Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	day_n	law_n	sabbath_n	2,914	5	9.8028	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81232	A vindication of the Lords prayer, as a formal prayer, and by Christ's institution to be used by Christians as a prayer: against the antichristian practice and opinion of some men. Wherein, also their private and ungrounded zeal is discovered, who are very strict for the observation of the Lords Day, and make so light of the Lords prayer. By Meric Casaubon, D.D. one of the prebandaries of C.C. Canterb.	Casaubon, Meric, 1599-1671.; Grotius, Hugo, 1583-1645.	1660 (1660)	Wing C817; Thomason E1921_3; ESTC R209969	43,421	134

all upon the fourth Commandment or Old Testament Dr. Prideaux the publick Professor of Divinity in Oxford for many years before these late wars a man generally accounted by the preciser sort as well as others till this late Reformation and that he was a Bishop both learned and godly did publickly maintain at a solemn Act in Oxford almost as much as Gomarus and quotes divers Protestant Divines as Calvin Bullinger Ursinus and others for his opinion The Book is translated into English the Reader may do well not to rest upon what I say but to peruse the book it self being made so common and vulgar it may be he will not repent his labour Walaeus another Protestant Divine no obscure man neither is the man who of all out-landish Writers I have seen hath written or may be thought to have written most though long before in complyance to these times yet even he where he tells us of the Edicts of the Synod of Dort for the more strict observation of that day commends their moderation in that they did not condemn them that were of a different opinion in his Preface and in his Book he allows very well of Constantine's Law for liberty upon Sundayes in harvest-time when the weather proves unseasonable as also of moderate and civil recreations upon that day so it be after the publick service of the day performed and not before or between Now for the Scriptures which are the Rule of our faith if a man look upon the Old Testament upon a supposition that what is there concerning the Jewish Sabbath is applyable a thing not easily proved to the Lords day or Sunday of the Christians so he shall find many things both in the Law and in the Prophets that may be thought to require great preciseness But if we look into the New Testament our most immediate Rule as Christians there will not neither in all that is recorded of Christ as either spoken or done by him in the four Gospels nor in all the Writings of his Apostles any thing be found that doth make that way but rather to the contrary which is some wonder if it were so material to Christianity especially after so much recorded in the Gospels of Christs speeches tending in ordinary construction to the abrogation of that legal or ceremonial preciseness And it may be further observed that those for the most part who commonly press those passages of the Old Testament concerning the Sabbath notwithstanding that so much is to be said against the pertinency of those allegations yet in other things as in matter of usury contrary to the opinion and practise of most of the old Clergy or prelatical men they can swallow abundance of Texts which in all probability though I conclude nothing should make it unlawfull at least in Clergy men For my part as I said before I conclude nothing and I hope the ingenuous charitable Reader will not conclude from any thing I have said of the Lords day that I am against the religious yea and strict in some respects observing of it I am not I never was I will say more if a man be not fully resolved and satisfied about this point but though he have taken pains to be satisfied stands in a kind of Aequilibrium or Even-ballance between both opinions so that for ought he knows either of them may prove true or false in such a case provided that he condemn not others that go another way such especially as do it with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of faith and conscience as to themselves men otherwise religious in their life and conversation and that he make it not a cloak of disobedience to oppose lawfull Authority which in all things lawfull or doubtfull ought to be obeyed in such a case Isay with these cautions we have inserted I hold it much safer according to the old saying Peccare in meliorem partem to be more precise than he need perchance then for ought he knows to take more liberty upon that day than God hath allowed But the case being so between the Lords day and the Lords Prayer that of the one no question hath ever been among Christians of the other as to that which is required by some that would be thought most zealous much question and controversie how this can stand with true impartial zeal and piety that the one should be so much pressed and the other so little regarded I leave it to the unpartiall reader his further and sober consideration I might very well end here For after so much light of Scripture and so much weight of authority the best that can be desired in a cause I make some question whether it be so lawfull and warrantable to give eare to any objection What if a man will undertake to prove by Scripture that there is no such thing as the Resurection of the dead or the immortality of the soul there is Scripture enough it is true for both to satisfy a man that is not wilfully blind or factiously refractorie a Quaker an Anabaptist However he is but a poor Sophister that cannot forme objections yea frame arguments in shew out of the Scriptures against both To dispute with such is to yield to them so it may thought at least that they have some ground to doubt and that is some wrong to the truth Not to hear them I hold it generally the best course both for them if not past all hopes to reclaim them and for others to keep them within sobrietie However after so much premised because all men are not of one temper and some more taken with sleight then weight in point of reason I will take notice of such objections that I have mett with or could think any way considerable Truely many are not so especially such as I have met with in that Johnson before named You shall have a taste if you please that you may judge of the rest Heare then I pray one of his maine proofes why what we call the Lords Prayer cannot be a prayer If it be so saith he as you say that Our Father c. is a prayer I would know of you whose prayer shall it be called Christs his Apostles or ours If you say Christs why Christ did not so pray for himself else he that had no sin must be thought to have prayed for remission of sinnes p. 22. but taught his Disciples so to pray If you say the Apostles we do not finde in all the New Testament that they did ever use it If you say Ours then it will follow that we did pray before we were borne c. I am so farre from thinking that this wants any refutation that I cannot otherwise think when I reade it but that the man had som distemper in his braines and had I been acquainted with him I would freindly have perswaded him to have gone to a physician I am very confident good physick would do more good if themselves could be perswaded to many

