Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	day_n	holy_a	sanctify_v	4,193	5	10.2830	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

your Impieties Are you able with the Salamander to live in Fire Can you dwell in everlasting Burnings Do you know what the Worm that never dies is And can you tell what the Fire unquenchable means If these things be not fictitious and imaginary if you are sensible that there is really a Heaven for the Good and a Hell for the Bad and are desirous to escape the one and be blessed in the other Leave off then pleading for your Vices and argue not the prevalency of any Temptation or the strength of Custom for your persevering in your Impieties Be no longer fond of your Disease your Fetters your Calamities But shake off your shackles wherewith you have been so long confined and break off your Sins by Repentance Let that Mouth which has Blasphemed Blaspheme no more but praise and magnifie the Name of the Lord for ever for his Name only is excellent and his Glory above the Earth and the Heaven 25. And here I cannot but take notice of the madness of those who seem to be fearful of taking God's Blessed Name in vain themselves The guilt of such as Swear not themselves but delight to hear others Swear and yet delight to hear others Swear and Blaspheme I blush to say that now-a days 't is the Gusto of company to have one prophane Wretch or other by his horrid Imprecations and unaccountable Oaths to move the rest to a fit of Laughter And there 's scarce any pleasant Harmony in Society without fearful sounding Execrations to fill up the Chorus But know Oh wretched Man whosoever thou art that makest as it were a Conscience of not Swearing thy self and yet takest pleasure in hearing others Blaspheme that thou art under the same Condemnation For they all shall be damned that have pleasure in unrighteousness A bare Connivance and Misprision as I may so say of this horrid High Treason against Heaven is enough to make thee a Traitor How much more then shall thy consenting to it in thy Will and countenancing it openly by thy complacency therein add to thy Guilt and Condemnation too Hate not then thy Brother in thy Heart by suffering and encouraging so great a Sin upon him but correct and hinder it if thou canst Or if 't is out of thy Power to do that yet be not of that Devillish Society which makes that a matter of Sport which should be the Cause of their greatest Humiliation and Rejoyce Triumph and Laugh at that which makes the Damned in Hell shed Rivers of Tears 26. I proceed to the last Species of Profaning God's Name 4ly Perjury considered whether by Circumvention or by Subornation viz. by that horrid Sin of Perjury And now I could wish with all my Soul there were no reason to cry aloud and exclaim mightily against this Wickedness I could wish none were guilty of it but Rash Swearers but we find that how much soever they may by a fatal Consequence slip into it yet there are too many who do it out of design and have their ends to serve therein 'T is too visible how common Circumventions and Over-reachings are and those Ushered in too frequently with the solemnity of an Oath 'T is a Mystery belonging to each Man's trade to be upon the sharp and tho' they Lie and Aequivocate Swear and Forswear themselves yet they are paid well enough they think can they get but the least gains imaginable thereby Nor is Profit the only Loadstone that draws men to the committing this great Impiety but the Gratifying the humours of Malice and Revenge works upon them altogether as much Hence do we often see Subornations and False-witnesses sinister Tricks and unlawful Quibbles so much in use in those times Can they but betray the Innocent to the severity of the Laws retaliate an Injury and expose the object of their hatred to the Censures of either church or State can they but procure either Sequestration or Excommunication against him how do they triumph and rejoyce in their inhuman Proceedings and proudly boast of their Malicious success But let such Impudent out-daring Knights of the Post know that this stretching of their Faith and Consciences tho' it has cast a Mist before the Inferiour Courts of Justice yet they cannot corrupt the Righteous Judge of all the World who will do right He will unmask their false Evidences Reverse the Decrees issued out against the Innocent and fix the Judgment where it should be upon the Perjurious Creatures head He will laugh at their Calamity and mock when their fear Cometh when their fear cometh as a desolation and their Destruction as a Whirlewind Prov. 1.26 27. 27. So common is this Wickedness The Difficulty of persuading men to leave this Sin of Perjury and so advantageous is it grown to carry on Mens Trades and Designs that 't is almost morally impossible to dissuade them from it You will seem to do them the greatest Injury imaginable should you be so impertinent to advise them to be men of their Words to speak the truth in sincerity and to be conscientious in their Calling You would destroy the greatest Pillar of their Trade take away the very support of their Merchandizing should you go about to straitlace their Conscience as they call it and keep them off from an Advantageous straining their Faiths when occasion requires The whole World are turned Sharpers and shall we say they be so scrupulous as to be afraid of u●●ng the same Methods of advancing our Interest as is genenerally used Fallere Fallentem non est Frans To Deceive the Deceiver is too well known a Maxim and too often practised by our Wicked Generation But to reclaim if possible those vile Exorbitancies I shall offer two Motives drawn 1. from the Consideration of the very Nature of the Crime and 2ly also from the greatness of the Punishment subsequent on the Guilt 28. Of what a Crimson Dye and Scarlet Grain this Sin is in its own Nature will appear First Motive to leave off this Sin is drawn from the greatness of it in its own Nature if we consider that the Offender incurs the guilt of breaking the whole Law and transgressing that general Duty he owes to God his Neighbour and Himself 1. He offers the greatest affront possible to God either in his ordinary Calling or in a more solemn manner when called to a Court of Judicature when he invokes the Father of Spirits and a Being that cannot Lie to be a Witness to his untruth and Malicious Falshoods 2. He commits a piece of Injustice against the whole Community of Mankind as well as deceives circumvents or fasly accuses any Particular person He not only injures the Object of his Revenge but perverts the Current and turns the stream of the Laws of Nations Blinds the Jury Corrupts the Judge puts the trick upon the whole Bench and makes Justice stand as a Blank or rather as a Mask to cover his Knaves Face withall 3. He is not

