darknesse might be over all the Land for some few years Those strange astonishing turnings which we have seen in our times whether they tend to the overturning of the holy times and things of God God knows Should we have our deserts and some their desires there would soone be seen a sad sinking of Sabbaths Should some succeed in their designs yet the Day of God might say as the Church of God Mieh 7.8 Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise c. Yea and 't is hopeful it would not be long after its falling before it is rising We are in the last times wherein God as he hath great works to do so great works he may permit men to do yet in all he will have quick dispatches Should the Gospel-Sabbath and the Gospell with the Sabbath be beaten down in England yet mangre the might and malice of all their enemies we have some grounds to hope it would not be long before the Lord lifts them up again The time for the conversion of the Ancient Jews and the subversion of the Antichristian Rome now draws nigh for the batteries of whose external part God will make use of Externall Powers And it appears by consulting Revel 17. that these Nations of Europe who have taken part with the beast and born her up shall beat her down The most Orthodox that I meet make England one of those ten hornes which shall hate the whore and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire Now sure it will be England beset with Sabbaths that shall send out and be assistant in this Service When Joshuas shall be forth abroad with their armies in the valleys many Moses's shall be at home in the mount especially on the Lords Day preaching and praying with hands lifted up unto the most High God then shall be the ruine of this Romish Amalek this day drawes near I think indeed it is impossible punctually to determine the time of Romes finall fall except we could be exact in the time of Antichrists first originalls but certain that time does apace approach Therefore should any party acted by the Spirit of Antichrist for a time interrupt the Lords Day and oppresse the precious priviledges thereof yet they shall not long prevail they shall prove but as Athanasius said of Julians power A cloud that will presently passe Indeed should Sabbaths fail and fall in respect of sinfull men as I have said before there would be grounds of great fear that it might be a long time before God returns them but in respect of good men there is and will be good grounds of hope God will shorten that sad time For the Elects sake those daies shall be shortened Matth. 24.22 Our Saviour there speaks of such a sad time as even upon Sabbath-days there might be such dangers that men instead of resting and serving God they should then be running to preserve themselves verse 20. Ai but such a time should not be long For the Elects sake God would cut it short Indeed as the least time of the Lord of the Sabbaths absence So the least time of the Sabbath of the Lords hinderance to gracious hearts will be grievous long Bernard upon that saying of our Saviour John 16. Yet a little while and ye shall see me and a little while and ye shall not see me A little while Lord says he A little while Thou canst not be gone the least while but it will be a long time So the Sabbath cannot cease the smallest season but the time to Gods Saints will seeme exceeding long and therefore that time which in it self and to others would indeed be long God for their sake makes it short 2. There is a possibility notwithstanding the projects of men and perils we are in to preserve with us the present liberties of the Lords Day But then let us observe Some things towards the Sabbath of the Lord And some things towards the Lord of the Sabbath Towards the Sabbath of the Lord let us labour To advance Sabbath-esteemes and To revive Sabbath-decays The Sabbath we ought all to consider in respect Of its worth And its work In its worth let us rise to higher opinions and In its work let us strive to quicker affections 1. Let our opinions rise higher in the worth of the day Indeed with the best Gods holy times are of too low esteemes but with the most Gods glorious Day is covered with great contempt buried in the minds of men under the Tombestone of deep forgetfulnesse or under heapes of base and unbeseeming thoughts Lamentations 4.2 The precious stones of Zion comparable to fine gold how sayes the Prophet are they esteemed as earthen Pitchers the work of the hands of the Potter So may I say the precious Sabbaths of God better then the finest gold how are they esteemed as ordinary week-dayes fit onely for the common work of mens labouring hands But let us estimate this above all other times and things Let God and his holy Sabbath have the highest roome in our hearts and the chief place in the prime of our thoughts The Jewes were wont to call the whole week by the name of the Sabbath and to say Chrysost in 1. Cor. 16. Hom. 43. Hieron ad Hedibi Quaest 4. Theophyl in Luc. 18. Lyra. in eundem Beza in 1. C. 16. 1. Tremel in Syriac Paraphras Matth. 