thou mayst when thou wilt Rest from Labour God hath appointed a time when the Man-Servant and the Maid-Servant may do this as well as thy self and that is upon his Sabbath of Rest Now thy Man-Servant and thy Maid-Servant may Rest as well as thou yea thou art bound in equity and Conscience to favour thy Servants and after a special manner give them Rest on the Lords day Not that Servants or Labourers are exempted from Sanctifying God's Sabbaths by performing in them Holy and Religious Exercises But this I say if they keep the Church duly and shew no distaste or dislike of Houshold Piety but are willing to hear the Word read and to Pray with their Masters on the Lords day when they are required They should in Mercy and Compassion to them give them some time wherein they may rest from Labour and have a Relaxation from Spiritual and Divine Duties The Spirit truly is willing but the Flesh is weak and Masters of Families cannot so Sanctifie God's Sabbath that they should spend it wholly in Religious Exercises and therefore they should not wonder at their Servants if they be willing on the sabbath-Sabbath-day to have some time wherein they may Rest from Labour and have a Relaxation from Spiritual and Divine Duties Yea the wisdom of Governours considering the impossibility that all the world should be wholly devoted to Holy and Religious Exercises on the Lords day did think fitting to permit Day-Labourers Men-servants and Maid-servants to recreate themselves at seasonable times on the Lords day lest while they Rested from Labour and were vacant from Spiritual and Divine Duties they should run out into Riot and Excess or into some worse sins This Toleration of sports and pastimes on the Lords day did no more disprove the Morality of the Sabbath nor no more prove sports and pastimes on the Lords day to be Lawful than the Statute that stinteth Usury at a certain summe in the hundred proveth Usury to be Lawful by the Word of God Whereas the Statute is express that no Man should Collect from that Statute that that Usury or any Usury was Law-Lawful in Religion and Conscience But it hath been Objected heretofore by some and it may be will be Objected again That there was never any Law made heretofore for the toleration of Sports and Pastimes on the Lords day Because there is an Act of Parliament that doth expresly forbid that no Persons should go out of their own Parish to use any sports and pastimes whatsoever To this I Answer that it was usual in times of Popery of blindness and of Ignorance Many Parishes did meet at one Parish to Celebrate Bacchanalian Feasts and to have tumultuous Assemblies Drunken Wakes and Disordered Meetings And the wisdom of Governours did prudently provide against this mischief But it may be probably Collected and reasonably Concluded that the Honourable Assembly the High Court of Parliament by prohibiting People to go out of their own Parishes to use sports and pastimes on the Lords day did tacitely yield that if they did keep themselves within their own Parishes they might at seasonable times use such sports and pastimes on the Lords day as were judged Lawful on other days But if the Honourable Assembly the High Court of Parliament shall Declare that this is not the meaning of that Act and shall hereafter with the consent of his Sacred Majesty make an Act against Peoples using all sports and pastimes whatsoever as well in their own Parishes as out of them It becometh me and all peaceable Sons of the Church to judge That no body ought to tolerate themselves or to countenance or encourage others in the use of any sports and pastimes on the Lords day whether in their own Parishes or out of them But yet this I say the Holy Man Job in the Profession of his Innocency Job 31. 13. layeth it down How he did not despise the Cause of his Man-Servant or of his Maid-Servant when they contended with him And Masters of Families while they look to restrain their Servants from using sports and Pastimes on the Lords day they should take heed how they constrain them to work It is usual with some Masters of Families who seem to be very Pious very watchful over their Servants that they use no sports and pastimes on the Lords day they very frequently constrain them to work on the Lords day Set them to mend yea to make Hedges no necessity constraining Yea many times they set them to Brew and do Actions as painful and laborious as any are done on the week days Masters of Families if they do Observe in their Servants a care of Religion and Piety that they are willing to be present at Divine Duties Publickly at Gods House Privately in their Houses they should be compassionate towards them allow them some times to refresh themselves to rest from Labour on the Lords day Yea they should be thus Merciful to the dumb Beasts for God many times heareth the groans of their Ox and their Asse and much more will he hear the Cry of their Servants when they cry against them They should be more Compassionate to them in the bowels of Compassion they should look upon their Servants and esteem of them as their Fellow-Servants in Christ Jesus and think that God hath made them Lords not Tyrants over them to cause them to drudge and droyl without any Intermission Besides times of Rest on the Lords day which they ought and are bound to allow their Servants they should think of it and allow