The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A…

Now the reasons why this must be spent only in holy exercises, are taken from the ill effects that will follow if we do not spend it in these works. These ill effects we shall see in Exod. 31. 12. Where God commands them that they should abstain from all works, and keep it an holy, for if they do work even in making garments and things for the temple, which seemed to pertain to god, much more in things of their own, these two evils will follow, first they shall die the death, their life shall be taken away, they must die a natural death, and then secondly they must be cut off from their people, j. be subject to the curse of God, and be cast off from the people of God, by solemn excommunication. These be the punishments of polluting the Sabbath, no small punishments; and these God doth execute daily even among us, for though the law of the land takes not hold on such persons to put them to death, yet God gives them over to commit some sin which mans law punisheth with death, and the first cause of all and that at which God strikes, and which their own soul feels most heavy, as appears by the daily complaints, when they be brought to execution, is, that they never regarded the sabbath, had no care to hear Gods word, & to spend the day in duties of religion, & in prayer, but followed after vanity, and their own lust, and therefore God meets with them. And though the minister cannot by law excommunicate them and cast them out of the congregation, yet God excommunicates them, that in the harts of Gods people they be as heathen men, their souls are cut of from the church, they have no life of grace, no fruit or working of the word and sacraments, more then of any idle tale, and profane story, no grace wrought by it, no death of sin, no hope nor desire of heaven, but live as beasts; no recourse to God in Christ Jesus, nor no virtue that they draw from Christ, so that indeed they do not live in Christ, but are dead in their spirit, while they ⟨p. 72⟩live in their bodies. They may say indeed & say true, that they can see no good by the exercises of the sabbath, they be unpleasant to them, and unprofitable, so that they have no benefit by it; and why is this, not because Gods ordinances want their force & virtue, but because they want reverence of them, and being wicked, contemn them;

Now the reasons why this must bee spent onely in holie exercises, are taken from the ill effects that will follow if wee doe not spend it in these workes. These ill effects wee shall see in