THE SABBATH. 17 



out it." Calvin repudiated "the frivolities of false 

 prophets who, in later times, have instilled Jewish 

 ideas into the people. Those," he continues, "who 

 thus adhere to the Jewish institution go thrice as far 

 as the Jews themselves in the gross and carnal super- 

 stition of Sahbatism." Even John Knox, who has had 

 so much Puritan strictness unjustly laid to his charge, 

 knew how to fulfil on the Lord's Day the duties of a 

 generous, hospitable host. His Master feasted on the 

 Sabbath day, and he did not fear to do the same on 

 Sunday. "There be two parts of the Sabbath day/' 

 says Cranmer: "one is the outward bodily rest from 

 all manner of labour and work; this is mere ceremonial, 

 and was taken away with other sacrifices and ceremo- 

 nies by Christ at the preaching of the gospel. The other 

 part of the Sabbath day is the inward rest or ceasing 

 from sin." This higher symbolism, as regards the Sab- 

 bath, is frequently employed by the Eeformers. It is 

 the natural recoil of the living spirit from the mechani- 

 cal routine of a worn-out hierarchy. 



Towards the end of the sixteenth century, demands 

 for a stricter observance of the Sabbath began to be 

 made probably in the first instance with some reason, 

 and certainly with good intent. The manners of the 

 time were coarse, and Sunday was often chosen for their 

 offensive exhibition. But if there was coarseness on 

 the one side, there was ignorance both of Xature and 

 human nature on the other. Contemporaneously with 

 the demands for stricter Sabbath rules, God's judgments 

 on Sabbath-breakers began to be pointed out. Then 

 and afterwards " God's Judgments " were much in 

 vogue, and man, their interpreter, frequently behaved 

 as a fiend in the supposed execution of them. But of 

 this subsequently. A Suffolk clergyman named Bownd, 

 who, according to Cox, was the first to set forth at large 



