Thomas Shepard on Sola Scriptura & Civil Government, Sabbath Breaking, & More

Thomas Shepard (1605-1649) was an important Puritan writer and pastor who participated in the founding of Harvard University and worked to evangelize the Indians. He also influenced the procuring of The Cambridge Platform, an important constitution for Congregational churches on church government and discipline. 

Below are some quotes regarding his views on:

• The binding authority of the Judicial Laws of Moses
• The Sufficiency of Scripture for civil government
• The need for rulers to punish violations of the First Table of the Law (including violations of the Sabbath)
• Toleration and abuse of power
• The law of nature, the Judicial Law, and commonwealths
• Why the death penalty for the Sabbath, and whether it binds nations today

As a Fence to the Moral Law, the Judicial Laws of Moses Bind all Nations

Thomas Shepard argues that those judicial laws of Moses that are a fence to the moral law bind all nations, since such a fence is as necessary today as it was for Israel:

The judicial laws, some of them being hedges and fences to safeguard both moral and ceremonial precepts, their binding power was therefore mixed and various, for those which did safeguard any moral law, (which is perpetual) whether by just punishments or otherwise, do still morally bind all nations; for, as Piscator argues, a moral law is as good and as precious now in these times as then, and there is as much need of the preservation of these fences to preserve these laws in these times, and at all times, as well as then, there being as much danger of the treading down of those laws by the wild beasts of the world and brutish men (sometimes even in churches) now as then; and hence God would have all nations preserve their fences forever, as he would have that law preserved forever which these safeguard; but, on the other side, these judicials which did safeguard ceremonial laws which we know were not perpetual, but proper to that nation, hence those judicials which compass these about are not perpetual nor universal; the ceremonials being plucked up by their roots, to what purpose then should their fences and hedges stand? As, on the contrary, the morals abiding, why should not their judicials and fences remain?

The learned generally doubt not to affirm that Moses’ judicials bind all nations, so far forth as they contain any moral equity in them, which moral equity doth appear not only in respect of the end of the law, when it is ordered for common and universal good, but chiefly in respect of the law which they safeguard and fence, which if it be moral, it is most just and equal, that either the same or like judicial fence (according to some fit proportion) should preserve it still, because it is but just and equal that a moral and universal law should be universally preserved; from whence, by the way, the weakness of their reasonings may be observed, who, that they may take away the power of the civil magistrate in matters of the first table, (which once he had in the Jewish commonwealth,) affirm that such civil power then did arise from the judicial, and not from any moral law; whenas it is manifest that this his power in preserving God’s worship pure from idolatrous and profane mixtures, according to the judicial laws, was no more but a fence and safeguard set about moral commandments; which fences and preservatives are therefore (for substance) to continue in as much power and authority now as they did in those days, as long as such laws continue in their morality, which these preserve; the duties of the first table being also as much moral as those of the second, to the preserving of which latter from hurt and spoil in respect of their morality, no wise man questions the extent of his power.[1]

The Sufficiency of Scripture for Civil Government

Shepard holds that Scripture provides all the guidance necessary for rulers to create good laws:

Because the law is sufficient to guide the whole man, in its whole course, in all the actions or occasions it meddles with or takes in hand, even in civil as well as in religious matters. Prov. ii. 9, "Wisdom teacheth every good path" [paraphrase]. Ps. cxix. 11, "I have hid thy word, that I might not sin" [paraphrase]. Whatever one doth without a rule from the word, is not of faith. Hence the word descends to the most petty occasions of our lives; it teacheth men how to look, (Ps. cxxxi. 1,) how to speak, (Matt. xii. 36;) it descends to the plaiting of the hair, (1 Pet. iii. 5,) moving of the feet, (Is. iii. 16;) and what is of Christian liberty hath its freedom from the word: a man must give an account at the last day of every stirring of heart, thoughts, motives, and secret words; and if so, then it must be according to the rule of the word; and hence the word only hath absolute power to bind masters, servants, and princes how they govern, and people how they subject; and this the Lord hath done to make men take Counsel from him, and walk in fear before him, and approve themselves to him, especially townsmen in their places not to consult without God.

2. All good laws and orders enacted in any place by men are either expressly mentioned in the word, or are to be collected and deducted from the word, as being able to give sufficient direction herein. For all the authority of the highest power on earth, in contriving of laws, is in this alone, viz., to make prudent collection and special application of the general rules, recorded in Scripture, to such special and peculiar circumstances which may promote the public weal and good of persons, places, proceedings. Prov. viii. 85 [15], "By me princes decree justice" [paraphrase]. Josh. i. 7, 8, "Do what Moses commanded; turn not on either hand" [paraphrase]. Object. But I can not see my way from hence always. Meditate therefore on it much, and then thy way shall prosper, etc. Many things Joshua did not particularly set down by Moses, but may be collected from it. Deut. i. 17—20, "The king is to have it, that he may prolong his days in the midst of Israel," in his kingdom [not sure of the connection between the quote and the verse cited]. What made Rehoboam to turn from these ways? He thought he could not stablish his kingdom without it; that was, therefore, the ruin of him and his kingdom.[2] 

