Lord upon this day drew forth most infallible testimonies of the truth of his resurrection and so left not onely to his present Disciples but to his succeeding servants a more firm foundation for their faith in himself and a more strong Argument to inforce their following observance of the same day Joh. 20.26 27 28 29. August detempore Ser. 25. Bellarm de cultu sanctorum l. 3. cap. 11. Tertul. li. de carne Christi 3. The Mission or Christs sending down of the holy Ghost was upon this day It appears the Apostles met upon the day of Pentecost Act. 2.1 this was a day instituted in remembrance of the Law delivered to Moses in the Mount fifty dayes after their departure out of Egypt Answerably whereunto the holy Ghost and Gods love thereby Rom. 5.5 is sent out and shed abroad the fiftieth day after Christ our Passeover was Sacrificed for us which by computation of the learned both Orthodox and Popish was the first day of the week Christ being gone up the holy Spirit he comes down A blessed bargain saith an ancient Writer hereby was made betwixt heaven and earth to triumphing Saints was given the presence of Christs body and to Militant Saints was sent the comforts of Christs Spirit The Spirit of Christ the Comforter came down upon this day That cannot but be a holy day wherein the holy Ghost came down There be 3. works of excellency applyed to the three Persons in Trinity to wit The work of Creation to God the Father The work of Redemption to God the Son And The work of Sanctification to God the holy Ghost Times and things Persons and seasons he sanctifies The holy Spirit passing through this day hath made it holy This being the day of the Lord his thus doing 't is THE LORDS DAY 2. To the Lord upon this day hath been done Sabbath-service In the Primitive times and In posteriour times The holy Apostles punctually set apart this first day of the week for the worship of God And they were men eminently endowed with the Spirit of Christ Yea men intimately acquainted with the secrets of Christ men immediately instructed by the person of Christ Christ in his own person before his death did discover things to them as to no other men John 15.15 and after his resurrection they were the men whom he did commissionate to erect a Gospel-Church and to order all things therein and therefore he did continue with them for the space of forty dayes before he ascended that he might fully furnish them for those great appointments wherein he found them faithfull And how successeful they were we see Act. 2. when on this same day were gained three thousand souls at one Sermon O blessed day blessed day And as for the Apostle Paul I shall pray you to ponder both His practice and His precept binding the day His practice in the day is plainly expressed Act. 20.7 And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together Paul preached unto them and continued his speech till midnight being to depart on the morrow c. His precept for the day is plainly implyed 1 Cor. 16.1 2. the Apostle there speaking of Collections for Saints upon the first day of the week when they should meet about the works of Gods worship adds this As I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia Piscator in Gene. 2.3 fol. 52 c. even so do ye In that He Ordains such duties for the day He Ordains the day for such duties And above fourty years after this as Chronologie saith Saint John tells us in the text of such a continued day The Lords day And as for other good Authors since the holy Apostles they report concerning the Christian Sabbath upon the first day of the week things of two sorts Some more remote as being a Preparance for it and Some more immediate asserting the observance of it Some things they recite as referring to this first-dayes-Sabbath August de tempo Ser. 25. Austin notes that this very day was the first day of the Worlds Creation when Angels Elements and lights were made and that of all the six dayes-works the work of the first day was greatest because then the first matter and Model the principals and Platform of all was laid Austin also observes that this was the day of Noahs entring into the Ark August de civit Dei lâ—b 16. cap. 26. of Infants receiving Circumcision of Mannas first falling in the Wildernesse Origen before him saith that if the Manna were gathered six dayes together as the Scripture declares Origen Homil. 7. in Exod. and it ceased upon the seventh day which was the Sabbath without doubt it began on the first day which is the Lords day and so he concludes the Lords day to be more excellent then the Jewish Sabbath This was the day say others of Christs Nativity and Baptisme of the Stars appearing at Bethlehem to the Wise men of Christs feeding five thousand persons and other particulars which are in this case collected But I proceed to such as insist upon matters more immediate affirming this first day of the week to be celebrated for the Sabbath of Christians In Eusebius we read the witnesse of Dionysius the Corinthian that they diligently kept holy this Lords day in those times Tertullian naming the Solemnities of Christians begins first with the Lords day which they he saith most carefully kept declaring their exercises theron Justin Martyr names the same day and shewes their works Ignatius against some that being Christians would retain the Jewish Sabbath saith in plain terms Plinius sub Trajano scripsitsolitos hoc stato die convenire Christianos ancle lucem carmenque Christo quasi â—eo communi voce dicere postea Sacramento se obstringere non in scelus aliquod ne furia ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent c. Magdeb. cent 2. cap. 6. We celebrate no longer the Sabbath of the Jewes but every one that loves Christ keepeth now holy the Lords day An Historian writes of the Christians custome in the Emperour Trajans time how they met upon this same set day early in the morning sung a Psalm received the Sacrament and bound themselves in Covenant to fly sin c. And t' was a common question put to Christians when they were brought before Pagan Governours Dost thou observe the Lords day and the ordinary answer then was I am a Christian and I dare not intermit it I shall shut up my discourse about this setling the Christian Sabbath onely by considering Something that Christ himself said concerning that and Something concerning that Christ said of himself That which our Saviour saith of the Sabbath we find Matth. 24.20 Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath-day We may observe the Sabbath our Saviour means it was for such as were converted to the faith of Christ and 't was for to remain long after the death of
Lord towards them 'T is a Spirit enriching and ruling 'T is a Spirit raising and resting on them 1. The Spirit enriches the people of God by imparting to them What is precious and excellent and What is Plenteous and abundant The riches of grace Ephes 1.7 which is compared to enriching gold Revel 3.18 This in abundance is brought in by the Spirt 2 Cor. 3.18 An evil spirit is reported to have brought to some in league with him Remigi lib. de Daemo pieces in appearance of true gold but they were never the richer for when they went to use them all turned into whithered leaves And so with false gold of seeming grace does Satan deceive the souls of some But the good Spirit of God brings into the souls of Gods Saints such gold of grace as is of real and rare use for their great enriching God-ward Men rich in earthly gold and the ordinary wealth of the world are able to compasse and accomplish those things that others cannot Such as the Spirit of the Lord hath largely enriched with Gospel-gold O what great things are they enabled to do O what fellowships with the Father converses with the Son communion with the holy Ghost are they prepared for And may not they be in the Spirit on the Lords day 2. The Spirit he rules the people of God by exercising over them Both a Negative and A Positive power A power whereby he holds them off from what he dislikes They cannot with others wade into the waies of the world the Spirit will not let them they cannot shift their sails as the wind change in every turn of times And though as Nazianzen said of Athanasius they be as loadstones to draw others in to God yet they are as Adamants that will not warp wind bend or break or shrink from God The Spirit of the Lord will not let them they cannot they care not yea the Spirit may keep them from something which may seeme good to them because of some greater good in the sight of God When Saint Paul was going to preach the Word at Asia the Holy Ghost forbade him and being about to go to Bithynia the Spirit suffered him not Act. 16. And a power the Spirit doth daily exercise over the People of God to lead them on to what the Lord requires Rom. 8.14 Gala. 5.18 Ezechiel the Prophet saw four wheeles which were sometimes carried on upon the earth and sometimes lifted up above the earth according as the spirit of the living creature moved that was in the wheeles Thus the Soules of Gods Saints are set a going sometimes they rise higher and sometimes they run swifter as the Spirit of the living God leads that is in their hearts Good men The Spirit leads them they may not be at a losse yea And when they are at a losse yet the Spirit leads them August de cor et gra Cap 2. Id. de Grat. et lib. Arb. Cap. 1. God led the people of Israel through the wildernesse not onely by a pillar of fire but by a pillar of the cloud Nehem. 