THIS day is called the Lord's day, the day in which he rose from the
dead. The Lord's day: every day, say some, is the Lord's day. Indeed
this, for discourse' sake, may he granted; but strictly, no day can
so properly be called the Lord's day, as this first day of the week;
for that no day of the week, or of the year, has those hadges of the
Lord's glory upon it, nor such divine grace put upon it, as his
first day of the week.
There is nothing, as I know of, that bears this title but the Lord's
supper, and this day. And since Christians count it an abuse to
allegorize the first, let them also be ashamed to fantasticalize the
last.
The Lord's day is doubtless the day in which he rose from the dead.
To be sure, it is not the old seventh day; for from the day that he
arose, to the end of the Bible, we find not that he did hang so much
as one twist of glory upon that; but this day is beautified with
glory upon glory, and that both by the Father and the Son, by the
prophets, and those that were raised from the dead thereon:
therefore this day must be more than the rest.
As for the seventh day, that is gone to its grave with the signs and
shadows of the Old Testament. Yea, and has such a dash left upon it
by apostolical authority, that is is enough to make a Christian fly
from it for ever. 2 Cor. 3.
God the Father leaves such a stamp of divine note and honor upon
this day, as he never before did leave upon any, where he saith to
our Lord, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee;" still
having respect to the first day of the week, for that and no other
is the day here intended by the apostle: THIS DAY, saith God, is the
day. "And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no
more to return to corruption, he saith on this wise, I will give
thee the sure mercies of David;" wherefore he saith in another
psalm, "Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption."
Now shall not Christians, when they read that God saith, THIS DAY,
and that too with reference to a work done on it by him so full of
delight to him, and so full of life and heaven to them, set also a
mark upon it? "This was the day of God's pleasure," for that his Son
did rise thereon; "and shall it not be the day of my delight in
him?"
Shall kings and princes and great men set a mark upon the day of
their birth and coronation, and expect that both subjects and
servants should do them high honor on that day; and shall the day in
which Christ was both begotten and born be a day contemned by
Christians?
If God remembers it, well may I. If God says, and that with all
gladness of heart, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee;"
may not, ought not I also to set this day apart to sing the songs of
my redemption in?
This day my redemption was finished.
This day my dear Jesus revived.
This day he was declared to be the Son of God with power.
Yea, this is the day in which the Lord Jesus finished a greater work
than ever yet was done in the world; yea, a work in which the Father
himself was more delighted than he was in making heaven and earth;
and shall darkness and the shadow of death stain this day? Or shall
a cloud dwell on this day? Shall God regard this day from above, and
shall not his light shine upon this day? What shall be done to them
that curse this day, and would not that the stars should give their
light thereon? THIS DAY! after this day was come, God never, that we
read of, made mention with delight of the old seventh-day Sabbath
more.
"The woman which thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the
tree." Gen. 3. The woman was given for a help, not a hinderance; but
Satan often maketh that to become our snare which God hath given us
as a blessing.
"And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast
done?" Gen. 3. What is this? God seems to speak as if he were
astonished at the inundation of evil which the woman by her sin had
overflowed the world withal. What is this that thou hast done? Thou
hast undone thyself, thou hast undone thy husband, thou hast undone
all the world; yea, thou hast brought a curse upon the whole
creation, with an overplus of evils, plagues, and distresses.
What is this that thou hast done? Thou hast defiled thy body and
soul, thou hast disabled the whole world from serving God; yea,
moreover, thou hast let in the devil at the door of thy heart, and
hast also made him the prince of the world. What is this that thou
hast done? Ah, little, little do sinners know what they have done,
when they have transgressed the law of the Lord.
As death and the curse came into the world by a woman, so also did
life and health: "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman." Yea, to
show how much those that came after did abhor the act of the mother,
this sex, in the Old Testament, coveted children, if happily this or
that woman might be the mother of the Saviour of the world. I will
say again, that when the Saviour was come, woman rejoiced in him,
before either man or angel. I read not that ever man did give unto
Christ so much as one groat; but the women followed him and
ministered unto him of their substance. It was a woman that washed
his feet with tears, and a woman that anointed his body to the
burial. They were women that wept when he was going to the cross;
and women that followed him from the cross, and that sat by his
sepulchre when he was buried. They were women that were first with
him at his resurrection-morn, and women that brought tidings first
to the disciples that he was risen from the dead. Women therefore
are highly favored, and show by these things that they are sharers
with us in the grace of life.
All the glory of this world, had not Adam had a wife, could not have
completed this man's blessedness. He would yet have been wanting.