The poor condemned man that is upon the ladder or scaffold, has, if one knew them, many a long wish and long desire that he might come down again alive, or that his condition was as one of the spectators, that are not condemned and brought thither to be executed as he.  How carefully also does he look with his failing eyes, to see if some one comes not from the king with a pardon for him, all the while endeavoring to fumble away, as well as he can, and to prolong the minute of his execution.  But at last, when he has looked, when he has wished, when he has desired and done whatever he can, the blow with the axe, or the turn with the ladder, is his lot:  so he goes off the scaffold; so he goes from among men.

And thus will it be with those we have under consideration:  when all comes to all, and they have said and wished and done what they could, the judgment must not be reversed; they must lie down in sorrow.

XXIX.  MISCELLANEOUS.

The sabbath.

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.”