Meditations and Motives for Prayer Upon the Seven Days of the Week, Frontispiece 7 – Prayer 7
Satterday, Gen: 1.
V: 24. And God said, Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his Kinde cattell and creeping thing, and beast of the Earth after his kinde; and it was so,
26. And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likenesse: and let them hauehave Dominion ouer the fish of the Sea, and over the fowl of the ayr, and ouer the Cattell, and ouer all the earth, and ouer eueryevery creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth,
MOTIVES FOR PRAYER VPONUPON SATVRDAY.
THis, O my soule, is my last day of labour; and if I can hold out now, but this one day more, I shall then be free from all danger of fainting for ever hereafter. Alas, if I should faile now in extremo actu, in the last stage of my labour, it would utterly make frustrate all my former dayes labours. For though there be a prize set for them that runne, yet not till they come to the end of the race: and till we can say with Saint Paul, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course; we have no right to say with him, There is a crowne of righteousnesse laid up for mee, which the righteous Judge will give mee at the last day. Be not therefore too confident my soule, for how many have gone cheerfully on, a great part of the race, and yet have given over before they came to the end? Did not Saul do so, a man chosen by God himselfe, to be a King of Israel? Did not Judas do so, a man chosen by Christ himselfe to be an Apostle? and who am I, that I should presume of my selfe not to faile; when Arietes gregis, such great ones as these have failed? No my soule, I presume not, but yet I have a confidence; and not a confidence neither, but with feare; a confidence of persisting, but yet with feare of not persisting; for as God saith; I will never leave thee nor forsake thee; which makes mee confident: so Saint Peter saith, Worke out your salvation with feare and trembling; which makes mee fearfull. But seeing it is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in thee onelyonly, O God, that shewest mercy: O therefore thou great God, in whose hand is the strength of the hils, and thy dayes never faile; vouchsafe to assist mee so with thy grace, that my strength may not faile mee in going up this hill of my last dayes labour; but that my sixe dayes of labour being ended with patience; I may enter into thy rest with joy, there to rest with thee, and with all blessed Saints for ever.
But although the labour of this day, as beeing the last, must needs be the least; yet it may be thought greatest: as the last mile of a journey seemes commonly the longest: whether it be that the body, wearied with the former labour, is lesse able to endure the present: or whether it be that the minds anticipating, makes any delay to appeare tedious; that it seemes the greatest labour of this day, is rightly to estimate the labour of the day: and to hold the skales even betweene fancie and judgement: at least to take care that fancie overweigh not judgement, but that knowing this labour to be the last, and to be concluded with a Sabbath, wee may the more cheerfully goe on, and continue it at least with patience.
But this day was once a day of rest: and how comes it now to be a day of labour? it was indeed a day of rest under the Law, but now under the Gospell, it is a day of labour. As long as the Father kept all power in his owne hands; so long it was a day of rest; but now that hee hath given power to the Sonne to say: All power is given mee in heaven, and in earth: Now it is become a day of labour, for the Sonne must have his Sabbath too: and as the Father, a Sabbath for his worke of creation: so the Sonne, a Sabbath for his worke of redemption: and seeing there cannot be two Sabbaths within the compasse of seaven daies, therefore the old was to be abolished that the new might take place; and being no longer a Sabbath, a day of rest, it followes of necessitie to be a day of labour.
And a day of labour indeed, it is justly become: for after that the Jewes had this day sate watching the Sepulchre where Christ lay buried: a heavie worke for a Sabbath dayes rest: and that this day the Disciples of Christ had sate mourning for his departure; a sad solemnizing of a Sabbath dayes feast; and that this day Christ himselfe was descended into hell; a dolefull place for a Sabbath dayes triumph; was it fit for this day to continue its being a Sabbath any longer: when so many sad and mournfull workes were of all hands done in it? Certainly we may justly thinke that this day was then the very funerall of the old Sabbath: and that it then gave place for a new to succeed, which is the Sabbath we now celebrate: and thus, as this day which was before a working day, is now become a Sabbath: so that day which was before a Sabbath, is now become a day of labour.