Shephard likewise affirms the sufficiency of Scripture in civil government while discussing the magistrate's need to see the Sabbath observed:

And if superiors in families are to see their gates preserved unspotted from such provoking evils, can any think but that the same bond lies upon superiors in commonwealths, who are the fathers of those great families, whose subjects also are within their gates, and the power of their jurisdictions? The civil magistrate, though he hath no power to impose new laws upon the consciences of his subjects, yet he is bound to see that the laws of God be kept by all his subjects; provided always, that herein he walk according to the law and rule of God, viz., that, 1, ignorant consciences in clear and momentous matters be first instructed; 2, doubting consciences have sufficient means of being resolved; 3, bold and audacious consciences be first forewarned. Hence it is, that though he hath no power to make holy days, and to impose the observation of them upon the consciences of his subjects, (because these are his own laws,) yet he may and should see that the Sabbath day, (the Lord’s holy day,) that this be observed, because he doth but see to the execution of God’s commandment herein.[3]

The Need for Rulers to Punish Violations of the First Table of the Law (including violations of the Sabbath)

For Shepard, denying magistrates the duty to punish offenses against the first table of the law is a rejection of Christ's kingship. And so he says the following, noting particular offenders against the judicial law such as Sabbath-breakers, false prophets, and heretics (or at least promoters of heresy):

I conceive it is casting off Christ’s power to take away power from magistrates to punish sins against the first table, of which errors and heresies in religion are part. It is as clear as the sun, that the kings of Judah that were godly did it, and were commended for it; and it is as clear they were commended for it, not as types of Christ, but because they did therein that which was right in God’s eyes, and according to the commandment of the Lord, which judicial commandments, concerning the punishing of Sabbath breakers, false prophets, heretics, etc., God's fence to preserve moral laws, they are of moral equity, and so to be observed to this day of Christian magistrates, etc.[4] 

While arguing for rulers to prohibit profaning of the Sabbath, Shepard says the following in defense of the civil enforcement of the first table of the law:

By what rule did Nehemiah not only forbid the breach of the Sabbath, but did also threaten bodily punishment upon the men of Tyre? (although they were heathens, yet were they at this time within the gates and compass of his jurisdiction, Neh. xiii. 21.) Certainly he thought himself bound in conscience to see that the Sabbath should not be profaned by any that were within his gates, according to this fourth commandment. If kings, and princes, and civil magistrates have nothing to do in matters of the first table, (and consequently must give any man liberty to profane the Sabbath that pretends conscience,) why then doth Jeremy call upon princes to see that it be not profaned, with promise of having their crowns and kingdoms preserved from wrath if thus they do, and with threatening the burning up and consuming of city and kingdom if this they do not? (Jer. xvii. 19, 25, 27.) If civil magistrates have nothing to do herein, they then have nothing to do to preserve their crowns, kingdoms, scepters, subjects, from fire and blood, and utter ruin. Nehemiah was no type of Christ, nor were the kings of Israel bound to see the Sabbath kept as types of Christ, but as nursing fathers of the commonwealth, and because their own subjects were within their gates, and under their power; and therefore, according to this moral rule of the commandment, they were bound not only to keep it themselves, but to see that all others did so also.[5] 

On Toleration and Abuse of Power

The civil magistrate's abuse of power is often raised in defense of too much toleration. Shepard addresses this objection in the following way:

It is true civil magistrates may abuse their power, judge amiss, and think that to be the command of God which is not; but we must not therefore take away their power from them, because they may pervert it and abuse it; we must not deny that power they have for God, because they may pervert it and turn the edge of it against God; for if upon this ground the magistrate hath no power over his subjects in matters of the first table, he may have also all his feathers pulled from him, and all his power taken from him in matters of the second table; for we know that he may work strange changes there, and pervert justice and judgment exceedingly: we must not deny their power, because they may turn it awry, and hurt God’s church and people by it, but (as the apostle exhorts, 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2) to pray for them the more, that under them we may live a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty: it is a thousand times better to suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake and for a good conscience, than to desire and plead for toleration of all consciences, that so (by this cowardly device and lukewarm principle) our own may be untouched: it was never heard of, until now of late, that any of God’s prophets, apostles, martyrs, faithful witnessess, etc., that they ever pleaded for liberty in error, but only for the truth, which they preached and prayed for, and suffered for unto the death; and their sufferings for the truth with zeal, patience, faith, constancy, have done more good than the way of universal toleration is like to do, which is purposely invented to avoid trouble. Truth hath ever spread by opposition and persecution; but error, being a child of Satan, hath fled, by a zealous resisting it.[6]

While Shepherd held that rulers should tolerate the humble conscience, for him there is a world of difference between this and tolerating in any particular civil matter those who pretend conscience. 

