1 i 1^ [ "'4 Sd^4^

M ITIK l.ir.KAKV OF >\y-^ DR. F R A N C I S LI E \\ V. R , f-r- - ibiaColl.^ro, Xosv York. TJIK Oai-T OF y,^ ^ICHAEL REESE M.j^L?\V Of\Sau Francisco. 1 rs T 3 . ^ DIVINE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUAL OBLIGATION THE LORD'S DAY, ASSERTED IN SEVEN SERMONS, DELIVERED AT THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY, ISLINGTON, IN THE MONTHS OF JULY AND AUGUST, 1830. BY DANIEL WIL.SOIV, M. A. AUTHOB OF LECTURES ON THE ETIDEKCE3 OF CHRI3TIAITITY, &.C. Sftxst ^metfcati 3Etrftioti, WITH A RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE, BY REV. L. WOODS, D. D., Professor in the Theol. Sem. Andover, Ms. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY CROCK KR & BREWSTER, 47, Washine^ton Street: NEW-YORK:-J. LEAVITT, 182, Broadway. 1831. BV no wss Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, by Crocker &. Brews- ter, BMHO RECOMMENDATORY LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE PUBLISHERS. Gent. — This volume by the Rev. Daniel Wilson, on the at- thority and obligation of the Lord's day, I have just received from a friend in England, with a request that I would recom- mend the publication of it here, should it appear well suited to be useful in addition to the excellent discussions of the same sub- ject by Edwards, Dwight, Humphrey, and others of our own country. I hand it to you as the publishers of some other invalu- able works of this Author, and have no hesitation in expressing the opinion that it is adapted to be peculiarly useful in this coun- try. It can hardly fail, I apprehend, to convince and satisfy every candid reader, of the divine authority and perpetual obli- gation OF THE lord's DAY. The arguments and practical in- culcations of which it consists, all rest on this firm foundation, instead of being derived from considerations of mere expediency. As might be reasonably expected, therefore, from a writer of such well known ability and piety, this work is in all respects calcu- lated to promote a scriptural observance of the Lord's day, and it appears to me singularly happy in its tendency to engage the feelings and affections of the reader in the duties, public and pri- vate, of that hallowed period, and to invest it and all its services with associations in the highest degree appropriate and interest- ing. IV RECOMMENDATORY LETTER. Much might justly be said in commendation of the plan and style of this volume. A glance at the summary of its contents will at once show such a selection of topics, such a felicity in the statement of them, and in their order and connection; and such particularity and completeness, as cannot but afford to the reader very great satisfaction; and in the perusal, instead of a cold, ab- stract and formal manner and diction, he will be engaged with a style and manner characterized alike by scriptural simplicity, and by the fervency and earnestness of a truly Christian spirit. And it is to be noticed and commended as alike rare and inestimable in such a work, that the author having exhibited his positions in a strong light and sustained them by suitable arguments, brings them, with all the sincerity and fervor of his own spirit, to bear on the conscience and heart. Feeling himself a solemn convic- tion of the truths he inculcates, and a lively sensibility to their claims upon the consciences and their bearings upon the charac- ters and destinies of men, he cannot proceed with his reader with- out bringing him continually to consider these claims as personal,, and admonishing and exhorting him to yield to them an imme- diate and cordial obedience. To succeed in argument, and con- vince the understanding, does not satisfy him; he labors to gain the will, the affections, the whole inner and outer man. In the spirit of true friendship he takes his reader along with him as an accountable fellow-being in whom he has an interest, and to whom it is at once his office and happiness to do good. This characteristic method of the author is exhibitted with great advantage in his other works, and especially in his admira- ble volumes on the Evidences of Christianity; every page of which requires the reader to feel his personal interest in the ques- tion at issue. In all these hortatory and persuasive applications of his subject, the claims of Almighty God on the conscience and heart of man, are ever held conspicuously in view, in connection with man's accountability, and all the essential facts, doctrines, and sanctions of revelation. In this respect the present volume is not only suited to readers of every class, but worthy to be held a model to preachers and writers. There is an array of motives, and a ful- ness and faithfulness in it, which merit imitation. M RECOMMENDATORY LETTER. V There is another characteristic of this work which I may be excused for mentioning, namely, the Christian spirit which per- vades it — the humility— the benevolence— the reverence of the Supreme Being and of his inspired teachings and requirements— the deep sense of the prevalence and evil of sin, and of the un- speakable blessings of salvation — the manifestation of faith and hope — the harmonious and comprehensive view which seems ever present to the author of all the objects, doctrines, duties, blessings and prospects of religion. The present work, without pretending to be more elaborate or learned on every point than some of the treatises now extant on the same or parts of the same subject, is, I think more comprehen- si ve than any of them, and has the advantage of being altogether of a more popular cast; and it is on this account exceedingly well suited to the present time. There is at this moment great need ofsuchawork in this country. The public measures adopted within two or three years for promoting a better observance of the Lord's day, having been directed too exclusively to the at- tainment of civil and secular aid, instead of relying on the appro- priate aids and sanctions of scriptural instruction and example, have failed to occasion the benefits anticipated by their zealous patrons; and the attention which was awakened to the subject, has, it is to be feared, in a great measure disappeared. There is therefore special occasion and necessity for a popular work like this, full of warmth and earnestness, establishing in a satisfactory manner every position, answering and obviating objections and difficulties and carrying home to the bosom of the reader the prac- tical lessons and sanctions of the subject. It is by the preaching and publication of sermons and essays like these, that the public mind is to be enlightened and a refor- mation promoted. There exists a lamentable want of scriptural knowledge and conviction on this subject. Even the religious portion of the community have too generally but very defective notions and convictions, as to the divine authority and obligation of this hallowed day; and its observance depends too much on the authority of custom and expediency, and too little on the re- quirements and sanctions of revelation. A few passages of local application, in the admirable pastoral address of the author, and also near the close of the volume, the VI RECOMMENDATORY LETTER. judicious reader will readily accommodate, especially in the latter case, to facts and circumstances of a similar nature here. Most earnestly hoping that this work may be widely diffused through the country, and have all the influence under the divine blessing, which it is so well calculated to exert, I remain yours truly, Eleazer Lord. New York, May, 1S31. COJVTEJVTS. pKiFACE to the American Edition, . . 13 Pastoral Address, . . . . . 21 * , SERMON I. ■^- *- Genesis ii. 1 — 3, . . 40 THE INSTITUTION OF A WEEKLY SABBATH IN FAR- ADISE, AND ITS CONTINUED AUTHORITY, UNIIL THE DELIVERY OF THE MORAL LAW. The importance of the subject, . .^ '*^'. 40 The plan of the work announced, ... 43 The DIRECT REASONS for believing- tlie Sabbath to have been instituted at the time when the sacred narrative begins, 45 The JUST INFERENCES to bc drawn from them, . . 49 Traces of the observation of a weekly rest, during" the pa- triarchal AGES, ..... 51 The KANNER in which the Sabbath was revived before the commencement of the mosaical economt, . 56 Observe the extreme violence which is done to the Chris- tian faith, by the attempt to explain away the institution of the Christian Sabbath in Paradise, . . 57 Adore and praise the almighty father of all, for the dis- tinct GLORIES shed upon the day of religious repose, 59 i Vlll CONTENTS. SERMON II. Exodus XX. 8—11, . . 61 THE AUTHORITY AND DIGNITY OF THE SABBATH UNDER THE LAW OF MOSES. The INSERTION OF THE LAW OF THE SABBATH jntO the DEC- ALOGUE, ...... 62 The Sabbath appeared high and distinct above all the CEREMONIAL USAGES, .... 67 The Sabbath was insisted upon by the prophets, as op ESSENTIAL MORAL OBLIGATION, and aS DESTINED TO FORM A PART OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION, . . 72 Let US give to the holy day of rest that prominency in our ESTEEM, which Moses was instructed to give it in his dis- pensation, ..... 81 Let us imbibe the spirit of love and delight in the wor- ship of God, which the psalms and prophets display, 82 The AWFUL INDIGNATION of Almighty God against the con- tempt of his name and his day, . . .83 Let us IMITATE THE HEROIC ZEAL of Ezra and Nehemiah, in vindicating the sanctity of the Sabbath, . 84 Let us dread the false view of the character of God, and of the nature of Christianity, which are associated with i^ the violation of the Lord's day, . . .85 t ^ SERMON in. ' Mark ii. 27, 28. . . 86 THE SABBATH VINDICATED, UNDER THE GOSPEL FROM PHARISAICAL AUSTERITIES, AND SET FORTH IN MORE THAN ITS ORIGINAL DIGNITY AND GLORY. The recognition of the ten commandments, and of the FOURTH amongst the number, which our Lord and his apostles make, . .... 89 Our Lord honored the Sabbath on all occasions, and never violated its sanctity, . . . .92 Nothing is abrogated under the christian dispensa- tion, WITH respect to the Sabbath, but those tem- porary and figurative enactments, which constituted the peculiarities of the Jewish age, . . 101 The DISTINGUISHING PROMISE of the New Testament, has for its object to render the duties of the Sabbath more delightful, and thus increases tenfold their obliga- tion, . ..... 104 CONTENTS. , IX Iff Let every one yield to these accumulated proofs, . 109 ,-j Let every one shun the ingratitude of making" use of the compassion of our Savior to the tacit disparagement , of the Sabbath itself, . . . . 110 We plead for the christian sabbath, for vt^hich the Holy Spirit is especially given, .... Ill SERMON IV. Revelations i. 10. . . 113 THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED BY DIVINE AUTHOR- ITY, FROM THE SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, OR LORD'S DAY. The preparatory circumstances which lay a probable ground for the change of the day: 1. The prominence given to the proportion of time, both at the first institution in Paradise, and in the wording of the fourth commandment, . . . . 114 2. The probability that the computation of time was lost, in the bondage of Egypt, .... 116 3. The freedom and universality of the gospel dispensation, 117 4. The word of prophecy, . . . . 119 5. A complete revolution actually took place in the whole state of the church, ..... 120 6. The claims which Christ advanced during his ministry, of legislating for the Sabbath, as its Sovereign and Lord, 123 The MANNER IN WHICH THE CHANGE OF THE SaBBATH FROM THE LAST tO the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, WaS gradually introduced by the divine authority of our Lord and his apostles, .... 126 1. Our Savior, after his passion, began to introduce the ac- tual change tacitly and gently, by his own divine conduct, 127 2. The first day is marked by the gift of the great promise of the dispensation, ..... 129 3. The doctrine and conduct of the apostles will be found to bring in more decidedly the new day of the Sabbath, J30 4. The events of God's wonderful providence completed the% change, ?...... 133 5. Ecclesiastical historians bear witness to the observation of the first day, . . . . .135 6. A perpetual blessing has attended, and now attends, the Christian Sabbath, ..... 138 Recapitulation of the evidence that all the obligations that can combine to enforce a moral command upon man unite in the case of the Christian Sabbath, . . 138 X CONTENTS. Adore the wisdom and goodness of God in providing for man's religious repose in his first creation, . 140 The CHANGES in the circumstances of the law of the Sabbath, have sprung up from new benefits conferred on man, 141 In proportion as the benefits of the gospel are more exalted, should our hearts receive the intimations of the divine WILL WITH more ALACRITY, and fulfil them with warmer delight, ...... 142 i ERMON V. Ezekiel xx. 12. . . 144 THE PRACTICAL DUTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. Keep ever in view the great end of the institution, 147 The EUBLic Ai|D PRIVATE DUTIES of the Sabbath, 151 We must cany the true spirit op the Christiait dis- pensation into these duties, • - - 158 We must glori^'^ God for those mightt blessings which are appointed to be commemorated on the lord's DAT, ...... 161 The conviction which such a discussion should fix in the minds of the IRRELIGIOUS and unconverted, 164 May we not, all of us, discover topics of humiliation in the discussion.'' SERMON VI. Isaiah Iviii. 1, 2. , . 168 THE UNSPEAKABLE IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT UPSERVATION OF THE SABBATH WITH THE EVILS OF THE OPPOSITE ABUSE. The observation of the Christian Sabbath is a most sacred COMPACT, and the abuse of it the violation of that com- pact, ...... 170 The observation of the Sabbath bears upon man's temporal AND spiritual WELFARE AS A FALLEN BUT ACCOUNTA- BLE CREATURE, ..... 172 It includes, in fact, all the application of the chris- tian RELIGION AND ITS PRESERVATION IN THE WORLD, 175 The Lord's day connects and holds together all the links AND OBLIGATIONS OF HUMAN SOCIETV, whicll the violatioH of it tends to destroy, . ... 180 J? CONTENTS. XI The observation of the Sabbath honors almighty God, and BRINGS HIS FAVOR AND BLESSINGS Upon a peoplej whllst the profanation of it provokes his highest displeasure, 183 The EXCUSES which men allege in extenuation of a neglect of the day of God, ..... 185 Let us ENTER FULLY AND DETERMINATELY On the leligioUS duty of honoring God, .... 187 SERMON VII. , . 190 Nehemiah xiii. 17, 18. THE GUILT WHICH IS CONTRACTED BY CHRISTIAN NATIONS IN PROPORTION AS THE LORD'S DAY IS OPENLY PROFANED. The CHARGE OF GUILT against the British nation substan- tiated ...... 191 The national judgments which we may too certainly dread, ...... 198 The PRACTICAL MEASURES which each one may adopt to pro- mote a national repentance and return to God, . 201 We have pleaded for the Sabbath because it is a means to CERTAIN ENDS, ..... 206 Because of the unspeakable value of the soul of man, 207 Because it appeals to the human conscience, . 208 Because it is an indispensable preparation for the heav- enly BLESSEDNESS, ..... 209 PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITIOIV, [Written by request of the Publishers.] The publication of the following Lectures is very seasonable in our country at such a time as this, when infidels, and even some who profess to be Christians, have made an open attack upon the divine authority of the Christian Sabbath, and used their influ- ence to bring it into disrepute, and when the community at large, and even the better part of it, have fallen into a criminal neglect and abuse of this divine institution. The subject here treated is indeed, at all times, of vital consequence to the Christian rehgion. For whatever may be the value of other means appointed for our spiritual benefit, they would have but little real efficacy, without the Sabbath. Even the sacred Scriptures, the only standard of our faith and practice, and the in- stitution of the gospel ministry, would turn to but small account, should we give up "the day which the Lord hath made," and so deprive ourselves of any regular and divinely appointed season for reading the Scrip- tures in private, and hearing their doctrines and pre- cepts explained and inculcated in public. I say a di- vinely appointed season. A day enjoined by the authority of God is manifestly required in this case; because no consideration of mere expediency, no civil or ecclesiastical decree, and no agreement made among 2 14 PREFACE. individual Christians, will be likely to bind the con- sciences or to regulate the actions of men. Unless the day of holy rest is believed to be set apart and conse- crated by God himself, the current of worldly business and pleasure will at length sweep it away even from the church; so that the real and ultimate question is, whether there shall be a Sabbath set apart by divine authority, or no Sabbath at all. And even if a partic- ular day should be voluntarily observed for religious purposes by individuals, or by a Christian community, without the belief of any divine command enjoining it; such a day would be very different, and its influence upon the minds even of good men would be very dif- ferent, from what it would be, if it were regarded as an appointment of God. The same principle obtains here as in regard to the Scriptures. If we consider the Bible as a mere human production, though containing the true principles of morality and religion; it will exert but an inconsiderable Influence upon us. Its doc- trines and precepts will have no power over our con- sciences. God must speak, or man will not hear. God must command, or man will not obey. We shall find all this verified in the history of Chris- tendom, and particularly in the history of our own times. Who are they that trample on the Sabbath, and make it subservient to their worldly pursuits? Not merely infidels; but the generality of those who pro- fess to respect the Sabbath, but do not regard it as a divine institution. And who are they that conscien- tiously and faithfully perform its sacred duties, and se- cure its inestimable benefits? Those who look upon it PREFACE. 15 as set apart for holy purposes by the authority of God. A proper belief, that our Creator and Sovereign re- quires the Sabbath to be kept holy, silences the clam- ors of the world, bars out vain thoughts, subdues the passions, diffuses a sacredness through all the hours of the day, and imparts a special influence to divine truth, whether heard in the sanctuary, or contemplated in the stillness of retirement. Without such a belief, the ben- efits naturally resulting from this divine institution, will not be obtained. The ministers of religion and civil rulers may unite their efforts to promote the observance of a day which is made sacred only by human author- ity; but they will have no prospect of success. The command, to "remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy," coming from man, is imbecile. It excites no cor- dial reverence. It produces no fear of transgression, except so far as outward, visible actions are concerned. No one will stand in awe of a command which is laid upon him by a being like himself. But the command to keep the Sabbath holy, coming from the Sovereign of the world, is clothed with power, and takes hold on the conscience and heart. Being the command of Him who is every where present, and whose searching eye is ever upon us, it follows us into all our secret ways, and has the same authority over us when we are removed from the notice of man, as when we are placed in the most public view. It is a motive which touches all the springs of action. It is therefore with good reason, that the Author of the following discourses takes so much pains to prove that the Christian Sabbath is to be regarded, not as founded Qn considerations of expediency, but as a di-- 16 PREFACE. vine institution. His arguments are, in my view, en- tirely successful. It would be quite aside from my' object in these prefatory remarks, to enter on a par- ticular examination of the reasoning contained in these excellent discourses, and to say whether I look upon every minor consideration here advanced, as altogether pertinent and conclusive. But I know not how any candid person can attentively read this work w^ithout a full conviction of the strength of all the prominent ar- guments, and the justness of the conclusion. But the Author does not content himself with merely stating arguments in support of the Sabbath. He abounds in the most serious and moving appeals to the conscience and heart. With great earnestness he urges the high claims of this divine institution upon the Chris- tian community, and upon every individual. He repre- sents it as "a sign of the covenant between God and man; a badge of our Christian profession; the acknowledge- ment we publicl}' make of the God who created, and the Savior who redeemed us; a chief means of that dedi- cation and sanctification of man to his Almighty Lord, which creation and redemption are designed to pro- duce." He clearly points out the manner in which the sacred day is to be observed under the gospel, the vast importance of observing it, and the evils of neglect, and urges the necessity of personal and national repen- tance for the violation of it. He every where speaks on the spbject, as one who is deeply impressed with its paramount importance, and has experienced its high spiritual benefits. There is a simplicity and seriousness, a fervor, sincerity and devotedness in these sermons, which must make a salutary and lasting impression. PREFACE. 17 While I have been reading them, as well as the Lectures of the same author on the Evidences of Christianity, I have repeatedly been led to say; Happy the man who is accustomed to cherish thoughts and feelings like these! And happy the people who are blessed with the labors of such a minister of Christ! *, While perusing these discourses I have been pressed with the inquiry, how any men, who wish to perpetuate the blessings of our civil and religious institutions, can overlook the importance of the Sabbath. When we look upon South America and Europe, we behold scenes of revolution, strife, carnage, and anarchy. Vari- ous attempts are made to introduce improvements into the forms of government and to promote quietness, and harmony, and the salutary influence of law. But these attempts are not successful. Things remain in the most ominous condition, and patriots and politicians know not what to do. Their wisdom fails them. Now why do they not see, that the cause of all these evils lies in the destitution of moral and religious principle in the mass of the community? The experiment which has so often been made, may be a thousand times repeated; and the result will be the same. No constitutions of govern- ment, however wisely framed; no improvement of the people at large in mere literature and science; no les- sons derived from history and experience, and no mo- iwes addressed to personal interest or safety, can hush the cormnotions which agitate the nations; because none of these can subdue pride, ambition, and selfish- ness, make men upright and benevolent, and engage them in those employments which will contribute to 2* 18 PREFACE. individual and public happiness. Why are not patriots and legislators sensible of this? Why do they not see and feel, after so much light has been cast on the sub- ject, that the only effectual means of removing the ca- lamities which now afflict the nations, and of warding off the still more fearful evils which threaten them, is, the healthful influence of moral and religious prin- ciple, diffused through the mass of society? It is evident, that the same character which qualifies men to be happy in the world to come, will qualify them to be, in the highest sense, good members of civil society. And if civil society shall be chiefly constituted of en- lightened and good men, a sure foundation will be laid for permanent peace and prosperity. Now without undervaluing any of the means of human improvement, I hold it to be an obvious and certain truth, that the chief means of forming men to a good character is, the due observance of the Christian Sabbath; and that with- out this, all other means will fail. If this benevolent institution w^ere rightly observed, the evils which threat- en our country would disappear. The remedy Fpro- pose^ is indeed simple and easy; but it is sure. And if the violence of ambition and party zeal and the pre- valence of vice and disorder should so increase, as to overturn our free governments, and involve us in all the horrors experienced by other nations; -J-am bold to predict, that iiot'ft man, no, not one individual, either among the rulers or the people, who conscientiously and faithfully keeps the Christian Sabbath, will be chargeable with helping to bring these dreadful evils upon the land; and tktt the whole guilt will lie at the door of those, who do not cordially reverence the PREFACE. 1 9 Lord's day, and do not faithfully attend upon its holy and sanctifying duties. As to those gospel ministers, and rulers, and private citizens, who keep the Sabbath day holy, who diligently engage in its public and private services, and who use -their influence to impress upon the minds of others the high obligations of this divine institution, — they ought to be acknowledged as true patriots; and they are en- titled to the warmest gratitude of the community for the substantial contribution they make to the public good. While on the other hand, every man who neg-' lects to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, shows himself an enemy to the best interests of his country. He stands guilty of casting contempt upon the most effectual means which infinite wisdom has provided, for curing the madness of the passions, for checking vice, and preparing the human family for that quiet and pure and rational enjoyment, of which they are capable. I shall only add a few words on the means most ^o be rehed upon, for f^omoting the due observance of The Sabbath. Some have relied upon the salutary influence of civil laws requiring the Sabbath to be treat- ed with respect, and forbidding, under severe penalties, all open violations of it. Butj in my apprehension, we have no reason to expect, that mere civil enactments will ever be productive of any extensive and perma- nent benefit in regard to this subject, except merely as they afford protection to Christians in worshipping God according to their own consciences. The experiment has been often tried here, and in other countries) but the result has made it evident, that the 20 PREFACE. great interests of morality and religion cannot safely be made to rest on the power of civil law. The due ob- servance of the Sabbath must be promoted by consid- erations addressed to man's reason and conscience and heart. X'hese sermon%-which I most devoutly wish may be ciretilated and read through the United States, sug- gest the only method of enforcing the sanctification of the fSabbath, which seems to me to p-omise-any real success. Let men be addressed on the subject from the pulpit, and the press: and let them be addressed^as this autli0r*a*l- dresses ihem^ with sound argument, and with earnest and affectionate exhortation and entreaty; let them be address- ed as rational and moral and accountable beings, whose everlasting destiny will be fixed according as they pro- fane the Sabbath, or keep it holy. Let the sacredness of the day be inculcated upon the minds of children and youth, and let the faithful instructions of parents and teachers be accompanied and enforced by a good example; and let all who reverence the Sabbath lift up their fervent supplications to him who is the Lord of the Sabbath, that he would graciously interpose, and bring men every where to remember and love the day of spiritual rest: — let these and other congenial methods be pursued, and, with the divine blessing, it will ere long be seen by all men, that the objections which have been made against tke doctrine of these discourses^ h^ve sprung from depravity or ignorance; that the ap- pointment of a sacred day is the source of immeasur- able good to the w^orld, and is one of the highest mani- festations of divine love. Leonard Woods. Theological Seminary, Andover, Jljml, 1831. PASTORAL ADDRESS* My dear Friends, Allow me to offer you the following Discourses as a new year's token of my sincere regard for your wel- fare. It is with no feigned language that I wish you all the blessings of the season of Christmas. From the bottom of my heart do I desire and pray, that the Na- tivity of our Lord may be the source of joy to every one of you all. The incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Christian religion; and I trust it is, and will be, the main object of my life and labors amongst you, to bring you, by the grace and blessing of God, to a practical obedience to this divine Savior. I seize therefore, with eagerness, every fit opportunity of addressing you both in public, and by the more familiar means of a pastoral letter. If I had health and time, I should rejoice to visit you more than I do, in the retire- ment of your families, and to enlarge that personal and friendly acquaintance, which an experience of your kind- ness for nearly seven years, has encouraged me to im- prove. But I must resign myself to the will of my heav- enly Master, who gives strength and opportunity to his servants as he deems meet. It is a consolation to me to reflect, that my labors are now divided amongst so many able and devoted clergymen, who delight to minister to * A few things in the Address not so particularly suited to the circum- stances of America are omitted; also a few words and phrases and Bome of the minor notes in tlie sermons. 22 PASTORAL ADDRESS. you in the gospel. And I desire to be grateful for that measure of health, which enables me in general to take a share in the public duties of the church, and to devote mjself still in various ways to your service. The subject to which I now would request your atten- tion is, as you are aware, the divine origin and perpetual obligation of the Lord's day — a topic so important in itself, and standing connected so intimately with the application of all the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, to our- selves and our families, that I trust you will permit me, after I have explained the occasion and plan of the work, to suggest some thoughts on the authority of revealed TRUTH, as involved in it. The substance of these sermons was delivered in the autumn of 1827. A new and more favorable occasion of treating the question occurred last spring. The Lord Bishop of London addressed a most able and impressive letter on the neglect of the Lord's day, to the clergy and inhabitants of the diocese. Public attention was in- stantly awakened. I lost no time in bringing this com- munication before you. The authority of the divine in- stitution was urged, as you will remember, on the same Sunday, from all our pulpits; and you speedily formed an association for the better observance of the Christian Sab- bath. The rules and regulations, after having received the Lord Bishop's approval, were signed by nearly four hundred of the most respectable inhabitant housekeepers; and the committee and officers are now carrying into effect, in every kind and prudent method, consistent with the laws of our country, the great design. Encouraged by the pros- pect of these effective measures, I was induced to examine the whole subject more thoroughly than I had previously done. It grew upon my mind. I discerned more and more its immense importance, if we would honor God, preserve religion in the world, or save our own souls, and those of our family and neighborhood. I discovered also, as I thought, the sources of the more current objections; and at the same time their fallacy, when once the whole bearing of the argument from Scripture was understood. Thus I was led on to treat the question in detail. I delivered seven discourses in the months of last July and August. I was then so earnestly entreated to commit them to the press, that PASTORAL ADDRESS. 23 I have given almost all my retired time to this duty since. I have consulted our chief writers; have weighed again and again the difficulties which are alleged: and I hope I have succeeded in showing that, from the creation of man through all succeeding periods, one day in seven was appointed by Almighty God, as the season of special religious repose, and of public and private worship. I hope I have succeeded in showing that this appointment is essentially moral and immutable in its obligation, though, from the nature of the case, with so much of a positive character, as the deter- mining of the exact proportion of time demanded. I hope I have succeeded in showing, that our Lord never relaxed, nor meant to relax, the law of creation or of the fourth com- mandment, but only to vindicate it from the false comments of the Jewish doctors, and leave it in more than its origi- nal dignity and force. I hope I have succeeded in show- ing, that the day of the observation of the Sabbath, under the gospel, was authoritatively changed by our Lord and his apostles, to honor the resurrection; and was in entire con- sistence with the original bearing of the institution, and the subsequent manifestation of the divine will concerning it. I was for some time doubtful, whether the argumentative air of the first four sermons, in which these points are es- tablished, was likely to be generally useful to you. I thought that perhaps the objections had not spread far in our neighborhood; and that the devout inculcation of the prac- tical duties of the Lord's day was the safer course. And in- deed, in general, this is our best wisdom: not one in a thousand of our population ever heard of Paley's objections. Cre- ation — the fourth commandment — the exhortation of the prophets — the custom and doctrine of our Savior and his apostles — the practice of the whole Christian church — their own sense of gratitude for the spiritual blessings conveyed — theiobvious state and wants of man — the prospect of an eternal Sabbath in heaven, — are plain, common-sense arguments to every pious mind; or rather, matters of fact, which no plausible theories can overthrow. But on further reflection, I conceived that a discussion of the main objections might not be unimportant to you. We live in a reading age: we adjoin an immense metrop- olis. The temper of the times inclines rather to intellect- 24 PASTORAL ADDRESS.' ual pride, than to the sober exercise of the understanding in the obedience of faith. Men catch at any thing to es- cape from the sacred obligations of a day devoted to spirit- ual religion, and the care of the soul. The name of Paley, and his just reputation in matters of his own province, is seized with avidity. Some late pamphlets have detailed his statements with unwonted levity, and yet confidence of manner. The deplorable ignorance of theology manifest in these publications, to all who are versed in the inspired Scriptures, and who submit really to their authority, forms no hindrance to the diffusion of the poison amongst the young and uninformed. The youth in our universities, our tutors, our junior clergy, are not altogether free from the contagion. Open infidelity, semi-scepticism, profaneness, worldly-mindedness, unconcern for the soul, and a readiness to follow what is new and daring, all lean the same way. It seemed to me, therefore, to be the duty of those who ad- hered to the doctrine of the Bible, and the universal faith of the church, to come forward and enter their protest against the gigantic evil. This I have endeavored to do. I have interwoven, however, with the argumentative ser- mons, practical exhortations; and I have treated, in the last three discourses, the specific duties of the Christian Sabbath at length. With regard to the authors to whom I have been in- debted for aid, you will find most of them referred to, as I have had occasion to cite their authority. But the fact is, that the whole church of Christ, in the proper sense of that term, has maintained this fundamental point, in every age. Subordinate matters have, of course, been dispu- ted: but the commanding truth of a day of religious exer- cise and holy rest, after six days' work, has through all the periods of our ecclesiastical annals, been acknowledged as of divine obligation. Perhaps, the best single sermons, in a practical point of view, are those of Dean Milner, Archdeacon Pott, and Dr. Chalmers — the last is in the most powerful and awakening manner of its author, and of itself settles the question. Some essays of the late Mr. Hey of Leeds, seem to me the clearest upon the controversy — he confutes Paley in a masterly and conclusive style. The most elaborate work on the whole argument, as handled in his day, is perhaps, PASTORAL ADDRESS. 25 The Exercitations of Owen. The change from the last to the first day of the week is thoroughly defended, in his lucid and convincing way, by J. Edwards — to whom J. Mede's sermon should, by all means, be adjoined. Bishop Andrews on the fourth commandment, is an incomparable discussion — full of learning, the soundest judgment, and rich knowledge of the materials of his argument. Mr. Holden has, in a recent work, arranged most of the rea- sonings and conclusions of preceding writers. He gives a list of nearly one hundred and fifty. He has furnished a valuable compendium. The chief authors of any popular- ity, that have fallen in my way, who impugn the divine authority of the Lord's day, are Bishop J. Taylor, — whose mistakes are not confined to this topic, mighty and various as were his powers, and sound in many views his theology — and Dr. Ogden and Dr. Paley, whose names will not weigh greatly with those who are acquainted with many other of their opinions. The primary error of supposing the narrative in Genesis, to be by prolepsis or anticipation, is maintained by Archbishop Bramhall — who, in part, re- deems the fault, by a bold and uncompromising defence of the divine authority of the Christian Sabbath. Baxter confines himself to the argument from the example of our Lord and the inspired authority of the apostles, which he enforces in one of his very best treatises — omitting, but in no way questioning, the proofs from the Old Testament. The judicious Hooker, Bishop Hall, Archbishops Usher and Sharpe, Bishops Stiilingfleet and Pearson, Archbishop Seeker and others, defend the generally received doctrine, in their own profound and impressive manner, though some of them treat it only incidentally. The learned Horsley has three noble sermons on the subject, in which he power- fully maintains the same view. I think he errs in consid- ering the Sabbath an appointment more of a positive than moral character. Indeed, if I am not deceived in my judg- ment, thi^ error pervades almost all our writers, to the treatises of J. Edwards, and Hey. They too much con- cede, that the fourth commandment is of a positive nature. That there is, as I have said, something positive in it, may be granted — from the nature of the case it could not well be otherwise — but the positive part is as little as possible— solittle, that the grand duty of devoting some portion of 3 26 PASTORAL ADDRESS. time to the immediate service of God is its main purport — the commandment is moral per se — arises from the fit- ness of things, and rests, like the other precepts, on the primary relation in which man stands to his Creator. The opinion of the reformers is uniformly in favor of the di- vine obligation of the Lord's day — Cranmer, Latimer, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Beza, maintain it with one voice, though sometimes, especially at the early period of the reformation, they support certain festival days in com- mon with it. To refer to the authors where references to the question, or brief discussions occur, would be endless. Lightfoot, Watts, Doddridge, Walker of Truro, Scott, and most practical writers, have something valuable. I have found interesting papers in the 8th volume of the British Review, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and the Eclectic Review of the last year. The Bishop of Down and Connor has also recently published an excellent pamphlet on the subject, chiefly in refutation of the idea of an anticipated narrative, which he has treated with more force of argument than Hey or Dr. Dwight. This last name deserves especial notice — Dr. Dwight, as well as his illustrious countryman, Edwards, has honored the American School of Theology — rapidly rising into importance — with a most convincing and able discussion of the question in all its branches, both theoretical and practical — this perhaps forms the best of our modern treatises; though it would be unjust to Dr. Humphrey of Amherst College, to withhold a tribute of applause from his excellent Essays. I spare a direct refer- ence to one or two publications in our own country of a late date, because I trust maturer reflection will lead the wri- ters to withdraw statements which are alike insulting to revelation and injurious to the youthful student. But I will not proceed. I have said so much, to show you that I have not been inattentive to the opinions of others — and likewise to suo^sfest a course of reading; to any of you who may have time for such an inquiry. The points upon which I hope I may have thrown new light, are the direct moral character of the fourth commandment — the importance and dignity given to the Sabbath even during the vigor of the Mosaic economy — the real bearing of our Lord's conduct and doctrine — and the way in which PASTORAL ADDRESS. 27 the change of the day was introduced by Christ and his apostles. These are not, however, essential to the main argument — whether I am right or wrong in my particular suggestions, the glory and obligation of the day of God re- main the same. And this leads me to notice the authority of revealed truth as connected with this subject, and forming its only true support. For it is on this footing I place the doc- trine of the Lord's day — it is a part of God's merciful revelation of his will to man. I am assured that you will agree with me that in the pulpit, and in the measures pursued in our several parishes, we can have no hope of success, unless we place the duty on its only firm footing, the express command of Almighty God. Expediency may obtain a decent compliance with custom, but will never sub- ject the affections. Expediency may carry a man once to church, but it will not carry him there twice, it will not regulate his family duties, it will not suppress the Sunday recreations, the Sunday News-papers, the Sunday parties, the Sunday dinners, the Sunday journies, the general Sun- day secularities. Expediency may conceal or control some outward enormities, it cannot implant principles of relig- ion, it cannot inspire love to God, it cannot check weari- ness and inattention, it cannot animate to prayer, it can- not change the human heart. To do this we must invoke the power of the supreme Po- tentate, and all those aids and operations of grace which he has promised as the accompaniments of his, own truth. That is, we must ascend from human to divine agency. And here we see the importance of admitting duly the au- thority OF REVEALED TRUTH. Let me pausc and take ad- vantage of the occasion to urge on you this great topic generally, and not merely as it refers to the point be- fore us. The authority of religious truth, as revealed in the Bible, rests on the infinite perfections of God who communicates it, on the relations in which man, his accountable and fal- len creature, stands to him, and on the implicit obedience which his Creator and Judge demands. Revealed truth comprehends every thing needful for us to know in order to glorify God and attain salvation — it is inspired and dictat- ed by the Holy Spirit — it is the remedy for the disorders 28 PASTORAL ADDRESS. of a ruined world — it is a system of infinite grace, in the person and incarnation of Jesus Christ offering himself a sacrifice for sins, and in the gift of the Holy Ghost as the source of life and holiness — it is a scheme of redemption formed "before the ages," and gradually developed in suc- cessive dispensations, according to the good pleasure of God. Revealed truth therefore is not so much many doctrines, as ONE STUPENDOUS DOCTRINE OR FACT, branching off into various parts. It is identical, indivisible, immutable, eternal — and has been acknowledged in all its essential characters by the whole spiritual church. Like the vari- ous prismatic colors, though divided off into its several rays, it yet constitutes one splendid, pure, and unmixed efful- gence. Receive this divine truth on the authority of God and by the grace of his Holy Spirit, and it works as the sovereign remedy of human woe. It illuminates, sanctifies, consoles, blesses the heart. It unites to Christ and to God in and through him, by the communion of the Holy Ghost. But if it be taken only upon the authority of man, it is weak, disjointed, incomplete, inefficient. View this grand discovery in its different branches, and you will see how they constitute only one doctrine, founded on one stupendous fact. The fall and condemnation of man, his accountableness, his impotency to any thing spiritually good, the deep, and, in a proper sense, total corruption of his nature, the misery and blindness, the disorder and enmity of the world, the propensity of the human heart to flesh, and self, and earth- ly pursuits, and its inability to recover itself to God and holiness — this is one part of essential truth — this is the case which redemption has to meet. The person, glory, incarnation, sufferings and propitia- tion of the Son of God; his supreme divinity, pardon and justification by faith only, in his obedience unto death; ac- ceptance and adoption through him; his mediatorial king- dom; his intercession at the right hand of the Father; union with him as the head of his church; love to him, gratitude, dependance, endeavors to honor him and imitate his example — ^these are another division — the centre of re- ligious truth, that on which all redemption rests— salvatioa itself. PASTORAL ADDRESS. 29 The personality and proper deity of the Holy Spirit, in the awful and mysterious union of the Father and the Son — his operations in the human heart — regeneration and conversion by his grace-— sanctification in and through him as the author and giver of spiritual life — his offices as the Comforter, Teacher, Guide, Conductor of the church — this is another branch of the same series. The Christian morals — obedience to God — the ten com- mandments, the rule of conduct — prayer — the church of Christ — the sacraments — and the ministry of the word — communion with God — a life of penitence, mortification of sin, watchfulness, growth in grace — support and consola- tion under the trials and afflictions of this life — the ascrip- tion of every thing effective in our salvation to the merciful will of God, and a humble dependance upon him to accom- plish his work in our final redemption — these conclude the sketch of the scheme of revelation — these are the conse- quences and fruits of justification. All these truths are one — one remedy — one declaration of the infinite mercy of God — one scheme of salvation provided for man. In connection with this revealed truth, and the platform, as it were, on which the machinery is erected, is the Holy Sabbath— coeval with man— the example of the Almighty pro- posing it to him — creation so distributed as to lay a founda- tion for it — the powers and faculties of rational and irrational creatures formed upon the supposition of it — the propor- tion of one day's rest to six of labor infixed in the order of this beautiful world by the Almighty artificer — this institu- tion goes along with redemption — marks the season of re- ligious worship, affords the leisure, sets to work the minis- trations, collects all the materials for the diffusion of this truth and the celebration of the praises of its author — maintains the front and bearing of religion in the world — is the visible representation of Christianity, and the pledge of its heavenly reward. Such is truth — such it has been held in every age — such it was held substantially and in a darker form from the period of the fall — such it was held by the martyrs and reformers of the sixteenth century — such it will be held to the consummation of all things. What then, my dear friends, is the authority of truth — of such truth — of truth so new, so harmonious, so sublime, 3* 30 PASTORAL ADDRESS. SO important — what its claims upon the conscience? Is it to derive its force from secondary considerations? Is it to borrow its strength from human expediency? Doubt- less the highest measures of expediency are found to attend our obedience to this revelation: and we fail not to urge in a subordinate view this motive. We tell men that Chris- tianity has ^'the promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come." But then we place not truth on this footing. We build nothing on the shifting foundation of expediency, where the corrupt passions of men are the casuists, and the corrupt example of the world the judge. We appeal to the consciences of men upon the sure and immoveable authority of the Eternal God. We cite the inspired word. Then we have a blessing; then God hon- ors his own- truth; then the Holy Spirit vouchsafes effec- tive grace; then the human heart responds to the call; then the gospel brings forgiveness, peace, holiness, joy, salvation; then it becomes the instrument of conveying all the bless- ings of redemption to man. Its efficacy is derived from God its author; the Bible is the inspired record where He has placed it; and the Holy Spirit the blessed source of grace which he opens to the heart. And thus the doctrine of the Sabbath, in common with all the essential branches of truth with which God has connected it, becomes a spring of salvation to man. There is no revealed truth without a Sabbath for the meditation of it; and there is no Sabbath without the authority and command of God for its obser- vance. And do not imagine, my dear parishioners, that because revealed truth has been controverted, it is less binding upon the conscience. W^e clear it from misrepresentation — we answer objections — we silence vain reasonings — truth shines conspicuous through the intervening cloud, on every eye which is not wilfully closed to its beams. If we can- not remove every obscurity, its main features are distinct and refulgent still. There is enough of what is perspicu- ous in the Bible on all capital points, to outweigh difficul- ties on attendant questions. The deity of Christ has been controverted, I admit — the doctrine of justification by faith has been controverted — the personality of the Holy Spirit, regeneration, the nature of the spiritual life, the influence of the love of Christ, the fir- PASTORAL ADDRESS. 31 tue of the sacraments, the blessed joys of communion with God, the hope of everlasting life — every thing has been con- troverted — even the truth of Christianity itself — and there- fore the obligation of the Lord's day — has been controvert- ed. But what then? Is truth less certain — less obligatory upon man? Ask only two questions. In what sense, and By whom has it been controverted, and all difficulty is removed. For IN WHAT SENSE have these points been controverted? This divides off one half of the disputants. As to subordi- nate details, there is a wide field for variety of judgment. And it is in these respects, and no other, that truth has been disputed by real Christians. The order of the di- vine purposes — the union of man's responsibility and free agency with the operations of grace — the entrance and permission of moral evil — the mystery of the divine subsis- tencies in the tri-unity of the Godhead — the narrow limits of the actual benefits of Christianity — the small apparent number of the elect — the apostacies of the east and the west — the condition of the heathen world — the disorders and scandals of the visible church — these and similar top- ics have ever been matters of dispute. But what is all this? It does not affect any one of the substantial verities of revelation. It is only saying that man is ignorant — that God has given us a revelation not complete in itself, but complete for the purposes he had in view — that this world is a probationary state — that an eternal judgment will rectify the temporary irregularities of the divine pro- ceedings here — that truth is so revealed in the Scriptures, as to be a trial of our submission of heart to God — that all is clear as to practice and our application of it, though much is obscure as to theory and the supposed combination of things in the divine mind. To keep, indeed, upon broad and acknowledged ground, is the dictate of wisdom, and the just inference from the perplexities of dispute. It is when we refine, that we dif- fer. And this the Bible never does. There is nothing ab- stract, nothing little, nothing rigid and systematic, nothing recondite and metaphysical in the Scriptures. Truth meets us there in her simple majesty — enjoins on us implicit obe- dience — and promises peace and joy. And thus it is that the humblest Christian has most tranquillity of heart. Truth is the medicine of his soul; he feels, as he receives the doc- 32 PASTORAL ADDRESS. trines of Christ Jesus the Lord, that he has found "the hid- den treasure," that he has obtained the "pearl of great price," that he has discovered the source of life and felicity, that he has reached the true end of his being. But when controversies relate to fundamental truth, then, I ask, BY WHOM are they raised? This is the second ques- tion. Is it not by the heretic bringing into the church the spirit of unbelief.'' Is it not by the Socinian, the Neologian, the Semi-sceptic, the proud assertor of intellectual might? Is it not the insidious opponent of the grace of God, the Pelagian or Semi-pelagian controversialist, the secular theologian, the disputer of this world? Do we not perceive in the whole spirit of the opposition, that there is no due subjection of heart to revealed truth, that the authority of God does not weigh, that it is man's opinions, not divine revelation, which sway the judgment? See the hazardous criticism, see the irreverent language, see the unholy tone of scorn, see the rash and sweeping conclusions, see the en- mity to established sentiments, see the absence of spiritual affections, see the love of ambition and fame and the reli- ance on merely human learning which betray the state of the heart. The authority of revealed truth, in its commanding fea- tures, is, therefore, so far from being lessened by these con- siderations, that it is greatly augmented. Amidst the wan- derings of human opinion, the Bible is the only safe-guide — amidst the follies of human conjecture, it is the only authori- tative wisdom — amidst the contradictions of human reason- ings, it is the only decisive judge — amidst the miseries and errors of human ignorance, it is the only light that shines — amidst the doubts and misgivings of the human conscience, it is the only effectual friend and counsellor. And thus the plain and commanding doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus, stands aloft and eminent above the doubt- ful opinions of men; thus the dignity and obligation of truth is elevated above the region of doubt and hesitation; thus the conscience of man is bound to all the main particulars of that revelation which God has made to his fallible and sinful creatures. The fall of man, and his redemption in Christ Jesus, are thus left with all their claims upon our faith; and the Sabbath, as subservient to this great remedy, remains as the distinguishing rite of revealed religion. PASTORAL ADDRESS. 