inexcusable on any other score save that of necessity At least it is no excuse to an Incumbent what is too usualy pleaded My Neighbours are content with once a fortnight what need I trouble my self any more To this I say 1 This plea is made many times where it is not true Some Neighbours are content so not all And they who cannot be so confident as to complain to their Ministers face will do it in his absence Or though haply they dare not accuse him to his Bishop will mutter of it to persons of meaner rank and amongst themselves at home 2 If the people are so satisfied yet is not this practice a satisfaction to the Law of God or to the Church nor will it be a satisfaction one day to a mans conscience In short Is the Lords Day to be kept holy Is the publick worship thereon a Christian Duty or No If it be How then dare any person to whom the Charge of Souls is committed be Author to them of Neglecting one or Prophaning the other Will not one Day all such his Peoples neglects and Prophanations all their Alehouse-meetings Revelling Drunkeness and other Debaucheries acted on the Lords Day be charged on such their Minister And lastly in case the people really be thus content it is a shrewd Argument they are grosly Lukewarm and Irreligious Now it would be enquired and will one day is not the peoples lukewarmness their Ministers sin Has not he been a Precedent to them therein Has not his neglect of his duty bred them thereto If they had been better instructed more constantly warned called upon they would have had more knowledg more warmth more sence of their duty more Faith and belief of its obligation than to have satisfied themselves with such slender attendance on God and so little minding their Souls But 't is time to finish this large Porch to so small a Fabrick What I have said is from a serious conscience of my own Duty and in the real fear of God If it have effect to amend any I shall rejoyce therein and bless God If it have not I have born my testimony in this great and publick concern of Religion I will not by Gods grace be an offender against my own rules And I trust one day that whatever my Defects and Omissions have been in other cases as they are and have been God help me very many yet that God through Christ will one day pardon them all and judge touching me as to this Matter that Liberavi animam meam God deliver us all from those judgments both here and hereafter which our Relapses after our late Repentance and vows in our Miseries or to speak it in Scripture language which our returning to our vomit may most justly bring upon us and for which I must declare before all the World I dayly expect yet a return of an over flowing scourge in one kind or other if not prevented by a sudden Reformation to which I know no one thing that will be of more general conducement than a strict and constant observation of the Lords Day the thing I have aymed at in this paper and in the following Discourse Cork Nov 17. 1696 THE Reader may be pleased to understand the whole Paragraph included in Crochets thus pag. 13 and 14. as also another out of Ignatius pag. 27 28. were passed over for haste 's sake at the delivery of this Sermon but were notwithstanding now thought fit to appear in their places ERRATA PAge 19. l. 21. for thereon read then p. 26. l. 7. for seen r. been p. 28. l. 26 27. the words namely by our Lords appointment as in other cases should not have been put in Italick letter for they are not the Fathers words p. 36. in the margin r. from ill imputations In Pref. p. iii. l. penult r. a Virtual p. ix l. 3. r. severely Other literal escapes crave pardon on course A SERMON Touching The LORDS DAY Revelation I. Ver. x. First part I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day FRom these words I purpose to The design of the Discourse assert First the Divine Right of the Lords Day Then the true Christian way of keeping it I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day which day I shall not doubt after some of the Fathers but especially after our own Church both in her Cannons and much oftner and more expresly in the Homily concerning the Time and Place of Prayer to stile a Christian Sabbath Sect I And first as to its Divine Right 'T is the Lords Day In the Original The style of the Text asserts the Lords Day to be of Christs appointment Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Epithet or Term but once more occuring in Holy Writt viz. 1 Cor. xi 20. where the Holy Communion is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lords Supper Both equally the Lords because both by the same appropriative term styled such And if both equally his then both Instituted by him Touching the Lords Institution of his Supper none doubteth And why should any doubt of his Institution of the Lords Day when 't is the same Lord to whom both are holy And when by a word peculiar or which seems coined on purpose to assert his claim he the same Lord has avouched them both his and nothing else throughout the whole Scripture in the same stile avouched his Sect. II Yet are there amongst us I mean that call themselves Sons of our Of the term a Christian Sabbata Church too many who really place the Lords Day upon the same level with if not below other Church Holy-days they do so at least if we may judg of their Faith by their Works which some think surer both discoveries and tests of what men believe than any words can be I crave your patience therefore while I remove that insolent demand it is so at least as some use to put it How can you make out the Institution of the Lords Day and where find you or