Satan into a day with God in attending on holy Ordinances This was the spirit of the primitive times they accounted all time gain and advantage which was spent in Divine Communion And indeed this is for Adams posterity to re-enter Paradise Gregory Nyssen in his second Oration which he Greg. Nyss Orat. 2dâ de 4to Martyr made concerning the Martyrs makes mention of some things he had instructed his people in the day before and in another Oration bids them call to mind those things he had delivered before in the week time this eminent light of the Church evidences in his own practice that it was the custome of the Church in those times to enrich the week with Nudius terti mi et hesterni diei sermones sequitur hodierna lectio c many seasons and opportunities of Gospel dispensation so far were those times from Subpenaeing flesh and blood to attest an incapacity for the services of a whole Sabbath Augustine in many places of his incomparable works mentions Aug. in Joan. his daily labours with his people for spiritual edification So Tom. 2 dus in Psal 68. Tract 16. Joan. Tractat. 18. in Joan. Tract 22. in Joan. Cyprian was likewise taken up in daily travels with his hearers to promote the increase of their faith and knowledge Nicephorus reports in his Ecclesiastical History that Alexander did daily exhilarate the Niceph. Hiâ—t lib 8. cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Church with divine Institutions Indeed these orient times of the Church were made more celebrious by the painful labours of the Ministers and the diligent attention of the people every day for as Chysostome speaks in his tenth Homily upon Genesis Holy discourses are calculated for every day No day is incongruous for heavenly Communion And the learned Father well comports with the sence and language of the holy Apostle Phil. 3. 20. For our conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vita civilis is in heaven from whence also we look for our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ But on the Lords day in the primitive times holy duties Licet nâ—â— ingâ—â—ereâ— spirituali doctrinae non praejudicat Chrysost were multiplied nay the Minister must not give over preaching though the night comes on if Chrysostome may give in his verdict Basil in one of his Homilies tells us That his own course was to begin his Sermans early on the morning of a Sabbath and towards the evening to preach a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil second time The morning Sermon he called the morning food and his evening Sermon he stiled his evening joy which he used to bring to his Auditours Thus this worthy person made it his triumph to spread morning and evening Hic igitur et nâ—s Orationem hanc nostram ad rotum quietemvs deducendá esse censemus Basil daintiâ—s before the people who came to feed upon them Nay thus he speaketh in one of his Homilies Behold the evening commands me silence the Sun being now set yet I judge it fit to lengthen out my discourse to the time of bed and rest So unwearied were the Ministers and people in those gloriâ—us times in holy duties and administrations Augustine In diebus do minieis ab omnibus aliis feriantes soli cultui divino simus intenti in his second Sermon upon the 88 h Psalm mentions his reduplicate labours upon Gods holy day The rest of the Lords day saith a learned man must be wholly taken up in divine worship Then the level of the soul must be wholly heaven-ward all diversions to earth or ease are deviations To mind any thing but the soul on the Sabbath is not impertinency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Non miremint fratres charissimi si hodie ter sermonem deo adjuvante Pâ—rfeceâ—o but impiety Chrysostome hath an excellent speech The Sabbath saith he is not given us for ease but for rest and that rest must be spent in things spiritual To which is accommodated a speech of another of the Ancients in an Epistle of his to his brethren in the wilderness Do not wonder saith he if in Gods strength I have preached thrice this day Now to object flesh and blood cannot keep a whole Sabbath this is a contradiction to the servent spirit of the primitive Church this is a spirit fit for the dregs of time Some of the more serious Jews thought the Sabbath but seant measure and too short a time for soul enlargements Among the Jews some began their Sabbath soâ—ner then others as those who dwele at Tyberias because they dwelling in a Valley the Sun did not appear so soon to them as it did to others Some again continued their Sabbath longer This was done by those who dwelt at Tsephore a City placed upon the top of a Mountane so that the Sun did shine longer Buxtorf Comment Masor cap. 4. ex Masar to them then to others Hence R. Jose wished That his portion might be with those who began the Sabbath with those of Tyberias and ended it with those of Tsephore This good man would take the first dawning of a Sabbath and wait the Psal 42. 1 2. last appearance that his soul might enjoy a larger space for Psal 84. 10. communion with God A gracious soul thinks the longest visits Phil. 1. 23. Cant. 7. 5. are the sweetest and duration crowns their fruition Surely war is sweet and Sabbaths long to unexperienced persons Dulce bellum inexpertis But further to discover the nakedness of this objection and more fully to answer the case we must take notice there are great varieties of duties and ordinances to sweeten a Sabbath and to render it free from all nausea and tediousness Several Instruments make the Consort and raise the musick Prov. 30 15. to a greater delight and pleasantness On a Sabbath we do 1 Sam. 3. 10. not only say Give give in holy prayer nor do we only cry with Samuel speak Lord for thy servants hear in hearing of the word But the duties of a Sabbath are like the gifts of the spirit full of diversity 1 Cor. 12. 4. There are Sacraments Eucharistia est convivium dominicum in die dominiâ—o ab ecclesiâ administrari solita fuit Tertul. to give us a prospect of Christ Holy meditation to sublimate our souls heaven-ward reading of the Scriptures for spiritual instruction Singing of Psalms in imitation of the Hallelujahs of heaven spiritual discourses for mutual consolation Harmony is the Sabbaths melody and our tiredness in one duty is removed by the sweetness of another The Sun with speed and fleetness runs through the twelve signs of the Zodiack nor is it alwâ—yes lodged in one house Variety of things which are excellent is not a little ground Omni modo Orationibus insistendum est ut si quid negligentiae per sex dies acciderit per diem resurrectionis dominicae precibus
expietur Greg. M. lib. 11. Epist 3. of complacency variety of choice voices please the ear variety of curious colours delight the eye variety of sweet dainties is acceptable to the tast and so varieâ—y of holy duties make a Sabbath gratefull and complacential God hath set forth his worship in several services that it might be the more pleasing and the less wearisome Sometimes on a Sabbath we are praying to him for the supply of our necessities sometimes we are praising of him for his own infinite excellencies Sometimes the ear is busied in hearing truth sometimes the Dies dominicus est dies panis per Eucharistiam Athan. hand in giving almes sometimes the eye in weeping tears sometimes the knee in doing homage alwayes the heart in willing obedience Thus the same meat is dressed several wayes to make it more delightfull and pleasing to the pallate To see several towns pleaseth the traveller and makes Dies dominicus est dies lucis per baptismum Chrysost his journey the less tedious and the more recreative In Sabbath worship the bending of the knee is relieved by the hearing of the ear and the hearing of the ear by the singing of the tongue and the service of the tongue may be refreshed Die dominico pro arbitrio quisque suo quod visum est contribuat et charitatem suam deponat and relieved by the contemplations of the mind So then the Sabbath cannot be tedious whose duties are so various Several birds singing make the Grove a common musick room That soul must needs distast every Ordinance which cannot be pleased with variety Just Mart. 10. But no further to amplifie the vanity of these objectours who put this case I shall now a little rectifie their mistake by shewing them how flesh and blood may keep a whole Sabbath spiritually and sweetly to God Let them be earnest in prayer for the spirit of grace this is that principle which can turn the soul to any point that spirit which can guide our way Rom. 8. 1. which can produce the new Creature John 3. 5. which can fill our sails John 3. 8. which can heal our Natures 1 Cor. 6. 11. which can help our infirmities Rom. 8. 26. that spirit which can Acts 16. 14. open the eyes to behold Acts 26. 18. and can open the heart Joh. 7. 38. 39. to embrace Gospel mysteries 1 Cor. 2. 14. that spirit can sweeten Ordinances and accommodate our souls to them that Spiritualia spiritualitèr examinantur et spiritualis judicat omnia qui spiritum rectorem animae habet Doctorem Ansel the streams of a Sabbath may run smoothly without the stop of weariness or storm of discontent The spirit of God can fit our spirits to the things of God and where there is no disparity there can be no dissatisfaction Indeed the Ordinances are the ship and the spirit is 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 but when the wind carries on the ship it is pleasant and delightful sailing Therefore let John 3. 8. these Objectours beg the spirit and we have an assured promise to encourage us Luke 11. 13. Let those who put this case which now hath been ventilated and discussed consider our present Sabbaths are Sabbatum est sabbatisini primordium initiale benificae fruitionis odoramentum only the first fruits of an eternal Sabbath The Spring is pleasant though not so fruitfull as the Harvest Our present dayes of grace have their glory and their verdure though not elevated to the raptures of heaven Sabbaths are heavenly dayes though not heavenly eternities Now our Saviour bids us rejoyce at the putting out of the leaf for then Summer draws near Mat. 24. 32. This should silence all scruples of a floathfull heart Sabbaths are golden though little spots they are pensions of grace though not portions of glory they are earnests of better things and he that is to receive the summ will not easily be weary in telling of the earnest The Israelites rejoyced in the Clusters before they came to the Vintage Numb 13. 23 24. Our precious Sabbaths are Cant. 1. 14. our clusters of Camphire before we come to the mountanes of Spices Think not a Sabbath tedious which is only a little stream running into the Ocean of Eternal Glory Such should do well to study their wants more and their ease less Their necessities call for every Ordinance of Grace which fills up the time of a Sabbath their empty cruze Mat. 6. 11. calls for the duty of Prayer their dark understandings call Hos 6. 3. for the Ordinance of hearing their faint graces call for the Isa 25. 6. feast of a Sacrament their sadned spirits call for the joyous Jam. 5. 13. service of singing Psalmes their ignorant Families call for Gen. 18. 19. the duty of Catechizing and their frail memeries call for the Phil. 3. 1. seasonable recruit of Repetition and when these Services are faithfully and spiritually performed the time of a Sabbath Eadem scribere dicit Apostolus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tutum Ambrosius verò inquit est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessarium Ambr. flies away and there is no room for the objection of flesh and blood We are much provoked to see Beggars lie sunning themselves in ease and laziness Let these Objectors pass industriously and chearfully through the Ordinances of a Sabbath or else find some other way for the supply of the necessities of their souls But thus much for the fourth Case Case 5 What shall we do when after our serious attendance upon Ordinances on Gods holy day we taste no sweetness in them Saepe etiam pi is successus in laboribus vocationis denegatur non malè sed certo consilio dei cùm verò Petrus sine successu laborasset non ex impatientiâ murmurat non rejicit vocationem Chemnit nor reap any advantage from them It was once the complaint of the Disciples that they toyled all night and could catch nothing Luke 5. 5. The Saints labours in this life are not alwayes successful they may plow upon a Rock and sow the Seed though presently they do not reap the Harvest Beautiful Rachel was barren for a time and she who had so much comliness had no Child Answers to prayer are not alwayes on the speed but sometimes they are suspended and many wait on God in a Sabbath and yet in the evening do not carry their sheaves with them Psal 126. 6. they may toyle all the Sabbath in the fire of Ordinances and yet not for the present be sensible of their melting and refining power But what shall be done in this case Answ 1 Such should examine themselves whether they bring not too much of the world with them to Sabbath opportunities Happily when they are at
saith Mat. 20. 16. and therefore but few Saints in the world That which speaks the work of grace arbitrary is the free-agency of God in sanctification of the means of grace The Gospel of Christ is a savour of life unto some unto others a 2 Cor. 2. 16. Joh. 6. 67 68. Acts 13. 48 50 savour of death The Word it melts and mollifies some others it leaves to hardness and incrustation When Christ preach't some leave him but his Disciples adher'd the closer to him When the Apostles preached some believed others persecute both the Doctrine and the Preacher The Ordinances of Christ are marrow and fatness to David Psal Praedicatio crucis et mortis Christi est odor mortis incredulis et cedit in eorum exitium qui mortem Christi ut mortem tantummodò considerant sed credentibus est odor ex vitâ quia ipsi vitam ex haâ— morte amplectuntur 63. 5. more then necessary food to Job Job 23. 12. But to others they have no tast no sweetness no power no reach to affect the heart When Paul and Barnabas preached at Iconium their Doctrine onely stirs up rage and passion Acts 14. 2. Like a high wind which turns the waves of the Sea into froth The preaching of the word is a cure to some and a curse to others to some it strengthens their grace to others it amplifies their guilt some fall before it as the word of salvation Acts 16. 29. others reject it and so dash upon eternal perdition The word indeed is a light to some and to others onely a stumbling block as God is pleased to pass by or work by his holy spirit Ordinances they are attended by man but sanctified by God The Word works unnaturally Eph. 4. 16. Joh. 3. 19. Prov. 16. 1. Eph. 3. 7. upon the Jews Acts 7. 54. pleasingly upon Herod Mark 6. 20. most powerfully upon Lydia Acts 16. 14. fully and effectually upon Paul Acts 9. 5. And thus the Gospel which is onely an instrument in Gods hand works variously and differently according to the pleasure and free agency of his will That the work of grace is arbitrary is evidenced in the impossibility of humane merit We cannot prepare our selves Natura corrupta est et lex morbum ostendit non sanat vos autem meritum nescio quod excogitastis quod mul 〈…〉 â—â—lutem 〈…〉 endam â—â—â—eat Whit. Qâ—i dignitate â—iâ—tationis hereditariae nituntur multò sunt verae pietatis studiosiores quam qui â— servorum merito riâ virtute dependent Mort. Epis Dunelm contra Merita for the entertainment of this work of the holy spirit there is no meritum ex condigno or meritum ex congruo as the Papists fondly imagine and our Protestant Divines have fully evinced When God first begins his work of grace upon the soul he finds nothing but ruines and rubbish no remains of beauty The spirit of God meets with a great deal of enmity Rom. 8. 7. and boysterous opposition much wrigling and reluctancy of the flesh All the powers of man are up in arms against this blessed work It is therefore only Gods free and eternal love which prompts him to carry on this powerful work One observing that of the Apostle Our carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. By carnal mind saith he is not to be understood sensuality the dregs the lees and the whites of nature but our natural wisdom our most refined part nature in its best condition even Lady reason it self unsanctified and therefore the work of grace must needs be arbitrary there is nothing to allure it nothing to engage God to effect it wrinkles will not stir up love The wise man saith Prov. 16. 1. The preparations of the heart are of the Lord Observe preparations in the plural number to shew us that every little wheel in the work of grace is moved Prov. 16. 1. and turns by power from God every good tendency Vita nostrae animae maximè beata à deo pendet et donatur dei amicis every regular propension every breathing and anhelation after good is implanted in us by God who is liberrimum agens as the school-men speak most free and arbitrary in all his works and dispensations This further is demonstrated by the ineffectualness of all mans attempts to arrive at a state of grace and holiness There are many things bid fair for this holy work but they all Tollitur cooperatio liberi arbitrii interior volentis exterior currentis et totum opus bonum est dei miserentis et gratiae operantis Calv. bring onely to the birth they cannot bring forth the least semblance of it all turn into a timpany at last Good Education holy Patterns sweet Ordinances precious Sabbaths these may contribute something to an outward restraint from evil but they beget not the Saint without the admirable work of divine grace The holy spirit must overshadow the soul and so beget Christ in it That holy thing the new birth is the product of the Eternal and Almighty spirit we cannot ascribe the New creature to any thing in Rom. 9. 16. man for creature implies a work of creation which onely is to be attributed to an infinite power Thus most evidently the Apostle Rom. 9. 16. It is not of him who wills nor of him who runs but of God who sheweth mercy Mans fairest colours are but paint they may counterfeit but are not true beauty Let us meditate on the morning of a Sabbath on the secrefie of the work of grace It is a sweet but a spiritual work indeed Vita sanctorum obscondita est quia sancti à mundi cupiditatâ—bus et mundarâ conversatione se abstrahunt et abscondunt Anselm it is admirable but most frequently indisecruable this blessed work is like a river under ground like a star behind a cloud the world cannot see it they look upon the Saints as the onely troublers of Israel Holy Paul was called a seditious fellow Acts 24. 5. The Apostles were called intemperate men filled with new wine Acts 2. 13. Nay Christ himself was called Beelzebub and a friend of publicans and sinners though he had the spirit above measure John 3. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epic. The world understands not the Saints Shibboleth Nay often the Saint himself is at a loss whether this work be Mundus non agnoscit aliquid spirituale in filâ—is dei Dav. wrought in him or no He often wants the lively and vivid sense of the spirit of God he many times is so clouded with afflictions battered with temptations disturbed Heb. 11. 37 38. with the hurries of the world dazled with sensual flatteries Col. 3. 3. and benighted with desertion that he can scarce see any day light of grace by the least cranny of observation or experience How doth David cry out that the spirit had taken Cum sentiant sancti insehanc vitam spiritualem
speaketh will choak the Word much more the pleasures of the world when they are more soft and sutable to delicate flesh and corrupt nature As in the Primitive Times more Apostates were made by the flatteries of Julian then the fires of Dioclesian and smiles more harm'd the Church then smarts Nothing more likely then to shoote away bowle away whatever we have been affected with Hos 6. 4. in holy Ordinances and Administrations Mat. 13. 22. Nay the very Liturgy of our English Church composed with so much exactness and deliberation as is often urged by the admirers of it commands the fourth Commandment to be read as well as the other nine and there pardon is begg'd for the breaches of this Commandment for time past Lord have mercy upon us and then Grace is importun'd to observe it better for the time to come where it is prayed and incline our hearts to keep this Law Where these three things are considerable 1. That by the Sabbath the Church understands the Lords day only 2. That she takes the observation of the Lords day founded upon the fourth Commandment 3. That she intended that day to be kept as a Sabbath and therefore begs pardon and grace which if so there can be no room for unnecessary labours and needless Recreations both which are but presumptuous incroachments on Gods appropriated day As holy Augustine forbad hunting and all worldly pleasures And Leo the Emperour Nullis Augustine Leo the Emperour volumus voluptatibus occupari Our will is No pleasures to be used as being the great obstructions to the spirituality of a Sabbath they discomposing the soul for sublime and heavenly intercourses to be spiritually raised and to be pleasurously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Rev. 10. addicted on the Lords day being strange inconsistencies Recreations on the Sabbath they are too much the evidence of a formal spirit To the holy soul the Temple is his Triumph Prayers his pleasure Ordinances his delight the Sanctuary his satisfaction David counts one day in Gods Courts better then a thousand Flashy and frivolous Recreations Psal 84. 10. on a Lords day to a gracious spirit they are his little-ease and the clipping of his wing the Souls confinement and Psal 63. 2. restraint the Prison grate between him and Christ no way his Pleasure but his Purgatory and where they are received Psal 43. 4. with gratefulness and contentment they loudly Proclaime too much froth and vanity David danced at the enjoyment of Cant. 2. 4. the Ark but these leave the Ark to sport and dance 2 Sam. 6. 16. Recreations on the Lords day They are the debasements of spiritual mercies as if there were no captivating power in Divine Ordinances to hold the soul intent for a day no Psal 19. 10. Psal 42. 4. honey comb in the Word to please the taste no pleasing vent in prayer to ease and satisfie the Soul as if singing of Psalms made no musick and reading the Scriptures did yield no delight Ah with what patience and content did the Jewes hear the Law read in the time of Nehemiah The people stood Nehem 8. 7. in their place saith the Text quoted as if they were staked and fastened without any desire of removal Their serious attention chained them to their present station Paul preached Acts 20. 7. till midnight the sweet Oracles of God drowned all wearisomness and distaste Ordinances have a savour in them Rom. 3. 2. which refresh and raise the Saint and there is no need of carnal sports to wear off any tedious abhorrency To affect or use these pastimes on the Sabbath is to embase the value of Divine exercises and to charge holy duties with abortive Hos 9. 14. emptiness as if they were barren wombs and dry breasts Let the Umpirage in this case be referred to the holy Psalmist in the Text quoted in the Margin Psal 1. 2. Recreations on the Sabbath they are the spring of impertinent discourse which is expresly forbidden in the Text for saith the Text Nor speaking thy own words In our sports more especially Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak as our Saviour saith Sports are the very Mat. 12. 34. Malitiae sermonis sons est malitia cordis ex quo necessi est ejusmodi maledicta per os ebullire sicut ex faetido fonte non possunt nisi fatidae aquae per fâ—stulas effundi Par. Dr. B. Mark 6. 22. Mark 6. 27. James 3. 6. Peccatum quod alter incurrit operando tuum facis obloquendo fuel of vain and frothy discourse A holy man observes That some men they never make an end of their pleasures nor an end of talking and hearing of them their Hawkes are not only on their fists but on their tongues There are two things which spring a mine of impertinent discourse Feasts and Sports We may as well separate blackness from the cloud as frothy language from frothy pleasures Nay how often are pastimes stained with sinful protestations the fatal taking of Gods Name in vain nay with Execrations and Oaths the scum of Hell it self Where did Herod make his wretched promise which was died in the blood of the Baptist but at a dancing when Herodias her Daughters feet did not trip so much as Herods tongue And if at any time the tongue is set on fire of hell as the Apostle James speaks Games and Pastimes presently become the bellows to blow up the fire Sports are usually the tongues Courtizan to draw it to folly and wanton intemperance with frothy rejoycings and carnall triumphs nay heats and passions are mixt with our recreations and the tongue is to proclaim them The mirth which attends pastimes will not be cag'd up in the breast but will fly out inimpertinent and unsavory language How often in sports do we call our Brother fool and yet our Saviour Iracundiae litis vanitatis censurae verba a Satana procedunt et ad Satanam tendunt illic incipiunt et illic rapiunt Mat. 6. 22. Psal 39. 1. saith that very expression puts us in danger of hell fire And therefore let any serious Christian make his own conscience the Tribunal to which I dare appeal whether this flatulent and unseemly discourse the inseparable companion of Games and Pastimes be not a sinful undecency on Gods holy Sabbath and an opposition to the very Text surely then if ever with David we should take heed we offend not with our tongue Recreations on a Sabbath They are an indignity offered to the noble and precious soul Shall the body that mass and Isa 2. 22. pile of dust cemented onely with a little flying breath that Corpus est ergastulum animae Plato bag of flegm and cholar that prison of the soul as Plato used to call it enjoy the time of six whole dayes and the soul that piece of eternity in the bosome the breath of God the saving
piece of Reformation well becoming the Care and Conscience of the best of Princes 4. By the Law Ecclesiastical especially that Homilie of our Church which is established by a political Law which Hom. Of the time place of worship forbids all Labour and requires us wholly to give our selves to Religious Exercises and so by consequence strongly forbids and prohibits all kind of Recreations and the same Homilie forbids all toyish talking on the Lords day and so a majori ad minus from the greater to the lesser sports and pastimes Now therefore what is thus prohibited by the Law of God Nature Church and State is certainly a sinfull practice Recreations on a Sabbath are the wasts of time they alienate the time of a Sabbath from the intention of the Law-giver God never sanctified a piece of a day or ever set apart a few hours onely of his holy day for his service and worship and left the remainder to mans disposal either to pursue his Games or Delights Such sinfull encroachments Mat. 9. 16. to use our Saviours phrase are onely the putting a piece of new cloth to an old Garment Obj. And if the plea of the labouring person be brought in who labours hard all the week and therefore lays claim to Recreations on the Sabbath especially if it be considered that God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice To this plea and apology Mat. 12. 7. it may be replyed Sol. 1 This Argument may as well proceed against the Old Sabbath as against the Lords day and yet it is generally confessed Exod. 20. 8 9 10 11. that the Lord enjoyned the Jews a whole day and allowed them no bodily recreations on the Sabbath and therefore it is no violation of mercy to deny the like on the Lords day Ad minutula et leviora quibus nec corpus fatigatur nec mens à cultu avocatur ad illa non attendendum quia illa anxietatem potius servilem quà m libertatem filialem respicium modò libertatem illam in licentiam carnis non vertamus Wal. James 4. 14. The word Recreation is equivocal Indeed there is a Recreation which is mercy viz. the necessary refreshment of the body as eating drinking resting it self especially to those who have wearied themselves with labour yea to some sickly bodies some ordinary moderate and inoffensive Recreations may be allowed as a learned man observes But there is a Recreation which we call sports and pastimes when there is no necessity and to allow this is no work of mercy and if it be a mercy to the body it is severity to the soul and in this case God will have sacrifice and no such kind of mercy which pleases the fancy and the corrupt heart of man against the advantage of his better part This is to rob the soul that bears the Image of God to pay the body which beareth the Image of death and frailty The greatest mercy which can be shewed to such as labour hard all the week is to give them rest for their bodies and divine refreshments and recreations for their souls and for Dr. Turners Sermon at VVhitehall 1635. this the Lord himself was carefull And if their bodies have rest and repose the greatest mercy is mercy to their soul to breath the soul in holy meditation to draw out the soul Sic agamus in Sabbatho ut deum in nobis agere patiamur atque ita aeternum inchoemus Sabbathum Wal. Cant. 1. 7. Cant. 2. 5. in holy prayer to refresh the soul with divine truth to recreate the soul with singing of psalms to bring the soul to holy ordinances where it may meet with its Beloved these are the very spirits of mercy when Christs stays his beloved on a Sabbath with Flaggons and Apples in Gospel dispensations And if any desire to be mercifull the way is not to steal it from God but to allow it of his own Let the Labourer take his rest on his own day And some well observe If the Mr. C. and Mr. P. Voluptatem vicisse est mâ—â—ima voluptâ—s neque est â—lla major victoria quà mquae à upiditatibus refertur Cypr. Sabbath be Gods it is no more true mercy to permit bodily recreations on that day then it is mercy to give men leave to steal other mens goods on the Sabbath because they have fared hard all the week before the person offending in the first bâ—ing far more guilty Can it be rational that Gods Commands should wait on mans conveniencies and happily this conveniency is created from mans neglect not necessity But supposing it was mercy to permit some bodily recreation which yet cannot be granted to such as have laboured hard all the week long yet what is that to such who have laboured very little or nothing in the week to such whose week is nothing but a Sabbath a rest and time of leasure and vacation and yet these are most ready to call and clamour for sports and recreations on the Lords day But as one wittily observes Those who are not annihilated Dr. Paul Micklethwait with hard labour have no title or claim to be recreated created again by delight and liberty If any can pretend to this plea They are such whose cheeks are moystened with sweat and hands hardned with toyle and work all the Epicuri disciplina multò ceâ—ebrior est non quia aliquid boni afferat sed quia multos ad populare nomen voluptatis invitat Lactant. Lib. 3. Divin week but such are most silent and modest in their claim and pretentious and therefore it cannot be any mercy to such who spend their time in Courtships and Dalliancings who converse like a wanton Epicurus or a plump Anacreon whose whole life is nothing else but a recreation and a successive chain of pleasures and worldly satisfactions and yet these as I said are they who are most importunate for sports and pastimes on Gods holy day And therefore to reassume that Argument from which we have a little diverted Recreations on the blessed Sabbath are inexcusably the wasts of that time which is wholly dedicated to the service of God and the soul as now comes to be shewed CHAP. V. The Whole Sabbath is to be spent with God THere are many persons both of Eminency and Learning who have taken much pains to prove the lawfulness of sports and pastimes on the Lords day I shall onely reply it was heartily to be wished such great parts had been improved on some other subject and the stream of Nemo non in â—itia proâ—â—â— est illâ— vincere diffiâ—illi mum est Lactant. their sweat had run in some other channel Alas in this Argument mans corrupt Nature will be the bâ—st Orâ—tour and produce the strongest pleâ—s we are naturally enâ—lined to fleshly ease and the flatteries of sense as other things which hasten to the Center Nature I say here can plead its own Qâ—i hâ—â—erâ— viciâ—
holy services it shall be sufficient I am sure the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jom a day is in both both the six dayes and in the seventh and how comes the signification to be altered if jom a day signifies a whole day in the one why not in the other why not the whole seventh day engaged in divine service as well as the whole six dayes taken up in secular employments Chrysostome and Theodoret observe that from the very beginning God taught man this lesson that one whole day in the circle of seven is to be employed in holy services And many famous lights of the Reformed Church conclude that whatever is moral in the fourth Commandment this must needs be that the seventh part of every week be consecrated to the worship of God So Zanchy Bucer Martyr c. That famous person mentioned last speaks roundly when he saith That it is perpetual and eternal while the Church remains upon Earth that one day in the week be designed for the service and worship of God and this saith he is firme and unshaken Augustine in one of his Sermons adviseth the people That from the Evening of the Saturday till the Evening of the Lords day they avoid all vain sloth and idleness and all secular toyle and labour and wholly set themselves apart for the worship of God This excellent man gives the full current of twenty four hours to the holy observation of the Sabbath And this saith he is rightly to keep the Sabbath and truly if God gives us six natural dayes to labour in is it not fit that the seventh should bear an equal proportion with every working day And therefore it is a natural day consisting of twenty four hours which we must in conscience allow to God to be the Sabbath day But besides the force of Divine Command which as clearly enjoyns the seventh day for holy Rest as indulges the other six dayes for toyle and labour the very plea's of the soul may come in to affirme the sanctification of one whole day in the week to spiritual and divine services Let us consider The Soul in the Nobleness of its Original it is a Heaven-born soul Gods breath in mans bosome Mans soul onely bubbles from the fountain of spirits our soul is but a beam The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the glorious Sun God beam d into man a glittering soul and shall not this noble soul so worthily descended lay claim to one day as well as the body that dusty case of the principle of life the soul that body which is onely the sheath of the soul the cabinet for this jewel to lye in put in its title and right to six What is this but to degrade the soul from the honour of its Excellent Original Let us look on the soul in the excellency of its capacity what is not a reasonable soul capable of It is capable of Gods Anima est ex Deo non ut ex materia et ex traduce dei â—eu ejus quadam particula sed ut â— causâ efficiente accessu quodam naturae propiore ad essentiam dei divinarumque proprietatum assimilatione Leid Prof. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Image There is little of Gods Image to be seen in the body God is a spirit and so stamps his Image on the spirits of men and shall not the soul which bears so noble a superscription enjoy the priviledge and latitude of one day as well as the body that earthly tabernacle which is soon taken down and wrapt up in a silent grave enjoy the immunity of six whole dayes But must the abatement fall on the souls portion Consider the multiplicity of a souls work and therefore let not its day be shortned by frothy pleasures or servile labours John 9. 4. Praeclarae sunt arimae dotes effâ—ctus divinae functiones miranda solertia ingenii cogitationis celeritas facilitas perceptionis judicii acrimâ—nia disâ—ursus et ratiocinatio de rebus omnibus memoria rerum praetâ—ritarum contemplatio praesentium futurarum praevisio et maxime inse ipsam conversio et reflexio suaeque contemplatio c. Lied Prof. The work of the soul is very great and very various there are many duties to perform many graces to act many ordinances to wait upon much knowledge to acquire many corruptions to subdue Now he that is to ride far let him not want day-light the souls task is great let not its time be short especially shorter then God hath made it The body hath onely two things to get viz. food and raiment it hath but two rooms to go thorow the Kitchin and the Wardrobe But the soul hath more and nobler atchievements to pursue It hath a Pardon Grace Christ God Heaven to look after and obtain and shall its owne day given it more especially for these great attempts be subject to an unhappy diminution Let us look on the soul in the eternity of its duration The soul saith one is a bud of eternity the business of the Animaâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domine aufer à me hanc tunicam graveâ— corpus scil terrestre ponderosum et aerumnosum et dâ— mihi leviâ—rem soul is of everlasting concernment But the body is a shattered piece of dust a shaking fa brick which is soon unpinned the paint of its beauty is soon washed off the vigour of its strength is soon weakned and enervated a thousand diseases can crack this piece of frailty and yet this tottering piece of flesh must have its full six dayes and the eternal soul not enjoy one whole day without allowance made for pleasure and secular employments Let us consider the soul in the importance of its wellfare The body follows the condition of the soul but the soul doth not follow the condition of the body If thy soul miscarry it had been better as our Saviour speaks thou hadst never been born Man fares as his soul fares It was Mat. 26. 24. Sic alloquitur anima sancta suspirans O civitas sancta civitas speciosa de longinquo te saluto ad te clamo te requiro desidero verè te videre et in te requiescere O civitas desiderabilis Muri tui Iapis unus Custos tuus ipse deus Cives tui semper laeti semper enim gratulantur visione Dei Hug. Victor the Redemption of the soul that drew Christ from Heaven to tabernacle amongst us and to offer up himself a sacrifice to Divine Justice and therefore how rational is it that the precious soul should enjoy a full Sabbath without any sensual vacancies for pleasures and pastimes seeing the whole man is dependant upon its disposal and is happy or miserable according to its state or condition But to wind up this particular Argument if we consider either the force of the fourth Commandment or the pregnant plea's of the immortal soul whose interest is much pursued on a Sabbath nay the Sabbath is the very
