"And if ye be not obedient to this command, amen, I say unto you, and I swear unto you, by my seat and throne, and cherubim, who keep my holy seat, because I will not command anything by another epistle, but I will open the heavens, and for rain I will rain upon you stones, and logs of wood, and hot water by night, that none may be able to prevent, that I may destroy all wicked men. This I say unto you; ye shall die the death; because of the holy Dominical day, and other festivals of my saints, which ye have not kept, I will send unto you beasts having the heads of women, and the tails of camels; and they shall be so hunger-starved that they shall devour your flesh."
There is more of this wretched stuff; but let this suffice as a specimen of the arts and intrigues used to impose upon the simple and unsuspecting, by a forged letter purporting to be from heaven.
The same author goes on to state that "the king and government of England opposed the discontinuance of the markets upon the Dominical day, and required that those who observed it in such a way should be brought to the king's court to make satisfaction, or otherwise purge themselves of the observance of the Dominical day."
In this connexion I will just add a few more expedients of the Romanists at that time to deceive the people of England into a superstitious veneration for the first day.
"But our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we ought to obey rather than man, who, made famous and exceedingly renowned, dedicated unto himself this day, which we call the Dominical or Lord's day, by his birth, and by his resurrection, by his coming, and by the sending of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, he raised up miracles of his virtue, and thus manifested it upon some transgressors of the Dominical day:
"Upon a certain Sabbath, after the ninth hour, a certain carpenter in Beverlac, making a wooden pin against the wholesome admonition of his wife, being struck with a palsy, fell to the ground. A certain woman, knitting after the ninth hour of the Sabbath, whilst she was very anxious to knit out part of her work, falling to the earth, struck with the palsy, she became dumb. And at Nosfortum, a village of Master Roger Arundel, a certain man made for himself bread, baked under the ashes, on the Sabbath, after the ninth hour, and eat of it, and reserved to himself part until the morning, which when he brake, upon the Dominical day, blood came out of it. And he that saw it hath given testimony, and his testimony is true.
"And at Wakefield, upon a certain Sabbath, when a miller, after the ninth hour, endeavoured to grind corn, suddenly, in the place of meal, there issued out so great a stream of blood, and the mill-wheel stood immovable against the vehement impulse of the water; and those who saw marvelled, saying, 'Forgive, Lord, forgive thy people!' And at Lincolnshire, a certain woman had prepared dough, or paste, or pudding pie, which carrying to the oven, after the ninth hour of the Sabbath, she put into a very hot oven; and when she had drawn it out, she found it not baked, and she put it again into the oven, made very hot; and on the morning, and on Monday, when she thought to have found the bread baked, she found the dough unbaked. Also, in the same province, when a certain woman had prepared her dough, willing to carry it to the oven, her husband said, 'It is the Sabbath:—the ninth hour is now past. Let it alone until Monday.' And the woman, obeying her husband, did as he commanded, and wrapped the dough in linen, and, in the morning, when she went to look at the dough, lest it should exceed the vessel, because of the leaven put into it, she found, by divine will, bread made thereof, and well baked with material fire. This is a change of the right hand of the Most High; and although the Almighty Lord, by these and other miracles of his power, did invite the people to the observation of the Dominical day, yet the people, fearing more kingly and human power than divine, and fearing more those who kill the body, and can do no more, than Him who, after killing the body, can send the soul to hell, and fearing more to lose earthly things than heavenly, and transitories than eternals, as a dog to the vomit, returned to keep markets of things saleable upon the Dominical day."
