N02341:514
Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in…
Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in the churches of New-England. : With interspersed and instructive reflections on the discipline of the primitive churches. : [Seven lines from Ezekiel]
Boston: printed for S. Gerrish, 1726
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
In these Proclamations there is inserted a Clause, Inhibiting all Servile Labour on the Days appointed; and the Days are accordingly observed, with a strict Application to the Proper Duties of them; yea, observed as Extraordinary Sabbaths. Not only the Days of Humiliation are so, but the Days of Thanksgiving also: It may be, there are no Days of Thanksgiving any where on the Face of the Earth, kept in so Religious, and Sabbatizing ⟨p. 189⟩a Manner, as they are in the Churches of New-England. There are no such Ringing of Bells, and making of Bonfires, and other Frolics, as there are on such Occasions in some of our European Churches. And may they be forever preserved from such Profanations!
In these Proclamations there is inserted a Clause, Inhibiting all Servile Labour on the Days appointed; and the Days are accordingly observed, with a strict Application to the Proper Duties of them; yea, observed as Extraordinary Sabbaths. Not only the Days of Humiliation are so, but the Days of Thanksgiving also: It may be, there are no Days of Thanksgiving any where on the Face of the Earth, kept in so Religious, and Sabbatizing ⟨p. 189⟩a Manner, as they are in the Churches of New-England. There are no such Ringing of Bells, and making of Bonfires, and other Frolicks, as there are on such Occasions in some of our European Churches. And may they be forever preserved from such Profanations!
As other extraordinary Occasions do occur, at any other time of the Year, the Civil Authority takes a like Notice of them.
And it is a very frequent thing, for particular Pastors with their Churches, to keep Solemn Days in their own Congregations, as they see Occasions for them; without any Direction from the Civil Authority. So Cyprian in a Time of Calamity; Ad placandum atque exorandum Dominum, saith he, Non Voce sola, sed et Jejuniis et Lacrymis, et omni genere Deprecationis ingemiscamus.