AN EXPLICATION OF THE DECALOGUE OR Ten Commandments WITH REFERENCE TO THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND To which are premised by way of Introduction Several GENERAL DISCOURSES concerning GOD'S both NATURAL and POSITIVE LAWS By Gabriel Towerson sometimes Fellow of All-Souls College in Oxford and now Rector of Wellwyn in Hertfordshire Philo in Praefat. ad Librum de Decalogo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΔΙ ' ΑΥΤΟΥ ΜΟÎΟΥ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ÎΟΜΟΥΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΠΟΜΩΠ〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΔΙΑ ΤΟΥΠΡΟΦΗΤΟ Î¥ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΕΠ' ΕΚΕΙÎΟΥΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by J. Macock for John Martyn at the Bell in St Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXVI TO The Most Reverend FATHER in God GILBERT By Divine Providence LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council c. May it please Your Grace I Have here attempted an Explication of that part of our Church-Catechism which respects the Decalogue or Ten Commandments Not out of any great opinion of mine own Abilities for such an undertaking of which they who know me know me to be sufficiently diffident but out of a due sense of the want of a just Discourse upon this Argument which by no Man that I know of hath been handled according to its worth It was once in my thoughts to have suppressed it till I could have finished an Explication of the whole Catechism as conceiving that that would have been more compleat and more acceptable to the World But considering with my self that it would require some time to revise what I have already done and much more to add to and perfect it and since what is now offered to Your Grace and with Your Graces Leave to the Publick view also is entire enough if I have acquitted my self in it as I ought I thought I should no way disoblige my Readers if I sent this part of it before the rest to try the Judgment of the World Especially since it is not impossible but that I may entertain a better opinion of my own Labours than they shall be found by more competent Judges to deserve If any thing may seem with Reason to make such a procedure improper it is that I have referr'd my self to those Parts that are not yet published for the proof of some things asserted here But as it is only for such things as have been abundantly proved by others and which therefore especially in loco non suo I might the better wave the confirmation of so they are for the most part if not only such as by the Laws of Discourse are to be supposed by all that will entreat of this Argument However if what is now tendred find acceptance that blot shall not long lye upon it and if not the imperfectness thereof will be the most pardonable quality of my Discourse or at least will be more excusable than my troubling the World with more In this Treatise I have endeavoured out of that heap which so copious a subject presents to select such matter as is most considerable and pertinent to deliver my sense concerning it in proper and intelligible expressions and lastly to confirm that by solid Reasons For other things I have not been much sollicitous and much less as Solomon speaks to find out acceptable words as conceiving such more proper to perswade than inform which is or ought to be the Design of an Explication If any taking occasion from this rude Discourse of mine shall oblige the World with a more perfect one he shall find me among the foremost to return him thanks for it Both because of the benefit I shall reap in common with others from it and also because I shall have the satisfaction of considering that if I have not been my self so fortunate in Explaining the Ten Commandments yet I have stirred up those that are and thereby have fulfilled a Commandment the observation whereof is of more advantage than the most accurate Explication of them all In the mean time as I hope these my Labours will not be altogether unuseful so I lay them at Your Grace's feet as a Recognition of those many favours You have been pleased to confer upon me and of that Duty I owe to the Church of England for the safe-guard whereof as Your Grace hath with great prudence and conduct happily presided in an Age wherein You have met with more than ordinary Discouragements so that God will still preserve Your Grace for the farther benefit thereof is the hearty Prayer of Your Grace's in all bounden Duty and Service GABRIEL TOWERSON THE DECALOGUE OR TEN COMMANDMENTS As they are described and explained by the Catechism of the Church of ENGLAND Quest YOV said that your Godfathers and Godmothers did promise for you that you should keep Gods Commandments Tell me how many there be Answ Ten. Quest Which be they Answ The same which God spake in the Twentieth Chapter of Exodus saying I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage I. Thou shalt have none other Gods but me II. Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God and visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me and keep my Commandments III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain IV. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day Six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God In it thou shalt do no manner of work thou and thy Son and thy Daughter thy Man-servant and thy Maid-servant thy Cattel and the Stranger that is within thy Gates For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed seventh day and hallowed it V. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee VI. Thou shalt do no murther VII Thou shalt not commit adultery VIII Thou shalt not steal IX Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour X. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours House thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Servant nor his Maid nor his Ox nor his Ass nor any thing that is his Quest What dost thou chiefly learn by these Commandments Answ I learn two things my duty towards God and my duty towards my Neighbour Quest What is
