partakers of And indeed none but a corrupt heart would chain up holy discourse upon the Lords day that heavenly season when gracious words should be our dialect If the word of God dwell richly in us Col. 3. 16. Inhabitants will not always keep within doors we shall bring forth our treasure for the enriching and edifying of others And let us not excuse our selves with a pretence of shamefastness The shame of the world will not keep us from vain why then from godly discourse Sweet and spiritual communication Christiani in primaevâ ecclesiae aetaie non tam caenà m caenabant quà m diciplinam Tertul. Apol. c. 39. is none of those fruits whereof we may be ashamed Rom. 6. 21. Nor let ignorance be alledged for an excuse ignorance it self might induce thee to propound things profitable which will feed good discourse the Question will beget an answer and the Answer will bring forth a progeny of heavenly communion But in a word what do our tables especially on the Lords day without savory and Christian discourse differ from a manger After our meal our dinner is over then follows not onely the digestion of our food but of the word that better food John 6. 27. Verùm non publicè modo sed privatim hunc ipsum diem sanctâ— pietatis officiiâ— qualia sunt sacrae Scripturae lectio et meditatio domestica colloquium de rebus sacris atque charitatis officiis transigendum censemus Leid Prof. which nourisheth unto eternal life and this will be the best wine at the end of our meal John 2. 10. We must repeat over discourse over pray over that word we hear in the Morning in the publick Congregation Indeed Truth is most pleasing when most tasted David calls the word Honey Psalm 19. 10. and honey pleases not the eye but the palate it is better food then prospect Then the word doth its work not when it is onely heard but when it is ruminated on and is not onely discovered but digested it then doth most good to us when it is riveted in us fastned nails help forward the building not those which lye loose up and down when we work Gods word upon our hearts this is like inlaid Gold which makes the richest embroydery Hearing may bring a truth to the head but meditation and a careful pondering works it into the heart It is the seething of Milk makes the Cream The Bee sucks the flowr and then works it in his Hive and makes honey of it Satan himself is called an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11. 14. He knows very much It is not truth in the head but riveted fastned and setled in the heart which speaks us to be translated from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Acts 26. 18. Chrysostome in one of his excellent Homilies upon Matthew layes it as a charge upon Christians That when we depart from the Ecclesiastical Assembly we should not in any case entangle our selves in businesses of a contrary nature but as soon as we come home turn over the holy Scriptures and call our wives and children to confer about those things which were delivered in publick and after they have been deeply rooted in our minds then to proceed to provide for those things which are necessary for this life And the same worthy Father makes the Similitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Sciendum est quòd non sufficit ut concionibus dei sabbati attendaâ—us et doctrinam bonam recipiamus et ut nomen dei invocemus sed ut haec omnia digeramus et ad hanc rem ipsi quoque transformemur Calv. Acts 17. 11. Si detis operam verbo ut inde pietatem et omnem salutiseram sapientiam discatis Haec est meta studii nostri et sic instruamur expenâ—â— scripturarum Daven Psal 119. 15 23 48 78 148 97 99. When saith he we retire from Fields in their beauty and flourish we bring some Rose or Violet home with us And when we come from a goodly Supper we bring some remaines of those dainties and give them to our friends And when we have been in publick Ordinances shall we not bring some doctrine and heavenly admonition to our wives friends ad children when this doctrine is more profitable then the flowers of the field or the dainties of the Table Heavenly Truths are Roses which will not shed fruits which will not perish and delicacies which will not corrupt c. So then the word which we hear in the publick Assemblies that heavenly food must be concocted it must be walked down by holy Meditation staked down by good and seasonable Communication fastned upon the soul by holy musing and ardent Prayer The seed in the ground brings forth grain not the seed upon the top of the clods The digested word will bring forth twins delight and obedience Women when they dress themselves they do not walk by the Looking-glass but set themselves before it and spend some time in fastning every pin onely to hear the Word is but to walk by the Glasse but repetition discourse prayer and contemplation must fasten every truth upon the soul and so it will look amiable and beautiful The clean beasts chew the cud Levit 11. 3. The careful Christian will whet the word upon his own and as much as may â—e upon anothers heart The Bereans obtained the title of Noble not from hearing but examination of the VVord not for any thing they did in the publick Assembly but from what they did at home The winnowed Corn is fit for use when it hath passed the Flail and the Fan. The Word digested is fit for practice when it hath passed the meditation of the head the discussion and discourse of the tongue the pondering and the laying up of the heart The hearing of the Word onely is but a beautiful Prospect which is delectable but not durable but the weighing of the VVord in the scales of judgment the beating of it out by the labours of the minde makes it a rich treasure and a stock of divine counsel for the life to spend upon The Psalmist no lesse then seven times in one Psalm professes that the Law was his meditation he did not run over the beauty of it with a glance of his eye or pass over the musique of it as the playing of a tune and so lay aside the Instrument but his thoughts did dwell upon it as the Scholar upon his books Let us as our Saviour saith go and do so likewise and let us remember that on Gods blessed Day and on Gods blessed VVord our Luke 10. 37. work is much at home in our Families and with our hearts Let us spend the interval between the Morning and Evening worship in publique in holy prayer Prayer is suitable to every division of a Sabbath It doth not onely prepare Homines sunt instar terrae cursemen verbi dei committitur quaeque culturá ministerii praeparata
thus declares himself You must know Brethren that therefore it was appointed and commanded Christians by our Holy Fathers That in the Solemnities of the Saints and especially on the Lords dayes they should rest and be free from earthly businesses that so they might be more free and ready for the service of God when they have nothing to hinder them and might leave earthly cares that they might the more easily intend the will of God Chrysostome calls the abstinence from worldly affairs on the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Hom. 5. in Matt. Greg. of Tours Dies Sabbaths indeterminatè sumptus est dies requiei Alex. Hal. an unmoveable Law such a Law as nothing but Sacriledge and Irreligion can shake or suppress we must on this day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abstain from all works saith that golden mouth'd Father And if we come to the midle times of the Church the Sabbath still is fenced with the same cautions that no work be done thereon Gregory of Tours hath an excellent saying Being the Sabbath was the day whereon God made the Light and after was the witness of our Saviours Resurrection therefore it ought diligently to be observed by every Christian no manner of publick work to be done upon it And the same Author tells us a story of a fearfull judgement of Lightning which befell the City of Limoges ob diei dominici injuriam for prophaning the Lords day And another Gregory of a far greater fame Greg. Mag. viz. Gregory the Great speaks the same language Viz. We ought to rest on the Lords day from earthly labours and altogether give our selves to prayer And if we slide down to our dayes and the dayes of reformation servile works on the Sabbath incur the same censure If we call in the Testimony of forraign Divines Doctor Ames that pious Ames Mod. Theol. p. 364. and learned Divine observes That all servile works were to be abstained from in other festivals among the Jewes Lev. 23. 7 8. Numb 28. 25. Multò magis exclusa fuerunt à Sabbatho Exod. 12. 16. Much more on the sacred Sabbath Other forraign Testimonies might be subpaena'd in to give witness in this Cause but the Reader shall not be cloyed with a multiplicity of Quotations Onely as forraigners So our own Divines give in their suffrage to the same truth Famous Hooper Bishop and Martyr thus declares himself To that end Bish Hooper did God sanctifie the Sabbath day that we being free from the travels of the World might consider his works and benefits with thanksgiving hear the word of God honour him and fear him c. And holy Babington most pathetically Even as Bish Babington on the fourth Commandment you will answer it before the face of God and his Angels at the sound of the last trumpet weight whether Carding and Dicing c. and such exercises be commanded of God for the Sabbath And thus this Godly Bishop restrains the Sabbath to its own viz. spiritual work Not onely the Church distributive but the Church collective condemns labouring on the Lords day Many famous Councils have decried and prohibited this uncomly practice The famous Council of Mascon gives a severe prohibition to secular employments on this holy day in these words Let no man meddle with litigious controversies Concil Moscon Concil Cartha Concil Chalons or works of Husbandry on the Lords day but exercise himself in Hymns and singing praises unto God being intent thereon hoth in mind and body and much more to the same purpose I could name the Council of Carthage the Council of Chalons and others but this truth shall stand no longer before humane Tribunal Nay the great taking argument of Reason the Idol and Diana of most men joynes in the Verdict for the guiltiness and condemnation of labours and working in our Callings on the Lords day Servile and secular labours are too pedantick and low for 2 Cor. 6. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost the dignity of a Sabbath as the Apostle speaks What communion between light and darkness and what between the drudgeries of the world and the affairs of Heaven The Sabbath must not be degraded by servilities and low employments it was appointed for more noble undertakings it was set apart for Divine contemplations heavenly actions spiritual ordinances supernatural converses between Christ and the Soul and not for the culinary sweats of an empty any world To work on the Sabbath what is it but to plece a Silken garment with Canvas Greenham formerly complained There are many who make the Lords day a packing day for earth and make it a custome to have their Servants follow their Callings but these men act as Heathens who never Greenham's Treatise on the Sabbath p. 215. knew any thing of the Creation of Heaven and Earth by God nor never heard any thing of the Redemption of man by Christ nor ever tasted any thing of the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost Reas 2 Worldly labours they tend nothing at all to the worship of God they are onely sinfull and unseasonable divertisements Can we be intent on the works of our Calling and yet at the same time our heads fill'd with divine meditations our hearts breaking with holy affections our tongues employed in sacred devotions surely this would speak us more then men and it is but a mear dream to fancy such Veniendum est ad coenam a peccatis surgendum in vale dicendum Christus fide est amplectendus nova vita inchoanda Chemn nimbleness and agility Worldly affairs will take the soul off from heavenly employment they are contraries in themselves The Shop-board and the Church cannot unite Drossie avocasions will call us off from spiritual devotions The guests who were invited to the Supper if they will mind their secular affairs they cannot come to the Supper they cannot mind their Oxen and their Farmes and the Supper too and therefore they must be excused from the Luke 14. 16 18 19. one Such men who work on the Lords day a holy man saith their hearts are possessed with covetousness their minds Doctor G. are filled with the affairs of the world and what shall God have if their hearts and their minds are alienated to another Aug. de temp Serm. 251. purpose Augustine saith We are commanded to rest upon the Lords day from earthly business and he gives us this reason That we might be the more fit for Gods service And so Calvin upon Deut. Cap. 5. Serm. 34. Calvin We ought to cease from those works which hinder the works of God Let us not stay from calling upon his Name or exercising our selves in his Holy Word Now secular affairs Concil Arelat 4. Cap. 16. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est omnis cessatio ab opere quies scil à motu labore Leid Prof. 218. Joh. 3. 8. Exod. 34. 6. Exod. 35. 2.
