A Body of Practical Divinity, Sermon 71
EXOD. XX.8.
Remember to keep the Sabbath-day Holy.
Vse I. See here a Christians Duty, To keep the Sabbath-Day Holy.
1. The whole Sabbath is to be Dedicated to God. It is not said, Keep a part of the Sabbath holy, but the whole day must be religiously observed. If God hath given us Six Days, and taken but One to himself, shall we grudge him any part of that Day? It were Sacriledge. The Jews kept a whole Day to the Lord, and we are not to abridge or curtail the Sabbath, (saith St. Austin) more than the Jews did. The very Heathens by the Light of Nature did set apart a whole Day in the Honour of their False Gods: *MacrobiusAnd Scaevola their High Priest did affirm, That the wilful Transgression of that Day could have no Expiation or Pardon. Whoever do rob any part of the Sabbath for servile Work or Recreation, Scaevola the High Priest of the Heathenish Gods shall rise up in Judgment against such Christians and condemn them. And they who say, that to keep a whole Sabbath is too Iudaical, let them show where God hath made any Abatement of the Time of Worship, where he hath said, You shall keep but a Part of the Sabbath. And if they cannot show that, it argues much Boldness to go to rob God of his Due. That a whole Day be design'd and set apart for God's special Worship, is a perpetual Statute while the Church remains upon the Earth, saith Pet. Martyr. Of this Opinion also were *Die Dominico nihil aliud vacandum nisi ad pietati… munia.Theodoret, Austin, Iraeneus, and the Chief of the Fathers.
2. As the whole Sabbath is to be Dedicated to God, so it must be kept Holy. You see the manner of sanctifying the Lord's Day, by Reading, Meditation, Prayer, hearing of the Word, and by Singing of Psalms, to make Melody to the Lord. Now, besides what I have said for the keeping this Day holy, let me make a short Comment or Paraphrase on that Scripture, Isa. 58.13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thy own ways, nor finding thy own pleasure, nor speaking thy own words. Here is a Description of the right sanctifying a Sabbath.
(1.) If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath.] That may be understood either Literally or Principally.
First, Literally. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, that is, If thou withdrawest thy Foot from taking long Walks or Journeys on the Sabbath-day. So the Jewish Doctors expound it. Or,
Secondly. Spiritually. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, that is, If thou turn away thy Affections (the Feet of thy Soul) from enclining to any worldly Business.
(2.) From doing thy Pleasure on my holy Day.] That is, Thou must not do that which may please the Carnal Part, as Sports and Pastimes. This is to do the Devil's Work on God's Day.
(3.) And call the Sabbath a Delight.] Call it a Delight, that is, esteem it so. Tho the Sabbath be not a Day for Carnal Pleasure, yet holy Pleasure is not forbidden. The Soul must take pleasure in the Duties of a Sabbath. The Saints of old counted the Sabbath a Delight. The Jews called the Sabbath, Dies Lucis, A Day of Light. The Lord's Day, on which the Sun of Righteousness shines, is both a Day of Light and Delight. This is the Day of sweet Intercourse between God and the Soul. On this Day a Christian makes his Sallies out to Heaven, his Soul is lifted above the Earth; and can this be without Delight? The higher the Bird flies, the sweeter it sings. On a Sabbath the Soul acts its Love to God; and where the Love is, there is the Delight. On this Day a Believers Heart is melted, q. d. quickned, enlarged in Holy Duties; and how can all this be, and not a secret Delight go along with it? On a Sabbath a gracious Soul can say as Cant. 2.3. I sat under his shadow with great delight, and his Fruit was sweet to my taste. How can a Spiritual Heart chuse but call the Sabbath a Delight? Is it not delightful to a Queen to be putting on her Wedding Robes in which she shall meet the King her Bridegroom? When we are about Sabbath-Exercises, we are dressing our selves, and putting on our Wedding-Robes in which we are to meet our Heavenly Bridegroom the Lord Jesus? And is not this delightful? On the Sabbath God makes a Feast of fat things, he Feasts the Ear with his Word, and the Heart with his Grace. Well then may we call the Sabbath a Delight; and to find this holy Delight, is to be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