28.1 c. the first second third c. Day of or after the Sabbath and so the Greek in some texts of the New Testament reads it as Luk. 18.12 Mark 16.2 c. This they did as learned Writers observe 1. For to discriminate themselves in calling the dayes of the week otherwise then the Gentils who called them by the names of their Idols 2. For to demonstrate the dignity of the Sabbath-day and that above all the dayes of the week it was with them of the greatest account they had that reverend esteem thereof as to denominate the whole week thereby And ought not Christians much rather to hold up an high and honourable esteem of the Gospell-Sabbath as a more glorious day 2. Let our affections become quicker in the work of the day O how of late hath the Lords day layen a dying through the dulnesse yea deadnesse of Christians in the duties thereof The way to revive the Sabbaths of God is to revive the service of God and the way to revive the service of God is to revive Gods Saints in the service And if that we would have such Sabbath-revivings Therein Let our visions of God be clearer And our approaches to God be closer 1. The clearer upon the Sabbath we can see God the better will our revivings be It is said Gen. 45. that when Jacob saw the waggons that Joseph his Son had sent his spirit within him revived Did his spirit revive when he saw the waggons his Son had sent O what were his revivings of spirit when he saw
their estate to be sinful And towards both there 's a necessity of Sabbaths 1. For such men as are sinfull and do not know it but are utterly in the darke Gen. 1. we find that at the beginning there was darknesse as a black vaile drawn over the face of the deepe but God upon the first day in the week created light which was exceeding good God upon the first day of the week our Christian Sabbath creates that good light which scatters darknesse that before covered the face of the soul and causeth such discoveries of things never before seen 1 Cor. 14.23 24 25. If the whole Church be come together viz. on the Lords day there comes in one ignorant and he hearing the Word is convinced is judged the secrets of his heart are made manifest and so falling down he worships God c. And indeed this is one great end of Sabbaths and Sermons Act. 26.18 2 Cor. 4.4 5 6. 2. For such men as know themselves sinful Sabbath-service is necessary that they may consider how sad it is to persist in known sins Luk. 12.47 Joh. 15.22 24. Jam. 4.17 For some our Saviour sayes Father forgive them they know not what they do but of several we may say Father affright them they know what they do They transgresse Gods Lawes abuse his mercies they oppose his Servants and they know what they do The former need Sabbaths to convince them of the evil they know not And these latter need Sabbaths to convert them from the evil they know Yea to all sorts of sinners there 's such a necessity of these dayes and duties as that there is little likelyhood of any saving good to the souls of such as lay aside the Lords day but they who come not within Sabbath-compasse their case becomes incurable Though a man be never so diseased and sick yet as long as he lyes at Physick keeps his purging dayes and uses good means for health there is hope he may do well but when he neglects his healing time lets his disease run will not come under the Physicians hands then his case growes desperate and dye he must Even so though a man be never so sinful yet as long as he keeps within Sabbath-compasse and comes under the means of soul-cure there is hope he may amend but if he neglects the Lords day leaves off holy duties damne he must 2. For men in a regenerate estate the Lords day is of necessary use Of whatsoever sort we consider them Of such Some are in sins relapsed and Others are in sorrowes distressed All need these Sabbath-helps 1. Relapsed Christians need Sabbath-relief Whether their spiritual decay be In opinion In affection Or practice The service of the Lords day is of necessary concernment to clear truth clouded to quicken love deaded and to introduce the duties of a holy life neglected 2. Distressed Christians need Sabbath-succours Sabbath-Cordials are required for the recovery of fainting spirits and the reviving of drooping dying hearts Again Gods Saints are to be considered either As more weak Or more strong And unto them all the Lords day is a day of deep concernment 1. For weak ones they need Sabbath-supplies Dayes wherein they may draw near and derive virtue from Christ into all their feeble parts Dayes wherein as babes from the breasts of the Lord they may suck in soul-nourishing milk of grace and mercy to breed them up 2. For strong ones they need Sabbath-supports that they may stand fast in their good estate and plight The highest and holiest of Gods Saints ought to be under Sabbath-observance 't is a reserve for heavens priviledge to be above Ordinances and present Administrations 'T is the City of the Heavenly Jerusalem that needs not the light of the Sun neither of the Moon Revel 21.22 While we live as we need the Moon viz. the world with its creatures and comforts for the bearing up of our bodies So we need the Sun viz. Christ with his holy times and things for the well-being of our souls Some say of the time that is spent upon the service of Christ as they said of the oyntment poured out upon the body of Christ What need this waste Matth. 