of their Fast they found their pleasure v. 3. And it is easily transfer'd and by the same reason applyed to the weekly Sabbath for howsoever the Fast was a day of Soul-affliction and the Sabbath of soul-delight and so there was a difference between them yet they were also so much alike that their solemn Fast-day hath the name of Sabbath imposed upon it And all their fasting dayes were separating days wherein they separated sequestred themselves not only so as not to do any sin but so as that they were also precisely required not to do any work no not to give way to their own will or find their own pleasure on the Sabbath therefore it is Gods will that we should not only watch over our wayes without but look to our wills within which as far as they are our own and not Gods should not be sought or found by us or with us on that day they are on that day as other creatures to Adam not found meet companions for us but too low Gen. 2. 20. In sum No self-delight is to be admitted that is against Sabbath-delight Ne diem sanctum Domini suis commaculet voluntatibus Hieron in Isa 58. 3. Our words not speaking a word which is well explained from the words going before where our own is expressed by the supplying of the same here and saying our own words for the meaning is not on that day we should be mutes and say nothing Now our own words may be said to be of two sorts 1. Such as are simply unlawful in themselves which are evil any day and worse on that day 2 Such as are relatively unlawful that is in relation to that day as being unsutable to it and opposite to that holiness and godly communication that is required on it And that this is here comprehended for I do not exclude words simply evil but reckon them on this day most abominable I say that this is here comprehended to wit the prohibition of common as well as condemned words may appear because here is a day evidently separated and marked out from common dayes on which notwithstanding there must be none of our own that is no sinful words and therefore it 's reasonable and congruous to conceive the meaning in this place to be that we must speak none of our own words that is of our every dayes words but that a more holy and refined language is to be used on that holy day Briesly no words are to be spoken that day which are meerly our own and not some way Gods and relating to his honour and service whose day it is It is not a day to make Bargains take Accounts to talk of Kine Horses Hawks Hounds c. which on other dayes there 's liberty to do but all the leisure we have for communication or otherwise should be sanctified for the Rest must be holy the whole day Yet I do not mean that every word is unlawful on the Sabbath that is in its nature earthly or an expression of some worldly thing for our necessities require some such words and works also as are in themselves of a worldly and common nature as about Apparel and Dyet or other incidental things But that which I humbly conceive is required is this That on that day our discourse and conference generally should be of a more holy and heavenly strain and that if other working dayes words be used it may truly be put on the account of necessity mercy Christian civility tending to the honour of Religion the doing of good the winning of others to goodness or some other end fit to be intended on that day and which cannot be so well attained but in that way that is by using vulgar and common-common-words no way to be numbred among spiritual expressions unless in regard of the end which an heart wherein there is an habit of holiness directs them unto And whosoever give themselves leave to talk of what they please assoon as they are out of Church will be like to find less good by their having been in it and less fitness to return again profitably unto it or to be about any private religious Exercise which that holy Day calleth ' them unto for as evil communications corrupt mens minds and manners so worldly discourse useth to make the heart more worldly and less apt for things heavenly because prepossessed with earthly which agreeing better then that which is better with our natures the heart is therefore more hardly won from them to a due attending to and affecting of the things of God Thus this later part of the verse expounds the former for he truly turns not away his foot from the Sabbath who in word thought and work doth not his own will but the will of God Now all this easily passeth from the day to the way of God and that substance of Piety which is every day a necessary duty yet so as that the spiritual observation of Gods holy day is a special means thereof and help thereunto I say the spiritual observation and desire that should be observed because they who speak more meanly of the Sabbath day do seem to take the word Sabbath in a strict sense and to mean thereby an exact but idle observing of a day of rest without further reference end due respect to that sanctisication of the Rest which the fourth Precept plainly expresseth I say I suppose they that speak less honourably of the day of the Sabbath look at that empty Sabbatizing for otherwise if any man shall plead for a resting from sin and the practise of holiness every day with the sleighting of the weekly Sabbath as it ought to be observ'd he plainly destroys what be pretends to build and weakeneth Religion every day by weakning the reverence of that day the which Sabbath-reverence and real respect to all Religion are so linked together that howsoever there is a difference in regard of the degree yet few or none are found to regard either who regard not both As they regard not Learning that regard not Schooling nor House-keeping that keep not Market-dayes so they regard not godliness any day who regard not the Sabbath-day wherein it is taught and wherein all provisions are laid up for a godly life And on the other side As they go not to School as they should but loiter there that get no learning nor spend their time well at the Market that bring home no Provision so they never keep the Sabbath day rightly whose desire and care is not to live every day religiously and Christianly I shall add only this They who carry this Text to mens general carriage say There is an allusion in it to the Sabbath-day and saying so they must needs I think grant that the Sabbath to which the Prophet alludeth had these things in it that is holiness of heart tongue and carriage as in the Epitome which are afterward to be spread forth at
the two verses before recited v. 17 18. is contained Nehemiah's contending or arguing the case by strong and solid reasons with the Nobles who either had a hand in this evil as being Actors in it themselves or at least were under the guilt of it for want of being the restrainers of it being it's like intrusted with the care of such things in Nehemiah's absence This contention is made good by the great evil that there is profaning the Sabbath day which is twofold 1. The evil of sin v. 17. What evil thing is this that ye do 2. The evil of punishment Did not your fathers do thus and did not God bring all this evil upon us v. 18. The former of these sheweth that It is an evil thing to profane the Sabbath day I use the word Sabbath not as intending to speak of or to give any countenance to the observation of the Jews Sabbath now but as purposing to speak of the Christian Sabbath and to take in that only of the Jews day which sometime belonged to it in the general nature and notion of a Sabbath and with respect to that observation of a Sabbath which being prescribed in the fourth Commandement belongs to every Sabbath of Gods appointment Nor do I while I make use of the name Sabbath deny the Lords day to be the more Evangelical name but I call it a Sabbath because it will never be the Lords day unless it be a Sabbath day that is it will never be a day of holy Rest unless it be a day of rest which the word Sabbath signifieth Concerning which I shall mention these three particulars 1. The Rest enjoyned 2. The thing intended in that rest to wit Holiness 3. The Extent both of the rest and the holiness it is for the whole day First In a Sabbath rest is required and that so as to do no manner of work the meaning is not that we are to abstain from sinful works only which though they be eminently unlawful on that day yet are truly unlawful any day and are forbidden in all the other Commandements Nor is it the meaning that we should abstain from servile work only that is worldly works painful and gainful which are allowed on other days for howsoever such works be in special manner forbidden as being named in the fourth Commandement yet that 's but by a Synechdoche or a figure whereby more is meant for if they only were forbidden then the Sabbath might be spent in things easie liberal and ingenuous without blame and then God should have the day no more or little more then if it were spent in servile works when yet it must be a Sabbath of or to the Lord The thing therefore required is that all manner of work be forborn by what name or title soever it be called that is ours and not Gods that depriveth God of his day or is an hinderance of that holiness which is intended in the Sabbath or day of rest Of this Rest there are divers reasons As 1. The solemnity of the day for it 's one of Gods solemn dayes Psal 81. 5. that the celebration thereof may be more fair and full by laying aside all work and the whole Creation as it were to wait on the Creator Levit 23. 3. 2. As in point of solemnity so In point of mercy for the relief refreshing and taking breath of the toiled creature after six dayes labour which is said of God himself after his work but it is spoken after the manner of men Exod. 31. 17. On the seventh day he rested and was refreshed 3. And especially In point of Piety for the sanctification of the day in the holy services thereof and that not without need For if we look to innocent Adam albeit some question Whether the Law of the Sabbath were given to him before the Fall yet there 's no cause to question but that it would have been useful to him though he had not faln because he could not at once dress and keep the Garden and have that compleat and indistracted communion with God which it was easie for him to enjoy in a time of rest and separation from all such earthly and heterogeneal imployment But now man being faln this Rest is of more absolute necessity because both humane infirmity and corruption so compass and cleave to us that we cannot with full intention of mind be in Heaven and Earth both at once that is we cannot at the same time apply our selves intirely to matters of so different a nature and operation as heavenly and earthly things are which apparently carry our hearts contrary wayes whereof there needs not further proof then the dayly experience we have of the dividing of our hearts and the withdrawing of them from things spiritual or at least the eclipsing of them by the interposition of earthly things which if they be earthly thoughts hinder spiritual thoughts and disturb heavenly meditations if they be earthly words they cool spiritual communications a man cannot speak two different languages both at once and if they be earthly Actions they weaken spiritual exercises and thrust aside heavenly transactions For this reason Play also and Sports are forbidden for God forbids not work for the thing He likes work better then play but for the end to wit because it hinders the intire imploying of the day in holy things which Play doth much more because of a greater delight in it and for that the heart is more taken up with it and stollen as the hearts of the men of Israel were by Absaloms kisses 2 Sam. 15. 5 6. from the son of David the Lord of the Sabbath by it Now Albeit there might be some rest out of the fourth Commandement appendant to the Jews day and proper to them as appertaining to their Education which I conceive it will be hard to find that which is produced for it being as probably answered as urged yet all that rest which is enjoyned in the Commandement and is necessary for Sabbath-sanctification belongeth to us as well as to them for As the observation of the Sabbath prescribed in the fourth Commandement being spiritual argueth the Law that requireth it to be both moral and eternal so with respect thereto the bodily rest also becometh moral and therefore a common and continuing thing to us as well as to the Jews Nor need this rest seem tedious if we consider what works God requireth and alloweth on the Sabbath-day As 1. Works of Religion Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work saith the Commandment but on the Sabbath-day we may and must do Gods work Hence it 's said The Priests profane the Sabbath that is materially by doing those works that would profane it if God had not commanded them for his service but being that he hath so done those Priests are blameless because those works though servile in their nature yet were sacred in their end and
application Such a work was the infirm mans carrying his bed on the Sabbath when Christ had healed him The bearing of burthens on that day for worldly lucre is one of the things that Nehemiah here contends against but that mans carrying his bed became a religious action by being an appurtenance of the Miracle and an open declaration to all men who on that day did more flock together of the grace and power of God by which he was cured under this head may be comprehended those bodily provisions that are truly needful and helpful for our more able and vigorous performance of religious duties or for the glory of God some other way 2. Works of necessity to wit real not feigned and present and apparent not possible only and which may be or not be To this we may refer the Disciples plucking and eating the ears of corn whom Christ excuseth because at that time they as David needed sustenance And add thereto the other plain instance of a Sheeps falling into a pit Matth. 12. 11. which they that so quarrel'd with our Saviour made no scruple to pull out on the Sabbath day 3. Works of mercy as the healing of the woman bound by Satan Lo eighten years Luk. 13. 15 16. A Saviour so merciful would not stand upon healing on the Sabbath day in a case so pitiful for The Sabbath is made for man Mar. 2. 27. that is the rest of the Sabbath is to give place to mans relief And though God propound to us his example of rest on the seventh day for our resting yet we have his example of working also for mans benefit for saith Christ my Father worketh hitherto no Sabbath day excepted to wit in the preservation government and for the good of his Creatures Thus of the first thing belonging to a Sabbath to wit rest Secondly The thing further and chiefly required and which is intended in this rest is holiness Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy wherein is contained 1. A reverent opinion of it to wit as the Lords holy and honourable day There will never be a good observation of it in our practise without an estimation of it in our judgement Men will not leave the world with which nature closeth nor close with God in those holy things which nature is opposite to and in the best too averse from I say they will not do this on a day and that every week which they care not for on which they see no divine character and in the service whereof they expect no divine blessing 2. A dear affection to it calling it a delight and loving to be in the spirit on that day Revel 1. 10. No delight is the companion of contempt but Delight is so far from despising service that it doubleth it 3. An holy imploying of the rest and bestowing of our selves in the duties belonging to such a day This is well express'd in those considerable Articles of Ireland thus The first day of the week which is the Lords day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business and mark what followeth to bestow that leisure upon holy exercises both publike and private Publike exercises are the principal In reference to which publike worship especially the Sabbath is as I conceive said to be a Sign that is an open declaration Whose we are and whom we serve Jona 1. 9. Act. 27. 23. For it doth not follow from the word Sign that the weekly Sabbath is a typical Ceremony If it were so then it should be a sin to observe a Sabbath now since all Ceremonies end in Christ in whom notwithstanding the Christian Sabbath begins as to the day and by whom it is confirmed as it is a weekly day which the fourth Commandement requireth because he declareth that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it It is not therefore a ceremonial sign any more then the signs in the Sacraments are ceremonial but rather a moral and real sign and demonstration how things stand between God and his people which will further appear by looking more narrowly into that place of Ezekiel where it is called a Sign for thus the Prophet expresseth it I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifie them which words are also mentioned and applyed to the weekly Sabbath Exod. 31. 13. 15 16 17. When the Sabbath is said to be a sign the meaning is as some do most probably expound it that it is a document or an instructing Sign and that between God and his people me and you saith the Lord it teacheth and sheweth that which is common to us both to wit on my part that I am your Creator and Sanctifier on your part that you are a people by Me created and sanctified And that it is thus an instructing sign appears by the words following that ye may know as if the Lord had said Look on the Sabbath as a monument of the relation between me and you I would have you know and observe it so to be Upon a nearer view of the words it will be found a teaching sign of these three lessons 1. That God is the Lord that is that Lord who is the only true God Jer. 10. 10. and that because he hath made the Heaven and the Earth v. 11 12. Which the observation of a Sabbath that is resting a seventh day every week in relation to six dayes work clearly holdeth forth for it is in imitation of that God who in six dayes made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh who can be no other then the true God and Lord of all The second lesson is that this great Lord is the God of his Church or a God in Covenant with them for thus the Lord speaks I am the Lord your God Hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a sign between me and you that ye may know and learn this lesson that I am your God for Why do they wait upon him a whole day every week but to shew that they own him as their God and that they believe he owns them as his people Hence the Scripture saith They sit before thee as my people and hear thy words The third lesson is that he is the Lord that sanctifieth them which may be understood two wayes 1. Of a sanctification to himself by a separation from the world so as to enjoy the priviledg of his Covenant and so the Scripture speaks Ye shall be holy to me for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people that ye should be mine Lev. 20. 26. Exod. 33. 16. 2. And also of an internal renovation and sanctification in spirit and soul and body 1 Thess 5 23. by the Word preached on that day through the
