A Threefold Treatise of the Sabbath, Chapter 23 – Chapter 24
CHAP. XXIII. God would have our Lords day religiouſly obſerved, and not to be prophaned.
GOd doth informe us by his word, by which wee finde his inſtitution of one day in a week from the creation (as in the firſt Treatife have beene proved) to bee ſanctified to holy uſes: wee finde alſo the ſame eſtabliſhed by his Law given on Mount Sinai, as is manifeſted in the former Treatiſe: And from the word in the New Teſtament, we finde one day, the firſt day of the week, to have been obſerved, and the obſervation continued now this 1600 yeeres: So that one day in a week hath beene given to God as ſacred and holy for holy reſt in his worſhip, and for holy duties to be performed publickly & privately, now above five thouſand five hundred & foureſcore yeers, ſome count 6000, a time long enough to ſettle this truth, to obſerve ſuch a day: and as the holy people in the former times before Chriſt kept their day holily, morally, ſo ſhould wee our day too.
But as God inctruſteth by his word, ſo doth hee alſo by his works; he is ſaid to ſpeak by the work of his providence: Geneſs. 24. 50. 51. And when his judgements are in the Eſai. 26. 10.earth, the inhabitants of the world are to learne righteouſneſſe thereby: and even in this for not obſerving his holy day; for as before he puniſhed his people for the prophanation of their Sabbath, as the Scripture witneſſeth in many places: So hath the Lord puniſhed the prophanation of our Chriſtian Sabbath dedicated to his honour, and ſervice, and hath pleaded by his puniſhments for the ſanctification thereof, and to deterre men from the prophaning of it.
This we muſt know that there is no evill in a City but the Lord doth it, (to wit) the evill of puniſhment; and the ſame commeth for ſin, of what nature or kinde ſoever the judgements be: which are three fold.
1 Immediate judgements wherein Gods hand is clearely ſeene, which all will eaſily acknowledge with feare; Such a judgement was the drowning of the old world, the burning of Sodome and Gomorrah with fire from heaven: So that of Nadab and Abihu, with the 250 Princes alſo with fire from heaven; ſuch a judgement was that of Lots wife turned into a pillar of ſalt, Miriam and Gehezi made leprous: ſuch were alſo the ten plagues of Egypt on Pharaoh, and many judgements on the Iſraelites in the wilderneſſe; and on other in Iſrael, and Judah afterwards.
Secondly, Mediate judgements, which fall out upon men by ſome inſtruments, as by the hand of one man againſt another, where one is the death of another: but theſe are not ſo deeply laid to heart, as to behold Gods anger therein, as men are bound to do, yet the Scriptures telleth us of ſuch, as Gods very hand in puniſhing men for ſin, as we may read of the falling out of great friends at firſt the Sichemits and Abimelech, Iudg. 9. 23. 56, 57.who at length flew one another, God ſending an evill ſpirit between them to render upon their heads their wickednes and evill they joyntly committed againſt the houſe of Gideon. So hapned it with the three Armies of Moab Edom 2 Chr. 20. 22. 23and Ammon and their gathering together like friends, yet fell out one with another, to the ruine of themſelves, and this is attributed to be Gods hand upon them.
Thirdly, Judgements commonly called Caſual, which happen not ſeldome, too many ſlight, and ſay, ſome, tuſh it was but an accident, as if Gods hand were not in it. When we reade of one killing another at unawares in Num. 35. 22, 23. Deut. 19. 5. that ſuch a one ſo killed is delivered by God into the mans hand that killed him: Exo. 21. 13. By this kind of way came wicked Ahab to his death, 1 Kings 22. 34. even by a man ſhooting an arrow at an adventure: So Ahaziah his idolatrous ſonne by falling downe through a Latteſſe came to his end. 2 Kings 1. 2. and 27000 by the fall a of wall in Aphekr. 1 Kings 20. 30. which no doubt the Lord overthrew and cauſed to fall upon them to ſlay them. And we muſt know that caſuall harmes, and death come for ſin, ſo our Saviour tells us, Luk. 13. 4. that they were ſinners on whom the Tower of Siloe fell, though others were not to judge them the greateſt ſinners above all: yea, caſuall loſſes in outward things come for ſin. 2. Chron. 20. 37.
