AN EXHORTATION

TO SANCTIFY THE LORD's DAY.

I

Shall conclude this fubject with a serious exhortation to all ranks, ftrictly to obferve the Lord's day. Read and confider what hath been already said, and you will find many arguments for preffing this exhortation : Nay, this is the fcope of all that hath been faid. But, that you may the more effectually be convinced of the excellency and neceflity of this duty, I fhall further fubjoin thefe few motives.

I. The ftrict obfervation of the Sabbath is the most effectual mean for preventing Atheism and profaneness, in regard that, by the frequent recurring thereof, the remembrance of Chrift and heaven is ftill kept up, and fin and vice are kept under conftant rebukes and difgrace. If it were not for the obfervation of the Sabbath, atheism and irreligion would quickly overfpread the world: And there is nothing, tends more to harden the heart, fear the confcience, and give loofe reins to scandalous fins and outbreakings, than the profanation of the Sabbath. This (as hath been faid) many malefactors at gibbets have confefled to have been the first beginning of their loofe lives, and that which paved the way to their other wicked courfes, and provoked God to leave them to fail into thefe henious crimes which brought them to fuch fatal ends.

II. God's great goodness and gracious defign in allowing you the Sabbath, lays you under ftrong obligations to keep it confcientioufly: He gives it not for a penance but a privilege. It is not that he may get advantage from you, but that he may give bleffings to you. He hath not commanded the business of the world to ceafe every feventh day, because he is tired with governing the fame, or to take any case to him-

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felf; but it is that he may give reft to your bodies' and heavenly refreshment to your fouls. Would you have Chrift and the riches of his grace? Would you have your fouls nourished, and weak graces repaired? Then keep the Sabbath, for it is God's weekly marketday; and a free market it is, wherein we may " buy, without money and without price," the richest commo dities that heaven and earth can afford, even the bread and water of life for the lives of our fouls, the wine of Chrift's blood to chear us, the milk of his word to nourish us, the gold of his grace to enrich us, and his precious eye falve to enlighten us, and his white raiment to clothe and adorn us. Is this day fo profitable to us, and will we not regard it? It is the foul's feftival, a day of reaping and ingathering, and of laying up in store for the time to come. It is God's ftated alms-day, or public deal day, wherein he scatters bleffings and crumbs. of the bread of life among needy fouls. It is the queen of days, the dawning of glory, and day-break of henven. It is the day for ascending mount Tabor, to fee Chrift transfigured before our eyes: and for getting to the top of Pisgah, to get a light of the promised land. O then! what horrid ingratitude muft it be to a good God to profane this bleffed day, and flight God's an fpeakable kindnefs, in allowing it to us for out foulst advantage?

III. The ftrict obfervation of the Sabbath, is an ex cellent mean to sweeten both the thoughts of death and heaven to us. 1. As for death, a retiring from the world once a week, will prepare us to welcome our final removal from it the more cheerfully. But they who think it hard to leave their worldly concerns for a day to worship God, when they expect to return to them on the morrow; what a hard pull must it be for thém to part with them altogether at death, never more to come back to them? And this we must all shortly do, whether we will or no: But to a confcientious keeper of the Sabbath, the parting with the world will not be fuch a hard talk. 2. It will alfo fweeten the thoughts of heaven to us; for the work and comforts of the Sabbath below, are the foretaftes of the employments and enjoyments

enjoyments of the everlafting Sabbath above: And they who delight in the Sabbaths on earth (which are the days of heaven, and typical refemblances of it) cannot but rejoice in the forethoughts of celebrating the eternal Sabbath above, in the immediate fruition of God's prefence, and beholding him as he is for ever. more. But the thoughts of heaven can be nowife plea fant to a Sabbath-breaker; yea, it would be an uneafy prifon to him: For, if it be a penance to him to be a few days in God's worship now, what a punifhu.ent would it be to him to be engaged in this work for ever?

IV. Confider who it is that requires you to fanctify the Sabbath, even that good and gracious God who giveth you all things richly to enjoy; that God who giveth you your being, your breath, your health, your food, and all earthly comforts. O how bountiful is he to the fons of men! he gives you the fun in the heavens to shine upon your bodies, and the Son of his love to die for your fouls. He allows you fix days for your profit and pleasure, he referves one for his glory and fervice; and will you not frankly give him his one day, when he is fo liberal to you? Say then to your vain companions, when they would tempt you to profane the Lord's day, as Jofeph to Potiphar's wife, when fhe tempted him to fin, Gen. xxxix. 9. "My mafter hath not kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife; how then can I do this great wickedness, and fin against God?" So fay you, God, the Sovereign Lord and Master of the world, hath kept back no time from me, but one day, because it was his; how then can I do this great wickednefs, and fin against God?

