Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	day_n	law_n	sabbath_n	3,352	5	9.6183	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89544	The reformed gentleman, or, The old English morals rescued from the immoralities of the present age shewing how inconsistent those pretended genteel accomplishments of [brace] swearing, drinking, [brace] whoring and Sabbath-breaking are with the true generosity of an English man : being vices not only contrary to the law of God and the constitutions of our government both ecclesiastical and civil, but such as cry loud for vengeance without a speedy reformation : to which is added a modest advice to ministers and civil magistrates, with an abridgement of the laws relating thereto, the King's proclamation and Queens letter to the justices of Middlesex, with their several orders thereupon / by A.M. of the Church of England.	A. M., of the Church of England.; Bouche, Peter Paul, b. ca. 1646.	1693 (1693)	Wing M6; ESTC R20084	100,071	189

he will be more peculiarly Worshipped This He did at the very first Creation sanctifie the Seventh Day resting thereon from all His Works which he had made and to the Jews he appointed a Seventh Day to be kept Holy So great a Veneration was 〈◊〉 b● the M●sai● Law bestowed on that Mystical 〈◊〉 that every Seventh Year was appointed for a Sabbath of rest and every Seventh of these Sababaths of Rest was a Jubilee unto the People o Israel 2. The Reasons for keeping the First Day of the Week Holy instead of the Seventh considered I shall not here run into needless Disputes about the Changing of the Sabbath from the Seventh to the First day of the Week Reasons for it in a Christian Nation are superfluous and it is to be observed none cavil so much about it as those that would be glad if there were no time at all allotted for those Sacred Solemnities 'T is true there was some Scuffle in the Primitive Times in the Eastern and Western Churches about this Matter One keeping the Jewish on the Seventh Day of the Week the Others observing the Christian Sabbath on the Lord's Day the first of the Week but the general Assent that was given by all the Church soon after shewed the Celebration of the Lord's Day to be of Apostolical Institution and not ordained by Human Tradition For a scrupulous Conscience if any such there be in this Profane Age it may be sufficient to consider that the very Jews did not observe the precise Numerical Seventh Day from the Creation but a Seventh counting from the Day of their Deliverance from the Land of Aegypt Nor could they be so strict in Sanctifying precisely their own Seventh Day since after the Commandment was written the Sun stood still for the space of a whole Day on Gibeon and went back 10 Degrees in the time of Hezekiah But besides the uncertainty the Jews were in themselves of keeping their Sabbath on a precise Day there is another Consideration which renders it impossible for all Nations to keep the same Sabbath all the World over at one instant of Time and that is the Diversity of Meridians and the inequality of the Rising and Setting of the Sun which causeth the Days in one place to vary from what they are in another in some 6 in others 12 Hours difference The reasonableness of Translating the Sabbath from one Day to another will appear more if we consider the many Memorable Passages of the Old Testament which shadow out this Change unto us as well as those Remarkable Instances of the New which all happened on this first day of the Week On this Day God began the work of Creation to build the curious Fabrick of the World and to Form all Beings out of that Chaos in which they were at first involved and it is very probable he designed as much Honour should be paid to the Memory of this great Day as of That in which he had finished all On this Day as a Hebrew Author Observes the Cloud of God's Glorious Majesty sat first upon his People then did Aaron and his Children first enter upon and Execute their Priesthood and thereon did God first solemnly Bless his People Israel This is the Day as David Prophesying of the Resurrection of Christ testifies which the Lord has made let us rejoyce and be glad therein And how great wondrous and astonishing things were done on this Day under the Gospel dispensation It was on This day that Christ finished the Glorious Work of our Redemption and rose again from the Dead for our Justification On this first Day of the Week did He appear after his Resurrection to his Disciples several times On this Day fell the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles as they were assembled together and at the same