Holy living in which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every virute, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations : together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion occasians [sic], and furnished for all necessities / by Jer. Taylor.

Rules for keeping the Lords day ••nd other Christian festivals.

1. When you go about to distinguish Fe∣stival daies from common, do it not by lesse∣ning the devotions of ordinary daies, that the common devotion may seem bigger up∣on Festivals, but on every day keep your ordinary devotions intire, and enlarge upon the Holy day.

2. Upon the Lords day wee must abstain from all servile and laborous works, except such which are matters of necessity, of com∣mon life, or of great charity: for these are permitted by that authoritie which hath se∣parated the day for holy uses. The Sabbath

of the Jewes though consisting principally in rest, and established by God, did yeeld to these. The labour of Love and the labours of Religion were not against the reason and the spirit of the Commandement, for which the Letter was decreed, and to which it ought to minister: And therefore much more is it so on the Lords day, where the Letter is wholly turned into Spirit, and there is no Commandement of God, but of spiritual and holy actions The Priests might kill their beasts and dress them for sacrifice: and Ch••ist though born under the Law, might heal a sick man, and the sick man might car∣ry his bed to witness his recovery, and con∣fess the mercy, and leap and dance to God for joy: and an Ox might be led to water, and an Ass be haled out of a ditch, & a man may take physick, and he may eat meat, and therefore there were of necessity some to prepare and minister it: and the performing these labours did not consist in minutes, and just determined stages, but they had, even then, a reasonable latitude: so onely as to exclude unnecessary labour, or such as did not minister to charity or religion. And therefore this is to be enlarged in the Gospel, whose Sabbath or rest is but a circumstance, and accessory to the principal and spiritual duties: Upon the Christian Sabbath, neces∣sity is to be served first, then charity, & then religion; for this is to give place to charity in great instances; and the second to the fi••st in all; and in all cases God is to be worship∣ped in spirit and in truth.

3. The Lords day being the rememb••ance

of a great blessing, must be a day of joy, festivitie, spiritual ••ej••icing and thanksgiving, and therefore it is a proper work of the day to let your devotions spend themselves in sing∣ing or reading Psalms, in recounting the great works of God, in remembring his mer∣cies in worshipping his excellenc••es▪ in cele∣brating his attributes, in admi••ing his person, in sending portions of pleasant meat to them for whom nothing is provided, and in all the arts and instruments of advancing God's glo∣rie, and the reputation of Religion: in which it were a great decencie that a memorial of the resurrection should be inserted, that the particular religion of the day bee not swal∣lowed up in the general: And of this wee may the more easily serve our selvs by rising seasonably in the morning to private devoti∣on, and by retiring at the leisures and spaces of the day not imploied in publick offices.

4. Fail not to be present at the publick hours and places of praier, entring early and cheerfully, attending reverently and devout∣ly, abiding patiently during the whole office, piously assisting at the praiers, and gladly also hearing the Sermon, and at no hand omitting to receive the holy Communion when it is offered (unless some great reason excuse it) this being the great solemnitie of thanks∣giving, and a proper work of the day.

5. After the solemnities are past, and in the intervalls between the morning and evening devotion (as you shall finde oppor∣tunitie) visit sick persons, reconcile differen∣ces, do offices of neighb••u••h••od, ••nquire into the needs of the poor, especially house keep∣ers,

relieve them as they shall need, and as you are able: for then wee truly rejoice in God, when we make our neighbours, the poor members of Christ, rejoice together with us.

6. Whatsoever you are to do your self as necessarie, you are to take care that others also, who are under your charge, do in their sta••ion and manner. Let your servants bee called to Church, and all your familie that can be spared from necessarie and great houshold ministeries: those that cannot, let them go by turns, and be supplied other∣wise as well as they may: and provide on these daies especially that they be instructed in the articles of faith, and necessary parts of their dutie.

7. Those who labour hard in the week, must bee eased upon the Lord's day; such ease beeing a great charity & alms: but at no hand must they be permitted to use any unlawful games, any thing forbidden by the Laws, any thing that is scandalous, or any thing that is dangerous, and apt to mingle sin with it; no games prompting to wan∣tonness, to drunkenness to quarrelling, to ri∣diculous and superstitious customs; but let their refreshments bee innocent, and chari∣table, and of good report, and not exclusive of the duties of Religion.

8. Beyond these bounds because neither God nor man hath passed any obligation up∣on us, wee must preserv our Christian libertie, and not suffer our selvs to be intangled with a yoke of bondage: for even a good action may become a ••••are to us, if we make it an occasion of scruple by a pretence of necessity

binding loads upon the conscience not with the bands of God, but of men, and of fancy, or of opinion, or of tyranny. Whatsoever is laid upon us by the hands of man, must be acted and accounted of by the measures of a man; but our best measure is this: He keeps the Lords day best that keeps it with most religion, and with most charitie.

9. What the Church hath done in the ar∣ticle of the resurrection, she hath in som mea∣sure done in the other articles of the Nativity, of the Ascention, and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost: and so great bles∣sings deserve an anniversary solemnity, since he is a very unthankful person that does not often record them in the whole year, and esteem them the ground of his hopes, the ob∣ject of his faith, the comfort of his troubles, and the great effluxes of the divine mercy, greater then all the victories over our tem∣poral enemies, for which all glad persons usually give thanks. And if with great reason the memory of the resurrection does return solemnly every week, it is but reason the o∣ther should return once a year. * To which I adde, that the commemoration of the ar∣ticles of our Creed in solemn daies and offi∣ces is a very excellent instrument to convey and imprint the sense and memory of it up∣on the spirits of the most ignorant person. For as a picture may with more fancie con∣vey a story to a man, then a plain narrative either in word or writing: so a real represent∣ment, and an office of remembrance, and a day to declare it, is far more impressive then a picture, or any other art of making and fixing imagery.

10. The memories of the Saints are preci∣ous to God, and therefore they ought also to be so to us; and such persons who served God by holy living, industrious preaching, and religiou•• dying, ought to have their names preserved in honour, and God be glorified in them, and their holy doctrines and lives published and imitated; and we by so doing give testimony to the article of the communion of Saints. But in these cases as every Church is to be sparing in the number of daies, so also should she be temperate in her injunctions, not imposing them but up∣on voluntary and unbusied persons, without snare or burden. But the Holy day is best kept by giving God thanks for the excellent persons, Apostles or Martyrs we then re∣member, and by imitating their lives: this all may do: and they that can also keep the solemnity, must doe that too when it is pub∣likly enjoyned.

The mixt actions of Religion are, 1. Prayer. 2. Alms. 3. Repentance. 4. Receiving the blessed Sacrament.