The Practical Sabbatarian

CHAP. LIII. The Resurrection of Christ is not only a real ground for the institution, but a cogent Argument for the holy observation of the Lord's day.

WHen our hearts are dead and curdled into formality upon the Lord's day, then everyone of us should thus bespeak his soul. O my soul, this day is the triumph of thy Redeemer, when he trod upon the Serpents head, when he took from death its sting, from hell its standard; suppose my soul, thou hadst stood by the Sepulcher, and seen the Sun of Righteousness covered with a cloud before, now shining forth most gloriously on the morning of the Resurrection day; how would this have raised and ravished thy heart! How glad were the Disciples when they saw the Lord, they believed not for joy, John 20. 20. Luke 24. 41. The day of Christ's rising from the dead was a day of joy and gladness, Psal. 118. 24. No day like this since the Creation, then our surety was released, the Covenant and sure mercies of David fully ratified and confirmed; our hope wonderfully revived, heaven and eternal life plenteously assured. These thoughts of Christ's Resurrection might quicken our hearts, and make them sparkle with life and affection: It may be we never took the crown of this day into our hands to feel the weight of it, and that makes our services •• flat, and our thoughts (to speak in Nazianzens phrase) so chained to the ground upon this seraphical day. And therefore Clemens Romanus argues sharply and pathetically, What shall excuse us with God, if we fill not up this blessed day, with bearing the word, with holy prayer, with reading the Scriptures, with singing the praises of the Lord, and other duties, seeing God makes all things by Christ, and sent him into the world to die for sinners, and raised him again as on this day? Innocentius calls Christ's Resurrection day, the first day of our joy, the bright luster of heavens shine. And Ambrose saith, The Lord's day is a day • f joys, in the plural number, to show the Variety and the Increase of them. Joy is the Shibboleth of this day, the Spring-tide, and the full Sea of this weekly Festival. And Tertullian professeth, That on this day we indulge ourselves with holy joy. The primitive Christians were wont, when they saw one another to have this joyful salute, The Lord is risen, and the others ordinary answer was, True, the Lord is risen indeed; we should not, saith Bernard, so much mourn at Christ's igneminious passion, as we should rejoice at his glorious Resurrection. And this day is not only sweetened with joys, but enriched with gain; the death of Christ was the sowing of the Corn, the raising of Christ, was as the springing up of the Corn; the benefits of Christ's death are reaped in his Resurrection. The death of Christ was as the casting of Joseph into the pit, the selling him into Egypt, and putting him into prison: But the raising of Christ was as the preferring of Joseph, by which he comes into a capacity to save his Family, and so enrich all his Relations. Clemens Romanus tells us,

Athanasius calls the Resurrection day, The beginning of the New Creation: And another learned tells us, Indeed Mans all is folded up in the triumphant success of this day: Let us a little hearken to the good News that Christ's Resurrection brought to the world; and these Cords of love should fasten us to Holy duties, and becoming carriages on the Lord's day.

[unspec 1] The Resurrection of Christ was the completing of his work. Indeed many fair lines were drawn before in the great work of Mans Redemption, every tear which dropt from Christ's eye, every drop of bloody sweat which fell from his sacred body contributed to our salvation; but when Christ rose again, then he put the last hand to the beautiful frame of this glorious work: And therefore he is said then to be perfected, Luk. 13. 32. when Christ breathed out his last, he cried out, consummatum est, It is finished, John 19. 30. But that had relation to his sufferings; but when he rose again, he was perfected, in relation to his people; he then became a perfect Redeemer: Christ on his resurrection-day folded up his bottom, and had nothing left to do, but to ascend to his Father, and to take his place at his right hand, and to give him an account, that the glorious work of man's Redemption was now fully finished; Christ's dying-day was the perfection of his love, but his rising-day was the perfection of his work: when he sprang from the Grave, he threw off the cloths of his own mortality, and of our sin. Thus the Sun works through the Cloud, and makes its own way, till it is freed from that dark incumbrance, and appears to the World in its sweetest brightness: And so our Savior after a short sleep in the tenacious dust, awakes and comes as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber, to speak a few words to his Disciples, and to take witness of his resurrection, and so to go up to his Father, ever to make intercession for us. And shall Christ complete his work upon his resurrection-day, our Christian Sabbath, and shall we be defective in ours? Shall he be perfected on that day, and shall we be polluted? Surely when we trifle and sin away our Sabbath, we never think, that on that day Christ put his last hand to the blessed work of our Redemption. This will condemn careless Christians, when they are so short, and Christ so full on his Resurrection-day, our blessed Sabbath.

[unspec 2] The Resurrection of Christ was the Conquest of his, and our Enemies. On this day, the seed of the woman did bruise the Serpents head, and Christ did triumph in his own person over Sin, Death, and Satan; Upon the account of which, the Apostle cries Victory, 1 Cor. 15. 54, 55. On this day Christ spoiled principalities and powers, and openly triumphed over them, Col. 2. 15. Christ merited Victory by his passion, but he executed Victory by his rising from the Grave; he died a Sufferer, but he rose a Conqueror; not only arrayed with honor and immortality, but richly invested with power and principality; and then were the Keys of Death and Hell resigned up to him, as the Trophies of his triumphant Resurrection; Then was Christ proclaimed Lord of quick and dead, Rom. 14. 9. then Death gave its last groan, and then Satan fell like lightning: the forces of Hell were scattered and discomfited, when Christ appeared in the Field after his detention in the Grave. Christ by rising brake both the Chains of death and darkness together; and so far put the Law out of date, that it super-annuated its threats, that they are insignificant to the Believer; Christ now had suffered whatever the Law could demand upon the Sinner: And as his sufferings answered all the clamours of the Law, so his Resurrection brake all the Chains of his sufferings. Indeed (through the Grace of God) we may read, inflamed love, Rom. 5. 8. and eternal life, John 3. 15. in the death of Christ; but the hope and assurance of both, is built upon his Resurrection: and therefore when the Apostle would set the door of hope wide open to us, 1 Pet. 1. 3, 4. he shows us an empty Sepulcher, and tells us, with the Angel, He is risen, 1 Cor. 15. 17, 18, 19. The Promise is the ground and Anchorhold of our hope, and that is performed by our Lord's Resurrection; by which he brake the Serpents head, and scattered his power, Acts 26. 6, 7, 8, 9. This day then is Christ's triumphal day, when all his enemies were drawn at his Chariot-wheel.

And is not Christ in this our Ensample? Shall not we on this day trample Satan under our feet, conquer lust, and get above the snares, nay thoughts of the World and in holy and divine Ordinances pursue triumphant grace? Conquest is our great work on the Sabbath-day, then are we to subjugate our passions, to subdue our corruptions, to keep under the flesh, to fetter the Old man, and to bring into obedience our whole man to Jesus Christ. The Sabbath properly is a day of Victories; then light is to overcome our darkness, the word to overcome our hearts, Christ to over-rule and Conquer our affections, and then is the season for the spirit to subdue, and to bring into Captivity every high thought to the obedience of the Gospel. And shall we then on Christ's conquering-day, be slaves to our fancy, to spend our time in vanity and recreations, be Vassals to our lusts, to spend our Sabbaths in riots and profaneness, be subjugated by the flesh, to spend this golden season in sloth or formality? Is not this to pour contempt on Christ's triumphal-day, and to cover the glory of it with thick darkness? As if one should draw a Canvas Curtain before a curious Picture. It may truly be said of those who profane the Lord's day; they are the ecclipses of Christ's Resurrectionday, spots in that Feast, and the foul blemishes of that lovely season. Ignatius will tell us, It is but a Jewish trick, and a falling back and recidivation to their sin and folly.

