Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	christian_a	day_n	sabbath_n	3,036	5	9.9499	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67639	The vindication of the solemnity of the nativity of Christ shewing the grounds upon which the observation of that and other festivalls is justified in the church : with a short answer to certaine quaeries propounded by one Ioseph Heming in oppositon to the aforesayd practise of the church / by Thomas Warmstry ...	Warmstry, Thomas, 1610-1665.	1648 (1648)	Wing W893; ESTC R12863	19,965	29

power of the civill Magistrate and by the authenticall Lawes of the Kingdome in those Acts of Parliament which have establisht these things must either engage all that are within the verge of the Church and of this Church and State especially unto a peaceable and pious obedience thereunto or else leave the staine of Impiety Faction and of a turbulent and disorderly spirit or else of folly and blindnesse upon all those that oppose it Indeed there is nothing free from temptations but it is well said of one as I remember and may be well considered of others that it is not at least not alwaies the infirmity but the excellency of things that maketh them the matter of temptation Abuses of things that are good must teach us wisedome and caution but not set us upon confusion And truly there is need of more warines in the observation of these daies then hath been used by many 1. That superstitiō be avoided that we think not one day in it self better or more holy then another but only so far as they are actually designed or applyed unto the service of God we must remember that these and other particular times as places are but circumstances in the time of the Gospell the substance is in the worship and service that is given unto God thereupon not in the observation of this or that particular day which is in it selfe a matter of liberty as the Apostle sheweth Rom. 14.5 c. Col. 2.16 And that may be a satisfactory reason why in the new Testament these things are not particularly or expresly injoined in Scripture because these are but matters of Order and of liberty not of absolute necessity and therefore left to the moderation of the Church but then we must remember that the liberty of Christians is first the right and interest of the Body and then of the Members who must not urge their particular interest against publique moderations and constitutions in these things yea it is a maine liberty that belongs unto the whole body of the Church that she hath power to restra●ne the liberty of private Members by publique authority for the publique good but Superstition must be avoided as I have said noe humane authority must impose these or any such like things as substantiall unalterable or absolutely necessary to salvation but as matters of Order as holy circumstances and meanes conducible unto higher ends and so and no otherwise they are to be received and obeyed by the people according to this is that of a late learned Father of our Church Non putandum plus sanctitatis uni di●i inesse quam alteri sad sciendum quod propter ordinem praeceptum Ecclesiae aliasque causas supra memoratas uno die magis quam alio convenimus ad hac exercitia sanctitatis And againe Non putandum Bishop Davenant upon the Coloss c. 2. v. 16. c. we are not to thinke that the Church of God is tyed by any necessity to the immutable observation of these particular Festivall daies Sed statuendum saith he dies hosce humanâ authoritate constitutos câdem posse tolli mutari si utilitas necessitas Ecclesiae id postulaverit nam omnis res per quascunque Causas nascitur per casdem dissolvitur But it must be so judged that these daies which are appointed by humane authority may be abolished and altered by the same where the profit and necessity of the Church doth require it for all things are dissolved by the same causes whereby they are established But then this ought to be done upon good and true grounds and by 〈◊〉 power equall at least to that that hath established them 2. There must be care taken that there be a prudent moderation used in the number of such daies that nothing be imposed o-over burdensome upon the people 3. That they be rightly imployed not in Superstitious worshiping of Saints or Angels as is in use in the Church of Rome nor yet in riot intemperance or any other sinfull liberty as hath been the practise of too many amongst us making little or no other use of such times but to give themselves to idlenesse loosenesse and vanity an evill that hath not onely violated the holinesse of these Festivals we speak of but also the Lords day which some have turned into Sabbathum Vituli aurei into the Sabbath of the Golden Calfe of which it is said Exod. 32. That The people sate downe to cate and drinke and rose up to play Others into Sabbathum B●●●● Asinorum the Sabbath of the Oxe and the Asse spending it in eating and drinking and doing nothing and too many make little or no other difference betweene that and other dayes But onely in putting on their better cloathes and giving themselves to none or else worse imployment then all the rest of the weeke as if bene vestiri nihil agere To be well attired and to doe nothing were to celebrate the Christian Sabbath And indeed it cannot be denyed but as this hath been the ill lot that too many have cast upon the Lords day and other Festivalls So it hath been too too much the share of the Solemnities appoynted for the celebrating the Birth of our Saviour and the rest of the Festivalls that the Church hath joyned with it which instead of being made dayes of prayse and thanksgiving to God and of the exercise of other holy christian and charitable duties with that sobriety that becomes Christians have been made dayes of riot and gaming and wantonnesse and unlawfull liberty as if men were to sacrifice to the Devill for these great and incomprehensible mercies of God A great and intollerable abuse of such blessed opportunities and such as although it doth not at al justifie men in the abolition of them but should rather have set them upon the Reformation of those miscarriages and the restitution of such times unto the first and prefitable institution of them That these evills and corruptions being removed the divine Solemnities and Religious Duties might have been returned and advanced still amongst us to the comfort of the Church and the honour of the name of God Yet they may justly provoke God to deprive us of the comfort of these joyfull Celebrities which wee have so miserably abused to his dishonour and the hurt of our selves and of our brethren But these being the errours of particular men they do not blemish the constitution of the Church in these things which intendeth not such times for such evill purposes but for the service and honour of God and the edification of his people And therefore as it must be the care of all good Christians to seperate the abuses in practice So it is their part and duty to yeeld a ready obedience unto so profitable and wholesome a constitution and as in other Festivalls so in this of the Nativity of Christ c. This being as it were the rising of the Sunne of righteousnesse upon us