The Divine Appointment of the Lords Day, Part · Chapter 10
CHAP. X.
How the Lords day should not be spent: Or, What is unlawful on it?
AS to the resolving of this Question also, I would wish for no greater advantage on him that I dispute with, but that he be a man that Loveth God and Holiness, and knoweth somewhat of the difference between things temporal and things Eternal; and knoweth what is for the good of his soul; and preferreth it before his body; and hath an appetite to relish the delights of Wisdom, and of things most excellent and Divine. And that he be one that knoweth his own necessities, and repenteth of his former loss of time; and liveth in a daily preparation for death; that is, that he be a real Christian; And then by all this it will appear, how the Lords day must not be spent; or what things are unlawful to be done thereon.
I. Undoubtedly it must not be spent in wickedness: In gluttony or drunkenness, chambering or wantonness, strife or envying, or any of those works of the flesh, which are at all times sinful. An evil work is most unsuitable to a holy day. And yet, alas, what day hath more ryotting and excess, of meat, and drink, and wantonness, and sloth, and lust, than it?
II. It ought not to be spent in our worldly businesses, which are the labours allowed us on the six dayes; unless Necessity or Mercy make them at any time become such duties of the Law of Nature, as Positives must for that time give place to. For how is it a day separated to holy employments, if we spend it in the common business of the world? It is the great advantage that we have by such a separated day, that we may wholly call off our minds from the world, and set them on the world to come, and exercise them in holy communion with God and his Church, without the interruptions and distractions of any earthly cogitations. A divided mind doth never perform any holy work, with that integrity and life, as the nature of it requireth. Heavenly contemplations are never well managed with the intermixture of diverting wordly thoughts: So great a work as to converse in Heaven, to be rapt up in the admirations of the Divine perfections, to kindle a fervent Love to God, by the contemplation of his Love and Goodness, to triumph over sin and Satan with our triumphing glorified Head, to Commemorate his Resurrection, and the whole work of our Redemption with a lively working faith, doth require the whole heart, and will not consist with aliene thoughts, and the diversion of fleshly employments or delights. Nay, had we no higher work to do, than to search our hearts, and lament our sins, and beg for mercy, and learn Gods Word, and treat with our Redeemer about the saving of our souls, and to prepare for death and judgement, surely it should challenge all our faculties, and tell us that voluntary diversions, do too much savour of impiety and contempt. It is the great mercy of God, that we have leave to lay by these clogs and impediments of the soul, and to seek his face with greater freedom, than the incumbrances of our week day labours will allow us. No slave can be so glad of a Sabbaths ease from his sorest toil and basest drudgery, as a believer should be to be released from his earthly thoughts and business, that he may freely, entirely and delightfully converse with God.
III. The Lords day must not be spent in tempting, diverting, unnecessary recreations, or pleasures of the flesh. 1. For these are as great an impediment to the holy employment of the soul, as worldly labours, if not much more. It is easier for a man to be exercised in heavenly cogitations, at the Plow or Cart, or other such labours of his place and Calling, than at Bowls, or Hunting, or Cards, or Dice, or Stage-playes, or Races, or Dancing, or Bear-baitings, or Cock-fights, or any such sensual sports. I need no proof of this to any man, that hath himself any experience, of the holy employments of a believing soul, or that ever knew what it was to spend one Day of the Lord aright; And no proof will suffice them that have no experience, because they know not effectually what it is that they talk of.