[unspec 3] The Resurrection of Christ was the loosing of his fetters; then, and not before, did our dear Jesus rest from the temptations of Satan, from the persecutions of the Jewish and the Gentile World, from the flashes and scorching of his Fathers wrath, and from the bonds of his own transient death: His rising-day was his resting-day, and all his disturbance and discomposures were scattered, as the Clouds which have nestled together, are put to flight at the rise of the Sun. And therefore it was the will of God, that the day of Christ's Resurrection should be honored as holy, rather then any other day of his Incarnation, Birth, Passion, Ascension; because his rising-day, was his resting or Sabbath-day, and whereon his rest began. So the day of God's rest from the work of Creation, and the day of Christ's rest from the work of Redemption, are only fit, the one to be the Churches Sabbath in the time of the Law, the other to be the Churches Sabbath in the time of the Gospel. The Lord Christ in the day of his Birth did not enter into his rest, but rather made an entrance into labor and sorrow, and then began his work of Humiliation: And so likewise in the day of his Passion, he was then under the sorest part of his labor, in the bitter Agonies in the Garden and on the Cross; and therefore none of these could be consecrated to be our Sabbath: Nor could the day of his Ascension be fit to be made our Sabbath, because although Christ then and thereby entered into the third Heavens, his place of Rest, yet he did not then make his first entrance into his estate of Rest, which was in the day of his Resurrection. This day then was the first step of Christ's exaltation, the dawning of his glory; when, as Elijah, he dropped the Mantle of all natural imperfections: Now Christ was to bear no more bruises, to give his Cheek to no more Smiters, to tread the Winepress of his Fathers wrath no more. This bright Sun was no more to be masked with Clouds; this Morning Star was no more to be veiled with shade or darkness; Christ's rising left his Grave-clothes behind him, to show us, that now no more he was to taste anything which savoured of sorrow or mortality.

And now how incongruous is it, that the day of Christ's freedom, should be the day of our fetters; That when he threw off his bonds, we should bind them on us the faster; That we should be fettered to any way of sin, or chained to our sensual appetite, or wanton fancy on the Lord's day, the weekly commemoration of Christ's Resurrection? On this day Christ threw off his Grave-clothes, and so should we cast off whatever savors of dust and earth. In a word, to be captivated to any way of offense on this holy day, no way comports with the nature and freedom of Christ's resurrection; then all his bonds were loosed, and then should we cast from us whatsoever may hinder us from running the ways of God's Commandments, all our sloth, frothiness of Spirit, carnal delights, cold formality, and whatever may slacken our pace in our duties and spiritual services.

[unspec 4] The Resurrection of Christ is the very life of the Gospel; So the Apostle most expressly, 1 Cor. 15. 14. If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your saith is also vain. Christ's death had been wholly ineffectual for the remission of sins, if Christ had not conquered death, but still had been detained in his dust: But Christ hath abolished sin, because he hath conquered death, the effect of sin, by his glorious resurrection; as Chrysostom well notes and observes, All the sufferings of Christ were animated by his resurrection, that glorious Act put worth and value upon them. Had he not risen, all our hopes had been buried in the same Grave with him; but he is truly risen, and this is the comfort of our Souls, and the riches of his sufferings. Christ's resurrection makes faith a saving grace, and therefore the (rather) is put upon Christ's rising, not upon his death, Rom. 8. 34. His Resurrection makes the Gospel a lively and glorious Gospel, and Christ an all-sufficient Redeemer: When Christ rose, the Jews blasphemy was execrated, Scripture-prophesies and types verified, the hearts of believers revived, and the Gospel was made a Doctrine full of grace and truth, fit to be preached for life and salvation. The Prophet Hosea tells us, Hos. 6. 2. After two days he will revive us, and the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight: which text of Scripture Tertullian rightly accommodates to the Resurrection of Christ, which was on the third day; then did our life spring with his, and the Sun rising caused our light. The Resurrection of Christ is that pleasant spring which the Law foresaw, the Gospel discovers, and the Christian rejoices in. Had Christ been shut up in the Grave, and there kept as Natures Prisoner, all the truths of the Word had been as fading leaves, and the believers faith an empty notion, the Preachers pains unprofitable sweat, and the sinners soul irrecoverably lost, and the professors of Christianity truly of all men most miserable, as 1 Cor. 15. 19. And that cursed speech of Pope Leo the tenth, (viz.) How much wealth hath this Fable of Christ brought to our Coffers, might have escaped a reproof.

And now shall the Resurrection of Christ put life into the Gospel, and none into us upon our Sabbath, the commemoration of that glorious Act? Shall every truth of the Gospel be confirmed by it, and shall not we be established in our duties on this holy day? Christ rose, and our hopes sprang and budded with his rising, and shall not this animate our services on the Lord's day? Either let us lay aside Faith in the Act, or be more conscientious in keeping the day of Christ's blessed Resurrection.

[unspec 5] The Resurrection of Christ was not only the breaking of his own chains, but the breaking out and harbinger of our joys; For Christ, as a common person, is become the first fruits of them that sleep, 1 Cor. 15. 20. which is an allusion to a rite and ceremony in the Law. All the sheaves in a field being unholy in themselves, there was some one sheaf in the name and room of all the rest, which was called the first fruit, lifted up and waved before the Lord, and so all the sheaves abroad in the field, by that act done to this one sheaf, were consecrated unto God by virtue of that Law, Lev. 23. 10. Rom. 11. 16. And thus when we were all dead, Christ as the first fruits riseth, and this in our name and stead, and so we all rise with him, and in him; we are all virtually risen in him, and this in as true a sense, as if we were personally risen. As on the contrary hand we being personally alive, yet are reckoned dead in Adam, because he was a common person, and had the sentence of death pronounced upon him, by virtue of which, we must die, and this by the force of the same law, 1 Cor. 15. 21, 22. Adam was the first fruits of them who died, and Christ of them that rise. Hence we are said to be risen with Christ, Eph. 2. 5. and which is yet more, to sit together with him in heaven, Eph. 2. 6. Because Christ is a common person representing us, and he sits there in our name, and in our stead. Now let us a little canvass the equity of this law: If sentence of condemnation was first passed upon Adam alone, yet considered as a common person for us, we were condemned in him: therefore also this acquitting and justification, which was passed upon Christ at his Resurrection, (for then he had fully suffered whatever divine justice could demand for our sin) was passed upon him as a common and public person for us; yea, in this his being justified, Christ must much rather be considered as a common person representing us, then Adam was in his condemnation: For Christ in his own person had no sin, so he had no need of justification from sin, nor should ever have been condemned; and therefore this must be only in respect to our sins imputed to him, and if so, then in our stead; and so herein he was more purely to be considered, as a common person for us, then ever Adam was in his being condemned; for Adam besides his standing as a common person for us, was furthermore condemned in his own person; but Christ being justified from sin, could only be considered as standing for others. Thus Christ rose as a common person in our stead, and for our good, to be the object of our faith, the incentive of our hope, and the forerunner of our glorious resurrection.

By Christ's rising to life we receive,

[unspec 1] A life of joy; His springing from the grave was the blossoming of our joy: The retirement of our beloved into his tomb, was but transient, the delay of three days, and then he came from behind the hangings, and in this our joy is full: This dried up Mary Magdalens tears, and swallowed up the Disciples griefs; and this inflames the Christians triumphs; And as Christ saith, John 16. 22. I shall see you again, and then your heart shall rejoice. And as Theophylact observes, The Disciples as it were rose from the dead, transported with joy.

[unspec 2] A life of Righteousness. For as Christ died for our sins, so he arose for our justification, Rom. 4. 25. It was the rising of Christ which made his death au • hentical and satisfactory. Pareus observes,

The foundation of our comfort is laid in Christ's death, but we receive it in his resurrection. Our peace and joy is sown in his death, but we reap it, and begin to possess it in his resurrection. And though Christ's rising adds nothing to the price which was paid in his death, yet it is a demonstration of the sufficiency of it, and thereby a confirmation of our comfort by it: for if Christ had not rose again, his death had done us no good, and all our comfort had been a withered branch. If death had overcome him, wrath had overcome us. Christ by rising hath promerited a righteousness for us, Jer. 23. 6. our wedding garment came from this Wardrobe; his breaking from the grave, made our joys and his own merits full, which are applicable to us by faith.

[unspec 3] A life of Grace: Christ by his resurrection hath purchased the donation of the spirit, which he sent down extraordinarily presently after it upon his holy Apostles, Acts 2. 2. and still in sweet and suitable measures upon his people, John 1. 16. Now this True Vine, John 15. 1. flourisheth in glory, to which his resurrection was the first step, he drops sap into his branches here below, John 15. 4. Christ after his resurrection obtains the Holy Ghost for us, and bestoweth it upon us, and by this blessed spirit engraffeth us into himself, regenerateth and quickeneth us. An evidence of this truth we have, John 7. 39. The words of which Text run thus: But this be spake of the spirit, which they who believed on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not glorified. This royal gift only waited the glory of his resurrection.

