people might fill their hands and become Priests to a Tyrant's interest when prosperous villany has been bless'd in the Name of the Lord and suffering Innocence has been impleaded as guilty when swearing is in so much credit is look'd on as the Character of Greatness and rash oaths have the reputation of Gallantry when we that have the Name of God call'd upon us live unworthy of that calling make his Name be evill spoken of O! let us pray as the Church has taught us Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law The fourth Commandement The third was the rule of our words the fourth of our works and that which is consequent to them rest That teaches us holy talk This instructs us in holy walking for so our Church-Catechism has resolv'd the sense of this Command to serve God faithfully all the dayes of our life so that 't is not the seaventh day onely but all seaven that we are to serve God in He that would serve God well on the Sabbath in a holy rest must first serve him in his week's labour and doing the work of the six dayes well The second and third concern the Manner of his worship This more especially the Time It hath also as the other two had two parts the Precept and the Reason of the precept The precept is attended with a large explication what is meant by Sabbath and what meant by Keeping it Holy First we may take notice of the extraordinary manner wherein it is deliver'd 't is usher'd in with a Memento Then what is to be remember'd the Sabbath and the Sanctification of it Then follows the explication What is the Sabbath by Opposition first to our dayes of work the other dayes of the week six dayes shalt thou labour and doe all thy work which indeed is precept too as well as concession no less a Command to oblige us to diligence in our calling then a Grant to give us leave to follow it And the injunction is twofold that we labour take pains in our imployment set our selves a work and that we finish and make an end of our business and doe all that we have to doe Then secondly by Position which punctually sets down the day But the seaventh day is the Sabbath What is it next to Sanctify the Sabbath or keep it holy To doe no work on that day nothing of our ordinary imployment wherein the strictness of the Command appears that all of the family as well as the Master all of the city as well as the Magistrate are concern'd being set down here by name Thou master and mistress or magistrate or whatever governour and thy natural dependencies thy son and thy daughter and thy acquired relations whether by Covenant or hire thy manâ—servant and thy maid servant or by purchase and possession thy cattle or by sojourning the stranger that is within thy gates The reason is taken from God's own example whereof we have first the Narration how he made all things in six dayes and rested the seaventh and then the Design of his so doing that he might appoint the Sabbath wherefore he blessed the Sabbath-day or as the Septuagint have it the seaventh day and hallowed it REMEMBER We are too apt all over to forget our duty wordlings especially in the pursuit of their earthly concernments would scarce make a stop at the Sabbath and therefore this Command summons them with a particular Alarum a word of much weight in the Hebrew Idiom where the Verb should be twice repeated Remember to remember i.e. be sure by all means to remember and denotes the former old custom of keeping the Sabbath even from the beginning of the world and therefore presents it here as an ancient institution to be remembred And it quickens our care not only for the observation of the day when it comes but for our preparation for it before it comes we must think of it all the week afore hand and provide for it that nothing may divert us from the celebration of it THE sabbath-SABBATH-DAY A day of rest and leisure from the works of our ordinary calling that ceasing thus from our earthly affairs we may have opportunity to meditate on heavenly things and lift up our souls from the cares of this life to the contemplation of those joyes gloryes which those that serve God shall have in the world to come where there shall be an everlasting Sabbath TO KEEP IT HOLY To set it aside wholly for the service of God in publick by Prayer reading and hearing God's Word serving God in the solemn assembly in private by meditation and study of God's Book and other holy exercises We are to remember both the day and the keeping the day holy some are ready enough to remember the Sabbath as a time of leisure out of carnal indulgence but they are not so ready to remember the duty of the day to keep it holy and improve it for spiritual advantage SIX DAYES THOU SHALT LABOUR This as it declares the precept so it shews the equity of it if God allow us six we should not grudge him the seaventh Besides it has the force of a command and is deliver'd in the same manner as the other Commandements Thou shalt labour He that 's idle all the week has no right to the sabbath-Sabbath-rest He that 's careless in doing his own work on the six dayes is unfit to be imployed in God's service on the seaventh The word many times hath a peculiar signification for the service of God and thus it will inferr that every day is a Christian's Sabbath and he is to be