2. We find that even on other daies, the worst men are most addicted to these sports, and are the greatest pleaders for them, and that the more they use them the worse they grow; yea that the times of using them are frequently the times of the eruption of many heynous sins. I have lived in my Youth in many places where sometimes Shews or uncouth Spectacles have been their sports at certain seasons of the year, and sometimes Morrice-dancings, and sometimes Stage-playes, and sometimes Wakes and Revels; And all men observed that these were the times of the most flagitious crimes, and that there was then more drunkenness, more fighting, more horrid Oathes and Curses uttered than in many weeks at other times; Then it was that the enraged sensualists did act the part of furious Devils, in scorning and reviling all that were soberer and better than themselves, and railing at those that minded God and their everlasting state, as Precisians, Puritans and Hypocrites; Then it was that they were ready in their fury, if they durst, to assault the very persons and houses of them that would not do as they did. Whatever is done in such Crowdes and Tumults, is done with the impetuosity of rage and passion, and with the greatest audacity, and the violation of all Laws and regulating restraints. As many waters make a furious stream, and great fires where much fuel is conjunct do disdain restraint, and quickly devour all before them; so is it with the raging folly of Youth, when voluptuous persons once get together, and their lusts take fire, and they fall into a torrent of profuse sensuality. Yea those that at other times are sober, and when they come home do seem of another mind, yet do as the rest when they are among them, and seem as bad and furious as they: As we see among the London Apprentices on the day called Goodtides Tuesday, or May day, when they once get out together and are in motion, they seem all alike, and those that are most sober and timerous alone, in the rowt are heightened to the audacity of the rest; And as in an Army the sight of the multitude, and the noise of Drums and Guns, puts valour into the fearful; and they will go on with others, that else would run away from a proportionable single combate and danger; And as Boyes at School that fear to offend singly, yet fear not to barr out their Master in a combination when all concurr; so all seem wicked in a crowd and rowt of wicked persons; And sensuality and licentiousness is not the smallest part of wickedness.
O how unfit is Youth in such a Crowd, to think of God, or Eternity, or Death; or to hear the sober warnings of a Preacher, in comparison of what the same persons be, when they are at Church, and Congregated purposely to hear Gods Word. Go among them and try them then, with any grave and wholesome Counsel: Ask them whether they are penitent Converts, and whether they are prepared for another world. Try what answer they will give you, and whether they will not deride you more than at another time? I would those that write and plead for this under the name of harmless recreations, would go amongst them sometimes with sober Counsel, and learn to be wise by their own experience; that their errours might not be of such pernicious consequence to mens souls as it hath been. Reason it self hath no place or audience in the noise of youthful furious lusts. They will laugh at Reason, as well as at Scripture; and scorn sobriety, as well (though not so much) as holiness. If even in the meetings of grave persons, it have ever been observed that individual persons are apt to be carryed by the stream, and otherwise than their talk importeth at other times when they are single, what wonder if it be so in evil with unbridled youth?
If you say that the Law forbiddeth rowts and riots, and it is no such unruly assemblies that we defend.
Answ. Disclaim not the name only while you defend the thing. Be not like them that say, We perswade men to voluntary untruths but not to lying; to break their Vows and Oathes in lawful matters, but not to perjury; to kill those that anger them, but not to murder; to take other mens goods by force, but not to robbery, &c. Is not a Wakes and Revels and Morrice-Dances, and Dancing-assemblies, and Spectacles, and Stage playes, and the like, such a concourse as I am speaking of. Do you limit Dancers, and Players to any numbers? I speak not of the Laws. I am too much unacquainted with them. If they say, that above four meeting to Dance or Drink on the Lords day shall be accounted a Conventicle or unlawful Assembly, it is more than ever I heard of, But I am speaking of the common practice of the contrary, and of those that ordinarily defend it, and labour to bring both Godly Ministers, and sober people, under the scorn of foolish preciseness and superstition, because they would hinder the sin and ruine of the people. If you will allow them to assemble for their Dancings, Shews, and Sports, you will encourage them to break the Laws both of God and Man, though you pretend never so much care that they be observed. You may as well allow them to be Drunk, and when you have done, forbid them to break Gods Laws and the Kings in their Drunkenness. There are few in such sportful Assemblies that are not Drunk with Concupiscence, and whose reason is not drowned in voluptuousness and vain imaginations. Let those Divines (if I may so call the Advocates of Sensuality and Sin) which are otherwise minded, give us leave to oppose against all their Cavils, and the false names of harmless recreations, but, 1. Our own experience, who in our youth, have alwaies found such sports and revelling Assemblies to be corrupters of our minds, and temptations to evil, and quenchers of every holy motion, and enemies to all thats good. 2. The experience of the visibly corrupted undone sensual youth, that are round about us, in all Countreys where we have lived. 3. And the judgement of S…lomon, (who saith as much for pleasure as any Sacred Writer) Eccl. 7. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting: For that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart: Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the Countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mou…ning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth (I pray you do not say I raile at you by the reciting of these words, nor that I diminish the honour of the Reverend Advocates for Wakes and Lords day Sports and Dancings:) It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the Song of fools. For as the sound of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool.]
