Religion if it be not necessary on every Sabbath-day yet it is on some Sabbath-days very seasonable and People should at seasonable times on some Sabbath-days send their Servants and their Children to be Instructed in the Principles of Religion and to be Catechised The Receiving of the Sacraments are Holy and Religious Exercises to be performed if possibly it may be on the Lords day It was usual with the Primitive Christians on every Lords day to eat of that Heavenly and Soul-refreshing Manna the Body and Blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And hereupon was that usual and Ordinary speech amongst them Celebrasti Dominicum sumpsisti Dominum thou didst keep the Lords day thou didst feed on thy Lord and Saviour eat his Body and drink his Blood It is not in use with us on every Lords day to Celebrate the Lords Supper yet this is a Duty often to be performed as St. Paul setteth it forth to the Corinthians first Epistle 11th Chapter and we should as often as conveniently we can Sanctifie the Lords Day by Receiving in it the Lords Supper The other Sacrament of Baptism it should likewise if with conveniency it may be Administred on the Lords day for the Sanctifying the Sabbath by performing in it this Holy and Religious Exercise for it is a means to put People in mind of the Vows and Promises that they themselves did make to God in Baptism I have been something longer than I made Account in Treating of those Publique Religious performances that should be performed in Gods House I shall but touch upon those that should be performed in every Man 's own House Private Meditation upon the Word of God whether Read or Preached this is a Duty that careful Christians ought Conscionably to perform in their own Houses When they are Retired to their Houses and are private by themselves they should digest by Meditation the good Word of God Treasure it up in their Hearts to bring forth the Fruit of it in their Lives and Conversations If they come into Company and have Occasion to Discourse with any whether in their own Houses or with others in theirs They should endeavour to break off all Discourse of Earthly Affairs and Worldly businesse and should Reason of the Scriptures of things concerning their Salvation On the Lords day especially they should think of St. Paul's Exhortation to the Ephâ—sians Chap. 4. ver 29. And let no Corrupt Communication proceed out of their Mouths but such as is good to the use of Edifying that it may minister Grace to the Hearers At leisure times they should Catechise and Instruct their Children on the Lords day Read in their Families the Word of God talk of it when they sit in their Houses and walk before their Families in the ways of God's Commandments When they have performed all these Duties they should shut up the Sabbath with Prayers and Supplications and as near as they can spend the whole day in Holy and Religious Exercises If we did our Duties as we ought we should indeed so Sanctifie God's Sabbath that in it we should neither think our own thoughts nor speak our own words nor do our own works But the best fall short of their Duties and do not Sanctifie God's Sabbath according as he requireth they may hope to be so happy in Heaven but they can never be so Holy on Earth yea the good God will pardon those that set their hearts to seek and to serve him though their failings and fallings are great and many not onely on week days but on the Lords day yea he is an indulgent Father And such things as are reputed by some to be great sins as the Carriage of Beds and the bearing of Burdens and the selling Wares in those of the meaner sort he will look upon them as no sins or as very small Infirmities If men fall out of Infirmity and are grieved for these things and are wary and watchful over themselves how they fall into those sins for time to come Or else do these things at the Command of their Governours and Superiours who they know would not Command them such things if they did not know that they were such works of Necessity as may be done on any Sabbath-day or such works of Necessity as must be done on that Sabbath-day as they Command them And he will not see concerning some that are Persons of Quality and Fashion Ministers and Magistrates that they are not frequent in performance of Holy and Religious Exercises And if they be drawn in to Feast and Banquet on the Lords day and do Prophane the Sabbath by foolish talking and vain jesting yet if they Repent of their failings of their fallings and do not wilfully prophane the Sabbath themselves nor nourish others in the contempt of Holy and Religious Exercises he will pardon and forgive those sins for he considereth of the Temptations that some have to sin of the pull-backs and hinderances that they have to Piety And again he is very strict and precise a severe Judge and will see in some of the meaner sort such things as seem to the Worlds eye to be very small Infirmities the gathering of sticks and playing in the streets and note them as hainous sins yea he will not see that those that do those things keep the Church duly and are frequent in Religious Exercises if they do these things out of Hypocrisie to bear themselves out in their presumptuous wickedness And he will note some that are Persons of Quality and Fashion how they prophane