soul and body 1 Thess. 5 23. by the Word preached on that day through the operation of the Spirit 1 Pet. 1.2 Act. 20.32 26.18 So that God hath not only made the Sabbath an holy day but also makeeth men holy by his Ordinances on that day principally dispensed I have been the longer in this because hereby it appeareth what a necessity there is of a weekly Sabbath as being a most signal Declaration and Representation of what God is in himself that is the maker of Heaven and Earth his distinguishing character and what he is to his Church that is a God in Covenant with them and every way a Sanctifier of them and that 's their distinguishing character Exod. 33.16 Isa. 63.19 Now to return to the thing in hand since the Sabbath becomes of this use especially by the general and solemn meeting of Gods people together to Publike Service as Prayer Reading the Scripture Preaching administration of the Sacraments c. therefore the rest and leisure we have on that day is principally to be bestowed in and sanctified by such duties And therefore the Sacrifices appointed for the Sabbath day were full double to those appointed for every day for the Sabbath being a sign of more then ordinary favour from the Lord he required greater testimonies of their thankefulness and sanctification And the Prophet Ezekiel speaking of the state of the Church in the time of the Messiah under the figure of legal Ordinances mentioneth a yet greater oblation to be offered on the Sabbath day signifying that in the time of the Gospel the spiritual service should exceed the legal the grace of the New Testament being greater then that of the Old Now if we bring this greater service to the great day of service that is the Lords day it will fairly follow that the rest of that day should be fill'd up with holy duties especially in publique for in those duties the Sabbath is most a sign of the relations betwen God and us Private duties also are necessary because the whole day cannot be spent in publike service conveniently and yet it is to be spent holily Before we come to the Congregation therefore considering how holy a God that is before whom we come and how serious a service that is about which we come there is great need to spend some time in repentance especially of the sins committed the week before for how can we stand before God in our sin Ezra 9.15 And since God requires the heart How much need is there to purge it for he endures not a filthy heart but cryes out upon it Mat. 23.25 nor will the seed of the Word prosper in it How much need also to adorn it with humility faith fear of God holy desires and affections for God likes not an empty heart but requires to be greatly feared in the Assembly of his Saints to come with hungring thirsting and the desire of new-born-babes and especially with faith without which neither Gods Word to us nor our words in Prayer to him can ever profit Heb. 4.2 James 1.6 7. O how empty do we go away from Ordinances either because full of that which we ought to lay aside or void of that which we ought to provide when we come into Gods presence what need therefore of preparation And After we have been before God in Publike Exercises we are not left at liberty to do and speak as we please for it is the Sabbath of the Lord our God still and therefore must have continued in it that rest which is the body of it and that holiness which is the soul of it As therefore before the Publike Service we are to get a stomack and then feed on the heavenly Manna at it so we are to ruminate and chew the cud after it that is we are to consider what God hath said to us meditate and ponder upon it We should be in the spirit on the Lords day that is taken up with spiritual Meditations Rev. 1.10 or spiritual Conference such as our Saviour used with the men of Emmaus on the day of his Resurrection sutable to what he did before on the Jews Sabbath when going into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread he teacheth one good lesson to the guests that were bidden another to him that bade him them he teacheth Humility and him Charity And a third that sate at meat with him and in him all other men Piety and providence that no worldly encumbrances hinder from spiritual Ordinances It 's true that Christ spake of good things every day but we being taken up with other things on our ordinary dayes have the more need to follow his holy example in speaking of things godly on the Sabbath day Wherein we are not so free to talk of what we list as some may imagine for if there be a liberty for working-day words and any every-dayes discourse how will the rest of that day be holy If two or three hours be spent in worldly talk or tales and not in Christian Colloquies and Communications such as Paul so persisted in on the Lords day Where will the holiness of those hours be found and What distinction will there be for that time between that and the working dayes Unto these godly Meditations and Conferences are to be added holy Actions As 1. Works of Piety Reading Praying Admonishing Singing Psalms Catechising childâ—en and servants And in special repeating the Sermons preached for the good of the Family or of other Christians who finding how frail their memories are will be glad of such an assistance 2. Works of Charity as laying up or laying out for the use of the poor as God prospereth us visiting and helping the sick spiritually and outwardly as our Saviour used to heal on the Sabbath day yet not so as to make more work then we need but doing any good to poor creatures which will not be so much for God's glory and the winning of others to Religion who are at leisure to look out that day or for their comfort that are in distress if it be not on the Lords day done and dispatch'd Hitherto of the Rest and Holiness of the Sabbath Thirdly There remaineth to be considered the extent of this rest and holiness which is for a whole day for the Commandement saith Remember the day of rest to keep it holy There is some question when the Christian Sabbath begins some will have it to begin in the evening and so the night shall be first and the day after Others I conceive more probably hold that it beginneth in the morning because then and that very early when it was yet dark Joh. 20.1 our Saviour was risen and in his Resurrection that work which gave occasion of the institution of the day was finished and so the Lords day is reckoned from morning to morning or as some account it from
midnight to midnight conceiving that the morning begins at midnight and that Christ rose not much after midnight Referring this to the Authors mentioned in the margent that are large in it I shall only speak to the thing in hand which is that whensoever it begins it must be a day and such a day as our six dayes are for Gods dividing of the week into six dayes of labour and one intire day of rest must ever stand As therefore we may take the whole six for our labour so we must give the whole seventh to God There are still seven dayes in the week of which God never alloweth us more then six for our ordinary and earthly occasions Quest. May not a man read a Letter or answer a Question or a Messenger on that day or do something in an earthly business falling in occasionally Answ. 1. I shall not say that 's unlawful for sometimes such a necessity may arise about these earthly things or such a work of mercy may fall in to be performed on that day as may not be deferred in which regard there may be cause to speak and do such things as in themselves are not proper on that day out of such cases not permitted It 's one thing to yield to an extraordinary occasion another to make a common practice of turning aside securely from holy to common things upon the Lords day 2. Yet it belongs to our piety on that day to sabbatize as much as we may those things which are in their nature earthly and to get and use an holy art and skill to turn them heaven-ward which we still find in our Saviour who therefore saith of himself that he spake earthly things Joh. 3.12 Not that he did use to talk of the world but he set forth heavenly things under earthly similitudes and did weave spiritual instructions within worldly resemblances What our Saviour did every day and every way he went that we should endeavour to do on the Lords day In which diversion and coming off from earthly things to heavenly and setting off heavenly with earthly though some be more happy yet all whose hearts are holy may if they mind it and will make a business of Religion speak one good word or another to let those know that interrupt them by some earthly occasion that even in the managing of such a business they put a difference between Gods day and their own days And so they that come with a worldly message to them may go away with a more heavenly mind from them and an heart better affected to the Lords day then they brought with them And lest any should think that this is a preciseness which an understanding man would not own I shall relate here the words of a foraign and very learned Divine on the Text we have in hand which are these The foolish wisdom of mortal men thinks it a small matter if some work especially some lighter work be done on the Sabbath better do so then worse but Gods will is that mens minds should be taken up on the Sabbath day with other I doubt not but he understands holy and heavenly cares which cares saith he if thou do never so little a thing of another kind are interrupted and by this very thing all use of Religion would be exploded and thrust out of dores unto which he further adds that Those things are to be done on the Sabbath which are sutable to the Sabbath and on the other side things vile and evil are to be taken heed of at all times Wolph Comment in Nehem. 13.15 16. Quest. But if the Sabbath must continue for a natural day of 24 hours What is to be done in the night of that day How shall that be sanctified or what can be done to distinguish it from other nights belonging to our common dayes Answ. 1. I doubt not but that they that are conscientiously careful to observe our Gospel-Sabbath all the day will find out wayes to resolve themselves as concerning the night And all Christians would be advised if they propound such a question as this is to see they do it out of conscience and as seeking resolution not out of curiosity and as glad of an objection to make an opposition 2. Let the question be turned from the Sabbath to the working dayes thus Since I ought to labour in my ordinary Calling on the six dayes What shall I do in the night Here this answer may be returned I may and should when the dayes are shorter work part of the night and if there be extraordinary occasion I may work all the night but if I should do so ordinarily I should quickly be unable to do any thing in the day God therefore so requires labour six dayes as to give us leave yea to imply it is our duty to rest in the night because he hath given the night for that end Now if this answer will hold then may the like be said concerning the Sabbath day that is that the Sabbath night as well as other nights is appointed of God for rest but yet if it so fall out that we do not rest that night or in any part of it wherein we do not rest we are to remember that it is a part of time belonging not to a working day but to the Lords day and therefore that it is to be used accordingly that is in one thing or other sutable to a Sabbath and so as that what we do in the light and in the night of such a day may agree together which shall be further opened in the ensuing Answers 3. It is well expressed that the time of observing the Sabbath is our waking time for though we say that the whole 24 hours of that day be taken in of God and set a part for his use yet he may give us again what he pleaseth and he giveth us the night to rest in which may be reckoned among the works of necessity and mercy allowed on that day and that both in regard of the holy labours of that day for it is not an idle day which require rest the night before that we may serve God with more strength and vigour and the night after because of the expence of strength in such service and withall because of the labour of our ordinary Callings the next day which necessarily requireth the rest of the Sabbath night that for want thereof we may not be weakened in our worldly work for as God would not have us to trench on his day of Rest so it is not his mind that we should return faint and feeble to our day of labour 4. I add besâ—des that though we are not to prevent rest and sleep that night by setting our hearts when we lie down upon serious and retentive thoughts yet if we cannot sleep God holding our eyes waking it appertaineth to the holiness of that tâ—me to resume and call to mind some
godly meditations which is more easily done that night because of the help we have had for better thoughts the day before Yea I shall not fear to say further that in them that have observed the day as they ought there will be such an holy habit and frame of heart left behind as that though they sleep and take their rest yet even the dreams of that night I do not say alwayes will but divers times will be like to relish of the holiness of the day which though some are willing to make sport with and to count worthy of derision yet herein they call in question not only their Piety but their Reason for Nature it self and common Experience teacheth that things acted and most affected in the day leave such impressions as that they are ordinarily represented by the phansie in the dreams of the night I have thus far enlarged in describing the Sabbath out of a desire to establish the holy observation of the Lords day which will best be discerned by that respect reverence and observance that is due to the weekly Sabbath according to the fourth Commandement Now when we know what is meant by Sabbath and by the observation of it it 's easie to know what is meant by the profanation thereof mentioned before which is the applying of it to common use as we do the other six dayes when God hath set it a part for holy and heavenly imployments see Act. 10.15 This profanation must needs be as I have said an evil thing because it is a transgression of the moral Law of God which Law though it be short yet the Precept concerning the Sabbath is full and large If that law be holy and just and good then the profanation opposite to it must needs be evil Hence the Lord himself said of old when that which was commanded on the Sabbath was not obeyed How long refuse ye to keep my Commandements and my Laws Exod. 16.28 Ezek. 22.18 Thou hast profaned my Sabbath is in the catalogue of their sins But because there are two things about the Christian Sabbath much disputed one the divine institution and appointment of a Sabbath day in every week for all ages by vertue of the fourth Commandement the other the divine constitution or Gods ordaining of that weekly day for a Sabbath which we now observe that is the first day of the week commonly called the Lords day I shall therefore endeavour as I am able to speak something in way of resolution to these two proposals that so Sabbath-doubts may not hinder sabbath-Sabbath-duties For the former of these I propound this question Quest. How doth it appear that the Law of the Sabbath contained in the fourth Commandement continueth and is in force in Gospel times for the observing of one day in seven as a Sabbath or day of holy rest Answ. If it be not of any force then we have not now a Decalogue that is there are not now in the time of the Gospel Ten Commandements but nine only If it be said That doth not follow because something of that Commandement remains and is in force for ever to wit that some time should be set a part for the publike worship of God To this I answer That it is manifest to him that reads the fourth Commandement that the thing required in it is not a time at large which the second Commandement that prescribeth the Worship of God supposeth because nothing can be done unless there be a time set apart for the doing of it but that which is enjoyned is a day Nor is it a day at large but a day in every week for it is opposed to six working dayes Nor is it a day in a week at large but such a day as may challenge this title The Sabbath of the Lord thy God that is it must be a day of Gods appointment When a Master saith to his servant wait on me every week in the day I appoint you and lay before him great reason for it If the servant should say My Master looks for no more but that I should wait on him one time or other it would be but a poor account 2. If any of the ten Commandements be taken away it must be taken away by Christ that is by his order or by some declaration from him But he saith he came not to take away but to fulfil the Law And to prove that he instanceth in divers Precepts of the Moral Law which he presseth in the greatest height of spiritual observation Why should the fourth Commandement be taken away any more then the fifth which yet the Apostle urgeth strongly upon children and that from the moral and perpetual reason thereof which though it be delivered in a Jewish phrase relating to the land of Canaan yet for the substance of it it concerns all men that live on the earth Ephes. 6.1 2 3. Object There is this difference between the fourth and fifth Commandement That Nature teacheth men to obey their Parents but to observe a Sabbath one day in seven it teacheth not Answ. In regard of a day of holy Rest in general Nature is not silent for it granteth a God and that that God is to be worshipped and therefore that a time must of necessity be set a part for it and that a convenient time and in such a distance that we may neither neglect our God nor our affairs And taking it for granted that the Creation is known that is that God did make the world in six dayes and rest the seventh Nature hath a fair copy to write by and a glorious example before it to work upon and to take a light from to work and to rest in such a proportion of time I say to rest for Nature speaks out this fully that the time consecrated to God must be a time of rest because we cannot serve God in holiness and be about profane and common imployment both at once 2. If we take in to the light and principles of Nature the assistance of divine Revelation then Nature will say all that needs to be said for a Sabbath to wit that it is fit God should appoint his own time for his own service and therefore he in his Word having appointed a weekly time such a time ought to be observed 3. Setting aside all the natural morality that may be pleaded for a weekly Sabbath it sufficeth that the spending of one day in seven in holy Rest is enjoyned by the positive Law of God for why shall not the Law of the God of Nature revealed from Gods mouth or written in the Word bind as well and as much as the Law of Nature written in the heart especially considering that what is spoken or written by God especially by his own finger as the Ten Commandements were is pure and incorrupt as that is not which is written in mans heart though it were so when it was first written
