The Practical Sabbatarian

CHAP. XX. God is most gracious in the transcendent work of man's Redemption.

[unspec 3] LEt us meditate likewise upon the great work of our Redemption: This glorious work is the Master-piece of divine wisdom; The Angels desire to look into it, 1 Pet. 1. 12. but though they excel in wisdom, yet they cannot see to the bottom of it; there are so many small threads of curious contrivance in it, that no eye of the creature can possibly discern them. It is worth our notice, that Christ who carties on this work, is not only called the power of God, but the wisdom of God, 1 Cor. 1. 24. to evidence the traces of infinite contrivance which are in this blessed undertaking: And therefore how should we on the morning of a Sabbath contemplate on this rare design of man's redemption by our dear Jesus, the holy Son of God? How should we ponder it deeply, get lively and strong apprehensions of it, that it might leave deep and lasting impressions upon our souls? Let us view over the several passages and transactions of this Non-such of God's works.

First, Let us view it in the plat-form, how gloriously was this laid in the eternal purposes of God's love, Eph. 1. 4. Yea, in the eternal promise past between the Father and the Son, Tit. 1. 2. O the everlastingness, infiniteness and unsearchableness of this love of God! That the everlasting God, the Majesty of Heaven and Earth should take care of us, before the world was, that he should buisie himself, and his Son about poor, worthless and wretched worms; O let us adore this first love, admire this free love of God and Christ.

Secondly, Let us see in the next place the early discovery, and shining forth of this mistery in the very morning of the world; No sooner man was fallen, but a promise of Christ our Redeemer is reached forth unto him, Gen. 3. 15. And after many ages God sends his blessed Son out of his bosom to fulfill this promise, Gal. 4. 4. We could not come up to Heaven to Christ, and therefore he comes down upon Earth to us: O let us see the King of glory stooping, bowing the Heavens to come down, and dwell in a dungeon, and lodge among prisoners, and pitch his tent in the Rebels camp. Let us think how the holy Angels wondered to see the King of Heaven stepping down from his throne to sit on his footstool, yea, putting off the robes of a Prince, to put on the livery of a Servant, Phil. 2. 7, 8. and that after treason had been stamped upon it; nay, taking our nature after it had been in arms against God: not that Christ took the sin of our nature upon him, Heb. 4. 15. but he took the shame of it, after it had been under a cloud, under a blot before God and Angels; nay, God 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, and make them burn within us.

Thirdly, From the incarnation of our Savior, 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, 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 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. And why did the primitive Saints sacramentally show forth the Lord's death on the Lord's day, Acts 20. 7. but to signify 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.

[unspec 1] Let us meditate on the Author of our Redemption, he that carried it on from the first to the last; Let us contemplate 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 favors 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 Creator and the Creature never met in any but in him; such a person, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , God-Man, 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.

[unspec 2] Let us meditate on the objects of redemption, (viz.) God's Elect; a company of poor, helpless, succourless sinners, 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. sometimes his Israel, Luk. 24. 21. sometimes his peculiar people, Tit. 2. 14. sometimes his treasure, as Jerome observes, his New people, as the Syriac 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 only to typify, did bear the names of his Israel upon his heart, when he did sacrifice himself to divine justice, upon his shameful, but fruitful Cross.

[unspec 3] Let us meditate on the price of our Redemption; And here (as the Apostle speaks) we must conceive, We are not Redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ; Tears, not treasure; not silver, but sighs; not full coffers, but emptied veins were 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 sinful wounds are only healed by Christ's sacred wound, we are cured by stripes. Christ's chastisements are our peace. Our Olive leaf is dipt in blood. Christ trod the wine-press alone, and his garments were sprinkled with blood, Isa. 63. 3. There are four ways by which the redeemed person attains his freedom:

[unspec 1] 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 thralldom of his own accord, and freely, nor yet our sin would leave us freely and spontaneously, it stuck so close to us.

[unspec 2] When the Captive is freed by way of exchange: Nor is this our condition; what bartery could we make with God to 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 Oil, (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 man's redemption; Here are inanimate creatures offered, ten thousand rivers of oil; here are irrational creatures made proffer of, thousands of Rams; nay, here rational creatures are tendered, the fruit of our bodies; 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; and therefore our Savior expostulates the case: What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Suppose he should pick up the excellencies of the whole Universe, and sacrifice them for the souls redemption, will they be accepted? Surely no.

[unspec 3] When the Captive is rescued by force from his thralldom, as Israel was from their Egyptian Task-masters, as by a mighty hand, and a stretched-out arm, as Lot was by the prowess and valor 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.

[unspec 4] When the Captive is bought with a price: And this is our case, Empti, redempti sumus, We are bought, we are rebought, or redeemed, as the primitive Christians sung it out usually and triumphantly; but by what price are we bought? Not by furnished mines, which are the rich linings of the earth, but by the large effusions of spotless and chrystalline blood.

[unspec 4] Let us meditate on the slaveries from which we are redeemed: There are four Cardinal Miseries from which our blessed Redeemer hath rescued us;

[unspec 1] From the slavery of Satan. Christ in managing the work of our Redemption hath trod Satan, not only under his own 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 trial 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 fastened to Christ's Cross, Christ visibly, of his own accord, for a time; the Devil invisibly, unwilling, and forever; 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. Christ's death took away his sting, (as far as concerns believers.) Look upon Satan as a Dragon, Rev. 20. 2. Christ's death cut off his tail; and look upon Satan as a roaring Lion, Christ's death dashed out his teeth, and made his paw unserviceable.

[unspec 2] Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law; so the Apostle fully and elegantly, Col. 2. 14. Blotting out the 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, replies 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 Christ's Cross, it is rent and torn to pieces by the same nails by which Christ was pierced and fastened to the Cross. Indeed the Law is now Directory, but not Damnatory to the believer; his rule, but not his ruin; 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.

[unspec 3] Christ hath redeemed us from the power and destructiveness of sin: A believer may mourn over the spot, but he shall not 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 blood, 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 Christ's blood, 1 Joh. 1. 7. And so most excellently the Apostle Peter speaking of Christ, saith, Who 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 In • itement of sin cannot reach the believer, the guilt of sin cannot cast him, the power of sin cannot over-rule; the spot of sin cannot so unbeautifie him, as to render him repudiate in the sight of his beloved; sin may bring the Saint to the bar of conscience to be arraigned their, but never to the bar of God to be condemned there: Christ hath satisfied for the sins of his people, and divine justice will not require a double satisfaction. The Apostle saith, 1 Joh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins, much more if Christ die for them, God is just to forgive our sins.

[unspec 4] Christ hath redeemed us from the killing power of death; The Saints death is his alteration, not his execution; his change, but not his curse: His privilege, and not his penalty. Our death by the death of Christ, is become a desirable thing, the bitterness of Christ's death hath put a sweetness and loveliness upon ours. When the Saints die, they only go to their Fathers house; Death sees them safe home, it unites the body to the Earth their Mother, and the soul to the Lord their Father; who in the Resurrection will conjoin these dissever'd pieces of Man, and glorify them both forever. Tertullian calls the time of dying, the time of return to God, after the years of absence here below. Cyprian calls death the time of a Saints assumption and conveyance to his Kingdom. And it is recorded, when the same holy Martyr heard of a sentence of death passed upon him by the Emperor Valerian, he answered, I thank God who is pleased to loosen the chains of my body, that at last I may truly be at liberty. Christ's death indeed hath sweetened and perfumed ours; the spices which were thrown into Christ's grave, are now taken up and thrown into ours. Life to a believer is but an unkind Wall, which parteth the Saint from his Beloved; death throws down this Wall, and brings him into the same Heaven with Jesus Christ. Death conveyed Lazarus from the comfortless gate of the rich man, to the refreshing bosom of blessed, because believing Abraham: Christ hath redeemed us from the sting, though not from the stroke of death; from its hurt, though not from its hold. A Saint now dies in Christ; and though he die in his bed, yet he sleeps in Jesus; Death is only his ceasing to be any longer in a valley of tears, and a wilderness of snares.

But a little farther to dilate on this point.

In the great work of our Redemption, all the Divine Attributes manifest themselves in their greatest luster and splendor; in this beautiful Orb they shine the brightest.

[unspec 1] The Justice of God; that if the sinner did not die, the Son must: One must die: if the sinner be not cast into hell, the Savior must go out of his Fathers bosom. Here was infinite justice, here justice had a Selah put upon it. That Text of Scripture is most remarkable, in Isa. 53. 10. It pleased the Father to bruise him, he hath put him to grief, &c. God took a delight in bruising his own Son, because in those bruises justice rid triumphant. Innocency must bleed, that the sinner may escape, and that justice may be displayed. Lycurgus once made a Law, that Adultery should be punished with the loss of both the eyes; his own Son being found guilty, that justice might not be waved, he puts out one of his Sons eyes, and one of his own; So the wages of sin is death, Rom. 6. 23. That Law is unalterable; now sin is committed, there is an accursed thing in the Camp, Josh. 7. 11. Either the sinner or the Savior must die, If the Principal cannot pay the Debt, the surety must. Divine Justice is so inexorable, that the sinner escaping, the Cup of Divine wrath must be put into the hand of an only Son. Thus justice is eminent in the work of Mans Redemption.

