the made for man for the The sabbath. get the words of Christ in the gospel, where he saith: "The The sabbath sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath; and man, and not that the Son of man too is Lord of the sabbath3." godly do very well know that God ordained the sabbath for preservation, and not for the destruction, of mankind; and that therefore he doth dispense with us for the sabbath, as often as any urgent necessity or saving of a man shall seem to require it. Touching which matter our Saviour Christ himself hath fully satisfied the faithful in the 12th of Matthew, and the 6th and 13th chapters after St Luke. In such things, verily, Christians may use their liberty to occupy themselves in on the sabbath-day. Since the priests and Levites are held excused, which do in the temple openly both kill, slay, burn, and boil beasts, in making their sacrifices, so that they are not thought to break the sabbath-day, because they may without offence to God, even on the sabbaths, dress and make ready the things serving to the outward worship of the Lord; so likewise may we on the sabbath dress and make ready meat and other necessaries which our bodies cannot lack. We may also minister physic to the sick, visit the weak, and help the needy, that so we may preserve the creature of God. Herein did our Saviour give us an example to follow, who did on the sabbath work the deeds of charity and mercy. We have more than one example of his to be seen in the gospel, but especially in Luke vi. and xiii. and John, the fifth chapter. If then on the sabbath-day it be lawful to draw out of a pit a sheep or an ox in danger of drowning, why should it not be lawful likewise on the sabbath to underset with props a ruinous house that is ready to fall? Why should it not be lawful on the sabbath-day to gather in, and keep from spoiling, the hay or corn, which, by reason of unseasonable weather, hath lain too long abroad, and likely to be worse if it stay any longer? The holy emperor Constantine, writing to Elpidius, saith: "Let all judges in courts of law, and citizens of all occupations, rest upon the Sunday, and keep it holy with reverence and devotion. But they that inhabit the country may freely To plough and at liberty attend on their tillage upon the sabbath-day. sabbath-day. For oftentimes it falleth out, that they cannot upon another day so commodiously sow their seed, or plant their vines; and [2 proinde, Lat.] [3 Mark ii. 27, 28.] [4 Certe in his versatur libertas Christiana, Lat.] land on the God doth sanctify or so, by letting pass the opportunity of a little time, they may hap to lose the profit given of God for our provision'." Thus saith the emperor. Now we must consider, that he doth not license husbandmen by all kind of toil continually to defile the sabbath-day. For of the countrymen, as well as of the townsmen, are looked for due honour done to God, and the keeping of the fourth commandment: only this must be remembered, that liberty is granted in causes of necessity. But a godly mind and charity shall be excellent dispensers and mistresses to lead us in such cases as these, lest, under the coloured pretence of liberty and necessity, we do deeds not to be borne withal on the sabbath-day, and exercise the works of greedy covetousness, and not of sincere holiness. And thus much had I to say touching the second use of the sabbath-day. make holy. tion. Thirdly, the sabbath hath a very ample or large significa For it is a perpetual sign that God alone is he that sanctifieth those that worship his name. For thus saith the Lord to Moses: "Ye shall keep my sabbaths, because it is a sign betwixt me and you to them that come after you, to know that I am the Lord which sanctify you;" and so forth, as it is to be seen in the 31st of Exodus, and is again repeated in the 20th of Ezechiel. And to this end doth the Lord mutually apply himself3, as is before said in the declaration of the sabbath's second use and signification. For God doth by his Holy Spirit sanctify his faithful folk and constant believers: which he declareth unto the church by the preaching of the gospel, bearing witness thereunto and sealing it with his sacraments; so that he commandeth us with continual prayers incessantly to crave of him that glorious sanctification. All which things, verily, are practised and put in use upon the sabbath-days especially, to the intent that we may be sanctified of God, who is the only sanctifier of us all. Hitherto have I declared unto you, dearly beloved, as [1 Imp. Constantinus. A. Elpidio. III.-Omnes judices urbanæque plebes, et cunctarum artium officia, venerabili die solis quiescant. Ruri tamen positi agrorum culturæ libere licenterque inserviant: quoniam frequenter evenit ut non alio die aptius frumenta sulcis et vineæ scrobibus commendentur; et ne occasione momenti pereat commoditas cœlesti provisione concessa.-D. Non. Mart. Crispo II. et Constantino II. Coss.-Cod. Just. Lib. II. tit. 12. de feriis. p. 409.] [2 Exod. xxxi. 13; Ezek. xx. 12.] [3 mutuam operam confert, Lat.] briefly as I could, the first table of God's commandments, wherein we have very exquisitely laid down before us the worship due to the name of God. But for because they are not the children of God, which know his mind, but they that do it, let us beseech our heavenly Father so to illuminate our minds, that we may faithfully and indeed worship our Lord and God, who is to be praised world without end. Amen. OF THE FIRST PRECEPT OF THE SECOND TABLE, WHICH DUE TO PARENTS. THE FIFTH SERMON. Now followeth the second table of God's law, which (by the help of God's Holy Spirit) I will declare as briefly unto you as I have already gone through the first. And as the first contained the love of God, so doth the second teach us the charity due to our neighbour; instructing all men what they owe every one to his neighbour, and how we may in this world live honestly, civilly, and in quiet peace among ourselves. For our good God would have us to live well