David Psal 108. 1. O Lord my heart is fixed We must view the Psal 108. 1. holy object presented by meditation as a Limner who views some curious piece and carefully heeds every shade every line and colour as the Virgin Mary kept all these Luke 2. 19. things and pondered them in her heart Indeed meditation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicite de aliquo secum dissertante Grot. in locum is not onely the busying the thoughts but the centering of them not onely the employing of them but the staking them down upon some spiritual affair When the soul meditating on some thing divine saith as the Disciples in the transfiguration Mat. 17. 4. It is good to be here Mat. 17. 4. Having thus defined I now come to distinguish meditation from some things which looks very like it There are some duties which have a great resemblance and yet differ from meditation those duties and meditation they are like similar complexions there is need of a familiarity to distinguish between them Solemn Meditation the duty we treat of differs from occasional as if one heard the clock strike he presently may think with himself what thought have I had of God this hour I am one hour nearer the Grave and it lies in Gods bosome whether I shall live another hour such occasional meditations are things onely in transitu in a short Psal 31. 15. and sweet passage and as one observes the subject of occasional meditation ariseth very frequently from things artificial civil or natural indeed any thing we see or hear But the objects of solemn meditation are only things spiritual and divine Occasional meditation is when the soul spiritualizes any object when the understanding is like an Alymbeck which distills some thing from every thing this is that spiritual Chymistry which turns any metal it meets with into Gold Our blessed Saviour was an admirable example of this He drew spiritual matter from natural objects from the peoples desirousness of the Loaves he sends them to seek the meat which endureth to everlasting life and so the Gospel John 6. 27. is full of Parables and indeed a Christian should see some thing of God in all things and all things most eminently in God every stream should lead us to the fountane all things below should be the pedestal to raise the soul higher A good Christian I say may from every emergence and occurrence extract matter of meditation To instance in a few particulars when we look up to the Heavens and see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them resplendent with light we may raise this meditation if the foot-stool be so glorious what is the Throne where God himself sits Monica Augustines Mother standing one day and seeing the Sun shine raised this meditation Oh if the Sun be so bright what is the Light of Gods presence When you hear musick that delights the senses presently raise this meditation what is the musick of a good Conscience Ignat. Epist ad Philad Nay rather what is the musick of the Bride Chamber When you are dressing your selves in the morning awaken your meditation and think thus Have I been dressing 1 Pet. 3 5. the hidden man of the heart 1 Pet. 3. 5. Have I looked 2 Cor. 5. 1. my face in the glass of Gods Word I have put on my cloaths but have I put on my Christ When you sit down Luke 14. 15. to dinner let your meditation feed upon this first course how blessed are they that shall eat bread in the Kingdome of 2 Cor. 5. 1. Quid est vita nisi meditatio mortis God What a Love-feast shall there be in Glory when none but friends and the Bride-grooms guests shall be admitted When you go to bed at night meditate of the putting off the Tabernacle of Clay the earthly cloaths of your body and 2 Cor. 5. 10. lying down in the bed of the Grave When you see the Dic dormituro non expergisces amplius Dic experrecto non potes dormire amplius â—en Judge go to the Assizes meditate on the last Judgement when we shall all stand before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 5. 10. Indeed every thing might feed the meditations of a Saint who is the curious Alchymist who can spiritualize every presented object But all these are occasional John 4. 7 10 13 14. meditations and differ from that meditation which is solemn and deliberate which is the subject discourse of this present Chapter But secondly Meditation differs from study Indeed the Students life looks like meditation but it varies from it First Meditation and study differ in the subject wicked men study and it may be more then Godly men but wicked men study onely Godly men meditate It is one character of 1 Psal 2. a Godly man to meditate on Gods Law day and night Secondly They differ in their nature One well observes Study is a work of the brain Meditation of the heart Study sets the invention on work but meditation sets the desires and affections on work Thirdly They differ in their Objects Study is of all manner of things whether Natural Civil or Mathematical Study pursues Aristotle as well as Moses but Meditation is onely of matters which concern our everlasting wellfare The matters we most study are those truths which are Quae sunt necessaria ad salutem pleno intuitu felicitur inturemur most knotty and difficult and afford least spiritual nourishment as Criticismes Chronologies Controversies c. But if matters of Meditation they are plain and of great spiritual advantage Fourthly Meditation and Study differ in their design The design of study is Notion the design of meditation is Piety the design of study is the finding out of truth but the design of meditation is the holy improvement of truth the one searcheth for the vein of Gold and the other diggs it out The end of study is knowledge the end of meditation is holiness Study is like a winters Sun warms but little and hath an inconsiderable influence but meditation leaves one in a more holy frame it melts the heart when it is frozen Psal 119. 48 78 and maketh it drop into tears and love In a word if we see a learned man we presently conclude he hath studied Psal 119. 148. much If we see a devout and holy man we may conclude that man hath meditated much Meditation differs from memory Some have called memory the scribe of the soul it sets down and pens those things which are done what we hear or read the memory doth register and therefore memory seems to bear some resemblance with Meditation but they differ In that the remembrance of a truth without meditation on it will but create matter of sorrow and trouble A Sermon remembred but not ruminated on will serve onely Maxima est humanae memoriae labili tas versamur â—îc in terrâ oblivionis inde
and rule of all Laws and Laws are so far just good and equal as they accord with the Divine A primâ veritate quae est deus dependent omnes veritates Law So every thing is true as it is consentaneous and conformable to the Counsels and Will of God to that truth which is in the mind of God As Ambrose observes No man can call Jesus Lord but in and by the Holy Ghost because whatsoever is true by whomsoever it is spoken it is from the holy spirit All truth flows from the spirit as all lies are from Satan he is the Father of them God is immutably and unchangeably true Man runs often from truth to errour deceiving and being deceived we often leave the plain way of truth and go into the by-wayes Pulcherrima est veritas per quam immutata quae sunt quae fuerunt et quae futura sunt dicuntur Cic. of errour and mistake The Church in all ages hath had its Pests as well as its Pillars and hath been plagued with an Arrius as well as blessed with an Athanasius Simon Magus hath crept in among the fold of Christ as well as Simon Peter hath had the charge of the flock of Christ And besides truth in us is sometimes more clear sometimes more clouded Our understanding is different and graduate in Amos 3. 6. Jer. 10. 10. Joh. 17. 3. the apprehensions of it But the Lord is alwayes unchangeable in his truth because he is so in his being in his will in his wisdom and other attributes God is not subject either to misapprehensions or recollections God is true in all his works Whither we consider his spiritual operations whom he justifies he not onely freely but truly justifies not onely reprieves but pardons suspends Isa 46. 10. Rom. 11. 29. his execution but makes him heir of life and salvation If God call us he doth it truly and effectually not by Rom. 8. 30. a pretended invitation but by a powerfull and successfull vocation The Apostle links predestination and vocation together in the same chain Whom God regenerates he doth truly convert to himself giveth them true faith and the blessed graces of his holy spirit And so in the works of his hands Angels are glorious and real spirits Man is a noble and a true creature resembling the God of truth and bearing his image he is no fantasm no spectrum as some Gen. 1. 26. hereticks in the primitive times asserted of the body of Christ God made all things very good Gen. 1. 31. and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no mixture of false semblance embased their worth The Creatures are real according to their appearances The world is no dream or fantastick landskip God is true in his words He is true in the incarnate word Christ is the true Son of God not suppositious not the Son of Joseph but the Son of God He was truly 1 Joh. 1. Joh. 7. 40. Heb. 5. 10. Joh. 12. 15. Col. 2. 9. Psal 19. 8. God and truly Man a true Prophet a true Priest a true King 1 Joh. 5. 20. And Christ calls himself the truth Joh. 14. 6. God is likewise true in every word which the Prophets or Apostles have pronounced or laid down for Joh. 18. 31. Joh 18 37. Mat. 5. 18. Rom. 3. 4. our advice and instruction truth is an indelible character of the Scriptures In his Word God is true in every particle of it in every tittle of it Mat. 5. 18. And therefore as the Apostle saith Let God be true and every man a lyar Rom. 3. 4. Christ asserts he spoke nothing but the words of truth and he left heaven to converse with the Sons of men to bear testimony to the truth Joh. 8. 40. Joh. 8. 40. God is true in his donations He gives us true happiness true grace puts in us a principle of truth God writes us true Eph. 4. 30. Mundi bona sunt fugacia et falsa sed Christus robis confert spiritualia et aeterna spiritum sanctum et vitam aeternam Ger. pardons seals us by a spirit of truth to the day of redemption give us true knowledge fills us with true joy and sweetens our souls with real and true consolations He enriches us with true riches Luke 16. 11. The profers of the world are false and evanid false shews and counterfeit satisfaction But all true complacencies and delights are to be found in Christ and are treasured up in God God is true in his promises Those breasts which yield better liquor then wine those flowers which smell sweeter then Promissiones habent ubera verè vino meliora et magis fragrantia unguentis optimis Bern. the choycest oyntments as Bernard saith sweeter then the flowers of Paradise All the promises in Christ are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. They are all established in him as a strâ—â—â—ure built upon a sure foundaâ—ion Indeed the Lord is abundant in truth Exod. 34. 6. He is encompassed with truth as with a girdle Isa 11. 5 6. He is plenteous in 2 Cor. 1. 20. Exod. 34. 6. Isa 11. 5 6. Psal 86. 15. Psal 100. 5. Psal 91. 4. Psal 117. 2. Psal 146. 6. truth Psal 86. 15. Ready to write truth in our inward parts He is eternal in truth he is holy and true in this generation and so he will be in the next Psal 100. 5. He is preservative in his truth his truth is both shield and buckler Psal 91. 4. So that truth is not onely Gods glorious attribute but mans sure defence We must meditate on the Love of God This is that influential attribute which sets God on work His love sets his eye on pittying his head on contriving his hand on acting his heart on melting God out of love sent his Son Joh. 3. 16. Joh. 3. 19. out of his bosome scatters his Gospel in the world that light which is more glorious then the Sun In love God saith Ezek. 16. 6. to the sinner live Ezek. 16. 6. seeketh after enemies for reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 19. and makes clods of earth and 2 Cor. 5. 19. poor worms heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. But for the further Heb. 1. 14. discovery of this sweet attribute we must search for it in its properties it may be discerned in its characters though not in its cause Now there are divers explanatory characters of divine love The love of God is eternal love Gods love to poor man had no beginning there never was any time when the heart 2 Tim. 1. 9. Jer 31. 3. Hos 11. 9. Apostolus tempora secularia vult quae simul cum seculo et mundo fluere et volui caeperunt sed ante tempora secularia quod ante mundi constitutionem ante temporis et mundi origineÌ„ est Ansel of God was not set upon a Saint He loved him in his futurition when the believer was to be a child of God