of Soul-affliction and the Sabbath of soul-delight and so there was a difference between them yet they were also so much alike that their solemn Fast-day hath the name of Sabbath imposed upon it And all their fasting dayes were separating days wherein they separated sequestred themselves not only so as not to do any sin but so as that they were also precisely required not to do any work no not to give way to their own will or find their own pleasure on the Sabbath therefore it is Gods will that we should not only watch over our wayes without but look to our wills within which as far as they are our own and not Godâ— should not be sought or found by us or with us on that day they are on that day as other creatures to Adam not found meet companions for us but too low Gen. 2.20 In sum No self-delight is to be admitted that is against Sabbath-delight Ne diem sanctum Domini suis commaculet voluntatibus Hieron in Isa. 58. 3. Our words not speaking a word which is well explained from the words going before where our own is expressed by the supplying of the same here and saying our own words for the meaning is not on that day we should be mutes and say nothing Now our own words may be said to be of two sorts 1. Such as are simply unlawful in themselves which are evil any day and worse on that day 2 Such as are relatively unlawful that is in relation to that day as being unsutable to it and opposite to that holiness and godly communication that is required on it And that this is here comprehended for I do not exclude words simply evil but reckon them on this day most abominable I say that this is here comprehended to wit the prohibition of common as well as condemned words may appear because here is a day evidently separated and marked out from common dayes on which notwithstanding there must be none of our own that is no sinful words and therefore it 's reasonable and congruous to conceive the meaning in this place to be that we must speak none of our own words that is of our every dayes words but that a more holy and refined language is to be used on that holy day Briefly no words are to be spoken that day which are meerly our own and not some way Gods and relating to his honour and service whose day it is It is not a day to make Bargains take Accounts to talk of Kine Horses Hawks Hounds c. which on other dayes there 's liberty to do but all the leisure we have for communication or otherwise should be sanctified for the Rest must be holy the whole day Yet I do not mean that every word is unlawful on the Sabbath that is in its nature earthly or an expression of some worldly thing for our necessities require some such words and works also as are in themselves of a worldly and common nature as about Apparel and Dyet or other incidental things But that which I humbly conceive is required is this That on that day our discourse and conference generally should be of a more holy and heavenly strain and that if other working dayes words be used it may truly be put on the account of necessity mercy Christian civility tending to the honour of Religion the doing of good the winning of others to goodness or some other end fit to be intended on that day and which cannot be so well attained but in that way that is by using vulgar and common words no way to be numbred among spiritual expressions unless in regard of the end which an heart wherein there is an habit of holiness directs them unto And whosoever give themselves leave to talk of what they please assoon as they are out of Church will be like to find less good by their having been in it and less fitness to return again profitably unto it or to be about any private religious Exercise which that holy Day calleth them unto for as evil communications corrupt mens minds and manners so worldly discourse useth to make the heart more worldly and less apt for things heavenly because prepossessed with earthly which agreeing better then that which is berter with our natures the heart is therefore more hardly won from them to a due attending to and affecting of the things of God Thus this later paâ—t of the verse expounds the former for he truly tuâ—ns not away his foot from the Sabbath who in word thought and work doth not his own will but the will of God Now all this easily passeth from the day to the way of God and that substance of Piety which is every day a necessary duty yet so as that the spiritual observation of Gods holy day is a special means thereof and help thereunto I say the spiritual observation and desire that should be observed because they who speak more meanly of the Sabbath day do seem to take the word Sabbatâ— in a strict sense and to mean thereby an exact but idle observing of a day of â—est without further reference and due respect to that sanctification of the Rest which the fouâ—th Precept plainly expresseth I say I suppose they that speak less honourably of the day of the Sabbath look at that empty Sabbatizing for otherwise if any man shall plead for a resting from sin and the practise of holiness every day with the sleighting of the weekly Sabbath as it ought to be observ'd he plainly destroys what he pretends to build and weakeneth Religion every day by weakning the reverence of that day the which Sabbath-reverence and real respect to all Religion are so linked together that howsoever there is a difference in regard of the degree yet few or none are found to regard either who regard not both As they regard not Learning that regard not Schooling nor House keeping that keep not Market-dayes so they regard not godliness any day who regard not the Sabbath-day wherein it is taught and wherein all provisions are laid up for a godly life And on the other side As they go not to School as they should but loiter there that get no learning nor spend their time well at the Market that bring home no Provision so they never keep the Sabbath day rightly whose desire and care is not to live every day religiously and Christianly I shall add only this They who carry this Text to mens general carriage say There is an allusion in it to the Sabbath-day and saying so they must needs I think grant that the Sabbath to which the Prophet alludeth had these things in it that is holiness of heart tongue and carriage as in the Epitome which are afterward to be spread forth at large in all godliness of life all the days of the week and of our life only with this difference that things lawful on other days by the allowance of Scripture and
needful also are on the Sabbath-day unlawful because of the distinction made in the fourth Commandement between the Rest and holiness of that weekly day and the work and imployment of the six working-working-days On all days we should be sober righteous and godly but on the Lords-day we should be in the Spirit more high more ghostly more heavenly and as Moses when he was with God in the Mount more resplendent by the beauty of Holiness Thus of the sabbath-Sabbath-duty I come now as the Text leads me 3. To the Sabbath Promises ver 14. In the opening of these Promises I shall proceed the better by taking along with me an Observation brought to my hand which is this As the Precepts before are Evangelical so the Promises here are not Jewish or earthly but heavenly for the good things mentioned in the former verse are the operations of the Spirit of God unto which the good things of this world being far inferior they are not so sutable a reward nor is it for Him that is most liberal so to reward them Yet there is no cause of excluding those outward comforts which the letter of the Text in the latter part of the verse layeth before us and which are other-where promised to those that hallow the Sabbath-day the contrary evils whereunto came as hath been shewed on the Jews when they did profane it But it 's true that worldly commodities and contentments are not here promised only the first promise is very spiritual nor chiefly but rather when these outward things are mentioned sutable to the Ear and to the Heart and to the state of a Jew and which God was ready to perform to them in the letter I say when these things are mentioned in the Old Testament higher and more spiritual things are usually meant yea a reward reaching to Eternity which through Jesus Christ our Lord is given to the sincere and spiritual observers of Gods Commandements whereof this of the Sabbath is one and therefore the good promises laid down here may well be taken in that extent whereof there is the more reason because the later promises here specified are in the tenour of them and as they stand in the letter proper to the Jewish people and therefore either this Scripture must not be for our use or else some other thing must be meant then the words in themselves express I shall therefore take the Promises as they lie in the Text and take in all the commodity and comfort whether outward or spiritual that may be truly collected from them to encourage all men in the Sabbath duty and consequently in the pursuit of all Religion which is the thing that is intended in and which ariseth from the holy observation of the Sabbath-day Now whereas Pleasure and Preferment and Profit are the great Motives to make men to do willingly what is desired or required of them all these are here set before us as the reward of Sabbath-Piety 1. Pleasure Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord This is a special and most spiritual promise unto that man to whom the study of Vertue and Sanctification of the Sabbath is a delight the Lord himself shall be in stead of all delights which may be said to be especially by a more abundant fellowship with God on that day wherein we lay all aside that we may associate and solace our selves with Him This delightsom Communion with God is enjoyed three wayes 1. In the Ministery of the Word whereby we have fellowship indeed with Ministers but truly their fellowship and so that fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and what 's the effect of it but delight and full joy For the goodness of Gods House is very satisfying and by hearing the Word we eat that which is good and the soul delights it self in fatness 2. In the duty of Private Meditation wherein the faithful soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness by the remembrance of God 3 In Prayer for delight in the Almighty is accompanyed with lifting up the face to God to look for every good thing from Him when on the contrary the hypocrite that delighteth not himself in him will not always call on him but others are joyful in the House of Prayer Isa. 56.7 In such wayes as these God makes his faithful servants to drink of the River of his delights having to do with God their exceeding joy Psal. 43.4 And the delight is more large and full by those many considerations of one kind and another by which this great Lord makes himself most amiable and wholly delectable to those that are acquainted with him as the great benefit of his Providence which makes them resolve to own him and set up their Rest in him together with his safe and sweet protection not only from outward but spiritual Enemies and Evils which makes them fit under his shadow with great delight unto which we may add their outward enjoyments the comfortable use whereof being well sum'd up is nothing else but a delighting themselves in the great goodness of God Briefly the light of Gods countenance the benefit of his counsel here and the assurance of his glory hereafter make his most afflicted servants upon serious consideration and Sanctuary information exceedingly to rejoyce and glory in him and to do as they do who would take their fill of delight one with another and that is to shut all others out and say None but Thee Psal. 73.24 25. Thus the duty and reward have both one name Delight in the Sabbath of the Lord is the duty and Delight in the Lord of the Sabbath is the reward O How poor and base are the delights of those men unto whom the holiness of the Sabbath-day yea by the same reason of any day is a heavy and ill-belov'd business They can delight in a Dinah they have what they would have when they walk in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine Revellings Banquetings And they that are something better yet rejoyce and delight in a thing of nought as Wealth Power Policy their delights at best are but the delights of the sons of men Eccles. 2.8 not of the sons of God for They say The desire of our soul is to thee and the remembrance of thee This is a well-grounded well-placed and hopeful delight for it is in Him that is Almighty al-sufficient a profitable delight for it 's a very great absurdity and Atheism to say It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God I say to say so deliberately and not in some great tentation It is a sweet delight for it is in him that is altogether lovely the infinitely most amiable Object and it is a satisfying delight because that 's a true saying Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of
hath so done those Priests are blameless because those works though servile in their nature yet were sacred in their end and application Such a work was the infirm mans carrying his bed on the Sabbath when Christ had healed him The bearing of burthens on that day for worldly lucre is one of the things that Nehemiah here contends against but that mans carrying his bed became a religious action by being an appurtenance of the Miracle and an open declaration to all men who on that day did more flock together of the grace and power of God by which he was cured under this head may be comprehended those bodily provisions that are truly needful and helpful for our more able and vigorous performance of religious duties or for the glory of God some other way 2. Works of necessity to wit real not feigned and present and apparent not possible only and which may be or not be To this we may refer the Disciples plucking and eating the ears of corn whom Christ excuseth because at that time they as David needed sustenance And add thereto the other plain instance of a Sheeps falling into a pit Matth. 12.11 which they that so quarrel'd with our Saviour made no scruple to pull out on the Sabbath day 3. Works of mercy as the healing of the woman bound by Satan Lo eighten years Luk. 13.15 16. A Saviour so merciful would not stand upon healing on the Sabbath day in a case so pitiful for The Sabbath is made for man Mar. 2.27 that is the rest of the Sabbath is to give place to mans relief And though God propound to us his example of rest on the seventh day for our resting yet we have his example of working also for mans benefit for saith Christ my Father worketh hitherto no Sabbath day excepted to wit in the preservation government and for the good of his Creatures Thus of the first thing belonging to a Sabbath to wit rest Secondly The thing further and chiefly required and which is intended in this rest is holiness Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy wherein is contained 1. A reverent opinion of it to wit as the Lords holy and honourable day There will never be a good observation of it in our practise without an estimation of it in our judgement Men will not leave the world with which nature closeth nor close with God in those holy things which nature is opposite to and in the best too averse from I say they will not do this on a day and that every week which they care not for on which they see no divine character and in the service whereof they expect no divine blessing 2. A dear affection to it calling it a delight and loving to be in the spirit on that day Revel 1.10 No delight is the companion of contempt but Delight is so far from despising service that it doubleth it 3. An holy imploying of the rest and bestowing of our selves in the duties belonging to such a day This is well express'd in those considerable Articles of Ireland thus The first day of the week which is the Lords day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business and mark what followeth to bestow that leisure upon holy exercises both publike and private Publike exercises are the principal In reference to which publike worship especially the Sabbath is as I conceive said to be a Sign that is an open deâ—laration Whose we are and whom we serve Jona 1.9 Act. 27.23 For it doth not follow from the word Sign that the weekly Sabbath is a typical Ceremony If it were so then it should be a sin to observe a Sabbath now since all Ceremonies end in Christ in whom notwithstanding the Christian Sabbath begins as to the day and by whom it is confirmed as it is a weekly day which the fourth Commandement requireth because he declareth that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it It is not therefore a ceremonial sign any more then the signs in the Sacraments are ceremonial but rather a moral and real sign and demonstration how things stand between God and his people which will further appear by looking more narrowly into that place of Ezekiel where it is called a Sign for thus the Prophet expresseth it I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifie them which words are also mentioned and applyed to the weekly Sabbath Exod. 31.13 15 16 17. When the Sabbath is said to be a sign the meaning is as some do most probably expound it that it is a document or an instructing Sign and that between God and his people me and you saith the Lord it teacheth and sheweth that which is common to us both to wit on my part that I am your Creator and Sanctifier on your part that you are a people by Me created and sanctified And that it is thus an instructing sign appears by the words following that ye may know as if the Lord had said Look on the Sabbath as a monument of the relation between me and you I would have you know and observe it so to be Upon a nearer view of the words it will be found a teaching sign of these three lessons 1. That God is the Lord that is that Lord who is the only true God Jer. 10.10 and that because he hath made the Heaven and the Earth v. 11 12. Which the observation of a Sabbath that is resting a seventh day every week in relation to six dayes work clearly holdeth forth for it is in imitation of that God who in six dayes made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh who can be no other then the true God and Lord of all The second lesson is that this great Lord is the God of his Church or a God in Covenant with them for thus the Lord speaks I am the Lord your God Hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a sign between me and you that ye may know and learn this lesson that I am your God for Why do they wait upon him a whole day every week but to shew that they own him as their God and that they believe he owns them as his people Hence the Scripture saith They sit before thee as my people and hear thy words The third lesson is that he is the Lord that sanctifieth them which may be understood two wayes 1. Of a sanctification to himself by a separation from the world so as to enjoy the priviledg of his Covenant and so the Scripture speaks Ye shall be holy to me for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people that ye should be mine Lev. 20.26 Exod. 33.16 2. And also of an internal renovation and sanctification in spirit and
