week past and grant that they may not interrupt the benefit of thy day to come if it shall please thee to bring me to the opportunity of it Qualifie me and prepare me for such a work as thy Sabbath expects from me according to the preparation of thy Sanctuary and being prepared I may meet with thy Self let thy Word be sweet to my Soul let it descend as rain upon the new-mown Grass let it water my dry and parched Soul and let the influences of thy Spirit accompany it that it may be effectual to the saving of my Soul Pardon the sins of this day of this present duty and all my life and accept my imperfection in the perfection of Christ Amen Of the SABBATH 1. WHat the Sabbath is and how many-fold it is 2. Of what use it is to us Christians 3. Why it was appointed 4. What are the Works to be done or omitted 1. As to the first What the Sabbath is The Sabbath amongst the Hebrews is called Schabbat Schebbet or Schabbathon that is a Cessation vacation from labour or rest Moreover it is called a Day by God devoted for his Worship and that for four Reasons 1. Because God on that day rested from his work of Creation although not from his Work of Providence 2. Because that the Sabbath is the Image or Representative of that spiritual and future Rest from sin 3. Because on this day we ought to rest from our Oeconomicks from our Houshold Affairs that God might imploy us in his Work 4. Because that our Servants and labouring Beasts might rest on that Day 2. Duplex enim est Sabbathum the Sabbath is two-fold 1. Moral and Internal or 2. Ceremonial or External First Moral and Internal or Spiritual and that is the desire of the knowledge of God and his Works to the end that we may avoid sin and serve God both in word and deed In a word It is an abstaining from sin and exercising the Works of God and worshipping him Isai 66.23 Secondly Ceremonial or External and that is an appointed and set time separate in the Church for the ministration of the Sacraments and dispensing the Word and other things appointed of God himself and this is either Mediately or Immediately from God himself appointed and laid down to the Church in the Old Testament which also is divers 1. A Sabbath of days which is every Seventh day of the Week peculiarly so called because of God's resting from his Creation work and for his people to rest on Thence by the Hebrews by a Synecdoche the whole week was called Sabbathum or Sabbatha c. 2. A Sabbath of Months Neomeniae viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nova Luna the time of the New Moon 3. A Sabbath of Years viz. every Seventh year in which the Jewish people were not to sow their ground Lev. 2.3 4 26 35. Lev. 25.8 2. More Mediate or external which God appointed by his Church in the New Testament which is the first day of the week namely the Lords Day which was observed by the Christian Church from the time of the Apostles instead of the seventh day and that in respect of the Resurrection of Christ 2. As to the second viz. of what use the Sabbath is to Christians The Sabbath from the beginning was appointed by God to the end that Man by God's Example might rest from all his Works especially from sin and afterward was renewed in the Mosaical Law to the end God might shew that yet he would honour the Sabbath more in sanctifying it to his Church namely that he would forgive their sins and receive them into his favour by the Messiah promised to their Fathers and that to be exhibited or held forth in his time and this may serve for a Reason why the Ceremonial Sabbath viz. the Seventh day is abolished wherein is represented the bounty of the Messiah and also puts us in mind of his Offices upon which acccount all the rest of the Sacraments Sacrifices and Ceremonies instituted before and after the Law were abolished by the coming of Christ notwithstanding this Sabbath's abrogation in the New Testament yet the Moral Sabbath is permanent and is of great use to us namely that we might have a certain time appointed for the work and service of God it being no less necessary that a certain day be instituted now in the Christian as well as formerly in the Jewish Church for the dispensing of the Word and administring publickly the Sacraments of God Moreover we are not limited to any day of the week strictly as some will have it as the third fourth or fifth or any other and therefore the Apostolical Church being free by the gift of or if you will by that liberty freely bestowed by Christ for distinction sake to wit between them and the Jewish Synagogue they used the First day for the Seventh for this probable Reason that on that day of Christ's Resurrection our spiritual and internal Sabbath was begun in us In a word we are bound to a Ceremonial Sabbath in genere sed non in specie that is that we ought to have a day wherein the Church may be taught and the Sacraments administred yet limited to no certain day Obj. 1. The Decalogue is a