holy day Indeed the Sabbath is not to be rushed upon Man must not break in upon a Sabbath as the horse rusheth into the battel as Jeremiah speaks without premeditation and previous consideration Jer. 8. 6. Ignatius calls the Sabbath the Queen of dayes and Queens have their trains going before them there must be Ignat ad Magnes a train of duties precedeing the holy Sabbath On the Saturday Quomodo Maria Virgo inter omnes mulieres principatum tenet ita inter caeteros dies haec soleâ—nis dies Hier. let us prepare for the Lords day We know tuned Instruments play the sweetest before they are tuned they jar and make a harth sound Our hearts are these Instruments which must beforehand be tuned by several duties or or they will jar and be discomposed upon the Sabbath Physick is prepared before it is taken and our hearts must be prepared before we take and enjoy the Ordinances of a Sabbath There is a preparing dress before we go to any feast and must not the soul be drest before the festival of the Sabbath that great banqueting of the inward man There is a dawning light before the rising Sun some glimering duties must be the harbingers of the approaching Sabbath Indeed matters should be so ordered every day so as to prepare for this day As our whole life should be a preparing for death so the whole week should be a preparing for the Sabbath But as this precious day doth more approach so preparatory work must more increase Holy Nehemiah shut the Gates of the Neh. 13. 19. City viz. Jerusalem when it began to be dark the In veteri testamento ut impedimenta omnia celebrationis hujus diei iâ— tempore auferrentur Fideles pridiè Sabbati divino mandato omâ—ia sua quantum poterant ad eum firem componebant Wal. evening before the Sabbath least the night time should be prophaned by bearing burdens in it and he did this least the men of Tyre should occasion the Jews to break the Sabbath day by bringing in wares upon that night This holy mans care would not suffer any to cast dirt upon the portal or entrance of the Sabbath he very well knew there must be some time spent in trimming the soul to meet its Bridegroom on his own holy day A due preparation for this blessed Sabbath lies more especially under a five-fold injunction Of necessity It is necessary we should take some time to compose our spirits for the duties of the following Sabbath Our thoughts in the week how are they loose and carelesly dishevelled some time there must be to bind them up together and put them into order The Lord in the fourth Exod. 20. 8. Commandment enjoynes us to remember the Sabbath and to Id ipsum quâ—que in hoc praecepto certo râ—spectu mâ—rale est scil uâ— diebus antecedentibus omnia nostra quantum fieri potest ita iâ—stituamus ut per eorum negligen tiam à sanctificatione hujus diei non impediamur remember the Sabbath it is before hand to mind and manage matters that concern the Sabbath-sanctification that when it comes it may be holily kept for every duty on the Lords day there must be a due preparation for Prayer for Hearing for Sacraments c. Now if we must prepare for single duties when they lye more asunder sure we must prepare for the Sabbath when such duties are linked together And this is more considerable if we take notice we are not only to be in the duty but in the spirit in the prompt powerfull and precise transaction of every service on the Lords day And besides all this doth not the Lord upon this day come in comfortable visits to the souls of his people and must not they prepare for his presence It was the opinion of some Rev. 1. 10. that Christs personal coming to Judgement will be on the Sabbath day This is most sure that Christs spiritual coming Lactant. Lib. 7. Cap. 1. August de Temp. Serm. 154. in mercy is for the most part on the day of the Sabbath and shall there then be no preparation When a great man is to come to our houses how are all our Rooms dressed up When a great God is to come to our hearts shall not we prepare Neh. 13. 22. and dress our hearts for his entertainment Of Equity The Ministers they prepare for the Sabbath-good of Gods people and shall not the people of the Lord prepare for their own Faithfull Ministers before the Sabbath do not onely prepare matter to speak but they prepare their hearts to speak the matter Bernard in a Sermon thus breaks out to his people To prepare you meat my heart all Bern. in Fest omn. Sanct. Serm. 1. this night hath been seething within me and in my meditations I have been inflamed as with fire And is it not equal and most rational that Christians should meet their Ministers in holy preparation and plow up their fallow ground to receive Jer. 4. 3. that immortal seed which Gods holy Seeds-men are ready to cast into it Calvin complains of some Christians in his 1 Pet. 1. 23. time who no otherwise regarded the Sabbath then thereon to Calv in Deut. 8. Serm. 34. attend their worldly affairs the which they reserved to themselves that day as if they had no other day to deliberate for the whole week to come Now 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 Of advantage 1. The duties of the Sabbath will the better and freer come off If we be sedulous in holy preparation we shall then with more dexterity agility and facility transact the several parts of Gods service One cause why we are often unactive in duty and drive heavily is because we did not before-hand oyle our wheels inure our selves we did not the day before labour with God by Prayer and with our own hearts by care and industry Oftentimes a Christian is straightned stiff and bound up in the services of a Sabbath and knows not how to go on in holy duties and all this arises from neglect of holy preparation The heart hath not been dealt withall to supple it for more voluntary and chearfull performances Preparatory work would wind up the clock of the soul that it would go and strike it would pray hear contemplate and act any Sabbath service with far greater pleasantness and consonancy 2. If we prepare the mercies of the Sabbath will the larger and fuller come in according to our preparations will be our Gen. 44. 1. participations According to the number and measure of sacks the sons of Jacob prepared and carried with them out Ex lege mandato dei 23 Luc. 54. in omnibus Christianis conventibus requiritur ne debito suo fructu haec pietatis publicae exercitia priventur ut
Shall we prepare no more for a Sabbath that bright spot of time God gives us for our souls then for another day Will we approach the Princes presence with the same disregards we will converse with the Peasant Esther purified Est 2. 12. and perfumed her self with Oyle of Myrrh and sweet Odours before she came into the prefence of Ahashuerus and shall our Families have no holy anoynting no divine quickning before the day come we must enter the presence of the King of Kings nay the God of Kings Shall there be nothing to put a Selah upon a Sabbath Eve Let us take some time the evening before the Sabbath to teach our little ones the holiness and Solemnity of a Sabbath let us tell them how jealous God is of his Sabbaths what severe punishments he hath overtaken Deut. 6. 7. those with who have violated his holy day Let us Numb 15. 36. bring up our servants in the Holy Trade of Sabbath observation let us leave it upon their Consciences the night before the Sabbath how accurately and carefully God will be served on his own day and inform them what it cost Aarons Sons for offering strange fire Governours Lev. 10 3. of Families should take pains with those subordinate to them in begetting an awe upon their hearts and so fit them for Sabbath duties Surely we should more solemnly prepare for the day of the Soul then for the dayes of our Calling for the services of the Sanctuary then for the gains of the Shop God's day gives us a more solemn summons then mans day doth And now having thus prepared our selves in the discharge of the forementioned duties let us retire our selves to our rest and let the hand of faith draw the curtains about us and so quietly repose our bodies till the approaching Psal 4. 8. morning of Gods holy day and how that must be passed and solemnly observed comes next under our most serious discussion CHAP. XII It is most advised and necessary to rise early â—n Gods Holy Day DIvine providence unclasping our eyes in the morning of the Sabbath let us lose no time as we lye on our beds let us think now the Lord looks down from Heaven and bids us make haste get you up for this day I must Luke 19. 5. abide in your hearts and this day I must transact with you about the great importances of your souls When Abraham was to offer his Son in sacrifice to God He rose early in the morning and sadled his Asse and took two of his servants and Gen. 22. 5 6. Isaac his Son with wood cleav'd for a burnt offering and went to the place of which the Lord had told him And shall not we on a Sabbath morning be early up our selves and our families to go to the place where the Lord hath appointed and offer up our bodies and souls in service to God The Israelites who lay in siege against Jericho upon the seventh Josh 6. 15. day they being to compass the City seven times the text saith And it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose up early about the dawning of the day and they compassed the City after the same manner seven times Upon the Lords day we are today siege to Heaven and to compass it many times and to plant our batteries by holy and invincible prayer and therefore we should be early up And there are two things which would much advantage this duty viz. rising early on the morning of the Sabbath First A timely going to rest the night before It is too common a fault among Christians and Professors too for them to clog themselves the night before the Sabbath with a multitude of worldly businâ—sses which causes them to sit up late hence in the morning when they should be up with God they lye sleep-bound in their beds Secondly An intire love to the work of the day that follows Alas we have too little love to the Lords day work and so but little list to be at the work of the day Were there love to it we should long to be at it Our minds run Pius se paritè◠velle jugiter deum mente animo geâ—ere illum colere illum desiderare tum nocte tum interdiu Alap upon the things we love We should think of the Sabbath even in the night time and we should catch the very first hour of the day with my soul have I desired thee in the night and with my spirit within me will I seek thee early saith the Prophet to God Were we for several months kept without a Sabbath how would our spirits spring at such a days appearance Why should the Commonness of the Sun-shining Isa 26. 9. and the Sabbaths coming diminish the mercy How should we every Lords day morning have our minds mounting and say behold the Sabbath of the Lord it is come it is come Now there are many Alarums to awaken us betimes on the morning of a Sabbath and to throw off carnal sloth and fleshly case Let us eye Christs pattern he rose early from the Grave even while it was yet dark before the Sun had guilded the World with its bright appearance On the morning of his Joh. 20. 1. Resurrection the Sun of Righteousness prevented the Sun of Mal. 4. 2. Mar. 16. 9. Nature Can we indulge our sloth on the Sabbath morning and think of Christs Resurrection He was up early to save us and shall not we be so to serve him shall not we take the wings of the morning as the Psalmist speaks and Psal 139. 9. retaliate this kindness of our Redeemer That Christ arose from the dead there was the truth of our redemption that he arose early there was the love of our redemption Christ's longing to arise and finish our work should enforce us to rise betimes to set upon his Job saith the morning stars sang Job 38. 7. together Our meeting with Christ on a Sabbath morning will make the sweetest musick When carnal sloth surpriseth us let us survey the History of Christ and as he left his tomb let us leave our down betimes Let not the Sun of Ortosâ—le i. e. ad orâ—um appropinquante Cyr. Righteousness shine in our faces with our curtains drawn about us May I not here expostulate Is the Disciple greater then his Master Betimes he left his lodging and shall not we The Master among us doth not usually rise before the Servants In a word Love to the Spouse to the Church made Christ betimes draw the curtains of his grave and let love to our Husband to our Duty to our Souls cause us betimes to draw the curtains of our beds so shall we seasonably Orientem solem adorant Persae adore this morning Sun Let us hear the clamours of the soul The Lords day is the souls market day the souls fair day its term time its Mr. Rogers busie opportunity for the
46. Thirdly God hath made his promises to the Assemblies of his Saints Mat. 18. 20. 2 Cor. 6. 16. He will not neglect a Mat. 18. 20. weeping Hannah who prays and sobs alone 1 Sam. 1. 13. but will give her not onely a Child but a Samuel But yet God will create upon the Assemblies of his people a cloud which was the sign of his presence Isa 4. 5. And Isa 4. 5. Fourthly The prayers of the faithfull Congregation receive Deus quasi columna ignis praefulget et ostendit suis viam salutis et quasi nubes caligâ—rosà obumbrat refrigerat et protegâ—t eos ab aellutentationis Basil Jon 2 7 8 9 10 strength from their union When all Niniveh intreated the Lord and put on sack-cloath God repents himself of that intended and threatned evil and puts his Sword into the scabbard though drawn by an open denuntiation of Judgement Jon. 2. 7 8 9 10. Prayer is the souls battery of Heaven and when these petitions are the common breathings of the whole Assembly the force must needs be the stronger and the answer must needs be the surer Though a file of Souldiers cannot take the City an Army may But Fourthly We must converse with our Families upon Gods holy day then Parents should draw out their softest bowells towards their Childrens souls and Masters discharge their most faithfull duty towards their Servants eternity But of this more hereafter We must rise early on a Sabbath for we have many good things to pursue and usually the richest lading requires the longest voyages where we look for great gain we must spend much time Now this holy day is Gods market day for the weeks provision wherein he will have us to come to him and buy of him without silver or money the Bread of Angels Rev. 22. 1. Isa 25. 6. 2 Pet. 2. 2. Rev. 3. 18. the Water of Life the Wine of the Sacraments and the Milk of the Word to feed our souls tryed Gold to inrich our Faith precious Eye-salve to heal our spiritual blindness and the white rayment of Christs Righteousness to cover our shamefull nakedness And now all things being laid together that hath been suggested how should both interest and duty awaken us right early on the Lords day for these holy pursutes that no time be drowned and lost in unnecessary sleep and sluggishness A fifth Argument to raise us betimes on a Sabbath is seriously to consider the heats of worldly men With what wakeful diligence do they prosecute the meat that perisheth John 6. 27. they rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of carefulness and all to grasp the shadow of a few flying and Psal 127. 2. dying enjoyments when as one saith we should be careful to rise sooner on this day then on other dayes by how much the service of God is to be preferred before earthly business There is no Master so good as the Lord is and in the end no work shall be better rewarded then his service Dr. Twisse Dr. Twisse Moral of the Sabbath 147. Reports that at Geneva they have a Sermon at four of the clock in the morning on the Lords day for the Servants and Bishop Lake wished That such a course was general as was in his Majesties Court in his time to have a Sermon in the morning for the Servants on the Sabbath day How did this holy man breath after holy Services on the morning of a Sabbath And let every one of us say seek the Lord O my Soul seek him early on his holy day Let us do as Mary Mat. 28. 1. Mark 16. 2. John 20. 1. Magdalen she was early up to seek him whom her soul loved she was last at the Cross and first at the Sepulcher in the dawning while it was yet dark very early in the morning say the Evangelists O that our love to Christ could keep pace with hers Shall we love the World better then Christ O that we were as wise for our souls as we are for our bodies Let not sleep that devourer of time beguile us of our golden hours in the morning of a Sabbath when we might have the softest and sweetest converseâ— with God Let the sinfull sluggard who sleeps with the Sun beams in his face this day remember the saying of Augustine If the August Sun could speak how roundly might it salute thee with this reproof I laboured more then thou didst yesterday and yet I am risen before thee to day But this is too low an Argument behold the Sun of Righteousness is risen let us not sleep as do others but say and sing with the Church Isa Isa 26. 9. Sanctus ad beatos aspirans dicit se velle jugiter deum mente et animo gerere illâ—m desiderare tam nocte tam interdiu Psal 139. 9. 26. 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea and with my spirit within me will I seek thee early In a word it must needs inforce us to a blush to think that the Labourer who toyles in his earthly employments should take the wings of the morning to muddle in the World and we should let the morning fly away by our sloath and carelesness and not overtake it to meet with God upon his owne holy day And sixthly let it be considered the gracious soul will long to be with God The Spouse sought Christ upon her bed and the Saint will leave his bed betimes on a Sabbath to Cant. 3. 1. seek Jesus Christ the Spouse would pursue her beloved in Sponsa interim evigilans speciebus illis non satis discussis motu brachiis expansis spon sum complaecti conata fuit Del rio the night and the Saint will not omit to follow hard after the Lord Jesus in the morning as soon as she is awake she is with God especially on his own day Psal 139. 18. Our heart is where our treasure is as our Saviour speaks Luk. 12. 34. And if Christ be our treasure our spiritual love will prevail against our carnal sloath Let us take notice of holy David with what extasie of love he was transplanted Psal 63. 1. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry Psal 139. 18. Luk. 12. 34. and thirsty land where no water is Where there are thirsts after God there will be early enquiries for him The gracious Psal 63. 1. Soul pants after God as the Hart pants after the water brooks Now the thirsty Hart will not be so taken with Psal 42. 1 2. the green and pleasant Grass where she is lodged so as to forbear the brooks which must quench her thirst nor will the Saint be so toyled and fettered with sleep or sloath so as Psal 122. 1. to suspend his communion with God on his holy Sabbath he will tear those drowsie wit hs his
affections are more smart and vigorous our thoughts are more lively and unwearied and so more disposed to this excellent service and such seasons are our harvest for the acting of this duty and reaping the great comfort of it The morning is an accommodated time for meditation then the body hath been refreshed with the sweetness of The first season for meditation rest and so the impressions of toyle being worn off it is the more active for the labours of meditation David was with God before break of day The morning Sun smiles with the Psal 119. 147. most pleasant aspect when first it begins it 's laborious circuit Our thoughts are shot out of our minds with greatest strength in the morning when our bodies can yield their most lively assistance and there are many pregnant reasons for it Holy thoughts and meditations are most acceptable in that season When we awake in the morning many suitors attend our thoughts aad every suitor useth urgent importunity Jer. 2. 3. now if spiritual things obtain the first admittance this is most grateful to God It cannot but be a sinful provocation that our thoughts should be as the Inne in Bethlehem Luke 2. 7. where strangers took up all the rooms and Luke 2. 7. Christ was excluded and was fain to lye in a manger Indeed Charitas sponsae quae tot allecta beneficiis sponso deo in amore obedientiâ et obsequio mutuò respondit et eum deperiit Lyran. it cannot but be matter of deploration that vain and worldly thoughts should take up all the rooms of our souls in the morning and Christ shut out But for the prevention of this let Divine things first attach our meditations and this will be well-pleasing to the Lord. In the stilling of strong water the first water which is drawn from the still is more full of spirits and the second and the third they are weaker and smaller and not of the same value So the first meditations which are still'd from the mind in the morning are the best and we shall find them more full Gen. 4. 4. of life and spirits and they come nearer to Abels sacrifice Abel non etemandato tantùm sed exside obtulit The morning is the golden hour of the day like the first springing grass which is most pleasant to the eye and most sweet to the taste The morning is the first budding of time Let Christ have it in holy and divine speculations Meditation in the morning will be more influential The Vessel which is first seasoned with that which is pretious and odoriferous will retain the scent and tincture nor will easily lose it but with much toyle and labour That of the wise man is considerable When thou awakest it will talk with Prov. 6. 22. thee As Servants come to their Masters in the morning and receive Rules from them how they shall manage their business all the day following So a gracious heart which meditates on Gods Word and things divine in the morning those savoury tinctures abide on him all the day and Quâ— semel est imbuâ—a recers servabit odorâ—m teâ—ta diu he walks with more circumspection and fruitfulness Wind up thy heart towards Heaven in the morning and it will go the better all the day The wool takes the first dye best and it is not easily worn out The heart seasoned with holy meditations in the beginning will keep this colour in grain It would become us to perfume our minds with divine thoughts betimes on the day that the smell may scatter it self to all we meet withall that day Equity requires our morning meditations to be sequestred and set apart for God Some of his first thoughts were set upon us If we are in Christ we had a being in his thoughts Eph. 1. 4. of love before we had a being in the world His earliest 1 Joh. â— 19. loves fastened upon us when we were onely in the possibility Spirituales benedictiones in ipsâ aeternâ praedestiratione suerunt nobis in Christo praeparatae Zanch. and futurition of a being We had the morning of Gods thoughts before ever the Sun did rise or shine in the World What thoughts of free and rich Grace what kind thoughts of mercy and peace had God of us from all everlasting Let us in some measure retaliate the first loves of God let us fix our thoughts upon God in holy meditation before the day breaks and delivers the light the infallible Jer. 31. 3. harbinger of it But more especially the morning of a Sabbath is the most genuine and sweetest season for meditation and that upon this two-fold account Holy meditation will fasten the heart upon God which is very necessary upon the morning of a Sabbath Meditation is properly the centring of the thoughts as was suggested before and fixing them upon some spiritual object Gen. â—4 1. Our hearts they are naturally slippery and will be gadding with Dinah unless they are kept at home viz. with God the proper home of the soul by divine contemplation It was the boast of holy David that his heart was fixed the Psal 57. 7. fixing of the soul on God is both the duty and the glory of a Psal 108. 1. Christian Now when once meditation hath fastened our thoughts on something divine they will not be so easily call'd off nor so subject to sinfull avocations which will be a transcendent happiness on the Lords day Divine meditation will fledge and raise our affections not onely six our hearts upon God but draw them out to God in ardent and holy desires which likewise is most suitable to the morning of a Sabbath We light affection by the fire of meditation On Gods holy day we should be in an extasie Psal 42. 2. of love to Jesus Christ and meditation is that which can elevate and draw up the desires to Christ and when they are once raised they do not so easily sink and fall again Psal 119. 97. When Bells are raised then they are musical and proclaim their loud harmony to all who are within the hearing The Psal 19. 6. Sun when it is risen it ascends gradually and runs its pleasing and swift circuit untill it be stopt by full noon So Psal 104 34. likewise the soul being raised by sweet and divine meditation on the morning of Gods holy day it will be drawing out its holy fervencies and longings after God the whole Sabbath ensuing The next season for holy meditation is the Evening So we read of holy Isaac He went out to meditate in the field at Even tide Gen. 24. 63. When business is over and every The second season for meditation thing is calm it is then a convenient time to let out our thoughts loose to fly up to God God had his Evening as Exod. 29. 39. well as his Morning sacrifice As the cream at the top is sweet
he had not looked on Bathsheba with such a wanton Psal 1. 2. eye Holy meditation would have quenched the fire of that lust This heavenly duty hath this advantage in it it presses the thoughts for the service of Christ nor will permit them to wander in a sinfull liberty Meditation it puts life into Ordinances and makes them sweet and savoury to the soul Ordinances they are like The third advantage of meditation cloaths which have no warmth in themselves but as they are heated by the body which wears them and so Ordinances have no energy or quickning power in themselves but as the divine spirit co-operates with them and our serious meditation makes them fruitfull and effectual If we canvas an Ordinance or two we shall find this more apparent and manifest Shall we instance In Prayer Meditation before prayer is like the tuning of an Instrument and the fitting it for melody and harmony This holy duty of meditation doth mature our conceptions excite our desires and screw up our affections what is the Preces non tam verbis quam animo aestimantur Chemnit reason there is such a discurrency in our thoughts such a running of them to and fro when we are in Prayer like dust blown up and down with the wind but onely for want of meditation And what is the reason that our desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in prayer are like an arrow shot out of a weak bow that they do not reach the mark but onely upon this account we do not meditate before prayer He who would but consider before he comes to prayer the pure Majesty of God the holiness of his Nature the quickness of his Eye the strength of his Hand and that he will be sanctified by all Acts 1. 14. who draw near to him as likewise those things he is to pray Ipsa majestas dei est origo et fundamentum gloriae Gloria ex Majestate emanat sicut radius â sole Alap for the pardon of Sin the spirit of Grace the assurance of Gods Love an inheritance with the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. How would this cause his prayer to ascend as incense before God David expresses prayer by meditation Give ear to my words O Lord consider my meditation Psal 5. 1. In hearing the word the benefit of it much depends upon meditation Before we hear the word meditation is the plough Dum terra labori et agriculturae respondet ipse deus novas pluvias et novas solis caelique influentias immutit which opens the ground to receive the seed and after we have heard the word meditation is as the harrow which covers the new sown seed in the earth that the Fowls of the air may not pick it up Meditation makes the Word full of sap and juice life and vigour to the attentive hearer What is the reason that most men come to hear the word as the beasts came into the Ark they came in unclean and they went out unclean it is because they do not meditate on the truths they hear they put truth into shallow and neglective memories and they do not draw it out by serious meditation It is said of the Virgin Mary that she pondered Luke 2. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tanquam semen in agro those things in her heart A steddy and considerate meditation on divine truth would produce warm affections zealous resolutions and holy actions If we will profit by the Word let us conscionably meditate on the Word In receiving the Sacrament Meditation puts a taste upon that divine feast Examination is commanded before we approach this Supper now this duty of Examination is best managed by meditation He who meditates aright concerning 1 Cor. 11. 28. him who is the Author the Object the end of the Haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in tribus pâ—rtibus consistit 1 In agnitione miseriae et peccatorum magnitudinis reatus gravitatis 2. In fide et fiduciá mediatoris ne desperatione absorbeamur 3 In serio resipiscentiae et novae obedientiae proposito Par. Luke 22. 15. Sacrament and considers with himself what rich testimonies of Grace there are to the worthy receiver how will this dispose the soul to that holy Ordinance And he who meditates of his infinite misery out of Christ and of his happiness in a dear Redeemer how will this encourage and sharpen his desires to come to the Lord Jesus and meet him at his own table And in receiving we should meditate on the sufferings of Christ for the Sacrament is onely the abridgement of Christs agony And we should likewise meditate on the affections and loves of Christ for the Sacrament is a Copy of his love The Sacrament is food and so we must receive it with an appetite and strong desires but this food must be carefully concocted by meditation The fourth advantage we receive by meditation is the strengthning and recruit of our Graces Indeed grace The fourth advantage by meditation and meditation are reciprocal causes of each other meditation maintanes grace and grace exercises meditation A gracious heart with Moses ascends the mount of meditation Exod. 24. 15. to meet with God and then his face shines his graces are more illustrious and resplendent Meditation feeds three royal Graces with supply and support First Faith receives recruit from this heavenly duty Fides est quasi columnâ— et fundamentum in terrâ jactum fides inter omnes res est solidissima certissuna et firmissima Chrysost Heb. 11. 19. When our faith languisheth and our thoughts are ready to terminate in despair then meditation brings a cordial it fixes upon the power of God which is faiths great supporter in all our temptations When the soul shall meditate thus that God by his own Fiat his own Word gave being to the World and raised this glorious superstructure where man now inhabits and that his power is no less then infinite reducing into act and being whatsoever the Divine Will shall command how doth this underprop our faith and preserve it and secure it against the quick-sands of unbelief Haec suit invicta illa fidei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et basis in mandato et promissionibus dei radicaâ—a Thus Abraham meditates on Gods power and this meditation so steels and backs his faith that it breaks through the most rigorous and fierce onsets of tryal and temptation and so becomes laureat and victorious Another grace which flourishes and thrives on the Mount of meditation is Hope Faith is confirmed and hope is enlarged 1 Tit. 1. 1. Tit. 2. 13. Col. 1. 5. Quaerat aliquis quando perâ—eniam ad speratum gaudium respoâ—dendum cum deus dederit nullae sunt lâ—ngae morae ejus quòd certò donabit Tert. Psal 103 5. by meditation the hand of faith is strengthned and the wing of hope is plumed by this excellent duty If a Christian should consider by
did not rein in the Wolves and put bounds to their brutish severity Fifthly God gives daily testimonies of his love to and care over his people He commands the Earth to nourish and sustain their outward man God provides flocks for Abraham Corn for Jacob and his Family and the Son Joseph Psal 24. 1. Gen. 42. 25. Exod. 16. 13. Exod. 17. 6. 1 Kings 17. 4 6. shall help to support the Father Nay rather than want shall befall his people he will fetch water out of the Rock shower down Manna send Quailes from Heaven prepare a Table in the Wilderness The Empty cruse shall 1 Kingâ— 17 14 be filled to support the Prophet and the Ravens shall dish in provisions for Elijah And God doth not only feed his people with bread that perisheth John 6. 27. but with that Neque corpori neque animae ullâ in parte deest Deu◠è terrâ nutrit corpora è coelis animas verbo spiritu donis innumerabil bus which endureth to Eternal life The Saint lives not by bread only but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God Mat. 4. 4. God feeds the weak Saint with milk the sincere milk of his word 1 Pet. 2. 2. and those who are grown to a higher stature in Religion he gives stronger meat to O blessed care of the great Jehovah towards his dear and precious people Are they sluggish he excites them to work Are they insolent he presently humbles them If Jesurun wax fat and kick he turns them out of Canaan which was both their Granary and Dairy Do they indulge sinful desires God mortifies them and as the Gardiner prunes the Vines weeds the Banks and waters the Cant. 4. 16. flowers of the Garden to cause it to flourish so God visits his people with the North-wind of affliction and with the South-wind of grace and favour that its spices may flow out that his Church may bud and blossom with happiness and prosperity But to wind up this particular so tender and passionate is God in his providence towards his people that he fixes his Church upon a rock Mat. 16. 18. that it may be unmoved and unshaken He leaves heaven to come down to visit it and to lay down his life for it John 10. 11. And after John 10 11. a little time he returns to glory again but he will not leave them comfortless John 14. 18. but sends the Infinitae sâ—nt promissiones innumera exempla quibus apertissimè demonstratur quanta siâ— providentia quâ suoâ— regit electâ—s Deus nihil ut sit certius quam ecclesiam imprimis maximae curae esse Deo Comforter in his room John 14. 16. as his Delegate to refresh and sanctifie his people Now he is in glory he commissionates his Angels to be the guard of his believing ones Heb. 1. 14. and to Minister to their necessities He leaves his promises to be his bond and security to his Saints that their trembling faith may have something to stay upon 1 Cor. 1. 20. He vouchsafes his Ordinances to be marrow and fatness to them Psal 63. 5. for their comfort and revival And least those Ordinances should be dry breasts and barren wombs he promises his presence to enliven and fructifie them Mat. 18. 20. And if his people fall into persecution he will give them interest for their sufferings They Mat. 19. 29. shall have a hundred fold for the present Mat. 19. 29. And if the pension be so large what will the portion be And his Angels shall not only watch over them but God will take care of them himself he will not suffer their foot to be moved Psal 121. 3. Not a foot the lowest member of the body and not moved it is not said not broken but not moved Zach 2. 8. He will keep his people as charily as the apple of his eye Isa 63 9. Zach. 2. 8. If they be over-taken with afflictions he will be in the fire and the water with them Isa 43. 2. Nay so tender is Christ to his people they must not disturb themselves Mat. 6 28. with any care that hair in the eye of the soul which makes it water and is so troublesome 1 Pet. 5. 7. and it is Phil. 1. 29. not to be over-passed God pours his spirit on his people John 14. 26. and his people must cast their care upon God a rare Joel 2. 28. change God sheds his blessings on them and they cast Psal 55. 22. their burdens upon him Psal 55. 22. And to conclude if any attempt their hurt They kick against the pricks Acts 9. 5. And every wound is struck at Jesus Christ Acts 9. 4. All their injuries are reflexions upon himself Gods providence is not only extended to precious Saints but even to the vilest sinners He keeps their breath in their nostrils Isa 2. 22. God sustains and supports them those Vipers fasten upon the hands of providence and it is often a Acts 28. 3. long time before he shakes them off into the fire Psal 64. 8. First He fills their belly with his hid treasure Psal 17. Acts 4. 27 28. 14. He sends the Prophet to anoint Jehu 2 Chron. 22. 7. Gen. 6. 7. and Hazael 1 Kings 19. 15. God kept cursed Cham in the Prov. 8. 15. Ark. He set the Crown on Nebuchadnezzars head Bad as well as good Kings reign by God by his permission and constitution Rom. 13. 1 2. Secondly As God gives wicked men temporal blessings as he is the Author of their possessions so he is the Over-ruler Lam. 2. 16 10. of their actions God bid Shimei curse for the humbling of David He calls Nebuchadnezzar out of Babylon to lead his Jer. 4. 6. people into Captivity Jer. 4. 6. He checkt Laban that he could not vent his rage and enmity against Jacob he curbed him in and restrained him Gen. 31. 24. he must hush Gen 31. 24. and not speak a distastful word to him It was of God that Judas did act so treacherously the Pharisees so blasphemously the Jews so inconstantly and the Souldiers so cruelly against Jesus Christ Acts 2. 23. Herod murders the innocents and in it fulfills a Prophecy Mat. 2. 28. The Romans destroy and burn Jerusalem and so fulfil what was foretold by holy Daniel Mat. 24. 15. Thirdly God doth not only over-rule the actions but the words of wicked men Balaam that cursed Miscreant shall pronounce a glorious prophecy concerning Jesus Christ Numb 24 17. Numb 24. 17. And Caiphas unawares shall foretell Christs death the meritorious cause of Mans felicity John 11. 50 51. He spake not as byassed by his own judgment but as over-ruled by Divine Providence Though Princes wear their Crowns on their heads yet their hearts are in Gods Prov. 21. 1. hand Fourthly And God doth not only over-rule the actions Impii sunt vasa irae â—daptata ad
