The Practical Sabbatarian

consecrated dole: the week day being the seeds time, the Sabbath the harvest for Christian charity. This sacred stock (as one calls it) which is laid up in the week day, will be put to the highest, and the holiest usury on the Lord's day, if the hearts of the poor be filled with food and gladness, and the backs of the poor wear the livery of our bounty. Justin Martyr, speaking of the order of Christians upon the Lord's day in his time, affirms, That Alms are given according to the discretion of every man, for the relief of the poor, the fatherless, and the banished. Chrysostom observes, that the duty of charity is most seasonable on a Sabbath, because it is a day wherein God appears in his best and largest bounty to us, then he gives us his sweetest ordinances, then he enricheth us with Gospel privileges, then he drops down upon us his divine graces. In our Churches at this day, the poor's bread is set up for distribution on the Lord's day, which imports the sweet correspondency between that day, which is a day of love, & the duty, which is an act of charity. A learned man takes notice, that this custom of relieving the poor on the Lord's day, was grown obsolete at Constantinople, till the worthy Chrysostom restored that commanded duty. And this custom well becomes the Sabbath, for what are we but Alms-men at the throne of God's grace on the time of God's day? Indeed the Sun of Righteousness as on this day arose, and scattered his beams of light and love, and the world rejoiced in that appearance; let us scatter our hounty and laudable charity on this day, that the poor may rejoice in our seasonable contributions; Let us remember the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Cor. 16. 2. we render it, laying by, but it is treasuring up. He that lays up, and treasures for the poor, lays up an everlasting treasure for himself. And let us consider, charitable words are not enough; the love of the tongue only is flattery, not charity, it is adulation, and not affection. Words are cheap, and the pities of language are at no cost, or charge. The belly is not filled with roseat phrases, nor the back clothed with the embroydery of indulgent language; only to bid the poor be filled, or be clothed is not compassion, but dirision: And therefore on the Sabbath, our love must be the charity of the purse, and not only of the lip; we must act good works, and not only give good words: Faith acts not without love, Gal. 5. 6. and love acts not without works, Heb. 13. 16. When we are blessing God on a Sabbath, let the poor be blessing us, it will be sweet harmony, when our heart, and the poor's loins both praise God together. On the Sabbath we must appear before God, Psal. 42. 2. And the Old Law commands us not to appear before God empty, Deut. 16. 16. Charity on any day is Silver Bullion, but on the Sabbath is Golden Ore. Let us therefore on that holy day, feed the hungry, refresh the thirsty, receive strangers, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and comfort those in prison; this will redound to our account in that day, when acts of Charity are the recorded characters of a sincere and sympathizing Saint, Mat. 25. 35. And happily capacitate us for the donative of a Crown.

[unspec 3] There is Charitas Corporalis, Mercy and Charity to the bodies of others. It is recorded of our Savior, that usually upon the Sabbath he visited the Sick, healed the Cripples, restored the Blind; and in this he leaves himself a president to others, and a pattern for holy imitation. We meet with divers Miracles which Christ wrought on the Sabbath; on this day, the eye of his pity guided the hand of his power; his strength and his sweetness both conjoined in acting; and on this day Christ would be both Pastor and Physician: And in his miracles on the Sabbath divers things are observable.

1. He cures all varieties; he healeth partial and external distempers, Mat. 12. 13. he healeth the most durable and lasting distempers, John 5. 8. he healeth the most chronicall and habitual distempers, Luke 13. 10, 11. he healeth the most threatening, and drowning distempers, Luke 14. 4. Nay, Christ on the Sabbath dislodgeth Satan himself, Mark 1. 34. Satan at his word shall fall as lightning, though he be Prince of the Air, and God of this world. Christ casteth out many Devils on the Sabbath; Legions of Spirits are but atoms which scatter at his rebuke, and disperse themselves after new enquiries. Thus all varieties of diseases are cured by Christ on a Sabbath; and will ye know why upon this day? because this day is a season of showing mercy.

2. That which is observable in Christ's cures upon the Sabbath, is, he justifies all his Cures, as the sanctification, and not the profanation of the Sabbath, Luke 13. 15, 16. Works of mercy are the perfume, not the pollution of a Sabbath; not its eclipse, but its observation. And this Christ shows by the custom of the rigorous Jews themselves, and by the light of nature, Luke 14. 5. Christ is the Lord, not the Task-master of the Sabbath: And man's weal is to be carried on that day, by cures as well as ordinances, and the sick bed, as well as the sick soul is to be visited. Mercy is the sweetness, and the epiphonema of a Sabbath.

Iraeneus avers, that the true sanctification of the Sabbath lies in works of mercy. We then keep the Sabbath, when we are pitiful to our own souls, and to our brothers body; and we may serve God on that day, as well in a dungeon in visiting a prisoner of Christ, as in the sanctuary in waiting on an Ordinance of Christ. Iraeneus observes, Christ did more works of Charity upon the Sabbath, then upon other days. And let us in this imitate both our Priest and Pattern, who died for us, and must go before us; and we taking up this practice weekly, let us follow him. Surely melting bowels do bear a symphony with merciful Sabbaths. On the first day of the week, the day of our Sabbath, God created the world out of a chaos of confusion, Christ restored the World from sin and destruction; and on the same first day of the week, the holy spirit enlightened the world in falling down solemnly upon the Apostles, and redeemed the Church from Judaical misapprehension: And shall these glorious works which have put such a bright emphasis upon the Christian Sabbath, not soften our bowels to pity the groans of the sick, the sights of the prisoner, and comfort those who are in trouble and dejection? On this day, the spark of our love should turn into a flame, the drops of compassion should swell into a stream. Bucer makes the visitation of the sick to be a principal duty of our Sabbath. On which day Christians should turn good Samaritans; they should drop tears into those wounds they cannot drop Oil into, and pour in the wine of consolation, if they have no other to offer, as a sacrifice of mercy. Bleeding hearts become a blessed Sabbath. One well observes, It doth behove us, as occasion is offered, to spend some time of a Sabbath in visiting the sick, because this will fill our minds with holy meditations, and fill our mouths with heavenly discourses, and fill our hearts with serious apprehensions of death and judgment, which will shortly encounter us, and there is no avoiding the stroke of the one, or the Bar of the other.

There is Charitas spiritualis, spiritual Charity, which is most apposite to the Lord's day. One well argues, If our mercy on a Sabbath must extend to the Ox and the Ass, Luk. 13. 15. much more to man, who is God's Vice-Roy upon Earth, bears his own image, and is enriched with that nature, which Christ himself took upon him; and if in outward things we must minister to him, viz. man, much more in spirituals and heavenly, by how much the soul transcends the body; and the wants of the soul are more dangerous, and for the most part less felt then those of the body, and therefore to succor them is more necessary, and less dispensable. Surely this is the highest mercy, to pull men out of the pit of despair, out of the mire of profaneness, out of the dungeon of ignorance, to unfetter chained sinners, to consolate and advice distressed souls. It is observable, our Savior did not only heal the poor woman of her bodily infirmity on the Sabbath, but delivered her from the chains of Satan, with which she had so long been held, Luke 13. 16. It is our great work on a Sabbath to show mercy to distressed souls. On the Lord's day Christ rose for our justification, Rom. 8. 34. which was a spiritual benefit, not for supply, but for our justification, not for the encrasie of our bodies, but for the rescue of our souls. And the Apostle notes it with a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , yea rather, in the Text forementioned. And in soul advantage every Christian may have a share; they may have soft bowels, who have not full purses; everyone may give savoury counsel, put up ardent prayers, labor to set home convictions, nay, enter into heavenly discourses, and so endeavor to draw those who go astray to the Sheepfold of the Great Shepherd of their souls. Everyone may bleed over sinful revolters, and as St. John, who ran after the young man, when he was extravagant in his practice, they may run weeping after straying transgressors. This willing mind, as the Apostle speaks, 2 Cor. 8. 12. may lodge in the breast of the meanest person; there may be zeal in the heart, when there are rags on the back, and when their apparel is more contemptible then John the Baptist's leathern girdle and Camels hair, Mat. 3. 4.