V. A confcientious keeping of the Sabbath, difpofeth the foul the more for the fervice of God all the week over. If your foul be in a good frame on the Sabbath, it will profper the better all the week for it: Your confcience will be the more tender, your thoughts the more fpiritual, and your affections the more lively. If you be in the mount with God on the Sabbath, the face of your converfation will be fair to fhine in holinefs through the week.

VI. Our regard to the Sabbath, is a trying test of the ftate and frame of our fouls, whether we be fpiritual or carnal, love God or the world most. It tries alfo the conditions of our graces, whether they be waxing or waning, in a profpering or decaying state. Hence God frequently calls the Sabbath a "fign betwixt him and his people," Exod. xxxi. 17. Ezek. xx. 12. 20. And indeed our confcientious keeping and fanctifying of the Sabbath is a fign to us feveral ways.

1. It is a fign of God's fanctifying our hearts, and an evidence of a good work wrought in us by the Holy Spirit.

2. It is a clear fign to distinguish us from the unfanctified and profane people of the world.

3. It is a fign of our having a confcientious regard to all the other commands of God; and all obferving perfons will find this fign to hold in their daily experi ence. If you keep not this command of fanctifying the Sabbath, it is a fign you will little regard all the reft. If you ferve not God on his own day, you will make little confcience of ferving him on the following days of the week; but, on the contrary, if you worship God fincerely on the Sabbath, and regard this holy day, it is a token you will regard all other duties of religion. Let us obferve these very noticeable words of God, Jer. xvii. 24. 26. " If ye hallow the Sabbath-day, to do no work therein: Then fhall they come from the cities of Judah, and all other places, bringing burnt-offerings, meat offerings, incenfe, and facrifices of praife, unto the house of the Lord;" that is, the Church of God and true religion fhall flourish, and the name of the Moft High be exalted in the world. And, indeed, for my part, I defpair ever of feeing Christianity and reformation confiderably advanced in the world, till once the Lord's day come to be highly efteemed, and strictly obferved for ftill it is to be feen, wherever religion flourisheth in the power of it, there it is that moft confcience is made in the observation of the Sabbath.

4. The confcientious keeping of the Sabbath is a fign betwixt God and his people, in respect it is a token of a good understanding and correfpondence betwixt him

and

and them, that controverfies are removed, and peace and friendship maintained. To whom is it that God manifefts most of his gracious prefence, and the emanations of his fpecial love? Surely it is to thofe who have the Lord's day higheft in efteem, and who are the moft ftrict and careful obfervers of it. Upon all which accounts, laftly, The Spirit of God makes this duty a fign and character of the blessed man: For, Ha. Ivi. 2. (fpeaking with a special eye to the New Teftament times) he faith, "Bleffed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it."

O Chriftians, would you be bleffed indeed? then fanctify the Lord's day, by fincere worthipping your Creator, who this day made light first to fhine; and honouring your Redeemer, who this day rofe from the grave, and completed the work of your redemption. As the Angel faid to the woman that came to the fepulchre, Matt. xxviii. 6. "He is not here, he is rifen, as he said; come fee the place where the Lord lay:" So fay I to every true lover of Chrift, "He is not here, he is rifen; come, obferve the time when the Lord rofe." Obferve it to his honour and praife, and he will furely blefs you, and make you glad with the light of his coun tenance. There was never any who truly obferved this command, but will fay, that rare and bleffed are the fruits which are to be reaped from this blessed duty.

Would ye then share of thefe fruits, and pleafe God in keeping his Sabbath? Then take the following advices: (1.) Remember to honour and glorify God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Gholl, upon this holy day, by afcribing to each Person of the bleffed Trinity, the glory of his proper work. As, 1. Afcribe to the Father the glory of his power, wifdom and goodness, in creating the world for our accommodation, and contriving our recovery when we had loft ourselves, and, for an example to us, refting on the Sabbath after he had reviewed his work with delight. 2. We ought to glorify the Son this day, by afcribing to him the honour of undertaking and carrying on the work of our redemption, by his incarnation and death, and by his rifing from the dead on the third day, now fet apart for the

Lord's