(4.) The Holy of the Lord, honourable.] In the Hebrew it is foreign, Glorious. To call the Sabbath Honourable, is not to be understood so much of an outward Honour given to it by wearing richer Apparel, or having better Diet on this Day, as the Jewish Doctors corruptly gloss. This is the chief Honour some give to this Day. But thou shalt call the Sabbath Honourable, that is meant, of the Honour of the Heart that we give to this Day, reverencing it, and esteeming it the Queen of Days. We are to count the Sabbath Honourable, because God hath honoured it. All the Persons in the Trinity have honoured it, God the Father blessed it, God the Son rose upon it, God the Holy Ghost descended on this Day, Acts 2.1. And indeed this Day is to be honoured of all good Christians, and had in high Veneration. It is a Day of Renown: On this Day a Golden Scepter of Mercy is held forth. The Christian Sabbath is the very Crepusculum and Dawning of the Heavenly Sabbath. It is honourable, because this Day God comes down to us, and visits us. To have the King of Heaven present in a special manner in our Assemblies, makes the Sabbath-day honourable. Besides, the Work that is done on this Day makes it honourable. The Six Days are fill'd up with-servile Work, which makes them lose much of their Glory, but on this Day Sacred Work is done. The Soul is employed wholly about the Worship of God; it is Praying, Hearing, Meditating; it is doing Angels Work, Praising and Blessing of God. Again, The Day is Honourable by vertue of a Divine Institution. Silver is of it self valuable; but when the Royal Stamp is put upon it, it is honourable. So God hath put a Sacred Stamp upon this Day, the stamp of Divine Authority, and the stamp of Divine Benediction. This makes it honourable. This is a sanctifying the Sabbath, to call it a Delight, and Honourable.
(5.) Not doing thy own ways.] That is, Thou shalt not defile the Day by doing any Servile Work.
(6.) Nor Finding thy own pleasure.] That is, not gratifying the Fleshly Part by Walks, Visits or Pastimes.
(7.) Nor Speaking thy own Words.] That is, Words Heterogeneous and unsuitable for a Sabbath, vain impertinent Words, Discourses of Worldly Affairs. Here is the sanctifying of a Sabbath described.
Vse II. If the Sabbath-day be to be kept holy, it reproves them, who instead of sanctifying the Sabbath, profane it. They take that Time which should be Dedicated wholly to God, and spend it in the Service of the Devil and their Lusts. The Lord hath enclosed this Day for his own Worship, and they lay God's Day common: God hath set an Hedge about this Commandment, Remember, and they break this Hedge. But he who breaks an Hedge, a Serpent shall bite him, Eccles. 10.8. The Sabbath-day in England lies bleeding: And Oh! that our Parliament would pour in some Balm into the Wounds which the Sabbath hath received. How is this Day profaned, by sitting idle at home, by selling Meat, by vain Discourse, by sinful Visits, by walking in the Fields, by using Sports. The People of Israel might not gather Manna on the Sabbath, and may we use Sports and Dancings on this Day? Truly it should be matter of Grief to us to see so much Sabbath-profanation. When one of Darius's Eunuchs saw Alexander setting his Feet on a rich Table of Darius's, he fell a weeping. Alexander ask'd him why he wept? He said, It was to see the Table which his Master so highly esteemed, to be now made a Footstool. So we may weep to see the Sabbath-day, which God so highly esteems, and hath so honoured and blessed, to be made a Footstool, and to be trampled upon by the Feet of Sinners. To profane the Sabbath is a Sin of an High Nature; it is a wilful Contempt of God: It is not only a Casting God's Law behind our back, but a trampling it under foot. God saith, Keep the Sabbath holy, but Men will pollute it: This is to despise God, to hang out the Flag of Defiance, to throw down the Gantlet, and challenge God himself. Now how can God endure to be thus saucily confronted by proud Dust? God will not suffer this high Impudence to go unpunished. This will draw God's Curses upon the Sabbath-breaker, and God's Curse blasts where it comes. No sooner did Christ curse the Fig-tree, but it withered. Tho the Law of the Land lets Sabbath-breakers alone; to rob a Man of his Purse shall be punished with Death, but to rob God of his Day shall not be punished with Death. But God will take the matter into his own hand; he will see after the punishing of Sabbath-violation: And how doth he punish it?
1. With Spiritual Plagues. He gives up Sabbath-profaners to hardness of Heart, and a seared Conscience. Spiritual Judgments are sorest. Psal. 81.12. So I gave them up to their own Hearts Lusts. A Sear in the Conscience is a Brand-mark of Reprobation.
2. God punisheth this Sin of Sabbath-breaking, by giving them up to commit other Sins. God to revenge the breaking of his Sabbath, suffers Men to break open Houses, and so come to be punished by the Magistrate. How many such Confessions have we heard from Thieves going to be executed! They never regarded the Sabbath, and so God suffered them to commit those hainous Sins, for which now they are to die.