operation of the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 2. Act. 20. 32. 26. 18. So that God hath not only made the Sabbath an holy day but also makeeth men holy by his Ordinances on that day principally dispensed I have been the longer in this because hereby it appeareth what a necessity there is of a weekly Sabbath as being a most signal Declaration and Representation of what God is in himself that is the maker of Heaven and Earth his distinguishing character and what he is to his Church that is a God in Covenant with them and every way a Sanctifier of them and that 's their distinguishing character Exod. 33. 16. Isa 63. 19. Now to return to the thing in hand since the Sabbath becomes of this use especially by the general and solemn meeting of Gods people together to Publike Service as Prayer Reading the Scripture Preaching administration of the Sacraments c. therefore the rest and leisure we have on that day is principally to be bestowed in and sanctified by such duties And therefore the Sacrifices appointed for the Sabbath day were full double to those appointed for every day for the Sabbath being a sign of more then ordinary favour from the Lord he required greater testimonies of their thankefulness and sanctification And the Prophet Ezekiel speaking of the state of the Church in the time of the Messiah under the figure of legal Ordinances mentioneth a yet greater oblation to be offered on the Sabbath day signifying that in the time of the Gospel the spiritual service should exceed the legal the grace of the New Testament being greater then that of the Old Now if we bring this greater service to the great day of service that is the Lords day it will fairly follow that the rest of that day should be fill'd up with holy duties especially in publique for in those duties the Sabbath is most a sign of the relations betwen God and us Private duties also are necessary because the whole day cannot be spent in publike service conveniently and yet it is to be spent holily Before we come to the Congregation therefore considering how holy a God that is before whom we come and how serious a service that is about which we come there is great need to spend some time in repentance especially of the sins committed the week before for how can we stand before God in our sin Ezra 9. 15. And since God requires the heart How much need is there to purge it for he endures not a filthy heart but cryes out upon it Mat. 23. 25. nor will the seed of the Word prosper in it How much need also to adorn it with humility faith fear of God holy desires and affections for God likes not an empty heart but requires to be greatly feared in the Assembly of his Saints to come with hungring thirsting and the desire of new-born-babes and especially with faith without which neither Gods Word to us nor our words in Prayer to him can ever profit Heb. 4. 2. James 1. 6 7. O how empty do we go away from Ordinances either because full of that which we ought to lay aside or void of that which we ought to provide when we come into Gods presence what need therefore of preparation And After we have been before God in Publike Exercises we are not left at liberty to do and speak as we please for it is the Sabbath of the Lord our God still and therefore must have continued in it that rest which is the body of it and that holiness which is the soul of it As therefore before the Publike Service we are to get a stomack and then feed on the heavenly Manna at it so we are to ruminate and chew the cud after it that is we are to consider what God hath said to us meditate and ponder upon it We should be in the spirit on the Lords day that is taken up with spiritual Meditations Rev. 1. 10. or spiritual Conference such as our Saviour used with the men of Emmaus on the day of his Resurrection sutable to what he did before on the Jews Sabbath when going into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread he teacheth one good lesson to the guests that were bidden another to him that bade him them he teacheth Humility and him Charity And a third that sate at meat with him and in him all other men Piety and providence that no worldly encumbrances hinder from spiritual Ordinances It 's true that Christ spake of good things every day but we being taken up with other things on our ordinary dayes have the more need to follow his holy example in speaking of things godly on the Sabbath day Wherein we are not so free to talk of what we list as some may imagine for if there be a liberty for working-working-day words and any every-dayes discourse how will the rest of that day be holy If two or three hours be spent in worldly talk or tales and not in Christian Colloquies and Communications such as Paul so persisted in on the Lords day Where will the holiness of those hours be found and What distinction will there be for that time between that and the working dayes Unto these godly Meditations and Conferences are to be added holy Actions As 1. Works of Piety Reading Praying Admonishing Singing Psalms Catechising children and servants And in special repeating the Sermons preached for the good of the Family or of other Christians who finding how frail their memories are will be glad of such an assistance 2. Works of Charity as laying up or laying out for the use of the poor as God prospereth us visiting and helping the sick spiritually and outwardly as our Saviour used to heal on the Sabbath day yet not so as to make more work then we need but doing any good to poor creatures which will not be so much for God's glory and the winning of others to Religion who are at leisure to look out that day or for their comfort that are in distress if it be not on the Lords day done and dispatch'd Hitherto of the Rest and Holiness of the Sabbath Thirdly There remaineth to be considered the extent of this rest and holiness which is for a whole day for the Commandement saith Remember the day of rest to keep it holy There is some question when the Christian Sabbath begins some will have it to begin in the evening and so the night shall be first and the day after Others I conceive more probably hold that it beginneth in the morning because then and that very early when it was yet dark Joh. 20. 1. our Saviour was risen and in his Resurrection that work which gave occasion of the institution of the day was finished and so the Lords day is reckoned from morning to morning or as some account it from midnight to midnight conceiving that the morning
begins at midnight and that Christ rose not much after midnight Referring this to the Authors mentioned in the margent that are large in it I shall only speak to the thing in hand which is that whensoever it begins it must be a day and such a day as our six dayes are for Gods dividing of the week into six dayes of labour and one intire day of rest must ever stand As therefore we may take the whole six for our labour so we must give the whole seventh to God There are still seven dayes in the week of which God never alloweth us more then six for our ordinary and earthly occasions Quest May not a man read a Letter or answer a Question or a Messenger on that day or do something in an earthly business falling in occasionally Answ 1. I shall not say that 's unlawful for sometimes such a necessity may arise about these earthly things or such a work of mercy may fall in to be performed on that day as may not be deferred in which regard there may be cause to speak and do such things as in themselves are not proper on that day out of such cases not permitted It 's one thing to yield to an extraordinary occasion another to make a common practice of turning aside securely from holy to common things upon the Lords day 2. Yet it belongs to our piety on that day to sabbatize as much as we may those things which are in their nature earthly and to get and use an holy art and skill to turn them heaven-ward which we still find in our Saviour who therefore saith of himself that he spake earthly things Joh. 3. 12. Not that he did use to talk of the world but he set forth heavenly things under earthly similitudes and did weave spiritual instructions within worldly resemblances What our Saviour did every day and every way he went that we should endeavour to do on the Lords day In which diversion and coming off from earthly things to heavenly and setting off heavenly with earthly though some be more happy yet all whose hearts are holy may if they mind it and will make a business of Religion speak one good word or another to let those know that interrupt them by some earthly occasion that even in the managing of such a business they put a difference between Gods day and their own days And so they that come with a worldly message to them may go away with a more heavenly mind from them and an heart better affected to the Lords day then they brought with them And lost any should think that this is a preciseness which an understanding man would not own I shall relate here the words of a foraign and very learned Divine on the Text we have in hand which are these The foolish wisdom of mortal men thinks it a small matter if some work especially some lighter work be done on the Sabbath better do so then worse but Gods will is that mens minds should be taken up on the Sabbath day with other I doubt not but he understands holy and heavenly cares which cares saith he if thou do never so little a thing of another kind are interrupted and by this very thing all use of Religion would be exploded and thrust out of dores unto which he further adds that Those things are to be done on the Sabbath which are sutable to the Sabbath and on the other side things vile and evil are to be taken heed of at all times Wolph Comment in Nehem. 13. 15 16. Quest But if the Sabbath must continue for a natural day of 24 hours What is to be done in the night of that day How shall that be sanctified or what can be done to distinguish it from other nights belonging to our common dayes Answ 1. I doubt not but that they that are conscientiously careful to observe our Gospel-Sabbath all the day will find out wayes to resolve themselves as concerning the night And all Christians would be advised if they propound such a question as this is to see they do it out of conscience and as seeking resolution not out of curiosity and as glad of an objection to make an opposition 2. Let the question be turned from the Sabbath to the working dayes thus Since I ought to labour in my ordinary Calling on the six dayes What shall I do in the night Here this answer may be returned I may and should when the dayes are shorter work part of the night and if there be extraordinary occasion I may work all the night but if I should do so ordinarily I should quickly be unable to do any thing in the day God therefore so requires labour six dayes as to give us leave yea to imply it is our duty to rest in the night because he hath given the night for that end Now if this answer will hold then may the like be said concerning the Sabbath day that is that the Sabbath night as well as other nights is appointed of God for rest but yet if it so fall out that we do not rest that night or in any part of it wherein we do not rest we are to remember that it is a part of time belonging not to a working day but to the Lords day and therefore that it is to be used accordingly that is in one thing or other sutable to a Sabbath and so as that what we do in the light and in the night of such a day may agree together which shall be further opened in the ensuing Answers 3. It is well expressed that the time of observing the Sabbath is our waking time for though we say that the whole 24 hours of that day be taken in of God and set a part for his use yet he may give us again what he pleaseth and he giveth us the night to rest in which may be reckoned among the works of necessity and mercy allowed on that day and that both in regard of the holy labours of that day for it is not an idle day which require rest the night before that we may serve God with more strength and vigour and the night after because of the expence of strength in such service and withall because of the labour of our ordinary Callings the next day which necessarily requireth the rest of the Sabbath night that for want thereof we may not be weakened in our worldly work for as God would not have us to trench on his day of Rest so it is not his mind that we should return faint and feeble to our day of labour 4. I add besides that though we are not to prevent rest and sleep that night by setting our hearts when we lie down upon serious and retentive thoughts yet if we cannot sleep God holding our eyes waking it appertaineth to the holiness of that time to resume and call to mind some godly meditations which is more easily done
that night because of the help we have had for better thoughts the day before Yea I shall not fear to say further that in them that have observed the day as they ought there will be such an holy habit and frame of heart left behind as that though they sleep and take their rest yet even the dreams of that night I do not say alwayes will but divers times will be like to relish of the holiness of the day which though some are willing to make sport with and to count worthy of derision yet herein they call in question not only their Piety but their Reason for Nature it self and common Experience teacheth that things acted and most affected in the day leave such impressions as that they are ordinarily represented by the phansie in the dreams of the night I have thus far enlarged in describing the Sabbath out of a desire to establish the holy observation of the Lords day which will best be discerned by that respect reverence and observance that is due to the weekly Sabbath according to the fourth Commandement Now when we know what is meant by Sabbath and by the observation of it it 's easie to know what is meant by the profanation thereof mentioned before which is the applying of it to common use as we do the other six dayes when God hath set it a part for holy and heavenly imployments see Act. 10. 15. This profanation must needs be as I have said an evil thing because it is a transgression of the moral Law of God which Law though it be short yet the Precept concerning the Sabbath is full and large If that law be holy and just and good then the profanation opposite to it must needs be evil Hence the Lord himself said of old when that which was commanded on the Sabbath was not obeyed How long refuse ye to keep my Commandements and my Laws Exod. 16. 28. Ezek. 22. 18. Thou hast profaned my Sabbath is in the catalogue of their sins But because there are two things about the Christian Sabbath much disputed one the divine institution and appointment of a Sabbath day in every week for all ages by vertue of the fourth Commandement the other the divine constitution or Gods ordaining of that weekly day for a Sabbath which we now observe that is the first day of the week commonly called the Lords day I shall therefore endeavour as I am able to speak something in way of resolution to these two proposals that so Sabbath-doubts may not hinder Sabbath-duties For the former of these I propound this question Quest How doth it appear that the Law of the Sabbath contained in the fourth Commandement continueth and is in force in Gospel times for the observing of one day in seven as a Sabbath or day of holy rest Answ If it be not of any force then we have not now a Decalogue that is there are not now in the time of the Gospel Ten Commandements but nine only If it be said That doth not follow because something of that Commandement remains and is in force for ever to wit that some time should be set a part for the publike worship of God To this I answer That it is manifest to him that reads the fourth Commandement that the thing required in it is not a time at large which the second Commandement that prescribeth the Worship of God supposeth because nothing can be done unless there be a time set apart for the doing of it but that which is enjoyned is a day Nor is it a day at large but a day in every week for it is opposed to six working dayes Nor is it a day in a week at large but such a day as may challenge this title The Sabbath of the Lord thy God that is it must be a day of Gods appointment When a Master saith to his servant wait on me every week in the day I appoint you and lay before him great reason for it If the servant should say My Master looks for no more but that I should wait on him one time or other it would be but a poor account 2. If any of the ten Commandements be taken away it must be taken away by Christ that is by his order or by some declaration from him But he saith he came not to take away but to fulfil the Law And to prove that he instanceth in divers Precepts of the Moral Law which he presseth in the greatest height of spiritual observation Why should the fourth Commandement be taken away any more then the fifth which yet the Apostle urgeth strongly upon children and that from the moral and perpetual reason thereof which though it be delivered in a Jewish phrase relating to the land of Canaan yet for the substance of it it concerns all men that live on the earth Ephes 6. 1 2 3. Object There is this difference between the fourth and fifth Commandement That Nature teacheth men to obey their Parents but to observe a Sabbath one day in seven it teacheth not Answ In regard of a day of holy Rest in general Nature is not silent for it granteth a God and that that God is to be worshipped and therefore that a time must of necessity be set a part for it and that a convenient time and in such a distance that we may neither neglect our God nor our affairs And taking it for granted that the Creation is known that is that God did make the world in six dayes and rest the seventh Nature hath a fair copy to write by and a glorious example before it to work upon and to take a light from to work and to rest in such a proportion of time I say to rest for Nature speaks out this fully that the time consecrated to God must be a time of rest because we cannot serve God in holiness and be about profane and common imployment both at once 2. If we take in to the light and principles of Nature the assistance of divine Revelation then Nature will say all that needs to be said for a Sabbath to wit that it is fit God should appoint his own time for his own service and therefore he in his Word having appointed a weekly time such a time ought to be observed 3. Setting aside all the natural morality that may be pleaded for a weekly Sabbath it sufficeth that the spending of one day in seven in holy Rest is enjoyned by the positive Law of God for why shall not the Law of the God of Nature revealed from Gods mouth or written in the Word bind as well and as much as the Law of Nature written in the heart especially considering that what is spoken or written by God especially by his own finger as the Ten Commandements were is pure and incorrupt as that is not which is written in mans heart though it were so when it was first written Yea Why may we not
say in some respect that it is worse to disobey a positive law then a law of Nature and that because where Nature saith nothing but God saith all there 's a greater tryal whether Gods Word his naked Will and Prerogative Royal is of any weight with us or no and in the despising of such a command a greater indignity is offered to the Supream Law-giver as if a Law of his mouth were not worth the marking unless Nature and Reason open their mouths also unto which we may add that he who disobeyeth a positive law alwayes disobeyteh a natural to wit this that it is meet and necessary that God should have his will and retain his soveraignty which by transgressing a plain precept wherein Nature can say nothing is more violated Hence that first sin in eating the forbidden fruit for the forbearing whereof being considered in it self Nature had not what to say did undo us all there being thereupon this charge drawn up against all mankind in the first man Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat The like whereof we find in the business of the Sabbath but I instance in the former because of the weight that lay upon it and because of the resemblance there is between forbidden work and forbidden fruit by which the disobedience receives a great aggravation namely thus Was there liberty for all the Trees of the Garden and couldst thou not forbear one upon my precise command so Have I given thee six dayes to work for thy self and canst thou not rest with me one day Object But if the fourth precept stand still established yet all it commands is the observing of the seventh day from the Creation Answ 1. If it be supposed that the fourth Commandement enjoyneth the seventh day from the Creation which I grant not save only in that sense which I shall afterward express yet that hindereth not but that it remaineth also firm and in force for one day in seven as well as the reason of the fifth Commandement is a moral and perpetual reason though it be delivered in a Jewish phrase and concern in the first place and in the form of words the Jewish people and therefore the Apostle to extend the force of the reason to all places and persons thus explaineth it That it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the Earth as was touch'd before 2. I answer That the fourth Commandement layes down and prescribes how God would have his Sabbath observed but it doth not command or institute any particular or individual day save only in the generality that is as it falls under the general notion of being a day of Gods appointment which day of Gods appointment was well known to the Jews otherwhere and before the fourth Commandement was delivered and therefore it is spoken of in the sixteenth of Exodus as a known law and the people on the sixth day gathered twice so much bread two Omers for one man when on other dayes they gathered but one as being accustomed to observe the Sabbath at least as knowing that God required it should be observed that day being set a part for a Sabbath ever since and by reason of the Creation of the world Gen. 2. 3. Heb. 4. 3. And as the day the Jews observed and spent in holy rest was known otherwise and needed not to be expressed in the fourth Commandement so also the day that we Christians observe though it be not mentioned in that Commandement yet is otherwise sufficiently made known to be the day that God hath ordained for his weekly Sabbath in Gospel-times as shall appear hereafter 3. This being premised I shall grant as others do who have with much diligence and satisfaction searched into this argument that the seventh day Sabbath was to be observed by vertue of the fourth Commandement yet not as instituted there directly but as belonging to it reductively that is by way of argument and consequent namely thus One day in seven of Gods appointment is directly and for ever required to be observed as a Sabbath by the fourth Commandement Now the seventh-day-Sabbath that is the seventh from the Creation is that one of seven that God appointed from the foundation of the world till our Saviours coming suffering and rising again It therefore followeth that that seventh was for all that time to be observed as the Lords Sabbath and that by necessary collection from the fourth Commandement As in like manner our first-day-Sabbath is grounded on the fourth Commandement because it is that one of seven which God hath appointed to be observed since Christs Resurrection The sum is The genus or general name of Sabbath is common to each Sabbath day of Gods institution and so comprehends both the Jews Sabbath and ours 4. I answer as before that otherwise then thus the fourth Commandement requireth not any particular day but that which it commandeth is to come more closely to the question one day in seven in relation to six working dayes as the Commandement it self expresseth saying Six days shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath as if it had been said Divide the week and there being seven dayes in it take thou the sixth and give me the seventh and namely that seventh which I appoint and give order for And that the Commandement is thus to be interpreted may appear both by the first words thereof Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy he saith not the seventh day but the Sabbath day as also by the last words wherein it is said the Lord blessed and hallowed not the seventh day but the Sabbath day which sheweth that the main drift and intent of the Commandement was not the institution of the Jews seventh or any other particular day but of a weekly Sabbath or of one day in every week such as then was or afterward was to be specified and declared of God to be his day of rest yet such as may be called the seventh day because it must be the seventh part of the weekly time Object But it is said in the latter part of the Commandement and brought in also as a reason to observe it that God rested the seventh day whence it is thus argued That day is meant in the body of the Commandement as the day enjoyned to be the Sabbath or day of Rest wherein God himself rested But that was the seventh in order from the Creation Therefore that 's meant by seventh day in the body of the Commandement yea in the whole Commandement for God blessed and sanctified that day for the Sabbath whereon himself rested Answ I grant that God rested that seventh day and that he blessed and sanctified it but How Not meerly as that particular seventh but as a Sabbath for so as it was but now said the Commandement expresseth it only the blessing and sanctification