the end of the world a weekly Sabbath If any ask and would know further What need there is of it The answer may be 1. That the Lord hath need of it that the work of Creation and Redemption may be remembred and our Creator and Redeemer publiquely and solemnly served and glorified 2. That man hath need of it for the Sabbath was made for man that is both for his spiritual and corporal good It was not without need that God made the Sabbath either for himself or for us Indeed but one thing is needful and that is to sit at Christs feet and hear his Word as it ought to be heard Which though it may be done other dayes yet not so fully and hopefully as on that day when all other things are laid aside to apply our selves wholly to the concernments of our Souls On other dayes there is more of Martha that is the world is mixt and is a partner but on this day with Mary we choose if we have Maries grace the good part and provide to attend upon the Lord without distraction On other dayes our hearts like the Jews garments hang loose on this day if we mind our duty we gird up the loins of our mind and so may run as Elijah before Ahab when he had girded up his loins the way of Gods Commandements 1 King 18.46 Psal. 119.32 On other dayes the Moon is between us and the Sun I mean earthly and sublunary things stand between us and the Sun of Righteousness whereby there is an Eclipse that we can not so fully enjoy him but now on the Lords day if we be Christians we should if wise we will if good and faithful we shall tread the Moon under our feet and as in Solomon's Royal and Incomparable Throne the footstool was of gold so being taken up on that Ascension-day to Mount Tabor we shall make the most golden world our foot-stool and the necessary supports thereof like Zacheus his Sycomore-tree helps being under us to see Jesus the better that having a full view of him and fellowship with him of his fulness we may receive grace for grace Some men talk of an every-dayes Sabbath but as to make every man a Magistrate is to take away Magistracy and to let every man be a Minister is to take away the Ministry so to make every day a Sabbath is to say No day shall be a Sabbath They may call every day a Sabbath because we are to rest and abstain from sin every day but herein they deceive themselves in that they do not consider that on the Sabbath day we must not only abstain from sinful things albeit then we should abhor them most but from those things that are not sinful on other dayes but lawful and needful and which it is a sin not to look after as the works of our ordinary Callings for look how a Subject that is called to wait on his Prince is not only to leave his good Fellows and that loose and vain company which he ought alwayes to separate himself from but also his Wife Children whole Family and all his domestick affairs which out of this case and when there is no such Call it is his sin to be unnecessarily absent from and his duty to abide with and take care of and so when our Lord calls us to wait on him a whole day together as he doth on the Lords day all other things are for that time to be laid aside save only those which our Lord alloweth us though at other times lawful and necessary When two good things are to be done and both cannot be done our reason will tell us that it is necessary for that time to leave the less and apply our selves to the greater which being well considered will amount to this that it is necessary that these earthly things should be for a convenient time with-drawn from that is that there should be a weekly Sabbath for that 's the most convenient time to give up our selves intirely to those things that ought to be highest in our account to wit the honour and service of our God and the salvation of our souls It 's a poor plea to say I must needs go see my Ground when God calls to his Supper but it 's a good pleading of necessity to say I must needs goe see my God Psal. 63.2 Now whereas on working dayes the world doth as it were cover our faces with a vail and cast dust on the divine Glass on the Lords day by laying aside earthly things and thoughts the covering is put away from our face as from Moses face when he left all to appear before the Lord that we may see the King in his glory yea so see him as to become glorious our selves with that sight For we all to wit who by admirable grace have received the Spirit of God with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of God are transformed into the same Image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 2. The Commodity of the Christian Sabbath What is said of Godliness may be said of the Day of God which is the Nurse of Godliness that it is profitable to all things I mean being spiritually observed for otherwise the bodily exercise profiteth little The weekly Sabbath like the Vine whose Wine cheareth God and Man yeeldeth much assistance for the performance of the duties of the first and second Table 1. Of the First Table Of the first Commandement for therein is an acknowledgement of God our Creator as the only true God maker of Heaven and Earth in the proportion of time that is in observing a Sabbath every seventh day after our six dayes work And an acknowledgement also of God our Saviour in our particular Sabbath-day in these Gospel times That of the Prophet is very observable They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths that is they slight them as Hos. 8.12 And what followeth And I am profaned among them that is dishonoured accounted as nought among them as if I were not a God Dutch Annot. Of the Second Commandement Because the Worship of God required in that Commandement is on that day most improved and heightened As being 1. More extended because all both Superiours and those under them and within their Gates are then to wait on God in the way of his Worship Hence it is conceiv'd that whereas these two Ye shall fear every Man his Mother and his Father and shall keep my Sabbaths are joyned together the reason thereof may be this because Fathers and Mothers and Governours to whom the fourth Commandement is directed not only but eminently are to see that their Children and Servants keep the Lords Sabbaths and Children and Servants should so far fear and reverence them as herein to be ruled by them and so there will be a general appearing to do homage to God which is one improvement
but rather consider that Whatsoever things were written or acts of divine Justice recorded aforetime were written for our learning and all those things that which befel the transgressors of the Law of the Ten Commandements in former ages of the World happened to them as Types that is they are our examples and warnings and plainly lay before us what we also must expect to suffer if we do as they did even we upon whom the ends of the world are come for like sin like judgement Nor can any just reason be given why judgements of old for the breach of the fourth Commandement should not be our admonitions as well as those for the breach of the second Commandement which Paul mentioneth because there is not only much of that which is positive and not so clearly natural belonging to the second as well as to the fourth Commandement but also it is evident that as the second Precept for the way of Religion so the fourth for the Day is written among the Ten words of the Moral and ever-abiding Law of God with the finger of God himself Exâ—d 31.18 That which remaineth to incite to Sabbath-sanctity is 5. The blessing and promises of God annâ—xed and assured to that Day and the Observers therâ—of It is said in the Commandâ—ment The Lord blessâ—d the Sabbath day It 's true that he blessed that seventh day whereon he rested but not as a Seventh day but as a Sabbath day and so the blessing is entailed as it were and passeth from the Jews Sabbath on the Christian Sabbath Now what is the meaning of this blessing but that it was Gods mind that it should be honourable and glorious amongst and have singular priviledge preheminency above other days for which end therefore he sanctified it that is set it apart to be wholly consecrated to Him and to his holy Service In which way it is not only lift up and honored above other dayes and so a blessed day but is a blessed day also to the people of God by the use and benefit of his Ordinances Psal. 65.4 wherein a blessedness is laid up In regard of this Prerogative of the day of Rest and Holiness a Christian seeing that day approach hath great cause to say with an holy chearfulness Come in thou blessed of the Lord And they that appear before God on that day to receive soul-sustenance from him may say within themselves as David's servants that sought bodily relief Let us now find favour in thine eyes for we are come in a good day in the Lords great Feast-day wherein they of his Family even the whole Houshold of Faith are abundantly satisfied with the fatness of his house and are made to drink of the river of his pleasures It 's a day wherein we may be spiritually enriched for it is a blessed day the blessing of the Lord maketh rich It is a day wherein the people of God meeting and being united together in his service God commandeth the blessing Psal. 133.3 And wherein from our great Lord and head glorious high Priest the Oyl of Grace runs down abundantly as Aarons Oyl sometimes did to the very skirts that is to the very lowest of his true Members to make them joyful for it is the Oyl of gladness Psal. 45.7 and as the dew of Hermon to make them fruitful Psal. 133.1 2 3. The preâ—ious promises inviting to and incouraging in the Sanctification of the Sabbath are presented to us from the mouth of the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah chap. 58.13 14. which Text of Scripture is so often made use of in this argument of the Sabbath that I cannot leave it though I have spoken much more then I thought to have done already without looking a little into it For which purpose I shall 1. Speak something to both the verses in general 2. And something to that Sabbath-Piety described v. 13.3 And then come to the Sabbath-promises v. 14. 1. Of the Text in general Wherein two things lie in the way to hinder the use that divers godly and learned Writers have made of it for establishing the Lords Sabbath-day now the Lords day 1. Some hold that the Sabbath is here named by way of allusion and by a Synechdoche and that the thing intended and designed in that description v. 13. and so in the promise v. 14. is to take men off from their own wits and wayes and to stir them up to obedience and holiness in the whole course of their lives And the truth is that in the Sabbath all Religion is wrapt up for God is eminently acknowledged worshipped professed and praised as the three first Commandements require upon that day And all other Commandements are better observed by the good knowledge of God dispensed and dispersed then especially in the Ministry of the Word acquainting men with their duties towards God and Man But we may not mistake here for albeit it be supposed that all Religion is spoken to yet it doth not follow from thence that the Sabbath day in the setting forth whereof the Text is so full is to be excluded nay rather it is thereby the better established As when a Father takes order in his last Will that his Son shall go to the University his meaning is that his Son shall be a Scholar but withall his mind is that he shall go to the University because that 's the way to make him a Scholar and therefore he expresseth nothing but that for that contains the other So it is here We may observe casting our eye upon this whole chapter that as in the former part of it the Prophet shewed their Religion was not to be placed in fasting so here he declareth that the observation of the Sabbath is not to be placed in resting to which the Jews used to ascribe so much but in the spiritual sanctification of that rest which indeed hath and ought to have an influence and to extend its vertue into our whole life to make it the more holy But now mark that as the Prophet before in his Doctrine of a Fast and his disciplining of their Fast did not exclude the day of their Fast and the observation thereof but saith plainly In the day of your Fast v. 3. so neither doth he here where he delivereth the doctrine of the Sabbath shut out the day of the Sabbath but only sheweth that the Rest and leisure of that day is to be bestowed in spiritual things appertaining to the substance and tending to the furtherance of true Religion 2. Some others may say that if the Text to be understood of the weekly Sabbath yet it speaks to the Jews only not to us and of their day not of ours Unto which it may suffice to say that as the fourth Commandement belongs to us as well as to Jews and the holy observation required there belongs to us in regard of our Sabbath as well as to them in regard of
great things of Gods Law as a strange thing he may easily and think he doth it very substantially dispute God out of his time and make himself believe that he hath more days in a week for his own use in worldly thoughts words and actions then six yea and that pleading so much for the Lords-day is but preciseness and rather a weak then a wise mans work arguing at best only a good meaning but a shallow brain Whereas on the contrary he that saith unto Scripture Wisdom Thou art my Sister and calleth spiritual Vnderstanding his Kinswoman he that feareth to be disobedient to the heavenly Vision he that counteth godliness gain and knoweth how much godliness gaineth by a godly observation of the Lords-day will soon see cause of being of another mind considering how much the Word of God pleadeth for Sabbath-holiness and how on and by that day and the duties thereof the interest cause and concernments of godliness are principally promoted I wish all good Christians therefore that are of doubtful mindes in this matter to try the more strict doctrine of the Sabbath whether it be of God or no by betaking themselves to the holy practise of those things that are taught them concerning that Day Experience useth to put an happy end to endless disputes about practical truths and things otherwise hardly determinable for the result and good effect thereof is this Behold Now I know c. Some may say as Nathaniel Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth so out of such sowre Sabbath-strictness This is a question that may be long under the debate of humane reason that is as proud as blind the easiest way to decide it is Come and see Let every sincere Nathaniel put it to the trial and then the conclusion will be like to be such a resolution about the Lords-day as there was in Nathaniel about the Lord of that day which in allusion to what he said may be expressed thus Thou art the Day of God Thou art the Queen of Dayes Could we but call the Sabbath a delight Did we but know it to be so experimentally the comfort of it would soon answer all Lion-like arguments that rise up and roar against it and rent them as one would rent a Kid if not by just solutions and formal answers which belongs to the learned who have done it and will do it yet by firm resolutions and just detestations and that not without reason enough â—ounded on the sense of the sweetness they have found in their conversing with the holy God on his holy day so that an Advocate for the Sabbath shall never be wanting till the godly man ceaseth whose delight it is I say whose delight it is Not that I think it an easie or common thing to call the Sabbath a delight or that all that fear the Lord have the like delight in the Lords-day affectionate Christiâ—ns feel it most and in old Disciples it lies deepest the more maturity the more complacency and the more acquaintance with God the more delight in him for the delight followeth the acquaintance Nor do I mean that they who do delight in it delight alike in it at all times and on all Sabbath-days corruption and tentation yea and the various operations and incomes of the Spirit who bloweth where and in whom it listeth and in them when it listeth make a great difference Besides that age or distemper of body or oppression of spirit by some heavy burthen that lies upon it are great impediments to delight And they that are in affliction and need Gods Ordinances most rellish them best to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet and so every sweet thing is more sweet and delightsom such things as these must be granted that the Doctrine of Sabbath-delight may not be rejected nor they dejected who reach not so far as others do in their rejoycings on that day But yet that there is truly a delight in that day and the service thereof in those that truly fear the Lord and think upon his Name sufficiently appeareth in that they bless the Lord with all their hearts and souls for appointing such a day for when should we have set a part a whole day in any due distance for God and for the enjoying of God if God had not done it himself And in that they would not for all the world be without it for what 's the world without the Sun or without the Sabbath wherein the Sun of Righteousness shineth out and that the day throughout and that with a special blessing of God following and improving the beams thereof for our spiritual benefit and soul-refreshing We may very well say that no Sabbath passeth without some delight and satisfaction to the true Disciples of Jesus Christ But at times they are taken up with Christ on that day as it were into an high Mountain apart where they see his face shine as the Sun and are so extraordinarily taken and delighted with what they see and feel that they say feelingly It is good for us to be here In brief The Sabbath with the prescribed Ordinances and Exercises of that day is towards their latteâ— end especially like Mount Abarim to 〈◊〉 wherein they see much of the Heavenly Canaan 〈◊〉 at any other time when they that walk with God beiâ—g log'd and dull'd with corruption sorrow affliction tentation delight less in it they do then and therefore delight less in themselves But that there should be any true delight in God and his Ordinances and no delight in that day wherein they are most dispensed and best attended is as unlike as that a Jew should be without rejoycing at their great Festival days or that it should not be merry when friends meet or that Simeon should not take pleasure in that day wherein he took up the child Jesus in his arms for the Lords-day is Christians Feasting-day Christians gladsom meeting-day and the day wherein they being met together Christ who is the Consolation of Israel promiseth to be in the midst of them Is 't possible that on the day wherein they sit under the shadow of their dear Lord wherein they tast of his sweet fruit wherein he brings them to the Banqueting-house and spreads his Banner of Love over them they should then be without Cordial-content That they are not without such content appears because all the six days Sollicitors that is all worldly things and carnal company are kept off on that day of retiredness with God yea and charged and even adjured not to disturb their sweetest fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Albeit therefore I shall easily grant that we have great cause to desire God to be merciful to us in this thing that our delight in sabbath-Sabbath-duties is so dim yet it doth not follow from thence that there is none If
