they gathered it six dayes together and ceased the seventh day being the Sabbath day without controversie it began to fall on the first day which is the Lords day and still upon our Lords day the Lord rains Manna upon his people the true Manna did not cease in the wilderness but is still showred down upon the due observers of Gods holy day Divine blessings more sweet more pleasant then Israels Manna or bread resembling wafers or Corianders seed shall enrich and refresh the devout soul on Gods holy day Exod. 16. 31. Arg. 10 No command is punished with more severity then that of the Sabbath when it is broken and disobeyed Sabbath prophanation is a sin which will be beaten with many stripes For the better discovery of this great truth we shall follow it by degrees God eyes Sabbath-prophaneness most exactly If it be but the carrying of a burden Jer. 17. 27. God takes notice of it and it sets all in a flame There are two things God is most Sabbata Dei sunt ejus delitiae sunt ejus faelicitas et illa in dei contemplatione consistunt quibus à seculi curis et laboribus vacantes divina opera et judicia contemplemur Alap jealous of 1. Of his truth 2. Of his day God will see little spots on his own day Little flaws are seen in a jewel every one takes notice of spots in the Moon which is a bright and glorious luminary the finer the cloth is the more damageable the rent is which is in it Gods Sabbath is one of his most precious things it is not said Jer. 17. 27. If any commit a gross sin upon my Sabbath But if any bear a burden Secular works are sinful works on Gods holy day every toil is a trespass and to bear a burden upon the back is to draw guilt upon the soul God threatens Sabbath-prophanness most sharply The threats of God are the drawing of his bow they are the sharpning of his sword and the fitting it for execution they Ter poenam capitalem infligendum deus exprimit vilatoribus Sabbati quam poenam certum est immò de temporali morte et supplicio infligendum transgredienti esse intelligendum quod etiam ex praxi constat 15. Num. 32. Et haec quidam 〈◊〉 infligebatur ad exemplum Obstinatis etiam aeternam mortein fuisse denunciatam non inficias imus Rivet are his warning-pieces which he shoots off to affright secure sinners they are his frowns which are the evidences of his wrath and indignation Now God surely threatens the violations of his Sabbath he threatens them not with a light affliction but with death it self Exod. 31. 14 15. The soul which shall prophane the Sabbath shall die the death nay this sin shall not only destroy the Citizen but the City too Jer. 17. 27. set the gates on fire where the safety of the City lay No Portcullis can secure that City where the Sabbath is prophaned nay God threatens Sabbath-prophanation with his consuming fury Ezek. 20. 13 21. which can lay waste all which lies before it every thing is stubble to Gods wrath no gate so strong to resist it no Person so potent to withstand it Divine fury can as easily rase as Divine Power can create a world And this fury God will poure out on those who prophane his day God complains of Sabbath-prophanation most bitterly When God was drawing up his Endictments against the people of Israel now going into captivity one of his chiof charges was Sabbath-pollution they defiled his day which he would have kept spotless and this did accent his complaints and put an Emphasis upon his grievous expostulations Sabbata domini profanant homines tùm eorum prophanationem vident non corripiunt sed oâ—ulos suos avertunt et conniventes dissimulant item cùm ea non piè observant They despise my statutes saith God Ezek. 20. 24. How doth this appear Why saith God They pollute my Sabbaths as if the contempt of Religion was wrapt up in Sabbath-prophanation And in another place Ezek. 22. 8. They despise my holy things saith God but what is the evidence of it why saith the Lord they prophane my Sabbaths this goes to the heart of God and nothing more provokes his spirit Nay which is observable God calls the prophaning of his Sabbath the prophaning of himself Ezek. 22. 26. so the text They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths I am prophaned among them To pollute Gods day is to cast Coinquinabar Ezek. 22. 26. i. e. profanè tractabar abâ—iiâ— dirt in the very face of God himself and when men make light of the Sabbath they lose the reverence they should bear to the sacred Majesty of God Sabbath-prophanation huddles all in confusion as God complains Ezek. 22. 26. and makes men Atheists so as to have no regard of the incomprehensible and tremendous Jehovah who as the Apostle saith Heb. 12. 29. is a consuming fire And so God bitterly complains Polluitur Sabbatum cùm cujus gratiâ instituitur à plerisque non curatur Muscul Ezek. 23. 38. Moreover this they have done unto me they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day and have prophaned my Sabbaths What is done to Gods day he takes it as done to himselfe When his day is polluted and when his Saints are persecuted this is drawing against God himself Acts 9. 4 5. In a word the prophaning of Gods Sabbath makes him first poure out his complaint and then poure out his fury the smothering of his complaint quickly breaks out into the flame of his indignation God punisheth Sabbath-prophanation most severely We have already discovered the sharpness of Gods eye in the discerning the frowns of Gods brow in the threatning the totus dies dominicus ex toto animo quantum ferat humana necessiâ—as et imbeâ—illitas ritè et piè servandus est etenim ejus prophanationi et pollutioni maledictionem comminatur Deus Exod. 31. 14. Lev. 26. 2 14. Jer. 17. 27. et poenis gravissimis morte ulciscitur utpote cujus contemptus est totius legis dei et divini cultus repudiatio Leid Prof. complaints of Gods mouth in his complaining against and now we come to take notice of the strokes of Gods hand in the revenging of the violations of his blessed Sabbath The Histories of all ages do afford many dreadfull examples of Vengeance executed upon those who have prophaned this day The Reverend Mr. Walker tells us That he could relate more then thirty examples of Gods heavy vengeance upon Sabbath-breakers within the space of two years some of which were struck with suddain death by Gods immediate hand others devoured in the waters some cut off by surfets which they got by dancing and drinking on the Lords day some fired out of their houses in the midst of their quaffing and jollity and all their goods and substance consumed And these Judgements have befallen them in the
and it had ears and chaps like the forementioned beast This monstrous sin is most justly punished with a monstrous birth to make good that of holy Job John 4. 8. Job 4. 8. Even as I have seen they who plough iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same God sometimes punisheth the prophaning of his day in the posterity of the offendor as may be seen in the ensuing stories On the Sabbath in the afternoon at Twickenham in Middlesex the people being much given to May-games they May the 14. 1626. assembled to take down the May-pole and as they were taking it down one of the Church-Wardens wives was with her young child in her arms within her own gate looking upon them But whilst she was looking on one of the greatest ropes failed and broke and the pole fell down upon the pale that parted the gate and the street and the upper end of the pole with the fall lapped over and struck the child on the head in it mothers arms and killed it Thus little children who knew not the sin yet must die for it Let this story be annexed A vain and wanton maid hired on the Lords day a fellow to go to the next town to fetch thence a minstrel that she and others might dance and be merry but she committing lewdness that night with one of her companions proved with child And at the time of its birth she murthers it and so was hanged for the murther confessing and mournfully acknowledging at the time of her death That the occasion of her great misery was her prophanation of the Lords day Thus this crimson sin oâ— Sabbath-breaking can cut off root and branch and pursue with ruine and shame the actors of it and all those who are entangled in it God overtakes those who prophane his blessed day oftentimes with sudden death and shoots no warning-piâ—ces to summon them to prepare for their departure out of this world to his own dâ—eadful and tremendous Tribunal as may be seen in these following stories A Tailor of Buntingford being a nimble and active man dwelling at the upper end of the town in a bravado would go to the other end to buy some meat before morning prayer but coming home with both his hands full in the midst of the street he fell down stark dead Dr. Teate was an eye-witness of his fall and burial Oh what swift destruction pursues this cursed sin A townsman of Watford going to gather Cherries on the Lords day fell from the tree and in the fall was battered and bruised insomuch that he never spake more but lay groaning in his bloud till the next day and then he dyed A company of prophane young men near Salisbury upon the Lords day in the morning went to Claringdon Park to cut down a May-pole and having loaden a Cart with the tree and themselves with the bitter fruits of sin they are severely punished by the hand of God for entring into the Mr. Clarks examples City of Salisbury through a place called Milners Barnes unawars the Cart turns and struck one of the Sabbath-breakers such a mortal blow that his brains flew out and there dyed on the place This story was attested by divers godly persons living in the City of Salisbury to a Reverend Minister who made enquiry about it One at Ham nigh Kingelone going on the Lords day to visit his grounds where finding some cattel grazing which were not his own and running to drive them out he fell down and dyed suddenly upon the place Thus Gods angry eye is seconded by his revenging hand he sees and strikes together and they who will not keep a day shall not live an hour God punisheth the prophanation of his Sabbath with painful and tormenting death as may be exemplified in these stories At Tidworth on the Lords day many were met in the Church-yard to play at foot-ball where one of this wicked company had his leg broken which by a secret judgement of the Lord so festered that it turned into a gangrene in despight of all means used and so in pain and terror he gave up the Ghost and dyed For the sin of Sabbath-breaking God embitters his very executions and the offendor must not only die but he must die upon the rack One gathering fruit on the Lords day fell from the tree and was so hurt That he lay in anguish and dreadful dolour all the week till Sabbath day and then he ended his miserable life Thus God puts Gall and Wormwood into the Cup of those who prophane his blessed day God sometimes stops those who prophane his Sabbath in their carier and proceeds of sin as is seen in this following story One Mr. Ameredith a Gentleman of Devonshire being recovered from a pain he had in his feet one of his friends said he was glad to see him so nimble the Gentleman replies he hoped he should not be frustrated of his expectation in dancing about the May-pole the next Sunday But behold the justice of God in his just punishments of such vain and sinful resolutions for the Lord presently smote him with such feebleness and faintness of heart ere he stirred from the place where he was and likewise with such a great and unusal dizziness in the head that he was forced to be led home and from thence to his last home before the Lords day shone upon him Thus the very intentions of acting this sin were dreadfully and strangely punished God punished this sin in the Embryo of it while it lay onely in the Womb of a resolution God punishes the most inconsiderable breaches of his holy day as may be observed in the ensuing story Two Brethren on the Lords day in the Forenoon came to an Uncle they had to dine with him they living in a Market-Town not far off after Dinner they took horse again but had not gone far but one of the horses fell down dead and these Brethren going back again to their Uncles house put the other horse into the Stable and within an hour or two that horse likewise died in the place Thus the insensible beast shall bear the burden of mans sin and Sabbath-prophanation Rom 8 22. shall be branded upon the bruit creatures We have known saith Ludovicus Pius the German Emperour Didicimus quesdam in hoc die opera ruralia exercentes fuâ—mine interemptos quosdam artuum contractione multatos quosdam visibili igne obsumptos subâ—to in cinerem resolutos oâ—cubuisse Proinde necesse est c. Lud. P. in one of his Declarations Some busied in works of husbandry on the Lords-day to have been slain with lightning some punished with contraction of Limbs some consumed with visible fire and on a sudden turned into ashes and so to have perished in a judicial way wherefore it is a necessary duty that in the first place Priests then Kings Princes and all faithful persons do most devoutly exhibit due observation and reverence unto this day We may