doing God's work even when he is doing his own AND SHALT DOE ALL THAT THOU HAST TO DOE Dispatch all thy business and leave nothing undone against the Sabbath that thou mayst be wholly vacant and have thy thoughts as well as thy body at rest and thy mind free from all distractions of worldly cares thou mayst have nothing else to think upon but the worship of God This calls upon us for diligence in our callings that we must not doe our work by halves but go thorough with it And it gives a Typical intimation too that we would in this week of our mortality set upon and accomplish the necessary work of Repentance Faith and Obedience that we may have all our accounts clear'd e're the eternal Sabbath come upon us when if we have left that work undone we shall have no time allow'd us to go on with it and bring it to an end BUT THE SEAVENTH DAY This is the Ceremonial part of the Command but that a seaventh should be kept is Moral For the Iews in memory of the Creation were to observe the seaventh Day which with us is Saturday as their Sabbath whereon God having made all things rested But Christians in memory of a greater work of Redemption led by Apostolical practise have constantly observ'd the first day of the week to wit
tired nor Infinity be exhausted but he was pleas'd to put a period to his own extraordinary actings and by his own will determin the products of his boundless power Again if he had pleas'd he could have dispatch'd all his works in a day in a moment and not have made such leisurely progress and have done all at once But he chose a number of dayes to accomplish his great design in six dayes that there might be an orderly proportion and distance of time betwixt the productions of the several creatures and but six that the glory of his workmanship might not receive any disparagement from a seeming delay Now whether these six dayes in which the world was making were meant to signifie the continuance of the world for so many thousand years a thousand years being in Gods reckoning but as a day and the seaventh day of rest to typifie another thousand years of Christ's reign or an everlasting Sabbath in Heaven or whether any other mystery lye hid in the number of seaven whence fond antiquity might appropriate the seaven Planets each to his day and fonder Art divide the week according to planetary hours may be guess'd but cannot certainly be known Wherefore it may suffice us that it pleas'd God so to order his work and so to appoint a holy rest and he sure had very great reason for observing that order and making this appointment THEREFORE THE LORD BLESSED THE SABBATH-DAY AND HALLOWED IT He stamp'd upon it a particular respect set it aside from common imployment and business of life for holy and spiritual exercises that it might be spent in the commemoration of his wonderful works And if the institution were so solemn upon the account of Creation how much more will the memory of our Redemption heighten the solemnity and improve the observance of this holy day which our blessed Lord and Saviour the holy Iesus blessed by his rising again from the dead and hallowed by his apparition and discourse with his holy Apostles who have by their example recommended to the Church of God as the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week the day of our Lords Resurrection for which reason it is also call'd the Lord's Day Besides this weekly solemnity and day of rejoycing it is acknowledg'd even by those who are no great friends to the Churches authority that the Church hath power to appoint and set aside for the publick worship of God other peculiar dayes as occasion shall require such as are Anniversary Fasts and Feasts nor is the commemoration of the benefits obtain'd by Christ as his Nativity Passion Ascension c. and of the holy Apostles and other Scripture-Saints more ancient though it be handed to us from the most ancient and the best times then 't is convenient the fundamentals of religion being thus scatter'd through the course of the year and the Holy-dayes next to the Lords-day being the great remarks cognisances of Christianity This reason drawn from the creation which is the moral reason of the precept is in Deuteronomie which is the repetition of the Law omitted and another of a politick concern brought in stead of it as if the command were grounded upon an indulgence to servants and that upon a reflection upon the condition of the Israelites in Egypt where they had been made serve in a cruel bondage mention'd in the Preface Though those words there I suppose might be added only as a reason for the servants and the cattles rest and an argument to inforce the equity of that rather then to be the bottom and ground of the Sabbath it self and yet it seems strange that immediately after Moses tells them God spake these words and no more The sense of the command is this Thou shalt take great heed to the observation of my day and shalt sanctify my Sabbath and keep it holy with exercises of publick private devotion Thou shalt wait upon me in my sanctuary and appear before me in the great assembly Thou shalt come to my house in my fear and enter my courts with due reverence Thou shalt attend to my word obey my voice and shâ—lt bestow this sacred time wholly on the