33 My dear friends, let me intreat you to examine yourselves whether you have received the gospel in its paramount au- thority, and its salutary effects, as the truth of almigh- ty GOD ? With respect to the knowledge of your fallen and ruined state; have you felt it, and are you feeling it more and more — as a sick person feels a painful and op- pressive disease? Do you long for deliverance? Are you, in penitence and contrition, acknowledging your guilt and depravity, and imploring pardon and reconciliation with God? And as to the death and passion of our Lord Christ; are you relying upon it with a lively and penitential faith ? Do you look for pardon and everlasting life only to the merits and sufferings of the divine Surety? Do you renounce heartily, and from a conviction of its worthlessness, your *'own righteousness which is of the law," and do you trust simply to that Savior who has become, by his obedience unto death, "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth?" Do you desire with St. Paul, "to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord?" And with regard to the work of the Holy Spirit; are you imploring his secret and gentle, but effective and saving influences to impart spiritual life and feeling; to "give you a right judgment in all things;" and to infuse holy habits into the will and affections? Are you "renewed in the spirit of your minds;" "quickened from the death of sin;" "born from above;" "delivered," not visibly merely, and sacra- mentally, but really and practically, "from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son?" If you have any knowledge of these things, revealed truth in its majesty and authority has produced its genuine effects. You bow with all the powers of your soul to the will of God in the Holy Bible. The opinions and controversies of men weigh nothing against the infallible word of inspiration. The Christian Sabbath becomes spontaneously your delight. Faith receives implicitly the account of its institution — con- science responds to the command. The Lord who appoint- ed it, has now prepared you to use it aright. There is a correspondence, a harmony between all the parts of truth and your own mind, which springs from the operations of 34 PASTORAL ADDRESS. grace there. The same God which indited the Bible has taught and sanctified your heart. Truth in the record of Scripture, and truth in your judgment and feelings is writ^ ten by the same hand. If, however, this happy change — this conversion has not yet fully taken place in you — I mean if real religion is not yet seated in your hearts — then let me intreat you no longer to delay this great, this first duty of an accountable being, the care of the soul. I intreat you to remember the authority of truth — it claims your attention, it lays before you the most powerful body of evidences as to its divine ori- gin — it promises you every aid in making your inquiries. The Bible is given to save your soul. Consider, I beseech you, the danger of trifling with conscience. Employ the interruption to worldly affairs which the weekly Sabbath affords, for studying your Bible, for examining your heart, for attending the public worship of God with greater devo- tion and more fixed attention. Be in earnest. Pray. Act as a reasonable being under a dispensation of mercy. Above all, avoid that most perilous state of mind which COMES TO NO CONCLUSION — which "halts" — and contin- ues to "halt" — and at last "halts" systematically "be- tween two opinions," — which goes on for years with no opin- ion formed — no religion governing the soul — with unprofit- able intentions of future penitence and faith — and a most insidious and fatal vacillation between God and the world. I conceive there are too many in all large parishes, and therefore amongst my own beloved flock, in this state — the most opposed imaginable to the authority of revealed truth. They profess generally the Christian religion — they attend the means of grace — they respect their ministers — they ad- mire the national church — they join in certain benevolent objects. In all this they do well. But they are not truly converted from the love and service of sin and sensible ob- jects, to the supreme love and service of God in Christ Je- sus. Truth has not its just sovereignty in their hearts. And how does this come about.'* There is a fallacy at work. They say of some parts of truth, "I think them doubtful, they are controverted;" they say of other parts, "I dread being a party man, I fear going too far, I receive the general doctrines of the church as they are commonly understood — I mean the same — there is no difference; wq PASTORAL ADDRESS. 35 all believe the gospel:" they say of certain duties, ^'I ad- mit the expediency of thus acting, but the time will not allow of it, my circumstances and connections forbid; I am a man of peace." Thus they strike a balance, as it were, between God and the world. They come to a compromise. They deny no article of the Christian faith explicitly; but all the spiritual, humiliating parts, they evade — all the pe- culiar grace of Christ Jesus they evade, all the glory and efficacy of the work of the Holy Ghost they evade — all the real mortification of heart to sensible objects and worldly pursuits they evade — all the reproach of the cross, and the shame following the humiliating doctrine of the gospel thej evade ! Miserable subterfuges these — snares of the great adversary. What! are the opinions of men, or the fear of a party-spirit, or the fashion of the day, or the standard of piety which happens to be reputable in a rebel world, any sufficient arguments against the authority of revealed truth.'* You are bound to yield to the call and demand of your Creator and Redeemer, whatever may be the consequences. It is this commanding claim which I am most anxious to urge upon you. It is not man, it is not this or that writer, it is not the church, it is not ministers; it is God himself who speaks. Faith is the submission of the soul to all he declares — and therefore it is that faith is not an intellectual effort, or a cold assent, but the cordial acquiescence and repose of the understanding and will of man upon the Bible as the word of the living God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the human heart. To seek this blessing, I most affectionately invite you, that you may know the things which belong unto your peace, and at- tain the blessings of salvation. Nor is it upon the general body of my friends and par- ishioners merely, that I would press the authority of relig- ious truth; I would turn to those who do admit this author- ity, and are endeavoring to act uprightly in obeying it, both as it regards the great scheme of salvation, and as it re- spects the holy season of the Lord's day, which is appoint- ed to accompany it. Let me guard you against the prevalent invasions of the authority of revealed truth which abound in the present day. I need not say any thing to put you on your watch against the neologism, the during criticism, the love of novelty, the 36 \ PASTORAL ADDRESS. . impatience of old-received truth, the pride of a false philos- ophy, the pretence that knowledge can sanctify and bless mankind, the questioning the plenary and unerring inspira- tion under which the Scriptures were written, and the rage for bold interpretations of their sacred contents, which are the spurious progeny of a time like the present. I would rather caution you, with great tenderness, against more covert attacks on the authority of truth, by excess of statement — by over earnestness respecting the unfulfilled, and therefore inscrutable scheme of prophecy — by dispro- portionate attention to matters doubtful at the very best and not essential to salvation — by vehement assertions of our own particular sentiments on these points, and the pub- lic inculcation of them upon others. These are clangers to which I believe you are at present very little exposed. I rejoice to think of the simplicity of your faith, and your un- feigned subjection to the whole Bible in all its holy instruc- tions. But I would caution you. The tendency of all such misplaced vehemence is to sap the authority of truth. It eats out the life and grace of religion. It occupies the time, distracts the thoughts, takes off the attention from God and Christ, and pardon and justification, and the Holy Spirit, and growth in holiness, and watchfulness and humility — and it gradually and unconsciously draws off the mind towards minute and subordinate points, which can never be settled, and if they could, would not change one duty nor one mo- tive of the Christian life. My dear friends, I only suggest a hint. I speak to my younger parishioners and fellow Christians, as a father to his children. I do not say, "Study not the prophecies" — for I study them myself with increasing delight. I do not say, "Indulge not the most glowing hopes of the future millennial triumph of the church" — I indulge them myself. I do not say, "Expect not the second coming, the second personal advent of our Lord" — I expect it myself — I watch or endeavor to watch with my "loins girded and my lamp burning." On all these points there is no difference of opinion. The danger is, when par- ticular explications of the unfulfilled prophecies with respect to them, possess the mind — the danger is, when the imag- ination dwells, till it is inflamed, upon minute and secondary details on the time and manner of our Lord's approach — the danger is, when an hypothesis is first admitted into the PASTORAL ADDRESS. 37 mind, then admired, then defended, then made an article, or almost an article of faith — the danger is, when repent- ance, faith, love, obedience, communion with God, watch- fulness, growth in grace, the discharge of social and per- sonal duties, are insensibly jostled out of the mind; and these new and subordinate matters thrust into their place. You do not mean this — you are not convinced it is possible. But let me beseech you to be on your guard. The human mind is a narrow place. The time we have for religious exercises is short. The corruption of man leans always towards theory rather than practice. Novelty, when it once gains the imagination, soon gets possession of the time and heart. Unnumbered examples in ecclesiastical annals testify how the effects of a similar course (unconsciously admitted by the most pious persons) have exposed the church to the wiles of our great adversary. Three times in the course of thirty years, have I witnessed such a process my- self Whatever takes us off from holy repenting, holy be- lieving, holy walking, holy loving, holy watching, holy dying, is an artifice of that arch-deceiver. It is thus, in every period when they have arisen, that the church has been divided, that claims to miraculous powers have been made, that an inflation of mind has been produced, that the idea of a special inspiration has been imbibed, that all argument and expostulation have proved fruitless, that the Holy Spirit has been grieved, that scandals of the most fearful description have at length arisen, and the honor of Christianity been tarnished. The wisdom, my dear friends, of the* humble servant of God, is to take warning betimes; to avoid the first steps — the succeeding may be beyond his power — but the first STEPS he may shun — and at the same time he must take care, that in doing so, he is not betrayed into any opposite extreme, equally dangerous though of another character. The remedy is, the authority of truth — the soul subjected to God — the reason and conscience taking the simple, unsophisticated declarations of the Bible — stopping where God stops — and not first imposing human notions on this sacred book, and then calling those notions the Bible. To help us to walk safely in all these respects, we must pray much for the Holy Spirit, take counsel with friends, 4 38 PASTORAL ADDRESS. be willing to be ignorant of many things, mark the first admonitions of conscience, shun novelties, and fly before we are entangled in the net of the subtle foe. As to the practical duties of the Holy Sabbath, I would only urge you and myself, my dear friends, to be continually on our watch against the growth of unfavorable habits. The more holy it is kept, the better. Let it be set apart for spiritual duties. Give it up exclusively to God. Obey the fourth commandment. Carry its injunctions into effect in your hours, your arrangements, your spirit, your influence, your example, your whole conduct. Endeavor to make the duties of the day pleasant and interesting to children and servants. Imbibe the Christian spirit of love, of tenderness, of the compassionate exam- ple of our Lord. Young persons cannot enter as you do, into all the reasons of the institution; but they can be at- tracted, led on, encouraged by degrees. Do not open your minds to objections, when you have once been relieved from doubts — which I trust the following sermons may as- sist in eff'ecting— do not again admit them. Let the ques- tion be considered as settled — dismiss the controversy, close the debate; and give yourselves to the practical authority of truth. To listen to cavils, after you have come to a calm determination, is to tempt God. To dispute again, is to grieve the Holy Ghost. Life is too short for intermin- able bickerings. With regard to public measures for observing the Lord's day, I need scarcely invite my kind neighbors to aid the new Association to which I have already adverted. I am sure 1 may rely on the heads of families, and persons in station and influence, to give effective directions that trades- men bring home to them no articles of food, or other mer- chandise, on the Lord's day. I am sure 1 need not entreat them to attend with their families, twice on the Sunday, the public worship of God. I am sure I need not beg of them to avoid the reading of secular books and public newspapers, the writing of let- ters of business, the paying and receiving of ordinary vis- its, the indulging in worldly and vain conversation on the sacred day. Nor is it necessary for me to say much to those of my parishioners who are engaged in the affairs of trade, to in- PASTORAL ADDRESS. 39 duce them to close their shops, their counting-houses, their offices, their books of account, on this blessed day. The divine favor will never prosper those who violate the divine command. The Lord's day is the tradesman's time of re- pose, of refreshment, of spiritual improvement. But I conclude. Accept, my dear friends, my best thanks for all your kindness. Pardon the unnumbered defects which have attended my honest efforts. Bear with me both as to the manner and matter of this address. It comes from my heart. Let mutual prayer bind us together more and more. We have seen things go forward now for nearly seven years with gratifying success. Now is the season, then, for supplication to Almighty God, to animate, to quicken, to aid with his blessing these introductory measures. All depends on his grace and mer- cy in the first place, and then upon the spirit of union and love amongst ourselves; upon the simplicity of the gospel being preserved; upon the humility in which we teach and preach, and in which you hear and obey, the truth; upon the real conversion of souls which is carried on; upon the fruits of charity and holiness which we produce, upon the patience with which we sustain the trials, and the perse- verance with which we discharge the duties of life; and upon the ascriptions of praise and glory which we offer to our God and Savior, for every thing good in ourselves and others. But I will not proceed. I bid you farewell. I entreat your prayers on my behalf. We stand on the margin of eternity. I cannot long hope to have strength for any con- siderable efforts for your welfare. Whilst we have time, may we labor with all diligence; and may each Lord's day, as it revolves, be spent better than the preceding, and prepare us more for that "rest," that celebrating of a Sabbath "which remaineth for the people of God." I am, your most affectionate Minister and Friend, D. WILSON. SERMO^^ I. THE INSTITUTION OF A WEEKLY SABBATH IN PARA- DISE, AND ITS CONTINUED AUTHORITY UNTIL THE DELIVERY OF THE MORAL LAW. Genesis ii, 1 — 3. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished ^ and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work ivhich God created and made. The glory of God is peculiarly connected with the due observance of the day which he is pleased to call his own, and on which he has suspended, in every period of the church, almost all the practical effects of that mighty sal- vation which \ie has provided for man. The Christian sab- bath is one main distinction of the gospel dispensation, as the Jewish was of the Mosaical, and the patriarchal of the first revelation of the divine will to Adam. The pro- fanation of that day goes to annihilate all the blessings of revelation. It leaves the world without any visible token of the authority of Christianity, and strips the church of the best means of openly testifying its faith and obedience. If the Sabbath be taken away from the mass of mankind, no time is left for religious duties, for the worship of Al- INSTtTUTION OF SABBATH. 41 mighty God, domestic piety, the instruction of children, the visiting the sick and needy, the reading and hearing of the gospel, the celebration of the sacraments, the preparation for that rest of heaven of which it is the pledge and fore- taste. Without ity the remaining classes of society would never, in fact, allot a time for those duties, which being left open, would not be obligatory; nor could they sustain with effect the honor of religion in their families or the world. Christianity is indeed abridged and summed up in the weekly return of the day, when its solemn services and duties are performed. As real piety declines in any coun- try, this symbol of it is forgotten or contemned; as it re- vives in its doctrines and spirit, men awake again to the value of those means of grace, of which the Sabbath is the first in importance and dignity. The divine authority of a weekly religious rest has ever been one of those primary truths in which the universal church has most generally agreed. Its institution in para- dise and its insertion in the moral law, have given it an authority on the consciences of men which nothing has been able to shake. Christian states have hitherto, without ex- ception, recognized it, and protected their subjects in the peaceable enjoyment of its repose. The disputes of con- troversialists have chiefly affected subordinate questions, and have left the divine authority undisturbed as an article of the general faith of Christendom. The neglect of its practical duties has, indeed, from the corruption of man, been but too common in every age; but open assaults upon the origin and continued obligation of the day itself, have been rare till of late years. Now, however, the spirit of covert scepticism or luke- warm Christianity has not spared this most ancient of institutions. Not content with impugning the separate doctrines and mysteries of Revelation, it makes bold to call in question that sacred season when all those doctrines and mysteries are inculcated. The platform and arena of re- ligion is taken from under our feet — the great external dis- tinction of the Christian faith is annihilated — and man, erring sinful man, is deprived of his day of repose and recollection, and turned adrift to learn his Christianity and celebrate its rites, as chance may dictate and expediency 4% 42 INSTITUTION OF SA.BBATH persuade. And though most of the opponents of the dirine authority of the Sabbath are ready at present to allow its importance, and are loud in their admiration of those pub- lic services which custom and the laws of our country en- join, yet the tendency of their writings is to sap the princi- ple on which all this rests, to take men off from the firm footing of conscience and the command of God, and trans- fer them to the sandy ground of human recommendation and casual example. The duty of the minister of the gospel, under such cir- cumstances, is plain. He is bound to instruct the young with more care than usual in the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures on this great question. He is bound to examine the more popular and mischievous objections. He is bound to state what real difficulties rest on the subordinate points of the in- quiry. He is bound to assure the poor and simple in his flock, that they may rely on the grounds of their former faith. He is bound to recal the intelligent and elevated classes from the fatal course on which they are seduced to enter. And in honestly attempting this, he may look for the bless- ing of Almighty God, who only permits his truth to be as- sailed in different ages, by different classes of error, in order to prove and try our faithfulness, — in order to carry on, in fact, that system of moral probation and discipline which he has been pleased to establish in this world, and which is apparent, not in this question only, but in every other con- nected with the evidences, the doctrines and the precepts of Christianity. God has indeed left things so in the Bible, says Bishop Butler, that his will is plain to the humble in- quirer, but obscure and difficult to the proud — that there is darkness enough on secondary matters and points not con- nected with our immediate duty, to be the occasion of ex- cuse to the unwilling; whilst there is sufficient light to guide the sincere and docile. For it is to practice that the doc- trine of revelation on this subject, as well as every other, tends. The day of rest, not in its theory, or even its di- vine obligation, but in its holy duties and in its peculiar bless- ings, is the object which it has in view. And to this we shall direct all our attention, as soon as we have cleared our way through those arguments which are necessary as an introduction to practical exhortation. In this respect it is that the theory and doctrine of the sabbath, its divine au- IN PARADISE. 43 thority and perpetual obligation, are so important. They are wanted as a ground-work. When this is firmly laid, we raise our superstructure with safety. The whole subject, then, of the Christian Sabbath divides itself into two parts — the divine authority of a day of weekly rest — and the manner in which that day should be observed under the Christian dispensation. The former question will occupy the first four sermons; the latter, the last three of the present series. In the first division we shall have to examine the founda- tion on which the duty rests, that is, the grounds we have for believing that a seventh portion of our time, now termed the Lord's Day, and formerly called the Sabbath, is required by Almighty God to be dedicated to his immediate service; and the nature of the objections raised by our opponents. In the second division we shall point out the practical duties of the Christian Sabbath, the unspeakable impor- tance of observing them, the evils of the opposite neglect, and the necessity of personal and national repentance, if we would avert the Divine displeasure. We enter, then, now on the first general branch of the whole question. Here the points which most decidedly es- tablish the divine authority and perpetual force of a weekly day of rest, are — the institution of it in Paradise, its sol- emn insertion in the decalogues, the position it holds under the Mosaic law, the energy with which the prophets insist upon it as one of the primary and universal obligations of religion, and the observance of it by the apostles, divinely directed to found the Christian faith, and by all the prim- itive Christian churches, immediately instructed by them. The chief difficulties which our adversaries oppose to these arguments are, that there are no vestiges, as they assert, of the observance of a Sabbath in the patriarchal ages — that therefore the narrative of its institution in the book of Genesis, is by anticipation; that it was not estab- lished, in fact, till the time of the ceremonial law, and then merely formed a part of that preparatory economy; that we have no express command for the observation of it, or of any day in lieu of it, in the New Testament; that our Lord repealed it by his doctrine and conduct, of which the change of the time of its celebration is, as they maintain, a sufficient proof; and that, finally, the example of the 4 4 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH apostles, and the primitive Christians, gives it only the force of a moral expediency, subject to the regulations of each Christian church, in each following age. Such is the state of the question. Our opponents pro- ceed on the silence of Scripture during the patriarchal ages: this we shall show to be an unsound argument; and shall prove that it was instituted in Paradise and revived and re-established in the wilderness.* Our opponents insist that it is a ceremonial appointment appended to the Mo- saic dispensation: we shall show that it was inserted in the immutable law of the ten commandments before that dispensation; that it was exalted during the course of the Mosaic economy above all merely typical institutions, and was enforced by the prophets as of universal obligation.']* Our adversaries say there is no express command for it under the New Testament, whilst the doctrine and conduct of our Lord virtually repealed it: we shall show that no new statute was to have been expected; and that our Savior honored it on all occasions, and only vindicated it from uncommanded austerities. J Our opponents consider the change of the day as a proof of its abrogation: we shall maintain, that this was in itself a subordinate point; and was altered upon the authority of the Lord of the Sabbath. Finally, the exam- ple of the apostles is reduced by our adversaries to a mere commendation of the observance: we shall show it to have a divine obligation derived from the inspiration under which they acted. ^ These topics will occupy four sermons. We shall in the present one confine ourselves to the original institu- tion OF A WEEKLY SABBATH IN PARADISE, AND ITS continued authority, till the delivery of the Moral Law. Our text contains the history of "the first Sabbath." No sooner were the heavens and the earth finished, and Adam placed in the garden of Eden, than God blessed and set apart, as our text asserts, one day in seven for his own immediate service. He "who knew what was in man," and who had a right to all his obedience and love, was pleased to appoint that six portions of his time should be allowed him for his ordinary labor, and the seventh exclu- * Sermon 1. t Sermon 2. t Sermon 3. § Sermon 4. IN PARADISE. 45 sively devoted to religious repose, and the exalted duties of communion with his Maker. Every circumstance connected with this first institution is calculated to give us the highest idea of its essential and moral character. The whole controversy hinges here. The universal obligation of the Sabbath is not disputed, if it be proved that it had its origin in paradise. And how men of gravity could ever persuade themselves that a narra- tive so express was merely inserted in the chapter from which our text is taken, by a figure of speech, whilst the Sabbath was never in fact heard of till two thousand five hundred years afterwards; is one of those startling posi- tions for which the perverseness of man's fallen nature can alone account. The notion of an anticipated history seems first to have been broached by the Jewish doctors, in their zeal to magnify the Mosaical ritual.* Their followers in modern times, especially one popular writer,| have failed to establish any satisfactory case. The absence of any vestiges of the observance of a Sab- bath during the brief history of the patriarchal ages, is a species of argument which, if it were ever so well sustained by the supposition on which it proceeds, is wholly without force, as we shall presently show. It will be proper, how- ever, to proceed in order. Let us state, I. The direct reasons why we believe the Sabbath to have been instituted at the time when the sacred narra- tive begins. The transactions of the seventh-day immediately follow those of the sixth, precisely as those of the sixth follow the fifth — the history is chronological, unbroken, complete. This is the reason, each day's work comes in order. As on the first day the chaotic mass and the light were called into being; and on the second the firmament was created; and on the third dry land was made to appear; and on the fourth the sun and moon were ordained to shine; and on the fifth the fishes and winged fowl filled their several ele- ments; and on the sixth the terrestrial animals, and man, the Lord of the lower creation, were made; so on the sev- enth God "ended his work" — "rested from all his work" * Owen's Exercitations. t Dr. Paley. Archbishop Bramhall was the chief supporter of this notion in the century before last. 46 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH — and "blessed and sanctified the seventh day, because on it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.'* These were the transactions of the seventh day, which come as directly in succession after the preceding, as any of the other days. And can we, then, be at liberty, merely because we think subsequent notices of its observa- tion should occur in the history of the patriarchs, to trans- fer an event thus recorded in a regular series of transac- tions, to a period two thousand five hundred years distant? We might as well break asunder the links of the history of the creation, at any other period as at this. We might as well suppose that the heavens and the earth were not created, or that man was not formed on the days which the sacred history records. We might as well imagine that the sun and moon did not begin to shine as soon as they were made, as that the Sabbath was not granted to man at the time which is assigned to it. The whole foundation of faith is overturned by such a process. If in a plain historical narrative, and especially a series of successive actions, we are not to believe that the events really occurred, as they were affirmed to have occurred, the Bible is no longer a clear and safe guide, but an enigma and a riddle. The plain literal common-sense interpretation of the history of the Scripture is indispensa- ble to faith. But in the present case we have yet further reasons. The distribution of the work of creation into its parts would be deprived of its object and end, if the institution of the Sabbath is expunged. For why this distribution, but to mark to man the proportion of time allotted him for his usual labor, and the proportion to be assigned to religious exercises? As the narrative stands in the Scripture, all is consistent. The six days' creation, the seventh day's rest, have their relative place. They teach man a great moral and religious lesson. Take away the first Sabbath, and all is left incomplete and detruncated — the object in which it terminates is wanting. Again, where is the example in Scripture of any institu- ted commemoration not beginning from the time of its ap- pointment? Did the passover wait two thousand years before it was celebrated, after the deliverance which it was designed to commemorate? Did circumcision under the IN PARADISE. 47 Old Testament, or baptism and the Lord's Supper under the New, remain in abeyance for centuries before they were acted upon ? And shall the commemoration of the glories of creation be thought to be suspended for more than two thousand years after the occasion on which it was appoint- ed had taken place ? And especially as the reason for the celebration existed from the beginning; related to the whole race of mankind more than to the Jews, and was indeed most cogent immediately after the creation — for in the fol- lowing ages sin had marred the Almighty's work. One is ashamed to urge more arguments in such a case — but what meaning, I ask, had Moses in his reference to six days' labor and a seventh day's Sabbath, as matters familiarly known, at the time of the miraculous fall of manna before the giving of the law, if there had not been a preceding institution? Or what is intended by the cita- tion of the very language of my text in the fourth command- ment, if the reason there assigned had not really reposed on facts — "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the sev- enth day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it" — where it is to be noted, that the words are not ''the Lord blesses and hallows;" or "will bless and hallow;" but, "wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it," at the time that "he rested" from his creative work. Add to this the language of the apos- tle in his epistle to the Hebrews, where he takes for grant- ed that the original rest of the Sabbath began when "the works were finished from the creation of the world;"* and ■we have the strongest moral certainty that the narrative of the institution of the Sabbath in paradisef is and must be literally interpreted. But it is further objected, that, allowing this account to be in its natural place, it contains no enactment of a Sab- bath — it states merely that God blessed and hallowed the seventh day, but for what purposes it does not affirm. * Heb. iv. 3. t The opinion of ihe reformers on this subject is uniform. Luther says, If Adam had continued in innocencjj yet he would have had a sacred seventh day. Beza says, that the day of the Sabbath continued from thv": creation of the world to the resurrection of our Lord, when it was at length changed by the apostles into the Lord's day. I need not go on. 48 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH But we ask in reply, for whose use then did the Almighty bless and hallow the seventh day — what is the meaning of God's condescending to say that he "rested and was re- freshed after the six days' work" — what instruction do we derive from the division of creation into six portions, follow- ed by a seventh of repose? Were not all these done for the sake of man, the reasonable, intelligent creature of the great artificer? Did the Almighty rest for his own sake, or bless and hallow the seventh day, that he within himself might observe it? Unreasonable, if not impious, are such suppositions. God's working six days, and resting the seventh, were doubtless designed to be of general and uni- versal use in determining the proportion of time to be sev- erally devoted to human and divine duties — by them the conduct of mankind was to be regulated — by them God intended to teach us that we should, after his example, work six days, and then rest and hallow the next fol- lowing that we should sanctify every seventh day that the space between rest and rest, between one hal- lowed time and another, among his creatures here upon earth, should be six days.* And indeed there is no other sense in which the word "sanctified" is used in the Old Testament, when employed with respect to inanimate things, or to persons fulfilling an office or function. Thus the priests, the tabernacle and all its furniture, days of fasting and penitence, &c. were declared to be sanctified, when they were separated from common employments, and set apart for the especial service of God. This is the uniform import of the terms: when it is said, therefore, that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, it means that he set it apart and consecrated it for religious rest, and an- nexed the promise of his special blessing to the discharge of its duties. And this meaning, which common sense requires, is ren- dered certain by the exposition of its terms in the fourth commandment, where the minute injunctions with regard to the Sabbath expressly repose upon the words of our text, which it cites and explains. The objections to the received faith of the church on the institution of the sabbath in paradise, you see, are weak and nugatory. They have not even a shadow of proof. Not * J. Edwards. IN PARADISE. 49 one person in a million of those who read the sacred narra- tive, would ever dream that it was an anticipated history, or that it did not imply a most decisive command to keep holy the day of rest. Here, then, we fix our foot. Now let us turn from facts to II. The just inferences to be drawn from them as to the glory and dignity of the Sabbath. We learn from them, first, its essential necessity to man as man. Though Adam was in a state of innocence, his all-wise Creator saw it necessary to call him off from even the moderate and gentle labor of dressing and keep- ing the garden, to the immediate contemplations and ex- ercises of religion. Adam loved God "with all his heart and soul and mind and strength" — he required no season of repose to withdraw his mind from the eagerness of worldly pursuits, in the sense in which we require it, nor to recreate his body from excessive toil — and yet the Sabbath was necessary for him. Judge from this of its essential moral character. Judge from this how indispensable it is to fallen man, with that propensity to earthly things which now weighs down his soul, and that aversion and enmity to communion with a holy God which sin has superinduced. Consider, further, that it was the first command given by God to Adam, as soon as ever the work of creation was finished. Man never was without a Sabbath. The mo- ment there was a creature formed capable of knowing and serving God, a special time was assigned for that end. The Sabbath is coeval with the human race. It takes precedence of the prohibition of the tree of knowledge. It rests on the essential relation of a creature with his glori- ous Creator. Observe, further, that this command was not merely made known to man, in some of those ways in which his Maker afterwards communicated his will, but it was PLACED, AS it WERE, ON THE FOOTING OF CREATION ITSELF. By the Almighty hand all nature might have been called into being in an instant. The distribution of the work over six days, followed by the repose on the seventh, was to infix this grand principle in the mind of every hu- man being, that after six days' labor, one day of religious rest should follow. God worked in a certain order, that 5 50 . INSTITUTION OF SABBATH man might work in the same; God rested at a certain time, that man might rest likewise. In this glorious man- ner is the law of the Sabbath graphically set forth; this is the distinction which crowns the brow of the Queen of days. We have already noticed the proof this furnishes of the Sabbath having been instituted at the time assigned in the sacred story; but we now deduce from it the impor- tance and dignity of the appointment itself. It is an appointment not written merely by inspired men, not graven on tables of stone, not indented in lead on the rock for ever, not uttered in the first instance from the summit of the mount by the voice of the Almighty and amidst the thunders and terrors of Sinai — but infixed in the creative order of the universe, inscribed on the heavens and earth, exhibited in the radiant character of the six days' work, associated with every commemoration of the wisdom and glory of God, promulgated with the majesty and example of the great Lord of all — and therefore requiring no subse- quent enactments, except to incorporate it with the vari- ous dispensations of religion, and revive it when forgotten, that it may go on and accompany man so lon^ as he con- tinues upon earth. We learn also, from this order of creation, that man was made, not for constant and unrelieved employment, or for earthly pursuits chiefly, but for labor with intervals OP REPOSE, and in subordination to the glory of HIS God: man was formed not for seven days' toil, but for six — man was formed not for secular and terrestrial pur- suits merely, but for the high purpose of honoring God, meditating on his works, and preparing for the enjoyment of him for ever. The essential nature of the institution obviously lies in the proportion of time fixed by his benefi- cent and all-wise Creator — for his body six days' labor, for his soul one day of religious rest; and this corresponds with his compound nature — his intellectual and moral part calling him up to the exalted and delightful offices of re- ligion, and his bodily and animal part requiring recreation and repose. The Sabbath is the spiritual badge and char- ter of man. What a dignity, then — what an importance — what an obligation attaches to this sacred day! Well may it be admitted by our chief opponent, that if "the divine command IN PARADISE. 51 was actually delivered at the creation, it was no doubt ad- dressed to the whole human species alike, and continues, unless repealed by some subsequent revelation, binding upon all who come to the knowledge of it."* III. Let us next show that, there are traces of THE observation OF A WEEKLY REST DURING THE PATRIARCHAL AGES. For it is upon this assumption, as we have stated, that the idea of an anticipated narrative is founded. "There are no vestiges, not a single allusion," say our opponents, "of the knowledge of a sabbatical rest, till the Mosaical law; and therefore the account in the book of Genesis is by prolepsis." We allow that there are no express notices of a weekly Sabbath as observed by the patriarchs. We allow that the detailed scenes in the lives of Abraham and Jacob are without any direct declaration on the subject. That there are allusions and vestiges we shall presently show. But we admit the difficulty so far as the objection is founded. But what does it amount to, even supposing it be conceded in all its extent? Would the loss of the original law of the Sabbath for two thousand five hundred years, amidst the corruption flowing from the fall, prove that no such law had been enacted at the creation? The original law of mar- riage was lost during a much longer period, but was it the less reasserted by our Savior, as the primary and binding appointment of the Almighty? But we admit not that the observation of the Sabbath was wholly forgotten during this period. The objection can only pretend to rest on the silence of Scripture. Now to argue from that silence, is most unfair and most injurious to the interests of revelation. An objection derived from things, not being expressly mentioned so often as we might please to expect, is wholly inconclusive. No mention is made of sacrifices from the time of Abel till the deluge, a period of fifteen hundred years, nor from the arrival of Jacob at Beershebaf till the deliverance from Egypt, a space of two or three hundred more; but does this prove that sacrifices were not offered? We read nothing about circumcision from the death of Moses to the days of Jeremiah, an interval of eight centu- ries; but does any one imagine that circumcision was not * Paley. f Gen. xlvi, 1, 52 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH performed? No mention of the Sabbath occurs in the histories of the books of Joshua, Ruth, first and second of Samuel, and first of Kings, which are so much more de- tailed than those of Genesis; and yet this was during the Mosaical law, when the institution was confessedly in its fullest vigor. The ordinance of the red heifer, again, is never once noticed from the period of the Pentateuch, till the close of the Old Testament; but the apostle refers to it, and argues from it in the New, as a rite well known, and in constant use. Even in the book of Psalms and in the Prophets, the Sabbath is seldom expressly mentioned, except when the neglect of it provoked the indignation of the Almighty. So little force is there in the objection, even allowing it all it demands. It is not for us to prescribe to the Al- mighty how often, or under what circumstances, any of his commands should be repeated. It is enough for us to know with regard to the Sabbath, that it was instituted in the most solemn and resplendent manner. From this we may justly infer, that the observation of it was never wholly lost amongst the descendants of Seth, and in the line df Abra- ham, and the other patriarchs; though the celebration of it is not expressly recorded. It is thus we deduce from the continual off'ering of sacrifices, that that institution was divinely appointed, though we have no express mention of that appointment. The cases, indeed, of sacrifice and of the Sabbath are in one respect similar. The record is not complete: but we infer what is wanting from what is exj)ressly stated. Of sacrifice, the celebration by the patriarchs after the deluge is perpetually recorded, though we have no direct account of its institution. Of the Sab- bath, the original law is distinctly given, though the con- tinued observance by the patriarchs is not expressly men- tioned. If objections are urged on the ground of these omissions, it is surely permitted to us to reply, that from the celebration of sacrifices by Abel and the patriarchs, we justly infer its divine appointment: and from the glorious and singular institution of the Sabbath, its subsequent obser- vance by the holy seed."* * Owen. IN PARADISE. 53 But we are proceeding too long upon the concession that there are no traces in Scripture of a weekly rest, from the creation to the time of Moses. For in truth there are traces, faint, perhaps, if taken by themselves and separated from the first record of the institution in paradise, but sufficiently discernible in that connection, for the purpose of rebutting a mere objection. The very first act of divine worship after the fall affords indications of a day of religion. Cain and Abel brought their offering ^'in process of time," as the common reading has it, but literally, and as it is in the margin, "at the end of the days." Thus we have in the sacred narrative, the priest, altar, matter of sacrifice, motive, atonement made and accepted, and appointed time — indications these entirely consistent with the supposition of a previous sab- batical institution — and indeed proceeding upon it — for that is the meaning of the expression, "at the end of the days." But one division of days had been yet mentioned, and that was of the days of the week, the Sabbath being the last or seventh day — we may, therefore, reasonably suppose that holy season to be here termed, "the end of the days." Again, we read that "men," in the days of Seth, (two hundred years, perhaps, after Abel's sacrifice,) "began to call upon the name of the Lord," or "to call themselves by the name of the Lord;" and four hundred years later, "that Enoch walked with God" — terms of large import, and which, when illustrated by the eleventh chapter of the He- brews, where the faith of the patriarchs in the divine order of creation so highly extolled, are, to say the least, en- tirely consistent with the observation of a day of religious worship. We come to the flood. Sixteen centuries have elapsed since the institution of the weekly rest. And now we find the reckoning by weeks familiarly referred to as the ordi- nary division of time. The Lord said unto Noah, "Yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth." And again, "It came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth." These passa- ges occur in the seventh chapter. Then in the next, when the flood is decreasing, Noah sent out a dove, which return- ed; he then stayed "yet other seven days," and again sent it forth. And again in the same terms, "And he stayed 5* 54 INSTITUTION OB* SABBATH yet other seven days," and "sent forth the dove out of ark for the third time, which returned not again to him any more."* Surely here are vestiges by no means doubtful, not only that days were reckoned by portions of seven, but that the use of that method of calculation was familiar in the line of the patriarchs. Nothing can be more certain than that the return of seven days brought something pe- culiar with it; and we judge it probable, from the institu- tion of the Sabbath, that that peculiarity was the day of sacred rest. Accordingly after the flood, the tradition of that division of time spread over all the eastern world — Assyrians, Egyptians, Indians, Arabians, Persians, unite with the Israelites in retaining vestiges of it. In the earliest re- mains of the heathen writers, Hesiod, Homer, Callimachus — the sanctity of the seventh day is referred to as a mat- ter of notoriety. Philo, the Jew, declares that there was no nation under heaven where the opinion had not reached. The days of festival solemnities among the heathen had in all probability this source. Indeed, as the obscure no- tices of the original state of man, of the fall, of sacrifices, of the deluge, were scattered amongst the remotest nations, so also, faint traces of a weekly religious rest are discerni- ble. The very number seven, in Hebrew, and the kindred languages, is expressed by a word which primarily signifies fulness, completion, sufficiency; and was probably applied to a week because that was the space occupied in fully completing the work of creation. But we come to the history of Abraham. Here it is deserving notice, as we pass, that the rite of circumcision was to be performed after the lapse of seven days from the birth; but the commendation of Abraham's example, "That he commanded his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment," implies that there was a way prescribed by the Almighty, and certain observances in which consisted justice and judgment, amongst which the Sabbath was probably the chief. But in the more full declaration afterwards made concerning him to Isaac;" "That Abraham obeyed his voice, and kept his charge, his commandments, his statutes, * Gen. vii. 4, lOj viii. 10, 12. IN PARADISE. 55 and his laws;" the terms employed are so various, as to be by no means naturally interpreted of the ordinances of circumcision and sacrifice only,* but to include, as much as if it were named, the charge and law of the Sabbath. We come to Jacob; and few, I think, can doubt, that when he had uttered the devout exclamation, "This is none other than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven;" and then vowed, that the "stone should be God's house" — he alluded to what was customary with the pious patri- archs, the worship of God in a stated place, and on a stated time — the Sabbath; without which, a house of God would be a term of little meaning; but with which it would indeed be the pledge and anticipation of heaven. Even Laban seems to have had the notion of a weekly division of time; "Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also.f" But I will not dwell on more particulars. The numerous, the almost perpetual notices of places, of altars, of sacrifices, of the worship of God, of solemn titles given to particular spots, all confirm the supposition, which is the only rea- sonable one, that the sabbatical institution was not unknown to the patriarchs. We may notice the case of holy Job, as confirming this, who, remote as was the place of his abode, more than once reminds us of "a day, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. "J So utterly gratuitous is the assumption that the observa- tion of a day of religious worship was unknown to the pa- triarchs. Probably the very notoriety of the institution might be one cause why the sacred historian judged it un- necessary to dwell on particular recurrences of its obser- vance. At all events, the very silence of Scripture after- wards, can never be fairly alleged against the previous in- stitution of the Sabbath in paradise, when even the ad- mission that the patriarchs had actually lost the traces, or neglected the celebration of it, would have had' no such con- sequence. Doubtless, as time rolled on, and particularly during centuries of bondage in Egypt, the memory of this primaeval ordinance became faint, and the observation of it by the en- * Gen. xvil. 12; xv'iii. 19. xxvi. 5. + Gen. xxix. 27. '\ Job i. 10, ii. 11. 56 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH slaved people almost impracticable. But it does not appear to have been even then wholly forgotten. For we observe, that, IV. The manner in which the Sabbath was REVIVED and re-established BEFORE THE COMMENCE- MENT OF THE MOSAicAL ECONOMY, proves that it was a previous institution, which had never been entirely lost; and therefore confirms all we stated of its origin in paradise and its continuance during the patriarchal ages. An in- terval uf two thousand five hundred years had elapsed since the fall, eight or nine hundred years had passed since the flood, and more than four hundred since the call of Abra- ham. Two centuries of captivity in Egypt had also re- duced the religious knowledge of the people of Israel to the lowest ebb. If, therefore, the authority of the Sabbath survived this last state of bondage, we may fairly conclude that it had not perished in any of the preceding periods. Mark the history. The manna is announced; a double portion is promised on a certain day. But in what terms? "It shall come to pass that on the next day they shall pre- pare that >which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily."* Here is no express men- tion of the Sabbath, nor any reason assigned why they should find a double portion on the sixth day. But the reason was known — the reference was intelligible. The language is not that of one delivering a new precept, but restoring an old and well-known, though neglected one. Accordingly, Moses, in explaining the fact, speaks of the sabbath as not effaced from the memory of the people. "This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord your God." What had the Lord said? — nothing directly about the Sabbath; but the allusion to the division of time into six working days was enough — the Sabbath was known to follow them. If similar terms were employed in any modern act of parlia- ment, every one would understand that it referred to some previously existing statute or custom, of which the knowl- edge was not altogether lost. And thus the restoration of the Sabbath before the Mo- saical law, seems designed to link the patriarchal with the * Exodus xvi. IN PARADISE. 