so is the sugar at the bottom When the plummets Egressus Isaac in agrum ad mâ—ditandum accepit praemium pietatis sponsam scil gratissimam of our souls have been running down in worldly affairs and businesses in the day time then in the Evening to draw up that weight of the Clock in holy meditation is most suitable and commendable nor can any thing better become a Christian then in this duty to give God the Alpha and the Omega of every day The third season for holy Meditation is the night time when nature hath rockt every thing asleep and silenced the world from interrupting noyses This David leaves as The third season for meditation the matter both of his command and example Psal 63. 6. The night season is sequestred from worldly affairs and is Psal 63. 6. not checkt with their clamorous importunity nor is it a time Psal 4. 4. distracted with the incursions of sensible objects it is likewise a time not accosted or besieged with frivolous or dangerous temptations There are two things which do much fit and dispose the soul for Meditation viz. Rest and Silence Sancti laetantur dei patefactionibus sed timore et tremore both which are to be found in the night And to this may be added when the curtains of darkness are drawn over the world we are then filled with a religious fear of God our hearts are more composed and we entertain more solemn and awfull apprehensions of the Divine Majesty Stulte quid est somnus gelidae nisi mortis imago there is then a holy terrour struck upon the soul And when we lie upon our beds the bed is an image and representation of the Grave and at such a time a man may be more serious and composed for the duty But above all let us consider the Sabbath is the fittest time for meditation On that day our Saviour arose from the The fourth season for meditation Earth and our souls should ascend and raise themselves towards Heaven And meditation doth not onely become the morning but the whole day of a Sabbath it must not onely be our morning dress but the attire we must wear all the day We should think with our selves the Lords day it is a type of Heaven and contemplation is the work of Heaven The Heb. 4. 9. present Sabbath is onely the abridgement of that eternal rest which the Saints shall enjoy with God And they which disrelish this duty how can they expect that glorious reward which principally consists in the view and contemplation of God A gracious soul upon the Lords day by meditation may converse with God and with the inhabitants of another world he may enjoy as much of God as this interposing vail of flesh will admit of And thus much for the proper seasons of meditation The next thing which will further illustrate this blessed duty of meditation is the evidencing of the great advantages The great advantages of meditation of it which are both rich and many As several Diamonds are found in the same Rock and much Gold crowded into the same Mine Let us therefore take these manifold Emoluments in their Order Meditation is a vigorous antidote against sin It is rare physick to purge away or prevent that poyson Most sin for want of meditation There are two great snares which take most The first adtage of meditation men and intangle them in sin viz. Ignorance and Incogitancy when we either not know our danger or not consider our duty Men certainly would not be so brutishly sensual as they are if they did seriously weigh things in the ballance by solemn and holy meditation If they did meditate on the strength of Gods Arme on the strictness of Gods Justice Exod. 15. 16. on the consuming power of his Wrath if they seriously considered how infinitely evil sin is how much it Nehem. 9. 33. affronted Divine Purity and broke in pieces Divine Laws Heb. 12. 29. how exceedingly it endangered the soul and how deeply it Psal 5. 3. wounded the conscience surely men would flee all appearances 1 Joh. 3. 4. of evil and repulse a temptation in its first onset It is sin which puts a worm into Conscience a sting into Death 1 Theâ— 5. 22. a curse into the Law and fire into Hell Men meditate not Rom. 2. 15. on these things and so they are entangled in the snare Holy meditation is a golden shield against the darts of sinfull temptations In this case meditation would be as the Angels Judg. 22. 23. sword to stop us in our sinfull cariere and to strike us into clammy sweats and heavy damps that we should not sport our selves in the wayes and traverses of sin and provocation Joseph's meditation on Gods presence and omnipotency Gen. 39. 9. Josephus circumseptus fuiâ— pulcherrimarum virtutum choro quarum hortatu victor evasit spoyled the design of his Mistris her dalliance and kept him within the limits of holiness and chastity Meditation makes the heart like weâ— tinder it will not take the Devils fire In a word it is strange rashness in men that they will be taken in the ambushes of sin before they seriously meditate on what they are going about Holy meditation keeps vain and foolish thoughts out of the heart it prepossesseth the soul that frivolous imaginations The second advantage of meditation tions are wholly shut out God complains of the people of Israel that they were wholly taken up with vain thoughts Jer. 4. 14. Jer. 4. 14. And so it is with most men their minds are filled with froth and vanity and varieties of foolish thoughts croud in upon them as flyes swarm to the place where the honey lies and those incautelous persons consider not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost sin begins at the thoughts which are the first plotters and contrivers of all evil the heart is the womb whereall sin is conceived and framed and outward acts onely midwife the sinfull birth into the world and make it visible The mind and fancy is the stage where sin is first acted The malicious O quà m vanae sunt hominum cogitationes una cogitatio foelix est cogitare de domino Hieron in Psal man acts over his sin in his thoughts he plots his revenge the impure person acts over his concupiscence in his thoughts he contrives his lust And it is much to be deplored how much wickedness is committed in the chambers of our thoughts Now meditation on things Divine the Purity of God the Promises of God would be a Soveraign means to exite and banish such vain and flatulent thoughts Hierome 2 Cor. 7. 1. cries out How vain are the thoughts of men there is but one thought considerable and that is to think on God If David had carried the Book of the Law about him and meditated 2 Sam. 11. 2. on it
did so love the very nature of his Elect that though for the present he had them not all with him in heaven yet he must have their picture in his Son to see them in and to love them in O let us meditate much on this admirable strain of love till it melt our hearts Luk. 24. 32. Zach. 12. 10. Isa 53. 2 3. and make them burn within us Thirdly From the incarnation of our Saviour we may trace him through the several passages of his life to his death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and passion and here with an eye of faith look upon him whom we have pierced and view that man of sorrows suffering 1 Pet. 2. 24. bleeding dying on that tree of shame and ignominy there we may dwell upon the death of Christ till it put life into our dead hearts and then let us follow Christ in our meditations from the Cross to the Sepulcher and by the way ponder deeply of the severity of Divine Justice of the sinfulness of sin of the inexpressible love of Christ and the rare worth of souls which are not redeemed with corruptible 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as a lamb without blemish and spot 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Acts 20. 7. And why did the primitive Saints sacramentally shew forth the Lords death on the Lords day Acts 20. 7. but to signifie to us that to contemplate and commemorate the death of Christ is a special duty of that day But a little more distinctly to supply our meditations on this glorious subject Let us meditate on the Author of our Redemption he that carried it on from the first to the last Let us contemplate Mat. 3. 17. Hag. 2. 7. Isa 29. 19. Promissiones in Christo constantes et veracâ—s sunt in eoque impletae sunt Alap on our dear Redeemer He is the Son of God the wonder of Angels the desire of Nations the joy of Saints All the prophesies of old were fulfilled in him Luk. 24. 27. All the favours of God are conveyed to us by him Eph. 1. 4 5 6 7. All the types of the Law were the shadow of him Col. 2. 17. Heb. 10. 1. Nay all the promises of the Gospel are yea and Amen in him 2 Cor. 1. 20. Let us meditate on his person it is altogether lovely Cant. 5. 16. Let us meditate on his natures The Creatour and the Creature never met in any but in him such a person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-Man Joh. 4. 19. Rev. 15. 3. Heb. 9. 28. Heb. 4. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 15. never was nor never will be in the world besides him Let us meditate on his offices they are necessary and glorious Let us meditate on his behaviours they are spotless and fructiferous Let us meditate on his designs they are affectionate stupendous Let us meditate on the objects of redemption viz. Gods Elect a company of poor helpless succourless sinners Isa 29. 22. whom God out of eternal pity hath designed for himself to be ransomed by the blood of his dearly beloved These redeemed ones are sometimes called his people Luk. 1. 68. Peculium hebraicè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peculium selectum thesauros pretiosiores et charos significat Hieron Chaldaeus vertit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 novum populum Exod. 28. 29. sometimes his Israel Luk. 24. 21. sometimes his peculiar people Tit. 2. 14. sometimes his treasure as Hierom observes his New people as the Syriack translation renders it There are a few scattered up and down in the world in all places in all times and in all ages whom God set his heart upon from everlasting and Christ leaves heaven and is incarnate to purchase and redeem these scattered ones Aaron was to have the twelve Tribes engraven on his breast-plate and to bear them before God when he was to go into the holy place Exod. 28. 29. Our dear Redeemer whom Aaron was onely to typifie did bear the names of his Israel upon his heart when he did sacrifice himself to divine justice upon his shamefull but fruitful Cross Let us meditate on the price of our Redemption And here as the Apostle speaks we must conceive We are not Redeemed 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. with corruptible things as silver and gold but with 1 Cor. 6 20. the precious blood of Jesus Christ Tears not treasure Col. 1. 14. not silver but sighs not full coffers but emptied veins were Agnosce ô homo quam gravia sunt vulnera pro quibus necesse est filium dei vulnerari Bern. the price of our redemption Eph. 1. 7. All the mines in the world could not have purchased the life of one soul for as the Psalmist speaketh Ps 49. 8. The redemption of the soul is precious Nothing but precious blood could redeem the precious soul our sinfull wounds are onely healed by Christ's sacred wound we are cured by stripes Christs chastisements are our peace Our Olive leaf is dipt in blood Christ trod Isa 53. 5. the wine-press alone and his garments were sprinkled with blood Isa 63. 3. There are four wayes by which the Isa 63. 9. Isa 63. 3. Rev. 5. 9. redeemed person attains his freedom 1. When the Captive is freely manumitted and let go without price or ransom But this is not our case for neither would Satan have ever dismissed us from his thraldome of his own accord and freely nor yet our sin would leave us freely and spontaneously it stuck so close to us When the Captive is freed by way of exchange Nor is this our condition what bartery could we make with God to Quorundum permutatione fieri potest omnium electorum redemptio Gravius est peccatum quà m ut ullâ permutatione puraealicujus creaturae tolli et ita captivum redimi potest Zanch. purchase our freedom Could the Elect be redeemed by their own sweat or services or by the sacrificing of the purest Creatures This is no way proportionable to divine justice which we have provoked these means are too weak to file off our chains Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams saith the Prophet or with ten thousand rivers of Oyl which yet is impossible or shall I give my first-born for my transgression or the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Mic. 6. 7. Observe in this Text of Scripture here is offered all varieties of creature-contributions for mans redemption Here are inanimate creatures offered ten thousand rivers of oyl here are irrational creatures made proffer of thousands Mic. 6. 7. of Rams nay here rational creatures are tender'd the fruit of our bodys nay further here are the most beloved creatures frankly and pathetically presented for an oblation our first-born the heirs both of our love and revenue and yet all this to no purpose All these great offers can contribute nothing to our
of sin cannot over-rule the spot of sin cannot so unbeautifie him as to render him repudiate in the sight of his beloved sin may bring the Saint to the bar of conscience to be arraigned their but never to the bar of God to be condemned 1 Joh. 29. Jer. 31. 34. Heb. 9. 14. Isa 43. 25. Isa 44. 22. 1 Joh. 1. 9. there Christ hath satisfied for the sins of his people and divine justice will not require a double satisfaction The Apostle saith 1 Joh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins much more if Christ die for them God is just to forgive our sins Christ hath redeemed us from the killing power of death The Saints death is his alteration not his execution his Job 14. 14. Phil. 1. 23. Mors non est interitus sed introitus change but not his curse His priviledge and not his penalty Our death by the death of Christ is become a desireable thing the bitterness of Christs death hath put a sweetness and loveliness upon ours When the Saints die they only go to their Fathers house Death sees them safe home it Joh. 14 2 unites the body to the Earth their Mother and the soul to Tempus diversionis est teâ—â— reversionis et regressionis ad Deuâ— Tertul. the Lord their Father who in the Resurrection will conjoyn these dissever'd pieces of Man and glorify them both for ever Tertullian calls the time of dying the time of return to God after the years of absence here below Cyprian calls death the time of a Saints assumption and conveyance to his Augustinus in 1 Tim. 4 7. Exultantis magis sunt verba ad mortâ—â— praesentiam et ad corâ—â—â—m â—â— helantis quà m timentis et seipsum cruciantis Aug. Kingdom And it is recorded when the same holy Martyr heard of a sentence of death passed upon him by the Emperour Valerian he answered I thank God who is pleased to loosen the chains of my body that at last I may truly be at liberty Christs death indeed hath sweetned and perfumed ours the spices which were thrown into Christs grave are now taken up and thrown into ours Life to a believer is but an unkind Wall which parteth the Saint from his Beloved death throwes down this Wall and brings him into Luc. 24. 1. Joh. 19. 40. the same Heaven with Jesus Christ Death convey'd Lazarus from the comfortless gate of the rich man to the refreshing Luc. 16. 23. Heb. 9. 27. bosom of blessed because believing Abraham Christ hath redeemed us from the sting though not from the stroak of death from its hurt though not from its hold A Saint Rev. 14 13. 1 Thes 4. 14 16. now dies in Christ and though he die in his bed yet he sleeps in Jesus Death is only his ceasing to be any longer in a valley of tears and a wilderness of snares But a little farther to dilate on this point The Attributes resplendent in the work of Redemption In the great work of our Redemption all the Divine Attributes manifest themselves in their greatest lustre and splendor in this beautiful Orb they shine the brightest The Justice of God that if the sinner did not die the Son must One must die if the sinner be not cast into hell the Saviour must go out of his Fathers bosom Here was infinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delectatus est Deus voluit et ejus beneplacito profectus est quòd infirmitatibus subjecerit filium suâ—m eumque afflictionibus contuderit Alioquin nihil actum esset si existimaremus illud accidisse vel nolente deo vel otiosè spectante Riv. justice here justice had a Selah put upon it That Text of Scripture is most remarkable in Isa 53. 10. It pleased the Father to bruise him he hath put him to grief c. God took a delight in bruising his own Son because in those bruises justice rid triumphant Innocency must bleed that the sinner may escape and that justice may be displayed Lycurgus once made a Law that Adultery should be punished with the loss of both the eyes his own Son being found guilty that justice might not be waved he puts out one of his Sons eyes and one of his own So the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 23. That Law is unalterable now sin is committed there is an accursed thing in the Camp Iosh 7. 11. Either the sinner or the Saviour must die If the Principal cannot pay the Debt the surety must Divine Justice is so inexorable that the sinner escaping the Cup of Divine Rom. 6. 23. Heb. 7. 22. wrath must be put into the hand of an only Son Thus justice is eminent in the work of Mans Redemption The faithfulness of God God from eternity made a compact with his Son the Copy of which is laid up in that Ad successum mortis de quod attinet Rectè exprimitur videndi et saturandi verbis quibus omni moda fruitio rei conquisitae laboribus significatur et accipitur pro foelici et ubere sanctarum animarum messe Christus ad mortis suae tempus esuriebat grandi charitatis aestu c. Joh. 17. 4 5 6. Text Isa 53. 10 11. And one iota of this agreement must not pass away The substance of this compact is comprised in this main Article If Christ will make his soul an offering for sin he shall see the travel of his soul and be satisfied If Christ will die his Spouse his Church shall live his Cross shall make way for their Crown Now in the fulness of time Gal. 4. 4. Christ attempts and accomplisheth this stupendous undertaking he becomes incarnate and dies for his people and so his people live by his death the Father altogether comporting with this glorious agreement and not only gives his Son to redeem sinners Ioh. 3. 16. but likewises gives redeemed sinners to his Son Ioh. 17. 4 5 6. And thus Divine faithfulness gloriously breaks forth in the blessed work of our Redemption Every Article is made good and Christ meets with no disappointment not a soul miscarries for which he laid down a price and a ransom The Love of God did most transcendently appear in the work of Mâ—ns Redempâ—ion There was rich love on the Fathers part Ioh. 3. 16. Unspeakable bowels did the Father express to part with a Son a holy Son the Son of the bosom the Son from Eternity the very Character of his Father Heb. 1. 3. An only Son a begotten Son Psal 2. 7. to die Gen. 22. 12. for sinners Though Isaac was on the Altar yet he was rescued but our dear Jesus was on the Cross and he must die Christ begs his life of the Father Mat. 26. 39. But Non solum confiâ—mat Christus se discipulos suos dilexisse sed dilectionis suae magnitudinem exaggerat quod summo amorisgradu eos dilexerit Ger. the Father will not hear Great love was manifested in the
