66

For a fourth reason, thou sayest, Though ye keep not the same day the Jews did, ye have the same authority for keeping your day, that they had for theirs. Hence this day, that we keep (sayest thou), is called the Lord's day (Rev. i. 10), it being set apart by the Lord for his service, and as a special memorial of his resurrection.'

"ANSWER.-But for all this, here is no probation at all, but mere assertions. If ye have the same authority, produce it, and let us see it. John was in the spirit on the Lord's day, therefore the first day of the week ought to be kept. How hangs this together? Prove that John meant the first day of the week. We read much in Scripture of the day of the Lord, which is the Lord's day; but no where do find it called the first day of the week, or any other natural day, for it is spiritual. And as God called the natural light day, so he calleth the spiritual light of his appearance (where the Sun of Righteousness ariseth with healing under his wings) day. And this is the day of the Lord, wherein his people rejoice, and are glad. And whereas thou sayest, It is set apart by the Lord, as a special memorial of his resurrection,' this is thy naked assertion, without any shadow of proof. And if thou wilt say, that therefore it is to be a holy day, because he rose on it, is not this a fair inlet to all the Popish holy days? If ye keep one day for his resurrection, why not one day for his conception, another for his birth, another for the annunciation of the angel, another for his being crucified, another for his ascension? And then we shall not want holy days in good store.

“FIFTHLY.—Thou sayest, who oppose the sabbath day, sin against mercy, and equity, and justice.

ANSWER.-It is granted: but who oppose your day, which ye have made or imagined to be the Sabbath, do no sin against any of the foresaid, if in other things they keep unto the rule of mercy and justice.

66

FIRST.-They sin not against mercy, if through all the days of the week they be found in that, which is for the good of themselves and their neighbours; not laying too heavy burthens upon their own souls by excessive care and labour in outward things, nor yet forcing their bodily strength beyond the rule of mercy and love, nor imposing any things upon either servants or cattle contrary to mercy. For if the law required mercy even in these things, much more the gospel; so that we grant, times of rest are to be given unto servants and beasts, and mercy is to be showed unto them more than under the law. And thus is the end of the sabbath answered, which was made for man; yea, this is indeed to keep the sabbath; to undo every burden, and to let the oppressed go free,' both as to the inward and outward. And the Lord's people have frequent times, more than once a week, wherein, laying aside their outward affairs for a season, they may and do meet together to wait upon the Lord, and be quickened, and refreshed, and instructed by him, and worship him in his spirit, and may be useful unto one another in exhortation, or admonition,

or any other way, as the Lord shall furnish. And such, who find any distemper upon their minds, through letting them go forth too much upon outward things, may find the Lord allowing them any other day or time, no less than that, to get their hearts reduced into a right frame. And it were sad, if the Lord had only allowed but one day of seven unto this effect. The Lord inviteth and alloweth the weary and distempered (who love to be cured of their distempers) to come unto him every day. And as for those who abide not in a due care every day to have their hearts ordered aright, but let their minds go forth excessively in outward occasions all the week, they provoke the Lord to shut them out from access to him upon the first day. And our souls do oft bless the Lord, in allowing us many times of refreshment and strengthening, to the establishing and confirming us in his love and life, and disburdening our minds of earthly things much more frequently than in one day of seven.

"SECONDLY.-And as for sinning against justice, they cannot be charged with it, who give up unto the Lord not only one day of seven, but all the seven, even all the days of their life, unto his service; for equity and justice calleth upon us to spend all the seven in his service, that our hearts may continually be exercised in his fear and love, and whatever we do, we may do it to him, and in him. And as for the first day of the week, we meet together even on that day (as we do on other days), according to the practice of the primitive Christians, to wait upon the Lord and worship him; but to plead so obstinately as ye do, that the Fourth Commandment bindeth to a particular observation of that day, and yet to be found so slack in the observation of it as you generally are, is such an inconsistency as the Quakers cannot own. And so whereas thou wouldst confine the Lord his giving rest and comfort to the souls of his people, and the falling of manna, to the first days, calling them spiritual market-days,' as if there were no other, we cannot own it; knowing, that the Lord giveth rest and comfort every day, and causeth the manna plentifully to fall every day to those that walk in his fear, and wait upon him, and he has no such circumscribed market-day' as thou dreamest of."