[unspec 2] The faithfulness of God. God from eternity made a compact with his Son, the Copy of which is laid up in that Text, Isa. 53. 10, 11. And one iota of this agreement must not pass away. The substance of this compact is comprised in this main Article, If Christ will make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see the travel of his soul, and be satisfied: If Christ will die, his Spouse, his Church shall live, his Cross shall make way for their Crown. Now in the fullness of time, Gal. 4. 4. Christ attempts and accomplisheth this stupendous undertaking, he becomes incarnate, and dies for his people, and so his people live by his death; the Father altogether comporting with this glorious agreement, and not only gives his Son to redeem sinners, John. 3. 16. but likewises gives redeemed sinners to his Son, John. 17. 4, 5, 6. And thus Divine faithfulness gloriously breaks forth in the blessed work of our Redemption. Every Article is made good, and Christ meets with no disappointment; not a soul miscarries, for which he laid down a price and a ransom.

[unspec 3] The Love of God did most transcendently appear in the work of M • ns Redemp • ion. There was rich love on the Fathers part, John. 3. 16. Unspeakable bowels did the Father express to part with a Son, a holy Son, the Son of the bosom, the Son from Eternity, the very Character of his Father, Heb. 1. 3. An only Son, a begotten Son, Psal. 2. 7. to die for sinners. Though Isaac was on the Altar, yet he was rescued, but our dear Jesus was on the Cross, and he must die; Christ begs his life of the Father, Mat. 26. 39. But the Father will not hear. Great love was manifested in the Son too: He takes upon him the rags of our flesh, and they are farther torn by sorrows and afflictions, and at last dipt in blood. How Christ glosses upon his own love, Joh. 15. 13. and showeth us that death was the most sincere testimony, and the most superlative Character of entire love; his wounds dropt more love than blood, his arms spread upon the Cross were stretched out for amicable and amiable embraces: There was a threefold Inscription upon the Cross of Christ, I will only a little invert it, let it be this; The wisdom of the Father, the love of the Son, and the Salvation of sinners. Christ's heart was full of love, Joh. 10. 15. He lays down his life, it is not forced from him, John. 10. 18. he deposits it, as the pawn of his affection: Christ dies for his friends, saith Bernard, happily not yet loving him, yet already beloved by him.

[unspec 4] The mercy of God did most illustriously shine in the glorious work of Mans Redemption. The Apostle Rom. 5. 10. assures us that Christ died to reconcile enemies to his Father; and what would have been the issue of enemies? how bitter their portion? how full of wrath their Cup? how sure their slaughter? Luke 19. 27. But Christ comes to die for us in this low and lost condition, Ezek. 16. 6. when we were ready to receive the reward of enemies, when we were falling by the hand of Justice as so many enemies: How sweet and seasonable was this pity and compassion? we had all the Characters of misery upon us, which are fastened upon the Church of Laodicea, Rev. 3. 17. we were blind, miserable, poor and naked, both helpless and hopeless; then Christ redeemed this dying Captive crew by the ransom of his blood, and as the price of his death. Our Messiah must die for us, when nothing else can help us; and his wounds must bleed to stanch ours; his blood must be our balsam, his Corrosives our Cordials, his fresh wounds must cure our festered ones. Heart-breaking pity and mercy brings our beloved to the slaughter, when mankind was ready to drop into the flames. Alapide observes, There was more charity and pity in one Christ dying for sinners, then there can be bowels in all mankind. Joseph in pity preserves his Family from famine, Christ in softer bowels preserves his people from rain.

[unspec 5] The wisdom of God was greatly seen in the work of man's Redemption; in this work there was apparent 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the manifold wisdom of God, as the Apostle speaks; all the embroydery and artifices of rare contrivance and wisdom. Zanchi observes, that many seeming contrarieti • s and contradictions were reconciled in the Redemption of mankind: Jew and Gentile dissevered in Name, Nature, and Privilege are copulated in the same Gospel, with the joyful news of our Redemption by Christ, God and Man at an infinite distance united in the same person of Christ, who is our blessed Redeemer; Justice and Mercy in a mutual antipathy one to the other, meet and kiss each other in the same work of our Redemption. What an efflux of wisdom was this, that the Son of God should die to free the Sons of men, that so the Sons of men should become the Sons of God; what rare contrivance of divine wisdom! That justice should be executed, and yet mercy no way impaired, that justice should over-take the surety, but mercy should be displayed to the sinner; that our pardons should be written in another's blood, our favors should lie in another's smiles, our persons clothed with another's robe of spotless righteousness, that our Prayers should be heard upon the account of another's intercession, Heb. 7. 25. That our souls should be cleansed in the bath of another's bleeding, Rev. 1. 5. All these methods of interwoven wisdom may be both our wonder and meditation. Christ is the wisdom of his Father, 1 Cor. 1. 24. not only as he was his Son and his Character, but as he was our All-sufficient Redeemer.

[unspec 6] The power of God did eminently appear in the work of our Redemption. Love brought Christ to the grave, but power brought him out of the grave, Justice laid the weight of sin upon Christ, but power sustained him under that burden, which would have crushed men and Angels into nothing. It was nothing but Almighty power which supported Christ, and carried him effectually and gloriously through the work of man's Redemption, which must necessarily be exerted to sustain Christ under those effusions and chataracts of divine wrath which were poured out upon him, and to raise him from that grave where he lay breathless for an appointed time. What but omnipotency could break the bonds of death, and petarre the Sepulcher to make way for the Resurrection of a glorious Redeemer?

CHAP. XXI. God exceedingly to be praised in his works of Grace and Glory.

[unspec 4] LEt us meditate on the morning of God's holy day, upon the works of grace: Now divine grace may be taken in a double sense:

First, Either for grace the cause, which is nothing but the favor and good-will of the Lord, his rich grace and mercy folded up in purposes of eternal love, and therefore the Apostle, 2 Tim. 1. 9. joins God's purpose and his grace together, to evidence his gracious purposes of favor which he had from eternity towards his dear Saints. These methods of grace are various and admirable: The rejection of the Jews, and the calling in of the Gentiles; the different dispensations used in the Church before the Law, under the Law, and in the time of the Gospel; these are the products of God's eternal grace and favor. That God should subdue sinners to himself, hedge up their way with thorns, lay stumbling blocks before them in their sinful carier, that he should take sinners in their month, and dispose of unthought of circumstances and passages of providence, for the turning of transgressors into the way which leads to everlasting life; all these things speak the eternal grace and favor of God.

But Secondly, Divine grace may be taken for grace the effect, for the graces of God's spirit, which in eternal love, and grace, and favor, he plants in the soul; and this work of grace merits our sweetest meditation. And here we must meditate

[unspec 1] On the powerfulness of the work of grace. Grace is an irresistible principle, a torrent which bears down all before it. Manassah was prejudiced against the impressions of grace by scandalous and prodigious sins, he was a pattern of impiety, 2 Chron. 33. 5, 6, 7. Mary Magdalene was fortified against those sacred impressions by seven Devils, Luk. 8. 2. Paul was garrison'd against those divine illapses of grace by an obstinate antipathy to the Gospel, and the profession of it; he barbarously persecuted the Church of Christ, Acts 9. 2. And Peter turns his back upon grace by denying Christ the fountain of it. But yet neither Profaneness, Impurity, Rage, Apostasy, or the Devils themselves can withstand the powerful influences of grace: But God by his grace humbles Manassah, 2 Chron. 33. 12. brings him upon his knees to importune forgiveness: Melts Mary Magdalene into tears, Luke 7. 44. and she bedews those checks with her moans, which she had so much prostituted to her lusts; the evil spirit must give way to the good spirit, to carry on his good work on her soul. Nay grace softens Paul into submission and indisputable compliance, Acts 9. 4, 5. And Peter by a look of grace, Luke 22. 61, 62. turns to Christ by lamentation, whom he had dishonored by desertion. By grace God breaks the hard heart, Ezek. 36. 26. supplies the stubborn will, Ezek. 36. 27. brings down the lofty spirit, 2 Chron. 32. 26. writes his Law in the inward man, Jer. 31. 33. and raiseth a stately fabric of holiness out of the very rubbish of nature, Ezek. 11. 19. Ezek 18. 31. and so the Convert becomes a new and lovely creature, 2 Cor. 5. 17. Indeed a work of grace may be reproached, but it cannot be resisted; we may pursue holiness with scorn, but we cannot withstand its work and operation by force, or the most resolved might. The spirit which worketh grace in the soul; plucks down Satan's strong holds, plucks up rooted corruptions which have been long settled and riveted in the heart; plants holy qualifications and habits in the Saint, creates holy tendencies and inclinations; and the Regenerate person becomes passive, and sweetly yields to the force and power of this blessed work; Christ throws his chain over him, and he smiles himself into a voluntary and pleasing Captivity, 2 Cor. 10. 4, 5. The work of grace is often compared to a new birth, Joh. 3. 5. Now when the throws and pangs come upon the woman with child, she cannot with-hold her Issue, but freely and with joy she brings forth the Man-child into the world, Joh. 16. 21. And so when the spirit of grace carries on the new-birth, the loins of the Convert cannot with-hold, but with joy a Saint is born into the world. Grace like a sun-beam pierces powerfully, though sweetly, and is always prosperous, though sometimes strange in its design.