the manner of our seeing God whether with the eyes of our body or onely with the eyes of our minds or whether as some with our bodily eyes spiritualized I shall not intricate my self in these mazes of dispute but onely conclude our sight of God will be glorious full perfect ravishing everlasting and will run parallel with our eternal Sabbath Our Sabbath here resembles our Sabbath above in the rest of it To work upon our Christian Sabbath is to defile it our sweat is our sin the pains we must take on this holy day is not with our hands but with our hearts The brain indeed must work but in holy meditation the tongue must work but in prayer and supplication the heart must work but in ardent and holy affection our faith must work but in seasonable application in apprehending Christ and entertaining Truth But as for secular works they must be Operum humanorum duo sunt genera unum est licitorum in se alterum est illicitorum licita sunt necessaria honesta utilia in rebus humanis Illicita sunt noxia inhonesta et superflua Quae in Sabbatâ— prohibentur non sunt in se idicita sed quae alitèr sunt omninò licita ut appareat prohiberi operas domesti eas necessariaâ— et honestas 〈◊〉 utilos quideâ— in se verùm ad sanctificationem Sabbati omninò incommodas Muscul wholly suspended and laid aside on the Lords day To work upon the Sabbath 1. It is a sacrilegious act it robs God of his time that season which God hath principally set apart to converse with men The Sabbath is the Lords day it is none of ours it is his inclosure none of our Common and therefore to spend his day or any part of it about our works it is both sin and sacriledge Secondly It is a confusing Act Six dayes we must work if we likewise work on the Sabbath where is the distinction Then there will be no wall of separation all will be working dayes and there is no day of rest and so the fourth Commandment is a meer parenthesis and God wrote with his own finger a meer impertinency To what a height of frenzy will these consequencies rise There is no gold of a Sabbath to be found in the rubbish of the week why should any rubbish of the week be found among the gold of a Sabbath Thirdly It is a destructive act It robs the soul of its sweetest opportunity Christ is most principally to be spoken with by the soul on his own day this day is set apart for intercourse with heaven it is the term time of the soul a busie time for his affairs and therefore to spend any of this time in secular works what is it but to pluck the bread out of the mouth of the soul and to throw fire-brands into the believers harvest Fourthly It is an Irreligious Act below the devotion of the very Heathens who have kept a Sabbath as a rest It is recorded in Heathen Stories That their Boyes go not to School on the Sabbath day neither are humane Arts and Sciences then taught or disputed And Philo Judaeus observes Quae operasabbato facienda deus prohibuerit illud non solùm ex aliis scripurae locis sed ex praecepti hujus verbis colligitur non facies ullum opus scil servile quod publici ministerii partes et cultum divinum impediat Morale enim et perpetuum est opera illa prohiberi quae publici ministerii exercitium impediant Interim tamen opera illa quae ad culium dei dilectionem proximi et vitae necessitatem pertinent non sunt prohibito â—â—r de leg 〈◊〉 That divers poor people that never had Scripture or Prophet among them but followed onely the conduct of the light of Nature and what they had learned from their Ancestours did keep the Sabbath day And Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that the very Heathens did account the seventh day a holy day And that Alexander Severus Emperour of Rome though a Pagan and an Infidel yet every Sabbath day he retired from his warlike affairs and went up into the Capitol to worship the Gods Musculus calls All secular and servile works the impediments of Sabbath-holiness And indeed they are that dirt which stops up the water-course of grace that it cannot run out upon the soul It is very observable in the time of the Law how severely God prohibits working upon the Sabbath First He puts a prohibition in the fourth Commandment that Standard of our obedience in the observation of the Sabbath Thâ—u shalt do no manner of work Exod. 20. 10. and these words are repeated Deut. 5. 14. That by the mouth of two Witnesses this truth may be established And Secondly From the root of this great Command sprouts many additional injunctions not to work upon the Sabbath Exod 31. 14 15. Exod. 35. 2. Lev. 23. 3. Thirdly Nay Servile work is so inconsistent with the solemn feast of the Sabbath that God forbids all servile works on other festivals those solemnities of an inferiour nature On the dayes of the Pass-over Lev. 23. 7. On the dayes of Expiation Lev. 29. 23. Lev. 23. 28 29 30. On the feast of Tabernacles Lev. 23. 34 35. And surely if inferiour dayes of observation were defiled by secular works much more the blessed Sabbath in which the people of God must keep their meetings in the Suburbs of Heaven Fourthly How often doth God espouse Sabbath and Rest together as indivisible Exod. 16. 23. Exod. 31. 15. Exod. Sabbatum est sanctum otium 35. 2. And indeed holy Rest is the life of a Sabbath and if the Sabbath rest be disturbed it faints away and becomes Leid Prof. an unprofitable miscellany of rest and labour and an expiring dying priviledge Fifthly How severely doth God threaten the disturbers of the Sabbath rest God threatens them to throw them out of the Church Exod. 31. 14. Nay to throw them out of the world Exod. 31. 15. And brands such as are violatours of his Covenant Exod. 31. 16. And shall Rest be so necessary for the legal and not as convenient for the Evangelical Sabbath Surely much more the Lords day must not be disturbed by mans work but as Christ on the first day of the week rose from his toyle to his triumph so must Christians on that sanctified day lay aside all their worldly toyle and labours and take up their triumph and rejoycing in God spending those golden hours of the Sabbath in heavenly Communion sweetly delighting themselves in the visits of their beloved to which all labour is a disturbance and so our Sabbath above it is a perfect an undisturbed rest Cessat homo ab omni opere die Sabbati futuram sanctorum requiem significans quâ—ndo laboribus hujus vitae liberati et sudore carporis de terso beatam cum Christo et jucundissimam vitam agemus Ambr. in which the mind shall not be rackt with
Apostle 1 Joh. 2. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him Secondly Christ doth not say if you love me dispute subtilly of my Commandments Deeds not disputes evidence 2 Cor. 3. 1 2. our love to Christ the regular acts of our lives not Prov. 2. 10. the ingenious canvasings of the Schools it is not reasoning out of Gods word but walking after that holy word speaketh us the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Thirdly Nor doth Christ say If ye love me prescribe Est observatio praeceptorum Christi omnibus Christi fidelibus eo loco ha benda ut si illa desit in ipsam Christi dilectionem peccare convinâ—amâ—r Musc my Commandments to others read them lectures of sanctity no but live them your selves Personal holiness is of absolute necessity to every Christian It is not our prescription but our obedience not what we dictate to others but what we act our selves shews our interest in and our union to Christ Fourthly Nor doth Christ say keep the Statutes and the Commandments of your predecessours no but keep my Commandments it is not a plausihle custome but an undefiled conscience speaks the Christian This the Lord pleads Acts 24. 16. with Israel of old Ezek. 20. 18 19. But I said unto their Children in the wilderness walk ye not in the statutes of your Ezek. 20. 18. Fathers neither observe their judgements nor defile your selves Mat. 15. 3 6. with their Idols I am the Lord your God walk in my statutes Mat. 7. 9. 13. and keep my judgements and do them The Pharisees darling Gal. 1. 14. was the tradition of their Fathers and they were the Master-pieces of Hypocrisie Col. 2. 8. Fifthly Nor doth Christ say if ye love me keep and observe Numb 15. 39 40. what seems right to you no but keep my Commandments though severity be written upon their very forehead Deut. 12. 8. though it be to the carrying of my Cross to the denyal of your selves to the laying down of your lives for my sake Non spectatores sed luctatores non qui vident sed qui vincunt in agone et certamine coronabuntur Alap and keep all my Commandments not what are pleasing to your flesh but what are enjoyned by my word So then if we have any love to Christ holy practice must be the testimonial of it Indeed many Christians are like Children in the Rickets they have big heads but weak joynts they are all for notions and head-light curious knowledge and airy speculations but they wave practical truths and that wisdome Prov. 2. 10. which entereth upon the heart Prov. 2. 10. This undigested knowledge puts out the fire of zeal as if the waters of the Cum sapientia hominis animum penetrat quà m suavis illi est supra mel et favum Cartw. Sanctuary should put out the fire of the Sanctuary and men could not at the same time be knowing and holy How ardently then should we pray to the Father that Ordinances may so influence our lives that our conversation may bear witness how much we love the Lord Jesus And thus much for the second duty to be performed on the morning of the Sabbath before we joyn with the assembly of Gods people viz. Prayer A third duty incumbent upon us before we joyn with the Congregation is taking pains with our own hearts and this properly is Closet work which we may manage to very good purpose in these four particulars We must endeavour to empty our hearts First To throw out all the trash to cast out all vaine Jer. 4. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nos reddimus cogitationes noxias pro nox iae Aquila vertit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. damni Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec omniasuns fructus vanarum cogitationum thoughts and worldly desires Ponds and Moates are cleansed to keep them wholesome Foolish and vain imaginations will fly-blow all our duties and therefore we must let down the Portcullis of our hearts to keep in straglers and wanderers that they may not interrupt us in our holy worship These Caterpillars will blast and spoyle the fruit of holy Ordinances and for the atchieving of this necessary worke First Let us beg of Christ that he would whip these buyers and sellers out of the Temple of our souls The spirit of God can sweep away these Locusts and supply us with more noble and heavenly cogitations he can drop divine meditations into our hearts and turn the dross of flatulent thoughts into the gold of spiritual and seraphicall He is called a holy spirit not onely from those gracious impressions he stamps upon the heart but likewise from those divine infusions he instills into the head and so the whole man is his workman-ship in Jesus Christ Secondly We may likewise lash and correct these vaine Eph. 2 10. Vndenâ—m sit facultas bona opera saciendi immò et bona cogitandi ab eo à quo fimus novae creaturae nempe à deo A quo enim Arbor habetut sit bona ab eodem habet ut bonos proferat fructus Zanch. thoughts which flit up and down in our minds by setting before our hearts the future judgement when thoughts shall be canvased as well as words and actions sinfull thoughts at any time are accountable but those which defile the Sabbath are of a double dye and are written in red Letters The consideration of a judgement day will turn Hagars and Ishmaels out of door carnal and foolish imaginations Indeed we are apt with Lots Wife to look backward towards the worldly pleasures of Sodom towards the vanities of the world which hath too much of our heart even on the holy Sabbath of God but pondering on our future account we shall keep our faces steddy towards Sion Thirdly We must consider how much this trash of the heart foolish and vain thoughts will distract us in duty Heb. 4. 14. they are like the ringing of Bells in Sermon time which drown the voice of the preacher and stop the ear of the Mat. 13. 22. hearer These vain thoughts choak the Word that it dies away untimely and works not lively upon the soul This is Isa 29. 13. that setting the heart far from God when we seem to approach to him in Ordinances which the Lord so much complains of Isa 29. 13. Distracted persons are fit for nothing nor hearts distracted and torn with the varieties of flashy conceptions Fourthly Let us take up strong and fixed resolutions that we Haec suit causa excaecationis judaeorum quia scil deum nominabant et honorabant ore tenus corde vero erant ab eo elongati et aversi will wash our hearts in innocency and so we will compass Gods Altar Holy resolution is a good guard to the heart it will