A PRESERVATIVE OF PIETY In a Quiet Reasoning for those Duties of Religion that are the means and helps appointed of God for the preserving and promoting of Godliness NAMELY I. Of four christian-CHRISTIAN-DUTIES Viz. 1. Reading the Scriptures 2. Preparation for the Lords Supper 3. Estimation of the Ministry 4. Sanctification of the lords-day-Lords-day-Sabbath II. Of four FAMILY-DUTIES Viz. 1. Houshold-Catechising 2. Family-Prayer 3. Repeating of Sermons 4. Singing of Psalms With an Epistle prefixt to Inform and Satisfie the Christian Reader concerning the whole Treatise By William Thomas Rector of the Church at Ubley in the County of Somerset Acts 2.42 And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayer With Rev. 1.10 I was in the Spirit on the Lords-day Aug. de Trin. lib. 1. cap. 3. Utile est plures libros à pluribus fieri diverso stylo non diversâ fide Etiam de quaestionibus iisdem ut ad plurimos res ipsa perveniat ad alios sic ad alios autem sic London Printed for Edward Thomaas and are to be sold at his Shop at the Adam and Eve in Little-Brittain M. DC LXII To my dearly beloved the Church and Congregation belonging to my Charge inhabiting within the Parish of Ubley in the County of Somerset Grace and Peace Dearly beloved in the Lord IT was for your sakes that I first set my thoughts on this ensuing Treatise For having lived and laboured so many years amongst you already I cannot look to abide long with you and therefore have thought it meet to do my endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have those things alwayes in remembrance which you have been formerly and continually taught Divers of which you will meet with in the reading of this Book whereof because I am willing to give you a taste I shall reckon them up unto you in that order wherein you shall find them hereafter handled First You know I have laboured much with you for the reading of Scripture and to train up your children to be able to read it Let me now leave it with you not only to set your Eyes upon this Word of God but to set your Hearts unto it and as much as in you lies to draw and win the hearts of those belonging to you to it for it is your life and their life Secondly I have taken much pains both publikely and from house to house to teach you admonish you and perswade you to a reverent receiving of the Lords Supper And now shall desire you to keep in mind that which you often have been minded of which is that they who come to that Sacrament should be before God twice the first time preparing the second time receiving Neglect not to prepare for Sermons especially on the Lords-Day but double your preparation at Sacraments because there is a double work to be done in regard of the meeting of two distinct Ordinances that is the Word and Sacrament to be partaked in together Wash your hearts as you do your Vessels every day but scour them and make them bright for the Lords use on Sabbath and Sacrament-dayes Thirdly You have heard especially in late times wherein the shameful and shameless misusing of Ministers hath enforced them to plead for their Calling I say you have heard many things to move you to a due estimation of the Ministry concerning which I shall say no more here but only this Take heed of esteeming too much of such Teachers as are not lawfully called or too little of such as are If painful teaching be not continued unto you remember you had it If it be do not despise it If you cannot have it at home be not content to be without it look not one upon another but where you see there is Corn repair thither Better stir then starve Fourthly Of our Lords Sabbath-day very much hath been spoken to you the holy observation thereof being the Seed-plot and support of all Piety It is not a day of idleness but of spiritual action And you that have need to work for your Bodies and Families all the six dayes have the more need to lay all other work aside on the Sabbath-day and to look after your souls making it your great and even your only work then to labour not after the food that perisheth but the meat that endureth to everlasting life To be very diligent all the Week-dayes and to idle out the Lords-day is to be good Husbands and bad Christians and such bad Christians are never good Husbands for they will be undone at last Fifthly You have still seen that I have made Catechising your Children and Servants one part of my work of which I shall say but a word now namely that it is so hard a thing to get any knowledge and sense of Religion into the heads and hearts of ancient people that therein all may see and you that are Parents and Housholders should take notice of it what a necessary thing it is to begin betimes with those that are young and to instruct them in that knowledge and fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom Sixthly Family-Prayer hath been often taught and sought amongst you for How can Housholders expect the protection and success of their persons and labours in the day or the safe keeping of themselves their children servants and substance in the night yea comfort and welfare day or night without God or How can they look to enjoy God without Prayer for He will be sought by the House of Israel and we may say by every house in Israel Zech. 12.12 Seventhly Repetition of Sermons amongst you hath been my continual custom that the things publikely delivered might be better understood better remembred better settled in your hearts and that the power thereof might be more and better expressed in your lives which you know hath been the usual Prayer before Repetition Lastly I have encouraged and excited you to the duty of Singing of Psalms And of late it hath been my manner in publike to give you a short Exposition of every Psalm before the singing of it that you might better understand and mind the matter contained in it Now all these things I do here recommend unto you and again sâ—t before you because spiritual things though delivered often to weak hearers are not quickly understood are hardly committed to memory are soon forgotten or mistaken when a printed Paper may easily be looked upon seriously thought upon and by often recourse to it a fruitful and more full use may be made of it And whatsoever the things I here communicate and do as it were bequeath to you as my dear children in the Lord shall be found in themselves yet the relation of Pastor and People under which we stand and which is now of forty and four years standing hath I trust such an endearment in it as to render what I have written more
moment upon Ecclesiastical constitution I wonder what company of men may or will assume so much to themselves as to appoint a day in their own devised distance and impose it to be observed on the whole Community of Christians And if there be not in all the Christian world the same set day how will the honour of God be diminished which by the meeting of all the people of God together to do homage to him at one and the same time is so remarkably heightened 3. If there must be a weekly day of Gods own Institution whether there be any other day of the week that can lay so good a claim to that sacred Institution and that hath such a divine Character put upon it as the first day of the week on which our Saviour rested from all his work and compleated the Redemption of Man-kind in his glorious Resurrection on which our great Lord hath set his own Name and that recorded in Scripture wherein also the holy Observation thereof is presented in Christian meetings and such acts and exercises as suit with the solemn time of Christians assembling themselves together And which is generally confest to be an Apostolical Ptescription and so amounts to a divine Institution 4. This day being divinely instituted whether God will not be that day better served and the spiritual profit of Christians better provided for by making it an intire day of Rest holy to the Lord and to spiritual uses or by mixing our work with Gods and Play with Piety Such things as these and more weighty communications of better Writers being seriously considered will I doubt not work on those who desire to walk with God willingly and thankfully to sequester themselves from all other things to enjoy a blessed communion with their Lord every Lords-day and one day in seaven to be as it were in Heaven Thus of the first part of this little Tractate and of the Christian duties therein contained The Second part treateth of Family-duties I begin with Family-Catechising an exercise exceeding needful useful that they that are young may be acquainted with God betimes and thereby if they die sooner may be fitter for his Kingdom and fitter for his service if they live longer God would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth but as blind Pastors and People so blind Housholders and Housholds fill hell And mean-while make the World much worse then else it would be For Families are the original of all other greater Societies and want of Religious Education there is the cause why there are so few good servants for how shal an ignorant Son or Daughter that hath no knowledge or conscience be a good Servant And why there are so few good Wives and Husbands for how shall they be good together that were never bred up to be good asunder Yea is it not from hence that there are so many less sound or less godly Ministers namely because they have not been so trained up as young Timothy was who from a child had known the holy Scriptures It s true that sometimes Religion is in the house and yet not in the heart at least of most in the House but if it be in the heart I am sure it will be in the house Yea as there shall be occasion in every house for the grace that is in a sincere and right heart is like the oyntment of ones right hand which bewrayeth it self being ever un-satisfied unless it disperse and send abroad the sweet savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place especially the Vicinity but most of all the Family I proceed from this to the thing I principally aimed at and indeed only intended when I first set upon this work namely to set forward the Duty of Family-Prayer For though God will do much for the house of Israel and for every house in Israel yet his Will is to be sought that he may do it for them Heaven is a rich storehouse and we have a Joseph there that is willing to nourish us lest we and our houshold and all that we have come to poverty yet it s necessary for us to go thither with our suits and supplications as the sons of Jacob went into Egypt with their sacks that so opening our mouths wide the Lord Jesus may fill them Ther 's treasure enough in God's House for us and for our houses but when God hath put a Key into our hand that is Prayer to open the door we must either turn the Key or not expect the Treasure men lust and have not labour and have not fight and scramble for the world and yet they have not or have not in mercy Hos. 13.11 because they ask not Now because some weak Christians may say with Jeremy Behold I cannot speak I cannot pray for I am a child therefore I thought it would be profitable for their help and education as it were to the duty of Prayer to put some Prayers into their hands though it be God only that must put a spirit of Prayer into their hearts This is a course that heretofore hath found acceptance but now it needs an Apology considering that in late times Forms have been so much out of request that God's external Ordinances and holy Institutions of one kind and another have passed and suffered reproach and that with divers of better report heretofore but None but God knows who are his under the contemptible name of Forms of Religion too low for Christians of the upper Form Now if any yet there be that count themselves above Ordinances I must leave them as far above my persuasions But as for modest Christians who howsoever they may be somewhat doubtful about the use of Forms of Prayer yet are teachable and capable of satisfaction I shall endevour to give it them And therefore I willingly acknowledg and would have both those of my own Charge and other Christians to know that such Forms are not so properly intended for grown and exercised Christians albeit they being humble will know they may receive help and improvement from them but they are composed for young Beginners and for them also not to tie them up but to train them up as they use to do little Children to go first by a Form that leaving the form which was a great help at first they may go at length on their own legs without leaning on such Supports Blessed Bradford that high and humble Martyr when he was in Prison wrote a prayer for his Mother that she might learn how to pray for him and desired her to get it by heart and to say it dayly and he wrote another for all her house to make use of in their Evening Prayer Unto which I add that although poor and low yea the lowest Christians may and should take more liberty in private between God and themselves and not be
afraid oâ— backward to groan out their desires before the Lord yet the assistance and supplies of Prayers made to their hands is for such needful to enable them to appear before others and to be their mouth in the duty of Prayer I say needful that neither the service may be contemptible to those that be bad nor unprofitable and tedious to those that be better Briefly Formes of Prayer whereof there are many in Scripture being framed according to Scripture cannot be justly condemned but I must add one thing more and that is that formal praying which idle Christians by the abuse of forms may soon fall into can never be justified The third Family-duty is Repetition of Sermons which being carefully done is the preservative of a right Religion for why are people ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth or are easily carryed from it but because they take Ministers words without Ministers grounds and so when other Teachers bring them a new Doctrine they like the last and the new Teacher and sell the former and the old truth whereas if they did review what they hear and as the noble Bereans search the Scriptures quoted by Ministers and so find by examination that what they have heard is founded on the Word of God and upon the credit of a divine Testimony they would not change their mindes having grace in them because it is impossible for God to change His nor can any word come from Him that is not perfect and of perpetual verity This recalling and repeating of Sermons and endevouring that the Houshold may see how they agree with Scripture hath ever been the character of more Religious Families and a great means to make all in it especially if they be called to give account of what they have heard and heard again to profit in Religion For as he that repeateth a matter separateth very Friends to wit because the repetition makes it fresh in memory causeth a greater observation and leaveth a greater impression so he that repeateth profitable matters edifieth very Weaklings and helpeth much the hearers to understand mark and mind what hath been formerly delivered But whilest I thus persuade you to repetition the saying of an excellent Servant of God comes to my remembrance which is this in effect that as Kine and Sheep return not to their owners grass and hay but milk and fleece and flesh so Sermons are not to be returned and represented only by reading notes but Christians are to repeat them in their lives by being sound in opinion growing in grace and godly in all their cariage The last duty is Singing of Psalms to be used principally on our Lords Sabbath day but every other day needful because every day hath its mercy for which God is to be praised or if it hath its affliction in that also God is to be blessed and there are Psalms sutable to every affliction to sanctifie it unto us by ministring matter of Instruction and to bear up our spirits in it by affording matter of Consolation It is every day likewise a profitable Exercise because the Book of Psalms containeth in it abundant matter of heavenly meditation and spiritual edification And as it is both needful and profitable so it is an exercise very pleasant for it awakeneth the soul quickneth the spirits cheareth up the heart and generally reviveth both the inward and the outward man Other duties are a Christians work This is his holy recreation begun here and to be compleated in heaven I cannot leave this without reciting what Mr. Beza that hath done such eminent service to the Church of God relateth of himself it 's this When by the goodness of God I hnd willingly forsaken my Countrey and all that I had that I might freely serve Christ it came to pass at my first entry into the publick assembly of the Christians that the company did sing this that is the 91 Psalm by the singing whereof as though I had heard God himself calling me particularly I felt my self so comforted that I have kept it since that time most dearly-graven in my heart and I may truly witness this before God that I have received marvellous comfort by it both in sickness and in sorrow not only by meditating it when I was smitten with the Pestilence and the same plague had infected my Family even four times but also in other most grievous tentations Let all profit by his experience and observe their own Thus have I given Summary account of the matters handled in this Treatise Concerning each of which I earnestly desire the Reader to cast his eye upon the Margent to search the Scriptures alleaged and weigh the Reasons annexed for I shall easily grant that a mans constitution is apt to insinuate it self into his meditation and discourse perhaps too much for in every constitution as there is a vertue or an help to vertue so a danger also and divers other things may lead a man aside before he is aware Albeit therefore I am not conscious to my self of offering any thing but that which as far as my understanding reacheth is right and do abhor to impose upon the consciences of men which God alone can bind yet let the Reader in the reading of mine or any mans words else set still before him the Word of God The manner of Writing which is the other thing I mentioned I have spoken somewhat to in the former Epistle It is not so plain and perspicuous as in regard of the common sort of Christians I intended but the Babes of Christ will here find milk that is many things fitted to their capacity and if there be any stronger meat it will suit better with more mature Christians All men know or may know that Ministers are necessitated to extend such abilities as God hath given them to the utmost which is hardly done without some obscurity for the pleading of the causes of God And that because as flesh and bloud riseth up in arms mustereth all its forces against the truth of God so doth it also against the way of godliness whereby tho the adversaries thereof cannot destroy it yet they prevail so far as to darken it and to cast so many mists before mens eyes that it is not easie for the ordinary Traveller to discern the right way nor for their Guides to clear it up unto them However I hope they that have good and honest hearts will hereby receive some good and from others that write of the same things they may receive more and by humble and faithful Prayer to God with diligent studying of his Word most of all I crave pardon for being so tedious in this Epistle which because it may serve not only for an introduction but as a Supplement also to that whiâ—h followeth the Reader may please the rather to bear with it I have nothing now to do but to leave with Christians this one necessary
