O praise our King, før he is good His mercy lafts for ever. 2 No blood, but that of him who's God, Could take away our fin; No fmaller facrifice than this Could heaven for us win. 3 This made the glorious Son of God, 4 5 To ranfom us with blood. Beneath the vail of human flesh His Godhead he did hide; To pay our debt, and purge our guilt, God's praife in gofpel-hymns we'll fing, 6 In ev'ry place and company Where it may tend for good, Christ crucify'd we will extol, And tell men of his blood. 7 His wounds and merits we'll fpeak forth, From him we'll holy learn to be, 8 What love, what fervice, and what praise, Who left his glorious throne above, To die for us below! 9 Till we the vail of flefh put off, And, when we reach the manfions bright, HYMN XXVII. The COMMUNION-FEAST. 1 HOW greatly fhould the love of God He foes forgives, and next invites AN EXHORTATION TO SANCTIFY THE LORD's DAY. I Shall conclude this fubject with a ferious exhorta tion to all ranks, ftrictly to obferve the Lord's day. Read and confider what hath been already faid, and you will find many arguments for preffing this exhortation: Nay, this is the foope 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. 1. The frict obfervation of the Sabbath is the most effectual mean for preventing Atheism and profanenefs, in regard that, by the frequent recurring thereof, the remembrance of Christ and heaven is ftill kept up, and fim and vice are kept under conftant rebukes and difgrace. If it were not for the obfervation of the Sabbath, atheism and irreligion would quickly overspread the world: And there is nothing, tends more to harden the heart, fear the confcience, and give loose reins to fcan dalous fins and outbreakings, than the profanation of the Sabbath. This (as hath been faid) many malefactors at gibbets have confeffed to have been the firft beginning of their loofe lives, and that which paved the way to their other wicked courfes, and provoked God to leave them to fall into these 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 bleflings 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 cafe to himVOL. IV. Na felf; 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 commodities that heaven and earth can afford, even the bread and water of life for the lives of our fouls, the wine of Christ'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 ftore 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 hea ven. It is the day for afcending mount Tabor, to see Chrift transfigured before our eyes and for getting to the top of Pifgah, to get a fight 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 unfpeakable kindnefs, in allowing it to us for our fouls advantage? : III. The ftrict obfervation of the Sabbath, is an excellent mean to fweeten 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 muft it be for them 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 tafk. 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 resemblances 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 everBut the thoughts of heaven can be nowife pleafant 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 punishment would it be to him to be engaged in this work for ever? more. IV. Confider who it is that requires you to fanctify the Sabbath, even that good and gracious Ged 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 fhine 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 profané the Lord's day, as Jofeph to Potiphar's wife, when she 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 wickedness, 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. lf 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 holiness through the week. VI. Our regard to the Sabbath, is a trying teft of the State and frame of our fouls, whether we be fpiritual or carnal, love God or the world moft. 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 diftinguish us from the unfanctified and profane people of the world. 3 It is a fign of our having a conscientious 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 Chriftianity and reformation confiderably advanced in the world, till once the Lord's day come to be highly esteemed, and strictly obferved for ftill it is to be feen, wherever religion flourisheth in the power of it, there it is that most conscience is made in the observation of the Sabbath. 4. The confcientious keeping of the Sabbath is a fign betwixt God and his people, in refpect it is a token of a good understanding and correfpondence betwixt him and |