the Sabbath by idle Discourse and vain talking and will not observe it in them that they are frequent and often in the performance of Religious Exercises If they make Religion a Cloak for their Malice and will not Repent of this sin but are obstinate to have all Men as frequent and often in performance of Holy and Religious Exercises as themselves for he considereth of the Opportunities that some have to do good of the helps and encouragements that they have to Piety Yea the Merciful God hath a care of the dumb Beasts and one of the Reasons why he hath Ordained a Sabbath is that they should rest every seventh day and not be over-harrowed with working And much more hath he a care of reasonable Creatures he hath Ordained a Sabbath of Rest not meerly out of respect to himself that he should be Served and his Sabbath Sanctified by performing in them Holy and Religious Exercises but he hath a respect to Servants and Day Labourers and hath Ordained a seventh day of Rest that Servants and Day-Labourers might have some time to rest from Labour as well as their Masters So it is set forth in the 5th of Deut. 14 ver the latter part of the verse one of the Reasons why God hath Commanded a Sabbath of Rest to be kept Holy is that the Man-Servant and the Maid-Servant may Rest as well as thou If thou beest a Master of a Family
be not at hand God will put an end to these things and his Temples shall not alwayes be profaned his Ministers continually despised neither will he ever suffer wicked Hypocrites to fight against him with his own weapons or profane Atheists to take away the means consecrated to his service and employ it to profane uses but he that is Lord of the Sabbath is Holy and will have his Holy-days and his Sabbaths to be sanctified There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God or as it is in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a keeping of a Sabbath The rest that is here properly meant it is that great Sabbath of rest that shall be kept unto God by all those that depart in the faith they shall keep a perpetual Sabbath unto God and shall for ever sing Heavenly Allelujahs unto him with the Holy Angels in Heaven But yet in regard this great rest is set forth and expressed in the phrase of a Sabbath keeping I hope I shall not impertinently gather from hence that all those who look to keep an eternal Sabbath unto God in Heaven they should think of this allusion and consider that there remaineth a rest a keeping of a Sabbath unto the people of God on Earth and that none shall keep a perpetual sabbath unto God hereafter but they who sanctifie his sabbaths here The sabbath of rest that is to be kept to God here as it hath reference to that great sabbath of rest hereafter I may place it in a rest from sin There is none that liveth and sinneth not and for men altogether to rest from sin here in this world it is impossible but the Scripture speaketh of wicked men and sinners that they are tumultuous and raging that they are like the raging Sea that casteth up mire and dirt continually restless are their imaginations that are Isa 57. 20. unconverted who give free sway and scope unto themselves in sin The thoughts of their hearts are evil and that continually Gen. 6. 5. they imagine mischief upon their beds and when it draweth to light they practise it They have eyes full of Mich. 2. i. 2 Pet. 2. 14. Job 24. 14. 15. 16. Adultery that cannot cease to sin yea as Job speaketh The eyes of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight saying no eye shall see me and disguiseth his face The Murtherer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy and in the night is as a theif in the night they dig thorow houses which they had marked out for themselves in the day time day and night they labour and rest not from sinning This labour must be given over and a spiritual rest embraced Men must strive against sin and oppose it and never give over till they have quieted and appeased their tumultuous and disorderly affections so that they have vanquished the strength of sins the prevailing power of it so that they do not suffer any sin the least sin of which they are convinced in Conscience that it is sin to reign or rule or bear sway in their hearts and if they fall out of infirmity as who is there that liveth and sinneth not yet they are grieved for their failings and fallings rise again by repentance and continually ask God forgiveness for what they have done amiss This now is a rest from sin a keeping a perpetual sabbath unto God beside this rest from sin men must rest unto God have leisure times to serve him It is the principal end of our Creation God made us for this end to serve him and that they ought to set apart some time for the service of God this is engraven in the hearts of all men living For the determinate time that God hath appointed for his Worship and service as for certain he hath after a special and more peculiar manner sanctified and set apart some time for that end we cannot be so well guided by the candle of nature as by the light of the word The Scriptures then every where but especially in the fourth Commandement tell us of the rest of the Holy sabbath which the Lord of the sabbath hath severed and set apart for his own use one day in seven God hath chose and set