Satan come and catch away the Seed but O that it may be as seed sown in good and honest hearts bringing forth fruit with patience meet for repentance and let it be for the weakning of sin but for the strengthening of faith and grace Let thy Word be as Manna for our poor Souls to feed upon for the week to come that thereby we may grow up in grace as we grow in years Let thy word be a sutable word unto every one of our conditions and come thou into our Souls with it with the freest influence of thy Spirit that we may of a truth meet with God communicating of himself unto us by his Word and Spirit And as the Soul is separated from the Body by Death so let sin be separated from our Souls by thy Word and Spirit O let it be separate from our Souls or else it will separate the Souls of us poor Creatures from God Let thy Minister who is thy Messenger be strengthened and touch his tongue with a coal from thine Altar that he may preach experimental truth to the hearts of us poor Creatures that desire to attend on thine Ordinances O let us taste and see how gracious the Lord is and let us have cause to say It is good to draw nigh to God in his own Ordinances on his own Day And let this day of rest be a certain pledge of an eternal rest purchased by our great high Priest who is preparing a place for his select ones O that this thy day may be spent in the performances of holy duties in praise and thanksgiving the work of thine appointment Unvail some secret this day let us be drawn nigher every day unto thy self Let us be so enlightened that sin may decay and grace may be renewed in us Let us come hungering and thursting after Spiritual Food for our Souls so that in the close of this day we by a grounded experience may say that God has satisfied our hungring Souls with refreshing influences from Heaven thorow the Blood of Jesus Christ in whose words we conclude our imperfect requests as he himself has taught us saying Our Father c. An Evening Prayer for the Sabbath MOst Holy and ever Blessed Lord God who fillest Heaven and Earth with thy presence fill the Souls of thy poor empty Creatures with the presence of thy Grace and let thy good Spirit bring to our remembrance the truths that we by thy providence have heard this thy day that we may lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives that we may be of those blessed ones that hear thy word and keep it and bring forth fruit in abundance and let it take root in our hearts downward and bring forth fruit upward Establish our Souls in the practice of Holiness without which we can never come to see thy self and let the power of sin be weakened but let Grace be strengthened every day Pardon that unpreparedness that we have intruded into thy presence with and that irreverence whilst under thy Ordinances and that carelesness after that we all have been guilty of Pardon our forgetfulness and pardon our imperfection in the perfection of Christ our weakness in the strength of Christ that thereby we may find acceptance with thee who art all fulness and in whose hands is all perfection Fill our Souls with the fulness of God and let the bedewings of thy Spirit and Word cause us to grow in our spiritual stature Help us to prize the priviledge of the Gospel at an inestimable rate and give us repentance from dead works that we may be changed from darkness unto light and from the power of sin unto God And help us to manifest in our lives and conversation what is the hope of our calling that we may be in Heaven whilst on Earth Pardon the sins of our holy things sins of omission and commission sins against thy Law and sins against thy Gospel Give us Wisdom to direct and teach us Righteousness to establish us Redemption to deliver us from the jaws of Sin and Hell Strengthen our weak Faith enlarge our shallow Capacities quiet our disturbed Consciences tread down Satan under our feet and subjugate our Necks under thy Yoak and help us to resign our selves to thy Will and fit us for Eternity at last that after these Sabbaths be ended here we may begin an everlasting Sabbath with the God of Sabbaths where we shall admire thy self in Christ in whose Name we conclude our imperfect requests in his own words as he hath taught us saying Our Father c. A Prayer for Monday Morning BLessed Lord thou renewest thy mercies every Morning it is of thy mercy that one day more is added to us poor Creatures Thou art he on whom depends our being rest life and all thou has been pleased to cause us to acquiesce in and under thy protection for our refreshment O Lord preserve us this day under the shadow of thy wing and keep us in thy ways and let thy watchful providence be an instigation to an holy walking and to redeem the time seeing the days are evil and to live as ever before the Eye of thy All-seeing Providence Keep us from sin and enable us to live with thankful hearts bearing in mind the acts of thy Spirit and the daily Mercies we enjoy help us to shew a thankfulness for Mercies received and humility for and under Afflictions Let the bitterness of Sin and the loveliness of Holiness make deep impression on the hearts of thy poor Creatures Let the great work of Salvation be much meditated upon that that work daily