Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

Observa

THE PRAYERS.

I.

For a right ALMIGHTY God, who hast established in thy tion of Church Pastors, and Teachers, and Governors, for Holy-Days, the perfecting of the Saints, for the Work of the Mi

Eph. iv.

12.

nistry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ; make me careful to observe all those Institutions, which are enjoined for these admirable Ends; and always to esteem Days set apart for thy Worship, and dedicated to thy Service, as a great Relief to the Infirmity of my Nature, which is not capable of an uninterrupted Contemplation of thee. Let not the Affairs of this Life, nor my Eagerness in obtaining the good Things of it, so far engross my Thoughts, as to make me neglect those happy Opportunities of working out my own Salvation. Let not the Love of Pleasure prevail upon me to consume them in sensual Enjoyments; but grant that my Rejoicing may be accompanied with Temperance and Moderation, and dispose my Mind, by all the Refreshments of my Body, to serve thee with greater Diligence and Cheerfulness all my Days. Make me constant, at these Holy Seasons, in attending thy public Worship, and let me enter thy House with recollected Thoughts, composed Behaviour, and with a thankful and devout Temper of Mind. Let me hear thy Word with serious Attention, and with a particular Application of it to the State of my own Soul. Let me approach thy Altar with fervent and Heavenly Affections, and with firm Resolutions of better Obedience. Let me commemorate the Mysteries of my Redemption with profound Humility, with exalted Thoughts of thy wonderful Goodness, and with thankful Acknowledgments of thy great Love demonstrated to the Sons of Men. Let the mortified Lives of thy Saints raise me above the Pleasures of Sense; and let the Pattern of their Piety and Devotion, their Humility and Charity,

their Meekness and Patient Sufferings, be always so lively imprinted upon my Mind, that I may transcribe their Example in my Life and Conversation: That thus observing these Days of Rest here below, I may celebrate an Eternal Rest with thee hereafter in thy Heavenly Kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

II.

[ocr errors]

of the

LORD God, in whose Sight the Death of thy For the Saints is precious, and though their Departure is taken for Misery, yet is their Hope full of Immor-Saints. tality; and having been a little chastised, they are now greatly rewarded: Let the Memory of what they endured, support thy Servants who are engaged in Combats and Trials here below. Abate the Power and Malice of their Enemies: that all those who hate and persecute thy Church, may be brought to Repentance, or miscarry in their cruel Designs against it; that thy Name may be celebrated to all Generations; that thy Kingdom and thy Coming may be hastened; that thy Saints may obtain the Consummation of their Bliss by the Resurrection of their Bodies and receiving the Crown of Righteousness, which thou hast prepared for all that put their Trust in thee; and that I with them may praise thy Name for ever and ever. Amen.

CHAP. I.

THE LORD'S DAY.

Q. WHAT Part of our Time hath God appropri

ated to his immediate Service?

A. One Day in Seven, which he hath commanded to be kept Holy. And we ought the rather to pay Obedience to Divine Authority in this Particular, because it hath liberally indulged the remaining Part of our Time to our own Use.

Gen. ii. 3.

Q. What do you mean by keeping a Day holy? 4. Setting it apart for the Exercises of Religious Duties, both in Public and Private; abstaining from the Works of our ordinary Calling, or any other worldly Affairs and Recreations, which may hinder our Attendance upon the Worship of God, and are not reconcileable with solemn Assemblies, and may defeat those Ends for which the Day was separated from common Uses.

Q. What Day was anciently set apart for this Purpose?

A. The Seventh: For God having in six Days made Heaven and Earth, the Sea, and all that in them is, he rested the seventh Day and hallowed it. Q. What mean you by God's resting from his Works?

A. That the Creation of all Things was finished, and the World entirely made; this resting of God being spoken after the manner of Men; and implieth not any Weariness of Him, for the Creator of Isaiah, xl. the Ends of the Earth fainteth not; neither is weary. It was by the Ancients made the Symbol of the Rest of the Just from all their Labours: when all Grief, Sorrow, and Sighing, shall fly away, and God shall be all in all.

28.

Q. Why was the seventh Day, called Saturday, commanded to be observed by the Jews?

A. To be a Sign to testify what God they wor Ezek. xx. shipped, whereby they professed that Jehovah, and no other, was the God of Israel, and consequently

30.

