when we should be Prov. 24. 33. prosecuting our salvation It was Davids resolution He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt homines electi studio zelo divinae gloriae servidi ardore salutis eorum flagrantes metaphora esthaec à bellatoribus Par. would follow hard after God Psalm 63. 8. What a contradiction to this holy man is a sleepy Hearer one who buries himself alive at an Ordinance The Scriptures assure us we must storm heaven and take it by force Math. 11. 12. And we must enter in at the straight gate by striving Matth. 13. 24. Nay we must make our way to Heaven by fighting the good fight of Faitb 1 Tim. 6. 12. And all these are actions most inconsistent with sleep and slothfulness Matth. 11. 12. It is too probable a sign we taste little sweetness in holy Matth. 13 24. 1 Tim. 2. 12. Ordinances and that Gospel-dispensations never shed their perfumes upon our soules when we can wish them away with a nod or a dream Rich Banquets will scarce meet with sleepy guests Sweet Musiques will court and captivate Verbum Dei satiat non saturat creat amantes non fastidientes our attention And had we the taste either of a Job Job 23. 12. Or of a David Psalm 19. 10. we should keep both eye and heart open in divine Ordinances Were Ordinances so pleasant or parturient to us as either to delight our souls or awaken our consciences we should not throw Siulte quid est somnus gelidae nisi mortis imago them away at so cheap a rate as the gratifying of the flesh with a little stupifying sleep Surely the design of sleep was to be the Nurse of Nature and not the enemy of Grace to Somnus aliquando voâ—atur consanguineus leti support the body and not to hazard the soul Some learned men have called sleep the kinsman of Death O let it not be the Parent of our eternal Death It is a fatal change when sleep is metamorphosed into sin And thus much for the washing away of the paint of that excuse which pretends weakness and indisposition of body It is much to be feared the hand of Joab is in all this that neglect and carelesness close our eyes when we sleep away the precious Ordinances and opportunities of Grace But now succeed some ponderous considerations to be weighed in the ballance and seriously to be digested before we give our selves the sinful latitude to sleep in Ordinances Indeed many there are who sin away their souls and how many are there who sleep away their souls Before they come to Ordinances they sleep in sin and when they come to Ordinances they sin in sleep Sleep truly in the bed is the nurse of Nature but sleep in the Sanctuary is the nurse of vanity and breeds the soul up in Ignorance and Atheisme It is very strange that when our grace should be full of activity our sences should be chained with stupidity When Jonah slept the storm came Thou sleepest at a blessed soul-awakening 1 John 5. Psalm 11. 6. 2 Chr. 26. 20. Ordinance a storm of wrath may speedily fall upon thee as the Leprosie on a sudden rose in Vzziahs forehead But let us deliberatively weigh in our thoughts Wicken men do not sleep when they are about Satans work and while they are undoing their own souls If Judas have a plot in hand out of doors he will though in the night to bring his cursed design to pass John 13. 30. Nay the proud wanton envious eye in the Congregation will not fall asleep but will pry into every corner observe every fashion take notice of every beauty Satans work shall not be done sleepily and shall the work of God of Christ of Heaven of the Soul be done with drowsinesse and stupidity Here Ministers may make their appeal Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth Isa 1. 2. It is strange the work of a Tormentor should be more faithfully done than the work of a Pay-master that the service of Apollyon Isa 1. 2. Vtitur Isaias prosopopeiâ— ut Oratio sit gravior et plenior indignationis Cyril should be done with liveliness and activity and the work of a Saviour should be done with drosse and drowsiness It is much Ahab should be so restless for a Vineyard 1 Kings 21. 4. and we so drowsie for a Kingdome nay the Kingdome of Heaven Luke 12. 32. How will Ruffins Roysters and roaring Companions spend whole dayes nights in quaffing carowsing and gaming and we cannot spend one hour watchfully and actively for the pleasures of Eternity There are some Ordinances we will not sleep at when we come to the Lords Table it is no lesse then prodigious to fall into a sleep why then in Prayer or hearing of the Nemo potest fide credere nisi prius id quod credendum est sibi proponi et predicari audiat 2 Cor. 5 21. Word It is the preaching of the Word is the converting Ordinance Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10. 17. which faith espouseth us to Christ justifies our persons Rom. 5. 1. Seasons our Duties Heb. 11. 6. Purifies our hearts Heb. 15. 9. Unlades our guilt and layes it upon him who is mighty to bear It is faith by which we put on Christ Rom. 13. 14. and so being cloathed with the spotless robes of his righteousness we may stand with confidence before Gods tribunal Preaching is the Mother the Sacrament only is the Nurse of Grace preaching the Word of Christ fits us for feeding upon the body of Christ Paul gives preaching the preheminence 1 Cor. 1. 17. And so prayer it carries the conquest of omnipotency it self Isa 45. 11. Yet we are often Praecipuum Episcoporum munus est Evangelium praedicare Alap guilty of drowsie prayers and sleepy hearing when we tremble to think of sleeping with a Sacramental Cup in our hand Alapide observeth The predominant duty of Bishops is to preach the word And yet this Ordinance principally must be a witness of our shame This sleeping in Ordinances is a sin which Satan mightily promotes he knows of what fatal consequence it is for the soul to hear attentively to heed diligently the word of 1 Pet. 5. 8. Satanas suas infernales volucres quae sunt malae suggestiones hostium veritatis sophismata prava hominum prophanorum colloquia illusorum dicteria numquid omnia quae dicuntur credis quid vult tibi iste sermologus immittit quae sermonem auditum ex cordibus hominum ita eximant ut ne memoria quidem ejus maneat ne dum ut per illam ad fidem et pietatem et illius exercitia et fructus excitemur Lyser life and reconciliation this will batter his Kingdome and pluck Proselytes out of the paw of this roaring Lion And therefore when we come to a Sermon he either attempts to disturb and distract us and to throw in his cursed injections to procure a hurry
Exod. 17. 10. hands they are apt to faint and fall down but a continued violence and force must keep our affections in their highest sphere The Bird cannot stay in the Air without continual flight and motion of the wings nor can we persist in affectionate prayer without constant toil with our own hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Mart. Apol 2 affections faint and thoughts scatter weariness makes way for wandring so that we must take pains to keep our affections sailing towards heaven we must keep the wind of the spirit and row at the Oar that we be not sinfully becalmed and so miss of the end of our voyage Justin Martyr observes That the prefect of the assembly in his time used to pray with his utmost strength So then our prayers on the morning of the Sabbath must be cordiall and affectionate Our prayers must be cloathed with humility we must pray in a sense of divine purity and of our own unworthiness Luke 18. 23. Not only the bended knee but the submissive Isa 66. 3. spirit becomes prayer Christ himself kneeled down and prayed Luke 22. 41. On the morning of a Sabbath we Quatuor sunt gradus humilitatis Primus est contemptibilem se esse cognoscere Secunduâ— de hoc dolere Tertius hoc confiteri Quartus Aequo animo ferre se contemptibilitèr tractarâ— Ansel have great things to beg and we our selves usually give our charity not to the sturdy but to the stooping beggar If we look for blessings from Gods hand it is fit we should lie at Gods feet Christ himself melted Heb. 5. 7. and shall not we stoop and be humble in prayer Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed Isa 38. 2. as being conscious of his own unworthiness covering his face with blushes which the world must not see and so confounded in himself he pours out his soul before God In this holy duty we lie at the allowance of Gods mercy and most rationall it is we should lie at the foot-stool of Gods Throne The Publicans stroke on his breast which was an evidence of his humility and self-abhorrency made his way to that acceptation the Luke 18. 13. proud Pharisee could not attain unto Our closet and family prayers on the morning of the Sabbath must be sharpened and spirited wirh the sense of want and with hungrings and desires after supplies The Mat. 5. 6. Neh. 1. 11. Luke 11. 13. Non frigidè à deo petere debemus beneficia sed affici nos oportet sensu et vehementi desiderio illarum rerum quas à deo petimus Daven beggar cryeth loudest his rags make him roar we are cloyed in our apprehensions and we are cool in our Petitions Necessity inflames importunity Were we but sensible on the morning of a Sabbath to come to our case in hand what need we have of sins pardon of an understanding heart of a hearing ear of a holy and suitable frame of spirit for divine Ordinances and to run profitably through the duties of the whole Sabbath surely our hearts would be like coals of Juniper Psal 120. 4. we should burn with ardency and importunity We pray most fervently when we pray most feelingly want is the bellows of desire Let In petendo panem nostrum quotidiunum egestatem mendicitatem nostram agnoscimus us therefore study a sense of our spiritual wants and that will set the wheel of prayer on going with the greatest speed and eagerness Let these introductory prayers on a Sabbath be animated with faith That grace makes every duty weight and every service without it if it be put into the ballance will be found too light In our prayers we must be perswaded of the Heb. 11. 6. 1 John 5. 14. Psal 10. 17. mercifulness of Gods nature to encline and bow his ear to them of the riches of his promises to encourage them of the infiniteness of his power to fulfill and accomplish them Olea Arbor pinguedine suâ fertur nunquam deficere sed folia sub aquis manere possunt virentia Par. or else all our requests are like the bird with clipt wings they may flutter up and down the ground but they can rise no higher We must believe that God can fill every chink of our desires and that he will send home the Dove with the Olive branch in his mouth These annexed Scriptures will further evince this truth 1 John 5. 14. Mat. 21. 22. Psal 141. 2. Jam. 1. 6. Psal 55. 17. Where David saith He shall hear my voice O rare act of vigorous faith In a word Then Jude v. 20. we pray aright when we pray in the Holy Ghost His concurrence is necessary God will own nothing in prayer but Rom. 8. 26 27 what comes from his spirit any other voice is strange and barbarous to him God delights not in the flaunting of parts and in the unsavory belches of a carnal heart nor in the tunable cadency of words which is only an empty ring in Gods ear But the method of the Lord is to prepare the 1 Kings 18. 38. heart and then to grant the request Psal 10. 17. Our heart is opened first and then God opens his ear Fire from Potentia ad precandum non est ex nobis metipsis sed ex spiritu sancto Psal 147. 9. Vt adjuetis me in Orationibus i. e. ut concertetis in agone mecum graeâ—è est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heaven to consume the sacrific was the solemn token of acceptation heretofore 1 Kings 18. 38. Fire from heaven is the token still even an holy ardour wrought in us by the Holy Ghost Indeed prayer is a work too hard for us we can babble of our selves but we cannot pray without the Holy Ghost we can put words into prayer but the spirit must put affections without which prayer is but cold prattle and spiritless talk Our necessities may sharpen but they cannot enliven our prayers The carnal man may cry unto God as young Ravens and as the rude Marriners did in Jonahs ship but now gracious affection is quite another thing There may be cold and raw wishes after grace in an unbeliever but Jonah 1. 6. serious and spiritual desires after the same blessed gift these Hos 12. 4. we must have from the Holy Ghost Quest Did we consider what prayer properly is we should then easily see the necessity of the spirits assistance Prayer is a Qui precatur debet esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certans et luctans etiam cum ipso deo Daven work which will cost us travel of heart Acts 1. 14. a working spirit Jam. 5. 16. an earnest striving Rom. 15. 30. and contending with God himself Col. 4. 12. It is very observable that the party Jacob wrestled with Gen. 32. 25. is called a Man an Angel nay he is called God a man for his shape and the form he assumed an Angel to denote the