9.19 The Spirit leads Gods people through the world as a fire that gives them light that so they may not lose their way sometimes there is such a cloud they cannot see their way yet then the Spirit leads them and when they are at a losse it is that voice behind them saying This is the way walk in it Esay 30.21 Now they that are thus under the daily conduct of the Spirit may not they be in the Spirit on the Lords Day 3. The Spirit raises the people of God lifts up a good man being down through amazing meditations Either of God in the Heights of his Majesty Or of himself in the depths of his Misery When the Prophet was fallen upon his face through affrighting thoughts at the glorious presence of God in a vision Then the Spirit entred into him and set him upon his feet Ezek. 2.2 Ezek. 3.24 The usuall cause of a Christians casting down is the sad apprehensions of his severall sins so that he seemes to himself as if his soul were sinking into the depths of hell then the Spirit helps him up By recalling former mercies and By revealing further Mysteries The Spirit recalls or causes a Christian to remember The promises of mercy the Lord hath made and The experiences of mercy himself hath found John 14.26 The Spirit shall bring all things to your remembrance viz. The gracious sayings and glorious doings of God in dayes past are drawn a fresh into the thoughts of dejected Saints The Spirit reveals or makes such mysteries of mercy manifest as were not before known Eph. 1.17 18. That God the Father of glory may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened ye may know what is the hope of his calling c Thus the Spirit pulls up poore Saints pittifully plunged Being down Either in sins Or in sorrowes The Spirit raises Saints in their sad relapses have sweet illapses the Spirit letting in such light and heat as heaves up their hearts dark down and dead They who in ordinary dayes may have such experiences of Spirit-helps may not they be in the Spirit on the Lords Day 4. The Spirit rests upon the People of God so the Apostle expresses it 1 Pet 4.14 This imports The Spirits Presence Both intimate And pertuate With the people of God They have the friendly and familiar presence of the Spirit in close acquaintance Communions and Communications as is not to any other men They have the presence of the Spirit in his continued workings Without Intermission and Without Termination The Spirit within them does never intermit all his actings Though he is in the soule as the pulse in the arme that does not alway beat with the same sensible strength and evennesse Motions may to a good mans feeling be more weak and low yet even in such distempers he is still stirring As when the body of a man is asleep yet there in the soul is acting So when the soule of a Saint is asleep yet there in the Spirit is working Neither can any period possibly be put to such an operative presence of the Spirit in the People of God The gracious soul is on earth as the Spirits centre the settled presence here of is not in any other soul The Spirit of Noah's Dove hovers over the hearts of earthly men but a holy and humble heart is to the Spirit as Noah's Ark to the Dove there he rests John 14.16 I sayes Chrsst will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter even the Spirit of truth and he shall abide with you for ever Your bodies have had my corporall presence for a time but in your soules the presence of my Spirit shall remain for ever Now they that have in them such a perpetuall presence of the Spirit may not they be in the Spirit upon the
Philistines make war against me and God is departed from me and answereth mâ— no more neither by Prophets nor by dreames c. He does not say God is departed from his Prophets God is departed from his ordinary waies of answer but God is departed from me c. Persons that do not find profit by the Word should misdoubt their own conditions for Gods Word does good to them that walk uprightly Micah 2.7 Such as say God is gone from publike ordinances it argues their hearts are gone if their bodies be with us they do but learn the Language of such as are gone from us both in body and Heart But God is with us Object None have such comfortable discoveries of God by the the Spirit as some that are departed from publick Assemblies Answ Some that have been damnable seducers have given out that they through the Spirit have had glorious discoveries of God The Spirit of God descending upon our Saviour like a Dove when he had heaven opened and God speaking This is my beloved Son Matth. 3.16 17. in allusion thereto and imitation thereof a grand Impostor having taught a white Pigeon to take pease out of his ear reported to the people that it was the holy Ghost imparting the mind of God to him in most comfortable Mysteries for the which he was much admired of many And our Saviour having promised the sending of the Spirit the Comforter that should make known all things from the Father Alsted Chronolo Haeresium 38. pag. 382. Joh. 14. One impudently affirmed not onely that he had extraordinary Spiritual comforts from God but that he was the very Spirit of God the Comforter and that God had sent him to make known most comfortable messages to the Churches of Christ whereupon he had many favourers and followers Luther cites several sects in his time who though they fled from the Word as Owles from the light yet they pretended to high raptures and ravishments through the Spirit and tâ—us especially the prime leaders with lyes as loadstones drew parties after them c. And there are in our dayes divers whose language it loud of large discoveries they have from and comforts they have in God through the Spirit never so as since they separated from our publick Assemblies before they were full of fears and doubts but now they are in the firmest settlements and fullest assurance free from all sad thoughts filled with the joyes and comforts of the holy Ghost having intimate acquaintance with the mind of God and understanding in the deep Mysteries of Christ This I shall onely say that if it be really so let us see more of it Both in their lives and actions And in their deaths and afflictions In the actings of their lives how little of the power of this appears Either towards God above them Or towards men about them If they say they now see and know so mâ—â—h taste and partake so much trust and confide so much in God let them evidence it by their exact actings and strict livings so as to out strip others in all goodnesse kindnesse meeknesse mercifulnesse c. As the Apostle speaks to the man who boasts of his belief Shew me thy faith by thy works Jam. 2. So may we say to such Let them shew their comforts and confidence in God by their holy working humble walking sin-subduing self-denying loving those that they count their enemies and praying for those they call their persecutors Math. 5.46 47. That saying of our Saviour to the Pharisees may fitly be applyed If ye love them which love you what reward have you Do not even the Publicans the same And if ye salute your brethren onely what do you more then others Do not even Publicans so c Nay instead of doing more then others in their conversations and actions they expresse lesse of the power of godlinesse and practice of holinesse keep lesse to the rules of righteousnesse and in the paths of peaceablenesse then other Christians do and yet they speak of higher raptures greater discoveries sweeter comforts stronger confidence then other Christians have I question whether these be any more then self-deceiving conceits arising from Satans-subtil designs 2. In their deaths and daies of deep distresse how little likewise do they lay forth of that firm confidence and those full comforts they speak of in God It were easy to instance from among the Anabaptists and such other Sects how especially the prime leaders who have spoken of raptures and ravishing revelations by the Spirit yet some of them have died ragingly and in a frenzie others stupidly their heart sinking within them like a stone And have not some been seen who have carried it boldly out while the Sun hath been warm under which they have set and while the Sea hath been calme over which they have sailed but when the winds have been rough and their hopes as ships have been wrackt their vapourings have vanished History reports of a river that at every Mid-Summer swelleth and runneth over the bancks but in Mid-Winter is cleane dried up Thus some while they have had prosperous successe their confidence and comforts have risen high but when they have been down in the depths of their distresse all have been damped and dashed to the dust As Pharaohs Chariots that carried him fast and ran swift upon the Land but when they were in the Sea then they went heavy and their wheeles fell off The Jewes said of our Saviour Let us see him come down from the Crosse we will believe in him But of such we may say Let us see them go up to the Cross let us see how they can look death devill God in the face keeping up the heights of their comforts confidence and then we may the better believe them In the mean while let not Christians believe they may have high comforts heavenly raptures through the Spirit yet neglect holy Ordinances Christian Assemblies the Lords Day and the duties thereof Though some men be in Sabbath-day-duies that are out of the Spirit yet let none think to be in the Spirit that lie out of duties upon the day of the Sabbath As whoever would sail over Sea to a friend in another Land must have both a ship and a wind so whoever would in soul ascend from earth unto God in heaven must have the help Both of Gods holy Ordinances And of Gods holy Spirit The Ordinance as the Ship and The Spirit as the wind As the Ship of an Ordinance cannot move without the wind of the Spirit so the wind of the Spirit will not blow without the Ship of an Ordinance And therefore as a man must desire the wind So he must take care that he be in the Ship else if he goes to Sea his soul will sink and not ascend Some neglect the Ordinances of God and the duties of the Sabbath and therefore are not in the Spirit upon the Lords Day 2. Some others they so