Exod.

was an admirable Institution to secure them from Idolatry. For, by sanctifying the Seventh Day, xxxi. 13. after they had laboured six, they avowed themselves Worshippers of that only God, who created the Heaven and the Earth, and having spent six Days in that great Work, rested the Seventh Day; and therefore commanded this suitable Distribution of their Time, as a Badge that their religious Service was appropriated to him alone. And by sanctifying that Seventh Day, namely Saturday, they professed themselves Servants of Jehovah their God,

in a Relation and Respect peculiar and proper to themselves, viz. that they were Servants of that God Deut. v. ho redeemed Israel out of the Land of Egypt, and15. out of the House of Bondage. For upon the Morning-watch of that very Day they kept for their Sabbath, he overwhelmed Pharaoh, and all his Host, in the Red Sea, and saved Israel that Day out of the Hand of the Egyptians.

Q. How far, and in what Manner, doth the Observation bind Christians?

A. The Christian, as well as the Jew, after six Days spent in his own Works, is to sanctify the Seventh, that he may profess himself thereby a Servant of God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, as well as the Jew; but in the Designation of the Day they differ. The Christian chuseth for this Day of Rest, the first Day of the Week, that he might thereby profess himself a Servant of that God, who on the Morning of that Day vanquished Satan, and redeemed us from our spiritual Thraldom, by raising Jesus Christ our Lord from the Dead, begetting us, instead of an earthly Canaan to an Inheritance incorruptible in the Heavens.

Q. What Authority have we for the Change of this Day from the seventh to the first Day of the Week?

2.

A. The Authority and Practice of the holy Apos-Acts, xx. 7. tles, the first Planters of Christianity, who therein 1 Cor. xvi. followed the moral Equity of the Fourth Commandment. For the Deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the Ministry of Moses, was intended for a Type and Pledge of the spiritual Deliverance which was to come by Christ. Their Canaan also, to which coloss. ii. they marched, being a Type of that heavenly In-16, 17. heritance which the redeemed by Christ do look for. Since, therefore, the Shadow is made void by the coming of the Substance, the Relation is changed, and God is no longer to be worshipped and believed in as a God foreshewing and assuring by Types, but as a God who has performed the Substance of what he promised.

Acts ii. 1.

xx. 7.

1 Cor. xvi.

Just. Mar.

Apol. 2.
Plin. Lib.

Orig. lib.

3. cont.

Cels.

Q. Why is the first Day of the Week called the Lord's Day?

A. Not only because it is immediately dedicated to his Service; but because on that Day our Lord Jesus Christ arose from the Dead, and rested from the Work of our Redemption which he completed on that Day by his Resurrection.

[ocr errors]

Q. How did the Apostles and the Christians at first observe this Day?

A. It plainly appeareth from the Scriptures, that the first Day of the Week was their stated and solemn Time of Meeting for public Worship. On this Day the Apostles were assembled when the Holy Ghost came down so visibly upon them to qualify them for the Conversion of the World. On this Day we find St. Paul preaching at Trous, when the Disciples came together to break Bread; whereby is understood the Celebration of the Sacrament, or their Feasts of Charity, which were always accompanied with the Eucharist. And the Directions the same Apostle gives to the Corinthians, concerning their Contributions for the Relief of their suffering Brethren, seem plainly to regard their Religious Assemblies on the first Day of the Week.

poor

Q. How was this Day observed in the Primitive Church?

A. It appears from Justin Martyr, an early Convert to Christianity, and Pliny an Heathen, that the 10. Ep. 97. Christians of those Times, both in City and Country, had their public Meetings on Sundays. In which Assemblies the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets were read to the People, and the Doctrines of Christianity were farther pressed upon them by the Exhortations of the Clergy. Solemn Prayers were offered up to God, and Hymns sung in Honour of our Saviour; the blessed Sacrament was administered to' those that were present, and the consecrated Elements sent to those that were absent. Collections were made for the Relief of the Poor, whether Widows or Orphans, Prisoners or Strangers, or others labouring under Sickness or any Necessities.

« AnteriorContinua »