67 Jewish day of rest; it proves that the first had not been altogether obliterated, and it shows that the second was founded on a law of primaeval and universal obligation; whilst the threefold miracle of the manna on each Sabbath, clearly points out the importance attached by Almighty God to the institution. On what particular day of the seven this renewed rest was first celebrated we cannot determine. The stress of the commandment lies on the proportion of time in the order of creation. The exact computation of weeks from the first institution, had in all probability been lost; and the new calculation, we may conjecture, dated from the day of the deliverance from Egypt, as the commencement of the year undoubtedly did. Thus the redemption of Israel may have fixed the particular day for reckoning the series of Sabbaths then; as a greater redemption did at the introduction of a more glorious era. But we pause. Our inquiries have hitherto been success- ful. All is consistent. The grandeur of creation gave an impulse and projection to the law of the Sabbaih, which human corruption was unable to eiface, even before Moses arose to recal men to the purity of religion, and the hope of future redemption. In the line of the patriarchs faint traces of it are discernible. The intervening re-enactment, before the ceremonial economy unites the patriarchal and Jewish day of rest; and confirms us, by its reference, in the faith of the positive fact of a previous institution, to which that reference points. I. Let us then, first, in applying this part of our sub- ject, observe, the extreme violence which is done TO THE christian FAITH, when any important fact in the Scriptures, such as the institution of the Sabbath in paradise, is attempted to be explained away by the fancy of man. The authors of such novelties think little of the consequences of what they are about. The thought is sug- gested to them by another. It is strange, it is hardy. — This commends it. They are ingenious men — they can write — they can defend the monstrous supposition. The great body of the church disregard and despise the perver- sion; but the young are injured. In an inquisitive age, half-knowledge prevails. The human heart is too much disinclined to spiritual religion, not to catch at any plea 58 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH for neglecting the day of divine worship. Thus the evil spreads. The original author was not deeply penetrated with that reverence for revelation as the communication of the will of God, which forbids rash innovation — was not, perhaps, conscious that the foundation of all faith is over- turned, if the plain, strait-forward interpretation of histor- ical passages is exchanged for conjecture, hypothesis, in- ventions of an anticipated narrative. But what can be so mischievous? Such daring criticism, like a magic wand, can make every truth and every fact of the Bible change their places and import. Indeed, this same kind of ingenuity denies the fact of the fall of man, calls in question the ex- istence of evil spirits, doubts the temptation of our Lord, and goes on to question the truth of the Mosaic or Chris- tian miracles. Thus all faith soon disappears; for it is but another step in the same process to deny the corruption of our nature by the fall, the divinity and atonement of Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the truth of our regenera- tion by that blessed spirit, and of spiritual religion altogeth- er. Thus the peculiar revelation of the Bible is gone, and yet we call ourselves Christians. We must resist this fatal poison. To say that the nar- rative of the institutionof the Sabbath in Paradise is put out of its place, is a violence to faith. This is enough. When the idea is first started, the mind of the Christian trembles — he supposes he cannot demonstrate that the assertion is groundless. But he can demonstrate it. To change a SERIES OF EVENTS IN A SCRIPTURAL NARRATIVE IS A VIOLENCE TO THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ALL BELIEF IN REVELATION. This is a moral demonstration against any mere hypothesis. And more especially should we act with this decision in respect to so fundamental a fact as the entire scheme and glory of creation, the whole design and proportion of divine wisdom in the order of the six days' work, the primary dis- tribution of time into its proportions for the use of man; — that first prodigious act on which the subsequent parts of revelation hang for their consistency and force. And this disposed of by a mere assumption — the fact transposed from the pe- riod of creation, to a distance of two or three thousand years, without an intimation in tl?e narrative itself, against IN PARADISE. 59 all the laws of interpretation, and to supply a necessity which, after all, is found not to exist. Such a conduct is portentous. Let us cleave, then, to the foundation of all faith in the various other facts of revelation, by adhering to this; and let us cultivate more and more that humility, that submis- sion of heart to God, that restraint of human curiosity and presumption, in which the essence of faith so much con- sists. It is the wrong state of heart which is the hot-bed where these pernicious notions are generated. Let the heart delight in the divine worship; let the heart meditate on the divine perfections in Christ Jesus with holy compla- cency; let the heart rejoice in God as its happiness, and such errors will not readily find entertainment. I vindicate the first Sabbath, that I may lead you to celebrate with more devotion every other. I resist with indignation the attempt to sap the institution of it in paradise, that I may lead you to due contemplation on the glories of creation, as often as the day of grace returns. II. Yes, come with me, before we close this discourse, and LET us adore and praise the Almighty Father OP ALL, FOR the DISTINCT GLORIES SHED UPON the day of religious repose. Come and praise him for condescending to imprint its first enactment, and the reasons on which it is grounded, on the six days creative wonders. I am per- suaded, that the first Sabbath is not enough magnified. We are familiar with the tenor of the simple and sublime narrative from our infancy. Our hearts are cold to devo- tion; objections poison our first feelings. Enter more into the dignity of that day, for the institution of which all days were formed. Imbibe the exalted spirit of that portion of time, to encircle and ennoble which all other portions took their place, as courtiers around the queen and mistress of days. No other command of God has the peculiarity of this; no other institution, no other service, no other ordi- nance of religion has, or can have, the majesty blazing around it, which illuminates the day of God. Come, glorify your God and Father. He bids you rest, but it is after his own example. He bids you labor, but it is after his pattern. Imitate the supreme Architect. Work in the order in which he worked, cease when he was pleased to cease. Let the day of religion, after each six days' toil, be to you 60 INSTITUTION OF SABBATH a blessed and a sanctified season. Plead the promise at- tached to the Sabbath: it is blessed of God, it is sanctified of God, it is hallowed of God. Implore forgiveness of your past neglect. Let no Sabbath henceforth leave you, without having sought the blessing promised, and performed the duties to which it is dedicated. Let your devout med- itation on the glories of creation swell the choir of your Maker's praise. Join "the sons of God" in their joys and songs at the birth of the universe.* Adore the kind- ness and benevolence of the Almighty, in interposing one day's repose after every six, between the toil, and confusion, and passions, and secularity of this world's duties. Bless your Redeemer and Savior for preserving some traces of this most ancient of institutions amidst the patriarchal ages, to remind us of our greater privileges, (as we shall see in the subsequent discourses,) now that we have had the ten commandments again promulgating its divine obligation; the prophets enforcing its observance; the blessed Jesus vindicating its gracious simplicity; the Apostles and tlie universal church handing down to us its sacred obligations. Yes, let the brighter day of the gospel guide our feet to that sacred temple and that sacred season, which were first erected and consecrated in paradise, which were then sur- rounded with the garb of ceremonies; then left in the beauti- ful and merciful mantle of the Savior; and, lastly, committed to us as a pledge and foretaste of the heavenly state. Yes, the Sabbath stretches through all ages; affects all men in ev- ery period of time; distinguishes the true servants of God from the wicked more than any other ordinance; upholds the visible profession of religion before the eyes of mankind; keeps up the face and aspect of Christianity in the world; is the most direct honor that a man can pay to the name and will of the ever-blessed God; and will never cease in its authority here till our Sabbaths on earth give place to that eternal Sabbath of which they are the pledge, the preparation, the end. * Prov. viii. 23—31. SERMOJV II. THE AUTHORITY AND DIGNITY OF THE SABBATH UNDER THE LAW OF MOSES. Exodus xx. 8 — 11. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor 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, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh- ter, thy man-servant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cat- tle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; ivhere- fore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallow- ed it. Having proved that the Sabbath was instituted in paradise by adhering simply to the inspired record, and having si- lenced the objection raised on the supposed absence of any vestiges of its observance till the time of Moses; we come now to consider the position which it held under the cere- monial dispensation. And here the objection to its divine au- thority and obligation rests on its being merely a ceremonial and temporary appointment, which lost its force with the economy which gave it birth. This difficulty has already been virtually removed. For if the narration in the book of Genesis is correctly given; if the patriarchs cannot be proved to have neglected the divine command; and if at the 6 62 THE SABBATH UNDER THE deliverance from Egypt, Moses clearly referred to it as not effaced from the memory of the people; then the Sab- bath did not owe its birth to the ceremonial law, and can- not have ceased by the abrogation of it. But this is little. As we not only answered the objection advanced against the patriarchal Sabbath, but triumphantly established its essential dignity and perpetuity from the glory cast upon it by the order of creation; so we hope, not merely to refute the present objection, but to draw from the law of Moses copious materials for confirming all our preceding argu- ments, and for placing in a yet stronger light the immuta- ble obligation of a day of weekly rest. We assert, then, that from the very commencement of the Mosaical economy, the fourth command was incorpo- rated in the moral law — that when the ceremonial usages were in their greatest vigor, the Sabbath appeared high and distinct above them — and that in the latter ages of the Jewish church it was insisted on by the prophets as of essential moral obligation, and as about to form a part of the gospel dispensation. I. The insertion of the law of the Sabbath into the decalogue confirms all we have already advanced, and af- fords the most decisive proof of its perpetual force. If there were nothing else in the whole Bible, this would be enough to satisfy the humble Christian. The fourth com- mandment is just as binding as any of the remaining nine. There it is, a part of the moral law of God! If the at- tempt to feign an anticipated history was proved to be an invasion on the first principles of faith; the endeavor to displace the fourth commandment is an open invasion OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLES BOTH OF FAITH AND OBE- DIENCE. For every thing conspires to cast an importance around the ten commandments peculiar to themselves. Consider the broad line of demarcation between them and the ceremonial usages. The decalogue is a summary of all those dictates of the love of God and man, which were written upon the heart of Adam before the fall. These commands were kept, in substance, by the patri- archs before they were reduced into a code. They are the eternal rules of right and wrong, resting on the author- itative will of God, and arising from the essential relations in which man stands to his Creator and his fellow-creatures. LAW OF MOSES. 63 They are the standard of human obedience, the transcript of the divine holiness. The unchanging authority of these pre- cepts is the foundation of the Christian religion, the rule of domestic life, the bond of civil government, the grand tie and security of all human society. Between these and the cer- emonial usages there is a vast interval. The judicial and ceremonial law was temporary, of positive enactment, for a time and for certain purposes only; had no existence be- fore its express appointment; derived all its force from something substantial and glorious, of which it was the shadow; and was swept away and abrogated when the more perfect dispensation appeared. All its enactments were without the boundary of the moral law. Within that boundary nothing was abolished when Christ came; with- out it, every thing. Within the boundary all was eternal and immutable; without it, all was temporary and change- able. No confusion was ever made by any considerate Christian on this subject. The conscience of man, when duly informed, responds to every one of the moral commands. The additional motives appended to some of them, arising from the circumstances of the Jews, affect not their univer- sal authority. The particular redemption from Egypt, the length of days attached to filial obedience, the punishment of idolatry visited on the third and fourth generation, and the mercies to thousands promised to the keepers of the divine law,* in no respect change the main, grand, distinctive foundations of moral obligation on which the commandments repose. These constitute a code, a book, which stands distinct and separate from all others, which is divided into two tables, and has been known in all ages as the ''Ten Commandments," or "The Decalogue;" just as the books of Scripture are distinguished from other books by the name of "The Bible." Now, of these ten commands the law of the sab- bath IS ONE. Whatever authority any have, that au- thority is possessed by this. Whatever obligation the first, the second, the third, or any others carry with them, that same obligation carries with it the fourth. If men are * Even these are, in their comprehensive and typical import, of per* petuaJ force — in the redemption of Christ, the spiritual blessing on filial obedience, &c. 64 THE SABBATH UNDER THE bound in every age and under all dispensations to acknowl- edge one only God,* to worship him, not with graven im- ages, but in spirit and in truth,! to reverence the divine name,J to obey their parents,^ to abstain from murder,[| adultery,ir theft,** false-witnessjll concupiscence,J|: they are equally bound to consecrate a Sabbath to their Ma- ker's service, after six days of ordinary labor and toil.^^ This proportion of time had been made known to man in paradise, and published in the very order of creation. The natural and essential duty, therefore, of devoting some time to the worship of God, being thus expounded by a revela- tion of what that time should be, the whole stands a moral and unchanging rule of man's obedience. As the first command fixes the object of worship, and the second the MEANS, and the third the reverential manner, so the fourth determines the time. And as the preceding com- mands are founded in the real relations of things, and made clear to us by the authoritative will of God, so the fourth is founded on the real relation of things, and made clear to us by the authoritative will of God. The only difference is, that the other commands, requiring no limitation of time, were more obvious in all their parts to the consciences of men, whilst this depended, from the very nature of the case, upon the revelation of God's will as to the exact proportion of time to be consecrated to his service. The authority of that appointment, however, when once made known, is as inviolable as any of the others. The fourth commandment is an integral part of the moral law. And now let us advert to the tenor of this fourth pre- cept. It is unlike the rest, it is more detailed, more ex- plicit, extended to more classes of persons, sustained by more reasons. Its introduction also is difi(erent. Instead of a mere injunction or prohibition, it refers to a preceding enactment, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;" as if on purpose to connect the law of the Sabbath in par- adise with its republication at the solemn establishment of the Mosaical dispensation — a design which is made yet more apparent at the close of the commandment, by the citation of the reason given, and of the blessing and sanctification * 1st Commandment. t 2nd. t 3rd. § 5th. || 6th. 1[ 7th. ** 8th. tt 9th. tilOth. §§ 4th, LAW OF MOSES. 6^ Sittached to the institution by the Almighty, when he first granted a day of rest to man at his creation. Nor is THE PLACE which this fourth precept occupies in the decalogue to be overlooked. It is the last of the first table of the law, and prepares for the second. It is the keeper and guardian of the preceding commands, and the preparation for the following. It makes the three first precepts practicable. For after faith in one God, worship to him, and reverence for his name, it prescribes the time in which this pure worship of the only true God is to be celebrated, the persons who are to unite in it, and the in- terruption to all ordinary labors without which it cannot be performed. So that as the tenth commandment shuts up the second table, and reduces, as it were, its injunc- tions to practice, by forbidding that concupiscence which would infallibly lead to their violation; so the fourth accom- plishes the first table by assigning the time and season when its injunctions may be fulfilled. We must not pass unnoticed, also, that the whole moral law, held together, as it were, by the fourth of its precepts, WAS PUBLISHED BERORE THE CEREMONIAL ENACTMENTS of Moses. It stands, not in the midst of the ceremonies, but distinct and separate from them. The Mosaical law did not, properly speaking, begin till after these primary rules of obedience, which man had almost lost through the corruption of his nature and the lapse of time, were restor- ed by a solemn republication. Nor can it be said with truth, that the law of the Sab- bath is merely of a ceremonial nature, because the strict- ness OF its observation was relaxed under the New Testament. For even allowing the fact; a change in the tone and spirit of a commandment, springing from a more benignant dispensation, affects not its fundamental moral authority. But we deny the fact. The ceremonial and judicial enactments which were afterwards connected with it, form no part of the fourth commandment, the tenor of which was always intended to be interpreted according to the merciful construction which our Savior put upon it, against the uncommanded comments of the Jewish doctors. The prohibition of doing any work never included, nor was intended to include, acts of real necessity and mercy. The whole moral bearing of this command is just as entire now, 6* 66 THE SABBATH UNDER THE as the whole moral bearing of any other of the divine code. "I will have mercy and not sacrifice," was an axiom of the Mosaic, as well as the Christian economy, as will be seen in our next discourse. It is painful to have occasion to say so much on so plain a case; and nothing but the great importance of the sub- ject would warrant such a detail. The fourth command, then, is not displaced from its station, nor weakened in its authority by the objection we have been considering. On the contrary, every aspect in which it is viewed, heightens our conception of the dignity which it derives, equally with the rest, from the broad line of demarcation which separates it from the merely ceremonial observances. And now we must go on to consider the solemnities WHICH ATTENDED THE PROMULGATION OF THE MORAL LAW, of which the fourth command is so distinguished a part. These differed from the majesty which accompanied the first institution of the day of rest in Eden. Then it was enregistered in the bold and legible characters of the six days' order of creation; whilst the written record was brief and general. Now it is surrounded, in common with the remaining elementary branches of duty, with those traits of visible glory, that awful voice of words, that de- tailed record, that reference to a preceding enactment, those reasons of universal application, which, after a 'lapse of two thousand five hundred years, were best adapted to explain its import, and ensure human obedience in all future periods of time. The moral law stands singular and alone, amidst the revelations made to Moses. The other com- munications were by more ordinary and usual means; the ten commandments by the immediate voice of God. The other parts of the Jewish economy were conveyed by calm impressions; this by thunderings and lightnings, and at- tendant angels, and the trembling mount, and the dark- ness, and all the terrors at which Moses "exceedingly fear- ed and quaked." Recal to mind the solemn scene, that you may imbibe the full dignity of all the precepts of the moral law, and of the sabbatical amongst the number. Hear; the trump sounds, and the voice of words are utter- ed. See; no one but the holy prophet may approach — "if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it is stoned or thrust through with a dart." Behold; two tables of stone are LAW OF MOSES. 67 prepared by the Almighty himself. Upon these the finger of God inscribes "The Ten Commandments," and addeth NO MORE. The tables are broken by Moses as he de- scends from the mount — and, lo, the law is re-written on second tables with the same hand; and is finally deposited, not with the rest of the Mosaic statutes, but separate and alone, within the ark of the covenant. Can any circum- stances impress us with a more awful sense of the singular importance of every precept? Can any thing more distin- guish and elevate the moral and perpetual, above the tem- porary and ceremonial law — and separate and single out this decalogue in point of dignity and prominence from all other enactments? The whole Bible contains nothing so peculiar and majestic, as this introduction to this new dis- pensation. Where is the man that will venture to lessen the number of the commandments? Where is the man that from ten will presume to reduce them to nine? Where is the Protestant that will expunge, with the Church of Rome, the command which happens most to militate against his corrupt practices?* Where is the man that will oblit- erate that precept especially, which so immediately re- spects the honor of God and the glory offered to his name, which, standing in the very heart of the code, binds its injunctions together, and gives strength and consistence to the whole? I conceive it is impossible for simple-minded Christians to consider these things, and not to see at once the marked distinction between the shadow and types of a particular dispensation, and the eternal rules of right and wrong. Their prayer, I am persuaded, will continue to be, as to each particular commandment, and as to the fourth no less than the others, "Lord, have mercy upon us, and in- cline our hearts to keep this law;" and as to the entire series, without exception or difference, "Lord, write all these thy laws on our hearts, we beseech thee." II. But we proceed to show, that even when the cer- emonial USAGES WERE IN THEIR GREATEST VIGOR, THE Sabbath appeared high and distinct above THEM. * The Popish catechisms have frequently omitted the second com- mandment) the practice may now be discontinued perhaps. 68 THE SABBATH UNDER THE For the law of the weekly rest passes through the Mosa- ical dispensation. It will be important, then, to show its position during this part of its course. It entered this econ- omy, or rather proceeded it, by the promulgation of the moral law, of whose majesty and perpetuity it partakes. It now, however, receives additional rules and appendages, which attend it during the continuance of the Mosaic dis- pensation. But it is remarkable that these ceremonial en- actments are no part of the essential law of the Sabbath as inserted in the decalogue; and that even during the greatest vigor and first observance of them, the moral obligation of the day of weekly rest lifts up its head high and distinct above them. These are the points which we are now to prove. For the Sabbath is now a part of that preparatory dis- pensation, and is attired with robes of state and ceremony during that period. Two Lambs are offered on its weekly return, beside the usual burnt-offering; the shew-bread is renewed on the golden table; the ministers of the temple enter on their courses; other times of holy solemnity are in- stituted and included under the general name of Sabbaths; its external rest is enforced with temporal sanctions; the presumptuous violater of it is subjected to the punishment of death; it is constituted a sign of the national covenant, and is enjoined as a public protest against idolatry; finally, the spirit of bondage and condemnation lowers over this part, as over every other, of the introductory economy of Moses. Here, then, for the first time, we recognize the features of a ceremonial Sabbath. Many commandments of the decalogue, and the fourth amongst the number, are now invested with temporary statutes, as ^'shadows of good things to come," or parts of the peculiar theocracy of the Jews. But the essential moral character of each precept of the decalogue loses none of its force by its ceremonial and judi- cial observances. The sin of worshipping any but the one true God, remains just as great, after all the numerous stat- utes peculiar to the Jews. The sin of making graven images, of taking God's name in vain, of disobeying parents, of committing murder, adultery, theft, of bearing false- witness, of coveting the goods of our neighbor, are pre- cisely the same violations of the immutable rules of right and wrong, as before the temporary enactments which af- LAW OF MOSES. 69 fected the chosen people. In like manner, the fourth com- mandment is unaltered in its essential injunction of a weekly religious rest for the service of God, though it is associated with many temporary and figurative appendages. Nothing can be clearer than this. The principle is ad- mitted with regard to nine of the commandments, and can never be fairly refused as to the tenth. And accordingly not one of these ceremonial and civil statutes is incorporated in the ten commandments them- selves — not one is written with the finger of God — not one is found on the consecrated tables — not one is deposit- ed within the ark of the covenant. They are all delivered afterwards, in another form, with other views, and to oc- cupy another station. But let us go on and follow the Sabbath as it passes through the ceremonial dispensation. It might, indeed, have pleased God, that it should have been entirely shroud- ed by this dispensation during its continuance. It would then have lost none of its original force, and we should merely have had to resume our consideration of it, after it had been disembarrassed from the emblematical ceremo- nies. But this is not the state of the case. The Sabbath lifts up its. head high above all the ceremonial usages, even in the Pentateuch itself, and during" the full vigor of the introductory economy. For first, after the record of the promulgation of the decalogue, three chapters of judicial statutes follow; but in the midst of these, the people are reminded of the es- sential importance of the Sabbath, in a manner quite dis- tinct and peculiar. It is associated with the primary duty of worshipping the one true God, as of equal obligation, and indeed as necessary to it. "Six days shalt thou d^ thy work, and on the seventh thou shalt rest, . . in all things that I have said unto thee, be circumspect, and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth."* This is sufficiently remark- able. Again, after six chapters more concerning the tabernacle and its various services and sacrifices, the whole communi- catioD of the forty days' abode on the mount is concluded * Exod. xxiii. 12, 13. 70 THE SABBATH UNDER THE with a re-inculcation of the Sabbath-rest, in a manner the most solemn and affecting. "And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, verily my Sabbath ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT I AM THE LoRD THAT DOTH SANCTIFY YOU. Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth 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 doeth any work in the Sab- bath-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 cov- enant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed."* Can any thing give dignity to the sacred day as founded in the essential relation of man to his Maker and Redeemer, if this sublime language does not.'' Every idea of sanctifi- cation, every sense of importance from a sign of a covenant between God and man, every sanction derived from the awful punishment of death, unite to impress upon us the duty; whilst the proportion noted between the working days and the day of rest, and the reason drawn from the order of creation, extend the obligation to every human being. In the following two chapters we have as many addi- tional recapitulations, with fresh cautions. The book of Exodus closes. The enactments concerning sacrifices and purifications are, however, no sooner despatched in the fol- lowing book, than we meet with a passage in which one commandment of the second table of the moral law, and two of the first, are united with the fourth commandment as of equal obligation, and this as a matter well known and requiring no explanation; "Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep my Sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. Turn ye not unto idols, nor make ta_ yourselves molten images; I am the Lord your God."t * Exod. xxxi. 12—17, t Lev. xix. 1—4. LAW OF MOSES. 71 I will not dwell on other passages in this book. I has- ten to fix your attention on the punishment of death inflict- ed on the Sabbath-breaker, as recorded in the next. Few persons consider how deeply this case is designed to im- press us with the essential obligation of the fourth com- mandment, and of the immediate honor of God involved in a presumptuous violation of it. This last point is not to be overlooked. The man was not condemned merely for gathering sticks on the Sabbath; but for doing this in the face of the divine prohibition. Accordingly he was put in ward, till the will of God should be distinctly known. The whole proceeding was marked with a calm solemnity which makes the warning more pointed and decisive. The "soul that doeth aught presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people; be- cause he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath-day. And they that found him gathering sticks, brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, the man shall be surely put to death."* I add only the striking passage, in which, at the close of life, Moses re-inculcates, as a preacher, the command- ments which he had delivered before as a legislator. In this recapitulation, the other nine precepts of the deca- logue stand as they were first promulgated from Mount Sinai — at least, the variations are extremely slight, but the fourth is amplified and enforced with many additional motives, as if it claimed more regard than any other. "Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God commanded thee: six days thou shalt labor 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, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid- servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, * Numb. XV. 30—35. 72 THE SABBATH UNDER THE nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man- servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. And remember thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commandeth thee to keep the Sabbath-day."* What a distinction does this amplitude of detail confer on the law of the Sabbath! And how does this and the passages before cited, take out this commandment from the mere ceremonial and positive institutions with which for a time it is mingled, and lift up its head in the midst of the temporary and fugitive elements of the Jewish polity! How evidently does even the Pentateuch exhibit it as a moral precept, directed to the highest ends, beyond what was peculiar to the Mosaical dispensation, and losing nothing of its permanent and essential force from the com- bination! IIL But proceed we to show that, in the latter ages of the Jewish church, the weekly Sabbath was insisted upon BY THE PROPHETS AS OP ESSENTIAL MORAL OBLIGA- TION, AND AS DESTINED TO FORM A PART OF THE GOS- PEL DISPENSATION. Hitherto the objection raised against the perpetuity of the Sabbath on the ground of its being a merely ceremo- nial enactment, has not only been silenced, but refuted. It is a constituent part of the moral law: to call it a mere ceremony, is to sap all the foundations of faith and obedience. During the vigor of the ceremonial usages, it lifts up its head above them, and is enforced as of moral obligation: to call it a mere ceremony, is to be ignorant of the very first facts of the case. But we now go on to the prophets, the reformers of the degenerate people, the preachers of the divine will, the seers of the gospel age, the assertors of the moral and eternal rule of duty, the bold proclaimers of the law of conscience and the bonds of a covenant relation with God. If they are found to urge the spiritual observance of the day of rest, as designed to form a part of the evangelical economy; and if they do this at the very time that they cast contempt on the mere outward ceremonies of the Jew- * Deut. V. 12—15. LAW OF MOSES. 73 ish law — if they are found to denounce the divine indigna- tion on no transgression, except idolatry, with so much vehemence — and if they appear anxious to reform the man- ners of the people in this capital point more than in any other, — then our argument gains strength at every step, and the divine institution will stand at the margin of the Christian dispensation, ready to enter it, in common with the other branches of essential religion. Consider then, in the first place, the language of the Book of Psalms, and observe how little allusion is made to the ceremonial rites connected with the Sabbath, and how completely the stress is laid on the permanent and spiritual duties of that holy season. The Jewish Sabbath was indeed now in force. But it is upon the praises of God generally — his glory, his majesty, his compassion, his providence, his redemption, that the Psalmist dwells. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. . . How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts, my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God ... I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord."* These are detached passages. In the 92nd Psalm we have an express hymn or song for the Sabbath-day, the topics of which are spiritual, and not ceremonial. First, the praises of God are enjoined, which are the proper busi- ness of the Sabbath;! then the wonders of God in crea- tion, the very reason for the institution;! next, the dealings of the divine providence in the overthrow of the wicked ;§ and lastly, the operations of grace in the fruitfulness, even to old age, of those who ''are planted in the house of the Lord."|| Contrast with this the language of the 50th Psalm, in which a marked disregard is shown for mere ceremonies: "I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt*- offerings to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. * Psalm xxvii. 84, 120. t Ver. 1—3. | Ver. 4, 5. § Ver. 6—11. II Ver. 12-15. 7 74 THE SABBATH UNDER THE For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hun- gry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fulness thereof. Will 1 eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats, &lc. ?" In this denunciation, you will ob- serve that nothing" is included which in the least belongs to the essential matters extolled in the former Psalms. In like manner, with what holy indignation does the- prophet Isaiah reject the mere outward observan- ces of the Jewish law: ^'to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me.'' saith the Lord; I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he- goats. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomi- nation unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth, they are a trouble to me, I am weary to bear them."* In this vehement expostulation the Sabbaths, including that of the weekly rest, are swept away, when superstitiously relied on, in one common repro- bation. But with what earnestness, on the contrary, is the due celebration of the sabbath extolled in the subse- quent chapter — how is it placed on a level with the plain,- EST MORAL PRECEPTS — how is the not polluting of it made the principal thing that pleases God — and how are the LARGEST PROMISES OF THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION connected with such a spiritual consecration of the holy-day! ^'Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from pol- luting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Here the observation of the weekly day of rest is spoken of as a great part of holiness of life, and is placed among moral duties. The prophet proceeds, neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, say- ing, the Lord hath utterly separated me from his people; neither let the eunuch say, behold I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sab- * Isaiah i. 11— U. LAW OF MOSES. 75 baths and do the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant. Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls, a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off." The prophet is here speaking of the gospel age, when the ceremonial law which prohibited eunuchs from coming into the congregation of the Lord, shall be abolished; yet the eunuchs, when thus at liberty from the law of ceremonies, are described as being still under an obligation to keep the Sabbath. Nay, they are directed to use this very method of obtaining a share in the blessings of Messiah's kingdom. And so with regard to the Gentiles generally, here called strangers; "also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his ser- vants, every one that keepeththe Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;" where we notice again, that the sanctification of the Sabbath is put on the same footing with theJaying hold of God's covenant, the serving the Lord, the loving the name of the Lord, the being his servants — and is indeed described as the main proof of all those parts of essential piety. The prophet then adds this evangelical promise, which by our Lord's own citation is predictive of the gospel-state — "Even them will 1 bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be ac- cepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." The Gentiles, then, who shall be called in the times of the gospel, will be under the same duty of keeping the Sabbath; and shall thus be made "joyful in that house of prayer" which is destined for all people. All this falls in exactly with another pre- diction of the same inspired writer, the language being still in the terms of the dispensation then prevailing. "It shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord;" which has constantly been fulfilling in the Christian church, when all flesh have worshipped before the Lord in that weekly day of religious rest into which the Jewish new moons and sabbatical peri- ods have subsided. Add to this the description which the jame divine author gives of the duties of the Sabbath. They 76 THE SABBATH UNDER THE have so clearly a moral obligation and universal force, and involve atone of devotion so elevated, that we may truly say. If the Sabbath be a ceremony, we have lost under the gos- pel one of the brightest glories of revelation. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleas- ure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, &c."* But we pass from this class of passages, to notice those DENUNCIATIONS OF THE SIN OF VIOLATIJVG THE SABBATH, which are only surpassed by the anger of the Almighty against idolatry itself, with which, indeed, it seems ever to have had a close affinity. We have already noticed the sentence executed early in the history of the sacred peo- ple on the presumptuous sabbath-breaker. But hear the prophet Jeremiah: "Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem: neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath-day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath-day, as I com- manded your fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff that they might not hear nor receive instruction. But if ye will not hearken unto me — ^^then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched, "f -A^^ the prosperity of the na- tion, all the favor of God is suspended on this one branch of moral obedience. To judge of the force of this, con- trast it with the same prophet's declaration concerning ceremonial observances: "for I spake not unto your fathers, nor commahded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices. But this one thing commanded I them, saying, obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people. "J Again, mark how the prophet Amos reproaches the de- generate people with an impatience of the holy services of the Sabbath and other festivals: "Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to * Isaiah Iviii. 10, 13. t Jer. xvii. 19—27. t Jer. vii. 22, 23. LAW OF MOSES. 77 fail, saying, When will the new moon' be gone that we maj sell corn, and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat!* The prophet Ezekiel follows. He lived later than Jer- emiah and Amos. The Babylonish captivity had now be- gun; and the peculiar aggravation of the people's sins is represented to be their profanation of the Sabbath: "More- over, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me; my Sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness to con- sume them." The charge is repeated again and again in the course of the expostulation, and is connected with the sin of idolatry and of direct contempt of the majesty of the Lord: "They despised my judgments and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. ""f Similar charges are reiterated in sub- sequent chapters of this and the other prophets, and like threatenings denounced. And what was the particular reformation which Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the prophets after the captivity, were most anxious to effect upon the first return of the peo- ple from Babylon.'* We are now come to the last trace of prophetical revelation. The Old Testament canon is clos- ing. What do the last inspired teachers and leaders tes- tify.? What was their chief care.? What their main object? Was it not to restore the house of God's wor- ship? to rebuild the temple.? to recal the people to the sanctrty of the Sabbath? I omit other points, to exhibit the noble conduct of Nehemiah when he found the men of Tyre bringing fish and selling it on the sacred day. Mark his warmth of reproach. Observe his appeal to the past history of the nation. Notice that the whole transaction rests, not on any ceremonial rite omitted or despised, but on the violation of the grand fundamental duty of the relig- ious rest of God. "In those days saw I in Judah, some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jeru- salem on the Sabbath-day; and I testified against them in * Amos viii. 11. t Ezek. xx. 12, 13, 16. 78 , THE SABBATH UNDER THE the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish and all manner of >vare, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath-day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I com- manded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath; and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath-day. And I com- manded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath-day."* Thirty or forty years after this, the prophet Mala- CHi utters the last predictions, and gives the last warnings, before the coming of Messiah. And on what does he so much insist, as on the contempt into which the ordinances of God were sunk, and on the indignation of the Almighty which was about to follow? They "offered polluted bread." No one would "shut the temple-doors for nought." They said, "The table of the Lord is contemptible." They said, "Behold, what a weariness is it!" "And ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts." "Ye have said. It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances." "Therefore," adds the prophet, "the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble. "| Such is the estimate which we are led to form of the es- sential moral character of the law of the Sabbath, from a review of every part of the Old Testament. More than three thousand six hundred years since the first Sabbath have now elapsed. The sacred institution stands on the margin of the New Testament dispensation. We naturally inquire, then, what we might expect to be its dignity, if we find nothing directly to the contrary, in the kingdom of Mes- siah? It derived not its authority from the Levitical law, ■' Nehemiah xiii. 15, 21, 22. t Mai. i. 6, 7, IS; iii. 14j iv. 1. • LAW OF MOSES. 79 . it could lose, therefore, none of its sanctity by the abroga- tion of it. The same respect would be due to it as before that intervening dispensation. Whatever the Sabbath was when it entered the Mosaic ritual, that would it be when it came from it. The cessation of the ceremonial law would no more release the worshipper of God from the ob- servation of a weekly rest, than it would cancel the in- junction of filial piety, or the prohibition of theft, murder, adultery, false witness, or concupiscence. The importance of all we have been considering is in this view very mate- rial. We have shown its divine institution in paradise, the traces of its observance during the patriarchal ages, its re-enactment in the wilderness before the Mosaical econo- my, at the miraculous fall of manna. We have also noti- ced its solemn incorporation in the ten commandments — the awful glories of that promulgation — its dignity above all the ceremonies of the Jewish religion — its essential and perpetual obligation as inculcated by the prophets, and des- tined to form a part of the gospel age. It comes forth, therefore, from the hand of Moses with all its pristine au- thority, which it had, in fact, never lost as to any portion of the human race, except as the corruption of man had perverted or forgotten the original institution. Nay, it enters the gospel dispensation with more than its patriarchal majesty and obligation. It has been accu- mulating, not diminishing, its claims upon men, by all the testimonies to its essential importance which Moses and the prophets gave. It has acquired new force, new evidence, new illustration, by its position under an economy which, if it had been merely a ceremony, would have buried it amid a thousand surrounding rites. The gospel will, therefore, we may conclude, secure to the original institution of the Sabbath more ample scope, higher obligations, and a more elevated position of dignity and importance. The gospel is the last and most perfect dispensation, — the completion of all the preceding, the time of enlarged privilege, of superabundant grace! If, therefore, a weekly day of repose and religious worship was granted to the saints of the patriarchal dispensations — and if even under the law of bondage this blessing was continued to the Jew, much more will it be vouchsafed to the Christian, — much more will it accompany 'Hhe law of so l"JHf: SABBATH UNliER THIS liberty." We may be sure that the boon is not revoked; we may be sure that man is not doomed now to seven days' labor instead of six; we may be sure tliat his time for worshipping- God is not abridged, nor the pledge of the covenant of grace lessened and restrained. But this is not all. The Sabbath had been increasing in its moral influence upon man from the first institution. Every fresh motive to the love of God, every ray of glory from Mount Sinai, every prophecy of a future Savior, had been augmenting proportionably his duty, by affording him more copious aids in fulhlling it. Christians, then, being favored with a clearer knowledg-e of the divine will, havinsT more motives to love and serve God, having a more abun- dant effusion of the Holy Spirit, than under any preceding period, we may be sure that their character will be supe- rior, their delight in the worship of God more warm, their celebration of God's praises in creation and redemption proportionably more fervent. Yet, if a sabbatical institu- tion is not binding upon Christians, we must reverse the supposition. We must forget the devotion of the patri- archs, the spiritual fervor of the psalmist, the zeal for the Sabbath which animated Nehemiah and Ezra, the delight in its duties foretold by Isaiah as marking the gospel age; and the Christian must take his station below the Jew in spirituality and love. But this can never be the case. We may conclude that if one day in seven was the measure imder more imperfect dispensations, a less term cannot suf- fice under the influence of so many motives and induce- ments to a higher degree of love in the worship of God.* We shall want, therefore, no enactment, no express com- mand in the New Testament. Things will go on as they did before the Mosaic economy, except as a richer effusion of grace will render the Sabbath a more delightful season of repose than in the preceding ages. The worship of the New Testament will be, we may conclude, a restoration of the patriarchal in its primitive simplicity and purity, dropping the incumbrances imposed during the time of the law, and acquiring all the new influence and obligations which the infinite benefits of the gospel confer. * Archdeacon Pott. LAW OF MOSES. 81 And thus, as the patriarchal sacrifices passed on into the passover and numerous offerings of the law during the term of that intervening dispensation, and then emerged in the simple evangelical supper of our Lord — as the patri- archal circumcision reserved its rites during the same econ- omy, and then yielded to the sacrament of baptism — as the patriarchal institution of marriage, suspended on account of the hardness of the people's hearts during the Jewish age, was re-established and came to its full effect in the Chris- tian law of marriage, — so the patriarchal day of rest, with its worship of God, its celebration of the wonders of cre- ation, and its provision for the religious repose of man, after having been annexed for a period to the national cov- enant of the Jews, was restored to its first design in the Christian Sabbath. A re-enactment in the New Testament would be a de- nial, by implication, of its previous institution and author- ity. Nothing is re-enacted in the gospel. The moral law, the essential duties of religion, the relations of man to his Maker and Benefactor, the necessity of a season for divine worship, the proportion of time destined for it from the creation, all the precepts of the decalogue — remain un- changed. They are not again formally promulgated. Creation and Mount Sinai suffice. They go on of course, and the Sabbath with them, if no express and formal abro- gation of it be found in the gospel. But we are anticipating our next discourse. Our object is merely to bring up the sabbatical rest to the threshhold of the New Testament, and to leave it there, ready to enter. Let us then turn from these discussions to some practical points which may affect our hearts. 1. Let us learn to give to the holy day of rest that PROMINENCY IN OUR ESTEEM which Moscs was instructed to give it in his dispensation. Christian brethren, let the gospel be as influential upon us to observe the day of rest and holy worship, as the law was of old. Let not the Sabbath be sunk amidst external observances, ordinary rites, an outward adherence to a national creed, the com- mon decencies of religion. Let it be exalted and placed aloft as the Queen of days. Let the admiration of the Jew, blind as it often was, be a stimulus to the more en- 82 THE SABBATH UNDER THE lightened devotion of the Christian. Let the mercies of God in the redemption from the Egyptian captivity, which bound with additional motives the Sabbath upon the ancient people, teach us how the mercies of a spiritual redemption from sin and death should bind on us the sanctification of that day when they are especially celebrated. Let the perpetual inculcation of this duty by Moses, on all occa- sions, in every connection, by every species of motive, lead us to urge it upon our children and households on every fit opportunity. Let the solemn promulgation of it in "The Ten Commandments" be the rallying point of all our ar- guments, and the brief and conclusive evidence of the per- petuity of the institution. IL And to this end let us imbibe the spirit of LOVE AND DELIGHT in the worsliip of God, which the Psalms and Prophets display. We never can imitate the earnestness of Moses, nor place the Sabbath on the prom- inency where he exhibits it, unless we join to it the holy David's love to God, and the sublime Isaiah's spiritual joy in his service. O, how much are our Sabbaths, practically speaking, below those of the saints of old. How much is our repose of soul in God, our fainting of heart after his courts, our view of the happiness which religion communi- cates, inferior to the feelings which these holy men expe- rienced! Let us pray, let us seek for such a spiritual state of heart, for such a real choice and preference of God in Christ Jesus, and such a delight in the contemplation of his glory in creation, providence, and redemption, as may en- large our hearts and "lift them up in the ways of the Lord;" as may render the Sabbath a delight, as may surround it with the honor and esteem which are its due, and make "one day in God's courts better than a thou- sand." Then, then should we indeed sanctify our Sab- baths. Then would disputes soon cease. Then should we abstain naturally and with choice, from "doing our own ways, finding our own pleasure, or speaking our own words." And what, indeed, does the love of our Savior Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit do for us, if they do not raise us out of the world, and unite us with the spir- itual church in religious adoration? This is the secret of true religion. It reigns by love, it subdues by the sense of benefits, it calms and purifies the soul, it turns the cur- LAW OF MOSES. 