#57 Question: What is the fourth commandment?
Answer: The
fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; six days shalt
thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh is the sabbath of the Lord God;
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son nor thy daughter, thy
manservant or thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, not thy stranger that is within
thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that
is in then is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and hollowed it.”
#58 Question: What is required in the fourth commandment?
Answer: The
fourth commandment requires us the keeping holy to God such set times as he
hath appointed in his word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy
sabbath to himself.”
Answer: From
the beginning of the world to the Resurrection, God appointed the seventh day
of the week to be the weekly sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since,
to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.
Answer: The
sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day; even from such
worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending
the whole time in the public and private exercises of God Worship; except so
much as it be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.
Answer: The
fourth commandment forbideth the omission or careless performance of the duties
required, and profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself
sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words or works, about our worldly
employments or recreations.
Answer: The reasons annexed to the Fourth Commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the Sabbath Day.