men defile not enjoy an Ordinance John 17. 21. They are spots not guests in that holy Feast It is onely the spiritual man is fit for converse with God Princes converse not with Beggars nor God with sinners Christ in his incarnation tabernacled with the Sons of men John 1. 14. But in his communion he converses with the Sons of God he gives his people the meeting Mat. 18. 20. The Sun shines upon the stars and they reflect its light with a glittering rebound Christ when he arose again gave not the meeting to the world but to his Disciples Luke 24. 36. And so in his blessed fellowship he visits not the formalist but the Saint Christ in his ordinances influences his living Eph. 1. 22 2â— members not glass eyes the speculative Atheist not painted faces the varnished hypocrite not ' wooden legs with the silken stocking upon them the spruce and self-deceiving moralist who with Agag are ready to depose the bitterness 1 Sam. 15 32. of death is over We must be on the Lords day in grace actual On the Sabbath the soul is to be set on work in acting several graces and some seem to be of a different nature As faith and fear heavenliness of mind and humbleness of heart repentings for sin and relyings on God tremblings of the soul and restings on Christ a real longing for promised mercies and yet a quiet staying for those mercies promise by hope expecting good things to come and yet by faith possessing those things at present This embroydery of grace must be on the heart of Lam. 3. 26 a Saint upon the Sabbath One of the Ancients compares Greg. Mor. l. 19. sect 30. holy men upon Earth unto those holy Angels of Heaven Rev. 4. 8. that are said to be full of eyes within and without In the week the Saints must use their eyes without Psal 77. 6. looking after their necessary callings and their occasions in Hos 6. 3. the world but upon the Sabbath they more solemnly set Ex cognitione dei omnia utriusque tabulae officia tanquam ex fonte promanant et eatenus placent quatenus illam praelucentem habent Riv. on work their eyes within looking inward upon the estate of their souls knowledge must open its eyes and repentance must drop its tears every grace must be in ure and exercise Indeed the Sabbath is the proper season for the acting of our several graces working as Bees in a Hive making honey of every ordinance Sorrow and confession must begin faith and prayer must carry on and holy thanksgiving must conclude the duties of a Sabbath Our hearing the Word must be introduced by holy appetite and desire we must long to be in the Courts of God It must be entertained Psal 84. 2. Luke 8. 1. Heb. 4. 2. Mat. 13. 19. by faith and affection it must be improved by zeal and an holy conversation our lives must be comments on Gods sacred truths and so all other ordinances of the Sabbath must be the sphears for our graces to move in as stars in their Phil. 1. 27. Orbs and this is to be in the spirit on the Lords day Let us study to be in the comforts of the spirit upon the Lords day The joyes of the Holy Ghost are the musick of heaven below the hearts rapture paradise in the bosome the sweet earnest of future blessedness they are the ecchoes of assurance and the reverberations of a good God and a good Conscience Spiritual comforts hath many springs but all most pleasing and complacential They are the comforts of God 2 Cor. 1. 3. who is a fountain above us The Father of mercies leaves a seed of joy in the soul They are the comforts of the Holy Ghost Acts 9. 31. who is a blessed spring within us John 7. 37. shedding those grateful streams of peace and joy which drench the soul with unspeakable delight They are the comforts of the Scriptures Rom. 15. 4. which are as sweet Gardens without us every promise being Consolatio omnis nititur promissionibus gratuitâ— Dav. as a sweet rose every truth being as a flower of the Sun and every threatning being as wholesome worm-wood in this salvifical garden They are the comforts of the Saints Col. 4. 11. which are as lights about us for our more comfortable passages to Sancti nos solantur invisendo condolendo necessitatibus nostris administrando et miserrimas nostras conditiones sublevando Dav. our rest and happiness Communion of Saints being not only an article of our Creed but an helper of our joy in our travels to Canaan But to return to the comforts of the spirit Gods people may find soul-refreshing comforts in Christ the Lord upon his own day and the measure of their comforts may mount their souls so high as to make them like Moses upon Mount Pisgah viewing Canaan the heavenly Canaan flowing with that which is better then milk and honey the soul of a sincere Isa 51. 12. 2 Cor. 1. 4. Luke 2. 29. Isa 56. 7. Christian may swim in a sea of sweet delight he whose heart hath been as a boat which could not be got up all the week because of low water yet may be brought up in an high spring tide of spiritual comfort upon the Lords day being ready to say with Old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke 2. 29. the soul may be so Psal 94. 19. Isa 57. 18. filled with joy upon Gods holy day in his house of prayer that he may be ambitious of his eternal Requiem in the bosome of Christ Nay upon the Lords day a believer being in the spirit the worst evils may amplifie his best comforts to think of sin remitted hell removed death vanquished devil Gen. 42. 38. conquered all these make for him that he may go down with Jud. 14. 14. joy and triumph to the grave Out of every eater comes meat the upper and the neither springs run all into the Josh 15. 19. same stream of comfort to the Saints Every thing on a Sabbath is an occasion of spiritual joy to them If they look up Isa 29. 19. to God they will joy in the Lord Rom. 5. 11. If they consider Isa 35. 2. the season of a Sabbath that is the time nay the term Isa 52. 9. time for the soul which is matter of joy nay as the joy of harvest Isa 9. 3. If they glance at the word they receive the word with joy Luke 8. 13. If they act their graces this is with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. It was a brave speech of a Martyr to his cruel tormentors Work your will upon my weak body as for my soul it is in heaven already and over that Caesar hath no power So it may be the case of a Christian upon a Sabbath he may be as in heaven beginning his triumphal hallelujahs It is no
shouldst consider the importance of it it cost more even the precious bloud of Jesus Christ and while thou art sporting and idling in the fields God might have been speaking to thy soul Augustine was converted by a Sermon of holy Ambrose Peter Martyr was brought home to God by a passage of a Sermon As for those who must have a walk after Sermon these impoverish their souls Are there not family prayers to procure blessings family repetitions to digest the word family duties to warm the heart on a Sabbath day Publick Ordinances are too often as land-floods to the soul which will quickly disappear unless the waters of life sink in gradually by private repetition and meditation Serious consideration and fervent prayer at home work into the heart those truths and doctrines we heard abroad These ill husbands for their better part too frequently drop in the fields what they have pickt up in the Sanctuary and the air is more fresh Absit ut dejicerem animum nobilem et illum corpori mancipium facerem then their memory These field-walkers how do they sink below some heathens It was the saying of a noble heathen Far be it from me that I should make my noble mind a slave to my body If we will have our pleasures on the Lords day let us meet with Christ in his Garden Cant. 5. 1. let us gather fruits in his Orchard of Pomgranates Cant. 4. 13. Let us lie down by the fountain of Gardens Cant. 4. 15. Let us stay our selves with his Apples and Flagons Cant. 2. 5. and sit down with our beloved in his banquetting house Cant. 2. 4. And then travel over the mountains of spices Cant. 8. 14. Christ indeed is the Paradise of pleasure he can ravish us with one of his eyes Cant. 4. 9. and make us drink of the cup of Salvation Divine pleasures become the Sabbath not the titillations of sence but the refreshings of the soul Let those then who waste the Sabbath in taking the air take Joh. 6. 58. Isa 25. 8. Eph. 2. 2. heed least they meet with the Prince of the air considering these unnecessary walks contain more temptation then recreation in them they are Satans refined and plausible bate to cause the incautelous Christian to let fall and so lose his spiritual morsels we know it is his grand artifice to steal away the seed of the word Mat. 13. 19. and pleasing recreations give him the best aime Caut. 3 Let us take heed of the sin of unbelief The believer only sanctifies the Sabbath they truly keep it who themselves are kept in their most holy faitb Jude v. 20. Every duty of a Mark 11. 24. Jam. 1. 6. Sabbath requires faith If we hear we must mingle the word with faith Heb. 4. 2. If we pray it must be believing Crede et manducasti crede et bibisti Aug. Mat. 21. 22. It is faith makes our prayers effectual If we receive we must come to the Sacrament with faith Augustine saith Believe and thou hast eaten believe and thou hast drunken Faith is the chief guest at Christs table If we meditate faith sweetens that duty and makes it lushious not tedious Psal 119. 97. Observe Thy Law c. It was Heb. 11. 6. the Law of his God and that sweetned his meditation on it If we read the Scriptures it is faith must make that duty effectual without faith the Word is onely a â—iddle the Acts â— 3◠〈…〉 Christi puzzle not the profit of a Christian Faith then puts life into every duty and makes it both vigorous and viâ—â—â— Buâ— unbelief is a sin which like the Câ—terpillar eats up al◠〈◊〉 fruit of a Sabbath and turns its Sun into dâ—rkness Vnbelief invalidaâ—es our approaches to God Heb. 11. 6. 〈◊〉 In vain the knee bowes unless the heart believes in vâ—â—â— we lift up the hands of flesh unless we lay hold on God by 〈…〉 sâ—d infidâ—â—itas à â—hâ—isto planè a◠〈◊〉 illius spiritu nos privâ—t et Satanae insidiis nos expositos reddit Lys the hands of faith We must bring faith to make our way acceptable to the Almighty In the forcecited Text Heb. 11. 6. the Apostle doth not say without faith it is improbable but it is impossible to please God Without faith all duties are acted in the dark there must be an eye of faith to see our way to God in Christ Vnbelief prevents the work of Christ upon the heart Mat. 13. 56. It unqualifies us for spiritual successes this sin is so great it can cast Christ into an admiration Mark 6. 6. What great things might Ordinances work upon the soul if the heart was not barred up by unbelief It was this sin which unchurched the poor nation of the Jews Rom. 11. 20. It may be the Epitaph of that ancient people of God Here lies a people cast off by God because of unbelief Vnbelief shuts up the gate of mercy Heb. 3. 19. Faith melts the cloud of Ordinances into a fruitful shower unbelief makes ordinances a dark appearance onely and turns Heb. 4. 6. them into stones of emptiness Isa 34. 11. An Ordinance to an unbeliever is a dead Child the spirit of God doth not breath in it And therefore on a Sabbath above all thy gettings get faith Vnbelief it puts a defilement upon the sweetest Ordinances They are as a Jewel in a dead mans hand The prayers of an unbeliever are an abomination to the Lord. The Apostle Prov. 4 7. saith Tit. 1. 15. To them who are unbelieving every Omnia opera infidelâ—um sunt noxia et peccâ—tâ— thing is defiled Vnbelief damps the pearl of Ordinances puts a flaw upon it The School-men say All the works of unbelievers are sins and so then are all his services and they accommodate themselves to that of the Apostle Rom. Gregor Arim. Capriolus Câ—tharinus c. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin Vnbelief blasts the sweetest duty as lightning doth the fairest face The Lord saith to the unbeliever What hast thou to do to take my word into thy mouth Psal 50. 16. Why do I pray if I do not believe returns What do I hear if I do not believe doctrines VVhat do I receive if I do not believe Christ in the Sacrament Ordinances to an unbeliever they are not dews Rom. 1. 16. but dreams not Gods power but Mans fancy and Sermons are only the Romances of the Pulpit The Apostle Heb. 11. per totum tells us of many Miracles of faith and unbelief Heb. 11. 11 29 30 33 34. Exod. 4. 3. can work on it can turn all our rods into Serpents it can work the same wonder Christ wrought on the barren fig-tree Mark 11. 21. It can curse with a perpetual blast Augustine used to dispute from John 3. 19. That unbelief was the only damning sin This sin like popish Rome is the Mother of Harlots Rev. 17. 5. And therefore against