them sometimes to recreate themselves The Church hath Constituted Holy-days and though they ought principally to be kept by performing in them Holy and Religious Exercises yet without doubt sports and pastimes at seasonable times may be used on these days And Merciful Masters if their Servants keep the Church duly and be present at publique Prayers on Holy-days they should allow them Liberty to Recreate themselves on these days to use sports and pastimes None of us can Sanctifie a Sabbath of Rest as we should in this World we should Serve God on week days on Holy-days but especially on the Lords day we have many failings and fallings and fall short of our Duties Let us bear with one anothers Infirmities and the good God shall pardon all our Infirmities and accept of our weak and imperfect Serving him APPLICATION I Have spoken of a Sabbath of Rest and indeed we should all the days of our Life keep a Sabbath unto God We should Rest from sin pray unto him always and be constantly devout But the day that he hath Sanctified and set apart for his Worship and Service we should above all days remember that after a peculiar manner Sanctifie it and spend it in Holy and Religious Exercises This is the King the Queen of Days and of all other days ought to be had in chiefest estimation It is a great Errour of the Papists when they cause the Maid to Exalt her self above
celebrated The People of God before the Law and after the Law given in Mount Sinai were to keep the seventh day from the Creation and no other It may be objected that the Sun which is the measure of time and of days it stood still in the dayes of Joshua it went backward in the dayes of Hezekiah so that that particular seventh day from the Creation which was first celebrated could not be punctually observed by the people of God under the law To this I answer That so long as the people of God under the Law did according to common computation keep the seventh day from the Creation without any willful varying from God his institution from the intent and meaning of the law-maker who neverrequireth of menimpossibilities they could not be said to be guilty of the breach of the fourth Commandment though they did not observe that numerical identical day from the Creation which was first celebrated He that made the law may change the Law and he that made time in his hand times and seasons are and he may change them according to his own pleasure The spirit of God by the Apostles did change the seventh day from the Creation into that seventh day which we now celebrate in memorial of our Saviour's Resurrection and the seventh day from the Creation hath forfeited its right and is become a common working day by his appointment in whose hands times and seasons are who changeth them according to his own pleasure and now the day sanctified and set apart for God is our Christian Sabbath the Lord's day the first day of the week this and no other is to be sanctified and whosoever they be that are Christians acquainted with the Scriptures and the word of God or the practice of the Church in the Apostles times if they set apart any other 7th day to be sanctified as the day of God's institution beside that which we now celebrate they make themselves liable to God's displeasure in this world and to his eternal indignation in the world to come It may be objected against our Christian sabbath that that particular seventh which the Apostles instituted by the spirit or rather the spirit by the Apostles it hath not continued without change to some and it is a question whether it can be continued without change to any it is observed that men in travelling to some places of the World and some Christians have occasion to Travel for necessary traffick lose one day in a year yea Astronomers that observe the motion of the Heavens and the measure of time do observe that there is continually some losse or at least some change of time so that that particular seventh day that was first instituted we supposing a seventh day to be set apart could not successively long continue without some change or alteration To this I answer Whether they be travellers or who else they be if they do not willfully transgresse nor purposely vary from God's institution but according to common computation reckoning time according to the custome of the place where they live and the persons with whom they converse do celebrate the first day of the week the Lord's day the seventh day which the spirit of God by the Apostles did Command without choosing any other seventh day of their own heads if I say as near as they can they keep themselves to God's institution they cannot be said to offend against the morality of the fourth Commandement whereby God hath set apart a seventh day of rest in memorial of his resting from the works of his Creation neither can they be said to transgresse God's Command by the Apostles whereby he hath instituted this seventh day which we now sanctifie as a day of rest in memorial of our Saviour's rest from the great work of our Redemption I shall illustrate this by a plain similitude taken out of Scripture God Commanded the Children of Israel to keep Numb 9. 