Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	appoint_v	day_n	sabbath_n	2,890	5	9.8604	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30350	Four discourses delivered to the clergy of the Diocess of Sarum ... by the Right Reverend Father in God, Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1694 (1694)	Wing B5793; ESTC R202023	160,531	125

the Church of Rome had enervated the whole Ancient Discipline and had turn'd it all to be a secret practice between the Priest and the Penitent in Auricular Confession and that Dispensations and Commutations were brought in by which men know the price of sin and how to buy it off that all of the sudden this Church could not be brought back to the Primitive Constitutions tho we see that our Reformers did sincerely intend it and prepared a Model for it But our bad Circumstances have made that this great and good Design could never be effected since that time for which we still continue to make a publick Acknowledgment in the Preface to the Office of Commination But after all How faulty soever particular persons may be in not obeying the Rules of the Church the Clergy are obliged to Catechise the Youth and when they are duly prepared for it they ought to offer them to the Bishop to be Confirm'd and this ought to precede their being at first admitted to the Sacrament If this is not duly and punctually executed it is the fault of those who fail in their Duty and one of the best and most effectual Answer that we can make to this prejudice is to endeavour to do in this point what lies in us towards the Instructing and Confirming the Youth As for the Scandals of men's lives much more certainly might be done both in the way of private admonition and publick censure than is done so here the best answer will still return upon us We ought to do all that is incumbent on us for watching over those that are committed to our Care for correcting their Manners for making the incorrigible asham'd and for cutting off corrupt and gangreen'd Members that they spread not their Infection to those that are yet found Yet if another man fail of his Duty that can never excuse any one from doing his and so it can never be a just ground of separation Some except to our habit as a Ceremony taken from the Service of the Jewish Temple and this tho it is now esteem'd the least considerable of all the exceptions made against us yet was that which first began those unhappy disputes that have since increased so fatally upon us The chief thing stood upon at first was That it was a compliance with the Supestitions of Popery but that has been consider'd already to which I shall in this place only add this one Consideration more to justify those Compliances in matters that are in themselves innocent That in Fact the body of this Nation was in a very few years brought off from Popery to which it is highly probable that those small Compliances contributed not a little so that the single reason upon which this was at first oppos'd was the chief Reason for its continuance All publick Functions are perform'd in some special Habits and White being among both Greeks and Romans the colour that expressed Ioy it bearing also a Signification of Purity and Innocence it was natural for the Primitive Christians both to put such as were newly baptized in white and also to have Divine Offices perform'd by persons habited in the same manner It is true Popery had brought in much Superstition upon all this the several parcels of the habits were deliver'd with particular Devotions in the conferring of Orders which imported a peculiar Virtue and Sanctity to be in them and they were to be us'd with such constant Devotions that did all signify that a Sacramental Virtue was believ'd to be lodg'd in them Now all this was taken away by our Reformers only for the decency of Worship in compliance with Ancient Practices they retain'd the Habits themselves and since the greatest Bodies of those who divide from us have us'd Black Gowns which is both a peculiar form of a Habit and in a special Colour that signifi'd Gravity it will not be easy to find a good reason why a peculiar Habit in a Colour that expressed both Innocence and Joy might not be as well us'd If we pretended that Innocence is by this convey'd to us here were a just exception but we using it only as a decent Habit that is enjoin'd by Law it is enough to justify our Obedience if the thing is lawful and it is enough to justify the Law if this Robe was Ancient and have in it a proper expression of that temper of mind in which we ought to be when we go to perform Divine Offices And thus it appears on how weak grounds the first disputes concerning Rituals among us were begun upon the progess of which and the effects that have followed upon them one can never reflect without remembring those words of St. Iames Behold how great a matter a little fire hath kindled Some have excepted to our observing Holy-days as if this was an Invasion upon that Liberty which the Fourth Commandment gives for Work all the six days of the Week and as if Men pretended to an Authority to make any parcels of time Holy Some quarrel with the days for the honor of the Apostles as if this was a remnant of Popery others except even to the observance of Christmas and ascension-Ascension-day together with those other days that relate to our Saviour himself as if the observing them were a reproaching the Apostles with want of regard to the Person of Christ which we pretend to supply But those words of six days Labour are not to be understood as a perpetual Command otherwise God himself had appointed a violation of this by all those other days of Rest that were enjoined the Iews all which were called Sabbaths Every seventh year was to be one continued Sabbath Therefore the Importance of the 4 th Commandment is only this That when that Precept was first given God left Mankind free for six days and only reserved a seventh for Rest and Religion but that did not limit himself nor all other Lawful Powers from making further Impositions for Rest and Religious Exercises It is also certain that Men cannot make a Day Holy in one sense that is affix a special Purity or particular Virtue to any one day but the larger sense of a Holy Day being a day dedicated to Religious Exercises it seems to be in the power of every Society to appoint such Anniversary days as well as to appoint special times of Fasting and Thanksgiving upon one particular day and for one turn for since all do agree that this may be done for once the Arguments from the Fourth Commandment and against appointing a holy day are out of doors so it remains only to consider whether Anniversary Days may be appointed We see the Iews during the seventy years of the Captivity observ'd the Fast of the Fourth the Fifth the Seventh and Te●nth Month and the Prophet expostulating in the Name of God upon that Head does neither except to the Imposition nor the fixing Anniversaries but only complains of their being ill kept which plainly imports