day and for ever Christ who is The Lord our righteousnesse he is the Lord our Sabbath So chat we shall have a Sabbath last as long as Christ lives A good conscience Sabbatum Dei illud quo exterius â—b opere cessasse dicitur Sacramentum est interioris Sabati ubimens sancto per bonam conscientiam a peccato quiscâ—ns c. Hugo Chrysost Homil. 17. in Genes August Serm. 10. ad fratres in Exem as it is a continual feast so a Sabbath of rest Prov. 15.15 Esay 57.20 The wicked are like the troubled Sea that have no Sabbath of rest Tell me not sayes Chrysostome the man hath a sumptuous Table is cloathed mith silks attended with servants shews me his conscience there is a hurry of lusts a tumult of sins A continual Sabbath-lesse man A good conscience 't is sayes Austin the bed of God the Palace of Christ the Temple of the holy Ghost the Paradise of delights the standing Sabbath of Saints c. Let us be faithful in the Sabbath that may possibly cease and then may we be sure of a never ceasing Sabbath In the saddest most unsetled seasons when customes are changing and Kingdoms are shaking and all Gods Ordinances seem to be taking their leave in a Land yea when all externals in the world are at worst yet there is an internal Sabbath in the heart and an eternal Sabbath in the heavens whereof every Saint may be sure Sabbatum duplex Pectoris et Temporis Aquinas 12ae quest 100. Art 5. Suppose there should be here no more Sabbaths remaining yet there is a remaining Sabbath Heb 4.10 And though the Lords day will end the Lord himself will be a never ending day THE LORDS DAY Enlivened Revel 1.10 I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day THe holy Apostle in the words present plainly reports The Season upon which he was set and The condition into which he was put The Season which he was on It was the Lords Day The condition which he was in He was in the Spirit I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day The Point we are next to prosecute is That it is sensible to some and possible for all pious men to be in the Spirit on the Lords Day This Doctrine I shall endeavour To clear To prove and To presse For the clearing of truth it is fit to unfold What is the Spirit in which they may be on the Lords Day and What it is for them on the Lords Day to be in the Spirit Spirit This is to be considered both as it relates To God and To Man Omnes Nomenis Jehovae literae sunt spirituales ut denotetur Deum esse Spiritum Alsted Spirit This as unto God does import Either the whole divine Essence Or one personall subsistence The whole Essence of the God-head is Spirit As Christ King Priest and Prophet is one compleat Saviour So God Father Son and holy Ghost is one spirituall being And as in the Spirit they are but one being So in their being they are but one spirit Thus God is a Spirit John 4.24 Thus Spirit is attributed as unto God 1 Tim. 3.16 1. Pet. 3.18 c. 2. The third Person subsisting in the God-head is Spirit As there is God a Spirit So there is the Spirit of God Through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God Rom. 15.19 The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 c. This is called The Spirit of truth John 14.17 The Spirit of life Rom. 8.2 The Spirit of holinesse Rom. 1.4 The Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 Spirit This as appropriate to man implies Either the whole soul of man Or the superiour facultie of the soul 1. For the soul wholly in the substance thereof As every individuall man hath his soul So the soul of every single man it is his spirit Each man is a compound creature made up of soule and body Hence men are compared to Gideons souldiers Judg. 7.16 Ambros de Spir. Sa. lib. 1. cap. 16. Each having his â—arthen pitcher and Lamp therein when the earthen pitcher of mans body is broken by death the Lamp of his soul abides burning either in heaven or hell Thus Matth 10.28 Mans soule while in his body is called his Spirit Isay 26.9 Ex egests vid. Augustin in locum et Ambros Com. in loc With my soule have I desired thee in the night and with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Luk. 1.46 47. Mary said My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour 2. Spirit That is the soules superiour facultie As the soule it is spirit So there is the spirit of the soule Or The spirit of the mind as the Apostle calls it Rom. 12.2 This is the intellectual or the knowing power of the soule Who knowes the things of man save the spirit of man which is in him 1. Cor 2.11 Thus 1 Thess 5.23 the Apostle mentions body soul and spirit Indeed this is most applicable to man as born of God considered Not onely in his proper constitution But also in his further restitution As the woman in the Gospell who hid her leaven in three measures of meal till the whole lump was leavened Thus the Lord layes his Grace in these three parts body soule and spirit till the whole man is sanctified Now such a man so spirited is fit to be in the spirit on the Lords Day On the Lords Day in the spirit Spirit it is taken as referring both to God and man The Spirit of God and the spirit of man meeting 2. What it is for a godly man on the Lords Day to be in the Spirit In the Spirit This notes Both his soules habitual condition as settled And his soules actuall condition as moved 1. The soul of a sanctified man according to his settled condition considered is in the spirit Being by grace habitually planted and effectually put into God Father Son and Holy Ghost John 17.21 That they sayes Christ to his Father may be one in us In us That they are not in thee onely nor in me alone but in us viz. Father Son and holy Spirit Every gracious soul Rests in God Abides in Christ and Lives in the Spirit Bernard 1. In God there is a resting Psal 37.7 The soule of every true Believer sayes a learned Writer Hath a double Mansion One wherein it rules viz. the body and The other wherein it rests viz. God The soule of every Saint is settled in God as in its centre The force of some temptation may seeme to unsettle his soule and as it were to separate it from God but then as Noah's Dove out of the Ark it finds no rest back again it comes God is its centre and out of God truly it can never be taken maugre all the malice of hell 2. In Christ there is his abyding John 15.7 In the heart of Christ and In the
cattell upon a thousand hills and all the Fowles of the Mountaines are mine Verse 10 11. But yet those Bullocks and sheep that were set apart for Sacrifice were more immediately the Lords And thus all time is the Lords there is not a day in a thousand years nor an houre in ten thousand dayes but to the least minute all is the Lords Yet there is a day so set apart for holy service That 't is THE LORDS DAY I shall reduce things to a threefold Thesis or Position 1. Pos That God hath one day in seven set apart for his solemne service is sure even from the beginning 2. Position That Christ also should have one day in seven solemnely set apart for his service is sure 3. Position That this day viz. the first day in the week which Christians have commonly kept is that day assuredly THE LORDS DAY First God from the beginning did ordain such a day for religious duties a holy Sabbath This we shall consider As first sanctified And after ratified The consecration of it to Adam in Paradise And The promulgation of it to Moses on the Mount 1. God did establish a seventh day for a sacred Sabbath Gen. 2.2 3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it c. As God appointed Adam his work to wit on the week-dayes to dresse the ground so God provided him a Sabbath a seventh day of holy rest The ground indeed did not then as now need tillage but the first man must be an Exemplar or pattern to Posterity Neither did Adam need rest by reason of any bodily wearinesse in Innocency presupposed but God would have him full and whole to set himself one day in seven to serve him and in a holy communion then more immmediately to meet his Maker which might be unto him a Paradise in Paradise This Sabbath for his souls solace was as the sweetest flower in all his Garden This Seventh day God had bâ—â—ssed and man was bound to keep As there was a speciall Tree whereof Adam might not eate So there was a speciall time that Adam might not break Though he should live without sin Yet he must not live without a Sabbath Secondly God did publish his Sabbath-pleasure more plain to his People upon Mount Sinai Exod. 20.8 9. ver Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy c. Which words as they concern a Set-seventh-day-sabbath so they seem to look towards it with a two-fold aspect Both backward And forward Backward As reflecting upon the Sabbath for meer entrance Such a day already instituted the Seventh day God in mercy had made it holy and man must remember to keep it holy Some especially Popish Writers say there was no Sabbath set before the Lord had proclaimed his Law upon Mount Sinai but all the most Orthodox determine otherwise Besides that in Genesis precited we see Exod. 16.23 To morrow sayes Moses is the rest of the holy Sabbath to the Lord. It appears 't was a preappointed day Forward As directing to the Sabbaths further continuance A day that must be remaining Some would make the fourth commandement to be a meer transient ceremonie to live and die with the Jewish Church But if they graunt that the other nine are morall and perpetuall Then this For 't is comprised among them Yea 't is advanced above them This is set in the middle of all as the very heart of the whole as if the Sabbath on the seventh day were the centre in which all the lines of Gods Law meet Yea this is set beyond them as we may see if we observe with what a word 't is inforced in the preface and with what words 't is inlarged in the progresse Remember it stands at the door to invite Calvin Musculus Zanchius c. 't is a word of great weight as our late VVriters observe And in the precept as we passe the roomes there we meet with many words to welcome The Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work c. As saint Paul said of himself considered with the other Apostles 2. Cor. 11. Are they Israelites So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham So am I. Are they the Ministers of Christ I am more In labours more abundant In prisons more frequent So may the Sabbath-precept say of it self in respect of the other commandements Were they written with the finger of God in stone so was I. Were they put into the Ark safe to be preserved So was I. In reasons more urgent In circumstances more aboundant more particulars pressing practise then in any of the other precepts The whole Decalogue or holy Law of God was delivered in thunder and the loudest and longest clap seemed to lie upon the fourth commandement As if at this the Trumpet gave the largest and shrillest sound to set it forth and to settle it fast So we see God had for his service a Sabbath the seventh day From the creation setled and so to proceed Secondly that our dear Saviour should have such a set day of holy rest and religious labour as relating to him suits with Scripture and agrees with grounds of reason For Christ he hath wrought as God the Father did and Christ is to be honoured as God the Father was First the same works have been done by Christ the Son as were done by God the Father John 5.19 Jesus answered Verily verily I say unto you The Son does nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do For whatsoever things he doth the same doth the Son likewise Did God the Father blesse and sanctifie a seventh day for his sacred service and shall not the Son do the same Is there not a set day which the Son hath sanctified As God the Father rested from his works so hath Christ the Son ceased from his Heb. 4.10 Therefore Christ is to have his Sabbath of rest as well as God the Father in the first age of the world Yea the work of Redemption done by the Son doth it not surpasse the work of the whole Creation Being In it self most precious Upon Christ more pressing and Unto us more profitable First most precious is this work in it self viz. Christs recovering souls above Gods creating the World As mans gaining the world cannot recompence the losse of his soul so Gods making the world does not equalize Christs redeeming the soul To draw men out of an enthralled bondage is more then to bring matters out of a confused Chaos In the former God was to deal with no enemy but in the latter Christ was put to combate with all the Divells in hell yea and to overpower men opposing their own mercies 2. Most pressing was this work to Christ it made his very soul heavy unto the death Mat. 26.38 In this Christ did not onely fight with the Divell but God herein fought with Christ bruised him and put him to grief Isay 53.10 The worlds creation was done without