did so love the very nature of his Elect that though for the present he had them not all with him in heaven yet he must have their picture in his Son to see them in and to love them in O let us meditate much on this admirable strain of love till it melt our hearts Luk. 24. 32. Zach. 12. 10. Isa 53. 2 3. and make them burn within us Thirdly From the incarnation of our Saviour we may trace him through the several passages of his life to his death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and passion and here with an eye of faith look upon him whom we have pierced and view that man of sorrows suffering 1 Pet. 2. 24. bleeding dying on that tree of shame and ignominy there we may dwell upon the death of Christ till it put life into our dead hearts and then let us follow Christ in our meditations from the Cross to the Sepulcher and by the way ponder deeply of the severity of Divine Justice of the sinfulness of sin of the inexpressible love of Christ and the rare worth of souls which are not redeemed with corruptible 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as a lamb without blemish and spot 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Acts 20. 7. And why did the primitive Saints sacramentally shew forth the Lords death on the Lords day Acts 20. 7. but to signifie to us that to contemplate and commemorate the death of Christ is a special duty of that day But a little more distinctly to supply our meditations on this glorious subject Let us meditate on the Author of our Redemption he that carried it on from the first to the last Let us contemplate Mat. 3. 17. Hag. 2. 7. Isa 29. 19. Promissiones in Christo constantes et veracâ—s sunt in eoque impletae sunt Alap on our dear Redeemer He is the Son of God the wonder of Angels the desire of Nations the joy of Saints All the prophesies of old were fulfilled in him Luk. 24. 27. All the favours of God are conveyed to us by him Eph. 1. 4 5 6 7. All the types of the Law were the shadow of him Col. 2. 17. Heb. 10. 1. Nay all the promises of the Gospel are yea and Amen in him 2 Cor. 1. 20. Let us meditate on his person it is altogether lovely Cant. 5. 16. Let us meditate on his natures The Creatour and the Creature never met in any but in him such a person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-Man Joh. 4. 19. Rev. 15. 3. Heb. 9. 28. Heb. 4. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 15. never was nor never will be in the world besides him Let us meditate on his offices they are necessary and glorious Let us meditate on his behaviours they are spotless and fructiferous Let us meditate on his designs they are affectionate stupendous Let us meditate on the objects of redemption viz. Gods Elect a company of poor helpless succourless sinners Isa 29. 22. whom God out of eternal pity hath designed for himself to be ransomed by the blood of his dearly beloved These redeemed ones are sometimes called his people Luk. 1. 68. Peculium hebraicè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peculium selectum thesauros pretiosiores et charos significat Hieron Chaldaeus vertit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 novum populum Exod. 28. 29. sometimes his Israel Luk. 24. 21. sometimes his peculiar people Tit. 2. 14. sometimes his treasure as Hierom observes his New people as the Syriack translation renders it There are a few scattered up and down in the world in all places in all times and in all ages whom God set his heart upon from everlasting and Christ leaves heaven and is incarnate to purchase and redeem these scattered ones Aaron was to have the twelve Tribes engraven on his breast-plate and to bear them before God when he was to go into the holy place Exod. 28. 29. Our dear Redeemer whom Aaron was onely to typifie did bear the names of his Israel upon his heart when he did sacrifice himself to divine justice upon his shamefull but fruitful Cross Let us meditate on the price of our Redemption And here as the Apostle speaks we must conceive We are not Redeemed 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. with corruptible things as silver and gold but with 1 Cor. 6 20. the precious blood of Jesus Christ Tears not treasure Col. 1. 14. not silver but sighs not full coffers but emptied veins were Agnosce ô homo quam gravia sunt vulnera pro quibus necesse est filium dei vulnerari Bern. the price of our redemption Eph. 1. 7. All the mines in the world could not have purchased the life of one soul for as the Psalmist speaketh Ps 49. 8. The redemption of the soul is precious Nothing but precious blood could redeem the precious soul our sinfull wounds are onely healed by Christ's sacred wound we are cured by stripes Christs chastisements are our peace Our Olive leaf is dipt in blood Christ trod Isa 53. 5. the wine-press alone and his garments were sprinkled with blood Isa 63. 3. There are four wayes by which the Isa 63. 9. Isa 63. 3. Rev. 5. 9. redeemed person attains his freedom 1. When the Captive is freely manumitted and let go without price or ransom But this is not our case for neither would Satan have ever dismissed us from his thraldome of his own accord and freely nor yet our sin would leave us freely and spontaneously it stuck so close to us When the Captive is freed by way of exchange Nor is this our condition what bartery could we make with God to Quorundum permutatione fieri potest omnium electorum redemptio Gravius est peccatum quà m ut ullâ permutatione puraealicujus creaturae tolli et ita captivum redimi potest Zanch. purchase our freedom Could the Elect be redeemed by their own sweat or services or by the sacrificing of the purest Creatures This is no way proportionable to divine justice which we have provoked these means are too weak to file off our chains Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams saith the Prophet or with ten thousand rivers of Oyl which yet is impossible or shall I give my first-born for my transgression or the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Mic. 6. 7. Observe in this Text of Scripture here is offered all varieties of creature-contributions for mans redemption Here are inanimate creatures offered ten thousand rivers of oyl here are irrational creatures made proffer of thousands Mic. 6. 7. of Rams nay here rational creatures are tender'd the fruit of our bodys nay further here are the most beloved creatures frankly and pathetically presented for an oblation our first-born the heirs both of our love and revenue and yet all this to no purpose All these great offers can contribute nothing to our
release or redemption Sin is not expiated but by blood and not by the blood of a Ram a Bullock or a Goat but by the blood of him who was God as well as Man Acts 20. 28. and therefore our Saviour expostulates the case What shall a man give in exchange for his soul Suppose he should pick Mat. 16. 26. up the excellencies of the whole Universe and sacrifice them for the souls redemption will they be accepted Surely no. When the Captive is rescued by force from his thraldom as Israel was from their Aegyptian Task-masters as by a Proâ—â—e verè Christus vocatur redemptor noster quia ut frater noster primogenitus dato pretio redemit fratres suos Zanch. mighty hand and a stretched-out arm as Lot was by the prowess and valour of Abraham and his company Gen. 14. 16. But this is not the way of our Redemption we are rescued not by killing but by dying not by giving wounds but by receiving them When the Captive is bought with a price And this is our case Empti redempti sumus We are bought we are re-bought or redeemed as the primitive Christians sung it out 1 Cor. 6. 20. Quanto sibi pretio deus nos sibi comparavit scil sanguine suo Alap usually and triumphantly but by what price are we bought Not by furnisht mines which are the rich linings of the earth but by the large effusions of spotless and chrystalline blood Let us meditate on the slaveries from which we are redeemed There are four Cardinal Miseries from which our blessed Redeemer hath rescued us From the slavery of Satan Christ in managing the work of our Redemption hath trod Satan not onely under his own Dâ—o in cruce affixi intelliguntur Christus visibilitèr sponte suâ ad tempus Diâ—bolus invisibilitèr invitus in perpetuum Fidei ergooculus conspicit Christum in summitate crucis quasi in curru triumphali sedentem Diabolum in imâ parte cruci alligâ—tum et Christi pedibus conculcâ—tum Orig. feet but under our feet Rev. 16. 20. By death he hath conquered him who had the power of death which is the Devil Heb. 2. 14. It is true even still Satan tempts but not triumphs over the Saints his conflicts are for the tryal of our grace but not for the trampling upon our souls he may raise a dust but not give a mortal wound to the poor believer Luk. 22. 32. he may sift us but not sink us he may winnow us but not win us Christ hath redeemed us from his destructive power It is a rare speech of Origen There were two fastned to Christs Cross Christ visibly of his own accord for a time the Devil invisibly unwilling and for ever therefore the eye of faith may behold Christ at the top of the Cross as sitting in a triumphant Chariot the Devil at the bottom of it bound and trampled upon by the feet of Christ Look upon Satan as a Serpent Gen. 3. 1. Christs death took away his sting as far as concerns believers Look upon Satan as a Dragon Rev. 20. 2. Christs death cut off his tail Gen. 3. 1. and look upon Satan as a roaring Lion Christs death dashed Rev. 20. 2. out his teeth and made his paw unserviceable 1 Pet. 5. 8. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law so the Apostle fully and elegantly Col. 2. 14. Blotting out the Subnectit Apostolus ipsum châ—â—ographum esse deletâ—m sed fortâ—sse non tam deletum quin pâ—ssâ—tâ—lis nova suboriri Addit igitur Apossolus in super sublatum esse sed fortâ—sse aliquid lâ—tet absconditum et in posterum proferri possit immo inquit Apostolus est cruci affixum dilaceratum et in frusta absâ—â—ssum Daven Gal. 3. 13. Gal. 4. 5 Christus emendo nos exemit dato pretio et in christianam vindicavit libertatem Eras hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross And Bishop Davenant descants most sweetly upon that Text The Apostle saith he proceeds here in a most pleasing gradation and consults the case of trembling consciences for saith the Apostle the hand-writing was blotted out but answers the doubting Christian but new controversies may arise the Apostle adds but it is taken away but replyes the doubting Christian but some other may lie hid and be brought to light hereafter therefore saith the Apostle The hand-writing is nailed to Christs Cross it is rent and torn to pieces by the same nails by which Christ was pierced and fastned to the Cross Indeed the Law is now Directory but not Damnatory to the believer his rule but not his ruine his glass to see himself in but not his rock to dash himself upon The Apostle avers Gal. 3. 13. that we are redeemed from the curse of it The Law is our Copy but it cannot be our curse we may steer by its purity but believers cannot fall by its power Gal. 4. 5. The Law is our Teacher but not our Task-master we are delivered from the tyrannical domination though not from the guidance and sacred instruction of it we may be advised but we viz. believers shall never be endangered by it Christ hath redeemed us from the power and destructiveness of sin A believer may mourn over the spot but he shall not Rom. 6. 2. 12. Christus meritò fuit percussus non suo sed alieno peâ—cato nos illum attrivimus nos illum â—ulneravimus qui illi nostra peccata tanti dolâ—ris causam tanti cruciatus materiam attulimus Riv. fall under the weight of sin Sin may abide in but not reign over a Saint it may be his grief but not his condemnation Rom. 8. 1. Christ hath redeemed us from the destroying though not from the disturbing power of sin He hath redeemed us from all iniquity Tit. 2. 14. He hath purchased our forgiveness Eph. 1. 7. so in the Col. 1. 14. In whom we have redemption through his bloud even the forgiveness of sins And it is observable there are two Texts of Scripture viz. Eph. 1. 7. and Col. 1. 14. which speak the same thing in the same words which is unusual that by the mouth of two witnesses this great truth may be confirmed Our pardons are written in Christs bloud 1 Joh. 1. 7. And so most 1 Joh. 1. 7. excellently the Apostle Peter speaking of Christ saith Who 1 Pet. 2. 24. Christus spirituales nâ—stros moâ—bos sâ—nâ—vit â—t inâ—â— recepit â—â—â—â—llerit et aâ—â—leret neâ—pe per imputationem et paenae persolutionem Riv. his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree Now if Christ hath born our sins then they are taken from us our souls must not die for them they are his charge and not our condemnation So then the Inâ—itement of sin cannot reach the believer the guilt of sin cannot cast him the power
body and Requiescâ—mus in Sabbato ne continuis laboribus fatigemur et eorum remissione fessâ— membra leventur vires reficiantur a revival to the soul the bodies ease and the souls enjoyment the outward man on the Sabbath recovers stâ—ength and the inward man receiveth Christ Our exhausted spirits on Gods holy day are sweetly recruited and our importunate souls are rarely answered they then prey upon a Christ offered in the Gospel Plaâ—o observes That the Goâ—s willing to recruiâ— mankind over-toiled with labour in pity have appointed festival days for their ease and relaxation Thus that Heathen Philosopher gives in his verdict to this particular Dii genus hominum laboribus pressum miserati propter remissionem laborum ipsis statuâ—runt solennia Fâ—stâ— Plat. lib. 2. de legib Indeed Gods blessed Sabbath shores up a piece of clay and it builds up a pieâ—e of eternity the precious and the immortal soul The Sabbath is the bodies friend and the souls fosterer the bodies rest-time and the souls term-time Those words of God Deut. 5. 14 15. That thy man servant and thy maid servant may rest as well as thou and remember that thou wast a servant in the Land of Egypt are very emphatical and intimate to us that one necessary end of the Sabbath Deut. 5. 14 15. is rest and that not onely for governors of Families who happily need it not so much but also for servants and they which have tasted of toil and bondage will easily allow rest to others There is an aeconomical end of the Sabbath viz. That the whole family be taken off from their customary toil as Exod. 20. 10. Nec Pater familias nec ejus familia nec animalia domestica nimiis laboribus perdenda sunt sed uno die intra septimanâ—m quiete fruantur à laboribus Zan was suggested somewhat before and labour and enjoy a sweet vacation for their communion with God On this holy day the governor is to cease from his secular over-sight and usual labour the children are to suspend their daily employments and the servants are to lay aside their accustomed sweat and the Posterity of Adam is now neither to dig nor delve and to get his living by the sweat of his brows This day the Ox must ot toil at the plow nor the Ass groan under his burden nor must the stranger be disturbed in his pleasing repose Thomas Aquinas observes In observantiâ Sabbaâ—â— sâ—nctifiâ—atio est finis praeâ—â—â—â—â—m est câ—ssâ—re ab â—â—ere sâ—rvili quin. secunda seâ—undae quaest 122. The level of the fourth Commandment aims at holy rest and a full cessation from servile and secular labours And Musculus takes notice That in case of Religion there is no difference between the Master and the Servant between the Parents and Children but all distinctions of Sexes and Degrees and Relations is quite taken away and the same Law for the Sanctification of that holy day indifferently involves and includes Communi sâ—nctificandi Sabbati lege constringâ—ntur omnes ex aequo Herus Servus Pater Laberi Mas et Faemina superiores inferiores Musc Deut 5 14. Vt familia quiefâ—eret haec habes ad Charitatem all The observation of the Sabbath reaches him who grinds at the Mill as well as him who sitteth on the Throne Then the whole family must be built up in their most holy faith as the Temple was in its Magnificent structure without noise of ax or hammer 1 Kings 6. 7. without interruption or noise of worldly and secular labour A learned man thinks it is agreeable to the Law of charity that Children and Servants should be call d off from their servile employments upon the Lords day their souls requiring as much care and attendance as the souls of those who move in a higher sphere and take the upper seat in the houshold and family There is an Ecclesiastical end of the Sabbath we are then to be conversant about those things which belong to the Finis secundus Sabbati est Ecclesiasticus eò quod cirea dei cultum et meditationem divinorum operum versatur Omnia enim ea quae ad veram pietatem et verum dei cultum pertinent in hoc sacro otio peragi debent Hospin Ostendit Deus discrimen inter labores externos et inter illos pietatis et cultus Divini in quarto praecepto Ger. Church of Christ we are to attend upon the worship of God to meet with the people of God and to refresh our souls with the Ordinances of God This day is a time for the Church not the Change it is not the fair of the body but the Market-day of the soul The things to be agitated this day are of another nature than the affairs of the week Now we must not mind our coffer but our Christ not the meat which perisheth John 6. 27. but that which endureth to everlasting life God gives us the seventh part of the week to trade for Heaven to dig for grace to sue out our pardon to strike high and look after an interest in a Mediator to lay up for eternity and to mind our part in Canaan above in the Countrey to come Now must we dress the Garden of our souls Gen. 2. 15. Now we must drive furiously 2 Kings 9. 20. for a Crown of glory Now we must pursue the unsearchable riches of Christ Eph. 3. 8. The affairs of the Sabbath are not civil but Ecclesiastical There is a Christian end of the Sabbath viz. That it may be a note and badge of our profession In the Primitive times the Pagans used to question the Christians upon this interrogatory Hast thou kept the Lords day and the answer Beati martyres in judicium vocati et à proconsâ—le interragâ—ti num Collectam fecissent aut Dominicum egissent Voce saepius repetitâ respondont se Christianos esse Collectam Dominicam et Dominicum congruâ religionis devotione celebrasse quia intermitti non potest Baron commonly was I am a Christian I dare not intermit it for the Law admonisheth me of it namely the Law of God of Christ of Christianity which answer cost many Christians their lives the last drop of their dearest bloud Never were two truths more deeply dyed in the bloud of Martyrs than the Lords Day and the Lords Supper have been the one under Popish the other under Pagan persecution The keeping of the Lords day in those Golden dayes of the Church was the Christians Motto the Saints Shibboleth the Martyrs boast and persecutors frowns could not cause them to suspend it nor the greatest fury enforce them to renounce it And the holy observation of the Lords day did not only then discriminate the Christian from the Heathen the Church from the world but it still differences the Saint from the sinner the believer from the formalist the carnal Gospeller from the real professor The Lords day is the Crown of the
second person in the Trinity who is the messenger of the Covenant Mal. 3. 1. and this party is called God Gen. 32. 30. It was such an Angel as blessed Jacob which was a work proper to God But now if it be demanded what it is to pray in the holy Ghost Answ It may be answered First The spirit helps us in prayer in a way of gifts Alludit Paulus ad illud Psal Psal 46. 8. Psallite sapienter pro quo hebraicè est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut intelligentio quod septuaginta vertunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut nimirum intelligatur quod canitur et quod precatur that the heart may not be bound up and that we may have necessary words to give vent for our affections It is the spirit which bestows the gift of prayer that we may enlarge our selves to God on all occasions 1 Cor. 14 15. But this gift is much bettered by Industry Hearing Meditation Reading Conference nay by prayer it self such holy exercises may be auxiliary to this excellent gift for the spirit worketh by means as the Sun shineth in the air in which it maketh its glittering ascents Secondly There is the gracious assistance of the spirit which is either habitual or actual First Habitual grace is necessary to prayer Zach. 12. 10. where there is grace there will be supplications as soon as the Child is born it falls on crying Acts 9. 11. Prayer is the Zach. 12. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratia et supplicatio in uno comprehenduntur kindly duty of the New Creature the regenerate person is easily drawn into Gods presence when once we are renewed by the Holy Ghost we shall certainly and sweetly pray in the Holy Ghost we shall offer up spiritual devotions acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Secondly There is the actual assistance which we have from the spirit when a man is regenerate yet he cannot pray as he ought unless he be still moved and assisted by the blessed spirit Now these actual motions do either concern First The matter of prayer which is suggested by the spirit Jam. 1. 17. of promise for let a man alone and he will soon run into Eph. 1. 13. a temptation and cry for that which is inconvenient and it would be severity in God to grant it and therefore the direction of the Holy Ghost is necessary that we may not aske Rom. 8. 27. a Scorpion instead of a Fish a stone instead of bread We take counsel of lusts and interests when we are left to our private spirit now the Holy Ghost teacheth us to ask not onely what is lawfull but what is expedient for us so that the will of God may take place before our own inclinations Or Secondly These actual motions of the spirit concern the manner of our prayers now in prayer we have immediately Quid resert gemere Suspiria confusa ad deum mittere fortè evanesâ—unt in aere sed interpelâ—atio spiritus certò exauditur â— deâ— Par. to do with God and therefore we should take great heed in what manner we come to him The right manner is when we come with affection with confidence with reverence First With affection Rom. 8. 26. It is the holy Ghost sets us on groaning words are but the out-side of prayer sighs and groans are the language which God will understand we learn to mourn from the Turtle from him who descended in the form of a Dove Mat. 3. 16. He draws sighs from the heart tears from the eyes and moans from the soul Parts may furnish us with eloquence but the spirit inflames us with love that earnest reaching forth of the soul after God and the things of God That holy importunity that spiritual violence which is often used in holy prayer comes onely from the spirit Many a prayer is neatly ordered musically delivered and gravely pronounced but all these artifices they are the curiosities of man and savour nothing of the holy spirit then it speaketh the spirit to be in a prayer when there is life and power and the poor suppliant sets himself to wrestle with God as if he would overcome him in his own strength Secondly With confidence In Prayer we must come as Children and cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 16. usually we do Suprema essentia spiritus dei qui orare facit orantibus promittit promissum largitur testimonium nobis intus perhibet quisnam dubitationi locus Chrysost not mind this part of the spirits help in prayer we look to gifts and enlargements but not to this Child-like confidence that we may be able to call God Father without reproach or hypocrisie not seriously considering it is the language of a Child which will onely prevail upon the affections of a Father Thirdly With Reverence That we may be serious and awfull God is best seen in the light of his spirit the Heathens could say We need light from God when we speak of or to God That sense of the Lords greatness and those fresh Non loquendum dâ— deo sine lumine and awful thoughts that we have of his Majesty in prayer are stirred up by the Holy Ghost He uniteth and gathereth our hearts together that they may not be unravelled and Devotio et pius in deum affectus debet semper viam aperire ad particulares nostras petitiones sive pro aliiâ— petimus necessaria sive pro nobis Daven scattered abroad in vain and impertinent thoughts Eph. 6. 18. And therefore to wind up this particular which hath been more copiously handled then usual when we go to pray at any time and so consequently in our Closets or Families on the morning of the Sabbath let us cast our selves upon the Holy Ghost as appointed by the Father and purchased by the Son to help us in this sweet and serviceable duty Rom. 8. 26. We are often tugging and labouring at it and can make no work of it but the spirit cometh and contributes his assistance and then we launch forth and our sails are filled and we go on prosperously in that omniprevalent duty A good Expositour gives this gloss on Rev. 1. 10. John was Arch. in loâ— in the spirit on the Lords day i. e. he was in prayer upon the Lords day the spirit mightily assisting us in prayer makes strange and glorious impressions upon us As it is reported Greg. Orat. de Laud. Basil of Basil That when the Emperour Valens came in upon him while he was in Prayer he saw such lustre in his face as struck the Emperour with terrour and he fell backwards Prayer can make a great change in us and work Luke 9. 29. great things for us and therefore the management of this duty must be dispatched with the greatest care and exactness We must not onely take our opportunities for prayer on the morning of a Sabbath and see to the qualifications of Psal 5. 3. of that duty to
Father before we go to the Psal 119. 27. publick Ordinances on the blessed Sabbath Rev. 3. 18. Secondly As we must pray that God would take away the scales from our eyes so likewise that he would remove the caul from our hearts that he would open our hearts to receive the word Judgment discerns truth but affection embraceth it Indeed the understanding takes a view of Gods word and finds it to be holy just and good Rom. 7. 12. But the heart entertains it and lays it up as its choicest Luke 2. 19. treasure A poor man goes by a Goldsmiths shop and seeth Mandata dei sancta sunt quia praescribunt quomodo deus sanctè colâ— debet justa quia praescribunt ut proximum non laedas sed ei quoâ— suum est tribuns bona quia praescribunt eâ— quibus quisque in se bonus est Alap Nisi Sp. s cordi sit audientis otiosus est Sermo Doctoris Greg. Money Jewels and Plate but he is not enriched by this wealth and a traveller in his journey takes a view of pleasant Lands delicate Mountains and amiable Prospects but his own Tenure is not amplified by all that he seeth So our judgment views truth and is convinced of its beauty and excellency but the heart only espouses the blessed truths of God and makes them his own to all intents and purposes Gospel discoveries are no riches till they are locked up in the heart and therefore God must be intreated for this thing for he that opens the eye must open the heart or else when the Sermon is done all the Prospect is over and we are not at all the better Lydia's attending was unavailable untill God opened her heart Arts 16. 14. The Apostle speaks of receiving truth in the love thereof 2 Thes 2. 10. Truth is pleasant to the Understanding but profitable to the Will Then the Gospel advantageth us when the Doctrine of it is not only the guide of our eye but the good of our heart It is love and affection which squeezeth the Grapes of truth and maketh it generous wine to the soul Where Acts 2. 37. the word Preached by Peter wrought upon the Jews it Christimors morita sacramenta praecepta promissa licet incredulis pudorismâ— et risui tamen nobis virtus dei et potentia pricked them to the heart Acts. 2. 37. If we buy the truth as Solomon adviseth us Prov. 23. 23. the heart must be the Chapman If we taste the word 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. the heart must be the Palate we then rellish truth when we affect it If we delight in truth Psal 119. 47. It is the joy and the rejoycing of the heart as Jeremy speaks Jer. 15. 16. A learned man observes It is the love of truth which is one of those graces which accompany Salvation Therefore on the morning of a Sabbath let us importune the Lord to engage our hearts in the service of truth and for the entertainment of it he who searches must draw the heart Rom. 1. 16. Thirdly Let us wrestle with God for the strengthning of our memories that he would make them pillars of Marble to write divine truth on It is very sad when heavenly Doctrines are written in sand or dust and after our hearing of them they run out again as the sands in the hour glass sad it is that truth which cost so dear should be lost so soon If God is so gracious to keep a book of remembrance for our discourses Mal. 3. 16. how serious should we be to keep a book of remembrance for Gospel discoveries It is most reasonable that those truths which were bought with Christs bloud should be wrought on our hearts Indeed in this case Jonah 2. 8. to forget our mercies is to forsake them How earnest was the Apostle Peter that the Saints might not forget those Doctrines which he â—ad preached how doth he reduplicate his care and their duty 2 Pet. 1. 12 13. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of 2 Pet. 1. 12 13 15. these things yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance And so in the fifth verse Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance Thus this blessed Apostle again and again stirs up and urges their mindfulness and remembrance of those Gospel truths he had discovered to them and presses that the Gospel might not die with them when he was dead and gone Our memories are naturally sieves of vanity and therefore need divine assistance to close up the chinks and stop the holes that the waters of life run not out in waste Indeed mans memory is never so usefull as in the time of Ordinances it is then a sacred Register and a holy repository like 1 Cor. 4. 17. the Ark where the two Tables in which the Decalogue was written were put and lodged After a good heart and 2 Tim. 2. 14. a good life nothing more conduceth to mans happiness then a good memory Forgetfulness is the grave of Gods truth 1 Tim. 4. 6. and mans treasure what I forget I can neither dwell upon by meditation nor feed upon by love and affection nor live upon in a holy and fruitful conversation Forgotten promises cannot support my faith forgotten commands cannot regulate my life forgotten truths cannot enrich my mind Forgetfulness is never happy but when injury is the object when we bury our injuries in that silent sepulchre One glorious office of the spirit is to bring things divine to our remembrance John 16. 26. and to fasten truth upon the Spiritus sanctus non solùm ut sciamus Author est sed ut verè sapiamus Doctor est ut beati simus intimae suavitatis largitor est Aug. soul we should therefore be earnest with God on the morning of a Sabbath to cause his spirit to execute this blessed office For though in preaching of the word the Mysteries of the Gospel are propounded to us yet it is the spirit must open our minds to understand the word else it will be a book sealed as the Prophet speaks Isa 29. 11. It is the spirit must give us wisdom to apply the word Eph. 1. 17 18. It is the spirit must support our memory to retain the word A learned man observes The Holy Ghost performs his office Isa 29. 11. not only by revealing truth to us but by imprinting it upon us Else the sounding of the Gospel will be like the sounding of Eph. 1. 18. a Clock after it hath struck a little noise there is for the present but it ceases by degrees and at last no sound at all is heard In a word forgetful hearers go from Ordinances Spiritus Sanctus apud nos officium suum peragit non solùm docendo sed et suggerendo just
Apostle 1 Joh. 2. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him Secondly Christ doth not say if you love me dispute subtilly of my Commandments Deeds not disputes evidence 2 Cor. 3. 1 2. our love to Christ the regular acts of our lives not Prov. 2. 10. the ingenious canvasings of the Schools it is not reasoning out of Gods word but walking after that holy word speaketh us the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Thirdly Nor doth Christ say If ye love me prescribe Est observatio praeceptorum Christi omnibus Christi fidelibus eo loco ha benda ut si illa desit in ipsam Christi dilectionem peccare convinâ—amâ—r Musc my Commandments to others read them lectures of sanctity no but live them your selves Personal holiness is of absolute necessity to every Christian It is not our prescription but our obedience not what we dictate to others but what we act our selves shews our interest in and our union to Christ Fourthly Nor doth Christ say keep the Statutes and the Commandments of your predecessours no but keep my Commandments it is not a plausihle custome but an undefiled conscience speaks the Christian This the Lord pleads Acts 24. 16. with Israel of old Ezek. 20. 18 19. But I said unto their Children in the wilderness walk ye not in the statutes of your Ezek. 20. 18. Fathers neither observe their judgements nor defile your selves Mat. 15. 3 6. with their Idols I am the Lord your God walk in my statutes Mat. 7. 9. 13. and keep my judgements and do them The Pharisees darling Gal. 1. 14. was the tradition of their Fathers and they were the Master-pieces of Hypocrisie Col. 2. 8. Fifthly Nor doth Christ say if ye love me keep and observe Numb 15. 39 40. what seems right to you no but keep my Commandments though severity be written upon their very forehead Deut. 12. 8. though it be to the carrying of my Cross to the denyal of your selves to the laying down of your lives for my sake Non spectatores sed luctatores non qui vident sed qui vincunt in agone et certamine coronabuntur Alap and keep all my Commandments not what are pleasing to your flesh but what are enjoyned by my word So then if we have any love to Christ holy practice must be the testimonial of it Indeed many Christians are like Children in the Rickets they have big heads but weak joynts they are all for notions and head-light curious knowledge and airy speculations but they wave practical truths and that wisdome Prov. 2. 10. which entereth upon the heart Prov. 2. 10. This undigested knowledge puts out the fire of zeal as if the waters of the Cum sapientia hominis animum penetrat quà m suavis illi est supra mel et favum Cartw. Sanctuary should put out the fire of the Sanctuary and men could not at the same time be knowing and holy How ardently then should we pray to the Father that Ordinances may so influence our lives that our conversation may bear witness how much we love the Lord Jesus And thus much for the second duty to be performed on the morning of the Sabbath before we joyn with the assembly of Gods people viz. Prayer A third duty incumbent upon us before we joyn with the Congregation is taking pains with our own hearts and this properly is Closet work which we may manage to very good purpose in these four particulars We must endeavour to empty our hearts First To throw out all the trash to cast out all vaine Jer. 4. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nos reddimus cogitationes noxias pro nox iae Aquila vertit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. damni Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec omniasuns fructus vanarum cogitationum thoughts and worldly desires Ponds and Moates are cleansed to keep them wholesome Foolish and vain imaginations will fly-blow all our duties and therefore we must let down the Portcullis of our hearts to keep in straglers and wanderers that they may not interrupt us in our holy worship These Caterpillars will blast and spoyle the fruit of holy Ordinances and for the atchieving of this necessary worke First Let us beg of Christ that he would whip these buyers and sellers out of the Temple of our souls The spirit of God can sweep away these Locusts and supply us with more noble and heavenly cogitations he can drop divine meditations into our hearts and turn the dross of flatulent thoughts into the gold of spiritual and seraphicall He is called a holy spirit not onely from those gracious impressions he stamps upon the heart but likewise from those divine infusions he instills into the head and so the whole man is his workman-ship in Jesus Christ Secondly We may likewise lash and correct these vaine Eph. 2 10. Vndenâ—m sit facultas bona opera saciendi immò et bona cogitandi ab eo à quo fimus novae creaturae nempe à deo A quo enim Arbor habetut sit bona ab eodem habet ut bonos proferat fructus Zanch. thoughts which flit up and down in our minds by setting before our hearts the future judgement when thoughts shall be canvased as well as words and actions sinfull thoughts at any time are accountable but those which defile the Sabbath are of a double dye and are written in red Letters The consideration of a judgement day will turn Hagars and Ishmaels out of door carnal and foolish imaginations Indeed we are apt with Lots Wife to look backward towards the worldly pleasures of Sodom towards the vanities of the world which hath too much of our heart even on the holy Sabbath of God but pondering on our future account we shall keep our faces steddy towards Sion Thirdly We must consider how much this trash of the heart foolish and vain thoughts will distract us in duty Heb. 4. 14. they are like the ringing of Bells in Sermon time which drown the voice of the preacher and stop the ear of the Mat. 13. 22. hearer These vain thoughts choak the Word that it dies away untimely and works not lively upon the soul This is Isa 29. 13. that setting the heart far from God when we seem to approach to him in Ordinances which the Lord so much complains of Isa 29. 13. Distracted persons are fit for nothing nor hearts distracted and torn with the varieties of flashy conceptions Fourthly Let us take up strong and fixed resolutions that we Haec suit causa excaecationis judaeorum quia scil deum nominabant et honorabant ore tenus corde vero erant ab eo elongati et aversi will wash our hearts in innocency and so we will compass Gods Altar Holy resolution is a good guard to the heart it will