[unspec 4] A Life of Glory: The Resurrection of Christ opened the gates of Heaven to believers, and from that first ascent, he went up to his Father to prepare a place for us, John 14. 2. Had Christ been locked in the Grave, we had been locked out of Glory; but Christ rose to go to his Father, and in this he is our fore-runner, as the Apostle saith expressly, He is entered into Heaven for us, Heb. 6. 20. to take up our room, and prepare our eternal Thrones. Theophylact hath a pretty similitude,

Our Su • ety hath taken our places for us, and after a few breaths, a few flying moments, we shall come and take up our eternal abode and residence.

And what is the issue of all this? Shall Christ's resurrection be the fountain of our good, and not the incentive of our duty? Shall we rise with him, and not live to him on his own holy day? Had the Resurrection only concerned himself, and been the Emblem of his own personal glory, some Apology might have been made; but when it is not an inclosure, but a Common for the Saints to live upon, how should this influence us upon the Lord's day, How should our hearts rise in holy affections, how should our voice rise in praise and thanksgivings, how should our thoughts rise in heavenly meditations! A couchant earthly frame upon this day, no way accords with this beneficial, nay, beatifical resurrection.

[unspec 6] The Resurrection of Christ is the certain assurance of ours: The Head is risen, and the body must follow; the Elder Brother is sprung out of the dust, and the Younger Brethren shall not always lie there. The Vine is now planted in Heaven, and there the Branches must receive their eternal flourish. Christ rose again, not as the Jews prisoner, under a sentence of condemnation, but as the Christians Harbinger, for their unspeakable consolation. It is worthily observed of a learned man,

As Christ died to make the purchase, so he rose again to see it made good to believers, and his Resurrection is but the earnest of ours: This glorious act of Christ's rising, gives us security for these ensuing particulars:

[unspec 1] That Divine Justice is satisfied. When the Prisoner for Debt is freed, it is presumed, the debt is discharged, and the Creditor fully satisfied: Christ in his Resurrection opened the prison doors of the grave, and shown himself to many witnesses free, and discharged from all incumbrances which fully speaks, that divine Justice is paid to the utmost farthing.

[unspec 2] That God and Man are fully reconciled: For sin only commenced the controversy, and kept up the difference, Isa. 59. 2. Now sin being removed by a full acquittance and discharge, viz. By the delivery and Rising of our Surety, the wound naturally closeth, and all is peace between God and believers: And so the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing in his wings, Mal. 4. 2. The Apostle saith, 1 Cor. 15. 17. If Christ had not risen, we had been still in our sin, which fully implies, he rising again, our sins are taken away, and blotted out as a thick cloud, and nothing remains to break the peace between God and believers.

[unspec 3] That conscience may be serene and fully satisfied: For nothing stung conscience, and wounded that tender part, nothing kept it raw, full of pain and anguish, but only sin, which being fully satisfied for by Christ's death, and so clearly declared by his blessed Resurrection, the burden removed gives ease to conscience; and so the poor believer being sensible his peace is made, and he is reconciled to his angry Father, he hath Halcyon days in his bosom, and he lies down with comfort; and saith, his lot is fallen in a pleasant place, and God hath given him a goodly heritage, Psal. 18. 6. And this the Apostle Peter compriseth in fewer words, 1 Pet. 3. 21. But the answer of a good conscience towards God, by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[unspec 4] That our Redemption will certainly follow: So saith our blessed Savior expressly, John 20. 17. I ascend unto my Father, and to your Father, and unto my God, and your God. And if Christ ascend unto our Father, shall not we likewise come to his house, John 14. 2. Shall not we see his face, shall not we rise again to enjoy his glory? Yes verily, God is a God of the living, and not of the dead; of triumphant Saints, and not of putrid carcases, Mat. 22. 32. Let us further argue, if Christ be our Head, and we his Members, then it is expedient for the glory of the Head, that the Members be glorious: And it may be further considered, that as the first Adam received blessings for himself and his posterity, and lost the same for all: So Christ the second Adam received life, and all other gifts for himself and others; and he rising gloriously, his Saints likewise shall be charioted to glory by a glorious Resurrection: And so moreover, Christ being our Elder Brother in his tenderness and affection will not leave us in the grave, there always to sleep the sleep of death, and so much the rather, because he can raise us with a Call, with the sold of a Trumpet, by the message of an Archangel, 1 Thes. 4. 16. For he being dead raised himself, much more being alive shall he be able to raise us up. And withal, we should consider our Union with Christ by the Spirit, whose heavenly influence and divine virtue in raising of our souls to spiritual life is most eminent and admirable; how much more clearly may we conclude the necessity of our being raised from death to fellowship with him in glory? And shall not we know the power of Christ's Resurrection, to use the Apostles words, Phil. 3. 10. in raising us on his own blessed day to heavenly-mindedness, to get above the world, and to have our hearts taken up in the divine services of it? We should remember when Christ rose, it was the seal of our Resurrection; and can we think of a Resurrection, and sleep away Sermons, trifle away Sabbaths, and formalize away Ordinances, which then must come unto a severe account? shall we, who hope to rise to a Crown, be entombed in sloth and idleness upon a Resurrection day? The very thoughts of our Resurrection should strike an awe upon us, and bridle us from vanity and lightness of spirit; knowing that our Sabbaths are not over when we have spent them, but they will meet us at God's tribunal, and at his tremendous Bar. Nothing can more acutely check the profane person, who pollutes God's day, and unravels that golden season in froth and formality, then the serious thoughts of a certain Resurrection, whereof Christ's rising was an undoubted pledge.

[unspec 7] The Resurrection of Christ was an evidence of infinite power: And therefore Dr. Twisse rightly fastens the Lord's day on Christ's Resurrection day, because as the Apostle speaketh, Rom. 1. 4. Christ was declared mightily to be the Son of God by the spirit of sanctification in his Resurrection from the dead. Hereby Christ was manifested to be the Son of God, the very Lord of glory. Christ's Resurrection was the manifestation of most glorious power; that the tomb should not confine him, nor the dust hold him, nor the grave stone stop him, but throwing off these clogs, as Samson did his withs, he shows himself a while to his beloved Ones, and so takes his joyous ascent to the right hand of his Father.

Love laid Christ in the grave, and Power raised him from the grave; love rocked him asleep, and power awakened him again; love made him die as a Malefactor, Luke 23. 33. and power raised him as a Savior, to give full assurance that all was done which was required to procure life and salvation. Indeed this did manifest wonderful power, when after three days being dead, the Sepulcher sealed, the stone rolled to the mouth of the grave, a strong watch placed; that Christ should break through all bars, beat down all opposition, and spring forth out of his yielding dust as a triumphing Conqueror over Death and Devils. The Jews cried out, Let him come down from the Cross, and we will believe on him, Mat. 27. 42. But it is more, saith Gregory, to rise from the grave, then to descend from the Cross, to destroy death by rising, then to preserve life by descending.

[Reas. 5] And shall Christ's Resurrection be an evidence of his power, and not an argument for our piety upon his own blessed day, which is the Commemoration of this glorious act? Surely he who could pierce the grave, and shake off the chains of death for the good of believers, can exert as great power for the destruction of sinners, especially those who profane his day. Christ's love in dying should allure, and his power in rising should enforce Sabbath-holiness; it is not safe nor providential to provoke the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who trampled upon death and the grave, especially on the day of his Resurrection, when his power was most illustrious.