us on the Lords Day to loose his children and Servants from our businesses and houses and lead them away with us to be instructed should not every one of us publikely present our selves on the Sabbath before the Lord as it were saying Behold here am I and the children and servaants that thou hast given me And if we go before God alone leaving our families to their liberties what will the Lord say As Eliah said to David when he came to the Camp of the Israelites 1. Sam. 17.28 How comest thou down hither where is the flock and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wildernesse And may not God thus question some when they come and on the Sabbath day appear in publike How comest thou hither where is thy family with whom hast thou left thy Children and servants * Euseb de vita Const li 4. Ca. 18. et 19 Eusebius reports of Constantine what good laws he made for the bringing forth of families all sorts of servants yea souldiets and men of war to Gods publike worship upon the Sabbath day And other pious Princes in times past have thought it no lesse a part of their duty 2. God keeps his propriety in them he is the great housholder and all our families are his as Laban said to Jacob Gen. 31.43 These daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and these cattel are my cattel and all that thou seest is mine Thus sayes God to a Governour Thy sons are my sons and thy servants are my servants and all that thou hast is mine Now as by virtue of our interest in them and authority over them they work for us on the week So by virtue of Gods interest in them and sovereignty above them they are bound to serve God upon his holy Sabbath they have a Father in heaven and a Master in heaven whose commands especially on this day they ought to obey which we must further not hinder As the Lord said by Moses to Pharaoh Let my people go that they may serve me so he sayes to us Let my children go and my servants go that they may worship me upon my holy Sabbath Pharaoh against this was froward but think what befell him and let us fear We should be in this case towards all under our charge as the Master of the Colt as soon as he had heard the Lord had sent for him he streight way unloosed him and let him go Luk. 19. Let them be loath herein if we do not put them on the utmost we can our selves fall under sin Thus having seen the several sorts of men sinning against the Lords day and examined the arguments which on each side they urge answering among objections the principal they presse that they may passe without blame Multitudo peccantium auget peccatum I proceed from the multitude of the sinners to discover The Magnitude of the sin Sin that lies against the Lords day is Great Both in judgement And in practice To erre in opinion upon this point as the error Is very senslesse So very sinfull 'T is a senslesse error For such as own the Lord of the day yet to deny the day of the Lord for men to acknowledge themselves under the command of Christ and yet to be above the Sabbath of Christians c. 'T is a sinful error 'T is an error full of sin in judgement to be against the Christian Sabbath for it is A Mother-error A Master-error And therefore a monsterous error men may easily imagine many other errors are under the beck and bred in the belly of this Hence people cry down Sanctification Mortification Repentance practical holinesse publick Ordinances Prayer Preaching Scriptures and all the means of grace c. Yea hence ready to plead for Popery to imbrace Images and advance all Idol-worship At this one door this triple crown will easily come in with all Antichristian yea Heathenish vanities 'T is a fundamental error O what Babels may be built upon this yea by this such batteries may be made as may shake and shatterdown the whole Fabrick of Christian Religion This makes many so miserably misuse Scripture some texts they muzzle their mouthes and will not suffer them to speak other texts they set upon the rack making them speak what God never meant and all to make the Sabbath nothing Satan having not a greater design then to down this day And indeed the Divel well knowes there is not a readier way to rout out all the truthes of God all the world over and to introduce all errors into all parts of the Christian world then to corrupt the judgements of people with an Antisabbatarian principle Therfore to erre herein is a very great sin 2. To erre in point of practice and to transgresse against the Lords day in respect of the duties thereof is a sin exceeding sinful Both for its gradation And for its dilation If we observe How high it riseth and How far it reacheth The sin is great Great is the sinne of Sabbath neglects If we consider How it ascends in height How it extends in breadth 1. For height This sin goes up to God and is a sin of such degrees against him as that therein are not onely many sins enwrapped but each sin rising higher then the other so that the latter is much worse then the former As Austin once aggravated Adams sin in eating the fruit God had forbidden August Enchi ad Laur. cap. 45. so may I aggravate this sin in not keeping the day God hath commanded For therein is Ingratitude Forgetfulness Perfidiousness Theft Robbery Sacriledge Ingratitude God at the beginning gave man a Sabbath but man by sin soon lost his Sabbath-right yet God after gives men a new Charter for Sabbath-priviledges Christ confirmes it the day is sure Consule Ambros Orat. de obitu Satyri the mercy is sweet Lord what is man even a monster in nature sayes one herein to be ungrateful For him that is unworthy of a minute to be unthankful for a day and such a DAY as this a monstrous sin indeed Forgetfulnesse As for God to forsake man is among the sorest judgements So for man to forget God is among the greatest sins When the Scripture would set out the worst of wicked persons and Nations it sayes they are such as forget God Now sure he that does not remember the Sabbath of God he does forget the God of the Sabbath Yea it argues God forgotten all the week when men do not remember the Sabbath day and duty Perfidiousnesse This blessed day is one of those precious things God hath commited to mans trust to keep now to be untrusty and treacherous herein is a most abominable sin Constantine was wont to say Such men I am sure wil never be faithfull to me that are unfaithful to their God No marvel men betray so many trusts in the world when they deal falsely with God in his holy times
of heaven hold off the sight of such a dismal day We read Gen. 21.15 16. of Hagar when the bread and water in the bottle was spent and her son ready to famish she went and sate her down at a distance saying O let me not see the death of my child And she looked toward him and left up her voyce and wept When Spiritual food shall faile will not a faithful Minister sit down sorrowfully saying O let me not see the death of my people Yea when holy Ordinances are gone how will other Christian Churches look over to England and lament saying VVe have a sister and she hath no breasts Can. 8.8 These are the deserved effects of our lamentable neglects of the Lords day when men cease from Sabbaths then God makes Sabbaths to cease Hosea 2 11. Men sinfully forget Gods Sabbaths and then God as a punishment causes Sabbaths to be forgotten Lam. 2.6 The Lord hath violently taken away his Tabernacle destroyed the places of assembly and caused the Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion 2. The principal of all precious things is hereby brought to depart even God himself When Gods Sabbaths service and servants leave a Land the Lord goes along with them I read of Nazianzene who being about to go from a place where he had Preached for some time a good man comes crying unto him O Nazianzene wilt thou go away and carry the holy Trinity with thee Father Son and holy Ghost all forsake such as are Sabbath-forsaken the Gospel of God and the God of the Gospel goes together In the departure of the Lords day the Lord of the day departs 2 The positive punishments for Sabbath-sins are considerable Both in their Diversity And in their Severity 1 God does execute divers judgements upon the neglect of the Lords day when God himself with his Sabbaths and service forsake a Land he lets in lamentable calamities and makes men suffer several wayes 2 Chron 15.5 6 7. For along season Israel was without the true God and without a teaching Priest and without Law And in those times there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the Countries Nation was destroyed of Nation and City of City for God did vexe them with all adversity Gaulter in Act. 13. Homil. 88. A learned Expositor thus speaks In our dayes even among Christians the Sabbath is sinfully broken that blessed day abused which should be wholly consecrated to God and do we yet marvel what is the cause of our calamities I have heard that in Germany under their woful Wars there was at a time a very great convention sitting to consult what should be the cause of their calamities and the Major part pressed the not trimming of their Churches and adorning them with Images not considering how carelesse they were of the Lords day and the due worship of God The error with us is slighting of all publike places painful Preachings pure Administrations Gods holy Institutions of times and things yet we are not aware that these things work our wo. Let 's look into Levit. 