was at first fixed on the seventh from the Creation because that was the day set a part to be the Lords Sabbath for that first age of the world I grant also that Gods resting is brought in as a reason of the Commandement But then the question is Wherein the force of that reason lyeth To which I say that it is not brought in as a reason of resting on that individual and precise day wherein God rested save only under this notion and consideration that it was the day at that time and for that first world appointed of God to be his Sabbath For it is not a cogent or inforcing argument We must rest one day in every week and never work more then six because God rested the last day of the week but this is a strong and convincing reasoning We must rest one day in seven perpetually and work but six because God our great Lord and Maker did only work six dayes and make the remaining day which was then the seventh in order a Sabbath holding forth that his example for our imitation I shall say this over again in some other words more fully to open my mind and the matter in hand and therefore express it thus The argument drawn from Gods Example is not for the same day that is for that very seventh wherein He rested determinately as if it reached and extended it self to no other day in the week but it is for a seventh or for the day wherein God rested as a seventh comparatively that is in relation to his six working dayes and therefore they are compared together both in the body of the Commandement where it is said Six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath and in the conclusion wherein it is not barely said God rested the seventh day but it is brought in with this In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth that is ended his work and rested the seventh Sanctifying that day as his Sabbath for those times and therein any other seventh which Himself should appoint for his Sabbath in after-times for any other day of the week may be called the seventh day as it is set against six working dayes To conclude the reason is not for that peculiar portion of time wherein God rested as if God meant no more but to reason men into the observation of that seventh day for then the fourth Commandement is gone or else the Saturday-Sabbath is to be observed still but it is for the proportion of time that is for a weekly day or one day in a week and for the portion and particular day only according to Gods appointment which appointed time to the Jews was Saturday to us now it is the Lords day Of the Christian Sabbath-day or the Lords-day HAving spoken thus far of the Sabbath in general and in its common nature or of the Christian Sabbath as a Sabbath I come now to speak of that particular day which we call the Christian Sabbath that is the first day of the week about which this great Question ariseth Why should this day be so much stood upon when we find not in Scripture when we find not in all the New-Testament any divine Institution of it In answer unto this I shall be brief both because I have been so large already and because others have written so largely and so convincingly concerning the Lords-day and the divine Institution thereof with a full answer to the Objections made to the contrary yet it being needful to say something and other Books not coming to the hands of all I shall endeavour to give some satisfaction to Christians as to the former Proposal in the ensuing particulars Answ 1. It hath been declared before that the proportion of time that is the observing of a Sabbath weekly or one day in seven is required of God in the fourth Commandement wherein also hath been shewed the manner how it is to be observed and that we are not to spend it as we do the six working-days in our ordinary and earthly imployments but in religious Exercises as a day of holy rest to the Lord. I mention this though it be not so proper to the question yet as pertinent to it for if it be once granted that by the Commandement of God himself one day in a week must be kept as a Sabbath it will quickly be found that the Lords-day will make the best plea for that priviledge But I go on Answ 2. As to the portion of time and the particular day about which the question is moved to that I answer That a thing may be said to be commanded of God two wayes 1. In express words as if it should be said I require all men to observe in the time of the New-Testament the first day of the week for my Sabbath We do not say that the Lords-day is thus commanded to be observed as a Sabbath 2. By necessary collection or collation and comparing one Scripture with another and so a divine Command and Institution is divers wayes gathered and by strong arguments and consequences concluded as our Saviour proves the Resurrection and as it is proved that there was a Precept for Sacrifices before the Law and before any such Precept is found because God accepted the Sacrifice offered by Abel which shews it was not Will-worship but Word-worship that is guided by a word known to them though not revealed to us After this manner and by sound reasoning from things revealed in Scripture the divine Institution of the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath sundry wayes appeareth Namely by these ensuing Evidences 1. A divine ground and foundation of setting apart that day in special and above all other dayes for that use and that is the divine work of raising up the Lord Jesus from the dead As the first Sabbath had its rise from the work of Creation and Gods resting on that day as the fourth Commandement declareth so hath the New-Testament-Sabbath its rise from the work of Redemption and our Saviours rising and resting when that work was finished wherein we may be the more confirmed because the Scripture so highly extolleth our Saviours Resurrection that being the great thing which the Apostles in their Preaching were to stand upon Act. 1. 22 and did stand upon and stand for Act 3 4 as that without which all Preaching and Faith is vain and the Apostles would be found false Witnesses who made it their business to publish and testifie it Declaring the promise to the Fathers to be fulfill'd in raising up Jesus again as it is written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begetten thee that is That was the great day like the day when the Crown was set on David's head wherein notwithstanding all his humiliation in his life and death He that was made of the seed of David before was declared to be the
general appearing to do homage to God which is one improvement of worship on that day 2. It is more attended because a Sabbath is a day of rest and receding from worldly works that we may better apply our selves to divine Worship And though there be a necessary use of natural supports yet the fear of God writes Holiness to the Lord upon them and takes care they be so used that the Service of God may be better attended 3. It is more intended or performed with more power and vigour because our minds are or should be discharged of all those creature-cares and cogitations wherewith on other dayes on which though we leave the world a little yet we do not so take leave of it as on the Lords day our hearts use to be and that in the Worship of God encumbred and weakened yea besides this the private religious Exercises of that day both before and after the publike Service namely Meditation and Prayer make us come with better affections to it lay an ingagement upon us to stir up the grace of God in us when we are about it draw from God vertue in it and a blessing of Heaven upon it Of the third Commandement Because the Sabbath is a day appointed for the honour of God and the greatning of his Name in the publike Ordinances God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about him Hence it is that on the day of publik and solemn Assemblies that is on the Sabbath now the Lords day the Name of God is most set up because by most and among most In the multitude of people is the Kings honour and then the multitude go to the House of God to the Temple to the Congregation wherein every one speaks of his glory Thus doth the fourth Commandement assist for the performance of the first Table 2. Of the Second Table To speak to every Commandement thereof would be too long It may suffice to say what all men may see and hear That is that on the weekly Lords day all sorts of persons are acquainted with their duty towards men by the instructions then especially delivered and are also stirred up thereunto by the Exhortations added And are or may be much furthered therein by the Repetition of Meditation and Prayer for a blessing upon such Instructions and Exhortation The fourth Commandement standeth in the middle as it were between the two Tables to be a Bond of Perfection and to link together Piety towards God and Charity towards men What is said of the Magistrate may be truly also said of the Sabbath He is and It is the Keeper of both the Tables Thus of the Commodity of the Christian Sabbath 3. The Commendation The Sabbath hath a preheminence above other dayes in regard of Gods Institution of it for each Sabbath is the Sabbath of the Lord our God and that makes it glorious in it self and hath the blessing of God annexed and assured to the observers of it And that as it maketh also for the advancement of it in it self so it giveth a reason why it should be precious to us yea the very largeness of the Law of the Sabbath and the Lords using so many words about it may shew as our weakness who need it so the weight of that Law and worth of that Day in asmuch as in a Law of Ten Words so much is said of this one Word and particular Precept It is observed out of the Hebrew Doctors That the Sabbath and the Precept against Idolatry each of these two is as weighty as all other the Commandements of the Law for confirmation whereof they add this The Sabbath is a sign between God and us for ever and that other place of Isaiah Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it Aynsworth on Exod. 31. 13. And sure that weekly day of our solemn appearing before our God ought to be honourable in our account That is a sign and assurance that we are Gods Covenant-people and peculiar treasure for therein lies our safety our glory and our felicity Who is it that desires not to be known by his attendants that he is Kings the Servant Well may we say also that 's a blessed and glorious day that makes the observers thereof blessed yea if by keeping the Sabbath from polluting it be insinuated or described a respect to all Religion even that also makes greatly for the honour of the Sabbath that godliness in the generality is thereby set forth because thereby so much set forward It 's very observable that Gods people reckoning up in their miseries Gods mercies do mention as the chief thereof Gods Commandements and among those Laws and Commandements single out the Sabbath speaking thus honourably of it in reference to their Fathers And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath as if there were an eminency in that above other Laws as indeed there is in this regard because as on Fairs and Markets men are furnished with commodities of all sorts so on this day principally all spiritual good things are offered with an invitation to the buying and for the enjoying of them and that good knowledge of God is more aboundantly dispensed whereby all other Commandements are better performed O How little is God known to them to whom no Sabbath is made known or that will not be made to know any Sabbath The reason whereof is because on that day of Rest and Religion there is an opportunity offered of the freest fullest and highest Communion with God without those interruptions that we have on other days by the crowding in of our earthly occasions yea and that into the inner chamber and closet of our hearts which is the retiring room wherein God is pleased to communicate himself abundantly to the faithful soul when all worldly things and thoughts are had out and dismissed for that day yea charged and as it were conjured not to disturb the intimate society of the Lord Jesus with the soul that hath found him and fastened on him Thus of the Sabbath in general As to the Christian Sabbath a great glory is put upon it in the Scripture-title it being called the Lords day and that name and title being continued and applyed unto it to this day The Lord Jesus hath put his own Name and stamp upon it It is the day of that Lord who is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Rev. 1. 5. Of the Jews Sabbath and of our Lords day there is as St. Austin speaks one and the same Lord but now is the Lords-day prefer'd before that Sabbath as the same Father speaks by the faith of the Resurrection Unto this Resurrection day is that honour given to have this said of it Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Act. 13. 33. For by his Resurrection on that day he
we may not therefore shift or shake off the former threats and judgements as not belonging to these times but rather consider that Whatsoever things were written or acts of divine Justice recorded aforetime were written for our learning and all those things which befel the transgressors of the Law of the Ten Commandements in former ages of the World happened to them us Types that is they are our examples and warnings and plainly lay before us what we also must expect to suffer if we do as they did even we upon whom the ends of the world are come for like sin like judgement Nor can any just reason be given why judgements of old for the breach of the fourth Commandement should not be our admonitions as well as those for the breach of the second Commandement which Paul mentioneth because there is not only much of that which is positive and not so clearly natural belonging to the second as well as to the fourth Commandement but also it is evident that as the second Precept for the way of Religion so the fourth for the Day is written among the Ten words of the Moral and ever-abiding Law of God with the finger of God himself Exod. 31. 18. That which remaineth to incite to Sabbath-sanctity is 5. The blessing and promises of God annexed and assured to that Day and the Observers ther of It is said in the Commandement The Lord blessed the Sabbath day It 's true that he blessed that seventh day whereon he rested but not as a Seventh day but as a Sabbath day and so the blessing is entailed as it were and passeth from the Jews Sabbath on the Christian Sabbath Now what is the meaning of this blessing but that it was Gods mind that it should be honourable and glorious amongst and have singular priviledge preheminency above other days for which end therefore he sanctified it that is set it apart to be wholly consecrated to Him and to his holy Service In which way it is not only lift up and honored above other dayes and so a blessed day but is a blessed day also to the people of God by the use and benefit of his Ordinances Psal 65. 4. wherein a blessedness is laid up In regard of this Prerogative of the day of Rest and Holiness a Christian seeing that day approach hath great cause to say with an holy chearfulness Come in thou blessed of the Lord And they that appear before God on that day to receive soul-sustenance from him may say within themselves as David's servants that sought bodily relief Let us now find favour in thine eyes for we are come in a good day in the Lords great Feast-day wherein they of his Family even the whole Houshold of Faith are abundantly satisfied with the fatness of his house and are made to drink of the river of his pleasures It 's a day wherein we may be spiritually enriched for it is a blessed day the blessing of the Lord maketh rich It is a day wherein the people of God meeting and being united together in his service God commandeth the blessing Psal 133. 3. And wherein from our great Lord and head glorious high Priest the Oyl of Grace runs down abundantly as Aarons Oyl sometimes did to the very skirts that is to the very lowest of his true Members to make them joyful for it is the Oyl of gladness Psal 45. 7. and as the dew of Hermon to make them fruitful Psal 133. 1 2 3. The prerious promises inviting to and incouraging in the Sanctification of the Sabbath are presented to us from the mouth of the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah chap. 58. 13. 14. which Text of Scripture is so often made use of in this argument of the Sabbath that I cannot leave it though I have spoken much more then I thought to have done already withour looking a little into it For which purpose I shall 1. Speak something to both the verses in general 2. And something to that Sabbath-Piety described v. 13. 3. And then come to the Sabbath-promises v. 14. 1. Of the Text in general Wherein two things lie in the way to hinder the use that divers godly and learned Writers have made of it for establishing the Lords Sabbath-day now the Lords day 1. Some hold that the Sabbath is here named by way of allusion and by a Synechdoche and that the thing intended and designed in that description v. 13. and so in the promise v. 14. is to take men off from their own wits and wayes and to stir them up to obedience and holiness in the whole course of their lives And the truth is that in the Sabbath all Religion is wrapt up for God is eminently acknowledged worshipped professed and praised as the three first Commandements require upon that day And all other Commandements are better observed by the good knowledge of God dispensed and dispersed then especially in the Ministry of the Word acquainting men with their duties towards God and Man But we may not mistake here for albeit it be supposed that all Religion is spoken to yet it doth not follow from thence that the Sabbath day in the setting forth whereof the Text is so full is to be excluded nay rather it is thereby the better established As when a Father takes order in his last Will that his Son shall go to the University his meaning is that his Son shall be a Scholar but withall his mind is that he shall go to the University because that 's the way to make him a Scholar and therefore he expresseth nothing but that for that contains the other So it is here We may observe casting our eye upon this whole chapter that as in the former part of it the Prophet shewed their Religion was not to be placed in fasting so here he declareth that the observation of the Sabbath is not to be placed in resting to which the Jews used to ascribe so much but in the spiritual sanctification of that rest which indeed hath and ought to have an influence and to extend its vertue into our whole life to make it the more holy But now mark that as the Prophet before in his Doctrine of a Fast and his disciplining of their Fast did not exclude the day of their Fast and the observation thereof but saith plainly In the day of your Fast v. 3. so neither doth he here where he delivereth the doctrine of the Sabbath shut out the day of the Sabbath but only sheweth that the Rest and leisure of that day is to be bestowed in spiritual things appertaining to the substance and tending to the furtherance of true Religion 2. Some others may say that if the Text be to be understood of the weekly Sabbath yet it speaks to the Jews only not to us and of their day not of ours Unto which it may suffice to say that as the fourth Commandement belongs to us