may be propagated by us with fear and trembling Let union and communion with Christ be our great design Let our Natures be changed Deliver us from a dark understanding and hardness of heart stupid consciences together with unmortisied wills Help us to be wise for the future wherein we have done foolishly and help us wisely to improve our Talents in every opportunity Let thy mercies constrain us to love fear and obey thee Subdue us wholly to thy self that our affections may be elevated from the Earth and transplanted into Heaven Help us in every transaction in our lives to consider that with thee every action is poised and thoughts words and works reviewed and taken notice of O that the affairs of this day and all the week to come may be no obstruction to the work of our immortal Souls And grant that every day that passes over our heads we may be a step nearer to thy self Preserve us by thy Grace and Spirit until it shall be thy will to translate us into that Glory that is prepared for them that wait for the coming of Jesus Christ Amen A Prayer for Monday Evening MOst Holy Eternal and ever Blessed Lord God in whom all our springs are it is good to draw nigh to thy self Thou that never slumberest nor sleepest suffer us not to sleep the sleep of Death The Day thou hast
Consid To die is but once to be done and if we miscarry in that we miscarry and are undone for ever therefore make it thy chief business to learn to die It would be better never to have lived than to be ignorant to die Many will nay doubtless the prophanest wretch will desire the death of the righteous but unless it be learnt before by living the life of the righteous you shall never learn nor know how to die O learn this lesson seeing there is no working in the Grave whither we go 3. Consid That if thou make the best preparation for Death thou canst thou wilt find it hard enough to die if thy evidences be never so firm and good thou wilt find that all will be little enough if they be fair the Devil will blur them if he cannot blot them he 'll do what he can to accuse thee he is the accuser of the Brethren he 's the roaring Lion that will devour thee if he can 4. Consid That Death if not prepared for will look mighty ghastly and grim he is called The King of Terrors and Fears he 'll surprize thee for he comes suddenly as a thief in the night 't is true if he come thou being prepared it will put an end to all thy fears and dispossess thee of terrestrial substance and possess thee of a celestial and permanent substance 5. Consid That after Death that is after the Souls separation from the Body the Body will be but a loathsome spectacle all thy friends will as it were abhor it Abraham says Let me bury my dead out of sight 6. Consid That nothing will avail the Soul but Grace and a good Conscience when it shall after separation from the crasie House of Clay be brought before the great Tribunal of the most high God to give an account of all the deeds whether good or bad done in the Body 7. Consid That Christ who offers Salvation now by his Word and Mercies shall then appear in slaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know him not nor obey not his Gospel 8. Consid That having past once his Sentence whether of Life or Death it will be absolute and irrevocable O therefore be not slothful in this work lest the bubble of thy life be extinguished before thy work be done 9. Consid That after Death Gods Messenger hath executed his office viz. cut the thread of thy life thou must presently appear before God the great Judge to receive either the sentence of life or the sentence of everlasting death Considerations of Judgment O Thou impenitent sinner that wilt die in thy sins 1. Consider What a dreadful sight the coming of the Son of Man in the Clouds will be he whom thou hast so often by thy sins pierced whom thou hast rejected scorned and vilified and the blood thou hast so often trod under foot must then be thy Judge from whose righteous sentence there will be no appeal now he stands to invite thee and woo thee with the fairest terms of love but then he will pronounce thy dreadful doom and his poor redeemed ones which now thou thinkest not worthy to live but doest scorn mock revile persecute and kill will then sit on the Throne on the right hand of the Lamb as thy Judges too How then wouldst thou wish Rocks to fall upon thee and be beholding to Mountains to cover thee nay how sain wouldst thou change natures with Toads or Serpents Owls or Batts the worst of Creatures or that thou couldst be annihilated and that thy immortal Soul should become mortal 2. Consid Also That then all Relations will cease and so all Love and worldly Friendship Then the loving Husband must rejoyce in the Damnation of the wicked Wise and the tender and indulgent Mother must stand not only with dry and cheerful Checks and assent to the just Doom of her impenitent Children but glorifying God for executing his Justice and Vengeance upon them Therefore O sinner if thou wouldst have Christ Friends and Relations be-friend thee at that day be an unreconcileable enemy now unto thy sins and be at peace with God through thy Redeemer O miserable sinner Consider where wilt thou appear at that