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	lord_n	sabbath_n	12,007	5	10.4562	5	true

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

to inthrone the Good Old Cause without those mighty Engins of Popular Pamphlets and Parliaments and therefore pray proceed in your methods of Propagation for that is the utmost we can hope for in this Age. Ph. Well then I consider that the Cause can never be maintain'd by meer Mechanicks and should we send our Youth to Universities they would be taught Obedience to Statutes and wear off the Natural Abhorrence of white Linnen and Liturgy and thus being disciplin'd in those Seraglio's they would become a kind of Janisaries and be taught to destroy that Religion into which they were Born and this we have found by fatal experiments And therefore to prevent this mischief we have erected our Private Gymnasia and in these Seminaries we Read to our Youth the Politicks and Divinity of Geneva here they are taught the Natural Philosophy and all the Liberal Arts and Sciences of Sedition and Rebellion These Gymnasia are our Spiritual Artillery-Grounds here my Veterane Champions instruct their Young Volunteers in the management of Tongue and Face how to fire a Mouth-granado how to beat all the Points of War upon the Pulpit-drum when to lye in Ambuscade and when to raise their Batteries against the Government how to Vndermine a Throne and Sap the walls of a Cathedral Po. This Essential Policy for neither Popery nor Presbytery can be Propagated without Seminaries and therefore I suppose the design of your Gymnasia was borrowed from Doway and St. Omers which places my Cardinal Bentivoglio ingeniously stiles Military Stations where my Spiritual Souldiery are disciplin'd in the Arts of Holy War and are drawn out from thence to defend the Catholick Cause in England Now you and I may every year send forth our several Detachments from these Spiritual Garrisons and so we may beleaguer the Church of England on Both-sides the only fear is that Lewis should beat up our Quarters in Flanders and Charles should dismantle your Cittadels in England Ph. Besides these Artillery-Companies I have a Flying Squadron of Neutral Clergy quarter'd within the Lines of the Church of England and these by their whispers in the Desk and Noise in the Pulpit do me more service in the Church than all my Doctors in the Synagogue for you know one piece of Ordnance within the Ship whose mouth is directed to the keel if it be well charg'd and fir'd must do more fatal Execution than a thousand shot at two mile distance These men teach their people to clamour against the Canonical Clergy and the Heights of Hierarchy and dispose them for an easie Compliance to the Model of Geneva and therefore upon the first revolution they and their whole Brigades will come over to our Triumphant Banners These men Resemble that Asian Sect which the Turks call the Raphasis who are neither Zealous Musselmen nor devout Christians but according as their humour and Interest move them can Worship either Christ or Mahomet and go indifferently in Pilgrimage to Meccha or Jerusalem Po. These Ecclesiastick Neuters and Lay-trimmers must do you excellent Service and therefore I advise you to Court and admire these men as the Greater Saints and Wiser Subjects for they must be Zealous Loyallists who uphold the Height and Honour of a Government but men of Cold and Trimming Tempers will betray it with Indifferency and Moderation and look upon its Ruine with half a smile What were they who ruin'd my Authority in England in the days of Henry the Eighth but Trimming Papists What were my Gibellines that shaked the Papacy in the Thirteenth Century but Prudential Catholicks And those Bishops in the Councel of Constance and the Basilisks of Basil who usurp't the Prerogative of deposing Popes and Decreed Me Inferior to a General Councel were all Romish Trimmers and therefore why should not the Church of England suffer by Trimmers as well as the Church of Rome Ph. Sir Let me alone to make my advantage of these mens Tempers But to proceed My most Infallible art to continue the Reputation of the Good Old Cause is the Eminency of a Politick Sanctity and Si vis fallere Plebem finge Deos is as good Latin in England as ever it was at Rome Po. Pray Let me know wherein your Sanctity consists Ph. In Sabboths and Sobriety for as for Faith That relates to things not seen and is a Virtue of it self Invisible Obedience to Superiors is meer Human Courtship and Slavery and therefore doth not become the Privilege and Freedom of Saints Meekness Humility and Charity are all but Good Nature But to be Sober and keep a Sabboth are the most Popular signs of Grace and Sanctity Po. This is as gross a Cheat as the Tears and Bleeding of a Romish Image for if Sobriety be the Grand Essential of Religion Mahomet was a diviner Prophet than Jesus for he was so far from Turning Water into Wine that his Alcoran has Turn'd Wine into Water and not only denied his Disciples the whole Firkins but doth not allow them the juyce of one single Grape And if to keep a Sabboth be the Great Character of a Saint the Jew is as much a Christian as you Ph. Alass this is too fine and Metaphysical for the Pia Maters of the Unthinking Crowd and notwithstanding these reasons the Cheat is popular and must prevail a Stanch and demure Assassin will pass for a greater Saint in the opinion of the Vulgus than a Damning Carowsing Cavalier and he who like the Pharisee can spend the whole Sabboth in Synagogues and Long-prayers may Plot against Caesar and Rob Widows Houses for six days after and yet keep the Reputation of a Saint Po. I know that a Reserv'd soberness must command the Peoples Veneration but I most admire how you can Impose upon them that Melancholy Imposture of Sabbatizing Your Turkish Brethren when the Prayers of their Mosques are ended can upon their Sabboth return to their common business without the least charge of Profanation The Jews in Barbary after their devotions of the Synagogue do spend the rest of their Sabboth in the utmost Gaiety and briskest festivity Your Dutch Brethren make no more scruple of Taverns or Tables upon a Sunday than they did in burning the ships at Chattam The whole Catholick Church did never look upon the Sunday as a Jewish Sabboth but a Christian Festival indeed they always took care for the Solemnities of publick Religion but when those Devotions of the day were ended it did never forbid any Innocent Mirth or diversion but thought that Agreeable to so great a fesival Your ancient Canons under King Edgar did enjoyn that upon the Sunday all people should abstain from Trade or Merchandize they thought there was too much busie Care and Uneasiness in those affairs to consist with the chearful diversions of a Festival and it was wisely provided by the Law of Canutus that no Criminal should be put to death upon the Lords day for such Executions of Justice were Acts and Spectacles