[unspec 2] Let us meditate on the Arbitrariness of the work of grace. Indeed grace like Christ, is a most free gift, it knows no entail, nor admits of any claim; It is not in the power of a Holy Father to transmit his spiritual worth, though he may convey his temporal wealth to his beloved Child. The wind bloweth where it listeth, Joh. 3. 8. And this wind is the spirit of grace, as Augustine well observes, and the words of the Text make it plain. The freeness of this glorious work of grace, which God works upon the hearts of his people, may be fully and amply discerned

[unspec 1] In the nature of Election, which is a voluntary choosing of some out of many; now vocation and sanctification are only the fruits of Election, as most evidently the Apostle, Eph. 1. 4. He hath chosen us to be holy. We are holy, because we are chosen. And so, Acts 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. We believe, because we are ordained to eternal life. Nothing is more arbitrary then election, free choice, God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, as the Apostle speaks. Here it is true, one is taken and another left, as our Savior speaks in another case; There is two of a Tribe, and one of a Family, as the Prophet speaks; It may be one in a P • w is converted by a Sermon, others in the same Seat not in the least wrought upon; as the same Sun ripens some fruits, and rots others. Nothing then is more free then election, which is the spring and fountain of grace and sanctification. Faith is called the faith of the elect, Tit. 1. 1. Paul was converted after an unusual and strange manner, because he was a chosen vessel, Acts 9. 15. There are but few chosen, as our Savior saith, Mat. 20. 16. and therefore but few Saints in the world.

[unspec 2] 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 savor of life unto some, unto others a savor of death; The Word, it melts and mollifies some, others it leaves to hardness and incrustation. When Christ preached, some leave him, but his Disciples adhered 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. 63. 5. more then necessary food to Job, Job 23. 12. But to others they have no taste, no sweetness, no power, no reach to affect the heart. When Paul and Barnabas preached at Iconium, their Doctrine only 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 only 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 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 only an instrument in God's hand, works variously and differently, according to the pleasure and free agency of his will.

[unspec 3] That the work of grace is arbitrary, is evidenced in the impossibility of human merit. We cannot prepare ourselves 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 ruins and rubbish, no remains of beauty. The spirit of God meets with a great deal of enmity, Rom. 8. 7. and boisterous 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 God's 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 itself 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 show us, that every little wheel in the work of grace is moved, and turns by power from God; every good tendency, 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.

[unspec 4] This further is demonstrated by the ineffectualness of all man's attempts, to arrive at a state of grace and holiness. There are many things bid fair for this holy work, but they all bring only 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 anything in man, for creature implies a work of creation, which only 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 showeth mercy. Mans fairest colors are but paint; they may counterfeit, but are not true beauty.

[unspec 3] 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 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 only 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. The world understands not the Saints Shibboleth. Nay, often the Saint himself is at a loss, whether this work be 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 with the hurries of the world, dazzled with sensual flatteries, 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 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 secrecy; 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 flying colors.

[unspec 4] Let us meditate on the beautifullness of the work of Grace. The Scripture best depaints this lovely work. Sometimes it 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 comely dress and attire; how pleasant was the Earth in its first spring? Sometimes the work of grace is called God's workmanship, Eph. 2. 10. and this work must be good, because it is his. All things he made were very good, Gen. 1. 31. Nay, sometimes this work is called our coming to ourselves, Luke 15. 17. And when lunatic persons are reduced to their wits, what a comely 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. 3. nay, more excellent then their neighbors, Prov. 12. 26. The habits of grace are excellent ornaments, Ezek. 16. 7. The ways of grace are excellent ways, 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 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; it adorns the life, and bespangles it with good works, those beautiful issues of a work of grace.

[unspec 5] 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. God's everlasting purpose of love hath espoused grace to glory. The work of grace foreruns the wages of glory. Grace is only 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 only 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 only ushers in glory, it is only the greener fruit of heaven, and in future blessedness it comes to its full maturation. In a word, the work of grace is the beginning of heaven in the soul; and Christ in the heart doth fully assure us; we shall see Christ in the Throne.

[unspec 5] Let us meditate in the morning of a Sabbath, on the works of glory; How should we contemplate on heavenly things, on God's 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 rejoiced 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 God's day in the morning, let meditation listen to the musicks of the Bride-chamber, take a taste of our Masters joy, peep within the veil, 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 must rejoice 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 God shall be all in all, 1 Cor. 15. 28. There shall be beauty to the eye, music 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 of glory, where there are the three persons in the God-head; The Father of our mercies, Jesus Christ the Savior of our souls, the Holy Ghost the Healer of our natures; the Father who hears our prayers, the Son who is our intercessor above us, and the spirit who is our intercessor within us: And in correspondence to this blessed Trinity, there 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 music may sound all the ensuing day.

CHAP. XXII. God is most illustrious in his Bounty and Presence.

[unspec 4] WE must meditate on the morning of a Sabbath, not only 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 honor, what a favor, what a happiness doth God vouchsafe us in giving us this golden season. David though a King, and the Head of the best people in the world, esteemed it an honor to be the lowest Officer in God's house, Psal. 84. 10. The ordinances of God, are called our appearing before God, Psal. 42. 2. The fruition of them is as the seeing of his face: Capernaum because of them was lifted up to heaven, Mat. 11. 23. Who can tell what honor 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 tastes 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 public meeting on God's 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 tastes 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 glory. The Jews call the week days, profane days, but the Sabbath a holy and precious day; The Greeks call week days working days; but the Sabbath is a day of sweet rest: Other days are common and ordinary days, but this holy Sabbath is the chief of days: Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Many days, as Lecture days, Fast days, Thanksgiving days have done virtuously, 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 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 Phoenix is among the birds, the Lyon among the beasts, the Fire among the elements, the Prince among the Subjects; that is the Lord's day among other days. Wax in the shop is worth something, but wax put to some Deeds is worth thousands. Ordinary days are wax in the shop, but the Lord's day is wax put to the deeds. Upon this day Christ carries the soul into his wine-Cellar, and his banner over him is love, Can. 2. 4, 5. Upon other days Christ feeds his members, but on this day he feasts them; on other days they have their ordinary diet, but on the Sabbath, they have their exceedings; on this day Christ brings forth his living waters, his best wine, Joh. 2. 10. His finest bread, his Benjamins mess. On the Lord's 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 dreadful (saith he) is this place, the Lord was here, and I was not aware; surely it is no other then the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Are not our places of assembling the very gates of heaven? In our solemn assemblies is there not a ladder erected between earth and heaven, and is not the Lord at the top of it? The gracious instructions which we receive, are they not so many Angels descending? The gracious motions which arise in our hearts upon meditation on God's word, upon thanksgiving to God, or rejoicing 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?

[unspec 5] 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 seasonable meditation. A solemn consideration of God's 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 God's 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 God's hand will certainly be against us. Now there is a twofold presence of God.

[unspec 1] There is a more general presence; and God is present everywhere,

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 itself with his power and justice.

Secondly, God is present everywhere by his knowledge, so he beholds all things, 2 Chron. 16. 9. Light and darkness, 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. And though his Throne is as high as heaven, he seeth what is done below.

Thirdly, God is present everywhere by his supporting power; he upholds all things, the whole Axle-tree of the Greation would soon yield, and sink under its weight, was it not sustained by the power of the Almighty.

Fourthly, God is present everywhere by his Government; He rules all things, Angels and Men are his subordinate officers; the Sun and Moon are those lamps he sets up to rule both day and night.

[unspec 2] But Secondly, There is a special presence of God, his gracious presence, whereby he manifests himself to his people; which likewise is three-fold:

First, This presence is evidenced in some visible and standing tokens; as in those extraordinary, the pillars of the cloud and of the fire; and in those ordinary, the Ark, and the Temple of old, and the Ordinances of the Gospel now.

Secondly, In some inward influences and irradiations upon the hearts of his hidden and holy ones.

Thirdly, In some signal effects, in conducting, leading, and covering his people in times of danger and peril, Exod. 33. 14. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 my face, faith the Original, my self, saith the Septuagint, shall go before you. Now we should meditate on the presence of God in every distinction, and this would not only supply our thoughts, but direct our words, for God hath many eyes upon us.