what ground is there for a Septenary Christian Sabbath The answer is A Christian Sabbath according as Christian Temples a Christian Priesthood and other necessary appendages of Christian Worship we cannot expect to meet with elder than Christianity it self But a Sabbath no less than Temples or places dedicated to Divine Worship no less than a Priesthood and such like adjuncts of Worship we find much elder even before Moses's Law as well as under it and all perpetual all positively moral though as the new Law came it must be confest all and particularly the Sabbath received thereby some new modifications as well as new names Sect. III Now the sum of what I shall advance to The sum of the further proof clear this matter shall be directed to those three Points A Sabbath or certain day of rest for Publick Worship is dictated by the Law natural A Seventh day by God's eldest Laws positive This Seventh day by the Law Christian I
breaking it and his Grace for inclining our hearts to keep it What to keep a Jewish abrogate Ceremony No no It s moral obligation is by our Church and us before God solemnly acknowledged in these very Prayers as oft as we make them and further as before hinted in the Homily of the time and place of Prayer to which I refer my self it is more at large asserted Now sure our holy Mother never intended both her self to falsify with God and Man and to breed her Children too to so hopeful a practice A hopeful practice I say to falsify with God in her Prayers even in her most solemn Office the Communion Service and with Man in her form of Doctrine or Homilies both which she does if this be not her sence It is then the Judgment of our Church what we have otherwise proved that by the eldest positive Law of God a Seventh day is holy to him Sect. XII And this Seventh day is now the Lords day or First day of the Week The Reasonableness of Christian Peoples observing the Lords day instead of the Jewish Sabbath by the Law Christian Here also the evidence is too long to give it in in full at present But. First a word or two for the reasonableness of the First day of the Week under the Christian state The very self same reasons with which God of old bound the Seventh day-Sabbath on Adam and on the Jews bind the observation of the First day of the Week upon us Christians The reason to Adam was on the Sixth day God ended his works that he had Created and Rested the Seventh In like manner the Seventh day of the Week being ended our Lord Jesus had finisht his work of the new Creation in that thereon by his resurrection he made Man again the second time happily immortal and having wrested from Death its Sting from the Grave its Victory opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers entred into it himself and began the everlasting Sabbatism of the new World Which work had he not finisht what had it advantaged poor mankind to have been Created once Alas had not the work of Redemption been compleated Mans first Creation had only capacitated him to have been eternally miserable This reason therefore from the Divine Rest thereon holds to us Christians much stronger for this Christian Sabbath The Reason to the Jews in speciall was because the Lord thy God brought thee out of the Land of Egypt through a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm therefore the Lord thy Deut v. 15. God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day On the Sabbath or Seventh day say the Jewish Doctors their Forefathers sung their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Triumphal Hymne to God at the Red Sea over the drowned Egyptians And on the first day of the Week while it was yet early Our Lord rose from the dead as out of a Red Sea of Bloud and brought with him the raised Bodies of many Saints which slept the Bodies of our first Parents saith an old tradition and having thus rescued mankind from under the bonds of Sin and Death and of him that had the power of Death the Devil he made a shew of them triumphing over them openly Thus also there is the like reason for the First day of the Week to be a Christian Sabbath as there was for the Seventh day to be the Jewish Sect. XIII But where have we any Institution for this day in the Records of the Of the Institution of the Lords Day 1. By Christ himself New Testament I answer our Lord Instituted it the most effectual way imaginable namely by his own practice His frequent if not constant shewing himself to his Disciples on this day during the Forty days after his Resurrection his meeting them in their Assemblies sometimes with some of them breaking bread with all of them always speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God was as solemn a dedication of this day to the Christian worship as well can be conceived John XX. 19. The same day which was ver 1. the first day of the week at evening the doors being shut for fear of the Jews came Jesus where the Disciples were assembled and stood in the midst of them and said Peace be unto you and shewed them his hands and his feet And on the Eighth day which reckoning after the Jewish use inclusively was the next Lords day they are met again ver 26. and now Thomas was with them for the course of Sunday-Assemblies was begun and Jesus came again the Doors being shut and said Peace be unto you Then addressing himself more particularly to Thomas for the satisfying his doubts and thereby confirming the Faith of them all he pronounces a Blessing not only on them but on all that should believe on him to the end of the World How often in those Forty days our Lord appeared to his Disciples it has not