And that which enforces this duty, is,

[unspec 1] 1. The excellency of the work. To instruct, to admonish, comfort, and pray for Brethren, is the greatest mercy, the softest pity, nay, even the work of Christ himself, who shed not only his tears, but his blood to ransom immortal souls; how did Christ grieve for a hard heart, weep over an unbelieving City, and lay down his life for poor lost sinners! To rescue poor perishing souls is a heavenly work, and well is becoming a heavenly Sabbath.

[unspec 2] 2. The reward of the Service. Not a tear we drop over a wandering sinner, but will turn into a pearl. The Apostle speaks expressly, Jam. 5. 19. Brethren, if any of you have erred from the truth, and one hath converted him, let him know, that he hath converted a sinner from going out of his way, he shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. This text it seems informs us of a double reward:

1. The salvation of a soul, the purchase of Christ himself; souls were the gains of his victories, Isa. 53. 11. The Redemption of souls was the reward of all his sufferings.

2. Here is the covering a multitude of sins; which only speaks blessedness, Psal. 32. 1, 2. And it may likewise be inferred from this text of Scripture; That God hath made us Guardians one of another; Acts of spiritual charity belong to the care of all Christians: God hath not only set conscience to watch over the inward man, but hath set us to watch over the outward conversation one of another, We must exhort one another while it is today, Heb. 3. 13. especially while the light of Sabbaths continues to us. When the two Disciples were travelling to Emmaus, Christ joins with them; this blessed Physician came to comfort, to satisfy, and to inform them, they were poor distracted, timorous persons, and these he visits; Christ will not leave them in a maze, and intricated with inexplicable apprehensions, but he will bring them home to the knowledge of the truth; and this is Christ's Sabbath days work; He spends time in opening Scriptures, preaching and proving his salvifical resurrection, till the cold and dead hearts of these Disciples were warmed, and did burn within them, and then he departed from them. In this, Christ was our safe and seraphical pattern; let us go and do so likewise: But this duty of charity to souls is comprehensive, and spreads itself into many branches.

[unspec 1] We must study to draw sinners to repentance; we must set before them the severity of God's Justice against all impenitent sinners; the free grace of God must likewise be intimated and unfolded; and endeavor must be used to display the riches of divine mercy to humble, broken-hearted penitents; what sweet embraces, heaven-breathing kisses, and clasping arms returning Prodigals shall have, Luke 15. 20. God hath soft bowels for soft hearts, his eye pities a tender spirit, he meeteth a yielding sinner, and when the stubborn offender lays down his weapons, he is presently and pleasingly reconciled: If we bow, we shall not break.

[unspec 2] We must instruct the ignorant in points and doctrines necessary to salvation. No cloud so black as that of ignorance, it is that dark night makes us stumble and stray; knowledge is the first-born of graces, and is the conduct of our steps. A knowing Christian must file off the chain to wander from Christ. The murder of our Savior is charged by the Apostle upon ignorance, 1 Cor. 2. 8. Infidelity, that killing sin, is the blackness of this darkness. Palpable darkness was the judgment of Egypt, and spiritual darkness is the woe of every sinner. Let us then endeavor to break this cloud where ever we espy it hang over the soul: and let us remember, instruction is often the fruit of correction, God chastens to inform, Psal. 94. 12. But it is the necessary fore-runner of salvation. Our Savior saith, John 17. 3. This is life eternal to know God, and him whom he hath sent, Jesus. Christ. Knowledge is the morning star which fore-runs the Sun of faith, which lightens everyone which comes into the world of sanctified ones; we must know Christ, before we can embrace him, and so obtain life by him. To inform others then, is part of a Sabbath days work, and the discharge of that duty, which being made prosperous by divine benediction, may lead both thyself and others to an eternal rest.

[unspec 3] We must comfort the comfortless, who are dejected through the number, and the heinousness of their offenses. The pensive, sorrowful sinner, is as the Traveler who fell among thieves, and was stripped, and wounded; and our duty is, (especially on the Lord's day) to pour the oil of gladness into these wounds. We must set before this mourner, the all-sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, the gracious offers of the Gospel to burdened transgressors; in this sense, it is better to go on a Sabbath to the house of mourning, then to the house of feasting, Eccles. 7. 2. If so be the tears of the penitent, be as one of the Fathers said, The wine of Angels, surely they should be the motives of Saints to wipe off those tears by words of Scriptural comfort and consolation, Rom. 15. 4. Let us show such Christ's smiles, to quiet their sighs, let us tell them of the freeness of the promise, of the willingness of Christ to be reconciled, Mat. 11. 28. And that if the prodigal Son draw near, the Father will not keep at a distance. We are commanded to speak comfortably to God's weeping ones, and to tell them their iniquities are pardoned, Isa. 40. 1, 2. In this we should imitate the Sun, which often shines in a shower, and puts a gilding upon the falling drops.

We must on the Lord's day, exhort and stir up such as have begun well, to hold out patiently and constantly. The Crown is at the end of the race. The throne is given, not to the Soldier, but to the Conqueror, Rev. 3. 21. Let us tell young professors, they that endure to the end shall be saved, Mat. 24. 13. Perseverance is a pearl in a Christians graces; it is not to begin only, but to finish our course, 2 Tim. 4. 7. Only Conquest shall wear the spoils of a glorious eternity. To set forwards toward Zion, and then to recoil, this is to slight, not to get heaven. Happiness is gained by forcing, not by free • zing, Mat. 11. 12. not by growing more luke-warm, but more importunat • . Christ is the Omega, as well as the Alpha, Rev. 1. 8. and so is Christianity too. The Arrow which shoots home hits the mark. The Sun doth not only rise in the morning, but it goes off with flying beams in the evening. The Saint must set with Christ in his heart, as well as rise with Christ in his eye. And these things we must suggest to initiated Christians, a work becoming God's holy day.

[unspec 5] We must rebuke and reprove such as are tainted with scandal, for their offensive miscarriages. Thus John reproved Herod for Herodias her sake, Luke 3. 19. Thou must not suffer sin upon thy Brother, least it fall upon thyself; and although this be an unthankful office, it must not be declined. Indeed sin is often lovely, but sinners passions must not obstruct a duty of Religion; Wounds must be washed, though they smart in the washing. Thy reproof may be thy Brothers balm, which if neglected, may be his bane: Those who are of David's spirit will prize smiting more then smiles, and reproof as an excellent oil, Psal. 141. 5. which is one of those creature comforts which express the wealth of the world, Psal. 4. 7. And oil for its softness, as well as value and worth. The checks of a righteous man, are the breaking of a stone upon a pillow, like a sword anointed with balsom, which woundeth and healeth at the same time; and such rebuke is the oil of gladness too it issues in nothing but peace and consolation.

[unspec 6] We must reconcile differing and jarring Christians. And this is an eminent branch of spiritual charity; to reconcile God to man, was the fruit of Christ's passions, and is the blessed Phoenix which arose from the ashes of all his sufferings, Col. 1. 20. To reconcile man to God is the labor and attempt of all faithful Ministers, 2 Cor. 5. 19, 20. But to reconcile man to man, is the duty of every real Christian, and a work most agreeing to the sweetness of a Sabbath, a duty crowned with the promise of the greatest royalty, Mat. 5. 9. The day of Christ's Resurrection (our blessed Sabbath) was a reconciling day, It reconciled truth to the Promises, Mat. 20. 19. Mat. 27. 63. Mark 8. 31. Mark 10. 34. Luke 24. 7. John 20. 9. it was the accomplishment of the reconciling work of man's Redemption; And on this day, the soul of Christ was re-united to his body, which was at a distance before: No work then more befits the Lord's day, then the healing of divisions, and the praying down animosities between Christians.