day when God will make a separation between good and bad when thou must give an account for all things done in the flesh for every thought of thine heart every word of thy mouth every moment of time every omission of any holy duty every commission all company thou camest in every Sermon thou hearest every Sabbath thou hast mispent and then all thy sins and villany whether committed secretly or openly will be viewed by the whole World To prevent this try now thy heart life calling thoughts words and deeds and arraign accuse and condemn thy self at the bar of thy Conscience that thou mayst be acquitted at Gods Judgment Bar at the last day If thou be a Saint consider that then thy Soul and Body must make make a second but a more happy and Blessed marriage joyntly and together to enjoy and be drown'd as it were in that glory that God prepared for his Elect from before the Foundation of the World then thy innocency and righteousness shall be clear and made conspicuous to the whole World when Christ sets thee at his right hand when thy Friend thy eldest Brother and thy Husband will be thy Judge then thy Pains Losses Crosses and Sufferings will be fully rewarded Thy Persecutors Troublers and Opposers will be avenged upon and all thy good Deeds reckoned up to thy comfort but all sin done away Then thou shalt sit on a throne crown'd with Immortality and Glory with those judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel and shalt hear that blessed that wonderfully acceptable and heart-ravishing invitation Come ye Blessed of my Father and inherit the Kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the World When your Enemies and Troublers shall be packed to Hell with this dreadful and fatal doom Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Depart from Glory that 's Hell enough depart with a curse into fire and that everlasting Considerations of Hell COnsider first The pain of loss privation of Gods glorious presence and eternal separation from those everlasting felicities joys and bliss above is the more horrible part of Hell The Torments and Miseries of many Hells in the judgment of the Learned are nothing to the shutting out everlastingly from the Kingdom of Heaven and an unhappy Banishment from the beatifical Vision of the most Soveraign onely and chiefest good the thrice glorious Jehovah blessed for ever I say the loss of any of these will be a far greater loss than Ten thousand Worlds were they all composed of purest Gold and brimful with richest Jewels Let therefore every one in the Name and Fear of God as we would not for a few bitter-sweets or a vile lust in this World for an inch of time lose an
week past and grant that they may not interrupt the benefit of thy day to come if it shall please thee to bring me to the opportunity of it Qualifie me and prepare me for such a work as thy Sabbath expects from me according to the preparation of thy Sanctuary and being prepared I may meet with thy Self let thy Word be sweet to my Soul let it descend as rain upon the new-mown Grass let it water my dry and parched Soul and let the influences of thy Spirit accompany it that it may be effectual to the saving of my Soul Pardon the sins of this day of this present duty and all my life and accept my imperfection in the perfection of Christ Amen Of the SABBATH 1. WHat the Sabbath is and how many-fold it is 2. Of what use it is to us Christians 3. Why it was appointed 4. What are the Works to be done or omitted 1. As to the first What the Sabbath is The Sabbath amongst the Hebrews is called Schabbat Schebbet or Schabbathon that is a Cessation vacation from labour or rest Moreover it is called a Day by God devoted for his Worship and that for four Reasons 1. Because God on that day rested from his work of Creation although not from his Work of Providence 2. Because that the Sabbath is the Image or Representative of that spiritual and future Rest from sin 3. Because on this day we ought to rest from our Oeconomicks from our Houshold Affairs that God might imploy us in his Work 4. Because that our Servants and labouring Beasts might rest on that Day 2. Duplex enim est Sabbathum the Sabbath is two-fold 1. Moral and Internal or 2. Ceremonial or External First Moral and Internal or Spiritual and that is the desire of the knowledge of God and his Works to the end that we may avoid sin and serve God both in word and deed In a word It is an abstaining from sin and exercising the Works of God and worshipping him Isai 66.23 Secondly Ceremonial or External and that is an appointed and set time separate in the Church for the ministration of the Sacraments and dispensing the Word and other things appointed of God himself and this is either Mediately or Immediately from God himself appointed and laid down to the Church in the Old Testament which also is divers 1. A Sabbath of days which is every Seventh day of the Week peculiarly so called because of God's resting from his Creation work and for his people to rest on Thence by the Hebrews by a Synecdoche the whole week was called Sabbathum or Sabbatha c. 2. A Sabbath of Months Neomeniae viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nova Luna the time of the New Moon 3. A