First, God hath an eye of observation and inspection. God seeth with what uprightness and sincerity we run through our duties, Jer. 16. 17. God eyes and takes notice of all our services, and all our sacrifices, whether we offer up to him the Male of our flock, or no; whether we are singing, or hearing, or praying, or reading, the eye of the Lord is upon us; He takes exact notice with what frame of heart our performances are managed, whether slothfully or spiritually, whether heavily, or of a willing mind.

Secondly, God hath an eye of favor and benediction; God's eye can convey a blessing, as well as his band, and his eye can speak his good will as well as his heart, 2 Chron. 7. 16. Psal. 101. 6. God's eye is in his house of prayer, to approve, and bless us, if we sanctify his Name in holy Ordinances; we should then be accurate and exact in Sabbath observation, for God's eye is fixed upon us, and he will not turn it aside, nor lies it within the verge of human artifice to cast a mist before it.

Thirdly, God hath an eye of anger & indignation. God's looks sometimes speak his Anger, as well as his Blows, Job 16. 9. His fury is visible by his frowas; God's sight can wound as deeply as his sword, Amos 9. 4. God seems sometimes to stab to the heart by the glance of his eye. And if we wait on God irreverently, worship him carelessly, and profane his day, either by corporal labor, or by spiritual idleness, we may justly expect to be blasted by an eye of divine fury and displeasure. pleasure. Christ whose eyes are as a flame of fire, Rev. 1. 14. walks in the midst of his Golden Candlesticks throughout the world; He observes how holy duties are performed, and how his holy day is sanctified; he is in the midst of our Assemblies, to behold our inward and outward carriage in his Courts; he goeth down into his Garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valley, Cant. 6. 11. He seeth the rotten bough of hypocrisy, the bare leaves of an empty profession, without the answerable fruits of a holy conversation, and looks on these disappointments with fury and indignation; In a word, this presence, this eye of God must be thought of, and meditated on, upon the morning of a Sabbath, and it will be a good preparatory to the subsequent duties of the whole day.

CHAP. XXIII. We must not only meditate on the God of the Sabbath, but on the Sabbath of God, in the morning of his holy day.

HAving thus far treated on the first glorious object of our Sabbath meditations, (viz.) Tbe God of the Sabbath, I now come to the second head of meditation, (viz.) The Sabbath of God, and here is fair Champian for meditation to travel over. Indeed the Sabbath is a garden for meditation to walk in, it is like Isaac's field into which he went to meditate; it cannot but be an inferior Paradise for meditation to delight itself in, and to open our way into this Paradise, where there is no flaming sword to keep us out, Gen. 3. 24. We will first cast our tie on the several ends of the Sabbath. God hath many rare and sacred ends in giving us this seventh part of every week for converse with his divine self, and for transacting the affairs, and concernments of Eternity.

[unspec 1] There is a general and universal end of the Sabbath, which refers to all mankind, and relates not particularly either to the Jewish, or to the Christian Church, (viz.) To preserve the memory of the glorious work of the Creation; And indeed this work was most illustrious, and in it many things were discovered:

First, God's Eternity, who was before all things, Psal. 90. 2. Yea, before time itself, in which all things were created.

Secondly, In the work of Creation, we may take notice of the Self-being of God, who being before all things, gives being to all things, and must necessarily be of himself.

Thirdly, In this great work, we may discern the overflowing bounty of God; for nothing could move him to create a world, but his own goodness; that there might be a Cistern to receive the sheddings of an overflowing fountain: besides how hath God furnished and stored the world with all variety of furniture for the use of his Vice-Roy, Man?

Fourthly, In this stupendous work of the Creation, we cannot but acknowledge God's infinite power, who by his word alone created the vast bodies of the Heavens and the Earth, and all the numerous host of them.

Fifthly, In this miraculous work, we may admire his transcendent Majesty, in that magnificent Palace of the Heavens, which he hath prepared and furnished for himself, where he sends forth his light, and makes it his covering, and the clouds are his triumphal Chariots, Psal. 104. 2, 3.

Sixthly, In this great work is manifest God's absolute perfection in imparting to the creatures all their several perfections, which must needs be in a far more eminent degree in him who gave them. And indeed this illustrious work, is the strong motive to all God's Creatures, to Adore, Worship, Love, Fear, Serve, Reverence and Obey this great Jehovah; and to Depend, Rest, Trust, and submit themselves to him alone.

But the glory of this work of Creation will yield a more amazing splendor if we look on it,

[unspec 1] In its Antiquity: It is the most ancient of all God's visible works, Deut. 4. 32. Mat. 13. 19. Rev. 3. 14. and that which is most ancient is most honorable, Jer. 18. 15. Dan. 7. 9. This great and stupendous work is now some six thousand years standing; it is the primitive essay of his power who is the ancient of days; Time seems to shed a Veneration upon it. The first Creation was the Cradle of the world, its infancy, which nothing did precede but the Being of a God who is from all eternity.

[unspec 2] In its universality: The work of Creation is the most general and extensive of all God's works, extending to Angels, Men, Sun, Moon, Stars, nay, to the Sparrow on the house top, to the fly in the air, and to the hyssop on the Wall; it transcends the bounds of Solomon's Philosophy, to give us a Tract of all the Vegetables, the Bruits, and Rationals which God created when he set upon this glorious work. And here that politick axiom is most true, That which is good, the more general, the more grateful; And therefore Philo the Jew in his Tract of the Workmanship of the World, stiles the Sabbath which is the Festival in Memory of the Creation, a Feast not of one people, or of one Region, but the universal festivity of all Nations, which Festival alone deserves the name of popular.

[unspec 3] In its goodness and untainted purity. God at the first created all things very good, perfect, pure, and excellent; Nay, man himself after his own image, in holiness, true righteousness, integrity, and perfection without sin, corruption, or obliquity. The work of Creation at first was wholly unblemished, there was no wrinkle upon the face of the Universe, every creature was fair in its kind. Mans sin put poison into the Toad, put rage into the Wolf, put Briers and Thorns into the Earth, put spots into the Moon, nay withering into the flowers of the field, and decays into the trees of the forest, and veiled the face of nature with the black veil of uncomeliness: And that the whole Creation groans, as the Apostle affirms, Rom. 8. 22. it is from those sick fits and distempers which man's sin hath cast it into: When the air infects us, the heat and the cold doth annoy us, the earth disappoints us and yields no increase, from whence is this vanity? Even from ourselves, from ours and our first parents sin. Man in sinning commits two evils, as the Prophet speaks in another case; he presses God, Amos 2. 13. And he burdens the creature, nay alters the world from its primitive loveliness, when beauty was the taking blush of every Being.

[unspec 4] In the rarity and eminency of some creatures more especially: How glorious are the Angels, those Courtiers of Heaven, those friends of the Bridegoom, man's elder Brethren, Psal. 5. 8. Those Chariots of God, Psal. 68. 17. Those Guardians of believers, Psal. 91. 11. who are decked and adorned with excellency, who excel in strength, Psal. 103. 20. who excel in holiness, Mark 8. 38. who excel in all the fruitions of joy and happiness, Mat. 18. 10. Rev. 5. 11. Rev. 7. 12. who excel in splendor and glory, Luke 24. 23. And how glorious was the human nature of Christ, how spotless, precious, pure, chrystaline, yet a creature; His soul how undefiled, Heb. 4. 15. His body how glorious, Phil. 3. 21. How did the divine Nature glorify the human in its stupendous and grateful acceptation of it? I might add, how glorious is the glistering Sun, the amiable Moon, the twinkling Stars which put the night out of its blackest melancholy? Let only this be subjoined, that without the work of Creation, there could be no work of Redempti • n • the chief end of which is, to restore us to that felicity, happiness, and enjoyment, which man in his first Creation both did, and (had he persevered in that estate) should have enjoyed and possessed. Now one principal end of the Sabbath, is to commemorate this glorious work, that as God when he had finished it, took up his rest, Gen. 2. 3. So man, when he beholds it, should take up his rest, and keep a weekly Sabbath to the Lord.

[unspec 2] There is a political end of the Sabbath, viz. The refreshment and recreative breathing of the outward man, a relaxation of the body from the pains and toil of the week; and therefore the Sabbath is called a rest. It is said of God himself, that on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed, Exod. 31. 17. And how much more doth poor man stand in need of rest and refreshment? Death indeed fairly unpins our tabernacle of clay, folds it up and lays it in the grave, but too much labor tears it down; man's body is taken down by death, is thrown down by too much toil, therefore the wearisome labors of the week must be allayed by the rest of the Sabbath. The very name of a Sabbath signifies nothing but rest, strongly to argue, that that holy day was appointed for man's relaxation from the hurries of the world, and the sweats of the week. The Sabbath is a rest to the body and a revival to the soul, the bodies ease, and the souls enjoyment; the outward man on the Sabbath recovers st • ength, and the inward man receiveth Christ: Our exhausted spirits on God's holy day are sweetly recruited, and our importunate souls are rarely answered, they then prey upon a Christ offered in the Gospel. Pla • o observes, That the Go • s willing to recrui • mankind over-toiled with labor, in pity have appointed festival days for their ease and relaxation. Thus that Heathen Philosopher gives in his verdict to this particular; Indeed God's blessed Sabbath shores up a piece of clay, and it builds up a pie • 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 is rest; and that not only 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.

