Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	keep_v	week_n	11,303	5	10.2397	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64508	A third dialogue between the Pope and a phanatick, concerning affairs in England by the author of the first and second, who is a hearty lover of his prince and country.	Hearty lover of his prince and country.; Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.	1684 (1684)	Wing T907A; ESTC R1259	29,364	58

too sad and severe and would have sowred the pleasures of a Feast But those harmless diversions which only tend to the promoting of health friendship or pleasantness of mind were never prohibited by any Law or Canon of the Catholick Church I am sure you have neither Precept nor Precedent from Christ or his Apostles for your Sabbatical Severities As for the Jews they were a people so Base and Earthy that they would have allowed no time for solemn devotion to God or diversion to their domesticks and therefore God was pleased next to his own honour to provide for the ease and relaxation of the Jewish Labourers for without the Laws of Sabbaths the Jewish Servants had been as great Slaves in Israel as their Fore-fathers were in Egypt and would have found no Jubilee but the day of Death and no Rest but a Bed or a Grave Therefore it is evident that God did design the Sabbath to be a Cheerful Mixture of devotion and diversion for if that whole day must have been spent in the Strictest Offices of Religion that Restraint would have been more tedious to the youth and Servants of Israel than the Plough and the Spade and would have look't more like the Rigor of a fast than the favour of a Festival However That Law of the Sabbath was a peculiar Sanction to the Jews and no more obliges the Christian World than the Sacrificing of Bulls and Rams now what I have said in this case I have not spoke as a Pope but the sense of a Common Catholick and in the General defence of Christian Liberty for in this matter Rome is no more concern'd than Rotterdam Ph. I consider that if the people should be allowed their Sunday-diversions it would give them such a Gaiety and Pleasantry of humour that they would not have Malice enough to be Rebells nor be sullen enough for Schismaticks and therefore to gain the Reputation of Extraordinary Sanctity and to continue the divisions in England by a Censorious and morose Temper I have preach't up the Superstition of the Sabbath both from the Pulpit and the Gallows Po. Pray tell me by what Sophistry you persuade the people into this delusion Ph. I tell them that we Christians are bound to do God as much Service as the Jews and shall the Jews keep holy the Sabbath day and we Christians profane it Po. 'T is true we are obliged to worship fall down and kneel in our solemn Addresses to the Divine Majesty and to do this with as much Humility and Reverence as the Jews did in the Tabernacle or Temple tho' your Ruder Modes of Religion look more like Affront than adoration Nay I grant that we have as much moral reason to observe the Lords day as the Jews had for the observation of the Sabbath but yet I can't think that howling and whining sadness and sower Faces should be essential Sanctifications of a Festival Indeed the honour of God ought first to be consulted by the solemn homage of Publick Religion but when that service is devoutly performed I see no profaneness in harmless and healthful diversions When God enacted those Jewish Feasts of Weeks and Tabernacles Mirth and Recreation was made an essential part of those Festivals they were as much obliged to rest from their Servile Labours upon those days as they were upon the Sabbath and to keep them as Solemn Feasts to the Lord no doubt but they did repair upon those Feasts to a Holy place and there did pay their Religious Homage to the Lord of the whole Earth there they made a Solemn Commemoration of his peculiar providences and offered up their first Fruits and Thanksgivings for the prosperity and harvest of Israel but when these Religious parts were accomplish't the rest of those Festivals were to be spent in Mirth and Jollity and that too by Divine Command Deut. 16. 