love to the truth hath compelled me to acknowledge so much of his inconstancy in his latter dayes yet my comfort is I have reason to believe it as I have elsewhere declared he dyed a good Christian and a Protestant and my hope is he hath a reward in heaven for his zeal to the Christian Religion for which he hath written so excellently well and his continual desire and endeavours for peace besides his other performances by which the honour of Learning hath been so much advanced And if I may speak the truth without offence I verily believe his great dislike of our doings in England was no small occasion of his falling out with our Religion besides the unkind dealing and vigorous opposition of some of his own Countrey from whom he might have expected more favour having raised that Nation to the highest pitch of Glory in point of learning that any Nation hath attained unto Well I am willing to believe that some Reader will desire to see the letter but however that it may give less offence if any offence at all it shall not be here but at the end where it may be taken in or left as the Reader shall think fit This great block in my way removed as I hope it is we proceed to objections We do not find say some and I find it in Grotius too upon any Record of Scripture that either Christ or his Apostles did use this prayer We said before he doth not deny but it may be done cum fructu but he doth not make that the chief or principal use of it For my part grant me the use of it as a Prayer and so intended by Christ himself I think it very needless to contend with any man about the rest whether intended principally as a Prayer or a direction to Prayer If it be a Prayer there is no question to be made and it will follow by necessary consequence that it is a Direction of Prayer also as it is his prayer who spake nothing did nothing but is set out unto us for our according to our power imitation our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. Yet if we must say somewhat to that business I would say but without contention I should think that principally intended by Christ which was most direct and pertinent to the request made unto him by his Disciples Now if it be granted which hath been spoken to before that what his Disciples desired was a form of Prayer what will follow upon it any man may gather But I determine nothing peremtorily I will leave every man to his own Judgement in this particular Well the objection is We do not find that Christ c. as before I know that Grotius is not the first that hath so argued I am sorry it can be said that a man of his judgement did ever entertain this as a material objection No sober man I think and this also before spoken of will deny but that a very form of blessing is prescribed by God Numb 6.23 c. Yet we do not find it in the whole Scripture Again We have a form of baptizing prescribed Mat. 28. by Christ himself In the name of the Father c. but no example of it elsewhere that I know of in the New Testament though we read of many baptized by the Apostles and others and I think to this day is a form of Baptism among Christians in all places We might insist in many more such things out of the Old and New Testament if need were Some press this further not only this Prayer is not found used as a Prayer but neither in the Acts nor any of the Epistles though divers things concerning Prayer in general are there prescribed yet no mention at all of this Prayer is made This may be thought to have a shew of somewhat but in effect it proves nothing as by divers instances of the same nature if fearch be made will appear Act. 20.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mentioned as one of Christ his memorable sayings which yet in none of the fouer Evangelists is found We can make but a negative argument of it which at the best is of no great validity but after such evidence of positive proofes is very impertinent But yet I cannot tell whether it may so peremptorily be affirmed that no mention at all express or implicite is made of the Lords prayer in the Writings of his Apostles There may some places be found perchance where it may not improbably be thought alluded unto by some words When the Apostles tells us in several places that this or that is the Will of God they do it often and emphatically sometimes who can tell but it was with some tacit reference and allusion to the words of the Lords prayer which they knew were dayly repeated and assented unto by those primitive Christians they wrote unto and therefore might enforce their exhortation to such and such duties from their own secret consent included and expressed in their daily prayer But since this occasion is given me I shall crave leave I may but propose what long before I had any the least suspition that ever the Lords Prayer should want any defence in England had been in my thoughts I profess I see men take so much liberty I have no great fancy to new interpretations I had much rather were I to write upon the Scripture defend one old received interpretation upon good grounds of reason than be the author of two new though probable This makes me to suspect the more what I have to say because I find it no where But because it was in my thoughts as I said before long before I had any thought of this occasion in that respect I suspect it less In those words of St. Peter chap. 1. vers 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I have thought it very probable that he might intend the Lords prayer First That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly and so commonly used in the New Testament signifie To call upon in prayer and generally To pray will easily be granted I know Beza translates Si cognominatis patrem The words may be translated If you call upon him as Father or If in praying you call him Father Well here is no great alteration in this from what is commonly received But what can we infer upon this that will more particularly concern the Lords prayer I ground chiesly upon the words following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which indeed seeme to promise least yea to cross rather what we would have but if well examined it may prove otherwise I must here appeal to the Hebrew Idiotism whereof the New Testament though written in Greek is full As for example Acts 8.20 a common example where the Original hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is rendred very truly in the English exceeding fair without any mention of God which is in the Original words and