And what then is the labour wee have to doe this day? What my soule, but the same which the two Maries did, when Christ lay buried in his grave: to provide spices and sweete odours to embalme his body: for is it enough to fit weeping and mourning for the dead; a thing which doth them no good: and not rather to doe something which may be for the ornament at least, if not for their comfort? And what then are the Spices we should prepare? O my soule, the true spices to embalme Christs body, are mortification, and repentance, faith, and charitie, and humilitie, and hee that comes with these spices, and seekes to embalme Christs body in the grave, shal heare an Angell say unto him: He is risen, he is not here: and well may say, hee is not there indeed, for he is risen already in their hearts that thus seeke: him: & though they know him not, & take him perhaps but for a gardner, as Mary did, yet is he the very true Christ & such a gardner, that wil plant in our hearts the sweet flowers of peace and joy; & then the spices we bring to embalme Christ dead, shall serve to embalme our selves alive: for being now alive in Christ, by the vertue of his resurrection, wee shall be made partakers of his Ascension, which is the last step of all our labours: when for our embalming him with spices, wee shall be embalmed by him with immortalitie; and have the fruition of an eternall Sabbath. But seeing, O blessed Saviour, I cannot have these spices for embalming of thee, unlesse thou first make them to be growing in mee; O vouchsafe so to garden and dresse my barren heart, with seedes of grace, that it may bring forth in mee the fruits of patience, of charity, and of a lively faith: to the embalming not onelyonly of my body, but of my soule: & not only in this life, but in the life that is to come.
But though this day be no longer a Sabbath day; yet it is a preparation of the Sabbath still, and retaines something of its former qualitie; and if preparatives be of good use in the Physicke of our bodies: they are certainly of no lesse use in the Physicke of our soules: and wee shall never indeed come kindly to our Sabbath, if wee make not preparation for it the day before. And we may know how necessary a preparation is to us for the Sabbath, if wee consider how necessary it was for the Lord of the Sabbath, for therefore came John Baptist to be a preparative for Christ, his doctrine was onelyonly Praeparate: Repent and amend your lives, for the Kingdome of heaven is at hand: but though John Baptist could preach repentance, yet John Baptist could not give repentance; this was a worke for the Lord of the Sabbath himselfe. O therfore most blessed Saviour vouchsafe to do that for mee which John Baptist could not doe; give mee true repentance, and love, and charity towards all men, that when I come and looke for my Sabbath, I may not be like the foolish Virgins, who came without oyle in their lamps: and being unprepared, were shut out of doores: but that I may heare thee say, Euge bone serve, Well done good servant, thoucomest prepared, and therefore enter into my rest.
But seeing there can be no entring into this rest, no comming to this Sabbath; but after these sixe dayes of labour; which is after all the daies of our life, it may not unfitly be here inquired, what should make us to be loath to die; which is nothing but a parting of the soule from the body? O my soule, and must not this be needs a heavie parting? yes, God knowes most heavie indeed, but though wee all find it to be so; yet who can tell the reason, why it is so? Is it that the soule hath certaine faculties, which she cannot use but by bodily organs: and these organs, she will want, if parted from the body; and therefore is not willing to leave the body? Or is it, that while the soule is in the body, she can pretend the frailtie of the body in excuse of her sinne: and this pretence shee will be to seeke of, if parted from the body; and therefore is unwilling to leave the body? Or is it that the body is Domicilium animae, the house and dwelling of the soule: and if shee be put out of this house, she knowes not where to have another; and therefore is not willing to leave the body? Or is it that the soule is so wedded to the body, that though it be to goe to her Sabbath; yet she is not willing to goe and leave the body behind her? Indeed how unkind soever the body be to the soule, yet the soule is to the body a most constant friend, and never leaves it, if she be not thrust out of doores by force. Or is it that naturally we feare nothing so much as violence: and it must be a great violence to separate them, whom God hath joyned together: & must needs be grievous to us, that are Gods creatures, to be seised on by death, that is none of his creatures? Or is it that death is the executing of that sentence of God upon us for our sin, Morte morieris, Thou shalt die the death, and because wee know not how farre that sentence extendeth, wee are therefore