6

In his Short Examination of some of the Scripture Proofs alleged by the Divines at Westminster to prove divers articles in their Confession of Faith and Catechism, 1673, Barclay argues thus:—

In chap. xxi. sect. 7, where they say, That the Sabbath from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture (say they) is called the Lord's day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian sabbath; they assert three things.

"1. That the first day of the week is come in place of the seventh for a Sabbath.

·

To prove which, they allege 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2-' Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every

one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him; that there be no gathering when I come.' Acts xx. 7—' And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight.'

"That these proofs assert not the things expressly, we need not, I suppose, dispute. Now to say, that because Paul desires the Corinthians to lay something by them in store that day; or because he brake bread, and continued his speech until midnight; therefore the first day of the week is come in place of the sabbath; is a consequence more remarkable for its sottishness, than to be credited for its soundness. Indeed, to make so solemn an article of faith, as these men would have the morality of the first day of the week to be, would need a more positive and express authority. The text doth clearly enough tell the reason of the disciples meeting so frequently, and of Paul preaching so long, because he was ready to depart to-morrow; it speaks not a word of its being sabbath.

"2. Their second assertion, That the first day of the week is therefore called the Lord's day,' is drawn more strangely from that of Rev. i. 10, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet;' whereas no particular day of the week is mentioned. So for them to say, John meaned the first day of the week, hath no more proof but their own bare assertion.

"3. For their third assertion, That it is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian sabbath,' they allege these Scriptures: Exod. xx. 8, 10, 11 [which is quoted]; Isa. lvi. 2, 4, 6, 7 Mat. v. 17, 18, 'Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil: For verily, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.'

"If they prove any thing, they must needs prove the continuance of the seventh day; seeing in all the law there is no mention made of the first day of the week being a sabbath. If these may be reckoned good and sound consequences, I know no absurdities so great, no heresies so damnable, no superstitions so ridiculous, but may be clothed with the authority of Scripture."

These extracts I have found in a collection, printed at Belfast in 1832, of passages about the Christian Sabbath, from the writings of eminent Quakers.

Page 73.-Dr GABRIEL TOWERSON.

In regard to recreation on the Sabbath, this writer delivers his opinion in the following terms :—

"As nothing hinders but at the same time men might cease from labour, and yet not cease from recreation; so he that shall consult either the Jewish writers, or their present practice, will

find them not to have understood it to have extended to the prohibition of it. Whence it is that Lyra, a converted Jew, speaking of their permitting a Sabbath-day's journey,' allegeth for the reason of it, That such a walk was more a recreation than a labour;'* for which cause it was not against the rest enjoin'd. And indeed (however some men's prejudices have made it otherwise thought), neither is recreation, provided it be moderate, any way unsuitable to their feasts, or ours. For, as it is but reasonable that the body should share with the soul in its joys, as well as be afflicted in its griefs; so recreation, rightly dispos'd, may make the mind so much the more apt to intend the offices of religion. In fine, take away all recreation, and you make the Sabbath to afford little refreshment to servants and other such labouring people, for whose benefit we find it to have been in a great measure design'd; a continu'd intention of mind, especially to those who know not the pleasure of contemplation, being no less wearisome to the flesh, than the labour of the body. The only thing that can in reason be offer'd against the allowance of recreations, is that of Isa. lviii. 13, where we find 'the doing and finding of one's own pleasure,' join'd with the doing of a man's own ways,' as equally unlawful on the Sabbath. But beside that the word we render pleasure,' doth also signify purpose,'† which, if admitted here, may convert it to another sense; beside, secondly, that no other may be meant, than the forbidding of pleasures in excess, and when they are us'd rather to thrust out the worship of God, than to fit men the better, and render them more apt for the practice of it; both the Chaldeet and the Septuagint? understand it of the pleasure of gain,' of making provision for their necessities and commodities. Which restriction is the rather to be admitted, as because the Sabbath was ordain'd for 'refreshment,'|| so because there is not the least mention elsewhere of forbidding recreation on it. Add hereunto, what will farther confirm the former notion, that of the same prophet, verse 3, Behold in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labours.' For as it is probable from what he there subjoins concerning the exacting of their labours,' that he meant no other pleasure than the pursuing of their profits; so, that he could not mean pleasures, in the proper acception of the word, the fifth verse of the same chapter shews, he there intimating that they