10. the passeover unto him at a set time of the year upon a set day of the month they were to keep it in the first month upon the fourteenth day of the month it so fell out that certain men were defiled by the dead they inquired of God by Moses whether they were so necessarily tyed to the day that they might not keep the passover at all if they did not keep it on the day wherein it was enjoyned to be kept answer was returned that if any were unclean or were in a journey a far off then he might alter the time and whereas the prescript time for keeping the passeover was the 14th day of the first month the time might be altered and the passeover kept on the fourteenth day of the second month but if a man were clean and not in a journey and should forbear to keep the passeover at the set time appointed he should be cut off from the people of God because he brought not the offering of God in his appointed season If necessity constrain and men be in a journey travelling or the change of times be such that that particular seventh day instituted cannot successively be continued or punctually observed God doth not tie men to impossibilities nor yet to great inconveniences and if men do not willfully transgress nor vary from God's institution but according to common computation as neer as they can keep the seventh day instituted for certain they keep God his Sabbaths and observe his Ordinances But if men be not in a journey travelling and be not hindred from keeping according to common Computation the 7th day instituted and will upon their own heads keep the Jewish Sabbath the seventh day from the Creation the sabbath that is now cancelled or think it sufficient to keep any day of their own devising without observing of the Lord's day according to the Lord's Ordinance they exclude themselves from the Communion of Saints and without serious and unseigned Repentance make themselves liable to God's wrath here to his eternal displeasure hereafter for not keeping the Lord his Rest nor Sanctifying the Sabbath in its appointed season It may be Objected that the Church of God is still guided by the Spirit and if the Spirit of God by the Apostles did change the Day that was first Instituted by God which was the Seventh Day from the Creation into that Seventh Day which we now Celebrate May not the Church of God change it again from this Seventh Day to some other To this I Answer that it cannot be supposed that there should be such ground and reason for the change of the day as there was in the Apostles Time The cause of the change of the Day it was in memory of our Saviour's Resurrection because that on that Day he rested from the great work of our Redemption I suppose therefore in regard the like Reason of a Change cannot be given the Spirit of God will not again guide the Church to alter the Day I shall propound a Question more profitable
which tendeth more to Edification and that is whether God's Consecrating a Seventh Day to himself and Commanding a weekly Sabbath to be Sanctified whether this take away the Service of God on Holy days or on other days of the week To this I Answer that our weekly Sabbath is severed and set a part and after a peculiar manner Sanctified for God's Use but yet we ought to provide for the Service of God in some manner and measure every Day in the week but especially Holy-days and our usual Festivals they ought solemnly to be kept and Religiously Observed though there be no day of Divine Institution which God hath expresly Commanded to be kept Holy but our weekly Sabbath yet all hold that more time should be allotted to his Service and the Equity of Constituting Holy-days of serving God on the week days of Prayâ—ng unto him Publickly Privately in his House in our own Houses these things are grounded on the Fourth Commandment I shall first prove it concerning Holy-days that God's Commanding a weekly Sabbath after a peculiar manâ—er to be Sanctified it doth not inhibit but rather command a solemn Observation of our usual Festivals To this opinion Mr. Calvin inclineth Non sic sâ—ptenarium numerum Lib. 2. in cap. 8. sect 34. moror ut ejus servituti Ecclesiam restringam neque Ecclesias dannavero quae alios conventibus suis solennes dies habeant modo à superstitione absint I stick not so saith Mr. Calvin to the Number of Seven that it should bind the Church to the bondage of the seventh day Neither will I condemn Churches that have other Solemn Dayes for their publique Meetings Aret. 〈◊〉 com de feriis so they be voyd of Superstition To this Aretius consenteth Vt alii alios dies adderent Sabbato feriandos nihil in hac revitii in esse judicamus That some should adde other dayes to the Sabbath to be kept holy we do not think this to be amiss And Vrsin in his Catechism having propounded what is required in the Fourth Commandement returneth this Answer Vt ego cum aliis precipue Festis diebus coetus divinos frequentem That I with others especially on Holy Dayes should be present at solemn Assemblies and Divine Meetings Sermon on Job 10. v. 22. Dr. Donn sometimes Dean of Pauls hath delivered his Opinion agreeable to this Though God hath taken a seventh part of our time in the Sabbath yet he taketh more too for he appointeth other Sabbaths other Festivals and in all Sabbaths there is a cessation To this agreeth Bucer having spoken of the Sanctification of the Lords day he further addeth it is agreeable to our Piety to sanctifie other Festivals also to the Commemoration of the Lord his chief works whereby he perfected our Redemption as the day