3. Moreover, these sports, and pleasures, and riotings, are worse than Plowing and Labouring on the Lords day, because (as they are more adverse to spiritual and heavenly joyes, so) they do less good to recompense the hurt. A Carpenter, a Mason, a Plowman, &c. may do some good by his unlawful, unseasonable labour; some one may be the better for it: But, Dancing, and Sports, and Gaming, do no good but hurt. They corrupt the Fantasie; They imprint upon the Thinking faculty, so strong an inclination to run out after such things; and upon the Appetite so strong a list and longing for them, that carnality is much encreased by them, Mortification hindred; Concupiscence gratified; the flesh prevaileth, the spirit is quenched; and the soul made as unfit for heavenly things, as a School-boy is for his Book, whose heart is set upon his play: Yea abundance more; as Nature by Corruption is more averse to spiritual things, than to the things of Art or Nature.
4. These Dancings, and Playes, and Wakes and other riotous sports, are a strong temptation also to them that are not of the riotous societies, but have convictions on their hearts, that they have greater and better things to mind. Without accusing others, I may say that I know this by bad experience. I cannot forget, when my Conscience was against their courses, and called me to better things, how hardly when I was young, I passed by the Dancing, and the Playing Congregations; and especially when in the Passage I must bear their scorn.
And I was one Year a School-master, and found how hard it was for the poor Children, to avoid such snares, even when they were sure to be whipt the next day for their pleasures.
5. And those Riots and Playes are injurious to the pious and sober persons who dislike them. For it is they that shall be made the Rabbles Scorn, and the Drunkards Song; Besides that the noise oft times annoyeth them when they should be calmely serving God. And they are hindered from governing and instructing their Families, while their Children and Servants are thus tempted to be gone, and their hearts are all the while in the playing place. Never did a hungry dog more grudge at his restraint from meat, than Children and young Servants usually grudge, to be Catechised, or kept to holy exercises, when they hear the pipe, or the noise of the licentious multitude in the Streets. I cannot forget, that in my Youth in those late times, when we lost the labours of some of our Conformable Godly Teachers, for not Reading publickly the Book for Sports and Dancing on the Lords dayes, one of my Fathers own Tenants was the Town Piper, hired by the Year (for many Years together) and the place of the Dancing Assembly was not an hundred yards from our door; and we could not on the Lords day, either read a Chapter, or Pray, or sing a Psalm, or Catechise or instruct a Servant, but with the noise of the Pipe and Taber, and the Whootings in the Street, continually in our Ears; And even among a tractable people, we were the common Scorn of all the Rabble in the Streets, and called Puritans, Precisians and Hypocrites, because we rather chose but to read the Scriptures, than to do as they did (Though there was no favour of any Non-conformity in our Family.) And when the people by the Book were allowed to Play and Dance, out of publick Servicetime, they could so hardly break off their Sports, that many a time the Reader was fain to stay till the Piper and Players would give over; And sometimes the Morrice-Dancers would come into the Church, in all their Linnen and Scarfs and Antick Dresses, with Morrice-bells jingling at their leggs. And as soon as Common Prayer was read, did haste out presently to their Play again. Was this a Heavenly Coversation? Was this a help to holiness and Devotion? or to the Mortification of fleshly Lusts? Was this the way to train up youth in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord? And were such Assemblies like to the primitive Churches? Or such Families governed Christianly and in the fear of God? O Lord set wise and holy Pastors over thy poor Flocks, that have learnt themselves the holy Doctrine which they Preach, and who love, (or at least abhorr not) the service and imitation of a Crucified Christ, and the practice of that Religion which they themselves profess.
Obj. But poor labouring people must have some recreation, and they cannot through their poverty have leisure any other day.
Answ. 1. A sad Argument to be used by them that by racking of Rents do keep them in Poverty. They that cannot live without all those superfluities, which requireth many hundred pounds a Year to maintain them must for this gratifying pride and fleshly lusts, set such bargains to their poor Tenants, as that they confess they cannot live, without taking the Lords day to recreate them from the toile and weariness of their excessive labours: And will not God judge such self-condemning oppressours as these are?
