Law written with his own finger in full force to the end of the world a weekly Sabbath If any ask and would know further What need there is of it The answer may be 1. That the Lord hath need of it that the work of Creation and Redemption may be remembred and our Creator and Redeemer publiquely and solemnly served and glorified 2. That man hath need of it for the Sabbath was made for man that is both for his spiritual and corporal good It was not without need that God made the Sabbath either for himself or for us Indeed but one thing is needful and that is to sit at Christs feet and hear his Word as it ought to be heard Which though it may be done other dayes yet not so fully and hopefully as on that day when all other things are laid aside to apply our selves wholly to the concernments of our Souls On other dayes there is more of Martha that is the world is mixt and is a partner but on this day with Mary we choose if we have Maries grace the good part and provide to attend upon the Lord without distraction On other dayes our hearts like the Jews garments hang loose on this day if we mind our duty we gird up the loins of our mind and so may run as Elijah before Ahab when he had girded up his loins the way of Gods Commandements 1 King 18. 46. Psal 119. 32. On other dayes the Moon is between us and the Sun I mean earthly and sublunary things stand between us and the Sun of Righteousness whereby there is an Eclipse that we can not so fully enjoy him but now on the Lords day if we be Christians we should if wise we will if good and faithful we shall tread the Moon under our feet and as in Solomon's Royal and Incomparable Throne the footstool was of gold so being taken up on that Ascension-day to Mount Tabor we shall make the most golden world our foot-stool and the necessary supports thereof like Zacheus his Sycomore-tree helps being under us to see Jesus the better that having a full view of him and fellowship with him of his fulness we may receive grace for grace Some men talk of an every-dayes Sabbath but as to make every man a Magistrate is to take away Magistracy and to let every man be a Minister is to take away the Ministry so to make every day a Sabbath is to say No day shall be a Sabbath They may call every day a Sabbath because we are to rest and abstain from sin every day but herein they deceive themselves in that they do not consider that on the Sabbath day we must not only abstain from sinful things albeit then we should abhor them most but from those things that are not sinful on other dayes but lawful and needful and which it is a sin not to look after as the works of our ordinary Callings for look how a Subject that is called to wait on his Prince is not only to leave his good Fellows and that loose and vain company which he ought alwayes to separate himself from but also his Wife Children whole Family and all his domestick affairs which out of this case and when there is no such Call it is his sin to be unnecessarily absent from and his duty to abide with and take care of and so when our Lord calls us to wait on him a whole day together as he doth on the Lords day all other things are for that time to be laid aside save only those which our Lord alloweth us though at other times lawful and necessary When two good things are to be done and both cannot be done our reason will tell us that it is necessary for that time to leave the less and apply our selves to the greater which being well considered will amount to this that it is necessary that there earthly things should be for a convenient time with-drawn from that is that there should be a weekly Sabbath for that 's the most convenient time to give up our selves intirely to those things that ought to be highest in our account to wit the honour and service of our God and the salvation of our souls It 's a poor plea to say I must needs go see my Ground when God calls to his Supper but it 's a good pleading of necessity to say I must needs goe see my God Psal 63. 2. Now whereas on working dayes the world doth as it were cover our faces with a vail and cast dust on the divine Glass on the Lords day by laying aside earthly things and thoughts the covering is put away from our face as from Moses face when he left all to appear before the Lord that we may see the King in his glory yea so see him as to become glorious our selves with that sight For we all to wit who by admirable grace have received the Spirit of God with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of God are transformed into the same Image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2. The Commodity of the Christian Sabbath What is said of Godliness may be said of the Day of God which is the Nurse of Godliness that it is profitable to all things I mean being spiritually observed for otherwise the bodily exercise profiteth little The weekly Sabbath like the Vine whose Wine cheareth God and Man yeeldeth much assistance for the performance of the duties of the first and second Table 1. Of the First Table Of the first Commandement for therein is an acknowledgement of God our Creator as the only true God maker of Heaven and Earth in the proportion of time that is in observing a Sabbath every seventh day after our six dayes work And an acknowledgement also of God our Saviour in our particular Sabbath-day in these Gospel times That of the Prophet is very observable They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths that is they slight them as Hos 8. 12. And what followeth And I am profaned among them that is dishonoured accounted as nought among them as if I were not a God Dutch Annot. Of the Second Commandement Because the Worship of God required in that Commandement is on that day most improved and heightened As being 1. More extended because all both Superiours and those under them and within their Gates are then to wait on God in the way of his Worship Hence it is conceiv'd that whereas these two Ye shall fear every Man his Mother and his Father and shall keep my Sabbaths are joyned together the reason thereof may be this because Fathers and Mothers and Governours to whom the fourth Commandement is directed not only but eminently are to see that their Children and Servants keep the Lords Sabbaths and Children and Servants should so far fear and reverence them as herein to be ruled by them and so there will be a
and will arise from despising and persecuting a faithful Ministery of which therefore let all beware that love the common peace Psal 122. 6. 4. As it shall be easier for Tyre and Sidon and Sodom at the last day then for Gospel-contemners so they that receive and reverence it shall find mercy at that day when Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe and mark why because our testimony the testimony of Labourers among them was beleived In that day shall we rejoyce in Christians and to they in us if we have not run in vain nor laboured in vain Phil. 2. 16. To conclude this let it be your care dearly beloved Christians now God hath wrought such wonders for our peace and settlement to make some amends for that shameful contempt that hath been poured on the Ministers of Christ of late by your double honour And as for those many that have departed we are more willing to say have been carryed from us and against us by the distemper of the times what shall we say but as the holy Prophet sometimes did though with some alteration Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel Let it be known that we are thy servants and that thou hast brought the heart of this people back again 1 King 18. 36 37. CHAP. IV. Of the Observation of the Lords-day or the Christian Sabbath THe Christian Sabbath as our Church calleth it that is the Lords-day being a matter of so great importance both in respect of Christians and of Christianity as that the name of the Lord of Glory is imprinted upon i And the Primitive Christians accounted it their glorious character And the Catholick Church hath still owned it and in the best of times most acknowledged it to be a day wholly dedicated to the remembrance and service of God our Saviour I shall therefore after what hath been already spoken concerning other parts of godliness endeavour according to my ability to add something briefly and summarily concerning this great day and the duties thereof and that so as to stir up Christians to the due observation of that day and performance of those duties For this purpose I shall make choice of a portion of Scripture that fully declares the danger of profaning the Lords Holy-day It is that which is written Neh. 13. 