# William Twisse on the Sabbath



## Neogillist (Aug 15, 2008)

I was wondering if any of you would be aware if Dr. William Twisse's treatise in defense of the Sabbath Day Ordinance has been reprinted by any publisher lately? 

Last time I took a look at Joel Beeke's Meet the Puritan, there was not a single work of Twisse reprinted, and I know that this may be due to his notority for being the king of supralapsarianism.

Well I came across an online library of old English books that contains it Early English Books Online - EEBO, and I thought I could try to translate it from the Old cryptic English into more modern English in my free time. It is 147 pages, but I think I must double that because two pages of the book show up per page.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Aug 15, 2008)

http://www.puritanboard.com/f15/twisse-sabbath-recreations-12873/


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 15, 2008)

Neogillist said:


> I was wondering if any of you would be aware if Dr. William Twisse's treatise in defense of the Sabbath Day Ordinance has been reprinted by any publisher lately?
> 
> Last time I took a look at Joel Beeke's Meet the Puritan, there was not a single work of Twisse reprinted, and I know that this may be due to his notority for being the king of supralapsarianism.
> 
> Well I came across an online library of old English books that contains it Early English Books Online - EEBO, and I thought I could try to translate it from the Old cryptic English into more modern English in my free time. It is 147 pages, but I think I must double that because two pages of the book show up per page.



I have a poor copy and have worked with the text 20 years ago now on Twisse's view as far as representing the puritan view of the Sabbath and lawful recreations. The work has appended to it a Latin treatise as a appendix. Aside from the considerable more difficulty of how to include that part of the work, translate, don't translate, present both texts (or, horrors,  not to include it), I am of the opinion the work is surpassed by other works of the same period. Not to say it is not something in its own right, etc. It is hard to follow In my humble opinion which is made worse by the orthography certainly.


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## Neogillist (Aug 15, 2008)

NaphtaliPress said:


> Neogillist said:
> 
> 
> > I was wondering if any of you would be aware if Dr. William Twisse's treatise in defense of the Sabbath Day Ordinance has been reprinted by any publisher lately?
> ...



So what would you consider to be the best puritan work on the defense of the Sabbath as a continuing ordinance?

From looking at Twisse's work, it seemed like a substancial work, especially since it cleared certain false claimed that had been made against Calvin's view of the Sabbath. I also enjoy Twisse's diction, as he is easier to follow than Owen and others. He has a good writing style that flows, although his substancial use of Latin requires one to read more than modern English. 

I was not planning to modernize his English, but only replace the cryptic letters (such as the f's) with the modern spelling of the words, while leaving the old th's such as in verbs like 'thou hast ...' or 'he knowth' etc.


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 15, 2008)

The work by Westminster Divines Herbert Palmer and Daniel Cawdrey is considered the best work by those that have written on Puritan Sabbath literature, namely Gilfillian (pro sabbatarian) and Cox (no so pro). The _Sabbatum Redivivum_ (1645; 1652) in four parts is huge. Gilfillian says it is "one of the largest, ablest, and most satisfactory discussions which the subject ever received...." Cox says "their book is the most elaborate defence ever published of the Sabbath-doctrine given forth by that famous body [the Westminster Assembly]."
The Sabbath Viewed in the Light of ... - Google Book Search
The literature of the sabbath question - Google Book Search

However, before you get any ideas, I guess this is as good of an occasion as any to say that Naphtali Press is well on the way to producing a new edition of _Sabbatum Redivivum_. The text is typed but needs my editor's touch when I can get time to edit a 1000 page work. 



Neogillist said:


> NaphtaliPress said:
> 
> 
> > Neogillist said:
> ...


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Aug 15, 2008)

Perhaps the best modern study of Puritan Sabbath theology and literature (Cawdrey & Palmer, Twisse, Bownd, Gouge, Ley, L'Estrange, Bernard, Burton, Walker, Lake, et al.) is James T. Dennison, Jr., _The Market Day of the Soul_.


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## Pilgrim72 (Aug 16, 2008)

Actually, and this is only my opinion, if you have access to EEBO (which sadly I don't  ) I would totally encourage you to retype it out. It surely couldn't hurt, plus you could share your hard work with others, that they may be also blessed.

Brook shows that Twisse has at least 15 works... a shame none or few are available to glean from.

And I think some of his works are in Latin. Wouldn't that be something, if you knew Latin and translated some of his works into English?


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