pleased the Holy Ghost precisely to set down Two Lords days apparitions to them in their assembly we have thus seen expresly on Record and on the same days several private apparitions to diverse of them apart are recorded also which we may not stand to examine Thirdly the most famous and often fore-appointed appearance on the mountain in Galilee a place distant enough from Jerusalem that none might fear disturbance from the Chief Priests and their Partisans is by some very great men placed on the Lords day at which time he was seen of above Five hundred Brethren at once speaking no doubt as his use was of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God And being that this his appearance cannot consistently with St. Paul's account be 1 Cor. xv 6 7. coincident with that at his Ascension there is little probability all circumstances being considered for placing it on any other day Last of all our Lord chose to bless the First day of the Week by that most illustrious manifestation of his being the Son of God in sending the spirit of Promise Acts. XI 1. When the day of Pentecost was fully come Pentecost that is the Fiftieth day there is no reason to regard precisely the Jewish Festival or to make a proper name of a common one on the Fiftieth day I say which from the Resurrection must needs fall on the First day of the week reckon it at leisure they were all with one accord in one place continuing still their Assemblies on the First day of the week and suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a mighty wind In a word the Holy Spirit most miraculously came upon them all as the Lord had promised Here is from our Lord himself another sanctifying of the Lords day to the purpose For indeed with it he miraculously sanctified the whole body of the faithfull assembled thereon Subsequent hereto or after the 2. By his Apostles mission of the holy Ghost the Apostles and Apostolical Churches constant observing the Lords day in
are returned Examining and Instructing our Children and Servants causing them to attend Reading and Family-prayers and Psalms for some reasonable time and restraining them all the day long from many Liberties usual on common dayes all these can have of themselves no sin in them but are pious and commendable and will turn to our own and our Families account one day if not at present Herein let the forced Concessions of some of the keenest disputants in behalf of Sunday Sports be heard 1. Whatever may hinder either the worship of God it self or our profiting therein should be forborn and avoided For all such things whatsoever Ironsides 7 Questions Cap. 24. p. 224. p. 269. as keep us from or hinder us in the Publik Worship are altogether unlawful on the Lords Day 2. It is not unlawful to observe the Lords Day with as great strictness as the Jews did the Sabbath provided we have no opinion that such rest is of necessity to be observed under pain of sin putting Religion therein p. 227. And that we censure not others who use their liberty nor out of a superstitious fear decline the doing any work of Necessity or Charity the benefit whereof would be utterly lost were the present opportunity neglected 3. Those who can and will spend the vacant time of the Lords Day in the private Exercises of piety ought not to be discountenanced or disheartened but encouraged rather p. 268. In a word let all follow thus what their own consciences when they are serious cannot what the very learned defenders of such Liberties as they are fond of when they consulted their own consciences could not but confess and there is little question but the whole Lords Day will be generally spent as in this discourse is pressed It may be observed I have not pressed such severities as exclude due refreshments and keeping the spirits in vigour and cheerfulness Nor do I suppose those expressions giving the whole day to God and the like which I have produced out of holy mens writings use to be taken in such a rigorous sense that the private and publick duties having been conscientiously performed and secured any should conclude it unlawful for people to walk abroad awhile in fresh air and Contemplate the works of God and enjoy themselves in beholding and moderately using them No nor for them sitting at home to let drop at their Meals or otherwise out of the times of their Devotions something of innocent cheerful discourse or as occasion offers to speak touching matters of concernment to them or of the common Occurrents in Human affairs though the less of this the better In a word That which I insist on as required is that All this day Christians take care not to disorder their hearts for the worship of God but that after their several refreshments they may return again with composed minds to the thoughts of God and Heaven and their duties and in the Evening sweetly commit their Souls and Bodys their family and substance to the Divine protection reposing themselves comfortably in Gods favour and in the good hopes of his acceptance in Christ Jesus If thus the day be spent it is as much given to God as our present condition will suffer us But will some say if this be all you contend for who denies the Divine obligation of the Lords Day or its observation thus stated I answer many have done and still do deny it Onely it comes to pass in this particular case what does more generally when men write in defence of such Doctrines which their Interest rather than their Conscience approves that by their own concessions in conscience they sometimes contradict what they have said for Interest And hence it is that we may easily pick