14. And thou shalt rejoyce in thy Feast thou and thy Son and thy Daughter and thy Man-servant and thy Maid-servant and the Levite the Stranger and the Fatherless and the Widow that are within thy Gates And that there might not be the undecency of a Sigh or a sad Thought to profane those Festivals God repeats the injunction at the end of the fifteenth verse Thou shalt surely rejoyce Now why the Jews should be allowed nay enjoyned to be Merry and Pleasant upon their Festivals and we Christians should be sad and severe upon Ours I cannot understand and therefore your Sabbatarian delusion is to me one of the greatest Miracles of Geneva Ph. But I tell the people that we are bound to design and endeavour perfection and are always obliged to do that which is most Religious Now certainly to Read the Bible is better than to play at Football to repeat Sermons is more Religious than to Dance in a Circle and sure Prayers tho' shot at Rovers are fitter weapons for the Sabbath than Bows and Arrows and singing of Psalms is a more Sanctified Musick than ringing of Bells Po. Whether those persons whose Heads understand little more than their Feet will not do less mischief with Footballs than with Bibles is a great question at Rome and whether the extravagance of your Random-prayers have not more wounded Religion than all the Sunday-Bows and Arrows may be doubted too and whether ringing of Bells be not as solemn melody as singing of Psalms may admit dispute especially in those places where there are Musical Bells and Mad Voices But your whole argument is a meer Sophisme and is founded upon a false Postulatum for we are not always bound to do that which is most Religious indeed in matters which have a moral contrariety there we are always obliged to do that which is good and avoid that which is evil but in two actions where neither is evil we may in due circumstances do that which is Innocent tho' not so great an Office of Piety as the other Thus St. Paul tells us that Virginity is a purer State than a Married Life but yet if all Christians should think themselves obliged to this Angelick Perfection and should neither Marry nor be given in Marriage because 't is most Pious not to Touch a Woman Christendom would be totally lost in the next Century and the whole Earth become the habitation of Gog and Magog To Pray and to Worship God are undoubtedly greater Acts of Religion than to Plow and to Trade but if all Christians should therefore desert the Shop and the Field and spend their days in Clossets and Temples Christendom must be fed by Miracles and such superstition would look more like Frenzy than Devotion and therefore tho' to Pray be a more Pious office than to Plow yet it is as Lawful in just Circumstances to Plow as it is to Pray Thus tho' Preaching and Praying be more Religious services than Sport and Pastime yet such recreations as have no Moral Evil and are not prohibited by any Divine or Civil Law are certainly Innocent and when

the Publick Devotions of the Sunday be duly performed no man can offend by such diversions But tho' you use this argument for Popular seducement yet this is not your Rule of Practice No question but to Pray and Worship God is far more Religious than to Shed Blood but yet you forgot this Divinity at the Battel of Edg-hill and made no scruple of Murder and Rebellion tho' it was upon that day which you call the Sabbath For Subjects to make Prayers and Supplications for Kings and all in Authority and to live a Quiet life in all Godliness and Honesty and to leave it to the Lord of the whole world to influence the minds of Princes and to dispose of their persons and Crowns no question but this is far more Religious than to usurp the Divine Prerogative and set up whom we fancy and pull down what Prince we please but yet you and I don't think our selves obliged to this height of Perfection But how did you resent the September Thanksgiving Ph. Ah! Sir it was to me a more melancholy day than the Parliament-fast in the Popish Plot. Po. The appointing that Thanksgiving upon a Sunday was in my opinion a Politick design of the English Court to cure the Nation of that sullen distemper of Sabbatizing by that cunning Essay of Mirth and Dominical Triumph Ph. I declam'd against those prophane Bonefires as Sacrifices to Moloch and making the Children pass through the fire The Author of the Practice of Piety hath recorded so many remarks of divine Vengeance upon Sabbath-breakers that I did hope those unhallow'd fires would have made some Cities like unto Sodom and Gomorrah and left some Towns in Ashes I did expect that the Gunpowder would have Sabbatized and would not have been so Diabolical as to have flasht into Fire and Brimstone However I thought the Cannons might have prov'd like the fiery Furnace and have destroyed those men who kindled the Flame But those Triumphing Prophanations being not revenged by any fire or Thunderbolts from Heaven I have lost my argument from Providence and the Tories will fancy that the fire and smoak of that day was a kind of Incense and Burnt-offering Po. I am afraid