The Puritans and the Lord's Day - Part 1

     The book I am reading, “A Quest for Godliness”, about the Puritans has chapters based on certain teachings of the Bible or certain aspects of the Christian life. Chapter 14 deals with the Puritans and their practice of observing the Lord’s Day.

In England, during the time of the Puritan’s (1550-1700), it seems most people observed the Lord’s Day as they do today with not much thought of God and more thought of leisure activities. In those days, many would attend plays, dances, play cards, or some game of sport on the Lord’s day. “Serious Christians” (Puritans) became concerned about this and Richard Baxter remembered as a youth being called a “Puritan, Precisian, or Hypocrite” because his family chose to read the Scriptures rather than join in all the games and other activities. Baxter, later as Pastor of Kidderminster, was able to effect change in that city so that the emphasis on the Lord’s Day was on the Lord.

     You might ask what the Puritan’s thought about the 4th commandment to observe the Sabbath. I know I have had many questions about why we do not observe the Sabbath as the Jews did (on Saturday) and I think the Puritan’s can help in this issue. (One thing on a side note that seems true about the Puritan’s is that, even though there were many Puritans in many different cities and rural areas of England, they always seemed to be in agreement/unity about things like this. I attribute this to their humble attitude and submission to the Word of God and their consistent desire to be obedient to it. It seems that when we (Christians) with a humble heart together really try to understand and work out difficult issues, God gives agreement and unity. I wish we were more like that today and my personal opinion is that we give up far too easily and suffer for it.)

     Like the Reformers (Calvin, Luther, and others) the Puritan’s believed that the Sabbath was a type, foreshadowing the grace-faith relationship we would have with Christ. Since Christ had come, the observance of the Sabbath was no longer required, since the type was cancelled. Unlike the Reformers (who did not prohibit work on Sunday), the Puritans believed that there still should be a day of rest for public and private worship of God since this was a law of creation instituted by God when he created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh day. In other words, the Puritans would say, “that the seventh day rest was more than a Jewish type; it was a memorial of creation, and part of the moral law, and as such was perpetually obligatory for all men.” (Packer) They would also affirm that the 4th commandment does not say that this day of rest must be the last day of the week and that the Apostles (according to the example in the Bible) started observing the day of rest on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) as a celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

So that is how the Puritans came to observe the day of rest on the Lord’s Day. Next time, I’ll talk about what a Lord’s Day would look like in the life of a Puritan.