Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The doctrine of the Sabbath wherein the Sabbaths I. Morality, II.…

and so I doubt not but that England hath yet may a corner full of such precious Jewels, to whom Gods Sabbath• are yet most precious and glorious, and who cannot easily forget such blessed seasons and means in them, whereby (if ever the Lord did good unto them) they have been so oft refreshed, and wherein they have so oft seen God, wherein they have so oft met with him, and he with them; but whose heart will it not make to relent and sigh, to hear of late a company (not of ignorant debosht persons, malignants, prelatical, and corrupt and carnal men) but of such who have many of them in former times given great hopes of some fear of God, and much love to Gods Ordinances and Sabbaths; and now (what hurt the Sabbaths Ordinances of the Lord Jesus therein have done them, I know not, but) it would break ones heart to see what little care there is to sanctify the Sabbath, even by them who think in their judgments that the day is of God. What poor preparation for it, either in themselves or families! what little care to profit by it, or to instruct and catechize their families, and to bring them also it love with it! what, secret weariness and dead-heartednesse (almost wholly unlamented) remains upon them! what earthly thoughts, what liberty in speech about any worldly matter, presently after the most warning Sermon is done! that the Lord Jesus hath scarce good carcasses and outsides brought him which cannot but threaten more crows to pick them unless they repent: and yet this is not so sad as to see the looseness of mens judgments in this point of the Sabbath, whereby some think a Sabbath lawful, but not necessary (in respect of any command of God;) nay some think it superstition to observe a weekly Sabbath, which should be every day (as they imagine,) they have allegorized Gods Sabbaths, and almost all Gods Ordinances out of the world, and cast such pretended Antichristian filth and pollution upon them, that spiritual men must not now meddle with them; nay verily, all duties of the moral Law, and fruitful obedience and holy walking, and sanctification, graces, and humiliation, and such like, are the secret contempt of many, and the base drudgery for a •ll-horse and legal Christian, rather then for one that is of an Evangelical frame;

and so I doubt not but that England hath yet may a corner ful of such precious Jewels, to whom Gods Sabbath• are yet most precious and glorious, and who cannot easily forget such blessed seasons and meanes in them, whereby (if ever the Lord did good unto them) they have been so oft refreshed, and wherein they have so oft seen God, wherein they have so oft met with him, and he with them; but whose heart will it not make to relent and sigh, to hear of late a company (not of ignorant debosht persons, malignants, prelatical, and corrupt and carnal men) but of such who have many of them in former times given great hopes of some feare of God, and much love to Gods Ordinances and Sabbaths; and now (what hurt the Sabbaths Ordinances of the Lord Jesus therein have done them, I know not, but) it would break ones heart to see what little care there is to sanctifie the Sabbath, even by them who think in their judgments that the day is of God. What poore preparation for it, either in themselves or families! what little care to profit by it, or to instruct and catehize their families, and to bring them also it love with it! what, secret wearinesse and dead-heartednesse (almost wholly unlamented) remains upon them! what earthly thoughts, what liberty in speech about any worldly matter, presently after the most warning Sermon is done! that the Lord Jesus hath scarce good carcasses and outsides brought him which cannot but threaten more crows to pick them unlesse they repent: and yet this is not so sad as to see the loosenesse of mens judgments in this point of the Sabbath, whereby some think a Sabbath lawful, but not necessary (in respect of any command of God;) nay some think it superstition to observe a weekly Sabbath, which should be every day (as they imagine,) they have allegorized Gods Sabbaths, and almost all Gods Ordinances out of the world, and cast such pretended Antichristian filth and pollution upon them, that spiritual men must not now meddle with them; nay verily, all duties of the moral Law, and fruitful obedience and holy walking, and sanctification, graces, and humiliation, and such like, are the secret contempt of many, and the base drudgery for a ll-horse and legal Christian, rather then for one that is of an Evangelical frame;