out of our very Adversaries writings sundry memorable passages which favour us and so sometimes they deny what we contend for and sometimes they grant it In the mean time what is the effect which these Learned mens denying flatly and directly sometimes in their writings sometimes in ordinary discourse and it were to be wished they did it not in their most sacred discourses too what I say is the effect which their denying the morality of the fourth command has in the World Truely nothing but the growth of Licentiousness and Irreligion I know they pretend onely to Innocent Liberty and easing peoples Consciences of endless Scruples But is not Conscience easy enough by asserting such a Morality and Observation of a Christian Sabbath as above They would be understood to deny meerly such a Natural Morality of the letter of the fourth Command as there is in the first Thou shalt have no other Gods but me That is thou shall worship the Lord thy God and him alone shalt thou serve The Justness and Obligation whereof the very light of Nature or reflecting upon the very Terms doth dictate to us They would be content they 'l say to allow unto the fourth Command a kind of Equitahle morality and own the command too in some regard as positively Moral Nor do I deny but that when they thus speak they speak what if strictly taken and well understood is reason and as farr forth as there is reason and truth in it I have owned it But the People in the mean time understand not the Nice and distinct degrees of Morality And when they read or here learned men deny the Morality of the fourth Commandment they take all at Random and think themselves at liberty They say with themselves If indeed we keep the Lords Day t is true we do well but if we see fit to travel or if we take our pleasure or bodily ease all that day we sin not For the fourth command is not moral And the Lords Day is onely a Church Holy day All dayes under the Gospel are equal as our most learned Doctors teach us Now is it not evident that by these Terms such learned men have betrayed poor plain people into Licentiousness Prophaness and Irreligion And were it not better to be more cautious and allow all the Decalogue to be moral as indeed it is in one degree or other though one command or one duty may sometimes give place to another as Sacrifice to Mercy and onely to teach that the fourth command had one sense to the Jews and another to us Christians as had the Preface to all the commands Thy God that brought thee out of the Land c and divers passages in other Commands And finally to press the Evangelical sense of all which none question to be moral enough were not this I say much better than by our Learning and exactness by terms unknown to Scripture and distinctions not understood by common people to become Authors of their sins I leave this to the conscience and consideration of all prudent and serious Christians and pass on to another point in the following discourse which some haply may censure Amongst the constant publick Duties of the Lords day I
have reckoned Communicating And herein some will conceive I have gone beyond the Law of our Church which Requires as they may think by her Rubrick that the people Communicate but three times a year To this I say this is indeed the least which according to the Laws of our Church will exempt people from Censure but this is far from being all which she would bring her Sons to For she has provided a Communion-service not only for every Lords day but for every holyday in the year And by diverse passages of the Rubrick more than I am willing to insist on at present it appears she desires more I may not wave that particular Text of the Rubrick In Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where there are many Priests every Sunday at the least except they have a reasonable cause to the contrary c. And further to back this Rubrick I must solemnly profess I do not see how any Christian can satisfie himself that he walks according to Scripture and Primitive Rule who except in cases of necessity or want of opportunity Communicates seldomer than each Lords day In the beginning of Christianity 't is plain from Acts ii 42. they Communicated dayly And this Custome continued in a great part of the Church for above four hundred Years after Christ St. Austin particularly who dyed not till the year of our Lord. 430 not only mentions it as then Customary but exhorts to it I will not urge that in the Romish Church we may observe the Footsteps of this practice still from their dayly private Masses But I must note that the minimum quod sic or most seldom returns that we read the Administration hereof had in the Apostolical age were on every Lords Day On the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break Bread c. Acts xxi And I wish those words which St. Paul reports as in the Body of the Institution from our Saviour and which our Church from St. Paul inserts into the form of Consecration Do this as oft as ye Drink it in remembrance of me had been better considered especially as they stand in the Original than they are by most interpreters I think I could easily and evidently make out that they import no less than an express command to this purpose every day whereon you publickly assemble see you celebrate my Supper Let this be a constant part of every days publick Worship But the due Deduction of this sense would take up more room than I may at present allow my self However still I challenge any instance to be produced from Scripture of Christians in the Apostles age communicating seldomer than each Sunday I may therefore