[unspec 7] On this blessed day we must endeavor to resolve doubtful Christians. Doubts are the wedges in the soul, which both wound and pain; to pluck out these wedges by Scripture force, is a duty becoming the best of days. A doubting Christian is upon a rack, he is as a ship upon the Sea in the night, he fears he shall either dash upon the rock of error, or sink in the quick-sands of mistake, he wants the Pilotism of a knowing and faithful Christian, he tosses to and fro, and knows not how to come to harbor: Now it is spiritual love and charity to relieve this naval pilgrim. Doubts are not only painful and vexatious, but harmful and noxious.

1. They are the enemies of faith, Mat. 21. 21.

2. They are the evidences of frailty, Mat. 28. 17.

3. They are the hazard of the soul, Rom. 14. 23.

4. They are the disobedience of a positive and peremptory command, Luke 12. 29. And

5. They cat out all the profit of prayer, 1 Tim. 2. 8. Doubts like cares, they are the thorns of the soul, which rend and tear the mind with convulsions and distractions: And therefore the Apostle is so urgent in his command, Rom. 14. 1. That new and crude Professors be not admitted to doubtful disputations; that was the way to unhinge them from the faith, and to take them off from the profession of Christianity, which would seem nothing to them but a labyrinth and a maze wherein men may lose, but not save themselves. This is charity then becoming a Sabbath, to satisfy the doubts of poor trembling Christians, and to become as a harbor to a tattered bark. Thus ye have seen the severals of that spiritual charity which the meanest Christian may give, and the humble, if wanting Christian, will receive.

Another direction for the better observation of the Lord's day may be, Let us seek God in Ordinances. Ordinances are only an empty cloud, unless the presence of God melt them into a fruitful shower. David saw the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary, Psal. 63. 2. Ordinances are breathless institutions, unless God breathe the breath of life into them: The spirit must stretch himself over them, as the Prophet did over the child, before any life will come, 2 Kings 4. 35. In hearing God must open Lydia's heart, Acts 16. 14. In praying God must open our mouths, that we may show forth his praise. The Sacrament is a gaudy pageant, if God be not present; what do we drink, if not Christ's blood? what do we eat, if not Christ's body? It is the presence of God makes an Ordinance the living child, otherwise it is no more then the dead child, or a spiritual abortion. The divine appearance, sweetens, fills, sanctifies, and makes effectual every Ordinance. David loved the habitation of God's house, but it was because that was the place where God's honor dwelt, Psal. 27. 4. When men go to a certain place to meet a friend, and they miss him, they return sorrowful and discontented. Christ is thy friend who is to meet thee at Ordinances; if thou miss him, go home sorrowful. Ordinances without God, they are a table without meat, and so a living soul may depart hungry and thirsty. Sometimes Ordinances are compared to a glass, 2 Cor. 3. 18. Because therein the Christian beholds the glory of the Lord. Let us hear the language of the Psalmist, Psal. 84. 2. My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord, my heart, and my flesh crieth out for the living Lord. Therefore David longed for God's Courts, because the Lord was in those Courts. Sometimes the sweet Singer of Israel compares his desire to thirst, of which creatures are more impatient then hunger, Psalm 63. 1. Sometimes to the thirst of a Hart, which creature being naturally hot and dry, in a very great degree, is exceeding thirsty; but still the object of his thirst is God, Psal. 42. 1, 2. It was communion with God in his life, love, and graces, nay, in his comforts, which the Psalmist breathed after, the sweet smiles of God's face, the honey dews of his Spirit; this was David's Paradise of pleasute, and his heaven below. When we go to Ordinances, let us with Moses, go up into the Mount to converse with God there. It is God in the Word causeth efficacy; It is God in Prayer causeth prevalency: It is God in Meditation which causeth suavity; It is God in a Sabbath causeth complacency. When we go to the waters of the Sanctuary, let us say as Elisha to the waters of Jordan, where is the Lord God of Elijah, 2 Kings 2. 14. So, where is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Where is thy Chariot, O Sun of Righteousness? why is it so long a coming, why tarries it, what clogs the wheels? O when wilt thou come to me? Let us look on all holy duties and performances, as boats to ferry our souls over to God. Saul himself was sad and sorrowful, when he inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him, 1 Sam. 28. 15. Indeed; God is not only the Master, but the Marrow of a Sabbath; and no Lord's day can satisfy, without the Lord of the day; what is the best time, without the Rock of eternity? What is the best day, without the Ancient of days? What are Sermons, Sacraments, seasons of grace, without our Beloved? They are nothing but broken Cisterns, glorious dreams, gilded nothings, embalmed hearses, and as a perfumed corpse. Ah then, let not a Sermon satisfy, without Christ in a Sermon; let not reading a Chapter content, without we read Christ in that Chapter; As once Bernard despised that Book, wherein he did not read Christ. And let us always remember, that Ordinances they are the institutions of God, and, he that made a brazen Serpent heal, Num. 21. 9. can make his own institutions effect our cure.

[Object.] But the poor souls greatest Query is, How shall I meet with God in Ordinances? who shall open the door into the Gallery, where I may be with my Beloved?

[Answ.] In answer to this; something we have to do, as well as something to enjoy; Our pain must go before our pleasure; we must not be wanting to meet God, if we expect that God should meet us. Therefore,

[unspec 1] We must be earnest in Prayer, we must cry out, O send out thy light, and thy truth, let them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy Hill, to thy Tabernacle; then will I go unto the Altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy, Psalm 43. 3, 4. We must make our addresses to God, if we look for his approaches to us. God sends a Preacher to a praying Paul; God sends an Angel to a praying Daniel: God comes himself to a praying Solomon. Prayer is an humble summons for the divine appearance; it cannot only tie God's hands, Exod. 32. 10. and command returns, Isa. 45. 10. But it can obtain God's presence. If Moses say, I pray thee, God presently replies, My presence shalt go with thee, Exod. 33. 13, 14. If thou wilt have God meet thee in Ordinances, let thy prayers be thy Harbingers to prepare room for him.

[unspec 2] Be serious in preparing for Ordinances. The Sun scatters the Clouds, before it shines in its brightness: The Bride dresseth herself to meet her Bridegroom. And thou must compose thyself with awful apprehensions,

1. Of the Divine Majesty, with whom thou art to converse.

2. With the solemness of God's Ordinance, thou art now going to enjoy.

3. With the sweetness, and advantage of the season, thou art now entering upon, and then God will meet thy prepared soul. Joseph trimmed himself, and then he goes into Pharaoh's presence. The Wise man adviseth us▪ • keep our foot when we go into the house of God, Eccles. 5. 1. We should do well, in our applications to holy Ordinances, to examine ourselves, whether we are fit with loose thoughts to meet with a dreadful Majesty? Or with filthy hearts to meet with a holy God? Or with worldly and drossy minds, to meet with our heavenly Father? Let us not complain, God retires, when we are not fit for his presence. Let us then capacitate ourselves by holy care, and serious preparation to enjoy God in Ordinances.

[unspec 3] Let us long for God's presence. God loves affectionate Proselytes. A longing David shall see a loving God, Psal. 63. 1, 2. The Spouse is restless after her Beloved, and then she meets him, Cant. 3. 1, 2, 3, 4. The thirsting soul shall be fed with milk and wine, Isa. 55. 1. Grace and Righteousness shall satisfy the bungry, Mat. 5. 6. The Psalmist follows hard after God, Psalm 63. 8. God meets with our pursuits, we shall then satisfy ourselves in God, when nothing but God can satisfy us. Cold suitors shall not meet with Christ in his espousals. When the Wife longs, the Husband endeavors after the thing longed for. Mary Magdalene bemoaned the taking away of her Lord, John 20. 2. We may expect to meet with God, when his absence is our greatest. moan, and his presence our sweetest music.

