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1. Duty of the Governours of the Church, and of all particular Christians about the ordering and practise of Gods service.
2. The faithfull ought to submit themselves to the order of the Church, and to keepe the dayes appointed for Gods service, by the publike practice thereof in the Congregation.
3. How they ought to carry themselves where there is no Church.
4. How where there is a Church, during the service.
5. How after the service.
6. The sanctification of Sunday is grounded on the holinesse of the exercises practised in it, and is so considered by the faithfull.
7. Profane men, because they have no heart to Gods service, con∣temne the Lords day.
8. Godly men doe quite contrary.
GOd for the edification and entertainement of his Church here below, injoyneth to those that have charge of her governement, to offer up prayers and thankesgivings, to preach the Gospell, to minister the Sacraments, to assemble the faithfull together, to establish good order in the Church; and to particular Christians to pray devoutly, to love Gods word, to keep it, receive the Sacraments, frequent carefully the holy assemblies, obey in things belonging to order and discipline those that have rule over them, and submit themselves unto them, not to be conten∣tious against the good customes of the Church, and to doe this, not each of them for himselfe onely, but also to procure that all persons subject to their governement, their subjects, their children, their servants doe the same.
All Christians, when they know that there are holy convoca∣tions for the hearing of the Word, and the practice of other reli∣gious exercises, and that the Order of the Church hath appointed unto them set dayes, as in every week a Sunday, are bound by these injunctions to resort carefully unto them, and to take paines that their inferiours (over whom they have authority) follow their ex∣ample: And if indeed they love the word of God, and the exer∣cises of godlinesse, to shew it by a diligent frequenting, and serious practice of them, as of a thing which God hath injoyned to all, and for the things sake, to observe the day wherein it is practised, al∣though God hath not prescribed nor appointed it, and it hath no other foundation but the Order of the Church, whereunto never∣thelesse God hath commanded in generall all men to submit them∣selves, 1 Cor. 14. vers. 40. For it is not for the dayes sake that we ought to practise and respect the holy exercises which ordinarily are done on it; but it is these exercises that make the day considerable, and give credit, authority, and respect unto it: The exercises are to
be much esteemed for themselves, and for Gods sake, who hath ex∣presly injoyned them: The day is not honoured and accounted of, but for their sake, in as much as the Church is pleased to doe them on it.
Yet, if a Christian were brought to that extremity, that hee must remaine in a place, where there is no Church, nor order esta∣blished for the publike exercises of religion; neverthelesse, because Sunday hath beene alwayes used in the Christian Church for a day of divine service, and all religious exercises, he ought not to for∣beare to apply himselfe unto them privately on that day, with grea∣ter assiduity than on other dayes: And because, where there is an order and discipline established, the Rulers of the State, and of the Church, to prevent all disorders, and stirre up greater respect to the exercises of religion which are practised on Sunday, have thought fit to forbid on that day the publike and ordinary workes of the o∣ther dayes of the weeke, he shall doe well to refraine on it from the ordinary workes of his worldly trade and calling, to obey these high powers that God hath subjected him unto.
It is then the order of the Church principally that must be to e∣very Christian the rule of the abstinence and cessation from ordina∣ry workes that he is to observe on Sunday, or on another day. That is, he must not apply himselfe to such workes without great neces∣sity, during all the time wherein this order calleth upon him to re∣sort to the house of God, to come to the holy assemblies, not to sit idle, not to busie himselfe about bodily occupations, when he ought to be in the congregation, hearing the word of God with attention, praying, and singing with heart and mouth to the Lord in the com∣pany of his faithfull brethren.
If divine service be publikely practised before and after noone in the Church, whereof he is a member, he must not soothe him∣selfe with a fond opinion, that he hath done his duty when he hath beene present at either of them, and forsaken one of the two, to be∣stow it on some other thing. That time ordained by the Church being expired, and the whole service of that day finished, when he is come home, and is alone, he is free to doe what he will, so it be honest and lawfull; to worke, or to refresh himselfe, for in that he sinneth not against God, & transgresseth not his Commandements. If he will passe the rest of the day in actions of religion, he shall do
well; if he will spend it on other ordinarie and common actions of this life, he shall not doe ill; with this proviso, that he be care∣full to prepare himselfe by religious meditations for the publike and holy exercises before they begin, and take time to call them to minde after they are ended, that so he may make them faithfull and profi∣table to his soule, feele in his heart their efficacie, and shew it by an holy conversation in the whole sway of his life. Otherwise the wicked one shall come, and catch away that which was sowne in his heart, Matt. 13. v. 19.
6 All that can, and should be propounded to teach us how wee ought to sanctifie the Lords day, must be grounded upon the neces∣sitie, holinesse, and utility of the religious exercises of divine ser∣vice, upon the respect due unto them, and upon the authority of the Church commanding upon these grounds. This is the only reason of the sanctification of that day; In this is the strength of all the argu∣ments whereby Gods servants ought to stirre up devotion in the hearts of their hearers; And not in the nature of the day wherein God is publikely served, not also in any obligation whereby the conscience is tied unto it. Those that feare God, and have respect unto his Commandements, will not omit the observation of this day, although they be informed that it obligeth them not, neither of it self, nor also by a divine commandement, more than another day. For it is not the day that they regard, but the great need they have to be instructed, comforted, fortified in the knowledge of God, in the love of his glorious Majestie, in true godlinesse, by the exerci∣ses which God hath ordained to that end, not onely particular at home, which they may doe at all times, as they shall have occasion, but also publike in the Church, in any day whatsoever the Church shall appoint.
7 On the other side, those that have not the love God, and of the exercises of religion in their hearts, will never be moved to give their minde with more affection and assiduity to Gods service, by beleeving, that Sunday is a day of Gods owne institution. For if they make no account of that which is the principall, and the end, which God hath injoyned, and urgeth so carefully, what reckoning can they make of a thing, which, putting the case it were a divine institution, could not injoy that prerogative, saving as a helpe and a meanes tending to that end?
If they should cover their forsaking of Gods service and of the holy exercises on Sunday, with this pretext, that it is not a divine institution; should they not discover a manifest profanenesse, for as much as that under a slight & frivolous pretence, they should dis∣daine that which they cannot be ignorant of, but that God hath or∣dained it; to wit, the holy convocations, the communion of the faithfull in them, his word, his Sacraments, the publike calling up∣on his name? Such profane ones must be left to the judgement of God, who will finde them out in his owne time.
8 As for the true faithfull, the glory of God, and their owne sal∣vation being their principall end, they will alwayes keepe religi∣ously and chearefully all things whereby they come to their end: First, the meanes which essentially and by Gods ordinance belong unto it, such as are the exercises of religion particular and publike: Next, those which being in themselves indifferent, and having no obligatorie power over the conscience by a divine commandement, are notwithstanding lawfully established by the Church for orders sake, and to set forth the former by ordinary practice, such as is the institution of Sunday. By which behaviour, they shall draw upon themselves from the Father of lights, the blessing of grace during their abode in these low parts of the earth, and of glory in heaven, through the precious merits of our onely Saviour and Redee∣mer Iesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost, be all honour, glory, and praise for ever and ever.