may arrive at the Nobility of those Bereans who searched the Scriptures whether what the Apostles delivered were consonant and agreeing to them or no Acts 17. Acts 17. 11. Ignorantia negloctus dei ô quantum malum est et in quot et quanta mala Gentilâ—â— per hanci ignorantiam inciderint Alap 11. By constant reading on the Sabbath morning we come acquainted with the body of the Scriptures and so are fitted to entertain particular truths which may be delivered in publick by the Minister Well read Lawyers easily understand particular cases Ignorant persons like Children take in what ever is in the spoon whether Sugar or Poyson An ignorant Auditory wholly depends upon the conscience of the Minister and blind-fold grasp all with an implieit faith they drink in all which is delivered and so most probably the dregs at the bottom But our preparatory reading in private will enable us the more to judge and discern of publick Gospel discoveries Secondly Nor is it a small advantage that Gods word should take livery and scizin of our hearts in the beginning Quo semel est imbuta recens servâ—bit odorem testa diu of the Sabbath and so accommodate our hearts for future Ordinances Vessels retain the sent of the first liquor The Summer much follows the quality of the Spring Conversing in our closets and families with Gods word will much conduce to a spiritual frame of heart The tracing of a Chapter or two in the morning at home will mould the heart to a sweeter compliance with Christ in his Ordinances The reading of the Law made Josiah weep 2 Chron. 34. 27. and then he was flexible for every good purpose Thirdly Theophylact hath an excellent argument to this purpose One great end of the Sabbath saith he is to give Lex homines praecipit in Sabbatum quiescere ut lectioni vacent homines Theoph. us respit for the reading of the Scriptures which is meant not onely of the publick reading in the Church but also of private reading at home the Gospel being nothing else but Christ opened and expanded to study Christ is the purport not onely of our publick but private devotion To read the Scriptures then is one duty which must take up our private leisure on the morning of a Sabbath Fourthly The Lord Christ and his Apostles in alledging Mat. 21. 13. the places of the Old Testament do generally say That it is written or as it is written in the Book of the Psalmes or Luke 20. 42. this was spoken by the Prophet Isaiah Now how much Acts 1. 20. shame will befall us if when the Minister alledgeth Scripture Acts 2. 16. quotations we may say of the word as they did of the Holy Ghost they had not so much as heard whether there be an Holy Ghost or no Acts 19. 2. So we never read of such a Text we never met with such a Scripture we never were acquainted with such an example as is cited by the Preacher This might discolour our faces with blushes of shame and regret It was a sharp redargution of our Saviour which he gave to the Jewes when he remitted them to search the Scriptures John 5. 39. they making their Scriptural knowledge the greatest of their boast and ostentation And indeed to be a stranger to the Oracles of God neither becomes our interest nor our profession And Fifthly In this the Disciple must not be greater Cultus ipse publicus quà m maximè solennitèr est celebâ—andus et postulat necessariò illâ— exercitia Scripturum lectionis meditationis precum c. Quibus paratiores simus ad publicum cultum ut ille etiam in nobis verè efficax reddatur Ames then the Master On the morning of the week day He preached the word John 8. 2. And in the morning of the Lords day we should read it which as he did dictate we must survey if he was early in the dispensation of it it well becomes us to take the dawnings of the Sabbath for its perusal and lection let us take the dropings of this honey-comb at the first effusion And thus much for those Duties which are incumbent upon us in the morning of a Sabbath before we associate with the Assembly of Gods people We must dress our inward as well as our outward man before we come to the Congregation CHAP. XXVII How we must demean our selves in the Publick Assembly on the Holy Sabbath HAving thus performed our Morning Exercises in private Psal 84. 1 2 Psal 122 1. Psal 87. 2. how chearfully should we repair to the Publick Assemblies and draw nigh to the publick Ordinances on this acceptable day of grace and salvation when Christ Isa 2. 2 3. Psal 42. 4. sits in state scattering treasures of grace among hungry and thirsty souls who are poor in spirit and wait for spirituall Almes David admired the amiableness of Gods Tabernacles Deus pluris facit preces in Ecclesiâ quà m domi factas non ob locum sed ob considerationem multitudinis fidelium deum communi consensu invocantium Riv. Psal 84. 1. and he longed for the Courts of God rejoycing when they said to him Let us go to the house of the Lord Psal 42. 4. And the Prophet Isaiah speaking of Gospel times seems to foretell the disposition of Gospel Saints Many people shall go and say Come let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his wayes and we will walk in his paths Isa 2. 2 3. And the Apostle adviseth us by no means to forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is Heb. 10. 25. whom he brands with reproof and reproach Publick Ordinances they are our spiritual Exchange our holy Mart our heavenly Fairs where we buy up and fit our selves with all heavenly Commodities In these seasons we store our selves with grace knowledge and comforts which may abundantly serve us till the revolution of another Sabbath It was once the sad complaint of the Church That the wayes of Sion did mourn because none came to her Assemblies Lam. 1. 4. The want of publick Ordinances might put a Nation in sack-cloath they being the badge of the Church and the glory of the Kingdome Indeed holy duties in private they are of great use and have their blessing But publick Ordinances are the chief work of the Sabbath It is worthy our observation that the Sabbath and publick service are by God himself both joyned together Ye shall keep my Sabbaths saith God and reverence Ezra 10. 1. my Sanctuary Luke 19. 30. The Sabbath and the Psal 68. 26. Sanctuary are coupled as being twins of happiness Every thing is beautifull in its Season Private duties are beautiful Numb 10. 3. and are in season every day But publick Ordinances are never so lovely and beautifull never so much in their full sea as upon Gods
Christ will scatter vain and wandring thoughts Cant. 3. 1 2. in holy duties the soul will then say I come to seek my Beloved Let us get strong apprehensions of the holiness and purity of God And let us consider how unsuitable vain and slight thoughts are to his holy and unblemished thoughts how Attributa dei sunt invisibilia et spiritualia et ideò deus est colendus latriâ precibâ— votis et gratiarum actione Alap unsuitable our mud is to his Chrystal What is the reason that the Saints and Angels in Heaven have not a vain thought they strike not a wry stroak the sight of the holy God doth fix them Nothing would more spiritualize our thoughts in holy duties then the consideration of Gods Attributes the transcendent brightness of those most glorious beams The Masters eye keeps the Servant demure and observant and nothing more consolidates mans heart then the serious apprehensions of a glorious and infinite God Let us be earnest with God for the spirit He can sanctifie our thoughts in holy Ordinances and keep them close to the 1 Thes 5. 23. work in hand The spirit of God can turn the heart which naturally is a bed of lust to become a bed of spices and 1 Cor. 2. 10. so fill it with divine cogitations this blessed spirit can present the soul with Heavenly objects in Heavenly duties The spirit is not onely a discerner of thoughts but the refiner of them to purge away their dross and impertinency and therefore called a Refiners fire Mal. 3. 2. Our Saviour faith John 16. 13. The Spirit of truth shall lead us into all truth and our hearts being guided the thoughts will not be subject to wander into by paths when we are interessed in holy and sacred opportunities CHAP. XXXI As we must be strict in our behaviour so we must be spiritual in our duties when we approach the Publick Ordinances HAving thus largely discovered how we must be strict in our behaviours in publick ordinances We come next to shew that we must be spiritual in our duties The heart is the chief ghuest at every ordinance The Aegyptians of all the fruits chose the Peach to consecrate to the Goddess and they gave this reason for it because the fruit thereof resembleth the heart The Saints Character is from his inward carriage to God The Kings Daughter is all glorious within Psal 45. 13. If we will worship God indeed we must worship him in heart Hypocrisie is but practical blasphemy The heart is the King in the little world Man Our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith John 4. 24. God is a spirit and he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth In truth i. e. Scripturally opposite to the inventions of mens heads In spirit i. e. sincerely John 4. 24. opposite to the dissimulation of mens hearts The deeper the belly of the Lute is the pleasanter the sound is the deeper our worship comes from the heart the more delightfull it is in Gods eye But now that our holy duties may be spiritually performed that we may hear spiritually and pray spiritually and receive spiritually The inward man must be employed in holy ordinances not so much the ear as the understanding not so much the knee as the memory not so much the tongue as the heart though as our Saviour saith Mat. 23. 23. This must be done but the other must not be left undone In legal sacrifices God would have the fat and the inwards Lev. 7. 3. Is it Bis adeps nominatur et halocaustum non tantùm suit res sancta sanctarum sed et locus in quo comesta fuit â sacerdotibus sanctur fuit not to inform us that our services must not be specious but spiritual God must have the fat and they must be cordial not extrinsical God must have the inwards It is not the Pharisees disfigured face but Mary Magdalens melting tears God eyes and respects God is not delighted with the Pageant of a duty The Service doth not please God which hath Absolons face but which hath Davids heart Jehu's fained zeal Herods seeming joy no way comport with Gods will The melting frame of a weeping Peter and the spiritual 2 Kings 10. 16. agony of a praying Hannah are in Christ a sweet smelling Mark 6. 20. sacrifice to the Lord. The chief wheels in prayer in Luke 22. 62. hearing in meditating and other holy duties are the faculties 1 Sam. 1. 13. of the soul a supple will a working mind a faithfull memory embracing affections these are the musick of the Sphears in holy ordinances The care of our souls must be the signal design in all holy Ordinances It is not so grateful to perform service as to advantage the soul in service 1 Pet. 2. 2. When we come to 1 Pet. 2. 2. ordinances we must not study a secular interest or to quiet the clamours of natural conscience or to keep up a port in Religion but we must study the interest and the emolument of our souls 1. To raise them Every Duty every Sermon every Prayer should be a wing to the soul that it might fly higher towards God Duties are not onely to satisfie but to sublimate the soul to make it more heavenly and more ambitious after a crown in glory as those primitive Saints who looked upon the things of this life with disdain soaring after a better Country which was to come Heb. 11. 13 16. 2. We must study our souls in ordinances so as so quiet them to give them more peace and tranquillity Gospel seasons are not onely for the elevation but the calming of the 1 Pet. 5. 8. soul Satan disturbs sin defiles and lusts war against the Mark 7. 20. soul and the soul never finds rest till it comes to God in 1 Pet. 2. 11. ordinances and there quietly it lies at Christs feet as Mary Magdalen to receive the honey combs dropping from his lips After Hannah had prayed then she was no more sad or discomposed 1 Sam. 1. 18. When we acquaint our selves with God in holy ordinances we shall be at peace Job 22. 21. and thereby good shall come unto us 3. To spiritualize them We sow in duty we reap in grace that we may be more humble more holy more savoury and more serious in the things of God and Eternity We enjoy the glorious Gospel that we may pass from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. Means of grace are for the getting of 2 Cor. 4. 4. Eph. 3. 16. greater measures of grace we feed upon the feast of Ordinances Coâ—roborari in interiori homine est corroborari in mente in intellectu in voluntate caeterisque animae potentiis that we may be strengthned in the inward man The Apostle saith faith comes by hearing Rom. 10. 17. And the same Gospel is both the Mother and the Nurse of that heavenly grace Study therefore thy soul
in ordinances for what will it profit thee to gain a whole world of Gospel opportunities and at last to lose thy own soul Let us study a broken frame of spirit in Ordinances A eleven foot is a sign of Satans appearance A cloven tongue was a sign of the spirits appearance but a cloven broken Psal 51. 17. heart is the sign of a Saints appearance Our best composed Acts 2. 3. services flow from a broken heart Hezekiahs chattering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plural numeri denetare amplitudinem magnitudinem sacrificii cordis contriti like a Crane Isa 38. 14. And Davids weeping oratory were forcible engines to batter heaven Our hearts like clouds they are best when melted It is well when our services like Pauls companions come to the shore upon broken planks A melting spirit will melt God into compassion Moaning Ephraim is a pleasant Child Jer. 31. 20. The softer the Luke 4. 18. heart is the sweeter is the duty Squeezed Grapes onely Psal 34. 18. yield the Wine The Psalmist avers That the Lord is nigh to them who are of a broken heart he loves to dwell near Isa 57. 15. them nay the Prophet saith he loves to dwell with them Unquestionably God is never more seen in the Sanctuary Psal 63. 1 2. then when it is a Bochim a place of tears and spiritual dissolvedness Foramina Petrae sunt vulnera sanciantia Alap Broken clouds forerun a fair day broken hearts foretell a fair acceptation Thus Christ comes in at the clefts of the Rock Cant. 2. 14. And when we faint most we sink least When the Spouse is sick of love Cant. 5. 8. then is Cant. 2. 5. her beloved well pleased When we are most spirituall in ordinances let us hâ—ve ardent desires to be better in those sacred administrations The gracious soul is good at desires he would offer better if there was better in the flock his love shall piece up what is wanting in his duty though he cannot be excellent yet he Duplicem Cain culpam impingit unam quòd post multos dies obtulit serò obtulit cúm celeritate sacrificium commendatur alteram quoÌ„d ex fructibuâ— non ex primis fructibus obtulit Phil. Jud. would be obedient if he cannot offer an entire service yet he would sacrifice a broken heart to God and though his services are wanting in weight yet they are not deficient in wish his desires are plumed though his performances flag and hang the wing Abel will give the best though he hath no better and though the Saint can only offer a little Goats hair or a pair of turtle Doves yet he would offer a young Bullock or the fat of Rams he could wish his tongue was more fluent in prayer his ear more attentive in hearing his spirit more melting in service his heart more open in ordinances his desires are fledged though often his duties are in the shell And this would become us in holy ordinances when we are best to think we are short and when we fly fastest to complain of our clipt wing and Psal 63. 8. when we follow hardest after God to suppose we might mend our pace And surely holy desires after better things are most pleasing to God The Child who offers to serve his Father is very acceptable though his desire be more then Phil. 3. 14. the Act. Paul pressed forward towards the Mark in this our exsample We are most acceptable and more truly spiritual in Ordinances when we bring the whole man to them when the knee doth bend and the eye doth weep and the heart doth yield and the soul doth stoop and the ear incline in holy duties Gods great work was to make the whole world for man and mans good work in spiritual approaches is to give the whole man to God We must come to Ordinances as the Israelites went out of Aegypt with their whole train we must come with all the faculties of our souls and all the Psal 103. 1. parts of our bodies If there be one wheel missing in a In divinis officiis non tantùm sit totus homo sed totum hominiâ— watch it cannot go at all to be an Index of time And so in holy duties if the ear be missing or the memory wanting or the heart lacking all our design falls to the ground Those who will serve God in ordinances must give him their hottest love their highest joy their strongest faith their greatest fear they must act every grace extend every faculty improve Psal 9. 1. every part all the worshipper must be employed in that sacred work The Ship which sails well must have all Psal 119. 34. its tackle the Mast must be up the sails must be spread it must have both its pump and its lanthorn the want of any furniture may endanger the whole There must be head Jer. 3. 10. work and hand work and heart work in ordinances It was the resolution of the Psalmist to keep the Commandments Jer. 24. 7. with his whole heart Psal 119. 69. It is the whole man which is gratefull to God in holy duties we must as the poor widow give all we have cast in all our capacities into the treasury of holy worship Mark 12. 44. CHAP. XXXII Active graces do well become Holy Ordinances AND we must not only be strict in our behaviours and spiritual in our duties in the time of publick Ordinances but we must likewise be very active in our graces in those sacred solemnities There are three seasons when our graces must be active and vigorous Eph. 6. 13 16. 1. In a time of temptation Then faith is a shield as the Apostle speaketh Eph. 6. 13 16. Taking the whole armour of God we shall be able â—o withstand in that evill day Luke 21. 19. 2. In the day of affliction Then patience keeps possession and self-denyal breaks the stroke Wind up the watch and it goes as stedily in the night as in the day 3. In Gospel opportunities The breast is full of Isa 12. 3. milk but the Child must draw and strive to get it out A quae salutis sunt sacrae scripturae doctrina Evangelica quam hâ—â—â—imus á Christo Hier. Orig. There is a life and sweetness in Ordinances but grace and desire must draw it out there must be a hand of faith to let down the bucket to bring up the water from the wells of Salvation If any ask what spices must flow out what graces must be acted in holy ordinances it is answered We must act our knowledge in holy duties We must know it is God the infinite Jehovah with whom we have to do All worship without the knowledge of the true God is a notion and empty speculation God alone is the object of a godly mans worship Exod. 20. 2. His hope is in God Psal 39. 7. His dependance is on God Psal 62. 8.
His dread is of God Psal 119. 122. His love is to God Psal 18. 1. in every Ordinance he approacheth to God is the only object of his prayers Psal 5. 3. If he come to Sermons it is to Paulo quinto Vice-deo hear something of God and Christ John 10. 3. In Ordinances we must not worship men as the Samaritans worshipped Antiochus Epiphanes stiling him the mighty God or as the Venetians petitioned Paul the fifth Pope of Rome giving him the title of Vice-god nor must we worship the host of heaven as the Ammonites nor the Devill as the Indians nor Ezr. 9. 1. Zeph. 1. 5. Phil. 3. 19. Col. 3. 5. Jer. 50 2. Judg 2. 13. Acts 19. 28. 2 Kings 5. 18. Jer. 51. 44. Chemosh non potest defendere Moabitas à Babyloniis Nec aurei vituli Israelitas ab Assyriis Alap the belly as the Glutton nor interest as the Covetous nor the Cross as the Papists nor must we worship false gods not Belas as the Assyrians nor Baal as the Tyrians nor Diana as the Ephesians nor Juno as the Samians nor Rimmon as the Syrians but we must worship the great God the incomprehensible Jehovah God in Christ and him only must we serve In a word we must be cautionated against a threefold worship First We must not worship deos mortuos dead Gods images and reliques c. Nec deos mortales nor dying gods Men or Princes Nec deos mortificos deadly goods our swaying lusts and corruptions How necessary is it then for us to come with knowledge to holy worship that we may seririously apprehend that infinite Majesty that most glorious Being Psal 82. 7. Nahum 1. 5. at whose presence the mountains quake and the hills melt and this is the God the Jehovah Elohim with whom we converse in holy Ordinances We must act sincerely in holy Ordinances VVe must be hearty in our hearing we must not only bring the ear but Col. 3. 16. the heart to the truth of the word Truth must dwell in us Col. 3. 16. and must be not only our information but Luke 2. 19. our inhabitant it must be treasured up as well as attended to The truths of the Gospel are as so many Jewels and rare Pearls which must be lockt up The ear is only as the Verbum dei intromittatur in domicilium cordis nostri ac versetur assidâ—è in animis nostris Daven Psal 17. 1. Heb. 10. 22. Lam. 3. 41. Notandum est quod quae offeruntur in holocaustum interiora sunt quod exterius est non deo offertur ut pellâ— Orig. stall the heart is the Cabinet And indeed Satan can quickly pick truth out of the ear he can easily open that window but he cannot penetrate the heart that lock is only broke open by Omnipotency Truth is under lock and key safely secured when laid up in the heart and indeed it is never well housed till it is folded up in the soul And so we must be sincere and hearty in our prayers Tongue and heart must keep time and tune The Jews have this sentence written in their Synagogues where they meet for holy Ordinances A prayer without the heart is like a body without the soul God looks not so much to the Elegancy of our prayers how neat they are nor to the Geometry of our prayers how long they are but to the sincerity of our prayers how cordiall they are Thy prayers without thy heart will be a sacriledge not a sacrifice When the heart is Rector chori the chief leader of the quire then the voice is pleasant in Gods ear The heart though it be one of the least parts of man yet it is the best And as we must be sincere in our management of holy duties so in the ends we propose Acts 17 18. Some go to Ordinances as Athenians to understand some Mat. 22. 15. new thing some as Herodians to carp and to catch some to be gratified with ingenuity and wit as those who go to hear a noise of Musicians All these are as Children who Ezek. 33. 32. go to Fairs to buy toys and trifles But let us go to Ordinances to gather those flowers which grow in Eden to advantage our better part and to lay up treasure for our immortal souls We must act faith in holy Ordinances The Apostle avers it positively That without faith it is impossible to please God This grace is the incense in our sacrifices the rising Heb. 11. 6. perfume in all our offerings The hand of faith sprinkles the bloud of sprinkling upon all our oblations Faith is the Heb. 12. 24. eye of the soul to see the light of the Gospel faith is the hand of the soul to receive Christ offered in the Gospel Though faith be not the One thing necessary yet it is the chief thing necessary in all our duties and services This Si non unicum necessarium tamen primò necessarium est fides sacro soleâ—ni cultu efficox grace doth not only justifie our persons Rom. 5. 1. Purge our hearts Acts 15. 9. Nay espouse us to Jesus Christ Eph. 3. 17. But it doth sanctifie our duties and make them authentical and effectuall It is the believing soul alone enjoys an Ordinance profitably and performs a service acceptably he only feeds upon the tree of life in the Paradise of Ordinances We must act holy and ardent desire in holy Ordinances We must come to the Ordinances as the Hart to the brooks Luke 17. 37. Psal 42. 1. Fides quâ solâ apprehenditur Christus cujus justitiâ induimur verbi praedicatione procreatur conservatur Cartw. or as the Eagle which flyeth upon the prey or as the poor stooping Israelites who lapt at the water Judg. 7. 6. Indeed there are many desirable things in ordinances there is a desirable Christ desirable Grace desirable Life a desirable Soul to save a desirable heaven to ensure It may be added the Scriptures resemble this blessed work to whatever may inflame desire It is light for its pleasantness John 3. 19. It is honey for its sweetness Psal 19. 10. It is food for its necessity Job 23. 12. It is gold for its value Psal 19. 10. We live by it Mat. 4. 4. And we perish without it Prov. 29. 18. And let our desires answer all these allurements Indeed we should come to Christ in ordinances as the Bride to the bridegroom with joy and delight as the Husband-man to the Vine for a Vintage of satisfaction David rejoyced and triumphed in his own soul when the multitude called him to go to the house of God and indeed the Sanctuary is the Saints Bride-chamber on this side heaven And thus we see how we may every way deport our selves in publick ordinances and opportunities CHAP. XXXIII How we must improve the interval between the Morning and the Evening worship in the publick Assembly THE publick worship being over and the assembly
and beautiful in it self but it fits not the person who is to wear it Singing of Psalms doth admirably chear and exhilerate the soul The Apostle speaks Eph. 5. 19. Of singing Psalms and Hymns and making melody in our hearts this duty is the Hortatur Christianos Apostolus ad laetitiam et exultationem spiritualem ut laeti et exultantes in Christianismo jubilent Alap sweet shout of the soul the jubilie of the inward man a spiritual exultation the triumphal gladness of a gracious heart a softer rapture We may say of this Service as Tremelius doth of Davids harp That by the musick of it the storms of Sauls spirit were laid and he was composed and serene This Service can calm a perturbed and discomposed spirit Augustine confesseth That oftentimes for joy he wept in the Aug. lib. 3. Confes cap. 6. Church to hear the melody of the peoples singing And Beza acknowledges That at his first enterance into the Congregation Bez. Paraph. in Psal 91. hearing them sing the 91st Psalm by the singing thereof he felt himself exceedingly comforted and he did ever since bear the sence of it dearly engraven on his heart Dr. Bound observes Psalms are most convenient for the Sabbath for that is a time of joy and there is no joy comparable to that we have in Christ Jesus who fills our hearts with joy unspeakable and 1 Pet. 1. 8. full of glory Indeed singing of Psalms it reveals and confines our joy it is the smile and the gracious smile of the soul The Apostle James adviseth us to turn our mirth into the right channel If we be merry let us sing Psalms Jam. Psalmis nos oblectemus et ex hisce hilaritatem nostram promanare annitendum est Daven 5. 13. Our mirth should be as the musick of the Sphears pure and coelestial As the waters of a spring and not as the waters of a pond which easily putrifieth Our joy then flowes and breaks out in this blessed duty of singing Psalms which is the only vent of inward complacency the heart being the chief musick-room of a Saint In the singing of Psalms we begin the service of heaven singing is the triumph of glory In heaven we read of the song of the Lamb the song of Moses Rev. 15. 3. All varieties in the Pallace of the great King sing songs to the Lord and to the Lamb who sits on the throne Rev. 5. 9 12 13. The twenty four Elders sing a new song as if they would out-vy and double the tribes of Israel as in their Psalmi sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaecunque cantiones variâ—s argumentis scriptae Hymni sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae solummodò dei laudes continent Cantica seu Odae sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peculiares magis artificiosae angustiore quadam formâ Daven number so in their praises to the God of Israel Rev. 5. 9. The Angels lift up their voice to sing the Psalms of heaven Rev. 5. 11. Those glorious spirits though they have no tongues yet they have voices to celebrate the praises of the Divine Majesty The Harpers likewise have a new song Rev. 14. 3. and joyn issue in the same harmony to evidence that heaven is a place of joy and triumph Now as no Ordinance better resembles the company of heaven then that of the Lords Supper where the Saints meet to feast with and on Christ So no Ordinance better resembles the harmony of heaven then the singing of Psalms when the Saints joyn in the praise of their Redeemer It is not without a Selah a note of observation that the Apostle is so copious in setting down the several wayes of the Saints praising God viz. In Psalms and Hymns and spirituall Songs Col. 3. 16. Is it not to prefigure that plenty and joy which is reserved for them when they shall always joyn in consort with the musick of the Bride-chamber David singing with his harp Psal 71. 22. here looks not so like the King of the Old as a Citizen of the New Jerusalem Rev. 14. 2. Singing of Psalms must be managed with prudential cautions In this heavenly duty the heart must be president of the Quire He playes the hypocrite who bids his harp awake when his heart is asleep Affection must be loudest Non vox sed votum non musica chordulâ— sed cor non clamans sed amans caniat in aure dei Aug. in every Psalm The Apostle saith That he will sing with the spirit 1 Cor. 14. 15. David tells us His heart was ready his heart was ready to sing and give praise Psal 57. 7 8. Psal 108. 1. The Virgin Mary sings her magnificat with her heart Luke 1. 46 47. Bernard in a Tract of his tells us When we sing Psalms let us take heed that we have the same De modo benè vivendi Bern. thing in our mind which we warble forth with our tongue and that our song and our tongue run not severall wayes Audiant illi quibus psallendi in ecclesiâ officium est deo non voce tantùm sed corde cantandum non in Tragaedorum modum Hieron Spiritual songs must not be as icâ—â—les which drop from the eves of our mouths but as sparks which fly from the hearths of our souls If there be only the calves of our lips it so much resembles a carnall and Jewish sacrifice Hierome tells us We must not act as players who stretch their throats and accomodate their tongues to the matter in hand but when we sing Psalms we must act as Saints praising God not only with our voice but with our hearts A sweet voice pleaseth men most but a melting heart pleaseth God most Non franges vocem sed frange voluntatem non servas tantùm consonantiâ—m vocum sed concordiam morum Bern. Thou studiest cadencies and to run divisions saith Bernard Study to break thy will and to keep under thy corrupt affections and do not so much affect a consonancy of voice as conformity of manners It is not a quavering voice but a trembling spirit Isa 66. 2. Augustine complains sadly of some in his time who minded more the tune then the truth which was sung more the manner how then the matter Aug. what and this was a great offence to him We must sing with grace in our hearts Col. 3. 16. Viz. Either as some expound it with gratitude and thankfulness Nâ—n incommodè cum cantionibus conjungitur gratitudo Daven Laetis prosperis rebus ad canendum monemur quo in statu affectus gratitudinis debitus est planè necessarius Dav. for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grace is sometimes so taken 1 Cor. 15. 57. And indeed thankfulness is the Selah of this duty that which puts an accent upon the musick and sweetness of the voice we sing the thanksgivings of the Lord. In times of prosperity when God crowns us with his loving kindnesses