apart for himself It received its confecration and was set apart to be a day of rest unto God upon this ground and reason because that God in it rested from his works of Creation The Church of God in the Apostles times did change the day in memorial of our Saviour his Resurrection because that on the first day of the week Christ did rise from the dead and rested from the great work of our Redemption Though there be no expresse precept in Scripture for the altring of the day yet that the Apostles in their practice were guided by the spirit it is confessed by all Protestant writers that are Orthodox I will alleadge one for all Zanchie after he had related it out of Justin Martyr his Apology to the Emperour Antoninus how the Christians were wont to meet on the Lord's day to hear the word and receive the Sacraments and to perform other Holy and Religious exercises he thus concludeth Ex his liquet Apostolos per spiritum sanctum vel potius spiritum Sanctum per Apostolos festum solennitatemque Sabbati in diem dominicum transtulisse From this it is manifest that the Apostles by the spirit or rather the spirit of God by the Apostles did transferre the festivity and solemnity of the sabbath unto the Lords day but yet though the day be changed yet the keeping one day in seven by consecrating it to the service of God making it a rest from sin and a rest unto God by performing in it Holy and Religious exercises which is the morality of the fourth Commandment is still retained We are then to keep Holy one day in seven not only upon the ground and Reason which is laid down in the fourth Commandment because that in six days God finished the works of his Creation and rested the seventh But we are likewise strengthened and confirmed in keeping our Christian Sabbath which is likewise one day in seven in regard that on that day Christ did rise from the dead and rest from the great work of our Redemption So that the morality of the sabbath is so far from being taken away by the change of the day that it is hereby more strongly strengthened and confirmed That one day in seven should be kept Holy is the morality of the fourth Commandement beside the sanctifying one day in seven it is requisite that the sollemn day for God's service be kept in its season and God requireth not that any 7th day of our own devising should be celebrated but he looketh and expecteth that such a seventh day be kept as he hath appointed The seventh day from the Creation was the day Commanded of God and for the time that God required it this and no other was to be
which tendeth more to Edification and that is whether God's Consecrating a Seventh Day to himself and Commanding a weekly Sabbath to be Sanctified whether this take away the Service of God on Holy days or on other days of the week To this I Answer that our weekly Sabbath is severed and set a part and after a peculiar manner Sanctified for God's Use but yet we ought to provide for the Service of God in some manner and measure every Day in the week but especially Holy-days and our usual Festivals they ought solemnly to be kept and Religiously Observed though there be no day of Divine Institution which God hath expresly Commanded to be kept Holy but our weekly Sabbath yet all hold that more time should be allotted to his Service and the Equity of Constituting Holy-days of serving God on the week days of Prayâ—ng unto him Publickly Privately in his House in our own Houses these things are grounded on the Fourth Commandment I shall first prove it concerning Holy-days that God's Commanding a weekly Sabbath after a peculiar manâ—er to be Sanctified it doth not inhibit but rather command a solemn Observation of our usual Festivals To this opinion Mr. Calvin inclineth Non sic sâ—ptenarium numerum Lib. 2. in cap. 8. sect 34. moror ut ejus servituti Ecclesiam restringam neque Ecclesias dannavero quae alios conventibus suis solennes dies habeant modo à superstitione absint I stick not so saith Mr. Calvin to the Number of Seven that it should bind the Church to the bondage of the seventh day Neither will I condemn Churches that have other Solemn Dayes for their publique Meetings Aret. 〈◊〉 com de feriis so they be voyd of Superstition To this Aretius consenteth Vt alii alios dies adderent Sabbato feriandos nihil in hac revitii in esse judicamus That some should adde other dayes to the Sabbath to be kept holy we do not think this to be amiss And Vrsin in his Catechism having propounded what is required in the Fourth Commandement returneth this Answer Vt ego cum aliis precipue Festis diebus coetus divinos frequentem That I with others especially on Holy Dayes should be present at solemn Assemblies and Divine Meetings Sermon on Job 10. v. 22. Dr. Donn sometimes Dean of Pauls hath delivered his Opinion agreeable to this Though God hath taken a seventh part of our time in the Sabbath yet he taketh more too for he appointeth other Sabbaths other Festivals and in all Sabbaths there is a cessation To this agreeth Bucer having spoken of the Sanctification of the Lords day he further addeth it is agreeable to our Piety to sanctifie other Festivals also to the Commemoration of the Lord his chief works whereby he perfected our Redemption as the day of our Saviours Incarnation Nativity Epiphany the Passion Resurrection