17 18 Then I contended with the Nobles of Judah and said unto them What evil thing is this that yee do and profane the Sabbath day Did not your Fathers do thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this City yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath It is easie here before I go any further to foresee this Objection That a Text in the Old Testament speaking of the Jews Sabbath is improper for the establishing of the observation of the New Testament Sabbath Unto which I answer 1. More generall That whatsoever things were written afore time they were written for our learning and examples of divine Justice such as this Scripture declareth to be inflicted for profaning that which was Gods holy day then are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come to terrifie all men from offending in the like kind as here from abusing and applying to common use his consecrated time and solemn day 2. More particularly The fourth Commandement being as a remarkable part of the Moral and Eternal Law of God still in force for the holy observation of a Sabbath every week of Gods appointment unto the end of the world it will from thence follow that any thing spoken in the Old Testament concerning the Weekly Sabbath in use then if it be not proper to the Jewish people nor to the Jews Sabbath day but be prescribed in the fourth Commandement as common to each weekly Sabbath of Gods institution doth still remain in its full strength to bind the people of God in all Ages briefly What belonged to the Jews Sabbath as a Sabbath and not as that Sabbath is still in force for every Sabbath I mean for any weekly day which God appoints for his day of rest and holiness Hence it followeth also that what we find in the Old Testament about the Sabbath approved that 's for our imitation what we find reproved and punished that 's for our restraint and warning This morality of the fourth Commandement and its common aspect both on the Old and New Testaments weekly day being purposely and strongly proved by others I shall not here speak further of it but hasten to a brief opening of the Scripture before recited wherein it appeareth that amongst other gross abuses mentioned in the former and latter part of this Chapter the Sabbath also was very provokingly profaned and that in Jerusalem it self the Lords City wherein the Temple was the Lords House and wherein God himself s resided that they hid their eyes from the Sabbath in his eye-sight and by the profanation thereof he was profaned among them Ezek. 22. 26. If any ask How all this came to pass Nehemiah himself gives an account of it when he saith All this while was not I at Jerusalem v. 6. The presence of a good Governour prevents impiety And Nehemiah being once come Sabbath profanation is non-pluss'd and overcome They came no more on the Sabbath v. 21. But as when Moses was absent the Calf was made so Nehemiah going after his first coming to Jerusalem and the building of the walls thereof into Persia again there were in that his absence from Jerusalem many profanations crept in which he when he returneth most zealously reformeth In particular when he saw in Judah the violation of the Sabbath and that it was made a very Market-day v. 15. his eyes affected his heart and his zeal discovers it self 1. In vehement speaking for he testified and contended against the profaners of that day v. 15. and with the Nobles that should have prevented and obviated such profananation v. 17. 18. 2. In resolute acting taking order 1. For the shutting and guarding of the Gates of Jerusalem against buyers and sellers within the City v. 19. 2. For restraining them that lodged about the wall who might continue buying and selling in the Suburbs v. 20. 21. 3. He gave charge to the Levites also to keep the Gates to wit of the Temple Nehemiah's own servants being appointed to keep the City-gates that so nothing might be wanting on their part to keep the day and house of God from profanation v. 22. The result and conclusion of all which is an humble applying of himself to the mercy of God for the remembring of him as he by the grace of God was zealous in remembring the Lords holy day where his confidence is also implyed and this contained that The Lord will mercifullly remember them who remember dutifully the Lords day In
was at first fixed on the seventh from the Creation because that was the day set a part to be the Lords Sabbath for that first age of the world I grant also that Gods resting is brought in as a reason of the Commandement But then the question is Wherein the force of that reason lyeth To which I say that it is not brought in as a reason of resting on that individual and precise day wherein God rested save only under this notion and consideration that it was the day at that time and for that first world appointed of God to be his Sabbath For it is not a cogent or inforcing argument We must rest one day in every week and never work more then six because God rested the last day of the week but this is a strong and convincing reasoning We must rest one day in seven perpetually and work but six because God our great Lord and Maker did only work six dayes and make the remaining day which was then the seventh in order a Sabbath holding forth that his example for our imitation I shall say this over again in some other words more fully to open my mind and the matter in hand and therefore express it thus The argument drawn from Gods Example is not for the same day that is for that very seventh wherein He rested determinately as if it reached and extended it self to no other day in the week but it is for a seventh or for the day wherein God rested as a seventh comparatively that is in relation to his six working dayes and therefore they are compared together both in the body of the Commandement where it is said Six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath and in the conclusion wherein it is not barely said God rested the seventh day but it is brought in with this In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth that is ended his work and rested the seventh Sanctifying that day as his Sabbath for those times and therein any other seventh which Himself should appoint for his Sabbath in after-times for any other day of the week may be called the seventh day as it is set against six working dayes To conclude the reason is not for that peculiar portion of time wherein God rested as if God meant no more but to reason men into the observation of that seventh day for then the fourth Commandement is gone or else the Saturday-Sabbath is to be observed still but it is for the proportion of time that is for a weekly day or one day in a week and for the portion and particular day only according to Gods appointment which appointed time to the Jews was Saturday to us now it is the Lords day Of the Christian Sabbath-day or the Lords-day HAving spoken thus far of the Sabbath in general and in its common nature or of the Christian Sabbath as a Sabbath I come now to speak of that particular day which we call the Christian Sabbath that is the first day of the week about which this great Question ariseth Why should this day be so much stood upon when we find not in Scripture when we find not in all the New-Testament any divine Institution of it In answer unto this I shall be brief both because I have been so large already and because others have written so largely and so convincingly concerning the Lords-day and the divine Institution thereof with a full answer to the Objections made to the contrary yet it being needful to say something and other Books not coming to the hands of all I shall endeavour to give some satisfaction to Christians as to the former Proposal in the ensuing particulars Answ 1. It hath been declared before that the proportion of time that is the observing of a Sabbath weekly or one day in seven is required of God in the fourth Commandement wherein also hath been shewed the manner how it is to be observed and that we are not to spend it as we do the six working-days in our ordinary and earthly imployments but in religious Exercises as a day of holy rest to the Lord. I mention this though it be not so proper to the question yet as pertinent to it for if it be once granted that by the Commandement of God himself one day in a week must be kept as a Sabbath it will quickly be found that the Lords-day will make the best plea for that priviledge But I go on Answ 2. As to the portion of time and the particular day about which the question is moved to that I answer That a thing may be said to be commanded of God two wayes 1. In express words as if it should be said I require all men to observe in the time of the New-Testament the first day of the week for my Sabbath We do not say that the Lords-day is thus commanded to be observed as a Sabbath 2. By necessary collection or collation and comparing one Scripture with another and so a divine Command and Institution is divers wayes gathered and by strong arguments and consequences concluded as our Saviour proves the Resurrection and as it is proved that there was a Precept for Sacrifices before the Law and before any such Precept is found because God accepted the Sacrifice offered by Abel which shews it was not Will-worship but Word-worship that is guided by a word known to them though not revealed to us After this manner and by sound reasoning from things revealed in Scripture the divine Institution of the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath sundry wayes appeareth Namely by these ensuing Evidences 1. A divine ground and foundation of setting apart that day in special and above all other dayes for that use and that is the divine work of raising up the Lord Jesus from the dead As the first Sabbath had its rise from the work of Creation and Gods resting on that day as the fourth Commandement declareth so hath the New-Testament-Sabbath its rise from the work of Redemption and our Saviours rising and resting when that work was finished wherein we may be the more confirmed because the Scripture so highly extolleth our Saviours Resurrection that being the great thing which the Apostles in their Preaching were to stand upon Act. 1. 22 and did stand upon and stand for Act 3 4 as that without which all Preaching and Faith is vain and the Apostles would be found false Witnesses who made it their business to publish and testifie it Declaring the promise to the Fathers to be fulfill'd in raising up Jesus again as it is written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begetten thee that is That was the great day like the day when the Crown was set on David's head wherein notwithstanding all his humiliation in his life and death He that was made of the seed of David before was declared to be the