[unspec 4] Let us come to Ordinances, with all reverential humility: God will look at him who is of a poor and a contrite spirit, and trembles at his Word, Isa. 66. 2. God dwells in the humble heart, Isa. 51. 15. God will raise those who debase themselves. Augustine tells us, That humility is the ready way to God; It is the usher who brings the soul into the presence Chamber. Bernard notably observes, That the spirit of God rested on the Virgin Mary, not for her Virginity, but for her Humility. And if Mary had not been so low in her own eyes, she had not been so lovely in God's. Alapide saith, Humility is a throne of Sapphire, where God sits in Majesty. Let us then come to Ordinances with a submissive spirit: God will cast an eye upon the soul who lies at his feet; He sent an Angel to Daniel, when he lay in his ashes, Dan. 9. 3. 21. God rewar • the very counterfeit humility of Ahab, 1 Kings 21. 29. though his sackcloth was but as Samuel's mantle, the attire of hypocrisy. A dread of God's presence, brings a sweet sense of it; and a trembling at the Word of God, goes before a triumphing in the enjoyment of God. Job abhorred himself in dust and ashes, Job 42. 6. and then God hears him for himself, and his friends, and gives him interest upon interest for all his sufferings and tribulation, Job 42. 10. A holy God will meet with an humble Saint.

Let us endeavor to be in the spirit upon the Lord's day. The ecstasies of the Apostle John were on the Lord's day, Revel. 1. 10. the rapture was accomodated to the season. Christians should study to be above themselves upon God's holy day, then they should walk in Galleries above the world. Jerome professes, That he sometimes found things so with himself, that it seemed to him, as if he had been triumphing among Troops of Angels, and singing hallelujahs with the Saints in Heaven, and walking arm in arm with Jesus Christ. And Luther reports of himself, That sometimes, especially on a Sacrament day, the death of Christ was so full and fresh upon his spirit, as if then he had been upon Mount Calvary, and as if that was the day in which the Lord died. And Believers should be so in the spirit upon the Sabbath, as if that was the very day, wherein Christ broke the bars of the Grave, rolled away the stone from the Sepulcher, and enfranchised himself from the restraints of the tomb. The Saints should be carried out on this day, and make their sallies into the suburbs of Heaven; In a word, they should be in the spirit, which duty must first look upwards,

[unspec 1] We should strive to be in the assistances of the Spirit. Holy duties without the holy Spirit, are only the carcasses of Religion, like profession without practice, which is offensive and useless; such services bring neither glory to God, advantage to ourselves, or benefit to others, and all are of no more significancy; then a body when the spirits are fled away. On the morning therefore, we must incessantly beg the divine assistances of God's blessed Spirit. It is the Spirit fits for Magistratical dignities, Num. 11. 25, 26. It is the spirit fits for ministerial services, 2 Kings 2. 9. and it is the spirit fits us all for Christian and holy duties.

[unspec 1] The Spirit directs us unto holy duties. Simeon came into the Temple by the spirit, Luke 2. 27. the good spirit directed him to meet Jesus. How often doth God's spirit excite, and provoke to holy Prayer, to secret meditation, and to those close, devotions, wherein the soul tasteth deepest of Christ's flagons, and apples. This inward Counselor is often restless in us, till it • end our knees, lift up our hands, and raise our hearts in sacred approaches to the divine Majesty. The Spirit leads the Saint into solitariness to converse with God, as once it did lead Christ into the Wilderness to be temped of Satan; this divine principle with us, is importunate till it put us upon enquiries after God.

[unspec 2] The holy Spirit quickens us in duties, John 6. 63. and makes us lively and vigorous. Corrupt nature takes off the wheels in holy services, flaggs and casts a damp upon us in such heavenly intercourse, but the Spirit oils the wheels, to make them go with greater speed. When the soul is carried out by the Spirit, how full is it of holy he • , divine zeal, and rare enlargement, as if of late it had conversed with a Seraphim, his tongue is the pen of a ready writer, Psalm 45. 2. and his heart is like a bubbling Fountain; he melts in prayer, as the Cloud into drops: Paul assisted by this good Spirit runs on till midnight, Acts 20. 7. and knows not how to break off his sacred discourses. And our ever to be admired Savior, raised and quickened by the same spirit, wrestles with God in prayer all night, Luke 6. 12. the very arteries of that duty were stretched out by that divine Spirit, which was given to Christ without measure, John 3. 34. The Spirit then, is the animation of our holy performances, without which they saint, and die away.

[unspec 3] The holy Spirit sustains us in holy duties, Psal. 51. 12. Mans spirit would quickly fail in wrestling with God, was it not under-propt by this good Spirit. The most sparkling wine if it stand long, it will grow flat and dead; And though the spirit of man be willing, Mat. 26. 41. yet while it is in the body, it will be soon tired and flag in holy duties, which are so contrary to corrupt flesh, but then the Divine Spirit comes in, and renews poor man's strength like the Eagle, and so he runs through holy services, and faints not; the annointing of the Spirit makes him agill and fresh, and holy Ordinances are not his burden, but his satisfaction. Believers offer their sacrifices, as Christ did himself, Heb. 9. 14. through the eternal Spirit, who recruits them continually with additional strength and vivacity.

[unspec 4] The blessed Spirit causeth us to overflow in holy duties, Job 32. 18. Our rich enlargements in Prayers, and other Gospel services, are from the good spirit of God, when the heart bubbles, and runs over in holy discourse, and when the mind flutters and flies high in holy meditation, and when our affections dilate, and follow hard after Jesus Christ; all this is from the Spirits gracious, and divine assistance, 2 Cor. 3. 16. It is the holy Spirit spreads our duties like Gold to greater extensions, and oftentimes makes the Saint in duty, query, whether he be in the body, or out of the body, 2 Cor. 12. 2. His heart is like the squeezed Grapes, overflowing with wine, which is better then the drink of Angels. It was the Spirit enlarged Solomon's heart in that divine Prayer at the dedication of the Temple, 1 Kings 8. 22, 23. It was the Spirit enlarged Daniel's heart in Prayer, to hasten deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, Dan. 9. 4. It was the Spirit enlarged Jonah▪s heart in Prayer; when the Whales belly was consecrated into an Oratory, Jonah 2. 2. It is the Lord's good Spirit, which makes man's heart as the gushing streams, or the over-flowing Fat, or the dropping Wine-press, in services Evangelical.

[unspec 5] It is the Spirit sweetens duty. As Christ when he was at prayer, rejoiced in spirit, Luke 10. 21. Duties are saddened by man's sin, but are refreshed by God's Spirit. David acted by this blessed Principle, delighted so much in duty, that he begs to spend his whole life in the Temple of God, Psal. 27. 4. Ordinances become mellifluous by the concomitancy of God's Spirit which often turneth them into a transfiguration. As it is reported of Basil, that when the Emperor came upon him, while he was at prayer, he saw such luster in the face of holy Basil, that he was struck with terrous, and fell backwards. It is the Spirit ravishes the heart, indulcorates and captivates the soul in holy duty, and toucheth the tongue with a Coal from the Altar, Isa. 6. 6, 7. which turns all into a perfumed flame. The Apostle saith, the fruit of the spirit is joy, Gal. 5. 22. which is never so fresh and diffusive as in holy services. Ordinances are the spiritual opportunities, wherein the Comforter, John 14. 16. sheds abroad his comforts in the soul.

It is the Spirit which helps our infirmities in holy duties: As in Prayer, Rom. 8. 26, 27. so in other spiritual services: When we are flat, the Spirit quickens us: when we are contracted, as a ship becalmed, the Spirit fills our sails, which is that Wind which bloweth where it listeth, John 3. 8. When we are sad and dejected, the Spirit consolates and cheers us, and flushes us with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory, 1 Pet. 1. 8. Oftentimes we cannot launch forth in a duty; the Spirit then helps us off from the sands: Many times we are dull in hearing, and then the Spirit opens the heart, Acts 16. 14. and makes us vigorous and attentive; And when we are at a loss in Prayer, the Spirit puts life into our dead duty, and makes us groan, a sign of life, and furnisheth us with suitable petitions to accost, and lay siege to the throne of Grace; And when we are weak and stagger in a holy duty, the Spirit takes us by the hand, and sets us with fresh strength to finish our service; the Spirit corrects all our errors in holy duties. A learned man observes, there are six great errors in Prayer:

1. When we petition some temporal good to the disadvantage of the soul.

2. When we earnestly desire the removal of some affliction, which conduceth much to the good of the soul.

3. When we ask something out of ambition, as the sons of Zebedee, that they might have a prim • cy in the Kingdom of Christ.

