Chapter 23. Of the Fourth Commandment.
WILLIAM PERKINS
Chapter 23. Of the Fourth Commandment.
The Fourth Commandment concerns the Sabbath: namely, that holy time consecrated to the worship and glorifying of God. The words are these:
Remember the Sabbath, to keep it. Six days shall you labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no manner of work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your man servant, nor your maid, nor your beast, nor your stranger that is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.
The Resolution.
[Remember] This clause insinuates that in times past, there was great neglect in the observation of the Sabbath, and it would have all degrees and conditions of men prepare themselves to sanctify that day — especially those who are governors of families, corporations, and cities, to whom this commandment is directed.
[To keep it holy, or to sanctify it] To sanctify it, is to sever a thing from common use, and to consecrate it to the service of God. Here are described the two parts of this commandment: the first of which, is rest from labour; the second is sanctification of that rest.
[Six days] These words contain a close answer to this objection. It is much to cease from our callings one whole day. The answer (together with the first reason to enforce the sanctification of the Sabbath) is in these words, taken from the greater to the lesser.
If I permit you to follow your calling six whole days, you may well, and must, leave one only to serve Me.
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The first is true. Therefore the second is true also.
The first proposition is wanting. The second, or the assumption, are these words: Six days, etc. The conclusion is the commandment itself.
Here we may see that God has given us free liberty to work all six days. No one can annihilate this freedom. Nevertheless, on extraordinary occasions, the Church of God is permitted to separate one day or more of the seven, as needed, either for fasting, or for a solemn day of rejoicing for some benefit received, Joel
2.15.
[The seventh day] The second reason for this commandment is taken from its end.
If the Sabbath were consecrated to God and His service, we must abstain from our labours that day.
And it was indeed consecrated to God and His service.
Therefore we must then abstain from our labours.
The assumption is in these words (the seventh day, etc.), where we must note that God alone has this privilege, to have a Sabbath consecrated to Him. And therefore, all holy days dedicated to any Angel or Saint, are unlawful, however the Church of Rome may have imposed the observation of them on many people.
[In it you shall do] This is the conclusion of the second reason, illustrated by a distribution from the causes. You, your son, your daughter, your servant, your cattle, your stranger, shall cease that day from your labours.
[Any work] That is, any ordinary work of your callings, and whatever may be done the day before, or left well undone till the day after. Yet, for all this, we are not forbidden to perform those works, even on this day, that are both holy and of present necessity.
Such are those works which, on that day, preserve and maintain the service and glory of God:
I. A Sabbath day's journey. Act 1.12, which is near Jerusalem, containing a Sabbath day's journey.
WILLIAM PERKINS
II. The killing and dressing of sacrificed beasts in the time of the law. Mat 12.5, Have you not read in the law, how on the Sabbath days, the Priests in the Temple break the Sabbath, and are blameless?
III. Journeys to the Prophets, and places appointed for the worship of God. 2Kng 4.23, He said, Why will you go to him this day? It is neither new moon, nor Sabbath day. Psa 84.7, They go from strength to strength, till everyone appears before God in Zion.
Such also are the works of mercy, by which the safety of life or goods is procured.
I. Such as that which Paul did. Act 20.9, As Paul was long preaching, Eutychus, overcome with sleep, fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and laid himself upon him, and embraced him, saying, Do not trouble yourselves. For his life is in him. Verse 12, And they brought the boy alive, and they were not a little comforted.
II. To help a beast out of a pit. Luk 14.5, Which of you, having an ox or an ass that has fallen into a pit, would not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day?
III. Provision of food and drink. Mat 12.1, Jesus went through the corn on a Sabbath day, and his Disciples were hungry, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. In provision, we must take heed that our cooks and household servants do not break the Sabbath. The reason for this is framed from the lesser to the greater, out of 2Sam 23.15-17, David longed and said, Oh that one would give me to drink from the water of the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate. Then the three mighty men broke into the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took and brought it to David, who would not drink of it, but poured it for an offering to the Lord. And said, O Lord, far be it from me that I should do this. Is this not the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would not drink.
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The reason stands thus: if David would not have his servants risk their bodily lives for his provision, nor drink the water when they had provided it, then much less should we risk the lives of our servants for our food.
IV. Watering of cattle. Luk 13.15, The Lord answered and said, You hypocrite, will none of you on the Sabbath days, loose his ox or ass out of the stable, and bring him to the water? On a like present and holy necessity, Physicians on the Sabbath day, may take a journey to visit the diseased, Mariners take their voyage, Shepherds may tend their flock, and Midwives may help women with child. Mar 2.27, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
[Within your gates] This word "gate" signifies, by a figure, jurisdiction and authority. Mat 16.18, The gates of hell shall not overcome it. Let this be a mirror in which all innkeepers, and those who entertain strangers, make look into themselves and behold what is their duty.
[For in six days] The third reason for this commandment is its example.
That which I did, you also must do.
I rested the seventh day and hallowed it:
Therefore, you must do the same.
God sanctified the Sabbath when he consecrated it to His service; men sanctify it when they worship God in it. In this place, we are to consider the Sabbath, to what extent it is ceremonial, and to what extent it is moral.
The Sabbath is Ceremonial in respect to its strict observation, which was a type of the internal sanctification of the people of God. And that is, as it were, a continual resting from the work of sin. Exo
31.13, Speak also to the children of Israel and say, Notwithstanding, keep my Sabbath, for it is a sign between me and you in your generation, that you may
WILLIAM PERKINS
know that I the Lord sanctify you. The same is recorded in Eze 20.12.