time upon St. Peter's Sermon were there added no less than three thousand Souls to the Church On this Day was it that the Disciples afterwards met frequently together to break Bread and to lay up their Charitable Contributions for the use of the Poor 3. The Lord's day How and by whom Profaned These things being premised I proceed to consider how Shamefully and Odiously the Solemnities of this Day are slighted derided and Profaned by this our Corrupt and Dissolute Age. And herein I could wish the Openly Debauched and Licentious person were the only Delinquent But alas if we deal Impartially we shall find many of those who seem to look Wisely and would be angry if you called them by any other Name than that of Christian to be deficient enough in this respect They tell you Judaism only required so strict an Observation of the Sabbath that Christ the Lord of the Sabbath has remitted that rigour with which the Mosaic Law obliged its followers That it is Puritanical Enthusiastick Zeal which spurs on some to be so Religiously given on this Day This is no invented Account grounded upon a mere Hypothesis but what is to be seen by every Days Experience And if none else can bear me Witness of the truth hereof yet I might appeal to some Judicious Mens Opinions who have declared the Suppressing of the Profanation of the Lords-Day to be triffling Nugatory and little less than a Grievance to the Subject So little is the Concern which Men now a-days have for God and Religion and such slighting thoughts do they bear to the Divinity of the Lord's Day I know not what Church allows so much Licentiousness thereon sure I am the Church of England is far from it in her Doctrines and Discipline let her pretended Followers use their Christian Liberty for a Cloak of Wickedness as long as they please 4. Who can forbear lamenting the sad Degeneracy and Apostacy of the Age wherein to reform from Superstition is to run upon the other Extream and be Profane wherein the Cure of Pharisaical Hypocrisie consists in being openly loose and Debauched wherein to plead for the Keeping holy the Lords-Day is Malepertness in the Minister Cant Impertinencie and Presbyterianism in a Private Person But notwithstanding all this I shall pursue my design in tracing the Profane and Irreligious in all His By-Paths and transgressions to lay open the several Ways by which he Violates this Holy Institution and drive him or shame him if possible into the Power as well as the Form of Godliness 5. One would think in Complaisance to the fashion and in Conformity to the Custom of the Country wherein they Live The Lords-Day is profaned First by neglecting to c●me to the publick Ordinances of the Church there should be none but what went to one Assembly or another but we have too many who neither go to Church nor to any other place of Divine Worship tolerated by Law on that Day Can't God say they be served as well at Home as in the Publick Congregation Will not our Reading a good Book profit as well in our own Houses as the Hearing of a Sermon in the more

the Judgment of any of the Afflicted Prov. 31.4 5. From this Consideration was it that in the famous Cities of Lacedemon Crete and Carthage Wine was totally forbidden to Magistrates Alex ab Alex. and whoever came into their Senate-House over-charged with Excess were turned out and degraded from that Dignity with Ignominy and Reproach And from this was it that the Prudential Solon made it a Law at Athens That Drunkenness in one bearing Authority should be punished with Death It were to be wished some such Law were made in another Constitution and then there would not be wanting such Magistrates as would punish the Excess in an Inferior having no such thing as a Consciousness of being guilty of the same to put them out of Countenance or to check the Proceeding Nor can the Drunken Subject be said to be a Friend to any much less to our English Constitution since besides the Riots and Routs the many Immoralities and Tumults he is commonly the Author of The Drunken Subject an Enemy to the Publick he violates and acts in down-right Contradiction to the several * 4 Jac. 1. Cap. 5. 