so corruption receives a double and by consequence a deeper wound Samuel answered not God till the third time it may be conscience will answer that word in the repetition to which it did not listen in the delivery Repetition of Sermons is like the Sun beams in the repercussion and reflexion which shine in a more fervent heat and a more considerable warmth The second shoot often kills the bird when the first misseth We know not what the second hearing of Gods Word may act upon the soul And we repeat Sermons in our families not onely barely to pass away the time of a Sabbath but by this fruitfull exercise our memories are recruited the Sermon is more distinctly apprehended the heart is a second time assaulted and stormed that it may be taken and brought captive to the obedience of Christ Besides in the repetition of the Word we have a more private tender of life and salvation misappehensions are this way removed and the Original is cleared by the Copy We often mistake the Minister when the Word is delivered when we repeat the word the mistake is easily corrected and amended to all which may be added by this heavenly course and practice Families are trained up in Gospel discipline and the more we hear of Christ in publick and in private the more our love to him is courted and conquered and thus Servants better understand their duty and Children better learn obedience If we leave those Sermons we hear at the Church door and there take our farewell of them Satan quickly takes up our lost treasure Diabolus est inster avis famelicae semen verbi rapiens et sat habet si homo verbi alimento non pascitur Par. and then our attempt in the publick ordinances was in vain it being not probable that we should give those holy Sermons room in our hearts which we were careless to lodge in our houses by a conscientious repetition The strongest hold we lodge divine truth in is slack enough Satan is ready to untie the knot let mans care tie it as fast as it may and therefore we must tie truth upon the soul with a threefold cord 1. With a diligent attention in the publick Assembly 2. VVith a heedfull repetition in the private Family Chem. Exam. de dieb Fest 3. In ardent supplication running over the heads of the same Sermon in our more retired and severer Closets It was the custome of our sweet and dear Jesus after he had preached a Sermon to the multitude to examine his Disciples privately about it and to rivet what had before been revealed Mar. 4. Truths like stars are best when fixed and when Luc. 14. our hearts not our understandings are their Orbs to move in Vain controversies as the wise man speaks may not be repeated for that will separate friends Prov. 17. 9. But divine Counsels must for that will unite truths to the soul And moreover our slippery memory may be made more consistent by repetition and so retentive of that word which is apt to slide away Surely great are the advantages of repeating Sermons in our families it is like Lots holy violence to the Angels to force them into his house The rehearsal of holy Gen. 19. 3. truth is a sweet attractive to draw Christ into the family and it sents the house with sacred fumes which the fire of the Word sends up This worthy practice makes our Si medico non est opproâ—râ—um de aegroto sâ—â—scitarâ— neque crimen est de auditorum semper inquirere salute Sic enim moniti quid expeditum sit c. Chrys houses Chappels of devotion and is nothing but Religion drawn in a smaller frame In a word when the Ministers blessing hath opened the door of the Sanctuary for our departure let us apply our selves to this experienced medium for soul advantage our souls which were tuning in the publick may be musical in private and the Sermon may be more sweet in the second gust and tast of it like the works of some learned men which are more refined and enlarged in the second Edition Another duty calculated for the Evening of a Sabbath is holy Prayer This powerfull service is a golden thread which must run through every space of a Sabbath it is the sacrifice of the Closet it is the service of the Family it is the ordinance of the Sanctuary it doth seasonably break Quartum praeceptum ponitur in gremio decalogi tanâ—uam testis amoris divini et nostrae obedientiae the morning of a Sabbath and usher in the following duties it doth sweetly concur with the mid-day of the Sabbath when our devotion like the Sun should be at the highest remembring that the Commandment for the Sabbath is in the midle of the Decalogue And there is more work for prayer it must shut up both the Morning and the Evening Worship there must be prayer to beg a blessing on truths already discovered that in their light we may see light Psal 36. 9. And indeed prayer doth most becomingly close the Mat. 13. 23. Evening of a Sabbath then the lifting up of our hands are Psal 141. 2. instead of an Evening sacrifice Prayer is like a setting Sun which is most glorious like a well fraught Ship after its Voyage which lands at the Port which is pleasing and joyous In the Evening Noahs Dove brings the Olive branch Prayer Gen. 8. 11. often is this Dove when after the travels of the Sabbath it sums up all and importunes success and acceptation then the soul is calmed with peace and rejoycing In the Evening Mat 14. 23. Dan. 9. 21. Christ wrestles with his Father alone in prayer as if the Sun should not see the triumphs of his Victory Daniel was praying in the Evening and then the Angel came unto him the messenger of glad tidings to this humble Supplicant 1 Kings 18. 37 38. Fire comes upon Elijahs Evening sacrifice when Prayer presented the oblation as a sign of pleasing acceptation We must then shut up Gods day at Gods feet that he may bid Luke 2. 29. Eph. 1. 6. us depart in peace for he hath accepted us in his beloved otherwise we may go to bed but not to rest And our conclusive prayers in the Sabbaths evening must be 1. Confessory Our best Sabbaths have not escaped the stains of sin there will be iniquity in our holy things our Condonet mihi deus etiam sacrorum meorum delicta Aug. best services are like the spotted moon or a jewel with flaws Augustine would beg pardon for the sins of his holy duties And we when our Sabbath is setting have more need of tears then triumphs and say as the Romans did of one of their Victories such another would undoe them Prayer Jam. 3. 2. Psal 119. 59. therefore in the close of the Sabbath must look up to God with a weeping eye and we must pray that God would
19 20. But to reconcile man to man is the duty of every real Christian and a work most agreeing to the sweetness of a Sabbath a duty crowned with the promise of the greatest royalty Mat. 5. 9. The day of Christs Resurrection our blessed Sabbath was a reconciling day It reconciled truth to the Promises Mat. 20. 19. Mat. 27. 63. Mark 8. 31. Mark 10. 34. Luke 24. 7. John 20. 9. it was the accomplishment of the reconciling work of mans Redemption And on this day the soul of Christ was re-united to his body which was at a distance before No work then more befits the Lords day then the healing of divisions and the praying down animosities between Christians On this blessed day we must endeavour to resolve doubtfull Christians Doubts are the wedges in the soul which both wound and pain to pluck out these wedges by Scripture Qui disceptat dubitat sâ—nâ— licitum necne si manducat peccati damnationis incurrit rectum force is a duty becoming the best of days A doubting Christian is upon a rack he is as a ship upon the Sea in the night he fears he shall either dash upon the rock of errour or sink in the quick-sands of mistake he wants the Pilotism of a knowing and faithful Christian he tosses to and fro and knows not how to come to harbour Now it is spiritual love and charity to relieve this naval pilgrim Oecumen Doubts are not only painfull and vexatious but harmful and noxious 1. They are the enemies of faith Mat. 21. 21. 2. They are the evidences of frailty Mat. 28. 17. 3. They are the hazard of the soul Rom. 14. 23. 4. They are the disobedience of a positive and peremptory command Luke 12. 29. And 5. They cat out all the profit of prayer 1 Tim. 2. 8. Haesitantiae opponitur fiduâ—ia quae necessaria est omni oranti Doubts like cares they are the thorns of the soul which rend and tear the minde with convulsions and distractions And therefore the Apostle is so urgent in his command Rom. 14. 1. That new and crude Professors be not admitted to doubtfull disputations that was the way to unhinge Mark 11. 24. them from the faith and to take them off from the profession of Christianity which would seem nothing to them but a labyrinth and a maze wherein men may lose but not save themselves This is charity then becoming a Sabbath to satisfie the doubts of poor trembling Christians and to become as a harbor to a tattered bark Thus ye have seen the severals of that spiritual charity which the meanest Christian may give and the humble if wanting Christian will receive Another direction for the better observation of the Lords day may be Let us seek God in Ordinances Ordinances Direct 8. are only an empty cloud unless the presence of God melt them into a fruitful shower David saw the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary Psal 63. 2. Ordinances are breathless institutions unless God breathe the breath of life Gen. 2. 7. into them The spirit must stretch himself over them as the Prophet did over the child before any life will come 2 Kings 4. 35. In hearing God must open Lydia's heart Acts 16. 14. In praying God must open our mouths that Psalm 51. 15. we may shew forth his praise The Sacrament is a gaudy Psalm 119. 18. pageant if God be not present what do we drink if not John 6. 55. Christs bloud what do we eat if not Christs body It is the presence of God makes an Ordinance the living child 1 Kings 3. 22. otherwise it is no more then the dead child or a spirituall abortion The divine appearance sweetens fills sanctifies and makes effectual every Ordinance David loved the habitation of Gods house but it was because that was the place where Gods honour dwelt Psal 27. 