meditation of my Law Thou shalt receive my word with faith and wait upon me in the use of my ordinances Thou shalt set one day in seaven aside from all worldly concernments and thy usual employment and dedicate it and thy self to me Thou shalt prepare thy self and forecast thy business that no other thoughts may distract thee Thou shalt keep it a holy rest to the Lord shalt cause all that belong unto thee to keep it Thou shalt not do thy own works nor speak thy own words nor think thy own thoughts on that day but be taken up with the study of God's word and with the consideration of his works Thou shalt serve me faithfully on thy six dayes of work in a diligent attendance upon the dutyes of thy calling that thou mayst on my day of â—est meet with a blessing find pardon for thy failings and receive strength for thy performances Thou shalt breed up thy children in my fear and acquaint them with my wayes Thou shalt instruct thy houshold and make me known unto strangers Thou shalt be merciful to thy servants and thy cattle and shalt let them injoy the benefit of the Sabbath-rest Thou shalt so observe this rest as not to give thy self up to sloath and idleness nor spend the time in sports and vain recreations but make it a rest from sin as well as from work Thou shalt more particularly imploy thy self in remembring the Lord thy Creatour and thy Redeemer and thankfully acknowledging his benefits Lastly Thou shalt so pass this weekly Sabbath in holy meditations and a heavenly conversation that thou mayst fit thy self for the celebration of an everlasting Sabbath to be kept hereafter with Angels and Saints in Heaven after thou art deliver'd from the troubles of a wicked world How far have we come short of the observation of the Sabbath in these our times who forget the day and neglect the duty who neither labour on the six dayes nor rest on the seaventh as we should doe who profane the sanctuary and pollute the holy place using no reverence and behaving our selves in Gods presence with more rudeness then we would in the presence of men who have made our devotions but a lip labour and plac'd religion in the ear and have excluded God's word contained in the holy Bible and the wholsome forms of the Church to make room for the bold conceits and seditious discourses of men who have preferred Enthusiasms before the written word who have preach'd up rebellion and sacriledge and demolish'd the Churches of God in the Land broken down the sacred ornaments with axes and hammers who have multiplied sects and heresies and dishonour'd God in his solemn worship and in the publick assemblyes who have made void God's ordinances refus'd to
Rebell scrupulous of idolatry and yet delight in adultery and indulge himself in schisme envy and other works of the flesh If these things may be reconciled then Saint and Divel Christ and Belial heaven and hell may be joyned together Such men's religion is vain The duties to man follow in the second place and will à posteriori demonstrate the first table duties and he that 's thorough paced here gives a fair evidence that either he has made or means to make his progress further An honest man and yet an Atheist a charitable person and idolatrous a loyal subject a good neighbour and yet a swearer a Sabbath-breaker the Morality of such men is as counterfeit as the other's Religion was for how can he be faithful to his Prince who is false to his God or exercise charity aright towards men who fear 's not God's displeasure We must not part the two tables but take them together spiritualize our morality and civilize our religion Our love to God is seen in the worship we give him now the worship of God is either internal of the inward man and that is prescribed in the fiâ—st command or external and that is shewn forth in our gestures directed by the second in our words and speeches which are the subject of the third and in our work all the week and our rest on the Sabbath which is the business of the fourth commandement Our love to our neighbour is consider'd either relatively to our superiours c. in the fifth or absolutely to all men what so ever in the rest and that either externally in his body as to hurt in the sixth as to defilement in the seaventh command in his goods in the eighth and in his good name in the ninth or internally which strikes at the root of all evil concupiscence in the tenth commandement So that the first and last do more particularly restrain the inward man the rest do more immediately order the outward man yet so as that the thoughts and desires also are reduced to the same heads Having taken this brief survey before we proceed to the commandements in particular 't is necessary to take along with us three or four general rules according to which they are all to be understood One is that every Affirmative precept includes a Negative and on the other side where any sin is forbidden there the contrary vertue is injoyn'd thus the Commandements are like the flocks of Engedi every one bears twins The Commandements are most of them negative there being but two the fourth and fifth that are set down affirmatively yet he that has but a negative religion will hardly be acquitted by the Law 'T is not enough not to kill thy neighbour not to steal from him