this sin we must Ex hoc textu Augustinus solebat disputare solam infidelitatem esse peccatum damnans Chemn be cautionated especially on the Lords day which is faiths working day It is observable that miracles are attributed to no other grace but faith Mat. 17. 20. This grace can remove mountanes Luke 17. 6. Bring faith to an Ordinance it can remove the mountane of carnal reason the mountane of prejudice the mountane of fleshly mindedness A Believer at an Ordinance disputes it not with God is not disaffected with any thing of God is dissolved into the will of God he puts up his prayers as a wise Merchant waiting a seasonable return Psal 85. 8. Hab. 2. 1. He hears Omnibus Evangelium praedicatur sed non omnibus creditur omnibus deus salutem offert sed non consert nisi fidelibus sicut medicina omnibus aegris pro ponitur sed non medetur nisi eam sumentibus Chrysost the word and he claps it close to his soul by personal application Vnbelief throws away the plaister but faith layes it on the wound Faith is both the mouth to receive in and the stomack to digest spiritual food The word striketh boldly and worketh miraculously under the banner of faith Rom. 1. 16. 1. Cor. 1. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 15. But there is a blindness in unbelief which cannot see the beauties of an Ordinance and how lovely Christ looks in it Faith hath an eye to see the excellency and an ear to hear the melody of an Ordinance and to attend to Christ speaking loves to his beloved Faith in the threatnings of the word causeth humiliation Faith in the precepts of the word causeth subjection Faith in the promises of the word springeth consolation The unbeliever like a man in a swoon shuts his mouth against the cordials of the Gospel Other sins indeed wound the soul but unbelief like Joab strikes under the fifth rib and kills out-right This sin spoyles all sowres all disanuls all 1 Pet. 2. 8. The word to an unbeliever is like rain upon the Rock like dew upon a barren Heath The Apostles advice Heb. 11. 4. Eph. 3 12. is sweet and sacred Heb. 10. 22. If we will draw nigh to God with acceptance we must do it with affiance Faith is an instrument which justifies both our persons and performances Of all Virgin Graces Faith is the Hester that God will set the Crown upon Let our design then be on a Sabbath to avoid the rock of unbelief and get that indispensable and inestimable grace of faith Let us be earnest for the spirit to plant it and let us attend seriously on the word Luke 11. 13. Rom. 10. 17. to water it that this blessed grace by a divine Chymistry may turn the metal of every Ordinance into gold Caut. 4 Let us take heed of undervaluing the Ordinances of a Sabbath Many make a bad market of a Sabbath day because they do not prize those things which are then set to sale They speak in the language mentioned by Job Job 21. 15. What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him And take up the peevish expostulation of the froward Jews mentioned by the Prophet Mal. 3. 14. Ye have said it is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance Slighted meals may cloy but not strengthen they may be our surfet not our satisfaction Customary approaches will meet with dead Ordinances It is the humble soul who highly prizes the opportunities of life will be the thriving soul David prized the sanctuary and he saw God there Psal 63. 2. But indeed ignorance is the cause of our disesteem we do not value Sabbath love because we do not understand it we slight the Ordinances of grace because we know not the grace which is conveighed from the Ordinances Ignorant Children throw away Pearls a Lapidary would Canales gratiae à quibus aqua viventes affluentèr diffim duntur not do so The Ordinances they are the channels cut out by Christ through which the waters of life run to the soul they are the spiritual Alymbecks to drop the sweet stillings of grace upon the heart they are the hives of that which is sweeter then the honey and the honey comb Psal 19. 10. They are the Conduits which run with Wine on Christs resurrection day our blessed Sabbath These Ordinances which many foolishly despise but as God saith to their own hurt Jer. Gen. 41. 48. 7. 6. They are the Suhurbs of heaven the Coelestical Exchange where Christ and his people barter for spiritual commodities they are Christs Granary and store-houses to find the soul with bread In these golden seasons God exchangeth mercies for duties not as if our duties deserved mercy but out of his own free grace and shortly will exchange glory for grace Exod. 29. 43 45. If Paul can come in the fulness Externis institutionibus utimur tanquam adminiculis ad veram conteâ—plationem diviâ—â— Majestatis â—â— gloriae ejusdemque erga populum suâ—◠〈◊〉 Riv. of the Gospel Rom. 15. 29. how much more our dear Jesus in his blessed Ordinances These are the Chariots to bring believers down into Goshen a place of light and pleasantness Every holy day is a Sun beam which conveighs light and heat to the inward man Ordinances are those chrystal glasses wherein the soul sees its beloved Those divine graces which are for meat to satisfie and for medicine to heal are found onely growing on the banks near the waters of the Sanctuary Gods tabernacles are amiable Psal 84. 1. And who will nauseate beauties the captivations of sence In the Sanctuary there is strength and beauty Psal 2 Cor. 3. 1â— 96. 6. Christ is never more beautifull in the eye of the believer Cant. 1. 14. Isa 33. 17. Psal â—0 17. Psal â—â— 2. John 5. â— John 9. 7. then when sitting at his table Cant. 1. 12. Or walking among his Candlesticks Rev. 2. 1. David desired to see the beauty of the Lord in his holy Temple Psal 27. 4. It must needs be Satans artifice to beat down the price of Ordinances How many Criples have been healed in this Bethesda How many defiled souls have been washed in this Isa 53. 2. Siloam Thou who undervaluest Ordinances look again and see whether there be no form nor comliness in them cast thy eye upon the Author of them the Author and giver of them is God they are his Institutions He hath appointed Jer. 3. 15. Prayer a means to prevail with himself for mâ—rcies and blessings He hath commanded our attendance upon the word 〈…〉 that the day spring from on high may visit us and the Net being spread our souls may be taken by the hand of Christ God owns and he crowns Sabbath Ordinances Cast thy eye upon the nature of them they are the sweet intercourses between God and the Soul the
he had not looked on Bathsheba with such a wanton Psal 1. 2. eye Holy meditation would have quenched the fire of that lust This heavenly duty hath this advantage in it it presses the thoughts for the service of Christ nor will permit them to wander in a sinfull liberty Meditation it puts life into Ordinances and makes them sweet and savoury to the soul Ordinances they are like The third advantage of meditation cloaths which have no warmth in themselves but as they are heated by the body which wears them and so Ordinances have no energy or quickning power in themselves but as the divine spirit co-operates with them and our serious meditation makes them fruitfull and effectual If we canvas an Ordinance or two we shall find this more apparent and manifest Shall we instance In Prayer Meditation before prayer is like the tuning of an Instrument and the fitting it for melody and harmony This holy duty of meditation doth mature our conceptions excite our desires and screw up our affections what is the Preces non tam verbis quam animo aestimantur Chemnit reason there is such a discurrency in our thoughts such a running of them to and fro when we are in Prayer like dust blown up and down with the wind but onely for want of meditation And what is the reason that our desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in prayer are like an arrow shot out of a weak bow that they do not reach the mark but onely upon this account we do not meditate before prayer He who would but consider before he comes to prayer the pure Majesty of God the holiness of his Nature the quickness of his Eye the strength of his Hand and that he will be sanctified by all Acts 1. 14. who draw near to him as likewise those things he is to pray Ipsa majestas dei est origo et fundamentum gloriae Gloria ex Majestate emanat sicut radius â sole Alap for the pardon of Sin the spirit of Grace the assurance of Gods Love an inheritance with the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. How would this cause his prayer to ascend as incense before God David expresses prayer by meditation Give ear to my words O Lord consider my meditation Psal 5. 1. In hearing the word the benefit of it much depends upon meditation Before we hear the word meditation is the plough Dum terra labori et agriculturae respondet ipse deus novas pluvias et novas solis caelique influentias immutit which opens the ground to receive the seed and after we have heard the word meditation is as the harrow which covers the new sown seed in the earth that the Fowls of the air may not pick it up Meditation makes the Word full of sap and juice life and vigour to the attentive hearer What is the reason that most men come to hear the word as the beasts came into the Ark they came in unclean and they went out unclean it is because they do not meditate on the truths they hear they put truth into shallow and neglective memories and they do not draw it out by serious meditation It is said of the Virgin Mary that she pondered Luke 2. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tanquam semen in agro those things in her heart A steddy and considerate meditation on divine truth would produce warm affections zealous resolutions and holy actions If we will profit by the Word let us conscionably meditate on the Word In receiving the Sacrament Meditation puts a taste upon that divine feast Examination is commanded before we approach this Supper now this duty of Examination is best managed by meditation He who meditates aright concerning 1 Cor. 11. 28. him who is the Author the Object the end of the Haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in tribus pâ—rtibus consistit 1 In agnitione miseriae et peccatorum magnitudinis reatus gravitatis 2. In fide et fiduciá mediatoris ne desperatione absorbeamur 3 In serio resipiscentiae et novae obedientiae proposito Par. Luke 22. 15. Sacrament and considers with himself what rich testimonies of Grace there are to the worthy receiver how will this dispose the soul to that holy Ordinance And he who meditates of his infinite misery out of Christ and of his happiness in a dear Redeemer how will this encourage and sharpen his desires to come to the Lord Jesus and meet him at his own table And in receiving we should meditate on the sufferings of Christ for the Sacrament is onely the abridgement of Christs agony And we should likewise meditate on the affections and loves of Christ for the Sacrament is a Copy of his love The Sacrament is food and so we must receive it with an appetite and strong desires but this food must be carefully concocted by meditation The fourth advantage we receive by meditation is the strengthning and recruit of our Graces Indeed grace The fourth advantage by meditation and meditation are reciprocal causes of each other meditation maintanes grace and grace exercises meditation A gracious heart with Moses ascends the mount of meditation Exod. 24. 15. to meet with God and then his face shines his graces are more illustrious and resplendent Meditation feeds three royal Graces with supply and support First Faith receives recruit from this heavenly duty Fides est quasi columnâ— et fundamentum in terrâ jactum fides inter omnes res est solidissima certissuna et firmissima Chrysost Heb. 11. 19. When our faith languisheth and our thoughts are ready to terminate in despair then meditation brings a cordial it fixes upon the power of God which is faiths great supporter in all our temptations When the soul shall meditate thus that God by his own Fiat his own Word gave being to the World and raised this glorious superstructure where man now inhabits and that his power is no less then infinite reducing into act and being whatsoever the Divine Will shall command how doth this underprop our faith and preserve it and secure it against the quick-sands of unbelief Haec suit invicta illa fidei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et basis in mandato et promissionibus dei radicaâ—a Thus Abraham meditates on Gods power and this meditation so steels and backs his faith that it breaks through the most rigorous and fierce onsets of tryal and temptation and so becomes laureat and victorious Another grace which flourishes and thrives on the Mount of meditation is Hope Faith is confirmed and hope is enlarged 1 Tit. 1. 1. Tit. 2. 13. Col. 1. 5. Quaerat aliquis quando perâ—eniam ad speratum gaudium respoâ—dendum cum deus dederit nullae sunt lâ—ngae morae ejus quòd certò donabit Tert. Psal 103 5. by meditation the hand of faith is strengthned and the wing of hope is plumed by this excellent duty If a Christian should consider by