that the English Nation will become so wise and Ingenious as to see through this Cheat and recover their ancient Freedom and Generosity and the want of Puritanick Scruples will be a mighty disadvantage to the Cause Ph. I grant that the Supererrogating Superstition of the Sabbath is the Principal Foundation of Puritanisme but I am secure of this advantage for the Church of England it self does contribute to this delusion for tho' Paul tell us that the Ministration written in Stone is done away yet Moses is read every Sabbath day in the English Churches as well as in the Jewish Synagogues and when the Minister as if he came just from Mount Horeb proclaims with a loud voice Remember thou keepest holy the Sabbath day it is impossible the people should forget to Sabbatize and by this frequent Repetition of the Fourth Commandment the word Sabbath must be continued in its popular vogue and Sunday will be thought Profane and Paganish and hence it is that not only my Disciples but the undiscerning Proselytes of the Church of England do commonly stile the Lords day the Sabbath day and do mistake it for the very Sabbath in the Fourth Commandment Po. I see the Church of England was resolved to have the Reformation according to Law and after the Patern of the Mount but I wonder they are not asham'd to Charge me with the Doctrine of Equivocation when they themselves do every Sunday Equivocate both with God and Man For the people are enjoyn'd in express terms to observe the Jewish Sanction of the Sabbath and to keep Holy the Seventh day and yet all this time the First day of the Week is only Intended and when that Law of the Sabbath is fully pronounc't the people are taught to Pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep THIS Law So that the best sence which can be put upon that mistaken Ejaculation is this Lord we pray thee to give us grace to keep the Seventh day but thou knowest we mean the first Ph. My Rabbi's tell me that the Ten Commandments being a Peculiar Sanction to the Jews were never received into any ancient Liturgy of the Greek or Latin Churches but the inserting them into the English Service was a very Fortunate Innovation and I shall improve the advantage for the Church of England is now under an inextricable Dilemma if they continue this Mosaical Sanction as part of their Christian Service it must perpetuate the humor of Judaizing If they should alter or expunge the Laws of Moses it would cause such Popular Outcries that they dare not adventure the consequence It is the opinion of some that the Evangelical Beatitudes were designed to answer the Ten Commandments and therefore like them were delivered from the Mount But yet if the Convocation should place those Beatitudes and the whole Pandect of Christian Laws in the room of the Two Tables it would not amount to popular Satisfaction for the Common people have as much if not more veneration for Moses than they have for Christ for they do not murmur against the Pictures of Moses and Aaron tho' expos'd in their holy places but if these two Jewish Saints were removed and the Pictures of Christ and his Apostles introduced into Churches the people would clamour against the change as rank Popery Po. Well you have abundantly convinc't me that a Judaizing Puritanisme must continue in England as long as the Ten Commandments are continued in the Common-Prayer-Book but have you no other Stratagem to propogate the Good Old Cause Ph. Truly at present I have no more in prospect but only the hopes of a Toleration to have our Religious exercises confin'd to Private Families is like the restraint of Simple Marriage and will never propagate with expedition but a Toleration is a kind of Spiritual Polygamy and if I can once again but espouse the Teeming Crowds we shall Multiply like Jews and bring forth Captains of Fifties and Captains of Hundreds and Captains of Thousands Po. If ever you have an Indulgence you must thank Rome for the favour but you can never expect it upon the account of your own Merit for all your Plots and Associations your Insolencies and Conspiracies are dated from the Last Indulgence and tho' the King might forget that you denied his Father the favour of his own Chaplains yet he can't but remember how you abused his Grace and what where the mischiefs of the Late Toleration and therefore I am afraid you will be deceiv'd in the hopes of a Second Indulgence Ph. To give the King his due he is a Prince of great Humanity and good Nature and his anger being appeas'd by a few bloody Sacrifices I hope he may be persuaded that a freedom of Conscience in matters of Religion