dwell in him more richly Experience shews that religious Readers are rich and ripe in Scripture-knowledge Thus for Scripture-commands Now for Scripture-reasons for Scripture-reading First The Scriptures are written for the use of the whole Church either for their use or to leave them without excuse and therefore it 's urg'd as a great aggravation of Israels sin I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing God might have continued to make known his mind as at first he did by tradition and delivering his Will by word of mouth from one to another had it not been for this as for one reason that by writing the Word of God might be more exposed to the veiw of Ministers and People that both might read it and so the better study it and meditate upon it And wherefore did the Apostles write their Epistles to several Churches if it were not the duty of Christians to whom they wrote to read them Hence the Apostle Paul after he had written to the Ephesians speaks thus Whereby when ye read which shews they were to read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ Unto this purpose the same Apostle otherwhere saith When this Epistle is read among you cause that it may be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and mark what follows and that ye also read the Epistle from Laodicea Now it 's tâ—â—e that those Epistles were to be read before the Churches in their publick meetings but foâ— the same reason for which they were to be read to them they were if they could have them in private to be read by them that is that they might the better make use of them Of this nature also is that other Scripture wherein the Apostle chargeth the Thessalonians that this Epistle be read to all the holy brethren whence Calvin observes that the Papists are more stubborn then the Devils because by so high an adjuration they will not be charmed from forbidding the People the reading of Scriptures Secondly The nature of this writing is such as strongly requires the reading of it for what is Scripture but a Letter of the Creator to the Creature Hos. 8.12 When Adam sinn'd saith Austin we in him were cast out as exiles into this world Accordingly David saith I am a stranger upon earth Heaven is our Countrey from thence Christ the Essential Word hath in these last dayes come to us and from thence God hath still sent and a long time written his Letters to his Church and People Now the law of friendship imposeth upon every man the reading of a friends Letter and duty and loyalty exacts from every Subject the reading of the Letters of his Prince and the highest duty the reading of the Letters of the highest God Many in these dayes are eager I mean a great deal â—ore forward then fit to receive the Token that is the Lords-Supper who are careless of reading the Letter with which that token is sent and to which it is annexed Now to contend in a stomachful way for the Token and to be altogether remiss as divers such are in reading the Letter is not only an unkind thing but unreasonable for the Letter directs to the end and the profitable use of the Lords tokens that being well used they may be truly love-tokens to us when otherwise a Sacrament may be like Judâ—hs pledge a condemning token I speak not this to diminish the sincere desires of any to the Sacrament but to kindle their desires to the Word that by the reading and observing thereof they might come fitly and freely to the Lords Table Thirdly The use and profit of Scripture perswadeth much to the reading of it and that both in regard of others and our selves 1. In regard of others that we may teach and admonish them better which is the duty of Christians one towards another as Paul sheweth Col. 3.16 but especially of Governours as â—arents and Masters These words that I command thee shall be in tâ—ine heart saith the Lord by Moses Deut. 6.7 And thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up Now How shall this be done the memories of most being so frail unless they that are over others do by often reading keep those things in mind themselves whiâ—h they are and ought to teach those under them Ephes 6.4 Gen. 18.10 2. In regard of our selves This the Apostle minds us of when he teâ—ls us that the Scriptures known we may say the Scriptures read that being a special way whereby to know them are able to make a Timothy and so any other man wise to Salvation and more particularly they are pâ—ofitable for dâ—ctrine that is to teach the truth for reproof that is to convince and check error fâ—r correction that is to curb vice for instruction in righteousness that is for direction to a good life And in another place for consolation Rom. 15.4 Never would so many be damned for want of wit be so destitute of the Truth be so bewitched as they are with errors be such incorrigible servants to sin be so free from and void of all righteousness and goodness and lastly at such a loss for comfort when any waves arise but that Scripture is so little read and reverenced For the last of these that is matter of comfort Austin wâ—iting to one in a time of great calamity thus concludes his Epistle God will comfort you much more abundantly if you read his Scriptures most earnestly with which we may joyn that of Chrysostom who writing on those words of Paul Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly first cals to his hearers and saith You whose imployment lies in the world and that have wife and children to govern hear how the Apostle enjoyns 〈◊〉 especially to read Scriptures and that not barely to read them and as by the way but with great diligence And afterwards he adds even as a rich and monyed man is able to bear a loss so a man rich in Scripture-knowledge can easily bear poverty or any calamity yea he can better bear it saith he then a rich man can bear worldly losses for if he have many of them his riches will be more and more diminished but he that is rich in heavenly knowledge is never the less rich though he suffer never so much The same holy Father is very full in shewing in general the great profit that is to be had by the reading of Scripture as that it clears and calms the heart reforms the tongue gives wings to the soul to flie up even into heaven it self Do not lose saith he so great gain nor bring your Bibles hither only but take time to read the Scriptures at home And in
blessedness pronounced to wit as it is together with hearing a means of keeping And this we see God made to be the way to the Eunuchs blessedness The reading Eunuch that could not at first see Christ in the Scripture he read yet saw so much by the help of Philip whom God sent to him when he was reading that he believed with all his heart and came to Jesus by Baptism unto eternal life for believing and blessedness comming to Christ and life go together Luk. 1.45 Joh. 5.40 20.31 After these reasons of reading Scripture I shall proceed to the answering of some Objections the first whereof concerns those that are higher the other such as are meaner and lower Object 1. Men that have their heads and hands full of business may perhaps plead that they have no time to read Scripture in regard of their many and pressing imployments Answ. 1. They who frame this Objection had need to take heed that it be not made a protection for omitting Prayer also and so letting pass some dayes without having any thing to do with God such may know that it is to be but peny-wise to be so thrifty of time for worldly business as to have no leisure to look up to God If they did reâ—d Scripture well they would find such good Husbandâ—y put under the head of Vanity for Except the Lord build the House keep the City and so carry on and prosper mens affairs it is in vain to rise early to sit up late or to bestow a mans labour in them A man had better gain some time from his sleep then to have no time for the service of God and to leave some business undone then to have all ill-done or to be undone because he prospers so well without God Prov. 1.32 2. I answer That although Christians will find it both profitable and needful to set apart certain times and that ordinarily every day for reading Scripture lest there be a loss of the duty for want of an appointed time to do it in yet I shall not prescribe any particular time nor how much of Scripture any should read at that time the division of the Scriptures into Chapters will help that way but that which I press as necessary is the thing it self and that every Christian be a serious Reader of Scripture I deny not but some are so hurryed with the necessary occasions of their Calling that it is not easie for them to have a time perhaps in a whole day to read a Chapter I mean to have a time at times and on some days but yet at other times they may and by enjoying a freer opportunity make themselves and their souls some recompenâ—e in regard of former omissions which I advise them to do and withal wish them to remember that it is as hath been said the mark of a blessed man to meditate in Gods Word day and night and that David that was still taken up with the persecutions of a King that is of Saul or with the imployments of a King when he was King himself and a man of War also yet was very much in the meditation of the Law of God yea it was his meditation all the day that is he took all occasions to exercise his thoughts in it reading it no doubt as Kings were commanded to do Deut. 17.19 and then reading it in his heart in his recurrent meditations according to all opportunities There is but one thing that hinders Davids imitation and the following of so good an example and that is the want of Davids affection which breathes and breaks out in this holy exclamation O how I love thy Law and thence follows his meditation all the day Love desires union and longs to be much with the thing loved Gods great complaint is I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing Divers now a dayes look strangely upon Scripture their countenance as it is said of Laban in regard of Jacob is not towards it as it was yesterday and the day before but would they claim kindred of it and say unto Wisdom thou art my Sister and to Vnderstanding thou art my Kinswoman and so grow into an holy familiarity with it ther as neer kinred love to look much one upon another so would they look often and with delight into the Book of God and by the frequent reading of it supply themselves with the matter of that heavenly meditation which the Scripture marks in and makes the marks of the choisest servants of God I come now to the Objections of the other sort and which ordinary people use to make to whom I do especially direct this discourse Object 2. We hear the Scriptures râ—ad in the Congregation and may not that suffice for us who must of necessity follow our Callings that we may live in the world Answ. 1. We cannot but think that the Eunuch coming to Jerusalem to worship Act. 7 27. heard the Scriptures read there that being one part of the service performed at their Feasts as is expresly declared at the Feast of the Passover when it is said that Hezekiah spake comfoâ—tably to the Levites that taught the good knowledge of God In which teaching reading is presupposed for we find it express'd otherwhere and namely that in the Feast of Trumpets the Law was brought before the Congregation and was read from the morning until the mid-day And it is more like it was read at the Feast of Pentecost to which the Eunuch came because in that Feast they remembred the singular benefits of the Lords giving of the Law in Mâ—unt Sinai unto them at that very time and their freedom from the cruel Laws of the Egyptians under which they had lived before But though the Law were thus read and heard read in publick yet a good man though a great man is not content to sit and hear the Word read in the Congregation which is I grant a great duty Neh. 8.3 but he reads also in private yea the Eunuch returning from the Feast and the Reading there reads also sitting in his Charet and Philip is sent to joyn himself to the reading-Charet Answ. 2. As for those that say They are imployed all the week in worldly business they ought to know that they have so much the more need to read Scripture that in the crowd of earthly cares and concernments they may not lose their God and their Souls It 's true that ruder people are ready to resolve that it is to be left to Ministers and Monks as Chrysostom relates their words to read Scripture I have wife and children and houshold care sayes one and another why do you press me to read it Now it 's true that it doth most and very highly concern Ministers to read Scripture And that not only for guarding themselves against those Errors which men
and destroying Armies introduced So when it is sought outward comforts are added Matth. 6.33 How hath England flourished under Gospel-dispensations and estimations And our Eclipses have arisen and will arise from despising and persecuting a faithful Ministery of which therefore let all beware that love the common peace Psal. 122.6 4. As it shall be easier for Tyre and Sidon and Sodom at the last day then for Gospel-contemners so they that receive and reverence it shall find mercy at that day when Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe and mark why because our testimonâ— the testimony of Labourers among them was beleived In that day shall we rejoyce in Christians and so they in us if we have not run in vain nor laboured in vain Phil. 2.16 To conclude this let it be your care dearly beloved Christians now God hath wrought such wonders for our peace and settlement to make some amends for that shameful contempt that hath been poured on the Ministers of Christ of late by your double honour And as for those many that have departed we are more willing to say have been carryed from us and against us by the distemper of the times what shall we say but as the holy Prophet sometimes did though with some alteration Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel Let it be known that we are thy servants and that thou hast brought the heart of this people back again 1 King 18.36 37. CHAP. IV. Of the Observation of the Lords-day or the Christian Sabbath THe Christian Sabbath as our Church calleth it that is the Lords-day being a matter of so gâ—eat importance both in respect of Christians and of Christianity as that the name of the Lord of Glory is imprinted upon it And the Primitive Christians accounted it their glorious character And the Catholick Church hath still owned it and in the best of times most acknowledged it to be a day wholly dedicated to the remembrance and service of God our Saviour I shall therefore after what hath been already spoken concerning other parts of godliness endeavour according to my ability to add something briefly and summarily concerning this great day and the duties thereof and that so as to stir up Christians to the due observation of that day and performance of those duties For this purpose I shall make choice of a portion of Scripture that fully declares the danger of profaning the Lords Holy-day It is that which is written Neh. 13.17 18 Then I contended with the Nobles of Judah and said unto them What evil thing is this that yee do and profane the Sabbath day Did not your Fathers do thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this City yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath It is easie here before I go any further to foresee this Objection That a Text in the Old Testament speaking of the Jews Sabbath is improper for the establishing of the observation of the New Testament Sabbath Unto which I answer 1. More generall That whatsoever things were written afore time they were written for our learning and examples of divine Justice such as this Scripture declareth to be inflicted for profaning that which was Gods holy day then are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come to terrifie all men from offending in the like kind as here from abusing and applying to common use his consecrated time and solemn day 2. More particularly The fourth Commandement being as a remarkable part of the Moral and Eternal Law of God still in force for the holy observation of a Sabbath every week of Gods appointment unto the end of the world it will from thence follow that any thing spoken in the Old Testament concerning the Weekly Sabbath in use then if it be not proper to the Jewish people nor to the Jews Sabbath day but be prescribed in the fourth Commandement as common to each weekly Sabbath of Gods institution doth still remain in its full strength to bind the people of God in all Ages briefly What belonged to the Jews Sabbath as a Sabbath and not as that Sabbath is still in force for every Sabbath I mean for any weekly day which God appoints for his day of rest and holiness Hence it followeth also that what we find in the Old Testament about the Sabbath approved that 's for our imitation what we find reproved and punished that 's for our restraint and warning This morality of the fourth Commandement and its common aspect both on the Old and New Testaments weekly day being purposely and strongly proved by others I shall not here speak further of it but hasten to a brief opening of the Scripture before recited wherein it appeareth that amongst other gross abuses mentioned in the former and latter part of this Chapter the Sabbath also was very provokingly profaned and that in Jerusalem it self the Lords City wherein the Temple was the Lords House and wherein God himself so resided that they hid their eyes from the Sabbath in his eye-sight and by the profanation thereof he was profaned among them Ezek. 22.26 If any ask How all this came to pass Nehemiah himself gives an account of it when he saith All this while was not I at Jerusalem v. 6. The presence of a good Governour prevents impiety And Nehemiah being once come Sabbath profanation is non-pluss'd and overcome They came no more on the Sabbath v. 21. But as when Moses was absent the Calf was made so Nehemiah going after his first coming to Jerusalem and the building of the walls thereof into Persia again there were in that his absence from Jerusalem many profanations crept in which he when he returneth most zealously reformeth In particular when he saw in Judah the violation of the Sabbath and that it was made a very Market-day v. 15. his eyes affected his heart and his zeal discovers it self 1. In vehement speaking for he testified and contended against the profaners of that day v. 15. and with the Nobles that should have prevented and obviated such profananation v. 17 18. 2. In resolute acting taking order 1. For the shutting and guarding of the Gates of Jerusalem against buyers and sellers within the City v. 19. 2. For restraining them that lodged about the wall who might continue buying and selling in the Suburbs v. 20.21 3. He gave charge to the Levites also to keep the Gates to wit of the Temple Nehemiah's own servants being appointed to keep the City-gates that so nothing might be wanting on their part to keep the day and house of God from profanation v. 22. The result and conclusion of all which is an humble applying of himself to the mercy of God for the remembring of him as he by the grace of God was zealous in remembring the Lords holy