reasonably conclude touching this Rubrick of our Church not punishing the negligence of such as Communicate but thrice a year as our Lord does touching Divorce Because of the hardness of mens hearts it is suffered to them but from the begining it was not so nor is it the mind of our Church it should be so The Lords Supper was and still ought to be as occasion requires Administred oftener than on each Lords day but it being plain that the constant celebration of the Lords Supper and the Lords Day coming in as it were together and that neither any order or practice of the Apostles nor any Canon of the Church has separated them or excluded the Lords Supper from the publick duties of the Lords Day the separation of them which is now come into the Church can onely be made by the corruption and degeneracy of the latter Christian ages And whether either the corruption or degeneracy of others will be a good plea for the like in us one day it behoves us to consider in time For my own part I am resolved I and as many as I can prevail with shall never run the venture I will Communicate or Administer if I can get but three Christians with me at least every Lords day And let others forbear it at their peril and as they will answer before God and Christ the Righteous Judge at the last day It remains now I onely add a word or two for removing those neglects which in the begining I taxed as so frequent especially amongst the Irish Protestants in most Country Parishes The Neglect of afternoon publick worship and so of Catechising youth with that constancy that the Laws have enjoyned is ordinarily pleaded to be necessitated or made in a manner unavoidable by the distance of the Parishioners dwellings from the Churches in the Country But to this I answer 1. This is not so constant every where but that there are some competent number of Protestant Inhabitants within such convenient distance as that there might be a smaller Congregation in the afternoon And then families might be warned by turns and in course to send their younger people on afternoons to Catechism which thing might be made convenient by a hundred little Contrivances that the meanest capacities if people had but a good heart for their duty would quickly find out As for instance if my young people came with me to Church in the morning I could easily let them stay a dinner-time at their Neighbours house neerer the Church than my own that they may be at Evening service and Catechism If they do not I can order them to be ready by such a time as I come home to take the Horse or Horses with which I and others of my Family went to Church in the Morning and they will be early enough for their duty A true good will and a litle zeal for our Religion may find out more and better expedients as circumstances may varie 2 If the Ministers house be so far distant from the Church are his and all substantial Religious Neighbours Houses so out of the way that there can be no small afternoon-Assemblies in any of them If any be unwilling to have their house so constantly troubled every Lords Day convenient Houses in several districts may be taken by turns and in the morning notice given at the Church that evening Prayers will be at such a Family this day and at such a one the next Lords Day c. Now here young people may conveniently appear for Catechism This will be made much the more tolerable to poorer Inhabitants if there be a rule set up that there be no such custom at any time permitted as giving Drink and Entertainments to the Neighbours that Assemble any more than there is at Church But I am ashamed to descend to such minute matters I leave this to good Christians piety and prudence And take notice in a word of the other more gross neglect above taxed namely the Clergies coming to their Cures but once a fortnight or seldomer Where the slenderness of the maintenance is such that better provision cannot be made this is to be born and lamented But in other cases I hope the Governours of the Church will not bear with it and I am sure it is
worked Six nor to work each day as they listed for God rested the Seventh and blessed it that is he made it a Holy Rest a Sabbath Sect VIII From this either Command or Precedent without all doubt proceeded The Sabbath observed by the Church before the Law even before Moses's Law the Observation of The Sabbath amongst all such at least as adhered to the worship of the true God which observation has been by diverse learned men amply proved both from Scripture and Fathers the proof is too long here to insert I will only mention that St. Epiphanius expresly distinguishes betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Sabbath by nature or Law Naturall appointed from the beginning and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Sabbath ordained under the Law which shews a Sabbath before the Law was in his time or at least by him in no wise doubted of Sect. IX For mine own part I am in that Paradox with submission to better T is probable Adam and Eve observed the Sabbath in Paradise judgments that the Sabbath was kept by Adam in Paradise notwithstanding what the Rabbies talk to the contrary and that it was the only intire day he stood in his Innocency For that Adam fell not on the Sixth day as many have thought Eves being Created late that Day and God's pronouncing all very good for the conclusion of the day seem to me little less than demonstration And whereas God having finished his works immediatly rested blessed the Seventh day and sanctified it it looks not likely that the day which God blessed and sanctifyed should be the day