Therefore be the judgements of God of any kinde, they are to be taken notice of, and we are to make uſe thereof, to beware of ſin, and to repent leaſt we likewiſe periſh, and not to ſlight the leaſt caſuall harme as moſt doe: For Moſes remembreth the people of Miriam, and our Saviour willed Deut. 24. 9. Luk. 17 32. 1. Cor. 10.his hearers to remember Lots wife: and Saint Paul ſets the examples of the puniſhment of the Iſraelites before the Corinthians, and tells them that theſe things hapned to them for enſamples, and were written for our admonition. Wherefore what puniſhments have heretofore fallen out, or now happen amongſt us, we are to obſerve them, and lay them to heart; For ſaith the Pſalmiſt, All men ſhall feare and declare the work of God, for they ſhall wiſely conſider his doing, Pſal. 64. 9.
That the abuſe of this our ſacred Lords day, hath proked Hem. in Mart. 162. in Mark. 28. ſo in Luk. Ioh. and Acts Concio. 6. 9. &c.God to wrath is aknowledged; Gualter ſaith, it is not to be doubted, but that the prophanation of the Lords day is not the leaſt cauſe of the evills and calamities of our age. And Bellarmine confeſſeth alſo that the Diſorders, Dances, Revells, and the like, on the Lords dayes and other Feaſtivals, were the occaſion of all publick calamities, and judgments, which they ſuffered; and reckoneth up, famine povertie, peſtilence, ſedition, & concludeth thus in general, all plagues and ſcourges. Of this ſin ſpeaketh our late learned King James, and our now Soveraigne King Charles, in the exhortation added to the books of the two former Faſts, and to this now alſo, and doe with the reverend Prelates acknowledge that among other ſinnes, the not-keeping holy of the Lords day, but polluting it, is the cauſe of the plague breaking out upon us: yea, our Homily telleth us, that God hath declared himſelfe much grieved for the prophanation of this day. This is further acknowledged by many learned men, who have beene ſpeciall obſervers of the judgements hapning as well in times heretofore, as in our dayes: which may be reduced to the three heads before mentioned.
CHAP. XXIV. Of exemplary judgements immediate from God, againſt the prophaners of the Lords day.
IN a Councell held at Paris, in Anno 829, 800 yeers agoe, the reverend Biſhops there aſſembled, ſome by relation, others of their own knowledge, affirme, that ſome men following their husbandry, were ſlaine with Lightning and Thunder, other ſome puniſhed with a ſtrange convulſion of their joynts, and ſinewes, and miſerably periſhed for their diſhonouring of ſo great a day.
Gregorius Turonenſis, who lived a 1000 yeeres ſince, in the end of the fifth Century, or in the very beginning of the ſixth, as Bellarmines Chronicle hath it; ſaid, that for the diſhonour done to the Lords day in working, fire from heaven, burned both men and houſes in the City of Lomages.
Doctor Beard of Huntington, telleth us in his Theatre of Diſcipul. de tempo. Ser. 117.Gods jugdements how fire from heaven burned up a worldlings Barne, and all the graine in it, for conveying his corne on a Sunday in Sermon time out of the field.
To theſe may be added many other of the like nature: One would needs, though diſwaded by others, ring an Hogge on the Lords day in the morning, but in the ringing, ſtaggered, fell downe, and never ſpake more, though hee lived eight dayes after.
A great man uſing every Lords day to hunt in Sermon Thea…r. hiſtor.time, had a child by his wife, with an head like a dog with eares, and chaps, and cryed like an hound.
A Graſiers Servant, would needs drive his Cattell on the Lords day in the morning, from the Inne where he lay Saturday night, when he might have ſtayed in the Inne, but hee was not gone a ſtones caſt from the Towne but fell downe dead ſuddenly, though before in good health.
A man on the Lords day though intreated to the contrary by his wife, would take his Hatchet and Shovell to make an end of his work left before undone: but he was ſuddenly ſtruck dead in the ditch and ſo ended his work and life together.
One ſerving a Writ of Sub paena on another, comming from Gods Service on this day: he after ſomewords of reproofe for ſo doing, and his light anſwer thereto, dyed in the place without ſpeaking more words.
Certaine diſorderly youths would in deſpite of the Church-wardens ring on this day, but the principall Companion, who had gathered them together, was ſtrucken with giddineſſe, as if he had been drunk, whilſt he was ringing, whereof he ſickned, and dyed of that ſickneſſe ſhortly after.
A ſcoffer rejoycing at others evils, and the licentious libertie which many took upon the Lords day, was ſtrucken with a dead palſey, all over one ſide, and with blindneſſe, and dumbneſſe, ſo as he could neither goe, ſee, nor ſpeak: and lying thus in miſerable paine, died within a ſhort time after the ſtroke of God upon him.
Theſe few inſtances may ſerve for the immediate hand of God upon prophaners of the Lords day. I paſſe by, how filthy drunkards have felt the Lords hand againſt them on this day.