Sabbath of Years viz. every Seventh year in which the Jewish people were not to sow their ground Lev. 2.3 4 26 35. Lev. 25.8 2. More Mediate or external which God appointed by his Church in the New Testament which is the first day of the week namely the Lords Day which was observed by the Christian Church from the time of the Apostles instead of the seventh day and that in respect of the Resurrection of Christ 2. As to the second viz. of what use the Sabbath is to Christians The Sabbath from the beginning was appointed by God to the end that Man by God's Example might rest from all his Works especially from sin and afterward was renewed in the Mosaical Law to the end God might shew that yet he would honour the Sabbath more in sanctifying it to his Church namely that he would forgive their sins and receive them into his favour by the Messiah promised to their Fathers and that to be exhibited or held forth in his time and this may serve for a Reason why the Ceremonial Sabbath viz. the Seventh day is abolished wherein is represented the bounty of the Messiah and also puts us in mind of his Offices upon which acccount all the rest of the Sacraments Sacrifices and Ceremonies instituted before and after the Law were abolished by the coming of Christ notwithstanding this Sabbath's abrogation in the New Testament yet the Moral Sabbath is permanent and is of great use to us namely that we might have a certain time appointed for the work and service of God it being no less necessary that a certain day be instituted now in the Christian as well as formerly in the Jewish Church for the dispensing of the Word and administring publickly the Sacraments of God Moreover we are not limited to any day of the week strictly as some will have it as the third fourth or fifth or any other and therefore the Apostolical Church being free by the gift of or if you will by that liberty freely bestowed by Christ for distinction sake to wit between them and the Jewish Synagogue they used the First day for the Seventh for this probable Reason that on that day of Christ's Resurrection our spiritual and internal Sabbath was begun in us In a word we are bound to a Ceremonial Sabbath in genere sed non in specie that is that we ought to have a day wherein the Church may be taught and the Sacraments administred yet limited to no certain day Obj. 1. The Decalogue is a perpetual Law may some say The Command concerning the Sabbath is of the Decalogue therefore the Law is perpetual Resp. True The Decalogue is perpetual as it is Moral but the Appendices or Determinations of Moral Commands in respect of signification were only to be kept till the coming of Christ Obj. 2. The Precepts of the Decalogue belong to all This is a Precept of the Decalogue therefore this belongs to all Resp. Granted as touching its Morality but it is also Ceremonial in part and so it doth not belong to us nisi quo ad genus The Reasons are evident 1. Sr. Paul saith Col. 2.16 Let none judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabhath 2. The Apostles themselves changed the Seventh-days Sabbath 3. From the end of the Law it was a Type of things to be fulfilled by Christ to wit of Sanctification c. the Type must needs be abrogated the thing typified being produced Obj. 3. The Lord saith of the Sabbath That it is a sign for ever between him and the children of Israel Therefore the Sabbath is not to be abolished Resp. The Ceremonial Sabbath is perpetual until Christ which is the end of Ceremonies 2. The Sabbath is eternal quo ad rem significatam which is a cessation from sin and rest in God and so of all other Types in the Old Testament yea the Kingdom of David which was destroyed at the coming of the Messiah Obj. 4. The Laws given before Moses 's time were immutable The Seventh-days Sabbath was instituted before Moses 's Therefore the Sevenths-days Sabbath is immutable provided that we assent that Moses 's Laws were mutable Resp. 'T is
may continue therein serving thee in Holiness and Righteousnes all the days of my life till I shall enjoy thy self fully to all Eternity in Heaven where there shall be an end of these things and that for thy Names sake Amen Short though sweet MEDITATIONS Or sweet Cordials for the HEART 1. IT is folly to think that we should have Physick and Health both at one time resolve therefore upon waiting his leisure after a weary Week comes a Sabbath and after a Fight Victory 2. Unkindness of others to us is but a correction of our unkindness to God 3. He that can't abound without Pride and High-mindedness will never want without too much dejectedness 4. Let us not seek our selves abroad out of our selves in the conceits of other men That man shall never lie quiet that hath not learned to set light by others causeless ill conceits 5. Them that set too high a price upon themselves where others will not come up to their price they are discontented 6. Those whose condition is above their worth and their pride above their condition shall never want forrow yet we must maintain our Authority in our places for that is Gods and not ours and we ought ro carry our selves so as that we may approve our selves to their consciences though we can't have their good word 7. One