the Earth and deprive their souls of the great advantage which they might have by it and certainly this is no light thing to those who know their Saviours walks in the midest of the golden candlesticks and surely they should be near him where he is To evidence this I perceive many of them wholy absenting themselves from all religious meetings on the Lords day the only solemn time observed by all Christians near them it may be in prudence and to avoid scandal they do not openly labour but neither are they will that day worshiping God If any of them will that day go hear a Sermon I appeal to them whether they go as to a Sabbath duty with that preparation with that faith in the promises to them who keep the Lords Sabbath as they should go who expect a blessing from the Lord of the Sabbath Ah! my brethren is it nothing to you Is it nothing to you to have your places empty at the Lords solemn assemblies to be out when the joint-fighs prayers and tears of Gods people are poured out before the Lord if indeed you could judge none fearing God but your selves it were some plea but I know you have more charity why are you then divided from them why will you then lose the advantage of their prayers and deny them the advantage of your prayers I must profess were there nothing else to keep me off this very one thing would keep me off from that opinion Eccl. 3.10 Woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up Of the gifts and graces of how many precious ministers and the advantage you might have from them do you deprive your selves Have your souls no need of their interpretations of Scriptures their opening Gospel mysteries their powerful exhortations and arguments for holiness their directions for your Christian conversation I beseech you reflect upon your own souls since the time that in zeal to this opinion you divided your selves from the generality of Christians Have your souls prospered as formerly Have you so increased in the knowledge of God Have you had such love and zeal for God have you so grown in any exercise of grace Indeed it is not reasonable for any to think that you should you have not had the means This is not an age in which the Lord worketh in a way of miracles but produceth his great works by means fitted to them Our brethren must be very partiall to themselves and their present teachers if they think them for gifts and graces comparable to those godly and able ministers under whoâ— ministry they formerly sate The Historian sayes of Mr. Thrask that besides a voice he had nothing we know how little judgement Brabourn had in any thing but this one point And how little Mr. Tilham had there needs no further witness then his own book where is vanity and wickedness enough Souls cannot feed upon a meer aiery empty roaring voice it is the word of God they live upon the word of God truly judiciously and faithfully opened and powerfully applied I appeal to our brethrens consciences whether they judge their present teachers so able and fit for this work as the Godly able ministeâ— of Christ who have wholly given up themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to the search of the mind of God in them I do not speak for every one that hath the confidence to wear a gown But I am sure our brethren know and will acknowledgâ— that all parts of England are filled with some number or others of able faithful preachers Now certainly it is no small disadvantage to our brethren to deprive themselves of all the gifts and labours of these servants of God while they walk alone erecting teachers to themselves CHAP. VIII That for any to deprive themselves of the liberty God hath indulged us to labour six dayes in each week is not without guilt IT is the Apostles Precept that we should stand fast in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free and doubtless we are no more to deprive our selves of that liberty which our great Creator hath indulged us than to throw away the life health or estate with which he hath blessed us It is one thing for us as our free-will offering to set apart one of the dayes which God hath given us for our own occasions for the service of God another thing for us to think our selves obliged to do this and to do it in a pretended Conscience to a command when we have no such command Since it hath pleased God to cast my lot in the Countrey I must profess I have most heartily pitied some of my Brethren baptized into this perswasion to see them in the time of Harvest by their perswasion hindred of a third part of their time from making use of those seasons which the gracious God hath indulged them for gathering in the fruits of the Earth The seventh day of the week they rest being perswaded it is the Lords Sabbath and the next day again either out of conscience to a command or to avoid scandall and danger of the Laws and I have sometimes thus said with my self Alas for my Brethren they are zealously affected they would not else for a private opinion indanger the loss of their Crops which God hath given them how good were this zeal if it were in a good cause but hath God required such things at their hands hath not the Lord said Six dayes thou shalt labour and do all thou hast to do Suppose these men by this devotion to lose their crop or a great part of it or at least to lose much in it c. what satisfaction could they have other than from their own fancy will it in the great day of account appear any otâ—er than a self-robbery for a Will-worship either it will prove so or the whole Christian World is mistaken and hath been so from the very time Christ ascended up into Heaven Can my Brethren think That the Spirit that dwells in all Believers and leadeth them into all truth should leave all the Churches of the Lord Jesus Christ and come and reveal himself in this singular notion unto them Can our brethren think it is not possible that in this thing they should be mistaken Surely they cannot think but if whole Churches may err and if they can think that all the Churches of God in this thing have for 1600 years been mistaken they may be mistaken Further yet is it not â—robable that our Brethren should be mistaken Our Brethren must confess that the far greater number of Christians are of another mind yea and not only of those who are Christians at large baptized and owning Christ as the Saviour of the World but â—f those who are Christians indeed I mean who have not only imbraced the Doctrine â—f Faith but in whom is the work of Faith â—ith power purifying their hearts and who 〈◊〉 all their conversations