Sick and weak men are to be tendered much, but lunatic and frantic men are in best case when they are well fettered and bound; a weak conscience is to be tendered, a humble conscience tolerated; errors of weakness, not wickedness, are with all gentleness to be handled; the liberty given in the reign of Episcopacy for sports, and pastimes, and may games, upon the Lord’s day, was once loathsome to all honest minds; but now to allow a greater liberty to buy, sell, plow, cart, thresh, sport upon the Sabbath day, to all those who pretend conscience, or rather that they have no conscience of one day more than another, is to build up Jericho and Babel again, and to lay foundations of wrath to the land; for God will certainly revenge the pollutions of his Sabbaths: if God be troubled in his rest, no wonder if he disturbs our peace: some of the ancients think that the Lord brought the flood of waters upon the Sabbath day, as they gather from Gen. vii. 10, because they were grown to be great profaners of the Sabbath; and we know that Prague was taken upon this day. The day of their sin began all their sorrows, which are continued to this day, to the amazement of the world. When the time comes that the Lord’s precious Sabbaths are the days of God’s church’s rest, then shall come in the church’s peace. (Ps. cii. 13, 14.) The free grace of Christ must first begin herein with us, that we may find at last that rest which this evil world is not yet like to see, unless it speedily love his law more, and his Sabbaths better.[7]

On the Law of Nature, the Judicial Law, and Commonwealths

Shepherd held that the law of nature could be better known by knowledge of God's law, or less known due to the corruption of sin. Moreover, many judicial laws are still natural and moral, and are binding on nations:

If more narrow inquiry be made, what the law of nature is, these distinctions must be observed:—

1. The law of nature is either of pure or corrupt nature.

The law of pure nature was the law of God writ on Adam’s heart in innocency, which was nothing else but that holy bent and inclination of the heart within to act according to the holy law of God revealed, or covenant made with him without; and thus Aquinas places the law of nature in this inclination. 

The law of corrupt nature is that dim light left in the mind, and moral inclination left in the will, in respect of some things contained in the law of God, which the apostle calls conscience, (Rom. ii. 15;) which natural conscience is nothing but the remnants and general principles of the law of pure nature, left in all men since the fall, which may be increased by more knowledge of the law of God, or more diminished and defaced by the wickedness of man. (Tit. i. 15.)

2. The law of corrupt nature is taken either more largely or strictly. 

As it is taken more largely, so it comprehends all that which is agreeable and suitable to natural reason, and that from a natural innate equity in the thing, when it is made known, either by divine instruction or human wisdom, although it be not immediately known by the light of nature; and thus many judicial laws are natural and moral, (though positive,) and of binding nature, unto this day. 

As it is taken strictly, so it comprehends no more but what nature immediately knows, or may know, without external instruction, as parents to be honored, man's life to be preserved.[8]

According to Shepherd, the moral law as seen in the law of nature is almost blotted out for the unsaved; however, while there is little known regarding matters of the First Table, there is a general printing of the notions of the Second Table of the law in their hearts which assists in the preservation of commonwealths:

If we speak of the law of nature, strictly taken, for that which is immediately and readily known by the common light of nature in all men, then it may be safely affirmed, that although the Sabbath should not be in this sense natural, yet it will not follow that it is not therefore moral; for the moral law, once writ on man’s heart in pure nature, is almost blotted out; only some rudera and old rubbish is left of it in a perverse mind and a corrupt heart. (Eph. iv. 18.) We see the wisest of the heathens making those things to be moral virtues (Junius instanceth in the law of private revenge, and we know they magnified will worship) which the Scripture condemns as moral vices and sins: God would have commonwealths preserved, in all places of the world, from the inundation and deluge of man’s wickedness, and therefore he hath generally printed the notions of the second table upon men’s hearts, to set bounds (as by sea banks) unto the overflowings thereof, and hence it is that they are generally known: but he would not have churches every where, and therefore there is but little known concerning matters of the first table, and consequently about this law of the Sabbath, which notwithstanding may be moral, although it be not so immediately made known.[9]

Why the Death Penalty for the Sabbath, and Whether it Binds Nations Today

Shepherd holds that the man who was executed for breaking the Sabbath in Scripture was not simply executed for gathering sticks, but for doing so presumptuously. He then ponders as to whether such a penalty applies today:

The man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath (Num. xv. 30) was put to death. What! for gathering of sticks only? Why then did not the just God put them to death who were the first offenders, (and therefore most fit to be made examples,) who went out to gather manna upon this day? (Ex. xvi.) This gathering of sticks, therefore, though little in itself, yet seems to be aggravated by presumption; and that the man did presumptuously break the Sabbath, and therefore it is generally observed, that this very example follows the law of punishing a presumptuous transgressor with death in this very chapter: and though it be said that they found a man gathering sticks, as if it were done secretly, and not presumptuously, yet we know that presumptuous sins may be committed secretly as well as openly, though they are not in so high a degree presumptuous as when they are done more openly: the fear of the law against Sabbath breakers might restrain the man from doing that openly which before God was done proudly and presumptuously; and though Moses doubted what to do with the man, who had that capital law given him before against Sabbath breakers, yet they might be ignorant for a time of the full and true meaning of it, which the Lord here seems to expound, viz., that a Sabbath breaker sinning presumptuously is to be put to death; and although it be doubted whether such a law is not too rigorous in these times, yet we do see that where the magistrate neglects to restrain from this sin, the Lord takes the magistrate’s work into his own hand, and many times cuts them off suddenly who profane his Sabbath presumptuously; and it is worth inquiring into, whether presumptuous Sabbath breakers are not still to be put to death; which I doubt not but that the Lord will either one day clear up, or else discover some specialty in the application of this judicial law, to that polity of the Jews, as most fit for them, and not so universally fit for all others in Christian commonwealths; but this latter I yet see no proof for; nor do I expect the clearing up of the other while the temper of the times is loose and lukewarm.[10]

Notes
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[1] Thomas Shepard, The Works of Thomas Shepard, First Pastor of the First Church, Cambridge, Mass. with a Memoir of His Life and Character: Volume III, ed. John Adams Albro  (Boston, MA: Doctrinal Tract and Book Society, 1853), 53, 54.