agree with the Word of God and the general Doctrine of Religion as it hath a just influence into this particular Sabbath-subject But withal let it be observed that if a man will lean to his own understanding and entertain a conference with flesh and bloud with an accounting of the great things of Gods Law as a strange thing he may easily and think he doth it very substantially dispute God out of his time and make himself believe that he hath more days in a week for his own use in worldly thoughts words and actions then six yea and that pleading so much for the Lords-day is but preciseness and rather a weak then a wise mans work arguing at best only a good meaning but a shallow brain Whereas on the contrary he that saith unto Scripture Wisdom Thou art my Sister and calleth spiritual Vnderstanding his Kinswoman he that feareth to be disobedient to the heavenly Vision he that counteth godliness gain and knoweth how much godliness gaineth by a godly observation of the Lords-day will soon see cause of being of another mind considering how much the Word of God pleadeth for Sabbath-holiness and how on and by that day and the duties thereof the interest cause and concernments of godliness are principally promoted I wish all good Christians therefore that are of doubtful mindes in this matter to try the more strict doctrine of the Sabbath whether it be of God or no by betaking themselves to the holy practise of those things that are taught them concerning that Day Experience useth to put an happy end to endless disputes about practical truths and things otherwise hardly determinable for the result and good effect thereof is this Behold Now I know c. Some may say as Nathaniel Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth so out of such sowre Sabbath-strictness This is a question that may be long under the debate of humane reason that is as proud as blind the easiest way to decide it is Come and see Let every sincere Nathaniel put it to the trial and then the conclusion will be like to be such a resolution about the Lords-day as there was in Nathaniel about the Lord of that day which in allusion to what he said may be expressed thus Thou art the Day of God Thou art the Queen of Dayes Could we but call the Sabbath a delight Did we but know it to be so experimentally the comfort of it would soon answer all Lion-like arguments that rise up and roar against it and rent them as one would rent a Kid if not by just solutions and formal answers which belongs to the learned who have done it and will do it yet by firm resolutions and just detestations and that not without reason enough founded on the sense of the sweetness they have found in their conversing with the holy God on his holy day so that an Advocate for the Sabbath shall never be wanting till the godly man ceaseth whose delight it is I say whose delight it is Not that I think it an easie or common thing to call the Sabbath a delight or that all that fear the Lord have the like delight in the Lords-day affectionate Christians feel it most and in old Disciples it lies deepest the more maturity the more complacency and the more acquaintance with God the more delight in him for the delight followeth the acquaintance Nor do I mean that they who do delight in it delight alike in it at all times and on all Sabbath-days corruption and tentation yea and the various operations and incomes of the Spirit who bloweth where and in whom it listeth and in them when it listeth make a great difference Besides that age or distemper of body or oppression of spirit by some heavy burthen that lies upon it are great impediments to delight And they that are in affliction and need Gods Ordinances most rellish them best to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet and so every sweet thing is more sweet and delightsom such things as these must be granted that the Doctrine of Sabbath-delight may not be rejected nor they dejected who reach not so far as others do in their rejoycings on that day But yet that there is truly a delight in that day and the service thereof in those that truly fear the Lord and think upon his Name sufficiently appeareth in that they bless the Lord with all their hearts and souls for appointing such a day for when should we have set a part a whole day in any due distance for God and for the enjoying of God if God had not done it himself And in that they would not for all the world be without it for what 's the world without the Sun or without the Sabbath wherein the Sun of Righteousness shineth out and that the day throughout and that with a special blessing of God following and improving the beams thereof for our spiritual benefit and soul-refreshing We may very well say that no Sabbath passeth without some delight and satisfaction to the true Disciples of Jesus Christ But at times they are taken up with Christ on that day as it were into an high Mountain apart where they see his face shine as the Sun and are so extraordinarily taken and delighted with what they see and feel that they say feelingly It is good for us to be here In brief The Sabbath with the prescribed Ordinances and Exercises of that day is towards their latter end especially like Mount Abarim to Moses wherein they see much of the Heavenly Canaan And at any other time when they that walk with God being clog'd and dull'd with corruption sorrow affliction tentation delight less in it they do then and therefore delight less in themselves But that there should be any true delight in God and his Ordinances and no delight in that day wherein they are most dispensed and best attended is as unlike as that a Jew should be without rejoycing at their great Festival days or that it should not be merry when friends meet or that Simeon should not take pleasure in that day wherein he took up the child Jesus in his arms for the Lords-day is Christians Feasting-day Christians gladsom meeting-day and the day wherein they being met together Christ who is the Consolation of Israel promiseth to be in the midst of them Is 't possible that on the day wherein they sit under the shadow of their dear Lord wherein they tast of his sweet fruit wherein he brings them to the Banqueting-house and spreads his Banner of Love over them they should then be without Cordial-content That they are not without such content appears because all the six days Sollicitors that is all worldly things and carnal company are kept off on that day of retiredness with God yea and charged and even adjured not to disturb their sweetest
which I invite you to take notice of may be reduced to two heads First The Lords casting my lot amongst you and calling me to you by a more then ordinary providence for it was by the free and as far as I know unsollicited naming of me to it by a Person of Honour in whose gift it was and the news of it was sent unto me then when being a Student in Oxford neither this nor any other Ministerial charge was by me either sought or thought of which I mention and mind you of the rather because though I have had divers earnest invitations to remove to other places of more publike imployment yet Gods more then usual Call to this Place hath ever made me to fear to forsake it and I have still found much inward satisfaction in forsaking all other and cleaving to this For God is the wisest disposer of his Servants and He knows best in what part of his Vineyard to place his Labourers Yet I condemn not all removals if they be not self-removals but set a mark upon special disposals Secondly You may not pass over without serious observation another remarkable Providence which is that whensoever I have been forced from you God hath provided otherwise for you Twice you remember I have been taken off 1. By suspension for three years space because I could not be resolved to read the Book of Liberty for Sports on the Lords-day 2. By the distractions of the late sad times of Civil War about so many years more Yet in both these separations from you God ordered it so that such were present with you in all the time of my absence and restraint by whom you were diligently and profitably instructed which as it is to be marked on the one side to shew how God provides supplyes in the necessitated absence of Pastors so on the other side it concerns you unto whom this benefit hath been vouchsafed to take notice that though you have not still had the same Husbandman yet God hath not suffered you to want that spiritual husbandry which if it be lacking but for a time Bryars and Thorns grow up and the envious man suddenly sows his Tares Remember how much you are bound to that God that hath not left you without a teaching Minister and without Law how much you are bound to be thankful who have had the heavenly Manna in the Wilderness of this World forty years and upwards how much you are bound to be fruitful who have had dressers of the Lords Vineyards so many years to dig and dung and by all means to seek for fruit and lastly how inexcusable you will be if the door of your hearts be not opened at which Christ hath still stood knocking four and forty years together In the next place I must not dissemble that there is matter of humiliation for us on both parts for as on my own part I willingly acknowledge much weakness and want of bestirring my self among you with that care courage compassion diligence and resolution that belongs to a Pastor so you on the other part have cause to take to heart that unteachableness whereby though there hath been precept upon precept line upon line yet so little is learned Not but that I think and hope that for the generality it will be found that there is more acquaintance with Religion in this then in divers other Congregations that consist of