SECT, 19.] OF THE LORD’S DAY. 459
[2.] Refreshments helpful to nature, so far as to refresh it, that it may have a supply of spirits to go on cheerfully in the duties of holy worship, are lawful and useful. To macerate the body with abstinences on this day is required of none, and to turn it into a fast, or to fast upon it, is generally condemned by the ancients. Where- fore to forbear provision of necessary food for families on this day is Mosaical; and the enforcement of the particular precepts about not kindling fire in our houses on this day, baking and preparing the food of it the day before, cannot be insisted on without a re-intro- duction of the seventh day precisely, to whose observation they were annexed, and thereby of the law and spirit of the old covenant. Provided always that these refreshments be,—1st. Seasonable for the time of them, and not when public duties require our attend- ance on them; 2dly. Accompanied with a singular regard unto the tules of temperance; as, (Ist.) That there be no appearance of evil ; (2dly.) That nature be not charged with any kind of ewcess, so far as to be hindered rather than assisted in the duties of the day; (3dly.) That they be accompanied with gravity, and sobriety, and purity of conversation. Now, whereas these things are, in the substance of them, required of us in the whole course of our lives, as we intend to please God, and to come to the enjoyment of him, none ought to think an especial regard unto them on this day to be a bondage or troublesome unto them.
[3.] Labour or pains for the enjoyment of the benefit and advan- tage of the solemn assemblies of the church, and in them of the ap- pointed worship of God, is so far from intrenching on the rest of this day that it belongs unto its due observation. A mere bodily rest is no part of religious worship in itself, nor doth it belong unto the sanctification of this day any further than as it is a means for the due performance of the other duties belonging unto it. We have no bounds under the gospel for a Sabbath-day’s journey, pro- vided it be for Sabbath ends. In brief, all pains or labours that our - station and condition in this world, that our troubles which may befall us, or any thing else, make necessary, as that without which we cannot enjoy the solemn ends and uses of this holy day of rest, are no way inconsistent with the due observation of it. It may be the lot of one man to take so much pains, and to travel so far, for and in the due celebration of the Lord’s day, as if another should do the like with- out his occasions and circumstances, it would be a profanation of it.
[4.] Labour in works of charity and necessity, such as to visit the sick, to relieve the poor, to help the distressed, to relieve or assist creatures ready to perish, to supply cattle with necessary food, is allowed by all, and hath been by many spoken unto.
[5.] For sports and such like recreations, and their use on this
460 PRACTICAL OBSERVANCE, ETC. [EXERC. VI.
day, I refer the reader to laws of sundry emperors and nations con- cerning them. See of Constant. Leg. Omnes cap. de Feriis; Theo- dosius and Arcadius ibid.; and of Leo and Authemius, in the same place of the Code; of Charles the Great, Capitular., lib. i. cap. icxx1, lib. v. cap. clxxxviii. The sum of them all is contained in that exhorta- tion which Ephraim Syrus expresseth in his Serm. de Diebus Festis: “ Festivitates dominicas honorare studiose contendite, celebrantes eas non panegyrice, sed divine; non mundane, sed spiritualiter; non instar gentilium, sed Christianorum. Quare non portarum frontes coronemus; non choreas ducamus, non chorum exornemus; non tibiis et citharis auditum effeminemus, non mollibus vestibus indu- amur, nec cingulis undique auro radiantibus cmgamur; non comes- sationibus et ebrietatibus dediti simus, verum ista relinquamus eis quorum Deus venter est, et gloria in confusione ipsorum.”
20. For private duties, both personal and domestical, they are either antecedent or consequent unto the solemn public worship, as usually for time it is celebrated amongst us. These consisting in the known religious exercises of prayer, reading the Scripture, medi- tation, family instructions from the advantage of the public ordi- nances, they are to be recommended unto every one’s conscience, ability, and opportunity, as they shall find strength and assistance for them.
Mévy ra Oe d6Fa.
SUMMARY
OF
DOCTRINAL AND PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS,
DRAWN FROM THE EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE.!
CHAPTERS L,, II.
PRE-EMINENT DIGNITY OF CHRIST, BOTH ABSOLUTELY AND COMPARATIVELY—HIS SUPERIORITY TO ANGELS,
Cuap. I. Ver. 1, 2.—1. The revelation of the will of God, as to all things which concern his worship and our faith and obedience, is peculiarly, and in a way of eminence, from the Father. 2. The authority of God, speaking in and by the penmen of the Scriptures, is the sole bottom and foundation of our assenting to them, and to what is contained in them, with faith divine and supernatural. 8. God’s gradual revelation of himself, and of his mind and will unto the church, was a fruit of infinite wisdom and care towards his elect. 4. We may see hence the absolute perfection of the revela- tion of the will of God by Christ and his apostles, as to every end and purpose whatever for which God ever did or ever will in this world reveal himself or his mind and wil]. 5. That the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the great prophet of his church under the new testament, the only revealer of the will of the Father, as the Son and Wisdom of God, made the worlds, and all things contained in them.