of a Sabbath and as lesser stars shine in the holy and exemplary observation of the Sabbath That swaying principle of interest should prompt Governours to this duty 1. Interest if they regard their present peace Slight Sabbaths will make sloathfull Servants and stubborn Children When we do not fasten the family to the holy duties of a Sabbath we leave them to the byass of their own corruptions Cor lubriâ—um et in omnia mala et iniqua pro pensum which will easily carry them to every thing inconvenient How many Servants in the great City of the Nation for want of care and zeal in their Masters to keep them to holy duties on Gods holy day Court their Harlots take off their Cups waste their Masters substance and hazzard their own in mortal souls and as Belteshazzar drink Dan. 5. 2. in the Vessels of the Temple with their Courtezans and their Concubines Many by these courses anticipate their own ruine and in reference to their dayes in the world for Luke 16. 6. an hundred write down fifty cast themselves untimely away mortgage their future hopes and blast their present parts and all from their riots on Gods holy day On the contrary the Family which serves God most on the Sabbath will serve the Governour best in the week The awe of a Sabbath is not easily worn off as colours laid in Oyle are not washed off with every drop A well spent Sabbath is an Ark in the house which sheds a prosperity on all the 2 Sam. 6. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Addidit affairs of it it makes every one a Joseph who carries increase and addition in his very name and concerning whom it was prophesied He should be a fruitful bough even a Gen. 49. 22. fruitful bough by a wall whose branches run over the wall Ex Josepho et filiis ejus duae tribus fuere propagatae amplissimae et potentissimae This holy care of sanctifying Sabbaths in with our families would cause the dews of heavenly benediction not only to fall upon the head and the beard of the Governours but the skirts also the inferiour branches of the family 2. It is the interest of Governours to see their families Exigit deus rationem à Ministris animarum nostrarum si vel unicâ eorum culpâ perierit Par. keep the Sabbath holy as they will give up their account with joy As the Minister must be responsible for the souls of his people committed to his charge Heb. 13. 17. so the Master for his Family At Gods Bar thou shalt not say am I my Families keeper In the time of the worlds infancy the Governour of the Family was the only Magistrate he Minister onus et curam animarum gerit pro iis aeternae mortis periculo se exponit siâ—gulorum probitas et salus ab eo exigetur in die judicii Alap was both Master and Pastour his house-hold was his teritory and dominion and he swayed his Scepter in exercising his power over it Abraham was a Prince and a Prophet in his own house and he acted like a Prince in commanding his family to keep the way of the Lord Gen. 18. 19. But still we are accountable for those who are subordinate to us and if we must be accountable for words as transient breath Mat. 12. 36. much more for Children the darlings of our bosoms and for Servants the objects of care that living trust committed to us How often do Parents put their Children into the Masters hand as Jacob did Benjamin into the hands of his Brethren Gen. 43. 14. with weeping eyes with aking hearts with ardent prayers and cry out if They are bereaved they are bereaved and shall the negligence of Gen. 43. 14. Masters strike these trembling Parents under the fifth rib because they did not see their servants strictly observe Gods holy day but left them to the vanity of their minds which gradually habituated them in evil and paved their way to destruction Surely the grief of these disappointed Parents shall no more vie with the doome of the regardless Masters 1 Kings 12. 11. then the smart of a rod can compare with the burning of a Scorpion But Masters of families should do well before-hand to cast up their account and this would be a spur to their care and sedulity on Gods holy day That lovely principle of justice and equity might command this service If we find not our family employed in holy work on Gods holy day what do we more for them then we do for our beasts We give them rest from labour Shall the care of a soul which endures to eternity more valuable Mat. 16. 26. then a world no more sway with us then the care of a beast which perisheth The Cattel shall not travel and the Psal 49. 20. Servants shall not work upon Gods day and so they shall be both equally indulged with the same priviledge Is this suitable to the spirit of the Gospel Paul endures the pangs of travel Gal. 4. 19. Christ endures the pangs of death Luke 23. 46. and thou shalt not endure a little trouble and a little care not one act of zeal or one drop of sweat in holy 1 Sam. 28. 14. diligence for precious and never dying souls Throw off the mantle of Samuel if thou and thy house will not serve the God of Samuel on his own day And moreover it is a great provocation that our Servants must serve us in the week and we take no care that they serve God on the Sabbath Our interest must be on the Anvel though the interest of Christ and Religion be laid aside a poor worm must be more sedulously served and observed then the infinite Jehovah May not that exclamation be here seasonable Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth Isa 1. 2. The Shop must not be neglected though the soul be is our present gain to run paralel with our servants future Crown Must servants be more mindfull of our work then their own everlasting weal Indeed what would it profit us if we should gain the whole world and our poor servants lose Mat. 16. 26. their immortal souls will our profit compensate their loss Surely this is bruitishly to use our servants and well befits the profession of a Demas who hath forsaken the Gospel and embraced the present world 2 Tim. 4. 10. But let us not beguile our selves saith heavenly Greenham for the blood of servants souls will be required at Masters hands who being lordly and tyrannicall make their servants either equal to their beasts or worse then their beasts caring for nothing but the world never thinking of Hell whereunto they are hastening Dir. 2 We must endeavour to keep Gods day uniformly and harmoniously Our families must be on the Lords day as the building of Solomons Temple where no Axe or Hammar was 1 Kings 6. 7. heard
Momentum unde pendet aeternitas Alap Now if ever this is the Sabbaths Motto This is our moment on which eternity depends Though there be no vacation for sin yet the Sabbath is the Term-time for the Torius mundi opes non conducunt nec sufficiunt ad redimendam unam animulam deperditaÌ„ sed omnes animae sunt redemptae pretio sanguinis Chemn soul the Sabbath is the Mart the Staple the Market for the soul and not to improve this opportunity judiciously savingly spiritually with the greatest intent of mind with the greatest severity of observance with the greatest inclinations and workings of spirit is the highest vanity and prophaneness A slight vain spirit on a Sabbath is like tears and sighs at a Nuptial Feast or laughter and jocularity in the house of mourning On the Lords day we must pray as for our souls hear as for eternity and improve Ordinances as those who are to deal with an infinite God in Ordinances What we do we must do with all our might as Qui rectè currit in Christianismo coron am gloriae accipiet Chrysost the Wise-man speaks Eccles 9. 10. Now especially we must run the race which is set before us and strive to enter in at the strait gate storm heaven that we may take it by force Sweat in our callings is our policy but sweat and labour in holy duties is our wisdom In the duties of the Sabbath 1 Cor. 9. 24. especially we wrestle for a prize we seek for life as those persons who fetched water for David from Bethlehem with Luke 13. 24. hazard and invincible magnanimity Frozen duties will Mat. 11. 12. speak cold answers and a light dead careless frame of spirit only teaches God to withdraw his presence from our 1 Chr. 11. 18. seeming approaches We must pray and hear on a Sabbath as David danced before the Ark with all our might 2 Sam. 6. 14. we must stretch out the hand of faith lift up the 2 Sam. 6. 14. voice of prayer and breath out the longings and anhelations of our souls These heights of spirit do exceedingly become the holy and blessed Sabbath Dir. 5 We must he frugall of the time of the Sabbath The filings of Gold are precious much more the filings of a Sabbath Every minute of a Sabbath is like a pearl small but of great value There are no loose minutes in the Lords day every little parcell of time is a holy fragment which must be gathered up that nothing be lost We must fill John 6. 12. up every space of a Sabbath either with holy thoughts divine meditations ejaculatory prayers reading of the Scriptures or some holy duty correspondent to that holy day Every branch of this consecrated time must bear precious fruit we should in our Sabbath below imitate our Sabbath above and there no time will be lost Not a drop of idleneness in an Ocean of rest Though there will be no pains in glory yet there will be perpetual praises eternall uninterrupted Hallelujahs and there shall be no breach or chasm in our Sabbatum eâ—t sanctum otium Leid Pros everlasting triumphs Indeed the Sabbath is rest from our callings but none from our duties it is an holy leisure for our souls which must not run waste Grains of Musk Fragmentorum collectione et asservatione Christus nos monet frugalitatis ne insumendo et prodigendo bona à deo nobis concessa uno impetu perdamus sed quae supersunt religiosè colligamus et seponamus Lyser are sweet and valuable so are the most minute pieces of a Sabbath The Romans were so ambitious of the Consulship that one Consul dying the last day of his Authority one sued for the remainder of the time whence that memorable speech of Cicero O vigilantem Consulem c. O watchfull Consul who slept not one night in his Authority Such holy ambition we should have for the time of a Sabbath we should sue for the smallest remains of it to improve for soul advantage The Author of the Practice of Piety complains of some who spent their Sabbath or a great part of it in trimming painting and pampering themselves and were like Jezabels doing the Devils work when they should be doing Gods Surely such are the greatest unthrifts Neque dominicis diebus quae sunt hilaritatis praeter sanctitatem aliquid dicere aut facere concedimus Clem. and are guilty of the most prodigious prodigality It was a pious constitution of Clemens That on the Lords day we should give no way to mirth or earthly delight but all our words and facts should savour of holiness Dr. Bound sadly bemoans the custom of some great personages who lay longest in their beds upon Gods holy day and made it a day of pleasing Sabbatum est observandum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the flesh which should be a day of sanctified rest And saith this worthy man in an extasie of zeal We must not give our selves to sleeping on this blessed day no more then to surfeting The Prophet Joel tells us On solemn Feasts the Priests were to lie all night in sackcloth Joel 2. 13. And we know Hester spent three nights and three dayes with her Maids in fasting and prayer Hest 4. 10. And can there be a greater solemnity then the Sabbath the day Imperatum suit â— deo ut sanctifices et consecres totum Sabbati diem et in illo toto die divinis vacare possis Zanch. Iren. contr valent for transacting the great affairs of eternity our golden spot of time to get a Christ to get a crown Zanchy observes That the whole of a Sabbath without abatement and curtail is to be consecrated to God Irenaeus one of the morning stars of the Church informs us That the Sabbath doth teach us there ought to be a perseverance and a continuance of a whole day in the service of God And the Council of Paris an assembly of learned men give in their suffrage to this truth in these words Let your eyes and hands be lifted up to God all this day To the same purpose speaks the Council Conc. Turon cap. 40. Calv. in Deut. Serm. 34. Muscul in quartum praeceptum Pet. Martyr in Gen. 2. of Turon But I shall not over-load or clog the Reader with humane testimonies Let me only subjoyn the attestation of incomparable Calvin This day saith he is not ordained for us only to come to a Sermon but to the end that we may employ the rest of our time to laud and praise God Here we may take up that of the Prophet Mat. 1. 14. Cursed is the deceiver And this is too much to imitate Ananias and Saphira to keep back part of the price of a blessed Sabbath Acts 5. 2. God will not have us to divide the Sabbath between himself and our selves this is to make a separation between God and us Gods day must be spent in
qui nobis consecravit quietis diem Gualt be softest on that day when Gods mercy is sweetest Mans pitty is a good handmaid to wait on Gods bounty That day which is a day of life to us should be a day of love from us Charity on a Sabbath is like fire put to Juniper it turns it into a perfumed flame Now there is a four-fold Charity we must exercise on Gods holy day There is Charitas oeconomica Charity to our Families It is very observable that every clause in the 4th Commandement Manifestè praecipitur mandati verbis quieti sabbati rationem habendam esse servorum ancillarum quo quisque admonetur de assectu charitatis erga domesticos suos et insatiabilis avaritiae impetus restringitur Muscul Quo magis à dei dilectione recedimus eò magis à proximi distamus quantum verò dei â—haritati adhaeremus tantum et proximi et proximi deo conjungimur Biblioth Patr. is an injunction to Charity We must be tender to our servants they must not work we must be compassionate to our Children they must not toyl we must pity our beast that must not drudge we must have bowels to the stranger within the Gates he must rest and be refreshed so that we may say with the Apostle Rom. 13. 8. Love is the fulfilling of the Law The Command for the Sabbath is written in golden Letters of love and Charity The Lords day must be spent not in the sweats of labour but in the sweets of duty not in wearisome toyl but in holy rest Parental or despotical rigour is an open breach of this Command which breaths nothing but sweetness and indulgence The Sabbath is no day for the forge or the plow it was never set apart to waste our spirits but to mind and negotiate the affairs of our souls Bishop Andrews saith Mercy on a Sabbath is the sanctification of a Sabbath Surely those Governours of families do highly prophane the Sabbath where the maid-servant must toyl at the fire to provide for their luxury The man-servant must be no otherwise employed then to serve their company Children must wait and serve at the table to shew the grandure of the family where instead of singing Psalmes there is clattering of Dishes and instead of gathering Manna there is gathering up of fragments and instead of a composed lying at Christs feet Politicum illud est ut quâ—es concedi debeat iis qui subsunt alienae potestati Jer 17. 21 22. Psalm 105. 27. in holy Ordinances there is nothing but hurries noyse and confusion Here it might be expostulated Shall servants have no breathing for their souls no necessary pauses to mind eternity Is not this more then Aegyptian bondage Is not not this to cause our families to return back to the Land of Ham to their wonted captivity and thraldome Can such Governours disciple it after Christ and yet have no bowels Quae officia hic demandata etsi videantur levia et rusticae â—bi de pecore aberrante redâ—cendo et asino sublevando agitur non tamen nobis talia erunt si perpendamus finem legulatoris qui non tam animalium rationem habuit quà m hominum Riv. to the immortal souls of their inferiours Christ shed his blood for precious souls and these will not dispence with a humour with their pride with a feast with an entertainment for the good and advantage of a never dying soul But such cruelty and oppression saith Dr. bound is the scandal of Christianity and unravels all that mercy which is folded up in the fourth Commandement God in the Law commands us to pity and shew mercy to our enemies Oxe Exod. 23. 4. to an Oxe which is a beast to be fatted for the slaughter to our enemies Oxe whose enmity might damp our charity and yet here we must shew compassion How much more must the soul of a Child or a servant be precious to us Shall thy servants here lie among the pots and hereafter among the flames and wilt thou do nothing to prevent it Wilt thou not give them Sabbath room to sayl to Heaven in Surely this is the dregs of tyrannie Well then this piece of Charity we must shew upon a Lords day we must be tender to our families we must call them from all toyl and labour to wait on God in his sacred institutions In a word to despise our servants on a Sabbath so as to think they are onely fit to drudge here is an act of pride ond insolency Such remember not that Paul wrote an Epistle to Philemon for his servants sake and to employ our servants Philem. v 16. on a Sabbath and not regard what becomes of them hereafter is an act of inhumanity and such forget that the poor receive the Gospel Mat. 11. 5. The lame the maimed were brought to the Kings feast Luk. 14. 21. and the difficulty Mat. 10. 25. lies how the rich man shall get to heaven Luk. 18. 25. Nay Mat. 19. 24. Christ himself took upon him the form of a servant Phil. Mat. 16. 26. 2. 7. Thy servants soul is of an higher price then the world Mat. 11. 25. It is observed by a worthy man That in the fourth Commandement Rest is granted to those who have most need of it to the poor servant and the friendless stranger to shew that it is even a duty of nature to be pittiful and charitable to our families upon Gods holy day There is Charitas crumenae a charity of the Purse which Petit pauper suum pauculum temporarium Da et recipies magnum eternum Aug. we must likewise shew on the Sabbath Now we must find objects to be the Cisterns of our bounty we must here occurrere ut succurramus meet some whom we may minister to Augustine his rule is a golden Rule on this day The poor petitions a little of our temporals give it him thou shalt receive it in eternals But if we object our inability It is replyed It is not how much but out of how much God looks at The widdows two mites was a commended charity even by Christ himself But let this caution be minded Caution let us take heed in our giving that we do not take away on other dayes to give on this day rob the week to Recondet Christianus apud se cumulet auctumque deinceps et cuâ—â—â—latum deferat Sclat adorn the Sabbath this is pride not charity and the greatest portion is given to Satan But let our charity on the day of the Lord be according to the simplicity of the Gospel and so our charity may make our purse the lighter but it will make our Crown the heavier and what we have laid out in one world we have laid up in another In the Conseruntur eleemosinae sec discretionem unius cujusque propter egenorum subsidium aegrotorum et exulum solamen primitive times there were
saepiùs Christus in die Sabbati officia charitatis praestitit quà m aliis diebus Iren. dayes And let us in this imitate both our Priest and Pattern who died for us and must go before us and we taking up this practice weekly let us follow him Surely melting bowels do bear a symphony with mercifull Sabbaths On the first day of the week the day of our Sabbath God created Gen. 1. 2 the world out of a chaos of confusion Christ restored the Mark 16. 2. World from sin and destruction and on the same first day Acts 2. 3. of the week the holy spirit enlightned the world in falling down solemnly upon the Apostles and redeemed the Church from Judaical misapprehension And shall these glorious works which have put such a bright emphasis upon the Christian Sabbath not soften our bowels to pity the groans of the sick the sights of the prisoner and comfort those who are in trouble and dejection On this day the spark Buc. in Mat. 12. 11. of our love should turn into a flame the drops of compassion should swell into a stream Bucer makes the visitation of the Luke 10. 33. sick to be a principal duty of our Sabbath On which day Infundit vinum et oleum Samaritanus vinum denotat legem oleum gratiam Evangelii Sacramenta sunt quasi alligamenta quibus labia vulnerum alligantur Chemnit Christians should turn good Samaritans they should drop tears into those wounds they cannot drop Oyl into and pour in the wine of consolation if they have no other to offer as a sacrifice of mercy Bleeding hearts become a blessed Sabbath One well observes It doth behove us as occasion is offered to spend some time of a Sabbath in visiting the sick because this will fill our minds with holy meditations and fill our mouths with heavenly discourses and fill our hearts with serious apprehensions of death and judgement which will shortly encounter us and there is no avoiding the stroke of the one or the Bar of the other There is Charitas spiritualis spiritual Charity which is Verbis exprimi non potest quantum homo qui ad imagirem dei conditus est et pro quo unigenitur dei filius proprium suum sanguinem fudit quem denique sp sanctus per verbum Evangelii ad communionem filiorum dei vocavit et sanctificavit irrationalibus et brutis animalibus praestet Lys most apposite to the Lords day One well argues If our mercy on a Sabbath must extend to the Oxe and the Ass Luk. 13. 15. much more to man who is Gods Vice-Roy upon Earth bears his own image and is enriched with that nature which Christ himself took upon him and if in outward things we must minister to him viz. man much more in spirituals and heavenly by how much the soul transcends the body and the wants of the soul are more dangerous and for the most part less felt then those of the body and therefore to succour them is more necessary and less dispensable Surely this is the highest mercy to pull men out of the pit of despair out of the mire of prophaneness out of the dungeon of ignorance to unfetter chained sinners to consolate and advice distressed souls It is observable our Saviour did not only heal the poor woman of her bodily infirmity on the Sabbath but delivered her from the chains of Satan with which she had so long been held Luke 13. 16. It is our great work on a Sabbath to shew mercy to distressed souls On the Lords day Christ rose for our justification Rom. 8. 34. which was a spiritual benefit not for supply but for our justification not for the encrasie of our bodies but for the rescue of our souls And the Apostle notes it with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea rather in the Text forementioned And in soul advantage every Christian may have a share they may have soft bowels who have not full purses every one may give savoury counsel put up ardent prayers labour to set home convictions nay enter into heavenly discourses and so endeavour to draw those who go astray to the Sheepfold of the Great Shepherd of their souls Every one may 1 Pet. 2. 25. bleed over sinful revolters and as St. John who ran after 1 Pet. 5. 4. the young man when he was extravagant in his practice they may run weeping after straying transgressours This willing mind as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 8. 12. may lodge 1 Thes 5. 14. in the breast of the meanest person there may be zeal in the heart when there are rags on the back and when their apparrel is more contemptible then John the Baptist's leathern girdle and Camels hair Mat. 3. 4. And that which enforces this duty is 1. The excellency of the work To instruct to admonish comfort and pray for Brethren is the greatest mercy the softest pity nay even the work of Christ himself who shed not only his tears but his blood to ransome immortal souls how did Christ grieve for a hard heart weep over an unbelieving City and lay down his life for poor lost sinners To Mark 3. 5. rescue poor perishing souls is a heavenly work and well Luke 19. 42. is becoming a heavenly Sabbath Mat. 18. 11. 2. The reward of the Service Not a tear we drop over a wandering sinner but will turn into a pearl The Apostle speaks expresly Jam. 5. 19. Brethren if any of you have erred from the truth and one hath converted him let him know that he hath converted a sinner from going out of his way he shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins This text it seems informs us of a double reward Rom. 10. 14. 1. The salvation of a soul the purchase of Christ himself 1 Tim. 4. 16. souls were the gains of his victories Isa 53. 11. The Redemption of souls was the reward of all his sufferings Luke 22. 32. 2. Here is the covering a multitude of sins which onely Heb. 12 15 16. speaks blessedness Psal 32. 1 2. And it may likewise be inferred from this text of Scripture That God hath made us Heb. 3. 13. Guardians one of another Acts of spiritual charity belong to the care of all Christians God hath not onely set conscience to watch over the inward man but hath set us to watch over the outward conversation one of another We must exhort one another while it is to day Heb. 3. 13. especially Luke 24. 17. while the light of Sabbaths continues to us When the two Disciples were travelling to Emmaus Christ joyns with them this blessed Physician came to comfort to satisfie and to inform them they were poor distracted timorous persons and these he visits Christ will not leave them in a maze and intricated with inexplicable apprehensions but he will bring them home to the knowledge of the truth and this is Christs
then let not a Sermon satisfie without Christ in a Sermon let not reading a Chapter content without we read Christ in that Chapter As once Bernard despised that Book wherein he did not read Christ And let us alwayes remember that Ordinances they are the institutions of God and he that made a brazen Serpent heal Num. 21. 9. can make his own institutions effect our cure Object But the poor souls greatest Query is How shall I meet with God in Ordinances who shall open the door into the Gallery where I may be with my Beloved Answ In answer to this something we have to do as well as something to enjoy Our pain must go before our pleasure we must not be wanting to meet God if we expect that God should meet us Therefore We must be earnest in Prayer we must cry out O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me to thy holy Hill to thy Tabernacle then will I go unto the Altar of God unto God my exceeding joy Psalm 43. 3 4. We must make our addresses to God if we look for his approaches to us God sends a Preacher to a praying Paul God Acts 9. 11. sends an Angel to a praying Daniel God comes himself to Dan. 9. 21. a praying Solomon Prayer is an humble summons for the 1 Kings 2. 3. divine appearance it can not onely tie Gods hands Exod. Acts 10. 2 3. 32. 10. and command returns Isa 45. 10. But it can obtain Gods presence If Moses say I pray thee God presently Jam. 4. 8. replies My presence shalt go with thee Exod. 33. 13 14. If thou wilt have God meet thee in Ordinances let thy prayers be thy Harbingers to prepare room for him Be serious in preparing for Ordinances The Sun scatters the Clouds before it shines in its brightness The Bride dresseth her self to meet her Bridegroom And thou must Isa 61. 10. compose thy self with awful apprehensions Sponsa â—rnata representat ecclesiam ornamentis gratiae fortitulinis decoratam immò animam sanctam gratiis spiritu adaptatam et si debilis et imperfecta Haymo 1. Of the Divine Majesty with whom thou art to converse 2. With the solemness of Gods Ordinance thou art now going to enjoy 3. With the sweetness and advantage of the season thou art now entring upon and then God will meet thy prepared soul Joseph trimmed himself and then he goes into Pharaoh's presence The Wise man adviseth us â— keep our foot when we go into the house of God Eccles 5. 1. VVe should do well in our applications to holy Ordinances to examine our selves whether we are fit with loose thoughts to meet with a dreadful Majesty Or with filthy hearts to meet with a holy God Or with worldly and drossy minds to meet with Grn. 41. 14. our heavenly Father Let us not complain God retires when we are not fit for his presence Let us then capacitate our selves by holy care and serious preparation to enjoy God in Ordinances Let us long for Gods presence God loves affectionate Proselytes A longing David shall see a loving God Psal 63. 1 2. The Spouse is restless after her Beloved and then she meets him Cant. 3. 1 2 3 4. The thirsting soul shall be fed Fames est illa melior sanctior quae est spiritualis jam in Christo habebit saturitatem invita aeternâ omnimodam satietatem ubi deus erit omnia in omnibus Chemn with milk and wine Isa 55. 1. Grace and Righteousness shall satisfie the bungry Mat. 5. 6. The Psalmist follows hard after God Psalm 63. 8. God meets with our pursuits we shall then satisfie our selves in God when nothing but God can satisfie us Cold suitors shall not meet with Christ in his espousals VVhen the Wife longs the Husband endeavours after the thing longed for Mary Magdalen bemoaned the taking away of her Lord John 20. 2. We may expect to meet with God when his absence is our greatest moan and his presence our sweetest musique Let us come to Ordinances with all reverential humility God will look at him who is of a poor and a contrite spirit Humilitas est via ad deum Aug. and trembles at his Word Isa 66. 2. God dwells in the humble heart Isa 51. 15. God will raise those who debase themselves Augustin tells us That humility is the ready way Super quem requieseit Sp. sanctus nisi super humilem super humilem non super virginem Bern. to God It is the usher who brings the soul into the presence Chamber Bernard notably observes That the spirit of God rested on the Virgin Mary not for her Virginity but for her Humility And if Mary had not been so low in her own eyes she had not been so lovely in Gods Alapide saith Humility is a throne of Saphire where God sits in Majesty Let Humilitas est thronus Sappharinus in quo deus cum Majestate resideâ— Alap us then come to Ordinances with a submissive spirit God will cast an eye upon the soul who lies at his feet He sent an Angel to Daniel when he lay in his ashes Dan. 9. 3. 21. God rewarâ— the very counterfeit humility of Ahab 1 Kings 21. 29. though his sackcloath was but as Samuels mantle the attire of hypocrisie A dread of Gods presence brings Prov. 16. 19. a sweet sence of it and a trembling at the Word of God goes Prov. 29. 23. before a triumphing in the enjoyment of God Job abhorred himself in dust and ashes Job 42. 6. and then God hears him for himself and his friends and gives him interest upon interest for all his sufferings and tribulation Job 42. 10. A holy God will meet with an humble Saint Let us endeavour to be in the spirit upon the Lords day Direct 9. The extasies of the Apostle John were on the Lords day Revel 1. 10. the rapture was accomodated to the season Christians should study to be above themselves upon Gods holy day then they should walk in Galleries above the world Hierome professes That he sometimes found things so with himself that it seemed to him as if he had been triumphing Hieron de Virginit servand among Troops of Angels and singing hallelujahs with the Saints in Heaven and walking arm in arm with Jesus Christ And Luther reports of himself That sometimes especially on a Sacrament day the death of Christ was so full and fresh upon Luth. his spirit as if then he had been upon Mount Calvary and as if that was the day in which the Lord dyed And Beleevers should be so in the spirit upon the Sabbath as if that was the very day wherein Christ broke the bars of the Grave rowled away the stone from the Sepulchre and enfranchised himself from the restraints of the tomb The Saints should be carried out on this day and make their sallies into the suburbs of
Heaven In a word they should be in the spirit which duty must first look upwards We should strive to be in the assistances of the Spirit Holy duties without the holy Spirit are onely the carcasses of Religion like profession without practice which is offensive and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost useless such services bring neither glory to God advantage to our selves or benefit to others and all are of no more significancy then a body when the spirits are fled away On the morning therefore we must incessantly beg the divine assistances of Gods blessed Spirit It is the Spirit fits for Magistratical Luke 11. 13. dignities Num. 11. 25 26. It is the spirit fits for ministerial Numb 27 18. services 2 Kings 2. 9. and it is the spirit fits us all for Christian and holy duties The Spirit directs us unto holy duties Simeon came into the Temple by the spirit Luke 2. 27. the good spirit directed him to meet Jesus How often doth Gods spirit excite and provoke to holy Prayer to secret meditation and to those close devotions wherein the soul tasteth deepest of Christs flaggons and apples This inward Counsellour is often Cant. 2 5. restless in us till it â—end our knees lift up our hands and raise our hearts in sacred approaches to the divine Majesty The Spirit leads the Saint into solitariness to converse with God as once it did lead Christ into the Wilderness to be temped Mat. 4. 1. of Satan this divine principle with us is importunate Luke 4. 1. till it put us upon enquiries after God The holy Spirit quickens us in duties John 6. 63. and makes us lively and vigorous Corrupt nature takes off the wheeles in holy services flaggs and casts a damp upon us in Christus dicitur non spiritus vivens sed vivificans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus vitarum Theoph. such heavenly intercourse but the Spirit oyles the wheeles to make them go with greater speed When the soul is carried out by the Spirit how full is it of holy heaâ— divine zeal and rare enlargement as if of late it had conversed with a Seraphim his tongue is the pen of a ready writer Psalm 45. 2. and his heart is like a bubbling Fountain he melts in prayer as the Cloud into drops Paul assisted by this good Spirit runs on till midnight Acts 20. 7. and knows not how to break off his sacred discourses And our ever 1 Cor. 15. 45. to be admired Saviour raised and quickned by the same spirit wrestles with God in prayer all night Luke 6. 12. the very arteries of that duty were stretched out by that divine Spirit which was given to Christ without measure John 3. 34. The Spirit then is the animation of our holy performances without which they saint and die away The holy Spirit sustains us in holy duties Psal 51. 12. Mans spirit would quickly fail in wrestling with God was it Spiritus promptus scil graece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebraicè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alacâ—iter festinans Lyrus habet duo vocabulà Dolanta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ucundus not under-propt by this good Spirit The most sparkling wine if it stand long it will grow flat and dead And though the spirit of man be willing Mat. 26. 41. yet while it is in the body it will be soon tired and flag in holy duties which are so contrary to corrupt flesh but then the Divine Spirit comes in and renews poor mans strength like the Eagle and so he runs through holy services and faints not the annointing of the Spirit makes him agill and fresh and holy Ordinances are not his burden but his satisfaction Believers offer their sacrifices as Christ did himself Heb. 9. 14. through the eternal Spirit who recruits them continually with additional strength and vivacity The blessed Spirit causeth us to overflow in holy duties Job 32. 18. Our rich enlargements in Prayers and other Gospel services are from the good spirit of God when the heart Psalm 45. 1. bubbles and runs over in holy discourse and when the Eructans cor significat cordis locutionem cum nondum ad os pervenit et querit illam emittere circum volvitur et movetur huc et illuc et volutatur egressum quaerens quem prae gaudio non primo impeâ—u invenit c. Felix Praton mind flutters and flyes high in holy meditation and when our affections dilate and follow hard after Jesus Christ all this is from the Spirits gracious and divine assistance 2 Cor. 3. 16. It is the holy Spirit spreads our duties like Gold to greater extensions and oftentimes makes the Saint in duty query whether he be in the body or out of the body 2 Cor. 12. 2. His heart is like the squeezed Grapes overflowing with wine which is better then the drink of Angels It was the Spirit enlarged Solomons heart in that divine Prayer at the dedication of the Temple 1 Kings 8. 22 23. It was the Spirit enlarged Daniels heart in Prayer to hasten deliverance from the Babylonish captivity Dan. 9. 4. It was the Spirit enlarged Jonah s heart in Prayer when the Whales belly was consecrated into an Oratory Numb 18. 27. Jonah 2. 2. It is the Lords good Spirit which makes mans Deut. 15. 14. heart as the gushing streams or the over-flowing Fat or the Numb 18 30. dropping Wine-press in services Evangelical John 3. 8. It is the Spirit sweetens duty As Christ when he was at prayer rejoyced in spirit Luke 10. 21. Duties are sadned by mans sin but are refreshed by Gods Spirit David acted Mat. 17. 1 2. by this blessed Principle delighted so much in duty Luke 9. 29. that he begs to spend his whole life in the Temple of God Psal 27. 4. Ordinances become mellifluous by the concomitancy of Gods Spirit which often turneth them into a transfiguration As it is reported of Basil that when Greg. Orat. de laud. Bas the Emperour came upon him while he was at prayer he saw such lustre in the face of holy Basil that he was struck with terrous and fell backwards It is the Spirit ravishes the Fructus spirituâ— est gaudium sed impura voluptas est similis voluptati quâ afficiunâ—â— scabiosi cum se scalpunt Chrys heart indulcorates and captivates the soul in holy duty and toucheth the tongue with a Coal from the Altar Isa 6. 6 7. which turns all into a perfumed flame The Apostle saith the fruit of the spirit is joy Gal. 5. 22. which is never so fresh and diffusive as in holy services Ordinances are the spiritual opportunities wherein the Comforter John 14. 16. sheds abroad his comforts in the soul It is the Spirit which helps our infirmities in holy duties As in Prayer Rom. 8. 26 27. so in other spiritual services When we are flat the Spirit quickens us when