83 rent of the affections towards God, it pays cheerfully and with delight the tribute of one day in seven, as the Lord's portion and share out of man's time and efforts, and for the training and discipline of the soul for an eternity of worship in heaven. III. But add to these motives the awful indigna- tion of Almighty God against the contempt of his name and his day. Judge from the terrors of Mount Sinai and the denunciations of the prophets against the sin of pol- luting the Sabbath, what is the esteem in which the Lord holds it. I would urge upon my own conscience, and that of others, the guilt of that weariness in the service of God, that contempt and neglect of its spiritual benefits, that in- ward disgust and pride which harden the heart against penitence and a return to God, that conceit and self-reli- ance and self-satisfaction which engender dislike for divine worship and religious repose. I would urge the criminality, the peculiar criminality, under the spiritual dispensation of the New Testament, of those sins which Moses and the prophets condemned with so much vehemence under the less perfect economy of the law. The greater ease and liberty of the gospel and our freedom from the bond of ceremonies, only augment the guilt of that enmity against the holy nature and blessed will of God, from which contempt of his worship springs. We have now no multiplied festivals to observe, no diflScult and expensive offerings to present, no perpetual oblations to go through with, no sabbatical years to ob- serve. The simple and noble worship and repose of one day in seven is what God commands— or rather grants us as a boon — and only enjoins when we refuse thus to re- ceive it. Awaken, then, Christian brethren, from the torpor and Jukewarmness which too much mark the age in which we live. A philosophic conceit, the pride of intellect, indiffer- ence to truth, a selfish calculating love of ease and indul- gence, a blindness to the magnitude and dignity of the claims of our invisible Benefactor — these are our sins — and these were the sins of the days of Ezekiel and Malachi under the old dispensation. And from these sins, a readiness to listen to objections against the Sabbath springs. Who would ever have endured the fiction of an anticipation in 84 THE SABBATH UNDER THE the narrative of the glorious work of creation,* or of the Sabbath being merely a ceremonial rite, if an indifference and weariness for spiritual things had not predisposed the mind to seek any excuse for its worldliness and unconcern. But let us be aroused to real penitence. Let us view the guilt of contemning God in its true light. Let our hard- ness of heart, and pride of intellectual distinction, yield to the sweet influences of grace, and we shall honor God in (he day which from the creation has been dedicated to him. The anomaly of a Christian loving God and under- valuing the day of God, has never yet been known. But further, IV. Let lis IMITATE THE HEROIC ZEAL of Ezra and Nehemiah in vindicating the sanctity of the Sabbath. Surely the Christian cannot hesitate as to his duty, after considering the conduct of these inspired men. Each should do what his talent and influence in society enjoin and permit. It is the principle upon which I insist. If we cannot absolutely shut the gates of our great cities to the entrance of merchandize, we may do something to lessen the evil. We may shut the door of our houses — 'we may prohibit the purchase or reception of articles of consumption by our servants and dependants — we may encourage those upon whom we have any influence, to observe the sacred day. Let only the zeal, the cour- age, the firmness, the disinterestedness of Ezra and Nehe- miah be connected with their piety and love to the house of their God, and much would be done. How have national revivals of religion been brought about in other times? In the days of Samuel, in those of Hezekiah or Jehosha- phat or Josiah? The magistrates and ministers of religion took the lead. Men like Ezra and Nehemiah rose up with holy determination and simplicity. Public conscience and sentiment were addressed. Gross infractions of the day of rest were discouraged. Prayer was off'ered up at the throne of mercy. God answered the petition, and truth and holiness were again established. V. I add only one more thought; that as the guilt of Sabbath-breaking and of idolatry were united of old in the * No man ever thought of anticipation in this place, who was not lirst anticipated with manifest prejudice, says an old writer. LAW OF MOSES. 85 practice of the people, and in the threatnings of the holy- prophets, we should especially dread that false view of THE CHARACTER OF GoD AND OF THE NATURE ^ OP Christianity which are generally associated with the violation of the Lord's day. To worship God aright, is to adore him in his perfections, in his manifestations of him- self in his word, in his infinite right over man, in his holy law, in his eternal judgment, in the revelation of a way of salvation through the atonement of Christ and in the ope- rations of the divine Spirit, in the communion with himself to which he admits the devout worshipper. All other wor- ship is idolatry in its proper sense. It is the setting up idols in our heart. It is worshipping a God of our own imagination. Now mark the alliance of all this with the sin of neglecting and violating the holy Sabbath. We throw off the day of religion, because we throw off the God whom that religion regards. We set up the god of the infidel, or of the Socinian, or the careless worldly professor, which is such an one as himself; and then we worship that idol, by vanity, by carnal indulgence, by the neglect of all the spir- itual duties of the Christian Sabbath. Let the God of the Bible be enthroned in the heart, and the Sabbath which that God blessed and sanctified, will be duly honored. To love him, to glorify him, to worship him, to meditate on his works, to prepare for the enjoyment of him for ever, will fully occupy that sacred portion of time which he has ap- pointed for those ends. Faith in the object of worship will produce the sanctification of the day of worship. And thus shall we join the instructions of the Old Testament on the subject of the Sabbath, with the grace and strength furnished in the New, and have the patriarchal and Christian day of rest united and fulfilled in all their blessings. 8 SERMO^f III. THE SABBATH VINDICATED UNDER THE GOSPEL FROM PHARISAICAL AUSTERITIES, AND SET FORTH IN MORE THAN ITS ORIGINAL DIGNITY AND GLORY. Mark ii. 27, 28. •And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. We now come to a most important part of the argument for the divine authority and perpetual obligation of a day of weekly rest. There has hitherto appeared but little of real weight, or even of plausibility, in the objections raised by our opponents. The fiction of an anticipated history is so groundless, and the attempt to evade the authority of the fourth commandment so violent, that we may almost wonder that any professed believer in Christianity should have ad- vanced them. But the case is different, as it respects the gospel dispensation: our Lord undoubtedly introduced ma- terial changes in the observation of the Sabbath as prev- alent at the time of his ministry. Undoubtedly he relieved it from many restrictions. On what authority, indeed, these restrictions had been introduced, is another question — but undoubtedly he relieved it. The apostles followed, and transferred the time of its celebration, from the last t() the first day of the week; and abrogated finally the PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 87 ceremonies and rites of the Jewish law. All this is con- sidered by many as a repeal of the institution altogether — they view the Christian Sabbath as a new command resting on its own basis — and that basis the mere example of the apostles. Let us then calmly consider this part of the subject. The authority of our Redeemer, as "Lord of the Sabbath," to abrogate or dissolve any divine ordinance, is acknowl- edged on all hands. Here it will be convenient to divide the question into two parts — the divine authority of the Sabbath itself under the Christian dispensation — and The ground on which the day of its observation was changed. In other words, we must ansvver two questions: Have we a Sabbath under the gos- pel? and, Is that Sabbath the Lord's day? The first will occupy the present discourse. Now if the statements we have made in our preceding arguments be at all valid, this question will almost answer itself. For we left the Sabbath on the margin of the Old Testament, ready to step over into the Evangelical dispen- sation. We had brought up the proof of its continued ob- ligation from its first enactment in paradise, to the very line of separation. The glories of the six days' work, succeeded by a seventh day's repose, as inscribed on the order of crea- tion — the insertion of the law of the Sabbath into the ten commandments — its distinct and lofty position above the cer- emonies of Moses in the very midst of that economy — its in- culcation by the prophets as of essential moral force, and as about to form a part of the Messiah's kingdom; — all this implies that Christ's religion would not be deprived of its day of rest — that the most perfect dispensation would not be inferior in privilege to the less perfect — that where all is grace, and light, and universality, we should not be al- lowed a smaller portion of time for the immediate honor of our God, and communion with him, than where bondage and fear prevailed. And this we shall accordingly find to be the case. We shall see the ten commandments, and the Sabbath amongst the number, recognized by our Lord and his apostles — we shall observe our Savior honoring it on all occasions by his prac- tice, and vindicating it from unauthorized traditions injurious to its real design. We shall find that nothing with respect 88 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM to it is abrogated under the gospel, but those temporary ceremonies and statutes which constituted the peculiarities of the Jewish age. We shall perceive that the especial promise of the New Testament has for its object to render its duties more practicable and delightful, and thus increase tenfold their obligation. That is, we shall discover that the solemn axiom deliv- ered by our Lord in the text, together with the caution and inference connected with it, lays down the true principle on which the Christian day of rest is to be enforced. The Sabbath was made for man; was originally granted him as a boon — was appointed for his necessary repose from worldly toil and care — was made, not for the Jew merely, but for man as man; for man as consistino- of body and soul; as requiring rest and refreshment for the one, religious instruction for the other; as created for his Maker's glory, and destined for eternal happiness or misery. What a noble declaration of the perpetual design and authority of the institution! Of all our Savior's axioms, few are more clear, definite, important, universal. It takes for granted that there would be a Sabbath under his dis- pensation; and it defines its purposes, that it was made for the advantage and benefit of man — for his highest wel- fare both as to his body and soul. Nor is the caution which our Lord adds less appropriate considering the austerities which the Jewish masters had imposed; not man for the sabbath. Their error lay in overlooking the grand moral end of the institution. They taught that "man was made for the Sabbath." Our Lord recals the institution to its first and true design; he teaches that it was not a rite ending in itself, and to which all the moral purposes of it should yield; but that God would "have mercy and not sacrifice," and that when the real spiritual and exalted interests of man, for which it was appointed, required a suspension of any of its outward observances, that suspension was lawful. The axiom and caution explain all our Lord's conduct. The fundamental law of the Sabbath remains unchanged; as it began, so it will end only with the world itself. But the embarrassments and trammels of human fancy are dis- solved, and its simplicity is restored. PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 89 The inference follows of course; therefore the Son OF MAN IS Lord also of the Sabbath. For the in- stitution having originally been made for the good of man; and "the Lord of the Sabbath" having become, by his in- carnation "the Son of man," for redeeming him from death, for introducing the last dispensation, and ordering all things in that dispensation for his best vt^elfare — "therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath," to expound as legislator its injunctions, to annul with authority the impo- sitions introduced contrary to its genuine spirit, to leave it as one of the distinctions and privileges of his universal and spiritual kingdom. Proceed we, then, to consider the divine obligation of the weekly day of rest under the gospel, as apparent from I. The recognition of the ten commandments, AND OF the fourth AMONGST THE NUMBER, which OUf Lord and his apostles make. It will be recollected, that the moral law had for fifteen centuries been known as a distinct code, under the titles of "The Tables of the Law," "The Commandments," "The Law," and similar appropriate names, which, as we have already remarked, meant the same, with reference to other commands, as "The Bible" with regard to other books. It need scarcely be noticed, also, that "The Command- ments" were divided into two parts, the first containing four precepts and no more, the second six; the whole being ten; and that the first series was summed up in the well- known command of the love of God, and the second of the love of our neighbor. Now if our Lord and his apostles recognize the perpet- ual authority of the whole moral law as a matter of course; if they refer to it as known by the collective name or names which we have noticed; if they divide it into the two great commanding precepts of the love of God and man; if they refer to some of them in a manner which proves that the order of the ten commands was the same as when promulgated from Mount Sinai; if they declare that the gospel abrogated none of the precepts, but enlarged their scope and enforced their authority; and if, finally, they denounced their displeasure against those who should teach any relaxation of the least of these enactments; — then 8# 90 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM the whole ten commandments, the fourth included, are of plenary force under the gospel. And need I remind you that when one came to Christ and said, ^'Good Master, what shall I do that I may in- herit eternal life?" our Lord at once replied, as a matter perfectly familiar, ^'Thou knowest the commandments" — if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments," — and when the inquirer demanded which, Jesus recapit- ulated five; thus expressly recognizing the whole code?* Need I tell you, that on another occasion, he summed up the two tables, as Moses so frequently had done in the Pentateuch, into the love of God and the love of our neigh- l)or, adding, as if to strengthen his recognition of them — *'0n these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets?"! Need I tell you that at another time he reproached the Pharisees with having "made void" one commandment, the fifth, "through their tradition?" Need I remind you, above all, that he declared in one of his most solemn discourses — that on the Mount — that "he came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil" — that "till heaven and earth should pass, one jot or one tittle should in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled" — that "whosoever should break one of the least of these commandments and should teach men so, should be called least in the kingdom of heaven" — and that "unless the righteousness of his dis- ciples should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, they should in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven?" Can anything be more express upon our ar- gument than such declarations; especially as our Savior leaves us in no doubt of what he meant by the law, but proceeds to explain several of the ten commandments ?j And why should I detain you with going over the same ground as to the apostles? Do they not every where ac- knowledge without addition or diminution, the same deca- logue? Does not St. Paul say, "He that loveth another, hath fulfilled the law?" and then, after enumerating five commands, does he not add, "And if there be any other * Malt. xix. 16. Mark x. 17. Luke xviii. 18. t Deut. vi. 5. Lev. xix. 19. Malt. xxii. 36—40. I Matt. y. vi. vii. PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 91 commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying", *'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself?"* And though he quote not separately, any more than our Lord, the par- ticular precepts of the first table, yet can any one suppose, that when he sums up the second table, as we have seen, in the love of our neighbor, he meant to exclude the first table or any precept of it, any more than our Lord meant to exclude it, who actually quotes the Mosaic summary of that first table? But I need not dwell on so clear a point. I need not enumerate the passages where St. Paul and his brother apostles cite or refer to the moral law, as of divine and perpetual authority under the gospel. What indeed is sin "but the transgression of the law?"! What is the Christian's whole state of duty, but "the being under the law to Christ ?"J And how would the apostle have "known sin, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet ?"^ I add, therefore only, that St. Paul, when writing to the Ephesians, a Gentile church, assumes their acquaintance with the very order of the precepts of the decalogue, as well as their authority, when he states concerning filial obedience, that it is "the first commandment with promise:'^ — thus recognizing the usual arrangement of the decalogue, and proving that no commandment had been changed or dis- possessed of its place. Now this carries the whole question. If Christ and his apostles came not to relax, or abrogate, or destroy the moral law, but to vindicate, explain, and enforce it, then the ten commandments in every one of their number — and the fourth equally with the rest — is established and recog- nized — the law of the Sabbath is as authoritative as the law against theft, murder, or adultery. The code is one entire, inseparable body of moral precepts. "Whoso- ever," says St. James, in language which implies all we are contending for, "shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all; for he that said. Do not commit adultery, said also. Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law."1| * Rom. xiii. 8. f 1 John iii. 4. X 1 Cor. ix. 21. § Rom. vii. 7. II James ii. 10, 11. 92 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM After the argument of the preceding discourses, it seems only trifling that our Lord has not expressly quoted the fourth commandment. The mere silence of Scripture will not surely be again alleged. And we are to remember that several other of the precepts of the decalogue are equally omitted — and that as the fault of the Jews with regard to the Sabbath, was not in defect, but excess — as they con- sidered the fourth conmnandment as surpassing every other in dignity — as they boasted of a most minute and punctil- ious observance of it — and loaded it with innumerable tra- ditions; our Lord had only to restore it to its original sim- plicity, and set it forth by his doctrine and example in its native loveliness. And this is precisely what he did. The neglect into which the original law had fallen before the M' saical dispensation, was supplied by exactly what was then required, an express promulgation — a strong, direct, detailed command inserted amongst the other moral pre- cepts. The excess which had been generated by the su- perstition and formality of the Jews before the gospel econ- omy, was corrected by exactly what was required, the gracious conduct of our Lord. For, n. He HONORED THE SaBBATH ON ALL OCCASIONS, AND NEVER VIOLATED ITS SANCTITY, according to the true import of the moral and ceremonial enactments of Moses; but merely brought it back to its genuine spirit and design, from the uncommanded austerities of the Jew- ish doctors — a conduct which the apostles also perfectly understood and imitated in their own practice. On eleven occasions is our Lord's doctrine and spirit with regard to the Sabbath recorded. These are distri- buted over his ministry. Between the first and second pass- over we have three: the sermon at Nazareth;* his teach- ing at Capernaum,! and his healing Peter's wife's mother. J We have four between the second and third passover: the miracle at the pool of Bethesda;^ the plucking the ears of corn;j| his restoring the withered hand;!! and his second teaching at Nazareth.** The remaining occasions occur between the third and fourth passover — the last of his ministry: his defence of the miracle at the pool of Beth- * Luke iv. 16-22. t Luke iv. 31—37. t Luke iv. 38-41. ^ John V. 5. ad Jin. |I Luke vi. 1—5. IT Matt. xii. 9— 21. ** Mark vi. 1-6. PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 93 esda;* his healing of the man blind from his birth;! of the woman eighteen years infirm J — and the man afflicted with the dropsy. § Now, if on calmly examining all these narratives, we should find that our Lord always honored and kept the Sab- bath; that he performed miracles of healing upon it, only as occasions arose, and in order to confirm his doctrine, and ensure faith in his messiahship; that these acts were never in violation, but entirely in accordance with the Mo- saic law; that they were especially designed to relieve the institution from the oppressive traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees; that no objections were taken against them at first, and afterwards only as pretences to cover their malig- nity and hatred to his divine mission; that our Lord's de- fences of himself and his disciples proceeded on what was the real import of the fourth commandment, though misun- derstood; and assumed that the Sabbath itself was of per- petual obligation; and if all this be confirmed by our Lord's caution concerning the flight of his disciples at the destruc- tion of Jerusalem, and by the conduct and doctrines of his inspired apostles at the first promulgation of the gospel — then it will be admitted that our Savior, «!0 far from relax- ing the fourth commandment, or abrogating the essential law of the Sabbath, vindicated it, established it, and left it in more than its original authority. We begin with the three incidents occurring before the second passover. On the very first of these Ave are told that our Lord "went, as his custom was, into the syna- gogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read." This marks a habit — a habit acted upon in his own city, '^where he had been brought up." The divine discourse cited from the prophet Isaiah followed; and thus the highest honor is put upon his Father's institution. Capernaum is the next scene presented to us. ''He taught the people on the Sabbath-days," is the record; betokening again a cus- tom, a course of instruction. But a demoniac is present, and cries out to the disturbance of the worshippers; the devil is rebuked with a word, quits the possessed suiferer, bears unwilling testimony to our Savior's messiahship, and * John vii. 21, ad Jin. \ John ix. 1 ad Jin. \ Luke xiii. 10— J7. \ Luke xiv. 1—6. 94 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM diffuses his fame; so that the evangelist notes the fulfilment of the prophecy: "The people which sat in darkness saw a great light."* No idea of a breach of the fourth com- mandment enters a single mind, no clamor is raised, no accusation is brought against him. The Sabbath is exalted by our Lord's conduct on it. On the same evening, retir- ing from the synagogue and entering Simon's house, he heals his wife's mother of a fever; and afterwards, when the sun was set and the Sabbath past,! multitudes of sick were brought to him, and were healed — for on no occasion were crowds collected even for this beneficent exertion of power, on the Sabbath: the miracles are separate acts, occurring incidentally, and forming a part of our Lord's doctrine and instructions as Messiah. Between the second and third passover, similar deeds of mercy occur, and are now seized on by the Pharisees and Scribes as pretences for displaying that hatred to his person and mission which his miracles and doctrines had by this time inflamed. At the pool of Bethesda, the impotent man, after laying "thirty and eight years in that case," is healed; and is commanded, in testimony to the truth of the cure, or rather as a part of the miraculous act, to carry away with him the miserable rug or covering on which he lay, — which it was customary for the poor to take with them from place to place, and which, if left behind at the pool, would have been lost, though probably his only possession. J His disciples passing through the corn-fields, (most likely to or from the synagogue,) and having nothing with them * Matt. iv. 14 — 16, for it was on that occasion. t The Jewish Sabbath ended at sunset. :|: The beds of the poor in the Holy Land were often mattresses, ruffs, and covering's, used during the day for raiment — "If thou take at all tny neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it to him by that the sun goeth down; for that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep." — Exod. xxii. 26, 27. Similar customs prevail in hot countries now. "Mattresses, or something of that kind, are used (in Palestine) for sleeping upon." They are rolled up, carried away, and placed in cupboards till they are wanted at night." "In many parts of Spain the country people sleep upon mats or rushes or straw, which they roll up in the morning and take with them." — Harmer and Rocca in Burder. Accordingly our Lord said to the paralytic, almost as a matter of course, if his cure were wrought, and as a part of that cure, "Arise, take up thy bed and walk." — Matt. ix. 6. PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 95 to eat, and no opportunity of procuring victuals, pluck the ears of corn to satisfy the pressure of instant hunger. The man with the withered hand is restored, our Lord knowing the secret thoughts of the Pharisees who were watching him, and asking them, before he performed the cure, whether it was "lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil — to save life or to destroy it." Their silence is the plainest admission that it was permitted to heal on the Sabbath- day. Lastly, his second instructions at Nazareth are re- corded, no instance of healing occurring; and the offence arising from his mission and character, breaking out not- withstanding. Now in this second series of cases, can any one really maintain that there was any violation of the Sabbath, moral or ceremonial, by such conduct and doctrine in such a per- son as our Lord — a messenger from heaven, one who was executing the office of Messiah, one who sustained his di- vine message by these divine acts.'' Were they not, on the contrary, in the highest degree calculated to honor and distinguish the day of religious worship, did they not tend to the immediate glory of his heavenly Father, and pro- mote all the highest ends of the Sabbath.'* Were not the attendant multitudes thus enabled to witness his mighty deeds; and did not even the false accusations of the Phar- isees lead to a more close examination of the truth of the miracles performed? But to reap and gather in corn is a breach of the rest of the Sabbath! — but to bear and carry burdens is a breach of the ceremonial law! Yes; and of the moral also. But the plucking a few ears of corn, when passing through a field and pressed with hunger, is not reaping — and to carry to one's house a mat-bed as a part of a miraculous cure, from a pool, where if left it would instantly have been lost to its possessor, is not bearing burdens. Between the reaper gathering in his field, and the disciples' conduct, there was as great a difference as between "the men of Tyre bringing fish and all manner of ware to Jerusalem,"* and the impotent man bearing off his bed to his house, in proof of a miraculous restoration to health. We pass to the third series of our Lord's conduct and works on the Sabbath — those immediately preceding his * Neh. xiii. 16. 96 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM passion. On the first of these occasions he vindicates the cure of the impotent man which had been wrought a year, or a year and a half, previously, at the pool. The restor- ation of the man blind from his birth, whom he met as he was passing by, forms the second. The next is the loosing from her infirmity the woman who had been bowed together for eighteen years by Satan, and who, though she in no wise could lift up herself, had yet come to the worship of the synagogue. The last was the cure of the man that had the dropsy, who was present in the house where our Savior was eating bread — the Pharisees watching him — and Jesus pausing to ask them, before he relieved the sufferer, "If it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day.^" Upon which, ^'holding their peace," as they must needs do, as they knew that it was no violation of their law, he "took him, and healed him, and let him go."* Such are the separate narratives, which sufficiently vin- dicate themselves, considering the mission which our Lord was fulfilling, and the habitual observation of the worship and law of the Sabbath which he maintained. But, mark the general groUxNds of which he de- fends his conduct, and that of his disciples, in the second series of his works,! for the first excited nothing but ad- miration. Mark how he appeals to their own law, their own usages, as recorded in the sacred books — the example of David, the example of the priests preparing the sacri- fices — the divine decision, "I will have mercy and not sac- rifice;" concluding the defence with the words which form the text of this discourse — "The Sabbath was made for" the highest good of "man;" "'not for" the good of "the Sabbath — therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath," to explain its true ritual, and bring it back to its true desisin. * Luke xiv. 1 — 6. t "Have ye not read what David did when he was an hungered, and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shew-bread, which it was not lawful to eat, neither to them that were with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the LAW how that on the Sabbath-days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? But I say unto you in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the GUILTLESS." PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 97 Notice also another ground of our Lord's vindication, the common necessities of our nature, which no law of God can be supposed to prohibit: "Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering-?"* — "What man shall there be among; you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath-day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep?! Such language proves that it was the false and hypocritical interpretations of the Pharisees which our Lord meant to oppose. And, indeed, the effect of his remon- strances was so pointed, that on one occasion we are told, "his adversaries were ashamed, and could not answer him again to these things; whilst all the people rejoiced and glorified God. "J That these actions and cures on the Sabbath were con- trary to THE NOTIONS AND FALSE GLOSSES OF THE JEWISH DOCTORS, I admit. The hatred of the people, and especially their rulers, to our Savior's character and mission, was the real cause; but the uncommanded tradi- tions of the Pharisees afforded them a pretext. And when we consider the extent to which this vexatious and hypo- critical system had been carried, and the immense impor- tance to an universal and benignant religion like Chris- tianity, to have one of its chief glories, the day of rest, placed on its true footing, we cannot wonder at the course which our Savior pursued. The law of the Sabbath had been loaded by the masters with unreasonable and minute observances. "You will see in their oral law," says Dr. Wotton, "an incredible minuteness in things seemingly the most trivial; but all subservient to one main end, which was to teach men how to evade the law, when they seemed most solicitous to observe it."§ Take as an example the absurd reason assigned for the institution itself by Philo the Jew: "Now, why God chose the seventh day, and established it by law for the day of rest, you need not ask at all of me, since both physicians and philosophers have so often declared, of what great power and virtue that number is, as in all other things, so specially on the nature * Lukexiii. 15. t Matt. xii. 11, 12. t Luke xiii. 17} xiv. 6. § Wotton's Mishna. 98 THE SA.BBATH VINDICATED FROM and state of man. And thus you have the reason of the seventh-day-Sabbath. "* Now the exact points which our Lord determined to fall within the Mosaical law, are those which the Jewish law- yers had prohibited. They excused themselves, for instance, from offices of piety and charity to their neighbor, though they allowed the law its fair import when their own ox or ass was to be fed or rescued from danger — that is, they took advantage of the Sabbath to veil their own selfish- ness. They held, again, that no ointment should be ap- plied to a wound, and that in chronical diseases the per- sons afflicted should endure them a day longer, rather than attempt a cure on the Sabbath: but they allowed circum- cision to be performed on the same day. Do we wonder, then, that our blessed Lord healed on the Sabbath-day — do vre wonder that he selected chronical complaints as the ob- ject of his compassion — do we wonder that he bid the impo- tent man to take home his humble bed — do we wonder that he made clay and anointed the eyes of the blind? These actions were designed to sweep away the rubbish of human tradition, which perverted the true design, and encumbered the real duties of the Sabbath. In all this our Lord made no alteration in the MOSAIC LAW, he relaxed no part of the divine command- ment, he repealed no particle of the ceremonial usages, (this belonged to the apostolic day,) it was not the Chris- tian but the Jewish Sabbath which he vindicated, and brought back to its original design by showing that works of necessity and charity were entirely consistent with the letter as well as spirit of the fourth commandment, as well as with the ceremonial and judicial statutes of Moses. Indeed all our Lord's reasonings suppose the continuance of the day of rest in its essential moral obligation upon man. The idea of a worship- per of God without a Sabbath never entered the mind of Jew or Christian in any age — much less in that of our Savior. Why regulate, why amend, why modify the false usages, if all was about to be abrogated.'' Why contend so warmly against the inventions of the traditionary mas- ters.'' Why lay down distinctions between what is lawful "^ Heylin in Ed. Rev. 1830. PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 99 and what is unlawful to be done?* Why determine that works of mercy and charity are allowable, thus implicitly prohibiting all other works? Why not silence the Phari- sees by declaring that the Sabbath was a merely tempo- rary observance, about to vanish before the permanent law of the gospel? When our Lord, therefore, instead of all this, defends himself and his disciples by a mode of argu- ment in which the permanence of the Sabbath is assumed, we conclude that he meant to teach that the moral obliga- tion of it remained, and would remain under the gospel age. It is thus he explained and vindicated other com- mands, taking for granted the validity of the commands themselves, and adding his authoritative expositions. Who €ver thought that his extension and new application of sev- eral precepts of the moral law, in the sermon on the Mount, was intended to weaken the force of the original com- mands? Who ever imagined that when the traditions con- cerning the fifth precept were exposed, and the pretence of Corban swept away, that one iota of the law itself was removed ? And all this receives confirmation from our Lord's sup- posing THE continuance OF THE Sabbath at a period when all real obligation to a Jewish institution would long have ceased. In foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem, and directing the flight of his disciples (not the Jews gen- erally — but his disciples — Christians — and this in a private and confidential conference, and applying to a calamity nearly forty years distant, when the ceremonial and civil law of the Jews would long have been publicly abrogated by the mission of his apostles) he bids them to pray, "that their flight be not in the winter, nor on the Sabbath- day;" as these two impediments, the one from the nature of the season, the other from the obligation of the fourth commandment, would obstruct their escape. The observa- tion cannot be expounded of any superstitious fears of vio- lating a ceremonial or Mosaical precept, or even the tra- dition of the elders; because flight under imminent peril was allowed. The argument, therefore, seems of mighty force. * Mark the expression, ''Wherefore it is lawful to do well (to heal the sick and similar acts) on the Sabbath-day." — Matt. xii. 12. 100 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM But how did the inspired apostles understand their Master's doctrine? What was their conduct immediately upon the descent of the Spirit, and in the interval between the abrogation of the ceremonial law and the change of the day of rest, from the seventh to the first of the week? Did they, or did they not, honor the Sabbath? A very few words will suffice on this point: because no one ventures to deny that their devout observation of the Jewish rest extended even beyond the time when the Christian (as we shall prove in our next discourse) superseded it. They were so far from neglecting* the Sabbath, that they kept for a period, in order to conciliate the Jews, both the Mo- saical and Christian. I speak not of the holy women who, embued with their Lord's doctrine, and guided by his con- duct, hesitated not a moment to ^'rest the Sabbath-day ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT;"* eager as they were to provide spices and ointments for his body. I dwell not upon the notice of the sacred day, which occurs nat- urally and without effort, in the Acts of the Apostles, even where the Jews are not concerned: "and the Gentiles be- sought that these words might be preached unto them the next Sabbath. And the next sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God."f Nor will I do more than refer to the apostle's habit, copied from that of his divine Lord, of sanctifying this most ancient of institutions: "and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath." So contrary to the truth of the case is it, to suppose that our Lord and his apostles abrogated the law of the Sabbath— they did not even relax it. It wanted no relaxation. Like every other, the fourth commandment was "holy, just, and good." It contained in itself all that principle of suspension in cases of real necessity, which the mercy of the Almighty from the first intended, and which the tenor or the precept was meant to include. Not even the ceremonial and temporary appendages of the Mo- saical economy were violated by our Lord. All his con- duct exalted and honored the day of his heavenly Father, * Luke xxiii. 56. t Acts xiii, 42 — 45. PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 101 and vindicated it from the false glosses of the masters, which, injurious as they were to the Jewish religion, would have "eaten as doth a cancer" into the Christian — and, in fact, would have been a fatal obstruction to its universal- To relax, indeed, any one of the moral and essential rules of human duty, would have been the very thing which OUR Lord most pointedly condemned in his sermon on the Mount — it would have been a curse, not a blessing", to man. The moral law is in all its parts a transcript of the divine goodness, and the materials of human happiness. What man wants is, not an alteration of the moral law of his Maker, but pardon, grace, salvation, — m.otive and strength to love God and to keep his commandments, and more particularly that which is rather a boon and gift than a precept — which was made for man; and which, when cleared by the Lord of the Sabbath from the austerities which perverted all its designs and evaporated all its spirit, is set forth in his kinodom in more than its orio-inal disunity to o to 7 and 2:lory. III. We proceed, then, to our next point, which is in- deed implied in what we have already proved — That noth- ing is abrogated under the Christian dispensation with re- spect to the Sabbath, but those temporary and figur- ative enactments which constituted the peculi- arities OF THE JEWISH AGE. For that these are abrogated it is important for us to re- member. We maintain not now the Jewish Sabbath, nor the Mosaic Sabbath, nor the ceremonial Sabbath. Here we re- quest a particular attention. It is a misconception almost constantly made. The moment we defend the original insti- tution of the Sabbath in paradise, and its perpetuity and au- thority as a part of the moral law, we are suspected of leaning towards the Jewish Sabbath. And when we go on to show that our Lord never violated the Mosaic enactments but honored them in his whole ministry, and left the Sabbath in its full force, we are condemned at once as bringing in again the abrogated ceremonies. We assert, then, just as strongly, that the Jewish Sabbath is abolished, as we maintain that the primitive and patriarchal is restored and reanimated with the peculiar grace and motives of the Christian dispensation. The moral, essential law of the *9 102 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM day of rest remains, nay is increased in obligation, like every other precept of the decalogue; the ceremonial and judicial superadditions have passed away with the dispen- sation which gave them birth. Our argument from the example and doctrine of our Lord went, indeed, to prove, not only that he recognized the moral law of the fourth commandment, but that he also honored its Mosaical ceremonies, because he was *'a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God." What we now assert is, that after the resurrection of Christ, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the gospel-day burst upon the world, and dissipated "the shadows" of the Jewish law — the Mosaic covenant "decayed and waxed old and was ready to vanish away," and the evangelical covenant took its place — all that part of the sabbatical observances which was temporary and figurative, and dependant on the Jewish theocracy, was carried away; and nothing left but the primary essential law of one day's religious rest, after six days' labor, as first promulgated in paradise, as re-es- tablished and reduced to a written precept in the moral law, and as explained and vindicated from Pharisaical impositions by our gracious Redeemer. We have now a better covenant, a nobler mediator, a more glorious high priest, a more free and unembarrassed way of access, a richer sacrifice; other altar, temple, worship, and sacra- ments; a new and simpler sanctification of the season al- lotted for all these duties. The introductory dispensation is taken out of the way, the scaffolding removed, the em- blems abrogated; and the last dispensation, the spiritual building and perfect atonement, are come. The Jewish Sabbath is no more in force since, than it was BEFORE, the Mosaical economy. The double sacri- fices, and indeed all sacrifices of animals; the shew-bread; the holy vestments; the Levitical priesthood itself; the civil and judicial statutes; the signs and badges of a national covenant; the ceremonial ablutions; the limitation to the particular day of the seven for its observance; the spirit of bondage; the whole manner and tone of worship as suited to that servile and imperfect state of things, are gone. These, if now insisted on (and possibly they have been in some periods of the Christian Church) may be justly de- nominated, carnal ordinances ; "weak and beggarly ele- PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 103 ments; a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear."* We are, in all these and similar respects, to stand fast in "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and not be entangled again in the yoke of bondage. "y The converts, indeed, from the Jewish people were per- mitted to observe for a season the injunctions of the Mo- saic institutes — and those connected with the Sabbath amongst the number — supposing they relied not upon them for justification. Thus St. Paul circumcised Timothy, ful- filled his vow as a Nazarite, kept the Jewish Sabbath after the Christian had commenced, walked unblameably in the ordinances; that is, ''to the Jew he became a Jew, that he might gain the Jews; to them that were under the law, as under the law, that he might gain them that were under the law.^'t But the authority of all that was ceremonial, was void, and the practice gradually ceased. The Gentile converts were strongly urged to resist all imposition of the antiquated yoke, and were taught the true spirituality of the Christian. ''Blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Such is the apostolic declara- tion; to which succeeds the inference — "Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or the new-moon, or of the Sabbath-days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."§ And yet more pungently to the self-justifying Galatians; "How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly ele- ments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage! Ye ob- serve days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed on you labor in vain."|j So, with his wonted tenderness where sincerity of faith appeared, to the unestablished Roman converts, "Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful dispu- tations. For one man believeth that he may eat all things; another who is weak, eateth herbs. One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth everyday alike: let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. "IT * Gal. iv 9. Acts xv. 10. t Gal. v. 1. \ I Cor. ix. 20. § Col. ii. 14— 17. II Gal. iv. 7—11. H Rom. xiv. 1, 5. i04 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM How these passages could ever be supposed to be meant to abolish the moral and essential law of the Sabbath, (or THE Lord's day, which was the name it assumed imme- diately upon the Resurrection's drawing it to the first day of the week,) it is difficult to conceive. No doubt, if the anticipated history be received, and if the assertion of the merely ceremonial nature of the Sabbath be admitted, this or any other consequence may be shown to follow. But having now a right to take for granted the actual insti- tution of the day of rest in Paradise — its actual moral character and obligation, from its incorporation into the decalogue — its essential dignity and importance even when surrounded with the appendages of the intervening economy of Moses — its inherent authority as urged in the most evangelical of the prophecies — and its entire simplicity and force when purified from the corruptions of the Pharisees by our Savior; — having a right to take all this for granted, the passages just cited strongly confirm our general argu- ment, by showing that nothing but the ceremonies and shadows connected with it are dispersed; the substance of course still remaining. In fact, what took place with regard to the fourth com- mandment, happened, as we have already observed, to all the others. The moral law assumed, as it entered the Mosaic dispensation, her robes of emblematic and civil ceremony. Each commandment was adorned with appen- dages. When that dispensation ceased, she put off her robes, and re-assumed her original simplicity of attire. And now the Queen of days approaches us with that native majesty and authority which was veiled, but not lost, during the figurative age; — a majesty and authority, which was derived from her first coronation in Paradise, which was augmented by the public proclamation of her rights on Mount Sinai, and which she retains with increased privileges and prerogatives under the New Testament. IV. For this is the last point which establishes the dig- nity and glory of the weekly day of religious rest under the Christian dispensation, that the distixguishing proivi- isE OF THE New Testament has for its object to RENDER THE DUTIES OF THE SaBBATH MORE DELIGHT- FUL, AND THUS INCREASES TENFOLD THEIR OBLIGA- TION. PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 1C5 For what is the distinguishing promise of the New Tes- tament? What is the characteristic of the gospel? Is it not the larger grace of the Holy Spirit? Is it not that it is "the ministration of the Spirit?" And what is the most important office of the divine Spirit? Is it not to write this very law, these very ten commandments, and none other, this very decalogue which was effaced from the heart of man by the fall, and which was republished with so much solemnity on Mount Sinai, and written on tables of stone with the linger of God, and deposited in the ark — is it not TO WRITE THIS LAW UPON THE HEART OF MAN? And would our Lord have promised the Holy Spirit for this pur- pose, if he had himself relaxed any part of this law? And does not this promised aid increase the obligations of this law upon man, and exhibit its importance with a tenfold force ? Read the apostle's comment in the 8th chapter of his epistle to the Hebrews, where he describes the new cove- nant, and contrasts it with the old; "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant, which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws (the very decalogue of which we speak) into their mind, and write them in their hearts."* And accordingly is not the first commandment, to wor- ship one God, thus written upon the heart? Is not the second, to worship him not with graven images? Is not the third, not to take his awful name in vain? And so of all the others? And is the fourth then omitted? Is there a gap, a failure in the divine code? Was the fourth pre- 'cept inserted in the decalogue by a mistake? Are there ten commandments in the law, and only nine written on the heart? Is the institution of the Sabbath engraven and ex- hibited in the very order of the first creation, and not en- graven in the order of the new creation?! Is the soul of * Heb. viii. 8—10. t "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature;'" or, new creation. —2 Cor. V. 17. 106 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM man formed to this heavenly temper in all other respects, and has he no taste for devoting the seventh portion of his time for the immediate service of his God? No, my breth- ren, we have no abrogation of the immutable law of God under the New Testament. On the contrary, the office of the Holy Spirit is to infix it deeply in all its parts on the inmost soul of man. This confirms and clenches all our pre- ceding arguments; and especially that from the conduct and doctrine of our Lord, by whom the Spirit was sent for the comfort and guidance of the church. The apostle yet more distinctly teaches us this, when he says, that the Christian is an epistle of Christ, and refers to the two tables of the law as transcribed on the human heart, and to the Holy Spirit as the divine Author of the transcription. Mark, I entreat you, his language: ''For- asmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not m tables of stone, but in FLESHLY TABLES OF THE HEART. "^ Here then are the two tables of the law — the first and second — the one con- taining the precepts of the love of God; the other, those of the love of man. Here is a precise transfer of this law, a removal from mere tablets of stone, to the fleshly tablets of the heart. In this transfer, do any of the command- ments fall away? In the Christian's heart, the two tablets are re-impressed, the two tablets as they came from the hand of God. And has the fourth commandment disap- peared in the passage through which all the rest have found their way from the tablets of a literal inscription, to those of the Christian's heart? No, my brethren, if "there were a window in the Christian's bosom, you would see the fourth commandment filling as large a space of that epistle which is written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, as it does in the decalogue of Moses. "| You will find the Christian saying, "I delight" in this, as well as every other part of "the law of God, after the inner man;"^ you will find him acknowledging with St, John, "His com- mandments are not grievous ;"§ you will find him saying * 2 Cor. iii. 3. t Chalmers. \ Rom. vii. 22. % 1 Jolm v. 3. PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 107 with the Psalmist, "Therefore hold I straight all thy com- mandments, and all false ways I utterly abhor."* Now just in proportion as the Holy Spirit is the grand peculiarity of the Christian dispensation, is the obligation of all the commandments, and therefore of the fourth, in- creased. We stated in a former place, that the new mo- tives which the advancing privileges and light of the church continually afforded, were so many additional claims of the day of rest upon man. But how much more are these claims strengthened by the aid now vouchsafed by the Holy Spirit — this aid being the distinguishing object of all his operations — producing a transfer of the law of the Sab- bath from stony to fleshly tables; and thus ending in a far lighter burden as to external service, and a far weightier obligation in respect of love and gratitude? But it is time to close the discussion, which has been necessarily long. A case has been made out which com- mends itself, I trust, to every attentive hearer, and which strengthens the proofs of our preceding discourses, and car- ries on the argument to a moral demonstration. I have dwelt at length on the conduct and doctrine of our Lord, because it is the only point where any reasonable doubt can be entertained. The first blush of the other objections condemns them. But the objection raised from this has its plausibility; it demanded and has rewarded our examina- tion. I feel confident that in the main the view now pre- sented is the true one. If any doubt is suffered to rest on the question, whether our Savior violated the ceremonial law of the Sabbath, it is a subordinate point. Supposing he did violate the letter of this law, it was as "the Lord of the Sabbath," in the discharge of the highest of all commis- sions — that of the Savior of mankind. The topics which would remain would still be conclusive — that our Lord hon- ored and reverenced the institution itself — based his de- fence of what he did and said with regard to it on the Old Testament, and the admitted usages of the Mosaic dispen- sation — only opposed the false commandments of the tra- ditionary doctors — and left the moral and substantial duty untouched. These points would be admitted. Add then, to these, the express recognition of the ten commandments * Psalms cxix. 128. 