of worship on that day 2. It is more attended because a Sabbath is a day of rest and receding from worldly works that we may better apply our selves to divine Worship And though there be a necessary use of natural supports yet the fear of God wâ—ites Holiness to the Lord upon them and takes care they be so used that the Service of God may be better attended 3. It is more intended or performed with more power and vigour because our minds are or should be discharged of all those creature-cares and cogitations wherewith on other dayes on which though we leave the world a little yet we do not so take leave of it as on the Lords day our hearts use to be and that in the Worship of God encumbred and weakened yea besides this the private religious Exercises of that day both before and after the publike Service namely Meditation and Prayer make us come with better affections to it lay an ingagement upon us to stir up the grace of God in us when we are about it draw from God vertue in it and a blessing of Heaven upon it Of the third Commandement Because the Sabbath is a day appointed for the honour of God and the greatning of his Name in the publike Ordinances God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about him Hence it is that on the day of publik and solemn Assemblies that is on the Sabbath now the Lords day the Name of God 〈◊〉 most set up because by most and among most In the multitude of people is the Kings honour and then the multitude go to the House of God to the Temple to the Congregation wherein every one speaks of his glory Thus doth the fourth Commandement assist for the performance of the first Table 2. Of the Second Table To speak to every Commandement thereof would be too long It may suffice to say what all men may see and hear That is that on the weekly Lords day all sorts of persons are acquainted with their duty towards men by the instructions then especially delivered and are also stirred up thereunto by the Exhortations added And are or may be much furthered therein by the Repetition of Meditation and Prayer for a blessing upon such Instructions and Exhortation The fourth Commandement standeth in the middle as it were between the two Tables to be a Bond of Perfection and to link together Piety towards God and Charity towards men What is said of the Magistrate may be truly also said of the Sabbath He is and It is the Keeper of both the Tables Thus of the Commodity of the Christian Sabbath 3. The Commendation The Sabbath hath a preheminence above other dayes in regard of Gods Institution of it for each Sabbath is the Sabbath of the Lord our God and that makes it glorious in it self and hath the blessing of God annexed and assured to the observers of it And that as it maketh also for the advancement of it in it self so it giveth a reason why it should be precious to us yea the very largeness of the Law of the Sabbath and the Lords using so many words about it may shew as our weakness who need it so the weight of that Law and worth of that Day in asmuch as in a Law of Ten Words so much is said of this one Word and particular Precept It is observed out of the Hebrew Doctors That the Sabbath and the Precept against Idolatry each of these two is as weighty as all other the Commandements of the Law for confirmation whereof they add this The Sabbath is a sign between God and us for ever and that other place of Isaiah Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it Aynsworth Exod. 31.13 And sure that weekly day of our solemn appearing before our God ought to be honourable in our account That is a sign and assurance that we are Gods Covenant-people and peculiar treasure for therein lies our safety our glory and our felicity Who is it that desires not to be known by his attendants that he is Kings the Servant Well may we say also that 's a blessed and glorious day that makes the observers thereof blessed yea if by keeping the Sabbath from polluting it be insinuated or described a respect to all Religion even that also makes greatly for the honour of the Sabbath that godliness in the generaâ—ity is thereby set forth because thereby so much set forward It 's very observable that Gods people reckoning up in their miseries Gods mercies do mention as the chief thereof Gods Commandements and among those Laws and Commandements single out the Sabbath speaking thus honourably of it in reference to their Fathers And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath as if there were an eminency in that above other Laws as indeed there is in this regard because as on Fairs and Markets men are furnished with commodities of all sorts so on this day principally all spiritual good things are offered with an invitation to the buying and for the enjoying of them and that good knowledge of God is more aboundantly dispensed whereby all other Commandements are better performed O How little is God known to them to whom no Sabbath is made known or that will not be made to know any Sabbath The reason whereof is because on that day of Rest and Religion there is an opportunity offered of the freest fullest and highest Communion with God without those interruptions that we have on other days by the crowding in of our earthly occasions yea and that into the inner chamber and closet of our hearts which is the retiring room wherein God is pleased to communicate himself abundantly to the faithful soul when all worldly things and thoughts are had out and dismissed for that day yea charged and as it were conjured not to disturb the intimate society of the Lord Jesus with the soul that hath found him and fastened on him Thus of the Sabbath in general As to the Christian Sabbath a great glory is put upon it in the Scripture-title it being called the Lords day and that name and title being continued and applyed unto it to this day The Lord Jesus hath put his own Name and stamp upon it It is the day of that Lord who is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Rev. 1.5 Of the Jews Sabbath and of our Lords day there is as St. Austin speaks one and the same Lord but now is the Lords-day prefer'd before that Sabbath as the same Father speaks by the faith of the Resurrection Unto this Resurrection day is that honour given to have this said of it Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Act. 13.33 For by his Resurrection on that day he was manifestly and mightily declared to be the only-begotten Son of God
theirs so in this Scripture and in the whole Scripture of the Old Testament whatsoever thing is Spiritual and of an Evangelical nature it belongeth to us as well as to them and may upon just accounts be more pressed on us then on them because it is our happiness to have more means for and therefore our duty to make further progress in all things appertaining to godliness It were very strange to say or think the Jews were to abstain from their own self-pleasing thoughts words and actions on their Sabbath and yet that Christians may think speak and do as they please on the Christian Sabbath What must the Sabbath be the Jews delight and not ours There is so much of Gospel in these things that a learned Divine saith What can be spoken more like then this is to the perfect Precepts of Christ This will further appear by what follows to be spoken 2. Of the sabbath-Sabbath-duty as it is prescribed in way of Supposition vers 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath or as some render it for or because of the Sabbath that is If thou keep the Sabbath from polluting it as it is before chap. 56.2 to wit by doing any act treading any step unsutable to it and tending to the profanation of it as we find otherwhere the lifting up of ones hand and foot to be a Proverbial expression of enterprizing or attempting any thing Here the foot is named and in Isa. 56.2 the hand and both put together may shew that both hand and foot the great Instruments of action are to be kept for the Sabbath sake from doing any evil Ask therefore whatever thou art about Is this a fit walk or work for the Lords Sabbath day else Turn hand and foot from it What followeth will confirm this Exposition which is this From doing thy pleasure on my Holy-day that is any thing which pleaseth thy self and pleaseth not God on that day so that to turn away the foot is to keep from doing that is from doing any thing agreeable to our wills and not to Gods it 's true of things sinful which on that day are out of measure sinful but there is no cause to restrain it and apply it only to things sinful in themselves for the six dayes work is not so which yet the Commandement will have us to set aside There are divers things not evil in their nature which yet like the counsel of Ahitophel 2 Sam. 17.7 are not good at that time It is not enough that things done on that day be good for their matter but they must be some way or other for God whose day it is it must be his work and not a product of not a thing arising from and done for thine own pleasure one writing upon this saith Whatsoever shew of holiness there is in any work yet if thou aim at thy own commodâ—ty in it it is a servile work and violates the Sabbath of the Lord Every day but especially on the Lords day we should be like the Angels and those Ministers of his that do his pleasure Psal. 103.21 for then we wait on our Lord at his own appointed time It cannot be well therefore to do what we please our selves when we attend our Lord not on our working-day but on his Holy-day or the day of his Holiness But Negative holiness or to forbear evil is not enough it is further added and call the Sabbath a delight that is as one speaks making the holy things of that day our delight and exercising our selves about those delightsom things with delight of heart such as we see in David unto whom the Tabernacles of God were amiable and he most glad to go to Him and them Psal. 84.1 122.1 2 c. The meaning of this and the former part of the verse is well and plainly expressed thus If thou restrain thy foot on the Sabbath so as that thou do not whatsoever pleaseth thee and if thou take delight in keeping it according to the Law and Will of God calling it the holy that is the holy day of the Lord or a day consecrated unto him and therefore honourable or glorious As a man of God is an honourable man so is the day of God an honourable day Every day may be said to be glorious because a pleasant thing it is to the eyes to behold the Sun but this among other dayes is like Solomon's Queen among other honourable Women that is it excels in glory because on that day the Sun of Righteousness shines forth in his brightness that into our hearts in the use of Ordinances to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ so that our eyes may see the King in his beauty and so be our selves beautiful and shalt honour him that is by honouring it for when the holy things of God are profaned He is profaned whence it is said in the case of Eli his sons Them that honour me I will honour That which followeth is but a repeating of what went before yet so as that what was laid down in the former part of the verse more generally is laid forth in this later part more distinctly a law being laid on our wayes wills and words on the Lords Holy-day 1. On our wayes not doing thine own wayes for How is God honoured if we do what we list When Eli his sons would have and do what they pleased not observing Gods order in his own Institutions the Lords interpretation of it is a despising of him Now in proper speeâ—h we are said rather to go rhen to do our wayes but because by a mans wayes in Scripture and in our common speech also are meant mens actions and course of life therefore this fitly expresseth unto us that Gods mind is that we should not act according to our own minds nor do our own acts on Gods day I say on Gods day for albeit it be true that God binds us out from walking according to the world and the flesh any day yet speech being made here of a special day which God appropriateth unto himself therefore another interpretation seems more proper which is this not doing thine own ways that is not doing thy usual works On the six dayes we may do what we our selves have to do but on Gods day we must do what God hath for us to do All done on Gods day must be Gods not our own 2. On our wills not finding thine own pleasure or thine own will but the Hebrew word signifieth such a will as wherein there is a delight and complacency This is before applyed to the Fast and this reproved that on the day of their Fast they found their pleasure v. 3. And it is easily transfer'd and by the same reason applyed to the weekly Sabbath for howsoever the Fast was a day
thine heart Psal. 37.4 2. Here is Preferment I will cause thee to ride on the High-Places which being applyed to the Jews seems to allude unto what God had already done for them in throwing down and making them by way of conquest to ride over the high places of the Earth and namely of Canaan the Cities whereof were walled up to Heaven But taking it as it stands here it doth withal assure them that God would cause them to do the like in times to come succeeding this Prophesie as Jer. 17.23 26. And yet the Jews found little of this in later times but rather for their sins among which we may put Sabbath-profanation as one principal one Neh. 13.18 they found and felt that Enemies did ride over their heads and high places Unto which we may adde that in Gospel-times wherein this promise is not useless or truth-less the Church oft finds little of these outward preheminencies and much of the contrary which considerations give just reason of reaching out further for the fulfilling and benefit of this promise and to make it common to others with the Jews by interpreting it thus Thou shalt overcome all that shall lie in thy way to hinder thy prosperity God will honour those who honour him and his holy day yea Why may not this be applyed to and verified in the subduing of spiritual Enemies and casting down strong holds like those of Canaan with every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God especially since this is done by the Lords Ordinances eminently dispensed on the Lords-day and so is a reward sutable to the holy Observers thereof Nay why shall we not extend it yet further to make the promise fuller even to a treading at last on the necks of all Enemies and a resting and residing in Heaven that high and holy place whereof that Mountain-Countrey Canaan was a Type and where Sabbath is at last and everlastingly to be kept Heb. 4.9 I shall not for all this exclude but a little touch upon that outward and visible honour which is agreeable to the letter of the Text. This may be observed in two things 1. The advancing of that state wherein the Sabbath is best kept expressed by Kings and Princes sitting upon the Throne of David and riding in Charrets and â—n Horses No marvel for the well observing of the fourth Commandement is a great help to the keeping of all the rest unto the keeping whereof this promise is made The Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail and thou shalt be above only and thou shalt not be beneath Deut. 28.13 How hath this Nation flourished under the increase of Sabbath-Piety by the godly Laws of our religious Princes And how low have we lately faln upon the breaking forth afresh of Sabbath-prophaness followed with the saddest Civil War 2. In the adorning of those persons who reverence and carefully observe this day of God and so thrive in godliness and the fear of God There is no reason here to lay aside the Prophecy of Isaiah chap. 56.3 to v. 9. especially considering that it hath a respect to the times of the New-Testament wherein Gentile-strangers were received into the Church Now in that Prophesie the Lord saith to Strangers and Eunuchs that keep the Sabbath and chuse the things that please him and lay hold on his Covenant all which are like a golden Chain of divers links inseparable the one from the other the keeping of the Sabbath from the rest and the rest from that I say the Lord saith to such though they be strangers and have no name in the Church though they be Eunuchs and so can have no children to preserve their name nor be honoured by the name of Fathers Even unto them will I give in my House and within my Walls that is in the Church the House of the living God 1 Tim. 3.15 and within the wals of the spiritual Jerusalem Psal. 87.4 5. a name better then of sons and daughters that is better then that which ariseth from the begetting of sons and daughters For what is the name of Fathers of sons unto the name of sons of God of the Lord God Almighty yet Strangers and Eunuchs shall have this Name given them which is an everlasting name for a son of God once and a son of God ever Rom. 8.17 1 Joh. 3.1 and which gives in with it an everlasting fame and honour Psal. 112.6 Rev. 3.5 How honourable is the name of the Aethiopian Eunuch unto this day after that by believing he was made the son of God Act. 8.37 Joh. 1.12 yea such shall be glorified at the last day by Jesus Christ before hiâ— Father and the Angels 2 Thes. 1.10 12. I say again after the Explication of this Prophesie that there is no just reason to lay it aside in this argument of the Sabbath For as the Covenant mentioned there and the condition of that Covenant to wit laying hold of it by faith do still continue so albeit the Jews Sabbath be gone yet a Sabbath still remains wherein as the Spiritual duties of the old Sabbath are to be performed so the honouâ—s and priledges attending on and promised to thaâ— peâ—formance may be expected I mean being interpreted aâ—cording to the spiritual state of the Gospel However it is a clear truth that honour and estimation still followeth the fear of God I say that fear of God which is learned and still better learned by Sabbath-Instructions and Exercises and it so far followeth it that every one that will be accounted a Citizen of Zion and heir of Heaven is bound to honour those in whom this fear of God is found As on the contrary a vile person which is a name that falls heavily on Sabbath-profaners and profane livers which two use to go together is and ought to be of all such contemned not so as to cast any reproach upon them or that any should be wanting in doing all right to them but so as that they cannot have such an honourable place in an holy mans heart as others have And if we look on the state of things amongst our selves it 's easie to observe that they have not taken a good course either for their comfort or honour Unto one and another of whom the Sabbath may say Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me yea they themselves from whom the Christian Sabbath hath received but hard measure yet confess it meet that Christians on the Lords day should abandon all worldly affairs and dedicate it wholly to the honour of God And again That they that are so piously affected on the Lords-day as to retire from secular business and ordinary pleasures and delights that they may more freely attend the service of Christ are to be commended and incouraged Whatever disputes therefore there be yet the Conclusion is that the holy