severall attributes in God which bespeak our greatest attention and Rev. 1. 13. devotion in holy Ordinances First His excellent and incomprehensible greatness If we Christus praesens est medio suorum cà m convenerint nomine suo gratiosâ sut praesentiâ had any dread or awe of an infinite Majesty upon us we should throw away all sleep and drowsiness when we come before him in holy worship Let us contemplate on the royalty of his Throne of the brightness of his Majesty and this would awaken us to fear and astonishment Shall a besotted worm stupifie himself by sleep when he is under the full view and immediate eye of the Almighty Surely not only his sences but his reason is asleep and his whole man is Psal 11. 4. in a benummed Lethargy Cannot infiniteness startle us And the dread of the Almighty pull us out of our dream One sparkling of his eye could confound us if he should command a ray of the Sun it would fire us out of our sloath and scorch us into nothing or that which is worse then nothing Secondly His omnisciency We sleep but God doth not Psal 121. 4. slumber he fully seeth our desperate carelesness and wilfull drowsiness in holy Ordinances There is no dropping asleep in a croud or taking a nap in some obscure place can Gen. 28. 17. evade the full view of Gods eye He takes notice of the frame of our hearts much more of the posture of our bodies 1 Chron. 28. 9 When thou sleepest in the time of worship there is no curtain before thee nothing to abate the view of God or darken his eye God sees all thy snoring indulgence which is excessively Psal 139. 12. offensive to him Thirdly His holiness God is exceedingly displeased with our unbecoming behaviours in holy worship his purity is much provoked by our sinful Lethargy Sleeping in Ordinances it is a sin nay a dangerous sin nay it is a crying sin Psal ◠5. and therefore highly provoking to divine holiness Our Saviour Rev. 3. 1. speaks of some who seemed to be alive and yet were dead And such are sleepy hearers their Pew is their grave their cloaths their winding-sheet and their present sleep their temporary death Indeed sleeping in Ordinances is a sin against nature it self The Sun will not stop in its course in attending on the world but the foolish sleeper stops in his attendance on the word and yet the Sun receives no reward but the Christian looks for one and though he hath snorted away a Sermon he presumes he hath discharged a duty and so is in his road to life eternall Fourthly His justice which is easily awakened by his holiness a just God will not endure a drowsie hearer The young man who slept at Pauls Sermon fell down from the Acts 20. 9. third loft and was taken up dead In mercy God presents the Gospel to our attention and in justice he will punish our want of attention God indeed took away a rib from Gen. 2. 21. Adam when he was asleep Gen. 2. 21. But he will not take Edormiente potiús quam vigilante formavit deus mulierem quia deus se ei in somnis revelari voluit sicut se revelare solebat prophetis Par. away a lust from any of the Sons of Adam while they are asleep in the Paradise of Ordinances A Lamb will not sleep in the paw of a Lion in the reach of an enraged Panther how much less should fond and formall sinners sleep in the presence in the most peculiar presence of him who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah Rev. 5. 5. who can tear our souls like a Lion Psal 7. 2. nay tear us in pieces and there is none to deliver Psal 50. 22. and break us in pieces as a potters vessel Jer. 19. 11. to be made whole no more Jer. 48. 38. Sleeping in Ordinances is distastful to the view of Angels Those holy spirits frequent the assemblies of the Saints 1 Cor. 11. 10. And they are witnesses of our carriage and Nos Angelos habemus obedientiae inobedientiae no strae c. Chrys Theo. Theoph. Ans deportment of our obedience and disobedience as Theophylact Anselm Chysostom and others aver and how much disgust must it cast on those holy and most Seraphick beings those blessed Courtiers of heaven whose concerns are so much wrapt up in the honour of God to see a stupified formalist with his sences chained up in unseasonable Angeli templum percurrunt singulorum habitus gesta vota explorent Nil sleep when the Eye Heart Mind and all should be attentive to grasp after divine truth in the publick dispensations of it and when the inward and the outward man like winde and tide both should meet to carry away and treasure up the discoveries of Gods word and counsel to him The Angels see our foolish glances wanton looks undecent postures they have a strict eye upon us in Ordinances O then let us not damp these glorious spirits by our uncomely and unworthy drowsiness This sinfull sleepiness is disquieting to the assembly of the Saints with whom we do associate Do we know what hearts are saddened what spirits are grieved what passions are raised by our sleepy carriage and our drowsie behaviour Our Saviour charges us not to offend one single Saint much 1 Cor. 10. 32 less an assembly of Gods people when we are met together in divine worship When we see one sleeping and Mat. 18. 6. hear another talking and observe another rowling his eyes from one object to another is not this to turn the Temple Sed etiam Christi monitu quantò magis necessaria tantò magis cavenda sunt scandala ne à nobis vel concitentur vel capiantur into a Babell and the order of the Church into confusion and to attempt to build Gods house a new with axes and hammers A sleepy hearer is a spot in our Feasts like a seared bough in a green tree a disturbance and grief to the assembly like a broken string in a lute which jars the Musick This stupid drowsiness is very prejudiciall to the work we are about when we come to Ordinances we are employed in the work of heaven This is opus dei Gods work a holy and sacred work In Ordinances we deal with God we pay our tribute to God we have communion with God we drive a great trade with 1. Vt in eâre quam agimus sit tota animi intentio 2. Vt sit inexplicabilis cupiditas benè operandi 3. Vt accedat assiduitas continuatio Basil God and shall we sleep in Gods work Basil observes there are three things requisite for the carrying on Gods work First That the mind be wholly set upon it and taken up in it Secondly That there be a restless desire of doing well Thirdly That there be diligence and unweariedness in the work
when we should be Prov. 24. 33. prosecuting our salvation It was Davids resolution He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt homines electi studio zelo divinae gloriae servidi ardore salutis eorum flagrantes metaphora esthaec à bellatoribus Par. would follow hard after God Psalm 63. 8. What a contradiction to this holy man is a sleepy Hearer one who buries himself alive at an Ordinance The Scriptures assure us we must storm heaven and take it by force Math. 11. 12. And we must enter in at the straight gate by striving Matth. 13. 24. Nay we must make our way to Heaven by fighting the good fight of Faitb 1 Tim. 6. 12. And all these are actions most inconsistent with sleep and slothfulness Matth. 11. 12. It is too probable a sign we taste little sweetness in holy Matth. 13 24. 1 Tim. 2. 12. Ordinances and that Gospel-dispensations never shed their perfumes upon our soules when we can wish them away with a nod or a dream Rich Banquets will scarce meet with sleepy guests Sweet Musiques will court and captivate Verbum Dei satiat non saturat creat amantes non fastidientes our attention And had we the taste either of a Job Job 23. 12. Or of a David Psalm 19. 10. we should keep both eye and heart open in divine Ordinances Were Ordinances so pleasant or parturient to us as either to delight our souls or awaken our consciences we should not throw Siulte quid est somnus gelidae nisi mortis imago them away at so cheap a rate as the gratifying of the flesh with a little stupifying sleep Surely the design of sleep was to be the Nurse of Nature and not the enemy of Grace to Somnus aliquando voâ—atur consanguineus leti support the body and not to hazard the soul Some learned men have called sleep the kinsman of Death O let it not be the Parent of our eternal Death It is a fatal change when sleep is metamorphosed into sin And thus much for the washing away of the paint of that excuse which pretends weakness and indisposition of body It is much to be feared the hand of Joab is in all this that neglect and carelesness close our eyes when we sleep away the precious Ordinances and opportunities of Grace But now succeed some ponderous considerations to be weighed in the ballance and seriously to be digested before we give our selves the sinful latitude to sleep in Ordinances Indeed many there are who sin away their souls and how many are there who sleep away their souls Before they come to Ordinances they sleep in sin and when they come to Ordinances they sin in sleep Sleep truly in the bed is the nurse of Nature but sleep in the Sanctuary is the nurse of vanity and breeds the soul up in Ignorance and Atheisme It is very strange that when our grace should be full of activity our sences should be chained with stupidity When Jonah slept the storm came Thou sleepest at a blessed soul-awakening 1 John 5. Psalm 11. 6. 2 Chr. 26. 20. Ordinance a storm of wrath may speedily fall upon thee as the Leprosie on a sudden rose in Vzziahs forehead But let us deliberatively weigh in our thoughts Wicken men do not sleep when they are about Satans work and while they are undoing their own souls If Judas have a plot in hand out of doors he will though in the night to bring his cursed design to pass John 13. 30. Nay the proud wanton envious eye in the Congregation will not fall asleep but will pry into every corner observe every fashion take notice of every beauty Satans work shall not be done sleepily and shall the work of God of Christ of Heaven of the Soul be done with drowsinesse and stupidity Here Ministers may make their appeal Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth Isa 1. 2. It is strange the work of a Tormentor should be more faithfully done than the work of a Pay-master that the service of Apollyon Isa 1. 2. Vtitur Isaias prosopopeiâ— ut Oratio sit gravior et plenior indignationis Cyril should be done with liveliness and activity and the work of a Saviour should be done with drosse and drowsiness It is much Ahab should be so restless for a Vineyard 1 Kings 21. 4. and we so drowsie for a Kingdome nay the Kingdome of Heaven Luke 12. 32. How will Ruffins Roysters and roaring Companions spend whole dayes nights in quaffing carowsing and gaming and we cannot spend one hour watchfully and actively for the pleasures of Eternity There are some Ordinances we will not sleep at when we come to the Lords Table it is no lesse then prodigious to fall into a sleep why then in Prayer or hearing of the Nemo potest fide credere nisi prius id quod credendum est sibi proponi et predicari audiat 2 Cor. 5 21. Word It is the preaching of the Word is the converting Ordinance Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10. 17. which faith espouseth us to Christ justifies our persons Rom. 5. 1. Seasons our Duties Heb. 11. 6. Purifies our hearts Heb. 15. 9. Unlades our guilt and layes it upon him who is mighty to bear It is faith by which we put on Christ Rom. 13. 14. and so being cloathed with the spotless robes of his righteousness we may stand with confidence before Gods tribunal Preaching is the Mother the Sacrament only is the Nurse of Grace preaching the Word of Christ fits us for feeding upon the body of Christ Paul gives preaching the preheminence 1 Cor. 1. 17. And so prayer it carries the conquest of omnipotency it self Isa 45. 11. Yet we are often Praecipuum Episcoporum munus est Evangelium praedicare Alap guilty of drowsie prayers and sleepy hearing when we tremble to think of sleeping with a Sacramental Cup in our hand Alapide observeth The predominant duty of Bishops is to preach the word And yet this Ordinance principally must be a witness of our shame This sleeping in Ordinances is a sin which Satan mightily promotes he knows of what fatal consequence it is for the soul to hear attentively to heed diligently the word of 1 Pet. 5. 8. Satanas suas infernales volucres quae sunt malae suggestiones hostium veritatis sophismata prava hominum prophanorum colloquia illusorum dicteria numquid omnia quae dicuntur credis quid vult tibi iste sermologus immittit quae sermonem auditum ex cordibus hominum ita eximant ut ne memoria quidem ejus maneat ne dum ut per illam ad fidem et pietatem et illius exercitia et fructus excitemur Lyser life and reconciliation this will batter his Kingdome and pluck Proselytes out of the paw of this roaring Lion And therefore when we come to a Sermon he either attempts to disturb and distract us and to throw in his cursed injections to procure a hurry
