day God hath appointed for the souls great affairs and negotiations we must conclude that the time which God requires for himself and for the souls advantage must be at least equal for continuance to that which he allows for other employments and surely no one day of the week is longer or shorter then another but if the Lords day hath not twenty four hours it must needs be shorter then the rest The Primitive Church kept a night as well as a day on the Sabbath as appeared by their Vigils and this not only in times of persecution but in the times when Emperours were Christians The ancient Fathers are clear copious in commanding the Observation of a whole Sabbath for spiritual services as a duty So Augustine Irenaeus and the Council of Mascon hath these words Let us observe the Lords day and sanctifie Aug. Iren. Conc. Mascon it from the Evening of the Saturday till the Evening of the Lords day sequestred from all business Nay let us hear Mr. Primrose our Adversary in this Controversie It is necessary saith that learned man that a day be chosen and appointed that in it as often as it returns men may apply themselves extraordinarily Primrose Praes p. 1 2. to publick and private devotion men must stint some ordinary day for that end and in this stinting must not shew themselves inferiour to the Jewes appointing less then one day in seven to Gods service And another concludes who is likewise our adversary That some day be destinated to the Lord may seem to be a dictate of the Law of Nature which he proves from the practice of the Heathens who observed a whole day to the honour of their Gods And therefore C. DOW p. 74. what spirit are they of who on the week day could wish the Sun might stand still as in the time of Joshua or Josh 10. 13. 2 Kings 20. 11. run back as on the dyal of Ahaz that they might have greater leasure for their worldly affairs but desire that the Sun might pass on on a Sabbath if it were possible with a speedier flight that that holy day might be the sooner over like those wanton Israelites Amos 8. 5. who were Amos 8. 5. weary of their Sabbath In a word it is very strange that any man should make the Sabbath like Nebuchadnezzars Image the upper parts Gold and Silver but the lower Dan. 2. 32 33. parts Iron and Clay the former part of a Sabbath to be spent in holy in golden duties but the latter part of the Sabbath in Iron labours or Clay drossie pleasures and delights in bowling and shooting and such like sports so much contended for by many men to be lawfull on the Sabbath day God will not abate any thing of a whole day in other Festivals which are of an inferiour nature and which were onely Ceremonial shaddows of something to come as we Lev. 23. 3â may observe in that signal and famous place Lev. 23. 32. the words are these And it shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest and you shall afflict your souls in the ninth day of the month at Even from Even unto Even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath Now this Feast here mentioned was called the Feast of Expiation and it was celebrated on the tenth day of the month Tisri our September and it was called the feast of Post paschale sacrum elapsis septem septimanis quadraginta novem diebus quinquagessima quam à numero Asartha Hebraei vocant offerunt deo panem Joseph Anti. Lib. 3 Cap. 10. Expiation because the High Priest did then confess unto God both his own sins and the sins of the people by performance of some Rites and Ceremonies expiate them and make an attonement to God for them Now to give you the Reason why this Feast was called a Sabbath in the forementioned Text you must conceive that the other Festivals of the Jews were by a general notion called Sabbaths though they did not fall on the seventh day as the New Moons Ezek. 46. 3. the feast of unleavened bread instituted in the twelfth of Exodus upon the sparing of the Jewes in the slaughter of the Aegyptians first born and the feast of Exod. 23. 14. Pentecost a feast instituted in memory of the Law given on Mount Sinai fifty dayes after Israels coming out of Egypt Haec sesta so lennia si in Sabbathum inciderent ob duplicem sestivitatem magnus dies Sabbathi vocabantur Leid Prof. and in these feasts which continued divers dayes the first and the last were more properly termed Sabbaths And so in the feast of Tabernacles or Booths which was ordained to witness that the Israelites lived in Tents or Booths in the Wilderness the first and the last day of this feast was called a Sabbath but if these solemn feasts fell upon a weekly Sabbath for the double feastival it was called the great day of the Sabbath Joh. 19. 31. But to reassume the Argument If God will have a whole day for these Ceremonial Mel. 4. 2. Hos 6. 4. Psal 92. 1 2. feasts which were to set with the rising Sun the coming of Christ the Sun of Righteousness surely God will abate nothing of his substantial Sabbath which is to endure till Sabbathi apud Judaeos fuerunt variae significationes quae tamen ab hac primâ omnes dependent quâ septimus cujusque hebdomadae dies in quarto Praecepto Sabbathum appellatur Wal. the second coming of Christ I mean not the seventh day the Jewes Sabbath but the first day of the week the Christian Sabbath If the Lord was so strict that he would not lose a moments honour in a ceremonial day of rest what shall we think the Lord expects upon this day this holy blessed Sabbath which is moral and perpetual Surely on this day we must not serve him by fits and flashes and sudden pangs which pass away as the early dew but we must constantly walk with him the whole day A flying Ceremony must not command more constant and strict observance then a stated steady festival the holy and weekly Sabbath Wallaeus observes all the other Sabbaths of the Jewes had their dependence on the great Sabbath the weekly Sabbath Luke 18. 12. Gal. 4. 9. and the week was sometimes called Sabbath and so the first day of the week was called the first day of the Sabbath Haec Sabbatha Ceremoniales fuerunt umbrae verum futurarum Ames and so the second of the week the second of the Sabbath for the Sabbath sake that glorious day which shed a lustre upon and gave name to the whole week And indeed other Sabbaths were but beggarly elements as the Apostle Sabbatil autem in decalogo praescriptum et dies nostra Dominica alius prorsus sunt naturae Id. speaks Gal. 4. 9. beggarly having little in them to enrich the soul and elements being the first and weak method of instruction the
memorials of a fresh and additional and more glorious work of Redemption 2. The Sabbath of the Jews expires by the surrogation of another day in the room of it upon a more remarkable and eminent occasion and by the same Divine Authority The substitution of another day viz. The Lords day puts out the observation of the former A new Mayor of a City being elected the Authority of the old ceases and he becomes dis-authorized As a Candle is put forth and the Stars dis-appear when the Sun ariseth So the observation of the Lords day thrusts out the observation of the old Sabbath and takes all the honour of it to it self and this it doth by vertue of the fourth Commandment which requires one day in seven So then the old Sabbath being buried in its Grave the Lords day is Heir apparent to it and like Jam tempore gratiae revelatae observatio illa sabbati ablata est ab observatione fidelium Aug. Gen. ad litter lib. 4. cap. 13. another Phoenix arises out of its ashes to succeed it The substitution of the new Sabbath is the abrogation of the old and the Lords day appearing which shall be plentifully proved the Saturday Sabbath vanisheth and is evaporate as the scattered cloud at the breaking out of the Sun In a word God had his work and so had Christ God had his rest and so had Christ God rested after the work of Creation and Christ after the work of Redemption the seventh day Sabbath commemorates Gods rest after the work of Creation and the first day Sabbath commemorates Christs rest after the work of Redemption which is universally to be observed in the Christian world It is rationally argued by a learned man that the old Sabbath is abolished by the death and resurrection of Christ Constat Apostolos biduò in maerore suisse propter motum Judaeorum se abscondisse qui die dominicâ ex hîlarati non solùm illum festivissimum voluerunt verùm etiam per omnes hebdomadas frequentandum esse duxerunt Humb. and God Almighty hath appointed a new form of Divine worship according to the Evangelical law Now the form of worship being changed it was expedient that the outward circumstances of place and solemn time should likewise be altered from what they were before and concerning the time of solemn worship the Lords day succeeds upon which Christ riseth and resteth from the great work of mans Redemption Old Sabbaths and old sacrifices being twins though both honourable and serviceable in their time yet like Hypocrates his twins they must live and die together and let both be buryed together But let our Gospel Sabbath take life from our Saviours Resurrection which brought with it a new creation a new world making all things new and giving a new life to lost mankind Holy Ignatius contemporary for many years with the Apostle John with some indignation rejects the Jewish Sabbath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Ignat. and charges us as we have any love to Jesus Christ to lay it aside and keep the Lords day the supream and Queen of dayes And this blessed Martyr speaking of the Jews converted to Christ in his time gives them this most Christian character viz. That they did no longer keep the Sabbath of the Jews but led their life according to the Lords day in which our life arose Augustine brands the keeping of the old Sabbath with the odious term of Judaizing And Ne Judaizemus servando Sabbatum judaicum Aug. indeed it can be nâ less then great contempt cast on our dear Messiah It is well observed by one We cannot possibly retain the old seventh day Sabbath but we must Memorize our creation above our Redemption which is to admire the Star more then the Sun or the Candle more then the Star and is expresly contrary to the ancient both promise and prophesie The Council of Laodicea was so zealous Incongruum est veteris creationis Sabbatum novae creationi Lightf against the observation of the old Sabbath that it pronounced an Anathema against the obstinate observators of it The words of the Council are these Christians ought not to Judaize and to rest from work on the Jewish Sabbath day but prefer the Lords day before it and rest thereon from labour if any shall be found to Judaize let him be an Anathema Here we may note that this Venerable Ista legalis septimi diei deputatio consecratio neminem constringit prater Judaeos idque non nisi ad tempus Non autem in Novo Testamento quo lex Mosis una cum sacerdotio Christo servatori cessit Muscul Council which was held Anno Dom. 314. One of the most primitive Conventions of the Christian Church commands as under a severe penalty to follow our works on the Saturday Sabbath and to put the crown of rest and holiness upon the head of the Lords day I suppose the Canons of this Council are a good Comment upon the spirit of those times It is well observed by Musculus That the deputation of the seventh day Sabbath belonged only to the Jewish paedagogy now the Jews being hissed off the stage by the just judgment of God and being unchurched and unpeopled their Sabbath is folded up in silence and we have nothing to do with it and so we fairly lay it to sleep and draw the curtains about it no more expecting its rise ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Athanas or revival Let me conclude this particular with a saying of Athanasius In the old time of the Jews the seventh day Sabbath was highly esteemed but now under the Gospel the Lord hath changed it and translated it into the Lords day for the old Sabbath appertained to their pedagogy and to the rudiments of the law and therefore when the great Master came and fulfilled all that which was prefigured by it it then ceased even as a Candle is put forth at the rising and appearing of the Sun Now what can be more evident for the dismission of the legal and the admission of the Evangelical Sabbath Quest The old Sabbath then is discharged and is not the fourth Commandment discarded with it buryed in the same grave Answ Surely no for the fourth Commandment enjoyned the sanctification of the Sabbath indefinitely not definitely a seventh day not the seventh day a seventh day not in order but proportion Junius very well observes That the natural equity of the fourth Commandment is that one day Naturalis aequitas quarti praecepti est unum è septem diebus deo et divino cultuâ esse destinandum c. Jun. in seven be consecrated to God whether the first day or the last day of the week and the Scriptures telling us it is now the first we are still obedient to the fourth Commandment Indeed the law of sanctifying the Sabbath is natural and perfectly Moral in respect of the substance of it which is this That every
Salvian spend Salv. de Provid in exclaming against the Impieties of those times he lived in Nay the very Heathen Poets turned Satyrists when the times turned Aude aliquid bâevibus Gyaris et âârcere dignum si vis esse aliquiâ Probitas laudâtur et alget Juven scandalous Let it be no offence that the Author deplores a prophaned Sabbath and contributes his two mites to its reformation Quis talia fando temperet a lacrymis When Gods Sabbath is covered with pollution let it not seem strange if Gods Ministers are filled with lamentation and put their tears in Print The prophanation of Gods Day calls not onely for Preaching but Writing to suppress it and not onely for the Magistrates sword which may it be weilded to that holy purpose but the Ministers Pen. Nay suppose the Materials which may be met with in this ensuing Treatise be found lying on the ground in some other Volume or Tracts let not the Author be said to have beaten the Air if he have picked them up and put them together for spiritual edification The Corpus ecclesââ debet esse ãâã âââctum quia si membruââ ãâã sit ãâ¦ã nil viââris aut spââââus ââipâet â corpore Hier. building of a house of stone requires not onely the Quââry but the Mason the drawing of the Pictur stands in need not onely of the Colours but of the Pencil and the Painter It is the work of the spirit fiâly to joyn together the whole Body of Christ as the Apostle notes Ephes 4. 15. And if the Author hath onely added method to matter and hath brought but some tacks and loops to this Tabernacle work and hath put the scattered links into one Chain let it not be deemed a superfluity Nor can it easily be conceived that the large Field of the Sabbath hath been so enclosed by former labours but some part yet may remain to be hedged in and if there be some gleanings left after the Harvest it is worth the Authors pains to gather them up and make Bread of them to feed invaluable souls as he said facile est it is an easie thing so it may be said utile est inventis addere it is a very profitable thing to add to what is already found out It is not a despicable work to take notice of others escapes and to fill up the vacancies where they are discerned Volumes are as Ponds not as Springs they do not overflow they are capable of a supplement If any more Ore be digged out of the Mine which formerly was not espied let the Author in this be pardoned One thing more may be added The Author presumes Books on the Sabbath are more in Scholars studies than the peoples hands he doth not take notice that this subject is trite and worn by the perusals of the Vulgar he thinks no solemn subject in Divinity is more unknown to common Capacities his little experience cannot finde the people to be much versed in Volumes of this nature nor can he observe their tract that they have travelled Exod. 20. 8. this way It may be many have met with the Sabbath as it is laid down in the fourth Commandement Deut. 4 13. one of Gods Ten words but as it Deut. 10. 4. is unfolded and applied in a practical Treatise this seldom falls in the way of the peoples travel Therefore Courteous Reader accept of the tender of this ensuing Tract which is heartily levelled at thy souls good And remember the season when it is put into thy hands vâz When the Sabbath of the Lord lies under much contempt derision and prophanation But as the Prophet was pulled out of a dark and deep Dungeon by cast clouts and rotten raggs that onely seem fit for the Dunghil Jer. 38. 11 12 13. So if the Father 2 Cor. 1 3. of mercies shall graciously please that this ensuing Tract shall be any means to draw Sabbaths out of those Dungeons of scorn and abuse into which they seem now to be cast let the Lord have the praise my soul shall have the comfort the Reader shall enjoy the Benefit Gods holy Day its just Vindication which that the Lord may mercifully vouchsafe and that much success may crown this weak Endeavour shall be the incessant and earnest prayer of Reader Thy real and true Servant for Soul-advantage John Wells THE Practical SABBATARIAN ISAIAH 58. Chap. 13 14. Verses If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my Holy Day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the Earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy Father for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it CHAP. I. An Introduction to the Text. IN this Chapter we have God unmasking and reproving the Jewes Hyprocrisie in their worship and holy Services indeed in the former Chapter the Lord had by his Prophet fore-told that the penitent and the upright of the Jewes should return from the Captivity their Chains should be knock't off and their Captivity should be turned as Rivers in the South as the Psalmist speaks but as for the wicked no peace should be Psal 126. 4. to them the 21 Verse of the former Chapter tempest and tumult shall be their Companions and they shall be tossed continually from one calamity to another Now the wicked and hypocriticââ Jews supposing that the observation of Dayes their frequenting of Ordinances their waiting on Solemnities would reconcile them to God again and make up the breach their sins had caused they set upon this design and multiply their duties as fast as they did their sins none so often on their knees as themselves they ply God with Ceremonials to make amends for their neglect of Morals and because they were irreligious in their practices they will be over-religious in their Observations But God in this Chapter where the Text lyââ unravels their folly and discovers their vanity Alas it is not the outward Worship or the external attendance on an Ordinance can either pacifie the anger or procure the favour of God no more then a painted Cloud can dissolve into rain or the sign of the Sun cast forth refreshing beams Duties which are the products of hypocrisie onely the shining of that paint they may provoke but not put out wrath may inflame but not quench that fire So that in this Chapter we find God uttering his complaints against these painted hypocrites these earlier Pharisees who vainly dreamed to take off the edge of Gods fury by an over-plus of Service when by these smooth pretences they onely brought Oyl to make the fire of his Wrath to burn with a greater flame But yet this Chapter shall not be shut up without the allay of two
sweet promises the first made to Charity the best of duties 10 11. Verses the second made to a Holy Observation of the Sabbath the best of dayes Verse 13 14. And thus much may serve as a manuduction to lead you to the Text. CHAP. II. The Explication of the Text. IN the Text we have two remarkable Parts An Eminent Duty enjoyned Duties they are the Cords of a man to use the Prophets Phrase by which we are Hos 11. 4. sweetly drawn nearer to God they are our Travel towards Canaan While we are in a way of duty we are in Bona opera sunt via ad Regnum our way to the Kingdome Holy Duties are our spiritual intercourse our traffique with Heaven and such a duty is enjoyned in the Text. A Precious promise entailed on the accomplishing and right acting of this duty and indeed God doth not usually send our duties when duly performed empty away Duties Evangelically acted they are like Noahs Dove with the Gen. 8. 11. Gen. 44. 2. branch in her mouth like Benjamins sack with the silver Cup in the top of it God will not leave unrewarded the sweat of the soul But of these in their order For the Duty it self in the whole of it is a spiritual observation of the Sabbath The Sabbath day as God ordained it for his own Rest so it must be observed for his own Honour The Sabbath is Gods by his own Institution and by our sanctification As we receive it from God so we must keep it to God But in the Text there are many branches sprouting from this common stock God directs us many wayes and in many methods how to observe his Sabbath and we will trace and open these Directions in an orderly progress and proceeding These Directions they are partly negative and partly positive These Negative Directions call us from some practices which are prohibited and from some language which must be restrained Now there are four sorts of actions we must be abstemious from upon the Sabbath or to speak in Gospel language upon the Lords Day CHAP. III. Secular and servile works utterly unlawfull on the Sabbath day ACcording to the Text we must abstain ab actionibus civilibus from Civil Actions from the works of our Secular actions to be forborn on the Sabbath day we are in no wise to follow the works of our Calling Alap Callings the Shop and the Change-business must be laid aside on a Sabbath so the Text If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath Now Alapide gives us the genuine interpretation of that phrase Omne opus servile quod pedibus fit aut manibus hic erat prohibitum All servile works which the feet or hands accomplish is here prohibited Indeed the feet are quick and ready to prosecute the gains of the World and therefore here we are commanded to keep our feet from being exercised in servile or secular imployments on this Holy Day not any work must âxod 20. 10. be done saith God in the fourth Commandment a Commandment in which we may truly-say digitus Dei the Exod. 31. 18. Finger of God We must not mingle the Week with the Sabbath Oecolampadius well descants on this phrase in Oecolamp in hunc locum Judas Macchab We are to abstain from all servile work that having no work of our own we may be wholly taken up with Gods work that he may speak with us and reveal himself fully and familiarly to us as friends do when they get alone Shep. p. 84. the Text Si quicquam rerum tuarum in Sabbatho if thou hast appointed to do any of thy works upon the Sabbath and shalt draw thy foot away from the Sabbath intermiseris illud opus propter Sabbathum that is shalt intermit and lay aside that work for the Sabbath-sake because of the Sabbath in remembrance of the Sabbath then thou shalt sanctifie the Sabbath for such a Sabbath is acceptable to God Whatsoever work we have purposed we must break it off and turn our feet from it upon a Sabbath One well observes that Judas Macchabaeus whom God raised up for the defence of his People against the Tyranny of Antiochus that he having a great Victory against Nicanor and his Host and putting to the sword nine thousand and chasing away the rest the day before the Sabbath after that they had gathered the spoyle together they did rest upon the Sabbath and praised God for the Victory and after the Sabbath was past then they took order for the dividing of the spoyle Indeed should we labour upon Prohibeturopus nostrum scil servile mechanicum laboriosum quaestuosum ordinarium tum privatum tum publicum quae cum prohibita fuerint in festis aliis solennioribus Lev. 23. 7 8 25 32 35. Num. 28. 25. Multo magis Sabbatho Leid Prof. Luke 23. 56. Psal 1. 2. the Sabbath day this would breed confusion and confound Gods day with ours we labour six dayes and should we labour on the seventh where is the distinction this is to mingle light and darkness and to abolish the Sabbath name and thing The Sabbath is the Souls Monopoly then we must not labour with our hands but with our hearts and not seek the gains of the Earth but the Kingdome of Heaven we must not then follow our Callings but our Christ Mary Magdalen and Mary the Mother of James would not prepare odours to annoinâ Christs body when he was dead on the Sabbath day but rested that day least while they went about to Embalm his body they might indeed eclipse his Glory On this day Physicians must not study Galen nor Philosophers Aristotle nor Mathematicians Archimedes but their delight must be in the Law of the Lord. The Sabbath is sanctum otium a holy leasure to pursue Eternity We must so give rest to our bodies and our souls upon this day that nothing trouble us for here we must take up that of the Philosopher Postulandum secessum Toto hoc die vacandum Domino ut melius intendamus we must have our repose that we may the better intend the great work of our souls and therefore not onely worldly cares but worldly businesses are forbidden that so our whole body may be at command to serve God It is most eminently remarkable that we have in the Scriptures six Commandments for the observation of this Rest In Exod. 16. 22. The Israelites were to cease from gathering Manna on that day They were to gather a double measure on the day before that they might not be diverted to gather any on the Sabbath day On this day you have mercatur animae merchandise for your souls wherein are better things then Manna to be gathered Manna not like Coriander Joh. 6. 53. 1 Pet. 2. 3. seed Exod. 16. 31. but Manna which is the seed of the Word which is able to save our souls In Nehem. 13. 15 16 17. Where holy Nehemiah forbids all Traffique on the Sabbath
thus declares himself You must know Brethren that therefore it was appointed and commanded Christians by our Holy Fathers That in the Solemnities of the Saints and especially on the Lords dayes they should rest and be free from earthly businesses that so they might be more free and ready for the service of God when they have nothing to hinder them and might leave earthly cares that they might the more easily intend the will of God Chrysostome calls the abstinence from worldly affairs on the Sabbath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrys Hom. 5. in Matt. Greg. of Tours Dies Sabbaths indeterminatè sumptus est dies requiei Alex. Hal. an unmoveable Law such a Law as nothing but Sacriledge and Irreligion can shake or suppress we must on this day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã abstain from all works saith that golden mouth'd Father And if we come to the midle times of the Church the Sabbath still is fenced with the same cautions that no work be done thereon Gregory of Tours hath an excellent saying Being the Sabbath was the day whereon God made the Light and after was the witness of our Saviours Resurrection therefore it ought diligently to be observed by every Christian no manner of publick work to be done upon it And the same Author tells us a story of a fearfull judgement of Lightning which befell the City of Limoges ob diei dominici injuriam for prophaning the Lords day And another Gregory of a far greater fame Greg. Mag. viz. Gregory the Great speaks the same language Viz. We ought to rest on the Lords day from earthly labours and altogether give our selves to prayer And if we slide down to our dayes and the dayes of reformation servile works on the Sabbath incur the same censure If we call in the Testimony of forraign Divines Doctor Ames that pious Ames Mod. Theol. p. 364. and learned Divine observes That all servile works were to be abstained from in other festivals among the Jewes Lev. 23. 7 8. Numb 28. 25. Multò magis exclusa fuerunt à Sabbatho Exod. 12. 16. Much more on the sacred Sabbath Other forraign Testimonies might be subpaena'd in to give witness in this Cause but the Reader shall not be cloyed with a multiplicity of Quotations Onely as forraigners So our own Divines give in their suffrage to the same truth Famous Hooper Bishop and Martyr thus declares himself To that end Bish Hooper did God sanctifie the Sabbath day that we being free from the travels of the World might consider his works and benefits with thanksgiving hear the word of God honour him and fear him c. And holy Babington most pathetically Even as Bish Babington on the fourth Commandment you will answer it before the face of God and his Angels at the sound of the last trumpet weight whether Carding and Dicing c. and such exercises be commanded of God for the Sabbath And thus this Godly Bishop restrains the Sabbath to its own viz. spiritual work Not onely the Church distributive but the Church collective condemns labouring on the Lords day Many famous Councils have decried and prohibited this uncomly practice The famous Council of Mascon gives a severe prohibition to secular employments on this holy day in these words Let no man meddle with litigious controversies Concil Moscon Concil Cartha Concil Chalons or works of Husbandry on the Lords day but exercise himself in Hymns and singing praises unto God being intent thereon hoth in mind and body and much more to the same purpose I could name the Council of Carthage the Council of Chalons and others but this truth shall stand no longer before humane Tribunal Nay the great taking argument of Reason the Idol and Diana of most men joynes in the Verdict for the guiltiness and condemnation of labours and working in our Callings on the Lords day Servile and secular labours are too pedantick and low for 2 Cor. 6. 14. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysost the dignity of a Sabbath as the Apostle speaks What communion between light and darkness and what between the drudgeries of the world and the affairs of Heaven The Sabbath must not be degraded by servilities and low employments it was appointed for more noble undertakings it was set apart for Divine contemplations heavenly actions spiritual ordinances supernatural converses between Christ and the Soul and not for the culinary sweats of an empty any world To work on the Sabbath what is it but to plece a Silken garment with Canvas Greenham formerly complained There are many who make the Lords day a packing day for earth and make it a custome to have their Servants follow their Callings but these men act as Heathens who never Greenham's Treatise on the Sabbath p. 215. knew any thing of the Creation of Heaven and Earth by God nor never heard any thing of the Redemption of man by Christ nor ever tasted any thing of the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost Reas 2 Worldly labours they tend nothing at all to the worship of God they are onely sinfull and unseasonable divertisements Can we be intent on the works of our Calling and yet at the same time our heads fill'd with divine meditations our hearts breaking with holy affections our tongues employed in sacred devotions surely this would speak us more then men and it is but a mear dream to fancy such Veniendum est ad coenam a peccatis surgendum in vale dicendum Christus fide est amplectendus nova vita inchoanda Chemn nimbleness and agility Worldly affairs will take the soul off from heavenly employment they are contraries in themselves The Shop-board and the Church cannot unite Drossie avocasions will call us off from spiritual devotions The guests who were invited to the Supper if they will mind their secular affairs they cannot come to the Supper they cannot mind their Oxen and their Farmes and the Supper too and therefore they must be excused from the Luke 14. 16 18 19. one Such men who work on the Lords day a holy man saith their hearts are possessed with covetousness their minds Doctor G. are filled with the affairs of the world and what shall God have if their hearts and their minds are alienated to another Aug. de temp Serm. 251. purpose Augustine saith We are commanded to rest upon the Lords day from earthly business and he gives us this reason That we might be the more fit for Gods service And so Calvin upon Deut. Cap. 5. Serm. 34. Calvin We ought to cease from those works which hinder the works of God Let us not stay from calling upon his Name or exercising our selves in his Holy Word Now secular affairs Concil Arelat 4. Cap. 16. a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Est omnis cessatio ab opere quies scil à motu labore Leid Prof. 218. Joh. 3. 8. Exod. 34. 6. Exod. 35. 2.
Sabbathum propriè quietem et vacationem ab opere servili significat quod deus in ipsâ mundi origine quieti sarctae consecravit Gualt Sabbathum Domini Sabbathum dicitur in scripturis Exod. 16. 20 Lev. 19. 26. Eò quod deo consecratum est et iis studiis quae ad dei honorem spectant Id. 1 Kings 6. 7. Exod. 13. 2. would keep us and chain us up from such seraphical and heavenly duties And the Council of Arles which was celebrated under Charles the Great speaks to the same purpose concluding Let those things onely be done on the Sabbath which appertain to the Service of God Nay secular works and the works of our Calling upon the Sabbath they illegitimate and contradict the very name of a Sabbath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies quietness and rest a cessation from labour it is nothing more then a denyal of toyle so that when we labour on the Sabbath we do but rough this calme and quiet day which is given us to hear Gods still voice when the spirit that wind blows gently yet powerfully in the dispensation of the word God will have his own Name known that he is a God of mercy and purity and he will have the name of his Sabbath known to be a day of quiet and cessation and therefore it is called a Sabbath of Rest Exod. 35. 2. That if we at the first view did not understand the meaning of the word Sabbath Moses Comments on it and gives us an explanation it is a Sabbath of Rest a meer Hebraisme when Sabbath and Rest are the same thing and in the Original the word is onely repeated for it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And as in the building of the Temple of the Lord so in the keeping of the Sabbath of the Lord there must be no hammer heard no axe no noise of working instruments or secular employments 4. Labouring in our callings on a Sabbath doth not only deny the name of the Sabbath but subverts the manner of its observation which is by sanctifying it The Sabbath must be kept holy so in the forementioned place Exod. 35. 2. so in the fourth Commandment Exod. 20. 8. Now ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Cadash sanctifie a word used in both these Texts and many Exod. 40. 10. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Restaurari ad sanctum usum Buxtorf Sanctificare idem est quod ad usus sanctos applicare ceu adhibere Wal. diss de quarto Praecepto De modo sanctificationis duo dicuntur primum opera propria cujusque sex diebus clauduntur deinde opera Divina hoc die omnibus praescribuntur Idem other places it signifies the separation of any thing to a holy use So the first born among the Israelites were sanctified to God the same word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Cadash there they were consecrated and set apart to God So the vessels in the Sanctuary were sanctified Viz. they were set apart for the worship and service of God So the Temple was sanctified 1 Kings 9. 3. in the same sence So that whatsoever is hallowed and sanctified is set apart for holy use by the Will and Commandment of God And that great School-man Thomas Aquinas speaks to the same purpose Illa dicuntur lege sanctificari quae divino cultui applicantur Those things are sanctified in the Law which were dedicated to Gods Worship So then working on the Sabbath overthrows this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Cadash this sanctifying it it diverts that day to our own use which is sanctified separated onely to a divine use Secular works oppose the very purpose of the word sanctifying they rob God of his time dedicated to holy use and give it to the Labourer to him who works which is both impudence and sacriledge Labouring casts ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Cadash sanctifie out of the fourth Commandment and alters the will of the great Legislator it layes waste and makes common the holy day which God hath limited and inclosed to an holy use And it is remarkable that the observation of the Sabbath is never urged by Moses or the Prophets but rest and Exod. 35. 2. Exod. 31 14. Deut. 5. 14. Jer. 17. 27. Quiâquid aliquam speciem haberet operum servilium prohibebatur in Sabbato Rivet cessation is commanded too Exod. 35. 2. It is called a Sabbath of rest Exod. 31. 14. Thou shalt do no manner of work The same strictly enjoyned Deut. 5. 14. and so Jer. 17. 27. So that God hath put rest and cessation from secular employments into the very nature and essence of the Sabbath he hath engraven rest upon the Sabbath in an indelible Character that you cannot abstract it from the Sabbath without an abolition of the Law it self If you will keep a Sabbath keep it free from worldly labours or never set upon the observation of it Rest is as necessary for us as for former times for the holy sanctification of the Sabbath our bodies are subject to Mat. 26. 41. Exod. 23. 12. Recreabitur alieââgena muliò magis incola Ne âontinuâs laborâbââ sââiâgentâr homines sea fessa memb a lâventur die Sâbbâthi Leid Prof. Exod. 31. 17. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã respiravit deus Corpus nostrum mortale est in quo brevi tempore tanquam in tabernaculo moramur Alap in Corinth tiredness our spirits to faintness our flesh to weariness as well as those who lived in former ages and therefore are not we as much necessitated to a quietation and rest from labours Christ may say to us as well as to the Apostles The flesh is weak though the spirit may be willing we are clogged with as many weaknesses and disinabled by as many infirmities as former times and therefore Thou shalt do no manner of work That blessed indulgence and dispensation granted in the fourth Commandment cannot but be as pleasing and gratefull to us as others in the elder dayes of the world Shall the Jewes observe an exact rest on the Sabbath and not we Christians Are our Tabernacles of clay better fixed then theirs Our tired bodies require a cessation from labours to attend on the Divine Services of the Sabbath The main ground of Gods first institution of the Sabbath was rest from his works Viz. the works of Creation and the main cause of the re-institution of the Sabbath if I may so speak in the change of the day from the Seventh to the First was Christ's resting from his work Viz. the great work of Redemption The very reason of the Law and Statute concerning the Sabbath condemns secular labours and business this day A Quietus est first started the Law it self and a Quietus est must keep the Law now setled and Gen. 2. 3. Humano more eâ quad mattemperatione ad nestram institutionem loquitur scriptura Divina c Quievit deuâ substitit cessavit a procreandis producendisque rebus ex nihilo ut essent Chrysost established Rest from our labours is
a Sabbath whether good actions are not becoming a holy day this must needs be undeniable Now to cure a sick person quench a burning-house resist an incroaching adversary they are actions immutably good and therefore they must be so on a Sabbath There is no time when to save a dying person can in it self be unlawfull it is an obedience to the law of Nature a compliance with those ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã common principles which are concreated with us Therefore such actions cannot pollute the holy Sabbath or defloure the purity of it The third Argument our Saviour takes à potiori from that which is more eligible which is most fit to be done in case of a Dilemma and this Argument is urged Mat. 12. Mat. 12. 3 4. Generalis est haec doctrina non Davidem tantum ut sanctum Regem et Prophetam Domini licitè edisse panes propositionis quasi personale fuisset privilegium sed eâ famulos qui cum ipso erant non peccasse manducando in casu necessitatis Lyser Mal. 4. 2. 3 4. Our Saviour tells us what David did in case of necessity It was far more eligible for David to make bold with the shew-bread then for the holy Saint and King to die for hunger his life was more considerable then an appointed observation A substantial good is more to be valued then a shadow which onely signifies something to come and would fly away at the rising of the Sun of Righteousness and therefore as necessity intrenched on extraordinary food without blanâe so it may presume on an extraordinary day without crime The light of Nature warrants a discharge and gives in not guilty to works of necessity on the Sabbath If my wound bleeds to death because it is not dressed on the Sabbath or my disease send me to the dust because medicinal applications are not made on the Sabbath this is my errour not my duty If I have no being God can have no worship and so acts of necessity are dispensible God will have us to worship him with all chearfulness and alacrity which cannot be with an undrest wound or a disease not to be lookt after because it is the Sabbath I cannot chearfully joyne in Divine Worship and in the mean time the waters break into my house and there must be no stoppage of them because the time of Gods holy day will not permit it Cases therefore of indispensible necessity neither pollute nor prophane the Sabbath But to wind up this particular of working on a Sabbath which hath been the more copiously handled because of the greatness of its importance we read that the holy Apostle Paul sometimes laboured with his hands but yet his Acts 20. 34. Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. works on the Lords day were Sacred and Divine nothing but preaching the Word administring the Sacraments pouring out his Soul in Prayer taking care of the poor and those duties which are the just companions of a Sabbath He acts then not as a Tent-maker but as an Apostle his Acts 18. 3. heart works not his hands In a word this particular shall be shut up with the confession of learned Master Breerwood Breerw Tract of the Sabbath p. 47. who improved so much parts and pains in asserting an undue liberty on the Sabbath yet we may hear him thus acknowledge It is meet that Christians should on the Lords day abandon all worldly affairs and dedicate it wholly to the honour of God And one of our Church Homilies hath these words Gods obedient people should use the Sunday holily and Hom. Of the timeâ place of worship give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and Service and this was the practice of all Gods people in all ages And so much for this large particular But secondly there are a second sort of actions we must forbear on the Lords day viz. Sensual actions so the Sensual actions to be forborn on the Sabbath day Text from doing thy pleasure on my holy day We are to forbear indulging our appetites we must not please a wanton eye or a luxurious palate on the Sabbath which is a day not to feast the Body but to feast the Soul Feasts and Banquets are not the Celebration but the Prophanation of a Sabbath then our fat things must be the fat things of Gods house Psal 36. 8. Isa 25. 6. A full luxuriant table where no necessity requires it is fitter for the day of a Bacchus then the day of Jehovah who is all purity and perfection A moderate repast for Nature doth best become the holy Sabbath The Disciples feed upon a few ears of Corn upon a Sabbath Mat. 12. 1. De caenâ nostrâ hoc dicendum est nihil utilitatis nihil immodestiae admittit non prius discumbitur quam oratio ad deum praegustetur editur quantum esurientes capiunt bibitur quantum pudicis est utile ita saturantur ut qui meminerint etiam per noctem adorandum etiam esse doum ita fabulantur ut qui sciant dominum audire Tertul. Exod. 16. 22 23 24 c. Numb 28. 10. Exod 35. 3. On this day a Table spread with dishes is more spread with temptations It is dangerous then to study to please a palate when we are more especially to look after a soul On this holy day the Word must be our food tears must be our wine singing of Psalms our musick the Sanctuary our parlour and place of repast and our festivity must be joy in the Lord our eare must be taken up in holy attention our heart in spiritual devotion our eye in divine speculation The Sabbath is the Souls not the Senses feastival then to please the curiosities of sense is not to keep but to lose the Sabbath The Jewes had onely the usuall proportion of Manna for the Sabbath they had no exceedings and though they were to offer double Sacrifices on the Sabbath they were not to eat double meals to have an increase of outward provisions They could not lawfully kindle any fire on the Sabbath and surely those preparations could not be plenteous where there was no fire to make them We Christians make the Sunday a day of spiritual rejoycing saith Bishop White and he quotes it out of Turtullian Our pleasures on this day must not be in our Meats but in our Messiah not in our varieties unless it be of Ordinances Chrysostome reports that the Love-Feasts of the Christians in the Primitive times consisted of divers Viands provided by a common purse and collation of which they took as much as would suffice the Communicants Diem solis laetitiae indulgemus Tertul Chrysost On the 1 Cor. Cap. 11. Hom. 27. and so celebrated the Lords Supper together which done they presently fell to the spare and slender chear entertaining and solacing themselves with spiritual and divine Colloquies And indeed here we have our pattern in the purest times The Golden Christians
of the morning Sun of the Gospel were contented with spare and slender diet St. Augustine observed a vanity among the Aug. in Prolog 251. Serm. de tempore Jewes in his time that they feasted much on the Sabbath and therefore advises us To observe the Sabbath not as the Jewes did carnally and with fleshly delicacies And holy Ignatius before him much to the same purpose cryes out Ignat. Epist ad Magnesios Procul abjicienda sunt impura carnis opera insanum voluptuandi studium Gualt Phil. 3. 19. Amos 6. 4. and 6. Qui Sabbatho vitè utuntur caetus sacros adeunt Dei verbum audiunt voluntatem illius sedulò inquiâunt in operum beneficiorum ejus consideratione versantur precibus vacant denique omissis omnibus quae carni serviant se totos ad aeterni illius Sabbathi considerationem componunt Gualt We Christians must not keep our holy Sabbath after the manner of the prophane Jewes with excessive feastings c. But it is much to be feared that Jewes excesses have got into Christian Assemblies and many incur that censure of the Apostle in making their belly their God on a Sabbath they de indulgere gulae genio flatter their imtemperate palate and with the wanton Israelites Eat the Lambs out of the flock and drink their wine in bowles upon Gods holy day It was the complaint of holy men in former times that Wedding Dinners were kept on the Sabbath where too much intemperance swayed to the great prophanation of it This over-plus of food and fare gives the Soul a writ of ease and makes the body slothful and drowsie and so renders the ordinances and duties sapless and ineffectual and if God reveals himself to them it must be in dreams for the stretcht and pampered body is fit for little else There is a third sort of actions we must abstain from on the Sabbath viz. sinful actions so the Text Not doing Sinful actions to be avoided on a Sabbath Nec relig osi hujus diei otia relaxantes obscoenis quibuslibet patimur voluptatibus teneri Nihil die âodem veâdicet sibiscaena theatralis aut Circense certamen aut ferarum lachrymosa spectacula Anthem thy own wayes Such actions which stain a week day do blemish a Sabbath with a blacker spot Sin is a blot on any day but a Monster on a Sabbath On any day it is a Cockatrice Egge but a Serpent on a Sabbath The Solemnity of a Sabbath adds weight to every sin How scandalous is it to be guilty of Pride excess luxury on Gods holy day this is to turn the heaven of a Sabbath into an bell It is a remarkable Speech of Bishop Andrews To keep the Sabbath in an idle manner is Sabbatum Boum Asinorum the Sabbath of Beasts Oxen and Asses To keep the Sabbath in a jocular manner to see Playes and Sights to frequent the Theatres or as Leo saith to be at Cards or Commessations this Augustine calls Sabbathum aurei vituli the Sabbath of the golden calf But to keep the Sabbath in Sin in Drunkenness and surfeting in Chambering and Wantonness this is the Sabbath of Satan the Devils holy day All Si quis agrum colat die dominico violator est sacriotii verùm si relictâ agricultuââ inebrietur scortetur ludat c. non censetur prophanasse diâi deminici sanctimoniam Aug. Dr. Andrews Patt Chatechist doct p. 233. Leo Serm. 3. de Quadrag Rom. 13. 13. Exod. 20. 8. Exod. 35. 2. Neh. 9. 14. Monemus vos fratres ut fugiatis sermonum vanitatem turpitudinem facetias ebrietates lascivias fractos et effoeminatos motus siquidem in diebus dominicis non permittimus vobis quicquid inhonestum Clem. Rom. Num. 15. 35. the holies which God hath added to his Sabbath in the Scriptures not only in the fourth Commandment but in many other Scripture-texts will be so many Indictments against Practical miscarriages And if it was a capital offence for the poor man to gather a few sticks on the Sabbath Ah what is it to draw swords against Heaven in open scandal and prophaneness CHAP. IV. That Needless Recreations are unlawfull on the Sabbath THere are another sort of actions we must abstain from upon the Sabbath viz. Recreative Actions so the Recreative actions to be abstain'd from on the Sabbath day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Text Not finding thy own pleasure Recreations on a Sabbath are blown up into prophaneness Those delights which in the week are commendable on the Sabbath are intollerable ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Kephetz the original word denotes we must have no blandishments on that day nothing to be a snare or titillation to sense then the outward man must not be flattered or gratified The Commandments must be our walk the Psal 119. 32. Word our field and Devotion our chiefest recreation Our exercises on the Sabbath are not Corporal but Spiritual not for outward but inward delight not to please fancy but to strengthen faith The Sabbath is the souls holy day It Isid Hispa de Eccles Offic. Lib. Cap. 19. was a good saying of Isidore Hispalensis The Apostles saith he therefore ordained the Lords day to be kept with Religious Non ed ludendum ordinatur talis dies sed ad laudandum et orandum deum Aquin. Opusc de Praecept 10. 2 Sam. 12. 3. Grande videlicet officium focos et choros in puhlicum educere vicatim epulari civitatem lat bernae halitu obolefacere tatervatim cursitare ad injurias ad impudicitias ad libidinis illecebras siccine exprimitur publicum gaudium per publicum dedecus Tertul. Apol. Cap. 35. Solemnity because in it our Redeemer rose from the dead which was therefore called the Lords day that resting on the same from all earthly acts and the temptations of the World we might intend Gods holy worship giving this day due honour for the hope of the Resurrection we have therein We enjoy the Sabbath âot to play in but to pray in for our souls and not for our sports saith Aquinas It is true Man is a poor frail piece of Clay and therefore had need to be recreated created again by lawful delights and recreations but must the holy day of the Lord be this vacation Is this the time for sports and pleasurous satisfaction Surely this speaks a grand abuse of the Sabbath Must the poor mans Ewe-Lamb be taken that little spot of time God gives us more immediately for our spiritual interest must that be prostituted to gratifie the softness of the flesh The Council of Carthage petitioned the Emperour Theodosius the younger that the shews of the Theatre and other Playes then used on the Lords day might be removed which accordingly was granted by his Edict and it was Enacted Anno Dom. 415. That on the Lords day the Cirques and Theatres in all places should be shut up and people denyed the pleasure thereof that so their whole minds might
fârtior uââ alâerâ sed qui libidiââm repressi fârtior âat sâiâso Cypr. de bono Pudic. cause and needs not the supplement of another Advocate But if the whole day of a Sabbath must be spent with God in publick private or secret duties and in managing of the affairs of the soul which comes now to be provâd in this Chapter then the Argument for sports and pastimâs on the Lords day will lose its force and significancy And here I may begin the Argument with that sharp expostulation of Naamans Servant to Naaman himself What if God as he speaks of the Prophet had required some great thing of us would we not have done it What if God had It is most equal if man have 6 days that God should have the 7th and this is the reason the soul and life of the fourth Commandment Mr. Shep. required of us six dayes and given us onely one for our selves should we not have observed them Much more when he requireth but one day and giveth us six shall not we observe that Shall we abate God of the tale and measure of his time Shall the stream of time wherein we are commanded to worship God be so small and yet shall it be turned into several channels and diversions Reason it self here seems to condemn the straightness of our spirits but for the clearing of the Argument we will fetch our evidences from the treasuries of Scripture Reason and conveniency In the fourth Commandment which yet our Liturgie confesseth to be of equal obligation with the rest in praying for pardon for the breaches of it and begging grace for the better observance of it as was hinted before I say in this Commandment the initiatory and first words command Exod. 20. 8. the sanctification of a day not a part of a day or a few hours of a day for the words of the Statute run thus Deut. 5. 12. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and it is very observable and not to be passed over with silence that Memento diei Sabbathi ut cum sanctifices inquit Dominus in quarto Praecepto Ad hoc recteintelligendum notandum est ex vi ipsius praecepti non aliquam partem diei sed totum diem esse Domino sanctificandum Wal. We are to account the sanctification of one day in a week a duty which Gods immutable Law doth Enact for ever Hooks Eccles Pol. Lib. 5. God would have at least one day in a week to be allowed him Ferus The Divine Law required that one day in a week should be sequestred for holy worship Bellar. de Cult Sanct. Lib. 3. Cap. II. 1 Kings 3. 26. Mat. 25. 24. God doth not onely command us to keep holy the Sabbath which might be a time indefinite and indeterminate but the Sabbath day which amply prescribes the time of observance A day no less then the time of a day it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Jom Ha Sabbath the day of a Sabbath Now the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã jom properly and usually signifies a full day unless it be figuratively and by way of Synechdoche it signifies sometimes time indefinite as Critiques in the holy tongue observe and so Gen. 1. 5. where it is said the Evening and the Morning was the first day there the word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã jom and the day mentioned in this great Commandment must needs comprehend the space of twenty four hours nor do the Learned by their interpretations or glosses abreviate or shorten the time but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã jom is a whole day by the confession of all Now shall God enjoyne the observation of a day and shall we mutilate it Shall we maime or curtaile it and take part of this holy day for our labours or recreations Surely this savours of too great presumption We must by Divine command keep holy a day not a part or piece of a day and therefore for us to say as the Harlot to Solomon in another case Let not God have the whole Sabbath nor let us have the whole Sabbath but let it be divided between his service and our sports what is this but with the unprofitable servant to call God hard Master and that his requiring a whole day was an act of too much austerity And as we have an Argument in the beginning of the fourth Commandment wherein God shews his Soveraignty so we may discern an Argument in the body of the Commandment wherein God shews his indulgence for in this fourth Commandment God allows us six dayes for labour Exod. 20. 8. but the seventh is to be a day of holy rest and observation Now the six dayes for labour are six full and whole dayes Naturale est diem septimum quemque deo sacrum esse Jun. Com. in Genes without any deduction or abatement Man may without regret on these six dayes pursue ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã those things which belong to this life as Chrysostome calls them He may go forth to his labour till the Evening as the Psalmist speaks nay if his strength still fail not he may draw the curtains Morale est ut ex septem diebus unus cultuâ divino consecretur Armin. Disp 77. Chrysost Psal 104. 23. No man doubteth the meaning of these words six dayes shalt thou labour c. to be this That seeing God hath permitted us six dayes to do our works in we ought in the seventh wholly to serve him VVhitguift Defence of the Answ to the Adm. p. 553. Jam hinc ab initio doctrinam hanc insinuat Deus erudiens in circulo hebdomadae diem unum integrum segregandum et reponendum in spiritualem operatiânem Chrysost ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Septimum diem non utilem deus putabat ad creandum sed ad quietem accommodandum statuât Theod. quest in Genesin Perpetuum est ac aeternum quamdiu Ecclesia agit interris quòd unus dies in hebdomade cultui divino mancipetur hoc stabile firmum est Pet. Mart. loc Com. Aug Serm. de Temp. Requirit Deus quietem hanc corporis et cessâtioâem ab operibus non qualemeunque et dimidiatam sed justam plenam et exactâm i. e. proposito accommodam Musc Totus ergo dies ex toto ammo quantum fert humana necessitas et imbecillitas ritè ac piè Deo servandus erat Leid Prof. of the night and make a further progress into his toyle and painfulness and all this without blame and violation of the fourth Commandment Now shall not the seventh day be of as long continuance and duration as any of the other six Shall the day for Heaven be more contracted then the six dayes for Earth The day for spiritual rest shall it not be of an equall length with the dayes for secular labour Whence ariseth the inequality that the six dayes may be wholly employed in our worldly affairs but if part onely of the Lords day be spent in
Heaven and Princes in disguise those patterns Psal 16. 3. of piety have looked on the Sabbath as their Paradise where they could refresh their souls with variety of delights Nor have they complained that the wheels of time have been taken off that it hath moved slowly and drove heavily but have thought the evening of that blessed Sabbath Psal 84. 10. hath surprised them when they knew not how to give over their banqueting with Jesus Christ the Ordinances of Jesus Christ have not been their burden but their repast nor have they thought holy duties the waste but the improvement of their Sabbath There have been those who have spent divers dayes and nights also in the service of God Let us onely instance in Anna the Prophetess a widow of above fourscore and four Luke 2. 37. years old which departed not from the Temple but served God with fastings and prayers day and night for her Sex a woman for her case a widow not having the company nor support of her husband and for age eighty four years yet night and day with fasting and prayer serving God in the Temple And for such as are tyred out with the time of the Sabbath would they go to Heaven There it is ever Sabbath alwayes singing serving and setting up God Bernard urgeth Rev. 4 10 11. the observation of the Sabbath and holding out in holy exercises thereupon upon this account That by present rest Bern. Serm. 4. Col. 1744. men may learn to live in rest eternal and by persevering in service men may be prompt to perpetuate the Lords everlasting praise But how would men do to endure Heaven if here they cannot hold out the durance of a Sabbath day CHAP. VI. Impertinent and frothy Language unbecoming and defiling the Sabbath BUt God in the Text commands us not only to abstaine from unsuitable practices but unsuitable discourses on Gratia prudentiae caelitus datae reprimit in colloquiis piorum sermonem otiosum et inutilem funditus autem removet et tollit ab iiâ improbum obscaenum et putridum sermònem Daven the holy Sabbath so the Text Not speaking thy own words The Sabbath may be polluted by the slipperiness of the tongue as well as by the sliding of the feet we may as well talk as act irregularly Holy Communication Col. 4. 6. becomes a holy Sabbath Our Sabbath is a sign of heaven and there as there shall be no irregular practice so no unseemly discourse and here we should endeavour to begin heaven Vain discourse on a Sabbath is like Musick at a suneral or sighs at a wedding which are not onely impertinent but unseemly It is a sign the World hath crept into our hearts if it creep out of our tongues on the blessed Sabbath The Sabbath hath its Shibboleth Is our frothy and Abstinendum est a vanis confabulationibus ridiculis nugosis detractoriis irrisoriis obscenis riââosis Sept. Psal 45. 1. loose language the fruit of those powerfull Ordinances and holy Administrations we enjoy on a Sabbath What a gulf do we shoot when we pass from holy prayers to unseemly pratlings from breathing out our souls in duty to breath out vanity in frothy Communications Nor will it be any excuse for us to the God of the Sabbath to spend part of it in discoursing of the flueât gifts rare parts elegant passages of the Minister and to make himself not his Doctrine the subject to dilate upon Gods holy truth not the Ministers person or parts must take up our Sabbath discourses The tongue indeed is only the hearts interpreter and what frame of heart we should be of on a Sabbath is most easily conjectured surely then if ever our tongues should be as the pen of a ready writer The Emperour Leo would permit no talking of pleasures or worldly matters on a Lords day And Clemens Romanus prohibâit Sermonum vânitatem et facetiâs so Clemens Romanus condemned all Jestings and facetiousness to tickle or delight the vanity of mens spirits Men by breaking jests should not break the Sabbath Dr. Ames observes there is nothing more fits and tunes the heart for Culius publicus quà m maximè solenniter est celebrandus et necessariò postulat exercitia colloquiorum sanctârum et contemplation is operum diei quibus paratiores fiamus ad publicum cultum Ames Luk. 14. 1 2. Secundum membrum convivii Pharisaici est miraculosa sanatio hydropici Ipsum hoc miraculum de bonitate et potentiâ Christi idem docet quod reliqua omnia Chemnit publick service on a Sabbath then holy discourses we are more ready by them for spiritual Administrations Vain language sets the heart backward that it is not so intense in Sabbath performances Our Saviour who is our Copy without blot making a meal with a Pharisee on the Sabbath spent all his time either in healing or preaching in working miracles or speaking parableâ which are those stars behind a cloud not a vain word drops from him Luke 14. 1 2 7. and surely in this particular our imitation is our holiness A holy man complained long since That many had made such proceedings in sin that when they should reckon with their souls they would reckon with their servants and when they should make even with their consciences they would make even with their Chapmen and yet perswade themselves of the small breaches of the Sabbath The Leiden professors make holy discourse one of the private Duties of a Sabbath and to omit it what is it but to maime and mutilate a Sabbath to loose a duty and to make a chasme and vacancy in the constant and continued Religion of a Sabbath And indeed if holy language be salt at any time it is more especially at the feast of a Sabbath The Psalmist in Psal 16. 4. Commands us not to take the Name of other Gods into our lips we must not onely not worship them but not name them So that there is irreligion Eccles 12. 10. in the tongue as well as in the knee and if ever sinfulness Non modo publice sed et privatim Sabbathum sanctis pietatis exercitiis celebretur qualia sunt Scripturae lectio et domestica meditatio colloquium de rebus sanctis Leid Prof. Col. 4. 6. Sicut Sal non modo exsiccat superfluos noxios ciborum humores sed focit illos insuper aptos ad digerendum salubres ad nutriendam Sic Sal prudentiae efficit non modo ut sermo Christianorum non sit otiosus aut noxius sed ut aptus fiat ac utilis ad aedifiâandum Daven Sermo noster opportunus esse debet eâ comâiââus ut aââitores nobis gratias aganâ ât per nos adjuti sint Theoph. cleaves to the tongue it is in idlâ and foolish talking on a Sabbath this indeed is the Fly in the ointment On that holy day we must not only abstain from secular works but secular words for
