Preachers during the Dutch Nadere-Reformatie changed the word Sunday to Sins-day

[Seeking_Thy_Kingdom]

[As]Alexander Leighton said of the Netherlands and Sabbath observance in 1624,

This sin cryes in England; and roares in Holland, where by open shops, and other works of their calling, they proclaim, with open mouth, their little regard of God, or his Sabbath.... I wish to God that the United Provinces, and all others that professe the Gospell, would looke to this.24

This situation gave rise to the preachers of the Nadere Reformatie (Dutch Further Reformation) to refuse to use the term “Sunday” (zondag) and instead to call it “sins-day” (Zonden-dag), because of the prevalence of ungodliness in Dutch society.25


24. Alexander Leighton, Speculum Belli sacri: or the Lookingglasse of the Holy War (n.p., 1624), 267–68, 279
25. Karel Blei, The Netherlands Reformed Church, 1571–2005, trans. Allan J. Jan- sen, The Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America, No. 51 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 42.

Excerpt from Daniel R. Hyde - Regulae de Observatione Sabbathi: The Synod of Dort’s (1618–19) Deliverance on the Sabbath (Puritan Reformed Journal p168-169)

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

Alexander Leighton was the father of his more famous son, Robert Leighton. Having just checked the DSCHT, it appears he wrote the abovementioned book to urge the United Provinces to go to war with Spain.

 

[Seeking_Thy_Kingdom]

Alexander Leighton was the father of his more famous son, Robert Leighton. Having just checked the DSCHT, it appears he wrote the abovementioned book to urge the United Provinces to go to war with Spain.

That is quite possible, a few pages prior the war with Spain is mentioned as a part of the social context.

Social Context
This pronouncement came not only out of that theological context, but also out of the political and social context of the Dutch revolt that broke out in 1572 and was not settled until 1648 at the end of the Eighty-Years’ War. William of Orange (1533–1584) sought to keep the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries united against Spain in a political revolt, not a religious crusade, since he relied upon Catholic nobility for financing and troops. With the Pacification of Ghent in November 1576 and the Spanish acceptance in the Union of Brussels in January 1577, religious toleration came to the Netherlands. Revolt flared up again, though, and led to the seven Northern provinces forming into the Union of Utrecht in January 1579, while the south- ern provinces, led mainly by Catholic nobles, united into the Union of Arras in May 1579. On July 26, 1581, the Union of Utrecht rejected Philip II’s (1527–1598) claim to be sovereign over all the provinces of the Netherlands.