but thy charity must be imploy'd in helping him when he is in danger and in want nor will it serve turn that we do not worship images nor take God's name in vain but we are bound to worship God and to make a reverent use of his name Another is that where any duty is commanded or any sin forbidden there the several kinds degrees causes occasions signs circumstances whatsoever else belongs to that duty or that sin are together with it commanded or forbidden as murder includes in it hatred quarrel and all manner of hurt The expression indeed is scant but very comprehensive and of large sense The third is which was partly toucht at before that in every command not only gross acts but together with our deeds our words and above all our thoughts are consider'd it being God's prerogative to be a searcher of hearts and God of all parts requiring the heart and having erected there his judicatory even our own conscience and this was that great advantage of God's Law beyond all humane laws that it orders the thoughts and divides betwixt the joints and the marrow 'T is not sufficient then to have a demure outside like the Pharisees cups and platters but we must keep a clean inside for God requires truth in the inward parts And this is indeed the perfection that Evangelical obedience aims at sincerity the right ordering of our thoughts desires is the highest pitch of Christianity as giving God the great glory of his omniscience A fourth may be this that all Virtue consisting in a mean hath two extreams on each side one a vicious excess and a vicious defect which both fall under the prohibition though but one perhaps be named The Atheist which owns no God at all is as much a transgressour of the first precept as the Polytheist who has a multitude to pay his devotions to Fondness may be as great an errour in love as too much severity Prodigality transgresses the bounds of a liberal disposition as covetousness comes short when we are bid not covet that which belongs to another it is not meant we should fling away what 's our own Wherefore we must keep a middle road take heed of being righteous too much or too little we must neither turn to the right hand nor to the left The fifth and last rule is this That the same Grace or Sin the same good or bad act may in several respects be reduc'd to several commandements as the eating of the forbidden fruit and the disobedience of Lot's wife c. Indeed the whole circle round of virtues is like a gold-chain where if you break off one link you spoil the whole chain whence may have proceeded that note of St. Iames That he who breaks one Commandement is guilty of all not so much because the Authority of the Law-giver is the same in the several commands as by reason of that mutual coherence and dependence which the Commandements have with one another Most sins are made up of a complication and are like a bed of snakes enfolded together To this head may be brought those sins which are of a transcendent nature and are scarcely to be lodged properly and directly in any one precept but seem rather to include the violation of them all such as are Pride Hypocrisie Ignorance malice profaneness sloath with their opposite virtues meekness sincerity discretion charity zeal and diligence c. And some other Beldam sins which are the womb and outlet of other sins as presumption despair drunkenness and covetousness which the Apostle hath branded as the root of all evill and their contraries Faith Hope Temperance contentedness c. which all seem to be accumulated habits and so resolve themselves into many if not most parts of the Law Taking these rules along with us we shall with the more ease take the just measures of each command in its full latitude for God's Commandments as the Psalmist has observ'd are exceeding broad Much matter deliver'd in few words for so it became the Majesty of the Law-giver to use plainness and brevity to help the understanding and ease the memory of the hearers and he that would to purpose understand the
Sunday as their Sabbath whereon our Saviour rose again from the dead and shew'd himself to his Disciples Another difference betwixt us is that we are not obliged to that Iudaïcal strictness but are allow'd a chearfull freedom yet not so as to make it a day of pastime for it follows that it is THE SABBATH OF THE LORD THY GOD as appointed by him or To the Lord thy God as dedicated to his especial service a day wherein thou art to contemplate the works of the Lord wrought in the Creation and the mercyes of thy God shown forth in thy Redemption a time set apart not for thy business much less for thy sport but for God's glory and publick worship to be spent wholly in performances of holy dutyes IN IT THOU SHALT DO NO MANNER OF WORK Nothing of common drudgery of thy ordinary vocation of thy weeks work none of thy work for it 't is not meant that we should sit still and doe nothing but works of piety as going to Church and the Priest's offering their Sacrifices in the Old Law c. are God's work and works of necessity as provision of food c. are the works of Nature and works of Charity as healing the sick taking the oxe or ass out of the pit c. are works of Grace And these must and may be done without any violation of the Sabbath THOU God here