Jer. 3. 13. forgive the sins of our prayers that our dull ear flat heart ranging mind floating thoughts treacherous memory may be pardoned to us and that the sins of our Sabbath may not sowre the sweets of our Sabbath and so our precious priviledges become as Vriahs letters whose contents were the destruction of the bearer We let fall an Evening dew of Aliud Sabbatâ—m et alia requies relinquitur et restat populo dei popu-lo fideli et Christiano putà requies gaudium et solennitas coelestis figurata per Sabbatum Judaicum tears upon our very services on Gods holy day 2. Petitory But our sighs must not so stop our language but we must be begging as well as moaning and there are many things we must importune the Lord for the winding up of his Sabbath we must beseech him that his smiles would speak his acceptation of what we have performed that holy day that his spinit would feal upon us those instructions which we have heard that day that our lives might conform to those blessed ordinances which we have enjoyed that day that a full fruition of himself may succeed the sweet communion we have had with himself that day and that the present Sabbath may be the harbinger of an Eternal Rest which is the glorious reserve God hath made for his Saints Heb. 4. 9. We must likewise pray that every lust complained of that day may receive its deaths wound that every sin confessed and acknowledged that day may receive its full pardon that every opportunity of life possessed that Ecclesia â—â— domus orâ—tionis quia in eá a deo petimus peccatorum veniam vitiorum victoriam virtutum robur et incrementum in tentationibus constantiam in gratiâ et virtutibus progressum felicem mortem et sa lutiferam beatitudinem Alap in Is day may receive its designed end Wrestling with God is never more seasonable then on the day of God then it is both seasonable and sweet therefore let it put its last hand to our Sabbath Of all graces faith wears the Crown Eph. 6. 16. Of all duties Prayer wears the Garland Isa 45. 11. This is the favourite in the Court of heaven to whom the King of Kings can deny nothing Gods house must be called a house of Prayer Isa 56. 7. not of hearing not of singing not of receiving but of praying One letter in Gods name is he is a God hearing prayer Psal 65. 1 2. It is prayer can sanctifie afflictions it is prayer can bless provisions it is prayer can sweeten Ordinances and make them marrow and fatness to the soul Psal 63. 5. Prayer is the Porter to keep the door of our lips Prayer is the strong hilt which defends the strength of our hands Prayer is the Chymist which turns all into Gold and it is prayer can turn a Sabbath into that which is better then gold Let Prayer then bring up the rear of our services on a Sabbath 3. Gratulatory In the close of a Sabbath let us triumph 1 Thes 5. 16. and â—â—joyce in the Lord and in the cool of the evening let us Semper gaudete si non actu tamen habitu Cajet not lose the heat of the day Let not our Sabbath be as Nebuchadnezzars Image whose head was of Gold breast and armes of silver but the feet and lower parts iron and clay Let not our hearts in the morning of a Sabbath have heavenly Dan. 2. 32 33. heat and be in a golden temper and in the evening as dead and cold as the iron and the clay It is very sad when our affections on a Sabbath are like the grass the Prophet speaks of Psal 90. 6. In the morning it flourisheth Zach. 14. 6 7. and in the evening it is cut down dried up and withered Some experienced Christians can say that upon the continued 1 Chr. 23. 30. care throughout the Sabbath in the evening thereof they have received large enlivenings of soul Plutarch reports of a River which runs sweet in the morning but bitter at night Let not this be the emblem of our condition but rather as Rivers have their Evening Tides as well as their morning so let it be full water with us in the evening of the Sabbath and then we have many things to praise Jehovah for 1. We must magnifie the Name of God for the time of a Psal 92. 2. day that the candle of our life burned one day longer when Divine Justice might have snuffed it out Acts 17. 28. 2. For the sweetness of an Ordinance Ordinances are the souls Jubile the walks where we meet with our beloved the Golden Scepter of Grace which God holds out to Esth 4. 11. us now to come in and receive favour the white flag of heaven to bespeak us to yield to Christ and we shall be received into grace and favour And how many of these Jewels doth God set a Sabbath with 3. For farther tenders of life and salvation Let God be praised that still the bargain is driving for eternity every offer of pardon in the Gospel is renewed love the fresh soundings of Gods bowels his heart once more yearning towards the poor soul And is not this worthy our highest thanksgivings The Persians adore every new rising of the Sun and shall not we adore the Lord for repeated tenders of salvation 4. For the liberty of Gods Sanctuary which is his Royal Illustâ—â—t deus faciem suam i. e. lucidâ serenâ benignâ et amicâ facie respiciat ad templum suum et illud instauret Palace to entertain his Saints in where he gives his sweetest and most satisfactory discoveries Psal 73. 17. There are the goings of God Psal 68. 24. There God sheweth his power and shines in his Glory Psal 63. 2. There Gods strength is evidenced and his beauty unmasked Psal 96. 6. And there he causeth his face to shine Dan. 9. 17. which is the most beautifull sight on this side the beatifical vision 5. Let us praise God for the Riches of a Sabbath In this Psal 14. 20. blessed season we enjoy the treasure of his Word without Rom. 3. 2. which we should have been both unholy and unhappy and by its powerfull operations we are made both gracious and glorious and the giver of such a gift deserves the elevations of our praise and we should commemorate it with an Higgaion Selah The light of the Sun Moon and Stars are Gen. 1. 18. of great concernments to men they are the Governours of Joel 3. 15. day and night But the light of Gods Word is of infinite more value The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood Joel 2. 31. but not an Iota of Gods Word shall pass away or perish By the Word the glory and beauty Cur non potest Iota perire quia tunc periret vox et sententia legis ex Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
saepiùs Christus in die Sabbati officia charitatis praestitit quà m aliis diebus Iren. dayes And let us in this imitate both our Priest and Pattern who died for us and must go before us and we taking up this practice weekly let us follow him Surely melting bowels do bear a symphony with mercifull Sabbaths On the first day of the week the day of our Sabbath God created Gen. 1. 2 the world out of a chaos of confusion Christ restored the Mark 16. 2. World from sin and destruction and on the same first day Acts 2. 3. of the week the holy spirit enlightned the world in falling down solemnly upon the Apostles and redeemed the Church from Judaical misapprehension And shall these glorious works which have put such a bright emphasis upon the Christian Sabbath not soften our bowels to pity the groans of the sick the sights of the prisoner and comfort those who are in trouble and dejection On this day the spark Buc. in Mat. 12. 11. of our love should turn into a flame the drops of compassion should swell into a stream Bucer makes the visitation of the Luke 10. 33. sick to be a principal duty of our Sabbath On which day Infundit vinum et oleum Samaritanus vinum denotat legem oleum gratiam Evangelii Sacramenta sunt quasi alligamenta quibus labia vulnerum alligantur Chemnit Christians should turn good Samaritans they should drop tears into those wounds they cannot drop Oyl into and pour in the wine of consolation if they have no other to offer as a sacrifice of mercy Bleeding hearts become a blessed Sabbath One well observes It doth behove us as occasion is offered to spend some time of a Sabbath in visiting the sick because this will fill our minds with holy meditations and fill our mouths with heavenly discourses and fill our hearts with serious apprehensions of death and judgement which will shortly encounter us and there is no avoiding the stroke of the one or the Bar of the other There is Charitas spiritualis spiritual Charity which is Verbis exprimi non potest quantum homo qui ad imagirem dei conditus est et pro quo unigenitur dei filius proprium suum sanguinem fudit quem denique sp sanctus per verbum Evangelii ad communionem filiorum dei vocavit et sanctificavit irrationalibus et brutis animalibus praestet Lys most apposite to the Lords day One well argues If our mercy on a Sabbath must extend to the Oxe and the Ass Luk. 13. 15. much more to man who is Gods Vice-Roy upon Earth bears his own image and is enriched with that nature which Christ himself took upon him and if in outward things we must minister to him viz. man much more in spirituals and heavenly by how much the soul transcends the body and the wants of the soul are more dangerous and for the most part less felt then those of the body and therefore to succour them is more necessary and less dispensable Surely this is the highest mercy to pull men out of the pit of despair out of the mire of prophaneness out of the dungeon of ignorance to unfetter chained sinners to consolate and advice distressed souls It is observable our Saviour did not only heal the poor woman of her bodily infirmity on the Sabbath but delivered her from the chains of Satan with which she had so long been held Luke 13. 16. It is our great work on a Sabbath to shew mercy to distressed souls On the Lords day Christ rose for our justification Rom. 8. 34. which was a spiritual benefit not for supply but for our justification not for the encrasie of our bodies but for the rescue of our souls And the Apostle notes it with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea rather in the Text forementioned And in soul advantage every Christian may have a share they may have soft bowels who have not full purses every one may give savoury counsel put up ardent prayers labour to set home convictions nay enter into heavenly discourses and so endeavour to draw those who go astray to the Sheepfold of the Great Shepherd of their souls Every one may 1 Pet. 2. 25. bleed over sinful revolters and as St. John who ran after 1 Pet. 5. 4. the young man when he was extravagant in his practice they may run weeping after straying transgressours This willing mind as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 8. 12. may lodge 1 Thes 5. 14. in the breast of the meanest person there may be zeal in the heart when there are rags on the back and when their apparrel is more contemptible then John the Baptist's leathern girdle and Camels hair Mat. 3. 4. And that which enforces this duty is 1. The excellency of the work To instruct to admonish comfort and pray for Brethren is the greatest mercy the softest pity nay even the work of Christ himself who shed not only his tears but his blood to ransome immortal souls how did Christ grieve for a hard heart weep over an unbelieving City and lay down his life for poor lost sinners To Mark 3. 5. rescue poor perishing souls is a heavenly work and well Luke 19. 42. is becoming a heavenly Sabbath Mat. 18. 11. 2. The reward of the Service Not a tear we drop over a wandering sinner but will turn into a pearl The Apostle speaks expresly Jam. 5. 19. Brethren if any of you have erred from the truth and one hath converted him let him know that he hath converted a sinner from going out of his way he shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins This text it seems informs us of a double reward Rom. 10. 14. 1. The salvation of a soul the purchase of Christ himself 1 Tim. 4. 16. souls were the gains of his victories Isa 53. 11. The Redemption of souls was the reward of all his sufferings Luke 22. 32. 2. Here is the covering a multitude of sins which onely Heb. 12 15 16. speaks blessedness Psal 32. 1 2. And it may likewise be inferred from this text of Scripture That God hath made us Heb. 3. 13. Guardians one of another Acts of spiritual charity belong to the care of all Christians God hath not onely set conscience to watch over the inward man but hath set us to watch over the outward conversation one of another We must exhort one another while it is to day Heb. 3. 13. especially Luke 24. 17. while the light of Sabbaths continues to us When the two Disciples were travelling to Emmaus Christ joyns with them this blessed Physician came to comfort to satisfie and to inform them they were poor distracted timorous persons and these he visits Christ will not leave them in a maze and intricated with inexplicable apprehensions but he will bring them home to the knowledge of the truth and this is Christs
men defile not enjoy an Ordinance John 17. 21. They are spots not guests in that holy Feast It is onely the spiritual man is fit for converse with God Princes converse not with Beggars nor God with sinners Christ in his incarnation tabernacled with the Sons of men John 1. 14. But in his communion he converses with the Sons of God he gives his people the meeting Mat. 18. 20. The Sun shines upon the stars and they reflect its light with a glittering rebound Christ when he arose again gave not the meeting to the world but to his Disciples Luke 24. 36. And so in his blessed fellowship he visits not the formalist but the Saint Christ in his ordinances influences his living Eph. 1. 22 2â— members not glass eyes the speculative Atheist not painted faces the varnished hypocrite not ' wooden legs with the silken stocking upon them the spruce and self-deceiving moralist who with Agag are ready to depose the bitterness 1 Sam. 15 32. of death is over We must be on the Lords day in grace actual On the Sabbath the soul is to be set on work in acting several graces and some seem to be of a different nature As faith and fear heavenliness of mind and humbleness of heart repentings for sin and relyings on God tremblings of the soul and restings on Christ a real longing for promised mercies and yet a quiet staying for those mercies promise by hope expecting good things to come and yet by faith possessing those things at present This embroydery of grace must be on the heart of Lam. 3. 26 a Saint upon the Sabbath One of the Ancients compares Greg. Mor. l. 19. sect 30. holy men upon Earth unto those holy Angels of Heaven Rev. 4. 8. that are said to be full of eyes within and without In the week the Saints must use their eyes without Psal 77. 6. looking after their necessary callings and their occasions in Hos 6. 3. the world but upon the Sabbath they more solemnly set Ex cognitione dei omnia utriusque tabulae officia tanquam ex fonte promanant et eatenus placent quatenus illam praelucentem habent Riv. on work their eyes within looking inward upon the estate of their souls knowledge must open its eyes and repentance must drop its tears every grace must be in ure and exercise Indeed the Sabbath is the proper season for the acting of our several graces working as Bees in a Hive making honey of every ordinance Sorrow and confession must begin faith and prayer must carry on and holy thanksgiving must conclude the duties of a Sabbath Our hearing the Word must be introduced by holy appetite and desire we must long to be in the Courts of God It must be entertained Psal 84. 2. Luke 8. 1. Heb. 4. 2. Mat. 13. 19. by faith and affection it must be improved by zeal and an holy conversation our lives must be comments on Gods sacred truths and so all other ordinances of the Sabbath must be the sphears for our graces to move in as stars in their Phil. 1. 27. Orbs and this is to be in the spirit on the Lords day Let us study to be in the comforts of the spirit upon the Lords day The joyes of the Holy Ghost are the musick of heaven below the hearts rapture paradise in the bosome the sweet earnest of future blessedness they are the ecchoes of assurance and the reverberations of a good God and a good Conscience Spiritual comforts hath many springs but all most pleasing and complacential They are the comforts of God 2 Cor. 1. 3. who is a fountain above us The Father of mercies leaves a seed of joy in the soul They are the comforts of the Holy Ghost Acts 9. 