and quietly. But we that will not know how to live well, nor yet obey his good commandments, do with our sins and iniquities never cease to heap upon our own pates an infinite multitude of miserable calamities. precept. This table containeth six commandments; the first whereof is, "Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days The fifth may be long in the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee." Very well and rightly doth the Lord begin the second table with the honouring of our parents. For after our duty to God, the next is the reverent love that we owe to our parents, of whom, next after God, we have our life, and by whom we are from our infancy brought up with incredible care and exceeding great labour. Now the very order of nature doth require, that the most excellent and dearest things should always have the first and chiefest place. And that this commandment may the more easily be un What is meant by the name of parents. derstood, I mean to divide my treatise thereof into three parts: In the first whereof I will declare what degrees and kinds of men are comprehended under the name of parents: secondarily, I will search out what kind of honour that is, and how far it extendeth, which the Lord commandeth to give to our parents and lastly, I will both touch the promise made to godly children, and thereupon conjecture and gather the punishment appointed for the ungodly and disobedient offspring. There is none so ignorant but knoweth what parents are. The Lord our God hath given us them for us to take of them our beginning of life, that they might nourish and bring us up, and that of rude and almost brutish things they might make us very men. Greater are the good turns that parents do for their children, greater is the cost and labour that they bestow on them, and greater is the care, grief, and trouble which they take for them, than any man, however eloquent soever he be, is able to express. And here is not the name of the father only, but also the name of the mother in express words set down in the law, lest she peradventure should seem and be contemptible without any offence to God, because of the weakness of her frail sex. The godly and virtuous mothers do feel and abide more pain and grief in the bearing, bringing up, and nourishing of their children, than the fathers do. For no small cause therefore have we the name of the mother precisely expressed in this commandment. We do also comprehend herein the grandfather and grandmother, the great grandsire and great granddame, and all other like to these. In the second place we do contain every man's country wherein he was born, which fed, fostered, adorned, and defended him. Magistrates Thirdly, we take princes and magistrates into the name and title for the senators and princes are in the holy scriptures called the fathers and pastors of the people'. Xenophon was persuaded, that a good prince did differ nothing from a good father2. Fourthly, there are to be reckoned under the name of fatherless of parents those guardians, which are usually called overseers of fatherless children or orphans: for they supply the place of departed parents, taking upon them the charge and defence Our native country. or rulers. Guardians or overseers children. [1 2 Kings v. 13; Isai. xxii. 21, and xliv. 28; Jer. xii. 10, and xxv. 34; Micah v. 5.] [2 Ἀλλὰ πολλάκις μὲν δὴ, ὦ ἄνδρες, καὶ ἄλλοτε κατενόησα, ὅτι ἄρχων ἀγαθὸς οὐδὲν διαφέρει πατρὸς ἀγαθοῦ.—Xenoph. Cyrop. Lib. vn.] pastors of the of their children, whom they must (for that affection ought to be in them) bring up, defend, and advance, even as they would do to their own and those that they themselves did once beget. Among whom also we must make account of such masters and workmen, as teach them an art or occupation: for of them young men and striplings learn some honest science, for every one to get his living honestly; and by them they are taught good manners, being thereby, after a certain sort, out of rude unpolished stuff made perfect seemly men. Fifthly, Ministers and the ministers, doctors, and pastors of the churches, are taken church. for parents, whom Paul himself did call by the name of fathers, not so much for the care and love wherewith they are affected toward the disciples and sheep of Christ his flock, as for because we are by them through the gospel begotten in Christ. In the sixth place, we must think of our cousins and Cousins and kinsfolks, brother and sister, nephews and nieces, mother-inlaw and daughter-in-law, father-in-law and son-in-law, who are by alliance knit together3, as the members of the body are fastened with sinews. Finally, in the last place, old Aged persons folks and widows, fatherless children and impotent weak persons, must be reputed among our parents: whose cause and tuition the Lord hath in more places than one commended unto us. So then, my brethren, here ye have heard who they be, that in this first precept of the second table we have to take for our parents, and who and how many are comprehended and commended to us under that name and now shall ye hear what honour we owe to them, and what the honour is that we should attribute unto them. kinsfolk. or old folks. what it is. To honour, in the scriptures, is diversely taken; but in To honour, this treatise it signifieth to magnify, to worship, to esteem well, and to do reverence as to a thing ordained by God; and also to acknowledge, to love, and to give praise as for a benefit received at God's hand, and as for a thing given from heaven, that is both holy, profitable, and necessary. To honour is to be dutiful and to obey; and so to obey, as if it were to God himself, by whom we know that our obedience is commanded, and to whom we are sure that our service is acceptable. Otherwise we have not in any cause to either our parents or magistrates, if they themselves do, or else command us to do, the things that are wicked [3 et conservantur, Lat. ; omitted.] obey The honour shall always be and of God goeth fore. |