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	observation_n	sabbath_n	1,995	5	9.7332	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89544	The reformed gentleman, or, The old English morals rescued from the immoralities of the present age shewing how inconsistent those pretended genteel accomplishments of [brace] swearing, drinking, [brace] whoring and Sabbath-breaking are with the true generosity of an English man : being vices not only contrary to the law of God and the constitutions of our government both ecclesiastical and civil, but such as cry loud for vengeance without a speedy reformation : to which is added a modest advice to ministers and civil magistrates, with an abridgement of the laws relating thereto, the King's proclamation and Queens letter to the justices of Middlesex, with their several orders thereupon / by A.M. of the Church of England.	A. M., of the Church of England.; Bouche, Peter Paul, b. ca. 1646.	1693 (1693)	Wing M6; ESTC R20084	100,071	189

he will be more peculiarly Worshipped This He did at the very first Creation sanctifie the Seventh Day resting thereon from all His Works which he had made and to the Jews he appointed a Seventh Day to be kept Holy So great a Veneration was 〈◊〉 b● the M●sai● Law bestowed on that Mystical 〈◊〉 that every Seventh Year was appointed for a Sabbath of rest and every Seventh of these Sababaths of Rest was a Jubilee unto the People o Israel 2. The Reasons for keeping the First Day of the Week Holy instead of the Seventh considered I shall not here run into needless Disputes about the Changing of the Sabbath from the Seventh to the First day of the Week Reasons for it in a Christian Nation are superfluous and it is to be observed none cavil so much about it as those that would be glad if there were no time at all allotted for those Sacred Solemnities 'T is true there was some Scuffle in the Primitive Times in the Eastern and Western Churches about this Matter One keeping the Jewish on the Seventh Day of the Week the Others observing the Christian Sabbath on the Lord's Day the first of the Week but the general Assent that was given by all the Church soon after shewed the Celebration of the Lord's Day to be of Apostolical Institution and not ordained by Human Tradition For a scrupulous Conscience if any such there be in this Profane Age it may be sufficient to consider that the very Jews did not observe the precise Numerical Seventh Day from the Creation but a Seventh counting from the Day of their Deliverance from the Land of Aegypt Nor could they be so strict in Sanctifying precisely their own Seventh Day since after the Commandment was written the Sun stood still for the space of a whole Day on Gibeon and went back 10 Degrees in the time of Hezekiah But besides the uncertainty the Jews were in themselves of keeping their Sabbath on a precise Day there is another Consideration which renders it impossible for all Nations to keep the same Sabbath all the World over at one instant of Time and that is the Diversity of Meridians and the inequality of the Rising and Setting of the Sun which causeth the Days in one place to vary from what they are in another in some 6 in others 12 Hours difference The reasonableness of Translating the Sabbath from one Day to another will appear more if we consider the many Memorable Passages of the Old Testament which shadow out this Change unto us as well as those Remarkable Instances of the New which all happened on this first day of the Week On this Day God began the work of Creation to build the curious Fabrick of the World and to Form all Beings out of that Chaos in which they were at first involved and it is very probable he designed as much Honour should be paid to the Memory of this great Day as of That in which he had finished all On this Day as a Hebrew Author Observes the Cloud of God's Glorious Majesty sat first upon his People then did Aaron and his Children first enter upon and Execute their Priesthood and thereon did God first solemnly Bless his People Israel This is the Day as David Prophesying of the Resurrection of Christ testifies which the Lord has made let us rejoyce and be glad therein And how great wondrous and astonishing things were done on this Day under the Gospel dispensation It was on This day that Christ finished the Glorious Work of our Redemption and rose again from the Dead for our Justification On this first Day of the Week did He appear after his Resurrection to his Disciples several times On this Day fell the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles as they were assembled together and at the same time upon St. Peter's Sermon were there added no less than three thousand Souls to the Church On this Day