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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96264	A sermon touching the divine right and due observation of the Lords day Preached before the Lord Deputy, and the Lords Spiritual & Temporal of the kingdom of Ireland; in time of Parliament. At Christ-Church Dublin. On Sunday the 6th. of October, 1695. With a preface humbly address'd to the whole body of English Protestants: especially those inhabiting the kingdom of Ireland. By Edward Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross.	Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.	1697 (1697)	Wing W1520A; ESTC R229732	26,838	68

even to himself Waving then what was extraordinary Let us attend to what is ordinary and ought to be constant We may and ought on the Lords Day to be 1 in Spiritual Exercises and 2 in a Spiritual temper for attending them Sect. 16 Spiritual Exercises I call the offices of Worship or ordinary duties Of Spiritual Exercises on the Lords Day of Devotion on the Lords Day and those are either Publick Private or Secret which cannot commonly be omitted without sin Publick duties are those which are performed in Church Assemblies And they are chiefly four in their Scripture Names Praying Singing Doctrine and Breaking of Bread There is no reason to surmise from what we have extant in the Acts and in the first Epistle to the Corinthians that any Lords Day in the Primitive Church passed without each of these in their Solemnity What amongst us is most neglected give me leave to touch upon Of which sort is constant communicating The Christian Church while it continued in any tolerable purity never spent a Lords Day without the Lords Supper on which of old it was more Scandalous for any Christians to turn their backs than it is now for Men amongst us to live Excommunicate this I could easily prove at large but must forbear And that our own Church esteems the Lords day but half celebrated without the Communion appears by her having provided a Communion Service for every Lords Day in the Year The Communion as we have heard was ever attended with a Collection for the Poor now called Oblations Never Eucharist without Offertory And this we have seen to be as ancient as St. Pauls planting the Gospel Doctrine was subdivided into Prophesying or Interpreting of Scripture which we now call Preaching into Reading Exhortation Teaching and perhaps otherwise Now the word commonly used for teaching is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Catechise This Office was of so great note in the Primitive Church that it was committed to some choice Person appointed purposely thereto but him commonly most learned And by Catechising I do not mean meer hearing young People repeat the words of their Catechism but expounding to them the Doctrine of it Examining them upon such Expositions and by all the several plainest ways possible inculcating these Doctrines till they understand them And for gaining reverence to this Office as well as for other reasons which I will not name Elder people ought to fit by In a word all forrein Churches outdo us herein And if we take not more care than yet usual amongst us as to this work we shall without a miracle in the next age go very neer to loose our Religion Private Duties I call those which are performed in private Families Parents Children Sojourners Servants joyning in Prayer and Praises to God and in reading his Word and other good Books as conveniency offers Secret Duties are such as every Christian should perform by themselves in the Closet or Retirements Such are Meditation self Examination Recollection of our improvements and in the close Prayer and Thanksgiving as occasion requires Section XVII Those who demand Proof for these being duties of the day will give me leave to ask them whether Proof for these Duties such practices in the Family or in the Closet be necessary and duties on any day If they be so there is no sufficient reason for their omission on the Lords day when by Law of God and Man there is most leisure for them Besides they will be pleased to consult Numbers xxviii 9 10. where they will find the peculiar sacrifice for the Sabbath both Morning and Evening was required of the Jews over and above the continual daily Burnt offering the like too upon the New Moons ver 24. and on other Festivals ver ult That which I infer from hence is that the publick Lords Days Worship and other Festival Offices must not supercede or abate our ordinary Private or Secret Devotions on those Dayes These are to be faithfully superaded to them Section XVIII This haply some will cry out is Fanaticism Puritanism Sabbatarianism and the like A Vindication of this Practice from ill imputations I answer there may be a Fanatical and perhaps a Pharisaical way too of doing these duties but the practice of the duties it self is not Fanatical or Pharisaical and much less is it Sabbatarianism We must make Fanaticks and Sabbatarians of the most Ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church and the most learned Doctors and Pillars of our own Church if we can find either Fanaticisme or Sabbatarianisme in spending the whole Lords day in a succession or holy exchange of such Duties as these mentioned Justin Martyr