poor and unlearned people but yet it is to be lamented that divers know so little in comparison of what they should and might have known and have much need of milk still because of their unskilfulness in the Word of Righteousness But besides this want of knowledge I may say My God hath humbled me among you and given cause of bewailing the great want of the power and practise of godliness I confess you have comforted me with a conformity to the Ordinances and the Exercises of Religion The matter of grief is that there hath not been in some that sobriety in company in others that diligence and laboriousness in their Callings and in many that Christian patience that there ought to have been but in stead thereof many angry and unbrotherly contentions which is observed to be the disease and is indeed the great sin and dishonour of this place albeit I grant there have been of late more occasions then ordinary of it And it 's true also that the Devil is very busie to make them worst that are taught most Hence it is that it is not to be wondered at neither is Religion or the Profession thereof to be worse thought of for it if here or otherwhere where the Gospel is preached there be breakings forth not only into anger and bitterness which yet is very bad and a giving a place to the Devil who plays his pranks and works his will very much in a passionate heart but also into far fouler evils as swearing cursing drunkenness uncleanness going to Witches and Wisards which is a going to Hell for help when people be under the hand of Heaven These more hainous offences I only name to you because I believe divers that have been guilty of some of them have truly repented and am willing to hope that others that are yet faulty in any of them being convinced in their Consciences of the evil and danger of things so horrible and forbearing them more then heretofore will not only leave them altogether but abhor them and themselves for them Which I desire the Lord to give them grace to do before it be too late I am weary of this sad work and therefore shall add only this It had been a happy thing my Brethren both to you and to me if divers aged persons had as I perswade my self some have become young Christians and grown so wise as not only to live soberly and righteously which makes them good Neighbours but not good Christians but also to live godly that is to live according to the Word of God and to aim in all things at the glory of God O how little is there of this in many that are going into their grave Nay in stead of this comfort in older people I have often with much grief observed that by sundry of the younger sort who have given some good hopes in the beginning of their time of their doing well by their appearing in Catechising Hearing and Noting Sermons and Reading something of Scripture at home as they have been call'd to it yet afterwards being grown up and come to discover their dispositions reading Scripture hath been laid aside Catechising shaken off Noting Sermons neglected the vain fashions of the world followed and so the upshot and conclusion is the living of a dull worldly life with little sense of Religion and losing that acquaintance with God which they seemed to have or which it was hoped they would have had The Lord open the eyes of such and Blessed be God there
digested into Questions and Answers not only because that way of teaching is most easie and familiar but also to lend some assistance unto godly Christians for the better preparing of those belonging to their charge for that great Ordinance by the instructing and catechising of them before-hand in those things which it concerns such as would be worthy Communicants to be acquainted with what I have now published for this end I have long since framed and have still used in the visiting of the Families of those committed to my care that they might come to the Sacrament with more knowledge and conscience But that which I conceived fit for them will not be I shall hope unprofitable to others How many wayes have painful Pastors used to acquaint the People of this Nation with God and his Ordinances and to work in them a reverent respect thereunto some one way and some another But whether it be I or they it 's the same thing for substance and perhaps some may think so well of this way as to receive some benefit by it and then I have what I aim at in it The third Chapter concerneth the Ministry and may serve also as an help and incitement to a religious and profitable hearing of the Word albeit I make not a distinct Head of that Argument for neglect of serious hearing of Sermons ariseth from a low or no account of those that preach them As the preaching of the Word by men formed out of the clay and called to that high office is Gods Ordinance for mans Salvation so the holding of such in reputation is mans assistance for the receiving of the benefit of it it being very unlikely that men should be guided and ruled by those whom they do not regard As long as there was any hope of the Jews the Preface to their profiting was this They will reverence my Son and a base opinion of him or his being without any honour among them made him useless to them The thing much thought of in this part of the Treatise was and is to help to reduce if God please so far to bless poor endeavours those many Christians who by reason of the distemper of the times for I am more willing to fix it upon that then to think that so dismal a thing as their departure is should arise out of their own hearts I say who by reason of the distemper and tentation of the late times have so dangerously forsaken a duely called Ministry which God hath in singular mercy and compassion to mankinde appointed and to the worlds end constituted in his Church for the perfecting of the Saints by their work and for the edification of the body of Christ and in particular for the preventing of their being tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive Into which evil of being wafted away from God and his wayes they have sadly fal'n who have fal'n away from an Ordained Ministry and therewithall from all Gods Ordinances but if God love them and they love God he will certainly bring their hearts back again If they be Children they cannot alwayes want bread nor refuse to receive it from those Officers and Stewards whom the Lord hath made Rulers of his Houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season But howsoever it fall out with some of them who under a pretence of being more perfect Saints disdain that Ministry whereby if God speak true Saints are to be perfected and that till they come to a perfect man or to a perfect manly knowledge which will never be till they come to heaven I say however it be with some such as namely those that have forsaken the written Word of God of whom there is least hope Yet the things here laid down will serve I trust to confirm those who through the great goodness of God have been upheld and held in a right and regular way notwithstanding all solicitations and tentations to the contrary As for others all I shall say is this that perhaps some right Church-government or some grievous Church-chastisement will at length bring those Professors of Religion and godliness together whom a vast and too-unlimited a liberty good both for doing and undoing as men were right or light hath set so far and fearfully asunder It 's more then time for me to hasten to the fourth general head wherein I have treated of the Christian or Lords-day Sabbath purposely but in order thereunto have spoken something of the Sabbath in generall The great difficulty that there is in this Argument I do with all humility and deep sense of my own weakness acknowledge and therefore desire not that any thing here affirmed should be received but according as by Scripture and Scripture-reason it shall be found confirmed But withal I must crave leave to put the Reader in mind that to judge rightly of to reverence rellish and receive this and divers other practical Truths namely those mentioned in this Treatise two things are very needful 1. A due respect to the General Rules of Holiness laid down in the Word of God And 2. A Principle of Grace in the Heart for the natural man receiveth not spiritual things that so there may be a consenting and closing with the Reason of Scripture and the wisdom of God in the generalities thereof Let all Christians therefore in the fear of God and setting the Word of God before their eyes indifferently and conscientiously consider those four things which I shall now propound and present unto them 1. Whether it be not more for Gods glory the preserving and perpetuating of Religion and the interest and commodity of the Souls of men to have a set and intire day wherein to meet together in publike Worship for the knowing acknowledging serving and enjoying of God then it is to have no such day 2. If such a day be granted Whether it be not needful and best that it should be within that proportion of time which God himself hath described and prescribed in the fourth Commandement that is Whether it must not be a weekly day or whether it will serve as well for the aforenamed ends to have it left to men to lay out for their God a day of their own devising and within such a circuit of time as they think fit If any will rest a matter of so great a moment upon Ecclesiastical constitution I wonder what company of men may or will assume so much to themselves as to appoint a day in their own devised distance and impose it to be observed on the whole Community of Christians And if there be not in all the Christian world the same set day how will the honour of God be diminished which by the meeting of all the people of God together to do homage to him at