perpetual Law may some say The Command concerning the Sabbath is of the Decalogue therefore the Law is perpetual Resp. True The Decalogue is perpetual as it is Moral but the Appendices or Determinations of Moral Commands in respect of signification were only to be kept till the coming of Christ Obj. 2. The Precepts of the Decalogue belong to all This is a Precept of the Decalogue therefore this belongs to all Resp. Granted as touching its Morality but it is also Ceremonial in part and so it doth not belong to us nisi quo ad genus The Reasons are evident 1. Sr. Paul saith Col. 2.16 Let none judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabhath 2. The Apostles themselves changed the Seventh-days Sabbath 3. From the end of the Law it was a Type of things to be fulfilled by Christ to wit of Sanctification c. the Type must needs be abrogated the thing typified being produced Obj. 3. The Lord saith of the Sabbath That it is a sign for ever between him and the children of Israel Therefore the Sabbath is not to be abolished Resp. The Ceremonial Sabbath is perpetual until Christ which is the end of Ceremonies 2. The Sabbath is eternal quo ad rem significatam which is a cessation from sin and rest in God and so of all other Types in the Old Testament yea the Kingdom of David which was destroyed at the coming of the Messiah Obj. 4. The Laws given before Moses 's time were immutable The Seventh-days Sabbath was instituted before Moses 's Therefore the Sevenths-days Sabbath is immutable provided that we assent that Moses 's Laws were mutable Resp. 'T is
only true in the Moral Law 't is denied in the Ceremonial These Types before Moses shewing the bounty of the Messiah were abolisht at his comming as Circumcision given to Abraham In like manner the Sacrifices either commanded to our first Parents or practised by them Object 5. The Laws given by God before the Fall were not Types of the Bounties of Christ all grant the promise of the Messiah being not as then given although the condition of the whole humane race was one and the same The Seventh days Sabbath was instituted before the Fall of Mankind therefore it is universal and perpetual Resp Per distinctionem materiis which is true concerning the Moral Law whose natural knowledge was imprinted in the mind of man in the Creation but not concerning the Seventh day Sabbaths Ceremony which after the fall in the Mosaical Law is made a type of the benefits of the Messiah And besides all this other Ceremonies whether instituted before or after by the Messias were made obnoctious to change for God will not let them remain under the shaddows the things themselves being exhibited 3. What are the causes of the institution of the Sabbath 1. For the Publick Worship of God in his Church 2. For the preservation of the Ecclesiastical Ministry which teacheth what we are to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of us 3. That the type in the Old might denote or represent the spiritual in the New Testament Ezek. 20.12 4. That there might be an ordinary exercise of Prayer of Confession and of Obedience toward God 5. By reason of the Seventh days circumstance to wit that it might put us in mind both of our great Creation and Redemption Work 6. That on that day the greatest Works of Liberality and Benignity might be exercised toward our Neighbour 7. Because of that Corporal Rest of both Man and Beast of Bruits indeed because of Man 8. That the Israelites might be known by this mark from other Countries 4. What are the Works of the Sabbath commanded or forbidden Or how the Sabbath is kept or violated 1. The Sabbath is sanctified when Works are done and holily observed which God has commanded 2. The Sabbath is profaned when Works are either neglected or abused in the use of them or hindred by a profane violence The Works whereby the Sabbath is either sanctified or profaned are these 1. First Rightly to instruct the Church concerning God viz. What he is and What his Will is viz. What Duties either Negative or Affirmative he requires of man On the contrary 1. Neglect of Publick or Private Instruction Isa 56.10 2. Depravation or Diminution of the Doctrine that ought to be taught Ezek. 34.2 2 Cor. 2.17 3. Secondly Administring the Sacraments according to Divine Institution Unto which we ought to come being lawfully called by the Ministers of the Church as the Vice-gerents of God and that especially on the Lords Day On the contrary Omitting or neglecting instructing the Church to use the Sacraments and an illegal Administration of the same viz. By a detracting from or adding to the Essentials of Worship appointed of God or any thing in them or excluding any that ought to come to receive or pertake or to encourage those that ought not or not to teach the lawful use of them 3. Thirdly Diligently to learn the True Doctrine That is to attend on and hear the Doctrine of God 1 Tim. 4.16 and daily to meditate