guiltless to a sense more severe than the Words do of themselves import The forementioned Story shewing it to be alike or rather more severe than the visiting of the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth Generation with which the former Commandment is enforc'd From the Business of the Gibeonites pass we to a no less famous Instance of God's displeasure against Zedekiah who after he had given an Oath of Fidelity to the King of Babylon yet no less impiously than foolishly brake it by rebelling against him For Shall he saith God by the Prophet Ezekiel prosper Shall he escape that doth such things or shall he break the Covenant and be delivered As I live saith the Lord God surely in the place where the King dwelleth that made him King whose Oath he despised even with him in Babylon shall he die Ezek. 17.15 16. And again vers 18. and so on Seeing he despised the Oath by breaking the Covenant when loe he had given his hand and hath done all these things he shall not escape Therefore thus saith the Lord God As I live surely mine Oath that he hath despised and my Covenant that he hath broken even it will I recompence upon his own head And I will spread my net upon him and he shall be taken in my snare and I will bring him to Babylon and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespass'd against me Which accordingly we find to have come to pass For the same Scripture informs us That because Zedekiah rebell'd against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God God brought upon him the Army of the King of Babylon which took him and brought him to their Master where he had Judgment given upon him and after he had had his Sons slain before his Eyes had those miserable Eyes of his put out as you may see in Jeremiah chap. 39. Such was the displeasure of God against King Zedekiah for violating the Oath of God And if so we may be sure God will not hold any Man guiltless that so taketh his Name in vain The onely thing remaining to be prov'd is That God will not hold him guiltless who dishonoureth his Name in a Vow which accordingly I come now to evince In order whereunto I will consider first those who make unlawful or trifling Vows and then those who violate what they have made That God will not hold him guiltless who sins in Vowing will manifestly appear if we reflect upon his displeasure against the Profaner of his Name in an Oath For inasmuch as a Vow is more Sacred than an Oath because whilst in the latter God is onely cited as a Witness in a Vow we contract with him as a Party he who holds the Swearer guilty must be thought to do so much more to him who profanes his Name in a Vow and doth not onely apply it to a Sin or to an Impertinence but as I may so speak doth it to his face The Reason is the same in him who breaks the Vow he hath made and acts contrary to what he hath most solemnly promis'd to the Almighty he that so does as he contracted with God as with a Party so falsifying to him directly and immediately and consequently because so much the more dishonouring him the more liable to the severity of his displeasure And accordingly when Ananias and Saphira had agreeably to the Custom of those Times by a Vow dedicated the Price of their Possessions unto God God for a partial breach of that their Vow inflicted a sudden death upon them and made them feel the dreadfulness of that Name which they had profan'd So true is that of Solomon * Prov. 20.25 even in the Times of the Gospel That it is a snare to a man to devour that which is holy and after vows to make inquiry The forementioned Offenders having not onely been taken in the Snare but made to feel the Hands of the Fowler Thus which way soever Men take the Name of God in vain they incur the displeasure of the Almighty and though they are not always immediately punish'd yet they are so often enough to shew that God doth not hold any of them guiltless and that whom he now spares he will punish so much the more hereafter when he comes to render to every Man according to his Works What remains then but that I admonish if not for the Sacredness of the Name of God yet that at least for the security of their own Souls and Persons Men would not take that Name of his in vain For if either the Threat of God or the Exemplifications of it in those that have offended may be credited the taking of his Name in vain however such as to what it is apply'd to yet will not be vain as to the Consequences thereof For as it shall be with effect so a very direful one to those who are the Authors of it They shall not as they do often with Men find