[unspec 3] There is an aeconomical end of the Sabbath, viz. That the whole family be taken off from their customary toil (as was suggested somewhat before) and labor, 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 labor, 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, The level of the fourth Commandment aims at holy, rest and a full cessation from servile and secular labors. 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 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 labor. 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 Lord's 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 household and family.

[unspec 4] There is an Ecclesiastical end of the Sabbath: we are then to be conversant about those things which belong to the 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 Country 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.

[unspec 5] 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 Lord's day, and the answer 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 blood. Never were two truths more deeply died in the blood of Martyrs, than the Lord's Day, and the Lord's Supper have been; the one under Popish, the other under Pagan persecution. The keeping of the Lord's day in those Golden days 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 Lord's 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 Lord's day is the Crown of the Lord's people, and their delights in it betray them to be the true Disciples of Jesus Christ, and wearing this Livery they travel to Canaan, leaving the miscreant and mistaken world to read their own doom in Sabbath-profanation. Not many years since the strict keeping of the Lord's day was the note of a Puritan, but always in the Church of Christ it was the good note of a good Christian.

[unspec 6] There is a prudential end of the Sabbath, viz. To preserve unity in the Church. There is nothing more adorns and beautifies the Church, then its sweet consent and harmonious unity. Rents are the deformities of a Garment, and Schisms the wounds of the Church, which both weaken it and make it despicable. Augustine used to say, He hath nothing of the love of God, who loves not the unity of the Church. The people of God are but one flock, Luke. 12. 32. One body, Eph. 1. 21, 22. One building, Eph. 2. 11. And Divisions are the untiling and shaking of this house, the scattering of this flock, the wounding and piercing of this body. But nothing more conduceth to the cementing and uniting of the Church of Christ, then the Identical observation of a day for Divine worship; that on the same day all the prayers of the whole Church should meet at the same Port, and all their sighs should blow to the same harbor, nay, all their singing of Psalms should make up the same Choir, that the universal flock and people of God should at the same time be bending their knees to the Almighty, lifting up their hands to heaven, and be unanimously engaged in the same acts of holy worship. All this speaks the strength and excellency of the Christian Church. As the death of Christ is the same price and ransom, so his Resurrection authorizeth the same day for worship to all his Saints, and to all Christian professors in the world; that all who own the Gospel, may, with one accord at the same time meet in their addresses to the Throne of grace. Should one part of God's Church observe one day for Divine worship, and a second part another day, another part a third season, this double inconveniency would arise.

First, This would be a perpetual fountain of Controversies and feuds in the Church of Christ, and his seamless Coat should be rent and torn, jars more then Corinthian, 1 Cor. 1. 21. would disturb the peace of Zion, each party struggling to put the fairest character upon its own observation: There would be more than twins striving in the womb of the Church, and in such digladiations and contests the Spouse of Christ should not escape woundings and scars of hurt and disgrace. How did that needless Controversy about the observation of Easter tear the Eastern from the Western Church, and made the gap so wide, that the Chariots of the most malicious enemies might have drove in at the breach; much more controversies about the weekly day of divine worship would beget implacable factions; and Armies divided, are as good as routed.

Secondly, Should several days be weekly observed by several parts of the Church; some of these would fall in, and be co-incident with the Jewish or the Turkish Sabbath, or else with the solemn days of the Paynims and Heathens, which would be an unhappy blending; that Satan's proselytes, and Idolatrous worshippers, and Christ's Disciples should all keep the same day for a festival, and send up their different notes at the same time, which would be a very distasteful miscellany and confusion. For the prevention of these inconveniencies, the Lord's day is the Churches weekly jubilee, that the followers of the Lamb might serve their dear Jehovah in the unity of the spirit, and in the bond of peace, all observing the same day, in the same worship, to the same God.

[unspec 7] There is a spiritual end of the Sabbath: And this, as Hospinian observes, is the most sublime and seraphical end. On the Sabbath, the soul takes its flight towards heaven, pursues life and salvation, and is upon the wing towards its center above. The Sabbath day is our transfiguration day; then more especially we are upon Olivet with Jesus, Mat. 17. 1, 2, 3, &c. It was a worthy saying of Reverend Bishop Joseph Hall, not long since deceased; God's day, saith he, calls for an extraordinary respect. The Sun arises on this day and enlightens it, yet because the Sun of Righteousness arose upon it, and gave a new life to the world on it, and drew the strength of God's moral precept unto it; therefore justly do we sing with the Psalmist, This is the day which the Lord hath made, &c. Now let me forget the world, and in a sort, myself, and deal with my wonted thoughts, as great men use; who sometimes in their privacy forbid the accesses of all Visitants: Prayer, Hearing, Meditation, Reading, Preaching, Singing, are the proper businesses of this day, and we dare not bestow the time of this day on any work, or pleasure, but what is heavenly. Let Superstition be hated on the one hand, and Profaneness on the other; but we shall find it more hard to offend in too much Devotion, but most easy to offend in Profaneness. Indeed the whole week is sanctified by this day, and according to our care of this day, will be the blessing on the rest; thus far this Holy and Learned man. The Jews call the Sabbath, the secret of the living Lord, and some give the reason, because God keepeth a perpetual rest in himself; and we observing an holy rest, we become most like to him: may not another reason be annexed? Because the pious soul is then in secret with God, transacting the affairs of another world, and enjoying that secret delight which the world knows not of, and feeding on that hidden manna, which is the dainties of the Saints only. God verily gives us this day for s • ul work; then we hear the word which is the food of the soul, Job 23. 12. then we pursue greater measures of grace, which is the beauty of the Soul; then we look after th • pearl of price, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the riches of the soul; then we pour out our prayers, which are the • ent of the soul; and then we follow after spiritual knowledge, which is the • ayst • r arising in the soul. The School men well • obs •• ve, that the injunction of the fourth Commandment is abstin • nce from servile works, but the end of the command is spiritual duty and holiness. The design of the Sabbath was never principally the case of the flesh, but the labor of the heart; the hearts of serious Christians then working, like Bees in the Garden, drawing honey from the flowers of every Ordinance.

[unspec 8] There is a significative end of the Sabbath; it signifies a three-fold rest.

First, The Sabbath in the time of the Law signified Christ's rest in the grave. When our Savior having run through the toils and sorrows of the world, lay down in his dormitory of dust for three days, and there both Christ and the Jewish Sabbath lay asleep together, only with this difference; the legal Sabbath took its last sleep, and awoke no more; but our dearest Lord, after a short repose, awaked in his blessed and glorious resurrection, and went to sleep no more. But the expiration of the Old Sabbath being fully accomplished at Christ's burial,

Secondly, The Gospel Sabbath arises, as a Phoenix out of the ashes of the other, nor is it defective in its signification, but implies and signifies our rest from sinful, as well as sec • lar works. Indeed sin is a default on other days, but it is a prodigy on the Lord's day; then our bodies must not only rest from toil, but our hearts from trespass, and from its sinful traverses. Augustine observes, That they sin at the greatest rate of offense, who abuse the leisure of the Sabbath to pursue their lusts, and unlawful desires. And the Schoolmen note, That they who are only idle upon the Sabbath break only the fourth Commandment, but those who are profane upon that day, sin with greater obstinacy and violate other Commands; their excesses and intemperance swell into the highest guiltiness. What Moses in his passion did in breaking the two Tables in pieces, Exod. 32. 19. Profane persons upon a Sabbath seem to imitate, and out-vy. We enjoy leisure on God's holy day, but it is for divine worship; we must rest, but it must be in God, and not lean on our couch in ease and slothfulness, but we must lean on our beloved in holy and fiducial services.