afraid of comming to it? Or is it that nothing is so fearfull as to fall into the hands of an enemy: and of all enemies the most terrible is death: which is therfore called The King of Terrors, and how then can we chuse but be afraid to die? Or is it perhaps, that because the soule cannot remember it had any being before it came into the body, it doubts whether it shall have any beeing, if it goe out of the body; and therefore to preserve her being, desires to stay in the body still? Or is it, that while the soule and body are united, they can be a help and comfort to one another; but once divided, the soule is sure to be subject to that wo of Salomon; Vae soli: Woe to one that is alone: and therefore is not willing to be without the body? Or is it, that while the soule is in the body, it is in state of capacitie to repent: and so long is not questioned about eating the forbidden fruit; but so soone as it it parted from the body, it is presently carried to the barre of triall: and because shee is fearfull to make her account, shee is therefore afraid to be parted from the body? Or is it that none would be willing to change a certaine estate, for a state uncertaine; and because wee know what it is to live; but know not what it is to be dead, we are therefore loath to change life for death? Or is it that while we live, we have the company of reasonable creatures; but once dead, no company but of wormes: and because such company is loathsome to us, wee cannot chuse but be loath to die? Or is it, that the pleasures of the body, are all our joy: and because these pleasures are by death taken from us, it makes us to be most unwilling to die? Or is it perhaps, that it is not so much the soule that fears death, as the whole living creature; and because every thing desires to continue its being: and this our being is by death dissolved, wee cannot therefore chuse but be loath to to die? Or is it, lastly, that the soule by contagion of this earthy body, is so besotted upon the earth, and earthly things, that nothing is so grievous to it, as to leave them; and leave them it must, if parted from the body; and therefore is not willing to leave the body? but alas what poore reasons are these, or if there be any better than these, to make us be loath to die; which is in effect, to make us be loath to goe to our Sabbath? For seeing we cannot goe to our Sabbath with soule and body both together: why should wee thinke much to goe to it with them asunder? Is it not worth rejoycing, to have the soule goe to God, though the body stay behind? must not their parting be as their meeting was? and was not the body made of earth, and made at first without a soule, and then God breathed a soule into it? and is it not just, that the soule should returne to God that gave it: and the body returne to the earth, of which it was made? It was the priviledge of only Christs body, to enter into his glory, without seeing corruption: it is sufficient for us, that though our bodies see corruptiō, yet that corruption shall put on incorruption: and then wee shall enter intire, both with body and soule, into our Sabbath. Although therefore there may be reasons to a naturall man of some colour, to make him be loath to die; yet to a man that knowes the mysteries of Christian Religion, and specially to a man regenerate, and that lookes with the eye of faith, they are easily discerned to be palpable errours, at least of ignorance, at best of of infirmity. Wherefore O my soule, be not dazled, nor deluded with these colours, but count it a happinesse to goe to thy Sabbath at any time: and the sooner the better: for then thou shalt have no more dayes of labour: and be not afraid of parting from the body: for once parted, thou my soule, shalt presently have a Sabbath of joy; and thy body shall have a Sabbath of rest, and that rest to continue, till it heare the voyce; Arise thou that sleepe, and God shall give thee light, and then that rest shall be turned into joy too: for as God at first brought the soule to the body, so hee will bring at last the body to the soule, when they shall meete againe with the greater joy; and shall be free from all feare of ever being parted from one another any more; but as they have passed these sixe dayes of labour together, so the seaventh day they shall enjoy their Sabbath together, and shall no more need to remember, to keepe holy the Sabbath day; seeing there shall be then no other dayes to hazzard the forgetting it: but as with God, so with us, a thousand yeares, or rather indeed eternity, shall be but as one day, only (my soule) be carefull to come prepared to make thy account, and then thou mayst be sure of a quietus est: be carefull to worke well these sixe dayes of labour, and then thou canst not doubt of having a Sabbath; yet not for thy workes sake, nor for thy labours sake; but for his mercies sake, that is the Lord God of Sabbath; and for his merits sake, that is Lord of the Sabbath.