26.8 But as St. Paul said A necessity is laid upon me and woe to me if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 So may every one say A necessity is laid upon me and woe to me if I sanctifie not the Sabbath The sanctifying of the Sabbath is as the One thing needfull to Christians in religion and unto the religion of Christians 'T is said of Jacob that his life was bound up in the life of his son Benjamin So the life of a Christian and the life of his religion is bound up in the life of Sabbaths As Rachel said Give me children or else I dye so a Christian sayes Give me Sabbaths or else I dye Religion sayes Give me Sabbaths or else I die The Sabbath is as the soul of Christian-Religion if that departs all becomes as a Carcase upon which the Vermin of corrupt opinions prey 't is necessary then this continue 2. Of losing the Lords day there is danger And here we shall discover The grounds of the losse and The greatnesse of the losse The grounds on which we may see the Sabbath in hazard to be lost and the Lords day in our dayes likely to cease are The sinfulnesse of men and The righteousnesse of God 1. Men being monstrously sinful put upon us this present peril of being deprived of the Lords day to wit Wicked men against us more remote and Wicked men amongst us more immediate 1. Men of the Romish Religion in remote Nations are they not bigg with a design to make our Sabbaths cease As some of the Powder-Traitors 1605. Confessed the cause why they sought to blow up the Parliament-house was because that was a place wherein against the Romish Religion so many Lawes were made And do not Popish parties in all places plot against the Sabbath day because that is the time wherein against their Idolatrous worships so many truths are taught And are not now their hopes high by our present Wars to deprive us of our precious times and things to raise Rome in the ruines of poor Protestant Nations Does not Antichrist crow ovet these Christian Kingdomes as once Tyrus over Jerusalem Aha aha she is broken that was the gates of the people she is turned unto me I shall be replenished now she is laid waste 2. Among our selves how many seek to set us beside our Sabbath-mercies As Both Papists And Atheists Papists Who secretly consult in our chief Cities to lay us Sabhath-waste Jesuits who can cunningly comr like Countrey-men and be seen like Souldiers Citizens Lawyers Preachers in any posture to promote their projects Atheists These like Pharaoh's-frogs are found covering the land and croaking against the Lords day in every Pond in every Parish Men that would have no God for a Sabbath would have no Sabbath for
his son who sent the waggons The Ordinances upon the Lords day they are the waggons that for us God hath sent it is some reviving to see them O but to see God whence these waggons are and whose the Ordinances be how reviving is that O sayes David to God that I may see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Psal 63.2 2. The closer upon the Sabbath we can draw to God the better will our revivings be We read 2 King 13.21 of a dead man that being let down into the Sepulchre of Elisha as soon as he touched the bones of the dead Prophet he presently revived Thus Christians whose hearts are dead yet coming close to God in the Sabbath have sudden soul-revivings and most comfortable quicknings And this is the way to recover the life of the Lords day and so to settle the liberties thereof which at least to some seem to be shaking Towards the Lord yet further that his day may endure let us Keep in the presence of the Lord Keep up prayer to the Lord. 1. The presence of the Lord kept in with us will hold holy Sabbaths amongst us Indeed let the Lord depart and then the dayes of grace and means of grace will immediately remove When Christ goes he calls Come with me my Sabbaths Ordinances and all my holy Institutions Time was Christ walked in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks Rev. 1.13 That is those seven once famous Churches of Asia had the presence of Chirst with them and the Ordinances of Christ among them the Lords day was a known day But now the Sabbath of the Gospel and the Gospel with the Sabbath is gone because Christ there was not kept O sayes Martha Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died If thou hadst been present my brother had not departed So may those Asian people now say to Christ Lord if thou hadst aboad with us thy holy Times and Things had never been stirred Matth. 28.20 Christ there hath promised his presence even in the use of Ordinances unto the end of the world The way to retain Christs presence Is to believe his promise No hands like faith to lay hold upon Christ Faith sayes Luther is like the beloved Disciple it leans in Christs bosom it will not leave him nor let him go Faith it produces A vigorous love and A vertuous life Unto a people both will bind Christ 2. Prayer to the Lord kept up by us will hold holy Sabbaths amongst us In the land were the Spirit of prayer up Sabbaths would never go down Indeed it will be a hard matter to make Sabbaths stand if still praying hands fall O pray pray pray And in prayer plead with God To send out more Sabbath-labourers and To blesse Labourers more in the Sabbath 1. Pray that more may be sent out who will be faithful in the labours of the Sabbath Matth. 9.37 38. The harvest is plenteous but the labourers are few pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth lavourers into his harvest Many places in this Land are as fields of ripe Corn and alas how do the Divels those fouls of the air Math. 13.4 and wicked men those swine of the earth Matth. 