of our Saviours Incarnation Nativity Epiphany the Passion Resurrection Pentecost Besides our usual Festivals and solemn dayes of Rejoycing which though they be appointed by men yet the Equity of constituting them is grounded on the Fourth Commandement no reasonable man nor good Christian will deny but some time may but some time ought to be appointed every day in the Week for the Service of God In Towns and Cities where People may conveniently meet that they ought to resort to the Temple and the House of God to offer unto him their Morning and their Evening Sacrifice and worship him in the Beauty of Holiness this is a thing so just and reasonable that I hope I need not tell those who doe this that they do but their Duties for their own Consciences wâ—ll tell those who live in places where they may doe it that they ought to pray publiquely every day in the week and attend upon God's service continually We are not so happy in Countrey Villages that we should meet publickly every day in the week to worship God in the Beauty of Holiness And for People that live in unwalled Towns and Countrey Villages if they keep the Church duely on Sundayes and Holydayes Week-dayes Prayers are required of them but at some times in the year and when they are required it is not required that they should pray every day in the week It is truth Masters of Families should be mindfull of Houshold-piety and there are none but they should pray in their own persons continually such a Sabbath of Rest should be sanctified to God continually and it is grounded on the Morality of the Fourth Commandement I shall conclude in the words of Mr. Greenham in his Treatise of the Sabbath though no day ought to be separated from God's use the Sabbath ought to be severed from all other uses and wholly consecrated to him Men ought to keep their set-times of Prayer and pray privately every day in the week in their Houses and with their Families and men ought publickly to attend upon God in his House and privately be at leisure for holy Exercises on Holy dayes All Holy-dayes are not but if some be so severed for holy Exercises that they are as carefully kept and as religiously observed to the worlds eye as our Christian Sabbath yet if men through heedlesness and inadvertency do some slight works of their Callings in them and do not those things purposely in contempt of Authority for certain this is not so hainous a sin that men need to task themselves with a dayes or a weeks Repentance for it and if men be at leisure for holy and religious Exercises on Holy-dayes no doubt but on these dayes they may be at leisure for themselves and have some time to recreate and refresh themselves on Holy-dayes especially those of the meaner sort who have no other times of Recreation Holy-dayes they are not so severed for holy and religious Exercises but some works may be done in them if they be not done in contempt oâ— Authority and at fitting and convenient times lawfull Sports and Pastimes may lawfully be used in them especially by those of the meaner sort Other working dayes they are not exempted from God's Service we are bound to serve God in them and to pray unto him but yet these are Our dayes God hath given them us to follow our necessary Occasions and worldly businesses No day that may properly be termed God's day but the seventh day of his Consecration our weekly Sabbath this is the day which God after a peculiar manner hath sanctified and he requireth that we after a special and more peculiar manner should observe it and keep it Holy Rest from Labour from worldly businesses and Employments is required on the Sabbath Men must not follow the works of their calling but must as neer as they can abstain from all corporal labour They must likewise rest from sin as on all dayes so more especially on Gods Holy day they must abstain from following their own wayes from finding their own pleasure and from speaking their own words They must likewise work the works of Righteousness and be carefully employed in holy
others God will most especially reward The Word of God it should be publickly read on the Lords-day this is a holy and religious Exercise that is proper for the day and so necessary for the Sanctification of the Sabbath that it cannot be omitted It was usual to read something out of Holy Writ to the People every Sabbath day as you may see by that which is alleadged by St. Paul Act. 13. 27. Where he setteth it forth that the Rulers of the Jews condemned our Saviour because they knew not the voyces of the Prophets which were read every Sabbath day By this place of Scripture it is plain that it was in use to read something out of the Law and the Prophets every Sabbath-day This Custom it hath been solemnly kept and religiously observed by the Christan Churches and reading of the Scriptures as it is a Religious Exercise proper for the Day and necessary for the sanctification of the Sabbath so it is of great use and tendeth much to Edification Our Church hath wisely appointed and religiously constituted that some of the Psalms of David should be read every Sabbath-day There be likewise Lessons appointed to be read every Lords-day two at Morning and two at Evening Prayer one out of the Old another out of the New Testament Epistles and Gospels are appointed to be read on every Sabbath thoroughout the year Where there is