satisfaction not our burden but our blessing the sinner must not Psal 27. 4. Mat. 18. 20. take that pleasure in the dalliances of the world as we should do in the duties of a Sabbath This is the day of divine loves and spiritual complacencies between Christ and Cant. 2. 3. Delitias tum tuas tum Domini Alap the soul when Christ and the Soul meet together in the Garden of the Ordinances where they begin that communication which shall last to Eternity then the believer sits under the shadow of Christ with great delight As God makes the Sabbath his rest so he would have it to be ours The Sabbath must not be our toyle but our triumph the Sanctuary must be our banqueting house Duty our delight Psal 42. 3. 4. It must be the joy of our souls to associate with Christ to pour out our requests in prayer to entertain the discourses of divine will and to enjoy spiritual love which is better then wine The Sabbath in the primitive times was called Cant. 1. 2. Nos in primâ die perfecti Sabbathi festivitate laetamur Hilar. in Prol. in Psalm the feast of the Sabbath and feasts are not usually times of tediousness but pleasantness such times pass away with gratefull delight and surely it must needs soyle the character of a Christian to let those wheels drive heavily which are in the Chariots of Aminadah Doth it not very much unbecome us to be weary of that day which God hath appointed Cant. 6. 12. for fellowship with himself and for the transacting of the great affairs of Eternity There is a Command for Reverence So the Text the holy of the Lord. Si colueris Sabbathum quasi diem sanctum gloriae glorificationi Domini consecratum If Psal 2. 12. thou observe the Sabbath as a holy day consecrated and set apart to the glory and glorifying of God as he well glosses upon it There are two holy passions adorne a Sabbath Joy and Fear the one for the benefits of God the Psal 2. 11. Discamus die Dominico non quaerere gloriam nostram pompose incedendo et splendidé nos vestiendâ sed Dei gloriam quaeramus hoc nobis erit gloriosum quod gloria dei per ros alios celebretur Isa 66. 2. other for the presence of God the one for his goodness and the other for his greatness Upon a Sabbath we must as the Psalmist speaks rejoyce with trembling It was the saying of a Learned man Vpon the day of a Sabbath let us not promote our own Glory by stately walking rich attire and pompous appearances but let us exalt Gods Glory by holy duties and this will be more glorious and honourable to us Upon the Sabbath let us tremble at Gods Word as the Lord speaks by the Prophet Isa 66 2. Let us lye at Gods feet let us be awfull of Gods presence let us exalt Gods Name and this is to sanctifie a Sabbath Humble hearts and not fine cloaths the bowing of the soul not the plaiting of the hair or the ordering of the Dress speaks the Sabbath Glorious The Lord calls for high estimations of the Sabbath So the Text Honourable The Word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Machhid in the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Original signifies that which is Glorious and that which is Ponderous Every Sabbath is a price put into our hands Luke 19. 42. a good wind for Heaven the souls term time that aâtionius Psal 118. 24. temporis that juncture of time which the soul hath to claâ up for Eternity On this day more especially the Scepter of Grace is held out to lay hold upon One observes our Esth 5. 2. Sabbath is called the Lords day not onely because it is the Commemoration of our Lords Resurrection but because of the benefits we receive from the Lord that day and the duties we perform to the Lord that day and therefore if we will practice the Text we must prize the Sabbath we must call it honourable and indeed it is so in a manifold respect If we look upward This is the day in which more especially we sing the praises of the Lord we recount his hohour wherein our hearts bubble forth in holy thanksgivings and therefore the Psalm whose inscription calls it a Psalm for the Sabbath is wholly Laudatory It is a song Psal 92. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the Sabbath day so is the very title And indeed what is the Lords day but primitiae Coeli the dawning of Glory the beginnings of Heaven the tuning of the musick which shall last for ever to every true believer On the Lords day the Saint makes it his grand affaire to advance the Lords Honour If we look downward the Sabbath still is honourable Then the Lord crowns us with his graces honours us with his presence meets us in his ordinances puts all marks and characters Mat. 18. 20. of honour on his people then the King sits at his Cant. 1. 12. Table and sends forth his Spicknard with the sweet smell of it The Holy Sabbath is the blessed time when the Lord Sponsa contactu sponst sui planè divinam suavitatem acquisivit Del. Rio. 1 John 1. 3. Mat. 18. 20. bows the Heavens and comes down and vouchsafes his people fellowship with himself sweet and salvifical communion in a word then the Father drops his grace then the Son promises his presence then the Spirit pursues his work in the assemblies of his Saints If we look outward if we cast our eyes upon other days the other six days of worldly toyle and labour The very gleanings of a Sabbath are better then the Vintage of the Judges 8. 2. week In other dayes we onely reap the curse of the first Adam to eat our bread in the sweat of our brows on the Gen. 3. 19. holy Sabbath we reap the blessing of the second Adam we gather the fruits of his glorious purchase we enjoy the ordinances of his grace lye under the impressions of his spirit and inherit the sweets of his presence and therefore compare the Sabbath with other dayes and what is the dross of a week to the gold of a Sabbath This day is nothing but the souls weekly Jubilee If we look forward towards eternity the Sabbath in this regard is honourable it is the special day for the soul to dress and trim it self in to meet its Bridegroom this is our peculiar Fuit illud Sabbathum Gen. 2. 3. Typus aeterni illius Sabbathi in âaeâis in quo electi animâ et corpore à peccatis calomitatibus et miseriis hujus vitae requiescent Deus in illis et ipsi in Deo Gen. 66. 23. Vltra hunc mundum est veri Sabbathi observatio Orig. Prov. 34. 2 Cor. 10. 4. 2 Cor. 4. 7. In Sabbatho totus Deo deique voluntati cognoscendae annuntiandae et edimplendae vaces Alap time to prepare for eternity The
Lords day is the day of Commemoration for Christs Resurrection and the day of Preparation for ours The Sabbaths are as the rounds of a Ladder by which we climb up to our Fathers house our present Sabbaths work being sanctified becomes the way to our future Sabbaths rest On this holy day the soul more especially waits at wisdomes gates and brings its corruptions to the slaughtering power of the Word inricheth it self with Gospel-treasures feeds its graces upon Gospel provisions and every way accommodates its self for the imbraces of eternity There is another command in the Text viz. of fruitfulness so the Text and shalt honour him Now there is nothing more honours God then our holy fruitfulness this gratisies his Will this magnifies his Grace this adorns his Gospel this glorifies his Name Our Saviour saith expresly John 15. 8. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit We exceedingly honour God when on a Sabbath day we Sint submissi tractabiles et sequaces mores Cyr. weep much in the Closet pray much in the Familie hear much in the Sanctuary when we tremble at Gods Word rejoyce in Gods Ordinances melt in Gods presence when Sabbaths soften us ripen us raise us and bring us to a nearer conformity to Christ when this sun-shining day of a Sabbath melloweth us and maketh us look fairer and more beautiful Thus we spread our branches and Gods Name together CHAP. VIII The Promises in the Text made over to Sabbath-Holiness explicated and unfolded ANd thus far we have assayed to unfold the duty enjoyned in the Text which is the holy and strict observation of the Sabbath and the Sabbath may be sanctified by forbearing what is criminal and by pursuing what is commendable and what is both displeasing or satisfactory we have amply laid down in the Text and hitherto hath been discussed Now we come to the glorious reward of a due sanctification of the Sabbath which is folded up in a Tria hic praemia Sabbathum deumque colentibus promittit Deus Alap Com. in Isaiam three-fold promise mentioned in the Text for one promise is not thought sufficient by divine bounty to be a spur to this holy observation It must not be a single Diamond but a Casket of Jewels Here is a constellation of happiness promised a Tree of Life with many branches as if God would tell us in the Text how pleasing how grateful what a Prov. 11. 18. sweet sinelling sacrifice the conscientious keeping of the Sabbath was to him such a Saint the Promises troope after him they cluster together to refresh him God gives the Bond and the Counterpane too But more particularly these promises they are not onely rare but comprehensive they are both temporal and spirituall Gods bonds for left hand and right hand mercies And first God promises Vbertatem Voluptatis abundance Prom. 1. Si in Sabbathâ te abstraxeris ââ deliâiiâ carnis deus dabit tibi suas delicias longe majores scil pro carneis dabit spiritusles pro teciporalibââ aeternas pro humanis divinas Psal 104. 34. Cant. 4. 9. of Pleasure so the Text then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord. As if God should say if my Sabbath be thy delight then my presence shall be thy delight if thou take pleasure in my day thou shall sind pleasure in my self the same word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Gnanag delight which is used in the former verse for our delight in the Sabbath is here used for our delight in the Lord. Our duty shall not exceed his bounty if we on a Sabbath delight in him we on a Sabbath shall receive delights from him God will meet the gracious soul its breathings after God shall be compensated with his blessings in God thou shalt never lose by satiating thy self in God thy understanding shall be delighted with meditation thy desires with satisfaction thy heart with exhileration he that is an Ocean of delight in himself shall be thy delight If thou takest pleasure in Gods holy day thy heart shall be more sweetned in the thoughts of God of his Faithfulness of his Fulness Incomprehensibleness Goodness Tenderness then in all sliding and secular delights for our delights in God are Most Pure they are Christalline pleasures without spot or faeculency they are incapable of excess The soul may rejoyce Psal 94. 19. in God and fear no surfet There is no tang of sin or mistake cleaves to them as holy David In the multitude of my thoughts Passim Haeresiarehae et Haeretici fuerunt voluptuarii eaque de causâ plurimos habuerunt assectus sicut et Epicurus plures discipulos habuit quà m alit Philosophi Epiphân within me thy comforts delight my soul Now as for the pleasures of this life their object is sordid what is a Field or a Bag or a Hawk or a Hound The excess is easie we mostly over-do in outward delights their satisfaction is sensual only the smiles and laughter of dust their time is short the frolicks of this life are onely for this life as long as a vapour lasts and their end for the most part is heaviness a smiling countenance a wanton palate a catching eye and a prancing phancy for the most part ending in a heavy heart But our pleasures in God are holy and undefiled their rising is their rarity and their exceeding is their excellency Our delights in God are most abundant they exceed the pleasures of this life as far as the receptive faculty of the Anima nostra delectatione carere nequit unam si non habet quaerit si non divinam tum humanam soul exceeds that of the body A whole world cannot fill the soul it is too vast in its desires and entertainments but a little prospect can fill the theatre of the eye a little wine the wanton vagaries of the palate a little game the galloping fancies of the hunter Our pleasures in God are a soul full of delight Thy Comforts delight my soul saith David they are over-flowing waves of love rising and ravishing Psal 94. 19. waters which cover the sea of mans heart Most satiating Our pleasures in the Creature cloy us Our pleasures in God comforts us outward delights surfet not Ecles 1. 2. Voluptas est duplex vel Terrestris vel Coelestis Coelestes voluptates sariant nonsaturâne ideò diuturniores terrestres sâturant non satiant ideò breviores quòd etiam jam dileximus pieni quidem prârsus nauseamus Baron satiate they have something of the flesh and that will not alwayes go down Solomon the great Chymist of pleasures at last after a thorough gust of them extracted nothing but wind from them or the waters of Marah either vanity or vexation of spirit But the pleasures we have in God relate not to the body which is a tiresome piece of flesh but to the soul which is full of life and activity and delighting in God which is its center
mention of Kings and Magistrates of Publick Authority Cities places of publick Receit The good keeping of the Sabbath procures publick benefits opens the store-houses of blessings to Cities and Nations it is the rise and spring of Epidemical happiness And our own Nation formerly in the strict observation of Gods holy day did tast the sweetness of these Cataracts of mercy it lay under national happiness and prosperous abundance to the wonder and astonishment of all the world nor was our felicity in the wain till the Inhabitants of this Land grew loose and careless on Gods holy day and then it fell under the shadows of sore and dismall afflictions and our Sun was darkned and made the world wonder gazing at its Eclipse They are full of stability so the very words of the Text And this City shall remain for ever Mercies they are more Heb. 7. 25. Christus in coelo orat pro nobis tanquam Pontifex Hap. sweet by how much they are the more stable Duration it felicitates and enriches every possession Christ is the chiefest good because he ever lives to make intercession for us Those sweets are pretious which are permanent and therefore the grace of the spirit is more valuable then the Gold 1 Pet. 1. 7. of Ophir for Gold is perishing Gold Now these promises 1 Pet. 1. 18. are of permanent good things and so the more transcendent The holy observation of the Sabbath it intails Vrbi erit salva sivere et piè colat deum idque testatur observatione Sabbathi Calv. mercy and blessings on a Person upon a Family or a City Mercy shall not be our physick but our food It lengthens our dayes of prosperity If thou wouldest put thy owne name and the names of thy Family into a long lease of Grace and Favour be very strict in Sabbath Observation They are full of impartiality Sabbath-holiness shall shed a blessing on City and Country so the Text They shall come from the Cities of Judah from the places about Jerusalem Jeremias hic planè signifiâat communem fâre hanc bâatituâinem totâ populo from the Plain from the Mountanes c. This blessed performance of Sabbath sanctity it shall prosper the Citizen and the Country man the Shop the Farme the Cottage nay the poor inhabitant of the mountanes who hath but a shed or a Cave to shelter him shall not be exempted the dewes of this benediction The holy observation of Sabbaths knows no distinction of persons They are full of spirituality They shall bring burnt offerings and sacrifices and meat offerings and incense so the Text. The due observation of the Sabbath shall procure soul-mercies affluences for our better part the sweets of Ordinances divine Influences rich Graces coelestial Communications not onely the redundancies of outward prosperity Jerusalem florebit templuâque mirè frequentabitur but the participations of better prosperity It shall fill our understandings with light our minds with refreshment and our hearts with joy They that have delight in the Sabbath of God shall find delight in the God of the Sabbath Christ shall be their Paradise We have now seen what treasures of temporal and spiritual riches are laid up in this blessed Scripture and what need there any other bait to catch our affections to love and keep Gods holy Sabbath This duty is an heir of the sweetest promises such a duty as may seem to carry the Key of Gods choysest treasures about it God saith to him who holily observes his day as once Ahasuerus said to Hester What is thy request Esther 5. 3. and it shall be given thee Indeed not a holy sigh not an affectionate prayer not a savoury discourse not a heavenly duty not a divine meditation which is shot up to Heaven on a Sabbath day shall lose its reward Holy sacrifices are then more especially a sweet smelling savour in the nostrils of Gen. 8. 21. God It was a rare promise God made to the Eunuch who kept his Sabbath Isa 56. 4 5. the words run thus For thus saith the Lord to the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbath and choose the things which please me and take hold on my Covenant Isa 56. 4 5. even to them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better then of sons and daughters and I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut Nomen i. e. memoria fama gloria Hanc enim filii parentibus conciliant off Thus if Eunuchs keep Gods Sabbath God will repair all their contempts in the World and they shall be had in everlasting remembrance and though their grave bury all the memory of them in silence because they have no progeny to bear up their name yet their name shall be engraven in Gods house which shall out-vie the duration of the most numerous off-spring Nay the Lord as if he was unwearied in making bonds of love to the holy observation of his Sabbath makes a rich promise to the very strangers so Isa 56. 6 â the Text Isa 56. 6 7. the words are these Also the sons of the strangers that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the Name of the Lord to be his servants every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant even them will I bring to my holy Mountane and make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my Altar Here God makes a three-fold promise of the best kind viz. spiritual to the very strangers who keep his Sabbaths undefiled First They shall enjoy the Ordinances I will bring them to my Holy Mountane saith God Those who sanctifie the Sabbath they shall not want a Sabbath to sanctifie they shall Isa 25. 6. Per convivium medullatorum âen intelliguntur carnales sed sâirituales deliciae et summae voluptates enjoy seasons of prayer opportunities of love means of grace and feed upon the fat things of Gods house Gods Sabbaths are fastned by an holy improvement and fledged to be gone by a careless abuse Nothing so ensures our Sabbaths as a conscientious observation Secondly They shall be refreshed by Ordinances I will make them joyfull in my house of Prayer Prayer shall be their Paradise hearing their Heaven meditation their Triumphant flight Sacraments their savoury meat which their souls shall delight in All the Ordinances shall be as the holy Alymbecks Gen. 27 4. to drop sweetness into the soul of him who undefiledly keeps the Sabbath Thirdly They shall be accepted in Ordinances God will fill the Temple where they meet with smoake they shall have sure signs of his presence fire shall fall down upon their 1 Kings 8 10 sacrifices as a testimony of Gods acceptation And all this the very strangers shall enjoy those who are not inoculated into 1 Kings 18 38. a Jewish stock but
onely transplanted from some other Nation now joyning with the people of God all which abundantly shews how gratefull the holy observation of the Exod. 20. 8. Sabbath is to God And indeed when First The Author of the Sabbath is holy Secondly The Duties holy Thirdly The Command holy Exod. 20. 8. Fourthly The Day holy Nay Fifthly The Designe holy viz. to carry on the work of Grace and Holiness on our souls it must needs bâ very acceptable we our selves should be holy our thoughts Sicut in vitiis qui ingratum âixerit omnia dixerit Ita in divinis âffiâiis qui Sabbatum dicit omnia dicit Acts 20. 7. our desires our services our discourses our actions on this blessed day One who prophanes the Sabbath he is the scandal the abuse the spot the deflouring reproach of this holy day the Antipodes of the Sabbath In the Primitive times the Saints made a Collection of Duties as well as of Charity as if no part of that day should run over to any impertinency First And what a strange prophaness nay prodigality doth it import that for the gratifying of our vanity a wanton Prophaners of Gods Sabbaths they are prodigal of divine promises palate a voluptuous inclination a little fleshly ease the covetous craving after an unseasonable gain the purchase of a little waste time upon a Sabbath we should disinherit our selves of all that superlative happiness those many promises folded up in Scripture have made over to a strict observation of that holy day this blessed Sabbath What inhumane and frantick prodigality doth this imply Nay such are prodigal not onely of their own good but of Gods honour This is one of his ten words charged by the Creator of Heaven and Earth upon man Remember the They are prodigal of Gods honour Sabbath day to keep it holy and the engrossing of this charge God doth not leave to any Amanuensis but he will write it Exod. 20. 8. with his own singer and also to intimate that his intentions were to perpetuate this with other precepts of the decalogue in the morality thereof The Lord himself imprinted Deut. 4. 13. it not in paper but upon tables of stone yea when the first tables of stone were broken his Majesty gives express order to Moses to have other tables like to the former prepared and he wrote thereon the same Law the second time Exod. 34. 1 28. Praecide tibi i. e. in tuam ââilitatem Rab. Sol. As the Lord delighted in the first institution of the Sabbath so he accounts himself honoured in its sanctification and his complaint and charge is against them who are regardless of his Sabbath I am prophaned amongst them and what do those who prophane his Sabbath but break the tables of Ezek 22. 26. stone the second time and cast a dishonour upon him who delights to be called the Lord of the Sabbath Mark 2. 28. Nay the prophaners of the Sabbath are highly prodigal of Gods favour for they provoke him by the sin of sacriledge for it being the Sabbath and the Lords day that time is stoln Such are prodigal of Gods favour from God himself which is spent otherwise then he alloweth and how sad is this robbery and theft And that smart sentence which was misapplyed unto Christ for he strictly kept the Sabbath of the Lord his God may be applyed to John 9. 16. Sabbathi prophanatio contemptus est totius legis dei et divini cultus Leid Prof. that person who is an ordinary prophaner of this holy time This man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day And indeed according to a mans regard or disregard of the Sabbath is his respect or disrespect to all the rest of Gods Commandments The Sabbath observed is the compândium and Epitome of the whole practice of Piety and the transgression of the Sabbath is the violation of the whole Law of Sub observatione Sabbati breviter comprehenditur sâmma tâtius Preâatis Calv. Exod. 16. 28. God When the people of Israel went to gather Manna on the Sabbath day observe Gods complaint to Moses Exod. 16. 28. How long refuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws saith the Lord. Observe Laws and Commandmentts in the plural number in that they break the Commandment Totum divinum cultum suo ambitu complectitur Sabbathum August ad Casulanum Concil Paris Lib. 3. Cap. 5. of the Sabbath God accounts it as the breach of all his Commandments it is a sin against all his concernments It was a memorable saying of Augustine Let us shew our selves Christians by keeping holy the Lords day And the Council of Paris We do admonish all the faithfull for the salvation and good of their souls that they would give due honour and reverence unto the Lords day because the dishonour of it is both contrary to Christian Religion and doth without all doubt bring destruction to the souls of all that continue in it And Bulling Concio 65. holy Bullinger observes He that despiseth the Sabbath makes no great account of the true Religion The Prophets when they Ezek. 20. 16. Ezek. 22. 8. Ezek. 23 38. would complain of the decay of Religion they cry out the Sabbaths polluted Indeed in the not observing Gods holy day there is not onely impiety but great disingenuity for the Ezek. 20. 12. Ezek. 20. 20. Sabbath is given us not as a task but as a priviledge to be a pledge of our interest in God and a confirmation of our hope Heb. 4. 4 5 8 9. of further sanctification as also of our everlasting Sabbatisme or rest after our wearisom wandrings in this world it is given for the sweetning of our wilderness-way unto the heavenly Canaan it is our spiritual feasting every week it is our day of delight in this day St. John was in his Sabbathum delicatum quia delicatè et tenerè est observandum divine rapture and no doubt but many of Gods dear servants have abundant experience of spiritual cordials given in upon the conscientious keeping of this day and St. John's Garments of joy have fell in some measure upon 2 Kings 2. 13. them CHAP. X. There must be serious preparation before the solemn day of the Sabbath HAving thus in general discussed the Doctrine propounded I come now to a more particular handling and ventilation of it and in so doing First Lay down divers duties which are to fore-run the Sabbath Secondly Lay down a plat-form how we must spend every part of Gods holy day Thirdly Give divers rules for the more compleat and strict observation of the Sabbath Fourthly Propose many cautions to prevent the pollution of this blessed day With many other things which will occur for the more manifest enucleation and confirmation of the doctrinal truth propounded But to begin with the first thing proposed viz. what we must do by way of preparation for this
but in our houses there must be a meeting of Relations there must be Parents and Children Masters and Servants those who are born at home and the stranger Exod. 20 10. Commâni sânctifiâândi Sâbbathi lege âonstringuntur omnes ex aequo herus servââ peter liberi mas fââmina sâperââres et inferâores Musc within our gates and all these must joyntly keep Gods Sabbath in holy duties and no less God commands in the fourth Commandment the Son and Daughter must remember to keep the Sabbath holy as well as the Parents the Man-servant and the Maid-servant as well as the Governours of the Family nay the stranger within the Gates On the Lords day we must by a conscionable and constant performance of holy duties turn even our private house into a little Church and thus we shall intail Gods presence to our houses as he vouchsafed his blessing on the house of Obed Edâm we must not onely act secret duties on the Sabbath 2 Sam. 6. 12. but likewise Family duties What those duties are shall be more copiously handled hereafter But Thirdly we must act publick duties on Gods holy Sabbath we must not onely open the doors of our closets and of our chambers to come down into our houses but Ex hac comâââiââe tum Regnum ãâ¦ã Zanch. we must open the doors of our houses too to meet with Gods people to celebrate the Lords day The Sabbath is the day wherein the Saints visit God and one another they then begin that society which shall be perfected and eternized in Glory David rejoyced when he went with the multitude to the House of God The great Apostle taught every where in Psal 42. 4. every Church ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He taught when the people 1 Cor. 4 17. were called together The Corinthians came together in one place to eat the Lords Supper Nay Christ himself will declare 1 Cor. 11. 20. the name and praises of God to his Brethren in the midst Luke 8 19. of the Church We must therefore serve God on the Sabbath in the Assemblies of Gods people not in our houses onely but in the Church i. e. in the Congregation of the faithfull Moses speaks of a holy Convocation Exod. 12. 16. Exod. 12. 16. and the Psalmist makes mention of the Assembly of the Saints Psal 89. 7. nay the promise is intailed on the Congregation of Gods people Isa 4. 5. The omission of this our assembling of our Isa 4. 5. selves is by the Apostle sharply rebuked Heb. 10. 25. One commenting on this Text hath divers things remarkable Heb. 10. 25. and worthy of our observation As First By this assembling the Apostle intends no other but the meeting of Believers to hear the Word of God and Per collectionem hanc Apost caetus ecclesiae et conventus fidelium ad sacram synaxin ad verbâm dei pâeâesque publicas intelligit Secundò Hos caetus vult Apost ut Châistiani fidem profiââântur gratiarum actiones persoâent et se inviâem excitent ad veritatem et bona opera Terââ illi catus et mutui congressus mirè sovent fidem quae in secessâ et separatione diuturniori lângue scit Quartò Qui ecclesiae âaeââs negligunt et deserum facilè urgente perseâutione ecclesiam ipsam et fidem Christi deserunt et abnegant Alap to pour out their prayers before God Secondly The Apostle injoynes the Assemblies that Christians might meet publickly to profess their faith in Christ and to sing the praises of God to stir up one another to love and good works Thirdly The same Author observes that these Companies and Assemblies do exceedingly foment and cherish faith which by a perpetual recluse and separation quickly would languish and be infeebled Nay Fourthly He observes That those who forsake the Assemblies of Gods people will easily in the urgency and heat of persecution desert the Church of Christ thus far that learned man And what a rare promise doth the Apostle mention 2 Cor. 6. 16. the words are these For ye are the 2 Cor. 6. 16. Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall Lev. 26. 12. be my people Christ when he was upon the Earth he goes into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day Mar. 1. 21. and Mark 1. 21. taught the people Paul and his Company go into the Synagogue on the Sabbath and Paul preacheth there Nay Acts 20. 7. afterwards Paul preacheth to the Christian Assembly in a house on the Lords day Acts 20. 7. In a word where doth Christ walk but in the midst of his candlesticks which are the Churches Rev. 1. 20. Cornelius Alapide observes that Rev. 1. 20. Alapide holy Ignatius who was the Disciple and follower of the Apostle Paul adviseth in his Epistles those of Smyrna and Ephesus to frequent the meetings of the Saints and gives this reason because they will wonderfully confirm us in the faith so then the whole duty of a Believer on the Lords day lies not in the Closet or the Family but likewise in the Societies of Gods people met for divine worship Coals put together make the warmer fire When the Christians were Assembled Acts 10. 44. to hear Peter then the Holy Ghost fell upon them The Saints in Glory are the Assembly and Church of the first-born Heb. 12. 23. and therefore we must act publick duties on Heb. 12. 23. Gods holy day in the publick Assemblies But now what these publick duties are and how we must demean our selves in the performance of them shall be more largely discussed hereafter We had need rise early on the Sabbath for as we have many Duties to perform so we have many Graces to act The Sabbath is both the field to exercise Grace in and the treasury 2 Tim. 2. 1. to supply grace with Ordinances are both the breathing Grââiâ non soliââest sâvâr ââi ãâã qâod ex eo sâqââtâr Alap and the breasts of grace In prayer we act and we augment our graces and so in other Ordinances The Sabbath is the Believers resting day but Graces working day it is love which sweetens the work of a Sabbath Faith makes effâctual the Ordinances of a Sabbath Repentance reconciles Hâb 11. 6. Jer 31. 19 20. Rom. 12. 11. Isa 57. 15. Hâb 4. 2. Jam. 5. 16. the God of the Sabbath Zeal makes acceptable the duties of a Sabbath Humility ingages Gods presence on a Sabbath We cannot hear the Word profitably on this holy day without we mingle it with Faith nor address our selves to God in prayer without we inflame the duty with fire with the fire of zeal In our prayers we must get our affections fired by the Holy Ghost that they may flame up towards God in Devout and Religious ascents Broken-hearted and penitent Isa 23. 16. believers
take especial care to serve the Lord in fear and trembling and remember to keep the Christian Sabbath Ezek. 46. 4. because the Kingdom is the Lords and his Christs who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Revel 11. 15. The duty of Magistrates is 1. To repress the profaning of the Sabbath and to use all Qui non prohibet peccare cum potest jubet Sen. means for the accomplishment of that worthy and glorious design Namely 1. To forbid Nehem. 13. 15. 2. To reprove Nehem. 13. 17 18. 3. To threaten Nehem. 13. 21. 4. To hinder Nehem. 13. 19 22. And 5. To punish the profaning of Gods holy day Nehem. 13. 20. Secondly To command and to compell the Lords day to be sanctified 2 Chron. 34. 33. And Thirdly To sanctifie it himself his Children his Court his Attendants both privatly Psalm 5. 7. Acts 10. 1 2. and also publickly Ezek. 46. 2 4. 2 Kings 11. 5 7 9. The duties of private and publick sanctifying the Lords day tye and bind the Prince and other Magistrates no less then the meanest of the Subjects and the most pedantique persons And where the Prince neglects the strict and holy observation of Gods blessed day this sin will make his Crown shake and his Scepter tremble and rip up his most stately Pallaces to let in divine wrath and displeasure It was the prophanation of the Sabbath which hasten'd and ascertained Hezekiahs doom as may be clearly observed Jer. 17. 27. If ye will not hearken to me to hallow my Sabbath I will kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem and it shall devoure the Pallaces thereof and it shall not be quenched And lesser Governours every Housholder over his family who may be called an inferiour Magistrate in regard of his Authority in the little province of his family it is his duty to sanctifie the Sabbath himself he must keep it with all care Eph. 6. 4 and diligence and move in the circuit of Sabbath duties as Psal 101. 6 7. a star in its Orb And he must command and compell his family Est 4. 16. thereunto that they may effectually practice it as well Sub pronomine ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã tu intelliguntur 1 Personae dominantes Patres et Matres familiae 2. Personae fulcientes filii et fi liae 3. Personae ministrantes servi et Ancillae Rivet as himself and this he must do in his proportion as Magistrate in his own Houshold Surely if Kings in the midst of all their glittering attendance their courtly delicacies numerous addresses arduous affairs must not forget to keep holy the Sabbath day both themselves and all their bespangled family much more must the private Governours of families who lye not so open to tempting avocations nor are dazled with such courtly appearances take care that themselves and families serve the Lord on his own holy and blessed day The Edicts of State and constitutions of the Church like the two springs of Jor Dan have both met in a full stream to carry on this service against all resistance Ludovicus Proinde necesse est ut primo sacerdotes Regâs et Principes omnesque fideles huic diei debitam observantiam atque reverentiam devotissimè exhibeant Lud. P. Concil Paris sub Greg. quarto Pius the son of Charles the Great put forth this Decree That it is a necessary duty that in the first place Priests and then Kings and Princes and all faithfull persons do most devoutly exhibit due observation to this holy day This serious Prince enacts the observation of the Sabbath for all that every one being fettered by a Law might not loosely passe over this heavenly day And as the Edicts of Princes enforce the general observation of the Sabbath high as well as low an both equally so the Constitutions of the Church The Council of Paris decreed that all should keep the Lords day Governours Kings Princes Priests and all faithful persons should procure it to be kept and that no man presâ me to make merchandise to do his pleasure or any countrey work but that they with all endeaâours of soul do attend to heavenly praises c. Ambrose in his time complained of some Masters Taeduit mihi videre servulos ad ecclesiam fortassis festinantes ad venandum per dominos avocari quia sic voluptatibus suis peccata accumulant aliena Ambr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Lib. 7. cap. 19. who would call away their servants to hunting when they were going to Church on the Lords day and so by their own sinning drew others into the snare not remembring they should be guilty of their servants sin and of the hazard of their immortal souls And a learned man of our own Nation observes that in those Constitutions commonly called Apostolical it was expresly commanded That servants should be at leisure on the Lords day for attendance upon the worship of God and for learning of Religion Those early dayes of the Gospel commanded all every one to mind the great work of Religion and to inure themselves to divine Knowledge Our own Church is not the least in providing that all persons observe the holy Sabbath So in King Edwards time the express words of the Homily are Sithence which time the time of our Saviours Resurrection Gods people in all ages have alwayes without gainsaying used to Homil. de temp loc precum come together upon the Sunday to celebrate and honour the Lords blessed Name and carefully to keep that day in holy Rest both Man and Woman Child and Servant and Stranger c. And so in King James his time it was enacted as one of the Canons of our Church among other things That Parents and Masters of Families should instruct their children and servants in the fear and nurture of the Lord especially Can. Eccles Angl canae 13. An. Dom. 1603. on the Lords day Thus the care of all places where Christianity hath been professed and in all ages which savoured any thing of Religion hath enjoyned the generall observation of the Lords day and the meanest Servant hath come within the compass of Royal Edicts and sacred constitutions as well as the most considerable Eminent Superiour The bowels of Parents might enforce this duty Can a tender Father or an affectionate Mother see their Children trifling away the time of a Sabbath slighting away the Ordinances of a Sabbath and neglecting the private duties of Redarguenda est Parentum segnities qui in rebus seculi sâââ sunt sallic in sed de pietatis incrementa minus sunt solliciti Riv. a Sabbath and not be filled with fear and amazement How shall the fruit of their loynes stand before him who gave the Commandement for the Sabbath in the midst of a flaming Mountain Exod. 19. 18. and be accountable to him who is the Lord of the Sabbath Mark 2. 28. and who will judge the secrets of all men according to
the Gospel Rom. 2. 16. Can Parents see their children grieve the spirit who descended most gloriously on the Apostles upon the Lords day Acts 2. 3. and break that Commandment which is one of Gods Ten Words Deut. 10. 4. Nay pollute that Deut. 10. 2. day which is founded on Christs salvifical Resurrection and not be surprized with dread and consternation I may expostulate with such as once the Church did with the Lord where is the soundings of their bowels Parents love their Isa 63. 15. Children so far as they love their better part it is considerable death will strip them of all the fruits of their care Job 1. 21. excepting that which they have taken for their souls Not only divine command Exod. 20. 10. but natural affection Ex unâ parte Christum urgebat ad mertis supplicium sustinendum aeternum Patris decretum immensus humani generis a mor. Chemnit leads us to the discharge of this duty viz. To see our Family keep holy the Sabbath day What softness and tenderness did Christ shew to his family how sweetly did he instruct them Mark 4. 11 12 13 14 c. How pathetically did he pray for them Joh. 17. 9 11 15 17 20 21 24. How carefully did he lay up for them a divine and glorious inheritance Luke 22. 29 30. And at last how willingly did he shed his blood for them and he was straightned till he drank up his bitter cup for them Luke 12. 50. Let us write after this Copy and shew our love to our family as our dear Jesus did to his and then we shew our love to them when we see they shew their love to God in a carefull keeping of his holy day The excellency of the Sabbath should draw the whole family to an observation of it The Lords day is the Fort-royal of Religion let us all stand in our places to observe it and so we shall preserve it there are many who lay seige to it to race and demolish it Some set their wits on work to oppose the Doctrinal part of it Some set their wills on work to oppose the Practical part of it Now let us countermine these miscreant endeavours 1. By being much in prayer that the Lord of the Sabbath would perpetually preserve his own ordinance 2. By being much in practice that we and our houses serve the Lord on his own blessed day Standing and serious sanctity if it cannot convince men to mind their duty it will engage God to secure his own institution The Jewes never lost the Sabbath untill they rejected Christ who is the Lord of it they had the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. till they repudiated the Son of God In the Old Testament they went to worship God with their Flocks and their Herds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Oracula teste Hesichiâ primitus Judaeis à deo revelata sunt illis Scripta per prophetas tradita ita ut illa non nisi per Judaeos ad Gentiles devenerint Alap with them Hos 5. 6. In the New Testament let us take our Children and our Servants with us in the worship of God Let them be with us in the publick let them be with us in private duties of Gods holy day so we shall ensconce our priviledges And every pious family shall be as a Macedonian pbalanx to secure the Sabbath from violation and subversion Sin and neglect makes the forfeiture of spiritual blessings a careless contempt of the Word brings a famine of it Amos 8. 11. And the slight observance of Gods day exposeth it to reproach So that often the Wolves of the Forrest violent men pursue it with persecution and the Hab. 1. 8. little Foxes closer Hereticks infest it with their contagion Cant. 2. 15. Let us therefore with Moses resolve We will go with our Young and with our Old with our Sons and with our Daughters for we must hold a feast unto the Lord Exod. 10. 9. Exod. 10. 9. Chemnitius observes That to the sactification of the Lords day besides publick duties there is work to be done in families Chemnit exam Concil Trident. Cap. de dieb Fest as instructing of servants rehearsal of Sermons reading Scriptures counselling and quickning such who are under our care that all may keep Gods holy day Ah! let not us and our families lose our Sabbaths because we did no better Luke 19. 44. keep them not forgeting that usually Children are wrapt up in a common destruction Luke 19. 44. And so much the more earnestly should we endeavour to fold them up in a common salvation Jude v. 3. Jude v. 3. It well becomes the wisdom of the Governours of Families to see the Sabbath carefully observed Superiours must not leave the keeping of the Sabbath as a thing indifferent to the discretion of the family they must intreat them they must provoke them they must compel them The Kings Command was to compel the guestâ to come in Luke 14. 23. The Deus gentes compellit introire ut sic suam erga eos ostenderet charitatem quia enim libentèr vellet ut ipsius essent convivae et cum eo in aeternum delitiarentur non tantùm beneficiâs eos invitat quando venire renâunt in manum sumit mallâum legis quo conterit corda duriora et eos humiliat ut discerent leges et justitiam suam sola enim vexatio dat intellectum auditui Chemn sick child if he will not take his physick with a smile he must do it with a âod the child must not die and miscarry The ease of the flesh the strength of corruption the insinuating temptations of Satan will all decry Sabbath observation and therefore here indulgence is the greatest injury and mildness is the sorest cruelty to the precious soul Thy family had better endure sharp reproofs then scorching flames As Mr. Shepheard used to tell his weeping Auditoârs It was better crying here then in Hell As David said of Gods House Psal 69. 9. Psal 119. 139. so Governours of families should say of Gods day the zeal of it hath eaten them up Thy Children and Servants must keep the Sabbath holy there is an absolute necessity of it and woe to the Governours of families if through their neglect the day of God is slightly over-past Nehemiah caused the Sabbath to be observed not so much by mild perswasions as peremptory command nay sharp and acute threatnings Nehem. 13. 17 19 20. And so this good man espoused the Magistrate to the Saint Let every Master of a family go and do so likewise And as Superiours must strictly enjoyn so Inferiours must heartily embrace Sabbath observation Children must enquire of their Parents Exod. 13. 14. And Servants must joyfully obey their Masters in all holy and spiritual Isa 28. 19. commands Col. 3. 22. They must spend frugally the time of a Sabbath solemnize seriously the ordinances of a Sabbath perform readily the services
Momentum unde pendet aeternitas Alap Now if ever this is the Sabbaths Motto This is our moment on which eternity depends Though there be no vacation for sin yet the Sabbath is the Term-time for the Torius mundi opes non conducunt nec sufficiunt ad redimendam unam animulam deperditaÌ sed omnes animae sunt redemptae pretio sanguinis Chemn soul the Sabbath is the Mart the Staple the Market for the soul and not to improve this opportunity judiciously savingly spiritually with the greatest intent of mind with the greatest severity of observance with the greatest inclinations and workings of spirit is the highest vanity and prophaneness A slight vain spirit on a Sabbath is like tears and sighs at a Nuptial Feast or laughter and jocularity in the house of mourning On the Lords day we must pray as for our souls hear as for eternity and improve Ordinances as those who are to deal with an infinite God in Ordinances What we do we must do with all our might as Qui rectè currit in Christianismo coron am gloriae accipiet Chrysost the Wise-man speaks Eccles 9. 10. Now especially we must run the race which is set before us and strive to enter in at the strait gate storm heaven that we may take it by force Sweat in our callings is our policy but sweat and labour in holy duties is our wisdom In the duties of the Sabbath 1 Cor. 9. 24. especially we wrestle for a prize we seek for life as those persons who fetched water for David from Bethlehem with Luke 13. 24. hazard and invincible magnanimity Frozen duties will Mat. 11. 12. speak cold answers and a light dead careless frame of spirit only teaches God to withdraw his presence from our 1 Chr. 11. 18. seeming approaches We must pray and hear on a Sabbath as David danced before the Ark with all our might 2 Sam. 6. 14. we must stretch out the hand of faith lift up the 2 Sam. 6. 14. voice of prayer and breath out the longings and anhelations of our souls These heights of spirit do exceedingly become the holy and blessed Sabbath Dir. 5 We must he frugall of the time of the Sabbath The filings of Gold are precious much more the filings of a Sabbath Every minute of a Sabbath is like a pearl small but of great value There are no loose minutes in the Lords day every little parcell of time is a holy fragment which must be gathered up that nothing be lost We must fill John 6. 12. up every space of a Sabbath either with holy thoughts divine meditations ejaculatory prayers reading of the Scriptures or some holy duty correspondent to that holy day Every branch of this consecrated time must bear precious fruit we should in our Sabbath below imitate our Sabbath above and there no time will be lost Not a drop of idleneness in an Ocean of rest Though there will be no pains in glory yet there will be perpetual praises eternall uninterrupted Hallelujahs and there shall be no breach or chasm in our Sabbatum eât sanctum otium Leid Pros everlasting triumphs Indeed the Sabbath is rest from our callings but none from our duties it is an holy leisure for our souls which must not run waste Grains of Musk Fragmentorum collectione et asservatione Christus nos monet frugalitatis ne insumendo et prodigendo bona à deo nobis concessa uno impetu perdamus sed quae supersunt religiosè colligamus et seponamus Lyser are sweet and valuable so are the most minute pieces of a Sabbath The Romans were so ambitious of the Consulship that one Consul dying the last day of his Authority one sued for the remainder of the time whence that memorable speech of Cicero O vigilantem Consulem c. O watchfull Consul who slept not one night in his Authority Such holy ambition we should have for the time of a Sabbath we should sue for the smallest remains of it to improve for soul advantage The Author of the Practice of Piety complains of some who spent their Sabbath or a great part of it in trimming painting and pampering themselves and were like Jezabels doing the Devils work when they should be doing Gods Surely such are the greatest unthrifts Neque dominicis diebus quae sunt hilaritatis praeter sanctitatem aliquid dicere aut facere concedimus Clem. and are guilty of the most prodigious prodigality It was a pious constitution of Clemens That on the Lords day we should give no way to mirth or earthly delight but all our words and facts should savour of holiness Dr. Bound sadly bemoans the custom of some great personages who lay longest in their beds upon Gods holy day and made it a day of pleasing Sabbatum est observandum ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the flesh which should be a day of sanctified rest And saith this worthy man in an extasie of zeal We must not give our selves to sleeping on this blessed day no more then to surfeting The Prophet Joel tells us On solemn Feasts the Priests were to lie all night in sackcloth Joel 2. 13. And we know Hester spent three nights and three dayes with her Maids in fasting and prayer Hest 4. 10. And can there be a greater solemnity then the Sabbath the day Imperatum suit â deo ut sanctifices et consecres totum Sabbati diem et in illo toto die divinis vacare possis Zanch. Iren. contr valent for transacting the great affairs of eternity our golden spot of time to get a Christ to get a crown Zanchy observes That the whole of a Sabbath without abatement and curtail is to be consecrated to God Irenaeus one of the morning stars of the Church informs us That the Sabbath doth teach us there ought to be a perseverance and a continuance of a whole day in the service of God And the Council of Paris an assembly of learned men give in their suffrage to this truth in these words Let your eyes and hands be lifted up to God all this day To the same purpose speaks the Council Conc. Turon cap. 40. Calv. in Deut. Serm. 34. Muscul in quartum praeceptum Pet. Martyr in Gen. 2. of Turon But I shall not over-load or clog the Reader with humane testimonies Let me only subjoyn the attestation of incomparable Calvin This day saith he is not ordained for us only to come to a Sermon but to the end that we may employ the rest of our time to laud and praise God Here we may take up that of the Prophet Mat. 1. 14. Cursed is the deceiver And this is too much to imitate Ananias and Saphira to keep back part of the price of a blessed Sabbath Acts 5. 2. God will not have us to divide the Sabbath between himself and our selves this is to make a separation between God and us Gods day must be spent in
qui nobis consecravit quietis diem Gualt be softest on that day when Gods mercy is sweetest Mans pitty is a good handmaid to wait on Gods bounty That day which is a day of life to us should be a day of love from us Charity on a Sabbath is like fire put to Juniper it turns it into a perfumed flame Now there is a four-fold Charity we must exercise on Gods holy day There is Charitas oeconomica Charity to our Families It is very observable that every clause in the 4th Commandement Manifestè praecipitur mandati verbis quieti sabbati rationem habendam esse servorum ancillarum quo quisque admonetur de assectu charitatis erga domesticos suos et insatiabilis avaritiae impetus restringitur Muscul Quo magis à dei dilectione recedimus eò magis à proximi distamus quantum verò dei âharitati adhaeremus tantum et proximi et proximi deo conjungimur Biblioth Patr. is an injunction to Charity We must be tender to our servants they must not work we must be compassionate to our Children they must not toyl we must pity our beast that must not drudge we must have bowels to the stranger within the Gates he must rest and be refreshed so that we may say with the Apostle Rom. 13. 8. Love is the fulfilling of the Law The Command for the Sabbath is written in golden Letters of love and Charity The Lords day must be spent not in the sweats of labour but in the sweets of duty not in wearisome toyl but in holy rest Parental or despotical rigour is an open breach of this Command which breaths nothing but sweetness and indulgence The Sabbath is no day for the forge or the plow it was never set apart to waste our spirits but to mind and negotiate the affairs of our souls Bishop Andrews saith Mercy on a Sabbath is the sanctification of a Sabbath Surely those Governours of families do highly prophane the Sabbath where the maid-servant must toyl at the fire to provide for their luxury The man-servant must be no otherwise employed then to serve their company Children must wait and serve at the table to shew the grandure of the family where instead of singing Psalmes there is clattering of Dishes and instead of gathering Manna there is gathering up of fragments and instead of a composed lying at Christs feet Politicum illud est ut quâes concedi debeat iis qui subsunt alienae potestati Jer 17. 21 22. Psalm 105. 27. in holy Ordinances there is nothing but hurries noyse and confusion Here it might be expostulated Shall servants have no breathing for their souls no necessary pauses to mind eternity Is not this more then Aegyptian bondage Is not not this to cause our families to return back to the Land of Ham to their wonted captivity and thraldome Can such Governours disciple it after Christ and yet have no bowels Quae officia hic demandata etsi videantur levia et rusticae âbi de pecore aberrante redâcendo et asino sublevando agitur non tamen nobis talia erunt si perpendamus finem legulatoris qui non tam animalium rationem habuit quà m hominum Riv. to the immortal souls of their inferiours Christ shed his blood for precious souls and these will not dispence with a humour with their pride with a feast with an entertainment for the good and advantage of a never dying soul But such cruelty and oppression saith Dr. bound is the scandal of Christianity and unravels all that mercy which is folded up in the fourth Commandement God in the Law commands us to pity and shew mercy to our enemies Oxe Exod. 23. 4. to an Oxe which is a beast to be fatted for the slaughter to our enemies Oxe whose enmity might damp our charity and yet here we must shew compassion How much more must the soul of a Child or a servant be precious to us Shall thy servants here lie among the pots and hereafter among the flames and wilt thou do nothing to prevent it Wilt thou not give them Sabbath room to sayl to Heaven in Surely this is the dregs of tyrannie Well then this piece of Charity we must shew upon a Lords day we must be tender to our families we must call them from all toyl and labour to wait on God in his sacred institutions In a word to despise our servants on a Sabbath so as to think they are onely fit to drudge here is an act of pride ond insolency Such remember not that Paul wrote an Epistle to Philemon for his servants sake and to employ our servants Philem. v 16. on a Sabbath and not regard what becomes of them hereafter is an act of inhumanity and such forget that the poor receive the Gospel Mat. 11. 5. The lame the maimed were brought to the Kings feast Luk. 14. 21. and the difficulty Mat. 10. 25. lies how the rich man shall get to heaven Luk. 18. 25. Nay Mat. 19. 24. Christ himself took upon him the form of a servant Phil. Mat. 16. 26. 2. 7. Thy servants soul is of an higher price then the world Mat. 11. 25. It is observed by a worthy man That in the fourth Commandement Rest is granted to those who have most need of it to the poor servant and the friendless stranger to shew that it is even a duty of nature to be pittiful and charitable to our families upon Gods holy day There is Charitas crumenae a charity of the Purse which Petit pauper suum pauculum temporarium Da et recipies magnum eternum Aug. we must likewise shew on the Sabbath Now we must find objects to be the Cisterns of our bounty we must here occurrere ut succurramus meet some whom we may minister to Augustine his rule is a golden Rule on this day The poor petitions a little of our temporals give it him thou shalt receive it in eternals But if we object our inability It is replyed It is not how much but out of how much God looks at The widdows two mites was a commended charity even by Christ himself But let this caution be minded Caution let us take heed in our giving that we do not take away on other dayes to give on this day rob the week to Recondet Christianus apud se cumulet auctumque deinceps et cuâââlatum deferat Sclat adorn the Sabbath this is pride not charity and the greatest portion is given to Satan But let our charity on the day of the Lord be according to the simplicity of the Gospel and so our charity may make our purse the lighter but it will make our Crown the heavier and what we have laid out in one world we have laid up in another In the Conseruntur eleemosinae sec discretionem unius cujusque propter egenorum subsidium aegrotorum et exulum solamen primitive times there were
sollicitude And so Calvin presses That on this day every man ought to withdraw himself wholly to God-ward to mind him and his works that we may be provoked to serve and honour him The Sabbath is Gods freehold and all impertinencies whither foolish thoughts 2 Tim. 2. 4. vain discourse or unbecoming actions if they enter upon it they are trespassers In a word we must be in the spirit not in the flesh or the deeds of the flesh upon Gods holy and blessed day Dir. 10 We must be very watchful on Gods holy day This is a day on which we must be on our guard Christians on other dayes are Souldiers but on this day they must be sentinels 2 Tim. 2. 4. The Sanctuary more especially is our Court of guard Christ speaks to us now as once he did to his Disciples Can Mark 14. 37. ye not watch with me one day Our Sabbaths are always besieged with enemies both within us and without us and when the enemy is on the walls nothing more necessary then a strict watch Let us watch our hearts It is a fond piece of hypocrisie to watch our words and our actions on a Sabbath and in the Hic sc ad cor noctârnas et diurnas excubias colloâemus Cartw. mean time give scope and liberty to our wandring hearts to take its circuits and ranges A flatulent and a gadding heart is a great disturbance upon a Lords day a man can neither pray nor hear nor meditate but he is troubled and disquieted It is the counsel of the Wise man to keep our hearts with all diligence we must set double guards Prov. 4. 23. upon them The heart in it self is a wandring Dinah and will be slipping away to vanity it is ready to fall into the snare Corde nihil est fugacius Bern therefore we must watch it warily and check it speedily and over-awe it with the apprehension of Gods all-seeing eye It is observable that the Lord Jesus appeared to his Rev. 1 14. servant John upon his own day in a heart searching similitude His eyes were as a flaming fire not only burning in jealousie against sin and sinners but bright and shining as the searcher of hearts and tryer of reins And we should do well to consider that on the Lords day more especially our heart lies under the view of that fiery flaming eye of Christ and he is the judge of all secrets Rom. 2. 16. And this should stop and bound our Quick-silver hearts Let the terrour of the last day work upon our hearts on the Lords day The seat of the judge is fitly resembled by a cloud not a throne of silver or gold but a cloud now as we know the clouds are store houses of refreshing showers so also of storms and tempests and thus doubtless the day of the Lord will be a day of refreshing to some of terrour and amazement to others and a great part of the tempest of that day will fall upon the hearts of men God will have us accountable for ranging thoughts and sinful desires which are aggravated and receive a double dye upon a Sabbath Indeed on this day one of our great works is to chain and fasten the heart to God a loose heart then only runs up and down and doth mischief it makes great waste and is as the Prodigal in his worst fits We must watch against Satan The old Serpent who deluded our first Parents is the great adversary of the Sabbath which was the first institution the evil one strives to Gen. 3. 1 2 3. cloud the rising Sun the early day of divine worship set apart by God from the worlds infancy It was the policy of Pompey Vespasian and Titus most sorely to assault Jerusalem on the Sabbath day Upon the Sabbath day are the Devils Die Sabbati non licet pomum ad carbonem admovere ut assetur Nec allium quod edere velit decorticare saltantem pulicem capere Arborem non licet ascende re ne ramum frangas Munst ex Rabbin most desperate designs He is ever bad but worst on the best dayes we must look for a harming Devil on a helping day Let us trace the evil one all along and we shall easily discern his malice against the blessed Sabbath First Satan stirs up the Jews to clog the Sabbath with superstition Ridiculous were the assertions of that Nation concerning Sabbath observances As it is not lawful to put an apple to roast on the Sabbath day or to peel a head of garlick or to take a flea leaping upon the body or to climb a tree least we break a bough on that day c. Vanities more foolish as Gerard observes then the Sicilian scomms or toys After by the instigations of Satan a persecution is raised against the Church which lasted some Centuries of years beginning in the time Beati martyres in judicium vocati à Proconsule interrogati sunt num Dominicum servasti Cui respondebant se Christianos esse et Dominicum congruâ religionis devotione celebrasse quia intermitti non potest Baron of Nero And then Dominicum servasti c. Hast thou kept the Lords day was one of those ensuaring questions which brought many Christians to the crown of Martyrdom In succeeding ages the great artifice of Satan hath been to debauch the world into a contempt of the Lords day which is notably set down by worthy Dr. Hackwell in these words After ages much degenerating from the simplicity of the Primitive times they so infinitely multiplyed holy days beyond all measure and reason that the Lords day began to be sleighted which no doubt is an especial occasion of that thick cloud of superstition which over-shadowed the face of the Church In these last dayes Satan hath been a perverting spirit in the mouths of the Prophets some decrying the strictness of the Sabbath as rigorous and Judaical others confining holiness 2 Chr. 18. 22. only to the publick worship leaving the people afterwards to the ranges of their own corrupt fancy to bowl to wrestle c. and to follow any exercise which may suit with corrupt nature others shake the foundation of the Lords day as if that blessed day was only the issue of a prudential Canon of the Church but what this Church was where the Council was held who the president and what the Members of it we could never yet learn or understand but yet some clamorously avouch the Lords day is bottomed only upon Ecclesiastical Authority And then if the Azor. institut Moral ps secunda l. 1. c. 2. Sabbath lie at the pleasure of the Clergy as one worthily observes Covetous men who are about their Farms and their Oxen will easily set at naught a humane Ordinance and prophane persons will hardly be whistled into publick or private duties for a device of men but will give themselves free leave for doing or neglecting if there be nothing found in Scripture