urge them or at least only concerned the Jews in that time not afterward The fire forbidden to be kindled must necessarily be understood 1. Either in reference to the making the Tabernacle of which he there speaks or 2. more largely of any trade-fire kindled for men to work with to get a livelihood not such as is kindled for dressing of meat refreshing us in cold weather or when we are sick 1. It is not probable there was no fire in the Jews houses that made the feast at which our Saviour was Luk. 14. besides we find works paralell to this justified in Scripture Though going out of their doors on the Sabbath must be understood to gather manna Exod. 16.29 or upon other ends than in order to actions of piety neâ—ssity or preservation and mercy for that â—â—stance Numh. 15.32 33. The Scripture so shortly relates that story of the mans being put to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day as to the cause of it that it is hard to give a satisfactory answer Stoning to death was a punishment used in the highest cases as that of blasphemy c. with which our reason would not judge such a violation of the Sabbath as gathering sticks was to be put in the ballance but in the Judgement there could be no error for it was given by the Judge of the whole Earth who cannot err in appointing punishments to sins That he gathered sticks on the Sabbath and this was the matter of his guilt is plain but whether it was after some special command of Moses to the contrary which the scripture saith not or to assert a profane liberty and his not regarding the commandment of God when he had no need to it Or whether it was in order to kindle some fire for labour contrary to the precept Exod. 35.3 Or what other circumstance fell in to aggravate the action to such a degree of guilt we cannot tell Suppose it was to kindle a necessary fire yet we are sure it might have been done before the Sabbath so as it was an unnecessary labour as to any necessity but what a former neglect had created something was doubtless in it more than we have in the story It is certain Moses brings this example next after the Law against presumptuous sinners Num. 15.30 31 32. Nor do we read afterwards of any such examples of sevâ—rity But enough is said to shew how the Sabbath should be kept as a rest from labour 2. But this is not all it is called an holy rest the rest of the holy Sabbath and the commandment expresly saith Remember to keep it holy Now an holy rest certainly stands distinguished from a rest meerly natural when our bodies cease from action and worldly labour 2. A rest that is profane By which I understand not only a sinful rest unlawful on any day but a rest from recreations and pastimes lawful enough on other dayes We read not in the old Law of any toleration for sports on the Sabbath we read on the contrary that it was to be an holy rest kept holy c. To which sports cannot contribute It seems unreasonable to think that labour should be forbidden in order to our more serious and solemn service of God and yet sports should be allowed which every way as much distract and unfit the Soul for acts of solemn worship But the prophets are best interpreters of the Law Now the prophet Isaiah Isa 58.13 expounding this Law saith If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy-day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thy own pleasure nor speaking thy own words Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the Earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it There is a precept v. 13. and a promise annexed to the due observance of that precept v. 14. The precept is directive for the sanctification of the Sabbath which is called the Sabbath the Lords holy day The end of the Sabbath for which God instituted it and which every one ought in the observation of it to aim at and shalt honour him the honouring and glorifying of God that is the end Then you have the manner directed how you should honour God in it 1. By a reverent esteem of it calling it Honourable 2. By a free and chearful entertaining it calling it a delight 3. By an abstaining from our own pleasure our own words our own wayes and turning our foot from it Our own pleasure word wayes certainly signify such pleasure such words such wayes as we meerly serve and gratifie our selves by and bring no immediate honour and glory to God Now whether this be not as exclusive of all recreations sports pastimes c. as of all laborious actions other than those before excepted by warrant from the word of God I leave to every conscientious and sober Christian to consider with himself and judge I shall only further add that what Divines truly say of all other moral precepts must be true of this That where an action is in any precept forbidden all words and thoughts relating to it are also forbidden and this is also hinted by the prophet in special in those words not speaking thy own words I am not ignorant that many of our brethren in the other reformed Churches are not of our minds in this point of the Sabbath But 1. It is therefore to be observed that they do not think the Sabbath moral we do and â—rge it as commanded us in the fourth Commandment 2. And secondly upon inquiry we may possibly find that both amongst their Ministers and People those who are most strict in their lives lament the looseness of others of their Brethren in this thing and order their personal demeanours and their Families after another rate However we are to live by rule and not by example I have thus as shortly as I could opened your duty and shewed you how the Sabbath is to be kept as a rest as an holy rest unto the Lord. Let me now plead with my brethren that knowing our Masters will we may do it I will urge a few arguments in the case 1. It is a piece of Religion by which the people of God have formerly more honoured God in these Nations than in most if not than in any other places Professors strict observation of the Sabbath in England hath even from the beginning of the Reformation been their Crown and their Glory Oh let not this Crown in our dayes fall from our heads God hath alwayes had in this Nation a strict Sabbath-observing people in the worst of times There have been of late greater light greater means more preaching more Profession than in former times oh let there not be a less strict Sabbath-keeping
