I recompensed upon their own heads, saith the Lord God.' Lev. xxvi. 31-33, 'And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation ; and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you ; and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.' Ay, but what is the reason why God brings those two terrible judgments of fire and sword upon them ? The resolution of this question you have in ver. 34, 35, ' Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land ; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest ; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.' The land did not rest in your sabbaths, saith the Lord, when ye dwelt upon it. But when it is eased from the wicked weight of such inhabitants, which brought upon it heavy curses, and toiled and tired it out with continual tillage, it shall then rest and be at quiet. According to the law of God, the land should have rested every seventh year, Lev. XXV. 4. But they got out the very heart of the land to spend on their lusts : but, saith God, I will ease the land of such inhabitants, and then it shall in a manner take its recreation, then it shall rest, and take its own pleasure, Lam. i. 7. Where there is not a resting from sin, there Sabbaths are not truly kept. Profaning the Sabbath brings most desolating and destroying judgments upon a professing people. The first blow given to the German churches was on the Sabbath- day ; for on that day Prague was lost. The Sabbaths were woefully profaned amongst them ; their nobility thought it was for their not trimming and beautifying of their churches ; but better and wiser men concluded it was for their profaning of the Lord's day. Some are of opinion that the flood began on the Lord's day, from that Gen. vii., they being grown notorious profaners of the Sabbath. The Council of Matiscon, in France, attributed the irruption of the Goths and Vandals to their profanation of the Sabbath. But,
(4.) Fourthly, Consider there are singular blessings loliich the sanctifying of the Sabbath ivill croion us with: Ezek. xx. 12, ' More- over also, I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they may know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.' The singular blessings that the right sanctifying of the Sabbath will bring upon us, are, (1.) Spiritual. They that conscientiously sanctify the Sabbath, they shall see and know the work of God, the work of grace, upon their own souls. There are many precious Christians that have a work of God, a work of grace upon their own souls, who would give ten thousand worlds, were there so many in their hands to give, to see that work, to know that work. Oh ! but now they that sanctify the Sabbath, they shall both see and know the work of God upon their own souls ! And they shall find the Lord carrying on the work of grace and holiness in their souls ; tliey shall find the Lord destroying their sins, and filling their hearts with joy, and with a blessed assurance of his favour and love : Isa. Ivi. 6,7,' Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth
110 London's LAMENTATIONS ON [Isa. XLII. 24, 25'
the pal)l».itli from pollutinj^ it, and taketh liold on my covenant; even them will 1 bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted ui)on my altar ; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all ])c()i)le.' So Isa. Iviii. 13, 14, 'If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable : and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.' (2.) Now, in the second place, the other blessings that the right sanctifying of the Sabbath will invest us with, are temporal hlcss- inqs ; for so they follow in the scripture last cited : ' And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth;' — here is honour, and esteem, and safety; — 'and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father.' Now the land of Canaan was the inheritance which God promised to Jacob, Gen. xxviii, 13, and xlviii, 4. Hereby is noted that comfortable provision that God would make for them that sanc- tifiod his Sabbaths. Such as make the Sabbath their delight, they shall never want protection nor provision. God will be a wall of fire about them, and a Canaan to them. But,
(5.) Fifthly, Consider that our Lord Jesus, ivho is the Lord of the Sabbath, and whom the law itself commands us to hear, did alter it from the seventh day to the first day of the lueeh, which we now keep, Mat. xii. 8 ; Deut. xviii. 18, 19. For the holy evangelists note that our Lord came into the midst of the assembly on the two first days of the two weeks immediately following his resurrection, and then blessed the church, breathing on them the Holy Ghost: John xx. 19-26, ' Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them. Peace be unto you.' ' And after eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them, then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said. Peace be unto you.' Look, as Christ was forty days instructing Moses in Sinai what he should teach, and how he should govern the church under the law : so he continued forty days teaching his disciples what they should preach, and how they should govern the church under the gospel : Acts i. 2, 3, ' Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and sjicaking of the things \^Q\•- taining to the kingdom of God.' And it is not to be doubted, but that within those forty days he likewise ordained on what day they should likewise keep the Sabbath ; and it is observable that on this first day of the week he sent down from heaven the Holy Ghost upon his apostles: Acts ii. 1-4, ' And when the day of the Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.' So that on that day they first began, and ever after continued, the public exercise of their ministry. Christ who was Lord of the Sabbath — Mark ii. 28—