108 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM by Christ and his apostles — the conduct of the apostles in honoring the Sabbath after his example — and the special office of the Holy Ghost under the gospel, augmenting the obligation, whilst it facilitates the discharge of its duties — and we have an accumulation of evidence which requires no aid from the question of our Lord's exact conformity to the ceremonial law. Let any one apply the argument as thus deduced from the reasonings and conduct Christ concerning the moral law of the Sabbath, to any statute of human legislation which had been loaded with unauthorized usages, and let him ask himself, what would be the necessary effect of such reasoning and such conduct upon the authority of the orig- inal provisions of the statute; and he would instantly say, the establishment of that authority in its real and para- mount force. I conceive that the duty of dedicating one day in seven to the worship of Almighty God, was so wrought into the consciences of all his true servants in every age, after its repromulgation in the moral law had revived the memory of its glory as infixed in the order of creation — and that the observance of it was so reasonable in itself, so necessary to man, as man, and so delightful also to the devout mind — that the thought would never have occurred to any crea- ture, that our Lord abrogated the fourth commandment. The Jews accused him of breaking it, but never of denying its obligation or sapping its claims. The Jews at the time of Christ were indignant even at the violation of their oral precepts concerning the Sabbath, and they carried their prejudices with them into the Christian church. The Gen- tile converts had all been accustomed to religious festivals and days of repose — the corruptions and faint vestiges of the original Sabbath. All therefore were prepared for keeping the fourth, as well as every other of the com- mandments. There was no one to deny its divine author- ity; and when the gracious interpretation of its true im- port by our Lord, and the change of the day to the commemoration of his Resurrection (as we shall see in the next discourse) were acquiesced in, the ends of the institu- tion were fulfilled in the celebration of the divine praises in creation, in redemption, in grace, and in the anticipations of the heavenly repose. PHARISAICAL IMPOSITIONS. 109 I. Yield, then, Christian brethren, to these accumulated proofs. Open your hearts to the Lord Jesus, that he may re-establish there the authority of the day of his heavenly Father. Consider the many additional motives to its ob- servance which flow from the grace and compassion of your Redeemer; mark his tenderness in asserting the day of rest for its proper spiritual purposes; observe his permission of t^ose works of real necessity and mercy which render an attendance on them more practicable. You have not a Savior who allows the Sabbath to be buried under the rub- bish of human commandments. You have not a Savior who, from indifference or cowardice, fears to put down the Pharisaical imposers of austerities. No. Behold! he en- ters the synagogue on the holy Sabbath — he teaches; he applies to himself the divine prophecies concerning the Mes- siah; he heals the sick in confirmation of his doctrine; ha rebukes devils, and they leave the possessed and proclaim his name and glory. • It is the Sabbath: and it is in this way that the Messiah distinguishes and honors it. He vindi- cates his disciples plucking the ears of corn — he anoints the eyes of a blind man with clay — he bids the dropsy quit the frame of one patient, and bids another extend his with- ered arm — he commands the devout worshipper, bowed for eighteen years, and she raises herself to glorify God — he strengthens the impotent man, after thirty-eight years of hopeless dejection, to carry miraculously his couch, and in that act to prove his cure. Blessed Jesus! in all this we see thee to be a "merciful and faithful high priest." In all this we see thy pity in vindicating the day of rest to its proper purposes. In all this we see, not the lawgiver, not the prophet, not Moses, not Elias — but Jesus, the wise and merciful Savior of mankind. Hadst thou not, O Savior, thus cleared up the law of the Sabbath by this thine holy example and doctrine, how long might thy church have been perplexed with doubts — how much might super- stition and tyranny over the conscience have prevailed! How little might have been left to man of the real design and consolation of the day of rest! But now thou hast vindicated the truth. Now thou hast taught not only that "the sabbath was made for man;" but that "man was NOT MADE FOR THE SABBATH." Now wc have nothing to do under thy new dispensation, but drop the temporary 10 110 THE SABBATH VINDICATED FROM ceremonies of the Mosaic law, and return to the simplicity of the patriarchal worship, inspired and elevated with the grace of thy all-bountiful Spirit, II. And here let us learn, Christian brethren, to shun the INGRATITUDE OF MAKING USE OF THE COMPASSION OF OUR Savior, to the tacit disparagement of the Sabbath itself, which our Lord, as we have seen, has honored by the very acts which were alleged as infringing its sanctity. If the intention of our Savior was, as I am fully convinced every fair and unprejudiced hearer will admit, to magnify his heavenly Father's institution — if every denun- ciation against the hypocrisy and severity of the Pharisees was so much of real dignity and authority added to the Sab- bath; then let us beware of the guilt of abusing all this to unrighteousness and irreligion. What avails that God allows works of necessity and mercy to be done on the Sabbath, if your practice desecrates the whole day by works of folly and sin? What avails it that God will "have mercy and not sacrifice," when you give him neither?* Surely no abuse of the divine goodness can be more criminal than to take occasion from a sympathy so exuberant, to rob God of his due, our souls of their best blessings, the poor of their sea- son of repose, the church of the edification of our example. Surely this is a branch of that practical antinomianism which "turns the grace of ourLordJesusChrist into lasciviousness." And be it well remembered, that if we once violate con- science in our search after truth, there is no telling whithei" we may wander. The calm examination of the question of the Sabbath is our bounden duty. I am endeavoring to assist you in the inquiry. At the points where mistakes may arise, I have put you on your guard. Time for set- tling the judgment I readily allow: diff*erences on minor branches of the argument I cheerfully concede. But this I must remind you of; fear, reverence, faith, simple subjec- tion of soul to the truth, are essential to all religious inqui- ries. Yield, then, to the call of grace. Abuse not the mercy of your Savior, Rather implore that spiritual influ- ence of the grand Comforter, which may render the duties of the Christian Sabbath a delight and joy. * Offden. PHARISAICAL IMrOSITIONS. Ill III. And this is our last point of application. The Jewish Sabbath is no more. It is for the Christian we plead — THAT Christian sabbath for which the holy SPIRIT IS ESPECIALLY GIVEN. The joke, not only of Pharisaical impositions, but of ceremonial observances, is broken off your neck. The law of the Sabbath is now a law of love, a law of gratitude, a ^'law of liberty," as the apostle James terms it, in common with the whole moral law. You must imbibe this filial and gracious spirit, in order to have the true conception of the importance of the institution, and the right feelings for rejoicing in it. The despite done to the Holy Spirit is one cause of the neglect of the sacred day. You seek not his influences to enlarge and purify the heart. You seek not his consolations to animate your devotion. You complain that the Sabbath is a heavy day, to be got over as well as you can. You have no taste for its spiritual duties, no joy at its return, no re- pose in its divine anticipations. What does this go to prove.? That you are yet in the state of fallen nature — and that, as such, you * ^receive not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto you, neither can you know them, because they are spiritually discerned?"* What does this prove, but that you want the love of God, the spiritual life, the vital perceptions of a soul quickened by the Holy Spirit.'' Proceed then no further. Persist not in a course which only condemns your state of heart. Seek the illuminating and sanctifying influence of the Spirit. Almost the first truth you will discover, will be the glory and majesty of the Sabbath; and the next, that the exer- cises of that day are the festival and nourishment and ele- ment of the renewed and holy heart. Yes, all the trans- port of the Psalmist, all his repose and joy in God, all his mourning when banished from his courts, all his longing, yea, fainting after his house, all his perception of satisfac- tion, and relief, and holy pleasure in his service, will be experienced, in proportion as the vivifying Spirit quickens your soul. Men who are formal in religion naturally betray an indiff'erence to the means of grace. As these means have little practical influence upon them, a small mat- ter induces them to dispense with the incumbrance; but the * 1 Cor. ii. 14. 112 THE SABBATH VINDICATED. sincere Christian has his delight in the Sabbath, and in the public and private ordinances of religion; he is "planted in the house of the Lord;" he is at home there; his best pleasures, his warmest hopes, his most tranquil repose, his plenary satisfaction of soul, his liveliest pledges and an- ticipations of a heavenly rest, are drawn from the sacred and most gracious institution, in the services of which he waits to be prepared and ripened for that upper temple, those heavenly mansions, where he "shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." SERMOJV IV. THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY FROM THE SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, OR LORD'S DAY. Revelation i. 10. 1 was in the spirit on the Lord''s Day. We have now completed all that is essential in the first division of our general subject. We have proved the di- vine authority and perpetual obligation of a weekly religious rest. We have traced it from its institution in Paradise to the time of the Mosaical dispensation. We have con- sidered its insertion in the ten commandments, and the dig- nity assigned to it by Moses and the prophets, as of essen- tial moral obligation. We have also shown that it was vindicated by our Lord from the corruptions of the Scribes and Pharisees, and left in more than its primeval import- ance and authority. We might now pass on to the second or practical division of our subject, if we were not called on first to consider the transfer of the day on which the Sabbath under the gospel is kept, from the last to the first of the week. As the stress of the law has from the begin- ning been shown to lie on the proportion of time between the working days and the day of rest, the mere change of the particular period in the week when we celebrate our Sabbath, cannot in itself be considered important. So *10 1 14 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE long as one day is sanctified out of every seven, the pur- port of the institution is accomplished. Still it is necessary to explain the manner in which the alteration took place. For as the seventh day in order was fixed by the Almighty himself after the work of the creation, and as the Jew ob- served the same, or at least considered his six days' work to precede, and not follow his Sabbath, it is important to show the authority which retarded its celebration under the gospel, and fixed' it one day later than the Jewish usage. Any change in a divine command, though in a point of itself subordinate, requires a sufficient reason, or we are guilty of altering, of our own minds, an authoritative rule of Almighty God. We shall show, then, in the present discourse, that our day of religious rest, under the gospel, is not the Jewish Sabbath, but the Lord's day. We shall show that the change from the seventh to the first day of the week, was made on the authority of Christ and his apostles. We shall show that the transfer took place naturally, and almost necessarily, from the events attending the accomplishment of redemption. These points will of necessity occupy time — perhaps more than any preceding topic. But they will deserve all our care; as the alteration in question, non- essential as it is in itself, has perhaps more disturbed the minds of uninformed Christians, and more aided the cause of those who oppose the divine authority of the Christian Sabbath, than all the other objections together. To proceed, then, in order, we shall first direct your at- tention to several preparatory circumstances in the history of the law of the Sabbath, which lay a probable ground for the change of the day: and then, secondly, the manner in which the change itself was gradually INTRODUCED. I. The preparatory circumstances are numerous. For, first, the proportion of time, which we have more than once alluded to, is not only an obvious part of the first institution in Paradise, but is so prominent in the wording of the fourth commandment, and in its different republications, as to lay a probable ground for the change of the day of celebration, if any paramount reasons should occur. If out of seven days, one be sanctified to holy rest, the spirit as well as the terms of the law are satisfied. In SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 115 the general course of nature, indeed, labor precedes re- pose; and in the primitive institution, the day of the Sab- bath fell, from the order of creation and the example of the Almighty, upon the seventh, or last of the week. But even here the proportion of time between the working days and the day of rest, is laid as a foundation for the whole. The distribution of the work of creation over six days, marks the reason why the seventh was given to repose; and shows that the essence of the institution would be preserved, if after six days of labor, one of rest should succeed. Ac- cordingl)', in the revival of the Sabbath at the period of the fall of manna, not one word is said of the last day or the first day. All you can collect is, that they were to gather manna six days, and make a Sabbath of the sev- enth. Again, the fourth commandment, as we have said, is so worded as to admit of the change of the day of rest, without at all violating the institution. And this the divine lawgiver doubtless so arranged, with a view to the altera- tion which the gospel would introduce. The Jew could never have determined from this command on what day his first Sabbath was to be kept. It enjoins no more than that the interval of time between rest and rest should be six days. The proportion of the days is the essential point. The Christian Sabbath, in the sense of the fourth com- mandment, is as much the seventh day, as the Jewish Sab- bath was the seventh day. It is kept after six days labor, as that was. It is the seventh day, reckoning from the beginning of our first working day, as well as their Sab- bath was the seventh day, reckoning from the beginning of their first working day.* So, in ail the recapitulations of the fourth commandment, the substance is the proportion of time which we dedicate to God — a seventh portion with respect to six days' labor — and therefore the six days' la- bor are always noted when the seventh is spoken of. The * " The fourth commandment does not determine which day of the week we should keep as a Sabbath^ but only that we should keep every seventh day, or one day after six. It says, 'Six days shalt thou labor, and the seventh thou shalt rest;' which implies no more than that after six days of labor, we should upon the next to the sixth rest. The words no way determine where these six days should begin, nor where the rest of the Sabbath should fall: that is supposed to be determined elsewhere. The precept in the fourth commandment is to be taken generally of such a seventh day as God should appoint, or bad appointed." — J. Edwards, — and so Deau Milner. 116 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE day when we begin to compute is, abstractedly speaking, of very little consequence. Our Lord's day may be called the seventh in relation to the six days' work, as well as the first in reference to the Jewish Sabbath, which preceded it. This single circumstance clears the whole question. 2. But there is, in the next place, the highest proba- bility that the exact computation of time from the creation viras LOST during the bondage of Egypt, and that the Jewish Sabbath was reckoned from some other day — the day of the redemption, for example — and not from the day when the Almighty rested after the creation. If this be the case, we are thrown yet more completely upon the proportion of time. Two thousand five hundred years of an unwritten law, closed with centuries of oppression in the Egyptian captivity, had in all probability disturbed the exact reckoning of weeks. An irregular observation of the sacred day had crept in previously — the impossibility of generally celebrating it at all, was doubtless one consequence of their task-masters' exactions;* and thus, though the institution was by no means effaced from their memory, the order of weeks was most likely interrupted. Nothing is more difficult than to preserve, in an early state of science and civilization, the accurate calculation of festivals, espe- cially when recurring frequently, and admitting of an insen- sible removal from their relative position, by changes in the revolutions of the heavenly bodies. The alteration is in such a case slight, and the order of things is tolerably well kept up. Many learned men, therefore, agree in thinking that it is highly improbable, that the day observed as the first Sabbath after the deliverance from Egypt, was pre- cisely the same as the day on which the Almighty rested after the creation of man. They think it more likely that the redemption from bondage was the period whence the new reckoning dated. "f Certain it is that the ten com- mandments are prefaced with a reason drawn from this great benefit — "I am the Lord thy God which brought thee * Coptavi Egypto ul)i serviebas, etiam ipso sabbato per vim te esse coaclum ad labores. — Manasseh Ben Israel, on Dent. v. 15. t J. Mede, Grotius, Abp. Bramhall, J. Edwards, Dean Milner, Scott, all think the reckoning was lost, and was re-commenced at the fa!! of manna, Exodus xvi. And most of them conceive the new computaliou began from the day of Egyptian redemption. SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 117 out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."* And, what is more important, at the recapitulation of the law forty years afterwards, the same preface to the decalogue is retained, but the motive enforcing the fourth commandment is no longer drawn from the work of creation, but from that of redemption, as if that were the reason and date of the particular day on which the celebration was renewed. "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm; — THEREFORE the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day.| Not a word is here said about the creation, as when the institution in paradise was cited in the first promulgation on Mount Sinai; but the Sabbath is ex- pressly appointed to commemorate the mighty deliverance from Egypt. It is probable, therefore, that this was the day whence the new computation started. When the di- vine Savior, then, appeared and wrought out an eternal redemption, it was natural, it was almost necessary, that the day should be changed from the commemoration of the type to the commemoration of the antitype. The Sabbath then follows the mightiest benefit in each dispensation. In the patriarchal, creation; in the Mosaical, the redemption from Egypt; in the Christian, the spiritual redemption m the death and resurrection of Messiah. The essential point, the proportion of time, is untouched throughout. But let us proceed to observe, 3. That these things being so, the very freedom asd UNIVERSALITY OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION WOuld lead us to think that the same principle would be carried on, that the precise day of the week on which the Sabbath should be kept, would be less insisted on, and that a rule would be laid down applicable to all nations, in all ages, and in all parts of the world. While men were iiew, and lived nearly in the same quarter, as before the dispersion of Babel, and during the Mosaical economy, it would be easy to keep a pretty exact computation of the succession of time, as soon as the date from which the reckoning was to begin was given — or if the date was lost, as it proba- bly was during the bondage of Egypt, as soon as the new * Exod. XX. 11. t Deut. v. 13. 118 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE jera was once determined on. But consider how different is the nature of the case under the gospel. Here you have not a distinct line of patriarchs, or a favored nation under a theocracy, but a dispensation designed for the whole race of mankind, whose disciples are multiplied in every quarter of the globe, and live under all meridians, and with every variety of civil government and scientific improvement. An appointed season dependent on a succession of days, and losing its validity if the day be miscalculated, seems, therefore, not very likely to be established under such a dispensation. Of two navigators sailing round the world in opposite directions, one would lose and the other gain a day in his computation — there would be a variation of two days. Now, which would be the seventh day of the week to each of the navigators.'' When Pitcairn's Island in the South Seas was visited a few years since by an English ship, our voyagers, on the day when they arrived, which was Saturday, found the islanders observing Sunday; the English ship and the islanders having arrived at the island by sailing from England in opposite directions. Under the gospel, then, we might expect that our duty would be fixed upon a plain and easy computation; that after six days of labor there should succeed one day of rest, without troub- ling men in all the regions of the earth, and under all cir- cumstances, with reckoning up the course of weeks or the order of days from the beginning, which it would be utterly- impossible for them to settle, if it were material. How admirably the wisdom of God has provided for this in the arrangement and wording of the law of the Sabbath from the first, I need not observe. Nor is it necessary to remark how naturally the change of the Jewish day of ob- servance, to the Christian, would fall in with this design, and expedite the practical execution of it. I think one would allow these remarks to be almost enough for the point in hand. Suppose any should say, the day of celebrating the sacred rest of religion has been changed under the gospel to honor our Lord's accomplish- ment of redemption, and has been so kept, as nearly as possible, by the whole church of Christ from the very age of the apostles; the essential law of the Sabbath, the pro- portion of time, being always preserved inviolate; I should conceive such a statement would be satisfactory. Nor do SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 119 I think any thing would have been objected to such a state- ment if the Jewish seventh-day-Sabbath had not been as- sumed to be the same with the seventh-day-Sabbath in para- dise. This confuses the subject. It seems to make tive seventh day a fundamental matter; whilst the real sub- stance of the institution, the measure of working and rest- ing days, is forgotten. Doubtless, also, those who had first feigned an anticipated history, and then banished the Sabbath from the moral law, and lastly, accused our Sa- vior of repealing that command, have been ready enough to seize on the merely non-essential circumstance of the change of the day of celebration, to prop up their falling cause» And thus it has happened that this subordinate, has, in truth become a primary, question, from the accidental im- portance attached to it. But we proceed. 4. The word of prophecy does not, indeed, express- ly announce a change of the day of the Sabbath, but it affords such intimations as are quite consistent with such a transfer. The "old creation" — the state of things under the law — shall not be remembered, but the "new creation'^ — the state of things under the gospel — shall."*^ The Christian church shall have her ministers, solemnities. Sab- baths, and holy ordinances, all referring directly to the Messiah. A new dispensation shall be introduced, in which the alteration shall be so great and extensive as icy be fitly compared to "new heavens and a new earth," which shall efface the memory of the old. Read the glow- ing language itself: "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered nor come to mind." "As the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord."| But a more explicit prediction, embracing the change of the day of celebrating the Sabbath, or, at the least, giving an intimation of it, is found in the 118th Psalm. "The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvel- * Called in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "the world to come," ii. 5. t Isa. Ixv. 175 Ixvi. 22, 235 and J. Edwards on thera. 120 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE lous in our eyes."* Here the stone spoken of is Christ; the passage being six times applied to him in the New Testament. He was rejected of the builders when he was put to death; he was made the head of the corner when he rose triumphant from the tomb. While Christ lay in the grave, he lay as a stone cast away by the builders; but when raised from the dead, he became the head of the cor- ner. "f This was a great and marvellous act. Now the day when this was done, as we are next taught, is appoint- ed to be the day of the rejoicing of the church. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. "J To what day does the prophet here refer.'' On what day did Christ rise from the dead? Was it not on the first day of the week? Was not this the very day of triumph, the glorious day of Messiah's being made the head of the corner.? Does the psalmist refer, then, to any other day? Or does he not rather refer to this most dis- tinguished and peculiar one? To this, no doubt. And what does he say shall be the employment of it under the New Testament? "This, is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." The pre- diction is more decisive, because the celebration of public worship is the topic which introduces it, "open to us the gates of righteousness; I will go into them, and will praise the Lord: this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. "§ Here then is an intimation, to say the least, that the Christian day of joy shall fall on the day of the resurrection of Messiah — which the Lord's day hath done ever since the promulgation of the gospel. We dwell not, however, on this topic. A further one has greater weight. 5. In the next and most perfect dispensation of the di- vine grace — the gospel — such a complete revolution ACTUALLY took PLACE IN THE WHOLE STATE OF THE CHURCH, that it seems natural that so important a branch of religious observances as the Sabbath, should follow the new order of things. This remark strengthens the intima- tions of the prophetic word which we have just noted, and falls in entirely with our previous topics — the preparatory * Ps. cxviii. 22, 23. t Dr. Lightfoot and J. Edwards. X Ps. cxviii, 24. $ Ver. 19, 20. SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 121 circumstances in the terms and arrangements of the law, the probable change of reckoning in the wilderness, and the demands of an universal religion. The Sabbath, in the progress of ages, was continually acquiring new ends by new manifestations of the covenant of redemption; and those new ends coming to their height in the gospel, justify a correspondent alteration in a subordinate point of the sabbatical institution. "The priesthood being changed," says the apostle, "there is made of necessity a change also in the law."* We have a new Mediator, a new covenant, new promises, a new way of access, a new spirit of holy confidence, a new high priest; and therefore a new object in the computation of the weekly Sabbath — the glory and tri- umph of the Mediator in his resurrection. These are term- ed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "the world to come."! This constitutes what the prophets call as we have just seen, "the new heavens and the new earth; and which St. Peter denominates by the same strong and figurative ex- pression. J These form that "dispensation of the fulness of times when God gathers together all things in Christ, both things in heaven and things in earth."§ Not one thing only is changed, but all. Accordingly, "the former shall not be remembered nor come to mind."|| The Sabbath, then, probably follows the new course. And this appears the more likely, from the circumstance of the new creation being described as leading to the rest of the Mediator after he had completed it, even as the old creation led to the rest of the Almighty after he had finished his work — a rest granted in each case as a boon to man, and pledging that eternal rest with God in heaven, in which it terminates, and which is the ultimate felicity proposed in all the dispen- sations of grace. We cannot enter into the details of the apostle's noble argument on this subject. IT We observe *Heb. vii. 12. tHeb. ii. 5. t^ Peter iii. 13. $Eph. i. 10. lllsa. Ixv. 17. i TT "So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter my rest. So we see they could not enter in, because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us," (by the gospel,) ''of entering into his rest," (that of the Lord Christ,) "any of you should seem to come short of it. For we which have believed, do enter into rest," (the Christian Sabbath and rest, as a pledge and preparation of the heavenly.) "For he spake in a certain place" (Gen. ii. 2,) "of the seventh day in this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again," (Psalra xcT. 11.) "If they shall enter into my rest. There remaineth 11 122 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FKUM THE only, that as at the first creation, the Almighty was pleas- ed to work six days, and then rest on the seventh, in or- der to exhibit an instructive lesson for man's imitation; and as his resting on the seventh day was a sufficient intima- tion of the precise day of Sabbath appointed for man; so in the second creation Christ wrought his work of restora- tion and redemption during his ministry, and then rested, and was refreshed from that kind of work by which he laid the foundations of "the new heavens and the new earth;" and thus he marked out precisely the new day of sabbatis- ing under the gospel, the first of the week. Then "he ceased from his own works, as God did from his;" then he entered by his resurrection into his rest; then he rested*, and was refreshed, and saw of "the travail of his soul and^ was satisfied;" then he left, in the new day of Sabbath, a new pledge of heavenly felicity to his church. Thus to each dispensation of the divine covenant a pecu- liar rest was attached — to the patriarchal, to the Mosaical, to the evangelical. The patriarchal was founded in the first creation, after which God ceased from his works, pro- posed to man a rest with himself in heaven, and appointed a Sabbath as a remembrance of the one and the pledge of the other. The Mosaical dispensation was founded in th^ redemption from Egypt, when God again ceased from his mighty works of forming and creating a people;* proposed a rest with himself to man, and gave him the pledge of it in the Jewish Sabbath. The gospel dispensation is found- ed in the new creation wrought by the Lord Christ, who therefore a rest/' (a day of sabbatical rest in earth and heaven, and the one the pledge of the other.) "for the people of God. For he that is en- tered into his rest," (even Jesus our Lord, the author of all this new crea- tion,) "he also hath ceased from his own works" (of redemption and new creation) "as God did from his/' (of the old creation.) "Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest," (ofheaven,of which our Christian weekly Sabbath is a pledge and foretaste.) "lest any man fall after the same ex- ample of unbelief." I have inserted a few words of parenthesis from Dr. J. Owen, J. Edwards, Dwight, Scott, Arch. Pott, (fee. who concur in the interpretation; which is, in fact, the only one that can stand. * "This people I have formed for myself." — Isaiah xliii. 2. And so in many other passages, the Mosaical covenant is termed a creation, the work of God's hands, ing' the Law of Moses were made the occasion of supplaiiting the great doctrine of justification. But where no dij^pute arose — where all observed one day in seven for religious rest — where no yoke was attempted to be imposed on the Gentiles, the apostles were "gentle as a nurse cherisheth her own chil- dren." The Jewish converts were allowed to observe the Mosaic Sabbath. The Gentiles, who had previously cele- brated their pagan festivals, renounced these on their con- version, for the holy rest of the Lord's day. They spon- taneously kept the Christian Sabbath as a natural duty, a * Paley. 12 134 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE branch of the moral law, an effect of that most general commandment, "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart" — and an injunction expressly given in the fourth commandment. The Jewish converts still observed their own Sabbath; but then they yielded without objection to the apostolic example and authority, in joining the Gentile converts in celebrating the day of their Lord's resurrection. They were circumcised; but they were also willingly baptized. They celebrated the passover; but they willingly added the Lord's Supper. They worshipped in the temples and the synagogues; but they assembled also in the Chris- tian churches. So long as the Jewish services were neither attacked nor neglected, they made no objection to that of the Christian church. Thus the new ordinances grew into use, veneration, habit. When the apostles declared in the Epistles to the Galatians and Hebrews, that the Jewish covenant was ready to vanish away, and that no reliance whatever upon its ceremonies was to interfere with a sim- ple faith in Christ for justification, the minds of the Jewish believers were prepared to submit. Thus things continued for nearly forty years after the resurrection. The destruction of Jerusalem takes place. The Jewish polity is dissolved. The temple is left without one stone upon another. The Jewish priesthood, altars, sacrifices, covenant. Sabbath, all disappear. The Lord's day be- comes the day of religious rest. No controversy arises. The seventh-day Sabbath dies without a struggle, by the force of circumstances directed by an unfailing providence. What wisdom and consideration, then, appears in the con- duct of the apostles! As the whole church of Jewish and Christian converts agreed in one grand moral duty, the consecration of a day of rest to God, and as the stream of events was about to carry away the whole Jewish economy, the apostles left matters to work. They laid down the general truth of the non-obligation of the Mosaical law — they consecrated by their example, the change of the day of the Sabbath; but they awakened no unnecessary preju- dices. They cheerfully met the Jewish assemblies on the seventh day, for the7purpose of preaching the gospel to them. They issued no public decree. A non-essential matter, they were assured, would find its level. How great would have been the consternation of the Jewish be- SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 135 lievers, if their Sabbath, their golden day, the first of their commandments, the badge of their nation, the glory of their state as a church, had been openly impugned! Nor could the apostles have abolished it, so far as it was a political ordinance, and interwoven with the civil policy of the Jew- ish people. They waited therefore. They left the Jewish Sabbath gradually to expire, and the Christian to succeed, without any express command, or any attempt at a violent and sudden transfer. After the destruction of Jerusalem, the case became dif- ferent. The time of concession was over. Moses had vanished away. The Jewish church was no longer the church of God. The dispersed Jews were under the judi- cial blindness which the rejection of their Messiah had brought upon them. Their hatred of Christianity was in- furiate. Christians then must now openly separate from the communion of a repudiated church. The Jewish Sab- bath, the most visible character of their worship, must now openly give place to the Lord's day. The consecration of that day is now a necessary protest against Judaism, even as the Jewish Sabbath had been against idolatry. Chris- tians unite the two. Their Lord's day is an open protest against atheism and idolatry on the one hand, and Judaism and superstition on the other. By it they publicly profess their belief in the three grand articles of the creed — "In God the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth," who first instituted at the creation a weekly rest after six days' labor — "And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord," -Who rose on this day, and drew to it the season of sacred joy — and in "the Holy Ghost," who descended on the same day to found the church and to qualify the apostles, and who is its abiding comforter and guide. And thus the Lord's day is gradually but firmly and completely established, by exactly that kind of evidence which the nature of the case demanded, and the wisdom of God saw to be best. Its authority is divine, because the example of the Lord of the Sabbath, and of his apostles, inspired to found his church, is a divine authority for any change; especially for one immaterial in itself, and entirely consistent with the fundamental law of the institution. 5. But it may naturally be asked, what say ecclesi- astical HISTORIANS — what the apostolic Fathers.^ — Do 136 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE they bear witness to the observation of the first day of the week? Do they ascribe to the command of Christ and the inspired founders of their churches, the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first of the week ? To this we reply, that there is no one fact upon which all testimony more completely agrees than this. "I should hold it too long," says Bishop Andrews, to "cite them in particular; 1 avow it on my credit, that there is not an ecclesiastical writer in whom it is not to be found."* Ignatius, a companion of the apostle, says, "Let us no more sabbatize, but let us keep the Lord's day, on which our life arose." Justin Martyr, at the close of the first, and the beg^in-^ ning of the second century tells us, "On the day called Sunday is an assembly of all who live in the city or coun- try, and the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read." And he adds, that "it was the day on which the creation of the world began, and on which Christ arose from the dead." Irena3uSj a disciple of Polycarp, who had been the disci- ple of St. John himself, says, "On the Lord's day every one of us Christians keeps the Sabbath, meditating on the law, and rejoicing in the works of God." jTertullian, at the close of the second century, asserts it to be "the holy day of the Christian church assemblieSj and holy worship" — that "every eighth day is the Chris- tian's festival" — "kept as a day of rejoicing." Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, in the time of Irenreus, says, in his second letter to the church of Rome, "To-day we celebrate the Lord's day, when we read your epistle to us." St. Ambrose observes, "the Lord's day was sacred or consecrated by the resurrection of Christ." The council of Laodicea, about the year 363, forbad (Christians to rest from labor on the seventh day, "for Christians ought not to rest on the Sabbath, that is, the seventh day, but preferring the Lord's day to rest as Christians, if indeed it is in their power." St. Augustine tells us, that "the Lord's day was by the resurrection of Christ declared to Christians, and from that * Bishop Andrews on the ten commandments — a work of iiicoropara-. ble value— from which, and Baxter and Dwighl, I collect my testimonies;. SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY 137 very time it began to be celebrated as the Christian's fes- tival.'' Epiphanius, in his sermon upon the day of Christ's res- urrection, has this expression, "This is the day which God blessed and sanctified, because in it he ceased from all his labors which he had perfectly accomplished, the salvation both of those on earth and those under the earth." Athanasius says, "The Lord transferred the Sabbath to the Lord's day," The Emperor Constantino, as soon as he embraced the Christian faith, made a law to exempt the Lord's day from being Juridical. And finally, Leo, (A. D. 469) thus expresses the senti- ments of the whole Christian church: We ordain according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost, and of the apostles thereby directed, that on the sacred day wherein our own in- tegrity was restored, all do rest and cease from labor; that neither husbandmen nor other on that day, put their hand to forbidden work. For if the Jews did so much reverence their Sabbaths, which were but a shadow of ours, are not we which inhabit the light and truth of grace, bound to honor that day which the Lord himself hath honored, and hath therein delivered us from dishonor and from death .^ Are we not bound to keep it singular and inviolable, well contenting ourselves with so liberal a grant of the rest, and pot encroaching upon that one da^ which God hath chosen to his own honor? Were it not re'ckless neglect of religion to make that very day common, and to think we may do with it as with the rest?* Thus decisive is the testimony to the fact, that the Lord's day was considered by the primitive church to be appointed by the divine authority of the apostles, the espe- cial delegates and ambassadors of Christ, armed with his commission, and inspired with his spirit. It deserves remark, that the brief description which Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, gives of the Chris- tian ^worship, entirely accords with our general testimony : "They are accustomed to meet on a stated day before light, and to sing amongst themselves hymns to Christ, as to a God." Indeed, the celebration of the Lord's day was so notorious even to the Heathens themselves, that it was ever a question of theirs to the martyrs, "Dorainicum ser- * Hooker. *12 13S SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE vasti?" "Do you keep Sunday?" And their answer was equally well known; they all aver it: "I am a Christian; I cannot omit it." 6. And why should I detain you longer? Why should I do more than notice that perpetual blessing which HAS ATTENDED THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH, and which at- tends it now? Why should I call to your memory all the conversions which have crowned the Lord's day during eighteen centuries, in every part of the world? The whole church has been built up upon this divinely transferred sea- son — the whole church has been enlarged, comforted, sanc- tified on it. If the primitive Christians were mistaken io supposing the change from the seventh to the first day of the week to have been of apostolic authority, then God has permitted this mistake to be confirmed, and to take root, by his especial blessing, and the continued operations of his grace, during the whole period of the Christian church. But the idea is too absurd. For when we consider the comparative non-importance in itself, of the particular day in the week on which we keep the Sabbath, supposing the portion of time which the eternal rule of the fourth com- mandment requires, is preserved; and when we reflect on all the preparatory circumstances which laid a probable ground for the change; and when to these we add the grad- ual but decisive manner in which that change was intro- duced, sustained by the events of God's awful providence in the destruction of the Jewish polity and Sabbath, and testified by the united voice of all ecclesiastical antiquity; we have a mass of evidence to the divine authority of our Christian Sabbath, sufficient to satisfy every candid mind. The blessing of God, therefore, which has actually at- tended, and is actually attending, in such large and perpetual operations of grace, the Lord's day, is in full accordance with every other species of proof, and crowns the whole argument. The change, indeed, after all, amounts only to this. Un- der the patriarchal and Jewish dispensations, the Sabbath was considered as following the other days. Under the Christian it precedes. Under the former economies, cre- ation and the redemption from Egypt were the greatest ben- efits conferred upon man. Under the Christian, the spir- itual redemption — the resurrection of Christ — the new SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 139 •creation of the world. The Sabbath, therefore, waited a day for the triumph of its divine Lord, and then took the precedence, and led on the other days. In all these dis- pensations, the proportion of time dedicated to the imme- diate service of God, in which the substance of the com- mand lay, remained the same, as well as the anticipation and pledge of that rest in heaven in which our Sabbaths are to terminate. And thus all the obligations that can combine to enforce a moral command on man, have been found to unite in the case of the Christian Sabbath. The argument has gone on accumulating through each part of our progress. The objections have not only been overcome, but turned into additional confirmations. We have seen that from the cre- ation to the rest of eternity, a day of weekly repose and religious worship has been appointed for man. We have seen the six days' work laid out, and the seventh day's refreshment enforced by the Almighty; first in his own ex- ample, and then by his command. We have discovered the traces of this most ancient of institutions during the patriarchal ages. After the redemption from Egypt we perceived its re-enactment before the law of ceremonies: and its insertion in the moral law, in common with the other primary duties of a responsible creature. It enters ihe Mosaical economy, not as belonging to it, but as spring- ing, with many other ordinances, from the patriarchal church. As it preceded the existence of the ceremonial dispensation, so it survived its extinction. Even during its passage through the parenthetical and temporary economy, we saw how it lifted up itself on high, above all mere figures and ceremonies. The Savior appears and reverences, hon- ors, distinguishes the Sabbath by his doctrine and his mir- acles. The ten commandments he recognizes without omis- sion or alteration. As the Jews had fallen into various superstitions contrary to the true import of the law of the Sabbath, he sweeps away these austerities, and leaves it in its genuine simplicity and grace — as being "made for man, and not man for it." He intimates, also, a change to be made in its observance, and claims to be its ruler, sovereign, and Lord. The particular day not being of the essence of the law, it is silently introduced. The very na- ture of the gospel as an universal religion might seem to 140 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE lead to it. The Lord of the Sabbath, he that was great- er than the temple, he that wrought in the works of the new creation as Almighty God had in those of the old, laid the grounds for the change before his passion. After his resurrection he established the first day's rest by his gracious appearance on that day, and his mission of the Holy Ghost. The apostles follow their Master's exam- ple — they declare in their epistles the Mosaical law abol- ished. They tolerate indeed, till the destruction of Jeru- salem, those who from prejudices and misapprehensions kept the Jewish Sabbath, and they attend the synagogues in order to meet the Jews and proclaim the gospel, but they themselves honor the Christian Sabbath; and, after the abolition of the Mosaical polity and state, they leave it as the badge of our faith in Christ, as our protest against Judaism, as our season of Paradisaical and Patri- archal repose transferred to the day of the gospel; as our pledge and anticipation of the rest and salvation of heaven — and they charge the universal church to celebrate on that day, not only the glories of creation, the blessings of re- demption, and the hopes of a heavenly felicity, but the tri- umph of the Redeemer, in which they centre, and by which they are secured. Let us then, in conclusion — I. Adore in solemn acts of thanksgiving and praise, the wisdom and goodness OF THAT God, who, seeing the end from the beginning, thus laid out the bountiful provision for man's religious re- pose in his first creation, carried it through all the dis- pensations of his mercy, and revived it with so many ad- vantages in the Christian church! Yes; we magnify thy counsels of grace. Thou only wise God; we see something of that manifold and varied wisdom and prudence, with which thou hast abounded towards us. We glorify thy name not only for the revelation of thy grace in Christ Jesus, and for all the dispensations of it since the world began, but for that attendant ordinance which gives us time to meditate upon them, and to repose in Thee our great and final end. We discern the footsteps of an infinite wisdom, in the magnitude and boldness of that record of the institution of a Sabbath, which the six days' work exhibited; and which is large and clear enough to catch every eye, to penetrate every conscience, to decide every SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 141 honest doubt. We adore Thee yet more, for that regard to human infirmity, which led thee to insert this command in the moral law, and thus bind it upon the hearts of the whole human race, in common with their other most indis- pensable duties. And in thy gospel, thy wisdom still strikes our view with brighter splendor, in the gracious explications of thy law, uttered by the lips of our Redeemer, and in the gradual and silent introduction of the change of the day of its observance made by thy apostles. O, teach us to adore thee, in this thy appointment! Let us believe, that every degree of evidence of the divine origin and per- manent obligation of thy day, which is good for us in this imperfect state of trial, has been granted; that more evi- dence would probably have been unnecessary and injurious; and do thou cause us to acquiesce in thy mode of revealing this day of rest, in thy manner of transferring it to the day of the glorious resurrection of our Lord, and in the motives which thou hast accumulated, to urge us to sanctify it aright! II. But let us notice as a further thought by way of application, that the changes in the circumstances of the law of the Sabbath have sprung up from new bene- fits CONFERRED ON MAN, and should increase his sense of obligation and gratitude. Every change is a fresh bless- ing. Every new dispensation is a new grace. Every al- teration is an advance in the developement of redemption on the one hand, and in the uses and importance of the in- stitution on the other. The various modes in which the Sabbath has been presented to man, have not been isolat- ed, much less arbitrary enactments, but economies of mercy, divisions in the grand progress of man's salvation by Jesus Christ, new pledges of "the rest remaining for the people of God." Every re-enactment, then, has brought with it new bonds, new obligations, new attractions, towards the spir- itual observation of the sacred season. Creation poured its first benefits upon man, the offspring of his God, and bound upon him the day of rest, by all the ties of grati- tude to an all-bountiful Lord. The separation of a partic- ular family, to be the repository of truth, and the confes- sors of the one living God, amidst surrounding idolatry, brought with it new calls to duty, new reasons of religious *rorship and praise. The covenant of Abraham, the promise 142 SABBATH TRANSFERRED FROM THE of "the seed in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed," the imputation of faith to him for righteous- ness, augmented the obligations of sacrifice, of circumci- sion, and especially of the Sabbath. The establishment of the Mosaic dispensation on the footing of the redemption of Egypt, and with the promise of the rest in Canaan, plac- ed the Sabbath in yet a new and more inviting light, shed upon it richer grace, made it the commemoration of mightier blessings. The promulgation of the moral law, as con- nected with the dispensation of Moses, and subservient to the promises of grace typified in that dispensation, was an inconceivable favor to a wandering, and yet responsible creature, uncertain of his duties, surrounded with tempta- tion, lost amidst the corruption and darkness of the world. Every hymn of the royal Psalmist, every prediction of the inspired prophets, augmented the materials of sabbath- praise and meditation, and increased the duty of making such a return of gratitude to God. At last, Messiah ap- pears. Blessed Immanuel, we hail thy birth! Thou art the King, and Priest, and Prophet of an universal dispensa- tion. Thy infinite benefits bind us to thyself. "Whether we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, we are to do every thing to thy glory." All thy mercies flow together into this thy day, which thou hast transferred to be the trophy of thy resurrection. This is the field where all thy bless- ings flourish; this the scene where all thy operations of grace are carried on; this the season when all thy praises are set forth. Yes, my brethren, it is to this Savior's love that we owe our Christian Sabbath; it is by this Savior's death and passion, that its duties are bound upon us; it is by this Savior's Spirit, that its consolations are poured into our hearts. And mark, I entreat you, that in proportion as the BENEFITS, AND LIBERTY, AND SPIRITUAL CHARACTER OF THE GOSPEL ARE MORE EXALTED, SO should OUr hearts catch the intimations of our Lord's will with more alacrity, and fulfil them with warmer delight. He re-enacts not in direct terms his day of rest, because all the previous publi- cations of it will act with a thousandfold more force upon the mind of his true people. He leaves it to be inferred from his own example and doctrine, and that of his apos- SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY. 143 ties; because under his gospel the love of his person, name, worship, will be a spontaneous and overflowing principle, dic- tated by his Spirit bursting forth from every heart which is touched with the benefits of redemption, and constituting the very badge and characteristic of his kingdom. Here then, we close the first division of our series of dis- courses — the Divine Authority and Obligation of a weekly day of rest in God, is under all dispensations the same; but under the gospel shines forth with the concentrated light of each preceding period; and is clothed with all the ad- ditional majesty which infinite grace and love throw around it. Every thing illustrates the duty, and exalts the priv- ilege of that institution, which before the fall was needful to man; but which, in his corrupted and sinful state, is the grand means of preserving religion in the world; the noblest rite of the Christian faith; the substratum and ground-work on which are erected all the means of grace, and all the hopes of glory. And let it be remembered, that the objections raised against the several branches of our great argument, having been satisfactorily answered, they should no longer be al- lowed to harass our minds, or weaken our faith, or contract our obedience. The full authority of the divine INSTITUTION should be admitted; and our efforts turned to those practical questions, which will be the subject of the remaining division of our discourses. SERMOK^ V. THE PRACTICAL DUTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH, EZEKIEL Xt. 12. Moreover also^ I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign bc" tween me and them, that they might know that J jam the Lord that sanctify them. The divine authority and perpetual obligation of a day ef holy rest and religious worship, have been abundantly proved. Every thing conspires to impress us with its su- preme importance to man in all ages, and under all dispen- sations. Such is its antiquity, that it was instituted in Paradise. Such its essential moral nature, that it was in- serted in the Ten Commandments. Its dignity is so great, that it lifts its head high above the ceremonies of Moses, whilst under that economy. Such is its spirituality, that the holy prophets and reformers insist upon it, as a point of fundamental duty, and as about to form a part of the gos- pel kingdom. Its perpetual force and native majesty, are so distinguished, that our Lord, after explaining what the comments of the Jewish doctors had obscured, leaves it in more than its original glory; transfers the day of its cele- bration to that of his resurrection, and erects it into a trophy of his victory. Such, in a word, is its paramount authority upon the human conscience, that the Christian OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 145 church in every age, including the Apostolical, has confess- ed its claims, and made it the occasion of their delight and joy. It is in truth, "a sign of the covenant" between God and man; a badge of our Christian profession; the acknowledg- ment we publicly make of the God who created, and the Savior who redeemed us; a chief means of that dedication and sanctification of man to his Almighty Lord, which creation and redemption are designed to produce. And this leads us to the second, and practical division of our whole subject. How is this holy day to be observed under the Gospel ? — What is the importance of observing it, and the evils of the opposite neglect?