31. who is a blessed spring within us John 7. 37. shedding those grateful streams of peace and joy which drench the soul with unspeakable delight They are the comforts of the Scriptures Rom. 15. 4. which are as sweet Gardens without us every promise being Consolatio omnis nititur promissionibus gratuitâ— Dav. as a sweet rose every truth being as a flower of the Sun and every threatning being as wholesome worm-wood in this salvifical garden They are the comforts of the Saints Col. 4. 11. which are as lights about us for our more comfortable passages to Sancti nos solantur invisendo condolendo necessitatibus nostris administrando et miserrimas nostras conditiones sublevando Dav. our rest and happiness Communion of Saints being not only an article of our Creed but an helper of our joy in our travels to Canaan But to return to the comforts of the spirit Gods people may find soul-refreshing comforts in Christ the Lord upon his own day and the measure of their comforts may mount their souls so high as to make them like Moses upon Mount Pisgah viewing Canaan the heavenly Canaan flowing with that which is better then milk and honey the soul of a sincere Isa 51. 12. 2 Cor. 1. 4. Luke 2. 29. Isa 56. 7. Christian may swim in a sea of sweet delight he whose heart hath been as a boat which could not be got up all the week because of low water yet may be brought up in an high spring tide of spiritual comfort upon the Lords day being ready to say with Old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke 2. 29. the soul may be so Psal 94. 19. Isa 57. 18. filled with joy upon Gods holy day in his house of prayer that he may be ambitious of his eternal Requiem in the bosome of Christ Nay upon the Lords day a believer being in the spirit the worst evils may amplifie his best comforts to think of sin remitted hell removed death vanquished devil Gen. 42. 38. conquered all these make for him that he may go down with Jud. 14. 14. joy and triumph to the grave Out of every eater comes meat the upper and the neither springs run all into the Josh 15. 19. same stream of comfort to the Saints Every thing on a Sabbath is an occasion of spiritual joy to them If they look up Isa 29. 19. to God they will joy in the Lord Rom. 5. 11. If they consider Isa 35. 2. the season of a Sabbath that is the time nay the term Isa 52. 9. time for the soul which is matter of joy nay as the joy of harvest Isa 9. 3. If they glance at the word they receive the word with joy Luke 8. 13. If they act their graces this is with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. It was a brave speech of a Martyr to his cruel tormentors Work your will upon my weak body as for my soul it is in heaven already and over that Caesar hath no power So it may be the case of a Christian upon a Sabbath he may be as in heaven beginning his triumphal hallelujahs It is no
pandorize the Sabbath to our lusts and vanities what is it but to make God serve with our sins Or as our Saviour phraseth it To turn the house of prayer into a den of thieves Mat. 21. 13. Is it fit for the witch of Endor to put the Devil into Samuels mantle 1 Sam. 28. 12. And for wicked Ahaz to put the Idols Altar into Gods temple 2 Kings 16. 14 15. Indeed the same wickedness they act who make the Lords day vile and cheap by sinfull abominations which should be honourable Isa 58. 13. in holy worship and service and those adorations which become the Lord of the Mark 2. 28. Sabbath To vitiate the Sabbath by visible prophaneness opens a way to all licentiousness and will be bitterness in the latter end Sabbath-breaking is usually the preface to other sins The 2 Sam. 2. 26. breaking of the two tables commonly begins at the fourth Commandment we first make bold with Gods day and then with Gods name and so break the third Commandment and then we can trinkle in his worship and so violate the second and by degrees we can slide into thefts adulteries Deut. 5. 21. and murders and so dash all the Commandments in Isa 28. 8. pieces he will easily covet his neighbours Wife for wantonness Claudius Tiberius Nero vocatus fuit Claudius Biberius Mero propter ebrietatem intemperantiam Sueton. who will sacrilegiously arrest Gods holy day for his excess and drunkenness It is the observation of an ingenuous person That he hath heard many malefactors at their execution bitterly bewail their prophanation of the Lords day and humbly acknowledge that sin was the leading cause of all ensuing mischiefs and miseries At the Gallows their Conscience hath pointed at the very sin which had been the chief actor in their wofull tragedy When Satan hath prevailed with us to violate Gods holy day he hath got his head in and he will easily draw in his whole body Prophanation Gulones nihil faciunt nisi ingerere digerere et egerere Bern. of the Sabbath is the gates of Hell the foundation upon which all other sins are erected Indeed the carefull observation of this day is a chain upon the soul and ties it up from sinfull vagaries it casts an awe upon the heart that it cannot presently startle but when the chain is filed off there is no end of licentious ranges as Cattle when they are got out of the pound they run into every ones field This sin of Sabbath-breaking it is like a Serpent whose sting is in its tail Indeed sanctified afflictions turn a Serpent into a rod but Sabbath-prophanation turns a rod into a Serpent and brings the most prosperous sinner into unexpected calamity It is observable of the people of Israel that sighs and groans Exod. 3. 7. brought them out of Egypt and Songs and Vanities on Gods day brought them into Babylon The Hebrew phrase Ezek. 23. 38. in Ezek. 20. 13. is very expressive the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chalal which is rendred to pollute and prophane viz. the Ezek. 20. 13. Sabbath signifies likewise to tripudiate and dance as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daughters of Shiloh did Judges 21. 21. where the same word is used to denote unto us one method of the Jews in prophaning the Sabbath viz. They passed it away jocularly Psal 87. 7. in sinful frolicks and immodest vanities and this was one of the chief sins they might sit down by the waters of Babylon Psal 137. 1. Cyril and weep over It is undeniable that the prostituting of the Sabbath by prophane practices both hath and will ruine Gaudâ—ntius c. Judaei non deo sed sibi die Sabbati ociantur Muscul Nations Families Persons and dig the grave to bury all comforts in It was generally complained of by holy and devout men in the primitive times that the Jews neglecting spiritual duties which God commanded abused the Sabbath The Jews which were killed at Hierusalem by the command of Florus were 630. By the Inhabitants of Caesarea were 20000. at Scithopolis 30000. at Ptolemais 2000. at Alexandria 50000. at Joppa 8400. at Askelon 1000. at Aâ—haca 15000. at Garizâ—m 11600. at Jotopata 30000. at Gamala 9000. at the siâ—ge of Hierusalem 1100000 c. 1 Cor. 10. 11. to case and luxury and wasted that holy day in gluttony and idleness and idle delicacies and this accusation in the first times of the Gospel became proverbial so that to keep the Sabbath loosly was to keep it after the manner of the fews And what judgments God brought upon them in those dayes how he did scatter them unchurch them unpeople them and leave them to be a vagabond Generation to all successive ages who knows not is a great stranger to Antiquity It would fill a Volume to relate the several slaughters of them and their exiles from Nations France Spain England and other places so that even at this day their mask is their best security and their veil is their only safety The Quotations in the margin give in some evidence of the infinite slaughters which were made of them they were a prey even to all Nations as if they were only fit to glut the Sword of an enraged enemy Let us therefore observe the Apostolicall advice and take these perishing Jews for an ensample of Gods heavy displeasure against debauched practices on Gods holy day To serve our lusts upon a Sabbath is to throw off Jehovah and to serve other Gods The person who is intemperate on a Sabbath doth he not serve Bacchus The effeminate person doth he not serve the Goddesse Venus And Phil. 3. 19. the luxurious person he makes his belly his god He that In nostris ecclesiis diebus dominicis carnis voluptatibus profusissime absque ullâ dissimulatione servitur quemadmodum Judaei qui die Sabbati ociantur et libidinantur acta verò et studia carnis Baccho et Veneri luxui et sastui omninò deputanâ—ur Muscul prates away a Sabbath doth his devotion to Mercurius he that plays at Cudgels and wrestles in a seeming valour acts his service to Mars he that sports away the Sabbath in Courtships and caresses offers his sacrifice to Jupiter that wanton God whose effeminacies are the best part of the Legend we have repored by Pagan Historians Strict and holy communion only becomes a holy God on a holy day Musculus very piously and gravely cryes out Let us throw off all cloaks of dissimulation and if we spend our Sabbaths in the pleasures of the flesh let us never say we keep a day to the Lord Jesus but let us say we will worship Bacchus and Venus or some Idol God who is the Patron of such wickedness And indeed a Tavern or Alehouse on the Lords day is a fit temple for Bacchus a Stews or Whore-house is a fit Sanctuary for Priapus a Table full of vain chat is a fit
the bread of life when we attend upon the preaching of the word and generally as our Estate is better than the condition of the Jews in respect to the whole worship of God so likewise more especially in our worship upon the Sabbath our priviledges are more and our burdens are less than theirs our worship is more spiritual more easie more sublime and heavenly and more above the Alphabet and rudiments of their Religion Their lisping Sacrifices proclaimed their minority but ours speak more plainly the Dialect of Heaven Nay which is very considerable in those things wherein we are equally bound with them we much exceed them are we bound to meditate in the law of God day and night yet Psal 1. 2. we are not commanded to carry it about in the skirts of our Numb 15. 38. garments and upon our bracelets Deut. 6. 8 9. And though Rom. 32. it is our duty as well as theirs to teach our Children the Oracles of God Deut. 6. 7. yet we are not charged with Scripturae sacrae in iisque promissiones et Pacta Divina et suturorum mysteriorum prae dictiones haec fuerunt eloquia dei Judaeis concredita Alap the writing of them upon our gates and the posts of our doors Deut. 6. 9. And so in our Sabbaths we are free from the servilities and rudiments with which the Jews were chained as a signe and token of their bondage and servitude Though we are charged to rest upon the Lords day and so keep it holy yet we are not over-charged with Sacrifices and Ceremonies they are all laid asleep in Christs Grave and we are freed from these Fetters and so enjoy a more glorious liberty The inference of the whole will be this Hath God filed off all Chains of servility plained off all knots of difficulty hath he put an end to all legal Sacrifices and chased away all shadows of Ceremony that nothing might encumber our Christian Sabbath How exact then should we be in the observation of it Divine indulgence as it is properly a curb to sin so it is a forcible spur to duty the Lord hath abundantly sweetned therefore let us more carefully sanctifie our blessed Sabbath he hath freed it from the Jewish thraldom let us therefore keep it with Christian freedom the Sabbath of the Jews like the Infant Moses floated among the Reeds but ours hath its Nest among the Stars Obad. 4. Let its sublimeness and spirituality engage us more strongly to a due and holy solemnity nothing can more soften unto obedience than love and indulgence which is written in the fairest character upon the Christian Sabbath It is a most natural Induction that we being loosed and unfettered should run with more swiftness the way of the fourth Commandement now spiritualized to us by Jesus Christ Our Sabbath triumphs in a more glorious occasion then that Gen. 2. 3. of the Jews doth That which occasioned the Old Sabbath was the finishing of the work of creation but that which Mat. 28. 1. occasioned ours was the accomplishment of the work of redemption which glorious work far surpasses the other as the Temple exceeded the Tabernacle The work of Redemption is more precious As mans gaining the world cannot recompence the loss of the soul so Gods making the world doth not equalize Christs redeeming the Mat. 16 26. Inutile est mundi lucrum cum perditione animae conjunctium perditio enim animae est irreparabile damnum Chemnit soul Christs recavering must needs exceed Gods creating a world to draw men out of an enthrall'd bondage is more then to bring man out of a confused Chaos In the Creation God was to deal with no Enemy but in the work of Redemption Christ was put to combat with all the Devils in Hell and to over-power men opposing their own mercies The work of Redemption is more pressing It made the soul of Christ heavy unto death Mat. 26. 38. In this work Christ did not only fight with the Devils but God Himself seemed to combat with Christ and to put him to grief Isa 53. 10. The worlds creation was finished without difficulty but the Redemption of mankind was a work knotted with much pain and grievance The world was created with the speaking of a word it was only Let it be done and this was all the Sun the Stars and all other Creatures they sprang from the Energy and power of a Command from the force of an omnipraevalent fiat but the work of Redemption was not wrought but by the expence of Christs dearest blood The work of Redemption is more profitable Indeed to have Earth to tread on Air to breath in Meat to feed on Christus vicit triumphavit non virtute et sudore aliorum â—t mumdani Imperatores solent sed suâ solâ passione suâ solius virtute Daven Light to walk by these are benefits and good natural supports but the subduing of Satan the removing of the sting of sin with all the astonishing and sad sequels of it the pacifying and quenching of the flames of Gods anger the reparation of mans nature these are transcendent benefits and bid defiance to an hyperhole The work of Redemption yields a far greater crop and harvest of joy peace and happiness We may be Gods creatures and yet fall upon the spikes of eternal ruine But Christs Redeemed ones shall come with singing to Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and they Quomodo illum diem qui a domino dicatus est nosque ab exilii dedecore liberavit venerari par est Isych shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away Isa 51. 11. Isa 65. 17. The work of Redemption is the fullest treasury of mans happiness And as it was long ago prophesied Hag. 2. 9. That the glory of the second Temple should out-shine that of the first So the glory of the Redemption out-shines the glory of the Creation Indeed the work of Creation is a lesser good to us as the Law is a lesser good then the Gospel and the Old Testament then the New Redemption must be owned as the greater work inasmuch as things spiritual are more valuable then things natural and Gods last works are his best the first being only preparatory to the last and indeed he who shall question whether Redemption be a greater work then Creation knows little what a Redeemer is or what the ransom of an immortal soul is worth Psal 49. 8. In creating the world God did much for me he gave me a body admirably and curiously wrought Psal 139. 15 16. He likewise endowed me with a rational soul and endowed this soul with rare and excellent faculties but all these had been only capacities of misery and receptives of wrath and ruine had not the work of Redemption interposed And therefore Christ in shedding Eph. 1. 7. his blood in conquering death in satisfying for sin hath done more for me