end why God suffereth the Soul to tire and beat it self is that finding no rest in it self it might seek to God 8. A man can be in no condition wherein God is at a loss if comfort be wanting he can create Comfort not only out of nothing but out of discomfort He made the Whale that swallowed Jonas a means to bring him to Land 9. The only way to have our will is to bring it to Gods Will. 10. The way patiently to suffer Gods will is to enure our selves to do it they that have not enured themselves to the yoke of obedience will never endure the yoke of suffering 11. When we can say to God Wilt thou have me poor and disregarded I am well content Thus a gedly Man says Amen to Gods Amen and puts his Fiat to Gods Fiat 12. None feel more Experience of Gods Providence than those that are most resolute in their obedience 13 After we have given Glory to God by relying upon his Wisdom Power Strength and Truth we shall find him imploying these for our Direction Assistance and bringing things to our desired Issue yea above what we desire or thought of 14. The more Passion the less Discretion because Passion hinders the sight of what is to be done 15. It is good to observe the particular Becks of Providence how things joyn and meet together Fit occasions and suiting of things are intimation of Gods Will. Providence hath a Languags which is well understood by those that have familiar acquaintance with God They see a train of Providence leading one way more then another 16. Labour to fit a promise to every condition thou art in There is no condition but hath a promise suitable to it 17. He that loveth too much will grieve too much It is the greatness of our Affection that causeth our Affliction 18. All our noise proceeds from a Swelling Vapour of Pride It is Air inclosed in the Bowels of the Earth that shakes it which all the four Winds can't do 19. There is an Art of bearing troubles if we can learn it without over-troubling our selves as in bearing a burthen there is a way to poize it that it weigh not over heavy if it hang on one side it poizeth the Body down the greater part we pull on our selves by not imparting our Care so as to take upon us only the care of duty and leave the rest to God 20. We must not mingle our Passions with our Crosses like foolish Patients chewing the Pills which they should swallow dovvn 21. He that sees not God every where sees him no where 22. He that loses himself in self denia I finds himself in Gods Bosom 23. In Prosperity fear God in Adversity love God 24. Praying will make thee leave sinning or sinning make thee leave praying 25. Our weakness and inabilities break not the bond of our duties 26. No sin but is easier kept out than cast out 27. What we are afraid to do before men we should be afraid to think before God 28. Nature vexed and Nature armed soon discovers it self 29. They that retain the memory of mercies seldom lose the sight of mercies 30. What unthankfulness is this to think upon two or three crosses so as to forget an hundred blessings What folly is it to darken our Spirits and to indispose our selves to the taking or doing of good 31. A Limb out of joynt can do nothing without deformity and pain Dejection takes off the wheels of the Soul Joy is as Oyl to the Soul it makes Duties come off chearfully from our selves pleasing to others and acceptable to God 32. Let us go on to add Grace unto Grace a growing Christian is always a comsortable Christian the Oyl of Grace will bring forth the Oyl of Gladness 33. Melancholy Persons are things that seem black and dark to themselves their Souls are as it were dead-black whatsoever comes to a Melancholy Person comes in a dark way to his Soul 34. In all grievances let us look to something that may comfort us as well as discourage us let us look as well to what we enjoy as to what we want As in Prosperity God mingles some cross to diet us so in all crosses there is some thing to comsort us As there is vanity lieth hid in the best worldly good so there is a blessing lies hid in the greatest worldly evil 35. We must neither bring sin to nor mingle sin with our sufferings for that will trouble the Soul more than the trouble it self We are not hurt till our Souls be hurt 36. In sudden encounters some sin doth many times discover it self the seed whereof lieth hid in our hearts which we think our selves free from What cause have we then to fear continually that we are worse than we take our selves to be The force of Gun-powder is not known till some sparks lite in it 37. What a sight were it to see the Feet where the Head is and the Earth to be where the Heaven is To the Spiritual Eye it seems as great a deformity to see the Soul to be under sinful passions 38. A good heart when any Corruption is discovered by a searching Ministry is affected as though it found out some deadly enemy Techiness and Passion argues Guilt 39. The imaginary grievances of this life are more than the real 40. The way to expel Wind out of the Body is to take wholesome Nourishment so to expel Windy Fancies from the Soul is to feed upon Serious Truths Our best way therefore is to propound three objects to the mind as 1. To consider the greatness and goodness of God 2. The Joys of