4. When we petition anything out of an indiscrete zeal, as the sons of Zebedee requested fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans who would not entertain Christ, Luke 9. 54.

5. When we are earnest for that, which it was better it was delayed, that by this delay our prayers may be more importunate, and our perseverance may be more fully discovered.

6. When we beg that state of life in this World, which God sees inconvenient for us.

Now the Spirit correct all these errors, and is the Censor of our miscarriage in duty: He maketh us more wise, more humble, more heavenly, more self-resigning, more patient in duty. The guidances of the Spirit are the Pole-star to direct us in every Ordinance▪ and holy service. The Spirit is our advocate within us, John 14. 16. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , so the Greek, which fits us with holy pleas to sue with, when we address ourselves to God, and carries out the heart to urge its case with greater earnestness, with great weight and authority. The Spirit is the President of our duties, to guide the soul that it write fair without blot. In a word, The Spirit helpeth our infirmities in duty: Not a good Angel, as Lyra; Not a spiritual man, a Minister, as Chrysostom; Not spiritual Grace, as Ambrose; Not Charity, as Augustine; But it is the Holy Ghost, as Pareus. And this blessed Spirit helpeth us, as the Nurse helpeth a little Child holding it by the ••• eve; As the old man is stayed by his staff: or rather ••• peth together, as that word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Rom. 8. 26. seems to imply; being a Metaphor taken from one, who is to lift a great weight, and being too weak, another claspeth hands with him, and helps him: So the Spirit is ready to relieve us in all our spiritual duties.

[unspec 7] The holy Spirit succeeds, and prospers our holy duties,

[unspec 1] It makes our duties prevalent with God. God attends, when we sing in the spirit; God hears, when we pray in the spirit: as the Apostle speaketh, 1 Cor. 14. 15. When this Dove moans within us, Rom. 8. 26. God understands the groans of his own Spirit, and will give seasonable answers: God gives his Spirit to assist in these duties; which he fore-determines to accept. Man speaketh words in prayer, but the Spirit raises groans. Alapide observes, God is not so pleased with locution, as affection in that holy duty, not so much with expressions, as inexpressible sighs, which are as incense in his acceptation, As the smoke of that Cloud, a sign of God's smile and favor, Isa. 4. 5. A duty spirited by the Holy Ghost, shall never fail an expected end, for God knows the mind of his Spirit, as the Syriac reads it, Rom. 8. 27. As the Mother knows the groans and cries of her tender Child, and presently runs to help it, and to give it what it wants, and cries for. The Spirit is our intercessor within us, as Christ is our intercessor above us, whose pleas shall not meet with a denial. The Spirit moving upon the waters, Gen. 1. 2. produced a World, and brought forth living Creatures: The Spirit moving upon the Word, the dispensations of the Gospel, causes the New Creation, and makes living Christians. O then, when we come under the Word, and are in the midst of the waters of the Sanctuary, let us wait for the good spirit of the Lord: Other Birds drive away, but let the Dove come in. Pareus observes, that the groans of the Spirit within us, shall not vanish into air, and that upon a double account:

1. Because the Spirit comes from God, John 15. 26. and is his Commissioner in a gracious soul, and he will not deny his Leiger in a Saint.

2. The Spirit always intercedes according to the good will and pleasure of the Lord; And pleasing petitions shall not meet with a repulse: what suits with the heart of God, shall open the hand of God; Congruous desires shall be conquering desires.

[unspec 2] The Spirit makes duties effectual to us: That Prayer which is animated by the Spirit, shall not only gain upon God's heart, but melt ours. If the Spirit open our heart in hearing, we shall attend to the Word, and savingly entertain it. When Christ by the Spirit opened the understanding of the two Disciples, Luke 24. 45. then they dived into Gospel mysteries, and understood fully what was fulfilled concerning the death of the Messiah: When the Spirit brings home a Sermon, he makes it fire to burn up the dross of the soul; he makes it a hammer to break the hardness of the soul; he makes it a two-edged sword to divide between sin and the soul. Ordinances are kindly Physic, and work the cure sweetly and effectually, if this Physic be given by the hand of the Spirit, if the third Person in the Trinity be our Physician; how then should the necessity of the spirits assistance inflame our importunity, to sue out that precious Promise for the attainment of it, recorded in Luke 11. 13. In Ordinances without the Spirit we can do noth • ng; Christ must work by his Spirit, or else in all our holy duties, we only beat the air, to use the Apostles phrase.

[unspec 2] Let us study to be under the impressions of the Spirit on God's holy day. The earth stands not in so much need of the beams of the Sun, as the soul doth of the influences of the Spirit.

[unspec 1] The Spirit is a Spirit of Truth to guide the Understanding, John 15. 26. It is a Spirit of Counsel to enrich the mind, Isa. 11. 2. and fill it with knowledge: How naked is man's understanding, if it be not covered with the covering of God's Spirit, Isa. 30. 1.

[unspec 2] The Spirit is a good Spirit, Neh. 9. 10. to sanctify the will: It is a holy Spirit, Ephes. 1. 13. in relation to its effects and productions; it cures the will of its pertinency and stubbornness, and melts man's will into God's. We may take an instance in Paul, Acts 9. 6.

[unspec 3] The Spirit is a Spirit of Grace, Zach. 12. 10. to beautify the heart, and fructify it with all the sweet fruits of Righteousness: It is more then the Sun to the Garden, It not only blows the flower, but it plants: The graces of the Spirit are those stars which shine in the firmament of the heart, those vigorous principles, which carry out the soul to every good word and work.

[unspec 4] It is the spirit of Glory, 1 Pet. 4. 14. to sublimate the affections, and raise them as high as heaven, Col. 3. 2. The spirit discovers glorious things to us, shows the soul its treasury where its riches lie; It opens Christ to a believer, who is the Wardrob of our Robes; the Exchequor of our wealth, the fountain of our honor, the paradise of our delight, or to speak in the Apostles language, who is all and in all to the believing soul.

[unspec 5] It is a spirit of life to quicken the whole man, Rom. 8. 2. God breaths into man, and so he becomes a living soul; the Spirit breaths into man, and so he becomes a living Saint. Nay, God works all his works upon us, and in us, in Christ, by the spirit, it is the spirit makes us upright and sincere, and so rectifies our obliquities, Psal. 51. 10. It is the spirit snuffs the understanding, which is the candle of the Lord, Prov. 20. 27. and so enlightens our darknesses. It is the spirit fixes and establisheth us, and so settles our inconstancies, Psal. 78. 8. It is the spirit softens and suples us, Isa. 32. 15. and turns our barren hearts into a fruitful field, and so fills our vacuities: It is the spirit conducts us in our straights, John 16. 13. and so prevents our miscarriages: It is the spirit takes us up, Ezek. 3. 12. nay, lifts us up, Ezek. 3. 14. and so cures us of our pedantic and dreggish succumbencies: for Man is the worm Jacob, Isa. 41. 14. and will naturally grovel on, and immure himself in the Earth. The spirit of God is an excellent spirit, Dan. 5. 12. and will create in the believer those excellencies, which will make him more excellent then his neighbor, Prov. 12. 26. The irrigations, and pouring forth of the spirit, Isa. 44. 3. will make the soul fresh, and green, and be in a spring of grace, which is most pleasant to the eye of God and Man. This holy spirit upon us, Isa. 59. 21. is not so much our covering, as our Crown, our strength to encounter every temptation, Eph. 3. 16. Let us then, not as Sadducees mis-believe the spirit, Acts 23. 8. But cry out, Lord evermore give us of this spirit. And to set ourselves under these various and rare impressions,

[unspec 1] We must purify ourselves. The spirit is a holy spirit, which will dwell only in a clean heart; flesh and spirit are combatants, and not cohabitants, they oppose one another; then grace triumphs, when flesh is subdued, and chased out of the field.