pandorize the Sabbath to our lusts and vanities what is it but to make God serve with our sins Or as our Saviour phraseth it To turn the house of prayer into a den of thieves Mat. 21. 13. Is it fit for the witch of Endor to put the Devil into Samuels mantle 1 Sam. 28. 12. And for wicked Ahaz to put the Idols Altar into Gods temple 2 Kings 16. 14 15. Indeed the same wickedness they act who make the Lords day vile and cheap by sinfull abominations which should be honourable Isa 58. 13. in holy worship and service and those adorations which become the Lord of the Mark 2. 28. Sabbath To vitiate the Sabbath by visible prophaneness opens a way to all licentiousness and will be bitterness in the latter end Sabbath-breaking is usually the preface to other sins The 2 Sam. 2. 26. breaking of the two tables commonly begins at the fourth Commandment we first make bold with Gods day and then with Gods name and so break the third Commandment and then we can trinkle in his worship and so violate the second and by degrees we can slide into thefts adulteries Deut. 5. 21. and murders and so dash all the Commandments in Isa 28. 8. pieces he will easily covet his neighbours Wife for wantonness Claudius Tiberius Nero vocatus fuit Claudius Biberius Mero propter ebrietatem intemperantiam Sueton. who will sacrilegiously arrest Gods holy day for his excess and drunkenness It is the observation of an ingenuous person That he hath heard many malefactors at their execution bitterly bewail their prophanation of the Lords day and humbly acknowledge that sin was the leading cause of all ensuing mischiefs and miseries At the Gallows their Conscience hath pointed at the very sin which had been the chief actor in their wofull tragedy When Satan hath prevailed with us to violate Gods holy day he hath got his head in and he will easily draw in his whole body Prophanation Gulones nihil faciunt nisi ingerere digerere et egerere Bern. of the Sabbath is the gates of Hell the foundation upon which all other sins are erected Indeed the carefull observation of this day is a chain upon the soul and ties it up from sinfull vagaries it casts an awe upon the heart that it cannot presently startle but when the chain is filed off there is no end of licentious ranges as Cattle when they are got out of the pound they run into every ones field This sin of Sabbath-breaking it is like a Serpent whose sting is in its tail Indeed sanctified afflictions turn a Serpent into a rod but Sabbath-prophanation turns a rod into a Serpent and brings the most prosperous sinner into unexpected calamity It is observable of the people of Israel that sighs and groans Exod. 3. 7. brought them out of Egypt and Songs and Vanities on Gods day brought them into Babylon The Hebrew phrase Ezek. 23. 38. in Ezek. 20. 13. is very expressive the same word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chalal which is rendred to pollute and prophane viz. the Ezek. 20. 13. Sabbath signifies likewise to tripudiate and dance as the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Daughters of Shiloh did Judges 21. 21. where the same word is used to denote unto us one method of the Jews in prophaning the Sabbath viz. They passed it away jocularly Psal 87. 7. in sinful frolicks and immodest vanities and this was one of the chief sins they might sit down by the waters of Babylon Psal 137. 1. Cyril and weep over It is undeniable that the prostituting of the Sabbath by prophane practices both hath and will ruine Gaudântius c. Judaei non deo sed sibi die Sabbati ociantur Muscul Nations Families Persons and dig the grave to bury all comforts in It was generally complained of by holy and devout men in the primitive times that the Jews neglecting spiritual duties which God commanded abused the Sabbath The Jews which were killed at Hierusalem by the command of Florus were 630. By the Inhabitants of Caesarea were 20000. at Scithopolis 30000. at Ptolemais 2000. at Alexandria 50000. at Joppa 8400. at Askelon 1000. at Aâhaca 15000. at Garizâm 11600. at Jotopata 30000. at Gamala 9000. at the siâge of Hierusalem 1100000 c. 1 Cor. 10. 11. to case and luxury and wasted that holy day in gluttony and idleness and idle delicacies and this accusation in the first times of the Gospel became proverbial so that to keep the Sabbath loosly was to keep it after the manner of the fews And what judgments God brought upon them in those dayes how he did scatter them unchurch them unpeople them and leave them to be a vagabond Generation to all successive ages who knows not is a great stranger to Antiquity It would fill a Volume to relate the several slaughters of them and their exiles from Nations France Spain England and other places so that even at this day their mask is their best security and their veil is their only safety The Quotations in the margin give in some evidence of the infinite slaughters which were made of them they were a prey even to all Nations as if they were only fit to glut the Sword of an enraged enemy Let us therefore observe the Apostolicall advice and take these perishing Jews for an ensample of Gods heavy displeasure against debauched practices on Gods holy day To serve our lusts upon a Sabbath is to throw off Jehovah and to serve other Gods The person who is intemperate on a Sabbath doth he not serve Bacchus The effeminate person doth he not serve the Goddesse Venus And Phil. 3. 19. the luxurious person he makes his belly his god He that In nostris ecclesiis diebus dominicis carnis voluptatibus profusissime absque ullâ dissimulatione servitur quemadmodum Judaei qui die Sabbati ociantur et libidinantur acta verò et studia carnis Baccho et Veneri luxui et sastui omninò deputanâur Muscul prates away a Sabbath doth his devotion to Mercurius he that plays at Cudgels and wrestles in a seeming valour acts his service to Mars he that sports away the Sabbath in Courtships and caresses offers his sacrifice to Jupiter that wanton God whose effeminacies are the best part of the Legend we have repored by Pagan Historians Strict and holy communion only becomes a holy God on a holy day Musculus very piously and gravely cryes out Let us throw off all cloaks of dissimulation and if we spend our Sabbaths in the pleasures of the flesh let us never say we keep a day to the Lord Jesus but let us say we will worship Bacchus and Venus or some Idol God who is the Patron of such wickedness And indeed a Tavern or Alehouse on the Lords day is a fit temple for Bacchus a Stews or Whore-house is a fit Sanctuary for Priapus a Table full of vain chat is a fit
2. 10. 3. It was pressed with the same if not greater severity with the rest 4. It was laid up in the same Ark with the other Nine Quod pronunciatum Apostolus Christianis ad quod scribit applicat cujus veritas constare nequit nisi illud sub N. T. de quorti Praecepti transgressione locum habet alioquin enâm si in hoc praecepto nihil morale sit qui illud non servarit is non esset reus violatae ligis sed potius legis ejus rectus observator et Christianae libertatis rectus assertor Wal. and therefore we may fairly conclude that the same casualty which befalls the fourth most inevitably overtake the other nine Commandments This likewise is demonstrated by our Saviours assertion Mat. 22. 37. in his pressing love to God and our Neighbour as the sum and scope of the law which sum is moral and perpetual and includes the fourth as well as the other Commandments for how can we love God and not keep his day And we may likewise take notice that the total sum alwayes takes in every particular figure The learned Walaeus very well observes from that text of the Apostle James Jam. 2. 10. For whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all I say this learned man observes this injunction of the Apostle James could carry no weight with it and bear no stress if the keeping of the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandment as well as the observing of the other nine Commandments was not necessary for then Christians might break this Commandment and be innocent nay rather be observers of Gods will and faithfull assertors of Christian liberty for that Commandment which now is not moral the breach of it is no violation of any Law and so no offence but who can see how the fourth Commandment slips out of the rest of the Law how comes this Pearl to drop from the Chain that this Precept should not require our conformity as well as the other Commands of the immutable Decalogue And how can the whole Law 2 Sam. 10. be observed if so important a Command as the fourth is be left to our liberty to break and violate And I may here reassume the forementioned Text Jam. 2. 10. how solicitous and carefull should we be to keep the fourth Commandment which is so considerable apart of the whole Law for offending in this one point we shall wrap up our selves in the guilt of the whole Decalogue and sin against the dignity and authority of the whole Law we shall be lyable to the same punishment as if we had scratched every Commandement This solemn text of Scripture might over-awe our hearts to a holy Violet homo totam legem et si non totum legis Accipienda sunt decem praecepta non disjunctim sed conjunctim et completivè tanquam una lex absoluta Justitiae et sanctitatis regula Dr. M. obedience to the Commandment of the Sabbath It is a notable observation of a learned Man The precepts of God are not to be taken disjoyntly but conjoyntly not severally but altogether as they make one entire Law and rule of Righteousness the contempt reflecting upon the whole law when it is wilfully violated in any part A grave and worthy speech The Decalogue is a body he who injurieth any one member wrongeth the whole body he who slights any one Commandment suppose the fourth sheds a dishonour upon the two Tables Besides there are many things in the fourth Commanment which loudly proclaim its continuance and standing morality The working six dayes which is the indulgence of the command speaketh it mâst just and equitable that we Justissimum est et aequissimun ei cujus toti sumus unum diem è septem coâsecrare sex alios nostris laboribus concessit âùm tamen poâuisset jure suo c. Riv. should consecrate one viz. that day which remains to the service of God and there is nothing more agreeable to natural reason and justice as Rivet speaks and therefore to lay all dayes open to follow the byass and sway of our wills is most fantastick and irreligious and speaks the Assertours of such an opinion an irregular Sect and salt which hath lost its savour as a holy man calls them And that rule of Zanchy is most observable and authentical It is a most wretched and wicked thing to assert there are no dayes set apart for the more special worship of God and to despise those Imptum est et iniquum aut nullos esse dies divino cultui dedicatos asserere aut eos qui sunt contemnere Zanch. which are set apart to the same intent Nor can the sanctification of the Sabbath be ceremonial or vanishing for Prayer is as needfull for us as the Jews and so hearing of the Word receiving of the Sacrament and those Ordinances which fill up the Sabbath Moreover rest and refreshing for our selves and families for our Servants and Cattle is as well accommodated to the weakness of the flesh in the times of the Gospel as in the times of the Law To all which may be added that the great end of the fourth Opus creationis eât opus stupendum immò ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Commandement viz. the serious consideration of the great and stupendous works of the Creation and so to be led to admire the Creatour the great Workmaster of this admirable structure of the World is no way unbecoming Christians Ratio praecepti quarti est quia sex diebus deus fecit caelum et terram die septimo requievit jam regula est ratio immutabilis facit praeceptum immutabile ratio hujus praecepti nunquam transitura est praeceptum ergo in perpetuum durabit Dr. Andr. Epis Winton nor heterogeneous to their vivid and holy speculations which are onely heightned to us by an additional argument of the mellifluous work of mans Redemption But to draw out the Answer no further It is most remarkable and to be noted with an Higgaion Selah that in the 31 of Exod. 14. God presently after the exhibition of the Decalogue the whole body of the ten Commandements singles out the fourth Commandement alone and tells the Jewes Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you every one who defiles it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people It is a Sabbath of Rest holy to the Lord v. 15. The Children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath they shall observe the Sabbath throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant v. 16. How doth the Lord again again press the keeping of the Sabbath two or three times in one Verse and one Verse after another as if this was his darling Commandement and he took the greatest care of it and did give it the primacy over all the other Precepts And indeed
Nobis jam quoniam Christus adveniens expiavit universam terram Omnis locus est Oratorium Aug. Countreys in so many various situations for so the variation would be endless and so incongruous and useless to set them down in the word but it is not so in respect of solemn time or a solemn day for divine worship for here in the Lord may easily appoint a particular day to be observed according to the rising and setting of the Sun proportionably throughout the whole world And so the Church of God in all Ages have observed the same Precinct of time viz. The Lords day for the solemn worship of the most high But these familistical spirits have not only their argumentative pleas but they can bring Scripture too as Satan will never want a text of Scripture to varnish over an errour and put a good face over an evil opinion especially since he fought a duel with Christ himself by the dint of the sword of the spirit which is the word of God Eph. 6. 17. And there are three texts of Scripture which they usually urge for the Mat. 4. 3 4 5 6 7. support and confirmation of this wilde fancy I shall examine them severally and see what strength is in them Object 1 The first text is Rom. 14. 6. He that regardeth a day regardeth it unto the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he regardeth it not This therefore argueth our Christian liberty in respecting all dayes alike which are not discerned but only by command of the Magistrate say these familists of the Church say the Rhemists but of neither Isli homines abutuntur Scriptur is et abâiis concludunt quod non est concludendum Zanch. saith Mr. Fulk but of the Commandment of God only and so this place might be answered But as Zanchy saith of these Enthusiasticks They know how to abuse Scripture Answ 1 Therefore to shew the vanity of their Allegation it is replyed this Text speaks of indifferent things which may be observed or not observed without sin or impiety Things adiaphorous and indifferent are properly the subjects to act our liberty in they may be fastned or loosned as we please they are De adiaphoris hîc agit Apostolus et intentio corum qui fuerunt imbelles fiebat exââsabilis Par. only the garbs and modes of Religion which may be left off without offence the highest pretence to them is only decency which is subject to a variety of opinion to think it or not think it so Bishop Davenant vehemently decries the necessity of holy dayes some of these indifferent things and saith they are of a mutable nature and as they are enjoyned so they may be abolished by humane Authority Non est statuendum ecclesiam Christianam oliquâ necessitate astringi ad immotam festorum dierum observationem sed statuendum est dies hosce humanâ authoritate constitutos et eadem posse tolli et mutari Dav. But now to put the Lords day into the account of such indifferencies is an errour of the highest nature putting an ecclipse upon Christs Resurrection the glory of which is celebrated and commemorated every first day of the week which the Apostle John calls Rev. 1. 10. the Lords day Such an opinion would put dross into this gold and embase it with a sinful allay To suppose the observation of the Lords day a thing indifferent what need then of the Apostolical practice to be our President the general observation of the Church to be our incentive the Decrees of Councils and Constitutions of godly Princes to be our encouragement the universal Tenent and consent of Professors in all ages down to this very day without any heats of dividing disputes without disgusts of separating Sects to be our enforcement to the holy keeping of it Never was any thing indifferent so warmed in the bosom and so warranted by the obedience of all Christians in every Century and besides this no man will deny but it is convenient nay necessary It is to be remembred that the Apostle in this text Rom. 14. 6. Speaketh only of things indifferent not in their nature only but also so left to us as in regard of their use Esnath Parre therefore not indifferent that some particular day be set apart for solemn worship For 1. Hereby our selves our servants our cattel have rest which is one end of the Sabbath 2. Hereby faith and good manners are furthered and we are built up by publick prayers reading and preaching of the word 3. Hereby the love and joy of Christians is increased through the mutual beholding one of another as Hierome observes 4. Hereby the poor have opportunity to receive the Gospel other dayes being taken up in the works of their Callings to get a mean livelihood and a poor maintenance for themselves and families 5. Hereby the glorious Mysteries of God are opened and discovered to the people and those inestimable benefits we enjoy in and by Christ are unravelled to poor and precious Aug. ad Januar Epist 118. 119. souls This Pearl of price the Lord Jesus is principally shewn in its brightness and excellency on his own blessed day How many beams and rayes of invaluable use shine forth from Sabbath observation It is therefore no indifferent evil to reckon this day an indifferent thing 2. The Apostle in this text speaks of Ceremonial dayes Hieron Comment in Epist ad Galat. which is evident by joyning these dayes with those meats which were Ceremonially clean or unclean And it is readily acknowledged that it was a weakness in some to think Alià s sc Judaeus judicat diem alium prae alio esse festum et sanctiorem alià s sc Gentilis alitèr sentit Hieron themselves bound to certain Ceremonial dayes as well as to abstain from certain Ceremonial meats But will it hence follow it is a part of our Christian liberty to abandon all dayes as Ceremonial and that it is a part of the weakness of Christians to observe any day under the Gospel This hath not any face of reason for it from this Scripture wherein the Apostle doubtless speaketh of Ceremonial not moral dayes as our Christian Sabbath most assuredly is The ancient Fathers as Origen Ambrose Primasius Oecumenius Anselm understand the Apostle to speak of fasting Verum quia Apostolus praecedentibus et sequentibus agit de festis ââ de delectu ciborum Hinc melius hic dies non ad festos sed ad dies jejunii referat Chrysost Jon. 4. 6. from meates on certain dayes which were peculiar dayes of abstinence and Calvin Bullinger Beza Olevian Piscator Erasmus Lyra nay the very Rhemists themselves construe this text of Jewish Ceremonial dayes and of Ceremonial observances This Scripture then being so understood as it must be it no way imports or includes the blessed Lords day practiced in the New Testament by Apostolical Authority Thus the text urged to patronize
diebus Rab. Kimchi in Psal 92. secular affairs and compose himself for divine intercourse he can more conveniently dress his soul to meet with his beloved But suppose man could prepare himself every day for this holy converse with his Maker yet Gods Name would lose by it if God should not have the honour of a solemn day Idols have their set dayes for their worshippers to celebrate their honour in And Kings have their birth dayes Pharaoh had his birth day Gen. 40. 20. And Herod had his birth day Mark 6. 21. which was solemnized with great joy and festivals And so Princes have their Coronation days which are annually kept with the highest observation And is it not meet and just that Gods Name should be magnified by us Commonly by setting apart some time every day which we may well spare out of our employments and callings for God and this doth honour him but a day a set solemn day much more when all Christians in the whole world shall harmoniously and unanimously meet to worship Acts 19. 28. and to honour the great Jehovah and shall cry out Great is the God of the Christians Set dayes of worship do reflect much honour upon God as the stated Noon speaks the elevation of the Sun To keep every day a Sabbath subverts the design of a Sabbath which was to rest after our worldly labours and to set apart that rest for the service of the Lord. So the very words Sabbatum est sanctum otium cultui sacro deputandum of the fourth Commandement Deut. 5. 14. And we have this rest in imitation of Gods rest Now God did not rest every day but onely the seventh Nor did Christ rise every Dominicus dies Christi resurrectione declaratus est Christianis et ex illo coepit habere festivitatem suam day but onely the first That which put life into the old Sabbath was Gods resting one day and that which authorizeth the Sabbath of the new Testament is Christs rising one day it is still one day not many dayes If God had rested every day where would have been the work of creation And if Christ had been alwayes rising from the bed of his grave where would have been the work of Redemption Aug. Epist 119. cap. 13. Thus praecedaneous work ushers in a Sabbaths Rest and so it must be still To rest every day plucks up the very foundation of a Sabbath upon which it is built and as Frederick Barbarossa did Millaine sowe it with salt To keep every day a Sabbath dasheth upon many absurdities and supposeth impossibles We must understand the definition of a Sabbath It is a day of divine appointment which must Hanc ob causam deus septimo die ab omni opere quievit ut nos ab omni opere externo vacântes ipsi uni soli hoc die vacaremus Idcirco hunc diem benedixit sanctificavit i. e. in usum suum separavit et elegit Oecolââ p. in 4turn praecept Tom. 3. Oper. be consecrated wholly to the service and worship of God Now should we do nothing every day but attend the service of God in spiritual duties and holy Ordinances what would become of the Common-wealth the Magistrate the Master the Subject the Servant How can the one rule and the other obey Who shall provide for our Families whilst we worse then Infidels cast off the care thereof 1. This opinion overthrows all commerce traffick it plucks down all Empories and Cities of trade or shall we continually fly from the Sanctuary to the Shop from unlading our Souls in prayer to unlade our goods from the Key or the Ship Shall we hurry in Gods Ordinances and suddenly start from them to look after our Merchandise 2. This opinion countermands all those injunctions of God which were given before the Law In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread Gen. 3. 19. And so likewise in the Law Six dayes shalt thou labour Exod. 20. 9. And after the Law in the times of the Gospel We command them to work with quietness and to eat their own bread 2 Thes 3. 12. And if any would not work neither should he eat So that this fancy drives men into the extremity of irreligion and Atheism 3. This opinion takes away all distinction of our general and particular calling Christians have not only their general calling viz. To profess the name of Christ that heavenly Calling Deus vocavit nos vocatione sanctâ dum nos ab infidelitate et peccatis ad suum fidem et sanctitatem vitamque sanctam et divinam Et hac vocatione spes Christianorum acuitur cum Evangelio pro Evangelio pati as the Apostle calls it Heb. 3. 1. That hopeful Calling Eph. 4. 4. That high Calling Phil. 3. 14. That worthy Calling 2 Thes 1. 11. That holy Calling 2 Tim. 1. 9. Now besides this Calling all Christians lay claim to particular Christians have their particular Callings their Trades their Vocations and several employments Shall we then serve God hear pray or receive Sacraments continually and without intermission Where would be the time for our Callings Then we might as the Woman of Zareptah said of her little Oil in the cruse and the little meal in the barrel 1 Kings 17. 12. Even shut up our shops and die our hands then should not minister to our necessities as the Apostle assures us his did Acts 20. 34. This being true Every day must be a Christian Sabbath then the Apostles must not mend their nets Mark 1. 19. Nor Paul make his Tents Acts 18. 3. This fond opinion subverts every trade ties up every painful hand breaks all working instruments it silence the Lawyers tongue and benums the Scholars brain and withers the Plow-mans hand and the Smith at the forge shall sweat no more then the Prince on the Throne and so the world shall have a writ of ease to go down in a pleasant dream to the silent grave 4. This fancy puts God upon constant miracles to rain down Manna for our daily supply and again fetch water Exod. 16 35. out of the rock for we must not apply our selves to worldly Numb 20. 8. labours for that is inconsistent with a Sabbath and every day say these men must be a Christian Sabbath which we know must be most strict and serious and what is all this but daring presumption Truly this opinion fairly leads us back from Canaan to the wilderness again 5. This opinion makes man perfect in this life for weak flesh cannot keep a constant Sabbath If Paul lengthen out his discourse more then ordinary Eutichus falls into a deep sleep and drops from the third Loft and destroys himself Acts 20. 9. Nay our Saviour complains that the Disciples could not watch one hour with him but they were surprized Quot sunt remorae Christianae vigilantiae aut risus diffusio aut intemperantiae gravamen aut quaelibet superfluitas
take notice that in the history of Gods raining down of Manna there is frequent mention made of the Sabbath and this was before the Law was given upon Mount Sinai In Exod. 16. 23. the Lord speaketh of the Sabbath wherein no Manna was to Mâjâris momenti et fiââitatis est quod assârâur Exod. 16. 24. ubi Sabbati tanquam diei inter Israelitas celebris et noti mentio sit et sic vers 26. His verbis Sabbatum non instituitur sed tanquam rem antea institutam propter Mannae collectionem violandum non esse à deo praecipitur Wal. be gathered as a thing in use amongst them and no unheard of novelty the Sabbath then was no wonder to the people of Israel but indeed the Commandment for not gathering Manna on that day was a new thing The Sabbath is again mentioned vers 25. To day is a Sabbath unto the Lord where we have no words of institution as if now the Sabbath first commenced a weekly festival but this blessed day is spoken of as of an usual and well known solemnity And which is very observable the Lord speaks expresly concerning the Sabbath vers 29. That he had given them a Sabbath in the preterperfect tense as a thing of former times not of any present institution he gives them Manna in the present tense but he hath given them a Sabbath in the preterperfect tense which most clearly evinces the antiquity of its institution Moreover the ready obedience of the people in resting upon the seventh day mentioned vers 30. evidences its former institution they did not dispute but obey not admire but submit New Laws raise Questions but here was none Every circumstance in this whole story gives in clear evidence to this truth Nay in the 28th verse God chides the people who went out to gather Manna on the Sabbath day as breakers of his Laws and Commandments So then the Sabbath was an antient Law among them nay an Eminent Law and therefore called Laws in the plural number vers 28. The Jews gathered Manna on the Sabbath and this was their sin and this could not have been their transgression unless there had been a Law for The mentioning of the Sabbath Exod. 16. 23. comes in occasionally as concerning Manna and not of purpose to institute a Sabbath Mr. Bern. the Sabbath for sin is onely the transgression of a Law 1 Joh. 3. 4. And one thing more is observable the Lord works a miracle at that time to honour the Sabbath the Manna which was gathered the day before did not putrifie on that day according to the nature of it Exod. 16. 24. by which God shewed how greatefull the due observance of that day was to him So then to wind up this particular we find in this Chapter the Sabbath observed which could not be unless instituted before for only instituâions are the matter of our G. J. p. 11. observation and no less is acknowledged by our adversaries Cogita iâ Egypto ubi serviebas etiam ipso Sabbato per vim te esse coactum ad labores Man Ben. Isr in this point And to fasten a naile on this argument that it may not unravel Manasseh Ben Israel one of the most eminent of the Jewish Rabbies very well observes that the Lords enjoyning the Israelites the observation of the Sabbath tells them they were Servants in Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. This the antient wise men among the Jews do apply in this manner Think with thy self how that in Aegypt where thou Quae dicuntur de Sabbato videntur innuere vel ejus observationem tum fuisse institutam vel saltem innovatam miraculo confirmatam Riv. servedst by force thou wast constrained to work even on the Sabbath day Thus the Jews most knowing in the doctrine of the Sabbath spake of a Sabbath in their Aegyptian bondage which was long before Mount Sinai smoaked to preface Gods giving the Ten Commandments Two things more must here be inserted as in their proper place 1. The Lord argues Exod. 16. 28. with the Israelites for violating the Sabbath with this expostulation How long will ye refuse to keep my Commandments which argues most clearly the Antiquity of the Sabbath for God would not thus reprove the first breach of this Commandment but it plainly discovers their custome in this sin 2. And so in Exod. 31. 15. the keeping of the Sabbath is not urged from the Commandment lately given in the decalogue as reason would in mans judgement but from Exod. 31. 15 16 17. the seventh dayes rest and refreshment after six dayes work which points clearly at the Sabbaths first institution The Apostles Argument mentioned in the beginning of the fourth Chapter to the Hebrews brings a fresh light to Heb. 4 5. Vis est in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ea quies praeteriit olim rursus tamen quietem promittit ergo haec alia est à priore Par. this truth there the Apostle seems to dispute ex concessis from the observation of the Sabbath from the beginning of the world The Question was how those words of the Prophet were to be understood viz. If they shall enter into my rest Now saith the Apostle there is a two-fold rest mentioned in the Old Testament the rest of the Sabbath and the rest of the Land of Canaan but it cannot be meant Ex dictis sequitur aliud Sabbatum aliam requiem restarâ populo dei puâà requiem gaudium et solennitatem caelestem figuratam per quietem et festum veteris et Judaici ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of either of these rests for they are long since passed one at the beginning the other at the time of Joshua and therefore it must be meant of a rest to come The minor of this syllogisme the Apostle proves by parts not the rest of the Sabbath for that was entred into by man from the beginning seeing the works were finished from the beginning Heb. 4. 5. not of the rest of Canaan for if Joshua had given them rest he would not have spoken of another rest vers 8. the conclusion then follows there remains therefore a rest for the people of God vers 9. And that is the rest of Heaven whereof Alap the other two rests were either types or fair resemblances We see therefore that the Apostle taakes the first viz. of the Sabbath as from the beginning of the world and this Divine Authority is beyond all dispute or exception and whosoever shall cast a cloud upon so clear a truth we may truly say the hand of itching curriosâty or design is in it nothing but singularity or interest could raise such a steam or vapour The Proemial word Remember prefatory to the fourth Commandement clearly speaks the primitive institution of the Sabbath For Memory alwayss looks backwards we Deus in Decalogo pronunciando memoriam refricat Israelitis primaevae ordinationis quando deus eam innovavit Riv. in Dec.
cannot remember what we formerly did not know at least Memory like Janus among the Romans must look with two faces the one must look backwards and the other must look forwards And so in reference to the Sabbath If the word Remember look backward it refers to the institution of the Sabbath if forwards it refers to the observation of the Sabbath Rivet well observes that in the word Remember God stirs up the Memory of the Israelites that Deus à primordio mundi sanctificavit diem septimum requiescendo ab operibus suis quae fecit inde Moses dixit ad populum mementote diem Sabbati et sanctificate eam Ter. they should not forget that holy Institution which was of old So then the Sabbath when commanded on Mount Sinai was only the second Edition of it the Renovation of an old Law a primitive Statute put in a fairer Print or like as it was in Pharaoh's Dream this Law was repealed because it was more firmly established Gen. 41. 32. Thus Colours are put in Oyl that they may be the more lasting The first Institution of the Sabbath and the more solemn promulgation of it upon Mount Sinai are two Witnesses by which this Truth shall be fully established viz. That the seventh part of every Week shall be consecrated to God till the second coming of Jesus Christ the solemn proclaiming of this Law upon Mount Sinai was only the Sabbaths duplicate In Monte Sinai Deus Sabbati diem innovavit Riv. the Original we had hefore and now we have the Counterpane the Sabbath was put in a fresh dress on the flaming Mountain and then like rich Arras the Sabbath it self was refreshed And if the Sabbath was from the beginning as hath been clearly demonstrated the Christian lays an equal claim to it with the Jew and is as much concerned in its observation So then a Sabbath we have in the Worlds Infancy and indeed what reason can put it to the question For were the Bodies of men before the Law more adamantine that they need not be refreshed Or were not our Bodies before and after the Law equally attempered and condition'd Were not the sweet Intervals equally necessary and welcom to both Did not a devout sequestration to pious Exercises as well suit and become the Soulâ of the Patriarchs and the Church of God in those days as those Nobis cum veteri populo quoad hanc partem communis est necessitas Calv. who lived after the promulging of the fourth Commandement Let us look into the End peculiar to the Sabbaths Institution was it not to eternize the honour of the Creation And doth not that belong to those before the Law as well as those after Is not the benefit of the Creation common and universal Do not all participate of it especially the Elect and that inexplicably Had not the Church before Moses as ample a share in Blessings upon the Sabbath as those since And ought it not then as freely Hospin de Orig. Temp. lib. 2. cap. 14. and as frequently to celebrate its sacred Festival And if then before as since the Law there was the same reason sure then there was the same thing observed and the same commanded for from the reason of the Law we may rise to the Law it self as from the Cause to the Effect and from Omnis actio dei nobis pietatis virtutis est regula Basil the End to the Means The example of God's resting and the benefit of the Creation being the same to those before and after the Law it must needs follow the Sabbath was given in the Worlds Infancy and so belongs to the whole Posterity of Adam The ancient Institution of the Sabbath was so generally known in the World that the very Heathens had a dimmish light of it Hesiod a Gentile and a Greek Poet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hesiod saith That the seventh day is a holy day Lampridius tells us that Alexander Severus the Roman Emperour and an Heathen on the seventh day usually went into the Capitol there to offer Sacrifices to the Gods Homer an Heathen saith The seventh day is holy and was the day in which all things were perfected Callimachus saith the like and that it is the birth-day chief and perfect Clemens Alexandrinus Clem. Alex. stromat lib 5. shews That not only the Hebrews but the Greeks also knew the seventh day to be holy And Eusebius affirms That almost ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Clem all not only Philosophers but Poets know that the seventh day was most sacred and venerable Certain of the Ethnick Doctors were wont only to dispute on Sabbath-days because they were most signal and remarkable and therefore the more to be honoured So Diogenes used to dispute at Rhodes as Aulius Gellius reports Lib. 13. Cap. 2. Seneca Euseb de praepar Evang lib. 13. cap 7. in his 99th Epistle shewing that Exhortations are not enough but we need obliging Precepts yea the Decrees of wisdom he reckons up the Sabbath as a Festival day for Religion Aretius hath these words The Greeks and Latines Causab in Sueton. lib. 3. cap. 52. call the Sabbath a Day of Rest thinking it unfit for civil Actions and Warlike Affairs and fit only for Contemplation How shall these rise up in judgment against sensual Sen. Epist 95. and formal Christians who trifle away their Sabbaths when all Books shall be opened in the day of account Eusebius brings in Plato and Solon those Sages among the Aret. Probl. Theol. loc de Sabbat observantiâ Gentiles sublimating the Sabbath with their Seraphick Eulogies and putting an high estimate upon it Thus the generality of the world had some gust and taste of the sanctity of a Sabbath which gives in full testimony of its great Antiquity Macrob. lib. 1. cap. 7. and that it had its rise from the very beginning of the World and if so then all Mankind both Jew and Christian Lucian in Pseudologista are concerned in it The Jews who should be best acquainted with the Doctrine Dies Sabbati naturâ privilegium habuit ex quo mundi natalis factus fuit Phil. Jud. of the Sabbath generally affirm that the Sabbath was ordained from the beginning of the World Philo Judaeus saith That the Sabbath-day hath its priviledge from Nature it self and is become the Worlds birth-day Kabbi Kimchi in his Commentary upon the ninety second Psalm testifies that the Doctrine of the Jews in their Darash is That Adam first compesed that Psalm in Paradise upon the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sabbath-day and after that he sinned and prophaned the Sabbath The Chaldee Paraphrase gives this Inscription to the ninety second Psalm A Praise and Song which Adam the first of men spoke on the Sabbath-day And a learned man well observes that Tertullian in all his heat cannot deny but that the Jews held the Sabbath-day to be sanctified Chald. Paraph from
seventh day is to be kept holy to the Lord and this remaineth still though the very seventh day be changed The equity of the fourth Commandment is drawn from the proportion of six dayes labour and a seventh dayes rest One thus opens that phrase in the fourth Commandment Six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God What seventh saith he Exod. 20. 8 9. pray note it the Lord saith not the seventh from the Creation if he had the Law had confined us to that day But because the Law-giver intended to choose a new day and not to change the old law he hath left it at large in general terms neither can it be restrained to one day more then to another And though the old seventh day was occasionally pointed at in the fourth Commandment as a seventh day which the Jews were to observe as by the fifth Commandment they were bound to honour their Parents then living yet these occasional circumstances might be and were altered without any impeachment to the morality of these commands The altering of a mutable circumstance either of time place or person is far from abolishing the substance of a law and it is to be considered That this proportion of one day in seven is no where directly stated by a perpetual precept but in the fourth Commandment and therefore there it must be determined that it must be some where determined is evident because it is substantially profitable to Religion to the glory of God and the good of souls For if men were left to their own liberty to choose their own proportion in all probability Religion would be very much damnisied and endangered either it would be starved with too little or surfeited with too much Sabbath-time either Popery would create almost every day in the week a holy day or prophaneness would be content with one day in a moneth Let sinful man have liberty to pluck up Gods bounds and alter his proportion one way or another and experience will shew the inconvenience and mischief of it And that which is very observable in the fourth Commandment is that the Lord blessed the Sabbath day not the seventh day but the Sabbath day the day of rest is blessed And the fourth Commandment both opens and shuts both begins and ends with the term Sabbath day and not the seventh day we must sanctifie the Sabbath day so in the beginning of the precept and God blessed the Sabbath day so in the close of the Commandment The word Sabbath like a finger points forward and backward directing us how to expound the whole precept in a large and not a limited sense Doubtless if God had intended to tie up the Church in all ages to the seventh day from the Creation he would have fixed the Commandment upon that day only especially in the conclusion of it for why should not that precise day be mention'd in the close of the fourth Commandment as well as in Gen. 2. 3. There God is said to bless the seventh day here only the Sabbath day the most probable reason is the Commandment is a larger extent then the institution Moreover the learned zealous and pious servants of Dr. bound on the Sab. God affirm the same thing viz. That the Commandment Willet Hexapl in Gen. for the Sabbath is moral for one day in seven and not for the old seventh day Twisse Sect. 6. These Champions for the truth have given in their full attestation to this fair and true interpretation of the fourth Mr. Bern. Mosaic Sab. p. 70. Commandment And as Attersoll very well observes as in the first institution of the Lords Supper Christ made use of unleavened bread yet his example binds us only to the use Mr. White in Gen. Moral of the 4th Com. of bread and not that which is unleavened so for the first institution of the Sabbath God rested on the seventh day from the Creation yet his example binds us only to a day of that Mr. Byfield Doctr. of the Sab. vindicated Mr. Fenner on the Sab. c. number and not that particular day And if in the preceptive part of the fourth Commandment Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day this be restained to the seventh day in order there was then a plain tautology in the command it was as if God should say Remember the seventh day Sabbath for the seventh day is the Sabbath which is a flat tautology and unbecoming infinite wisdom No it is evident that the precept is comprehensive and large and not limited to one seventh day more then another for Sabbath day in Quies ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ceu quievit the Hebrew is no more then a day of rest and that is any day set apart for holy worship by Divine Authority and is applicable to the first day of the week as well as to the last which may be illustrated by this instance By the force of the fifth Commandment we must honour the King if Saul be King honour him and if he be dead or displaced and David be King then honour King David To neither of 1 Pet. 2. 1â them the Commandment is levell'd directly but successively and so the Command is consequentially accommodated to both So Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy Whilst the seventh day was a day of Rest the Jews were bound to sanctifie that day if that day be changed and another succeed if the first day be placed in its room we are as much bound to sanctifie that day all this by the force of the fourth Commandment for as the change of the person takes not away Hacratione nos quoque praeecptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem dominicum quia scil est dies quietis nobis sicut judaeis fuit dies septimus Zanch. the precept of honouring the King so the change of the day makes not void the Commandment for the Sabbath And thus we Christians in keeping holy the Lords day keep the Sabbath as much as ever the Jews did the Lords day being a day of holy rest to us as the seventh day Sabbath was to them Moreover let us a little further consider that in the first giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai in thunder flames and lightning the Sabbath is wholly enforced from the work of Creation and Gods example in resting from that stupendious work but in the repetition and the second giving of this Law by the hand of Moses a typical Mediatour Exod. 20. 8 9 10 11. Deut. 5. 14 15. The reason from the Creation is quite left out And the Sabbath is altogether enforced from a type of Deut. 5. 14 15. our Redemption viz. The deliverance of the people of Israel from their Aegyptian bondage for so saith the Text Deut. 5. 15. Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Aegypt and the Lord brought thee thence by a mighty hand therefore he commanded thee
the Apostles with an unusual elegance âf speech to captivate their auditours to the obedience of the Gospel and to prognosticate these rare gifts which being heated with the fire of divine zeal should fecundate and sublimate the succeeding Church but when was this unusual illapse and descent of the holy spirit Why it was on the first day of the week to put a fairer print upon the seal of our Christian Sabbath A blessed bargain was here made between Heaven and Earth 3. Scientiae lumen est et author spiritualis intelligentiae Bern. To triumphing Saints was given the corporal presence of Christ to militant Saints was sent the visible efflux of the spirit surely that cannot hut be a holy day wherein the holy Ghost came down And this is another indelible mark of honour which Christ hath fixed on the first day of the week Concludimus ergo diem hunc primum septimanae ab Apostolis Sabbatho fuisse institutum et ecclesiae commendatum non tantùm potestate ordinariâ qualem omnes pastores habent sed potestate singulari tanquam ab iis qui in universam Christi ecclesiam irspectionem habuerunt et quibus tanquam extraordinarâis ministris Christi concreditum est ut fideles essent Wal. our Christian Sabbath this was his royal gift when he came to heaven such a princely largess such a glorious donation as was never given before but when God gave his own Son God so loved the world that he gave his Son John 3. 16. And Christ so loved the world that he gave his Spirit And as Christ was given according to the fullness of the Promise so was the holy Ghost given And Christs resurrection and the spirits descention were both upon the first day of the week On this day then the Church was visited from on high the promise of the Father was sent Acts 1. 4. The blessed spirit came the Disciples were assembled thousands were converted as a hansel of the spirits power and a fruit of the spirits descent and why was the Church assembled on that day why the holy Ghost descended why preaching why conversion and administration of Sacraments why the promise of Christ accomplished and all on this very day But still to declare the will and ordinance of Christ blessing and sanctifying this day to the Church and so marking it out for solemn and weekly worship as a day in all its prerogatives superlative to all other dayes the day of our Saviours resurrection by which we are justified the day of the holy Ghosts descention by which we are sanctified The learned Twisse observes That Dies dominicus est Traditio vere Divina et ab Apostolis spiritu dictante instituta Beza as at the first the holy Ghost descended on the Apostles upon our Sabbath day so stili the same spirit descends ordinarily on the same day upon his faithful Ministers in the dispensation of the Word and administration of the Sacraments and in the puting up of prayers to the most high for the sanctifying and edifying the body of Christ even the Church of God The day of Christs Ascension he departed from the Apostles as touching his presence corporal but on the day of Pentecost Christ came down upon them as touching his presence spiritual and so be doth still in our Sabbath exercises though not in an extraordinary manner yet no less effectually to the edification and sanctification of our souls And here I cannot omit a rare speech of the incomparable Bishop of Armagh At the time of the Passeââeâ saith he Christ our Passeover was sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. and lay in his grave the whole Sabbath following so on the morrow after the Sabbath when the sheaf of the Bishop Vsher in his Learned Letter to Dr. Twisse p. 91 92. first fruits was offered to God Christ arose from the dead and became the first fruits of them whâ slept many dead bodies of the Saints who sâept arising likewise after him from whence was the count taken of the seven Sabbaths or fifty dayes and uâân the mârrâw after the seventh Sabbath which was our Lârds dây was that famâus feast of weeks the day of Pentecost Numb 28. 2. spoken âf Acts 2. 1. Vpon which day the Apostles having Exod. 34. 22. themselves reâeived the first fruits of the spirit begât three Jam. 1. 18. thousand sâuls by the word of Truth and presented them as Rev. 4. 14. the first fruits of the Christian Church to God and unto the 1 Cor. 15. 20. Lamb And from that time forward doth Waldensis note Mat. 27. 52 53. That the Lords day was observed in the Christian Church and was suâstituted in the place of the Jews Sabbath Thus far Sicut pascha typus eâât Christi sic panâs âââmi sunt typus Christianorum eorum scil innocentiae pârâtatis Alap the famous Vsher And to wind up this particular the Holy Ghost being sent down among the Disciples in an eminent manner was the special benediction of this day to such solemn assâmblies to teach them and the succeeding Church when and on what day they should more especially expect the sweet illapses and effectual descents of Gods holy and most blessed spirit The Lords day was kept and sanctified by the practice of the hâly Apostles Now the blessed Apostles were men intimately Praecipua regiminis ecclesiastici cura Apostolis deputata est quorum unus quisque ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Deinde speciali authoritate ad ecclesiam cujus fândamenta jacere Apostolicae dignitatis est ex prâmiscââ omniâ gântiâm multitudiââ ãâã Christus eâs misit ãâ¦ã sp s gratiâ abândânte ad ministerium sibi à domino commendatum erant instructissimi ut ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã veritatem Evangelii praedicarent acquainted w th the secrets of Christ being most of them trained up in his School and personally conversant with him after his Resurrection besides they had immediate inspiration from him and authâritative mission to manage the publick affairs of the Church Our Saviour gave them their credentials to preach in his name and to act as his substitutes as if he himself had been personally present John 20. 21. Luke 10. 16. Mat. 28. 19 20. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. Neither doth this extend only to verbal preaching but to visible preaching also I mean their practice at least in things Evangelical Moral and of general and perpetual concernmânt to the Churches of Christ otherwise why is their practice propounded as a pattern Phil. 3. 17. Phil. 4. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 2. 1 Thes 2. 14. Now these blessed Apostles met for solemn worship on this day our Christian Sabbath so Acts 20. 7. And upon the first day of the week when as the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight Now the full discussion and ventilation of this solemn text will give
much strength to this great truth viz. That the Lords day is of Divine Authority In this text then note When this solemn assembly met together on the first day of the week saith the text the day which all the Evangelists witness to be Christs Resurrection day on this day the Disciples were congregated But why the first day of the week why not the last day of the week which was the old Sabbath strange if that had continued a Sabbath that the Primitive Christians had not mât on that day especially seeing Vnâ Sabbati i e. die dominiâo dies dominiâa est reâordâtio domiâicae resurrectionis Vener Beda in Act. 20. Tom. 5. it was but the day before yet more strange that we hear not a word of Pauâs keeping it though he tarriâd at Troas seven dayes but most strange that wâ read not one word in all the New Testament of Pauls owning that day in a Christian Church only he solemnly preaches to a Christian Congregation on the first day of the week Surely this is a pregnant argument that the day was changed upon the account of our Saviours Resurrection The Church was assembled on the first day of the week but how Privately it may be no Publickly and openly nay most probably the compâny was very ãâã and Isa 60. 8. the Congregation flocked as Dâves to the windâws Here is then a full assembly mât upon the âirst âay of the week but for what To âreak âread saith the tâxt to receive Mat. 26 26. Acts 2. 46. 1 Cor. 11. 24. Dies dominicus ab ipsis Apostolis sacris actionibus est consecratus Bucer the Eucharist saith the Syriack translation and what more seemly and suitable then to receive thâ Lords Supper upon the Lords day And can this be done without preparatory prayer and other Sabbath exercises Surely this would have been a mutilated and a faint devotion nay and breaking of bread is here put by a Synechdoche the part for the whole and there no more reason to exclude prayer Consentaneum est Aposlolos hanc ipsam ob causam mutos se diem Melanct singing of Psalms c. because they are not mentioned then to exclude drinking of wine in the Sacrament because neither is that expressed but breaking of bread only So then the first day of the week is here celebrated with a confluence of Gospel-Ordinances Nor is it said that Paul called the Disciples together because he was to depart the next day or that they purposedly Hoc institutum ut dies dominicus in locum Sabbati sub stitueretur non ab hominibus sed ab Apostolis sp s dictante quo regebantur nos accepisse credendum est Meritò dixerimus Apostolos sp s duce pro septimo illo die primum substituisse Faius declined the Lords Supper till that day because of Pauls departure But the Text speaks it as of a time a day usually observed by them before and therefore Paul took his opportunity of preaching to them and seems to stay on purpose and wait seven dayes among them Acts 20. 6. And at Troas where these Ordinances were observed and this day solemnly kept was the Rendezvouz of Christians to meet in the greater company Acts 20. 5. And though Paul might privately teach and instruct the Professors of Troas the other seven dayes yet his preaching is now mention'd in regard of some special solemnity in their meeting on this day The first day was honoured above any other day for these holy duties or else why did not they meet on the seventh day Sabbath and how comes that solemnity to be swallowed up in the solemn convention of the first day when these holy exercises are performed To speak then plainly with Bishop Andrews It was saith he the Lords day on which the Apostles and Disciples met the Gospels all four keep one word and tell us Christ rose ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is after the Hebrew phrase the first day of the week and the Apostles then held their Synaxes their solemn conventions Mat. 28. 1. and assemblies to preach to pray to break bread or Mark 16. 2 celebrate the Lords Supper Acts 20. 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Luke 24. 1. the Lords Supper on the Lords day and this John 20. 1. is the Apostolical phrase So far this learned man So then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Bishop of Ely as another Bishop speaks Our weekly observation of the Lords day is warranted by the example of the holy Apostles One sharply concludes and saith How can he have any grace in Petrus Al phons in Dialog contra Jud. Tit. 12. his heart who seeing so clearly the Lords day to have been instituted and ordained by the Apostles will not acknowledge the keeping holy the Lords day to be a Commandment of the Lord. The very Jews saith this learned man confess this change of Chrysostomus Ambrosius Theophylactus Beda Anselmus the Sabbath to have been made by the Apostles and therefore we may safely conclude with Gallasius Walaeus Melancthon Beza Bucer Faius Junius Piscator Perkins and other eminent Divines of the Reformed Religion that the Holy Sedulius et Primosius unam Sabbati Act. 20 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. expressam interpretantur diem dominicum Apostles by the guidance of the infallible spirit removed and suppressed the old legal Sabbath and substituted the Lords day the first day of the week in its room and place Let us assume a second text which will further strengthen this truth viz. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come This solemn and noted place hath many considerables in it to prove the first day of the week to be the Christian Sabbath and that not so much by the Churches practice that was cleared before as by the Apostles precept in which many things remarkable offer themselves to our consideration Although it be true that in some cases collections may be made any day for the poor Saints yet why doth the Apostle limit here to this day the performance of this duty Surely something there is in it more then ordinary The Apostle doth not limit only the Corinthians to this 2 Cor. 11 28. Diei dominicae nomen et institationem ab Apâstolis derivatam non est dubitandum Estius day but also all the Churches of Galatia 1 Cor. 16. 1. and consequently all other Churches if that be true 2 Cor. 8. 13 14. where the Apostle professeth he presseth not one Church that he might ease another but that there might be an equality and then why must all the Churches make their collections on the same day The Apostle doth not limit them with wishes and counsels onely to do it but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as I have ordained or instituted In hoc Apostoli mandato nihil