Commendation and Applause they shall not be look'd upon as so much the better bred or the greater Wits for it lastly they shall not as they do for the most part here find an Excuse for their Profanations and be absolv'd either from all Offence or all that is notorious God whose Name they take in vain and who is the most competent Judge of their Actings having promis'd or rather threatned that he will look upon them under another notion and not onely not hold them guiltless but look upon them as notorious Offenders And indeed thus far the Judgment of the World hath concurr'd with that of God as to condemn the taking of it to a Lie False Swearing and Perjury having not onely been branded with reproachful Punishments but the Authors thereof excluded from giving Testimony in any Courts of Judicature If other Profanations of God's Name have not found the like Censure it is not so much because they imagin'd them specifically different but because they are not so immediately destructive to Humane Society which Humane Judicatures are more particularly oblig'd to preserve But as that is accidental to the taking of God's Name in vain or at least makes the Crime to which it adheres onely gradually different from the other so the Judgment-seat of God takes notice of all that entrencheth upon his Honour and will therefore be sure not to hold them guiltless who any way take his Name in vain THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT Remember that thou keép holy the Sabbath day Six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God In it thou shalt do no manner of work thou and thy son and thy daughter thy man-servant and thy maid-servant thy cattel and the stranger that is within thy gates For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore
Commemoration of the Resurrection of our Saviour it is in reason to begin when that Resurrection did which we find to have been when it began to dawn towards day All therefore that can be meant in respect of us must be the Observation of such a portion of Time as their Day amounted to which is the space of Twenty four Hours or the Natural Day But even here it will be a hard matter to find any thing in Nature to evince our Obligation to it For though Nature it self perswade that a competent time be appointed for the Publick Worship of God yet that the Time so appointed should consist of just so many Hours this no Principle in Nature teacheth so far as I have been acquainted with them The onely thing that can found the Observation of such a Time is that Positive Law which is now before us But as I have already shewn the Letter thereof not to concern us as to the Day here requir'd so Christianity being apparently not so nice as to the observation of Circumstances we are in reason to measure our own Obligation as to the time of our Worship rather by the Equity than Letter of the Commandment which what that is I shall in due place declare Now though from what hath been said a Judgment may be made what we are to think of the Observation of a Seventh day and particularly of that Seventh day which was the Jewish Sabbath yet to make my Discourse so much the more compleat and because there want not particular Arguments to propugn my Opinion in those Particulars I will make it my Business to shew That there is no Obligation upon us Christians either from the Law of Nature or this particular Precept to observe either a precise Seventh day or that Seventh day which the Jews observ'd To begin with the former of these even the Observation of a Seventh which hath by some Men been pleaded for with so great earnestness concerning which I shall shew first That it hath no Foundation in the Law of Nature and secondly That it hath as little in this if consider'd in respect of us That it hath not in the former this one Character of the Law of Nature may suffice any sober Man to conclude For the Law of Nature prescribing onely such things to our Observation as are in their own Nature good before the superinducing of any Positive Law it would follow that the Observation of a Seventh day had a peculiar Goodness in it and that it ought to be observ'd though God had by no Positive Law enjoyn'd it But what Goodness can even they who profess to believe it Moral shew in a Seventh day more than in a Sixth or Eighth or any other Day whatsoever unless it be that God rested upon it from the Works of the Creation which is the Reason here alledg'd for its observance But first of all if God's resting upon it gave it any peculiar Goodness what need was there of his adding his Blessing and Command to oblige Men to the Observance of it For the Day being Holy without and before it it would have suffic'd to have declar'd That that was the Day on which he rested Again Forasmuch as Blessing and Sanctifying supposeth that which is so blessed and sanctified to have been before in the common condition of Things God's so blessing and sanctifying of the Seventh day supposeth that to have been of the nature of other Days and consequently not to be consecrated by his bare Resting on it Lastly Forasmuch as whatsoever Goodness there is in any thing it must be suppos'd to descend upon it by the Influence of the Divine if we suppose the Seventh day to have had any peculiar Goodness and Holiness we must also suppose it to have receiv'd it from the same Influx