than formerly This would be but an ill requitall of the God of their mercies Men in other little things have a zeal to keep up the credit and repute of their Countrey certainly it should not in this grow cold None certainly can think this is rather an argument on the other side as intimating that my plea is for an unnecessary strictness If the opinion of duty in such severe observation of Sabbaths should be a mistake yet unquestionably in the practice there can be no considerable mistake on this hand If a man upon any other day of the week in order to the putting his heart into and keeping his heart in the better frame for Religious Worship to be in that day performed should resolve to meddle with no labour to allow himself no diversions by Sports nor to ingage in any worldly or more idle discourse certainly every one would say he did well and can any be condemned either by another or by his own Conscience for doing this on the sabbath-Sabbath-day when by the confession of all they are obliged either by the fourth Commandment as we say or by the custom or command of the Church as others say to more and more solemn acts of Worship than upon the week-dayes Surely if we had not particular Precepts in the cause yet the consideration of the great and solemn services we are that day to perform to God which reason will tell us should be performed with the best attention of minde and intention of spirit and improved when done to the best advantage would oblige us to this rest from worldly actions worldly discourses vain and useless pleasures which must necessarily divert our minds from our spiritual employments and take up that time which might be better improved in the concocting the Word we have heard and due digesting of it by meditation and applying it to our hearts Now considering over and above this that this hath been the honour of the Professours of Religion in England it certainly ought to prevail with ingenuous children of so good Parents especially when it is impossible that they should find any errour in the practice if any will fancy that there is a mistake as to the opinion of a necessity of such strictness If any of them can say which I much doubt yea I firmly believe the contrary he that reads and prayes in his family and prayes with the Congregation and hears a Sermon or two in the Sabbath though he also in the vacation of these exercises doth some worldly business and discourseth of it or recreates himself with some sports not sinfull doth well yet they must say he who forbears these sports labours discourses on that day doth better if not with respect to the command strictly yet with reference to the dutyes he is to perform that he may the better perform them and make the better improvement and advantage of them and with reference to scandall and the destroying the Souls of others yea and in reference to his own Soul Reason obliging us in such cases of doubt to take the safest part 2. Secondly Consider I beseech you the influence that it hath upon an holy life and conversation Compare the lives of those that are strict in the observation of the Sabbath with the lives of those that are more remiss in it and where you see an abatement as to strictness in keeping Sabbaths whether you do not find also a proportionable abatement of holiness almost in all their other converse Observe and see if they be as conscientious according to Davids resolution Psal 101.2 to walk in their house in a perfect way To instruct their Families according to Abrahams copy Gen. 18.19 commanding them to keep the way of the Lord. Teaching the Law of God unto their children diligently and whetting it upon them as it is in the Hebrew and talking of it when they sit in their houses and when they walk in the way when they lye down and when they rise up according to Gods command Deut. 6.7 whether they be so diligent and constant in praying with their families so offering up their morning and evening sacrifices to the Lord. Indeed it is not reasonable to presume that those who will not spend the Sabbath thus should spend any considerable time of their working-dayes thus when they have a free liberty to work by the Laws of God and men considering especially that on the Sabbath-day they are restrained from labour not only by the Law of God but by the Laws of the Nation and general usage and custom of the place where they are But I fear upon observation we shall finde that those who are loose in the observation of the Sabbath are not very strict in any other piece of their conversation I remember the learned Junius in his Analytick Explication of Numbers upon the story before mentioned concerning him that gathered sticks starts a question whether then it was such a crime to gather sticks on the Sabbath day He answers it thus That the Precept of the Sabbath was the clausula the conclusion of all the Precepts that concerned the Worship of God in which God would have all exercises of piety imbibed whence it was that he who was in the least guilty of the profanation of that was guilty of a profanation of the whole Worship of God Again that Christian who is possessed with a dread of the Lord as to the Sabbath and walks in that dread all that day will find it influential upon him the whole week so that the strict observation of the Sabbath is both influential upon us as to holiness and is also an indication of holiness which should oblige Christians to the strict observation of it Buxtorf tells us of one of the Jewish Rabbies that wished His portion might be with those that began the Sabbath with those of Tiberias and ended it with those of Tseppore That is who sanctified the Sabbath in the longest proportion of time for Tsephore being a City placed on the top of a Mountain the Sun shined longer upon that than upon others and Tiberias being situated in a valley the Sun appeared to them not so soon as to others I think it may be a good wish for a Christian That his portion might be with them that begin the Sabbath soonest and end it latest and keep it most strictly Thirdly Methinks the typical notion of the Sabbath should something oblige us The Sabbath is not only a consequent and commemorative sign to us of Christs resurrection but it is also a predictional and antecedent sign of that glorious rest which remaineth for the people of God which way soever we look upon it it certainly calleth to us for a strict observation of it 1. Let us look upon it as a consequent sign as a memorial of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ We are said to be risen with Christ whence the Apostle argues our duty to seek those things which are above To set our