we are contracted as a ship becalmed the Spirit fills our sails which is that VVind which bloweth where it listeth John 3. 8. Spiritus sanctus postulat i. e. postulare et gemere facit est hebraismus quo kal ponitur pro Hiphil Ansel When we are sad and dejected the Spirit consolates and chears us and flushes us with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. Oftentimes we cannot lanch forth in a duty the Spirit then helps us off from the sands Many times we are dull in hearing and then the Spirit opens the heart Acts 16. 14. and makes us vigorous and attentive And when we are at a loss in Prayer the Spirit puts life into our dead duty and makes us groan a sign of Sex modis in orando erratur primò si bonum temporale petimus animae nociturum Secundò si à malo aliquo quod prosit nobis liberari oremus Tertiò siquid petamus ex ambitione ut filii Zebedaei petebant primus in regno Christi quartò si quid petamus ex zelo indiscreto ut filii Zebedaei optabant ignem de caelo manasse in Sâ—maritanos Christum respuentes quinto si petatur ardentius quod utilius est differri sextò si petamus statum nobis incongruum life and furnisheth us with suitable petitions to accost and lay siege to the throne of Grace And when we are weak and stagger in a holy duty the Spirit takes us by the hand and sets us with fresh strength to finish our service the Spirit corrects all our errours in holy duties A learned man observes there are six great errours in Prayer 1. When we petition some temporal good to the disadvantage of the soul 2. When we earnestly desire the removal of some affliction which conduceth much to the good of the soul 3. When we ask something out of ambition as the sons of Zebedee that they might have a primâ—cy in the Kingdome of Christ 4. When we petition any thing out of an indiscrete zeal as the sons of Zebedee requested fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans who would not entertain Christ Luke 9. 54. 5. When we are earnest for that which it was better it was delayed that by this delay our prayers may be more importunate and our perseverance may be more fully discovered 6. When we beg that state of life in this World which God sees inconvenient for us Now the Spirit correct all these errours and is the Censor of our miscarriage in duty He maketh us more wise more humble more heavenly more self-resigning more patient in duty The guidances of the Spirit are the Pole-star to direct us in every Ordinance and holy service The Spirit is our advocate within us John 14. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Greek which fits us with holy pleas to sue with when we address our selves to God and carries out the heart to urge its case with greater earnestness with great weight and authority The Spirit is the President of our duties to guide the soul that it write fair without blot In a word The Spirit helpeth our infirmities in duty Not a good Angel as Lyra Not a spiritual man a Minister as Chrysostome Not spiritual Grace as Ambrose Not Charity as Chrysost tract in Joan. Augustine But it is the Holy Ghost as Pareus And this blessed Spirit helpeth us as the Nurse helpeth a little Child holding it by the â—â—â—eve As the old man is stayed by his staffe or rather â—â—â—peth together as that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 26. seems to imply being a Metaphor taken from one who is to lift a great weight and being too weak another claspeth hands with him and helps him So the Spirit is ready to relieve us in all our spiritual duties The holy Spirit succeeds and prospers our holy duties It makes our duties prevalent with God God attends when we sing in the spirit God hears when we pray in the spirit Ephes 2 18. as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 14. 15. VVhen this Dove moanes within us Rom. 8. 26. God understands the groans of his own Spirit and will give seasonable answers God Donum et efficacia orationis non in verbis sed in gemitâ— desiderio affectu et suspiriis ignitis consistit Alap gives his Spirit to assist in these duties which he fore-determines to accept Man speaketh words in prayer but the Spirit raises groans Alapide observes God is not so pleased with locution as affection in that holy duty not so much with expressions as inexpressible sighs which are as incense in his acceptation As the smoak of that Cloud a sign of Gods smile and favour Isa 4. 5. A duty spirited by the Holy Ghost shall never fail an expected end for God knows the mind of his Spirit as the Syriack reads it Rom. 8. 27. As the Mother knows the groanes and cries of her tender Child and presently runs to help it and to give it what it wants and cries for The Spirit is our intercessour within us as Christ is our intercessour above us whose pleas shall 1 John 2. 1 2. not meet with a denial The Spirit moving upon the waters Gen. 1. 2. produced a World and brought forth living Creatures The Spirit moving upon the Word the dispensations of the Gospel causes the New Creation and makes living Christians O then when we come under the Word and are in the midst of the waters of the Sanctuary let us wait for the good spirit of the Lord Other Birds drive away but let the Dove come in Pareus observes Suspiria perturbata semper exaudiuntur Primó Quid sunt suspiria spiritus Secundò Quia semper spiritus interpellat juxta placitum et voluntatem dei Pat. that the groans of the Spirit within us shall not vanish into ayr and that upon a double account 1. Because the Spirit comes from God John 15. 26. and is his Commissioner in a gracious soul and he will not deny his Leiger in a Saint 2. The Spirit always intercedes according to the good will and pleasure of the Lord And pleasing petitions shall not meet with a repulse what suits with the heart of God shall open the hand of God Congruous desires shall be conquering desires The Spirit makes duties effectual to us That Prayer which is animated by the Spirit shall not onely gain upon Gods heart but melt ours If the Spirit open our heart in hearing we shall attend to the Word and savingly entertain it When Christ by the Spirit opened the understanding of the Acts 16. 14. two Disciples Luke 24. 45. then they dived into Gospel mysteries and understood fully what was fulfilled concerning the death of the Messiah When the Spirit brings home a Sermon he makes it fire to burn up the dross of the soul Jer. 5. 14. he makes it a hammer to break the hardness of the soul Jer. 23. 29. he makes it
a two-edged sword to divide between sin and Heb. 4. 12. the soul Ordinances are kindly Physick and work the cure sweetly and effectually if this Physick be given by the hand of the Spirit if the third Person in the Trinity be our Physician how then should the necessity of the spirits assistance inflame our importunity to sue out that precious John 15. 5. Promise for the attainment of it recorded in Luke 11. 13. In Ordinances without the Spirit we can do nothâ—ng Christ 1 Cor. 9. 26. must work by his Spirit or else in all our holy duties we onely beat the ayr to use the Apostles phrase Let us study to be under the impressions of the Spirit on Gods holy day The earth stands not in so much need of the beams of the Sun as the soul doth of the influences of the Spirit The Spirit is a Spirit of Truth to guide the Understanding John 15. 26. It is a Spirit of Counsel to enrich the mind Isa 11. 2. and fill it with knowledge How naked Eph. 5. 18. is mans understanding if it be not covered with the covering John 14. 17. of Gods Spirit Isa 30. 1. 1 Cor. 12. 8. The Spirit is a good Spirit Neh. 9. 10. to sanctifie the will It is a holy Spirit Ephes 1. 13. in relation to its effects and productions it cures the will of its pertinacy and Rom. 1. 4. stubbornness and melts mans will into Gods We may take 1 Cor. 12. 9. an instance in Paul Acts 9. 6. The Spirit is a Spirit of Grace Zach. 12. 10. to beautifie the heart and fructifie it with all the sweet fruits of Righteousness It is more then the Sun to the Garden It not 2 Thes 2. 13. Phil. 1. 11. onely blows the flower but it plants The graces of the Spirit are those stars which shine in the firmament of the heart 2 Thes 2. 17. those vigorous principles which carry out the soul to every good word and work It is the spirit of Glory 1 Pet. 4. 14. to sublimate the affections and raise them as high as heaven Col. 3. 2. The spirit discovers glorious things to us shews the soul its treasury 1 Cor. 2. 12. Eph 3. 8. 2 Cor. 5 21. Rev. 1. 6. Cant. 7. 8. 13. Col. 3. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 7. where its riches lie It opens Christ to a believer who is the Wardrob of our Robes the Exchequor of our wealth the fountain of our honour the paradise of our delight or to speak in the Apostles language who is all and in all to the believing soul It is a spirit of life to quicken the whole man Rom. 8. 2. God breaths into man and so he becomes a living soul the Spirit breaths into man and so he becomes a living Saint Gen. 2. 7. Nay God works all his works upon us and in us in Christ by the spirit it is the spirit makes us upright and sincere 1 Cor. 6. 11. and so rectifies our obliquities Psal 51. 10. It is the spirit snuffs the understanding which is the candle of the Lord Eph. 1. 17. Prov. 20. 27. and so enlightens our darknesses It is the spirit 2 Thes 2. 1â— fixes and establisheth us and so settles our inconstancies Psal 78. 8. It is the spirit softens and suples us Isa 32. Sapientia hominis est quâ res difficillimas scrutatur et pervestigare conatur Cartwr 15. and turns our barren hearts into a fruitfull field and so fills our vacuities It is the spirit conducts us in our straights John 16. 13. and so prevents our miscarriages It is the spirit takes us up Ezek. 3. 12. nay lifts us up Ezek. 3. 14. and so cures us of our pedantick and dreggish succumbencies for Man is the worm Jacob Isa 41. 14. and will naturally grovel on and immure himself in the Earth The spirit of God is an excellent spirit Dan. 5. 12. and will create in the 1. Cor. 12. 11. believer those excellencies which will make him more excellent then his neighbour Prov. 12. 26. The irrigations and pouring forth of the spirit Isa 44. 3. will make the soul fresh 1 Cor. 12. 13. Corroborari in interiore homine est intellectu voluntate caeterisque animae partibus suffulciri and green and be in a spring of grace which is most pleasant to the eye of God and Man This holy spirit upon us Isa 59. 21. is not so much our covering as our Crown our strength to encounter every temptation Eph. 3. 16. Let us then not as Sadduces mis-believe the spirit Acts 23. 8. But cry out Lord evermore give us of this spirit And to set our selves under these various and rare impressions We must purifie our selves The spirit is a holy spirit which will dwell onely in a clean heart flesh and spirit are combatants and not cohabitants they oppose one another Gal. 5. 17. then grace triumphs when flesh is subdued and chased out of the field We must supplicate our God The spirit is given to the Petitioner and not to the professor How much more shall your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them that ask him Isa 63. 11. Eph. 4. 30. 1 Thes 4 8. 1 Cor. 6. 19. saith our Saviour Luke 11. 13. Earnest prayer is the means to obtain the good spirit whose works are so many and so marvellous and whose operations are so secret and so soveraign But secondly as this duty must look upwards for the assistances and the impressions of the spirit So this duty must look inwards we have not onely to do with heaven on the Lords day and to look up to Gods spirit but we have to do with our own hearts too and seek the spirit to proportionate Prov. 4. 23. them to the holy services of the Sabbath and here our duty is two-fold 1. We must be in the graces of the spirit and that too in a double sense We must be in grace habitual We must come as Saints to the duties of a Sabbath That of the Apostle is highly observable Our communion is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1. 3. Observe the terms of Relation Sancti est in spiritu vivere i. e. internam habere vitam et animum gratiâ spiritu etjustitiâ imbutum sancti est in spiritu ambulare i. e. secundum spiritus et gratiae dictamen ductumque incedere conversari agere operari et Graecum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat certo ordine serie et normâ incedere Alap the term Father speaks us to be Children It is not our communion is with God but with the Father and his Son Saints properly are the guests of the Sanctuary Christ in us is not onely the hope of our glory hereafter Col. 1. 27. but our hope of acceptance here We must bring Benjamin we must bring Christ if we will ever see the face of God in Ordinances wicked
men defile not enjoy an Ordinance John 17. 21. They are spots not guests in that holy Feast It is onely the spiritual man is fit for converse with God Princes converse not with Beggars nor God with sinners Christ in his incarnation tabernacled with the Sons of men John 1. 14. But in his communion he converses with the Sons of God he gives his people the meeting Mat. 18. 20. The Sun shines upon the stars and they reflect its light with a glittering rebound Christ when he arose again gave not the meeting to the world but to his Disciples Luke 24. 36. And so in his blessed fellowship he visits not the formalist but the Saint Christ in his ordinances influences his living Eph. 1. 22 2â— members not glass eyes the speculative Atheist not painted faces the varnished hypocrite not ' wooden legs with the silken stocking upon them the spruce and self-deceiving moralist who with Agag are ready to depose the bitterness 1 Sam. 15 32. of death is over We must be on the Lords day in grace actual On the Sabbath the soul is to be set on work in acting several graces and some seem to be of a different nature As faith and fear heavenliness of mind and humbleness of heart repentings for sin and relyings on God tremblings of the soul and restings on Christ a real longing for promised mercies and yet a quiet staying for those mercies promise by hope expecting good things to come and yet by faith possessing those things at present This embroydery of grace must be on the heart of Lam. 3. 26 a Saint upon the Sabbath One of the Ancients compares Greg. Mor. l. 19. sect 30. holy men upon Earth unto those holy Angels of Heaven Rev. 4. 8. that are said to be full of eyes within and without In the week the Saints must use their eyes without Psal 77. 6. looking after their necessary callings and their occasions in Hos 6. 3. the world but upon the Sabbath they more solemnly set Ex cognitione dei omnia utriusque tabulae officia tanquam ex fonte promanant et eatenus placent quatenus illam praelucentem habent Riv. on work their eyes within looking inward upon the estate of their souls knowledge must open its eyes and repentance must drop its tears every grace must be in ure and exercise Indeed the Sabbath is the proper season for the acting of our several graces working as Bees in a Hive making honey of every ordinance Sorrow and confession must begin faith and prayer must carry on and holy thanksgiving must conclude the duties of a Sabbath Our hearing the Word must be introduced by holy appetite and desire we must long to be in the Courts of God It must be entertained Psal 84. 2. Luke 8. 1. Heb. 4. 2. Mat. 13. 19. by faith and affection it must be improved by zeal and an holy conversation our lives must be comments on Gods sacred truths and so all other ordinances of the Sabbath must be the sphears for our graces to move in as stars in their Phil. 1. 27. Orbs and this is to be in the spirit on the Lords day Let us study to be in the comforts of the spirit upon the Lords day The joyes of the Holy Ghost are the musick of heaven below the hearts rapture paradise in the bosome the sweet earnest of future blessedness they are the ecchoes of assurance and the reverberations of a good God and a good Conscience Spiritual comforts hath many springs but all most pleasing and complacential They are the comforts of God 2 Cor. 1. 3. who is a fountain above us The Father of mercies leaves a seed of joy in the soul They are the comforts of the Holy Ghost Acts 9. 31. who is a blessed spring within us John 7. 37. shedding those grateful streams of peace and joy which drench the soul with unspeakable delight They are the comforts of the Scriptures Rom. 15. 4. which are as sweet Gardens without us every promise being Consolatio omnis nititur promissionibus gratuitâ— Dav. as a sweet rose every truth being as a flower of the Sun and every threatning being as wholesome worm-wood in this salvifical garden They are the comforts of the Saints Col. 4. 11. which are as lights about us for our more comfortable passages to Sancti nos solantur invisendo condolendo necessitatibus nostris administrando et miserrimas nostras conditiones sublevando Dav. our rest and happiness Communion of Saints being not only an article of our Creed but an helper of our joy in our travels to Canaan But to return to the comforts of the spirit Gods people may find soul-refreshing comforts in Christ the Lord upon his own day and the measure of their comforts may mount their souls so high as to make them like Moses upon Mount Pisgah viewing Canaan the heavenly Canaan flowing with that which is better then milk and honey the soul of a sincere Isa 51. 12. 2 Cor. 1. 4. Luke 2. 29. Isa 56. 7. Christian may swim in a sea of sweet delight he whose heart hath been as a boat which could not be got up all the week because of low water yet may be brought up in an high spring tide of spiritual comfort upon the Lords day being ready to say with Old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke 2. 29. the soul may be so Psal 94. 19. Isa 57. 18. filled with joy upon Gods holy day in his house of prayer that he may be ambitious of his eternal Requiem in the bosome of Christ Nay upon the Lords day a believer being in the spirit the worst evils may amplifie his best comforts to think of sin remitted hell removed death vanquished devil Gen. 42. 38. conquered all these make for him that he may go down with Jud. 14. 14. joy and triumph to the grave Out of every eater comes meat the upper and the neither springs run all into the Josh 15. 19. same stream of comfort to the Saints Every thing on a Sabbath is an occasion of spiritual joy to them If they look up Isa 29. 19. to God they will joy in the Lord Rom. 5. 11. If they consider Isa 35. 2. the season of a Sabbath that is the time nay the term Isa 52. 9. time for the soul which is matter of joy nay as the joy of harvest Isa 9. 3. If they glance at the word they receive the word with joy Luke 8. 13. If they act their graces this is with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. It was a brave speech of a Martyr to his cruel tormentors Work your will upon my weak body as for my soul it is in heaven already and over that Caesar hath no power So it may be the case of a Christian upon a Sabbath he may be as in heaven beginning his triumphal hallelujahs It is no
wonder then Intus est in corde est Sabbatum nostrum Aug. if St. Augustine cry out Our Sabbath is within in our hearts There indeed is the musical spring of joy Let us take heed of grieving the spirit Eph. 4. 30. No fountain casts out sweet and bitter water a grieved spirit will not dash joyes upon the soul the mournful Dove flies Offenditur spiritus verbis putidis etiam quo vis peccato Hier. away We must cherish the graces if we will possess the joyes of the spirit The birds sing most sweetly in the spring when every thing is fresh and green Gods spirit in the soul yields its freshest delights among flourishing graces when the Peccata sunt injuriae contumeliae spquae eum contristantur Alap seared boughs of corruption are broken down Sin and vanity break the strings of the spirits musick and chase away the Comforter from our coasts as birds hushed away leave the place of their present abode Let us not suspend our answer to the spirits excitations Let us listen to every motion and apply our selves to every counsel of this inward Monitor Slighted advocates plead no more we must hearken to every whisper of the Holy Ghost who first commands and then comforts To stir up to holy duties to good works to circumspect walking is the office of the spirit but to ravish the soul with divine delights is the reward of the spirit Observe holy David Psal 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts delight my soul He was now acting the duty of meditation and then the spirit besprinkled him with dews of joy A Deus per essentiem est totus consolatio immò Mare Oceanus consolationis quem in servos suos etiam in hac vitâ effundit learned man saith God is an Ocean of consolation Let not our sin and disobedience be such banks and ramparts that this Sea cannot overflow us with complacential effusions Obedience indeed and duty make way for the streams of spirituall comfort And to our case let us keep the Sabbath circumspectly and we shall keep it comfortably Let us follow the spirit in every duty obey the dictates of the spirit in every Ordinance When the spirit prompts us to prayer let us tune our hearts to that duty and not fold our hands in sloth and negligence when the spirit suggests to Prov. 6. 10. us the import of an Ordinance let us not be slight and careless in that holy institution and let us consider the motions Prov. 24. 33. of the spirit go before the melodies of the spirit And thirdly Let us study to be in the spirit on the Lords day This duty must Look downwards we must avoid whatsoever opposeth the spirit whatsoever may quench that celestial flame 1 Thes 5. 19 We must on the Sabbath lay aside all temporal cares Cares at all times are thorns Mat. 13. 22. But on a Sabbath they are thorns in a flame not only scratching but scorching Indeed the Lords day is not without its cares but they are heavenly not worldly cares care to please the spirit not to please the flesh care to lay up treasures in heaven not to fill our coffers below The soul then must be Divina benedictio Sabbati est quâ sibi deus studia occupationes asserit Calv. cared for how to prepare it for duty how to pacifie it with pardon how to beautifie it with grace how to fit it for eternity Head and heart must be at work on the Sabbath but it must be for the soul not for the outward man But to set our servants on work in our callings to be in our counting Mat. 16. 26. house to contrive business for the following week on Gods holy day this is not only to defile the Sabbath but to affront providence as if God who takes care for the Lillies of the field Mat. 6. 30. could not provide for the strict observers of his holy day We must throw away all worldly thoughts How many are there whose thoughts are as fresh and affections as vigorous towards the world upon the Sabbath day as if they were trading in their shops walking in the Exchange or Exod. 8. 24. posting their Books and pursuing their bargains I may say to such as the Lord to Satan Zach. 3. 2. The Lord rebuke Plaga muscarum fuit foedo colluvies quae fuit numerosa et molestissima immò et nocentissima et ideo molestissima quia numerosissima Riv. thee what is this but to turn time into a chaos where there is no distinction between light and darkness between the Egypt of the week and the Goshen of the Sabbath This day is a day of light life and salvation and shall worldly thoughts that judgment of lice or flies stain and ecclipse it Worldly imaginations on this day they are the sacriledge of the mind the worm at the root of duty the souls destructive avocation the Shibboleth of a covetous man the bluster and gross miscarriage of a Christian they are the souls imprisonment when it should be enlarged in the way of Gods Ordinances We must take heed of unnecessary diversions The heart is wholly to be set on God on his own day One observes The Law is spiritual and so is the fourth Commandment and is not fully obeyed by outward conformity but it requires the Rom. 7. 14. inward truth and bent of the heart Happily we shut up Psal 51. 6. our shops on a Sabbath so the Law of the Land commands but do we shut up our hearts on a Sabbath that nothing unseemly may intrude Do we bring our hearts and Christ together and lock them both in that nothing may interrupt their sweet and mutual intercourse It is a vain thing to dissemble with God on his own day He can unriddle and will judge our splendid and varnished artifices Let us not play the hypocrites but walk in the spirit the whole stage of Rom. 8. 2. the Sabbath To keep our doors close is an empty ceremony unless we keep our hearts close to God and Christ in Ordinances in Family and secret duties Diverting imaginations are the cobwebs of the mind the sores which In dic Sabbati ab omnibus aliis curis et studiis omninò obstinendum est Gual fester the heart as Dalilah her smiles did Samson and so entangle the soul that it cannot enjoy its freedom with Christ on his own blessed day Such divertisements disturb the Musick of Ordinances and eat out the profit of holy Communion with God if we will be working on a Sabbath Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling Augustine Phil. 2. 12 13. Aug. de temp Serm. 251. speaks most excellently in one of his Sermons That we may be fit and ready for Gods service on his own day there must be nothing to cumber us and we at that time must cast off the interposition of worldly
Christus est rosa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 optimè flos quia florum flos Del. Rio. men tell over their riches with no small delight The very Gospel is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glad tidings and can we be weary in hearing glad tidings messages of love and life from heaven news of a Christ and a Kingdom The soul which is tired on a Sabbath understands not its own interest but as the Prophet Jonah saith forsakes its own mercies Jonah 2. 8. Can our conversation be in heaven as the Apostolical command is Phil. 3. 20. and yet droop and be flatted in heavenly Sancti in coelis habitant dum hic vivunt atsi Aquilae quae in arduis nidum ponunt Greg. duties in heavenly ordinances and pine after a dismission and release Burdens of Roses are not painfull but pleasant Ordinances are onely bundles of Myrrh to refresh and revive the Soul Surely the Sabbath may plead with tired professors as once God did in another case Mic. 6. 3. O my people what have I done to thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me So might the Sabbath expostulate what is in me so burdensom Is it my institution because it is divine Luke 2. 37. Is it my duration because it is for a few hours onely David longed to dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of his life Psal 27. 4. And Anna the Prophetess departed not from the Temple but served God with Fastings and Prayers Insabbato unusqâ—isq sâ—dere debet in suo loco Exod. 16. 29. et non procedà ◠ex eo Quis est locus spiritualis animae Justitia est locus ejus et veritas et sapientia et sanctificatio et omnia quae Christus sunt et hic est locus ex quo eum non oportet exire Orig. night and day Still the Sabbath may plead are the Ordinances of God my Jewels and my Ornaments such causes of surfet Or rather are they not the Galleries for Christ and the soul to walk in the very stages of Christs presence Mat. 18. 20. The rich opportunities for soul-advantage the spiritual mans Mart Here the sinner like the sloathful servant can answer nothing It is both our doom and degeneracy to be weary of divine Ordinances and it loudly speaks 1. That Christ is not our beloved else his company would ravish not tire our attendance and be our satisfaction not our surfet Lovers are not quickly weary of their interchangeable converses 2. That heaven is not the end of our race surely if it were we should not then be so soon tired in the way Ordinances are the road to glory The Traveller puts on till he allight at home 3. That the world hath too much influence us The Jews were weary of the Sabbath Amos 8. 5. but it was that they might set forth Corn. Carnal minds do not relish spiritual duties they are their clog not their complacency To be in the flesh in fleshly desires and delights and to be in the spirit are a real contrariety The love of the world will cast out the love of ordinances This and much more our wearisomness in and of ordinances proclaims to every observer It is the observation of Origen that burdens were not to Onera non sunt portanda die Sabbati onus est omne peccatum Orig. be carried on the Sabbath day Nehem. 13. 15. saith he What is this burden but sin And this is the mistake of many when sin should be they make service their burden when they should groan under vile practices they groan under precious Ordinances One well observes wearisomness in duties sucks out all their sweetness and makes them dry and unpleasant and casts a dishonour on the God of ordinances Isa 5. 20. as if he was a fountain shedding bitter streams but on the contrary delight makes duty savoury meat and Gospel recreation Jacob for the beauty of Rachel served seven years and they seemed but a few dayes Gen. 29. 20. The Gal. 6. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 27. 4. Psal 119. 97. Psal 1. 2. Psal 110 3. Dr. Full. Eccl. Hist Saints in the beauties of holiness run through many services and they are not their toyle but their prerogative they rise from duty as Galen usually did from his meals with an appetite Dr. Fuller observes a Philosophical act did once so please Queen Elizabeth that her delight did drown all tediousness and she heard the Disputes till within night in the midst of Summer And shall Philosophy refresh and captivate more then Divinity shall the hand-maid more please then the Mistris Shall disputes of Nature be more satisfactory Deus est natâ—ra naturans et creaturae sunt natura naturata Baron then the God of Nature Shall the Schools more delight then the Sanctuary Nay shall the Mathematicks of Archimedes so drown him in rational pleasure that being in his study he heard not when Syracuse the City of his habitation was taken by the Romans Shall such raptures drop from the contriving of a Mathematical Instrument and is there no fruit on the tree of Life no delicacy in ordinances to affect our souls and to wear off a cloyed irksomness from our spirits on the blessed Sabbath Surely it argues weak and faint grace when the breast that feeds it becomes troublesome and the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2. 2. becomes sowre and stales because it is not made use of Caut. 2 Let us take heed of trifling away the Sabbath under the pretence of vain excuses The Sabbath is the solemn time of mans Aurum igne probatum alii intelligunt de vâ—rbo dei Illud enim argento septies decâ—cto est probatius Auro obrizo desiderabilius Alii intelligunt de fide quâ solâ divitiae caeleste accipiantur quaeque igne afflictionis quovis auro purgatior redditur Coram deo non facit divites aurum sed fides Christum cum the sauris suis possidens 2 Cor. 5. 21. life the soules gale of opportunity the good wind for the harbour of Rest On this day God sets forth his merchandize Rev. 3. 18. for man to buy up to enrich himself to eternity then God offers his gold to make us rich in grace his white raiment to make us rich in beauty his eye-salve to make us rich in knowledge Pareus well observes Adams fall proclaimed him bankrupt and he naturally labours under a three-fold malady 1. Of Poverty and so God offers Gold Rev. 3. 18. to set him up again to repair his lost revenues and estate 2. Of Nakedness when Adam sinned his first sin Gen. 3. 7. himself and so after himself his posterity was shamefully naked and now God offers especially on a Sabbath day the spiritual fair-day for such merchandises white raiment to cover our nakedness and to adorn us with a beauty exceeding our Primitive loveliness He offers the righteousnesse of Christ a fairer Garment then Adams
shouldst consider the importance of it it cost more even the precious bloud of Jesus Christ and while thou art sporting and idling in the fields God might have been speaking to thy soul Augustine was converted by a Sermon of holy Ambrose Peter Martyr was brought home to God by a passage of a Sermon As for those who must have a walk after Sermon these impoverish their souls Are there not family prayers to procure blessings family repetitions to digest the word family duties to warm the heart on a Sabbath day Publick Ordinances are too often as land-floods to the soul which will quickly disappear unless the waters of life sink in gradually by private repetition and meditation Serious consideration and fervent prayer at home work into the heart those truths and doctrines we heard abroad These ill husbands for their better part too frequently drop in the fields what they have pickt up in the Sanctuary and the air is more fresh Absit ut dejicerem animum nobilem et illum corpori mancipium facerem then their memory These field-walkers how do they sink below some heathens It was the saying of a noble heathen Far be it from me that I should make my noble mind a slave to my body If we will have our pleasures on the Lords day let us meet with Christ in his Garden Cant. 5. 1. let us gather fruits in his Orchard of Pomgranates Cant. 4. 13. Let us lie down by the fountain of Gardens Cant. 4. 15. Let us stay our selves with his Apples and Flagons Cant. 2. 5. and sit down with our beloved in his banquetting house Cant. 2. 4. And then travel over the mountains of spices Cant. 8. 14. Christ indeed is the Paradise of pleasure he can ravish us with one of his eyes Cant. 4. 9. and make us drink of the cup of Salvation Divine pleasures become the Sabbath not the titillations of sence but the refreshings of the soul Let those then who waste the Sabbath in taking the air take Joh. 6. 58. Isa 25. 8. Eph. 2. 2. heed least they meet with the Prince of the air considering these unnecessary walks contain more temptation then recreation in them they are Satans refined and plausible bate to cause the incautelous Christian to let fall and so lose his spiritual morsels we know it is his grand artifice to steal away the seed of the word Mat. 13. 19. and pleasing recreations give him the best aime Caut. 3 Let us take heed of the sin of unbelief The believer only sanctifies the Sabbath they truly keep it who themselves are kept in their most holy faitb Jude v. 20. Every duty of a Mark 11. 24. Jam. 1. 6. Sabbath requires faith If we hear we must mingle the word with faith Heb. 4. 2. If we pray it must be believing Crede et manducasti crede et bibisti Aug. Mat. 21. 22. It is faith makes our prayers effectual If we receive we must come to the Sacrament with faith Augustine saith Believe and thou hast eaten believe and thou hast drunken Faith is the chief guest at Christs table If we meditate faith sweetens that duty and makes it lushious not tedious Psal 119. 97. Observe Thy Law c. It was Heb. 11. 6. the Law of his God and that sweetned his meditation on it If we read the Scriptures it is faith must make that duty effectual without faith the Word is onely a â—iddle the Acts â— 3◠〈…〉 Christi puzzle not the profit of a Christian Faith then puts life into every duty and makes it both vigorous and viâ—â—â— Buâ— unbelief is a sin which like the Câ—terpillar eats up al◠〈◊〉 fruit of a Sabbath and turns its Sun into dâ—rkness Vnbelief invalidaâ—es our approaches to God Heb. 11. 6. 〈◊〉 In vain the knee bowes unless the heart believes in vâ—â—â— we lift up the hands of flesh unless we lay hold on God by 〈…〉 sâ—d infidâ—â—itas à â—hâ—isto planè a◠〈◊〉 illius spiritu nos privâ—t et Satanae insidiis nos expositos reddit Lys the hands of faith We must bring faith to make our way acceptable to the Almighty In the forcecited Text Heb. 11. 6. the Apostle doth not say without faith it is improbable but it is impossible to please God Without faith all duties are acted in the dark there must be an eye of faith to see our way to God in Christ Vnbelief prevents the work of Christ upon the heart Mat. 13. 56. It unqualifies us for spiritual successes this sin is so great it can cast Christ into an admiration Mark 6. 6. What great things might Ordinances work upon the soul if the heart was not barred up by unbelief It was this sin which unchurched the poor nation of the Jews Rom. 11. 20. It may be the Epitaph of that ancient people of God Here lies a people cast off by God because of unbelief Vnbelief shuts up the gate of mercy Heb. 3. 19. Faith melts the cloud of Ordinances into a fruitful shower unbelief makes ordinances a dark appearance onely and turns Heb. 4. 6. them into stones of emptiness Isa 34. 11. An Ordinance to an unbeliever is a dead Child the spirit of God doth not breath in it And therefore on a Sabbath above all thy gettings get faith Vnbelief it puts a defilement upon the sweetest Ordinances They are as a Jewel in a dead mans hand The prayers of an unbeliever are an abomination to the Lord. The Apostle Prov. 4 7. saith Tit. 1. 15. To them who are unbelieving every Omnia opera infidelâ—um sunt noxia et peccâ—tâ— thing is defiled Vnbelief damps the pearl of Ordinances puts a flaw upon it The School-men say All the works of unbelievers are sins and so then are all his services and they accommodate themselves to that of the Apostle Rom. Gregor Arim. Capriolus Câ—tharinus c. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin Vnbelief blasts the sweetest duty as lightning doth the fairest face The Lord saith to the unbeliever What hast thou to do to take my word into thy mouth Psal 50. 16. Why do I pray if I do not believe returns What do I hear if I do not believe doctrines VVhat do I receive if I do not believe Christ in the Sacrament Ordinances to an unbeliever they are not dews Rom. 1. 16. but dreams not Gods power but Mans fancy and Sermons are only the Romances of the Pulpit The Apostle Heb. 11. per totum tells us of many Miracles of faith and unbelief Heb. 11. 11 29 30 33 34. Exod. 4. 3. can work on it can turn all our rods into Serpents it can work the same wonder Christ wrought on the barren fig-tree Mark 11. 21. It can curse with a perpetual blast Augustine used to dispute from John 3. 19. That unbelief was the only damning sin This sin like popish Rome is the Mother of Harlots Rev. 17. 5. And therefore against