no Preacher or when the Minister is not prepared to Preach there be godly Homilies and fruitfull Exhortations appointed to be read unto the People If then you desire to sanctifie the Sabbath by performing in it holy and relâ—gious Exercises you shall do well to attend to the Word of God publickly read hereby you shall gain Knowledge in the Scriptures and be fitted and prepared to receive the engraâ—ted VVord of God which is able to save your souls Yea the Reading of Homilies is a kind of Preaching and if it be carefully and conscionably used no doubt but it may be as effectual peradventure more effectua for the Conversion of Souls than most Sermons that are preached in these times Think then of this holy and religious Exercise how proper it â—s for the day how necessary for the sanctification of the Sabbath and let no Lords day pass without coming up to the Temple to hear the Word of God publickly read unto you The Word of God publickly preached expounded unto the people by those that are set apart for that Office and Function It is the usual the ordinary Means of Salvation and when it is despised and contemned God will not work without it It is then a Religious Exercise of great use and of all other dayes the Sabbath is most proper for it Yet this I must say for I conceive it is the truth though the Sabbath be most proper for this Exercise yet this Exercise is neither so proper nor so necessary for the Sabbath that it should be impossible that the Sabbath should be sanctified without it This I shall easily evince out of the Scriptures in Acts 13. 15. we read how that after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto Paul and Barnâ—bas saying Men and Brethren if you have any Word of Exhortation to say unto the People say on If it had been a custome of the Church to have Preaching in every Synagogue on every Sabbath day no doubt but the Reader that read there had been prepared to preach Neither would the Rulers of the Synagogue have desired the Apostles if they had any word of Exhortation to preach but rather would have said You are Ministers and Men of God alwayes prepared to Preach and therefore there is no doubt to be made but you have a Sermon and an Exhortation in readiness Though then it may be collected from hence that these Rulers were willing to accept of a Sermon when they did meet with such Ministers as were prepared to preach yet for certain their questioning with the Apostles whether they were prepared did shew that they did not hold Preaching so necessary that the Sabbath could not be sanctified without it Where the Word of God may be had by one or more able Ministers that the Word of God may he preached twice every Sabbath thrice every Sabbath if the Custom of the place be to have so many Sermons this I will not deny But that there must be Preaching every Sabbath day in every Congregation this I think it cannot be proved Some Ministers have made the world believe that the Sabbath in no place can be sanctified without preaching of Sermons and have wrought people to such an esteem of Sermons that all other of God's Ordinances are disesteemed so that no other holy and religious Exercises can find any place in the places where they are admitted but onely Sermons Yea they have turned Oratoria into Auditoria Houses of Prayer into Houses of Preaching and in all places where they have come have brought all holy and religious Exercises on the Lords day out of use but onely a Psalm and a Sermon God did never yet send such plenty of Labourers into his Harvest that there should be such store of able and painful Preachers that Sermons should be Preached every Sabbath day in every Congregation For my part I will pray unto the Lord of the Harvest that he would send Labourers into his Harvest could heartily wish that all the Ministers belonging to every Congregation in the Kingdom were indeed Prophets that they could Preach every Sabbath day or would Preach painfully and Conscionably though they Preached seldomer But this I say it is impossible that the Kingdom at this time should be thus Happy And some Ministers by buzzing in the ears of People that Preaching of the Word in every Congregation on every Sabbath-day is necessarily required by the Word of God have made the whole Kingdom miserable yea they have brought the Ordinance of God into contempt by their idle babling and lazy pratling who Talk much and often but Preach seldom But I beseech you beloved let not the abuse of God's Ordinance by some cause you to neglect the Lawful Use of it For Preaching it is the Power of God unto Salvation a Sabbath-days Exercise which of all others is of greatest Use for the Conversion of Souls for the bringing Men from Darkness to Light from Blindness and Ignorance to the Knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ Be perswaded then hear the Word of God every Sabbath-day when it is publickly Preached and never miss the Sermons love those Ministers that Preach Painfully and Conscionably and despise not those who Preach often and plead earnestly for Preaching though you know and are assured that some of them are but lazy Preachers lest haply you be found despisers and contemners of the Ordinance of God There are other Holy and Religious Exercises which are required on the Sabbath-day Catechising the Youth and the Instructing them in the Principles of