was no Fanatick nor Sabbatarian yet in his second Apology he tells us the Christians of that age which was but one hundred and forty Years from Christ used to repeat at home what they had learned that day in the Publick Assembly Origen and St. Chrysostome were no Fanaticks nor yet Sabbatarians yet both nay the later more than once press the spending 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This whole day in the exercise of Spirituals And to wave others of the Ancients and come neerer home I scarce think any Son of the present Church will adventure to brand the Reformation in King Edward the Sixths days with Fanaticisim or Sabbatarianism yet under that I find a Canon acknowledged for spending the Lords Day in private Prayer and Thanksgiving acknowledging our Offences reconciling our selves to our Brethren visiting the Sick comforting the Afflicted relieving the Poor and instructing Children and Servants in the nurture and fear of the Lord. But to be sure the Authors of the Book of Homilies we must not say were either Fanaticks or Sabbatarians For the Homilies we are bound still to subscribe and approve at least if not publickly to read yet they teach that on this day people shauld cease from all common and bodily labour and give themselves Wholly note that word to the exercises of Gods true Religion Arch Bishop Whitgift against the Admonitioners was no Fanatick Puritan or Sabbatarian yet saith he no man doubteth the meaning of these words Six days shalt thou labour c. to be this that seing God hath permitted us Six days to do our own works in we ought in the Seventh Wholly to serve him Bishop Francis White in his Book against the Sabbatarians was neither Fanatick nor Sabbatarian yet he tells us our Church requires that upon the Lords day Parents and Masters instruct their Children and Servants in the fear and nurture of the Lord. Mr. Hooker was neither Fanatick nor Sabbatarian yet he teaches we are to account the Sanctification of one Whole day in the week a Duty which Gods immutable Law doth enact for ever Finally I believe no sober man will say that Excellent Book The Whole duty of man savours either of Fanaticism or Sabbatarianism yet Partit 2. Sect. 17. The Author teaches all in their Families the practice I have perswaded

best part of my books having been strangers to my Eyes now above seven years for which reason I have forborn to cite parricularly most of the Authorities I have alledged as I pass along But if need be I promise sacredly particular citations in a new Edition when God shall restore my books to me I alledge what I do now mostly out of Excerpta taken many years ago by my self but not with connexions and references so particular as I can fully trust to But to Return That which makes many persons of sound and good Judgment shy of this name Sabbath under Christianity is I conceive for that they who use it most seem under this style to endeavour the introducing a Judaical Yoke and entiteling the Lords day to all the Sabbatical strictnesses or severities of the bodily Rest imposed on the old people by the letter of the fourth Commandment and the Precepts appendant to it in the Law As to Duration of time they would oblige all Christian people to a Natural day of twenty four hours from Even to Even or from twelve of the Clock Midnight to twelve of the Clock Midnight in all which space they would bear us in hand nothing is to be done which was not lawful for the Jews to have done on their Sabbath Nay indeed as to the strictness of the Rest diverse Liberties allowed because not forbidden the Jews are by these teachers upon the pretence of a Sabbath Spiritual as well as Corporal said to be forbidden Christian people even by the letter of the fourth Commandment And thus intolerable burthens and inextricable snares the particulars of which would require a volume to set down are prepared for us As to all which I conceive if People would duely heed no more need to be said for the disentangling Conscience from the scruples these men have injected than that truely Apostolical Canon Acts xv It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay no greater burden upon you than these necessary things That ye abstain from meats offered to Idols and from bloud and from things strangled and from fornication Amongst which necessary things there is no Syllable importing any of the Sabbatical Rites Nor can it be said the Reason of such silence was the sense the world had of the immutable Obligation of the fourth Command for the Obligation of the sixth and seventh Commandments must be acknowledged as immutable yet is there mention here of Fornication and of Blood in the very Conciliary Decree I do conclude therefore as well from hence as from Colloss ii urged in the discourse that all the Ceremonial part of the fourth Command with the appendant Laws are truely ceased nailed to the Cross of Christ and by it taken away which is amply sufficient for the setting Conscience at liberty But I must together conclude that the Natural and Spiritual part of that Commandment are no whit at all infringed The natural part was and is nothing but immutable and Eternal Equity That God should have a due proportion of our time And that not so much privately by secret Devotion of