Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A78513
|
A brief tract on the fourth commandment wherein is discover'd the cause of all our controversies about the Sabbath-day, and the means of reconciling them ...Recommended by the Reverend Dr. Bates, and Mr. John How.
|
Chafie, Thomas.
|
1692
(1692)
|
Wing C1789; Wing B1099; ESTC R19953
|
88,157
|
93
|
had almost buried it And we reckon their performance herein very Commendable and capable of turning to publick good The discourse it self aptly serving a twofold design partly to shew the continuing Obligation upon Christians from the fourth Commandment to keep a weekly seventh day Holy to God partly to shew their no-Obligation to keep the same day which the Jews kept and do keep The former how much it tends to preserve and propagate serious Religion experience hath shewn and hath imprest upon England a laudable Character compared with the greater Latitude in this respect of divers Forreign Countries both in principle and practice even where the Reformed Religion hath obtained And for the latter it is of no little concernment to exempt some pious minds from scruple that seem sollicitous whether they ought not to return to the observation of the Jewish Sabbath For which there can be no pretence till it can be clearly shewn that the particular seventh day which the Jews were enjoyned to observe Exod. 16. was as to it's beginning and ending the very same day on which God himself rested from his Work of the Creation And that the fourth Commandment was intended to confine them and Christians in all places whatsoever to those same limits of time as Hallowed and Sacred which are things simply impossible ever to be shewn or indeed that any day can by just computation for all People and parts of the World be found to come nearer those first limits than the day which Christians do now keep Vnto which purposes we reckon what is very considerable is said in this Book And that the publishing of it anew is in this enquiring Age very seasonable as it may occasion not only a further search into the grounds here laid but also a further improvement of them William Bates John Howe THE Seventh-Day SABBATH EXOD. XX. 8 9 10 11. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy Six days shalt thou labour and c. CHAP. I. The Division of the Text. The Artificial Day THE Lord God who made Heaven and Earth and all for the good of man made man for his own Honour in his own Image and to bear his Image in the World to his Glory done by the due observation of the Moral Law whereof this fourth Commandment is a part in which God maketh known unto man the special time and day which he hath destinated unto his Worship commanding man to sanctifie the same and keep it Holy to the Lord. In this Text are these two parts First The duty commanded which is to keep holy the Sabbath-day Secondly The care and provision had by the Lord for mans heedful keeping and observing the same in all the other words and branches of this Commandment I will first treat of the duty commanded and in it for our better observing the Sabbath-day we are to know First What the Sabbath-day is that is here commanded to be sanctified Secondly What it is to sanctifie the same or to keep it holy Touching the former of these we are to know First What kind of day the Sabbath is to be Secondly What day it is to be in order or tale Concerning the former of these There be four kinds of days which we shall meet with in Holy Scripture 1. The Artificial day 2. The Universal day 3. The Horizontal day 4. The Meridional day These terms or appellations I confess are not common but the use of them is needful for the better distinguishing them one from the other whereby it may the better appear which of these kinds of days the Sabbath-day ought to be And now I will 1. Shew what every of them is 2. How they differ the one from the other 3. VVhich of these kinds of days man is to observe and keep for his Sabbath Of the Artificial day The Artificial day as it is generally taken is the whole time between Sun-rising and Sun-setting with any People This kind of day was especially in use with the Jews They divided this day always into twelve equal parts which they called hours which hours were ever proportionable to the day In Summer-time the longer their day was the longer were their hours and at VVinter when their day was not ten of our hours yet was it twelve of theirs Of this kind of day mention is made in divers places of Sacred Scripture John 11.9 Psal 104.23 Mat. 20.2 3 6. And the hours thereof are now called Jews hours (a) Horae Judaicae And Antique hours (b) Horae Anquae for that not only the Jews but other Nations also did anciently so divide the day into twelve such hours Thus was their Dial divided into twelve hour lines whereof the fifth Persius (c) Pers Sat. 3. Quinta dum linea tangitur umbra will have to note out the fifth hour with them which is about ten of the Clock with us Martial (d) Mart. li. 4. Epigr. 8. Prima solutantes atque aloera continet hora c. also in twelve verses distinguishes the twelve hours of the day then in use in the like manner CHAP. II. The Universal day The days of the Creation Why Moses set the Evening before the Morning THE Universal day is that which is one and the same day in all places through the whole Universe as well in respect of its beginning as of its duration and ending It is not one day at one part of the Earth and another day at another part but when it beginneth or endeth any where it beginneth or endeth every where at the same time This kind of Day cannot properly be said to begin either in the East or in the VVest or at Sun-rising or at Sun-setting or at Mid-night or at Noon as other kind of days do For there is neither East nor VVest nor Sun-rising nor Sun-setting or at Midnight nor Noon in respect of the VVorld though in respect of the parts of the World all and every of these may be said to be yet so as what is East or morning to one part is West or Sun-setting to another part and midnight to one part is mid-day to another part but neither of them properly can be so said to be the whole World Such kind of days were those which Moses spake of in the first of Genesis Gen. 1.5 8 13 19 23 31. And of which mention is made in this text and elsewhere Exod. 20.11 and 31.17 Acts 2.20 Rev. 6.17 2 Pet. 2.9 and 3.7 10. Joel 2.31 In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth c. and rested the seventh day That these days which some do term and fitly enough may be called The days of the Creation were such Universal days I will endeavour to clear by giving instances in every of them which Moses spake of in rehearsing the Works of the Creation The first of those seven days was such an Universal day when it began any where it began every where no where then was it no day nor any other than
