Of the morality of the fourth commandment as still in force to bind Christians…Of the morality of the fourth commandement as still in force to binde Christians…

Which being so, the judgement and practice of so many men, and of such several persuasions in the controverted point of the Christian faith, concurring unanimously together; the miracle is the greater, that we in England should take up a contrary opinion, and thereby separate our selves from all that ⟨p. 149⟩are called Christian; yet so it is, I skill not how it comes to pass, but so it is, that some among us have revived again the Jewish Sabbath, though not the day it self, yet the name and thing. Teaching that the commandment of sanctifying every seventh day, as in the Mosaical Decalogue, is natural, moral and perpetual; that whereas all things else in the Jewish Church were so changed, that they were clean taken away, This day (meaning the Sabbath) was so changed, that it still remaineth; and lastly, that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs coming. All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England; as in a comment on those Articles perused, and by the lawful authority of the Church allowed to be public, is most clear and manifest; which doctrinals, though dangerous in themselves, and different from the judgement of the ancient Fathers, and of the greatest Clerks of the later times, are not yet half so desperate as that which followeth thereupon in point of practice: For these positions granted and entertained as orthodox, what can we else expect, but such strange paradoxes, as in the consideration of the premisses have been delivered from some pulpits in this kingdom, as viz. That to do any servile work or business on the Lords Day, is as great a sin as to kill a man, or to commit adultery; that to throw a bowl, to make a feast, or dress a wedding dinner on the Lords Day, is as great a sin, as for a man to take a knife and cut his child's throat; that to ring more bells than one on the Lords Day, is as great a sin, as to commit murder. The author which reports them all, was present when the broacher of the last position was convented for it. And I believe him in the rest; the rather, since I have heard it preached in London, that the law of Moses whereby death temporal was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force, and that who ever did the works of his calling on the Sabbath day, was to die therefore.

Which being so, the judgement and practice of so many men, and of such severall perswasions in the controverted point of the Christian faith, concurring unanimously together; the miracle is the greater, that we in England should take up a contrary opinion, and thereby separate our selves from all that