midwived into the world by Apostolical precept or practise The infinite distance between the Authorities must needs conclude a vast difference between the benedictions nor can the Canon of a Council tie conscience so fast or bless the obedient so much as the Canon of Scripture our enemies themselves being Judges nor can in the least any Scripture be produced to authorize the Church to set up a Sabbath for the Christian World God usually blesseth his own institutions Prayer is powerful because He commands it Preaching John 14. 15. effectual because He enâoyns it the Sacraments comfortable Mat. 28. 19 20. because He ordains them and so the Lords Day is often Luk. 22. 19 20. bedewed with showers of the choicest love and benediction because it was Christs institution either more immediately by his personal command or else mediately by his inspired and infallible Apostles And therefore let us fall down before the force of truth and conclude the blessings of our Sabbath speak the beginnings of our Sabbath to be in Gods breast and not in mans will God usually accepting the worship at Jerusalem and not that at Dan and Bethel he loves those festivals of which himself is the Author And let us fetch a pregnant argument from Providence What signal judgements hath God punished the prophaners of Peccatum est deiâidium â Christiciââum est summum malum spomaneâ infania somnus et mors anima ex sui naturâ mortem meretur gravâ est onus animum deprimens cibus durus nullo stomacho digestibilis morbus pesti lentissimus putidissima corruptio Alap the Lords day with as shall be shewn more fully hereafter Now the prophaning of the Lords day must needs be a breach of the law of God or else how can it be a provocation of the wrath of God God punisheth only for sin which the Apostle saith is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. Now if our Christian Sabbath be only a law of Man where is the positive and provoking sin in the violation of it where is the infinite evil which should so inflame divine displeasure as to pour out his fury on the violatours of it and to follow them with tremendous judgements Is it probable that God would strike so deeply and punish so fearfully and wonderfully for the breach of a Canon of the Church or a Decree of a Council It is true was the Lords day bottom'd on Ecclesiastical authority it would be a piece of disobedience to the Church to violate it but still where is the infinite evil as every sin is to stir up so much indignation in the Almighty Surely the breach of a humane constitution could never raise such storms in the world nor pelt so many untimely into their dust and oftentimes on a sudden and in a stupendous and terrible manner as shall be fully shewed hereafter And again we meet with no such tragedies in our sporting upon holy dayes and those festivals which are of the Churches appointment those dayes run waste in mirth and jollity nor do we meet with broken limbs sudden deaths fearfull diseases unexpected blindness c. the common issues of the prophanation of the Lords day to be the success and consequence of that vanity Providence then makes the distinction between dayes of the Churches appointment and that blessed day our Christian Sabbath which is of divine institution To conclude then this particular Let us cloath the Lords Quid hac die fââicius est quâ dominââ judaeââ mortuus est nobis resurrexit In quâ cultus Synagogae ocâubuit et est ortus ecclesiae in quâ nos homines fecit surgere et vivere secum et sedere in coelestibus Haec est dies quem fecit dominus exultemus et laetetemur in illo Omnes dies fecit dominus sed caeteri dies possunt esse ju daeorum possunt esse Haereticorum possunt esse Gentilium sed dies dominica dies est resurrectionis dies Christianorum est dies nostra est Hier. day in all its royal Apparel and put on all its Jewels and Ornaments and then we shall see this Queen of dayes in all its splendour and glory A day it is of honour and renown above all dayes that ever the Sun shone in the most gloririous day that ever God created the most solemn day that ever the Church celebrated a day which Christ hath crowned with the greatest glory of any day that ever dawned upon the world It is a day of the Lords power a day of his perfection the day of his praise and glory and a day of his bââânty and blessings the day of his espousals and of the gladness of his heart When Christ was born the Angels celebrated that day with Songs and triumphs Luke 2. 13. When Christ rose from the dead or else why was he born Let the Saints celebrate that day with weekly solemnities and praises and not passe away their laud in a transient musick as the Angels did On this day our Christian Sabbath day there was a confluence of wonders and wonderfull transactions wrought by him whose name is wonderfull Isa 9. 6. In a word this day is the highly favoured of God a map of Heaven a taste of Glory the golden spot of time the market day of souls the day break of eternal brightness a day to be marked of thousands for their new birth day a day on which many have been redeemed from more then Aegyptian bondage a day of light of joy of love and delight a day which is truly delitiae humani generis the delight of mankind as once Titus was called Ah! how do men flutter up and down on the week dayes as the Dove on Rom. 1. 4. Luke 13. 32. John 20. 22 23. the waters and can find no rest for their souls till they come to this day as to an Arke and this day takes them in On this day the light was created the Holy Spirit descended life hath been restored Satan subdued Sin mortified Souls sanctified Cant. 3. 11. Hos 2. 19 20. Acts 13. 34. Sex praerogativae recensentur ad diem dominicum propiissimè pertinentes Beda in lib. de officiis Eccles Cap. 1. the Grave Hell and Death conquered O! the mountings of mind the ravishings of heart the solace of soul which on this day men enjoy in their dearest Saviour Our Lords day is the first day of the week was the first day of the world On it the Elements were formed the light was created the Angels were produced On it Manna was first rained down On it say the Fathers of the sixt General Council was Christ born On it did the Star first appear to the wise men who came out of the East On it was Christ baptized in Jordan by John the Baptist as the Council of Paris observe Sextum Concilium generale Constantinopoli celebratum On it saith a learned man Christ
us as it was to them and it is as if the Lord had said the keeping of my Sabbath shal be a distinctive badge and cognizance of Covenant holiness a sign that I do sanctifie you and separate you to my self for a holy and peculiar people Let us cast our eye upon our Sabbath as our discriminating and differencing badge And shall we shame our livery Shall we make our Sabbath a day of riot or excess Sabbatum est signum et symbolum inter deum et Israelitas ut se dei esse profiterentur et ut à reliquis gentibus discernerentur âuit enim sacramentale quoddam quòd illos sibi deus sanctificaverat Riv. of sloath or idleness and so mingle with the prophane world Do we prophane our Sabbaths how can we distinguish our selves from a sensual Jew or a miscreant Turk they likewise have their Sabbaths And will a diurnall distinction serve the turn that the Turk keeps his Sabbath on the Friday the Jew on the Saturday and we Christians the First day of the week It is a poor shift and a faint distinction to keep a different day will not the world scoff at this distinction It is not the Day only but the manner of observance The Apostle saith that Christs people are a peculiar people zealous of good works 2 Tit. 14. And so our Saviour makes the distinction of his people from the rest of the world John 17. 14. It is observable that the Hebrew word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chadash signifies two things 1. To separate from common use 2. To sanctifie to teach us our sanctification is our only separation from the rest of the dregs of the world Therefore still let our holiness upon Gods blessed day be a sign between God and us that he hath sanctified us This is his will and let it be our work as alwayes so peculiarly on the Sabbath our sanctification 1 Thes 4. 3. Exod. 31. 13. Sabbatum sanctis usibus et religiosis formalitèr deputatur c. Rivet Let Christ know us to be his sheep by this our will is not only melted into his will but our obedience is fully calculated for his day Rivet hath a pregnant note The Sabbath saith he is given formally for holy uses for hearing the Word for Prayer for receiving the Sacrament by which our sanctification is ripened and accomplished Arg. 6 No command but that of the Sabbath hath a memento prefixed Hic specialis observatio requiritur ita ut nunquam obliviscamur quia agitur de operibus humanis intermittendis et de opere dei suscipiendo quae sunt naturae hominis depravatae omninò contraria c. Riv. to it As if our obedience to this command was our chief business which we must not forget God doth not usually annex his mementoes to any thing but to matters of the greatest moment As 1. Sometimes to press his Laws Num. 15. 39 40. And 2. sometimes to press his Love as a motive to obedience Deut. 5. 15. 3. Sometimes to mind us of himself Deut. 8. 13. 4. Sometimes to mind us of his Enemies Deut. 25. 17. And 5. Sometimes to mind his Sabbath Exod. 20. 8. God puts an Higgaion Selah upon this Commandment that as among the Jews the singing of it caused them to raise their voice So among us in keeping Sabbaths it should raise our hearts to a holy observation Now God prefixes a memento to the Commandment for the Sabbath upon divers designs which will very well suit with our purpose As first to intimate the opposition of mans corrupt heart to this holy Command Rom. 7. 12. Depraved man cannot endure Homines parati sunt ad fervorem operum suorum ocâupantur suis commodis suis voluptatibus facilime irretiontur sed cultui divino c. Riv. the snaffle of a whole dayes service he loves not to be bridled to spiritual duties and therefore God here awakens us by a shrill memento the learned Rivet observes That men are upon the wing in flight and heat after their owne works and they are most easily entangled in the snare of their own pleasures and delights but to do Gods work upon his own day this goes against the grain of corrupt Nature This Memento shews the venerable antiquity of the Sabbath God hath been pressing the Sabbath upon us from the beginning of the world as hath been shewn already The Gen. 2. 3. good Lord is jealous least an ancient should be an antiquated institution God gives us this Memento to mind us of the strict account we must make hereafter for all our Sabbaths When a Master gives his servant many errands but saith he be sure you remember this above all the rest if that errand be forgotten he breaks out into a greater passion God remembers us to keep inviolably his holy Sabbath to assure us he will else remember to punish severely the breaches and violations of this Emphatical Commandment His expostulation hereafter will be Did not I give you my Sabbath with a Memento To inform us the sum of Religion lies in a due observation of the Sabbath It was a good saying of worthy Mr. Rogers Take away Gods Sabbath and Religion will soon Tolle Sabbatum et citò marcessit omnis Religio Rog. dwindle and faint into nothing Jacob gave a severe charge to his Sons about Benjamin because he lay nearest his heart And is it not an evidence that the fourth Commandment lies nearest to Gods heart that he gives so severe a charge about it That much of Religion is wrapt up in it nay the very quintessence of piety is dropt into it We are more apt to forget the fourth Commandment then Observandum est quod deus non simpliciter dicit Diem Sabbati sanctificabis sed memento ut diem Sabbati sanctifices Genus hoc praecipiendi non est leve vulgare sed grave serium et significat praecipirem seriam nec ullo modo negligendam sed summâ curâ et diligentiâ servandom sic solent Parentes liberis suis et serâââ Heri obtervantiam eoâââ inculcatâ quae omnium maximè negligi notant Admonemur etiam verbo ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Recordare et memor esto ad observantiam praeceptorum dei Requiritur enim memoria ut noctes et dies de illis servandis cogitemus nec unquam obliviscamur quid praecepti à quo illud accepimus Muscul any of the rest And it is observable when any duty is charged by God with a Memento it argues a proneness to forget it so Eccles 12. 1. Remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy Youth which charge intimates to us no age is so prompt to forget God as Youth which usually is snarled and entangled in divers lusts called by the Apostle Youthfull lusts 2 Tim. 2. 22. And there are many reasons why we are so apt to forget this Commandment 1. Because the rest of the Commandments are written in our
they gathered it six dayes together and ceased the seventh day being the Sabbath day without controversie it began to fall on the first day which is the Lords day and still upon our Lords day the Lord rains Manna upon his people the true Manna did not cease in the wilderness but is still showred down upon the due observers of Gods holy day Divine blessings more sweet more pleasant then Israels Manna or bread resembling wafers or Corianders seed shall enrich and refresh the devout soul on Gods holy day Exod. 16. 31. Arg. 10 No command is punished with more severity then that of the Sabbath when it is broken and disobeyed Sabbath prophanation is a sin which will be beaten with many stripes For the better discovery of this great truth we shall follow it by degrees God eyes Sabbath-prophaneness most exactly If it be but the carrying of a burden Jer. 17. 27. God takes notice of it and it sets all in a flame There are two things God is most Sabbata Dei sunt ejus delitiae sunt ejus faelicitas et illa in dei contemplatione consistunt quibus à seculi curis et laboribus vacantes divina opera et judicia contemplemur Alap jealous of 1. Of his truth 2. Of his day God will see little spots on his own day Little flaws are seen in a jewel every one takes notice of spots in the Moon which is a bright and glorious luminary the finer the cloth is the more damageable the rent is which is in it Gods Sabbath is one of his most precious things it is not said Jer. 17. 27. If any commit a gross sin upon my Sabbath But if any bear a burden Secular works are sinful works on Gods holy day every toil is a trespass and to bear a burden upon the back is to draw guilt upon the soul God threatens Sabbath-prophanness most sharply The threats of God are the drawing of his bow they are the sharpning of his sword and the fitting it for execution they Ter poenam capitalem infligendum deus exprimit vilatoribus Sabbati quam poenam certum est immò de temporali morte et supplicio infligendum transgredienti esse intelligendum quod etiam ex praxi constat 15. Num. 32. Et haec quidam ãâã infligebatur ad exemplum Obstinatis etiam aeternam mortein fuisse denunciatam non inficias imus Rivet are his warning-pieces which he shoots off to affright secure sinners they are his frowns which are the evidences of his wrath and indignation Now God surely threatens the violations of his Sabbath he threatens them not with a light affliction but with death it self Exod. 31. 14 15. The soul which shall prophane the Sabbath shall die the death nay this sin shall not only destroy the Citizen but the City too Jer. 17. 27. set the gates on fire where the safety of the City lay No Portcullis can secure that City where the Sabbath is prophaned nay God threatens Sabbath-prophanation with his consuming fury Ezek. 20. 13 21. which can lay waste all which lies before it every thing is stubble to Gods wrath no gate so strong to resist it no Person so potent to withstand it Divine fury can as easily rase as Divine Power can create a world And this fury God will poure out on those who prophane his day God complains of Sabbath-prophanation most bitterly When God was drawing up his Endictments against the people of Israel now going into captivity one of his chiof charges was Sabbath-pollution they defiled his day which he would have kept spotless and this did accent his complaints and put an Emphasis upon his grievous expostulations Sabbata domini profanant homines tùm eorum prophanationem vident non corripiunt sed oâulos suos avertunt et conniventes dissimulant item cùm ea non piè observant They despise my statutes saith God Ezek. 20. 24. How doth this appear Why saith God They pollute my Sabbaths as if the contempt of Religion was wrapt up in Sabbath-prophanation And in another place Ezek. 22. 8. They despise my holy things saith God but what is the evidence of it why saith the Lord they prophane my Sabbaths this goes to the heart of God and nothing more provokes his spirit Nay which is observable God calls the prophaning of his Sabbath the prophaning of himself Ezek. 22. 26. so the text They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths I am prophaned among them To pollute Gods day is to cast Coinquinabar Ezek. 22. 26. i. e. profanè tractabar abâiiâ dirt in the very face of God himself and when men make light of the Sabbath they lose the reverence they should bear to the sacred Majesty of God Sabbath-prophanation huddles all in confusion as God complains Ezek. 22. 26. and makes men Atheists so as to have no regard of the incomprehensible and tremendous Jehovah who as the Apostle saith Heb. 12. 29. is a consuming fire And so God bitterly complains Polluitur Sabbatum cùm cujus gratiâ instituitur à plerisque non curatur Muscul Ezek. 23. 38. Moreover this they have done unto me they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day and have prophaned my Sabbaths What is done to Gods day he takes it as done to himselfe When his day is polluted and when his Saints are persecuted this is drawing against God himself Acts 9. 4 5. In a word the prophaning of Gods Sabbath makes him first poure out his complaint and then poure out his fury the smothering of his complaint quickly breaks out into the flame of his indignation God punisheth Sabbath-prophanation most severely We have already discovered the sharpness of Gods eye in the discerning the frowns of Gods brow in the threatning the totus dies dominicus ex toto animo quantum ferat humana necessiâas et imbeâillitas ritè et piè servandus est etenim ejus prophanationi et pollutioni maledictionem comminatur Deus Exod. 31. 14. Lev. 26. 2 14. Jer. 17. 27. et poenis gravissimis morte ulciscitur utpote cujus contemptus est totius legis dei et divini cultus repudiatio Leid Prof. complaints of Gods mouth in his complaining against and now we come to take notice of the strokes of Gods hand in the revenging of the violations of his blessed Sabbath The Histories of all ages do afford many dreadfull examples of Vengeance executed upon those who have prophaned this day The Reverend Mr. Walker tells us That he could relate more then thirty examples of Gods heavy vengeance upon Sabbath-breakers within the space of two years some of which were struck with suddain death by Gods immediate hand others devoured in the waters some cut off by surfets which they got by dancing and drinking on the Lords day some fired out of their houses in the midst of their quaffing and jollity and all their goods and substance consumed And these Judgements have befallen them in the
habitations and goods God for the prophanations of his Sabbath draws a little nearer to Offendars and strikes their persons as shall be seen in a few instances One serving a Writ of Subpoena upon another coming from Church on the Lords day after some words of reproof for so doing and a light answer thereunto the person who served the Writ died in the place without speaking any more words O the fearful and just judgment of the Lord this prophane person himself was subpoenaed unexpectedly by a Writ he could not refuse to appear before Gods dreadful Tribunal A Grasiers Servant would needs drive his Cattle on the Lords day in the Morning from the Inne where he lay on the Saturday Night but he was not gone a stones cast from the Town but he fell down dead suddenly when he was in perfect health before Thus the Lords day is written in dominical letters in the blood of Transgressors who prophane it To add one dreadful example more One Richard Bourn Servant to Gaspar Birch of Ely was so accustomed to travel on the Lords day that he made no conscience of it sâldom or never coming to the publick Congregation to hear Gods word on that day but went to St. Ives Market where he stayed and spent the day where being drunk he was overtaken by Divine Justice for coming home fraught with Commodities he fell into the River and was drowned And thus as his sinnes did meet to provoke the Lord viz. his Drunkenness and Sabbath-breaking so the stream did meet to destroy and overthrow him Sometimes God doth not presently cut off those who prophane his day but he puts a brand of infamy upon them to make them a shame and a terrour to themselves that they may be hissed off from the Stage of the World and with self-confounding and horrour may go down unexpectedly to their Graves this is verified by this story There was an Husbandman who went to plough on the Lords day and cleansing his Plow with an Iron the Iron stuck so fast in his hand for two years that he carried it about with him as a signal testimony of the Lords just displeasure against him and so he lived infamously in the world till he died and made his passage to another world the Iron in his hand only discovering the Adamant in his heart Sometimes God leaves those who prophane his holy day to the commission of prodigious evils and so he punisheth one fin with another which is the sorest punishment and the ultimate effect of Divine Vengeance for when God punisheth Isa 6. 10. sin with suffering then he chastiseth with Rods but when he punisheth sin with sin then he scourges with Scorpions as may be instanced in these succeeding stories In Helvetia near Belessina Three men were playing at Mr. Clarke his examples of Divine justice Dice on the Lords day and in their play one called Vtricke Schraetorus having hopes of a good Cast having lost much money before he now expected fortune or rather the Devil to succour him and therefore he breaks out into this horrid blasphemy If Fortune deceive me now I will thrust my Dagger into the body of God as far as I can And so with a powerful force he throws it up towards Heaven which Dagger was never seen more and immediately five drops of blood fall before them all upon the Table and as suddenly came the Devil among them and carries away this vile wretch with such a terrible and hideous noise as the whole City was astonished at it Those who remained endeavoured to wipe off the blood but to little purpose for the more they rubbed the more perspicuous and visible the blood was Report carries it over the City multitudes flockt to see this wonder who find those who had thus prophaned the Sabbath rubbing the blood to get it out These two men who were Companions to him who was carried away by the Devil were by the Decree of the Senate bound in Chains and as they were leading to prison one of them was suddenly struck dead and from his whole body a wonderful number of worms and vermine was seen to crawl The City thus terrified with Gods judgments and to the intent that God might be glorified and a future vengeance averted from the place they caused the third Offendor one of the gaming Companious to be forthwith put to death And they caused the Table with the drops of blood upon it to be preserved as a Monument of Gods wrath against this sin thus this blasted Rom. 11. 33. Table like Lots wife was a standing warning-piece to cause all to take heed of Sabbath-breaking and ingratitude Luke 17. 32. At Simsbury in Dorsetshire One rejoycing at the erecting of a Summer-Pole on a Lords day He said he would go see it though he went through a quick-set hedge Going with wood in his arms to cast into the Bonefire prophanely uttered these words Heaven and earth are full of thy glory O Lord he was immediately overtaken by the stroke of God and in two or three hours died and his wife also And thus as God once punished Pharaoh with hail mixed with fire so he Exod. 9. 24. hath punished the prophanation of his day with sin and judgment joyntly with leaving the Offendor to vile sins overtaking the Offendor with sore smarts that his burdens Exod. 5. 7. like those of the Israelites in Egypt might be doubled Sometimes God punisheth the prophanation of his Sabbath with executing vengeance on great numbers God hath not decimated such sinners but destroyed them in the lump as may be verified in these ensuing stories Fourteen youths adventuring to play at Foot-ball on the River Trent upon the Lords day when it was as they Mr. Bernard on the Sabbath Mr. London in Gods Judgments on Sabbath-breakers Jan. 13. 1583. thought very hard frozen meeting at last together in a shove the Ice brake and they were all drowned At the Bear-Garden in Southwark on a Sabbath-day in the Afternoon many persons pressing on the Scaffold to see the sport forced it suddenly down with which fall eight were killed and many spoiled in their bodies who died soon after Nullus die solis spectaculum praebeat nec divinam venerationem consecta solennitate consundat Valent. Grat. And by the way let me observe This seeing of Shews upon the Lords day was complained of above 1200 years ago and Edicts set out against it by the Emperors Valentinian and Gratian the early zeal of the Primitive Christians took notice of this detestable and prodigious practice God sometimes takes away Sabbath-breakers immediately by his own hand as may be seen in these instances A Fellow near Brinkley in Essex usually coming home late from his sports on the Lords day his good Mistris reproving him for it one Sabbath he goes to a Chalk-pit to work with another man and tells him he used to vex his Mistris for his sports on the Sabbath but now
loose to carnal liberty on the Lords day the more loose his heart will be in all good duties the whole week following Let men neglect meditation repetition of Sermons holy conference and other private duties betakeing themselves after the publick worship is over to vain and worldly discourse or vainer pleasures they shall quickly find that the publick service is utterly lost and become unprofitable And on the contrary as Moses continued forty dayes with God on the Mount had his face shining with splendor and glory Exod. 34. 30. So he who shall this day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Septuag of God wholly converse with God not only in publick Ordinances as Moses in the tabernacle but likewise in private duties as Moses on the Mount shall find a sensible spiritual vigour and an unexpected strength to carry him through all the occasions of the whole week following and a kind of glorious lustre arising from the increase of holiness put upon him and this shall be visible to the eye and hearts of others Eccles 3. 1. He who keeps the Lords day with the most strict and and accurate observation shall find 1. Most blessing upon his labours 2. Most holiness in heart and life 3. Most comfort and joy in his own soul 4. Most sweetness in death 5. Most glory and rest in Heaven when there remains that Populo dei superest Sabbatismus i. e. requies dâi ad quam quotidiè sanctus vocatur Par. everlasting Sabbatism for all the people of God It is a good observation of a learned man That when the spirit cometh effectually to convince of sin usually one of the first sins which the eye of the enlightned conscience fixes upon is the neglect of the Lords day and conviction usually ending in conversion one of the first duties which the soul comes seriously to close withall is the strict observation of the Lords day and grace usually works this way and doth exceedingly dispose to this duty Young Converts will be full of meltings on Gods holy day And truly the holy observation of the Sabbath much speaks the temper of a Christian However the week fares as Judg. 12. 6. the Sabbath doth Good Sabbaths usher in good weeks and are the morning stars of an approaching day when we hear truth on the Sabbath digesting it by prayer and meditation when we put up strong cries to God with fervour and devotion when we enjoy Ordinances our spiritual meals on a Sabbath with appetite and satisfaction this will cast a chain upon our corrupt hearts and will be bellows to our future zeal wil supply us with holy meditations which will be as so many bright gleams and will put a heat upon our affections and make us every way act the Saint all the ensuing week As Queen Mary said when she lost Callais When I am dead open me and you shall find Callais written upon my heart So the Christian who hath been very serious on Gods day you shall find Sabbath written upon his heart all the following week The seent of a conscientious Sabbath is not easily lost nor is the warmth of it so speedily chilled souls drenched in Sabbath Ordinances like vessels seasoned with excellent liquors Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu they long retain the taste The believer is disciplined upon a Sabbath and we do not easily forget our Education A Sermon kindly entertained on the Lords day will be faithfully improved on the week day Our best Christians were ever strictest on the Sabbath Those tasts of love we then sense and gust will abide and not lightly wear off these will lie upon the heart when the Sabbath is over Let us keep Sabbaths well we shall be better in our shops better in our worldly affairs better in our families better in our discourses better in our converses more righteous in our dealings more exemplary in our walkings more vigorous in our duties all the week following After a well passed Sabbath we shall more watch our hearts more keep our ground and withstand temptations and the deceipts of our Calling which happily Quaestus magnus est pietas quia opes supernaturales secum affert et amicitiam dei obtinet qui suis opes coelestes promittit praeparat are quilted into the very nature of it shall not so much tempt as exasperate and provoke us The whole week must be spent holy to prepare us the better for the Sabbath and the Sabbath must be spent hâly the better to influence the week as the beginning with God on the morning of a Sabbath may influence the whole Sabbath so the beginning with God in the morning of the week viz. The Lords day may exceedingly influence and prosper the whole week He 2 Thes 2. 10. who on the Sabbath hath been much in the work of heaven cannot easily be much in the dross of earth or the dregs of sin on the time of the week Ordinances like clocks when they have struck leave a sound and a noise for a considerable time nor can a Sermon carefully heard be presently shaken out of the heart The word when received in the love thereof is fire in the bones Jer. 20. 9. and not heat in the face an inward warmth which is permanent and not only a colour which is transient The tasts the impressions the power and spirituality of a well-observed Sabbath cannot without much difficulty strong assaults of Satan powerful workings of a corrupt heart be disanulled and eradicated Hearts steeped in holy Ordinances will not soon lose their perfume It is very true our slight deportment in Ordinances makes them superficial and so soon slide off and they who pass over the Sabbath loosly will spend the week profligately they who spend it formally will spend the week vainly But a serious composure of spirit on Gods holy day will blow off the froth of the ensuing week Ignatius as hath been suggested calls the Lords day the Queen of dayes Regis ad exemplum totus componitur Oâbis and according to the example of the Queen inferiour and subordinate days will be composed The endeavour of every Christian should be that his practices in secret in his calling in his company on the week day should be answerable to the great priviledges he enjoyed and to the rich grace he received on the Lords day One well observes That Religion is just as the Sabbath and it decays or groweth as the Sabbath is esteemed it flourishes in a due Veneration of the Sabbath and it pines and consumes when the Sabbath is under neglect or contempt And Dr. Twisse takes notice That the conscionable observation of the Sabbath ever was is a principal means to draw us to spiritual rest from sin and to fit us for an eternal rest in glory In a word the Sabbath and the week are both embarqued in the same ship they both are safe or sink together if our souls
Charity And now shall the Heathen make it an inexpiable Crime to work upon one of their holy days and shall it be venial for us to follow our works and pursue our lusts on Gods holy day Shall Saturn and Jupiter be honoured with more solenmity and served with Exod. 15. 6. more care and sedulity than Christ or Jehovah Sure this Exod. 15. 11. must needs be the dregs of prophaneness to give our heavenly Father and our dear Redeemer whom sometimes we call our Beloved less veneration on his own day then Pagan Worshippers give their Idol Gods on their Festivals How strange is it that we must go to Dagon to learn how to use the Ark and must repair to the Roman Flamins or the 1 Sam. 5. 2. Syrian Priests to know how to keep a Sabbath God sends the sluggard to the Ant and the Pismire to learn fore-sight and industry Prov. 6. 6. And he may send Sabbath-breakers to the Gentiles and Paynims to learn Sanctity and Devotion But let Christians say the solemn Devotions of Pagans shall heat our zeal but not reproach our slâth they Psal 26. 6. shall only serve us to take aim how we may steer our Devotion with greater fervour and dexterity Argum. 6 Let us observe the zeal of holy men mentioned in Scripture who have been eminent for Sabbath-observation The Apostle gives us a good rule Heb. 6. 12. Let us be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises These Patterns of Piety may be our conduct and guide in this matter take them in what age you will the Sabbath still lay near their hearts and was venerable in their practice 1. Some before the Law were remarkable for Sabbath-holiness they dreaded the pollution of Gods day before the terrours and smokes of Mount Sinai And though they were in a Wilderness they had not so lâst themselves but they knew how to meet with God on his own day And as Manasseh Ben-Israel well observes The Jews were forced Cogita in Aegypto ubi serviebas etiam ipso sabbato peâ vim te coactum ad labores Et sic saâientes inter Judaeos Deut. 5. 15. unanimiter applicant Manas Ben. Israel to neglect the Sabbath in Egypt by reason of the violence and cruelty of their Taskmasters but when God brought them out of that Land of bondage one of their first works was Sabbath-observation Their Delivery is historically related in the 14th Chapter of Exodus and their observation of the Sabbath in the 16th Chapter of the same Book So Exod. 16. 30. So the people rested on the seventh day which must needs be meant of an holy Rest for a naked bâre Rest is the loss not the sanctification of a Sabbath And if the people of Israel had so rested God soon would have taken notice of it and have severely threatned if not sorely punished it but no word of reproof but only of those Quieverunt Israelitae non solùm illo die frustrati fuerunt spe suâ egrediendi sed aliis diebus septimis consequentibus Riv. who went out on the Sabbath to gather Manna some few straglers Exod. 16. 27. who instead of finding Manna lost their way and met with a reproof instead of a meal Now here we meet with Gods people keeping Gods day before the fourth Commandment was proclaimed by sound of Trumpet Now shall the people of Israel without the sanction of a law rest with God on his own day and shall Christians who have not onely the force and obligation of the fourth Commandment but the alluring argument of Christs Resurrection to oblige to the sanctification of the Sabbath shall they be careless and negligent vain and frothy on Gods holy day Surely the darkness of an Heathen and the twi-light of an Israelite wandering up and down in a wilderness will bear witness against such a generation 2. Some holy men under the Law I shall only select here the rare Example of good Nehemiah an excellent pattern for Magistrates and People how carefully to observe Gods holy Sabbath And his Zeal shall be comprised in four particulars He looked upon the reforming of Sabbath-abuses as a principal part of Reformation therefore he reproves threatens and sets watch to observe the prophanation of this holy Nehem. 13 15 16. day He beareth his testimony vigorously against it Nehem. 13. 15. And here the courtesie and common civilities which are given to strangers bear no sway with him Nehem. 13. 16. He will not strain courtesie when the honour of God is concerned obedience is better then sacrifice much 1 Sam. 15. 22. more then civilities The pollution of a Sabbath that God provoking sin makes this holy man wave all fair and debonaire carriages and turns courtesie into severity and usual reception into just indignation Nehemiah thinks the cause of the Sabbath worth contending for with the Nobles themselves Nehem. 13. 17. not only with inferiour people who are soon hushed with his Authority and tremble at the Magistrates sword but with the Peers of the Realm who might enter the lists with him or hatch some conspiracy against him but holy zeal is no Nehem. 13 17. respecter of persons and in this Nehem. like the three children Dan. 3. 18 19. Is not sollicitous to pore upon his own concerns or interest duty and not safety guides him a rare pattern for Magistrates This good Governour personates the Prophet and gives in a narrative not only of those judgements which had overtaken those who had prophaned the Sabbath in former times but he fore-tells the same calamities to ensue upon Nehem. 13 18. the present Age if Gods Sabbath be defiled Nehem. 13. 18. He turns all his speech into action the true genius of piety for indeed councils and threats are both abortive untill enlivened by execution therefore Nehemiah scatters Nehem. 13. 21. strangers by force Nehem. 13. 21. and chases them away from Jerusalem that they should not come near it upon the Sabbath day Neh. 13. 21. And he lays a severe command on the Levits for Sabbath-sanctification and in the discharge of his duty he recommends himself to the mercifull and kind remembrances of the Almighty Neh. 13. 22. And here as our Saviour saith let us go and do so likewise Luke 10. 37. Let us imitate the zeal of this excellent man whose name for his love to and care of Gods Sabbath lives in the blessed Scriptures and there shall survive to all perpetuity But shall Nehemiah not permit a piece of ware to be sold on the Sabbath without the gates of the City and shall we commit a lust on Gods day within the walls of a house of a Stews or an Ale-house Shall he forbid all Merchandize and shall we traffique with Hell on the Sabbath day Surely his Zeal will turn into our flame and this will fall in with other aggravations of our sin we scribled after so fair a copy 3. Some after the Law
have been eminent for Sabbath-holiness Let us trace the Apostolical practice which in this case is our brightest beam for our conduct and guidance Acts 20. 7. How indefatigable were they in their labours powerfull Acts 8. 4. in their reasonings multifarious in their administrations Acts 20. 10. frugal of their time copious in their preaching and 1 Cor. 16. 2. stupendous in their works upon Gods holy day On this day they discovered their thirst after souls their love to the Gospel and as so many stars they scattered the light of glorious truth They would preach on a Sabbath although it 2 Cor. 4. 4. Acts 13. 42. Acts 16. 13. was in a proscribed Synagogue and they would pray on a Sabbath though it was by a Rivers side a place of more privacy then shelter And shall these Heavenly patterns put no animation and life in us to honour the Lords day with duty and devotion The Limner who hath a beautiful person before him and yet draws an unseemly picture deserves to have the pencil snatcht out of his hand and to be discharged of his employment Arg. 7 Let us take a prospect of the golden age of the Church and observe the carriage of the Primitive Christians upon the Lords day O what a heavenly spirit breathed in them on this Coimus ad caetum et deum quasi manu extensâ precationibus ambimus Tertul. Christiani a mediâ nocte caetum inchâaverunt Hier. blessed day insomuch that Tertullian cryes out in a kind of a rapture On this day we meet in our assemblies and as with a stretched-out hand we clasp about God with our prayers If ye will know when the Primiâive Christians began their Sabbath Hierome tells us about midnight which likewise Basil affirms to be the usual practice of those times and tells us a story of himself in relation to these midnight meetings But that the Christians met before day light on the Lords day it was so generally known in the world that Pliny a modest Epist Plin. secund ad Trajanum Heathen took notice of it and makes mention of it in an Epistle to Trajan the Roman Emperour and spake of it in commendation of the Christians and urged this practice Tertul. de Coron mil. Apol cont Gent. Cap. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. as an alleviating argument to soften the Emperour to more mildness towards them and so to slacken the present persecution These meetings before day on the Sabbath are likewise mentioned by Tertullian in a Tract of his We see then the early zeal of the Primitive Christians on the Lords day Nor did they rise so soon but to spend the time to the highest advantage Justin Martyr gives us a full account of the Christians deportment on the Lords day Upon the day called Sunday saith he All that abide within the Cities or about the fields do meet together in the same place wherein the Records of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets are read unto us the Reader having done the President gives a word of exhortation that we may imitate those good things which are there repeated and then standing up together we send up our prayers to the Lord c. And as Justin Martyr shews us how those of his time acted their duties So Tertullian tells us how the Primitive Christians acted their Graces on the Lords day On this day saith he We feed our faith with holy preaching we lift up our hope and we fasten our confidence upon Tertul. God Hierome speaking of some in his time tells us They designed the Lords day wholly to prayer and to the Hier. ad Eustoch reading of the holy Scriptures and he highly commends them for that practice And that you may not think that the Primitive Christians served God only in publick upon the Lords day Ambrose layes it as a severe injunction upon Ambro. Serm. 33. tom 3. pag. 259. the people That they be conversant all the day in prayer or reading and if any could not read that he should labour to be fed with holy conference And Chrysostome presses the people That presently upon their coming Chrysost in Joan. homil 3. home from the publick they should take a Bible into their hands and make rehearsal with their wives and children of that which had been taught them out of the word of God Tertullian and Justin Martyr positively and fully inform Just Mart. Apol. cap 30. pag. 692. from us That when the Christians were departed out of the Congregation they did not run into the rout of swashbucklers or into the company of ramblers such as did run ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Euseb lib. 4. cap. 22. up and down hither and thither but they had care of the like modesty and chast behaviour out of the Church as when they were in the Congregation Nay Theodoret assures us That the Primitive Christians did celebrate other Festivals much more the Lords day their great Festival and their Saviours Resurrection day with spiritual hymns and religious sermons and that the people used to empty out their souls to God in fervent and affectionate Theod. prayers not without sighs and tears No wonder then if Basil say We fill up the Lords day with holy prayers And ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Basil Clemens Romanus definitively concludeth Neither on the Lords dayes which are dayes of joyfulness do we grant any thing may be said or done besides holiness A holy speech of an excellent person And therefore Augustine in his sixth Book de Civitate Dei Cap. 11. speaking of Seneca's scoffing of the Jews Sabbath for which he had too much cause Notwithstanding saith he Seneca durst not speak of the Dies dominicus divinis conventibus sequestratus est Isych Christians even then most contrary to the Jews least either he should praise them viz. the Christians against the custome of his Country or reprove them perhaps against his own will So that the Christians observation of the Lords day in the primitive times was above the snarling of a Heathen and the scomms and sarcasmes of a gentile Phylosopher Thus we have the pattern of the primitive Church and it is a good standard for our practice Their early rising should make us more frugal of the time of a Sabbath their fervent zeal should make us more spiritual in the Ordinances of a Sabbath and their devotion at home should make us more Rom. 12. 11 conscientious in our families upon Gods holy day Let us therefore bestrict and exact in Sabbath-observation having the golden age of the Church for our ensample And indeed pure Religion and undefiled which the Apostle speaks of Jam. 1. 27. Jam. 1. 27. never looks so comely as upon a Sabbath day the day inhances the duty as the lovely dress sets off the lovely person Beauty taking advantage from the attire Argu. 8 The holy observation of the Sabbath is the
triumphant Resurrection Then was Christ proclaimed Lord of quick and dead Rom. 14. 9. then Death gave its last groan and then Satan fell like lightning the forces of 1 Cor. 15. 55. Hell were scattered and discomfited when Christ appeared Luke 10. 18. in the Field after his detention in the Grave Christ by rising brake both the Chains of death and darkness together Resurrectione Christi et vita initium et mors recepit interitum and so far put the Law out of date that it super-annuated its threats that they are insignificant to the Believer Christ now had suffered whatever the Law could demand upon the Sinner And as his sufferings answered all the clamours of the Law so his Resurrection brake all the Chains of his Resurrectio Christi plena fuit mortis abolitio et vitae reductio Alap sufferings Indeed through the Grace of God we may read inflamed love Rom. 5. 8. and eternal life John 3. 15. in the death of Christ but the hope and assurance of both is built upon his Resurrection and therefore when the Apostle would set the door of hope wide open to us 1 Pet. 1. Col. 2. 14. 3 4. he shews us an empty Sepulchre and tells us with the Angel He is risen 1 Cor. 15. 17 18 19. The Promise is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Just Mart. Apol. 2. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Col. 3. 5. 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. the ground and Anchor-hold of our hope and that is performed by our Lords Resurrection by which he brake the Serpents head and scattered his power Acts 26. 6 7 8 9. This day then is Christs triumphal day when all his enemies were drawn at his Chariot-wheel And is not Christ in this our Ensample Shall not we on this day trample Satan under our feet conquer lust and get above the snares nay thoughts of the World and in holy and divine Ordinances pursue triumphant grace Conquest is our great work on the sabbath-Sabbath-day then are we to subjugate our passions to subdue our corruptions to keep under the flesh to fetter the Old man and to bring into obedience our whole man to Jesus Christ The Sabbath properly is a day of Victories then light is to overcome our darkness the word to overcome our hearts Christ to over-rule and Conquer our affections and then is the season for the spirit to subdue and to bring into Captivity every high thought to the obedience of the Gospel And shall we then on Christs conquering-day be slaves to our fancy to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ignat. spend our time in vanity and recreations be Vassals to our lusts to spend our Sabbaths in riots and prophaneness be subjugated by the flesh to spend this golden season in sloth or formality Is not this to pour contempt on Christs triumphal-day and to cover the glory of it with thick darkness As if one should draw a Canvas Curtain before a curious Picture It may truly be said of those who prophane the Lords day they are the ecclipses of Christs Resurrection-day spots in that Feast and the foul blemishes of that lovely season Ignatius will tell us It is but a Jewish trick and a falling back and recidivation to their sin and folly The Resurrection of Christ was the loosing of his fetters then and not before did our dear Jesus rest from the temptations of Satan from the persecutions of the Jewish and the Gentile World from the flashes and scorching of his Fathers wrath and from the bonds of his own transient death His rising-day was his resting-day and all his disturbance and discomposures were scattered as the Clouds Vos in die quem dicunt solis solem colitis sicut autem nos eundem diem dominicum vocamus In eo non solem sed resurrectionem domini laetè veneramur which have nestled together are put to flight at the rise of the Sun And therefore it was the will of God that the day of Christs Resurrection should be honoured as holy rather then any other day of his Incarnation Birth Passion Ascension because his rising-day was his resting or Sabbath-day and whereon his rest began So the day of Gods rest from the work of Creation and the day of Christs rest from the work of Redemption are only fit the one to be the Churches Sabbath in the time of the Law the other to be the Churches Sabbath in the time of the Gospel The Lord Aug. contr Faust Manich. lib. 18. cap. 5. Christ in the day of his Birth did not enter into his rest but rather made an entrance into labour and sorrow and then began his work of Humiliation And so likewise in the day of his Passion he was then under the sorest part of his labour in the bitter Agonies in the Garden and on the Cross and therefore none of these could be consecrated to be our Sabbath Nor could the day of his Ascension be fit Gal. 4. 4 5. to be made our Sabbath because although Christ then and thereby entred into the third Heavens his place of Rest yet he did not then make his first entrance into his estate of Rest which was in the day of his Resurrection This day then was the first step of Christs exaltation the dawning of his glory Dies dominicus Christi resurrectione est sacratus Aug. when as Elijah he dropped the Mantle of all natural imperfections Now Christ was to bear no more bruises to give his Cheek to no more Smiters to tread the Winepress of his Fathers wrath no more This bright Sun was no more to be masked with Clouds this Morning Star was no more Isa 53. 10. to be veiled with shade or darkness Christs rising left his Isa 50. 6. Grave-cloaths behind him to shew us that now no more Revel 22. 16. he was to tast any thing which savoured of sorrow or mortality John 20. 5 6. And now how incongruous is it that the day of Christs freedom should be the day of our fetters That when he threw off his bonds we should bind them on us the faster That we should be fetter'd to any way of sin or chained to our sensual appetite or wanton fancy on the Lords day the weekly commemoration of Christs Resurrection On Diâs dominicus dieâ est quam nobis salvatoris noâtri resurrectio consecravit this day Christ threw off his Grave-cloaths and so should we cast off whatever savours of dust and earth In a word to be captivated to any way of offence on this holy day no way comports with the nature and freedom of Christs resurrection then all his bonds were loosed and then should we Leâ Epist 93. cap. 4. cast from us whatsoever may hinder us from running the ways of Gods Commandements all our sloth frothiness of Spirit carnal delights cold formality and whatever may slacken our pace in our duties and spiritual services The Resurrection of Christ is the very life of the
Origen In the times of the Law saith he the Jews were not to stir out of their places upon the Sabbath day Exod. 16. 29. Now what is the proper place of the soul but Righteousness Truth Wisdom and Sanctification and whatever speaks Christ and from this place we Christians must not stir upon the Lords day In the times of the Law the Jews were to carry no burdens upon the Sabbath day Jer. 17. 27. And what is this burden but all sin and this burden we Christians must not carry on our Sabbath In the times of the Law the Jews were not to kindle a fire throughout all their Habitations upon the Sabbath Exod. 35. 3. And what is this kindling of fire but the inflaming of lust and no such fire must be kindled by Christians on the Sabbath Now what Origen cautionates us against on the Sabbath is as much to be avoided and shunned on the week day In a disposition to serve God So we must keep every day a Sabbath though we are not always in a Sabbath dayes time Verum quidem est Sabbatum spirituale nobis perpetuò colendum esse sub novo Testamento Wal. yet we should be always in a Sabbath days frame in such a blessed bent of heart as to be fit for holy business and heavenly employment And the Apostle adviseth us 1 Thes 5. 17. To pray continually viz. To be in a continual frame of heart fit for holy prayer And the Apostle James Jam. 1. 19. commands us to be swift to hear viz. Always to have Spirituale Sabbatum est quo vetus homo noster homo peccati cum singulis suis actionibus otio quodam veluti sepelitus est ut novus homo qui secundum deum creatus est vires suas exerat opera sua perficiat Muscul an open ear ready to hearken to the sweet and sacred word of God We find the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 1. 5 6. describing four living creatures having four faces and four wings Faces ready to mind and wings ready to move into any part upon the work the Lord should assign and appoint them And thus Gods people should be always in a prepared frame of spirit for holy service we should be as cautious of sin and as propence to service as if every day was a Sabbath day The week contains no day for sinful work the Apostle tells us 2 Tim. 2. 19. Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity And iniquity not iniquities any one particular iniquity And so likewise in the week our secular works must not indispose us for heavenly Dies è septem unus externis salutis mediis dedicatus Sabbatum interius perpetuum magis et magis promovet Hier. services and holy duties but we must have heavenly hearts in our earthly labours It is very observable that in the time of the Law the word Sabbath signified a whole week Lev. 23. 15. And so in the time of the Gospel Luke 18. 12. And doth it not point out this That we should keep our whole week as a Sabbath and that Sabbath-holiness should make all our life-time but one intire holy day Our spiritual Sabbath as Musculus observes Must be continual Rom. 11. 16. we must be always crucifying the old man and getting our 1 Cor. 5. 6. corruptions to their rest that they may not be working nor employed to fledge temptation into actual sin and we must be always employing the new man to excite its power in spiritual operations and this must be our daily and continual Sabbath This resting from sin and this working for God is never unseasonable and these two are the integral parts of a Sabbath And thus to employ our selves in the week doth exceedingly fit us for the Sabbath Many have little of the Sabbath in the week and therefore they have too much of the week in the Sabbath they are strangers Mandaverat quidem deus sub veteri Testimento ut in ipsa septimanâ aliquae quoque horae divino cultui consecrarentur manè imprimis vespere cùm sacrificium juge in templo offerreretur perpetuò sacrificaretur Wal. to Sabbath-work on the week dayes and therefore they are enemies to Sabbath-work on the Lords day Christians should attempt to begin heaven here and there is a perpetual Sabbath our life below should shadow out our life above It must be confessed our indulging our selves too much in sin and bemiring our selves too much in the world on the week day doth very much unqualifie and indispose us for heavenly rest on the Sabbath day But when we have set our selves against sin and have been spiritually minded in the works of our Calling not omitting the heavenly duties of prayer reading the word holy discourse and heavenly meditations on the week dayes we then with more complacency lean upon our beloved and with more delight meet him in his âanquetting house Cant. 2. 4. on the Lords day Holy weeks make heavenly Sabbaths and the more strict we are in passing of the week the more savoury and serious we shall be in observing the Sabbath Walaeus very well observes That in the time of the Law God had his dayly sacrifices Psal 133. 2. Numb 28. 3. as well as his double sacrifices on the Sabbath day Numb 28. 9. To intimate to us There must be something of a Sabbath in every day nor must the oil of holiness only be poured out on the head of a Sabbath but it must run down to the skirts of the whole week the performance of divine worship is calculated for the week though the solemnity of it be reserved for the Sabbath Well then let something resembling a Sabbath be found in our own dayes let a happy vein of holy rest with God run through every day The Jews had their morning sacrifice when they entred upon their work and their evening sacrifice when they wound up and ended their work they gave God the first Job 23. 12. and the last of every day in holy and solemn worship He that was Alpha and Omega the first and the last had the Tres sunt diei partes inter Judaeos prima pars ad orationem secunda ad legem tertia ad opus seculare destinabatur Alpha and Omega of every day nay learned men observe that the Jews divided the day into three parts The first ad Tephilah to Prayer the second ad Torah to the Law the third ad Malacha to their work Thus God had his part of every day among the poor Jews nay double worship for single work And let not a repudiated Jew be more franck in giving God his time then the redeemed ones of Jesus shall they have so much of the Sabbath in the week and we so much of the week in our Sabbaths As the Apostle saith Rom. 6. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God forbid It would be strange if the branch which is broken of
non ipse tantum permanet sed etiam affert vitam aeternam Chemnit Amos 2. 6. meat which endureth to everlasting life Shall the gain of a penny or some inconsiderable profit with draw thee from pursuing thy spiritual good on thy souls market day Thy gain on this day may be as the God of the Tholouse which was fatal to all who stole of it or as the Coal brought to the nest setting the young and all on fire The Sabbath as one saith is the School day the Faire day the Feasting day of the soul and the body is little interested in the affairs of it this holy day is the souls harvest and not set apart for the gleanings of the world and thus while the poor man works on the Sabbath he sells himself for a pair of shooes a little to invert the Prophet And Reverend Mr. Calvin observes This is onely a wile of Satan for saith he All of us naturally are of that mind that if we endeavour to mount on high to the heavenly life and bestow our studies therein we think we shall dye for hunger and this shall be to turn us from our Profits and Commodities And indeed the Devil cometh alwayes to perswade us under this Calvin on Deut 5. Serm. 35. shadow and wiliness that if we employ our selves in the service of God we must needs dye of famine and we shall live to be the objects of others pity for our meanness and misery Thus far that holy man who presently adds Of a truth we cannot serve God unless we cast away from us these distrustfull cares Lev. 25. 20 21. Mat. 6. 33. 1 Tim. 4. 8. Pietas habet promissionem vitae quae nunc est ut scilicet hîc vitam pacatam longaevam rebus omnibus necessariis instructum agamus Alap Jer. 25. 20 21. Exod. 16. 22. Sexââ die deus pluit Manna abândè ut toti populo suffiâeret ad biduum Riv. Haec sunâââera tenebrarum carnis Buc de Regno Christi Lib. 2. Cap. 10. which press us over much And how doth this unholy distrust which often draws the offendor to a breach of the Sabbath contradict those indulgent promises of the Scripture both under the Law and in the times of the Gospel where the giving Religion and our Souls the precedency is ensured not only of a better portion in future Glory but of a satisfying provision even in this Life And to wind up this particular The Jews of old enjoyed a special promise that no lack should come to them by their resting on the Sabbath and God gave them a sure pledge in the Wilderness when on the day before the Sabbath a double portion of Manna was given to all that gathered Exod. 16. 22. Nor can the promise be straitned to believers under the Gospel And so we have at last done with the poor mans Plea leaving him for the future to act his Faith and study Obedience rather then frame his Apologies Labouring on a Sabbath in the works of our Calling or in any other unnecessary toyle is a practise so manifestly sinfull that it is not only prohibited by the Great Law-giver in the Fourth Commandment in the times of the Law but it is likewise forbidden by all Authority both Civil and Ecclesiastical in the times of the Gospel Constantine the great Constant Mag. who deserved that noble Title more for his Religion then his Victories sets out a pious Edict to this purpose strictly forbidding all secular labour on the Lords day The very words of the Statute are these He commands that every one Statuit ut curcti Romano Imperio subditi diebus de Servatoris nomine nuncupatis ab opere feriarentur Euseb Lib. 4. de vitâ Constantini c. 18. 2 Pet. 2. 13. Jud. vers 12. Car. Magn. Leges Ecclesiast lib. 6. cap. 202. Lud. Pius ib. addition c. 9. Leo Philos who lived in the Roman Empire should rest from labour that day weekly which was instituted to our Saviour and moreover that all Judges Citizens Artificers should rest on the Sabbath Thus this holy Emperour who first brought rest to the Churches for a long time scorcht with persecution and discomposed by Pagan fury takes care that the Sabbath be not prophaned by servile works which are truly spots in that holy feast Charles the Great Anno Dom. 789. not willing to blemish his Title the same with Constantine's speaks Constantine's language Viz. We do ordain as it is commanded in the Law of God that no man do any servile work on the Lords day And this he explicates in several particulars Viz. Husbandry dressing Vines Ploughing c. and almost all kind of Manufactures And the words of Leo Philosophus the noble Emperour of Constantinople in his pious Edict for the better observation the Lords day are very memorable Viz. We ordain according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost and of the Holy Apostles by him directed That on that sacred day wherein we are restored to our intogrity all do rest and surcease from labour that neither the Husbandman nor others put their hands to forbidden work c. I might mention Clothaire King of France Gunthram and many other Princes expressing the same zeal to the Sabbath but it would be altogether supervacaneous onely let me not denude our own English Princes of their just and due Honour in this particular King James of famous memory 15 James at his first entrance into his Kingdome he sent out his Declaration to this effect Viz. That for the better observation of the Sabbath day he straitly charges That there be no Interludes Pastimes unlawful exercises on the Sabbath day And King Charles the First he enacts a Law in his 15 Charles first Parliament That there be no Pastimes no Carrier Waggoner Drover travel on the Lords day no Butcher kill or sell any Victual on the said day c. Thus the English Throne hath not been devoid of necessary Zeal for the suppression of unnecessary toyle on the Lords day And labouring on the Lords day hath not onely been condemned by Civil but by Ecclesiastical Authority both swords have been drawn against this practice And Ecclesiastical Authority hath condemned it Take it distributively for eminent persons Zerubbabels who have been famous in building the Temple in the primitive times Origen thus expresses his holy fervour for the Sabbath and for the cessation from Die dominico nihil ex mundi actibus agendum ex omnibus secularibus operibus feriandum est Orig. Homil. 23 in numer Augustine fervile or secular works on that day On the Christian Sabbath day we ought not to do any worldly business If therefore thou dost surcease from all secular affairs and dost nothing but imploy thy self in spiritual negotiations this is the right observation of the Christian Sabbath Thus this mirrour of piety and learning And Augustine the miracle of the fifth Century in one of his Sermons