26.2 Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary What if not I will make your Sabbaths to cease and bring your sanctuaries into desolation and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours vers 31. And is that all I will set my face against you they that hate you shall reign over you I will send wilde beasts among you and I will bring a sword upon you and several other sad miseries we meet in the Chapter The like Lamentations 2. The Lord hath violently taken away his Tabernacle caused his Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and hath despised or suffered to be despised in the indignation of his anger the KING and the PRIEST contempt to be cast upon all that are appointed to rule and govern both in Church and State A great sin a grievous punishment and what further The wall of the Daughter of Zion is fallen her gates are sunk her bars are broaken the LAW is no more vers 7 8 9. Alas O the breaches God makes and bloodsheds God brings for breaking his Sabbaths The Christian world is filled with wars when the Lords day growes dimme When the Sun is darkned the Moon is turned into blood Joel 2.13 2. God does execute severe judgements for the Non-sanctifying of his Sabbaths In general upon people And also on particular persons Jer. 17.27 If you will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath day then will I kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem and it shall devour the Palaces thereof and it shall not be quenched Fire it holds forth the fierceness of anger evidenced in its most fearful effects The Lord by the mouth of the Prophet threatens fire fire Fire in the Palaces and Fire in the Gates Palaces Places of honour the beauty and ornaments of a City upon these shall be fire Gates Places of power where the strength of a City is laid and where justice is done here also fire Fire in the Palaces No keeping in and also Fire in the Gates No running out A devouring fire round about that all must feel and none can quench and all this comes for not keeping the Sabbath holy See how Nehemiah contends with transgressors against this holy time of the Sabbath What evil is this that ye do and profane the Sabbath day did not your fathers thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon them and upon this City yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath This sin heightens the wrath of God and causes great fires Nehem. 13.17 18. Not onely Nations but Particular persons have also been severely punished upon the same account as ther have been sad instances in several ages men made as monuments of Gods dreadful anger in divers places Tacit. Histor lib 5. Josephus Antiq. lib. 12 cap. 13. lib. 16. cap. 11. Pompey that great Souldier is reported sorely to suffer for defiling of Gods Sabbath and Sanctuary 'T is written of Herod the King who appointing some to pull up the Sepulchres of Gods Saints and to search for supposed treasures therein God made fire to rise out of the earth whereby such as searched were devoured Ecclesiast Histor 12. centur Magdeb. cap. 6. Histories are found full of examples of Gods fearful judgements upon such who upon supposals of earthly pleasure and profit have presumed to pull down the Sahbath of his Son in the solemn service thereof Joh. Fincel lib. 3. de mirac Many make mention of that miserable Woman who upon the Lords day dressing her flax fire flamed out thereof and the third Sabbath it so burned in the house that her children and self was consumed therewith Discipul de de tempore Serm. 117. Another carrying in his Corn upon the Lords day fire kindled in his Barn and burnt it to the ground I have
the Sabbath God he makes breaches in mens Government when men make breaches in Gods Commandement The way to keep good Government whole is to keep Gods Sabbath Holy Yea this will bring on obediential respects to governours that are good People that profane and pollute Gods Sabbaths will contemne and reject good Rulers That is a sad case Lam. 2.6 The Lord hath destroyed the places of the publike assemblys he hath caused the Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the KING and the PRIEST That is God then as a testimony of his terrible displeasure did suffer such to be despised Where Sabbaths are not remembred There Superious are not regarded None so soone give to Caesar the things that are Caesars as they who first give to God the things that are Gods Remarkable is Gods Method in the ten Commandements Remember the Sabbath and then the next Honour thy Father whether they be Natural Civil or Spirituall Fathers The way to honour the Father is first to remember the Sabbath No marvell if such as make little of the fourth Commandement make nothing of the fifth Indeed none will make more of the fifth Commandement then they that make most of the fourth We shall find it clear That such as most imbrace Gods Commandements They will best obey Gods Vice-gerents 2. The men this sanctifying the Sabbath is profitable for are Sinners and Saints Men that remain in their finfull estate the Sabbath is good For their conforming in some part For their transforming throughout Through Sabbath-day-impressions some men bad are brought to the outward performance of religious actions As Herod hearing John Baptist preach probably at such appointed times was so far wrought upon that her everenced John and did many good things Mark 6.20 If Sabbaths were laid aside men would not have the face of visible profession nor so much as keep the tongues of Christians but turn into absolute Atheisme yea brutish Barbarisme forgetting the Lord to be God and themselves to be men Christianity would soon cease and not long after humanity sink The Name of God the knowledge of Christâ— civilities among men are all kept up by a Sabbath-support Yea besides such more common commodities some by Sabbaths-meanes are brought to a soul-saving change In that glasse of the Gospel which this day is held up some beholding the glory of the Lord are changed from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 This is the day wherein the net is cast out that drawes many to shore Yea fishes that could never be caught are brought in by a Sabbath-tyde Through the warme beames of a Sabbath-sun some new creatures are ingendred that were before but as filthy dung Such ciences of saving graces are graffed into the soules of some upon the Sabbath-day as that after they prove trees bearing the best fruit who were before but as Crab-tree-stocks Men that are removed into a sanctified estate the Sabbath does exceedingly concern their good That they which are fallen may stand and That they which stand may not fall Such as are fallen through sin are set up through Sabbath-helps The helps of a Sabbath have recovered decayed Christians impoverished places and persons have been relieved by Sabbath-Collections and so by Sabbath-petitions have some had sweet relief who were sunk low in their souls estate Nothing better by way of means then holy Ordinances upon the Lords day to recover soul-Consumptions Some that have been as Aarons dry Rod yet through this dayes blessing have blossom'd and born abundance after of the best fruit Mark 2. we see our Saviour upon the Sabbath day healing of a man that had a withered hand O how many withered hearts bath Christ upon the Sabbath cured How many cast down by the Divel hath the Lord upon this day raised Matth. 12.11 And Jesus said unto them What man among you having his sheep fallen into a pit will not pull it out on the Sabbath day Out of deep pits of Apostasie the Lord hath pulled poor relapsed Saints upon the Sabbath day 'T was upon this Lords day that Paul raised Eutichus fallen down from the third loft Act. 20. O how many in our dayes are fallen from the third loft lamentably lapsed In judgement Affection and Practice Yet we hope that in some of them there is some life left and that the Lord will ere long raise and recover them through tht benefit of this blessed day Others that have not yet fallen the Sabbath is of singular use to settle them fast 'T is conceived by sound Authors from several grounds that our first Parents fell from their created Innocency upon the sixth day of the week the very same day wherein God had made them Should they have stood up and possessed out the service of the ensuing Sabbath they would have been more settled in their obedience and better confirmed for their continuance but Satan subtilly assaults them before the Sabbath or the seventh day comes and so more easily were they conquered and cast down The Sabbath with the service thereof is soul-quickning Saint-strengthening The Christian Sabbath is the main sinew of Christian Religion if this be stopt or obstructed and vital blood does not well passe all the parts weaken wither waste and die but if all passes well in Sabbath-veines then all grows and gathers strength and is more vigorous lively and lasting Sabbaths serve to make the Saints of God more pure perfect and permanent That 's holy which the Sabbath sanctifies and that is strong which rhe Sabbath ratifies and that is blessed upon which passes the blessing of the Sabbath Some Collect from Levit. 22. 27. that the Lamb appointed for the Paschal sacrifice was not allowable before it was eight dayes old And some of the Rabbins render this reason because nothing in the world was to be reputed perfect untill a Sabbath had passed over it but then was a thing clean compleat and blessed when it had gone under the blessing of a Sabbath Yea such is the benefit of this blessed day that as it brings all things to be blessed to us so it brings us to be in all things blessed Isay 56.2 Yea all things that concern our good not onely for time but eternity are brought in at this Sabbath-door Isay 56.5 As Caleb gave his daughter the upper and the lower springs so God hath given his day the good things both of Earth and Heaven Thus the careful keeping of Christian Sabbath is profitable Lastly the Lords day duly kept is delectable For the delights and comforts that do accompany the carefull keeping of this holy day consider Both the persons they are to And the properties they are of 1. The persons to whom the Lords day well kept is a delight are Superiour and Inferiour Persons superiour that herein take pleasure are God and his Holy Angels 1. God himself Father Son and holy Ghost take herein great delight