several Churches if it were not the duty of Christians to whom they wrote to read them Hence the Apostle Paul after he had written to the Ephesians speaks thus Whereby when ye read which shews they were to read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ Unto this purpose the same Apostle otherwhere saith When this Epistle is read among you cause that it may be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and mark what follows and that ye also read the Epistle from Laodicea Now it 's true that those Epistles were to be read before the Churches in their publick meetings but for the same reason for which they were to be read to them they were if they could have them in private to be read by them that is that they might the better make use of them Of this nature also is that other Scripture wherein the Apostle chargeth the Thessalonians that this Epistle be read to all the holy brethren whence Calvin observes that the Papists are more stubborn then the Devils because by so high an adjuration they will not be charmed from forbidding the People the reading of Scriptures Secondly The nature of this writing is such as strongly requires the reading of it for what is Scripture but a Letter of the Creator to the Creature Hos 8. 12. When Adam sinn'd saith Austin we in him were cast out as exiles into this world Accordingly David saith I am a stranger upon earth Heaven is our Countrey from thence Christ the Essential Word hath in these last dayes come to us and from thence God hath still sent and a long time written his Letters to his Church and People Now the law of friendship imposeth upon every man the reading of a friends Letter and duty and loyalty exacts from every Subject the reading of the Letters of his Prince and the highest duty the reading of the Letters of the highest God Many in these dayes are eager I mean a great deal more forward then fit to receive the Token that is the Lords-Supper who are careless of reading the Letter with which that token is sent and to which it is annexed Now to contend in a stomachful way for the Token and to be altogether remiss as divers such are in reading the Letter is not only an unkind thing but unreasonable for the Letter directs to the end and the profitable use of the Lords tokens that being well used they may be truly love-tokens to us when otherwise a Sacrament may be like Judahs pledge a condemning token I speak not this to diminish the sincere desires of any to the Sacrament but to kindle their desires to the Word that by the reading and observing thereof they might come fitly and freely to the Lords Table Thirdly The use and profit of Scripture perswadeth much to the reading of it and that both in regard of others and our selves 1. In regard of others that we may teach and admonish them better which is the duty of Christians one towards another as Paul sheweth Col. 3. 16. but especially of Governours as Parents and Masters These words that I command thee shall be in thine heart saith the Lord by Moses Deut. 6. 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up Now How shall this be done the memories of most being so frail unless they that are over others do by often reading keep those things in mind themselves which they are and ought to teach those under them Ephes 6. 4. Gen. 18. 10. 2. In regard of our selves This the Apostle minds us of when he tells us that the Scriptures known we may say the Scriptures read that being a special way whereby to know them are able to make a Timothy and so any other man wise to Salvation and more particularly they are profitable for doctrine that is to teach the truth for reproof that is to convince and check error for correction that is to curb vice for instruction in righteousness that is for direction to a good life And in another place for consolation Rom. 15. 4. Never would so many be damned for want of wit be so destitute of the Truth be so bewitched as they are with errors be such incorrigible servants to sin be so free from and void of all righteousness and goodness and lastly at such a loss for comfort when any waves arise but that Scripture is so little read and reverenced For the last of these that is matter of comfort Austin writing to one in a time of great calamity thus concludes his Epistle God will comfort you much more abuadantly if you read his Scriptures most earnestly with which we may joyn that of Chrysostom who writing on those words of Paul Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly first cals to his hearers and saith You whose imployment lies in the world and that have wife and children to govern hear how the Apostle enjoyns you especially to read Scriptures and that not barely to read them and as by the way but with great diligence And afterwards he adds even as a rich and monyed man is able to bear a loss so a man rich in Scripture-knowledge can easily bear poverty or any calamity yea he can better bear it saith he then a rich man can bear worldly losses for if he have many of them his riches will be more and more diminished but he that is rich in heavenly knowledge is never the less rich though he suffer never so much The same holy Father is very full in shewing in general the great profit that is to be had by the reading of Scripture as that it clears and calms the heart reforms the tongue gives wings to the soul to flie up even into heaven it self Do not lose saith he so great gain nor bring your Bibles hither only but take time to read the Scriptures at home And in another place If thou wouldest know how great advantage ariseth from divine Scripture then diligently examine what a vast difference there is in thy heart and soul when thou standest in the Church and when thou art at a Play or standest in the Theatre It s the same soul and yet how well is it affected in the one place and how much corrupted in the other I am the more willing to recite these things that Christians may see in these sad dayes wherein so many slight Scriptures what a reverent and honourable account there was of them yea and of the reading of them by the most eminent men in ancient times Fourthly The examples of Gods servants recorded and recommended in Scripture is a reason of reading Scripture for we may read their piety in the reading of it the Eunuch a man of so great authority under the Queen
say in some respect that it is worse to disobey a positive law then a law of Nature and that because where Nature saith nothing but God saith all there 's a greater tryal whether Gods Word his naked Will and Prerogative Royal is of any weight with us or no and in the despising of such a command a greater indignity is offered to the Supream Law-giver as if a Law of his mouth were not worth the marking unless Nature and Reason open their mouths also unto which we may add that he who disobeyeth a positive law alwayes disobeyteh a natural to wit this that it is meet and necessary that God should have his will and retain his soveraignty which by transgressing a plain precept wherein Nature can say nothing is more violated Hence that first sin in eating the forbidden fruit for the forbearing whereof being considered in it self Nature had not what to say did undo us all there being thereupon this charge drawn up against all mankind in the first man Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat The like whereof we find in the business of the Sabbath but I instance in the former because of the weight that lay upon it and because of the resemblance there is between forbidden work and forbidden fruit by which the disobedience receives a great aggravation namely thus Was there liberty for all the Trees of the Garden and couldst thou not forbear one upon my precise command so Have I given thee six dayes to work for thy self and canst thou not rest with me one day Object But if the fourth precept stand still established yet all it commands is the observing of the seventh day from the Creation Answ 1. If it be supposed that the fourth Commandement enjoyneth the seventh day from the Creation which I grant not save only in that sense which I shall afterward express yet that hindereth not but that it remaineth also firm and in force for one day in seven as well as the reason of the fifth Commandement is a moral and perpetual reason though it be delivered in a Jewish phrase and concern in the first place and in the form of words the Jewish people and therefore the Apostle to extend the force of the reason to all places and persons thus explaineth it That it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the Earth as was touch'd before 2. I answer That the fourth Commandement layes down and prescribes how God would have his Sabbath observed but it doth not command or institute any particular or individual day save only in the generality that is as it falls under the general notion of being a day of Gods appointment which day of Gods appointment was well known to the Jews otherwhere and before the fourth Commandement was delivered and therefore it is spoken of in the sixteenth of Exodus as a known law and the people on the sixth day gathered twice so much bread two Omers for one man when on other dayes they gathered but one as being accustomed to observe the Sabbath at least as knowing that God required it should be observed that day being set a part for a Sabbath ever since and by reason of the Creation of the world Gen. 2. 3. Heb. 4. 