3. God punisheth Sabbath-breaking by sudden visible Judgments on Men for this Sin. God punisheth them in their Estates, and in their Persons. One carrying Corn into his Barn on the Lord's Day, both House and Corn consumed with Fire from Heaven. In Wiltshire there was a Dancing Match appointed upon the Lord's Day, and one of the Company as he was dancing fell down dead suddenly, and so was made a Spectacle of God's Justice. The Theatre of God's Iudgments relates of one, who used every Lord's Day to hunt in Sermon-time, and he had a Child by his Wife with an Head like a Dog, and it cried like an Hound. His Sin was monstrous, and it was punish'd with a monstrous Birth. The Lord threatned the Jews, That if they would not hallow the Sabbath-day, he would kindle a Fire in their Gates, Jer. 17.27. The dreadful Fire which brake out in London began on the Sabbath-day; as if God would tell us from Heaven, he was then punishing us for our Sabbath-profanation. Nor doth God punish it only in this Life with Death, but with Damnation. Such as break God's Sabbath, let them see if they can break those Chains of Darkness in which they and the Devils shall be held.
Vse III. It exhorts us to Sabbath-holiness.
I. Make Conscience of keeping this Day Holy. The other Commandments have only an Affirmative in them, or a Negative: This Fourth Commandment hath both an Affirmative in it, and a Negative: Thou shalt keep the Sabbath-day holy: And, Thou shalt not do any manner of Work in it: To show how carefully God would have us observe this Day. Nor only must you keep this Day your Selves, but have a care that all under your Charge keep it. Thou, and thy Son, and thy Daughter, and thy Man-Servant, and thy Maid-Servant. That is, Thou who art a Superiour, a Parent or a Master, thou must have a Care that not only thy self sanctifie the Day, but those who are under thy Trust and Tuition. To blame are those Masters of Families, who are careful that their Servants serve them, but have no care that they serve God. They care not though their Servants should serve the Devil, so long as their Bodies do them Service. That which St. Paul saith to Timothy, 1 Tim. 6.20. Serva Depositum, Keep that which is committed to thy Trust, is of a large Extension. Not only have a Care of thy own Soul, but have a Care of the Souls thou art entrusted with. See that they who are under thy Charge sanctifie the Sabbath. God's Law provided, That if a Man met an Ox or an Ass going astray, he should bring him back again: Much more when thou seest the Soul of thy Child or Servant going astray from God, and breaking his Sabbath, thou shouldest bring him back again to a Religious Observation of this Day. Now that I may press you to Sabbath-Sanctification, consider,
(1.) God hath promised great Blessings to the strict Observers of this Day.1. A Promise of Joy. Psal. 37.4. If this Day be a Delight, Isa. 58.14. Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord. Delighting in God is both a Duty, and a Reward. In this Text it is a Reward, Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord: As if God had said, If thou keep the Sabbath Conscientiously, I will give thee that which shall fill thee with Delight. If thou keepest the Sabbath willingly, I will make thee keep it joyfully: I will give thee those Enlargements in Duty, and that inward Comfort as shall abundantly satisfie thee; thy Soul shall overflow with such a stream of Joy, that thou shalt say, Lord, in keeping thy Sabbath there is great Reward. And,2. Of Honour. I will cause thee to ride upon the High Places of the Earth: That is, I will advance thee to Honour, ascendere faciam; so Munster interprets it. Some by the High Places of the Earth understand Iudaea: So Grotius. I will bring thee into the Land of Iudaea, which is higher situated than the other Countries adjacent.3. Of Earth and Heaven. And I will feed thee with the Heritage of Iacob. That is, I will feed thee with all the delicious things of Canaan, and afterwards I'll translate thee to Heaven, whereof Canaan was but a Type—And another Promise, Isa. 56.2. Blessed is the Man that doth this, that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it. Blessed is the Man; in the Hebrew it is, [in the Plural, Ashre,] Blessedness. To him that keeps the Sabbath holy, here is Blessedness upon Blessedness belongs to him: he shall be blessed with the Vpper and Nether Springs; he shall be blessed in his Name, Estate, Soul, Progeny. Who would not keep the Sabbath from polluting it, that shall have so many Blessings entail'd upon him and his Posterity after him?
(2.) A Conscientious keeping the Sabbath seasons the Heart for God's Service all the Week after. Christian, the more holy thou art on a Sabbath, the more holy thou wilt be on the Week following.