7.6 wholly waste and spoil all for want of Sabbath-labouring men to gather into Gods Barn In divers places upon the Lords day O what dark doings people being as a black Lanthorne without any Candle And shall not we pray that God would set up lights and send out labourers that his day may be duly observed and that we may pre his day 2. Pray that those who are sent out may be fruitful in their Sabbath-labour that they may see the travels of their souls and be satisfied That Gods good work may prosper in their hands and their peoples hearts That every Sabbath they spend and every Sermon they preach may prove as the bowe of Jonathan which from the Battel never returned empty There is a precious promise fit in prayer to be pressed Esay 54.10 11. As the rain comes down and the showers from heaven and returns not thither but watereth the earth making it bud and bring forth seed to the sower and bread to the eater So sayes God shall my Word be that goes out of my mouth it shall not return to me void O pray we that neither the Red or the Black horse be harnessed out to the Battel But that Christ on the white horse may conquer Rev. 6. Many souls in the Sabbath by the Gospel may be gained over to God This would perpetuate Sabbaths and make the Lords day lasting Last of all unto Gods Saints a Sabbath in some sense is sure never to cease Gods people Shall either have the Sabbath of the Lord Or to them the Lord will be a Sabbath Ezek. 11.16 Thus saith the Lord I will be to them as a little Sanctuary in the Countries where they shall come Gods people in Babylon when they could not go to worship God in the great and beautifull Temple at Jerusalem yet then God was as a little Temple to them And this little Temple was better then the great Thus the Saints of God when they cannot have the Sabbath that is present God will be to them a Sabbath more precious God is the best Sabbath 1 Sam. 1.8 Elkanah sayes to Hannah his Wife Am not I better to thee then ten sons One God better then ten Sabbaths and twenty Sermons to the souls of his Saints No Sabbath of God is like God a Sabbath no Sabbath-rest like to the rest that is in this Sabbath no comfort in a Sabbath like this Sabbath of comfort Yea let Gods sincere Saints live or die they have a Sabbath will last an everlasting Sabbath If they live their Sabbath will be ever with them and If they die they shall be ever with their Sabbath Ambros in Psal 119. August de cavit Dei lib. 22. cap. 30. Some of the Ancients were wont to call that eternal life God gives in heaven The great Sabbath And That long Sabbath-day that hath no night O but then God himself who in heaven gives life eternal what a Sabbath is he O the height and depth breadth and length of this Sabbath Christus est magnum sempiter-numque Sabbatum cujus parvum illud Judaicum exemplar in illo siquidem Sabbato requiescimus cum in illo solo spem ponimus cum hunc toto cordis amore diligimus c. Epiphan lib. 1. Haeres 30 Greg. Nyss de Resurre Orat. 1. Yea I find of the Ancients who affirme that to Gods dear Saints in the dayes of the Gospel there is a double enduring Sabbath viz. Christ And a good conscience Christ is the great and eternal Sabbath which in the Gospel God hath set up and in this Sabbath we rest when we repose our hearts and hopes upon him This is an unchangeable Sabbath Christ the same yesterday to
Gods Saints are best brought together both In Body And Mind Christians being thus gathered upon the Lords Day lie in the readiest way for these high workings of the Spirit Act. 2.1 2. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly c. Day of Pentecost This fiftieth day so the word imports it was the first day in the week Vid. Cypri de Spir. San 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the best affirm even our Lords Day They were all That is Basil de spi Sancto ca. 27. August de temp Ser. 251. all the eleven Apostles of Christ as is plainly expressed Act. 1.26 In one place In an upper Chamber at Jerusalem they were all Bodily gathered together With one accord Their minds were met as well as their bodies They were all in one house with one Heart waiting for the promises of the Lord. And suddenly there came That is with all speed the Spirit of God came down upon them so as never before for Manner and Measure The manner A sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind all about the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and sat upon each of them The measure And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake with other tongues August Ser. 2 ad fratr in eremo as the Spirit gave them utterance The Spirit spake in them and they spake in the Spirit the wonderfull works of God The Spirit was poured in upon them and they poured it out in the Spirit Gods work was wonderfull and thus being upon the Lords Day gathered they found such spiritual fierings and fillings That evil spirit oft assaults the souls of Gods Saints when they are solitary single and severed Matth 4.1 But the good Spirit of God descends upon the soules of his servants met in their solemn assemblies One well observes that the dry bones which the Prophet saw Ezek. 37. the Spirit of God did not enliven them while they lay scattered in the field but when the bones came together bone to his bone then the Spirit of life came into them and they stood up upon their feet vers 7 8 9. Thus Gods servants when together they are upon the Sabbath assembled then these kindlings and comfortable