A26918:465
The divine appointment of the Lords day proved as a separated day for holy…
The divine appointment of the Lords day proved as a separated day for holy worship, especially in the church assemblies, and consequently the cessation of the seventh day Sabbath : written for the satisfaction of some religious persons who are lately drawn into error or doubting in both these points / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Nevil Simmons, 1671
The Divine Appointment of the LORDS DAY, proved, as a separated Day… › Chapter 13
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
IV. The great blessing of an Apostolic Ministry, and of the stability of the Martyrs in their sufferings for Christ, being so rare and notable a Mercy to the Church, I confess I know no reason why the Churches of all succeeding ages may not keep an Anniversary day of Thanksgiving to God for Peter or Paul, or Stephen, as well as for the Powder plot-deliverance. I know not where God hath forbidden it, directly or indirectly. If his instituting the Lords day were a virtual prohibition for man to separate any more, or if the prohibition of adding to Gods Word were against it, they would be against other days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving, especially Anniversarily; which we confess they are not. If the reason be scandal, lest the Men should have the honour instead of God, I Answer, 1. An honour is due to Apostles and Martyrs in their places, in meet subordination to God. 2. Where the case of scandal is notorious, it may become by that accident unlawful, and yet not be so in other times and places.
IV. The great blessing of an Apostolick Ministry, and of the stability of the Martyrs in their sufferings for Christ, being so rare and notable a Mercy to the Church, I confess I know no reason why the Churches of all succeeding ages may not keep an Anniversary day of Thanksgiving to God for Peter or Paul, or Stephen, as well as for the Powder plot-deliverance. I know not where God hath forbidden it, directly or indirectly. If his instituting the Lords day were a virtual prohibition for man to separate any more, or if the prohibition of adding to Gods Word were against it, they would be against other daies of Humiliation and Thanksgiving, especially Anniversarily; which we confess they are not. If the reason be scandal, lest the Men should have the honour instead of God, I Answer, 1. An honour is due to Apostles and Martyrs in their places, in meet subordination to God. 2. Where the case of scandal is notorious, it may become by that accident unlawful, and yet not be so in other times and places.
V. The Devil hath here been a great Undoer by Overdoing: When he knew not how else to cast out the holy observation of the Lords day, with zealous people he found out the trick of devising so many days called Holy days to set up by it, that the people might perceive that the observation of them all as holy, was never to be expected. And so the Lords day was jumbled in the heap of holy days, and all turned into Ceremony, by the Papists and too many other Churches in the World. Which became Calvins temptation (as his own words make plain) to think too meanly of the Lords day with the rest.