6

LXX. reddunt

παντί

"Vid. Seld. de Jure Nat. & Gent. lib. 3, c. 9. "Vid. Eccl. iii. 1, ubi quod in Heb. 7 gaya. Chald. 'Omni negotio,' sensu etiam id postulante. "Chal. pro eo quod est in Heb.- -faciendo voluntatem tuam, -ut non facias necessaria tua pro- ab inveniendo voluntatem tuam

-neque provideas in eo quæ tibi necessaria sunt.'

§"LXX. pro-'à faciendo vias tuas, ab inveniendo voluntatem tuam,' -οὐκ ἀρεῖς τὸν πόδα σου ἐπ ̓ ἔργῳ.

|| "Vid. Exod. xxiii. 12, ubi LXX. Iva àvajúžņi viòs rūs raidionns σου, &c.”

were not wanting in afflicting their souls, which shews they were far from finding pleasure. This only would be added, That as recreation, how lawful soever in itself, may upon other days become unlawful, according as it may happen to be circumstantiated; so it will become so more especially upon this, if either it be unsuitable for the kind to the gravity of such a solemnity, or take up too much time in the exercise thereof. Upon which account, I should make no difficulty to condemn, (as the statute 1 Caroli, chap. 1, did) all meetings, assemblies, or concourse of people, out of their own parishes, for any sports or pastimes whatsoever, or any bear-baiting, bull-baiting, enterludes, or common plays, within them; these latter, as they are rarely managed without either those vanities or heats which are very unsuitable to the day, so both the one and the other being not well to be either provided for, or attended to, (according as that statute remarks) without entrenching upon those duties for which it was set apart. Besides, when it is apparent how great the necessities of men's souls are, and how little leisure the common sort have to consider them upon other days; when it is farther apparent how ill the other festivals of the church are observ'd, and consequently how little likelihood there is of men's supplying those necessities in them by a conscionable discharge either of public or private duties of religion; lastly, when it is apparent how apt men are to exceed, and, upon a pretence of the lawfulness of recreation on it, to convert that day, which was set apart for God's service, into a day of sloth or merriment; it is easy to see how much it concerns men to set bounds to their recreations on it, and avoid a profane neglect, as well as a too nice and superstitious observation of it." (Pp. 177, 178.)

The meaning of the words in Isa. lviii. 13, is considered in What is Sabbath-breaking? A Discussion occasioned by the proposal to open the Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh on Sunday afternoons (Edin. 1863), pp. 9, 17, 19-22, 23, 55, 57, 90. See also below, p. 461, n., and the Index of Texts.

Page 74.-"The Patriarchal Sabbath."

There is a copy of this rare book in the Library of Sion College, London. Its full title is, "The Patriarchal Sabbath, instituted Gen. ii. 3, the same with the Lord's Day;" Lond. 1683, 8vo. Wotton, who quotes it in his Miscellaneous Discourses, i. 307 (above, p. 165), gives J. S. as the author's initials. They are probably those of John Smith, who in 1694 published a similar work, noticed above, p. 100.

In the same library are two books not hitherto mentionedThe Mystery of the Sabbath Discovered, by EDMUND PORTER, B.D. (Lond. 1659, 8vo); and A Treatise of Prayer and of the Judaical Observation of the Lord's Day, by GEORGE BRIGHT, D.D. (Lond. 1678, 8vo.)