3. And as the day the Jews observed and spent in holy rest was known otherwise and needed not to be expressed in the fourth Commandement so also the day that we Christians observe though it be not mentioned in that Commandement yet is otherwise sufficiently made known to be the day that God hath ordained for his weekly Sabbath in Gospel-times as shall appear hereafter 3. This being premised I shall grant as others do who have with much diligence and satisfaction searched into this argument that the seventh day Sabbath was to be observed by vertue of the fourth Commandement yet not as instituted there directly but as belonging to it reductively that is by way of argument and consequent namely thus One day in seven of Gods appointment is directly and for ever required to be observed as a Sabbath by the fourth Commandement Now the seventh-day-Sabbath that is the seventh from the Creation is that one of seven that God appointed from the foundation of the world till our Saviours coming suffering and rising again It therefore followeth that that seventh was for all that time to be observed as the Lords Sabbath and that by necessary collection from the fourth Commandement As in like manner our first-day-Sabbath is grounded on the fourth Commandement because it is that one of seven which God hath appointed to be observed since Christs Resurrection The sum is The genus or general name of Sabbath is common to each Sabbath day of Gods institution and so comprehends both the Jews Sabbath and ours 4. I answer as before that otherwise then thus the fourth Commandement requireth not any particular day but that which it commandeth is to come more closely to the question one day in seven in relation to six working dayes as the Commandement it self expresseth saying Six days shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath as if it had been said Divide the week and there being seven dayes in it take thou the sixth and give me the seventh and namely that seventh which I appoint and give order for And that the Commandement is thus to be interpreted may appear both by the first words thereof Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy he saith not the seventh day but the Sabbath day as also by the last words wherein it is said the Lord blessed and hallowed not the seventh day but the Sabbath day which sheweth that the main drift and intent of the Commandement was not the institution of the Jews seventh or any other particular day but of a weekly Sabbath or of one day in every week such as then was or afterward was to be specified and declared of God to be his day of rest yet such as may be called the seventh day because it must be the seventh part of the weekly time Object But it is said in the latter part of the Commandement and brought in also as a reason to observe it that God rested the seventh day whence it is thus argued That day is meant in the body of the Commandement as the day enjoyned to be the Sabbath or day of Rest wherein God himself rested But that was the seventh in order from the Creation Therefore that 's meant by seventh day in the body of the Commandement yea in the whole Commandement for God blessed and sanctified that day for the Sabbath whereon himself rested Answ I grant that God rested that seventh day and that he blessed and sanctified it but How Not meerly as that particular seventh but as a Sabbath for so as it was but now said the Commandement expresseth it only the blessing and sanctification
Son of God with power and so that person in and by whom that which God had promised before in the holy Scripture was fulfilled and that 's it which makes the mercies of David sure mercies We find also a yea rather put upon the Resurrection Christ being thereby a Conquerour and our Justifier Rom. 4. 25. when as if Christ were not risen we were yet in our sins 1 Cor. 15. 17. All this may shew of how great weight the Resurrection is in the work of our Redemption and therefore how worthy it is to have a day set a part for the rememberance of it and therein for the remembrance of the Redemption it self and of our glorious Redeemer And that it was for that reason so set apart the testimony of St. Augustine is clear who thus witnesseth The Lords-day was declared to Christians or declared to be the Christians day by the Resurrection of our Lord and from that time it began to have its Festivity or to be the Christians Festival 2. We find A divine name or denomination The first day of the week being generally agreed upon to be that day which is called the Lords-day Rev. 1. 10. If we would know why it is called the Lords-day the like name given to the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ may inform us It s true it may be said to be the Lords-day because our Lord rose on it and so the Eucharist the Lords Supper because our Lord is remembred in it But besides this As we know the Sacrament to be the Lords Supper because he instituted it for the remembrance of his Passion So we have great cause to think that the first day of the week is called the Lords-day because our Lord appointed and took order to have it set apart for the remembrance of his Resurrection and our Redemption for the Lords-day doth not only imply an acting on it but an owning of it for his use even as the old Sabbath day being said to be the Sabbath day of the Lord Exod. 20. 8 10. was so called because God did appropriate it to himself as the special time of his service And this is the more confirmed because the Service of God was already used among the Christians on that day instead of the Sabbath as all the ancients Doctors witness and is to be gathered besides from Act. 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. in which places we find Christians assembling together and provision made for Collections for the Poor as on the day already known to be consecrated to God for such uses yea it is very probably conceived that since John could not be in his banishment present in body in the publick Congregation he therefore set himself to holy meditations that he might be present with them in spirit and whilest he was thus intent on Soliloquies with God as he was most fit for so he was suddenly taken with that divine rapture wherein those heavenly Revelations that the Scripture records were communicated to him In brief Nothing hath this Title Dominical in Scripture but either Christs day or Supper to shew that is taken alike in both saith a Bishop of great note Now we know that being applyed to the Supper it implies an Institution any why it should not do so also being applyed to the Day we know not 3. We find as hath been touched in that next before a divine Practice and Observation for it was observed as the noted day for Christian Assemblies and Exercises by the Apostolical Churches Act. 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and therefore it was ordained to be so by the Apostles for who else guided those Churches I have given order saith the Apostles for those Collections that were on that day because their meetings were on that day for publike works of Piety and Charity Now If it were ordained by the Apostles then was it ordained by the infallible Spirit of Christ for what else guided the Apostles in their Church-constitutions I add lastly that if the Apostles directed the Churches to this day as being guided by that extraordinary and un-erring Spirit that they had then it was ordained and appointed by Christ himself for of that guiding Spirit it is that our Saviour saith He shall not speak of himself that is not of himself only without the Father and the Son but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak And again He shall receive of mine take of mine and shew it unto you Joh. 16. 13. 14 15. So that Athanasius that excellent light in the Church of God is like to be found as right as resolute in pronouncing roundly and plainly that the Lord translated the Sabbath into the Lords-day For the confirming of which that the translation of the Sabbath from the Jewish day to the first day of the week was by the Lord himself or divine Authority I thus argue The seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation was expresly commanded the people of God in the Old-Testament therefore the people of God in the New-Testament could not desist from the Observation of that day making it a working-day and take up a new day and make it of a working-day a perpetual holy day and that in all the Churches as this day hath been still continued in the Church-Catholick I say this could not be done unless by a new command of like authority either formal or virtual that is either in express words or collected by necessary and convincing arguments and evidences And this appears because every Law bindeth till it be repealed and repealed it cannot be but by an Authority equal to that by which it was first made especially with taking another day into its place and priviledge Who could so change the Sabbath but Christ himself the Lord of the Sabbath Unto this I add for further confirmation of the divine authority of the Christian Sabbath the constant observation of the Lords-day unto this day by the Christian Church which Christian Church if it have not observed a right day that is a day appointed of God for his Sabbath every week then hath it neglected in all this time and stands guilty of not observing the fourth Commandement for that Commandement requireth as hath been proved a weekly day of Gods appointment to the end of the world That which remaineth for the closing up of this necessary part of Christianity is An Exhortation to the reverent Estimation and Observation of the Christian Sabbath From 1. The Necessity 2. The Commedity 3. The Commendation of it 4. The Threats and Judgements of God denounced and executed on profaners of the Sabbath 5. The Promises Priviledges and Blessings assured to the reverent Observers thereof 1. The Necessity of a Sabbath Wherein it might suffice to say that the only wise God who never did any thing whereof there was no need instituted in the beginning of the World and afterwards prescribed in the