that Nation there were still some among them that as a remnant were to be gained to Christianity and therefore while there was ground to hope for that they went on in that condescention to their infirmity observing that very Low which was then maintained by the Iews with the highest insolence and cruelty possible against Christ and his Followers When this Point is well weighed in its full extent and in all its consequences it will I hope satisfy many how far so great an end as the publick Peace and the edification of the whole Body ought to be pursued when the Apostles went so far in order to the gaining of a few And here it will be no impertinent digression to observe the Rules that St. Paul lays down to Christians in this whole matter I cannot think that it was so fully opened in Epistles that have been preserved down to our days as a main part of the Canon of our Faith without a special Providence of God that in those Rules we might see our own duty in the management of such Controversies as should afterwards arise Since besides a historical knowledge of the state of that time this is all the use that it seems we can now make of such long Discourses and Arguings and if this can be well stated it will be a sure thread to guide us First then St. Paul leads men above the valuing such matters too much as if the being of the one or the other side signified any thing towards their peace with God For all fierce Zealots are apt to imagine that by their zeal they please God and atone for great faults Therefore to take away that false Conceit this is often repeated That in Christ Iesus neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision a vailed any thing but a new creature or faith which worketh by love and the keeping the Commandments of God and that the Christian Religion or the Kingdom of God consisted not in meat and drink that is in Rituals concerning the distinction of Meats clean and unclean but in much higher things righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost And he seems to assert that whosoever served Christ in these things was acceptable to God and ought to be approved of men whatsoever his sense might be as to all other things Another Position laid down is That every man ought to he fully persuaded in his own mind to have clear Principles and to frame these into as distinct Rules as possibly he could And this is the meaning of doing all things in faith which word signifies persuasion and ought to have been so rendered here And then all those difficulties that arise out of the misunderstanding of that word would cease so that the paraphrase of those so oftencited words will run thus Hast thou a persuasion have it within thy self so that then mayst appeal to God upon it For happy is the man that is so setled that he does not waver in a distraction of thoughts sometimes approving and at other times condemning the same thing for while a man is still doupting he is condemned within himself For instance If he eats freely of all Meats without regarding the Iewish distinctions and yet has within him an opinion of the obligatory force of those Laws he does not act upon clear Principles and Persuasions for while a man acts without these not knowing but that he may be sinning against God he does then really sin since he does things which he thinks are sins so that they become sins to him This is a plain account of those words which as it agrees exactly to their natural signification so it shuts out all the difficulties which arise out of them For the word rendred by doubting according to the sense in which it stands in all the other parts of the New Testament signifies the making distinction so that the meaning of it is He who thinks that there is still a distinction between meats clean and unclean is very guilty if he eats as long as he is under that persuasion A third Rule laid down by St. Paul is Teat in all such matters men ought not to assume an Authority to judge others that is to impose things upon them as if they had a Judiciary Authority over them Let not man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day that is Let no man in matters left at liberty pretend to an Authority over another for God is the sole Judge of all men And let no man judge his Brother that is offer to call him to an account of his Actions for we must all stand at the judgement-seat of Christ where he who is our only Judge as a Law giver will then be our Iudge by calling us to an account of our Actions Upon this follow the Rules of mens deportment towards one another Those that have larger Principles and higher Notions who in that respect are stronger and who by that freedom of mind and thought did eat without those nice distinctions of clean and unclean ought not to despise such as were yet fearful and straitned in their thoughts and durst not emancipate themselves as if they were men of low thoughts and narrow minds On the other hand Those who were still entangled with an opinion of the obligation of the Mosaical Law ought not to condemn such as acted with more freedom as if they were loose and lawless men To this a fourth Assertion is added That in such diversities of apprehensions men of both sides might be received and accepted by God both acting with good Intentions and following sincerely their Persuasions One man regarded a day He observed the Iewish Festivities their New Moons and days of rest called by the general word of Sabbaths yet in doing this under the sense of the Obligations of that Law lying still over him be regarded it to the Lord Another who reckoned himself freed from that Yoke did acknowledge that this his Liberty was occasioned by the Christian Religion so he in not observing it acknowledged that Religion which had set him free The same Rule is also instanced in observing the distinction of Meats the one did eat freely and thanked God for that liberty while the other did abstain from forbidden Meats and thanked God for that Law by which the Iewish Nation had so many special Priviledges beyond all other Nations so that God was honoured by both even in all that diversity of practices And perhaps a diversity of practices if with that a tender and perfect Charity could be maintained might be yet a greater honour to Religion than an absolute ageement in all points since it is a higher Instance of the power of Religion if men can love one another notwithstanding a diversity in opinion and practice than if they loved one another being in all points of the same mind and agreeing in the same practices After these came two Rules relating to private mens behaviour towards