And though his Throne is as high as heaven he seeth what is done below Thirdly God is present every where by his supporting 3. Per Suflentationem power he upholds all things the whole Axle-tree of the Greation would soon yield and sink under its weight was it not sustained by the power of the Almighty Fourthly God is present every where by his Government 4. Per Dominium He rules all things Angels and Men are his subordinate officers the Sun and Moon are those lamps he sets up to rule both day and night But Secondly There is a special presence of God his gracious presence whereby he manifests himself to his people which likewise is three-fold First This presence is evidenced in some visible and standing Exod. 13. 21. tokens as in those extraordinary the pillars of the cloud Exod. 25. 10. and of the fire and in those ordinary the Ark and the Temple 1 Kings 8. 11. of old and the Ordinances of the Gospel now Secondly In some inward influences and irradiations upon the hearts of his hidden and holy ones Thirdly In some signal effects in conducting leading and covering his people in times of danger and peril Exod. 33. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my face faith the Original my self saith the Exod. 33 4 Septuagint shall go before you Now we should meditate on the presence of God in every distinction and this would not only supply our thoughts but direct our words for God hath many eyes upon us First God hath an eye of observation and inspection God seeth with what uprightness and sincerity we run through Jer. 16. 17. our duties Jer. 16. 17. God eyes and takes notice of all our Mal. 1. 14. services and all our sacrifices whether we offer up to him the Male of our flock or no whether we are singing or hearing or praying or reading the eye of the Lord is upon us Preces non tam verbis quà m animo aestimantur Lyser He takes exact notice with what frame of heart our performances are managed whether slothfully or spiritually whether heavily or of a willing mind Secondly God hath an eye of favour and benediction Gods eye can convey a blessing as well as his band and his eye can speak his good will as well as his heart 2 Chron. 7. Jer. 24. 6. 1 Kings 9. 3. 2 Chron. 7. 16. Psal 101. 6. Psal 30. 7. 16. Psal 101. 6. Gods eye is in his house of prayer to approve and bless us if we sanctifie his Name in holy Ordinances we should then be accurate and exact in Sabbath observation for Gods eye is fixed upon us and he will not turn it aside nor lies it within the verge of humane artifice to cast a mist before it Thirdly God hath an eye of anger indignation Gods looks Isa 66. 4. sometimes speak his Anger as well as his Blows Job 16. 9. Isa 1. 26. His fury is visible by his frowas Gods sight can wound Christus iratus hostes ut ignis paleas consumit as deeply as his sword Amos 9. 4. God seems sometimes to stab to the heart by the glance of his eye And if we wait on God irreverently worship him carelesly and prophane his day Ezek. 22. 26 and 31. either by corporal labour or by spiritual idleness we may justly expect to be blasted by an eye of divine fury and displeasure Dan. 10. 6. pleasure Christ whose eyes are as a flame of fire Rev. 1. Psal 13. 2. 14. walks in the midst of his Golden Candlesticks throughout the world He observes how holy duties are performed and how his holy day is sanctified he is in the midst of our Assemblies to behold our inward and outward carriage in his Courts he goeth down into his Garden of nuts to see Hortus nucum sunt corda sanctorum et quideum valdè diligunt coelestem dulcedinem in intimis gerunt Del Rio. the fruits of the valley Cant. 6. 11. He seeth the rotten bough of hypocrisie the bare leaves of an empty profession without the answerable fruits of a holy conversation and looks on these disappointments with fury and indignation In a word this presence this eye of God must be thought of and meditated on upon the morning of a Sabbath and it will be a good preparatory to the subsequent duties of the whole day CHAP. XXIII We must not onely meditate on the God of the Sabbath but on the Sabbath of God in the morning of his holy day HAving thus far treated on the first glorious object of our Sabbath meditations viz. Tbe God of the Sabbath Gen. 24. 63. Paradisus est locus beatorum locus nobilior et eminentior Alap I now come to the second head of meditation viz. The Sabbath of God and here is fair Champian for meditation to travel over Indeed the Sabbath is a garden for meditation to walk in it is like Isaac's field into which he went to meditate it cannot but be an inferiour Paradise for meditation to delight it self in and to open our way into this Paradise where there is no flaming sword to keep us out Gen. 3. 24. We will first cast our tye on the several ends of the Sabbath God hath many rare and sacred ends in giving us this seventh part of every week for converse with his divine self and for transacting the affairs and concernments of Eternity There is a general and universal end of the Sabbath Creatio estopus mirandum et stupendum Dr. Jun. which refers to all mankind and relates not particularly either to the Jewish or to the Christian Church viz. To preserve the memory of the glorious work of the Creation And indeed this work was most illustrious and in it many things were discovered Psal 90. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philos First Gods Eternity who was before all things Psal 90. 2. Yea before time it self in which all things were created Secondly In the work of Creation we may take notice of the Self-being of God who being before all things gives being to all things and must necessarily be of himself Thirdly In this great work we may discern the overflowing Isa 37. 16. Isa 40. 28. Isa 45. 12 18. Isa 51. 13. Jer. 14. 22. Jer. 27. 5. Jer. â—2 17. Jon. 1. 9. Rev. 4. 11. Psal 33. 6 9. bounty of God for nothing could move him to create a world but his own goodness that there might be a Cistern to receive the sheddings of an overflowing fountain besides how hath God furnished and stored the world with all variety of furniture for the use of his Vice-Roy Man Fourthly In this stupendous work of the Creation we cannot but acknowledge Gods infinite power who by his word alone created the vast bodies of the Heavens and the Earth and all the numerous host of them Fifthly In this miraculous work we may admire his Inter omnia beneficia dei
miles to hear heavenly Mr. Hildersham and it was not reputed their crime but their zeal We may on the Sabbath Numb 15. 36. alleviate winters cold with seasonable fires and God will not judicially turn our sticks which were to warm us into stones to bruise and destory us we may gather up Manna even spiritual Manna and it will not be our fault but John 6. 32. our happy frugality our Sabbath is the Souls feasting day Excessus in epulis cum naturâ pugnat Convivium enim â— vitâ non à morte nomen habet Chemnit and our provisions are no less then true bread from heaven We Christians are not denyed on our Sabbath the moderate furniture of our Tables Christ himself feasted with the Pharisees on the Sabbath day Luke 14. 1 7. Our greatest care in this case is that our tables be our support and not our snare To wind up then this particular Our Christian Sabbath though it hath less ceremony it hath more substance Psal 69. 22. though it hath fewer leaves it hath more fruit and though it is unhinged from legal observances it is more enrich'd with spiritual Ordinances It is a good observation of Learned Andrews That God imposed upon the Jews Bishop Andrews not to kindle a fire or to dress meat on the Sabbath this was meerly ceremonial and only belonged to them Therefore our Saviour sweetens our Sabbath in removing those burdens which were the servile badge of the Jewish pedagogy The Jewish and the Christian Sabbath differ in this upon the Jewish Sabbath there were carnal sacrifices offered Clariùs imperfectionem eorum describit cum dicit Dona victimas illas non posse perfiâ—ere conscientias Dona vocat Oblationes rerum inanimatarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 victimas mactatas oblationes rerum animatarum Par. as well as spiritual services performed On the morning of their Sabbath there was offered two Lambs of the first year without spot two tenth deals of flower for a meat offering mingled with Oil and the drink offering thereof and this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath besides the continual burnt offering Numb 28. 9 10. There was likewise on the same morning burning of Incense Exod. 30. 7. So in the Afternoon both sacrifices and burning of Incense Exod. 29. 38. And to this alludes the Psalmist Psal 141. 2. So that much of the Jews Sabbath was spent in the offering of these legal sacrifices which the Apostle calls carnal Ordinances Heb. 9. 10. And which Alapide mentions as fleshly rites fit only for abolition to make way for more sweet Christus correcturus erat ritus illos legales et carnales iisque bolitis eorum loco spiritualem Dei cultum erat inducturus ut adoraremus deum et spiritu et veritate Alap Muscul in quartum praeceptum and spiritual Institutions Pareus superadds and calls them imperfect oblations the grosser victims of a people kept in the dark These shadowy offerings were only the Jewish Alphabet to teach them how to spell the meaning of better oblations to come And therefore Musculus calls the Jews Sabbath A legal a corporal an elementary a shadowy a pedagogical Sabbath But the Christian Sabbath knows no stone Altar no fleshly sacrifice no spilling of the bloud of Lambs no making a smoak with Incense and Perfumes These exterior varnishes and Types are a broken cloud to us which wholly disappears We on our Sabbath have no Altar but Christ no Incense but his merit no slaying of Lambs but of that Heb 13. 10. Rev. 8. 3 4. Rev. 13. 8. Jam. 5. 16. Heb. 9. 14. Lamb without spot which was slain from the foundation of the world we offer no burnt sacrifice on a Sabbath but a heart flaming with zeal nor do we bring any tenth deals of flower but those mean services of our souls which if we Altare nostrum Christus est qui pro nobis immolatuâ— fuit qui est sacrificium sacerdos et etiam Altare had better we should offer them to our dear Jehovah nor do we mingle any Oil with our offerings but only the acting of our graces in our holy performances The sacrifices of a Christian upon the Lordâ— day are of a more refined nature then the carnal sacrifices of the Jews upon their Sabbath The bending of the knee the lifting up of the hands the composing of the countenance the weeping of the eye are the offering up of his body as a reasonable sacrifice Rom. 12. 1. The acting of faith upon the word the dispensing Phil. 2. 17. charity to the poor the pouring out of prayers in Eph. 5. 2. holy addresses the rendring of thanksgiving for receiving Heb. 13. 15. mercies are the sacrifices of his soul they are his spiritual 1 Pet. 2. 5. oblations which he offers to God on his own day The Christians services on the Sabbath are so far sweet as they are soul-services and they have so much acceptation as they have of the heart The Jewish and the Christian Sabbath differ in the duration The Jewish Sabbath ended in the times of the Gospel but the Christian endures till the day of judgment when time shall be no more The Sabbath of the Jews was buryed in the grave of Christ and their its honour was laid in the Mat. 17. 2 3 4 5. dust But the Lords day shall stay till the Lords second coming and then it shall not be buryed but transfigured into an Eternal Sabbatism when all the Saints shall say It is Heb 4 9. good to be here and Moses and Elijah shall be our eternal Companions Our Sabbath is not so short-liv'd as that of the Jews but at the great day of account with the living Mar. 2. 28. Saints it shall be caught up to meet the Lords of it in the 1 Thes 4. 17. air and so shall it be ever with the Lord as a little to allude to that of the Apostle 1 Thes 4. 17. And in this regard the Christian Sabbath much outvies the Jews seventh day Duration and continuance sets a higher price on every thing which is valuable The Temple exceeds the Tabernacle John 14. 2. not only for the costliness but for the continuance of it Our possessions above Christ calls Mansions not only for their excellency but likewise for their permanency The Omnis homo est advena noscendo incola vivendo quia compellitur migrare moriendo Sed in domo caelesti non solum erimus sed manebimus unde coelum vocatur civitas manens Aug. Body of a man which is his inferiour part is called a Taberbernacle of clay 2 Cor. 5. 1. which is soon taken down But the soul which is mans better part is a piece of eternity and when disunited from the body it takes its flight unto an eternal condition and estate The prospect of a fair Landskip pleases us not so well because it is transient but it is
