Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	worldly_a	worship_n	worship_v	14	3	7.3463	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33970	A modest plea for the Lords Day or rather the summe of the plea made by divines for the Lords Day as the Christian Sabbath, against those who contend for the old Sabbath of the seventh day, in order from the creation / by J.C., D.D.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1669 (1669)	Wing C5327; ESTC R43109	56,915	142

the law of nature obligeth us to worship him and by consequence to set some time apart for it for all humane actions must be done in time yet nature directeth us not to a seventh nor to this seventh nor yet to those acts of worship which God requireth of us We are I suppose agreed that both the old and new Testament ought to be eyed as our rule in the case and indeed the old testament is most full in its directions of this nature In the new we find the Sabbath altered the Jewish superstitions and mis-interpretations corrected the practical observation of it justified by the Examples of our Saviour the Apostles and others but the rules about it are but few Our Lord intending to leave his people as in many other points of the moral Law to the fuller direction of the Laws and the Prophets Now in the old Testament we find somthing in the Law in the five books of Moses something in the Prophets The Original Law we find Exod. 20. for concerning the Sabbath in the Patriarchs time I shall say nothing it being not my question to examine when the observation began but how it should be observed The fourth commandment plainly requireth that it should be kept as on holy rest it requires it to be kept as a day of rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and requireth us to keep it holy so Exod. 35.2 an holy day a Sabbath of rest Rest is opposed to Motion and Action Holiness is opposed to idleness and filthiness I say first Rest is opposed to Motion Action yet it is apparent from scripture that neither all Motion nor all action fall under the prohibition of that precept We shall find both our Saviour and his Apostles going into the Synagogues on the Sabbath day and the latter going out of the City Acts 16.13 hence Act. 1.13 we read of a Sabbath dayes journey i. e. such a journey as a man might lawfully take on the Sabbath day what length that might be hath possibly unnecessarily troubled many doubtless so much is to be understood as one might conveniently go to attend upon the worship of God it is no improbable conjecture That the phrase hath reference to the first settlement of the Jewish Church upon their march in the wilderness There were to be 200 hundred Cubits between the Arke and the Camp Josh 3.4 And in probability when they rested they were to keep the same distance this some interpret one mile others two miles On the Sabbath day they all were to come up to the Ark to worship which was 200 hundred Cubits distant from the nearest of them and at a far greater distance from those who incamped farthest off the Ark. Godwin's Jewish Antiquities l. 2. cap. 3. Besides this we shall easily understand what Motion is lawful on the Sabbath day if we understand what Action is lawful For such Motion as is necessary to such Action must also be lawful So it is lawful for a Physitian to go to his patient For a man having a beast fallen into a pit to go to help it out c. Secondly as all Motion from our places is not prohibited so neither in all action Our Actions are divided into such as are Natural flowing from a principle and necessity of nature and serving to the upholding and conservation of nature As eating drinking sleeping c. Under the notion of moral actions we comprehend all our actions of worldly labour in our callings and places By religious actions we understand acts of worship by which we give an homage to God The fourth commandment requires that we should do no manner of work but it is apparent from other Scriptures that all actions all work is forbidden To open to you the mind of God in this thing a little 1. Acts of Religious worship or tending directly to it are so far from being forbidden that they are commanded The Jews might kill and offer beasts for sacrifices 1 Chron. 23.31 Num. 28.9 10. The Priests might order the lamps set on the new bread the Jews might circumcise an infant The Scribes might expound the Law They might blow their trumpets to call the assembly Num. 10.2 10. Watch to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath c. Neh. 13.22 Whence the Jews were wont to say that In the temple there was no Sabbath no rest there all were at work In analogy to this there can be no doubt but it is lawful to study preach read hear pray sing baptize on the Lords day in order thereto to ring Bells to call people together to be imployed in seeing to others observation of it These sort of actions is so far from being unlawful that they are actions for the Sabbath Opus diei in die suo 2. A second sort of action lawful on the Sabbath day are such as are necessary to preserve the being or well-being of creatures Thus it is lawful for Physitians or Chirurgions to apply medicines to their patients Our Saviour abundantly vindicates this Joh. 3.5 9. Luk. 13.12 13. Luk. 6.10 Joh. 9.6 Mat. 12.10 And so for nurses to attend those that are sick or young children to go for a Physitian to prepare physick let blood c. To save the life of another to indea●our to preserve our own lives by fighting in opposition to an enemy by fleeing from an enemy to be in arms for the desence of our Prince or Country 1 Kings 20.9 2 Kings 11.5 6. For the Magistrate to commit malefactors Numb 15.34 To dress meat our Saviour justified the disciples rubbing ears of Corn Mat. 12 1 2 3. We find our Saviour at a feast on the Sabbath day Luk. 14.1 2 3. and others were bidden v. 7. To feed and water cattle justified by our Saviour Luk. 13.15 To keep our goods from being lost upon which our Saviour Job 5. justified the lame man carrying of his bed Undoubtedly actions that tend to preserve the being or usefulness of a thing of which we have a moral certainty that without such labour on the Sabbath the creature would perish or be unuseful and corrupt are lawful on the Lords day This all stands upon that principle That God loves mercy rather than sacrifice And upon that principle 3. Actions also of mercy and charity are by all Determined lawful Such as are visiting the sick c. Many of those which come under the Schoolemens two verses Visito poto cibo redimo tego colligo condo Giving bread to the hungry beer to the thirsty burying the dead relieving the captives c. So as we find the rest commanded in the fourth commandment limited by these exceptions and it must remain unlawful in any other causes to labour From whence we may gather That the prohibitions we read of in Scripture of not kindling a fire on the Sabbath day Exod. 35. and Exod. 16.29 For not going out of their place on the seventh day to gather manna must not be taken in that strictness in which some would

