A Body of Practical Divinity

(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.

Use 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 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 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?