[2] Ibid., 346, 347.
[3] Ibid., 263.
[4] Ibid., 342.
[5] Ibid., 263, 264.
[6] Ibid., 264.
[7] Ibid., 264, 265.
[8] Ibid., 177.
[9] Ibid., 179.
[10] Ibid., 256.

Spurgeon on the Myth of Neutrality in Politics — and the Need for Nations to Acknowledge God, Rule by God's Law, and Enforce the Sabbath

In the following 11 queries we get insight into the political views of Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher.

Spurgeon believed that civil government was required to acknowledge God and therefore rule by His law—including by enforcing the Christian Sabbath. Note also how well he articulates the myth of neutrality in civil government—when the state ceases to acknowledge God, it does not become indifferent, but opposes God.

He also shows the myth of neutrality regarding education.

Spurgeon's 11 Queries on Politics 

1. Are not all mankind under law to God, and where and when did the King of all the earth announce that nations were to be free from his control, and from all recognition of his existence and authority?

2. Ought not a nation in all questions which necessarily involve religion, to decide for God, and according to his word, rather than for infidelity; and when a question is decided by numbers, is not every citizen burdened with a share of responsibility, and should he not give his vote on the Lord’s side?

3. If the case of a government appointed for secular rule be exactly parallel with that of a company for the management of a railway, so that neither may go beyond their special business, are not both the government and the company still bound by the laws of God; as for instance, but that which allots one day in seven for rest? And can either of them break such laws without sin? If it be true, that both are free from all allegiance to the law of God, where is this affirmed or implied in Scripture?

4. If a government has nothing to do with religion, by what right are public houses closed on Sundays at certain hours? Why are theaters closed on the Lord’s day? Why are chaplains provided for the Army and Navy? Why does not Parliament sit on Sundays? We venture to challenge the believers in the non-religious principle to endeavor to carry out the logical inferences of their own assertion; most devoutly hoping that they will never succeed.

5. If a government should cease to acknowledge God at all, or in any sense, would it not at once become religious in the very lowest and worst sense, and be to all intents and purposes atheistic, and would it not necessarily by disregarding the Sabbath and in other ways, become a persecuting government towards the Christian faith, at least in the case of its servants and employees? And would it not thereby involve all its Christian subjects in a share of its sin?

6. As the non-respect of God’s word is as much a religion as the respect of it, and as the avowed believers in this religion are a small minority of the nation, is it consistent with justice that the governing power should be controlled by the negative faith or non-faith of the minority, in a word, by their ir-religion? If not, then in questions which necessarily involve religion, must not the government decide for respect to God and his Word?

7. How can religion be eliminated from education, unless it be eliminated from the teacher himself? If books of history and science, and reading lessons be expurgated of every religious idea, and the Bible be excluded, will not the work still be incomplete till we raise teachers of a colorless character, or so utterly destitute of any zeal that they will never intrude their faith in God, his providence, his Word, or his Son?

8. Supposing this last fact to be accomplished, what results beneficial and desirable are likely to follow from the teaching? What results which Nonconformist Christians could look upon with pleasure when on their knees before God in intercession for their country?

9. If it be said that Sabbath Schools will make up the deficiency, is it remembered that in large towns the government schools will mainly gather those who never have gone to such schools and never will? Is it also remembered that many of the lowest class of parents who now send their children to Sunday Schools as their only chance of learning to read, will probably withdraw them when they are forced to acquire that accomplishment, or at least can do so for nothing elsewhere?

10. Is this the freedom which our fathers fought and bled for, and this the liberty for which Nonconformists have suffered and labored—the liberty to deny to those who ask for it, permission for their children to read the Bible in the government schools? If it be so, was the object worthy of the effort?

11. As we have now with considerable clearness taught the world that the state has no power within the sphere of the church, would it not be as well to teach the further lesson, which is needed to balance the first, namely that God is King over all the earth, and that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of Lords? Is it not true that parliaments, and kings, and nations, are under the law of Christ, and that whoever may say, ‘Let us break his bands asunder, and cast his cords from us,’ such language ill becomes Christian men. 

C. H. Spurgeon, "Politics and the Separation of State from Religion," extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 5, no. 1, January 1996 (opc.org). Retrieved March 5, 2015 from http://www.opc.org/OS/html/V5/1d.html

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The Lord's Day Act in Canada (Theonomy Applied)

by Scott Trimble 

According to Leaving God Behind: The Charter of Rights and Canada's Official Rejection of Christianity by Michael Wagner, the Canadian Sabbath Laws (Blue Laws) were originally called The Lord's Day Act in Canada. They were in place until they came under attack in 1985 by Big M Drug Mart. They were attacked according to Section 2 A of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (sanctioned as law in 1982). 