as well as to Jews and the holy observation required there belongs to us in regard of our Sabbath as well as to them in regard of theirs so in this Scripture and in the whole Scripture of the Old Testament whatsoever thing is Spiritual and of an Evangelical nature it belongeth to us as well as to them and may upon just accounts be more pressed on us then on them because it is our happiness to have more means for and therefore out duty to make further progress in all things appertaining to godliness It were very strange to say or think the Jews were to abstain from their own self-pleasing thoughts words and actions on their Sabbath and yet that Christians may think speak and do as they please on the Christian Sabbath What must the Sabbath be the Jews delight and not ours There is so much of Gospel in these things that a learned Divine saith What can be spoken more like then this is to the perfect Precepts of Christ This will surther appear by what follows to be spoken 2. Of the Sabbath-duty as it is prescribed in way of Supposition vers 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath or as some render it for or because of the Sabbath that is If thou keep the Sabbath from polluting it as it is before chap. 56. 2. to wit by doing any act treading any step unsutable to it and tending to the profanation of it as we find other-where the lifting up of ones hand and foot to be a Proverbial expression of enterprizing or attempting any thing Here the foot is named and in Isa 56. 2. the hand and both put together may shew that both hand and foot the great Instruments of action are to be kept for the Sabbath sake from doing any evil Ask therefore whatever thou art about Is this a fit walk or work for the Lords Sabbath day else Turn hand and foot from it What followeth will confirm this Exposition which is this From doing thy pleasure on my Holy-day that is any thing which pleaseth thy self and pleaseth not God on that day so that to turn away the foot is to keep from doing that is from doing any thing agreeable to our wills and not to Gods it 's true of things sinful which on that day are out of measure sinful but there is no cause to restrain it and apply it only to things sinful in themselves for the six dayes work is not so which yet the Commandement will have us to set aside There are divers things not evil in their nature which yet like the counsel of Ahitophel 2 Sam. 17. 7. are not good at that time It is not enough that things done on that day be good for their matter but they must be some way or other for God whose day it is it must be his work and not a product of not a thing arising from and done for thine own pleasure one writing upon this saith Whatsoever shew of holiness there is in any work yet if thou aim at thy own commodity in it it is a servile work and violates the Sabbath of the Lord Every day but especially on the Lords day we should be like the Angels and those Ministers of his that do his pleasure Psal 103. 21. for then we wait on our Lord at his own appointed time It cannot be well therefore to do what we please our selves when we attend our Lord not on our working-day but on his Holy-day or the day of his Holiness But Negative holiness or to forbear evil is not enough it is further added and call the Sabbath a delight that is as one speaks making the holy things of that day our delight and exercising our selves about those delightsom things with delight of heart such as we see in David unto whom the Tabernacles of God were amiable and he most glad to go to Him and them Psal 84. 1. 122. 1 2 c. The meaning of this and the former part of the verse is well and plainly expressed thus If thou restrain thy foot on the Sabbath so as that thou do not whatsoever pleaseth thee and if thou take delight in keeping it according to the Law and Will of God calling it the holy that is the holy day of the Lord or a day consecrated unto him and therefore honourable or glorious As a man of God is an honourable man so is the day of God an honourable day Every day may be said to be glorious because a pleasant thing it is to the eyes to behold the Sun but this among other dayes is like Solomon's Queen among other honourable Women that is it excels in glory because on that day the Sun of Righteousness shines forth in his brightness that into our hearts in the use of Ordinances to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ so that our eyes may see the King in his beauty and so be our selves beautiful and shalt honour him that is by honouring it for when the holy things of God are profaned He is profaned whence it is said in the case of Eli his sons Them that honour me I will honour That which followeth is but a repeating of what went before yet so as that what was laid down in the former part of the verse more generally is laid forth in this later part more distinctly a law being laid on our wayes wills and words on the Lords Holy-day 1. On our wayes not doing thine own wayes for How is God honoured if we do what we list When Eli his sons would have and do what they pleased not observing Gods order in his own Institutions the Lords interpretation of it is a despising of him Now in proper speech we are said rather to go rhen to do our wayes but because by a mans wayes in Scripture and in our common speech also are meant mens actions and course of life therefore this fitly expresseth unto us that Gods mind is that we should not act according to our own minds nor do our own acts on Gods day I say on Gods day for albeit it be true that God binds us out from walking according to the world and the flesh any day yet speech being made here of a special day which God appropriateth unto himself therefore another interpretation seems more proper which is this not doing thine own ways that is not doing thy usual works On the six dayes we may do what we our selves have to do but on Gods day we must do what God hath for us to do All done on Gods day must be Gods not our own 2. On our wills not finding thine own pleasure or thine own will but the Hebrew word signifieth such a will as wherein there is a delight and complacency This is before applyed to the Fast and this reproved that on the day
large in all godliness of life all the days of the week and of our life only with this difference that things lawful on other days by the allowance of Scripture and needful also are on the Sabbath-day unlawful because of the distinction made in the fourth Commandement between the Rest and holiness of that weekly day and the work and imployment of the six working-days On all days we should be sober righteous and godly but on the Lords-day we should be in the Spirit more high more ghostly more heavenly and as Moses when he was with God in the Mount more resplendent by the beauty of Holiness Thus of the Sabbath-duty I come now as the Text leads me 3. To the Sabbath Promises ver 14. In the opening of these Promises I shall proceed the better by taking along with me an Observation brought to my hand which is this As the Precepts before are Evangelical so the Promises here are not Jewish or earthly but heavenly for the good things mentioned in the former verse are the operations of the Spirit of God unto which the good things of this world being far inferior they are not so sutable a reward nor is it for Him that is most liberal so to reward them Yet there is no cause of excluding those outward comforts which the letter of the Text in the latter part of the verse layeth before us and which are other-where promised to those that hallow the Sabbath-day the contrary evils whereunto came as hath been shewed on the Jews when they did profane it But it 's true that worldly commodities and contentments are not here promised only the first promise is very spiritual nor chiefly but rather when these outward things are mentioned sutable to the Ear and to the Heart and to the state of a Jew and which God was ready to perform to them in the letter I say when these things are mentioned in the Old Testament higher and more spiritual things are usually meant yea a reward reaching to Eternity which through Jesus Christ our Lord is given to the sincere and spiritual observers of Gods Commandements whereof this of the Sabbath is one and therefore the good promises laid down here may well be taken in that extent whereof there is the more reason because the later promises here specified are in the tenour of them and as they stand in the letter proper to the Jewish people and therefore either this Scripture must not be for our use or else some other thing must be meant then the words in themselves express I shall therefore take the Promises as they lie in the Text and take in all the commodity and comfort whether outward or spiritual that may be truly collected from them to encourage all men in the Sabbath duty and consequently in the pursuit of all Religion which is the thing that is intended in and which ariseth from the holy observation of the Sabbath-day Now whereas Pleasure and Preferment and Profit are the great Motives to make men to do willingly what is desired or required of them all these are here set before us as the reward of Sabbath-Piety 1. Pleasure Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord This is a special and most spiritual promise unto that man to whom the study of Vertue and Sanctification of the Sabbath is a delight the Lord himself shall be in stead of all delights which may be said to be especially by a more abundant fellowship with God on that day wherein we lay all aside that we may associate and solace our selves with Him This delightsom Communion with God is enjoyed three wayes 1. In the Ministery of the Word whereby we have fellowship indeed with Ministers but truly their fellowship and so that fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and what 's the effect of it but delight and full joy For the goodness of Gods House is very satisfying and by hearing the Word we eat that which is good and the soul delights it self in fatness 2. In the duty of Private Meditation wherein the faithful soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness by the remembrance of God 3. In Prayer for delight in the Almighty is accompanyed with lifting up the face to God to look for every good thing from Him when on the contrary the hypocrite that delighteth not himself in him will not always call on him but others are joyful in the House of Prayer Isa 56. 7. In such wayes as these God makes his faithful servants to drink of the River of his delights having to do with God their exceeding joy Psal 43. 4. And the delight is more large and full by those many considerations of one kind and another by which this great Lord makes himself most amiable and wholly delectable to those that are acquainted with him as the great benefit of his Providence which makes them resolve to own him and set up their Rest in him together with his safe and sweet protection not only from outward but spiritual Enemies and Evils which makes them sit under his shadow with great delight unto which we may add their outward enjoyments the comfortable use whereof being well sum'd up is nothing else but a delighting themselves in the great goodness of God Briefly the light of Gods countenance the benefit of his counsel here and the assurance of his glory hereafter make his most afflicted servants upon serious consideration and Sanctuary information exceedingly to rejoyce and glory in him and to do as they do who would take their fill of delight one with another and that is to shut all others out and say None but Thee Psal 73. 24 25. Thus the duty and reward have both one name Delight in the Sabbath of the Lord is the duty and Delight in the Lord of the Sabbath is the reward O How poor and base are the delights of those men unto whom the holiness of the Sabbath-day yea by the same reason of any day is a heavy and ill-belov'd business They can delight in a Dinah they have what they would have when they walk in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine Revellings Banquetings And they that are something better yet rejoyce and delight in a thing of nought as Wealth Power Policy their delights at best are but the delights of the sons of men Eccles 2. 8. not of the sons of God for They say The desire of our soul is to thee and the remembrance of thee This is a well-grounded well-placed and hopeful delight for it is in Him that is Almighty al-sufficient a profitable delight for it 's a very great absurdity and Atheism to say It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God I say to say so deliberately and not in some great tentation It is a sweet delight for it is in him that is altogether
agree with the Word of God and the general Doctrine of Religion as it hath a just influence into this particular Sabbath-subject But withal let it be observed that if a man will lean to his own understanding and entertain a conference with flesh and bloud with an accounting of the great things of Gods Law as a strange thing he may easily and think he doth it very substantially dispute God out of his time and make himself believe that he hath more days in a week for his own use in worldly thoughts words and actions then six yea and that pleading so much for the Lords-day is but preciseness and rather a weak then a wise mans work arguing at best only a good meaning but a shallow brain Whereas on the contrary he that saith unto Scripture Wisdom Thou art my Sister and calleth spiritual Vnderstanding his Kinswoman he that feareth to be disobedient to the heavenly Vision he that counteth godliness gain and knoweth how much godliness gaineth by a godly observation of the Lords-day will soon see cause of being of another mind considering how much the Word of God pleadeth for Sabbath-holiness and how on and by that day and the duties thereof the interest cause and concernments of godliness are principally promoted I wish all good Christians therefore that are of doubtful mindes in this matter to try the more strict doctrine of the Sabbath whether it be of God or no by betaking themselves to the holy practise of those things that are taught them concerning that Day Experience useth to put an happy end to endless disputes about practical truths and things otherwise hardly determinable for the result and good effect thereof is this Behold Now I know c. Some may say as Nathaniel Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth so out of such sowre Sabbath-strictness This is a question that may be long under the debate of humane reason that is as proud as blind the easiest way to decide it is Come and see Let every sincere Nathaniel put it to the trial and then the conclusion will be like to be such a resolution about the Lords-day as there was in Nathaniel about the Lord of that day which in allusion to what he said may be expressed thus Thou art the Day of God Thou art the Queen of Dayes Could we but call the Sabbath a delight Did we but know it to be so experimentally the comfort of it would soon answer all Lion-like arguments that rise up and roar against it and rent them as one would rent a Kid if not by just solutions and formal answers which belongs to the learned who have done it and will do it yet by firm resolutions and just detestations and that not without reason enough founded on the sense of the sweetness they have found in their conversing with the holy God on his holy day so that an Advocate for the Sabbath shall never be wanting till the godly man ceaseth whose delight it is I say whose delight it is Not that I think it an easie or common thing to call the Sabbath a delight or that all that fear the Lord have the like delight in the Lords-day affectionate Christians feel it most and in old Disciples it lies deepest the more maturity the more complacency and the more acquaintance with God the more delight in him for the delight followeth the acquaintance Nor do I mean that they who do delight in it delight alike in it at all times and on all Sabbath-days corruption and tentation yea and the various operations and incomes of the Spirit who bloweth where and in whom it listeth and in them when it listeth make a great difference Besides that age or distemper of body or oppression of spirit by some heavy burthen that lies upon it are great impediments to delight And they that are in affliction and need Gods Ordinances most rellish them best to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet and so every sweet thing is more sweet and delightsom such things as these must be granted that the Doctrine of Sabbath-delight may not be rejected nor they dejected who reach not so far as others do in their rejoycings on that day But yet that there is truly a delight in that day and the service thereof in those that truly fear the Lord and think upon his Name sufficiently appeareth in that they bless the Lord with all their hearts and souls for appointing such a day for when should we have set a part a whole day in any due distance for God and for the enjoying of God if God had not done it himself And in that they would not for all the world be without it for what 's the world without the Sun or without the Sabbath wherein the Sun of Righteousness shineth out and that the day throughout and that with a special blessing of God following and improving the beams thereof for our spiritual benefit and soul-refreshing We may very well say that no Sabbath passeth without some delight and satisfaction to the true Disciples of Jesus Christ But at times they are taken up with Christ on that day as it were into an high Mountain apart where they see his face shine as the Sun and are so extraordinarily taken and delighted with what they see and feel that they say feelingly It is good for us to be here In brief The Sabbath with the prescribed Ordinances and Exercises of that day is towards their latter end especially like Mount Abarim to Moses wherein they see much of the Heavenly Canaan And at any other time when they that walk with God being clog'd and dull'd with corruption sorrow affliction tentation delight less in it they do then and therefore delight less in themselves But that there should be any true delight in God and his Ordinances and no delight in that day wherein they are most dispensed and best attended is as unlike as that a Jew should be without rejoycing at their great Festival days or that it should not be merry when friends meet or that Simeon should not take pleasure in that day wherein he took up the child Jesus in his arms for the Lords-day is Christians Feasting-day Christians gladsom meeting-day and the day wherein they being met together Christ who is the Consolation of Israel promiseth to be in the midst of them Is 't possible that on the day wherein they sit under the shadow of their dear Lord wherein they tast of his sweet fruit wherein he brings them to the Banqueting-house and spreads his Banner of Love over them they should then be without Cordial-content That they are not without such content appears because all the six days Sollicitors that is all worldly things and carnal company are kept off on that day of retiredness with God yea and charged and even adjured not to disturb their sweetest