in the same The Contraries 1. Contempt or neglect of the Doctrine by either being absent at Assemblies or not regarding the Ministers or not meditating on or inquiring into the Doctrine of Christ 2. Neglect of knowing the Doctrine either by Ministers or people 3. Curiosities either by prying into Gods secrets or unnecessary things or novelties Luke 12 48. Prov. 25.27 1 Tim. 4.7 2 Tim. 4.3 Tit. 3.9 4. Fourthly To use the Sacraments according to Divine instruction Acts 20.7 Repugnants to this 1. The omission or contempt of the Sacraments 2. Profanation of the Sacraments when they are either used not after the same way or not by them whom God hath instituted 3. Asuperstitious use of them 5. Fifthly Invocation of God publickly Wherein we adjoyn confession or giving of thanks and our desires with the Church Repugnants 1. Neglect of Prayers of the Church 2. Hypocrisie in Prayers of the Church without attention or affection 3. A recitation of Prayers that edifie not 1 Cor. 14.17 6. Sixthly Charity and Bounty towards the Poor that is giving Alms or doing works of Mercy towards the Needy with delight and singleness of heart Repugnants 1. Neglect or contempt of the Poor 2. Ostentation and shew in giving which Christ condemns 7. Seventhly Honour of the Ecclesiastical Ministry which comprehends 1. Reverence 2. Love 3. Obediencee 4. Gratitude 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Equity in bearing with the infirmities of Ministers Family Prayers For every day in the WEEK A Prayer for the Sabbath Omost holy great and glorious God thou that art the rest of thy poor Creatures the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whom thou hast instituted Lord of the Sabbath in whose strength we desire to approach thy holy presence this thy holy Sabbath-day a day of thy own appointment wherein thou wilt be found in an especial manner and as it is to be a day of rest for all flesh after thine own institution Lord help us not only to rest from our ordinary Labours and Imployments but from any thing that may be disconsonant to thy Will and Word not doing our own actions nor speaking our own words nor thinking our own thoughts that thereby we being prepared according to the preparation of thy Sanctuary may be in the Spirit on the Lords Day to meet with thee and by meeting with thee we may hear thee communicate some sweet truth to us whereby we may be drawn nigher to thy self by the blood of Christ And seeing thou wast pleased Lord to honour this day by the Resurrection of our blessed Redeemer let us have more evidence from thy self this day that we are risen with him having conquered by him Death Grave Hell and Sin O let us see him whom our sins have pierced that we by faith may mortifie that that crucified him and let us have a glimpse of our beloved in his glory and let us this day hearken to his voice that we may know to love what he loves and hate what he hates to be in love with sanctity and holiness and to be at enmity with every similitude of sin which will hinder our services this day in his name to be as a sweet smell in Gods Nostrils Help us to hold fast our hope and confidence in God unto the end and let that considence be a perfect assurance that we have an interest in Jesus Let the word preached be mixed with saith let it be quick and powerful and piercing that it may accomplish that end for which it was sent Let not
as that I may ingage thee to prosper all my undertakings in the remaining part of it undertaking nothing but what may be pleasing to thy self and consonant to thy Will and Word Let my labours be sweetned by thy blessing and support me under all Help me to be useful in the place and station where thou hast set me that I may not be branded with the name of a cumber-ground All this and what thou the only wise God knowest necessary for me I humbly beg for Jesus Christ's sake Amen A Prayer for Monday Evening GRacious Lord I humbly thank thee that thou hast been pleased this day to preserve me and to support me under all my undertakings and concerns and that thou hast given me health and strength and liberty and life all which are in thy hand and at thy disposal Lord let the consideration of these things instigate my dull heart to praise thee O Lord in all thy dealings with the Sons of Men there is matter both of prayses and rejoycing Lord thou never dealest with thy People but in a way of love not in a way of Judgment but Mercy If thou shouldest have marked strictly what I have done amiss I have done more amiss and against thee than ever I can or have done for thee in the course of my whole life I beseech thee O Lord pass by all my offences and let them all be washed away in the Blood of that immaculate Lamb Christ Jesus O Lord I bless thee for thy watchful Eye of Providence how much of thy goodness has been manifested this day to me ward In the Morning thou affordest Mercies and in the Evening thou withholdâ—st