4. When men go to a certain place to meet a friend and they miss him they return sorrowful and discontented Christ is thy friend Cùm dei gloria in Christo in Evangelio quasi in speculo intuemur per hoc quasi in eandem dei gloriam transâ—â—rmamur speculantes i. e. per speculum videntes non de speculâ prospicientes Aug de Trin. who is to meet thee at Ordinances if thou miss him go home sorrowful Ordinances without God they are a table without meat and so a living soul may depart hungry and thirsty Sometimes Ordinances are compared to a glass 2 Cor. 3. 18. Because therein the Christian beholds the glory of the Lord. Let us hear the language of the Psalmist Psal 84. 2. My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living Lord. Therefore David longed for Gods Courts because the Lord was in those Courts Sometimes the sweet Singer of Israel compares his desire to thirst of which creatures are more impatient then hunger Psalm 63. 1. Sometimes to the thirst of a Hart which creature being naturally hot and dry in a very great degree is exceeding thirsty but still the object of his thirst is God Psal 42. 1 2. It was communion with God in his life love and graces nay in his comforts which the Psalmist breathed after the sweet smiles of Gods face the honey dews of his Spirit this was Davids Paradise of pleasute and his heaven below When we go to Ordinances let us with Moses go up into the Mount to converse with God there It is God in the Word causeth efficacy It is God in Prayer causeth prevalency It is God in Meditation which causeth suavity It Psalm 104. 34. is God in a Sabbath causeth complacency When we go to the waters of the Sanctuary let us say as Elisha to the waters of Jordan where is the Lord God of Elijah 2 Kings 2. 14. So where is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Where is thy Chariot O Sun of Righteousness why is it so long Judges 5. 28. a coming why tarries it what clogs the wheels O when wilt thou come to me Let us look on all holy duties and performances as boats to ferry our souls over to God Saul himself was sad and sorrowfull when he enquired of the Lord and the Lord answered him 1 Sam. 28. 15. Indeed God is not onely the Master but the Marrow of a Sabbath and no Lords day can satisfie without the Lord of the day Antiquus dierum Christus est Ille enim corporaliter visibiliter judicabit vivos et mortuos Christus ideò vocatur Antiqus dierum ut ejus describatur Majestas et aeternitas Hieron what is the best time without the Rock of eternity What is the best day without the Ancient of dayes What are Sermons Sacraments seasons of grace without our Beloved They are nothing but broken Cisterns glorious dreams gilded nothings embalmed hearses and as a perfumed corpse Ah
shouldst consider the importance of it it cost more even the precious bloud of Jesus Christ and while thou art sporting and idling in the fields God might have been speaking to thy soul Augustine was converted by a Sermon of holy Ambrose Peter Martyr was brought home to God by a passage of a Sermon As for those who must have a walk after Sermon these impoverish their souls Are there not family prayers to procure blessings family repetitions to digest the word family duties to warm the heart on a Sabbath day Publick Ordinances are too often as land-floods to the soul which will quickly disappear unless the waters of life sink in gradually by private repetition and meditation Serious consideration and fervent prayer at home work into the heart those truths and doctrines we heard abroad These ill husbands for their better part too frequently drop in the fields what they have pickt up in the Sanctuary and the air is more fresh Absit ut dejicerem animum nobilem et illum corpori mancipium facerem then their memory These field-walkers how do they sink below some heathens It was the saying of a noble heathen Far be it from me that I should make my noble mind a slave to my body If we will have our pleasures on the Lords day let us meet with Christ in his Garden Cant. 5. 1. let us gather fruits in his Orchard of Pomgranates Cant. 4. 13. Let us lie down by the fountain of Gardens Cant. 4. 15. Let us stay our selves with his Apples and Flagons Cant. 2. 5. and sit down with our beloved in his banquetting house Cant. 2. 4. And then travel over the mountains of spices Cant. 8. 14. Christ indeed is the Paradise of pleasure he can ravish us with one of his eyes Cant. 4. 9. and make us drink of the cup of Salvation Divine pleasures become the Sabbath not the titillations of sence but the refreshings of the soul Let those then who waste the Sabbath in taking the air take Joh. 6. 58. Isa 25. 8. Eph. 2. 2. heed least they meet with the Prince of the air considering these unnecessary walks contain more temptation then recreation in them they are Satans refined and plausible bate to cause the incautelous Christian to let fall and so lose his spiritual morsels we know it is his grand artifice to steal away the seed of the word Mat. 13. 19. and pleasing recreations give him the best aime Caut. 3 Let us take heed of the sin of unbelief The believer only sanctifies the Sabbath they truly keep it who themselves are kept in their most holy faitb Jude v. 20. Every duty of a Mark 11. 24. Jam. 1. 6. Sabbath requires faith If we hear we must mingle the word with faith Heb. 4. 2. If we pray it must be believing Crede et manducasti crede et bibisti Aug. Mat. 21. 22. It is faith makes our prayers effectual If we receive we must come to the Sacrament with faith Augustine saith Believe and thou hast eaten believe and thou hast drunken Faith is the chief guest at Christs table If we meditate faith sweetens that duty and makes it lushious not tedious Psal 119. 97. Observe Thy Law c. It was Heb. 11. 6. the Law of his God and that sweetned his meditation on it If we read the Scriptures it is faith must make that duty effectual without faith the Word is onely a â—iddle the Acts â— 3◠〈…〉 Christi puzzle not the profit of a Christian Faith then puts life into every duty and makes it both vigorous and viâ—â—â— Buâ— unbelief is a sin which like the Câ—terpillar eats up al◠〈◊〉 fruit of a Sabbath and turns its Sun into dâ—rkness Vnbelief invalidaâ—es our approaches to God Heb. 11. 6. 〈◊〉 In vain the knee bowes unless the heart believes in vâ—â—â— we lift up the hands of flesh unless we lay hold on God by 〈…〉 sâ—d infidâ—â—itas à â—hâ—isto planè a◠〈◊〉 illius spiritu nos privâ—t et Satanae insidiis nos expositos reddit Lys the hands of faith We must bring faith to make our way acceptable to the Almighty In the forcecited Text Heb. 11. 6. the Apostle doth not say without faith it is improbable but it is impossible to please God Without faith all duties are acted in the dark there must be an eye of faith to see our way to God in Christ Vnbelief prevents the work of Christ upon the heart Mat. 13. 56. It unqualifies us for spiritual successes this sin is so great it can cast Christ into an admiration Mark 6. 6. What great things might Ordinances work upon the soul if the heart was not barred up by unbelief It was this sin which unchurched the poor nation of the Jews Rom. 11. 20. It may be the Epitaph of that ancient people of God Here lies a people cast off by God because of unbelief Vnbelief shuts up the gate of mercy Heb. 3. 19. Faith melts the cloud of Ordinances into a fruitful shower unbelief makes ordinances a dark appearance onely and turns Heb. 4. 6. them into stones of emptiness Isa 34. 11. An Ordinance to an unbeliever is a dead Child the spirit of God doth not breath in it And therefore on a Sabbath above all thy gettings get faith Vnbelief it puts a defilement upon the sweetest Ordinances They are as a Jewel in a dead mans hand The prayers of an unbeliever are an abomination to the Lord. The Apostle Prov. 4 7. saith Tit. 1. 15. To them who are unbelieving every Omnia opera infidelâ—um sunt noxia et peccâ—tâ— thing is defiled Vnbelief damps the pearl of Ordinances puts a flaw upon it The School-men say All the works of unbelievers are sins and so then are all his services and they accommodate themselves to that of the Apostle Rom. Gregor Arim. Capriolus Câ—tharinus c. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin Vnbelief blasts the sweetest duty as lightning doth the fairest face The Lord saith to the unbeliever What hast thou to do to take my word into thy mouth Psal 50. 16. Why do I pray if I do not believe returns What do I hear if I do not believe doctrines VVhat do I receive if I do not believe Christ in the Sacrament Ordinances to an unbeliever they are not dews Rom. 1. 16. but dreams not Gods power but Mans fancy and Sermons are only the Romances of the Pulpit The Apostle Heb. 11. per totum tells us of many Miracles of faith and unbelief Heb. 11. 11 29 30 33 34. Exod. 4. 3. can work on it can turn all our rods into Serpents it can work the same wonder Christ wrought on the barren fig-tree Mark 11. 21. It can curse with a perpetual blast Augustine used to dispute from John 3. 19. That unbelief was the only damning sin This sin like popish Rome is the Mother of Harlots Rev. 17. 5. And therefore against
the Worlds beginning long before the sacred Decalogue Tertul. lib. 4. adversus Judaeos was oracularly delivered upon Mount Sinai And the forementioned Philo so eminent among the Jews that he was sent in an Embassie to the Roman Caesar in the behalf of his Country-men And therefore there is a Book of his intituled Legatio ad Caesarem His Embassie to Caesar I say Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this eminent person calls the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing known to all Nations from the beginning of the World and Nostrum jus inquit omnes admonet officii Barbaros Graecos Continentis insularum Incolas Occidentales Orientales Europaeos Asiaticos c. dilating upon the honour of the Sabbath saith The Barbarians as the Jews call'd all the World besides themselves Graecians both of the Continent and the Islands both Eastern and Western both of Europe and of Asia nay all the habitable World to the utmost extent of it are Admirers of our Priviledge for who doth not honour that holy day which returns at the winding up of every Week And a learned man notes That it was the general Doctrine of the Jews That Adam kept the Sabbath-day and that that holy day derived its Original from the beginning of times Josephus the most learned Josephus Judaeus litteratâ—ssimus agnoscit deum septimâ requievissâ— ab operibus cessasse atquâ— eo nomine Judaeos hanc diem quam sabbatum appellant vacationem ad cultum divinum celebrare Joseph lib. 2. Historian among the Jewish Nation saith expresly That God rested on the seventh day and ceased from the works of Creation and upon that account the Jews keep that day they call the Sabbath a vacation to the Worship of God Thus Rabbi Jonathas and the whole Sanedrim of the Jews Gods ancient and select people give their free concurrence to this truth So that none of the Jewish Doctors seem to dissent excepting Maimonides as Truth will have some always to oppose it And this Augustine takes notice of and accounts it as the general opinion of the Jews which never was blasted with the heats of difference and contention and it is pregnantly animadverted by a learned man That though August tract 20. in Joan. Solom Jarchi in Gen. 26. Rabbi Simson in Isa 58. Rabbi Kimchi Manasseh Een Israel in Deut. 5. Aben Ezra in Exod. 20. Septem praecepta Noachi enumerantur in Schindlero in Radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the observation of the Sabbath was none of the seven Precepts of Noah yet in as much as the Lord gives command and express charge That the streangers within the gate should observe the Sabbath Exod. 20. 10. It seems it was comprehended under one of them and some think it was comprehended under that which was Intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Birchath Hashem i. e. The Worship of no other God but the Creatour of Heaven and Earth And the famous Mr. Joseph Mede gives us this reason That the observation of the seventh day was the badge of those who worshipped the Creatour of Heaven and Earth According to that The Sabbath is a sign between me and you that I am Jehovah your God Because in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day Thus it is clear by the Opinion and Observation of the Jews that the Sabbath was in force among the Patriarchs not only after but before the Flood for undoubtedly they worshipped the Lord God Creatour of Heaven and Earth As for the Fathers among them there were few Dissenters Sabbatum primum est qâ—od ab initio de câ—etum est ac dictum à domino in creatione mundi c. â—piphan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas de Sab. Chrysoss in Homil. 