21 Jac. 1. Cap. 7. Statutes of the Realm in that Case made and Provided And by the way he is a profound Loyalist who shall under a pretence to inhance the Royal Income make bold to affront the Law by the manifest and notorious breach thereof But look we at home and behold the intemperate Wretch in his own Family and we shall find him a Tyrannical Master A Drunkard an Enemy to his own House an Unnatural Father as well as an abusive Husband He is so far from being a Friend to his own House that he is the greatest Enemy it has For waving those many unmanly Actions he is guilty of there to wit his beating and kicking his Servants his Unrelenting and Unconcernedness at his Childrens Cries the intolerable Heart-breakings he gives to the pensive Wife of his Bosom and the like He undermines and ruines his own Walls by his extravagant Expences and brings himself and His to Poverty and Rags For has he a pl●ntiful Estate descended from frugal Ancestors 't is no wonder to hear he lives beyond it and by his frequent prodigal Excesses to run it into such Incumbrances and Drown it with so many Mortgages that the next Heir is seldom the better for it But if he is one of an inferior capacity how usual is it to have the indigent Wife and Children feed upon Bread and Water and turned over at last to be a Charge to the Parish which might have been prevented had the thrifty Husband gone less to the Alehouse or Tavern Neither in the last place can the Drunkard be said to be his own Friend for thereby he injures both his Baser and his Nobler Self separately and conjunctly too He injures his Body by the many manifest Mortal distempers which Excess and Surfeitings naturally produce The Drunkard a Self-hater injuring his Body and Soul separately and conjunctly and tho' his Constitution may be never so strong yet insensibly it impairs his Vitals by degrees and at length destroys his whole Frame The Body feels immediate discomposures at the very time of the debauch as is evident from the gripes and vomitings the yawning and reachings the giddiness of the Head and the Rawness of the Stomach which attend it But manifold are the Maladies that follow a long contracted course of irregular intemperate Drinking Of all the Diseases we find in our Weekly Bills of Mortality none swell the number of the Deceased more than those occasioned by Luxury and Excess 'T is Intemperance shortens our days and cuts the Thread before it be spun out to half the length of our long-lived Fathers and from thence our youth are cropt in the flower of their Age hurried away oftimes in the midst of a Debauch and like Lamps are extinguished before they are half spent by reason of the superfluous Humors poured in which drown that which maintains the vital Flame And as he endangers the Destruction of his Body by indulging the Transient pleasure of Taste so by his continual Swinish Immoralities he degrades that Noble Heaven-born Being his Immortal Soul I mean The Intellectual as well as the Animal Faculties whereof are hereby clouded The Understanding the Will the Affections whereof are corrupted and depraved infatuated and insnared Nor are these Considerations of such moment as that in the last place he injures both Soul and Body Conjunctly in making them obnoxious to Hell flames For the Apostle assures us among the rest of the Damning Sins that neither shall Drunkards inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor 6.10 And where else their Inheritance will be is no hard matter for those to guess who know no Medium no Purgatory between Heaven and Hell which is a sad Thought that for the fulfilling of one Lust and the gratifying one Sense Men should hazard the irrecoverable Loss of their Immortal Souls I know not what they think that are guilty of this Impiety but 't is a startling Consideration to any sober Man that the Wine they are thus enamoured with should cost them so dear not only the expence of their Estates and Time the decay and overthrow of whole Families the impairing and debilitating their Bodies but also what is the greatest Expence viz. The price of an Immortal Soul 21. But to stir up Men if possible to their Wits and Senses let them consider in the next place The Second ill effect of I●●n de●ate drinking is the ad●●n●●●g of S●tans Kingdom thereby whose Friends and Servants they have hitherto been They are of their Father the Devil and his Works not their own do they execute they can please him in nothing more than by this Brutal Immorrality Be Drunk and you give him all he can ask or desire When Satan has steeped Men in Liquor he moulds them like soft Clay to what Form he pleaseth and 't is no hard matter to make them his Instruments to do just even what he would have them If he has a Rape to commit none fitter for the Amour than the Drunkard If he has a Life to take away no weapon like a Drunken Fury and inebriated Passion If he would rail against Heaven or Blaspheme him that is Higher than the Highest the Wine inflamed Wretch will Belch out Oaths and Curses Blasphemies and Execrations as fast as he can desire So that if to humor the Devil and please him if to be his Friend and Servant be what you desire rather than the pleasing of God the being kind to your Neighbors and your Selves you can invent no properer a Method than by being a most accomplished refined and complaisant Drunkard 22. Which brings me to the next Consideration the fatality as it were of falling into more sins at the same time The Third ill Effect of Drunkenness that it is the cause of many other Sins You must as I said before if you