such a one as is his child and yet but a child and therefore it must be with that gentleness which is sutable to and agreeth best with the relation and affection of a Father and the tenderness of a child for Angry Catechising quickly becomes an act of Provocation The third word which is used in the Text carries and commands Parents unto the best and highest kind of nurture to wit that which is drawn and fetch'd from the Word of the Lord and so will be most accepted of Him and most profitable to their children This the Apostle speaking to Timothy sets forth plainly in some other words but to the same effect calling it a nourishing in the words of faith and of good doctrine But besides this Paul here goes to the bottom and beginning of all good nurture which is Information or an informing Admonition The word signifies an Instilling or putting a thing into the mind And this infusing or dropping Instruction into the Understanding of a Child helps the Child to help the Father and to carry on his own good Education by his own light because his well-informed reason enableth him to see the necessity and benefit of it The life and manners cannot be good unless the mind be good The mind cannot be good without knowledge Nor will Knowledge be had without Teaching and admonishing In that therefore as in a Golden Mine the riches of religious Education lyeth and is laid up O that so plain and full a Precept might so convince the understandings possess and press the hearts of Christian Parents as to prevail with them for the bringing up of their Children not only in Arts and Sciences to make them wise nor only in mysteries of trading and worldly imployment to make them rich nor only in matters of morality and civil honesty to make them vertuous but in mysteries of Religion in the nurture and information of the Lord to make them truly godly and happy I shall only add this which I touched a little before which is that though children only be named in the Text yet this should not cause Housholders to think themselves discharged if they Catechise their Children and never instruct other young ones that are a part of their Houshold for He that is the Master of the House is the Father of the whole Family and may speak to all the Youth in it as Eli to Samuel whom he called his son and accordingly should disperse knowledge among them that they may not live under his roof care and charge without some acquaintance with God and without being bredd up to do some homage and service to Him It would be a poor business for Mothers to say We need not bring up our children in any good nurture for the Scripture in the New-Testament that especially requires it names only Fathers No more will Fathers be excused because none are named here to be instructed by them but only their children It 's true that under the notion of Fathers of children of whose duty the Apostle here properly speaketh they are called to Catechise their own children but as they are Masters and Fathers of Families a further care and charge lies upon them in regard of other young ones and namely of Servants under them and with them Yet I do not say That Housholders are bound to walk in the same way with those that are elder in the Family as they do with their children or to bestow the same time in instructing servants and children It 's true that to appoint some day or dayes in a week to examine and go on with servants in some sound and plain Catechism as namely the Assemblies short Catechism is a godly Exercise and a provident way to preserve the duty of Family-Instruction and to make it the more minded But yet if Housholders did but upon the Sabbath-day call those that be grown up to give account of the Sermons they hear Chapters read in the Family on the week-days And further If having as they ought an eye upon their carriage and seeing any neglect or fault in them they did take them to task question with them about it reprove and admonish them that for time to come they might amend it and then observe whether they do so or no even this I say with some acquainting them with the very first Principles of Religion in way of conference might pass for that which we call Catechising that word in Scripture being divers times applyed to a more general kind of Teaching But if such a concession as this and yielding to any thing be abused if nothing be done in this duty or nothing to purpose then may one Servant and another if it be possible for an uncatechised Servant to have so much grace come and say seriously and sadly I say sadly both in regard of themselves and the Houholder Master Carest thou not that we perish And let the Master consider how he will answer it Mean-while that I may return to the Text as it stands clear for Parents Catechiâ—ing let it be in the last place observed that Parents Instruction of their Children is of so great importance that if they therein did their duty then the work concerning Servants were already in a good part done for they should deliver in this way to every Master a catechised Servant and so the Master should have nothing to do but to preserve and carry on that which is already brought to his hand But if for want of this godly care O Christian Master a catechized Servant be not brought to thee let there be so much goodness in thee and so much love to his soul as that he may go a catechized-Servant from thee So much for Texts of Scripture commanding Catechising I now proceed to Arguments or Reasons to confirm Catechising to be a necessary duty Although the former Precepts might fully suffice because all Reason resides and is summ'd up in the Commandements of the only wise God yet because too much can hardly be spoken in a duty wherein many do nothing and all do too little therefore for a further assistance I shall adjoyn these ensuing Arguments drawn from the necessity and benefit of this Exercise 1. The necessity which I lay upon this Ground because all that will be saved in Gods ordinary way must come to the knowledge of the Truth To open this further I shall take in two questions 1. How is this Knowledge to be attained Answ. Saving Knowledge is not had by Nature Nature without divine Revelation knoweth nothing of Christ by whom alone we can be justified and saved that 's revealed from Heaven And if it cannot be had by Nature How shall it be had but by Nurture and Information of the Lord and How shall Children have it so well as by Parents pains and provision 2. When is it to be endeavoured or When is this Knowledge to be communicated Answ. Reason teacheth to do
shall now insist to wit mens Praying with their Families the time when they should do it I shall speak to afterwards 1. Then we find that Abraham journying with all his Family did build an Altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him and called on the Name of the Lord The like we find in Jacob with his Houshold Gen. 35.2 3 7. 2. We have the example of Job who sent and sanctified his Sons which some understand thus He prepâ—red them not only Ceremonially but Spiritually and namely by Prayers and then it sheweth that they joyned together in Praying Others understand it thus that he sent a Messenger to them and required them to sanctifie themselves that they might be present in an holy and pure manner at those Sacrifices which he as the Father and Priest of the Family intended to offer for them And if we take it so then it holds forth thus much that Job and his sons joyned together in Sacrificing with which Sacrificing Prayer was adjoyned as we see 1 Sam. 7.9 1 King 18.24 Also we read of David's excusing himself by an yearly Sacrifice for all his Family of which howsoever David made a plea for the appeasing of Saul yet it shews that in those days Family-conjunction in Sacrificing and Praying was noâ— unusual And when it is said Thus did Job continually or all the days to wit wherein his sons feasted every one his day Beza thereupon gives us this Note There 's no doubt saith he but that the dayly worship of God was also diligently observed in this most holy Family and that every seventh day at least was as God from the beginning of the world had ordained Gen. 2.3 exactly sanctified 3. The example of Joshua is remarkable who thus declares his resolution As for me and my House we will serve the Lord which he speaks not of as his duty only but as proposing himself an example of that which was the peoples duty generally in their several houses and dwellings from whence ariseth this Argument Every Family in Israel was and by the same reason every Christian Family is bound to do with their Housholds what he did with his that is to serve the Lord or the only true God If any ask What is this to the duty of Prayer I answer He that saith I will serve God saith also I will pray to Him as to take an homely similitude he that saith I will be your Hinde saith I will plough your ground for the one comprehends the other as the main thing in it And so it is here Prayer is so special and comprehensive a service that it is put in Scripture for the whole Worship of God therefore they that resolve to come in to be the Servants of God express themselves thus Let us go to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts And when Atheistical men say What is the Almighty that we should serve him their next word wherein they explain themselves is And what profit shall we have if we pray unto him And indeed there is no other service wherein the whole Family is so reverently seriously and solemnly conjoyned and so directly make their address to God whose Servants they profess themselves to be as in the duty of Prayer for that 's a looking of God in the face 4. It is expresly said of David that after he had been about the solemn Service of God that is the carrying of the Ark in publick he returned to bless his Houshold And what is that but in the name of the Lord to desire the blessing of the Lord upon them As when Isaac prayed earnestly for Jacob departing from him Esau resolves it into this that he had blessed Jacob. 5. We have the example of Esther who saith I also not resting there but I and my Maidens will Fast likewise which Fasting is still joyned with Prayer 1 Sam. 12.16 Mark 9.29 6. Of the Nation of the Jews in Gospel-times of whom it is said that the Land shall mourn every Family apart that is there shall not only be mourning in a publick way but there shall be also with respect to the Crucifying of Christ private and Hâ—ushold-humiliation Families laying to heart their horrible sin which implyes Confession and Prayer and the bringing home of the National provocation to their own doors yea this is spoken of as that which shall be the practice of the most eminent persons The Family of the House of Nathan of Levi and of Shimei shall mourn apart And so all other Families generally It hath regard to the Jews mourning as then was in use amongst them as the Dutch Annotations observe 7 We read in divers Scriptures of the Church in such and such an House This is understood two ways 1. That such Houses are called Churches because therein the Church in those times used to meet for the Worship of God A learned man excepts against this and saith It is not like that Paul in that place of the Romans meaneth the Saints which met there for the publike Service of God by reason of the particular Salutation of divers of them following But if we take that meaning it will not hinder but help in what we have now in hand it being very unlike that they who entertained others into their houses to pray for Prayer was a main thing in their publike Meetings Act. 16.13 would suffer their Houses to be without Prayer when they were absent 2. Many others understand it thus to wit that by Church in the House is meant the Inhabitants of the Family called a Church 1. Because of the largeness and numerousness of the Family making up a little Church 2. And because of the duties of Reading Catechising Prayer singing of Psalms and godly Discipline whereby the private Family resembleth the Church in their publike Church-worship If thus we understand the words then here is a plain example of performing the duty of Family-Prayer in the first Christians Families their houses being like Gods House Houses of Prayer Isa. 56.7 Perhaps that of Erasmus in his Annotations on Rom. 16.2 might rightly compose the former difference for he tells us that the Christian Family and any other that came to them and joyned themselves with them as we find in the House of Mary many gathered together Praying Act. 12.12 are called by the name of Church And then it will shew that it was then the use of Christians to perform religious duties in their Families wherein they were glad to have others accompany them as it is with godly Housholders at this day The third Position Every promise of Scripture made to any duty contains in it a vertual command as every command contains a promise else if that be not done which is the condition of the promise the promise will lie unperformed and so come to nothing Now the promise is
of those belonging to their charge Psal. 95.6 being therein of Michals haughty mind 2 Sam. 6.20 3. Spiritual sloth and a lazy listlesness makes people unwilling to buckle with such a duty and to take the pains to furnish themselves for such a service They could find in their heart to pray in their Family but the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing Unto this backwardness in many Bashfulâ—ess is added in divers others and a natural fear and diffidence making them very â—napt to appear and act in any solemn religious duty when they are in company This disease and holding off from so good an action should be corrected for the present by conscience of the duty and consideration of his calling to it who is the Governour of a Family and the using of the exercise will through Gods blessing in a short time work the cure and take off the difficulty Nicodemus that comes in the night at first appears at length in the light and owned a crucified Christ John 19.38 39. 4. In many men Worldliness is a great impediment for so eager are men on their Earthly occasions and advantages that they cannot afford time for spiritual duties But let such consider that in this they are peny-wise and pound-foolish like a man that hath a Journey to go and is so hasty that he will not stay the making ready of his Horse or like Saul that said to the Priest With-draw thine hand He was so hasty and looked upon his occasions as so urgent that he thought it no wisdom to abide with God to wait his answer And again like Saul that was so eager of pursuit and revenge that he adjured the people that not a man of them should eat any food till the evening and so they were faint and could not make that slaughter they might have done among the Philistins He was so greedy of his ends that he lost his ends Even so they that are so greedy after the world that God can have none of their attendance either have not what they look for or have it not in mercy God is very gracious unto us but it is at the voyce of our cry Isa. 30.19 5. In some men Atheism is the hinderance whereby men use to make light of such heavenly things as Hearing and Praying are A Farm a Wife or a yoke of Oxen may be the next reason but Atheism lies at the bottom for let all men examine namely when they cannot afford God a Prayer Morning and Evening whether this thought do not lodge in the heart of one and of another of them To go about my business will do me some good but Praying in my Family will do me none but only hinder me of so much time Now this wicked thought to wit that all time is lost that is bestowed in the Service of God and that they that pray not do as well as they that do I say this is down-right Atheism The bottom-cause of not calling upon God is that The Fool saith in his heart There is no God See for this Psal. 14.1 4 6. Job 21.15 Mal. 3.14 Upon the whole let every man enter into his own heart and consider what comfort there can be in refraining Houshold-worship and restraining Prayer on such reasons as these which yet upon sincere and serious consideration will no doubt be found the ordinary Pul-backs from so good a duty It remaineth now to enquire after the former proofs for Family-Prayer what time is to be allotted to this duty wherein I shall endeavour to shew two things 1. That it is to be used every day And that 2. Morning and Evening First The duty of Prayer is to be performed every day whereof while I speak in general it will have an influence into and by parity of reason argue for Family-Prayer Reasons of dayly Prayer are many And they are already given and published I shall only recite some of them viz. 1. Because our Saviour Christ in that Prayer which we call the Lords-Prayer directs and commands us to ask our dayly bread every day Nor is there less but the same or a greater reason to desire every day other things that we dayly and dearly need as the forgiving of our dayly trespasses the not leading us into tentation when Satan layes dayly snares for us As also to give thanks which the conclusion of that Prayer teacheth for every days mercy Every day supplyeth new matter both of Petition and Thanksgiving and therefore it calleth us to make supplication to the Lord that he may do for us at all times as the matter shall require 1 King 8.59 and to give him thanks Who dayly loadeth us with benefits Psal. 68 19. 2. Because every day hath its evils and vexations which are to be sweetned with Prayer and made tolerable Mat. 6.34 and its comforts also and contentments which are to be sanctified by Prayer and made profitable 1 Tim. 4.5 3. Because we know not whether we shall live till to morrow and therefore should not neglect God to day which may be our last day Men would pray all day long to day if they knew they should die to morrow and they do not know they shall not and therefore should not live as if they did and let alone God 4. Though we were never so sure of our lives yet we are to know that we live alwayes in the presence of God And shall a child be in the presence of his Father all day long and shew him no special reverence neither in the morning when he seeth him first nor when he leaves him last in the Evening 5. We find in Scripture that God hath had better children who have come before him twice thrice yea seven times that is very often in a day Daniel was eminent in this whose custom it was to pray three times a day and as he used to do so he did though he knew yea because he knew he was to be thrown into the Lions den for so doing He was so far from dissimulation that he seems glad of an occasion to own and acknowledge his God in the duty of Prayer though he perish himself 6. The command of praying without ceasing will not permit a days ceasing I speak not here of so much or so long which occasions may vary but to live a whole day without God and without any intercourse with God by Prayer unless in case of inability of body or mind whereby a Christian is not himself is that which the Spirit of God in Scripture will not bear with and which the spirit of a godly man cannot bear which may be discovered in Daniel though his were a special case who when there was a decree for thirty days could not forbear his praying to God three times a day for one day Dan. 6.10 Thus in general for dayly Prayer which Conscience will easily carry and help these reasons to reach to Family-Prayer