was it that the Disciples afterwards met frequently together to break Bread and to lay up their Charitable Contributions for the use of the Poor 3. The Lord's day How and by whom Profaned These things being premised I proceed to consider how Shamefully and Odiously the Solemnities of this Day are slighted derided and Profaned by this our Corrupt and Dissolute Age. And herein I could wish the Openly Debauched and Licentious person were the only Delinquent But alas if we deal Impartially we shall find many of those who seem to look Wisely and would be angry if you called them by any other Name than that of Christian to be deficient enough in this respect They tell you Judaism only required so strict an Observation of the Sabbath that Christ the Lord of the Sabbath has remitted that rigour with which the Mosaic Law obliged its followers That it is Puritanical Enthusiastick Zeal which spurs on some to be so Religiously given on this Day This is no invented Account grounded upon a mere Hypothesis but what is to be seen by every Days Experience And if none else can bear me Witness of the truth hereof yet I might appeal to some Judicious Mens Opinions who have declared the Suppressing of the Profanation of the Lords-Day to be triffling Nugatory and little less than a Grievance to the Subject So little is the Concern which Men now a-days have for God and Religion and such slighting thoughts do they bear to the Divinity of the Lord's Day I know not what Church allows so much Licentiousness thereon sure I am the Church of England is far from it in her Doctrines and Discipline let her pretended Followers use their Christian Liberty for a Cloak of Wickedness as long as they please 4. Who can forbear lamenting the sad Degeneracy and Apostacy of the Age wherein to reform from Superstition is to run upon the other Extream and be Profane wherein the Cure of Pharisaical Hypocrisie consists in being openly loose and Debauched wherein to plead for the Keeping holy the Lords-Day is Malepertness in the Minister Cant Impertinencie and Presbyterianism in a Private Person But notwithstanding all this I shall pursue my design in tracing the Profane and Irreligious in all His By-Paths and transgressions to lay open the several Ways by which he Violates this Holy Institution and drive him or shame him if possible into the Power as well as the Form of Godliness 5. One would think in Complaisance to the fashion and in Conformity to the Custom of the Country wherein they Live The Lords-Day is profaned First by neglecting to c●me to the publick Ordinances of the Church there should be none but what went to one Assembly or another but we have too many who neither go to Church nor to any other place of Divine Worship tolerated by Law on that Day Can't God say they be served as well at Home as in the Publick Congregation Will not our Reading a good Book profit as well in our own Houses as the Hearing of a Sermon in the more

profaned Fourthly The Lords-D●y profaned by publickly Exposing to sale and that is by publickly Exposing Goods to sale thereon This is that which Righteous Nehemiah could not endure when he contended with the Rulers of Israel and would not suffer the Carriers nor the Merchants of the Land to bring up their Wares to Jerusalem on the Sabbath-Day Neh. 13. And how small a Matter soever it may seem to some in our times yet by Him it was reckoned the cause for which God plagued Israel and suffered them to be led Captive intO a strange Land And without doubt our Legislators of the Last Age and the Beginning * Statute 29. Car. 2. of this were of Opinion that the suffering the least Ware to be sold off on the Lords-Day would prove an Introduction to a greater Profaneness which made them prohibit the Exposing of any Commodity to sale thereon upon the Forfeiture of all so Exposed be it of never so great a value which was to be sold and the Money converted to the use of the Poor And truly they who now take it ill should they for the selling of a Trifle be forced to pay the Penalty which the Statutes of our Land require will hereafter think that Punishment easie and Light to what they shall then feel from the great Lawgiver when they shall give up their Last accounts 10. And here some one may say An Objection Answered and what Works may Lawfully be done on the Lords-Day Sure this must be some Puritan How strict he is What will be allow nothing to be done this Day Must we do no manner of Work thereon Does God require we should be tyed up from all Motion and Action but that of the Soul and Spirit Is it not better to Work than Sin on this Day To which I reply Ex Confesso it must be granted that there are three sorts of Works which the strictest Christian may on this Day