PRACTICAL PIETY OR THE PASTOR'S Last Legacy TO HIS BELOVED PEOPLE Directing how to Walk with GOD in these Apostatizing Times WITH Two most Serious Exhortatory Epistles to Satisfie the Christian Readers concerning the Whole WORK To which is Added Morning and Evening PRAYERS for Private Families By that Reverend Divine Mr. William Thomas late Rector of the Church of Ubley in the County of Somerset after his 44 years Labours in the Ministry in that Place Acts 2. 42. And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in Breaking of Bread and in Prayer London Printed for Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain 1681. To my dearly beloved the Church and Congregation belonging to my Charge inhabiting within the Parish of Ubley in the County of Somerset Grace and Peace Dearly beloved in the Lord IT was for your sakes that I first set my thoughts on this ensuing Treatise For having lived and laboured so many years amongst you already I cannot look to abide long with you and therefore have thought it meet to do my endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have those things alwayes in remembrance which you have been formerly and continually taught Divers of which you will meet with in the reading of this Book whereof because I am willing to give you a taste I shall reckon them up unto you in that order wherein you shall find them hereafter handled First You know I have laboured much with you for the reading of Scripture and to train up your children to be able to read it Let me now leave it with you not only to set your Eyes upon this Word of God but to set your Hearts unto it and as much as in you lies to draw and win the hearts of those belonging to you to it for it is your life and their life Secondly I have taken much pains both publikely and from house to house to teach you admonish you and perswade you to a reverent receiving of the Lords Supper And now shall desire you to keep in mind that which you often have been minded of which is that they who come to that Sacrament should be before God twice the first time preparing the second time receiving Neglect not to prepare for Sermons especially on the Lords-Day but double your preparation at Sacraments because there is a double work to be done in regard of the meeting of two distinct Ordinances that is the Word and Sacrament to be partaked in together Wash your hearts as you do your Vessels every day but scour them and make them bright for the Lords use on Sabbath and Sacrament-dayes Thirdly You have heard especially in late times wherein the shameful and shameless misusing of Ministers hath enforced them to plead for their Calling I say you have heard many things to move you to a due estimation of the Ministry concerning which I shall say no more here but only this Take heed of esteeming too much of such Teachers as are not lawfully called or too little of such as are If painful teaching be not continued unto you remember you had it If it be do not despise it If you cannot have it at home be not content to be without it look not one upon another but where you see there is Corn repair thither Better stir then starve Fourthly Of our Lords Sabbath-day very much hath been spoken to you the holy observation thereof being the Seed-plot and support of all Piety It is not a day of idleness but of spiritual action And you that have need to work for your Bodies and Families all the six dayes have the more need to lay all other work aside on the Sabbath-day and to look after your souls making it your great and even your only work then to labour not after the food that perisheth but the meat that endureth to everlasting life To be very diligent all the Week dayes and to idle out the Lords-day is to be good Husbands and bad Christians and such bad Christians are never good Husbands for they will be undone at last Fifthly You have still seen that I have made Catechising your Children and Servants one part of my work of which I shall say but a word now namely that it is so hard a thing to get any knowledge and sense of Religion into the heads and hearts of ancient people that therein all may see and you that are Parents and Housholders should take notice of it what a necessary thing it is to begin betimes with those that are young and to instruct them in that knowledge and fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom Sixthly Family-Prayer hath been often taught and sought amongst you for How can Housholders expect the protection and success of their persons and labours in the day or the safe keeping of themselves their children servants and substance in the night yea comfort and welfare day or night without God or How can they look to enjoy God without Prayer for He will be sought by the House of Israel and we may say by every house in Israel Zech. 12. 12. Seventhly Repetition of Sermons amongst you hath been my continual custom that the things publikely delivered might be better understood better remembred better settled in your hearts and that the power thereof might be more and better expressed in your lives which you know hath been the usual Prayer before Repetition Lastly I have encouraged and excited you to the duty of Singing of Psalms And of late it hath been my manner in publike to give you a short Exposition of every Psalm before the singing of it that you might better understand and mind the matter contained in it Now all these things I do here recommend unto you and again set before you because spiritual things though delivered often to weak hearers are not quickly understood are hardly committed to memory are soon forgotten or mistaken when a printed Paper may easily be looked upon seriously thought upon and by often recourse to it a fruitful and more full use may be made of it And whatsoever the things I here communicate and do as it were bequeath to you as my dear children in the Lord shall be found in themselves yet the relation of Pastor and People under which we stand and which is now of forty and four years standing hath I trust such an endearment in it as to render what I have written more profitable to you by being more acceptable more helpful by being more grateful and by your looking upon it with an Eye of Love Having mentioned the time of my abode among you It shall not be tedious to me nor wil it I hope be grievous to you to review and run over in a generality what hath passed in it And therein will be found something to be observed and marked something to be humbled for and something to praise God for That
to the worse place but on the contrary Strive to enter in at the straight-gate and go in that narrow way though it be against the hair I mean your own corrupt and undoing hearts by walking wherein you shall assuredly come at last to the better place and possess that everlasting life which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For this purpose I have written these following Directions and Admonitions as not knowing what Guides or Goads you will have unto that which is good when I am gone but the better you observe these and all other godly Instructions the more hope you may have to have more of them mean-while I leave these with you which if you have not other helps will be the more needful and if you have other helps will make them the more useful That I might be more profitable to you I have endeavoured plainness yet I confess there is not so much of it as I intended or desired for all men have not that gift of making known their mind to others in a plain and familiar way And besides that something must be yielded to more ripe Readers and in divers things the matter hath carryed me above the capacity of many of you but the better use you make of that which you do understand the sooner you will understand the rest and you being acquainted so long with my way of teaching and manner of speaking may know and find out better then others what my meaning is To conclude Remember that what our Saviour long since said to prove himself the Messiah is fulfilled to you which is this The poor have the Gospel preached to them or they are the persons that are Gospel-lized that is the Gospel is theirs with all the comforts of it but know also that this is not meant of the poor in state only but which a poor state oft is and ever should be an help unto of those that are poor in spirit that though they have lived honestly among their neighbours see themselves undone without a Saviour and therefore when they have little or nothing else or whether they have or no make sure to have Him labour you to be in the number of those that are thus spiritually poor as by the providence of God many of you are outwardly low It 's a lamentable thing when they that have little in this world shall have nothing in the world to come not so much as a drop of water to cool their tongue in that place of torment That it may not be so with you Let me beseech you to study your Souls to esteem the words of Gods mouth whether you read them or hear them more then your necessary food to account one thing necessary which is to sit at Jesus feet and hear his Word from those whom he sends to speak to you This will not hinder you from labouring for your living for the Word of Christ binds you to it but it 's necessary to know there is a more necessary labour that is to know what God would have done first and to do it after For your assistance wherein I desire you to make conscience of the holy Exercises of Religion which are here commended unto you that so you may be furnished for bringing forth the fruits of godliness in your whole conversation Consider what I have said and the Lord give you understanding in all things and so bless unto you these and all other Instructions that you may thrive in knowledge grow in grace and persevere in faith and obedience that I may rejoyce in you and you in me in the day of the Lord Jesus Unto whom I commend you and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance among all them that are sanctified And so remain Your intirely-well-wishing Pastor willing to spend and be spent and now almost spent with and for you William Thomas The EPISTLE TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Dear Christians ALbeit the ensuing Instructions were purposely framed for my own Charge yet finding them to grow under my hand to a more full Treatise then was at first in my thoughts and that now they are like to come into many hands I conceive it needful to say something by way of Preface that what I have written may be more useful to any that shall think fit to read it That which I have to say concerneth the matter handled and the manner of writing The matter is wholly practical save that necessity hath compelled me for the establishing of practical Truths to mixe here and there that which is something controversal All as you may see is referred unto two heads that is Christian and Family-duties Of each sort there are four I shall before-hand give you a tast of them all The first of the first sort is the reading of the Scriptures which may well be put in the first place because the written Word is not only the Foundation of our Faith and the well-spring of saving wisdom but also the ground of Godliness the guide of Practise and a divine Directory for the performance of every good duty whereby not only the Minister and Man of God but the People of God the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almighty are educated unto and throughly furnished for every good work For the Scriptures are composed not as the writings of Heathens for vain-glory but for mens Salvation and the Spirit of God hath written them in a plain language that all may easily see what is said at least as far as fufficeth for the guiding of their faith and carriage and the safety of their souls and that no simple men as Chrysostom speaks might make this excuse that the Scriptures are hard for though there be difficulties therein to take down mens pride yet there is enough so plain that not only Gods workman that is the Minister but any workman may see the way to Heaven if he have eyes to see it for to see requires sight as well as light In the next place there is more particular Instructions given concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and that not without need For where Salvation lies at the one end and Damnation at the other there 's great need of Direction that where we seek for the better of these we may not find the worse In the handling of this Subject I have been constrained unto a little further search both to give an account of my own sollicitousness about that Sacrament and withall by reason of the different perswasions of some learned and godly men who I hope will candidly interpret my Discourse because I have endeavoured to speak according to the sense of Scripture the consentient judgement of the Church of God and with declaration of due respect to those from whom I somewhat dissent This Sacrament-doctrine I have in the close
several Churches if it were not the duty of Christians to whom they wrote to read them Hence the Apostle Paul after he had written to the Ephesians speaks thus Whereby when ye read which shews they were to read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ Unto this purpose the same Apostle otherwhere saith When this Epistle is read among you cause that it may be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and mark what follows and that ye also read the Epistle from Laodicea Now it 's true that those Epistles were to be read before the Churches in their publick meetings but for the same reason for which they were to be read to them they were if they could have them in private to be read by them that is that they might the better make use of them Of this nature also is that other Scripture wherein the Apostle chargeth the Thessalonians that this Epistle be read to all the holy brethren whence Calvin observes that the Papists are more stubborn then the Devils because by so high an adjuration they will not be charmed from forbidding the People the reading of Scriptures Secondly The nature of this writing is such as strongly requires the reading of it for what is Scripture but a Letter of the Creator to the Creature Hos 8. 12. When Adam sinn'd saith Austin we in him were cast out as exiles into this world Accordingly David saith I am a stranger upon earth Heaven is our Countrey from thence Christ the Essential Word hath in these last dayes come to us and from thence God hath still sent and a long time written his Letters to his Church and People Now the law of friendship imposeth upon every man the reading of a friends Letter and duty and loyalty exacts from every Subject the reading of the Letters of his Prince and the highest duty the reading of the Letters of the highest God Many in these dayes are eager I mean a great deal more forward then fit to receive the Token that is the Lords-Supper who are careless of reading the Letter with which that token is sent and to which it is annexed Now to contend in a stomachful way for the Token and to be altogether remiss as divers such are in reading the Letter is not only an unkind thing but unreasonable for the Letter directs to the end and the profitable use of the Lords tokens that being well used they may be truly love-tokens to us when otherwise a Sacrament may be like Judahs pledge a condemning token I speak not this to diminish the sincere desires of any to the Sacrament but to kindle their desires to the Word that by the reading and observing thereof they might come fitly and freely to the Lords Table Thirdly The use and profit of Scripture perswadeth much to the reading of it and that both in regard of others and our selves 1. In regard of others that we may teach and admonish them better which is the duty of Christians one towards another as Paul sheweth Col. 3. 16. but especially of Governours as Parents and Masters These words that I command thee shall be in thine heart saith the Lord by Moses Deut. 6. 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up Now How shall this be done the memories of most being so frail unless they that are over others do by often reading keep those things in mind themselves which they are and ought to teach those under them Ephes 6. 4. Gen. 18. 10. 2. In regard of our selves This the Apostle minds us of when he tells us that the Scriptures known we may say the Scriptures read that being a special way whereby to know them are able to make a Timothy and so any other man wise to Salvation and more particularly they are profitable for doctrine that is to teach the truth for reproof that is to convince and check error for correction that is to curb vice for instruction in righteousness that is for direction to a good life And in another place for consolation Rom. 15. 4. Never would so many be damned for want of wit be so destitute of the Truth be so bewitched as they are with errors be such incorrigible servants to sin be so free from and void of all righteousness and goodness and lastly at such a loss for comfort when any waves arise but that Scripture is so little read and reverenced For the last of these that is matter of comfort Austin writing to one in a time of great calamity thus concludes his Epistle God will comfort you much more abuadantly if you read his Scriptures most earnestly with which we may joyn that of Chrysostom who writing on those words of Paul Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly first cals to his hearers and saith You whose imployment lies in the world and that have wife and children to govern hear how the Apostle enjoyns you especially to read Scriptures and that not barely to read them and as by the way but with great diligence And afterwards he adds even as a rich and monyed man is able to bear a loss so a man rich in Scripture-knowledge can easily bear poverty or any calamity yea he can better bear it saith he then a rich man can bear worldly losses for if he have many of them his riches will be more and more diminished but he that is rich in heavenly knowledge is never the less rich though he suffer never so much The same holy Father is very full in shewing in general the great profit that is to be had by the reading of Scripture as that it clears and calms the heart reforms the tongue gives wings to the soul to flie up even into heaven it self Do not lose saith he so great gain nor bring your Bibles hither only but take time to read the Scriptures at home And in another place If thou wouldest know how great advantage ariseth from divine Scripture then diligently examine what a vast difference there is in thy heart and soul when thou standest in the Church and when thou art at a Play or standest in the Theatre It s the same soul and yet how well is it affected in the one place and how much corrupted in the other I am the more willing to recite these things that Christians may see in these sad dayes wherein so many slight Scriptures what a reverent and honourable account there was of them yea and of the reading of them by the most eminent men in ancient times Fourthly The examples of Gods servants recorded and recommended in Scripture is a reason of reading Scripture for we may read their piety in the reading of it the Eunuch a man of so great authority under the Queen
of Aethiopia and that had the charge of all her treasure yet had another treasure for sitting in his Charet he read the Prophet I saith something no doubt he understood and read that he might understand more The noble Beroeans are commended for searching the Scriptures and how shall Christians when they have heard a Sermon search the Scriptures best but by taking a Bible into their hands and reading them there How shall a thing be searched that is not viewed Unto which we may add the example of Timothy from a chila saith Paul thou hast known the holy Scriptures which knowing was in all probability by Reading as one special means Still the Scripture hath been dear to Gods dear children as being accounted better then gold or silver though never so much better then thousands Psal 119. 72. Sweeter then Honey though never so good and which drops of it self from the Honey-comb Psal 19. 10. more valuable then their food yea then their necessary food Job 23. 12. See what a Reader Joshua was though a Prince Josh 8. 34 35. And amongst us Christians heretofore though now that first love be lamentably lost were inquisitive how much they should read every day that so the Scriptures might be read over in a year which shewed they were in the way to be truly good because the Scriptures make wise to Salvation and if they did read them with reverence and delight that shewed them to be good already it being used as a good reason to prove the Scriptures are the Word of God because there was never any Book that had wisdom in it but natural wise men liked it unless it were Gods Book or Books framed out of that which shews that none can like the Word of God but by the Spirit of God and that they that like it have that Spirit yea we may count it a clearer sign of grace to delight in reading Scripture then in hearing Sermons viz. in this respect because in Sermons there is a mixture of humane sufficiency and so it is not so easily discerned whether that which draws the ear and heart of the Hearer be Gods Word or mans wit but to read and to be satisfied as it were with marrow and fatness with the pure Word of God who though he condescends to Readers weakness yet never condescends to their wantonness this shews a man or woman to be much after Gods heart Fifthly The efficacy of Scripture read is an effectual argument for the reading of Scripture Famous is the story of Austin whose conversion was wrought or at least compleated in this way for he on a time full of grief and lifting up his heart to God saying How long Lord How long wilt thou be angry with me Why shall not this hour put an end to my filthiness at length he heard a voyce as from Heaven calling to him in these words Take up and read take up and read Thereupon he took the Book opened it and read in that Chapter which he first cast his eye upon these words Not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to satisfie the lusts thereof and then read no further nor was there saith he any need for as he had made an end of reading that sentence all his doubts and darknesse did as by a light cast into and clearing up his heart suddenly vanish away Upon this occasion he remembred and relates the story of Antonius who happening to read some part of the Gospel was admonished that what he read was spoken to him and it was this Go sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me and upon this he was forthwith converted Aug. confess lib. 8. cap. 12 But we need not go further then Scripture to be perswaded of the power of Scripture being reverently read Upon the reading of the Law by Shaphan the Scribe Josiah rent his clothes and his tender heart was much humbled for his ear affected his heart and so may their eyes that read it themselves Yea in so bad a time as that was wherein Jeremiah lived yet the Princes hearing the words of the Lord read by Baruck were afraid both one and other And after they were come out of the captivity we find that all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law It 's true the sense was given and they were made to understand the reading but that hinders not the business in hand but sheweth the power of the Word when it is read with understanding and that the better it is understood the more powerful it is Now if the Word so work upon the heart when it is read by others why may not the same effect be wrought when a man reads it himself yea rather then because he may read it over and over again and hath more time to ponder upon it Hereunto we may add that when Christians heard that read which the Apostles decreed for the Churches resolution they rejoyced for the consolation And O how many in our dayes dwelling in the dust and in a most dejected condition have found themselves strangely revived by reading some place of Scripture which the hand of Providence hath directed them unto And what did the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes for their mutual comfort but write over and over in their Letters those Scriptures that made most for consolation and constancy that by the reading of them they might hold up and hold out in their honourable but hard condition Sixthly It makes much for reading and studying Scripture that it is Gods way to blessedness for Blessed is he whose delight is in the Law of God and that doth meditate in his Law day and night Yea Blessed is he that readeth It 's true it is not only said Blessed is he that readeth but also they that hear and keep the words of that Prophesie but yet the reading is named and hath a part in the blessedness pronounced to wit as it is together with hearing a means of keeping And this we see God made to be the way to the Eunuchs blessedness The reading Eunuch that could not at first see Christ in the Scripture he read yet saw so much by the help of Philip whom God sent to him when he was reading that he believed with all his heart and came to Jesus by Baptism unto eternal life for believing and blessedness comming to Christ and life go together Luk. 1. 45 Joh. 5. 40. 20. 31. After these reasons of reading Scripture I shall proceed to the answering of some Objections the first whereof concerns those that are higher the other such as are meaner and lower Object 1. Men that have their heads and hands full of business may perhaps plead that they have no time to