Pentecost Besides our usual Festivals and solemn dayes of Rejoycing which though they be appointed by men yet the Equity of constituting them is grounded on the Fourth Commandement no reasonable man nor good Christian will deny but some time may but some time ought to be appointed every day in the Week for the Service of God In Towns and Cities where People may conveniently meet that they ought to resort to the Temple and the House of God to offer unto him their Morning and their Evening Sacrifice and worship him in the Beauty of Holiness this is a thing so just and reasonable that I hope I need not tell those who doe this that they do but their Duties for their own Consciences wâ—ll tell those who live in places where they may doe it that they ought to pray publiquely every day in the week and attend upon God's service continually We are not so happy in Countrey Villages that we should meet publickly every day in the week to worship God in the Beauty of Holiness And for People that live in unwalled Towns and Countrey Villages if they keep the Church duely on Sundayes and Holydayes Week-dayes Prayers are required of them but at some times in the year and when they are required it is not required that they should pray every day in the week It is truth Masters of Families should be mindfull of Houshold-piety and there are none but they should pray in their own persons continually such a Sabbath of Rest should be sanctified to God continually and it is grounded on the Morality of the Fourth Commandement I shall conclude in the words of Mr. Greenham in his Treatise of the Sabbath though no day ought to be separated from God's use the Sabbath ought to be severed from all other uses and wholly consecrated to him Men ought to keep their set-times of Prayer and pray privately every day in the week in their Houses and with their Families and men ought publickly to attend upon God in his House and privately be at leisure for holy Exercises on Holy dayes All Holy-dayes are not but if some be so severed for holy Exercises that they are as carefully kept and as religiously observed to the worlds eye as our Christian Sabbath yet if men through heedlesness and inadvertency do some slight works of their Callings in them and do not those things purposely in contempt of Authority for certain this is not so hainous a sin that men need to task themselves with a dayes or a weeks Repentance for it and if men be at leisure for holy and religious Exercises on Holy-dayes no doubt but on these dayes they may be at leisure for themselves and have some time to recreate and refresh themselves on Holy-dayes especially those of the meaner sort who have no other times of Recreation Holy-dayes they are not so severed for holy and religious Exercises but some works may be done in them if they be not done in contempt oâ— Authority and at fitting and convenient times lawfull Sports and Pastimes may lawfully be used in them especially by those of the meaner sort Other working dayes they are not exempted from God's Service we are bound to serve God in them and to pray unto him but yet these are Our dayes God hath given them us to follow our necessary Occasions and worldly businesses No day that may properly be termed God's day but the seventh day of his Consecration our weekly Sabbath this is the day which God after a peculiar manner hath sanctified and he requireth that we after a special and more peculiar manner should observe it and keep it Holy Rest from Labour from worldly businesses and Employments is required on the Sabbath Men must not follow the works of their calling but must as neer as they can abstain from all corporal labour They must likewise rest from sin as on all dayes so more especially on Gods Holy day they must abstain from following their own wayes from finding their own pleasure and from speaking their own words They must likewise work the works of Righteousness and be carefully employed in holy
celebrated The People of God before the Law and after the Law given in Mount Sinai were to keep the seventh day from the Creation and no other It may be objected that the Sun which is the measure of time and of days it stood still in the dayes of Joshua it went backward in the dayes of Hezekiah so that that particular seventh day from the Creation which was first celebrated could not be punctually observed by the people of God under the law To this I answer That so long as the people of God under the Law did according to common computation keep the seventh day from the Creation without any willful varying from God his institution from the intent and meaning of the law-maker who neverrequireth of menimpossibilities they could not be said to be guilty of the breach of the fourth Commandment though they did not observe that numerical identical day from the Creation which was first celebrated He that made the law may change the Law and he that made time in his hand times and seasons are and he may change them according to his own pleasure The spirit of God by the Apostles did change the seventh day from the Creation into that seventh day which we now celebrate in memorial of our Saviour's Resurrection and the seventh day from the Creation hath forfeited its right and is become a common working day by his appointment in whose hands times