our own though that be necessary also as by a publick separating it or cutting it off from Common Employments to publick sacred Offices Thus much of a Sabbath I insist on to be perpetually and naturally Moral from Paradise in Eden to Paradise in a better World And as to the Spiritual part of the Command that certainly is so far from being abated by the Gospel-Oeconomy that it is rather set higher There is none deny the Christian is bound to the Spiritual Rest onely some tell us and that not without Reason that this is our Duty for our whole life and not for one day in the week onely I embrace with all my heart this Doctrine of Christian peoples being obliged to endeavour their whole life may be a Spiritual Sabbath a Rest from Sin Carnality Voluptuousness c. And I onely desire we may hold to it Let all those therefore who hold this Doctrine pardon me if I adventure according to their Concessions Minus aequo petere ut aequum feram to intreat them and all Christian People but to keep the Lords day as such a Spiritual Rest In plain terms I would desire no more towards the keeping Holy the Lords day than that the Christians of the present Age would in private keep the Lords day as perfectly a Spiritual Sabbath as the Primitive Christians did every day in the week onely with this Addition That what publick Offices the Primitive Christians observed constantly on each Lords day may also be observed thereon by us at present and what Liberties they forbore always may be forborn on this day The point of controversy falls mainly on private or Family-duties These some men cannot endure that all Christian People should be obliged to And for the shifting off the necessity of these and setting the ordinary people free to Games and Sports on the Lords Day-afternoon diverse Laborious and some truely not unlearned Books have been written Wherein I must confess I cannot but wonder to see Protestant Doctors hunt for and greedily snap those Nice distinctions in use with the Popish Schools for the defence of the corruptions of their Church and gravely apply them for the decision of Cases of Conscience against their Protestant Brethren I will 〈◊〉 lanch forth into particulars of Controversy but instead thereof pursuant to what I now desired onely lay down two conclusions which I suppose must approve themselves by their own intrinsick Evidence without Controversy to the conscience of all who understand and will consider them 1. None who call themselves Christians may in this Age make such Liberties Sports Games and Recreations as it cannot be proved the Primitive Christians allowed themselves on any days to be their ordinary divertisments on the Lords Day And if so I am sure Cards Dice Tables c. within doors Dancing Pipeing Revells c. without doors must all be laid aside For none can shew the Antient Christians used these any daies On the contrary many Canons of the antient Councils severelly condemn them at all times especially to some Persons And if there should be any of our Clergy who plead for those within-door Games mentioned they will do well to consult the XLII Irish Canon and the Old Injunctions in the Reformation of King Edward and Queen Elizabeth whence most probably the Compilers of our Canons more immediatly took those parts of them and whence I hope they may be satisfied But to proceed I say 2dly In all doubtful cases it is still the best to take the safer side and that which in it self cannot be sinful but is Pious and commendable Now certainly upon the Lords day preparing our selves for our publick Devotions by private Prayer Examination of Conscience and composing our minds to a serious temper and awful apprehensions of God whom we are to worship before we go to Church Recollections in convenient time when we

A SERMON Touching the DIVINE RIGHT AND DUE OBSERVATION OF THE LORDS DAY Preached before the LORD DEPUTY and the Lords SPIRITUAL TEMPORAL of the Kingdom of IRELAND In time of Parliament At Christ-Church Dublin On Sunday the 6th of October 1695. With a PREFACE humbly address'd to the whole Body of English Protestants Especially those inhabiting the Kingdom of IRELAND By EDWARD Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross DUBLIN Printed by Joseph Ray in Essex-street and are to be sold by John North Bookseller in Skinner-row 1697. A PREFACE to the ensuing SERMON Humbly Address'd To the Whole Body of English Protestants Especially those inhabiting the Kingdom of IRELAND I Have long grieved to see the Sacredness of the Lords Day run so low as too plainly it appears to do in the opinion of Multitudes who profess themselves of the Reformed Church of Ireland From the Irish Papists I never expected better since I came to know them They will never have veneration for any thing which Protestants account sacred as witness their constant treatment of our Bibles Nor do I apprehend any possibility of Reforming them either in this or any other of their Ill Principles and practices while they have a sett of such Managers as their present Priests allowed them and those too with so absolute a Dominion over them as is usual in that Church But for men that own the name of Protestants and glory to be thought English Protestants for these I say openly to espouse the calumny of Figmentum