But O my soule, is it enough, that wee bee not loath to die any day? Is there not rather cause wee should be glad to die every day? seeing each day hath peculiar motives to winne us to it? For if wee die upon the Munday, wee may be glad, because this being the first of our sixe dayes of labour, by dying now, wee escape the labours of all the dayes following: If we die upon the Tuesday, wee may be glad, because dying now wee give over working before the heat of the day; this being yet but as the morning of the weeke. If wee die upon the Wednesday, wee may be glad, because to die now, is but as the taking of a baite in the middest of a journey: all our life being as a travelling betweene two Sabbaths. If we dye upon the Thursday, we may be glad, because we may take our Viaticum with us, the body and blood of Christ, which was this day given, and is only able to refresh us after our labours: if we die upon the Friday, we may be glad, because we shall die upon the same day that Christ died, and so imitate him in the time of his death, though we cannot in the innocencie. If we die upon the Saturday, wee may be glad, because having now finished our sixe dayes of labour, wee are ready for entring into our rest, and have our workes to follow us: if we die upon the Sunday, wee may be most glad of all, because to die now, is but to shift our Sabbath; to put off an old, and put on a new; to leave a temporary Sabbath here on earth, for a Sabbath which is eternall in the heavens. But though these or any like reasons may be thought but idle thoughts, and no better than dreams: yet one sound reason wee are sure there is, to make us glad to die any day; and it is the same which Saint Paul discovered in himselfe, when hee said, Cupio dissolvi, I desire to be dissolved: and why to be dissolved? indeed for a very good reason, & esse cum Christo, that hee might be with Christ: for though Christ have made us a promise to be with us alwayes to the end of the world, yet it serves not our turne, that hee be with us, if wee be not with him; and be with him as Saint Paul desired to be, wee cannot, unlesse wee goe the same way, as hee went, the way of death; and then if death be the way to bring us to Christ; and but by death we cannot be with him: have we not just cause to alter our salutation of death, from saying, O mors quam amara, O death how bitter thou art! to saying, O mors quam jucunda, O death how pleasing thou art! and entertaine it with acclamations of joy, as a most welcome guest, at least as a harbinger to a most comfortable host: with whom wee shall sit at his Table, in his Fathers Kingdome: and where there shall be no more distinction of dayes; but all shall bee one entire day; and that day a Sabbath; and that Sabbath, though it have a morning, yet shall have no evening: because time shall be no more: but as death shall then bee swallowed up of victory, so time shall then be swallowed up of eternitie.
A Prayer for Saturday.
O Most gracious God, I am now come by thy mercifull assistance, to the last of my sixe dayes of labour, the day in which thou saidst to Moses, Get thee up into mount Nebo, and die there: and this mount of death I am now going up. O therefore be pleased O God, so to assist mee in my going, that I faint not by the way; for seeing my other dayes labours, though done upon even ground, have beene so painfull to mee: how much more will this be, which must be done up hill? And yet, O my soule, be not discouraged: for though the going up this hill be painfull, yet once come up, there will be a refreshing: seing it affords a prospect into Canaan; as it is justly said; The day of death is better than the day of birth: seeing this day brings us to the first sight of this wretched world: but that day brings us to the first sight of the blessed Canaan. O therefore make mee sensible, and apprehensive of the comfortablenesse of death; which though to the wicked it be a descending, and a going downe into the pit: yet to thy servants, it is an ascending and rising up hill; as it was with thy servant Aaron, who at thy appointment went up the mount Hor, and there died: and as it was with thy servant Moses, who at thy bidding went up the Mount Nebo, and there dyed: and as it was with thy deare Sonne our Saviour Christ, who when hee tooke his leave of the world, went up into a mountaine in Galilee, and from thence ascended into heaven. For there is no ascending up to heaven, from this valley of worldly cares: it must bee from the mount of faith, from whence onelyonly it can be reached. And O my soule, trust not to health; as though because thou art now in health and strong, thou wert therefore ere the farther off from going up this hill of death: for the eye of Moses was not dimme, nor his naturall strength abated: and yet when God did but say unto him, Get thee up to mount Nebo and die there he presently went up, and there died. For man liveth not by bread onelyonly, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. O therefore most gracious God, seeing I know not, what time thou wilt appoint mee to go up this mount of death: O therefore be pleased to make mee ready to goe up at all times: and to live in a continuall preparation: that so at last, I may die with Canaan in my eye, which alas, this valley of the world affords mee not to see. Indeed the labour of this day is to set on a roofe, upon all my other labours: and if this roofe be not well set on, all the building of my former labours will be soone demolished: O therefore thou that art the great builder of the world, thou that art the corner-stone, vouchsafe to assist mee in the setting on of this roofe, that it may be a fence to my other buildings: and that whatsoever the premises of my life have beene, I may at last make a good conclusion, and seeing where the tree falleth, there it lyeth: O let not this tree of my life fall in the valley of the world, where there is no Canaan to be seene; but let it fall O God in the mount of faith, from whence with my Saviour I may ascend up to heaven; to whom with thee O Father and thy holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
FINIS.
End of the text · Sir Richard Baker, Meditations and Motives for Prayer Upon the Seven Days of the Week (1642)