Take week-day-delights as in worldly matters and ordinarily there is a deadly hook within a pleasant bait Our Mother Eve Gen. 3. looked upon the fruit of the forbidden tree and it was pleasant for her eye Ai Ai but that which was pleasant for her sight it was perillous for her soul It was but week-day-pleasure in a Garden-tree had she continued innocent and tasted of Sabbath-day-delights in a glorious God of that fruit she might have eate and at that Fountain she might have drunk safely 2. These are the sweetest joyes Weekday-sports in lawful delights are but as pills rolled up in Sugar bitter-sweet sweet without bitter within As the Prophets Book that was as honey in the mouth and as gall in the belly These earthly pleasures are as garden-Roses which as they have their pleasant leaves so they have their pricking stalks Whereas true Sabbath-delights are throughout sweet Some bitter drops may possibly fall in them but they are not properly of them For as there is saltnesse in every drop of Sea-water So there is sweetnesse in every dram of true Sabbath-comfort 3. These are the firmest joyes Unto sinful men their week-delights are weak delights that rise and soone fall that spring up and soone wither away One blast of Gods displeasure it blowes out those Candle-comforts One drop of a troubled conscience sayes Luther swallowes up a Sea of worldly joy Whereas to Gods Saints Sabbath-delights are surer delights stable and strong As the strength of the Lord is their joy So the joy of the Lord is their strength Their delights in the Sabbath of the Lord Is by delighting in the Lord of the Sabbath Isay 58.13 Thou shalt not do thy pleasure on my holy day but call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor speaking thine own words What then Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord. I will cause thee to ride upon high places and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy Father Here is a firme foundation for Saints Sabbath-delightings viz. God and his gracious dealings 4. These are the fullest joyes Sabbath-feasting-delights are soul-filling-delights Week-day-pleasures in worldly matters are ever swelling but never filling They are windy and empty and so apt to swell men with pride and self-conceits But they do not fill men so as to give them any good satisfactions Soul-satisfying joyes are Sabbath-sanctifying joyes Comforts in and communions with God give full content Some of Gods Saints who have had their souls filled with sorrowes all the week yet upon the Sabbath God hath turned their water into wine August de tempore Serm. 154. Austin is of the judgement that that Marriage in Cana of Galilee Joh. 2. was upon the Sabbath-day when the six water pots being fill'd with water to the brim Christ made all into wine When with some the six-week-dayes have been like those six water pots all fill'd brim full with the waters of sorrow the Lord upon the day of our Christian Sabbath hath changed all into the best wine of soul-refreshing comfort Joseph de bello Judaico lib. 7. cap. 24. Josephus writes of a River near Jerusalem that upon the six dayes in the week was dry through the failing of the water from the spring head but upon the Sabbath which was the seventh day the springs sent out so fast that the banks were filled whereupon it was commonly called The Sabbath-River I cannot affirm the truth of this But this is truth There are that can by experience speak it When little hath come from the spring head of comfort all the week yet upon the Sabbath day soul-eomforts have flowed in and filled up amaine About the tents of the Jewes Manna fell from heaven onely upon the week-dayes none was found upon the Sabbath 'T is otherwise with Christians that Manna of heavenly joy that falls not all the week is to be found upon their Sabbath day so as that therewith their souls are safely sweetly and firmely filled O how much might this promote among us the careful keeping of our Christian Sabbath viz. The profitable comfort and the comfortable profit that may in the same be possessed Yet upon the souls of several of Gods Saints some things may be supposed sadly to sit Some complain that though past there hath been a long continuance of the Sabbath yet they have found no such profit and comfort Others confesse they have found much comfort and profit but they fear a short continuance of the Sabbath for the future The former are damp'd in the duty and service of the day because they feel no present profit and comfort coming The latter are damp'd in their comfort and profit for present because they fear the day will not publickly endure But that neither the want of the comfort of the day may dishearten the duty Nor the doubt of the continuance of the day may diminish the comfort Some things suitable to both sorts may be said to help in such cases of sadnesse First for such of Gods Saints as are under temptations discouraging from the service of the Sabbath because they have not had such good successe in Sabbaths observed 1. Be it so yet such ought in the Sabbath-day-duties to continue their diligence We are bound to perform duty though we should not receive mercy 't is the mark of meer Mercenaries without some recompence no obedience Indeed the recompence of reward may be in our eye though it be not our end In our work we do we may have a love to the reward but for meer love of the Reward we are not to do our work God is our great Lord and Master though 't is not servile obedience yet 't is obedience of servants we owe to him daily and much more upon his holy day If he should not be as a liberal Master to pay us wages for it yet we must be as loyal servants to perform his work in it A learned Author reports Cassianus lib 4 cap. 24. that he knew a young man who meerly in obedience to a superiours command for a whole year together he went two miles every day onely to poure water on a dry withered stick We ought every Lords day to come under Gospel-waterings though our hearts should remain as withered dry and dead sticks or hard stones though we should feel no softenings quickenings comfortings 't is enough we have a command the duty is ours the day is Christs who is over all God above all blessed for ever 'T is a favour God will imploy us though he should not reward us Angels are glad God will send them on his businesse though they have no new recompence They are chearful to increase their duty though they do not enlarge their glory We be not to conceive of the Angels that some God hath to stand up by him and others are sent out of him for sayes the Apostle Are they not all ministring spirits sent
are such as that his heart is prompt prepared for every precept purpose and providence O God my heart is prepared my heart is prepared sayes David One observes how he doubles the expression to imply he was willing to a differing condition Paratum cor meum ad prospera paratum ad adversa paratum ad sublimia paratum ad humilia paratum ad universa quae preceperis c. Bern. Ser. 2. de quadrages If God would have him high or low rich or poor a shepherd again or a Prince still His heart was prepared prepared Thus is it with a pious man his heart is prepared to put on after God in any condition his Spirit is upon such wheels of love to the Lord that he is oft carried out beyond and before he is aware Cant. 6.12 Or ever I was aware my soul made me as the Chariots of Amminadib The spirit of the Spouse did unexpectedly rise and run out after Christ as a Chariot upon the wheeles And are the spirits of Gods Saints set into such a frame for the Lord and may not they be in the Spirit on the Lords day 4. Indefatigable are the spirits of Gods people in following the Lord. In Gods worship their spirits are unwearied when their bodies are weakened Their spirits may be weary in but are never weary of any worship of God or any work for God in his worship their hearts and minds Being pitched down And girt up for God The heart of a holy man is pitched down and firmly resolved for God his mind does not fluctuate hover and waver in unsettled uncertainties he is not upon demurs and disputes confers not with flesh and blood Baron An. 261. num 30. Cyprian that blessed Martyr when the Governour bad him advise with himself answered Sir do your office in a righteous cause I am not now to resolve A man of a wavering spirit is soon wearied out and wrought off from God A good man indeed his heart is fixed for God though he be not fixed firmely in the wayes of God yet for the wayes of God he is firmely fixed Though he hath some doubtings in his way yet he hath not doubtings of his way and so walks on unweariedly His heart will not be tyred or turned out Yea the heart of a holy man is girt up and closely united to God his mind is not divided between the Lord and the world Frederick the Elector of Saxony who was a prisoner to Charles the fifth being offered liberty and dignity if he would come to Masse answered I have but one Master one soul and one Saviour I dare not serve two A man of a double heart that halts between God and Baal God and Mammon never holds out He may seem for a while to out-run many but he will be weary A gracious man his spirit is not onely for God gathered in one but it is so knit up as to be one with God 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit and hence he holds out to the end never weary And they who in the wayes of the Lord are of such unwearied spirits may not they be in the Spirit on the Lords day There is none of Gods Servants but possibly now may be as some of the servants of God cettainly have been upon the Lords day in the Spirit I was in the Spirit upon the Lords day The USE IS Of Information Of Exhortation 1. This may clearly declare the ill case of two kinds of men neither of which are in the Spirit on the Lords day Some that are not nor possibly can Some that pâ—ssibly may yet are not 1. 