Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	creation_n	day_n	rest_v	4,116	5	9.5419	5	true

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

frequented Oratories Will the Churches contain the confluence of Auditors Will our Absence or Presence lessen or augment the number of the Faithful Had not we better tarry away than go with unprepared Hearts to fleep or stare away the time Such as these are the Evasions made now a-days by many but Poor Creatures little do they consider who it is that suggests those Idle Reasonings into them else they would see clearly that 't is Gods Command that we by keeping Holy this His blessed Day might meditate on his Glorious Works of our Creation and Redemption and learn how to know and to keep all the rest of his Holy Laws and Commandments This is the Market-Day of our Souls and where should we go to buy the Food of Angels and the Waters of Life the Wine of the Sacrament and the Milk of the Word of God to feed our drooping Souls but at those Ordinances where they are to be had without Money and without Price Where should we receive the precious Eye-salve to Unscale our benighted Eyes and heal our Spiritual Blindness but from those Spiritual Physitians How can our wounded Consciences and troubled Spirits and broken Hearts be cured of their Maladies unless we come there where the Balm of Gilead drops from the Lips of the Preacher Besides in this publick Ordinance of the Church we own God to be not only the Lord and Maker of every Individual person but to be the Head of the Mystical Body to be the Sovereign over the Universal World 6. There are others who are constant in the Publick Congregation Secondly By neglecting the Private Duties of the Family make as it were a Conscience of going Morning and Evening to Church but then this is all they think is required at their Hands If you should tell them of Repetition Meditation Family-Duties Catechising Exhorting c. They must beg your Pardon there They do not design to make the Lord's Day a Burden to them They will not turn their Houses into Conventicles They will not be Righteous over much they must be excused from being singular And they will not differ from their Neighbours This and the like Language you shall be sure to find from most For God knows to the shame of Christianity Men are so stupid and cold so Luke-warm and indifferent in their Great Concern that it is well if a Prayer be said in a Private Family Once a Week And what is more to be lamented That is wanting also in most Houses And when the Master of the House is so remiss no wonder if the Servants and Children trifle away the Remainder of the Day and after His Example grow as unconcerned in their Private and Closet Duties as he was in the more publick Ones of His Family Nay more it is to be feared he himself is as seldom in Secret as he cares to be Openly Good and Pious I would not be thought Uncharitable and therefore leave the Judging of their retired Thoughts to Him whose only Jurisdiction it is to know and discern the Secrets of all Hearts and pass on to the Consideration of the next way by which men may be said to profane this Holy Day viz. 7. By following the Works of their Ordinary callings either by themselves their Servants Thirdly The Lords-Day profaned by following our Ordinary Callings by Our selves Servants or Beasts or their Beasts If the neglect of Sanctifying the Lords-Day by our Publick and Private Duties be a Profanation thereof How much more then is it profane to violate it by any servile Labour or forbidden vocation It is the Express Letter of the Command that on this Day we should do no manner of Work neither we nor our Sons nor our Daughters nor our Men-Servants nor our Maid-Servants nor our Cattel nor the Stranger that is within our Gates How then shall they Answer the Outfacing of so strict a Command who shall presume contrary to both God's and Humane Laws to follow their Ordinary Imployment thereon whether by Themselves their Servants or their Beasts And with these I must beg leave to Expostulate a while Are not six Days enough to bestow on this World and the Concerns thereof Cannot you spare one day in Seven to cease from your Labours Will you be so cruel as to give your selves no respite from the fatigues of Toyl and Business Shall the Ten Commandments and the Constitutions of a Christian Government be kinder to your Nature and more Compassionate thereto than you your selves And is it not enough to afflict your own Bodies and rob your own Souls of that Spiritual Nourishment but you must lay burthens upon your Servants and deprive them of that Advantage which they might reap by the Religious Observation of this Day 'T is sad to reflect upon the many Unfortunate Servants who are Articled under such Pagan-Christian Masters and I cannot forbear bestowing a Sigh and a Tear or two at their unalterable Calamity For this our Metropolitan City without looking further can furnish us with many Hundreds I wish I could not say Thousands of those Unsanctified Wretches who having not the fear of God before their Own Eyes care not how little those that do belong to them are instructed in the Points of Religion And as they are for cutting off all other Opportunities of their growing in Grace so are they carefull to debar them of This season of improving themselves therein by Sanctifying the Lords Day Thus is the Miserable Young-man by a Seven Years irreligious Course of Life become at last as Stupid and Profane a Person as his Master before him And when out of his Time it is seldom that ever he recollects himself but deals as hardly with his own Apprentice And can we expect the Profane Wretch would be more merciful to his Beasts No certainly He would use them as hardly as his Servants were not the Laws of our Land strict in the restraining of such unaccountable Cruelties And truly it is as much as the Magistrate can do to keep the Traveller from his unnecessary Journeys and to debar the Hackney-Coaches from plying in our very Streets on the Lords-Day 8. And Here I cannot but wish the Gentry would forbear their visiting the Churches in State and contrive a better way of going thither then in their Ceremonial Chariots 'T is true their Beasts may not be put to hard Service but then their Coachmen who have Souls as precious in the Eyes of the Lord as any others lose the Priviledge of the Publick Ordinances by being forced to attend and look to their Coach and Horses at the Church doors I speak not this to affront any but only to put them in mind of contriving ways if they must be Coached to Church so to dispose of their Coach and Horses that their Servants as well as Themselves may have the Benefit of serving their Common and Great Master 9. But to return there is besides this of Labour another way by which the Lords-Day is