[unspec 8] The Resurrection of Christ was unparalleled: Others indeed were raised from the grave: So Lazarus, John 12. 1. So Dorcas, Acts 9. 40. And women received their dead raised to life again, Heb. 11. 35. But all these retired to their graves again; their renewed life was only a short apparition which was quickly smothered, a little Candle set up after it had been put out, which burned for a while, and spent itself till it went out again. But our Savior, as the Apostle speaks, Rom. 6. 9. Being raised from the dead, dieth no more: This Sun being risen sets no more; nay, it is no more inveloped in a Cloud, but shines in a higher sphere, in a more sublime Orb to eternity. Christ's Resurrection was not damped with a revocation, nor did he fly back again to his empty tomb, there to shelter himself till the general Resurrection. Nay, let us run a little higher; the Resurrection of Christ was that glorious work above all others, which the Scriptures mention to the Fathers honor, Rom. 1. 4. Acts 2. 24, 32. Acts 3. 26. Acts 4. 10. Acts 10. 40. This work it was, by which Jesus Christ is made▪ both Lord and Christ, and is exalted to sit at the right hand of his Father. This act of Resurrection advanced him to the throne, who before was stigmatized with the Cross, and changed him from a prisoner, to be a Prince and Savior, Acts 3. 31. Nay to be the Prince of life, Acts 3. 15. And nothing but glory and honor are the Attendants of his Throne. To publish this glorious act, Christ principally did choose his Disciples, Acts 10. 41. Acts 2. 32. Christ's Resurrection was the Motto of the Apostles embassie, and the emphasis of their Errand, the grand argument by which they both made and comforted believers: For indeed, the receiving of our Christ again after the certainty of his death, and the solemnity of his burial, is the spring of our joy, the fountain of our comfort, the stay of our hearts, and the assurance of our justification. This blessed work of Christ's rising put the last hand to the work of our Redemption, and so fastened it, that it cannot unravel. The Birth of Christ was accompanied with the joy of Angels, Luke 2. 13. His life was embroidered with wonders and miracles, for every word our Jesus spake was not less than a wonder, John 7. 46. His death was imbittered with sorrows and perplexities, and sighs were the escutcheons about his Hearse, but his Resurrection was the new Birth of the World, and the sparkling spirits of a Believers consolation. The wise-men of the East rejoiced at his Star, Mat. 2. 10. when it did proclaim the Birth of Christ: But Believers rejoice at himself, when he himself proclaims his Resurrection: The Star retires at the Suns rising.

And now shall the Resurrection of Christ be unparalleled for glory; and shall it not so far influence us, as to make us exemplary for sanctity upon its weekly commemoration, the Lord's day? Shall everything concur to the honor of Christ's resurrection; and shall only our looseness and vanity on the day of it, cast a damp and put an eclipse upon it? When we profane the Sabbath, what do we but draw a veil before the glory of Christ's resurrection, and practically deny that he is sprung from the Grave? What loves can those Christians have to, or what esteems for their dear Jesus, who, when his resurrection-day gave new life to the world, fresh joy to the Disciples, and new wonders to Mankind, can yet pollute and defile the Sabbath, its constant Memorial? Sabbath-breakers are worse than Sadducees; they only deny our Resurrection, but these virtually deny Christ's; for if Christ be risen, why do they not adore the rising Sun, by walking in the light on his own blessed day? But why do they attempt to eclipse this glorious day by their sins and deeds of darkness?

CHAP. LIV. Some miscellanious prescriptions, for the better discharge of our duty towards the LORD'S DAY.

THe Concernments of the Soul can be never sufficiently pressed, because of the weightiness of the affair; and nothing more conduceth to the advantage of the Soul, then the holy observation of God's blessed day. Soul-welfare much depends upon a due and careful observance of it: Spiritual Sabbaths very much draw the Soul to its center; formal Sabbaths do much retard the Soul in its progress, and Sabbaths wasted in profaneness, do very much harden the Soul in sin and vanity, and drop apace into the Vials of God's wrath, jogging Vengeance to awaken it, which seems to slumber. It may easily fall under our observation, that one who is slight on the Sabbath, will be profuse on the week; that sin which is hatched in the Sabbath, will be fledg'd in the week: And therefore where there is so much danger to lose the way, it must needs be safe to take good direction, and to set up more lights for our better guidance; and this is the further design of what follows in this Chapter.

Let love be the spring of all our duties upon the Sabbath day. Love is a sweet, but a forcible principle; it works not as a Sword, but as a Sun-beam; it draws, but not drives; it constrains, but not compels, and it wins by persuasion, and not coaction, 2 Cor. 5. 14. Fear storms the Town, but Love takes it by composition; a heart full of love will run through the duties of a Sabbath, as the Sun through the several Signs of the Zodiac, with swiftness and delight: Nor doth it understand any toil or weariness. Our Sabbath should not be our task, but our delight, Isa. 58. 13. and then we should be on the wing, and fly to the Sanctuary, as the Doves to the Windows. And indeed what is there in a Sabbath, which doth not court our love?

[unspec 1] The Lord of it; He is our Beloved, Mat. 2. 28. Our love, our dove, our undefiled, Cant. 5. 2. Cant. 6. 9. He doth, or ought to lie as a bundle of myrrh between our breasts, Cant. 1. 13. The Son of man, who is the sum of our desires, is the Lord of the Sabbath. Love of all principles hath the greatest force, and the love of Christ of all loves hath the greatest power. The love of Christ could make Martyrs and bring them to a stake in a time of persecution; and shall not the love of Christ make Zealots, and bring them cheerfully to a duty on a Sabbath-day? Let us be free and vigorous on the Lord's day, it is the day of our Beloved.

[unspec 2] The occasion of it, which was Christ's resurrection, when he rose for our justification, Rom. 4. 25. That which started this day was the Rising Sun which enlightened the World, over-spread with the darkness of Gentilism, and the shades of Judaism: Let us consider what put life into our Sabbath, let the same thing put life into us upon this blessed Sabbath.

[unspec 3] The duties of it, they are all strains of love.

1. The Sacrament is our love-feast, and in it we have a double communion; 1. Communion with Christ, to remember his love to us, in sacrificing himself for us, Luke 22. 19. 2. Communion with the Saints, for the increase of love: At Christ's Table the Heirs of Salvation come acquainted, before they meet in their Fathers Kingdom, and there those spiritual Stars rally together in a Constellation.

2. Prayer is only the breathing forth of the Soul into the bosom of God, the melting and the working of the heart towards God, Jam. 5. 16. In prayer, sighs are but the moans of love, and tears are but the streams of love: And this duty is only the flight of the Soul to its beloved: the Spouse in prayer pours out her heart before him whom her Soul loves. Hearing the word is nothing but the unbosoming of the Fathers heart to poor sinners, Acts 20. 27. that they may know his will, and live: When we sit under the Gospel, we only hear those things which have been upon the heart of God from all eternity. Thus all the duties of a Sabbath are the Emblems of love, and call for a principle of love.

[unspec 4] The donation of the Sabbath to us is the fruit of love; and therefore the Sabbath is called the gift of God, Ezek. 20. 12. and gifts are love-tokens: It is great love we should have seasons of grace, opportunities of life, and term-times for our precious Souls; days of converse with the Almighty, constituted times for transacting the grand affairs of Eternity. Now everything in a Sabbath speaking love, let that genuine and natural principle carry us out in Sabbath-duties with all freeness and delight. Many persons are swayed by other principles, by a principle of credit, interest, or the clamours of natural Conscience; nay some are staked down to a Sabbath from the common usage and custom of the Country where they live: but these men are like Puppets which are stirred and moved with Wires, they only act a part, and the Sabbath is their Seene. But the heaven-born principle which should carry us through all the severals of a Sabbath, is love to, and longing for our dear Jesus: Duties will never be music unless tuned by a heart full of love to God. It was love brought Christ to a Cradle to be born for us; it was love brought Christ to a Cross to die for us, John 10. 17, 18. And it is love to this Christ which can sweeten and succeed out duties upon his own holy day. Love to Christ will make prayer the evidence of our desire to be at home; and make hearing only our inquiry, which is the next way to bring us home; and make Sacraments our Corn by the way to support us till we do come home; and make all other duties the planks upon which we get to come to shore, to our desired and longed for home.