direct our requests that they may not miss Sicut in perperam dictis parum aut nihil momenti est sed ad irritandum deum contigit sic commodè et opportunè dictis nihil ferè bonitatis abesse creditur Cartwr the mark of a blessing But we must see to the matter of our prayers that our devotions be not onely sweet but seasonable not onely fervent but pertinent there may be petitions which are lawful which are not so expedient for the season of a Sabbath and therefore to secure us against such mistakes we must be informed what seasonably to beg of God as the boon of the instant opportunity We must put up our prayers for the Minister who is to be Gods mouth to us in the publick worship of the Sabbath we must pray that God would give him a door of Acts 16. 14. Eph 6. 18 19. Col. 4. 3. 2 Cor. 1. 11. 1 Thes 5. 25. utterance He that must open the hearts of the people to receive the word savingly must open the lips of the Minister to preach the word effectually How often doth Paul intreat the prayers of the people that Seraphick Apostle would not set sail without fresh gales of the peoples prayers Indeed Preces sunt arma sacerdotis Ambr. the preaching of the Word is an arduous affair and cannot be success fully managed without divine help and supplement which must be begged by prayer and importunity Ambrose saith That prayers are the weapons of a Minister Rom. 15. 15. It may be truly added that prayer must put weapons into the hands of a Minister for the killing and slaughtering of Eph. 6. 20. the lusts and sins of the people We must therefore pray on Audacitas et animositas Ministros decent et in Evangelio praedicando et in praedicatione defendendâ Theophil the morning of a Sabbath that the Minister may open his mouth boldly and publish freely the mysteries of the Gospel that he may speak the Word truly sincerely powerfully and profitably delivering what is suitable to our present condition For he that guided the arrow to kill a wicked Ahab 1 Kings 22. 34. must guide the truth to hit and destroy a cursed lust and corruption A learned man tells us we must pray for three things for the Minister That God would give him the Faculty the Liberty and the Efficacy of preaching That God would open the door that he may come out in the fulness of the Gospel of Christ to our souls That God would give him dexterity and wisdome to improve Petendum est pro Ministris 1. Vt facultas siâ— illis libertas et efficacia predicandi 2. Vt sit praxis hujus facultatis 3. Vt sit modus debitus in eadem exercenda Daven his gift and faculty Every one which takes a Lute in his hand cannot make sweet musick on it There is a holy Art in the Ministry and this we must beg for that God would give it to the Minister who plies at our souls The Word is a Sword Eph. 6. 17. We must pray that the Minister may weild it to the highest advantage and that he may do the greatest executions upon our carnal hearts That the Minister may speak as becomes him with that gravity affection zeal and soul-awakening power which may render him a faithful Ambassadour of Jesus Christ And we should consider the weightiness of a Ministers work Heb. 13. 18. Est â—fficium omnium piorum assiduè et enixè deum orare pro pastoribus et Evangelii ministris Dav. how tremendous and formidable it is The larger the Ship is the more strength is required for the lanching of it Prayers are more then needfull that the Minister may do the work of God in the strength of God One saith A faithful Minister is the treasure of the Church our prayers should be that this treasure may be spent in the enriching of our souls Surely preachers are much carried out upon the peoples prayers It is prayer fetcheth the coal from the Altar to touch their tongues and causeth these fishers of men to cast the Net on the right side of the Ship We must pray for the Congregation which associates with us Our Saviour saith Luke 22. 32. When we are converted Luke 22. 32. we must strengthen the Brethren The Apostle avers we must prefer others before our selves Rom. 12. 10. And surely Rom. 12. 10. then we must strive to advantage others as well as our selves Totus populus Christianus unum sunt Cyprian saith All Christian people are one thing but there must needs be a greater unity in the same society and congregation which is as a large family In our heavenly Sabbath Cypr. de Orat. Domin it will be our joy to see one another there the assembly of the first born shall congratulate the happiness of one another and then surely on our Sabbath here below it must be a gratefull service to pray for one another Thy Acts 16. 14. prayers may prevail with the Lord who alwayes hath the In nostis orationibus oportet nos esse memores non nostrae conditionis solummodò sed fratrum et aliorum à nobis key in his hand to open anothers heart as well as thy owne Some sympathy thou shouldst have with the members of Christ who joyne with thee and prayer is the best evidence of this fellow-feeling Christ prayed on the Cross for his adversaries Luke 23. 34. and wilt not thou pray in the Closet for the flock with whom thou art to mingle Let the miraculous workings of Christs heart be attractive to the meltings of thine that a showre of the spirit may fall upon all that hear the word with thee Acts 10. 44. God can 1 Cor. 13. 1. give a showre as well as a drop of his spirit and let me add this will be charity which may speak thee to be more then sounding brass or a tinkling Cymbal As we must pray for persons so we must pray for things too on the morning of Gods holy day We must pray that the Gospel may run and be glorious and that that sacred leaven may leaven the whole lump Let 2 Thes 3. 1. us consider Rom. 10. 17. First The work of the Gospel is glorious it begets grace which is the seed of glory it is instrumental to bring to glory 2 Cor. 4. 4. The glorified Saints which are now in their triumphs Pauli armâ— fuere preces suae et suorum quibus omnes hostes devicit Haec nobis imitanda sunt hisce Armis Hezechias vicit Assyrium Moses Amalekitas Samuel Askalonitas et Israel 32 Reges Chrysost are eternally praising God for the blessed and glorious Gospel Secondly The work of the Gospel is necessary where there is no vision the people perish Prov. 29. 18. It is by the Call of the powerful and divine Gospel souls are brought home to Christ who is the great
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 Gentilâ—â— 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 servâ—bit 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 celebâ—andus 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
communion with God no more and shall we sleep away these golden yet gliding seasons Shall we drousilie pass away those streams of Gospel love which are alwayes running and being passed return no more Shall we be as rocks before the musick of the word when the instruments will soon be laid aside Shall we be as persons in a swoun before the calls of the word when those invitations will not last but our refusall proves our ruine Luke 19. 41 42. The sleepy hearer might have heard that Sermon which happily might have brought him home to the armes of Christ but now happily the offers of peace and reconciliation may be hid from his eyes Before his eyes were shut he was asleep But now the day is shut in and he may as our Saviour speaks Mark 14. 41. sleep on now the day will shine no Mat. 22 13. more but he shall be involved in utter darkness There are three things very much provoke the Lord 1. When we do not bring faith to an Ordinance Faith is Gen. 43. 5. the Benjamin which we must bring with us or never expect to see the face of God in Ordinances Isa 29. 13. 2. When we bring not the heart to an Ordinance but our thoughts are wandering and eccentrical 3. When we bring not our senses to an Ordinance but sleep hath chained them up and restrained them from their use and exercise Surely God will be much inflamed he cannot have the outward man at an Ordinance a supple knee a weeping eye an attentive ear now as unbelief seizeth upon the faculties of the soul and pinnions them up that they will not embrace the word so sleep surprizes the senses and fetters them that they have no liberty to entertain the offers of the word And it is an equal provocation to shut the eye at or turn the back upon the blessed Gospel Sleeping in Ordinances is not onely the imprisoning of the senses but the present suspension of our graces Sleep shackles body and soul too The drowsie hearer doth not onely stop his ear but stifle his grace too We are to bring divers graces to the Ordinances with us Sâ—cut olla quae fervet non quiescit sed semper bullit in altum se erigit atque ignitas bullas et vapores sursum ejaculatur ita charitas continuò ad majora semper proficit et exilit atque persinceram institutionem orationem desideria et gemitas quasi vapores ad deum ascendit 1. Faith The word is to be mixed with faith Heb. 4. 2. Prayer must be the prayer of faith Jam. 5. 15. The Sacrament is only the pageant of an Ordinance if faith be absent 2. We must come with knowledge These blessed institutions they are the way to salvation but we must have an eye to see the way 3. We must come with self-denyal we must deny sinfull self and moral self to hear what God speaks in an Ordinance we must take down self to entertain Jesus Christ 4. We must come with zeal Every sacrifice in the Law was offered up with fire The Sun hath its heat as well as its light We must be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12. 11. As the boyling pot is alwayes sending up its bubles and its fumes as the learned man most elegantly There must be an activity and liveliness in all holy worship we must be spiritual and spirited when we serve that God John 4. 24. who is a spirit Now sleep and drowsiness puts out the fire of our graces and suspends their actings so that there is neither Verbum dei mater nutrix fidei gratiarum smoak heat or glowing Sleeping in Ordinances it is a multiplyed sin it robs God of his time it keeps grace from the breast it is the Pent-house that keeps the showre from the heart that Doctrine cannot distill as the dew nor Mors brevis est somnus speech drop as the rain Deut. 32. 2. It shuts the eye of the understanding that for the present it cannot discern the glorious things of God Sleeping in Ordinances it pours contempt on the holy name of God We do not use to sleep if we are upon our own work if it be but the hearing of a tale or the giving of a visit or the getting of a penny In our sales bargains merchandizings we are wakefull and vigilant enough then the eye is open the mind is intent and the tongue talkative all the faculties of the soul are summoned to attendance we will not sleep in the Change if it be onely to hear a piece of news in our fruitless discoursing worldly bargaining courtly visiting luxurious banqueting though we sit on the softest Couch and talk of nothing but novelties and vanities pride and fashions and our language is nothing Imperuestigabiles divitiae Christi sunt copia gratiarum et bonorum quae Christus nobis attulit Alap but a vain parenthesis yet all this while no sleep seizeth upon our employed senses but when we come to transact our soul affairs when the unsearchable riches of Christ Eph. 3. 8. are telling out those Summs which will enrich the soul to eternity when we have opportunities for spiritual gain to advantage our inward man to grow Incomprehensibiles divitiae sunt Christi divitiae Ambr. rich in the jewels of grace and holiness then Nature lets down her Port-cullis as if it was a midnight vacation and we fall asleep as if we were wholly unconcerned in those spiritual transactions What a dunghill of vanity is the corrupt Divitiae Christi speciales sunt remissio peccatorum justificatio regeneratio resurrectio et vita aeterna Zanch. nature of man The Husbandman will not sleep with the plow in his hand nor the Pilot in the steerage of his ship the Shop-keeper falls not asleep in the vending of his wares nay the Guest will not sleep in the eating of his Viands but the careless Christian will sleep when Christ comes to give him a visit in holy Ordinances and he is in the divine presence hearing something which concerns his eternity But as the Apostle angrily expostulates with the Corinthians Have ye not houses to drink in 1 Cor. 11. 22. So may I say 1 Cor. 11. â—2 have ye not houses to sleep in and beds to rest on Must Gods Ordinances be undervalued and disesteemed by your shamefull sloth and drowsiness And when the Minister is opening the transcripts of Gods heart in Gospel dispensations must all be buried in silence and rejected by a dronish and sloathfull contempt Ah! how prodigal is stupified man of his soul which shall live as long as God himself Sleeping in Ordinances is a most dangerous and desperate adventure Whilst thou sleepest away a Sermon happily that very truth was delivered which might have converted thy soul thou knowest not when that plaister will be spread which shall cure the wound of sin The means of Grace are called a