* What is the necessity of personal and national repentance for our viola- tion of it?! — Grave questions these, and demanding all our attention. For why the accumulated proofs of the in- stitution, stretching from the creation of man to the rest of heaven, but to enforce its practical duties? And what is the true source of almost all the objections to its divine authority, but the dislike which fallen man has to its spir- itual worship, and holy demands? Let the rest be ad- mitted to be external and civil merely — let the public du- ties of the worship of God be confined to a brief and cur- sory service — let the private hours of the Sabbath be spent in worldly, or intellectual, or festive indulgences — and all -objections to its authority would cease. But if we main- tain, that the great end of the appointment is to be a sign of God's covenant,' and a means of sanctification — if we maintain the duties of it to extend to all classes of persons, and during the whole of the sacred day — if we maintain that the spirit in which these are to be performed is the filial temper of joy and delig-ht in God — if we maintain that the mighty blessings, which are to be especially com- memorated are no other than creation, redemption, heaven — if, in a word, we show that the Sabbath, practically considered, is Christianity embodied — revelation set forth visibly in its simple and majestic features — the sign and representation of the covenant of grace, — the means of sanctification exhibited and set before our eyes, — then the eorrupt reason and perverted affections of man unite to in- * Sermon VI. . t Sermon VII. 13 146 PRACTICAL DUTIES vent objections to its authority, that they may escape its unwelcome bonds. These, then, are the very points which in the present discourse we shall endeavor to illustrate: the great end of the institution — its public and private duties — the SPIRIT Ax\d temper which it cherishes — the especial blessings which it commemorates. And here let two remarks be premised. We enforce not the duties of the Jewish, but of the Christian Sabbath. The ceremonial and civil appendages of the Mosaic law, the spirit of bondage, the terrors of Mount Sinai, are passed. It is the gospel in all its grace and loveliness which we maintain — that mild and merciful institution, cleared from the traditionary yoke of the Jewish masters, which our Lord confirmed as the boon and gift originally granted to man. Every thing in the Christian Sabbath ia tender, and considerate on the one hand, every thing is spiritual and elevated on the other; and is, in both views adapted and suited to the real state and exigencies of our nature, under the last and most perfect dispensation of re- ligion. But then the determination of what is really spiritual, of what is really for the welfare of man, of what are the real duties and employments of the day, must be taken from the Scriptures themselves, and not from the opinions, much less from the inclinations and fashions, of a corrupt world. We must rise to the standard of the Sabbath as set forth in the Bible, not sink the Bible to the level of our wayward pas- sions. This is the second remark. The doctrine of the institution, like the counsel of a skilful physician, is designed to produce a cure of our moral maladies by wholesome medi- cines, not to foment the disease by cordials, or hide its worst symptoms by opiates and palliatives. And do Thou, Almighty God and Father, who madest the Sabbath for man, assist us to rise up to its true de- mands! May thy Spirit teach us -what thy revelation really imports, and what the day which Thou callest thine own, is designed to become! That, knowing our own mis- ery, and receiving with humble faith the redemption of thy Son, we may delight in the services of that season which is one chief means of communicating the blessings procured by it to our souls ! OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 147 In considering, then, the practical duties of the Lord's day, we must, I. Keep ever in view the great end of the insti- tution — which is to be a visible sign of the covenant be- tween God and us, and a principal means of that sanctifi- cation which it is one object of that covenant to produce. For it is not merely in the words of the text that this express end is assigned to it; almost a thousand years be- fore, the Lord had declared by Moses, ^'Verily my Sab- baths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you."* Thus we learn that this is an essential design of the institution. It re- ceived, indeed, especial sanctions, and was connected with particular observances, during the continuance of the na- tional covenant with the people of Israel. But, as in sANCTiFicATioN the whole human race are interested, the Sabbath becomes a sign to every nation in every age, where Revelation with its weekly rest reaches. It is ac- cordingly immediately connected in the passage above cited with the original appointment in paradise: *'Six days may work be done; but on the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord — for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was re- freshed."* And so Moses, after reciting the decalogue, and the two commands which form the summary of it, pro- nounced in another place, "Thou shalt bind them for a SIGN upon thine hand. "J The holy day of rest is, then, to be regarded as the sign, badge, or profession of the God whom we serve, and of the covenant of his grace, of which we profess to be members. We testify our allegiance to the Lord who rose again from the dead ^Hhrough the blood of the everlasting covenant." The Sabbath, interrupting our secular pur- suits, and calling us off to the spiritual duties of religion, is a symbol whereby we declare what God it is we worship, acknowledge that the Lord revealed in the Bible is our God and no other; proclaim ourselves the vassals and servants of that only God who created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested the seventh, and commanded us to * Exodus xxxi. 13. t Ver. 15 & 17. t Deut. vi. 8. 148 PRACTICAL DUTIES observe this suitable distribution of time as a badge and livery that we worship him alone.* And we keep it under the gospel on the Lord's day, to avow our belief that on the morning of that day, the first of the week, redemption, like a second creation, was accomplished, our Lord rose from the dead, and ceased from his work, and rested and was refreshed; and that we are the servants and worship- pers of that adorable Savior. Thus the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus is set forth in our Christian celebration of this festival. We are not Jews but Christians; and wherever the religion of Christ is established, the symbol and cognizance of the Resurrection comes with it. And this not for the mere avowal of our allegiance, or the manifestation of the attributes and glory of our Creator and Redeemer, but also for the purpose of promoting that SANCTiFiCATioN which it is the end of the covenant to produce. The expression of the text and of the similar passage just cited, is most remarkable, ^'Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." What an exalted end and design of the institu- tion! Sanctification is the work of God's Holy Spirit by his secret but effectual influences upon the heart, separat- ing man from the love and service of sin, and turning him to God and holiness. The idea is that of setting apart, separating, consecrating for certain holy purposes. Thus, when applied to sacred persons, times, services, garments, buildings, it imports the separation of them from profane wses, and the dedication of them to the honor of God. So the Sabbath was in Paradise sanctified by the Almighty, that is, separated from ordinary employments, and set apart for the service and worship of God. And how im- portant is the thought, that the design of the Almighty in sanctifying and hallowing a day of Sabbath, was, that man, his moral and accountable creature, might be sancti^ fied and dedicated by means of it — -that the external con- secration of the season ends in the internal consecration of the heart of man to his Creator and Redeemer! All the designs of the institution terminate here.. The Sabbath, was made, granted, vouchsafed to man, as the ♦ J, Mede. OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 149 principal season when all the means of sanctification should have their effect — when man's immortal nature should be restored to its true elevation — when his spiritual and ac- countable powers should be especially exercised — when his relation to God, his dependance upon him, his obligations, his gratitude and love, his offerings of praise, his prayers and aspirations for future blessings, should be declared and presented. To rise up to the dignity of the Sabbath, and perform any of its duties aright, we must understand what sanctifi- cation is, who the great God is to whose service we are to be devoted, what that Creator and Redeemer claims of us ivho on this day rose from the dead, what are the terms of that covenant of which he is the Mediator and Lord. Even before the fall, man in paradise, as we have said, needed a Sabbath, a day of religion; and for the like ends — to be a sign between God and him — to be a means of exercising and carrying on that sanctification, the principles and habits of which he already possessed. He was per- mitted to cease, he was commanded to cease, one day in seven from the gentle toil of dressing the garden of Eden, that he might devote the time more immediately to his Almighty Creator — to his glory — to the meditation on his perfections and works — to the duties of holy worship and praise — that thus the sanctification of all his powers to his service might be confirmed and heightened. How much more, then, must man since the fall need this holy day, both as a sign of the covenant and a means of sanctification. He has now not merely to carry on and strengthen habits of holiness, like his first parent, but to acquire them. TCjhe covenant, as it respects him, is not a covenant of creation, but of restoration; not of works, but of grace; not to show his obedience by observing a law to which his will is already conformed, but to obtain redemp- tion by believing in the divine Mediator of a new and bet- ter covenant. Sanctification as to man since the fall, is the recovery of the soul to the lost image of God, the illu- mination of a darkened understanding, giving a right direc- tion to the will, changing the whole bias and course of his affections and conduct, bringing him back to God, his great end, and preparing him for the enjoyment of God, his ulti- mate felicity. *13 150 PRACTICAL DUTIES And this answers the objection which is sometimes ab^ surdly or ignorantly made, "That under the gospel every day is a Sabbath — all we do is to be done to the glory of God — a spiritual and perfect dispensation claims all we have and are.'' And yet in paradise, where man walked before God in his original uprightness, he was called on ta keep a Sabbath. How idle then is the plea, now that man is fallen. Those who urge it, know little of the na- ture of true sanctification, and of the difficulties under which it is attained in this world of conflict. Even if entire holi- ness could be reached in this imperfect state, a day of rest would be indispensable for the honor of God's name, for the more immediate duties of public and private devotion, and for carrying out into full exercise the principles of holiness. But it is folly, it is presumption to talk thus, whilst man in his best attainments is full of defects and errors, full of corrupt tendencies — needs a day of sanctification to remind him of his dangers, to bring him out from the snares of life, to lift his heart more entirely towards heaven. Those who talk of every day being a Sabbath, mean in fact that no day should be such. Besides, the expression "keeping holy," as it applies to the ordinary days of the week, and as it fixes itself on the day of God, has a different force and ap- plication. To keep holy the six days of the week, means^ only that we intermingle family and private devotions with our lawful labor and work on those days — that we direct our secular calling to God's glory — that we implore his blessing upon ail our occupations. But "to keep holy" the seventh day is to suspend those occupations, to forbear all our ordinary works, to renounce all our secular business, and to devote all the hours of the day to the immediate care of our souls, and the immediate worship of God. We are as much called to work the six days, as we are to rest on the seventh. This is, then, the first practical duty of the Lord's day, to keep ever in view its great end. The sanctification of it begins, as to us, when our dedication to God begins. We hallow the Sabbath when we ourselves are hallowed to God. We awake to the true importance of the institution, when we feel our fallen and sinful state, when we receive the cov- enant of grace as proposed in the gospel, when we seek to be sanctified, body, soul and spirit, to be the Lord's. A OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 161 divine life infused into the soul of man — a perception of the nature and excellency of spiritual things — a view of the glory and majesty of the great Redeemer — a reliance upon his death and resurrection — a dependance upon the influ- ence of his Holy Spirit, — these bring the Sabbath and the human heart together. The Sabbath is born to man when he is born to God. Then it recals, revives, strengthens, all the principles of sanctification. Then it not only gives him the time, and affords him the means, and calls him to the duties of sanctification; but it leads him to employ all these to their proper end. And thus the Lord is pleased to sanctify man; thus the day is a sign between him and us; thus the final ends of all religion are advanced. And here lies the fundamental defect in so many of our cases — we do not feel the unspeakable importance of holi- ness — we do not desire sanctification — we stop in the ex- ternal and official parts of the sabbatical institution: we have lost the due sense of what consecration of heart to God means, and therefore of what we should aim at on the day with which it is connected. Consider, then, I entreat you, my dear brethren, the only manner in which you can enter on the practical duties of the Lord's day aright. Examine your state before God. Have you any desire to be made holy, to be pardoned, to be separated from sin, to be dedicated to God.^ Do you wish really to know the demands which Christianity makes upon you? Do you seek earnestly the way of salvation? — Behold, then, what you want. There is the day when all this is to be learned. There is the covenant of which that day is a sign. There is the sanctification which all the ordinances and exercises of that day are calculated to pro- duce. Implore, then, the grace of the Holy Spirit to af- fect your heart seriously with these truths, and thus will all the other directions we may offer fall into their due place. For sanctification being proposed as the great end of the Sabbath, n. The public and private duties of it will fol- low most naturally. These will demand of us less time, because the main design being comprehended and felt, the details of particu- lar rules will be easy; and yet we must not omit them. They relate to the public worship of the Almighty; the 152 PRACTICAL DUTIES care of our family; our personal and private communion with God; a due attention to all dependant on us, extend- ing even to our cattle; together with such necessary offices of charity as arise in the course of the sacred duties of the day. 1. The public exercises op God's worship and the fellowship of Christians with each other in common acts of prayer and praise, are the leading business of this holy season. The rest from temporal employments is in order to perform the solemn services of the sanctuary in the first place. A holy convocation was a part of the sab- batical worship under the law. The psalmist, and the prophets after him, dwell much upon the public ordinances, the temple, the house of prayer, the courts of the Lord's house. The first mention of our Lord's conduct on the Sabbath, is that his custom was to attend the synagogue. He appeared to his disciples, also, more than once, on the first day of the week, after his resurrection, and chang- ed the day of rest to honor this event. It was on the first day of the week, again, that the apostles met the Chris- tian churches, and preached the gospel to them, and cele- brated "the breaking of bread," as the Eucharist is some- times called. The precept "not to forsake the assembling of themselves together," completes the proof and devolves the duty upon us. Man as a social creature, never glorifies God more, nor advances his own sanctification in a larger measure, than when he openly recognizes the Christian re- ligion, and honors the resurrection of its divine Founder in public assemblies. There the Holy Spirit loves to dwell — there the people unite in the confession of sin to the glory of God's righteousness — there they implore in com- mon the gift of pardon and receive its assurances — there they hear the word of God solemnly read — there the sac- raments are administered — there they pour out their litanies at the throne of grace — there they hear the gospel preach- ed and its truths applied to their hearts and consciences, — and there, finally, they sing the high praises of their Maker, Benefactor, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Such wor- ship resembles that of the angelic choirs of heaven. The six days' work and toil and temptation are forgotten — Christ himself is present — it is "none other than the house of God, it is the gate of heaven." Heaven is the place OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 153 of the public uninterrupted worsliip of God. Angels and florified spirits unceasingly cry "Holy, holy, holy is the lOrd of hosts." And in nothing does the church on earth so nearly approach the church above, as in the harraonious and devout exercises of public vrorship. An early attendance — a devout interest in all the parts of the service — ^an application to our own case of the pray- ers, lessons, sermons — fervent gratitude in the offerings of praise — an edifying posture and demeanor — a candid and docile consideration of the doctrine delivered — these are the indications of the true worshipper; who confines not his public duties to one attendance, but rejoices twice to ap- pear in those "courts" where his heart wishes to "dwell." 2. The care of our families must not, however, be neglected, whilst we first discharge our public duties. We must not leave our children and servants to do as they I please, but we must stop all the secular work which might i tempt them to violate the holy day, dispose of our concerns ^ with the best management, so as to admit of our household devoting themselves to their religious offices, and encour- age them to perform those offices both public and private, by every suitable means. And therefore the fourth com- mandment is A FAMILY commandment. The heads of families are made answerable for all who are under their roof. "Six days are we to labor and do," not the greatest part, but "a// our work." There is no exception for the idle, the busy or the sick. But lest any should feign a plea, the commandment goes on and prohibits us expressly from doing any work. "In it thou shalt not do any work." And that a depraved heart, fertile in evasions, may not be able to suggest that children, servants, and cattle, are not included, each class is enumerated; "In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor the stranger that is within thy gates;" and the merciful reason is adjoined in the recapitulation of the law, "that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well thou." The discharge of them from all ordinary and servile work is indispensable. If they serve us the six days, we are to take care that they serve God on the seventh. The boon and grant of one day's rest extends to the whole hurtan race; and we roust see that in our household the gift is pot lost. It i& 154 PRACTICAL DUTIES our business to complete on the Saturday, or postpone to the Monday, what would intrench on the sabbath-rest. It is easy, it is delightful for the master of the family to do this. He will provide time for all his household to attend once, and if possible twice, the public worship. His do- mestic prayers will on that sacred day be extended. The more solemn reading and explaining of God's word, with prayers for a suitable state of mind for public services, will be the employ of the Sunday morning; and in the afternoon, or evening, as the case may be, he will catechise the young and give familiar and more detailed instruction to his ser- vants. The head of every family has a charge of souls, as it were committed to him; he is a priest in his own house. He has to promoie the sanctification of all under his roof. His order, his piety, his appearance, in public church and in his house, surrounded with his children, and dependants, is an acknowledgment and badge of the God whom he worships. He must not, like Eli, yield, from cowardice and a false indulgence, to the bad habits and inclinations of those around him; but like Abraham, "command his children and his household after him;" and, like Joshua, resolve, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord." 3. The private and personal duties must prepare for, and succeed the public and domestic. For the Sab- bath is for the sanctification of each individual. It is a barrier thrown in upon the current of worldly things, be- hind which, each one is to collect himself and stem the tide, and work himself back again to his God. More de- pends on the intervals between the social and public ex- ercises of the Lord's day, than we may at first imagine. Fill them up with vain conversations, idle visits, worldly reading, carelessness, indolence, sloth, and all the fruit of public and domestic worship is destroyed — the taste for them is lost — and the form of them will not be long perse- vered in. But let these interstices be duly occupied with earnest prayer and examination of the heart, communion with God, meditation, intercession for children, family, friends, reflections on the public instruction we have receiv- ed, — and all will assume another complexion. In these secret musings, the heart is visited with grace, the sermons and lessons sink deep into the habit, the mind is calmed OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH, 155 and tranquillized, some additional power of interior devo- tion is acquired. And it is for these private duties, as well as for the more public, that the rest of the Sabbath is given. They are the cement, as it were, which binds tog-ether the separate materials of the sacred festival, which without it, fall to pieces, sink into decay, and lose all their plastic en- ergy and force. How can we expect any breathings of grace, any communion with the Father of spirits, any quick- ening and elevation of the heart, if we draw near to God merely in the outward form and mock him with a pretence of service, the affections being left behind? A heart un- prepared by private duties, is not likely to be benefited by public: and on the other hand, instructions and exercises in the house of God, not followed by secret meditation and prayer, are not likely to abide in the memory or influence the conduct. 4. But besides our immediate family, the duties of the Christian Sabbath extend to our dependants — to "the stranger within our gates" — to all over whom we have any natural influence — and even to the irrational creatures who subserve our comfort, and whose repose is commanded both for their own sakes and to render more completely practi- cal the duty of religious rest enjoined upon man, their lord. These provisions breathe all the mercy of the divine law: the terms are remarkable — "That thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou" — "Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt." — "Thou knowest the heart of a stranger." How lamentably the spirit of these injunctions is violat- ed, is but too manifest. The shops and warehouses of too many witness against them. The counting-houses and offi- ces and counsel-rooms of too many are the destruction of souls. The negligence of masters as to the morals of the young, and their religious observance of the Sunday, merely on the plea that they are not domestics, will be no ade- quate defence at the tribunal of God. The workmen in manufactories are committed to the care of the persons whom they serve. Contrivance, management, order, are required of them. Influence is a talent for which an ac- count must be rendered another day. All nature is to be hushed into repose on the blessed, hallowed season of rest — all the confusion of the world to cease — all the pursuits 156 PRACTICAL DUTIES of even lawful gain to be suspended — all the hurry of life to be calmed — not only the master and parent with his fam- ily, but the principals and conductors of professional or commercial concerns — the statesman in his cabinet — the magistrate on the bench — the merchant in his house of affairs — the traveller on his journey — the lawyer in his office — the scholar in his study, — all must be interrupted and called aside, to honor the day which is the sign of the Christian covenant, and the means of Christian sanctifica- tion — man and beast are to recreate their wasted powers, the beast in the repose of which it is capable, man in the dignified and rational refreshment, for which God has pecu- liarly qualified him. Works of real necessity and mercy may, indeed, be done on the sacred day, such as our Lord by his example authorised, and as the great moral ends of the institution persuade. We relieve the sick from present suffering, we satisfy the demands of hunger, we pull an ox or an ass from a pit, we give food to our cattle, we use the gentle labor of our domestic animals, so far as may be necessary for con- veying us and our families to the public worship of God, when sickness or unavoidable distance compels. But we may not give a wider, or more lax construction to the fourth commandment, than what the intention of the great Legis- lator imports, and our Lord has determined. Such expla- nation, in opposition to the decrees of the Jewish doctors, as he judged necessary, he gave; but in all other respects, left the law just as he found it. Works of necessity and charity must not be multiplied without just cause; much less must works of vanity, sloth, carelessness, be performed under the cloke of them. No rule can be laid down for others. Conscience, and a sincere desire to glorify God, must determine. Let the main design of the day, our sanctification, and the practical duties of it, as it respects public and private, domestic and personal devotion, be per- formed in subserviency thereto, and works of necessary CHARITY, (for such is the more accurate bearing of our Lord's example,)* will not be unduly undertaken. And need I stop here to refute the mere evasion, which would allow the obligation of the Lord's day as to public * Dr. Humphrey's Essays, o. 43. OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 157 worship, and deny it as to the remaining duties of the insti- tution? What! is it enough merely to worship God for one meagre hour or two, and then resign ourselves to the world and its cares? What! can public worship be celebrated with any spirituality of mind, without preparatory and sub- sequent meditation and prayer? What! are the family devotions of other days to be discontinued on the day when they ought to be enlarged and multiplied? What! is it the Sabbath morning that we are to sanctify, or the Sabbath EVENING, only, and not the Sabbath-day, — the whole period from the close of the last working day till the dawn of the next? Yes; the whole day is not too long for God, for Christ, for the soul: if the entire command is not com- plied with, none is. Or need I stop to enumerate those various secular works, which are unlawful on this day of the Lord ? Need I ex- pose the miserable sophistry, which substitutes a mere change of worldly engagements for the holy duties of divine prayer and praise? — What, if I close my office or my shop, and open my drawer of accounts, and write letters of affairs, am I sanctifying the Sabbath? What, if I with- draw from the exchange, or the courts of law, into the chamber of consultation, or the secret room of settlements and bargains, is this keeping the Lord's day? What! I employ not my laborers on Sunday, but I pay them their wages, and almost oblige them to make their purchases on that sacred day; and is this to keep it holy? Or, I quit the hurry of the city or town, for the mere sensual indulgence of the suburban retreat — I '^eat, and drink, and am mer- ry;" I collect around me friends as thoughtless as myself — I employ my servants in the unnecessary toil of preparing luxurious meals — I go from the church to the ride, the gar- den, the park, the pleasure-ground, the river. I walk over my farm or my lands, I arrange for the business of the fol- lowing week, I plunge into literary or scientific reading, I lose my devotional feelings in the abominations of a Sun- day-newspaper — and this I call religion — this I designate as the sanctification of the Lord's day! But indeed. Christian brethren, the duties of this holy season are so spiritual, so opposite to the carnal and earthly tendencies of human nature, so surrounded by temptations and suggestions on all hands, that there is not one of us 14 158 PRACTICAL DUTIES but may discern much to be amended, improved, omitted, supplied. Our order of engagements is incomplete, our care of our family wanting in vigilance, our forethought drowsy and treacherous, our interruptions of religious exercises too frequent and too long. There is much that admits of alter- ation. Let us look well into our family rules, family habits, family hours, family religion, family attendance on the public worship of God, and we shall discern lamentable marks of decay and lukewarmness, — we shall discern many things, which, if not dishonorable to the Sabbath, are at least not so honorable to it as they might be. But this leads me to consider, III. That in order to keep holy the Lord's day, we must carry the true spirit of the christian dispensa- tion INTO these duties. We must not celebrate a Jew- ish but a Christian festival. We must imbibe that spirit of rest and delight in God, that sense of refreshment and repose, in his more immediate service, which the liberty of the gospel breathes, and without some degree of which we can never discharge these duties aright. The general habit of mind cannot be better described than in the words of the psalmist: "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God — a day in thy courts is better than a thousand; I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.^ Or again, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and inquire in his temple. "f Or again, "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. "J This is the language of delight, of repose of soul in the duties of religion. Join to this the particular discoveries of the New Testament, as to the way of access in the blood of Christ, and by the influences of the Spirit, and we have the complete description of the devotional temper. In like manner, the Holy prophets — "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold of it — that chooseth the things that please me — that join them- selves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of * Ps. Ixxxiv. 1, 2, 10. t Ps. xxvii. 4. t Ps. Ixiii. 5. OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 159 the Lord — even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make thera joyful in my house of prayer."* Love, choice of God, joy in the house of prayer, stand in complete con- trast with a yoke, a burden, a mere task, as too many rep- resent the duties of religion to be. But the most ample account of the spirit which should pervade the sabbatical duties, is in a passage which, in common with the preceding, we have formerly quoted for another purpose; "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sab- bath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord."t Here, the'spirit of the right observance of the Lord's day is expressed in a most striking phrase — "if thou call the Sabbath a delight, THE HOLY OF THE LORD, HONORABLE, AND SHALT HONOR HIM." We are to esteem it honorable, abpve all other days; we are peculiarly to honor Him, whose bounty created us, whose long-suffering has preserved us, and whose un- searchable goodness has provided for us a way of eternal redemption. Then joy will fill our hearts. The glory of our divine Lord, his majesty, his sovereignty over us, his infinite excellency, his continued benefits, his omnipotent, never-failing providence, will possess our minds; and we shall feel, as the Sabbath morn returns, that we are going to the palace of the great King, that we are approaching the abode of a heavenly Father, that we are going up to God, to "God our exceeding joy." From this temper will flow the appropriate dispositions which should govern the details of the day. The chief of these is, spiritual repose of heart in God, in opposition to earthly, sensual, intellec- tual pleasure — "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sab- bath, from doing thy pleasure, on my holy day." Here is the main difficulty: so long as sensual repose, instead of spiritual; intellectual effort, instead of devotional; the pleasure of the mere appetites, instead of the pleasure of the soul in God, is the governing principle in our religion, the Sabbath will never be kept aright. A change in our taste and estimate of things, must first touch the main springs oi happiness. Then we shall cease from "doing our pleas- * Isa. Ivi. 2, 7. ' t Isa. Iviii. 13, 14. 160 PRACTICAL DUTIES ure;" and shall willingly aim at doing the pleasure of God. Amusement, recreation, pastimes, indolent repose, satisfac- tion in worldly company, worldly society, worldly banquets, will cease; new pleasures will be sought for in the pleas- ures of devotion, of faith, of hope, of communion with God. Then will the Sabbath be a "delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable;" and we shall honor god in it. And thus will our pleasure, ways, words, works, be newly directed. Instead of "doing our own ways," we shall choose the ways that God commands, and occupy the Sabbath with its ap- propriate duties. Instead of "finding our own pleasure," we shall find God's, or rather, shall perceive a new and more elevated pleasure in his service; instead of "speaking our own words," we shall order our conversation to the glory of God, and the edification of our neighbor. Per- haps there are few sins more common, and more insidious than that to which these last words refer, "speaking our own words," that is, secular conversation on the Sunday — news, inquiries, discussions on matters literary, political, philosophical. Thus all impression of spiritual things fades from the mind; the seed of the word is lost; the ordinary associations and habits of the six days' labor are insensi- bly resumed, and the Holy Spirit is quenched and grieved. I need not add here, that the reading of Sunday news- papers is directly in contradiction to the whole spirit which should be cultivated on that blessed day. It encourages the most flagrant violation of the Sabbath, in those who print, who sell, who circulate these monstrous productions — too commonly filled with matter of the most licentious and sceptical tendency; and more injurious and contaminating, from the day on which they are disseminated. They totally unfit the mind for the religious duties before it; or rather, they make those duties impracticable. But how delightful is the Sabbath, when occupied as it should be! Can any picture be more inviting than that of a family, a neighborhood, a parish, honoring the day of God with cheerful and grateful hearts — meditating on that sanc- tification which is the great design of the day of rest — fill- ing up its hours with the various and important exercises of public and private devotion — and imbuing every act of duty with the Christian temper, with the filial spirit — the spirit not "of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adop- OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 161 tion, crying, Abba, Father?"* How quickly would diffi- culties be overcome, if once we found our pleasure in the exercises of religion! See how men contrive, labor, sur- mount obstacles, for the enjoyment of what they love! Ob- serve how eagerly they hasten on the hour, when the pleas- ure returns. Mark how they endeavor to lengthen the pe- riod of its continuance — then contrast with this the weari- ness they feel in the duties of the Sabbath — how they abridge the heavy employ — how they encroach insensi- bly on its prescribed limits — how they contrive pleas of necessity for escaping from some of its services — how tame and formal they are in the discharge of them — how late in their arrival at the house of God! What ir- reverence in their manner! How insensible to the sym- pathies of devotion! How awake to every slight inconve- nience, every occasional prolongation of the prayers or sermon — every pressure of heat or cold — every defect in the manner or voice of the minister! What does all this betray, but the inward dissatisfaction, the want of harmony of feeling in the services! Let the spirit of the Christian dispensation imbue their minds, and all would change its appearance. Pleasure, delight, would beam in the coun- tenance, and all would be in keeping with the designs of the Almighty, in the institution of the day. But we hasten to complete our review of the manner in which the Christian Sabbath should be observed, by suggesting, that in addition to what we have noted, we must IV. Especially glorify God for those mighty bless- ings WHICH ARE APPOINTED TO BE COMMEMORATED ON THE Lord's day — Creation, Redemption, Heaven. These are the express topics in the divine praise, for which the Sabbath was constituted. We must join the commemoration of these to the other duties of sanctification, of public and private devotion, and of a temper of filial repose and joy in God. I conceive we are often lamentably de- ficient in those direct acts of adoration and gratitude, for the peculiar and stupendous blessings of providence and grace, which the Sabbath is designed to celebrate. We enter perhaps into the other branches of our duty with some feeling; but our minds are too exclusively occupied with * Rom. viii. 13. *14 162 PRACTICAL DUTIES ourselves, and our own immediate circle of trials and duties — we are selfish and contracted in our gratitude — we do not rise up to God in the magnificence of his benefits — we forget that songs ever new should be chanted to him who doeth such great things for us. Call to mind how expressly creation is assigned as a reason for the appointment of the sacred day — "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are therein," — not merely at the institution in Paradise, but in the Mosaic law, in the various recapitu- lations of it, and even in the epistle to the Hebrews, where the subject is merely referred to. Yes, the Sabbath is the celebration of God's glory in nature. We confess ourselves the worshippers of the one living and true God. We sep- arate ourselves from atheists, unbelievers, sceptics, profane contemners of God, now; just as the patriarchs and Isra- elites of old separated themselves from heathens, from idola- ters, from the pagan worshippers of the nations around them. We should every Sabbath, when we rehearse our articles of faith in the temple of the Lord, or when the sacred his- tories, and psalms which relate to the creation, are read, as well as in our own private and domestic devotions, glo- rify expressly the great God of heaven and earth, adore the wonders of his hand, meditate on his wisdom, goodness, and power, and ascribe to him the praise of creation, pres- ervation, continual deliverance. A Christian is the only true philosopher. He sees God in every thing. He ac- knowledges the traces of his matchless skill on every side. He discovers a father's love in all the order of the universe. He imitates the song by which the first Sabbath was cele- brated at the creation of man, when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." The Sabbath is to him a sign, a badge, a cognizance of his allegiance to his glorious Creator, the "King eternal, inimortal, invisible, the only wise God." He "in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all our ways." 2. But REDEMPTION is a yet higher note in the choir oj praise, which on the Sabbath surrounds our heavenly King. At the deliverance from Egypt this song was be- gun; but at the great deliverance from the spiritual Egypt, it was amplified and exalted. This temporal redemption was prefixed to the promulgation of the whole decalogue, from OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 163 the Mount of Sinai: *'I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bond- age;" and it was attached especially to the fourth com- mandment, in the last recapitulation of it by Moses: "And remember that thou wast a stranger in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out hence, through a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day." And the spiritual redemption was the reason of that change of the day of celebration, which from the temporal, trans- ferred it to the eternal blessing. Yes; on the first day of the week we adore a triumphant Savior, we meditate on his ceasing and resting and being refreshed from the work of the new creation; even as Almighty God ceased from his. No Sabbath should pass without the praises of our rising, ascending, interceding Redeemer being sounded in the church. It is his own day, the day of his glory, the day of his resting from his labors, the day of his "opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers." The song is al- ready prepared to our hands: "Thou hast ascended u|> on high; thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men, yea for the rebellious also, that the Lord God mipht dwell amonsf them."* We must add to the other special duties of the Sabbath, this record of our faith in Christ. We must subjoin to our praises to God the Father who created us, the adoration of God the Son who redeemed us. We must make our public confession of Christ Jesus our Lord. The Lord's day is the badge of the covenant of grace. "He that offereth praise glori- fieth me," saith the Lord by the psalmist, "and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God. "t 3. Nor should the praise of the Holy Ghost be omitted amongst the especial blessings celebrated on the Sabbath. The rest of heaven is, by his grace and the anticipa- tions he vouchsafes, sealed to our hopes. This is that eternal repose in God which from the record of the first institution in paradise, to the latest argument of St. Paul, has been presented as the final object of the day of rest. It typifies, sets forth, assures to every sincere believer the ultimate * Psalm Ixviii. 18. t Psalm 1. 23. 164 PRACTICAL DUTIES happiness at which he aims. '^There remaineth" this last refreshment and salvation "for the people of God." Let us look up towards it, dear brethren, in our meditations and hopes. Let every Sabbath prepare us for its appro- priate employment. Let the Holy Ghost, who on this day was vouchsafed to the church, to be the comforter, teacher, guide, sanctifier, and great Author of all grace under the New Testament, be adored and glorified. Let us implore of him the power to realize the promises of redemption, to \ie\y with gratitude the wonders of creation and providence, and to unite all with the prospects of the rest of heaven. St. Augustine considers the Sabbath as peculiarly the law of the Holy Ghost. The first two commandments he looks upon as relating to the honor of God the Father; the third, as especially referring to God the Son, the eternal word, whose name is not to be taken in vain, nor to be reduced to the rank of a mere creature; and the fourth, or sabbati- cal precept, he refers to the praise of the Holy Ghost, who, as the author of rest and peace in his church, is peculiarly hormred on the day which agrees so entirely with his own office.* We enter not into a defence critically of the sen- timent of the holy Father. We seize the thought; and glorify God the Spirit on the day which is to raise us by his inspiration to the foretaste and pledge of our heavenly rest! And now from these considerations on the practical du- ties of the Christian Sabbath, let us, in applying the dis- course, 1. Remark the conviction which such a discus- sion SHOULD fix in THE MINDS OF THE IRRELIGIOUS AND UNCONVERTED. At what a distance are they from the true spirit and temper of the servants of God! They dispute against the divine authority of the Lord's day. They complain of the various duties we enjoin. They de- clare the impossibility of rising up to such a tone of piety. They invent excuses for absence and omission. But what do they in fact admit in all this, but their want of religious taste and feeling? What do they avow, but the want of spiritual judgment, pleasures, pursuits.'' The more they argue against the Sabbath, the more they condemn them- * British Review, viii. 483. OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 165 selves. The further they recede from devotional habits and delights, the greater distance do they place between them- selves and God. Yes, let such be induced to consider their own ways and turn to the Lord. Let them weigh the authority, and re- member the duties of God's blessed day; and let them seek that fundamental change of heart which will render the de- votions of the day a pleasure, its duties a choice, its proper exercises the spontaneous overflowing of gratitude and love. Then would these Sabbaths be the jsuNDiN-ae spirituales, the spiritual market-days (to speak with Bishop Andrews) to their souls; then would they be as anxious to carry away coMMEATUM ANiM^, provision for the mind, for reforming the will, for regulating the affection, for illuminating the understanding, as they are careful to carry away provision for the body from the markets whither they resort. But what can we say as to the spiritual state of those multitudes, who still continue to have little or no conscience about hallowing God's blessed day? Where shall we place them? Under what class are they to be arranged ? Where is the indolent and sensual Sabbath-keeper, or rather Sab- bath-violater to be placed, who rests only as his ox, or his ass, or his cattle? Where is the pleasure-taking Sabbath- breaker to be arranged? W^here the gluttonous and wine- bibbing? Where the busy, mercantile, or professional Sabbath-breaker, who thinks that the hurries of his con- cerns excuse him from the worship of God? Where is the formalist's Sabbath, whose heart remains behind, when his person and his lips seem to approach his Maker and Re- deemer? And what shall we say to the infidel's Sabbath, the scoffer's Sabbath, the debauchee's Sabbath? Alas! the heart turns sick at the fearful guilt of the numbers, who, with knowledge, and opportunities, and means of sanctifying the day of grace, abuse, neglect, despise, violate it. Let such awake, ere it be too late to their immense loss, as well as to their heavy criminality before Almighty God. Shall God, my fellow sinners, have consecrated a day from the creation of man, and wilt thou stand out against his gracious command? Shall God have republished his will in the fourth commandment of the decalogue — shall he have enforced it by all the motives of his righteous author- ity—shall he have poured around it all the milder glories of 166 PBACTIAL DUTIES the new covenant, as well as the tremendous judgments of the old, and wilt thou not give God his due? Wilt thou not yield him the just rent which he demands upon the gift of thy time, thy health, thy property, thy six days' labor? Wilt thou remain insensible to thine eternal interest, thy present and future happiness, the preparation thou needest for death and judgment? O, consider thy ways, seek thy Savior's forgiveness, be ashamed and confounded for thy past neglect. Begin a new life. Enter upon a new course. Seek that holy taste and divine principle of life which will make the Christian Sabbath natural, interesting, pleasant, delightful, necessary. Take at least the preparatory steps. If you cannot en- ter into all the engagements of the Sabbath, enter into some of them. By degrees new and better habits will be formed. By degrees the whole compass of sabbatical du- ties will become easy. Only begin in the strength of God, and relying on the operations of his grace. Take a view first of the great end of the institution, the sanctification of the soul. Then follow out the different classes of du- ties which spring from it, as branches from the parent stock. Next seek for something of the spiritual taste which forms the Christian temper. And lastly, let the grand blessings of creation and redemption, and the hope of hea- ven, be in some degree the topics of your praise. II. But may we not, all of us, Christian brethren, dis- cover TOPICS ENOUGH OF HUMILIATION in the discussion which has taken place? Which of us discharges the du- ties of the holy day of God as we should? In fact, the Sabbath is so closely connected with Christianity itself, that as our Christianity rises or falls, so will our observa- tion of the sacred season be elevated, or decline. Nothing is more difficult, considering our corruption and the snares of Satan, than a holy, wise, kind, and yet resolute gov- ernment of ourselves and families on the Lord's day. All possible hindrances arise to oppose this duty. Espec- ially in the management of our children and household, we meet continual obstacles to our best purposes. One remark, however, may be offered on the other side. We must pre- serve the amiable spirit of our Savior, and the gentle tem- per of his religion in our domestic arrangements. Few things are more important than to make the Sunday agree- OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 167 able, in a proper sense of the terra, to young persons and servants. If any thing morose and rigid is apparent in our manner, to those placed under our care, it will inevitably create disgust and aversion. And yet remissness, negli- gence, cowardice must not creep in. The wise balancing of these things, then, will require much consideration and prayer. Variety may be thrown into the duties, so as to interest the young mind, without lessening in the least their general efifect. The reading of the Scripture — the writing or finding texts upon a given subject — the learning of hymns — catechising — the family devotions of the morn- ing and evening — the public worship of God afford suffi- cient diversity, excite attention and dissipate lassitude. Much wisdom must, however, be employed, kindness of manner, consideration of age, health, circumstances. There should ever be a due admixture of firmness with benignity — all supported by an uniform example, and ^accompanied with fervent prayer. Indeed prayer, especially for larger measures of the Holy Spirit, is indispensable to the right discharge of these important duties. If we can do nothing aright without prayer, much less can we 'sustain a course of obedience, with love and delight, in the consecration of the Sabbath, without the continual supplies of grace and strength. But these supplies will not be refused to us. Our defects will be forgiven us through the blood of Christ, our infirmities succoured by the power of the Holy Ghost. Thus will our Sabaths pour into our hearts the consolation of the prom- ises, and will at length terminate in God himself who first instituted the day and is its highest consummation and end. SERMO^f VI. THE UNSPEAKABLE IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT OB- SERVATION OF THE SABBATH, WITH THE EVILS OF THE OPPOSITE ABUSE. Isaiah Iviii. 