The term Sabbath, during all this period, was applied exclusively to the seventh day. Indeed, whenever, for fourteen or fifteen centuries, that name occurs, it must be understood as applying to the last day of the week. Up to the present time, on the records of England, particularly on the Journals of the House of Lords, the highest court of England, all things entered as done on the seventh day are entered as done die Sabbati, upon the Sabbath day. From the time of Constantine to the Reformation, Sunday was never regarded as the Sabbath, nor called by that sacred name. During all this time, in England, here and there, were found individuals who observed the Sabbath—the seventh day of the week—strictly, though exposed to many privations and frequent persecutions. Of their numbers or their locations we have at present but very imperfect accounts. The mass of men regarded the Sabbath as abolished;—Sunday as no Sabbath, but merely a church-holiday, to which they paid no conscientious regard. With the dawn of the Reformation a new spirit of inquiry was awakened in regard to the duties of practical godliness. Among the subjects for discussion we find the Sabbath early introduced and thoroughly examined. There was one class of reformers who, dwelling alone on the sufficiency of faith and the freeness of the Gospel, trembled at the thought of imposing rules upon men, and expressed a sort of holy horror at the term, "law." Of this description were Luther and Calvin. It is well known that the former recommended to Christians "to ride, dance, and feast," on Sunday, rather than to submit to any infringement of the liberty of conscience. But there were others, who contended that an institution given in Paradise, and enforced by one of the commandments of the Decalogue, could not have been abolished; yet, finding themselves in the dilemma of observing another day than that originally appointed, they maintained that the day had been changed so early as to justify us in allowing it. A third class contended that an institution so early given, and so often enforced, could not have been abolished or changed without explicit authority; that this explicit authority had never been given; and, therefore, the seventh day of the week, and that only, should be observed. Compared with the whole, the number who acknowledged the perpetuity and morality of the Sabbath, and manifested a sacred regard for either the first or the seventh day, was small. However, they were sufficient to prove that wherever the subject of the Sabbath has been considered, there has always been found those who, by precept and example, have witnessed for the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
In 1595, a book was written and published by Dr. Bound, in which the morality of the Sabbath, and a change of the day, was advocated in quite a masterly manner. This excited a controversial spirit, and was soon followed by many others, both for and against his view. The orthodoxal doctrine of the Church of England, by bishops and historians, then was, that the Sabbath had been abolished, and that the Lord's day, so called, was altogether another institution, which could not be enforced by the fourth commandment. Among the men who held this view, we may mention Dr. Francis White, Lord Bishop of Ely, Dr. Peter Heylyn, Edward Brerewood, Gilbert Ironsides, and others. Against these men were arrayed the leading Puritans, who maintained the morality of the Sabbath and the necessity of restraining men by the sanctions of the fourth commandment. Many true Sabbatarians, however, stood opposed to both these parties, maintaining not only the morality of the Sabbath, but the obligation to observe the seventh day of the week. A work supporting this view, from the pen of Theophilus Brabourne, appeared in 1628. He took the position that the fourth commandment was simply and entirely moral; that the seventh day of the week ought to be an everlasting holyday in the Christian Church; and that the Sunday is an ordinary working day, which it is superstition and will-worship to make the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. This view was adopted by considerable numbers in England, and has been represented from that day to this, by men of learning and piety. Many who remained in connexion with the established church, were conscientious observers of the seventh day Sabbath, among whom were several ministers of piety, and authors of eminence.
About the same time, small dissenting parties began to organize churches and to boldly maintain the worship of God upon the Sabbath. Of these the Natton Church has been much celebrated. It is situated in the west of England, near Tewksbury, and about fifteen miles from Gloucester, thirty-five from Birmingham, and ninety from London. The first pastor of this church whose name has come down to us was Mr. John Purser. He is represented as a very worthy man, and a great sufferer for conscience sake. He was descended from an honourable family, and was heir to a considerable estate, but his father disinherited him because he observed the seventh day for the Sabbath. Notwithstanding this wrong, it pleased Divine Providence to bless him abundantly in the little that he possessed. He became a respectable farmer, and lived at Ashton-upon-Carrant, in the Parish of Ashchurch, in the county of Gloucester, during the reigns of Charles and James the Second. In common with other nonconformists, he experienced much oppression and great opposition on account of his religion. At one time his persecutors came upon him while he was engaged in ploughing a field, and took from him his team and utensils of husbandry. Notwithstanding the severity of the laws against dissenters, the officers, in many instances, far exceeded their commission, and sometimes were made to suffer for it. Such was the case in this instance; for one William Surman, Esq., a conformist, but worthy man, seeing the cruelty and injustice of thus depriving an honest man of his property and the means for procuring a livelihood, obliged his adversaries to return the property thus wrongfully taken. It appears from authentic testimonies that he suffered much during the persecutions between 1660 and 1690. But he overcame all by faith and patience, and came out of the furnace like gold doubly refined.