Therefore God saith not only in his commandments, that we shall abstain
from working; but he saith, _Sanctificabis_, "Thou shalt hallow:" so that
holy day keeping is nothing else but to abstain from good works, and to
do better works; that is, to come together, and celebrate the Communion
together, and visit the sick bodies. These are holy-day works; and for
that end God commanded us to abstain from bodily works, that we might be
more meet and apt to do those works which he hath appointed unto us,
namely, to feed our souls with his word, to remember his benefits, and to
give him thanks, and to call upon him. So that the holy-day may be
called a marriage-day, wherein we are married unto God; which day is very
needful to be kept. The foolish common people think it to be a belly-
cheer day, and so they make it a surfeiting day: there is no wickedness,
no rebellion, no lechery, but she hath most commonly her beginning upon
the holy-day.
We read a story in the fifteenth chapter of the book of Numbers, that
there was a fellow which gathered sticks upon the sabbath-day; he was a
despiser of God's ordinances and laws, like as they that now-a-days go
about other business, when they should hear the word of God, and come to
the Common Prayer: which fellows truly have need of sauce, to be made
more lustier to come and feed upon Christ than they be.
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