exercise themselves to ●●p a good conscience both towards God and ●owards men Of these more than a thou●and for one are of a contrary mind to our ●rethren in this point so that I cannot ●ut think that our brethren must needs up●n mature thoughts conceive that as it is possible they may be mistaken because they are but men so it is probable if not more than probable that they are mistaken because the very far greater number of Christians who are as inquisitive after the will of God as our Brethren are as much afraid of sinning against God as our brethren and as able to finde out the will of God as our brethren are yet are of another mind and that not only upon a tradition or custom running along with a multitude at adventures but upon a most serious debating and arguing the business and candid hearing all that can be said on the other side I say these things being considered surely our brethren must judge it probable that they are mistaken It is not likely that their natural or acquired parts should be more than those of them who are against them nay it is most certain they are short of them And what can our brethren have to incline them to think that God hath left all his faithfull Ministers all his precious people who study his will and serve him and beg his direction with prayers and tears night and day and in so great a point as this left them to erre and revealed himself only to these few of our brethren Now if it be possible that our brethren may be mistaken if it be probable that they are mistaken all our brethren can say is That it is possible they may not be mistaken but that all Christians except themselves are in the error and they are verily perswaded that it is so Truly considering the great numbers of the most learned and strictly godly persons who have all along been otherwise perswaded and for fifteen or sixteen hundred years have been so and lived in the contrary practice it is hardly possible to imagine they should or that indeed they should be mistaken because they cannot be presumed to have been without the presence of Christ and the guidance of the infallible Spirit If indeed what our Brethren sometimes suggest this practice were contrary to the fourth Commandement if that had been so penned as the sense must necessarily be what they contend for it had been something But when the Commandement is so penned that unless they will be wonderfully partial to themselves they must con●ess that the fourth Commandement may remain an inviolable Law and yet the same Sabbath may not be required by it to be observed by us which at the giving of that Precept was in force amongst the Jewes Certainly our Brethren must labour under a great mistake in this point rather than all other Churches of Christ otherwise perswaded I must confess it is our brethrens unhappiness that whiles they are thus perswaded it were sin for them to act against the perswasion or strong opinion of their conscience yet in not acting contrary they also sin against God This is the misery under which an erroneous Conscience bringeth those who are under the miserable command of it all therefore that I would do by this discourse is but to reform our brethrens understanding and to offer such things to them as through Gods blessing may first bring them to another perswasion and then to another practice That while they agree with us in the same specifical acts of Worship they may also agree with us in the same numericall acts and in the same solemn time also And certainly I have said enough if our brethren bring no more prejudice to the reading of this discourse than I have had in the writing of it to induce those of our brethren who have any candor to think that they are in a mistake Indeed the whole stress lies upon a right understanding of the Fourth Commandement and I shall now leave it to our brethren seriously to advise whether they can judge that the necessary sense of that Precept which they must make so or it will serve them in no stead I designed at first but a very short and plain Discourse I shall therefore here break it off and make up the rest in Prayers both for us and our Brethren that God would clear up all our doubts correct all our mistakes pardon all our failings make us all of one heart and one way and lead us into all truth An Exhortation to the more strict observation of the Sabbath where are Directions and motives to that great piece of our duty I Had here laid aside my pen and have only taken it up again upon a suggestion that some of our Brethren should say unto me according to that Proverb Luke 4.23 Physitian heal thy self Speak to those of your own perswasion in this point that they would keep their Sabbath more like a Sabbath than they do and certainly it is far more excusable to keep any day of the seven with a religion befitting a Sabbath than for any while they declare against the Jews and those who appear to them to Judaize in this point to be indeed zealous for no Sabbath at all And indeed in this thing our brethren would have a great advantage against too many of us if themselves did not severely observe their seventh day but I observe too many of them as remiss ●s others so as while our zeal is spent about keeping several Sabbaths neither party are so universally consciencious as they ought to be in keeping any This hath made me judge it worth the while to resume my pen and me-thinks I hear as soon as I have done it God speaking to me as to Hosea on another argument Plead with your Mother and with your brethren plead for she is not my wife neither am I her husband Let her therefore put away her Sabbath neglects out of my sight and her Sabbath profanations from her Lest I strip her naked as in the day wherein she was born and make her as a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst Hosea 2.2 3. And indeed what Luther with respect to Apostacy in matter of Doctrine was wont to say of the Doctrine and Article of Justification the same I think may be said as to observation● of the Sabbath with reference to holiness in a Church and its members It is Articulus sta●ti● cade●●is Ecclessae The Article of a standing or declining Church It will upon observation be found true that the strictness and holyness of Life found either in societies of people or in particular persons will be in degree much according to their zeal or remisness in the observation of the Sabbath In what things the sanctification of the Sabbath lieth we shall best learn from the Scripture and we can be no other way informed For though the light of nature shewing us a God