1, 2. Cry aloudy spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to knoio my ivays, as a nation that did Hghteously and forsook not the ordinances of their God; they ask of me the ordinances of justice, they take de- light in approaching to God. Doctrine is not enough, precept is not enough, on such a subject as that which we have been treating. We must address the conscience; we must be bold in our appeals to the heart of man — we must assert all the authority and majesty of truth. The minister of religion must not shrink from his task on such a question; he must "cry aloud, and spare not; he must show" the people of God "their trans- gressions, and the house of Jacob," the professed church of Christ, "their sins." He must penetrate the thin dis- guises which a false religion assumes, and tear off the mask which a pretence of "seeking God and of delighting in his ways" may present: and must declare that the exter- nal advantages and opportunities of religion only increase the guilt of the nation which tramples on that very day, when all these benefits would have their best effect. OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 169 We proceed, therefore, to set before you the unspeak- able IMPORTANCE OF A RIGHT OBSERVATION OF THE Lord's day, with the evils of the opposite abuse — a subject difficult to treat from its very magnitude, from the multitude of topics which it embraces, and from the lit- tle perception men in general have of the sin of neglecting a»d dishonoring God's most ancient institution. For this may be premised; that the corruption of man, which resists generally all the great doctrines and duties of Christianity, may be expected to press veith peculiar vio- lence against a barrier, which, like the Lord's day, is rais- ed against the whole current of that corruption. Nor is it unimportant to add, that an institution like this, which takes men off from their ordinary pursuits and gives them an interval for religious rest and public worship of Almighty God, must, if abused, become, from the very nature of the case, a source of unnumbered vices and dis- orders; must draw into itself torrents of those particular evils, which are ever ready to accumulate, as in a common receptacle, where space is given. There is no middle state here — the influence of the Sabbath for good or for evil upon nations, churches, families, individuals, is incal- culable. It is meant to be the best and holiest day of the week; but, if perverted, it becomes the worst and most de- structive. But how shall we impress you most deeply with this sub- ject.'' Shall we show you that a due regard to the institu- tion by a Christian nation is of the nature of a sacred com- pact? That it is essential to man's temporal and spiritual welfare, as a fallen but accountable creature? That it includes all the application of the Christian religion, and, in fact, its preservation in the world? That it binds to- gether all the links and obligations of civil society? That it immediately respects the authority and honor of Almighty God, and his favor and blessing upon a people? — And that, of course, the opposite abuse overturns every one of these things, and brings on the contrary evils? May God assist us by the influences of his Spirit; that, having no end in view but his glory, and depending for suc- cess on no power but his own; we may direct our inquiries with simplicity, and obey the dictates of truth with unre- served courage and joy! 15 170 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT I. For what, in fact, is the observation of the Christian Sabbath, but a most sacred compact; and what the abuse of it but the violation of that compact? It is obvi- ous, that it can only he by the very general and almost universal agreement of a nation, that secular affairs can be suspended, business stopped, public recreation and amuse- ments forbidden, offices and establishments closed, the min- isters of religion furnished with protection in the discharge of their duties, the interruptions of open profligacy prevent- ed. Christian assemblies authorized, churches erected for their use — in short, the whole frame-work of the public worship of God set up and continued. Laws are the ex- pression of public opinion — and go a certain length, both negatively in the repression of open insults on Christianity, and positively in sustaining and supporting the ministers and officers of the sanctuary. But all the real operation and success of such a system rests upon the compact and covenant of a Christian people one with another, and with their gracious God and Savior. The scattered converts of the first Christian churches could only celebrate their Sabbaths in early darkness, or the unobserved hours of the night: persecution hung over their meetings — they were happy if they were not dragged to the idol's temple and urged to join in the idol worship. This is one reason probably, why the apostles less fre- quently dwell upon the express duties of the Lord's day in the New Testament; leaving it rather to the consciences of their converts and the universal conviction that a Sab- bath was of perpetual moral obligation, to fill up the detail. The condition of domestic slavery, in which most of the Gentile converts were, would tend to increase the apostles' tenderness on the point. Still the first Christians kept holy the Lord's day, the badge of their redemption, to the utmost of their power. When Christianity triumphed over emperors and kings and statesmen and magistrates by the mild influence of the truth, things were changed. The holy day of weekly rest succeeded the festivals of the hea- then worship. "\Vhen England was converted in the course of the divine mercy, her Heathen rites, her druidical or- gies, her savage customs, her brutal and idolatrous sacri- fices, were cast away — and the love of God, the preaching of the blessed gospel, the singing praises to Christ, the celebra- OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 171 tion of the mysteries of his death, and the observation of the hallowed day on which ail these were to be performed, suc- ceeded to them. Christian legislators in our own, as in other countries, arose to do what they could in guarding the new institutions. They continued thus to act. But still upon the consciences of individuals has ever rested, and must rest, the real and effectual obligation. The in- habitants of the nation, having submitted to the yoke of the gospel, assumed its profession in the celebration of one day of religious joy. The covenant was signed and sealed, as it were, in this visible acknowledgment of the Christian faith; but the spirit and conduct of individuals and families fill up the conditions of it. Thus it is a compact. If de- vout care of children and servants, abstinence from ordinary duties and cheerful attendance upon the public and private offices of religion, mark the households of our towns and cities, the compact is fulfilled. If carelessness, indifference, non-attendance, creep in upon the general body, the com- pact is violated. It may remain, indeed, in its form — the external law may be unabrogated — the churches may stand as before — the ministers of religion may retain their office, — but the compact is made void. The Christian obligation is virtually abjured. If the evil goes on, every outward order and regulation will be by degrees weakened, evaded, contemned, and the Sabbath will be no more. I ask, then, whether, in this view, the importance of the due observance of the Lord's day is not immense? It is the fulfilment of a compact. Every act of violation tends to undermine the whole frame-work. Every wilful breach has the guilt of breaking down the universal consent, of beginning a destructive habit, of infecting the entire com- munity. The good example, the influence, the devout con- duct of each family, each person, goes to sustain the gen- eral duty, to make the covenant valid, to enable others to consecrate the day. The place, then, which each separate action fills, is like a stone in an arch, important, not only as to its isolated magnitude, but from its position, its coherence with the other parts, its necessity to the firmness and solidity of the whole structure. Look in this view at all the separate acts of all the care- Jess, the profane, the covetous, the unbelieving amongst our 172 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT population — see their Sabbaths — estimate the evil donCj not by the independent acts, but by the fearful influence, by the covenant broken, the stipulation trodden under foot, the engagements rendered difficult to others, impossible to themselves. Let no one say, ^'I am but an individual,'* — for the nation is made up of individuals. Let no one say, ^'A single act can be of small evil," — for the observ- ance of a national Sabbath is composed of single acts. Let no one pretend, ''The stream and current of religious duty cannot be stopped by my particular resistance;" for the whole tide is constituted and impelled by the aggrega- tion of unnumbered minute elements; and every obstacle retards the flow. IL But estimate, in the next place, if you can, the im- portance of the universal observation of the Christian Sab- bath, from its bearings upon man's temporal and spir- itual WELFARE, AS A FALLEN BUT ACCOUNTABLE CREA- TURE. For is man, or is he not, an immortal being.'' Has he, or has he not, a soul allied to God, capable of knowing, destined to serve him, and utterly void of real happiness, till it be found in him.'* Has he, or has he not, received a revelation from Almighty God, according to which he will be judged at the last day.^ Then, what is man's truest interest, what his essential duty, what his first and noblest object.'' And what is the great hindrance to his real wel- fare — to his attention to his religious convictions? Is it cot the pressure of earthly things, the undue magnitude and importance which, from their proximity, they assume? Is it not the want of leisure for reflection, the want of a realising apprehension of the truth of unseen objects? Then the Sabbath gives all this leisure, calls man off from all this turmoil, interposes a day of repose, of recollection, of dis- tinct time for the care of his soul and the worship of God. The Sabbath raises the standard of his moral feelings, brings him to act upon his higher nature, his mind, his ra- tional part, his responsibility to an eternal Judge. The necessities of the body chiefly occupy the six days; the im- mortal destiny of man and his ultimate vocation by the gos- pel, claim the seventh. Nothing more tends to improve all the faculties, to quicken the practical judgment, to mature and invigorate the powers of the mind, to enlarge the sphere and multiply the sources of intellectual pleasure, to OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 173 open the widest avenues to happiness, to unite man with his true end, than the care of the soul and the celebration of the divine worship. What a sight for angels is the assembly of all the in- habitants of a nation, in its various subdivisions, before the Almighty God — confessing their sins, acknowledging his goodness, celebrating his praises, hearing his word, partak- ing of his mysteries. Creation, redemption, heaven brought, after an interval of six days' toil and secularity, full be- fore their view, and elevating and attracting the heart of a wayward, perverse, but noble race! It is to be further borne in mind, that man is fallen, cor- rupted, propense to the external objects which surround him — that the Lord's day is not merely the day of religious duty and rest, but the restoring, the awakening day — the day of recovery and reformation. It tends to bring man back to recollection, to seriousness, to penitence, to prayer. If the Sabbath be desecrated, his original disease gains ground, his convalescence, only incipient and doubtful, is suspended, and his whole spiritual prosperity and existence are endangered. It is not of Adam uncorrupted that we speak, but of Adam's race, sunk in selfishness and flesh, with only faint remains of moral feeling, and far from God and godliness. Nor is it of the devout and fervent part of the professed Christian world, or of the Protestant Chris- tian world in any form, that we exclusively speak; it is for the family of man scattered over the face of the earth, lost in heathenism and infidelity, that we would reserve the Sab- bath; it is for Pagans and Mahometans, for the members of the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, that we plead. We would exhibit to them the holy Sabbath in the exam- ple of the purer Christian bodies, to draw their attention, to mark the reality of our religion, to provide them informa- tion upon its nature and duties. How is a wandering, fallen, and depraved world to be recalled to God, without that day which celebrates the works and word and grace of God — that day which recognizes his authority over man — that day which proclaims his intellectual and accountable nature, his future, his eternal hopes? The Sabbath inter- poses a space between total irreligion and the conscience of man; it puts in the claims of God upon the human heart. *15 174 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT Nor is the temporal welfare of mankind less concerned than their spiritual, in the observation of the Lord's day, Man was created for six days' work, not for seven: his fac- ulties cannot bear an unremitted strain. Children and servants, and the laboring- classes of mankind, (by far the more numerous, and the most liable to be oppressed,) re- quire what this institution gives — a day of repose, of refresh- ment, of religious recollection and peace. The whole world rests and is still, that God may speak, that conscience may resume her sway, that the exhausted body and mind may recruit their powers, and be fitted for a more vigorous effort. The utmost productive labor of man, is in the proportion of rest and exertion, ordained by his merciful Creator. The best prevention of disease is in the same provision. The prolongation of human life depends on the like alternation of toil and repose. The springs of pleasure are thus aug- mented and purified. The satiety, the sameness, the wea- riness, the uniformity of human life is broken; and a blessed^ hallowed period for religion is interposed. The interval between these seasons is neither so distant as to be ineffec- tual to its end, nor so near as to injure the real interests of our worldly callings — but, like every thing else in God's revelation, unites the prosperity of the soul with the high- est welfare of the body and concerns of man. How great, then, is the importance of every one^s fall- ing in with the designs of this institution! Can any one estimate adequately the soul, eternity, heaven and hell, God, Christ; salvation, pardon, hope, happiness — the whole intellectual, moral, and religious welfare of man, formed after his Creator's image, fallen from it by sin, called to the renovation of it by the blessings and duties of the Christian Sabbath! Look at the evils of the contrary abuse. See man sunk from his real honors into the rank of the brute; see him lost in appetite, vice, lust, pride, carelessness; with nothing to redeem, nothing to call him back, nothing to restore; the Spirit of God departed from him ; a reprobate sense possessing and weighing down his soul. The main difference between heathen and Christian nations is the recurrence of a Sab- bath, and of what follows upon it. The violation of this day in Christian countries, is the brand upon the forehead of nominal religion. See the Sabbath-breaker opening his OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 175 shop, writing his letters, preparing his accounts: see him entering his office; see him imposing upon his servants, his clerks, his dependants, the yoke of unpermitted and unholy labor. Observe him in languid carelessness, idling away the morning hours, and disgracing, by excess and worldly company, the evening. Notice the effect upon his own mind and habits. He boasts of his liberty, his freedom from superstitious fears, his superiority to ordinary preju- dices. But he is the slave of covetousness, of pride, of appetite. The violation of the Sabbath draws with it the neglect of all other religious duties — prayer, family relig- ion, reading of the Scriptures. Misery follows in the train. In vain he blusters, and protests and affects independence: the moral judgments of the Almighty overtake him — the selfish, earthly creature, vegetating rather than living, is lost in shifting speculations; diffuses mischief all around; neglects and corrupts his children and servants; has no corrective to his jealous and irritated temper, no cordial to his droop- ing spirits, no prospects to enliven the future, no friend, no Savior to relieve him as to the past. The Sunday jour- nal, the Sunday festival, the Sunday amusements, fail to please. He sinks into lifeless despondency, or frets with infuriated malice — all his noble capacities perverted, be- cause his God has been contemned, and the day of religion abused. And mark his inhumanity and want of sympathy, with the feelings and miseries of his dependants, the poor, the weak, the depressed. He robs the human family of the best boon of heaven; he compels them to work when God allowed them to repose; he chains down in vice and ignor- ance three-fourths of mankind; he raises a barrier against the entrance of light, purity, salvation; he tends by his example to abolish Christianity, to deny his God, to erect the vain idol of an imaginary deity, and to sink at last into a practical Atheism. ni. But we proceed to show, that the due observation of the Lord's day includes all the application of the CHRISTIAN religion, and in fact, its preservation in the world; whilst the violation of it goes to the exactly con- trary effect. For what is the Christian religion, without its means of instruction and grace? What is Christianity, without the Bible, without the ministry of God's word, 176 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT without meditation and prayer, without the education of children, without the familiar communication of truth to the poor and ignorant ? And when and how are these means to be put into effect, if the day appointed for that very purpose is desecrated, dishonored, lost? And what is the applica- tion of Christianity by all these methods, but the grand point, the main end of that divine revelation? It was given to be made known, to be applied to the conscience of every human being. It was given to be an universal relig- ion. It was given, not to be a theory in the schools^' of philosophy, but to be a grand practical blessing to the hearts and lives of men. In this view, it stands distinct from the Levitical dispensation, and in contrast with all the idolatries of the heathen superstitions. It is not a limited design of separating a single family or nation; but it extends itself to the whole world — the partition-wall broken down — the distinctions of tongue, and clime, and people, abolished — the cere*nonial observances swept away — and all mankind the common objects of religious care. Much less is it the confused and groundless theory of a superstitious idolatry, ignorant of all the principles of truth, wasting itself in interminable controversies, confined to the schools of learning, as to its real tenets, and leaving the multitude in the gloom of a cruel and debasing bondage. No; Christianity flows from the Father of lights; it brings plain, interesting, all-important truth to man. It reveals a scheme of infinite love for the recovery of apostate, sin- ful creatures, in the death of the eternal Son of God. It promises the divine and effectul grace of the Holy Spirit. It constitutes a sytem of means, in which man is to wait upon God, and where God has promised to communicate himself to man. These means, simple, unostentatious, easy to be employed, are the great medium between the infinite God and his feeble creature. As the Substratum of these methods of instruction is laid the Holy Sabbath — this gives the time, the space, the monitory call, the privilege, the motive for the employment of them. There stands Christianity — it speaks in the Bible, the inspired book of God, ''able to make man wise unto salva- tion," which every one is bound to read, to search, to medi- tate upon. But when ? On the day of the Bible, the day which the very first history in its pages institutes and hal- OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 177 lows. Blot out the Sabbath; you make the regular and deliberate study of the Scriptures impossible to the vast body of mankind. Christianity stands forth — she designates an order of men to preach her blessed tidings — she institutes the min- istry of the word — she bids the faithful pastor, evangelist, and ambassador of grace, go into all the world, preach the fall and recovery of man, take out truth from the written volume and apply it to the conscience, open it to the under- standing, press it upon the heart of man. There stands the minister of Christ, "as the voice of one crying in the wil- derness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord." He vindicates truth, he clears it from the subterfuges of human folly, he sets forth its genuine importance. Then he convokes the assemblies of men, he calls them to repentance and faith, he forms them into churches; he meets them for the pur- pose of edification, exhortation, comfort. But when is all this to be done.^ Who is to form 'the agreement for the time and place of meeting? What is to oblige, invite, persuade men.'* Who is to suspend the ordinary business of life, and make it possible for the great body of man- kind to assist at religious convocations? The Holy Christian Sabbath. Without the Sabbath, all is con- fusion, distraction, defeat. You have no regular public ministry, no time for calm attention to the preaching of the word, no place for the grand instrument of awakening souls, and building up the Christian temple. But public and private supplication, confession, giving of thanks, intercession, are essential to the application of Christianity. What is religion without prayer? W^here is the profession of the faith of Christ, without holy sup- lication, in assembled bodies, to seek the divine favor, to honor the divine majesty, to avow our dependance on the divine grace? How are the blessings of revelation to be obtained, without that humble suit and united petition, to which God has been pleased to attach them? The Sab- bath abolished, neglected, dishonored; prayer is blotted out from the earth; Christianity is paralysed; the humility of heart which distinguishes the faith of the Bible from all other creeds, is no more. For it is the day of rest which gives time for prayer, which calls to public and private and 178 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT domestic devotion, which shuts out the world, and brings man before the presence of his God. And when, again, are the blessed sacraments of Christ's religion to be administered, if the Christian Sabbath be obliterated, which is destined for the celebration of them, and without which they can never be decently and devoutly attended? These are the external symbols and pledges of the redeeming blood and sanctifying Spirit of our Lord. They are the peculiar channels and means of grace. They follow the Bible, the ministry of the word, prayer. They are the bond of communion between Christians and their divine Head. They constitute a grand branch of the pro- fession of the Christian religion. But they stand upon the platform of the Sabbath, and expire with its fall. And what will become of the education of children, and the familiar communication of truth to the vast body of the poor and ignorant, without a time and space for those du- ties, banked in from the wild waste of worldly cares? Look at your Sunday schools, your infant schools, your adult schools, your catechetical lectures, your books and tracts for the young and the poorer classes. Look at the open spot left by the Sabbath for the erection of this spirit- ual machinery, and its easy operation and blessed fruits. Abolish the Lord's day, and you abolish the education of the population, the inculcation of primary truth, the diffu- sion of religious knowledge, the amelioration and safe eleva- tion in the scale of intellectual and moral being, of the very classes for whom the Savior came, to whom he declared his gospel to be best adapted, and whose welfare, temporal and spiritual, he especially consulted. Consider, then, the unspeakable obligation of the Sab- bath. On the means enumerated no one will dispute that the application of Christianity depends — to those means God promises his blessing — in and by these means the Holy Spirit works. We do not speak too strongly when we assert that the efficacy of our divine religion — its holy influences — its transforming, renovating power, very much depends on this one single point, the sanctification of the Christian Sabbath. Every act of profanation of its holy duties, every argument levelled against its authority, every example of a careless, irreligious family, neglecting its claims, goes to undo or prevent the healing virtues of Chris- OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 179 tianity — it goes to turn religion from a practical, holy, blessed principle, into a form, a name, a pretence. And this it becomes, as the abuse of the day of God prevails. The ground on which we press the immense im- portance of the Sabbath, is from the evils which the viola- tion of it occasions. Sabbath-breaking not only annuls the sacred compact of Christian nations, not only opposes the temporal and spiritual welfare of man, as a feeble but ac- countable being; but prevents all the application of Chris- tianity in its blessings to the human heart. The separate instances of infringing the law of the Sabbath, may appear of little moment. We see not the interior process of the evil — the outward garb of decent morals is not at once thrown off. But look at the sure result. What is the Sabbatli-breaker about? Is he reading his Bible? — He never opens that book which condemns his sin. Does he attend the ministry of God's word? — He dislikes more and more its admonitions, its calls to repentance. As his vio- lation of the Sabbath increases, his disposition to attend the public preaching of the gospel lessens, his resolutions of returning to it become weaker, his regard for Christianity itself gradually expires. Does he join in public or domes- tic prayer? — Alas! he has left off the devout practice since the Sabbath has been broken. When he began the occa- sional neglect, first of a part, and then of the whole of that sacred day, prayer was not altogether forgotten. Some private devotions lingered amongst his habits — education and conscience had not wholly lost their force. But the evil acquired strength. The Sunday was first wearisome, then disgusting, then perverted to occasional, and lastly to continued, indulgences of a secular kind — and with this, prayer was renounced, forgotten. And what has the Sab- bath-breaker to do with the sacrament, or with the religious education of the young, and the poor and ignorant? He may promote the pride of intellectual knowledge, he may diflfuse a literature tinged with infidelity, he may nourish the daring spirit of inquiry which a false philosophy pro- claims; but the solid, religious, useful education of the young and ignorant in their immortal destinies, in their ac- countableness to God, in their duties to their Creator, Re- deemer, Sanctifier, he utterly neglects and opposes. In short, if the real want of religious character in the violator 180 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT of God's holy day could be estimated, it would be found to be just in the proportion as that institution was forsaken. Nor is it too much to say, startling as it may sound in tsome ears, that the existence of Christianity in the world iiepends upon the observation of the Sabbath. Let this visible pledge of allegiance be withdrawn, let this sacred time be filled up by the cares and follies of the world, let public prayer and sacraments, public preaching of God's word and instruction of the ignorant be neglected and vir- tually renounced — and where is Christianity, where its hold upon man, where its means of operation, where its healing influence, where its application to the heart? Yes; God has bound every thing together. In appointing a Sabbath, he has not instituted a useless, secondary, non-essential rite. The Sabbath was made for man — for such a creature as he is — in such a system of means, and with such a revelation as Christianity proposes to him. The same God that knew what was in that Revelation, and what was also in man, ordained the holy Sabbath as the accompanying means of the whole scheme of redemption — as the field in which all its blessings might be sown — as the scaffolding, by the aid of which all the building might be erected. The institution is nothing indeed if left in theory, nothing if abused to wrong ends, nothing if relied on with pride, or frittered away by superstition; but every thing if used for its proper purposes, every thing if practically em- ployed, every thing if animated and blessed with the pres- ence and power of God. But this is not all. IV. So important is the Lord's day, that it connects and holds together all the links and obligations of HUMAN SOCIETY, which the violation of it tends to de- stroy. Government cannot subsist without religion. — The institution which sustains Christianity, sustains those duties and habits, those virtues of the heart, that mildness and humanity, that regard to truth and the sanctity of an oath, that sense of conscience and prospect of the tribunal of Christ, which strengthens human authority, preserves the peace of communities and nations, and is the bond of human society. The Sabbath recals all these great princi- ples, impresses them anew when effaced, urges them when neglected, deepens them more and more, and preserves them in activity upon the heart. If the Sabbath be lost, OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 181 man is selfish, proud, discontented, disloyal, turbulent. His conscience becomes hardened, his passions restless, his submission to human authority reluctant. If the Sabbath be duly observed, God governs the moral and intellectual being, the law of God sustains the just rule of man, the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ attract the weary sinner, (he obligations of conscience are vigorous and effec- tual, peace reigns within the breast, and willing subjection to authority as the ordinance of God, follows. Civil soci- ety is contained and held together by the Sabbath: which gives firmness and consistency to all the intercourse of man with man, to all the engagements which cement honorable commerce and the affairs of a peaceful agriculture, to all the current opinions and feelings which form the standard of morals. The law of the Sabbath also unites all the classes of men one with another, by teaching them their common ori- gin, their common guilt, their common mercies, their com- mon duties. It places them before an Almighty Judge, and shrivels into insignificance the petty distinctions of rank and wealth, in the view of the eternal and all-glorious Po- tentate. To meet in one common temple, before one com- mon Savior, to supplicate one and the same salvation, sheds a humanizing, softening influence, gives a common sympa- thy, excites the feelings of brotherhood and intercommunity. The Sabbath tends to humble man, and thus dispose hira to all the duties of social and public life. The obstacles it removes. The pride and self-sufficiency of man it abates. It lays the foundation of lowliness, suavity of temper, for- giveness of injuries. It promotes a courteous, obliging car- riage. "The rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all." The Sabbath annihilates human vanity, teaches that God is no respecter of persons, exalts those of low degree. The Sabbath humanizes man by the very neatness and cleanliness and frugality which it diffuses. Its good order, decency, and comfort, elevate the moral character. Its mildness and calmness of devotion engender self-respect, in a proper sense of the word. Its doctrines and duties and sacraments and prayers subdue the ruder feelings, awaken the humane and tender associations, expel the ruflSan-passions, relieve the servant, the child, the de- 16 182 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT pendant, from the oppression of the austere master, and compose and mollify the intercourse of the world. Take the opposite abuses, and tell me what vices and outrages are not committed upon the Sabbath, when it is dishonored and violated. Of those who are executed as victims to the infraction of the laws of their country, the greater part date their ruin from the flagrant breaches of this sacred day. Of the hideous and fearful sins of impu- rity and licentiousness, the Sabbath is the season. Of the degrading habits of drunkenness, the Sabbath is the period, the spot, the' occasion. Schemes of rapine and dishonesty, are almost all planned in the abused hours of the Lord's day. The first steps are perhaps not discernible. An occasional neglect of the ordinances of religion brings no instant profligacy of principle. Society is secure. But the tendency soon appears. The moral sense is loosened. The fear of God, like a barrier, being removed, the torrent of passion and concupiscence pours out of itself. The danger is augmented from the concealed labyrinths of the process. Should a loose companion say to a sober, religious youth, on the morning of the Christian Sabbath, "Go with me to-day, ruin your health, destroy your reputation, lose your money, kill your aged parents with grief, be a companion of prostitutes, rob your master, break the laws of your country, scorn God, be executed as a criminal, and plunge in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" — cer- tainly the undebauched youth would tremble and flee. But the tempter conceals all this; he only says, "Do not go to church to-day, spend the day with me;" — all the rest fol- lows of course: — "the companion of fools shall be destroy- ed." The Sabbath-breaker is in truth prepared for every enormity, and every crime. He is a bold transgressor; he practically denies God's right to be worshipped, honored, reverenced, obeyed. He says, God is not an object of ad- miration, fear, gratitude, love. He that thus contemns God, has no regard for man. Society is not safe with him. He may be restrained from crime by selfish motives; he is not restrained by conscience and religious ones. Cast an eye on any one Lord's day in our great towns, and especially in our metropolis. Follow the Sabbath- breakers through the day. Class them. Tell me who OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 183 they are. Count up their actions during the course of the sacred hours. Penetrate their secret chamber. See the influence of their doings on the subsequent week. Society totters under their crimes. Observe the families, the es- tabh'shments for merchandize, the offices, the posts of pub- lic responsibility which they fill — and trace the crimes, the outrages, the neglects, the falsehoods, the subterfuges, the nefarious and dark designs which the profanation of the Lord's day has engendered or matured — Yes, you have VICE in all its forms and enormities, in the one sin of Sabbath-breaking. But the consideration is too painful. I hasten to point out, in the last place, V. That the observation of the Sabbath immediately HONORS Almighty God, and brings his favor and BLESSING upon a people; whilst the profanation of it pro- vokes his highest displeasure. For the Sabbath is God's day; it is the Lord's tribute; it is the acknowledgment which he requires for all his bless- ings, temporal and spiritual; it is the mark of regard and reverence which he demands from man. What, then, can so immediately touch his honor as the wilful profanation of this institution ? It precisely demonstrates man's contempt and ingratitude, his pride and secularity, his secret enmity against the government, and dislike of the worship of his God. The easier the observance of it is, the more grievous in- sult to the majesty of heaven is its violation. The greater the benefit which it is calculated to confer upon man, both in body and soul, the more perverse and unreasonable is his disobedience. The clearer, again, the light of that dispensation of the gospel under which he lives, the deeper becomes that moral criminality which the sin against so much light brings with it. The more free from false doctrines our creed and the more favorable our position for a distinct view of our duty, the higher presumption is involved in our neglect of it. It is not possible for the mind of man to measure the di- mensions of that guilt, which the deliberate profanation of the Lord's day under the gospel dispensation, in a free prot- estant country, involves. 184 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT To admit the truth of a divine revelation, and then re- ject the first and most remarkable feature which distin- guishes that religion from every other — the only institution which includes all the worship, all the adoration, all the prayer, all the spiritual duties of that religion — is an in- consistency in itself, as well as an affront put upon our Al- mighty benefactor, which no words can adequately express. And this, when our country acknowledges a Sabbath, when the laws protect us in some measure in the observation of it, when the habits and usages of commerce are suspended, when some ingenuity must be employed and some force done to our feelings, and some loss of reputation hazarded, in violating the command! A command which, were there no religious obligation, man would be glad enough to fulfil — which, if he could choose it for himself, and employ it to his own ends, and separate it from the authority of the Almighty, he would rejoice to celebrate — which his bodily powers demand, which his fatigue persuades, which his satiety with the uni- formity of worldly pursuits invites,* — but which, because God requires it, because religion fixes her eye upon it, be- cause his highest spiritual duties concur with his temporal interest in enjoining it, he spurns and contemns; thus dem- onstrating the bitter root of enmity against God, from which his rebellion springs. And yet men in Christian countries expect God to bless them; they affect to be his worshippers, they call themselves by his name, they profess a general reliance upon his prov- idence, they allow that the affairs of empires, nations, fam- ilies, individuals, only prosper by his favor and mercy. But how can they reasonably look for this favor and this mercy, if tliey profane the day which is the seal and pledge of both? Can a people thus insulting God in the institution which must immediately affect his honor, really believe that he will bless and prosper them? No, my brethren; let us first reverence his name, let us first "turn away our foot" from * During- the excesses of the French Revolution, at the close of the last century, Christianity and its Sabbath were abolished — but the mere ne- cessities of man's nature compelled that infidel and atheistic government to institute a day of rest of their own, what they called a decade, occur- ring every tenth day. A confession this of the reasonableness of the di-. vine command! OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 185 trampling upon his holy day, let us first put away from us ''the accursed thing-," which, like Achan, infects our camp; and then, and not before, may we hope for the abiding goodness of God to repose upon us, and for the Lord to delight him- self in us. But what are the excuses which men assign for the des- ecration of the Sabbath — a sin against which such mighty reasons lie, and the guilt of which is of so aggravated a hue? Let us, in conclusion, strengthen our argument by exposing the weakness of the opposing excuses: let us then resolve on no half measures, but to enter without delay on the full performance of our duty; let us lastly notice, the additional bonds we are under to consecrate the Sabbath, from the immense honor which God has put upon it by the blessings af his grace and providence in every age. I. For what are the excuses which men allege in extenuation of the neglect of the day of God ? 1. Do they say that "every day under the gospel is to be kept holy".'' They say truly; but each in its own man- ner. The working day is kept holy, as we have already shown, by performing diligently the duties of our callings, and interweaving religious feelings and exercises therein; the Sabbath, by celebrating devoutly the express worship of God. The six days, if given up to religious acts, would be idleness, superstition, and tempting of God; the seventh, if not dedicated to them, is impiety, pride, and contempt of the Almighty. Nor does he who pretends the universal sanctity to which the Christian is called, as a palliation of Sunday violations, ever serve God at all. ITf he knew any thing of that delightful employment, all his atfections would centre on that privileged day which God has given him for communion with himself, and for public and private acts of solemn devotion. 2. But you charge the due observation of the Sabbath with Pharisaical strictness; you say "the demand is enthu- siastic, precise, puritanical, intolerable." But you forget then all the benignity of the blessed Savior, which swept away the inventions of man, and recalled the institution from the austerities of the scribes to its primitive simplicity; and you feign a severity which does not exist, except you consider piety as a task, the love of your Savior a yoke, *16 186 IMPORTANCE OF THE RTGHt the praises of redemption gloomy, the offices of prayer and supplication a weariness. And this is what you really mean — your thin disguises conceal not your dislike to re- ligion and the name of Christ. We understand you. You are at home in the world of sin and folly, but religious re- pose is unwelcome. You are at ease in secular employs; spiritual are strange. You show then, that all is to begin in the business of your salvation — enter heartily upon that, and the Sabbath will be honored as it ought. 3. I make a similar reply to the plea of the excessive HURRY OF affairs, of the ^'impossibility of finding time to give a whole day to religion: besides, you only violate the Sunday occasionally, and as you affirm, reluctant- ly!" The plain meaning of all which is, that worldly things are so important, and eternal so trivial, that six days are too few for the first, and one too long for the sec- ond. The more lawful business any Christian has, the more is the necessity of a thorough religious interval on the Sabbath increased. Every man must find time to die, and ought to find time for devoting to God that day which prepares for death. Nor does worldly business ever proceed so prosperously, as when subordinated to re- ligion. 4. And why should I pause to refute the miserable ex- cuse, "that you see not that persons who go so much to church are better than others" — which is false in fact. Those who attend the house of God with any sincerity, are better than others; and those who do not, yet are acquiring habits of public reverence to the Almighty, and are kept out of a thousand temptations, which the breaking of the Sabbath would present. And if all attended the worship of God aright, all would become, not better than others would then be, but better than they now are — all would be true servants of God, and heirs of heaven. 5. You have still pleas in reserve — "the immediate sac- rifice of your temporal interests, the rivalry of neighbors, the general example of persons of your trade or profession, THE NECESSITY OF THE CASE,— unwilHng as you are to violate the Sabbath and ready to agree to close your shops, your counting-houses, your offices, if others would do the same; the inutility of one in a circle acting without the concurrence of all"^-excuses which would overturn all morals and religion, OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 187 and make every man a judge of his measure of obedience to God. If on the ground of an alleged necessity, or of waiting for the concert of others, we may violate an express command of God, where are we to stop? what command- ment will retain its force? Why not break the second as well as the fourth? Why not plead against the sixth or eighth in the same strain ? The very foundation of Chris- tian faith is to obey God rather than man. Six days' work with the divine blessing, is infinitely better than seven without. The excuse is cowardice, the fear of man, unbe- lief. Venture, and God will bless you. You shall be re- compensed a hundred-fold in this life, and "in the world to come shall have life everlasting." 6. But I am interrupted by another class of objectors, persons of better education as they consider themselves, and higher advantages of station in society, who allege "that public worship is for the poor and uninstructed — but that for themselves they have less need of it — they have little to learn — it is enough that they venerate the Deity at home." Vain and miserable pretexts! Who have so much need of the Sabbath as those, who from pride of in- tellect and luxurious indulgences and vicious example, are ordinarily further from God and practical religion than any other class? They have little to learn! when they prove, by the very excuse, that they "know nothing yet as they ought to know." And is not the Lord's day designed to honor God, to acknowledge his benefits, to celebrate his praises, to implore his grace, to enjoy communion of spirit with him, to prepare for meeting him at the throne of judg- ment? And are not these obligations strong in proportion to the divine benefits in providence, to our dangers and temptations, and the influence which our example might have upon others? Yes, the rich and great are most of all bound to the sanctification of the day of God. II. Let us, then, cease from such wretched pleas, which cannot deceive ourselves, much less others, and which strengthen the argument they in vain attempt to evade; and let us enter fully and determinately on the religious duty of honoring God. Half measures never succeed in moral questions, and least of all on the Sabbath where the casuist is a man's own passions, and temptation 188 IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT perverts the judge who has to decide. So long as half measures are taken, Satan and the world push their victory — the will remains entangled — new pleas of interruption are framed — every Sunday the pressure of business or the solicitations of pleasure are strengthened — whilst the dis- position to serve God is weakened. Make at once a bold stand, and the duty will become easy. The enemy will yield. Satan will be discomfited. Your worldly compan- ions will cease to molest. You will begin to find a pleas- ure in religion. God will hear your prayers. Conscience will be at peace. The only happy man in this world is he that "follows God fully." III. Let the immense honor which God on his PART HAS BEEN PLEASED TO PUT UPON the Sabbath, and the blessings of his grace and providence which he has vouchsafed on it, conclude the subject, and impress every heart with an additional conviction of the incalculable im- portance of a right observation of the Lord's day. We have alluded to this more than once. And well we may. For what an honor has God put upon this institution through- out the whole dispensation of the gospel.'' Who can trace out its history! Who can number the souls convert- ed, the graces of Christians quickened, the sorrows of the afflicted consoled, the influence of the Holy Spirit granted, the assurances of the Savior's presence vouchsafed, the ser- mons and prayers and sacraments rendered effectual ? Fig- ure to yourselves what has been transacted on all the Sab- baths throughout all the world, since the promulgation of the Christian faith. You find that almost all the glory of Christianity has shone upon the Sabbath. You find that God has wrought most of his works of grace upon the Sab- bath. You find that the blessed Savior has been most glorified upon the Sabbath. You find that the Holy Spirit has exerted his agency most upon the Sabbath. What confessions of sins, what enlargements of heart, what con- solations of prayer, what gifts of pardon, what tokens of acceptance, what anticipations of heaven! The testimony of God to his own day, on any one recurrence of it, confirms all our arguments for its inestimable value. Yes, blessed Sabbath, we go forth to meet thee as thou revisitest man; we hail thee as the court day of our Sovereign and Lord; OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. 189 we rejoice in thy return as the open throne presented to us for approaching our Heavenly Father; we behold thee as testifying of our Redeemer's resurrection — we hon- or thee as the peculiar province of the Holy Spirit; we behold thee uniting all that can interest and bless man — creation with all its natural benefits — redemption with all its remedial grace — heaven with all its consummating glories. SERMO:Sf VII- THE GUILT WHICH IS CONTRACTED BY CHRISTIAN NATIONS, IN PROPORTION AS THE LORD'S DAY IS OPENLY PROFANED.* Nehemiah xiii. 17, 18 TJien I contended tvith the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil is this that ye do, and profane the Sab- bath-day"? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this cityl Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. There remains yet another branch of the subject. We must appeal to the nation at large. We must prefer against it the charge of public connivance at the violation of the Sabbath. We must call on every one, by his faith as a Christian, by the reverence he feels for his Creator and Redeemer, by his love to his country, by his regard to the happiness of his neighbors and family, by his concern for his own eternal salvation, to do all in his power to awaken the public conscience, and arouse it to do its duty. We must declare the anger of the Lord for this great na- tional sin, and solemnly charge all classes of men to re- pent and turn unto the Lord. * In order to make this sermon fully applicable to our country, nothing is necessary but an occasional change of names and local circumstan- ces. — Am. Editor. VIOLAa NG THE LORD's DAY. 191 It is true the evil is gigantic, it spreads through all ordc^rs of persons, it fixes itself firmly in the corruption of the hu- man heart. It stands, as the uncircumcised champion of old, and defies the armies of the living God. But we must rely, like David, on another power than that of man. We must take the word of truth. We must go forth with our sling and our stone, as it were, in the name of the Lord God of Israel, and must humbly believe that the enormous evil, as another Goliath, shall fall before us. Do thou, O Lord God Almighty, be pleased to aid us and all thy servants, who at this time are pleading thy righteous cause! Do thou enable us so to imitate thy holy servant Nehemiah of old, that we may set forth thy truth in all simplicity and fervor, that we may not fear the face of man, and that, accompanied and aided by thine effectual grace, we may witness a revival of the observation of thy holy day, and of the religious blessings which attend it, in our own land and throughout all the nations of Christen- dom! First, then, we must substantiate the charge, that our nation is guilty in conniving at the violation of the Lord's day. We must next show the divine judgments that may be justly dreaded in consequence. We must lastly point out the practical measures which each one may take towards a national repentance and return to God. I. In SUBSTANTIATING THE CHARGE ITSELF against the British nation, we are aware of the caution necessary. Having now no inspired prophets or apostles to apply au- thoritatively the language of Scripture, we can only form the best judgment we are able, from its evident scope, and the similar bearing of our privileges on the one hand, and of our conduct on the other. We must avoid all presump- tion, haste, self-confidence, personality. We must proceed on the general and undoubted grounds of revealed truth, as applicable to nations and individuals; and only claim atten- tion as we are evidently supported by that truth, and the plain facts of the case. What, then, constitutes, in a scriptural sense, national guilt .^ Is it not the prevalence of any open, flagrant viola- tion of the law of God, committed by large classes of men? 192 NATIONAL GUILT OF Is it not the continued invention of new modes of commit- ting it, and additions to the numbers amongst whom it spreads? Is it not the countenance which the example of the nobles and princes of the land give to it? Is it not the connivance at those enormities by legislators, ministers of state, magistrates, clergy? Is it not the general cold- ness and indifference, and even scorn, with which measures of prevention or of remedy are received? And does not the violation of the Christian Sabbath in this country comprehend every one of these particulars ? 