the rather because the faults and wants of Families are laid on the Governour of the Family and the charge is drawn up against the House as we see in the case of Eli's sons 1 Sam. 2.29.30 Besides that a true worshipper of God is loth God should be from home from his home a whole day together It is enquired Secondly When this duty is to be performed whether it be by single Persons or by Societies wherein it is granted that Christians are not tyed to any set hours in the day and yet it is profitable as Calvin speaks to have some certain hours consecrated to Prayer lest Prayer should be forgotten which ought to be preferred before all other cares and concernments Set-hours do not bind but mind Conscience and give it the advantage of pleading prescription The occasions and frame of every Family will point at the fittest times for Family-duty wherein if any hindrance arise at the ordinary fixed time the next convenient time is to be chosen But the common season for this service will be comprehended within the general names and times of Morning and Evening At which times both Scripture and Reason and the common custom of persons professing any Religion call us to this duty of Calling upon God 1. Scripture To wit by the legal Sacrifices enjoyned the people of God Morning and Evening under the Law whereunto Incense a Type of Prayer was added which may shew that we are to offer unto God the fruit of our lips and spiritual Sacrifices day by day continually Hereunto agreeth the example of David who directed his Prayer to God in the morning and the lifting up of whose hands were the Evening Sacrifice which thing is prophesied of also concerning the Gentiles after the Jewish manner of speaking but to be understood spiritually as that whereby the name of God should be greatned from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Unto this it may be added that whereas it was commanded the Jews to offer two Lambs day by day continually the one in the Morning the other at Evening the Hebrew Doctors say thereupon that The continual Sacrifice of the morning made Atonement for the Iniquities that were done in the night and the Evening Sacrifice made Atonement for the Iniquities that were by day And sure in all Families there 's great need of such an Atonement for all persons which is no way to be had but by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ Nor is the benefit of that to be had but in the Publicans way that is in a way of Prayer and humble suing for it Nor can there be a fitter time to seek it and come to the Sacrifice then in the Morning for the sins of the Night for which otherwise we may be smitten before Night and in Night for the sins of the Day for which otherwise we may be destroyed before the Morning Yea This is one thing whereby according to the Old-Testament usage the holy substance whereof still continueth I say this is one thing whereby our Houses may be dedicated to God whose Tenants at Will we are to wit by dayly Prayer 2. Reason and the light of Nature which leads all sorts of people to use some kind of Prayer when they rise up and lie down and that upon great reason extending it self to Family-Prayer that is because it is God that makes men and their Families prosper by day and to sleep safely in the night Great reason hath every man in his dwelling to say I will kneel down and pray before he say I will lie down and sleep and that because he must needs say if he will speak truth Thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety Psal. 4.8 The mercies of this God are new every morning Great is his faithfulness Lam. 3.23 and therefore great reason there is to shew forth his loving kindness in the Morning and his faithfulness every Night Psal. 92.2 I shall say no more but this Use Family-Prayer conscionably and faithfully observe the effect of it diligently and wisely and then it will plead for it self abundantly As Knowledge hath no Enemy but such as do not know so Prayer hath no Enemy but such as do not pray or pray only for a fashion and because they cannot either for fear or shame omit it or because they think to make God indebted by it and obliged to prosper them in their affairs otherwise the holy and happy use of Prayer will sufficiently apologize for it and perswade to it And that in the Family the Houses of those wherein God in that way is entertained being unless God see cause of doing otherwise for a greater good then outward prosperity is like the House of Obed-edom all whose Houshold was blessed whilest the Ark continued there spiritual Exercises being accompanyed not only with spiritual but even with outward advantages and God being where he abides like the Sun to make chearful and the Rain to make fruitful Hos. 6.3 Thus far of Family-Prayer referring a short Form of Prayer for Morning and Evening for the use of weak Christians unto the end and close of this Treatise And shall in the mean time speak very briefly having spoken so largely of the things already handled of two other holy Houshold-Exercises to wit Repeating of Sermons and Singing of Psalms CHAP. III. Of Repetition of Sermons in Families THe Repeating of Sermons I shall endeavour to move Christians unto as I have done in other things before-mentioned both by Scripture and Reason Grounds of Scripture for Sermon-Repetition The first Scripture I shall mention is Jer. 36.2 6. where the Lord first commands Jeremy to write all the words which he had spoken from the days of Josiah unto that day and thereupon Jeremy calls Baruch to write them from his mouth and then commands him to read what he had written in the ears of the people that so they might be brought to serious repentance for the preventing of their ruine which sheweth that things preached by Ministers as Jeremie's Sermons were in the Temple or Instructions delivered from Ministers mouths as these words were now from Jeremie's mouth being written and repeated are of special use and so may serve to recommend unto us both the writing and repeating of Sermons 1. The writing that being here prescribed and being so needful that what is preached may be rightly and fully repeated And therefore though the repeating be that which I intend to perswade here yet I shall speak something of and for the writing of Sermons because that is of such use for the Repetition and answer what is most considerably objected against it Object Writing hindereth hearing that is hearing with such attention and affection and giving up the whole man to it as there may be if Noting be laid aside and hearing be the only work Whereunto I answer That as it is not in my
providing for honest things not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men Let thy fear O God who art great and terrible be upon our hearts and before our eyes all the day long that so we may presume to do nothing which it will or should grieve us to think upon at night Let there be cause rather to bless thee in the Evening as for thy goodness toward us so for some goodness in us and that the day hath not passed without using our Talents so as to bring in some advantage to our great Lord mean-while being here before thee to confess how good thou art every way unto us we would not go out of thy presence without praising thee our most merciful God for ordaining such peace for us as that we may with safety both abide at home and go abroad about all our occasions It is of thy great goodness that we are not forced to go in by-ways for fear of violent men but the high-wayes are freely occupyed and we have cause to rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord towards the Inhabitants of his Villages who now dwell without fear in such undefenced places In special we bless thee our gracious God for that Government whereby we enjoy this peace and liberty humbly beseeching thee to settle still amongst us and ever to preserve over us a religious and righteous and rightful Magistracy for our present tranquillity and felicity And ever to establish amongst us an able and faithful Ministry for the saving of our souls and our everlasting happiness in the day of the Lord Jesus for whom we bless thee in whom we enjoy and joy in thee and to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Spirit we acknowledged to be due and desire from our souls to give all Glory Majesty Dominion and Power now and evermore Amen A Family-Prayer for the Evening O Most holy and most glorious Lord God we poor and polluted creatures acknowledge our selves altogether unworthy to be admitted into thy presence so much as to confess our sins yet since thou art pleased to offer thy self unto us in Jesus Christ under the name of a Father assuring us that If we confess our sins thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins we are therefore bold in him to come before thee confessing O Father that whereas at first we were made very good and very like God Now through our own fault and fall every one of us is shapen in Iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us And besides this corruption of nature enough of it self to condemn us Against Thee Against thee only for there is but one Law-giver have we sinned in the whole course of our lives Justly O Lord mayest thou draw up an heavy charge against us for our sins of omission upon which our Saviour will pass his last Sentence for we cannot but acknowledge that we have left made light of and like leaking vessels let slip many Sermons Our fruits after much seed sowen have been so few that we deserve our stripes should be many unto which this other evil is added that we have often sleighted the Lords Supper either by not caring to receive it or by neglecting to prepare for it We have idled away also or profaned many Sabbaths at least we have gone heavily under the service of that day which we should call a delight And whereas heart-searching is exceeding needful for the well-ordering of our hearts and lives we confess that many examinations of our hearts and wayes for which thou hast hearkened we have neglected yea though this duty of Prayer by our selves and in our Families be so needful so beneficial and such an al-sanctifying service yet for a long time either we have been very careless and mindless of it or else careless and heartless in it But besides all these omissions and neglects of duty we do further confess that we have committed much evil and been guilty of much Rebellion against thy Majesty yielding ordinarily unto Satans temptations who never ceaseth to put fair colours upon the forbidden fruit rushing often into evil company and partaking with them in the unfruitful works of darkness and when we have been alone sadly and securely satisfying the lusts of our evil and distempered hearts especially in the evils more pleasing and sutable to our sinful natures In regard of all which and all other our many and great transgressions we deserve O most just God to be deprived of all thy blessings and to be laden with thy judgements as we have laden thee with our sins But whilest we are displeased with our selves for them and it is in our hearts desire not only to confess them but forsake them and turn to thee from them We beseech thee O Father of Mercies in the Name and for the merits of Jesus Christ to be merciful to us sinners laying every one of our sins for we are not able our selves to bear the least of them upon that Lamb of God on whom the Lord hath laid the Iniquity of us all freeing us also of thy free grace from all those evils which are either on us or due unto us for the same And that we may be hereof assured Give us we pray thee that most excellent grace of Faith without which the Word of Promise and of Pardon cannot profit that thereby receiving the forgiveness of our sins our spirits may rejoyce in God our Saviour which since we cannot do but in the Publicans way who said God be merciful to me a sinner that is in a way of repentance therefore do thou O Lord work and if any thing of godly sorrow be already wrought do thou more and more work so upon our ever too-hard-hearts as that we may remember our former evil wayes and doings that have not been good and lothe our selves in our own sight for all our iniquities Nor let us lothe our sins only and our selves for them but leave them also and settle it in our hearts after thou hast spoken peace to us not to turn again to folly And because our own resolutions are soon altered and by our own strength we cannot prevail therefore we beg of thee our God to whom power belongeth so much strength as that though sin while we aâ—e here dwell within us yet it may not have dominion over us especially let us be strong in the Lord and the power of his might for the subduing of our special sins and those Goliahs that seem to set at defiance the whole Army of the Graces of God in us Neither let it suffice us to depart from evil unless also we do good and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And that this may be better done Good Lord make us mindful of the use of all good means of a godly life such as are the
God should take away Sabbaths from us I doubt not but that in all good Christians the grief would prove the delight for no man is grieved to lose what he never lov'd nor took any pleasure in I say it is thus in all good and truly godly and especially greatly-godly persons for as the man is so is his delight No marvel if the men of the world say When will the Sabbath be gone No wonder if the holy and strict observation thereof be unto carnal people and persons that savour not the things of God like Saul's Armour to David they cannot tell how to go with or undergo matters of so spiritual a nature for they never prov'd them they were never us'd to such things But on the other side the same spiritual observation of the Lords-day unto a spiritual Christian is like Jonathâ—n's robe and his garments even his Sword his Bow and his Girdle to the same David which no doubt he us'd and wore with much delight they being great testimonies of Jonathan's singular love to him and signs and symbols of the Covenant made with him as also the Lords-Sabbath and the Ordinances thereof are great tokens of his speciâ—l love to us and a sign of his holy Covenant made with us Ezek. 20.12 O why should not the Lords-day be our delight Is there not full joy in fellowship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ in the Preaching and with the Preachers of the Gospel Is not Christ who is observed to appear on that day again and again to his Disciples after his Resurrection and is still in the Assemblies of the Saints and in the Ministry of his Servants I say Is not He the desire and the delight of all Nations And who is it that is the Comforter and solace of Saints but that holy Spirit with whom the Servants of God have much to do on that day in heavenly Meditations So that if the whole Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost can minister any delight unto us then may we call the Sabbath a delight for therein God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier doth eminently appear and operate This is a day very useful and subservient to all the necessities of our souls If we be ignorant in any thing or in many things on this day we are all taught of God It 's a Soul-enlightning day If we be as we are Strangers in the Earth on this day we are most taught the way to our Countrey It 's a Soul-guiding day Psal. 73.17 24. If we hunger and thirst after Righteousness the spiritual Manna falls from Heaven and water comes out of that Rock which is Christ principally upon this day It 's a Soul-satisfying day If we languish under spiritual diseases or lie low under outward calamities on this day the Lord offereth Medicines in the Ministry for all our Maladies It 's a Soul-restoring-day Christ heals still on Sabbath-days And that I may once conclude could we be in the Spirit upon the Lords-day as we ought to be or as we might be for I do not mean extraordinarily as John was but having our hearts taken up with and heightned in the pure spiritual observation of it we might have then a fair sight yea a sweet sense of that unspeakably glorious Sabbath which right and real Saints shall shortly celebrate all-together in the heavenly Canaan where there remaineth a rest or the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God Heb 4.9 The Second Part. CHAP. I. Of Family-Duties AFter the four Christian-duties spoken of in the fore-going part I shall now proceed to four other Family-duties the first whereof because Religion is rooted in knowledge may well be Family-Catechising I say Family-Catechising for I shall not here speak of Catechising in its general extent but only apply my self to it as it is a duty belonging to Christians in their several Families which godly Exercise I shall endeavour to assist and perswade unto by Texts of Scripture first and some Arguments and Motives after Texts of Scripture to prove Catechising in Families a duty It is not my purpose here to mention every Text of Scripture that gives strength to this necessary duty but shall content my self with the naming and with the opening of two Texts in the Old-Testament and one in the New The first in the Old Testament is Deut. 6.6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up For the opening of this Scripture and the awakening of Conscience to a due consideration of it there comes to be considered in the first place Who it is that speaks in it even the Eternal God by his Servant Moses that was faithful in all his house Remember that it is He that saith Keep these words that I command thee this day But How must Parents keep them For to Parents and every Parent God here speaks and in answer to that question saith These words shall be in thine heaâ—t yet are they not only to be in the hearts of those that have Families but in their houses therefore it is added Thou shalt teach them thy children Nor was this a Ceremonial Pâ—ecept or a Commandement given peculiarly to the Jews for their assistance in the remembrance of the Law of God as their Phylacteries-fringes and fastning the Law to their door-posts but it was and is a moral and perpetual Precept binding us in Gospel-times as well as them and therefore the very same things that we read in this Text we find also in the New-Testament That is 1. That the Word of Christ must dwell in us which is all one with this here Let it be in thine heart And 2. That it must be in our houses also for Parents are required to bring up their children in the nurture and information of the Lord In obedience therefore to this standing Command they to whom God hath given children should say as the Psalmist doth Come ye children hearken to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord And when the children be come together the Spirit of God in the Text we have in hand teacheth in what manner they are to be taught saying Thou shalt teach them diligently and in the margent of our Bibles it is Thou shalt whet or sharpen which is well and plainly expressed in the Text by teaching diligently but yet the word in the Original doth more particularly note out a teaching by way of repetition and going over and over again as men do with Knives when they whet them that so as the Knife by such whetting is more keen and fit to cut so religious Instructions by often turning and returning them on the ears and tongues of children