Thirdly, Our blessed Christian Sabbath further signifies the Saints rest in glory. The present Sabbath is only the pawn, and the first fruits of a better rest to come; Here the Saints, like the Tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half Tribe of Manassah, are on this side Jordan, they are not yet come to Canaan: Believers indeed enjoy Communion with Christ here, but they are not arrived at their perfect rest, in the heavenly Canaan, where they shall enjoy Christ in a full fruition. The present Sabbath is the twilight, the dawning of that which is to come, it is the morning dew of love, which being melted away, we shall come into the warm bosom of Christ to keep an everlasting Sabbath. We are by our weekly rest lead by the hand, to take notice of our perfectly complacential and undisturbed rest, that which Origen calls, The true Sabbath, and Chrysostom calls, the true Rest; not that our Sabbath here is counterfeit; but truth and v • rity is ascribed to our Sabbath above, as it is attributed to the God of the Sabbath by way of greater glory, and more unlimited eminency. There is a light in the Candle, but the light of the Sun is more transcendent and illustrious. Flaviacensis observes, that our future Sabbath, is the Sabbath of Sabbaths, because the Saints rest is begun only here, but consummated in every lineament in the Kingdom of glory; the Elect shall rest in every part, in soul, in body, from disturbance, from all afflictions, labors, miseries, temptations; no evil One to tempt, no evil heart to seduce. Hesychius calls our future Sabbath, our rest in Heaven, an intelligible rest, as if the soul did never fully understand its rest and quietation, till it took up its abode in the bosom of Christ.

CHAP. XXIV. A Collation and Comparison of the Jewish with the Christian Sabbath.

OUr Meditation on the morning of God's holy day, having passed through the several ends of the Sabbath, it may a little look back, and compare the Jews seventh day, and the Christians first day together, their Sabbath, and our Lord's day, and much delight will flow from both to refresh our meditations: And here we may compare the legal and the Evangelical Sabbath, both in their agreements, and in their differences; for when they do not sound the same tune, yet they yield the same and sweet harmony.

[unspec 1] The Jewish and the Christian Sabbath agree in this, they are both the seventh part of the week; though the duties of our Sabbath be of a sweeter taste, yet they are not of a longer duration. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Jom of the Hebrews, is as long as the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Hemera of the Christians the Lord's day is a day and no more, and so was the Jews Seventh day; both contain the space of twenty four hours. Indeed the quarrel is not concerning the tale, but concerning the trading of the hours of our Sabbath; the time is the same both under the Law, and in Gospel times; but as God complained of the Jews for their Sabbath pollution, Exod. 20. 13. so may he complain of Christians too for their Sabbath-profanation. The controversy did never rise from the length of the day, but the feud arises from the abuse of the day, when that time which is destinated to holy service, is prostituted to secular toil, or sinful practice. How many among us Christians have curtailed God's holy day, have impt it, and shortened that golden season by an untimely throwing off holy days, and setting to sports and pastimes those panders of lust and vanity? They have chased away the Sun of Righteousness from our Horizon too soon, and have made a difference between the Jewish Sabbath and ours, which God never made, (viz.) they have made our Sabbath shorter then theirs. The Lord by his Apostles in the New Testament hath altered the day from the seventh to the first, but never the time from a longer to a shorter duration. Surely much guilt and blame-worthiness must fall upon them, who shut up the Church doors, and the Sabbath together, and when the public is over, then all is over, as if the service of Christ was so cheap, and so inconsiderable, as it could not run parallel with the sacrifices of the Law, which were both morning and evening on the Sabbath, the intervals being likewise spent in holy and divine worship; for so expressly runs the Command. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, Deut. 5. 14. not some few houts, but the whole day. The Lord in Lev. 19. 3. espouseth the fourth and the fifth Commandments together, as if they were both one flesh: Ye shall fear every man his Mother and his Father, and keep my Sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. God unites these precepts, as if they were equally natural; and it was as great a crime to pollute God's Sabbath, as to offer affronts to our natural parents; the greater then is their crime who mangle God's Sabbath, and tear away a great part of it, to fling it to their lusts or their laziness.

[unspec 2] The Jewish Sabbath and the Christian agree in this; both commemorate some renowned benefit. The Jews in their Sabbath observation preserve the memory of two illustrious benefits; the one recorded in the promulgation of the fourth Commandment, Exod. 20. 11. the other mentioned in the repetition of the same Command, Deut. 5. 15. The first the benefit of the Creation, being of a greater extent concerned all mankind; but the Jews were more especially entrusted with the memorial of that glorious work; and therefore the Lord did engrave it in the body of the fourth Commandment, alleging his progress in the work of Creation, as the reason of that precept; that as he did work six days in making the world, and rested the seventh, so man should work six days, and rest the seventh, consecrating that weekly sequestration to the honor and service of the Creator. The second benefit which the Jews commemorate in the observation of their Sabbath, is their miraculous deliverance from Egyptian bondage; that seasonable rescue was embroidered with a pile of miracles, and therefore the Lord brings it in with an ergo, in Deut. 5. 15. as an authentical ground and reason for the Jews weekly observation of the seventh day, to the glory, and in the worship of their Omnipotent Deliverer. It is very observable, how frequently the Scriptures mention this great Deliverance; in Exod. 13. 3. it is ushered in with a memento; and the day of its performance hath a Selah put upon it. Egypt is called a house of bondage, Deut. 5. 6. where there was no furniture to garnish it, but strokes and slavery. In another place of Scripture, Mic. 6. 4. It is called a house of servants, where toil and sweat was the badge of every Inhabitant. Rivet compares Egypt (when the Israelites were enslaved there) to Joseph 's Prison, Gen. 39. 20. To Jeremiah 's Dungeon, Jer. 37. 16. To Samson 's Hold, Judge. 16. 21. where he ground at the Mill. Now the sharpness of the servitude set off the sweetness of the delivery, a delivery so great, that it must be part of the Catechism, which the Jews must teach their Children, Exod. 13. 14. one of the Principles of their Religion; this providential mercy must become doctrinal instruction. No wonder then if the Jews must therefore observe their Sabbath, to preserve fresh the memory of so great salvation; and which is observable, The Lord mentions this stupendous deliverance, Mic. 6. 4. almost eight hundred years after the accomplishment, as of a story to be wrote in Marble; nor is it to be overpassed, that this freedom from Egyptian bondage, is both the usher to, and part of the Decalogue, the Preface to the Ten Commandments, and a peculiar reason in the fourth. And we Christians in the observation of our Sabbath, eye a great, nay, the greatest benefit, (viz.) the most inestimable, the most inexplicable, the most inconceivable resurrection of Christ; that triumphant work, that first step of Christ's exaltation, did first breath into our Sabbath the breath of life. When the Sun of Righteousness did rise, it made our Sabbath, Day, nay, a day of life and salvation, or as the Psalmist, Psal. 118. 23, 24. a marvelous day, a day not more beset with mercy, then wonder. By rising Christ freed us from more then Egyptian bondage, and therefore sheds a greater glory on our Sabbath, then either the light of the Creation, or the glory of a temporal deliverance could cast upon the Sabbath of the Jews. Venerable Bede observes, Christ rose in the morning of the first day of the week, to raise us from the death of the soul, and to bring us to the light of perpetual happiness. Our souls benighted by darkness, by the appearing of the true morning star, Rev. 22. 16. are lead out of this darkness into his marvelous light, 1 Pet. 2. 9. and being fettered before, are loosened, and enfranchised into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God, Rom. 8. 21. The rich and rare benefit which we commemorate on our Sabbath, is Christ's rising from the grave, when he conquered death, pinnion'd Satan, locked up the gates of Hell, perfumed the grave, and became the powerful cause, and great exemplar of our resurrection. I cannot let slip the Elegance of a learned man, who takes notice, That Christ was born in the night, apprehended in the night, died when the Sun was darkened, and wrapped up in Cypress and Sables, but rose at day break, when the light began to appear, to intimate, that the dark shadows of our sins were put to flight by his glorious resurrection, and eternal light of righteousness did compass us as with a garment.

[unspec 3] The Jewish Sabbath, and the Christian agree in this; That holiness to the Lord is written upon the breast-plate of both; both must be inviolably and spiritually observed to God. Purity and sanctification, is the beauty and comeliness, the end and answer of b •• h. There was a time when the Jews were so exact in the observation of the Sabbath, that they screwed up the pag • oo high, and the string broke into superstition; their own Ra • bins aver, that to put an Apple to the fire, to take a Flea which was skipping from one part of the body to another, to peele Garlic to eat, to climb a tree to break down a bough, &c. was reputed amongst them altogether unlawful; nay, such minute trifles which the learned man gravely asserts, are more foolish then the toys and jests of Sicily. Indeed these over-zealous Rabbins thinking to make the Sabbath more specious, made it more ridiculous, and put black spots upon it, instead of making it more beautiful; yet thus much we may learn, that the over-plus of Ceremonies implied their exact observation; and their niceness and superstition did strongly imply, there was much religious devotion, as the gilding of the frame, speaks the choiceness of the picture: However we may confidently conclude, that the Jewish Sabbath was encompassed with a hedge of thorns, that neither secular labor, nor sensual pleasure, nor sinful practice was to break in to profane it; And God was very zealous of his Sabbath, that it might not be polluted, when the transgressor was to be punished with no less penalty then death, Exod. 31. 14, 15. And which is observable, not riot, but work on the Sabbath, not lust, but sweat was punishable with the loss of life. Nay, God did see the least wrinkles in the face of the Sabbath, and took notice of the least defilements if it was but the gathering of a few sticks, Num. 15. 32. And this example was in terrorem, for greater dread and terror to others: And Rivet animadverts, That eternal death in the Scripture mentioned is threatened to obstinate sinners. But to slide down to Gospel times, Holiness doth not less become the Christian Sabbath; we may hear by the thunder, and see by the lightning of God's judgments upon Sabbath breakers, how jealous God is still of his own day; the change of the day from the seventh to the first opens no gap to looseness, gives no dispensation to sin or sensuality: The day is changed, but the bonds are not broken; our tie is as strong as that of the Jews, to the strict and holy observation of God's blessed Sabbath. If the Sabbath was to be kept holy in the times of the Law, much more in Gospel-times. The fourth Commandment binds us as forcibly as them, and it is our glass as well as their directory, our chain as well as their bond, it is still Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day, Exod. 20. 8. whether it be the seventh day, or the first. Gospel light may make sin more shameful, not more venial, more hateful, and not more excusable. And if Sabbath-pollution was matter of complaint heretofore in legal times, Ezek. 20. 13. To act the same sin under Gospel-grace is a more prodigious crime. Purity certainly is the decency of the Lord's day. The love of Christ in rising for our justification, Rom. 8. 34. should in no wise make us more wanton, but more obedient.

