Sermon
Exodus 20:8 Remember to keep the Sabbath-day holy.
Use 1. See here a Christian's 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 has given us six days, and taken but one to himself, shall we grudge him any part of that day? It were sacrilege. The Jews kept a whole day to the Lord, and we are not to abridge or curtail the Sabbath, (says Saint Augustine) more than the Jews did. The very heathens by the light of nature did set apart a whole day in the honor of their false gods: and Scaevola their high priest did affirm, that the willful transgression of that day could have no expiation or pardon. Whoever robs 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 Judaical, let them show where God has made any abatement of the time of worship, where he has 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 designed and set apart for God's special worship, is a perpetual statute while the church remains upon the earth, says Pet. Martyr. Of this opinion also were Theodoret, Augustine, Irenaeus, 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 (Isaiah 58:13): If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Here is a description of the right sanctifying a Sabbath.
(1.) If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath.] That may be understood either literally or principally.
First, literally. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, that is, if you withdraw your foot from taking long walks or journeys on the Sabbath-day. So the Jewish doctors expound it. Or,
Secondly. Spiritually. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, that is, if you turn away your affections (the feet of your soul) from inclining to any worldly business.
(2.) From doing your pleasure on my holy day.] That is, you 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. Though 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 believer's heart is melted, that is, quickened, 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 (Song of Solomon 2:3): I sat under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. How can a spiritual heart choose 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 ourselves, 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, honorable.] In the Hebrew it is [in non-Latin alphabet], glorious. To call the Sabbath honorable, is not to be understood so much of an outward honor given to it by wearing richer apparel, or having better diet on this day, as the Jewish doctors corruptly gloss. This is the chief honor some give to this day. But you shall call the Sabbath honorable, that is meant, of the honor of the heart that we give to this day, reverencing it, and esteeming it the queen of days. We are to count the Sabbath honorable, because God has honored it. All the persons in the Trinity have honored 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 honored 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 honorable, 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 honorable. Besides, the work that is done on this day makes it honorable. The six days are filled 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 honorable by virtue of a divine institution. Silver is of itself valuable; but when the royal stamp is put upon it, it is honorable. So God has put a sacred stamp upon this day, the stamp of divine authority, and the stamp of divine benediction. This makes it honorable. This is a sanctifying the Sabbath, to call it a delight, and honorable.
(5.) Not doing your own ways.] That is, you shall not defile the day by doing any servile work.
(6.) Nor finding your own pleasure.] That is, not gratifying the fleshly part by walks, visits, or pastimes.
(7.) Nor speaking your 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.
Use 2. If the Sabbath-day is 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 has enclosed this day for his own worship, and they lay God's day common: God has set a hedge about this commandment, Remember, and they break this hedge. But he who breaks a hedge, a serpent shall bite him (Ecclesiastes 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 has 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 asked 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 has 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 a 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 says, 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 gauntlet, 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. Though 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 does he punish it?
1. With spiritual plagues. He gives up Sabbath-profaners to hardness of heart, and a seared conscience. Spiritual judgments are sorest. (Psalm 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 punishes 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 heinous sins, for which now they are to die.
3. God punishes Sabbath-breaking by sudden visible judgments on men for this sin. God punishes 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 Judgments relates of one, who used every Lord's Day to hunt in sermon-time, and he had a child by his wife with a head like a dog, and it cried like a hound. His sin was monstrous, and it was punished with a monstrous birth. The Lord threatened the Jews, that if they would not hallow the Sabbath-day, he would kindle a fire in their gates (Jeremiah 17:27). The dreadful fire which broke 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 does 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.
Use 3. It exhorts us to Sabbath-holiness.
1. Make conscience of keeping this day holy. The other commandments have only an affirmative in them, or a negative: this fourth commandment has both an affirmative in it, and a negative: You shall keep the Sabbath-day holy: and, You shall 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 yourselves, but have a care that all under your charge keep it. You, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant. That is, you who are a superior, a parent or a master, you must have a care that not only yourself sanctify the day, but those who are under your 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 says to Timothy (1 Timothy 6:20), Serva Depositum, Keep that which is committed to your trust, is of a large extension. Not only have a care of your own soul, but have a care of the souls you are entrusted with. See that they who are under your charge sanctify 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 you see the soul of your child or servant going astray from God, and breaking his Sabbath, you should bring him back again to a religious observation of this day. Now that I may press you to Sabbath-sanctification, consider,
(1.) God has promised great blessings to the strict observers of this day. If this day be a delight (Isaiah 58:14), then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. Delighting in God is both a duty, and a reward. In this text it is a reward, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord: as if God had said, If you keep the Sabbath conscientiously, I will give you that which shall fill you with delight. If you keep the Sabbath willingly, I will make you keep it joyfully: I will give you those enlargements in duty, and that inward comfort as shall abundantly satisfy you; your soul shall overflow with such a stream of joy, that you shall say, Lord, in keeping your Sabbath there is great reward. And, I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth: that is, I will advance you to honor, ascendere faciam; so Munster interprets it. Some by the high places of the earth understand Judea: so Grotius. I will bring you into the land of Judea, which is higher situated than the other countries adjacent. And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob. That is, I will feed you with all the delicious things of Canaan, and afterwards I'll translate you to Heaven, of which Canaan was but a type — and another promise (Isaiah 56:2): Blessed is the man that does this, that keeps 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 upper 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 entailed 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 you are on a Sabbath, the more holy you will be on the week following.