Son of God with power and so that person in and by whom that which God had promised before in the holy Scripture was fulfilled and that 's it which makes the mercies of David sure mercies We find also a yea rather put upon the Resurrection Christ being thereby a Conquerour and our Justifier Rom. 4. 25. when as if Christ were not risen we were yet in our sins 1 Cor. 15. 17. All this may shew of how great weight the Resurrection is in the work of our Redemption and therefore how worthy it is to have a day set a part for the rememberance of it and therein for the remembrance of the Redemption it self and of our glorious Redeemer And that it was for that reason so set apart the testimony of St. Augustine is clear who thus witnesseth The Lords-day was declared to Christians or declared to be the Christians day by the Resurrection of our Lord and from that time it began to have its Festivity or to be the Christians Festival 2. We find A divine name or denomination The first day of the week being generally agreed upon to be that day which is called the Lords-day Rev. 1. 10. If we would know why it is called the Lords-day the like name given to the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ may inform us It s true it may be said to be the Lords-day because our Lord rose on it and so the Eucharist the Lords Supper because our Lord is remembred in it But besides this As we know the Sacrament to be the Lords Supper because he instituted it for the remembrance of his Passion So we have great cause to think that the first day of the week is called the Lords-day because our Lord appointed and took order to have it set apart for the remembrance of his Resurrection and our Redemption for the Lords-day doth not only imply an acting on it but an owning of it for his use even as the old Sabbath day being said to be the Sabbath day of the Lord Exod. 20. 8 10. was so called because God did appropriate it to himself as the special time of his service And this is the more confirmed because the Service of God was already used among the Christians on that day instead of the Sabbath as all the ancients Doctors witness and is to be gathered besides from Act. 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. in which places we find Christians assembling together and provision made for Collections for the Poor as on the day already known to be consecrated to God for such uses yea it is very probably conceived that since John could not be in his banishment present in body in the publick Congregation he therefore set himself to holy meditations that he might be present with them in spirit and whilest he was thus intent on Soliloquies with God as he was most fit for so he was suddenly taken with that divine rapture wherein those heavenly Revelations that the Scripture records were communicated to him In brief Nothing hath this Title Dominical in Scripture but either Christs day or Supper to shew that is taken alike in both saith a Bishop of great note Now we know that being applyed to the Supper it implies an Institution any why it should not do so also being applyed to the Day we know not 3. We find as hath been touched in that next before a divine Practice and Observation for it was observed as the noted day for Christian Assemblies and Exercises by the Apostolical Churches Act. 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and therefore it was ordained to be so by the Apostles for who else guided those Churches I have given order saith the Apostles for those Collections that were on that day because their meetings were on that day for publike works of Piety and Charity Now If it were ordained by the Apostles then was it ordained by the infallible Spirit of Christ for what else guided the Apostles in their Church-constitutions I add lastly that if the Apostles directed the Churches to this day as being guided by that extraordinary and un-erring Spirit that they had then it was ordained and appointed by Christ himself for of that guiding Spirit it is that our Saviour saith He shall not speak of himself that is not of himself only without the Father and the Son but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak And again He shall receive of mine take of mine and shew it unto you Joh. 16. 13. 14 15. So that Athanasius that excellent light in the Church of God is like to be found as right as resolute in pronouncing roundly and plainly that the Lord translated the Sabbath into the Lords-day For the confirming of which that the translation of the Sabbath from the Jewish day to the first day of the week was by the Lord himself or divine Authority I thus argue The seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation was expresly commanded the people of God in the Old-Testament therefore the people of God in the New-Testament could not desist from the Observation of that day making it a working-day and take up a new day and make it of a working-working-day a perpetual holy day and that in all the Churches as this day hath been still continued in the Church-Catholick I say this could not be done unless by a new command of like authority either formal or virtual that is either in express words or collected by necessary and convincing arguments and evidences And this appears because every Law bindeth till it be repealed and repealed it cannot be but by an Authority equal to that by which it was first made especially with taking another day into its place and priviledge Who could so change the Sabbath but Christ himself the Lord of the Sabbath Unto this I add for further confirmation of the divine authority of the Christian Sabbath the constant observation of the Lords-day unto this day by the Christian Church which Christian Church if it have not observed a right day that is a day appointed of God for his Sabbath every week then hath it neglected in all this time and stands guilty of not observing the fourth Commandement for that Commandement requireth as hath been proved a weekly day of Gods appointment to the end of the world That which remaineth for the closing up of this necessary part of Christianity is An Exhortation to the reverent Estimation and Observation of the Christian Sabbath From 1. The Necessity 2. The Commedity 3. The Commendation of it 4. The Threats and Judgements of God denounced and executed on profaners of the Sabbath 5. The Promises Priviledges and Blessings assured to the reverent Observers thereof 1. The Necessity of a Sabbath Wherein it might suffice to say that the only wise God who never did any thing whereof there was no need instituted in the beginning of the World and afterwards prescribed in the
was manifestly and mightily declared to be the only-begotten Son of God Rom. 1. 3. Unto this may be added that this day hath been ever of high account in the Christian Church Let every one saith Ignatius that holy Martyr that loveth Christ keep the Lords day holy the Queen and Supreme of all dayes Hierom saith Among all dayes this day hath the primacy or holds the preheminence This is the day saith he that the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it If we celebrate our birth-dayes saith Chrysostom How much more is this day to be observed which if any shall call the Birth-day of all mankind he shall not erre therein for we were lost and are found were dead and are alive were Enemies and are reconciled But it is with spiritual honour that this day is to be honoured not with feasting profuse drinking of Wine much less with drunkenness and dancing c. Chrysost Serm. de Eleemosyna I shall close up this with a later witness of the worth of the Sabbath yet not to be contemned it being the testimony of a very learned man and Martyr of Jesus Christ His words are these The Sabbath is the School-day wherein we are to come to the Lords School to be acquainted with the Lords law and will When therefore the Sabbath is so much commended in the Old Testament the Lords School is especially commended The Vniversity not of Plato or Aristotle but of the Omnipotent God is commended The knowledge of the Law and the understanding of the Covenant of God with Man is commended What was spoken therefore of the City of God we may apply to his Sabbath Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou day of God Nor is there any thing on Earth liker Heaven then the enjoyment and we may say the beat fiâ—al Vision of God on that day in those publike Ordinances and private Spiritual Exercises and Addresses unto which devout Christians devote themselves which may be confirmed unto us by this That the heavenly State and the weekly day of publique and private Worship go under one and the same name that is both are said to be a keeping of a Sabbath Heaven being in this here as that shall be in Heaven hereafter There followeth 4. The Judgements of God threatned against and inflicted upon Sabbath-profaners Here I shall make use of the Text in hand and Nehemiahs relation v. 18. which sheweth that their Sabbath-profanation was not only evil in them but was and they might fear it would be very evil to them The judgement described in this Scripture hath four sad things in it 1. It is hereditary As when a disease is hereditary and passeth from Father to child the pain of that disease is hereditary also so is it in this case Did not your Fathers do thus And where the sin is continued the judgement is entailed yea it is said further Did not God bring this evil upon us When there is a generation of Sabbath-breakers they pay for their Fathers sin and their own both together as it was in this long captivity And now they had cause to fear further judgement They being risen up in their Fathers stead an increase of sinful men to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel Numb 32. 14. 2. It is very harmful It is not only said this evill but all this evil for God chastiseth his people as their Congregation hath heard And they had heard besides what they heard at other times a little before these utmost miseries that the Lord for not hallowing the Sabbath would kindle a fire in the palaces of Jerusalem which should burn seventy years together and not be quenched We find in former times how severe the sentence of God himself was upon him that did but gather sticks on the Sabbath day And about the same time when they greatly polluted the Lords Sabbaths he said He would powr forth his fury upon them to destroy them in the Wildernesse wherein there were mighty slaughters made of them but all that evill was little to all this evill Neh. 9. 32. 36 37. for the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people saith the Prophet is greater then the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown in a moment And again Behold and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow Godly Magistrates make laws for the holy observation of Gods holy day and ungodly Officers leave them unexecuted but the Supream Power will look to it and the highest God will animate his Laws by Executions which should make all of us fear and tremble and say If we rebell to day and Sabbath-breaking is Rebellion Ezek. 20. 13. Exod. 16. 28. God will be wroth to morrow Yea and that with the whole Congregation For 3. It is diffusive It spreads far Here is wrath Upon Israel Woe to him that commits Folly in Israel For that 's a people near to God and therefore should not be defiled So woe to him that brings trouble on Israel which Achan found for Israel is a people dear to God and therefore he would not have them to be wasted and consumed by those sins that send for general judgments An Ague is one thing the Pestilence another he that brings the Plague into a City may be an instrument of much mortality and misery Now Sabbath-pollutions are pestilential that is they destroy many and make havock in Israel They that set a City on fire are most mischievous persons to be an Incendiary is a name of infamy but Sabbath-breakers set the whole Nation on fire and for their sakes amongst other notorious and Israel-ruining sinners Zion is plowed as a field and Jerusalem becomes heaps for by reason of this sin God threatens such fury as shall consume his people and that he will accomplish his anger against them Ezek. 20. 13 21. 4. It is cumulative that is profaning the Sabbath layes on more weight on those who are heavy laden with the burthen of judgement already For here it is said by them that had been very long in a very sad condition Ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath-day There 's never so much affliction but God can send more and being further provoked by this sin he will send more seven times more They that be in a prosperous estate should keep the Sabbath that they may keep well when it is well and they that be in an evil case should keep it to prevent their being in a worse The wrath of the King of Heaven is as the roaring of a Lyon and more wrath is as a more dreadful roaring the fore-runner of renting Judg. 14. 5. with Hos 13. 8. In all this it is to be remembred that the fourth Commandement still continuing as there is now also a weekly Sabbath-day so there is a like Sabbath-danger
fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Albeit therefore I shall easily grant that we have great cause to desire God to be merciful to us in this thing that our delight in Sabbath-duties is so dim yet it doth not follow from thence that there is none If God should take away Sabbaths from us I doubt not but that in all good Christians the grief would prove the delight for no man is grieved to lose what he never lov'd nor took any pleasure in I say it is thus in all good and truly godly and especially greatly-godly persons for as the man is so is his delight No marvel if the men of the world say When will the Sabbath be gone No wonder if the holy and strict observation thereof be unto carnal people and persons that savour not the things of God like Saul's Armour to David they cannot tell how to go with or undergo matters of so spiritual a nature for they never prov'd them they were never us'd to such things But on the other side the same spiritual observation of the Lords-day unto a spiritual Christian is like Jonathan's robe and his garments even his Sword his Bow and his Girdle to the same David which no doubt he us'd and wore with much delight they being great testimonies of Jonathan's singular love to him and signs and symbols of the Covenant made with him as also the Lords-Sabbath and the Ordinances thereof are great tokens of his special love to us and a sign of his holy Covenant made with us Ezek. 20. 12. O why should not the Lords-day be our delight Is there not full joy in fellowship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ in the Preaching and with the Preachers of the Gospel Is not Christ who is observed to appear on that day again and again to his Disciples after his Resurrection and is still in the Assemblies of the Saints and in the Ministry of his Servants I say Is not He the desire and the delight of all Nations And who is it that is the Comforter and solace of Saints but that holy Spirit with whom the Servants of God have much to do on that day in heavenly Meditations So that if the whole Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost can minister any delight unto us then may we call the Sabbath a delight for therein God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier doth eminently appear and operate This is a day very useful and subservient to all the necessities of our souls If we be ignorant in any thing or in many things on this day we are all taught of God It 's a Soul-enlightning day If we be as we are Strangers in the Earth on this day we are most taught the way to our Countrey It 's a Soul-guiding day Psal 73. 17 24. If we hunger and thirst after Righteousness the spiritual Manna falls from Heaven and water comes out of that Rock which is Christ principally upon this day It 's a Soul-satisfying day If we languish under spiritual diseases or lie low under outward calamities on this day the Lord offereth Medicines in the Ministry for all our Maladies It 's a Soul-restoring-day Christ heals still on Sabbath days And that I may once conclude could we be in the Spirit upon the Lords-day as we ought to be or as we might be for I do not mean extraordinarily as John was but having our hearts taken up with and heightned in the pure spiritual observation of it we might have then a fair sight yea a sweet sense of that unspeakably glorious Sabbath which right and real Saints shall shortly celebrate all together in the heavenly Canaan where there remaineth a rest or the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God Heb 4. 9. The Second Part. CHAP. I. Of Family-Duties AFter the four Christian-duties spoken of in the fore-going part I shall now proceed to four other Family-duties the first whereof because Religion is rooted in knowledge may well be Family-Catechising I say Family-Catechising for I shall not here speak of Catechising in its general extent but only apply my self to it as it is a duty belonging to Christians in their several Families which godly Exercise I shall endeavour to assist and perswade unto by Texts of Scripture first and some Arguments and Motives after Texts of Scripture to prove Catechising in Families a duty It is not my purpose here to mention every Text of Scripture that gives strength to this necessary duty but shall content my self with the naming and with the opening of two Texts in the Old-Testament and one in the New The first in the Old Testament is Deut. 6. 6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up For the opening of this Scripture and the awakening of Conscience to a due consideration of it there comes to be considered in the first place Who it is that speaks in it even the Eternal God by his Servant Moses that was faithful in all his house Remember that it is He that saith Keep these words that I command thee this day But How must Parents keep them For to Parents and every Parent God here speaks and in answer to that question saith These words shall be in thine heart yet are they not only to be in the hearts of those that have Families but in their houses therefore it is added Thou shalt teach them thy children Nor was this a Ceremonial Precept or a Commandement given peculiarly to the Jews for their assistance in the remembrance of the Law of God as their Phylacteries fringes and fastning the Law to their door-posts but it was and is a moral and perpetual Precept binding us in Gospel-times as well as them and therefore the very same things that we read in this Text we find also in the New-Testament That is 1. That the Word of Christ must dwell in us which is all one with this here Let it be in thine heart And 2. That it must be in our houses also for Parents are required to bring up their children in the nurture and information of the Lord In obedience therefore to this standing Command they to whom God hath given children should say as the Psalmist doth Come ye children hearken to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord And when the children be come together the Spirit of God in the Text we have in hand teacheth in what manner they are to be taught saying Thou shalt teach them diligently and in the margent of our Bibles it is Thou shalt whet or sharpen which is well and plainly expressed in the Text by teaching diligently but yet the word in the Original doth