the Lords-day as to retire from secular business and ordinary pleasures and delights that they may more freely attend the service of Christ are to be commended and incouraged Whatever disputes therefore there be yet the Conclusion is that the holy observation of the Lords-day now the weekly Sabbath-day is a commendable thing and redounds to the honour of those that so observe it And it will ever be the honour of the Nation and Church of England that there have been so many religious Acts and actings for the holy and intire observation of the Lords day It may be said I suppose truly and I hope in regard of this matter of the Sabbath inoffensively because other Churches may excel in other things I say it may be said of the Church of England Many Daughters of that Jerusalem which is the Mother of us all Gal. 4. 29. have done vertuously but thou excellest them all Prov. 31. 34. To come now to the last thing 3. Here is Profit and Provision I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy Father This refers plainly to the Jews whose Father Jacob was who while they observed Gods holy Sabbath and other of his Commandements well were well fed and fill'd and so if they had kept the Sabbath from polluting it and kept their hand from doing any evil might still have been but for want of that and by reason 〈◊〉 their prosaning the Sabbath among other sins Neh. 13. 18. they did pine away for want of the fruits of the field Lam. 4. 9. Thus it concerns the Jews properly But Abraham is our Father also Rom. 4. 16. and by the same reason Jacob or Israel is so likewise for the same Covenant of Grace which was formerly theirs only is now for substance ours and we laying hold on it by faith have the same priviledges and promises albeit with some difference in regard of the diversity of the state of the Church under the Law and the Gospel so that we may claim being such as carefully observe the Sabbath and the Covenant on our parts the benefit even of this outward promise and the comfort of outward Provisions as far as they needful or good for us Hence a learned Divine doth thus expound and enlarge this Promise As I have given to the seed of Jacob a very rich Inheritance so if thou be a godly observer of the Sabbath nothing shall be wanting unto thee of those things that are necessary for thee The same Author affirmeth that this and the like promise in Jeremy are understood also of spiritual gifts which Exposition suiteth well with Gospel-times wherein they that hunger and thirst after righteousness are called to hear the Word and so to eat that which is good and to let their soul delight it self in fatness Yea If we shall follow this promise further and take it in its utmost extent it may lead us into Heaven it self and the reward of inheritance there for otherwise how was Canaan the heritage of Abraham Isaac and Jacob as to their persons when it is said of Abraham that God gave him none Inheritance in it no not so much as to set his foot on and Isaac and Jacob sojourned with him in the land of Promise as in a strange Countrey and place of pilgrimage but they had the promise of it and their posterity possessed it when in the mean time they entered themselves into a better Countrey which they looked most at even the heavenly Canaan whereof the earthly Canaan was a Type Heb. 4 8 9. It 's a comfort to those that fear God and love any thing that hath his Name upon it that the Lords-day being dear to them in order to the upholding of godliness and Gods Kingdom being first sought other things shall be added and easily fall in Mat. 6. 33. when they that steal away sacred time that stir and stickle on the Lords-day in their worldly affairs and designs for their own advantage get as Gehazi did a booty without a blessing for Is that a time to look after Olive-yards and Vine-yards and Sheep and Oxen 2 King 5. 26. As it is said of the Sabbath of the Land enjoyned the Jews that it should be meat for them Lev. 25. 6. because they might on that seventh year feed on the fruits which through Gods blessing grew of themselves so it may be said not without warrant from this Text and present promise which hath its truth still that the weekly Sabbath also shall be meat to them who in the fear of God and faith observe it for they that are willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land Isa 1. 19. And in the keeping of every Commandement of God there 's great reward Psal 19. 11. that is such shall find benefit and gain by their godliness one way or other and shall thrive in worldly things if God see it good for them Nor are profaners of the Sabbath any of the richest men But yet because in Gospel-times which excel in spiritual blessings God is pleas'd to keep his Servants short in things temperal and they have oft but little of the world of whom the world is not worthy therefore we must go on and look to that Land of rest and heavenly Canaan which yet remaineth to be enjoyed wherein when Christians poor in state but rich in grace shall keep Sabbath sitting and resting with Abraham Isaac and Jacob then shall they sure be fed with their heritage Then shall they eat and be for ever satisfied for they shall eat and drink with Christ at his Table in that his Kingdom Now It 's true that all these good things are promised to godliness but of that godliness which hath the promise the holy observation of the Lords-weekly-day is both a part and a promoter yea not only an effectual furtherer but a continual and constant maintainer as both reason and experience shews Mr. Perkins is herein very full giving this reason of his affirming that there is no fear of God where Sabbath-profanation reigneth for saith he the keeping of the Sabbath is the maintaining increasing and publishing of Religion Serm. of Repentance on Zeph. 2. 12. After all this I shall only add something in the close to prevail if it may be with Christians and with teachable and conscientious Christians I hope I shall prevail for the delightsom honourable and profitable observation of the Lords-day Oh that we that know our selves bound to give unto Caesar that which is Caesars would carry our selves so as that all men might see we account our selves bound to give unto God that which is Gods that is his appointed weekly-day I am very apprehensive of divers difficulties in this Sabbath-argument and therefore humbly submit all I have spoken to the search and censure of the learned and godly and desire nothing that I have said should be received but as it is found to
fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Albeit therefore I shall easily grant that we have great cause to desire God to be merciful to us in this thing that our delight in Sabbath-duties is so dim yet it doth not follow from thence that there is none If God should take away Sabbaths from us I doubt not but that in all good Christians the grief would prove the delight for no man is grieved to lose what he never lov'd nor took any pleasure in I say it is thus in all good and truly godly and especially greatly-godly persons for as the man is so is his delight No marvel if the men of the world say When will the Sabbath be gone No wonder if the holy and strict observation thereof be unto carnal people and persons that savour not the things of God like Saul's Armour to David they cannot tell how to go with or undergo matters of so spiritual a nature for they never prov'd them they were never us'd to such things But on the other side the same spiritual observation of the Lords-day unto a spiritual Christian is like Jonathan's robe and his garments even his Sword his Bow and his Girdle to the same David which no doubt he us'd and wore with much delight they being great testimonies of Jonathan's singular love to him and signs and symbols of the Covenant made with him as also the Lords-Sabbath and the Ordinances thereof are great tokens of his special love to us and a sign of his holy Covenant made with us Ezek. 20. 12. O why should not the Lords-day be our delight Is there not full joy in fellowship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ in the Preaching and with the Preachers of the Gospel Is not Christ who is observed to appear on that day again and again to his Disciples after his Resurrection and is still in the Assemblies of the Saints and in the Ministry of his Servants I say Is not He the desire and the delight of all Nations And who is it that is the Comforter and solace of Saints but that holy Spirit with whom the Servants of God have much to do on that day in heavenly Meditations So that if the whole Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost can minister any delight unto us then may we call the Sabbath a delight for therein God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier doth eminently appear and operate This is a day very useful and subservient to all the necessities of our souls If we be ignorant in any thing or in many things on this day we are all taught of God It 's a Soul-enlightning day If we be as we are Strangers in the Earth on this day we are most taught the way to our Countrey It 's a Soul-guiding day Psal 73. 