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 loâ—ns 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 illustâ—ati 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 intelleâ—tum 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 sâ—t 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 Memoâ—ia ignis gehennae est â—emedium apâ—rimè 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
pluvia coelestis gratiae ad fructificandumirrigatur Par. us for publick duties but succeeds those publick ordinances to us It is like a good wind which doth not onely carry us off from the shore but goes along with us the whole Voyage it is a sweet duty which must be interwoven in every part of a Sabbath Prayer plows the heart for the seed of the VVord it commands rain to prosper that seed it secundates and ripens the Corn when it appears above-ground and it keeps the weeds from choaking the Corn It doth the whole work When we have been in publick with Psalm 109. 4. God Private prayer in Christ is the Altar which sanctifies the gift and Prayer in this interval of holy worship looks with a double aspect backward to what we have heard and forward to what we may hear indeed in this being like Heb. 4. 12. the Word a two-edged Sword it hath a double edge for our spiritual advantage Now our Prayer is like the sword at the east of the Garden of Eden which turned every way Acts 2. 27. Prayer in the Closet often saves us the labours of the Pulpit Jer. 23. 29. and directs the speech of the Minister to prick the Jer. 20. 9. 1 Cor. 3. 2. heart of the hearer Ananias came to Paul when he was praying Acts 9. 11. If the Word be an hammer it is prayer causes the stroke if the Word be fire it is prayer layes this fire on our hearths if the VVord be a sword it is prayer weilds this Sword to wound our lusts and corruptions In a word private prayer is the best meanes to prosper publick preaching and to guide the arrow of truth to hit the mark of Conscience Another Duty which must take up the space between the publick Ordinances is reading theÌ„ Scriptures VVhen we come home from the publick we must not be confined to the Scripturae sunt spiritualis aniae mensa in quá vivae representantur deliciae et maxima bona Anselm inclosure of the Ministers Sermon but we must open to the wide though pleasant Common of the whole book of God we must read some Chapters for spiritual edification Anselme used to call the Scriptures the spiritual Table of the soul furnished with all heavenly delicacies and with the choicest good things And on Gods holy day when our own table is taken away Let this spread-table be set before us for soul-feeding and repose Every Chapter which may be read is an Epitome of divine Truth which may Si quando procacior suit inimicus Psaltorium decantabat In tentationibus Deutero â—ii verba voluebat In tribulationibus Isaiae replicabat eloquia et scripturae testimonium in consolationem suam edisserebat Hierom. train up our children and influence our servants and which may build up our own souls and water every branch of the Family for spiritual growth in the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord Phil. 3. 8. Hierome reports of Paula that he used the Scriptures as a Medicine against every disease If her enemies were violent she would turn over the Psalmes If her temptations were strong she would fix upon some part of Deuteronomy If her afflictions were forcible then she consulted some part of the Prophesie of Isaiah and so she drew the Scriptures into an universal comfort to her The VVord of God is our light to guide us Psalm 119. 105. And that family where the Scriptures are much read is a Goshen of light and pleasantness where Israel resides and inhabits when other habitations are covered with Aegyptian darkness with the darkness of sin and ignorance Governours of Families are the best stewards not onely when they lay in provisions from the Market Luke 12. 42. but when they bring forth spiritual food from the Scriptures by reading conscionably and constantly those Oracles of Rom. 3. 2. God to those under their roof for holy Job confidently asserts that the word is more necessary than the appointed food Acts 20 27. Job 23. 12. Let therefore the interval between the publick worship be filled up with holy travel in the counsels of God Scripturas non obiter inspicia nus et legamus ut externum corticem tantùm accipiamus sed adhibenda est diligens perscrutatio Chemnit recorded in Scripture Our Saviour imputed all the sottish mistakes of the Jews to their ignorance of the Scripture Mat. 22. 29. and lays it as a charge upon them to search the Scriptures Joh. 5. 39. But it must not be as Chemnitius observes a transient glance but a serious search as Miners for Gold with pains and delight So then it is a great part of wisdom in Families to converse much with Gods word but especially on Gods day and most peculiarly when the most solemn and publick worship doth not call them off CHAP. XXXIV How we must spend the Evening of the Sabbath when the Publick Assemblies are dismissed THere are many who will give an easie answer to the question Nos ab omni opere externo vacantes deo uni et soli hoc die vacemus Ideireò et hunc diem benedixit et sanctificavit i. e. in usum suum separavit et elegit Aret. Eph. 4. 20. proposed and will tell us that when the publick service is ended we have our free liberty for all pleasing Recreations we may exercise our skil in a pair of Bowles we may exercise our valour in a pair of Cudgels we may exercise our fancy in a Dance or a Barly-break But all the reply I shall make this being spoken to before is I hope we have not so learned Christ Now therefore my next task is to lay down those duties with which we may close Gods holy and blessed day We must carefully survey what we have been acquainted withall in the publick The Repetition of Sermons is a heart-penetrating and soul-edifying duty the very manuduction Quod toties Paulus eadèm scribit hoc est ad corroborandum ut Christiani sint tutiores cautiores et vigilantiores Alap John 6. 12. and leading of families into the fear of the Lord Holy truths are those divine fragments which must not be lost but gathered up by a faithful repetition When the Minister hath ended to preach we must begin to rehearse such repetitions being the musical ecchoes from that sweet voice we heard before If Paul thought it not grievous to write the same things which he had taught before Phil. 3. 1. We must not think it painful or impertinent to rehearse the same things which we have learned before The repedting of 1 Sam. 3. 10. Quaevis cogitationes et rationes naturales intellectus quantumvis artificiosae quantum vis sublime subjiciantur doctrinae Evangelicae et de facto subjectae sunt omnibus eadem doctrinâ conversis Mal. 13. 19. truth preacht casts a new light upon it it clincheth Gospel counsel the faster upon the heart and
do it so should Gods fear move us to keep a whole Sabbath Thou sayest thou art not able to keep a Sabbath but canst thou lose an eternal Sabbath It is a cursed exchange to forfeit everlasting rest for a little sloth Sabbaths must be kept if thy soul be saved Let the sense of a future judgment when every Sabbath shall be brought into the account let the dread of an infinite God who is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 29. Let the golden and precious trust of a He. 10 31. Sabbath all spur thee on to Sabbath duties to make thy way more pleasant and delightful Let that be done which must be done or else thou art everlastingly undone Things of absolute necessity are to be effected not disputed If thy Pedibus timor addidit alas servant must go of his errand or turn out of doors this makes him run Here we act for our souls and Sabbaths whole Sabbaths must be kept or our souls will perish in the action thy murmurs cannot silence divine wrath Imperfections through corruption of nature are one thing for they are in the best but to nourish them and willingly to yield to them is another I cannot do what I ought by nature Jer. 5. 31. shall I not therefore endeavour to do what I should by grace To say thou canst not keep a whole Sabbath doth not onely speak thy corruption but that thou lovest to have it so Ease corrupts nature and makes it putrifie nay it sets it backward in the things of God If the Clock be never Prov. 15. 19. wound up the wheeles will rust say to thy unactive heart John 1. 6. a wake thou who sleepest my eternity is bound up in the due observation of Gods day The slothful servant was condemned Dilectio et charitas dictat immò imperat ut serviamus domino inomnibus virtutum officiâ—s Alap Mat. 25. 26. not he that spent but he that hid his talent Thou hast a trade to drive on a Sabbath away with sluggish nature flesh like the sensitive plant if touched will withdraw from spiritual performances but force it by holy violence It is Apostolical counsel and most seasonable for the Lords day that we should not be slothful in business but fervent in spirit Rom. 12. 11. The Sabbath should be our sphear not our servitude we should then be as the Sun which needs no whips to scourge it forwards Mr. Bernard of Batcombe asketh the question Why we should be more indulgent to weak nature more yielding to the flesh in and about the 4th Commandement for the keeping Mr. Bern in his Tract on the Sabbath of a day wholly to God then in or about our whole service in obedience to the other nine Indeed we should breath after communion with God on his own day as once Christ did after the Cross to dye for his people when he was streightned in his own spirit Luke 12. 50. till it was fulfilled and accomplished To say we cannot keep a whole Sabbath to the Lord is an imputation cast upon divine Wisdome God never commands impossibilities and yet he severely commands the full observation of a whole Sabbath and yet to say God is an Exod. 20. 8. hard Master deserves the brand of an unprofitable servant Luke 19. 22 23 24. The Yoke of Christ is easie not galled with an incapcity of bearing of it If we can honour our Father and Mother Exod. 20. 12. which is the next Commandement why not keep Matth. 11. 30. Gods Sabbath There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a natural affection sweetens the 5th and there is communion with God a more noble attraction indulcorates and facilitates the 4th Commandement Lazy flesh must not commence a suit with infinite Wisdome God knows our frame and we must know our Psalm 103. 14. duty nay in this particular our priviledge for to keep a Deut. 5. 29. day with God is a temporary Paradise nay a transient heaven Rom. 11. 33. our elevation above the world Let us not then inveigh against the rigour of the Command but deal with our own hearts to run chearfully and sweetly through the heavenly circuits of Gods blessed and holy Sabbath Quicquid factum fuit fiat Whatsoever hath been done may be done Now David layeth it down as a Character of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a godly man to meditate in the law of God day and night Psa 1. 