And as the Jewish Sabbath agrees with the Christian in many particulars, so in several things we may discern a difference.

[unspec 1] First, They differ in this: There was a multitude of appendices and impositions which did clog the Jewish Sabbath, all which are taken off from the Christian, to make the yoke more easy and lightsome to the bearer. The Jews on their Sabbath were not to gather Manna, nor to pick a few sticks, or to kindle a fire; nay, they were not to stir out of their places; And in after times they were only indulged to travel a Sabbath days journey, which some learned Expositors confine to a mile, and others stretch it out only to two. Thus God was pleased to pinnion and straighten the Jews Sabbath with a multitude of burdensome circumstances, and a failure in any one of them was very prejudicial to the offender. But Christ rising from the dead, did not only loosen the bonds of the grave, but of the Sabbath too: Those circumstances which did load the Sabbath of the Jews, are now like knots plained off, like darker shades which are now blown away: And the Lord's day is freed from those fruitless ceremonies, and is wholly to be spent in sweet communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, John 1. 1. 3. Our Christian Sabbath hath not its fetters on, but holy liberty is its character and Shibboleth; Our stages are not laid how far we shall go on the Sabbath, if pure Ordinances are our errand. Holy Christians went many miles to hear heavenly Mr. Hildersham, and it was not reputed their crime, but their zeal. We may on the Sabbath alleviate winters cold with seasonable fires, and God will not judicially turn our sticks which were to warm us into stones, to bruise and destory us: we may gather up Manna, even spiritual Manna, and it will not be our fault, but our happy frugality; our Sabbath is the Souls feasting day, and our provisions are no less then true bread from heaven. We Christians are not denied on our Sabbath the moderate furniture of our Tables; Christ himself feasted with the Pharisees on the Sabbath day, Luke 14. 1, 7. Our greatest care in this case is, that our tables be our support, and not our snare. To wind up then this particular; Our Christian Sabbath, though it hath less ceremony, it hath more substance; though it hath fewer leaves, it hath more fruit, and though it is unhinged from legal observances, it is more enriched with spiritual Ordinances. It is a good observation of Learned Andrew's, That God imposed upon the Jews not to kindle a fire, or to dress meat on the Sabbath, this was merely ceremonial, and only belonged to them. Therefore our Savior sweetens our Sabbath in removing those burdens which were the servile badge of the Jewish pedagogy.

[unspec 2] The Jewish and the Christian Sabbath differ in this; upon the Jewish Sabbath there were carnal sacrifices offered as well as spiritual services performed: On the morning of their Sabbath, there was offered two Lambs of the first year without spot, two tenth deals of flower for a meat offering, mingled with Oil, and the drink offering thereof; and this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the continual burnt offering, Numb. 28. 9, 10. There was likewise on the same morning burning of Incense, Exod. 30. 7. So in the Afternoon both sacrifices and burning of Incense, Exod. 29. 38. And to this alludes the Psalmist, Psal. 141. 2. So that much of the Jews Sabbath was spent in the offering of these legal sacrifices, which the Apostle calls carnal Ordinances, Heb. 9. 10. And which Alapide mentions as fleshly rites, fit only for abolition, to make way for more sweet and spiritual Institutions. Pareus superadds, and calls them imperfect oblations, the grosser victims of a people kept in the dark. These shadowy offerings were only the Jewish Alphabet, to teach them how to spell the meaning of better oblations to come; And therefore Musculus calls the Jews Sabbath, A legal, a corporal, an elementary, a shadowy, a pedagogical Sabbath.

But the Christian Sabbath knows no stone Altar, no fleshly sacrifice, no spilling of the blood of Lambs, no making a smoke with Incense and Perfumes: These exterior varnishes and Types are a broken cloud to us which wholly disappears. We on our Sabbath have no Altar but Christ, no Incense but his merit, no slaying of Lambs, but of that Lamb without spot, which was slain from the foundation of the world; we offer no burnt sacrifice on a Sabbath, but a heart flaming with zeal; nor do we bring any tenth deals of flower, but those mean services of our souls, which if we had better, we should offer them to our dear Jehovah; nor do we mingle any Oil with our offerings, but only the acting of our graces in our holy performances. The sacrifices of a Christian upon the Lord • day are of a more refined nature, then the carnal sacrifices of the Jews upon their Sabbath: The bending of the knee, the lifting up of the hands, the composing of the countenance, the weeping of the eye, are the offering up of his body as a reasonable sacrifice, Rom. 12. 1. The acting of faith upon the word, the dispensing charity to the poor, the pouring out of prayers in holy addresses, the rendering of thanksgiving for receiving mercies, are the sacrifices of his soul, they are his spiritual oblations which he offers to God on his own day. The Christians services on the Sabbath are so far sweet, as they are soul-services, and they have so much acceptation as they have of the heart.

[unspec 3] The Jewish, and the Christian Sabbath differ in the duration: The Jewish Sabbath ended in the times of the Gospel, but the Christian endures till the day of judgment, when time shall be no more. The Sabbath of the Jews was buried in the grave of Christ, and their its honor was laid in the dust: But the Lord's day shall stay till the Lord's second coming, and then it shall not be buried, but transfigured into an Eternal Sabbatism, when all the Saints shall say, It is good to be here, and Moses and Elijah shall be our eternal Companions. Our Sabbath is not so short-lived as that of the Jews, but at the great day of account with the living Saints, it shall be caught up to meet the Lord's of it in the air, and so shall it be ever with the Lord: as a little to allude to that of the Apostle, 1 Thes. 4. 17. And in this regard, the Christian Sabbath much outvies the Jews seventh day. Duration and continuance sets a higher price on everything which is valuable; The Temple exceeds the Tabernacle, not only for the costliness, but for the continuance of it. Our possessions above Christ calls Mansions, not only for their excellency, but likewise for their permanency. The Body of a man which is his inferior part is called a Taberbernacle of clay, 2 Cor. 5. 1. which is soon taken down: But the soul which is man's better part is a piece of eternity, and when disunited from the body, it takes its flight unto an eternal condition and estate. The prospect of a fair Landskip pleases us not so well, because it is transient; but it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun, Eccl. 11. 7. because it will not meet with its last setting till the consummation of the world. Gold itself is despicable, because corruptible, 1 Pet. 1. 18. Duration is the excellency of every good thing, that which makes grace itself look so lovely and beautiful, it is because it cannot faint away, it is as immortal as the soul it enricheth; this sets off its comeliness, it cannot lose its beauty, Cant. 8. 7. But to return to our Christian Sabbath: It therefore differs from, and hath the preeminence over the Sabbath of the Jews, because it walks over its grave, and will survive till all Gospel Institutions shall cease, and our weekly Jubilees shall be turned into eternal triumph.

CHAP. XXV. The Comparison of the Christians Sabbath here, with his Eternal Sabbatism or Rest above.

AND that the joy of meditation may be full, and may be wholly indefective in suitable objects, to prey upon on God's holy day, especially in the morning, so far as time and convenience will permit, Let meditation look forward, or rather upward, and observe what proportion our Sabbath here bears with our Sabbath above. This pleasing task will cause meditation to renew its strength like an Eagle, Psal. 103. 5. and to take its flight with greater vigor and liveliness. And to make the comparison more considerable, we will observe wherein our earthly and our heavenly Sabbath do perfectly agree, and then take notice wherein our heavenly doth transcendently outvy and surpass our earthly.