speaketh will choak the Word much more the pleasures of the world when they are more soft and sutable to delicate flesh and corrupt nature As in the Primitive Times more Apostates were made by the flatteries of Julian then the fires of Dioclesian and smiles more harm'd the Church then smarts Nothing more likely then to shoote away bowle away whatever we have been affected with Hos 6. 4. in holy Ordinances and Administrations Mat. 13. 22. Nay the very Liturgy of our English Church composed with so much exactness and deliberation as is often urged by the admirers of it commands the fourth Commandment to be read as well as the other nine and there pardon is begg'd for the breaches of this Commandment for time past Lord have mercy upon us and then Grace is importun'd to observe it better for the time to come where it is prayed and incline our hearts to keep this Law Where these three things are considerable 1. That by the Sabbath the Church understands the Lords day only 2. That she takes the observation of the Lords day founded upon the fourth Commandment 3. That she intended that day to be kept as a Sabbath and therefore begs pardon and grace which if so there can be no room for unnecessary labours and needless Recreations both which are but presumptuous incroachments on Gods appropriated day As holy Augustine forbad hunting and all worldly pleasures And Leo the Emperour Nullis Augustine Leo the Emperour volumus voluptatibus occupari Our will is No pleasures to be used as being the great obstructions to the spirituality of a Sabbath they discomposing the soul for sublime and heavenly intercourses to be spiritually raised and to be pleasurously ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Rev. 10. addicted on the Lords day being strange inconsistencies Recreations on the Sabbath they are too much the evidence of a formal spirit To the holy soul the Temple is his Triumph Prayers his pleasure Ordinances his delight the Sanctuary his satisfaction David counts one day in Gods Courts better then a thousand Flashy and frivolous Recreations Psal 84. 10. on a Lords day to a gracious spirit they are his little-ease and the clipping of his wing the Souls confinement and Psal 63. 2. restraint the Prison grate between him and Christ no way his Pleasure but his Purgatory and where they are received Psal 43. 4. with gratefulness and contentment they loudly Proclaime too much froth and vanity David danced at the enjoyment of Cant. 2. 4. the Ark but these leave the Ark to sport and dance 2 Sam. 6. 16. Recreations on the Lords day They are the debasements of spiritual mercies as if there were no captivating power in Divine Ordinances to hold the soul intent for a day no Psal 19. 10. Psal 42. 4. honey comb in the Word to please the taste no pleasing vent in prayer to ease and satisfie the Soul as if singing of Psalms made no musick and reading the Scriptures did yield no delight Ah with what patience and content did the Jewes hear the Law read in the time of Nehemiah The people stood Nehem 8. 7. in their place saith the Text quoted as if they were staked and fastened without any desire of removal Their serious attention chained them to their present station Paul preached Acts 20. 7. till midnight the sweet Oracles of God drowned all wearisomness and distaste Ordinances have a savour in them Rom. 3. 2. which refresh and raise the Saint and there is no need of carnal sports to wear off any tedious abhorrency To affect or use these pastimes on the Sabbath is to embase the value of Divine exercises and to charge holy duties with abortive Hos 9. 14. emptiness as if they were barren wombs and dry breasts Let the Umpirage in this case be referred to the holy Psalmist in the Text quoted in the Margin Psal 1. 2. Recreations on the Sabbath they are the spring of impertinent discourse which is expresly forbidden in the Text for saith the Text Nor speaking thy own words In our sports more especially Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak as our Saviour saith Sports are the very Mat. 12. 34. Malitiae sermonis sons est malitia cordis ex quo necessi est ejusmodi maledicta per os ebullire sicut ex faetido fonte non possunt nisi fatidae aquae per fâstulas effundi Par. Dr. B. Mark 6. 22. Mark 6. 27. James 3. 6. Peccatum quod alter incurrit operando tuum facis obloquendo fuel of vain and frothy discourse A holy man observes That some men they never make an end of their pleasures nor an end of talking and hearing of them their Hawkes are not only on their fists but on their tongues There are two things which spring a mine of impertinent discourse Feasts and Sports We may as well separate blackness from the cloud as frothy language from frothy pleasures Nay how often are pastimes stained with sinful protestations the fatal taking of Gods Name in vain nay with Execrations and Oaths the scum of Hell it self Where did Herod make his wretched promise which was died in the blood of the Baptist but at a dancing when Herodias her Daughters feet did not trip so much as Herods tongue And if at any time the tongue is set on fire of hell as the Apostle James speaks Games and Pastimes presently become the bellows to blow up the fire Sports are usually the tongues Courtizan to draw it to folly and wanton intemperance with frothy rejoycings and carnall triumphs nay heats and passions are mixt with our recreations and the tongue is to proclaim them The mirth which attends pastimes will not be cag'd up in the breast but will fly out inimpertinent and unsavory language How often in sports do we call our Brother fool and yet our Saviour Iracundiae litis vanitatis censurae verba a Satana procedunt et ad Satanam tendunt illic incipiunt et illic rapiunt Mat. 6. 22. Psal 39. 1. saith that very expression puts us in danger of hell fire And therefore let any serious Christian make his own conscience the Tribunal to which I dare appeal whether this flatulent and unseemly discourse the inseparable companion of Games and Pastimes be not a sinful undecency on Gods holy Sabbath and an opposition to the very Text surely then if ever with David we should take heed we offend not with our tongue Recreations on a Sabbath They are an indignity offered to the noble and precious soul Shall the body that mass and Isa 2. 22. pile of dust cemented onely with a little flying breath that Corpus est ergastulum animae Plato bag of flegm and cholar that prison of the soul as Plato used to call it enjoy the time of six whole dayes and the soul that piece of eternity in the bosome the breath of God the saving
the dawning of the morning and cryed I hoped in thy word Morning gâaces like morning stars shine brightest David used to cast anchor upon divine truth in the morning he did not onely meditate on it but act his hope and confidence in it and this was Davids work in the earliest part of the day and this is a rare Copy for us How should we prevent the dawning of a Sabbath in our flights to God in our longings after Christ in beginning our Sabbath-work Judg. 21 4. Love to God and his Ordinances should tear the curtains open disdain the softness of the pillow and betimes 1 Joh. 1. 3. break open our closet doors to enjoy fellowship with Pers râm Rex unum habebat cubi uâarem qui idoffi ii habebu ut manè ingressus regi diceret Surge ô Rex etque ea cura quae te curare voluit Mosoromisdes Plutarch the Father and his Son Jesus Christ But to conclude this particular Plutarch reports That the Persian King had one of the Servants of his Chamber every morning to come to him and to cry to him Rise O King and follow those cares which thy good genius will have thee to pursue Let us onely invert the phrase and instead of thy good genius say Gods good spirit and it will be applicable to our selves Let us especially early on Gods day resolve we will follow the traces in which the holy spirit shall lead us Let us seriously preponderate the weight and multiplicity of a Sabbath-days work The Traveller who is to ride many miles gets up early in the morning and so sets upon Judg 19. 8. his Journey The soul hath a great way to travel upon the Lords day its task is great and therefore its time must not run wast There are many duties to perform First Secret duties On the Sabbath there are some duties which must onely be acted between God and the devout soul A gracious heart will have private intercourse with God Jesus Christ went into a Mountane apart to pray Mat. 14. 23. and he was there alone The Saint some times turns the Closet into a Sanctuary and never more fitly then on a Lords day Our dear Lord bids us go some times into our Chambers Mat. 6. 6. and shut the doors upon us The Saints are Gods hidden ones in point of worship they serve God in their recluses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quem vis locum occulium notat Par. and private retirements and this is an evidence of their uprightness The Spouse sometimes meets her beloved and none shall be spectators of their holy fellowship Nunquam minus solus quà m cum solus and upon Gods holy day let the gracious soul set upon these several duties First The reading of Gods word The Eunuch was reading the Prophet Isaiah in his Charriot not onely because he would lose no time but because he would be more serious Acts 8. 28. in this secret duty David compares the Word to an honey comb Psal 19. 10. and honey combs are usually in the private gardens The same Psalmist saith The Law was Psal 1. 2. his Meditation in the night and then surely he had few witnesses to view his devotion The closet door may keep out not onely other people but other thoughts and then we are fittest to converse with Gods Word when we are most intent Secondly Another secret duty for the Lords day Is holy Prayer to God and praising of God Indeed prayer is a duty 1 Thes 5. 17. accommodated for all places for all times and all cases but closet prayer on the morning of a Sabbath is like a morning star which portends a fair day We read of our Saviour Mark 1. 35. that in the morning rising up a great while Mark 1. 35. before day he went out and departed into a solitary place Acts 10. 9. and there prayed let us go and do so likewise And holy Peter in this confessed that the Disciple was not greater then his Master for he pursued the same practice Acts 10. 9. Peter went up upon the house to pray about the sixth hour And as we must pray to God so we must sing the praises of God in secret sometimes our closets must not only be our Oratories to poure out our prayers in but our Mount Olivets to sing Hymns of praise to the Divine Majesty Mat. 26. 30. We must begin the works of Heaven in secret which we shall be doing to eternity in blessed Society Thus David praised God seven times a day and certainly he had not every time witnesses of his Divine Exaltation Psal 119. 164. Thirdly A third secret duty is Holy Meditation When the mind that Spiritual Bee is working and seeking honey out of every flower and this piece of service is calculated Gen. 24. ââ onely for privacy Company untravelling whatsoever meditation works but of this more largely hereafter Fourthly The last duty to be acted in secret upon the holy Sabbath is Self-Examination when Conscience is both Judge Witness and Tribunal And in the acting of this duty there needs no Sessions-house but a mans own breast David saith when we commune with our hearts we must Psal 4. 4. 1 Cor. 11. 28. be still There wants no noise from the world nor from the company of others These two last duties viz. Meditation and Self-Examination are most proper for the most secret and retired places fitter for the Closet then the Church the secret Chamber then the open Sanctuary they are as one saith actions of the mind and so concern a Dr. Gouge mans own self in particular And these secret duties of piety should especially be performed in the morning of a Sabbath that the Lords day may begin with them and then we shall be in a good preparation for other duties The beginning with God thus in the morning may influence the whole Sabbath like the tuning of an Instrument which makes the whole Lesson's melody the sweeter and indeed pure Religion and undefiled which the Apostle speaks of Jam. 1. 27. never look's so comly as on a Sabbath day the day Jam. 1. 27. inhances the duty as the lovely dress doth outward beauty Thus we see there are secret duties to be acted on a Sabbath Secondly Private Duties On Gods holy day we must not lock up our selves and our services above in the Chamber but we must come down into the Family and there the morning stars must sing together to allude to that of Job Job 38. 7. Consort makes the musick The stars shine brightest in a constellation Jesus Christ would not be transfigured alone but he took some to be witnesses of his Glory when he would Mat. 17. 1 2. Luke 9. 18. Mat. 13. 36. pray his Disciples were with him and when he would open the blessed mysteries of the Gospel he takes his Disciples to him In our closets there is indeed a meeting of thoughts
affections are more smart and vigorous our thoughts are more lively and unwearied and so more disposed to this excellent service and such seasons are our harvest for the acting of this duty and reaping the great comfort of it The morning is an accommodated time for meditation then the body hath been refreshed with the sweetness of The first season for meditation rest and so the impressions of toyle being worn off it is the more active for the labours of meditation David was with God before break of day The morning Sun smiles with the Psal 119. 147. most pleasant aspect when first it begins it 's laborious circuit Our thoughts are shot out of our minds with greatest strength in the morning when our bodies can yield their most lively assistance and there are many pregnant reasons for it Holy thoughts and meditations are most acceptable in that season When we awake in the morning many suitors attend our thoughts aad every suitor useth urgent importunity Jer. 2. 3. now if spiritual things obtain the first admittance this is most grateful to God It cannot but be a sinful provocation that our thoughts should be as the Inne in Bethlehem Luke 2. 7. where strangers took up all the rooms and Luke 2. 7. Christ was excluded and was fain to lye in a manger Indeed Charitas sponsae quae tot allecta beneficiis sponso deo in amore obedientiâ et obsequio mutuò respondit et eum deperiit Lyran. it cannot but be matter of deploration that vain and worldly thoughts should take up all the rooms of our souls in the morning and Christ shut out But for the prevention of this let Divine things first attach our meditations and this will be well-pleasing to the Lord. In the stilling of strong water the first water which is drawn from the still is more full of spirits and the second and the third they are weaker and smaller and not of the same value So the first meditations which are still'd from the mind in the morning are the best and we shall find them more full Gen. 4. 4. of life and spirits and they come nearer to Abels sacrifice Abel non etemandato tantùm sed exside obtulit The morning is the golden hour of the day like the first springing grass which is most pleasant to the eye and most sweet to the taste The morning is the first budding of time Let Christ have it in holy and divine speculations Meditation in the morning will be more influential The Vessel which is first seasoned with that which is pretious and odoriferous will retain the scent and tincture nor will easily lose it but with much toyle and labour That of the wise man is considerable When thou awakest it will talk with Prov. 6. 22. thee As Servants come to their Masters in the morning and receive Rules from them how they shall manage their business all the day following So a gracious heart which meditates on Gods Word and things divine in the morning those savoury tinctures abide on him all the day and Quâ semel est imbuâa recers servabit odorâm teâta diu he walks with more circumspection and fruitfulness Wind up thy heart towards Heaven in the morning and it will go the better all the day The wool takes the first dye best and it is not easily worn out The heart seasoned with holy meditations in the beginning will keep this colour in grain It would become us to perfume our minds with divine thoughts betimes on the day that the smell may scatter it self to all we meet withall that day Equity requires our morning meditations to be sequestred and set apart for God Some of his first thoughts were set upon us If we are in Christ we had a being in his thoughts Eph. 1. 4. of love before we had a being in the world His earliest 1 Joh. â 19. loves fastened upon us when we were onely in the possibility Spirituales benedictiones in ipsâ aeternâ praedestiratione suerunt nobis in Christo praeparatae Zanch. and futurition of a being We had the morning of Gods thoughts before ever the Sun did rise or shine in the World What thoughts of free and rich Grace what kind thoughts of mercy and peace had God of us from all everlasting Let us in some measure retaliate the first loves of God let us fix our thoughts upon God in holy meditation before the day breaks and delivers the light the infallible Jer. 31. 3. harbinger of it But more especially the morning of a Sabbath is the most genuine and sweetest season for meditation and that upon this two-fold account Holy meditation will fasten the heart upon God which is very necessary upon the morning of a Sabbath Meditation is properly the centring of the thoughts as was suggested before and fixing them upon some spiritual object Gen. â4 1. Our hearts they are naturally slippery and will be gadding with Dinah unless they are kept at home viz. with God the proper home of the soul by divine contemplation It was the boast of holy David that his heart was fixed the Psal 57. 7. fixing of the soul on God is both the duty and the glory of a Psal 108. 1. Christian Now when once meditation hath fastened our thoughts on something divine they will not be so easily call'd off nor so subject to sinfull avocations which will be a transcendent happiness on the Lords day Divine meditation will fledge and raise our affections not onely six our hearts upon God but draw them out to God in ardent and holy desires which likewise is most suitable to the morning of a Sabbath We light affection by the fire of meditation On Gods holy day we should be in an extasie Psal 42. 2. of love to Jesus Christ and meditation is that which can elevate and draw up the desires to Christ and when they are once raised they do not so easily sink and fall again Psal 119. 97. When Bells are raised then they are musical and proclaim their loud harmony to all who are within the hearing The Psal 19. 6. Sun when it is risen it ascends gradually and runs its pleasing and swift circuit untill it be stopt by full noon So Psal 104 34. likewise the soul being raised by sweet and divine meditation on the morning of Gods holy day it will be drawing out its holy fervencies and longings after God the whole Sabbath ensuing The next season for holy meditation is the Evening So we read of holy Isaac He went out to meditate in the field at Even tide Gen. 24. 63. When business is over and every The second season for meditation thing is calm it is then a convenient time to let out our thoughts loose to fly up to God God had his Evening as Exod. 29. 39. well as his Morning sacrifice As the cream at the top is sweet
is our way if we read Christ is the word if we eat or drink Christ is our food if we live Christ is our life Thus a gracious heart may make a spiritual use of all earthly objects and every Creature which presents it self may supply our contemplations on Christ And so we may happily begin our Sabbath But more particularly We must meditate on the most noble works of the Creation And here the Angels heighten and sublimate our meditations the Sun and the stars enlighten them the several pieces of the Universe enlarge them and the sweet fields and flowers refresh them the thunder and lightning awaken them the musical notes of the birds delight them Our Psal 18. 13. meditations are raised in beholding the Creatures The Creationis mundi efficiens causa non sola est Dei bonitas sed bonitas cum summâ sapientiâ conjuncta contemplation of created beings turned the Prophet into a Philosopher he observed the Wisdom and Power of God in the worlds Creation Jer. 10. 12. there saith the Prophet He hath made the Earth by his power he hath established the world by his wisdome and hath stretched out the Heavens by his discretion How sweetly doth the Prophet Philosophize upon the raising and setling the Fabrick of the world The Jer. 10. 12. contemplation of created beings turned the Psalmist into an Job 35. 5. Oratour How eloquently doth David paraphrase upon the Psal 104. 2. wonders and works of the Creation Psal 104. 2. there saith the Psalmist He stretcheth out the Heavens like a curtain layes the beams of his Chambers in the waters who makes the clouds his Chariot who walks upon the wings of the wind The Psalmist spends largely upon the treasury of his Rhetorick to set out the excellency of the worlds Architect Nay the contemplation of created beings turns Nomen gloria decus creatoris quia Coelum est nominatissima pars mundi Martin holy Job into an Astronomer he views with admiration Arcturus Orion the Pleiades and casts his eye upon the Chambers of the South Job 9. 8 9. And then he is folded up with amazement at the glory and power of the Creatour There are some who derive the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Job 26. 13. Heavens from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to be amazed Indeed a prospect of that glorious body the Heavens the roof of the great house of the world that bespangled and enamel'd Canopy over our heads can drive the most considerate person into amazement The vastness and beauty of the body of the Heavens the swiftness and regularity of their motions and agitations which is above all reason can easily raise men into wonder and trasportation In Scripture we sometimes meet with the Heavens of Heavens 1 Kings 8. 27. and with the Nehem. 9. 6. Psal 148. 4. Isa 63. 15. Obstupuit propter insignem vastitatem istius corporis quod ipsi nos aspicientes in stuporem rapimur iscat third heavens 2 Cor. 12. 2. There are likewise the highest heavens and yet God made them Gen. 1. 4. and he can bow them as he listeth Psal 18. 9. He can stretch them to what latitude he pleaseth Isa 45. 12. He can span them Isa 48. 13. And if he be angry and inflamed he can throw a black cloath over them and shade their glory Isa 50. 3. Jer. 4. 23. 28. and melt them Psal 68. 8. and cause them to vanish like a smoak Isa 51. 6. Amos 9. 6. Nay how doth Holy Paul like an exact Logician draw the conclusion of the glory of things invisible by the splendour and excellency of things visible Rom. 1. 20. But further to dâlate on this subject God created the body Acts 4. 15. of this world Gen. 1. 1. The inhabitants of this World Angels and Men Isa 42. 5. Mat. 2. 11. The light and Psal 89. 12. Luminaries of this world to distinguish it from a great and Amos 4 13. darker prison Gen. 1. 14. He created the garnishes and delights Psal 74. 17. of this world the soft waves the sweet fields the Si interrogas quotâ horâ creabantur Angeli Resp primâ cùm coelum creabatur Si interrogas quo loco Resp in loco beatorum Zanch. shady clouds the piercing winds to fan and cool the world and the different seasons to beautifie the year with successive alternations Pontanus Chancellour of Saxony propounds to be viewed the most beautiful arch work of heaven resting on no post but Gods power and yet standing fast for ever the clouds as thin as the liquor contained in them yet they hang and move salute us onely and threaten us and pass we know not whither Now all these things may feed our meditations on the morning of the Lords day though divine medidation may become any part of that sacred day Augustine August findeth no reason why God should be six dayes in making the world seeing he could have made it with a word but that we should be in a muse when we think of it and should think on his works in that order he made them Our meditations should take leisure in the survey of them and not pass them over in a short and momentany flight And besides the reason urged by St. Augustine we may take notice of a second viz. what a beautiful and sweet prospect meditation shall have in the survey of the works of the Creation which may entertain our view for some considerable Gen. 19. 3. time and may stop and stay our meditation as Lot did the Angels and force it to a retirement Let us meditate on the Sun that glorious though inanimate creature What is the Sun but the eye of the world Quid potest esse tà m apertum tamque perspicuum cum coelum aspeâcimus et coelestia contemplati sumus quam aliquid esse Numen praestantissimae mentis quo haec reguntur Tull. de Nat. deorum lib. 2. If we take notice of its scituation and motion the contemplation will be rare It is fixed in the midst of the Planets that it may dispense its light and heat for the greater advantage of the lower world By its course from East to West it causes the agreeable vicissitude of day and night and maintains the amiable war between light and darkness And this distinction of time is necessary for the pleasure and profit of the world The Sun by its rising chases away the shades of the night to delight us with the beauties of the stupendous Creation It is Gods Herald to call us forth to discharge our work The Sun governs our labours conducts our industry and when it retires from us a curtain of darkness is drawn over the world And this very darkness in some sense enlightens us for it makes visible the Ornaments Hunc diem confâcit Sol non motusuo proprio qui est per Zodiacum sed motuquo à primo mobili movetur Zanch. of
of Job 5. 15. them not one can be wanting but the defect will soon appear he hath an exact muster roll of them He calls them Job 5. 10. over continually and every Star must answer to its Name He convocates the Clouds he summons them and then mâlts them into showers and every drop of Rain alarms the Psal 147. 8. grass to rise and spring not only in the Fields Job 5. 10. Tolle animam e corpore quid fiet de corpore Peribit dissolvetur Quanâo magis si gubernationem de mundo tollas but upon the lofty mountains Psal 147. 8. So God preserves the Earth not only in its poyse and Being but in its feracity and plenty And its observable if God contract our time in the world there is no warding off the stroke of death Luke 12. 20. And if God lengthen out our days beyond what nature promises then death hath no stroke to give Isa 38. 5. In a word he that made us in the womb Job 31. 15. keeps us in the world fixes our time both for our Job 31. 15. Psal 31. 15. abode and departure Psal 81. 15. All things depend upon A deo mundum regi fateri oportet etiamsi nulla haberemus sacrarum literarum testimonia Deus est quasi anima illum sustentans Gods bâck hang upon his hand live upon his bounty If he hide his face they are troubled and if he take away their breath they die Psal 104. 28 29. It is Jehovah who is the pillar to support the world who is the first being to give life to the world who is the Soveraign to rule and govern the world and who can not only untile but cast down this beautiful fabrick when he pleases Upon the Basis of Divine All-sufficiency the Universe resteth And Gods supporting power is not only evidenced in the world in generall but his care and preservation is most illustrious and conspicuous in the keeping and defending of Haec est illa ecclesia cujus causâ reliqua omnia condita sunt gubernantur his Church Let us observe this First In single persons Daniel is preserved in the Den Dan. 6. 22. Jeremy in the Dungeon Jer. 40. 4. Paul and Silas in the Prison Acts 16. 39. Lot among the Sodomitical Rout Gen. 19. 11. Secondly In lesser numbers the three Children are preserved in the fire Dan. 3. 25. O the admirable providence 1 Cor. 12. 6. Rom. 11. 35. of God! The Furnace shall be a field to walk in and the flames shall suspend their unkind heat and not disturb their recreation Gods providence can shadow and shelter his precious ones when designed for fuel and destruction Thirdly In particular Churches Rev. 3. 10. Temptations Rev. 3. 10. troop together and besiege the Saints but God in that hour breaks their ranks and routs them and rescues his people from those destructive Onsets Fourthly In the Church in general The Church of God was upon the brink of ruine in the time of Haman the Bill for their execution was signed and sealed Esth 3. 12 13. But then God tore the Bill and brought the promoter of it Est 3. 12 13. Esse in Deo Providentiam ãâ¦ã suâ ãâ¦ã gare ãâ¦ã quiâ Ratio ejus ita cum Divinitate conjuâcta est ut nullo pacto possu separari Leid Prof. to shameful ruine and destruction Esth 7. 10. God wounded the hairy scalpe of the Churches enemies Let us further trace the providence of God towards his people and it will appear nothing but a stock and treasury of wonders First His earliest thoughts of love to his people how are they a Morning star to cast light on the excellency of Divine providence He loved his own fââm Eternity Eph. 1. 4. Every Saint lay in the womb of Eternal love before he lay in the womb of his Mother God from all everlasting laid his people near his heart Josh 21. 45. 2 Kings 9. 36. 2 Kings 10. 10 Jer 31. 3. Secondly In time God gives his precious ones a Being to capacitate them for future good things Non-entitiâs are incapable of good or evil God creates his people and so brings them upon the stage of the world to act those parts ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of honor he hath designed them unto He who hath reserved love for his Saints must give them a Being to be receptive of it Thirdly In process of time God calls and converts his people and brings them home to himself by a work of Regeneration They are not only born by Gods power but Psal 113. 7. Luke 1. 52. âob 5 12 13. John 3. 5. new born by Gods grace and so God qualifies them for glorious things which shall be revealed 1 Pet. 5. 1. He gives them faith John 1. 12 13. And faith gives them power to be called the Sons of God Now he adopts them In toto mundo nihil est â divinae providentiae legibus exemptum fatendum tamen est Major cura est de hominibus maximâ de Sanctis into his own Family God doth not only bring them into the outward Court of the world but into the inward Court of his own peculiar Houshold Gal. 6. 10. Eph. 2. 19. They are now his friends John 15. 15. His Jewels Mal. 8. 17. His Spouse Cant. 4. 9. The beloved of his Soul Jer. 12. 7. His chosen ones Isa 41. 8. Kings and Priests Rom. 1. 6. Thus gloriâus is Gods providence towards his people Fourthly Further to trace Divine providence in reference to the Saints God preserves them in the world as a spark in an Ocean When the whole world was drowned God prepared an Ark for Noah and his Fâmily and when the Gen. 7 1 Inhabitants of the world had no peni-house to secure them God provided a shelter for this holy Family When all perished in the storm they had a Haven to put into The Church of God in Egypt they were in bondage but they were in Being The Task-masters had a hard hand over them Annon hae mirabiles ecclesiae conservationes aperte declarant Deum singulari Providentiâ illam tueri but God spread a large wing over them and brought them in time out of their servitude in glory and triumph and made their way through the waves when the waters were their walls their security not their ruine When God sent his people into Babylon it was to chastise them not to confound them to humble them under their sin not to sink them under their burden these Captives at last were Conquerors Exod. 14. 29. and erected their Trophies in Jerusalem For he had thoughts of peace and not of evil to give his people an Jer. 29. 11. expected end saith the Prophet Jeremy And God seems to have tears in his eyes when he hath a rod in his hand And indeed how would Christs little flock survive if God by a Luke 12. wonderful act of providence
the Saints onely God verily gives us this day for sâul work then we hear the word which is the food of the soul Job 23. 12. then we pursue greater measures of grace which is the beauty of the Soul then we look after thâ Mat. 13. 47 48. pearl of price the Lord Jesus Christ which is the riches of the soul then we poure out our prayers which Mic. 6. 3. 2 Pet. 1. 19. are the âent of the soul and then we follow after spiritual knowledge which is the âaystâr arising in the soul The School men welâ obsââve that the injunction of the fourth Commandment is abstinânce from servile works but the end of the command is spiritual duty and holiness The design of the Sabbath was never principally the case of the flesh but the labour of the heart the hearts of serious Christians then working like Bees in the Garden drawing honey from the flowers of every Ordinance There is a significative end of the Sabbath it signifies a three-fold rest Sabbatum praecipitur Judaeis ob triplicem rationem 1. Propter avaritiam ut vacentur divinis 2. Ne errent circa creationem 3 Vt significet triplicem quietâm 1. Christi in sepulchro 2. Mântis à pecâatis 3. Beatorum in patriâ Aquin. First The Sabbath in the time of the Law signified Christs rest in the grave When our Saviour having run through the toyles and sorrows of the world lay down in his dormitory of dust for three days and there both Christ and the Jewish Sabbath lay asleep together onely with this difference the legal Sabbath took its last sleep and awoke no more but our dearest Lord after a short repose awaked in his blessed and glorious resurrection and went to sleep no more But the expiration of the Old Sabbath being fully accomplished at Christs burial Secondly The Gospel Sabbath arises as a Phoenix out of the ashes of the other nor is it defective in its signification but implies and signifies our rest from sinfull as well as secâlar works Indeed sin is a default on other dayes but it is Vtrisque verò gravias peccant qui otio Sabbati âbâtuntur ad suas cupiditates Aug. a prodigy on the Lords day then our bodies must not only rest from toyle but our hearts from trespass and from its sinfull traverses Augustine observes That they sin at the greatest rate of offence who abuse the leisure of the Sabbath to pursue their lusts and unlawful desires And the Schoolmen note That they who are only idle upon the Sabbath break only the fourth Commandment but those who are prophane Qui solùm ab opere servili cessant omninò peccant sed qui sequuntur suas cupiditates et libidines non solùm violant quartum sed alia transgrediuntur mandata Altissiod upon that day sin with greater obstinacy and violate other Commands their excesses and intemperance swell into the highest guiltiness What Moses in his passion did in breaking the two Tables in pieces Exod. 32. 19. Prophane persons upon a Sabbath seem to imitate and out-vy We enjoy leisure on Gods holy day but it is for divine worship we must rest but it must be in God and not lean on our couch in ease and slothfulness but we must lean on our beloved in holy and fiducial services Thirdly Our blessed Christian Sabbath further signifies Cant. 8. 5. the Saints rest in glory The present Sabbath is onely the pawn and the first fruits of a better rest to come Here the Josh 18. 7. Saints like the Tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half Necessum est dicere quod David aliam tertiam quandam requiem intellexerit puta in coelo aeternam quae nobis Christianis quavis aetate proponitur tertiam inquam requiem quae per duas praecedentes scil per requiem Sabbati et requiem in terrâ Canaan anagogicè fuit significata Alap Vltrà hunc mundum est veri Sabbati observatio Orig. Tribe of Manassah are on this side Jordan they are not yet come to Canaan Believers indeed enjoy Communion with Christ here but they are not arrived at their perfect rest in the heavenly Canaan where they shall enjoy Christ in a full fruition The present Sabbath is the twilight the dawning of that which is to come it is the morning dew of love which being melted away we shall come into the warm bosome of Christ to keep an everlasting Sabbath We are by our weekly rest lead by the hand to take notice of our perfectly complacential and undisturbed rest that which Origen calls The true Sabbath and Chrysostome calls the true Rest not that our Sabbath here is counterfeit but truth and vârity is ascribed to our Sabbath above as it is attributed to the God of the Sabbath by way of greater glory and more unlimited eminency There is a light in the Candle but the light of the Sun is more transcendent and illustrious Flaviacensis observes that our future Sabbath is the Sabbath of Sabbaths because the Saints rest is begun only here but consummated in every lineament in the Kingdom of glory the Elect shall rest in every part in soul in body from disturbance from all afflictions labours miseries temptations Tertia est requies quae est verè quies scil regnum caelorum quod assecuti verè quiescunt à laboribus afflictionibus Chrysost no evil One to tempt no evil heart to seduce Hesychius calls our future Sabbath our rest in Heaven an intelligible rest as if the soul did never fully understand its rest and quietation till it took up its abode in the bosome of Christ CHAP. XXIV A Collation and Comparison of the Jewish with the Christian Sabbath OUr Meditation on the morning of Gods holy day having Exod. 16. 23. Exod. 35. 2. Rev. 1. 10. passed through the several ends of the Sabbath it may a little look back and compare the Jews seventh day and the Christians first day together their Sabbath and our Lords day and much delight will flow from both to refresh our meditations And here we may compare the legal and the Evangelical Sabbath both in their agreements and in their differences for when they do not sound the same tune yet they yield the same and sweet harmony The Jewish and the Christian Sabbath agree in this they are both the seventh part of the week though the duties Dies septimus non propter numerum septenarium aut utiquam propter ipsius qualitatem sed quoniam saââtae erat quieti consecratus à domino ideòque pro sancto habendus est sanctis actibus meditationibus sanctisicondus Musc of our Sabbath be of a sweeter tast yet they are not of a longer duration The ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Jom of the Hebrews is as long as the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hemera of the Christians the Lords day is a day and no more and so was the Jews Seventh day both contain
other things look with a delightfull aspect Thus the Psalmist tripudiates and exults with joy Psal 118. 24. He was in a high degree of joy And indeed if the feast be made for laughter as the wise man Vmbra fit ex corpore et luce et est itinerantium refrigerium ab aestu et pratectio a tem pestate Christus umbra et tutela est et refrigerium humani generis quod gravi peccatorum onere premebatur Honor. speaks Eccles 10. 19. That day wherein Christ feasteth his Saints with the choysest mercies may well command the greatest spiritual mirth The Lords day is the highest thanksgiving day and deserves much more then the Jewish Purim to be a day of gladness and a good day Esth 9. 17 18 19. On this day we enjoy communion with Saints and shall we not rejoyce in those excellent ones Psal 16. 3. On this day we have fellowship with Christ and shall not we sit under his shadow with great delight Cant. 2. 3. On this day we are partakers of the Ordinances and shall we not be joyfull in the house of prayer Isa 56. 7. On this day we have special converse with the God of Ordinances and who would not draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation Isa 12. Zach. 2. 10. Phil. 4. 10. Isa 58. 13. 3. Surely when we are in the midst of so much musk we must needs be perfumed it is Gods command as well as our priviledge to make the Sabbath a delight And whether we are dilating on Gods works or attending on Gods word which are two principal duties of this day they both call for joy and delight David saith Thy testimonies are my delight Psal 119. 24. 77. And Solomon tells us Prov. 25. 25. As cold water to a thirsty soul so is good news from a far Countrey Now the word of God contains the best newes that ever was discovered to the Sons of men Peace on Earth good will towards men Luke 2. 14. and the glad tidings of Gaudete semper si non actu tamen habttu Cajet the Gospel came from Heaven a far Country Indeed the Apostle commands us to rejoyce evermore 1 Thes 5. 16. A Christian may rejoyce with all kinds of joy Phil. 4. 4. First With natural joy in those things which are good Semper subest materia laetandi sanctis et exhibitis et promissis Bern. to nature in health strength beauty riches c. Secondly With spiritual joy with joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. The Saints must rejoyce in the favour of God and in the fruits and pledges thereof viz. In the pardon of sin in sanctification in hopes of glory Thirdly The Saint as he may rejoyce in all kinds of joy so in all states and conditions both in an adverse and in a 2 Tim. 2. 19. prosperous estate Fourthly In all ages in his Youth and in his declining years Luke 10. 20. Fifthly In all dayes both in our day and in Gods day Gaudete de exhibitione gaudete de promissione quoniam et res plena gaudio et spes plena gaudio gaudete quia expectatis praemia dextrae Heb. 12. 23. 1 Kings 8. 56. However it is Gods Children alwayes have or may have cause of rejoycing The Promise is Their joy shall no man take from them John 16. 22. To this end the Comforter is given to abide with them for ever John 14. 16. And one of the fruits of the holy Spirit is joy Gal. 5. 22. And Bernard observes there will be a continual supply of joy First In things exhibited and already given as the writing of the Saints names in Heaven Luke 10. 20. by an unchangeably decree so that it is as possible for God to cease to be God as to alter his decree of election To which may be added other blessings depending as sins pardoned the person justified the nature healed the soul sanctified all which are matter of unspeakable joy and delight Rom. 8. 37 38. But Secondly If the things exhibited should faile us yet we might rejoyce in things promised and these promises are fresh springs of continual joy For Gods promises to his Promissimes divinae non excidant neque irritae reddantur people are Cabinets filled with the richest Jewels Exchequors filled with the greatest Treasures First They are infallible for their certainty 2 Cor. 1. 20. Secondly They are before the world for their Antiquity Tit. 1. 2. Thirdly They are precious promises for their rarity In dei promissis nulla est falsitas quia in faciendis nulla est omnipotentis difficultas Fulgent 2 Pet. 1. 4. The promises are a firm inheritance to the Saints Heb. 6. 12. They are unshaken pledges of better things Rom. 4. 21. The Saint hath a double pledge to assure him of future happiness 1. One within him in his own breast Gods holy spirit of promise Eph. 1. 13 14. 2. One without him in Gods word those glorious promises recorded in sacred writ I say glorious for the promises are vessels laden with the richest fraught Promissiones sunt bona in coelis nobis promissa et haec possidebunt fides et patientia Alap 1. The Saints have promises for all seasons 1. For times of affliction Isa 43. 2. Isa 63. 9. 2. For times of temptation Satan shall not buffet them but they shall have the shield of a promise to defend themselves 2 Cor. 12. 9. 3. For times of decay and declination when the stock of grace runs low and the poor believer languisheth in his inward man Phil. 1. 6. 4. For times of necessity Mat. 6. 33. Heb. 13. 5. He that Haec celebris est promissio non te deseram neque derelinquam hebraice ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã deus erit scutum et clypeus suis hath the fruit shall have the paper and the packthread to bind it up in The Earth is the Lords Psal 24. 1. as well as the Heavens Isa 58. 14. 5. For times of prosperity Deut. 28. 8. Their good things shall be sweetned with his goodness and he will shed a perfume upon all their encrease Secondly As the promises which God hath made to his people are calculated for all times so are they repleat and enriched with all varieties of good things Numb 14. 10 1 Tim. 4. 8. Deut. 19. 8. First Of good things temporal Canaan a land flowing with milk and honey was the land of promise Deut. 19. 8. The good things of this life which smooth and sweeten our way to eternity are onely waters which gush out from the rock of a promise Isaac's store of Servants Gen. 26. 14. and Gen. 18. 18. Jacob's store of Cattle Gen. 30. 43. they were the fruit of a Gen. 22. 18. promise made to Abraham that God would bless his Seed Acts 3. 25. Gen. 12. 3. And Secondly So of spiritual good things of pardoning grace Isa 55. 1. of converting grace
Jer. 31. 33. of growth in Promissio facta est Christianis amicitiae dei remissionis peccatorum et regni coelestis grace Hos 14. 5. the gift of a Christ lay under a promise Gen. 3. 15. Luke 1. 71. the gift of the spirit was bound up in a promise Acts 2. 33. Gal. 3. 14. If a new heart be put into our bosomes it is the issue of a promise Ezek. 36. 26. And God in a pursuance of a promise breaths a new spirit Ezek. 36. 26. into our souls Shall we rise higher Thirdly God hath made promises to his people of things eternal Of a future Crown 2 Tim. 4. 8. Of a glorious Kingdom Luke 12. 32. Of a heavenly Throne Rev. 3. 21. Of eternal Inrer pocula Germaniae clamatum est spiritus calriviamus est spiritus melancholicus Sclat Life John 3. 16. Of everlasting Habitations Luke 16. 9. Of everlasting Salvation Heb. 5. 9. And therefore how much are they to be censured who accuse Religion of sadness and sorrow and upon the force of that argument draw back to courses of sin and prophaneness What do they less then blaspheme both the God and the priviledges of the Saints Joy is a constant dish with the people of God but Cujusmodi est gaudium quod est in domino In his quae secundum domini mandatum fiunt gaudere debemus Basil their joy is hidden Manna it lodges in their bosomes not in their looks their musick-room is a little more retired the world doth not hear their melody Look upon the Saints in their lowest condition when grace it self is at an ebb at very low water Yet then First The Lord assures us that little is a pledge of more 2 Cor. 1. 22. And even Secondly That little he will enable to get a final victory Rev. 3. 8 9. And in Rev. 2. 7. the promise is made to him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã who is overcoming not to him who hath already overcome And Thirdly That little shall be kept perfect to the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Thes 3. 10. Phil. 1. 6. So many causes of constant joy are there to all Gods Children what roses do they walk upon here even while they are in a valley of tears In their bosomes lies a pardon like Aarons Rod blossoming in the Ark their consciences are serene and calme with holy peace nay they can laugh in a storm they can joy in tribulations Rom. 5. 3. Jam. 1. 2. And they can Gaudium Christiano utile est immò necessarium ut jucunde vivat et alacritèr in virtutibus pergat glory in a ship-wrack they can triumph in death it self 1 Cor. 15. 55. And therefore the Apostle inculcates and reduplicates the command for holy joy Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes again I say rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. But though the joy of the Saints open to the wide Common they can and may rejoyce in all things and in all times yet in the inclosure of Gods blessed Sabbath the freshest and sweetest springs of joy are to be found And thus much for the third duty Jam. 1. 2. to be performed on the morning of a Sabbath before we go to the publick congregation Viz. Labouring with our own hearts The fourth duty to be discharged before the publick on Gods holy day is private reading of the Scriptures What a charge doth God lay upon the Jews to be acquainted with Deut. 11. 18. the Scriptures Deut. 6. 7 8 9. And these words which I command thee this day they shall be in thy heart and thou Verbum dei in nos totos admittamus in mentem in memoriam in affectus in vitam ut nulla sit pars nostri in quâ verbum dei non inhabitet shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest in the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up and thou shalt bind them as a sign upon thy hand and they shall be as frontlets between thy eyes and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates Let us summe up this charge First Gods word it must possess every part it must be between our eyes for direction it must be a sign on our hands to regulate our works and operations it must be lodged in Evangelica historia debet esse perpetua lectio cujuslibet hominis Christiani Mirandul our hearts to sanctifie and spiritualize our love and affections that the heart may be warm but not feavourish Secondly Gods word must possess every room it must be our discourse in our Parlors where we use to sit it must be our meditation in our chambers where we use to lie and if we take the air abroad this holy word must be our companion this must be testis conversationis the witness of our conversation Thirdly Gods word must possess every season It must go to bed with us to sanctifie the farewell thoughts of the day that we shut up the day and our eyes with God if we rise in the morning it must be our morning star to guide us our morning dew to soften us our morning Sun to warm us Ne patiamini verbum dei esse quasi peregrinum et foris sâare sed intromittatur in domicilium cordis nostri versetur assiduè in animis nostris non secus ac domestici versantur in domo suâ immò sit nobis non minùs noâum ac familiare quà m illi esse solent qui apud nos habitant Daven it must be our first company and our best Breakfast in the morning And Fourthly Gods word must not only possess the inside of the house but the out-side too it must be written on the posts and the gates to shew its own excellency that we must hold it out and own it in the view of all the world This is the summe of the charge and indeed it is not unnecessary if we consider the Scriptures are the guide of our youth 2 Tim. 3. 15. They are the cure of our minds Mat. 22. 29. Ignorance of Gods word breeds errour and spiritual distempers in us They are the comfort of our souls Rom. 15. 4. They are both a Cordial and a Julip to warm us in cold affliction and to cool us in careless prosperity They are the treasure of our hearts Col. 3. 16. He is the potent and mighty man who is an Apollos in the Scriptures Acts 18. 24. Nay they are the breathings of the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 20. They are not only mens advantage but the divine issue of the third person in the Trinity The result of the whole is this if God lay so much weight on reading of the Scriptures and man receives so much advantage by acquaintance with them no season fitter for this duty then the morning of a Sabbath First The reading of the word prepares for the hearing of it that we
may arrive at the Nobility of those Bereans who searched the Scriptures whether what the Apostles delivered were consonant and agreeing to them or no Acts 17. Acts 17. 11. Ignorantia negloctus dei ô quantum malum est et in quot et quanta mala Gentilââ per hanci ignorantiam inciderint Alap 11. By constant reading on the Sabbath morning we come acquainted with the body of the Scriptures and so are fitted to entertain particular truths which may be delivered in publick by the Minister Well read Lawyers easily understand particular cases Ignorant persons like Children take in what ever is in the spoon whether Sugar or Poyson An ignorant Auditory wholly depends upon the conscience of the Minister and blind-fold grasp all with an implieit faith they drink in all which is delivered and so most probably the dregs at the bottom But our preparatory reading in private will enable us the more to judge and discern of publick Gospel discoveries Secondly Nor is it a small advantage that Gods word should take livery and scizin of our hearts in the beginning Quo semel est imbuta recens servâbit odorem testa diu of the Sabbath and so accommodate our hearts for future Ordinances Vessels retain the sent of the first liquor The Summer much follows the quality of the Spring Conversing in our closets and families with Gods word will much conduce to a spiritual frame of heart The tracing of a Chapter or two in the morning at home will mould the heart to a sweeter compliance with Christ in his Ordinances The reading of the Law made Josiah weep 2 Chron. 34. 27. and then he was flexible for every good purpose Thirdly Theophylact hath an excellent argument to this purpose One great end of the Sabbath saith he is to give Lex homines praecipit in Sabbatum quiescere ut lectioni vacent homines Theoph. us respit for the reading of the Scriptures which is meant not onely of the publick reading in the Church but also of private reading at home the Gospel being nothing else but Christ opened and expanded to study Christ is the purport not onely of our publick but private devotion To read the Scriptures then is one duty which must take up our private leisure on the morning of a Sabbath Fourthly The Lord Christ and his Apostles in alledging Mat. 21. 13. the places of the Old Testament do generally say That it is written or as it is written in the Book of the Psalmes or Luke 20. 42. this was spoken by the Prophet Isaiah Now how much Acts 1. 20. shame will befall us if when the Minister alledgeth Scripture Acts 2. 16. quotations we may say of the word as they did of the Holy Ghost they had not so much as heard whether there be an Holy Ghost or no Acts 19. 2. So we never read of such a Text we never met with such a Scripture we never were acquainted with such an example as is cited by the Preacher This might discolour our faces with blushes of shame and regret It was a sharp redargution of our Saviour which he gave to the Jewes when he remitted them to search the Scriptures John 5. 39. they making their Scriptural knowledge the greatest of their boast and ostentation And indeed to be a stranger to the Oracles of God neither becomes our interest nor our profession And Fifthly In this the Disciple must not be greater Cultus ipse publicus quà m maximè solennitèr est celebâandus et postulat necessariò illâ exercitia Scripturum lectionis meditationis precum c. Quibus paratiores simus ad publicum cultum ut ille etiam in nobis verè efficax reddatur Ames then the Master On the morning of the week day He preached the word John 8. 2. And in the morning of the Lords day we should read it which as he did dictate we must survey if he was early in the dispensation of it it well becomes us to take the dawnings of the Sabbath for its perusal and lection let us take the dropings of this honey-comb at the first effusion And thus much for those Duties which are incumbent upon us in the morning of a Sabbath before we associate with the Assembly of Gods people We must dress our inward as well as our outward man before we come to the Congregation CHAP. XXVII How we must demean our selves in the Publick Assembly on the Holy Sabbath HAving thus performed our Morning Exercises in private Psal 84. 1 2 Psal 122 1. Psal 87. 2. how chearfully should we repair to the Publick Assemblies and draw nigh to the publick Ordinances on this acceptable day of grace and salvation when Christ Isa 2. 2 3. Psal 42. 4. sits in state scattering treasures of grace among hungry and thirsty souls who are poor in spirit and wait for spirituall Almes David admired the amiableness of Gods Tabernacles Deus pluris facit preces in Ecclesiâ quà m domi factas non ob locum sed ob considerationem multitudinis fidelium deum communi consensu invocantium Riv. Psal 84. 1. and he longed for the Courts of God rejoycing when they said to him Let us go to the house of the Lord Psal 42. 4. And the Prophet Isaiah speaking of Gospel times seems to foretell the disposition of Gospel Saints Many people shall go and say Come let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his wayes and we will walk in his paths Isa 2. 2 3. And the Apostle adviseth us by no means to forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is Heb. 10. 25. whom he brands with reproof and reproach Publick Ordinances they are our spiritual Exchange our holy Mart our heavenly Fairs where we buy up and fit our selves with all heavenly Commodities In these seasons we store our selves with grace knowledge and comforts which may abundantly serve us till the revolution of another Sabbath It was once the sad complaint of the Church That the wayes of Sion did mourn because none came to her Assemblies Lam. 1. 4. The want of publick Ordinances might put a Nation in sack-cloath they being the badge of the Church and the glory of the Kingdome Indeed holy duties in private they are of great use and have their blessing But publick Ordinances are the chief work of the Sabbath It is worthy our observation that the Sabbath and publick service are by God himself both joyned together Ye shall keep my Sabbaths saith God and reverence Ezra 10. 1. my Sanctuary Luke 19. 30. The Sabbath and the Psal 68. 26. Sanctuary are coupled as being twins of happiness Every thing is beautifull in its Season Private duties are beautiful Numb 10. 3. and are in season every day But publick Ordinances are never so lovely and beautifull never so much in their full sea as upon Gods
Now then a sacred work is no sleepy work Our enjoyment of God in Ordinances is a day of salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. It is no night to sleep in It is against reason to 2 Cor. 6. 2. sleep with the Sun shining in our faces In Gospel Ordinances the Sun of righteousness shines in the face of the soul it doth shed its warming and its winning beams upon us The Gospel is called bright John 3. 19. which is to rouse us not to rock us asleep It was once a sharp expostulation of our Saviour What could ye not watch with me Mat. 26. 40. one hour The same query may be put to every sleepy hearer 2. In Ordinances the work we are employed in is opus animae the souls work Will the prisoner fall asleep when he is begging his pardon What are we doing in prayer but suing out our pardons and making up our peace with our offended God The Heir will not fall asleep while he is Evangelium est sublustre quidcam et praegustus clarae lucis sive ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. gloriae divinae Quae revelabitur in coelis Chrys hearing the Will read in which he is highly concerned the discoveries of the Gospel are the Fathers will concerning his Children and when we meet in Ordinances we are hearing this will and is that a time of sleep and drowsiness In Ordinances the case of our souls is agitated heaven and eternity are proposed life and death are set before us the silver trumpet of the Gospel sounds and is that a time of sloth and oscitancy Ordinances are the way to life the means of grace not onely the radicall moisture to preserve spiritual life but the very first means to beget it and shall we sleep in Ordinances When the wind blows right shall the mariner betake himself to his bed or to his tackle to drown himself in sloath or to hoise sail and trace the floating Idem sermo aliis est propiâiatio ad vitam aliis condemnatio ad mortem quae diversitas non verbo sed nostrae incredulitati debetur fic admonitiones exhortationes doctrinae castigationes quibââ delinquentes ad recipiscentiam vocantur contemptores et impaenitentes judicantur in die ultimo Muse waves Every opportunity of grace is a good wind for heaven and shall we sleep away that seasonable and precious gale How then shall we finish our voyage to eternity We hear Proclamations with great attention Every Sermon is Christs Proclamation to proclaim pardon to all penitent sinners who will come in and lay down the weapons of sin and lust and submit themselves to the Scepter and Obedience of Jesus Christ and shall we sleep in hearing this royal Proclamation It is very observable what awakening and heart-penetrating expressions the Prisoner uses at the bar and there is nothing unobserved by him but with much greediness and attention he hearkens to the Evidence of the Witnesses to the Verdict of the Jury to the Sentence of the Judge and no wonder it is for his life Now the word we hear it is that which shall judge us at the great day John 12. 48. By it our eternal estate shall be disposed either to life or death that blessed word shall cast or crown us and shall we sleep away this word Shall it not then condemn us for mutes and so to be pressed to eternal death Our life our peace our souls are all concerned in the entertainment of this word and we sleep and dream it away surely greater frenzy cannot befall the Children of men Sleeping in Ordinances is a great affront to the richest priviledge we enjoy on this side heaven The time of worship is the souls Term time a few choyce minutes to gain glory in and shall we sleep away these golden filings of time these sweet Veniente Christo mors vigebat et regrâbat sed Christus ejus vigorem et regnâm sustulit et destruxit Alap opportunities of the soul when Christ is wooing us to court us to a Crown Did we ever understand the true value of Ordinances 1. Ordinances they are the purchases and price of Christs blood that we have a Gospel to hear divine truth to entertain this is the Revenue of Christs death The Apostle tells us Christ brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. Christ by dying brought this life Christ by descending into the dark grave brought this immortality to light And the Gospel is the full declaration of these glorious atchievements And Christ by his Heb. 10. 20. blood hath opened a new and living way for prayer to the throne of grace Heb. 10. 20. And shall a priviledge purchased with blood be slept away We will not throw away Diamonds fetcht from far with care and hazzard nor cast away Rings left us as tokens of love by endeared friends why should we sleep away opportunities not purchased with treasure but tears not with wealth but blood nay the best blood which ever ran in the veins of humane nature 2. Ordinances are the Benjamins mess which are given to few in the world some corners onely of the earth are guilded and guided by this light Hath God indulged us with these distinguishing opportunities and must they pass away from us in a dream This very ingratitude is not so much a trespass as a prodigy Shall Christ select us out to feast with Cant. 2. 4. Esth 7. 1. him in his hanqueting house as once the King selected Haman to feast with him with the Queen and shall we sleep at the table when we should feast upon Gospel dainties shall we drowsily throw away those seasons of love nay the best love which few in the world are honoured with 3. In Ordinances we have the offers of the sweetest grace Quia filius dei est vivus cum Patre et sp sancto deus et quia secundum humanam naturam ad patrem abiit et ad dextram patris est evectus et omnem in coelo et in terrâ potestatem accepit indeut verus deus verus homo preces credentium exaudit ac ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã orationem ex fide in Christum prosectam non exaudiri Ger. Prayer hath the key of the treasury door John 14. 14. where our comforts are banked up In hearing we have the gracious offers of Christ and in him of life and happiness and shall all these offers these paramount tenders of love be slept away Shall we shut our eyes shut our hands shut our souls against all these rich revenues freely proffered in Gospel dispensations Beasts by natures instinct will not sleep at the provender nor at their manger 4. Ordinances they are precious but transcient priviledges As we sometimes pass upon the water and view a stately structure but we quickly lose the sight of it our prospect is upon the speed so yet a little while and we shall pray no more hear no more enjoy