and laid the foundation of a better world then this created universe this beautiful artifice of Divine Power Again in the Creation there was nothing to withstand but in the work of Redemption there was Justice against Mercy Wrath against Pity In the Creation God brought something 2 Cor. 5. 21. out of nothing but in the work of Redemption God Gal. 3. 13. brought one contrary out of another Good out of Evil Life out of Death an immortal Crown out of a shameful Cross Indeed the great discoveries of Wisdom Grace Power Justice Mercy were all seen in the glorious work of mans Redemption The Heavens are the work of Gods fingers Psal 8. 3. But Redemption is the work of his Arm Isa 53. 1. Isa 52. 9 10. So that if it shall be demanded wherein doth the work of Redemption excell the work of Creation it may be answered as the Apostle in another case much every Rom. 3. 2. way Once more let us put these two works in the scale and we shall find the work of Redemption to weigh down the work of Creation as Gold of all metals is the weightiest In Eph. 2. 4. John 3. 16. 1 Joh. 4. 9 10. Gal. 4. 4. Phil. 2. 6 7. the creation Adam was Head but in the work of Redemption Christ was the Head by the creation we have a temporal life by the work of Redemption we obtain eternal life In the creation Adam was espoused to Eve but in the redemption the poor soul is espoused to Jesus Christ By creation Non solùm de me sed de omni quoque quod factum est Scriptum est dixit et facta sunt At verò qui me tantùm et semet fecit in restituendo et dixit multa mira gessit et pertulit dura nec tantùm dura sed etiam et indigna Bern. de diligendo deo man enjoyed an earthly Paradise but by redemption we enjoy an heavenly Kingdom In the creation Gods wisdom and power was principally seen but in the work of redemption All his glorious attributes were seen in their greatest splendour In the creation man was produced out of nothing but by the work of redemption he is produced out of worse then nothing a state of enmity and opposition Rom. 8. 7. Thus the glory of the work of redemption shines with a brighter ray and glitters with a stronger beam then the work of creation And shall not this most glorious work of which our Sabbath is the weekly memorial enforce us to a more devout observation Let us consider we equally enjoy the benefit of the creation with the Jews but they nothing at all of the benefit of the redemption with us They are Strangers to the Covenant of grace and the common-weal of the true Israel Eph. 2. 12. Let us then see the beauties of free-grace in the glass of our redemption and let this put new life into us to walk closely with God upon his own day when we are remiss in the duties let us reflect upon the occasion of the day and let us remember that the conquering of Death the chaining of Satan the subduing of Sin the quenching of Divine Wrath the perfuming of the Grave these several branches made up that blessed work which calls upon us for the keeping holy of the Lords day And again if the Jews have observed their Sabbath strictly Christ came not to licentiate us and to enlarge our carnal and sensual liberty Christs people are a willing but Psal 11â— â—â— 2 Tit. 14. not a wanton people The Son hath made us free and so we are free indeed as Christ himself speaks John 8. 36. But this freedom is from burdens not from duties a freedom it is to Debitâ 〈◊〉 â—â—minicae obseâ—vatione 〈◊〉 minuitur quicquam Christiana libertas Non enim est libertas sed licentia Christina ut nos liberaâ—i putemus ab observatione illius praecepti è Decalogo Et experientia docet licentiam et rerum sacrarum non curantiam magis magisque invalescere ubi diei domâ—nicae ratio non habetur run the wayes of Gods commandments Psal 119. 24. That can be no christian freedom to indulge our ease to flatter our sense to please the flesh to pursue our sports to gratifie our fancy with dalliance and delight upon Gods holy day this kind of liberty Christ never died to purchase Christian liberty is quite another thing it is a liberty from ceremonial yokes and legal impositions Gal. 5. 1 2 A liberty of access to God to cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. Gal. 4. 6. A freedom it is from sins vassalage from Satans slavery from the worlds drudgery and lusts dominion and tyranny Christ did not die to make us free to sin but free from sin Tit. 2. 14. It is a harsh and injurious interpretation of Christs coming to suppose he came to make the broad way broader then before that before Christ came the people of God were tied to a strict observation of the Sabbath but since we have a latitude and liberty for sports and delights for ease and recreation on that blessed day and that now we are not so pinnion'd and shackl'd as in the times of the law This must needs be some loose construction of a carnal Gospeller who Ames is become Antinomian in the fourth Commandment Christian freedom is a dilatation and enlargedness of bea rt in holy Isa 61. 1. services when the soul can freely vent it self without contractedness Luke 4. 18. and drawing their praying breath with difficulty Gal. 5. 1 13. Sensualliberty is a priviledge which better becomes the Disciples James 1. 25. of Bacchus or Epicurus and well suits with a feast of Priapus Ruffinus pleads hard in his prescriptions for Sabbath-observation That we do not spend it carnally and in delights this is to act the Jew not the Christian And Die Sabbati nihil exomnibus mundi octibus oportet operari si ergo desiâ—â—â— ab omnibus socularibus nihil mundanum geras sed spiritualibus operibus vaces lectionibus divinis tractatibus aurem praebeas ut non respicias ad praesentia visibilia sed ad invisibilia futura haec est observatio sabbati christiani Origen in a passionate heat cryes out Let us lay aside the Jewish mode of keeping Sabbaths and let us observe them as Christians discarding all worldly acts and secular employments let us be conversant in spiritual works in reading the Scriptures in hearing the word not eying things present and visible but looking forward to things to come and invisible and this is the observation of a Sabbath which will become a Christian The Fathers of the primitive times could not bear with any carnal liberty on the Lords day well knowing how contrary it was to the mind of Christ Nor can it be supposed that it was any part of Christs purchase to procure us a freedom to handle a Bowl or
habitations and goods God for the prophanations of his Sabbath draws a little nearer to Offendars and strikes their persons as shall be seen in a few instances One serving a Writ of Subpoena upon another coming from Church on the Lords day after some words of reproof for so doing and a light answer thereunto the person who served the Writ died in the place without speaking any more words O the fearful and just judgment of the Lord this prophane person himself was subpoenaed unexpectedly by a Writ he could not refuse to appear before Gods dreadful Tribunal A Grasiers Servant would needs drive his Cattle on the Lords day in the Morning from the Inne where he lay on the Saturday Night but he was not gone a stones cast from the Town but he fell down dead suddenly when he was in perfect health before Thus the Lords day is written in dominical letters in the blood of Transgressors who prophane it To add one dreadful example more One Richard Bourn Servant to Gaspar Birch of Ely was so accustomed to travel on the Lords day that he made no conscience of it sâ—ldom or never coming to the publick Congregation to hear Gods word on that day but went to St. Ives Market where he stayed and spent the day where being drunk he was overtaken by Divine Justice for coming home fraught with Commodities he fell into the River and was drowned And thus as his sinnes did meet to provoke the Lord viz. his Drunkenness and Sabbath-breaking so the stream did meet to destroy and overthrow him Sometimes God doth not presently cut off those who prophane his day but he puts a brand of infamy upon them to make them a shame and a terrour to themselves that they may be hissed off from the Stage of the World and with self-confounding and horrour may go down unexpectedly to their Graves this is verified by this story There was an Husbandman who went to plough on the Lords day and cleansing his Plow with an Iron the Iron stuck so fast in his hand for two years that he carried it about with him as a signal testimony of the Lords just displeasure against him and so he lived infamously in the world till he died and made his passage to another world the Iron in his hand only discovering the Adamant in his heart Sometimes God leaves those who prophane his holy day to the commission of prodigious evils and so he punisheth one fin with another which is the sorest punishment and the ultimate effect of Divine Vengeance for when God punisheth Isa 6. 10. sin with suffering then he chastiseth with Rods but when he punisheth sin with sin then he scourges with Scorpions as may be instanced in these succeeding stories In Helvetia near Belessina Three men were playing at Mr. Clarke his examples of Divine justice Dice on the Lords day and in their play one called Vtricke Schraetorus having hopes of a good Cast having lost much money before he now expected fortune or rather the Devil to succour him and therefore he breaks out into this horrid blasphemy If Fortune deceive me now I will thrust my Dagger into the body of God as far as I can And so with a powerful force he throws it up towards Heaven which Dagger was never seen more and immediately five drops of blood fall before them all upon the Table and as suddenly came the Devil among them and carries away this vile wretch with such a terrible and hideous noise as the whole City was astonished at it Those who remained endeavoured to wipe off the blood but to little purpose for the more they rubbed the more perspicuous and visible the blood was Report carries it over the City multitudes flockt to see this wonder who find those who had thus prophaned the Sabbath rubbing the blood to get it out These two men who were Companions to him who was carried away by the Devil were by the Decree of the Senate bound in Chains and as they were leading to prison one of them was suddenly struck dead and from his whole body a wonderful number of worms and vermine was seen to crawl The City thus terrified with Gods judgments and to the intent that God might be glorified and a future vengeance averted from the place they caused the third Offendor one of the gaming Companious to be forthwith put to death And they caused the Table with the drops of blood upon it to be preserved as a Monument of Gods wrath against this sin thus this blasted Rom. 11. 33. Table like Lots wife was a standing warning-piece to cause all to take heed of Sabbath-breaking and ingratitude Luke 17. 32. At Simsbury in Dorsetshire One rejoycing at the erecting of a Summer-Pole on a Lords day He said he would go see it though he went through a quick-set hedge Going with wood in his arms to cast into the Bonefire prophanely uttered these words Heaven and earth are full of thy glory O Lord he was immediately overtaken by the stroke of God and in two or three hours died and his wife also And thus as God once punished Pharaoh with hail mixed with fire so he Exod. 9. 24. hath punished the prophanation of his day with sin and judgment joyntly with leaving the Offendor to vile sins overtaking the Offendor with sore smarts that his burdens Exod. 5. 7. like those of the Israelites in Egypt might be doubled Sometimes God punisheth the prophanation of his Sabbath with executing vengeance on great numbers God hath not decimated such sinners but destroyed them in the lump as may be verified in these ensuing stories Fourteen youths adventuring to play at Foot-ball on the River Trent upon the Lords day when it was as they Mr. Bernard on the Sabbath Mr. London in Gods Judgments on Sabbath-breakers Jan. 13. 1583. thought very hard frozen meeting at last together in a shove the Ice brake and they were all drowned At the Bear-Garden in Southwark on a Sabbath-day in the Afternoon many persons pressing on the Scaffold to see the sport forced it suddenly down with which fall eight were killed and many spoiled in their bodies who died soon after Nullus die solis spectaculum praebeat nec divinam venerationem consecta solennitate consundat Valent. Grat. And by the way let me observe This seeing of Shews upon the Lords day was complained of above 1200 years ago and Edicts set out against it by the Emperors Valentinian and Gratian the early zeal of the Primitive Christians took notice of this detestable and prodigious practice God sometimes takes away Sabbath-breakers immediately by his own hand as may be seen in these instances A Fellow near Brinkley in Essex usually coming home late from his sports on the Lords day his good Mistris reproving him for it one Sabbath he goes to a Chalk-pit to work with another man and tells him he used to vex his Mistris for his sports on the Sabbath but now