2. But is this an Argument fit for the mouth of a Minister or any Christian, who knoweth how much the soul is more worth than the body? and Eternity more valuable than the pleasures of this little time? If Poverty deny the people liberty to play on the week dayes, doth it not as much deny them liberty to Pray, and to read the Scriptures, and to learn their Catechisms, and the Word of God? Surely it better beseemeth any man that believeth another life, a Heaven and a Hell, to say, Poor Labourers have so little time, to Learn, to Meditate, to Read, to Pray, on the week dayes, that if they do not follow it close upon the Lords day, they are like to perish in their ignorance: (For if the Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, 2 Cor. 4. 3.) which do you think it better to leave undone, if one of them must be left undone? Whether the learning of Gods Word, or the Pleasures and Recreations of the flesh?
3. It is either their Bodies or their Minds, that need Recreation. When the Body is tired with toilesome labour, it is ease, rather than toilesome Dancings or Plays, that are fit to recreate it. Or else God will be charged with mistake in the reasons of the ancient Sabbath. But if it be the Mind that needeth recreation, why should not the Learning of Heavenly truth, and the Joyful Commemoration of our Redemption, and the foresight of Heaven and the Praises of God, be more delightful than the noise of Thornes under a pott; even than the laughter and sport of fools, or than the Dancings and Games that now you plead for? But the truth is, It is not the Minds of poor labouring men, that are over-workt and tired on the week dayes, but it is their bodies: And therefore there is no Recreation so suitable to them, as the ease of the body, and the holy and joyful exercise of the mind, upon their Creator, their Redeemer, and their Everlasting Rest.
4. But if you will needs have daies of temptation and sinful sports and pleasures for them, let Landlords abate their Tenants as much Rent, as one dayes vacancy from labour in a Month or a Fortnight will amount to, or let the Common `Saints dayes, which of the two are more at mans disposal, be made their sporting dayes, and rob not their souls of that one weekly day, which God hath separated for his Worship.
Obj. But there are Students, and Lawyers, and Ministers, and Gentlemen, whose labour is most that of the Brain, and not the Plow-mans bodily toile; and these have need of bodily Recreation.
Answ. And there are few of these so poor but they can take their bodily Recreation on the week dayes: And many of them need as much the whole Lords day for their souls Edification as any others: And no one that knoweth himself will say that he needs it not. If any men need remission of Studies, and bodily Exercise it is Ministers themselves: And is it themselves that they plead for Sports and Dancing for? Would they be companions of the vain in such like vanities?
Obj. But the mind of man is not able to endure a constant intension and elevation of devotion all the day long without recreation and intermission; And putting men upon more than they can do, will but hinder them; when a little recreation will make them more fresh and fervent when they return to God.
Answ. O what an advantage is it to know by experience what one talketh of? And what an inconvenience to talk of Holiness and Heavenliness by hearsay only! 1. To poor people that have but one day in seven, that one day should not seem too long. 2. If it be from a Carnal enemity to God and spiritual things, shortness and seldomeness will be no Cure. But they have need rather to be provoked to diligence till they are cured, than to be indulged in that averseness and floth, which till its cured will prevail, when you have done your best against it. 3. But if it be a weariness of the flesh; as the Disciples when they slept while Christ was Praying; or a weariness through such imperfection of Grace and Remnant of Carnality, which the sincere are lyable to, then giving way to it will increase it, and resisting it is the way to overcome it. 4. How many necessary intermissions are there, which confute this pretense of weariness? Some time is taken up in dressing; And some with poor Servants in waiting on their Masters and Mistrisses, and in preparing Meat and drink; some in going to Church and coming home; some in eating, usually more than once; some in preparing again for sleep; besides what Cattle and by-occasions will require? And is the remainder of one day in a week yet too much for the business which we are Created, preserved, and Redeemed for, and on which our endless life dependeth? O that we knew what the Love of God is? and what it is to regard our souls according to their worth! Would not a soul▪ that loveth God rather say, Alas, how short is the Lords day? How quickly is it gone? How many interruptions hinder my delight? Shall I think a Week short enough for my worldly labours,) and one day (thus parcelled) too long to seek the face of God? I see blind Worldlings and sensualists can be longer unwearied at Market, in their Shops and Fields, especially when their gain comes in; and at Cards and Dice, and Bowling and idle Prating, &c. And shall I be weary so soon of the most noble and necessary Work, and of the sweetest pleasures upon Earth?