not thy hand O let Morning and Evening Mercies be of use to bring my Soul into a nearer communion with thy self Let all the bedewings of both right hand and left hand Mercies the blessing of the upper and neather Springs of spiritual Mercies and temporal Mercies be continued and sanctified to me that I may being forth fruit anserable to the pains God the great Husbandman has taken with me and cost he has laid out upon me Lord that I may not be as a fruitless Vine that bears either no grapes or else wilde grapes but O that I may bring forth grapes in clusters fruit much fruit and good fruit Lord now wilt thou be pleased to pass by the negligence of this day and let my defects be made up in him that is fulness it self Jesus Christ and as I am about to betake me to my repose Lord let me acquiesce in thee and grant that lying down I may sanctifie thee in my heart and lying down in peace and rising again I may know and say the Lord sustains me and that for Christ Jesus sake Amen A Prayer for Tuesday Morning GRacious Lord God who fillest Heaven and Earth with thy Goodness and makest the hearts of thy people glad thereby O who is a God like unto thy self a God glorious in Holiness fearful in Praises doing wonders The Heavens declare thy Glorâ— the Firmament sheweth the work of thine hands day unto day sheweth thy wisdom and night unto night uttereth knowledge that thy Name may be exalted above all the gods O Lord let thy wisdom be manifested in and upon me and let a powerful operation of thy Spirit be manifested in the renewing of my heart and mortifying the corruptions of the Old Man that my will may be changed and that the spirit of the Prince of the Power of the Air that worketh in the children of disobedience may be dispossessed Extinguish all the revivings of mortified Iusts O Lord thou knowest that this work is a very hard work such a work as none can do but thy self therefore grant thy assistance And as thou art pleased to renew my strength night by night by moderate sleep and rest Lord renew my spiritual strength that I may be more than a Conqueror over all my carnal corruptions through Jesus Christ O Lord wilt thou pardon all my vain thoughts this night past whatsoever has been disconsonant to the Will and Word of thy Sacred Mâ—iesty O Lord these things thou knowest arise from the Principles of a corrupt nature mortifie them I pray thee for me seeing the work of the new Creation is by and of thy self the heart-heart-work is to be done by a more potent hand than man's Subdue my corruptions renew my will streng then my judgment illuminate my understanding and capacitate me for every good word and work Thou Lord hast preserved me this night past preserve me this day and undertake for me and let all my undertakings be blessed by thee in and through thy Son Christ Jesus Amen A Prayer for Tuesday Evening INfinitely wise God thou hast manifested abundantly thy loving kindness unto me though I sinful dust and ashes have provoked thee by my many miscarriages not only this day but every day Lord I bless thee for thy Providential care over me this day and for that ability under all my Undertakings by which thou hast sustain'd me and kept me by thy free Grace and Mercy not that there was any thing in me that might move thee so to do Lord let all these Mercies be so remembred by me as that they may be a means to stir me up to a more active and lively frame of Spirit to act more in those things that may conduce to thy Honour O Lord I have lived but not to thy self O pardon all my unprositableness my barrenness and leanness let the bedewings of thy Spirit so water my parched Soul that I may be more fertile under the same I confess I have been a very Truant in Christ's School yet Lord thou hast not dealt with me according to my failings but according to the riches of thy free streams of Grace and Love O let not my sins stop that Fountain running towards me but let the Fountain that is set open for sin and uncleanness wash my sins all away O Lord let me be washed white in the Blood of the Lamb and let the searlet crimson stains that sin has made in my poor Soul be washed out Let not my unworthiness this day prevent my night Mercies let not thy Providential care desist to me-ward but rather forgive my sins and offences and let my miserable failings move thee to pity me O do it for thy Names sake Thou Lord hast said thou wilt blot out the sins of thy people for thy Names sake O accomplish this rich Promise to me-ward that I being sensible of thy great forgiveness I may be greatly moved to love thee 'T is said Mary loved much because she had been forgiven much Lord let my rest be sweet unto me that being refreshed thereby I may the next morning be caused to rejoyce in thee and praise thy Name Let this nights rest put me in mind to seek Christ that I may have everlasting rest through him All which I beg for his sake alone the purchaser and procurer