Let all our services on a Sabbath be acted with a serious poise and deliberation. Meat which is rasht up never tastes pleasantly: In holy duties we must carefully distinguish between holy delight, and sinful precipitancy; the Wiseman counselleth us, to look to our foot when we go into the house of God, Eccles. 5. 1. we must not leap into the Sanctuary, but we must pause in our approaches. The Lamb for the Passover was taken up the tenth day of the month, but not killed till the fourteenth, Exod. 12. 3. 6. to show us, how considerately and advisedly we should converse with God in Ordinances. Before we adventure upon any Sabbath-duty we should weigh and ponder these four things;

1. The infiniteness of that God with whom we have to do, Heb. 12. 29.

2. The nature of that duty, in which we are to engage, which is most solemn and spiritual, Levite. 10. 2, 3.

3. The preciousness of that soul, which is highly concerned in all these services.

4. The strictness of that account, which must be made for all our Sabbath opportunities. Nothing more ripens and amplifies our spiritual advantage, then a serious advisedness; and we are necessitated to it, not only because our hearts are so slippery, and will easily beguile us in holy services; but because Satan never makes greater On-sets, then when we are in Heavens road: Therefore on a Sabbath, let us compose ourselves for Divine Worship, and dress ourselves as the Spouse, to meet with the Bride-groome of our souls. Rash duties leave cold hearts, and are nothing less then offering up strange fire, Levite. 10. 1, 2. When Ahab seemingly pleased God in his humiliation, he walked softly, 1 Kings 21. 27. And we must come to holy duties, as the wise men of the East came to Christ, with an observant distance and veneration. Our inconsiderate adventures upon things sacred and divine, only lose the taste of the duty, and trifle away the time of the Sabbath.

Let us labor to get high esteems of the Sabbath day: We keep those things most charily we prize most: We lock up Jewels, which we value, but we leave out other things which we despise and contemn. One great reason why men practice Sabbaths no more, is because they prize them no more: Sabbaths fall in their opinion, and therefore they sink in their observation: They look upon the Sabbath as a common day, a day of leisure to please themselves with carnal rest, or sensual delight: Only their sh • ps are shut, and so they cannot follow the works of their Calling; but their hearts are open to entertain any temptation; and so they mind the Magistrate, more then Jehovah upon his own day. But serious and gracious persons have always spoken highly of God's blessed Sabbath: The Apostle John calls it, the Lord's day, Rev. 1. 10. which is the Lord Christ his day: for this name 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is derived of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which is appropriate to our Savior Christ, both in regard of the dignity and excellency of his person, and because of the greatness and largeness of his dominion, as likewise in respect of his bounty towards the members of his mystical body, Acts 4. 36. Joh. 20. 13, 28. Revel. 17. 14. Cap. 19. 16. Now things and persons which are named the Lord's, are sacred and venerable in an high degree. So, The grace of our Lord, Rom. 16. 24. The spirit of the Lord, 2 Cor. 3. 17. The beloved of the Lord, Rom. 16. 8. The glory of the Lord, 2 Cor. 3. 18. The word of the Lord, 1 Tim. 6. 3. The cup of the Lord, 1 Cor. 11. 27. Et sic, Convivium dominicum, the Lord's banquet. Tertul. lib. 2. ad Uxor. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Cyril. Hierosol. Catech. 18. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The body of the Lord. Athanas. ad Epict. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The Scripture of the Lord. Clem. Alexander. Ignatius the blessed Martyr of Christ, who lived in the Apostles age, and was St. Johns Disciple, maketh the Lord's day the Queen, the Princess, the Lady Paramount of all days. Eusebius in the life of Constantine the Great, lib. 4. cap. 18. styleth the Lord's day, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , In truth, and in very deed, the principal and the first: Chrysostom calleth it, a Royal day. And Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. 43. saith it is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Higher then the highest, and with admiration wonderful above all other days. Basil calls it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The first fruits of days. Chrysologus Ser. 77. saith, It is the primate among days. And Jerome, in Marc. 16.

And the incomparable Augustine saith, Justin Martyr calls our Sabbath Sunday, as many others after him, and not without very good reason.

[unspec 1] That being the Chiefest of days, as the Sun is the most glorious of all the Planets; and therefore the Civil Law calls our Sabbath, The venerable and much honored Sunday.

[unspec 2] Our Sabbath is called Sunday, to honor Christ, who is the Sun of Righteousness, Mal. 4. 2. Enlightning everyone who cometh into the world, and who by his triumphant Resurrection caused the heavenly light of Truth and Grace to appear in full luster to them who sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death. And Gaudentius Brixianus speaks fully to this purpose;

And Ambrose concurs in his judgment;

[unspec 3] Jerome tells us,

So Christ made it Sunday, not only from his beams, but likewise from his wings; for as there was light in the one, so there was cure in the other: and both together gave it this Name.

[unspec 4] And nothing more speaks the glory of Christ then Light: and the Sun is the fountain of light, and therefore our Sabbath is called Sunday, as Coelius Rhodiginus observes. Nay, Christ himself is called Light, John 3. 19. And the Gospel is named Light, Rom. 13. 12. No wonder then if that day on which Christ is worshipped, and the Gospel is preached, is called Sunday.

But in all ages our blessed Sabbath flourished in an honorable esteem. Bellarmine himself saith, The Sabbath is a day above all other days to be esteemed. And so Durand gives the Lord's day all primacy, and assigns it a majority for worth and honor above all days. And it is very observable, that Easterday, so much cried up by some, was once the unhappy cause of much contention in the Church: But the Lord's day was always celebrated in the Church with joy and unanimity, nor ever was the spring of controversy or contention. This glorious day always shone bright in the Church, without the eclipse of contempt or disuse.

And indeed our sweet and lovely Sabbath is a Jewel of inestimable worth, a golden stream dissolving and running by us, for us to make use of, for our passage to a glorious eternity. Man never forgets himself more, then when he knows not his time, and falls below the brute Creatures, who understand their seasons, Jer. 8. 7. How many observe not the time of Christ's coming to meet his people upon his own blessed day. David was wont to say, One day in thy Courts is better then a thousand, Psal. 84. 10. And the same judgment must we pass upon the Lord's day, before we shall come to a due observation of it. Sabbaths are kept, as they are valued; And as is our apprehension, so is our observation: We should look upon the Sabbath, as one of the days of the Son of man, a season put into our hands for life and salvation, Luke 17. 22. Luke 19. 42, 43. and this would steer our hearts to a devout celebration of it. Did we prize the Sabbath, as our good wind for our Port, our seasonable gale for our coast, our indulgent call to our Rest, surely we should spend it with God; for we know not how soon the things with the day, and the day with the things may be past and gone. It is observed of the Jews, thy so much honored their Sabbath, that they were wont to call the whole week by the name of Sabbath, Luke 18. 12. And they were used to say, the first, second, third or fourth day of, or after the Sabbath; and this they did as learned men observe, not only,

1. To discriminate themselves, in calling the days of the week otherwise then the Gentiles, who called them by the names of their Idols: But

2. To demonstrate the dignity of the Sabbath day, and that above all days, it was with them in greatest account. And ought not Christians much more hold up an high and honorable esteem of the Gospel Sabbath, which is a far more glorious day? Most assuredly our practice will keep pace with our repute; and if we look not upon the Sabbath, as the day of God, we shall never keep it as the day of God. And strange it is, that the Sabbath should not be precious in our eyes, when eternal life is but our great Sabbath, our long Sabbath which hath no evening, as Ambrose and Augustine observe. Nay, Epiphanius tells us, That Christ is but our more durable Sabbath; and we rest in this Sabbath, when we repose our hearts and hopes in him. Nay, a good Conscience, as Augustine saith, is the bed of God, the Palace of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Ghost, the Paradise of Delights, and the standing Sabbath of the Saints: Thus holy Augustine in his tenth Sermon to his Brethren in the wildernoss. A good Conscience indeed is our continual Sabbath, our constant feast and rest: And therefore in keeping God's Sabbath, let us be faithful unto death, and he will give us a never ceasing Sabbath, when we shall wear a Crown of life. In the saddest and sorest times, when Kingdoms are shaking, and Cities sinking, nay, all God's Ordinances seem to be taking their leave in a Land, yea, when all externals in the world are at the worst, yet then there may be an internal Sabbath in the heart, and an eternal Sabbath in the heavens, for all those who are here conscientious in keeping the external Sabbath, (viz.) the Lord's day, with all holiness and accurateness of observation. Aquinas well observes, There is a Sabbath of time, every first day of the week, and a Sabbath in the breast, inward rest and quietation: Now the one leads to the other, when we are Critical in keeping the Sabbath of time, we may be confident in the enjoyment of a Sabbath and Rest in our bosoms. Piety on a Sabbath will assuredly end and conclude in a Paradise in the bosom, and when we have rested with Christ on his day; he will certainly sup with us at night, and bring grace and peace with him.