16. in Gen. they generally concluded the Sabbath to be from the beginning of the World Epiphanius speaks expresly The first Sabbath is that which the Lord from the beginning ordained and pronounced in the Creation of the World This learned Author whilest he is beating down Errour and Heresies by his learned Labours forgets not to establish this great and weighty Truth of the Sabbaths Original Athanasius in his Comment upon Matth. 11. 27. distinguisheth between the Sabbath-day and the Lords-day affirming the Sabbath to be the end of the first Creation and the Lords-day to be the beginning of the second Creation Beda solemnly professeth That the Rest of the seventh day after six days working was always wont to be celebrated And if always then before the Children of Israel's coming forth out of Egypt before Abraham before the Flood even from the beginning of the days of Adam the first of men And Chrysostom is most clear and full in this point New even from the beginning saith he God insinuates this Doctrine to us teaching that in the circle of the week one entire day is to be segregated and set apart for spiritual operation Many of Clem. Alex. the most glorious Stars of the Primitive Church give in abundant Theodor. light to this truth August Epist 86 in Epist ad Casulan Sabbati usus fuit apud veteres prius quà m apud Hebraeos increbuit Aug. Septenarius numerus à conditione mundi authoritatâ—m obtinuit quoniam in sex diebus opera dei complet a sunt ut septima consecrata quieti quasi sancta solennitate vacationis honorata à spiritu sanctificatore attitulata Cyp Christus legem adimplevit dum ipsum Sabbati diem benedictioneâ— Patris à primordio sanctum benefactione suâ sanctio em effect There are only three or four who are looked upon as dissenting Votes but upon a meer mistake as the Learned observe they speaking only of observing the Sabbath after the Jewish manner which was not before the Law was given on Mount Sinai they speak not against Sabbath-observation before the Law but against the observation of it ceremonially after the manner of the Jews in their double Sacrifices Meat-offerings Drink-offerings c. Numb 28. 9 10. Augustine in many places of his Works acknowledgeth that the Sabbath was observed among the Ancients before it grew so common among the Hebrews and he avers that the Sabbath was before Moses and afterwards it came into the Church of the Jews What more plain And whose testimony bears more sway in the Church of Christ than that of the incomparable Augustine whose Person and Learning was little less than a Miracle Cyprian saith That God sanctified the seventh day after his six days works and this day is honoured with a solemn Rest and Vacation and is intituled holy by the sanctified Spirit And to the same purpose Laciantius nay Tertullian who is often suppoenaed as a Witness to both parties in this Controversie yet speaketh most expresly Christ fulfilled the Law saith he whilest he makes the Sabbath more celebrious and holy by his own benefaction which was consecrated from the beginning
complaint for the thing it was designed to 4. This fourth Commandment is part of the Decalogue which is an immatable and eternal law and was delivered with as much solemnity and Majesty as any other Law To urge no more arguments ten is the perpetual number of Gods Commandments so delivered by God Deut. 4. 13. Qâ—â—rtum praecepâ—um 〈◊〉 morale quaâ—â—â—â—â— praecipit ut è septem diebus unum consecremus cultui divino proinde quatâ—nus tale nunquam fuit abrogatum nec abrogari â—â—test Aquin. and so preserved by Moses so received in all the Churches of God to this very day Now this law for the Sabbath is one of the ten and therefore perpetual to hold up the number unless with the Papists we will cleave more Commandments to make way for the flight of this divine law of the Sabbath And the ten Commandments being Gods Covenant Deut. 4. 13. We may neither adde thereunto nor take therefrom Mans Covenant being once confirmed no man disanulls it or takes away any clause in it and may any take from the Covenant of the Lord Then as this Covenant is perpetual consisting of the number of ten words no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 3. 15. Hominis licet sit Testamentum tamen si sit approbatum nemo illud rejiâ—it aut illi a liquid addit Vatabl. fewer in the Tables which were first written Deut. 4. 13. nor in the tables which were written the second time Exod. 34. 1. 28. nor was any thing added in the recapitulation and rehearsal of them Deut. 5. 22. Therefore most irrefragably this fourth Commandment as one of the ten words remains perpetual as is the Covenant it self This truth of the morality of the fourth Commandment is so evident so clear so indisputable that all varieties come in to give their free assent and full attestation Ask a Jew and Manasseh Ben Israel will tell you Therefore the blessed Manasseh Ben Israel Chrysost homil 19. in Genes Ideo deus diem septimum sanctificavit ut homo sciret in circulo hebdomadae diem unum esse cultui divino tribuendum Par. God desiring that the Sabbath may be observed for ever of all whose sanctity by so many Commandments he hath commended placed it in the Decalogue and made it one of his ten Commandments to the end that we knowing these precepts to be everlasting we should understand that this Commandment also was to be accomplished amongst them What more fair more full more satisfactory Ask one of the Fathers Chrysostom tells us That from the beginning God hath intimated to us this Doctrine instructing us to set apart one day in the circle of a week for spiritual exercises Ask a School-man Jacobus-de Valentia tells us That the Commandment for the Sabbath is moral for the conditions of it Naturale est diem septimum quemque deo sacrum esse Jun. Morale est ut ex septem diebus unus cultui divino consecretur Conrad Dieteric 1. In regard of the rest 2. In regard of the sanctification of that rest far the Sabbath was first given to man for his rest that he might cease from all his worldly labours and so he might with more ease and facility be a commodated to the service and worship of God and one day in the week must be dedicated to God for this sanctification and worship and thus the precept is stable and everlasting Ask a Jesuit Azorius tells us It is a most rational Morale est sanctificare unum è septem diebâ—â— Bald. cas Conscien circa Festa l. 2. c 13. cas 2. thing that after the works of six dayes the seventh should be a rest consecrated to God and his worship nay ask a Cardinal whose Princely altitude might lift him above the tenure of this truth Bellarmine tells us The Divine law required that one day in a week should be sequestred for holy worship Ask a more inferiour Romanist Terus tells us God will have one day in a week at least to be allowed him Ask a Lutheran Vâ—luit deus ad minus unum diem in hebdomâ—da sibi impendi Ferus Baldwin tells us It is moral to sanctifie one day in seven Ask a Protestant either of a Forraign Nation Zanchy tells us The fourth Commandment is moral as it biddeth us dedicate one day in a week for the service of God and so Junius God therefore sanctified the seventh day that man might know that in the weekly circuit one day is to be bestowed upon the publick worship of God Or of our own Nation thus the Reverend Hooker We are to account the sanctification of one day in a week a duty which Gods immutable law doth exact for ever So Dr. Donne God required a seventh part of our time for his exteriour worship But I will not tire or cloy the Reader with a multiplicity of allegations only this is very observable that all these Divines fix the morality of the command upon the seventh day in number and not in order as some incautelously and erroncously do Nay the Morality of the fourth Commandment shines Stella with so many beams of light and conviction that the very adversaries may be subpoenaed in by their own Consciences and Writings to give in their testimony and assent unto it Thus Stella the Papist In the sanctification of the Sabbath this is Moral to observe one day in the week Arminius the King James his Declar. against Vorstius great enemy of God as King James calls him tells us It is Moral to set apart one day in seven for Gods service And those who are adversaries to this truth in particular accord in the same confession Dr. Heylin saith The Decalogue contains the Moral law or the law of nature a Law universal Dr. Heylin his hist of the Sab. in it self and general equally appertaining to Jew and Gentile We can desire no more then this full confession Mr. Primrose confesseth That the Sabbath is Moral in its foundation end marrow and principal substance and that a stinted time is Moral and grounded on the principles of nature Primr par 2. c. 6. Sect. 15. 19. and therefore the Gentiles had their set dayes of Religion and this is ratified by the Gospel Nay the Learned Ironside freely acknowledges That all the Commandments of the Decalogue are Moral and so is that of the Sabbath it is Moral for substance but not for circumstance Now the acknowledgment of an Adversary is very evidential to the truth Irons Quaest 2. c. 9. of a position Thus every way the fourth Commandment that holy that just that good precept for the Sabbath hath been vindicated from the imputation of a Ceremony and it is Rom. 7. 12. too much to be feared it was the body of a design cast that shadow upon it The worthy Twisse roundly concludes Never Lex Decaâ—ogi est lex moralis aeterna Wol. any man was found to devise any
observed by the Disciples for a time the Jewish least they should offend the Jews and the Christian Damus fortean concedimus quoad sententias aliorum Discipulos utrumque diem per aliquot annos observasse Judaicum scil ne Judaeis Dominicum ne Christianis oriretur scandalum Dr. Wilk least they should scandalize the Christians what inconveniency would follow Man naturally is hard of belief and to evince the abrogation of old things and the surrogation of things which are new in their stead is a work of some pains and difficulty therefore that the Jews might be taken off from their fondness and the Christians firmly established in the truth some time must be granted and some allowance made of absolute necessity And that a respect was had to both dayes it was only for the term of some years which when expired the morning-sun of the Christian Sabbath did shine without a competitour and during that little and short time of the observation of both dayes we may consider 1. The Saturday Sabbath was never the day of solemn assemblies in all the Churches for the custome of holding solemn Conventions and Assemblies on that day never obtained Sozomon lib. 7. cap. 19. in the Churches of Rome and Alexandria whereas all Churches had their Church-meeting on the Lords day our Christian Sabbath The Old Sabbath was never kept as a solemn festival for in many Churches it was a weekly fasting day whereas every Lords day throughout the year was held a solemn festival Constitut lib. 7. cap. 14. lib. 5. cap. 15. the Jews Sabbath as in a fainting fit was kept with sorrow and abstinence All Ordinances were never administred with that uniformity on the Old Sabbath as they were on the Lords day As the Ordinance of the Lords supper which in the purest Acts 20. 