he would vex her worse with his work which words were no sooner spoken but Justice seizes upon him for the earth fell upon him and he stirred no more but presently died Thus the Numb 16. 32 33. Lord by his own hand cut off this Miscreant wretch and threw him into Corah Dathan and Abirams Grave Let me add another dreadful example One Sabbath-day in the Afternoon a Match at Foot-ball Doctor Twisse on the Sabbath was made in Bedfordshire as two of the company were tolling the Bell to call the rest together some that sate in the Church-porch heard a terrible noise as a clap of Thunder and they saw a flash of Lightning coming through an obscure Lane which flashed in their faces to their terrour and amazement and the Lightning passing on to those who were tolling it trips up the heels of the one and leaves him stark dead and so blasted the other that he died within a few days Thus the swift Messengers of Divine wrath overtook those incautelous sinners and blasted them in the middest of their presumptuous impieties Lightning from heaven testifies against the deeds and facts of Hell At Dover the same day the Book of sports was read in St. James Parish one prophanely went to play upon a Kit which drew a multitude of people especially of the younger sort together But oh the terrour of the Lord this prophane person was struck by a divine hand and in two days died Thus daring sinners by an unexpected doom are folded up in their dust to awaken others that they may not adventure upon the same impieties A Vintner who was a great swearer and drunkard as he Mr. Clarke his examples of divine justice was standing at his door upon the Lords day with a pot of wine in his hand to invite his guests was by the wonderful justice and power of God carryed into the Air with a whirlwinde and never seen or heard of more How soon can the word of God make the creature and how suddenly can the winde of God destroy the sinner Let us read and tremble Sometimes God revenges the prophanation of his day mediately by the hand of others as may be verified in this ensuing story Not far from Dorcester lived one widow Jones whose Son Richard upon the Lords day notwithstanding all the perswasions and admonitions of his good Mother did with his companions go to Stoake to play where after he had done and drank freely with his company they return home and by the way fall out whereupon John Edwards one of the company stabbed this Richard Jones under the left rib whereof at seven of the clock the next night he died Thus every thing becomes a sword even a companion to destroy a presumptuous Sabbath-breaker One disposed to sin and debauchery would needs keep an Ale in the Church-house on the Lords day But O the severity and formidable justice of God! At night his youngest Son was taken Prisoner for stealing of a purse out of anothers pocket while he lay drunk in the said Church-house and the week ensuing his eldest Son was stabbed to death Thus Sabbath-prophanation blasts families as well as persons and plucks down the house upon the sinners head Sometimes God leaves the sinner who prophanes his day to destroy himself When God in patience suspends the execution of his own hand and in pity restrains others that they shall not destroy the Sabbath-breaker then he himself becomes his own murderer And when he is not with Aarons Sons destroyed by God himself Levit. 10. 2. Nor is he with Senacherib slain by others Isa 37. 37 38. Then with Saul in rage and despair he falls upon his own sword 1 Sam. 31. 4. One Richard Clark was drunk in company with one Henry Parram on the Lords day to whom he said he would either hang or drown himself desirous to know which was best but Parram replyed he hoped he would do neither May 31. 1634. But oh the judgment of the Lord especially upon those who prophane his day For on Monday morning he was seen going through the Town as if he was going about his masters business and having got up into the midst of a tree without the town He did there hang himself Thus Achitophels doom was this mans death and as disappointment sent the one so Guilt Sabbath guilt sent the other to his place God for the prophaning of his holy day takes away sinners in the very act of their sin as may be observed in these ensuing stories Some boys of St. Albans going into Verulams pond to swim upon the Lords day one of them was drowned and another very narrowly escaped Two young men of St. Dunstans in the West London going Septemb. 1635. to swim on the Lords day were both drowned Thus neither the tenderness of youth nor the sutableness of the recreation can apologize for the great sin of Sabbath-breaking God will be sanctified by or upon all Christians for Levit. 10. 3. their carriage or miscarriage upon his sacred Sabbath God executeth vengeance upon the very Heathens for the abuse of his day Natures light might induce us to keep a solemn day for the worship of God and if that light be damped by prophaneness God observes and will revenge that sin It is recorded of Pompey the great Roman that he shrunk under the depression of Gods sore displeasure for prophaning Gods Sabbath and Sanctuary And this story is related by an Corn. Tacit. Heathen too Among the very Heathens there is a Veneration observable in Gods holy Sabbath God executes his vengeance upon the greatest persons for the prophanation of his day The Centuriatours of Magdeburg tell us of one of the Kings of Denmark who when he contrary to the admonition of the Priests who desired him to defer it would needs on a Lords day go to battel with his enemy he was slain in the Centur. Magdeburg Histor Cent. 12. fight Thus justice and revenge in its triumphs over this sin can reach the Scepter as well as the spade Nicanor a great Commander of Syria engaging against the Jews in battel upon the Sabbath supposing that was a time in which they would not fight and so it would facilitate his victory he falls and dies in the battel and his head Macchab. 2. 28 30. was cut off and his hand and his shoulder and they are brought with joy to Hierusalem 2 Macchab. 15. 2 28 30. Valour cannot withstand Gods stroke when his Sabbath is contemned and defied by presumptuous sinners nor can the blindness of paganism extenuate or apologize for the sin God punisheth the prophanation of his day with prodigious and monstrous births that his vengeance may be written in a fairer and more legible Character as may be seen in this story A great man using every Lords day to hunt in Sermon time had a child by his wife with a head like a dog and it Theatr. Histor cryed like a hound
French Dutch Portuguezes nay Turks and others from the most remote parts of the Universe here was the general Convention of Europe in their trafficking representatives As London was the glory of England so the Exchange was the glory of London Here were Factors for the Worlds commerce here was the conflux of Trade and Merchandise and it was full Sea every Noon But this magnificent structure is fallen into rubbish and it is much to be suspected that it was over-laden with pride and fantasticalness in the upper part of it with craft and covetousness in the middle part of it with fraud and deceitfulness in the lower part of it and therefore the Ensurance Office which was in it could not ensure it from devouring Constabat structura templi ex lapidibus candidis firâ—iâ—â—â—miâ— mâ—gnitudine 25 câ—bitoruâ—â— et 8 in alâ—â—â— â— 12 in latituâ—â—â—â—m Josâ—phus flames And how did this flourishing Structure vanish on a sudden as if it had been only a bright apparition 2. Another Ornament of the City not to mention those which are inferiour and so innumerable was the Guild-hall and this Structure fell in the common ruine this noble pile of building so ancient so useful so majestick so unparallel'd was founded about 360 years ago as some compute it and how was it laid waste in one day This magnificent Hall was a place of Judicature the honourable Nunâ— sâ—gâ—s est ubi Trest suit Virg. reception of the Magistrates of the City and no less than nine Courts sate in it in their seasons no Building did make London look more like it self viz. The Metropolis of three Nations then this stately None-such It was our English Capital and that it could not be preserved spake our provocation high and Gods indignation hot But our Londons Exchequer is wholly impoverished of its beauty and it is buried in its ruinous and silent ashes This dreadful fire seized upon the conveniencies of the City The Halls which belonged to the several Companies these were decent and convenient places for the several Societies to meet in here stocks were reserved for the poor of the same Companies and so seasonable and comfortable succours were carefully provided to supply the decays which were incident to each Society in their several members Many of these Halls were famous and eminent Structures not to be parallel'd in any Nation and here the several Societies Proprium est charitatis efficere ut in exâ—â—cendis offici is vâ—rtutum quatum cunque voluntarie promtè et delâ—ctabiliter operemur Aquin. met to preserve Love and Amity among themselves but this destructive fire levell'd these beauteous Buildings into rubbish and ashes and so the Lord in this Judgment did not onely blast the beauty and ecclipse the glory but melt the cement and solder of London and so untwist our societies by destroying the places of their Convention Now our Companies are scattered and know not the places of their Courts or Festivals 3. A rare conveniency of this City was the famous Sion Colledge the eminent receptacle of Divines where the Students Charitas est vinculum quod constringit conjungit â—es et personas diversas inter se Daven had their Chambers the Scholars had their Books and the poor had their bread This stately Edifice containing within the circuit of it several Alms-houses for the poor of both Sexes the priviledge of a richly fraught Library was in a few hours buried in its ruines Indeed this was a place of such Renown that many were pleased to call London the third Vniversity of England Here the Muses and the Graces dwelt together and here Doctor White the Two eminent Divines worthy Founder of and Mr. Simpson a bountiful Benefactor to this lovely Edifice left their renowned Names to be venerated to Posterity But this inexorable fire had no pity upon the cries of the indigent Alms-folks nor any respect to the pleasing retirements of the industrious Student Nor would it spare that rich Cabinet of Learning the beautiful Library nay the Chains by which the Books were fettered to the places could not keep the multitudes of them from running into ashes but learned and so precious leaves were blown down to destruction Nay this devouring fire attached the necessaries of the City 1. The several Prisons which bound Malefactors to their good behaviour and pinioned them from rapine and violence Apud omnes gentes carceres horridi longam mortem praeferebant et apud Athenas Barathrum dicti fuerunt et usitatissimè ergastulum nuncupati sunt quia carcere vincti operari et pensum persolvere debebant Alap in Jer. This fire made the Saint weep and the Thief rejoyce expecting his Chains to be loosned and taken off not by the File but the flame These Cages of unclean Birds were opened not by the innocency of the Prisoner but by the indignation of the Almighty We had taken our range in sin and God seemed to say Let sin take its range God in this fire seemed to pierce Doves and leave Vultures to the prey Newgate that colder Hell was now opened and Bridewel that lenitive of the heat of lust was now broken up the Debtors in Ludgate now paid their Debts not by composition but by conflagration the death of London not of themselves paid their Debts And the two Counters where the Miscellany of vice used to meet gave up their dead in a fright from an approaching flame Nay the Sessions-house that solemn Seat of Justice and unbyassed Righteousness where sin and villany received their just and due sentence of condemnation was turned into ashes That God seemed to spit in the face of our very Justice as despising our Righteousness Our disobedience to himself making him neglect our severities to others That God made a Goal-delivery not in love but in wrath This prodigious fire seized upon the Sanctuaries of the City Those Reverend Structures wherein many fervent prayers Inter judaeos oppidatim synagogae erant in quibus Moses et Prophetae per singula sabbata perlegebantur Acts 15. 21. Quin ergo in Ecclesia omnia decentèr fieâ—i et secundum ordinem idcircò nec Christus hunc ordinem turbare voluit sed doctrinam suam proposuit in synagogis Chemnit have been offered up to God many religious assemblies have been convened for holy worship wherein many excellent and soul-converting Sermons have been preached and delivered these solemn places of the holy congregation are now turned into a ruinous heap so that now we may speak in the Psalmists language Psal 74. 8. This fire hath burnt up almost all the Synagogues of God in the City And surely whatever scorn many cast upon these places called Churches the usual retirements of the Saints on Gods blessed day to meet with their beloved these being folded up in ruine put an emphasis upon divine displeasure the faithfull Ministers of Christ never refusing those decent conveniencies to break the bread of life
Gospel So the Apostle most expresly 1 Cor. 15. 14. If Christ be not risen then is our preaching in vain and your saith is also vain Christs death had been wholly ineffectual for the remission of sins if Christ had not conquered death but still had been Peccatum plenè aboletur quia ejus effectus i. e. mors aboletur Chrysost detained in his dust But Christ hath abolished sin because he hath conquered death the effect of sin by his glorious resurrection as Chrysostom well notes and observes All the sufferings of Christ were animated by his resurrection that glorious Act put worth and value upon them Had he not risen all our hopes had been buried in the same Grave with him but he is truly risen and this is the comfort of our Souls and the riches of his sufferings Christs resurrection makes faith a saving grace and therefore the rather is put upon Christs rising not upon his death Rom. 8. 34. His Resurrection makes the Gospel a lively and glorious Gospel 2 Cor. 4. 4. Totum Evangelium esset vanum et mera fabula si Christus non resurrexisset Par. and Christ an all-sufficient Redeemer When Christ rose the Jews blasphemy was execrated Scripture-prophesies and types verified the hearts of believers revived and the Gospel was made a Doctrine full of grace and truth fit to be preached for life and salvation The Prophet Hosea tells us Hos 6. 2. After two dayes he will revive us and the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight which text Hos 6. 2. of Scripture Tertullian rightly accommodates to the Resurrection Quem locum Tertullianus lib. adv Judeos cap. 13. ad Christi resurrectionem rectè accomodat Ger. of Christ which was on the third day then did our life spring with his and the Sun rising caused our light The Resurrection of Christ is that pleasant spring which the Law foresaw the Gospel discovers and the Christian rejoyces in Had Christ been shut up in the Grave and there kept as Natures Prisoner all the truths of the Word had been as fading leaves and the believers faith an empty notion the Preachers pains unprofitable sweat and the sinners soul irrecoverably lost and the professors of Christianity truly of all men most miserable as 1 Cor. 15. 19. And that cursed Quantas divitias comparavit nobis ista fabula Christi Leo. 10. Pap. Rom. speech of Pope Leo the tenth viz. How much wealth hath this Fable of Christ brought to our Coffers might have escaped a reproof And now shall the Resurrection of Christ put life into the Gospel and none into us upon our Sabbath the commemoration of that glorious Act Shall every truth of the Gospel be confirmed by it and shall not we be established in our duties on this holy day Christ rose and our hopes sprang and budded with his rising and shall not this animate our services on the Lords day Either let us lay aside Faith in the Act or be more conscientious in keeping the day of Christs blessed Resurrection The Resurrection of Christ was not only the breaking of his own chains but the breaking out and harbinger of our joyes For Christ as a common person is become the first fruits of 1 Cor. 15. 20. them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. 20. which is an allusion to a rite and ceremony in the Law All the sheaves in a field being unholy in themselves there was some one sheaf in the name and room of all the rest which was called the first fruit lifted up and waved before the Lord and so all the sheaves abroad in the field by that act done to this one sheaf were Christus oppâ—nitur omnibus terroribus in die judicii quidem quadruplici ratione 1. Christi morte qua peccata expiavit 2. Resurrectione quâ jâ—stitiam peperit 3. Evectione ad dextrâ—m dei quâ sp sanctum effudit 4. â—ntercessione quâ meritum effiâ—acitèr applicat Quâ—tuâ—r â—isâ—e gradibus totum Redemptionis opus à Christo peractum est Par. consecrated unto God by vertue of that Law Lev. 23. 