Sunday a Sabbath, or, A preparative discourse for discussion of sabbatary doubts by John Ley ...

CHAP. XXV. The objection taken from the Statute, and language of Lawyers, answered.

THere remaine yet two objections more, and but two that I have read, or can call to minde, which are brought in by Master Broad a in his printed book of three questions: the one is, That a Processe to ap∣peare die Sabbati, is meant and understood [upon Satur∣day]: The other in b another book of his, (which is yet a MS.) wherein saith hee, the last Parliament may well bee thought to dislike the name Sabbath as to the Lords day; for neither in the title of the Act which is for the keeping of the Lords day, nor yet throughout the body thereof is this name used, though the heathenish name Sunday be in both; yea, and though the Comman∣dement read in the Church, speaketh of sanctifying of the Sabbath.

Hee might have alledged two Acts of two Parlia∣ments: the one, anno 1. of King Charles, chap. 1. The other anno 3. ch. 1. In the former whereof there is the name of Sunday in the title of the Act, though not in the body of it (as in the Statute, anno 5. & 6. of King Edward the sixth, chap. 3. pag. 133. of the Stat. at large) and the name Lords day once in the title, and thrice in

the body of the Act: and in the later Act, they are each of them named once in the title, and once in the body of the Act, but the name Sabbath not at all.

Whereto I answer, first for the Processe; concer∣ning which I say,

First, That such a Processe might be taken up when there were many Jewes, and much Judaisme in the Land, as in the reignes of many of our Popish Kings; which gave occasion of warrant in contracts and bar∣gaines against Jewes by especiall mention, who kept a foot the name and observation of the old Sabbath: and so it might bee then (as in the dayes of ancient Fathers) a word of distinction betwixt the Jewish and Christians holiday. Or,

Secondly, If not for that reason; yet the use of the name in that sense (having obtained such generall passage in the times precedent) might bee a motive to the Lawyers to continue it, though the reason which began it descended not so low as to their age: as wee call an houre-glasse in Greek and Latin, Clep∣sydra, which signifieth the stealing away of water drop by drop, from one bottle to another, (for at first it was made to measure time by water, though now it bee made to run with sand only.)

Thirdly, Their Processe being Latine, haply they made choice rather of that word which had in it some relish of Religion, both among Jewes and ancient Christians (and so hath the word Sabbath), then of that which was (for that language) in a manner meerly heathenish, to wit, Saturday; and though the word Sun∣day (which is originally heathenish as wel as Saturday) be used in our Church Liturgie, yet we call the Lords

day Sunday, not from the Sunne in the Firmament, but from the Sun of Righteousnesse, Mal. 4.2. as hath been formerly observed: the word Saturday is not capable of a signification so sacred and sutable to the person of our Saviour, the Lord of the Sabbath.

Fourthly, Though the Lawyers did in their Latin writs use the word Sabbath for Saturday, yet they did neither forbid nor forbeare to use it of the Lords day in French and in English; as in Fitzherberts natura Brevium it is said, Pleas cannot be held upon Quindena Paschae c, because it is the Sabbath day: whereby not Saturday, but Sunday, or the Lords day must be meant: for on the Saturday it was lawfull not onely to hold Pleas, but to keepe Markets, as Judge Fairfax (in the Prior of Lantonies case) resolveth, viz. d That before the incarnation, Saturday was the Sabbath day; but since it is changed by the Church into the Lords day, that day is to bee kept holy, and Markets may bee kept upon the other. And in Sir Edward Coke his first part of the Institutes of Litle∣ton, resolving what day is not dies Juridicus, he saith, In e all the foure termes, the Sabbath day is not dies Juridicus: for that ought to be consecrated to divine service: and in his Reports in the case of the Citie of London, it is said, f That every day in the week is a Market day, the Sab∣bath day (by which is understood the Lords day) onely excepted. And in Machellies case, who being arrested on the Sunday, slew the Sergeant; it was objected against the Sergeant, g that Sunday

was the Sabbath day, and answer made, that no judi∣ciall act may be done that day, but ministeriall may. In this instance is both the word Sunday and Sabbath for the same day.