Prophet Jeremy adviseth us Lam. 3. 41. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens The soul is principally interested in all holy duties First Not only because in all holy services God principally eyes the heart Prov. 23. 26. Or Secondly Because Gospel Ordinances chiefly influence and aim at the heart But Thirdly Likewise because the welfare of the soul is the only Port we sail to in all our attendance upon Gospel opportunities It is the souls conviction the souls conversion the souls edification and building up in its most holy faith which is the grand design in every Evangelical administration Now for the composure of our inward man in Eph. 3. 16. holy Ordinances Let us apply our understandings to the word and the work we are about The wise man saith Prov. 20. 27. The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord and when we Haec lux in intellectu in tenebris micans sovenda est studio et diligenti operum dei commentatione et experimentis et otio veluti rubigine corrumpitur Cartw. come to holy Ordinances it is both our duty and our wisdom to snuff this candle that it may burn the brighter to see the mysteries of the Gospel and this is suitable to the Apostolical Counsel 1 Pet. 1. 13. Gird up the loâns of your mind A metaphor taken from travellers who gird their garments close that they may not be impeded and hindred in their journey When we draw nigh to God in Ordinances we must bend our minds and be intent on the word and drink in truth as the parched ground doth the rain we must screw up our minds to an acurate observation of what ever is revealed unto us from divine Writ If the Gospel John 3 19. be light it is the eye of the understanding must behold this light If the Gospel be a day it is the eye of the mind must Rom. 13. 12. discern this day Some hear the word and understand it Isa 6. 10. not and this is Gods judgment But some hear the precious truths of God and entertain them not and this is mans sin Men shut the eye of their understanding by carelesness and neglect We should hear the word as condemned men their pardons as Legatees the Wills wherein their Legacies are set down with that intenseness of minde Preaching if we spur not up the minde to pursue it is a noise Pater nobis deâ illuminatos oculos cordis nostrâ ut ejus lumine illustâati Christum plenè agnoscamus Ambr. not the word an inarticulate sound not soul-saving Doctrine And that our understanding may discharge its office prayer must precede That God would open the eyes of our minde that we may see the wonderfull things of the Law Psal 119. 34. and we must beg eye-salve Rev. 3. 18. and that God would give us the spirit of Revelation Eph. 1. 18. to shed a light upon our understandings Luke 24. 45. that we may dive deep into the profound Mysteries of the Gospel We know not what ardent prayer and a diligent minde may Christus solus operit intelleâtum Scripturarum Chemnâ Mel in Ore melos in Aure. Bern. accomplish towards Scripture knowledge Indeed the Gospel is proportionate to every thing in man it is honey to the taste and Gold to the interest of man Psal 19. 10. It is musick to his ear Ezek. 33. 32. light to his eye John 19. and comfort to his heart Rom. 15. 3. And pity it is the shutting of an eye a little rareless remisness and not bending the minde should rob the soul of such unsearchable treasure We must deal with our hearts to embrace the word in the dispensations of it The Gospel is not only to be let in by Prov. 23. 23. Verbem dei sât domesticus non peregrinus non forâ stare sed in domo cordis continuò versari Daven our apprehensions but to be lockt in by our affections and we are to entertain it not only in the light of it but in the love of it The Apostle complains 2. Thes 2. 10. That many did not entertain the truth in the love thereof that they might be saved The truths of God must have the heart and we buy them not by our audience but our espousals The word must dwell in us Col. 3. 16. and not as a transient guest but as an inmate Scholars may understand the word but Christians embrace it It is a rare speech of the holy Psalmist Psal 119. 20. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgments at all times The word is the Mat. 13. 23. seed the heart the ground where this seed must be thrown John 5. 40. David calls the Law not his light but his love Psal 119. 97. and his delight Psal 119. 35. When we come to Ordinances we must resolve to treasure up truth and entertain it as Lot the Angels Gen. 19. 3. Or the Virgin Mary the wonders of her time Luke 2. 19. A refractory will renders all opportunities of grace abortive The two Disciples Luke 24. 32. which came from Emmaus question one with another Whether their hearts did not burn within them when Christ had opened the Scriptures to them intimating to us that the heart is properly the Altar upon which the fire of the word is to be laid to the sacrificing of our lusts and the inflaming of our graces And it is the glorious promise of God to write his Law upon our hearts Jer. 31. 33. Let us meet this blessed promise in bringing our hearts to every Gospel dispensation We must put our memories upon employment when we come to holy Ordinances The memory it is the Secretary of the soul and as at Council boards the Secretary cannot be absent so at Ordinances which are the Council table Acts 20. 27. where soul-concernments are agitated and transacted the memory must not be absent We must not write the word when preached to us in dust but in marble not in a heedless neglect but in a faithfull remembrance We do not throw Pearls into sieves to drop out The paradox is greater Memoâia ignis gehennae est âemedium apârimè utile contrà omnes tentationes Chrysost Rev. 14. 6. when we put the eternal Gospel into a treacherous and faithless memory Surely we shall never practice that truth we cannot remember if we do not mind the word we shall never live it We cannot read blotted lines or understand torn papers and if the word lie onely upon the surface of the memory it will never get within the bark of the life That Sun-dyall will never give us the time of the day which wants the gnomon to cast the shadow charge thy memory to retain every truth thou hearest Let it pick up the filings John 6. 12. of divine Truth that nothing may be lost The richest Fringes are so many several threads wrought together We do not Agnoscamus
partakers of And indeed none but a corrupt heart would chain up holy discourse upon the Lords day that heavenly season when gracious words should be our dialect If the word of God dwell richly in us Col. 3. 16. Inhabitants will not always keep within doors we shall bring forth our treasure for the enriching and edifying of others And let us not excuse our selves with a pretence of shamefastness The shame of the world will not keep us from vain why then from godly discourse Sweet and spiritual communication Christiani in primaevâ ecclesiae aetaie non tam caenà m caenabant quà m diciplinam Tertul. Apol. c. 39. is none of those fruits whereof we may be ashamed Rom. 6. 21. Nor let ignorance be alledged for an excuse ignorance it self might induce thee to propound things profitable which will feed good discourse the Question will beget an answer and the Answer will bring forth a progeny of heavenly communion But in a word what do our tables especially on the Lords day without savory and Christian discourse differ from a manger After our meal our dinner is over then follows not onely the digestion of our food but of the word that better food John 6. 27. Verùm non publicè modo sed privatim hunc ipsum diem sanctâ pietatis officiiâ qualia sunt sacrae Scripturae lectio et meditatio domestica colloquium de rebus sacris atque charitatis officiis transigendum censemus Leid Prof. which nourisheth unto eternal life and this will be the best wine at the end of our meal John 2. 10. We must repeat over discourse over pray over that word we hear in the Morning in the publick Congregation Indeed Truth is most pleasing when most tasted David calls the word Honey Psalm 19. 10. and honey pleases not the eye but the palate it is better food then prospect Then the word doth its work not when it is onely heard but when it is ruminated on and is not onely discovered but digested it then doth most good to us when it is riveted in us fastned nails help forward the building not those which lye loose up and down when we work Gods word upon our hearts this is like inlaid Gold which makes the richest embroydery Hearing may bring a truth to the head but meditation and a careful pondering works it into the heart It is the seething of Milk makes the Cream The Bee sucks the flowr and then works it in his Hive and makes honey of it Satan himself is called an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11. 14. He knows very much It is not truth in the head but riveted fastned and setled in the heart which speaks us to be translated from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Acts 26. 18. Chrysostome in one of his excellent Homilies upon Matthew layes it as a charge upon Christians That when we depart from the Ecclesiastical Assembly we should not in any case entangle our selves in businesses of a contrary nature but as soon as we come home turn over the holy Scriptures and call our wives and children to confer about those things which were delivered in publick and after they have been deeply rooted in our minds then to proceed to provide for those things which are necessary for this life And the same worthy Father makes the Similitude ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysost Sciendum est quòd non sufficit ut concionibus dei sabbati attendaâus et doctrinam bonam recipiamus et ut nomen dei invocemus sed ut haec omnia digeramus et ad hanc rem ipsi quoque transformemur Calv. Acts 17. 11. Si detis operam verbo ut inde pietatem et omnem salutiseram sapientiam discatis Haec est meta studii nostri et sic instruamur expenââ scripturarum Daven Psal 119. 15 23 48 78 148 97 99. When saith he we retire from Fields in their beauty and flourish we bring some Rose or Violet home with us And when we come from a goodly Supper we bring some remaines of those dainties and give them to our friends And when we have been in publick Ordinances shall we not bring some doctrine and heavenly admonition to our wives friends ad children when this doctrine is more profitable then the flowers of the field or the dainties of the Table Heavenly Truths are Roses which will not shed fruits which will not perish and delicacies which will not corrupt c. So then the word which we hear in the publick Assemblies that heavenly food must be concocted it must be walked down by holy Meditation staked down by good and seasonable Communication fastned upon the soul by holy musing and ardent Prayer The seed in the ground brings forth grain not the seed upon the top of the clods The digested word will bring forth twins delight and obedience Women when they dress themselves they do not walk by the Looking-glass but set themselves before it and spend some time in fastning every pin onely to hear the Word is but to walk by the Glasse but repetition discourse prayer and contemplation must fasten every truth upon the soul and so it will look amiable and beautiful The clean beasts chew the cud Levit 11. 3. The careful Christian will whet the word upon his own and as much as may âe upon anothers heart The Bereans obtained the title of Noble not from hearing but examination of the VVord not for any thing they did in the publick Assembly but from what they did at home The winnowed Corn is fit for use when it hath passed the Flail and the Fan. The Word digested is fit for practice when it hath passed the meditation of the head the discussion and discourse of the tongue the pondering and the laying up of the heart The hearing of the Word onely is but a beautiful Prospect which is delectable but not durable but the weighing of the VVord in the scales of judgment the beating of it out by the labours of the minde makes it a rich treasure and a stock of divine counsel for the life to spend upon The Psalmist no lesse then seven times in one Psalm professes that the Law was his meditation he did not run over the beauty of it with a glance of his eye or pass over the musique of it as the playing of a tune and so lay aside the Instrument but his thoughts did dwell upon it as the Scholar upon his books Let us as our Saviour saith go and do so likewise and let us remember that on Gods blessed Day and on Gods blessed VVord our Luke 10. 37. work is much at home in our Families and with our hearts Let us spend the interval between the Morning and Evening worship in publique in holy prayer Prayer is suitable to every division of a Sabbath It doth not onely prepare Homines sunt instar terrae cursemen verbi dei committitur quaeque culturá ministerii praeparata
Jer. 3. 13. forgive the sins of our prayers that our dull ear flat heart ranging mind floating thoughts treacherous memory may be pardoned to us and that the sins of our Sabbath may not sowre the sweets of our Sabbath and so our precious priviledges become as Vriahs letters whose contents were the destruction of the bearer We let fall an Evening dew of Aliud Sabbatâm et alia requies relinquitur et restat populo dei popu-lo fideli et Christiano putà requies gaudium et solennitas coelestis figurata per Sabbatum Judaicum tears upon our very services on Gods holy day 2. Petitory But our sighs must not so stop our language but we must be begging as well as moaning and there are many things we must importune the Lord for the winding up of his Sabbath we must beseech him that his smiles would speak his acceptation of what we have performed that holy day that his spinit would feal upon us those instructions which we have heard that day that our lives might conform to those blessed ordinances which we have enjoyed that day that a full fruition of himself may succeed the sweet communion we have had with himself that day and that the present Sabbath may be the harbinger of an Eternal Rest which is the glorious reserve God hath made for his Saints Heb. 4. 9. We must likewise pray that every lust complained of that day may receive its deaths wound that every sin confessed and acknowledged that day may receive its full pardon that every opportunity of life possessed that Ecclesia ââ domus orâtionis quia in eá a deo petimus peccatorum veniam vitiorum victoriam virtutum robur et incrementum in tentationibus constantiam in gratiâ et virtutibus progressum felicem mortem et sa lutiferam beatitudinem Alap in Is day may receive its designed end Wrestling with God is never more seasonable then on the day of God then it is both seasonable and sweet therefore let it put its last hand to our Sabbath Of all graces faith wears the Crown Eph. 6. 16. Of all duties Prayer wears the Garland Isa 45. 11. This is the favourite in the Court of heaven to whom the King of Kings can deny nothing Gods house must be called a house of Prayer Isa 56. 7. not of hearing not of singing not of receiving but of praying One letter in Gods name is he is a God hearing prayer Psal 65. 1 2. It is prayer can sanctifie afflictions it is prayer can bless provisions it is prayer can sweeten Ordinances and make them marrow and fatness to the soul Psal 63. 5. Prayer is the Porter to keep the door of our lips Prayer is the strong hilt which defends the strength of our hands Prayer is the Chymist which turns all into Gold and it is prayer can turn a Sabbath into that which is better then gold Let Prayer then bring up the rear of our services on a Sabbath 3. Gratulatory In the close of a Sabbath let us triumph 1 Thes 5. 16. and ââjoyce in the Lord and in the cool of the evening let us Semper gaudete si non actu tamen habitu Cajet not lose the heat of the day Let not our Sabbath be as Nebuchadnezzars Image whose head was of Gold breast and armes of silver but the feet and lower parts iron and clay Let not our hearts in the morning of a Sabbath have heavenly Dan. 2. 32 33. heat and be in a golden temper and in the evening as dead and cold as the iron and the clay It is very sad when our affections on a Sabbath are like the grass the Prophet speaks of Psal 90. 6. In the morning it flourisheth Zach. 14. 6 7. and in the evening it is cut down dried up and withered Some experienced Christians can say that upon the continued 1 Chr. 23. 30. care throughout the Sabbath in the evening thereof they have received large enlivenings of soul Plutarch reports of a River which runs sweet in the morning but bitter at night Let not this be the emblem of our condition but rather as Rivers have their Evening Tides as well as their morning so let it be full water with us in the evening of the Sabbath and then we have many things to praise Jehovah for 1. We must magnifie the Name of God for the time of a Psal 92. 2. day that the candle of our life burned one day longer when Divine Justice might have snuffed it out Acts 17. 28. 2. For the sweetness of an Ordinance Ordinances are the souls Jubile the walks where we meet with our beloved the Golden Scepter of Grace which God holds out to Esth 4. 11. us now to come in and receive favour the white flag of heaven to bespeak us to yield to Christ and we shall be received into grace and favour And how many of these Jewels doth God set a Sabbath with 3. For farther tenders of life and salvation Let God be praised that still the bargain is driving for eternity every offer of pardon in the Gospel is renewed love the fresh soundings of Gods bowels his heart once more yearning towards the poor soul And is not this worthy our highest thanksgivings The Persians adore every new rising of the Sun and shall not we adore the Lord for repeated tenders of salvation 4. For the liberty of Gods Sanctuary which is his Royal Illustâât deus faciem suam i. e. lucidâ serenâ benignâ et amicâ facie respiciat ad templum suum et illud instauret Palace to entertain his Saints in where he gives his sweetest and most satisfactory discoveries Psal 73. 17. There are the goings of God Psal 68. 24. There God sheweth his power and shines in his Glory Psal 63. 2. There Gods strength is evidenced and his beauty unmasked Psal 96. 6. And there he causeth his face to shine Dan. 9. 17. which is the most beautifull sight on this side the beatifical vision 5. Let us praise God for the Riches of a Sabbath In this Psal 14. 20. blessed season we enjoy the treasure of his Word without Rom. 3. 2. which we should have been both unholy and unhappy and by its powerfull operations we are made both gracious and glorious and the giver of such a gift deserves the elevations of our praise and we should commemorate it with an Higgaion Selah The light of the Sun Moon and Stars are Gen. 1. 18. of great concernments to men they are the Governours of Joel 3. 15. day and night But the light of Gods Word is of infinite more value The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood Joel 2. 31. but not an Iota of Gods Word shall pass away or perish By the Word the glory and beauty Cur non potest Iota perire quia tunc periret vox et sententia legis ex Gr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
Isa 59. 2. Gods service and to waste any part of it upon our gains ease or pleasure is to rob God of his offerings which is Macrob. Saturn l. 1 c. 16. matter of complaint and condemnation Mat. 3. 8 9. While we make bold with Gods day we do but mangle it and every Illorum dierum quibusdam horis fas est jus dicere quibusdam fas non est jus dicere Macrob. waste is a wound in it Indeed Macrobius tells us That the heathens had their dies intercisos bipartite dayes which were divided between their God and themselves Semisolemnities And the Papists have their half holy dayes as St. Blacies day and others c. But we have not so learned Christ It was an excellent constitution of King Pepin of Abstinere in eo diâ primò mandamus ab omni peccato et ab omni opere carnâli ât ab omni opere terreno et ad nihil aliud vacare nâsi ad orationem et ad ecclesiâs concurrere cum summâ mentis devotione Concil Forojul cap. 13. France We command saith he That all abstain from every sin and from every carnall work and from every earthly work and to be at leisure for nothing but prayer and Church assemblies with the greatest and highest devotion and with charity to bless God who upon this day rained down Manna in the desart and fed so many thousands with bread Morsels nay grains of time are savoury upon a Sabbath The soul can feed upon the crums of such a day Sabbath wastes are the throwing away pearls the casting over-board the best goods which might enrich us to all everlasting That time thou mispendest on a Sabbath might be Gods time for the calling thee home to himself CHAP. XXXVII Some further Directions conducing to the same End Dir. 6 LEt the whole man be employed on the Sabbath 1. All the parts of the body The tongue in prayer the ear in attending the knee in submission the eye in contemplation the hand in charitable contribution This Rom. 12. 1. would be a sacred symphony and make the body not only a a reasonable but an acceptable sacrifice 2. All the faculties of the soul must understand their several offices and tasks 1. The understanding must drink in truth as the tender Deut. 32. 2. herb the small rain and the new mown grass the seasonable Nondum in observatione externorum exercitiorum Sabbati plena est sanctificatio nisi eo fine quó institutum est ut piè sanctè et interiùs haec gerantur Qui est sabbatismus internus Leid Prof. Cant. 5. 16. showers Then the understanding must be as the lights of the Sanctuary of very great use 2. The will must embrace the Doctrines of the Gospel The understanding sees the commodity the will buys it The understanding fastens the eye upon the treasures of the Gospel but the will fastens the hand the understanding is the purveyor of truth but the will brings it home 3. The affections must be employed in pursuing Christ and in holy meltings in sacred duties the soul must be all afloat in loves and delights on Gods blessed day then our affections must follow the prey our dear Jesus our Beloved who is altogether lovely 4. The Memory must be the Scribe to set down every heavenly counsel every thing which drops from the heart of God As that King of Syria whose Ambassadours catched at every word 1 Kings 20. 33. The Memory must record every soul-concernment it must be the Exchequer where the riches of Ordinances are reposited and laid up And after all we must with the Virgin Mary ponder all those things in our hearts Luke 2. 51. Thus both soul and body must be Luke 2. 45. espoused in Sabbath service they must as Joseph and Mary go both together to seek Christ as the two Disciples which went to Emmaus both must joyn in conversing with Christ Luke 24. 15. Though the body act the part of Martha in Luk. 10. 29 41. the week and is cumbred with many things yet it must act Maries part on the Sabbath and mind onely the one thing necessary and lie at Gods feet in holy dispensations Body and soul on the Sabbath are as those two Disciples that went to Christs Sepulchre John 20. 4. but the soul is that Disciple which out-runs the other and comes soonest to the end of their Enquiry the soul comes quickest in and closest up to Christ Mariners observe that the two stars Castor and Pollux when they are asunder they prognosticate Intus est in corde est sabbathum nostrum August foul weather but when together they portend a fair and calm season so when we bring onely the body to the Ordinances of a Sabbath it portends nothing but sorrow and disappointment but when soul and body both meet in sacred duties upon this holy day it is a good prognostication Mat. 6. 24. of fair weather to the Christian smiles from above Luke 16. 13. and peace from within In the duties of a Sabbath we must study devotion but not division we must not think to please the flesh and to please the Lord too on his own day Direct 7 Works of mercy do very well become the Sabbath This is a day of love and mercy If in the times of the Law the Law of Circumcision a painful Ordinance was not to be omitted Opera misericordiae nemo illo die facere prohibet ut sub vânâre egeno curare aegrotum Opem consilium afflicto laboranti afferre Cujus cura illo die nobis maxime commendatur Rivet in Decal John 7. 22. Much more in the times of the Gospel a law of Love must bind us and oblige us on a Sabbath Love is under a Command as well as Circumcision John 13. 35. Rom. 13. 10. Mercy it is the very musique of Gods Attributes Psalm 108. 4. it is the Almoner to provide for mans wants it is the service of Angels Luke 22. 43. And it is the comely dress which sets off the beauty of a Sabbath That we have a Sabbath is an Act of divine mercy and we cannot duly keep a Sabbath without employing our selves in the works of mercy Tertullian in one of his Apologies joyns Prayer reading of the Scriptures and giving Almes together as being all equally the duties of a Sabbath With him joynes issue Learned and profound Huc referenda sunt reliqua misericordiae opera quibus sabbatum minime profanatur Just Mart. Chemnitius who speaking of the Church of Brunswick saith That upon the Lords day a great multitude of people are gathered together to praise God to hear his Word to receive the Sacrament to holy Prayer to give Almes and other exercises of godliness Thus Charity is mingled with other holy duties Gualter cryes out Let us admire the goodness of God in giving us a day of Rest and shall not our bowels Dei bonitatem exosculâmur
collections for the poor every Lords day 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. A consecrated day being fittest for a consecrated dole the week day being the seeds time the Sabbath the harvest for Christian charity This sacred stock as one calls it which is laid up in the week day will be put to the highest and the holiest usury on the Lords day if the hearts of the poor be filled with food and gladness and the backs of the poor wear the livery of our bounty Just Mart. Justin Martyr speaking of the order of Christians upon the Lords day in his time affirms That Almes are given Chrysost in 1 Cor. 11. Hom 43. according to the discretion of every man for the relief of the poor the fatherless and the banished Chrysostome observes that the duty of charity is most seasonable on a Sabbath because it is a day wherein God appears in his best and largest bounty to us then he gives us his sweetest ordinances then he enricheth us with Gospel priviledges then he drops Qui aliquià recondit et thesaurizat pauperibus hic sibi ipsi thesaurum comparat et coelo reponit Alap down upon us his divine graces In our Churches at this day the poors bread is set up for distribution on the Lords day which imports the sweet correspondency between that day which is a day of love the duty which is an act of charity A learned man takes notice that this custome of relieving the poor on the Lords day was grown obsolete at Constantinople till the worthy Chrysostome restored that commanded duty And this custome well becomes the Sabbath for what are we but Almes-men at the throne of Gods grace on the time of Gods day Indeed the Sun of Righteousness as on this day arose and scattered his beams of light and love and the world rejoyced in that appearance let us scatter our hounty and laudable charity on this day that the poor Conferre in pauperes debemus in diem dominicum Buc. may rejoyce in our seasonable contributions Let us remember the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Cor. 16. 2. we render it laying by but it is treasuring up He that layes up and treasures for the poor layes up an everlasting treasure for himself And let us consider charitable words are not enough the love of the tongue only is flattery not charity it is adulation and not affection Words are cheap and the pities of language Nehem. 8. 10. Johannes Archiepiscopus are at no cost or charge The belly is not filled with roseat phrases nor the back cloathed with the embroydery Alexânââânus ãâ¦ã eò plus alâânde recipiâbât hinc ipse Deo dicere solebat videbo Domine quis citiùs deficiet an tu mihi dando an ego aliââ distribuendo Alap of indulgent language only to bid the poor be filled or be cloathed is not compassion but dirision And therefore on the Sabbath our love must be the charity of the purse and not only of the lip we must act good works and not only give good words Faith acts not without love Gal. 5. 6. and love acts not without works Heb. 13. 16. When we are blessing God on a Sabbath let the poor be blessing us it will be sweet harmony when our heart and the poors loyns both praise God together On the Sabbath we must appear before God Psal 42. 2. And the Old Law commands us not to appear before God empty Deut. 16. 16. Charity on any day is Silver Bullion but on the Sabbath is Golden Ore Let us therefore on that holy day feed the hungry refresh the thirsty receive strangers cloath the naked visit the sick and comfort those in prison this will redound to our account in that day when acts of Charity are the recorded Mat. 25. 36. characters of a sincere and sympathizing Saint Mat. 25. 35. And happily capacitate us for the donative of a Crown There is Charitas Corporalis Mercy and Charity to the bodies of others It is recorded of our Saviour that usually upon the Sabbath he visited the Sick healed the Criples Mar. 1. 30 31. Insigniora miracula edidit Christus in diem Sabbati Athan. restored the Blind and in this he leaves himself a president to others and a pattern for holy imitation We meet with divers Miracles which Christ wrought on the Sabbath on this day the eye of his pity guided the hand of his power his strength and his sweetness both conjoyned in acting and on this day Christ would be both Pastour and Physician And in his miracles on the Sabbath divers things are observable 1. He cures all varieties he healeth partial and external distempers Mat. 12. 13. he healeth the most durable and Nihil extrà legem fecit Christus curans in die Sabati Iren. lasting distempers John 5. 8. he healeth the most chronicall and habitual distempers Luke 13. 10 11. he healeth the most threatning and drowning distempers Luke 14. 4. Nay Christ on the Sabbath dislodgeth Satan himself Mark 1. 34. Diabolus vocatur potestas aeris quia in Aere miscet ventos tonitru fulgura et in A cre i. e. in mundo inter homines potestatem suam exercet eos tentando et vexando et quoquo modo nocendo Aquin. Satan at his word shall fall as lightning though he be Prince of the Air and God of this world Christ casteth out many Devils on the Sabbath Legions of Spirits are but atomes which scatter at his rebuke and disperse themselves after new enquiries Thus all varieties of diseases are cured by Christ on a Sabbath and will ye know why upon this day because this day is a season of shewing mercy 2. That which is observable in Christs cures upon the Sabbath is he justifies all his Cures as the sanctification and not the prophanation of the Sabbath Luke 13. 15 16. Works of mercy are the perfume not the pollution of a Sabbath not its eclipse but its observation And this Christ shews by the custome of the rigorous Jewes themselves and Magnae est stultitiae prohibere hominem à sanatione in diem Sabbati Theoph. by the light of nature Luke 14. 5. Christ is the Lord not the Task-master of the Sabbath And mans weale is to be carried on that day by cures as well as ordinances and the sick bed as well as the sick soul is to be visited Mercy is the sweetness and the epiphonema of a Sabbath Iraeneus avers that the true sanctification of the Sabbath Vera Sabbati sanctificatio est in operibus misericordiae Iraen lies in works of mercy We then keep the Sabbath when we are pitiful to our own souls and to our brothers body and we may serve God on that day as well in a dungeon in visiting a prisoner of Christ as in the sanctuary in waiting on an Ordinance of Christ Iraeneus observes Christ did more works of Charity upon the Sabbath then upon other Multò
then let not a Sermon satisfie without Christ in a Sermon let not reading a Chapter content without we read Christ in that Chapter As once Bernard despised that Book wherein he did not read Christ And let us alwayes remember that Ordinances they are the institutions of God and he that made a brazen Serpent heal Num. 21. 9. can make his own institutions effect our cure Object But the poor souls greatest Query is How shall I meet with God in Ordinances who shall open the door into the Gallery where I may be with my Beloved Answ In answer to this something we have to do as well as something to enjoy Our pain must go before our pleasure we must not be wanting to meet God if we expect that God should meet us Therefore We must be earnest in Prayer we must cry out O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me to thy holy Hill to thy Tabernacle then will I go unto the Altar of God unto God my exceeding joy Psalm 43. 3 4. We must make our addresses to God if we look for his approaches to us God sends a Preacher to a praying Paul God Acts 9. 11. sends an Angel to a praying Daniel God comes himself to Dan. 9. 21. a praying Solomon Prayer is an humble summons for the 1 Kings 2. 3. divine appearance it can not onely tie Gods hands Exod. Acts 10. 2 3. 32. 10. and command returns Isa 45. 10. But it can obtain Gods presence If Moses say I pray thee God presently Jam. 4. 8. replies My presence shalt go with thee Exod. 33. 13 14. If thou wilt have God meet thee in Ordinances let thy prayers be thy Harbingers to prepare room for him Be serious in preparing for Ordinances The Sun scatters the Clouds before it shines in its brightness The Bride dresseth her self to meet her Bridegroom And thou must Isa 61. 10. compose thy self with awful apprehensions Sponsa ârnata representat ecclesiam ornamentis gratiae fortitulinis decoratam immò animam sanctam gratiis spiritu adaptatam et si debilis et imperfecta Haymo 1. Of the Divine Majesty with whom thou art to converse 2. With the solemness of Gods Ordinance thou art now going to enjoy 3. With the sweetness and advantage of the season thou art now entring upon and then God will meet thy prepared soul Joseph trimmed himself and then he goes into Pharaoh's presence The Wise man adviseth us â keep our foot when we go into the house of God Eccles 5. 1. VVe should do well in our applications to holy Ordinances to examine our selves whether we are fit with loose thoughts to meet with a dreadful Majesty Or with filthy hearts to meet with a holy God Or with worldly and drossy minds to meet with Grn. 41. 14. our heavenly Father Let us not complain God retires when we are not fit for his presence Let us then capacitate our selves by holy care and serious preparation to enjoy God in Ordinances Let us long for Gods presence God loves affectionate Proselytes A longing David shall see a loving God Psal 63. 1 2. The Spouse is restless after her Beloved and then she meets him Cant. 3. 1 2 3 4. The thirsting soul shall be fed Fames est illa melior sanctior quae est spiritualis jam in Christo habebit saturitatem invita aeternâ omnimodam satietatem ubi deus erit omnia in omnibus Chemn with milk and wine Isa 55. 1. Grace and Righteousness shall satisfie the bungry Mat. 5. 6. The Psalmist follows hard after God Psalm 63. 8. God meets with our pursuits we shall then satisfie our selves in God when nothing but God can satisfie us Cold suitors shall not meet with Christ in his espousals VVhen the Wife longs the Husband endeavours after the thing longed for Mary Magdalen bemoaned the taking away of her Lord John 20. 2. We may expect to meet with God when his absence is our greatest moan and his presence our sweetest musique Let us come to Ordinances with all reverential humility God will look at him who is of a poor and a contrite spirit Humilitas est via ad deum Aug. and trembles at his Word Isa 66. 2. God dwells in the humble heart Isa 51. 15. God will raise those who debase themselves Augustin tells us That humility is the ready way Super quem requieseit Sp. sanctus nisi super humilem super humilem non super virginem Bern. to God It is the usher who brings the soul into the presence Chamber Bernard notably observes That the spirit of God rested on the Virgin Mary not for her Virginity but for her Humility And if Mary had not been so low in her own eyes she had not been so lovely in Gods Alapide saith Humility is a throne of Saphire where God sits in Majesty Let Humilitas est thronus Sappharinus in quo deus cum Majestate resideâ Alap us then come to Ordinances with a submissive spirit God will cast an eye upon the soul who lies at his feet He sent an Angel to Daniel when he lay in his ashes Dan. 9. 3. 21. God rewarâ the very counterfeit humility of Ahab 1 Kings 21. 29. though his sackcloath was but as Samuels mantle the attire of hypocrisie A dread of Gods presence brings Prov. 16. 19. a sweet sence of it and a trembling at the Word of God goes Prov. 29. 23. before a triumphing in the enjoyment of God Job abhorred himself in dust and ashes Job 42. 6. and then God hears him for himself and his friends and gives him interest upon interest for all his sufferings and tribulation Job 42. 10. A holy God will meet with an humble Saint Let us endeavour to be in the spirit upon the Lords day Direct 9. The extasies of the Apostle John were on the Lords day Revel 1. 10. the rapture was accomodated to the season Christians should study to be above themselves upon Gods holy day then they should walk in Galleries above the world Hierome professes That he sometimes found things so with himself that it seemed to him as if he had been triumphing Hieron de Virginit servand among Troops of Angels and singing hallelujahs with the Saints in Heaven and walking arm in arm with Jesus Christ And Luther reports of himself That sometimes especially on a Sacrament day the death of Christ was so full and fresh upon Luth. his spirit as if then he had been upon Mount Calvary and as if that was the day in which the Lord dyed And Beleevers should be so in the spirit upon the Sabbath as if that was the very day wherein Christ broke the bars of the Grave rowled away the stone from the Sepulchre and enfranchised himself from the restraints of the tomb The Saints should be carried out on this day and make their sallies into the suburbs of
to bind conscience Others have raised the Jewish Sabbath out of the grave of Christ to walk as a Ghost up and down the world when the Lords day hath for more then sixteen hundred years been its peaceable successor And thus Satan hath every way endeavoured to invalidate the power and ecclipse the glory of the blessed Lords day the holy observation of which he is the greatest enemy of And to this day this Apollyon and Abaddon a destroyer in any language attempts Rev. 12. 9. nothing more industriously then to draw men into a sluggish and sinful frame either to idle away Sabbaths or to spend them profusely in riot and prophaness How many proud persons waste the Sabbath at a Glass or dressing box How many intemperate persons drown their Sabbath Eph. 5. 18. 1 Pet. 4. 3. in luxuries and excess and are fill'd with wine instead of the holy spirit How many are catched at the bait of a Procul abjiciamus impura carnis opera et insanum voluptuandi studium Wal. mad eagerness after pleasure and delight as Walaeus calls it But let us watch against all these wiles and depths of Satan And indeed we should double our guards for there is not an Ordinance but Satan attempts to evacuate and make it a barren womb and a dry brest to the soul If Joshua stand before the Lord Satan will be at his right hand Zach. Rev. 2. 24. 3. 1. He cursedly ânvies all our converses with God and would raise a cloud and thick darkness to hinder the transmissions of divine love Now he cannot beat life out of the Ordinance prayer will be a prevailing duty maugre Satans malice and therefore he would beat love out of us he would take us off by his snares and enticements either he would disturb us by his temptations or charm us by his perswasions or disengage us from holy and close communion with God by his flatteries and insinuations This Serpent for his subtilty and Lion for his cruelty will like Tertullus Gen. 3. 1. 1 Pe. 5. 8. Luke 22. 31. to Paul Acts 24. 5. attempt us most forcibly when we are pleading the cause of our souls in holy Ordinances on Gods holy day If the Sons of God present themselves before the Lord Satan comes among them Job 1. 6. If we attend in hearing the word the wicked one comes and is Mark 4. 15. ready to catch away the seed which is sown in the heart Mat. 13. 19. Satan enters Judas at the Passeouer John 13. 1 Thes 2. 18. 27. and some Divines assert at the Sacramental Supper How often doth Satan raise noise and disturbance to divert our thoughts and damp our desires when we are engaged in holy prayer that so our distractions may sower and disaffect our most melting devotions And therefore let us cast our selves upon this threefold experiment Let us Petition the Lord to fetter and chain up this roaring Lion so to muzzle him that he may be a Lion without a paw and a Serpent without a sting God cannot only tread Satan non deponit Odium sed vertit ingenium et cruentas inimicitias ad quietas convertit insidias Leo. Satan under his own but under our feet Rom. 16. 20. He can pinion Satan with a check and a rebuke Zach. 3. 2. He can chase him away with the prohibition of a word Mat. 4. 10. He that can bind Satan for a thousand years Rev. 22. can shackle him for a few Sabbaths Satan is a cruel but a conquered enemy Heb. 2. 14. He is a wolf in a chain Now prayer cannot only obtain the good spirit but Apostolus ait Deus conteret satanam sub pedibus nostris ut indicet infirmitotem nostram et salutem can restrain and bind up the evil one and bridle both his injections and disturbances and if thou prayest that thy enemy strike not Christ will pray that thy faith fail not Luke 22. 32. to shield off the fiery darts of the Devil Eph. 6. 16. And to stand against the wiles of the evil one Eph. 6. 11. Brayer can exercise the evil spirit fasting and prayer can Acts 26. 18. 2 Cor. 2. 11. cast Satan out of our bodies Mark 9. 29. much more out of our duties Resist the Devil It is the Apostles counsel 1 Pet. 5. 9. and the benefit will be He will fly from thee Now this Satan vetus hostis est cum quo praeliam gerimus sex mille annorum complentur ex quo hominem Diabolus oppugnat omni genere tentandi et artes atque insidias deficiendi usu ipso vetustatis addidicit Par ex Cypr. lib. de Exhort Martyr ad Fortunat resistence must be made by resting upon Christ by faith so taking in Christ as our second in the encounter and being fixed in holy resolution as the Apostle hints in the fore-cited Text. It is true as Paraeus observes out of Cyprian Satan is an old and experienced enemy but the shield of faith can secure us and the sword of the spirit can subdue him Christ put him to flight with a Scriptum est It is written Satan only batters yielding combats The bird is easily caught which flies into the snare His fiercest stroks are avoided by repulse We best resist him when we will not admit him into parley Let us remember he is the God of this world and so cannot interpose for hurt in spirituals unless we give him the advantage If he be a Prince it is of the Air 2 Eph. 2. And so by his own power cannot endamage us in things heavenly and divine He never conquers but when we let fall the weapons We never lose but give away the Victory and his insultation is the reward of our pusillanimity Let us not tempt the tempter by a frothy and slight spirit Indeed corrupt hearts are his territories and claim Satan maketh his greatest rapes on wandring and light spirits he Gen. 34. 1 2. is Beelzebub a God of flies who buzzes about vain dispositions Psal 108. 1. with his troublesome assaults and therefore on Gods Luke 11. 15. blessed day let us say with the Psalmist our heart is fixed Psal 57. 7. our heart is fixed Psal 57. 7. If our hearts are centerd in God we are above the attachments of the evil one Foolish men usually meet Satans temptations but being immured in Ordinances and onely minding Christ in our devotions this common enemy chained at Christs Cross as Origen speaks will leave us as he did our Master and dear Redeemer Mat. 4. 11. We must watch our Corruptions they are never so violent in their sallies as on Gods own day Pride will go in the most garish dress on the Sabbath and many happily will study more to bring a new fashion then a new heart into the Congregation Vlcerous consciences on this day will quarrel with divine truth or at least with the messengers of it Corrupt wounds will not endure the
Onkelos hanc exclamationem Jacobi ad Christum resert paraâhrasi plane piâ Non expecto salutare Gideon filii Joash neque salutare Sampson filii Manoe quae salus est planè temporalis sed expectâ salutem redemptionem Christi filii David quae est solus aeterna Onkel God on a dying bed and waited for his glorious salvation On a bed of sickness thou mayest bend thy heart when thou canst not bend thy knee and stretch out the hand of thy faith when happily thy distemper will not suffer thee to stretch out the hand of thy flesh Sicknesses usually spiritualize duty not obstruct it Then the patient prayes more feelingly weeps more heartily converses with God more greedily A sense of approaching death affects the soul with more earnest pursuits after a better life A Christian under a disease may more pathetically improve he need not wave a Sabbath 4. If providence shall cast us into a severe and hard service the man servant is kept back from holy Ordinances by the prophaneness of the Master the maid servant is kept to her drudgery on Gods holy day by the pride and vanity of her Mistriss Nay happily our case is a Turkish Galley is all the Temple we have to worship in yet then though we have lost our freedom we have not lost our Sabbaths Israels worship was not lost but revived in the wilderness and there Moses talked with God as a man with his friend The uncouth and solitary wilderness was the Sanctuary Deut. 26. 10. where the Jews enjoyed the closest communion with God Exod. 33. 11. Paul gave spiritual exhortations in the ship and in a storme Deus non terribilitèr sed amicè cum Moyse egerit Riv. too when he was ready to be dashed into the pit by every wave Acts 27. 20. The rage of remorsless masters should make believing servants not to pray less but as the vassalized Israelites to groan more not to be weary of Sabbaths but Exod. 6. 5. to be more wary in their observation the bondage of the Acts 7. 34. body is no wayes eased by the hazzard of the soul The Heavenly Master must be served especially on his own day notwithstanding all the frowns and countermands of the earthly that imperious worm If threats could have prevailed with the three Children they had worshipped a golden Image and not adventured a fiery furnace Dan. 3. 18. Hard service should make us more heavenly not more heedless in Sabbath observation If our case is hard upon earth we should then the more endeavour to make it more glorious in heaven and Sabbath-holiness bids fair for it Now therefore this being premised Thus we must keep Sabbaths in our greatest solitariness when the world is turned into a Patmos to us Let us encourage our selves that this is not our case alone to serve God without company Moses communed with God alone upon the Mount there was no press of people or society Deut. 5. 31. Dan. 6. 10. of Saints to heighten his enjoyment Daniel conversed with God in his Chamber alone and his sacrifice was sweet though single Peter was praying alone at the top of the Acts 10. 9. house when he gets the company of an Angel that messenger from heaven salutes his pleasing recess The woman John 4. 13. of Samaria enjoys solitary yet salvifical communion with Jesus Christ and her soul lay under the distillations of his heavenly doctrine nay waters of life did flow more freely then the waters of the well which did afford her the plenty of that Element And to come nearer to our purpose the blessed Apostle John was in his Patmos when he was sublimated Revel 1. 10. with unusuall raptures and that upon the Lords day A single Lute can make sweet musick The Sun which gilds the world is but a single Planet And thy soul serving God alone on his day may be taken into galleries to walk Cant. 7. 5. with Jesus Christ and feed upon the honey and the honey Psal 19. 10. comb of an Ordinance The Word was more to Job then his necessary food when he lay on the dunghill alone Job 23. 12. And Christ acted to him above his promise Mat. 18. 20. He was present though two or three were not gathered together If thou art necessitated to keep the Sabbath alone be much in prayer In this single devotion Christ is both our President Luke 6. 12. And our Legislatour Mat. 6. 6. The Cum privatim et solitarie oramus ostentationem et affectationem humanae gloriolae omnino respuimus Chemnit Prayer of one Elijah could work miracles Jam. 5. 17 18. The Prayer of one Daniel could hasten deliverance Dan. 9. 23. The Prayer of one Moses could preserve a whole Nation from impending ruine Exod. 32. 23. Solitary prayers have their peculiar prerogatives in them we avoid all ostentation as Chemnitius well observes and more imitate the votary then the Pharisee In them we can search our hearts more accurately deal with God more faithfully and give a fuller account of our sins and provocations Closet devotion is not stopt because confined no more then the meditations of David were lost in the darkness of the night Psal 63. 6. in Mat. 6. 6. Psal 63. 6. Rev. 1. 10. 1 Sam. 1. 10. which he framed them Christ came to John in Patmos when the Island was his bolted Chamber not with bars but with waves Hannah prayed and wept alone and then she obtained a Samuel 1 Sam. 1. 10. The heart can work in Acts 10. 4. 1 Thes 5. 17. Col. 3. 17. prayer when there is no company to excite it and oftentimes God is most effectually present when man is wholly absent therefore if we must spend a Sabbath alone let part of it be taken up in fervent prayer and supplication In this case of solitariness let us be filled with holy meditations This holy duty of a Sabbath is advanced not obstructed by loneliness and retirement nay it cannot well be performed Gen. 24. 63. in company the noise of any associates hush away these pleasing contemplations which light upon the mind or Psal 92. 5 6 9. are started by the excitation of the good spirit In thy solitary Sabbaths let thy head work in meditation as well as thy heart in prayer and supplication These duties coupled like Castor and Pollux are a good prognostick and promise fair weather to the soul Meditate on thy sins Sin is first viewed by meditation and then moaned by confession and so consequently cashiered by repentance and this order is very proper and genuine first to cast the eye on sin and then to rend the heart for it and from it The head will affect the heart take then the opportunity of a solitary Sabbath to cast up thy accounts and Psal 4. 7. Jer. 31. 18 19 20. to look backward on thy sinfull life that thy soul may kindly melt and the Lord
it is a golden chain which joynes the two tables and if this clasp be broken all falls asunder Nor can it possibly be demonstrated that this blessed Command for the Sabbath dying expiring as a fading Ceremony all the rest must not necessarily be laid asleep in a final abrogation And therefore the Antinomians Cowd. and Palm on the Sabbath part the 2 d p. 51. and many of the Anabaptists roundly cast off the whole Decalogue as nothing appertaining to or concerning Christians so worthy Mr. Cawdrey Mr. Palmer observe It is the observation of Rivet that the observation of the Sabbath is thrice solemnly mentioned in the Book of Exodus 1. When it is reckoned among the Moral Lawes Exod. 20. 8. and safely sheltred among the rest of the ten Commandements Sânâiri denvò et commendari observationem Sabbati omnes vident et jâm ter de Sabbato actum est 1. In praecepto quarto 2. In legibus illis politicis quae habentur in Exod. 23. 12. quod magistratus incumbit cura prioris tobulae et âosterioris et hic severè interdicit transgressores eos supplicio copitali addicens Rivet and would be so still was it not worried out by the violence and absurdities of brainsick Heretiques And thus lodged it is to be pressed by the zeal of the Minister 2. When it is reckoned among the Political Lawes Exod. 23. 12. And so the observation of it is commended to the care of the Magistrate 3. When it is singled out by its self and earnestly urged by God Exod. 31. 14 15. as if his honour was more concerned in this Command then in any other and so it is propounded to the practice of every professour of Religion to the end of the World the Sabbath being still a sign between God and his People even to all generations To wind up all It is no less then an impeachment of divine Wisdome to think God would urge an expiring Ceremony with such diversity of reasons Exod. 20. 8. with such variety of Arguments and motives Exod. 31. 15. with such severity of threats Exod. 31. 16. Nor can the command for the Sabbath be ceremonial because it was ordained in Paradise Gen. 2. 3. before Ceremonies had a being For all ceremonies point at something in the Idem etiam manifestum est quòd ab initio creationis cùm nullus locus fuit ceremoniis ad Christum Redemptorem spectantibus unusdies èseptemcultui dei fuit consecratus Ames Gospel as the Pole-star turns to the North. Now Adam not being fâllen there was no need of a Gospel Christ came into the world to save that which was lost Mat. 8. 11. And in the state of innocency nothing was lost there was not a freckle upon mans beauty and therefore no ceremony could take place And besides the Sabbath continued when all ceremonies left their being and Christ was come into the world The Sun rising all stars disappear Now Christ discoursing with his Disciples privately Mat. 24. 3. Among other things he adviseth them to pray that their flight be not on the Sabbath day Mat. 24. 20. which counsel related to sad and dolorous times Institutionem Sabbati non esse ceremonialem et temporalem ex eo apparet quod nihil habet proprium Judaeis aut tempori coremonialis legis Ames which were to befall them when he was ascended up to his Father and yet we may observe a Sabbath in being which evidently shews that the Sabbath no way can be a ceremony Christs coming in the flesh chasing away all such evanid shaddows I need not mention that the Lords day spoken of Rev. 1. 10. when John was in his Vision is by all concluded to be our Christian Sabbath the set weekly day of our solemn worship and this was many yeares after Jerusalem was in its ashes And it is acutely noted by Dr. Ames that the observation of the Sabbath hath nothing in it more proper to the Jew then to any other Naitno for to worship God solemnly and frequently one day in the week is Ratio naturalis dictat consentaneum esse ut dei cultus frequentèr exerceatâr Ames most convenient for all Professours of the true Religion be they of what Nation they will and therefore our own necessity dictates the profit of such solemn and set communion with God Nay it is a Principle familiar to the Heathens who know no light but that dim light of Nature to appoint set times and solemn seasons for the worship of their Idol gods and therefore the Sabbath participates nothing of the nature of a Jewish ceremony Those who level all dayes making them alike and know no Christian Sabbath but the bosome of the Father typified Saltmarsh's sparkles of glory p. 265. in the seventh day of the first Creation as some of these men are pleased to speak I say they have another subterfuge for their wild opinion And thus they argue The Christian liberty whereby we may where when we list worship and serve God frees us not onely from the circumstance of place John 4. 21 23. But also delivers us ftom being tied to any circumstance of time But as we may worship in what place we will so likewise at what time we will without the breach of any command To which it may be replyed That this liberty which is pretended is no way authorized by Scripture We find our Saviour speaking of a Sabbath after his ascention to the Father Mat. 24. 20. The Primâ Sabbati post Sabbatum fuit dies dominica Apostle divers Christians meet on the first day of the week for Gospel Ordinances as now the fixed Sabbath of the Christians Acts 20. 7. And Paul layes it as an injunction Oecumen upon the Churches of Galatia and Corinth to bring their collections on that day for then the Christian Assemblies met together for holy converse with God 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Dies dominica est prima hebdomadis feria quâ dominus a mortuis resurrexit quae jam et tum Christianis sacra est Apostoâorum authoritate congressibus ecclesiasticis in locum Sabbati judaici dicata ât videre est ex 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. et Act. 20. 7. Est igitur dies dominicae ex traditione Apostolicâ vetus observatio Apostoli immediatâ dei inspiratione divinas litteras scribebant et hanc feriam in ordinem Ecclesiasticum deponebant Hinc dominicae diei seriam non modò Ecclesiae Christianae sacram fecerunt sed in Scripturam sacram quoque retulerunt et jam dies dominica est tenenda quia non tenetur praeter sed juxta Scripturas Par. And this day is called the Lords day Revel 1. 10. as being set apart for communion with the Lord. Now if the Scriptures allow us not this liberty it is insolence and wantonnesse to lay claim unto it Christian liberty must be bottomed on the word of Christ or else it is not
Great thus Carol. Mag. leg Ecclesiast lib. 6. cap 202. begins his solemn Edict to this purpose It is our pleasure that all the faithfull do reverently observe the Lords day in which the Lord rose again And his Son Ludovicus Pius in his Additionals repeating the self same constitution of his Ludovic Piuâ ibid. Addition cap. 9. Father word by word doth onely add these words Therefore it is necessary that first Priests Kings and Princes and all the faithfull do most devoutly give all due observance and reverence to this day These Princes not more happy in the Kingdomes they governed then unhappy in the times they lived in yet had such an impression upon their souls as to see to the holy observation of the Lords day a day not dayes one day not every day This levelling principle never yet got into the Courts of Princes into the Sessions of Councils nay not into the writings of any famous Patriot of Religion no not into the worst of times when the Church wore her blackest veil In the reforming times of the Church when the Sun of truth brake the cloud of popish ignorance and idolatry then Calvin in Deut. conc 34. our great reformers who reformed by their Pens as well as by their Preaching all unanimously utter their complaints against the prophanation of the Sabbath day and press the Bulling in Apocal. Concion 4. observance of it but still it is one day not every day The Sabbath day which is more honourable and not week dayes Muscul Comment in Mat. 12. which are more inconsiderable And here I might cite Calvin Bullinger Musculus Aretius Walaeus Bucer Gualter c. Nay the Waldenses and the Albigenses those zealous assertours Aretius Prob. Theolog. Loc. 123. of divine truth in the midst of Popish rage and fury I might here mention the Parliament of Prague held 1524. Wal. Epist and the Synod of Dort in the fourth Session who petitioned Dedic ante librum de Sabbato the States that they would emit severe Edicts against sports and servile works upon the Sabbath day Thus every age of the Church commands the solemn sanctification Bucer de regno Christi lib. 1. of one day not every day of Gods day and not ours This fancy hath been an unheard of dream in every Gualt in 162. Homil. in Mat. century of Christianity The Scripture Church and State that three-fold binding Authority doth wholly disclaime it Histor Wald. et Albigens Part. 3. lib. 1. cap. 9. But to wind up all 1. There is Sabbatum internum an internall Sabbath which is a rest from sin for the more holy walking before God 2. There is Sabbatum externum an external Sabbath Quies dei fuit septimanâ Quies Judaeorum in Palestinâ Quies sanctorum in puritate quies glorificatorum in aeternitate Alap which is a rest from labour for the more solemn worship of God The first indeed ought to be perpetual but the second is temporary and continues only for the space of twenty four hours every week Now these two do not abolish but establish one another A resting from sin continually doth more fit us for a weekly Sabbath and the keeping of a weekly Sabbath doth more fit us for the resting from sin continually The Jews were to keep the internal Sabbath they were alwayes to rest from sin though they were commanded a seventh day Sabbath And so Christians must keep an internal Sabbath they must alwayes rest from sin though they are enjoyned the first day Sabbath the blessed Lords day Eph. 5. 11. These two are subordinate not contrary one to another and 2 Cor. 7. 1. to make them inconsistent that the internal Sabbath should God will have the external Sabbath for the beginning perfecting of the spirituall Sabbath Vâs chase away the external is not onely gross weakness and mistake but it is Satans mine to blow up the Lords day which being lost Religion presently faints away and dies as take away the breast from the infant and it quickly dwindles away into the grave CHAP. XLIII There was a time when the Jews were exemplarily strict in Sabbath-Observation THis Treatise now spending it self and so drawing nearer to a conclusion the remaining task of it will mainly consist in pressing conscience upon the due and holy observation of the Lords day our Christian Sabbath Now to make way for the better accomplishment of this design I shall give the Reader as in a Landskip the Jewish practice on Exod. 20. 2. the Sabbath which indeed was sometimes very commendable when they did remember the Lord their God who brought them out of the Land of Aegypt and out of the house of bondage Exod. 20. 2. And we may well take our rise to this duty of keeping Gods blessed Sabbath from the advantage they give us It is true there were some seasons when Judaei spiritualia officia negligentes quae deus praecepit in diem Sabbati peragenda nefariè omiserunt otio et luxuriae in eundem diem se dederunt Gauden they were very remiss in the observation of Gods holy Sabbath especially not long before the Babylonish Captivity and in the Primitive times of the Christian Church then by their bruitish sensuality on the Sabbath they drew out the Pens of Christians and opened the mouths of Heathens but there were other times when their care of Gods day was written in a fair character and might inflame a Christians heart who hath any love to the Lord of the Sabbath Mark 2. 28. to a serious and a holy deportment on this sacred day Now to enucleate and set before you their practice on the Judaei Sabbata insumunt in crapulâ et ebrietate et infructuosis delitiis et voluptatibus Cyril Sabbath we should begin with their preparation to it for they were so exact that the best and wealthiest of them even those who kept many servants did with their owne hands further the preparation insomuch that sometimes the Masters themselves would chop herbs sweep the house cleave wood kindle the fire and such like as Buxtorf observes and which is very observable all the four Evangelists Buxtorf Synagog Judaic cap. 10. ex Talmud take notice of the Jews preparation day to their Sabbath But of this I have spoken largely already and so I shall pass it over for ingenuity forbids coincidencies and vain repetitions But to come to the Jews observation of the Sabbath a Mat. 27. 62. Mark 15. 42. Luke 23. 54. John 19. 42. learned man observes They dress no meat this day and therefore the Heathens heretofore thought they had fasted on that day And indeed a serious practice it was to keep down the body and prepare it for spiritual duties When the senses Aug. cap. 76. de jejun Sab. are cloyed the soul is much interrupted in heavenly converses Pampered bodies usually accompany pining souls The Sueton. Martial lib. 4.
by the Father's benediction The before-mentioned Lactantius tells us The Sabbath took its rise not from the History of Manna but from Gods resting on the Sabbath-day after the finishing of the six days works Theodoret most elegantly observes That least the seventh day should want its honour nothing Tertul. contr Marcion lib. 4. cap. 12. Septimo die deus nihil facit sed hunc diem benedictione honoravit being created thereon God set it apart to be a Sabbath a day of holy Rest And indeed Gods chief work on the Sabbath is forming the new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. not creating the Man but the Saint not springing man out of the dust of the Earth but raising him out of the Theodor. quaest 43. in Exod. dregs of sin That he may be his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2. 10. Eph. 4. 24. On the holy Sabbath the works of God are works of grace not of nature and he doth not multiply but beautifie the Creation God doth not create on it new species and kinds of Creatures but new hearts and new spirits The Schoolmen who lived in the Iron Age of the Church Estius in lib. 3. Sentent Dist 37. Sylvestranus Richardus de mediâ villâ Alex. Alens part 3. quaest 39. fol. 128 Benedixit sanctificavit deus diem septimum i. e sanctum celebrem esse voluit Sanctificavit i e. consecravit Caeteros dies operum exercitio deputans il lum suo cultui emancipavit Hugo Card. Sabbatum est dies requiei i. e. vacationis ad deum Alex. Alens and rose at Midnight yet by their dark-Lanthorn they could see this truth they generally refer the Institution of the Sabbath to the beginning of the World and fairly conclude That Gods blessing and sanctifying the Seventh day was its consecration to be a day of holy Rest and a future Sabbath Alexander Hales saith positively That the Sabbath was observed of the Fathers before the Law Hugo Cardinalis truly asserts That the other six days God deputes to the affairs of the world but the seventh day he hath ordained for his own worship and this was originated from Gods sanctifying the seventh day in the primitive Institution The Schoolmen generally say God sanctified the seventh day Gen. 2. 3. and this is no more then his separating of it to holy purposes for his own more solemn and immediate worship Gerson the famous Chancellor of Paris speaks even the same words with Hugo Cardinalis and as the Schoolmen of the middle times of the Church heartily assented to this truth so those of latter times agree in the same opinion Suarez saith It is most probable that the Sabbath was from the beginning and so propagated by tradition to posterity For we must know that the Church in the first times of the world was immured in Famiâies and most easie it was for one Family to hand down to another those Solemnities which God enjoyned them and more especially the blessed Sabbath wherein those pious Ancestors were to enjoy more solemn and sweet communion with their glorious Jehovah To frequent Gods worship is most adaequate to natural reason saith the above-mentioned Suarez Surely this great truth of the Sabbaths origination must gain much credit from the School-mens attestation when they were Similiter est naturali rationi consentaneum ut dei cultus frequentèr exerceatur ideò temporis determinatio est ex morali ratione Suarez too prone to dispute every thing and to make the most evidential truths problematical The Schools were ever for pro and con to question every the most sacred truth which passed by they would bandy those Scriptural assertions which carryed most light with them and subject those things which were most taken for granted to their discussion and ventilation But to close this particular with a good rule of the Schools viz. To dedicate some time to the service of God this is natural to dedicate the seventh part Filiut Mor. Quaest Tom. 2 in tertium Praeceptum Bannes secunda secundae Quaest 44. Art 1. of the week to the service of God this is moral but to sanctfie this weekly Sabbath as we should this is supernatural the spirit of God teacheth us to sanctifie the Sabbath this is only from grace In the midst of all their Sceptiscims this is a most worthy speech And as for our modern Divines who stood upon Giants shoulders and therefore had a fairer Prospect of divine Covarruv Resol l. 4. c. 19. truth They generally assert the Sabbaths original from the beginning of the world Luther who led the Van of the great Ministers of Reformation plainly asserts That if Ambros Cathar enar in Gen 2. toto dejust jure l. 2. Quaest 3. Cultus est à naturâ modus a lege virtus est a gratiâ Scholast Adam had never fell yet he should have kept holy the seventh day as a Sabbath to the Lord and should have transmitted the knowledge of this day which was to be spent in divine worship Other dayes Adam was to till the ground to look to the Beasts of the field but this day to converse with God and this day saith Luther Adam kept solemnly after the fall and a testimony of this are the sacrifices of Cain and Abel therefore the Sabbath was designed to the worship of God from the beginning of the world What more full more clear Si Adam in innocentiâ stetisset tamen habuisset sacrum diem septimum eo die decrevisset posteros de voluntate cultu dei laudasset deum et gratias egisseâ obâuââsset aliis diebus coluisset agrum pecora curasset Immò post lapsum habuit diem illum septimum sacrum Luther in Genes more plain Zuinglius agreeing with Luther saith roundly That the Sabbath was ordained from the beginning of the world and took its first rise from the close of the Creation This blessed man who lost his life in defence of the Protestant cause sealed this with other truths with his precious bloud Calvin saith expresly That God rested on the seventh day and then blessed it that this day might be through all ages dedicated to rest not to idleness but to holy rest that our minds might be freer for boly contemplation on God the great Creator of heaven and earth For God saith he is no way pleased with empty leisure that man should do nothing but with a necessary vacation for converse with himself And Reverend Beza who was so rare in sacred Criticks gives us in his judgment acquiescing in this truth and plainly tells us That the seventh day stood from the Creation of the world unto the Resurrection of Christ when the seventh day Sabbath was turned into the first day Sabbath by the holy Apostles Zuingl com in Exod. 20. So that now we cannot say of the Sabbath as is said of the River Nilus that its fountain head cannot be known when
God Dr. Twisse positively concludes Because the Scriptures Dr. Twisse de Sabbat record that the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore the Patriarchs did certainly observe it and saith he the truth is untill the coming of the Israelites Anne superfluum putandum erit quoslibet dies pro operibus secularibus ordinare unumque pro cultu divino Selneccerus out of Egypt we read not of the Church of God any where but in single families and will it therefore follow that the holy Patriarchs did set no time apart for Gods service how uncharitably will this consequence fall in Genesis being an history of two thousand five hundred years and so brief as it is it neither could nor ought to relate every thing observed by the Patriarchs Dr. Willet Willet in Exod. 16. 20. Quaest 34. very well takes notice that the Church had from the beginning a publick external worship of God and it could not be but they had certain time and then what more correspondent season then that which God had sanctified by his own blessed and holy example Surely our first Fathers knew well the Creation and Gods resting on the seventh day and his segregating it for holiness and sanctification and to impute such an oscitancy and neglect to them that they should wholly omit the sacred Sabbath is to give charity a wound under the fifth rib The Patriarchs for the most part did not keep the law of marriage for generally they lived in Poligamy and yet that Law was in force for one man to marry one woman So then Gen. 2. 24. supposing the Patriarchs were remiss in Sabbath observation yet the Law for the Sabbath was in full force And let it not be our curiosity to find out errours in them when Si hoc ipsum concedatur observationem hujus diei maximâ ex parte fuisse neglectam primam tamen institutionem non magis reddere debeat quam Polygamia eorundem temporum sacras conjugii leges primo ipsi conjugio non esse coaevas possit demonstrare Ames we have no Scripture to witness and attest it And truly to draw an argument de facto from the Patriarchs not keeping of the Sabbath against the right and institution of it is very improper and though it is not expresly said Abraham kept the Sabbath yet he is commended for keeping Gods Commandments Gen. 26. 5. And is not the Sabbath one of those Commandments the breach of which is accounted the breaking of all Exod. 16. 27 28. And can we probably think that Abraham neglected other moral duties because they are not expresly mentioned Again it may as well be doubted whether the Patriarchs observed any day at all because it is not expresly mentioned Again it may be said with as good reason that the sacrifices which they offered were without warrant from God because the Commandment for them is not expresly mentioned but we know Abel offered by faith and faith must have a precedent word So as the approved practice of holy men doth necessarily imply a Sabbati dies et ejus ratio et usus notissimus suit priscis Patribus quod ex ipso Gen 2. prâbatur Bertram de Polit. Judaic Commandment so the Command given to Adam doth as necessarily enforce a practice And if no duties to God were performed by the Patriarchs but such as are expresly mentioned and held forth in their Examples we should then behold a strange face of a Church for many hundred years together and so we should condemn the generation of the Just for living in gross neglects and impieties there being many singular and special duties which doubtless were done which were not particularly mentioned in that short Epitome of above two thousand years together in the Book of Genesis In a word that all the holy Patriarchs those Seminaries of Religion in the world who laid the foundation of Gods Church those Ancestours of piety and holiness who brought up Religion in its infancy I say that all these should want the blessed Sabbath that sweet day of converse with God and live in a fatal ignorance and inobservance or contempt of Gods holy day this is beyond the belief of the most fondly credulous and against the charity of the most sowre professour To conclude the Sabbath and Marriage were the two In initiis et primordiis mundi dies septimus sanctus haberi caepit Azor. first institutions in the world But God first provides for his own worship and then for mans comfort spiritual mercies being of right to have the precedency of temporal and divine worship being alwayes to take place of humane conveniency Well then the Sabbath was given to Adam and in him to all his posterity and so holiness becomes the Christian ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Phil. Jud. as well as the Jew or any other on that blessed day we being all the issue and posterity of Adam And therefore to fasten the strict observation of the Sabbath upon the Jews as being most concerned in it what is this but to turne a common priviledge into a monopoly and to be weary of that prerogative which is the suburbs of Heaven it self Or else the bottom of the design is to throw off the restraints of a Sabbath not being willing that our corruptions should be pinion'd However the observance of Gods holy day is too great a mercy to be appropriated to the cast off and repudiated Jews It is a good saying of Dr. Twisse As for the sanctification of this Rest I trust we are as much bound to the performance therefore and that in as great a measure and with as great devotion under the Gospel as ever the Jews were under the Law And let the Authority of this excellent person shut up this Chapter CHAP. XLV Sabbath-holiness doth as well become the Christian as the Jew if we look back to the infancy of the Law THat the Sabbath was given to Adam and in him to all his posterity to us Christians as well as to others hath already been largely discovered Now my task is to shew that in the second edition of the Sabbath upon Mount Sinai it was given as a moral command for every one to obey and not as a ceremonial precept whose force must end with the Jews and their pedagogy for we must know that all ceremonies were buried in Christs grave and their honour Dicitur Chyrographum esse deletum i. e. ritus ceremoniales jam abrogatos esse qâia ipso debito persoluto per Christum non aequum est has syngraphas extare quae testificent nos esse debitores et reâtum peccatorum nostrorum nondum esse expiatum Daven was laid in the dust with him for when the Sun came the shadows were to disappear and when Christ triumphed on the Cross then the hand-writing of Ordinances as Ceremonies are usually called was blotted out Col. 2. 14. Those inferiour garnishes of Religion were then to be
Commandement like Nebuchadnezzars Image partly Gold and Silver durable Mettals and partly Clay and mouldring earth Doctor Bound positively asserts The fourth Commandement can be no more partly Moral and partly Ceremonial than the same living Creature can be partly a Man and partly a Beast Bishop Hooper saith That all Bishop Hooper on the ten Commandements the Commandements are of one vertue and strength and therefore if one be in effect ceremonial so may others too The same speaks Iraeneus God did pronounce the Decalogue to all alike but the other Laws were given by Moses Iren contr Valentin lib. 4. cap. 13. unto the people of the Jews So clearly doth this Father distinguish between Moral Laws pronounced by God and Ceremonial Laws given by Moses Nay Aquinas is Omnia praecepta decalogi sunt moralia Thom. 2da 2dae quaest 100. Artic. 2. sensible of this when he pronounces all the Precepts of the Decalogue Moral and would not this mixing Ceremonials with Morals in the same Decalogue produce confusion and disorder or as Doctor Bound saith Open a wide door to all kind of loosness and Atheism And if this be true that the Law for the Sabbath is Ceremonial and all the rest Moral then we have onely an Ennealogue not a Decalogue so God must lose one of his ten words and pay tythe of his Deut. 4. 13. Commandements to the wild and desultory fancies of men for if the fourth Commandement be a Ceremony it dies at the coming of Christ But we have the just division of the Commandements in Scripture they were written in two Tables we have their full number they were ten so many and no more and therefore as we must not unite them into one Table so we must not contract them into nine Commandements and if this fourth Commandement be ceremonial why is it not rased out of the Commandements How came it in is a question and no less how stays it in The Papists cashire the second Commandement and divide the last into two to make up the number forbidding in the Canis chatechis quaest 18. former to covet our Neighbors wife in the latter to covet our Neighbours goods and if we still admit a Ceremony Sabbatum dierum est ordinarium perpetuum non inter figuras ceremonias Judaicas annumerandum c. Wolph Chronol lib. 2. cap. 1. in the midst of the Commandements why may not Atheists put a Ceremony upon the first and Swearers put a Ceremony upon the third Nay Antinomians put a Ceremony upon them all and so the two Tables shall be broken the second time and so rendred useless and impertinent to mankind It is a sage saying of Wolphius The Sabbath is not to be reckoned among the Figures and Ceremonies of the Jews both because it was ordained in Paradise before the fall of Man and also because it is commanded in the Decalogue which contains in it nothing ceremonial nothing typical nothing to be abrogated As once it was the wonder of the people of Israel Is Saul also among 1 Sam. 10. 12. the Prophets And may we not with as much astonishment cry out And is a Ceremony put in among the Moral Precepts Nor is it suitable to God who is a God of Order to mis-place a Ceremonial among Morals Holy Greenham observes Admitting one Ceremony into the Decalogue why may there not be two or three or more Concerning this mixture we may say many Heresies by it are Ponitur quartum praecepâum inter mandata Decalâgi in quantum est praeceptum morale c. Aquin. 2da 2dae quaest 122. Art 4. â Hook Eccles Polit. lib. 3. cap. 11. crept into the Church and it cannot be avoided if the fourth Commandement be ceremonial and this is to confound the Ceremonial Law with the Moral The learned Hooker most sagely according to his manner thus discourses The moral Commandements were uttered by God himself in the presence of the whole multitude written by his own finger given without restraint to time how long to place where Contrariwise the Ceremonial Law given to Moses onely and by him declared to the people called Ceremonial Judgments Ordinances and limited only to the Land of Jewry All that I shall add is Take the fourth Commandement and see it in this Glass and then you will see how like a Ceremony it looks Doctor Amesius will not have the Command for the Sabbath Ceremonial because it wears nothing of a Jewish Livery whereby it may be appropriated to them and so Institutionem istam non Juisse ceremonialem et temporalem ex eo satis liquet quòd nihil habet proprium JudaeoruÌ aut temporis legis ceremonialis Ames made part of their transient Pedagogie To set apart a day for God is as necessary and congruous to Christians as to Jews To remember the works of the Creation and the Rest in the close of it is no more unseemly or impertinent for Christians than for Jews when both are Gods Creatures and Subjects to see our Families keep the Sabbath as well as our selves doth as well befit the times of the Gosspel as the time of the Law is every way as decent and comely to forbear servile works on a Sabbath is as convenient for the Christian Church as the Jewish Synagogue How then comes the Sabbath to be the Jews monopoly for indeed it must be so if it be a Ceremony But if the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement hath nothing peculiar to the Jew let us not lose our claim in this blessed day but let us receive our Inheritance which was first given us in Paradise and this Will further ratified on Mount Sinai It is strange that so many should so easily part with one of Gods ten words to an abrogated Jew only to please a design or gratifie an interest in some men that the Sabbath being expired as a Ceremony at the coming of Christ and so all days in the week lying common it may lie in the power of the Church to erect a new Sabbath which is a Trophy of their Plenipotentiary Grandeur and this will make the Mitre look more splendid But others plead the Ceremoniality of the fourth Commandement that the Sabbath being abrogated and cancell'd as out of date they may have no Sabbath but of humane institution and then they may break it with more ease than Sampson did his Wit hs and so still lie in Dalilahs lap of pleasure and delight the noise of a Clerical Institution being too faint to awaken them But let every gracious heart more study duty then interest and what becomes him in conformity to the will of God From the times of the Gospel all Ceremonies are ended they were all buried in Christs Grave as was suggested before Lex Ceremonialis omninò per Christi adventum evanuit sed nullo modo sequitur legem Decalogi quoad obligationem per Christum desusse est enim lex illa non Mosaica sed
conformity to the fourth as to any other Commandement And thus this Commandement partakes of the same Honours and Prerogatives with the three before it and the six after it And how comes it then that it should be worse metal than the rest and be embased with a notion of a Law and elementary Ceremony Chrysostom and Theophylact observe that in the time of Moses onely the Tables of stone were in the Ark and that afterwards in the time of the Prophet Jeremy Aarons Rod and the Pot of Manna were put in And Catharinus saith That in the time of Moses all the forementioned Particulars were in the Ark but in the time of Solomon there were onely found the two Tables of stone upon which were written the ten Commandements However it is still the Tables of stone were in the Ark to shew that in all times God was tender of his Decalogue where the fourth Commandement was placed Surely such providential care would never have attended the wing of a flying Ceremony This fourth Commandement will further commence moral if we take notice of the motives by which it was enjoyned The first Commandement hath but one reason annexed to it the third Commandement hath but one reason appendant Filius qui honorat pârenâes licet cite moriatur tamen diu vixit Nâm tempus est mensura non otii sed operis et actienum non malarum sâd bonarum to it the fifth Commandement but one reason to reinforce it Nay the second Commandement hath onely two reasons to engage obedience to it But now in the sourth Commandement the Lord goes beyond all this and binds with a threefold Cord which cannot easily be broken for God setteth down three reasons as so many forcible and pregnant motives to induce or rather to inforce obedience not onely to command the excellency but to shew the necessity of keeping this Commandement Abulens 1. God shews us the equity of the Command If man may have six days surely God may have one 2. God shews us the Presidency of himself he goes before Vatab. in Gen. 2. 3. us in Sabbath-rest and this blessed Pattern is a strong Argument for imitation Jun. in Gen. 2. 3. 3. God intimates to us it is a blessed day besides the blessings of other days by the Law of Nature this day hath Peter Martyr in Gen. 2. 3. a peculiar blessing of holiness it is a day of divine munisicence wherein God featrers his Diamonds his choicest blessings Bulling in Roman among his obedient Worshippers And was not the fourth Commandement a standing Rule of conformity Hospin de Origin what need the twisting of so many Arguments and why doth God more consult mans practice in the pressing of this Templ lib. 2. cap. 14. than any other Commandement Surely Gods jealously least it should be violated shews not onely the eminency of this Precept but its abiding morality Divines generally conclude That the substance of the fourth Commandement lies in this Clause viz. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy and this is the preceptive part Quod naturale est putà diem septimum quemlibet deo sacrum esse illud quidem permanet Jun. For the other three parts of the Commandement viz. The Directive six days shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God Nay the argumentative part For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day And the benedictive part Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it all these onely inforce the Command but the summe and substance of the Command lies in the first clause Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy And shall not the keeping of a Sabbath to God be moral and perpetual The spending of a seventh part of every week in holy service and spiritual worship shall not that be standing and permanent Doth not the necessity of our Bodies require a seventh days rest and the Exigence of our Souls a holy rest Surely we will not sink below the dregs of Paganism who Recordare diei sabbati ut sanctifices illum Haec verba sunt ipsa praecepti quarti moralis sub stantia Zanch. had their set times of sacred solemnity to their Idol Gods And the Church of Christ in all Ages had its Sabbath when it was most clouded with Superstition and Idolatry the Sabbath was never suspended by any Emperors Edict nor Excommunicated by any Popes Bull Sion never wanted her Sabbaths when she lay in her lowest ashes Surely then to keep a Sabbath to God is most fully and entirely moral and this is as Zanchy saith The substance of the fourth Commandement the other part of it being taken up either in explication how we must observe it or in reason and argumentation why we must observe it Or in motive and insinuation that we must observe it It is a blessed day and blessings are the greatest courtship to the Soul And in one of the Homilies of the Church of England we meet with Homil. of time and prayer these words By the fourth Commandement we ought to have a time as one day in a week and this appertaineth to the Law of Nature as a thing most godly most just most needful for the setting forth of the glory of God and therefore ought to be retained and kept of all Christians Thus the Church of England layes down this as a fundamental that every seventh day not in order but in number be consecrated to God The fourth Commandment hath all the Characters of a moral law 1. It is not reversed or repealed in the Gospel for though the old Sabbath be reversed yet the Commandment for ãâã day in seven is not and indeed why should it ãâ¦ã the whole Decalogue is Gods royal law Jamââ ãâ¦ã the golden rule of our obedience 2. It is ratified in the Gospel and that many ãâ¦ã 1. In general together with the Decalogue ãâ¦ã ãâ¦ã Whosoever shall break one of the least of these Commandâânt and teach men so shall be called the least in the King ãâã Heaven Now the fourth Commandment is one of theââ commands which it is so dangerous to break and ãâã late 2. By the designation of the Lords day of the same number ãâ¦ã c. 11. of the same use and profit which is a real ratification of this law 3. This law of the Sabbath is neither weak nor unprofitable but exceeding useful for the ends for which it was first intended which was the glory of God the good of souls and the preservation of Religion It was the speech of a Learned man Let any man shew me in this law either weakness ãâ¦ã or unprofitableness I yield and bid it vanish but it hath and will have as much strength and force as any Law can have from the Author Consent Multitude Custom and express approbation of all Ages Profit it hath too and hath been preserved without any mans
to keep the Sabbath day lively intimating by all this the sistence and abiding of the fourth Commandment under the Gospel and the binding authority of it by the incorporation of a new reason drawn from our redemption or spiritual deliverance by Christ typified by the Jews deliverance from Aegypt instead of the old reason drawn from the Creation which is here wholly omitted and we must take notice that surely the Jews deliverance from Aegypt literally considered was no way comparable to the work of the Creation that it should here in the second giving of the Law by Moses be propounded as the reason of the Sabbath and the other wholly left out but only as a type of the most glorious and admirable work of our Redemption so there came so much weight in it that in the review of the Commandment it became the reason of the Sabbath and if the type it self was so significant how much more the Ante-type which excells all types in glory as much as the Sun doth the flying and dark shadows Thus we then see the old seventh day Sabbath was never propounded as the substance or special subject of the fourth Commandment Nay reason it self compells us to put this sense and interpretation upon the fourth Commandment The order of the day is no way substantially profitable to Mandata legis sancta sunt justa bona sancta quia praescribunt quomodo deus sanctè coli debet Justa quia praescribunt ut proximum non laedas sed eiquod suum est tribuas Bona quia praescribunt ea quibus quisque in se bonus sit et bonis moribus et virtute praeditus Alap religion nor if altered is any way prejudicial we may be as holy as heavenly and spiritual on the first as on the last day of the week Order only cannot elevate the mind influence the heart or work upon the soul and affections it can contribute nothing to a holy sublimation in us one day is as good as another so Divine appointment fix it But now we must consider in all other Commandments of the first table which concern Religion only that which is substantially profitable is placed in them and so they are concluded moral and perpetual and so it must be in this fourth Commandment that which is substantially profitable must be put into the command and therefore the order of the day cannot be it And what prejudice arises to Religion from the alteration of the day from the seventh to the first so God make it which that he did we shall see hereafter Cannot Christians serve God with as much heavenly devotion seraphical affection nay with as much care and circumspection on the first day of the week as the Jews did on the last Well then the order of the day cannot be the substance of the fourth Commandment God doth not interlace his holy Commandments especially his Ten words with things which are not substantially profitable The reasons in the Commandment are for the number not the order for a seventh not the seventh day The first reason Exod. 20. 9. Exod. 31. 15. in the Command to perswade to the observation of the Sabbath Luke 13. 14. is taken from the concession of six dayes for our own labours six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath Augustini fuit expostulatio quâ modo deus in Creatione mundi sex dies insumpserit cum in uno momento illud stupendum opus perficere potuerit Respond ut homines opera sua magââ contemplarentur et eum in operando sex diebus et quiescendo uno faelicitèr imitarenter c. But these words are directly for the number only indirectly for the order and the genuine sense of them is thou art permitted to work six dayes but on the seventh is the Sabbath and then thou shalt abstain from all kind of work thou hast six dayes for thy self and God must have the seventh where most plainly number not order is the substance and sence of the command And 2. God wrought six dayes no more and no less and rested one no more or less and therefore thou shalt labour six dayes and rest but one Now if God did so who needed not to have wrought one day being able to have made all things in a moment nor to have rested one hour as not being subject to any weariness much more poor Man needs a competent time for his affairs and for his rest to the service and worship of God and for the refreshing of his soul and if God did that for man which he needed not to have done viz. to work six dayes and rest one how much more are we bound to observe the same proportion and to imitate this blessed example So that not order but proportion is the soul of this Commandment Thirdly if the fourth Commandment did directly and in the substance of it command the seventh day Sabbath and Nulla lex a Christo condita Christianis potestatem dedit ritus judaicos observandi immò veró Apostolus illud planè voluit dum non modo circumcisionem abrogabat verum etiam hortabatur ut de festis nulla sit dissentio Socrat. Hist Ecclesiastic lib. 5. cap. 20. not the Sabbath indefinitely then either we Christians must keep that day still and so fall back to Judaism and in effect deny the Lord that bought us and cast a damp upon the ever blessed Resurrection of Jesus Christ or else the fourth Commandment is purely Ceremonial and so utterly void and abolished all which hath been refuted already Now both these consequences are so opposite to truth and so abhorrent to most Christians that it is far more rational to grant the seventh day in proportion was commanded in that holy and immutable precept then to dash our selves upon either of these two rocks which may be a Scylla or Charybdis to the soul To assert the fourth Commandment enjoynes the seventh day in order draws a whole train of absurdities after it 1. Why a Ceremonial command should be placed among all morals so the fourth Command must be if abrogated and we observe another Sabbath differing from the seventh day 2. Then why a special command concerning only the people of the Jews for we have rejected their Sabbath should be placed among general Commandments which concern all the world for the other nine do so and is confessed by all but Papists Antinomians and Familists and such others of the litter of Hereticks 3. If the seventh in order be the substance of the fourth Commandment it thrusts men upon two dangerous rocks and extreams to the great disquiet of the Churches peace One that the fourth Commandment is onely ceremonial which is a gate to licentious liberty Or Secondly it is only moral for that seventh day which is to bring us back into the Wilderness again of legal Rites and Judaisme 4. Those who hold the seventh day in order to be commanded in the fourth Commandment
effusion of the spirit which should be in Gospel-times This day saith the same Author is sanctified when we seriously consider that on it false Doctrine was plucked up by the foundations the Calumnies of miscreant calumniators were refelled and silenced the security of Christs Disciples was reproved and condemned Vice was checkt and corrected and piety propagated and disseminated In the view and practice of those things Sabbath sanctification is fairly comprised But it is observable that this learned man takes notice that Christ began betimes to instruct his Apostles in the duties of the Lords day the first day of the week which doth evidently secure us that the day it self was the institution of Christ himself And we may justly retort upon thosâ who fasten the Lords day upon humane Authority from the beginning it was not so Mat. 19. 8. But the rising of the Sun of Righteousness after the night of a Grave made our Sabbath day And this weekly festival is given to the world both by Christs re-entry into it from the dark shade of the grave and by vertue of those commands mentioned Acts 1. 2. the command for the Lords day being one of them without doubt or dispute But that no beam of light may be withhâld from making a full discovery of this truth we will fetch our rise from the earliest times of the world The Lords day was typified by Circumcisiân which was administred on the eighth day the next day after the Jewâsh Sabbath and the very day of our Christian One of our Homilies saith That the first day after the Jewish Sabbath is our Sunday It is our Lords day say the Divines of Ireland and Augustine proveth That by the eighth day of August Epist ad Januar. 119. cap. 13. Nam quia octavus dies i. e. post Sabbatum primus dies futurus erat quo dominus resurgeret nos vivificaret spiritutlem nobis daret circumâisionem c. Circumcision was shadowed forth our Lords day And Cyprian saith That Circumcision was commanded on the eighth day as a Sacrament of the eighth day on which Christ should rise from the dead And this holy Martyr proceeds and gives us the reason of his words for because the eighth day i. e. the day after the Sabbath was to be the day on which the Lord should rise and quicken us and give us the spiritual Circumcision this eighth day i. e. the first day after the Jewish Sabbath went before in a shadâw So then the precise time of the circumcision of the flesh did onely prefigure the day of Christs resurrection or our Sabbath wherein Christ rose for the circumcision of the heaât for that which was spiritual and so more effectual circumcision Dies sabbati erât dierum ordine posterior sanctificatione autem in tempore legis Anterior sed ubi finis legis advenit viz. Jesus Christus resurrectione suâ Octavam sanè sanctificavit caepit eadem prima esse quae octava fuerat habens ex numeri ordine praerogatiâam ex resurrectione domini sanctitatem Ambros Hilany points at the same thing Vpon the eighth day saith he which is also the first day we rejoyce in the festivity of a perfect Sabbath And this eminent person hath left a most memorable Record behind him of the Churches practice in his time which was about An. Dom. 355. Ambrose most elegantly descants upon this subject The Sabbath saith he was the last in order of days but the first in sanctification under the Law but when the end of the law was come Rom. 10 4. viz. Jesus Christ and by his resurrection had consecrated the eighth day that which was the eighth day began to be the first being dignified by the precedency of the number and sanctified by the resurrection of the Lord. Thus the primitive times which are the best Comment on Gospel Institutions as having the advantage of being nearer to the rising Sun could easily discern the thing typified in the type the substance in the shadow the eighth day the usual time of circumcising the flesh clearly prefiguring the day of Christs glorious rising to circumcise the inward-man the hidden man of the heart and to purge away the pollutions and filthiness both of flesh and spirit The Lords day was prophesied 1 Pet. 3. 4. of by holy David Psal 118. 24. This is the day which Ezek. 36. 25. the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it It is not an easie thing saith Dr. Ames to reject this Scripture Neque facilitèr rejâciendum est quod ab antiquis quibusdam urgetur Psal 118. 24. Eo enim loco agitur de resurrectione Christi ipso Christo interprete Matth. 21. 42. Ames Cyprianus Augustinus Ambrosius hunc diem in Psal 118. 24. citatum de resurrectione Christi interpretantur so much urged by the Ancients and wholly and only applicable to Christs resurrection-resurrection-day if Christ may interpret the meaning of the Prophet Mal. 21. 42. Or if the Apostle may interpret the meaning of his Master Acts 4. 11 12. And a learned man observes that the word hath made in the Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Hebrew signifies not simply to make but to sanctifie and to observe holy as is most usual when it is referred to feasts or days as Deut. 5. 15 16. Deut. 10. 13. The man then who was after Gods own heart and who was most likely to understand Gods own mind he hath foretold this blessed day when by a prophetick spirit fore-seeing the glory of the Resurrection-day as a most eminent day among the seven days as the Sun among the seven Planets salutes it with a magnificent style and Title This is the day which the Lord hath made Thus the Psalmist did fore-see that the Lord would magnifie and exalt his resurrection day and why Because on this day the glorious work of mans redemption was to be accomplished The stone which the builders refused became the head stone of the Corner Psal 118. 22. Dominicum ergo diem Apostoli Apostolici viri ideò religiosâ solennitate sanxerunt quia in eadem Redemptor noster à mortuis resurrexit Aug. And thus is the resurrection day prophetically crowned with honour above all other dayes the Holy Ghost putting an emphasis upon it It is a day which the Lord hath made how made not by way of creation for so it was made before Gen. 1. 1. but by way of institution The day which the Lord hath made what hath God made it a working day so it was before If therefore he hath made it any thing it must be a holy solemn day a day more solemn more sacred then all the dayes that God ever made before So then it is evident a day of solemn worship is here intended and Christs Resurrection day most clearly pointed at as a day which the Lord would institute as a day which the Church should celebrate we see then a clear Scripture
ecclesiae Corinthiâcae mandetur quod à totâ Christi ecclesiâ non requiritur and therefore binds their Consciences to it And if Paul ordained it certainly he had it from Jesus Christ who first commanded him so to appoint it for he solemnly professeth That what he received of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. 23. that onely he commanded them to do If this day had not been more holy and more sit for this work of love than any other day the Apostle would not have limited them to this day nor would he have honoured this day above the Jewish Sabbath for the Apostle was always very tender of Christian liberty and would never bind where the Lord hath left his people free for in so doing he should rather make Snares than Laws and go expresly against his own doctrine and that in this very point of the 1 Cor 7. 28. 35. Gal. 5 1. observation of days Gal. 4. 10. He may give his advice indeed in things proposed 1 Cor. 7. 25. but he always distinguisheth between his own counsel and Gods command and makes the Command necessary but the other onely expedient The Apostle doth not in this place immediately appoint and institute a Sabbath but supposeth it to be so already and we know duties of Mercy and Charity as well as of necessity Primr part 3. cap. 6. and piety are Sabbath duties for which end this day was most fit for these collections because they usually Quando quidem âpostolus collectas die dominico faciendas statuit dubium non est quin praecipiat ut diem ipsum celebrent quando finem requirit quid non media ad finem duâentia praescribat met togethet publickly on this day and so then collections might be in a greater readiness and partly also that they might give more liberalây it being supposed that upon this day their hearts were more weaned from the World and more warmed by the Word and more elevated by other Ordinances to a vigorous faith and a lively hope of better things to come and so having received spiritual things from the Lord more plentifully on this day every man would be the more free to impart his temporal good things for refreshing the poor Saints And why should the Apostle limit the Church of Corinth to this day either for extraordinary or private collections and such special acts of mercy unless the Lord had honâured this day for acts of mercy and much more of piety above any Et si primaria Pauli intentio scil collectam praecipere tamen quia vult illam fieri dâe dâminâco dubiââm noâ est qâân âraecipâât etiam ut Dominicum diem celebrent qui enim vult finem vâlt media ordinary or common day What then should this day be but the Christian Sabbath imposed by the Apostles and magnified and honoured in all the Churches in those days It is rightly observed by Bishop White Although this Text of St. Paul saith he maketh no express mention of Church-assemblies on this day yet because it was the custome of Christians and so likewise it is a thing convenient to give Alms on the days of Christian Assemblies it cannot well be gain-said but that if in Corinth and Galatia the first day of every week was appointed to be the day for Alms and charitable contributions the same also was the Christians weekly holy-day for their religious Assemblies Thus this learned man rightly and genuinely Vedel Exercit in Ignat. ad Magnes cap. 7. draws the inference Iâ the first day of the week was the day for Alms it was likewise the day for Worship Chrysostom upon the evidence of this Text concludes positively That in the Churches of Corinth and Galatia the Lords day was made a weekly holy day by the Apostles for they governed these Churches at that time Philo Judaeus and Philo Judaeus Josephus relate That it was the custom of the Jews who were scattered in other Countries to make Collections every Josephus Sabbath-day which were sent by the hands of eminent persons to Hierusalem every year and for the use of the Temple and the Levits and this custom the Apostle seems to follow in the Text now under discussion in enjoyning Collections every first day of the week our Christian Sabbath to be sent for the relief of the poor Saints at Hierusalem who were oppressed by a multitude of strangers and subjected to persecutions and wants for their zeal and holy fervour to the blessed Gospel Once more if it be demanâed why the Apostle enjoyns Collections on the Lords day Chrysostom gives us a good answer he saith That was a Sacrament-day and dâuâtless that was a powerful Argument to prompt them to liberality it was strange ingratitude to spare a little from the poor when it is considered God spared not the blood of his own Son which Chrysost is lively represented in the sacramental feast Beza observes Acts 20. 7. That Justin Martyr after he had described the order and manner of the primitive times in sacramental Administrations on the Lords day he adds That their Collections were made according to every ones free will and those Acts 1. 2. 4. Collections were distributed by the chief Minister to Orphans Widows sick persons and those who were in want for their relief and seasonable support So that this sacred custom and holy day were propagated by the Apostle to the succeding ages of the Church And indeed what better Hâctenus ex hisce tribus locis scripturae conjunctim consideratis ex communi sententiâ quam tota fore reformata exlesia ex iis constantèr colligit dâei dominicae usum ad Apostolos esse referendum Wal. exposition of an Apostolical Precept and practise can we meet withal than the universal practise and observance of the Church of Christ VVe must then shut up this particular with what Walaeus takes notice of For these two Texts Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. saith he joyned with Revel 1. 10. have caused almost all the reformed Churches to conclude that undoubtedly the observation of the Lords day must necessarily be referred to the Apostles as the Original Founders of it And let this be added That the Apostles transmitted the Lords day to the Church most probably by the immediate command of Christ most certainly by the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost that unerring conduct of them in the affairs of the Church The Lords day is more illustrious from its eminent Title Revel 1. 10. where it is stiled the Lords day If ye ask why Augustine will tell you because the Lord hath made it This Ignat. Epist ad Magnes Euseb Eccles Histor lib. 3. cap. 21. Diònys Corinth Histor lib 4 cap 22. Cyprian Epist 59. Caeperatintereà post tristia Sabbata foelix dies qui nominis alti culmen a domino dominante trahit c. Sedul name and title was so sweet to the Primitive Church that most
of the Fathers call our Sabbath by this name and imbrace its honour with an holy and triumphant ambition they took an advantage from the very Title to use this blessed day with greater veneration Titles among men commanding respect and submission Our Sabbath is called the Lords day saith a learned man 1. Because the Lord did constitute the solemnization of it as the Lords Prayer is so called because Christ did dictate it 2. Or because on this day the Lord is more solemnly worshipped 3. Or because Christ our Lord on this day rose from the dead opening a door for us to an everlasting Sabbath and Rest Surely it is some additional honour to this illustrious Day that as it was the first day of time mentioned in the first Gen. 1. 1. Book of the Bible so it is the last day of fame noted in the beginning of this last Book of the Bible to the praise of Revel 1. 10. him who is our Alpha and Omega Revel 1. 11. The very Omnes ferè sacrae âcripturae interpretes tam veteres quà m recentiores de primo die hebdomadis Revel 1. 10. intelligunt Wal. Name speakes Christ the Author of this day and his resurrection whereby he was declared both Lord and Christ must needs be the occasion of it Ignatius who lived in the times of John the beloved Apostle makes the Lords day the Christians weekly Festival which they then observed in the room of the Jews Sabbath So doth Tertullian Athanasius Hierom Augustine c. and indeed who not By this title of the Lords day we may trace it down from the Apostles times through the Ocean of the Fathers Councels Schoolmen Arguimus appellatione ejus Revel 1. 10. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Sic appellari non potuit ille dies nisi eum dominus instituisset ut in caerâ et Oratione dominicâ factum est Eatonus p. 73. to this present age in which we live And to cast our eye on Scripture there seems to be much in that which Beza observes out of an ancient Greek Manuscript wherein the first day of the week is called the Lords day And the Syriack Translation tells us That the Christians meeting together to receive the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. 20. was upon the Lords day Bucan saith The Sacrament is called the Lords Supper as in respect of the institution and the end of it so also in respect of the day on which it was wont to be administred viz. the Lords day And we may fairly expound the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. by the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. 20. Here we may take notice that the spirit of God who had his choice of words and never spake any thing but with admirable reason never vouchsafed this title of honour in the Caena domini dicitur ab anthore vel etiam à fine nam à domino instituta est et in ejus memoriam celebratur vel etiam à tempore quia diebus dominicis celebrari consuevisset Bucan New Testament but only to the Supper and the Day the Lords Supper and the Lords day Now therefore the phrase being the same and thus singular the sense must needs be the same Look therefore in what notion the Supper is the Lords Supper and in the same sense is the day styled the Lords day The Supper is the Lords because the Lord Christ did institute and ordain it yea and substitute it in the room of the Passover And why not the day his because he instituted it and substituted it in the room of the Old Sabbath It is evidently a day of Christs institution a day of the Lords making and with reference to Christs resurrection and let any other day be set up in competition with it and it will evidently and easily be non-suited One well observes That from these Texts Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. See Mr. Perkins in his cases of Conscience Rev. 1. 10. may well be gathered the laudable and Evangelical practice of the Apostles and the excellent confirmation countenance and authority that God gave thereunto in this point of sanctifying the Lords day So that God did bear witness thereunto by signs and wonders On this day Eutychus was raised from the dead Acts 20. 10 11. On this day three thousand are raised from the grave or rather from the hell of sin Acts 2. 37. And on this day John the Apostle is in his raptures and extasies Rev. 1. 10. And besides the more remarkable Acts 1. 2 4. benefits and fruits of this day upon which the Holy Ghost hath put a Selah still the Lords day is a wonder-working day What sense have many of the Saints on this day of peace of conscience joy in the Holy Ghost and great increase of grace holy knowledge and the fear of the Lord And indeed the advantages and precious fruits of this day are manifest to common and constant experience Dies dominica dicitur eadem ratione qua sacra Eucharistiae caena vocatur caena domini 1 Cor. 11. 12. quia scil à domino nostro Jesu Christo fuit instituta et ad eundem etiam dominum in fine et usu refeâri debet Ames Learned Rivet tells us that all Interpreters do expound Revel 1. 10. of our Lords day viz. the first day of the week excepting one single Gomarus as when ever was truth published which was not snarled at by some humorous and impatient adversary And one thing more is very observable in Rev. 1. 10. It is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Lords day not the day of the Lord for so is every day he being the Lord and Master of time but it is called the Lords day by way of singularity and conspicuous eminency But to draw towards a conclusion in the discussion of this particular of much moment indeed and therefore of more curious disquisition We may take notice that the Riv. Dissert de Orig. Sab. cap. 10. Lords day is not only the most proper name of our Sabbath and most in use in the dayes of the Apostles but it is most expressive being both an Historian and a Preacher For the Huc facit quod Lords day looking backward mindeth us what the Lord hath Johan Apost in die dominico correptus fuit ita ut spiritu viderit audiverit Apocalypsiâ de statu ecclesiae deinceps futuro unde colligitur eum tum sanctis meditationibus quae diem dominicum decebant vaâasse Piscat done for us as on that day viz. He arose from the dead And looking forward it admonisheth us what we ought to do for him on the same day viz. spend it to the honour of the Lord in the proper and sacred duties of it In a word In the Lords day three things are considerable 1. A day founded on the light of Nature Meer Pagans destinate whole dayes to their idolatrous service 2. One day in
the Lords day saith he which of the whole week is the first let the whole mind of Christians be taken up and occupied in the service of God let them know there is a great difference between times of prayers and times of pleasures and therefore avoiding all Jewish impiety and devilish Paganism let them be wholly implied in the duties of the day Thus that magnanimous and judicious Emperour And it is very observable Justinian doth not onely enjoyn the observance but takes for granted the divine institution of our christian Sabbath as Charles the Great before him And one thing more is most observable That these Emperours who took most care of the Lords Day and established it by their Authority they were most sound in their judgments most successful in their atchievements most eminent in their persons and most famous in their esteem throughout the world indeed they were the greatest Ornaments of the Imperial Throne as Constantine the Great conquered the Pagan and Charles the Great conquered the Martial World and Religion spake them both truly the Great So Ludovicus Pius was a Pattern of Patience and Justinian an example of advised wisdome But I shall not clog the Reader lest a Surfeit take away the taste of those sweets which have been spread before him Nay our Christian Sabbath hath not onely been honoured and established by Divine Canon and Civil Law but likewise by Common Law and here I shall confine my self to our own Nation King Alured about the year 900 did publickly King Alured prohibit all marketting on the Lords Day as all other work whatsoever and laid severe Penalties on the transgressors of this Proclamation Canutus went a little further King Canutus and forbad not onely Markettings but Courts or publick Meetings and executions of Malefactors as also hunting and all kind of secular imployments But to draw nearer to K. Edward the sixth our times King Edward the sixth our English Josiah Enacted in Parliament For as much as men be not at all times so mindful to laud and praise God so ready to resort to hear Gods word and to come to the holy Communion as their bounden duty doth require therefore it hath been wholsomly provided that there should be certain days appointed wherein Christians should cease from all kind of labour and apply themselves wholly and onely unto the aforesaid holy works properly pertaining to true Religion Be it therefore Enacted c. And so the King and his great Council go on to establish Sabbath-observation by a Law Queen Elizabeth that Renowned Q. Elizabeth Princess initiates and begins her Reigne with a severe Injunction for the holy observation of the Lords Day Let us take a taste of her Langague All the Queens faithful Subjects shall from henceforth celebrate and keep their holy day according to Gods holy will and pleasure that is in hearing the word read and taught in private and publick prayers in acknowledgment of their offences and the amendment of the same in often receiving the Communion of the body and blood of Christ using all soberness and godly conversation Thus this happy Princess laid the foundation of her future prosperous Reign in that which is better then Saphires The like was decreed in Parliament the same year when this worthy Queen made good her Motto Semper eadem Always the same joyning heartily with her great Council in restraining the prophanation and promoting the sanctification of Gods holy and blessed Day And her Successor King James over-hears the Eccho and K. James takes it at the rebound and expresses his zeal for the Lords Day in this Royal Proclamation Whereas I have been informed that there hath been in former times a great neglect in keeping the Sabbath-day therefore for the better observing of it and for avoiding all impious prophanation of it I straightly charge and command that no Bear-baitings Interludes Common Plays or other like disordered Exercises or Pastimes be frequented kept or used at any time hereafter on the Sabbath-day And thus King James begins his Reign and layes his first step to the English Throne not in polished Maâhle but in pious devotion And King Charles the first following the steps of his Father was pleased in his first Parliament to Enact a Law K. Charles the first promoting Sabbath-observation the tenour of the Law runs thus That from henceforth there should be no Meetings Assemblies or concourse of people out of the Parishes on the Lords Day for any Sports or Pastimes whatsoever And in this Law it is taken care that the High-ways should not be frequented by the Traveller nor the Shop visited by the Labourer but there must be a cessation of all unnecessaries and seculars to give way to more sublime and to use Chrysostoms phrase and spiritual observations Thus the English Statute-book as well as Justinians Code proclaims the honour of the Lords Day Nor is our Christian Sabbath honoured and established onely by the Statutes of the Realm but by the Constitutions and Canons of several Councils that Church and State may both cry out Thus shall it be done to the day which the Esth 6. 11. The Councils of Carthâge Arragon Orleance Mascon Angiers Collen Friuli Aken Rome Petricow Eliberis Laodicea c. All confirming and establishing the Lords day and Enacting Canons for the due observation of it To which may be added Concil Agath Can. 47. Concil Aurelian Can. 27. Concil Paris Can. 50. Concil Rhemens Can. 43. Concil Antisidor Can. 16. Concil Tral lan Can. 19. Concil Constantinop Can. 8. Lord hath honoured The Council of Carthage decreed to petition the Emperour That there might be no Shews or any sinful Vanities on the Lords Day The Council of Arragon prohibits by Canon All Suits of Law and such litigious Controversies on the Lords Day The Council of Orleance Prohibited all servile works on the Lords Day The Council of Mascon decreed That the Lords Day should be kept holy for it is the day of our new Birth insinuated unto us under the shadow of the seventh-day Sabbath in the times of the Law and therefore the people must go to Church on that day and there pour out their Souls in tears and prayers and celebrate the day with one accord and offer unto God their free and voluntary service exercising themselves in Hymns and singing praises to God being intent thereon in mind and body In the Council of Angiers it was decreed That no Tradesman should follow his Calling on the Lords Day The Council of Collen decreed That the people should be diligently admonished why the Lords Day which hath been famous in the Church from the Apostles time was instituted that all might equally come together to hear the word of the Lord to receive the Sacraments to apply their minds to God alone and this day to be spent onely in Prayers and Hymns in Psalms and spiritual Songs The Council of Friuli decreed That all Christians should with all
six dayes spent in his own works is to sanctifie Mr. Joseph Mede in a little tract on the Sabbath the seventh that he may profess himself thereby a servant of God the Creator of Heaven and Earth for the quotum then how much time the Jew and the Christian agree but in the designation of the day they differ for the Christians keep for their holy day that which with the Jews was the first day of the week and call it Dominicum the Lords day that they might thereby profess themselves the servants of that God who as on the morning of that day vanquished Satan the spiritual Pharaoh and redeemed us from our spiritual thraldom by praising Jesus Christ our Lord risen from the dead begetting us unto instead of an earthly Canaan an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens In a word the Christian by the day he hallows professeth himself a Christian that is as St. Paul speaks to believe on him who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead But might not you will say the Christian as well have observed the Jewish Sabbath for his seventh day as the day he doth I answer no he might not for in so doing he should seem not to acknowledge his redemption to be already performed but still expected for the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the Ministry of Moses was intended for a type or pledge of the spiritual deliverance to come by Jesus Christ their Canaan also to which they marched being a type of that heavenly inheritance which the redeemed by Christ do look for since then the shadow is now made void by the coming of the substance the relation is changed and God is no longer to be worshipped as a God fore-shewing and assuring by types but as a God who hath performed the substance of what he promised and this is that which St. Paul means Col. 2. 16 17. where he saith Let no man henceforth judge you in respect of a Feast day New Moons or Sabbath day which were a shadow of things to come but the body is Christ Thus largely this worthy man shews us that the foundation of the old Sabbath is rased and plucked up and the new Sabbath is setled upon as strong a Basis even upon the accomplishment 2 Tim. 2. 19. of the glorious work of our redemption in the blessed resurrection of Christ and we may now say This foundation stands sure the Lord knows which day for weekly solemnity is his the time of our Sabbath is set by that rising Sun which will decline no morâ And we are as much bound to keep our Sabbath upon the account of the work of Redemption as the Jews were upon the account of the work of creation or their Egyptian deliverance the work makes the day in both and therefore no human device or institution can here lay the least claim Thus let us run the stage of every Century we shall never want those who had so much Scripture Heraldry as to know that the Lords day was divinely born and that at least the holy Apostles both by their practice Acts 20. 7. and precept 1. Cor. 16. 2. give life to it that it might survive in the Church till the end of all things and times And as no age was so corrupt to disown so no place was so barbarous as to shut out the Lords day But in all places where Christianity was embraced they sang Hosanna to the highest of dayes The observation of this day was much scattered in the very Apostles dayes It was observed at Hierusalem Dominica ideò nobis est venerabilis atque solennis quia in eâ Salvator noster velut Sol Oriens discussis infernonorum tenebris luce Resurrectionis emicuit proptereà ea dies ab hominibus seculidies solis vocatur quòd Christus Sol justitiae eam lucidissimè illuminavit John 20. 19 26. at Troas Acts 20. 7. in the Churches of Galatia and Corinth 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Then in Patmos Rev. 1. 10. and the lesser Asia then in the Grecian Churches as the Greek Fathers before-mentioned testifie then in the Latine Churches as appears by the Latin Fathers called before to witness and attest it which they plentifully declare and in process of time the fame and observance of this blessed day was scattered far and wide It was observed in Africk by the injunction of the Council of Carthage it was observed in Spain by the decrees of the Councils of Arragon and Eliberis it was solemnly kept and observed in France by the decrees and Canons of the Council of Orleance Paris Rhemes Angiers it was observed in Italy by the Canons of the Councils of Friuli Rome it was kept in Germany by the strict injunction of the Councils of Aquisgrane Mentz and Collen it was observed in Poland by imposition and advice of the Council of Petricow it was Author Clem. constit l. 5. c. 13. kept in Lydia a Province of the lesser Asia by the determination of the Council of Laodicea which solemn convention gave much honour to our Christian Sabbath it was observed in Greece by the strict injunction of the Council of Constantinople it was observed in England in the early dayes and dawnings of the Gospel by the advice and Canon of the Council of Cloveshow as some say near Canterbury Thus in every place where the Christian Religion was planted the Lords day was inaugurated with praise and observation so that we may here apply that of the Psalmist Psal 68. 11. The Lord gave the word and great was the company of those that published it The Gospel and the day of Psal 68. 11. Christ both kept equal pace and travelled in company together through all converted Nations To entertain a Saviour and not a Sabbath the Lords will declared in the Gospel not the Lords day was ever a soloecism and an absurâity in the world Nor can I see if our Sabbath be only jure humano an humane ordinance how we can expect the same blessing on our Sabbath which the Jews might or did on theirs for surely divine institution entails divine benediction God doth not water plants with the dews of his blessing which are Mat 15. 13. not of his own planting But he often complains of introductions Satanas habet plantationes quae sunt zizania et homines habent plantationes quae sunt traditiones sed ambae sunt eradicandae et evellendae Chemnit into his worship by the devise and counsels of men Jer. 7. 31. How the Sabbath of the Jews had manifestly a divine institution which is undoubted and undenied by all If ours therefore want a divine authority to appoint and ordain it their fleece may be still wet with blessing and denediction and ours wholly dry It is not easily to be imagined that an Ecclesiastical constitution as some make our Sabbath to be can fall under the same smiles and influences with a divine ordinance enlivened by Christs command or
pulchre opponit Pharisaeorum accusationibus vos malletis quasi diceret propter sanctificationem sabbati discipulos meos esurientes potius affligi quam spicas aliquas discerpere item malletis hominem perire quam Sabbatis sanari atqui hoc directè pugnat cum Deut. 5. 14. Sabbatum propter hominem c. sensus igitur est Nec cum noxâ nec cum exitio aut damno homiâiââââgenda eât âxterna obsââvatio Sabbati Sicut in exemplo Davidis est manifestissimum Chemnit John 8. 36. Psal 119. 164. Psal 27. 4. Psal 84. 10. Libertines would fasten upon it 1. They say the Sabbath was made for man because man was created before its institution and therefore this festival was ordained for his entertainment in the world for his profit and advantage but not for his play sports and recreations This institution of the Sabbath âyed man now newly created and made Gods Viceroy upon earth 2. The Sabbath was made for man that is for his corporal good that on this day he might rest from the toyls of the world Deut. 5. 14. In the Commandement for the Sabbath God consulted mans weakness but not his wantonness he studied his frame but not his fancy God appointed the Sabbath that man should not over-bend the Bow but relax and remit his painful labours and so be more composed and at leisure for spiritual service and worship so the Sabbath was made for man for the good of his body 3. The Sabbath was made for man viz. for his spiritual good that man on that holy day might be built up in his most holy faith and that he might enjoy sweet communion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 John 1. 3. How often is the Sabbath the Souls nuptial day wherein it is esponsed and married to Christ it is a day of divine support of refection and recruit to Grace and often of the execution and mortification of lust and corruption The Sabbath is the Souls banquetting day a fit season for strengthning and repast while it travels upon the Mountains of prey and feeds with the flocks of Christ at noon Cant. 1. 7. Psal 76. 4. However they who shall torture this Text to the utmost and put it upon the strictest wrack shall force it to speak no more then thus much That man must not run the hazard or peril of life for the outward observation of a Sabbath man must observe it but not with an apparent danger of himself if it cannot be observed without harm and certain damage the external observation must be suspended and mans life and good must not be impaired and our Saviour instanceth in Davids eating of Shewbread an extraordinary and unjustifiable action yet it may be apologized for and maintained in a case of necessity and so the Disciples of Christ plucking the ears of Corn it was for support and necessary satisfaction And so mans life is more considerable than the outward observance of a day especially considering that the Sabbath was calculated for mans good in its first original and institution and the whole man both Soul and body was taken into consideration when it was first set on foot in the world Now this fair and candid construction of the Text detests all carnal liberty and all swinges of pleasure and sensual delight upon Gods sacred and solenm day In a word it is no ways suitable to a gracious spirit to be importunate for carnal liberty on Gods holy day The sensual delights of this life they are the clog not the comfort of a Saint their fetters rather then their freedom A believer is never more himself then when he travels over spiritual objects in holy meditation and freely vents himself in holy prayer and supplication He complains not of being clogged unless when he is bird-limed with a temptation or staked down by a malepert corruption that he cannot rise and fly up to God in holy devotion he knows not any liberty but the liberty of Ordinances and he is then only free who is manumitted by Gods good spirit his confinement is the transiency not the length of a Sabbath and he is dismissed from an Ordinance with a sigh Fleshly ease pleaseth not him on a Sabbath because it keeps him from his beloved nor dare he exchange duty for recreation He thinks it a poor and incontemptible thing to be running after a bowl on the Lords day when he should be running his race and pressing forward towards the Mark Phil. 3. 14. Nor can he mind a sport when he is to look after a prize The Saint thinks recreations on a Sabbath are not only the loss of time and an empty Parenthesis but they are Dalilahs to rock him asleep that so he may lose Praetereà arbitrium nostrum voluntatem nostram Christus in aliquam partem libertatis ponit dum donat nos spiritu sancto cujus gratiâ corrapta nostra natura instaurata spontaneo est ut juxta prae ceptum dei benè agamus pietati studere incipiamus prompto Matth. 19. 8. spiritu nam ubi spiritus est ibi est libertas Chemnit Eccl. 9. 10. 2 Cor. 3. 17. his spiritual strength Whatever he doth on a Sabbath he doth it with all his might and he knows there is no more work nor device in a recreation then in the grave And truly it too much savours of a carnal heart either to be an Advocate to plead for or to be an Actor to engage in sensual delights on Gods Holy day from the beginning from holy David from zealous Nehemiah it was not so CHAP. XLVIII The first Decad of Arguments to perswade conscience to an holy observation of the Lords day THe design of pressing conscience to a due observance of Gods blessed day is already begun and the rise hath been taken from the sometimes solemn and accurate carriage of the Jews upon their Sabbath And shall a Vagabond Jew out-vy us shall that branch which is cut off be Rom. 11. 19. more fresh and flourishing in Sabbath-observation then the branch which is engraffed and implanted in its room Shall In die dominico tantùm deo tantum divinis cultibus vacandum est Aug. the slave be more obsequious then the Son The vassal more obediential then the Heir The Jews still though blasted with a Curse yet they at least some of them keep their Sabbath with great zeal and devotion And shall not Christians who lie under dews of divine blessing and live under Sun-shines of Gospel heat and light be more frugal of the time and more spiritual in the duties of the Lords day Let not a disinherited Jew rise up in judgment against us But of this already But now further to press conscience to a holy keeping of the Lords day Arg. 1 Let us consider how much folly is bound up in prophaning Gods day We put away from us all those golden promises Jer. 17. 24 25. which God hath entailed upon a