after they came out of Egypt must begin their week whereby in count of their week-days and so also of their seventh Sacred day they differed from all other Nations in Chap. 8 9 10. and what weeks be and the difference between a week and the week and between a seventh day of the week and the seventh day of the week which last is the Lords day or Sabbath of the Lord in Chap. 11 12. And also the Antiquity of weeks and the answer unto the main Objection thereto in Chapters 13 14. Fourthly I have shewed that Sunday was of Old the seventh day of the week with the Gentiles and most probably was the seventh day of the week also with the Patriarchs before the Flood and hath continued with Christians their seventh day of the week even unto this present day and doubtless ever will to the Worlds end in Chap. 15. Christian Reader my hearty desire is that thou and all other the Obedient Servants of Jesus Christ be rightly informed concerning our observation of the Sabbath-day Haply thou didst before the reading hereof hold that this fourth Commandment is a branch of the Moral Law that it is agreeable to the Law of nature to have a day in seven to be for Gods Worship that Sunday is our Christian Sabbath as Saturday was the Jews Sabbath and that as God wrought six days and rested the seventh and Consecrated the seventh day unto Holiness and Rest even so all Gods Obedient People should not be slothful but diligent in their callings on the six work-days and rest on the Sunday according to Gods example and keep it Holy If this was thine Opinion thou wert in the right and didst hold nothing in all these but what Godly and Learned men and the Servants of Jesus Christ did generally teach in former time the People of God here in England as may plainly appear to thee if thou readest only that Homily which is for the time and place of Gods Worship But since that subtile heads have been imployed to the subverting hereof and bringing in a dangerous errour opening a flood-gate to all licentiousness on the Lords Sabbath they have publickly Taught and Published to the World that the seventh day commanded to bept holy is none other but the day of Gods rest They would bring People in hand that the Jews Sabbath was the very seventh day from the Creation and none other but that to be the seventh day of the week with any People and so Sunday to be with us the first day of the week To this end I suppose they would have the name of our Sabbath-day which the Jews called in their Tongue The first day of the Sabbath to be Translated as it is in our Bibles not The Lords day or Sunday by which names Christians whose Ancestors were Gentiles ever called it but The first day of the week that so People may conceive hereby though a new name doth not alter the nature of the thing that Sunday with us is not in order the seventh day of the week viz. the day following the six days of labour but the day going before the six days of labour with us and therefore not the Sabbath-day here commanded for the rooting out of which errour and confirming all in the Truth concerning the Lords day I have sent abroad this little Tract If now by thy serious perusal hereof thou art the more encouraged to render the Lord his due Honour in the heedful observation of the Lords day which with us is Sunday not for customs sake because thy fore-fathers and the Church of God ever observed the same since theti me of the Apostles nor for that the Magistrates have commanded us to keep this day Holy Nor for that the seventh-day-Sabbath is abolished and this to be a new Sabbath instituted but for that God in this his Law which is perpetual and unalterable hath commanded thee and all People expresly to keep holy the seventh day give God the glory and lift up a Prayer unto him for me a poor sinner T. C. The Synopsis or Abridgment of the whole Tract In this fourth Commandment there be two parts viz. 1. The duty commanded in which we be to know What day the Sabbath of the Lord is concerning which know 1. What kind of day the Sabbath-day is therein note There be four kinds of days which we shall meet with in the Holy Scripture which are these viz. the Artificial day 1. Vniversal day 2. Horizontal day 3. Meridional day 4. They differ every one from the other The Artificial day differeth from all other 5. The Vniversal day differeth from all other 5. Horizontal and Meridional days differ one from the other 6. Which of these four kinds of days is the Lords Sabbath 7. 2. What day the Sabbath-day is to be in respect of order and tale wherein note 1. The Sabbath-day is the seventh day of the week that is the day following the six known days of labour 8. 2. The cause why the Jews had Saturday for their Sabbath was to take them off from the Assyrian Idolatries concerning which note that 1. The Assyrian Idolatries were their Worshipping the Sun and the other Planets all called the Host of Heaven And also their Worshipping Belus called Baal 9. 2. From their example all nations as well as Israel worshipped the Sun 9. 3. Among many means God used to take the Jews off from Worshipping the Sun one was that instead of Sunday they must have Saturday their seventh day Sacred 10. 3. The vain opinion of some who think that the Sabbath that is the seventh day of the week must be the day of Gods Rest 11. 4. What a week is and what the week is and that the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath Also why many of the Antient Writers called the Jews Sabbath the day of Gods Rest sith they knew that it could not be that very day 12. 5. Weeks proved to be from all Antiquity 13. 6. Week-days had their names from the Planets as they were the Heathen Gods and not from their supposed hourly Government 14. 7. Sunday was the Gentiles seventh day of the week sacred to the Sun and most probably was the seventh day sacred with the Patriarchs before Noahs flood Also that Christians did not neither ought to have chosen any other than the Sunday for their seventh Sacred day although it had been much abused before to Idolatry 15. What it is to keep Holy and Sanctifie the Sabbath-day 16. 2. The Lords special provision to bring all People to a heedful keeping the duty commanded set out in sundry particulars 17. Christian Reader THis following Treatise published forty years ago by the Reverend Author Mr. Thomas Chafie then Minister of Nutshelling being now become rare as not easie to be met with as indeed it was before for the peculiarity of the notion pursued in it these Book-sellers have by a new Impression recover'd it out of the obscurity wherein time