the Hastning of thy Death and what is more than all the Price of thine Unvaluable precious and Immortal Soul Thy Soul which has a Being beyond all the Existences of Material Beings which cannot must not die which must shortly appear before the Judgment Seat of God Oh! Consider before thou goest to the next Debauch whether thou art able to endure the Agonies and Torments the Flames and Pains which the Damned feel Dost thou imagine that God will Extinguish that Everlasting Fire to indulge thy Carnal Desires Or that He will put an End to Hell out of tenderness to thy Lusts and Concupiscence No certainly he will not abate one tittle of thy Punishment Be wise then and forsake thy Impurities before the day of Grace be past and there remain no Sacrifice no Atonement for thy Sin 28. As a means to attain to and maintain that Admirable Virtue of Chastity I shall touch upon those common Practical Rules adapted to every Capacity and obvious to every Understanding Nine Practical Rules to be observed by such as would avoid the Odious Sin of Vncleanness First Resist the Temptation at the Beginning What tho' you carry about you the Seeds of Corruption Principiis Obsta Venionti Occurito Morbo Pers and have your Naturals Composed of the same Flesh and Blood with others What tho' you are Children of Originally corrupted Parents were shapen in Iniquity and in Sin your Mothers conceived you What tho' the dire Contagion was handed down to you by your Ancestors Is it not your Care and Duty to keep this Law of your Members which is always Warring against the Law of your Minds from getting the Mastery over you If you had no Temptations nor Inclinations to Lust where is your Virtue in being Continent Marc●t sine Adversario Virtus Senec. 'T is a tryal of your Graces that must make you experienced Champions and the Victory over your Lusts that must make you More than Conquerors Can you fight without Enemies or overcome without Opposition or expect the Crown without the Victory The Devil allures and the Flesh may prompt you to yield bur neither of them can force you if you will be true to your selves and keep the Reins in your own Hands To this end suppress the very first Motions to Impurity Crush the Cock●trice in his Egg and make a vigorous Repulse at ●he very first Onset of a Temptation As for Example Think whether you would commit the Sin ●f you were to die the next Moment and whether you would be contented to appear at the Tribunal of Heaven in the Embraces of a Harlot or in the Arms of an Adulteress Consider also whether you can find any Retirement so Private any Apartment so Obscure where God cannot see you or where his hand cannot find you out 2ly Avoid Idleness Have always something to do and give not an Advantage to the Tempter to break in upon you whilst you are unguarded The Perching Soul becomes an easy Prey to the Infernal Fowler whilst the Winged Spirit is out of Danger Beware then of administring to your Youthful Flames by Sloth and Ease by Entertaining your Thoughts with Unchast Imaginations which increase by nothing so much as your Idle Hours If you have Employs be diligent therein Eating the Bread of Carefulness for so he giveth his Beloved rest If you are above the toyls of a Labouring Life you cannot want business wherein to spend your vacant Hours if you consider the great Concern of your Souls that lies upon your hands and requires more time than you have in your own power A Holy Life has many ways to dispose of the long and tedious days and were you intent upon the Duties thereof you would have no reason to complain of th● Idle time which lies upon you nor would you give th● Tempter or any Lust an Opportunity to rob you o● your Innocence or to Prey upon your Chastity 3ly In the next place Keep a Constant Watchov●● your Eyes those doors of the Soul those Casement● to Imagination and those Inlets to Vice Th● Wiseman has always one Eye at Home while th● other is employed abroad in Speculation But her● 't is safe to keep both your doors shut unless yo● could stare the Vanity Dead the Beauty into a Monster and the Temptation into a Virtue Bu● 't is dangerous to run the risque of such an Adventure and