7. Dies Panis August Epist 118. Churches was appropriate to the Lords day which was therefore called dies panis the day of bread in the primitive times hence that memorable speech of Athanasius who being accused for breaking a Communion Cup clears himself Socrat. Schol. lib. 5. cap. 22. Athanas Apol. 2. thus That time instanced by his accusers was no communion time for it was not the Lords day The conventions on the old Sabbath were ever arbitrary not urged as of necessity unless by the Arch-heretick Ebion Dominicum servasti Christianus sum intermittere non possum Baron and his followers who were therefore condemned as Hereticks but the observation of the Lords day was ever held a Christian duty and none was ever branded with the name of heretick for the observation of it Nay this observation was the badge and Character of a Christian in the best times of the Church The old Sabbath was never in the least the Christian Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ignat. or day of rest but a working day and used as another day and let us never give that day a prerogative which the best times of the Church laid open and common Festinatio Apostolorum ad concionandum non fuit propter festum sed propter multitudinem The Apostles and Disciples of Christ never observed the seventh day as a Sabbath It is true they took an opportunity then to dispense and disperse the Gospel because multitudes were then conveened and met together an happy opportunity was then put into their hands for the insinuating of Christ and the doctrines of the blessed Gospel into Chrysost Homil 43. in Acta Apost the minds of the people now in an unwonted concourse The Apostles did then cast the heavenly bread upon many waters Acts 18. 4. Acts 17. 18 Acts 19. 9. 2 Cor. 4. 4. The zeal of a faithful Minister much more of an holy Apostle will take the best opportunities for soul-advantage and for heavenly instruction It was not the Sabbath but the Season not the circumstance of time but of place invited Ecclesia Graecorum ad paululum septimum diem unà cum primo observavit sed in causâ fuit quia in Oriente initio nascentis ecclesiae viguerat haeresis quorundam qui vetus testamentum execrabantur tanquam à deo Authore malè conditum sabbati cultum aspernabantur eâque de causâ tali die jejunium suscipiebant orientales ergò Christiani hanc heresin detestati deum ipsum V. T. Authorem profitentes caeperunt Sabbati judaici festivitatem retinere non quòd illam more judaeorum colerent sed n◠cum haereticis consentire viderentur et in oriente in illis temporibus multi erant judaei ad Christi religionem conversi qui quando animi simplicitate putabant Sabbatum unà cum die dominicâ in honore habendum caeteri Christiani ne eos conturbarant Sabbatum colebant non quòd id fieri oporteret c. Azor. the Apostles to the dispensation of the Word not the feast but the multitude as Chrysostome well speaks nor did the Apostles any more keep the Jewish Sabbath then Paul worshipped the Gods of the Gentiles when he preached in the field of Mars and disputed in the Schools of the Heathens these places were only the sudden Sanctuaries in which he disseminated the glorious Gospel It is true as a learned man observes in the Eastern Churches for a time the Jewish and Christian Sabbath were both observed Now the reason was there was a sort of Hereticks who did disuse and disgust the Old Testament and said it was evilly compiled of God and did throw off with scorn the Sabbath day and usually fasted on that day in a way of contempt and contradiction Now the Eastern Christians in detestation of this cursed heresie and to shew that God was the Author of the Old Testament as well as of the New did for a while retain the old Sabbath not that they worshipped on it after the manner of the Jews they were far enough from that but some observance they gave to it least they might seem to joyn issue with the forementioned hereticks And moreover in the East were many Jews in the early dayes of the Gospel which were newly converted to Christ who in the simplicity of their hearts did bear still a reverence to the old Sabbath and therefore did observe it with the Lords day Now the Christians were to deal tenderly with those and not to offend Babes in Christ and not to create any perturbation in the Church but to keep peace and unity and so they gave respect to this day not that they thought it any way necessary or a duty to be done but for peace-sake and that salvation-work might not be retarded nor the Church of our dear Redeemer shattered or crumbled into Schisms and Factions and so as the Apostle speaks in another case the Christians of those times became all things to all men that if possible the late Converts of the Jews might have no temptation to apostasy nor the Proselytes of the Gospel have
loose to carnal liberty on the Lords day the more loose his heart will be in all good duties the whole week following Let men neglect meditation repetition of Sermons holy conference and other private duties betakeing themselves after the publick worship is over to vain and worldly discourse or vainer pleasures they shall quickly find that the publick service is utterly lost and become unprofitable And on the contrary as Moses continued forty dayes with God on the Mount had his face shining with splendor and glory Exod. 34. 30. So he who shall this day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuag of God wholly converse with God not only in publick Ordinances as Moses in the tabernacle but likewise in private duties as Moses on the Mount shall find a sensible spiritual vigour and an unexpected strength to carry him through all the occasions of the whole week following and a kind of glorious lustre arising from the increase of holiness put upon him and this shall be visible to the eye and hearts of others Eccles 3. 1. He who keeps the Lords day with the most strict and and accurate observation shall find 1. Most blessing upon his labours 2. Most holiness in heart and life 3. Most comfort and joy in his own soul 4. Most sweetness in death 5. Most glory and rest in Heaven when there remains that Populo dei superest Sabbatismus i. e. requies dâ—i ad quam quotidiè sanctus vocatur Par. everlasting Sabbatism for all the people of God It is a good observation of a learned man That when the spirit cometh effectually to convince of sin usually one of the first sins which the eye of the enlightned conscience fixes upon is the neglect of the Lords day and conviction usually ending in conversion one of the first duties which the soul comes seriously to close withall is the strict observation of the Lords day and grace usually works this way and doth exceedingly dispose to this duty Young Converts will be full of meltings on Gods holy day And truly the holy observation of the Sabbath much speaks the temper of a Christian However the week fares as Judg. 12. 6. the Sabbath doth Good Sabbaths usher in good weeks and are the morning stars of an approaching day when we hear truth on the Sabbath digesting it by prayer and meditation when we put up strong cries to God with fervour and devotion when we enjoy Ordinances our spiritual meals on a Sabbath with appetite and satisfaction this will cast a chain upon our corrupt hearts and will be bellows to our future zeal wil supply us with holy meditations which will be as so many bright gleams and will put a heat upon our affections and make us every way act the Saint all the ensuing week As Queen Mary said when she lost Callais When I am dead open me and you shall find Callais written upon my heart So the Christian who hath been very serious on Gods day you shall find Sabbath written upon his heart all the following week The seent of a conscientious Sabbath is not easily lost nor is the warmth of it so speedily chilled souls drenched in Sabbath Ordinances like vessels seasoned with excellent liquors Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu they long retain the taste The believer is disciplined upon a Sabbath and we do not easily forget our Education A Sermon kindly entertained on the Lords day will be faithfully improved on the week day Our best Christians were ever strictest on the Sabbath Those tasts of love we then sense and gust will abide and not lightly wear off these will lie upon the heart when the Sabbath is over Let us keep Sabbaths well we shall be better in our shops better in our worldly affairs better in our families better in our discourses better in our converses more righteous in our dealings more exemplary in our walkings more vigorous in our duties all the week following After a well passed Sabbath we shall more watch our hearts more keep our ground and withstand temptations and the deceipts of our Calling which happily Quaestus magnus est pietas quia opes supernaturales secum affert et amicitiam dei obtinet qui suis opes coelestes promittit praeparat are quilted into the very nature of it shall not so much tempt as exasperate and provoke us The whole week must be spent holy to prepare us the better for the Sabbath and the Sabbath must be spent hâ—ly the better to influence the week as the beginning with God on the morning of a Sabbath may influence the whole Sabbath so the beginning with God in the morning of the week viz. The Lords day may exceedingly influence and prosper the whole week He 2 Thes 2. 10. who on the Sabbath hath been much in the work of heaven cannot easily be much in the dross of earth or the dregs of sin on the time of the week Ordinances like clocks when they have struck leave a sound and a noise for a considerable time nor can a Sermon carefully heard be presently shaken out of the heart The word when received in the love thereof is fire in the bones Jer. 20. 9. and not heat in the face an inward warmth which is permanent and not only a colour which is transient The tasts the impressions the power and spirituality of a well-observed Sabbath cannot without much difficulty strong assaults of Satan powerful workings of a corrupt heart be disanulled and eradicated Hearts steeped in holy Ordinances will not soon lose their perfume It is very true our slight deportment in Ordinances makes them superficial and so soon slide off and they who pass over the Sabbath loosly will spend the week profligately they who spend it formally will spend the week vainly But a serious composure of spirit on Gods holy day will blow off the froth of the ensuing week Ignatius as hath been suggested calls the Lords day the Queen of dayes Regis ad exemplum totus componitur Oâ—bis and according to the example of the Queen inferiour and subordinate days will be composed The endeavour of every Christian should be that his practices in secret in his calling in his company on the week day should be answerable to the great priviledges he enjoyed and to the rich grace he received on the Lords day One well observes That Religion is just as the Sabbath and it decays or groweth as the Sabbath is esteemed it flourishes in a due Veneration of the Sabbath and it pines and consumes when the Sabbath is under neglect or contempt And Dr. Twisse takes notice That the conscionable observation of the Sabbath ever was is a principal means to draw us to spiritual rest from sin and to fit us for an eternal rest in glory In a word the Sabbath and the week are both embarqued in the same ship they both are safe or sink together if our souls