Let us keep every day as a Sabbath: A good week will forerun a good Sabbath; as the Sabbath should influence the whole week, so the whole week should prepare for the Sabbath: And indeed the whole term of our life should be a continued Sabbath in two respects:

[unspec 1] In cessation from the service of sin: Sin must always be our corrosive, not only on the Lord's day, but on our day; we have no vacation for evil, sin is a spot on the week, though a deeper on the Sabbath; as Christ is always the Saints love, so sin is always the Saints load: How bitterly doth Paul complain of his inbred corruption, Rom. 7. 17, 18, 21, 23, 24. And so Augustine condoles his condition by reason of sin. Alas, saith he,

Now thus to rest from sin is an every days Sabbath; there is no day, but sin profanes it, sin is the blemish of the shop, as well as the Sanctuary, and is a brand upon the week, as well as the Sabbath. It is observable, there was no death stigmatized with a Curse, but the death of the Cross; but on the contrary, there is no day but is stigmatized with sin and iniquity. Every day must be a Sabbath to us in abstinence from sin. It is rarely observed of Origen, Now what Origen cautionates us against on the Sabbath, is as much to be avoided and shunned on the week day.

[unspec 2] In a disposition to serve God: So we must keep every day a Sabbath, though we are not always in a Sabbath days time, yet we should be always in a Sabbath days frame; in such a blessed bent of heart, as to be fit for holy business and heavenly employment. And the Apostle adviseth us, 1 Thes. 5. 17. To pray continually, viz. To be in a continual frame of heart fit for holy prayer. And the Apostle James, Jam. 1. 19. commands us to be swift to hear, viz. Always to have an open ear ready to hearken to the sweet and sacred word of God. We find the Prophet Ezekiel, Ezek. 1. 5, 6. describing four living creatures, having four faces, and four wings: Faces ready to mind, and wings ready to move into any part upon the work the Lord should assign and appoint them. And thus God's people should be always in a prepared frame of spirit for holy service; we should be as cautious of sin, and as propence to service, as if every day was a Sabbath day. The week contains no day for sinful work, the Apostle tells us, 2 Tim. 2. 19. Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity. And iniquity, not iniquities, any one particular iniquity: And so likewise in the week, our secular works must not indispose us for heavenly services, and holy duties, but we must have heavenly hearts in our earthly labors. It is very observable, that in the time of the Law, the word Sabbath signified a whole week, Lev. 23. 15. And so in the time of the Gospel, Luke 18. 12. And doth it not point out this, That we should keep our whole week as a Sabbath, and that Sabbath-holiness should make all our life-time but one entire holy day. Our spiritual Sabbath, as Musculus observes,

This resting from sin, and this working for God, is never unseasonable; and these two are the integral parts of a Sabbath. And thus to employ ourselves in the week, doth exceedingly fit us for the Sabbath: Many have little of the Sabbath in the week, and therefore they have too much of the week in the Sabbath, they are strangers to Sabbath-work on the week days; and therefore they are enemies to Sabbath-work on the Lord's day. Christians should attempt to begin heaven here, and there is a perpetual Sabbath; our life below should shadow out our life above. It must be confessed, our indulging ourselves too much in sin, and bemiring ourselves too much in the world on the week day, doth very much unqualifie and indispose us for heavenly rest on the Sabbath day: But when we have set ourselves against sin, and have been spiritually minded in the works of our Calling, not omitting the heavenly duties of prayer, reading the word, holy discourse, and heavenly meditations on the week days; we then with more complacency lean upon our beloved, and with more delight meet him in his • anquetting house, Cant. 2. 4. on the Lord's day. Holy weeks make heavenly Sabbaths, and the more strict we are in passing of the week, the more savoury and serious we shall be in observing the Sabbath. Walaeus very well observes, That in the time of the Law, God had his daily sacrifices, Numb. 28. 3. as well as his double sacrifices on the Sabbath day, Numb. 28. 9. To intimate to us, There must be something of a Sabbath in every day; nor must the oil of holiness only be poured out on the head of a Sabbath, but it must run down to the skirts of the whole week; the performance of divine worship is calculated for the week, though the solemnity of it be reserved for the Sabbath. Well then, let something resembling a Sabbath be found in our own days, let a happy vein of holy rest with God run through every day. The Jews had their morning sacrifice when they entered upon their work, and their evening sacrifice, when they wound up and ended their work; they gave God the first, and the last of every day in holy and solemn worship: He that was Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, had the Alpha and Omega of every day; nay, learned men observe, that the Jews divided the day into three parts. The first, ad Tephilah to Prayer, the second, ad Torah to the Law, the third, ad Malacha to their work. Thus God had his part of every day among the poor Jews; nay, double worship for single work. And let not a repudiated Jew be more franck in giving God his time, then the redeemed ones of Jesus; shall they have so much of the Sabbath in the week, and we so much of the week in our Sabbaths? As the Apostle saith, Rom. 6. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , God forbid. It would be strange if the branch which is broken of, Rom. 11. 16, 17. should look greener, and sprout more, then that which is grassed in.

Let us be earnest with God for Ministers, that their success may be great; and that they may see of the travel of their souls and be satisfied. The Ministers work upon a Sabbath may be painful from himself, but it is prosperous only from the Lord; the Minister throws the net, it is God brings the draught; nay, he may cast the net, but God directs it to the right side of the ship. The Apostle assures us, It is God gives the increase, 1 Cor. 3. 6. That God's work prospers in the hands of the Ministers, and in the hearts of the people, is from God's smile, not from the Ministers sweat: The Minister may have skill to open the Text, but God only hath power to open the heart. Let this God therefore be sought to, that he would fill the Ministers sail with a prosperous wind; and that every Sermon they preach, and every Sabbath they celebrate, may be as the bow of Jonathan, and the sword of Saul which returned not empty, 2 Sam. 1. 22. And we have a rare and rich promise to build and bottom our prayers upon, which is mentioned, Isa. 55. 10, 11. As the rain comes down, and showers from heaven, and return not thither, but water the earth, making it bud, and bring forth seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so saith God, shall my word be, that goes out of my mouth, it shall not return to me void. Let us heartily sue out this blessed promise in holy prayer to the Lord: Strong prayers are the readiest method to make successful Sabbaths, Ministers might do great things upon the prayers of the people, they might convince conscience they might prick to the heart, and fasten truth upon the soul, and go off in the evening of a Sabbath crying victory ovor captivated Converts, and lead many lost sheep home to the great shepherd of their souls; we have many still-born Ordmances, because previous prayers did not put life into them. It is prayer that can give a good Minister to a people, Philem. ver. 22. And it is prayer can bless a good Minister to a people. How frequent and pathetical is the Apostle Paul with those to whom he writes to beg and importune their prayers, so Rom. 15. 30. Now I beseech you Brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ his sake, and for the love of the spirit, that ye strive together with me, in your prayers to God for me. We may see, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, though resplendent with such rich gifts, enriched with such eminent grace, and conducted by the guidance of an infallible spirit; yet he stood in need of the people prayers. Nay, this blessed Apostle not only sollicits the prayers of the Church of the Romans, but he addresses himself to other Churches, to that at Thessalonica, 2 Thes. 3. 1. Finally Brethren pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have a free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you. Thus Gospel victories are usually the issue of wrestling with God. And thus again Paul importunes prayers, 1 Thes. 5. 25. Brethren pray for us. And again, Heb. 13. 18. Pray for us. This holy Apostle rests not so much upon his own pains, as others prayers, knowing that the gales of the spirit, by which we hoise up sail for heaven, are promised to earnest and importunate prayer, Luke 11. 13. And indeed as the Minister must row with one Oare by powerful and painful preaching to the people, so the people must row with the other by frequent praying for the Minister; They must strive together as the Apostles phrase is, Rom. 15. 30. In a word, one piece of service which we owe to the Sabbath is, that we beg of God that the Ministers who are stars, Rev. 1. 20. may fructiferously shine upon, who are light, Mat. 5. 14. may be a safe conduct to, who are Salt, Mat. 5. 13. may thoroughly season and preserve, who are Stewards, 1 Cor. 4. 1. may feed and refresh the people of God on his own blessed day.

Let us be much in prayer, that Magistrates would take care of God's holy Sabbath. Magistrates are called shields, Psal. 47. 9. Let us pray, that they defend the Sabbath from sin and profanation. Magistrates are called God's, Psal. 82. 6. Let us pray, that they would remember their own title, and commend God's day to a holy and strict observation. And surely as children for the most part, are as the Nurses are, so Sabbaths in Nations and Kingdoms are as the Magistrates are, we may feel the pulse of the Magistrate in the observation of the Sabbath.