[unspec 2] We must supplicate our God. The spirit is given to the Petitioner, and not to the professor; How much more shall your heavenly father, give the holy spirit to them that ask him, saith our Savior, Luke 11. 13. Earnest prayer is the means to obtain the good spirit, whose works are so many and so marvelous, and whose operations are so secret and so sovereign.

[unspec 2] But secondly, as this duty must look upwards for the assistances, and the impressions of the spirit; So this duty must look inwards; we have not only to do with heaven on the Lord's day, and to look up to God's spirit; but we have to do with our own hearts too, and seek the spirit to proportionate them to the holy services of the Sabbath; and here our duty is twofold;

1. We must be in the graces of the spirit, and that too in a double sense.

[unspec 1] We must be in grace habitual; We must come as Saints to the duties of a Sabbath: That of the Apostle is highly observable; Our communion is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, 1 Joh. 1. 3. Observe the terms of Relation; the term Father speaks us to be Children. It is not, our communion is with God, but with the Father and his Son. Saints properly are the guests of the Sanctuary. Christ in us is not only the hope of our glory hereafter, Col. 1. 27. but our hope of acceptance here. We must bring Benjamin, we must bring Christ, if we will ever see the face of God in Ordinances; wicked men defile, not enjoy an Ordinance, John 17. 21. They are spots, not guests in that holy Feast. It is only the spiritual man is fit for converse with God; Princes converse not with Beggars, nor God with sinners: Christ in his incarnation tabernacled with the Sons of men, John 1. 14. But in his communion he converses with the Sons of God; he gives his people the meeting, Mat. 18. 20. The Sun shines upon the stars, and they reflect its light with a glittering rebound. Christ when he arose again gave not the meeting to the world, but to his Disciples, Luke 24. 36. And so in his blessed fellowship he visits not the formalist, but the Saint; Christ in his ordinances influences his living members, not glass eyes, the speculative Atheist, not painted faces, the varnished hypocrite, not 'wooden legs, with the silken stocking upon them; the spruce and self-deceiving moralist, who with Agag are ready to depose, the bitterness of death is over.

[unspec 2] We must be on the Lord's day in grace actual. On the Sabbath the soul is to be set on work in acting several graces, and some seem to be of a different nature; As faith and fear, heavenliness of mind, and humbleness of heart, repentings for sin, and relyings on God, tremblings of the soul, and restings on Christ, a real longing for promised mercies, and yet a quiet staying for those mercies promise, by hope expecting good things to come, and yet by faith possessing those things at present. This embroydery of grace must be on the heart of a Saint upon the Sabbath; One of the Ancients compares holy men upon Earth, unto those holy Angels of Heaven, Rev. 4. 8. that are said to be full of eyes within and without. In the week the Saints must use their eyes without, looking after their necessary callings, and their occasions in the world; but upon the Sabbath, they more solemnly set on work their eyes within, looking inward upon the estate of their souls: knowledge must open its eyes, and repentance must drop its tears, every grace must be in ure and exercise. Indeed the Sabbath is the proper season for the acting of our several graces, working as Bees in a Hive, making honey of every ordinance. Sorrow and confession must begin, faith and prayer must carry on, and holy thanksgiving must conclude the duties of a Sabbath. Our hearing the Word must be introduced by holy appetite and desire, we must long to be in the Courts of God; It must be entertained by faith and affection; it must be improved by zeal and an holy conversation: our lives must be comments on God's sacred truths; and so all other ordinances of the Sabbath must be the spheres for our graces to move in, as stars in their Orbs; and this is to be in the spirit on the Lord's day.

[unspec 2] Let us study to be in the comforts of the spirit upon the Lord's day: The joys of the Holy Ghost are the music of heaven below, the hearts rapture, paradise in the bosom, the sweet earnest of future blessedness, they are the echoes of assurance, and the reverberations of a good God, and a good Conscience. Spiritual comforts hath many springs, but all most pleasing and complacential.

[unspec 1] They are the comforts of God, 2 Cor. 1. 3. who is a fountain above us. The Father of mercies leaves a seed of joy in the soul.

[unspec 2] They are the comforts of the Holy Ghost, Acts 9. 31. who is a blessed spring within us, John 7. 37. shedding those grateful streams of peace and joy, which drench the soul with unspeakable delight.

[unspec 3] They are the comforts of the Scriptures, Rom. 15. 4. which are as sweet Gardens without us; every promise being as a sweet rose, every truth being as a flower of the Sun, and every threatening being as wholesome worm-wood in this salvifical garden.

[unspec 4] They are the comforts of the Saints, Col. 4. 11. which are as lights about us for our more comfortable passages to our rest and happiness. Communion of Saints being not only an article of our Creed, but an helper of our joy, in our travels to Canaan.

But to return to the comforts of the spirit; God's people may find soul-refreshing comforts in Christ the Lord upon his own day; and the measure of their comforts may mount their souls so high, as to make them like Moses upon Mount Pisgah viewing Canaan, the heavenly Canaan, flowing with that which is better then milk and honey; the soul of a sincere Christian may swim in a sea of sweet delight; he whose heart hath been as a boat, which could not be got up all the week, because of low water, yet may be brought up in an high spring tide of spiritual comfort upon the Lord's day, being ready to say with Old Simeon, Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, Luke 2. 29. the soul may be so filled with joy upon God's holy day in his house of prayer, that he may be ambitious of his eternal Requiem in the bosom of Christ. Nay, upon the Lord's day, a believer being in the spirit, the worst evils may amplify his best comforts, to think of sin remitted, hell removed, death vanquished, devil conquered, all these make for him, that he may go down with joy and triumph to the grave. Out of every eater comes meat; the upper and the neither springs run all into the same stream of comfort to the Saints: Every thing on a Sabbath is an occasion of spiritual joy to them; If they look up to God, they will joy in the Lord, Rom. 5. 11. If they consider the season of a Sabbath, that is the time, nay, the term time for the soul, which is matter of joy, nay, as the joy of harvest, Isa. 9. 3. If they glance at the word, they receive the word with joy, Luke 8. 13. If they act their graces, this is with joy unspeakable and full of glory, 1 Pet. 1. 8. It was a brave speech of a Martyr to his cruel tormentors; Work your will upon my weak body, as for my soul it is in heaven already, and over that Caesar hath no power. So it may be the case of a Christian upon a Sabbath, he may be as in heaven beginning his triumphal hallelujahs. It is no wonder then if St. Augustine cry out, Our Sabbath is within, in our hearts; There indeed is the musical spring of joy.

[unspec 1] Let us take heed of grieving the spirit, Eph. 4. 30. No fountain casts out sweet and bitter water: a grieved spirit will not dash joys upon the soul, the mournful Dove flies away. We must cherish the graces, if we will possess the joys of the spirit. The birds sing most sweetly in the spring, when everything is fresh and green; God's spirit in the soul yields its freshest delights among flourishing graces, when the seared boughs of corruption are broken down. Sin and vanity break the strings of the spirits music, and chase away the Comforter from our coasts; as birds hushed away leave the place of their present abode.

[unspec 2] Let us not suspend our answer to the spirits excitations. Let us listen to every motion, and apply ourselves to every counsel of this inward Monitor. Slighted advocates plead no more: we must hearken to every whisper of the Holy Ghost, who first commands, and then comforts. To stir up to holy duties, to good works, to circumspect walking is the office of the spirit; but to ravish the soul with divine delights is the reward of the spirit. Observe holy David, Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts delight my soul. He was now acting the duty of meditation, and then the spirit besprinkled him with dews of joy. A learned man saith, God is an Ocean of consolation. Let not our sin and disobedience be such banks and ramparts, that this Sea cannot overflow us with complacential effusions. Obedience indeed and duty make way for the streams of spiritual comfort. And to our case, let us keep the Sabbath circumspectly, and we shall keep it comfortably: Let us follow the spirit in every duty, obey the dictates of the spirit in every Ordinance: When the spirit prompts us to prayer, let us tune our hearts to that duty, and not fold our hands in sloth and negligence; when the spirit suggests to us the import of an Ordinance, let us not be slight and careless in that holy institution, and let us consider the motions of the spirit go before the melodies of the spirit.