an Attempt too bold for most to undertake Your strength is but weakness at best and your Clear-sightedness oftimes in this Nature becomes your Blind-side where the Lust has an Advantage to break in upon you If you are Wise keep out of Eye-shot and come not a near the fair Enemy for there is much in a Painted Face in a loose Garb in Wanton Gestures and in Naked Breasts to work upon the unguarded Eye and render the Heart prisoner Nor is it enough to turn your Eyes from beholding Vanity when Accidentally offered to their View but you should avoi● as much as in you lies all Occasions which may lead them astray You would do well to abstain from all publick Balls Shews and Stage-Plays and all other places of great Appearance which may be apt to administer Fuel to your Fire For if at Church where the Awe of God and the Reverence due to his Immediate presence should have some Influence over you if there I say you can with much ado keep your Eyes from gazing and wandring after Beautiful Objects and from conceiving Lustful thoughts thereon How much more difficult will it be to do so there where your design of going is principally to be Spectators of Folly and Lightness not to say worse or where is the Common Mart or Forum for the Gallant to pick up his Mistriss and carry her off Incognito Nor is it only dangerous to behold those Charms to Lust in the Original in Living Instances but also in Effigie For these dumb obscene Pictures with a tacit whisper captivate the Eye move the Imagination and fire the Heart 4ly Avoid all Frothy and Idle Discourse Be neither the Speakers Hearers or Readers of such Language Keep a Watch over your Tongues stop your Ears as well as turn away your Eyes from all that looks like Obscenity Evil Communication says the Apostle Corrupts good Manners 1 Cor. 15. Therefore as he says in another place let no Corrupt Communication proceed out of your Mouth Eph. 4. A loose Tongue and Obscene Lips insensibly betray the Soul into the snare of Uncleanness Therefore as you value your Chastity and desire to keep your selves pure Think it not matter of Jest to talk wittilly Obscene but be assured you are not only to answer for the Words you speak but also for all the Mischief they may produce upon either your selves or others 5ly In the next place Beware what Company you keep 'T is an Italian Proverb tell me with what Company you go and I 'll tell you where you go tell me with whom you Converse and

even to abstain from what is Physically as well as Morally Evil but Even our allowed and warrantable Enjoyments must like Physick be taken moderately and with caution lest our Remedy prove our Poyson He that thinks because he is in lawful Circumstances he may give his Lusts their full Swing deceives himself for that in Marriage a Man may be guilty of Sensuality is past dispute 'T is unquestionably true that whoever transgresseth the Principal end of Marriage viz. of Glorifying God and subservient thereto those of Propagating our kind of maintaining Mutual Society and avoiding of Unlawful Lusts has passed the boundaries of Nature Reason and Religion all at once In the entring upon such a Sacred Rite there are many things to be observed and seriously considered both by the betrothed Parties and their Friends in order to have the Marriage successfull and made in Heaven first before the striking of Hands and the Plighting of Troths here on Earth and for want of the due Consideration whereof arises so many Unhappy Matches Family Disturbances and Civil Broils so frequent Separations from and Pollutions of the Conjugal Bed which every day happen afresh in the World I shall but just touch upon these Necessary Precautions and so conclude this particular of Uncleanness As for you who have Adult Children of your own or else are Guardians to such Beware of debarring them from entring into the state of Matrimony when either their Years their Inclinations their Affections and their other Circumstances require the same Consult your Pupils in all respects and be not more than prudently urgent in disswading them from their own or in perswading them into an Approbation of your Choice In disposing of them have an Eye more upon their Temporal Happiness and their Eternal Good than upon the Flattering Prospect of their being Noble Rich or Great Covet not to Marry your Sons or Daughters or any other Relations committed to your Trust into Families of a Higher Rank than your selves and despise not to Match them with those of a Degree lower than you especially where the Virtue and Generosity of the person can toss your lighter Scale of Birth and Fortune up to the Beam