Anglicanum in case of a Divine right for the Lords Day and pursuant hereto in their Practice perfectly to fall in with Papists laying aside all Afternoon worship on the Lords Day as is done now in very many Country Parishes in this Kingdom and onely in the Morning sometimes for fashion-sake to come to Church as the others do to their Mass houses is a sad demonstration that either they never were true Protestants because not understanding or not receiving and observing the Doctrine Laws and Worship of the Church whereof they profess themselves Members or that they have now most deplorably degenerated and fallen off from its constitution There is yet a farther and more abominable neglect than that which I have complained of and proceeding no doubt from the same Principle that is mean and common thoughts of the Lords Day perhaps not so constant as the other but very common in Country-Cures namely that they are not supplyed any otherwise but once a fortnight or in some places once in three weeks yea even where the revenues of the place either of it self or by unions would well pay a Curate resident and constantly attendant With an eye at redressing these so insufferable and unchristian evils I first delivered in a great audience and now publish to the World the ensuing discourse In which I struck at the root the Principle before taxed and have laid together in the clearest light briefest compass and most Natural order as neer as I could comprehend all the best Evidences I remember produced i● plea for the Divine right of the Lords Day and the true Christian way of hallowing it Which latter point I have stated I hope so as to conduct all who will hear into truly Holy practice but not to burden or intangle the Conscience of any who will consider And all along as Argumentum ad homines and a Plea which I had great confidence in I have urged sincerely what I take to be the Doctrine of the Church of England in this matter It is not to be expected that in so short a piece all should be said in such manner as is necessary to prevent the Exceptions or answer the Cavils of many I accounted it therefore necessary here to add a few things as well for the one purpose as the other I have asserted a Divine right to the Lords Day Now a Divine Right may arise from a Divine Institution Immediate or Mediate And again either of these may be express or virtual There are not wanting Authors of great Name who have maintained the Lords day to have been appointed for the day of publick Christian Worship by our Lords own mouth at some of his Apparitions and in some of his Discourses to his Disciples in the interval of his Resurection and Ascention If so then would there be a Divine Right by immediate express Institutior But I will frankly acknowledg this although not at all unlikely but rather of the highest probability yet to have been advanced in my judgment with better Intention than Evidence I have therefore mainly as to Authority immediate from our Lord himself insisted upon his own practice by his frequent presence at and solemn meeting in the Assemblies of his Disciples and faithful followers on that day And when he appeared no more sending in their Assembly on that day the Holy Ghost upon them all which I aver to be Virtual Institution And if an Institution there is no question at all of it's being immediately Divine Then in pursuance hereof I insist also on the continued practice of the Apostles from the very day of our Lords Resurrection as far as is Recorded solemnly assembling still on that day which can hardly be conceived without some private directions suggested from himself and their giving order in the Churches especially of the Gentiles which they planted for the publick Assemblies to be made hereon Their practice I aver to be a continuance of a virtual Divine Institution and their Orders given an express Divine Institution but both indeed Mediate And if there be any of our Church who are not willing to allow these and especially the Apostles practice and orders to be sufficient grounds of a Divine Right I desire that they will not herein be too peremptory least they be found less constant to themselves particularly in denying that to be a Divine Right in case of the Lords day which they not onely admit but plead as a Divine Right in other cases to some of them perhaps of more comfortable importance suppose Episcopacy and Church-Rights As to styling the Lords day a Christian Sabbath which I have not done but after our Church I acknowledg it can be called so only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by proportion and not strictly THE Christian Sabbath properly eminently is that which remains to the people of God Heb. iv 9. A Christian Sabbath I conceive it may with much more propriety be called For if it be a Sabbath at all or a day of Rest ordinarily from servile labour it must be acknowledged a Christian Sabbath Jewish Turkish or Heathen we are sure it is not And for giving it the Name Sabbath though I confess the frequency of this style is more Novel and peculiar to some People yet it is plain by our Homilies that Our Reformers did use it And I am sure Origen so styles it and if I am not mistaken another of the Fathers also whom I name not for fear of errour the