and seasons are who changeth them according to his own pleasure and now the day sanctified and set apart for God is our Christian Sabbath the Lord's day the first day of the week this and no other is to be sanctified and whosoever they be that are Christians acquainted with the Scriptures and the word of God or the practice of the Church in the Apostles times if they set apart any other 7th day to be sanctified as the day of God's institution beside that which we now celebrate they make themselves liable to God's displeasure in this world and to his eternal indignation in the world to come It may be objected against our Christian sabbath that that particular seventh which the Apostles instituted by the spirit or rather the spirit by the Apostles it hath not continued without change to some and it is a question whether it can be continued without change to any it is observed that men in travelling to some places of the World and some Christians have occasion to Travel for necessary traffick lose one day in a year yea Astronomers that observe the motion of the Heavens and the measure of time do observe that there is continually some losse or at least some change of time so that that particular seventh day that was first instituted we supposing a seventh day to be set apart could not successively long continue without some change or alteration To this I answer Whether they be travellers or who else they be if they do not willfully transgresse nor purposely vary from God's institution but according to common computation reckoning time according to the custome of the place where they live and the persons with whom they converse do celebrate the first day of the week the Lord's day the seventh day which the spirit of God by the Apostles did Command without choosing any other seventh day of their own heads if I say as near as they can they keep themselves to God's institution they cannot be said to offend against the morality of the fourth Commandement whereby God hath set apart a seventh day of rest in memorial of his resting from the works of his Creation neither can they be said to transgresse God's Command by the Apostles whereby he hath instituted this seventh day which we now sanctifie as a day of rest in memorial of our Saviour's rest from the great work of our Redemption I shall illustrate this by a plain similitude taken out of Scripture God Commanded the Children of Israel to keep Numb 9. 10. the passeover unto him at a set time of the year upon a set day of the month they were to keep it in the first month upon the fourteenth day of the month it so fell out that certain men were defiled by the dead they inquired of God by Moses whether they were so necessarily tyed to the day that they might not keep the passover at all if they did not keep it on the day wherein it was enjoyned to be kept answer was returned that if any were unclean or were in a journey a far off then he might alter the time and whereas the prescript time for keeping the passeover was the 14th day of the first month the time might be altered and the passeover kept on the fourteenth day of the second month but if a man were clean and not in a journey and should forbear to keep the passeover at the set time appointed he should be cut off from the people of God because he brought not the offering of God in his appointed season If necessity constrain and men be in a journey travelling or the change of times be such that that particular seventh day instituted cannot successively be continued or punctually observed God doth not tie men to impossibilities nor yet to great inconveniences and if men do not willfully transgress nor vary from God's institution but according to common computation as neer as they can keep the seventh day instituted for certain they keep God his Sabbaths and observe his Ordinances But if men be not in a journey travelling and be not hindred from keeping according to common Computation the 7th day instituted and will upon their own heads keep the Jewish Sabbath the seventh day from the Creation the sabbath that is now cancelled or think it sufficient to keep any day of their own devising without observing of the Lord's day according to the Lord's Ordinance they exclude themselves from the Communion of Saints and without serious and unseigned Repentance make themselves liable to God's wrath here to his eternal displeasure hereafter for not keeping the Lord his Rest nor Sanctifying the Sabbath in its appointed season It may be Objected that the Church of God is still guided by the Spirit and if the Spirit of God by the Apostles did change the Day that was first Instituted by God which was the Seventh Day from the Creation into that Seventh Day which we now Celebrate May not the Church of God change it again from this Seventh Day to some other To this I Answer that it cannot be supposed that there should be such ground and reason for the change of the day as there was in the Apostles Time The cause of the change of the Day it was in memory of our Saviour's Resurrection because that on that Day he rested from the great work of our Redemption I suppose therefore in regard the like Reason of a Change cannot be given the Spirit of God will not again guide the Church to alter the Day I shall propound a Question more profitable