellatur, ſaith another. And indeed the work of the day is the ground, ſaith Biſhop Lakes, of the hallowing In T…eſis 46. 43. 45.of the day, whether it be weekly, monthly, or yeerly; as particulars evince in Scriptures and Stories; now when God doth any rare, great, and remarkeable workes, hee will be honoured with a Commemoration day, for that work; if the work concerne the whole, by the whole Church, and by a part, if it concerne a part: by which practice or work, Gods will is underſtood, which guideth the Church, where the ☞precept is wanting. This is a ſacred rule obſerveable in the inſtitution of all ſacred Feaſts, both divine and humane, ſaith that Father.
Now God raiſing Chriſt from the dead, upon the firſt day of the week, this remarkable work, was to have that day, a day of Commemoration, above and before all other.
1 Becauſe it was the firſt notable work of God, immediately following the Jewiſh Sabbath; which being to ceaſe, the next glorious work of God following, muſt needs bee the ground of another Feſtivall; and in ſtead of the other, for it is a rule in mortality (ſaith the reverend Father Biſhop Lakes, that none in reaſon can deny due reſpect unto the worke, and therefore cannot deny the hallowing of the day, to wit, on which it was wrought.
2 The raiſing up of Chriſt from the dead, declared him mightily to bee the ſonne of God, Rom. 1. 4. God fulfilling hereby to the children, the promiſe made to their Fathers, hee being manifeſt thus to be the Sonne of God, his begotten Sonne in the day of his reſurrection, as the Conquerour of hell, death, the power of the grave, and of Satans Dominion, Act. 13. 31. 32. 13. and preferred above men and Angels, Heb. 1. 5.
3 This is the work above all others, which the Scripture ſo often mentioneth for the Fathers glory in his Son, in that he raiſed him up from the dead, Rom. 1. 4. Gal. 1. 5. Act. 2. 24. 32. & 3. 26 & 4. 10. & 10. 40. and in many other Scriptures.
4 This is it by which Jeſus is made both Lord and Chriſt, to ſit upon the throne of David, Act. 20. 30, 31, 36.
5 It is the work of our perfect redemption, and full juſtification, Rom. 4. 25.
6 This was the act which to beare witneſſe of, he principally choſe his Apoſtles, Act. 10. 41. & 1. 22. which work the Apoſtles firſt taught to the Jewes, Act. 2. and to the Gentiles, Act. 10. and for which they firſt chiefly ſuffered.
7 This is the act on which dependeth all our comfort, and without aſſurance whereof S. Paul telleth us, his preaching was in vaine, and our faith in vaine, 1 Cor. 15. 14. and ſo our Chriſtianitie nothing worth.
8 This his reſurection was to his Apoſtles and Diſciples full of comfort: and that which is moſt joyfull to all Chriſtians, for our juſtification, Rom. 4. 25. as alſo for the hope of our eternall ſalvation, 1 Pet. 1. 3. & 3. 21. for if Chriſt had not riſen, wee had beene all in our ſinnes, 1 Cor. 15. 17. his birth, his life, his ſuffering had done us no good.
Therefore from the beginning hath the Church held this ever for the moſt remarkable work of Chriſt, and to keep this day Feſtivall, on which hee aroſe from the dead.
For that it being the moſt remarkable work of God, next and immediately after the Jewiſh Sabbath, as I ſaid, it required a Feſtivall, and that within the ſpace of a week, within which ſpace God from the creation reſerved a day to himſelfe; and its not fit, that under the Goſpel, ſo glorious a work of our redemption by Chriſts reſurrection, for the reſtauration of the world, ſhould be more ſeldome remembred upon a ſet day, then was the work of creation of the world before and under the Law.