An Hypocrite that draweth near to God but with the lips, whilest his heart is far from him, as he never truly seeketh God, so he never truly findeth him, and hath none of the true spiritual delights of holiness, nor ever feeleth the pleasure of exercising his Love to God by the help of faith, in the hopes of Heaven: And therefore no wonder if he be weary of such unprofitable, sapless and unpleasant work, as his dead formalities and affectations are. But it is not so with the sincere experienced Christian, who serving God in spirit and truth, hath true and spiritual recreation, pleasure and benefit in and by his Service. And therefore we see that the holy experienced believers, are still averse to these sensual diversions, and do not think the Lords da▪ or his Service too long. And O Christian what happy advantage in such controversies have you, in your holy sincerity and sweet experience?
5. But yet I am not such a stranger to man, to my self or others, as to deny that our naughty hearts are inclined to be weary of well doing: But mark what a cure God in Wisdom and mercy hath provided for us: As it is but one day in seven which is thus to be wholly employed with God, and as much of this day is taken up with the bodily necessaries aforesaid; so for the rest, God appointeth us variety of exercises, that when we are weary of one, another may be our recreation. When we have heard we must pray, and when we have prayed we must hear again: We must Read, we must Sing and speak Gods Praises, we must celebrate the memorial of Christs death in the Sacrament; we must Meditate; we must Conferr, we must instruct our Families: And we have variety of subjects for each of these. As a student that is weary hath variety of Books and Studies to recreate his mind; so hath every Christian variety of holy employment on the Lords day. And all of it excellent profitable and delightful!
Christian, believe not that Minister or Man whatever he be, that telleth thee that Christs Yoak is heavy, or that his Commandments are grievous. Hath he done so much to deliver us from the strait Yoak, the heavy Burden, and the grievous Commandments? and now shall we accuse him of bringing us under a toylesome task? Is it a toile to love or count your money? to love and look upon your Corn and Cattle? to love and converse with your Friend? to feast your Body on the pleasantest Food? If not, why should it be a toile to any but a wicked heart, to spend a day in Loving God, and hearing the Messages of his Love to us, and in the foresight and foretasts of everlasting love.
Caviller, come but unto Christ, and cast off the wearisome, toilesome burden of thy sin, and Satans drudgery, and take Christs Yoak and Burden on thee, and learn of him, and try then whether his daies and work be grievous. Come and spend but a day in Loving God, as thou dost in talking of him, and try whether Love, and the holiest Love, be a wearisome work. But if thou wilt make a Religion of all Shell and no Kernel, all Carkass and no Life, like that which the Jansenists charge the Jesuites with, that say, We are bound to love God but once in four or five years, or once in all our lives, no wonder if thou be weary of such a Religion.
6. But I will tell them that are the Teachers of the people, an honester way to Cure the peoples weariness, than to send them to a Piper or to a Play to cure it. Preach with such life and awakening seriousness; Preach with such grateful holy eloquence, and with such easie method, and with such variety of wholesome matter, that the people may never be aweary of you. Pour out the rehearsal of the Love and benefits of God, open so to them the priviledges of faith, and the Joyes of hope, that they may never be aweary. How oft have I heard the people say of such as these, I could hear him all day and never be aweary! They are troubled at the shortness of such Sermons and wish they had been longer. Pray with that Heavenly life and fervour as may rap up the souls of those that joyne with you, and try then whether they will be aweary: Praise God with that joyful alacrity which beseemeth one that is ready to pass into Glory, and try whether this will not Cure the peoples weariness.
Misunderstand me not. I am now speaking to none but guilty hypocrites, and not to any faithful holy Ministers; And to such I say, when you have done nothing but coldly read over the publick Prayers, or as coldly and crudely added your own, and tired the hearers, with a dry, a sapless, lifeless, unexperienced discourse, and then send them as a wearied people, to dancing and sports for a needful recreation, is this like the work of a Pastour of Souls. When you have cryed down other mens Praying and Preaching, and then tell the people that the Praying and Preacing which you recommend to them as better, will not digest well, without a Dance or Recreation after it, to expel the peoples weariness; is not this to disgrace your own Prayers and Preaching which you before commended to them? And when you have done, if after this you speak against others for their long Praying, and for so much Preaching and Hearing, as if they never had enough, is not this to commend what you discommend? and to tell the people that those mens Praying and Preaching whom you revile, is such as doth not weary their Auditours; when yours is such, as will tiremen, if it be long, or if they be not Recreated after it with a Piper, a …idler, or a Dance? O that the Ithacian Bishops of the World, and all the Clergie of their mind, would at least hear Hooker in the Preface to his Eccles. pol. how little their cause is beholden to such Patrons, and how well it might spare them!
