Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	commandment_n	day_n	sabbath_n	21,308	5	10.2371	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31027	A just defence of the royal martyr, K. Charles I, from the many false and malicious aspersions in Ludlow's Memoirs and some other virulent libels of that kind.	Baron, William, b. 1636.	1699 (1699)	Wing B897; ESTC R13963	181,275	448

Divinity wherein the Sabbath was not press'd upon the Consciences of God's People with as much Violence as formerly with Authority upon the Iews and from the same Obligations To give one Instance of many how Prevalent this Humour was Mr. Breerwood a very learned and judicious Person Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College had the Charge of an Orphan his Brother's Son whom he plac'd Apprentice in London where he continued two Years with much Satisfaction both to himself and Master but then grew very uneasy and earnest to be discharg'd the Reason whereof after some fained Excuses his Uncle discovered to be for that his Master on the Lord's Day had sent him forth sometimes on Arrands as to bid Guests fetch Wine give his Horse Provender or such like light Business all which one Mr. Byfield a popular Preacher at Chester when lately there had inform'd him to be a Sin a Trangression of God's Commandment touching the Sabbath and that he was not bound to yield nay that he sin'd against God in yielding Obedience to his Master's Commands this produc'd a learned Letter from the Uncle to Mr. Byfield which is since Printed with an Answer and Reply wherein the whole Question is exactly Stated upon what different Obligations the Iews and Christians observ'd their different Days that theirs amongst other Rites as St. Paul terms it Col. 2. 17. Was but a Shadow of things to come whereof the Body was in Christ or as he express'd himself farther on Only a Tenure for term of Life namely that of the Ceremonial Law which Life ended in the death of our Saviour and the Lord's day succeeded thereupon As it was not known or practis'd before Moses so it ceased to oblige after Christ being one of the Shadows which the Evangelical Light dispell'd one of the Burthens which this Law of Liberty takes off From whence it follows according to what I propounded 2 dly That these Sabbatarian Speculations are inconsistent with the Nature and Practice of Christian Religion for the Priesthood being chang'd there is made also of necessity a change of the Law as the Apostle tells us different ends of Institution and different ways of Observation the Iews were more especially enjoyn'd a Corporal Rest in Commemoration of their Temporal Deliverance the Christians main regard must be Spiritual after the Power of an endless Life and therefore what the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah declares as to the Sabbath Isa. 56. 2. Blessed is the Man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and keepeth his Hand from doing any evil hath by all the Fathers and from them most of the Moderns been understood by way of Prediction as to Gospel Times what at leastwise they ought to be St. Ierom is most express Alioquin si haec tantum prohibentur in Sabbato ergo in aliis sex diebus tribuitur nobis libert as delinquendi for otherwise if those things therein remembred are prohibited only on the Sabbaths then were it Lawful for us on the other Days to follow our own Sinful Courses speak our own idle Words and pursue our own Voluptuous Pleasures which were most Foolish to imagin And St. Augustine makes the 4th Commandment so far as it concerns us Christians to be no more than Requies cordis tranquilitas mentis quam facit bona Conscientia the quiet of the Heart and peace of Mind proceeding from a good Conscience and therefore it hath been well resolv'd by some that a Christian's Life should be one continued Sabbath he that lives every day as he ought hath little or no Obligation to observe one Day more than another but what between Idleness and Business Mankind was never Ingenious enough to be left at his own Freedom As for the Idle part God forgive them their many Extravagancies and more especially neglect of Holy Duties on the Six Days and let the severest Penalty attend their Violation of the Seventh And it were well if our Men of Business would consider how much that might be forwarded by sparing some little of their busy Time to implore God's Blessing upon their Business But to run into so gross a mistake as to think a strict Attendance upon Ordinances on the Sabbath Day may expiate for the Frauds Extortions and other Violations of the precedent Week is intollerable yet some are prone to suspect such a Delusion is not without Entertainment amongst many of the most seemingly Precise however 't is God alone and their own Consciences must judge herein it were well on the other side they would be less severe in Censuring others especially those we here plead for who are only the Drudging part of Mankind such Labourers Apprentices and other Servants as have let their other six Days time to Hire and are all that while at other Mens disposal that these after all due performance of Religious Offices should be allowed such innocent Diversions both of Body and Mind as their Inclinations tend most unto cannot but be thought reasonable and accordingly the Christian Church never interpos'd any Command to the contrary Here then come in their Majesties Declarations and more especially relate to the foremention'd Circumstances upon a prudent Consideration as King Charles saith of his Father That if these Times were taken from them the meaner sort who labour hard all the Week should have no Recreations at all to refresh their Spirits neither was there less of Prudence and Consideration in the several Limitations of this Innocent Freedom as First that no lawful Recreations be us'd as the Laws of the Kingdom and Canons of the Church prohibit for some such it seems there were as particularly Bowling to meaner sort of People 2dly That this Liberty be not taken till after Divine Service nor 3dly That any enjoy it but such as are present at the Performance thereof We may here likewise add the reasons given why the Declarations came out at those particular Times which if well weighed cannot be excepted against As first the Advantage the Papists took thereby to discourage People from coming into or continuing in our Church by perswading them that no honest Mirth or Recreations were tolerated in our Religion And this indeed gave the first occasion to King Iames who in his Progress through Lancashire received several Complaints thereof and having inform'd himself how justly gave a Check to the precise Humour of such Iustice over-does as stretched the Laws beyond their proper Intent and true Reason of the thing whereto likewise agrees what the judicious Sanderson tells us that in Lancashire more especially the Rigid froward Disposition of the Puritans oblig'd many of the Common People to continue if not turn Papists between which two Parties that County was mostly divided Another Reason given is for that this Prohibition barreth the common and meaner sort of People from using such Exercise as may make their Bodies more able for War when we or our Successors shall have occasion for as it goes on When shall the Common People