quickenings come Yea though their hearts and thoughts were all the week more scattered about in the world yet they are better gathered in to the Lord upon the Sabbath-day And the souls of Gods people put into such a Sabbath-posture are most prompt and best prepared for comfortable converse with God in the Spirit And in the Spirit on the Lords day some actually are that so they may the better For present receive the mysteries of Faith and For future perform the duties of obedience Faith That the apprehensions of this may hereby be enlarged and man unto the Dimensions hereof may hereby be better enabled By being in the Spirit a Christian is made more able to reach out unto the lengths breadths heights depths of faith and by believing to find out and fetch in the vast Mysteries of God in the Gospel Gospel-truths vailed are hereby clearly revealed and closely received Hence St. John came to receive such close and clear revelations from God which he could never have reached had he not on the Lords day been in the Spirit His whole Book that is so mysterious to others Jerom. epist ad Paulin. things therein were perspicuous to him To him therefore several of the Ancients so apply that Ambros lib. 3. de Spir. Sancto cap. 21. August de civit Dei lib. 20. cap. 17. Revel 22.1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life clear as Crystal proceedinding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb. Things to him issued from God all pure and clear This made John the Baptist a greater Prophet then Esay or any other before him things intricate to others were explicate to him Now the Apostle could not have been capable of such clear discoveries had he not been first in the Spirit upon the Lords day Upon the Lords day being in the Spirit a Christian rides in the Chariot of faith triumphant from earth yea possibly as out of Hell into Heaven where he sees those glorious mysteries of mercie that concerns his souls comfort yea and what may be of singular concernment for the souls of others Obedience That the several conditions of this may be the better fulfilled Both in service And suffering Gods servants by being in the Spirit are abundantly fitted Both for Affliction And Action Act. 20.22 23 24. And now sayes the Apostle behold I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there save that the holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying that bonds and afflictions abide me But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear to my self so that I may finish my course with joy and the Ministery which I have received of the Lord to testifie the Gospel of the Grace of God O what a fixed frame of heart had the holy Apostle to honour God both By doing And dying He was bound in the Spirit The Spirit that is compared to winde did now upon the Apostle blow with such a full gale that he went as a ship full saile unto the Port God had appointed The spirit of this good man did not hang loose but was girt up to go thorow with the work whatever came The Spirit hemm'd it about loosened him from all that might any way hinder but so gathered up his heart for God and the Gospel as to further him in his way and work One telling a Martyr that it was hard to burn It is indeed said he for him that hath his soul liâ—ked to his body as a Theefs foot in his fetters but for him that hath his soul set above his body it is easie to burn Kindle fire I come Saviour Another having put one foot into the flame steps back saying The flesh shrinks and sayes On earth it is better to burn The Spirit sayes In heaven it is sweet to shine The flesh sayes wilt thou shorten thy life The Spirit sayes It is nothing nothing to life eternal The flesh sayes Wilt thou leave thy friends The Spirit sayes Christ and his Saints society is better c. And so in the power of the Spirit he flings himself into the fiercest flames And the souls of Gods Saints may expect such Spiritual supports in the dayes of their suffering who serving God have been in the Spirit on the Lords day The truth of all which some have sensibly found 2. That others of Gods Saints possibly may find their souls thus in the Spirit on the Lords day This proved By the properties of the Lords Spirit towards them and By the properties of their spirits towards the Lord. As for the Spirit of the
1 Cor. 2.4 My preaching sayes the Apostle was not with enticing words of mans wisdome but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power When the poewr of the Spirit is so upon the Preacher as to put warmth into the heart words into the mouth and is to his soul as wind to the saile so that he is carried out in clear and close discoveries of the Counsel of God Act. 18.25 And Apollos being mighty in the Scripture and fervent in the Spirit he spake diligently the things of the Lord. Beza when he was a Preacher to the Protestant forces in France he was so mighty in his Miâ—istery that to some his Sermons were more encouraging and quickening then the sound of Drums and Trumphts though others Popishly disposed were offended and said his Doctrine was made up of nothing bur fire and brimstone all combustible and terrihle To preach in the power of the Spirit neither carnal men nor Divels can endure but is most pleasing to God and men spiritually good being that which does mighty things 2 Cor. 10 4. The weâ—pons of our warrefare are not carnal but