And those two, and a third, are all of them by an eminent h Lawyer, (it is Sir John Finch) in one side of a lease indifferently used for the day wee Christians celebrate: and another bird of the same golden fea∣ther (Master Henry Finch) in his Nomotechnia, shew∣ing (besides the lawfull use of the name Sabbath for the Lords day) the separation of it from secular affaires, i saith, If the day of returne, or the first or last day of the terme happen upon the Sabbath day, (by which must needs bee understood the Lords day) then the day next ensu∣ing shall serve, or bee kept in stead thereof, for the beginning of the terme, or day of returne.

Now to answer to the objection taken from the Acts of Parliament, I say,

First, That in the k Parliament of the 19. of Queen Elisabeth, cap. 13. which is of Hats and Caps, the name Sabbath is used for the Lords day.

Secondly, For the Act fore-cited, concerning the observation of the day wee Christians keepe, giving it the name of Lords day, or Sunday, not of Sabbath; I answer, That I have heard a ″ Parliament man (of eminent note in his time) say, that the bill was penned and passed in the Commons House in the name of the Sabbath day; and I have read, that (when an Act was made for reformation of abuse by profa∣nation

of the Sabbath) l Doct. Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells, was somewhat eager to have it called by the name of Sabbath: and it had not been the worse, if that re∣verend Father had been allowed as a Godfather, to give the name and title in the Statute.

Thirdly, though some prime persons of the upper House thought it fit (in the Act) to make use rather of the word Sunday and Lords day, then of the word Sabbath; it doth not follow, they disallowed or con∣demned the use of that word: for, they were not ig∣norant of his Majesties Proclamation and Briefes (calling our weekly Holiday by the name Sabbath) nor how the name and day were incorporated into our Communion Booke, with a prayer at the end of the fourth Commandement, for pardon of pro∣fanation past, and for grace to shun the like in time to come; nor that that Commandement, as well as the rest, was a part of the common Catechisme, pre∣scribed for the instruction of children before their con∣firmation.

Fourthly, they might haply mention the day wee observe for a Sabbath, by the name of Sunday, because that name was used in the Statute of the 5. and 6. of Edward the sixth, wherein it was enacted, that all Sundaies in the yeare should be kept holy, and by the name Lords day, because that is the name which S. John giveth it, Revel. 1.10. and which the Latine Church most used, to distinguish it from the Saturday Sabbath; and for the name Sabbath, they might at that time for∣beare it.

First, because these two names (chosen for these

reasons) were sufficient to make it well enough known unto all.

Secondly, because the name Sabbath in the Com∣munion Booke was like to bee upheld with so much honour and reputation (so long as the fourth Com∣mandement is a part of the Liturgy and Catechisme, and both of them are in force and use) that there was no such need to grace it with a particular mention in the Act, as the other two titles; yet if all three had been brought to a serious consultation for the choice and use of one above the rest, the name Sabbath of right might have had the preheminence; and so much I hope to manifest in the next Chapter.

Notes

• a

  M^r. Broad his 3^d. quest p. 22. marg.
• b

  M^r. Brad his 2^d. MS. p. 18. marg.
• c

  Que est le Sabot, jour. Fitzherb. natur. Brev. fol. 17.
• d

  Devant le Incarnation le Sab∣badi suit le Sabat jour, & solenize mes ore est change per les eglise at jour demain, &c. the yeer book 12. of Ed. 4. b.
• e

  Sir Edward Coke in that first part of his Institutes, lib. 12. c. 11. Sect. 2. of Villenage, pag. 135. cal∣leth it ••oure times the Sabbath day in this page.
• f

  Le jour de Sabaoth (so it is written for Sabbath) solemnit. Ex∣cept Cokes reports. part. 8. p. 127. a.
• g

  Le jour de soleile est le Sabbath. Idem Ib. part. 9. p. 66.
• h

  Sir Jo. Finch in his first book of the Law, cap. 3. p. 7.
• i

  Si le jour del returne, vel si le primer ou darraine jour del terme hap sur le Sabaoth, jour donque se jour procheine en suaul server en lin de ceo. So Master Hen. Finch in fol. 52. in which edition the fi∣gures are mis-reckoned; for on that lease is set num. 58. which com∣meth twice, but the former should be 52. as I have cited it.
• k

  M. Pultons Abridgement, fol. 134. p. b.
• ″

  M. Ed. Whit∣by late Recor∣der of Chester.
• l

  In a MS. of Doct. Twisse concerning the Sabbath.
• Stat. 5. & 6. Ed. 6. c. 3. p. 133