Exercitations concerning the name, original, nature, use, and continuance of a day of sacred…

(2) It is so in respect of the duties of the Day, wherein the sanctification of the Name of God in it doth consist. All duties proper and peculiar to this Day, are duties of communion with God. Everlasting, uninterrupted immediate communion with God, is Heaven. Carnal Persons had rather have Mahomets Paradise, than Christs Heaven. But this is that which Believers aim at; eternal communion with God. Hereof are the duties of this Day, in a right holy performance, an assured pledge. For this is that which in them all we aim at, and express according to the measure of our light and Grace. Hereon, we hear him speak unto us, in his Word; and we speak unto him, in Prayers, Supplications, Praises, Thanksgivings, in and by Jesus Christ. In all, our aim is to give Glory to him, which is the End of Heaven, and to be brought nearer to him, which is its enjoyment. In what God is pleased hereby to communicate unto our souls, and in what by the secret and invisible supplies of his Grace, and Spirit, he carries out our hearts unto, lye and consist those first fruits of Glory, which we may be made partakers of in this World. And the first fruits are a pledge of a full harvest; God gives them unto us for that End, that they may be so. This then are we principally to seek after in the celebration of the Ordinances of God, whereby we sanctify his Name on this Day. Without this, bodily labour in the outward performance of a multitude of duties, will profit little. Men may rise early, and go to bed late, and eat the bread of care and diligence all the Day long; yet if they are not thus in the Spirit, and carried out unto spiritual communion with God, in the services of the Day, it will not avail them. Whatever there be either in the ⟨p. 440⟩service it self performed, or in the manner of its performance, or the duration of it, which is apt to divert or take off the mind from being intent hereon, it tends to the profanation rather than the sanctification of this Day.

(2) It is so in respect of the duties of the Day, wherein the sanctification of the Name of God in it doth consist. All duties proper and peculiar to this Day, are duties of communion with God. Everlasting, uninterrupted immediate communion with God, is Heaven. Carnal Persons had rather have Mahomets Paradise, than Christs Heaven. But this is that which Believers aim at; eternal communion with God. Hereof are the duties of this Day, in a right holy performance, an assured pledge. For this is that which in them all we aim at, and express according to the measure of our light and Grace. Hereon, we hear him speak unto us, in his Word; and we speak unto him, in Prayers, Supplications, Praises, Thanksgivings, in and by Jesus Christ. In all, our aim is to give Glory to him, which is the End of Heaven, and to be brought nearer to him, which is its enjoyment. In what God is pleased hereby to communicate unto our souls, and in what by the secret and invisible supplyes of his Grace, and Spirit, he carryes out our hearts unto, lye and consist those first fruits of Glory, which we may be made partakers of in this World. And the first fruits are a pledge of a full harvest; God gives them unto us for that End, that they may be so. This then are we principally to seek after in the celebration of the Ordinances of God, whereby we sauctifie his Name on this Day. Without this, bodily labour in the outward performance of a multitude of duties, will profit little. Men may rise early, and go to bed late, and eat the bread of care and diligence all the Day long; yet if they are not thus in the Spirit, and carried out unto spiritual communion with God, in the services of the Day, it will not avail them. Whatever there be either in the