hearts by the light of Nature but this only was given by outward Ordinance and Institution and we are more apt to forget Instructions then Inclinations 2. Because this Commandment more restrains natural liberty then all the rest the other Commandments restrain only things sinful but this prohibits things lawful at any other time nay it restrains our very words Isa 58. 13. and our very thoughts our lawfull works and secular employments must be laid aside on this day we must not think or discourse of the world and the things of it on this blessed day 3. Because of the multitude of our affairs on the six days which had need to be remembred to be finished seasonably or else they will breed distractions on the Lords day nor is it so facil and easie to keep off their impressions and intrusions when we are to converse with God on his own day 4. Because the Devil will assuredly prompt us to forget this Commandment so to quench the memory both of the Creation and the work of our Redemption that he may the more readily draw us to despair by forgetting the salvifical work of our Redemption or else to Atheisme by forgetting the stupendous work of the Creation for as the work of Creation first give us a Sabbath so the work of Redemption afterwards gave us our Sabbath Now to prevent these mischicvous inconveniencies we are alarm'd and quickned with a Memento to keep this Commandment as a means to preserve the memory both of Father and Son and so to keep on foot holy and divine worship This Commandment of the Sabbath is of most weight to be remembred for the observance of all the rest of the Commandments depend much upon the keeping of this Let us cast our eye upon the Conversion of sinners where one hath been converted on the week day many have been brought home to God on his own day God doth delight to dispence his graces on his own day so that in keeping this day we preserve an opportunity when God doth confer his graces on the Sons of men and in a careless observing of this day we put from us an opportunity of getting and obtaining the grace of God So then keep this day and we keep all neglect this day and we neglect all the proper means for life and salvation This is the season when the Angel comes down to stir the waters and then is our time to step in and be healed John 5. 4. This indeed is the fundamental command on which the superstructure of piety and religion is fastened and built On this day God draws nigh to his people and they to him nay the way to lay hold on Gods Covenant is to keep his Sabbath there is some hopes of a mans salvation when he makes conscience of keeping this holy day 7. The reason why this Commandment is of so much weight to be remembred is because in it we are made more ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã spiritually minded it frames our spirits to be more fit and adequate to every good word and work we are as not of this world the Apostle saith Heb. 4. 9. Verily there remains a Rest for the people of God Implying that the Saints in Heaven keep a Sabbath-Rest meditating divine things singing praises and minding only the things of Heaven Nothing more fits and accommodates our spirits to the supreme good Vis in die quem dicunt solis solem colitis sicut nos in eundem dominicum non solem sed resarrectionem domini veneramur then a holy observation of the Sabbath it is the beginning of heaven here our hearts then work up more and more to their centre to their God to their Christ 8. We must remember this Commandment In keeping the Sabbath we keep in mind Gods chiefest mercies the benefit of our Creation and of our Redemption the first giving us our beings the second our well beings the first being the Aug. Contr. Faust Manich Lib. 10. fountain of Nature the second being the spring of Grace And whereas there are Three most glorious persons shewing themselves in their several works tending to mans good the due observation of the Sabbath puts us in the remembrance of them all Of the Father who created us and then gave the Gen. 2. 3. world a Sabbath of the Son who redeemed us and on this day ascended from the Grave of the Holy Ghost who inspires Acts 2. 1 2 3. us and sheds a beauty upon us who as on this day descended from heaven in a miraculous flame upon the blessed Apostles which was an infallible earnest of those plenteous effusions of the spirit which should be poured forth upon the Church in all ages Thus upon weighty reasons a Memento Dan 5. 6. is affixed to the fourth and only to the fourth Commandment which if it be not a note of observance to point out our Sanctificatio Sabbati est diem à deo anteà sanctificatum pro sancto habere et exercitâis religionis et fidei exercendae sedulo inâumbere Atque ita sanctificationem dei haudquaquam prophanare sed illibatam conservare Muscul great concernment in the holy keeping of it it will be an hand-writing on the wall to make us tremble to all everlasting A learned man observes That God should preface this Commandment with a Memento it implies that some serious thing is commanded something of the highest importance which upon our peril must not be neglected or forgotten This command is a treasure committed to us with a great charge And it is observable it is not said Remember that thou keep the Sabbath day but remember the Sabbath to keep it holy Exod. 20. 8. God stops not at Sabbath day but adds to keep it holy evidently implying that to set apart the time of a Sabbath is not considerable but to spend that time in holy duties and in the holy exercises of faith and religion this is the fulfilling of the Commandment When Gods sanctifying of Sabbatum non est merè quies Leid Prof. the day as Musculus speaks is not prophaned by us but kept pure and unspotted The Memento then in this Commandment is only the usher of holiness Gods loud call to strictness and sanctity on his own day the significant harbinger to tell us Christ is coming and on this day he must lodge in our hearts Arg. 7 No Command is sweetned with more equity then that of the Sabbath There is that which Aristotle calls ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in it a Facillimum est et aequissimum ei cujus toti sumus unum diem è septem conservare qui sex alios nostris laboribus concessit cùm tamen potuisset jure suo plures illis servandos judicare Riv. just and moderate Imposition there is not so much voluntas imperantis the will of him who commands as ratio impeâandi the reason of the command it self In this command God rather exercises jus Patris
he would vex her worse with his work which words were no sooner spoken but Justice seizes upon him for the earth fell upon him and he stirred no more but presently died Thus the Numb 16. 32 33. Lord by his own hand cut off this Miscreant wretch and threw him into Corah Dathan and Abirams Grave Let me add another dreadful example One Sabbath-day in the Afternoon a Match at Foot-ball Doctor Twisse on the Sabbath was made in Bedfordshire as two of the company were tolling the Bell to call the rest together some that sate in the Church-porch heard a terrible noise as a clap of Thunder and they saw a flash of Lightning coming through an obscure Lane which flashed in their faces to their terrour and amazement and the Lightning passing on to those who were tolling it trips up the heels of the one and leaves him stark dead and so blasted the other that he died within a few days Thus the swift Messengers of Divine wrath overtook those incautelous sinners and blasted them in the middest of their presumptuous impieties Lightning from heaven testifies against the deeds and facts of Hell At Dover the same day the Book of sports was read in St. James Parish one prophanely went to play upon a Kit which drew a multitude of people especially of the younger sort together But oh the terrour of the Lord this prophane person was struck by a divine hand and in two days died Thus daring sinners by an unexpected doom are folded up in their dust to awaken others that they may not adventure upon the same impieties A Vintner who was a great swearer and drunkard as he Mr. Clarke his examples of divine justice was standing at his door upon the Lords day with a pot of wine in his hand to invite his guests was by the wonderful justice and power of God carryed into the Air with a whirlwinde and never seen or heard of more How soon can the word of God make the creature and how suddenly can the winde of God destroy the sinner Let us read and tremble Sometimes God revenges the prophanation of his day mediately by the hand of others as may be verified in this ensuing story Not far from Dorcester lived one widow Jones whose Son Richard upon the Lords day notwithstanding all the perswasions and admonitions of his good Mother did with his companions go to Stoake to play where after he had done and drank freely with his company they return home and by the way fall out whereupon John Edwards one of the company stabbed this Richard Jones under the left rib whereof at seven of the clock the next night he died Thus every thing becomes a sword even a companion to destroy a presumptuous Sabbath-breaker One disposed to sin and debauchery would needs keep an Ale in the Church-house on the Lords day But O the severity and formidable justice of God! At night his youngest Son was taken Prisoner for stealing of a purse out of anothers pocket while he lay drunk in the said Church-house and the week ensuing his eldest Son was stabbed to death Thus Sabbath-prophanation blasts families as well as persons and plucks down the house upon the sinners head Sometimes God leaves the sinner who prophanes his day to destroy himself When God in patience suspends the execution of his own hand and in pity restrains others that they shall not destroy the Sabbath-breaker then he himself becomes his own murderer And when he is not with Aarons Sons destroyed by God himself Levit. 10. 2. Nor is he with Senacherib slain by others Isa 37. 37 38. Then with Saul in rage and despair he falls upon his own sword 1 Sam. 31. 4. One Richard Clark was drunk in company with one Henry Parram on the Lords day to whom he said he would either hang or drown himself desirous to know which was best but Parram replyed he hoped he would do neither May 31. 1634. But oh the judgment of the Lord especially upon those who prophane his day For on Monday morning he was seen going through the Town as if he was going about his masters business and having got up into the midst of a tree without the town He did there hang himself Thus Achitophels doom was this mans death and as disappointment sent the one so Guilt Sabbath guilt sent the other to his place God for the prophaning of his holy day takes away sinners in the very act of their sin as may be observed in these ensuing stories Some boys of St. Albans going into Verulams pond to swim upon the Lords day one of them was drowned and another very narrowly escaped Two young men of St. Dunstans in the West London going Septemb. 1635. to swim on the Lords day were both drowned Thus neither the tenderness of youth nor the sutableness of the recreation can apologize for the great sin of Sabbath-breaking God will be sanctified by or upon all Christians for Levit. 10. 3. their carriage or miscarriage upon his sacred Sabbath God executeth vengeance upon the very Heathens for the abuse of his day Natures light might induce us to keep a solemn day for the worship of God and if that light be damped by prophaneness God observes and will revenge that sin It is recorded of Pompey the great Roman that he shrunk under the depression of Gods sore displeasure for prophaning Gods Sabbath and Sanctuary And this story is related by an Corn. Tacit. Heathen too Among the very Heathens there is a Veneration observable in Gods holy Sabbath God executes his vengeance upon the greatest persons for the prophanation of his day The Centuriatours of Magdeburg tell us of one of the Kings of Denmark who when he contrary to the admonition of the Priests who desired him to defer it would needs on a Lords day go to battel with his enemy he was slain in the Centur. Magdeburg Histor Cent. 12. fight Thus justice and revenge in its triumphs over this sin can reach the Scepter as well as the spade Nicanor a great Commander of Syria engaging against the Jews in battel upon the Sabbath supposing that was a time in which they would not fight and so it would facilitate his victory he falls and dies in the battel and his head Macchab. 2. 28 30. was cut off and his hand and his shoulder and they are brought with joy to Hierusalem 2 Macchab. 15. 2 28 30. Valour cannot withstand Gods stroke when his Sabbath is contemned and defied by presumptuous sinners nor can the blindness of paganism extenuate or apologize for the sin God punisheth the prophanation of his day with prodigious and monstrous births that his vengeance may be written in a fairer and more legible Character as may be seen in this story A great man using every Lords day to hunt in Sermon time had a child by his wife with a head like a dog and it Theatr. Histor cryed like a hound
observe in this Edict of this worthy Prince not unfitly called Pius that the Crimes committed on this day were onely rustical works which might easily meet with an Apologie and lay a specious claim to a dispensation yet the judgments mentioned are fearful and tremendous And the use this noble Emperour makes of these doleful Providences is most excellent and commendable becoming the Throne of Majesty a fit Motto for Princes Courts and Kings Pallaces Luke 7. 25. where holy zeal would be as genuine and proper as soft Rayment and to live piously as becoming as to live delicateây God for the prophaning of his Sabbath hath poured forth wrath upon whole Towns and Corporations as may be abundantly testified by these ensuing Instances Gââgorius Thronensis who lived a thousand years since and upward in the end of the fifth Century according to Greg. Turon Beliarmines Chronology this learned man a verred That for the dishonour done to the Lords day fire from Heaven burnâd âoth men and houses in the Town of Limâges in France But to come nearer home at Tiverton in Devonshire which was often admonished of the prophanation of the Lords day which day was very much polluted by their An. Dom. 1598. keeping a Market the day following and notwithstanding they would not reform presently after the Ministers death upon the third of April 1598 a suâden fire from Heaven consumeth the whole Town in less than half an hour excepting onely the Church Court-house and Alms-house and in this fire was consumed four hundred dwelling houses and fifty persons were destroyed The same Town fourteen years after on the fifth of Auguât 1612. for the same sin was wholly consumed excepting some thirty poor peoples houses the School-house and the Alms-house Thus God redoubled his wrath as he did Pharaohs Dream Gen. 41. 32. to confirm this great Truth viz That Sabbath prophanation is a crying and God-provoking sin and shall be pursued with the severest extremity Stratford upon Avon was twice on fire and both times on the Lords day whereby it was almost consumed and chiefly for prophaning that blessed day and contemning the These two Instances are cited by Bishop Baily word of God out of the mouth of his faithful Ministers And is it not just that Market-Towns should be laid waste where the Souls Market-day is despised and prophaned And it is no wonder if we make Gods day the stage of sin if he make our houses the fuel of wrath God hath brought ruine upon Churches for the sacrilegious abuse of his holy Sabbath the blow which was first given to the German-Churches was on the Lordâ day which was too carelesly observed among them and on that day Prague Mr. Sheph. in Bohemia was lost a fatal loss which filled the Papists with fury and rage and caused the true Professors of Religion to rowl in ashes Thus Sabbath-prophanation paved the way to their ensuing and intolerable miseries The prophanation of Gods day hath blasted whole Kingdoms and populous Nations The Council of Matiscon imputed the irruption of the Goths into the Empire to the prophanation of the Sabbath Germany may now see that one great cause of their late trouble was that the Sabbath wanted its rest in the days of their quietness and many moderate men have thought that the abuse of the Lords day was a principal procurer of Gods anger since poured forth upon poor England in a long tedious and bloody War and such observed that our Fights of greatest importance were fought on the Lords day As the Fight at Edgehill Newbury c. as pointing at our sin in the punishment and Gods wrath was written in Dominical letters And it is remarkable that Edgehill Fight which was fought on the Sabbath-day first brake the Peace and made an irreconcilable breach between the two contending Parties Indeed God is very jealous of his own blessed day which when men dare to prophane it is not in populous Towns to watch against nor in City-Gates to shut out nor in mighty Kingdoms to resist or beat back his furious and severe indignation Therefore let all the premised Examples in their several varieties cause us to walk with all due circumspection and to keep Gods holy day with just solemnity and holy devotiân and so we may secure our selves against these heavy strokes which have broken others Jer. 19 11. like a Potters vessel CHAP. L. Some Remarkables relating to the dreadful Fire of LONDON which began on the Lords Day Sept. 2. 1666. THat God doth threaten the fiering of Cities for the pollution of his holy day is clear and manifest from Scriptural attestation and more especially from that remarkable Text of Scripture Jerem. 17. 27. the words of the Text are these But if you will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath-day and not to bear a burden even entring in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the Palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched In this solemn Text we have 1. A specification of the judgment that God will punish Sabbath-pollution with viz. Fire 2. The specification of the Object that this fire shall fall Si violatur Sabbatum vorabit ignis portas urbis i. e non extinguetur ignis donec consumat totam urbem Scimus tunc temporis babitos fuisse conventus in portis Duc suerunt loca celeberrima incensum item fuit templum consumpta domus fuerunt Calv. upon viz. A City not a Village a place of meanness and poverty but a City a place of stateliness and plenty a City a place of traffick and safety 3. Here is the specification of the City Not every City neither but Jerusalem the best of Cities not the subordinate but the Metropolitan City It was not Tyberias a Maritime City not Caesarea Stratonis a Garrison City not Tyre a merchandizing City nay not Samaria the chief City of the Kingdom of Israel but Jerusalem the Metropolis of stately Judah which only was crowned with the honour of being called the City of God Psal 87. 3. Jerusalem where Gods honour dwelt Jerusalem where Gods Temple stood Jerusalem the general Rendezvous of Worshippers at set and solemn times Jerusalem whose fame was noised all the World over yet God threatens this Jerusalem with fâre and flames for prophaning his Sabbath and did God onely threaten it No He fully executed his threats upon it Jer. 39. 8. And the Chaldaeans burnt the Kings house and the houses of the people with fire and brake down the walls of Jerusalem God did not onely light and shake the Match in a threat but shot off the Piece in tremendous execution he lays Jerusalem waste which would not hallow his holy Sabbath And is not famous London the sad counterpane of destroyed Jerusalem Englands Metropolis lies in its rubbish fire hath taken hold of it and turned it into ashes What those Chaldaeans were
support of Religion and keeps it from flights or falls Every devout worshipper on the Lords day is but a lessar pillar to shoar up godliness and piety in the world While publick worship is seriously frequented and private duties are frequently performed while the sacred word of God is diligently attended the blessed Sacrament devoutly received while holy prayers with moystened eyes and melting hearts are affectionately poured forth and sent up to God on his own holy day while these things are in ure in a Nation piety and Religion are above the fears of decay Religion sails or sinks with the Sabbath when both are embarqued in the same Vessel and where this Sancta diei dominicae exercitia labascentem pietatem religionem sustinent holy day is constuprated by vanity and prophaneness profession is laid waste and desolate the sanctification of Gods day keeps up Gods fear in the Church but that being suspended the gap is made and the Church lies open to all kinds of sinful incursions A learned man tells us that Guntheram a pious King of France fighting against the Goths with unhappy success did sedulously enquire into the cause Guntheramus Francorum Rex pientissimus contra Gothos infaelici successu se pugnasse observaverat tanti mali fonte paulò altius investigato cui malo ut obviam iretur statutum est diem dominicum religiosè custodiendum per universum c. of it and taking notice of the neglect of the Bishops instructing the people as likewise observing the prophaneness of the people in dishonouring the Lord he presently concluded this was the proper source and cause of his late discomfiture and calamity and therefore he immediately commanded That the Lords day should be carefully and solemnly observed throughout his whole Dominions as being the most proper remedy and most likely Cure for those distempers which had shaken the happiness both of Church and State God usually calculating his providence according to the observation of his day smiling upon those places where it is religiously observed and evidencing his displeasure where it is slighted or contemned Arg. 9 The sanctification of the Sabbath is the discharge in a great measure of that duty pressed by the Apostle Phil. 3. 20. Let your conversation be in heaven All the duties of the Sabbath Nonne pudet te corpore coelum suspicere mentem in terrâ repere caput sursum cor deorsum habere Bern. are but transactions with Heaven Our prayers are our approach and appeal to Heaven and therefore we are said to lift up a prayer Jer. 7. 16. Our hearing the word is only hearing News from Heaven Acts 20. 27. And our Sacramental receipts are only the tasting of the fruit of the Vine which we shall drink new with Christ in his Fathers Kingdom Mat. 26. 29. The Ordinances of a Sabbath are heavenly Ordinances the end of a Sabbath is to bring us nearer to heaven and the Communion of Saints whâch we enjoy upon a Sabbath is a sweet resemblance of that Society the Saints shall enjoy in heaven And though we cannot pretend to 2 Cor. 12. 2. Pauls rapture into the third heaven or to Johns extasies upon this holy day yet in a conscientious use of divine administrations Rev. 1. 10. we travel fairly on towards heaven and happiness Secular works which savour of earth are to be banished this day Exod. 20. 10. Carnal hearts which rellish earth are unsutable to this day Rev. 1. 10. And pleasurous delights which are the liquorish froth of earth are to be avoided on the Sabbath day Isa 58. 13. Our Sabbath is the day-break and twilight of heaven and glory which if we improve to work our spiritual works in a little time will bring us to a perfect noon Arg. 10 Let us be exact on the Lords day in honour to Christ it is his Resurrection day On this day the Sun rose which lightens Dies dominicus Christi resurrectione declaratus est et ex illo caeâit habere festivitatem suam aeternam non solùm spiritus sed et corporis requiem praefigurat Aug de Civ dei every one which comes into a better world on this day the Conqueror shewed himself when he had laid all his enemies in the grave from whence he sprang This was the day of Mankinds restauration of the worlds wonder and of the Believers joy This day was the fresh spring of our happiness the initials of a Christians boast On this day Mosaical rites and legal Ceremonies were fully and totally routed and so put to flight and then dyed together the Synagogue and the Sanedrim Christ is the true Joseph who on this day left his prison and was promoted to honour Christ is the real Moses who breaking through death and dangers Acts 13. 31 32 saw Pharaoh and his host Satan Death and Hell and Heb. 1. 5. all spiritual wickednesses drowned in the Sea Christ is the Resurrexisti domine quà m âââulatè celeritèr O fortunati labâres O gloriosa certamina quae talem finem sortiuntur Pâssionem excepit Resurrectio mortem immortalitas ignonimiam gloria infirmitatem virtus Tempestatem serenitas Bellar. 2 Cor. 5. 1. true Mordecai who foiling Haman and all his enemies delivered the true Israel from tyranny and oppression and on this day kept his Purim Christ is the true Jonas who being cast into the Sea in a tempest of frenzy and cruelty on the third day was cast on the shore and survived to more gracious purposes In a word glorious were the conflicts happy the labours blessed the rest and most triumphant the Resurrection of our dear Redeemer Now as it is reported of Caesar when he would cry Quirites that word put new life into his Souldiers in the sorest battels So when we think our Sabbath is Christs Resurrection day this should put new life into all our duties and devotions This was the day of wonders when our blessed Samson carryed away the gates of Hell to lay our way open to the City of the New Jerusalem the City not made with hands eternal in the heavens CHAP. LIII The Resurrection of Christ is not only a real ground for the institution but a cogent Argument for the holy observation of the Lords day WHen our hearts are dead and curdled into formality upon the Lords day then every one of us should thus bespeak his soul O my soul this day is the triumph of thy Redeemer when he trod upon the Serpents head when Gen. 3. 15. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Basil in Hexam he took from death its sting from hell its standard suppose my soul thou hadst stood by the Sepulcher and seen the Sun of Righteousness covered with a cloud before now shining forth most gloriously on the morning of the Resurrection day how would this have raised and ravished thy heart How glad were the Disciples when they saw the Lord they believed not for joy John 20.
20. Luke 24. 41. The day of 2 Sam. 23. 5. Christs rising from the dead was a day of joy and gladness Ille est primus dies in quo deus tenebras ut materiam cum mutasset mundum effecit quòd in codem die Jesus Christus conservator noster è mortuis excitatus est Just Mart. Psal 118. 24. No day like this since the Creation then our surety was released the Covenant and sure mercies of David fully ratified and confirmed our hope wonderfully revived heaven and eternal life plenteously assured These thoughts of Christs Resurrection might quicken our hearts and make them sparkle with life and affection It may be we never took the crown of this day into our hands to feel the weight of it and that makes our services ââ flat and our thoughts to speak in Nazianzens phrase so chained to the ground upon this seraphical day And therefore Clemens Romanus argues sharply and pathetically What shall excuse us with Die dominico qui est dies resurrectionis Templum adite quid enim excusare poterit apud deum qui eo die ad audiendum non convenit c. Clem. Rom. God if we fill not up this blessed day with bearing the word with holy prayer with reading the Scriptures with singing the praises of the Lord and other duties seeing God makes all things by Christ and sent him into the world to die for sinners and raised him again as on this day Innocentius calls Christs Resurrection day the first day of our joy the bright lustre of heavens shine And Ambrose saith The Lords day is a day âf joyes in the plural number to shew the Variety and the Increase of them Joy is the Shibboleth of this day the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Spring-tide and the full Sea of this weekly Festival And Tertullian professeth That on this day we indulge our selves Plus gaudere debemus propter resurrectionem gloriosam quà m dolere propter passionem ignominiosam Bern. with holy joy The primitive Christians were wont when they saw one another to have this joyful salute The Lord is risen and the others ordinary answer was True the Lord is risen indeed we should not saith Bernard so much mourn at Christs igneminious passion as we should rejoyce at his glorious Resurrection And this day is not only sweetned with joyes but enriched with gain the death of Christ Haec est illa dies quae suâ magnitudine omnia beneficia obscurat Const Apost l. 7. c. 37. was the sowing of the Corn the raising of Christ was as the springing up of the Corn the benefits of Christs death are reaped in his Resurrection The death of Christ was as the casting of Joseph into the pit the selling him into Aegypt and putting him into prison But the raising of Christ was as the preferring of Joseph by which he comes into a capacity ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to save his Family and so enrich all his Relations Clemens Romanus tells us This day is such a day of love such a day of gain that the greatness of those benefits we receive by this day ecclipse and obscure the shew and appearance of all other benefits Athanasius calls the Resurrection day The beginning of the New Creation And another learned tells us That Christs Resurrection was a great and an excellent Miracle and therefore it gave life and name to the Lords day Indeed Mans all is folded up in the triumphant success of this day Let us a little hearken to the good News that Christs Resurrection brought to the world and these Cords of love should fasten us to Holy duties and becoming carriages on the Lords day The Resurrection of Christ was the compleating of his work Indeed many fair lines were drawn before in the great work Josephus iâ tertium usque annum in ãâã deteâtus sâât posteà tamen libeâtus est Egypti constitutus est dominus Et salvator noster ad tertium usque diem detentus est in carcere sepulchri tum resurrexit sanctorum dominus dominus dominantium Ger. of Mans Redemption every tear which dropt from Christs eye every drop of bloody sweat which fell from his sacred body contributed to our salvation but when Christ rose again then he put the last hand to the beautiful frame of this glorious work And therefore he is said then to be perfected Luk. 13. 32. when Christ breath'd out his last he cried out consummatum est It is finished John 19. 30. But that had relation to his sufferings but when he rose again he was perfected in relation to his people he then became a perfect Redeemer Christ on his resurrection-day folded up his bottom and had nothing left to do but to ascend to his Father and to take his place at his right hand and to give him an account that the glorious work of mans Redemption was now fully finished Christs dying-day was the perfection of his love but his rising-day was the perfection of his work when he sprang from the Grave he threw off the cloths of his own mortality and of our sin Thus the Sun works through the Cloud and makes its own way till it is freed from that dark incumbrance and appears to the World in its sweetest brightness And so our Saviour after a short sleep in the tenacious dust awakes and comes as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber to speak a few words to his Psal 19. 5. Disciples and to take witness of his resurrection and so to go up to his Father ever to make intercession for us And shall Christ compleat his work upon his resurrection-day Heb. 7. 25. our Christian Sabbath and shall we be defective in ours Shall he be perfected on that day and shall we be polluted Surely when we trifle and sin away our Sabbath we never think that on that day Christ put his last hand to the blessed work of our Redemption This will condemn careless Christians when they are so short and Christ so full on his Resurrection-day our blessed Sabbath The Resurrection of Christ was the Conquest of his and our Enemies On this day the seed of the woman did bruise the Gen. 3. 15. Promeruit in cruce Christus sed posteà peregit Zanch. Serpents head and Christ did triumph in his own person over Sin Death and Satan Upon the account of which the Apostle cries Victory 1 Cor. 15. 54 55. On this day Christ spoiled principalities and powers and openly triumphed over them Col. 2. 15. Christ merited Victory by his passion Acts 10. 39 40. but he executed Victory by his rising from the Grave he died a Sufferer but he rose a Conquerour not onely Mat. 28. 18. arrayed with honour and immortality but richly invested Phil. 2. 9. with power and principality and then were the Keys of Eph. 4. 8 9. Death and Hell resigned up to him as the Trophies of his Revel 1. 18.
healing in his wings Mal. 4. 2. The Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15. 17. If Christ had not risen we had been still in our sin which fully implies he rising again our sins are taken away and blotted out as a thick cloud and nothing remains to break the peace between God and believers That conscience may be serene and fully satisfied For nothing stung conscience and wounded that tender part nothing Christus resurrexit ideò pacatam tranquillam consciemtiam habere possumus scimus enim pro peccatis quae deum et nos dividebant per Christum fit satisfactio nosque ideò deo reconciliatos esse kept it raw full of pain and anguish but only sin which being fully satisfied for by Christs death and so clearly declared by his blessed Resurrection the burden removed gives ease to conscience and so the poor believer being sensible his peace is made and he is reconciled to his angry Father he hath Halcyon dayes in his bosom and he lies down with comfort and saith his lot is fallen in a pleasant place and God hath given him a goodly heritage Psal 18. 6. And this the Apostle Peter compriseth in fewer words 1 Pet. 3. 21. But the answer of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ That our Redemption will certainly follow So saith our blessed Saviour expresly John 20. 17. I ascend unto my Per Christum quasi antesignanum et mortis dominatorem in Orbem illata est Resurrectio mortuorum Alap Rom. 8. 11. Christus solis bonis est causa meritoria resurrectionis sed efficiens omnibus Reprobi verò resurgunt non ad vitam sed ad damnationem mortem potiùs quà m vitam Thom. Father and to your Father and unto my God and your God And if Christ ascend unto our Father shall not we likewise come to his house John 14. 2. Shall not we see his face shall not we rise again to enjoy his glory Yes verily God is a God of the living and not of the dead of triumphant Saints and not of putrid carkases Mat. 22. 32. Let us further argue if Christ be our Head and we his Members then it is expedient for the glory of the Head that the Members be glorious And it may be further considered that as the first Adam received blessings for himself and his posterity and lost the same for all So Christ the second Adam received life and all other gifts for himself and others and he rising gloriously his Saints likewise shall be charioted to glory by a glorious Resurrection And so moreover Christ being our Elder Brother in his tenderness and affection will not leave us in the grave there always to sleep the sleep of death and so much the rather because he can raise us with a Call with the sould of a Trumpet by the message of an Archangel 1 Thes 4. 16. For he being dead raised himself much more being alive shall he be able to raise us up And withall we should consider our Vnion with Christ by the Spirit whose heavenly influence and divine vertue in raising of our souls to spiritual life is most eminent and admirable how much more clearly may we conclude the necessity of our being raised from death to fellowship with him in glory And Virtutem resurrectionis Christi non tantùm cognoscimus per fidem sed et per experientiam ut Christi resurgentis potentiam sentiamus shall not we know the power of Christs Resurrection to use the Apostles words Phil. 3. 10. in raising us on his own blessed day to heavenly-mindedness to get above the world and to have our hearts taken up in the divine services of it We should remember when Christ rose it was the seal of our Resurrection and can we think of a Resurrection and sleep away Sermons trifle away Sabbaths and formalize away Ordinances which then must come unto a severe account shall we who hope to rise to a Crown be entombed in sloth and idleness upon a Resurrection day The very thoughts of our Resurrection should strike an awe upon us and bridle us from vanity and lightness of spirit knowing 2 Cor. 5. 10. that our Sabbaths are not over when we have spent them but they will meet us at Gods tribunal and at his tremendous Rev. 20 12. Bar. Nothing can more acutely check the prophane person who pollutes Gods day and unravels that golden season in froth and formality then the serious thoughts of a certain Resurrection whereof Christs rising was an undoubted pledge The Resurrection of Christ was an evidence of infinite power And therefore Dr. Twisse rightly fastens the Lords day on Christs Resurrection day because as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 1. 4. Christ was declared mightily to be the Son of God by the spirit of sanctification in his Resurrection from the dead Hereby Christ was manifested to be the Son of God the very Lord of glory Christs Resurrection was the manifestation of most glorious power that the tomb should not confine him nor the dust hold him nor the grave stone stop him but throwing off these clogs as Samson did his wit hs he shews himself a while to his beloved Ones and so takes his joyous ascent to the right hand of his Father Love laid Christ in the grave and Power raised him from the grave love rocked him asleep and power awakened him again love made him die as a Malefactor Luke 23. 33. and power raised him as a Saviour to give full assurance that all was done which was required to procure life and salvation Indeed this did manifest wonderful power when after three dayes being dead the Sepulcher sealed the stone rolled to the mouth of the grave a strong watch placed that Christ should break through all bars beat down all opposition and 1 Cor. 15. 55. spring forth out of his yielding dust as a triumphing Conqueror Heb. 2. 14. over Death and Devils The Jews cryed out Let him Plus erat de sepulchro surgere quà m de cruce descendere et plus mortem resurgendo destruere quam vitam descendendo servare Greg. come down from the Cross and we will believe on him Mat. 27. 42. But it is more saith Gregory to rise from the grave then to descend from the Crosse to destroy death by rising then to preserve life by descending Reas 5 And shall Christs Resurrection be an evidence of his power and not an argument for our piety upon his own blessed day which is the Commemoration of this glorious act Surely he who could pierce the grave and shake off the chains of death for the good of believers can exert as great power for the destruction of sinners especially those who prophane his day Christs love in dying should allure and his power in rising should enforce Sabbath-holiness it is not safe nor providential to provoke the Lion of the tribe of Judah who trampled upon death and the grave especially on the day
therefore we must spread our hands before God that he would give us Nehem. 13. 17 holy Nehemiahs to hedge up the Sabbath with thorns that looseness and prophaneness may not break in upon it and that 2 Chr. 34. 33. the blessed Sabbath may be preserved pure from the rapes of prurient and prophane men Let us take advantage from the Jews mistaken zeal towards Praescrip 7. their Sabbath to act a real zeal towards the Lords day The Jews were exact to superstition let us be so to Religion they to fancy let us to piety Indeed what was equity in the command was rigour in their observation they would not light a candle unless for the sick on the Sabbath day as Lippomannus Quod de igne non succendendo hîâ praescribitur restringendum est ad eum qui succenderet ad parandos cibos aut coquendos aut ad servilia munia Rivet observes nor would they heat themselves in frost on that holy day as Gallasius observes no not acquire the greatest gain if it was to be accomplished on this blessed day as Vatablus observes nay not to dress any meat as Rivet observes and they would not go out of their place on the Sabbath and therefore if on a journey they were in a wilderness on a Sabbath there they stayed and would not apply themselves to any place or person for necessary accommodations Their strange fire should stir up our sacred heat and if they would not go out of their place upon their Sabbath Exod. 35. 3. let us not go out of our sphear upon ours they would not kindle a fire but we should blow up our holy zeal Sometimes duty gets ground by an Antiperistasis wrinckled faces make us admire beauty and others slips and transgressions Israelitae non fuerunt tabernaculis inclusi tanquà m in carcere sed ad caetus et sanctorum societates c. are our alarms and cautions If the Jews strained so much and were over fond of their humane traditions upon their Sabbath we should act as high and be as tenacious of our spiritual devotions upon our Christian Sabbath Their blind zeal must not only be the object of our pity but the incentive of our piety and we should deem it a discredit that they should go faster in a false then we in a true way let their ceremony be out-vyed by our service Let us fasten it upon our hearts that the present Sabbath Prescript 8. may be our farewell Sabbath Prophaneness is the usual Vbicumque sunt sive in Agro sive in Domâ sive in Musaeo Audire videor Archangelum tubâ sonantem clamitantem surgite mortui venite ad iudicium Hieron birth of presumption we pollute the present because we reckon upon a future Sabbath It was Hieroms custom where-ever he was to be thinking that he heard the Angel sounding the last Trumpet and crying out Arise ye dead and come to judgment The frame of this holy learned Father very well becomes a Sabbath-day Every Christian should think with himself I now enjoy a season of grace which may be my last good wind for Eternity My times much more my Sabbaths the finest of the Wheat are in Gods hand Psal 31. 15. And it cannot be any act of wisdom to rely much upon that which is in anothers hand He that would not grant the Fool in the Gospel the priviledge to see the light of another Sun may deny him who trifles Luke 12. 20. away Gods blessed day the liberty to see the light of another Sabbath Candles which are played by are soon put out Eutichus died for a sleepy and why not the Formalist for a Acts 20. 9. forfeited Sabbath Now did we look on the present as that which may be the parting Sabbath how then would we nail our eyes to Heaven in holy meditation raise a cloud of sighs nay wrestle with God by holy prayer and as dying persons catch at life and salvation and use Ordinances with that affectionate heat as those lovely songs we shall hear no more Our Ear Ezek. 33. 32. would be chained to truth in hearing our Knee would be staked to the ground in praying our Heart would be making out after Christ as those who are making their last sally for a Crown and a Kingdom There are three things which should take up our thoughts on a Sabbath-day 1. the sweets of our Rest above where we shall hear eternally the musciks of the Bride-chamber and see our Beloveds face in our Fathers house and drink our joys from the John 14 2. Heb. 12. 22 23. Psal 16. 11. Fountain-head where Angels and Saints shall be our society and Rivers of pleasure shall be our satisfaction 2. The concernments of our precious Souls how we may beautifie our Souls with grace how we may quicken our Souls with life how we may fill and enrich our Souls with the word how we may interest our Souls in Christ and how we may crown our Souls with salvation Vâta carnis tuae Anima est vita animae tuae Deus est quomodo moritur caro amissâ animâ sic moritur anima amisso Deo qui est ejus vita August 3. The probable disappointments of an uncertain life Our lives are but as Candles in the wind and every blast may blow them out Now though the thoughts of death bring us not nearer to our Graves yet they often bring us nearer to our duty he that seeth he hath but little day will ride the faster Dying thoughts will carry on living services and we should be more earnest to embrace Christ in the word if we supposed we should speedily meet Christ at the Bar. CHAP. LV. England bewailed for its great and general prophanation of Gods holy Sabbath I Must conclude this Treatise as the Prophet Jeremy did his Writings with lamentations One great sin which Agnoscendum est abiisse nunc moribus nostris christianam libertatem in nimiam plus quam Ethnicam licentiam ita ut die dominico omnia fiunt opera praeterquam Bona. Riv. in Decal captivated Israel was Sabbath-pollution and the same sin seems to threaten England with ruine and destruction Now the Prophets tears Jer. 9. 1. do well become the Peoples dangers and when they are sinking faithful Ministers should be weeping And here the lamentations over England may be divided into five Particulars as Jeremy his Lamentations are divided into five Chapters 1. We may bewail Englands open prophaneness upon Gods holy Sabbath The Jews once made the due observation of the Sabbath the character of a godly man John 9. 16. and if that be Englands Shibboleth how far is our Nation banished from the confines of Piety The woful declining of England both in matters of doctrine and practice concerning the Sabbath is never sufficiently to be bemoaned In former times no reformed Church was so famous either for soundness Dies festos maâjestati altissimae dedicatos
exactness of the quaver not the dexterity of an Anthem which is veneratiân proper to Gods holy day But a melting heart an obedient mind an attentive ear the acting Luke 2. 25. of grace and the enquiries after the Beloved a Soul raised to experimental communion with God suits more fairly and Jer. 31. 19. genuinely to the right observation of Gods holy day This Ezek. 21. 12. extrinsical worship onely tongue deep and knee deep and which is not animated by a devout Soul is Englands stain and should be Englands moan and we should do well to consider cold Devotion usually foreruns hot indignation and it is onely in the bosom of the Almighty how soon he will further revenge the quarel of his Sabbath not onely as bemired by open prophaneness but as slightly passed over by a specious cold and formal observation We may bewail the sinful abridgments which England puts up upon Gods holy day In former times and so now in these later years two or three hours signifie a Sabbath among us Dominicis diebus tantùm divino cultui a little time in publick is our Sacrifice upon the Lords day the Lord may here put the expostulation Mal. 3. 8. Do ye serviââdum est sicut Antiquis praeceptum erat de Sabbato dominicum diem religiâsâ solennitate celebremus Aug. say wherein have you robbed me It may be answered not in tythes but in time not in the Priests allowance but in the Lords day If the people come to divine service and to the pittance of a Sermon in publick they have then liberty to sport it in the helds or to frisk ât in a Maurisk dance to be social in an Ale-house to be frolick in a Tavern without the controule of an Officer or the stroke of a Magistrate This is Englands sin and this sin was formerly punished by a Civil and hath lately been pursued by a forraign War But we may truly say with our Saviour Mat. 19. 8. Improperandum est contra eos qui unam aut duâs horas ex integro die deo deputant ad Orationem veniunt vel in transitu verbum audiunt quasi festiâanter praecipuam verò curam ergâ sollicitudinem seculi et âentâis expendunt Orig. Homil. 2. in Numer Iren. lib. 4. cap. 30. From the beginning it was not so Augustin tells us Upon the Lords day we are to be wholly taken up in divine worship nor are we to abridge the Lords day more then the Jews did their Sabbath which was wholly kept to the Lord. And this worthy and learned man was run into a kind of passion against those who would spend some time only of this day in divine worship and the rest in sensual pleasures Origen was very invective against those Who would depute two or three hours to prayer or to hear the Word in transitu by the by but their chief care was to consult the World or their belly and to spend thâir time in profits or delights Chrysostome tells us his opinion was fully That one day in seven was to be consecrated whâlly to the worship of the Common ãâã of all and to his service And Irenaeus who trod upon the heels of the Apostolical times freely acknowledgeth That we are to persevere in divine worship upon Gods holy day Nay the Fathers gathered in a Die dominico ad nihil aliud vacandum nisi aâ Orationem et alia pietatis munia full assembly declarâ their judgement That we being sequestred from all servile wârk must persevere in the praise of God and in holy thanksgivings ân the Lords day And so the Fathers in the Council of ââiâli We must say they be vacant for nothing upon a Lords day but holy Prayer and other duties ââncil Ferojul Can. 13. A. D. 791. of piety And the fiftieth Canon of the Council of Paris is very remarkable We must meet say they upon the Lords day wherein the Lord our life arose from the dead and granted us hope of our Resurâection and wholly abstain from our own delights or secular emplâyments and only be filled with spiritual joyes and heavenly praises and this with all endeavour of heart and this is our vacation on that day Chrysostome in one of his Homilies upon Genesis seems to order our very gestures A veshertino ingressu ad altare in Sabbato Judaico usque ad sequentem vesperem in die dominico in officiis sacris peragendis perseverandum est Concil on the Lords day and saith our eyes and our hands all this day must be lift up and stretcht out to God And a venerable Council gives us this direction from the evening of the Jewish Sabbath to the evening of the Lords day we must persevere in holy duties But Englands practice hath been a contradiction to these golden rules and to these golden times When our evening service hath been done we have laid aside the privacies of divine worship and some to the Green to bowls some to the Trall Can. 90. Ring to dances some to the street to Cudgels and to other sports which feed the corrupt heart of an inconsiderate multitude But in this while our Country is a Baalim our Closets Judg. 3. 7. should be a Bochim and others wantonness should be our wound and whilst their hearts are a spring of vanity Jer. 9. 1. our heads should be a fountain of tears We may bewail the unpunished liberty which is used in England upon Gods holy day Sabbaths are prophaned and the Jer. 5. 31. people love to have it so and the Magistrates love to leave it so this is an Evil to be deplored among us The things which are Caesars are given to Caesar and good reason too when we have a divine Command for it Mat. 22. 21. But the things which are Gods are not given to God Gods day suffers and none suffer for his day We have not only the Nehem. 13. 21. merchandise of wares but the merchandise of hell upon the Lords day but where are the Nehemiahs to restrain them This is Englands sin and this calls for Englands moan the Heads of our Tribes are not Zealous for the Lord of Hosts The day of God is torn by the Oaths of the Miscreant it is stained by the excesses of the intemperate it is painted over by the cold worship of the hypocrite it is curtailed by the short services O quà m redarguendi sunt Judaei qui sep timam vitae partem otio et voluptatibus impendunt Senec. of the formalist Taverns and Ale-houses if not Stews and Brothel-Houses are frequented and filled on this sacred day and all these debaucheries acted with impunity And men do on Gods day what is right in their own eyes not because there is no King but because there is no awe of God in Israel Surely if when there was almost a Tribe cut off in Israel there was nothing but moans and lamentations how much more
holy services it shall be sufficient I am sure the same word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã jom a day is in both both the six dayes and in the seventh and how comes the signification to be altered if jom a day signifies a whole day in the one why not in the other why not the whole seventh day engaged in divine service as well as the whole six dayes taken up in secular employments Chrysostome and Theodoret observe that from the very beginning God taught man this lesson that one whole day in the circle of seven is to be employed in holy services And many famous lights of the Reformed Church conclude that whatever is moral in the fourth Commandment this must needs be that the seventh part of every week be consecrated to the worship of God So Zanchy Bucer Martyr c. That famous person mentioned last speaks roundly when he saith That it is perpetual and eternal while the Church remains upon Earth that one day in the week be designed for the service and worship of God and this saith he is firme and unshaken Augustine in one of his Sermons adviseth the people That from the Evening of the Saturday till the Evening of the Lords day they avoid all vain sloth and idleness and all secular toyle and labour and wholly set themselves apart for the worship of God This excellent man gives the full current of twenty four hours to the holy observation of the Sabbath And this saith he is rightly to keep the Sabbath and truly if God gives us six natural dayes to labour in is it not fit that the seventh should bear an equal proportion with every working day And therefore it is a natural day consisting of twenty four hours which we must in conscience allow to God to be the Sabbath day But besides the force of Divine Command which as clearly enjoyns the seventh day for holy Rest as indulges the other six dayes for toyle and labour the very plea's of the soul may come in to affirme the sanctification of one whole day in the week to spiritual and divine services Let us consider The Soul in the Nobleness of its Original it is a Heaven-born soul Gods breath in mans bosome Mans soul onely bubbles from the fountain of spirits our soul is but a beam The Soul is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from the glorious Sun God beam d into man a glittering soul and shall not this noble soul so worthily descended lay claim to one day as well as the body that dusty case of the principle of life the soul that body which is onely the sheath of the soul the cabinet for this jewel to lye in put in its title and right to six What is this but to degrade the soul from the honour of its Excellent Original Let us look on the soul in the excellency of its capacity what is not a reasonable soul capable of It is capable of Gods Anima est ex Deo non ut ex materia et ex traduce dei âeu ejus quadam particula sed ut â causâ efficiente accessu quodam naturae propiore ad essentiam dei divinarumque proprietatum assimilatione Leid Prof. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Image There is little of Gods Image to be seen in the body God is a spirit and so stamps his Image on the spirits of men and shall not the soul which bears so noble a superscription enjoy the priviledge and latitude of one day as well as the body that earthly tabernacle which is soon taken down and wrapt up in a silent grave enjoy the immunity of six whole dayes But must the abatement fall on the souls portion Consider the multiplicity of a souls work and therefore let not its day be shortned by frothy pleasures or servile labours John 9. 4. Praeclarae sunt arimae dotes effâctus divinae functiones miranda solertia ingenii cogitationis celeritas facilitas perceptionis judicii acrimânia disâursus et ratiocinatio de rebus omnibus memoria rerum praetâritarum contemplatio praesentium futurarum praevisio et maxime inse ipsam conversio et reflexio suaeque contemplatio c. Lied Prof. The work of the soul is very great and very various there are many duties to perform many graces to act many ordinances to wait upon much knowledge to acquire many corruptions to subdue Now he that is to ride far let him not want day-light the souls task is great let not its time be short especially shorter then God hath made it The body hath onely two things to get viz. food and raiment it hath but two rooms to go thorow the Kitchin and the Wardrobe But the soul hath more and nobler atchievements to pursue It hath a Pardon Grace Christ God Heaven to look after and obtain and shall its owne day given it more especially for these great attempts be subject to an unhappy diminution Let us look on the soul in the eternity of its duration The soul saith one is a bud of eternity the business of the Animaâe ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Domine aufer à me hanc tunicam graveâ corpus scil terrestre ponderosum et aerumnosum et dâ mihi leviârem soul is of everlasting concernment But the body is a shattered piece of dust a shaking fa brick which is soon unpinned the paint of its beauty is soon washed off the vigour of its strength is soon weakned and enervated a thousand diseases can crack this piece of frailty and yet this tottering piece of flesh must have its full six dayes and the eternal soul not enjoy one whole day without allowance made for pleasure and secular employments Let us consider the soul in the importance of its wellfare The body follows the condition of the soul but the soul doth not follow the condition of the body If thy soul miscarry it had been better as our Saviour speaks thou hadst never been born Man fares as his soul fares It was Mat. 26. 24. Sic alloquitur anima sancta suspirans O civitas sancta civitas speciosa de longinquo te saluto ad te clamo te requiro desidero verè te videre et in te requiescere O civitas desiderabilis Muri tui Iapis unus Custos tuus ipse deus Cives tui semper laeti semper enim gratulantur visione Dei Hug. Victor the Redemption of the soul that drew Christ from Heaven to tabernacle amongst us and to offer up himself a sacrifice to Divine Justice and therefore how rational is it that the precious soul should enjoy a full Sabbath without any sensual vacancies for pleasures and pastimes seeing the whole man is dependant upon its disposal and is happy or miserable according to its state or condition But to wind up this particular Argument if we consider either the force of the fourth Commandment or the pregnant plea's of the immortal soul whose interest is much pursued on a Sabbath nay the Sabbath is the very
securing to its self an everlasting Heb. 9. 15. inheritance and therefore no time can well be lost The Client who hath his suit to follow gets up early to wait at his Councellors door The Husbandman betimes waits on his business in harvest time The Sabbath is the souls good wind for heaven and mariners must not lose their winds they may so lose their voyage The Israelites were not to Exod. 16. 25. gather Manna on the Sabbath for then the showre ceased but Christians are then chiefly to gather their spiritual Manna for then the shower is most plenteous If one day in Gods Psal 84 10. Courts be better then a thousand as the Psalmist speaks it is so in relation to the soul and shall then any time of it be lost Shall we clip that day when the very clippings are as good silver as any that is left The souls interest widens the Sabbath and would lose no time The temptation of Satan contracts the Sabbath and would mind no time Now whether we should hearken to our better part or our Manè i. e. tempestivè sollicitè vigilanter secundò mane i. e. opportunè Alap worser enemy is most easie to discern Surely carnal sloth on Gods holy day doth onely evidence the conquest Satan hath gained over us There are two things he tempts us forcibly to to lose our Sabbaths and to lose our souls and it is no weak no faint memento to us to rise early on Gods day to seek him when he professes so often he rises early himself Jer. 7. 13. Jer. 26. 5. Jer. 25. 4. and sends his Prophets early to seek and enquire after us Let us cast an eye upon the examples of Gods Saints they are early in their visits of God The Church resolves to get Cant. 7. 12. up early and go into the Vineyards she would betimes gather clusters spiritual food for her feeding and refreshing The Church denotes her longing after Christs presence Eâce sanctorum animae ec ce sanctorum mentes quae ad excellentissimos fructus gloriosissimè perveniunt Philo. there will be nothing but fruitfulness and flourishing where Christ draws near Christ comes not empty to his Spouse but he brings abundance of grace and sweetness with him The bubbling and boyling hearts of Gods holy and hidden ones are waiting for the first opportunities to enjoy communion with God they will file off the chains of sloth and sleep to be free to converse with their beloved The holy Psalmist in this duty writes us the fairest copy sometimes he began his devotions in the night watches before any appearance Psal 63. 6. of day had made a rent in the mantle of the night when others were rockt asleep and fast in the armes of natures nurse for so sleep is David was waking and busily imployed in holy meditation and devotion But if the night had been farther spent yet he was so early in his addresses Psal 88. 13. that he professes that he prevented God himself he was with him before the Lord could well expect him If he delayed his devotions till towards morning yet then he Psal 130. 6. grew so impatient that he longed as much to be with God as the poor tyred Sentinel waited for day peep that he might be taken from his harsh and dangerous employment for thus he speaks Psal 130. 6. My soul waiteth for the Lord more then they who watch for the morning I say more then they who watch for the morning And it is observable least we should think he had spoken more his affection then his practice he repeats the word twice for our greater assurance Nor will his zeal or divine affection suffer him to let the morning steal upon him that he should see the light of the sun before he had pursued the light of Gods Countenance no He will prevent the very first dawning of the morning so he saith Psal 119. 147. I prevented the dawning Psal 119 147. of the morning and cryed I hoped in thy Word And in this passage it is most remarkable timely piety and devotion it was not a fit of love but a holy custome And lastly if his natural rest had kept him a prisoner from God longer then usual yet he resolves he will awake early Psal 108. 2. Psal 108. 2. Psal 57. 8. Psal 110. 3. 1 John 1. 3. Nay he will awake right early Psal 57. 8. The rest of nature shall not long withstand âhe force of grace and holy love but he will break out of the womb of the morning to cry and wait for God to enjoy salvifical fellowship with him Now if David was so early in his inquisitions after God on any time or time indefinite how much more should we on Gods own holy day that peculiar day which God hath especially Psal 118. 24. made for close converses between himself and the precious soul Now if you ask me what employments or affairs engaged Davids early awakings that he could not fetch his sound sleeps as well as other men I answer I find four things that took up Davids earliest thoughts First Prayer so Psal 5. 3. and so Psal 88. 13. And in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee This holy man must break the silence of the night by the approaches of his soul before God break the darkness of the night by the approaches of the sun He remembred that those who sought Prov. 8. 17. God early should find him Prov. 8. 17. A rich promise can draw out Davids heart in holy prayer Secondly Meditation Psal 63. 6. David could let out his earliest thoughts upon God as the most pleasing subject they could prey upon Indeed most sutably our thoughts should Rev. 1. 8. begin with him who is the beginning of all things who is both the fountain to bubble forth and the pillar to support Porro α. Ï. proverbialitèr dicitur de eo qui primus est in re quapiam seu qui in aliquo genere est summus Pau. our beings In the spiritual nature of God is the reason of our spiritual worship his wisdome is the reason of our submission his holiness is the reason of our conformity his justice is the reason of our fear his goodness is the reason of our love his truth is the reason of our trust his grace is the reason of our prayers and his glory is the reason of our praises Now here is the flowy field for the soul to meditate in in the freshest morning Thirdly Holy thanksgivings Psal 92. 2. the words are these To shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning and Psal 59. 16. this Psalm is the song for the Sabbath as the title informs us indeed every morning but much more on the morning of Gods holy day there should be a dew of holy thanksgiving upon the heart of every believer Fourthly Acting of graces so the Psalmist Psal 119. 147. I prevented
Heaven In a word they should be in the spirit which duty must first look upwards We should strive to be in the assistances of the Spirit Holy duties without the holy Spirit are onely the carcasses of Religion like profession without practice which is offensive and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysost useless such services bring neither glory to God advantage to our selves or benefit to others and all are of no more significancy then a body when the spirits are fled away On the morning therefore we must incessantly beg the divine assistances of Gods blessed Spirit It is the Spirit fits for Magistratical Luke 11. 13. dignities Num. 11. 25 26. It is the spirit fits for ministerial Numb 27 18. services 2 Kings 2. 9. and it is the spirit fits us all for Christian and holy duties The Spirit directs us unto holy duties Simeon came into the Temple by the spirit Luke 2. 27. the good spirit directed him to meet Jesus How often doth Gods spirit excite and provoke to holy Prayer to secret meditation and to those close devotions wherein the soul tasteth deepest of Christs flaggons and apples This inward Counsellour is often Cant. 2 5. restless in us till it âend our knees lift up our hands and raise our hearts in sacred approaches to the divine Majesty The Spirit leads the Saint into solitariness to converse with God as once it did lead Christ into the Wilderness to be temped Mat. 4. 1. of Satan this divine principle with us is importunate Luke 4. 1. till it put us upon enquiries after God The holy Spirit quickens us in duties John 6. 63. and makes us lively and vigorous Corrupt nature takes off the wheeles in holy services flaggs and casts a damp upon us in Christus dicitur non spiritus vivens sed vivificans ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Spiritus vitarum Theoph. such heavenly intercourse but the Spirit oyles the wheeles to make them go with greater speed When the soul is carried out by the Spirit how full is it of holy heaâ divine zeal and rare enlargement as if of late it had conversed with a Seraphim his tongue is the pen of a ready writer Psalm 45. 2. and his heart is like a bubbling Fountain he melts in prayer as the Cloud into drops Paul assisted by this good Spirit runs on till midnight Acts 20. 7. and knows not how to break off his sacred discourses And our ever 1 Cor. 15. 45. to be admired Saviour raised and quickned by the same spirit wrestles with God in prayer all night Luke 6. 12. the very arteries of that duty were stretched out by that divine Spirit which was given to Christ without measure John 3. 34. The Spirit then is the animation of our holy performances without which they saint and die away The holy Spirit sustains us in holy duties Psal 51. 12. Mans spirit would quickly fail in wrestling with God was it Spiritus promptus scil graece ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hebraicè ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã alacâiter festinans Lyrus habet duo vocabulà Dolanta ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã rius ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã âucundus not under-propt by this good Spirit The most sparkling wine if it stand long it will grow flat and dead And though the spirit of man be willing Mat. 26. 41. yet while it is in the body it will be soon tired and flag in holy duties which are so contrary to corrupt flesh but then the Divine Spirit comes in and renews poor mans strength like the Eagle and so he runs through holy services and faints not the annointing of the Spirit makes him agill and fresh and holy Ordinances are not his burden but his satisfaction Believers offer their sacrifices as Christ did himself Heb. 9. 14. through the eternal Spirit who recruits them continually with additional strength and vivacity The blessed Spirit causeth us to overflow in holy duties Job 32. 18. Our rich enlargements in Prayers and other Gospel services are from the good spirit of God when the heart Psalm 45. 1. bubbles and runs over in holy discourse and when the Eructans cor significat cordis locutionem cum nondum ad os pervenit et querit illam emittere circum volvitur et movetur huc et illuc et volutatur egressum quaerens quem prae gaudio non primo impeâu invenit c. Felix Praton mind flutters and flyes high in holy meditation and when our affections dilate and follow hard after Jesus Christ all this is from the Spirits gracious and divine assistance 2 Cor. 3. 16. It is the holy Spirit spreads our duties like Gold to greater extensions and oftentimes makes the Saint in duty query whether he be in the body or out of the body 2 Cor. 12. 2. His heart is like the squeezed Grapes overflowing with wine which is better then the drink of Angels It was the Spirit enlarged Solomons heart in that divine Prayer at the dedication of the Temple 1 Kings 8. 22 23. It was the Spirit enlarged Daniels heart in Prayer to hasten deliverance from the Babylonish captivity Dan. 9. 4. It was the Spirit enlarged Jonah s heart in Prayer when the Whales belly was consecrated into an Oratory Numb 18. 27. Jonah 2. 2. It is the Lords good Spirit which makes mans Deut. 15. 14. heart as the gushing streams or the over-flowing Fat or the Numb 18 30. dropping Wine-press in services Evangelical John 3. 8. It is the Spirit sweetens duty As Christ when he was at prayer rejoyced in spirit Luke 10. 21. Duties are sadned by mans sin but are refreshed by Gods Spirit David acted Mat. 17. 1 2. by this blessed Principle delighted so much in duty Luke 9. 29. that he begs to spend his whole life in the Temple of God Psal 27. 4. Ordinances become mellifluous by the concomitancy of Gods Spirit which often turneth them into a transfiguration As it is reported of Basil that when Greg. Orat. de laud. Bas the Emperour came upon him while he was at prayer he saw such lustre in the face of holy Basil that he was struck with terrous and fell backwards It is the Spirit ravishes the Fructus spirituâ est gaudium sed impura voluptas est similis voluptati quâ afficiunââ scabiosi cum se scalpunt Chrys heart indulcorates and captivates the soul in holy duty and toucheth the tongue with a Coal from the Altar Isa 6. 6 7. which turns all into a perfumed flame The Apostle saith the fruit of the spirit is joy Gal. 5. 22. which is never so fresh and diffusive as in holy services Ordinances are the spiritual opportunities wherein the Comforter John 14. 16. sheds abroad his comforts in the soul It is the Spirit which helps our infirmities in holy duties As in Prayer Rom. 8. 26 27. so in other spiritual services When we are flat the Spirit quickens us when