Fourth Commandment.
REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY. SIX DAYS SHALT THOU LABOUR AND DO ALL
THY WORK: BUT THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH OF THE LORD THY GOD. IN IT THOU
SHALT NOT DO ANY WORK, &C.
28. The purport of the commandment is, that
being dead to our own affections and works, we meditate on the kingdom of God,
and in order to such meditation, have recourse to the means which he has
appointed. But as this commandment stands in peculiar circumstances apart from
the others, the mode of exposition must be somewhat different. Early Christian
writers are wont to call it typical, as containing the external observance of a
day which was abolished with the other types on the advent of Christ. This is
indeed true; but it leaves the half of the matter untouched. Wherefore, we must
look deeper for our exposition, and attend to three cases in which it appears
to me that the observance of this commandment consists. First, under the rest
of the seventh days the divine Lawgiver meant to furnish the people of Israel
with a type of the spiritual rest by which believers were to cease from their
own works, and allow God to work in them. Secondly he meant that there should
be a stated day on which they should assemble to hear the Law, and perform
religious rites, or which, at least, they should specially employ in meditating
on his works, and be thereby trained to piety. Thirdly, he meant that servants,
and those who lived under the authority of others, should be indulged with a
day of rest, and thus have some intermission from labour.
29. We are taught in many passages210
that this adumbration of spiritual rest held a primary place in the Sabbath.
Indeed, there is no commandment the observance of which the Almighty more
strictly enforces. When he would intimate by the Prophets that religion was
entirely subverted, he complains that his sabbaths were polluted, violated, not
kept, not hallowed; as if, after it was neglected, there remained nothing in
which he could be honoured. The observance of it he eulogises in the highest
terms, and hence, among other divine privileges, the faithful set an
extraordinary value on the revelation of the Sabbath. In Nehemiah, the Levites,
in the public assembly, thus speak: "Thou madest known unto them thy holy
sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of
Moses thy servant." You see the singular honour which it holds among all the
precepts of the Law. All this tends to celebrate the dignity of the mystery,
which is most admirably expressed by Moses and Ezekiel. Thus in Exodus: "Verily
my sabbaths shall ye keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your
generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that does sanctify you. Ye
shall keep my sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that
defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever does any work therein,
that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done;
but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever does any
work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the
children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout
their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the
children of Israel for ever," (Exodus 31:13-17). Ezekiel is still more full,
but the sum of what he says amounts to this: that the sabbath is a sign by
which Israel might know that God is their sanctifier. If our sanctification
consists in the mortification of our own will, the analogy between the external
sign and the thing signified is most appropriate. We must rest entirely, in
order that God may work in us; we must resign our own will, yield up our heart,
and abandon all the lusts of the flesh. In short, we must desist from all the
acts of our own mind, that God working in us, we may rest in him, as the
Apostle also teaches (Heb. 3:13; 4:3, 9).
30. This complete cessation was represented to
the Jews by the observance of one day in seven, which, that it might be more
religiously attended to, the Lord recommended by his own example. For it is no
small incitement to the zeal of man to know that he is engaged in imitating his
Creator. Should any one expect some secret meaning in the number seven, this
being in Scripture the number for perfection, it may have been selected, not
without cause, to denote perpetuity. In accordance with this, Moses concludes
his description of the succession of day and night on the same day on which he
relates that the Lord rested from his works. Another probable reason for the
number may be, that the Lord intended that the Sabbath never should be
completed before the arrival of the last day. We here begin our blessed rest in
him, and daily make new progress in it; but because we must still wage an
incessant warfare with the flesh, it shall not be consummated until the
fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah: "From one new moon to another, and from
one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the
Lord," (Isaiah 66:23); in other words, when God shall be "all in all," (I Cor.
15:28). It may seem, therefore, that by the seventh day the Lord delineated to
his people the future perfection of his sabbath on the last day, that by
continual meditation on the sabbath, they might throughout their whole lives
aspire to this perfection.
31. Should these remarks on the number seem to
any somewhat far-fetched, I have no objection to their taking it more simply:
that the Lord appointed a certain day on which his people might be trained,
under the tutelage of the Law, to meditate constantly on the spiritual rest,
and fixed upon the seventh, either because he foresaw it would be sufficient,
or in order that his own example might operate as a stronger stimulus; or, at
least to remind men that the Sabbath was appointed for no other purpose than to
render them conformable to their Creator. It is of little consequence which of
these be adopted, provided we lose not sight of the principal thing
delineated--viz. the mystery of perpetual resting from our works. To the
contemplation of this, the Jews were every now and then called by the prophets,
lest they should think a carnal cessation from labour sufficient. Beside the
passages already quoted, there is the following: "If thou turn away thy foot
from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath
a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing
thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord," (Isaiah 58:13, 14). Still there
can be no doubt, that, on the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, the ceremonial
part of the commandment was abolished. He is the truth, at whose presence all
the emblems vanish; the body, at the sight of which the shadows disappear. He,
I say, is the true completion of the sabbath: "We are buried with him by
baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life," (Rom. 6:4).
Hence, as the Apostle elsewhere says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat,
or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ," (Col.
2:16, 17); meaning by body the whole essence of the truth, as is well explained
in that passage. This is not contented with one day, but requires the whole
course of our lives, until being completely dead to ourselves, we are filled
with the life of God. Christians, therefore, should have nothing to do with a
superstitious observance of days.