It also signified that blessed rest of the faithful, in the Kingdom of Heaven. Isa 66.23, From month to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. Heb 4.8-10.
If Jesus had given them a rest, etc.
The Sabbath is likewise Ceremonial in that it was observed the seventh day after the creation of the world, and was then solemnized with such ceremonies.
Num 28.9. But on the Sabbath day, you shall offer two lambs of a year old, without spot, and two tenth deals
[portions] of fine flour for a food offering, mingled with oil, and its drink offering. Verse 10, This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.
But now in the light of the Gospel, and the churches possessing it, the ceremony of the Sabbath has ceased.
Col 2.16-17, Let no man condemn you in food and drink, or in respect to a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath, which are but shadows of things to come; but the body is Christ. The observation of the Sabbath was transferred by the Apostles from the seventh day, to the day following. Act 20.7, The first day of the week, the Disciples having come together to break bread, Paul preached to them. 1Cor 16.1-2,
Concerning the gathering of the Saints, as I have ordained in the churches of Galatia, so you do also every first day of the week: let every one of you put aside by himself, and lay up as God has prospered him, so that then there is no gathering when I come.
This day, because our Saviour rose again on it, is called the Lord's day. Rev 1.10, I was raised in the spirit on the Lord's day.
The observation of the Sabbath thus constituted by the Apostles, was nevertheless neglected by those churches which succeeded them. But afterwards it was revived and established by Christian emperors, as a day most apt to celebrate the memory of the creation of the
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world, and for the serious meditation of the redemption of mankind. Leo and Anton. Edict, of holy days.
The observation of the Sabbath is Moral, in as much as it is a certain seventh day, preserves and conserves the ministry of the word, and the solemn worship of God, especially in the assemblies of the church. And in this respect, we are as much enjoined to rest from our vocations on this day, as the Jews were. Isa 58.13, If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your will on my holy day, and call my Sabbath a delight, to consecrate it as glorious to the Lord, and will honour
Him, not doing your own ways, etc.
Finally, it is Moral in that it frees servants and cattle from their labours, which on other days, do service to their owners.
The Affirmative Part Keep holy the Sabbath day. We do this if we cease from the works of sin, and our ordinary calling — performing those spiritual works we are commanded in the Second and Third Commandments.
I. To rise early in the morning, so that we may prepare ourselves to better satisfy the ensuing
Sabbath. This preparation consists in private prayers and taking account of our several sins. Mar 1.35, In the morning, very early before day, Jesus arose and went into a solitary place, and there prayed. Verse 39: the following day was the Sabbath, when he preached in the Synagogues. Exo 32.5-6, Aaron proclaimed, saying,
Tomorrow shall be the holy day of the Lord. So they rose up the next day early in the morning. Ecc 5.1, Take heed to your feet when you enter into the house of God.
II. To be present at public assemblies, at ordinary hours, to reverently and attentively hear there the word preached and read, to receive the Lord's Supper, and publicly with the congregation, call upon and celebrate the name of the Lord. 1Tim 2.1-3; Act 20.7; 2Kng
4.22-23.
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Act 13.14-15. When they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch, a city of Pisidia, and went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down. And after the lecture of the Law and Prophets, the rulers of the Synagogue sent to them, saying, You men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
III. When public meetings are dissolved, to spend the rest of the Sabbath in the meditation of God's word, and his creatures. Psalm 29, from beginning to end. Act
17.11, These were also more noble men than those who were at Thessalonica, who received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. We must also exercise then the works of charity, such as to visit the sick, give alms to the needy, admonish those who fall, reconcile those who are at war and discord among themselves, etc.
Neh 8.12, Then all the people went to eat and to drink, and to send out portions, and to make great joy.
The Negative Part Do not pollute the Sabbath of the Lord. This is a grievous sin. Mat 24.20, Pray that your flight is not in winter, nor on the Sabbath day. Lam 1.7, The adversaries saw her, and mocked her Sabbaths.
Lev 19.30, You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary; I am the Lord. In this part, these things are forbidden:
I. The works of our calling, in which if we do anything, it must be altogether in regard to charity, and not in regard to our own private commodity [commercial benefit].
II. Unnecessary journeys. Exo 16.29, Let every man stay in his place; let no man go out of his place the seventh day. It was for this reason: the master of the family must remain at home that day, to sanctify the Sabbath with his household.
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III. Fairs on the Sabbath day. Neh 13.19, When the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded the gates be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath; and some of my servants sat at the gate, so that there would be no burden brought in on the Sabbath day.
Read verses 15-18.
IV. All kinds of husbandry, such as plowing, sowing, reaping, mowing, bringing the harvest home, and other like things. Exo 34.21, In the seventh day you shall rest; both in earing time [plowing] and in harvest, you shall rest.
V. To use jests, sports, banqueting, or any other thing whatsoever, which is a means to hinder or withdraw the mind from that serious attention which ought to be in God's service. For, if the works of our calling must not be exercised, then much less these, by which the mind is as distracted from God's service, as by the greatest labour.
VI. An external observation of the Sabbath, without an internal regard for godliness. Isa 1.14-15, My soul hates your new moons and your appointed feasts; they are a burden to me. I am weary to bear them. And when you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; and though you make many prayers, I will not hear. For your hands are full of blood. 2Tim 3.5, They have a show of godliness, but deny the force of it; therefore, avoid such.
VII. The manifest profanation of the Sabbath, in pampering the belly, surfeiting, adultery, and other like profaneness, which is nothing but to celebrate a sabbath to the devil, and not to God.