which cannot be affirm'd in the present case because that to which it is ascrib'd is not any Influence of the Divine Goodness but onely the Suspension of it I conclude therefore That God's Rest upon it did not give the Seventh day any peculiar Holiness and consequently because that is the onely Reason alledg'd that there is nothing of Morality in the Observance of it From Nature and Morality therefore pass we to the present Precept and inquire whether that induceth any Obligation upon us to observe it Give me leave onely to premise That the Question is not as is commonly deem'd Whether One in Seven be of necessity to be observ'd but Whether a Seventh day after Six days of Labour For though it be true that he who requires a Seventh day requires One in Seven yet requiring it with reference to God's Rest from his Six days of Creation he determines it to the last of those Seven because no other beside the last can answer it Which said I shall not stick to affirm That there is no Obligation upon us as to a Seventh because the Precept so considered related onely to the Jews For the evidencing whereof I will alledge that of Exodus chap. 31.16 17. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed For as it is sufficiently known that the Covenant between God and the Israelites left no place for any that was not of their Nation or Religion so the Sabbath being for a Sign of that Covenant was consequently to extend no farther than the Covenant did and therefore also to no other than themselves The onely difficulty is Whether what is affirm'd of the Sabbath in particular be to be understood also of a Seventh day in the general For the resolution whereof we shall need to go no further than the close of that Place we have now before us For affirming the Sabbath whereof he speaks to be a Sign between him and the Children of Israel as it was an Image of his own Rest after his Six days work of Creation he thereby appropriates to them though not the Remembrance of the Creation yet the keeping such a Memorial of it and consequently of a Seventh day And indeed however some Men contend eagerly for a Seventh day as supposing thereby to advance the Authority of that which we Christians think our selves obliged to observe yet the granting of it to them would serve onely to discredit that Day for which they so contend For though the Lord's-day be One of Seven yet it is the First of those Seven and is not preceded by Six days of Labour but followed By which means it holds no analogy with the Design of the Institution because intended to commemorate the Six days of the Creation and that Rest which followed Neither will it suffice to say as perhaps it may be That the Analogy between it and that Rest it is propos'd to imitate may be salved
the Lord blessed the * or Sabbath day seventh day and hallowed it PART I. The Contents The general Design of the Fourth Commandment the setting apart a Portion of our Time for the Worship of God and particularly for the Publick one The particular Duties either suh as appertain to the Substance of the Precept or such as are onely Circumstances thereof Of the former sort are 1. The Worshipping of God in private and by our selves the Morality whereof is evidenced from the particular Obligation each individual Person hath to the Divine Majesty 2. The Worshipping of him in consort with others which is also at large establish'd upon Principles of Nature and Christianity 3. The setting apart a Time for the more solemn performance of each As without which Religious Duties will be either omitted or carelesly perform'd but to be sure no Publick Worship can be because Men cannot know when they shall meet in order to it 4. Such a Rest from our ordinary Labours as will give us the leisure to intend them and free us from distraction in the performance of them BEING now to enter upon the Fourth Commandment about the Nature whereof there hath been so much Contention in the Church of England I cannot forbear to say There is all the reason in the World to believe it to be Moral in the main as having a place among those Commandments which contain nothing in them which is not confessedly Moral But because when we come to understand its general Design and particular Precepts we shall be much better able to judge whether or no and how far the Matter thereof is Moral I will without more ado apply my self to the investigation of them and shew to what Duties it oblig'd Now the general Design of this Fourth Commandment is the setting apart a Portion of our Time for the Worship of God and particularly for the Publick one That it designs the setting apart some Portion of our Time the very Words of the Commandment shew as not onely acquainting us with God's sanctifying a Seventh part but obliging the Jews in conformity thereto to rest from their ordinary Labours and observe it as holy unto the Lord. The onely difficulty is Whether it designs the setting apart of that Time for the Worship of God and particularly for the Publick one For the proof of the former part whereof though I cannot say we have the same clearness of Evidence from the Letter of the Commandment it self yet I shall not scruple to affirm That it may be inferr'd from thence by necessary consequence and not onely be prov'd to be a part of the Precept but the principal one For how is that day kept as holy which hath nothing holy performed in it Or what reference can it have to God as the Word holy implies where God is not at all honour'd in it Neither will it suffice to say That the very Resting on that day is of it self a Consecration of it unto God For as it becomes a Consecration onely by the Parties so resting in compliance with the Command and Ends of God so it supposeth at least that they should on that day order their Thoughts to him and rest from their ordinary Labours in contemplation of his Command and in remembrance of his resting from that great Work of the Creation Again Though to rest from their ordinary Labours especially as was before understood were a kind of devoting it unto God yet there being other and more acceptable ways of keeping it holy than by a simple Rest from them it is but reasonable to think when God caution'd the Jews so to remember it he design'd no less to be honour'd other ways Lastly Forasmuch as God not onely commanded to keep it holy but in this very Precept represents it as his own * But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God as in Isaiah ‖ Isa 58.13 under the Title of his holy day and the holy of the Lord he thereby manifestly implies that it should be dedicated to his Worship and not onely not be profan'd by ordinary Service but hallowed by his own For how is it God's Holy day but by being dedicated to his Service or how observ'd as such but by giving him his proper Service in it Whence it is that where the Prophet Isaiah gives it those Elogies he insers our honouring him from them as well as the not pleasuring of our selves Though therefore so much be not directly and in terminis express'd yet it is clearly enough imply'd that God design'd his own Honour and Service in it and commanded it to be set apart for the performance of it Lastly As God design'd the setting apart of a certain Time for his own Worship so more especially for the Publick one Of which though there be no Indication in the Commandment it self yet there is proof sufficient in the 23d Chapter of Levitious where we find not onely the forementioned Rest required but the day it self appointed for an holy Convocation as you may see ver 2. of that Chapter And accordingly though the Jews did generally look no farther than the Letter of the Law and some of them as is probable here content themselves with an outward Rest as by which they thought to satisfie the Commandment yet the generality of them have in all times look'd upon the Service of God as the End for which they were commanded to keep the Sabbath For thus Josephus in his second Book against Appion tells us Thorndike of Religious Assemblies ch 2. where this of Josephus and that of Philo are quoted That Moses propounded to the Jews the most excellent and necessary Learning of the Law not by hearing it once or twice but every seventh day laying aside their Works he commanded them to assemble for the hearing of the Law and throughly and exactly to learn it As in like manner Philo in his Third Book of the Life of Moses That the Custom was always when occasion gave way but principally on the seventh day to be exercis'd in Knowledge the Chief going before and teaching the rest increasing in goodness and bettering in Life and Manners I will conclude this Particular with that of St. James Acts 15.21 where to fortifie his Opinion concerning the prohibiting of Blood to the Gentile Christians he alledgeth for a Reason That Moses had in old time them that preach'd him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day From all which put together it is evident that the Service of God and particularly the Publick one was the Thing designed in this Commandment The Jews themselves who were none of the most quick-sighted being able to discern it and accordingly both of old and in latter days framing their Practice after it The general Design of the Commandment being thus unfolded proceed we to the Particular Things under Command which for my more orderly proceeding in this Affair I will rank under two Heads to wit 1. Such as appertain to
I should go about to prove it The onely thing worthy our consideration will be what use may be made of it to infer our own Obligation to observe it And here in the first place I shall alledge the Practice it self as a sufficient Argument to evince it For as an approved Custom hath the nature of a Law because declaring the Consent of that Body wherein it is and to which it is but reasonable that particular Men should subject themselves so St. Paul gives it that force in the Church where disputing against the Corinthian Women's praying uncovered he alledges That they had no such custom nor the Churches of God 1 Cor. 11.16 For if the Argument from a Custom negative be good and valid much more from the same positive and especially when there is so general an one But because such arguments as these through the contempt Men now have of the Church may possibly not have their due efficacy I will alledge in the second place that there is reason enough even from that Practice to believe it to have been of Apostolical Institution For it being morally impossible that the Christians of all Places should so unanimously agree to the Observation of it if there had not been something of a Law to constrain them to it and there appearing no such Law of the Church it self