[unspec 1] Our earthly Sabbath doth resemble our heavenly in the holy nature of it. They are both holy, our Sabbath here is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Exod. 35. 2. A holy day, a day set apart by a holy God, to be spent in holy services, destinated to sacred and holy purposes, vouchsafed for holy Communion with Jesus Christ, and appointed as a blessed means to make us holy. The Lord's day as our Sabbath is called, Rev. 1. 10. carries holiness in its very title. Its name is written in the golden Letters of sanctity, and so our heavenly Sabbath is an undefiled rest. Heaven admits of no impure thing, no unclean person, Eph. 5. 5. There are no weeds in our Paradise above. Our future Sabbath shall be an everlasting holy day: we have there a holy God to behold, a holy Redeemer to enjoy, holy Angels to join issue with, spotless and glorified Saints to delight in: nay, the rivers of pleasure which run at God's right hand, Psal. 36. 8. Psal. 16. 11. have Crystalline streams, and are excellent not only for their sweetness, but their purity. Every thing in glory is unblemished, and without spot, else heaven could not be the seat and residence of the great King. A learned man observes, Our eternal Sabbath is only the consummation of our spiritual, which consists in a full cessation from sin. And indeed in heaven all causes of sin shall utterly and everlastingly cease.

First, The Corruption of the Flesh.

Secondly, The Temptations of Satan.

Thirdly, The Seductions of the World.

Fourthly, A Propensness to Evil.

Fifthly, A Faculty and capacity of offending. In glory the Saints shall be endowed with such perfect purity, that suppose Temptation could get within the Veil, and intrude among the glorified Saints, that Syren should no way impress or allure them: So then our Sabbath here and hereafter both look fair because of holiness.

[unspec 2] Our Sabbath here resembles our rest above, in the duties and employments of it: In our Sabbath below our whole business is with God; we run it out in hearing something drop from the heart of God, when we attend upon his word, in making our humble addresses to God by secret and more public prayer, in fixing our fledged meditations on God, in singing Psalms, and making melody in our hearts to God. The Saints task is wholly to serve God, his privilege is to enjoy communion with God, his ambition is to Sun himself in the presence of God, on God's holy day: And all our employment in our celestial Sabbath will be to rejoice in God, and to glorify God; we shall spend eternity in venting our joys for the blessed fruition of God, I say in venting those joys;

First, Which will be rare for the subject of them; they are the joys of the Saints, John 16. 22.

Secondly, Rare for the fountain and spring of them; they are the joy of the Lord, Mat. 25. 23.

Thirdly, Rare for the plenty of them; it shall be the fullness of joy, Psal. 16. 11.

Fourthly, Rare for the adjunct of them; joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom. 14. 17.

Fifthly, Rare for the efficient cause of them, they are joys from the Holy Spirit, Isa. 35. 10.

Sixthly, Rare for the characters of them, our joy in our eternal Sabbath shall be,

First, True in eternal cordial joy, all the faculties of the soul shall tripudiate and leap for joy, they shall be as a dancing Sun, or as David danced before the Ark, 2 Sam. 6. 14. and their several measures shall be the elevation of the exstacy. The understanding shall joy in the Lord for its divine light; the will shall joy in the Lord, for its perfect consonancy to the divine will: The memory shall joy in the Lord for its full strength, and so the affections for their heavenly purity.

Secondly, Our joy in our Sabbath above shall be sincere, without mixture of grief or disgust. Our worldly joys are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , bitter-sweets, sweet brier, which can tear as well as sent; but in our celestial Sabbath, there shall be no Gall or Vinegar in our Cup.

Thirdly, Our joy in our Sabbath above shall be stable and sempiternal, neither to be interrupted nor concluded, because the fountain of it will be eternal, viz. The sight of God, who is the highest and chiefest good, the most transcendent loveliness and superlative sweetness. The Sun of nature, how doth it refresh us in our view of it; how infinitely more the Sun of righteousness, Mal. 4. 2. when shining in its full glory above in the heavens! And as in our heavenly Sabbath we shall be ever venting our joys in God, so our work shall be always to be praising of God, the glorifying and lauding of God will be the Saints great employment in heaven: God who is the chiefest good cannot be seen but he must be loved, and what we love, we necessarily praise; Commendation is the natural fruit of affection. All creatures who arrive at the sight of God, are filled with his praise; they have words to advance God, if they have eyes to behold him; the four beasts, Rev. 4. 8, 9. If they have wings to fly to God, they have language to honor him; if they have eyes to behold him, they have tongues to admire him. The four and twenty Elders, Rev. 4. 10, 11. They are not only prostrate before God, but they speak admirably of God, their praises are as high as their persons are low; they indeed cast down their Crowns, but they lift up their voices, as in the forementioned Text. The Seraphims above the Throne of God, though they cover their faces, they do not hold their tongues, and though they hide their feet, they still lift up their voice, Isa. 6. 2, 3. The Angels about the Throne of God, magnify the Name of God, Rev. 5. 11. Those pure spirits are praising spirits: And assuredly, whosoever comes near the Throne of the Lord, will exalt the Majesty of God. The beatifical vision will be the attractive and incentive of eternal praise, and adoration. Praise in heaven is the Angels song, the Creatures tribute, the Saints hallelujah, the efflux of unspeakable joy, which arises from the possession of God; and this is the work of the first-born, now they keep their Sabbath in another world.

[unspec 3] Our Sabbath here resembles our Sabbath above in the enjoyments of it. Our Sabbath in this life, is a day of fellowship with God; Ordinances are the Garden for the soul to walk in together with his beloved, Psal. 63. 2. They are the souls banqueting house, and the Sabbath is the souls banqueting day. This holy day is as the pool of Bethesda, to cure our spiritual diseases, as the wedding in Cana of Galilee, where we meet with our better wine, as that Mountain where Christ preacheth to us by his Ministers, as that upper room where Christ sits down with his Disciples; the Sabbath is that day in which we have unravelled to us, the things which belong to our peace; Now the Christian enjoys converse with his elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ; now he transacts the great affairs of eternity, lays in stores of spiritual grace for future spending, and busies himself to carry on the suit of his immortal soul: And as for our enjoyments in our heavenly Sabbath, they may be all summed up in the beatifical vision: This is the Saints essential and principal beatitude when they are arrived at their Country above, 1 Cor. 13. 12. 2 Cor. 5. 7. Rev. 22. 4. Chrysostom observes, It is more then a thousand hells to be excluded from this glorious sight. Basil saith, The want of light is no such prejudice to the eye, as the banishment from the sight and presence of God, is to the poor desolate, caitiff soul. The sight of God is like a knot of Diamonds, it sparkles with all varieties of glory; it is the glorified Saints heaven, the Angels happiness: in this transporting vision is contained whatsoever man can well desire, whatever man can well bear; it is the Paradise of pleasure, the fountain of joy, the field of knowledge, the fuel of praise, the height of triumph; this shall be done to all, whom God delights to honor. Biel taketh notice, there is a four-fold way of knowing God:

• 1. By Faith.
• 2. By Contemplation.
• 3. By Apparition.
• 4. By open Vision.

The first way is of common grace; the second of excellent grace; the third of special grace; and the fourth of consummating glory. The sight of God then is our chief enjoyment in our heavenly Sabbath, the top of all, the highest round in the Angels ladder. There was a bright essay of this glorious sight in the Lord's familiar discourse with Moses, Exod. 33. 11. Numb. 12. 8. A brighter discovery of it, in Christ's transfiguration before his Disciples, Mat. 17. 2, 3. but the most bright representation of this Celestial prospect, was in the Patmos Vision of John the Apostle, when he saw his Redeemer in his glorious and heavenly robes, Rev. 1. 13, 14, 15, &c. The beatifical vision hath blown up sparks of triumph in the hearts of God's people, even in this life. This caused Job 's o • asion and exultation on his dunghill, Job 19. 26. David 's triumph on his Throne, Psal. 16. 11. This blessed sight is that good which the Saints promise themselves in another world, Psal. 36. 10. For this sight believers long, Psal. 42. 2. To this sight the promise looks, Psal. 66. 18. Mat. 5. 8. To make way for this sight, our Savior is gone before, John 14. 2, 3. And to secure this glorious sight, Christ hath begged it of the Father, John 17. 24. And the enjoyment of this happy sight will be our Crown in our Sabbath above. Great Divines contest much about the manner of our seeing God, whether with the eyes of our body, or only with the eyes of our minds, or whether (as some) with our bodily eyes spiritualized; I shall not intricate myself in these mazes of dispute, but only conclude, our sight of God will be glorious, full, perfect, ravishing, everlasting, and will run parallel with our eternal Sabbath.

[unspec 4] Our Sabbath here resembles our Sabbath above in the rest of it. To work upon our Christian Sabbath is to defile it; our sweat is our sin; the pains we must take on this holy day, is not with our hands, but with our hearts: The brain indeed must work, but in holy meditation; the tongue must work, but in prayer and supplication; the heart must work, but in ardent and holy affection; our faith must work, but in seasonable application, in apprehending Christ, and entertaining Truth: But as for secular works they must be wholly suspended, and laid aside on the Lord's day. To work upon the Sabbath,

1. It is a sacrilegious