A Preservative of Piety, Part 1 · Chapter 4 · Section 4
4. The Judgements of God, threatned against, and inflicted upon, Sabbath-profaners.
Here I shall make use of the Text in hand, and Nehemiahs relation, v. 18. which sheweth, that their Sabbath-profanation was not only evil in them, but was, and they might fear it would be, very evil to them. The judgement described in this Scripture, hath four sad things in it.
1. It is hereditary] As when a disease is hereditary, and passeth from Father to child, the pain of that disease is hereditary also: so is it in this case; Did n…t your Fathers do thus? And where the sin is continued, the judgement is entailed, yea, it is said further, Did not God bring this evil upon us? When there is a generation of Sabbath-breakers, they pay for their Fathers sin, and their own both together, as it was in this long captivity; And now they had cause to fear further judgement, They being risen up in th…ir Fathers stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel, Numb. 3….14.
2. It is very harmful] It is not only said, this evill, but [all] this evil for God chastiseth his people, as their Congregation hath heard, (k)Hos. 7.12.And they had heard (besides what they heard at other times,(l)Levit. 26.34.) a little before these utmost miseries, that the Lord, for not hallowing the Sabbath, would kindle a fire in the palaces of Jerusalem, wh…ch should burn (seventy years together) and not be quenched, (m)Jer. 17.27.We find in former times how severe the sentence of God himself was upon him that did but gather sticks on the Sabbath day, (n)Numb. 15.32.35.: And about the same time, when they greatly polluted the Lords Sabbaths, he said, He would p…wr forth his fury upon them, to destroy them in the Wildernesse (o)Ezek. 20.13.; wherein there were mighty slaughters made of them (p)Numb. 14.29. & 26.65.but all that evill was little to all this evill, Neh. 9.32.36, 37. for the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people, (saith the Prophet) is greater then the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown in a moment (q)Lam. 4.6. & 1.12.. And again, Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like my sorrow. Godly Magistrates make laws, for the holy observation of Gods holy day, and ungodly Officers leave them unexecuted: but the Supream Power will look to it, and the highest God will animate his Laws by Executions, which should make all of us fear, and tremble, and say, If we rebell to day (and Sabbath-breaking is Rebellion, Ezek. 20.13. Exod. 16.28.) God will be wroth to morrow (r)Josh. 22.17, 18.Yea, and that with the whole Congregation: For,
3. It is diffusive] It spreads far; Here is wrath [Upon Israel] Woe to him that commits Folly in Israel (s)Judg. 20.6. 2 Sam. 13.13.. For, that's a people near to God, and therefore should not be defiled. So woe to him that brings trouble on Israel (which Achan found) (t)Josh. 7.25: for Israel is a people dear to God, and therefore he would not have them to be wasted and consumed by those sins that send for general judgments. An Ague is one thing, the Pestilence another; he that brings the Plague into a City, may be an instrument of much mortality and misery; Now Sabbath-pollutions, are pestilential, that is, they destroy many, and make havock in Israel. They that set a City on fire, are most mischievous persons (to be an Incendiary is a name of infamy) but Sabbath-breakers set the whole Nation on fire (u)Jer. 17.27., and for their sakes, (amongst other notorious and Israel-ruining sinners) Zion is plowed as a field, and Jerusalem becomes heaps (x)Mic. 3.12.: for by reason of this sin, God threatens such fury as shall consume his people, and that he will accomplish his anger against them, Ezek. 20.13, 21.
4. It is cumulative] that is; profaning the Sabbath layes on more weight on those who are heavy laden with the b…r…hen of judgement already: For here it is said (by them that had been very long in a very sad condition) Ye bring m…re wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath-day. There's never so much affliction, but God can send more; and being further provoked by this sin, he will send more, seven times more (y)Lev. 26.21.. They that be in a prosperous estate, should keep the Sabbath, that they may keep well when it is well (z)Jer. 17.24, 25.: and they that be in an evil case, should keep it, to prevent their being in a worse. The wrath of the King (of Heaven) is as the r…aring of a Lyon (a)Prov. 19.12., and more wrath is as a more dreadful roaring, the fore-runner of renting, Judg. 14.5. with Hos. 13.8.
In all this, it is to be remembred, that (the fourth Commandement still continuing) as there is now also a weekly Sabbath-day, so there is a like Sabbath-danger; we may not therefore shift or shake off the former threats and judgements as not belonging to these times; but rather consider, that, Whatsoever things were written (or acts of divine Justice recorded) aforetime, were written for our learning (b)Rom. 15.4., and all those things that which befel the transgressors of the Law of the Ten Commandements, in former ages of the World, happened to them as Types, that is, they are our examples and warnings; and plainly lay before us what we also must expect to suffer if we do as they did, even we upon whom the ends of the world are come (c)1 Cor. 10.6.11., for like sin, like judgement: Nor can any just reason be given why judgements of old for the breach of the fourth Commandement, should not be our admonitions, as well as those for the breach of the second Commandement (which Paul mentioneth), because there is not only much of that which is positive, and not so clearly natural, belonging to the second, as well as to the fourth Commandement: but also it is evident, that as the second Precept for the way of Religion; so the fourth for the Day, is written, among the Ten words of the Moral and ever-abiding Law of God, with the finger of God himself, Ex…d. 31.18.
That which remaineth to incite to Sabbath-sanctity, is,