on which the curse enter'd into the World Therefore I say it seems to me most probable that our first Parents received the revelation of Gods resting upon the very day he rested and so kept the first Seventh or Sabbath day in Paradise But be that as it shall I contend not However I think it cannot be denyed but to them who in those early ages knew the History of the Creation which undoubtedly Seth's Race in general till the Floud and many of them long after it did know there was as also there will be to the end of the World more reason for keeping one Day in Seven than one Day in Six or one in Eight Nine or Ten for that the first Period by which even from the begining Time was distinguisht was that of a septenary of Days or a Week God worked Six Days and rested the Seventh Nor is it improbable but that to such a periodical distinction of days may that passage Gen. iv 3. be referr'd At the end of days so stands it in the Hebrew Text what we too largely render In process of time that is not improbably I say upon the Revolution of some certain Week namely upon some Sabbath Day Cain and Abel brought their Offerings The like may be believed of those Texts in Job a History generally granted to be elder than the Law There was a day when the Sons of God as the Holy Race are stiled Gen. vi 2. came to present themselues before the Lord Job i. 6. and ii 1. This cannot be better fix'd than as by Learned Persons it is on the Sabbath Day Sect. X But to pass the Patriarchal Observation There can be no question The fourth Command of the Decalogue Morall of the command of the Sabbath from Mount Sinai amongst the other Commands of the Decalogue It is delivered in a style more emphatical than any of the other And therefore a man would wonder that it alone of all the Ten should not be Moral Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy which words that they should injoyn matter of meer Ceremony of concernment only to the Jews and of no lasting obligation to Christians as to a weekly day of a holy rest for the publick Service of God the Arguments which I have yet known offered I must confess are much too feeble to perswade 'T is true indeed the Apostle tells us Colloss ii 16 17. the Jewish differencings of Meats and Drinks their Holy days their New Moons and Sabbaths Sabbath days is not in the original but Sabbaths that is their great variety of Carnal Rests their Sabbaths of Years and their Sabbaths of Months and their Sabbaths of Days for all these they had their Feast-Sabbaths and Fast-Sabbaths and the peculiar ways of observing them by feeding on certain appointed Meats and abstaining from others usual enough at common seasons all these were a shadow of things to come But will this which concerns only a part of the Ceremonial Law evacuate one of the branches of the Decalogue all whose other Commands are confessedly moral Let that precise Seventh day namely the last day of the Week be Temporary and only obligatory till the fullness of time were come Let bodily rest and strictness of the rest thereon injoyned to the Jews not to do so much of servile work as to kindle a fire thereon let these I say be Ceremonial significative of a speritual Rest under the Gospel Was therefore a weekly Sabbath holy to God for his publick worship a shadow too and no certain constant proportion of time to be allowed as separate to God because the multitude of Jewish Festivals and even the Judaism and Ceremonialness of the Sabbath were to be abrogated which is the utmost can be concluded hence Let us beware of arguing thus there being no reason for such conclusion as the Objectours would infer Before we resolve of laying aside any part of the Law of God let us consider it better There was more in the Command then a meer Carnall Rest and therefore more than a Ceremony Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day Resting from common labours thereon was a Ceremony but somewhat of this Rest a Ceremony necessary and pre-requisite to the keeping of it Holy the main substance of the Command or chief matter commanded was keeping it holy that is worshiping God thereon in publick contemplating him and his works in secret being wholy free to him for that day Is Divine Worship and Holy Contemplation and Converse with God a Ceremony Further Somewhat there is too in the Command as to other days which we cannot account Ceremonious Is it a Ceremony a thing in it self meerly Indifferent how we spend our time the Regulation of which is most plainly the summe of this Commandment Six days to be spent in our common calling as persons of such or such condition or occupation And a Seventh in our holy calling as worshippers of the true God Sect. XI Let who will say this Command is meerly Ceremonial I am sure no The Judgment of our Church herein Son of the Church of England must say so For if this as well as the other nine Commandments be not in the Judgment of our Church a part of the Moral Law why were we just now upon our knees before God by order of our Church beging Gods mercy for our