17 24. If we hunger and thirst after Righteousness the spiritual Manna falls from Heaven and water comes out of that Rock which is Christ principally upon this day It 's a Soul-satisfying day If we languish under spiritual diseases or lie low under outward calamities on this day the Lord offereth Medicines in the Ministry for all our Maladies It 's a Soul-restoring-day Christ heals still on Sabbath days And that I may once conclude could we be in the Spirit upon the Lords-day as we ought to be or as we might be for I do not mean extraordinarily as John was but having our hearts taken up with and heightned in the pure spiritual observation of it we might have then a fair sight yea a sweet sense of that unspeakably glorious Sabbath which right and real Saints shall shortly celebrate all together in the heavenly Canaan where there remaineth a rest or the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God Heb 4. 9. The Second Part. CHAP. I. Of Family-Duties AFter the four Christian-duties spoken of in the fore-going part I shall now proceed to four other Family-duties the first whereof because Religion is rooted in knowledge may well be Family-Catechising I say Family-Catechising for I shall not here speak of Catechising in its general extent but only apply my self to it as it is a duty belonging to Christians in their several Families which godly Exercise I shall endeavour to assist and perswade unto by Texts of Scripture first and some Arguments and Motives after Texts of Scripture to prove Catechising in Families a duty It is not my purpose here to mention every Text of Scripture that gives strength to this necessary duty but shall content my self with the naming and with the opening of two Texts in the Old-Testament and one in the New The first in the Old Testament is Deut. 6. 6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up For the opening of this Scripture and the awakening of Conscience to a due consideration of it there comes to be considered in the first place Who it is that speaks in it even the Eternal God by his Servant Moses that was faithful in all his house Remember that it is He that saith Keep these words that I command thee this day But How must Parents keep them For to Parents and every Parent God here speaks and in answer to that question saith These words shall be in thine heart yet are they not only to be in the hearts of those that have Families but in their houses therefore it is added Thou shalt teach them thy children Nor was this a Ceremonial Precept or a Commandement given peculiarly to the Jews for their assistance in the remembrance of the Law of God as their Phylacteries fringes and fastning the Law to their door-posts but it was and is a moral and perpetual Precept binding us in Gospel-times as well as them and therefore the very same things that we read in this Text we find also in the New-Testament That is 1. That the Word of Christ must dwell in us which is all one with this here Let it be in thine heart And 2. That it must be in our houses also for Parents are required to bring up their children in the nurture and information of the Lord In obedience therefore to this standing Command they to whom God hath given children should say as the Psalmist doth Come ye children hearken to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord And when the children be come together the Spirit of God in the Text we have in hand teacheth in what manner they are to be taught saying Thou shalt teach them diligently and in the margent of our Bibles it is Thou shalt whet or sharpen which is well and plainly expressed in the Text by teaching diligently but yet the word in the Original doth
upon our ever too-hard-hearts as that we may remember our former evil wayes and doings that have not been good and lothe our selves in our own sight for all our iniquities Nor let us lothe our sins only and our selves for them but leave them also and settle it in our hearts after thou hast spoken peace to us not to turn again to folly And because our own resolutions are soon altered and by our own strength we cannot prevail therefore we beg of thee our God to whom power belongeth so much strength as that though sin while we are here dwell within us yet it may not have dominion over us especially let us be strong in the Lord and the power of his might for the subduing of our special sins and those Goliahs that seem to set at defiance the whole Army of the Graces of God in us Neither let it suffice us to depart from evil unless also we do good and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And that this may be better done Good Lord make us mindful of the use of all good means of a godly life such as are the hearing of thy Word heedfully the receiving of thy holy Sacrament preparedly the keeping of thy Sabbath conscionably praying to thy Majesty often and earnestly together with conversing with good company as there shall be liberty and occasion and a gaining of time to commune with our own hearts and so to think on our wayes as that we may turn our feet to Gods testimonies Thus and every other good way O our God lead us by thy good Spirit into the land of uprightness and into a state of blessedness And because it is our duty to pray for thy Church whereof we are members as well as for our selves yea and our honour also who art but dust and ashes to be admitted so to do therefore we beseech thee Do well in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the wals of Jerusalem Make it the study of those that are thy people to be an holy people as thou their God art an holy God Where thy Church hath rest make them careful to walk before thee in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost that so their peace may be continued or they prepared for trouble if their quiet state be altered Where thy Church is in trouble make them mindful of and able for that truly penitent humbling themselves before thee and faithful seeking unto thee whereby their peace and prosperity may be restored Strengthen in all parts their hearts and hands that stand in the just defence of Religion and Right In special manner we beseech thee to have a gracious respect to this sinful Nation with the adjoyned Dominions Enable with all eminent gifts and especially sanctifie more and more with saving grace the Kings most Excellent Majesty our Supreme and most gracious Governour and so pour forth thy Spirit upon all in higher Authority that they may with all wisdom diligence faithfulness and good success manage the great affairs of State Be pleas'd to establish and ever to preserve and stand by the two great Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry that by the preaching of the one the power of the other and thy blessing on both Errour and Ungodliness may be restrained truth and holiness may be promoted and in that way all outward good things may be ministred Bless we humbly pray thee outwardly as thou seest meet but especially spiritually all that fear thy Name yea have mercy on them call them and put thy fear into them that yet fear thee not In special we desire thy favour in behalf of those to whom we have any relation and whom we are desired or ought to pray for more particularly this Family In singular mercy vouchsafe thy grace to any in it that yet want it and encrease thy grace in those that have it Extend thy compassion O thou that art the Father of mercy to those that be any way afflicted with sickness pain poverty injustice reproach restraint And more especially to those that suffer either in Conscience or for Conscience Give them all wisdom to see what thou intendest grace to give thee what thou expectest strength to bear what thou inflictest and in thine own way and time make them glorious by deliverance And now O Lord we return humble thanks unto thy Majesty for the mercies of this day in regard of our souls and bodies and businesses desiring that we may still make a good use of all our crosses And so craving pardon in Jesus Christ for the sins of this day for which we are here before thee to judge our selves we resign up our persons and all we have into thy gracious hands beseeching thee so to watch over us this night as that our souls may be kept from sin our bodies from sickness our goods from loss and those decreasings that we deserve And withal so to bless our Rest unto us that we may awake with cheerfulness in the morning well enabled for thy Service and the duties of our Callings the day following And all this for Jesus Christs sake in whom we beseech thee to accept these our poor and weak Prayers which we conclude with his absolutely perfect Prayer saying as he hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven c. A shorter Prayer for the Morning Most gracious God we do here humbly present our selves before thee to offer unto thee the Sacrifice of praise that is the fruit of our lips and to give thanks unto thy Name for the rest of the night past and the mercies of this morning We confess thou mightest justly have awakened us out of our sleep at mid-night as thou didst the Egyptians with a great cry or else have made our sleep as when thou smotest their first-born the sleep of death but we have lien down in peace and slept because thou Lord only makest us dwell in safety Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to the eyes to behold the Sun but How excellent is thy loving kindness in causing the Sun of Righteousness to arise unto us with healing in his wings d Blessed be thy Name for giving the Lord Jesus to be a light to lighten us Gentiles as well as to be the glory of thy people Israel And that we have together with him and not without him all things also We praise thee for the health of our bodies the peace of our mindes for our understanding and all the powers of our Souls for our sight and hearing and all the parts of our bodies for the liberty of our Persons the blessings of our Estate and all the comfort we enjoy in our Friends and Relations Yea for all those fatherly Corrections whereby thou hast sought to drive our foolishness far from us and to make us mend our pace in the wayes of