I 'll tell you what you are The Society whereof you are has a great Prevalence over you to make you of the same Mould with the whole If that he good you cannot but in Complaisance be or seem to be so too if That be Evil it would he no false Logick to conclude the Parts to be of the same Marke with the whole This is too evident to need Demonstration and were it to be doubted in other Vices yet in this of Uncleanness the Influence which one Debauch'd Companion has upon another to render him so too proves the Consequence to be too true A Loose Libertine and Licentious Conversation does easily incline a man to Joyn with the Multitude in one Common way of Lewdness and Debauchery Familiarity and Example Fear and Shame private Obligations and publick Engagements are as great Inducements to depraved Nature to comply with those to whom one stands Obliged in any of the former Respects And here I cannot chuse but blame such as out of a Frolick to see the Tricks of the Town and to experience the truth of what they Hear associate themselves with Lewd and Profligate persons running from Bandy-House to Baudy House from one Brothel to another 'till at last they carry the Coals of Fire so long that they are inflamed by Lust in good earnest 6ly To employ your Eyes and Thoughts and to help you to better Company I shall advise you in the next place to be frequent in reading and Meditating the Holy Scriptures for wherewithall shall a Young Man cleanse his way says the Royal Psalmist but by taking Heed thereto according to thy Word Herein you will see Life and Death Blessings and Cursings Promises and Threatnings Mercies and Judgments The one a Royal Priviledge appropriated to the Upright and Clean the other as a Punishment to the Man of Unclean Lips and a Lewd Conversation Herein you will see a Generously Chast and Continent Joseph exalted from a Dungeon to a Throne whilst the Incestuous Reuben is put by his Fathers Blessing Herein you will read of 24000 Israelites being killed in one day amidst their Whoredoms Numb 5. whilst Phineas for his Zeal in punishing the Delinquents atones for the Rest and obtains for himself a Covenant of Peace the Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood Herein you will see the Cause of the Massacre of Schechem and his People who were for Dinab's Rape cut off Root and Branch in one day Herein you will have a view of the Untimely ends of Hophni and Phineas of Amnon and Absalom of Incontinent Jezebel and and many others who by their Whoredoms Adulteries and Incestuous Embraces provoked the Merciful God to plague them with sundry Diseases and divers kind of Deaths 7ly When you have done your utmost to resist and find notwithstanding the Carnal part to be predominant Mortify as St. Paul advises your Members which are upon the Earth Keep under your unruly Body and bring it into Subjection that you do not become Cast-aways As Drunkenness and Gluttony increase so do Temperance and Sobriety take away the Oyl from the Flames To feed low and abstain from rich and delicious fare to Eat and Drink only to satisfie Nature without endeavouring to humour your Palats or satiate your Appetite will by degrees moderate your Lusts Fasting for whole Days and then to return to a full Table and Excess is not the way to cast out this Devil for it is as a Worthy * Bishop Taylor Prelate of our Church observes a Flatulent airy Spirit which an Empty Windy Stomach gives Life and Motion to It must be a constant Abstinence in the moderate use of coarse and homely Fare such as will not be prejudicial to your Health that will be of greatest Force to subdue your Corrupt Natures and to beat down those Insurrections which ever and anon arise and raise a Civil War between your outward and your inward Man 8ly To that of Fasting and all the other forementioned Helps add that of Frequent Prayer All the rest without this are but as dead Letters Herein the Soul owns its weakness and acknowledgeth that 't is not in Man to direct his ways sensible whereof it sends up this winged Messenger of Prayer to crave for Assistance from above and never leaves intreating till some such Answer as this be given My Grace is sufficient for thee Be you instant therefore in imploring for the Spirit of Purity for Chast Thoughts and Temperate Reins Make such as these your daily and hourly requests Create in us a Clean Heart O Lord and renew a right Spirit within us wash us throughly from our Wickedness and cleanse us from our Sin Purge us with Hysop and we shall be clean wash us and we shall be whiter than Snow Purifie our Hearts and search throughly if there be any Wickedness in us And since your Prayers have no express promises of a success unless your own Endeavours back them take up Holy Job's Resolution of making a Covenant with your Eyes that you will not look upon a Maid And with David keep your Mouth as with a Bridle that you offend not with your Tongue Let your Hearts be filled with Chast desires and your Minds employed in Contemplating on the Goodness and the Mercy of the Lord which should lead you to repentance Let your hands be pure and so lift them up to the Throne of Grace and turn your Feet into the ways of Righteousness Eph. 6.13 14 15 16.17 Thus being Arm'd with the whole Armour of God your Loins girded about with the Truth and having the Breastplate of Righteousness being shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and taking above all things the Shield of Faith whereby you will be able to withstand the fiery Darts of the Devil and the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit you will be the better able to grapple against your Lusts and be guarded against a Relapse which oft proves more dangerous and desperate than the disease 9thly The Last Antidote commonly prescribed against Uncleanness is Marriage By this holy Ordinance God has taken off all reason of Complaint and the Oppression Tyranny Injustice and all other Invectives cast upon the Deity for implanting in Man such Naturals which must be satisfied and for prohibiting the fullfilling of these by Express Laws are quite wiped away the Murmurings and Imputations of Cruelty Severity and the like are here silenced And if the Letcher after such a Liberty granted shall continue in his Unlawful Amours if he shall forsake his own to Climb up into an Adulterous Bed He has no plea drawn from the strength of Inclination the bent of his Constitution or the like to excuse himself withal not can he Charge the Sin any where but upon his own Corrupted and Vitiated Will St. Paul seems to intimate as much and declares this Honourable Institute was appointed to avoid Fornication Not is it enough to forbear all unlawful and forbidden Embraces nor