cals all the family to an account so careful he is of his own day And whereas in the other Commandements Thou is directed to every body here it carryes a special warrant to the superiour seeming to require of him that he not onely keep it himself in his own person but take care also that all in his charge keep it too Thou whether thou art magistrate master or mistress of the house father tutor or whatever governour imploy thy authority to see my Sabbath duely observ'd Yet not so as that the superiours negligence shall be an excuse for the inferior's for they are all spoken too here by name AND THY SON Children are naturally more apt to neglect their duty then able to perform it or indeed willing to understand it They must be taught it then and kept to it Acquaint thy son therefore with my wayes and instruct him in my fear Train him up in good courses that he may not be prepossess'd with vicious customs Bring him to Church let him be couversant in Scripture and learn the principles of Religion and seek me early that he may grow up as in stature so in wisedom and grace and favour with God and good men AND THY DAUGHTER No age nor sex priviledg'd from Sabbath-duty And these two words include all inferiours who are not in a servile condition all children pupils scholars citizens subjects whose respective governours are particularly to heed their observance of this day THY MAN-SERVANT AND THY MAID SERVANT All thy servants whether hired or bought all that doe thee work and receive thy wages Neither thy Avarice nor their own lust shall imploy them and cause them to absent themselves from my service Servants that day 〈◊〉 God's servants and their master's fellow-servants yet to be commanded and overlook'd by their masters that they do serve God And indeed it is the master's great interest to see that this day be well observ'd in his family since he cannot well expect that his own work should prosper if God's work be neglected or that those servants will be faithfull in his service who doe not care to serve God THY CATTLE The Greek reads here as 't is express'd in Deuteronomie and thy oxe and thy ass and thy cattle i.e. all labouring beasts which man makes use of for tillage of the ground for carriage of burdens for going of journeys c. that they also may rest from their usual labour and may have a time of refreshment for there is a charity too due to these brute-servants and the good man is mercifull to his beast But does God take care of oxen Though they have a share in his providence yet what are they concern'd in his Law which is spiritual and holy 'T is for man's sake whom they serve in whose charge they are that they are here mention'd And indeed should the cattle have been left out it might have look'd like an allowance to worldly-minded men to have set them on work the attendance of that would have prov'd the imployment of men too for that beasts will hardly work alone without the direction oversight of men NOR THY STRANGER THAT IS WITHIN THY GATES He that sojourns with thee within thy city so the Magistrate is concern'd or thy guest in thy house and so 't is the duty of the Master of the family to see that strangers of what countrey or religion soever comply with this Law and doe not violate the Sabbath-rest by travell keeping market following their merchandise or any other worldly occasions The Hebrew words are sometimes taken in a special strict sense so as that the stranger means one of another countrey converted to the Iewish profession and observances call'd otherwise a Proselyte and the Gates being the place of session or assize where the Iudges and Magistrates met for the tryall and decision of causes mean the civil power and jurisdiction But they are here questionless to be taken in the larger and more common sense FOR IN SIX DAYES THE LORD This is the reason of the Command and shews farther the equity of it that we would not think much to doe as God himself did and indeed the morality of it too for this reason concerns all mankind Heathen as well as Iew wherefore to intimate the universal obligation it hath it sayes not the Lord thy God as before but only the Lord. MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH THE SEA AND ALL THAT IN THEM IS He finish'd the work of creation and did all which he had to do in that first week of the world And it would be worth our imitation to consider how God takes a review of every day's work and it would be well for us that we could every night before we take our natural rest take account of our actions and see that they are good and at the weeks end before we enter upon this spiritual rest survey the work of the whole week and say of it not that it were exceeding good but that at least it were not exceeding evil Two things in the method of God's working may be worth our particular notice that the evening is mention'd still before the morning as if God had taken counsel o're night what he should doe next day and that God made man last on the very Sabbath-eve as if he had made him for no other purpose then to keep the Sabbath in the admiration of his works and the celebration of his praise AND RESTED THE SEAVENTH DAY God might have been working on still and set forth his power in new productions for Omnipotence cannot be