perform viz. Works of absolute Necessity not fained or which might have been done the Day before or may be done the Day after Works of Charity and lastly Works of Piety Beyond these none may lawfully use his Christian Liberty Nor did our Saviour relax any thing of the strictness save in these respects As to that whether it is not better to Work than to Sin on this Day True it is Saint * In tit Ps 91. Austin's Opinion is so affirming that it is better to Plough than to Dance on the Lords-Day But then it is not thence to be concluded that the Greater destroys the Less or that the Guilt of Profaning this Holy and Blessed Day by our Ordinary calling is less in its own Nature because it can be Violated by a more Horrid and aggravated Sin 11. But to proceed if the doing that upon this Day Fifthly The Lords-Day profaned by the Works of the Flesh such as are first Tipling thereon which at another time is both Lawful and Necessary to be done be so great an Offence as certainly it is How extreamly must the Crime be aggravated when we do that thereon which is Unlawful or at least Unnecessary to be done at any other Time Such as the Works of the Flesh to wit Carousing Feasting Dancing Singing Gaming Rioting and the like Tho' the Naming of these is abominable to any serious Man yet the Practise of them is so Universal and Common that there is a Necessity as it were of insisting some time upon each of them 12. 'T is strange methinks that Men should be so absurd as to imagine the small service they pay to God by an Hour or two upon a Sunday should tolerate them in serving of Sin and Satan all the Day and all the Week after Yet it is too true to need any Demonstration that most especially of the Inferiour Rank of Men are no sooner out of a Church but strait you find them in an Alehouse or a Tavern where they do not as they pretend go only to satisfie their Natures but to spend on that their Idle Day all the Profit and Gain of the foregoing Week An Intolerable thing this And a Profanation not to be endured in any Civil much less in a Christian Society notwithstanding the Cry of all the Ale-House-keepers and Vintners to the Contrary Who will give out where their Complaints can be admitted the Hearing that the Suppressing of Tipling on the Lords-Day would tend Immediately to their Ruin and Destruction But better it is they should Murmur than that the whole Land Mourn better they should lose the taking of Pounds than so many Wives and Children should be undone and Perish by reason of the Extravagancie of the Man Will those Inn-keepers and Vintners supply the wants of the Indigent Wife and Children when they are by their means reduced to beggery Will the Host or Hostess exchange their draughts of cold Water for a Cup of small Beer No it is certain the Man himself shall not be welcom without Money in his Pocket tho' he has spent his All to Enrich them and Mortgaged his Estate to the Tap and Tankard 13. Another sort of Profanation of this Holy Ordinance is by Luxurious Feastings A second Work of the F●esh is Feasting on the Lords Day and Voluptuous Entertainments too common on this Day It is true this Day is a Festival but such a One as ought not to be Dedicated to any but to the Memory of a Crucified Redeemer A Festival indeed it is in which the Soul not the Body should be Glutted with good things in which we should strive not for the Meat which perisheth but for that which endureth to Everlasting Life in which we should thirst after the Living Water and Hunger after the Bread of Life which is able to make us Live for ever The sincere Milk of the Word the Flesh and Blood of a Dying Saviour are indeed Dainties and Repasts which every faithful Soul is satisfied with and Breatheth after But Gluttony and Gormandizing Pampering and High-feeding are but pitiful subsequents of a Morning Sermon and worse Preparatives for an Afternoons Lecture Were Hospitality and feeding the Poor at the Bottom of those Feasts there might be something said in Excuse thereof But forasmuch as the Cost and Luxury of the Treats is but barely to keep up Mutual Correspondence and to return former Entertainments they might be very well let alone till some more seasonable Time All that I can conceive may be alledged in favour hereof is that the Sanctity of the Day may have some Influence upon the Guests to keep them within the Bounds of Sobriety and Temperance But alass there is no such Notice taken nor has it any Influence to with-hold the Epicure from his Excess as is evident enough to any who have been at those Luxurious Tables And what is the mind after such Repletions good for Can the full fraught Stomach forbear sending up its fumes into the Drouzie Head which cannot hold from sleeping one single