2. The Syriack reads it as if his whole will pleasure was wrapt up in the Law of God the life was to be spent in holy contemplation not a day not a few hours nay the Psalmist gives an instance in himself the Law was his meditation all the day and if he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might have his option he would dwell The Hebrew bears it he would Sabbath it in the house of God all the dayes of his life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple This blessed man thought his life too short a moment to converse with God and to behold his beauty The beauties of God delight not dazle the eye of the soul and such prospects drown all tediousnesse The Apostle Paul preaching on a Lords day continued his discourse till midnight Acts 20. 7. not imping but spreading the wings of the Evening Psalm 139 9. for greater latitudes in holy Communion and no doubt but many a Saint could put a curb into the mouth of Sabbath time to stop its speed that his weekly Jubilee should not fly away so fast Therefore let not any make this objection of sloth to say flesh and blood cannot keep a whole Sabbath surely such objectours are part of the world who know not the meat the Saints have to eat in the Banquets of the Lords day When Peter and the two other John 4. 32. Mat. 17. 1 4. Disciples saw Christ in his transfiguration they would build tabernacles to fasten their abode Sabbath Communion is only a more duskish transfiguration And why should we tire so soon when the way is so pleasant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost de sacerdot In the Primitive times the reading of the word and the preaching of the Gospel took up some part of every day And Chrysostome took good notice of the profit of that diligent course Mens minds were more babituated to the things of God and became richer treasuries of holy truth It was not then accounted tedious or irksome to spend some time every day with God for soul advantage The Primitive Church thought time spent in spiritual converse their term not their toyle and the School of Christ was open not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. on a Sabbath as Janus his Temple among the Romans only in a time of peace but on every day The worthy Chrysostome highly commends his Auditours That they turned a day which might have been spent in the service of
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 abâ—iis 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 exâ—â—sabilis 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 â—â— 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
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. prâ—batur 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 qâ—ia ipso debito persoluto per Christum non aequum est has syngraphas extare quae testificent nos esse debitores et reâ—tum 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
when a Sabbath the day of God and our souls is Jud. 15. 6. almost lost in a Nation for this let tears be our drink and Jud. 21. 2. ashes our meat day and night And when the Magistrates Psal 42. 3. become Gallioes for the things of God let the people become Jeremies for the day of God Sabbath decayes will soon make a bankrupt Nation Nay lastly we may bewail the punished purity of Englands Sabbaths The people of God cannot be so good as they will on Gods holy day How often are the Saints in the midst of Lew Sabbati opera humana non divina prohibuit Tertul. their weeping eyes bended knees melting hearts mounting minds when congregated in secret to seek Gods face and to meet with Christ their beloved How often I say are they interrupted surprized haled away by Officers and the Sanctuary leads them to a Prison their Piety is uncharitably called treachery and their devotion is unreasonably interpreted Sedition This is Englands misery and unhappiness the Prisons are filled with spiritual worshippers and the Nation is filled with carnal Gospellers Prophaneness is uncontrouled but the most resined service of God is liable to poenalties Tertullianus de Cor. Mil. Plin. Sec. in Epist ad Trajanum Imper. De Amelucanis coetibus Christianorum in die dominigo mentionem faciunt and pursued with force and violence not because it is unsuitable to Gods will but it is inconformable to mans law Now as the Primitive Christians we must have our caetus antelucanos our early because unknown meetings on Gods holy day but surely it must needs be a great evil to rout the stars when gathered in a constellation to hush away the Doves when they stock to the windows and strange it is that mans wrath should be there where Gods presence is in the assembly of the Saints But that the people of God meeting on the day of God in the name of God for fuller communion Mat. 18. 20. with and enjoyment of God in obedience to the command Dan. 12. 3. of God should meet with frowns and disgusts should feel the sharpness of a Law or undergoe the keenness of Mat. 13. 43. the Magistrates sword and all this in a Protestant Nation Isa 60. 8. whose usuall Motto was Mildness This is a lamentation and Psal 89. 7. shall be for a lamentation Isa 4. 5. Ezek. 19. 14. FINIS The TABLE A SEnsual Actions to be forborn on the Sabbath day 20. and so sinfull 22 There shall be no Affliction in our Sabbath above 218 The Lords day is of Divine Authority 569 An answer to the Apostles preaching in the Synagogues on their Sabbath day 570 The Lords day instituted by Divine Authority 585 Not by Ecclesiastical ibid. Arguments to urge Sabbath-holiness 668. 718. 732. B The Bounty of God in giving us his Sabbath 186 Our outward Behaviour must be exact in Publick Ordinances on the Sabbath 277 The Sabbath instituted from the Beginning 526 C God is admirable in the works of Creation 147. 191 Conscience is chiefly to be dealt withall in Gospel Administrations 259 The benefit of Chatechizing 334 Some necessary Cautions to prevent Sabbath pollution 407 Several Cases to satisfie conscience in Sabbath Observation 440 The fourth Commandment cannot be Ceremonial 489. 544 The worke of Creation compared with the work of Redemption wherein the last exceeds the first 642 D Duties shall not want their reward p. 3 The Sabbath must be spent in holy Delight 53 The Emptiness of worldly Delights 58 Duration speaks the value of every good thing 209 The sweetness of Holy Duties 229 Holy Discourse doth well become the Sabbath 320 Several Directions for the better observance of the Lords day 353 The evil of Spiritual Doubts 382 All dayes are not eqaally holy in the times of the Gospel 496 The observation of one Day in seven to God hath its great advantages 499 The wildness of that opinion which makes every Day a Sabbath day 505 A seventh Day not the seventh day is commanded in the fourth Commandment 582 E To rise Early well becomes the morning of a Sabbath 85 Several incentives to this practice 86 87 c. The several Ends of the Sabbath 191 Divers Evils to be avoided in the time of publick Ordinances 297 Several Examples of Divine Justice breaking out upon Sabbath-breakers 683 England bemoan'd for Sabbath-prophanation 781 F Holy Fruitfulness becomes the Sabbath 56 Many Faculties and parts to be acted on a Sabbath 95 The Excellency of Faith 422 The sore judgement of a Famine of the Word 680 The influence God hath upon the Fire 716 G Many Graces to be acted on a Sabbath 95 God is most Glorious in his Nature and Essence 128 The works of Grace deserve our sweetest meditation 178 The works of Glory to be meditated on 185 Active Graces become holy Ordinances 316 How to procure Gods presence in ordinances 385 There are three Glasses to see our hearts in 445 H We must look on the Sabbath as Honourable 54 God most glorious in his Holiness 135 How we are to deal with our Hearts on the morning of a Sabbath 263 Holiness is engraven upon the Sabbath 733 I Holy Joy becomes a Sabbath 267 How our Inward man is to be ordered in publick Ordinances 300 How we must spend the Interval between the Morning and Evening worship of a Sabbath 319 The Lords day is a day of Rest not Idleness 427 The great evils of Idleness 435 Idleness on the Lords day a very great evil 436 The Jewes sometimes very exemplary in Sabbath-observation 514 We Christians are to out-vy the Jews in Sabbath-observation 634 The dreadfull Judgements which pursue Sabbath-breakers 676 L The Labourers plea for recreations upon the Sabbath answered 33 Impertinent Language unbecoming the Sabbath day 49 God is incomprehensible in his Love 143 Nothing in a Saint can make a change in Gods Love 145 The Lords day confirmed by all Laws 619 What Christian Liberty is 645 Some remarkables concerning Londons fire which began on the Lords day 696 M Secret duties befitting the Morning of a Sabbath 89 The benefit of Morning duties on Gods holy day 104 The excellency of Meditation 106 124. It s Nature 107. How it is distinguished from some things very like to it 109. How much and how long we must Meditate 112. The chiefest seasons for Meditation 115. The rich advantages of Meditation 119. Meditation proper to every Ordinance 121 122. It feeds our Graces ibid. And amplifies our Comforts 123. It s necessity 125 The Morality of the fourth Commandment 552 How the Sabbath was made for Man 648 O Outward enjoyments are the reward of Sabbath obedience 59 God is most glorious in his Omnisciency 134 The excellency of Gospel Ordinances 285. 423 424. 443 The first Original of the Sabbath 522 And most probably it was ordained in Paradise 524 P The Poor mans Plea for working on a Sabbath Answered 7 Rich Promises made to a due observation of the Sabbath 57 63 Prophanation of the Sabbath the greatest Prodigality 67 Preparation for the Sabbath very necessary and several incentives to it 71 What those Preparatory duties are which must precede the Sabbath 77 Publick duties become the Sabbath 93 Many Persons to converse with on a Sabbath 96 God is most adorable in his Power 133 God to be exceedingly admired in the works of his Providence 156 Gods Presence must be meditated on on the Sabbath day 188 Prayer well becomes the morning of a Sabbath 239 How our Prayers must be qualified 243 The necessity of the spirits assistance in all our Prayers 246 What we must Pray for on the morning of the Sabbath 249 Practice is the best use of Ordinances 161 The sweetness and excellency of the Promises 269 Singing of Psalms a sweet and an excellent duty 339 The efficacy of Prayer 425 The advantages of Praying alone 454 Miscellanious Prescriptions for the better discharge of conscience in Sabbath-observation 765 R Recreations unlawfull on a Sabbath 23 Reverence becomes the Sabbath 54 God is wonderfull in the most glorious work of Mans Redemption 167 All the attributes of God shone gloriously in the work of Mans Redemption 174 The benefit of Repeating Sermons 327 Why the word Remember is prefaced to the fourth Commandment 660 The Resurrection of Christ a forcible argument to Sabbath-holiness 750 S What a Sabbath days journey is 6 The whole Sabbath is to be spent with God 35 The worth of the Soul 38 The Saints must meet together on a Sabbath day 97 The Jewish Sabbath compared with the Christian 201 The Christians Sabbath here compared with his Sabbath above 210 Some eminent types of our Sabbath above 234 The excellency of the Scriptures 272. 326. 456. Reading of the Scriptures usefull in the morning of a Sabbath 273 Publick Assemblies most pleasing on a Sabbath 274 The mischiefs of Sleeping in Ordinances 280 We must be Spiritual in our duties when we come to Publick Ordinances 312 What it is to be in the Spirit on the Lords day 387 The rare effects of the Spirit 393 466 How to keep Solitary Sabbaths 451 453 T Gods Truth is a glorious attribute 139 Vain Thoughts must be avoided in holy ordinances 305 Two days in a week cannot be observed as Sabbaths 569 V The Beatifical Vision somewhat opened and explicated 214 Unbelief a destructive sin 421 Variety of Sabbath duties delightfull 465 W Secular Works unlawful on the Sabbath 4. By Scripture 5. By Authority Civil 10. Ecclesiastical 11. By Reason 13. Works of necessity may be done on a Sabbath day 17 God is infinite in wisdom far surpassing mans 136 To Work upon the Sabbath day very sinfull 215 Holy Watchfulness becomes a Sabbath 401 How to keep a Whole Sabbath to God spiritually and sweetly 466 FINIS
