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ground_n day_n keep_v sabbath_n 1,466 5 10.2700 5 false
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A48737 Solomons gate, or, An entrance into the church being a familiar explanation of the grounds of religion conteined in the fowr [sic] heads of catechism, viz. the Lords prayer, the Apostles creed, the Ten commandments, the sacraments / fitted to vulgar understanding by A.L. Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694. 1662 (1662) Wing L2573; ESTC R34997 164,412 526

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tired nor Infinity be exhausted but he was pleas'd to put a period to his own extraordinary actings and by his own will determin the products of his boundless power Again if he had pleas'd he could have dispatch'd all his works in a day in a moment and not have made such leisurely progress and have done all at once But he chose a number of dayes to accomplish his great design in six dayes that there might be an orderly proportion and distance of time betwixt the productions of the several creatures and but six that the glory of his workmanship might not receive any disparagement from a seeming delay Now whether these six dayes in which the world was making were meant to signifie the continuance of the world for so many thousand years a thousand years being in Gods reckoning but as a day and the seaventh day of rest to typifie another thousand years of Christ's reign or an everlasting Sabbath in Heaven or whether any other mystery lye hid in the number of seaven whence fond antiquity might appropriate the seaven Planets each to his day and fonder Art divide the week according to planetary hours may be guess'd but cannot certainly be known Wherefore it may suffice us that it pleas'd God so to order his work and so to appoint a holy rest and he sure had very great reason for observing that order and making this appointment THEREFORE THE LORD BLESSED THE SABBATH-DAY AND HALLOWED IT He stamp'd upon it a particular respect set it aside from common imployment and business of life for holy and spiritual exercises that it might be spent in the commemoration of his wonderful works And if the institution were so solemn upon the account of Creation how much more will the memory of our Redemption heighten the solemnity and improve the observance of this holy day which our blessed Lord and Saviour the holy Iesus blessed by his rising again from the dead and hallowed by his apparition and discourse with his holy Apostles who have by their example recommended to the Church of God as the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week the day of our Lords Resurrection for which reason it is also call'd the Lord's Day Besides this weekly solemnity and day of rejoycing it is acknowledg'd even by those who are no great friends to the Churches authority that the Church hath power to appoint and set aside for the publick worship of God other peculiar dayes as occasion shall require such as are Anniversary Fasts and Feasts nor is the commemoration of the benefits obtain'd by Christ as his Nativity Passion Ascension c. and of the holy Apostles and other Scripture-Saints more ancient though it be handed to us from the most ancient and the best times then 't is convenient the fundamentals of religion being thus scatter'd through the course of the year and the Holy-dayes next to the Lords-day being the great remarks cognisances of Christianity This reason drawn from the creation which is the moral reason of the precept is in Deuteronomie which is the repetition of the Law omitted and another of a politick concern brought in stead of it as if the command were grounded upon an indulgence to servants and that upon a reflection upon the condition of the Israelites in Egypt where they had been made serve in a cruel bondage mention'd in the Preface Though those words there I suppose might be added only as a reason for the servants and the cattles rest and an argument to inforce the equity of that rather then to be the bottom and ground of the Sabbath it self and yet it seems strange that immediately after Moses tells them God spake these words and no more The sense of the command is this Thou shalt take great heed to the observation of my day and shalt sanctify my Sabbath and keep it holy with exercises of publick private devotion Thou shalt wait upon me in my sanctuary and appear before me in the great assembly Thou shalt come to my house in my fear and enter my courts with due reverence Thou shalt attend to my word obey my voice and sh●lt bestow this sacred time wholly on the meditation of my Law Thou shalt receive my word with faith and wait upon me in the use of my ordinances Thou shalt set one day in seaven aside from all worldly concernments and thy usual employment and dedicate it and thy self to me Thou shalt prepare thy self and forecast thy business that no other thoughts may distract thee Thou shalt keep it a holy rest to the Lord shalt cause all that belong unto thee to keep it Thou shalt not do thy own works nor speak thy own words nor think thy own thoughts on that day but be taken up with the study of God's word and with the consideration of his works Thou shalt serve me faithfully on thy six dayes of work in a diligent attendance upon the dutyes of thy calling that thou mayst on my day of ●est meet with a blessing find pardon for thy failings and receive strength for thy performances Thou shalt breed up thy children in my fear and acquaint them with my wayes Thou shalt instruct thy houshold and make me known unto strangers Thou shalt be merciful to thy servants and thy cattle and shalt let them injoy the benefit of the Sabbath-rest Thou shalt so observe this rest as not to give thy self up to sloath and idleness nor spend the time in sports and vain recreations but make it a rest from sin as well as from work Thou shalt more particularly imploy thy self in remembring the Lord thy Creatour and thy Redeemer and thankfully acknowledging his benefits Lastly Thou shalt so pass this weekly Sabbath in holy meditations and a heavenly conversation that thou mayst fit thy self for the celebration of an everlasting Sabbath to be kept hereafter with Angels and Saints in Heaven after thou art deliver'd from the troubles of a wicked world How far have we come short of the observation of the Sabbath in these our times who forget the day and neglect the duty who neither labour on the six dayes nor rest on the seaventh as we should doe who profane the sanctuary and pollute the holy place using no reverence and behaving our selves in Gods presence with more rudeness then we would in the presence of men who have made our devotions but a lip labour and plac'd religion in the ear and have excluded God's word contained in the holy Bible and the wholsome forms of the Church to make room for the bold conceits and seditious discourses of men who have preferred Enthusiasms before the written word who have preach'd up rebellion and sacriledge and demolish'd the Churches of God in the Land broken down the sacred ornaments with axes and hammers who have multiplied sects and heresies and dishonour'd God in his solemn worship and in the publick assemblyes who have made void God's ordinances refus'd to