10. Rom. 11. 16. And thus when we were all dead Christ as the first fruits riseth and this in our name and stead and so we all rise with him and in him we are all vertually risen in him and this in as true a sence as if we were personally risen As on the contrary hand we being personally alive yet are reckoned dead in Adam because he was a common person and had the sentence of death pronounced upon him by vertue of which we must die and this by the force of the same law 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. Adam was the first fruits of them who died and Christ of them that rise Hence we are said to be risen with Christ Eph. 2. 5. and which is yet more to sit together with him in heaven Eph. 2. 6. Because Christ is a common person representing us and he sits there in our name and in our stead Now let us a little canvass the equity of this law If sentence of condemnation was first passed upon Adam alone yet considered as a common person for us we were condemned in him therefore also this acquitting and justification which was passed upon Christ at his Resurrection for then he had fully suffered whatever divine justice could demand for our sin was passed upon him as a common and publick person for us yea in this his being justified Christ must much rather be considered as a common person representing us then Adam was in his condemnation Vâ—va ego quamvis mortem feram resurgam et vos quoque vivetis i. e. quia videbitis me laetabimini et quasi oâ—cisi reviâ—isâ—eâ—â—â— in meâ manifestatione Theoph. For Christ in his own person had no sin so he had no need of justification from sin nor should ever have been condemned and therefore this must be only in respect to our sinnes imputed to him and if so then in our stead and so herein he was more purely to be considered as a common person for us then ever Adam was in his being condemned for Adam besides his standing as a common person for us was furthermore condemned in his own person but Christ being justified from sin could only be considered as standing for others Thus Christ rose as a common person in our stead and for our good to be the object of our faith the incentive of our hope and the forerunner of our glorious resurrection By Christs rising to life we receive A life of joy His springing from the grave was the blossoming of our joy The retirement of our beloved into his tomb was but transient the delay of three dayes and then In diem solis laetitiae indulgemus Tert. he came from behind the hangings and in this our joy is full This dried up Mary Magdalens tears and swallowed up the Disciples griefs and this inflames the Christians triumphs And
as Christ saith John 16. 22. I shall see you again and then your heart shall rejoyce And as Theophylact observes The Disciples as it were rose from the dead transported with joy A life of Righteousness For as Christ died for our sins so he arose for our justification Rom. 4. 25. It was the rising of Martis Christâ— proprius finis erat peccatorum expâ—â—â—â— sed resurrectiâ—nis justitiae imputatio Pâ—r. Ideò Christus promeretur nobis justitiam et vitam spiritualem quae consistit in remissione peccatorum et justitiae imputatione per quam coramdeo justi reputemur quia ex morte resurrexit Ger. Christ which made his death auâ—hentical and satisfactory Paraeus observes The proper end of Christs death was the expiation of our sins and the proper end of his resurrection was the imputation of his own righteousness The foundation of our comfort is laid in Christs death but we receive it in his resurrection Our peace and joy is sown in his death but we reap it and begin to possess it in his resurrection And though Christs rising adds nothing to the price which was paid in his death yet it is a demonstration of the sufficiency of it and thereby a confirmation of our comfort by it for if Christ had not rose again his death had done us no good and all our comfort had been a withered branch If death had overcome him wrath had overcome us Christ by rising hath promerited a righteousness for us Jer. 23. 6. our wedding garment came from this Wardrobe his breaking from the grave made our joys and his own merits full which are applicable to us by faith A life of Grace Christ by his resurrection hath purchased the donation of the spirit which he sent down extraordinarily Ex plenitudine Christi gratiam pro gratiâ accepimus non tantùm gratiam remissionis peccatorum sed 〈◊〉 vitam a ternam quae credentibus ex gratià datur Aug. presently after it upon his holy Apostles Acts 2. 2. and still in sweet and sutable measures upon his people John 1. 16. Now this True Vine John 15. 1. flourisheth in glory to which his resurrection was the first step he drops sap into his branches here below John 15. 4. Christ after his resurrection obtains the Holy Ghost for us and bestoweth it upon us and by this blessed spirit engraffeth us into himself regenerateth and quickneth us An evidence of this truth we have John 7. 39. The words of which Text run thus But this be spake of the spirit which they who believed on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not glorified This royal gift only waited the glory of his resurrection A Life of Glory The Resurrection of Christ opened the gates of Heaven to believers and from that first ascent he Christus coelum Ipsum ingrâ—ssâ—s est nâ—n tâ—m prose et sâ—â— gloriâ quam pro nobis nostra gloriâ Christus praecurrit ut nobâ—â— vâ—am sterâ—eret et pararet â—tque praecurrenâ—em brevi subsequâ—emur qui enim aâ—teri praeâ—urrit ut pertas aperiâ—â— et aperâ—â—â— servâ—tâ— parvâ— intervâ—llâ— qui sequitur intrâ—â—bâ—t Theoph. Nullâ— operatio in die dominico agatur nisi tantùm Hymnis et Psalmis et cantionibus spiritaâ—libus dies ill transignur Linw. went up to his Father to prepare a place for us John 14. 2. Had Christ been locked in the Grave we had been locked out of Glory but Christ rose to go to his Father and in this he is our fore-runner as the Apostle saith expresly He is entred into Heaven for us Heb. 6. 20. to take up our room and prepare our eternal Thrones Theophylact hath a pretty similitude When one goes before saith he and opens a gate it is but a little space but those who are to follow come and enter so the Saints shall not be long before they shall enter within the vail whither our fore-runner is gone before and this sublimates a Believers hope Our Suâ—ety hath taken our places for us and after a few breaths a few flying moments we shall come and take up our eternal abode and residence And what is the issue of all this Shall Christs resurrection be the fountain of our good and not the incentive of our duty Shall we rise with him and not live to him on his own holy day Had the Resurrection only concerned himself and been the Emblem of his own personal glory some Apology might have been made but when it is not an inclosure but a Common for the Saints to live upon how should this influence us upon the Lords day How should our hearts rise in holy affections how should our voice rise in praise and thanksgivings how should our thoughts rise in heavenly meditations A couchant earthly frame upon this day no way accords with this beneficial nay beatificall resurrection The Resurrection of Christ is the certain assurance of ours The Head is risen and the body must follow the Elder Eph 1. 21. 22. Hoc sperate memâ—ra quod in capite praecessâ—â— Aug. Brother is sprung out of the dust and the Younger Brethren shall not always lie there The Vine is now planted in Heaven and there the Branches must receive their eternal flourish Christ rose again not as the Jews prisoner under a Dies vitae nostrae est dies Parasceves succedit dies qutetis in sepulchro quem sequitur dies resurrectionis ad vitam Ger. sentence of condemnation but as the Christians Harbinger for their unspeakable consolation It is worthily observed of a learned man The day of our life is our Preparation day then follows our Rest in the grave to which succeeds our Resurrection day to life and eternity As Christ died to make the purchase so he rose again to see it made good to believers and his Resurrection is but the earnest of ours This glorious act of Christs rising gives us security for these ensuing particulars That Divine Justice is satisfied When the Prisoner for Debt is freed it is presumed the debt is discharged and the Quia Christus resurrexit ideò non amplius sumus sub peccatis quia praestita est plena pro iis satisfactio c. Ger. Creditor fully satisfied Christ in his Resurrection opened the prison doors of the grave and shewed himself to many witnesses free and discharged from all incumbrances which fully speaks that divine Justice is paid to the utmost farthing That God and Man are fully reconciled For sin only commenced the controversie and kept up the difference Isa 59. 2. Now sin being removed by a full acquittance and discharge â—am Christus mortuus est immò jam resurrexit ergo peccata nostra non amplius coram dei judicio nos condemnare possunt viz. By the delivery and Rising of our Surety the wound naturally closeth and all is peace between God and believers And so the Sun of Righteousness arose with
the Church But the Lords day was alwayes celebrated in the Church with joy and unanimity nor ever was the spring of controversie or contention This glorious day alwayes shone bright in the Church without the ecclipse of contempt or disuse And indeed our sweet and lovely Sabbath is a Jewel of inestimable worth a golden stream dissolving and running by us for us to make use of for our passage to a glorious eternity Man never forgets himself more then when he knows not his time and falls below the brute Creatures who understand their seasons Jer. 8. 7. How many observe not the time of Christs coming to meet his people upon his own Eccles 9. 12. blessed day David was wont to say One day in thy Courts is Psal 63. 2. better then a thousand Psal 84. 10. And the same judgement Psal 42. 4. must we pass upon the Lords day before we shall come to a Jer. 8. 7. due observation of it Sabbaths are kept as they are valued And as is our apprehension so is our observation We should look upon the Sabbath as one of the dayes of the Son of man a season put into our hands for life and salvation Luke 17. 22. Luke 19. 42 43. and this would steer our hearts to a Amos 8. 11. devout celebration of it Did we prize the Sabbath as our Rabbini docent Judaeos Sabbatum suum ideò venerasse ut illud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnium dierum good wind for our Port our seasonable gale for our coast our indulgent call to our Rest surely we should spend it with God for we know not how soon the things with the day and the day with the things may be past and gone It is observed of the Jews thy so much honoured their Sabbath that they Reginam appellarunt were wont to call the whole week by the name of Sabbath Luke 18. 12. And they were used to say the first second third or fourth day of or after the Sabbath and this they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did as learned men observe not only 1. To discriminate themselves in calling the dayes of the week otherwise then the Gentiles who called them by the names of their Idols But Mark 16. 2. 2. To demonstrate the dignity of the Sabbath day and Luke 18. 12. Hier. ad Hed. quaest 4. Theoph. in Luke 18. that above all dayes it was with them in greatest account And ought not Christians much more hold up an high and honourable esteem of the Gospel Sabbath which is a far more glorious day Most assuredly our practice will keep pace with our repute and if we look not upon the Sabbath as the Tremel in Syriac Para phras day of God we shall never keep it as the day of God And strange it is that the Sabbath should not be precious in our eyes when eternal life is but our great Sabbath our long Sabbath which hath no evening as Ambrose and Augustine Ambros in Psal 119. observe Nay Epiphanius tells us That Christ is but our more durable Sabbath and we rest in this Sabbath when we August de Civ dei repose our hearts and hopes in him Nay a good Conscience as Augustine saith is the bed of God the Palace of Christ the Epiphan lib. 1. Heres 30. Temple of the Holy Ghost the Paradise of Delights and the Sabbatum dei est illud quo ab opere exteriori cessare dicimur et sacramentum interioris Sabbati ubi mens sancta per bonam conscientiam à peccato quiescit Hugo Rev. 2. 10. standing Sabbath of the Saints Thus holy Augustine in his tenth Sermon to his Brethren in the wildernoss A good Conscience indeed is our continual Sabbath our constant feast and rest And therefore in keeping Gods Sabbath let us be faithfull unto death and he will give us a never ceasing Sabbath when we shall wear a Crown of life In the saddest and sorest times when Kingdomes are shaking and Cities sinking nay all Gods Ordinances seem to be taking their leave in a Land yea when all externals in the world are at the worst yet then there may be an internal Sabbath in the heart and an eternal Sabbath in the heavens for all those who are here consciencious in keeping the externall Sabbath viz. the Lords day with all holiness and accurateness of observation Aquinas well observes There is a Sabbath of Sabbatum est duplex Pectoris Temporis time every first day of the week and a Sabbath in the breast inward rest and quietation Now the one leads to the other Aquin. 1mâ— 2dae quaest 100. Artic. 5. when we are Critical in keeping the Sabbath of time we may be confident in the enjoyment of a Sabbath and Rest in our bosoms Piety on a Sabbath will assuredly end and conclude in a Paradise in the bosom and when we have rested with Christ on his day he will certainly sup with us at night and bring grace and peace with him Rev. 3. 20. Let us keep every day as a Sabbath A good week will fore-run Praescrip 4. a good Sabbath as the Sabbath should influence the whole week so the whole week should prepare for the Sabbath And indeed the whole term of our life should be a continued Sabbath in two respects In cessation from the service of sin Sin must always be our corrosive not only on the Lords day but on our day we have no vacation for evil sin is a spot on the week though a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. deeper on the Sabbath as Christ is always the Saints love so sin is always the Saints load How bitterly doth Paul complain of his inbred corruption Rom. 7. 17 18 21 23 24. And so Augustine condoles his condition by reason of sin Alas saith he Sin follows I fly and yet I fall I fight and yet I am captive I run from it and yet I am drawn to it I would rest and yet I cannot be quiet one day nay not an hour Now thus to rest from sin is an every Qui cessat ab operibus seâ—uli spiritualibus vacat iste est qui diem festum Sabbatorum agit neque onera portat in viâ onus est omne peccatum neque ignem accendit c. Et in loco suo sistit neque recedit ab eo Quis est locus animae Justitia est locus ejus veritas sapientia sanctificatio Etomnia c. Orig. days Sabbath there is no day but sin prophanes it sin is the blemish of the shop as well as the Sanctuary and is a brand upon the week as well as the Sabbath It is observable there was no death stigmatized with a Curse but the death of the Cross but on the contrary there is no day but is stigmatized with sin and iniquity Every day must be a Sabbath to us in abstinence from sin It is rarely observed of