its weekly course as is most probable upon Apostolical Orders for it was a continued or reinforced practical Divine Institution of the same Divine I said For none will doubt whatever Orders proceeded from the Apostles as Planters of Christianity in the World were of the same authority as if they had come immediately from Christ who sent them As to the practice of the Church At Troas St Paul passing to Jerusalem upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break Bread preached to them Acts xx 7. St. Pau'ls preaching at that time might be as to that Church casual enough but it appears to have been the stated and usual course the Dies Natus for the Churches meeting together to break Bread Besides this solemn and continued practice we have the footsteps of the Apostolical mandate it self 1 Cor. xvi 1. 2. Now concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do yee upon the first day of the Week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gathering when I come The Churches of Galatia were of a great extent He had given orders in those Churches and now gives orders also in Corinth for Lords day-alms The private laying aside at home if we will interpret it consonantly to what we are assured to have seen from the begining the usual practice was only in order to the depositing all in the Assembly with the Chief Minister of the Church called in Justin Martyrs days the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bishop For if this had not been design'd the end he mentions would not have been obtained There would have needed still a Gathering of all when he came But at the celebration of the Eucharist styled in those days Breaking of Bread the Deacons collected what each person offered and delivered it to the trust of the Bishop as we read more at large in the Antients This collection therefore proves a Communion that day and the Apostles order being plain for what was Accessary must be acknowledged for the Principal Now if the Apostle gave order for the Communion and Collection thereat on the Lords day no doubt he gave orders for the Assemblies thereon at which the one was to be celebrated and the other made And then if we admit that the Doctrine and Tradition of all the Apostles was one and the same as the Ancients affirm and I know not on what good reasons any can deny it will follow that it was an Apostolical Order that the Lords day should be the day of publick Christan Assemblies Sect. 14 In this assertion of the sacredness of the Lords Day partly from the The Antient Fathers are Unanimous herein Institution of Christ and afterwards by the Order of the Apostles the Antient Fathers are unanimous Above all others memorable is that large Text of St. Ignatius an early Martyr of Christ who himself avows as his Text is commonly rendred that he saw our Lord Jesus in the flesh after his Resurrection and who was ordained Bishop of Antioch by the imposition of the hands of St. Peter himself truely therefore St. Peters Successor and an Apostolical Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he Let us therefore no longer Jewishly keep the Sabbath that is neither on the day nor in the manner the Jews do which manner he there exposeth But let each of us spiritually keep the Sabbath rejoycing in meditations on the Law of God admiring the works of his hand Let every one that loves Christ keep the Lords Day the Queen of days on which our life rose and victory over death was gotten with more Elogies of it there to be seen Now here the Jewish Sabbaths and Sabatising are expresly required to be laid aside and a Spiritual Rest and the Lords Day injoyned instead thereof But St. Athanasius in his Homily De Semente goes farther and teaches us the Lord of the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. translated the Sabbath Day to the Lords Day And further The Apostles Apostolical Men did ordain namely by our Lords appointment as in other cases that the Lords Day should be kept with Religious Solemnity saith St. Austin And much more on the same purpose have others which I must wave Sunday then does not stand on the same foot with other Church Holy days It is more sacred truly of Divine Right the Lords Day or a Christian Sabbath Sect. 15 Now as to the true Christian way of keeping it I was saith St. John How the Lords day is to be kept in the Spirit on the Lords day Time will not permit me to present the various glosses on this phrase To shorten all I will readily acknowledg we now adays cannot be in the spirit any Lords day as St. John was on this in the Text. He was in a prophetick extasy But that which in all likelyhood led him into this exalted temper and which in our state of things bears analogy thereto may be and ought to be our entertainment each Lords Day St. John was now in Patmos a small Island in the Archipelago between Crete and Asia minor banisht thither by Domitian for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ Here was no assembly of Christians for him to joyn with But the Lords Day coming upon him in course we cannot well but conceive him taken up in this his Solitude with Prayer Praise and Contemplations suitable to the day and in these being transported to have had his Soul wholly possest by the Holy Spirit and to have received from our Lord all those Revelations which in this book he Records And thus past that whole day at least far the greatest part of it with the beloved Disciple For in one day as is conceived by very learned Interpreters had he all those apocalyptick visions They who cannot ascend into heaven may yet go up to the mountain We are not in the present state to expect Visions and Revelations each Lords Day St. John himself had them not that we know of but while in Patmos and when God made his Church amends as I may say for the want of his common Ministry by extraordinary Revelations which were to convince the World and all the Powers of Hell that their malice could not suppress the Gospel but only make it shine another way clearer and farther and that however Tyrants might drive the messengers of those glad tydings into desolate corners so as some Assemblies might for a season want their living voice yet should they not be able to hinder but the whole World should ring of their testimony wherever they were and thereby know in what methods and disguises the Grand Master of all the Tyrants on earth the Devil has and shall in the several ages of Mankind set them on work to the end of all things so that I say St. Johns being thus in the Spirit was not common