seasons of Per spiritum sanctum clamamus non voce sed filiali et fiduciali affectu Abba Pater prae dulcedine teneritudine amoris quasi teneri insantes qui charissimum parentem c. Alap our spiritual communion In Prayer we cry as Children to the Father In hearing we receive messages from our Father which relate to our inward man In our Prayer God opens his hand in our hearing God opens his heart Acts 20. 27. In Prayer we enjoy his bounty God gives us even to his own spirit Luke 11. 13. In Hearing we are admitted even to the Counsels of God in that forementioned text Acts 20. 27. In a Sacrament our dainties are the body and blood of Christ and he refresheth us not from his Cellars but from his Wounds Cast thy eye upon the effects of Ordinances what wonders hath that one duty of Prayer wrought 1. It is able to overthow enemies Isa 37. 36. Vtpote pueri balbutiantes blandulâ iteratâ voculâ compellare solent Pater Pater sic credentes c. 2. It is able to divert Judgements Plagues Pestilence Famine Sword 1 Kings 8. 57. 3. It is able to bring down mercies It is the key of Heaven Jam. 5. 15. It is the most efficacious engine in the world it can open the doors of the prison nay it can open the door of the womb Acts 12. 7. 1 Sam. 1. 10 20. 4. It is the sum of all wisdom strength and policy 5. It prevails against God himself Gen. 32. 26. Hos 12. 4. Exod. 32. 11. Isa 45. 11. 6. It can work Miracles so Joshua by Prayer caused the Sun to stand still in Gibeon Josh 10. 12. What amazing productions hath this one Ordinance caused May we not then say of those who undervalue Ordinances O foolish pieces of frenzy and ignorance who hath bewitched you Gal. 3. 1. that you should trample upon Pearls walk upon Amber and neglect so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. Cast thy eye again upon the tendency of Ordinances these stars lead us to Christ They are the womb of grace Rom. 10. 17. And grace is the heir of Glory Eph. 1. 14. When we Mat. 2. 9. converse with God in Ordinances we turn our faces Sionward Isa 51. 11. and we are travelling home The blessed Ordinances Isa 35. 10. are our fresh gales to carry us to our harbour of Rest they are the birth places of the Saints the ready way to the new Jerusalem therefore whoever thou art who callest prayer a vain breath hearing a dry attendance Sacraments empty meals retrench thy errour and let the love of Christ constrain thee to better thoughts of these blessed Seasons And let not a word be unseasonable to shew thee the cause and cure of this jejune apprehension of divine Ordinances These modern Ehionites who have so low thoughts of Christs institutions they are henighted with ignorance they Ebion sumpsit nomen suum ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pauper indigus quia misellam de Christo habuit opinionem do not know there is a God in Ordinances that they are animated by a divine spirit Who opened Lydia's heart in hearing Who pricked the heart of the Jewes Act. 2. 37. in the same Ordinance Who showred down the Spirit when the Assembly met for Gospel dispensations Acts 10. 44. when God rained heaven out of heaven Indeed Ordinances are the sphear where the Sun of Righteousnesse Mal. 4. 2. turns the waters where the Angel moves John 5. 4. And if the Angel move the waters heal but these inapprehensive sinners like Balaam see not the Angel Numb 22. 23. They are prejudiced by inexperience they cannot say with David Psalm 66. 16. Come and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul Pauls Companions did not see Jesus Christ they onely heard a confused noise Acts 9. 7. These unhappy sinners never tasted how good and gracious the Mat. 11. 23. Lord is in a sweet Ordinance they never felt the power of a truth they were never enriched with the flush returns of Psalm 34. 8. Prayer A Promise well pressed home and applyed never reverberated Acts 2. 37. upon their souls with influential joy they never Psalm 85. 8. had their hearts raised to Heaven in Gospel Revelation and 2 Pet. 1. 4. in the glorious discoveries of divine Love Blind men admire Nos transeramus affectus ad coelestem illam vitam oremus dominum ut panem qui dâ—â—cae lo descendit lâ—rgiaâ—â— not the Sun The Indians more prize a log a gewgaw or a piece of brasse then Gold Gemms or Spices To them who have tasted Christ he is precious The converted soul saith of Ordinances Lord evermore give us this bread Such cry out O sweet Sacraments those divine festivals O fructiferous Prayer But now to cure this sinful and destructive mistake and to raise the price and esteem of Ordinances John 6. 34. Look on them as the means of Grace The Sun shines through the ayr and Christ works by Ordinances Preaching is not the breath of man but the power of God to salvation Rom. 1. 16. The Word is that immortal seed which is able to save our souls 1 Pet. 1. 23. These Oracles delivered in Rom. 3 2. Preaching are able to make us wise to eternal salvation It is the power of Ordinances raises us from the grave of sin 2 Tim. 3. 15. plants in us the flowers of grace causeth the day to dawn in 2 Pet. 1. 19. our souls If ever thou comest to heaven the wind of the Spirit John 3. 8. filling the sails of Ordinances will carry thee thither Look on them as the resemblances of glory Sitting at a Sacrament resembles our eating and drinking with Christ at his table in his Kingdome Luke 22. 30. the Communion Cant. 1. 12. resembles the fruition Let us then prize Ordinances which Matth. 11. 23. are the twilight and dawning of Glory CHAP. XXXIX The Lords day is a day of Rest but not of Idlenesse Caut. 5 LEt us take heed least we interpret the day which God calls a day of Rest to be a day of Idlenesse God gives us relaxation Exod. 31. 15. on his own day but it is not either for sport or sleep but for duties not for pastime but for prayer Our ground Quies non fuit ignavum otium ut Christiani nihil agerent sed ut divina curarent non sua Riv. lies fallow sometimes that we may plow it and sow it to the better advantage Rest is given us because the body and the soul cannot both well be employed together earth and heaven cannot both be minded together Now this divine indulgence must be a spur to holy duties and not our leave to play with lying vanities The Sabbath is a holy leisure our spiritual vacation to attend on the affairs of our precious souls Sabbatum est sabbatum cessationis
not drinking things luke-warme nor walking measured paces not rejoycing in dances c. And Chrysostom urges with much holy fervency That on the Sabbath we should lay aside all the affairs of this life and withdraw our selves from them and spend all the leisure of the Sabbath in things spiritual and divine which concern our souls This eminent Person makes a difference between sloth and rest the one concerns the body the other the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Tom 5 p 225. and he clearly states the Question that the Sabbath was never given us to please a piece of clay but to serve the interest of that piece of eternity which every one of us carry in our own bosoms And on this manner Augustine courts his Auditors We must know dearly beloved That it is therefore August appointed of our holy Fathers and commanded to us Christians that upon the Lords day we should rest that reposing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Load Can 29. from all worldly business we might be more fresh and prompt for Gods divine worship and may with more ease attend upon the will and service of God Nay a whole council viz. of Laodicea in the twenty ninth Canon hath these words It doth not become Christians to Judaize and to be idle on the Sabbaths This was the spirit and temper of the Primitive times they press that our Sabbaths might be spiritualized not that our work should wholly cease but only should be changed that the labour of the hand should be turned into the working of the heart that manual operations should be turned into mental contemplations and on this day our work must not be servile but seraphical we must not throw away the Pen but we must write the fairer In the middle times of the Church when such dark Thom. Aquin. 22dae quaest 122. 4 3. 11. 3 dist Art 15 Quest 1. clouds had over-spread it that spiritual worship was as Saul among the Prophets rare to a Proverb yet then the employing of the time of a Sabbath in holy service was accounted morall in the fourth Commandments and scoffs were bestowed freely by the writers of those times on those who wasted the Sabbath in plays or idleness This bright Alex de Alens p. 3. quaest 32. Scol l. 2 de instit qu 4. Artic. 4. truth like a star in the night made its way to shine in the darkest times The fine spun disputes of the Schoolmen could not distinguish it away but it brake through all their curious webs This truth was so fastned in the Church it could not be disputed out by the School And let Semper eadem not only be Queen Elizabeths Motto but the Sabbaths holy observation In the dawning of Reformation there was light enough to discover this truth many eminent Divines those burning and shining lights which blaze more because they are nearer to us give in their suffrage for spending the Sabbath in holy exercises sharply decrying Hinc colligimus deum non de re nihili aut flâ—cci loqui cùm sanctificationem Sabbati nobis commendâ—verit Calv. sluggishness and sloth on this blessed day It is the grave observation of incomparable Calvin That God speaks not of a small matter when he commands the sanctification of the Sabbath but doth exhort us to a diligent marking of it and our want of care to mark is a breach of this Commandment This worthy man could not imagine that a Memento should Preface a day of sloth and idleness that we might take our carnal ease without such an alarm To walk in the fields to sit idling at the door of our house to chat in a room upon a Sabbath are no such importances as to require such diligent attention or exact observation there is little holiness in any thing of this A carnal man may rest from labour and never much mind or need a command Nature will let us to take our case without any special command from the God of nature The great Jehovah had never needed in the midst of thundrings and lightnings with great Exod 10. 18. terrour and Majesty to give out a command for us to go to a Bench to sit on to a couch to talk on or to a bed to lie on A School-master need not make a set speech or tune his language to strains of Oratory to perswade his Scholars to go to play and be idle Idleness needs no great enforcements wants no arguments of reason nor paintings of Rhetorick we can prate of worldly affairs and take our pleasing pastimes without any attractive engine Zanchy speaks very pregnantly to this purpose I call saith he this dayes rest Zanch. de oper creat p. 3. l. 1. c. 1. divine and holy because as God is never idle so he would have us take rest in soul and conscience after that manner that yet notwithstanding we be alwayes employed in those things which are of Gods spirit and which appertain to the glory of God and to the good both of our selves and others The cause of commanding rest upon the Sabbath was not for rest sake and that man might be idle but that he might altogether spend that whole day in divine worship Thus this Reverend Person Sed ut toto illo die possint vacare cultui divino Zanc. in quartum praecept rightly stateâ— the Question and truly asserts that as rest is included in the Commandment so holy and spiritual worship is the end of that rest God calls us off from Earth to mind Heaven and the body must have a vacation that the soul may have a Term the body must decrease that the soul may increase Corporal rest is only the means by Non igitur cum Ethnicis sentiendum festos dtes tantúm quietâ—s remissionis causa suscipi quorum finis â—sset recoâ—datio beneficiorum dei in convocatione sancta c. which we may pursue our eternal rest This learned Rivet looks upon it as a brutish and heathenish Opinion to think that God should give us a holy day for sloth and remisness and he positively tells us That the end of the Sabbath must be the recordation of divine benefits and to refresh our memories with most grateful rehearsals of Gods bounty and to put up prayers for future grace for the leisure of Saints must not be fruitless The eccho of this golden sentence is true and sweet A godly mans leisure must not run waste When the world gives him a short quietus est he must rest in God His spare hours from his outward affairs must be his serious hours for his soul The Saints have alwayes work to do on this side eternity but especially on that day when rest is commanded us to look after eternity Hospinian here accents Finis tertius est Sabbati ejusque otii ille est subliâ—â—or Vt vir spirituaâ—is ad aeternam sui saluteâ— propior accedat ut vitae sanctae â—fficiâ—â— occupetur
keep this divine rellish upon our hearts we are apt to catch cold after Cùm malum committitur bonum amittitur the greatest heats Let us look to our selves that we do not lose the things which we have wrought and after close and sweet communion with God grow lax and remisse Sweet water is as easily spilt as ordinary water The rarest Cordials 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are put into glasses which are easily broken there may be a rejoycing which is onely for a season John 5. 35. the Greek reads it for an hour If thy heart hath been wound up towards heaven on a Sabbath a little carelesnesse will let it down again If thou hast spent the Sabbath comfortably Heb. 12. 14. be faithful to thy soul and interest and spend the Ephes 4. 30. week holily Purity will keep peace it is sin grieves the spirit Spiritus sanctus cùm agimus aut loquimur turpia aut mala offenditur Alap who is the Comforter Joh. 14. 16. Our inward joy is onely chased away by trespasse which is a thron in the breast of this Nightingale To be unloosend on the Sabbath from week-day bonds is comfortable but in the week-time to unloose the Lords dayes bonds is abominable To be fruitful Comfortable Sabbaths call for conscionable lives Soft showres make fruitful fields If on the Sabbath we have enjoyed the comforts of the Lord it is but meet we John 15. 5. should alwayes abound in the work of the Lord. Our week-day 1 Cor. 15 58. carriage should be the springing up of the Sabbath days seed our whole lives must be a walking in the strength of our Sabbaths Divers of the Ancients are very copious and pathetical in perswading men so to practice Piety and pursue sanctity as to perpetuate a Sabbath We should mingle the Sabbath with the week but not the week with the Sabbath as we should be in the spirit on the Lords day so Tertul com in Jud. 4. Orig. in Numer Hom. 23. Chrysost in Mat tract 29. Aug. de Civit dei lib. 12. cap. 30. Buc. in Mat. 12. 11. we should walk in the spirit on the week day Gal. 5. 25. It is a remarkable speech of Bucer Have we served the Lord on his own day let our manners shew it let our works prove it let the holiness of our lives abundantly declare it A pious Conversation is the onely evidence we have been with Jesus we should be in such a frame every Lords day as if that was the first Sabbath that ever we spent and as if that was the last day that ever we should live or as if the weight of all our work lay upon that single Sabbath for which we were sent into the world nay as if our eternal being was to be determined hereby and yet after the day is over we must endeavour as much to be doing as if nothing was done on the Sabbath and all that we had done was to be abated on the account Sabbath comforts are not to be dews but showres not suddenly to be dryed up but to soak into our future lives Jâ—hn the Evangelist after he had been Rev. 1. 10. in the Spirit on the Lords day writes the Revelation the worlds Chronicle within a Veil Moses when he had been Exod. 32. 22. on the Mount with God was filled with holy zeal and Sinai did not flame more then his heart Heavenly sweets are 1 John 1. 3. onely incentives to holy services and the tasts of divine communion are the genuine bribes to an holy conversation Case 3 How we must keep the Sabbath alone in the deprival of Christian and comfortable society There are many cases may befall a Christian which may render him solitary upon the Psalm 63. 2. Lords day and for the present enforce him to be an exile Psalm 96. 6. from the publick Assemblies 1. As in the case of travelling we may meet with an Inne when we cannot meet with a Sanctuary Isa 16. 12. 2. So in the case of imprisonment we may be confined to Psalm 102. 7. the darkness of a dungeon and want the glorious liberty of Psal 84. 3. the people of God the freedom they enjoy in the house of Prayer 3. So likewise in case of sickness we may be chained to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our beds and not enjoy the freedome of publick Ordinances And Mr. Perkins instances in the disease of the dead Palsie so that now Aristotles definition of Man to be a sociable Creature will not comport with our present condition Isa 16. 12. 4. And it may be instanced in case of hard service and slavery when our groans are ready to drown the musick of Israelitae ita affligebantur animi maerore et durâ servitute quâ spiritu quâ—si intercludebantur ut non attenderent verbis Moyses de deo serviendo Riu. a Sabbath and we are necessitated to lye down in silence and solitariness We do not read that the Jews kept any publick Sabbath in their Aegyptian bondage their tasks jarred their triumphs and they did not onely make brick without straw but they passed over Sabbaths without any visible observation but yet no case can wholly incapacitate us from conversing with God on his own day we are never so lonely but we may enjoy communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ 1 John 1. 3. 1. If we are travelling we may likewise travel towards Exod. 6. 9. Canaan Holy duties will turn an Inne into a Sanctuary Psalm 134. 2. Paul prayed by the Rivers side Acts 16. 13. Peter preached in a private house Acts 10. 34. and Christ administers the Gen. 24. 63. Sacrament in an upper room Luke 22. 12. Now we may meditate in every Field and pray in every Chamber To Dan. 6. 10. Christians saith Dr. John Reynolds No Land is strange no ground unholy every Coast is Jewry every Town is Hierusalem every house is Sion every faithful body is a Temple to serve Gâ—d in And to think otherwise is to savour of Judaisme as Hospinian observes 2. Suppose thy self in prison on the Lords day If an Angel can break a prison door Acts 12. 7. surely Christ can and give thee the meeting on his own blessed day VVhen thou art in fetters of iron he can draw thee with the cords of a man Hos 11. 4. If we must visit our brethren surely he will visit his Saints in prison Prison doors are no obstruction Mat. 25. 36. to the divine illapses of the good spirit and Prison-straights are no confinement to the enlargements of a Saints heart a fervent prayer can pierce the roof of the closest dungeon and flies as high as Heaven Paul and Silas sang Acts 16. 25. Psalmes one duty of a Sabbath when they were fettered in their Chains and inclosed in their Goal 3. Put case thou art confined to a sick bed Jacob worshipped Gen. 49 18.
may graciously smile and lift up the light of his countenance upon thee Moaning Ephraims are pleasant Children Meditate on Gods works Thou mayest see the glory of a Creation through a prison grate or within the curtains of a sick bed thou mayest contemplate on the Sun when thou doest not see it that emblem of Gods power and the worlds glory The Stars shine as bright to meditation in the day as in the night and we may take an intellectual when we do not take an ocular view of them Meditate on the state of the Church to rejoyce in it or to grieve at it The Jews in Babylon could weep savourily in the remembrance of Sion when they did consider its present Psal 137. 1 2. calamity and its former glory Every Christian should Psal 122. 6. be of a publick spirit and lay the case of Sion to heart either for tears or triumphs When nothing of the Church is Isa 62. 6 7. in thy eye much of it should be in thy thoughts Much of Psal 137. 5. piety is discovered in sympathy It was one of Israels great offences they had not a fellow-feeling of the afflictions of Amos 6. 6. Joseph The Prophet adviseth those who make mention of the Name of the Lord to give him no rest till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth Isa 62. 6 7. When thou art alone on a Sabbath and thy condition necessitates thee to it let the many thoughts of Sion keep thee company and be thy congregation to joyn with Meditate on the attributes of God Those glorious beams can shine into the darkest and most solitary dungeon as well as into the most solemn assembly Think of Gods power in creating a world his justice in burning of a Sodom his wisdome in contriving a way for mans redemption his love in John 3. 16. sending his Son to dye for sinners his faithfulness in making and keeping his Covenant Such heavenly meditations might sweeten a prison might mitigate a distemper might alleviate Psal 104. 34. the severity of service or slavery and might comfort thy soul on Gods blessed day in the greatest recluse and solitariness Spend some time of this solitary Sabbath in conversing with the Scriptures The Bible is the most delightful companion Rom. 3. 2. Omnia mea mecâ—m porto Bias. in the want of all others the Saint with these Oracles may say with the Philosopher I carry all my estate with me Caesar so prized his Commentaries that being enforced by the Egyptian Army to leap into the Sea he did swim with one hand and held up the Book of his Commentaries in the other his life and his book should both perish together Our Bible is the most seraphick Commentary upon Gods love and Josh 1. 8. mans heart God commanded Joshua to meditate day and night in this sacred volume Indeed the Scriptures they are a hive of sweetness to delight the soul a choice treasure Psal 19. 10. to enrich the soul more then necessary food to support the Job 23. 12. soul The sword of the spirit to defend the soul a transcendent Eph. 6. 15 17. Paradise to consolate and refresh the soul Every truth in the Scriptures is brighter then a star every promise Rom. 13. 12. in the Scriptures is richer then a Mine every threatning in Heb. 4. 12. the Scriptures is sharper then a sword every offer of grace contained in the Scriptures is more valuable then a world therefore in thy lonely Sabbaths say with the Psalmist O how I love thy Law It is my meditation all the day Psal Facit Scriptura consolationes per exempla quae narrat per promissiones praemia quae offert His nos consolatur inspem beatitudinis excitat erigit 119. 97. And this converse with sacred writ will be a good prognostick of success and happiness It is reported of Queen Elizabeth that in her great afflictions in her sister Queen Maries reign she was much conversant in the holy word and as the word of God sweetned her soul so the Providence of God smiled on her condition for after the flight of a very few years she wore the Diadem of this Nation flourished many years in the throne of her Royal Progenitours Fill up this solitary Sabbath with the Collection of former experiences David when he was kept waking in the night Psal 77. 3. he remembred God his thoughts were taken up with that In concilio Parisiensi hoc facinus Patribus dolori fuit quòd licet dies dominicus à quibusdam dominis venerando custodiri vide batur a servis tamen eorum servitio pressis per rarò debito honoâ—e â—â—li invenâ—râ—tur divine object When thou art kept from the solemn assemblies by a sick bed or a close prison or a sharp Master Remember thy experiences which thou hadst of old 1. All thy providential mercies as the Psalmist recounts his promotion that God took him from a sheepfold to a throne and at such a time advanced him to the Soveraignty of the best people in the world Psal 78. 70 71. Then remember thou the additions God hath made to thy Estate or to thy Family thy escapes from imminent dangers thy often deliverances c. Experiences of divine love receive new life from meditation and serious recollection 2. All thy seasonable mercies The Psalmist comfortably Concil â—aris relates That when his Father and his mother forsâ—â—k him Dâ—o sunt quae sâ—ntertiae gratâ—â—m dignitâ—tâ— coâ—ciâ—iant 〈…〉 si 〈…〉 ad 〈…〉 rationâ—m accommodetur Cartw. then God did take him up Psal 27. 10. Then the rare providences of God are most rare and remarkable and to be noted with an Higgaion Selah As words so favours in season are like apples of Gold in pictures of Silver Prov. 25. 11. The season is the emphasis of every mercy Even at the red Sea Psal 106. 7. This amplified Israels sin they offended even at the red Sea where they were crowned with a stupendious and seasonable deliverance Cast thy eye back in thy solitary Sabbaths upon those mercies which were eminent for their season Health after sickness supply in wants rescue from temptations from sinful or destructive company when thy soul was pluckt out of the snare Ah how sweet was water to a thirsty Samson deliverance to the poor Jews when their destruction was signed and sealed Such pleasing recollections would abundantly sweeten a solitary Sabbath 3. Thy unexpected mercies those loving-kindnesses which thou didst not think of nor pray for which thy want did not proclaim nor thy moans pursue An Angel cometh Acts 10 3. Luke 1. 26 27. to Cornelius in his prayers when he looked not for him Happily many mercies have befallen thee which like Gabriel to the Virgin Mary have brought not onely good but unexpected news On a solitary Sabbath view over thy unlookt for mercies which were returns of love without a
Deus graviter eorum pertinaciam objurgat quòd profano contemptu legem sabbati violassent Rivet commands may be termed non-conformity but to throw the filth of scandalous practice into the lovely face of a Sabbath is an impudent opposition of the most High and as God himself accounts it the breach of all his Commandements and Laws Exod. 16. 28. And this Rivet calls the Israelites stubbornness To pollute the Sabbath with scandalous practices raises complaints in heaven and earth When God draws his endictment against Israel immediatly before he sentenced them Isa 1. 13. to the Babylonish captivity one chief part of their charge Ezek. 20. 13. was They prophaned his Sabbaths Ezek. 23. 38. And this Ezek. 22. 8. he calls prophaning of himself Ezek. 22. 26. which is a strange Ezek. 23. 38. expression And for this sin he brought wrath upon them Nehem. 13. 18. This provocation opened the sluces of divine fury There are three things God is very jealous of 1. Of his worship And of this he hath taken care in the Israelitae non sabbata sed Bâ—alis festa observabant Alap second Commandement 2. Of his Name The glory of which he hath secured in the third Commandement 3. Of his Day Which he hath hedged about with a hedge of thornes in the fourth Commandement And when men by their prophaneness break this â—edge he makes his complaints from heaven against this prodigious evil Jer. 40 3. In the Primitive times the universal complaint of the Fathers was against prophaning of the Lords day Clemens Clem. Alexand Paedagog lib. 3. cap. 11. Alexandrinus complained in his time That the people after they were gone out of the Church they laid aside the counterfeit vizard of gravity and fell to delight and sport themselves in an impious manner with love-songs and noise of Minstrels c. Augustine called the prophanation of the Lords day by dancing Playes or revâ—lling A Jewish sabbatizing to be Aug. de conser Evangel lib. 2. cap. 27. Enar. in Psal 32. de decem chor dis cap. 3. abominated by all good Christians As if it was a sin not to be named among those who did wear the livery and glory in the name of Jesus Christ who was perfection incarnate the Beauty and desire of Nations Hag. 2. 7. The Lords day is that Virgin light which must be espoused by holiness by exact and suitable carriages and not subjected to the rapes of sin Greg. Nyssen Orat 2 de resurrect carnis prophaneness as Gregory Nyssen speaks most piously Sins which are deeds of darkness John 3. 19. Ephes 5. 11. are no way becoming the Sabbath which is a day of the sweetest Opera carnis sunt opera tenebrarum Glos interlin light and therefore we may take notice that whereas the Evening and the Morning made up every day else Gen. 1. 5. Gen. 1. 8. Gen. 1. 13. Gen. 1. 19. Gen. 1. 23. Gen. 1. 31. No duskish morning or declining evening are mentioned as Si prohibetur die festo opus aliquid utile ad vitae necessitatem annon potiori jure quae non nisi câ—m peccato aguntur et gravi offensione dei Cyril lib. 8. in Joan. cap. 5. the integral parts to make up the Sabbath Cyril with much reason argues If those works are forbidden upon a Sabbath which are subservient to the necessities of mans life much more those works which tend to the disgrace of mans life which cannot he done without a grievous provocation of the Lord. O let us take heed saith Primasius that we do not celebrate Gods festival in luxuries and banquets Gregory Nazianzen in an Oration of his against Julian the Apostate passionately perswades the holy observation of the Sabbath and plainly tells Christians That to keep the Sabbath in a more costly attire in a more plentiful meal in a neater dressing of our house in a more metrical dancing to the musique or in a more impudent lusting this better becomes the Gentiles custome then the Christians practice This excellent person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. thought such sinful vanities a fitter livery for Pagans whose right eye is put out by divine praeterition And Chrysostome shaâ—ply inveighs against Commessations and drinkings upon Gods holy day and affirms It much redounds to the dishonour of that blessed season The breathings of the heart not the banquets of the flesh the pouring out our souls in holy Prayer not the pouring out of Wine in intemperate healths to be filled with the Spirit Ephes 5. 18. and not with new Wine becomes that day which Christ is the Lord of In these latter times holy and Reverend Divines have Hisce diebus opera carnis non sunt toleranda nec profana negotia c. Bucer de regno Christi lib. 2. cap. 10. with much moan bewailed and entred their caveats against prophanation of Gods holy day Bucer writing to King Edward the sixth Our English Josiah cryes out On those days viz. the Sabbaths the works of the flesh are not to be allowed nor prophane businesses nor licentious sports nor any other vitious pleasures And this was a good Memento for a learned man to suggest to a religious King Indeed to serve Satan upon Gods day is not onely the blemish of particular persons but the bane and ruine of Kingdomes it lays a Nation open to the invasions of mans sword and to the effusions of Gods wrath King Henry the 8th who was no Nonesuch of Piety yet he strictly commanded all Bishops and Preachers diligently to teach the people That they all The institution of a Christian man A book set forth 1543. inscribed by King Henry the 8th to all his loving subjects and approv'd by both houses of Parliament offend against the fourth Commandement who will not on Gods day cease from their own carnal wills and pleasures but pass away their time in idleness ingluttony and riot in vain idle pastimes which is not according to the tenour of the fourth Commandement but after the usage and custome of the Jews So that now Nazianzen saith To prophane the Sabbath is after the custome of the Gentiles And King Henry the 8th saith it is after the usage of the Jewes So that it must be concluded to defile Gods holy day by loose and prophane practices doth better become a hardned Jew or a darkned Gentile then a holy Christian whose conversation should suit with a glorious Gospel The learned Gualter 2 Cor. 4 4. bitterly exclaims How do they sin with manifold impiety and sacriledge who attribute this day to Mammon Bacchus and Venus who can feast drink play dance whore and follow their luxury and pride and live so that they never serve the Devil more then on this day which ought to be wholly consecrated to God And it is no way to be doubted this is not the least cause of the evils and calamities of our age And because
would intervene And this day of Gods resting was not only exemplary to Adam but to all his seed and so to Christians as well as Jews the seventh in number though not in order And it is further observable that Adam had on him and so should all men have a double calling the one for his body for which he was allowed six dayes and the other for his soul for which the seventh day was ordained So then this observation of the Sabbath was no way disagreeing to the state of innocency Man in that blessed condition could not conveniently attend upon two things at the same time viz. the dressing of the Garden and the solemn worship of God And as one well observes If heaven it self be a perpetual Sabbath why should it be thought incongruous for man to keep a Sabbath in Paradise And indeed it cannot be incongruous that the Sabbath should be kept in Paradise when the Sabbath it self is a kind of Paradise there is something to resemble a tree of life here the soul tasteth of Sabbath Ordinances and life nay eternal life flows from them and the pleasures of a Sabbath not a little resemble the delights of Paradise The Rev. 1. 10. soul being in the spirit upon the Lords day much resembles Adams rejoycing in Paradise and no doubt but the sweetness of Paradise did most principally consist in the intimate communion Psal 63. 2. Adam had with God and the same communion sheds the delight and prerogative upon the Sabbath or else wherein doth the Sabbath out-vy and excell other dayes And that the Sabbath was instituted from the beginning is not only most clear from Scripture but most consonant to reason The Patriarchs of old had their solemn worship Cain and Abel offered sacrifices they called upon the name of the Sanctificavit deus diem septimum i. e. sanctum celebrem haberi voluit à caeteris diebus segregavit Catharin Lord in a solemn way Gen. 4. 26. And no doubt this they learned from Adam and he from God they had their Altars Gen. 12. 8. yea their set Altars Gen. 13. 4. for ordinary worship And if they had set worship they must have stinted time for how shall we meet together to perform ordinary worship without set times And then no doubt but the seventh day was that time for we have not the least shadow of any other ordinary time And it is very unlikely Gibbons Quaest disput in Genes Quaest tertiâ that if there had been any that no mention should be made thereof in Scripture therefore seeing mention is made of this day Gen. 2. 3. before mention is made of any publick worship and no other day is noted in all story till the 16th Willet on Exod. 16. Quaest 34. Voluit deus diem septimum sibi tribui et dâ—cari ut caelestibus et divinis rebus intenti deo gratias agamus pro acceptis beneficiis Cathar Chapter of Exodus where again mention is made of the Sabbath Exod. 16. 25 26 30. And the fourth Commandment ratifies the same day upon the reason assigned in Gen. 2. 3. It surely must be sufficient and satisfactory to all reason that the seventh day was the ordinary day appointed for those times to perform solemn and publick worship to God And as when man hath run his race and finished his course and passed through the larger circle of his life he then returns to his eternal rest so it is contrived and ordered by divine wisdom that he shall in a special manner return unto his rest once at least within the lesser and smaller Rom. 11. 33. circle of every week and so his perfect blessedness to come might be fore-tasted every Sabbath day and so be begun here And look as man standing in his innocency hath cause thus to return from the pleasant labours of his weekly Paradise employments so man fallen from his more toilsome labours to his rest again And therefore as because all creatures were made for man and man therefore was made in the last place after them so man being made for God and his worship thence it is that the Sabbath wherein man was to draw nearer to God was appointed immediately after the Creation as learned men observe For though man is not made for the Sabbath meerly in respect of the outward rest of it yet he is made for the Sabbath in respect of God in it and the holiness of it to both which then the soul is to Dr. Field have its weekly revolution back again as unto that rest which is the end of all our lives and labours and in special of all our weekly labour and work Dr. Field professeth That to one who knows the story of the Creation it is evident by the light of Nature that one day in seven is to be consecrated to Gods service and worship There must be a time allowed to every purpose which is Inest homini naturalis inclinatio ad hoc quod cuilibet rei necessariae deputetur aliquid tempus sicut corpori somnus et refectio c. quae requirunt tempus sic animae tempus requiritur ad ejus refectionem qua mens hominis in deo reficitur Sayrus necessary and indispensable so for our bodies there must be a time to eat to drink to sleep c. For civil affairs there must be a time for work and labour trade and merchandise to promote and sustain our civil interest and shall not there be a set time for soul-refreshments when the precious soul may be recruited Shall our Estates have their seasons for their increase and our Bodies for their support and not our Souls for their delight and edification What is this but to debase the soul and degrade it from its due honour and dignity The Image of God is most lively impressed upon the soul Eternity is riveted into the very nature of the soul Jesus Christ died for the Redemption of the soul and shall only the soul want its term its appointed season for its spiritual converse Shall there be a Change time and not a Church time shall there be a time to Work and not a Naturae instinctus est ut aliquid temporis cultui divino impendatur et animus in hoc se recreat Azor. time to Pray This is a principle of Nature and therefore draws its original from the worlds beginning Nor can it be conceived but the soul stood in as much need of communion with God in divine worship in the infancy as in the old age of the world and therefore the Sabbath was as necessary to Adam and his immediate heirs as to his more remote posterity That the Sabbath was from the beginning and so belongs Sabbatum Moyses Exod. 16. 23. scriptâ lege restituit cum ejus diei cultus abiâ—rat Azor. properly to the Sons of Adam and not particularly to the Sons of Abraham is more evident and clear if we