'T is the sad case of all unsanctified men they neither are nor possibly can be upon the Lords day in the Spirit This will plainly appear considering Both what they be And what they do Men remaining in a sinful estate we may observe what they be Both privatively And positively Privatively They cannot be in the Spirit on the Lords day because They be without the Spirit of the Lord And towards the Lord they be without spirit 1. As men in natures estate are without God and without Christ Ephes 2.12 so they are without the holy Spirit Rom. 8.9 Jude 19. As when man was to be created the three Persons they all concur Let us make man Gen. 1.26 And no sooner is man corrupted but they all conclude with a Let us leave man So that every sinful man is forsaken of God the Father Son and holy Ghost Such men be without Gods holy and blessed Spirit whether we consider Some more prophane Others more refined Men that expresse nothing but vice and vanity sons of Belial chief servants to the Divel such as do that for the Divel as he cannot do for himself Satan himself because of spiritual being cannot commit many sins But men that herein they may fulfil his will they run into drunkennesse and all kind of corporal uncleannesse they swear and curse steale and commit adultery and wallow in all worldly filthinesse and have they the Spirit of holinesse Men whose mouthes are as that Gate of Jerusalem out at which was carried forth all the filth of the City Their throats are as open Sepulchres their tongues are set on fire of hell and have they the holy Spirit of God in their hearts Other men there are who professe better They speak high but live low Their voice is Jacobs but their hands are Esaus Like Peters fish that had silver in the mouth but none in the belly Nothing of the spirit appears in their waies yet much of the Spirit may be heard in their words As if the Dove were in their Arks onely and none had the Spirit of God but they Thus Muncer the Anabaptist while he called Luther a spiritlesse man a silly soule one without the Spirit of God he pretended himself to be all full of the Spirit c. Men may think they have the Spirit yet not have the Spirit which they think And indeed whatever any unregenerate man think they all are without the good Spirit of God They cannot have the Spirit who are not born of the Spirit and they who never yet all their daies were born of the spirit they cannot be in the Spirit on the Lords Day On the Lords Day a man may not be in the Spirit that yet every day dwells the Spirit in him And can they be on the Lords Day in the Spirit of God who to this day have not Gods in-dwelling Spirit in them 2. Such men God-ward are without spirit As Absalom stole away the peoples hearts from David So sin and Satan hath enticed and taken away all these mens hearts from God Hose 4.11 Or else the world hath so won upon them that their hearts and spirits are gone God-ward The Queen of Sheba when she was at King Solomons Court and saw the house he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants
that people must not be content except in Ordinances they come up to God And cannot the experience of many Christians speak that among us through mercy they meet with much of God And are we separated from God And what cause have they to separate from us Yea if with us there be sufficient means for salvation then they have no sufficient cause for their separation For salvation have not we with us meanes sufficient Meanes apt and able to bring home and build up proper and prevalent through God for converting of sinners and confirming of Saints If any shall seek a proof of Christ speaking in us the Apostles answer is proper Prove your own selves examine your selves whether you be in the faith Know ye not your own selves c. 2. Cor. 13.4 5. If their soules were ever sensible of any saving good let them consider our Assemblies Through our way of worshipping God lies there no path to life everlasting What will they say to those Martyrs and precious men that are dead and gone And what will they say to those thousands of Gods dear Saints that yet live and with us worship God with love and delight Must they be all shut out of heaven If not why do these then separate themselves on earth Many effects bad both to themselvet and others Some we feel and More we fear Hence are our desired unions broke and hoped reformations stopped and monstrous deformations and divisions come instead Pharez is born when we looked for Zarah Genes 38.27 c. Tamar being in the time of her â—t raval behold twins were in her womb And it came to passe when she travelled then one put out his hand and the Mid-wife bound thereon a scarlet thred saying This came out first And it came to passe as he drew back his hand behold his brother came out and she said How hast thou broken forth This breach be upon thee therefore his name was called Pharez And after his brother came out that had the scarlet thred on his hand and his name was called Zarah Have not we in this Land had our time of travell and hath not a sweet settlement and good government sometimes been brought so neer the birth that we have said This will come out first But how hath it been drawn back and such a Monster born of which we may say How hast thou broken forth This and that breach be upon thee Breaches at home breaches abroad wars continued strifes encreased civill States disturbed Protestant Nations perplexed brotherly Leagues and Covenants laid violate contrary to all civill sacred and religious bonds What bloody breaches have been made but above all sad and bad is our breach with God This breach be upon thee c. Since some have forsaken our assemblies O what abundance of others are broken off from all the Ordinances and holy worship of God from the Sabbath and service of God! O what a Spirit of Atheisme fills mens heads hearts and houses How are the exercises of religion laid by yea left off both in publike and private Yea how do men break out in waies of profanenesse to the shame not onely of their persons but of our religion and Nation This Breach be upon thee Men ceasing that which is good soon pursue that which is evil Men who cast off the worship of God will easily follow the works of the Divell This dividing and rending spirit that moves men to make such separations and schisms of which there are sequells so sad sure is not the Sprit of God 2. A ranting spirit that sets men upon sensuall practices and pleasures is not the Spirit of God Jude 19. Sensuall having not the Spirit The Spirit of God and the sensuall delights of the flesh are utterly opposite though the lusts of the flesh and spirit of the Devil do easily accord A man led by a loose spirit loves that which suits his sinfull lusts and carnall contents Micah 2.11 If a man walking in the spirit and falshood do lie saying I will prophesie unto thee of wine and strong drink he shall even be the Prophet of this people Not any will so forwardly forcibly prophesy of wine strong drink as the man who walks in a spirit of falshood With these things he thinks to content others they being the things wherewith himself is most pleased As Saul possessed with an evill spirit nothing could quiet him but instruments of musick while one was by him curiously playing upon the Harpe his heart was refreshed 1 Sam. 16.23 Thus some their sweetest refreshment and greatest contentments are in the merriments of the world in revelling and rioting luxury and sensual delicacies indulging the delights of the flesh such as stretch out their wits for to rear up their lusts setting off their abominable vices with plausible pretences to cover their carnall nature they run over Scripture and speake much of the Spirit they may live the more in the flesh As Rachel that sits over her fathers Idols and sayes It is with her after the manner of women Thus they brood and hide their filthy designes and say it is with them after the manner of men moved by the Spirit But 't is not the Spirit of God that moves in these men Men may be strangely acted onely by a Spirit of error And as at other times so also upon the Lords day lift up by a spirit of delusion This lying and deluding spirit As in some things he may seemingly take the way So he may at sometimes subtilly take the day viz. Of the usual workings of Gods holy Spirit that he may the more undiscernably deceive the souls of sinful men and women As Satan crept into Paradise and in that place beguiled our first Parents So he gets into the Sahbath and upon this day seduces divers persons J b 1.6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord add Satan came also among them He seemed as if on that day he had something to do as well as they Though undoubtedly whatever this evil spirit does is not to bring men to a care of and love to the Sabbath as it is the Lords holy day But his drift indeed is to draw men to an idle neglect and a low esteem of this day of the Sabbath 2. Upon the Sabbath men may have many Spititual motions from the good Spirit of God Movings of the Spirit in them and Yet they no movings in the Spirit As the Spirit of God upon the Sabbath moves in sanctified souls So likewise may he then move in sinful and unsanctified hearts Here observe Wherein it may be evidenced and Whereby it may be differenced Good evidence may be given that Gods Spirit may move in sinful men upon the Sabbath-day so as that in respect of spiritual good things they may be brought To Observe Discern Assent To Admire Affect Resolve 1. The Spirit may so move as that men may much observe
the seventh day the Sabbath day the hearts and souls of Gods Saints are subâ—ect to fall from those heatings and heightenings they then have in duties holy But then they struggle in holy heats of heart to rise higher and to fix faster Psal 108.1 O God my heart is fixed my heart is fixed Fixed and loosened and fixed again Warmed and cooled and kindled again so as that the fire is greater and flame hotter More abounding and abyding through the businesse of Gods blessed day Thus when Gods Spirit flowes in upon us and our spirits fall in with God so as with agility to act and with stability to be set in all sweet wayes of Sabbath-works This is Spiritually to spend the Lords day 2. The Motives that may incite all Gods Saints to such a Spiritual spending the Gospel-Sabbath may arise from things of two sorts observable viz. Some more antecedential and Some more consequential Arguments from things antecedent which may set all the servants of God upon a Spiritual passing this present day may be to consider Sabbath-ward these four things all which we find to be spiritually viz. The Ordainer of it The Ordinances in it The ends for it and The opposits against it 1. The Ordainer of this day the Lord Christ the things Spiritual concerning him we may discern by considering of him Both as he once was And as he now is 1. Christ the Lord of the Sabbath was Spiritual In his Conception and Birth In his Conversation and life In his Passion and death In his Resurrection from the dead And in his Ascension to heaven 1. Christ in his Conception and Birth was spiritual he being conceived of the holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin â—nd the Angel said unto her The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Luk. 1.35 36. 2. Christ in his Conversation and life was Spiritual Lo the heavens were opened uâ—to him and the Spirit of God descending like a Dove lighted upon him Matth. 