God, in all ages of the world, has honoured the Sabbath. On it he would be worshipped publicly, and would allow nothing to encroach on this day, which he claimed for himself. On the seventh day he called up Moses into the mount, while thousands waited below, to instruct him about the church under the Old-Testament dispensation. He was also pleased to divide the longer extent of time into Sabbaths, that as every seventh day was a Sabbath, so every seventh year should be sabbatical; and, by a week of sabbatical years, were the revolutions of the glorious jubilee marked out, which gave gladness to the whole land. Likewise, under the New-Testament dispensation, on this sacred day God began to reveal to his servant John what should befal the church to the end of the world. As he delights more in the gates of Zion than in all the dwellings of Jacob, so he displays more of his glory on this than on any other day. For many poor souls has he prepared of his own goodness on his own day; and on this day he will be waited upon, and inquired of, by the house of Israel. This day is like the dew of eternity watering the barren fields of time, which makes God's plantation grow; but the wicked, who regard no Sabbath, are like the tops of ragged rocks, on which, though softening showers descend, and refreshful dews drop plentifully down, yet are not one whit the better.

To rightly-exercised souls, every Sabbath is a precious type of the desirable resurrection; for as the body in that rises from the dust of death to immortality and life, from a bed of corruption to spotless perfection, and from a separate state (for death divides soul and body) to perpetual communion with God in Christ, being itself united in the harmony of all the

Y

parts and powers of the whole man, to feel distraction no more; so in this day, the soul, when kindly visited of God, has its resurrection from the gulph of carnal cares, into which it sinks through the week, where many rot, and never see a resurrection; and from spiritual death to the glorious immortality of faith, when, with the apostle, we can say, "We live, yet not we, but Christ lives in us; and the life we live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God." When we thus enjoy communion with God, the soul may be said to be, not only united to the body, but to have all its powers and faculties in union and harmony among themselves; but when we depart from him, we are divided and torn asunder with a thousand anxieties, and, till we return to him, never become the perfect man, the complete person; we have our bodies among the living, our souls in the congregation o the dead; an awful contrariety to a natural death !— The Sabbath is also a foretaste and earnest of the eternal Sabbath of rest that is reserved for the saints above.

This divine day should be prepared for while approaching, sanctified when present, nor forgotten when past. God, as our Creator, we should remember, who sanctified the seventh day; as our Redeemer, who changed it from the seventh to the first day of the week, when he rose triumphant over death; and as our Judge, who, ere long, will swallow up all these passing refreshings in an eternal Sabbath of This day, which God has so often honoured with his appearance, not only to the disciples of old, but to the souls of his saints in all ages, should be honoured by every one that bears the Christian name. This is the day in which Zion's courts are thronged,

rest.

and in which, in his temple, every one talks of his glory. On this day the church-militant approaches nearest to the church-triumphant, who go up to his house with joy, to mingle their hosannas to his exalted name; to whom, thus met in his sanctuary, he vouchsafes to show his stately steps of majesty, and the manifestations of his glory, whereby his saints are strengthened to hold on their way through this howling wilderness, till the everlasting Sabbath dawn, and rest eternal be their portion.

MEDITATION CIII.

ELIJAH AND ELISHA; A DIALOGUE.

Under sail, June 17, 1759.

WHEN the Lord would take up his dear servant Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, which was known, at least to all the sons of the prophets, the pious Elisha attends his venerable master, and, when desired by him to stay behind him, protests that he will not leave him; he says not, till death part them, but conscious that Elijah was to ascend to bliss as Enoch had done before, he is determined, if he may not enter in with him, yet to attend him to the very gates of glory. When the reverend seer sees the firm resolution of his promising pupil, he desists, and proposes what he would desire of him as the last office of kindness he could do for him before he should be taken from him. The one having mentioned, the other having replied to the petition, they continue the divine dialogue, and walk on in expectation of the parting moment. And well may we conclude, that

the subject was of the sublimest nature between such great souls, and at such a period. Might we suppose the conference thus ?

Elijah. My dear Elisha, thou art now attending, with joy and sorrow mixed, thy aged master through the last stage of life. I am not, like other men, expiring on a death-bed, but am to be wafted to the other world without the separation of soul and body, and in a little thou shalt see me no more.

Elisha. O! then, my master, my father, let our converse be about the glory of the better country into which thou art soon to enter.

Elijah. It already refreshes me; the heavenly gale blows into my soul, and sheds a joy divine: To-day shall I behold his face in glory; a glory so exceeding great, that I cannot describe it, but only pant after it. -Let him come and take me to himself.

Elisha. What, pray, are those transcendent excellencies of the heavenly inheritance, that make thee so desire it?

Elijah. The bliss above is unbounded, pure, and permanent. The joys are transporting and divine. There God is enjoyed through his Son the Messiah, who is to assume our nature, suffer for our sins, take away our iniquities, and win eternal life for us ; whom all the sacrifices hold forth, all the types, washings, and sprinklings represent, and put us in remembrance of; to whom all we prophets bear witness; and there our seeing him shall make us like him, and change us from glory to glory.-Divide, ye heavens, that I may enter in.

Elisha. Does it create no uneasiness in thy breast, to leave the world, thy relations, and other concerns in it?

Elijah. Truly the world is to me as barren a waste, as wild a desert, as ever the wilderness was to our forefathers: And as to relations, as I got and found them from God, so I give them back, and lose them in God, who is himself to me all in all. Other concerns in the world have I none, but the Israel, the Zion of God, to whose protection, I commit her, who will be a wall of fire about her, and the glory in the midst of her; to whom (though but few in my days have kept from bowing the knee to Baal) “a seed shall do service, and shall be accounted to him for a generation." Yea, to leave the world makes me leap for joy, for sinners shall no more create me sorrow, and I myself shall henceforth cease to sin. There I shall join the church of the first-born, those that are written among the living in Jerusalem; and then, O how shall I sing to the eternal name, and never cease, and never tire! My bliss shall know no bound, my rapture no restraint, my gladness no alloy, my day no night, my sky no cloud, my light no shadow, my glory no decay, my praises no interruption, my delight no cloy, my strength no weariness, my subject no diminution, my pleasures no period, and my eternity no end.-Eternity! let it just now begin.

Elisha. O how should I rejoice to enter with thee, though through the dark passage of death, into that. triumphant state!

Elijah. A triumphant state, indeed! where God dwells in the full display of his glory, and where (not as below) the holy of holies stands eternally open for all the worshippers of God, who with freedom enter in. Trouble is debarred the seats of tranquillity, and pain the regions of immortality. No passion disturbs the soul, and perfect love casts out all