As for the Young parties I desire they would not take ill the following Advice before they put on the Wedding Suit which will not cost them so much and perhaps do them more Service Be sure then to avoid all Hasty sudden and Unpremeditated fits of Passion Love not for Lusts sake and Idolize none for their Beauty Wit Strength and Fortune lest your Affection be no more than Skin-deep call in Wiser Heads to advise in so Weighty a Cause and if your Modesty or any other reason will not admit you to ask your Friends advice therein yet be pleased to think God worthy to be of your Council In a word let no Object Charm you but what has the Lineaments of Virtue and the Endowments of a Noble Mind which with or without the outward Qualifications are of force only to Captivate our Souls Hence it is that we perceive the Love grounded upon these External Objects only to be short-liv'd and Transient soon Hot and soon Cold lasting no longer than the Object appears to be Beautiful Strong Witty and Wealthy and growing Nauseous when Impotency Wither'd Age or Poverty over-takes them and often before whilst the more substantial Love founded upon and raised by the inward Ornament of the Mind gives Life to the Love of outward and maintains its own Flame within when all the Fuel administred from without is taken away This Noble Intellectual Love Unites and Consolidates the Parties tho' in Rags and Poverty tho' in Gray-Hairs and Wrinkles and breaths after a Union beyond this and the Grave This is that Love we should be all inflamed with and desire to Contract with each other not because we have Painted Faces and a handsomer piece of Clay for our Share than others are Moulded into or because we have more of Giddy Fortunes Favours but because of those inward Ornaments of Piety and Devotion of Sobriety and Temperance of Modesty and Humility of Chastity and Charity of Meekness and Affability which set off the subject in which they are inherent with such invincible and irresistible Charms as no being above a Brute can forbear to be inamoured with Of the Profanation of the Lord's Day CHAP. IV. The Reasons of keeping Holy the first Day of the Week instead of the Seventh The Lord's Day How and by whom profaned viz. I. By neglecting the Publick Ordinances of the Church II. The Private Duties of the Family III. By Exercising our ordinary Callings thereon whether by our selves our Servants or our Beasts IV. By publickly Exposing to Sale An Objection answered and what Works are Lawful to be done V. By works of the Flesh such as 1. Tipling 2. Feasting 3. Gaming 4. Dancing and Singing 5. Country Revellings and Riots And earnest Expostulation and Exhortation for Celebrating the Lord's Day Rules for it viz. 1. Preparation on the Eve 2. Frequenting the Publick Ordinances of the Church 3. Family Duties Motives thereto drawn from the benefits of observing it and the Mischiefs of Profaning it both to Private Persons and to the Publick THat to serve the Invisible God by whom we Live Move and have our Being in the whole course of our Lives is a main End for which we were Created That every Day and Hour should be Holy unto the Lord that we should have the Fear of Him always before our Eyes That every Moment of our time is truely His is indisputable But forasmuch as we are but Men in a little lower degree then those Blessed Spirits whose task and Happiness it is to be employed continually in Contemplating Adoring and Praising their great Creator and whereas since the Fall we are placed in such circumstances as require the sweat of our Brows and the Expence of a great part of our time in the procuring the Necessaries of this Life we cannot so readily bestow all our hours on Religious Exercises Nor doth God require we should but dispenses with the greatest part of our Lives and only appoints a seventh part of the whole for the more Solemn and Immediate Acts of Divine Worship and is pleased so to Order it that every Action in our Ordinary Callings may be such as may Glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Our Fields and Gardens Our Shops and Studies Our Dining-Rooms and Closets may be all Sanctified by a Religious and Holy Life Sobriety and Modesty Temperance and Moderation may make our very Diversions and Recreations Holy But then we are not to stick here our walking with God in the Private Duties of our several stations Exempts us not from the Publick Adoration of Him in the Congregation of the Faithful For as the Lord of Hosts has been nearly conce●ned in appointing the Persons by Whom the Manner How and the Place Where so has he shewed no less Regard in assigning the Time When