Quoting Wagner regarding section 2, A: "The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms introduces into Canada a new concept of conscience and religion which prohibited expressly Christian Laws." (bold mine)

Since the Lord's Day Act was unashamedly biblical it was attacked just 3 years after the introduction of this God-hating Charter of Rights.

In my province of Ontario, the act was completely struck down in June of 1992. I can remember when I was a child that everything (except a corner variety store like a 7/11) was closed on Sunday. The children born in the last 22 years will have no such memory.

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Note about the Theonomy Applied Series: In quoting any particular law, we do not necessarily endorse every aspect of that law as biblical, whether it be the prohibition, sanction, court procedure, etc. Rather, we are merely showing the more or less attempt to apply biblical law in history, whether or not that application was fully biblical. Moreover, in quoting any particular law, we do not necessarily consider those who passed and/or enforced such a law as being fully orthodox in their Christian theology. Professing Christian rulers in history have ranged in their theology from being orthodox (that is, Reformed Protestants) to heretical (for example, Roman Catholics).    

Download: The Sabbath: A Serious Address to Those that Profane the Lord's Day (by Matthew Henry)

"The Sabbath: A Serious Address to Those that Profane the Lord's Day" by Matthew Henry, is available as a free download at Lulu. Below is a description, along with a preview.

Matthew Henry was a Nonconformist Presbyterian minister in England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He is most well known for his "Exposition of the Old and New Testament," which is perhaps the most popular Bible commentary used today. . . . The following work only briefly argues for the doctrine of the Christian Sabbath. He assumes that the reader believes and acknowledges the divine authority of the fourth commandment, and that the day is now to be observed on the first day of the week. His address is a pointed, exacting examination of the conscience of those that live in the neglect of the careful observance of the Sabbath day. He convincingly argues that Sabbath-breaking is dishonoring to God, harmful to our own souls, and destructive of the peace and prosperity of the church.

For those who struggle with seeing the Sabbath as a perpetual duty, this also includes two appendices arguing for the Sabbath's abiding validity. 

Was the Sabbath part of the Ceremonial Law? (William Twisse)

The Prolocutor of the Westminster Assembly briefly answers this question:

But is not the Sabbath a Ceremony, and so abrogated by Christ?  […] Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise, before there was any sin, and so before there needed any Saviour, and so before there was any Ceremony or figure of a Saviour.  And if they say, it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sins in Christ, we grant it, and therefore the day is changed, but no ceremony proved.

William Twisse, Of the morality of the fourth commandment, as still in force to bind Christians.  Delivered by way of answer to the translator of Doctor Prideaux his lecture, concerning the doctrine of the Sabbath(London, 1641), the preface.

originally posted at Reformed Covenanter

   

Queen Margaret of Scotland's Lord's Day Enforcement (Theonomy Applied)

Margaret of Scotland (1045-1093) was queen to Malcolm III, king of Scotland, from 1070-1093. 

During her reign, she was disturbed by the Sabbath-breaking on the part of Christians of the realm, and thus demanded that the Lord's Day be kept holy:

It was another custom of theirs to neglect the reverence due to the Lord's Day by devoting themselves to every kind of worldly business upon it just as they did upon other days. That this was contrary to the law, she proved to them as well by reason as by authority. "Let us venerate the Lord's Day," said she, "because of the resurrection of our Lord, which happened upon that day, and let us no longer do servile works upon it; bearing in mind that upon this day we were redeemed from the slavery of the devil."[1]

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[1] Turgot, Bishop of St. Andrews, Life of st. Margaret, queen of Scotland, trans., W. Forbes-Leith (Edinburgh: William Paterson, n.d.), 49, 50.

photo credit:

St. Margareths Chapel, Edinburgh

© Kjetil Bjørnsrud New York / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY -SA 3.0)  

Note about the Theonomy Applied Series: In quoting any particular law, we do not necessarily endorse every aspect of that law as biblical, whether it be the prohibition, sanction, court procedure, etc. Rather, we are merely showing the more or less attempt to apply biblical law in history, whether or not that application was fully biblical. Moreover, in quoting any particular law, we do not necessarily consider those who passed and/or enforced such a law as being fully orthodox in their Christian theology. Professing Christian rulers in history have ranged in their theology from being orthodox (that is, Reformed Protestants) to heretical (for example, Roman Catholics).    

   

Tonga's Sabbath Legislation (Theonomy Applied)

While it seems few if any civil governments today enforce the holy Sabbath (which is to be kept on the first day of the week), the nation of Tonga still understands God's requirement to prohibit work on the Lord's Day. In Tonga's Constitution, part six of the Declaration of Rights reads: 

Sabbath Day to be kept holy The Sabbath Day shall be kept holy in Tonga and no person shall practise his trade or profession or conduct any commercial undertaking on the Sabbath Day except according to law; and any agreement made or witnessed on that day shall be null and void and of no legal effect.[1] 

The following from a book on Tonga summarizes what is and isn't permissible in Tonga on Sunday (at least, presumably, in 2001, when the book was published): 

Buses don't operate, businesses are closed, sports events are prohibited and planes may not land. Contracts signed on Sunday are considered null and void and any Tongan caught fishing or guilty of any other breach of the Sabbath is subject to a T$10 fine or three months' hard labour. Even swimming at the beach is a no-no on Sunday for Tongans. 

Bakeries are the only shops allowed to open on Sunday afternoon thanks to an emergency law that was enacted after a devastating cyclone in the 1980s and never repealed. A few restaurants and tourist facilities open and the odd taxi is available, but that's about it. What most people do on Sunday is go to church.[2]

Interestingly, some hold that Tonga's Sunday should be a Saturday, due to Tonga's position on the time zone:

Because Tonga and Samoa lie east of the 180th meridian, both countries should logically be in the same day. But Tonga wanted to have the same date as Australia and New Zealand, so the line was drawn arbitrarily east of Tonga, putting it 1 day ahead of Samoa.

To travelers, it's even more confusing because the time of day is the same in Tonga and Samoa. When traveling from one to the other, only the date changes. For example, if everyone is going to church at 10am on Sunday in Tonga, everyone's at work on Saturday in Samoa.[3]

Notes
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[1] Read Tonga's Constitution here

[2] Matt Fletcher and Nancy Keller, Tonga (4th Edition) (Australia: Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd, 2001), 30.

[3] "The People," Frommer's (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000-2013). Retrieved January 1, 2013.

Note about the Theonomy Applied Series: In quoting any particular law, we do not necessarily endorse every aspect of that law as biblical, whether it be the prohibition, sanction, court procedure, etc. Rather, we are merely showing the more or less attempt to apply biblical law in history, whether or not that application was fully biblical. Moreover, in quoting any particular law, we do not necessarily consider those who passed and/or enforced such a law as being fully orthodox in their Christian theology. Professing Christian rulers in history have ranged in their theology from being orthodox (that is, Reformed Protestants) to heretical (for example, Roman Catholics).
   

2013 Sabbath Calendar

"2013 Christian Sabbath calendar with quotations from and portraits of Augustine, Beza, Chrysostom, Charlemagne, Cawdrey and Palmer, Matthew Henry, Andre Rivet, Athanasius, Cranmer, George Gillespie, and Emperor Leo The Wise.

"This calendar will include M'Cheyne's Bible Reading Program, and a daily plan for memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism."

preview and order calendar

William Gouge on when the Sabbath begins

50. Q. What other reason is there of the Lord’s day’s beginning in the morning?

A. Christ then rose. Mar. 16. 2, 9.

Of Christ’s rising in the morning no question can be made, all the Evangelists agree in the narration thereof.  Now the Lord’s day being a memorial of Christ’s Resurrection, if it should begin in the evening, the memorial would be before the thing it self: which is absurd to imagine.  As all God’s works were finished before the first Sabbath, so all Christ’s sufferings before the Lord’s day.  His lying dead in the grave was a part of his suffering: therefore by his Resurrection was all ended.  With his Resurrection therefore must the Lord’s day begin.

To make the evening before the Lord’s day a time of preparation thereunto, is a point of piety and prudence: but to make it a part of the Lord’s day is erroneous, and in many respects very inconvenient.

William Gouge, The Sabbath’s sanctification (London, 1641), pp 25-6.

originally posted at Reformed Covenanter as part 3 of a series on when the Sabbath begins (part 1, part 2).

      

Constantine's Sabbath Enforcement (Theonomy Applied)

"Let all judges in courts of law, and citizens of all
occupations, rest upon the Sunday, and keep it
holy with reverence and devotion."
--Constantine
(Attribution: Gunnar Larsson / CC BY -SA 3.0)

Constantine (272-337), Roman Emperor from 306-337, believed that the Sabbath was to be kept holy and enforced by the state.

This is shown in the Codex Justinianus, in a letter to a one Elpidius. As Sabbath enforcement is also to consider works of necessity and mercy (which can at times be challenging to apply properly), Constantine--rightly or wrongly--made allowances for farm work. 

In any case, Constantine exhibited a much higher view of Sabbath enforcement than most political leaders today. 

Constantine's decree reads as follows:

"Let all judges in courts of law, and citizens of all occupations, rest upon the Sunday, and keep it holy with reverence and devotion. 

"But they that inhabit the country may freely and at liberty attend on their tillage upon the sabbath-day. For oftentimes it falleth out, that they cannot upon another day so commodiously sow their seed, or plant their vines; and so, by letting pass the opportunity of a little time, they may hap to lose the profit given of God for our provision." 

Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3 [1]

Notes

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     [1] Cited in Heinrich Bullinger, The Decades of Henry Bullinger: Volumes 1-2, ed., Thomas Harding, trans. H. I. (Cambridge: University Press, 1849), 265, 266.