to look upon Singing of Psalms as the Soul-support of David the sweet Psalmist of Israel in all his afflictions As the Cordial of wounded Consciences As the holy Fire to enkindle heavenly Affections As the Perfume of Prisons the Musick of Martyrs yea the work and pleasure of Saints and Angels in the Paradise of God And then how will they how can they neglect it After all I shall put down those short Prayers which I mentioned before when I spake of the duty of Family-Prayer but have thought it fittest to place them here that the Treatise might not be interrupted and that such as need them might more easily find them I say such as need them for they are framed only for the help of weak and well-minded Christians that would pray in their Families if they knew how And these Forms are put down not to tie them as if they should use no other or needed no more but to teach them that by this assistance they may set upon this duty and do something in it and by doing a little at first may be able to do more after and most and best at last A Family-Prayer for the Morning FAther of Mercies and God of all Comfort All thy works praise thee and thy Saints bless thee of that number we that are here before thee desire to be and therefore come into thy presence to acknowledge that all the good we have cometh from thee and therefore that all our praises are due unto thee Help us we beseech thee in an acceptable manner to pay this debt and to perform this duty of Thanksgiving wherein in the first place we wonder at the riches of thy free grace whereby thou hast been pleased from all Eternity to elect and choose a company of the sons and daughters of men for thine own portion fore-ordaining and appointing them to Grace here and to everlasting Glory in Heaven And we bless thee exceedingly for any testimony we have that we are in the number not only of the called which are many but of the chosen which are few We praise thee also for creating us after thine own Image and giving us life and breath for How could we have had an everlasting well-being hereafter if we had not had a being here But amongst and above all we give thee all possible thanks for that great and admirable work of Redemption wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ for the Salvation of Mankind utterly lost and undone in and by the sin of our first Parents whereupon it is come to pass that whereas at first we were made righteous now there is none righteous no not one but our Understandings are full of darkness our Consciences of deadness and defilement our Wills of perversness our Affections of distemper our Conversation of disorder yea every way we carry about with us naturally abundant matter of condemnation nor can Men or Angels help us but blessed be thy Name O God that thou hast been so pitiful and of so tender mercy as to lay help upon One that is mighty and that is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him O How many be there that neither have nor hear of this mercy Great is thy goodness therefore which we do with all our hearts acknowledge that we live in thy Church and therein enjoy those lively Oracles and Ordinances wherein as all other truths necessary to Salvation are made known unto us so more especially the Doctrine and benefit of the great work of Redemption is fully revealed and freely offered and that with all powerful motives to perswade our hearts to accept of that gracious offer for our own good yet considering how many there are in the Church unto whom the Lord Jesus may say I would and ye would not we cannot but reckon it a singular favour that any grace is bestowed on any of us by the means of grace vouchsafed unto us and for any gratious change which thou hast wrought in us for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure But besides all these our hearts are glad our glory rejoyceth and our tongues that should be our glory by setting forth thy glory do with all our hearts praise thee for the unconceiveable glory and happiness reserved in Heaven for all those who through the abundant mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ are begotten again unto a lively hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead which assureth us that all is done and suffered which was necessary to keep us from being undone and to recover us unto a state of perfect blessedness Mean-while we confess unto thy praise O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel how good thou art unto us even in this present evil world in that we have the benefit of our Understandings Senses and Members which divers want and of Health Liberty credit maintenance success in business recovery from sickness vouchsafed to us above many other of thy dear Servants We bless thee for preserving us in so many dangers for removing so many of our fears for granting so many of our desires and for not granting what we have desired amiss We praise thee for watching over us by thy good Providence from time to time in particular for the late mercy of the night past and the new mercy of the present morning for we are less then all thy mercies then a nights rest or a mornings refreshing yea our sin and unworthy walking before thee is such which here we freely confess unto thee as that it were just with thee that all thy favours should be turned into frowns and that thou shouldest do us hurt and consume us after thou hast done us good But with thee there is mercy that thou mayest be feared Let us have occasion to fear thee reverence thee and admire thee and to say Who is a God like unto thee how incomparably good is our God by pardoning the transgressions and continuing the comforts of such sinful and worthless creatures as we are Let it ever repent us O Lord of our ill dealing with thee but let it never repent thee of thy gratious dealing with us This day in special let thy goodness towards us appear in keeping us from any evil thing to which we shall be more inclined or more tempted and in making us ready to and able for every good word and work to which of our selves we shall be more unable indisposed and unprepared or wherein by tentation we shall be more hindred Guide us O Lord in the right way and therein Guard us let us undertake no business but what thou approvest and in that do thou bless and prosper us especially we humbly crave thy protection all the day in those works and wayes wherein there are more dangers and hazards Preserve us we beseech thee from
upon our ever too-hard-hearts as that we may remember our former evil wayes and doings that have not been good and lothe our selves in our own sight for all our iniquities Nor let us lothe our sins only and our selves for them but leave them also and settle it in our hearts after thou hast spoken peace to us not to turn again to folly And because our own resolutions are soon altered and by our own strength we cannot prevail therefore we beg of thee our God to whom power belongeth so much strength as that though sin while we are here dwell within us yet it may not have dominion over us especially let us be strong in the Lord and the power of his might for the subduing of our special sins and those Goliahs that seem to set at defiance the whole Army of the Graces of God in us Neither let it suffice us to depart from evil unless also we do good and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And that this may be better done Good Lord make us mindful of the use of all good means of a godly life such as are the hearing of thy Word heedfully the receiving of thy holy Sacrament preparedly the keeping of thy Sabbath conscionably praying to thy Majesty often and earnestly together with conversing with good company as there shall be liberty and occasion and a gaining of time to commune with our own hearts and so to think on our wayes as that we may turn our feet to Gods testimonies Thus and every other good way O our God lead us by thy good Spirit into the land of uprightness and into a state of blessedness And because it is our duty to pray for thy Church whereof we are members as well as for our selves yea and our honour also who art but dust and ashes to be admitted so to do therefore we beseech thee Do well in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the wals of Jerusalem Make it the study of those that are thy people to be an holy people as thou their God art an holy God Where thy Church hath rest make them careful to walk before thee in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost that so their peace may be continued or they prepared for trouble if their quiet state be altered Where thy Church is in trouble make them mindful of and able for that truly penitent humbling themselves before thee and faithful seeking unto thee whereby their peace and prosperity may be restored Strengthen in all parts their hearts and hands that stand in the just defence of Religion and Right In special manner we beseech thee to have a gracious respect to this sinful Nation with the adjoyned Dominions Enable with all eminent gifts and especially sanctifie more and more with saving grace the Kings most Excellent Majesty our Supreme and most gracious Governour and so pour forth thy Spirit upon all in higher Authority that they may with all wisdom diligence faithfulness and good success manage the great affairs of State Be pleas'd to establish and ever to preserve and stand by the two great Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry that by the preaching of the one the power of the other and thy blessing on both Errour and Ungodliness may be restrained truth and holiness may be promoted and in that way all outward good things may be ministred Bless we humbly pray thee outwardly as thou seest meet but especially spiritually all that fear thy Name yea have mercy on them call them and put thy fear into them that yet fear thee not In special we desire thy favour in behalf of those to whom we have any relation and whom we are desired or ought to pray for more particularly this Family In singular mercy vouchsafe thy grace to any in it that yet want it and encrease thy grace in those that have it Extend thy compassion O thou that art the Father of mercy to those that be any way afflicted with sickness pain poverty injustice reproach restraint And more especially to those that suffer either in Conscience or for Conscience Give them all wisdom to see what thou intendest grace to give thee what thou expectest strength to bear what thou inflictest and in thine own way and time make them glorious by deliverance And now O Lord we return humble thanks unto thy Majesty for the mercies of this day in regard of our souls and bodies and businesses desiring that we may still make a good use of all our crosses And so craving pardon in Jesus Christ for the sins of this day for which we are here before thee to judge our selves we resign up our persons and all we have into thy gracious hands beseeching thee so to watch over us this night as that our souls may be kept from sin our bodies from sickness our goods from loss and those decreasings that we deserve And withal so to bless our Rest unto us that we may awake with cheerfulness in the morning well enabled for thy Service and the duties of our Callings the day following And all this for Jesus Christs sake in whom we beseech thee to accept these our poor and weak Prayers which we conclude with his absolutely perfect Prayer saying as he hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven c. A shorter Prayer for the Morning Most gracious God we do here humbly present our selves before thee to offer unto thee the Sacrifice of praise that is the fruit of our lips and to give thanks unto thy Name for the rest of the night past and the mercies of this morning We confess thou mightest justly have awakened us out of our sleep at mid-night as thou didst the Egyptians with a great cry or else have made our sleep as when thou smotest their first-born the sleep of death but we have lien down in peace and slept because thou Lord only makest us dwell in safety Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to the eyes to behold the Sun but How excellent is thy loving kindness in causing the Sun of Righteousness to arise unto us with healing in his wings d Blessed be thy Name for giving the Lord Jesus to be a light to lighten us Gentiles as well as to be the glory of thy people Israel And that we have together with him and not without him all things also We praise thee for the health of our bodies the peace of our mindes for our understanding and all the powers of our Souls for our sight and hearing and all the parts of our bodies for the liberty of our Persons the blessings of our Estate and all the comfort we enjoy in our Friends and Relations Yea for all those fatherly Corrections whereby thou hast sought to drive our foolishness far from us and to make us mend our pace in the wayes of
Wisdom In special we thank thee for any well-grounded hopes we have of a better life and that Inheritance which is incoruâ—â—ible undefiled and that fadeth not away reâ—…ed in Heaven for us and for which also we are preserved O Loâ—… of tiâ—e are less then the least of all thy mercies and if thou lay upon us the heavyest of thy judgements we have no right to complain being men of death and such as have deserved everlasting condemnation For we brought into the world with us a corrupt nature wherein is the seed of all sin and by reason whereof in the whole course of our lives we have neglected or done negligently what thou requirest and have moreover too too carelesly rusht into those evils both in thought word and deed which thou forbiddest But since thou art a God that delightest in mercy and that hast been pleas'd out of thine infinite love to mankind to lay upon thine only Son the iniquity of us all We that are the sheep that have gone so far astray come boldly unto the Throne of Grace in his Name intreating thy Majesty that by that Lamb of God that hath taken away the sins of the World our many and great sins our day-sins and our night-sins may be so taken away that if they be sought they may not be found being removed from us as far as the East is from the West that so in all the sorrows of this world we may joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement Make us able we pray thee by thy grace to prove that our sins are forgiven because they are forsaken s and that we have right to the promises of the Tree of Life because we do thy Commandements and walk sincerely in the duties of Christianity and of our particular Callings that thereby though we cannot procure yet we may assure our happiness and in that way of thine may come to be possessed of it That we may the better perform the duties belonging to us in our several places Help us we beseech thee to take heed both of Idleness and ill Company that are Enemies to Imployment And if we do labour diligently let us shew the power of godliness in not aiming at our own advantage and self-ends Set our hearts O God in so good a frame as that we may follow our business day by day in obedience to thy Word with respect to thy glory and to the doing of good to those that we live amongst and ought to be helpful unto For these ends and purposes we beg of thee as of a God Al-sufficient to preserve us from danger by thy Providence to enable us for what we are to do by thy power and to make all we do to thrive and prosper by thy blessing without which it is in vain to rise up early to sit up late and to eat the bread of sorrows Have a gracious respect we humbly pray thee unto all thine and ours according to all thy wisdom and goodness and according to all their need and occasions Be pleas'd to look with special favour upon the Churches of the Saints in all places especially in this and the neighbour-Nations Herein Pour forth thy choysest blessings on the head and thy choisest graces into the heart of the Kings Majesty with the rest of the Royal Family Furnish those with ability and fidelity that are in Authority in the State and that watch over the souls of thy people in the Church As for our selves and all that are under authority make us ever ready to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods Let thy fear O Lord be upon our hearts all the day long that walking conscionably as in thy presence we may present our selves comfortably before thee in the Evening with the sense and feeling of thy grace in us and goodness towards us in Jesus Christ through whom we glory in thee and to whom with thee O Father and the Eternal Spirit we acknowledge to be due and desire to give all honour and glory now and evermore Amen A shorter Prayer for the Evening MOst glorious God and in Jesus Christ our most loving Father It is of thy great mercy that we have been preserved and followed with many fatherly favours this day and that we are in so good a condition before thee to offer up this Evening Sacrifice unto thee We must needs confess and we come unto thee to confess that thy gracious dealing with us is altogether undeserved and that any evil that is or shall come upon us in this world is far less then we deserve For if we look to our beginnings we that at first were made good and like our God have by our sin in our first Parents forfeited and lost that holiness in which and that happiness unto which we were created so that thou mayest justly call us transgressors from the womb we having procured this unto our selves that we are every one of us shapen in iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us And this corruption that over-spreads our natures so declareth and disperseth it self also in our whole carriage that as there is no day of our life wherein we do not many wayes partake in thy mercy so no day passeth over our heads wherein we do not in many things provoke thy justice In regard whereof we do not more need our daily bread for our bodies and being then a daily pardon of sin for our souls and for our well-being And blessed be thy Name O gracious God who art so far from leaving us without hope of a pardon that thou callest us unto thee and teachest us to seek it from thee as from our heavenly Father Unto thee therefore we come acknowledging O Father that we have sinned against Heaven and against Thee so that we are not worthy to be called thy children But though we forget to be towardly children yet do not thou forget to be a compassionate Father but be pleased to come forth and meet us and kiss us with the kisses of thy love Declare thy self in Jesus Christ a God reconciled unto us and that our sins and iniquities thou wilt remember no more So shall we remember thy Loves more then Wine and thou shalt put gladness into our hearts more then can possibly be had from all worldly enjoyments Nor do thou kiss us only but clothe us Take away our filthy garments which by our prodigality we have brought our selves unto and clothe us with change of rayment for as our great desire is that the righteousness of Christ which is the righteousness of God may be put upon us to shelter us from thy justice so we beg also for the clothing of the new Man that we may be meet to partake in thy mercy and may walk worthy of
thee our Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work Give us we beseech thee that Knowledge which is the Light of the Soul that Faith which is the Life of the Soul that Love which is the Heat and holy Fire of the Soul that Holiness and Meekness which is the Beauty and Ornament of the Soul and that Hope which is the Anchor of the Soul And thus prepare us for that glorious place whither our Fore-runner is for us entred and who hath given us assurance that where He is there shall also his servant be Nor do we pray for our selves only but as in duty we are bound for thy whole Church Thy Church is thy Treasure Lord where thy peculiar treasure is there let thine heart and peculiar favour be also Cast thine Eye of compassion on those therein that are under any special affliction Yea Look O thou All-seeing and All-pitying God into all corners of the World and shew thy self the God that comforteth those that are cast down In special manner Let the Eyes of the Lord our God be alwayes on this Land and the adjoyning Kingdoms from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year Make our gracious King a glorious Defender of the Faith Worship Wayes and Servants of Jesus Christ Let the Spirit of wisdom and the fear of the Lord rest on those Eminent Persons of his Majesties Privy Council ennoble with grace the whole Nobility Give a Spirit of Government and of Godliness to all in Authority that under his Majesty and his Magistracy we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Let thy Ministers O Lord be clothed with righteousness and so let thy Saints shout for joy As for our selves and others that live under the light Give us grace we beseech thee to live as lights in the world holding forth the Word of Life in our life that so thy faithful Labourers may rejoyce in the day of Christ that they have not run in vain nor laboured in vain Bless we pray thee all our Friends and all we ought to pray for whether Friends or Enemies especially bless those belonging to us with spiritual blessings in heavenly things yea minister to them and us and all thine all those good things of any kind which we have or should have asked either for our selves or them And now O Lord with humble thanks for the mercies of this day we commend our selves and all we have into thy gracious hands intreating thee to preserve us from the sins and sorrows of the night and to grant us that safe and quiet rest whereby our bodies may be restored and our spirits revived for the service of the day following And that for Christs sake thine only Son and our alone Mediator and Advocate In whose Name therefore and in the confidence of whose Intercession we come unto thee and to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God we render as is most due all Honour Obedience and Thanksgiving now and evermore Amen I shall only add two short Prayers for Children whereby they may be trained up to this necessary duty that so they may get much acquaintance with God by beginning betimes if they live longer and may not be without all acquaintance with God and Godliness if they die sooner A Prayer for Children for the Morning MOst high and holy God who hast set thy glory above the Heavens and yet out of the mouths of little Children yea of Sucklings hast ordained strong and powerful praise I bless and magnifie thy Name which is so excellent for that out of thine unspeakable love thou hast given to thy children and to their children Jesus Christ and together with him all things that I am born in thy Church that thou hast so provided for my bringing up that I may know of a child the holy Scriptures which are able to make me wise unto Salvation that by thee I have been holden up from the womb who have been no way able to look to my self And in particular for that thou hast kept me in safety this last night and raised me up comfortably this morning O Lord I confess I am a transgressor from the womb for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one And though I have lived but a while in the world yet I have sinned much so that it were just with thee suddenly to seize upon me and to take me out of this world before I am prepared for a better But Lord look upon me not as I am in my self but in Jesus Christ and in and through him pardon me who am so sinful Teach me who am so ignorant Sanctifie me who am so corrupt Make me to remember thee my Creator in the dayes of my youth Help me to hide thy Word in mine heart that I may not sin against thee but may thereby even while I am young clense and amend my wayes Order my steps in thy Word that no iniquity may have dominion over me And that I may not be wanting in any duty that thou requirest of me Grant me thy grace O God that I may be subject and obedient to my Parents and Governours tractable to my Teachers diligent in my business humble and gentle in my behaviour fearful to learn of any that which is evil and careful to learn of all that which is good Be pleased O Lord to strengthen and perfect my natural parts but especially vouchsafe that as I grow in years so I may grow in grace Protect and bless me I beseech thee this day throughout that in the evening I may praise thee for thy great goodness in Christ Jesus To whom with thee O Father and God the Holy Ghost be rendred all Glory Dominion and Service now and evermore Amen A Prayer for Children for the Evening O Most wise and gracious God I acknowledge my self a simple and sinful Creature I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me That foolishness which is bound in the heart of a child is fast bound in mine and that corruption which abides in all abounds in me which sadly shews it self in my backwardness and unwillingness in better things and my self-will and earnestness to walk in the wayes of mine heart and in the sight of mine eyes though for all such things thou wilt bring me to judgement Notwithstanding all this Be pleas'd O blessed Father to look upon me in thy Christ as thy child Unto me and into me let every good and saving gift come down from the Father of lights Give me so much understanding as to know my sin and judge my self for it so much repentance as to feel my sin and abhor my self for it and so much faith as to flie to Christ for pardon and power against
27. c. Dan. Cawd Hen. Palm 4. part c. 1. Ham L'estrange p. 59. c. p. 95. Answ 1. Answ 2. 1. 2. o Mat. 22. 29 31. p Col. 2. 23. 1. q Cujus beneficti commemoratio successit memoriae Creationis non traeditione humana sed Christi ipsius observatione atque instituto Jun. praelect in Gen. 2. r 1 Cor. 15. 14 15. Å¿ Act. 13. 32 33. Vid. Camer Myrothec in loc t Rom. 1. 3 4 v. 2. u Act. 13. 34. x Rom. 8 34. Vid. Piscat in Rom. 10. 11. in analysi y Aug. Epist 119. ad Januar c. 13. 2. z 1 Cor. 11. 20. a 1 Cor. 11. 23. b It being not called Dies Domini but which is more Dominicus not of the Lord but which is the Lords c Dutch Annotat on Revel 1. 10. Apostoli illum diem haud dubie tanquam ex Domini instituto observarunt ad agendum in eo conventus Ecclesiasticos Piscat in Luc. 14 Obs d See Marlorat in Rev. 1. 10. ex Seb. Mayer e Bishop of Winch. Opuscula His Speech against Trask in Star-Chamber 3. f 1 Cor. 16. 1. g 1 Cor. 7. 40. 14. 37. Matth. 28. 20. Act. 15. 24. h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hom. de Semente i Exod. 16. 28 29. k To change the Lords day the Church hath no authority for it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himself by his Apostles Fulk against Rhem. on Rev. 1. 10. l See the constant observation of the Lords day by the Primitive and successive Churches proved in a Treatise entituled Dies Dominica lib. 1. cap. 2. lib. 2. cap. 1. Edit An. 1639. in quart m Mat. 21. 3. n Mar. 2. 27. o Luk. 10. 42. p Vers 39. q Luk. 11. 28. r 1 Cor. 7. 35. Å¿ 1 Per. 1. 13. t Mal. 4. 2. u Rev. 12. 1. x 2 Chr. 9. 18. y Luk. 19. 4. z Joh. 1. 16. a Luk. 14. 18. b Isa 33. 17. c 1 Tim. 4. 8. d Judg. 9. 13. e Lev. 26. 2. f Ezek. 22. 26. g Lev. 19. 3. h Zec. 14. 20. i Isa 58. 13. k Mal. 1. 11. l Psal 89. 7. m Prov. 14. 28. n Psal 42. 4. o Psal 29. 9. 48. 9. 10. p Ineptè saciunt qui observationem diei Dominici ex traditione non ex Scripura Sacra in Ecclesia perdurare asserunt Jun. praelect in Gen. 2. q Isa 56. 2. r Jer. 2. 3. Deut. 33. 28. Å¿ Luk. 2. 32. t Deut. 33. 29. u Neh 9. 14. x Isa 55. 1 2. Mat. 22. 1 2 3. Rev. 3. 17 18. y Cant. 3. 4 5. Vid. Mercer in loc z Rev. 1. 10. a Et Sabbati Dominici unus est Dominus Aug. Epist 86. ad Casulam b Praeponitur dies Dominicus Sabbato side Resurrectionis Ibid. c Igaat ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Hieron com in Marc. 16. Post Sabbata tristia soelix irradiat dies quae primatum in diebus tenet c. Item Quomodo Matia Virgo inter omnes mulieres principatum tenet ita inter caeteros dies haec dies omnium dierum mater est f P. Ramus in Comment de Relig. Christiana lib. 2. c. 6. Saâ—batum siquidem Scholasticus dies est quo nobis est ad Domini Scholam accedendum ad legem ejus voluatatem cognoscendum c. g Psal 87. 3. h Psal 63. 2. i Heb. 4. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut v. 10 11. 1. 2. k Hos 7. 12. l Levit. 26. 34. m Jer. 17. 27. n Numb 15. 32. 35. o Ezek. 20. 13. p Numb 14. 29. 26. 65. q Lam. 4. 6. 1. 12. r Josh 22. 17 18. 3. Å¿ Judg. 20. 6. 2 Sam. 13. 13. t Josh 7. 25 u Jer. 17. 27. x Mic. 3. 12. 4. y Lev. 26. 21. z Jer. 17. 24 25. a Prov. 19. 12. b Rom. 15. 4. c 1 Cor. 10. 6. 11. d Mercer in Gen. 2. 3. Benedictio ut inquiunt Hebraei est accessio boni faustum felicem Augustum in signem intercaeteros hunc diem esse voluit praecipuo cum favore honore dignatus est e Gen. 24. 31. f 1 Sam. 25. 8. g Psal 36. 8 h Prov. 10. 22. See Aynsw on Gen. 2. 3. It is the abundant wealth of the world h Calv. in locum 1. h 2 Chr. 30. 22. 2. i Occolampad in loc k Gen. 41. 44. Vid. Jun. Trem l Isa 56. 2. m As cruel exactions are bad any day but worst on the Fast day Isa 58. 3. See Ezek. 23. 38. Sins are worse by holy time and place 2 King 21. 4. n Oecolampad in loc o So the Hebrew hath it p Bullinger in loc q Dutch Annotations on Isai 58. 13. r 1 Sam. 9. 6. Å¿ Eccl. 11. 7. t Psal 45. 9. u 2 Cor. 3. 9. x Mal. 4. 2. y 2 Cor. 4. 6. z Isa 33. 17. a 2 Cor. 3. 18. b Ezek. 22. 26. c 1 Sam. 2. 30. 1. d 1 Sam. 2. 15 16 30. e Bulling in loc f Dutch Annot g Voluntates tuas Pagmn h See Gen. 34. 19. Psal 111. 2. where the same word is used So 1 King 5. 8. i Lev. 23. 32. k v 31. 3. l Non requirit Silentium Harpocraticum Bulling m See Dr. Bownd Doctrine of Sabbath I. Book p. 272 c. n Thus by giving way to ordinary words the most confessed Duries of the Day are either marr'd or maim'd o 1 Cor. 15. 33. O Ecolampad p Calv. in Isa 58 13. Altiùs spectavit quà m and externam cae emoni am hoc est otium quietem in quo judaei sanctitatem summam sitam esse putabant Quod nimis crassum est admonet enim Propheta Psal 92. Titulo v. 2 3 4. Sabbatum non rectè coli feriando sed ordinatum esse ut celebretur Dei nomen Calv. in Psalm 92. 2. q Tit. 2. 12. r Rev. 1. 10. Å¿ Exod. 34. 10. t O Ecolampad in loc u Jer. 17. 24 25 26. x Neh. 13. 18. y Rom. 6. 23. Psal 19. 11. z Vid. Scultet in locum Mercer in Job 22. 26. a Bulling in loc b 1 Joh. 1. 3. c Psal 65. 4. 36. 8. d Isa 55. 2. e Psal 63. 50 6. Isa 26. 8 9. f Job 22. 26 27. 10. g Psal 36. 8 Torrente deliciarum tuarum h Cant. 5. 16. i Gen. 28. 21 22. k Cant. 2. 3. l Neh. 9. 25. m Psal 4. 6 7. n Psal 73. 17. o Gen. 3 4. 19. p 1 Pet. 4. 3. the will of the Gentiles q Amos 6. 13. â— r Isa 26. 8. Å¿ Job 22. 26. t Job 34. 9. u Cant. 5. 16. 2. x Psal 45. 4. Revel 6. 2. y Deut. 1. 28. 32. 13. 33. 29. ride on their necks Septuagint as Psal 60. 12. z Psal 66. 12. with Lam. 5. 5 7 8. Neh. 9. 37. a Dutch Annot b 1 Sam. 2. 30. c 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. d Rom. 16. 20. Psal 110.
the Lords-day as to retire from secular business and ordinary pleasures and delights that they may more freely attend the service of Christ are to be commended and incouraged Whatever disputes therefore there be yet the Conclusion is that the holy observation of the Lords-day now the weekly Sabbath-day is a commendable thing and redounds to the honour of those that so observe it And it will ever be the honour of the Nation and Church of England that there have been so many religious Acts and actings for the holy and intire observation of the Lords day It may be said I suppose truly and I hope in regard of this matter of the Sabbath inoffensively because other Churches may excel in other things I say it may be said of the Church of England Many Daughters of that Jerusalem which is the Mother of us all Gal. 4. 29. have done vertuously but thou excellest them all Prov. 31. 34. To come now to the last thing 3. Here is Profit and Provision I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy Father This refers plainly to the Jews whose Father Jacob was who while they observed Gods holy Sabbath and other of his Commandements well were well fed and fill'd and so if they had kept the Sabbath from polluting it and kept their hand from doing any evil might still have been but for want of that and by reason 〈◊〉 their prosaning the Sabbath among other sins Neh. 13. 18. they did pine away for want of the fruits of the field Lam. 4. 9. Thus it concerns the Jews properly But Abraham is our Father also Rom. 4. 16. and by the same reason Jacob or Israel is so likewise for the same Covenant of Grace which was formerly theirs only is now for substance ours and we laying hold on it by faith have the same priviledges and promises albeit with some difference in regard of the diversity of the state of the Church under the Law and the Gospel so that we may claim being such as carefully observe the Sabbath and the Covenant on our parts the benefit even of this outward promise and the comfort of outward Provisions as far as they needful or good for us Hence a learned Divine doth thus expound and enlarge this Promise As I have given to the seed of Jacob a very rich Inheritance so if thou be a godly observer of the Sabbath nothing shall be wanting unto thee of those things that are necessary for thee The same Author affirmeth that this and the like promise in Jeremy are understood also of spiritual gifts which Exposition suiteth well with Gospel-times wherein they that hunger and thirst after righteousness are called to hear the Word and so to eat that which is good and to let their soul delight it self in fatness Yea If we shall follow this promise further and take it in its utmost extent it may lead us into Heaven it self and the reward of inheritance there for otherwise how was Canaan the heritage of Abraham Isaac and Jacob as to their persons when it is said of Abraham that God gave him none Inheritance in it no not so much as to set his foot on and Isaac and Jacob sojourned with him in the land of Promise as in a strange Countrey and place of pilgrimage but they had the promise of it and their posterity possessed it when in the mean time they entered themselves into a better Countrey which they looked most at even the heavenly Canaan whereof the earthly Canaan was a Type Heb. 4 8 9. It 's a comfort to those that fear God and love any thing that hath his Name upon it that the Lords-day being dear to them in order to the upholding of godliness and Gods Kingdom being first sought other things shall be added and easily fall in Mat. 6. 33. when they that steal away sacred time that stir and stickle on the Lords-day in their worldly affairs and designs for their own advantage get as Gehazi did a booty without a blessing for Is that a time to look after Olive-yards and Vine-yards and Sheep and Oxen 2 King 5. 26. As it is said of the Sabbath of the Land enjoyned the Jews that it should be meat for them Lev. 25. 6. because they might on that seventh year feed on the fruits which through Gods blessing grew of themselves so it may be said not without warrant from this Text and present promise which hath its truth still that the weekly Sabbath also shall be meat to them who in the fear of God and faith observe it for they that are willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land Isa 1. 19. And in the keeping of every Commandement of God there 's great reward Psal 19. 11. that is such shall find benefit and gain by their godliness one way or other and shall thrive in worldly things if God see it good for them Nor are profaners of the Sabbath any of the richest men But yet because in Gospel-times which excel in spiritual blessings God is pleas'd to keep his Servants short in things temperal and they have oft but little of the world of whom the world is not worthy therefore we must go on and look to that Land of rest and heavenly Canaan which yet remaineth to be enjoyed wherein when Christians poor in state but rich in grace shall keep Sabbath sitting and resting with Abraham Isaac and Jacob then shall they sure be fed with their heritage Then shall they eat and be for ever satisfied for they shall eat and drink with Christ at his Table in that his Kingdom Now It 's true that all these good things are promised to godliness but of that godliness which hath the promise the holy observation of the Lords-weekly-day is both a part and a promoter yea not only an effectual furtherer but a continual and constant maintainer as both reason and experience shews Mr. Perkins is herein very full giving this reason of his affirming that there is no fear of God where Sabbath-profanation reigneth for saith he the keeping of the Sabbath is the maintaining increasing and publishing of Religion Serm. of Repentance on Zeph. 2. 12. After all this I shall only add something in the close to prevail if it may be with Christians and with teachable and conscientious Christians I hope I shall prevail for the delightsom honourable and profitable observation of the Lords-day Oh that we that know our selves bound to give unto Caesar that which is Caesars would carry our selves so as that all men might see we account our selves bound to give unto God that which is Gods that is his appointed weekly-weekly-day I am very apprehensive of divers difficulties in this Sabbath-argument and therefore humbly submit all I have spoken to the search and censure of the learned and godly and desire nothing that I have said should be received but as it is found to
vile and vain thoughts when we are alone from idle words when we are in company and from an empty carriage and unprofitable expence of time whether we be alone or in company And since thou hast appointed man to labour and the day to labour in Keep us we pray thee from idleness and neglect of our Callings from infidelity and depending on our labour and industry from discontent if we live hardly by it and from intemperance state-pride covetousness and worldly confidence if we thrive and prosper in it Let all our dealings through thy grace O God that art the God of all grace be just and equal without over-reaching and as there shall be occasion let us be charitable according to our ability without grudging And be pleased to set and keep our hearts in so good a frame that notwithstanding our worldly occasions We may be watchful to do and ready to receive any spiritual good and let our desire be to be in that company that will give occasion of both with the shunning not only of wicked but unprofitable Society Enable us we humbly pray thee to adorn our Profession by providing for honest things not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men Let thy fear O God who art great and terrible be upon our hearts and before our eyes all the day long that so we may presume to do nothing which it will or should grieve us to think upon at night Let there be cause rather to bless thee in the Evening as for thy goodness toward us so for some goodness in us and that the day hath not passed without using our Talents so as to bring in some advantage to our great Lord mean-while being here before thee to confess how good thou art every way unto us we would not go out of thy presence without praising thee our most merciful God for ordaining such peace for us as that we may with safety both abide at home and go abroad about all our occasions It is of thy great goodness that we are not forced to go in by-ways for fear of violent men but the high-wayes are freely occupyed and we have cause to rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord towards the Inhabitants of his Villages who now dwell without fear in such undefenced places In special we bless thee our gracious God for that Government whereby we enjoy this peace and liberty humbly beseeching thee to settle still amongst us and ever to preserve over us a religious and righteous and rightful Magistracy for our present tranquillity and felicity And ever to establish amongst us an able and faithful Ministry for the saving of our souls and our everlasting happiness in the day of the Lord Jesus for whom we bless thee in whom we enjoy and joy in thee and to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Spirit we acknowledged to be due and desire from our souls to give all Glory Majesty Dominion and Power now and evermore Amen A Family-Prayer for the Evening O Most holy and most glorious Lord God we poor and polluted creatures acknowledge our selves altogether unworthy to be admitted into thy presence so much as to confess our sins yet since thou art pleased to offer thy self unto us in Jesus Christ under the name of a Father assuring us that If we confess our sins thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins we are therefore bold in him to come before thee confessing O Father that whereas at first we were made very good and very like God Now through our own fault and fall every one of us is shapen in Iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us And besides this corruption of nature enough of it self to condemn us Against Thee Against thee only for there is but one Law-giver have we sinned in the whole course of our lives Justly O Lord mayest thou draw up an heavy charge against us for our sins of omission upon which our Saviour will pass his last Sentence for we cannot but acknowledge that we have left made light of and like leaking vessels let slip many Sermons Our fruits after much seed sowen have been so few that we deserve our stripes should be many unto which this other evil is added that we have often sleighted the Lords Supper either by not caring to receive it or by neglecting to prepare for it We have idled away also or profaned many Sabbaths at least we have gone heavily under the service of that day which we should call a delight And whereas heart-searching is exceeding needful for the well-ordering of our hearts and lives we confess that many examinations of our hearts and wayes for which thou hast hearkened we have neglected yea though this duty of Prayer by our selves and in our Families be so needful so beneficial and such an al-sanctifying service yet for a long time either we have been very careless and mindless of it or else careless and heartless in it But besides all these omissions and neglects of duty we do further confess that we have committed much evil and been guilty of much Rebellion against thy Majesty yielding ordinarily unto Satans temptations who never ceaseth to put fair colours upon the forbidden fruit rushing often into evil company and partaking with them in the unfruitful works of darkness and when we have been alone sadly and securely satisfying the lusts of our evil and distempered hearts especially in the evils more pleasing and sutable to our sinful natures In regard of all which and all other our many and great transgressions we deserve O most just God to be deprived of all thy blessings and to be laden with thy judgements as we have laden thee with our sins But whilest we are displeased with our selves for them and it is in our hearts desire not only to confess them but forsake them and turn to thee from them We beseech thee O Father of Mercies in the Name and for the merits of Jesus Christ to be merciful to us sinners laying every one of our sins for we are not able our selves to bear the least of them upon that Lamb of God on whom the Lord hath laid the Iniquity of us all freeing us also of thy free grace from all those evils which are either on us or due unto us for the same And that we may be hereof assured Give us we pray thee that most excellent grace of Faith without which the Word of Promise and of Pardon cannot profit that thereby receiving the forgiveness of our sins our spirits may rejoyce in God our Saviour which since we cannot do but in the Publicans way who said God be merciful to me a sinner that is in a way of repentance therefore do thou O Lord work and if any thing of godly sorrow be already wrought do thou more and more work so