the strong Trace a sabbath-Sabbath-work and is it any thing else but gaining knowledge treasuring up truth wrestling with God for pardon grace and assurance visiting our Beloved and driving the great Bargain of Eternity And for which of these good works must the Sabbath be prophaned John 10. 33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or thrown away If Philosophers say of Vertue It is its own reward is it not much more true of holy worship spiritual communion converse with Heaven and those pleasing delights which are the sweet employment of a Sabbath Therefore 1 John 1. 3. to pollute this day or to trifle it away what is it but to Numb 14. 8. bring an evil report on Canaan a Land flowing with milk and honey Argum. 6 And it would be seriously considered Sabbaths are upon the wing and they will not long continue to us We cannot say of richest Sabbaths as once Christ said of poor persons the Sabbaths ye have always with you Mat. 26. 11. The Lords day is a triumphant but a transient mercy Now we enjoy these blessed Sabbaths and holy Ordinances we know not how soon the Songs of Zion may be turned into howling Lam. 1. 4 16. And Ichaâ—od may be written upon our weekly jubilies We know not how soon Gods wrath or John 12. 35. our own death may hide thâ—se things which belong to our Levit. 26. 43. peace from our eyes O then let us improve our Sabbaths Luc. 19. 42. our sweet seasons our Summer-time our divine Harvest for Prov. 6. 6 7. if we do not gather grace on this day what shall we have Jer. 8. 7. to lay out on the week-day Or what shall we have to spend Prov. 10. 5. on a death-bâ—d when we are stepping into another World Psal 32. 6. We know the Water-man must observe his wind and tyde Suus cuique constitutus est dies certum tempus quo operari possit quo elapso nihil amplius praestare queat Chemnit and when they serve then he throws off his Doublet and bestirs himself left he should fall short of his Creek or Haven It concerns us to mind Sabbaths and to sanctifie them to the Lord then the gases of the Spirit blow fair then the waters of the Sanctuary run right for the Port to which we are bound but if these heavenly Opportunities slide away without our serious improvement we must with Esau Psal 115. 17. seek the Blessing carefully with tears but it shall not accrue Heb. 12. 17. unto us The Musician plays his Lesson while the Instrument is in tune let us ripen in grace while the Sabbath shines and Sabbath showers continue Our Saviour bids us work while it is day John 9. 4. Surely this principally points at the Sabbath-day which is the Souls day It is but a few Sabbaths more nay it may be not one more and we shall go down to our silent Graves Our life is uncertain not a Sun but a Vapour Jam. 4. 14. and can our Sabbaths be sure and steddy Our Sabbaths are our Tyde for Heaven and when the Tyde is past there is no rowing to the Port. When the Traveller observes the Sun is declining and draws towards setting then he spurs up his Beast and speeds his pace lest the Night over-take him Our Sabbaths are setting and the Gospel-Sun is low is speeding to a disappearance Let us then keep holy these days and carefully make the best advantage of them let us neither stain their beauty by our prophaneness nor detract from their bounty by our neglect and formality lest the shadows of death over-take us and then who shall remember God or work for Psal 115. 17. his Soul in the Pit or the Grave where we shall be lodged and awake no more till the Resurrection Arg. 7 But though the Lords day be fleet and swift as to us yet it is permanent in its self and in its duration calls for our devotion We admire not a Candle so much as we do the Sun Gen. 2. 3. and one reason is because the Candle wastes but the Sun endures The light of our Sabbath is not a transient blaze but a constant light which will continue till the consummation of all things and God hath folded up all things in change or dissolution Now Permanency is a character of excellency Gold is only refined in the same fire where dress is consumed The Priesthood of Melchisedech was more excellent Melchisedec 400 annis sacerdotium Aaroniâ—uâ— antecâ—ssit et ejus sacerdotium Christi sacerdotium repraeseâ—tat quod usque ad finem mundi duraturum est Alap than that of Aaron because it continued for ever Heb. 7. 17. So the Sabbath of Christians is more excellent than the Sabbath of the Jews because that found a grave but this shall find none To our Sabbath it may be said in comparison with all the Jews Sabbaths They shall perish but thou remainest they shall all wax old as doth a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou rowl them up and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail To our Sabbath all the Powers of Earth and Hâ—ll shall never put a period it is a durable and therefore an honourable Ordinance And shall God honour it and shall we deface it Shall he promote it and shall we prophane it Shall he make it a lasting Ordinance and set it up as a Marble Pillar in the Church and shall we write froth and vanity upon it as if it was a Tomb-stone Our Sabbath is no flying Ceremony or transient Rite which hath the worm of Judaism at the root of it which will eat it out in time but it is a stable institution which God will have sanctified with all exactness The Persians Laws Eâ—â—h 1. 19. were irrevocable and therefore the more venerable and the transgression of but one of them threw Daniel into the Lions Den Dan. 6. 8 12. So the Law of our Sabbath it is solemn and solid not subject to decay or of a perishing nature which earnestly presses the sanctification and amplifies exceedingly the pollution of it It is not so great 〈◊〉 to break a piece of glass as to break a piece of Gold 〈◊〉 â—â—â—eness is the blemish of every thing Leases the shorter 〈◊〉 are the more inconsiderable The life of nature is no wâ—y to be compared with thâ— life of grace not only in point of sweetness but duâ—ation Sin upon the Lords day is not like â—â—rase upon a picture which is a fading paint but like a flaw in a Jewel it is a more durable blemish and a more praejudicial debasement God hâ—th not only stamped his Name upon our Sabbath but something of his Nature there is a kind of eternity engraven upon it and therefore the violation of it Rev. 1. 10. by sin neglect or vanity must needs be a reduplicate impiety Arg. 8 Let us likewise take notice that this
have been eminent for Sabbath-holiness Let us trace the Apostolical practice which in this case is our brightest beam for our conduct and guidance Acts 20. 7. How indefatigable were they in their labours powerfull Acts 8. 4. in their reasonings multifarious in their administrations Acts 20. 10. frugal of their time copious in their preaching and 1 Cor. 16. 2. stupendous in their works upon Gods holy day On this day they discovered their thirst after souls their love to the Gospel and as so many stars they scattered the light of glorious truth They would preach on a Sabbath although it 2 Cor. 4. 4. Acts 13. 42. Acts 16. 13. was in a proscribed Synagogue and they would pray on a Sabbath though it was by a Rivers side a place of more privacy then shelter And shall these Heavenly patterns put no animation and life in us to honour the Lords day with duty and devotion The Limner who hath a beautiful person before him and yet draws an unseemly picture deserves to have the pencil snatcht out of his hand and to be discharged of his employment Arg. 7 Let us take a prospect of the golden age of the Church and observe the carriage of the Primitive Christians upon the Lords day O what a heavenly spirit breathed in them on this Coimus ad caetum et deum quasi manu extensâ precationibus ambimus Tertul. Christiani a mediâ nocte caetum inchâ—averunt Hier. blessed day insomuch that Tertullian cryes out in a kind of a rapture On this day we meet in our assemblies and as with a stretched-out hand we clasp about God with our prayers If ye will know when the Primiâ—ive Christians began their Sabbath Hierome tells us about midnight which likewise Basil affirms to be the usual practice of those times and tells us a story of himself in relation to these midnight meetings But that the Christians met before day light on the Lords day it was so generally known in the world that Pliny a modest Epist Plin. secund ad Trajanum Heathen took notice of it and makes mention of it in an Epistle to Trajan the Roman Emperour and spake of it in commendation of the Christians and urged this practice Tertul. de Coron mil. Apol cont Gent. Cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as an alleviating argument to soften the Emperour to more mildness towards them and so to slacken the present persecution These meetings before day on the Sabbath are likewise mentioned by Tertullian in a Tract of his We see then the early zeal of the Primitive Christians on the Lords day Nor did they rise so soon but to spend the time to the highest advantage Justin Martyr gives us a full account of the Christians deportment on the Lords day Upon the day called Sunday saith he All that abide within the Cities or about the fields do meet together in the same place wherein the Records of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets are read unto us the Reader having done the President gives a word of exhortation that we may imitate those good things which are there repeated and then standing up together we send up our prayers to the Lord c. And as Justin Martyr shews us how those of his time acted their duties So Tertullian tells us how the Primitive Christians acted their Graces on the Lords day On this day saith he We feed our faith with holy preaching we lift up our hope and we fasten our confidence upon Tertul. God Hierome speaking of some in his time tells us They designed the Lords day wholly to prayer and to the Hier. ad Eustoch reading of the holy Scriptures and he highly commends them for that practice And that you may not think that the Primitive Christians served God only in publick upon the Lords day Ambrose layes it as a severe injunction upon Ambro. Serm. 33. tom 3. pag. 259. the people That they be conversant all the day in prayer or reading and if any could not read that he should labour to be fed with holy conference And Chrysostome presses the people That presently upon their coming Chrysost in Joan. homil 3. home from the publick they should take a Bible into their hands and make rehearsal with their wives and children of that which had been taught them out of the word of God Tertullian and Justin Martyr positively and fully inform Just Mart. Apol. cap 30. pag. 692. from us That when the Christians were departed out of the Congregation they did not run into the rout of swashbucklers or into the company of ramblers such as did run 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb lib. 4. cap. 22. up and down hither and thither but they had care of the like modesty and chast behaviour out of the Church as when they were in the Congregation Nay Theodoret assures us That the Primitive Christians did celebrate other Festivals much more the Lords day their great Festival and their Saviours Resurrection day with spiritual hymns and religious sermons and that the people used to empty out their souls to God in fervent and affectionate Theod. prayers not without sighs and tears No wonder then if Basil say We fill up the Lords day with holy prayers And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Clemens Romanus definitively concludeth Neither on the Lords dayes which are dayes of joyfulness do we grant any thing may be said or done besides holiness A holy speech of an excellent person And therefore Augustine in his sixth Book de Civitate Dei Cap. 11. speaking of Seneca's scoffing of the Jews Sabbath for which he had too much cause Notwithstanding saith he Seneca durst not speak of the Dies dominicus divinis conventibus sequestratus est Isych Christians even then most contrary to the Jews least either he should praise them viz. the Christians against the custome of his Country or reprove them perhaps against his own will So that the Christians observation of the Lords day in the primitive times was above the snarling of a Heathen and the scomms and sarcasmes of a gentile Phylosopher Thus we have the pattern of the primitive Church and it is a good standard for our practice Their early rising should make us more frugal of the time of a Sabbath their fervent zeal should make us more spiritual in the Ordinances of a Sabbath and their devotion at home should make us more Rom. 12. 11 conscientious in our families upon Gods holy day Let us therefore bestrict and exact in Sabbath-observation having the golden age of the Church for our ensample And indeed pure Religion and undefiled which the Apostle speaks of Jam. 1. 27. Jam. 1. 27. never looks so comely as upon a Sabbath day the day inhances the duty as the lovely dress sets off the lovely person Beauty taking advantage from the attire Argu. 8 The holy observation of the Sabbath is the