Note about the Theonomy Applied Series: In quoting any particular law, we do not necessarily endorse every aspect of that law as biblical, whether it be the prohibition, sanction, court procedure, etc. Rather, we are merely showing the more or less attempt to apply biblical law in history, whether or not that application was fully biblical. Moreover, in quoting any particular law, we do not necessarily consider those who passed and/or enforced such a law as being fully orthodox in their Christian theology. Professing Christian rulers in history have ranged in their theology from being orthodox (that is, Reformed Protestants) to heretical (for example, Roman Catholics).

   

The Day of Worship: Reassessing the Christian Life in Light of the Sabbath (by Ryan M. McGraw)

Ryan M. McGraw has written a new book on the Sabbath titled A Day of Worship: Reassessing the Christian Life in Light of the Sabbath. Below are the table of contents:

Introduction

1.      The General Importance of Sabbath

2.      The Importance of God’s Day of Worship

3.      The Presuppositions of Isaiah 58:13–14

4.      Revisiting Isaiah 58:13–14

5.      Worldliness

6.      What Is Missing?

7.      The Reformed Application of the Law

8.      Some General Practical Observations

9.      Legalism?

10.  The Eternal Sabbath

Appendix 1: Warfield on Foundations of the Sabbath

Appendix 2: Review of Jay Adams’s Keeping the Sabbath Today?

For more about the book, and to purchase it, click here
     

Breaking the Sabbath (Dan Horn)

This is a very sobering sermon about the danger the church is in regarding God's judgment for Sabbath breaking. May the church repent for making the Sabbath a day of entertainment and work, instead of a holy day of rest in the Lord.

A transcript of the sermon can be read here.  
    

Sermon Series on the Sabbath (Joe Morecraft)

Crime and Sabbath Breaking

(photo by Yumi Kimura)

by Steve C. Halbrook

(excerpt from God is Just: A Defense of the Old Testament Civil Laws)

We have noted positive effects Sabbath-keeping makes on following God’s commands.  It is a means of sanctification.  There is also a connection between Sabbath-breaking and rejecting God’s commands (cf. Rom. 1:28-32).   As Sir William Blackstone notes:  “A corruption of morals usually follows a profanation of the Sabbath.”[1]  In light of the following data, it appears Sabbath-breaking could be a major catalyst in turning to a life of crime.  According to Cotton Mather:

I have been desired by many malefactors to be with them at their execution; and then, in those last and sad minutes of their lives, they have sometimes cried out, “This, this, is a judgment of God upon my Sabbath-breaking; I may thank my Sabbath-breaking for all this; it was for my misspending of the Sabbath with vain persons, and in vain actions, that God has left me to that wickedness which has brought upon me all of this horrible misery!”[2]

And William Innes writes,

It has often been observed, that many of those who have been called to expiate their crimes against society by suffering the last penalty of the law, have dated their first departure from the right path to their early neglect of the Sabbath. Such cases I have met with, in visiting in their cells those condemned to death.[3]

"It has often been observed, that many of those who have
been called to expiate their crimes against society by suffering
the last penalty of the law, have dated their first departure
from the right path to their early neglect of the Sabbath."
--William Innes 

According to Wilbur Fisk Crafts,

Justice Strong, of the United States Supreme Court, has said:  “Those who have observed the administration of criminal law or been familiar with prison discipline have often heard the sad confession of a convicted criminal, that his career downward commenced with Sabbath-desecration.”[4] Judge Hale once said that of those who were convicted of capital crimes while he was upon the bench, he found very few who would not confess, on inquiry, that they began their career of wickedness by neglect of the Sabbath.  S. Cutter, agent of the New York Prison Association, writes me :  “Sabbath desecration is almost always connected with crime and is the forerunner of it.”

Of one hundred men admitted to the Massachusetts State Prison in one year, nine out of ten had been habitual violators of the Lord's-day and neglecters of public worship. The keeper affirms that hundreds of convicts have lamented their desecration of the Sabbath as the first and fatal step of their downward progress to ruin. The chaplain, Rev. J. W. F. Barnes, writes me, in response to inquiries : “When a man comes to prison who has been a church-goer, it makes a sensation. Why should it do so, saving for the reason that the idea of a church-goer and the idea of a criminal are so totally unlike ? The overwhelming majority of criminals hereabouts are Roman Catholics. They have holiday instead of holy day after mass.”

Similar testimony as to the relation of Sabbathbreaking to crime is given by Rev. J. G. Bass, chaplain for twenty years of the King's County Penitentiary, in Brooklyn, and many others.[5]

Rev. William Scoresby, in a book written in 1850, also links lawless criminality with Sabbath-breaking.  Regarding the evidence submitted to the “Select Committee of the House of Commons on the observance of the Lord’s day,” Scoresby writes that the Sabbath’s “influence on the moral condition of men … is so decisive in its character.”[6] 

Scoresby lists several examples.  The keeper of Newgate prison, Mr. Wontner, testified that of his incoming prisoners, nine out of ten either rejected the Sabbath or did not regularly attend worship services.  He added that many prisoners cautioned “their relatives and friends to observe the Sabbath,” and lamented that their own crimes traced “to their non-observance or breach of the Sabbath.”[7]

