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teenth century . K- Bacon had just before remarked , ( p . 97 , ) ' that the Saxons took no note of the vice of profane swearing and cursing ; which crime / ' he says * ' must lie upon the
clergymen ' s arrouut , for their neglect of teaching the point , or upon the general ignorance of those times , winch understood not the [ ihirdj commandment nor the Scripture . "
That the notion of the holiness of Sunday , by any divine appointment , did not prevail among the English Reformers , is highly probable from the conduct of those who governed England , and determined upon a religion for the people * in the name of the royal child Edward . These churchmen and statesmen , bv whom Calvin ' s
opinions were likely to be respected , procured an Act of Parliament in 1552 , winch described as holy-days «* all Sundays in ihe year , the days of the Feast of the Circumcision , Epiphany" Sec . It was farther enacted , «* that it shall be lawful to every
husbandman , labourer , fisherman , and to all and every other person and persons , of what estate , degree or condition he or they be , upon the holydays aforesaid , in harvest or at any other time in the \ ear , when necessity
shall require , to labour , ride , fish or work any kind of work , at their free wills and pleasure . ' This permission of free employment wight well consist with that general use of Sunday , for which Calvin ( p . 488 ) appears
laudably solicitous , ** a cessation from labour to servants and workmen , " whose labour was then in a great measure enforced . Five years before , in 1547 , Injunctions had been put forth , iu the name
of Edward . •* that all parsons , vienrs and curates shall tcath and declare unto their parishioners , that they may with a safe and quiet conscience , iu the time of harvest , labour upon the holy and festival days , and save that
thing which God hath sent . And if , for any scrupulosity or grudge of conscience , men should superstitiously abstain from working upon those da ^' s , that they should grievously offend and displease God / ' These
directions were adopted by Elizabeth in 1559 , adding to the words quiet conscience , " after their common prayer . " I quote these authorities from Des
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Maizeaux * * Life of Chillingwortfey pp . 33 , 84 , in a note to a passage on Chillmgwortlfs refusal of Subscription . Ati ton £ his objections , one *• concerned the fourth
commandment , " which ?• appeared lo him to be made a part of the Christian law . And this he found contrary to the sense of the Church of England , con * ceruing that holy-day of the Christians which is called Sunday . "
the exile of the English Reformers , on the accession of Mary , gave rise to two publications which are preserved in the Phoenix , 1708 , II . pp . 44 , 204 . The first , No . XIX . is entitled « A
Brief Discourse of the Troubles of Frankfort in Germany , A . D . 1554 , about the Book of Common Prayer and Ceremonies , first published i » 1575 . " No . XX . is " Calvin ' s
Common Prayer Book : or the Service , Discipline and Form of the Common Prayers—used in the English Church of Geneva . As it was approved by that most reverend divine Mr , John
Calvin , and the Church of Scotland /' I have looked through both Vnese articles with some attention , and though the subjects of discipline and church censures several times occur ,, I can find no view whatever of the
Lord ' s-day different from those which have been stated . The sin of Stoftbath-hreahingy as Christians inaccurately speak , seems , at that period , to have been unknown . The contrast
is striking upon looking through the Confession , Catechisms and Directory ? li agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster , 1645 , " and still forming the established religion of the Church of Scotland . There
it is determined ( Cortf . xxi . 7 ) that Cl by a positive , moral and perpetual commandment , binding all men in all ages , God hath particularly appointed owe day in seven for a Sabbath , to be kept holy unto him : which , from the
beginning of the world to the resttrrection of Christ , was the last day of the week ; and , from the resurrection of Christ , was changed into the first day of the week , which in Scripture is called the LordVday , and is to be continued to the end of the
world as the Christian Sabbath . " On the que » tioa whether Calvin approved " of festivities on the Lord ' sday / ' of which your Correspondent " can find no intimation whatever in
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656 Calvin s Notion , of the Sabbath .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 556, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/32/
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