3. Thirdly, You must sanctify the Sabbath, by looking upon the enjoyment of Sabbaths and ordinances as your great happiness, hy looking upon every duty as your dignity^ and by looking upon every ivork of that day as carrying a reicard ivith it, Prov. viii. 34, 35 ; Ps. xxvii. 4, xlii. 1-5, and Ixiii. 1-3. Ps. xix. 11, ' And in keeping of them there is great reward :' not only /or keeping, but also m keeping of God's commands there is great reward. A gracious soul would not exchange the joy, the peace, the comfort, the assurance, the com- munion, the delight, the satisfaction that it enjoys in the ways of obedience, before pay-day comes, before the crown be put on, before the full reward is given out, for all the crowns and kingdoms of this world. David was a king, a great and glorious king, yea, the best king in all the world, and yet he esteemed it as a very high honour to be the lowest officer, a door-keeper in God's house : Ps. Ixxxiv. 10, ' A day in thy courts is better than a thousand ; I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God' — or I had rather sit at the threshold, as the Hebrew runs — ' than to dwell in the tents of wicked- ness.' 1 Kings X. 8, ' Happy are thy men, ha})py are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom,' said the queen of Sheba concerning Solomon's servants. Oh, then, how many thousand times more happy are they who hear Christ in his ordinances, who see Christ in his ordinances, and who enjoy Christ in his ordinances on his own day ! Of all days the Sabbath-day is the day wherein Christ carries his people into his wine-cellar, wherein he brings them to his banqueting-house, and his banner over them is love. This is the day wherein he stays his people with flagons, and comforts them with ajiplcs, and wherein his left hand is under their head, and his right hand doth embrace them. Cant. ii. 4-6. Oh the sweet communion, the sweet discoveries, the sweet incomes, and that blessed presence, and those glorious answers and returns of prayer that the saints have had on Sabbath-days ! Christ in his ordinances on tlie Sabbath-day doth, as Mary, open a box of precious ointment, which ditfuseth a spiritual savour among them that fear him. Though many slight ordinances, and many deny ordinances, and many oppose
' Liike.Nxii. CI 3:3; 1 Tim. iv. S ; lia. Iviii. 1-S; Nch. vii. 4-6.
ISA. XLII 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 291
ordinances, and many fall off from ordinances, and many ])rctend to live above ordinances, and under that pretence vilify the ordinances as poor, low, weak things, yet the beauty and glory of God s ordinances will one day convince the world of the excellency of the saints : Ezek. xxxvii. 26-28, ' I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever- more. My tabernacle also shall be with them ; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.' i I doubt not but there are many thousands of the precious servants of the Lord who are able to tell this poor, blind, dark world, from their experience, that they have seen, and felt, and tasted, and enjoyed more of God in his ordinances on this day than ever they have enjoyed on any other day. But,
4. Fourthly, You must sanctify the Sabbath, hy rising as early in tJie morning as your age, strength, health, and ability, and bodily infirmities loill permit, Ps. cxxxix 18 ; Gen. xxii. 3 ; Job i. 5. Abraham rose up early in the morning to offer up his only son ; and Job rose up early in the morning to offer up burnt-offerings. So David, ' My voice slialt thou hear in the morning. 0 Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee' — or marshal my prayer, as the Hebrew runs — ' and will look up' — or will look out as a watchman looks out of his watch-tower to discover an approaching enemy. So Ps. cxxx. 6, ' My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning : I say, more than they that watch for the morning.' Ps. Ixxxviii, 13, 'In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.' That this may the more work, and the better stick, seriously consider of these hints, &c. : —
[1.] First, God is the first being, and therefore of right deserveth to be served first, Dan. vii. 22, and ii. 20-22. If you can find any being before the being of that God, who is blessed for ever, let that being be served first: if not — as I am sure you cannot — then let the first being be first served. But,
[2.] Secondly, As God is the first being, so he is the best being : he is the choicest and chiefest good ; and therefore ought to be first minded and served, Ps. iv. 6, Ixxiii. 25, and cxliv. 15. But,
[3.] Thirdly, As God is the best being, so he is the greatest being : as he is the choicest and chiefest good, so he is the greatest good, the greatest majesty, the greatest authority ; and therefore he ought to be first served, Mai. i. 14. But,
[4.] Fourthly, God gives the greatest reivards, and the fullest re- wards, and therefore he ought to be served first, Ps. xix. 11 ; Mat. V. 12 ; 2 John 8. He gives ' a crown of righteousness,' 2 Tim. iv. 8 ; 'a crown of life,' Kev. ii. 10; 'a crown of glory,' James i. 12; 'a crown of immortality.' What have not men done, what won't men do, what don't men do for earthly crowns ? A crown is the top of royalty ; and how many princes have swam through the blood of thousands to their earthly crowns ! Oh how much more active for God should that glorious crown make us, which he has laid up for all that love him ! But,
^ Many in these daj'S are like old Barzillai, that had lost his taste and hearing, and so cared not for David's feasts and music, 2 Sam. xix. 25.
292 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
[5.] Fifthly, Christ rose early in the morniyig before day, and icent into a solitary place to ^Jra?/; and why sliould not ice make it our busi- ness, our ivork, our heaven, to ivrite after so noble a copy? Mark i. 35, 36. "We cannot glorify Christ more than by our conformity to him, than by imitating of tho.se blessed jjatterns that he hath set before us. But,