1. Does it not prevail amongst large classes of MEN? If the divine authority of that day be what we have shown; if the right manner of observing it be as we have described it; if the immense importance of a due sanc- tification of it be commensurate with Christianity itself; then what is the national guilt accumulated every day amongst us? Go through the different orders of society in our country, and, after making every allowance of the kindliest charity, estimate the sins committed every Sab- bath as it returns, by each class before the face of the Almighty. Begin with the humbler orders — the artizans, the laborers, the agricultural workmen, the smaller trades-peo- ple. How widely is Sabbath-breaking diffused! Accounts settled, shops opened, markets frequented, workmen paid, business transacted, — calmly, systematically, almost avow- edly. Consider the numbers engaged in furnishing entertain- ment to the violators of the Lord's day, as well as the vio- lators themselves. The hotels, the inns, the tea-gardens, the public houses, the shops and stalls for fruit and confec- tionary, the domestics and waiters occupied, beyond any plea of necessity, or any permission of the law. Look at the environs of London generally — the thous- ands poured out every Sunday into the fields and villages, for idleness, for pastimes, for intoxication, in open profana- tion of the Sabbath. Enter the unnumbered abodes for retailing spirituous liquors; see the formerly decent ale- houses converted into spirit-shops, with doors ever open to attract the careless youth. I admit that these evils are not universal amongst the poor — I admit that very many are still under the influence 193 of religion, and I bless God for it — but how few are there, compared with our increasing population! How vast the number who never regularly attend the worship of God! How lamentable the state of our crowded cities! Next examine the middle classes of our nation. How do multitudes of the tradesmen, the merchants, the sol- diers, the lawyers, the physicians and medical practition- ers, the private gentlemen, the retired merchants and tra- ders, spend the Lord's day? After a reluctant attendance in the house of God, where are they, and what are they engaged in for the remainder of the Sabbath? — I mean, what are too many of them engaged in; I am speaking of large numbers in each class, not of every individual — there is still a goodly remnant that serve and fear God. But as to the great mass, is it not the day of indulgence, the day of banqueting, the day of pleasurable parties as they are termed? What are the servants of the household occu- pied about? Is it not in preparing entertainments? Is not their labor tenfold that which the necessity of the Sab- bath demands, or its repose allows? You ascend to the gentry and nobility of our land. These have, alas, too generally "broken the yoke and burst the bonds." The law of the Sabbath is void to them. The day is the same as other days except as increased festivity dishonors and abuses it — the same irreligion, the same pride, the same neglect of God. In too many cases, large festivals are given, crowded parties assembled, an open infraction of decency committed. How many are there in public stations, where example is most widely dif- fused, who have regular Sunday dinners during a certain portion of the year! I ask if the aggregation of these enormities do not outstrip mere personal criminality, and form a distinct branch of national guilt? 2. Then consider the continual invention of new MODES OF SABBATH VIOLATION and of additional tempta- tions extended to new classes of persons. This marks na- tional guilt. The evil is on the increase. The Sunday Newspaper is of late invention: a few years since it was almost unknown — now it enlarges its fatal snares every year. Forty thousand copies are said to be circulated every Sabbath. Not content with leaving it in the hands of the open infidel and enemy of civil and religious order, it n 194 - National guilt of has been seized by some of the avowed and clamorous friends of church and state, and made a channel of private calumny and public ridicule of all eminent virtue and piety. Sunday Stages are a second invention of a novel kind. They were some years back uniformly suspended on the Lord's day, that ''our cattle and our servants might rest as well as we;" now they openly violate the decencies of public worship — they pass our churches during divine service — they detain the inn-keeper from the house of God — they tempt our people to venture on Sunday journeys. Vessels OF PLEASURE impelled by steam, have just been added to the inventions of the Sabbath-breaker, and thousands are conveyed on the Lord's day, during the months of summer, to the various spots on our coast, where pleasure and dis- sipation may drown conscience and the remains of a pious education. Commercial speculations for more expedi- tious travelling, by means of the same process, are also calculated upon the supposition of regularly and sys- tematically profaning and tempting others to profane the Sabbath. Our houses of commerce, again, have been deserted of late years on the Lord's day by their masters, and are left to the discretion of clerks and shopmen, to vio- late the Sabbath without restraint or control. New classes of our people are thus pushed into the fatal vortex of Sunday dissipation. Each humbler order imitates the vices of the rank immediately above it. The example infects the very remotest classes. All are learning by de- grees to encroach upon the sanctity of the holy day of God. ''Hand joins in hand." One encourages another. Relig- ious repose and rest m God as a distinct duty of Chris- tians, is more and more discredited; and the false notion that the Sabbath was ordained for what is termed innocent amusement, as well as for the worship of Almighty God, is more and more avowed. 3. Then inquire we next into the countenance which the nobles and princess of our land give to this Sunday- violation. Much of the character of national sins arises from the conduct of the great, from the open avowal or dis- avowal of God, which they are found upon the whole to make. I ask, then, — with grief and shame I ask, — does not the prevalent example of the great go to encourage, to create, to render necessary in large circles of dependants, 195 the open breach of the day of God? Do not they often profess that public worship is chiefly needful to restrain the common people ? Do not they avow, that religion is little more than a state-engine ? Does not their too general conduct authorize and embolden the neglect of the Lord's day, the omission of public worship, the frivolous engagements of the after division of the Sabbath, the enormous evils of Sunday dinners, Sunday visits, Sunday music-parties, Sun- day diversions? Do we not read on every Monday, the catalogue of the festivals, conversaziones, assemblies for music — sacred music, as it is profanely termed — which dese- crated the preceding day? And do not these evils begin with those of the highest rank — with nobles, ministers of state, princes? And does not the eye of God behold all this, and mark the aggravations of its guilt? Do not the gentry and nobility form a prominent and influential part of a nation in its collective capacity? Is not their example the standard by which thousands form their notions of mor- als and of Sunday obligation? 4. But may we not, ought we not to go farther than .this ? It is not merely countenance afforded by the great, but it h A SINFUL CONNIVANCE on the part of legislators, ministers of state, magistrates, clergy, persons in authority, and with natural influence entrusted to them, which constitutes the real amount of national crime on this subject. If the gen- try, clergy, and magistracy, have used such moral power as God and the laws and usages of their country have committed to them, for the honor of the Sabbath — and which power they are employing daily on a thousand trifling topics which interest them — then there is no national guilt incurred in this respect. But what is the fact? Let con- science speak. It is to the eternal God we appeal, who is the searcher of every heart. Have not legislators, and magistrates both in their private and their collective capac- ity, connived, and do they not connive, at the violation of the holy law of the Sabbath? Do they not mock too, of- ten at its divine authority? Do they not shrink from avow- ing their reverence for religion as a spiritual subjection of man to the obedience of his Maker? Alas! it is too well known, that little of their attention can be obtained on these subjects •—that occasions are perpetually lost for diminishing the evils of Sabbath-breaking — that the miserable limits of the 196 NATIONAL GUILT OF three or four hours of public services are considered suffi- cient, in the framing of acts of parliament, for the Sab- bath; and all the other hours are resigned without scruple to the world and folly — that the too frequent excuse of magistrates and individual members of either House, is that the temper of the times will not endure religious meas- ures to be brought forward. Thus the influence of persons in authority is on the whole decidedly unfavorable; they discountenance spiritual religion; they refuse to put into execution the laws actually in force, and they decline pre- paring new ones — they frown on active individuals who would call on them to maintain the honor of the day of God. How was the proposal of Sunday drilling, for in- stance, during the late war, welcomed and admitted for a course of years; though the voice of bold remonstrance afterwards prevailed for its repeal? How were the peti- tions and remonstrances early made against Sunday news- papers, rejected; and the later ones scorned and con- temned? What attention has been paid to the denial of the Sunday to the colonial slave, and to the atrocious evils of his Sunday market? How, again, do individual minis- ters of state, and individual magistrates, receive the ap- plications made for the suppression of Sabbath-breaking! What encouragement does the conscientious clergyman, or minister, or parochial officer, receive from the magistrates, in liis attempts to check the evil ? Where is there the in- dividual in either chamber of parliament, now ready to take up the question concerning the law of the Sabbath, reduce the existing statutes to a consistent code, and strengthen them with such new enactments as the change of circumstances, since the time of the second Charles, may require? 5. And next allow me, as a minister of religion, to join in the confession of the share which I, together with my brethren, have borne in the guilt which we are now consid- ering. Too many of us, the clergy, have not sufficiently enforced the duty of the observation of the Sabbath: we have not expounded the doctrine — we have not urged the authority — we have not protested as we should against the violation — we have not sustained by a firm example, the honor of this holy and most ancient of institutions — we have been cowardly, tame, silent, indifferent. Some of us have connived sinfully at the enormous mischief— have 197 shrunk from measures of energy and courage — have rather *^folIowed the multitude to do evil," than struggled man- fully, and at all hazards, against the current. The religious public also — who reverence and observe to a certain extent the Sabbath — have shared and are shar- ing the guilt. They listen to objections. They read the works which plausibly sap the divine obligations of the Lord's day. Their minds are poisoned. They lose that firm standing on which they formerly planted their feet. Their family habits are unfavorable. Their own example is in some things dubious. The estimate which their chil- dren and house-holds form of the Sabbath, low. They do not contend boldly, in public and private, against the sin of dishonoring the day, as their fathers did. Compare the last generation of evangelical and pious Christian house- holds with the present — the decay is manifest — that is, the national guilt is augmented. 6. For in truth it amounts to this — let God be judge — THERE IS A TOO GENERAL INDIFFERENCE, COLDNESS, AND EVEN SCORN, amongst large numbers, to the sancti- fication of the Lord's day, and to remedial measures for retaining its honorable observance — which stamps the broad mark of public connivance on the sin of Sabbath- breaking. Thank God, we are not so deeply sunk in this evil, as many of the continential nations — Thank God, much honor is still put upon the holy appointment — -thank God, a remnant of devoted Christians continues to hallow it aright; thank God, "a pillar is raised, as it were, on the bor- der of the land unto the Lord." Thank God our iniquities, as we trust are not yet full«5 and a revival of deep concern for religion, and for the davy of religion, is, as we hope, go- ing on. But we must sjtill look the facts full in the face. Our real repentance £^nd reformation will depend on our conviction of our actual delinquency. Have we, then, or have we not, as a people, including the classes pro- fessing the peculiar grace of Christ, departed from the Lord, in conniving and sitting calmly by, when his name was polluted and the Sabbath profaned.'* Is not a portion of the indifference and scorn poured upon this institution chargeable upon us — us the ministers of re- ligion — us the people of God? Would the names of re- proach cast upon the religious observation of the day and *17 198 NATIONAL GUILT OF upon those who sustain it, be so keen, so approbrious, so extended, if the standard of general sentiment had been nearer that of the Scriptures ? Yes, brethren, as the various classes in the Jewish na- tion at the time of Nehemiah, had departed from their God, and had joined in polluting the Sabbath; so have too many in all classes, in our own country, departed from their Savior, and united, unconsciously in some cases and imper- ceptibly, in conniving at the violation of the Christian Sab- bath. It is time for us to return to the Lord. Steps have been lately taken by persons high in authority, which en- courage hope of improvement. Let us, then, in order to this, IL Consider the national judgments which we may too certainly dread, if we repent not. For nations rise and fall. A retributive justice is going through the world. No nation, however powerful, however wise, however free, however prosperous, can resist the di- vine arm. Where is the empire of the Babylonians, of the Medo-Persians, of the Grecians, of the Romans.'* Where is the power and grandeur of Alexander, Caesar, Charle- magne! Look over the map of Europe during the last half century: what nations have not been overthrown, shaken to their centre, visited with the most frightful calamities? Except our favored country, there was hardly another which escaped the actual sword of war. And in our own previ- ous annals, what scenes of bloodshed, what overthrows of royal houses, what civil contests, what changes do not ap- pear! I open the Bible and I see that this fall of empires is connected with the guilt of the difterent nations, and es- pecially of those which were the most eminently privileged. ^'You only have I known of all the nations of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your iniquity;"* such is the Jivine rule of proceeding. ''For judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begins with us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God.^"t There is the spot where judgments first alight. ''But in the fourth generation they shall come again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full;"J the measure is rising — * Amos iii. 2. f I Pet. iv. 17. t Gen. xv. 16. 199 the augmented mass is noted by the divine eje — iniquity- according to the prophetic vision, is seated within the ephah; the vessel fills; it is accomplished; the talent of lead is sealed upon its mouth, and it is transported from its place to the scene of visitation.* Do I want specific examples? I look to Sodom and Go- morrah and the cities of the plain, "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."t I behold the old world "filled with vio- lence and having corrupted its ways, till the flood came and destroyed them all. "J I look on the nations of Ca- naan, "that are sinners before the Lord exceedingly, and the land cannot contain them."§ But mark, above all, the history of the favored people — the inheritance, the peculiar treasure of the Lord, the kingdom of priests. And what is that history.? The As- syrian king is sent against them when hypocritical and de- generate — "he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so" — but he is "the axe" in the hand of the divine work- man, to execute his holy will against the guilty people. And what was the captivity and dispersion of the ten tribes, and what the seventy years' bondage of the two in Babylon, but punishments for national guilt? And why should England presume? Why should her capital, her commerce, her armies, her fleets, her power and influence, elate her with pride? What are all these but talents entrusted to her for certain ends ? What is the weight of responsibility which presses upon her in conse- quence? What is the aggravation which all these bless- ings add to her sins against God ? For wherefore has God given her these distinctions, but that she may difluse the divine glory, exhibit the conduct of a righteous nation, up- hold the honor of pure Christianity, vindicate the majesty of the Lord's day, educate her population in sound religion, and propagate the gospel at home and abroad? If she neglect all these high ends and be filled with vanity and contempt of God, what judgment may she not expect? What is she more than Nineveh, Tyre, Babylon? Her naval power is perhaps not greater, in proportion to the existing state of the world, her commerce is not more ex- tended, her riches are not more abundant, her prosperity * Zechariah v. 6—11. t Jude7. t Gen. vi. 12. § Numb. xxxv. 33. 200 NATIONAL GUILT OF is not more elevated, than the ships, and commerce, and glory, and prosperity of Tyre were in her day ? Consider, then, the judgment which England may rea- sonably dread, in prop@rtion to the duty which she violates — in proportion to her knowledge of the Bible — in propor- tion to her pure Protestant form of Christianity — in propor- tion to the strength of the arguments on which the divine authority and perpetual obligation of the Lord's day re- pose — in proportion to her means of estimating these ar- guments, and detecting the contrary error. Reflect how every such consideration should aggravate the fear which penetrates us, of the awful displeasure of God for our pol- lution of the Sabbath. Then what, England, is thy guilt before thy God.'' A sin like this, against a command so authoritative, so easy of performance, so beneficial, marks thy temper as a na- tion as it respects God. The sins committed against thy fellow-creatures are of another character. The duties of property and life, the duties concerning common truth and honesty, are bound upon thee by thy immediate secular interests society cannot hold together for a moment without them. But the duties of the Sabbath are a test of the real measure of thy faith and reverence towards Al- mighty God. They show how far thou carriest thy re- ligion into practice. They prove whether or not thy ad- missions of the authority of God are sincere. Estimate, then, the guilt which all thy Sabbaths, England, have been . hea-ping upon thine head. Estimate the contempt, the neg- lect of God, the declension of heart from his fear, the har- dy and obstinate resistance to his will, the slight put upon his immediate majes-ty and honor, which thy conduct in- volves. The closing denunciations against the apocal^^ptic churches, will be applicable to thee, if thou continuest to imitate those declining bodies. Fear the removal of thy candlestic, the silencing of thy preachers, the dispersion of thy assemblies, the obscuring of thy peace, the loosening of the frame of society — counsels bewildered — commerce paralysed — union broken — disorder and contention sown — tumult and insurrection bursting forth — thy king, thy prin- ces, thy nobles given up to infatuation — thy enemies made to triumph — thy name and place a proverb amongst the na- tions. Consider, these are but the beginning of sorrows. 201 Where is Sardis, and Pergamos, and Thyatira, and Eph- esus, and Laodicea? Swept with the besom of destruction — effaced from the memory of the church — exhibited as monuments of divine indignation. And why? "They left their first and fervent love; they did not their first works; they had a name to live, but were dead; they were neither cold nor hot; they defiled their garments." And what art thou doing in thy levity, thy profanation of the Lord's day, thy contempt of religion, but imitating those very sins, which brought down these exterminating judgments? And how soon these chastisements may fall, God only knows. We dive not into his secret counsels; we venture not to penetrate his purposes. But thou hast every reason to fear. Around the profanation and contempt of the Sab- bath, are gathered all the accompanying sins of neglect of the gospel, self-righteousness, cruelty and inhumanity to the colonial slave, an infidel and sceptical temper — the Bible contemned, Christianity dishonored. The violation of God's day is the symptom, not the disease. It is an indication of the inward pride, impurity, vanity, self-con- fidence, provocations of the Almighty, which are filling up the measure of thine iniquities. Thou art again warn- ed. The voice of mercy and of expostulation is lifted up. Listen, then, ere it be too late. Attend, ye princes, and nobles, and bishops and clergy, and magistrates, and gen- try. Listen, governors and legislators of the land. Re- ceive the divine call. Repentance is not now too late. Punishments may be averted or mitigated. "The Lord's voice crieth in the city, and the man of wisdom will hear thy voice; know ye the rod, and who hath appointed it."* And this brings us to point out, III. The practical measures, which each one MAY ADOPT, TO PROMOTE A NATIONAL REPENTANCE AND RETURN TO GOD. For this is the question after all. What is to be done? Whither are we to direct our steps?. How can we fully return unto the Lord ? — By inquiring how other nations ex- pressed their penitence; how the reformations took place in the time of Samuel, and Hezekiah, and Jehoshaphat; how the revivals were effected under Augustine in the * Micah vi. 9. 202 NATIONAL GUILT OF fourth century, Claudius of Turin in the ninth, Peter Waldo in the twelfth, and Wickliffe in the century which follow- ed: how the glorious reformation from Popery in the six- teenth century was begun and established? — Each individ- ual Christian reformed himself: fervent prayer was offered for the Holy Spirit; bold, decisive appeals were made to the consciences of the people; princes and magistrates were led to listen to the counsel of devoted and enlightened min- isters; shame and persecution were cheerfully endured for the cause of Christ; an unflinching protest was entered against the sins which remained; humiliation of soul under past transgressions, and hope in the divine mercy for future deliverance and ultimate triumph, were exercised. Let such, then, be our course now. I. Let EACH ONE REFORM HIMSELF, HIS FAMILY, HIS OWN CIRCLE. This is the first step. Here we are sure our efforts will be successful: we begin at home. The min- isters of the sanctuary should lead the way. The holy Sabbath has much to complain of in us. Reverence it more, ye preachers and stewards of Christ, sanctify it more. Study its authority more. Watch against unfavor- able habits more. Let your own conduct, and that of your families, give a more decided testimony to the Lord, and to his blessed day. Heads of families, begin each one for yourselves: the Almighty Redeemer demands it of you. Look on your present course; correct, amend, what is amiss. Be not ashamed of confessing past error. Magis- trates, propose a better example; execute the laws of which you are the guardians. Awake to your first duties, the worshipping and glorifying of your God. Merchants, "buy the truth, and sell it not;" close your ofiSces and counting- houses on the Sabbath; refuse the unholy gain which Satan offers. Tradesmen, farmers, artizans, consecrate your labors to "the Lord of the whole earth." Servants, clerks, dependents, honor the Savior on the days which he allows you as the period of rest, peace, composure. Too long have you obeyed the world, the flesh, and Satan; now God calls you to repentance and consideration. Each individual reformation will go to form the national return to duty which we are pressing upon you. This is the first measure. Let every one into whose hands these pages may fall, examine and reform himself. 203 2. And let fervent prayer for the grace of the Holy Spirit be offered up. God alone van effectually do the work. All doctrine is vain, without the operations of his Spirit. The fundamental truths of the gospel, the glorious perfections and excellencies of God, the value of the soul, the inestimable worth of redemption, the necessity of a spiritual and heartfelt religion, of separation from the world, and communion with the Father of spirits^ are unknown, till the Spirit touch and quicken the heart. If we rely on our arguments and proofs merely, we shall never succeed. What are demonstrations of the authority and obligation of the Christian Sabbath, to him who is dead in sin, care- less upon the subject of his salvation, and wedded to his worldly companions.'* The heart of man has reasons against all persuasions of theology; the reasons of evil inclination, previous choice, corrupt habit, perverted associations of thought. Prayer, then, for the mercy of God, is essential to success. Then Babel is deserted; then the walls of Jericho fall flat; then Dagon is overthrown before the ark; then Babylon opens her gates of brass: then the human heart yields to truth. And when the new and divine life begins in the soul, the Sabbath becomes the natural, the important privilege of the new-born Christian. He re- joices in the interval from the duties of this lower world: bis food, his joy, his restoration are in the ordinances of God. Let the gracious Spirit be granted to fervent, united prayer, and things will soon revive — the desert will burst out with new bloom — the wills of men will be swayed — the Sabbath will re-appear in its mild dignity — the young will reverence, the old rejoice in the day of God. The minis- ters of Christ will see unwonted audiences thronging around them — fresh and deeper-toned devotion will preside. Na- tional penitence for misused Sabbaths will appear in the very cry for mercy which will ascend to heaven — and from the sanctification of them in future, every temporal and spiritual blessing will germinate. 3. As this proceeds, and in order to advance it, bold AND DECISIVE APPEALS must be addressed to the con- sciences of the people. The adversary must not be allowed to sow tares unmolested. Plain and popular statements, adapted to the comprehension of the different classes of men, must be made — addresses from the pulpit, from the 204 NATIONAL GUILT OF press — addresses in the form of argument, and in the way of appeal and persuasion — short treatises must be widely diffused — the heart must be touched. Thus the circle of truth must be widened. The efforts of a false and spurious religion must be defeated, and God honored amongst the people. A national feeling in favor of the Lord's day, can only be expected from a revival, distinct and uncompromis- ing, of the national conscience. Each one must use the talents entrusted to him by the great Householder. The artful sophistry which assails the divine authority of the Sabbath, must be detected; the false reasonings exposed. Truth must be manifested and sustained — not indeed with affected eloquence, not with artificial ornaments of speech, not with an overstrained or scrupulous pertinacity of debate; but in simplicity, in openness of heart; neither relaxing the spiritual demands of the Sabbath, nor overrating the rela- tive magnitude of this particular branch of the public guilt. Thus will God bless our nation; thus will the holy day be re-established in its authority and grace. 4. Princes and magistrates will not be long before they listen to the voice of faithful and enlightened ministers. Legislators and statesmen, and nobles, will hear the voice of truth. In the progress of a general revival, this has been God's method. He has raised up persons of author- ity, and guided their minds by the wisdom and counsels of well-informed and devoted ministers of Christ, in the affairs relating to the worship of God, and the souls of men. In- stead of false teachers, corrupt ecclesiastics, proud and worldly-minded priests — men who have domineered, or fawned, as their interests and power permitted; and, sur- rounding princes and magistrates, have flattered them to their ruin; God blesses his servants with pious and simple hearted bishops and ministers, who understand the Scrip- tures, who know the value of the Sabbath, who distinguish the true welfare of government, who discern and admit the claims of God upon princes and rulers. With such aids, the secular magistrates will decree righteous statutes, the parliament will be swayed by sound religion, the measures needful for protecting the worship of God, will be taken, the oppression and insults of the profane will be redressed, the open and national violation of God's Sabbaths will be prohibited, the decent and devout order of a Christian land 205 will be preserved. These aids from without, conspiring with the influence of grace within the church, will produce the desired result. The nation will return to the Lord. The Sabbath will be again "the sign of God's covenant, that he is the Lord that doth sanctify us;" and all other Christian virtues and habits will follow. 5. But this cannot be expected to be brought about, in a world like ours, without much of that previous re- proach AND CONTUMELY, which have always attended the progress of a really spiritual reformation. Nothing disturbs and offends the world so much as the Lord's day strongly urged. The leaders must be content to receive the treatment which their Lord and Savior received before them. And this deters the merely well-disposed part of mankind: they shrink from decisive steps, for fear of shame and names of contempt. The term Lollard, at one period, of Wickliflite, Lutheran, Puritan, Methodist, Calvinist, at others, have been a successful instrument in Satan's hands, of alarming the timid, and securing his hold of the worldly. Against such opposition, (even if it were to rise to perse- cution,) the Christian minister and hero must be ready to stand. He must disregard the honor of men, that he may obtain the favor of God: he must be proof against these assaults: he must be willing to risk his name, his charac- ter, his reputation, for his Savior. The holy Sabbath must be dedicated, consecrated, reverenced, under whatever re- proaches he may have to labor, who asserts its claims. As national reformation advances, these very men, once cast out and scorned, will become the objects of veneration, their counsels be prized, and their persons loved and esteemed. 6. Still much will remain unredressed, amidst the wrongs of the Sabbath — at least, for a considerable period — many great evils may be expected to survive and struggle — the spiritual church, if it gain, by the mercy of God, much, must reckon upon being discomfited in certain respects. — She must, then, protest boldly and fearlessly AGAINST THE SINS WHICH ARE PERSISTED IN. Nothing honors God more than the confession of his truth, which his faithful servants make, when they are unable to suc- ceed fully in their honest endeavors. A body of devoted followers of Christ, allowed to preach his truth in the world, and entering their open protest against flagrant evils, is a 18 206 NATIONAL GUILT OP / token for good in a country, of the most hopeful character. / God never gives up a nation to his desolating judgments, / when there is a considerable number of worshippers, thus / averring their allegiance, and crying out aloud against the I dishonor done unto his name and Sabbaths. 7. Lastly, humiliation for past transgressions, AND HOPE IN THE DIVINE MERCY FOR FUTURE DELIV- ERANCE AND ULTIMATE TRIUMPH, are the dispositions of heart which we would most cultivate. After we have done all, we shall leave much, very much to be humbled and abased for before our God; and our hope must be reposed, not in man, but in his power, mercy, and grace. The holy Sabbath, which, as a nation and as individuals, we have abused in times past, the dishonor we have done to him and to God thereby, the loss to our own souls which has fol- lowed, the injury to the spiritual welfare of others which has been occasioned, the slight put upon the blessed Spirit of grace, are topics of deep sorrow and penitential confes- sion before God. To humble ourselves under his awful ma- jesty, to deprecate his wrath, to accept the punishment of our iniquity; this is the way to obtain mercy; this will bring back our people as the heart of one man, to the Lord; this will prepare us for all the holy duties of our Sundays, and all the communion with God which they bring with them. Thus our hope will be placed in the unmerited grace of God, for deliverance and triumph; we shall wait his holy will; we shall expect and look for his powerful succor, we shall despair of nothing under his mighty protection; we shall rejoice in the sanctification of his day, the conversion of souls, the consolation and edification of his faithful ser- vants, the pledge and anticipation of heaven. Having now completed our original design in these ser- mons; having established the divine obligation of a weekly Sabbath in the first four, and the practical duties arising from it in the last three of the series; Let us in conclusion of the whole, remark, I. That it is not for the Sabbath in itself that we have been pleading in the course of this work, but the sabbath AS A MEANS TO CERTAIN ENDS, as the channel and con- veyance of the waters of life, as the standing institution for the declaration of God's glory, of the Savior's resurrection, 207 the rest of heaven; as the moment of calm granted for ra- tional and irrational creatures to breathe from toil, and recruit their exhausted powers; as the needful interval of repose and cessation to a feeble creature like man; as the appointed period for the instruction and salvation of souls; as the most visible representation of our faith in our Maker and Benefactor, and the grand peculiarity of revealed re- ligion. Let then this thought ever be present with us. It is for no inferior matter we have pleaded; it is for no external and formal point; no ceremony; no superstition — we teach not that "man was made for the Sabbath" — we should never be contented with any observation of it which was merely decorous, constrained, reluctant. We plead for the simplest and noblest institution of the religion of the Bible, which includes and embraces within its range every other. We plead for the most important means of grace and in- struction, which is the platform upon which every other is erected. We plead for the highest testimony man can bear to the glory of God; in which the praise of creation, of redemption, of eternal happiness is united. We plead for the most merciful of all the divine appointments, which suspends the struggle of nature, and bids all creation repose, and refresh itself from its labor a;id toil. Let us not, then, undervalue, or misunderstand the sub- ject we have been treating. We have not been drivelling about a questionable, an indifferent, a secondary duty. We have pleaded the cause of God, the interests of man, the peace of the world, the instruction of the poor, the knowledge of Christ, the doctrine of salvation, the hope of heaven. We have treated the greatest question in all the compass of practical theology, because it provides for every other duty, lies at the foundation of every other duty, gives space and time for every other duty, derives the divine blessing upon every other duty. II. We have been pleading, in the next place, for these ends of the Christian Sabbath, because of the unspeak- able VALUE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. For what is the gist of all we have argued? — that the soul of man is so noble, so precious, so inestimable in the eyes of God, so endless in its future state of happiness or misery, that a seventh portion of all man's time is taken out from ordin- 208 NATIONAL GtriLT OF ary employments to be dedicated to this his immortal part. Yes, the Sabbath proclaims the responsibility of man, the unfathomable and inexpressible value of his soul, the price put upon it by the Father of spirits, the dignity and capac- ities which it possesses. The Sabbath unites man with spiritual objects, connects him with his invisible Creator, Redeemer, Friend; teaches him what he is, and whither he is going. It is for the soul, then, that we have been pleading, that it may be blessed with the salutary knowl- edge of its fall and its recovery, of its sin and its remedy, of its guilt and condemnation in the first Adam, and its pardon and acceptance in the second. Let the importance of our subject be measured by this standard. Let all the souls of all the race of men be brought before our view, and let all the unutterable happi- ness of each of those souls be weighed and balanced; and then let the value of that day be estimated, when the means of the repose, consolation, guidance, illumination, pardon, holiness, salvation, of all these immortal minds are congregated and concentrated — when all the love of God our heavenly Father, all the grace of God the Son, and all the operations of God the Holy Ghost, are poured forth and brought into effect. It is this sublime thought which elevates the topic we have been considering. The violation of the Sabbath sinks, degrades, materializes, destroys the soul of man; the observation of it raises, honors, spiritual- izes, saves it. If the Lord's day be annihilated, religion fades away, secular pursuits bewilder man, the bodily ap- petites prevail, the knowledge of salvation is lost, the soul wanders wretched and ignorant, wayward and distressed, without a teacher, without a hope, without a refuge. The holy day sheds its gentle rays upon the lost traveller, sends religion to his succor, interrupts the din of false alarms, recals him from the clamor of passion to the soft voice of conscience, gives him the knowledge of salvation, satisfies all his doubts, soothes his distresses, becomes his comforter and guide to a heavenly and eternal rest. III. But we have pleaded, further, for the Christian Sabbath — thus valuable from its combination of means bearing upon the welfare of the soul of man — because it APPEALS PLAINLY AND FULLY TO THE HUMAN CON- SCIENCE, and puts in its claims upon every reasonable and The Publishers of this work at No. 47, Wash- ington Street, Boston, and 182 Broadway New York, have recently published and for sale — Dr. ScotVs Family Bible, in 6 vols, royal octavo, wit all the Notes, Practical Observations, Marginal Re- ferrences, and Critical Remarks, as in the most approv- ed London edition, in boards, sheep, calf, and Russia bindings. • Worcester^ WaWs Psalms and Hymns, with 236 Select Hymns from various authors, and direction for musical ex- pression; large, common, and pocket sizes, various bind- ings. Butterivorth^s Concordance to the Holy Scriptures, be- ing the most comprehensive and concise of any before pub- lished; in which not only any word or passage of Scripture can be easily found, but the signification also is given of all proper names mentioned in the sacred Scriptures. A new Stereotype edition with considerable improvements, by Adam Clarke, LL,D. 1 vol. 8vo. Elements of Mental and Moral Science, designed to exhibit the Original Susceptibilities of the Mind, and the Rule by which the Rectitude of any of its States or Feel- ings should be judged. By George Payne, A. M. 1 vol. 8vo. Dr. Griffin's Lectures. — Cheap Edition, .d Series of Lectures delivered in Park Street Church, Boston, on Sab- bath evening. By Rev. Edward D. Griffin, D. D. Third edition, revised and corrected. 1 vol. 12rao. The Preacher^s Manual, Second Edition, with additions. By Rev. E. Porter, D. D., of Andover Theological Sem- inary. 1 vol. 8vo. Books for Sale at 47 Washington St, Boston^ Memoirs of Mrs. Susan Huntington, of Boston, Mass.; compiled from her Diary and Letters, with the Sermon occasioned by her death. By Benjamin B. Wisner, D. D., Pastor of the Old South Church, Boston. Third edition, with an Introductory Essay, and an Original Poem, by James Montgomery, Esq., author of "the Christian Psalmist," "World before the Flood," &c., with a Por- trait. 1 vol. 12mo. The Assistant to Family Religion, in six parts. By William Cogswell, A. M., Pastor of the South Church in Dedham. Second edition. The Theological Class Book', containing a complete System of Divinity. By Rev. William Cogswell, author of "the Assistant to Family Religion." 1 vol. 18mo. Tlie Course of Time, a Poem in ten books, by Rev. Robert Pollok, A. M. To which are prefixed a brief Me- moir of the Author, an Analysis of the Poem, in an argu- ment of each respective book, and an Index to the principal passages, sentiments or descriptions. By Rev. William Jenks, D. D. 1 vol. 12mo. The Family Monitor, or a Help to Domestic Happiness. By John Angell James, author of "Christian Father's Present," "Sunday School Teacher's Guide," &c. 1 vol. 12mo. Second Boston Edition, with a Likeness of Rev. Mr. James. Letters from Europe, in 1828, by Rev. William B. Sprague, of West Springfield, Mass. 1 vol. li?mo. Essays on the Distinguishing Traits of Christian Char- acter. By Gardiner Spring, D.D. New Edition, revised, improved and enlarged. TVilh €7 forceps Practical View of Christianity. A Prac- tical view of the Prevailing Religious Systems of Professed Christians, in the Higher and Middle Classes, in this country, contrasted with Real Christianity. By Wil- liam Wilberforce, Esq. — With an Introductory Essay, by Rev. Daniel Wilson, A. M., Vicar of Islington. Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance, by John Fos- ter, author of "Essays on Decision of Character," &c. Dr. Chalmer^s Discourses on the application of Chris- tianity to the Commercial and Ordinary Affairs of Life. and at 182 Broadway, New York. Christian Charity Explained, or the Influence of Relig- ion upon Temper stated, in an Exposition of the Thirteenth Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, by John Angell James, author of ^'Christian Father's Present," &c. 1 vol. 12rao. The Communicants Companion, By Rev. Matthew Henry. A new edition, containing an Introductory Essay, by Rev. J. Brown. 1 vol. 12mo. Loivth^s Lectures on Hebrew Poetry; a new edition with Notes, by Calvin E. Stowe. The present edition of this celebrated work is reprinted from the translation of Greg- ory, excepting that in the specimens of Hebrew Poetry the spirited and elegant Latin translations of Lowth, are re- tained instead of those which have been substituted by bis English Editor. In the English editions of these Lectures, there are four different sets of notes, namely, those of Lowth, Michaelis, Gregory, and Henley. Such a diver- sity of annotators occasions considerable confusion and per- plexity to the student; and some of the notes, particularly those of Gregory and Henly, are of little value in the pres- ent advanced state of Biblical study. In this edition all the important observations of the writers above mentioned, together with the results of the more recent investigations of Herder, Eichhorn, Sir William Jones, Rosenmueller, De Wette, and others are embodied in one regular series of notes, and inserted at the end of the volume, occupying about one hundred and sixty pages. Annals of the Poor', containing the Dairyman's Daugh- ter, the Negro Servant, the Young Cottager, the Cottage Conversation and a Visit to the Infirmary. By the Rev. Legh Richmond, Jl. M. A new Edition, enlarged, with an Introductory Sketch of the Author, by the Rev. John •Byre, A. M. Embellished with elegant engravings, taken from scenes described in the work, and made from drawings taken under direction of the author. In rich and elegant Bindings. The Evidences of Christianity; stated in a popular and practical manner in a Course of Lectures, on the External and Internal Evidences of the Christian Relig- ion, delivered in the Parish Church of St. Mary Islington. By Rev. Daniel Wilson A. M. Vicar. 2 vols. Books for Sale at 47 Washington St, Boston. Mental Discipline] or, Hints on the Cultivation of In- tellectual and Moral Habits; addressed particularly to Students in Theology and young Preachers. By Henry Foster Burder, M. A. From the Third London edition, considerably enlarged. To which is appended, an Address on Pulpit Eloquence. By Rev. Justin Edwards, D. D. Also a Course of Study in Christian Theology, by Rev. Leonard Woods, D. D. Course of Hebrew Study adapted to the use of begin- ners. By Moses Stuart, Associate Professor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary, Andover. Vol. H. Memoir of the Rev. Edward Payson, D. D. late Pas- tor of the Second Church in Portland, Me. A new edition, revised, amended, and enlarged. By Rev. Asa Cum- mings. Editor of the Christian Mirror. Embellished with a Likeness. The Life and Times of Rev. Richard Baxter, with a Critical Examination of his Writings. By the late Rev. Wm. Orme, author of Memoirs of Owen, Bibliotheca Biblica, and one of the Secretaries of the London Mis- sionary Society. With a full and carefully compiled Index. 2 vols. 8vo. Observations wpon the Peloponessus and Greek Islands^ made in 1829. By Rufus Anderson, one of i\p Secreta- ries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. With a Map adapted to the work. Conversations on Vegetable Pliysiotogy, comprehending the Elements of Botany, with their Application to Agri- culture. By the Author of Conversations on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. Adapted to the use of Schools, by Rev. J. L. Blake, A. M. Embellished with Plates. Provincial Letters^ containing an exposure of the Rea- soning and Morals of the Jesuits. By Blaise Pascal. Originally published unde the name of Louis de Montalte. Translated from the French. To which is added a View of the History of the Jesuits, and the late Bull for the Revival of the Order in Europe. Memoir of Rev. Pliny Fishy Jl. M. late Missionary to Palestine. By Alvan Bond, Pastor of the Congrega- tional Church in Sturbridge, Mass. 1 vol. 12mo. VIOLATING THE LORD's DAY. 209 accountable being, on the footing of its own divine institu- tion and authority. Truth cannot be trifled with. Men may turn away from any statement of it. They may cavil. They may object to this or that particular argument. They may set up the sophisms of controversialists. But conscience cannot be thus silenced. The broad undeniable truth is, that a day of weekly rest has ever accompanied revealed religion un- der every dispensation of it. A Sabbath was celebrated even before the fall. A Sabbath forms a part of God's moral law. A Sabbath is insisted upon by the prophets. A Sabbath was observed by our Lord and his apostles. A Sabbath has been kept in every church, in every part of the world, in every age since. To cavil, then, at minute omissions in the history of it, or petty difficulties in the de- tails of its progress, is worse than folly; it is dishonesty to truth. Nor can we escape the responsibility which at- taches to knowledge proffered and sat before us. There stands the institution. Great efforts have been made to impress its obligation upon the public mind. Discussions, sermons, treatises, tracts, have been circulated. Public meetings have been convened, and resolutions passed to enforce the better observance of the day. The public con- science has been aroused. God has given us a call, a special call to repent. If we refuse the call, "if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven," if we "stop our ears," if "we harden our hearts," what can we expect but to be given up to a reprobate mind, and left to our own folly and presumption.'* With conscience, then, is the case left — to this inward vicegerent of the Almighty is our ap- peal. At its tribunal stands our cause to be adjudged. Let every one, then, yield to its sentence. Let every one bow to the voice and decree of this witness, judge, avenger. Let conscience stimulate us to hallow the Christian Sab- bath, that coming within the sphere of the means of grace, we may actually learn the value of our souls, and the way of salvation for ourselves. But, lastly, we have pleaded for the Sabbath, because it is an indispensable preparation for the heavenly BLESSEDNESS. Its appeal to the human conscience termi- nates here. Heaven or bell is at stake. We all profess to look for a heavenly rest. There are few, perhaps none, 210 NATIONAL GUILT OF who do not desire and expect to pass to a happy eternity when they die. Their ideas of its nature may be obscure, their preparations for it may be most defective. Still a vague hope of it, as opposed to eternal misery, and under the idea of a state of repose and felicity, occupies most minds. But let us consider the strict connection which sub- sists between the employments and delights of the Sabbath upon earth, and those of that endless and beatific Sabbath which '^remains for the people of God" at last. Do we recollect the descriptions given in the Bible, of the company, the praises, the spiritual and unceasing employs of that ex- alted place? Is it a carnal repose which it offers.'' Is it bodily indulgence ? Is it mere cessation from toil and sor- row? Is it not the eternal presence, the eternal enjoyment, the eternal paises of our God, and the Redeemer? Open the heavenly gates. You see the worshippers. You hear their hymns. What do they chaunt? The praises of "the Lamb that was slain;" "the love of him who died for them;" the majesty, and wisdom, and power, and glory, of their Father and Lord. Ajad what is the temper of mind, what the habits, the notions of happiness, what the moral condition which can derive felicity from such an employ? It is an employ of continual holiness, ceaseless adoration, perpetual activity in the service of God. The loose ideas formed of heaven, as an exemption from suffering merely, as-standing only in opposition to fatigue and weariness, as bein^ contrasted with misery and condemnation — are most delusive. It is holiness — it is the love of God — it is the vf orship of the Lamb that was slain — it is the resting not day nor night in the praises of the Almighty — it is felicity derived from the completion of the divine faculties and habits acquired in this world. Observe, then, the connection of the Sabbath-duties here on earth, with these ultimate and consummated duties of the eternal Sabbath above. The employments of the day here are holiness, the adoration of God in Christy the praises of creating, redeeming love. The Sabbath is the day of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit; that is, it is the very same in essence with the heavenly Sabbath; has the same objects, the same joys, the same praises, the same gratitude, the same sources of happiness. 211 He that would prepare for heaven, must honor the Sab- bath upon earth. He that would hope for the spiritual joys there, must acquire a taste and aptitude for them here. All is connected in the divine plan. The Sabbath of the church militant is the pledge and foretaste of the Sab- bath of the church triumphant. Were we in heaven with- out a new nature, a change of heart, a delight in the wor- ship of God, an earnest longing after Christ, an acquies- cence in holiness — we should neither derive happiness from it, nor be capable of its employments. They who argue against our feeble, preparatory Sabbaths; they who object, cavil, contemn; they who prefer every other employment to the worship of God; they who complain of weariness and satiety in the services of Christ — have an evidence in their own breasts of their unfitness for a heavenly world — they are condemned out of their own mouths. The louder they exclaim against our Lord's day and its duties, the more decidedly do they exclude themselves from the Christian character and the Christian hope. Let us, then, awake to the truth of the case. The day of Sabbath made and constituted for man, is essential to all his moral duties and hopes — it seals his evidence for a heavenly world — it prepares him for its joys and its em- ployments — it forms its harbinger and foretaste. The Sabbath will, therefore, never cease till it be ful- filled in the kingdom of God. As other figures and em- blems terminated not till the substance of them came; so will not this grand type and foretaste of the ultimate repose of eternity, be determined, till earth gives place to heaven. Let it again be remembered that we disclaim everything harsh, uncommanded, ceremonial — we disclaim the Jewish, and much more the Pharisaical observances — we say with our Savior, "not man for the Sabbath;" we follow also with delight the change of the day of celebration, authorized by "the Lord of the Sabbath." But all this only leaves the grand, fundamental principle more strong and clear. — "The Sabbath was made for man," to give him repose and religious peace, to give him time for the worship and ado- ration of God on earth; to be the solemn guarantee and type of his last rest; and to prepare and introduce him to the joy and ceaseless adorations of that glorious state. The Sabbath is man's privilege, interest, duty. The Sab- 212 NATIONAL GUILT. bath is the glory of his religion, the highest exercise of his rational nature, the bond and link which connects him with all that is spiritual, all that is holy, all that is divine on earth; and which then transmits him to that exalted scene of eternal, and perfect, and uninterrupted spirituality, holi- ness, and blessedness in heaven, for which he was created — and to which, may God be pleased to bring the writer and every reader of these pages through his infinite mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord! r RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY BIdg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (510)642-6753 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW AUG 2 B 1996 20,000 (4/94) U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES iiliill BD03DD31i*=iQ €1 ff UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY