Puritan opposition to recreations and sports on the Lord's Day was not in reaction to the Book of Sports

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NaphtaliPress

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I've seen the contention a number of times as recent as the last few days, that what is contended as extreme Puritan Sabbatarianism (whole day belongs to the Lord, no recreations or work best left to weekdays, notably exhibited in The Westminster Confession of Faith, Catechisms and Directory for the Public Worship of God), was in reaction to King James's imposing of his Book of Sports (in 1618). This is backwards. The Book of Sports was a reaction to puritan Sabbatarianism, which had already long been taught in England and Scotland. It can be traced to minor works as early as the 1570s. The first major (i.e., large systematic) book on this, the granddaddy of them all, is Nicholas Bownd's True Doctrine of the Sabbath. This was first published 20 years before the Book of Sports! And the lectures on which it was based date to as long as 30 years before the King's book, and the ideas are found in the earliest roots of puritanism, and even before that going back through pre Reformation times. See the historical introduction to the 2015 critical edition of Bownd's work on sale cheap at Reformation Heritage Books.
 
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