[unspec 3] And thirdly, Let us study to be in the spirit on the Lord's day. This duty must.

[unspec 3] Look downwards, we must avoid whatsoever opposeth the spirit, whatsoever may quench that celestial flame.

[unspec 1] We must on the Sabbath lay aside all temporal cares. Cares at all times are thorns, Mat. 13. 22. But on a Sabbath they are thorns in a flame, not only scratching, but scorching. Indeed the Lord's day is not without its cares, but they are heavenly, not worldly cares, care to please the spirit, not to please the flesh, care to lay up treasures in heaven, not to fill our coffers below. The soul then must be cared for, how to prepare it for duty, how to pacify it with pardon, how to beautify it with grace, how to fit it for eternity. Head and heart must be at work on the Sabbath, but it must be for the soul, not for the outward man. But to set our servants on work in our callings, to be in our counting house, to contrive business for the following week on God's holy day; this is not only to defile the Sabbath, but to affront providence, as if God who takes care for the Lilies of the field, Mat. 6. 30. could not provide for the strict observers of his holy day.

[unspec 2] We must throw away all worldly thoughts. How many are there whose thoughts are as fresh, and affections as vigorous towards the world upon the Sabbath day, as if they were trading in their shops, walking in the Exchange, or posting their Books, and pursuing their bargains; I may say to such, as the Lord to Satan, Zach. 3. 2. The Lord rebuke thee; what is this but to turn time into a chaos, where there is no distinction between light and darkness, between the Egypt of the week, and the Goshen of the Sabbath? This day is a day of light, life and salvation, and shall worldly thoughts, that judgment of lice or flies stain and eclipse it? Worldly imaginations on this day, they are the sacrilege of the mind, the worm at the root of duty, the souls destructive avocation, the Shibboleth of a covetous man, the bluster and gross miscarriage of a Christian; they are the souls imprisonment when it should be enlarged in the way of God's Ordinances.

[unspec 3] We must take heed of unnecessary diversions. The heart is wholly to be set on God, on his own day. One observes, The Law is spiritual, and so is the fourth Commandment, and is not fully obeyed by outward conformity, but it requires the inward truth and bent of the heart. Happily we shut up our shops on a Sabbath, so the Law of the Land commands; but do we shut up our hearts on a Sabbath, that nothing unseemly may intrude? Do we bring our hearts and Christ together, and lock them both in, that nothing may interrupt their sweet and mutual intercourse? It is a vain thing to dissemble with God on his own day; He can unriddle and will judge our splendid and varnished artifices. Let us not play the hypocrites, but walk in the spirit the whole stage of the Sabbath. To keep our doors close, is an empty ceremony, unless we keep our hearts close to God and Christ in Ordinances, in Family and secret duties. Diverting imaginations are the cobwebs of the mind, the sores which fester the heart, as Delilah her smiles did Samson, and so entangle the soul that it cannot enjoy its freedom with Christ on his own blessed day. Such divertisements disturb the Music of Ordinances, and eat out the profit of holy Communion with God; if we will be working on a Sabbath, Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Augustine speaks most excellently in one of his Sermons, That we may be fit and ready for God's service on his own day, there must be nothing to cumber us, and we at that time must cast off the interposition of worldly solicitude. And so Calvin presses, That on this day every man ought to withdraw himself wholly to Godward, to mind him and his works, that we may be provoked to serve and honor him. The Sabbath is God's freehold, and all impertinencies, whither foolish thoughts, vain discourse, or unbecoming actions, if they enter upon it, they are trespassers. In a word, we must be in the spirit, not in the flesh, or the deeds of the flesh, upon God's holy and blessed day.

[Dir. 10] We must be very watchful on God's holy day. This is a day on which we must be on our guard. Christians on other days are Soldiers, but on this day they must be sentinels The Sanctuary more especially is our Court of guard. Christ speaks to us now, as once he did to his Disciples, Can ye not watch with me one day? Our Sabbaths are always besieged with enemies, both within us and without us; and when the enemy is on the walls, nothing more necessary then a strict watch.

[unspec 1] Let us watch our hearts. It is a fond piece of hypocrisy to watch our words and our actions on a Sabbath, and in the mean time give scope and liberty to our wandering hearts to take its circuits and ranges. A flatulent and a gadding heart is a great disturbance upon a Lord's day; a man can neither pray, nor hear, nor meditate, but he is troubled and disquieted. It is the counsel of the Wise man, to keep our hearts with all diligence, we must set double guards upon them. The heart in itself is a wandering Dinah, and will be slipping away to vanity, it is ready to fall into the snare; therefore we must watch it warily, and check it speedily, and over-awe it with the apprehension of God's all-seeing eye. It is observable, that the Lord Jesus appeared to his servant John upon his own day in a heart searching similitude; His eyes were as a flaming fire, not only burning in jealousy against sin and sinners, but bright and shining, as the searcher of hearts, and tryer of reins: And we should do well to consider that on the Lord's day more especially, our heart lies under the view of that fiery flaming eye of Christ, and he is the judge of all secrets, Rom. 2. 16. And this should stop and bound our Quick-silver hearts. Let the terror of the last day work upon our hearts on the Lord's day. The seat of the judge is fitly resembled by a cloud, not a throne of silver or gold, but a cloud; now as we know the clouds are store houses of refreshing showers, so also of storms and tempests; and thus doubtless the day of the Lord will be a day of refreshing to some, of terror and amazement to others, and a great part of the tempest of that day will fall upon the hearts of men; God will have us accountable for ranging thoughts, and sinful desires, which are aggravated and receive a double die upon a Sabbath. Indeed on this day one of our great works is to chain and fasten the heart to God; a loose heart then only runs up and down and doth mischief, it makes great waste, and is as the Prodigal in his worst fits.