[unspec 1] And therefore let us pray for Magistrates, because the eye of the people is fixed more stedily on the Magistrates Sword, then on the Scholars pen, or the Ministers tongue; Magistratical severity more awes and influences, then Ministerial entreaties. That weapon gives us the deepest wound which is sharpened by civil Authority. When a Ministers zeal is insignificant, the Magistrates heat will be effectual; a Magstrates frown shall operate more thoroughly then a Ministers check: When Nehemiah threatened the strangers to lay hands upon them, they came no more upon the Sabbath day, Nehem. 13. 21. The soft bowels of a Minister may be abortive, when the sure force of a Magistrate may put life into the reformation of the Sabbath.

[unspec 2] Besides the fourth Commandment is retinaculum caeterorum, the bond of obedience both to God and man in the duties of the first and the second table, this Commandment is the golden clasp which joins both the Tables together, and therefore it is much to be observed, that keeping the Sabbath from polluting it, and keeping the hands from doing any evil, are both coupled and joined together, Isa. 56. 2. The pollution of the Sabbath, is the usual introduction of all other sin.

[unspec 3] It may be added, if Magistrates let the reins loose, to connive at vanity and profaneness on the Lord's day; the Nation will be filled with evil subjects, the Church will be filled with corrupt members, and private families will be filled with stubborn children, and licentious Servants; and therefore we must spread our hands before God, that he would give us holy Nehemiah's to hedge up the Sabbath with thorns, that looseness and profaneness may not break in upon it, and that the blessed Sabbath may be preserved pure from the rapes of prurient and profane men.

Let us take advantage from the Jews mistaken zeal towards their Sabbath, to act a real zeal towards the Lord's day. The Jews were exact to superstition, let us be so to Religion, they to fancy, let us to piety: Indeed what was equity in the command, was rigor in their observation, they would not light a candle, unless for the sick on the Sabbath day, as Lippomannus observes, nor would they heat themselves in frost on that holy day, as Gallasius observes, no not acquire the greatest gain if it was to be accomplished on this blessed day, as Vatablus observes, nay, not to dress any meat, as Rivet observes, and they would not go out of their place on the Sabbath, and therefore if on a journey they were in a wilderness on a Sabbath there they stayed, and would not apply themselves to any place or person for necessary accommodations.

Their strange fire should stir up our sacred heat, and if they would not go out of their place upon their Sabbath, let us not go out of our sphere upon ours; they would not kindle a fire, but we should blow up our holy zeal: Sometimes duty gets ground by an Antiperistasis, wrinkled faces make us admire beauty, and others slips and transgressions are our alarms and cautions: If the Jews strained so much and were over fond of their human traditions upon their Sabbath, we should act as high, and be as tenacious of our spiritual devotions upon our Christian Sabbath. Their blind zeal must not only be the object of our pity, but the incentive of our piety; and we should deem it a discredit that they should go faster in a false, then we in a true way, let their ceremony be out-vyed by our service.

Let us fasten it upon our hearts, that the present Sabbath may be our farewell Sabbath! Profaneness is the usual birth of presumption; we pollute the present, because we reckon upon a future Sabbath. It was Jerome's custom where-ever he was, to be thinking that he heard the Angel sounding the last Trumpet, and crying out, Arise ye dead and come to judgment. The frame of this holy learned Father very well becomes a Sabbath-day: Every Christian should think with himself, I now enjoy a season of grace, which may be my last good wind for Eternity. My times, much more my Sabbaths, the finest of the Wheat, are in God's hand, Psal. 31. 15. And it cannot be any act of wisdom to rely much upon that which is in another's hand. He that would not grant the Fool in the Gospel the privilege to see the light of another Sun, may deny him who trifles away God's blessed day, the liberty to see the light of another Sabbath. Candles which are played by, are soon put out. Eutichus died for a sleepy, and why not the Formalist for a forfeited Sabbath?

Now did we look on the present, as that which may be the parting Sabbath; how then would we nail our eyes to Heaven in holy meditation, raise a cloud of sighs, nay wrestle with God by holy prayer, and as dying persons catch at life and salvation, and use Ordinances with that affectionate heat, as those lovely songs we shall hear no more. Our Ear would be chained to truth in hearing; our Knee would be staked to the ground in praying; our Heart would be making out after Christ, as those who are making their last sally for a Crown and a Kingdom.

There are three things which should take up our thoughts on a Sabbath-day.

1. the sweets of our Rest above, where we shall hear eternally the musciks of the Bride-chamber, and see our Beloveds face in our Fathers house, and drink our joys from the Fountain-head, where Angels and Saints shall be our society, and Rivers of pleasure shall be our satisfaction.

2. The concernments of our precious Souls; how we may beautify our Souls with grace, how we may quicken our Souls with life, how we may fill and enrich our Souls with the word, how we may interest our Souls in Christ, and how we may crown our Souls with salvation.

3. The probable disappointments of an uncertain life. Our lives are but as Candles in the wind, and every blast may blow them out. Now though the thoughts of death bring us not nearer to our Graves, yet they often bring us nearer to our duty: he that seeth he hath but little day, will ride the faster. Dying thoughts will carry on living services; and we should be more earnest to embrace Christ in the word, if we supposed we should speedily meet Christ at the Bar.

CHAP. LV. England bewailed for its great and general profanation of God's holy Sabbath.

I Must conclude this Treatise, as the Prophet Jeremy did his Writings, with lamentations. One great sin which captivated Israel was Sabbath-pollution, and the same sin seems to threaten England with ruin and destruction. Now the Prophets tears, Jer. 9. 1. do well become the Peoples dangers; and when they are sinking, faithful Ministers should be weeping. And here the lamentations over England may be divided into five Particulars, as Jeremy his Lamentations are divided into five Chapters.

1. We may bewail England's open profaneness upon God's holy Sabbath. The Jews once made the due observation of the Sabbath, the character of a godly man, John 9. 16. and if that be England's Shibboleth, how far is our Nation banished from the confines of Piety? The woeful declining of England both in matters of doctrine and practice concerning the Sabbath, is never sufficiently to be bemoaned. In former times no reformed Church was so famous, either for soundness in judgment, or wariness in practice, in reference to the Lord's day: But our Apostasy began to be too notorious, when sports were allowed on that day, which are the births of fancy, and the Nurses of corruption. Nay even at this day, notwithstanding all pretences to reformation, how woefully is God's Sabbath neglected, and eclipsed by all manner of abomination; so that we may say with Bishop Babington,

Thus this learned and reverend Person. I may a little invert Tertullian, All the Invectives of former times may justly be levelled against England upon this account. What is the Sabbath among us, but our leisure day for sin and vanity? The covetous person is employed in his works, and he follows his secular affairs only more covertly; the Formalist is buried in his sloth; the Youth of the Nation are frisking and pleasing themselves with sports and dalliances, with carnal delights, and sensual pleasures, as if they offered at the Shrine of Venus, or calculated their Sacrifices for a wanton Jupiter: the carnal Gospellers are refreshing themselves in their Recreations, and their walks; and how few on the Mount of God in sacred and heavenly duties? Surely Plutarch had an eye to England when he derived Sabbath a Sabbos, which signifies to live riotously. Indeed the Sabbath of our Nation seems to have some such derivation; God's Sabbath cannot travel up and down England, but it falls among Thieves who rob and wound it: some wound it by profane and loose actions; others by sinful omissions; and the most by sloth and recreations. And thus this blessed day lies bleeding, and where are any good Samaritans to pour Oil in to its wounds? And have we not found it by experience, that scarlet sins and crimson transgressions overflow the Nation, because the Sabbath lies under disuse, and is covered with scorn and contempt? The holy observation of the Sabbath is that which brings on all duties of godliness; and the Sabbath being slighted and neglected, the Cataracts of profaneness break in upon us, and we are lead to all methods of wickedness: And this is England's skar; God's presence was never less discerned, and what is the reason, God's day was never more contemned. Our Palladium is gone, and what can be expected but an entry of ruin and desolation? And this, as Ezekiel speaks, Ezek. 19. 14. Is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. A learned man observes, That the profaning of God's day is sin unbecoming the name of a Christian, and is the spring of all those calamities which over-flow a Nation. And yet this is England's Ichabod, and in this it hath betrayed its trust, when the treasure of God's Sabbath was committed to it.