antecedent to the Practice of it it is but reasonable to believe it to have been Instituted by those who were the first Founders of it according to that known Rule * Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Authoritate Apostolica traditum rectissimè creditur of St. Augustine That what the Vniversal Church holds and always hath if it appear not that the same was first decreed by Councils is most rightly believ'd to have been delivered by the Authority of the Holy Apostles And higher than that we shall not need to go because he who had all power in heaven and earth given him did at his departure hence delegate so much of it to them as was necessary for the regulating of the Church The onely thing that may seem to have any difficulty is Why when God gave the Jews so clear a Precept for the Observation of their Sabbath he should leave us who live at so great a distance from the Institution of ours rather to collect it from the Practice of the Apostles and the Church than to read it in some express Declaration But even this how difficult soever in appearance will not be hard for him to unriddle who shall remember what hath been before brought to establish it For the Law of Nature and this of Moses evidencing the necessity of a Set Time and the Equity of Moses Law and our own Obligations to the Divine Majesty that we cannot give God a less proportion of our Time than what he exacted of the Jews nothing remained for God to declare but whether he would require more than a Seventh of which there is not the least Indication or if not which of those Seven he would make choice of which an easie hint might suffice to discover For the Saturday which is the last of those Seven being expresly abolish'd and no other having the like Pretences to succeed it it was easie to guess God meant that Day which had not onely our Saviour's Resurrection to adorn it but was moreover by the Apostles and those that followed them kept as holy unto the Lord. PART III. A Digression concerning the Fasts and Festivals of the Church where the Lawfulness of their Institution is evicted and vindicated from the Exceptions of their Adversaries That they are of signal use to insinuate the main Articles of our Religion into the Vnderstanding of the Weak to bring the Occasions thereof to the Memories of the Strong and prompt us all both more particularly and with greater edification to consider them That being instituted by the Church they ought to be Religiously observ'd by all that are the Members of it Of the Manner of the Observation of the Jewish Sabbath which is another of the Circumstantials of this Commandment Of the Strictness of the Rest enjoyn'd the Jews on it and that as such it is not onely not obligatory to us but superstitious What Rest is now obligatory to us by vertue of this Commandment where that Rest is considered both in the Letter and in the Mystery To whom and in what manner the Jewish Rest appertain'd with an application thereof to our own Concernments A particular Inquiry concerning those who are under the Power of others and whether or no they are oblig'd to Rest where they are constrain'd to Labour by Threats or Stripes Of Recreation on the Jewish Sabbath and our own and that rightly dispos'd it is not onely not unlawful but useful An Objection from Isa 58.13 propos'd and answered A Restriction of Recreations to such as are neither unsuitable for the Kind to the Gravity of such a Solemnity nor take up too much time in the Exercise thereof A Caution against profane neglect of the Lord's-day with the necessity that lieth upon the Generality of Men more than ordinarily to intend their Eternal Concernments on it 3. THE Lord's-day being as you have seen establish'd upon Christian Principles and thereby equally secur'd from a Judaical Observance and a profane Neglect the Commandment I am now upon no less than my proposed Method obligeth me to entreat of other the Festivals and Fast-days of the Church For though these have not the Authority of a Divine Command as the Jewish Sabbath had though there is not the same clearness of Evidence for their Apostolical Institution as there is for the Lord's-day or Sunday yet they have this in common with the Jewish Sabbath and our own that they have the same Worship of God for their End and the like signal Acts of God for the Occasions of their Institution even those which have the Title of Saints-days looking through them to the Mercy of God who made them what they are and dedicated to his onely Worship and Service Having therefore so much affinity with the Day here enjoyn'd I shall think it no way impertinent to my present Argument to inquire into the Lawfulness of their Institution their Vsefulness and the Esteem wherein they are to be held 1. It being certain that that is to be look'd upon as lawful which is not forbidden by any Command nothing can be requir'd to establish the Holy-days of the Church but the taking off those Objections which may be made against the lawfulness thereof Now there are two things commonly objected against them and to which therefore before I proceed I will shape an Answer the former whereof strikes at the Observation it self the other at the Injunction of it The ground of the former is laid in those Words of St. Paul Gal. 4.10 11. where the Apostle not onely finds fault with their observing days and