enjoyned with an c. was several Years after that is in Forty and shall then be consider'd as a full Testimony what little Nothings they would catch at to Augment the Quarrel And I likewise defy him and all his Party to make appear where one single Holy-day tho he says many was Introduc'd and requir'd to be observ'd with all possible Solemnity but this however False was a necessary Antithesis to that grand Charge which follows At the same time that they were encourag'd to profane the Lords Day by a Book commonly call'd The Book of Sports Printed and Publish'd by the King 's especial Command This Book of Sports is a large Volum which the Defence by the help of a Big Character makes Four Pages in Quarto being Two Declarations one of this King the other of his Father and whoever look into them which not one of Ten thousand that rail at them hath ever done consider the Liberty there given the Restraints laid down and reasons of both must acknowledge all contain'd therein to proceed from a truly Christian dispotion and absolutely necessary in reference to that Superstitious Iudaising Humour the Puritan Party were then running the whole Nation into and there was no way to stop but by examining what Premises they had for such Conclusions what Authority for turning back to those Weak and Beggarly Elements Be again in Bondage to Moses Observe Days c. which all Expositors relate to the Jewish Sabbath and not rather Stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us Free Here therefore whether with their leave or without I shall presume to enquire First how this Iudaising Spirit came to possess so many of the Brotherhood amongst us Secondly Represent how inconsistent it is with the Nature of Christian Religion and Universal Practice of the truly Christian Church so that Thirdly what both the Kings enjoyn'd was Agreeable to their Title of Defending that Truly Catholick Apostolick Doctrine For what is First to be considered it was for some time to my surprise that the Puritan party who in all other Things so violently oppos'd Iohn Calvin's Reformation to that of our Church should notwithstanding wholly recede from him in the Doctrine and Observation of the Lord's-day for when our Author was at Geneva and that they say was his first City of Refuge he could not but observe how the Elder Men Bowl'd the Younger exercis'd their Arms or us'd some other Innocent Recreations after the Publick Duties of the Day were over with as much freedom as our Kings allow in their Declarations for all which Calvin gives very good Reasons in his Institutes and most severely reflects upon all those Sabbatarian Zealots we are now discoursing of as three times worse than Iews Qui crassâ carnalique Iudaismi Superstitione ter Iudaeos Superant But upon second Thoughts 't was easy to resolve that their respect to Calvin must always give way when an opportunity serves of prejudicing our Church which they set themselves in all things to contradict and herein had a Vile prospect of prevailing upon the People for a wide Breach so that however the Calvinist quatenus Calvinist hath no more regard for the Fourth Commandment than the Fifth or the Romanists for the Second yet by starting this Notion of a Divine Ordinance founded solely upon the Morality thereof as strictly Obliging us as the Iews they got an Occasion from thence to cavil at and run down all the other Fasts and Festivals of the Church as mere Human Inventions though most of them Apostolical and the rest in the Ages immediately succeeding and that without ever considering that by the same Authority our Christian Sabbath was Translated from the Last to the First Day of the Week and therefore by keeping so strictly to their Mosaical Mumpsimus they ought all to comply with what their Disciple Brabourne propounded and go back to the Saturday Sabbath to the Observance whereof he gain'd a Party and writ a Book in its Justification and tho the High Commission brought him to a Retractation wherein 't is said he persever'd yet many of his Followers continued their Fopperies a long time after and perhaps to this very Day I am sure in the Year 65 there was a small English Congregation of them at Roterdam where a Physician of some Eminency especially in Female concerns was Master of the Synagogue and under no little Perplexity at that time for as much as there came in or started up amongst them some New Lights who declared besides their Observation of the Iewish Sabbath there was one thing farther wanting to Perfection and that was Circumcision whereunto some of the young strong body'd Fellows submitted but the Old Members would be no such Abrahams and moreover by their Interest in the Magistrates prevail'd to have those others sent a further Pilgrimage This I have cursorily mention'd to show how easy it is from some plausible Pretences and Superstitious pervertings of Holy Scripture for Men to glide gently on and sink into the Abyss of Iudaism recommend their Sanctity by no other Performances than the Superficial rigours of Pharisaical Ostentation for none but Men under such Arrogant Infatuations could presume to affirm and that Publickly in the Pulpit as my Author declares it was at a Market Town in Oxfordshire That to do any servile Work or Business on the Lord's day was as great a Sin as to kill a Man or commit Adultery Another in Somersetshire That to throw a Bowl on the Lord's day was as great a Sin as to kill a Man A third in Norfolk That to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lord's Day was as great a Sin as for a Father to take a Knife and cut his Child's Throat A fourth in Suffolk That to Ring more Bells than one on the Lord's Day was as great a Sin as to commit Murder of all which Particulars Mr. Rogers in the Preface to his Treatise upon the Thirty Nine Articles assures us from certain Informations and Knowledge being present when the last was conven'd before his Ordnary for the same And moreover with great Satisfaction declares that by his means these Sabbatarian Errors and Impieties were first brought to Light and discovered to the State and this Good ensued thereupon That all Books which contain'd the above-mention'd and many more such fearful and heretical Assertions were call'd in and forbidden any more to be Printed and made Common Archbishop Whitgift by his Letters and Visitation did the one Anno 1599. and Sir Iohn Popham Lord Chief Iustice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Yet neither could this nor several other prudent Courses both Ecclesiastical and Civil either satisfy the Scruples or restrain the Follies of those Men who had embrac'd these New Sabbath Doctrines but that they still went forward to advance that Business and made it part of the Common-Cause no Book being publish'd by them either as to Moral Piety or Systematical