But will some say there were in our Church who have taught otherwise who have justified Sports and Revels on this day Yes and there are too many at present who practice otherwise but I fear not to say both the one and the other were and are I will hope not intentionally yet in reality and effect in this part the depravers of Religion the corrupters and disturbers of our Church It were easy to take off that thin vail of learning with which such liberties have been set off but I must not divert thereto Section XIX A word I ought to speak to that temper of mind with which we are to attend holy duties which ought Of spiritual Temper indeed to possess us every day but more especially on the Lords day That I called a spiritual temper The term I ground on those Texts Jude 26. Praying in the Holy Ghost And Ephes 6. 18. Praying always with all manner of Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit by which term Spirit no doubt both the Apostles meant not praying with any such imaginary spiritual gift of Prayer as is cryed up for absolutely necessary by many but praying with a devout holy temper of mind a temper consisting in the union of those several Graces of Gods Spirit which ought to be exercised in Prayer In short praying with a heart full of Faith and of Love towards God and Mankind of the hopes of Glory and so of contempt of this World I may not now take time farther to open this Temper but with such temper as this should we this day perform all those parts of worship which we any where offer And to be employed in prayer and praise and in like offices mentioned with such temper is to be as much in the Spirit on the Lords Day as in the present state of things we can be But I must draw to a conclusion Sect XX You have heard beloved how the antient Christians kept the Conclusion Lords Day and how we may and ought to spend ours Now give me leave to ask you or will you be pleased to ask your selves how you spend yours In the Morning if you can many By way of Reprehension of you dress your selves more Vainly and Phantastically than you do all the Week that 's your first labour Then some of you get a better Breakfast than on other days Then to Church and shew your selves where if you are a little demure in part of the Prayers that 's the summ total of your Devotion At other times you Gaze one while you Whisper Talk and Laugh another while some compose themselves and Sleep How small is the constantly-Serious Devout and attentive Part How strange a body now now adays is a Christian Assembly Then when the Morning Offices are done a more liberal Dinner than on other days and what diversion we can find within doors or without as the weather serves entertains the generality of us the rest of the day Good Lord forgive Good Lord amend this Wherefore In a word let what has By way of Exhortasion been said prevail with all for a more reverend esteem strict observation of the Lords Day Let us distinguish it from other days by something else than Holy-day Cloaths and Holy day Fare and Holy-day Liberties I must stand to it the keeping up amongst us not only that small remain of the power of Godliness which is yet left but the very face of the Reformed Religion which God be blessed we have fairer than our neighbours depends very much hereon Works of mercy may be and ought By way of Caution to be done on this day as well as on any other When they come from a pious heart they are Acts of Devotion in his esteem who hath said I will have mercy and not sacrifice And works of necessity or grand conveniency such as securing necessaries of life when perishing dressing fit food or the like forasmuch as they are neer a-kin to works of Mercy are not on this day unlawful to Christian People St. Ignatius in the place before mentioned taxes the feeding on cold Meat this day as a point of Judaizing And there is an antient Canon amongst those called Apostolical against fasting on the Lords Day Wherefore certainly such refreshment of our Bodies and regard to their vigour as may keep up our Spirits in the service of God is not to be neglected We ought this day if any day to eat our meat with gladness as well as singleness of heart But in all these things we must be faithful to God and our selves not framing necessities of business where there are none and taking care we in such sort use not the succours of Nature as to turn them into burdens and hindrances I have done and beseech God what I have thus plainly though too precipitantly and briefly said may effect in all or some of us at least a more constant conscientious and spiritual discharge of our Publick Private and Secret duties on this day By this means a vein of intelligent and serious Religion will soon run through Families and by them through Parishes through City and Country And this will soon settle and secure Religion to us and Religion settled will certainly settle and secure the Nation At least if God see not fit to settle any of us here in this World it will prepare and lead such of us who are spiritual Worshippers of him to an eternal settlement to a better Country and therein to that glorious Sabbatism which remains for the Children of God To which our Heavenly Father bring us all through Christ Jesus Amen FINIS