Spiritual mighty through God Spirituall weapons spiritually wileded work wonders The Word of God which is the sword of the Spirit it must be spiritually handled And as they that preach the Gospel must spiritually preach it so they that hear the Gospel must hear it spiritually This is more then barely with the bodily ear to hear the voice of man it is therein with the ear of the soul through the assistance of the Spirit to hear the voice of Christ Joh. 10.27 My sheep hear my voice I know them and they follow me Cant. 5.2 It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying Open to me my sister my love my Dove my undefiled c. 1 Thess 1.5 Our Gospel came not unto you in word onely but also in power and in the holy Ghost 1 Thess 2.13 For this cause we thank God for when ye heard the word ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually worketh in you that believe Christians are not so to hear as onely to take in words at the ear but so as to take in warmth at the heart Often sayes Jerom when I read the Apostle in his Epistles I seem not to hear words but me thinks I hear the noise of Thunder and as it were feel the force of lightning that sets all on a fire so that I am made to shake to shine to burn Did not our hearts burn within us while he opened unto us the Scriptures Luk 24.32 Such Spiritual hearing God expects of his people every Lords Day 2. For Prayer This must be spiritually pour'd out in the presence of God Gods servants As the Spirit is to be praying in them So they are to be praying in the Spirit Jude 20. But ye beloved building up your selves in your most holy saith praying in the holy Spirit Both in the Spirit of love and unity And in the Spirit of life and fervency Not clashing but with close agreements of soul carrying out the same suit Symphonical in prayer Matth 18.19 If two of you shall agree on earth touching any thing they should ask it shall be done It notes such a symphony and agreement of the soules of Gods Saints in prayer as Musicians who with several Instruments play the same tune Not cooling but with kindled enlargements to be affectionate in prayer fired with the Spirit 'T is sayes Luther for want of the fire of the Spirit in Preaching that Sermons prevail so little with men and 't is for want of the fire of the Spirit in praying that petitions are no more prevailing with God As in confessions of sin our hearts must be wounded with bitter sorrowes So in petitions for Grace our hearts must be warmed with burning Desires Gods people are to be together praying with their Hearts as Bells raised and to ring such a loud peal of prayer as may be heard into heaven Such spiritual praying is expected of God as duly as the Lords Day comes 3. For the Sacraments Viz Both Baptisme and The Lords Supper As they are spiritual for the Principal of them So the Practice of them must be spiritual The Principal of each Sacrament is the spiritual part thereof The outward Element is but as the transient shadow The spiritual and enduring substance is Christ himself with his Crosse with his Grace with his Merits Mercies Excellencies and Al-sufficiencies 1 Cor. 10.3 4. They viz. our fathers of old did all eat the same spiritual Meat and did all drink the same spiritual Drink for they drank of the Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ As when our Saviour rode in Triumph to Jerusalem Luk. 19. the company that went before and they which followed after All cry'd Hosanna Thus the Sacraments of the Old Testament that went before and the Sacraments of the New Testament that follow after all say to Christ Hosanna All point at Christ saying Behold the Lamb of God The Practice or transactions of the Sacraments must be spiritual Both on Gods part And on our part In Baptisme all depends upon the powerful presence of the Spirit At the Beginning when tâ—e Spirit moved upon the waters then were the creatures made And so when the Spirit moveth upon the waters of Baptisme then is Gods work done And our work therein after is all to be done through the Spirit In the first receiving of Baptisme we were totally passive but for the further improving of Baptisme we ought to be spiritually active A spiritual Use we are bound to make of Baptisme Both to keep us off from evil And to keep us on in all good Luther reports of a pious Maid who by her Baptisme bore up against the several assaults of Satan If Satan sought to draw her to sin Her reply was I dare not do it I have been Baptized If to draw her from Duties her reply was I dare not but do it I have been Baptized We should observe that to fly sin and follow God we are Baptisme-bound But for want of this how does Baptisme lye like a Dead Ordinance What multitudes are there who making no Spiritual Improvements of it they make many Carnal Arguments against it Because they never knew how to work it up they easily learn how to cry it down They say the Truth and life of Baptisme lyes in their deep Dippings and Water-Buryings But sure a little water and much fire Baptismus flaminis et flaminis makes the best Baptisme I indeed sayes John baptize you with water but he that comes after me is mightier then I he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire Matth. 3. Against their Water-works we may see God angry in our want of water In the Lords Supper All the great works which both God and we are to do be spiritual What God is to do