[unspec 2] We must watch against Satan. The old Serpent who deluded our first Parents, is the great adversary of the Sabbath, which was the first institution; the evil one strives to cloud the rising Sun, the early day of divine worship set apart by God from the worlds infancy. It was the policy of Pompey, Vespasian, and Titus, most sorely to assault Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: Upon the Sabbath day are the Devils most desperate designs; He is ever bad, but worst on the best days; we must look for a harming Devil on a helping day. Let us trace the evil one all along, and we shall easily discern his malice against the blessed Sabbath. First, Satan stirs up the Jews to clog the Sabbath with superstition: Ridiculous were the assertions of that Nation concerning Sabbath observances, As, it is not lawful to put an apple to roast on the Sabbath day, or to peel a head of garlic, or to take a flea leaping upon the body, or to climb a tree, least we break a bough on that day, &c. Vanities more foolish, as Gerard observes, then the Sicilian scomms or toys. After, by the instigations of Satan, a persecution is raised against the Church, which lasted some Centuries of years, beginning in the time of Nero; And then, Dominicum servasti, &c. Hast thou kept the Lord's day, was one of those ensuaring questions which brought many Christians to the crown of Martyrdom. In succeeding ages, the great artifice of Satan hath been to debauch the world into a contempt of the Lord's day, which is notably set down by worthy Dr. Hackwell in these words, After ages much degenerating from the simplicity of the Primitive times, they so infinitely multiplied holy days beyond all measure and reason, that the Lord's day began to be slighted, which no doubt is an especial occasion of that thick cloud of superstition which over-shadowed the face of the Church. In these last days Satan hath been a perverting spirit in the mouths of the Prophets, some decrying the strictness of the Sabbath as rigorous and Judaical; others confining holiness only to the public worship, leaving the people afterwards to the ranges of their own corrupt fancy, to bowl, to wrestle, &c. and to follow any exercise which may suit with corrupt nature; others shake the foundation of the Lord's day, as if that blessed day was only the issue of a prudential Canon of the Church; but what this Church was, where the Council was held, who the president, and what the Members of it, we could never yet learn or understand, but yet some clamorously avouch the Lord's day is bottomed only upon Ecclesiastical Authority: And then if the Sabbath lie at the pleasure of the Clergy, as one worthily observes, Covetous men, who are about their Farms and their Oxen, will easily set at naught a human Ordinance, and profane persons will hardly be whistled into public or private duties for a device of men, but will give themselves free leave for doing or neglecting, if there be nothing found in Scripture to bind conscience. Others have raised the Jewish Sabbath out of the grave of Christ, to walk as a Ghost up and down the world, when the Lord's day hath for more then sixteen hundred years been its peaceable successor. And thus Satan hath every way endeavored to invalidate the power, and eclipse the glory of the blessed Lord's day, the holy observation of which, he is the greatest enemy of. And to this day this Apollyon and Abaddon, a destroyer in any language, attempts nothing more industriously then to draw men into a sluggish and sinful frame, either to idle away Sabbaths, or to spend them profusely in riot and profaneness. How many proud persons waste the Sabbath at a Glass or dressing box? How many intemperate persons drown their Sabbath in luxuries and excess, and are filled with wine instead of the holy spirit? How many are catched at the bait of a mad eagerness after pleasure and delight, as Walaeus calls it? But let us watch against all these wiles and depths of Satan: And indeed we should double our guards, for there is not an Ordinance but Satan attempts to evacuate, and make it a barren womb, and a dry breast to the soul. If Joshua stand before the Lord, Satan will be at his right hand, Zach. 3. 1. He cursedly • nvies all our converses with God, and would raise a cloud and thick darkness to hinder the transmissions of divine love: Now he cannot beat life out of the Ordinance; prayer will be a prevailing duty, maugre Satan's malice; and therefore he would beat love out of us, he would take us off by his snares and enticements; either he would disturb us by his temptations, or charm us by his persuasions, or disengage us from holy and close communion with God by his flatteries and insinuations. This Serpent for his subtlety, and Lion for his cruelty, will, like Tertullus to Paul, Acts 24. 5. attempt us most forcibly when we are pleading the cause of our souls in holy Ordinances on God's holy day. If the Sons of God present themselves before the Lord, Satan comes among them, Job 1. 6. If we attend in hearing the word, the wicked one comes, and is ready to catch away the seed which is sown in the heart, Mat. 13. 19. Satan enters Judas at the Passover, John 13. 27. and some Divines assert, at the Sacramental Supper. How often doth Satan raise noise and disturbance, to divert our thoughts, and damp our desires, when we are engaged in holy prayer, that so our distractions may sower and disaffect our most melting devotions?

And therefore let us cast ourselves upon this threefold experiment.

[unspec 1] Let us Petition the Lord to fetter and chain up this roaring Lion, so to muzzle him, that he may be a Lion without a paw, and a Serpent without a sting. God cannot only tread Satan under his own, but under our feet, Rom. 16. 20. He can pinion Satan with a check and a rebuke, Zach. 3. 2. He can chase him away with the prohibition of a word, Mat. 4. 10. He that can bind Satan for a thousand years, Rev. 22. can shackle him for a few Sabbaths. Satan is a cruel, but a conquered enemy, Heb. 2. 14. He is a wolf in a chain. Now prayer cannot only obtain the good spirit, but can restrain and bind up the evil one, and bridle both his injections and disturbances; and if thou prayest that thy enemy strike not, Christ will pray that thy faith fail not, Luke 22. 32. to shield off the fiery darts of the Devil, Eph. 6. 16. And to stand against the wiles of the evil one, Eph. 6. 11. Brayer can exercise the evil spirit; fasting and prayer can cast Satan out of our bodies, Mark 9. 29. much more out of our duties.

[unspec 2] Resist the Devil. It is the Apostles counsel, 1 Pet. 5. 9. and the benefit will be, He will fly from thee: Now this resistence must be made by resting upon Christ by faith, so taking in Christ as our second in the encounter, and being fixed in holy resolution, as the Apostle hints in the fore-cited Text. It is true as Pareus observes out of Cyprian, Satan is an old and experienced enemy, but the shield of faith can secure us, and the sword of the spirit can subdue him. Christ put him to flight with a Scriptum est, It is written. Satan only batters yielding combats. The bird is easily caught which flies into the snare. His fiercest stroks are avoided by repulse. We best resist him, when we will not admit him into parley. Let us remember he is the God of this world, and so cannot interpose for hurt in spirituals, unless we give him the advantage. If he be a Prince, it is of the Air, 2 Eph. 2. And so by his own power cannot endamage us in things heavenly and divine. He never conquers, but when we let fall the weapons. We never lose, but give away the Victory, and his insultation is the reward of our pusillanimity.

[unspec 3] Let us not tempt the tempter by a frothy and slight spirit. Indeed corrupt hearts are his territories and claim: Satan maketh his greatest rapes on wandering and light spirits, he is Beelzebub, a God of flies, who buzzes about vain dispositions with his troublesome assaults; and therefore on God's blessed day, let us say with the Psalmist, our heart is fixed, our heart is fixed, Psal. 57. 7. If our hearts are centerd in God, we are above the attachments of the evil one. Foolish men usually meet Satan's temptations; but being immured in Ordinances, and only minding Christ in our devotions, this common enemy chained at Christ's Cross, as Origen speaks, will leave us as he did our Master, and dear Redeemer, Mat. 4. 11.

[unspec 3] We must watch our Corruptions; they are never so violent in their sallies, as on God's own day. Pride will go in the most garish dress on the Sabbath, and many happily will study more to bring a new fashion, then a new heart into the Congregation. Ulcerous consciences on this day will quarrel with divine truth, or at least with the messengers of it: Corrupt wounds will not endure the launching, nor scornful sinners the reproof. Our hearts are never so treacherous as on this day; then they are prodigal of time, sluggards in duty, enemies to the faithful preaching of the Word, then they pour out their swarms of vam and impertinent thoughts, and catch at any diversion to give them breath from close communion with God; and then slight and formal Christians wind up the clock of the tongue, and that strikes nothing but vanity. Indeed naturally there is an open opposition in our hearts to strict religion, and particularly to the precise observation of God's day; and this opposition like rivers which are damm'd up, breaks forth then most violently. As we know, Snakes will get into the greenest grass, and Spiders into the fairest houses, so our corruptions beset us most, and besiege us most closely in holy duties, and the most spiritual converses; and therefore let us most strictly eye these Serpents in the bosom, observe their first motions, and strangle them in their birth. Young twigs are easily plucked up, weeds when low, they only soften the walk, but when grown higher, they deform and unbeautifie the garden. Let us let out the water of the first blisters of corruption. If thou art proud, then say, did Christ come out of a Grave this day, and shall I come out as a Bridegroom out of a Bride Chamber? If thou art worldly, say, Christ rose this day, in order to his ascension to heaven, and shall sublunary vanities entangle my soul this day? If thou art sluggish and unactive, say, the Sun of righteousness rose this day, whose motion of all motions is the swiftest; and shall I be clogged with unseemly dullness and hebetude? If thou art sad and despondent, say, Christ rose this day, to fill up the joys of his people, to consummate and finish his victories, which by holy faith become the Saints conquest, and shall my spirit be down and sink on this triumphant day? If thy heart wander this day, say, the glorious Morning Star this day appeared in the worlds Horizon, after a three days cloud, and what more blessed object to fix my heart upon? That still the risings of thy corrupt heart, which way soever it wind itself, may be kept down, and stopped from Sabbath defilement. Now a little care may prevent a great deal of sin: We must therefore.

1. Eye and observe,

2. Bitterly bemoan,

3. Pray against,

4. Forcibly check and keep down these unnatural productions of the unregenerate part; and suppressed corruptions are like slain Egyptians, they will not disturb the Israelites travelling towards Canaan: So they will be the spectacle of our joy, not the obstacle of our duties, and we may with a pleasing liberty run the ways of God's Commandments, upon his own holy day.