32. The two other cases ought not to be classed
with ancient shadows, but are adapted to every age. The sabbath being
abrogated, there is still room among us, first, to assemble on stated days for
the hearing of the Word, the breaking of the mystical bread, and public prayer;
and, secondly, to give our servants and labourers relaxation from labour. It
cannot be doubted that the Lord provided for both in the commandment of the
Sabbath. The former is abundantly evinced by the mere practice of the Jews. The
latter Moses has expressed in Deuteronomy in the following terms: "The seventh
day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant;--that
thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou," (Deut. 5:14).
Likewise in Exodus, "That thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy
handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed," (Exod. 23:12). Who can deny that
both are equally applicable to us as to the Jews? Religious meetings are
enjoined us by the word of God; their necessity, experience itself sufficiently
demonstrates. But unless these meetings are stated, and have fixed days
allotted to them, how can they be held? We must, as the apostle expresses it,
do all things decently and in orders (1 Cor. 14:40). So impossible, however,
would it be to preserve decency and order without this politic arrangements
that the dissolution of it would instantly lead to the disturbance and ruin of
the Church. But if the reason for which the Lord appointed a sabbath to the
Jews is equally applicable to us, no man can assert that it is a matter with
which we have nothing to do. Our most provident and indulgent Parent has been
pleased to provide for our wants not less than for the wants of the Jews. Why,
it may be asked, do we not hold daily meetings, and thus avoid the distinction
of days? Would that we were privileged to do so! Spiritual wisdom undoubtedly
deserves to have some portion of every day devoted to it. But if, owing to the
weakness of many, daily meetings cannot be held, and charity will not allow us
to exact more of them, why should we not adopt the rule which the will of God
has obviously imposed upon us?
33. I am obliged to dwell a little longer on this
because some restless spirits are now making an outcry about the observance of
the Lord's day. They complain that Christian people are trained in Judaism,
because some observance of days is retained. My reply is, That those days are
observed by us without Judaism, because in this matter we differ widely from
the Jews. We do not celebrate it with most minute formality, as a ceremony by
which we imagine that a spiritual mystery is typified, but we adopt it as a
necessary remedy for preserving order in the Church. Paul informs us that
Christians are not to be judged in respect of its observance, because it is a
shadow of something to come (Col. 2:16); and, accordingly, he expresses a fear
lest his labour among the Galatians should prove in vain, because they still
observed days (Gal. 4:10, 11). And he tells the Romans that it is superstitious
to make one day differ from another (Rom. 14:5). But who, except those restless
men, does not see what the observance is to which the Apostle refers? Those
persons had no regard to that politic and ecclesiastical
arrangement,211 but by retaining the days as types of spiritual
things, they in so far obscured the glory of Christ, and the light of the
Gospel. They did not desist from manual labour on the ground of its interfering
with sacred study and meditation, but as a kind of religious observance;
because they dreamed that by their cessation from labour, they were cultivating
the mysteries which had of old been committed to them. It was, I say, against
this preposterous observance of days that the Apostle inveighs, and not against
that legitimate selection which is subservient to the peace of Christian
society. For in the churches established by him, this was the use for which the
Sabbath was retained. He tells the Corinthians to set the first day apart for
collecting contributions for the relief of their brethren at Jerusalem (1 Cor.
16:2). If superstition is dreaded, there was more danger in keeping the Jewish
sabbath than the Lord's day as Christians now do. It being expedient to
overthrow superstition, the Jewish holy day was abolished; and as a thing
necessary to retain decency, orders and peace, in the Church, another day was
appointed for that purpose.
34. It was not, however, without a reason that
the early Christians substituted what we call the Lord's day for the Sabbath.
The resurrection of our Lord being the end and accomplishment of that true rest
which the ancient sabbath typified, this day, by which types were abolished
serves to warn Christians against adhering to a shadowy ceremony. I do not
cling so to the number seven as to bring the Church under bondage to it, nor do
I condemn churches for holding their meetings on other solemn days, provided
they guard against superstition. This they will do if they employ those days
merely for the observance of discipline and regular order. The whole may be
thus summed up: As the truth was delivered typically to the Jews, so it is
imparted to us without figure; first, that during our whole lives we may aim at
a constant rest from our own works, in order that the Lord may work in us by
his Spirit; secondly that every individual, as he has opportunity, may
diligently exercise himself in private, in pious meditation on the works of
God, and, at the same time, that all may observe the legitimate order appointed
by the Church, for the hearing of the word, the administration of the
sacraments, and public prayer: And, thirdly, that we may avoid oppressing those
who are subject to us. In this way, we get quit of the trifling of the false
prophets, who in later times instilled Jewish ideas into the people, alleging
that nothing was abrogated but what was ceremonial in the
commandment,212 (this they term in their language the taxation of
the seventh day), while the moral part remains--viz. the observance of one day
in seven.213 But this is nothing else than to insult the Jews, by
changing the day, and yet mentally attributing to it the same sanctity; thus
retaining the same typical distinction of days as had place among the Jews. And
of a truth, we see what profit they have made by such a doctrine. Those who
cling to their constitutions go thrice as far as the Jews in the gross and
carnal superstition of sabbatism; so that the rebukes which we read in Isaiah
(Isa. 1:13; 58:13) apply as much to those of the present day,214 as
to those to whom the Prophet addressed them. We must be careful, however, to
observe the general doctrine--viz. in order that religion may neither be lost
nor languish among us, we must diligently attend on our religious assemblies,
and duly avail ourselves of those external aids which tend to promote the
worship of God.