3.16 Joh. 1.32 His joyes were Spiritual Luk. 10 21. His words were Spiritual Joh. 6.63 All his wayes in the world both towards God and men were Spiritual Heb. 7.26 3. Christ in his Passion and death was Spiritual He through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God Heb. 9.14 Even when he was condemned in the world he was justified in the Spirit 1 Tim. 3.16 4. Christ in his Resurrection from the dead was Spiritual Rom. 1.4 He was declared to be the Son of God by the Spirit of holinesse in his resurrection from the dead Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus dwell in you c. Christ put to death in the flesh but quickened in the Spirit 1 Pet. 3.18 5. Christ in his Ascension to heaven was Spirituall As he went up to God by a Spiritual assistance so upon a Spiritual design viz. to send down the holy Spirit of promiâ—e Joh. 16.7 It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter the Spirit of truth will not come unto you but if I depaâ—t I will send him unto you which we find fulfilled Act. 1. Act. 2. 2. Christ the Lord of the Sabbath he is Spiritual Both in his positive condition And in his Relative transactions Considered in himself according to his glorified estate he is all Spiritual His blessed body is now brought beyond all humane infirmities filled with beauty clarity agility impassibility immortality through the eternal Spirit In his humbled estate he was endowed and adorned with the Spirit what then in his honoured estate God gave him then the Spirit not by measure Joh. 3.34 O what immense and immeasurable fillings of the Spirit were in a crucified much more in a glorified Christ Such an infinite fulnesse of the Spirit is fixed in Christ whereby he is compleately fitted to the perfect performance of all his excellent offices Yea and Christ in his actings is now every way Spirituall Both in what he does with God for men And in what he does with men for God With God for men Christ hath his Spiritual exercise Christs acting as an Advocate with the Father 1 Job 2. His appearing and pleading our cause in the presence of God Heb. 9.24 His making Intercession at the right hand of God Rom. 8.33 As this is founded in the sufficiency of his Merit So it is performed by the efficiency of his Spirit As a meer man Christ does not manage his Mediatorship with God but Christ in Spirit presents unto God the Father for his members His deserts and His desires Both what for his people he hath purchased and what to his people God hath promised that they may perfectly possesse Joh. 17.21 23 24. And with men for God Christ acts all Spiritually As Christ executes his Priestly office in heaven So he fulfils his Prophetical and Regal office on earth in a way of Spirituâ—l working As with Ordinances by the Spirit does Christ teach So by the Spirit with officers does Christ govern As his Kingdom is Spiritual which he governs So his government is spiritual of his Kingdome It is through the Spirit that Christ does such great things in our dayes as it was through the Spirit that Christ did so many good things in the dayes of his flesh Being anointed with the holy Ghost he went about dâ—ing good Act. 10.38 He now sits on his throne in heaven yet by the holy Ghost he transacts manifold and marvellous things on earth By the Spirit he writes his Law in the hearts of his people and rules his people by the Law in their hearts Leads his flock in the way they should walk and Feeds his flock as they walk in the way c. Thus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath is Spiritual And shall not we be Spiritual in the Sabbath of the Lord 2. The Ordinances in the Lords day are Spiritual likewise Go through all the appointments of God that are for this dayes exercise Are they not Spiritual If we seriously consider things that concern The Word Prayer Sacraments Singing of Psalmes Collections for the poor c. Are they nor all duties to be spiritually done Doth not Both the precepts of God binde us hereto And the practise of the binde us hereto Godly 1. For the Word As it is of a Spiritual nature So it is in a Spiritual manner to be managed Both on the Ministers and On the peoples part Every part of Gods precious Word is Spiritual The Law is Spiritual Rom. 7.14 The Gospel that is Spiritual Rom. 1.11 Yea because the Law in Spirituality comes short of the Gospel the Gospel in glory out-goes the Law As it is excellently opened 2 Cor. 3.6 7 8. They that preach the glorious Gospel that is so surpassingly Spiritual must endeavour to do it in the evidences and efficacies of the Spirit
good that others do for the People of God 1. God puts into his people for their good gracious Habits Principles of holinesse disposing them to all parts of his worship yea the Spirit of holiness to act up those principles that so his people may be ready pressed and prepared alway to every good work much more for the Sabbath in the service thereof 2. Others as Ministers they prepare for the Sabbath-good of Gods people 'T is fit people should prepare to hear as they prepare to preach Gods faithful Ministers before the Sabbath do not onely prepare matter to speak but they prepare their hearts to speak the matter As Cocks when they are about to Crow they lift up themselves and clap thair wings they may be well awake Thus good Ministers when they are to teach they rouse up themselves and strive to raise up their own hearts and that Gods Word it may be as a fire in their bones Bernard in a Sermon breaks out thus to the people Bern. in festo omnium sanct Serm. 1. To prepare you meat my heart all this night hath been seething within me and in my meditations I have been enflamed as with fire Is it not meet that people be prepared when prechers thus prepare for the people And as for the evil actings of some they are sad There are such who on the Sabbath prepare for their worldly work in the week Calvin complaines of some Christians in his time Let us consider sayes he whether they which call themselves Christians do any otherwise regard the Sabath then thereon to attend their worldly affairs Calvin in Deut. 8. Serm. 34. they reserve to themselves this day as if they had no other to deliberate for the whole week to come c. Upon the Lords day men cut out their work and cast their businesse how to have this and that done upon this and that day Shall men on the Sabbath prepare for the week and shall not we in the week prepare for the Sabbath Is Mammon more to be minded then God 3. The profit that will be to our souls by such Sabbath preparance is precious By such a serious preparation our hearts will be well fitted Both with abilities to performe Sabbath-duties And with capacities to receive Sabbath-mercies 1. The duties of the Sabbath will the better and freer come off We shall then with more dexterity agility facility transact the several parts of Gods service A cause why we are so oft upon the Lords day lame in duty drive heavy because we did not aforehand oyl our wheeles inure our selves When David had put on Sauls Armour his helmet sword and coat of Male he assayed therein to go and fight with Goliah but he is at a stand saying I cannot go in these for I have not proved them 1 Sam. 17.39 Thus a Christian when he is to go out in the service of the Sabbath he is so straitened stiffe and bound up he knowes not how to go on in such duties because he hath not proved them or prepared for them We should aforehand put our selves into Sabbath-Armour and see how we can go how we can pray preach hear c. this would much help 2. The mercies of the Sabbath will the larger and fuller come in According to our preparations are our after-participations According to the number and measure of sacks the sons of Jacob prepared and carried with them out of Canaan so were they filled with Corn when they came to Joseph in Egypt Gen. 44.1 According as we prepare our hearts at home in the week-time so our comfortable fillings be when we come before the Lord on his own day He that would have from his field a large crop in harvest-time must aforehand take pains in plowing and well preparing the ground We do not aforehand take preparative pains which is the reason we reap so little in Sabbath-time 2. We are to consider wherein this preparation of our selves for the Sabbath consists Now this work does comprize acts of two sorts viz. Reflect acts on our selves from others and Direct acts towatds others beyond our selves 1. Each man amongst us must act inward upon himself In self-examination And self-humiliation We must diligently examine our selves What sin hath been before the Sabbath And what need we have of the Sabbath Sin before must be found out lest we come to Sabbath-day-work under week-day-guilt If for week day sinnes God be against us when in Sabbath day service we seek to be with God no wonder then if things work crosse The Mariners in Jonah they rowed hard but the Sea wrought and was tempestuous against them and they could not get the ship to shoare till Jonah was found and flung out Thus in the service of the Sabbath we may row hard yet not get ship to shoare heart into heaven by reason of some sin before committed that hath set God against us Yea we must so set into our selves as to discern the necessities that we have of Sabbath-helps Because of the prevalencies of sin And the imbecillities of grace We must also deeply humble our selves and be low in self-abasements Those herbs rise high in the summer-time that in the winter shrink low into the ground Those hearts that in the week-time are laid lowest they rise highest upon the Sabbath day Yea there must be such soul-humblings for sin as there may be sin-removings from the soul else the day of Gods service comes but we cannot serve God in the day Joshua 24.19 Thus before the Sabbath we must bethink our selves commune with our heart and make diligent search with penitent sorrowes 2. We must act onward towards others to wit God-ward and World-ward 1. Towards God we must prepare for the day By consideration of him and By supplication to him 1. God must be seriously thought upon Out of desires to the God of the Day we should long for the Day of God Psal 42.1 2. My soul thirsteth for the living God O when shall I come and appear before God As she said Judg. 5. Why is the chariot so long in coming and why tarrie the wheâ—les of the chariot So let each soul say Why is the Sabbath so long in coming c Amos 8. some say When will the Sabbath be gone that we may sell corn Let us say O when will the Sabbath be come that we may sell all and buy that Pearl When will the Sabbath be come Not that we may sell but onely that we may buy of God wine and milk without money Esay 55.1 That we may buy of Christ eye-salve white rayment and tryed gold Rev. 3.18 O when will the Day come that we may have communion with God Father Son and Holy Ghost As that Martyr with a leap said when he was going to the stake There is but one stile more and I am at my Fathers House A good man on Saturday-evening going to bed leaps saying 'T is but one Night more and I shall be in the