themselves and sensualize upon Gods holy day let them not waste that golden spot in trifling recreations let not them formalize and dissemble away the Market-day of their Souls surely their doom will be aggravated with all circumstances of horrour and amazement Fond Christians who idle away and unravel their precious Sabbaths see not the Witness behind the Curtain viz. the blessed and glorious Gospel which will come in against them to sharpen their sentence and condemnation we Christians cannot violate Sabbaths at so cheap a rate as others may more especially a poor benighted Jew who hath lost his way and is wandering to eternal perdition Let every Christian consider Christ makes his flocks to rest at noon The Jews never had those patterns of Sabbath-holiness as we Christians have had It is true God rested the seventh day after the finishing and accomplishment of the stupendous Gen 2. 3. work of the Creation and his Rest was both exemplary and preceptive to the world to keep that day as a day of holy rest But the great Jehovah was in Heaven above the eye of observation But now Jesus Christ the great Archetype of sanctity he was a visible Pattern of Sabbath-holiness John 5. 8. to us and let us trace our dear Redeemer in his Sabbatical actions and wherein they are imitable they are admirable Mat. 12. 13. we shall find our Beloved on that day either working Luke 14. 4 5 6 7. 8 9. his Cures or shewing his Miracles or breaking out into holy discourses or preaching abroad his heavenly doctrines Luke 6. 6. or pouring out his Soul in holy prayers something or other Luke 6. 12. like the Son of God he is doing on the day of God And so the holy Apostles those blessed Spirits as one calls them Those Pen-men of the Holy Ghost as all call them they were rarely exemplary in Sabbath-observation Not to mention how affectionately they grasped the opportunity of the Jews Christus utitur exemple ovis in soveam incidentus in die Sabbati post â—eâ—â—cta ea quae ad Sabbati ministerium et cultum pertinent Sabbath as a fit season to preach Jesus Christ and to throw their Net into many waters How did they manage the true Sabbath the Lords day now taking possession of its right in becoming the weekly Festival of the Church 1. They were most frugal of the time of it Paul preaches on this day till midnight Acts 20. 17. 2. They were most copious in the duties of it they preach they administer the Sacrament which undoubtedly was accompanied Chemnit with fervent and solemn prayer 3. They take care of the poor Acts 20. 7. And 4ly One of this Apostolical society is in high raptures 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. and sublime elevations on this day Nay the Apostle of the Gentiles acts charity to a miracle Acts 20. 10. thinking Revel 1. 10. nothing too great to add to the celebrity and honour of this holy day Now do the Jews tell you of a zealous Nehemiah who shut the Gates of Jerusalem the Evening before the Sabbath to keep God in and shut prophaneness out Nehem. 13. 17 18 19 20 21. we may reply a little to invert our Saviours speech A greater than Nehemiah is here one whose shoo-latchet that worthy man is not worthy to unloose to speak in the language of John the Baptist Mark 1. 7. We then having fairer Luke 11. 31. Copies it is no reason but we should mend our hand The Limner draws the Picture according to the person who sits and the more lovely the person is the more beautiful is the Picture How should we then keep the Sabbath holy who have the pattern of him who is the fairest of ten thousand Psal 45. 2. And how doth this upbraid their practice who make the Sabbath a day of sloth and idleness when the holy Apostle on the same day laboured in preaching of the Gospel Acts 20. 7. till midnight Let us then in the fear of the God of Jacob keep Sabbaths as we have Christ and his blessed Apostles for our ensamples We have more liberty and desirable freedom than the 1 Cor. 11. 1. Jews had in sanctifying the Sabbath their sanctification of that holy day consisted in a multitude of purifications washings and cleansings and in a number of Sacrifices and Oblations they had their burnt Offerings and their Num. 28. 9 10. Meat-offerings nay and their Drink-offerings and all these Sacerdâ—s singulis sabbatis lignum subjiâ—it ad nutriendum ignem in Altari Movebantur panes propositionis c. were doubled as was suggested before on the Sabbath-day their observation of the Sabbath was more toilsom and laborious they were imployed in more drudgery they were to look after their Flour and their Oyl killing of Beasts and such things which were of a more inferiour and carnal nature their duties on the Sabbath were clogged and burdened with more sweat and â—â—â—poral painfulness and were of a grosser alâ—oy The Priests among the Jews on a Sabbath Mat. 12. 5. were busied in cutting of word to feed the fire of the Altar that it might not go out and in preparing of bread to put upon the Table of Shewbread and to remove that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was there before All these Operations as Chemnitius calls them required the hand not the heart and were works of the lower form To all which may be added that the Jews Levit. 23. 6. besides their weekly Sabbath they had the Passeover the Levit. 23. 16. Feast of Pentecâ—st the Feast of Trumpets the Feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23. 24. the day of Attonement which was the tenth day of Levit. 23. 27. the seventh Moneth and these were all called Sabbaths Levit. 23. 34. Levit. 23. 24 32 36. And some of these Feasts and Solemnities Levit. 23. 8. were celebrated divers days together Levit. 23. 36. Now it is not so with us under the Gospel the Apostle Exod. 12. 3. hath eased us at once of all these legal Festivals 2 Col. 16. Exod. 23. 14. Let no man condemn you in respect of an holy day or of the new Gal. 4. 9 10. Moon or of the Sabbath days viz. Jewisn And so Gal. 4. 9 Non sunt damnandi christiani tanquam divinae legis transgressores out violatae conscientiae rei quòd non observant festa legis ceremonialis quicquid contra superstitiosè ogganniunt Pseudo Apostoli Daven 10. Ye observe days and months and times which are weak and beggerly rudiments All these Festivals are of no use to us but are fully cancelled and cashiered Thus God hath sweetned our Sabbath far above that of the Jews Prayers are our onely Offering Sighs our Incense Sacraments our Passeover we have no Drink-offering but to drink in truth in the hearing of the word we have no Meat-offering but to feed upon
the bread of life when we attend upon the preaching of the word and generally as our Estate is better than the condition of the Jews in respect to the whole worship of God so likewise more especially in our worship upon the Sabbath our priviledges are more and our burdens are less than theirs our worship is more spiritual more easie more sublime and heavenly and more above the Alphabet and rudiments of their Religion Their lisping Sacrifices proclaimed their minority but ours speak more plainly the Dialect of Heaven Nay which is very considerable in those things wherein we are equally bound with them we much exceed them are we bound to meditate in the law of God day and night yet Psal 1. 2. we are not commanded to carry it about in the skirts of our Numb 15. 38. garments and upon our bracelets Deut. 6. 8 9. And though Rom. 32. it is our duty as well as theirs to teach our Children the Oracles of God Deut. 6. 7. yet we are not charged with Scripturae sacrae in iisque promissiones et Pacta Divina et suturorum mysteriorum prae dictiones haec fuerunt eloquia dei Judaeis concredita Alap the writing of them upon our gates and the posts of our doors Deut. 6. 9. And so in our Sabbaths we are free from the servilities and rudiments with which the Jews were chained as a signe and token of their bondage and servitude Though we are charged to rest upon the Lords day and so keep it holy yet we are not over-charged with Sacrifices and Ceremonies they are all laid asleep in Christs Grave and we are freed from these Fetters and so enjoy a more glorious liberty The inference of the whole will be this Hath God filed off all Chains of servility plained off all knots of difficulty hath he put an end to all legal Sacrifices and chased away all shadows of Ceremony that nothing might encumber our Christian Sabbath How exact then should we be in the observation of it Divine indulgence as it is properly a curb to sin so it is a forcible spur to duty the Lord hath abundantly sweetned therefore let us more carefully sanctifie our blessed Sabbath he hath freed it from the Jewish thraldom let us therefore keep it with Christian freedom the Sabbath of the Jews like the Infant Moses floated among the Reeds but ours hath its Nest among the Stars Obad. 4. Let its sublimeness and spirituality engage us more strongly to a due and holy solemnity nothing can more soften unto obedience than love and indulgence which is written in the fairest character upon the Christian Sabbath It is a most natural Induction that we being loosed and unfettered should run with more swiftness the way of the fourth Commandement now spiritualized to us by Jesus Christ Our Sabbath triumphs in a more glorious occasion then that Gen. 2. 3. of the Jews doth That which occasioned the Old Sabbath was the finishing of the work of creation but that which Mat. 28. 1. occasioned ours was the accomplishment of the work of redemption which glorious work far surpasses the other as the Temple exceeded the Tabernacle The work of Redemption is more precious As mans gaining the world cannot recompence the loss of the soul so Gods making the world doth not equalize Christs redeeming the Mat. 16 26. Inutile est mundi lucrum cum perditione animae conjunctium perditio enim animae est irreparabile damnum Chemnit soul Christs recavering must needs exceed Gods creating a world to draw men out of an enthrall'd bondage is more then to bring man out of a confused Chaos In the Creation God was to deal with no Enemy but in the work of Redemption Christ was put to combat with all the Devils in Hell and to over-power men opposing their own mercies The work of Redemption is more pressing It made the soul of Christ heavy unto death Mat. 26. 38. In this work Christ did not only fight with the Devils but God Himself seemed to combat with Christ and to put him to grief Isa 53. 10. The worlds creation was finished without difficulty but the Redemption of mankind was a work knotted with much pain and grievance The world was created with the speaking of a word it was only Let it be done and this was all the Sun the Stars and all other Creatures they sprang from the Energy and power of a Command from the force of an omnipraevalent fiat but the work of Redemption was not wrought but by the expence of Christs dearest blood The work of Redemption is more profitable Indeed to have Earth to tread on Air to breath in Meat to feed on Christus vicit triumphavit non virtute et sudore aliorum â—t mumdani Imperatores solent sed suâ solâ passione suâ solius virtute Daven Light to walk by these are benefits and good natural supports but the subduing of Satan the removing of the sting of sin with all the astonishing and sad sequels of it the pacifying and quenching of the flames of Gods anger the reparation of mans nature these are transcendent benefits and bid defiance to an hyperhole The work of Redemption yields a far greater crop and harvest of joy peace and happiness We may be Gods creatures and yet fall upon the spikes of eternal ruine But Christs Redeemed ones shall come with singing to Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and they Quomodo illum diem qui a domino dicatus est nosque ab exilii dedecore liberavit venerari par est Isych shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away Isa 51. 11. Isa 65. 17. The work of Redemption is the fullest treasury of mans happiness And as it was long ago prophesied Hag. 2. 9. That the glory of the second Temple should out-shine that of the first So the glory of the Redemption out-shines the glory of the Creation Indeed the work of Creation is a lesser good to us as the Law is a lesser good then the Gospel and the Old Testament then the New Redemption must be owned as the greater work inasmuch as things spiritual are more valuable then things natural and Gods last works are his best the first being only preparatory to the last and indeed he who shall question whether Redemption be a greater work then Creation knows little what a Redeemer is or what the ransom of an immortal soul is worth Psal 49. 8. In creating the world God did much for me he gave me a body admirably and curiously wrought Psal 139. 15 16. He likewise endowed me with a rational soul and endowed this soul with rare and excellent faculties but all these had been only capacities of misery and receptives of wrath and ruine had not the work of Redemption interposed And therefore Christ in shedding Eph. 1. 7. his blood in conquering death in satisfying for sin hath done more for me