And this is England's Apostasy from all the pious Proclamations of those noble Princes, who have sat in its Throne: How did many of the Royal Princes, who have swayed the Scepter of this Nation, lay out their Authority for the suppressing of profaneness, and promoting of godliness upon God's holy day, which was their glory, and the splendor of our Nation: But the profaneness of the present age upon this sacred day, hath plucked this Pearl out of their Crowns, and hath put an eclipse upon that glory of our Kingdom, wherein we much out-vied the tendreyes of other Nations; England formerly in this branch of holiness out-shining the most reformed Churches.

And this is the sin at this day, which is the troubler of our Israel, and seems to be a Cloud bigger than a man's hand, which threatens a great deal of ruin, not of water, but of wrath, not showers to drench the ground, but to drown the Inhabitant.

[unspec 2] We may bewail the formal worship of England's Sabbaths: this blessed day suffers in this Nation, not only by open Enemies, but by cold Suitors. This is the Error of England, on her Sabbaths, we more mind the bending of the knee, than the bowing of the heart, our Decency hides our Beauty, our Ceremony drowneth our Substance, and our Gesture swallows up our Godliness. In some places of this Nation, the Organ is the most pleasing Oracle; and the cringing to an Altar is the only Emblem of humility; and the pleasing of the Ear, stifles the devotion of the Soul. And is this to keep a Sabbath? What do we more than the Jews against whom God poured out his complaints? To tread God's Courts, Isa. 1. 12. To cry up the Temple of the Lord, Jer. 7. 4. And to celebrate a Sabbath with a bare appearance before God, or the nimble activity of a geniculation; Is not this to offer the Case instead of the Jewel, to give the bark of a service, and the paring only of a solemnity? Ignatius could tell us in the very infancy of the Gospel,

And Chrysostom speaks much of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , spiritual works and exercises on the Lord's day. Is not the turn of an eye, the action of the body, or the suppleness of the knee, not the sweetness of the voice, or the exactness of the quaver, not the dexterity of an Anthem, which is venerati • n proper to God's holy day: But a melting heart, an obedient mind, an attentive ear, the acting of grace, and the enquiries after the Beloved, a Soul raised to experimental communion with God, suits more fairly and genuinely to the right observation of God's holy day. This extrinsical worship, only tongue deep, and knee deep, and which is not animated by a devout Soul, is England's stain, and should be England's moan; and we should do well to consider cold Devotion usually foreruns hot indignation: and it is only in the bosom of the Almighty, how soon he will further revenge the quarrel of his Sabbath, not only as bemired by open profaneness, but as slightly passed over by a specious, cold, and formal observation.

We may bewail the sinful abridgments which England puts up upon God's holy day. In former times, and so now in these later years, two or three hours signify a Sabbath among us; a little time in public is our Sacrifice upon the Lord's day: the Lord may here put the expostulation, Mal. 3. 8. Do ye say, wherein have you robbed me? It may be answered, not in tithes, but in time; not in the Priests allowance, but in the Lord's day. If the people come to divine service, and to the pittance of a Sermon in public, they have then liberty to sport it in the helds, or to frisk • t in a Maurisk dance; to be social in an Ale-house, to be frolic in a Tavern without the control of an Officer, or the stroke of a Magistrate. This is England's sin, and this sin was formerly punished by a Civil, and hath lately been pursued by a foreign War.

But we may truly say with our Savior, Mat. 19. 8. From the beginning it was not so. Augustine tells us,

And this worthy and learned man was run into a kind of passion against those who would spend some time only of this day in divine worship, and the rest in sensual pleasures. Origen was very invective against those, Chrysostom tells us, his opinion was fully, That one day in seven was to be consecrated wh • lly to the worship of the Common 〈◊〉 of all, and to his service. And Irenaeus, who trod upon the heels of the Apostolical times, freely acknowledgeth, That we are to persevere in divine worship upon God's holy day. Nay, the Fathers, gathered in a full assembly, declar • their judgment; That we being sequestered from all servile w • rk, must persevere in the praise of God, and in holy thanksgivings • n the Lord's day. And so the Fathers in the Council of •• i • li, We must (say they) be vacant for nothing upon a Lord's day, but holy Prayer, and other duties of piety. And the fiftieth Canon of the Council of Paris is very remarkable, We must meet (say they) upon the Lord's day, wherein the Lord our life arose from the dead, and granted us hope of our Resur • ection, and wholly abstain from our own delights, or secular empl • yments, and only be filled with spiritual joys, and heavenly praises, and this with all endeavor of heart, and this is our vacation on that day. Chrysostom in one of his Homilies upon Genesis, seems to order our very gestures on the Lord's day, and saith, our eyes and our hands, all this day must be lift up, and stretched out to God. And a venerable Council gives us this direction; from the evening of the Jewish Sabbath, to the evening of the Lord's day, we must persevere in holy duties.

But England's practice hath been a contradiction to these golden rules, and to these golden times. When our evening service hath been done, we have laid aside the privacies of divine worship, and some to the Green to bowls, some to the Ring to dances, some to the street to Cudgels, and to other sports, which feed the corrupt heart of an inconsiderate multitude. But in this, while our Country is a Baalim, our Closets should be a Bochim; and others wantonness should be our wound, and whilst their hearts are a spring of vanity, our heads should be a fountain of tears.

[unspec 4] We may bewail the unpunished liberty which is used in England, upon God's holy day. Sabbaths are profaned, and the people love to have it so, and the Magistrates love to leave it so; this is an Evil to be deplored among us: The things which are Caesar's, are given to Caesar; (and good reason too, when we have a divine Command for it, Mat. 22. 21.) But the things which are God's, are not given to God. God's day suffers, and none suffer for his day. We have not only the merchandise of wares, but the merchandise of hell upon the Lord's day; but where are the Nehemiah's to restrain them? This is England's sin, and this calls for England's moan; the Heads of our Tribes are not Zealous for the Lord of Hosts. The day of God is torn by the Oaths of the Miscreant, it is stained by the excesses of the intemperate, it is painted over by the cold worship of the hypocrite, it is curtailed by the short services of the formalist; Taverns and Ale-houses, if not Stews and Brothel-Houses are frequented and filled on this sacred day, and all these debaucheries acted with impunity: And men do on God's day what is right in their own eyes, not because there is no King, but because there is no awe of God in Israel. Surely if when there was almost a Tribe cut off in Israel, there was nothing but moans and lamentations, how much more when a Sabbath, the day of God and our souls, is almost lost in a Nation; for this; let tears be our drink, and ashes our meat day and night. And when the Magistrates become Gallio's for the things of God, let the people become Jeremiah's for the day of God: Sabbath decays will soon make a bankrupt Nation.

[unspec 5] Nay lastly, we may bewail the punished purity of England's Sabbaths. The people of God cannot be so good as they will, on God's holy day. How often are the Saints in the midst of their weeping eyes, bended knees, melting hearts, mounting minds, when congregated in secret to seek God's face, and to meet with Christ their beloved? How often, I say, are they interrupted, surprised, hailed away by Officers, and the Sanctuary leads them to a Prison, their Piety is uncharitably called treachery, and their devotion is unreasonably interpreted Sedition. This is England's misery and unhappiness; the Prisons are filled with spiritual worshippers, and the Nation is filled with carnal Gospellers: Profaneness is uncontrolled, but the most resined service of God is liable to poenalties, and pursued with force and violence; not because it is unsuitable to God's will, but it is inconformable to man's law. Now as the Primitive Christians, we must have our caetus antelucanos, our early, because unknown, meetings on God's holy day, but surely it must needs be a great evil, to rout the stars when gathered in a constellation, to hush away the Doves when they stock to the windows; and strange it is, that man's wrath should be there where God's presence is, in the assembly of the Saints. But that the people of God, meeting on the day of God, in the name of God, for fuller communion with, and enjoyment of God, in obedience to the command of God should meet with frowns and disgusts, should feel the sharpness of a Law, or undergo the keenness of the Magistrates sword; and all this in a Protestant Nation, whose usual Motto was Mildness; This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.