"Tell me what the young men
of England are doing on
Sunday, and I will tell you
what the future of England will
be." --English Prime Minister
William Gladstone

Benjamin Baker, who visited the Newgate prisoners for a twenty-year period, found among prisoners both an almost universal regret for Sabbath-breaking, as well as an almost universal acknowledgment of “Sabbath-breaking as the leading cause of their transgressions.”[8]  Baker attended at least 350 criminal executions.  Of these, nine of ten “have dated the principal part of their departure from God to the neglect of the Sabbath.”[9] 

The Chaplin of the New Prison, Rev. David Ruell, recounts a similar experience.  Of at least 100,000 prisoners under his care, prisoners generally mentioned Sabbath-breaking as a catalyst for their criminal acts.  Again, many prisoners regretted disregarding the Lord’s Day.  Ruell recalls that every capital offender was a Sabbath breaker.  In fact, says Ruell, “in many cases they [capital offenders] have assured me that Sabbath-breaking was the first step in the course of crime!”[10]  Prisoners sometimes requested that their Sabbath-breaking serve as a warning to others.  Furthermore, nineteen of twenty “prisoners of all classes … have not only neglected the Sabbath, but all other ordinances of religion.”  He adds, “So powerfully is my mind impressed with the subject, that I cannot forbear adding my conviction that Sabbath-breaking is not only a great national evil, but a fruitful source of immorality among all classes, and pre-eminently of profligacy and crime among the lower orders.”[11] 

Regarding the relationship between Sabbath-breaking and crime, the following from the Liverpool Courier, on August 11, 1847, is also helpful:

The closing of public-houses on the Sabbath-day is a measure which ought to receive the unanimous concurrence and support of all moralists, philanthropists, and true patriots. The statistics of criminal business for the borough of Liverpool show a regular increase in the committals to the borough gaol, commensurate with the increase of the population. In the year 1841-2, the prisoners in the borough gaol were 16,657; but in the next year, when the public-houses were partially closed on the Sabbath-day, the number sensibly diminished, instead of increasing with the increasing population; and even after two or three years they fell short of the above number; thus showing the beneficial effect of this merely partial restriction of the public-houses and beer-shops. The following shows the number of prisoners in the borough gaol for four years :—

1841-2. Total number of prisoners   .     .     .      16,657
1842-3. When the public-houses were partially
             closed on Sunday          .        .      .     .   15,512
1843-4.  .       .       .        .       .         .       .       .   15,790
1845-6.  .       .         .       .        .       .       .       .   16,214

These data are as convincing as figures can be. The decrease in the committals appears as the necessary and natural consequence of the reduced temptations held out to the lower classes by the venders of beer and spirituous liquors. All we now require is to go one step further—close the public-houses altogether on that day of public rest.[12]

In light of all this evidence, it is only fitting that Prime Minister William Gladstone of England said, “Tell me what the young men of England are doing on Sunday, and I will tell you what the future of England will be.”[13]  The future of a Sabbath-breaking society is one of moral decadence and rampant crime.  

Excerpt from the (Lord willing) upcoming book, God is Just: A Defense of the Old Testament Civil Laws: Biblical Theocracy, Justice, and Slavery versus Humanistic Theocracy, "Justice," and Slavery by Steve C. Halbrook.  Copyright © 2010 by Steve C. Halbrook.  Based on the master's thesis, God is Just: A Defense of the Old Testament Civil Laws

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     [1] Cited in Wilbur Fisk Crafts, The Sabbath for Man: A Study of the Origin, Obligation, History, Advantages and Present State of Sabbath Observance (Baltimore: Authors’ Union, 1894), 240.

     [2] Mather, Great Works of Christ in America, 395.  Cited in Daniel F. N. Ritchie, A Conquered Kingdom: Biblical Civil Government (Saintfield, Northern Ireland: Reformed Worldview Books, 2008), 319. 

     [3]  William Innes, “Its Influence on the Piety of Individuals,” in The Christian Sabbath: Considered in its Various Aspects, with a preface by Baptist W. Noel (Edinburgh: Johnstone and Hunter, 1850), 231.

     [4] “Giving Addresses in Defence of such laws, by Justice Strong of U.S. Supr. Court, and Others,” in The Right of the People to the Sunday Rest, 803.  Cited in Crafts, The Sabbath for Man, 240.

     [5] Crafts, The Sabbath for Man, 240, 241.

     [6] Rev. William Scoresby, Memorials of the Sea: Sabbaths in the Arctic Regions (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1850), 15, 16.

     [7] Ibid., 16.

     [8] Ibid.

     [9] Ibid., 16, 17.

     [10] Ibid., 17.

     [11] Ibid., 17, 18.

     [12] Cited in Peter M‘Owan,  “Several Prevailing Forms of Sabbath Desecration Exposed,” in The Christian Sabbath: Considered in its Various Aspects, with a preface by Baptist W. Noel (Edinburgh: The Religious Tract and Book Society of Scotland, 1856), 149, 150. 

     [13] Henry Gariepy, Daily Meditations On Golden Texts of the Bible: 365 of the Bible’s Greatest Texts: What They Are and What They Say to Us Today (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004), 21.