are called beggerly Elements ab inutili effectâ—â— from their inefficaciousness to profit they bring nothing to the comfort of the Soul they contribute nothing to eternal salvation How shall a Ceremony heal a sick Soul relieve a trembling Soul or raiseâ—â— dead Soul They are all but as Elijahs Staff which can 〈◊〉 no good to the dead they only point at Christ Who is the way the truth and the life they are only the Gnomon on John 14 6. the Dial but Christ is the Sun But now the fourth Commandement is no such thing it commences war with 2 Kings 4. 31. our lusts If we are covetous we must not work this day If we are voluptuous we must not sensualize this day If we are prophane we must not sin against the holiness of this day we have a Memento to stop us Exod. 20. 8. This Commandement like Grace sets up its Standard against all the Cavils and corruptions of mans heart And can a dying Ceremony rally up this force to encounter mans potent lusts As Bishop Davenant tells us the Schoolmen give us a threefold reason why legal Ceremonies ceased at Christs coming 1. Because they were obscure in point of signification 2. Imperfect in point of operation 3. Burdensom in point of observation Now to charge these defects upon the fourth Commandement is not only to Triplicem causam afferre solent scholastici cur cessare oportuit legales ceremonias post Christi adventum Primo Quia obscura erant quoad significationem Secundo Quia imperfectae erant quoad ef ficaciam tertio Quia onerosae erant quoad observationem Daven challenge Divine wisdom but also to confute common Experience The Commandement for the Sabbath is clear without a Mask and plainly tells us we have a day every week for converse with the most High This Command like Moses who delivered it hath its face shining that every one may take notice of it 2. The Command for the Sabbath is perfect without defects for God would never have written an imperfect Command with his own finger and it is wonderfully efficacious How often on the Sabbath are sturdy sinners appaled prophane persons converted doubting Souls satisfied weak Christians strengthned secure Professors awakened and all varieties of Divine operation accomplished The Sabbath is the rest-day of man but the working-day of the blessed Spirit Powerful Acts of divine Grace are exerted on this day 3. The Command for the Sabbath is full of indulgence The Sabbath must be our delight Isa 58. 13. It is our honour not our burden This blessed day is the Saints spiritual work-day and his weekly jubilee Thus the fourth Commandement is diametrically opposite to the very nature and purport of a vanishing Ceremony Further to evidence the stability and morality of the fourth Commandement let us consider the circumstances with which it was attended 1. There is no Commandement excepting the second which likewise the Papists ceremonialize into nothing which is in words larger or in reasons fuller then this of the Sabbath as if the Lord had foreseen that these Commands would meet with the greatest batteries of opposition they being most contrary to the wisdom of the flesh The one opposed by superstition and the other by prophaneness 2. The fourth Commandement is both Negative and Affirmative the other Commands are either Negative or Affirmative 3. There is a Memento prefixed to this Command which Exod. 20. 8. Note is not prefixed to any other and is a Note as some of our Divines observe of special observance and animadversion Calvinus It is a peculiar Asterisk annexed to this Precept requiring Musculus more than ordinary attention and more than common Zanchius practice 4. No such particulars as in this Commandement Thou Exod. 20. 10. thy Son thy Daughter thy Man-servant thy Maid-servant thy Cattle the Stranger 5. No such reasons affixed to any Commandement 1. God hath given us six days 2. It is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God Ceremoniae sunt umbra quia sicut umbra per se nihil valet aut potest sed corporis proprium est sic illae ceremoniae per se nihil possunt ad remissionem peccaterum sanctificationem aut salutem Daven 3. God rested on the seventh day 4. The Lord hallowed the seventh day 6. No such works intimated in any Commandement works to be avoided all civil and secular works works to be accomplished all works tending to the sanctification of this blessed day All these circumstances are set down and made more observable and notable to us by the unspeakable wisdom of God Now such a train of circumstances would never have attended a beggerly Element Gal. 4. 9. Kings make not a Proclamation with enforcing Arguments for things trivial or contemptible Nor would God have embroidered this Commandement with such rich circumstances had it been onely a Ceremony which will soon faint away and give up the ghost had it been onely a shadow 2 Col. 17. which is full of darkness and fugacity Moreover the morality of the fourth Commandement will be yet more conspicuous If we look on the Solemnities Exod. 20 8. Deut. 5. 22. Exod. 31. 18. Deut 9. 10. Exod. 32. 16. Deut. 10 4. by which it was honoured 1. It was as the rest of the Decalogue pronounced and promulgated by the immediate voice of the incomprehensible Jehovah with thundering and lightning those Heralds of Divine Majesty and all this in the common audience and to the great amazement of the people of Israel 2. It was with the rest written and engraven upon Tibles of stone not on leaves of Paper not on sheets of Parchment but on Tables of stone and not by some Scribe or Amanuensis but by Gods own blessed singer and on stone as to denote the hardness of mans heart and how difficultly he would comply with this Command so likewise to shew the continuance and perpetuity of the Commandement it self 3. According to Gods own appointment this Commandement with the rest was put into the Ark of the Testimony Deut. 10. 2. within the most holy place of the Tabernacle as 2 Chron. 5. 10. being a chary Treasure not to be lost in their frequent removes And the two Tables are called the Tables of Heb. 9. 4. the Covenant Deut. 4. 13. all denoting the importance and stability of this with the other Commandements Exod 20. 2. 4. This Command with the rest had the same Proeme containing a general motive to provoke the people to obedience Praeceptum hoc quartum suit ore dei promulgatum digito dei inscriptum et in area dei reconditum Inquiunt Chrysostomus et Theophylactus tempore Mosis fuisse solas tabuâ—as legis in area sed postea à Jremia urnum 〈◊〉 Mannae â—â— virâ—â—m â—aroâ—â— in Aâ—â—a fuisse repâ—siâ—a 〈◊〉 Catharinus tempore Mosis omnia fâ—â—sse in Area sed tempâ—re Solomonis solas â—â—bulas lâ—gâ—s God being as tender of
midwived into the world by Apostolical precept or practise The infinite distance between the Authorities must needs conclude a vast difference between the benedictions nor can the Canon of a Council tie conscience so fast or bless the obedient so much as the Canon of Scripture our enemies themselves being Judges nor can in the least any Scripture be produced to authorize the Church to set up a Sabbath for the Christian World God usually blesseth his own institutions Prayer is powerful because He commands it Preaching John 14. 15. effectual because He enâ—oyns it the Sacraments comfortable Mat. 28. 19 20. because He ordains them and so the Lords Day is often Luk. 22. 19 20. bedewed with showers of the choicest love and benediction because it was Christs institution either more immediately by his personal command or else mediately by his inspired and infallible Apostles And therefore let us fall down before the force of truth and conclude the blessings of our Sabbath speak the beginnings of our Sabbath to be in Gods breast and not in mans will God usually accepting the worship at Jerusalem and not that at Dan and Bethel he loves those festivals of which himself is the Author And let us fetch a pregnant argument from Providence What signal judgements hath God punished the prophaners of Peccatum est deiâ—idium â— Christiciâ—â—um est summum malum spomaneâ— infania somnus et mors anima ex sui naturâ mortem meretur gravâ— est onus animum deprimens cibus durus nullo stomacho digestibilis morbus pesti lentissimus putidissima corruptio Alap the Lords day with as shall be shewn more fully hereafter Now the prophaning of the Lords day must needs be a breach of the law of God or else how can it be a provocation of the wrath of God God punisheth only for sin which the Apostle saith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. Now if our Christian Sabbath be only a law of Man where is the positive and provoking sin in the violation of it where is the infinite evil which should so inflame divine displeasure as to pour out his fury on the violatours of it and to follow them with tremendous judgements Is it probable that God would strike so deeply and punish so fearfully and wonderfully for the breach of a Canon of the Church or a Decree of a Council It is true was the Lords day bottom'd on Ecclesiastical authority it would be a piece of disobedience to the Church to violate it but still where is the infinite evil as every sin is to stir up so much indignation in the Almighty Surely the breach of a humane constitution could never raise such storms in the world nor pelt so many untimely into their dust and oftentimes on a sudden and in a stupendous and terrible manner as shall be fully shewed hereafter And again we meet with no such tragedies in our sporting upon holy dayes and those festivals which are of the Churches appointment those dayes run waste in mirth and jollity nor do we meet with broken limbs sudden deaths fearfull diseases unexpected blindness c. the common issues of the prophanation of the Lords day to be the success and consequence of that vanity Providence then makes the distinction between dayes of the Churches appointment and that blessed day our Christian Sabbath which is of divine institution To conclude then this particular Let us cloath the Lords Quid hac die fâ—â—icius est quâ dominâ—â— judaeâ—â— mortuus est nobis resurrexit In quâ cultus Synagogae ocâ—ubuit et est ortus ecclesiae in quâ nos homines fecit surgere et vivere secum et sedere in coelestibus Haec est dies quem fecit dominus exultemus et laetetemur in illo Omnes dies fecit dominus sed caeteri dies possunt esse ju daeorum possunt esse Haereticorum possunt esse Gentilium sed dies dominica dies est resurrectionis dies Christianorum est dies nostra est Hier. day in all its royal Apparel and put on all its Jewels and Ornaments and then we shall see this Queen of dayes in all its splendour and glory A day it is of honour and renown above all dayes that ever the Sun shone in the most gloririous day that ever God created the most solemn day that ever the Church celebrated a day which Christ hath crowned with the greatest glory of any day that ever dawned upon the world It is a day of the Lords power a day of his perfection the day of his praise and glory and a day of his bâ—â—â—nty and blessings the day of his espousals and of the gladness of his heart When Christ was born the Angels celebrated that day with Songs and triumphs Luke 2. 13. When Christ rose from the dead or else why was he born Let the Saints celebrate that day with weekly solemnities and praises and not passe away their laud in a transient musick as the Angels did On this day our Christian Sabbath day there was a confluence of wonders and wonderfull transactions wrought by him whose name is wonderfull Isa 9. 6. In a word this day is the highly favoured of God a map of Heaven a taste of Glory the golden spot of time the market day of souls the day break of eternal brightness a day to be marked of thousands for their new birth day a day on which many have been redeemed from more then Aegyptian bondage a day of light of joy of love and delight a day which is truly delitiae humani generis the delight of mankind as once Titus was called Ah! how do men flutter up and down on the week dayes as the Dove on Rom. 1. 4. Luke 13. 32. John 20. 22 23. the waters and can find no rest for their souls till they come to this day as to an Arke and this day takes them in On this day the light was created the Holy Spirit descended life hath been restored Satan subdued Sin mortified Souls sanctified Cant. 3. 11. Hos 2. 19 20. Acts 13. 34. Sex praerogativae recensentur ad diem dominicum propiissimè pertinentes Beda in lib. de officiis Eccles Cap. 1. the Grave Hell and Death conquered O! the mountings of mind the ravishings of heart the solace of soul which on this day men enjoy in their dearest Saviour Our Lords day is the first day of the week was the first day of the world On it the Elements were formed the light was created the Angels were produced On it Manna was first rained down On it say the Fathers of the sixt General Council was Christ born On it did the Star first appear to the wise men who came out of the East On it was Christ baptized in Jordan by John the Baptist as the Council of Paris observe Sextum Concilium generale Constantinopoli celebratum On it saith a learned man Christ
themselves and sensualize upon Gods holy day let them not waste that golden spot in trifling recreations let not them formalize and dissemble away the Market-day of their Souls surely their doom will be aggravated with all circumstances of horrour and amazement Fond Christians who idle away and unravel their precious Sabbaths see not the Witness behind the Curtain viz. the blessed and glorious Gospel which will come in against them to sharpen their sentence and condemnation we Christians cannot violate Sabbaths at so cheap a rate as others may more especially a poor benighted Jew who hath lost his way and is wandering to eternal perdition Let every Christian consider Christ makes his flocks to rest at noon The Jews never had those patterns of Sabbath-holiness as we Christians have had It is true God rested the seventh day after the finishing and accomplishment of the stupendous Gen 2. 3. work of the Creation and his Rest was both exemplary and preceptive to the world to keep that day as a day of holy rest But the great Jehovah was in Heaven above the eye of observation But now Jesus Christ the great Archetype of sanctity he was a visible Pattern of Sabbath-holiness John 5. 8. to us and let us trace our dear Redeemer in his Sabbatical actions and wherein they are imitable they are admirable Mat. 12. 13. we shall find our Beloved on that day either working Luke 14. 4 5 6 7. 8 9. his Cures or shewing his Miracles or breaking out into holy discourses or preaching abroad his heavenly doctrines Luke 6. 6. or pouring out his Soul in holy prayers something or other Luke 6. 12. like the Son of God he is doing on the day of God And so the holy Apostles those blessed Spirits as one calls them Those Pen-men of the Holy Ghost as all call them they were rarely exemplary in Sabbath-observation Not to mention how affectionately they grasped the opportunity of the Jews Christus utitur exemple ovis in soveam incidentus in die Sabbati post â—eâ—â—cta ea quae ad Sabbati ministerium et cultum pertinent Sabbath as a fit season to preach Jesus Christ and to throw their Net into many waters How did they manage the true Sabbath the Lords day now taking possession of its right in becoming the weekly Festival of the Church 1. They were most frugal of the time of it Paul preaches on this day till midnight Acts 20. 17. 2. They were most copious in the duties of it they preach they administer the Sacrament which undoubtedly was accompanied Chemnit with fervent and solemn prayer 3. They take care of the poor Acts 20. 7. And 4ly One of this Apostolical society is in high raptures 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. and sublime elevations on this day Nay the Apostle of the Gentiles acts charity to a miracle Acts 20. 10. thinking Revel 1. 10. nothing too great to add to the celebrity and honour of this holy day Now do the Jews tell you of a zealous Nehemiah who shut the Gates of Jerusalem the Evening before the Sabbath to keep God in and shut prophaneness out Nehem. 13. 17 18 19 20 21. we may reply a little to invert our Saviours speech A greater than Nehemiah is here one whose shoo-latchet that worthy man is not worthy to unloose to speak in the language of John the Baptist Mark 1. 7. We then having fairer Luke 11. 31. Copies it is no reason but we should mend our hand The Limner draws the Picture according to the person who sits and the more lovely the person is the more beautiful is the Picture How should we then keep the Sabbath holy who have the pattern of him who is the fairest of ten thousand Psal 45. 2. And how doth this upbraid their practice who make the Sabbath a day of sloth and idleness when the holy Apostle on the same day laboured in preaching of the Gospel Acts 20. 7. till midnight Let us then in the fear of the God of Jacob keep Sabbaths as we have Christ and his blessed Apostles for our ensamples We have more liberty and desirable freedom than the 1 Cor. 11. 1. Jews had in sanctifying the Sabbath their sanctification of that holy day consisted in a multitude of purifications washings and cleansings and in a number of Sacrifices and Oblations they had their burnt Offerings and their Num. 28. 9 10. Meat-offerings nay and their Drink-offerings and all these Sacerdâ—s singulis sabbatis lignum subjiâ—it ad nutriendum ignem in Altari Movebantur panes propositionis c. were doubled as was suggested before on the Sabbath-day their observation of the Sabbath was more toilsom and laborious they were imployed in more drudgery they were to look after their Flour and their Oyl killing of Beasts and such things which were of a more inferiour and carnal nature their duties on the Sabbath were clogged and burdened with more sweat and â—â—â—poral painfulness and were of a grosser alâ—oy The Priests among the Jews on a Sabbath Mat. 12. 5. were busied in cutting of word to feed the fire of the Altar that it might not go out and in preparing of bread to put upon the Table of Shewbread and to remove that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was there before All these Operations as Chemnitius calls them required the hand not the heart and were works of the lower form To all which may be added that the Jews Levit. 23. 6. besides their weekly Sabbath they had the Passeover the Levit. 23. 16. Feast of Pentecâ—st the Feast of Trumpets the Feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23. 24. the day of Attonement which was the tenth day of Levit. 23. 27. the seventh Moneth and these were all called Sabbaths Levit. 23. 34. Levit. 23. 24 32 36. And some of these Feasts and Solemnities Levit. 23. 8. were celebrated divers days together Levit. 23. 36. Now it is not so with us under the Gospel the Apostle Exod. 12. 3. hath eased us at once of all these legal Festivals 2 Col. 16. Exod. 23. 14. Let no man condemn you in respect of an holy day or of the new Gal. 4. 9 10. Moon or of the Sabbath days viz. Jewisn And so Gal. 4. 9 Non sunt damnandi christiani tanquam divinae legis transgressores out violatae conscientiae rei quòd non observant festa legis ceremonialis quicquid contra superstitiosè ogganniunt Pseudo Apostoli Daven 10. Ye observe days and months and times which are weak and beggerly rudiments All these Festivals are of no use to us but are fully cancelled and cashiered Thus God hath sweetned our Sabbath far above that of the Jews Prayers are our onely Offering Sighs our Incense Sacraments our Passeover we have no Drink-offering but to drink in truth in the hearing of the word we have no Meat-offering but to feed upon
Sabbath Caelum est illa requies ubi fugit dolor tristitia gemitus omnes solicitudines Ibi nec invidia nec zelus nec morbus nec nox nec mors nec tenebrae sed omnia pax gaudium jucunditas voluptas bonitas c. Chrysost which signifies a holy Rest to shew us that the due and holy observation of our Rest here is the ready way to our perfect rest hereafter It is a sad contemplation to take a view of prophane persons how they impose upon themselves in a dream of glory Can they possibly conjecture that they can sing their songs here on a Sabbath take their cariere in sensual delights play away walk away prate away their precious Sabbaths and at last sing Hallelujahs in the Sabbath above Is not this to conceive a Mountane to be Chrystalline because it is covered with snow which bears some resemblance to the colour of it Well then prophanation of Gods day is a complicated evil a chain of darkness with many links in it a body of sin made up of the four Elements of Contempt Infidelity Ingratitude and Soul-prodigality it is an heretical vice which practically denies the resurrection of Christ Arg. 2 There is much in the day to solicite our holy observation It is a Sabbath of spiritual delights it is the souls festival day a day of fat things and wine upon the lees Isa 25. 6. The Cant. 2. 4. Sabbath is the season in which Christ brings his beloved into Psal 118. 24. to his banqueting house Christians on this day are to rejoyce in the Lord as the memorial of the greatest benefit which Dies dominicus domini resurrectione declaratus est inde caepit habere festivitatem suam ever accrewed unto them Their life rose this day a conquerour and in him they are more then conquerours as the Apostle speaks most triumphantly Rom. 8. 37. And therefore holy men in all ages have waited with impatience for the coming of this day and have rejoyced with unspeakable joy at its approach This day is the darling is the delight Aug. Serm. de temp of dayes and all other dayes are to be obsequious unto it It is recorded of holy Mr. Dod and heavenly Mr. Bruen that Deut. 32. 49. they were even in heaven upon a Lords day This day is Heb. 2. 10. the day of Christs visits the souls spiritual market and fair in it we have our prospect of Canaan upon Mount Nebo the Hujus diei laetemurâ— festivitate Hilâ—r day it is of holy Discipline to train us up in the School of Christ Hilary cries out Let Christians be exceeding glad on this day of their festivals This day is the souls seeds time Officia hodiè praestanda spiritualia mirificam in se complectuatur jucunditatem O quà m suave est communione cum Christo frui in via Ordinationum per quam Christus transire solet ipsi occurrere and glory shall be its harvest this is the most special time for the recruiting of the inward man and strengthning it with all might The duties of this day are not only the plowing but the reaping of the soul they are in themselves not only work but wages for in acting of spiritual duties there is great reward As one saith Sabbath-service implies a wonderfull sweetness as the musick of the sphears which is included in its own circumference How delitious is it to enjoy communion with Christ on his own day and to embrace him in the way of his Ordinances as Zaccheus to meet him in the way as he passeth by Luke 19. 5. Christ indeed is sweet to our enquires much sweeter to our acquests when we have found our beloved Cant. 3. 4. Now then the Sabbath being a day of joy and jubilee to the soul how spiritual exact and heavenly should we be The Sabbath is joyous in its constitution let it be so in our disposition let not this joy be damped by our sin or neglect let us not jar the musick of it by our sloath or sensuality our carnal ease or fleshly delights for so we may at night go down with sorrow to our bed Gen. 42. 38. Arg. 3 Not only the pleasure of this day might allure but the profit of this day might enforce our greatest care and devotion On this day the soul makes its greatest merchandise and drives Deus in suo opere conquiescens benedixiti huic diei eum sanctificavit in ecclesiâ suâ ut sanctus haberetur in eâ benedixit illi et benedicetur its most gainful bargains on this day the poor believer follows the chase of a Christ of an heaven of an eternity this day is a day of bleâ—sings how many have met with their beloved recruited their faith amplified their joy and gained a better insight into their spiritual condition on this holy day Their souls as Hannah have begun the Sabbath with sighs and sobs but in the close thereof have gone away and have been no more sad 1 Sam. 1. 18. It is usually on the Sabbath Jun. in Gen. that the believer makes his greatest journies towards his home God saith of this day as once Isaac said concerning Die dominico videre est animae mercaturam quaestuoâ—issiman et opulentiorem omnibus mundi opibus majâ—r certè est utilitas frui praesentiâ de quum Margaritas ac fodinas aureas acquirere Jacob I have blessed it yea and it shall be blessed Gen. 27. 33. On this day the gracious soul enjoys Christs presence communion with the blessed Trinity and the happiness of those spiritual Ordinances which are the Mines and the means of grace On this day he drinks more deeply of the waters of life and participates more freely of the good things of the graces of the spirit and tasts more sensibly of the prelibations of future and eternal joy Rev. 1. 10. Indeed on the Lords day the believer makes up himself for the decays and losses of the week and drives the spiritual trade to the best advantage Now profit should engage us to care and sedulity and add a wing to our zealous and holy industry when we are sloathful or sensual upon the Sabbath we do not only sin away our timâ— â—ut our treasure and lose our season for advantage Limnâ—rs will be very exact in drawing that picture for which they are well rewarded a high price will procure the most curious works and why should not a gainful Sabbath which will pay for all our pains engage us in the greatest strictness of observation Profit is the great engine which prevails with worldly men Some Nations will sell Swords Diei dominicae luâ—rum non crumenam sed animam spectat and warlike furniture to their open and proclaimed enemies for profit and unusual gain and surely the riches of Ordinances are finer gold then the treasures of the Mine though they be digged in Ophir Arg. 4 The honour
tamenillam agnoscunt valde infirmam lanquidam et obscuratam propter perpetuam illam pugnam rebellionem carnis Daven wing and was upon the flight from him Psal 51. 11. The Apostle saith Col. 3. 3. Our life is hid with Christ both in point of security and in point of secresie with Christ as in the spring with Christ as in the root and principle and the root we know is under ground and no eye of the passenger observes it with the several threads of it Let one thing more come within our view This work of grace is often under a mask and faces are not discovered under a mask there is a continual combat between the flesh and the spirit and the poor Saint stands as a spectatour he waits and cannot tell which of the two combatants will go away with Gal. 5. 17. flying colours Let us meditate on the beautifullness of the work of Grace The Scripture best depaints this lovely work Sometimes it Nova creatâ—ra spiritualis effecta novam gratiae vitâ—m fortua est ut deâ—â—â—ceps in novitate vitae ambulet is called Regeneration Joh. 3. 5. Sometimes it is called a new Creation Gal. 6. 15. With what flourish and glory did the world look when God did first create it and it first put on its comly dress and attire how pleasant was the Earth in its first spring Sometimes the work of grace is called Gods workmanship Eph. 2. 10. and this work must be good Gen. 1. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is his All things he made were very good Gen. 1. 31. Nay sometimes this work is called our coming to our selves Luke 15. 17. And when lunatick persons are reduced to their wits what a comly and a lovely sight is it Indeed holiness is an attribute of God it is the loveliness of Angels it is the beauty of Saints this makes them excellent Psal 16. Psal 16. 3. Prov. 12. 26. Prov. 17. 27. Ezek. 16. 7. Phil. 1. 10. 3. nay more excellent then their neighbours Prov. 12. 26. The habits of grace are excellent ornaments Ezek. 16. 7. The wayes of grace are excellent wayes Phil. 1. 10. The work of grace it sheds light into the understanding makes it day there the beginnings of grace are day break in the soul Grace it shapes the will and brings it into form it sublimates Col. 3. 1 2. the affections and raises them from the dung-hill and makes them as it was said of the Bereans Acts 17. 11. more noble it softens the heart and makes it pliable to the tenders of the Gospel it cleanses the conscience from its filth and nastiness Acts 15. 9. it composes the conversation 1 Cor. 15 58 59 it adorns the life and bespangles it with good works those beautiful issues of a work of grace Let us meditate on the beneficialness of the work of grace Grace is glory initiated the dawning of future glory and glory is the noon-tide of grace There is a connection between grace and glory Psal 84. 11. They are clasped together by an eternal decree Gods everlasting purpose of love hath espoused grace to glory The work of grace foreruns Deus dedit nobis pignus futurae haereditatis gratiam quâ nos unxit â—t signavit in filios dei discrevitque à filiis diaboli the wages of glory Grace is onely glory in its infancy and glory is grace in its full growth Grace and glory differ in degree not in kind The spirits work is onely the first Scene of heaven here the spirit is a refining above it will be a ravishing spirit Death blows the bud of grace into the flower of glory 2 Cor. 1. 22. Eph. 1. 14. Grace onely ushers in glory it is onely the greener fruit of heaven and in Oecum future blessedness it comes to its full maturation In a word 2 Cor. 1. 22. the work of grace is the beginning of heaven in the soul and Eph. 1. 14. Christ in the heart doth fully assure us we shall see Christ Eph. 3. 17. in the Throne Let us meditate in the morning of a Sabbath on the works of glory How should we contemplate on heavenly things Psal 36. 8. Heb 4. 9. Rev. 3. 21. 2 Tim. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 2. 9. O ineffabile gaudium in sanctis glorificatis qui ad dextram Christi sistent ut subditi serenissimo suo principi ut filii benignissimo suo patri ut regale sacerdotium gratiosissimo suo pontifici Glass on Gods heavenly day what those chambers of rest what those rivers of pleasure what those crowns of righteousness what those thrones of glory are which God hath prepared for his believing and beloved ones who have rejoyced in his holy day here and made it their seraphical delight From the mount of meditation as from mount Nebo we may take a prospect of the land of Promise which Christ hath taken the possession of in the name of all believers Heb. 6. 20. Heaven must needs be a glorious City which hath God both for its builder and inhabitant it must needs be the extract and quintessence of all blessedness On Gods day in the morning let meditation listen to the musicks of the Bride-chamber take a tast of our Masters joy peep within the vail and take a glance of the face of God and make an essay how well a crown of righteousness becomes the believers head And surely we cannot meditate on these things but we Quanta erit illa felicitas ubi nullum erit malum nullum latebit bonum vacabitur dei laudibus qui erit omnia in omnibus Aug. must rejoyce in hope What prisoner shackled with the chains of temptation and fettered with the irons of his own corruption being in the dark prison of the world can meditate on the time when all these restraints shall be filed off and he enjoy the pleasant light and glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8. 21. but he will be transported with joy and exultation Meditation brings down heaven to us and we travel in the view of things superlative and ineffable In Glory we shall see the King in his beauty Isa 33. 17. There John 14. 2. Psal 16. 11. God shall be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. There shall be beauty Rev. 3. 21. to the eye musick to the ear joy to the heart light to the mind perfection to the soul plenary and absolute satisfaction to the Saint Glory is meditations upper-loft it is its highest gallery to walk in it is its pleasing nest among the stars Meditation may take a view of the pompous Theater 2 Cor. 1. 3. Mat. 1. 21. Heb. 7. 25. of glory where there are the three persons in the God-head The Father of our mercies Jesus Christ the Saviour of our souls the Holy Ghost the Healer of our natures the Father who hears our prayers the Son who is our intercessour above us and the
spirit who is our intercessour within us And in correspondence to this blessed Trinity there Rom. 8. 26 27. are three species of beings who enjoy glory the glorious God the holy Angels the glorified Saints and thus meditation may tune the morning of a Sabbath and the musick may sound all the ensuing day CHAP. XXII God is most illustrious in his Bounty and Presence WE must meditate on the morning of a Sabbath not onely on the nature of God on the attributes of God and on the works of God but likewise on the bounty of God and his indulgence in giving us his Sabbath Our very work on this day is our reward our spiritual duties are our greatest dignities O what an honour what a favour what a happiness doth God vouchsafe us in giving us this golden season David though a King and the Head of the Psal 84. 10. Psal 42. 2. best people in the world esteemed it an honour to be the lowest Officer in Gods house Psal 84. 10. The ordinances Psal 63. 2. of God are called our appearing before God Psal 42. 2. The fruition of them is as the seeing of his face Capernaum Deut. 4. 7. because of them was lifted up to heaven Mat. 11. 23. Who can tell what honour it is to appear in the presence of this King Or what happiness to see his lovely countenance In the ordinances of God the Christian hath sweet communion with ravishing delight in and enflamed affection to the blessed God if in them he tasts God to be gracious and hath the first fruits of his glorious and eternal harvest Well might the Protestants of France call the place of their publick meeting on Gods holy day Paradise Ordinances are heaven in a Glass and the Londs day is heaven in a Map O the bounty of God in giving us this blessed day This day is to be valued at a high rate therein we enjoy fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ we have tasts of the Spirit and feel the influential impressions of his grace we are going up the stairs till we come to the highest loft of 1 Joh. 1. 3. Psal 34. 8. glory The Jewes call the week dayes prophane dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Sabbath a holy and precious day The Greeks call week days working dayes but the Sabbath is a day of sweet rest Other dayes are common and ordinary dayes but this holy Sabbath is the chief of dayes Many daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all Many dayes as Lecture Prov. 31. 25. dayes Fast dayes Thanksgiving dayes have done vertuously but thou O Sabbath excellest them all Well might the good soul run to meet thee in the morning and salute thee with a Come my sweet spouse thee have I loved for thee have I longed and thou art my dearest delight How far then Honos ne sit onus nec verba spiritus verbera carnis should we be from accounting the Sabbath our burden and our attendance on Ordinances upon that blessed day our task or bondage O let us not esteem spiritual opportunities our fetters but our freedom Think what the Phaenix is among the birds the Lyon among the beasts the Fire among the elements the Prince among the Subjects that is the Lords day among other dayes Wax in the shop is worth something but wax put to some Deeds is worth thousands Ordinary dayes are wax in the shop but the Lords day is wax put to the deeds Upon this day Christ carries the soul into his wine-Cellar and his banner over him Cant. 2. 4. is love Can. 2. 4 5. Upon other dayes Christ feeds his members but on this day he feasts them on other dayes they have their ordinary dyet but on the Sabbath they have their exceedings on this day Christ brings forth his living waters Gen. 43. 34. his best wine Joh. 2. 10. His finest bread his Benjamins Haec visio non est personalis et Jacobi solummodò consolatio sed commune piorum solamen ut de praesentiâ et divino auxilio dubitemus Par mess On the Lords day Christ pitches his Tabernacle among us we are as it were taken up into the mount with God there to be transfigured before him Mat. 17. 2. When the Lord appeared unto Jacob in a vision by night he saw a Ladder erected between Heaven and Earth and the Lord on the top of it the Angels ascending and descending by it and when he awoke How dreadfull saith he is this place the Lord was here and I was not aware surely it is no other Gen. 28. 16 17. then the house of God and this is the gate of heaven Are not Hos 11. 9. our places of assembling the very gates of heaven In our Deut. 33. 3. solemn assemblies is there not a ladder erected between earth and heaven and is not the Lord at the top of it The gracious Sicut deus sanctus est sic etiam populum sonctificat et servat et in medio eorum est et apparet Riv. instructions which we receive are they not so many Angels descending The gracious motions which arise in our hearts upon meditation on Gods word upon thanksgiving to God or rejoycing in him or else sorrowing for our sins are they not as so many Angels ascending And have we not then great cause to be filled with admiration and holy gratulations to God for Sabbath indulgence for his rich bounty in the donation of his blessed day On the morning of the Sabbath let us meditate on the presence of God Many miscarriages are acted by man and many miseries do seize upon man for the neglect of this ever Deus totus oculus est et minima videt August seasonable meditation A solemn consideration of Gods presence would restrain us from sin would quicken us in duty would draw out our graces would compose our spirits and cast a holy awe upon us which things would be inductive of much fruitfulness and piety When we sin we forget Gods eye is upon us when we flag in duty we do not think God is nigh to us when we trifle away Sabbath we do not remember Gods hand will certainly be against us Now there is a two-fold presence of God There is a more general presence and God is present every where Deus presens est 1. Per Essentiam Psal 139. 12. 1 Chron. 28. 9. First By his Essence and so he fills all things 1 Kings 8. 27. and thus he fills heaven with his glory Earth with his goodness and Hell it self with his power and justice Secondly God is present every where by his knowledge so he beholds all things 2 Chron. 16. 9. Light and darkness 2 Per Cognitionem night and day are all one to him Psal 139. 12. He seeth the very imaginations of our hearts His eyes behold and his eye lids try the children of men Psal 11. 4.