For my own part, as my flesh is weak, so my heart is too bad, too backward to these Divine and Heavenly works! And yet I never have time to spare. God knoweth that it is my daily groans, How great is work, yea and how sweet; and how short is the day, the week, the year! How quickly is it night! How fast do weeks and years roll away! And shall any man that is called a Minister of Christ, perswade poor Labourers and Servants who have but one day for retirement from the world, to converse with God without distraction, that this one day is too long, and that their work must be …ased by carnal sports? Nay shall a man that would be called a Minister or a Christian, perswade men against all the experience of the World, that the diversions and interruptions of a Dance or May game, or a Race or a Comedie, will dispose their minds to return to God with more Heavenly alacrity and purity than before, or than variety of holy exercises will do? Or rather, are we constrained to say (though it displease) that Hypocrites are all for Imagery and hypocritical Religion; and that whether he be at Church or at home, in Praying or in drinking and sensuality and voluptuosness, a Worldling is every where a Worldling still, and an hypocrite is an hypocrite still; And it is not his Book or Pulpit that maketh him another man. And that as the man is, such will be his Work. Operari sequitur esse. And that the Jesuites are not the only men in the world, that would make a Religion to suite mens lusts, and would serve Satan and the flesh, in the livery of Christ. But I fear I have been too long on this objection.
IV. The Lords day must not be spent in Idleness: not in unnecessary sleep, or in vain walking, or vain talking, or long dressings, or too long feastings, or any thing unnecessary which diverteth our souls from their Sacred seasonable work. It is not a Jewish Ceremonious Sabbath of bodily rest which we are to keep: But it is a day of holy and spiritual works: of the needfullest work in all the world: To do that which is ten thousand times more necessary and excellent, than all our labours and provision for the flesh. And if no man hath time to spare on the week day, but he that knoweth not aright what it is to be a Christian or a man or why God maintaineth and continueth him in the world; What shall we think of them that can find time to spare on the Lords own day, and can walk and idle away the most precious of all their time? If it be folly to cast away your Silver, it is not wisdom to cast away your gold. O that God would but open mens eyes, to see what is before them, and how near to Eternity they stand, and awaken mens sleepy sensual souls, to live as men that do not dream of another world, but unfeignedly believe it; and then a little reasoning would serve turn to convince them, that the Lords day should be spent in the duties of serious holiness, and not in Idleness, or unnecessary works or sports.
Obj. But by all this you seem to cast a great reproach on Calvin, Beza, and most of the great Divines of the forreign Churches, who have not been so strict for the observation of the Lords day.
Answ. Let these things be observed by the impartial Reader. 1. It cannot be proved to be most of them, that were so faulty herein as the objection intimateth. Many of them have written much for the holy spending of the day. 2. It must be noted, that it is a superstitious Ceremonious Sabbatizing which many of them write against, who seem to the unobservant to mean more. It is not the spending of the day in spiritual exercises. 3. And you must remember that they came newly out of Popery, and had seen the Lords day and a superabundance of other Humane Holy dayes imposed on the Churches to be Ceremoniously observed, and they did not all of them so clearly as they ought, discern the difference between the Lords day and those holy dayes or Church Festivals, and so did too promiscuously conjoine them in their reproofs of the burdens imposed on the Church. And it being the Papists Ceremoniousness, and their multitude of Festivals that stood all together in their eye, it tempted them to too undistinguishing and unaccurate a reformation. 4. And for Calvin you must know that he spent every day so like to a Lords day, in hard Study, and Prayer, and numerous Writings, and publick Preaching, or Lecturing and Disputings, either every day in the week, or very near it, scarce allowing himself time for his one only spare meale a day, that he might the easilier be tempted, to make less difference in his judgement between the Lords day and other dayes, than he should have done▪ and to plead for more recreation on that day for others, than he took on any day himself. 5. And then his followers having also many of the same temptations, were apt to tread in his steps through the deserved estimation of his worth and judgement and lest they should seem to be of different minds. But as England hath been the happyest in this piece of reformation, so all men are unexcusable that will encourage idleness, sensuality or neglect of the important duties of the day.